beware

Does the gospel you believe include "a God without wrath bringing men and women without sin into a kingdom without judgment through a Christ without a cross"? [H. Richard Niebuhr]

It's happening.

ROMANS iNTRO [1.1-7]

From Paul

• [a slave of Christ Jesus]
• [called as an apostle]
• [set apart for the gospel]

For the Gospel

• [which God promised beforehand]
• [which God promised through His the prophets in the Scriptures]
• [which concerns His Son]

The Gospel about God's Son, Jesus

• [who descended from David]
• [who was declared the Son of God in power, through the Spirit, by His resurrection]
• [who is our Lord]
• [through whom we have grace and apostleship for the obedience of faith among the nations]

To all those in Rome

• [called to belong to Jesus]
• [who are loved by God]
• [called to be saints]
• [grace and peace to you all from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ]

Quote of the Day

Bryan Chapell:

Because of the Gospel, my accomplishments don't distinguish me and my failures don't destroy me.

Why I Still Appreciate Mark Driscoll

Packer on the Gospel

Here.

WHAT DOES "THE iMAGE OF GOD" MEAN?

I've heard scores of answers to this. We have moral sensitivity. We have relational capacities. We have communicative abilities. We have a will and the ability to reason.

I agree with all of these. However, I think the primary thing that God's image means in Gn 1.26-28 is that humanity was created to have dominion [1.26, 1.28]. Go read it. It's clear. And dominion is not for mere citizens or peasants. Dominion is for royalty. We were made, in some sense, to be "kings." This says something about our Creator and not necessarily our innate worth.

All of this is not mere conjecture or attempted exegetical insight. It's clearly what God's image means. Here's why:

If we read the end of the book, to what are we restored? In what way are we "co-heirs" with Christ [Rom 8.17]? Revelation 19-22 says that we will be raised to reign with Him, world without end. That is our lot in Christ - the full restoration of God's image and all that that entails. This is also why our Lord, who flawlessly bore the Father's image on earth, preached that "the kingdom is here" [Mt 4.17, Mk 1.15].

God's plan to fix the marred image could not have been accomplished by any other means except by the full image-bearer [Col 1.15, 1.19], the Second Adam [Rom 5.12-21].

THE GOSPEL "iN CHAiNS"

In Paul's letter to the Philippians, he is joyful, grateful, hopeful, resolute, and overwhelmed by the gospel. "It's the Apostle Paul," you might say. "Of course he is."

But he was in prison! And a deficiency of gospel joy was nowhere to be found.

In chapter 1 alone, here's what Paul has to say about the story of God's redemptive purposes reaching their climax in Jesus ["the gospel"]. I pray that I could have this demeanor and confidence toward/in what I know God has promised to do. Our Father's predestined means for the kingdom moving forward are gospel preaching and living.

[1.5] PARTICIPATION in the gospel

Paul was persistently thankful in his prayers for the Philippians' "participation in the gospel from the first day until now." They were unified by the gospel and for the gospel.

[1.12] PROGRESS of the gospel

Paul knew that even his imprisonment was "for the greater progress of the gospel." Paul then says that suffering can be a gift from God [1.29] and that is precisely how he saw his imprisonment, as a gift that furthered the gospel.

[1.17] PROCLAMATION of the gospel

In 1.15-20, this is the thing that gives him added joy, the preached good news. He even says that some are proclaiming it for the wrong reasons, but it is still being proclaimed!

[1.27] PERSEVERANCE in the gospel

The gospel will move forward. He exhorted the believers in Philippi who were feeling religious and political pressure to STRIVE "together for the faith of the gospel." He gives himself as an example in 1.30 of how gospel ministry will include endurance and likely conflict.

Don't hate on my Ps. Three of them were in the NASB. It's their fault. Go Southern Baptist sermon outlines!

And here is James helping me on some Philippians :)

GOSPEL COALiTiON

I just went to Chicago for a pastor's conference - The Gospel Coalition. It was a really sweet time. A few of my seminary pals and I try to go to one every year for good fellowship and encouragement. The Spirit really challenged me to "fan into flame the gift of God" [2 Tim 1.6] and "fight the good fight" [2 Tim 4.7].

The conference theme was "Entrusted with the Gospel: Living the Vision of 2 Timothy."

One thing I absolutely detest about these conferences is that usually it feels like Calvinists patting other Calvinists on the back for being Calvinists. How utterly stupid. I usually walk into the huge conference hall and am immediately drenched with pride. I feel like I know more than at least 80% of these yahoos, who have only read every John Piper book and can give you 8 proof texts for each point in TULIP.

I was talking to this one guy who was probably about my age. I asked him what had encouraged him the most thus far. He mumbled off something vague and then jokingly said that he wasn't going to wash his hand because he shook Mark Driscoll's. I wanted to equally throw up, cry, and kick him in the face.

But our God is good and wise. The way that He humbled me in all of this, which was almost worth the trip itself, was through music. On one side you have the older pastors with their high-water pleated pants, braided belts, and "casual" Sunday morning blazers. On the other hand you have your late 20s/early 30s, black rimmed glasses, bed-headed [or faux hawk] church planters who are going to change the world because they have a tattoo.

BUT...

When all 4,000 of us came together to sing, those oddities didn't mean a thing. I just can't have pride in my heart at the Mark Driscoll-look-alike seven seats down when we're all belting out "He breaks the power of cancelled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me."

Slowly, my arrogance was shot down. And it was not only shot down, but transformed. By the end of our time, I didn't look at those different from me and think, "What the heck? Are you kidding me?!" I was able to look them eye-to-eye, smile, and ask our Father in my heart to mold them, use them, and humble them.

Lastly, the reason that guys like Tim Keller, John Piper, and Mark Driscoll are loved is because they DO love Jesus and the Spirit has empowered them for kingdom work. So, it was a great blessing to sit under their teaching and wisdom. Did I agree with every small detail they said? No. Am I still a young idealist? Yes. Was I hugely convicted and prodded to more diligently put my hands to the plow and plead for grace in the journey? Absolutely.

Go listen and read [also here and here]. Good times.

sex and gospel

never let the gospel get smaller

This is pure thievery from our good brother, John Piper. I know he doesn't mind. It's succinct and poignant. Go read.

LiMiTED ATONEMENT?

It was fun introducing this to my Systematic Theology classes. They had never heard of such a heretical, arrogant, and narrow-minded doctrine.

However, when they understood Jesus' claims in Jn 10, who Jesus said the "world" was in Jn 3.17 [17 generally follows 16], Paul's language in Ac 20 and Eph 5, and Paul's "us" and "we" language throughout his epistles, they realized that they had more to think about. We also discussed those texts which hint at the universality of the atonement [2 Pe 2, Heb 2, 1 Tim 2, and others]. Like a good rookie teacher, I left them confused for now. We are going to discuss it more in a few weeks. Still, there are a couple of things that I wanted them to draw from this.

First, cute and shallow evangelicalism sees the work of Jesus on the cross as merely an opportunity. Now it is all up to us. This is wrong; this is massively humanistic, anthropocentric, and far from the minds of any NT writer.

The cross is an accomplishment. It actually DID something. The cross is not just God kicking open a salvation door. It is God kicking open a door and, through His Son's death and resurrection, DOING a saving work. Even our Lord's dying words hint at this, "Tetelestai" ["it is finished"]. The cross and resurrection are more than a possibility, they are an accomplishment.

Second, after I gave them the options of limited or unlimited atonement, I told them that there are four things on which both sides would agree.

• Not all people will be saved.
  
• The gospel must be freely offered to all.
  
• The cross is sufficient for all.
  
• The cross is efficient for those who believe.

Some would even seek to rebut these four. That's pure pride. To me, there is a beauty to the fact that something actually happened on the cross - something definitive [Jn 17]. And at the same time, we are encouraged to dutifully and delightfully share the gospel with all peoples. Those who feel no tension here are the ones who just might have it wrong :)

PiPER & THE PROSPERiTY GOSPEL

driscoll on gospel, church, and culture

I love these little paradigms Driscoll has. They're helpful when attempting to synthesize American Christianity. He explains them all in further detail in his books, but you should get the picture.

Gospel + Church - Culture = Fundamentalism

Culture + Gospel - Church = Parachurch

Church + Culture - Gospel = Liberalism

Of course, the conclusion to these is that Gospel + Church + Culture = the Kingdom [or biblical Christianity or whatever you'd like to call it]. Read his "Confessions" book. It's insightful and hilarious.

JOHN PiPER READS MY BLOG

Or at least it sure sounds like it.

Below is a video that echoes much of what I wrote yesterday. His outline in this video covers six issues: Womanhood, Race, Abortion, a prophetic perspective, God's sovereignty, and the Gospel. It is worth your time.

AN ARMiNiAN, CHARLES FINNEYiAN APPROACH ON HOW NOT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL

Here.

the paradoxical fruit of the gospel

This is from Tim Keller's recent book.

“The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to died for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”

"for My own sake"

"You have not heard. You have not known. Even from long ago your ear has not been open because I knew that you would deal very treacherously and you have been called a rebel from birth. For the sake of My name, I delay My wrath. And for My praise, I restrain it from you in order not to cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act. For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another" [Is 48.8-11].

But God cannot ignore sin. It spits in the face of His goodness and makes His character as mud caked in shoe tracks. Our pride and rebellion fly in the face of His beauty and holiness. Just as He chose to restrain His wrath under the Old Covenant, He chooses to do so now as well. The reason for His restraint, however, is the same. It is the cross. For everyone who is believing, Jesus bore the wrath of God that belonged to them.

"This [the atonement] was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" [Rom 3.25-26].

And lest we think that we're worth dying for, we must remember - He did this for the sake of His name. How humbling?

You know, if you're a Jew, you don't have exclamation points, bold, caps-lock, or italics. So, when you want to emphasize something, you say it twice. Like "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" in Acts 4.4. Or like Jesus' words from the cross, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" in Mt 27.46. Thus, in Isaiah 48, when YHWH repeats Himself concerning His intentionality in restraining His wrath, it is most assuredly and undeniably for His great name and fame.

WiDOWS and ORPHANS

Caring for the widow and the orphan is where the Bible puts emphasis when discussing social justice and mercy. The Lord has really dealt with my heart on these issues over the past year or so, especially reading Shane Claiborne and listening to Tim Keller. Here are the main texts that directly address this:

• Lam 5.5
• Js 1.27
• Is 1.17
• Is 1.23
• Dt 24.17-22
• Dt 10.18
• Ex 22.22
• Jb 22.9
• Is 9.17
• Is 10.2
  

But that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to know why the widow and why the orphan? Why not the rape victim, the war victim, the jobless father, or the sojourner? Why widows? Why orphans?

I remember leaning back in my chair and asking God this after I read Deuteronomy the other day. Here's what came to me... that He desires to reveal Himself as the perfect Husband and the eternal Father [Jn 14.16-31, Is 54.5, Is 62.4-5, Hos 2.19-20, others].

I guess the point here is that the extending of the Gospel should revolve around Him. Even the way we serve “the least of these” should cause us to dwell on His character. Lord, give me specific grace to this end.

ROMANS 1.16 and 10.4 [present active substantival participles carry a durative nuance.... "are believing!"]

ROMANS 1 [just thinking?]

How do "power of God" in 1.16, "righteousness of God" in 1.17, and "wrath of God" in 1.18 all relate? All have the same structure in Greek. The gospel is the key here. Power is unto salvation through the gospel. In the the gospel, the righteousness of God is revelaed. So, does wrath come upon those who have no power or righteousness through the gospel? I believe so. Those recipients of the wrath of God in 1.18 have stiff-armed the "truth of God" in 1.18 and 1.25. The immediate need here is righteousnes [or a righteouesness] because the wrath of God comes upon all unrighteousness in 1.18. The gospel grants power unto this end.

Pardon my Pauline keyboard-brainstorming. See the gospel in Isaiah 52.7 and Nahum 1.15.