SURPRiSED BY HOPE [helpful tid-bits, interaction, review, and reflection]

After discussing prayer in general as a part of the church's mission, Wright says that there are four roots of biblical prayer: transcendence, intimacy, celebration, and covenant.

He expresses his frustration with how Easter Sunday is treated theologically and ecclesiastically. Wright says that

Easter week ought to be an eight-day festival, with champagne served after morning prayer or even before, with lots of alleluias and extra hymns and spectacular anthems. Is it any wonder people find it hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus if we don't throw our hats in the air? Is it any wonder we find it hard to live the resurrection if we don't do it exuberantly in our liturgies? Is it any wonder the world doesn't take much notice if Easter is celebrated as simply the one-day happy ending tacked on to forty days of fasting and gloom?

Regarding "new creation" as a hermeneutic we employ rather than a experience that is simply spiritual, Wright relates justice, beauty, and evangelism to this "new creation" hermeneutic and Jesus' resurrection. Of beauty, he states,

We are moving away, I think, from the old split in which it was expected that good Christians couldn't be good artists and good artists couldn't be good Christians. We now have, thank God, some wonderful Christian painters, sculptors, and even poets who are showing the way forward. I want to offer a proposal about where the artistic endeavor belongs - within the discipline of the Christian mission, within the map of creation and new creation.

[Along these same lines, my father-in-law is an art professor. He always says that the first thing anyone knows about God when they read the Bible is that He is an Artist: "In the beginning, God created..." There's some aesthetically satisfying image-bearing that needs to happen because that is true.]



Wright's subtitle is: "Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church." His purpose in this book is accomplished. He gives excellent and corrective insights throughout. However, Wright also seems to ease the weight of a couple issues that should be equally related to eschatology, resurrection, and mission.

Concerning the rapture, he dishes out some academically tactful blows to those who swear Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey should be canonized. Isn't it logical to study how the apocalyptic genre functioned in Second Temple Judaism rather than interpret Revelation with the lens of CNN? Wright does excellent Jewish and Roman background work to bring many of the second coming passages to light. Speaking on 1 Ths 4.16-17 and how Paul mixes metaphors when speaking of Jesus' coming, Wright says,

In the next chapter, 1 Ths 5, Paul says that the thief will come in the night, so the woman will go into labor, so you mustn't get drunk but stay awake and put on your armor. As the television programs say, don't try this one at home.

Overall, this is a great read. Tom Wright's correctives are quite helpful. I thank God that the world's leading New Testament scholar is not a flaming liberal whose denial of the supernatural is as simple as eating and breathing. On several occasions, Wright says things like, "I am compelled by the New Testament..." We should be as well. Don't be a stuck-up Calvinist and hate him.

[He is also friends with Bishop John Inge, who did my wedding. He gives "Uncle John" a shout-out in his last chapter. This gives me 4 cool points.]

Lastly, thinking critically and spiritually is a challenge. It is also a necessity. It is what I tell my students they must do, it is what all Christians must do, and it is what I feel that Tom Wright does in his new book. Take that approach and go read. Shalom.

how do the NT writers understand the OT?

This is an awesome discussion. Two recent books should be helpful on this. This is an important question for anybody who reads the Bible.

 

Go here to see an overview chart.

predestination ponderings

• If you're a Christian and believe the Bible, you believe in predestination. Actually, you get to believe it. It's in the Bible. God has revealed it. However, what you believe about it is another story altogether.
• As far as how the NT readers and writers understood it, it was never an issue of contention or debate.
• In the NT, the doctrine of predestination is grounds for praise. Ephesians 1.3-14 is one huge sentence in Greek that praises/blesses God for his electing love and grace.
• In the NT, the doctrine of predestination was a comfort for Christians. When Paul gets to the height of his discourse in Romans 5-8, he explains that present suffering and tribulation bow in comparison to future glory. He then says that this future glory is based on God's predestinating love. Cherishing this brought peace to Christians, not ignorant anger or arrogant apathy.
• Obviously it leaves us now with tons of unanswered and unaswerable questions [the two are different you know]. We seem to collapse because we can't have every conclusion served on a simple, silver, intellectual platter. This is partially due to the fact that you are a product of Western post-Enlightenment thought. Why can't we just accept that the parts of this we don't understand that are intended by God to grant us great humility. This is of course easier said than done.
• Lastly, the doctrine of predestination is not fair. Not a single one of us who are His deserve to be His. Our pride is so thick, our lusts are so strong, our minds are so bent, our passions are so misplaced. We all deserve terrible judgment, which He would be just and holy to give. Why He chooses to love anyone is not fair. We are pretty rotten, but He is rich in mercy.

NT Wright prying into the mind of a 1st century Jew regarding the kingdom

What then is central to the understanding of the kingdom? That which we saw a moment ago: the Jewish expectation of the saving sovereignty of the covenant god, exercised in the vindication of Israel and the overthrow of her enemies....

If Pilate was still governing Judea, then the kingdom had not come. If the Temple was not rebuilt, then the kingdom had not come. If the Messiah had not arrived, then the kingdom had not come. If Israel was not observing the Torah properly, then the kingdom had not come. If the pagans had not been defeated and/or flocking to Zion for instruction, then the kingdom had not come....

Most modern scholars who have attempted redefinitions of the kingdom have considered such essentially Jewish ideas to be already moribund, and have passed them by on the other side, anxious to avoid contamination as they hurry to worship at the shrine of intellectual respectability.

how to learn Greek by singing

In my spare time I have written songs for both the Greek and Hebrew alphabets. Actually, it was while I was driving 2 hours back and forth to seminary. The Greek song was for my mama so she could learn it and the Hebrew song was for me. It was reggae and had a pretty sweet groove.

I have now resolved that I need to get some connections and get paid for my Hebrew alphabet song because apparently someone just came out with something about singing NT Greek. Zondervan will do anything for a Christian buck.

Truthfully, it looks pretty fun.

timing, providence, culture, and worldview

In Greek class in seminary, my prof would always remind us that we were learning Greek words with Hebrew meanings. What I've seen recently is that this is only a slice of the pie. It is not just an amalgamation of word-meanings, but of worldview meanings.

The Hebrew worldview was very simple, family-based, grass-roots, and relationally oriented. On the other hand, the Greek worldview [Hellenism] was hugely philosophical, intellectual, pagan, and political. These are obviously over-generalizations, but bare with me. What God knew in His great wisdom is that testimonies written [the NT] from a worldview birthed by the marriage of Judaism and Hellenism would produce a message translatable to any worldview in any culture at any time and in any place. More simply put, 1st century Palestine was the most fertile soil for the Gospel to be originally planted because of its natural cultural fabric. I believe that this was the case on many fronts: political, spiritual, philosophical, theological, moral, etc.

In his book "The New Testament and the People of God" [pgs 359-360], Tom Wright seems to agree. He points out that "the single most striking thing about early Christianity is the speed of its growth." Wright continues,

Christianity did not spread by magic. It is sometimes suggested that the world was, so to speak, ready for Christianity: Stoicism was too lofty and dry, popular paganism metaphysically incredible and morally bankrupt, mystery-religions dark and forbidding, Judaism law-bound and introverted, and Christianity burst on the scene as the great answer to the question everyone was asking.

Wright goes on to say that the primary reason for the rapid spread of early Christianity was that these first Christians "believed that what they had found to be true was true for the whole world" - that Jesus was King and Lord.

"iN CHRiST" [a book on pauline theology soon to be published by john paulling and myself]

I'm finding, the more I read the Apostle Paul, that his ultimate picture and primary means of articulating the majority of God's salvific activity is by alluding to the concept or directly using the phrase "in Messiah" [or "in Christ"]. Not only do I see this as Paul's principal reference point, but I see it as the place where people could come to terms each other. Tom Wright and the New Perspectival brothers ought to go out of their way to highlight the reality that God's "covenant faithfulness" is only "in Christ." In the same way, all the hyper-Reformed brethren with the Westminster confession tattooed on their back and a Romans 9 plaque in their living room - they must take their grasp of imputation and justification here as well. It is too huge of a theological and rhetorical emphasis in Paul not to do so. Living "in Messiah" and being "in Messiah" both individually and corporately seem to be the fountain of his soteriology, ecclesiology, and much more. Hopefully, this helps....

what i got for xmas and why i shouldn't buy another book until 2010.

[walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called]

There’s a church down the road and I really like how they thought through their core values. The pastors got together and essentially asked, “In the Gospels, what are the things that Jesus does the most?” They sifted through all that they saw, narrowed them down to seven, and worded them nicely. Wouldn’t it be great if we could keep all of these in view as we walked and talked through every day?

• Magnifying Grace
• Enjoying God
• Loving Others
• Understanding God’s Word
• Depending on the Spirit
• Living in Integrity
• Advancing God’s Kingdom

how to read the NT [future]

Jesus’ first recorded words in the NT are that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” [Mt 4.17]. Shortly after this, Jesus is found teaching that we should pray for the kingdom to come [Mt 6.10]. So, is the kingdom here or is it coming? Jesus and all the other NT writers would say “yes.” It is both here and coming. This “already/not yet” tension is a unique, but vital lens with which to read the NT.

Those under the old covenant thought that the Messiah’s arrival would immediately right all wrongs, usher in shalom, and bring justice to the world’s chaos. How surprising though that He is doing this in a two-fold way: inaugurating the kingdom at His first coming and consummating the kingdom at His second coming.

This is not simply seen in the use of the word “kingdom” in the NT, but in various other ways. One example is how Paul encouraged and challenged his friends in Rome. He told them that they were dead to sin [Ro 6.2] and then turned right around and told them to consider themselves as dead to sin [Ro 6.11]. Moreover, Paul sometimes says that we have been saved and on other occasions he says that we will be saved. This language can partially be rooted in this “already/not yet” tension.

So, in Christ we currently experience some of the blessings of the future kingdom. With these blessings, we should also be looking for that day in which He will return to gather His saints, judge the nations, and restore all things for His sake.

how to read the NT [salvation]

God made covenant promises to only one people, Israel [Dt 7.6-7]. In Jesus, the Jewish stream of salvation has flooded its banks and watered the Gentile land. The NT makes the move from corporate salvation that is ethnically based to the corporate salvation of the Church which includes people from every tribe, tongue, and nation [Rev 5.9]. The consequences of this are many….

In Hebrews, the readers wanted to go back to their old Jewish ways because it was easier, more tangible, and they would be persecuted less. For some Jews in Acts, their response to Gentiles being saved was anger and jealousy. There were also groups of Jews who attempted to force OT Jewish laws on Gentiles who God was redeeming, saying that they could not be saved without “becoming a Jew” first. The list goes on.

The key thing to remember here is that under the old covenant, only Jews were direct recipients of God’s covenant promises. Now, under the new covenant, “whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” [Ac 2.21, Ro 10.13].

how to read the NT [language]

The following 10 words are pregnant with meaning for the NT writers. Analyzing how each writer uses these is important. While different writers put different weight on different words [i.e. John likes “believe” and Paul likes “justify”], these words and a close study of them set pertinent boundaries for what the NT teaches.

how to read the NT [suffering]

Stealing some of the social aspect of #1 and some of the community aspect of #2, the reality of Christian suffering is replete in the NT [Mt 10.22; Lk 9.23-25; Ac 5.40-41, 8.1-3; Ro 8.35-39; 2Cor 4.8-9; Phil 1.29; Heb 10.32-34; Rev 1.9; and others]. This suffering came in many forms and fashions, but was always in close relation to their claims of Jesus as Messiah and Lord. Suffering must be kept in view while seeking to grasp the message of the NT.

how to read the NT [community]

The majority of the “you”s in our English Bible are really plurals in Greek [i.e. Col 3.3, Rom 8.9, and hundreds more!]. Meaning, most “you”s are addressed to a corporate group, not an individual. We are often too post-Freudian, too post-Industrial Revolution, too user-friendly, and too self-esteem driven to see the raw beauty of some of the 1st century’s life-on-life community. Jesus died for the Church, the corporate entity, not a bunch of random people who have no connection to one another. Grasping Paul’s “body of Christ” language and other similar NT talk is hand in hand with these lovely 2nd person plural pronouns!

how to read the NT [society]

It is always important to keep in mind the social structures of the 1st century when reading any 1st century literature. However over-simplified, the below chart is helpful.

NT FAiTH

Faith in ROMANS is the key to how someone becomes right with God. That is precisely what Paul was articulating in chapters 1-4. We are justified by faith alone, apart from works of the Law.

Faith in HEBREWS is what grants us endurance to stay right with God. We are not of those who shrink back, but of those who persevere [10.35-39] in "the assurance of things hoped for" [11.1].

Faith in JAMES is the conduit for good works in the Christian life. This is why faith without works is useless [Js 2.20]: because faith is descriptive of the life of a Christian and not just of the hoop one jumps through to become a Christian.

So, why is it so hard to see that these three do not contradict one another but are instead inextricably linked as a whole. Different situations call for preaching and teaching faith in different ways. But without this framework, legality, Antinomianism, and the faith healing prosperity gospel are "crouching at our door" [Gen 4.7]. Furthermore, none of this is ever divorced from the Holy Spirit graciously and sovereignly working in sinners "as He wills" [1 Cor 12.11, 18] to draw us, sustain us, empower us, and cause to serve the King for the kingdom.

NT WRiGHT and JUSTiFiCATiON

In What Saint Paul Really Said, NT Wright does a great job supplying the meaning to a lot of Paul's language regarding justification, righteousness, justice, and other words in the dikai- word group...

"First, it is covenant language – not in the sense of that word made famous through some 16th and 17th century discussions, but in the 1st century Jewish sense. When Paul speaks of justification he is operating within the whole world of thought of second-temple Judaism, which clung to the covenantal promises in the face of increasingly difficult political circumstances.

Second, it is law-court language, functioning within the covenantal setting as a strong explanatory metaphor. Two thing must be said about this. First, this metaphor is necessary for understanding what the covenant was all about. The covenant was there to put the world to rights, to deal with evil and to restore God’s justice and order to the cosmos. Second, it is never independent of the covenant setting. It cannot be made in to an absolute and free-standing concept without doing violence both to itself and to the fundamental meaning of the covenant.

Third, justification for Paul cannot be understood properly apart from eschatology. It cannot, that is, be made into an abstract or timeless system, a method of salvation to be randomly applied. It is part of the Pauline worldview in which the creator of the world has acted, uniquely, climactically, and decisively, in Jesus Christ, for the rescue of the entire cosmos, and is now, by his Spirit, bringing all things into subjection to this Jesus."

Romans 3.21-26

If you read this passage in context, I think Luther is right. He called this the "chief point, and the very central place of the epistle, and of the whole Bible." And if not right, really close.

Romans 1-8

The power of God [dunamis gar theou] in 1.16 is evidenced in the righteousness of God [dikaiosune gar theou] in 1.17. This righteousness is one that is credited to the account of everyone who is believing in the perfect life and wrath-absorbing death of Jesus on the cross [3.21-26]. This righteousness shows the power of God because Jews and Gentiles are all sinful and accountable before a holy God [1.18-3.20]. Their impotence to righteousness means that they are powerless on their own. They need another, alien righteousness to be declared "not guilty" in the courtroom of the Just and the Justifier [3.26].

This reality of justification by faith is unfurled in the believer's life by living according to the Spirit. Paul shows the universality of sin [chs 1-3], the right-standing before God that is available [ch 4], the hope that a right-standing entails [ch 5], the problem of sin [ch 6], and the problem of the law [ch 7]. He does not discuss how to live in these truths until ch 8. In chs 1-7, he uses the word "spirit" [pneuma] 5 times. In ch 8, he uses the same word 22 times! "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh" [Gal 5.16].