Know Yourself

The ancient Temple of Apollo in Delphi is said to have had an inscription that said: “Know Thyself.” The presumed meaning is to encourage self-examination. In contrast, Post-modern society uses this phrase as an encouragement to be true to self. This ultimately encourages a person to be a self-worshiper. No matter what we replace the One Living and True God with, we end up in idolatry. Statue-worship and self-worship are both equally idolatry. To worship an image or self-image is to take worship from the very one to whom it belongs, God alone.

The world’s infatuation with self is a sign of a lack of knowledge. It is not a lack of knowledge of self as much as a lack of knowledge of God. The Bible teaches that humanity is made in the Image of God (Gen 1:26). It is impossible for a human being to know self apart from a knowledge of God. How can anyone understand a model or picture of something without knowing it is a model or picture, and not the original. Imagine seeing a model of a battleship and not knowing it is a model. One might think it strange that someone would build such a small ship. It would also seem strange that someone would build such a small ship to do battle at sea. It only makes sense in regard to what it models. Likewise, humanity only makes sense in reference to the Living God. There are many things about God that people misunderstand, and thereby misunderstands their own natures.

First, is the holiness of God. Ultimately, God’s holiness is the expression of his nature (Is 40:25). He is unlike his creation; he is the Creator and not the creature.  This means we can never be God.  He alone is always God and will never cease to be God (Deut 33:27; Mal 3:6).  This distinction points right to the heart of sin, the desire to be like God (Gen 3). The desire to be self-ruling is the very proof of sin in our hearts.  It attacks the Creator-creature distinction. That leads to an attack on the goodness of God.  In Eden Satan convinced Eve that she should be like God and that God was not good.  He was withholding good from her because he was afraid she would be like God.  This leads to the other aspect of God’s holiness, moral purity.  God’s moral purity stems from his holy nature.  The infinite purity of God’s nature stands in stark contrast to the image of God that has become perverted and distorted by the fall.  A knowledge of the holiness of God shows us what we have lost.

Second, the goodness of God demonstrates how dependent we are (Lk 18:19).  We like to think of ourselves as good and caring.  However, only God is truly good.  It is by his goodness that we are spared the consequences of our rebellion against him (Is 63:7; Lam 3:22–23).  It is the Lord, in his goodness, that sends his rain on the just and the unjust (Matt 5:45) and sustains all things (Col 1:17).  It is directly from the mercy and goodness of God, that he sent his Son to redeem us while we were rebellious sinners (Rom 5:8).  There is no goodness in us; it is all by God’s grace.  A misunderstanding of God’s goodness, sourced in our rebellious hearts, causes us to think highly of ourselves.  We want to put ourselves in the place of God in regard to goodness.  However, in the presence of God even prophets and apostles recognized how unworthy they were (Is 6:5; Rev 1:17).  An understanding of the unfathomable depths of the goodness of God helps us to see ourselves in our rightful place.  We do not really understand who we are unless we contemplate the goodness of God.

The glory of God is the third area we humans badly underestimate.  I have often heard people say things like, “When I get to heaven I am going to have a beer with the Big Man Upstairs and talk a few things over with him.”  We want to think of God like he is one of our buddies, that we can give a piece of our mind while sipping beer at the bar.  But that is a complete misunderstanding of who God is, and thereby a misunderstanding of who we are.  The Scriptures indicate that the Lord is glorious.  Job learned this lesson when he wanted to plead his case before God (Job 40:3–5).  God is not another man to be put in his place.  He is the maker of heaven and earth (Is 51:13).  He is the one who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim 6:16).  Before his face one day the earth and sky will flee away (Rev 20:11).  This is not a person to be manipulated.  By forgetting the greatness of God, we inflate our own status in our own minds.  We believe we are great, when only God is great.  Our lack of knowledge of God has caused us to deceive ourselves about our own nature. The more we know about him, the more we would see, by faith, ourselves for what we are, creatures in need of our great and loving Creator.

The problem humanity has always had with knowing self, has always been rooted in a lack of knowledge of God.  Knowing self does not come through enrichment classes or meditation.  It does not come through selfish choices or inflated self-concepts.  It is available only by knowing the God who made us in his image.  The worlds solutions to knowing God always fall short, because they focus on the creature rather than the Creator in whose image we are made.

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A Saint–or a Brute

In his modern classic, Knowing God, J. I. Packer makes a reference to Richard Baxter’s assertion that each human being is either “a Saint–or a Brute.” At first glance, such an assertion seems to be an overstatement at best. However, under closer scrutiny, such a proposal seems to be quite accurate.  Packer elaborates:

God wishes us to think of our souls in a similar way [to the health of our bodies].  As rational persons, we were made to bear God’s moral image–that is, our souls were made to “run” on the practice of worship, law-keeping, truthfulness, honesty, discipline, self-control, and service to God and our fellows.  If we abandon these practices, not only do we incur guilt before God; we also progressively destroy our own souls.  Conscience atrophies, the sense of shame dries up, one’s capacity for truthfulness, loyalty and honesty is eaten away, one’s character disintegrates.  One not only becomes desperately miserable; one is steadily being dehumanized.

When we humans reject the redemption that is offered in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1–3), we embrace the spiritual death that is our native human birthright (Eph 2:1–3).  Such spiritual death brings not only condemnation and evil actions, but it rots the human soul.  Like venom it hollows out its victim, leaving an empty shell.  To reject God’s grace is to embrace death.  Eventually that leads to a person who does not reflect the image of God clearly, but who is no more than a brute (Eph 2:1–3).  So Baxter’s assertion is not really a preaching hyperbole, but a spiritual warning.  We cannot embrace that which is opposed to God and his image and expect to emerge human.  Sin and death are always dehumanizing.  We should take this to heart when we entertain the idea that we can toy with sin.  Its consequences are not always physical and obvious, but they are always spiritual.

The Danger of Spiritual Pretense

Mark 11:12–25 is a really fascinating passage of Scripture. It is a wonderful piece of Mark’s understated literary technique. Unfortunately, many view Mark’s gospel as the abridged version or Cliff Notes for the other gospels. This is a severe misunderstanding of Mark’s Gospel. It is a rich literary and theological book with a message as important as any of the Gospels.  The Second Gospel repeatedly uses a literary mechanism very similar to an inclusio. Mark, in repeated passages, begins a narrative, interrupts the narrative with a second narrative, and then closes the literary section with the conclusion of the first interrupted narrative. He does this in several sections throughout the Gospel.  A great example of this also occurs in Mark 5:21–43.  The narrative begins with the sickness of Jairus’s daughter.  On the way to heal her, the narrative is interrupted by the woman with the flow of blood.  Finally, the narrative returns to the story of Jairus’s daughter and Jesus raising her from the dead.  The focus of the section is on the middle inserted pericope of the woman with the flow of blood.  What does Jesus point out about her?  He points out her remarkable faith.  Faith forms the core of the message of that narrative.  In contrast, what is lacking from the mainstream people around Jairus’s home? Faith is lacking.  On the one hand a woman who has been unclean most of her life is an example of faith.  On the other hand, respectable people, are faithless.  The lesson Mark wants us to learn is that faith is of chief importance.

There is an identical construction in Mark 11 and the cursing of the fig tree.  This passage has been problematic for many interpreters.  In fact, Bertrand Russell used Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree as an example of Jesus’ moral inferiority.  This kind of misunderstanding of the passage completely misses Mark’s literary construction and therefore, his theological point.  Mark interrupts the narrative of the fig tree with the description of Jesus’ cleansing the temple.  We are meant to see the parallels between the two.  The fig tree had leaves and looked healthy.  Fig trees often get fruit buds before they get leaves in the spring.  One would expect a fig tree to have some fruit on it if it has leaves, but the appearance of this fig tree was deceptive.  It looked healthy, but it was not.  Likewise, the temple looked like it was ordered around the Old Testament commandments to worship the Lord, but it was not.  It was a complex system to enrich the Sanhedrin.  The Court of the Gentiles, instead of being a place to worship for Gentiles, was a place of commerce and sometimes financial treachery.  This is what angered Jesus.  The Temple should have been a place for worship, but like the fig tree, its appearance was deceptive.  Like the fig tree it was not healthy.  Jesus did not curse the fig because he was merely hungry, but he did it as a living parable of the fate of the temple.

We need to learn the lesson of the fig tree.  Spiritual Pretense is dangerous.  This is very important for American Christians to learn.  We are tempted to think that because we are prosperous that we are blessed by God.  But our worship, in too many cases, has become hollow.  We have replaced spiritual health with spiritual pretense.  We have exchanged real love for God and the Scriptures with religious activities and pretense.  Worship has been replaced by entertainment.  Congregational singing has been replaced by watching others perform.  Preaching has been replaced by talk-show styled chats.  And Prayer has nearly been banished from our churches.  Pastoral prayers are almost non-existent in our pulpits, and too many sermons are comedy routines rather than expositions of the Word of God.  I fear that if we don’t learn the lesson of the fig tree, we may find that we will die from the roots as it did.  We must never delude ourselves into believing that religious activity and appearance are equivalent to spiritual health and real worship.

The Majesty of God

In studying for a series I will be preaching on the Doctrine of God, I rediscovered a quote in J. I. Packer’s excellent book, Knowing God. While discussing the majesty of God he states:

But this is knowledge which Christians today largely lack: and that is the reason why our faith is so feeble and our worship so flabby. We are modern people, and modern people, though they cherish great thoughts of themselves, have as a rule small thoughts of God. When the person in the church, let alone the person in the street, uses the word God, the thought is rarely of divine majesty (p. 83).

Modern (or Post-modern or Ultra-modern) society is self-sufficient and self-satisfied.  This spirit is contagious, even for believers.  We are tempted to think human ingenuity and resourcefulness can solve almost any problem.  We think we can fix poverty, the climate, and even human fallen nature, if we only applied the right technology at the right time.  Whether it is political theory, pharmaceuticals, or self-sacrifice for the sake of Mother Earth, we believe we have things firmly in hand.  However, such a worldview banishes God to a little corner where he is a nice piece of cultural interest, but frightfully insignificant.  The Bible on the other hand presents God as majestic.  The Psalms alone refer to God and his works as “great” dozens of times.  The biblical picture of God is of a Great God, not some old man in the sky.  He is not dwarfed by us or our technology.  He is not awed by us in any way.  If we know him, we know that we are the Liliputians who ought to be in awe.  A small grasp of this concept would render our worship richer and our Christian lives bolder.  Oh that our churches would repudiate the wordview of the moderns and align ourselves with the worldview of our Majestic Lord.

The Pursuit of God

I recently read A. W Tozer’s classic little volume, The Pursuit of God. I do not intend this to be a critique of the book, but I do want to highlight a statement that stood out to me:

The doctrine of justification by faith–a Biblical truth, and a blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort–has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such a manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God. The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be ‘received’ without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver.

I found this to be a very interesting quote.  He begins with the doctrine of justification and ties it to knowing God.  So often in Evangelicalism men slice up the doctrine of salvation into tiny bits.  Many separate justifiication from regeneration.  Many see conversion as unrelated to sanctification and discipleship.  However, the New Testament views salvation as one act of God with many facets.  Justification is a part of salvation as is sanctification and glorification.  No man will be sanctified who was not first justified.  Conversely, no man is justified in whom God is not working sanctification.  In our society of commerce we have made salvation nothing more than an exchange.  As Tozer stated: “Conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless.”  Examples of this kind of evangelism abound.  I once read a flyer that said people would be able to pray “the prayer of salvation” at the end of an evangelistic outreach.  There is nothing about this kind of decision for Christ that offends the “Adamic ego.”  It leaves a depraved sinner untouched by grace.  A man who claims to have faith in Christ, yet is unchanged, is unchanged in his destiny as well.  A man who does not have a love for Christ in his soul, a love that changes his life, is worse than the demons. He believes the right facts, but his soul is left unchanged (Jas 2:18–19).  A yearning to know God is an evidence of this change.  Too many in our day name Christ as their Lord, but deny him with their life and love.

God’s Purpose for Marriage

I have been studying the biblical teachings about marriage and I would like to emphasize one truth that is often neglected or even ignored by most preaching and Christian literature about marriage. The truth is that marriage is about the gospel. Many books and sermons about marriage emphasize how to be happy in marriage or how to implement practical steps to having a harmonious marriage. However, the Bible’s emphasis is on what marriage represents. It is to be a model of God’s grace in Christ’s love for the church. A happy or harmonious marriage that does not model Christ’s love for his church is not a properly functioning marriage.

Consider a few portions of the New Testament in this regard.  Ephesians 5:25, 32 (ESV) states: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her . . . This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”  1 Peter 3:17 (ESV) states, “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”  In a more succinct way Colossians 3:19 says the same.  Notice that the theology behind a man loving his wife is Christ’s love for the church.  Peter approaches it from a slightly different angle, but nonetheless it is still about the gospel.  Peter reminds us that we are fellow heirs with our spouses of God’s saving grace.  Whether Paul or Peter wrote it, the New Testament emphais remains the same, marriage is about the gospel.  It is about love, forgiveness, and grace just like the gospel.  I believe that we have sometimes inadvertantly harmed Christian marriages by emphasizing individual happiness above the gospel.  What happens when one person is not happy?  Often one spouse, because he or she believes marriage is about personal happiness, will abandon the marriage.  However, if it is about the gospel, then personal happiness is not the primary factor grace is.  Even in difficult marriages we can graciously love and glorify God. However, this does not mean we are torn between gospel evidencing marriages and happy marriages.  Happiness in marriage is most often a result of Christians striving to display God’s grace and illustrate Christ’s love for his church.  However, happiness is the result and not the goal.  As in many things, it is unwise and sometimes dangerous to make a result an ultimate goal.  Our marriages are meant to glorify God by exemplifying his Grace, that is what true Christian marriages are made of.

Defending the Truth Through Defamation

An important part of being a faithful Christian is fighting for the truth.  By fighting I don’t mean literal pugilism, but rather metaphorically defending the truth through words and putting one’s reputation on the line.  Jude reminds us of this in his epistle, “Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 3–4, ESV).  There are those false teachers who will introduce dangerous and damnable teachings into the church.  They are around today in modern Christendom as they were in the first century.  They are not a mere nuisance nor are they well-meaning brothers or sisters with whom we have  a misunderstanding.  They are a threat to the spiritual health of Christians and local churches.  Therefore, it is necessary to oppose them.

Having stated that I believe it is important to take a stand for truth, I also believe it is important to stand for truth in a way that is truthful.  I recently talked to a couple of Christians who heard from an evangelist, that a certain school or Bible teacher now believes (you see where this is going) that it is acceptable for Christians to participate in social drinking.  I found this surprising, but as I dug into the situation I learned the man was misrepresented.  This kind of situation has been multiplied in regard to all kinds of issues.  Theological opponents are often labeled as heretics and unbelievers because they disagree with a finer point of theology.  Ministry rivals are sometimes said to be on a slippery slope because they do not take a stand on an application of Scripture (pants on women, reading novels, watching television, etc.).  I am all for taking a stand and protecting believers from false teaching, but sometimes we attempt to defend the truth with mendacity and half-truths.  How unbecoming this is of the Gospel.  As believers in the Lord, who is by nature true, we ought to be committed to the truth–even when it seems less convenient for us.  It is the great irony of modern Christianity that so many are unconcerned with the truth in regard to defending the Bible and the Faith.  Our character and actions ought to adorn the truth, not vandalize it.  We do the truth no defense when we come to its aid with lies or misrepresentations.

What Really Counts?

I was reading J. C. Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, and I encountered some comments that are very helpful for our current economic crisis in America.  Ryle says in his comments on Mark 1 (p. 8):

We may reach heaven without learning, or riches, or health, or worldly greatness.  But we shall never reach heaven, if we die impenitent and unbelieving.  A new heart, and a lively faith in a Redeemer, are absolutely needful to salvation.

Two pages later in the same volume he says (p. 10):

But it is no disgrace to be poor.  The laborer who serves Christ faithfully is far more honorable in God’s eyes, than the nobleman who serves sin.

In America we have been taught to love and serve wealth.  The worst crisis we can face is an economic crisis.  We are taught to think, act, and believe as soulless consumers.  In that kind of a culture an economic crisis is horror, but not so for the Christian.  God has called us to be godly more than rich, holy more than secure, and content more than consumers.  Christ warns the Laodicean Church in Revelation 3:17 (ESV):

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

They were physically wealthy, but they were spiritually impoverished.  The Lord is not impressed by wealth; He calls us to lay up our treasures in Heaven.  In a time of economic crisis when the world is in panic, we have the same eternal confidence we have always had:  Jesus died for our sins.

Gospelless Gospel Songs

One of the items our family includes in our family devotional time is the singing of hymns.  As we work our way through the hymnal there are many songs we need to skip.  Most of the 16th, 17th, and 18th century hymns are very helpful.  However, many songs from the 19th century onward are problematic.  In many cases because of the weakness of the text.

I was thinking of a few examples of what are often called Gospel Songs.  Some of these songs teach poor theology, and root our devotion and love for Christ in experience and sentiment rather than morality and truth.

I was thinking of one:  “Jesus Is the Sweetest Name I Know.”  It is a twentieth century Gospel Song written by Lela B. Long.  I find the chorus especially problematic.

Jesus is the sweetest name I know,
And He’s just the same as His lovely Name,
And that’s the reason why I love Him so;
Oh, Jesus is the sweetest name I know.

According to this chorus the reason we ought to love Jesus is that he is sweet!  That is so shallow that it falls far short of the right worship of God.

As second song I think of in this regard is: “It Is Well with My Soul.”  I don’t have a problem with the song so much as the way it is used.  We love to sing about It being well, but we often skip the most important verses in the song.  The third verse declares the gospel:

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Without an understanding of this third verse nothing is well with my soul.  My soul is lost.  Unfortunately today too many Bible Preaching churches–even those with conservative music–prefer Gospelless Gospel Songs over hymns with real substance.

Making Jesus Relevant!

Recently, as I was driving home, I saw an interesting bumper sticker.  In large letters was the word:  RELEVANT.  Next to the word was a traditional picture of Jesus and underneath both of those was a phrase about Jesus being RELEVANT to our lives.  I found this very ironic.  Proclaiming the relevance of Jesus on a bumpers sticker seems to be a case of the medium contradicting the message.  Nothing of real importance is ever really said on a bumper sticker.  A bumper sticker is a place to declare one’s preferences for brands (Apple or Oakley), politicians (Obama or McCain), and causes (Free Tibet).  No serious discourse or ideas are or can be communicated through bumper stickers.

To declare the relevance of Jesus on a bumper sticker is to place Jesus in the same category as an iPod or a politcal campaign–I always find it humorous to see a car with a Kerry/Edwards 2004 sticker still applied to the bumper.  When the latestest iPod comes out, the old ones are irrelevant.  When a political issue becomes passé, the bumper stickers declaring support for ERA become a cultural relic.  To put Jesus on a bumper sticker does the same thing.

What our culture lacks is not religion, but a view of a transcendant God that is changeless.  There is a lot of God talk in our culture, but most of it has romantic overtones or comsumerist overtones.  I have always felt a bumper sticker declaring, “Real men love Jesus,” was too open to interpretation to be really understood by the culture at large.  How many men have read that sticker and thought it had some romantic overtones?  Or how many bumper sticker messages present Jesus as the product that meets my needs rather than the God whom I can only approach on his terms?  The greatness of God is lost on our culture, and as well-intended as these kinds of bumper stickers may be, they misconstrue God as a product or cause to be traded for the next fad.  The transcendence of God cannot be communicated in bumper sticker form and that transcendence is exactly what makes God eternally relevant.

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!”     Psalm 40:16