Words & Doctrine Matter!

May 12, 2010

Maria Gospel, John, Uncategorized , , , Leave a comment

As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:30-32

Words matter.  Many words are equivocal, they mean different things.  So two people can converse and think they are communicating when they really are not.  And if words matter, then content matters.

I had a conversation with someone close to me recently who has grown up in the church and uses all the right language but is not saved because of two problems.  Of course the main reason she is still not born again is that the Holy Spirit has yet to ‘quicken’ her.   The other problem is that she has words, but not the correct content. She would maintain that she believes in Jesus, that He is the Son of God and that He died for our sins.  But she doesn’t believe she is a sinner who has God’s wrath bearing down on her.  She believes that the idea of a wrathful God (‘the one portrayed in the Old Testament’) comes from a primitive people’s understanding of God.  The god she likes is the god of the New Testament, namely Jesus, and He is a god of love.

Let’s return to our verse in John.  Jesus says that if we are to know the Truth, then we have to abide in His word. Therefore, it is important to know the content of the word we are abiding in. If the word is a doctrine, then we need to know the exact meaning of words that explain that doctrine.  If the word is a person, i.e. the Logos/2nd person of the Trinity, then we need to agree on the character of that Logos.  We can’t just make up what we think the words mean, whether they refer to doctrine or a person.

So this dear woman is still locked up in her sins, not yet set free by the Truth.

Pray with me that I can clearly and persuasively argue three points:

a)   God’s plan for redemption is one story throughout both testaments. Furthermore, this overarching mega-story begins early in the Old Testament, when Adam & Eve fall and God provide animal skins to cover their nakedness.  Not much later, God’s rescue plan is reinforced with a hint of Christ’s sacrifice to come when a substitute animal is caught in a nearby bush.  Finally, Moses is instructed to set up and teach the people to observe an elaborate sacrificial system pointing to Jesus, with the offering of animals and the transferring of sins on the scapegoat

b)   Our God is one God with many attributes.  God’s loving-kindness (chesed) in the Old Testament is as well known as His hatred for sin.  Jesus’ love in the New Testament is as prominent as his discussion about Hell.  God does not change

c)    Finally, what one must do to be saved?  Being baptized and attending services does not make one a Christian.   I want to carefully lay out the plan of salvation and not assume this woman understands what terms mean.

I’m thankful that the results lie in God’s hands.  I’m to do my part and trust Him for the rest.  May I faithfully represent the truth without pride or condemnation, but with humility and love.

Sola Fide – how to be prepared to share

May 3, 2010

Maria Ephesians, Gospel, Hope, Uncategorized , Leave a comment

I read something that Ken Boa wrote recently – it was a very succinct summary of the essence Gospel.  I realize that if I am to be obedient to the Great Commission to share the hope that I have, then I have to be ready and prepped with, at a minimum,  a 30-second blurb.  But I want this good news to roll off my tongue, in order to feel confident.  It’s stressful, if I am not prepped, when someone asks, “What does your license mean – ‘sola fid’?” I purposefully chose those 7 letters just SO someone would ask.

I have taken what Ken Boa says and massaged it a bit to strip it of ‘Christianese’, to make it more accessible to those with no knowledge of the Bible.

“Sola Fide” means – by faith alone. That refers to being right with God, having a right relation with him.  We are right with God only through God’s GIFT of this right standing with him, and that through faith.  Furthermore, this right relationship or ‘righteousness’ is found in the good news or gospel.  The Gospel teaches that Christ died for sin as a sacrifice.  We have to let go of our own efforts of justifying ourselves:  this giving up that is an action called repenting.  Only then, with empty hands and no agenda can we receive as a gift his sacrifice, thereby making us right with God.  Amazingly, this right standing with God brings a boat-load of benefits that defy imagination.

Our record, with the listing of all our innumerable misdeeds since we were infants, is taken away and Christ’s righteousness is credited to our account.  Together, these 2 actions guarantee our admittance into the presence of Holy God for eternity.  But that is not all!  We also get the assurance that we are LOVED, we get a PURPOSE for life that will satisfy us (to live for the praise of the glory of this grace) and we get a NEW FAMILY – we are brought into relationship with other believers both for our comfort and our growth. Last, but not least, we get POWER for daily living – the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  He is a guarantee of our future place in Heaven, kind of like an engagement ring.   After all, the Church IS the bride of Christ. (arrabon meaning a deposit/security in biblical Greek and in modern Greek, it means engagement ring). The Holy Spirit is also the ultimate power source – Paul reminds us that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is living in us.  So we don’t have to despair of being incapable of obeying God and relying on him.  The HS gives us the power. We just have to trust and step out to do what He calls & empowers us to do, no matter our fleshly feelings of weakness!

The good news of the Gospel is amazing – but I need to be amazed and astonished daily or I slip into fear, worry and complaining.  So prepping to share the kernel or essence of the Gospel actually helps me as I rehearse continuously.  It keeps my mind focusing on this good news and it prepares me to give a reason for the hope that I have.

Be prepared!

April 27, 2010

Maria Colossians, Gospel , 1 Comment

Col 4 : 5-6  Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

My prayer every day is that God will give me the opportunity to share a portion of the Gospel.  That implies that I need to be prepped, ready.  That means that I need to be meditating all the time on why the Gospel is such GOOD NEWS.  That means I have to be preaching to myself, encouraging myself.

What is all that good news? And how do I boil it all down to a 5 second sound-bite that would be salty enough to cause someone to want to talk to me?

My challenge is that I live in a family of believers (a blessing) and I teach in a Christian school.  So my contact with the outside world, the ‘gentiles’ of my day, is limited to encounters at the gym, on neighborhood walks, at the grocery store and in emails to relatives or other friends from my past.

What line will be the best incentive to encourage someone to engage in a conversation?  That’s all I want.  At the grocery check-out line, I usually ask the cashier, ‘How are you’ and she/he responds ‘fine’ and you?  That’s my cue for the 5 second line.   Here’s what I have thought about the past few days:

  • Great!  I’m meditating on the secret of life (go into how there IS purpose in life, both here on earth and in heaven)
  • Great !  God’s goodness is so apparent this time of year (beauties of Spring)
  • Great!  I’ve been thinking about heaven and how cool it’s going to be (new body – appealing to an elderly person)
  • Great!  I’ve been thinking about man’s greatest problem and what the solution is  (God’s wrath against us – and how Jesus takes care of that)

A good line will suffice to prompt a discussion if the other person wants one, or it can be easily ignored/ dropped by the other person.  My job is to fish.

But I find that I have to be prepared always.  I have to remind myself of the story –and its component parts:

a)   The truth about God – He is loving, perfect and holy

b)   The truth about humans – i.e. the good news AND the bad news which leads to THE PROBLEM

c)    God’s solution to the problem – Jesus

d)   What awaits us – when Jesus comes back – our AMAZING inheritance

What works for you?  I get discouraged that I don’t have MORE of these conversations.

**

If you need to get a glimpse of what awaits us, then I would recommend John Piper’s sermon from 18 April 2010 – it’s all about how much God loves us.  Here is the link to the audio, video and print.

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2010/4581_How_Much_Does_God_Love_This_Church/

Assumptions about the Gospel

March 4, 2010

Maria Colossians, Gospel Leave a comment

‘But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation – If you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel.’  Col 1: 22-23

  • Everyone in the Church needs to hear the Gospel every day.
  • I, Maria, need to hear the Gospel every day.
  • Unbelievers need to hear the Gospel.

I was listening to an interview with the eldest daughter of Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  He was the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London for 30 years.  In her talk with Mark Dever (Capitol Hill Baptist Church) she said that her dad was raised in a good Christian, chapel-going Welsh home where everyone assumed that people knew the Gospel.  In other words, the Gospel was not explicitly expounded in Lloyd-Jones’ boy-hood church.  He came to a saving faith gradually as an adult as he heard bits and pieces of the Gospel message and God put it together for him.  As counter-intuitive as it might be, we cannot assume that people in our churches have heard the Gospel.

But hearing it once is not enough.  Each day I wake up as though I have forgotten the news.  I NEED to hear the facts, the actual content of my faith, repeated daily. The Gospel is not just the story of what Jesus did for us so that we wouldn’t be condemned for our sins.  The good news of the Gospel is the power to transform our thinking so that we feel and act differently.  Soaking in Gospel truth, drop by daily drop, will change us.

A guest preacher for Matt Chandler’s church in Dallas was talking about how every one of us will stand before God at the Day of Judgment.  We will either be condemned for our sins, each and every one of them (thought, word and deed) or we will be commended in Christ.  But this commendation will have nothing to do with us, personally, as if we DID something.  (‘yes, I saw the light and was wise enough to choose Jesus’) No, Scripture is very clear that nothing we have done is worthy of commendation.  After all, our best deeds are described as dirty, greasy, rags fit for a motor pit-stop (Isaiah 64:6)

How freeing to meditate on the fact that God chose me before I was born and that I have value and worth because of his sovereign, electing love.  He purposefully planned for my life and my future inheritance.   I don’t have to earn his love.  I already have it.  That is the Gospel message I need to hear each day.

Understanding this radical news will aid me in halting my incessant seeking of worth via my ‘sophisticated and subtle’ boasts to fellow humans.  The impulse to impress others is always there.  I realized today that even in my French classes, I crave the students’ approval for my methods and techniques.  If I can cleverly engage them so they seem fascinated by French, then I am worth something as teacher.

But the Gospel message tells me I have only 2 choices – Do I want to stand and face God on my own record or on Jesus’ merit?

(But Lord, I want some credit for working hard and being a clever and gifted French teacher.  I want some strokes for that!)  Here is what would be freeing, to get it down deep inside of me, that I am totally accepted and O-K-A-Y, because of Christ (my ‘okay-ness’ is outside of me as Ray Ortlund puts it).  Then I would be free to focus on the kids and use French that is comprehensible to talk about them.  Freed up knowing that I’m totally loved, I could love on them.  No pressure.  Is it possible?

See what I mean that we need to hear the Gospel message every day?

And if WE, already loved and accepted as Christ’s brothers and sisters, need to hear it every day, then how much more  do our non-believing friends and neighbors?

So, here is my new question that I want to ask everyone I encounter, a question designed to keep my focus on God and encourage my heart, but also bless my fellow man:  “Hey, can I ask you my favorite question?  How has God blessed you recently?”

Asking that question and hopefully engaging someone on that level will keep the focus off me and will give me glimpses into glory which will encourage MY heart.

Pray that:   1) I can remember the question and 2) remember that I have nothing to lose by asking it.  I am already loved and accepted by Him who matters most in this world.

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