The Messiah

For Easter, I am reposting the following essay from December 21, 2007. Unlike others, I am not sure when I became a Christian quite honestly, but I think is was not long before I wrote the following. He is risen! I am a great sinner and He is a greater Savior!

Let me talk to you about my Messiah, Jesus Christ. Let me open quite controversially. If Christ is just a great moral teacher, He failed, and failed miserably. For all His altruism, His selflessness in serving others, for all His concern for the disenfranchised, for His formidable moral standards, His end is not one that I would consider a glowing endorsement for emulating His life. He was crucified; He died a death quite gruesome and, in death, was associated with criminals. If such is the potential end for emulating Christ the Teacher, then I want nothing of it. If we consider Christ only a moral example, then I cannot endorse Him above the Buddha. I cannot endorse Him above Gandhi. I cannot endorse Him above an Old Testament patriarch. They differ not in kind, but only in degree. His death carries no greater meaning and import than that of Martin Luther King’s. However, if Christ is more than a teacher, if He is who He and His followers claim Him to be, the Son of God whose death on the cross precedes something greater, His physical resurrection, I then must consider Him in an altogether different light.

I read, in the New Testament canon and in early church history, stories of martyrdom. I read, too, of multitudes abandoning the very foundations of their life to turn and follow, often at great personal, and sometimes ultimate, cost, the One whom they believed to be something greater than a teacher. These 1st century Palestinian Jews (and the gentiles, also), the first followers of Christ, had no great need of a Messiah as a life coach, a minister to their finances and marriages. Their lives were, I believe, even if in a time of political tension, quite predictable for the most part. They were tied to the rhythms of the land, of harvest. They were, for the most part, farmers and craftsmen. They were embedded in the life of the synagogue. Too, the individualism, the obsessive focus on self, of contemporary western culture would be, I believe, quite alien to them.

The Messiah that many were expecting and the Messiah that they received were quite different from one another. Again, there was political tension in that time and place. Judea was under Roman rule and before the first century closed, the 2nd Temple would be, as predicted by the Messiah, in ruins. The expected Messiah would be a King, a strong Man who would break the shackles of Roman oppression and return to the Jews self-rule, and Jerusalem, the city of God, would take her place as the beacon of light to all the nations. This did not happen, though. They instead received a Child who would grow up to divide rather than conquer, to turn child against parent, neighbor against neighbor. He would upset the status quo. He would be, for a time, a pauper King, having, as He said to would-be disciples, no place to lay his head. The Messiah was homeless. His family, for the most part, before witnessing the resurrected Christ, did not, I believe, consider Jesus to be anything but perhaps a bit mad. Even his inner circle of disciples could not wrap their minds around Christ’s proclamations about Himself. Rather, they still anticipated a political King who would establish a theocracy. The pre-Easter Jesus, on the cross, left his followers discouraged and defeated. The post-Easter Jesus revolutionized his adopted ones. Easter changed everything.

How can I talk coherently about Easter and find words worthy to address our risen King, words not compromised by cliché? I am humbled by the task. First, Easter is absolutely not just a metaphysical event having no concrete reality. The resurrection was not just merely a spiritual event; it is more than metaphor. The resurrection actually occurred in time and space. The Creator, the One through whom all things hold together, was willingly brutalized and murdered by His creation. He willingly became our Scapegoat, our blood sacrifice once for all. He is the new Covenant. Everything changed on Easter.

I can give coherent reasons and evidence to help illuminate the reality of the Easter event. It does not, contrary to what most would imagine, require a giant leap of blind faith. I can affirm with as much clarity the physical resurrection of Christ as I can most any event in ancient (and not so ancient) history. Where does this leave me, though? What do I do with this formidable knowledge? What does it mean and to where does it lead? Before we can even begin to address these questions, we must inquire as to the why of the Easter event.

Why did the Word that created cosmos, created humanity, deem it necessary to take on, from the Christmas event to eternity forward, a sinless human nature, and after taking on flesh, have it brutalized and nailed to that tree? Only in the context of that question can we begin to understand the Easter event. Here we find truths both simple and daunting, both compelling and repulsive.

We, as disciples of Christ, are beholden to our Messiah to apprehend these difficult truths to the best of our ability. Because of complacency that often permeates American Christianity, I believe that, as a church, we often worship more a pre-Easter Jesus rather than the post-Easter Jesus. The pre-Easter crowds gathered to the Messiah to receive from Him. The post-Easter Messiah drew to Him those who were willing to die for Him. The followers of the pre-Easter Jesus fell away from Him at the cross. The post-Easter disciples of Christ followed Him to the ends of the earth; they looked to give themselves away, to serve the Messiah, to die to self. I ask myself, which Christ am I following?

Links of the day

HT: Redeemed

From Triablogue
Does God Hate People

…the unforgivable…

A short bit of back-story… There was a time when I was convinced I had committed the unforgivable sin mentioned in, among other places, Luke 12:10. It is difficult to find the words to express the unrelenting horror of living under such a dark and seemingly irrevocable sentence.  I had no one to speak to in order to find help, but eventually I gained understanding that I had not entered into that breathtaking transgress.  One can understand that I have an interest in this subject.

First, I want to share some opinions of what I believe are incorrect interpretations of those texts that deal with the unpardonable sin.  I have heard and read from many that the only unforgivable sin is disbelief in Christ.  I have heard others take that idea and go so far as to essentially say that unbelievers will not be judged for their sins of thought and deed, but for rejecting Christ.  I understand where that comes from and agree there is a small element of truth to such statements, but such thinking falls apart, I think, when scrutinized.  Perhaps I am putting too fine a point on it, but if rejecting Christ is the only unforgivable sin, then logically if follows we should stop evangelizing.  To continue would place everyone who hears the Gospel in jeopardy of committing the unforgivable sin of not believing in Christ. There is also perhaps an unintended inference that there is forgiveness apart from Christ when one says the only unforgivable sin is disbelief in Christ.  All sin is unforgivable apart from Christ.  It is our sin, our failure to live up to God’s perfect standards of holiness, which condemns us before a just, righteous, and holy God.  Unbelief by those presented the Gospel is a manifestation of our fallen, sinful nature, and belief is a gracious gift from God.  However, it is a Biblical truth that those who have heard the Gospel and disbelieve will be judged more harshly than those who have not heard the Gospel, but no one, whether they have heard the Gospel or not, can stand without guilt before God apart from salvation in Christ. So, to say that disbelief in Christ is the unforgivable sin does disservice to a fully Biblical understanding of the depravity of humanity and also to the meaning of those texts regarding the unforgivable sin, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.  Further, one may move by the grace of the Triune God from disbelief to belief in Christ rendering the unforgivable nature of disbelief null and void.  Think of Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 to those who crucified Christ and were brought to repentance and belief in Christ.

The second statement I have heard from time to time concerning unforgivable sin is that suicide is unforgivable.  Actually, this has more to do with the idea that one can lose their salvation, that God may not persevere His saints, but the subject of suicide sometimes comes up in discussions over what constitutes the unforgivable sin.  Ultimately, what this proclamation concerning the seemingly irredeemable nature of suicide offers is a prescription for despair.  Suicide is wrong, a grievous and tragic sin. So is failing to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind and loving your neighbor as yourself.  If you die failing to fulfill any point of the Law and are depending on your ability to obey the Law to gain or to keep your salvation, you die in sin.  To say that suicide, as tragic and irrevocable as act that it is, constitutes an unforgivable sin means that you are depending on your obedience to the Law to save you from God’s wrath. Though you may not commit suicide, each and every one of us, though we may not be completely aware of the fact, sins enough within fifteen minutes of getting out of bed to condemn us for eternity.  If you have an inappropriate thought about that attractive person jogging down the road and run into a tree and die without an opportunity to confess and repent, you have died in sin just as much as the despondent person who committed suicide.  Christ is sufficient is cover all my sin, past, present, and future, and a growing understanding of His sovereign grace makes me increasingly hateful of what sin still dwells within me.  This is the key: the justification of the believer wrought by Christ perfect; nothing we do or fail to do adds to or subtracts from it. The Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification in the redeemed, though, is progressive, not instantaneous.  Remember, also, Romans 8:1.

Next, I think the following circumstance is what plaques some who feel they may have committed the unforgivable sin. If you tell someone they must not think about something specific for fear of grievous consequence in thinking that thought, they may try so hard not to think about it, to mentally block it, they end up thinking about it in spite of themselves.  I believe this is what happens to some who sadly and erroneously think they committed the unforgivable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.  However, that is not the circumstances surrounding those to whom the warning is given. Let’s look at the text of Mark 3:20-30 (NIV).

“Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”

So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house. I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.”

He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.”

What we have on display by the unregenerate Pharisees, those who know Scripture intimately and are teachers of the Law, is an order of hardness of heart that is beyond redemption.  What the text shows is an unrepentant, evil, informed, willful and verbal attribution by the Pharisees of the miraculous works of the Holy Spirit in Christ to Satan.  It is not just that the Pharisees did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah; they essentially called the power of the Holy Spirit working through Him demonic.  Though the Christian will sin daily, this is not a sin any Christian is able to commit.  Further, I have heard some commentator’s state the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit cannot be committed by anyone today because Jesus Christ in now seated at the right hand of the Father, so no one can now see Christ physically perform a miracle and attribute the power behind the miracle to Satan.

Ultimately, the issue perhaps boils down to the bigger picture of one’s theology of salvation, of soteriology. If we view salvation as a monergistic work of God, of the Spirit, of God replacing a heart of stone for a heart of flesh, then we are indeed new creatures in Christ. It is Christ’s righteousness and obedience that God judicially sees when He looks upon His chosen ones, His redeemed.  Salvation is completely of Christ. However, if we believe we contribute somehow to our salvation, a synergistic soteriology, then our security, our trust is to some degree, but ever so small, based in part on our effort.  Our effort will always be insufficient to keep us from falling.

In closure, I would affirm that if you are concerned that you may have committed the unforgivable sin, I would say that such concern infers that you have not.  If in Christ, you are eternally secure.  If not yet in Christ, He offers you salvation through repentance and trust in Him for the forgiveness of sin.  He is the One born of a virgin, fully human and fully divine, Who lived a sinless life and was crucified and died on the cross, taking the punishment for your sin. He rose again from the tomb on the third day defeating death.  He is able save you to the utmost, and you will be eternally secure in His grip.

…dead, but made alive…

Tiger Woods has been disgraced in the media because of his infidelities.  Olympian Michael Phelps was disgraced by the public disclosure of his use of marijuana.  David Hasselhoff was publicly disgraced by the unveiling of video of his inebriation and ‘compromised’ parenting.  Then you have the sad narrative of my governor Mark Sanford and his sordid tale of infidelity. The response, both in the media and in conversations around the proverbial water cooler is one of universal condemnation and disdain for the moral failures of these public figures.  In times past, I have joined in on the lambasting of, and laughing over, public figures caught in their moral failures, their sin.

More recently however, I have had a change of attitude, of perspective.  I have to check myself that I do not place myself in the position of being innately morally superior to those aforementioned characters.  You see, what I have come to recognize more and more clearly is that I am just as deserving of condemnation as those celebrities.  My sins, my moral failures, may not be of the same specific and public nature as theirs,  but I am not without my own guilt.  Have I loved my wife as Christ loves His bride, the church?  No, I have at times failed at that.  Have I faithfully loved God with all my heart, soul, and mind and my neighbor as myself?  No, I fail every day.  So has everyone who reads this post, so has everyone.  We have all murdered with our words, and committed adultery in our hearts. Perhaps the most pernicious trap in which to fall is the ‘thank God I am not like the Pharisees’ mindset.  None, apart from the work of Christ, are without guilt before God.

I think about 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 in context the the failings of others.  I think, too, of Luke 18:9-14.  Do I sometimes, as already mentioned, self-righteously place myself in the role of the Pharisee who gloats over the moral failures of the unregenerate?  I think of Ephesians. 2:1-5.  Ultimately, the only thing that separates me from those other miscreants is the grace and mercy of Christ.

1 Corinthians 5:12-13 (New American Standard Bible)

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?

But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.

Luke 18:9-14 (New American Standard Bible)

And He also told this parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

“The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’

“But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’

“I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Ephesians 2:1-5 (New American Standard Bible)

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved,

Undesirable, yet adopted

From The Thirsty Theologian...

I believe he quotes J.I. Packer in the following excerpt. No commentary in needed.  Here is the Gospel…

There is a fabulously wealthy man who wants to adopt a son. It’s not that he needs to. He already has a son – and not just any son, but a son who is perfect in every way. This man is entirely happy with his natural son, and has no need of another. He loves his son, and his son loves him.

The son he wants to adopt is not just anyone, either. He knows this boy. He has seen him on several occasions. He knows this child. This child is not the typical child that most parents seek to adopt. He is no adorable, cooing baby. He is a homeless child, a loner, living in alleys and abandoned buildings. But he isn’t just any homeless child, either. He has a disease. His disease has deformed his body and twisted his mind. He is filthy, and he stinks. He is vicious and violent, entirely antisocial. He survives by scavenging and stealing. No one would want him.

The man tracks this boy down, finding him in an alley scrounging through a dumpster. He approaches the boy with a smile and an outstretched hand. The boy runs. The man follows him, tracking him to a condemned building. Cornered, the boy begins hurling debris at the man, shouting threats and obscenities.

All the while, the man looks upon him and loves him. He wants him. He wants nothing more than to take him home and lavish his wealth and affection on him. And so he does. He subdues the boy and takes him to his home. He feeds him, clothes him, and treats his illness. He loves him.

And he gives him his name and writes him into his will. This child who was nobody, with no hope, diseased and ugly, hateful and hated, is now a privileged son, heir to a fortune; and he is loved. He has been adopted.

He is me.

Marketing your morality

I have had the pleasure of engaging dialog on things of faith and science with atheist friends and family on more than one occasion. Either the conversation has centered around the evidence for a Creator, or it has centered on the foundation of morality. I am, in this post, more interested about atheism and inferred foundations of ethics and morality.

A while back, there was an advertising campaign in London, if I recall correctly, that questioned the need to believe in God to be ‘good.’

The question that should follow is this: why be good for goodness’ sake? For the sake of argument, let us assume a materialistic world-view: suppose there is no God. All that exists is matter that has collected itself into different forms by natural processes without any intervention outside of nature. This matter either created itself ex nihilo, from nothing, or has existed for eternity. Those options are all that is reasonably available to the materialist without regard to the cosmological flavor to the day.

Following that matter is all there is, then life must be a product of natural forces and processes, some inferred to be random, and is imbued with no special significance other than that found in the unimaginable enormity of the odds stacked against life rising from said undirected natural processes. We are here, to reiterate, due only to natural selection driven by random mutation and environmental pressures.

The bottom line is this: all there is…is matter. Following inexorably is death. All life ends in death and the annihilation of self, of consciousness, for the self-aware. All that remains is the decayed flesh and the memories of self carried by those who briefly remain after one departs, dies. Those memories, too, will be eventually be erased by time as will every edifice, every proud monument, constructed by the defiant, hairless ape. To assert otherwise is shear irrational romanticism, perhaps itself a survival mechanism born in light of consciousness, of self-awareness aware of death, before a vast, uncaring universe.

So then, we courageously exhort one another, given what ultimately lies before us, to be good for goodness sake. Again, why? How can anything be called evil, or good, in light of mere insensate matter being the ultimate arbiter? Do we call the actions, the effects, of tornadoes, chipmunks, and supernova good or evil? No, we do not. In a materialistic context, we can only say we prefer one action over another. We can only say some things are better for the functioning of society than others. Common good of society becomes the arbiter of good and evil. Again, why? Why should I care about the common good of society? Pragmatism, utilitarianism fail here. Who decides what is the common good? Society, a majority?   What about societies with differing standards?  Why should I, as an individual, even care about the common good? Is survival of the species the most important moral imperative? The earth, the universe, does not care on whit if humanity lives another moment or a thousand millennia. To state otherwise is, again, unabashed, irrational romanticism. Ultimately, there are no consequences for behavior if one can get away with it. Death is the common leveler and materialism is the ultimate reducing agent of morality.

The bottom line is this: humanity has no intrinsic value if we are only products of blind natural forces and process; there is no firm foundation for morality. Atheism, in its reductionism and when honestly examined, places a value on humanity that is tenuous and at very best utilitarian. The question that follow is this, who, or what, imbues us with this utilitarian value? Progressive, secular, egalitarian, compassionate societies in the west engage abortion on demand, infanticide, and euthanasia. Do you remember the circumstances that bought about the death of Terri Schiavo?

I can’t let others off the hook. Just any theism won’t do. Pantheism -belief in a impersonal ‘all is god, god is all’ – , foundational to much of New Age spiritualism, and deism – belief in an uninvolved, impersonal ‘watchmaker god’-, what many embrace, acknowledged or not, in actual function, are really in little better, if any, condition to provide intrinsic value to humanity. Too, what of that errant offspring of orthodox Christianity, the progressive Universalist, those who assert that eventually all go to heaven? Essentially, this is just a weak-kneed flip-side to atheism. In some respects, I would love for Univeralism to be true, but if so, there would be no accountability for moral actions if there is no punishment, no retribution for evil, no justice. Here is an undemanding god of love, but without the absolute holiness of the triune God. Is Stalin in heaven with the god of Univeralism?

Also, I absolutely do not infer that atheists are better or worse than theists in their ethics and behaviors. All I am saying is that their moral foundation is, consciously or not, second-hand, pirated, derived from that which they have rejected. Also, I do not infer that belief in God equals high morality in practice. People obviously act in opposition to what they profess to believe all the time. That many have done evil in the name of religion does not invalidate the assertion that a personal, transcendental God is foundational for morality.

It is only the fact that mankind, even in our fallen state, is created in the image of the personal, holy Triune God of the Old and New Testament that we find any intrinsic value and worth.

I want to end on the following, on the day before Christmas, with these words from an earlier post:

As profound and foundational are the doctrines of the trinity and the physical resurrection of the Messiah, and absolutely in no means do I intend to diminish their import, it is the incarnation of our Savior that leaves me most breathtakingly at a loss for words. That Christ, fully almighty God, immutable and fully in transcendence over creation, Who spoke into existence, ex nihilo, the natural order, should step out of eternity and condescend to take on flesh, a sinless human nature, and, out of love, subject Himself to a fallen creation, leaves me wanting for words. Christ, God almighty, His incarnation realized by His conception and virgin birth to Mary, was obedient to Father God to the point of death on the cross to provide propitiation for sin and, after defeating death, will for eternity forward, walk with us as we behold His cross-scarred body. Here we find incomprehensible truths that followers of the Messiah will feast on for eons.

How unbelievable is this grace to the ears of those who think that God grades us on a curve. How odd to the ears is this grace to those we engage some sort of concept of karma. How unbelievable is the transcendent God is to those who engage a the fuzzy self-deification of new-age, neo-pagan pantheism. How daunting and unbelievable is the true, utterly independent and omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God of the Bible to those who engage those strains of liberal protestantism who travel with the impotent, dependent god of panentheism. How simply unbelievable it is to so many that we simply cannot approach and commune with the absolute holy God of creation on our own devices, on our own righteousness, but only through the cross of Christ.

Here is hope for a broken, sin ravaged world: Repent, acknowledge and turn away from your sin, your rebellion and disobedience to God, and believe, trust, in Christ, fully sinless man and fully God, who physically rose from the grave defeating death, for the forgiveness of sin so that God counts to you the righteousness of Christ when He looks upon you that you may spend eternity with Him. That is the Good News.

Wishing all a Merry Christmas!

Evidence of spiritual growth

(The following is something I put together for a friend of mine from work yesterday. I was asked to provide input to a program his church was developing regarding the identification of different stages of spiritual growth with an overarching goal to move people to deeper levels of discipleship.)

Sorry for any lack of clarity on my part for what follows. I tell you, it is a daunting task to identify stages of spiritual development and perhaps describe/prescribe how one moves from one stage to another, and I do not know how qualified I am to speak to these issues. I am humbled by so many men far more capable than myself.

That all being said, here goes…………

I think I will start at the end and move to the beginning. I think we need to identify what spiritual maturity, the overarching goal, looks like It is conformity to Christ as evidenced in the following, and I believe these are evidences we in Christ all can agree on. In no particular order and perhaps a bit repetitive at times, here are some of those aforementioned evidences:

• It is evidenced in dying to self.
• It is counting as a loss everything the world may offer in comparison with knowing and being known by Christ.
• It is loving the Redeemer and Giver of gifts more than the gifts.
• It is evidenced in the attitude of exalting Christ without regard to circumstance.
• It is evidenced in the tongue that does not complain.
• It is evidenced in the heart that looks and longs for evidences of grace rather than always self-righteously looking at the faults in the lives of others who are in Christ
• It is evidenced when one looks at others as being more important than themselves
• It is evidenced in the ability to discern truth from error
• It is evidenced in the ability to know how to graciously respond to one who may be in error
• It is evidenced by seeking to ‘wash the feet’ of one’s brother.
• It is evidenced in the one who thanks God when circumstances may, on the surface, seem dire.
• It is evidenced by child-like (not childish) faith in the Redeemer
• It is evidenced by a heart that repents more dearly and sincerely, a redeemed heart broken over sin.
• It is evidenced by a humble and contrite spirit
• It is evidenced by a desire to share the Gospel and make disciples of the nations
• It is evidenced by an abiding love for the Church, the bride of Christ
• It is evidenced by a generous heart that gives sacrificially
• It is evidenced by a desire, a hunger, for the Scripture, the authoritative, infallible, inspired word of God
• It is evidenced by a desire to reflect the grace of Christ to others
• It is evidenced by a heart that grieves over injustice
• It is evidenced by a life of faith in Christ whose faith produces works of righteousness
• It is evidenced by a attitude that seeks obedience to Christ in ALL things
• It is evidenced by acknowledging that we in Christ bring absolutely nothing to the table in regards to our justification. Even our faith is a gift of God that no man should boast
• It is evidenced in an attitude of patience
• It is evidenced when one is satisfied with what one has
• A longing for the deeper things of Christ, to move beyond a diet of milk
• It is evidenced when we perhaps sometimes ask “why” instead of “why me.”
• A growing understanding of the absolute sovereignty and holiness of God and the ability to have that understanding reflected in our response to trials and tribulation.
• A growing tenderness of heart tempered by a fierce devotion to truth
• Knowing that when the Father looks upon us, He sees us clothed in the righteousness of Christ
• A life infused with grace
• A life defined by having no fear of death or life. To live is Christ, to die is gain.
• A life defined by having love for those who do not love us back.
• A life defined by not seeking retribution for those that hurt us
• A life defined by the ability to endure hardship in such a way that we, and others, may exalt Christ
• A life defined, for a husband and father, as being head over the family as Christ is head over the Church
• A life defined as being the first to seek reconciliation without regard to one’s guilt, or lack thereof, especially within the context of one’s marriage and the church
• A life defined, for a wife and mother, as one of Christ-like submission to one’s husband, whether or not he ‘deserves’ it.
• A life defined by submission to authority as long as such does not require immorality.
• A life defined as working for one’s employer as if one is working for Christ, without grumbling and complaining.
• (Irony alert) An understanding that we are not justified by faithful adherence to a list of behaviors and attitudes.
• A life defined by acts and attitudes of forgiveness.
• When one wakes up, one’s thoughts are on the Redeemer. When one goes to sleep, one’s thoughts are on the Redeemer.
• It is evidenced by acts of mercy, forgiveness, selfless service, selfless giving
• Being a gracious defender of truth, being one who stands on the wall to watch and protect
• Understanding that is ultimately the power of the Spirit that enables spiritual growth. We have nothing to boast about.
• It is evidenced when one has the courage, love, and commitment to graciously turn a brother away from sin. We are our brothers keeper.
• It is evidenced by obedience to Christ

While I have not provided any scripture to validate the above, I can do so, given a bit of time, if desired. I am admittedly writing from memory and though I feel comfortable with what the Bible states regarding spiritual maturity, I am not very good at memorization.

Having pointed out evidence of spiritual maturity, let’s go to the other end of the spectrum and ask ourselves what spiritual infancy/immaturity look like. It would be easy to simply state the opposite of the first list, but I will try to avoid, for the most part, that easy path

Again, in no particular order:

• The asking of “why me” instead of “why.” (I know that a pure, simple faith does not even ask the ‘why.’)
• The ‘pitching of one’s tent to close to the world.’
• Lack of discernment
• Focus on legalism
• Lack of knowledge regarding doctrine (Let me state that I am concerned about the ‘deeds, not creed’ attitude that seems to be so deeply embedded in large parts of the American church. Deeds and creeds go hand in hand. Ignore either at ones peril.)
• A prayer life that consists primarily of selfish petition rather than praise and thankfulness. “What can you do for me, God?”
• Seeking recognition of self – an overarching focus on self. Conversations are most always about oneself, one’s problems.
• An untamed tongue. We murder people with our tongue every day
• A tendency to involve oneself in fruitless arguments and discussions
• Finding one’s greatest satisfaction in hobbies, work, etc rather than in knowing and growing in the Redeemer
• When you may be more identified by your political affiliation rather than your affiliation with the Messiah.
• When you self-righteously judge the unredeemed for acting like someone who is unredeemed.
• Finding one’s peace and satisfaction built upon a foundation of circumstance.
• Trying to validate one’s standing with the Creator by one’s performance.
• Not knowing what doctrines are hills to die on and which doctrines may be agreeably disagreed upon.
• More on the tongue: engaging in crude comments
• Neglecting the gathering together within a local church where sound doctrine is preached and the body serves one another
• Neglecting to regularly spend time in the Word and in prayer
• Being entertainment driven
• Seeking more to be served then to serve
• Seeking revelation beyond what God has reveled in the Bible
• When you unrighteously/self-righteously judge the redeemed….which infers there are times and places of righteous judgment. You are to graciously point out/remove the speck from your brother’s eye; just make sure there is no log in your eye.
• A tendency to “play the Pharisee card” in regards to differences of ‘questionable things’. (The “Thank God I am not like those self-righteous Pharisees over there” attitude. We in Christ are all, in varying degree, recovering Pharisees.)
• Wavers on the non-negotiable truths of the faith……The “I believe in Jesus, but who am I to judge someone else on a different path to God” perspective

I have given two extremes. I think we all can identify with elements in both lists. I do not think everyone’s experience in growth to spiritual maturity is the same. Perhaps one could break the list into further categories…..infancy, toddler, etc…..but I am not so sure the Bible leads to that understanding of spiritual growth. Paul and the apostles speak in terms of maturity and immaturity. The Apostle Paul speaks of babes longing for and drinking milk and the more mature who are ready for a more substantive diet. Paul chastises those who are still drinking milk when they should move beyond the foundational elements of the faith. As an aside, I think about the church at Corinth. I think about how Paul did not call into question their salvation though he has grave concerns about that church.

Ultimately, the Spirit convicts us and leads us to righteousness. The Spirit leads us to exalt Christ. We have the spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting. We have the body of Christ, the church, to relationally build us, mentor us, and correct us and encourage us. We have the 66 books of the Old and New Testament canon to build us, to train us in righteousness, to equip us for good works. We have under-shepherds, the pastor of the local church and the elders, to provide nurture and protection for the flock. We have the assurance that Christ will complete the work He began in us. We have the assurance that He works out all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

However, we are also called to check ourselves, to see if our election, our salvation is ‘real.’ Are we bearing fruit? Some, like me, are slow out of the gate and take many wrong turns while others grow and bear fruit soon after the seed is planted, but ultimately, we in Christ will bear evidence of spiritual fruit. I fear, however, so many in the church are on the wide path and will miss the narrow gate.

In closing, many of the attributes of the first list may be found in those who do not know Christ. Merely possessing these attributes does not justify us. Many of the latter attributes are found in those who are truly redeemed by the penal substitutionary atoning work of Christ on the cross. They are no less justified by faith than those in Christ who possess all the attributes of the first list. Therein lies the power of grace through faith in Christ. We are not to fall into the erroneous idea that this life is a ‘spiritual test’, that we are justified by our adherence to the ‘list.’ Adherence to the ‘list’ is an effect, not a cause. The cause is the grace and mercy of Christ as the Holy Spirit works within us and conforms us to His image.

Some brief thoughts on, among other things, the omniscience of God

Orthodox Christians affirm the omniscience of God. We are told in New Testament canon that the hairs on our head are numbered. In our finiteness, we can we only begin to barely apprehend the periphery of God’s omniscience. In thinking recently about this attribute of our Father God, His ‘all-knowingness’, I dwell on the following observations of the created order that reflect His glory and majesty:

• The universe is at least 156 billion light-years wide. As a reference point, a light-year is, well, the distance light travels in one year; light travels at over 186,000 miles per second which translates to 5,876,000,000,000 miles per year.

• There are approximately 200 billion stars in the Milky Way, our galaxy.

• There are approximately 70 sextillion stars in the visible universe.

• The number of subatomic particles of electron size in the universe is approximately:

……..—.30,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, ——–.--000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 – or 3 followed by 79 digits.

• The age of the universe is somewhere between 11.2 and 20 billion years old (with all respect to my YEC brothers and sisters).

• The universe had a discreet starting point and is winding down.

God, who created the universe ex nihilo, from nothing, knows both the position and momentum of all sub-atomic particles. He knows immediately all there is to possibly know about every subatomic particle in the universe at any point in time of the age of the universe. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle does not apply to our Creator God.

Not only does He immediately know all there is to know about each sub-atomic particle in each discreet moment over the age of the universe, He also knows all contingencies about all of His creation. He knows that if He had created the universe such that if any one factor was different, He knows immediately all that can be know about any alternative universe of any number of altered factors.

God is not contingent, is not dependent, upon the universe. The universe is contingent, is dependent, upon Him. Indeed, it is in Christ Jesus, who spoke the worlds into existence from nothing, through whom all things hold together. In reflecting on creation, I affirm the following:

The true God is not a false pagan god of polytheism or henotheism, gods of idolatry who are only reflections and projections in large of flawed and limited humanity.

The true God is not the false god of pantheism where god is all and all is god. At it’s essence, this theology deifies mankind, hardly an object, given our nature and history, of worship. We need no further impetus for self-indulgence.

The true God is not the impotent, false god of panentheism, the dipolar god of process theology, wherein that which is material may be considered the ‘body’ of god and the non-material spirit of god is the ‘soul’ of the universe, as it were. The god of panentheism is not the immutable sovereign God of all creation.

Father God is not the false god of open theism, a deity not privy to or in complete control of future events though he, according to this errant theology, may forecast them with a measure of accuracy. Again, the true God is absolutely sovereign over creation. He knew all our thoughts before the beginning of time. There is nothing hidden from Him. Further, God is not a risk taker, as some open theists would affirm, for He is sovereign over creation. He is not a needy God. He is utterly and completely sufficient unto Himself. He is not a lonely God in a desperate search for someone to love Him. He is utterly fulfilled in His trinitarian nature. He simply loves us, His adopted children, His redeemed ones, because He loves us

Abba God is not the false impersonal God of deism. He is a personal, knowable God. He condescended to reveal Himself to humanity, to a world in rebellion, through the Bible and ultimately through the incarnation of Christ Jesus.

Anything less than the absolutely righteous, absolutely holy, absolutely just, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, merciful, immutable, and personal triune sovereign God of the inspired, infallible, and authoritative canon of the Old and New Testament is less than worthy of worship, less than worthy of complete confidence and trust, less than worthy of adoration.

What follows is an excerpt from a post I authored a few weeks ago on the incarnation of Christ that seem to be an appropriate conclusion to this post:

• As profound and foundational are the doctrines of the trinity and the physical resurrection of the Messiah, and absolutely in no means do I intend to diminish their import, it is the incarnation of our Savior that leaves me most breathtakingly at a loss for words. That Christ, fully almighty God, immutable and fully in transcendence over creation, Who spoke into existence, ex nihilo, the natural order, should step out of eternity and condescend to take on flesh, a sinless human nature, and, out of love, subject Himself to a fallen creation, leaves me wanting for words. Christ, God almighty, His incarnation realized by His conception and virgin birth to Mary, was obedient to Father God to the point of death on the cross to provide propitiation for sin and, after defeating death, will for eternity forward, walk with us as we behold His cross-scarred body. Here we find incomprehensible truths that followers of the Messiah will feast on for eons.

He offered up His Son as a perfect sacrifice for our sin so that through our repentance and faith in the redeeming work of sovereign grace in Christ’s death on the cross and physical resurrection, we have forgiveness and eternal life. How can we neglect so great a salvation.