What is the gospel, anyway?

by | Sep 28, 2012 | Learning Story

Sitting here in the Charlotte airport, headed to Virginia by way of DC, thinking about the great privilege I have to teach the gospel in many different venues. Even though all of my life and work center around what it means to live the gospel in daily life, every now and then, I look from a learner’s view and think, “What is the gospel anyway?” I just discovered Trevin Wax’s collection of gospel definitions at Gospel Coalition, and I heartily recommend it (as in the whole collection). Here I’ve pasted an excerpt that I find especially helpful.

“The Gospel Proper (The Announcement)

The gospel is the royal announcement that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived a perfect life in our place, died a substitutionary death on the cross for our sins, rose triumphantly from the grave to launch God’s new creation, and is now exalted as King of the world. This announcement calls for a response: repentance (mourning over and turning from our sin, trading our agendas for the kingdom agenda of Jesus Christ) and faith (trusting in Christ alone for salvation).

The Gospel’s Context (The Story of Scripture)

The Bible tells us about God’s creation of a good world which was subjected to futility because of human sin. God gave the Law to reveal His holiness and our need for a perfect sacrifice, which is provided by the death of Jesus Christ. This same Jesus will one day return to this earth to judge the living and the dead and thus renew all things. The gospel story is the Scriptural narrative that takes us from creation to new creation, climaxing with the death and resurrection of Jesus at the center.

The Gospel’s Purpose (The Community)

The gospel births the church. We are shaped by the gospel into the kind of people who herald the grace of God and spread the news of Jesus Christ. God has commissioned the church to be the community that embodies the message of the gospel. Through our corporate life together, we “obey the gospel” by living according to the truth of the message that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord of the world.” Trevin Wax

Caution: Read Only If You Dare to Be Challenged

by | Sep 21, 2012 | Learning Story

“[One] reason…why the experiential reality of perceiving God is unfamiliar country today [is
that] the pace and preoccupations of urbanized, mechanized, collectivized,secularized modern life are such that any sort of inner life (apart from the existentialist Angst of society’s misfits and the casualties of the rat race) is very
hard to maintain. To make prayer your life priority, as countless Christians of former days did outside as well as inside the monastery, is stupendously difficult in a world that runs you off your feet and will not let you slow down. And if you attempt it, you will certainly seem eccentric to your peers, for nowadays involvement in a stream of programmed activities is decidedly ‘in,’
and the older ideal of a quiet, contemplative life is just as decidedly ‘out.’ That there is widespread hunger today for more intimacy, warmth, and affection in our fellowship with God is clear… but the concept of Christian life as sanctified
rush and bustle still dominates, and as a result the experiential side of Christian holiness remains very much a closed book.” from J.I.Packer, Keeping in Step with the Spirit via Tim Keller’s study on 1 John.

A Strange Story of Grace and Faith

by | Sep 19, 2012 | Learning Story

Yes, I do laugh out loud sometimes when I read Scripture. Genesis 20 has always been one of those chapters that makes me swell with the tenuous joy of ridicule — “How can Abraham be such an idiot,” I wonder as he tries for the second time to pass his wife off as his sister to save his own hide. (Thankfully, I can say that the Holy Spirit usually brings to mind some equally repetitive sin of my own life that might look equally ridiculous if the horrid humiliation of having it told in the pages of Scripture occurred:-). Anyway, I wanted to share the story with you — definitely read that. And then if you want to read some good words about it, check this out from James Boice, excerpted from
Genesis 20” target=”_blank”>
“Abraham’s lack of faith disturbed everything so far as he was concerned. Yet–this is a glorious point on which I end–Abraham’s lack of faith disturbed nothing so far as God was concerned. Abraham may have doubted God’s ability to take care of him, but God’s ability to do so was not altered in the slightest. He may have doubted God’s grace, but God remained as gracious as he had ever been.

I am especially impressed by the way God showed his grace to Abraham. God did so when he spoke to Abimelelch. When Abimelech learned the truth about Sarah, he must have thought of Abraham as a cowardly, hypocritical, two-faced charlatan–or worse. He had cause to. But this is not the way God spoke of Abraham to Abimelech. God said, “Return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live” (v. 7). God was not indifferent to Abraham’s sin. He would deal with it as he had on the occasion of its appearance in Egypt. But the sin did not change God’s view of Abraham. Abraham was still “a prophet.” He was still God’s man.” James Boice, quoted in Thabiti Anyabwile.

What CAN Happen? The Discovery of Scripture

by | Sep 18, 2012 | Learning Story

Rereading Genesis 12-22 in Eugene Peterson’s Conversations, I discovered many helpful insights. I really liked this one about reading Scripture to discover what CAN happen, not just what has happened:
“Simple as it is, that birth story [the one about Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac] sends an important message to people of faith, one that needs repeating over and over again. The message is that God invades us with new life, and that life changes who we are. God isn’t a means by which we solve problems. And he isn’t a means to avoid problems. God creates new life — he is a Creator of persons, not a Solver of problems.
We read Scripture — like this story of the birth of Isaac — not so much to find out what happened but to find out what can happen. We’re curious not about the past but about ourselves. Can he do it again? we wonder. Can he bring birth out of barrenness? Can he birth love out of a loveless marriage? Can he bring a viable business out of bankruptcy? Can he bring faith out of the barren womb of our unbelief?” Eugene Peterson, Conversations: The Message Bible with Its Translator

How to Relate to Evil by John Piper

by | Sep 17, 2012 | Learning Story

As I mentioned last week, one of the many benefits I enjoy of studying the Bible in community is searching for scholarly answers to questions raised in our discussion. Last week, a question arose regarding Satan’s ways. I found the so clear and well-thought-out, not to mention scriptural, but I pasted in the last part about how to relate to evil here.
How to Relate to Evil by John Piper

So I close with the urgent and practical question: How then should we relate to evil? How should we think and feel and act about Satanic evil—the death of little Zach at the attack of a pit bull? The deaths of three more miners trying to save their buddies? Five hundred dead in the Peru earthquake? The evil you confront in your own lives? Here is my summary answer. Eight things to do with evil. Four things never to do.

Expect evil. “Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12).
Endure evil. “Love bears all thing, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7; cf. Mark 13:13).
Give thanks for the refining effect of evil that comes against you. “Give thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20; cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:18; Romans 5:3-5).
Hate evil. “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9).
Pray for escape from evil. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:13).
Expose evil. “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).
Overcome evil with good. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).
Resist evil. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
But, on the other hand:

Never despair that this evil world is out of God’s control. “[He] works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).
Never give in to the sense that because of random evil life is absurd and meaningless. “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! . . . For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Romans 11:33, 36).
Never yield to the thought that God sins, or is ever unjust or unrighteous in the way he governs the universe. “The Lord is righteous in all his ways.” (Psalm 145:17).
Never doubt that God is totally for you in Christ. If you trust him with your life, you are in Christ. Never doubt that all the evil that befalls you—even if it takes your life—is God’s loving, purifying, saving, fatherly discipline. It is not an expression of his punishment in wrath. That fell on Jesus Christ our substitute. “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Hebrews 12:6).

Jared Wilson on Faith, Hope, Love

by | Sep 11, 2012 | Learning Story

In preparation for our first Bible study on faith, hope, and love in Living God’s Story of Grace, I discovered a wonderful article by Jared Wilson, an excerpt from his book (which I haven’t read yet, but now want to)… He is talking about the paralytic in John 5:2-9 who waited 38 years by the pool, hoping, believing his day of healing would come. Sure enough it did, but not by the means he expected. Jared says,

“And in the end, it wasn’t the pool he needed. It was Jesus. How often do you or I believe material substitutes will cure what ails us? We hold out hope for a new job, a new home, a new relationship, a new whatever, believing that when we finally accomplish this or that, we will finally be free of our doubts or fears or struggles, rarely embracing that only the grace of God in Jesus is sufficient for our needs.

. . . [How do we emerge] on the far side of our journey seeing our traveled path with redemption-colored glasses?

The one tiny piece of advice I’d offer on how to see your painful journey as an act of God consecrating your life to his will is to work at consecrating each moment in the journey to faith, hope, and love. By faith, I do not mean “believing in yourself.” By hope, I do not mean “hoping for the best.” By love, I do not mean “following your heart” or some such vague nonsense. We, like invalids, are incapable. We, unlike God, do not really know what is best for us. We, unlike Jesus, have hearts that are deceitful above all things.

No, we will endure, we will prevail, we will persevere, we will be redeemed, both during the process and in the culmination of a Christ-centered faith, hope, and love. Day in and day out, we consider our options to endure or despair, and we choose endure, because to despair is no more valid an option for us than getting up and running away is for a paralyzed man. We consider our lot and, in the spirit of Simon Peter, declare, “To whom shall we go?,” because opting for anything other than proximity to Jesus is no option at all.” Read the rest of this great article.