200-Proof Grace

Here is another guest post from Dane Ortlund. Dane blogs regularly at Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology and is featured at The Gospel Coalition and the Resurgence.

Episcopal priest and author Robert Farrar Capon:

The Reformation was a time when people went blind-staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellarful of fifteen-hundred-year-old, 200-proof grace–of bottle after bottle of pure distillate of Scripture that would convince anyone that God saves us single-handed.

The Word of the Gospel, after all those centuries . . . suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home free even before they started. How foolish, then, they said, how reprehensibly misleading, they said, to take the ministers of that Word of free, unqualified acceptance and slap enforced celibacy on them–to make their lives bear a sticker that said they had gone an extra mile and paid an extra toll. It was simply to hide the light of grace under a bushel of pseudo-law. . . .

And for the Reformers, that was a crime. Grace was to be drunk neat: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness, nor badness, nor the flowers that bloom in the spring of super-spirituality could be allowed to enter that case.

–Robert Farrar Capon, Between Noon and Three: Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace (Eerdmans 1997), 109-10

God Condescends

This is a guest post by my friend and colleague with Docent Research Group, Justin Holcomb, who is also an Episcopal priest. He holds two masters degrees from Reformed Theological Seminary and a PhD from Emory University. Justin and his wife, Lindsey, wrote Rid of My Disgrace, a book on gospel hope and healing for sexual assault victims, which I highly recommend. You can follow him on Twitter here. 

In John 6, Jesus performs a miracle of multiplying loaves of bread and fish to feed over 5,000 people. This passage has been used to make the point that Jesus had to wait for the boy to offer his food before Jesus would do his part. When applied to our spiritual lives it looks like this: “God is really into you, but he wants you to be really into him first and he wants you to make the first move and show him that you are serious and all about his glory. And after you respond, God will look upon you with favor and good pleasure. God may even ‘use you’.” This is not true. We do not have this miracle recorded for the purpose of trying to convince you to try harder to get God’s attention. When Jesus’ first century audience sees this miracle they corner him and ask: “What do your works mean? Come on! Tell us what you’ve come to do. We want to know. We’d like you to be our king. We have an agenda for you.”

We cannot climb the ladder to God through some technique…God came near to us in Christ, so Christ could take care of that which separates us from God and then bring us near to God.

Jesus reminds them about the bread or manna in the desert with Moses and says: “It wasn’t Moses who gave you bread in the desert. It was my father who brought the bread from heaven. And now it is the father who is giving you the true bread from heaven. That would be me! I am the bread of life. I am the true life that has come down from heaven.” He claims to be the one who can truly give the life of God and says “If you do not have me you do not have life.” The life of God was poured out in his life. The bread came down from heaven; we didn’t climb up to God. In Jesus’ words about being the bread of life, claiming that he is the life of God on earth, we are looking at the very heart of Christianity—that we are not spiritual, but that we have a desperate spiritual need. We cannot climb the ladder to God through some technique. Rather, Christianity teaches our alienation from God until it is remedied by Christ. God came near to us in Christ, so Christ could take care of that which separates us from God and then bring us near to God.

To understand this is to get at the heart of what Jesus is about. We do not inherently have “spiritual life.” Christ was our spiritual life for us on our behalf. In being the bread of life, Jesus disarms us of our self-reliant spiritual efforts. As a result, we have a problem. We do not naturally on our own come near to God. He must come near to us. So a relationship with God is based on God’s condescension to us in Jesus being the bread of life from heaven. It is not that we have risen to spiritual heights, but that the bread of heaven has come down to us. Thankfully, it’s not all about us.

Quit Asking for Forgiveness

This is a guest post by Dane Ortlund who is the Senior Editor in Bible Division at Crossway. You can follow him on Twitter here.

One way I reinforce my inveterate functional Pharisaism is by allowing remembrance of a past sin to bring me back into despondency and a renewed plea for forgiveness every time it comes to mind.
The trouble is that this is not belief but unbelief. Not faith, but self-reliance. Normally I’ve asked the Lord to forgive me in the wake of the sin, yet when it comes to mind again I find myself crumpling internally into yet another anguished prayer for forgiveness. It’s the emotional equivalent of self-flagellation—scourging my own back with a whip.

Place it under the blood. Once. Then quit asking for forgiveness.

The enemy loves it. He sees I’m not allowing a decisive placing of that sin under the blood of Christ settle the issue once and for all. Somehow I let myself feel that the more often I ask for forgiveness, and the greater the anguish, the more effectual the blood of Christ on my behalf.

Which is itself works-righteousness. It’s a denial that the blood of Christ is enough. It’s thinking: I need to help out Christ’s work by a super intense, repeated, pleading for that blood. The very gospel application is a gospel denial. My mind pleads grace while my heart self-atones.

Place it under the blood. Once. Then quit asking for forgiveness.

He bore the whip.
“. . . and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” –Isaiah 53:6

Vacation, Sabbath, and Guest Bloggers

Since I’m heading for some much needed vacation with the fam, I thought a few comments on Sabbath and rest were in order. I know Sabbath is biblical and necessary because even God rested and because he commands it and gave it as a gift for those made in his image, but I still haven’t got down exactly how this practically works.

We would play and we would pray.

Do you just watch TV? Do you go on a walk in the woods? Do you pray all day? Do you write? Do you eat an overwhelming amount of donuts? A mix of all 5? I’m not sure, but I thought Eugene Peterson’s comments regarding this topic in an 2005 interview were helpful:

We defined our Sabbath this way: we could do anything, but nothing that was necessary. We would play and we would pray. Anything under the category of play was legitimate; anything in the category of pray was legitimate.

So, pray and play. That sounds good.

I also plan on doing some life-planning, but most of all I want to hang with my wife, baby boy still enwombed, toddler-baby Grace, the Trinity, and enjoy books, sun, and beach.

The blog will still have posts periodically, as I have some guest bloggers who have kindly agreed to do some postings while I’m gone. So do check in from time to time the next couple weeks.

Why Christians Can’t be Condemned

Those who trust Jesus cannot be condemned. Period. It is an impossibility. Why? Because the condemnation that Christians deserve for their sin was condemned in Jesus at Calvary. The death of Christ irreversibly condemned a Christian’s condemnation.

The apostle Paul writes:

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh”. (Romans 8:1, 3)

New Testament scholar Douglas Moo explains,

“…the condemnation of sin…consist[s] in God’s executing his judgment on sin in the atoning death of his Son. As our substitute, Christ ‘was made sin for us’ (2 Cor. 5:21) and suffered the wrath of God, the judgment of God upon that sin…In his doiong so, of course, we may say that sin’s power was broken, in the sense that Paul pictures sin as a power that holds people in its clutches and brings condemnation to them. In executing the full sentence of condemnation against sin, God’s effectively removed sin’s ability to ‘dictate terms’ for those who are ‘in Christ’ (v. 2). The condemnation that our sins deserve has been poured out on Christ, our sin-bearer; that is why ‘there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (v. 1).” [The Epistle to the Romans, 481]

Cormac McCarthy, God, & “Something Knows”

One of my favorite living literary authors is Cormac McCarthy, and a recent tweet by John Piper got me thinking about him again.

Deep in each man is the knowledge that something knows of his existence. Something knows, and cannot be fled nor hid from.

McCarthy’s stark wrestlings with death, evil, and God in his novels are incredible. I do not embrace his typically hopeless denouements, but treasure the triumph of grace in the historical life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. However, his writing is worth reading, as he has no patience for trifling with matters of weightlessness. Here is one paragraph of note from The Crossing in his masterful The Border Triology:

“Men do not turn from God easily you see. Not so easily. Deep in each man is the knowledge that something knows of his existence. Something knows, and cannot be fled nor hid from. To imagine otherwise is to imagine the unspeakable. It was never that this man ceased to believe in God. No. It was rather that he came to believe terrible things of Him.” (p. 148)

7 Quotes from Andrew Murray’s “Humility”

Several years ago I read a little book called Humility by nineteenth century South African pastor Andrew Murray. I picked it up the other day, and was reminded of the value of the book and, more importantly, my need for humility. Murray defines humility as “the place of entire dependence on God” and he calls it “the root of true virtue” and “the first duty and the highest virtue of man” (10). He is remarkably quotable so here are seven knock-out quotes from this great little book on the pinnacle of Christian virtues:

“…it is not sin that humbles us most, but grace.”

• How to conquer pride: “Two things are needed. Do what God says is your work–humble yourself. Trust Him to do what He says is His work; He will exalt you.” (90)
• “We will learn that we can never have more of true faith than we have of true humility.” (68)
• “Humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust.” (68)
• “There is no pride so dangerous, none so subtle and insidious, as the pride of holiness.” (56)
• The humble man: “He can bear to hear others praised and himself forgotten…” (47)
• “In striving after the higher experiences of the Christian life, the believer is often in danger of aiming at and rejoicing in what one might call the more human virtues….While the deeper and gentler, the more divine and heavenly graces are scarcely thought of or valued. These virtues are those which Jesus first taught upon earth–because He brought them from heaven–those which are more distinctly connected with His cross and the death of self–poverty of spirit, meekness, humility, lowliness.” (47-48)
• “…it is not sin that humbles us most, but grace.” (6)

Our Response to God’s Perennial Grace

Psalm 136 has the refrain of “your steadfast love endures forever” 26 times in 26 verses. Each of these phrases is tied to who God is and what he has done in history. What is this eternal steadfast love of God that the Psalmist is so fixed upon praising?

Gratefulness in my heart is few-and-far between, but grace in God’s heart is consistent.

It is God’s hesed. This word is difficult to capture. Old Testament scholar Samuel Terrien writes, “No single word will render the diversity of the Hebrew meanings: Mercy? Fidelity? Faithfulness? Compassionate love?” (The Psalms: Strophic Structure and Theological Commentary, 863). Another scholar, Bruce Waltke, calls it “help to the helpless” (An Old Testament Theology, 850). In short, the steadfast love of God (hesed), is grace.

The Psalmist is overwhelmed with, as Terrien puts it, the “perenniality of divine grace” (Ibid.) Why say this 26 times? A bit overkill, right? After all, lets look at this in real time:

for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever for his steadfast love endures forever

Get the picture? God’s grace is a central attribute that reflects all that he is and all that he does. This is why the apostle Paul wrote many years later the following phrase when recapping all that God has done to save a people for himself–“to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Eph. 1:6). Psalm 126 is the song of Ephesians 1:6. The response to God’s nature and his saving actions in eternal and human history is to praise him for his grace.

What kind of praise is to fill this response? Thankfulness. Three times at the beginning (136:1-3) and one at the end (136:26), the response to God’s steadfast love is to “give thanks.” The human response to the gracious character of God should always be thanks. His grace is exponentially abundant, and our response should be a multiplicity of “Thank You’s.” You can’t respond to a gift in any other way. The response to eternal grace is an eternity of thankful-hearted praise.

Gratefulness in my heart is few-and-far between, but grace in God’s heart is consistent.

How you doing today?

The “Hotness” and False Perceptions of Facebook

One of the dangers and deceits of Facebook is that it gives its users the ability to create a perception of themselves that is not altogether true. Social researchers Jeremy Uecker and Mark Regnerus identify this specifically in referencing how Facebook reinforces the temporary currency of “hotness” among young people:

You are not your Facebook page, and you don’t need to be.

“Facebook also reinforces ‘hotness’ as a paramount currency and form of stratification amoung young men and women. Only flattering digital images featuring fun and spontaneity suffice, since what matters is the visual–what can be seen and read about a person…Facebook pages is only a party away. And just like online porn creates the false impression that arousal is constant–since a photograph or video is always live–so Facebook creates the false impression that hotness is constant and the only real attribute that endures. Hotness is even democratized–on Facebook, wealth matters less (since it takes more work to convey it), and power is difficult to discern. Sexiness is a calculable commodity and a primary source of prestige….

[Facebook] allows for rapid information gathering and assessment and the manipulation of others’ perceptions about oneself…And it encourages the creation of false impressions, images, and stories about users, events, and relationships as more sexualized and subject to change than they really are or intend to be.” Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, And Think About Marrying, 131, 133

Whether your Facebook page attempts to give the impression that you are really, really attractive, or quite available and ready to hook-it-up, or in a new relationship of bliss unlike any other, or pretty doggone intelligent, or always depressed because your life pretty-much sucks your status updates and profiles don’t show the whole you but only reveal a part of you. Facebook gives you a public outlet to generate a public persona of yourself that is not entirely yourself.

I use Facebook and plan on continuing to use it, but I am not unaware of its dangers and my propensity to desire other people to see me a certain way. For instance, I often post theological or biblically-derived quotes from myself or those I read, and that can give the impression that I am quite spiritual and one-heck-of-a godly guy. I assure you, this is not always the case–just ask my wife.

You are not your Facebook page, and you don’t need to be. Sure use social-networking, but don’t be unaware of its dangers and deceits. Your friend from college who posts every possible pregnant belly shot possible–doesn’t always look that good. Your old friend from childhood who dates his wife every other day–still has rough patches in their marriage. Your friends who live far away and have those funny and cute kids–aren’t always that funny and cute. O, and neither are you quite that remarkable.

Your Facebook is not you nor is it your friends. Don’t trade the illusions of social networking for the difficulty and beauty of real relationships. What matters most about you is not what is visual–what is seen on the outside via Facebook or whatever–but what is internal.

Facebook tempts us to post things that increase the currency of our like-ability and indulge in the fear of man. The gospel of Jesus rescues you from the need to show how “hot” you are in whatever area of your life you deem important enough to be publicly personified so that people will “like” you. No matter what your Facebook page reveals about you, your life is messy and in desperate need of the life-changing grace and love that Jesus freely gives to those who trust him. The good news is that if you die to yourself and your identity and trust who God is for you in Jesus he gives you a glorious identity: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:3-4)

When you awaken to the reality of this glorious identity you may still use Facebook but it won’t shape who you are. The glory of your identity–your whole life–being “with Christ” and “in God” empties Facebook of its allure of false perceptions and being liked.

The Truth the Church MUST Return To

One of the greatest preachers of the 20th century, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, identifies the twin truths the church must come back to, namely, that Christians are the children of God and partakers of the divine nature.

“…until we come back to this and really understand this and feel it and experience its power, I see no hope for the Church.”

He states,

There is surely no greater honour and no greater dignity that can ever come into our ken or comprehension than just this, that we have upon us the name of God. It is not surprising that John, in the prologue of his Gospel, puts it like this: that to ‘as many as received him gave he the power (the right, the authority) to become the children of God’ (1:12). There is nothing beyond that, nothing conceivable beyond that, that we are actually members of God’s own family. This is literally the truth about us as Christians. John again says, ‘Beloved, now we are the children of God’ (1 John 3:2). We do not know what we shall be in fulness, he goes on to say, but we do know that this is what we are already, now, the children of God. The apostle Peter is equally concerned about it and says that we are ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4). More and more it seems to me that it is our failure at this point that really explains why the Christian Church is as she is. And it does not matter what we do or try to do; until we come back to this and really understand this and feel it and experience its power, I see no hope for the Church. We are the children of God, partakers of the divine nature itself.[God’s Way of Reconciliation, An Exposition of Ephesians (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1971), 330]