Theolatte
Nothing goes better with a steaming latte than an engaging discussion about theology and philosophy. Sit down with your favorite caffeinated beverage and peruse the thoughts of a pseudo-intellectual.
Theology, Worldviews & Philosophy
For Freedom Christ Set Us Free
July 15th, 2010
Two dead theologians and two living atheists debate free will….at least in my most recent blog book.
Let me explain. Tonight I’m teaching on Galatians 5:1 at the campus church: “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
The topics tackled within these twenty words contained in this one verse have puzzled thinking men and women throughout the ages. To better appreciate the concept that Christ has set us free, one must first understand the biblical context of Gentile believers who were being influenced by the Judaizers. Additionally, I think it is crucial to have a historical context for the debate surrounding human freedom. Both the initial context and the historical context present a powerful picture of reality of freedom in Christ as an exclusive truth.
The idea of human freedom has been subjected to philosophies that purport that nature is all there is. Therefore, any sense of true freedom is impossible. However, this notion has been baptized in secular humanism in an effort to attain values and significance apart from any external absolutes. Yet, in all of this, it is only in the person of Christ where true freedom can be found.
Freedom can be defined as the possession of the ability, opportunity and desire to do what would bring one the most joy. John Piper describes it as, “Full freedom is what you have when no lack of opportunity, no lack of ability, and no lack of desire prevents you from doing what will make you the happiest in a thousand years.” True freedom is absolutely contingent on the existence of a loving Creator who is both Transcendent and Imminent. Without God we are forced to serve as our highest goal, our only measure, and our final hope.
The last paragraph of the humanist manifesto from 1933 states:
“So stand the theses of religious humanism. Though we consider the religious forms and ideas of our fathers no longer adequate, the quest for the good life is still the central task for mankind. Man is at last becoming aware that he alone is responsible for the realization of the world of his dreams, that he has within himself the power for its achievement. He must set intelligence and will to the task.”
The late Francis Schaeffer aptly stated, “Humanists have both feet firmly planted in midair.” Without God there is no basis for values, significance or free will. In stark contrast, Jesus, the Incarnate Word, has stepped into our reality to offer us the ability, opportunity and desire to choose a life that our fallen world could never offer in a million years.
Check out my most recent blog book “For Freedom Christ Set Us Free” to read a brief summary of a hypothetical conversation between G.K. Chesterton, Bernard Iddings Bell, Will Provine and Richard Dawkins.
Punctuated Intervention
June 28th, 2010
Why do bad things happen to good people?
This is a perennial philosophical question that requires answers from every person in every generation. It is often answered with hollow rhetoric from isolated and insulated academicians. There is little comfort in religious jargon when one encounters personal loss and grief. Like a toothache, there are few options for true relief. That’s why my friend Mike Calhoun’s book is an honest and helpful resource for following Christ in a fallen world: Where Was God When.
I’m honored to be a part of the “blog tour” related to the theme of this book. Here are a few thoughts of my own about the topic of why bad things happen to good people:
RULING
Let’s begin by acknowledging the fact that God rules sovereignly over the universe. It is his creation and there is nothing outside of his purview. As Creator, God is clearly all powerful and thus entirely able to cause or prevent anything He desires.
LOVING
God has revealed himself as loving in the narrative of Scripture. The Apostle John says it powerfully, “God is love.” The fact that God is sovereign and that he has revealed himself as loving create a perceived dilemma for many people. If God is all-powerful and all-loving, how can he allow evil? This leads us to a very brief analysis of the human condition.
UNRAVELING
The first two chapters of Genesis provide complementary accounts of the creation of the world. The third chapter shocks us with man’s rebellion against the Creator. Thus, the Garden of Eden spans a mere eighty verses in the Bible. An earthly utopia seems to have been a brief experience. Anyone longing for an existence free from troubles must either seek to go back to the garden or to have God’s Kingdom established on earth. Christ has promised to do the latter.
The three chapters of Genesis reveal that man’s sin has brought about the curse of physical death, spiritual disharmony, relational strife and environmental turmoil. God has promised redemption for the cursed earth that is unraveling to the cadence of God’s providence and for the purpose of his glory. It is in the wait for this redemption that our hearts are tempted to doubt God’s promises.
STUMBLING
Humanity seeks to navigate the increasingly chaotic landscape with a broken moral compass. The free decisions of a confused populace coupled with the natural disasters prone to a cursed cosmos make for a dangerous world. The people and the planet are longing for an existence free from perils and filled with pleasure. It is what we were created for. This leads us back to God.
LONGING
God has created us for himself. In him alone can we find safety and satisfaction. In this world we can know neither fully. We can taste and know that God is good, yet we still live in a fallen world and we long for more of him. When a person places their faith in Christ, God removes their sin guilt. However, he does not remove them from their sin prone flesh or immediately transport them out of a sin saturated society.
They will suffer from both. They will hurt. They will cry. They will long for more. They will long for God’s Kingdom to be established on earth as it is in Heaven. Their longing will one day be realized.
INTERVENING
The true danger for the heart of every believer is keep a biblical perspective of God in the midst of suffering. If we are not careful we will begin to think that God operates through a method of punctuated intervention. He chooses to intervene here or there, but he essential functions like the Deistic God of Thomas Jefferson. This is not the God of the Bible.
He is always active. He is always present. He is ever sovereign. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He sees the end from the beginning. In a way too high for us to understand, our temporary sufferings are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed for those who love Christ. This can be a hard pill to swallow in the midst of suffering, but it is the promise of God’s future plans for believers.
The cursed world will continue to unravel until the time of his promised return. Until that day we can find comfort in knowing Christ and believing he will one day right all wrongs. Bad things happen to all people, believers and unbelievers alike. Disasters result from human inventions and natural calamities. Both result from the fall. Christ alone is the hope for hurting people. While we may observe grief, all who long for his return will be surprised by joy.
Until then we will laugh and weep, but most of all we will long. May your heart be encouraged as you await for the return of the redeemer. Maranatha.
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If you enjoyed this post you might like my blog book “Rotten in Denmark“
Welcome To Our Dysfunctional Family
June 3rd, 2010
Rarely a night goes by that my twin boys don’t request to sing “Father Abraham.” He had many sons, the song says, “I am one of them and so are you. So let’s all praise the Lord.”
Praise the Lord?
Really?
So here’s my question: “Why should we praise the Lord for being considered the son of a lying, cheating, cowardly polygamous scoundrel who lived thousands of years ago, who isn’t even a blood relative for those of us who are Gentiles”?
Abraham sounds like the weird uncle you would try to avoid at a family reunion. Everyone might smile as he passes through the buffet line, but behind his back nearly no one wants to claim any affiliation to him. As a child I remember one reunion where an older, and very distant, relative would torture us kids by sticking his nub (what was left from his missing thumb) into our sides. This is the image I conjure up when I think of Father Abraham.
It can be difficult for us to celebrate our union in this dysfunctional family. It is hard for us to understand the whole family value of Old Testament culture from our twenty-first century vantage point. In biblical days a family connection meant inheritance. It meant rights and responsibilities. For the Jews, their family affiliation pointed to the divine selection and salvation of God.
Here’s what Paul had to say about Father Abraham:
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Galatians 3:7-9)
The Old Testament Gospel and Father Abraham
Paul connects two things in this passage: Abraham’s family and the Old Testament Gospel. The O.T. Gospel said that God would bless the nations through Abraham. The O.T. Gospel spoke of an end, but we would not clearly see the means until the New Testament. God was going to bless the nations (end) through Abraham’s family line – specifically through the person of Christ (means).
Jesus, as a son of Abraham, would live perfectly, die substitionally, and raise victoriously. While Abraham reminds me of a weird distant relative, I certainly do not mind being grafted into the family of Christ. As a child of God, I am – and you are if you are a believer – a brother or sister of Christ. This means inheritance. This means rights and responsibilities. This means the divine selection and salvation of God.
As the sons and daughters of Abraham we too have received the blessing of God. Like Abraham, it is intended not just for us but for the nations.
For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers. (Hebrews 2:10-11)
Yes, Father Abraham had many sons. Because of Christ, I am one of them and so are you. By faith in Christ we receive adoption as the sons and daughters of God. Like Abraham, we don’t deserve any of it. Like Abraham, it is received by grace through faith.
Welcome to our dysfunctional family.
Perhaps if we were to draft an invitation for our family reunion we should use the closing words of the 53rd chapter of Isaiah:
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
It will be an amazing reunion.
I look forward to seeing you there.
After all, Father Abraham had many sons.
I am one of them and so are you.
So let’s just praise the Lord.
d
Humble, Fumble and Bumble
May 23rd, 2010
Humble, Fumble and Bumble
(Adventures in Parables)
Humble was as a chummy man.
He led a church and drove a white van.
Fumble was a lucky chap.
He liked to drink tea and take Sunday naps.
Bumble was about as smart as they come.
He had answers for everything under the sun.
The dearest of friends, these three
Were closest to Heaven, but never free.
They liked to be seen,
and they seemed to be liked.
They looked down upon downers.
They frowned upon frowners.
They trusted in deeds and labored in love.
Striving for acceptance that comes from above.
Too bad, so sad, it was all a mistake.
They couldn’t reach Heaven for Heaven’s sake.
And so it was for Humble, Fumble and Bumble.
They weren’t anything like their poor neighbor Stumble.
While he was less than they,
He knew more, but in a simple way.
He trusted in something he could not earn,
While they worked for what they would never deserve.
Humble wasn’t humble enough.
Of this he boasted, but his pride was too much.
Fumble couldn’t be good enough,
He tried and tried, without any luck.
Bumble couldn’t talk his way out.
His IQ was high, but of mercy he knew nothing about.
So don’t be like Humble, Fumble and Bumble.
They looked the part but shunned poor Stumble.
Stumble was coarse and far from top shelf,
But he trusted in God and he humbled himself.
In the end the three were condemned to their face.
As for poor Stumble, he was saved by God’s grace.
Bewitched
May 23rd, 2010
“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.” (Galatians 3:1)
The foulest forms of legalism flow from the pride of self-righteousness. When we add our works to the work of Christ in the “salvation equation” we find the sum to be less than zero. Salvation is found in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone.
If you are attracted to a forgiveness formula that accounts for your good deeds, then you have been bewitched.
Wasn’t Christ clearly portrayed as crucified to you? When you first believed, didn’t you acknowledge that all have fallen short of God’s glory? Do you really think that you can add one ounce to the weight of God’s mercy in Christ? How can you merit the favor of God? From what treasury will you purchase the atonement of sins?
Christ.
Christ alone.
Nothing you do can add a single drop to the ocean of God’s love for you in Christ.
Don’t be bewitched.
You deserve Hell.
Instead God gives you Christ.
Cling to Him.
Hold fast to Him.
Find in Him life eternal.
Rest in Him.
Quit trying to save yourself.
Believe in Him.
Know he is more than enough to save your soul.