Thursday, November 29, 2012

God's Presence as Our Identity Marker

God answered Moses's first question by pointing to Himself. Moses asked, "Who am I?" and God simply replied, "I will be with you." God's response at this point should be fundamental to the way we view ourselves. From the very beginning, God's people are known as those whose God is with them. We belong to Him, and there is no way that we can define ourselves apart from God. It is His presence with us that enables us to accomplish the tasks He gives us.

--Francis Chan, with Mark Beuving, Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2012), 130-131.

The Tabernacle's Testimony

The tabernacle testified to the souls of believing Israelites that a holy God would one day come and dwell in the midst of sinners to remove their sins. It testified that the world of sinners needs the help only the Lord can give. It testified that God had to come to earth from heaven, that we who are on the earth might be brought to heaven. In short, the tabernacle testified of Jesus Christ.

--Daniel R. Hyde, God in Our Midst: The Tabernacle & Our Relationship with God (Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust, 2012), Kindle location 1101.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

The Ordinary Human Language of Scripture

If we say that we shouldn't take God's words at face value, that we need to discover some sort of hidden meaning beneath the plain meaning of the words of Scripture, then we are saying that God is using human language in a way that is different from the way human beings use language. But we have absolutely no indication that this is the case. To the contrary, when God spoke to human beings in the Bible, they understood Him and acted according to the plain meaning of His words. When God told Israel to build a tabernacle, they didn't perform some sort of dance as a spiritual interpretation of His words. Instead, they took His words at face value and created a tabernacle in accordance with the plain meaning of God's words. Our approach to Scripture should be the same.

--Francis Chan, with Mark Beuving, Multiply: Disciples Making Disciples (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2012), 130-131.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

The Solidarity between Humanity and the Universe

The creation waits for the revealing of the sons of God ([Rom. 8:19]) because it is into that very freedom that the creation too will be delivered (v. 21). In other words, the creation and the children of God are intimately intertwined both in present suffering and in future glory. As there was a solidarity in the fall, so also there will be a solidarity in the restoration.

--Sam Storms, "The Restoration of All Things" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 262.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Worshiping the True God Falsely

We also worship the true God falsely. We may not be tempted to make a golden calf, but we are tempted to turn the God who is there into the kind of God we would like him to be. We want God to teach our minds but not to transform our hearts. We want him to give us a lift when we worship him on Sunday, but we don't want him to govern all our words and actions the rest of the week. We want him to change others, but we don't want him to change us. We want his love without his holiness and his mercy without his justice.

--Philip Graham Ryken, Exodus: Saved for God's Glory (Preaching the Word; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005), 985.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Worship vs. Idolatry

Worship is a biblically faithful understanding of God combined with a biblically faithful response to him. Conversely, idolatry is an unbiblical, unfaithful understanding of God, and/or an unbiblical, unfaithful response to him.

--Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears, Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 341.

Nobody does not worship.

[N]obody does not worship. We begin with one fundamental fact about worship: at this very moment, and for as long as this world endures, everybody inhabiting it is bowing down and serving something or someone--an artifact, a person, an institution, an idea, a spirit. or God through Christ. Everyone is being shaped thereby and is growing up toward some measure of fullness, whether of righteousness or of evil. No one is exempt and no one can wish to be. We are, every one of us, unceasing worshipers and will remain so forever, for eternity is an infinite extrapolation of one of two conditions: a surrender to the sinfulness of sin unto infinite loss or the commitment of personal righteousness unto infinite gain.

--Harold M. Best, Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003), 17-18.

The Insignificance of Psychological Typologies

In our psychologized culture we are used to definitive analyses of Wally and others according to a typology. He is a type-A person. He is a Pleaser. He is a Controller. He is a combination of melancholic and choleric temperaments. He is a typical ACOA or member of a dysfunctional family. His root sin is anger. His problem is low self-esteem. In DSM-III categories he is a..., and so forth. Such statements tend to pass for significant knowledge. In fact, they are not explanations for anything but are simply ways of describing common clusters of symptoms.

--David Powlison, "Idols of the Heart and 'Vanity Fair,'" Journal of Biblical Counseling 13:2 (Winter 1995), 45.

Idolatrous Motivations

The deep question of motivation is not "What is motivating me?" The final question is, "Who is the master of this pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior?" In the biblical view, we are religious, inevitably bound to one god or another. People do not have needs. We have masters, lords, gods, be they oneself, other people, valued objects, Satan.

--David Powlison, "Idols of the Heart and 'Vanity Fair,'" Journal of Biblical Counseling 13:2 (Winter 1995), 39.

No Conflict between Duty and Delight

All too often, we set up in our minds a contrast between duty and delight when it comes to serving the Lord. For instance, we contrast form and freedom when it comes to liturgy and worship as if form quenches all freedom or as if freedom cannot have form. But according to this text [Exodus 35:4-29], there is no contradiction between what we must do and what we want to do as God's people. The movement of the Israelites' redeemed hearts to give the Lord an offering was in complete unison with the Lord's will for their lives.

--Daniel R. Hyde, God in Our Midst: The Tabernacle & Our Relationship with God (Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust, 2012), Kindle location 823.

The Blossoming of the Scriptures

[T]he Scriptures are like a rose, one that began to bud early in the Old Testament as God, the great Kingdom Builder, established His kingdom in the garden of Eden. Even when the Devil used Adam to desecrate this kingdom, the Scriptures continued to blossom as God began rebuilding His kingdom. He called Abram to be the father of a new kingdom-people who would live in a kingdom-place. He saved the Israelites from Egypt and brought them to the promised kingdom-place in the days of Joshua. Again, though it was defiled in the days of the judges, God reformed the church in the days of David and Solomon, giving His people a temple at which to worship. Finally, the rose of Scripture came to full bloom with the coming of our Lord--"God with us" (Matt. 1:23), "the Word" who was "made flesh and dwelt [tabernacled] among us" (John 1:14).

--Daniel R. Hyde, God in Our Midst: The Tabernacle & Our Relationship with God (Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust, 2012), Kindle location 491. 

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

God's Forgiveness Cannot Be Presumed

To be sure, God is gracious and merciful, but his forgiveness cannot be presumed, as if God is duty bound to remove our sins anytime and anywhere we ask him.

--Victor P. Hamilton, Exodus: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011), 554-555.

The Criterion for Being a Christian

What is the criterion for someone's being a Christian? It is the fact that he or she has received citizenship not because of social, cultural, racial, or moral location but because of the grace of the King. Once an alien (Eph. 2:19), he or she is now a citizen with full rights and privileges in a new community.

--Stephen Um, "The Kingdom of God" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 203.

No Degrees of Citizenship in God's Kingdom

Since the gospel confirms the Christian of his legal standing and permanent status, he can gain confidence in knowing the truth that no degrees exist in citizenship.

In other words, either you are a citizen or you are not; either you are a child or you are not. This truth will repudiate any false notions and insecurities about one's performance determining his status as a citizen. In other words, one does not become a second-class citizen when one is less obedient and a first-class citizen when one is more obedient.

--Stephen Um, "The Kingdom of God" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 202-203.

Members of God's Kingdom

Christians conduct themselves in relationship to others in ways that adorn the gospel, seek the other's good, and bring glory to Christ. They do this because they are members of a radically different community, God's kingdom, and are in union with the person in charge of history.

--Stephen Um, "The Kingdom of God" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 202.

The Tyranny of Our Idols

Whether the personal center is one's career, relationships, money, academic achievement, or sex, if an individual lives for anything besides Jesus, then that functional god will abuse, crush, and tyrannize one's heart.

--Stephen Um, "The Kingdom of God" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 201.

What is the Kingdom of God?

What is the kingdom of God? Most modern dictionaries will define the word as a "sphere," "realm," or "place." This explanation has misguided interpreters away from the biblical understanding that emphasizes the rank, rule, reign, dominion, and royal authority of God.

--Stephen Um, "The Kingdom of God" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 194.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Forbidden Worship

It is precisely the attempt to worship Yahweh by means he has already declared totally unacceptable that makes the sin of the golden calf so destructive, far more so than a simple shift of allegiance to "other" or "foreign" gods. The people receive the calf with the confession "These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt," an act they had attributed to Moses, albeit certainly as Yahweh's representative, in [Exodus 32:1]. And Aaron, in obvious and and specific response, declares a sacred day to Yahweh, not to the calf, or to any other god or gods. The composite of Exod 32:1-6 is not an account of the abandonment of Yahweh for other gods; it is an account of the transfer of the center of authority of faith in Yahweh from Moses and the laws and symbols he has announced to a golden calf without laws and without any symbols beyond itself. Moses is the representative of a God invisible in mystery. The calf is to be the representative of that same God, whose invisibility and mystery is compromised by an image he has forbidden.

--John I. Durham, Exodus (Word Biblical Commentary 3; Dallas: Word, 1987), 421-422.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Hospitality at the Heart of the Gospel

As with everything else in life, my fears and confidences in this area reflect my experience of the gospel. If I am hyper-afraid of being ripped off, then I don't really believe I have a gracious, generous God who has brought me into the richness of his family. But if I know that God has welcomed me to experience his riches, I care much less if someone ends up stealing from me.

In that respect, hospitality is more than a gamble on whether God may or may not bless you--hospitality sits at the heart of the gospel. And the gospel is the great equalizer between you and someone who might be tempted to abuse your kindness.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 241-242.

The (Necessary) Internal Attitude of Forgiveness

The internal attitude that expresses itself in forgiveness sets the foundation for any interaction that might take place in the future between you and the other person. It happens in your heart. It is a free letting go of the debt so that, as far as you are concerned, it is now canceled and you are no longer trying to wring it from the other person.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 224.

One More Verse?

Have you ever stopped to think how one additional verse in the Bible would have clarified so many of the differences between Christians? All God would have had to do to end hundreds of years of disagreements among millions of believers was add one verse that said: "Christian baptism is/is not for infants" or "believers will/will not live through the final tribulation." One verse would have been enough to end all debate.

Why didn't he? My former colleague David Powlison hit the nail squarely on the head when he suggested that part of God's purpose is to teach us that love must transcend our disagreements. Only by living peacefully with people whom we disagree with can some facets of real love be seen. Only then are those facets necessary.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 221.

No More War in You, No More Condemnation from God

There is no more wrath and anger from your Maker once you've been reconciled to him. He dealt with the internal problem so that your heart could no longer be troubled. Now that you have peace with him, the two of you will never be at war again. Even your present failures do not rekindle war in your heart nor judgment in his. That's the glory of Jesus' peace. Real peace does not leave you, not even when you sin. Instead, it continues growing, pulling you toward him like an irresistible magnet.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 220.

An Upward Focus Concerning God's Gifts

Whether I get the gift or you get the gift, we both have the opportunity to see our God more clearly because of it. Remembering that upward focus moves my eyes off you and me. I rejoice with you as I contemplate how he expressed his relationship with you. I concentrate on how he gave you exactly what you needed, how careful he was in choosing it, and how his timing was just right for you.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 205.

God's Gifts are Tailor-Made

God's gifts are perfect because he knows exactly what you need and he gladly, graciously gives according to your needs.

That's liberating news. When I realize that God makes his gifts fit each person, there's no way I can covet what you got because it just wouldn't fit me. It would be like me trying to wear the clothes of our 6' 4" elder. It doesn't matter how much I might like his style or how much I want to fill my closet, his clothes are just not going to fit me.

God's gifts are that specific as well. Being envious of you or desiring what you have misses the point that the things he's given you won't fit me. Instead of mass producing his gifts, God tailor fits every gift so that it is precisely right for the receiver.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 204.

Covetousness, Jealousy, and Envy

It's harder to be happy for you when my desires enter into the picture. Instead of focusing on you and your joy, my mind wanders to me and how much I would like to have what you got.

That's the root, isn't it, when I refuse to rejoice with you or force myself to act happy for you? I am thinking of what I didn't get. The three most common varieties of this are covetousness, jealousy, and envy. Covetousness focuses on the things someone else owns and says, "I want what you have!" Jealousy doesn't focus on things, but on a person, and proclaims, "I want to have you!" Envy takes your dissatisfaction with your own life almost to a pathological self-hatred: "I want to be you!" Covetousness, jealousy, and envy are three expressions of the belief that "If there were any justice in the world, what you have should belong to me. Somehow, somewhere, there's been a mistake and you got what I deserve."

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 200.

Submissive Love

Becoming what someone else needs me to be never ends. I went home that day and had more opportunities to shape myself around other people's interests: as husband, partner, father, homework tutor, friend, disciplinarian, sports coach, guide, flirtatious lover, animal trainer, maid, and repairman--in short, what different individuals needed me to be. I never stop being who I am, but what that looks like at any given moment depends both on who is in front of me and what that person needs. Submissive love does not come in a one-size-fits-all package.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 189.

"See a Need, Fill a Need!"

It's not always the size of our service that communicates love, but simply noticing what needs to be done and stepping in to do it.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 138.

The Importance of Encouragement

Encouragement is far more important than we often realize. It's an attitude that focuses more on the reality of what Christians are becoming than on where they are presently failing. You realize that, in the end, every one of God's children will end up pure and perfect because God has taken on himself the burden of purifying us. Then you emphasize where you see hints and glimmers of that future glory pressing itself into the present moment.

Encouragement is much more than a pat on the back. It's inviting someone to become aware of the evidence in her life that shows God is at work.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 125.

Talking in Healthy Relationships

As you scan the New Testament examples and commands, you quickly realize how much emphasis God puts on speaking well. Healthy relationships are marked by human conversation extending the conversation God has initiated with his people.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 122.

Pursuing Straying People

Straying people struggle to believe they're wanted. Deep conviction feels like wearing a heavy coat of shame. People in that condition need to know there are wide open, welcoming arms longing to embrace them--literally, not just figuratively. Pursuing them means letting them know how much you want their friendship.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 110.

Horizontal Relationships Based on a Vertical Relationship

But you do need to recognize that your most important human relational clusters are based on the type of relationship you have with your Maker. Your shared horizontal relationships are dependent on a shared vertical one because your vertical relationship defines who you are, what you value, and where you're going. Therefore, you can develop close, satisfying relationships with people who on the outside, seem to have little in common with you--because you have the same core.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 89.

Personal Transformation in Community

But if you are friends with Jesus, the presence of ungodliness in your life brings you remorse because you really do want a friendship with him more than with anything else. If that's you, Communion helps you realize that he doesn't hold those disloyal moments against you, even though by rights he should. He continues inviting you to a relationship with him, despite knowing dividedness will remain in your heart while you are on this earth.

Those simultaneous proclamations of my need and his invitation realign me personally to live my daily life by faith, but they take place among my relationships with others. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 that, while we individually participate in Christ as we receive Communion, we do so as part of one body. Communion is not a solo undertaking. Being transformed into God's likeness--while on our way to live with him forever--happens as we journey together in hopeful, hope-filled relationships.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 77.

The Attraction of Idolatry

But why did the people want "gods who can go before us"? Were they not satisfied with Yahweh's leadership during the past months, as he went before them day and night? The answer was partly a matter of the strong attractions of idolatry, partly a matter of the absence of Moses, who was so closely associated with Yahweh's presence, partly a matter of the passage of time during which the obvious presence of Yahweh in the pillar of cloud and fire was lacking, partly a matter of the attractiveness of the idea of a syncretism of Yahwism with the Egyptian bull cult..., but mostly a matter of something that continues to plague even Christian people today: an inability to see that the spiritual world is primary to and in control of the physical and visible world. In order to help his people understand this truth, Yahweh insisted on being believed in rather than being seen. It was so much easier to believe in something that could actually be seen. The Israelites were powerfully attracted to the latter option.

--Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus (New American Commentary 2; Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2006), 662-663.

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Sinful People Totally Dependent on God's Forgiving Grace

The golden calf story is not simply one of the many biblical accounts of human sin. It is placed right after the conclusion of God's covenant with Israel and functions to replace the God-given instructions to Moses for proper worship before these had even been completed. All this gives the calf incident a definitive quality. It is in the story of Israel as a covenant people what the Fall (Gen. 3) is in the story of humankind: an act that defines Israel's character as rebellious, just as the Fall defined humanity's persistent tendency as rebellious.

In consequence, the relationship of Israel to God is immediately redefined as that of a sinful people totally dependent on God's forgiving grace, just as humanity's relationship to God was, from the beginning, a relationship based on God's forgiving grace. There never was a period in Israel's history marked by faithful covenant keeping, just as there never was a golden age of harmony between humans and God between Creation and Fall.

--Waldemar Janzen, Exodus (Believers Church Bible Commentary; Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2000), 410.

There Never was a Golden Age without a Golden Calf

The very purpose of telling the story of the golden calf immediately after the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai is to show that there never was a golden age without a golden calf, when the hearts of humans were pure. There never has been any such animal as Rousseau's noble savage.

--Godfrey Ashby, Go Out and Meet God: A Commentary on the Book of Exodus (International Theological Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), 130.

The Greatness of Moses

Yet the greatness of Moses is also seen in his humiliation: he rejects the offer to become covenant father ([Exodus] 32:10) and "empties himself" to share the covenant curse (32:32). However, it is especially with respect to the intercession motif that one could say that Moses is so crucial that Israel's destiny hangs on his girdle. This does not suggest some "merits of Moses" idea but does try to take account of him as covenant mediator and as evidently the only Israelite still in covenant fellowship with God and unstained by the smear of apostasy.

--Dale Ralph Davis, "Rebellion, Presence, and Covenant: A Study in Exodus 32-34," Westminster Theological Journal 44:1 (Spring 1982), 73.

Running from God by Going to God

On the contrary, this man [Moses] dares to remind God of His own promise, to appeal to His faithfulness, beseeching Him, but also very definitely remonstrating with Him: "Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou has brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against they people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven..." ([Exodus] 32:11f.). Is not this to flee from God to God, to appeal from God to God? And is it not the case that in this flight, this appeal of Moses, God finds Himself supremely and most profoundly understood and affirmed, that in a sense Moses has prayed, or rather demanded, from the very heart of God Himself? He hears and answers this prayer which is so defiant and dogmatic.

--Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, Volume 4: The Doctrine of Reconciliation, Part I (transl. by G.W. Bromiley; edited by G.W. Bromiley and T.F. Torrance; New York: T&T Clark, 2004), 425-426.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Remember the Difference between Source and Means

It is not the Word of God itself or even prayer that supplies the power and grace to live the Christian life. It is Christ who is our life (see Colossians 3: 4). The Word of God and prayer are the primary means by which the Holy Spirit mediates Christ’s life to us. But we must never so emphasize the Word and prayer, which are God’s instruments of grace, that we lose sight of Christ, who is the source of our life.

--Jerry Bridges, True Community: The Biblical Practice of Koinonia (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2012), Kindle locations 312-315.

The Wonder of Sharing in the Life of Jesus

As wonderful as it is to realize that God calls us to have communion with Him each day, it is far more wonderful to know that He has called us to actually share in the life of His Son, Jesus Christ.


--Jerry Bridges, True Community: The Biblical Practice of Koinonia (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2012), Kindle locations 263-264.

Not Shocked that Jesus is the Only Way

The one who has discovered the love of God in the redeeming work of Jesus Christ is actually not shocked that God has provided only one way to be saved; he is increasingly confounded and befuddled that God provided any way at all.

--Sandy Willson, "Christ's Redemption" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 148.

If you don't love Jesus now, then you really don't want heaven later.

The Bible teaches us that the citizens of heaven are obsessed with the praise of Jesus Christ--the very thing the natural person eschews. Anyone not in love with Christ would naturally despise heaven. On the other hand, it can be truly said that no one who truly desires to go to heaven would ever be excluded. The hearts of sinful humans are given a longing for heaven only by hearing and believing the gospel, which, of course, means that the church's obedience to the Great Commission is of the utmost importance.

--Sandy Willson, "Christ's Redemption" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 147-148.

Perfectly Represented and Continually Protected

Christ now reigns as mediatorial king, interceding for us, ruling over us, and advocating for us. He has taken our flesh into the councils of the triune God where we are perfectly represented and continually protected.

--Sandy Willson, "Christ's Redemption" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 142.

The Protection of God

God is much more concerned to make our eternal state secure than to make our temporal existence easy. For this reason he puts a spiritual hedge around our lives so that nothing can enter that would destroy our eternal status with him.

--Bryan Chapell, "What is the Gospel?" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 126.

God's Compassion and God's Righteousness

A holy God cannot simply hide his eyes or cover his ears to such sin. Its victims scream for justice, and God's compassion provides what his righteousness requires through Jesus' sacrifice.

--Bryan Chapell, "What is the Gospel?" in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 118.

Seeing Jesus as the Root of Faith and Repentance

Faith and repentance are like two sides of a coin; you can't have one without the other. Faith and repentance are birthed together when you see the love and mercy of God or you in Jesus Christ.

--Colin S. Smith, "The Plan," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 105.

Bearing Sin

When you die, you will not carry your sin and guilt into your death because he carried it into his death for you.

--Colin S. Smith, "The Plan," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 102.

The Flesh-Spirit Battle in the Christian Life

The weakness of Adam, who failed, is in you, so be on your guard against temptation. But the strength of Christ, who triumphed, is also in you by the Holy Spirit, so when we are tempted, we can stand firm.

--Colin S. Smith, "The Plan," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 99.

The God-Man Delivers the Promises of God

As we are born, so also was Christ born--to live our life and to die our death. He came to us and stands with us to act for us. As God, he delivers what God has promised; as man, he delivers what God has promised to us.

--Colin S. Smith, "The Plan," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 98.

The Receiving and Transforming Grace of God

God receives us in our sin, but he never leaves us in our sins.

--Colin S. Smith, "The Plan," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 96.

God Always Knows What He's Doing

But God is sovereign. He fulfills his own plan in his own time by his own power, and no one can stop him. God knows exactly what he is doing at every point in history in every nation of the world and through every event in your life.

--Colin S. Smith, "The Plan," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 90.

How Satan became the Ruler of This World

When Adam sinned, the dominion of the earth transferred from Adam to Satan.

--Reddit Andrews III, "Sin and the Fall," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 85.

The Stubborn Will

Humans continue to resist God--which is exactly what they want to do--until God changes their will so that they want to submit to God.

--Reddit Andrews III, "Sin and the Fall," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 85.

Man Created from the Earth

I remember seeing an exhibit in the Boston Museum of Science that showed the outline of a man, and inside the outline were a series of chemical bottles of varying sizes filled with dry compounds. It represented a human body from which all water had been removed (the human body is over 60 percent water), and what was left were a bunch of chemical compounds and minerals, all of which can be mined from the earth!

--Andrew M. Davis, "Creation," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 70.

Physical Creation Prepares Us for Saving Faith

When David was a nursing infant, God taught him how to trust as his mother provided for his physical needs. God was preparing David to put his trust in God for the salvation of his soul. Thus, physical creation prepares us for saving faith.

--Andrew M. Davis, "Creation," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 57.

Scripture: God's Means

Scripture is the primary means through which God feeds us, nourishes us, causes us to flourish, and intends to accomplish his good purpose.

--Mike Bullmore, "The Gospel and Scripture: How to Read the Bible," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 46.

Truth Brings Transformation

The point is not that Christians must labor to make truth relevant to godly living but rather that God's purpose in revealing his truth always involves a transforming process of love and holiness.

--Richard D. Phillips, "Can We Know the Truth," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 37.

Truth Corresponds to Reality

An evangelical Christian epistemology begins by affirming that truth corresponds to reality. The external world in which every individual lives is not a world we subjectively construct through our narrow experience. Rather, God created reality and upholds it by his ongoing providential rule.

--Richard D. Phillips, "Can We Know the Truth," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 29.

The Gospel: The Power of God for All of Salvation

The gospel deals with more than the judicial, our standing before God, for it is the power of God that brings salvation (Rom. 1:18)--a comprehensive transformation. Everything is secured by Jesus' death and resurrection; everything is empowered by the Spirit, whom he bequeaths; everything unfolds as God himself has ordained this great salvation.


--D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller, "Gospel-Centered Ministry," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 21.

The Gospel: the Key to Scripture, the Key to Life

Not only does the gospel of Jesus Christ gather into itself all the trajectories of Scripture, but under the terms of the new covenant, all of Christian life and thought grow out of what Jesus has accomplished.


--D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller, "Gospel-Centered Ministry," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 20.

How Biblical Theology Works

By contrast, biblical theology, by and large, asks and answers questions that focus on the contributions and themes of particular biblical books and corpora as these books and corpora are stretched out across the timeline of redemptive history. As much as possible, the categories used are the categories found within the biblical materials themselves.


--D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller, "Gospel-Centered Ministry," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 19.

How Systematic Theology Works

Because [systematic theology] aims to synthesize all of Scripture and to interact with the broadest questions, the categories it uses must transcend the usage of individual biblical books or writers. For instance, systematicians speak of the doctrine of justification, knowing full well that the justification word-group does not function exactly the same way in Matthew as it does in Paul; they speak of the doctrine of the call of God, where exactly the same observation about "call" language must be made.


--D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller, "Gospel-Centered Ministry," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 19.

The Verdict Precedes and Produces the Performance

Do you realize that it is only in the gospel of Jesus Christ that you get the verdict before the performance? The atheist might say that they get their self-image from being a good person. They are a good person and they hope that eventually they will get a verdict that confirms that they are a good person. Performance leads to the verdict. For the Buddhist too, performance leads to the verdict. If you are a Muslim, performance leads to the verdict. All this means that every day, you are in the courtroom, every day you are on trial. That is the problem. But Paul is saying that in Christianity, the verdict leads to performance.

You see, the verdict is in. And now I perform on the basis of the verdict. Because He loves me and He accepts me, I do not have to do things just to build up my r̩sum̩. I do not have to do things to make me look good. I can do things for the joy of doing them. I can help people to help people Рnot so I can feel better about myself, not so I can fill up the emptiness.


--Timothy Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy (Chorley, England: 10Publications, 2012), Kindle locations 335-347.

The Daily Prosecution of Self-Esteem

And he is saying that the problem with self-esteem--whether it is high or low--is that, every single day, we are in the courtroom. Every single day, we are on trial. That is the way that everyone’s identity works. In the courtroom, you have the prosecution and the defence. And everything we do is providing evidence for the prosecution or evidence for the defence. Some days we feel we are winning the trial and other days we feel we are losing it. But Paul says that he has found the secret. The trial is over for him. He is out of the courtroom. It is gone. It is over. Because the ultimate verdict is in.

--Timothy Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy (Chorley, England: 10Publishing, 2012), Kindle locations 327-331.

Gospel-humility

True gospel-humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself. In fact, I stop thinking about myself.

--Timothy Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy (Chorley, England: 10Publishing, 2012), Kindle locations 281-282.

Identity Rooted in Something Beyond Good or Bad Deeds

When he does something wrong or something good, he does not connect it to himself any more.

--Timothy Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy (Chorley, England: 10Publishing, 2012), Kindle locations 273-274.

Sin and the Christian Identity

[Paul's] sins and his identity are not connected. He refuses to play that game. He does not see a sin and let it destroy his sense of identity. He will not make a connection. Neither does he see an accomplishment and congratulate himself. He sees all kinds of sins in himself – and all kinds of accomplishments too – but he refuses to connect them with himself or his identity. So, although he knows himself to be the chief of sinners, that fact is not going to stop him from doing the things that he is called to do.

--Timothy Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy (Chorley, England: 10Publishing, 2012), Kindle locations 261-264.

Spiritual Pride

Spiritual pride is the illusion that we are competent to run our own lives, achieve our own sense of self-worth and find a purpose big enough to give us meaning in life without God.

--Timothy Keller, The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy (Chorley, England: 10Publishing, 2012), Kindle locations 132-133.

Fellowship with God as the Ground of Fellowship with One Another

[W]e cannot have meaningful fellowship with one another unless we are individually experiencing vital fellowship with God.
--Jerry Bridges, True Community: The Biblical Practice of Koinonia (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2012), Kindle location 189.

Meeting Needs

When a parent meets a need of one of his children, we do not think of that act as an expression of benevolence but as an expression of relationship. It is both his privilege and his duty to meet that need because he is the parent.
--Jerry Bridges, True Community: The Biblical Practice of Koinonia (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2012), Kindle locations 163-164.

Sharing Our Stuff

A willingness to share our possessions with one another is a very important aspect of true biblical community.
--Jerry Bridges, True Community: The Biblical Practice of Koinonia (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2012), Kindle locations 156-157.

The Place of Scripture in Fellowship

This is fellowship: sharing with one another what God is teaching through the Scriptures, and this is an important part of true community.
--Jerry Bridges, True Community: The Biblical Practice of Koinonia (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2012), Kindle locations 144-145.

Biblical Community

[B]iblical community goes much deeper than sharing common goals, though it ultimately involves that. Biblical community is first of all the sharing of a common life in Christ.


--Jerry Bridges, True Community: The Biblical Practice of Koinonia (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2012), Kindle locations 111-112.

Sharing the Life of God

Those first Christians of Acts 2 were not devoting themselves to social activities but to a relationship — a relationship that consisted of sharing together the very life of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 
--Jerry Bridges, True Community: The Biblical Practice of Koinonia (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2012), Kindle locations 102-103.

The Irreplaceability of the Local Church

In our gospel communication, we should neither ignore baseline cultural narratives nor just change the packaging and call that "contextualizing." We should stand for the irreplaceability of the local church, which has the task of evangelizing and discipling. But we should also encourage Christians to work in the world as salt and light.

--D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller, "Gospel-Centered Ministry," in The Gospel as Center: Renewing Our Faith and Reforming Our Ministry Practices (edited by D.A. Carson and Timothy Keller; Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 18.

Communion

It's a meal that remembers what Jesus did so I can be friends with God. But as I remember what he did, I also have to remember why he did it. Jesus died for me because I'm a failure. When I take the Communion elements, I announce to myself, to those around me, and to my Lord that I am a mess. I also announce that I didn't get over being a mess simply because Jesus rescued me. I won't ever get over my need for his death and resurrection. I won't get past it. I won't outgrow it. That's why we repeat Communion so frequently.

Sharing in Communion is one of the most authentic, honest activities you can participate in. When you remember Christ's death, you remember and re-proclaim your own weaknesses, failures, and moral inadequacies. You proclaim that you just cannot do it on your own. That you don't need a jump start for a dead battery--you need an entirely new engine block. The days I'm surprised at how big a mess I am are the days I've forgotten the faith I say I believe.

But while I proclaim my need, I also announce that in a very important way, God is okay with me being a mess. If he weren't, he would never have told you to keep Communion until he returns. That shows you the nature of his heart. He's not scowling, barely putting up with you. He's inviting you over and over again, "Come over here! Come and get what you need! Come and eat in my presence. Be fed on far more than a mouthful of cracker and juice."

In other words, he never expected that you would be perfect by now, yet he still longs to live with you. He isn't surprised that you need Communion again, and he is under no delusion that a time is coming in this life when you won't. He continues to offer to live with you and share himself with you, despite your ongoing imperfections.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 76.

Patiently Bearing with Each Other

Slowly I have come to realize that my calling in every one of my relationships is to live with sinful people the rest of my life. Like me, each person in my life is weak or sinful in some way. But that doesn't mean I am supposed to manipulate or nag them. Instead, I am to bear patiently with the things that are difficult for me to accept or that annoy me. Not to condone sin, but to realize frankly that people do sin and will need help. I am called to create healing relationships to care for those who are damaged, rather than throwing away the damaged or seeing them as an embarrassment.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 75.

Sin: A Corporate Opportunity for Love

Until Jesus returns, you and I will wrestle with our own sinful inclinations, but he doesn't expect us to do it on our own. When people fail, their failure doesn't disconnect them from each other. Instead, their individual problem becomes a corporate opportunity--an opportunity to love and be loved in a way that leads to restoration with each other.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 74.

Living Well with Broken People

Living "happily ever after" is not the goal. Living well with broken people is.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 70.

Reenergized by Jesus' Forgiveness

To reenergize yourself in your human relationships you need to relive the wonder of Jesus not treating you as your sins deserve. You and I will pass along to others only the amount of graciousness that we presently experience.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 65-66.

Being Sinned Against: Opportunities to Show God's Kindness

Instead of welcoming opportunities to show God's kindness, I have worked hard to minimize the ways people are able to sin against me.

I have had countless conversations with my wife geared entirely toward this thought: how can I say this the best way possible so that we don't ever have this conversation again? I've tried the time-honored traditions of threatening my children so they won't dare cross me or, when that hasn't worked, the equally time-tested option of bribing them to leave me alone. With other people, I've tried bullying and intimidating when I can get away with it, or ignoring and running away when I can't. All of these approaches have one thing in common: they are strategies for making sure people won't sin against me.

Simultaneously, they are strategies for making sure people never see the grace of God from me either. Being his ambassador means that when you sin against me, you should see a reflection of his grace in me. Small, to be sure, but an accurate picture of him nonetheless. Conversely, when I work to insulate myself from others' failings, I take away the context that would let them see a likeness of Christ's merciful response to sin. Keeping safe from others carries the steep price of preventing them from seeing Jesus and trusting me.

That means that if you want to love people well, you have to learn to see people sinning against you as normal, daily opportunities instead of unusual, unwanted interruptions. Without becoming paranoid, you should expect people to sin against you instead of being surprised when they do.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 63-64.

The Shallowness of Adam's Perfect Relationship with God

If the progenitors of the human race had obeyed perfectly, they would have experienced perfect fellowship with God--but it would have taken place at a shallow level. They would have been warranted in believing that God was good to them because they did everything right. They would have had no way to know that their relationship with God depended more on his goodness to them than it ever did on their obedience. They would never have known the security of a friendship based on grace, rather than one built on merit.

That wasn't enough for God. He longed for such a deep relationship with his children--one in which they knew core things about him--that he didn't create a world in which we would be perfect. Instead, he created a world that was perfect for displaying his character, a world that required him to take our imperfections upon himself to remove them, so that we could again be in perfect relationship with him.

Sin and rebellion are not good things--we may not sin so that grace may abound--but in redeeming sin, God's goodness is revealed in a way that we would never have known otherwise. One of the primary ways the invisible God reveals himself to you is in how he treats you when you sin against him. If that is so, you probably won't be surprised that he calls you to treat others in the same way, with the same graciousness, when they sin against you.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 59.

Sinners Loving Sinners

How is it possible for two sinners, despite being redeemed, to share a life together without being affected by one or the other's selfishness? It's not. But in making that their goal--sadly, in my experience, it's far from theirs alone--they lost far more than the opportunity to learn to work out their differences; they lost the opportunity to discover the other person's love remained even when he or she did something wrong. They didn't learn that God's way of strengthening relationships goes beyond merely doing the right thing.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 57-58.

Deeper Connections

If all you did was take one opportunity per day when someone wanted to know how you were to let her glimpse the real you, you would experience much deeper connections with those around you.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 47.

Sometimes, We're Not After Answers

Our mutual calling is to live out our faith together, not simply provide solutions to one another.

When someone opens her life to you, she's actually inviting you to a relationship--to growing together. Any answers and companionship in suffering you offer exist within the larger context of "we are on a journey together of learning to see and experience more of Christ in us as we live in his kingdom." Answers are important, but they're not the end goal. We do struggle together to make sense of life, but struggle is not the end goal. The end goal is to see a little bit more of Jesus than we did earlier.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 44.

Afraid of Opening Up

Too many people fear that after someone opens up his life, their responsibility is to rush in and somehow give answers or solutions to what the other person faces. And so we shoot from the hip: "Okay, thanks for sharing that with me. Now here is what you need to think...here is what you need to believe...here is what you need to do..." Or we stand around uncomfortably, afraid of saying the wrong thing.

Such responses crush openness. If you're concerned that your primary responsibility is to give advice, then relax. Responding to someone's invitation to be known doesn't mean he is necessarily asking for your advice on how to handle his situation. You're off the hook.

Conversely, to build strong relationships you will need to do more than endlessly wallow in your experiences together: "Oh, I struggle with that too! I don't know what to do with it either but we can talk about our shared experiences of struggling." That response sounds better than quickly giving advice, but it lacks a redemptive spin. There's no sense of forward progress.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 43.

Getting Beyond "I'm Fine"

This gives a full picture: here's what's happening and here's what I'm doing because this is how I'm internally wrestling. By responding that way, I invited her to a relationship, to know me as a real person with real struggles, real difficulties, and real needs.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 42.

Exposure

James 5:16 urges us to "confess your sins to one another." You are invited to a community where people voluntarily expose their inner lives to each other, even when it's not pretty.

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 40.

I'm fine.

I've annoyed a number of teenagers over the years by following up with, "So, what makes you 'fine' or 'good' today?" Almost without exception, they scrunch their shoulders and say "I don't know." One friend from college had a stronger reaction. She verbally pushed me away by saying, "Sometimes I don't want to know why I'm fine. I just want to be!" In those situations, the socially acceptable response of "fine" or "good" is actually a rejection of relationship. It shuts down openness by saying, "I don't want you to know more about me."

--William P. Smith, Loving Well (Even If You Haven't Been) (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2012), 34.

The First Thing: Worship

That's the first thing: worship, worship that can be flat on its face in adoration and up on its feet following Jesus wherever he goes.

--N.T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship (London: SPCK, 1994), 67.

The Example of Naaman

You've got to start somewhere, and Naaman starts with the most important thing of all: to recognize the truth of the muddled situation you're in, to ask for forgiveness where you seem to be compromising, and to take it one step at a time from there.

--N.T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship (London: SPCK, 1994), 66.

No Fear

Let's make no mistake about it: until you learn to live without fear you won't find it easy to follow Jesus.

--N.T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship (London: SPCK, 1994), 56.

Easter People

Without Easter, Calvary was just another political execution of a failed Messiah. Without Easter, the world is trapped between the shoulder-shrug of the cynic, the fantasy of the escapist, and the tanks of the tyrant. Without Easter, there is no reason to suppose that good will triumph over evil, that love will win over hatred, that life will win over death. But with Easter we have hope; because hope depends on love; and love has become human and has died, and is now alive for evermore, and holds the keys of Death and Hades. It is because of him that we know--we don't just hope, we know--that God will wipe away all tears from all eyes. And in that knowledge we find ourselves to be Sunday people, called to live in a world of Fridays. In that knowledge we know ourselves to be Easter people, called to minister to a world full of Calvarys. In that knowledge we find that the hand that dries our tears passes the cloth on to us, and bids us follow him, to go and dry one another's tears. The Lamb calls us to follow him wherever he goes; into the dark places of the world, the dark places of our own hearts, the places where tears blot out the sunlight, the places where tyrants pave the grass with concrete; and he bids us shine his morning light into the darkness, and share his ministry of wiping away the tears. And as we worship, and adore, and follow the Lamb, we join, already, in the song of Revelation 5:11-14, the song that one day the trees and the mountains and the whales and the waterfalls--the whole world, reborn on Easter morning--will all sing with us:

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain...
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honour and glory and blessing!

To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour and glory and power for ever and ever,
Amen.

--N.T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship (London: SPCK, 1994), 50-51.

Thanksgiving and Thanksliving

Paul's vision of the Christian life is thus (as has often been pointed out) of a life lived between D-Day and VE-Day. The decisive battle has been won; the battles we face today are part of the mopping-up operation to implement that victory. We are called to thanksgiving, where we stand at last in the truly human relationship to the creator and the world; and we are called to thanksliving, where we behave as the free subjects of the true king, and owe the powers nothing at all. There is now only one Power we are to follow, and that Power has a human face, a face once crowned with thorns.

--N.T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship (London: SPCK, 1994), 17.

The OT Points to Jesus

The argument of Hebrews runs like this: the Jewish scriptures are continually pointing beyond themselves to a further reality which they do not themselves contain. More particularly, they are pointing to a great act of salvation, of dealing with sin, which they do not themselves offer. This great act has now been accomplished in Jesus; and we must therefore follow this Jesus.

--N.T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship (London: SPCK, 1994), 7.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Following Jesus is the only way to go.

Jesus, the Son of God, the truly human one, is leading his people to their promised land, and is available for all people and for all time as the totally sympathetic one, the priest through whom they can come to God. Following Jesus is the only way to go.

--N.T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship (London: SPCK, 1994), 5.

Church without sermons...

A church without sermons will soon have a shrivelled mind, then a wayward heart, next an unquiet soul, and finally misdirected strength.


--N.T. Wright, Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship (London: SPCK, 1994), x-xi.