Tolle Lege: Here I Stand

After John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides this was my favorite biography this year.  Luther is fun anyway, but Bainton writes in a readable manner such that you understand both Luther and his context.  Out of all the reformer’s biographies I have read Here I Stand has been the most fun and rewarding.

[Against opponent Prierias in debate] I am sorry now that I despised Tetzel. [It was Tetzel who was selling indulgencies near Luther sparking the posting of the 95 theses.]  Ridiculous as he was, he was more acute than you.  You cite no Scripture.  You give no reasons.  Like an insidious devil you pervert the Scriptures.

For me the die is cast.  I despise alike Roman fury and Roman favor.  I will not be reconciled or communicate with them.  Let them damn and burn my books.  I for my part, unless I cannot find a fire, will publicly damn and burn the whole canon law.

Balaam’s ass was wiser than the prophet himself.  If God then spoke by an ass against a prophet, why should he not be able even now to speak by a righteous man against the pope?

[In reply to the Papal Bull] I protest before God, our Lord Jesus, his sacred angels, and the whole world with my whole heart I dissent from the damnation of this bull, that I curse and execrate it as sacrilege and blasphemy of Christ, God’s Son and our Lord.  This be my recantation, O bull, thou daughter of bulls.

And as they excommunicated me for the sacrilege if heresy, so I excommunicate them in the name if the sacred truth of God.  Christ will judge whose excommunication will stand. Amen.

Germany is the pope’s pig.  That is why we have to give him so much bacon and sausages.

To balance the quotes above I must say that this is only one side of Luther.  The reason he had no fear of man was because of his fear of the Lord swallowed all other fears.  Luther was a man gripped by the holiness and grace of God.  I present the one side to prod you into reading the book to discover the other which was the source of his radical passion.

Hebrews 9:1-14 & Conscience

The conscience should be both convicted by the word and convicted of the word.  To illustrate both I will simply repeat Luther’s words that I shared last night.

I greatly longed to understand Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, “the justice of God,” because I took it to mean that justice whereby God is just and deals justly in punishing the unjust. My situation was that, although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Therefore I did not love a just and angry God, but rather hated and murmured against him. Yet I clung to the dear Paul and had a great yearning to know what he meant.     

Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that “the just shall live by his faith.” Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open door into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before the “justice of God” had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This passage of Paul became to me a gate to heaven….

If you have a true faith that Christ is your savior, then at once you have a gracious God, for faith leads you in and opens up God’s heart and will, that you should see pure grace and overflowing love.  This it is to behold God in faith that you should look upon his fatherly, friendly heart, in which there is no anger or ungraciousness.  He who sees God as angry does not see him rightly but looks only on a curtain, as if a dark cloud had been drawn across his face. – From Here I Stand by Roland Bainton

Afterwards on April 18, 1521 at the Diet of Worms when Luther was asked whether or not he would recant of the errors contained in his books he replied:

Since then Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth.  Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason – I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other – my conscience is captive to the Word of God.  I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.  Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.  God help me.  Amen.  – From The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul

All gloriaDEI Girls PLEASE Inject Yourselves With This!

A girl should get so lost in God, that a guy has to seek God to find her! – Dannah Gresh

HT: Desiring God

Gas, the Weather, & Sin

My attitude toward the weather is like my attitude toward gas prices.  Previously 40° was intolerable, now it would be a welcome reprieve.   Unfortunately my attitude toward sin often fluctuates in the same way.

Hebrews 8 & Shadows, Copies, and Old

Do you think you can draw near to God via shadows, copies, and the old?

You may say Jesus is the only way but how do you live?

Do you think because you have or do certain things that you are close to God?  Or do you think that because you fail to possess or do certain things that you are abandoned by God?  The law always leads to despair or pride.

Being a Christian is not about voting republican, abstaining from alcohol, keeping your panties on till your married, hating abortion, watching on G-rated / animated Disney movies, owning a Bible and occasionally reading it, regular church attendance, getting Goosebumps during a worship service, holding to a certain creed or confession, listening to mp3 sermons, reading certain authors, wearing a pathetic “Christian” T-Shirt, dressing a certain way, enjoying “clean fun” and potlucks with other Christians, visiting all the cool Christian blogs, writing in a journal and keeping sermon notes, or having walked an aisle and said a formulaic prayer.

No, being a Christian is about Jesus.  It’s all about Jesus, it’s always about Jesus, and it’s only about Jesus.  Jesus is the only way to draw near.  The shadows are only good in pointing toward and helping us understand the reality.  The copies are never as valuable as the heavenly realities to which they correspond.  And the old has no nostalgic value over the ancient faith which is also new.  To have and do without Jesus is to have and do nothing.

Nothing (Without You) By Derek Webb

I’ve got the dress, I’ve got the ring
I’ve got a song that I can sing
I’ve got the bread; I’ve got the wine
But I’ve got the life I left behind
I’ve got everything but I’ve got nothing without you

I’ve got the law on my heart
I’ve got your love tearing me apart
I’ve got a vow that I can’t keep
But I’ve got your promise getting me to sleep
I’ve got everything but I’ve got nothing without you

I’ve got your works and I’ve got my faith
I’ve got all the wine that you can make
I am the kiss of your betrayer
But I’ve got your grace on every layer
I’ve got everything but I’ve got nothing without you
‘Cause you see it’s all just a show
And you either hate it or you don’t
And only time will tell the difference
If you get it clearly or with interference

But I’ve got the race; Got the election
But win or lose I’ve got protection
I found a lobbyist in the devil
And I got salvation in a rebel
I’ve got everything but I’ve got nothing without you

Secret Sin is Social

Sin is social: although it is first and foremost defiance of God, there is no sin that does not touch the lives of others, since by subtly changing me, they change my relations with others. Secretly nurtured lust, for instance, soon affects a man’s or woman’s relations with the spouse and with other human beings.  —D.A. Carson in Christ and Culture Revisited

His Suffering and Ours

During the Napoleonic period in Europe some of the emperor’s soldiers opened a prison that had been used by the Spanish Inquisition. There were many dungeons in the prisons, but in one of them the soldiers found something particularly interesting. They found the remains of a prisoner, the flesh and clothing all long since gone and only an ankle bone in a chain to tell his story. On the wall, however, carved into the stone with some sharp piece of metal, there was a crude cross. And around the cross were the Spanish words for the four dimensions of Ephesians 3:18-19. Above was the word “height.” Below was the word “depth.” On one side there was the word “breadth.” On the other there was the word “length.” Clearly, as this poor, persecuted soul was lying in chains and was dying, he comforted himself with the thought that God who in himself contains the breath, length, depth, and height of all things was able to satisfy him fully.  – James Montgomery Boice in The Gospel of John Volume 1

Hebrews 7 & Rigmarole

rigmarole ‘ri-gə-mə-rōl · n. 1: confused or meaningless talk 2: a complex and sometimes ritualistic procedure (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)

Yes, it’s a real word, I didn’t make it up last night. Is the law just a bunch of rigmarole? It most certainly is complex, intricate, and detailed, but is it confused and meaningless? I’m not asking if it leaves you confused, but is the law itself confused in what it says?

Hebrews like the law at times can be easily dismissed as a bunch of rigmarole. Let’s just go through one of the gospels, Ezra, or Philippians instead right? What does the law have to do with us?

You ever play video games with your dad or friend and not tell them what any of the buttons on the controller do? Ever buy a new board game and not read any of the rules, just try to figure out how the game works as you go? Sure reading the rules and explaining the controls isn’t fun, but it does lead to fun. It may be dry reading at times, but understanding the law deeply and intricately leads to deep joy in knowing and communing with Christ.

So pull out the rule book, the law, and have fun seeing how Jesus is the fulfillment of it all.

Tolle Lege: The Victory of the Lamb

Last year Tim Challies said that The Cross He Bore by Frederick Leahy would be the best $4.03 I would ever spend.  I think he might have been right.  It is easily one of the best books I read last year, and one of my favorite books about the cross of Christ, which is why I wanted to share it with the NRBC.  I thereafter researched Leahy and found out that The Cross He Bore is part of a trilogy he wrote on the cross so I quickly ordered the other two.   The Victory of the Lamb pack a similar punch in its brief pages  (126).  Whereas in The Cross He Bore Leahy stirs the emotions concerning the themes of propitiation, redemption, and atonement, here he develops the theme of Christus Victor.  While I don’t think the book as good as The Cross He Bore, it is a great bargain at $5.40.

How can there be enmity between Satan and the woman where there has been agreement and friendship between them?  Only God can effect such a change, and he does.

Three crosses stood starkly against an eastern sky.  Two of the crucified were dying.  The one in the center was already dead.  His death was unique.  There had never been a death like this before, and never would be again.  Other deaths make only slight impact on the course of history; his death was crucial for mankind.  All other deaths are largely of local and temporary interest; his death had cosmic and eternal implications.  Other deaths involve only personal and individual struggle; his death was the meeting-point of the mighty forces of divine wrath on the one hand and satanic fury on the other.  Here, in this death, all the power of God and all the malice of Satan were exerted to the full and borne by the one on that centre cross, to the satisfaction of God and defeat of Satan.  This was the death that overcame death.

Tolle Lege: Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture

Though written in a clear and helpful manner, Graeme Goldsworthy’s Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture is not for everyone. I only recommend it here to those preachers and teachers who frequent this joint. This is definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year. This practical work shows that Christ is the hermeneutical key to all of Scripture, and how this is to be worked out in the many literary forms of Scripture by giving numerous examples.

Preachers have a theoretical gospel and an operative gospel. Theoretically we will get into a theological mode and produce, as far as possible, a biblically based notion focusing on the person and work of Christ. But, in pastoral practice it is easy to be pragmatic. Our operative gospel will be the thing that preoccupies us as the focus of our preaching and teaching.

My concern about evangelism is that sometimes there is a greater emphasis on the need for some kind of response than on the clear exposition of the gospel. Telling people they need to come to Jesus, that they must be born again, that they should commit their lives to Christ, and so on, is not preaching the gospel. It is, at best, telling them what they ought to do or, in the case of the new birth, what has happened when they have received the gospel. It is a remarkable thing in Acts 2 that Peter’s sermon contained no appeal. The appeal came from the congregation: ‘What should we do?’ It was the power and clarity of the gospel message that impressed them with the need to do something about it.

The evangelistic sermon, as we see in Acts, will therefore contain element other than the gospel. Telling people the need for the gospel, both their felt need and real need, is plainly important, but it is not the gospel itself. … Whenever people’s sense of assurance of salvation is expressed in the first person, something is amiss. When the question ‘How do you know God will accept you?’ is answered by ‘I have Jesus in my heart,’ ‘I asked Jesus into my life,’ ‘The Holy Spirit is in me,’ and so on, the real gospel basis for assurance needs to be reviewed. We rejoice when the answer comes in the third person: ‘God gave his only Son to die on the cross for me,’ ‘Jesus died, rose, and is in heaven for me.’ When the focus is on the finished and perfect work of Christ, rather than on the yet unfinished work of the Spirit in me, the grounds for assurance are in place.

It would not appear that Paul’s determination to know nothing among his hearers but Christ and Him crucified led him into the trap of predictability. Of course, if by predictability we mean that people will come to expect every sermon to expound something of the glories of Christ, then let us by all means be predictable.

Is it possible to preach a Christian sermon without mentioning Jesus? I want to avoid simplistic answers here. Perhaps I can put it another way: Why would anyone want to try to preach a Christian sermon without mentioning Jesus?