Tolle Lege: Death by Love

Each chapter of Death by Love is a personal letter written by Driscoll to someone he has dealt with as a pastor of Mars Hill.  You will feel deep anger to some of the recipients of the letters and deep compassion to some of the recipients.  Driscoll applies the truths of the cross to both the rapist and the rape victim.   Here sin’s offensiveness toward God is not a lite fat free version that is pleasant our contemporary palate, nor has the offensiveness of the cross to the wisdom, power, and righteousness of man been watered down.  Driscoll will still be sure to upset many though in a different way.  The humor and sarcasm are absent, but theologically many will disagree with him over some finer points.  I would advise them upon these finer points to follow Driscoll’s example and not elevate them to the same level as the core message of the cross.  I highly recommend the book but would advise you that the discussion of sin and sins victims are frank and heart wrenching.  Yet this is the very reason I think many of the readers of this blog should read it.  In our little world called the Bible Belt everything is sanitized, including sin; and it would do us much good to see the horrors, devastating effects, and sorrows of sin freshly. 

…there is no such thing as Christian community or Christian ministry apart from a rigorous theology of the cross that is practically applied to the lives of real people.

[Commenting on I Corinthians 15:1-4] Here we see that the gospel is continual, in that we must continually be reminded of it; proclamational, in that it must be preached to us often, including preaching it to ourselves; essential, in that we must continually cling to it alone for the assurance of our salvation; central, in that it is the most important truth in all the world; eternal, in that it is passed on from one generation to the next without modification by religion; Christological, in that it is about the person and work of Jesus Christ alone; penal, in that the wages for sin – death – was paid; substitutional, in that Jesus’ death on the cross was literally in our place for our sins; biblical, in that it is in agreement with and the fulfillment of all Scripture; and eschatological, in that the resurrection of Jesus reveals to us our future hope of resurrected eternal life with him.

This may shock you, but of all the things you have ever done, I believe thinking you are good enough to pay God back with a few tears, apologies, dollars, and kind deeds is the most offensive.

So, rather than arguing whether or not it would be cruel of Jesus to torment you justly, you should thank him for suffering so that you do not have to.

Your questions can be answered only in Jesus.  Your longings can be satisfied only in Jesus.  Your sins can be forgiven only in Jesus.  Your life can be transformed only in Jesus.  Your prayers can be answered only in Jesus.  Your eternity can be enjoyed only in Jesus.

Tolle Lege: Running Scared

Although at a few points I disagree with his exposition of Biblical texts I think Ed Welch’s Running Scared a thoroughly and profoundly Scriptural handling of the too little discussed emotion of fear.  Edward gives a deeply theological, God centered, and personally helpful treatment of the subject.  At times the reading was slow to me, but for the most part if you are struggling with fears or don’t think you have any I would recommend this book.

Listen to your fears and hear them speak about things that have personal value to you.  They appear to be attached to things we value.

“Don’t be afraid” says something about him even before it speaks to us.

…worry and fear are more about us than the things outside us.

…in the kingdom, lust is silly.  It is wanting less than what we already have.  It is replacing eternal joys with temporary highs.

Hebrews 4 11:-13 & The Mountains Will Not Listen

While looking at the awesome power of God’s Word to rip us open and expose us I stumbled upon a motif that I somehow missed in our study of Isaiah, that of the unrepentant crying out on the day of terror for the mountains to fall upon them.

And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the Lord, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth. – Isaiah 2:19

The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,” and to the hills, “Fall on us.” – Hosea 10:8

Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ – Luke 23:30

…calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, – Revelation 6:16

What would cause someone to cry out for a mountain to fall on them? Notice they don’t simply seek death; they are trying to hide and escape. The splendor, majesty, and face of Jesus causes this panic. Before his gaze they are naked and exposed. Their hope is that perhaps a mountain, if it would fall upon them, might hide them from his gaze.

When a father returns it may cause two completely different reactions. To the child who did his chores and heeded his words; his return is a blessing for he anticipates the father’s presence and the reward of his love. To the disobedient child who shunned the father’s words; his return is a terror as words of judgment are soon to come.

Tolle Lege: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

If you want to skim through the Sermon on the Mount and get nice little devotional inspiration this is not the book for you.  If you wish to dive into the sermon, explore it, see its wonders, discover its beauties, tremble at its majesty, and be overwhelmed at its power I highly recommend D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Studies in the Sermon on the Mount.   This collection of 60 sermons is easily readable to the layman, the language is not technical, and one can sense the same power that was surely present when originally preached.  As with most of Lloyd-Jones writing he is amazingly timeless.  His observations, applications, and illustrations fit our time so well.   You sense that he is overwhelmed by the text, wrapped up in it such that though handling each thought so thoroughly he is only scratching the surface.  The word of God was meant to be preached, here you sense why.

The glory of the gospel is that when the Church is absolutely different form the world, she invariably attracts it.  It is then that the world is made to listen her message, though it may hate it at first.   That is how revival comes. … Our ambition should be to be like Christ, the more like Him the better, the more like Him we become, the more we shall be unlike everybody who is not a Christian.

The world, it is obvious, has fallen into this primary and fundamental error, an error which one could illustrate in many different ways. Think of a man who is suffering from some painful disease. Generally the one desire of such a patient is to be relieved of his pain, and one can understand that very well. No-one likes suffering pain. The one idea of this patient, therefore, is to do anything which will relieve him of it. Yes; but if the doctor who is attending this patient is also only concerned about relieving this man’s pain he is a very bad doctor. His primary duty is to discover the cause of the pain and to treat that. Pain is a wonderful symptom which is provided by nature to call attention disease, and the ultimate treatment for pain is to treat the disease, not the pain.. So if a doctor merely treats the pain without discovering the cause of the pain, he is not only acting contrary to nature, he is doing something that is extremely dangerous to the life of the patient. The patient may be out of pain, and seems to be well; but the cause of the trouble is still there. Now that is the folly of which the world is guilty. It says, ‘I want to get rid of my pain, so I will run to the pictures, or drink, or do anything to help me forget my pain.’ But the question is, what is the cause of the pain and the unhappiness and the wretchedness? They are not happy who hunger and thirst after happiness and blessedness. No. ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.’

In the same way sin blinds us to the relative values of things.  Take time and eternity.  We are creatures here in time and we are going on to eternity.  There is no comparison between the relative importance of time and eternity.  Time is limited and eternity is endless and absolute.  Yet do we live as realizing these relative values?  Is it not again a simple fact that we give ourselves to things that belong to time and entirely ignore the things that are eternal?

…ultimately, the authority of the Sermon derives from the Preacher.  That is, of course, what makes the New Testament such a unique book, and gives uniqueness to the teaching of our Lord.  With all the other teacher that the world has ever known, the important thing is the teaching; but here is a case in which the teacher is more important even than what He taught.

Hebrews 4:1-11 & Rest vs. Sleep

My sister Kris once slept near 24 hours.  I don’t remember the exact duration but she went to sleep at a decent hour one evening and didn’t wake up until the next evening.   Upon emerging from her coffin she said she would not have resurrected but she had to fiercely relieve herself.  She was a sleep ninja, insane skills.  Yet you can be a sleep expert and not have rest.

You might say that you had a good night’s sleep, or a good night’s rest, but no one ever talks about a sleepful weekend.  I’ve never heard anyone say, I feel sleeped.  There is a difference.  Rest trumps sleep.

I read about this guy Tony Wright, he tried to break the world sleep record.  The facts are fuzzy from my little research (I wonder if it might be the sources Wikipedia and Bloggers) but it seems that Mr. Wright stayed awake 11 days, or 264 hours.   Upon awaking, having slept he either (a) found out that he fell short of the record  set by some dude in Finland by 11 hours or (b) found out that American Randy Gardner’s record still stands because Guinness is no longer accepting records because of the danger of sleep deprivation.  I wonder if this bothered him so, torment him so that he could not sleep?  Or maybe he could still sleep, it was rest that he was lacking.  His soul was in turmoil, all his striving was for nothing; to catch up on sleep would not do, his soul needed rest.

Jesus didn’t simply hold sleep out to us, he said:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.  – Matthew 11:28-30

Hebrews 3:7-19 & Play Clay

Our hearts are the opposite of clay.  If you place clay in a dark damp area, it stays soft and malleable, put it out in the sun and it hardens.  Our hearts indicate they are soft when there is a love for light in them.  Sadly the natural environment and inclination of our hearts is darkness.  This is the dire situation of man; darkness in his heart, darkness all around his heart.  This is why it is so crucial that the grace and work of Christ not be abused and neglected.   I don’t play with clay but I will venture to say it is easier to keep it soft than to soften it after hardening.  In fact it may be impossible to ever soften it again.  A heart softened turning back to darkness is worse off than a heart never exposed to such grace at all.

Play with clay, not your hearts.

Tolle Lege: The Pressence of the Future

George Eldon Ladd’s The Pressence of the Future is not a book that I would recommend to the average layman, but to the serious teacher of God’s Word, and all teachers should be serious, it is a very helpful work.  Jesus’ gospel was the gospel of the kingdom therefore in order to understand the gospel it is necessary to understand what the kingdom is.  Ladd summarizes the thesis of the book thus:

Our central thesis is that the Kingdom of God is the redemptive reign of God dynamically active to establish his rule among human beings, and that this Kingdom, which will appear as an apocalyptic act at

the end of the age, has already come into human history in the person and mission of Jesus to overcome evil, to deliver men from its power, and to bring them into the blessings of God’s reign. The Kingdom of God involves two great moments: fulfillment within history, and consummation at the end of history.

This is not an easy read, but it is an extremely helpful read.  The benefits will be well worth the work to the serious student of God’s word.

Duty an improper motivation some or all of the time?

Why is it ok for men within some professions (i.e. law enforcement, paramedic, soldier) to upon receiving thanks reply, “Its nothing, just doing my duty”, or “just doing my job”, but not honorable for persons within some professions (i.e. pastors, counselors)?

Hebrews 3:1-6 & Watering Down

There is one amongst us that does a blasphemous thing and she must be exposed.  She is guilty of watering down juice (somewhat tolerable) and sweat tea (an unjustifiable crime).  I hereby publicly rebuke thee Michelle.

How much can you water down sweet tea so that it is no longer sweat tea?   What about Kool-Aid?  Kool-Aid is a vile substance when properly made, but water down, it is the Satan of beverages.  One might be technical and say that is no longer kool-aid when the additional water molecules outnumber the proper Kool-Aid/sugar/water mixture; I don’t think any such technical definition will pass upon a taste test.

I think there has been a watering down of the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.  This can be seen in the terminology prominently used to designate the doctrine.  We degenerated from talking about the final perseverance of the saints, to preservation of the saints to security of the believer to the cliché “once saved always saved”.  It’s not that there is untruth in the latter terminology, just less truth.  It is perfectly fine to talk about the security of the believer, but if this is all that is strictly discussed, the truth has been greatly watered-down, and like Kool-Aid, it should cause the true Christian to retch.

What is the difference?  When “once saved always saved”, absent the idea of perseverance is applauded one may come to Christ only for fire insurance.  “I did what was required and no more,” if not a blatant declaration is the functional proclamation of many lives that recite this cliché.  The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints has as its corollary that the saints are the ones that persevere.   True saints indicate that they are saints, and they take no comfort in having done certain actions such as saying a specific prayer.  Rather they find their comfort in fruit that can only be a result of God’s saving and sanctifying grace.  One does not work to finally achieve salvation, rather true salvation is a salvation that works, a salvation that bears fruit.

The question is not one of the retention of salvation based upon the persistence of faith, but possession of salvation as evidenced by a continuation of faith.  – Alistair Begg