Doing some research on our adoption into God's family I read an article on the internet yesterday. The jist of it was 'We are comfortable to think of Jesus as our brother, but we don't like to think of him as our lord' I'd include a link but I just don't want to direct people there! Incidentally, for the biblical basis to Jesus being 'our brother' check out Hebrews 2:10-18.
The article drove me a bit mad for a few reasons but the first one was this. It started to compartmentalise Jesus.
Jesus is both our brother and our Lord... but the problem the author has is placing those two things together. He seems to see almost a contradiction. Jesus must either be our brother OR our Lord. It's true that Jesus is both and many, many other things to us (the bible calls him our high priest, our king, our saviour, our friend and a ton more stuff!) but that doesn't mean he's our brother one minute and he's our Lord the next, or that he has some dissociative identity disorder and is flicking between these many faces. He holds them all together in perfect harmony, neither lessening the other. In the same way we think of Jesus as the lion of Judah and the lamb of God, he holds power and might and humble, silent sacrifice TOGETHER.
If I could say one thing to the author of the article, it would be this: Jesus being your brother is integrally, inseparably part of him being your Lord.
I can see the heart behind the article was good and I actually know where it comes from, the motivation. There are some aspects of Jesus character which, separated from the others, suggest we shouldn't respect and have the awe for him we know we should. If Jesus is just my brother then I'm liable to treat him like just my brother and I'm a real pig to my brother sometimes, you can ask him!
Another is that sometimes people start to project onto Jesus things from their own lives which warp and change him into just what they want him to be and not who the bible tells us he is.
Jesus is our loving brother and friend and he brings us into union with our loving Father in heaven but do you know the bible also tells us that he is a mystery? Ephesians 3:4 mentions the 'mystery of Christ' but if you read around it, what does it say? It says that the mystery has been revealed to us. How has it been revealed? It has been revealed via 'the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.' How do we know what was revealed to the apostles and the prophets? Because they wrote it down and it forms the bible, the prophets in the Old Testament, the apostles in the New! Hallelujah!
Now Jesus is a mystery but the answer and solution to that mystery is right before us in the word of God, we can reveal more and more of that mystery when we read. This verse also tells us something else: You can't know Jesus fully through just the New Testament! That's a challenge to someone out there!
The Holy Spirit will bring light as we read the word and we will understand Jesus on a deeper and deeper level. Like a friend, like a brother... we have to get to know him! We can't just stop short at the bits we like, we must continue to strive deeper but, and here's the true blessing, the more we understand about his might and his power, the MORE we will love him as our brother! Every bit of Jesus' character compliments the others perfectly and enhances and deepens the others as well.
Finally, if ever you feel like your view of Jesus is off, just spend an hour looking at Jesus in the gospels. Jesus was still Lord as he walked about the Middle East as a man but does that mean that he puts himself above his brothers and followers? Not at all, he gets down he washes their feet! Think of it! We have a servant king who is worthy of our praise and our unabashed love! Never, ever, ever, EVER, try and pull Jesus into his constituent parts - because you'll just ruin him.
Get to know the mystery through his word by his Spirit because although you know you've got a brother, you don't yet know fully how wonderful that brother is!
Friday 17 July 2009
Saturday 11 July 2009
Theology: Whether you like it or not!
This is really just a brief challenge to people who shy away from theology.
I think theology is best defined as 'understanding God'. Good theology is entirely biblical, saying only of God what it finds or logically deduces from the pages of the bible.
I'm saying this because I think there's a dangerous trend among Christians to think of theology as dry or impractical. I've heard two main arguments which I'll answer now.
1. 'God is impossible to understand, our minds are too small' - This is a statement which with the addition of one word becomes true. 'God is impossible to understand entirely, our minds are too small'.
The reality is that God has revealed himself to us in the bible and he expects us to use it! There are issues that are difficult to understand, there are complex theological arguments to look at for yourself and determine your personal convictions on, but they're not impossible! Some of the greatest truths about God are the hardest to understand... but the most rewarding to know. They take some mental work, some deep thought, but God is worth it! Theology tries to know God as completely as it can from his word. Don't shy away from knowing God on a deeper level just because it takes work and for you to stir your brain into action!
2. 'I don't want to waste my time with theology, I want to be reaching people with the gospel!' - The passion is great but the truth of it is not. By the gospel, we are trying to introduce people to God... but without theology, we don't know God at all. We are trying to introduce someone we don't know properly ourselves. To evangelise well, we should know God thoroughly! That's not to say we shouldn't give it our all in the meantime, seizing every opportunity with the truth that we have, but we should certainly aim to have a good enough knowledge of what scripture says about God to answer the questions that those we evangelise to will inevitably ask.
The more we know God, the more focused and effective our evangelism will be, even better, the more we know God, the more passionate we will be about his glory, and that is what really convinces people of his worthiness!
Proverbs 19:2 sums this up really well: 'Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes.'
When it comes to evangelism, it's not about quantity but quality. There's a very human pressure to evangelise; theology provides both the ammunition for evangelism but also the fuel that will set you on fire and make that evangelism as natural as breathing!
So how do we 'do theology' then? What does that entail? Systematic Theologies are a good place to start. A pastor or author decides to put down everything they believe about all areas of Christian belief and, with scriptures, states the foundations of their views. As you can imagine, these books are usually pretty big but that's only because they're jam-packed full! That's your material for study!
Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology is a fantastic one and get this... you don't have to agree with it all! You can use the theologies to teach yourself but you can also use your disagreement with them to fuel your own study, in fact Grudem's even contains other options along with why he believes them to be untrue! He doesn't try to hide other opinions although he does say why he doesn't share them.
There are some great internet resources too - Mars Hill Church has done a series of sermons called 'Doctrine' which you can find on their website. You can actually watch the series! Have a bible at the ready and read along, pause it to look for yourself.
Another great way to 'do theology' is to sit round with a group of friends and talk about it. Ask people! Challenge people! If someone says something, ask them to back it up biblically, ask them why they believe it. This is really great for areas where there's disagreement or debate such as creation or the end times. Friends are sometimes the best to help you form your opinions. Every Christian you know is a theologist because they believe something about God.
To conclude on a personal level, I think that we tend to see theology as only engaging our brains but this is the truth - some of the most emotionally moving experiences I've had of God have been looking at theology. There are wonders and truths that will bring you to your knees in awe and worship. Theology has a heart and it will touch yours - there is no way you can expose yourself to the word of God in the deep study of it and reference to it that good theological study requires and not be shaken up by it!
Theology is essential and it forms a stable backbone for our Christian lives.
I think theology is best defined as 'understanding God'. Good theology is entirely biblical, saying only of God what it finds or logically deduces from the pages of the bible.
I'm saying this because I think there's a dangerous trend among Christians to think of theology as dry or impractical. I've heard two main arguments which I'll answer now.
1. 'God is impossible to understand, our minds are too small' - This is a statement which with the addition of one word becomes true. 'God is impossible to understand entirely, our minds are too small'.
The reality is that God has revealed himself to us in the bible and he expects us to use it! There are issues that are difficult to understand, there are complex theological arguments to look at for yourself and determine your personal convictions on, but they're not impossible! Some of the greatest truths about God are the hardest to understand... but the most rewarding to know. They take some mental work, some deep thought, but God is worth it! Theology tries to know God as completely as it can from his word. Don't shy away from knowing God on a deeper level just because it takes work and for you to stir your brain into action!
2. 'I don't want to waste my time with theology, I want to be reaching people with the gospel!' - The passion is great but the truth of it is not. By the gospel, we are trying to introduce people to God... but without theology, we don't know God at all. We are trying to introduce someone we don't know properly ourselves. To evangelise well, we should know God thoroughly! That's not to say we shouldn't give it our all in the meantime, seizing every opportunity with the truth that we have, but we should certainly aim to have a good enough knowledge of what scripture says about God to answer the questions that those we evangelise to will inevitably ask.
The more we know God, the more focused and effective our evangelism will be, even better, the more we know God, the more passionate we will be about his glory, and that is what really convinces people of his worthiness!
Proverbs 19:2 sums this up really well: 'Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes.'
When it comes to evangelism, it's not about quantity but quality. There's a very human pressure to evangelise; theology provides both the ammunition for evangelism but also the fuel that will set you on fire and make that evangelism as natural as breathing!
So how do we 'do theology' then? What does that entail? Systematic Theologies are a good place to start. A pastor or author decides to put down everything they believe about all areas of Christian belief and, with scriptures, states the foundations of their views. As you can imagine, these books are usually pretty big but that's only because they're jam-packed full! That's your material for study!
Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology is a fantastic one and get this... you don't have to agree with it all! You can use the theologies to teach yourself but you can also use your disagreement with them to fuel your own study, in fact Grudem's even contains other options along with why he believes them to be untrue! He doesn't try to hide other opinions although he does say why he doesn't share them.
There are some great internet resources too - Mars Hill Church has done a series of sermons called 'Doctrine' which you can find on their website. You can actually watch the series! Have a bible at the ready and read along, pause it to look for yourself.
Another great way to 'do theology' is to sit round with a group of friends and talk about it. Ask people! Challenge people! If someone says something, ask them to back it up biblically, ask them why they believe it. This is really great for areas where there's disagreement or debate such as creation or the end times. Friends are sometimes the best to help you form your opinions. Every Christian you know is a theologist because they believe something about God.
To conclude on a personal level, I think that we tend to see theology as only engaging our brains but this is the truth - some of the most emotionally moving experiences I've had of God have been looking at theology. There are wonders and truths that will bring you to your knees in awe and worship. Theology has a heart and it will touch yours - there is no way you can expose yourself to the word of God in the deep study of it and reference to it that good theological study requires and not be shaken up by it!
Theology is essential and it forms a stable backbone for our Christian lives.
Friday 10 July 2009
Christian Deconstruction 3 - We do not wrestle against flesh and blood...
An absolutely essential lesson for anyone who's feeling called towards Christian Deconstruction as a discipline.
'For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.'
Ephesians 6:12
This world is an extension of the heavenly realm. The bible shows us that the two places interact heavily, what happens in heaven effects the earth, what happens on earth effects heaven. The warning here from Paul is simple: 'Get your target right!'
I'm not going to labour this point because I think it's fairly obvious. I'm going to point out two things from the verse.
Firstly, there's the one I've already mentioned in part 1; the implication that we DO wrestle with the stuff which isn't flesh and blood! Paul's saying: 'We're not fighting against this... but we are fighting against THAT!' and he's got a huge finger pointed at Satan and his demons.
They are always there, always lying, always deceiving, always at work and you cannot underestimate them but, above and beyond that, you cannot be scared of them! You're a soldier of light wearing the armour of God, he has not given you a spirit of fear but of love, of power and of a sound mind... so that he can send these liars packing through you!
Secondly, look at the impersonalisation that Paul brings in. He doesn't talk about men and women but about this spiritual plain of corruption and deceit and the principalities and powers that they have installed on earth in futile opposition to God.
Let's get one thing straight, God isn't struggling against them. God isn't wrestling. He is calmly and calculatingly crushing some and raising others up for his purposes. God allowed them and there will come a time when he destroys them. Get this, it's a big one and I'll be doing an entire post on it next week: Even the demons exist by God's grace.
Think about it; he's Lord of creation! If he wanted them out, they'd be out! They ARE there for a purpose, and I know that part of that purpose is to drive us ever forward in our lives with God by fighting alongside him in a war that he has already won.
So we're not picking on single people, on Richard Dawkins or Nick Griffin or whoever your personal boogieman is, we're fighting Satan and his legions of fallen angels! It would be useless to write an essay for Christian Deconstruction and attack a person, to blame them or target them. For illustrative purposes, I've named names to get you thinking but we really have no issue with Richard Dawkins; we LOVE the man!
We absolutely love him and if we don't, we don't know Jesus as we should. What we do take issue with is the work which the enemy is doing through him. the lies and the clever deceit which the enemy is using his powerful intellect, that mind with which God blessed him, to establish. Are you beginning to see just how hateful Satan is by the way?
The people, those little shells of flesh and bone like you and me, those fragile little things whose lives are as dust, here one day and blown away the next, are the surface symptoms of spiritual corruption. You're dealing with the lie, not the mouth from which it's uttered. You're engaging the falsehood with the truth of the word of God and with the help of God himself.
So, now we know WHO we're fighting, are we ready to get strapped up for battle? Keep reading, more articles to come...
'For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.'
Ephesians 6:12
This world is an extension of the heavenly realm. The bible shows us that the two places interact heavily, what happens in heaven effects the earth, what happens on earth effects heaven. The warning here from Paul is simple: 'Get your target right!'
I'm not going to labour this point because I think it's fairly obvious. I'm going to point out two things from the verse.
Firstly, there's the one I've already mentioned in part 1; the implication that we DO wrestle with the stuff which isn't flesh and blood! Paul's saying: 'We're not fighting against this... but we are fighting against THAT!' and he's got a huge finger pointed at Satan and his demons.
They are always there, always lying, always deceiving, always at work and you cannot underestimate them but, above and beyond that, you cannot be scared of them! You're a soldier of light wearing the armour of God, he has not given you a spirit of fear but of love, of power and of a sound mind... so that he can send these liars packing through you!
Secondly, look at the impersonalisation that Paul brings in. He doesn't talk about men and women but about this spiritual plain of corruption and deceit and the principalities and powers that they have installed on earth in futile opposition to God.
Let's get one thing straight, God isn't struggling against them. God isn't wrestling. He is calmly and calculatingly crushing some and raising others up for his purposes. God allowed them and there will come a time when he destroys them. Get this, it's a big one and I'll be doing an entire post on it next week: Even the demons exist by God's grace.
Think about it; he's Lord of creation! If he wanted them out, they'd be out! They ARE there for a purpose, and I know that part of that purpose is to drive us ever forward in our lives with God by fighting alongside him in a war that he has already won.
So we're not picking on single people, on Richard Dawkins or Nick Griffin or whoever your personal boogieman is, we're fighting Satan and his legions of fallen angels! It would be useless to write an essay for Christian Deconstruction and attack a person, to blame them or target them. For illustrative purposes, I've named names to get you thinking but we really have no issue with Richard Dawkins; we LOVE the man!
We absolutely love him and if we don't, we don't know Jesus as we should. What we do take issue with is the work which the enemy is doing through him. the lies and the clever deceit which the enemy is using his powerful intellect, that mind with which God blessed him, to establish. Are you beginning to see just how hateful Satan is by the way?
The people, those little shells of flesh and bone like you and me, those fragile little things whose lives are as dust, here one day and blown away the next, are the surface symptoms of spiritual corruption. You're dealing with the lie, not the mouth from which it's uttered. You're engaging the falsehood with the truth of the word of God and with the help of God himself.
So, now we know WHO we're fighting, are we ready to get strapped up for battle? Keep reading, more articles to come...
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