Thoughts for a Young Man

A friend once asked me to share some thoughts with his son as his son entered into manhood. These are the thoughts:

The most important gifts God will give you during your life are relationships.

Knowing Him.

Knowing those made in His image.

Relationships live and breathe with humility, but die with selfishness.

Be quick to admit when you are wrong.

Be quick to repent when you sin against God and people.

Take full responsibility for your actions.

Never blame others.

Apply the promises of the Gospel.

Depend on God’s forgiveness.

Rest in His Fatherly care.

Seek His grace to change and grow.

Think about the Cross of Christ every day.

Excel in serving others. It will bring joy!

                                    Pray for others like you pray for yourself.

                                    Serve those around you.

Give to those in need.

Trust in the Lord to give you the humility that is needed in every situation, and the strength to persevere.

Your relationships with God and His people will endure forever.

Most everything else will pass away.

Keep your focus on Christ.

Never give up!

Pride, Humility, Truth, Mercy

In some ways, nothing is more humbling than reality itself. A proud man must in some measure be deluded about his own nature, the nature of God, the nature of sin, or the nature of truth itself. Nevertheless, merely knowing the facts about everything would most likely serve to ENHANCE a person's pride! This reveals the practical invincibility of this foundational vice: it is immune to the light that should rightly vanquish it. Knowledge puffs up the very soul that ought to be humbled by it.

So, what can possibly slay the self-regenerating root of pride? Only this: experiencing the mercy of God. The soul that experiences utter dependence on God's sheer kindness - and finds itself undeservedly shielded from His wrath - has a genuine hope of being freed from the straitjacket of pride. The person who daily and gratefully receives the gift of grace is being taught real humility. This person is the one who can benefit from a wider knowledge of the truth and the reality of things.

The very skies and fields and trees look different when once you have found yourself flat on your back, defeated and desperate, and then have felt the extended hand of healing mercy laying gentle on your shoulder. God gives grace to the humble, indeed, but it is all by grace He makes us humble.

"Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble."
- Daniel 4:37

A Response to Scot McKnight Regarding Roger Olson's "5 Conundrums of Calvinism"

Scot McKnight, who says he abandoned Calvinism for an Anabaptist-flavored Pietism, recently posted and commented on Roger Olson's "5 Conundrums of Calvinism." McKnight makes this astounding claim:

"There are often better, non-Calvinist explanations, and the Calvinist appeal to conundrum, or antinomy, masks the illogic and fails to deal with the more adequate rational, logical answer of others. Divine determinism and meticulous providence create more problems for God’s character than they solve problems. Divine self-limitation and human free will are better, more rational explanations."

Really? Does McKnight truly think the Bible leaves those options open? I don't mean to be harsh, but one can only reach this conclusion by miniaturizing God, exalting man, and playing fast-and-loose with Scripture. It is better to have philosophical conundrums on our hands and remain uncompromising with Scripture than to construct pretend "explanations" of the Word of God using mere man-made speculation. I responded as follows:

First, It is obvious that God self-limits (however, His self-limiting - or condescension, divine humility, etc. - is itself an expression of His eternal glory). For a Calvinist, there is no problem in any of that. The major problem, in fact, is not that God self-limits, but that human beings self-exalt. For example, we magnify ourselves by imagining that we can devise better "logical" explanations for the philosophical conundrums created by the Bible rather than simply accepting God's own testimony and admitting we are limited in our logic, information and understanding. We don't particularly like God's testimony because it leaves a lot of holes and seems to create logical conflicts. Our rationalistic minds demand resolution; we don't want to live in the lowliness of our own limits, or the discomfort of mysteries and paradoxes. We easily commit the error of filling in the gaps with our own thoughts. However, because the contradictions themselves are only apparent, the resolutions we create are also only apparent. They are a mirage designed to make us feel better - but in reality we have solved nothing. There was nothing to solve because God never saw any conflict between the two sides we supposedly resolved (e.g. His meticulous sovereignty and our freedom of choice). In fact, if we "solved" the apparent problem by contradicting a single Biblical proposition, we only succeeded in creating a bigger problem for ourselves! 

Second, it is true that "explanations" have been devised which fill in the logical gaps left by the Bible. However, I daresay this has only been done at the expense of the Bible. There is no way to take ALL of the Bible at full face value without accepting a great deal of mystery and some degree of paradox or antinomy. We stand in great danger of overstepping whenever we begin to demand answers to questions God Himself has left unanswered. 

In conclusion, I remain a Calvinist because it is the only system I know of that allows me to give full credit to God's revelation in the Bible without delving presumptuously into the matters He has not revealed. At the same time, the Reformed system leaves me the freedom to explore philosophical matters with the understanding that I am only thinking the lowly thoughts of a man - so I can rest in God's wisdom even when I can't get it all figured out "logically." It teaches me to take my own thoughts less seriously, and God's thoughts with absolute confidence. If my system is criticized because it doesn't answer all of the questions to the satisfaction of a fallen human being, I can live with that. 

I believe any true Pietist can and should find such an arrangement refreshingly humbling. Pietists and Calvinists ought to be the best of friends. :)

Calvinists Aflame for God

Some say Calvinism tends toward a cold, cerebral piety that is devoid of compassion. They claim Reformed theological convictions produce ineffective or just downright annoying Christians. In some cases this has undeniably been true. You can probably think of examples. 

Great. Point conceded.
 
On the other hand, many of the most zealous servants of Christ have been Calvinists. Some of the most pioneering, devoted, self-sacrificing missionaries in the history of the Church have been Calvinists. Many of the martyrs who have testified passionately and died for Christ's cause have been Calvinists. Many of the greatest devotional works - the ones that point to the glories of Christ and call us to love-inspired labors - were written by Calvinists. Newton, Bunyan, Spurgeon, Baxter, Whitefield and Watson come to mind.
 

How is it that some Calvinists have demonstrated such intense devotion, while others have gone flat? It's a good question, and an important one. Below are a few thoughts about how we Calvinists can stay aflame for God, speaking Truth in love and maintaining the simplicity of devotion to Christ, even as we wrestle Calvin-style with the hard doctrines of Scripture and refuse to back away from any of their philosophical implications.

• Never think about the doctrine of Total Depravity without considering your own sins. Especially your recent sins. Let the desperate plight of fallen humanity inspire a fresh compassion for the lost people around you.
• Never think about the doctrine of Unconditional Election without reminding yourself that nothing in you influenced God's choice. That's what unconditional means. Know that it was purely of His mercy that He took pity on you and saved you.
• Never think about Christ's atoning work without thanking Him for what He has done for you at the cross, and in the resurrection, and the way He applies that work to your life now. Be affected by how much you need the cross on a daily and moment-by-moment basis.
• Never think about the doctrine of the Effectual Call without marveling that God miraculously changed your stony heart. 
• Never think about the doctrines of the Perseverance and Preservation of the Saints without recognizing that all your godly fruit is an effect of Christ's unmerited mercy toward you. Remember that a lack of godly fruit is a sign of trouble that must move you to re-examine your heart. Don't use the doctrine of election to exempt yourself from this.
• Never think about the sovereignty of God without surrendering yourself afresh to His glorious rule.
• Never let logical deductions about the secret will of God lessen your adherence to His revealed will in the Scriptures. Don't get carried away by speculations.
• Read plenty of Reformed books and blogs if you like, but devote yourself to the study and application of Scripture. Read the whole Bible and spend more effort applying it than thinking philosophically about it.
• Share the Gospel regularly and stay involved in missions. Prove that you believe in the free offer of the Gospel.
• Worship God alone. Don't let theology become your idol.
• When you speak, boast in the goodness of God rather than just spouting theological facts you have learned.
• Repent thoroughly, earnestly and often. Confess your sins to God daily, and rejoice in His outpoured grace daily. Repent to other people when you sin against them (it's wonderfully humbling).
• Stay close to your Lord, and tremble if you gain a head full of knowledge without corresponding affections for Him.

Cross-Centered Humility: A "Glorious Spiritual Destitution"

". . . The great irony is that the door through which we experience the profundity of God’s love is the complete humiliation and abasement of ourselves at the foot of the cross. . . . The blessing of knowing God in the fullness of his love comes to us to the degree that we become poor in spirit. This glorious spiritual destitution belongs to those who hear what the cross teaches us about man and his nature."

 

William P. Farley, Outrageous Mercy, pp. 70-71


This book is a wonderful admonition toward a Cross-Centered and Gospel-Grounded worldview. Highly recommended reading.

Heaven Will Be Humbling

Recently, while I was having lunch with some brothers in Christ, we discussed the process by which God reveals His Truth to us. One mentioned that when we start to see a Biblical Truth or doctrine clearly, there is usually a simultaneous recognition of some wrong thinking we have embraced, which needs to be changed. And this humbles us.

I thought . . . Wow! Heaven will be so humbling!  So much light all at once, correcting so many wrong assumptions and misunderstandings! So many humbling discoveries. But the humbling will be glorious, for we will be REJOICING IN THE TRUTH even as we are made aware of our own glaring errors and misconceptions.

So let us live in light of that day, hoping in Christ and humbling ourselves before the revelation of Him. Day by day, let us continually replace humanistic thinking with Biblical thinking, as our minds are renewed in Christ. Being humbled in this life is great practice for the next.

II Peter 3:13-18 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

The Legitimacy of Paradox as a Theological Model - Part 16

Pastor Richard Ostella of Westminster Reformed Church in Plymouth, Michigan has graciously granted permission to re-publish his March 2009 ETS paper on theological paradox here at THEOparadox. To understand these thoughts in context, please begin with part 1.

Conclusion 

 Therefore, theological paradox is not only legitimate, but it is also helpful in calling us to a most humble use of logic in subordination to Scripture. It does so by giving conscious priority to faithful handling of Scripture above logical consistency. Then we can follow Calvin’s pastoral encouragement to stop inquiry where the Holy Spirit closes His holy lips.47 At that point, the reasoning self rests, we rest, on Christ the solid Rock; and there we bow in worship and praise.    

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Pastor Ostella's Footnotes

47 “When God stops speaking, we end our quest. Scripture is the school of the Holy Spirit, in which, as nothing is omitted that is both necessary and useful to know, so nothing is taught but what is expedient to know. Therefore we must guard against depriving believers of anything disclosed ….in Scripture, lest we seem either wickedly to defraud them of the blessing of their God or to accuse and scoff at the Holy Spirit for having published what it is in any way profitable to suppress. Let us, I say, permit the Christian man to open his mind and ears to every utterance of God directed to him, provided it be with such restraint that when the Lord closes his holy lips, he also shall at once close the way to inquiry”(Institutes, 3.21.3). 

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The Legitimacy of Paradox as a Theological Model - Part 14

Pastor Richard Ostella of Westminster Reformed Church in Plymouth, Michigan has graciously granted permission to re-publish his March 2009 ETS paper on theological paradox here at THEOparadox. To understand these thoughts in context, please begin with part 1.

3) The model promotes humility in biblical study 

 It is a reasonable attempt to do justice to the connection between the secret things [that] belong to the LORD and the things that are revealed [that] belong to us and to our children (Deut. 29.29). For example, that Jesus is both fully God and fully man while remaining one person is clearly revealed. How these facts fit together is in many ways beyond our grasp as secret things. Likewise, the moral inability and full responsibility of fallen man are clearly revealed facts and the inference from responsibility to the denial of inability is a stab in the darkness of divine secrecy.  

In the words of Calvin, we do “not investigate what the Lord had left hidden in secret” and “we should not neglect what he has brought into the open, so that we may not be convicted of excessive curiosity on the one hand, or of excessive ingratitude on the other.”39  Therefore, 

within a Christian philosophy regarding critical thinking,40 we may appropriately refer to 

accepting theological paradox as the most humble use of logic.41

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Pastor Ostella's Footnotes

39 Institutes 3.21.4. 

40 By a “philosophy of logic,” we are referring to the wise principles necessary in the use of logic. Thus, to say Christians need a philosophy of logic is to say that even the pursuit of wisdom must have a godly foundation. We need wisdom to strive for wisdom. Bottom line: a philosophy of logic means that true knowledge begins with the fear of God and knowledge of His will. Five components show how the fear of God and knowledge of His will give us the foundation for wisdom in a philosophy of logic: logical skill, contextual sensitivity, open-minded humility, presuppositional awareness, and the acceptance of paradox (picture a pie with five slices that represent the basic elements in a Christian philosophy of logic). If any of these components are lacking in our reasoning then to that degree we are unwise, which means we are to that degree ungodly. To be a critical thinker is a matter of godliness. For explanation of these components and for a fuller picture of how paradox fits into a philosophy of logic see “A Christian Philosophy of Logic,” by R. Ostella, JBA, Spring 2008.  

41 Noting the fact of biblical paradox aids presuppositional awareness that is essential in humble self-criticism by which we look at and evaluate the theological bifocals by which we see. Like bifocals presuppositional glasses determine how we see things, but we can tilt our heads and at times see that with which we see. Awareness of our presuppositions is a way for us to bow our heads and, though difficult to do, go through the door to self-critical thinking. Of course, it is important that we engage biblical context with this awareness in order to do our best to examine our beliefs by Scripture knowing that some of our beliefs color how we read every text. Furthermore, self-criticism is something that we must undertake by prayer and meditation because we tend to wear masks when we look into the mirror of Scripture. As Augustine put it, we tend to put ourselves behind our backs; in our context, this means that we tend to put our cherished, even if false, presuppositions behind our backs so we cannot see them for what they are in the light of Scripture. False presuppositions are like demons: they only come out by prayer and fasting! Switching analogies, we can say that we must be concerned with every relevant thread that intersects the piece of fabric at any given time; otherwise, our work of interpretation will come apart at the seams. Paradoxical truths are threads of truth that are clearly and tightly woven together in the fabric of Scripture even though how they can co-exist in the same fabric may be difficult or even impossible to grasp. 


PART 15 - Click Here

The Legitimacy of Paradox as a Theological Model - Part 1

Pastor Richard Ostella of Westminster Reformed Church in Plymouth, Michigan has graciously granted permission to re-publish his March 2009 ETS paper on theological paradox here at THEOparadox. It is the best concise treatment of the subject I have found. As an example, Pastor Ostella examines the paradox of human responsibility paired with mankind's moral inability. Prepare to be blessed by this excellent study, which will be presented in a series of short segments. New posts in the series will appear at one or two day intervals over the next two to three weeks. Below are the title and introduction.

The Legitimacy of Paradox as a Theological Model: 

Case in Point, Fallen Man does not have Free Will but He has Full Responsibility 

ETS, Midwest, Ashland, Ohio, March 20, 2009 

Richard A. Ostella

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind
(1 Pet. 3.8)

Introduction

This theme is difficult because it has an unmasking quality. The rub: it is personally crushing to face the facts about ourselves as fallen sinners. Recounting his conversion, Augustine says:

Thou, O Lord…didst turn me round towards myself, taking me from behind my back where I had placed me, unwilling to observe myself; and setting me before my face, that I might see how foul I was, how crooked and defiled, bespotted and ulcerous (Conf. Bk. VIII, par.16). 

Just to question “free will” challenges our self-understanding and raises an instinctive resistance. 

Therefore, to properly engage a study like this of the self, of my self, we need open-minded 

humility. Here, Peter’s call to a humble mind (1 Pet. 3.8) applies to the three things we are about to cover: theological paradox, a case in point, and implications.


PART 2 - Click Here

The Mercy of God - A Christmas Reflection

Here's a brief reflection shared at the Christmas Eve service at Lakeside Community Church.

Luke 1:46-55

And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

MERCY

The theme of Mary's song is the mercy of God.

This mercy is portrayed in almost every line as an act of God in behalf of the needy. It is God opposing the proud and giving grace to the humble.

The word “mercy” is sometimes used as a verb in the Bible. God “mercies” the poor, He “mercies” the needy, He “mercies” the humble, the helpless, the undeserving, the desperate, the broken . . . the repentant sinner and the despised, guilty soul. God in His mercy is on the side of the worthless outcasts and the destitute wanderers.

Mercy is God providing what is needed for those who cannot provide it for themselves. Mercy is God's work in behalf of the helpless. Mercy is God's kind, gracious action for the benefit of those who do not deserve His kindness. Mercy is God's strength defending the weak.

Mary views the miracle of the incarnation - the news that she, a virgin, is with child - as evidence of God's great mercy toward His people. For if God is doing such a miraculous work, it means that He has not abandoned His people. He has not forgotten His covenant with them. He has not canceled His promise, but will surely fulfill all that He has said.

God reveals His love to us in the form of a covenant of mercy because He knows we have nothing to contribute. He knows we will fail. He knows we do not have what it takes to meet Him half way. We wouldn't even get started on the journey without his help, so He comes all the way to us, gives us the will, and leads us step by step, holding our hand all along the way.

He promises, “I will be with you.”

He promises, “I forgive you.”

He promises, “I will restore you.”

He promises, “I will give you strength.”

He promises, “You are mine; I have you; I am your God.”

All of this is mercy.

We find ourselves undeserving of Him! And we need an unbreakable promise to reassure us that our sin and weakness and guilt - and the frailty of our faith - have not succeeded in separating us from His love. Will not succeed. Cannot succeed.

God's mercy is given freely to those who come to Him empty handed.

Mary knew she would receive little mercy from her neighbors, who probably viewed her as an immoral young woman. She knew she would receive little mercy from the synagogue rulers, who would surely expel her from fellowship. She knew she would receive little mercy from Joseph, who was preparing to leave her to her fate. She knew she would receive little mercy from the government that would force her to march all the way to Bethlehem in the advanced stages of her pregnancy. But with God she was guaranteed mercy! And so she could sing in the midst of great uncertainty.

Mercy is the healing medicine that holds battered families together. It restores troubled marriages. It reignites loyalty and devotion in friendships that have become strained. It opens a door of healing and hope in the barren, bombed out wreckage of what used to be a relationship.

I want to ask you whom you have “mercied.” I want to ask you if you have showered undeserved grace and favor upon those around you. I want to ask you if you have done mercy to others.

Instead I have to ask the more important and foundational questions: Have you come to Jesus spiritually poor, having nothing worthy to offer Him? Have you confessed your immense ingratitude and the myriad ways you have rebelled against His supreme authority? Have you brought your mountains of sin to Him? have you come to holy Jesus empty handed and wretched, deserving nothing but His wrath? Was your head lowered down in shame? Were you afraid to open your eyes and peer up at His eternal majesty? Have you seen the look on His face? Did you see the fire blazing in His pure, sinless eyes? Was it anger you saw there, or the fulfillment of a promise? “I will mercy,” says the Lord God Almighty! “I will justify the ungodly. I will seek and save the lost. I will heal the backslider. I will restore the broken. I will pardon the rebel. My kindness will lead sinners to repentance. Where their sin abounds, my grace will abound all the more, and My mercy will triumph over judgment!” Have you trusted His promise to show mercy, and received the forgiveness He is freely extending?

Jesus Christ is the mercy of God! No wonder Mary sung of mercy in response to His conception in her womb.

If you have known the stunningly scandalous mercy of Jesus Christ, if you have seen His overflowing kindness, if you have been set free from the duty to pay back your multiplied debts and your infinite obligations to the holiness which you have so heinously violated, if you have been completely delivered from the guilt of sin – then I do not need to ask you if you are showing mercy to others. You surely are.

God did not send His Son to lay another damning obligation upon our shoulders - this time an obligation to practice mercy. In Jesus Christ He provided an unshakable and infallible motivation by which we would most assuredly "do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly" with our God!

The First and Last Entries

Below is an excerpt from the first entry in Jim Elliot's Journal, followed by the final entry, which was written about one week before his martyrdom by the Auca Indians in South America:

January 17, 1948

What is written in these pages I suppose will someday be read by others than myself. For this reason I cannot hope to be absolutely honest in what is herein recorded, for the hypocrisy of this shamming heart will ever be putting on a front and dares not to have written what is actually found in its abysmal depths. Yet, I pray, Lord, that You will make these notations to be as nearly true to fact as is possible so that I may know my own heart and be able to definitely pray regarding my gross, though often unviewed, inconsistencies. . . .

Help me, Lord, not to "mourn and weep" only for those things, once precious, which You teach me are but dead (whether desires, pleasures, or whatever may be precious to my soul now), but give me a willingness to put them away out of my sight (Gen. 23:4). Burying places are costly, but I would own a Machpelah where corpses (dead things in my life) can be put away.

December 31, 1955

A month of temptation. Satan and the flesh have been on me hard. How God holds my soul in His life and permits one with such wretchedness to continue in His service I cannot tell. Oh, it has been hard . . . I have been very low inside me struggling and casting myself hourly on Christ for help. Marriage is divorce from the privacy a man loves, but there is some privacy nothing can share. It is the knowledge of a sinful heart.

These are the days of the New Year's Believers' conference on the Sermon on the Mount. Yesterday I preached and was helped on "whoever looks upon a woman . . ."!

"Let spirit conquer though flesh conspire."

Out of such humility came fierce preaching and a willingness to die for the cause of Christ.

Below are the three parts of a sermon preached by Elliot in 1951.

The Resurrection - Jim Elliot (Part 1)



The Resurrection - Jim Elliot (Part 2)



The Resurrection - Jim Elliot (Part 3)


Certainly a passionate, Scripture-saturated preacher! Some thought-provoking things here. And some real challenges, too.

The 5 Points of Fundamentalism

Dr. Curt Daniel shared these historical tenets of Fundamentalism in a recent sermon series on the 5 solas. Here they are . . .

1. The Verbal Plenary Inspiration of Scripture

2. The Virgin Birth of Christ

3. The Vicarious Substitutionary Atonement of Christ

4. The Victorious Bodily Resurrection of Christ

5. The Visible Return of Christ

I've seen these emphasized in almost every church I've attended, but I never knew they were codified officially as the "5 Points of Fundamentalism." I wonder how many of them are still held among mainstream Evangelicals, seeker-sensitive ministries, and Emergents? It seems all 5 are up for grabs in some circles, while in others they remain non-negotiable.

Of course, correct belief combined with a loveless, graceless, arrogant, legalistic, man-focused religion will only create an ungodly disaster called "Pharisaism." This appears to be the type of religion practiced in some conservative churches nowadays. On the other side, there is the heresy of the Emerging Church, which has distanced itself from anything so "traditional" and is now latching onto whatever mystical mumbo-jumbo it can find in the brave new world of post-orthodoxy. Dry fundamentalism holds some truth but lacks grace. Drowning postmodernism thrashes about in the cesspool of humanistic dogma, but gladly welcomes all. "Come on in, the water's fine," they say.

Well, It's time for some Biblically grounded Calvinists to arise (humbly!) with the fire of God in their bones and the grace of God in their tear-stained eyes. May God revive us with 5 Points of Fundamentalism, 4 or 5 Points of Calvinism (see note below), 5 Solas of the Reformation, 9 fruits of the Spirit, 7 Beatitudes of Blessing, 2 Great Commandments, ONE Glorious Gospel, and the 5 fires of genuine devotion: LOVE, MERCY, GRACE, COMPASSION and HUMILITY (yes, I made the last part up, but to God the 5 fires are already written in stone - and according to His command need to be written on our hearts).

Hosea 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Matthew 9:13 "Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners."

Matthew 12:7 "And if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless."

James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Micah 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

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NOTE: If you don't like people clarifying the famed 3rd point of Calvinism, or you think all the points stand or fall together, you'll have to take it up with John Calvin, Richard Baxter, J.C. Ryle, R.L. Dabney, William G.T. Shedd, Bruce Ware, and a whole host of other well known Reformed guys!

Incarnation Mysteries: He Humbled Himself

. . . although He existed in the form of God,

He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,

but emptied Himself,

taking the form of a bond-servant,

and being made in the likeness of men.

Being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:6-8 

Some have called the incarnation the most paradoxical of all Christian doctrines, and this could be true. The incarnation forms the necessary link between an incalculable and transcendent Trinity on the one hand, and an ultra-ironic and concretely historic Cross on the other. Who can fathom what took place as God the Son humbled Himself to become the fully-human-and-completely-divine Son of God? In His Person He draws together the realms of eternity and the world of men, and he affects both by His mediating work. He is perfect God and perfect Man - as perfect in the limitations of His humanity as He is perfect in the superlatives of His deity. He is God and He is man. He is the Mediator between God and man.

In a short essay, entitled The Excellency of Christ, Jonathan Edwards noted:

"There is a conjunction of such excellencies in Christ, as, in our manner of conceiving, are very diverse from one another. . . . There do meet in Jesus Christ infinite highness and infinite condescension. . . . He is so high, that he is infinitely above any need of us; above our reach, that we cannot be profitable to him. . . . Our understandings, if we stretch them ever so far, cannot reach up to his divine glory. . . . And yet he is one of infinite condescension. . . . Such a conjunction of infinite highness and low condescension, in the same person, is admirable."

The following list of incarnation mysteries is offered as a seed bed for thoughtful reflection on the incarnated Son, Who stands at the exact center of the Father's eternal plan . . . at the focal point of human history . . . and at the eternal epicenter of redemption.

Consider . . .

The Creator became a creature . . .

The Eternal One entered time . . .

The pure One encountered a world saturated with sin . . .

The One Who cannot sin appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh . . .

The One Who cannot be tempted by evil faced the fiercest temptations possible . . .

The Immortal God took on a mortally vulnerable body . . .

The Self-sufficient One became dependent . . .

The Righteous Judge placed Himself under the faulty dictates of human justice . . .

The Sovereign Lord submitted to imperfect human authorities . . .

The omnipresent One placed Himself within finite space . . .

The Almighty lived within natural human limitations . . .

The omniscient mind of God was hidden within a human being's ignorance

The All-knowing One experienced the process of learning . . .

The changeless, immutable One experienced the process of maturing . . .

The eternally joyful One became a man of sorrows . . .

The Great Intercessor became a man of prayer . . .

The Maker of Law was born under law . . .

The Owner of everything made Himself poor . . .

The Supreme Master became a suffering servant . . .

The Invisible One was seen and touched . . .

The One Who is Forever Blessed would become a curse for us . . .

The Living God would die for us . . .

Although He "emptied" and "humbled" Himself in this way, He never ceased in His perfections - human or divine. His divine attributes were not removed, but covered over and veiled by human characteristics. While in many ways His glorious power was hidden, His love and grace and wisdom and goodness and justice were only magnified by the incarnation - yet they were magnified in a way that is forever hidden from the hard-hearted and indelibly revealed to those who trust in Him.

The many paradoxes of Christ's Person are unbelievable to the unbelieving, yet they are the very means by which God effectually calls sinners to choose Him.

"Let the consideration of this wonderful meeting of diverse excellencies in Christ induce you to accept him, and close with him as your Savior. As all manner of excellencies meet in him, so there are occurring in him all manner of arguments and motives, to move you to choose him for your Savior, and every thing that tends to encourage poor sinners to come and put their trust in him. His fullness and all-sufficiency as a Savior gloriously appear in that variety of excellencies that has been spoken of." (Edwards, The Excellency of Christ)

Dog Fight or Sheep Fight?

Several months ago, C. Michael Patton posted an article encouraging militant Calvinists to tone down their rhetoric and stop being so antagonistic toward folks who disagree with them. It was a good and needed corrective for some of us who claim to be in the "Reformed" camp.

Predictably, a stream of militant-sounding rhetoric followed in the comments. But there were some balanced and thoughtful responses, also. Among them, I found a compelling and God-honoring appeal from someone calling himself "Tim James." Part of Tim's comment is re-posted below because it is worth reading, it's well said and it has a THEOparadox way of thinking underlying it. In fact, Tim's words THEOparadox-ed some needed humility back into me.

Tim James says . . .  

". . . The right approach to scripture and making our emotions and self bow to the authority of scripture is a difficult life long process. The thing is that we all know very little as of “now” in comparison to what we will know “then” when we are in the presence of God. The important thing is the Way, the Truth and the Life. I often sin by not giving all the glory to God and I am convicted of such sin which leads to repentance. I am constantly reminded of how feeble my mind is and how weak I am. Does my lack of knowledge or weakness put my salvation in jeopardy?

Even with the Holy Spirit working on me, I do what I ought not and don’t do what I should. It is this reality of my own state that leads me to understand that I would deny Christ tomorrow if it wasn’t for Him and the grace afforded to me. I also know that I was born evil and would never have chosen Christ were it not for the fact that He called me with an irresistible call exactly as God had desired before I was even born. Sometimes our feeble four dimensional earth bound minds cannot fully comprehend the ways of God. The way to salvation has been revealed but the exact mechanics of this re-birth and indwelling of God is still a complete mystery. It blows my mind every time I consider how awesome God is and what He’s done with salvation.

. . . Should we fight with those who in our eyes are less enlightened than ourselves, or patiently preach truth in love? There’s a lot I don’t know and a lot I’ve probably misinterpreted, but this will not undo God’s purpose and will not destroy my salvation but in fact, when revealed to me, will only draw me closer to God in complete wonder about His mercy and grace as He deals patiently with this pile of dust. This humility and the desire to love others as we love ourselves should temper our attitudes and approach no matter how right we are. What is sometimes depicted does not look like brotherly love at all. I’m not suggesting that we should abandon truth nor the seeking of it, only that the presentation is a little more humble and graceful.

Isaiah 52:14 - The Astonishing Sacrifice

"Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men. "

There are some intense thoughts here for the interested reader. Please consider these points as seeds for deeper meditation on the cross of Christ. God's Word REVEALS God's character - and His work on the cross reveals mysterious wonders that are satisfying food for our hungry, sin-sick souls. This is where we find the greatest encouragements, and the deepest change. We begin with an examination of the Hebrew word for "astonished." I pray that you and I and all mankind will fall down in utter awe before the Beautiful One Who died for lost, disgusting sinners like us. (Had I said "wretched," you wouldn't have tripped over that sentence. But the two words are synonymous - do you believe it? Until we believe it, won't be astonished by the cross.)

Astonished = Heb. SHAMEM, שמם - "To be desolate, be appalled, stun, stupefy ... to be desolated, be deflowered, be deserted ... be awestruck." (Brown-Driver-Briggs). "Basic to the root is the desolation caused by some great disaster, usually as a result of divine judgment.... the sense of 'horror' and 'shock' brought about by the vision of desolation. It is the inner response to the outward scene." (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament), "Awestruck or astonished." (Bible Knowledge Commentary).

The Cross is an Astonishing Thing
Gazing upon the cross of Christ will leave us blessedly desolate, as we are finally freed from ourselves, and liberated from the destructiveness of sin, and rightly made nothing in our own eyes. The cross properly deflowers us from the self-wrought veneer of our own glory. As worms looking up to the cross, we see what we are in what He became for us. As puffed up, self-inflatable gods looking down upon the cross, we see the means by which we may be made worms again. God knows we need to be astonished by some things. We need to be shaken out of the stupor of sin.

The Astonishment of the Cross Comes from the Marring of Christ's Appearance and Form.
Marred = Heb. MISHCHATH, משחת - "disfigurement (of face), corruption" (Brown-Driver-Briggs). Note that this is not an adjective, but an adjectival noun - representing disfigurement as personified and epitomized. The word is only used twice in the Old Testament. The other occurrence is in Leviticus 22:25, where it refers to an animal that has been bruised, crushed, torn, or cut, and is therefore unacceptable as a sacrifice. These terms fit well as a description of crucifixion, and the unacceptability of the animal may relate to Christ's work as the sin-bearing sacrifice, the One who became sin for us, and also became a curse for us. He bore our marred image, and shared with us in the destructive effects of sin - but for Him it was taken even further, so that He was marred by sin to a greater extent than we were.

This marring of the Son of God is designed to astonish us on many fronts . . .

The Cross Gives an Astonishing Revelation of the Depth of Man's Sin

On the surface of it, in the garden of Eden a piece of fruit was eaten. Today, fruit is eaten innocently on a regular basis. So what's the difference? In short, the difference is a matter of will. Adam and Eve ate the fruit contrary to God's command. In that act, for the first time, human beings defied the divine authority. We chose a course of action that was opposed to the revealed will of God. Our choice in the garden demonstrated extreme distrust for God, accusing Truth Personified of being a liar.

We dared to base the destiny of our race on the notion that Goodness Himself is somehow less than good. Our actions declared that God, Who IS LOVE, is unloving. We concluded that God was unreliable, imperfect, and unloving, and opted to build our future on the shaky sands of self-reliance, pride, and human wisdom. And by the way, we can still sin by eating fruit - if we don't eat it in faith, and to the glory of God.

Our choice in Adam opened the door to all sorts of calamity. It forfeited a perfect world for an existence fraught with tragedy. It separated us from God, ostensibly for eternity and without hope of repair or remedy. Adam had no hint that God would later move heaven and earth to undo the damage caused by humanity's rebellion.

The Cross is an Astonishing Revelation of God's Righteous Hatred for Sin, and His Just Judgment Against Sin

God's hatred for sin is not a mere preference. It is a deadly serious abhorrence of that which deserves to be abhorred. If Christ's experience on the cross shows us God's attitude toward sin, then in God's eyes there can be nothing more heinous than sin. Sinners who are not redeemed are ultimately abandoned by God. Bearing our sin, Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" The final result of sin is complete separation from God. He will have nothing to do with sin, for it is utterly and eternally odious to Him.

To further discern the awfulness of God's judgment against sin, consider that Christ's wounds were not merely physical. He appears even in heaven as "a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain." God's judgment against sin, meted out vicariously against His Own beloved Son, was much deeper than bodily death. What Christ suffered in His body was an illustration of His greater afflictions.

Just look at some of the internal aspects of Christ's sufferings:

Isaiah 53:6 ... the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

Isaiah 53:10 But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief.

Isaiah 53:11 As a result of the anguish of His soul ...

Isaiah 53:11 ... He will bear their iniquities.

Psalm 22:14 I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.

Even in Gethsemane, our Lord spoke these words:

Matthew 26:38 "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death ..."

The Cross is an Astonishing Revelation of Christ's Willingness to Suffer

Our Lord's suffering was greater than any other man's suffering ever was. At particular times, each of us has carried the objective and subjective guilt of his own sins. To an enlightened conscience, the weight of this is unbearable. Yet our knowledge of personal guilt is spread out across a lifetime, and we often succeed in distracting ourselves from it. When we believe the Gospel, we find a salve which brings comfort to our bedraggled hearts and cleanses our consciences continually. But Christ carried the sins of the many, all at one time, and without benefit of distraction or comfort. He suffered the fully concentrated blast of sin's horrendous condemnation, and the unbridled wrath of the Father. It would take an eternity in hell to justly execute God's wrath against our sin upon us. Christ received that eternity's worth of wrath, multiplied by millions or more, all in the space of a few hours at most. It's no wonder there was darkness, and there were earthquakes. In light of this, it's remarkable that the earth itself did not burst into shards of cosmic debris, and that the sun did not implode at the sight of God enduring the agony of man's sin.

When Adam's fallen sons receive the wrath of God in any measure, they can at least realize that they are receiving exactly what they deserve, and what their deeds have warranted. But Christ's suffering was magnified by His divinity and sinlessness. He never deserved an ounce of divine wrath, but He received all the infinite fury of it.

"Because Christ was infinite in dignity, glory, and power, he had to descend an infinite distance to save us." (William P. Farley, Outrageous Mercy, p. 93)

Christ's sufferings were unimaginably heavy, yet He did not suffer under compulsion. He gave Himself willingly and without a trace of malice. Typically, when we human beings suffer even slightly, we rise up with cursings of hellish anger and hatred. But the Man Christ Jesus, suffering fathomless horrors, offered forgiveness to His murderers.

The Cross is an Astonishing Revelation of God's Humble Omnipotence

There are wonders here! Absolute wonders!

Implicit in the Gospel is Christ's amazing ability to become something MORE (or at least "other") without losing (or changing) what He essentially IS in His perfect divinity. He existed eternally as God, but became a man. He lived sinlessly on earth, but became sin for us on the cross. He is forever blessed, yet He "became a curse for us." (Galatians 3:13). He was, and is, and always will be divinely perfect - yet He "took the form of a bondservant" (Philippians 2:7) "became obedient" (Phillippians 2:8), "learned obedience" (Hebrews 5:8) and "was made perfect" (Hebrews 5:9). Nevertheless, He is "the SAME yesterday, and today, and forever." All of this is consistent with His astounding humility and grace, not to mention His abundantly and overwhelmingly great and indescribably magnificent LOVE. God can do things that we can't even begin to imagine, because He is moved by "the great love with which He loved us." (Eph. 2:4).

Note: This is not an acquiescence to the heresy known as "process theology." Process theology teaches that some aspects of God are changeable by nature. Contrary to this, Scripture teaches that Christ took on human characteristics in time, without any change in His eternal deity. There is mystery here, to be sure, but the mystery should never lead us to a denial of God's sovereignty and immutability, for those are Biblical facts which must never be denied. Link: http://www.theopedia.com/Process_theology

The Cross is an astonishing Revelation of God's Infinite Love for Human Beings

Why did God the Father send His Son? Why did God the Son consent to suffer death in our place? Why did God the Holy Spirit actively participate in this divine conspiracy which involved the crushing and alienation of one member of the Holy Trinity? Surely the collective heart of the entire Godhead was broken in Christ's passion! And we ask again, WHY?

The New Testament offers up a disarmingly simple answer to this complicated question:

Titus 3:4-5 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy ...

Ephesians 2:4-5 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) ...

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends."

At the cross, inexorable justice meets fathomless love. And there is sufficient sacrifice here to save a world that has abandoned it's Creator.

The person who looks upon the cross with faith sees this: his own sins have caused the suffering, shed the blood, and taken the life of the Perfect Man who is the Son of God. By this fact we are ever crushed. But God has used the cross to wipe out the debt of our sins and bring us back into fellowship with Himself. By this fact we are ever renewed and made joyous again.

So, first we are astonished at our wretchedness. But as we continue to consider the cross, we become even more amazed at God's stupefying grace.

Dear friend, are you astonished yet? If not (or if not enough), keep setting your gaze upon the cross. There you will find that God gives you everything you need, and all that He requires.