Luther, Justification, and me

The is a repost from over three years ago, and although the details have changed, the principles remain the same. It seemed appropriate for Reformation Day.

Yesterday i read a prayer letter from some dear friends. It mentioned that part of their new year routine was to get up earlier in the morning to spend more time reading the Bible before going to work. Amen, i'm there with you.

The only 'resolution' i made this year was to get up at 6am, so i could have a longer quiet time before heading off to work. Edwards probably wasn't joking when he said Christ recommended getting up early by rising early on the third day. Now 6am isn't very early by Pitt County standards, but it is only shortly after the time i'd go to bed in my student days, so it still presents a challenge to my motivation and discipline.

So far all's been going well. I have my coffee, a chapter of 'What Jesus demands from the world' some prayer, my Bible schedule (leviticus and matthew at the moment) and then some of whatever book is next in Teen Church (Colossians at the moment). After this i go to work happy, satisfied, ready.

This morning, my time was unavoidably interrupted. Interrupted is the wrong word, cut short perhaps would be better. But anyway, i was out of routine. And here's the challenge that represents to me, how much is my standing with God based on what i do between 6-730 each morning.

I'm told that on his desk Luther had written something like 'Ex baptisma' meaning, 'i am baptised'. This was to remind him that his salvation was out side of himself. That his justification depended on something that he had not done. Not 'being baptised', that was his way of remembering the life, death and ressurection of Christ on his behalf. Luther knew that whatever he was doing, telling Melanchthon he hadn't sinned enough, building his bowling alley, or throwing an ink well at the Devil, he was safe, he was secure, his justification was outside of him.

I'd love to say that my quiet times leave happy, satisfied and ready because because my heart is filled by the glory of the Gospel of the happy God each morning. But more often than not, i'm happy because i can tick a box, i can file away 'devotions' for another morning. Justification by quiet time is the great evangelicalism of my generation.

So on a flustered, irregular morning, what does Luther remind me? That i am a son of God through faith in Christ (Gal 3:26). And that is enough.

Waiting for Sunrise

In the face of loss, and the sorrow that goes with it, we really only have two choices. Curse God and die, or thank God and keep living. Mourn like non believers, or mourn like Christians. So today, this week, this season, we mourn for Harry Goode, (whose name i can barely type) but not as those who rage against the fading of the light. We mourn like those who are waiting for sunrise.

This year, both my parents' fathers have died, and i've greeted both of their deaths in the same way. One part sorrow, two parts incomprehension. This is the first week that Dadda has missed since 1921. That's a lot of weeks. And how can he be gone, he's always been there. Reading the paper, sweeping up, baking, and when the baking was less successful, calling his sister-in-law (in Australia) for help. And Grandfather, such a force of life, silenced. And in their place, a heavy man, who won't stop sitting on my chest.

Incomprehension. I wonder if this was the problem in the road to Emmaus. How could Jesus be dead? How could the one who spoke to Moses, to calmed the storm, who made the lame dance, be dead? If you're struggling to believe someone's dead, you'll have an even harder time believing their alive and leading a Bible study.

But He was alive. More than alive, He was life. He had won, He had stepped out of the grave, He had fallen to ground and even now bares much fruit, He lived, he died, and now behold He lives forevermore.

So now, even as we mourn our eyes are peeled for sunrise. We're learning forward in our chairs waiting for the call to come out, which is no longer restricted just to Lazarus. We wait, and we know that dawn is coming. And then incomprehension will turn to understanding, mourning to dancing, aching to singing, defeat to victory.

Halloween: Trick or Treat? (Video)

On Comfort in Life and Death

What is your only comfort in life and death?

That's a pretty serious question i suppose, especially in a culture that doesn't like to think much about death. Comfort in life is pretty easy. I'm popular, i'm loved, i'm rich, i'm famous, i'm successful. Even if none of those things are true, we comfort ourselves with virtual reality, or our drug of choice. Comfort in life can be found, but what about comfort in life and death?

If there a comfort that goes beyond the grave? Is there a comfort for those left behind. You can't take it with you, they say...but what if you could. The Heidelberg Catechism provides an excellent answer:

That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.

Isn't that wonderful? What's our comfort in life? Not fame or fortune, but that we belong body and soul to a faithful Saviour. What's our comfort in death? That Jesus Christ has paid fully for all our sins with His precious blood and all things must work for our salvation. True comfort in life, lasting comfort in death.

To see this comfort and assurance lived out is a special thing. My paternal grandfather, 'Dadda' passed away on Tuesday morning. He was never rich, or famous, he didn't need to be, his riches were found in the comfort that came from Christ. He fought in a particularly brutal theatre of World War II, protecting the Arctic Convoys after a spell in North Africa and Southern Europe, but he never really talked about it. He came home, put his medals in a box, got married, and lived his life. Even earlier this year, when he could have gone to Buckingham Palace to be awarded the new Arctic Cross medal, he wasn't really interested. His comfort was never in trinkets.

His comfort was in the fact that Christ's blood covered his sins. Out of this comfort he loved his wife, he worked his job, he raised my dad, and took his grandchildren on days out to cathedrals, RAF bases and old race tracks. There's not a village or footpath in Bucks that he was unfamiliar with. He never got lost. Even this summer, well into his 92nd year, he was sill walking canals, still gardening, still sweeping up leaves in the churchyard. His quality of life, inwardly and outwardly, was nothing short of extraordinary.

He no longer lives by faith, but by sight, and his body rests, awaiting his glorious resurrection. I'm glad Christ's death was his comfort in life, i'm glad that Christ's death was his comfort in his own death, and mine today.

Jesus is our... (Hebrews 5:1-10)

I love studying the book of Hebrews, because it’s helping me grow as a Christian, it’s helping me love Jesus more, and love sin less. This is how it’s supposed to be for Christians. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says ‘we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another.’ Put simply, as we spend time with Jesus, we become more like Him. As we spend time with Jesus, we come to life. Jesus says in John 17:3 that ‘this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ who you have sent.’

Every religious activity is only valuable to the degree that it helps us to see Jesus. And the author to the Hebrews is relentless in His approach, grabbing us by the collar and focusing us on Jesus. When you know Jesus better, your confidence in Him is stronger and you are filled with courage to live and speak for Him. We need to meet the real Jesus in the Bible. We need to see Him as our only hope if we are to have any hope.

We see four things about Jesus in this passage as the author continues where we left him a couple of weeks ago explaining to us about His role as our High Priest, our representative. Tonight we see that Jesus represents us, helps us, heals us and saves us. What a great God we have, what a great God Jesus is!

First of all we see that Jesus, our High Priest, represents us. Verse one tells us that the High Priest was chosen from among men to act on behalf of men. Verses 9 and 10 tell us that Jesus, as a man, was made perfect so He could represent us. We understand why the High Priest had to be a man. No one else could represent men, no one else could stand in front of God for the cause of men. And that’s why Jesus had to be a man. Every Christmas, near enough, we hear people talk about the virgin birth as if it didn’t matter. What do we lose if we lose the virgin birth, they ask. Well we lose Jesus, we lose our representative. What does it matter that Jesus was fully man? Well He is only our representative to the extent that He was a man. Only a man can stand before God and represent men, Jesus can only represent you if He was fully human.

Just let that sink in for a moment, Jesus is able to represent you. That’s why we pray ‘in Jesus name,’ because He represent us. When you think about Heaven, it’s not a place where you are a stranger, or where you are not known or recognized, it’s a place where you are represented by the Son of God.

Next we see that Jesus is able to help us. Look at verse 2 and verse 8 with me. Verse 2 is talking about the human High Priest. Since he was best, or weighed down, or familiar with weakness, he was able to sympathize with those who were weak. You could go to the High Priest and find a sympathetic hearing because he was just like you. Verse 8 tells us that Jesus, ‘learned obedience though what He suffered.’ Don’t be thrown off by the idea of Jesus learning to be obedient, He was always 100% obedient to His Father, but, as a man He now has knowledge of what suffering really is like. First hand, knowledge of brutal, unfair suffering. He didn’t have that in Heaven at His Father’s side. So He didn’t become obedient, he became obedient through suffering.

So get this. The next time you suffer, whether physically or socially or spiritually. The next time you’re injured or betrayed, and you go to Jesus about it, He knows. He mourns with those who mourn and hurts with those who hurt, and He knows exactly what it’s like. What a saviour, how can this Jesus not dominate our lives.

Next we see that Jesus is able to heal us. Verse 3 tells us that human high priest ‘was obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins,’ but verse 7 tells us that Jesus was heard, not because of His offerings, but ‘because of His reverence.’ The human High Priest had to make an offering for his own sins before he could make an offering for the sins of the people. He was heard because he killed a goat and shed it’s blood on the altar for his own sins. Jesus was perfect, and was heard because of His reverence. Now, the blood of sheep and goats can not take away sins, they can not healing a sinner. They were never supposed to, they were always just a sign post.

But Jesus blood can.

If you feel trapped in a sin you can’t get out of, Jesus can heal you. If you fell stuck in sin, Jesus can heal you. If you feel like there’s no way you have any hope of escaping sin, you’re right. Only Jesus has that power, and Jesus blood can heal you. Jesus shed His blood to win you from sin. Jesus went to the cross so that you would see Him and love Him more than sin. He went to the cross to heal you. He didn’t shed goats blood, He shed His own blood.

And because He shed that blood, He’s able to save us. Verse 9 tells us that Jesus is the source of eternal salvation. Isn’t that good? The human high priest could not save his people, he could only cover their sins and look forward to the day when Jesus would come and die, and by dying offer forgiveness. Eternal salvation to those who want it. That’s what it means to obey the Him in verse 9. Just by asking for salvation, living with confidence in Jesus, not yourself. Have you done that? When the devils comes and asks you why God would ever listen to you, ever accept you, ever save you, does your answer start with ‘because I,’ or ‘because Jesus?’

Where is your confidence tonight? This author, and this youth pastor desire that you trust, and hope, and delight in nothing apart from what Jesus has done. You will be tempted your whole life, every moment, but when you are tempted remember you have a sympathetic representative in Heaven who can and will help you overcome sin. And when you fail, you have someone in Heaven, God’s Son, who has shed His blood for you, and will forgive you every time you ask. The next time you’re tempted to compromise your faith, the next time you’re tempted to walk away, the next time you’re tempted to trust in yourself for salvation, remember Jesus helping you, healing you, sympathizing with you, and saving you.

Because He Didn't He Will

I love reading the Psalms. It's hard not to be moved by the thought of Jesus and the twelve signing the songs of ascent on the way to the Garden of Gethsemene. If you're sad, or lonely or betrayed, or overjoyed, there's a Psalm for that.

The Psalms are David's song book, and therefore Jesus song book, because if David did it, Jesus did it. But how do we reconcile the Psalms where Jesus is praying for rescue, for deliverance, and for help? Well, in two great, encouraging ways.

First of all, we know that Jesus was heard by His Father. Every time He retired to a quiet place to pray, He was heard. he prayed all night, and He was heard all night. His prayers were answered as thousands were fed and Lazarus was raised. The Father heard His Son.

Except in the Garden. 'Remove this cup...' And nothing but silence. No booming voice, no still small sound. Nothing. Just the night, the breeze, and the deep breathing disciples. That time the Father turned His back on His Son, and he didn't hear Him, He didn't listen to Him, He didn't answer Him.

And because He didn't hear Jesus, we know He'll hear us. Jesus wasn't heard, the cup wasn't passed over, so our sin was. Jesus carried His cross up the hill, the Lord provided a lamb, and our sin was taken away. And now, in Jesus name, our sin is paid for, and the Father's ears unstopped. What a saviour!

Because He didn't hear Jesus cries for rescue, we know He'll hear ours. Because He turned His back on Jesus, He will never turn His back on us. Even our half mumbled, ill attended early morning prayers are heard in Jesus name, the rich man's signature on the crumpled cheque.

Jesus wasn't heard, so you always will be. So you can pray boldly, pray confidently, pray for help, pray for your friends, pray for your concerns and worries and sickness. Because he didn't hear Jesus, He will  hear you.

Hungry Beggars

Let me start with a statement: religious activities are only valuable insofar as they open our eyes to Jesus.

By Religious activities i mean things like church attendance, Bible reading, baptism and communion and sharing our faith. They only have as much value as they give us of Jesus. By themselves, sitting in a cathedral/movie theatre/somewhere in between, has no value. By itself, memorizing an old book has little value outside pure aesthetics. Eating and drinking inside that building may fill our stomachs (a tiny bit) but has no value beyond that. Unless...unless we remember, and know, and revive these things as full of meaning, full of blessings, and full of glory. Unless, in other words, these things open our eyes to Jesus.

You should go to church. The more i think about it, and the more i see it, the more i think that your attitude to church is a direct reflection of your attitude towards Jesus. The Bible doesn't tell Christians to go to church any more than it tells us to keep breathing oxygen.

We should read our Bibles. If you ignore your spouse except when you're in trouble no one thinks you have a good marriage. If you only talk to your friends when you need a favour, then they won't be your friends for very long.

You should take part in the ordinances of the church. If you aren't baptised, and skip communion, you probably don't understand the death and resurrection of Jesus. And you need to understand these things.

You should share your faith. How can we say 'look at my new clothes,' or 'did you see that goal,' but never 'do you know Jesus?' We talk about the things we love, we can't help ourselves.

But, none of these things, by themselves, mean a rip if they don't help us to see Jesus. Life is about seeing Jesus. Life is knowing Jesus, as He prays in John 17:3. Growth is about seeing Jesus, as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:17. There's a scene in the first Matrix movie where Neo complains that his eyes hurt. Morpheus tells him that it's because he's using them for the first time. To see Jesus with our ears, eyes and heart is to use them for their purpose. It might hurt for a while. It's supposed to.

So read the Bible. But read it like a hungry beggar who has happened upon a feast, not a detached literary critic, or a 10th grader learning algebra. 'Open my eyes so that i might see wonderful things...'

Commit to seven day a week church life. But not to collect a token, not because you may live in the only corner of the world remaining where people will talk about you if you're not in church. Commit to church because Jesus is committed to church, commit to church because that's where you belong. 'Open my eyes so that i might see wonderful things...'

Be baptised, celebrate communion. But not because 'that's what happens at church,' but because these ceremonies are filled with life and meaning by the risen Lord. Because we have been lifted out of the water, and we must feast on His flesh to live. 'Open my eyes so that i might see wonderful things...'

Share your faith. Tell your friends, and co-workers and neighbors to come with you because you'll do them good. Overflow with Jesus when people ask you about your weekend. So live and so speak that the aroma of Christ floats around you. 'Open their eyes, so they might see wonderful things...'

Christianity is seeing Jesus. Make sure your glasses are on straight.

On The Fringe

Over the past thirty years, people's view of atheism has shifted from seeing it as being fringe, extreme, and morally suspect. Now, secular, atheistic ideology seems to be at the heart of the British establishment. No one bats an eyelid that the leaders of the two main political parties are atheists.

Michael Foot, leader of the Labour Party in the early 80s, was seen to be brave, principled, even foolish for not tempering his atheistic beliefs. This can't be waived off with the suggestion that 'everyone used to be a Christian,' - even the ruthless sceptic Voltaire admitted 'i want my lawyer, my tailor, my servants, even my wife to believe in God, because it means that i shall be cheated and robbed and cuckcolded less often...If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.' 

While many find the new atheists (Dawkins, Miller, Grayling, et al) a tad angry and awkward in their presentation, their application of evolutionary biology to religion and ethics is mainstream. Moreover it is now Christianity which is held to have the extreme, edgy and morally suspect worldview. Christianity is variously accused by aspects of the establishment as being totalising, judgmental, homophobic and threatening to the harmony of our secular state. Christians who wear crosses to work or who publicly express the historic, Biblical view on homosexuality may find themselves arrested by the police or dragged in front of employment tribunals.

Richard Cunningham, UCCF Director, UCCF Annual Review

In my 10th grade history class on Friday, we talked about how Christianity went from being illegal to mandatory in the Roman Empire in just 70 years. 'And the church has never recovered,' i quipped. The current state of affairs, and the change in that state has been brilliantly outlined above by Richard Cunningham, and the situation in the United States can't be far behind, in the bigger cities at least. But i'm not sure it's a bad thing. Richard goes on to talk about how the change in mood on British campuses has lead to more and more people asking about the Gospel.

Why?

I think because Christianity, by design, does it's best work around the edges of culture, rather than in the mainstream. Jesus, after all, was a carpenter living in a backwater of a backwater, rather than the Roman Emperor. His earliest followers were fishermen and tax collectors from the wrong side of town. It was Peter's redneck twang that revealed him in the high priest's courtyard. And yet these men changed the world. You're reading this because of them!

I say all of that to say simply, we must not lose heart, or grow frustrated when we see Christianity and Christians pushed to the fringes of social acceptability. That's where we've been for most of time, in most of the world. And as proven by the work on British university campuses, that's where we do our best work...

How To Deal With Sin

There is one thing that you have in common with a man drowning in the ocean. There is one thing you have in common with the student who hasn’t studied for his math test. There is one thing you have in common with the explorer lost in the desert. You need help. They all need help, they all need to be rescued from a hopeless situation, and so do you and I. That’s what these verses are about, remembering and finding grace to help us in our time of need.

But our need is much more desperate than the drowning sailor, or the poorly prepared student, or the wandering explorer. We need rescue from an eternal punishment, we need help in dealing with our sins. We need help to not sin sure but we also need help in the aftermath of our sin. What do I mean? I mean, we need help to deal with what happened on Saturday night when it’s Sunday morning. How will we deal with what we did at 10pm on Saturday at 10am on Sunday? How will we deal with what we did on Wednesday morning on Wednesday evening?

The answer to that question tells us a lot about our faith, it tells us a lot about what we hope in, and what we think saves us. I think there are three options before us when it comes to dealing with our sin the morning after.

The first is to ignore our sin. To tell ourselves that it was no big deal, that we didn’t mean it, that Jesus is ok with it really. We’re saved by grace through faith right? So nothing I do or say or think makes any real difference. Sin is no big deal we tell ourselves. That joke, that look, that smart off to the teacher that made everyone laugh, they don’t matter. I’ll just ignore it and carry on like normal. To not take sin seriously, to make light of it, to brush it off and ignore it is a terrible place to be. This is the way to a hard heart; this is the way to losing grip on Jesus and falling away from your faith. I’ve said before, but it’s true, no one wakes up one morning and decides to fall away, but over time, we sin and we sin and we sin, and we think it’s ok. And then we stop caring. And then we fall away.

The second option in dealing with sin has the same result, falling away, but it gets there differently. When we sin, instead of making a small deal of it, we make too big of a deal about it. We start thinking, ‘if I was really saved I’d never do that.’ We sulk and hide, we quit reading the Bible, we quit going to church, and we stop talking to God and to our Christian friends. We start hiding, and we fall away. We think that, somehow, our sin is bigger than Jesus death, we think that there’s no way we could be in a relationship with God now, so we give up. This is the reason that so many Christians disappear. They fall into sin and they have no way of dealing with it. So instead of ‘holding fast to their confession,’ they give up on Jesus.

Verse 14 tells us that we have a high priest. The high priest was the figure in the Old Testament who would represent the people before God. He was the one who made sacrifices in the temple and once a year and stood before the presence of God Himself to shed blood for His people. He was the people’s hope, they knew as long as he made his sacrifices every year that they would be able to have their sins forgiven. But he was just a man…our High Priest is Jesus! The Son of God! Who sits at God’s right hand! What a much greater hope we have in Him! 

But, this is only good news if He is on our side when He represents us. When we sin, the last thing we want is Jesus sitting there pointing it out to the Father right? Rolling His eyes at us. That’s why verse 15 is such good news, fresh air and cool water to the sin troubled soul. ‘for we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.’

Jesus is a sympathetic High Priest. That is such good news. He knows our weaknesses, He knows our struggles and our burdens, He knows we’re weak, because He’s been there, so He sympathizes. When you come to Jesus for the 1000^th time over the same sin He doesn’t turn away, He helps.

How good is it that we have a God, a High Priest, a Saviour who has been tempted like us in every way, faced a greater temptation than you or I will ever know, and yet came through it all. And now this Son, this High Priest sits next to God, sympathizes with us, and represents us. His ear is turned towards you, and His arms are open to receive you, no matter what you’ve done. Or how many times you’ve done it.

How do we deal with sin? As Christians. We don't ignore it, but neither do we let it overwhelm us. Instead we let temptation drive us to Christ, and Christ drive us from temptation.