Preventing gospel amnesia

Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are in our thoughts as a family these days. We are growing in our knowledge of and concern about these devastating afflictions because of the apparent conditions of loved ones. I may write about this subject in the future, but there is another one it brings to mind for this post.

As destructive as these neurological disorders can be, there is another form of forgetting that can be overwhelming spiritually for a Christian. It is gospel amnesia, as some have labeled it.

When we fail to realize the gospel of Jesus is indispensable not just to being saved from our sins but to all of our Christian life, we are suffering – in essence – gospel amnesia. When we fail to remember the gospel of Jesus during both the exhilarating and mundane moments of life, we are suffering gospel amnesia. When we fail to remind ourselves of the gospel in both the advances and setbacks of life, we are suffering gospel amnesia. When we replace the gospel with counterfeit and powerless substitutes that maximize human work and minimize Christ’s work, we are suffering gospel amnesia – or worse.

Don Carson explains in his book The Cross and Christian Ministry what can happen when a person, church or movement declines into gospel amnesia:

I have heard a Mennonite leader assess his own movement in this way. One generation of Mennonites cherished the gospel and believed that the entailment of the gospel lay in certain social and political commitments. The next generation assumed the gospel and emphasized the social and political commitments. The present generation identifies itself with the social and political commitments, while the gospel is variously confessed or disowned; it no longer lies at the heart of the belief system of some who call themselves Mennonites.

Whether or not this is a fair reading of the Mennonites, it is certainly a salutary warning for evangelicals at large.

One thing we cannot afford to do as followers of Christ or as a church is to assume the gospel. Assuming the gospel – its definition and its significance – can lead to forgetting the gospel, if not disowning it.

That is disastrous for a Christian and a church. And that is why we, as a church, spend time each Sunday in explaining the gospel in our singing, reading, praying and preaching. And that is why those of us who follow Jesus must remind ourselves of the gospel regularly. And that begins with making sure we know the gospel.

What is the gospel? In brief, the gospel is the good news that God has extended unmerited favor to sinners. The sovereign and holy God who has created all people has every right to judge sinners – and every person is a sinner -- for their rebellion against Him and His rule. Yet, He has poured out His judgment on His Son, Jesus Christ, who lived a perfectly righteous life but willingly died as a substitute for sinners. God the Son’s death on a cross totally satisfied God the Father’s punishment of sin for all who repent and trust in Jesus for salvation.

From that all-sufficient work by Christ the Lord flow vast benefits for eternity – benefits I plan to rehearse in future posts.

* -- Photo source.

First Sunday of Advent: He came to save His people

(This is the first in a four-part series that seeks to help Christians observe Advent, that season celebrating the coming of our Savior and leading to Christmas Day. My wife, Linda, and I did a 31-day devotional booklet to observe Christmas as a gift to Covenant Community Church in 2004. This blog series is designed for use on each Sunday of Advent, but it can be used at any point beginning today.)

We begin Advent with this assurance from God Himself -- Jesus accomplished exactly and totally what He came to do. We know this from the first chapter of the New Testament.

When Joseph learns his betrothed, Mary, is pregnant, he decides to give her a bill of divorce privately, but an angel intercedes. The angel tells him in a dream, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20b-21).

The meaning of His name -- "Jehovah saves" -- explained a purpose in His coming. He would "save His people from their sins." Who are "His people?" All those whom His Father has given Him. Jesus Himself testifies to this fact.

He told a crowd, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. . . . This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day" (John 6:37, 39).

He prayed to His Father, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. . . . I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17:1b-2, 4).

Jesus accomplished what He was sent to do -- "save His people from their sins." His thoroughly accomplished work purchased a people for Himself, a people consisting of all those His Father gave Him. As those given by the Father to the Son and saved therefore by the Son, we can rejoice at Christmas. Jesus came to save us, and He accomplished exactly and totally what He came to do.

Here is "Come to Save Us," a song by the group All Sons and Daughters that fits with this successful mission of Jesus.

What should we think of the 'right to die?'

Brittany Maynard took her life last Saturday. She had announced her intention to do so long before she made suicide the final act of her earthly life. In the process, she became a public advocate for the "right to die" and physician-assisted suicide.

Death is a great enemy for all of us. To know a 29-year-old woman is suffering gravely with terminal cancer is to recognize she and other human beings have experienced pain most of us cannot identify with or have not experienced yet. We should grieve for her, her widowed husband and her other family members. But should we -- as those who follow Christ and seek to live under the authority of God's Word -- affirm assisted suicide as an appropriate alternative for a human being or a wise policy option for a society?

No!

Here are four reasons I believe we should oppose the "right-to-die" or "death-with-dignity" movement. I write, of course, from an intentionally Christian perspective for Christians, but I believe these truths are important for a society as well. It is vital we, as God's people, think biblically about this critical issue.

(1) The "right to die" -- manifested in assisted suicide and, in countries where it is legal, euthanasia -- violates the sanctity of human life. The biblical perspective is that each human being is made in the image of God and has intrinsic worth from conception until natural death. Interfering in that continuum at any point -- whether in another's life or your own -- is to contravene that sacred truth. Every human life is worthwhile, no matter its age or condition.

(2) The "right to die" defies God's sovereign rule. The Creator is also the Sustainer and Controller. He has made each person in His image. As Creator, only He has the right to determine when a person's life ends. When a person seeks to kill himself, he seeks -- maybe unknowingly -- to wrest control from God; he seeks to throw off God's rule; he seeks to exercise his self-rule in the face of the one true Ruler.

The day before Brittany Maynard's suicide, John Piper wrote this for Christians: "Not only do our lives belong to God by virtue of being created in his image, but now we are his — in life and death — by virtue of the purchase of Christ. We are doubly not our own. Our life and our death belong to God. He gives, and he takes. And he has put a double seal on that unique divine right: You are mine, by birth and by blood. You do not live, and you do not die, on your own terms." (You can read his entire post here.)

(3) The "right to die" undermines a society's responsibility to protect human life. We don't typically enact laws that give permission for an individual to kill someone, even himself. The unspoken, but inferred, message of the "right-to-die" movement is -- some lives are not worth living. In Western Civilization, we thought we buried that wicked ideology in the grave of Nazi Germany. It has been resuscitated, however, and is gaining acceptance in our day.

(4) The "right to die" too easily becomes the requirement to die. This can happen as a society with an aging population becomes more accepting of assisted suicide. This can happen as a government facing declining resources struggles to meet health-care challenges, especially for the elderly and infirmed. This can happen as family members recognize the cost to them of caring for the aged and terminally ill. As the "right to die" takes root and spreads its poisonous vines, the expectation grows that the terminally ill, disabled, infirm and elderly will recognize their responsibility to family and society and choose assisted suicide. Some European countries are ahead of us in this regard. Assisted suicide has given way there to euthanasia, even involuntary euthanasia -- even on disabled newborns.

How should we respond as those rescued by the One who conquered death? Here are three recommendations, briefly mentioned in this case:

-- Oppose government efforts to legalize assisted suicide.

-- Promote the kind of pain management by caring health-care professionals that alleviates suffering.

-- Be the church, the caring community that presents biblical truth while serving people as they suffer.

* -- Photo source.

The verse that awakened Martin Luther

(This is one of two Reformation Day posts I am republishing today. This one on the Bible verse God used to bring Martin Luther to understand justification by faith is from 2011.)

Today is Reformation Day. While Halloween is observed by many, we – as evangelical and Reformed – have reason to celebrate what this occasion represents. On Oct. 31, 1517, Catholic monk Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Luther sought a debate on the practice of indulgences in the Catholic Church, but his action that day helped produce something much greater. He ignited a conflagration that swept through Europe and continues to burn today. It is known as the Reformation. As it has been described, it was a recovery of the gospel that had grievously been lost by the church.

The Reformation truths restored included the sole authority of Scripture, the headship of Christ over His church and salvation by grace alone. At the heart of the Reformation – and of Luther’s transformation into a courageous reformer – was the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

The key verse God used in Luther’s spiritual awakening was Rom. 1:17. Church historian Bruce Shelley describes it this way in his book Church History in Plain Language:

A new and revolutionary picture of God began developing in Luther’s restless soul. Finally, in 1515 while pondering St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans Luther came upon the words: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (1:17, KJV). Here was his key to spiritual certainty: “Night and day I pondered,” Luther later recalled, “until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement that ‘the just shall live by his faith.’ Then I grasped that the justice of God is that righteousness by which through grace and sheer mercy God justifies us through faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise.”

Luther saw it clearly now. Man is saved only by faith in the merit of Christ’s sacrifice. The cross alone can remove man’s sin and save him from the grasp of the devil. Luther had come to his famous doctrine of justification by faith alone. He saw how sharply it clashed with the Roman church’s doctrine of justification by faith and good works – the demonstration of faith through virtuous acts, acceptance of church dogma, and participation in church ritual.

We can give thanks today for God’s gracious work in and through Martin Luther and many others. May we guard the gospel so our church never loses it, and may we proclaim it clearly to others.

The five 'solas' of the Reformation

(This is one of two Reformation Day posts I am republishing today. This one on the five solas of the Reformation is from 2012.)

Happy Reformation Day!

As evangelical Christians, we should rejoice in this day and what it represents. On Oct. 31, 1517, a Catholic monk named Martin Luther nailed his “95 Theses” to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. That event helped set off the Reformation, which continued for decades and still affects us today. We will celebrate the 500th anniversary of this history-changing event in five years, God willing.

That reform came at great cost to Luther and many others, and we continue to benefit from their sacrifice and the truths they recovered, stood for and proclaimed. The issues that produced the Protestant and evangelical movements remain important today.

The truths of the Reformation are often summarized as the five solas. That word, sola, means “only” or “alone.” The five are: Scripture alone; Christ alone; grace alone; faith alone, and the glory of God alone.

The use of the word “alone” is important. For instance, the Roman Catholic Church did not deny Scripture had authority; it said Scripture was not the sole final authority.

I was reminded of the ongoing importance of the Reformation and its impact on our lives at a recent Capitol Hill briefing I covered as a news reporter. A panel of three evangelicals and a Roman Catholic gathered to discuss criminal justice in the United States.

One evangelical spokesman, a Southern Baptist, said early in his presentation, “Southern Baptists consider themselves people of the Book. Our question always first is: What does the Bible have to say about an issue?” The next speaker, also an evangelical, affirmed that view.

The representative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops followed and said, “[W]hile the Southern Baptists and evangelicals might be people of the Book, Catholics are people of the papal encyclical and the bishops statement.”

Many in the audience laughed, but that brief account demonstrated one of the differences that still remain between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.

As we think about the Reformation ignited by Luther on this date 495 years ago, let us remind ourselves of these truths:

-- Scripture alone is our final authority, not Scripture plus an individual, council, church, tradition, experience or document.

-- Christ alone is our mediator with God, not Christ plus any human righteousness or accomplishment.

-- Grace alone is the way of salvation, not grace plus any human work or method.

-- Faith alone is the means of justification, not faith plus any human merit or infusion of Christ’s righteousness.

-- The glory of God alone is the purpose of life, not His glory plus that of any other.

As those saved by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone, may we hold onto these truths as we recognize our ongoing need for reformation in our own lives.

Scripture's testimony to the church's importance

One of the struggles we seem to have in American Christianity is to gain a proper understanding of the significance of the church. We have to overcome the erroneous concept the church is a building or a meeting. We have to surmount the privatized nature of much of evangelical Christianity.

Fortunately, the tide has been turning in the last decade or two. Christians increasingly seem to understand the value and significance of the church to God – and to their lives.

The local church is integral to every Christian. To begin to understand the value of the local church, it helps to understand the value of the church in its fullness – what is referred to as the universal church.

Apart from many scriptural references that do not use the word "church" while clearly referring to it, here are four truths based on the New Testament's use of that word that demonstrate its importance:

1. The church is loved by Christ, who died to save her. “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25b).

2. The church belongs to Christ and is built by Him. “[U]pon this rock I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18b).

3. The church is the body of Christ, who is her head. “And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:22-23).

4. The church is the means by which God shows His wisdom to spiritual beings. “[T]he manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places” (Eph. 3:10).

May a growing comprehension of what the church is fuel a deepening love in us for Christ and His church.

'The lost virtue of modesty'

I preached a sermon regarding modesty on the last Sunday of August and followed with two blog posts you can read here and here.

Much more could be said to Christians about modesty, and Kevin DeYoung made a great contribution to that effort with "The lost virtue of modesty," an Oct. 2 blog post at The Gospel Coalition site. The pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Mich., eloquently made some excellent, biblical points in his post. Among the standout lines in his post:

-- “Modesty accepts that our bodies also live in community.

-- “The absence of modesty in one party does not justify the absence of restraint in another.

-- “Immodest dress tells the world, 'I’m not sure I have anything more to offer than this. What you see is really all you get.'"

The complete text of DeYoung’s post follows. I commend it to you highly.

I don’t know if modest is hottest, but I do know that modesty is biblical.

It is one of the marks of the confusion of our age that so many teenagers and young adults are more ashamed to dress with modest reserve than to very nearly undress entirely. Even after we give full throat to the necessary caveats – being pretty (or handsome) is not a sin, working to improve your appearance does not have to be vanity, the line between modest and immodest is not always black and white – we are still left with the undeniable biblical fact that God considers modesty a virtue and its opposite a vice.

Here are five biblical reasons Christians should embrace modesty as a God-designed, God-desired good thing.

1. Modesty protects what is intimate. There is a certain strand of feminism which says women should be proud of their sexual prowess and that any insistence they cover up what they don’t feel like covering up only serves to reinforce patriarchal notions that men have the right to determine what women do with their bodies. But the Bible’s call to modesty is not based on the supposed naughtiness of the female form. God’s good command to cover up is not meant to punish, but to protect. As Wendy Shalit writes, “The pressure on girls today to take sexy selfies comes out of a culture that routinely equates modesty with shame, instead of recognizing it for what it really is: an impulse that protects what is precious and intimate.” The common refrain of the bride – “do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases” (Song of Solomon 2:7) – is a call from one woman to a group of single women to save sexual arousal and sexual activity for its proper time, with the proper person, in the proper place.

2. Modesty accepts that our bodies also live in community. What does that mean? It means that while it sounds nice to say, “It’s my body. If I want to let it all hang out, that’s my business.” This is to forget that our bodies exist in a wider network of relationships, just like our speech does, and our actions, our will, and our desires. How we dress is not determined by how others wished we would dress. And yet, it would be sub-Christian to act as if the spiritual state of those around us was inconsequential.

Before going any further, let me state this as clearly as possible: men are responsible for their adultery, for their fornication, for their pornographic viewing, for their lust, and for their (heaven forbid) sexual assault, regardless of how a woman dresses. The Bible does not enjoin modesty on either sex because the opposite sex is simply incapable of keeping its pants on and its thoughts in check. Listen men: if Potiphar’s wife were to barge in and dance a bare-bellied jig on your kitchen table and strip you down to your birthday suit, you would still not be excused in committing adultery with her. The absence of modesty in one party does not justify the absence of restraint in another.

Having said all that, does not the law of love suggest that we should want to avoid enticing others into sin? The phrase “with lustful intent” in Matthew 5:28 is translated by some scholars (D.A. Carson among them): “so as to get her lust.” The meaning, then, instead of being about lust in the man’s heart, would be about the man wanting to get a woman to lust after him. Whether one accepts this minority position or not, it’s still a fair application to think that Jesus’ statement forbids us from having a heart attitude that lusts and a heart attitude that wants to be lusted after. Some people want to see pornography and others want to be pornography. Maybe not in a literal sense, but there are men and women who crave the power, the attention, and the status that comes from being noticed and sought after. This entices others to sin and is in itself sinful.

3. Modesty operates with the Bible’s negative assessment of public nudity post-Fall. From Adam and Eve scrambling for fig leaves (Gen. 3:10), to the dishonorable nakedness of Noah (Gen. 9:21), to the embarrassingly exposed buttocks of David’s men (2 Samuel 10:4), the Bible knows we inhabit a fallen world in which certain aspects of our bodily selves are meant to be hidden. Indeed, this is precisely what Paul presumes when he speaks of “our unpresentable parts” which must be “treated with greater modesty” (1 Cor. 12:23). There’s a reason momma called them private parts.

4. Modesty embraces the strong biblical admonition to refrain from sensuality. Sensuality (Gk: aselgeia) is a distinguishing characteristic of the flesh and one of the marks of the pagan world (Gal. 5:19; Rom. 13:13; 2 Cor. 12:21; 2 Pet. 2:2, 18). Does the word give us exact instructions on where good taste trips over into sensuality – how long skirts can be, what sort of bathing suit to wear, or whether beefy men need to run around shirtless when its 60 degrees in Michigan? No. But surely we can agree that it is not uncommon for men and women to dress in ways which only add to the look and feel of our culture’s ubiquitous sensuality. If the word aselgeia suggests sexual excess (TDNT), we would do well to consider whether the desire behind our deportment is to starve this sensual beast or to sate it.

5. Modesty demonstrates to others that we have more important things to offer than good looks and sex appeal. The point of 1Timothy 2:9 and 1 Peter 3:3-4 is not an absolute prohibition against trying to look nice. The prohibition is against trying so very hard to look good in all the ways that are so relatively unimportant. The question asked of women in these verses – and it certainly applies to men as well – is this: will you grab people’s attention with hair and jewelry and sexy clothes or will your presence in the room be unmistakable because of your Christlike character? Immodest dress tells the world, “I’m not sure I have anything more to offer than this. What you see is really all you get.”

Let me state the obvious: the Bible has no pictures. There is no inspired how-to manual for getting dressed in the morning. There are matters of culture, conscience, and context which surely come into place. I have no checklist to check off before you head out the door.

But if the Bible is to be believed, this whole business of modesty is not irrelevant to Christian discipleship. Our bodies have been bought with a price. Therefore glorify God with your body (1 Cor. 6:20). Which means we don’t show everyone everything we might think is worth seeing. And it means we won’t be embarrassed to keep most private those things that are most precious. Shame is a powerful category, in the Bible and in our own day. The key is knowing what things we should actually be ashamed of.