Cultivate the Fear of the Lord: The “Struggle” Audiobook Is Available

In the spring my book Struggle Against Porn: 29 Diagnostic Tests for Your Head and Heart was published by Rainer Publishing. The audiobook is finally available for purchase. David K. Martin did a fantastic job narrating the book.

You can buy the audiobook at Amazon and Audible and soon at Hoopla, Overdrive, and ChristianAudio.

The sample listed with the audiobook comes from Chapter 13 of the book: “Cultivate the Fear of the Lord.” Below is the text of that chapter and a way to listen. I’d love for you to check out the book.

Thanks,
Benjamin

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Chapter 13: Cultivate the Fear of the Lord

This part of the book (Cross-Training) began with the admonition to cultivate humility. Now I’ll close with the admonition to cultivate the fear of the Lord.

We often assume fear is a negative thing, which it can be. Christians shouldn’t live with the fear that God doesn’t love us. At the core of the gospel is the propitiation of God’s wrath. Any and all wrath that ought to have fallen on sinners like us was averted from God’s children and placed on Jesus (Rom 3:21–26). Therefore, we’ve nothing left to fear; the price has been paid, and the punishment has been absorbed by the Lamb of God. As John writes, “There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 John 4:18).

However, we ought to cultivate a healthy fear of the Lord. Proverbs maintains that fear is the beginning of wisdom (1:7; 9:10). When I speak of healthy fear, I mean the fear of disappointing God. I mean awe at the splendor of his majesty and wonder over his creative power. I mean reverence in response to his wrath and his justice. I mean astonishment over his loving-kindness, which has been lavished upon us in the gospel. As the apostle Paul writes, “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1).

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We also ought to cultivate a fear of our own capacity to sin. Apart from the restraining grace of God, we’re not beyond committing any sin (Gen 20:6). It might seem ridiculous to you that someday you would view porn on five Internet browsers at the same time, but it’s not beyond you. If you’re familiar with the Lord of the Rings novels, you’ve seen this concept dramatized. The characters who have the greatest respect for the power of the ring and the greatest fear of how they themselves might abuse it become the safest and most helpful to the cause (Gandalf, Aragorn, and Galadriel). On the other hand, those who are the most overconfident in their own incorruptible ability become a threat (Boromir).

This truth became clear to me during an event in college. The man who discipled me also met regularly with one of the athletic coaches who was investigating Christianity. One day he told me this coach was having trouble becoming a Christian because of all the shame he felt from “real sins.” By this, I think he meant things that so-called good Christians would never do. I remember my friend looked at me and asked, “Take stealing, for example. When was the last time you stole something?”

I said, “I dunno.” And then the conversation moved on to other things.

The very next day, as I was munching on the sausage pizza I’d just stolen, I remembered our conversation. No, I hadn’t just robbed a Dominos, but I did make an on-campus “lunch and learn” a “loot and leave.”

Though I see the point about “real sins,” I also believe we all need to be more afraid of our own capacity to sin. We need guardrails to keep ourselves from veering and driving off a dangerous cliff.

For example, it’s sometimes necessary as a pastor to have a private conversation with a woman. But when I do, I’m always very careful to have other people around. When I email women, I keep my tone formal. When my wife and I go on a date, if our babysitter is a female teenager who doesn’t drive, I’ll never be the one to drive her home.

To some, these measures may seem like overkill or paranoia but taking no precautions would be assuming I’m more spiritual than King David. Many issues led David to be alone on a roof at the time when kings were supposed to go out to battle (2 Sam 11:1). Had he established proper guardrails, the naked woman named Bathsheba might have never caught his eye, and even if she did, he may have dealt with the temptation differently.

Again, cultivating a fear of our own capacity to sin is a corollary of cultivating a healthy fear of the Lord. Apart from the restraining grace of God, we’re not beyond any sin, sexual or otherwise, which brings us right back to where this section started: cultivating humility.

Diagnostic Questions:

1. When you hear the phrase “the fear of the Lord,” what comes to mind?

2. How might fear of the Lord help you in your pursuit of purity?

3. What practical steps can you take to cultivate “good, healthy” fear—fear of the Lord and fear of our capacity to sin?

4. Are there certain sins you feel are beyond you? If so, which sins and why? In what ways are you different from those who commit those sins?

5. Guardrails aren’t necessary everywhere—only where danger exists. What guardrails have you placed in your life to keep you from driving over a cliff?

The Doctrine of Christian Living: EFCA Ordination (Part 8 of 11)

For the last few months, I’ve been writing about my ordination process in the Evangelical Free Church of America. If you’d like to read about what the process looks like, check out the first post in the series (here). Throughout the autumn, I’ll occasionally share the remaining sections of my ordination paper, which engages with our denomination’s 10-point statement of faith. This week’s post is from the section on the Christian living. I know these posts are dense. Please hang with me through a few more.

Thank you for the prayers and encouragement along the way,
Benjamin

{Previous posts in this series: God, The Bible, The Human Condition, Jesus, The Work of Christ, The Holy Spirit, The Church}

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Christian Living

8. We believe that God’s justifying grace must not be separated from His sanctifying power and purpose. God commands us to love Him supremely and others sacrificially, and to live out our faith with care for one another, compassion toward the poor and justice for the oppressed. With God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and fervent prayer in Christ’s name, we are to combat the spiritual forces of evil. In obedience to Christ’s commission, we are to make disciples among all people, always bearing witness to the gospel in word and deed.

Speaking in systematic theological terms, sanctification is the process of becoming more and more holy (Jn 17:17; Rm 6:11ff; Eph 2:10; 1 Thes 4:3; Heb 12:1). The Bible closely links “God’s justifying grace” and “His sanctifying power” in this way: God’s action of justification invariably leads to and produces sanctification, a cooperative endeavor by both God and the person. When God justifies a person, the process of change must begin (Jam 2:17–26). This change is not without setbacks, but one day, God will complete what he began (Phil 1:6). Hallelujah. The process of change varies in people: sometimes it seems nearly instantaneous in one specific area of life, and other times change plods along slowly, incrementally—two steps forward, one step back. The Lord surely has his reasons for the relative slowness and rapidity of sanctification, perhaps just fast enough so we trust he’s still working but not so quick that we get cocky. With all of his riches, Jacob’s limp wasn’t a bad thing for him; it assuaged his swagger.

When we say, “live out our faith,” we mean the deepening of a Christian’s trust in the promises of God that leads to increasing, joyful obedience. We can call this “works,” which is what Paul calls it in Ephesians 2:10. Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves never stays stagnant. In fact, Scripture is clear that final salvation requires good works—works produced by grace through faith but works nonetheless (Jn 5:28–29; Rm 8:12–14; Gal 5:21–24; 6:8–10; Heb 10:36; Jam 1:26; 1 Jn 1:7; and many, many others). To just highlight one aspect of our obedience, Christians should do good to everyone but especially those of the household of faith (Gal 6:10), which is not unlike the requirements for eldership which specify that if a person cannot care for his own household, something is wrong.

While all true believers are eternally secure, the feeling of assurance is not static. A believer’s assurance to whether he or she is a genuine believer fluctuates for a host of reasons, and progress in sanctification is one of them. When a believer lives out her faith in humble, joyful obedience, she should be encouraged that she is indeed a believer and that all the promises in the gospel are hers. A Christian in overt disobedience—what the OT sometimes calls high-handed or defiant sins (Num 15:30)—might feel very assured of his own salvation, but we might better label his assurance as false assurance. John addresses the topic of assurance extensively in 1 John 3, in which there seem to be two related components: an ethical part of assurance related to a believer’s obedience and a mystical, spiritual part that comes through the voice of the Spirit (esp. v. 24).

Jesus spoke of the greatest commandment as loving God and the second as loving our neighbor (Mt 22:37–39). We see this pattern reflected in the Decalogue (Ex 20; Dt 5). To love anything more than God, even good things such as one’s family and ministry, involves elevating a good thing to the place of God, which is idolatry. Yet when we love God rightly and preeminently, we will also love the things he loves. And because God’s own passions are committed to the poor and oppressed (Dt 10:18; Ps 140:12; Lk 4:18), the people of God ought to be characterized by these same passions—passions that translate to merciful gospel witness in both word and deed (Dt 15:11; Prov 31:8–9; Amos; Micah 6:8; Mt 23:23). In this way, each local church ought to be an oasis of compassion and an incubator of people zealous for justice as we extend the gospel and make disciples among all people, teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded (Mt 28:19–20). I spend a significant amount of time discipling men who, Lord willing, will spend their lives discipling others into deeper understanding of what it means to follow God in the home, church, and world—that is, walking with God both when everyone is watching and when no one is watching.

We should not neglect the implications of the gospel’s cosmic aim to restore all things, which includes social order, but neither should we conflate the proclamation of the gospel to simply doing good things. People changed by the gospel will do things like volunteer in a crisis pregnancy center and oppose local laws that might hurt the poor and minorities. Yet the gospel is not volunteering or lobbying, though it produces good works as a tree grows fruit.

Because God calls us to reach all people (1 Thes 3:12), ministry in general and churches in particular will always be messy. Sermons will be too long for some and too short for others. Worship music will be too expressive for some and too stuffy for others. Some will wrongly become dogmatic about secondary matters and squelch fragile unity and opportunities to build bridges. And that’s all just within the church. With all these varying maturities, backgrounds, temperaments, races, ethnicities, and economic statuses, Christians reaching non-Christians will certainly also be messy. It was in the book of Acts. But diverse people rallying around the cross of Christ glorifies God in ways monolithic uniformity does not. For if God has seen fit to unite the two oft-opposed groups of Jew and Gentiles together in one body through the cross, then we should certainly seek the same sort of unity.

When speaking of various types of diversity, it is also helpful to point out what we don’t mean. Sometimes when Christians speak of faith, we mean the faith as in an established body of doctrine (cf. 2 Thes 3:2 in the Greek, hē pistis). Jude wrote about “common salvation” and contending “for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (v. 3). These phrases become meaningless if Christianity were infinitely malleable. Yes, the Christian faith has aspects of mystery, but the Christian faith cannot be all mystery lest there be nothing to call the Christian faith once-for-all-delivered.

In evangelism, discipleship, and the advancement of God’s kingdom, there will always be opposition. Of this we are warned (Mt 10:16ff; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Pet 5:8). Our ability to discern the exact makeup of the opposition—whether the world, flesh, or devil (1 Jn 2:15–18)—is often difficult. The categories mingle. Yet God has appointed means, or we might say weaponry, for service in the battle. These means are many and varied, but we can correctly subsume them under three larger categories: God’s Word, the Spirit’s power, and prayer in Christ’s name, by which I mean prayer consistent with the will of Christ and prayed in his authority through our union with Christ (2 Cor 10:3–5; Eph 6:11; 2 Tim 4:7).

Discussion Questions (created by the EFCA)

Relationship Between Justifying Grace and Sanctifying Power and Purpose

1.  How do you understand the doctrine of sanctification? How is it related to justification?

2.  What is the purpose and function of “works” in the life of the believer?

3.  What is the relationship between a believer’s sanctification and assurance?

Great Commandment

4.  Why is love for God preeminent and why is this at the heart of understanding the Ten Commandments and is considered the first and greatest commandment of the whole of the Christian life? How does this relate to other gods and idolatry?

5.  How does our preeminent love for God (and God’s prior love of us) serve as the basis for our love for others? Is there an importance to this order?

Living Out Our Faith

6.  Why is it important to distinguish between “the faith” understood as a body of truth and “faith” understood as the way in which one lives, viz. having been justified by faith, we live by faith?

7.  Living out our faith begins with “the household of faith,” which is evidenced in “care for one another.” Why is this important?

8.  What is the biblical teaching of “the poor” and “the oppressed?”

9.  How do you understand the local church’s responsibility and role in the world, particularly ministering with compassion and justice?

Combating Spiritual Forces of Evil

10.  What is spiritual warfare? How should we combat the spiritual forces of evil?

Christ’s Commission to Make Disciples

11.  What is the importance of the command to “make disciples” and what are the God-ordained means of doing that?

12.  The scope of this ministry is “all people.” Support this biblically and explain the importance and practical outworking of this in the local church.

13.  Why is it important to distinguish between the gospel and the entailments of the gospel? How does the gospel relate to deeds of mercy and compassion? What are the implications of equating them (e.g. the social gospel), and what are the implications of creating an absolute disjunction between them?

14.  We are always to bear witness to the gospel in both proclamation (“in word”) and in life (“in deed”)? Give examples of how we can witness to the gospel “in…deed.”

* Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash

The Doctrine of The Church: EFCA Ordination (Part 7 of 11)

For the last few months, I’ve been writing about my ordination process in the Evangelical Free Church of America. If you’d like to read about what the process looks like, check out the first post in the series (here). Throughout the autumn, I’ll occasionally share the remaining sections of my ordination paper, which engages with our denomination’s 10-point statement of faith. This week’s post is from the section on the church, which also required me to interact with the preamble to our statement of faith.

Thank you for the prayers and encouragement along the way,
Benjamin

{Previous posts in this series: God, The Bible, The Human Condition, Jesus, The Work of Christ, The Holy Spirit}

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The Church

7. We believe that the true church comprises all who have been justified by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ, of which He is the Head. The true church is manifest in local churches, whose membership should be composed only of believers. The Lord Jesus mandated two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which visibly and tangibly express the gospel. Though they are not the means of salvation, when celebrated by the church in genuine faith, these ordinances confirm and nourish the believer.

In the context of the Bible, justification is the legal declaration from God that he has declared a person “not guilty” and imputed Christ’s righteousness to the repentant (Rm 3:21–30; 2 Cor 5:21). We call this exchange double imputation, the believer’s sin reckoned to Christ and Christ’s righteousness reckoned to us. All this good news comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. To say justification comes by grace is to say that the loving favor received from God is an undeserved gift (Eph 2:8; Titus 3:7). To say it comes through faith means that a person must look away from his own works and instead cling to and depend upon the provision of Christ (Phil 3:9). We add the word alone to grace to clarify that in justification we add nothing to grace or it wouldn’t be grace; alone to faith because nothing more than faith is required; and alone to Christ because no salvation is found except in Christ. The reason we do not always have to say that we need faith and repentance, though the Bible sometimes but not always says repent and believe (Mk 1:15), is because of the proper understanding of what faith includes. Faith in Christ involves turning from treasuring X, Y, and Z to treasuring Christ, which must include repentance, the renouncing of our old ways to walk in obedience.

The true church is the sum total of all those justified by Jesus—throughout all time and place. We see this understanding of the church in Ephesians 5:25b where Paul describes the church as all those for whom Christ gave himself up. Jesus loves the church as a groom loves his bride. Jesus Christ is the head of every local church because he is the head of the true, or universal, church (Eph 1:22–23; 4:15–16; 5:23; Col 1:18; 2:19; Rev 1–3). As head, Jesus lovingly rules, commands, and nurtures his church, which is his body, and in turn, his church should respect and submit to his gracious rule.

A part of the church’s role in respecting and submitting to God’s gracious rule involves the practice of the two ordinances that Jesus instituted to be carried out under the auspices of local churches, namely, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. I have experience in both paedo- and credo-views of baptism, and I see many strengths in each (as well as perhaps some weaknesses), but I do practice believer’s baptism. Once a person has experienced the saving power of the gospel, we properly display what has happened on the inside with a sign on the outside (Rm 6:1–11). In this way, baptism parallels wearing a wedding ring. It signifies to the world that the person is in an exclusive relationship with another. The ring—and baptism—do not put a person in the special relationship; they symbolize it. At our church, we do not require baptism for membership, though we certainly encourage it and typically discuss baptism with those applying for membership.

Concerning the Lord’s Supper, various views exist. The Roman Catholic Church errs in her sacramentalism, the understanding that sacraments such as the Lord’s Supper (Eucharist) confer salvific grace to participants regardless of their heart posture. Although far less dangerous, I think the strict memorialist view goes too far in the other direction, as though all we are doing is remembering. Christians never just remember anything (cf. “remembering the poor” in Gal 2:10 means far more than recalling to one’s mind that some people are, in fact, poor). When Christians remember the death of Christ by participating in the Lord’s Supper, God supplies his church with nourishing grace and unites believers. In 1 Corinthians 11:17–34, all the negative observations about the church’s malpractice of the Lord’s Supper imply spiritual blessing when practiced rightly as together we “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26; cf. 10:16). It’s common to hear people say that the provocative “eat my flesh, drink my blood” saying of Jesus in John 6 points us to the Lord’s Supper. But it’s the Lord’s Supper that points us to John 6! The bread we break and cup we drink is participating in Christ (1 Cor 10:16–17). In the Lord’s Supper we taste and see that his body and blood are true spiritual food and drink.

There seems to be a biblical, gospel-logic order to these ordinances, namely, that gospel awakening should be shortly followed by baptism (Mt 28:19; Acts 8:35–39), which should be followed by regular participation in the Lord’s Supper in a particular local church, all overseen by qualified shepherds. The last part of that sentence (in a church under the care of qualified pastor-elders-overseers) and the association in the Bible of the ordinances with whole-church unity (1 Cor 11:26) has implications on when and where the ordinances should be celebrated. A youth director should not baptize children while away at a camp, and four Christian guys on a hike or a small group Bible study should not hold a communion service; even when the small group leader is a pastor-elder, his small group is not the local church but only part of a local church. (The inability of a shut-in to come to the regular gathering of the church isn’t the same thing.) To be candid, our own local church could do a better job teaching about the ordinances. We noticed this last year when we changed the default method of handing out the communion elements. Rather than passing trays through pews, we began inviting Christians to come forward to receive, which showed us that a few unbaptized, young children were partaking as well as others we suspect have unclear professions of faith. Clearly, we have work to do.

Preamble

The Evangelical Free Church of America is an association of autonomous churches united around these theological convictions:

EFCA local churches are autonomous because no official, governing body higher than the local church (e.g., a bishop in Episcopalian government or General Assembly in Presbyterian government) decides matters of dispute, exercises church discipline, and calls pastors. Rather, each local church handles such things (Mt 18:15–17; 2 Cor 2:6). We recently updated our own local church constitution and bylaws, which were adopted long before I arrived. In one place, the document had said we were a “completely autonomous” church (emphasis added), to which I occasionally remarked in elders’ meetings “there is no such thing.” While each local church is in a sense autonomous, churches are interdependent, meaning we function best when we affiliate with other like-minded churches for the many benefits to each other and for the greater witness to Christ locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. Additionally, we too quickly forget that every church exists upon the faithful brothers and sisters who have come before us, even those who planted each of our current churches. Every church is a church plant.

There are different structures of congregational government, but each variation holds that the final authority, under Jesus Christ, belongs to the local church membership (Mt 18:18–20; 1 Cor 5:4–5). Membership in a local church is for believers, which is why the pastor-elders of our church listen to the testimony of every person applying for membership. Those reading this paper who regularly listen to membership interviews likely know both the joys of listening to the redeemed of the Lord say so (Ps 107:2) but also the angst that comes when an applicant’s testimony and gospel clarity are fuzzy.

In addition to being in the Bible, congregationalism has particular importance in the EFCA because of its European roots that reach back to the time shortly after the Reformation. The EFCA, although not officially organized and named as such until the 1950s, has strong ties to believers in Europe who sought the freedom to worship God without the constraints of state churches. Today the term free carries a different nuance in the EFCA, but the spirit of freedom continues in the way a local congregation rules its own body and decides on theological matters deemed to be of second- and third-order importance (Acts 6:1–6; 2 Cor 2:6). In our church this means membership must vote on matters such as amending the constitution and bylaws, calling and affirming pastor-elders, affirming deacons and deaconesses, approving the budget, and buying and selling property. A healthy church can thrive when each office—the office of pastor-elder, the office of deacon/deaconess, and the office of member—knows its role and humbly serves within it.

Discussion Questions (created by the EFCA)

Justification

1.  How do you understand “justification” (cf. Romans 3:21-26)?

God’s Grace Through Faith Alone in Christ Alone

2.  Define “grace” and “faith” and explain how grace and faith in Christ are related to justification.

3.  What is the significance of the emphasis on “alone?”

Body of Christ, Jesus Christ as Head of Church

4.  How are the scriptural metaphors of “the body of Christ,” “the bride of Christ,” and “the Head of the Church” to be understood?

True Church and Local Church

5.  What is the relationship between the “true church” and the “local church?”

Local Church

6.  What does it mean to be a “believers’ church?” Why is membership important for a local church? What responsibilities do members have in a local church?

7.  Address the various types of church government. What is the biblical defense of congregationalism?

8.  Within congregationalism, how should the Pastor(s), Church Board (Elders and Deacons), and Congregation function together for effective church ministry?

9.  What is your understanding of the statement that the “EFCA shall be an association and fellowship of autonomous but interdependent congregations of like faith and congregational government?” What does “autonomous but interdependent” mean? Why is denominational affiliation important for you and the congregation?

Ordinances

10.  What is the meaning and purpose of baptism? What are the various modes of baptism?

11.  What is the meaning and purpose of the Lord’s Supper? What are the various ways this is understood?

12.  How do baptism and the Lord’s Supper relate to one another, i.e. is there a biblical order? How do they “confirm and nourish the believer?”

* Photo by Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash

Who Was Luke? The Beloved Physician

If I asked you who made the most significant contribution to the New Testament, you’d likely say Paul or Peter or John. If you were cheeky, you’d say Jesus. Of course, the cheeky answer is correct.

But what if I narrowed the question? Who made the most significant contribution in terms of the total number of verses? And who was the only non-Jewish author of any book or letter in the New Testament? And who, of the gospel writers, never met Jesus while he was alive?

The answer to all of these questions is Luke. The two-volume contribution of Luke-Acts is the largest contribution by any single author, making up a quarter of the New Testament. Luke was the only non-Jewish author of any New Testament book. And Luke never, as best as we can tell, met Jesus while he was alive. He learned everything through eyewitness interviews and meticulous research, perhaps via a research grant by the wealthy patron, Theophilus, to whom Luke dedicates each volume (Luke 1:1–4; Acts 1:1–3).

Our church recently began studying through the book of Acts on Sunday mornings. It got me thinking about how Luke, the “beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14), would have introduced himself to us if he could come to our church and share his story.

It’s impossible to know precisely what he would say, but when we piece together the details about Luke in the New Testament, a beautiful story emerges that perhaps would go something like this . . .

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Luke, The Beloved Physician

My name is Loukas. I am a physician, or I was a physician. I suppose I’m known better as a historian these days, but you might just know me as Luke.[1]

The year was AD 67. In AD 67, Nero—Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus—had been Emperor for thirteen years, and winter was coming soon.[2] I was in prison in Rome with the Apostle Paul before the end of his life, just weeks before they would remove his head simply because he followed Christ and encouraged others to do the same.[3]

Now, I suppose it would be more accurate to say Paul was actually the one in prison, and I was there to care for him and help with his letters.[4] Together in that jail we wrote to a young pastor named Timothy as he pastored a church in Ephesus. Timothy’s father wasn’t Jewish, just like my mother and father.[5]

Speaking of letters, even in the early years of Paul’s ministry when he wrote to the church in Galatia, he said that his body bore “the marks of Jesus.”[6] By this, Paul meant that his body showed the physical scars of suffering for Christ. As a physician, let me assure you that this was an understatement.

Paul’s wounds were frequent and severe. Near the end, he could not even stand fully erect. That’s what happens when you’ve been beaten repeatedly to the point where your back becomes one giant open sore, and you’ve been thrown into the dust and dirt. Then you hobble away, or more likely you are carried away, to a friend’s house that has no antibiotics, no hydrogen peroxide, no Neosporin, and you spend the next week drifting in and out of consciousness as your body fights off infection and fever. As Paul’s personal physician,[7] let me assure you, when Paul said he bore on his body the marks of Jesus, it was an understatement.

Trained as a Doctor

But let me back up. My profession trained me to make observations—how to look, how to interpret, and how to record, then how to re-look, re-interpret, and re-record. As I worked with suffering people, I saw something universally true. I saw that people almost always avoid suffering.

I lived in the early middle period of what was called the Pax Romana, The Peace of Rome. The ideal, although only few could achieve it, was to avoid suffering at all costs. If suffering was necessary, well, then others should do it. Better to direct the common laborers than to labor; better to direct the armies than to fight in them. That’s why, at various times, more than half of the Roman Empire were slaves; we outsourced our own suffering.

It was a decadent and indulgent culture. In these respects, we were not far from your culture where “the good life” drives cars that don’t break, owns computers that never malfunction, has bodies that don’t decay, and treasures stuff that shines. Ah, the good life.

Introduced to Paul

When I first met Paul, it was twenty years or so out from the resurrection of Christ, so roughly AD 52.[8] I met Paul in the city of Troas in what you call Asia, perhaps one hundred miles north of Ephesus.

When I met Paul, he was just traveling through Troas in the middle of his second missionary journey. But, to be clear, Paul never really just traveled through a city. In fact, when I met him, he had recently come from Lystra, where he was stoned and left for dead.[9] Anyway, Paul and I sailed the same ship back across Samothrace to Macedonia.[10] While there, I cared for him; I treated his wounds, which had healed but poorly.

What was odd about Paul—very odd—was how he seemed to move toward suffering.[11]

Introduced to the Gospel

As we traveled and I attended to him, Paul told me how he had been raised in the Scriptures; he studied under the best Jewish teachers.[12] He explained to me how he had originally persecuted those who followed “the Way,” as it was called,[13] those who followed Jesus. He also told me that while en route to the city of Damascus, Jesus appeared to him in bright, stunning light.[14] The light blinded him. But then the lights came on, so to speak. Paul came to understand what he called the gospel, the good news of Jesus: God, in past times, had overlooked sin and not fully punished it, instead choosing to take the full weight of sin and crush the Messiah with it. That’s what he said happened when Jesus was crucified.[15]

To my culture, this was all so strange—foolishness really. At the time, I didn’t know much about messiahs, but I knew they didn’t die; messiahs don’t suffer.[16]

Travels with Paul

I watched Paul minister in Neapolis and then Philippi. I watched this rugged man speak so gently with women. A businesswoman of some notoriety named Lydia even became a follower of Jesus.[17]

After that, I didn’t see him again for five years.[18] When I saw Paul the next time, well . . . he hadn’t gotten any younger. His injuries were worse. Paul was traveling through Philippi on his final missionary journey. He was visiting all the places and churches he had been to before.[19] This time, I would stay with him until the end.[20]

In the interest of saving space, I’m leaving out many details, but eventually we made it back to Jerusalem. By this time, there was no small commotion about Paul. The word was out that Paul defied the Jewish customs and faith. These were only half-truths, of course.[21]

A great chain of events was put in motion over a controversy about who Paul did or didn’t take into the temple grounds.[22] Paul, many times over, could have broken the chain. He could have ended the suffering. Humiliation. Beatings. Imprisonment. Hunger. A shipwreck and snakebite. But he didn’t avoid the suffering; he pressed on.

Paul appeared before governors and kings sharing how the light of God had touched him, appealing even to Caesar himself.[23] When I ended my second volume, Acts, this is where Paul was, waiting in Rome under house arrest.

The Final Days with Paul

Eventually he got out, but not for long. The persecution under Nero intensified. There was a fire in Rome, and the question arose of who to blame it on. Nero chose Christians. So he killed them—he killed us. He burned us as torches at parties, dressed us in animal skins, and fed us to wild animals.[24]

Paul was sent back to prison. Paul, a man who had lived for others, was alone. Well, not exactly. I was there. But his body was failing. His ability to see clearly was gone. He could not stand properly. Each movement caused pain. Sleep was sporadic. In short, suffering abounded. But so did the certainty of Paul’s hope in Jesus.[25]

Together from prison, he wrote to Timothy:

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel . . . [for Jesus] abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel . . . which is why I suffer as I do.[26]

Not only did Paul not avoid suffering, but he actually moved toward it. He didn’t do this for the sake of seeking suffering in and of itself. For the superior joy of knowing Christ and making him known, Paul followed God wherever it lead him, which often entailed suffering. And as Paul did this, he had a certainty about his life and mission. He had a certainty about the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that certainty freed him to love even when it was costly.[27]

I think he felt free because he was certain Jesus had moved toward suffering for him and for the whole world, which is what I wanted Theophilus to know. And this is what I want you to know with certainty: Christ moved toward suffering to save sinners.

---

[1] This has been adapted from a sermon I preached at Community Evangelical Free Church, “Without Hindrance,” October 6, 2019.

[2] Cf. 2 Timothy 4, especially vv. 11 and 21.

[3] This is church tradition.

[4] This was how Paul wrote many of his letters, and it’s likely, based on the end of 2 Timothy, that this was how that letter was written.

[5] Acts 16:1; Colossians 4:10–14.

[6] Galatians 6:17, which is likely the first letter Paul wrote and likely before AD 50 when the Jerusalem Council took place (recorded in Acts 15).

[7] Many commentators say this was likely based on Colossians 4:14.

[8] Acts 16:10ff.

[9] Acts 14:19; 2 Corinthians 11:25.

[10] Acts 16:10ff.

[11] This seems consistent with his character and his explicit statements in the epistles.

[12] Galatians 1:14; Philippians 3:5; Acts 8–9; 22:3ff.

[13] Acts 9:2; 19:23; 22:4; 24:14.

[14] Acts 9.

[15] Acts 17:30; Romans 3:25–26.

[16] Cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18–25.

[17] Acts 16:11–15.

[18] Five years is roughly the time between the “we” passages in Acts 16:10–17 and 20:5.

[19] Acts 20:5ff.

[20] Although the “we” passages cut in and out, it seems that Luke, more or less, is with Paul until the end of Acts.

[21] Acts 21:17–36; 23:17–36 (and beyond).

[22] Acts 21:226–29.

[23] We don’t know whether Paul actually got to see Caesar, but he certainly appealed to him (Acts 25:10–12). And it seems that this request was going to be granted.

[24] This is piecing together the possible timelines of 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus as well as common statements about Nero’s persecution of Christians near the end of his reign (AD 54–68).

[25] I’m extrapolating here from the details in 2 Timothy 4, as well as some of his aside comments in other letters.

[26] 2 Timothy 1:8–12.

[27] I’m stressing certainty to highlight Luke’s aim stated in Luke 1:1–4.

* Photo: Saint Luke. Woodcut. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY

The Doctrine of The Holy Spirit: EFCA Ordination (Part 6 of 11)

Last week I passed my ordination exam in the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). I’ve been writing about it on the blog for the last month or so. If you’d like to read about what the process looks like, you can read the first post (here). Throughout the autumn, I’ll occasionally share the remaining sections of my ordination paper, which engages with our denomination’s 10-point statement of faith.

Thank you for the prayers and encouragement along the way,
Benjamin

{Previous posts in this series: God, The Bible, The Human Condition, Jesus, The Work of Christ}

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The Holy Spirit

6. We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. He convicts the world of its guilt. He regenerates sinners, and in Him they are baptized into union with Christ and adopted as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips and empowers believers for Christ-like living and service.

Though previously stated in my discussion of Article 1, it bears repeating that the Holy Spirit is the divine, third person of the Trinity, not a force or thing (Acts 5:3–4; cf. the way Paul interchanges “God’s temple” and “God’s spirit” in 1 Cor 3:16 and then “temple of the Holy Spirit” in 6:19). The Holy Spirit is alluded to, of course, in all the places the Trinity is alluded to in the OT (e.g., “us” in Gen 1:26; 11:7), but the OT explicitly mentions many variations of the phrase “Spirit of God.” For example, in the second verse of the Bible we read of the Spirit “hovering over the face of the waters.” Additionally, the specific phrasing of the “Holy Spirit” is mentioned rather famously in Psalm 51:11, while the NT mentions the title more frequently. The Spirit is also called by the epithet Paraklēton, variously translated as helper, advocate, counselor, and comforter (Jn 14:16; also said of Christ in 1 Jn 2:1).

In the OT the Spirit of God seems to function intermittently in the lives of various people, most of whom were believers. Cases like Saul make me hesitant to say only in believers. I’ve preached slowly and expositionally through 1 and 2 Samuel, and I’m not so sure even Saul’s good start, upon close examination, is actually all that good. His decline, I suspect, reveals the true Saul. Regardless, in the OT the Holy Spirit functions intermittently when he comes upon a leader during a crisis (e.g., Jdg 6:34), a craftsman building (Ex 31:3), or a prophet prophesying (e.g., Is 61:1; Ez 8:3; 11:24). Perhaps God’s Spirit worked in and among Old Testament believers in a more abiding way, but we don’t have many indications from the Scriptures that this was the case, though possibly a passage such as Isaiah 63:10–11 hints at this. Consider, as well, a passage such as Deuteronomy 10:16 where OT saints are told to circumcise the foreskins of their hearts or Deuteronomy 30:6 where Moses tells people about to cross the dry Jordan River that the Lord will circumcise their hearts (cf. Jer 4:4; Ez 44:7–9). Is not “circumcision of the heart” akin to regeneration language? If so, this makes one wonder to what extent the average OT believer had the Spirit. Speaking of OT Jews, Paul certainly links the work of the Spirit and circumcision in Romans 2:28–29. All this to say, I’m unsatisfied with the common statement “Today, we have the Spirit and back then they did not.” It’s more complex than that.

However, in the OT we clearly see new covenant promises speaking of a future, internal, and abiding work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers, most famously promised in Jeremiah 31:31 (Heb 8:8ff; cf. Ez 36:27), which speaks of God writing his law upon the hearts of his people in an intimate way. This “internal writing” promised in the Old Testament is the work of the Spirit. When we come to the NT, we read that the new covenant time is now. Jesus speaks of his blood as the pouring out of the new covenant for the forgiveness of sins (Lk 22:20; cf. 1 Cor 11:25), and Paul states that believers serve Jesus in the new covenant era empowered by the Spirit (1 Cor 3:3–18, esp. v. 6). What is “new” about the new covenant is not that OT believers didn’t have the Spirit but that the people of God are now rightly to be considered a regenerate people. In the OT, there was a way of speaking about the people of God that often included the regenerate and the unregenerate; both participated in feasts, festivals, and worship gatherings. In the NT era—although any given church gathering has both regenerate and unregenerate people present—church membership, baptism, and communion are for the regenerate.

We should also note that some mystery remains about when we will experience the fullness of these new covenant promises. In some ways, they belong to the already-and-not-yet paradigm of so many other aspects of salvation and God’s kingdom. We are saved, being saved, and will be saved; God’s kingdom is come, is coming, and will come. So, with respect to the specific new covenant promises, yes, God writes his law upon our hearts by the Spirit so that obedience flows from the inside; but no, we are not in a time when we no longer need to say “Know the Lord” because we all know him (Jer 31:34; Heb 8:11)—not yet anyway. The best is yet to come.

Sometimes Christians are puzzled as to why it is advantageous for us, as Jesus said, that he go away and send the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:7). The ascension of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit benefit us because God now dwells in every believer at once. The Son of God, by taking on flesh, is henceforth in a single location. The Holy Spirit freely moves among us for our good—as he did to help Christ during his earthly ministry. We can’t know definitively if Christ performed every miracle through the power of the Spirit as opposed to his own divinity, but Scripture often connects the two (Is 11:2; Mt 12:28; Lk 3:22; 4:1; 4:18–19; Rm 8:11; Heb 9:14).

The Holy Spirit is active in many things, but in “all that He does,” he brings glory to Christ. One way he glorifies Christ is by convicting sinners of their sin and need for Jesus (Jn 16:8–11). Another way is by converting sinners, or regenerating their hearts as it is often called, so that sinners can put their faith in Jesus (Ez 36:25–27; Jn 3:3; Titus 3:5). Those whom the Spirit regenerates are graciously adopted into God’s family (Rm 8:14–17). As in all the other aspects of redemption, each person of the Trinity is at work, but in adoption, there is a particular emphasis on the work of the Holy Spirit (Rm 8:15; Gal 4:6). Once adopted into the body of Christ, the Holy Spirit remains active in sanctification (Gal 5:22–23; 2 Thes 2:13), the process whereby believers become more and more like Jesus. Becoming more like Jesus, or walking in step with the Spirit (Gal 5:25), is one indication that someone who claims Christ is truly a believer. There are different aspects to the Spirit’s role in sanctification, including the Spirit’s indwelling, illuminating, guiding, equipping, and empowering. Indwelling is the Spirit’s ever-present residence in the believer (Jn 14:17; Rm 8:11). Illuminating is the Spirit’s enabling of the believer to understand God’s Word (2 Cor 4:4–15; Eph 1:17–19). Guiding is the Spirit’s directing of the believer’s walk to glorify Christ (Rm 8:4; Gal 5:16). Equipping is the Spirit’s supplying and cultivating gifts that the believer needs to follow Jesus (Rm 12:6–8; 1 Cor 7:7; 12:8–10, 28; Eph 4:11). And empowering is the Spirit’s supplying of moment by moment power required to live for Christ (Acts 6:8; Eph 3:16).

This point in the paper is probably as good of a place as any to state explicitly what has already been alluded to: my understanding of the order of salvation begins with the love of God, which leads to predestination and election, then internal, effectual calling and regeneration upon the hearing of the gospel (i.e., external call), which produces repentance and faith and our justification and adoption, which then begins sanctification, perseverance and preservation, and culminates in our glorification. Related to the order of salvation is the short but prevalent phrase “in Christ.” Nearly one hundred times in the NT we read of believers being in Christ (e.g., 2 Cor 5:17; 1 Pet 5:14). Even more occurrences surface when we include variations of the phrase. In fact, sometimes the biblical authors even speak of Christ being in believers, not just believers being in Christ (Jn 15:4; Col 1:27). Union with/in Christ covers a range of aspects related to a believer’s salvation. Simply put, to be in union with Christ is to have your life (now and into eternity) bound together with Christ in such a way that you receive all the saving benefits of the gospel (Col 3:3–4). To put it even more simply, union in Christ is like placing everything good about the gospel into a sack, labeling the sack “in Christ,” and handing it to a believer.

It is important to understand the proper meaning of “baptism in/of the Holy Spirit” and “filling of the Holy Spirit.” With only slight variation, the phrase baptism in/with the Holy Spirit occurs seven times in the NT (Mt 3:11; Mk 1:8; Lk 3:16; Jn 1:33; Acts 1:5; 11:16; 1 Cor 12:13). In the passages from the Gospels and Acts, baptism in the Holy Spirit indicates what Jesus commissions the Spirit to do in conversion, over and against the baptism performed by John: John baptized with water; Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit. That covers the first six occurrences, which leaves only 1 Corinthians 12:13. The meaning in 1 Corinthians is not immediately clear but is best understood as part of the initial process of conversion whereby believers are “baptized” into the body of Christ and drink down the benefits of being united to him. In this way, the passage speaks to the reality of adoption into God’s family but does so using the immersion language of baptism—every Christian, whether ethnically Jewish or Gentile, gets fully dunked into the one body of God’s family.

Variations of the phrase “filled with the Spirit” frequently occur (Acts 2:4; 4:8, 31; 6:3; 7:55; Eph 5:18) and carry the meaning of being under the Spirit’s control or influence; being filled with the Spirit is a special empowering for ministry, which can include tongues but is certainly not limited to them (Lk 1:15ff, 41ff, 67; Acts 7:55). Being filled with the Spirit in increasing measure should be the healthy desire of all Christians. Lord, fill me with your Spirit to forgive an enemy . . . forsake my sin . . . fully trust your promises . . . and so on.

While the sign gifts of speaking in tongues, prophecy, and healing receive special spotlight in charismatic churches, this has not been my experience, and I am cautious about encouraging such expressions. However, I am not a cessationist, that is, one who understands all genuine expressions of sign gifts to have ceased with the closing of the NT canon and the death of the first generation of the early Christian church. I’m not convinced any verse clearly indicates the cessation of these gifts, and the plain reading of Scripture seems to suggest they haven’t.

Another helpful distinction to parse is between the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. It is clear from Galatians 5:22–23 that the Spirit produces fruit in all Christians (“love, joy, peace . . .”). As preachers often do, I’ll note the fruit is singular but concatenated or linked. However, we should not expect all of the spiritual gifts to be present in every believer. There are five main passages in the NT where spiritual gifts, in the technical sense, are non-exhaustively listed (Rm 12:6–8; 1 Cor 12:8–10, 28; Eph 4:11; 1 Pet 4:10–11). A composite of these passages yields about a dozen spiritual gifts, including, but not limited to, leadership, healing, administration, teaching, mercy, and faith. I say “not limited to” not only because I didn’t mention every gift listed in the classic spiritual gift passages, but also because we tend to leave off the other spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible, such as the spiritual gift of craftsmanship mentioned in Exodus 31 and the gifts of singleness and marriage in 1 Corinthians 7:7. But however we round out the details of the list, the result should be thanksgiving among God’s people because he so graciously blesses and gifts his church.

Discussion Questions

Person

1.  Who is the Holy Spirit?

Purpose (in both the Old and New Testaments)

2.  How is the ministry of the Holy Spirit similar and dissimilar between the old and new covenants?

3.  Why did the Holy Spirit come, viz. why did Jesus send “another?” What does it mean that the Holy Spirit “glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ?”

Convicting the World

4.  Why is the ministry of the Holy Spirit essential in the “world?” What is the guilt of which He convicts?

Regenerating Sinners

5.  What is “regeneration?” Where in the order of salvation does regeneration occur?

6.  How do you understand the teaching about the baptism of the Holy Spirit from 1 Cor 12:13? Regarding the Holy Spirit’s ministry, what are the differences between baptism, indwelling, filling and walking?

7.  What does it mean that you are in “union with Christ?”

8.  What is the meaning and significance of “adoption?”

Indwelling Believers

9.  What are biblical evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit?

10.  What role do the gifts of the Spirit play in the body of Christ? Is that role different today than during apostolic times?

11.  How are the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit similar? How are they different? How do they function in your life?

* Photo by Warren Coetzer on Unsplash

The Doctrine of The Work of Christ: EFCA Ordination (Part 5 of 11)

This morning I passed my ordination exam in the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). I’ve been writing about it on the blog for the last month or so. If you’d like to read about what the process looks like, you can read the first post (here). The 4-hour oral exam occurred this morning. What a day! Almost two dozen members from my church made the 90-minute drive (one way!) to attend. Also in attendance were my wife, oldest daughter, and my parents.

Throughout the autumn, I’ll occasionally share the remaining sections of my ordination paper, which engages with our denominations 10-point statement of faith.

Thank you for the prayers and encouragement along the way,
Benjamin

{Previous posts in this series: God, The Bible, The Human Condition, Jesus}

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The Work of Christ

5. We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation.

Jesus died as our representative and substitute, which means his death was a penal substitutionary atonement: Jesus took upon himself the punishment our sins deserved (Is 53:5–6; Mk 10:45; Gal 3:13; 1 Pet 2:24). His death was sufficient for all but effectually only for his elect (Mt 1:21; Jn 10:15; 15:13; Acts 20:28). What an undeserved joy we have as Christians knowing that in dying for his bride, Jesus did something special for us that he does not do for all (cf. Eph 5:25). Moreover, Jesus does not simply atone for our sins but also purchases the power that makes our salvation not merely a possibility people can experience but the reality believers will experience (Acts 20:28; Rm 8:31–34; Gal 1:4; Eph 1:11–14; Titus 2:14); his atonement is limited in scope but not in power. Related to the power of Christ’s atonement is God’s irresistible grace. To affirm God’s grace as irresistible does not mean God’s grace can’t be resisted. The Pharisees did precisely this in Luke 7:30. We do the same each time we sin. But what I cherish in irresistible grace is God’s ability, when he so chooses, to subdue all of our resistance to his love and deadness to true joy.

Since we’re talking about salvation, I should clarify what I mean. Salvation has broad meaning in the Bible, such as salvation from enemies in war or salvation from a life-threatening illness. But with respect to the atonement, salvation carries the idea of being delivered from God’s wrath (1 Thes 1:10) by God crushing his own Son in our place (Is 53:10) to bring his people near and reconcile them to himself (Eph 2:13; 1 Pet 3:18; 2 Cor 5:19). Our salvation is from God, by God, to God. God gives us eternal, abundant life with him when we only deserved eternal death and separation from him.

When discussing salvation from God’s wrath, it is helpful to define both expiation and propitiation which differentiate along these lines: expiation is an action that cleanses from sin and takes away guilt, while propitiation focuses on the appeasement of God’s wrath. Several key passages inform the discussion of expiation and propitiation (e.g., Lev 17:11 and other OT sacrificial passages; Rm 3:25; Heb 9:5; 1 Jn 2:2; 4:10). While both concepts are biblical, it is worth pointing out that a sinner’s guilt cannot be removed without the appeasement of God’s wrath and the shedding of blood by taking a life (cf. Lev 17:11 and Heb 9:22). Because penal substitutionary atonement and the discussion of the appeasement of wrath can provoke wrong views of God, as though he were cold and calculating, I should mention that the act of atonement itself does not make God love us; God has loved his people from before the creation of the world (Eph 1:4–5). Atonement graciously flows out of his love, not the other way around.

The exclusivity and necessity of Jesus’s death need to be asserted not only because the Bible teaches this but also because of increasing cultural pressure to regulate religious claims to mere situational truthfulness—if that’s true for you, great; but it’s not true for me. Only one way leads to God in reconciliation, namely, faith in the finished work of Jesus’s atoning death and victorious resurrection (Acts 4:12; 2 Thes 1:8). His resurrection is victorious because in rising from the dead, Christ achieved victory over sin, death, and evil (1 Cor 15:54–57; Col 2:15). Christ’s resurrection affirms his claims (e.g., Jn 3:18–22; 10:19), attests to the Father’s approval (Acts 13:30; Heb 1:8–9), and assures our own resurrection (Rm 4:5–6).

Discussion Questions

Representative and Substitute

1.  What is it about Jesus’ person and work that accomplishes our salvation?

2.  What does it mean that Jesus is “our representative and substitute?”

Shed Blood on the Cross

3.  Why was Jesus’ shed blood necessary for our salvation?

4.  Why is the centrality of the cross essential?

Perfect, All-Sufficient Sacrifice for Sin

5.  What is the significance of Christ’s sacrificial death being “perfect” and “all-sufficient?” What is the value and necessity of His death?

6.  How does the fact that this is the only way in which our sin is addressed compare with those embracing a wider hope of salvation beyond Christ and His work?

Atonement, Propitiation, Expiation, Redemption, Reconciliation

7.  What is atonement? Define propitiation and expiation, and explain the difference.

8.  Define redemption (cf. article 1). What does it mean to be reconciled to God and what is its significance?

9.  What is your understanding of 2 Corinthians 5:21? Explain your view of “imputation.”

Victorious Resurrection

10.  Why is Jesus’ resurrection considered as an element of our salvation?

11.  What is the significance that Jesus’ resurrection is “victorious?” Who and what did Jesus overcome?

Only Ground of Salvation

12.  What does it mean that Jesus’ work is the “only ground for salvation?”

13.  What does “salvation” mean biblically? Explain your understanding of it.

* Photo by Emre Gencer on Unsplash

Help Share My “Struggle” Book with Pastors?

I wrote the book Struggle Against Porn because I was frustrated—but probably not for the reasons you’d think. My main frustration was me.

Whether in college ministry or in a local church, I’ve often found myself meeting with guys who struggle with lust and pornography. I’d go into these meetings wanting to be helpful, but I’d leave frustrated. I’d want to share truth and hope and encouragement and strategies to win the war, but I’d flounder. I’m not sure I’d use the phrase “pastoral malpractice,” but that’s what it started to feel like. Eventually this frustration gave rise to a few years of reading and writing and thinking about how to help men struggle against pornography. Out of the research came the short book Struggle Against Porn: 29 Diagnostic Tests for Your Head and Heart.

Giving the “Struggle” Book to Pastors

Next week on October 8–9, church leaders from our denomination will gather for a conference (info here). My church belongs to the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA), which is broken up into 17 different districts. The Eastern District—the district I’m a part of—has our annual conference. If you’ve been following my blog for the last few months, then you’ve heard me talk about my ordination exam, which takes place on the first day of the conference.

I’ve been working with those in leadership to find a way to give my book to all 260 conference attendees. I asked the publisher to lower the price, which they did. My district office helped offset some of the costs, as did another generous donor. I’ve covered the rest with my own money. It costs about $7 per book to give them away. If you’d consider buying a book for a pastor, that would help a ton. The total cost was just under $2,000, and I’m a few hundred short or about 70 books. You can donate by clicking the button below.

Donate

But whether the cost gets covered or not, I couldn’t be more excited to help other pastors as they help men walk with God in joy and purity.

A Note from Our Church District Superintendent

We’re placing each book in an envelope for the purpose of discretion. The cover of the book, which I had nothing to do with, is obnoxiously unambiguous. Yes, I said that about my own book. Trust me, no one ever reads this book at Starbucks. But on the front of the envelope, we’ve printed a note from the leader of our district, Eddie Cole. Here’s what he wrote.

Dear Church Leader:

We all know there are too many challenges facing our people for us to become experts on every issue. Sexual sin is one of those issues. It affects all of our churches and many of our leaders and volunteers. Some of our people have an occasional, low-grade struggle with pornography. For others, their struggle is persistent and acute. Both need the good news of the grace of God applied to their hearts with pastoral care.

By ourselves, we can’t be everything to everyone, which is why we often say we are better together—as a district and a national movement. At this year’s conference we’re excited to give away a book written by one of our own district pastors. It’s a book to help men struggle proactively against pornography, not struggle passively with it. We hope this resource helps you as you help others walk faithfully with God.

Sincerely,

Eddie Cole
Eastern District Superintendent of the EFCA

Donate

* all donations are not tax refundable.

New Hire: Connections Pastor

This summer I wrote about the change of pastoral seasons for our church and me (here). My co-pastor, Jason Abbott, moved to another church in Chicago. Jason pastored faithfully at our church for seven years, and it was a joy to share five of those years with him.

Rather than continuing the co-senior-pastor model, I’ve moved into the more traditional role of lead pastor, and we need to hire another associate pastor—there’s plenty of work to be done! We had 30 new people ask to join a small group in August!

We have assembled a search team. The job of the search team is to advertise the position, narrow in on a handful of candidates, and then hand one candidate back to the pastor-elders for more vetting, and then we’ll present that candidate to our membership for final affirmation. We’ve posted the description on our church website, with several seminaries and other job boards, and now below on my blog. You can also download a PDF of the job description here. Our search team met for the first time last night. We appreciate your prayers.

Please advertise with us if you know pastors who might be interested. Encourage them to send a resume and cover letter to Scott Elder, the head of our search team: jobs@communityfreechurch.org. Within two weeks, we’ll follow up with each applicant about potential next steps.

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Associate Pastor of Connections

Overview

The connections pastor will serve as the primary shepherd to move people from visitor to engaged member at our church, helping us to become the type of community God desires local churches to be. He will implement strategies to integrate a growing refugee population into membership and full participation in the life of the church. As an associate pastor, he will also help with church administration, preaching and teaching, and supporting the men’s and women’s ministries and deacons. The connections pastor will be one of the pastor-elders. He will operate under the direct supervision of the senior pastor and under the overall governance of the Pastor-Elder Board.

Compensation

Benefits: 6 paid holidays; 15 paid vacation days; 5 paid personal days; 1 day off during the week in addition to Saturday, which is considered a day off (Sundays are considered a workday); Pay every 2 weeks on a Wednesday

Salary: Annual Salary **; FICA  **; Health Insurance  **; Retirement  **

Total Compensation: Please ask for the salary range during interviews.

Job Requirements

• Committed Christian who will participate and engage in our church and who agrees with the EFCA Statement of Faith.

• Humility and willingness to work with teams.

• Deep love and compassion for people, Christian and non-Christian alike.

• Excellent people skills with the ability to engage diverse types of people.

• Skilled expositor of God’s Word; ability to teach and preach to all ages of the church.

• Passion for discipleship and seeing people shaped by the gospel in all of life.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with strong gifts in administration.

• Aptitude for training, recruiting, and catalyzing leaders for ministry.

• 5–10 years of ministry experience, preferably in a church that emphasized small groups (MDiv degree preferred).

• A shared theological and philosophical DNA with the pastor-elders including warm complementarianism, a humble embrace of Reformed soteriology, and a gospel-centeredness in all of ministry.

Job Responsibilities & Duties

The connections pastor is the curator and catalyst for our small group Bible study ministry. He will serve on the teaching team and preach approximately 6 times a year on Sunday mornings. The connections pastor will work with the men’s and women’s ministries to implement the vision of the church and enhance connection; oversee the volunteer-led greeting & ushering, and deacon ministries; help with church administration; and participate in the discipleship of individuals and young families. The connections pastor will also serve the church more broadly as an associate pastor, performing weddings and funerals, visitation, counseling, and the administration of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Church bio & How to Apply?

Our church belongs to the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). We have around 300 people in attendance each Sunday and 200 people in small groups. For more information about our church, please see our website, CommunityFreeChurch.org. Send your resume and cover letter to Scott Elder, the head of our search team: jobs@communityfreechurch.org. Within two weeks, we’ll follow up with each applicant about potential next steps.

The Doctrine of Jesus Christ: EFCA Ordination (Part 4 of 11)

I’ve been preparing for my ordination exam in the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). Speaking in broad strokes, the process of ordination in the EFCA involves 3 steps:

Step 1: Write a 20-page paper that engages with the EFCA Statement of Faith, and then defend your theology in a 2-hour oral examination conducted by the credentialing council, which is composed of a dozen or so ordained local pastors.

Step 2: Complete at least 3 years of healthy pastoral ministry in a local EFCA church.

Step 3: Do “Step 1” again—except this round, everything is doubled: it’s now a 40-page paper (not 20) and a 4-hour oral exam (not 2).

This fall, I’ve reached the final step. At 9:00 AM on October 8, 2019, I will undergo the oral examination.

For the next few months, I’ll be sharing some of my ordination paper on the blog. Please know this writing is denser than anything I typically share on my blog, so don’t be discouraged if you find some of it jargon-filled. Each section has 1,000-1,800 words of condensed theology to meet the required space guidelines. And after each section, I’m including a list of discussion questions provided by the EFCA that ordination candidates are encouraged to address in their papers.

I welcome your prayers and feedback during this process; both will sharpen my thinking before the exam and make me a better pastor.

Thank you,
Benjamin

{Previous posts in this series: God, The Bible, The Human Condition}

*     *     *

Jesus Christ

4. We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus—Israel’s promised Messiah—was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate.

As with the doctrine of the Trinity, Christians can struggle to understand Jesus’s full divinity and humanity, yet faithful exposition of the Bible leads decidedly toward the hypostatic union. In his incarnation, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, became flesh: he was born, increased in wisdom and stature (Lk 2:52), ate (Mt 9:10–11), slept (Mk 4:38), got tired (Jn 4:6), felt sadness and wept (Jn 11:35), and experienced great pain and died (Mk 15:37). But Jesus also remained fully God: he was sinless; “before Abraham” (Jn 8:58); performed miracles, including raising the dead; was understood by the religious leaders to make claims of divinity (Jn 10:31–33); didn’t rebuke Thomas when he called Jesus his Lord and his God (Jn 20:28); and in addition to all this, applied the lofty claims of Daniel 7:13–14 and Psalm 110:1 to himself (Mt 26:64). Christ’s dual nature allowed him to be our Savior: in his humanity he identifies with us, and in his divinity he is a worthy sacrifice in a way no human could be. A number of heresies regarding the nature of Christ arose in the early church that denied in some way Christ’s two natures in one person. Some such heresies were Nestorianism (two natures but not a unified person), Eutychianism (not the union of two natures but the blending of two), Apollinarianism (like a man but not quite a man), and Docetism (seeming to be a man but not). Scripture precludes these views of Christ and various church councils rejected them as unbiblical.

Some have taken the RSV’s rendering of “emptied himself” in Philippians 2:6–7 to mean that Jesus somehow became less than God in the incarnation. However, the emptying did not entail the relinquishing of Christ’s divinity but rather the temporary setting aside of his glory to take on the form of a servant. The glory Jesus set aside, by the way, has now been returned to him by the Father (Jn 17:5); there is nothing, including the timing of his return, that the risen and ascended Christ does not know as he sits on the throne of the universe.

The incarnation began with the virgin conception (Is 7:14; Mt 1:20) and proved critical in God’s uniting the humanity and deity of Jesus. Yes, Jesus was conceived, something common to humans, but his conception was a supernatural conception, a beautiful and divine interruption into the only pattern humanity has ever known: sinners begetting other sinners. In a mysterious way, the virgin birth kept Jesus from inheriting the sin nature inherited by every other human since Adam (Gen 3; Rm 5:12–21; 1 Cor 15:21–22). Our salvation required a sinless Savior because only a pure, spotless Lamb could die in our place as a worthy sacrifice (Jn 1:29; 1 Pet 3:18). A sinner dying for other sinners saves no one.

To address Christ’s sinlessness from another vantage point, we can speak of Christ’s perfect obedience, which theologians sometimes view in two complementary parts, these being his active and passive obedience. We call Christ’s obedience to every aspect of the law and will of God his active obedience. The passive obedience of Christ refers to every aspect of his sin-bearing obedience, which of course culminates in the cross but was also experienced as Christ, though the perfect God-man, experienced all that comes with living in a broken world. In his earthly ministry, Jesus experienced temptations, which were doubtless many and varied (cf. the wilderness temptations in Mt 4:1–11 or the way Satan spoke through Peter to tempt Jesus to forgo the mission of the cross in Mt 16:23). The book of Hebrews even speaks of Jesus being tempted “in every respect,” which doesn’t mean he experienced every single possible temptation but that he did experience enough of the cross-section of life that he can identify and even sympathize with us (4:15). In his humanity, these temptations were real despite that he has no sin nature. Thankfully, in his divinity, Jesus was not able to sin, which we call his impeccability.

Calling Jesus the promised Messiah of Israel means the person and work of Jesus is part of, and indeed the continuation of, a story long ago begun (Gen 3:16; 2 Sam 7:11ff; Mt 1:1ff; Gal 4:4). Many in Jesus’s day expected the Messiah, but most did not expect a Messiah who would be humiliated before his exultation, yet this was God’s foreordained plan. Prior to the crucifixion, Jesus predicted his death often in both subtle ways (e.g., the parable of tenants killing the landowner’s son in Mt 21:33–46) and overt ways (cf. the passion predictions in Mk 8:3; 9:30–32; 10:32–34). But Jesus also taught that he had authority to lay his life down and the power to take it up again (Jn 10:17–18). When this power was exercised in a bodily resurrection (not a merely spiritual or metaphorical resurrection), Jesus demonstrated that he was the Promised One who would lead his people and usher in the time in which light would shine to the nations beginning the great ingathering of Gentiles (Is 49:12; 60:3; Lk 2:32; Acts 26:23; Rm 15:8–9). In our present era Jesus sits at the right hand of God as the exalted Davidic heir (2 Sam 7:14ff; 2 Tim 2:8) until his enemies are made a footstool (Ps 110:1; Mt 26:64; Acts 2:35; Eph 1:20) while he exercises the authority given to him (Mt 28:18) to advance his kingdom until his pending return (Mt 24:30–31). The session of Christ as our king (Acts 1:9; Rev 20:1–6) and his ongoing ministry as our Great High Priest (Heb 8; 10:19–22) and Advocate (1 Jn 2:1–2) give me hope as I labor to be conformed to the image of Christ amidst the brokenness of our world.

Discussion Questions

God Incarnate, Fully God and Fully Man, One Person in Two Natures

1.  What is the significance of the incarnation? Why was it necessary for our salvation?

2.  Explain your understanding of the Hypostatic Union of Jesus Christ. How do you understand Phil 2:7?

3.   What were some of the Christological heresies as the early church attempted to understand and explain the hypostatic union?

Israel’s Promised Messiah (Relation to Prophecy)

4.   Why is it important that Jesus be known as “Israel’s promised Messiah?” What is its importance for our understanding of Jesus? What about our understanding of the Bible?

Virgin Birth

5.   What is the virgin birth, why is it essential, and what is its significance for our understanding of christology and soteriology?

Sinless Life, Crucifixion

6.   What is the significance of Jesus’ perfect obedience (both active and passive) for our salvation?

7.   Could Jesus have sinned? How do you understand the temptations?

8.   Why did Jesus die?

Bodily Resurrection, Ascension and Session

9.   What is the importance of Jesus’ resurrection?

10.   How do you understand the nature of Jesus’ resurrection body?

11.   What is the significance of the ascension and session of Jesus Christ?

High Priest and Advocate

12.   What is the significance of Jesus’ ministry as High Priest and Advocate and how does this affect your life and ministry?

* Photo by Jamie Morris on Unsplash

The Doctrine of The Human Condition: EFCA Ordination (Part 3 of 11)

I’ve been preparing for my ordination exam in the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). Speaking in broad strokes, the process of ordination in the EFCA involves 3 steps:

Step 1: Write a 20-page paper that engages with the EFCA Statement of Faith, and then defend your theology in a 2-hour oral examination conducted by the credentialing council, which is composed of a dozen or so ordained local pastors.

Step 2: Complete at least 3 years of healthy pastoral ministry in a local EFCA church.

Step 3: Do “Step 1” again—except this round, everything is doubled: it’s now a 40-page paper (not 20) and a 4-hour oral exam (not 2).

This fall, I’ve reached the final step. At 9:00 AM on October 8, 2019, I will undergo the oral examination.

For the next few months, I’ll be sharing some of my ordination paper on the blog. Please know this writing is denser than anything I typically share on my blog, so don’t be discouraged if you find some of it jargon-filled. Each section has 1,000-1,800 words of condensed theology to meet the required space guidelines. And after each section, I’m including a list of discussion questions provided by the EFCA that ordination candidates are encouraged to address in their papers.

I welcome your prayers and feedback during this process; both will sharpen my thinking before the exam and make me a better pastor.

Thank you,
Benjamin

{Previous posts in this series: God, The Bible}

*     *     *

The Human Condition

3. We believe that God created Adam and Eve in His image, but they sinned when tempted by Satan. In union with Adam, human beings are sinners by nature and by choice, alienated from God, and under His wrath. Only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ can we be rescued, reconciled and renewed.

Genesis 1:26–27 states that God created Adam and Eve in his image and likeness (cf. Gen 5:1; 9:6; Jam 3:9). Throughout the centuries theologians have attempted to clarify precisely what attribute, or perhaps several attributes, humans are bestowed with that most corresponds to the image of our Creator, thus making us distinct from animals. However, it is difficult and perhaps unwise to be too specific about what the imago dei means. But from the way image is used in passages like Exodus 20:4, 1 Samuel 6:5, 11, and Ezekiel 23:14 and likeness is used in 2 Kings 16:10, 2 Chronicles 4:3, 4, Psalm 58:4, and Mark 12:16–17, I conclude there are many ways we are like God and many ways we represent him. Some examples of this include the way humans have moral, spiritual, mental, artistic, intelligent, and relational capacities. Resisting the impulse to define the image of God singularly on any one trait protects us from the error of too narrowly limiting what it means to be human. So, for example, if we intricately link the image of God with human intelligence, we could get to the place where a person with severely diminished mental capacities ceases being human, or at a minimum becomes in some way sub-human, which of course is wrong.

Additionally, to be human is to be in union with the first human, Adam—a historical person, created by God as our representative at the headwaters of humanity. However, when tempted by Satan, Adam and Eve disobeyed God. As our federal head, Adam’s sin plunged himself and all subsequent generations into a state of rebellion against God (Gen 2–3; Rm 5:12–21; 1 Cor 15:21, 22). Our rebellious state is both inherited and also a result of individual choices (Ps 51:5; Is 6:5; Rm 5:12; Eph 2:1–2). We are not sinners simply because we sin; rather, we sin because we are sinners. Our inherited sin nature means people are born alienated from God and under his wrath (Rm 1:18; 2:5; 3:9–19; 3:23; 5:10; Eph 2:3). The wrath of God is his intense hatred of sin and just punishment of sin (Rm 1:18ff; Rev 19:15). While our rebellious bent severely tarnishes the image of God in us, the fall does not entirely eradicate the image of God but remains in believers and unbelievers alike (Gen 5:1; 9:6; Ps 8; Jam 3:9). This means every person—no matter how depraved or having physical and mental challenges—has dignity, value, and worth. The doctrine of the imago dei has many implications, but to name just a few of them we could say that Christians should advocate for life from its first beginning to its natural end and for the just treatment of all, including immigrants, refugees, criminals, and prisoners of war.

In the Bible, Satan is described in various ways: sometimes as a whispering serpent and other times as a roaring lion, sometimes as a thief and other times as a masquerading angel of light. But whether stalking or slinking, he is a deceptive and dangerous enemy (Gen 3; 1 Pet 5:8; Jn 10:10; 2 Cor 11:14). Everything God created in Genesis 1 was good, but somewhere before Satan’s mysterious entrance into the biblical story in Genesis 3, there must have been an angelic rebellion of sorts, presumably led by Satan. Indeed, an evil angelic rebellion seems alluded to in passages like 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 1:6. (It’s possible but not my conviction that Satan and his fall are also alluded to in the exalted descriptions of the King of Babylon in Isaiah 14:12–15 and the King of Tyre in Ezekiel 26–28.) Whatever his origins, the Bible describes Satan’s activity in many places, including Genesis 3, Job 1–2, and the wilderness temptations of Christ in the Gospels (Mt 4; Mk 1; Lk 4). Satan’s evil reign often casts a dark shadow over human sin and suffering even when he is not named explicitly (cf. 1 Jn 5:19). We see this mysterious interplay in passages like Ephesians 2, where Paul describes Satan as “the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” and passages like Luke 22:31, where Jesus alludes to a behind-the-scenes demand of Satan that we would have known nothing about if we had not been explicitly told about the demand. Affirming that Satan has a role in human sin does not excuse our culpability, but it does enlarge our understanding of why the world is so broken, even stirring our empathy for those ensnared and captured by the devil (2 Tim 2:26). One day, his reign will end (Rev 20:9–10). Indeed, Satan’s inferiority to God is such that upon the return of Christ, Jesus will kill Satan’s lawless one simply with the breath of his mouth (2 Thes 2:8–9; cf. Is 11:4). With the ease you and I blow dust from our laptops, Jesus will defeat the deceiver of the whole world and the accuser of the brethren. Though “The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure.”

The great hope of the gospel is that through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ we can be rescued, reconciled, and renewed. These three sweeping terms highlight themes of the redemptive story: rescued means sin and Satan once held us captive (Jn 8:34; Rm 6:20; Col 2:15; 2 Tim 2:26); reconciled means God mends our relationship with him (2 Cor 5:18–21); and renewed means that, although we were dead in our sins and totally depraved—that is, sin tarnishes even our best deeds and prevents us from doing spiritual good before a holy God (Rm 6:23; 14:23; Eph 2:1)—God restores us, both progressively in this life and completely in the next (Rm 8:18ff; 2 Cor 5:17; Phil 3:21; 1 Jn 3:2).

Discussion Questions

Adam and Eve, Image of God

1.   What does it mean that Adam and Eve were created in the image of God? What are the implications of this doctrine for us today?

Fall

2.   How do you understand the fall of humanity and its effects?

3.   What does the fall teach us about the nature of sin?

Satan

4.   Who is Satan, and what role does he play in the fall of Adam and Eve? What is he working to accomplish today?

Union with Adam, Sinners by Nature and by Choice

5.   How do you understand “union with Adam?” What does it mean that we “are sinners by nature and by choice”? Briefly explain these concepts from Romans 5:12-21.

Alienation from God

6.   What does it mean that we are alienated from God?

God’s Wrath

7.   What does the wrath of God mean and what is its significance?

Rescued, Reconciled and Renewed

8.   From what are we rescued? To whom are we reconciled? How are we renewed?

9.   Why is it important to state exclusively that this work is accomplished only through God’s saving work in Jesus Christ?

* Photo by Hieu Vu Minh on Unsplash

The Doctrine of the Bible: EFCA Ordination (Part 2 of 11)

I’ve been preparing for my ordination exam in the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). Speaking in broad strokes, the process of ordination in the EFCA involves 3 steps:

Step 1: Write a 20-page paper that engages with the EFCA Statement of Faith, and then defend your theology in a 2-hour oral examination conducted by the credentialing council, which is composed of a dozen or so ordained local pastors.

Step 2: Complete at least 3 years of healthy pastoral ministry in a local EFCA church.

Step 3: Do “Step 1” again—except this round, everything is doubled: it’s now a 40-page paper (not 20) and a 4-hour oral exam (not 2).

This fall, I’ve reached the final step. At 9:00 AM on October 8, 2019, I will undergo the oral examination.

For the next few months, I’ll be sharing some of my ordination paper on the blog. Please know this writing is denser than anything I typically share on my blog, so don’t be discouraged if you find some of it jargon-filled. Each section has 1,000-1,800 words of condensed theology to meet the required space guidelines. And after each section, I’m including a list of discussion questions provided by the EFCA that ordination candidates are encouraged to address in their papers.

I welcome your prayers and feedback during this process; both will sharpen my thinking before the exam and make me a better pastor.

Thank you,
Benjamin

{Previous posts in this series: God}

*     *     *

Article 2: The Doctrine of The Bible

2. We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.

Knowledge of God comes to humans in two primary ways: in general revelation to all humans through God’s creation, including a person’s conscience (Ps 19:1–6; Rm 2:14–15), and in special revelation through the Bible and the person of Christ, who is the Word made flesh (Jn 1:14). Although general revelation can be misinterpreted and even suppressed (Rm 1:18ff; 1 Tim 4:2), from it we learn of God’s creative power and gain a sense of right and wrong. General revelation, however, does not communicate the explicit content of the gospel, whereas special revelation does. The Bible is sufficient to reveal who God is and how we must relate to him; clear enough to be understood; authoritative on all matters to which it speaks; and necessary for people to know God, his gospel, and how to live a life pleasing to him.

The relationship between God’s authorship and human authorship is best understood in this way: God inspired human authors to communicate in a way that is consistent with their humanness (e.g., education and linguistic ability, temperament and passion, life and work experience) but also in a way that elevates the human author’s words far beyond natural ability (Dt 18:18; Lk 1:1–4; Heb 1:1–2). I see this view of biblical inspiration displayed, for example, when Jesus interchangeably refers to Old Testament passages in Mark 7:9–13 with the phrases “the commandment of God,” “for Moses said,” and “the word of God” (cf. Ex 20:12; 21:17). In other words, what Moses said can also be described as what God said. The Bible also takes direct quotes from the mouth of God and says that Scripture is speaking, as when Paul writes, “the Scripture . . . preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed’” (Gal 3:8; cf. Gn. 12:3).

Additionally, it is not merely the overarching biblical story and related concepts that are inspired but the individual words themselves that are purposely selected by human authors under the superintendence of God. This is called verbal plenary inspiration (Mt 5:18; 2 Pet 1:20–21). Therefore, it is right to speak of the Bible as infallible and inerrant in the original manuscripts, because God himself is absolutely truthful and without error (Mt 5:18; Titus 1:1–2). Because it is God who inspired the words of human authors, it is impossible for his inspired prophets and apostles to err in what they wrote (2 Pet 1:21), which is to say, the Bible is infallible. Moreover, because God’s prophets and apostles could not err, the Bible—like God—is truthful and without error (i.e., inerrant) concerning all matters to which it speaks.

The 66 books of the Old and New Testaments (hereafter, OT and NT) are complete, meaning that they can never be added to. It can sound odd to ask the question “How does the Bible speak about itself?” because the Bible has many different human authors. But asking this question is helpful. I see the Bible speak about its completeness and canonicity in several ways.

First, the Bible repeatedly intimates its own inscripturation (Dt 31:24–26; Jos 24:26; 2 Chr 34:14; Jer 30:2; Rev 22:18–19).

Second, the meaning of the “last days” implies a closed canon. Biblically speaking, the last days are the entire period of time between the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and Jesus’s second coming (Acts 2:17; Joel 2; Jam 5:3). The way the phrase the last days is used in Hebrews 1:1–2 (cf. Acts 2:17 and Jam 5:3), and the concept of finality is used in Jude 1:3 indicates there is a definitive and final speaking of God through Jesus and, by extension, the first-century apostles who were Jesus’s authorized messengers (1 Cor 2:13; Eph 2:19–20; 2 Pet 1:21).

Third, the intertestamental books were not considered canonical to Jesus and the early church, but the OT and NT most certainly were. For example, 1 Maccabees, which is not canonical, acknowledges that there is no word from an authorized messenger of God, a touchstone of canonicity (1 Mac 4:45–45; 9:27; 14:41; cf. Am 8:11). It seems Jesus acknowledges this by snubbing the intertestamental martyrs when he mentions OT martyrs in Luke 11:45–52 but does not mention the martyrs mentioned in the Apocrypha. However, the NT authors seamlessly use the Greek word graphé (Scripture) when placing OT quotations alongside the NT in 1 Timothy 5:18 and 2 Peter 3:16, showing that the writings of both the OT and NT were considered graphé, that is, canonical Scripture.

Fourth, there is an internal coherence among the books in the canon. The individual parts see themselves as just that—individual parts of the one, greater story.

Finally, the early church fathers recognized the Bible as having a self-authenticating purity and power not evident in later writings (e.g., early church councils, the correspondence of church fathers, and the continued written testimony of Christians). A letter from Athanasius in ad 367 contained a list of all 27 books we affirm as the NT canon, which is also the same list affirmed at the Council of Carthage in 397.

To come at canonicity in another way and to use the common shorthand, the fourfold test for canonicity is apostolic origin, universal acceptance, liturgical use, and consistent message. It’s unlikely that the church will discover an ancient letter that could be convincingly shown to be written by an apostle, say one of Paul’s additional letters to the church in Corinth alluded to in 1 Corinthians 5:9 and 16:3. But even if this newly discovered letter passed the tests of apostolic origin and consistent message, a long-hidden letter could hardly be said to have received universal acceptance.

While we do not have the original autographs, there are so many extant copies of the original manuscripts that we can be assured modern Bible translations, which come from these, are very reliable. For this reason, I do not think we are misleading people when at our church a preaching pastor, upon reading his sermon text for the morning, says, “This is God’s Word; thanks be to God.”

Before leaving the topic of inspiration and canonicity, it might be helpful to comment on the longer ending of Mark and the passage in John about the woman caught in adultery. It seems best to conclude neither passage was original, though both passages when rightly interpreted in the light of the rest of the Bible do not contradict any doctrine. A careful reading of Mark 16:18 sees not the command to pick up snakes and drink poison but a promise of protection, something Paul experienced in Acts 28. And the story in John’s gospel is consistent with the actions of Jesus in the rest of the Gospels and likely a real event, just one not originally included by John (cf. Jn 21:25). Modern Bible translations rightly inform readers that these passages were not included in the earliest manuscripts.

“Red-letter Christians,” who purport to take the commands of Jesus seriously, commit a modern canonical error worth discussing. Their emphasis on loving our neighbors and our enemies as well as serving fellow believers and the least of these are themes less often preached and practiced in affluent, majority-culture Christianity. But to pit the direct quotes of Jesus—the so-called red-letter parts of the Bible—against the rest of the Bible is foolish. Jesus trained and commissioned his apostles to be his authorized spokesmen empowered by the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:12–15; Acts 1:8); therefore, the content that Peter wrote in his letters or that John wrote in his gospel, even the non-red parts, is no less authoritative than, say, the sermon on the mount. The error of red-letter Christianity is not unlike breaking light bulbs on a Christmas tree: if you take away lights, the whole strand stops working properly. The complete 66 books of the Bible work in concert, not in isolation or opposition to each other. To take Jesus at his word is to take his authorized spokesmen at their words because he is the one who sent them; and not only that but listening to Jesus well is to acknowledge that the OT testifies to him (Jn 5:39).

In light of everything written above, it is right to speak of the Bible as the “ultimate authority,” meaning no person or book stands over the Bible to judge, interpret, or critique it (Jn 17:17; 2 Tim 3:16–17). Scripture is sufficient to provide everything we need for life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3). This should not be misunderstood to say every part of the Bible is equally clear to all people, but it is to affirm that everything required for an ordinary Christian to be faithful to God can be clearly understood in the Bible. Therefore we must be those who “[believe] all that it teaches, [obey] all that it requires, and [trust] all that it promises,” and invite others to do the same. Holding fast to this view of Scripture leads to the blessing of God’s people and the advancement of his kingdom, as well as energizing my own labors in preaching and teaching.

 Discussion Questions

Old and New Testaments, Canon

1.  Explain your understanding of the development of the canon of Scripture.

2.  What are the canonical issues involved with Mark 16:9-20? John 7:53-8:11?

3.  Describe one modern day canonical dispute. How would you respond to it?

Inspiration

4.  How do you understand the process of inspiration and its result? What implications does this doctrine have on your life and ministry?

5.  What do the words “verbally inspired” mean?

Inerrancy

6.  What is “inerrancy,” and why is it important? What does it mean that this concept is applied to “the original writings”? How do inerrancy and infallibility relate?

7.  Are modern translations of the Bible inerrant? How are they reliable?

Complete Revelation

8.  What is the difference between general and special revelation?

9.  How helpful is general revelation when it comes to knowing God, viz. is it salvific?

10.  What does the clarity of Scripture mean and what are its implications?

11.  What does it mean, both doctrinally and practically, that the Scriptures are sufficient?

Ultimate Authority

12.  In relation to how and what we know, why is it important to state that the Scripture, God’s Word, is “the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged?”

Believed, Obeyed, Trusted

13.  Regarding the truth of God’s Word, what is to be your response? What is the implication for your life and ministry?

* Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

The Doctrine of God: EFCA Ordination (Part 1 of 11)

I’ve been preparing for my ordination exam in the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA). Speaking in broad strokes, the process of ordination in the EFCA involves 3 steps:

Step 1: Write a 20-page paper that engages with the EFCA Statement of Faith, and then defend your theology in a 2-hour oral examination conducted by the credentialing council, which is composed of a dozen or so ordained local pastors.

Step 2: Complete at least 3 years of healthy pastoral ministry in a local EFCA church.

Step 3: Do “Step 1” again—except this round, everything is doubled: it’s now a 40-page paper (not 20) and a 4-hour oral exam (not 2).

This fall, I’ve reached the final step. At 9:00 AM on October 8, 2019, I will undergo the oral examination.

For the next few months, I’ll be sharing some of my ordination paper on the blog. Please know this writing is denser than anything I typically share on my blog, so don’t be discouraged if you find some of it jargon-filled. Each section has 1,000-1,800 words of condensed theology to meet the required space guidelines. And after each section, I’m including a list of discussion questions provided by the EFCA that ordination candidates are encouraged to address in their papers.

I welcome your prayers and feedback during this process; both will sharpen my thinking before the exam and make me a better pastor.

Thank you,
Benjamin

*     *     *

Article 1: The Doctrine of God

We believe in one God, Creator of all things, holy, infinitely perfect, and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Having limitless knowledge and sovereign power, God has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to make all things new for His own glory.

I’m not sure I could restate a succinct trinitarian affirmation better than the way it’s done in our statement of faith: God is “eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Every word in this statement is of great consequence, with each expounding what Christians mean by Trinity. God’s existence is never beginning nor ending (Ps 102:24–27; Dan 4:34–35; Acts 17:24–25). Love is shared among the members of the Godhead (Jn 17:24). This love flows to believers through our faith in Christ and then becomes the pattern for how we interact with others, especially other believers (Jn 13:34; Eph 5:1–2). Although there is an economic submission, as it has been called, among the Trinity where, for example, the Son submits to the Father’s will (see esp. the gospel of John), the three members of the Trinity are equal in essence (Gen 1:26; Mt 28:19–20; Jn 1:1–18). They are persons, not forces or things (2 Cor 13:14; cf. Acts 5:3–4). They are Father (Dt 32:6; Rm 8:15), Son (Jn 1:14; Heb 1:2, 5), and Holy Spirit (Jn 16:7–15; Rm 8:9). This is the Trinitarian God represented in Scripture, as well as the historic, orthodox view of the church in our creeds, particularly the Athanasian Creed. Ancient and modern heresies regarding the Trinity tend to arise from the denial of one or more of these truths. For example, modalism teaches that God expresses himself in three different modes that are not eternally distinct and coexistent. The Father couldn’t sing while the Son is being baptized and the Spirit is resting upon the Son if they are not distinct persons (Lk 3:21–22).

The biblical story begins describing God as Creator (Gen 1:1ff). In the Genesis creation account, as well as in other places (Jn 1:3; Rm 9:20ff; Col 1:16–17; Ps 19:1–6), we learn many important truths, such as that God creates creation for his glory, that creation is good—indeed, very good—and that God is distinct from his creation, having authority over all he has made. It is possible that the earth was created in a sequence of literal 24-hour days with the appearance of age, but I do not think this is a necessary view within a historical, grammatical, redemptive approach to reading Scripture, which is my hermeneutic. I favor an old earth interpretation, understood in the analogical day view, which teaches that God used the analogy of days to communicate to us and that duration is not specified. In this view, the days are something of an anthropomorphism, that is, our human week is a pattern of the divine week of creation. I do not, however, believe in theistic evolution. A million monkeys clacking away on a million typewriters for a million years will never compose MacBeth, and if they did, by definition, it wouldn’t have been done ex nihilo. While the earth may be old, humanity is young and began with a historical Adam and Eve. When biblical authors speak of Adam and Eve, they speak of them as people who actually lived (1 Chr 1:1; Matt 19:4–6; Lk 3:38; Rm 5:12–17; 2 Cor 11:3; 1 Tim 2:13–14; Jude 1:14). A historical Adam is central to the gospel because, without a historical Adam who represents all of humanity as our federal head, we could not also have a second Adam, the Christ, who represents us as humans (Rm 5:12–21).

A seminal passage on God’s nature and attributes is Exodus 34:6–7, as seen in the way its wording reverberates through so many other, later passages (to name just a few passages, Num 14:18; 2 Chr 30:9; Neh 9:17; Ps 86:15; 103:8; Jer 32:18; Joel 2:13; Micah 7:18; and Nahum 1:3). In the Exodus passage, we see that having a working understanding of God’s attributes is important for two reasons. First, it is only through our understanding of God’s attributes that we can specify which God, among all the supposed gods, we have in view. In other words, we believe in “the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger . . .”—not the golden calf, not Pharaoh, not nature, not other national deities. Second, the proper understanding of God leads to the proper worship of him. When Moses was hidden between two rocks and glimpsed only God’s backside—not even his face—Moses quickly put his forehead in the dirt and worshiped (Ex 33:23; 34:8).

To mention only a few of God’s attributes, there is his oneness (Dt 6:4; Mk 12:29), holiness (Is 6:3; 1 Pet 1:15), limitless knowledge (Ps 139:1–16; Is 46:10; Jn 21:17), and sovereign power (Jer 32:17; Eph 1:11). It seems to me the traditional discussion of communicable and incommunicable attributes can sometimes overstate the degree to which an attribute is either shared or not shared, but I affirm that aseity (Acts 17:24–25), immutability and eternality (Ps 102:25–27), omniscience (Ps 139:1–6) and omnipresence (Ps 139:7–12) are far less shared with humans, while attributes such as God’s love (1 Jn 4:7), justice (1 Pet 1:17), and wisdom (Prov 6:6) are more recognizably shared.

With respect to God’s limitless knowledge, it is worth noting that some argue against this from the handful of passages that seem to suggest God does not know the future (Jer 19:5) and that he occasionally must repent, famously in passages such as Gen 6:6–7 and 1 Sam 15:11. It’s also worth noting that in the very same 1 Samuel 15 passage, God also says he will not repent (v. 29; cf. Num 23:19). A far better approach than the route of open theism is to understand God’s change as the revealing of his new posture toward a person or situation but one not brought about because God is morally deficient and needs to repent or that he did not foresee something. This is especially true in light of the abundance of verses that teach that God knows not only the actual future exhaustively (Is 42:9; Jn 13:19) but that he even knows hypothetical futures (Mt 11:20–25).

A chief element of what makes God’s glory so glorious is his purpose, as this article states, to “redeem a people for Himself,” meaning he graciously purchases sinners from the due punishment of sin through the costly death of the Son (Titus 2:14; 1 Pet 1:18–19). Not only has God purposed to redeem sinners but he will renew creation as well. The Bible speaks of creation as groaning until its day of redemption (Rm 8:18–25). There is some disagreement among Christians as to the sense in which the new heavens and earth will be “new.” I do not take new to mean that God will scrap all of his creation and start over, even though a verse like 2 Peter 3:10 could be so understood. Instead, I take new in the sense of renewed and fitted appropriately for the place where there will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain (Rev 21:4). Because creation will be renewed thus, we should treat the earth and its resources with care, as Adam and Eve were first called to do (Gen 1:28; 2:15). If God values something, so should we.

Discussion Questions

Creator and Creation

1.  What does it mean that God is the Creator? Why is this important?

2.  How do you interpret Genesis 1?

3.  How does your interpretation of Genesis 1 relate to your view of Scripture?

Attributes

4.  Describe the essential attributes of God. Why is it necessary, or important, to have a working understanding of the nature and attributes of God?

5.  What does it mean that God is holy? What are the implications of his holiness?

Trinity

6.  Describe the doctrine of the Trinity. How do you teach this doctrine from Scripture?

7.  What is the importance of the truth that God, as “three equally divine Persons,” eternally exists “in a loving unity?”

8.  Describe one contemporary denial of the doctrine of the Trinity. Why is it heretical?

Limitless Knowledge and Sovereign Power (Open Theism)

9.  What does it mean that God has “limitless knowledge and sovereign power”? Why is this significant in contemporary debates about God?

Gracious Purpose to Redeem

10.  What is the significance of God graciously purposing from eternity to redeem a people for Himself?

Make All Things New for His Glory

11.  How does redemption relate to the creation? What impact does your view have for our present stewardship of the earth’s resources?

* Photo by Daniel Leone on Unsplash

Pillars of Corrugated Cardboard: Reflections on Ministry from Tony Reinke

Last week Tony Reinke, one of my favorite authors, posted on social media some reflections on Christian ministry (Instagram, Twitter). The theme of his observations is that for Christian ministry to be Christian, it must be about Christ not the minister and ministry.

Reinke didn’t necessarily write to have his comments shared far and wide, but with his permission I wanted to post his reflections here to help them reach a few more people.*

A few thoughts on ministry. As voices for the gospel, we must never allow our ministry output to become our identity, something that gets talked about more and more these days — thankfully —a hard awakening we all need to experience at least once.

But here’s why we need this path in the first place. It’s too easy to allow our “faith” to devolve into a mere expediency, a means to get or maintain ministry prominence. As personal faith wanes, platform and paychecks can prove powerful to prop up a façade for a hollowed heart. Eventually when the job evaporates or the platform declines or the money stops, all semblances of the “faith” will crash, too. Very often this same heart will reflexively turn against the very doctrines, denominations, publishers, etc. once used like duct tape to keep the façade up.

The takeaways:

(1) Don’t be shocked when prominent Christian leaders, who seemed to be so strong and stable for so many years, fall away from major doctrinal convictions or even from the faith itself. Apostasy will increase, not decrease (2 Tim. 4:3–4). And the most inauthentic heart motives for why ministers “believe” can be very complexly masked by a host of worldly perks.

(2) Pray for your leaders. Pray for the authenticity of their doctrine and faith and marriages. Pray that prominent leaders who do fall away, and who maybe are just now confronting the hypocrisy of their own faith, would be restored to Christ through a real and robust faith, a faith that rests on nothing else than the beauty and worth of Christ himself.

(3) For all of us, we must never allow our personal trust in Christ to subtly become replaced by pillars of corrugated cardboard — public affirmation, a paycheck, book sales, or popularity within a movement, church, or organization. We must treasure Christ above all other things, because one day, whether in this life or when we stand before God, all those other things will disappear. And in that moment our faith in Christ will be called on to stand alone, naked, unsupported by popularity or paychecks.

I love this writing. Note the lyricism in “platform and paychecks can prove powerful to prop . . .” and the use of concrete, earthy images like hollowed heart, duct tape, and corrugated cardboard.

But most of all, I appreciate the conviction these thoughts bring. I am in fulltime vocational Christian ministry, which means to some extent my paycheck comes through my performance. That’s not wrong, but it is dangerous for a minister’s soul.

May we all desire most in our hearts what John the Baptist said of Jesus—that “he must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30)—because on the day God unveils forever and we stand stripped of ministry trinkets and public accolades, both of us will: Christ will increase, and we will decrease.

* As I moved Reinke’s words from a tweet to a blog post, I made a few tiny formatting changes.

** Photo by Alfonso Navarro on Unsplash

Related Posts

On Writing: Tips and Routines

While I write a lot, I don’t typically write much about writing. In five years of writing a weekly blog post I’ve written about writing less than five times. I figure writing about writing is best saved for the elite, the authors we all know and love.

In the genre of Christian non-fiction, I could listen to Kevin DeYoung and Jared C. Wilson talk tradecraft all day. I’ve never actually heard DeYoung do that; I’m just saying I’d love to do that because he’s so good with words and theology. You never have to read sentences from DeYoung twice . . . unless you want to, which I often do. Jared Wilson has done several engaging interviews about writing (Home Row podcast interviews 1 and 2, and The Forum interview at Midwestern Seminary).

I’d also love to hear novelist Anthony Doerr talk about writing. He authored my all-time favorite novel, All the Light We Cannot See. In the novel, Doerr primarily wrote with present tense verbs rather than the standard historical past tense, which gives such immediacy to the book. Doerr’s website has several links to interviews.

Again, writing about writing—I think—is best saved for the best writers. But every so often a friend will reach out and ask about my writing routines. If you stay at something long enough, people tend to wonder why and how. Chase Replogle was even kind enough to have me on his podcast the Pastor Writer for that purpose. And a few weeks ago a friend asked me a number of questions by email. I don’t want to presume that my answers to his questions will be as interesting to you as Kevin DeYoung’s answers would be to me. But if you’re just beginning to take your writing seriously, perhaps these thoughts will encourage you to do that very thing.

What is your routine for writing? Is it every day, a specific day?

I’ve tried to write one blog post a week for the last five years, though I’ve never made it to 52. Most years I make it to the mid-40s. The first year I didn’t give as much time to blogging, but for the last four years I’ve spent about ten hours each week writing. Somewhere along the way I began to feel compelled to work on the craft as part of my calling, so I made the decision to treat writing like a part-time job—one I really enjoy.

I do most of my writing at our kitchen table every day except Sunday before our kids get up, so typically from 5:30–7 am. Because I don’t work at the church on Fridays, during the school year I often get another hour to write while my younger kids nap and the older ones are at school. For me, plodding along in small doses has been better than marathon, binge writing, which is something I’d never have time for anyway.

This last year, my writing schedule has had a lot of bumps, as my youngest son decided he wants to get up before 5:30. It’s helped me remember that my part-time “job” has no actual boss and very few deadlines not self-inflicted. I try not to begrudge it when the schedule shifts or is swallowed altogether. Except sometimes I do begrudge it, which I hate about myself. I’d like to be more open-handed and tender-hearted than I am.

Do you set specific goals? If so, what do they look like?

As far as writing goals for completing projects, I hear authors talk about hitting word-count goals or a certain number of pages. I just shoot for time-on-task.

If you’re asking about other goals, like style and writing voice, I guess I have an answer for that, but it seems really, really goofy to share with someone else. It’s more of a private mission statement than a public one. But here it goes: I aim to bring clarity to the Christian message of hope with accessible, riveting scholarship. Again, it feels super goofy to write out my purpose statement, but it has brought focus even if I never produce anything worthy of the label accessible, scholarship, or riveting. It’s a shoot for the stars and you hit the moon sort of thing.

What motivates you?

I often find out after the fact that my motivations are more layered than I realize. But if I set aside the sinful motivations that lurk around the edges of my heart, I’d say the main two motivations for writing are joy and obedience. I really do enjoy tinkering with words that point people to God. I’ve heard Douglas Wilson say that for him, writing isn’t “have to” but “get to.” I feel the same.

I also feel a component of obedience related to writing. I joked about not having a writing boss, but I’d like to think I treat writing the way the lay-elders of our church treat their pastoring: serving the church as something they enjoy but also something they feel called by God to do.

How does your writing schedule fit in with your pastoral duties?

I’m not sure I do a good job with this and hope things can change. I tend to think there is a lot of overlap between the kind of writing I do and my pastoral duties at church. Most of my posts are really just devotionals of one kind or another. And all of the longer writing projects are pastoral—at least I hope they are. A few months ago one of the elders commented about how my preaching has grown because of all the writing, which was nice to hear. But for now, I try to keep church and writing separate.

Because I try to publish a new blog post each Tuesday at 2pm, I often need to steal 30 minutes of “church time” for “blog time” to powder the nose of the post before it goes out in public. But since pastors rarely work less than full-time, I know I’m not really stealing. When I first started blogging I worried people in our church would complain that I sat around and wrote all day, so I have probably been more paranoid than necessary.

What are your top 3–5 books that you’ve read on writing?

The most influential book to my writing has been Helen Sword’s The Writer’s Diet: A Guide to Fit Prose. It’s super short but super helpful. My honorable mentions include all of the writing books by Roy Peter Clark: Writing Tools, How to Write Short, Help! For Writers, and The Glamour of Grammar.

This will expand the list beyond five, but also excellent are On Writing by Stephen King, On Writing Well by William Zinsser, The Sense of Style by Stephen Pinker, Spunk and Bite by Arthur Plotnik, and the classic The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White.

In addition to books, a few podcasts have been life-giving to me: Home Row hosted by J.A. Medders and the Pastor Writer hosted by Chase Replogle. Jonathon Rogers sends a weekly email called The Habit that I enjoy too.

Beyond Microsoft Word, do you use any specific tools or software to help?

As for writing tools, I’ve never gotten into the writing programs Scrivener or Ulysses, though I hear some writers really like them. I just stay with Microsoft Word. I’ve found Grammarly very helpful, which is an add-on to Word. Grammarly does a deeper dive into the content to find potential mistakes than the spell-check that comes with Word. I started using Grammarly 3 years ago because it embarrassed me to put my sermon manuscripts online. My co-pastor (who recently left) is an excellent writer and probably had no more than two typos a year in his sermons. My sermons have two per page. But Grammarly helped a lot. I also use an electronic reader to listen to everything I write before I publish. The electronic reader helps me hear typos I might not have seen. I wrote a bit about self-editing here.

The other tool is related to Helen Sword’s book called The Writer’s Diet Test. It’s an online analyzer of your prose. You almost have to have read the book first to make sense of it, but I’ve found it more than a little helpful.

Any other thoughts or advice?

Glad you asked, but I feel like it would be pretty arrogant of me to offer writing advice. I took like two classes at a community college on the subject. The only advice I might be able to give is that if you want to write guest posts for websites, I’d start small with places you think will say yes, perhaps for a website where you know someone. That’s helped me a lot. Oh, here’s one more. If you work for a church, have conversations about your writing with the other leaders, specifically how what you write and when you write is related to your work.

* Photo by Calum MacAulay on Unsplash

A Change of Seasons: A Pastoral and Personal Update

Photo: The steeple of Community Evangelical Free Church, the church I’ve been a pastor at for the last five years.

When I was a junior in college, a local youth group hosted a city-wide “service day” with other local youth groups. After the day of service, everyone gathered that night for worship and preaching. The youth group hosting the event had asked me to preach. I did. I only remember a few details from that sermon, but my main memory comes from what happened after the preaching.

My wife, Brooke, was my girlfriend at the time. After the worship service was over, Brooke and I went out for ice cream at McDonald’s with one of the pastors and his wife. As I ate my McFlurry and we talked about our lives, the pastor who heard me preach encouraged me to consider going to seminary after college.

That was sixteen years ago, and the couple who went out for ice cream with us was Jason and Natalie Abbott. As we sat at McDonald’s that night, I could have had no idea that I’d spend the last five years pastoring with Jason at Community Evangelical Free Church.

A Church Announcement

I told this story to our church a few weeks ago before my sermon. I shared it because the story gives more context to what it meant to me a few months ago when Jason first told me he was likely going to be taking a position at another church in the summer. Jason pastored faithfully at our church for seven years, and it was a joy to share five of those years with him. For the better, his preaching and pastoring shaped our lives in both obvious and subtle ways; that’s what faithful pastoring does.

Before I go on, let me acknowledge that I don’t presume most people out there on the world wide web want or need an update about one individual church in the middle of Pennsylvania. Most people don’t need this update. But a few people—people who know me and our church—might like to know about the changes.

What Does This Change Mean Practically?

As we go forward, it’s my hope and the hope of our pastor-elders that as the senior pastor I will anchor the preaching ministry of our church, which for now will mean preaching around 3 times a month or 36 times a year.

I’m not sure I know all the ways the change at church will affect the writing that I do in the mornings. For now I’ll just say that it’s been difficult to do anything except what feels like the most pressing ministry item in front of me. Few books are being read and few writing projects are being pursued as squeaky wheels keep getting all the grease.

The other major change is the promotion of our director of youth and music ministry to the role of associate pastor. He’s been here for several years and done a fantastic job. I’m excited to see him do more preaching.

We are also going to be hiring another associate pastor. We’re still working out the details, but likely the role will be a connections pastor, that is, someone who helps shepherd us into the kind of meaningful relationships that God calls his people to have with each other.

Please Say a Prayer for Us

As I wrote above, I don’t want to presume that people want to know what is happening in our little church in the middle of Pennsylvania. But a few of you might like to know. If you’re one of those people who made it to the end of this post, please say a quick prayer for me and our church. It would mean a lot to me.

Enduring Grace: Introduction

My friend Stephen Morefield and I recently published a devotional book, which we titled Enduring Grace: 21 Days with The Apostle Peter. It’s a self-published book mostly for local distribution at our churches. Stephen pastors in Kansas, and I’m in Pennsylvania. But we tried to write the devotional in such a way that it could bless a wider audience. We’ve been praying it does.

Here’s the introduction to the book. We’d love for you to consider picking up a copy.

*     *     *

There were only a handful of people who got a front row view of Jesus’ entire earthly ministry. Of these, perhaps none heard, saw, or experienced more than the fisherman Peter. We speak of disciples as those who follow Jesus, and Peter did that literally—for three years. As Peter followed Jesus, he saw miracles performed, heard truth spoken, and even read what Jesus wrote in the dirt. He studied the Scriptures under Jesus and saw the brilliant white glory of heaven surround Jesus. Peter walked on water after him, shared meals with him, and spoke with men he had raised from the dead. Who wouldn’t want to hear of Peter’s experiences with the Savior?

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Not only did Peter share in a wide variety of moments with Jesus, but he also responded to Jesus in a wide variety of ways. With cowardice and cursing, he denied Jesus before the resurrection. Bold and confident, Peter preached Jesus after the resurrection. Up and down, down and up, Peter went. Two steps forward, one step—or sometimes three steps—back, Peter was not a detached observer. He was an intimately growing, struggling, and broken yet redeemed man who learned that the depth of his sin was very deep but that the Savior’s love was deeper still. And through it all, the grace of Jesus toward Peter endured, which means that in the end, by the very same grace, Peter endured. Indeed, no matter where you stand before Jesus at this moment, you should be able to relate to Peter’s story. In our faith and doubt, courage and fear, obedience and failure, growth and stagnation (or even backtracking), Peter’s witness gives us hope that Jesus really is a friend of sinners and mighty to save.

What you’ll find in the rest of these pages is a back and forth journey following the Savior through the eyes of Peter. We’ve grouped themes together as best as we could, but that means the chapters will not strictly follow Peter’s life chronologically. Instead we’ll jump between Peter’s life, which is presented to us in the Gospels and the book of Acts, and his teachings, which we have in the two letters he wrote (1 & 2 Peter). In each chapter you’ll find the Scripture we’ll study for the assigned day, our teaching on that passage, and then relevant application questions to knead the Savior’s grace into all parts of our lives.

Here are a few more things to consider before you start the journey. In an effort to combine style and personality, we, Stephen and Benjamin, have not indicated which chapters we’ve each written. When a particular story necessitates it, we indicate the writer, but otherwise we will allow the prose to blend without distinction.

Now, how to read this book? The structure sets itself up to be read as a 21-day devotional. That being said, you can also slow down and tackle the book at whatever pace suits you. There’s no need to hurry. Likewise, chapters can be grouped together, should you use the book in a Bible study or small group. Whatever method you choose, we do encourage you to slow down enough to read the Scripture before our teaching. It’s difficult to rest in the Savior’s grace while racing from page to page. And resting daily in his grace is a large part of what helps us endure in his grace.

* Photo by Frances Gunn on Unsplash

Enduring Grace: Praise for Tom Reidy

My friend Stephen Morefield and I recently published a devotional book, which we titled Enduring Grace: 21 Days with The Apostle Peter. It’s a self-published book mostly for local distribution at our churches. Stephen pastors in Kansas, and I’m in Pennsylvania. But we tried to write the devotional in such a way that it could bless a wider audience. We’ve been praying it does.

I’ll tell you more about the book next week. This week I want to tell you about Tom Reidy. I dedicated the book to him, writing on the dedication page,

To Tom Reidy,
your prayers and encouragement buoy
my ministry in more ways than I’ll ever know.

We Need More Eulogies

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Recently at our church here in Harrisburg, my copastor Jason felt called to another church. As we celebrated the many ways the Lord used him and his family over seven years of ministry, one of our leaders used the phrase “eulogize.” Of course a few jokes ensued that Jason was not dead yet, so the eulogies were premature. . . unless, so the joke went, we knew something Jason did not.

But our leader who did the eulogizing pointed out that to eulogize someone is simply to say in public something nice about another person, and it’s unfortunate in our culture that nearly the only time we do this is after a person has died. So we spent some time praising God for Jason’s ministry.

I’d like to spend some time praising God for Tom Reidy’s ministry. I even wanted to subtitle this post, “A Eulogy for Tom Reidy” rather than “Praise for Tom Reidy” but feared what would happen as people shared this post online. I didn’t want Tom to have to say what Mark Twain once purportedly had to say: The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.

I also hope that in the process of eulogizing my not-dead friend, I might encourage others of the truth in a verse such as 1 Corinthians 15:58, which says that because Jesus has risen, no labor in the Lord is done in vain. At times you might feel as though resurrection, gospel ministry done for God’s glory was a waste, but it’s never a waste. Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for he has risen—he has risen indeed.

Breakfast Burritos at the Golden Arches

I met Tom twelve years ago at Salem Evangelical Free Church in St. Louis. My wife and I and our young family attended Salem while I studied at Covenant Theological Seminary and worked as an engineer for a construction company.

Tom retired a few years ago, but he spent his whole career working for a large aerospace and defense contractor. I mention this because our first meaningful interaction was related to this. I can’t be certain how the topic came up, but somehow warfare and bombs were discussed in a men’s Bible study. Tom and I seemed to connect well, and we set up a breakfast date at McDonald’s to talk about the ethics of weapons of mass destruction. Tom had “top secret” clearance, so I never really knew much about the specifics of his work. He could have told me, but then he would have had to kill me.

We had dozens and dozens of breakfast burritos over the years, sometimes discussing what it meant to be a Christian employee, sometimes discussing how we might better love our wives and children, sometimes how to better love our church, sometimes what we were learning in the Bible, sometimes a tricky aspect of theology like election and God’s sovereignty, and sometimes—perhaps often—the struggles in our lives. Then we’d pray for each other and head off to work. I can’t know how many days and weeks were altered for the better because of those discussions and prayers, but without any cliché, if we had the eyes of God to see everything, I’m sure those meetings could rightly be called life-changing.

Affirming the Call of God

My first sizable writing project was called, A Short Study of The Bible, Homosexuality, and Culture: Helping Christians Navigate the Issues. The booklet was a 6-week Sunday school for local churches that swelled to 30k words. Tom constantly encouraged me as I wrote. Today, I’d never show the booklet to anyone because the writing is so poor. But yet, Tom encouraged me. He told me to keep working on it. He prayed for me. He didn’t even complain when I taught the study at our church and made seventy-year-old church ladies discuss Lady Gaga’s hit “Born This Way.”

And this highlights a significant theme in Tom’s ministry to me and many others: seeing potential in seedlings.

Enduring Grace

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For the last eight years of full-time pastoral ministry, I’m not sure if Tom has skipped listening to a single sermon of mine. I don’t know anyone else who could say that. My wife even occasionally misses my sermons when volunteering in the nursery or when one of our children is sick. But not Tom.

A short email arrives in my inbox every Monday or Tuesday morning the week after I preach telling me what moved him in the sermon. And it’s not just that. Though he lives in St. Louis, he keeps up with our church preaching calendar and knows when I’m up to preach, often sending a text in the middle of the week asking how goes the sermon and what ways he can pray for me. It’s Wednesday morning as I’m editing this paragraph, and he literally just texted me “How’s the sermon coming along?” And my bookshelf at church has at least a dozen books he’s sent me from my favorite authors. It’s fair to say that I know no one like Tom.

I’ve gushed thanksgiving before about Salem Church (here). We even named our youngest child Salem because of the love of Christ we experienced there, which were formative years for my marriage and ministry. But a large part of what made Salem Salem, was Tom. God’s grace to me through Tom has endured in ways I could not have imagined, which is why this book is for him. His labor has not been in vain.

It’s true I need to write more books so I can dedicate them to more people. So many have done so much for me. My parents, wife, and children are yet to have a book dedicated to them. Lord willing, I’ll remedy these oversights in the coming years. But today is about Tom.

Thank you, Tom, for your prayerful, encouragement to me. You and I will never know all the ways you’ve made a difference.

Podcast Interview: Don’t Just Send a Resume to a Missions Agency

Today I’m sharing an interview I recently did on a podcast about the hiring process in local churches and missions. The Missions Podcast is hosted by Scott Dunford and Alex Kocman, who both work for ABWE, an international mission’s organization. Until recently, Scott was one of the pastor-elders at our church. Both Scott and Alex are good friends. Hopefully that’s clear by the way they tease me a bit, which is a favor I tried to return. This is my second invitation to the show; this winter we talked about the struggle with pornography (here).

I know I was the one being interviewed, but I will say this: in the last 10 minutes of the interview we talk about the way the gospel makes a difference in our identity. And last night as I re-listened to the conversation, I needed to hear these truths again. Maybe you do too.

You can listen to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play. Or you can simply listen below.

 Here’s what Alex wrote for an intro to our conversation:

Too often in pursuit of full-time ministry abroad or at home, ministry applicants simply email a church or missions agency their resume and leave the rest of the hiring process to chance. Whether you’re fresh out of seminary or transitioning to ministry after a full career in the outside workforce, such a haphazard approach is bound to fail. Maybe we need to learn more about how to conduct ourselves professionally during the onboarding processes into pastoral or cross-cultural ministry.

Benjamin Vrbicek returns to the show to discuss his newest book, Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church. He believes that the typical pastor or missionary, while fully equipped to do his job, is not equipped to transition effectively when God calls him to move to another ministry context. The book also features short contributions by 12 published authors and ministry leaders including David Mathis, Jared C. Wilson, and others. In the interview, Scott and Alex catch up with Benjamin on a personal level and explore the similarities and dissimilarities between hiring in the ministry world and the secular world, and wrap up with some wisdom on transitioning well.

Is God Big Enough to Handle Your Pain?

When tragedy strikes, we often don’t know what to do next. Yet, when the Lord’s hand of judgment fell on Israel; when the temple was leveled by pagans; and when the most tender and refined of women resorted to cannibalism (cf. Deut. 28:56–57), Jeremiah knew what to do. He sat in ash and wrote an acrostic poem. Let that sink in. When all around his soul gave way, Jeremiah penned the book we call Lamentations, a series of highly structured and theologically dense poems.

That response to tragedy might strike us as odd. But Jeremiah’s response is a gift to posterity. His laments illuminate the way out of the dark jungle of despair. He gives us a path to walk toward life, healing, and toward God himself.

The Importance of Lament

Mark Vroegop’s new book Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament draws its title from two verses in Lamentations: one about the clouds of judgment that hung over Zion (2:1), and the other from the stunning promise of fresh mercy each morning (3:22). “Lament stands in the gap,” Vroegop writes, “between pain and promise” (26).

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When tragedy strikes our lives, our churches, and our communities, we need a competent guide through the laments in the Bible, which are less familiar to most Christians than they should be. Take our diet of modern worship songs as an example. The book of Psalms is one-third lament, while the overwhelming majority of our modern worship songs are “positive and encouraging,” as one radio station boasts. Focusing on the upbeat in music and calling funeral services “a celebration of life,” are not necessarily wrong, but it does leave us impoverished. We also need to know how to grieve.

Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy has three sections: the first engages with four psalms of lament, the second with the book of Lamentations, and the final explores applications to individual and corporate life. The book has also discussion questions at the end of each chapter. Not only would it be a good book for preaching and worship pastors to read individually, but it’s also a good book for them to read together. Last fall at our church, we preached a 10-week series through the book of Job, and though Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy wasn’t published yet, I wish it had been so it could have better shaped not only our preaching but the whole worship service.

Learning the Meaning of Lament

There’s a famous joke from the show Seinfeld where George’s father creates the holiday Festivus, a foil to Christmas. Each year Festivus beings with the “airing of grievances.” Mr. Costanza bellows, “I got a lot of problems with you people! And now you’re gonna hear about it!” To the uninitiated, it can seem like biblical laments are like that, the mere ranting to God our pent-up anger and disappointment throughout the last year, a vomiting of emotions and a verbal shake of our fists. As Vroegop engages with four Psalms of lament in the first section of the book (Psalm 77, 10, 22, and 13, respectively), I gained a better understanding of what lament, biblically speaking, is and what it is not. And more importantly, the detailed discussion through each modeled how to make use of lament as an individual Christian and in the life of the church. Big surprise: it’s not the way of Festivus.

Biblical laments have, according to Vroegop, three key features. First, there is an address to the Lord. In this way laments are for believers, not those shouting to the void or an impersonal universe. Second, laments complain. The complaint might be overtly because of some sin, or it may be less clear why the tragedy struck, but regardless something has gone very wrong and the people of God aren’t going to pretend it’s okay. Finally, laments have an expression of trust or praise, sometimes both. When all the sawdust of a lament finally settles to the ground, a believer is still a believer because God is God. Often this expression of trust marks a turning point in the psalm. Appendix 4, entitled, “But, Yet, And,” traces a number of examples of this “turn” in various psalms. “In some cases,” Vroegop writes, “the specific word [but, yet, or and] is not present, but the tone of the sentence fits the purpose [of asking boldly or choosing to trust]” (209).

Like the book of Lamentations, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy was also born out of tragedy. The Vroegops first experienced lament in the wake of a stillborn daughter and they later had other significant troubles during pregnancies. “Pain and fear mingled together in a jumbled torrent of emotion. . . . I wrestled with sadness that bored a hole in my chest,” he writes (17). My wife and I—and I’m sure many in your churches—know a little bit about this. You don’t forget that pale look on an ultrasound technician’s face when she says, “I’m going to grab the doctor,” on her way out the door. But it was in this season of sorrow that the Vroegop’s found solace in the Scripture. “The Bible gave voice to my pain. . . . I discovered a minor-key language for my suffering: lament” (17).

A Book for Those in Pain

Whenever I read a book about suffering, I find myself wondering about the author’s intended audience. Russ Ramsey, the author of Struck, another edifying book on suffering, has said there are two kinds of books on suffering. “There are books that you give to people who are interested in the subject, but not necessarily afflicted or suffering in the moment. And then there are books for people who are in the middle of suffering.”

Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy is more in the latter category, but it’s not the book you hand them on the way home from the funeral. The wounds are probably still too raw for this book. It seems to me that Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy is best given to someone when the steady delivery of meals from the church has stopped, when friends forget to check in, and when acute grief has dissipated but long-term grief still lingers. It is a good book for every pastor to read, but at some time or another, it will also be a book for most people in the pews.

* This book review originally appeared at 9Marks.

** Photo by Alex Plesovskich on Unsplash

We Are the Perpetual Resistance Movement: A Review of COMPETING SPECTACLES by Tony Reinke

As we discussed purity and parenting during a seminary class, Rob raised his hand from the back of the room. Our professor called on him. Rob said, “More than I want my daughter to not wear clothing that draws attention to her body, I want my daughter to want to not wear clothing that draws attention to her body. I want her to want the right things, not just do them.”

It was a formative moment in not only my seminary education but in my Christian maturation. Rob was on to something, and I wanted to be on to it too.

Tony Reinke’s new book Competing Spectacles: Treasuring Christ in a Media Age is a book to help us not only look at our smartphones less, but a book to help us want to look at them less by giving us something better to behold.

Competing Spectacles is a solid sequel to his book 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (2017). In a culture of “viral moments competing for our attention,” Reinke explores how we can not only survive spiritually but even thrive (p. 13). “Few of us,” he writes, “have reckoned with the consequences of this tele-visual culture on our attention, our volition, our empathy, and our self-identity” (p. 33). But Reinke has reckoned with the consequences, and he relays them well—not in an alarmist, fear-mongering way but as a concerned friend and father.

Competing Spectacles has an uncommon structure. It’s one long essay broken into 33 mini-sections, which are separated into two parts, “The Age of the Spectacle” and “The Spectacle.” This structure might catch a few readers off guard, but he’s such a gifted writer that a 34,000-word essay isn’t as imposing as it might sound. Reinke is senior writer for Desiring God and author of several other books, The Joy Project (2018), John Newton on the Christian Life (2015), and Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books (2011). I’ve only done this for a few authors, but I make it a point to read (and in Reinke’s case, write reviews of) all his books.

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“Spectacle” can mean different things. Spectacles are something we wear to help us see. But spectacles can also be what we see. This is the way Reinke uses spectacles throughout the book, spectacles as events. So, for example, each year the Super Bowl is a spectacle. The recent box-office hit Avengers: Endgame is a spectacle. The 2016 presidential election is a spectacle—actually the 2016 election had lots and lots of spectacles to it, something Reinke explores extensively in several sections of the book (especially “§9. Politics as Spectacle,” pp. 39–44).

But a local church worship service is also, by this definition, a spectacle. It’s a different spectacle, a smaller, less sexy spectacle than the latest Hollywood blockbuster or Adam Levine half-naked at half-time, but the gathering of the people of God is a spectacle nonetheless.

Competing Spectacles has tons of crispy writing, the kind of writing prevalent in Reinke’s other books. Just to give you a taste, he writes of the way “we never stop hungering for the Turkish delight-sized bites of digital scandal” (p. 56) and how the spectacle industry is a “gatling gun firing at us new media modules nonstop” (p. 150). That’s good writing! My favorite quote comes during his discussion of the spectacle of the local church. It’s a long quote, but read it slowly, perhaps even out loud.

Matched to the multi-million dollar CGI spectacles of Hollywood, the church’s interior spectacles seem dull. But they are beautiful and profound. Each week the local church reenacts the same things—Bible preaching, the Lord’s Table, water baptism—all of them faith-based, repeated, microspectacles (unlike the sight-based and unrepeated, expiring spectacles of the world). These church ordinances are weighted with cosmic influence. In Colossians and Ephesians, Paul is careful to show how the gospel-driven love and unity of local churches is a spectacle of the victory of Christ to the powers and principalities who seek to destroy God’s created order. The church is the perpetual resistance movement. And from generation to generation, she displays a spectacle of God’s victory to his cosmic foes, repeatedly striking those enemies with déjà vu of their defeat at the cross. (p. 101)

A few weeks ago, with as much passion as I could muster, I read this quote to our church. I might as well have been William Wallace on horseback with blue warpaint. “They may take our lives, but we are the perpetual resistance movement!”

For the first time in our 20-year church’s history, we enjoyed preaching, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper in the same worship service. We preach each week and have regular communion services, but we’ve always done our baptisms offsite in special services. We did this, in part, to mark baptisms off as special—they got their own service. But performing baptisms at another time than Sunday morning and in another location than our church building also meant we disconnected baptisms from the spectacle of a regular Sunday. Yet there is nothing, Reinke implies, regular about it at all. “From generation to generation, [local churches display] the spectacle of God’s victory to his cosmic foes.”

I want Christians to not only come to church each week but to want to come to church. And a big part of wanting to come to church regularly involves coming alive to the extraordinary reality of what happens on every ordinary Sunday in every ordinary local church.

If the local church is to become precious to us, another spectacle—the greatest spectacle—must first become precious to us: the spectacle of the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross is the heartbeat of Reinke’s book; it’s the central spectacle, both the theological center of the book and the geographic center of the book (e.g., the special attention the cross receives in section 17). He writes,

Into the spectacle-loving world, with all of its spectacle makers and spectacle-making industries, came the grandest Spectacle ever devised in the mind of God and brought about in world history—the cross of Christ. It is the hinge of history, the point of contact between BC and AD, where all time collides, where all human spectacles meet one unsurpassed, cosmic, divine spectacle. (p. 79)

Reinke’s book is not a book to get you to simply look at your phone less or watch media with a more critical eye. Competing Spectacles is a book to stoke your desire to want to behold something more than your screens; it’s a book, as the subtitle says, to help us treasure Christ in our media age. Channeling the famous quote by puritan Thomas Chalmers, Reinke writes, “The Christian’s battle in this media age can be won only by the expulsive power of a superior Spectacle” (p. 145).

* Photo by Barbara Provenzano on Unsplash

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