Keeping our focus: The gospel need

It’s hard to imagine a greater need for our lives and our worlds than the one that evangelists and their ministries are meeting. Is there a greater need for Tasmania, for our Country, for our world than new Christians filling new churches? This gospel need should fill our horizons.

But one problem we encounter—I certainly experience this every day—is that we can tend to lose our gospel ‘imaginations’ as Christians, if Christ’s coming loses our focus.  We stop imagining countless friends and neighbours and strangers on that day departing on his left, to eternal condemnation (Matthew 25:41). And we stop dreaming of countless fellows at that moment on his right, hearing Christ say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father!” (Matthew 25:34)

I recognise that as finite human beings we cannot continue to be conscious of or even sustain this type of biblical vision for much of the time. At the same time, Jesus has given us these word-pictures for a reason. To listen to him and ‘hear’ his word in his parables, his descriptions, in Matthew 25, must mean more than mere understanding of the facts of heaven and hell. It is not an intellectual assent that Jesus sought to stir in his disciples when he spoke thus about the realities of his coming.

But we struggle enough not to be overwhelmed with the many, many needs in our local and global community.  It’s still easier to watch the nightly news than look too long into the New Testament’s window on hell. Yet even Christ’s lure of everlasting reward has for most of us grown fuzzy and escapes our gaze.

It’s not surprising then if home missionaries and evangelistic parachurches are not amongst the top organisations getting priority on our monthly bank statement.

Church planting ministries are based on more than merely fuelling efforts to see more new churches established. Local evangelistic and church building zeal should certainly not be some Tower of Babel—not a vision of grandeur, some dream of building greatness here for ourselves.

What is the point of all this effort to start more churches? It is Jesus bringing the End and his final Judgement that is our horizon, that is the horizon for all of creation--nothing less. It is the firm, clear and real vision that we are all moving towards--Christ’s coming.

Imagine on that Day:

• Less poor sinners than we see today, going away on Christ’s left;
• More than the number of Christians we currently see, coming with us to eternal glory;
• Countless people from across our communities praising Christ for having saved them through our efforts;
• Your joy unending in the reward of joining with countless friends and strangers converted to Christ.

Do you want to see that? Can you imagine it?

But practically, how do we do this more? How can we keep the End in our sights on a day to day basis? Most of my suggestions below amount to simply re-assigning little bits of time regularly to things that bring Christ coming into focus:

• Create a habit of each night and morning briefly meditating on the Final Day (e.g. think about Heaven as you go to bed at night; remember Hell as you get up in the morning each day.)
• Attend a parachurch evangelistic ministry regularly (e.g. a few times a year, or more!); e.g. just turn up to a local university AFES ministry, for example.
• Listen to key sections of the Audio Bible that give word-pictures about judgement and restoration - listening passively can help these parts of the Bible sweep over us regularly (e.g. Isaiah 34-66; the Revelation) 
• Attend or start a prayer group exclusively dedicated to praying for evangelism, evangelistic ministries and conversions.
• Try an app such as PrayerMate to give you notifications each day, and set it up to remind you of the key biblical prayers from the New Testament that you reflect on before or as you pray (e.g. the prayers that Paul prayed).

Please let me know your thoughts about how to practically keep the gospel need better in-focus in our every day lives.

Let’s get behind evangelists, missionaries and church planters, for the gospel and for glory!

A God of love?

Or the God of horror?

‘If God exists, then he is horrible’. Atheists claim that the existence of such evils as war and suffering provide evidence against the existence of a good God.

‘If eternal hell exists, then God is horrible’. Universalists point to the existence of a God who is love as evidence against the existence of an eternal hell.

As humanists, atheists critique what the Bible makes known of God in comparison to what we know of human love. Without any other standard to measure reality against than themselves, they feel the existence of a loving God is incompatible with the existence of evils such as natural catastrophe and disaster.

Universalists, though vastly different in their starting point, end up doing something similar. Questioning the traditional understanding of that the Bible makes known about God, they compare the doctrine of hell against what we know about love from a human perspective. Again, without any other standard to critique God’s word against, they appeal to human reason to justify their position that the existence of an eternal hell is incompatible with the existence of a good God whose nature is controlled by perfect love.

Human love vs. God

Part I of this article explored the cost of human love demonstrated on the first Anzac Day, which has defined Australia. Human love – extraordinary human love – is perhaps the most inspiring of all human experiences. How does the love of God measure up against such an extraordinary story? How can a God who threatens retributive justice in terms of eternal conscious torture claim to love? Wouldn’t he, rather, be the God of horror?

The New Testament does in fact compare the love of God against human love. But it finds that in comparison even extraordinary human love does not come close, does not even compare, to the love of God. And the reasons tell us as much about ourselves as they do about the unique love of God.

A right to be loved?

We started in Part I by describing the essence of love in terms of giving. We measure the degree of love by the costliness of the giving to the giver in comparison to the worthiness of the receiver. The more it costs the giver and the less worthy the receiver, the greater the love.

It should not be surprising then that the Bible explains the love of God first in terms of our unworthiness to be loved at all. We have in fact lost all ‘right’ to be loved and actually incur his hatred. And the reasons might be as hard to accept for modern ears as any ancient truth.

Does God not have a responsibility to love all of his creatures? Don’t we all have a ‘right’ to the love of God as children to their Father? To be sure, the Bible does maintain the God has certainly loved all he has made.

But we need to start by asking whether love can be ‘deserved’. If love is in essence a ‘gift’, we might wonder whether love can be ‘deserved’ at all.

All relationships generate certain rights and responsibilities. And each different relationship in the world determines what different duties exist to give what gifts.

A married person has both the right to receive love and the responsibility to give love because of the promises they have made. Though the love given and received is indeed a free gift, it is nonetheless a duty to give it. But, if their spouse fails to love them in the most basic sense, such as by committing adultery, the covenant relationship is broken and they lose that right. In fact, the offended spouse has every right to divorce. In this case, failure to uphold the responsibility to love that this relationship generates creates in turn the right to permanently and formally ‘separate’. In fact, in the Law of God in the Old Testament, it might come as a shock to us to learn that such crimes would be deserving of death.

A Father has the responsibility to love his child. Likewise children have a duty to honour and obey their Father. But again, this relationship can be broken, if for example a son becomes rebellious and hardened against his Father. What lose of rights should his failure of responsibility incur on such a son?

Depending on our worldview and understanding of Fatherhood and what it requires, we will answer differently. As modern people, we might wonder, ‘what would I do as a Father in that situation?’ We aspire to be faithful fathers, and for us that might mean absolute tolerance, regardless of what our children do or become.

But how might ancient people and cultures answer? Failure to obey the voice of one’s Father in many ancient cultures was absolute dishonour. In this situation, the son will lose all ‘right’ to be loved by his Father and even to be called his son. In fact, it may come as an even greater shock to read that in the Law of God in the Old Testament, hardened disobedience of a son to his Father was a capital offence.

Deuteronomy 21:18-21  "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them,  (19)  then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives,  (20)  and they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.'  (21)  Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

What such references show us is that our modern concepts of such things as Fatherhood, even of Love, are unlikely to apply backwards to God. In fact, the Bible makes the claim that our Fatherhood is derived from God’s, not the other way around. If we want to think about God and his Fatherhood, and ourselves as his children, we need to reverse the order and make his revelation the starting point.

I have said elsewhere that where we arrive at in our reaction to what the Bible makes known about God will be affected by our view of Scripture in the first place. If we believe that the propositional revelation of the Bible is the authority in all matters, then no matter how hard we might find it to digest, we will believe that the true God is both the God revealed by the Bible and that this God is good. If we believe that God is transcendent – that his ways are vastly higher than our ways and so unknowable by ourselves – then we will not put our confidence in reason or natural theology. Our dependence will be on special revelation. If we believe in the Bible’s view of human sin, we will completely distrust our thoughts and desires and emotions which will always distort the truth about God because of our sinfulness.

The Bible tells us both what we would otherwise not know about God and also what we would otherwise not believe about God.

God as Father

The greatest of all relationships in the world is that which exists between us and God. The Bible makes God known as Creator and as Father. As Creator he is good and loving. As Father he is faithful but also Just.

And this is where we have a problem. Because we are disobedient children: stubborn and rebellious; corrupt, crooked and twisted.

Deuteronomy 32:3-6  For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God!  (4)  "The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.  (5)  They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation.  (6)  Do you thus repay the LORD, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?

As wives, we would be unfaithful, adulterers; deserving only of hatred God would have every right to divorce us completely. As children, we deserve only death.

God then is not bound to love us at all; he owes us no right to do good to us whatsoever. As his creatures, as his property, we do continue to owe everything to him who made and owns us and continues to sustain our lives and give us many good things. Though we do not, we do have duty to love him, and a responsibility to serve him. But we all fail to do this in the worst of senses, with willful disobedience and dishonour of God as our Father.

Do we then deserve his love? We deserve only his judgment.

God as Judge

The passage above describes God first in terms of his justice, and his own faithfulness to that justice (Deuteronomy 32:3-6). By his nature, God brings judgment to ‘pay back’ what is deserved by our wickedness.

God’s judgment has been defined as his ‘just rectification of his moral order’. Justice which characterizes God’s judgment is not reconciliation to some universal norm, but it is an intrinsic expression of God’s own character (Deut 32:4)

Again and again the Old Testament portrays God as Judge (Ps 50:4; 75:7). But it also portrays him as the Father of us all, and often in the same context. Deuteronomy 32:3-6 is an example (compare verse 4 and verse 5-6).

God’s judgment is not in tension with his Fatherhood (e.g. 1 Peter 1:17). It might be to us, and it might be hard for us to imagine God as both Father and Judge. But because God is the Creator of us all, he is by origin both our Father – whom we owe every duty to honour and obey – and Judge – who will require repayment of just retribution for our failure to honour and obey him.

God as love

In view of this knowledge, it would come as a shock to us to learn that we had been loved by God at all. But that’s only the beginning.

In Romans 5:6-10 the Apostle Paul describes the enormous magnitude of the love that has actually been shown to us by God, which can only be understood firstly by contemplating just how ‘undeserving’ and ‘unlovely’ we are to him in the first place.  

Deserving hatred

The passage describes us as both ungodly (verse 6); sinners (verse 8); and in fact enemies of God (verse 10). As law-breakers; we are criminals before God because every day we break his holy commands. As rebels, instead of loving God as is our duty, we love other things instead.  And by living our own way to please ourselves, we treat ourselves as God in rejection of the very Father who bore us. We have become that senseless, corrupt rebellious son. And this makes us God’s enemies, in the worse of all positions: we are under God’s holy anger; we deserve only his ‘wrath’ (verse 9).

World War II

During World War II, after Germany had moved all the Jews who were living there into ghettos, ready to send them off to concentration camps, one of the commanding officers in the German army found a Jewish man still living in his original residence. So outraged was the officer that he took a grenade and  – with his gun pointing at the man lest he should flee – pulled the pin and stretched out his arm to throw it into the house.

But at that very moment the man pulled a rope from behind him that released a trap right under the officer, and as it grasped his leg the grenade flew straight up and exploded above the officer.

When the man came to stand over his enemy he found him still alive and his gun was still intact. Without hesitation he reached out and took the weapon from his enemy who was now blind, deaf and dumb, and without arms or legs.

The situation that officer was now in could be compared to our situation before God. In Romans 5:6-10 we are described as ‘weak’ or powerless before God (verse 6).

The officer no weapon in his hand; he had no hand to reach out; he had no words to beg for mercy; he had no mouth to speak; he had no leg to flee; he had no sight to see his predicament; he had no ear to hear and no way to respond to his enemy.

He now lay under one who was rightly filled with anger, and he weak and powerless can do nothing to save himself.

It is an illustration of the devastating position of our own weakness and powerlessness before the Almighty God – rightly angry – of whom we are nothing more than sinful, ungodly enemies.

The God who has loved us (already)

It’s only when we understand the Bible’s description of our utter unworthiness before God that we will be able to understand what the Bible claims about the love of God. What Romans 5:6-10 says is that God has demonstrated his love, he has proved it beyond all doubt, and he has shown it to end all question and suspicion. And he shows it in comparison to the pail dimmer of human love.

Romans 5:8:  “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

While we were still in that devastating situation before God, we were the most undeserving, with no right but to his hatred.

But what did God give us, his enemies? God gave a gift, and at the most expensive cost to himself. God’s gift to us is a person; it was Christ himself that he gave (verse 6 and 8); Christ the only Son of God (verse 6 and 10). God didn’t send prophets, or angels, who were of less value to him. He sent his Son – who is himself one with the Father. And so in Christ, God was giving us everything–His very own self.

But unto what did he give himself up to? He gave himself to die on a cross. God himself didn’t come to us in the person of Jesus and give us his sympathy, or advice. This was love in full action; this was a love that had God going further than we can really comprehend: The very life-giver himself, giving his life up to death at the hands of his own creatures.

And what type of death? His was not some painless, humane type of death. It was to a horrific Roman crucifixion on a cross – an instrument of torture reserved for the worst and lowest of all criminals.

Why? Why did Christ have to die? Was it because we were deserving; was it because we were lovely. We have already realised the contrary. But his death was for us what our sins deserved (verse 8) Christ died for us – who are sinners -- because sin and death must go together. Death is God’s penalty for our sin.

But here the sins were ours; but the death was his. His death, on the cross, was in our place; he was bearing the penalty that our sins deserve. He died our death, so that the penalty of sin on our heads could be paid, that God’s justice could be satisfied, and his anger and hatred removed, and we no longer be his enemies.

Now, by Christ dying for us, we can have peace with God. We again can receive the ‘right’ to call him Father. That is love. That is love without comparison.

Proof of God’s love

God has proved his love for this world in the death of Christ for world (John 3:16). It was God’s own demonstration. For although as unworthy as is possible, yet God himself gave us the most costly gift there is: He gave his own Son up unto the full fury of his own judgment against our sin. And in doing so, he -- who is the most worthy of all – gave us everything. And there is nothing left for him to give.

Where atheists and Universalists go wrong

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Here is something absolutely, unimaginably, amazing: God has proved his love already; he has poured it out for the entire world. When we look at the cross and his death for the world, we can actually know for sure not only that God is love, but also the perfect extent of that love.

So we don’t need to doubt or question anymore.

Although the Bible does maintain that God is the God over war and suffering in the world (Romans 1:18), atheists need look no further than the cross to see that God’s love is compatible with these realities. For there was the greatest display of supreme love through suffering and death. It was in the horror that the unique and incomparable love of God was displayed.

And although the Bible does point to the existence and future reality of an eternal hell, it also points to proof of God’s love at the cross where Christ himself went through hell for a world that is headed there. He suffered the sentence of hell for enemies who will continue to reject his incomprehensible love demonstrated for them. 

By questioning the traditional understanding of that the Bible makes known about God’s eternal judgment, Universalists hope to see the supreme love of God displayed at the end of history when God will eventually empty hell of every remaining rebel.

But the Bible’s focal point is very different. The end of history came at the middle of time. Between BC and AD the God who is love shined the magnifying glass on one man dying upon a cross, and said ‘here it is; this is me’. There he gave everything, for there he gave himself; and there is nothing more that can be given.

Lest we forget the cross

Every year as Australians commemorate Anzac Day, we remember the cost of love. But if we only remember to reflect on that day once a year, we have actually forgotten the magnitude of that gift.  

The love of Anzac day

The essence of love is giving. And we measure the degree of love by the costliness of the giving to the giver in comparison to the worthiness of the receiver. The more it costs the giver and the less worthy the receiver, the greater the love.

On the 25th of April 1915 Australia was at war. The Allies of the “Anzacs” were fighting against the Central Powers in Europe in World War I. On the 25/4/1915, the ANZACs (the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula, on Turkey's coast.

They were expecting a flat beach. And the plan was that from there they would take the whole Peninsula. But actually, they landed at an incorrect position, on a piece of wild and impossibly savage terrain, now known as Anzac Cove. And so instead they faced the steep cliffs of Anzac Cove. And what is worse, they faced constant barrages of enemy fire.

What was Gallipoli like? A description taken from the book Gallipoli, written by John Masefield, first published in September 1916, describes it:

“Those who wish to imagine the scene must think of 20 miles of any rough and steep sea coast known to them, picturing it as roadless, waterless, much broken with gullies, covered with scrub, sandy, loose, and difficult to walk on…

Then let them imagine the hills entrenched, the landing mined, the beaches tangled with barbed wire…and swept by machine guns, and themselves three thousand miles from home, going out before dawn with rifles, packs, and water-bottles, to pass the mines under shell fire, cut through the wire under machine-gun fire, clamber up the hills under the fire of all arms by the glare of shell-bursts, in the withering and crashing tumult of modern war, and then to dig themselves in, on a waterless and burning hill while a more numerous enemy charge them with the bayonet…

Only then will they begin, even dimly, to understand…”

What made the 25th of April 1915 a day Australians will never forget is that after landing in this Cove, over those next two days, more than 21,200 British, 10,000 French, 8700 Australians and 2700 New Zealanders were killed. And the Allied wounded totalled more than 97,000. The Gallipoli campaign was an enormous failure, a failure bought at the cost of an enormous number of lives.

But the Gallipoli story is also an incredible story of courage and endurance. The landing at Gallipoli is a story not only of death, and despair, of poor leadership and unsuccessful strategies. The heart of the Anzac story is a legend, not of military victory, but of courage; courage that came from the bonds of friendship.

At Gallipoli, men from all backgrounds from the newly formed nation created the essence of what it means to be Australian –

Giving a hand to a friend.

Sticking up for a mate.

Courage under fire.

And so ‘lest we forget’, on the 25th of April every year Australians commemorate Anzac Day, and remember the cost of love, paid by our forebears for us.

How costly was the gift given on the first Anzac day in 1915? Very costly indeed: It was the cost of thousands of innocent lives. And they were the dearest of lives: Mothers giving sons; Wives giving husbands; Children giving fathers.

And who was it for? Future generations; for those who were still far off; for you and I who now live in peace in Australia. How worthy are we of such love?

Extraordinary human love

The Anzac story is one of extraordinary love. How do you know how much someone loves you? How much they would give of themselves for you; how much they would give up for you in demonstration of their love. The ultimate test might be would they die for you?

Of course we don’t really like to think about whether the people who love us would really have to die for us, let alone go ahead and do it. And people rarely ever actually do die for those they love because they rarely have to. But ‘would they’ do it – if the situation arose – and true love demanded it; such as the choice between you losing your life or them giving theirs. Would they do it? It depends on how much they really love you.

Would you die for someone if they didn’t really mean much to you? We find it hard usually to even be generous to others, unless we consider them especially worthy of our affection, or respect – but let alone die for them. And I don’t think it would matter much if there were other very compelling reasons why we might die for them, other than great love.

Around the world every day countless journalists standby recording the deaths of innocent civilian victims of war crimes without making the step at attempted ‘saviour’. Even when we know that someone is innocent it is nonetheless very difficult to imagine dying for any other than those we love greatly.

However, ‘perhaps for a good man someone might possibly dare to die’. The Anzac story of Simpson and his Donkey is probably Australia’s most famous stories, and Jack Simpson Kirkpatrick one of our best-loved military heroes. He was one of those Anzacs who landed at Anzac Cove. He was chosen as a stretcher-bearer, but as the story goes, he was carrying casualties back to the beach over his shoulder when that he saw a donkey. And from that day on he began to act independently, lifting wounded men onto the donkey and guiding them to the beach. In 24 days, under constant and ferocious attack from artillery and field guns and sniper fire, he rescued over 300 men, until he was hit by a machine gun bullet in the back.

It was an incredibly heroic feat. And it was a self-imposed task. Why did he do it? Was it because people were innocently losing their lives? There were plenty on the other side who were innocently dying too. Turkish casualties were estimated at 250,000. But it was because these were his own countrymen who were losing their lives, his own mates. Good men. He willingly gave his life for his fellow Aussies.

Though uncommon, it’s not unheard of that people do dare even to die for others that they consider good people. Most of us would see that there is something really honourable in giving our life for someone who is good and worthy of the sacrifice of our lives.

As time goes by, it’s easy to forget the incredible love shown to us by those who have gone before us, without the help of the Memorial Day. Removed by close to one hundred years from those one hundred thousand of our fathers who died for us, we are constantly forgetting the great cost that was paid to give us this life.

The unique love of God

As Christians we also need to continually remind ourselves of who has gone before us, what it cost them, and how great is that love and the gift we’ve been given.

Human love – extraordinary human love – is perhaps the most inspiring of all human experiences. How does the love of God measure up? We often we hear today God’s love ridiculed: ‘if God exists, then he is horrible’ is the taunt of atheists who claim that the proliferation of war, suffering and evil in the world provides testimony against the existence of a good God.

In Romans 5:6-10 the Apostle Paul describes the enormous magnitude of the love that has actually been shown to us by God. And what Paul says about the love of God (and it should not come as a surprise) is that the love of God is completely unique: in comparison even extraordinary human love does not come close, does not even compare.

If you want to understand the Christian message, if you want to try come to terms with what it is that the New Testament claims is going on at the cross of Jesus, if you want to get to the heart of God and see whether or not at the centre of this universe there is a loving God, this is a key passage to wrap your head around:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

(Romans 5:6-10)

Who cares about righteousness anymore?

Does God not care about evil in the world? When we see the violence and hatred and selfishness done in the world, we might think that. Is God indifference about right and wrong? When we witness a world full of people constantly breaking the law, we might think that. Does God not care about justice? When we experience the many injustices of this world, we may want to think that.

Many people accuse God of injustice: ‘if God exists, then he is horrible’. If not atheists they hold God as the unrighteous one.

Remarkably, one of the clearest descriptions in the Bible of the ‘core message’ of Christianity, found in Romans 3:21-26, is also where the Apostle Paul goes to the very heart of this question. It might not be what you typically think the Gospel message is all about, but the question of the righteousness of God is what Paul’s ‘good news’ in Romans 3 focuses on.

Romans 3:21-26 is all about the righteousness of God. God’s righteousness has been made known: It has been revealed as a combination of three things, his character of righteousness, his gift of a righteous status before him, and his action to save unrighteous people

God’s message about ourselves

The Bible declares that in fact there are multiple ways in which God has revealed himself to humanity. First, he has revealed his power in creation: Creation itself displays his eternal power and nature (Romans 1:19-20). Second, he is always revealing his anger against sinful human society: The evil in society is God making known his anger from heaven against all of humanity; we are unrighteous because we suppress this truth (Romans 1:18-32).

Paul's description of all people, from every culture, from every rank, whether we appear to live good lives or not, whether we live religiously or not, without exception, is that every person is guilty before God, without excuse, and without any defence. Romans 1:18-3:20 gives a terrible picture of humanity, society, individuals - unrighteousness and self-righteousness. We have no hope in ourselves and of ourselves for any escape from the judgment of God. What is more, the Bible declares that every person actually knows this.

God’s message about himself

But in addition to this there is something very special that God has revealed, something new; something God has made known without (apart from) his law that he had given Israel, which we have in the Old Testament (although it is promised in the Old Testament).

And it’s just this: God has made his righteousness known (Romans 3:21).

What is the gospel? What has God made known about himself in Jesus? He has revealed his own righteousness.

The very God who, although revealing his anger from heaven against all our unrighteousness (Romans 1:18), has also come into this world and made known his own righteousness. In a world full of evil whose people boast about our evil, inventing further ways of doing evil, even judging others for the evil things that we actually do too - In this world of unrighteousness, God has now revealed his righteousness (Romans 3:22).

God has done this firstly by coming himself as the righteous one. He came in the person of Jesus. He came into the world as the owner. Because he is the owner, he is the lawgiver. And he came into his world to establish his own righteousness through the man Christ Jesus.

What would you have expected him to do when he came? What do you expect the righteous one from heaven to come and do when he enters this evil world?

The amazing thing is that although Jesus came as the righteous one of God, in his first coming he came not to condemn the unrighteous, but to save them: not to judge, but to bring justification; to die upon a cross for us.

Without the cross, justification of the unjust would be unjustifiable; declaring righteous those who are wicked would be unrighteousness. The only reason God will do it, is because Christ died for the wicked.

Although it is true that God is angry with people because of the offence our sin against him [and this is true because he is perfectly righteous], God gave his own Son to die in our place, and in doing this he gave himself. And in doing so he turned away his own anger against us. And consequently, because of the cross, God can justify wicked people; God can declare to be righteous those who are evil. And he does it through faith alone; this righteousness from God comes to all as a gift who have faith in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:22).

God’s demonstration of himself

The cross, as well as being a great achievement of God, the cross of Jesus is also a demonstration of God. It’s by the cross of Jesus that God has demonstrated his character of justice.

Without the cross God could not be both just and justify the wicked. He could not be righteous at the same time as declaring wicked people to have his righteous status. But on the cross he achieved a right way to do it: He bought people at the right price. He turned aside God’s anger with the right sacrifice. He showed God’s justice with the right demonstration. And therefore he can justify us, who were slaves, angering God and unrighteous. It is his just justification of the unjust: he has justified sins righteously. The cross was his righteous way of ‘righteoussing’ the unrighteous.

It is a way that is worthy of himself as the holy just God, and merciful loving God.

We can only be amazed at the righteousness of God, which is perfectly wise and loving and merciful and just.

This is the gospel; it is God's news about himself: God has made his righteousness known by declaring right those who are not through faith in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Is God unrighteous?

The world is full of evil, but through the gospel we know that God has demonstrated his amazing care by coming into this world and experiencing the greatest evil himself on the cross so that we ourselves can be saved from his righteous anger against not only the evil in this world, but also the evil in our own lives too.

The world is full of unrighteousness, but through the gospel we know that God has demonstrated himself to be the only righteous one at the cross, where he did the greatest right, by taking the punishment for the wrong-doing of the world, so that we who are completely wrong might be given his righteousness.

The world is full of suffering, but through the gospel we know that God has himself has come and suffered the greatest injustice, because he loves us, and in his justice he has provided a just way to justify people. 

What is Core versus Peripheral in the gospel and Christianity?

One of my readers has remarked, "Every denomination seems to have it's own set of core doctrines," and asked "How would you define the core Gospel?"

I replied with a question of my own, "What do you mean by 'core' Gospel?"

And the reason is this: The Bible doesn't seem to encourage us to think in terms of what is 'core' vs what is 'peripheral' (Unless we're in the context of a Romans 14 discussion). Instead we're asked to think about that is 'true' Gospel or not; what is 'same' vs what is 'different'. E.g. Galatians 1:6-9. It's either in or out of the Gospel; on or off track; part of or not a part of and so against.

Of course the Gospel message is as big as Genesis to Revelation, but can be summarised as simply as "Jesus is King".

Paul's rebuke in Galatians 2:15-21 picks up the centrality of God's grace in justification by faith through the death of Christ. But it would be a mistake to look at key passages like these and relegate other doctrines, for example our doctrine of creation, to the 'non-core' bin. In 1 Timothy 4:1-6 we see that our doctrine of creation is pivotal to pure doctrine generally.

Every doctrine of the Bible is interrelated and interdependent. And so we're on dangerous ground as soon as we start taking any aspect of the Bible's teaching and putting bits into the 'essential' bucket and others into the 'optional' bucket. For example, if we say that the doctrine of creation is core but the Sovereignty of God not; or repentance is core but baptism is not.

If the Bible teaches it, it is core. All of the Bible's message is the Gospel and it is all essential.

Yes every denomination has differences and commonality in its beliefs compared to others. And if any of these teachings, as with any of our own beliefs, are contrary to the teaching of the Bible at any point, then we/they are in error at that point need to repent for being against God's word.

When I get to it I do hope to clarify what I believe the Bible's essential gospel message is: what I've phrased elsewhere, "the gospel of the Apostles of the New Testament" -- the message that was entrusted to the 12 apostles and to Paul, who even refers to it as 'my gospel'. Anything else was'another' and 'different' gospel and so false (See Romans 1:1-5; 16:25-26; cf. Rom 2:16; 2 Timothy 2:8).

Romans 1:1-5:11 is a brief unpacking but the whole book of Romans is a fuller explanation of the Apostle's gospel. Galatians starts with is a defense of Paul's apostolic authority and sets a good context for beginning to understand the uniqueness of the Apostles authority over the message and our dependence on them (Galatians 1:1-12ff.)

And hence the authenticity of the gospel is also strongly dependent on their Apostle's authorship of the New Testament, and so it's consequent authority. We need to go by it rather than denominational formulations or systems of doctrine constructed to sit over the New Testament.

Jesus loves sinners: Mark Driscoll

This sermon by Mark Driscoll put me under a high beam. In Luke 5:27-32, Jesus pursues Levi - a guy despised in his day. Driscoll describes Jesus as a missionary coming into human history and culture and loving sinners and bringing them to God.

Mission is Jesus coming to sinners and mission is exactly what we are called to, exactly where we are. Consequently hospitality is a fundamental part of Christianity: Jesus comes to hang out with sinners like us.

Do we welcome the people that Jesus welcomes? Are we a church that will always have doors and arms right open to anyone and everyone? The challenge is that our homes would be open, that our lives would be open, that our schedules and budgets would be open, that we would welcome sinners and that we also would be changed so that by being in community with them we might be saved from our own proclivity toward religiosity.

Driscoll ends with these words:

"... To the drunks, the addicts, the perverts, the victims, the porn stars, the prostitutes, the adulterers, theives, the obese gluttons who think a waste is a terrible thing to mind, the twilight fans, the murderers, the mommy's boys, the losers, the freaks, the geeks, people who think wrestling is real, red knecks, guys who own action figures, chain smokers, everyone who does not use a turn signal while texting and talking on the phone in their car, men who live with their mothers, women who get paid in dollar bills, dudes in dresses (seen it at Mars Hill), democrats, republicans, the guys at the gym who walk around the locker room naked singing Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer, mormons and anyone else who wears sacred under breeches, whoever is responsible for the creation and ongoing sale of men's Lycra biking shorts... yoga instructors, witches, pot heads, meat heads, crack heads, dead heads and meth heads... people who don't recycle, the rainbow-loving tree-hugging ... lefters, and religious people who do not know what I am talking about because these subjects were not on The Little House on the Prairie or covered in their Home School co-op,

-- I have good news for you: You are welcome at Mars Hill. Jesus loves you. You'll fit right in. And because He died for your sins, you get to repent."

True Repentance: Daniel Montgomery

Matthew 3 presents John the Baptiser, Jesus coming with God’s reign and rule, and reveals what it means to truly repent. This is a fast passed, upbeat, warm and deeply probing sermon from Daniel Montgomery (Sojourn Community Church, Kentucky).


True repentance:

• Involves acknowledging that Jesus is God’s king. We turn from our kingdoms and queendoms because God’s kingdom is coming, including God’s judgment. If we think of Jesus merely as our teacher we’re living in unbelief. We must walk with him as Lord because he is King, he is God.

• Always involves baptism. We acknowledge our need to ‘come clean’ with sin in a completely open, public and unashamed way. By turning to Jesus in baptism we are saying “to death with sin!”

• Is as much required of sincerely religious peoples as any. Whether we rely on our past Christian zeal, our spiritual upbringing or our visible service in ministry, an axe and a fire of judgment await anyone deceived by their religiosity.

• Brings real change; Jesus always brings real fruit. It’s not enough for us to only seek to leave our sins behind. If we are merely sorrowful for our sins we haven’t known the freedom of him who not only died for sins but lived and was raised for our life: he lived as our substitute and was baptised to fulfil our righteousness; he now lives again for us. We are credited with Christ’s riches, and we are imputed with his righteousness.

• Always leads to joy with God. Repentance is a response to his invitation to enter the joy of the triune God. We come to live in relationship with the living God, who is marked by joy.

• Is a gift that comes from God. We can’t generate it. Jesus alone gives the ability to turn from sins to him. Others can talk about it, point to it, but only Jesus can bring true change.

• Is not just a once off and then if you screw it up you’ve lost your chances. It’s a way of life: we can do it over and over. We have the daily gift of coming back under the reign and rule of Jesus the King.

So surrender to Jesus, stop trusting in yourself and if you haven’t been baptised, God commands you to go public with your faith. So do it and don’t delay!