Inform Your 'Faith'

As the church, our reactions need to be conditioned by this expectation as we have, do and should respond. Unlike the following expectation based reaction of:  “emotional and mental suffering,”  “acute loss of confidence,” “doubt,” “excessive sleep,” “felt mentally raped, dirty and shameful,” “high blood pressure,” “impaired digestion,” “loss of appetite,” “migraine headaches,” “pale and sick at home after work,” “resumption of smoking habit,” “shock,” “stunned,” “surprise,” “uncertainty,” “weight gain,” and “worry.” This was actually what a homosexual "couple" described in a law suit as their reaction to an Oregon bakery declining to provide them with a wedding cake. This sort of expectation based reaction will be commonplace among homosexuals and the sinful culture we live among. Peter writes the church about this sort of reaction from a sinful culture (practicing such things as homosexuality) as a reaction they and we should expect, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you" (1 Peter 4:12). Moreover, just prior to that statement he taught that the church should have a mind to suffer as Christ did and be maligned by those among a lasts days sinful culture who practice such sins as homosexuality. In our reactions and responses we need to guard against responding to a fool according to their folly (Prov.26:4) unless we become like them in their sinful passions or reactions! Their reactions toward the church shouldn't be our reactions toward them. Their expectation based reactions are governed by sinful turpitude. Our expectation based reactions are governed by the gospel and Scriptural precedent.

What does homosexuality being legally viable mean for the church then? It means that we need to be busy pleading the gospel of Jesus Christ to a sinful culture as our priority instead of pleading for Congress or the Judiciary to change sinful culture. Please don't misread the above paragraph. I'm not saying the above mentioned actions are out of bounds or are to be shrugged off. Not at all. As responsible Christian citizens we should be culturally engaged. However, legislation, political action, Christian Coalitions, statements of faith, separation of governmental powers and even the Constitution didn't prevent the recent SCOTUS fallout or the present cultural reality.

Only the gospel of Jesus Christ will overturn and/or transform this new norm. The other day I watched an interview with the owners of the aforementioned Oregon Bakery. The reason they relayed to the homosexual couple for not providing them with their services was because their faith wouldn't allow for it. Hey, I applaud their conviction. They are facing challenging and turbulent times as a result and need our prayers and support. They are standing upon their Christian convictions. (Although, I'm not sure refusing to provide a cake is the right hill to die on).

But why not lovingly and convictionally share the gospel (if they did this wasn't shared during the interview) with the homosexual "couple" instead of making a statement of faith while evoking constitutional rights and breaking out the Christian code of conduct to non-Christians? This is what Paul did with the Corinthians when sexual sins were intruding upon the church. He reminded them to treasure the gospel among the church (1 Cor.6:11,17-20). This is what Peter understood and expected from the church in the surrounding sinful culture of the last days (1 Peter 4:6,17). This was how Jesus reacted to others involved in sexual sins (John 4:1-43; 8:1-11). I realize the last few sentences speak to the churches actions (and I'll be touching on that in a second blog) more than it does her expectations and reactions, but there is a systemic point of expectation at play in that scenario that is compelling their reaction. It seemed as though they, along with the crowd of support, reacted more to the breach of constitutional rights more than the reality that the homosexual 'couple' was in bondage to sin. I'm not trying to rub any one the wrong way regarding the Constitution et al but maybe reactions to the sinful culture around us are expressed more in relation to this worldly systems of government instead of reacting to the prevalence of a culture and population of sin that needs to hear the Gospel. Perhaps our expectations are more wrapped up  in how government can punish or penalize sin or retard sins intrusion into our lives that we aren't reacting the way we should by heralding the Gospel. Perhaps, our expectations of the American dream have displaced a passion for gospel expectancy. Perhaps we have allowed the gospel expectations of the founding fathers, expectations that predominated their lives over and above the Constitution, to fade into history and out of memory. Or perhaps, I'm off base.

Nevertheless, we, as the Church, shouldn't be overly consternated by sinful culture outside of the church producing sinful legislation or rulings. It is normative for secular culture. Sinful culture produces sinful culture. We certainly don't like it nor should we passively accept it. However, our expectations mustn't be governed by pride in nationalism but pride in the gospel. Christ's focus is primarily upon  building and preserving His Bride, the church, not the United States of America. Our reactions mustn't be compelled by dis-satisfactory legislation or rulings but compelled by gospel mission in the face of sin.  Peter concluded his first letter, written to the church surrounded by a sinful culture much more oppressive than ours but nevertheless helpful for us to hear: 

Resist him (the devil), firm in our faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by our brotherhood throughout the world.  And after we have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called us to His eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us.  To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:9-11

We can find much victory and consolation in knowing that while we are surrounded by sinful culture we are not alone. We as the church are a united "brotherhood" that will not be overtaken as we have been called by God who has eternal dominion. No other human agency can dominate us. . .even when though it might feel like it. Despite whatever societal or cultural inconveniences that may be forced upon us 'legally', God has called us through the Gospel to glory, and He will "restore, confirm, strengthen and establish us". Wow! This gospel promise reduces the sting of all threats from without. This is what we should expect. This is what should inform how we react. What a gospel. I am so glad to pastor a local church where members treasure the Gospel and for our local church to be apart of a family of churches that does so as well. 

"What is his name?". It has been a joy  of late and recent leading (along with other leaders) Sovereign Grace Church of Lagrange through the names of God each Sunday and in our Care Groups. I am who I am is the name God revealed to Moses, Pharaoh and the Hebrews Pharaoh enslaved as God was promising the Hebrews that He was going to set them free from Egyptian captivity (Ex.3). This marked a water shed moment in the life and history of the Hebrew people; aka the Israelites. From the moment the Lord their God, I am who I am, set them free from captivity their lives became indelibly marked by their knowledge of Him. As they lived as God's people they continued to discover who the Lord their God is in greater ways as they experience the reality of His presence in their lives in accordance with 1) who He revealed himself to be to them and  2) how he revealed himself in their varying situations.

To be, or not to be, that is the question...As Shakespeare questioned in Hamlet. Well, for Paul that is in fact the question too. It is a truism for Paul - as well as the rest of Scripture - that salvation brings about an inward change by way of regeneration that is expressed outwardly in our behavior or how we conduct ourselves. From the word go we are continually undergoing a process of transformation that unfolds throughout life. Having been saved we are being changed. Having been set free from sin we are being, “transformed. . .from one degree of glory to another.” (2 Cor.3:18) as a result of God the Father who, “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col.1:13-14) The Pauline ethic is not merely a matter of do’s and do nots, though we do find such ethical imperatives in Paul. His ethics are  more a matter of who we are in Christ and how who we are in Christ transforms our present life.

New Life: Be what you are in Christ

The above is new life for Paul. We are no longer in bondage to our formerly depraved natures but have been made alive (Eph.2). This new life was, “ created in Christ Jesus for good works. . .that we should walk in them” (Eph.2:10). Implicit within this ontologically salvific statement is the causal will of God. Throughout the bible we see the ethical life couched in the reality and purpose of God’s will. It is His salvific intent. IN his epistle to the Philippians Paul writes for the church to, "work out your salvation...for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Phil.2:12d-13). This 'will' and 'work' is the elsewhere spoken of as sanctification. This is effect of salvation or new life that our God has purposed.  Sanctification precipitating from this new life, for instance, is to be worked out and attended to precisely because it is God’s will. Paul touches on this when he promulgates, “. . . brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification...” (1 Thess.4:1-3).

This ethical life is brought about through instructional means according to the purposes of God as result of being re-born.. This is commonplace as, “The New Testament generally and the apostle (Paul) in particular consistently urge those who have experienced God’s gracious redemption to lead holy and godly lives.”   We are, thereby, taught to do this or that or not to do this or that. Paul often rebukes or exhorts the church to live according to the Christian ethic salvation has brought about vis a vis new life (cf. Eph.4,5; Col.3). Again, Paul writes the Thessalonians, “we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory”(1 Thess.2:12).

Paul can specifically inculcate the ethical life because of the underlying assumption found in any Pauline ethical paranesis, namely, that Christ’s death and resurrection envelopes us in new life. New life that can be instructed to live accordingly. The “central focus”, of Paul’s ethical instruction is, “that the moral life is the consequence of a new creation effected by Christ’s death and resurrection.”

This redemptive historical nuance underlies the warp and woof of Paul’s ethical expectations throughout his writings. “It means a real inclusion within the reality of the divine act of redemption”. We have already been ‘created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph.2:10) yet, we will be walking in them. Paul elsewhere says, even more emphatically, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the, new has come.”(2 Cor.5:17). The tense of the red highlighted words is indicative of what has already been realized in Christ historically and expressed or lived out presently, as it were. One will be able to do good works and live out a Christian ethic because of what they already are in Christ for, “the new life of believers receives its specific character in what ‘once’ took place with Christ.” Moreover, the prepositional phrase, “in Christ” (above in red) locates the activity and reality of the new creation with, in and through Jesus Himself. It speaks to the antecedent union with Jesus necessary for practicing the Christian life. The surrounding context in Ephesians substantiates this meaning (1:4,2:6,7,12a). Jesus is the proximate location of the new creation. As John Murray put it, “It is in Christ that the people of God are created anew.” Apart from being united to Him in His death and resurrection (Rom.6) we could not and would not walk in good works (Eph.2:10d) because, “good works necessarily follow from the union of believers with Christ. . .What Christ effects in his people is in a sense a replica or reproduction of what took place in Him.”

So, Paul can command an ethical life only because of what has already been established fait accompli in, by and through Jesus Christ. Ethical imperatives are always couched in salvific indicatives. As Ridderbos posits, “...the new life in its moral manifestation is at one time proclaimed and posited as the fruit of the redemptive work of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit - the indicative; elsewhere, however, it is put with no less force as a categorical demand - the imperative.”

New Life: Become what you will be in Christ

   Beyond bringing about a distinctly Christian life by way of instructional means based upon the eschatological reality of what Christ has done previously there is another eschatological appeal Paul employ’s to encourage Christian living. Paul looks to the reality of what God has already achieved in Christ for us in eternity - but nevertheless in Him - as cause to live the Christian life, or better, to grow into who we already are in Christ. “Because of the historic event of the resurrection of Christ, the church is controlled by the risen Christ (i.e. in heaven), but the process by which the risen life of Christ manifests itself is on earth. . .”  In locating our new life in union with Christ or more precisely in union with his fully resurrected life who is raised from the dead and seated in heavenly places (Eph.1:20)  Paul understands that we are striving toward that end or reaching forward to what has been fully achieved there - where Christ is. Paul finds much motivation in knowing the risen and exalted Christ and the ‘power of his resurrection’ (Phil.3:10) he exerts himself, “to press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind an straining forward to what lies ahead” (3:12-13). Paul envisions the perfected new man where Christ is and suitably recognizes that his goal is to attain the full realization of that new life already achieved by Christ historically but now being lived out completely in eternity. Paul himself embodies an eschatological ethic that compels him to look ahead to the full realization of new life. He is motivated to work out a distinctly Christian life because of what awaits him as he affirms when saying, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”(3:14). This is underscored in what he concludes in this section of Philippians. He brings to mind our heavenly citizenship and how we await Christ’s return as Savior to transform our physicality. With this anticipation of future fulfillment he then exhorts his readers to, “Therefore...stand firm”(3:20-4:1). Paul finds great incentive in living out the Christian life and fostering a distinctly Christian ethic in what awaits him and them. He throws out an ethical imperative on the grounds of future promise.  Paul looks forward to eternal life as incentive of sorts. Unlike the Johannine literature, that treats eternal life as a present reality, Paul treats eternal life as a future inheritance. For the apostle this is a bona fide reason to continue conducting ourselves as Christians.

My next blog will touch on personalization, inspiration and cultivation.