Divinity and High Standards

There are three ways of reacting to God's command to be holy as he is holy. We can lessen his holiness and feel righteous--or unrighteous--in ourselves, or we cal recognize his holiness and his sufficiency.

The commands of Scripture must not be made a dull blade, but must be recognized as sharp with God's divine standard. The commands hold forth the standard of God, and thus God's perfect goodness, as a standard we could never meet. If we seek to dumb down the commands, we must lose a sense of God's holy goodness.

If we are seeking our righteousness in ourselves, the commands will make us guilty or proud. If we know we depend on an alien righteousness, the commands will instead make us acutely aware of the necessity and sufficiency of Christ. We feel crushed by guilt only when we think that it is up to us to carry the burden of guilt. When we recognize that our guilt is a burden Christ bore, and which Christ only could bear because he fulfilled the standard we could not fulfill, because he is the standard, then the commands of God show us how great a salvation we have received: how free a gift we have been given, how dependent we are on that gift, and how unimaginable the goodness of God is. We would never have set so high a standard as God sets, for we know we would fail, but God sets the highest standard for himself, and calls us to try it, to show us how true and good and powerful he is, and how beyond human wisdom his wisdom is.

If our religion did not hold out commands high above any we would set for ourselves, if Christianity did not call us to come and die to ourselves, if it did not set a standard which we could not hold each other to for fear of hypocrisy, then we might argue that it was a merely human religion. But the commands are so far above any this world has produced, yet so true to what we are most certain of that the fulfillment of these commands would outshine the most righteous human of our imagining. Because the commands outstrip our wildest dreams of righteousness, we can claim with confidence that this must be of God, that this religion cannot be a mere invention, for no one would dare to invent this. No one would dare to hold himself to this standard. Unless that someone were God or had the righteousness of God. God came down, and we now have his righteousness, so that we can confidently face commands which we still do not fully satisfy, and be confident that we stand secure in the righteousness of Christ who accomplished all that God called for.

To lower the standards is to cheapen the Gospel, because it makes our salvation petty and our God meager. To raise the standards is only legalism when Christ is not permitted to satisfy them for us, and then it leads naturally to lowering the standards to be within our reach. We can only be consistently legalistic by lowering the standard. Raising the standard places the emphasis on Christ's righteousness, not our own.

Dangers of Revivalism

I am surrounded by people praying for revival. This is a good thing, but I am not always encouraged by it. I want the prayers to be answered literally, but fear that the people praying do not know what they are asking for. I am also sometimes concerned when we start expecting it with an attitude of ought, that is, when we start thinking that God ought to give us a revival. These are hard to avoid, and I have certainly fallen into them on occasion, but they are no better for that.

God owes us nothing. The gospel is that he gave us his only son. Now, if he has given us his son, anything more is as nothing in comparison. Thus we can pray boldly for revival. The problem is when we start viewing it as a right. Our faith is a gift, and with Christ comes all else. A revival in the church means nothing less than the resurrection of many dead who sit in the pews. To call it a revival is to admit that we once were, but are no longer, alive. That we need reviving is to imply that we are not vived, i.e., that we are not alive. To pray for revival, then, is to ask God to save those who sit under his word yet do not hear it. Why are we ever not praying for this? That many more would receive the gift of faith--that is revival. Revival is simply missions targeting the churched, and, through the churched becoming the saved, those who see the church being the church will know that we are Christ's church by our love.

This all sounds nice and pretty, but it is not really. Beautiful, yes, but not so much ordered, at least from what we can expect to see. To love one another is dangerous. We are still sinners. We will still rub each other the wrong way. We are all broken in our ways, and only Christ can fix us, and, though we are made new when we are saved by him, we are not quite as we will be. We are fixed, yet we are not fixed. We have been taken out from this world, yet we are still in it. We still struggle against sin, and some of us will not like to be around others of us, on account of our sins, yet we must see each other as forgiven, since that is how we are in Christ. Sinning, but also justified. Weep for the sin, weep with the sinner. Struggle to see in each person the image of God, how they reflect the nature of God in their life and in their works. May we be unwound to reflect him as we ought, and may we bear with one another as God bears with us, even though it costs us our lives.

Missions

I would like to draw a distinction between the goal and the reward of a thing. The goal is the purpose, the it serves. The reward is the "why," the reason we do it. They are usually looked at as the same thing, but they can be distinguished, at least, and separated.

First, what is the goal of missions? To change lives and cultures so that they image God's love. To bring lost people to Christ. Good things. We go to preach the gospel which justifies, sanctifies, and ultimately glorifies. No surprises here.

Second, what is the reward of missions? That is, why do it? If we do it for the sake of changing people's lives, bringing them to Christ, then what happens when it looks like no one is listening? You may never see the fruit of your labor. You may plant, but never know it. If God were to call you to serve, and told you that absolutely nothing would change on this world, how would you respond? Thus, the reward of missions must be separate from the simple aim of it. The reward of missions is the kingdom of God, that is, God's glory. Whatever we do, we do for the glory of God, that is the reward. If we ask merely to see the fruit of our labors, as great a reward as that may seem, it pales in significance compared to knowing God, my rock and my redeemer.

We might not reach the goal ourselves, for we are not in control of that. We may only step out in faith, knowing that our reward is in heaven. Thus we are invincible to the arrows of failure, for we are in Christ, and so, for us to fail with that finality would be for Christ to fail, yet he overcame all things, even death, that we might live in his resurrection. Thus, as Christ loses no one, so, as we are in Christ, we do not fail to save any. This is how we have a reward which is kept for us in heaven, whatever becomes of the goal: Christ is victorious over sin and death, thus there is nothing more for us to conquer.

Go and make disciples, and Christ is with us always.

Our Joy in Another's Salvation

When another person is saved, we rejoice. Why? Does it do us any good?

For one thing, we know the joy it brings them to be saved, and thus share in their joy. This seems like a human sort of joy, however, and is therefore not able to fully account for the proper joy which a Christian has concerning another's salvation. What does scripture say? Paul often speaks of those who came to salvation through his ministry as his joy, for example, in 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 "For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy." Christ, too, is said to give us praise and glory and honor.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. --1 Peter 1:6-9

"The tested genuineness of your faith...may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ...obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls" This makes sense, in that it is his glory we have, we are united in him, so all that is his is ours. We express his nature in our very being, since it is Christ in us which gives us a heart, a being, of flesh. We can see it more clearly in Luke 15:4-10

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

These are told in the context of Pharisees being annoyed that Jesus is hanging out with sinners as the pharisees say. So, Jesus seems to be saying that of course he is hanging out with sinners, they are the lost people, and there will be great rejoicing in Christ's finding them. Not only that there will be great rejoicing by the angels, but the stories portray Christ, the good shepherd, rejoicing himself when he finds what was lost. "Rejoice with me" he says. Why? So the question is also: why does Christ rejoice in uniting us to himself?

It is entirely possible to say that our joy is found in Christ's joy, for just as Christ rejoices in uniting us to himself, so we rejoice in others being united to us in Christ. I would even argue that all of these joys are Christ's or our enjoyment of Christ. If we are saved, then we are crowned with the glory of God. "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:" John 17:22. This would, then, provide an answer. Why do we and Christ find joy in others being joined to Christ? Because, in joining people to Christ, more of Christ is made visible. Christ's nature shows up in us when we are joined to him. Christ lives in us. In a person's salvation Christ is made visible, so we rejoice, just as we will rejoice so much more when Christ returns, that here is another image of Christ on this earth, another person self-consciously living for that very purpose for which they were made, that is, to the glory of God. Thus, the salvation of another brings joy to all who believe because it is to the glory of God, and because in them we will therefore see the glory of God work itself into the world where we can see it, even in their being changed into Christ's likeness. Thus, our joy in another's being saved is more than merely the change which is wrought in their life by the gospel, but the glory of God being made visible in that change. It is not the change as such, but what we see in and by the change: The grace of God to save sinners, the power of God to change dead lives into living lives, and the image of Christ made visible through them.

Who Has the Real Priviledge?

"For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake," Philippians 1:29

I have often heard people pray, thanking God for the privilege of being able to worship him without fear of persecution. What, then, when we lose that privilege? It is only a privilege in human terms. Let us praise God all the more when we receive the privilege of sharing in the suffering of Christ, and let us prepare with eagerness for that time, striving to be worthy of the name of Christ, that those who hated our master would see us as so similar to him that their hatred would be applied to us as well. If we believe that the enemy is strong, then why do we give thanks for the privilege of having him ignore us, as if we are no threat to him? Instead, give thanks that we have time to prepare, and that we are, in our weakness, hid from the thorns which might so thoroughly devastate us. Let us, then, grow in the strength of Christ, though we may then grow into his suffering.

Do not grow weary of godliness, rather be weary of sin. Our joy is in the Lord, thus our suffering will be happy. Let us worry, for our safety from persecution is not what was promised. Let us strive, then, that we might, by the power of God, appear as Christ: a danger to those who love darkness. What stops us from striving like this? It is not as though we are helpless to appear as our master, for he lives in us. Our life is hid with Christ, and we are joined to him. Therefore we have the power of Christ by which he raised the dead and the wisdom of Christ by which he refuted pharisees. Let us not be afraid of the world, but rather have the boldness of Christ who raises the dead, making disciples of all nations, for the glory of God.

Let us praise God for those who are persecuted, who are showing, whether in life or death, how great the glory of God is. These are examples to us, as the cloud of witnesses, showing how worthy Christ is of our lives by showing how much our brothers have given up for him. Let us thank our God that there are those, even in our time, who have been counted worthy to share so greatly in the suffering of Christ.

But what does this look like? What is it to be in the strength of Christ, and thus appear like him? It is nothing more than to have him as our joy and hope, and to depend on him for our salvation. If he is our strength, then our own weakness does not matter, except as far is it shows that it is God who works in us. Thus our weakness, even in how greatly we fail in depending upon him who is our strength, is merely another cause to go to him for the strength to depend on him. This salvation he brings is not limited merely to our being made righteous such that we may enter into the presence of the Most High, but extends even to salvation from the bondage to sin, so that we may continue the work of the ministry of Christ. Because we are freed from sin, and are no longer captive to it, we need no longer obey our sinful nature which calls us to act as if we were never saved from it, but since we died to it, instead we may, by the life of Christ in which we were raised, do that which we are both made and commanded, by the grace of God, to do: glorify God in our being, whether in life or death or whatever we do.

Must we suffer, though? We must be ready for it, but is it guaranteed? Some may suffer less, or in other ways, I will not guarantee that those who appear most like Christ will suffer most like Christ in their body. Christ's suffering was not limited merely to his body, and thus neither should we expect ours to be.

"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:11-12

Yet we will suffer, as we share in the agony of Christ as he wept over Jerusalem, since he wept over Jerusalem for the same reason that we pray for the salvation of others. Some suffer in mind, some in body, some in their inmost being, but all Christians suffer for Christ to the degree that they are counted worthy in Christ to bear the suffering of Christ.

Missions: Social Development and Evangelism

At the college I am going to, the question was recently raised "in missions, is social development more important than evangelism?" That the question is worth asking is disturbing to me, but, given that it is being asked, it ought to be answered carefully and well. Social development is an important facet of missions, we ought not discard concerns that we may be under-emphasizing it without looking closely at what the place of social development in missions is.

First, I have previously argued that God, being the only necessary being and therefore creating all else, is therefore the most valuable that we might seek, and that we ought to seek him for that reason. In him we find total satisfaction, since he is our source. We have been created to worship God, thus we will be dissatisfied in anything but God, and this dissatisfaction is a grace to us that we might seek God and find him and therefore be satisfied in him.

Second, social development I take to mean the development of a society such that it might be more conducive to physical and moral human life. Digging wells in Africa, dealing with human trafficking, rebuilding (or building) community in the wake of longstanding war. All these are good things, we are called to do justice and love mercy.

However, since we are fully satisfied in Christ, all of those things we are dealing with in social development are secondary. They may be means to the end of evangelism, gaining trust from people, but they are not ends in and of themselves. That a person is suffering is something we should be concerned with, but the grace of God is sufficient for a person's sustenance even in that. Paul even rejoiced in his suffering.

At the same time, in regards to those sufferings that are caused by the sins of humans, the grace of God, entering those people's lives, is able to transform their lives such that they would turn from their wickedness to God. So evangelism is the most powerful implement in social development. This is not to say that we should treat the gospel as a means of social development, but that the gospel will change cultures just as it changes individual lives. If we seek first the glory of God, then all these things will be added. If we seek the glory of God secondarily, or not at all, then all our efforts in social development will be hampered by the sins of those we are trying to help.

Beyond all this, evangelism is more important than social development because the ultimate social development will occur when Christ returns in glory and totally renews the world and those who are in him will enter into his kingdom which will be developed and need no social development. If we do not seek to save the lost, that they might enter into that kingdom, then we are not seeking social development in the long term, but only in their present lives. In salvation, the saved is brought in the communion of saints, and will no longer have justification to fear humans, but only to fear the almighty God who has saved them from death to life. So that we can do the work of the ministry, do missions, because we know that God is working in us and through us, and has already accomplished his glorious purposes. Evangelism is eternal social development, any social development we do here will be but a shadow of the society we have in heaven. An image in which we may see God's glory, and therefore social development is a form of worship to God, but only a shadow, just as the songs we now sing are but a shadow of what we shall sing in heaven.

To do social development for any lesser purpose than God's glory is to do sin in doing a good act. If we desire to glorify God, then we will, in our worship, endeavor to create a picture of the kingdom of heaven on earth, and therefore, as worship to our God and king, enact social development.

Apologetics

"Order.—Men despise religion; they hate it, and fear it is true. To remedy this, we must begin by showing that religion is not contrary to reason; that it is venerable, to inspire respect for it; then we must make it lovable, to make good men hope it is true; finally, we must prove it is true.
Venerable, because it has perfect knowledge of man; lovable, because it promises the true good." --Pascal, Pensees 187

There are three parts to what is called "apologetics," which have a certain order which they ought to follow. The first is a defense of Christianity, which is what Christian apologetics has traditionally been. The second may be called aesthetic apologetics, showing that it would be a good thing if it were found that Christianity were true. The third is what I find comes to mind most quickly for me when I hear the word "apologetics," that is, proofs of Christianity.

Defenses

Defenses of the Christian faith must come first. This is the attempts to bring down the barriers that a person may bring to listening to arguments for the truth of Christianity. The problem of evil is a common barrier that is often addressed by those who offer defenses, while others argue against arguments against the historicity of Christ, or people's issues with the possibility of miracles, or problems with a God who commands worship.

Defenses do not need to prove anything but that it is possible that the arguments brought against Christianity are not strong enough to invalidate belief. All I need to be able to do to have succeeded in a defense of Christianity is to show that there is no contradiction between what is seen in the world that we must believe and the truth of the Christian faith taken as a whole.

Aesthetics

Aesthetic apologetics, as I have termed them, are those arguments that show that one ought to at least be disappointed if Christianity is false. Pascal's wager falls into this category. An aesthetic apologetic may raise eyebrows, and should when alone, because it looks a lot like a fallacy of the form

1. It would be nice if A were true.
2. Therefore, A is true.

Or of the form

1. I wish that A
2. Therefore A

Which look like incredibly stupid lines of reasoning, and indeed are unless there are certain metaphysical beliefs backing them up (some form of solipsism or existentialism, perhaps).

It is therefore important to note that aesthetic apologetics are between the defenses and the proofs. The defenses are intended to help the person become less forcefully biased against Christianity, and the aesthetic apologetics are intended to show the person why we believe ourselves blessed in holding our Faith.

As an example from within Christianity, I have believed in a form of determinism for about as long as I have thought about such questions, but in this semester I have pushed myself to try, first to find out how it is possible to hold a view of totally free will, and second to try to discover why people love this idea so much. I have done this, not because I want to believe in such totally free will, but because I do not think I can hold a view strongly without having attempted to delve into the other side and find their reasons for believing the opposite of what I believe.

Once a person has reached the point that they can see why others are not only not stupid, but are reasonable in being pleased to hold a view, then they can be curious in such a way that is open to being persuaded.

Proofs

 It is only in the last part of apologetics that we ought to expect people to find themselves with sufficient reason to become Christians. Not that we can convince people of the truth of the Christian faith, but at this point we can show them what we see that gives us reasons to believe, and expect them to hear them without assuming them to be preposterous. If we were to offer proofs right off the bat, then we could only expect people, having already reached the conclusion that we are wrong, to come up with all sorts of problems with our proofs. A biased person cannot helpfully find errors on proofs, because they cannot hear the proofs from a point of view that says either "Yes" or "No," and then finds the reasons for these judgements.

Consider the cosmological argument: The world exists. Everything that exists must have been caused by something else. We cannot go back ad infinitum, therefore there is a first mover, i.e., God.
The nonbeliever may respond in various ways: "How do you know everything that exists must have been caused?" "Why can't you go back ad infinitum?" "What makes you so sure this god is the god you believe in?" But if the nonbeliever has been shown that there is no contradiction in holding the Christian faith, and once they have come to feel that it would really be nice if Christianity were true, then they can hold those questions, but not necessarily so strongly. Then they can look at the many proofs that have been offered by many people over the ages and weigh them. Then the evidence can be allowed to build up, rather than being shoved off once it starts getting uncomfortable, since the biased nonbeliever will be uncomfortable with anything that makes him think that he might be wrong, but the nonbeliever whose bias has been removed is not troubled by the evidence pushing him one way or the other.

Together

I would like to emphasize that, if one wishes a work to be convincing to nonbelievers, one ought to include all three of these in this order. If I have not shown that Christianity is not contrary to reason, then any nonbeliever will hold me to be a fool who clings to his faith in order to make himself feel good, and to explain gaps in my understanding of the world. If I leave out the aesthetic arguments, then many may look and feel that I hold a faith that, even if true, is not of any good to the world, and then I must defend against the accusation that God has made his worshipers dull, and that he must not love them, since he leaves them working in fear. In a sense, aesthetic apologetics is a branch of defense, though it is largely concerned with the outworking of the grace of God in the lives of sinners. What of proofs? If I leave them out, then I have brought the person to the brink of the river, but denied them any assurance that the river will not destroy their soul. There is a leap to be made, and the river is dangerous, but it need not be of this sort. God has given us enough evidence to assure ourselves that he exists, and we must seek him. The proofs are not to remove the leap, but to show that leaping is the best choice.

If all I give is a defense, all well and good, perhaps they will find the rest elsewhere. If all I give is an aesthetic apologetic, and not identified it as such, hoping that it may save souls alone, woe is me, for I have asked rational beings to behave contrary to their nature as made in the image of God. Yet God may still use it, for a person may have before found other parts of the puzzle, and this book may allow them to see those pieces in a new light that allows them to accept the truth of Christianity. If all I give are proofs, very well, they are good for those who are saved to meditate on the nature of God, and perhaps some who are not Christians, having found the other pieces elsewhere, may be convinced by these proofs of the truth of Christianity.

Some will not be convinced even by a thorough, three part apologetic such as I have here advocated. Their hearts may be hardened too far, and thus their bias may never be overcome. Or they may not see what is desirable about the truth of Christianity, if their desires have become so far twisted, or they may not follow the lines of reasoning given in the proofs. We have all stood in these places, but God is able to overcome all of these, and so we ought to pray to him, that he would open hearts to his good news, and lead many from darkness into light.