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The Importance of a God-Centred Doctrine of Sin

By Chris Northcott — 5 months ago

It is crucial to work towards a view of God and his world that is shaped by the revelation that God has given to us. Failing to do this will result in us being formed instead by the foundational assumptions of our culture, in which humanity is exalted and God is marginalised.

One of the trickier challenges for Christians in any culture is disentangling our imagination from the framework given to us by the culture we live in. While Christians believe in God, call Jesus Lord, rest in the achievements of the cross, acknowledge the dignity of humankind, and so on, they may not be doing so in a way fully formed by the norming norm of the Bible. Our beliefs can easily be coloured more by the values of their culture. This has been a challenge since New Testament times—consider, for example, the view the Corinthians had of the human body—formed more by Greek culture than by Genesis. This highlights the necessity of being both acutely aware of how our own culture impacts on our faith and practice, as well as deeply familiar with Scripture.
A Human-Centred Doctrine of Sin
Consider the doctrine of sin. In a secular culture such as in New Zealand or Australia, humanity can loom much larger in the conceptual universe than God. Among other things, this can distort the doctrine of sin. One example of a doctrine of sin shaped in this way is Roger Wolsey’s essay “A Progressive Christian View of Sin & Sinners”. Wolsey describes sin as a failure to do what is right, and highlights the human proclivity to hurt others and to do so against their own better judgement. In his words, humans are “busted and broken”, “cracked pots”, “imperfect vessels”, “beautiful messes”, who make “mistakes”. Sin is “like an addiction” that leads to “self-sabotaging cliffs” from which Christian faith should guide us away. When we sin, “we are causing suffering to ourselves and others.”
Because of this framework, repentance for Wolsey is a process of transformation and reorientation, leading to such a dramatic difference in our persons that we can thus be said to be “born again.”
What is most noteworthy in Wolsey’s article is what is absent. He largely describes sin as an offence against others humans, or in terms of the harm it does to ourselves. True, he does describe sin as “missing the mark”, as transgressing God’s will; he later notes that when we sin we are “out of communion with God”.
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The Perspective of a Godly, Wise Man

By Bill Elliff — 5 months ago

Such a man realizes that God oversees everything in his life, and even the worst and hardest events can produce a redemptive purpose. He works all things together for good. Any bitterness or anger at God or man can be laid aside as we see what God is doing.

How we see things is most always through the lens of our particular perspective, our bias. And, it’s not always right. This is why it is so critical to be a man who has humbled himself and listened to God. A man who sees all of life through God’s eyes finds the right perspective. And this changes everything.
Joseph was such a man. It is why his story stands out in human history. Joseph was used by God to deliver the Israelite nation in a time of famine. Indeed, he was used to save the whole world from worldwide famine. God used his brothers’ bitterness and hatred to get Joseph to Egypt and place him in a position where this could happen. Joseph could have been bitter at his brothers for their cruelty, but instead, he saw and embraced the sovereignty of God in all these affairs.
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Habitual Communities

By T.M. Suffield — 5 months ago

Written by T. M. Suffield |
Sunday, October 13, 2024
I want to argue that there is a sort of Christian community that can be found whenever you gather with Christians and that habitual elements of this also teach us that all of life is meant to be about following Christ. Most British Christians find this concept off-putting. If I were to suggest that the group of mates who’ve gathered to watch a film could maybe pray together before they do, many would scoff. Perhaps you might accuse that of sounding dreadfully American. I’m sorry American readers, but we’ve become culturally allergic to earnestness, and often find those who take their faith seriously a bit kitsch.

If part of recovering from our discipleship doldrums is to embed habits—and I think it is—then we will need to do something beyond thinking individually and thinking about the worship of the church. The church’s worship should be our starting point, and then the church should have a wider habitual life—as they all do, this is what a pattern of prayer meetings is for example—that serves the formation of Christian character.
The trickiest element, that I’m going to try and tease out in this post without having clear answers, is the potential for habitual life in the space between individuals and churches. We could go ‘beyond’ churches and think about cities and nations, and I think that could have some value but is entirely theoretical in the UK’s current moment. Instead, I’d like to look ‘between.’
By this I mean that there are a number of small institutions between the individual and the church. The household is the most obvious, whether that dictates a nuclear family, a much looser collection of housemates, or the explicitly Christian concept, but there are other possible forms of community. I suspect most people jump to those that are organised by churches: small groups and sports clubs and knitting circles and such like. These aren’t out of scope, but I want to include something broader, as the group of mates from your church (or many churches!) that hang out together to do a thing regularly should be included too. I’m talking about any loose form of ‘institution’ or ‘community’ that has a habitual life. That habitual life is then open to being thought about theologically and as a locus for formation.
I can sense that my writing is vaguer than I’d like because I’m searching for terms for a concept that I suspect is easier to draw. I want to argue that there is a sort of Christian community that can be found whenever you gather with Christians and that habitual elements of this also teach us that all of life is meant to be about following Christ.
Most British Christians find this concept off-putting. If I were to suggest that the group of mates who’ve gathered to watch a film could maybe pray together before they do, many would scoff. Perhaps you might accuse that of sounding dreadfully American. I’m sorry American readers, but we’ve become culturally allergic to earnestness, and often find those who take their faith seriously a bit kitsch.
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Coming Away Cold

By Tim Challies — 5 months ago

We live at a time in which we are constantly inundated with information. We live much of our lives within the glow of digital devices that are constantly beeping, buzzing, and flashing to tell us there is new information available to be had—text messages, emails, tweets, headlines.
But in such a context, it is important to understand the distinction between information and wisdom. Where information is mere facts and figures, wisdom is the application of those facts and figures to real life. Man shall not and cannot live by information alone. He must live by wisdom. “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight” (Proverbs 4:7). If we are not careful, we can read our Bibles like we read the news—as a means to gain facts but not as a means to grow in wisdom.
Thomas Watson reminds us that simply reading the Bible is not enough, for mere facts will do us little good. He says, “The reason we come away so cold from reading the word is, because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation.” We must slowly ponder it, we must diligently apply ourselves to it, we must let ourselves meditate upon it until we have grown not only in information but in wisdom.

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Every Tribe Will Sing: The Psalm That Keeps Me in Missions

By Dieudonne Tamfu — 5 months ago

What might inspire a family to move across the world for the sake of the gospel? I live with my wife and two children in Cameroon, where we planted a church and established an extension site for Bethlehem College and Seminary. Before leaving the Western world, we consistently returned to Psalm 22:27–28 as the primary motivation for our relocation:

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord,and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.

We moved to a challenging place because we believe in the God who owns all the kingdoms of the earth, and who has promised that all the families of the nations will worship before him.

Missionaries, church planters, and all who labor among the nations for the sake of the gospel can find great hope in Psalm 22. You might wonder, How can a psalm of lament be a source of hope? We often remember this psalm on Good Friday, the darkest day in history, but this is not just a Good Friday psalm. The concluding verses of Psalm 22 take us beyond the horrors of Calvary to a glorious hope for world missions, especially in our darker seasons: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.”

The Dark Valley

The first part of Psalm 22 captures David’s confusion. By all appearances, God has forsaken him even though he has prayed tirelessly. Despite his circumstances, however, he confesses what is always true of God: “You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3). He also confesses that Israel’s history is a history of God’s faithfulness (Psalm 22:4–5). So even though he feels confused about why God would forsake him, he says, “You are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts” (Psalm 22:9). Trusting his God, David cries for rescue.

“The hardest heart of the highest earthly king is in the hand of the Most High.”

Then David ushers us deeper into his pain. He is surrounded by deadly enemies who gloat over him. They pierce his hands and feet, and God seems to aggravate his woes: “You lay me in the dust of death” (Psalm 22:15). God appears to have joined the camp of his enemies. But even when he feels God’s hand against him, David cries, “Deliver my soul from the sword. . . . Save me from the mouth of the lion” (Psalm 22:20–21).

Jesus took this psalm on his lips in the deepest darkness. Dying under God’s wrath, Jesus cried to God with David’s words. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” His voice echoed the sound of silence. Did God hear David? Did he hear Jesus, the true Song of Israel?

Remember and Return

Just as God raised David from the “dust of death” (Psalm 22:15), God raised Jesus our Savior from the tomb. And just as David was raised so that he could tell of God’s name to his brothers, Jesus was raised to do the same (Hebrews 2:10–12).

Even as God saved David for Israel’s sake, his purposes extended beyond their borders. David says, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and return to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you” (Psalm 22:27). What will they remember, and to what or whom will they return? The context of the psalm shows that they will remember that God delivered his servant to his enemies to die an innocent death, that God raised him to lead the congregation of his people in worship, and that the dominion belongs to God alone. They will remember and return to the God who alone is King.

Here we find power for missions. Because kingship belongs to God and he rules over the nations, all the families of the earth will come to him. The tribes among whom you minister the gospel will remember and return. God will draw people to himself for worship. No war, political leader, constitutional amendments, electoral outcome, or regime change can redirect his eternal purpose of reconciling the world to himself. Because he commands the fate of nations, no cultural shift can derail his mission to unite all people in the adoration of his glory.

David groans in the first part of Psalm 22 and glories in the second. The structure of the psalm teaches us that grief, no matter how deep, is temporal; it will give way to glory. After darkness comes light; after pain comes praise. This was true for David and for the new David, Jesus — and it will be true for his body, the church.

Perhaps you are serving on the mission field, and your family is in a season of trial. Do not think that this darkness means God’s words will fail. Do not lose heart. God’s mission cannot fail. Kingship belongs to him. In your darkest days, let the nations see your resurrection hope.

Light for Your Labors

Psalm 22 has significantly shaped my missionary work. Not only did God use the psalm to move our family to the field, but he now uses it to keep us here. In the pains of ministry, God has reminded me repeatedly through Psalm 22 that our darkest moments in ministry are not the end of the story. Just as the sufferings described in the first part of the psalm give way to praise and the promise of global worship, our trials in the mission field can lead to the fulfillment of God’s promise that all nations will worship him.

Swallowed by darkness, the Light of salvation burst forth to bring the nations back to God.

The anguish of the Messiah was for the adoration of the nations.
The death of the Messiah was for the dance of the nations.
The pain of the Messiah was for the praise of the nations.
The ruin of the Messiah was for the rejoicing of the nations.
The suffering of the Messiah was for the salvation of the nations.
The woe of the Messiah was for the worship of the nations.

Because of the darkness of the Messiah’s death, God will establish his reign over all nations, who will all come to him for worship and rejoicing. May we long with Charles Wesley,

Oh, for a thousand tongues to singMy great Redeemer’s praise,The glories of my God and King,The triumphs of his grace.

And may we pray with Wesley and the saints of old,

My gracious Master and my God,Assist me to proclaim,To spread through all the earth abroadThe honors of thy name.

Missions Under God’s Kingship

We pray, we long, we suffer, we endure, we labor, we cast off discouragement, we lay aside sin — we work tirelessly and abundantly because we know that our God rules over the nations. He will see to it that our labor is not in vain. He will cause the nations that oppose and hate him to remember and return.

We labor because we know our God holds the hearts of kings in his hands and directs them like streams of water. The hardest heart of the highest earthly king is in the hand of the Most High, and he directs that heart to do whatever he wants whenever he wants. If God did not rule over the kingdom of men, I would not have hope for life and ministry. But because he does, we can labor in the hope of certain success.

One day, “all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord.” For King Jesus “rules over the nations.”

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Alleviating Fear

By Bill Elliff — 5 months ago

If you have fear in any area, there is one remedy. In prayer and the reading of the Word, listen to God. Let Him remind you of His promises (there are 7,000 in the Bible) and give you direction for your life. And then believe Him.

Everybody has fear. Fear is that anxiety that comes when we anticipate evil or danger, that something could go wrong. It often implies the potential of loss and manifests itself in multiple ways. Pippert said that whatever you fear you serve.
How do You Overcome Fear?
God has continually helped those who turn to Him deal with fear. Look how he helped an aged Israel when there was a total famine in the world, as his son Joseph invited him to leave the promised land and go down to Egypt.
God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” (Genesis 46:2-4)
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Am I Double-Minded?

By Brandon D. Crowe — 5 months ago

To be double-minded is to break the first great command to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 22:37–38). The double-minded aren’t fully committed to God; they don’t truly love him with their whole selves.We strive for perfection in our spiritual disciplines. Doesn’t Jesus himself say, “Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48)? The book of James appears to support this line of thinking when it states that an individual must pray “in faith, with no doubting,” because a “double-minded man” is “unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6–8).
Portions of James’s letter are difficult to understand, and what he says about prayer appears unattainable. Do any of us truly possess perfect faith when we pray? James states that if we have doubts in our prayer life, we shouldn’t expect to “receive anything from the Lord” (v. 7).
To answer this pressing question requires us to identify the double-minded person. Once we understand who James has in view, then we can better understand what James says about prayer.
Who Are the Double-Minded?
James is the only New Testament writer to use the terminology “double-minded” (dipsychos), and he doesn’t come right out and define the term. So we must determine what it means from the context of James and by comparing his language to similar writings of his era.
It could be that the double-minded are immature believers—a view that would fit with James’s emphasis on the need to press on to maturity in our faith (1:4; 3:2). If so, the double-minded are those not yet mature in their faith. This is possible.
A better option is to understand the double-minded as hypocrites who outwardly behave as Christians but inwardly live as unbelievers. The double-minded in James are analogous to the “double-hearted” in the Psalms, who are the enemies of God’s people (see Ps. 12:2). In Psalm 119:113, the psalmist declares his love for God’s law in contrast to the “double-minded” person. Though James’s word for “double-minded” isn’t specifically used in the Psalms, the concept does seem to be there to describe those not truly committed to the Lord.
Another similar concept is “double-tongued,” an idea found in noncanonical Jewish literature (Sirach 5:9) and in the New Testament (1 Tim. 3:8). The double-tongued are fundamentally divided in the ways they use their tongues (see James 3:9).
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Eloquence and the Preaching of the Gospel, Part 1

By Mark Abdelmessieh — 5 months ago

The power[14] comes from the gospel message itself, not any manmade formulations. Hence Paul’s consistent emphasis on the content of his message: “We preach Christ” (1 Cor. 1:23). “Him we proclaim” (Col. 1:28). “What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord” (2 Cor. 4:5). “To me . . . this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8).[15] The savior is Christ, not eloquence.

Moses said to the Lord, ‘Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent…I am slow of speech and of tongue.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? … Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak…’ (Ex. 4:10-12, cf. Jer. 1:6-9)
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
(1 Cor. 1:17; cf. 2 Cor. 10:10).
Moses, the greatest prophet in the Old Testament, and Paul, the greatest apostle in the New Testament, were unparalleled spokesmen of God. Both of them had something to say about eloquence. Moses, at the beginning of his calling, saw his lack of an eloquent tongue as a hindrance for God’s commission to him.[1] Paul throughout his ministry saw a form of human eloquence (“cleverness in speaking”[2]) as a hinderance to the power of his message.[3] However, both men exhibited an exceptional from of eloquence in their preaching, teaching and writing ministries. Moses is “the first preacher whose ministry is described for us”[4] in the Scripture. At the last part of his ministry life, the Scripture records for us three of his unequalled sermons filled with exposition, exhortation and application (Deut. 1:5ff; 5:1-21; 29).[5] Throughout the second half of the book of Acts, we meet with Paul the effective preacher (Acts 13:16-47; 17:22-31; 20:18-35; 22:1-12; 24:10-21; 26:1-29). In addition, one cannot mention Paul’s comments on eloquence without thinking of the description of his co-laborer Apollos who is described as “an eloquent man (λόγιος) competent in the Scriptures” (Acts 18:24). Yet, as Herman Bavinck wisely affirms, the prophets and the apostles read nothing of the works of rhetoric (i.e., Cicero or Quintilian) yet they were eloquent. However, their eloquence was “not by their own practice, but by divine gift… not by human calling, but by the power of divine right. Eloquence for them was not design but nature, a gift rather than art.”[6]
How then can we understand Paul’s comment that he desired “to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power”? How are we to make from the Scripture’s favorable description of Apollos as “an eloquent man”? How can rhetoric or eloquence[7] play the role of servant not master in preaching? Is eloquence only a gift, or is it an art as well? How can the preacher’s eloquence go hand in hand with a genuine dependence on the Spirit? This series of articles attempt to discuss these questions and present some practical ways eloquence can be used in the service of the Gospel’s preaching.
Man Speaks because God Speaks
“In the beginning was the Word…” (Jh. 1.1)
Before diving into the topic of eloquence it is suitable to first consider the truth that it presupposes: the ability of humans to speak. It is part of being created in the image of God that humans are able to communicate with language (Gen. 1:26-27). God created the world by his Word. Speech is one of the first actions attributed to God in Scripture (1:1-3). The first activity attributed to created man is also the powerful speech by which he named the animals (2:20). Animals cannot speak and cannot name themselves. “Language is the Rubicon between the animal and the human.”[8] However, naming the animals was just the beginning of man’s experience of how powerfully his speech as image bearer can reflect God. When Eve was created, Adam celebrated her as God’s gift by exceptionally eloquent poetry (2:23). In the fall, Adam’s God honoring eloquence was degraded (3:10-13). Yet, it is God’s desire that all who are redeemed in Christ, the logos, reflect a redeemed speech (Col. 4:6; 3:16; Eccl. 10:12). If this is the case for all God’s redeemed, how much more would it be for the tongues of the men that God will graciously grant the honor of being his spokesmen, the preachers?[9]
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We Need to Give the True God True Worship

By Reformation Scotland — 5 months ago

Our worship should correspond to the God we are worshipping.
The right manner of worshipping God is so as our worship carries the stamp of His image on it, such that it is like a mirror in which we may behold God’s nature and properties.
What He Himself is, that is what He wants to be acknowledged to be, and I think it would really be true worship if it had engraved on it the name of the true and living God, and if it proclaimed of itself: God is, and He is a rewarder of them that seek Him diligently.
Most part of our service speaks of an unknown God. Its inscription is, “To the unknown God.” There is so little reverence, or love, or fear, or knowledge in it, that it’s as if we did not worship the true God at all, but an idol. I fear that our worship is sometimes such that no one could conclude from it that it had any relation to the true God!
But this is true worship, when it renders back to God His own image and name. In water from a pure and clean fountain, you may see your reflection distinctly, but a troubled or muddy water, he cannot see himself. So, pure worship is worship which receives and reflects the pure image of God, but impure and unclean worship cannot receive it and retain it.
Christians, please consider this, for the Father seeks a certain kind of worshipper —and why? Because in them He finds Himself (so to speak) — His own image and superscription is on them, His mercy is engraved on their faith and confidence, His majesty and power are stamped on their humility and reverence, His goodness is to be read on the soul’s rejoicing, His greatness and justice in the soul’s trembling.
O, how little true worship there is, even among them whom the Father has sought out to make true worshippers! We stay at the first principles of religion, and do not go on to build on the foundation. Sometimes our worship has a stamp of God’s holiness and justice, in the fear and terror of such a majesty which makes us tremble before Him — but where is the stamp of His mercy and grace which should be written in our faith and rejoicing? Tremble and fear indeed, yet rejoice with trembling, because there is mercy with Him. Sometimes there is rejoicing and quietness in the soul, but it quickly degenerates into carnal confidence, and makes the soul turn grace into wantonness, and think of itself above what is right, because it is not counterpoised with the sense of His holiness and justice.
O, to have these jointly written on the heart in worship — fear, and reverence, and confidence, and humility, and faith! That is a rare thing. It is a divine composition and temper of spirit that makes a divine soul. For the most part, our worship reflects nothing of God, neither His power, nor His mercy and grace, nor His holiness and justice, nor His majesty and glory. A complacent, faint, formal way, void of reverence, of humility, of fervency, and of faith!
I beseech you, let us consider, as before the Lord, how much effort and time we lose, and how we please no one but ourselves, and profit no one at all! Stir up yourselves as in His sight! For it is the fixed and constant meditation of God and His glorious properties that will beget the resemblance there should be between our worship, and the God whom we worship, and imprint His image on it. Then it would please Him, and profit you, and edify others.
Our worship should be spiritual.
Our worship must have the stamp of God’s spiritual nature, and be conformed to it in some measure, else it cannot please him.

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The Fathered Universe

By Pierce Taylor Hibbs — 5 months ago

By default, we tend to see the world around us as unfathered. We live our waking days in the dreamland of God’s absence. And that’s hard on us, isn’t it? It’s hard to live with a lie. It’s hard to walk through life as if God hasn’t fathered-forth the beauty around us—because he has. I talk about the great lie from the serpent in a book that encourages us to embrace the truth of God’s presence.

One of my favorite poems (from one of my favorite poets) is “Pied Beauty” by Gerald Manley Hopkins.
Glory be to God for dappled things –For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:Praise him.
Look at that last line: “He fathers-forth . . .” It’s a beautiful expression. The skies, the brinded cows, the moles and trout, the finches, and fallowed fields—all of these things are “fathered-forth.”

God’s holiness is always wrapped up in his fatherly care—a mysterious love that goes before us and beyond us.

This brings a whole new perspective to that initial sentence from the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name” (Matt. 6:9). Why hallowed? Because his fatherly hand touches everything. Because he fathers-forth the entire universe without being seen. Because his wildly creative and loving care is imprinted on mussel shells and magpie nests. God’s holiness is always wrapped up in his fatherly care—a mysterious love that goes before us and beyond us.
A Fathered Place
Recently, the same wording came up in a passage I read from Tim Chester (Enjoying God). “We live in a fathered world,” he wrote.
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