Christ Church

Wisdom from Above II

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Introduction

The central issue for evangelical faith is always the presence or absence of life. Recall that in the previous chapter, God Himself is the one who brought us to life of His own will (1:18), and He is the one who sustains and nurtures us in that life. The issue is not rule-keeping, but life. It is not moralism, but life. It is not doing good works while earning your salvation, it is doing good works while alive.

The Text

“My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? . . .” (Jas. 2:1- 26).

Summary of the Text

James tells us that we must not be class snobs in our faith (v. 1). Suppose a rich man comes swanking in, and a poor man also does (v. 2). Suppose further you give the prospective big tither a seat of honor and put the poor guy in the corner on the floor (v. 3). Isn’t this partiality (v. 4)? Hasn’t God shown more honor to the poor than that (v. 5)? But the Christians James is addressing have despised the poor (v. 6), even though it is the rich who tend to hassle believers. Rich folks are the ones who blaspheme the name by which we are called, right (v. 7)? The rule we should follow is the royal law of Scripture—love your neighbor as yourself (v. 8), which is to do well. But if you play favorites, you are committing sin, and are convicted as transgressors (v. 9).

The law of God is a plate glass window, and it doesn’t much matter where you put the hole (v. 10). All the different commandments come from the same God, and so to break His Word is to break His Word (v. 11). So speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of liberty (v. 12). If you don’t show mercy, you will have judgment and no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment (v. 13).

Where is the profit if a man says that he has faith, but he has no works? Can a naked profession of faith save him (v. 14)? Suppose someone is lacking clothes or food (v. 15). Suppose someone else pats him on the head patronizingly, and says that he should go off and get a job (v. 16). What good is it? A faith that does not move around (as is seen in works) is solitary, stationary, and therefore dead (v. 17). A man may reasonably say to the professor of naked faith that he cannot see that invisible faith which is apart from works, and that whenever he sees genuine works, he sees the faith behind it (v. 18). You believe there is one God in the sky? Good for you and the devil both (v. 19). Does the vain man really need to have it explained to him that faith without works is dead (v. 20)? Wasn’t Abraham justified at the altar of Isaac (v. 21)? His faith took him there (v. 22). That was the point where Scripture was fulfilled (v. 23). A man is justified by works over against naked faith, dead faith (v. 24). We can say the same thing about Rahab the harlot (v. 25). As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also (v. 26).

Royal Liberty

James is speaking throughout of a response to the Word. We are to receive the engrafted Word with meekness, that Word being what can save our souls (1:21). We are to be doers of this Word, not hearers only (1:22-23). He then uses, as a synonym with the Word, the phrase “the perfect law of liberty” (1:25). This continues in chapter 2—when he refers to the royal law of Scripture (2:8) and again to the “law of liberty” (2:12). Rightly understood, since he is talking about the engendering of life, we are talking about the gospel.

Rahab

God loves to mess up our pious hair-dos for us. Not only was Rahab justified by works, but it appears to us that she was justified by the work of telling some people a lie (v. 25). She was justified by works when she sent the messengers out by another way than she said she did. Whatever shall we do with that? Well, we should start by remembering that Scripture is the mirror we should use to examine ourselves, and it should be a mirror that is not covered over with the post-it notes of our pious traditions. We should know more about the Hebrew midwives and Gideon in the wine-vat than we do.

The Friend of God

Abraham is called the friend of God by Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 20:7), and by Isaiah (Is. 41:8). Scripture tells us in Gen. 15:6 that Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him as righteousness, and James quotes this verse. The incident that James references in v. 21, the sacrifice of Isaac, occurred 15-20 years later. Abraham was living by faith that entire intervening time, but the reality of his faith was fulfilled in a climatic way at the sacrifice of Isaac. Fulfilled means many things, but it does not mean “come into existence.” And notice how faith is growing up, taking shape, becoming mature, being made perfect (v. 22).

Living Faith

As classical Protestants, we exult in the doctrine of sola fide, justification through faith alone. So what do we do with the fact that the only place in the Bible where the phrase “faith alone” occurs is in order to condemn it (2:24)? Well, fortunately, we also believe in sola Scriptura, which means we are allowed to read the verses before and after this. James is condemning dead faith. Dead faith is not alone—being dead, it isn’t at all.

Remember the gospel brings life. The gospel quickens. The gospel is received by the instrumentality of faith alone, and because faith alone (in the Protestant sense) is the gift of God, we must recall that there is only one kind of faith that God gives—living faith. Living faith grows up into living, breathing works, and all of glorifies the exhaustive grace of God.

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Wisdom from Above I

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

James, the Lord’s brother, wrote this remarkable letter. Some Christians have found it a little deficient in “gospel,” but this is largely the result of a deficient view of Scripture, coupled with a deficient view of the nature of the gospel. God’s gospel kindness to us is woven throughout the epistle.

The Text

“James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience . . .” (Jas. 1:1-27).

Summary of the Text

The letter from James is a general one, written to the “twelve tribes” out there (v. 1). When various trials arise, reckon it to be your joy (v. 2). The reason for this is that the trials are not senseless (v. 3). There is a point to them, which is our maturity (v. 4). If any of us lack wisdom (about what is going on in this process), we should ask God, and He will provide it for us (v. 5). In such requests, we must not waver (v. 6). Wobbly prayers in this regard don’t go far (v. 7). This is because a double-minded man is unstable in all things (v. 8), and not just in his prayer life. A low position is actually an exalted one (v. 9). This world’s riches are the inverse of that (v. 10). The rich man browns up nicely, just like the flowers in a high meadow in August (v. 11). But the man who endures trial receives the crown of life when all is said and done (v. 12).

But temptation does not come from God (v. 13). Temptation arises from within (v. 14). This process leads steadily downward to death (v. 15). Don’t make a mistake about what comes from where (v. 16). Good gifts come down from the immutable God of Heaven (v. 17). And it was His will to bring regeneration about in us (v. 18).

So then, be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger (v. 19). Man’s anger is not doing God’s work (v. 20). So set aside the attitudinal junk (v. 21), and quit saying you can’t. James just told you to. Do the Word, and don’t just listen to it (v. 22). Hearers only are absent-minded mirror-gazers (vv. 23-24). But look into the text, the perfect law of liberty, and you will truly see yourself there (v. 25). Vain religion is the religion of the unbridled tongue (v. 26). True religion rescues others from their troubles, and stands pure and apart from the world (v. 27).

Asking for Joy

Now it is the easiest thing in the world to lift v. 5 out of context, and say that if you lack wisdom about any decision whatever, all you have to do is ask, and God will supply the answer. This job or that one? This major or that one? This car or that one? But the context here is plainly saying that if anyone lacks wisdom about how to receive trials with joy, learning patience to the point where we lack nothing, then that person should ask God to supply the requisite wisdom. Don’t be dishonest or double-minded in it, and God promises to give this sort of wisdom liberally, abundantly. The crown of life awaits us on the other side of an endured trial—provided we love the Lord (v. 12).

This doesn’t mean that you cannot pray for wisdom about other decisions (of course not), but it does mean you can’t do that if you are not praying for wisdom to rejoice in your troubles. If you do that, you are inverting the promise, not expanding it. You are trying to treat God as a giant convenience store in the sky.

Trials and Temptations

In Greek, the word for trial and the word for temptation are the same word, with our distinction for them certainly present, but contextually determined. James tells us here that we are to consider trials a joy (v. 2), but also says that temptations do not come from God (v. 13). Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Matt. 4:1). A few chapters later, He teaches us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer with a request that our Father lead us not into temptation (Matt. 6:13). Who is doing what? The same situation is a trial or a temptation based on the perspective of the one testing or luring. Given the Lord’s time in the wilderness, what did the devil want and what did the Spirit want?

The Transience of Wealth

A man with the right sort of troubles is a man who is matriculating in God’s character course. Rejoice that you have been accepted into the program, and rejoice in the challenging work that comes with it. The rich man is deceived—if he accepts the present moment as a permanent moment, which is what the temptation usually is. A rich man should rejoice in the transience of his wealth, so that he might have true wealth. The poor man rejoices in the true wealth that is ahead of him, and he knows what God’s intention for him is.

The Genesis of Sin

Sin is not dropped on us from Heaven. Let no one say when he is tempted that God is seeking to lure him into sin. Where does sin come from then? Each man’s lust (desire) leads to sin, and sin leads to death.

True Religion

True religion begins with regeneration (v. 13). Of His own will, He begets us. God works mysteriously, inexorably, and we cannot fully understand it. From our perspective, what are we to do? We recognize the problem with our rashness and anger (vv. 19-20). We are called to “lay aside” our sinfulness, and we are told to “receive with meekness” the engrafted word—which then does the work of saving our souls.

When this happens, a man starts to do what he reads. He stops looking in the mirror of forgetfulness. This man does what he reads because he sees himself in the mirror—he doesn’t hold up the mirror to look around the rest of the congregation. He therefore guards his tongue. He therefore is kind to the widow. He therefore keeps himself aloof from worldliness. This is the regenerate man.

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State of the Church 2013

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

Near the beginning of every calendar year, it has been our custom for some years now to have a message that addresses the “state of the church.” Sometimes we have addressed the state of the national church, and sometimes of this local congregation. It all varies . . . depending on the state of the church.

The Text

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:24-26)

Summary of the Text

The fundamental call to discipleship is one at a time. Jesus says that if any man wants to follow Him, he must deny himself (v. 24). He must take up his cross, and follow Christ. A cross fits one at a time—it is not an instrument of mass execution. Jesus then teaches that if we are clingy with our own lives, then we will lose what we are clinging to. But if we lose it for the sake of Christ, then we will gain what we have given up (v. 25). What is the point, what is the profit, in gaining anything if we lose our own soul in the transaction? What would be a good price to put on your own soul (v. 26)? Jesus teaches us to value our own soul over anything else we might gain or accomplish.

The Individual and Individualism

We go to Heaven or to Hell by ones. The Lord Jesus was the one who established the importance of the individual, over against every secular collective. A man or a woman will live forever, in a way that corporations and empires will not. But if we live forever in glory, we will do so as part of the Body of Christ, and we will find ourselves in union with Him, and with all the rest of the redeemed. We are all members of one body. But we are not melted down in some sort of cosmic unity—the more Christ is formed in each of us, the more like ourselves we will become.

A Holy Sanctuary

Pascal once said that “men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.” This has often and unfortunately been the case in the building of sanctuaries. Holy places have often been assembled with unholy hands. I say this because it now seems possible, Lord willing (Jas. 4:15), that we will allowed to begin construction on a sanctuary for worship in this calendar year. We have architects working on the initial drawings now. But when we are done, we don’t want a sanctuary that is holier than all the people who built it.

A Thought Experiment

We want to build, but we want to build with gold and silver, and with costly stones—and not with wood, hay, and stubble (1 Cor. 3:12). But we are talking about materials from God’s supply houses, not from ours. What does He call gold and silver? What does He call stubble?

It all lies in the adverbs. How we build is going to govern how we occupy, and whether God receives it. If we build in a spirit of love and mutual submission, and a meteorite destroys the whole thing before the first service, we are still that much ahead of the game. This is because building the external building is just a device that God is using for building us—we are the true Temple. We are the living stones, and we ought never to privilege the dead stones over the living ones.

And if we build a glorious building for future tourists and sightseers in Moscow to ooh and ahh over, and to comment on how majestic our spiritual vision must have been, but we did it while quarreling, fussing, and complaining, then we were trashing the real sanctuary for the sake of our picture of it. This is like a man yelling at his wife for damaging a precious picture he had of her.

Many of you have been on glorious tours of glorious churches, both here and in Europe. Don’t be the guy who carves his last scrollwork—soli Deo Gloria, or something equally lofty—and then dies and goes to the devil. What does it profit a man, Jesus asks, if he crafted something as glorious as the Rose Window at Chartes, but loses his own soul?

A Generation on the Move

Since this congregation was first planted in 1975, it has met in many locations. We have met in East City Park, St. Augustine’s Catholic Church, the Hawthorne Village common room, the American Legion cabin, a garage, Greene’s body and paint shop (both locations), the Paradise Hills Church of God, Moscow High School, the Logos auditorium, and now the Logos field house. I will say this—you all are good sports. During the body and paint shop days, I remember joking once that we were the only church I knew of where you could come to worship, find a Rainier beer truck in the sanctuary, and not think anything of it.

But all this was preparation time, not “get lazy” time. God intended the time in the wilderness as a time to shape and mold Israel. Those forty years had a point for them, and they have had a similar point for us. This means I would deliver a charge to the generation following us—my children’s generation, and those coming up after them. You must be like the men who served with Joshua, and who kept Israel faithful as long as they lived (Judges 2:7). You must teach your children to do the same (2 Tim. 2:2). You must not be like the odious woman who finally gets married and is insufferable as a result (Prov. 30:23).

Never Forget the Lord

When you come into a land full of good things, take special care not to forget the Lord (Dt. 6:12). And if your response is something like “oh, we could never do that,” you have already started to do it. The one who thinks he stands is the one who needs to take heed lest he fall (1 Cor. 10:12). The Old Testament was given as something that New Testament saints constantly need.

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Grace and Culture Building I

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

As a community of Christians we were all called and shaped by radical grace. One of the things that grace does (and which law cannot do) is build a culture with standards – which then presents a potent threat to grace. We are called to understand this dynamic because if we don’t, we will be continually frustrated.

The Text

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1-4).

Summary of the Text

For those who are in Christ Jesus, for those who walk after the Spirit and not the flesh, there is no condemnation (v. 1). The Spirit’s law of life sets us free from the law of sin and death (v. 2). The law was unable to fix us, because it was undone by our weakness. The law and the flesh are – to use the jargon – codependent. Law fails when flesh does. But what the law could not do, God did by sending His own Son to be condemned on the cross (v. 3). And why? The reason is so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk according to the Spirit, and not according to the law (v. 4).

Stated Another Way

By not calculating on the basis of standards, grace enables us to fulfill the standard. And by insisting that every molecule of the standards be honored, the legal approach collapses in a heap of self-contradictory lusts. In other words, grace keeps the law, and the law is a lawbreaker.

But grace does not just “keep the law” in matters related to a person’s private ethical conduct. Grace enables men and women to marry and to bring up children properly. Grace enables people to build schools with genuine academic standards. Grace enables us to learn to love work, and to enjoy the consequent prosperity. Grace, in short, has a tendency to create subcultures within the culture of grace called the church, and a result creates a thorny theological and pastoral problem. Let’s tackle it now.

By Grace Through Faith

You cannot flunk out of the Christian faith. You can be expelled for high rebellion (which is what excommunication is), but you cannot be kicked out for being slow or lazy. You cannot even be kicked out for being sinful. How many times will God accept you back to this Table? More than 70 times 7? The church then is tailor-made for misfits. Robert Frost once defined home as that place where, “if you have to go, they have to take you in.” And this is why, in a fundamental way, the church is your home. You might be the king of screw-ups, but you are always most welcome here. Own your sin, and you are never on your own.

But at the same time, it is right and proper that a sluggard supreme be able to flunk out of a Christian school. It is right and proper that a profane child not be allowed to play with your kid anymore. Suppose you couldn’t carry a tune with a forklift – it is right and proper that you be denied the solo part in the church choir. In fact, it may be right and proper that you be frog-marched out of the church choir entirely. Suppose one of you gets a farm job this summer for your teenaged boy, the point to teach him the value of hard work. After two weeks, your farmer friend lets him go, and you go to inquire into the reasons. He gives his reasoning in this way: “If that boy had another hand, he would need a third pocket to put it in.” It is right and proper that he be fired. But how does all this with grace? Do you get the problem?

Fellowship and Leadership

The qualifications for fellowship are quite simple – faith in Jesus and sorrow over sin. The qualifications for leadership are different – and if disqualification has occurred, sorrow doesn’t address it in the same way. If a bank president embezzles a couple hundred thousand dollars, he doesn’t get his job back just because he feels really sorry about it.

Confusion over these two different kinds of qualification has led to a great deal of mayhem. Suppose a pastor disgraces his office, is defrocked, and when he wants to be reinstalled three months later and is refused, he then says something like, “where’s the forgiveness?” But the forgiveness is plainly seen in his access to the Table from that side of the Table.

Formal and Informal Leadership

So there is the grace-based standard of fellowship. But there are also the grace-created standards associated with the office. Once we have this down, there is the additional complication of seeing how the standards of office can be layered and hierarchical (husband, boss, owner, etc.), as well as being informal and not just formal (friends, role models, etc.).

Grace and Elitism

The church generally is like the militia, and it is like a militia where you pretty much have to take in anybody who shows up with a gun. Then there are the “parachurch” developments which wind up creating (at least initially) our Navy Seals-Knights Templar, or monasteries, or seminaries, or colleges, or Bible societies, or mission agencies, and so on. The Puritan experiment in New England began as an attempt to turn the militia into the Delta Force.

Strong and Weak

This problem manifested itself in the very first years of the Christian churches experience. This is why Paul had to distinguish between the “strong” and the “weak” (Rom. 15:1), and this is why he had to tell the strong to bear the weak.

There is a temptation to resentment that works in two directions. The strong get something going, and those who need that strength (for whatever reason) are attracted to it, and attach themselves. The strong resent “the drag.” Then the weak begin to resent the strong out of envy. Who do they think they are?

Strong and weak both are called to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God – and He will lift them up.

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Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/Annotated (Advent 2012)

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Introduction

We are accustomed to our Christmas carols, but we have to take care not to get used to them in the wrong way – where we are somehow singing and celebrating on autopilot. The word carol comes from the word carola, which means a circle or ring dance – a folk dance. Christmas carols, rightly understood, are a sacred kind of folk music, making them much more traditional than many of our other songs. This means they are more potent, both for good or ill.

The Text

“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men'” (Luke 2:13-14)

Summary of the Text

You almost get the impression that the angel of the Lord had to tell somebody was just happened, and the shepherds were the only ones up. And then the angel was joined in the refrain by the multitude of the heavenly host (stars), and they were all singing about the most glorious thing that God had ever done for our sorry world.

Some Background on this Carol

This carol was first published in 1739, just a year after Charles Wesley was first converted. It was modified slightly for George Whitefield’s Collection (1753). Wesley wrote over 6,500 hymns and this one and Jesus, Lover of my Soul are usually reckoned as being among his finest. The Jewish/Christian composer Mendelssohn wrote the tune over a century later (in a work celebrating the 400th anniversary of the printing press), to which these lyrics were set by another composer, and published in the form we use in 1857. One of the things that Wesley was able to do, in a magnificent way, was combine high poetic worth with high theology. This hymn is actually a short course in systematic theology. And that is how we are going to treat it now. First, look at just some of his likely sources.

The Carol, Annotated

Hark! The herald angels sing (Lk. 2:13), Glory to the newborn King (Mt. 2:2); Peace on earth, and mercy mild (Lk. 2:14), God and sinners reconciled (2 Cor. 5:19); Joyful all ye nations rise (Ps. 117:1), join the triumph of the skies; With th’angelic host proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2); Christ by highest heaven adored (Lk. 19:38), Christ the everlasting Lord (2 Peter 1:11); Late in time, behold Him come (Gal. 4:4), offspring of the virgin’s womb (Is. 7:14); Veiled in flesh the Godhead see (Heb. 1:3), hail th’incarnate Deity (Phil. 2:7); Pleased as man with men to dwell (Jn. 1:14), Jesus, our Emmanuel (Is. 7:14). Come, Desire of nations, come (Haggai 2:7), fix in us Thy humble home (2 Cor. 13:5); Rise, the woman’s conquering Seed (Gen. 3:15), bruise in us the serpent’s head (Rom. 16:20); Now display Thy saving pow’r (Rom. 8:11), Ruined nature now restore (Heb. 2:8-9); Now in mystic union join Thine to ours (John 17:21), and ours to Thine (Heb. 2:11). Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface (Eph. 4:22), stamp Thine image in its place (Col. 3:10); Second Adam from above (1 Cor. 15:45), reinstate us in Thy love (Rom. 5:5). Let us Thee, though lost, regain, Thee, the Life, the inner man (Eph. 3:16); O, to all Thyself impart (Col. 1:27), formed in each believing heart (Gal. 4:19); Hail, the heav’n born Prince of Peace (Is. 9:6), Hail the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2); Light and life to all He brings (John 1:4), Ris’n with healing in His wings (Mal. 4:2); Mild He lay His glory by (Phil. 2:7), born that man no more may die (Rom. 6:6); Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth (John 3:3); Hark! The herald angels sing (Lk. 2:13), Glory to the newborn King (Mt. 2:2).

Real Theology

Theologians sometimes say that true theology should be followed with doxology. This is because theologians like to use words with -ology in the suffix. What they mean is that doctrine should be followed by praise, and I would want to make the connection even tighter. Doctrine should be mingled with praise. Look at Paul’s response at the end of Romans 11, a hard passage of hard theology – it makes him burst into song. This hymn is a similar model for us. Hymns of praise need not be composed of fluffy clouds and sparkly unicorns. Poetry need not be heretical in order to work as poetry. We need to re-imagine the whole enterprise – Berkhof’s Systematic Theology: The Musical.

We need a name for the soul-damaging practice of making stupendous things dull. Jesus taught with authority, and not like the scribes (Mt. 7:29). Remember the three-fold aspects of true teaching, according to Augustine. It needs to instruct, delight, and move. We need a name for principled dullardry so that we might be able to post warning signs on every side. We must have a wedding between the content of what we say we believe and the shape we put it in.

What Then?

What do we have here then? We have, in the first place, joy (the herald angels sing). We have the message of salvation, the message of the gospel (God and sinners reconciled). We have a postmillennial vision (all ye nations rise). We have fulfilled prophecy (born in Bethlehem). We have the exalted Person of Christ (highest heaven adored). We have the virgin birth (virgin’s womb). We have the Incarnation (incarnate Deity). We have the indwelling Spirit (humble home). We have the defeat of Satan (conquering Seed). We have the new humanity (now restore). We have perichoretic union (Thine to ours). We have the doctrine of regeneration (give them second birth). And all this is just a portion.

We are not simply to sing our way into a particular emotional frame of mind. We are to sing with knowledge, and into knowledge. As we sing we are “teaching and admonishing one another,” as Paul says to do (Col. 3:16). We are to sing our way into knowledge – but it needs to be the kind of knowledge that provokes more singing. And all of it is get to, not got to.

 

 

 

 

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