Christ Church

Grace and Peace

Joe Harby on

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

Today we celebrate the giving of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. As we consider this great event, we have to remember that the Holy Spirit is aPerson, not an impersonal force. He was given to the Church at Pentecost so that He might glorify Jesus Christ, who in turn brings us to the Father. Our salvation involves every person of the Trinity, and it is important for us to know how they work together in a divine conspiracy—to liberate us from the chains of our own selfish hearts.

The Text

“To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1:7).

Summary of the Text

This salutation at the beginning of Romans has something in common with the salutations at the beginning of most of the epistles of the New Testament. It is virtually verbatim in many other letters (1 Cor. 1:3, 2 Cor. 1:2, Gal. 1:3, Eph. 1:2, Phil. 1:2 Col. 1:2, 1 Thess. 1:1, 2 Thess. 1:2, Phile. 1:3). In the pastorals Paul adds the word mercy (1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2; Tit. 1:4). Peter does the same thing (2 Pet. 1:2), and in his first epistle he mentions grace and peace, but without mention of the Father and the Son (1 Pet. 1:2). The apostle John does it once, with the addition of the word mercy (2 Jn. 1:3).

What does it all mean? In order to answer that question we have to consider some other aspects of biblical teaching, and we also have to bring in a bit of church history.

How We Come to God

“For through him [Jesus] we both [Jew and Gentile] have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Eph. 2:18). The Bible teaches that we cannot come to God unless God has first come to us. We cannot come to the Father, except by Jesus, and we cannot come to Jesus unless it is by the Spirit. And we cannot have the Spirit unless the Spirit has been poured out. And this is what we find.

If you will permit a homely little analogy, the text above shows us how we come to God. The Father is the destination we are traveling to. The Son is the road, the way we must travel. The Holy Spirit is the car. For by this road we have access to our destination by means of this car. The triune God comes to us so that we might come to Him.

A Bit of Church History

Our church has, as one of its foundational creeds, the Nicene Creed. In the original form of the creed, it said that the Holy Spirit proceeded “from the Father.” For the Eastern Orthodox, it remains that way. In the Western Church, which includes both Roman Catholics and Protestants, one word was added, which in English is rendered with three words. That one word is filioque, which means “and the Son.” This means that we confess that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father “and the Son.”

Fruit and Gifts

The Holy Spirit gives gifts, and the Holy Spirit also bears fruit. Another thing He does is teach us to prioritize these things rightly. He is the one who works in our hearts so that we might understand the relationship of gifts and fruit.
We have a tendency to focus on those things God gives which flash and pop. We are attracted to shiny objects. Miracles are always impressive, and the prophets get to speak up front, and so on. But notice how the Bible ranks these things. Paul says that the church at Corinth was a very giftedchurch (1 Cor. 1:7). They were not lacking in any spiritual gift. But just a page or so later, he is saying that he could not address them as spiritual men, but rather as carnal men (1 Cor. 3:1). Please let this sink in. Having spiritual gifts does not make one a spiritual man. Later in the same book, he prioritizes everything wonderfully. The gifts are marvelous, but he still shows the Corinthians a “more excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31). The gifts include some that are reckoned as the “best,” but Paul goes on to argue for something better even than that.

And what he argues for is love (1 Cor. 13:1ff). In effect, he says that the fruit of the Spirit is far more evidence of His active presence than the gifts of the Spirit are. No one wants to be gifted like Balaam was, and yet devoid of integrity like he was. Jesus said that everyone would know that we were His disciples by our love for one another. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35).

Just Be Nice?

Now “love one another” sounds kind of Sunday Schooly, doesn’t it? But love in a fallen world is hard as nails. Loving is tough, an arduous business. In order to make it possible, God had to pour Himself out upon the Church on the day of Pentecost, and He did so in the person of His Holy Spirit.

So Why is the Spirit Absent?

Back to our texts. It may have struck some as odd that the text for this sermon on Pentecost was a text that did not mention the Spirit at all. But the oddity goes beyond that. In all these passages, in all these salutations, the Holy Spirit is not named specifically at all, and the Father and the Sonare mentioned. The formulae is basically this: grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. If we were prone to take offense on behalf of others, we might wonder why the Spirit is being so consistently slighted.

But the Spirit is not absent here. Jonathan Edwards, the great Reformed theologian argues, I believe compellingly, that the Holy Spirit is the grace and peace. Given the nature of the case, the Holy Spirit draws attention away from Himself, and He goes under various names. For example, He is called the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 1:4). For another, He is called the finger of God (Luke 11:20; Matt. 12:28). He is called the river of living water (John 7:38-39). The Spirit loves to go incognito.

And in virtually every epistle in the New Testament, the saints of God are reminded of their daily and ongoing dependence upon Him. Grace and peace be upon you. This is the gift of the Father and the Son, giving themselves to you, in the person of their Spirit. Grace and peace be with you, both now and forever.

Read Full Article

Bedrock Discipleship VI: Identity in Christ

Joe Harby on

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

Today is Resurrection Sunday, our annual commemoration of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead. We mark this annually, but it is important for us to remember that we also mark it weekly—every Lord’s Day is a celebration of the resurrection. But what exactly are we celebrating when we do this?

The Text

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:3–11).

Summary of the Text

When we were baptized, we were baptized into the death of Jesus (v. 3). Note that—our baptism, His death. When we were baptized, this was not just into His crucifixion, but also into His burial (v. 4). The reason God identified us with His death and burial was so that He could also identify us with His resurrection, enabling us to walk in newness of life (v. 4). For if we are identified with (symphytos, the word rendered as planted) His death, we must also be identified with His resurrection (v. 5). Our old man was crucified with Him (v. 6), and death liberates us from the death of sin (v. 7). And death with Christ goes together with life in Christ (v. 8). Christ rose from the dead forever, and it is that everlasting life that we have been identified with (v. 9). Death is once for all, but life is forever (v. 10). Therefore, reckon yourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God through Christ Jesus our Lord (v. 11). What does this newness of life taste like? It tastes like the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, and all the rest.This is the true liberation of Easter.

The Structure of the Exhortation

This is a typically Pauline manner of argumentation. He says that xyz is true of you, therefore you must consider or reckon xyz to be true of you. He says that this is what your baptism means and declares, and so therefore this is what you must mean and declare in your manner of living. This is what your baptism says . . . now you say it too.

Two Kinds of Substitutes

We are accustomed to think of Christ’s death as a substitutionary death, and so we should. He did die as our substitute, and this whole argument in Romans 6 depends on that assumption. But we have to be careful, because there are two kinds of substitution, and the death of Jesus was not like one of them.

When a substitute goes in during a basketball game, another player goes out. The substitute replaces the other player. This is not what Jesus did for us. The second kind of substitute is a representative substitute. When we elect someone to go to Congress, he goes there as our representative substitute. When he votes, I vote. When he stands true, I stand true. When he takes bribes, I take them. When he fails, I fail. Part of the reason things back in D.C. are as much of a mess as they are is that the American people have lost this sort of covenantal understanding. But the federal government comes from the Latin word foedus, which means covenant. It can also mean stinky or loathsome, but that is another topic for another time.

Adam was the representative kind of federal substitute, and Jesus, as the last Adam, was also this kind of substitute. When Adam disobeyed at a tree, so did I. When Jesus obeyed on a tree, so did I. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). This is the offer of the gospel —Christ for you.

So then, Jesus did not die so that I might live. He died so that I might die, and He lives so that I might live.

An Identified History

In Scripture, union with Christ is not understood as a mystical connection to a cosmic force. Rather, Christ was our covenantal representative and substitute, and whatever He went through, we went through also. When we are baptized, that baptism declares that we have been joined with Christ in His biography—we are joined to Him in the events of His life. This did not kick in five minutes before the crucifixion started. He was our substitute when He was being flogged (Is. 53:5; 1 Pet. 2:24). He was our substitute when He was being insulted (Ps. 69:9; Matt. 11:18). He was our substitute when He was baptized, identifying as the true Israel right before His 40 days (years) in the wilderness. This is why He received a baptism of repentance (Mark 1:8). Theologians call this the imputation of the active obedience of Christ, but that is simply a technical phrase that expresses a glorious truth—which is that you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (1 Cor. 3:23).

Conclusion

Death is an event. Life is a process. When it is the death of Jesus, it is a once-for-all event. When it is the life of Jesus, it is everlasting life, eternal life, ultimate cascading life.

This is your identity in Christ. The obedience of Christ is all yours. God offers it freely, and it is received by faith alone. The obedience of Christ is as much yours as the sinful disobedience of Adam was also yours, on the same principles. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that the federal unrighteousness is yours as a birthright, but that the imputed righteousness of Jesus is somehow a “legal fiction.” It is nothing of the kind. It defines who you now are.

Read Full Article

Romans 5:1-11

Joe Harby on

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The Text

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:1-11

Peace with God

When Jesus first appeared to the gathered disciples after his resurrection, he focused his message on this one word – peace (John 20:19, 21, and 26). Jesus had just brought about the reconciliation of God and sinners, and the result was peace. Jesus couldn’t get over it. We’re at peace now. We don’t understand the full significance of the word because we probably don’t fully appreciate the severity of the sentence that was against us. But Jesus knew what that sentence was. He knew the wrath that we were under. And he returned to his disciples, bursting with the news that he was at peace with us.

The glory of God was once death for us (Exodus 33:18-23, Ez. 1:27-28). When a sinful man stood before the glory of a perfect God, the result was an all-consuming terror. But now the apostle Paul says that we rejoice in it Rom. 5:2, that is we rejoice in what we were once terrified of, and we are now at peace with God’s holiness. This change in our relationship to God’s holiness, from terror and fear to peace and joy, is what it means to be justified.

And Not Only That

Paul is describing a surprise reversal. Now that we are standing in this grace – “We also glory in tribulations . . .” Tribulation really ought to lead us to despair. But Jesus saw it as an opportunity for God’s glory to be revealed. Outside of Christ, tribulation on earth is merely a foretaste of the eternal condemnation that is waiting for us. But when we are in the grace of God, these tribulations produce something altogether different in us.

Holy Spirit

This is why we are given the Holy Spirit now. The Holy Spirit is regularly described as a guarantee (Eph. 1:13- 14), a deposit, a promise. The reason that this deposit is so important is that it is going to look, at times, like you aren’t headed towards eternal life. When you suffer it is going to feel at times like you are headed towards death and destruction. But the Holy Spirit is poured into your heart as a confirmation that God is actually moving you towards eternal life. It is a supernatural peace and confidence in the face of suffering.

The world describes people who endure suffering as “fighters.” It is a hollow boast. Because we all know that any victory that they might experience is a temporary victory, a remission from suffering. But Paul promises us that in Christ “we are more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37-39). Because through Christ we have conquered death itself, our hope will not be disappointed.

For When We Were Without Strength

Paul is about to explain the reason why we can have this confidence, this peace. The answer is – while you were still an absolute jerk, Jesus died for you. And if he was willing to die for you in that condition, then how much more is he going to give his life to you, now that you have been forgiven? We have peace in suffering because we have Jesus’ eternal life promised to us.

Read Full Article

Grace and Culture Building I

Joe Harby on

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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.

Read Full Article

A Christmas Conundrum (Advent 2012)

Joe Harby on

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction

Christmas is the time of year when we celebrate the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus. But lest this become an exercise in jargon, we need to think through what we mean by it. If we were to reapply the apostle Paul at this point, we should celebrate with the fudge, but celebrate with the mind also (1 Cor. 14:15).

The Text

“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:1-4).

Summary of the Text

The apostle Paul was a servant of Christ (v. 1), called as an apostle (v. 1), and separated for his service in the gospel of God (v. 1). This gospel was promised to us all beforehand through the prophets in the holy Scripture (v. 2), and the gospel concerned the person of the Lord Jesus. Whenever we think about the gospel, we must think in two categories—in terms of the person of Jesus, and in terms of the work of Jesus. Paul here alludes to His work by referencing the resurrection (v. 4), but he is emphasizing the person of the Lord Jesus. Our Lord Jesus Christ was made according to the flesh of the seed of David (v. 3). He was a Davidson. And He was declared to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead (v. 4). Now Jesus was the Son of God the entire time, but He was not declared openly to be such until the resurrection established him as the first born from among the dead (Ps. 2:7; Acts 13:33; Col. 1:15, 18).

A Delayed Fuse

So what we find is that God placed certain truths in His Word, and the ramifications of these truths took some centuries to work out. The Church finally settled them in the Council of Nicea (325) and in the Definition of Chalcedon (451). Nicea settled that Jesus is God, and Chalcedon settled what that has to mean since He was also a genuine man.

So Start With Jesus of Nazareth

We know from Scripture that Jesus was a true human being. John makes a point of saying it bluntly. Their eyes saw Him (1 John 1:1), and their hands touched Him (1 John 1:1). He had a true body—He had bones (Luke 24:39). He got thirsty (John 4:7). He knew what it was to be hungry (Matt. 4:2). One time He was so exhausted that He slept through a storm (Mark 4:38). Scripture makes the point in countless ways—Mary gave birth to a baby boy (Luke 2:7). So whatever else we are dealing with here, we dealing with a fellow human being, someone who is not ashamed to call us brothers (Heb. 2:11). Jesus was a true man.

Start With Jesus Again

But He was such a remarkable man that to say He was just a man does not begin to cover it. This reality extends beyond His miracles—many of which had been done in the power of the Spirit by prophets before Him. From the very first, Jesus was identified by His followers as God. When Thomas saw Him after the resurrection, He said “my Lord and my God” (John 20:28). God the Father speaks to the Son, and says, “Your throne, O God . . .” (Heb. 1:8). The Word was with God in the beginning, and the Word was God (John 1:1) and, lest there be any confusion on the point, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). The Word created everything, including the world He was born into (John 1:3). The fundamental Christian confession is that Jesus is Lord (Rom. 10:9-10). Further, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom. 10:13; Joel 2:32). The Hebrew in the passage Paul cites is talking about YHWH. Jesus is YHWH.

Jesus Himself had made this identification, and the fact that people still want to call Him a great moral teacher (only) is simply another argument for how remarkable He was. As Lewis points out, this is actually like claiming that you are a poached egg. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders that “Before Abraham was, I am.”They got His point, and picked up stones to kill Him for blasphemy (John 8:58-59).

Yet Another Antinomy

Some people want the object of their worship to be fully in accord with common sense. But one of the first things common sense tells us is that this is an impossibility. Is God infinite? Yes, of course (Ps. 147:5). But can we conceptualize that? Of course not. Did God make everything out of nothing? Yes, of course (John 1:3). But can we imagine nothing and then something, on the basis of a Word? Did God ordain every word that we speak, before we speak it, and yet we are the ones who speak? Yes, of course (Ps. 139:4). It is the same here—we cannot do the math, but we can bow down and adore. This is not contrary to logic, but it certain goes well beyond our abilities in it.

Right Worship

So what are we to do? We begin with right worship, which in its turn—just as it did with the early church—will lead to right definitions. Right worship shapes our theology. In this case, we echo what our fathers at Nicea and Chalcedon said. Jesus of Nazareth is one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. This one person had, unlike us, two natures, one divine and one human. These natures were not blended together, but were rather united in a person. They were not mixed up. They were not parceled out. The Incarnation was not God in a man-suit. It was not as though He had a human body and a divine soul. No—He had a complete human nature, and He was fully God.

As Chalcedon put it, that which can be predicated of one nature can be predicated of the person. That which is predicated of the other nature can be predicated of the person. Jesus is true God. Jesus is true man. But that which is predicated of one nature cannot be predicated of the other nature. Humanity is not divinity, and finitude is not infinitude. And glory goes to God in the highest.

Read Full Article