Where we Stand

Where do we stand?

I suppose many people if asked this question would think of politics. Or we would think of this or that topic.

Martin Luther in his stance on Justification and the nature of faith triumphed with the words, "here I stand I can do no other." The most important place we stand or fall is in our relation the the cross.

Jesus is the rock. All other ground is sinking sand.

If we truly believe this then we will make it the center of our lives. We succeed or fail on this point.

God stands waiting for all to enter who knock. He asks us to spread the good news of his gracious offer or reconciliation.

God is most glorified when we proclaim the justice of God seen in the gospel and free gift of grace flowing from the cross.

Keeping Focus on the Cross

We need to keep our focus on the cross. Jesus entered the world and many followers believed he was bringing about a political kingdom.

But Jesus had far greater plans. Jesus planned to bring about an future eternal kingdom in the age to come for all who would come in faith.

If Jesus has been willing to settle the days problems with a political kingdom it would have been a tragedy. The tragedy today in the church is that the church has become increasingly willing to settle for a political kingdom instead of proclaiming a future eternal kingdom.

And because the world rejects Jesus the present day political kingdom is crumbling. The church is far to easily pleased.

The church should not be pleased perusing a political kingdom, but rather an ethereal kingdom. If the cross is not proclaimed Jesus is not glorified.

All political agendas no matter how noble are a stumbling block if they get in the way of the gospel being proclaimed by the church. The church cannot in any faithfulness to God move into the political realm by neglecting the gospel.

The Church in Disbelief

The church is failing in the current day because it disbelieves Jesus. The liberal church believes Jesus' command to care for the poor and seek justice, but disbelieves Jesus' warning that the only way to the Father is through faith in himself. The Conservative church believes in the cross, but by and large in practice rejects Jesus' teaching on the poor and social justice.

The church in the current day finds the teachings of Jesus to be too radical or too inconvenient. We want Jesus in our way and often that is why we find that Jesus is no where near in the church.

The church struggles because it wants an easy religion. And this watered down religion offers little to the world. It is an inconvenient religion which fully grasps the teachings of Jesus on the need for salvation, care for the poor, and concern for justice for all that is a religion that will attract followers.

The early church did not grow so quickly because faith was convenient, but because faith was radically beautiful. Convenience is not the friend of true religion but the enemy.

Theology and Time

Theology is the study of God. God is a being outside of time. Time is a created thing.

The bible starts and God is. Then he begins creation. You see many Theologies wish to place an emphasis on time or base observations upon time.

There is a truth that God reveals himself in time and is aware of the order of revelation. But an over emphasis on time is almost always unhelpful.

You see the nature of God is that he is outside of time. His revelation in time is progressive but he is not. He is not inside time.

In a sense he entered into time as his son Jesus eternally God and Man entered into history and took on human flesh. But you see Jesus is a figure who transcends time. His work breaks down the limits of time.

You see Israel's faith is a forward looking faith that is based on a promise. They are saved by believing in the promise which is Jesus.

You today we are saved by looking back but it is all the same event. Often people wish to get around the fact of Israel being saved by looking forward to the cross.

This or that is how they are saved. You see the reality is always that we are saved by trusting in the promise of God and what he says he will do.

Israel looked forward to a promise of a future event that was described in detail but not easily understood. We look back to an event in history which is described in great detail but easily rejected.

Always we are saved by faith and live by faith and walk by faith. We never get past faith.

Faith as a Way of Life

The church often views faith as something which has happened. When did you come to faith in Jesus?

It is true that faith has a beginning but you see it continues. It has an end listed in the bible when we meet God face to face in heaven.

You see we live life day by day by faith. What does living by faith mean?

You see it is trusting in things we do not see and always clinging the promises of God.

Why is living by faith relevant? Primarily because it makes us humble and open to opportunities. You see we do not know as much as we think.

The tendency of mankind is to always see oneself as someone who knows things and has capabilities. This hinders our mission because we rely on our own strength not on God.

To realize that we do not know and we do not see God but through a glass dimly allows true ministry and a more faithful following of God.

You see we are all pilgrims on a journey and we are all lost and needing direction at times. Some pilgrims on the path of faith are more lost than others and some are mainly on the right path and some very far astray, but we all are on a path and there is murkiness to it and we are not always sure what is right or wrong.

Often ethics and the Christian life is made very simple. You see in the bible that ethics and the Christian life is very difficult.

Usually the disconnect is that we have simplified faith to make it easy to fulfill. We like things that are achievable.

Christianity is inconvenient in that it demands the unachievable, to be sinless, and then simply says look you cannot achieve this. Go have faith in Jesus – he has achieved what you cannot.

The great achievement of the Christian, faith, rests outside of himself. And as he lives out faith the works flow from his connection to Jesus.

The bible has an ethical sense which is terribly difficult. It is impossible to fulfill. But God knows our frame and says have faith I have already fulfilled the whole law for you and go and live in faith.

And as we live in faith we fail but by God’s grace it has no effect on our standing since the cross is final. It is finished. Salvation is won or lost at the cross.

We are free to live out obedience to God while resting in the fact that victory is won. You see the path we journey on is fully under the shadow of the cross where all of our sin has been blotted out and we are already clothed in Jesus’ righteousness.

We can have the freedom to fail because the battle is won and the freedom is liberating because we are asked to live in faith and what is requested is that we live in faith and not that we have any success.

You see success in many aspects of life is given by God. It is not a result of the quality of faith. That we fail often has no relation to the quality of our faith or efforts and more on God’s will.

And you can see that there is often no relation between the success God gives and how he views his children. He may give one child great success and another very little, but it often has no bearing on his view of them.

Many wicked man have been given by God a short ephemeral success and many children a long and hard path, but you see we need to look by faith at things and not judge as the world judges.

Unconditionally to Love

Love has a great unconditional nature to itself. We are not loved by God because of something in us.

The reason we are loved is always found in God. We cannot see within ourselves the reason God loves us.

We are mired in sin, we have nothing to offer. What have we that God needs?

Such is God one who loves those who are unlovable. We may not see ourselves this way but it is the truth.

We are so far below God not just in degree but quality but he offers love unconditional bought at a great price.

Really the cross is the place were God shows is love in that his son Jesus gave himself for fallen man.

All true love runs downhill from the cross. The cross is the basis for true love.

We love because God first loved us. God loved us for no reason and we should love for no reason also.

We cannot simplify the truth to say we should ignore abuse or ignore how loving others affects us.

The direction of the bible is clear but through is a call for wisdom. There is a time to stand firm in hardship and danger and a time to flee.

Sometimes Paul stood firm in danger and sometimes he fled. Sometimes Jesus confronted error publically and sometimes he spoke about it only more privately with his disciples.

The overall flow of the teaching of scriptures has an absolute nature to it. The details are left to each because each context is unique.

The bible pushes forth the overall specifics of which we are to live and enact in the world. Bu the specifics need to be contextually developed through wisdom.

We are to love the poor and teach others of the glory of being a child of God. But the specifics are left to us since each context is unique and our fulfillment of God’s work will need to be tailored to the context.

Grace

Grace is undeserved. People often wonder why God chose them. Why me and not someone else?

Usually the answer people give is God could have chosen anyone. He is free and it is not something in yourself.

That is true and mostly on track. But the point is that grace is always undeserved. You see you do not deserve grace and no one deserves grace..

You see the questions like "was there something about me which caused God to chose me?" are wrong by definition. You see God chose not based on the facts, but contrary to the facts.

You see the good news is it is not about you. God is happy to save and he always saves apart from the facts of people's lives.

You see salvation is based on union with Jesus through faith. It is Jesus' blood that covers our sin and Jesus' life that fulfills the perfect obedience that God desires.

We make this so hard at times. We tend to get exasperated over the details and why this or that. But we need to realize God is free.

The name of the Lord "I Am" denotes pre-existence. Everyone notes that, but there is more. It denotes freedom. God will do what he pleases and when he pleases.

He doesn't need man to approve or care if man approves. God is perfectly good, but his goodness is not like what many men consider God. Many people view bad as good.

Ultimately God wants man to accept and follow him, but he will not be different than he is for men to come to him. He sets a very clear way.

He sent his only son eternally God and man into the world. When Jesus came into the world the last days began. The cross is the ultimate place of glory.

It is a choice. To choose God's ways and be foolish before man, this is to choose Jesus. Or to choose to be wise before men and reject God.

Humility and Growth

To grow in the Christian faith we must be humble. We must admit the limits of our knowledge.

The bible says: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

To grow in the faith we must admit our smallness. We do not have the answers. We need to be taught and learn.

We often see many people in the church who think they have answers. Sometimes those people do have answers. But sometimes the people with all the answers are the most lost of all.

You see we stand before an infinite God. We are so tiny before him.

He is wise and we are foolish and in need of wisdom. He is strong and we are weak and in need of strength and protection.

Often people suggest that we bare a resemblance to God because we bare his image. This is true in a sense. But the image is marred by sin.

Even in the sense we carry the image of God it is only a shadow of the real thing. It is as if we are comparing watching a bunch of kindergarteners kicking a soccer ball around to the final of a world cup soccer match.

One problem with the analogy of course is that the degree is to week. The gulf between us and God is much bigger.

Of course is Jesus who bridges the gulf and fills the gap between us and God. His death is what gives us free access to God.

Apologetics

Karl Barth once wrote: anxiety concerning the success of the gospel [referring to apologetics] is meaningless because the gospel is the power by which the world is overcome.

To me is possibly an overstatement but not by much. Apologetics have no power to save it is meeting Jesus and accepting who he says he is and what he says he has done that saves.

There is possibly some use in apologetics as a way to clear out some intellectual objects. But intellectual objects are rarely helpful to clear because when cleared we simply find a more difficult emotional objection which cannot be cleared.

We need to meet Jesus and see that he is beautiful and the way to see this is through the gospel of grace found in the cross.

One Way

The exclusivity of the Christian message has often been troubling to people. Jesus proclaimed clearly that the only way to God was through faith in himself.

This message troubles people and people often to not like it. The problem with the bible is that exposes us our sin and our debt before God.

Pride is one of the great sins of fallen mankind. We do not like to be told we are sinners.

The great appeal of universalism or many paths go God is we do not have to deal with man of the sin issues. In many ways it does not please us that God has only create one path.

The sort of criticism of the church is that God has been unfair to only provide one way to himself. Interestingly what the bible teaches is quite different God is quite gracious to have provided a way to himself.

We see in the bible that fallen man does not deserve a way to God because of his sin. It is pride, our sin, which suggest the lie that we have something which God owes us.

The reality is that God paid a heavy price in the way he obtained the one path. He sent his only Son Jesus to suffer and die on a cross.

We can say what we like, but the reality is that we do not deserve anything. God offers grace which is free and undeserved. It is our sin which clouds our judgement to suggest God owes us more.

For a post about cheap grace (a faulty view of grace) look here: cheap grace is no grace

Historicity of Christianity

The historicity of Christianity is very important. The danger of liberal theologies is their denial of historicity of Christianity.

The power of Christianity is based in the historical nature of it. The fall of Adam and the need for a second Adam to right the wrong of the first Adam are not some vague principles, they are realities.

The cross is not a principle to live by. The cross is something to have faith in. Jesus isn't primarily a moral teacher rather he is the object of faith.

There are many principles to learn in the cross and the teaching of Jesus and they are all of great importance. But the cross and teaching of Jesus can never be viewed simply moralistically without first coming to faith in the person of Jesus.

All the moral teaching in Christianity is based on the nature of God. First we must always learn who God is and what he has done. Then we can move onto moral thought.

Starting with the moral Christian teachings of Christianity is to reverse the proper order of theology, since the moral nature of Christianity is based on having a supernatural help by which one can live.

Faith proceeds works in salvation and works are only possible after faith.

The Hypocrisy of Preaching Following Jesus while Rejecting His Teaching

There are a number of modern preachers questioning if the Christian God would really will a place such as hell. Yet they wish for us to follow Christ...

Jesus spoke of heaven and hell. To follow Jesus is to sit under the man's teaching. One is not a disciple of Jesus if one stands over his teaching.

Of course Jesus speaks of hell in a new light that he has come to break its power over those who will trust in him. Why the cross is necessary is to save a few from judgment.

A God of love could not ordain hell many modern preachers say. The reality is that these preachers do not understand the love of a God who would bring people to himself at such great cost.

Why is the cross necessary? It is because in our natural state we will surely parish if we glimpsed God. It is only clothed in Christ's righteousness that we can possibly even approach the Living God.