Ten books of 2012

I haven't read many books this year, but for what it's worth here are my ten books of 2012.

Six objectively great books:

1. Loving the Way Jesus Loves (Ryken)
2. The Good God (Reeves)
3. God at Work (Veith)
4. A New Name (Scrivener)
5. The King's English (Scrivener)
6. Christian Youth Work (Ashton and Moon)

Five books that taught me something great:

1. Notes from a Tilt a Wheel (Wilson)
2. The Joy of Calvinism (Forster)
3. God at Work (Veith)
4. Revelation and Reconciliation (Williams)
5. Training in Christianity (Kierkegaard)

I read half a dozen marriage books too. Most of which were good, all of which taught me something, none of which blew me away.

One Whole Word

[...out of blog slumber..]

Tullian Tchividjian has recently posted on "The Pastoral Practicality Of Law-Gospel Theology". I'd encourage you to read it. He describes really helpfully how his (Lutheran) Law-Gospel theology gave him the resources to preach into a horrible pastoral situation of adultery. However, in doing so he used what I think is a really unhelpful bit of Lutheran terminology. He says:

I emphasized and explained to our church was that we are not a one word community (law or gospel) but a two word community (law then gospel).

Surely we know that there is but one Word of God - Jesus Christ revealed in the Bible by the Holy Spirit. However, that word is a sentence. Not two separate words, but a coherent whole that is structured "law BUT Gospel". Or as Paul puts it, "through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law" (Romans 3:20-21).

If there were two words, then "the Law" would be the word of God on its own. But, if "the Law" is just part of the word of God, then if you are just preaching "the Law" then you are not preaching the Word of God at all.

So lets have the whole counsel/word of God... lets have Jesus, crucified and risen for us. No mere 'commands and promises', but the one mediator Jesus who comes to us as a command and a promise.

Alec Baldwin's disturbing god complex

What an amazing scene.

CS Lewis on writing

Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the thing you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us a thing was “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers, “Please will you do my job for me.”

A thought on submission and prayer

If I still have any readers I thought I'd throw this one out for feedback/thoughts...

What does the submission of a wife to her husband taught by Ephesians 5 look like?

Prayer as we find it in the Bible is where I most often go to think about what it means to be human. And isn't Ephesians 5 just encouraging the wife to be truly human in her relationship to her husband? So how about prayer for a perfect illustration of submission in marriage?

• Active
• Specific requests
• Arguing/wrestling/resisting/pleading
• Holding to promises
• Respectful
• Ready to say 'thy will be done' because I trust you, but not before a fight!

I love PT Forsyth on prayer:

We say too soon, “Thy will be done”; and too ready acceptance of a situation as His will often means feebleness or sloth. It may be His will that we surmount His will. It may be His higher will that we resist His lower. Prayer is an act of will much more than of sentiment, and its triumph is more than acquiescence. Let us submit when we must, but let us keep the submission in reserve rather than in action, as a ground tone rather than the sole effort. Prayer with us has largely ceased to be wrestling. But is that not the dominant scriptural idea? It is not the sole idea, but is it not the dominant? [...]

I would refer also not only to the parable of the unjust judge, but to the incident of the Syrophenician woman, where her wit, faith, and importunity together did actually change our Lord’s intention and break His custom. Then there is Paul beseeching the Lord thrice for a boon; and urging us to be instant, insistent, continual in prayer. We have Jacob wrestling. We have Abraham pleading, yea, haggling, with God for Sodom. We have Moses interceding for Israel and asking God to blot his name out of the book of life, if that were needful to save Israel. We have Job facing God, withstanding Him, almost bearding Him, and extracting revelation. And we have Christ’s own struggle with the Father in Gethsemane.

[NB where Forsyth uses the word 'submit' I take it that he means something different to what Paul does in Ephesians 5. Elsewhere in the chapter Forsyth explicitly equates it with 'resignation' and 'quietism', thoughts which would not have crossed Paul's mind.]

Greeted them from afar

"These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar" (Heb 11:13)

What a great image (... and not just the still from Lawrence of Arabia)!

I think that helps with progressive revelation. They didn't trust the shadows, but the person of Christ who was to come. Nevertheless, he hadn't arrived and they couldn't see him as clearly as we can. Also, on an emotional level, "greeting from afar" implies they were full of joy to see Jesus on the horizon and welcomed him.

Because it is true

"The Christian faith is not true because it works; it works because it is true. It is not true because we experience it; we experience it - deeply and gloriously - because it is true. It is not simply "true for us"; it is true for any who seek in order to find"

(p.79, Os Guiness, Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype, and Spin [Thanks to Ed Shaw])

Paul Miller on one use of 'the law'

We don't know how bad we are until we try to be good.

(p.31, Paul E. Miller, A Praying Life)

Paul Miller talks about this in relation to prayer. Mark Galli talks about it in his excellent article "Giving Up Self-Discipline for Lent". Its one of the uses of 'the law' at the end of the day, in whatever form 'the law' comes to us.

Kierkegaard on tilting at windmills

People try to persuade us that the objections against Christianity spring from doubt. The objections against Christianity spring from insubordination, the dislike of obedience, rebellion against all authority. As a result people have hitherto been beating the air in their struggle against objections, because they have fought intellectually with doubt instead of fighting morally with rebellion.

(Soron Kierkegaard cited in Stephen Williams, Revelation and Reconciliation)

Of course the objections spring not just insubordination, but distrust, disordered loves etc. But, intellectual doubt is certainly not the wellspring.

A heart for God

In one of my all time favourite talks, Tim Saleska tells the story of his room-mate at college. His room-mate was engaged, but his fiancée broke up from him leaving him totally devastated.

The room-mate tried everything he could to win the girl he loved back. He probably gave her space, bombarded her with love letters, sent gifts, drove across the country to tell her all he felt for her, guilt-tripped her, even threatened. Nothing worked.

As Tim Saleska said, you cannot do anything to make someone love. It's something beyond the control of Aladdin's Genie and it's certainly beyond me. I cannot even make myself love something. There's a reason its called "falling in love" and why we talk about being "captivated"... its something beyond our control.

So, we cannot persuade our friends, family, colleagues and strangers to love Christ. We cannot threaten them enough with the consequences of not loving him, or present him as so attractive that he is irresistible. Their hearts are not won to Christ. The Father sets his love upon them and through the Word and by his Spirit gives them a heart transplant - killing the old heart and giving them a new one that beats for him.

The Bible is basically about...

Is the Bible basically about us or about Jesus?

Perhaps both, but in different ways.

Jesus is the subject of the Bible, and we are the object.

"Here is a trustworthy saying..'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'--and I am the worst of them all." (NLT)

As Philip Cary summarises Luther's teaching on the Gospel, the Bible is:

• A story
• about Christ
• for us

Three branches of salvation

I have heard it said that there are three main branches of philosophy are metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics (logic could be fourth, and no doubt others could be added). The Gospel is the news of our salvation in all three branches:

• We are saved from the destruction of our being and reality which is death and hell to become like God.
• We are saved from and ignorance of God to knowing him.
• We are saved from our sins to righteousness.

I wonder if Western Christianity (particularly post-Augustine) should be characterised as mainly dealing with salvation in the realm of ethics, much modern Christianity (in response to atheism and agnosticism) in the realm of epistemology, and Eastern Christianity being the only one that is that concerned with being in its doctrine of deification.

I can several of many Bible passages which deal with salvation in the three different ways and often they are closely linked. But, is there one branch which has priority as the one which leads to either curse or blessing in the others?

What about logic and aesthetics though?

Creation ethics

Listening to: Vivaldi: Magnificat

I used to think that it was best not to ask individuals or society to obey a 'Christian ethic' until they became Christians. This was borne out of a concern that we give the impression that you are Christian by living an ethical life.

But, I now think the problem was the idea of a 'Christian ethic' at all. Isn't it really a 'Creation ethic' written into our very beings as people made in the image of God? In which case, you're not giving anyone the impression that they are Christian by being ethical. They're just being human.

Falling over and over again

This is probably obvious to most. But, there are at least two Falls in Genesis. Adam and Eve, and Cain.

In both the LORD asks where people are (3:9; 4:9)

In both the LORD asks what people have done (3:13; 4:10)

In both there is a curse on the relationship of people with the ground (3:17; 4:11)

In both people are driven from the presence of God (3:24; 4:14)

In both people end up heading east from Eden (3:24; 4:16)

In both God provides a mark/covering for those he has driven out (3:21; 4:15)

At the end of both a new child is born to Eve (4:1; 4:25)

...history will only continue to repeat itself until the promised Seed is born.

The story of Noah in brief

Listening to: St Matthew Passion: JS Bach (Leonhardt)

"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth" (Gen 6:5)

The LORD said "I have seen that you [Noah] are righteous before me", so the LORD saved him, his household and all those animals he takes with him (Gen 7:1)

"the waters prevailed...but God remembered Noah...and God made a wind [or 'Spirit'] blow" (Gen 7:24f)

"The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma" of Noah's sacrifice and made a covenant never to curse the ground again and to bless Noah and his sons (Gen 8:20ff).

God gave the sign of the rainbow so that when Noah was no longer around he would "see it and remember the everlasting covenant"

Fulfilled in the righteous man who drowned in God's wrath, was remembered by the Father, was saved by the Spirit, made an pleasing sacrifice to the Father who then gave us the sign of baptism which he sees and remembers the covenant he made with his Son.

... or something like that.

Getting real

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets." (Matthew 23:29-31)

The Pharisees witness against themselves by not admitting they were sons of Ahab and would have sought to murder Elijah just as much as he did. They are lying to themselves and acting out a part to everyone else (the root meaning of hypocrites). Their way out of woe and into blessing is through reality - not fantasy stories. And its the same for us. We can be honest and confess that we find Jeremiah and Ezekiel very weird and scary. We can confess that we would have dismissed Jonah as a religious nutcase.

We only condemn ourselves by our own words and we should do just that. We cannot justify ourselves (that is declare ourselves just), because it is "God who justifies". And praise God that in Jesus he does just that!

The words of Jesus on the cross - "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" - belong to those who crucified Christ, and those like us who would have done the same.

Fear of the Lord

'"Fear" in the Bible means to be overwhelmed' (p.68, Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage)

Why have I not heard that before?!

I've struggled to work out what fear of the Lord looks like. The Bible makes clear that it is not simply being scared which is too negative, but neither is it simply reverence which is too safe. Overwhelmed/overcome seems to capture it well.

Why Jesus died

"And he died for us all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Cor 5:15)

Jesus died to save us from self-centredness to Jesus-centredness.

Probably not new to you, but struck me afresh yesterday.

The Trinity in the wild weather

When Jesus Christ went to the cross, he was simply acting in character. As C. S. Lewis, wrote, when Jesus sacrificed himself for us, he did "in the wild weather of his outlying provinces" that which from all eternity "he had done at home in glory and gladness."

(p. 59, Tim Keller quoting CS Lewis who was quoting George MacDonald, The Meaning of Marriage)

The gospel is this: Truth and love

The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope. This is the only kind of relationship that will really transform us. Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it. God’s saving love in Christ, however, is marked by both radical truthfulness about who we are and yet also radical, unconditional commitment to us.

(p. 48, Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage)

Self-control and lent

John Piper reminded me powerfully of the stress the NT puts on self-control.

[Self-control] is so essential in Christian living that Paul made it part of his one-time sermon to Felix (“he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment,” Acts 24:25); he made it part of the fruit of the Spirit (“faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,” Galatians 5:23); he made it part of the qualifications for overseers (“self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined,” Titus 1:8).

...It’s the sort of thing that athletes do. “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things” (1 Corinthians 9:25). Paul had very little trust in the desires his body threw at him daily: “I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27). That’s an innocuous translation. Literally: “I give my body a black eye (hupopiazō) and make it a slave (doulagōgō).”

...Is this Christian Hedonism? Yes. Why does Paul live like a self-disciplined athlete? Simple: Greater joy. “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Corinthians 9:25).

I've been thinking about self-control a lot recently because I feel I have very little. It's all over the Bible and nowhere in our culture. But, how do we hold self-control together with grace?

I have quite a few thoughts, but find Martin Luther helpful (as so often). He was quite strong on the importance of fasting and self-discipline (at least in the early days - his later girth suggests things changed). But, he placed it firmly within the doctrine of two kinds of righteousness. Disciplines such as fasting that build self-control have no effect on our righteousness coram deo because only God's creative Word can change our hearts. However, they have benefit for our neighbour (coram mundo) if they train us in righteous acts of giving, patience, etc.

My lack of self-control is a destructive force in my life and in other people. I want to control my selfish desires, and fasting in lent maybe a way to do that. But God already sees me as his Son who was so in control of his selfish desires that he refused the devil's invitation to bread in the desert and died on a tree because he was a Christian Hedonist who found his joy set before him in the redemption of a people and the pleasure of his Father.

Nothing but the Father's greatest desires

When our prayers are ascend to the Father through the intercession of the Son, the intercession of the Son represents nothing but the Father’s greatest desires in the first place, so guarantees the beautiful success of the Son’s prayers.

(Carl Trueman, 26:00, The Trinity and Preaching: Talk 1)

Pensive, doubting, fearful heart

Pensive, doubting, fearful heart,
Hear what CHRIST the Saviour says;
Every word should joy impart,
Change thy mourning into praise:
Yes, he speaks, and speaks to thee,
May he help thee to believe!
Then thou presently wilt see,
Thou hast little cause to grieve.

“Fear thou not, nor be ashamed,
All thy sorrows soon shall end
I who heav’n and earth have framed,
Am thy husband and thy friend
I the High and Holy One,
Israel’s GOD by all adored;
As thy Savior will be known,
Thy Redeemer and thy Lord.

For a moment I withdrew,
And thy heart was filled with pain;
But my mercies I’ll renew,
Thou shalt soon rejoice again:
Though I scorn to hide my face,
Very soon my wrath shall cease;
‘Tis but for a moment’s space,
Ending in eternal peace.

When my peaceful bow appears
Painted on the wat’ry cloud;
‘Tis to dissipate thy fears,
Lest the earth should be o’erflowed:
‘Tis an emblem too of grace,
Of my cov’nant love a sign;
Though the mountains leave their place,
Thou shalt be for ever mine.

Though afflicted, tempest-tossed,
Comfortless awhile thou art,
Do not think thou canst be lost,
Thou art graven on my heart
All thy walls I will repair,
Thou shalt be rebuilt anew;
And in thee it shall appear,
What a God of love can do.

(John Newton, HT Cat)

John Newton: not just an amazing grace.

Tom Smail (1928-2012)

I was sad to read of Tom Smail's death. I've only read a little of what he has written, but he had found a soft spot in my heart.

Some random fragments:

• Devoted most of his writing to the doctrine of the Trinity before it was fashionable.
• In the broad Reformed stream
• Anglican, with a refreshing unsentimental Englishness
• Leading theologian in the Charismatic Renewal, but often mildly critical from within.
• "If only he didn’t write so clearly then perhaps he might be taken more seriously as a theologian" (Jason Goroncy)

The Bible is all about ...

David, Goliath and Jesus

Jesus is the greater David, who defeated the enemies of God, even though he was weak.

Jesus is the greater Goliath, who represented not just one nation opposed to God but the whole world and was brutally killed by the power of God.

David, Goliath and me

In Jesus, though weak, I am more than a conqueror over all that seeks to enslave and kill me.

In Jesus my old self is put to death never to rise again.

In Jesus, the true Israel, I find myself on the sidelines watching my hero kill my greatest fear.

PS our church youth group enjoyed this video the other day.

Questions about theologies of the cross

If God's glory, sovereignty and power is Jesus' death, then:

1. Why did the Father bother raising Jesus from the dead? and
2. Is God fundamentally unhappy?

Would it be better to say that God's glory, sovereignty and power are found "in" and "through" Jesus' death?

Some things that have caught my eye

In place of my normal blogging, here is some wonderful stuff to get your teeth into.

• God who Writes Like Dostoevsky by Fred Sanders

Dostoevsky peoples his novels with “characters that speak in their own voices, not merely as mouthpieces for their author.” Zosima speaks his own point of view, which may be right or wrong; Ivan Karamazov argues the devil’s point of view so forcefully that the author seems helpless to silence him. If Dostoevsky were a director of a war movie, one gets the sense he would equip the actors with live ammunition. “What Dostoevsky projects into the world of his works is not a finished plot but unfinished voice ideas.” (p. 330) [incidentally, in my more heretical moments I have pondered whether God writes like Kierkegaard... ask me about it sometime]

• "I hear the words of love2 by Horatius Bonar

I change, He changes not,
The Christ can never die;
His love, not mine, the resting-place,
His truth, not mine, the tie.

• The Secularization of Justification: An Interview with Bishop C. Fitzsimmons-Allison

logizomai [imputation], is logos - in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. And it's the verb form of logos. And it's not merely that by his action Jesus Christ has made it possible for us to have mercy, but that it's because of what the Logos did - it was the verb, the action of the Logos. I am imputed as righteous even though I am not righteous, and by that wording of me as righteous, I begin to become that kind of righteousness that we see in the second person of the Trinity.

• Global Abortion Rates by the Economist

• Posts on Rowan Williams by Jason Daniels and Chris Green on Per Crucem ad Lucem

the Archbishop’s theological reflections sound quasi-masochistic. For example, he returns again and again in his work to the idea that the ‘inner readiness to come to judgment’ (OCT, p. 32) is the mark of the true disciple... I would argue, however, that it belongs to a complex of other readinesses that together constitute the form of faithfulness. In other words, openness to judgment is genuinely Christian only insofar as it is wedded to the humble audacity—to take up the S. Bulgakov’s idiom—also to receive blessings and to offer judgments in Christ’s name.

• The Problem with Christus Victor by Mark Galli

Both [Penal Substitution and Christus Victor] actually include dimensions of personal guilt and victimhood, but as I listen to the discussion today, it seems that Christus Victor highlights our state as victims. Substitutionary atonement focuses on our guilt. In Christus Victor, we are liberated from hostile powers out there. In substitution, we are forgiven, and liberation is from ourselves and our addiction to our sin. Naturally, both models speak to truths of the human condition! And both have nuances worth exploring. But I'm concerned at the rising popularity of Christus Victor when it comes at the expense of substitution.

I've also been think a lot about Luke 7:47:

Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.

If I want to love God more the answer is not to dwell on his essence, but on his action. I say that not because his essence is not essentially important (intentional pun ;-)), but because the way to his essence is his action.

"to know Christ means to know his benefits, and not as they teach to reflect upon his natures" (p. 21f, Philip Melanchthon, Loci Communes 1521 in Melanchthon and Bucer)