Without Excuse...

Anyone who’s read this blog for a while knows that I get certain thoughts in my head that roll around for some period of time as they mature. Often the writing helps me to think things through more thoroughly and solidify them in my mind. I really do think this is a process of God renewing my mind. I just take you guys along for the ride.

Of course the latest thing that I am thinking through is this idea of ‘God Preached’ versus ‘the God not preached’ (again, see this post). I was mulling over Romans chapter one where Paul goes into his dissertation about how the wrath of God is being revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of those who suppress the truth. I have often heard it said from the pulpit that men are without excuse for not believing God because, as Paul says, the invisible attributes of God have been clearly shown in the creation (v. 20). “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (v. 21 ESV).

Paul states (as is true) that God is self-evident. He goes so far as to state that men ‘knew God’ through the evidence of the creation. I, for one, think Paul was right. All men ‘know God’, though they may deny it (Paul says “by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” in v.18). And all men by nature refuse to honor Him as God. But why? This is where the idea of ‘God not preached’ begins to take shape. The creation reveals the invisible attributes of God – his eternal power and divine nature. Humankind is neither eternally powerful nor divine in nature, so our only response to this ‘God not preached’ is denial or abject fear. Most generally we choose to suppress this truth by our unrighteousness – denial.

Now this puts a bit of a different spin on things. While God reveals himself plainly to all men in the evidence of the creation so that His existence cannot truly be denied, men actually have a very good excuse for denying Him honor. There is nothing really embraceable in the part of God that nature reveals - floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, fires – this planet which God has created seems to be bent on killing us at every turn. Nature speaks of a huge, incomprehensible God. God the tyrant. You will hear it said of the God not preached, “I could never believe in a God who would create hell.” “I could never believe in a God who could treat humankind with such cruelty.” “I could never believe in a God who would let my child die.”

Now I read verses 18-32 and I do not see Paul as speaking in anger. He is merely making a statement of fact. Mankind will deny this God whom they cannot comprehend. Because they refuse to honor Him He gives them over completely to their human nature. Paul expresses not anger, but empathy. These people are trapped under the cloud of a God not preached.

In chapters 2 and 3 things go from bad to worse as the law gets heaped on top of that. Starting with a naturally revealed God who is incomprehensible and frightful, we then experience a God whose commandments we cannot keep, who declares every last one of us as unrighteous. When we are confronted with this we again have two courses of action; abject fear or absolute denial. We become painted into a corner by God revealed in nature and God revealed in Law.  

At the end of chapter 3 dawns God preached: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” (v. 21 ESV)

If we get this, we can understand Paul’s theology so much more clearly. We understand why he would declare “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16) We can understand this passage from Romans 10:

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:14-17 ESV)

In Paul’s theology, men committing shameless acts with other men was not something to be railed against because God having given these up to the lusts of their hearts (Romans 1:24) was clear evidence that they did not yet know the preached God. They were denying and hiding from the God not preached, as anyone in their right mind would do, and in so doing were burrowing deeper into darkness. This is not to say that everyone to whom the gospel is preached will respond, but to say that no one will respond to the God not preached. It makes preaching the pinnacle of Christian faith because all theology leads us to preach. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16 ESV)

The target audience for this blog is Christians, so I always like to bring it around to something applicable to the Christian life. Here’s the application: the only reason that you acknowledge and accept the God not preached is that you have heard the preached God. Do not think that you have a natural inclination toward faith because that will lead you to become complacent (see Romans 10:17 above if you've forgotten where faith comes from). Don’t spend vast amounts of time pondering the God not preached because He is still scary. There are things which are above your pay grade which can drive you away from faith. Keep hearing the preached God for there, and nowhere else, is your salvation. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless

The Parable of the Sower: The Soil of Discipleship

“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 8:5-8 ESV)

Reading the parable of the sower yesterday, I was stuck anew by the explanation that Jesus gives his disciples. Let me take this verse by verse.

Verses 9 & 10: And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ (Luke 8:9-10 ESV)

As has been mentioned in the past, Jesus was not using simple illustrations to help people understand the truths of the Kingdom. The parables were intentionally meant to obfuscate the truth so that those who ‘did not have ears’, presumably the God-given ability to understand, could not grasp the things he said. The idea that he was telling these stories as a means of allowing his hearers to grasp deep truth through human reasoning is preposterous. Anyone who has read the gospels may well testify that the parables are often some of the most confusing and seemingly irrational parts of the New Testament.

Verse 11: “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.” (Luke 8:11 ESV)

We must analyze what ‘word’ of God he is talking about. Is it the law? Since his hearers had the law and it was clearly not leading them to live the fruitful life he describes, he must be speaking of the gospel. The gospel is the seed that bears fruit in the life of his hearers. We must be careful which seed we are choosing to plant. The law reveals the God not preached (see this post) which does not bring people to the Kingdom of heaven. The law is meant to prepare a person to receive the good news, but it is not the seed that produces salvation.

Verse 12: “The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.” (Luke 8:12 ESV)

This verse certainly lends credence to the Lutheran view of preaching. If, as Paul states in Romans 1:16, the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, then the gospel must be preached for people to believe. The seed must be scattered. Luther believed that God’s election occurred by the act of sending a preacher to preach the good news. If Jesus is right (and he is Jesus after all) then in the process of this elective preaching the devil may interfere and steal the word before it can reach the hearer’s heart. It is important to note that these have still ‘heard’ but cannot respond because of the interference of the enemy.

Verse 13: “And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.” (Luke 8:13 ESV)

Here we have a group of people who receive this good news with joy, but do not to sink roots into it. Somehow we forget that the new believer needs to hear this good news over and over again. If he doesn’t, there is nothing into which he can sink his roots. If we try to teach new believers about obeying laws and rules and commands, we place them on an impenetrable rock where they cannot become rooted in Christ. When they are tested, they simply fall away.

Verse 14: “And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.” (Luke 8:14 ESV)

These may outlast the ones planted on the rock, but they end up fruitless for the same reason. After receiving salvation they do not continue to seek out the good news. Rather than finding their joy, acceptance, security and identity in Christ (as they undoubtedly did at first) they begin to look to the things of the world. They are swallowed up by idolatry, not having continued in the good news.

Verse 15: “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” (Luke 8:15 ESV)

These in the good soil, as with all the others, hear the good news. The difference is that they hold it fast. This does not necessarily mean ‘doing it’ but continuing to keep it in their hearts and minds. That the term hold the word fast (or keep the word) does not indicate that they keep it in the sense of a commandment is clear because the ‘doing’ part of the relationship is identified as bringing forth fruit. Fruit is that which is born of a seed. Since the gospel is not a demand, it cannot be ‘kept’ in the traditional sense of a commandment. But to be a healthy Christian you must hold it fast, continually seeking out the good news so that you may hear it.

Verse 16: “No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.” (Luke 8:16 ESV)

Often interpreted as it is in the children’s song “This little light of mine”, I think this verse has far deeper meaning. In the case of the rocky and thorny soil hearers, the lamp was initially lit and shining brightly. But they did not keep that lamp trimmed. They covered it up with rules, regulations and ‘Spirit-led’ living to the point that it got snuffed out. To hold fast to the word is to continually trim the lamp wick and keep it shining brightly.

Verse 17: “For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” (Luke 8:17 ESV)

If we fail to keep the lamp trimmed, it begins to grow dark. We recede easily into the darkness when the light is not burning bright. But when the light of the good news is burning brightly in us, it will reveal the hidden things in our hearts and allow us to come boldly before God without fear of condemnation to deal with them. Remember that in John 3 Jesus said, “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (vs.19-21) To know the gospel is to know Jesus. Jesus is the light of the world. Any time we begin to avoid the light (and we do love the darkness so) we are in danger of becoming rocky or thorny soil hearers.

Verse 18: “Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.” (Luke 8:18 ESV)

If we are not careful to continue hearing the good news, the light will be taken from us. If we listen to the word of God as law, the light grows dimmer. But when we seek out the word of grace it will build on itself, continually increasing the light which drives out our darkness.

Finally, it is not that each person is actually in a different type of spiritual soil, so to speak. Perhaps the local church is the soil. Every seed has the potential to be the seed planted in the good soil. We are the soil to the believers around us. If we are rocky, laying down the law, they will fall away. If we are worldly, seeking our security in the law or the pride of life or possessions, they will fall away. We are not only responsible for sowing the good seed, but we are the soil into which that seed is sown. May we be good soil watered with the good news of the gospel.

The Joy of Dying

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:19-20 ESV

How absolutely critical is it to understand what Paul is saying to the Galatians? There can be no Christian life without death, and there can be no death except through the law. Spiritual death is absolutely necessary if we are to live to God.

The law is awesome in its power to decimate our reliance on the nature of Adam. It kills us by finally showing us that there is nothing we can do in the old nature to please or satisfy God’s wrath. It proves to us that all of our doing, trying, learning, and struggling against God are pointless. These things cannot turn away the condemnation and wrath of the law. The law brings us to the utterly bleak realization that every road leads to the death of ourselves; either death by law or the death of Christ who redeemed us from the law. When the law does its proper work, all trust in the old nature of Adam is finally brought to death.

Ultimately, this must lead to the death of our dream of free will. We are prisoners of the law until death. We do not choose to die (we never will) but by the grace of God the law shows us that we are already dead. Dead men can do nothing, good or bad, to change their destiny. It is the divine intervention of God that awakens us to the fact that we are dead in our trespasses and sins under the law and brings us to a state of despair in our own ability to save ourselves. It is this final agreement with God that we call repentance – the moment when we recognize that we can do nothing to change our lot. All of our self-salvation projects come to an end and we begin searching desperately for a Savior. That is death to ‘a righteousness of our own.’ (Phil. 3:9)

Without all of this the good news is mediocre at best. Many people hear the gospel as being something of some value that they can add to an already decent life. They just tack the teachings of Christ onto the old Adamic nature and call it good. There is no death in a ‘decision for Christ.’ There is merely the exercise of the law-bound will to improve one’s old Adam. This leads to all kinds of misery because we become, in effect, spiritual zombies; half dead and half alive. We have been awakened just enough to the law that it makes us miserable by its constant condemnation, but not enough that it kills the old nature and forces us to the resurrection.

The ultimate goal of the law is to put us to death that we might live to Christ; so that we can say, with Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” This is the glorious good news of God. You were dead in trespasses and sins with no hope of redeeming yourself. The law had imprisoned your entire being – mind, body, will – under sin. Without even realizing it, you had no hope at all. When you became aware of this, you despaired to death. And at that moment you became aware – to your great joy – that God had provided a redeemer! When the law brought the revelation of the very real mortality of your old nature, you shook free the bonds of death and were resurrected with Christ!

Or were you? I would be willing to bet that most have never thought very deeply about dying to the law. When we tack the teachings of Jesus onto the law and mingle them together as if they were a road map to guide the old Adam, we have not yet died to the law. And we are not yet living to Christ. Take a long hard look at the law. If you are honest in evaluating yourself against its demands, it will show you whether you are in Adam or in Christ. If you still want to argue and bargain with the law – toeing the line – then Adam is alive and well within you. If you can respond to the law as a dead man would, knowing that it cannot condemn you because your righteousness does not depend on law, then you have truly died to the law. For through the law you died to the law, so that you might live to God. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless.

God Preached and God Not Preached

I have been reading Gerhard Forde’s book “Theology is for Proclamation”. Essentially, he makes the case that the point of good theology is good preaching. Theology has value only if it can be brought to the here and now in the form of the proclamation of the gospel to ourselves and others. Otherwise it is merely history or data which has no bearing on the present day.

Within the book he discusses one of the ideas of Martin Luther which I have been exposed to but never really understood; the idea of the preached God and the not preached God. They are the same God, but revealed in two different ways. The God not preached is the abstract God of omnipresence, omnipotence, having control of all things. He is the electing God, the predestining God, creating God, a God of mystery and awe and judgment whom humankind naturally fears, despises, misunderstands and rejects. I think of the words of God from Isaiah; my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways (55:8). The natural man is not capable of comprehending the terrifying God not preached.

This is a good part of the reason why we cannot be saved through being taught about God. The more we learn about God (theology) the more inconceivable and horrific the God not preached becomes. It is only the preached God – the one who sent his son as a sacrifice for our sins – that we can intimately comprehend. The preached God is no God of history but a God of the present; one who breaks through our fear and hostility toward the God not preached with the comforting good news. Understanding the preached God, we can accept the God not preached without having to have every question answered. The preached God makes us secure despite the fact that we know that the God not preached is a reality.

I have seen people start down the correct road to intimately knowing the preached God and then get totally sidetracked by theology as they try to wrap their minds around the God not preached. They become bitter deniers of the truth of scripture because the God not preached, as revealed by the scripture, will not fit into their box. Eventually, we can get to a point where we will not accept the truth of the preached God – that He sent his son to meet all of the conditions of the law on our behalf – because we have focused too intently on the God not preached. Knowledge of this God not preached puffs us up, but love of the preached God builds us up in our faith.

This is another reason why a preacher is so important to us. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (Romans 10:14 ESV) Why does Paul not say “how are they to hear without someone instructing?” Because preaching is not instruction; true preaching is sharing good news. True preaching reaches beyond the human reasoning that defends against the God not preached and introduces the hearer to the preached God - a God in whom he can finally trust – and creates faith. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless