I was blessed, over the years, to teach a number of the Great Works courses at Reformation Bible College. It is my contention that we ought to cover the great books of western civilization not so we can prepare students to join in what some call the “great conversation” that back and forth over the centuries that seeks to answer the most foundational questions of our nature, purpose and end. Instead I sought to prepare them for the “great confrontation.” I teach in light of the antithesis, the battle between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent that began in Eden and ends with the end of history. I want my students to understand the culture they are living in, the ideological water they are swimming in, so that they might both guard their hearts and press the crown rights of King Jesus.
One of the best shortcuts to understanding a given culture is to ask this question- in this culture, what does a man have to be or to do to be considered a hero? Such tells us a great deal. In ancient Greece you became a hero by courage and victory in battle. During the Renaissance you became a hero by dint of deep and wide study. In our day you become a hero by becoming the best in your field. Fame doesn’t hurt either.
The high virtues of the Christian hero, by contrast, have precious little to do with accomplishment. Indeed I would argue that the first and highest standard of the Christian hero is a passion for repentance. The hero is the one who knows from top to bottom that he is not a hero. The hero moves through his days not only aware of his moral failures, but of his dependence on the grace of God in all its manifestations. He must know, increasingly, how weak and needy He is.
Second, the Christian, or the true hero is about the business not of making a name for himself, but of lifting others up and magnifying the name of Christ. Which is why real heroes are so hard to find.
Third, the Christian hero forgives. It is likely much less difficult to do a good deed for another than it is to forgive an evil deed done to us. The former flows easily from a high view of the self- I can do this giving thing for you, because I have so much to give.” The latter flows more from a low view of the self- “ I can forgive this wrong done to me because I know my need for forgiveness for the wrongs I’ve done to others.”
The temptation that began in the garden has not yet left us. We are always eager to become more than we are. The solution then and now is the same, to recognize our need for the work of the one true hero, Jesus. May we learn to imitate those who imitate Him.
Thesis 32- We must teach our children the things of God.
It is true enough that all truth is God’s truth. When we affirm this we are affirming that we have not left God when we explore any truth, wherever it may be found. To study history or engineering is not somehow less spiritual than studying the Bible or theology. But there is a corollary we tend to miss. No truth is separate from God. That is, while we are not leaving God when studying “secular” truths, we are leaving truth when we study these truths separately from God. That all truth is God’s truth means that nothing, in the end, can be rightly understood outside of God. There is no body of knowledge out there that God loosely holds title too, but that we can understand apart from Him.
Moses understood this well. As he prepares to say goodbye to the people he ministered to for decades, as he delivers his farewell sermon, he impresses upon the people this simple truth, “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7). Not only is all truth only in context when understood in relationship to the glory of God, but so is all teaching of this truth done in the context of life. We are to talk of these things with our children all day every day. We do not add “religious” instruction to the “secular” education they receive during the week. Instead it must be a part of the warp and woof of our lives.
For too long we have taught our children that they could understand the world without Jesus. We have taught them the decidedly diabolical “truth” that some truths were “neutral.” We have taught them, by our actions, that God is something we take into account on Sundays, and perhaps on Wednesday nights. We have taught them how to be idolaters.
One of the great blessings of speaking of these things with our children when they lie down and when they rise us, is that it helps us remember these things when we lie down and when we rise up. We need to teach our children to seek to see the world as God sees the world so that we will better see the world as God sees the world. When we teach our children that all truth is God’s truth, we are better able to see all truth as God’s truth.
An education that leaves God out of the picture cannot be fixed by drawing Him back in later. An education that leaves God out of the picture is not only an abomination to God, but is a lie to our children.
It was just four years ago today as I write that I first put in a call to my beloved wife. Up until that point every bit of communication I made with her was online, typed out, safe and at a distance. You see I was in chains. I longed for death, for the rest of the grave. I had watched Lisa walk through hardship by her living faith. Standing on the sidelines I felt I was black and white, while she carried the very vibrancy of life. It did not take me long to discern that she was a good woman. And, over time, as I felt drawn toward her I realized that she was far too good for me. That she needed a far better man than me. That I would simply drag her down. So I pushed her away.
She, however, held the keys to my chains. She refused to leave me behind. She began to help me break free, to hope, to breathe, to live. Until, on Independence Day we scheduled our first live conversation. I called, and…. there was no answer. To her credit, she did call back. And from there she called me out, set me free. She became my safe place, my best friend, my joy, my treasure. Her loyalty is fierce, her gentleness tender.
She could have retired. She had done well. She had much to be proud of. But she isn’t through with me yet. She prays for me, encourages me, inspires me. And she makes me laugh. She has, from the day she set me free, from the moment the chains fell away, put on me the bonds of love. She has entwined me with her in a cord of three strands that is not easily broken. She has bound up my wounds and wrapped me in her embrace. The one He used to set me free is now the one He has bound me to and my independence has given way to my glorious dependence on her, the dependence I joyfully declare.
Four years later and we have walked together through countless battles. Like the Spirit of ’76 we stride side by side, walking in step with the Holy Spirit, wounded and limping. But we are together and there is music in our ears. We march on toward the prize, to the Celestial City whose builder and maker is God. Step by step.
Freedom is a wonderful thing to celebrate, to thank the living God for. But I give thanks, this day and every day for being bound. The one I am bound to and the One I am bound by, my savor and my Savior, my sister and my Brother, my Lady and my Lord, my bride and our Husband these are the ones I give thanks for, celebrate and depend on. She never lets me forget that He is good. He never lets me forget that she is His good gift to me. I am a blessed man.
Opinions are like noses, they say, everyone has one. One very common nose is that this bit of received wisdom means that we can never really know the truth. Which, of course, is a truth claim, and so contradicts itself. But perhaps one of the reasons that our post-modern culture has a tendency to embrace relativism is because we are coming out of a modernist culture that was over-confident in its capacity for knowledge. Being tired of living in a culture of know-it-alls, we have become the know-nothing culture.
The pseudo-science of psychology was perhaps most given to epistemological hubris. One pop-psychologist claimed to be able to read people’s posture, telling us in the best-selling Body Language that crossed arms are a sign of hostility, folded fingers a sign of perceived superiority. Freud claimed to be able to tell us why some folks chewed pencils, and others were overly fastidious. The sub-conscious mind, we were told, was out there in the open for all of us to read. The underground man is always coming up for air.
The truth is that we don’t always know the truth. Such should not send us scurrying into skepticism, just appropriate humility. We ought not to claim to know more than we do, especially about the motives of others. Such should make us particularly cautious about making judgements about others. That all men are wicked doesn’t mean we should ascribe the basest motives to others. Instead it should give us pause before we trust our own assessment. It also means we should beware of base motives when others are speaking well of us.
Consider Paul’s trial before Felix. The Sanhedrin has hired a mouthpiece, a lawyer named Tertullus to make the case against Paul. First Tertullus sets the stage for Felix, “We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation. Everywhere and in every way, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude. But in order not to weary you further, I would request that you be kind enough to hear us briefly” (Acts 24: 2-3). Had you been Felix what you should have heard is that you are about to hear from a manipulative lick-spittle with no interest in the truth. What Felix probably heard was a wise man, one of the few to recognize his own beneficent rule. Here both speaker and hearer are caught up in their own deceitful hearts.
Gentle Tertullus then turns his attention to the accused, “We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is the ringleader of the Nazarene sect and even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him” (verses 5-7). It may very well be that Tertullus believes that he is now speaking the truth. This may in fact be his perception of the events surrounding Paul in Jerusalem.
The distinction, however, between truth and falsehood is not grounded in the sincerity of the believer. Paul is equally sincere in his belief that he is guilty of none of these charges. The wise in our age would affirm that both are right, and that neither is right. Because people sincerely disagree, it is all a matter of perception, and no real truth exists. The wise in our age are fools. Paul went and preached the gospel. He did so with a clean conscience. His goal was that his brothers in the flesh would come to worship the Messiah for which they had been waiting. That preaching pricked the hearts of those who heard, and they in turn caused trouble, and rioted. The truth is that it was neither Paul, nor the truth that caused the trouble. Instead it was the hatred toward the truth that caused the trouble.
Had Paul not been sincere, however, he still would not stand guilty. Were there a battery of court appointed psychologists there at the trial to testify that Paul did have a titanic case of megolomania, (see, look at the way he folds his fingers, and how he signs his name with such big letters), he would still not be the cause of the riots. The only issue for Felix to decide is whether or not the message of Paul was true. If it was true, those who rejected it were to blame. If it were false, then Paul is to blame.
Sins are like the pores in our skin, everybody has a lot of them. One of the reasons that we go out in search of knowledge that we cannot possibly find, one of the reasons we seek to probe our darkest parts, is so that we can use the knowledge we think we have to trump the knowledge that is as plain as the nose on our face. If Felix can get at Paul’s motives, then we don’t have to trouble over the truth claims that he makes. And if he can avoid that, then Felix can avoid the claim of Jesus Christ on his life. We seek what we cannot know so as to hide from what we do know. At the end of the day, Tertullus’ message to Felix is one of praise and peace. And if Paul is right, Felix must repent, admit his sins, and serve another King. And so Paul remains a prisoner.
We would do well to judge better than Felix, to aspire to believe that which is true, because it is true, no matter what it says about us. We would do well if we would heed the wisdom of the true King, who told us that the truth would set us free. We must believe what we know, and leave the rest in the hands of the One who knows us.
