I Wish We’d All Been Ready

Posted on June 19, 2020 by RC

It is all too easy to play the emphasis game. Here we recognize the importance of balance on a given issue, but accuse others of being unbalanced. Consider faith and works. We all agree, I trust, that it is the work of Christ alone by which we are reconciled with the Father, and our works cannot add to or subtract from His love for us. We all agree as well, I trust, that having been reconciled our calling is to live in obedience to God’s law as an expression of our love and gratitude toward Him. So far, so good. The trouble is that when we hear people beating the drum for faith alone we grow fearful they are drowning out the call to obedience. Or, when we hear people beating the drum of the call to obedience we grow fearful they are drowning out the glorious truth that our peace is secure in Christ. So we chasten the other guy for his lack of balance and praise ourselves for getting it right.

The same thing is true with respect to discerning the times. The Bible is abundantly clear that we are to watch expectantly for the return of the King. We are to discern the times, to be watchmen on the wall. Yea and amen. Central, however, to being prepared for His return is being about the business He has given us. If the Master returns to find His grapes rotting on the ground, His olive press broken down and His harvest not yet gathered the steward cannot excuse himself by saying, “I couldn’t do any of that work. I spent the whole time you were away in the watchtower keeping my eyes on the horizon waiting for you.” On the other hand, the steward would likewise fail were he so consumed with bringing in the sheaves that he wasn’t prepared to greet his master.

I wouldn’t be surprised that if Jesus were to return tomorrow He would find many of us missing Him because our eyes are squinting trying to discern the times. We’d be elbow deep in interpreting the meaning of Covid and connecting Cultural Marxism to the coming One World Government so that they’d fit into our chart of the end times that we’d miss that time was ending. In like manner I wouldn’t be surprised if many miss His return because our hands are planting trees, while our minds are laying out hundred-year plans, pressing the crown rights of King Jesus.

Balance then. We have work to do, a Great Commission to fulfill. That commission includes not just proclaiming the gospel but teaching the nations to obey whatsoever Jesus has commanded. We are called, as the bride of Christ, the last Adam, as the last Eve, to be a help suitable to Him as He brings all things under subjection. And we are to keep our lamps burning with the oil of the Spirit as we await His return.

When He returns may He find us both working and watching. He will do so if, from now until He returns, we work and we watch.

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Man in the Iron Mask, Common Nonsense and More…

Posted on June 19, 2020 by RC


Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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The Great Commission calls us to make disciples of the nations. What is a disciple?

Posted on June 18, 2020 by RC

First, a disciple is just a student. It’s neither a magic nor an unusual word, but a simple one. We rightly distinguish between the twelve before the ascension of Christ and the twelve after, referring to the former as disciples and the latter as apostles. While a disciple is a student, an apostle is a messenger, sent by and with the authority of the Master. (Which is one important reason we must never fall into that temptation of pitting Jesus’ teaching against that of the apostles. “Oh, Jesus never talked about THAT. Only Paul did” is grievous error, and a denial of the authority of Jesus.) The disciple learns what the Master says. The apostle proclaims it.

Students have teachers, as do disciples. These, teachers, are among the gifts Christ gives to the church (Ephesians 4:11-13). Disciples also, however, have curricula. Jesus calls us in the Great Commission not just to make disciples, but defines for us what our students are to be taught, “teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). A disciple, in the context of the Great Commission is one who is being taught to observe all that Christ commanded.

Who are these disciples? They are the nations. The Greek word translated nations in Matthew 28 is ethnos, from which we get our word ethnic. Some argue that Jesus is here commanding and affirming the catholicity of the church. That is, the disciples are charged to disciple men all over the planet, from every tongue and tribe. Others would argue, however, that, without excluding the call to disciple individuals from across the world, the text includes a call to disciple the “nations.” That is, we are to instruct and see to it that the institutions of the world, governments, cultures, educational institutions, that these all be taught to observe all that Christ commands.

Either way, when we divide the Great Commission, when we push apart soul winning from discipleship, when we find the latter to be beside the point, a distraction, we are failing as students of all that He commanded. Jesus is bringing all things under subjection, including every bit of ignorance and rebellion that still resides in me. Jesus is seeing to it that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.

As His students, then, we should be learning His commands. As His students we should be obeying His commands, that we teach others to obey His commands. As His students we should be learning to become teachers. As His students we should be learning to speak His Words, to become apostles, sent messengers from the One who is the Word. As His students we should eschew that lie from the serpent that doctrine divides, that a faith unsullied by study is more holy and pure than one marked by study. As His students we need to learn that He has commanded us to not just be hearers of His Word, but doers. As His students we need to hunger and thirst for His righteousness. As His students we need to seek first His kingdom.

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Sabbath Rest, God’s Holy War and Cody Winton, Hero

Posted on June 18, 2020 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Blood in the Streets

Posted on June 17, 2020 by RC

How prone we are to miss the drama. The tyranny of the urgent, the plainness of our patterns, and our propensity to look inward rather than outward all push us to find our callings, our surroundings, our own souls to be rather dull affairs. We read of the great upheavals of history and then find ourselves scraping the burnt bottoms of our casserole off the dish. We watch Hollywood make believe about invaders from Mars and then go home to balance our checkbook. We, according to Jesus, construct foolish drama by worrying about what we will eat or what we will wear, while missing the battle of eternity is going on right before our eyes.

When Jesus calls us to cease worrying about those things the heathen worry about He isn’t inviting us to heave a sigh of relief, and flop down on our hammock with a glass of lemonade. No, we put down our petty concerns, that we might take up the one vital concern, the kingdom of God.

Our Lord reigns. His kingdom knows no bounds, for all authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto Him. But there remains in His realm rebellion. There is work to do. In this country, once a haven for believers, once an errand into the wilderness, to be a city on a hill, we have once again denied the humanity of an entire class of persons- the unborn. Of course we have significant, damning racial issues. The unborn, however, are the only class of people whose murderers the police and the whole justice system labor to protect. How twisted, how distorted, has a state which God ordained to punish evildoers become when they instead use the sword God gave them to guard the grisly practitioners of this crime? How twisted, how distorted have men become, who were made to protect and defend women and children but now drag their girlfriends, wives, daughters to a killing center? How twisted, how distorted have women become, who were made to nurture their babies, but now hire assassins to kill them?

This is the battle. Here is the drama. Souls are being twisted, and slowly dragged into the very pit of hell. And babies are being burned alive, on purpose. And we, even though we have been made alive, even though we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, worry about petty things. Right now, in our own neighborhoods, persons are at stake. Every one of them, young or old, believer or not, every one of them will die. And when they die they will become fully, finally and forever one thing or another.

CS Lewis, in his classic work, The Weight of Glory, reminds us what is at stake. He reminds us what is wood, hay and stubble, and which jewels will shine evermore. And in turn, he helps us see what this means for our todays, that forever counts right now-

“It is a serious thing … to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ‘ordinary’ people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.”

We don’t seek the kingdom merely when we read our Bibles, or sing our hymns. We seek it when we love our wives, and cherish our children. We seek it when we weep and mourn for the murder of our neighbors, and when we weep and mourn for our neighbors, murderers. We seek the kingdom when we call on men to be men, and women to be women. We seek the kingdom when we welcome the least of these into our lives, into our homes, into our families.

The righteousness we seek is both ours by imputation, but it is also becoming ours in truth. We in Christ, despite all that we have to repent for, are being made into everlasting splendors. For all that we must repent for, for all that we mourn over, for all the horror of what we as a nation have become, we rejoice to know that we are citizens of another kingdom. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. We once were not a people but are now the people of God. We are those who have tasted that the Lord is good. May we then keep our conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against us as evildoers, they may see our good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

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Christ’s Exaltation, God’s Impassability and More…

Posted on June 17, 2020 by RC

Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Final Study of We Believe- Forgiveness of Sins, Resurrection and Life Everlasting

Posted on June 16, 2020 by RC

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New Theses, New Reformation

Posted on June 16, 2020 by RC

Thesis 29 We Must Lead Our Homes as Husbands and Fathers.

When God pronounced His curse upon Eve in the garden of Eden, He told her that her desire would be for her husband. Most scholars affirm that the nature of the curse here isn’t that Eve would have a desire to be with her husband, but that she would have a desire to be like her husband, to rule over him. God does not pronounce a corresponding curse on Adam, that he would desire the take the place of his wife, that he would desire to follow rather than to lead. It may be that such a curse would have been redundant. Adam, after all, rather than protecting and guarding Eve against the wiles of the serpent, followed her into rebellion. Adam went further still in relinquishing his role when, as God asks him about the fall, he replies, “It was the woman.” Instead of guarding his wife, he hides behind her leafy skirt.

From that time forward men have continued to skirt their responsibilities, to evade their calling. We have not merely failed to fight to wear the pants in our homes, we have happily handed the pants over not only to our wives, but to our children. We have not only not ruled in our homes, but have let autonomy in the door. We have embraced, at best, the theory that leadership in the home means that when husband and wife, after countless hours of discussion and prayer cannot reach agreement, then the husband must decide. I call it, “the tie goes to the husband.” We call this being sensitive. We call it servant leadership. We call it adapting to the times. We call it everything but what it is, rebellion against the living God.

Our families are a wreck, by and large, because our husbands are a wreck. They are floundering because we are not leading. We are not leading because we are cowards. We are afraid of the watching world and so cave in to its egalitarian mindset. We are afraid of our wives, and so succumb to their desire to rule. We are afraid of our children, and so leave them as orphans. We would rather lead at work, where there are clear lines of authority than lead at home, where the ultimate authority, God Himself, put us in charge.

Reformation will not come to our land until it comes to our churches. It will not come to our churches until it comes to our homes. It will not come to our homes until fathers take back their pants, and take up their mantle. We lead our families as we turn back to sola Scriptura. We are led by the Spirit breathed Word of God, rather than the spirit of the age. And we turn back to faith alone, following in the footsteps of our eternal Husband, the second Adam. We trust Him, and Him alone, walking by faith and not by sight. We will not have Reformation until we recover an understanding of the priesthood of fathers. We will not have Reformation until we recover an understanding of the prophetic call of fathers. We will not have Reformation until we recover an understanding of the kingship of fathers. We will not have Reformation until we seek once more to be Jesus in our homes, in His grace and for His glory.

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Unitarianism; Race and Sports, and “Where has your thinking changed?”

Posted on June 16, 2020 by RC


Today’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Ask RC- Do black lives matter, or do all lives matter?

Posted on June 15, 2020 by RC


Neither. I get the issue. I’ve heard the arguments on both sides. Those who are zealous to affirm that all lives matter seem to hear in “Black lives matter” that non-black lives don’t matter. They in turn seem to hear, “In order to be a decent human being you have to embrace the rhetoric and the tactics of that organization known as “Black Lives Matter.” Those who are zealous to affirm that black lives matter, on the other hand, seem to hear when others retort that “All lives matter” a denial not only that black lives matter, but a denial of the pain and fear they have experienced as a mistreated minority.

The good news is that everyone on all sides of this struggle is wrong. Black lives don’t matter, not because the lives are black, but because no lives matter. Which means all lives don’t matter. More good news- this, no lives matter- is not just true, but is a conclusion that is inescapable whether you are a Christian or an atheist.

First, the atheist. Why must the atheist conclude that no lives matter? Because matter can’t matter. If all there is is a physical universe that came to pass by random and meaningless forces then all that is is meaningless. If humans, whatever skin tone, are the result of the intersection of time, energy and chance, and will end in nothingness, from whence comes this meaning? How could we possibly matter if all we are is matter? There is, if there is no God, no moral injustice in people of one skin tone oppressing people of another, no moral injustice of some people stealing or destroying the property of other people, no moral injustice of any kind if there is no transcendent moral standard. If there is no transcendent anything, there can be no transcendent moral standard, no law we are all beholden too. There is just meaningless, individual preference.

The Christian, however, affirms such a standard. The Christian acknowledges that there is a transcendent God who has revealed to us a transcendent law, a law we are all obligated to obey. That law requires of us that we treat all men with dignity. It forbids racial vainglory. It commands equality before the law. So then why must the Christian say no lives matter? Because we are commanded to treat all men with dignity not because men have dignity in themselves, but because they have been gifted with dignity. We, all of us, have had it bestowed on us, stamped upon us. It is His image in us, the imago dei where the real value lies. His image is what matters.

And His image has been given to George Floyd. It’s been given to Derek Chauvin. It’s been given to David Dorn, Ahmaud Arbery, Greg and Travis McMichael, and to Breonna Taylor. It was given to every person killed in the midst of our civil unrest and every person killed by Covid-19. And God’s image was given to the more than 60 million unborn babies that have been legally executed in this country in less than fifty years.

Our value, our dignity is not grounded in us. Apart from His grace we are the kind of people who chase down people and shoot them, the kind of people to kneel on a man’s neck for over eight minutes, the kind of people who break into a woman’s home and shoot her. We’re the kind of people who loot and murder. We’re the kind of people who hire assassins to kill our own unborn children. Our lives don’t matter. They are, before the heavenly tribunal, forfeit from before we were born. What matters is the life of the one innocent Man who was put to death. But death could not hold Him. Apart from His perfect life, atoning death, vindicating resurrection and ongoing reign, nothing matters.

Posted in ABCs of Theology | 2 Comments