Ask RC- Was Jesus God’s Son before He came to earth?

Posted on June 27, 2019 by RC

Was blessed once again to be a guest on the podcast, Social Church, answering a sticky question about the trinity. Check it out.

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Ask RC- Is Christianity a religion, or a relationship?

Posted on June 26, 2019 by RC

Yes. There are, of course, all manner of things that separate the Christian faith from all other faiths. Ours is the story of God condescending to us, rather than we climbing to Him. Ours is a story grounded in history, and eyewitnesses. And most importantly of all, ours is true. If then religion means merely how man earns God’s favor, if religion is merely the myths of our fathers, if religion is but the lies men tell themselves to feel better about themselves, then of course, Christianity is no religion.

It is, however, perfectly appropriate to use the term religion as “that set of dogmas, institutions and practices by which a supreme being is submitted to and worshipped.” In this sense, of course Christianity is a religion. Our faith is not merely grounded in but subsists in historical realities. We are what we are, we do what we do, we believe what we believe, we proclaim what we proclaim precisely because a man and a woman disobeyed their Maker and plunged all their descendents into the vortex of the wrath of God, because God took on flesh and came as the New Man, and in space and time, under Pontius Pilate, lived a perfect life, died an atoning death, and walked out of His tomb three days later, alive. Forty days after that, this same Man, God in the flesh, ascended to His everlasting throne where He is now bringing all things under subjection. We are the people of the Story, the true Story.

What this aphorism, “Christianity is a relationship, not a religion,” is getting at however, is not only true, but important. That is, the Christian faith is not merely signing off on these historical events. “Yes, I believe this happened. Yes, I believe that happened.” The devil himself, along with his minions, can agree with the historical account (). They can even agree with the sound interpretation of that history. They believe Jesus died for sinners. They believe men have peace with God as they repent and trust in His finished work alone. Trouble is, they hate the truths they can affirm (much like a godly person can affirm that the New England Patriots are the current Super Bowl champions, and hate that truth). They know the religion. Their relationship is all hate.

What we are affirming when we emphasize the relationship is that we delight not just in the truths about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, but that we delight in them. What we affirm, better still, is that because of these historical truths, we have not only been forgiven, but adopted, that we have been made the very children of God. Because of these historical truths, because of His love for us from eternity, we are indwelt by the Spirit. Because of these historical truths, because of what He did, we are the very bride of Christ. Because of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts, we are together the very body of Christ. Christianity isn’t then a relationship, but a series of relationships, all grounded not in a religion, but the religion.

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Bible Study Facebook Live June 24, 2019 Love

Posted on June 25, 2019 by RC

In which we “started talking’ about love, started talking’ about sin.” Part 3 of our study on The Spirit of the Fruit, focusing on love.

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Fear and Loathing in Radio Land

Posted on June 24, 2019 by RC

The hypocrisy falls on us all. Those outside the kingdom will argue at one and the same time that the media we consume, whether violent video games, racy television programs, raunchy lyrics, that these are just entertainment, and have no significant impact on us. On the other hand, these same media gurus, when selling advertising, suddenly insist that a thirty second spot, well made and well placed will send your company into the Fortune 500. We believers, on the other hand, sometimes argue that the media we consume will inevitably turn us into monsters, and then turn around and say we are responsible for what we do.

The truth is what we consume does participate in shaping us. And the truth is that we are responsible for what we do. The two kiss when we understand that we are responsible for what we consume. We make a grievous error, however, if the only standard by which we measure what we consume is its truth quotient. You can, believe it or not, bring truth into your mind in a way that is harmful.

Take, if you will, the Christian and conservative talk radio. While I am unwilling to draw the lines of fellowship here, I do recognize that Christians, by and large, shy away from the party of death, and support political views that somehow are considered to be conservative. I could here complain that the problem is the lack of truth, that the “conservatives” are no conservatives at all. That, however, will have to await another time. Let’s presume that the Sean Hannitys, the Glenn Becks of this world are conservative, and truthful. The problem is that their underlying goal is not to steer the country to the right, but to keep you tuned in. They can do that, while being conservative and telling the truth, so long as they frame the truth in such a way to strike terror in you. Chicken Little is the power behind the “vast right-wing conspiracy.”

Conservative outlets, on the radio, television, the web, even in print, stay alive by telling us we’re all going to die tomorrow. To put it another way, they get their piece by destroying our peace. They fill our hearts with fear so that we’ll tune in tomorrow, and then joyfully sell our eyes or ears to their sponsors. Truth, even when it is being spoken, is not the end but the means, the means by which we consumers are turned into products to be consumed by advertisers. You may think Rush Limbaugh became a household name by delivering wisdom to the masses. The truth is he did so, even though he is often right, by delivering the masses to his sponsors.

Am I suggesting a boycott of conservative media? Of course not. Am I suggesting we need to tune into the mainstream media? By no means. Am I arguing that bad things are not happening in Washington? May it never be. What I am suggesting is that anxiety is not a fruit of the Spirit, peace is. I am suggesting that fear mongers all too often cast out the love that casts out all fears. I’m suggesting that we need to rest in His goodness and in His power. That doesn’t mean He won’t ordain political trials. It doesn’t mean the culture isn’t slouching beyond Gomorrah. It doesn’t mean there aren’t injustices to be condemned, and trends to be on guard against. It does mean that we can rest, that every one of our fears either will not come to pass, or, if they do, it is for our good and His glory. If they do, He calls us to count it all joy.

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Jesus Is Not My Crutch

Posted on June 22, 2019 by RC

The devil delights to mock us. When he isn’t filling us with pride, he tries filling us with shame. We are told by the serpent, often through his respectable mouthpieces, men like Marx and Freud, that religion is a superstitious reaction to forces beyond our control, an opiate. We are told that Jesus is a crutch, and that religion is for the weak. The devil wins best, however, not when we concede the point, but when we fight it. We beat our chest, and become macho for Jesus, showing ourselves again to be fools. We whip out our strength credentials, and the devil laughs. He shoves us to one side of the horse and we in response fall off the other.

Jesus isn’t a crutch for me, not because of my strength, but because of my weakness. A crutch is no help to a dead man. Jesus is more than a crutch, more than a wheelchair, more than CPR. He is life. Not only is He necessary to give my life meaning, but only in Him does meaning have life. Is He a means to help me face up to the harshness of this world? Yes indeed, but far more than that, He makes me able to face the harshness of the next world. It isn’t that He makes this world bearable, but that, because He bore my sins, He allows me to miss an unbearable eternity of anguish.

We are the fellowship of the weak, who rejoice in our weakness, for once we were fully dead. We were dead, and now we merely stumble. We are the ones who can’t face reality, the reality of His wrath. Because of Him, we won’t have to. We who once dwelled in darkness now live in light. And we who were once fools, are fools still.

When the devil accuses us, of weakness, of fear, of hypocrisy, of selfishness, let us speak with boldness that it is all true. We’re guilty as charged. But it is not true of Jesus.

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Owning My Inner Pharisee

Posted on June 21, 2019 by RC

 

There are, I suspect, two defining and inter-related qualities that make for a Pharisee. The world would have us believe that one of them is being religious, and the other being powerful. The truth is that one is the conviction that I am quite a good fellow and the other is the conviction that you are not. Religion and power have nothing to do with it. It really matters very little the standard by which you measure. That is, I am a Pharisee if I pray, “I thank You Lord that I am not like this other man. I study and obey Your law, whereas he is a terrible law-breaker.” But I am likewise a Pharisee if I pray, “I thank You Lord that I am not like this other man. I study and embrace grace, whereas he is a terrible legalist.” If I condemn my brother because of His pride, while being proud of my exemplary humility, I’m a Pharisee.

 

While these are the two defining qualities there is a third thing that always shows up when our inner Pharisee determines to come out and play- the propensity to divide the people of God. There has to be black hats and there has to be white hats in order for me to be smug in my white hat and judgmental to the black hats. We who would rightly be aghast at any attempt to divide the church on the basis of skin color are quite comfortable doing so ourselves, on purpose, by the contents of our respective libraries, the instruments, or lack thereof we have on Sunday mornings, our understanding of the 4thcommandment or what guru we listen to.

 

It is a good thing to aspire to greater godliness, right and proper to seek to grow in grace. The danger is when we think we’ve found the thing, the key, the secret to a higher Christian life, the second blessing. We have, that is, all of us who have been regenerated, who have rested in the finished work of Christ, who are indwelt by His Spirit and adopted by His Father, all that we need for a life of godliness. And so does everyone else who has those things. There aren’t two classes of Christians. We have all had our shame covered; we are all dressed in the same righteousness, a righteousness not our own. That’s the one blessing we’ve all been given, and which can never be taken away from us.

 

Humility is the cure. Remaining ever clear on our own sins, and ever opaque on the sins of others is how we remember to beat our breast and cry out, “Lord be merciful to me, a sinner.” Eating humble pie is how we starve the beast that is our inner Pharisee. Feasting on our need, met by His grace, our lack met by His provision, our sin met by His righteousness, our death met by His life is how we live our best life now, and then, and forever.

 

I’ve got my own inner Pharisee. I thank you Lord that You are not like this man.

 

 

 

 

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Honest Conversation Between 2 Sinners About the One Who Never Sinned

Posted on June 20, 2019 by RC

 

Last week I was a guest on my friend Chris Arnzen’s terrific radio program, Iron Sharpens Iron. We talked, as you might expect, about my book, Growing Up (with) RC but more important we talked about God’s grace for us in Christ. I hope you’ll give a listen, and then, give praise to our loving Father. Tune in here.

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Ask RC- What is Sonship theology?

Posted on June 19, 2019 by RC

Sonship theology is a set of biblical notions originally propagated by Jack Miller, a former missionary and pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America (former because Jack has gone on to his reward.) The ideas were first spread through a Bible study, then through a Presbyterian missions agency. The central theme, as evidenced in the title, is that we must come to understand that we are not only justified, but that we are adopted. It begins with an assumption that while our lips may affirm we are justified by faith alone, our Pelagian hearts are given to thinking that God is happy with us when we do well in our walk, unhappy with us when we do not do as well. It encourages us to enter fully into our union with Christ. Among the common slogans birthed in this movement are these- “Relax!. You’re much worse than you think.” And “Preach the gospel to yourself every day.”

So far there is nothing here that I could imagine objecting to. Indeed these themes are near and dear to my heart, central to my thinking, my teaching, my writing. I agree with Jack Miller not only that we need to understand these truths, but agree that getting our hearts around the glorious truth is a potent means to a more sanctified heart, a more God-honoring family, and a more grace infused church.

But there have been complaints. Some have accused Sonship theology of being implicitly antinomian. That is, some suggest that the notion that God is already as pleased with us as He is with His Son will remove the motive for better behavior. I find this accusation profoundly telling. I am unable to see how this accusation can stick on Sonship, but not stick on the gospel. That is, this accusation is a precise echo of what Rome said about the Reformers and the gospel they (and we) preached and defended. Though it may be apocryphal, it is said that Luther once quipped about preaching the gospel “If you are not accused of being antinomian, you are doing it wrong.”

Others have suggested that Sonship is too introspective. As you are encouraged to look for the idols of your heart, so that they might be torn down, it seems you could spend your time gazing at your navel. But do you notice how this complaint works against the former complaint? That is, how can one movement take you off the moral hook, and then also be too accusatory? And how can it be a bad thing to mortify your sins?

Finally, some accuse the movement of being a Reformed version of “higher life.” That is, like the holiness movement, Christians always face the temptation to create a two-tiered Christianity. There are those Christians over there, who haven’t had our experience, and us over here that have. We’re willing to see them in heaven, but if they want to join the elite, they need to have our experience. That higher life perspective is deadly, Gnostic and foolish. But surely that can’t mean that we can’t grow in grace and wisdom. Surely it can’t mean that we can’t encourage others to grow in grace and wisdom. Surely believing the gospel more fully, more faithfully, more biblically is a good thing. Indeed, surely believing this more fully will make us more humble, not less so.

My only complaint with the movement, as with most movements, is that it is a movement. That is, it can become THE KEY in the minds of some. It can be divisive in the minds of others. It can become a focus ironically, away from the work of Christ. These failures, however, are our failures, not a failure in the glorious gospel truth that in Christ we are made the sons of God. These failures are our failures, not a failure in the glorious gospel truth that we are forever sons, and not only can nothing tear us from our Father, but that nothing from this day forward can diminish His infinite love for us. We don’t need a movement. We do need to believe the gospel.

P.S. The very best treatment on our adoption, and the best book I’ve read in the last 20 years is Children of the Living God by the amazing Sinclair Ferguson. It can change your life.

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Bible Study Facebook Live June 17, 2019 The Works of the Flesh

Posted on June 18, 2019 by RC

This week, in part 2 of our series The Spirit of the Fruit, we considered the works of the flesh and what they tell us about ourselves, and the blessings of obedience.

 

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The Enemy’s Arsenal- Distraction

Posted on June 17, 2019 by RC

It has been my habit over the years to remind people often that the devil is introduced to us this way, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the beasts of the field” (Genesis 3:1). It is because he is crafty that we often lose sight of his craftiness. If he’s not standing in front of us offering up some forbidden desire we think he must be elsewhere, bothering someone else. The truth is his arsenal is not just potent, but varied. If one weapon disappoints him, he picks up another and tries again. I suspect if we were to seek out a second adjective to add to “crafty” it would be “persistent.” The devil has never won a single battle against his Maker- he is 0 for ever, but he keeps trying.

We likely think of distractions as more of a nuisance than a weapon. Like a fly buzzing around our eyes and ears when we’re trying to focus, they flit in and out, and annoy. Their power, however, is found less in how they frustrate us, more in how they misdirect us. The distractions I speak of are not the temptation to look at cat videos when we ought to be working. No, I’m talking about the kind of distraction that leads us to the wrong battlefield, shooting at the wrong enemy.

Consider Darwin and his clown show, evolution. If you think of evolution as some powerful combatant against biblical creation you have missed its purpose and nature. Research and development down in hell wasn’t looking for a creation replacement, but a distraction. They were less trying to entice Christians to believe it, more to entice them to invest time and energy in defeating it. It’s a Potemkin village and we are idiots to aim all our weapons there.

When we come to the creation account and see it as source material for answering Darwin we are badly missing its purpose for us. God’s Word does answer the folly of the world, but it is designed to feed us. Throwing our food at our enemies leaves us hungry and weak. We need to enter into the glory of creation, to marvel at God speaking and reality coming to pass. We need to rest in the assurance of His absolute sovereignty over all things that is irresolutely affirmed with just these four words, “In the beginning, God.” When we read about Noah’s flood, and see there principally source material for developing flood geology, we miss the reality of our sin, God’s just wrath, and His grace in rescuing Noah.

Does creation defeat Darwin? Of course. Our story is true, and theirs utter nonsense. Does the flood explain various and sundry geological realities? Of course it does. It happened, and not in a corner, but all across the globe. But God did not tell us these stories so we could beat the world in winning the Better Science prize. He gave us these stories to teach us to repent, to depend on His grace, to celebrate His glory, to rest in His loving arms. And these are the very things the devil seeks to rob from us. He need not prove evolution to do so. He just floats that lead balloon out there and we go chasing after it.

The same principle applies to every kind of distraction. Sanballat didn’t need to persuade Nehemiah that he should stop building the wall. He just needed to get him to stop building the wall to defend the wisdom and rightness of building the wall. Nehemiah didn’t fall for it, and just kept at the job God gave him to do. Distraction can come in the form of our worries and fears about our provision. It can come in the form of worrying about what others think of us.

Our calling is to follow the agenda Jesus gave us, to seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness. And to enjoy our rest as we leave the rest to Him.

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