The Gospel Coalition

Gospel doctrine creates a gospel culture.  The doctrines of grace create a culture of grace, healing, revival, because Jesus himself touches us through his truths.  Without the doctrines, the culture alone is fragile.  Without the culture, the doctrines alone appear pointless.

The doctrine of regeneration creates a culture of humility (Ephesians 2:1-9).

The doctrine of justification creates a culture of inclusion (Galatians 2:11-16).

The doctrine of reconciliation creates a culture of peace (Ephesians 2:14-16).

The doctrine of sanctification creates a culture of life (Romans 6:20-23).

The doctrine of glorification creates a culture of hope (Romans 5:2).

If we want this culture to thrive, we can’t take doctrinal short cuts.  If we want this doctrine to be credible, we can’t disregard the culture.  But churches where the doctrine and culture converge bear living witness to the power of Jesus.

“And do we not often feel weak in the sense of utter unfitness for being ministers at all by reason of our own sinfulness?  Paul said of his calling to the ministry, ‘Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!’  We can say that too; yet sometimes we feel as if we would speak no more for Christ, and we should sink into silence were it not that His Word is as a fire in our bones, and we cannot refrain.  Then we think we will go away into the far west, and in some log cabin teach a few children the way of salvation, for we do not feel fit for anything higher.  Our shortcomings and our failures stare us out of countenance, and then are we painfully weak.  But this also is the highway to strength: ‘When I am weak, then am I strong.’”

C. H. Spurgeon, An All Round Ministry (Edinburgh, 1978), page 216.

“Reflecting on the American church scene, [Bonhoeffer] was fascinated that tolerance trumped truth.  His analysis was remarkably similar to the report he wrote in the summer of 1931, trying to make sense of his year at Union:

‘I now often wonder whether it is true that America is the country without a reformation.  If reformation means the God-given knowledge of the failure of all ways of building up a kingdom of God on earth, then it is probably true. . . . The voice of Lutheranism is there in America, but it is one among others; it has never been able to confront the other denominations.  There hardly ever seem to be ‘encounters’ in this great country, in which one can always avoid the other.  But where there is no encounter, where liberty is the only unifying factor, one naturally knows nothing of the community which is created through encounter.’”

Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer (Nashville, 2010), pages 338-339.

On the one hand, community is destroyed by negative scrutiny of others, relishing reasons to criticize, looking down from a superior position.  On the other hand, community is diminished by cowardly avoidance of encounter.  And, as Bonhoeffer interestingly suggests, we Americans have enough space geographically and enough options ecclesiastically that we can avoid encounter if we choose to.  But God says, “You shall reason frankly with your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:17).

It is wrong to brutalize a brother.  It is also wrong to avoid a brother.  The way of Christ is to move toward one another, especially when we are tempted to move away – to move toward one another not in attack-mode but with frank reasoning, where real community can be created – or re-created.

Serving Christ gets hard.  Harder than we expected.  Harder than we can endure.  We are tempted to think, “No way can this turn out well.  My life – the only one I have – is going to end up on the junk pile.  I must be crazy to be out here doing this, taking these risks, getting hammered with this criticism, paying this price.”

But the truth is, your life is retelling the story of Jesus in his death and resurrection.  “If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:11-12).  He died, and now he lives.  He endured, and now he reigns.  He wasn’t crazy.  And however this turns out short term for you, God will take care of you.

Remind yourself every day: You’re not crazy.

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.  2 Timothy 2:1

“First, then, there is a call to be strong.  Timothy was weak; Timothy was timid.  Yet he was called to a position of leadership in the church – and in an area in which Paul’s authority was rejected.   It is as if Paul said to him, ‘Listen Timothy, never mind what other people say, never mind what other people think, never mind what other people do; you are to be strong.  Never mind how shy you feel, never mind how weak you feel; you are to be strong.’  That is the first thing.

Second, you are to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.  If the exhortation had simply been ‘be strong,’ it would have been absurd indeed.  You might as well tell a snail to be quick or a horse to fly as to tell a weak man to be strong or a shy man to be brave.  But Paul’s calling Timothy to fortitude is a Christian and not a stoical exhortation.  Timothy was not to be strong in himself.  He was not just to grit his teeth and clench his fists and set his jaw.  No, he was, as the Greek literally means, to be strengthened with the grace that is in Christ Jesus, to find his resources for Christian service not in his own nature but in the grace of Jesus Christ.”

John Stott, Urbana 1967.  Italics original.

Grace is not an excuse for weakness; it is an endless resource for strength.

HT: Justin Taylor.

“Behold Christ lying in the lap of his young mother.  What can be sweeter than the Babe, what more lovely than the mother!  What fairer than her youth!  What more gracious than her virginity!  Look at the Child, knowing nothing.  Yet all that is belongs to him, that your conscience should not fear but take comfort in him. . . . To me there is no greater consolation given to mankind than this, that Christ became man, a child, a babe, playing in the lap and at the breasts of his most gracious mother.  Who is there whom this sight would not comfort?  Now is overcome the power of sin, death, hell, conscience, and guilt, if you come to this gurgling Babe and believe that he is come, not to judge you, but to save.”

Martin Luther, quoted in Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand (New York, 1950), pages 354-355.

“Bruchko,” he said, “my body hurts.  I hurt everywhere.”  “Shh,” I said.  “You need to be quiet.  We want you to be well.  We want you to be strong.”  He shook his head, barely moving it.  “No, Bruchko.  I’m not well and I’m not strong.  I have closed my eyes.”  His eyes did close, and he slipped off.  I stayed near him.  Later he opened his eyes again.

“Bruchko, I heard a voice like the spirits that talk when they try to kill you.”  I nodded.  “But this voice called me by my secret name, by my real name.  No one alive knows my real name, but this spirit called me by my real name.  So I called to it and said, ‘Who are you?’ and it said, ‘I am Jesus, who has walked with you on the trail.’ . . . So I told Jesus that I hurt all over, from my head to my toes.  And Jesus said that he wants me to come home.”  His breath was coming with difficulty.

“Help me, brother!” he whispered, looking at me.  “Help me!”  Then he turned his eyes away.  “But you can’t,” he said.  “I’ve been embraced by death.  I’m leaving, Bruchko.  I’m leaving.  I can’t see.  There’s only pain.  God is here, and he wants to take me on the path we couldn’t ever find on our hunts, the path that goes beyond the horizon to his home.”  Then he smiled, and his face looked for a moment like the one I knew.  “Not alone,” he said.  “Not alone.  I won’t walk it by myself.  There’s a Friend who wants to take me.  And he knows my name, my real name.”

Then his body sagged.  He clutched my hand, and his fingers gradually went limp.  I set his hand down beside his body and walked out of the home.

Bruce Olson, Bruchko (Orlando, 1995), pages 174-175.

Not either/or, either pain or God.  But both/and, both pain and God. 

So be it, for the glorious display of his strength in our weakness.

“‘For myself,’ she continued, ‘. . . I believe that what’s right today is wrong tomorrow and that the time to enjoy yourself is now so long as you let others do the same.  I’m as good, Mr. Motes,’ she said, ‘not believing in Jesus as many a one that does.’  ‘You’re better,’ he said, leaning forward suddenly.  ‘If you believed in Jesus, you wouldn’t be so good.’”

Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood (New York, 1949), page 225.

39 years ago today God gave me the privilege of marrying the love of my life.  I am a happy man.  Thank you, dearest Jani, for your tender, rugged faithfulness all through these swiftly passing years.  May we serve our Lord in the fullness of his power, for the renewal of his people, until our dying day.