Here's the editorial in its entirety. And be sure to get to the end for the gospel-hope Carson leaves us to embrace.

***

Most of us have had the experience of drifting, half awake and half asleep, in a gray mist of semi-consciousness, only to be jerked fully awake by some sudden and vivid memory of a shameful thing we have done or said in the past. The action or words are terribly vivid, and we break out in a cold sweat of shame. An inner writhing makes us wish we could relive those moments and behave differently. But in the immortal words of Omar Khayyam,

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

What is striking about these experiences is that the acute shame we suddenly feel is almost invariably with reference to a horizontal relationship—that is, we feel shame for what we have said or done that has wounded a friend or diminished us in the eyes of a family member or colleague. Almost never do we feel such acute shame before God. Why is this?

I suspect that at least one of the reasons is that many of us care rather more for what fellow human beings think of us than for what God thinks of us. To put this in theological language, we do not fall under adequate conviction of sin—conviction that simultaneously makes us feel guilty because we are guilty, and makes us ashamed because we have been so profoundly disloyal to our Maker and Sovereign. What he thinks of us when we act or speak despicably ought to be far more important to us than what anyone else thinks of us. That it is not usually so is itself a measure of our estrangement from the living God.

This common experience of God’s fallen image-bearers, people like you and me, takes on particular hues in specific disciplines. That is why it is worth asking readers of this digital journal what it is that is most likely to induce a sense of shame or embarrassment among theologians young and old, among pastors and teachers.

Would it be unduly cynical of me to suggest that most of us are more likely to feel troubled by something we have said or done that has upset a colleague or parishioner than by something that has dishonored God? Some do not want to be too closely associated with anything the scholarly guild judges old-fashioned or fundamentalist: that, surely, would be shameful. On the other hand, Jesus says some blunt things about those who are ashamed of him and his words (Mark 8:38). The question resolves into something pretty straightforward: Whose approval do we most earnestly desire? Whose approval do we want when we prepare for a lecture (whether to deliver it or to learn from it)? Whose approval do we seek when we preach a sermon? Whose approval matters most when we write a paper or slog away at a dissertation? Whose approval do we hunger for when we choose a vocation, decide how to use our time, take pains to build links of affection and accountability in the local church, exercise, bring up our children, nurture our families, read, lead a Bible study, help a neighbor?

If we do not want God’s approval the most, where does idolatry begin?

Mind you, the really wonderful thing about occasional midnight writhings when the person we have most offended is God is that this God also provides everything that is necessary to cleanse our conscience so that we may once again look boldly into his face. He is “faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). So we return to the cross, and rest once again.

Why did Jesus tell stories and use parables? Three answers are common.

1. Jesus told stories because he used them as illustrations. But that doesn't make a lot of sense of Matthew 13:11--12.
2. Jesus told stories because he favored the enigmatic, thought-provoking, and open-ended rather than truths, propositions, and narrow-minded, modernist, foundationalist stuff like that. But it doesn't take much reading of the Gospels to realize how many different genres Jesus actually preached in. For example, he preached using wisdom literature, apocalyptic, laments, exposition of OT texts, extended discourses, proverbs, beatitudes, one-liners, non-narratival extended metaphors, dialogue, and provocative questions. Further, Matthew 13:34--35 suggests that Jesus is trying to disclose something to them.
3. Jesus used parables in order to hide things from the non-elect, to mask the truth. Yes, there is an element of that, but Matthew 13:34--35 suggests that Jesus is trying to disclose something to them.

So why did Jesus use parables? The text suggests two reasons.

1. Jesus tells parables because in line with Scripture his message blinds, deafens, and hardens (Matthew 13:11--15). Matthew 13:14--15 quotes Isaiah 6:9--10 because Isaiah's commission points forward and finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus himself. There are some audiences to whom you preach where the preaching of the word guarantees that they will not hear. Cf. John 8:45: "Because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!" Sometimes the truth itself elicits unbelief because people are so corrupt that the truth is repulsive. Cf. Acts 5:41. When people insult you, don't get defensive. Don't get angry. Don't get even. Rejoice! You're in! You're in this long line, this trajectory, that culminates in Jesus himself. There are some people who will not believe, and if you speak the truth, you will cause them not to believe.
2. Jesus tells parables because in line with Scripture his message reveals things hidden in Scripture (Matthew 13:34--35). Matthew 13:35 quotes Psalm 78:2. The Jews of Jesus' day did not have a category for a crucified Messiah, but those categories are in the OT. Jesus refers to "the secrets of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 13:11). A "mystery" in the NT does not refer to a "Whodunit?" It occurs 27 or 28 times in the NT and almost always is bound up with things hidden in the past in Scripture but now disclosed in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. "They're there, but I'm going to reveal to you what has been hidden. The pieces are already there." Hence, Matthew 13:16--17, 52.

Three Pastoral Reflections

1. We should gain wonder in worship where there is a fresh grasp of how God has put the Bible together. The Bible is not a collection of arbitrary proof-texts. The more you dig into it, the more you unpack its simplicity and profundity.
2. We should gain gratitude and humility for the gift of seeing the truth about Jesus and his gospel. We are just as perverse as others. We should never tire of being overwhelmed by the sheer privilege of grace in our lives.
3. We should gain discretion in witness where there is a hostile environment.

• How do I know God exists?
• How can God be loving yet send people to hell?
• How can God allow suffering and evil in the world?

[HT: Justin Taylor]

With this in mind I remembered an excellent editorial from Don Carson in the December 2008 issue of Themelios. In it he argues that, given our technological age, Christians are facing unprecedented challenges in their efforts to "not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2). As Carson notes, at the dawn of the twenty-first century there are a whole host of challenges that "never faced Paul, Augustin, Aquinas, Luther, and Turretin." And one of these challenges is the Internet. Specifically, Carson considers the "speed" of the Internet:

The speed of the Internet is stunning. A few years ago I was attending a meeting of pastors, most of us with our laptops out taking notes during the complex discussions, when the chap next to me turned his screen to me and invited me to read what was there. About fifteen minutes earlier he had said something to the group. What he had said was summarized and sent by another member of the group to his associate back home. The associate blogged the information, and that blog was picked up by an RSS feed that brought the information to the blog of one of the assistants of the chap beside me. That assistant emailed his boss, and there was the question on the screen: "Did you really say that?" Amusing, even fun–but such speed is encouraging us to bash out responses before we've heard another side, before we've had time to evaluate, before we've pondered whether or not it is wise and godly to respond at all, before we've cooled down and been careful in our choice of words. When you set out to write a book, a good editor fosters such virtues, but most blogs pass through the hands of no editors, and graceful communication is not thereby enhanced.

If you missed it, please do read the whole editorial. And be sure to let us know when we fail to help advance "graceful communication" at TGC. For we are convinced that even with an Internet that shows no signs of slowing down (indeed, it is speeding up), graceful communication can still happen--and must. It is a gospel issue.

We also just uploaded four other Carson MP3s from Simeon Trust's Workshop of Biblical Exposition in May 2009:

1. Preaching Apocalyptic (Part 1): Understanding an Alien Genre | 58:55  min.
2. Preaching Apocalyptic (Part 2): And Where Is Jesus? | 44:50 min.
3. Preaching Apocalyptic (Part 3): Its Function and Usefulness | 49:33 min.
4. Ezekiel 4--5 | 59:48  min.