When we as a human race fell into sin, our affections changed, and we who once had the ability not to sin became a people who could not help but sin and even found pleasure in sin, albeit fleeting pleasure. Sin ravaged our hearts and minds, and, like Tolkien’s Gollum, we began to wallow in the mire of sin-dependent idolatry all the while maintaining our autonomy from God and our supreme, though perceived control over any and all our precious little idols, each of which possessed an uncanny resemblance to ourselves.

Before the fall we were dependent creatures depending on God alone, and after the fall we remain dependent creatures in our sustained existence. However, after the Fall, the object of our affections became manifold, and, in turn, the object of our dependence changed from depending on God alone--worshiping and serving the Creator alone--to worshiping and serving the creature and his comforts.

Without hesitation we happily turned to worship the supreme creature and all the idols we could conjure up as self-proclaimed, autonomous, self-made creators. We became dependent on our own self-made objects of affection, and our dependence was divided between the creature and the Creator.

When trials and temptations come (and if we’re not spiritually calloused or overly cynical, we’ll notice their hourly arrival) we are faced with the decision as to whether we will depend on self or depend on God--whether we’ll depend on our own means of sustenance and satisfaction that leads to daily death independent of God or whether we’ll depend on God’s means of sustenance and ever-present satisfaction that leads to daily life abundant that is dependent on God.

We understand that all of life’s trials and temptations are a direct result of the Fall--our fall from Creator-dependent true worship to self-dependent false worship. And even when we consider the first sins of Satan’s rebellion in the heavens and Adam’s rebellion in the Garden, we can see how they strove to be independent from God when tempted by the titillating notion of such independence.

Our daily temptations, daily anxieties, daily miseries, and daily afflictions are part and parcel of life’s daily trials. These fiery trials sometimes come blazing and sometimes come like a sudden spark out of nowhere, coming both from without and from within--darts from the world and the devil, which we’ve come to expect, and darts from our own hearts that we still surprisingly shoot at ourselves. Both the enemy within us and the enemies outside us exist as a natural result of the Fall, and in their natural course of existence they fight daily to gain our affection, allegiance, and dependence. Like Gollum’s precious little idol that seemed to want to be found, our self-swindling hearts seem to want us to find our immediate and ultimate fulfillment in anything that lures our dependence away from God. Meanwhile, our Enemy is content simply to draw our affections to anything but the one true God, and thus to make us less dependent on God and increasingly dependent on ourselves and on our hearts’ precious idols, which will come alive and do our bidding.

While we do indeed become stronger and more mature as a result of life’s daily trials, ultimately, as the adopted children of God our Father, the trials he sovereignly sends our way are not intended to make us stronger but to make us weaker--less dependent on our own strength and more dependent on God and the power of his strength in which we can delightfully and eternally boast as does our brother Paul:

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Cor. 12:8–10).

Whatever doesn’t kill us, by God’s grace, makes us weaker in our self-dependence and more dependent on the strength of God. And this is all through the One who endured the trial of the Cross so that we might regain life dependent. By His grace we remain utterly dependent as we live justified from faith to faith at the foot of the Cross taking up our own crosses daily and dependently. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith in God, not faith in self.

Do we in our own strength confide? Our striving would indeed be losing.

One of the most important discoveries of my life has been that the Gospel is not just for non-Christians; it’s for Christians too. I used to think the Gospel was simply what non-Christians must believe in to be saved, while afterward we advance to deeper theological waters. But what I’ve come to understand is that once God saves us he doesn’t then move us beyond the Gospel. Rather he moves us deeper into the Gospel. The Gospel, in other words, is every bit as important for growing as a Christian as it is for becoming a Christian in the first place. The Gospel is the fuel that makes Christians go.

To emphasize the point, Tchivijian quotes some of Tim Keller's comments on Colossians 1:16:

Paul is showing that we never “get beyond the gospel” in our Christian life to something more “advanced”. The gospel is not the first “step” in a “stairway” of truths, rather, it is more like the “hub” in a “wheel” of truth. The gospel is not just the A-B-C’s but the A to Z of Christianity. The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to enter the kingdom, but the way we make all progress in the kingdom.

We are not justified by the gospel and then sanctified by obedience, but the gospel is the way we grow (Gal.3:1-3) and are renewed (Col.1:6). It is the solution to each problem, the key to each closed door, the power through every barrier (Rom.1:16-17).

It is very common in the church to think as follows. “The gospel is for non-Christians. One needs it to be saved. But once saved, you grow through hard work and obedience.” But Col.1:6 shows that this is a mistake. Both confession and “hard work” that is not arising from and “in line” with the gospel will not sanctify you–it will strangle you. All our problems come from a failure to apply the gospel. Thus when Paul left the Ephesians he committed them “to the word of his grace, which can build you up” (Acts 20:32). The main problem, then, in the Christian life is that we have not thought out the deep implications of the gospel, we have not “used” the gospel in and on all parts of our life.

Richard Lovelace says that most people’s problems are just a failure to be oriented to the gospel–a failure to grasp and believe it through and through. Luther says, “The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all Christian doctrine….Most necessary is it that we know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.” (on Gal.2:14f) Paul says that the gospel only does its renewing work in us as we understand it in all its truth. All of us, to some degree live around the truth of the gospel but do not “get” it. So the key to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and revival is the continual re-discovery of the gospel. A stage of renewal is always the discovery of a new implication or application of the gospel–seeing more of its truth. This is true for either an individual or a church.

For more helpful gospel insight from Tullian Tchivijian, be sure to visit often his blog "On Earth as it is in Heaven."

Living in this world means suffering. But for the believer suffering and glory belong together. In describing our suffering, Paul is holding a scale before us. Not a bathroom scale, but an ancient scale; one that balanced one weight against the other. On the one side, Paul places all the suffering that Christians will endure on this side of eternity. On the other side of the scale, Paul places our future glory. What does our suffering weigh? How does this compare with the weight of our future glory? 2 Corinthians 4:17 says, "For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” For believers, all present suffering is light and momentary. Our future glory is weighty and eternal.

Read the whole thing for your encouragement in the grace that carries us through suffering and into "an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison!"

An explosion in social networking activity has also triggered an avalanche of narcissism, especially on college campuses. A 2009 poll of 1,068 college students in the US conducted by researchers at San Diego State University found that 57 per cent believe that their generation uses social networking sites for self-promotion and attention seeking, while 40 per cent agreed with the statement that “being self-promoting, narcissistic, overconfident, and attention-seeking is helpful for succeeding in a competitive world.”

[From Evgeny Morozov, "Losing Our Minds to the Web," Prospect magazine, June 22, 2010.]

Given this explosion in social networking activity, how can the church be more effective in reaching college-age students with the gospel?

The unchanging character of God: Though this element can be pulled from the eternal existence of Jesus portrayed in John 11 (I am the resurrection and the life…) I typically like to establish this element from the beginning. As mentioned earlier, I often read Psalm 145:17-21 for “The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and kind in all his deeds…” Any observation about the unchanging eternal nature of God in regard to Jesus simply affirms these opening words.

Instruct those present how to grieve: Though less important, I like to start with this because it brings everyone into the narrative to a place that everyone can relate to the most (even non-Christians) and that is being saddened by the death of a loved one. Others are weeping at the grave of Lazarus, but in a surprising turn, Jesus weeps (v.35). Jesus knows He can and will raise Lazarus from the death (v.43-44). Yet, He still seems to weep for 2 reasons: First, His compassion for those who were grieving over their loss. Second, the personal grief He experienced as He saw the effects of death. Though it is not the primary focus in the text, this provides a helpful spring-board to explain the essential need for your hearers to grieve over the loss and a smooth segue way to the hope of the gospel.

The hope of the gospel: The hope of the gospel in the midst of the death of Lazarus comes in Jesus’ words to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (vv.25-26). It flows naturally and powerfully from Jesus’ own declaration of Himself to explain the essential elements of the gospel (God, man, Christ, response) and each hearers’ need for Him to escape death.

A call to respond to the gospel: Appropriately last is the call to respond to this gospel. That call comes from a question from Jesus to Martha at the end of His declaration (v.26), “Do you believe this?” These words of Jesus provide a clear, yet appropriate opportunity to challenge each hearer what they think of Jesus and whether they believe what He says about Himself.

My final words at every funeral are as deliberate as the first and they are, "Jesus is asking each one of us whether we are a friend, relative, or life-long spouse (of the deceased) this same question as one day He will demand an answer from each of us when we stand before Him. The question is, ‘Do you believe this?’  There is no better time to evaluate this question as we see the inescapable reality of death before us today. What would be your answer to that question?”

For other messages from the conference by J.D. Greear, Matt Carter, Tyler Jones, Mark Driscoll, Ed Stetzer, Jerome Gay, and David Platt, go here.

Recently I was asked to do a Q & A with the pastoral interns and some of the staff at Clifton Baptist Church in Louisville, KY to discuss the logistics of funerals. As many of you know, there are all kinds of details that we would list as important and essential. Yet, in our conversation, I narrowed those down to four areas that must be proclaimed:

The Unchanging character of God: You have all kinds of people who come to a funeral who are evaluating this death (and God’s role in it)  in all sorts of ways. We must use the objective truth of God’s Word to cut through all the different subjective conclusions and judgments about God that are being drawn in the minds of people. I accomplish this by allowing the first words out of my mouth to be Psalm 145:17-21.

The hope of the gospel: This is our hope in life and certainly death. Therefore, the gospel must be clearly preached at every funeral you conduct. However, the setting of a funeral demands it be done clearly, yet sensitively. The best advice I ever received for funerals is this: Don’t preach the deceased into heaven, don’t preach them into hell, just preach the gospel for the people who are there. This is most helpful when conducting a funeral for someone with whom you didn’t know or doubted their eternal state. Regardless, it is a reminder that the gospel is the most important truth we can hold out to those looking for hope in the midst of death.

A call to respond to the gospel: If our focus is to preach the gospel to those who remain, then there must be some call for them to respond to the gospel. I hope we all agree that you cannot accomplish this in the setting of a funeral by some “hand-raising, music-manipulating, pleading to come forward during the 12th stanza of Just As I Am" type of response (my hope is we avoid this all together to some degree, but that is another post for another day). We can, however, plead with these people to respond in repentance and faith once the gospel has been preached in a similar way we should be pleading for sinners to turn to Christ every Sunday we preach. In both contexts, we trust in our sovereign God to awaken sinners to see their need for Christ and turn to Him as the gospel is faithfully proclaimed.

Instruct those present how to grieve: This is often overlooked as an essential for funerals, but one we must take seriously. Though the gospel being preached is the most important thing we can say, we also have the task to help these people know how to grieve over this loss. We accomplish this by walking them through the importance of talking about the deceased, sharing the things they loved about them, the impact the deceased had on them, and the important things they learned from them. This provides times to laugh and cry, which gives a helpful template in walking through the grieving process. I think you will find the family of the deceased most grateful for your effort to instruct them in this way. As a result, I have found them more receptive to the other “most important and essential” elements that I share.

In a future post, I will explain how I accomplish all four of these essentials through one base text of Scripture.

A headline in The Guardian (London) this morning reads, "Human Foetus Feels No Pain Before 24 Weeks, Study Says." Then this subtitle, "Finding in major review of scientific evidence strikes blow to those seeking to reduce upper time limit for abortion."

There is a deeply tragic triumphalism to this headline/subtitle. A scientific study is being invoked to beat back any efforts to reduce the upper time limit in England for an abortion--one currently set at 24 weeks. It's clear evidence of the fall of mankind into sin when there is celebration for the continued destruction of life in the womb without further limitations.

But this article also perpetuates the commonplace argument that the ethics of abortion are determined by the presence or absence of pain, as if to say, "It's okay to destroy life in the womb within 24 weeks of conception because the child feels no pain." (Of course, this argument is used in the physician-assisted suicide debate as well.) But why is degree of pain determinative of right or wrong? Something may be more or less immoral based on certain criteria (e.g., pain). But at the end of the day, it's still immoral.

What do you think? How does a gospel-centered worldview respond to an article like this one in The Guardian?

Why are so many churches marked by conflict and animosity? The Corinthian church situation allows us to look into a divided church full of corporate and personal conflicts. There are several facts that may help us to see why conflict arises in churches.

First, divisions arose because of spiritual immaturity (3:1-4:21). Those who were immature placed their favorite “preacher” above the others. Instead, Paul reminded them that they should not boast in men, but in God (3:18-23). After all, ministers are God’s servants (4:1-21).

Second, divisions arose because of spiritual apathy. They simply refused to address sin in the congregation. Whether it was the case of incest (5:1-13), the personal conflicts and unforgiveness (6:1-11), or the sexual immorality (6:12-20), Paul knew that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Since we are called to be holy, we must address sin in our midst.

Third, and primarily, divisions arose because of spiritual arrogance. This pride raised its ugly head in doctrinal matters. Some of their beliefs led to marital conflicts (7:1-40); others simply looked down at the younger believers (8:1-11:1). Yet others showed spiritual elitism because they were wealthy. The most arrogant, however, were the ones who thought they were really spiritual because of their spiritual gifts. Regardless, though, the root of all conflict is sin. As James reminds us, we have conflict because we think only of ourselves (James 4:1-4). So then, what is the solution?

Christians are united by the foolish message of Jesus Christ crucified as revealed by the Holy Spirit: For this world, the message of the cross is foolishness (1:18-25), “but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1:18). This gospel message reminds us that we were nothing when God called us to salvation; therefore, we cannot boast in self (1:26-31).

This gospel message comes in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in flashy or impressive speech so that our faith would rest in God, not preachers (2:1-5). Of course, the natural (unbelieving) person does not accept these things (2:14-16) because they are revealed by the Holy Spirit (2:6-13). But those whom God calls and sanctifies (makes holy), Christ sustains until the end (1:2, 8). So when Christ changes a life what should it look like?

Christians who are united by the gospel should be marked by love: When we are marked by love (for God and others), then we will be of one mind. So I ask you, “Are you marked by love?”

Sullivan's article argues that today's younger evangelicals (the under-30s) are "expanding their mission" by being deeply concerned not with "fire-and-brimstone conservatism" (like most people Sullivan invokes Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and James Dobson as representatives of this "older" evangelicalism), but with issues like global poverty, creation care, and inner-city education. According to Sullivan, "Today's young Evangelicals ... are socially conscious, cause-focused and controversy-averse."

Sullivan's article is helpful in noting several reasons for this shift. Some of the reasons, like seeing attention to social justice issues as the outworking of the gospel, seem good and right. Love to neighbor can look like a million things, including laboring in the inner cities of America to help provide a better education for poverty stricken families. But some of the reasons for this shift, if true (and I suspect they are), do cause concern.

First, Sullivan observes that many young evangelicals are engaged in social justice issues simply because it's popular:

Young Evangelicals are politically involved for that most prosaic of reasons as well: it's popular. Bono talks about his faith at the National Prayer Breakfast and challenges world leaders to forgive the debts of poor countries. Relevant magazine, a publication for young Evangelicals with 100,000 subscribers, urges its readers to "reject apathy" and educate themselves about issues ranging from "unjust war" to "creation care" (the Evangelical phrase for protecting the environment). A young minister named Tyler Wigg-Stevenson launched an Evangelical movement in 2008 to abolish nuclear weapons. And at a revival gathering called Passion 2010 in Atlanta over New Year's weekend, more than 22,000 Evangelical college students donated nearly $700,000 of their own money to support organizations working to dig wells in Africa, help children in poverty and save women from sex trafficking.

If a movement is based on popularity the inevitable question has to be asked, "What happens to the cause when it's not popular anymore?" It's hard to sustain anything long-term if it's based merely on popularity.

A second reason for the rise in popularity of social justice issues among young evangelicals is still more disquieting: the desire to not be like our parents. To make this point Sullivan invokes Don Miller:

Does all of this social activism mean young Evangelicals are liberals? Hardly. Theologically, they remain fairly conservative, but mostly they reject political and religious labels. In fact, many would rather you didn't even call them Evangelical (simply Christian is the preferred term). "For a lot of younger Evangelicals, it steals our identity," says Don Miller, whose spiritual memoir Blue like Jazz has sold more than 1 million copies and has developed a cult following among under-30 Evangelicals. "We're not like Pat Robertson. We're not like Republicans. We're not like our parents."

What Miller seems to be highlighting here is simply a form of rebellion cloaked in good deeds -- hardly a motivation worth giving one's life to.

For the sake of moving this debate further along, let me suggest another reason many younger evangelicals might find social justice issues so attractive: it's easy. What do I mean by this? Surely I don't think working in inner-city Chicago to help poverty stricken children learn to read is easy, do I? Yes, in a relative sense.

The world will applaud your move to the south side if you're working in a school. But see what the world has to say if you plant a church. The world's applause will likely turn to scorn, and for a generation raised on social media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and MySpace, this must be avoided at all costs. God forbid I lose a friend, follower, or page-view due to my overt gospel ministry. But tell my family and friends I'm going to give my life to help end global poverty, and suddenly I'm a rock star (or at least a lot like one). Social justice issues fit with Sullivan's description of younger evangelicals as "controversy-averse." No one argues with the need to feed the hungry. But people are killed for the proclamation of the gospel.

I'm grateful for Sullivan's article because it's an issue Christians must wrestle with. What is the relationship between the gospel and social justice? With Scripture as our guide, how should we think about this without just writing another "Four Views" book?