The Gospel Coalition

I’ve posted this before, but it’s worth repeating…

O Jesus meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I,
  Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I,
  Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That in the opinion of the world, others may increase, and I may decrease,
  Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside,
  Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed,
  Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything,
  Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I become as holy as I should,
  Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

Written by Rafael Cardinal Merry del Val. HT: Kevin Edgecomb

“Mission begins with a kind of explosion of joy. The news that the rejected and crucified Jesus is alive is something that cannot possibly be suppressed. It must be told. Who could be silent about such a fact?

“The mission of the Church in the pages of the New Testament is like the fallout from a vast explosion, a radioactive fallout which is not lethal but life-giving.”

— Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 116

HT – Of First Importance

Jared Wilson knows what God’s will is for your life.

Tony Kummer interviews the creator of Veggie Tales.

Tony also has a terrific article on evangelism in Baptist Press.

What the Buzzard family learned from Tedd Tripp’s Shepherding a Child’s Heart

Tullian on how Christians should be givers, not takers.

Spanking might soon be outlawed in Canada. Do voters need to take a paddle to some senators? HT

Survivor of late-term abortion speaks about Barack Obama’s pro-abortion stance.

Chuck Lawless encourages young Southern Baptists to not abandon ship.

Ed Stetzer’s analysis of the SBC in 2008.

New blog for Southern students: Inside Southern Seminary

Tom Schreiener’s new book on New Testament theology sounds like a winner!

Top Post this week at Kingdom People: The Gospel of God: Personal Atonement or Christ’s Kingdom?

Just weeks after I made the decision that put me “over the hump” in my learning the Romanian language, the pastor in the village I was working in announced to the church that I would preaching in Romanian the next Sunday. Of course, he made the announcement without consulting me first (the Romanian way!).

The church members were excited. Everyone congratulated me and told me they couldn’t wait to hear my first Romanian sermon. So I decided to give it a try. It wasn’t that I was afraid to speak in Romanian in front of the church or to freely converse outside with the members. By this point, I was fairly fluent. What held me back from preaching was a respect for the pulpit.

How could I risk making grammatical mistakes as I preached the Word of God?

Wouldn’t that hinder the Gospel, making the listeners laugh or distracting them from the message?

By this time, though, my sincere respect for the pulpit had turned into an excuse. Indeed, I feared making mistakes in delivering a sermon in Romanian.

But was this truly because I believed the message could be hindered?

Or was it because I didn’t want to be embarrassed and seen as weak?

It was probably a matter of both. Though I had mixed emotions, I agreed to try preaching in Romanian. My opportunities to preach had been limited that Spring anyway. The village pastor had given me a “take it or leave it” offer. Either in Romanian, or not at all! So I took the plunge.

That week, I prepared for my first Romanian message. On Monday, I typed out the sermon in English. A friend of mine came over and devoted the whole day to helping me translate it. Then, we printed the sermon so I could begin going over it, memorizing the phrasing, making sure I understood the message in Romanian.

Knowing that I would have the message printed out on paper eased my nervousness, since I would not be able to lose my train of thought. I also knew that having the entire Romanian sermon printed out would help me avoid any unnecessary mistakes that would hinder the message. Still, I did not want to read my sermon. Writing it out was one thing. Reading it word for word might have been boring. So, during the days leading up to the big event, I practiced saying my sermon in Romanian at least twenty times. By the time I left for the village that weekend, I knew it backwards and forwards and could deliver it freely.

On Saturday, I went to the small village church building and preached the message to the walls! My purpose in doing this was to make sure that my pronunciation was correct and that the words came fluently.

Finally, on Sunday, for the first time, I delivered a sermon totally in Romanian. The feedback from the church people was encouraging, and I was happy to know that I had been able to preach in Romanian. From that point on, I never again preached in English while in Romania. Every sermon in Romania was in Romanian.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Allow me to break standard book-reviewing protocol and simply sum up my thoughts on Jesus Made in America: A Cultural History from the Puritans to the Passion of the Christ (IVP, 2008) by Stephen Nichols: One of the most engaging, informative books I’ve read this year. In fact, I’ll be surprised if this book doesn’t make my annual Top Ten list of “favorite reads.”

Jesus Made in America is not a history of Jesus Christ. Looking at the cover, one might expect to find a novel that tells the story of Jesus in a contemporary setting. No, Jesus Made in America is mainly about America, specifically – how Americans tend to remake Jesus in our own image and to service whatever needs or promote whatever causes we believe are important. Listen to Nichols:

“The history of the American evangelical Jesus reveals that such complexities as the two natures of Christ have often been brushed aside, either on purpose or out of expediency. Too often his deity has been eclipsed by his humanity, and occasionally the reverse is true. Too often American evangelicals have settled for a Christology that can be reduced to a bumper sticker. Too often devotion to Jesus has eclipsed theologizing about Jesus. Today’s American evangelicals may be quick to speak of their love for Jesus, even wearing their devotion on their sleeve, literally in the case of WWJD bracelets. But they may not be so quick to articulate an orthodox view of the object of their devotion. Their devotion is commendable, but the lack of a rigorous theology behind it means that a generation of contemporary evangelicals is living off of borrowed capital. This quest for the historical Jesus of American evangelicalism is not just a story of the past; it perhaps will help us understand the present, and it might even be a parable for the future. This parable teaches us that Jesus is not actually made in America. He is made and remade and remade again. What will next year’s model look like?” (18)

Nichols sets the bar high by devoting his opening chapter to the Puritan view of Christ. By drawing on the theology of Jonathan Edwards adn the lesser known Edward Taylor, Nichols shows how the Puritans combined a fervent devotion to Christ with a fervent desire to know more about Christ. Overall, his picture of the Puritans helps put an end to some of the unfair generalizations made about the Puritan period. And yet, Nichols does not view the Puritans through rose-colored glasses. He criticizes their propensity to act in unChristlike ways. (41)

Next, Nichols turns to the Jesus of the Founding Fathers. Here, he takes issue with the evangelicals who see their reflection in the beliefs of the founders. Nichols shows from their letters and writings how Jefferson, Franklin, and even Washington and Adams were all basically Deists (though some were more orthodox than others, of course). The Jesus of the founders was focused on virtue, not theology… on morals, not salvation.

With the foundation of the American view of Jesus set (through the pious orthodoxy of the Puritans and the Deistic, individualistic ideals of the Founders), Nichols then takes us through the previous two centuries of Christian life in America. He shows how Jesus was viewed by the frontier people as tough, casting off all ecclesiastical authority. He describes the meek and mild Jesus of Victorian culture in the late 1800′s. He watches the rise of liberalism in the early 1900′s, making Jesus out to be a “hero for the modern world.”

The last four chapters hit closer to home. Nichols devotes space to the Contemporary Christian music scene, the portrayal of Jesus in Hollywood movies, the consumerist impulse that markets and sells Jesus “stuff,” and the alignment of Jesus with the Religious Right or Left (depending upon the politician). (My only quibble with Nichols is that he seems to be more enamored with Jim Wallis than James Dobson. But I could be reading him wrong.)

The point of Nichols’ book? Jesus is the patron saint of everything. Every culture, in some way, seeks to mold Jesus into its own image. We are all susceptible to the danger. And yet, we can avoid the excessiveness of our own versions of Jesus by listening to Scripture first, tradition second, and experience third (instead of reversing that order, which is often the case in American spirituality).

Nichols encourages us to uphold Jesus in all his glorious complexity, not shrinking back from theological reflection. He helps us learn from the mistakes of those in the past, while offering words of wisdom for those of us seeking to be faithful to Jesus in the present.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

What is the gospel?

We claim to preach it. We want to live in light of its message. We are commissioned to share it.

Getting the gospel right is vital to the Christian faith. Calling something “the gospel” that is most definitely not the gospel could be devastating. Saying something is not “the gospel” that is in fact part of the gospel could likewise be detrimental to our faith.

In thinking through the importance of defining “the good news,” I have been running a series called “Gospel Definitions” on this blog – showing how many people today and throughout history have defined “the gospel.” It is interesting to see the variety of ways Christians define the message at the heart of Christianity.

The question has become quite heated in recent days. Evangelicals are dividing into different camps, largely depending on what they emphasize as the vital part of the gospel message.

Christianity Today is devoting the Christian Vision Project in 2008 to this very issue, asking contributors to weigh in on the provocative question: “Is our gospel too small?” Scot McKnight gives eight marks of the “robust gospel.” Others warn that we have shrunk the gospel to a matter of personal, private salvation – leaving out its cosmic dimension.

On the other hand, there are pastors and scholars who are publicly resisting the idea that we need to increase our view of the gospel. A major evangelical leader at a recent conference asked the question: ”Is our gospel too big?” He listed what he sees as the dangers of confusing the gospel’s implications with the gospel itself.

It seems that two opposing camps are forming. The first camp believes we have truncated the gospel by only focusing on individual salvation at the expense of the cosmic dimension of Jesus’ lordship. Furthermore, by neglecting the biblical teaching about the coming Kingdom of God, some worry that we have embraced a gospel that is so heaven-centered as to render it ineffective to speak to earthly realities.

The second camp fears that historic evangelicalism is rapidly being replaced by a resurgent “social gospel.” Alarmed at the growing number of self-professing evangelicals who are rejecting or diminishing the penal substitutionary model of the atonement or downplaying the necessity of personal faith in the finished work of Christ, these pastors and scholars choose to reaffirm their commitment to personal salvation through Christ’s atoning death. They worry that cutting out penal substitution and neglecting the importance of individual salvation will leave us with a new form of liberalism whose gospel is powerless.

Now the camps seem to be polarizing.

Those in the Kingdom camp fear that emphasizing penal substitution will reduce the atonement to one theory, lead to over-individualizing of the gospel, and leave little place for the public implications of Jesus’ Resurrection. Better to put aside penal substitution. Since it’s not the heart of the gospel and the doctrine might lead us to leave out the kingdom or the importance of life transformation, it’s better to leave it aside for now.

Those in the Atonement camp fear that talking too much of “the kingdom” will lead us to the doorstep of liberalism and leave us with a neutered social gospel. Once you begin talking about the kingdom, you’re bound to lose the cross and wind up in the Emerging camp. Better to leave aside the kingdom for now.  

It is frustrating to me that the two camps expect us to choose between these two options as if they were mutually exclusive. If the gospel is the announcement of Jesus Christ – specifically his death and resurrection and exaltation as Lord of the world – then we have a message that is both personal and cosmic. It is a message about the coming of God’s kingdom, yes. And the king of that kingdom has given his life for its subjects (atonement).

We should not have to choose between making the gospel either about personal salvation or cosmic renewal, seeing the gospel as public or private, making it all about the kingdom or the atonement, centered on the cross or resurrection, proclaiming Jesus as personal Savior or Lord of the world.

Can we not hold these together at the same time? Doesn’t the Bible affirm the gospel as a message about a king and his kingdom? Doesn’t the Bible affirm the gospel as a message about Jesus’ death and resurrection? Doesn’t the Bible affirm the gospel as a message about personal repentance and corporate witness?

Too many speakers in both of the gospel camps have decided that the emphases of the other camp are unimportant. Instead, we need to hear the cautions from both sides. It is true that we cannot dismiss the substitutionary atonement and the importance of individual repentance without fatally wounding the gospel. Yet at the same time, we cannot dismiss the kingdom-centered nature of the gospel of Jesus and Paul and the public nature of the announcement that Jesus is Lord without reducing the gospel to a matter of private spirituality.

We should not be satisfied in either the kingdom camp or the atonement camp. Perhaps we can all be happy campers if we join with others in proclaiming a “both-and” gospel instead of an “either-or.”

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

Related Articles:
My review of James Choung’s True Story
Don’t Replace the Substitute!
Way of the Master and the Kingdom

“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven
that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour,
till it was all leavened.”
- Jesus to the crowds by the sea (Matthew 13:33)

Jesus taught about the Kingdom of God in parables, stories that illustrated the truth of God’s kingship and how God’s rule is manifested in our world. One of His short parables of the Kingdom likened God’s reign to leaven that a woman puts into the flour as she bakes bread. Leaven contains hidden power. As it infiltrates the entire batch, the dough slowly begins to rise. Although the leaven remains hidden and may seem insignificant, the bread cannot rise without it.

Many of the Jews in Jesus’ day were expecting God’s Kingdom to burst into the world all at once. Jesus however taught them that God has His own timetable. His Kingdom is like the leaven that makes the dough rise. As God’s reign and rule extends and permeates every aspect of society, the whole world is eventually touched by God’s transforming power!

The Kingdom would grow slowly at first, and even under auspicious beginnings; but it would eventually come to bear on the world at large. Jesus was right. Within a few hundred years, Christianity had become dominant within the Roman Empire.

Today, if we are to be true citizens of God’s Kingdom, our obedience to Christ must touch every area of our lives. Confessing with our mouths that “Jesus is Lord” does not affect only our church life and a few spiritual habits here and there. As Kingdom people, we must be actively spreading God’s reign into every segment of society, influencing the world by bringing God’s love and grace to all, whether it be through the arts, through business, through politics or through our vocations.

We answer to God for how we are seeking to extend His Kingdom in the place He has put us. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we must work to see God’s will done here on earth, as it is in heaven.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog

O Lord Jesus Christ,
I long to live in your presence,
to see your human form and to watch you walking on earth.
I do not want to see you through the darkened glass of tradition,
nor through the eyes of today’s values and prejudices.
I want to see you as you were,
as you are,
and as you always will be.
I want to see you as an offense to human pride,
as a man of humility,
walking amongst the lowliest of men,
and yet as the Savior and Redeemer of the human race.

- Soren Kierkegaard, 1813-55

Corina gave birth to our second child last night at 11:13 CST – Julia Karis Wax. Julia weighed 7 pounds, 1 ounce and was 19.5 inches long.

Both mom and baby are doing fine. Thanks to those who prayed for a safe delivery.

“I have learned one absolute principle in calculating God’s presence or absence, and that is that I cannot. God, invisible, sovereign, who according to the psalmist “does whatever pleases him,” sets the terms of the relationship. As the theologian Karl Barth insisted so fiercely, God is free: free to reveal himself or conceal himself, to intervene or not intervene, to work within nature or outside it, to rule over the world or even to be despised and rejected by the world, to display himself or limit himself. Our own human freedom derives from a God who cherishes freedom.

“I cannot control such a God. At best I can put myself in the proper frame to meet him. I can confess sin, remove hindrances, purify my life, wait expectantly, and – perhaps hardest of all – seek solitude and silence. I offer no guaranteed method to obtain God’s presence, for God alone governs that.”

- Philip Yancey, Reaching for the Invisible God, pg. 121