The Gospel Coalition

North Korea: Some Information and a Call to Prayer

With the death of Kim Jong Il, we stand at a key moment. This “worker’s paradise” tends to simply pass on the leadership from father to son, from despot to despot. However there is hope for change. Christians in South Korea and around the world have been praying for a breakthrough on the Korean peninsula. What many do not know is that there is a vibrant and growing Christian community even in places we dare not mention on a public blog.

Augustine on the Monsters Among Us:

Augustine’s answer may not be the surprising to us today, but it was remarkable for his time. No matter how different in appearance, a being that descends from humans is human. And no matter how great the deformity, in their uniqueness and peculiarity, that person contributes to “the beauty of the whole.”

A Critique of Worship Music Criticism:

Yes, I am coming to the understanding that nit-picking at music and especially music that encourages us to offer praise and thanksgiving to God and reflect on his greatness can actually discourage the praise we are commended to offer.  This motivates me to ask a few questions with regard to why we find it necessary to be over-critical of worship music, to the extent that it can appear to have no redeeming value.

Why the Modern President Can’t Belong to a Church:

The new internet era of politics has changed a lot of things about the way Presidents go about their daily lives. A stray comment captured on tape can instantly ricochet and cause havoc. Post-9/11 security concerns combined with the ability to find detailed information about virtually any location has made the already challenging job of protecting the President and his family even tougher. But the freedom to attend church and be part of a congregation while living at the White House may be the first true casualty of our new political age.

There’s been a lot of talk in the blogosphere this year about the rise of “celebrity pastors” with “rock-star status” and the larger-than-life influence of popular conference speakers whose sermons are downloaded by the thousands. Some have openly decried this development; others are glad that at least pastors are being celebrated. Most of us are somewhere in the middle.

There’s no doubt that certain pastors have attained a kind of “celebrity.” And yet we are wrong to assume that this has happened because these pastors have intentionally sought notoriety and fame. It’s one thing to say that we may have a problem here. It’s another thing to start blaming people left and right for it. (Furthermore, I find it ironic that many of the pastors and bloggers who condemn the celebrity culture could be considered “celebrities” themselves, albeit of the curmudgeonly variety!)

All that said, in a recent conversation with Robert George, Russ Moore described a recent shift in how students speak of pastoral influence. Here’s what he had to say:

When I am talking to young evangelicals, often who are in ministry, and I say, “Who has been really influential upon you in ministry and on learning to preach and to do the things of ministry?” ten years ago, most people would have given me the name of a local pastor who had mentored them and worked with them. Now they are mentioning a disembodied voice that they have heard on a podcast. That’s a very dangerous thing…

… We’ll just become this amorphous, non-ecclesial movement where everybody is just concerned about individual flights to heaven and move from church to church to church based upon what the music is like or what the preaching is like and then become identified with these celebrities…celebrity preachers. One of the things that we have happening in evangelicalism right now is this rash of preachers who are leaving their churches in order to expand their ministries, and what they mean by that is to go on the conference circuit and simply become these itinerate type of celebrities. That’s a very dangerous thing in evangelicalism, and unless you’ve got a renewal at the local church level where people really are accountable to people they know, evangelicalism is not going to survive.

Dr. Moore’s anecdotal evidence is distressing. To be sure, I’m thankful for the opportunity to glean biblical insights from the podcasts available from many popular pastors today. I’m also thankful to be able to read sermons from pastors throughout church history. (Chrysostom and Spurgeon are two of my favorites.)

And yet the popular preachers of this year or yesteryear are not the pastors who have influenced me most. It could be that my preaching is influenced by the preaching I listen to or the sermons I read, but a preacher on a podcast is not a pastor to me.

The Perfect Storm

I worry that two weather systems have formed and are coming together in a way that might harm the church. The first weather system is a drought caused by the fatherlessness of our current society. People are looking for fathers and their influence.

The second weather system is the heavy rain of pastoral resources available through technological advance. People can easily access terrific sermon content from especially gifted pastors.

Put drought conditions and heavy rain together, and we have a potential flood situation. Pastors and preachers whose messages connect with our generation are filling the fatherless void but in a way that leads to a distortion of what pastoral influence and fatherhood is supposed to be.

I remember reading Collin Hansen’s book on the “young, restless, and reformed” a few years ago and being disturbed by one woman’s description of John Piper as a “father” of sorts, even though they’d never met. Fathers image God. The fact that a young lady could express the concept of spiritual fatherhood in relation to Piper shows what her view of God the Father is. Far off. Transcendent. Powerful. Distant. If fatherhood can take place without ever meeting, then we must have missed something about the immanence of God that expresses itself in God’s condescension to us in Christ.

Let me reiterate that I’m not faulting John Piper or any other popular pastor for this development. It must be said that much pastoral “fame” is simply the accumulation of honor for a pastor who has proven faithful to God’s call over time.

But just because we cannot and should not point fingers at each other regarding the problem of celebrity does not mean that we shouldn’t carefully consider the ramifications of pastoral influence being mediated through technology instead of the local church. I offer these thoughts not as a point of criticism but as one of concern. And I’m open to suggestions as to how to lift up local church pastors and celebrate their influence and mentoring.

John Piper was right to remind us that we are not pastored by “professionals.” Perhaps it’s time we remembered that we are not pastored by podcasts either.

Tim Keller: “Coming Together on Culture – Theological Issues” 

I don’t think you can tell it from reading on the internet, but among many younger leaders with Reformed and evangelical convictions there may be a slow convergence coming on the subject of the mission of the church and the relationship of Christ and culture.

Michael Horton responds here: “Christ and Culture Once More”

In the era of rapid social media, different points of view easily become classified as different schools. We shoot at each other and talk past each other, under one banner or another. That’s very different from realizing that we belong to the church together, with its long conversation, and that our discussions (even debates) today aren’t really radically new but are questions our forebears have wrestled with for a long time and in very different historical contexts that shape the views themselves.

Are Christians Fighting the Wrong “War on Christmas”? 

Sermons about the pagan origins of Christmas or the danger of rampant materialism in Christ’s name are unlikely to be heard today. In recent years the dominant message heard from the Christian community during the holiday season has been precisely the opposite. Today, it seems many Christians are offended when unchecked materialism in December is not explicitly associated with Christ. The irony.

5 Reasons Delegation Fails:

The problem, however, in many cases, rests not with the delegate, but with a leader’s failure to delegate properly. There are certainly times when the delegate drops the ball and doesn’t follow through with the task (which I believe is often one of the reasons listed below), but in my experience, the failure of delegation most often rests with the leader…

Lord, you exalt the humble.
You use the yielded.
Help me not to feel that I am worthy or deserving of you.
Help me not to think that I can do anything major with minor trust.
Help me to say “yes” to your every proposition
so I can sing with Mary,
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.”

- Calvin Miller, The Christ of Christmas: Readings for Advent

Iranian pastor, Youcef Nadarkhani will remain in prison:

In late September of this year, he was given four chances to recant his faith in court and refused each time. His case then was referred to the ayatollah. The American Center for Law and Justice reported one of his court exchanges.

“Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?” Nadarkhani asked.

“To the religion of your ancestors, Islam,” the judge reportedly replied.

“I cannot,” the pastor responded.

Related: Youcef Nadarkhani’s Letter to His Church

“Glory to God in the highest!” What is the instructive lesson to be learned from this first syllable of the angels’ song? Why this, that salvation is God’s highest glory!

• He is glorified in every dew drop that twinkles in the morning sun.
• He is magnified in every wood flower that blossoms in the copse, although it live to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness in the forest air.
• God is glorified in every bird that warbles on the spray; in every lamb that skips the mead.
• Do not the fishes in the sea praise him? From the tiny minnow to the huge Leviathan, do not all creatures that swim the water bless and praise his name?
• Do not all created things extol him? Is there aught beneath the sky, save man, that doth not glorify God?
• Do not the stars exalt him, when they write his name upon the azure of heaven in their golden letters?
• Do not the lightnings adore him when they flash his brightness in arrows of light piercing the midnight darkness? Do not thunders extol him when they roll like drums in the march of the God of armies?
• Do not all things exalt him, from the least even to the greatest?

But sing, sing, oh universe, till thou hast exhausted thyself, thou canst not afford a song so sweet as the song of Incarnation.

Though creation may be a majestic organ of praise, it cannot reach the compass of the golden canticle—Incarnation! There is more in that than in creation, more melody in Jesus in the manger, than there is in worlds on worlds rolling their grandeur round the throne of the Most High.

Pause Christian, and consider this a minute. See how every attribute is here magnified.

• Lo! what wisdom is here. God becomes man that God may be just, and the justifier of the ungodly.
• Lo! what power, for where is power so great as when it concealeth power? What power, that Godhead should unrobe itself and become man!
• Behold, what love is thus revealed to us when Jesus becomes a man.
• Behold ye, what faithfulness! How many promises are this day kept? How many solemn obligations are this hour discharged?

Tell me one attribute of God that is not manifest in Jesus; and your ignorance shall be the reason why you have not seen it so. The whole of God is glorified in Christ; and though some part of the name of God is written in the universe, it is here best read—in Him who was the Son of Man, and, yet, the Son of God.

- Charles Spurgeon, Christmas Day, 1857

I love the scene in this episode from Everybody Loves Raymond (beginning around 9:55-12:35) as Debra systematically counters every reason Ray gives for not going to church.

My favorite part is when Debra deflates Ray’s self-justification by showing how pointing to our goodness is futile:

Ray: “I practice being a good person every day. I’m a decent fellow. I do good things. I always leave a big tip. If a squirrel runs in front of the car, do I not swerve? I am considerate of people’s feelings. Remember the plumber who came over with the big eye? I treated him like a completely normal person. OK, so, why do I have to go to church every Sunday to prove my goodness? I’m living it!”

Debra: (sarcastically) “Well, you know, since you are so good during the week, maybe on Sundays we should have everybody come over here and sit around you!”

Click here to go right to the clip.

Seven links for your weekend reading:

1. Bryan Loritts: The Complexity of Humanity

2. Christopher Hitchens’ latest article in Vanity Fair – “The Trial of the Will”

3. Four Traits of Wise Leaders

4. Barely Half of U.S. Adults Are Married – A Record Low

5. Doug Wilson: Not Compassionate At All

6. Abortion Gang vs. Tim Tebow

7. Why You and I Could Not Write the Book of Revelation

One of the more helpful theological books I read this year is J. Todd Billings’ Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church (Baker Academic, 2011). After reading through it, I was happy to offer this word of recommendation:

In Union with Christ, Todd Billings expounds upon an important New Testament doctrine by exploring its contemporary ramifications in light of careful historical and exegetical reflection. This is a thought-provoking book that will ignite fresh conversations about the nature of our participation in Christ.”

Today, I’m honored to have Todd join us here at Kingdom People to talk about the importance of the doctrine and the reality of “union with Christ” and what it means for our salvation.

Trevin Wax: Todd, you say something bold at the beginning of your book – that the doctrine of “union with Christ” is theological shorthand for the gospel itself. Explain what you mean by this statement and why we need to see the importance of union with Christ in how we conceive of the gospel.

Todd Billings: Good question. Well, my bold statement comes from John Calvin, who claims that the “sum of the gospel” is the double grace of justification and sanctification, gifts which are inseparable yet distinct, received through the Spirit in union with Christ (Institutes 3:3:1). I think that Calvin brings us a profound insight here.

Union with Christ encompasses many, many different ways that the New Testament talks about Christian identity:

• being “in Christ,”
• abiding in Christ the Vine,
• walking by the Spirit,
• the forgiveness of sins in justification,
• the gift of new life by the Spirit who works in and through believers in sanctification.

It’s a corporate image because the Spirit unites us not only to Christ but to Christ’s body, the church.

It’s also a covenantal image that brings together the Old Testament and the New, for to be in Christ is to be in God’s covenant of grace. We not only believe that Jesus Christ, in His life, death, and resurrection, is the culmination of God’s purposes in creation and covenant, we are united to Jesus Christ by the Spirit and thus participate in the One who is the true Prophet, Priest, and King.

It’s also eschatological as well as ethical, for we have already “died” to sin, yet we are called to “put to death” the old self (Rom. 6:6; 8:13). All of this happens through the Spirit (Rom. 8:9). I could say more, but even this short description indicates how this “sum” of the gospel is not a reduction of it — it’s an expansive vision of it compared with the many ways that Christians tend to domesticate the gospel today.

Trevin Wax: What are some of the ways we tend to reduce the gospel today?

Todd Billings: There are several common ways. On the one hand, sometimes we as Christians reduce the gospel to a conversion experience, or to “justification alone” — such that the entirety of the gospel comes to be about the forgiveness of sins. Sanctification becomes “our own work,” an optional extra for super-Christians.

On the other hand, sometimes we downplay or ignore the forensic imagery of justification, and we think that the gospel is just about our own transformation. On that side of the equation, the gospel can become reduced to our own lives, our own efforts to do good. It is no longer good news about God’s grace revealed to us in Christ.

But the gospel is more than either of those reductionistic options. The good news is nothing less than Jesus Christ, as the culmination of God’s purposes in creation and covenant, and our union with this same Christ by the Spirit. This means that we must say “both/and” to forensic (legal) and transformational images of salvation — because, in the words of Calvin, “free remission of sins cannot be separated from the Spirit of regeneration. This would be, as it were, to rend Christ asunder” (Institutes 3:16:1). The two gifts of the double-grace are distinct yet inseparable.

In the book, I explore many specific ways that this plays out, and I draw upon sociological work to illustrate exactly how some of these “reductions” of the gospel have taken place. Then I explore the quite remarkable way in which a theology of union with Christ addresses these reductions of the gospel. For example, in the first chapter I draw on the sociological work of Christian Smith to show how God is seen as conveniently distant by many Christians today. And in response I describe a biblical and Reformational theology of salvation as adoption by the Triune God in Christ as an antidote to that problematic view of the gospel.

Trevin Wax: How does a proper understanding of “union with Christ” aid us in sanctification? Or better put, how does the reality of union with Christ help us become more like Him?

Todd Billings: Our temptation is to think that we should imitate Christ from a distance, or ask, “What would Jesus do?” This can often lead to a practice of sanctification that is focused upon ourselves and our own efforts rather than upon loving God and neighbor and growing in conformity to Christ.

There are several dimensions of good news relating to union with Christ here. First, we are not just given a ticket to heaven and then told to try really hard to act like Christ. By the Spirit’s power, we are given justification and sanctification as gifts. Thus, even our new life in Christ is a gift, not an achievement.

Second, we don’t follow Christ at a distance, but by the Spirit’s power we are united to Christ in His death and resurrection – Christ isn’t just a distant model from history, Christ lives in us by the Spirit. At the same time, this union remains a differentiated one so that we don’t confuse the work of Christians with the work of Christ.

Third, in light of union with Christ, we can go beyond the sermon punchline of “try harder to do good,” the moralistic preaching that is so common today. Instead, in gospel proclamation our true identity is held before us – that we are adopted children of the Triune God, whose true identity is in Christ by the Spirit. The exhortation becomes: live into this new identity, which is your true identity. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ because you have been united to Him in His death and resurrection.

Finally, undergirding all of this, it’s important to recognize that affirming the effectual work of the Spirit in sanctification is not to say that we can be lazy in sanctification or that our identity is annihilated in sanctification. Rather, it is to affirm that the Spirit is the One who brings life to those who are dead in sin, thus activating believers to love God and to service in the world. When the Spirit effectually acts in sanctification, we (in our created goodness) are being restored, not annihilated. This short video about the book explores a bit more how union with Christ illuminates misunderstandings about “total depravity.”

Trevin Wax: How does “union with Christ” challenge the prevailing ways we go about doing theology and ministry?

Todd Billings: My book is full of surprises for many people. It explores the surprising, astonishing ways in which a theology of union with Christ can illuminate our understanding of the gospel, correct misunderstandings, and change the conversation about many areas of theology and ministry. It does this through showing how a biblical theology of union with Christ, together with insights retrieved from the Reformation, can open up new avenues, new ways of approaching biblical and theological issues that shake up our contemporary categories.

For example, as this short video about the book explores, union with Christ can move us beyond an “either/or” that polarizes divine transcendence and mystery from the Christian’s union and communion with God.

The book also explores the insights provided by a theology of union with Christ as a way to move beyond shortcomings in our contemporary talk about ministry, as this short video about the book’s critique of “incarnational ministry” shows.

Trevin Wax: Thanks for writing such a helpful book, Todd. And thanks for stopping by to talk about it here!

Great article from Eric Geiger on offensive discipleship / pastoring vs. defensive discipleship:

There is a mammoth difference between offensive discipleship and defensive discipleship–a major difference between offensive pastoring and defensive pastoring. And a leader’s approach reveals his theology about the heart of people.

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs:

The author, Carmine Gallo shared 18 things that Jobs did in his presentations that every communicator needs to do. Here are a few that jumped out to me personally as applicable for pastors.

Download the first 8 Gospel Coalition booklets for only $4.99! Read up on important doctrinal issues such as Creation, the Holy Spirit, and the gospel with booklets from Kevin DeYoung, Tim Keller, Sam Storms, and others.

Maybe I Do Want Topical Preaching?

I know I need his Word exposed, no matter what it says. I know I need to hear all of it, even the parts that seem obscure and irrelevant.

I’m just saying that I need you to show me how those obscure bits are relevant, even if those Hebrew chiasms are as naturally fascinating to you as they are to my Sunday School teacher who doesn’t get out much. I need you to show me how those chiasms help me to trust more, hope more, love more, and what that faith, hope, and love look like in the different areas of my life. Make sense?