The Gospel Coalition

One thing the Bible makes clear is that self-righteousness is the premier enemy of the Gospel and no group of people better embodies the sin of self-righteousness in the Bible than the Pharisees. In fact, Jesus reserved his harshest criticisms for them, calling them whitewashed tombs and hypocrites.

In his new book The Prodigal God, Tim Keller rightly shows that the Pharisees were the primary audience Jesus had in mind when telling the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The Pharisees are compared to the elder brother, the one in the parable who “kept all the rules”, and did everything he was supposed to do. The elder brother is not a long-haired, tattooed indie rocker; he’s a clean-cut prep. He’s not a liberal; he’s a conservative. He’s not irreligious; he’s religious. If you’ve ever read S.E. Hinton’s novel The Outsiders, than you’ll immediately see that the younger brother in the parable is like a greaser, while the elder brother is like a soashe.

Now, it’s very interesting that in the Bible it’s always the immoral person that gets the Gospel before the moral person. It’s the prostitute who understands grace; it’s the Pharisee who doesn’t. It’s the unrighteous younger brother who gets it before the self-righteous older brother. Tim’s book points this out well. 

There is, however, another (perhaps more subtle) side to self-righteousness that younger brother types need to be careful of. There’s an equally dangerous form of self-righteousness that plagues the unconventional, the liberal, and the non-religious types. We anti-legalists can become just as guilty of legalism in the opposite direction. What do I mean?

It’s simple: we can become self-righteous against those who are self-righteous. Many younger evangelicals today are reacting to their parents’ conservative, buttoned-down, rule-keeping flavor of “older brother religion” with a type of liberal, untucked, rule-breaking flavor of “younger brother irreligion” which screams, ”That’s right, I know I don’t have it all together and you think you do; I know I’m not good and you think you are. That makes me better than you.” See the irony?

In other words, they’re proud that they’re not self-righteous!

Listen: self-righteousness is no respecter of persons. It reaches to the religious and the irreligious; the “buttoned down” and the “untucked.” The entire Bible reveals how shortsighted all of us are when it comes to our own sin. For example, it was easy for Jonah to see the idolatry of the sailors. It was easy for him to see the perverse ways of the Ninevites. What he couldn’t see was his own idolatry, his own perversion. So the question is, in which direction does your self-righteousness lean?

Thankfully, while our self-righteousness reaches far, God’s grace reaches farther. And the good news is, that it reaches in both directions!

Tim Keller, from his new book The Prodigal God (pg.15-16):

Jesus’ teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishoners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.

Ouch!

As I’ve mentioned a couple of times, I have the privilege of taking part in the first annual Together for Adoption conference this weekend.

From the Together for Adoption website:

It is difficult to believe that our conference is this coming Saturday. We are eager to meet everyone who has registered. For those of you who have not yet registered, there is still time. Click on the green conference button on the right to register. Also, we will be accepting walk-in registrations.

Here is the schedule:

Saturday, November 1

8:00 A.M. — Registration / Check-in / Bookstore / Exhibits / Networking

8:30 A.M. — Greeting / Introduction
Jason Kovacs, Director of Ministry Development, The ABBA Fund

8:40 A.M. — Maridel Sandberg, President of Christian Alliance for Orphans

8:50 A.M. — Dan Cruver (T4A Director)
“Adoption in God’s Story of Redemption”

9:20 A.M. — Break

9:30 A.M. — Richard Phillips
“The Good News of Adoption”

10:20 A.M. — Conversation with Richard Phillips

10:30 A.M. — Break

10:45 A.M. — Russell Moore
“God’s Joy in Adoption”

11:35 A.M. — Conversation with Russell Moore

11:45 A.M. – Offsite Lunch on Your Own / Exhibits / Networking / Bookstore

1:20 P.M. — Worship in Song
Jason Cornwell

1:30 P.M. — Carl Robbins
“Adoption and the Multi-Ethnic Family of God”

2:20 P.M. — Conversation with Carl Robbins

2:30 P.M.— Break

3:00 P.M. — Tullian Tchividjian
“Our Adoption and Visiting Orphans in Their Affliction”

3:50 P.M. — Conversation with Tullian Tchividjian

4:00 P.M. — Dismissal / Exhibits / Networking / Bookstore

4:15 P.M. — Workshops

Click here to register if you haven’t already.

John Seel on how culture changes:

Over the past twenty years, evangelicals have created a number of institutions that have fostered networks among the power elite. Among those whose influence is noted in this book are the Fellowship (organizers of America’s National Prayer Breakfast), the L’Abri Fellowship, The Trinity Forum, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, the Leadership Network, Act One, and Walden Media. While not all of these organizations and companies are explicitly evangelical, they have been important in fostering evangelical legitimacy within their respective spheres. The end result is that evangelicals have leveraged their economic capital to increase their social capital. “In elite circles,” Michael Lindsay writes, “social networks are critical to prestige.”

This strategy stems from a general acceptance that cultural change is top-down and guided by strategically placed gatekeepers. Infiltrating these gatekeeper networks has been one of the overarching objectives of these institutions. This view, based on research by Peter Berger, Philip Rieff, and Randall Collins, has been popularized in evangelical circles by sociologist James Davison Hunter: “Hunter argues that culture only changes when individuals and ideas infiltrate elite networks and the organizations they control.” Latent evangelical populism has resisted this overt elitism. Charles Colson writes, “I don’t believe societies are moved as much by the social elites as they are by changes in the habits of the heart. I think you have to give people, the mass of people, a different vision to live by . . . John Naisbitt said that fads start from the top down, movements from the bottom up.”

And yet, the reality-defining institutions of the academy, art, media, and entertainment, which are controlled by economic, social, and cultural elites, shape the “habits of the heart” of any given society. Having once worked for John Naisbitt, I can say with confidence that he was speaking about consumer trends, not cultural dynamics. The achievement of these institutions is to be applauded.

My friend Josh recently reminded me of these great lines from my former teacher, John Frame, on Christians and political choices taken from his excellent book The Doctrine of the Christian Life.

…in some cultures (like the ancient Roman, in which the New Testament was written) there is not much that Christians can do, other than pray, to influence political structures and policies. But when they can influence them, they should. In modern democracies, all citizens are ‘lesser magistrates’ by virtue of the ballot box. Christians have an obligation to vote according to God’s standards. And, as they are gifted and called, they should influence others to vote in the same way.

This is not to say that political choices are always obvious. Often we must choose the lesser of two evils. Candidate Mershon may have a better view of one issue than Candidate Beates, while Beates has a better view on a different issue. It is an art to weigh the importance of different issues and to come to a godly conclusion. Each of us should have a large amount of tolerance for other Christians who come to conclusions that are different from ours. Rarely will one issue trump all others, though I must say that I will never vote for a candidate who advocates or facilitates the killing of unborn children.

I just read this news out of Cambridge, England:

Famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking will retire from his prestigious post at Cambridge University next year, but intends to continue his exploration of time and space.

Read about it here.

Tim Keller’s new book The Prodigal God comes out next week. He explains here why he wrote it and what it’s about.

And here, you can read the Introduction and Chapter 1.

Here are some great lines by N.T. Wright from his book Surprised by Hope (pg. 199-200):

As genuine human beings, from Genesis 1 onward, we are given the mandate of looking after creation, of bringing order to God’s world, of establishing and maintaining communities. To suppose that we are saved, as it were, for our own private benefit, for the restoration of our own relationship with God (vital though that is!), and for our eventual homecoming and peace in heaven (misleading though that is!) is like a boy being given a baseball bat as a present and insisting that since it belongs to him, he must always and only play with it in private. But of course you can only do what you’re meant to do with a baseball bat when you’re playing with other people. And salvation only does what it’s meant to do when those who have been saved, are being saved, and will one day fully be saved realize that they are saved not as souls but as wholes and not for themselves alone but for what God now longs to do through them.

This is the week that I do my part to bring Unfashionable to the finish line. Last Friday I received editorial suggestions and comments back from one of my editors (David Kopp). I’m spending this week rearranging, rewriting, and revising certain sections based on Dave’s recommendations. Once I’m finished, I will send it off to my other editor (Thomas Womack) who will clean everything up and smooth everything out. Then, believe it or not, it goes through two more edits: line editing and copyediting (don’t ask me what the difference is between the two). During that process, though, I’m not very involved. But this week, I’m operating behind closed doors and slaving away. It’s fun, but incredibly tedious. So I need your prayers. Thanks.

My friend Darryl Dash recently asked Tim Keller this question:

You’ve said that we need to change significantly—beyond ordinary approaches like new programs or staff—in order to meet the challenges of a post-Christian culture. What are some of the deeper issues the Church needs to face?

You can read Tim’s comprehensive response here.