The Gospel Coalition

The subject of social justice and whether or not the church should involve itself in such things is a hot topic these days, especially amongst younger Evangelicals. I’ll never forget a conversation I had a couple years ago with a good friend named Lee. We were sitting in a hotel room discussing whether the church has been enlisted by God to be involved in social justice issues. Lee was apprehensive about that idea simply because he believed Christians have one primary responsibility—evangelism. And if the church gets too involved in social justice, it will become distracted from its principal task. Although we ended up agreeing to disagree, Lee’s concerns were understandable.

It was a good and lively conversation.

Well, enter Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC. Tim has been speaking about justice for many years but has just recently put his Biblically seasoned, gospel-saturated insights into a new book coming out in October of this year entitled Generous Justice. Here is the publishers description:

It is commonly thought in our secular culture that the Bible is one of the great hindrances to doing justice. In Generous Justice, Timothy Keller illuminates a life of justice empowered by an experience of grace: a generous, gracious justice.

Generous Justice is a book for believers who find the Bible a trustworthy guide, as well as for those who suspect that Christianity is a regressive influence in the world.

Keller calls upon life-long Christians to deepen their faith by understanding that justice for the poor and marginalized is central to the Scripture’s message and challenges skeptics to recognize that the Bible is actually the basis for the modern understanding of justice.

Like all of Tim’s books, this one promises to be mind blowing, heart warming, will bending, and trend setting.

My good friend West Breedlove (Director of Music in Worship at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church–the church I served right out of seminary) preached a powerful sermon last night (Ash Wednesday) on Psalm 51 entitled “A Portrait of Repentance.” You can listen to the whole thing here. You can also read the entire text of his rich sermon here.

In his sermon he quotes Paige Benton Brown who said:

David committed spiritual adultery way before physical adultery. He lost sight of the beauty of God, then found the beauty of Bathsheba. He didn’t sin and lose the joy of his salvation. He lost the joy of his salvation, then he sinned.

My friend Justin highlights some golden, gospel-words about marriage (although they could be applied to every relationship) from Paul Tripp’s forthcoming book, What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage:

[God's] grace purposes to expose and free you from your bondage to you. His grace is meant to bring you to the end of yourself so that you willing finally begin to place your identity, your meaning and purpose, and your inner sense of well-being in him.

So he places you in a comprehensive relationship with another flawed person, and he places that relationship right in the middle of a very broken world.

To add to this, he designs circumstances for you that you would have never designed for yourself.

All this is meant to bring you to the end of yourself, because that is where true righteousness begins.

He wants you to give up.

He wants you to abandon your dream.

He wants you to face the futility of trying to manipulate the other person into your service.

He knows there is no life to be found in these things.

What does this practically mean?

It means the trouble that you face in your marriage is not an evidence of the failure of grace.

No, these troubles are grace.

They are tools God uses to pry us out of the stultifying confines of the kingdom of self so that we can be free to luxuriate in the big-sky glories of the kingdom of God.

This means that you and I will never understand our marriages and never be satisfied with them until we understand that marriage is not an end to itself.

No, the reality is that marriage has been designed by God to be a means to an end.

When you make it the end, bad things happen.

But when you begin to understand that it is a means to an end, then you begin to enjoy and see the value in things that you would not have been able to enjoy before.

As a response to 1 Peter 2:13-17, Scotty Smith offers this convicting, gospel-centered President’s Day prayer:

Heavenly Father, it’s President’s Day in our nation—a perfect day for praying for our authorities. As this day begins, my own heart stands convicted about how little I pray with gratitude for our past Presidents, and how very little I pray with faith for our sitting President. Forgive me, and by the power of the gospel, change my grace-less attitude.

It’s been easier for me to live as a cynic about government, especially this government, than to live as a servant of God—really believing that you set up and sit down kings, presidents, premiers and governors at your bidding. In many ways, I’m one of the “foolish men” Peter wrote about in this passage—someone whose “ignorant talk” should be silenced by more gospel sanity. Show me what “doing good” looks like as a dual citizen of the United Sates and the Kingdom of God. Show me how to use my freedom wisely and how I’m to show proper respect to everyone, including our President. You’re not calling me to be passive, but neither are you calling me to be a gospel-less pest.

Father I’m ashamed and humbled to realize that when Peter wrote this letter, Nero, the megalomaniac, was the sitting “president” in Rome. It’s obvious that Peter lived with more faith in the King of Kings than fear of the madman of madmen. Help me to do the same, Father, help me to do the same…

There’s only one everlasting Kingdom… there’s only one King worthy of my unqualified submission and obedience, and that is you, Lord Jesus. You are the “rock-becoming-a-mountain-of-redemption,” which one day will fill the whole earth (Daniel 2). You are the one upon whose shoulders the Father has placed the government of the whole world (Isaiah 9), and of the increase of your government and peace there will be NO end. You are the “ruler of the kings of the earth.” I honor you as my King… I worship you as my Savior… I love you as my Bridegroom.

One of my modern day heroes, author and Bible teacher Jerry Bridges, was kind enough to read my forthcoming book Surprised by Grace (May 2010) and offer this super encouraging endorsement:

The book of Jonah is more than the story of a prophet who ran from God. It is actually the story of the grace of God which overcomes Jonah’s stubborn rebellion. In this outstanding book Tullian Tchividjian helps us see that there is something of Jonah in all of us, and that we stand in need of the same grace of God every day. I was both convicted and encouraged by this book, and highly recommend it to every Christian.

Thank-you Jerry. You have consistantly pushed me to Jesus by teaching me that the gospel doesn’t simply ignite the Christian life; it’s the fuel that keeps Christian’s going and growing every day.

Welcome to the brand new Coral Ridge website! We are grateful to our friends at Church Plant Media for partnering with us to create our new web presence. There’s still a lot of that needs to be done to the site–it’s definately a work in progress. And if you have any suggestions, we’re all ears! Seriously, we’re interested in your feedback.

So, thank-you for your patience. And thank-you Kal Hendry (our communications director) for working so tirelessly to give us a web makeover.