Augustine: Holiness Lost

The holiness of the chaste perishes one way if they commit adultery; it perishes another way if they become proud.

--Augustine, Sermons, 354.4

C.J.: Galatians 3

Just an excellent message on the opening verses of Galatians 3 by C.J. Mahaney.

I am thankful for the many things I have learned from the New Perspective(s), but this message, in my opinion, goes far deeper, is more faithful to the mind and heart of the apostle, and is vastly more helpful, than anything I have yet read by advocates of the New Perspective on Galatians 3.

Our problem is not, fundamentally, exclusivism. That is a symptom of something far deeper and more hideous. I'm becoming more and more convinced of this.

Immanuel Church: Nashville

Ah ha! The website for a very exciting young church is finally up. And makes me want to put some coffee on.

Two Kinds of Sermon Listening

I'm thinking, as my own hyper-critical attitude has been brought to my attention as I listen to sermons (or lectures, but especially sermons), that there seem to be two ways to listen to a sermon: external and internal. Critical (yes, yes, beyond the appropriate doctrinally critical eye one must always have turned on) and incarnational.

I tend to be the former. I want to be the latter (which is how I would want people to listen to me!). External listening analyzes, stands over, deconstructs, gauges, judges, and compares. Internal listening submits, sits under, exercises humility, receives, refuses to self-justify, and heeds no matter how incompetent the preacher or how mature the listener. The external listener stands outside the message; the internal listener gets inside it.

If we were all internal, incarnational listeners, the most famed preachers could learn and be edified by the most struggling seminarian, while the struggling seminarian would not despair in the light of, but receive the encouragement of, the famed preachers. Pride and discouragement would both be dealt with in one blow, and all would sit together under God's Word as little children, irrespective of worldly accolades and theological degrees.

Calvin: Our Relentless Enemy

Rediscovered this today in the Institutes:

We have been forewarned that an enemy relentlessly threatens us, an enemy who is the very embodiment of rash boldness, of military prowess, of crafty wiles, of untiring zeal and haste, of every conceivable weapon and of skill in the science of warfare. We must, then, bend our every effort to this goal: that we should not let ourselves be overwhelmed by carelessness or faintheartedness, but on the contrary, with courage rekindled stand our ground in combat. Since this military service ends only at death, let us urge ourselves to perseverance. Indeed, conscious of our weakness and ignorance, let us especially call upon God’s help, relying upon him alone in whatever we attempt, since it is he alone who can supply us with counsel and strength, courage and armor.

Calvin, Institutes, 1.14.13.

Mark 4 - Seeds

As you have doubtless caught on, I'm reading Mark these days!

I was reflecting on the parable of the sower in mark 4 and thinking that the second and third seeds are precise opposites. The first is the seed on the path which Satan steals. The second is seed on the rocky ground, which doesn't survive difficulties. The third is seed around which thorns come up. The last seed is fruitful.

The second seed is fruitless because of difficulty; the third seed is fruitless because of ease. One is barren due to "afflictions and persecutions," the other due to "the cares of this world."

It is not difficult for me to recognize which of these is a greater personal danger.

Boice: Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism overestimated what it could do in five years and underestimated what it could do in twenty years.

--James Montgomery Boice, as quoted by Mark Dever, Together for the Gospel panel discussion, 2006 (video available here)

Bultmann: Boasting

Bultmann got a lot of things wrong. But he got a lot right, too. As I've been reading him for the first time in any sustained way in recent days, I find his understanding of Paul much more satisfying than Sanders, Dunn, and co. For example:

The attitude of sinful self-reliance finds its extreme expression in man’s ‘boasting.’ It is characteristic both of the Jew, who boasts of God and the Torah (Rom. 2:17, 23), and of the Greek, who boasts of his wisdom (1 Cor. 1:19-31). It is also a natural tendency of man in general to compare himself with others in order to have his ‘boast’ thereby (Gal. 6:4).

--New Testament Theology, 1:242

Yes: there is a universal human tendency toward moral self-establishment of which Sanders appears to be completely ignorant, as much as he has helped us all in putting away once and for all a distorted, one-sided view of Early Judaism.

Gospel Coalition Interviews

Fascinating and encouraging series of interviews of those associated with The Gospel Coalition.

Mark 3 - Lord, Liar, Lunatic?

Many of us grew up being taught C. S. Lewis' famous argument for the deity of Jesus that he could not have been merely a "good teacher" - someone who said the kinds of things he said could only be one of three things: a lunatic and therefore insane, a liar and therefore evil, or Lord and therefore God incarnate. These are our only options.

I noticed that in Mark 3 we seem to have all three options presented to us as the readers.

In v. 11, the unclean spirits who see Jesus confess "You are the Son of God" (Lord).

In v. 21, Jesus has gone home and when a crowd gathers his own family decides, "He is out of his mind" (lunatic).

And in v. 22, the scribes assert, "He is possessed by Beelzebul" (liar/evil).

I recognize that since Lewis' time, and even the generation before, a fourth option was often taken: legend. Sure, some have said, if Jesus said the things the Gospels record, we was either a Lord, a liar, or a lunatic--if Jesus said the things the Gospels record. So in one sense this is far from a fool-proof argument.

Still, it makes the very important point that Jesus did not come merely to teach. As Pascal said, if Jesus came merely to teach, he has done nothing except erect a standard none of us can come anywhere near. But he did not come merely to teach, but to make us what he teaches we should be. His ministry is not only didactic; it is transformational. Not only external, but internal.

Finally, I note: his family got it wrong. The religious PhD's of the day got it wrong. The devils of hell got it right.