Never assume the gospel!

I’ve had this post sitting in my draft section for quite a few weeks, and simmering in my head for quite a few months.

And then I came across this.

Needless to say, I binned my post, as this says everything I want to say in a clearer and more powerful way.

The key gist of the excerpt:

When we think of the gospel, we may have a feeling that “We already know that. Ho-hum.” We assume the gospel as a given. We assume that the people in our churches know the gospel, and we are anxious to move on to more “relevant” and “practical” topics. The gospel is being set aside in our minds and hearts in favor of a broad range of issues, as broadly ranging as evangelicalism is fragmented, while the heart and soul of our faith is falling into obscurity through neglect. The holy mysteries of the incarnation, cross, resurrection, ascension and heavenly reign of our Lord, the great themes of election, propitiation, justification and sanctification, the power and deceitfulness of sin, the meaning of faith and repentance, our union with our crucified, buried and risen Lord, the infinitely superior value of our heavenly reward compared with anything this life has to offer (including the Christian life), the final judgment and eternity—these glorious themes which lie at the very center of our faith, which made the church great at her greatest moments in the past and which can do the same again for us today if only we will recover them and exploit them confidently, prayerfully and biblically, these infinitely precious treasures are being bypassed in favor of legitimate but secondary matters of concern. We must guard the centrality of that which is central.

We should not think, “Well, of course we have the gospel. The Reformation recovered it for us.” Such complacency will cost us dearly. Every generation of Christians must be retaught afresh the basic truths of our faith. The church is always one generation away from total ignorance of the gospel, and we today are making rapid progress toward that ruinous goal. Rather than carelessly assume the gospel, we must aggressively, deliberately, fully and passionately teach and preach the gospel. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. If we do not intentionally search them out, we will miss them.

The conclusion? The gospel is the center of the church. Don’t assume it. Don’t neglect it. Don’t abandon it. If you do, there is no reason for God not to abandon us all together.

How to live as an ‘ordinary’ Christian, Part 3

Colossians 4:5
Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

Walking in wisdom towards outsiders

What does it mean to walk in wisdom towards outsiders? Paul’s prayer for the Colossians that they might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding gives us a hint. It would not be farfetched to infer that the walk of wisdom is a walk that is in line with the will of God, that is that we be like Christ. To use the biblical phrasing, to walk in wisdom towards outsiders is to be as Christ-like as we can possibly be towards outsiders. The outsiders here refer to those outside the church.

How does this practically work out in our lives? Well, it begins with prayer. As the Christian prays to be more Christ-like and sees and understands what Christ is like, he will imitate Christ. And in doing so, he is a model, however imperfect, of Christ to the non-believer. Our lives are a witness to Christ. While no one will be saved by observing Christ-likeness apart from a proclamation of the gospel, it is a crucial step in winning people to Christ.

However, as many of us soon discover, walking in this way towards outsiders is like walking in a minefield. We need wisdom to recognise where the mines are and how best to navigate through the minefield. Some mines ought to be disarmed, others ought to be sidestepped, but more often than not we always end up stepping on a mine. This mostly stems from the fact that there are so many things we can do (and say – we’ll ignore this for now and return to it in the 5th mark), but there is only so little time. So we have to make choices. We might have to pass up one good action for another.  This relates to the next mark.

How to live as an ‘ordinary’ Christian, Part Two

Colossians 4:3-4
At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

The second mark of the ordinary Christian is that he prays steadfastly for those in ministry.

Prayer for those in ministry

Paul asks that we not only limit to prayers for ourselves, but also pray for those in formal ministry. This does not mean that prayer for ourselves is selfish. Prayer for ourselves to become like Christ is anything but selfish, because such prayers glorify God. They glorify God in the now by showing that the Christian lives entirely on the grace of God. They glorify God in the long run, because as we become more like Christ, he becomes more visible to those we share our lives with, and in that he is glorified. Paul is drawing a logical conclusion: if believers are praying that they become more like Christ, it is because they want Christ to be glorified. But it is not enough to live like Christ. Ultimately, he must be proclaimed.

More often than not, it is teachers and pastors and evangelists who are given the opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Christ. A good reason for this is that they are specifically tasked with the responsibility of clearly articulating the gospel, that both believers and non-believers might hear and receive the grace of God. It is essential that we pray that this word from the Bible be clear, that Christ might be glorified by verbal proclamation. Those in formal ministry need these prayers simply because it is difficult for them to maintain their conviction and clarity by sheer willpower, especially in the face of opposition and stony hearts.

They need the grace of God to open doors to the word.

They need the grace of God to convict their hearts of the truth of sin, the righteousness of Christ and the judgment to come.

They need the grace of God to persevere in the face of opposition.

They need the grace of God to boldly and clearly proclaim the gospel, despite the suffering and persecution it will bring.

The latter is especially true of missionaries who have to confront a hostile culture with the gospel. Suffering is the price of the gospel, and it is price more keenly felt by those on the mission field. We should pray that God will help them to persevere for his cause, open for them a door for the word, and that they might clearly proclaim Christ crucified as they ought to. In doing so, Christ is glorified as people from more and more nations are gathered.

At this point you might realise that it would be impossible to pray for everyone in formal ministry during the course of your day. But we are not asked to pray for everyone. Paul appeals to the fact that the Colossians know who he is. Similarly, we ought to pray for those that we know first. This would be our pastors and teachers and perhaps missionary friends. Outside this circle, we can pray for missionaries we know of. This might require us to get in touch with a mission agency and praying for their missionaries. Good alternatives would be to look at things like Global Prayer Digest or the Joshua Project.

Finally, I want to add that prayers need not be restricted to those in ‘formal’ ministry. Some of you might see no distinction between praying for missionaries and praying for the work of evangelism in the city – I would want to argue for a maintenance of the distinction between a missionary and lay people like me doing the work of evangelism (especially in light of the increasing emphasis on what it means to be a missional church), but would encourage prayer for the gospel-spreading work of both.

How to live as an ‘ordinary’ Christian, Part 1

When I use the word ordinary here, let me remind you that it in no way implies that the Christian life is boring. To borrow an image or two from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, it is a journey to the Celestial City, fraught with danger and temptation. No one yawns in a fight.

The first mark is prayer for Christ-likeness.

Prayer for Christ-likeness

Paul’s instruction to the church at Colosse is simple. Continue steadfastly in prayer. Consistent daily prayer ought to mark the life of the believer. What do we pray for? There are many things to pray for. The Lord’s prayer would be a good start. But perhaps here we should look back at Paul’s prayer for the Colossian believers in the first chapter. There he prays that they “may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”. Paul’s prayer contains a single request – to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will.

I want to carefully point out that ‘will’ here does not refer to God’s will of decree, which is kept hidden from us, but to his will of desire, which is specially revealed to us through his Word. Searching for the will of direction so often talked about in ‘evangelical’ circles is simply unbiblical, and even crippling to the ordinary believer. For a clear explanation of this, I refer you to Kevin DeYoung’s book, Just Do Something.

Every ordinary believer ought to pray this, that the Father might fill them with the knowledge of his will. This will of desire is simply what God desires us to be like as he has revealed in the Bible. And God’s will of desire for us can be summed up as this: to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. So in effect the believer prays that they be conformed to the likeness of Christ. This involves knowledge – knowing what Christ is like and what he is pleased with, so that the clearer we see him, the more we become like him. The purpose of becoming like Christ is that we may be worthy to bear his name. The ordinary Christian prays that he might live up to the name he bears.

He realises that praying precedes all Christian living. If God does not act to fill them with the knowledge of Christ, then the Christian cannot become like Christ. Prayer signals our dependence on the grace of the Father to become like the Son. And in doing so, God gets the glory and we get the joy. He is seen to equip us for every good work we do, and we are transformed from one degree of glory to another, that we might increasingly have the capacity to more fully enjoy the pleasures of Christ. Paul knows this clearly, that there is progress in this life. We do become more and more like Christ. This is why he says that we are to be watchful in prayer with thanksgiving. So not only are we to pray that we might be more like Christ, but we are to give thanks for the grace God has given us thus far.

I cannot adequately sum up what it would mean to be Christ-like in such a short post – after all that is why God provided us with the Bible, to show us Himself in Christ! But I would like to raise a less obvious example of what it means to be Christ-like in practice. In addition to humility, kindness, compassion, holiness, and all the other attributes Paul lists out in Colossians and many other letters, our prayers are to be Christ-like as well. Christ prayed for God to be glorified through him above all other things. Believers have the opportunity to not only glorify Christ in the way they live, but to glorify Christ by preaching him and his cross to others, that they might believe and in turn glorify Christ with their own lives. Therefore, our prayers should also be centered on our informal ministry to others. Practically, this involves praying for the other marks – for wisdom in relating with non-believers, for wisdom in managing our time, and for grace and salt in our speech.

The bottom line is this: believers, even ordinary believers, are to engage in steadfast prayer for Christ-likeness in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity. All can pray, for all who come to the cross are children in need of their Heavenly Father’s grace.

How to live ordinary lives as a Christian, Intro

Colossians 4:2-6
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Life for the ordinary believer

Not all Christians are in formal ministry, whether it be as teachers, pastors, or evangelists. Many Christians do ordinary things for the majority of their lives, whether it be as students or workers holding a job from 8 to 5 (or even longer). It is all very easy for pastors to preach from the pulpit that telling people about the gospel ought to be part of the daily activity of a Christian – and indeed it should be – but practically speaking we hit a sizeable obstacle. The truth is that oftentimes these opportunities are rare and far apart. And it does the ordinary Christian no good to simply bash them over the head with the fact that they aren’t evangelising sufficiently and then not offer some wise counsel on how this might work out in their daily lives.

What then is wise counsel for the ordinary believer who wants to know how he should conduct his life? Colossians 4:2-6 offers clear and wise words of counsel from the apostle Paul, and it is a passage that was impressed upon my heart tonight. The depth of wisdom and practicality contained within these  few instructions Paul leaves for the church at Colosse merits exposition. We ought to study carefully these few verses, that we may know how to live ordinary lives to the glory of Christ. I have identified 5 things that ought to mark the life of an ordinary Christian believer: prayer for Christ-likeness, prayer for those in ministry, walking in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of their time, and gracious, seasoned speech. We will look at these over the next 5 days.

(Note: I have in fact written out the whole exposition, but I realised it was a bit raw and quite long. Therefore I’ve chosen to break it up, that I might have more time to spend polishing each mark, and that it might be more digestible. Also, with a horribly busy schedule lined up for me for the next few days, this arrangement means I’ll be able to consistently post yet not need to spend too much time on it to the detriment of my other commitments.)

A sword that is sheathed is of no value

I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you. – Psalm 119:11

Note how the psalmist fights against sin. It is primarily not by sheer willpower, the encouragements of other Christians, carrying a bible around in your back pocket (or as is all the rage nowadays, on your handphone), or even prayer. It is primarily by the Word of God stored up in his heart, that is committing the Word of God to memory that it might be called upon, or come to mind, at any time.

I think we lose something precious in the fight against sin when we give up on memorising the Word of God. The pleasures of sin are constantly enticing us to give in. But give sin an inch and it takes a mile. These pleasures are short-lived, but the guilt that follows weighs upon us like a ton a bricks. You want to fight your way out, but you feel hopeless against the relentless onslaught of sin on your will. This is the experience of every Christian living on this side of redemption. We are reckoned righteous in Christ, but we remain sinners. It is a tension we struggle with daily.

Paul says to put to death your sinful nature by the Spirit. We also know that the Spirit does not work apart from the Word, but through the Word. Therefore, it seems natural to Paul that fighting sin must involve the Word. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say that Paul believed that fighting sin was impossible apart from the Word, for he calls it the sword of the Spirit. After all, how do you fight an enemy without a weapon? And spiritual enemies require spiritual weapons.

But a sword that is sheathed is of no value. Similarly, to keep the Word in our Bibles is of no value. A sword must be drawn, and likewise the Word must be drawn out of the Bible, into us. Also, a sword that is blunt, is not a weapon fit for battle. The Word must be kept sharp, and there is no sharper Word than one which is stored up in our heart, ready to be called upon without a moment’s notice.

A major objection to memorising the Word of God is that there is a lack of time. I wish to point out that there is no better use of our time than to fight sin by memorising the Word. After all, if we are destined to be conformed to the likeness of Christ, then our primary goal in life must be to fight sin. Many also believe it is beyond their abilities to memorise so much. I beg to differ. I’m always surprised at how well my peers can remember song lyrics, but that they in turn are surprised at how well I remember a lot of different things. The difference is seldom one of ability, but of priorities. If you truly believe that the Word of God is the most precious thing one can have in this life, for in it we can find Christ, then you would devote time to studying and storing it up in your heart, instead of wasting your attention on inane lyrics that might sound good but turn out to be noisy gongs and clanging cymbals.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not calling for people to plunge into memorising whole books of the Bible straightaway. The mind is like a muscle. It needs to be exercised. Start slowly. Begin by being selective. As you improve your skills in this discipline, you will gradually be able to take on bigger and bigger portions of the Bible. At this point, you’ll see the immense value of knowing chapters, and books by heart.

Finally, if you value your life, if you value Christ, then please do all that you can to fight sin. It is a traitor, which pretends to be working for our good, but ultimately intends to destroy us. Only God works all things for our good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And his purpose is that we might be conformed to the likeness of his Son. If we are to be like Christ, we must fight sin. So take up those swords, keep them sharp and keep them drawn. The enemy comes like a thief in the night. Stay vigilant.

 

Of Facebook and Twittering Birds (or rather Tweeting)

Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and blogs are so much a part of our lives today that it has become difficult to imagine the world before online social networking.

Much has been written on the topic of social networking over the Internet, and some of the articles on this topic have been engaging and even instructional. I don’t intend to add any original contributions to this issue from a theological perspective, but rather would just like to call to mind some of the principles dictating our use of these tools. To this end, I propose asking ourselves three questions:

1. Is it ultimate?

When your time and effort is consumed with such activities, and you suffer from withdrawal symptoms when you abstain from their use for a period, then I would argue that it is ultimate. You have elevated it to a position in your heart that compels you to dedicate the majority of your time to it, and that causes you to hunger for it in its absence. That position is reserved for God alone. Anything or anyone else that occupies that position is an idol. To be proud of your addiction to social networking sites (or to any other idol for that matter) is a derogatory offense to God, because you are taking pride in your rebellion against him. Some people wear this (addiction) as a badge of pride, but it is in reality the slavery chain of sin.

Also, it is easy to fall into the trap of ignorantly elevating a means of glorifying God into an end. Some might see Facebook as an efficient way to keep in touch with people and minister to their needs – but if all you ever do is spend time on Facebook and not with the actual people themselves, then I don’t think I’m too far off the mark when I denounce that it has become an end.

2. Is it wise?

The Bible constantly calls for us to make the most of our time, using it wisely, because the days are evil (Eph 5: 16). Some people regard Facebook as an effective tool to reach as many people as possible with some truth of the gospel. I agree that if the tool is there, and it’s already filled with so much nonsense, having a shred of truth there can only help some. But then I would ask whether it’s the best use of the time you’ve been given. This is something that each must decide for himself. I’ve personally worked out that Facebook is great for dropping a comment here and there (especially birthday wishes), engaging in the occasional banter, and organising events. I used to look at Facebook statuses and photos, before I realised I would hardly talk to most of the people I was looking at (which begs the question why they’re on my ‘friends’ list). So I’ve also tried to cut this down to closer friends and relatives. This in turn has freed me up to use my time for more profitable pursuits, whether it’s reading a book, doing that extra bit of studying or research, and meeting up with friends in person.

3. Is it narcissistic?

In other words, do you use social networking tools to bolster what people think of you? Is it an expression of your own vanity? The word comes from the Greek legend of Narcissus. Using the Wikipedia description, Narcissus was a handsome Greek youth who rejected the desperate advances of the nymph Echo. As punishment, he was doomed to fall in love with his own reflection in a  pool of water. Unable to consummate his love, Narcissus pined away and changed into a flower that bears his name, the narcissus.

There’s a lesson to be learnt here. Are you so in love with yourself that you must announce to the world everything that is going on in your own world, or should that only be reserved for a few close friends and those who sincerely ask you? Occasional status updates are not a bad thing, but if you seem to be updating something about yourself every hour or two, with trivial comments like ‘eating a kit kat bar’, ’staring at book’, ‘thinking of her’, you might want to consider the motives behind these comments. People don’t generally blab out loud in public about what they are feeling or doing. The same might be somewhat true of the tweeting world, although I do leave some negotiating room for legitimate expression of one’s self. Another common expression of vanity I’ve observed is that of posting ‘profound’ statements, which in fact make no sense and only serve to add to your ‘mystique and intellect’.

What exactly is the problem if your use of Facebook and Twitter is an expression of your narcissism? I think it serves to increasingly turn a person’s focus in on himself, such that his every waking thought is preoccupied with himself. And the consequences of this are not dissimilar to those of Narcissus, who was unable to ‘consummate’ his love. In other words, loving yourself leads nowhere but increasing self-despair. You can never satisfy yourself with yourself. Also, it doesn’t encourage humility, which C.S. Lewis helpfully explains as not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. And if we truly desire to be Christ-like, then we ought to make progress in humility. And for the record, I just can’t imagine Jesus tweeting, “praying on mountainside. will select 12 disciples in a moment” or “walking on water. will update when I reach boat”.

Some concluding remarks

Some of you might disagree with what I have had to say. Some might even reckon that my blogging is in some ways narcissistic, in that I think everyone ought to listen to me. I can’t deny that some selfish motive along those lines does exist somewhere within my sinful heart, but by the grace of God I hope the three questions above might be a useful guideline in deciding the manner in which we use social networking sites for the glory of God.

To put God in an awfully small box

This line caught my attention as I was reading Mohler’s article:

The Bishop Discovers Heresy?

This article was written in response to an address made by Dr. Katherine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting this week in Anaheim, California, in which she raised the issue of heresy.

She drew attention to the ‘great Western heresy’ – “that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God. It’s caricatured in some quarters by insisting that salvation depends on reciting a specific verbal formula about Jesus. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry, for it puts me and my words in the place that only God can occupy, at the center of existence, as the ground of being. That heresy is one reason for the theme of this Convention.”

Her line ‘to put God in an awfully small box’, however, does not come from her address. It comes from an interview she gave to Time magazine concerning Jesus Christ:

“We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.”

It caught my attention because it’s not the first time I’ve heard it use in this context. Those who would advocate a pluralistic gospel, or even universalism, often use this phrase. Let us examine where her reasoning is faulty.

The first error lies in her understanding of ‘we who practice the Christian tradition’. She considers Jesus as ‘our vehicle to the divine’. You might say I’m being picky with my words, but don’t miss out the subtle implications this choice of words can have on our soteriology (theology of salvation). Man has sought to reach the heavens ever since we rebelled against the One True God. Therefore, be careful not to see Jesus as a vehicle to the divine, let alone one of many vehicles. The truth is that there is no vehicle to the divine. Rather, the divine has come to us. We do not go to God, but He, in Christ, drew near to us. At the end of time, we do not go to heaven; rather heaven comes down to us. The divine descends into creation. Creation does not ascend into the divine.

If we miss out this truth, it becomes a slippery slope to  the next error. “To assume that God could not act in other ways” is a strange statement when considererd in the light of the previous truth. The divine has already come down. What else can he do? This error assumes that God is preparing many vehicles to him. The truth is that God has, in Christ, come down to us, to gather a people for his praise and glory. We do not need to ascend to the divine, because he has descended to us. We are thus to congregate under the banner of Christ, the Incarnate God who died to purchase a people for himself.

And now we turn to the phrase “to put God in an awfully small box”. The question I wish to raise now is, who is putting God in an awfully small box?

Is God small for not upholding his righteousness? His righteousness demands that all glory be abscribed to him. When we fall short of that, his justice demands punishment for offending a person of such infinite dignity. His infinite worth demands our eternal punishment. Therefore only a substitute of infinite worth can pay the penalty that our rebellion demands. Is Jesus so small that any other animal or human could equally pay this penalty?

This statement is also often twisted in a way to imply that God’s love transcends all boundaries. Far from it, God’s love comes to us on the narrow way of Jesus Christ. We have too easily substituted the holy love of God for a wapish sentimental love. The holy love of God despises sin – God cannot feel anything but wrath for sinners. Yet in Christ, God is able to love sinners, because their sin is paid for by the blood of Jesus, and his righteousness is reckoned as their own. Without Christ there is no forgiveness of sins, and the wrath of God remains on us – there is no love of God towards sinners apart from Christ. In his mercy, God has given us his Son and thus we sing not only of his holiness, but also of his mercy. The love of God is always and only mediated through Jesus.

To use a story Jesus told, the world is divided into sheep and goats. The goats will be cast into the lake of fire, but the sheep will enjoy eternity in the presence of God. What makes sheep sheep, and goats goats, is the electing love of God made manifest in the person of Jesus. If Jesus, the great shepherd, calls your name, then you are one of his sheep. If he does not, then you are a goat. You can be one of his sheep because he as the shepherd is the one (and only) mediator between God and man. Without this mediator, we are forever goats, forever enemies of the divine.

So Jesus Christ is the God who descended to us – who became incarnate. He is the sinless man who could pay the penalty of our sin, the only man who was perfectly righteous. The Risen Christ is the banner we unite under, and he continues to be the mediator given to us from heaven. In being all this (and more!), he gets the glory. No one can take it away from him, because no one can perfectly fulfill any of these roles, let alone all of them at the same time. To think that anyone else can bring us to God is to minimise the worth of Jesus Christ. And that is to put God in an awfully small box.

Can the death of an icon be a good measure of our faith?

I’ve not written here for quite a while. So long in fact that it is likely that those who follow me on their RSS feed will probably be the only ones who might read this. But today’s events have stirred up a few sentiments that I must express in writing somewhere. So welcome back from your quarantine, blog of mine!

I opened up facebook this morning, and saw a flood of statuses concerning Michael Jackson, and some to Farrah Fawcett as well. To be honest, I have no clue who Farrah Fawcett is. So much so that I had to wiki her, wondering whether I might have seen her before. The answer was still no. I suppose I’m either too young or too culture unsavvy. But we all know who Michael Jackson is.

How should Christians ought to respond to the death of a cultural icon like Michael Jackson? I think this is  a bold statement to make, but I think our response is a good measure of our faith. To be clear, I use faith here in the sense of our tangible belief in the Trinitarian God of Christianity and the living relationship that belief in Jesus brings about. Now this might have confused the issue somewhat, so a simpler way to put it might be to say how well we know God and treasure him, and so become like him as we behold him.

There are 3 general ways one can respond. I didn’t really have to be too creative on this point. All I had to do was go through all the live messenger and facebook statuses.

1. Nonchalance

We might express a casual lack of concern, simply because these people meant nothing to us. I think this response is only half right. It may be true that these people meant nothing to us, but because their death receives so much publicity, it ought to remind us that death afflicts everyone, and there are those who will die today who have not heard of Jesus. This should stir in us compassion for the lost people we currently know and spur us to much agonising prayer over the salvation of their souls, pleading for God to bring about his regenerating work through the Spirit in their hearts that they might have eyes to see the beauty of Jesus and place their trust in him.

2. Delight

Personally, I think this is a rather disgusting response. For Christians to say that the world is a better place without people like these reflects an attitude of self-righteousness, not unlike the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector told in the gospel of Luke. It is true that they did sinful things. We associate cultural icons with all manner of sinful behaviour, especially sexual immorality and wanton extravagance, and it is right to frown on such sinful behaviour. In fact, it is right to detest such behaviour. But we ought to detest such behaviour because they are abhorrent to God, so much so that to satisfy his standard of justice, he had to send Jesus to die in our place for our sins – and this includes us as well, because we are equally sinful in the sight of God – that we might receive forgiveness through his blood. The condemnation of sin in the Bible is accompanied by the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so our condemnation of sin ought to be accompanied by the gospel of Jesus, whose redeeming power ought to be daily applied to our lives in godly training and sin killing.

3. Sadness

Most Christians will respond in this manner. Culture makers like Michael Jackson are bound to leave an indelible mark somewhere in our lives and so their death also signals the death of something in our lives. As humans, I think we do not create our identity but draw it from people and things, past and present. And so when any influence on our lives passes out of this world, a hole is left in our identity that we mourn over. We say our condolences, maybe a simple rest in peace, or express our shock or sadness. There is a subgroup, who might just utter these platitudes because they feel that is the appropriate thing to say, but I would throw them into the category of nonchalance. (More worryingly, it is increasingly popular for people to mourn inappropriately over the death of celebrities for no perceivable rational reason, as we saw with Diana, and more recently with Big Brother participant Jade Goody. I might explore this at some point in the future.)

I think this response falls short of the grief God expects us to have. We are to be sad, not because we have lost someone that meant something to our lives, but because someone like Michael Jackson is headed to hell, having never been reconciled with God through Jesus, insofar as we know. We grief over those who have not had the opportunity to treasure the supremacy of Christ in their lives. All the more because this person meant something to us, we ought to make every effort to preach the gospel to those we love who have not heard or placed their trust in Jesus. There is added urgency, increased compassion and a stoked passion for the supremacy of God to be made known in the mercy he offers all through Jesus.

Can the death of an icon be a good measure of our faith? Yes. Because they are icons, their sins and death are public affairs. And so their stir to the forefront of our lives thoughts and feelings we would otherwise leave unheeded. These are problems that afflict us all. All have sinned. And all will die. But as Christians, we know that the sting of death is sin. People are afraid to die, because they refuse or cannot acknowledge the glory of God. To many of us, death seems like leaving behind all that is good in the world for something unknown. For people who do not belief in the afterlife, death seems like non-existence, away from all the goodness this life has had to offer. And to those aware of the reality of hell, in whatever form, where our sins are condemned, death seems like an awful prospect. But God has sent Jesus. He has defeated the devil who held the power of death. The accusations of Satan do not hold because we have an advocate, Jesus, who will vouch for our righteousness on the Day of Judgment. There is no sting. More so, we have been reconciled into the family of God. It is a glorious hereafter, in which each chapter is better than the one before. Christians must learn to immerse themselves more and more in the reality of heaven by knowing God better and treasuring his many perfections.

Our response to the death of a cultural icon is a good measure of how well we know God, and how much we treasure him. The more we know and treasure him, the more compassion we will feel towards those who are lost. We feel compassion because they do not yet know the joys he offers those in fellowship with him. Undergirding that compassion is the fact that God is not known! And where he is not known, he will only be glorified by his justice and wrath, and not infinitely more by his love and mercy. If we responded with delight, we must learn to humble ourselves and see that we were once children of wrath, saved only by grace. If we respond with nonchalance, we must be reminded that death afflicts us all, and that God has deigned us to be instruments for proclamation of the gospel of Jesus and fulfill this urgent calling. If we respond with sadness, we must cultivate this into grief. Grief for the lost. Grief that God is not known. Grief that does not incapacitate us but propels us to make the most of every opportunity to proclaim the gospel of Jesus.

Having found out about the death of Michael Jackson, I was somewhat shocked. But I felt little sadness at the fact that he had not known Jesus. And this nonchalance struck me to the very core of my being. Why is my capacity for compassion so small? It is because I have yet to plumb the depths of the glory of God. Every fibre of my being does not scream of the greatness of the Saviour. The ignorance of God does not pain me. I do not know him or treasure him enough yet. In this way the death of MJ is a good measure of my faith. It calls me to repent of my sinful disregard for God and my selfish living and lack of love for the lost and make every effort to know and treasure God better. But even now I am thankful that God is gracious and has not left me to wallow deeper and deeper in my sin but offers forgiveness and calls me to action for the sake of his name.

Also, check out this related post on Between Two Worlds: http://theologica.blogspot.com/2009/06/michael-jackson-1958-2009.html

Unbelief is a moral issue

Here’s something rather interesting I came across while reading Total Church.

How do we employ rational apologetics in our evangelism today? By rational apologetics, I mean intellectually reasoning out defences for the Christian faith, against questions such as:

• Why is there suffering in the world?
• Can a loving God send people to Hell?
• Surely the Bible is a fictional book, especially when it comes to supernatural things like miracles.
• How reliable is the Bible?

I think many of us fall into two extremes in regard to the use of apologetics in evangelism. One extreme is that we treat apologetics as a sufficient tool to bring people to the point of belief in Jesus. This is based on the premise that most people are ignorant, and that intellectual reasoning can convince a person to place their faith in Jesus. The other extreme is that we dismiss apologetics as a tool in evangelism, either because we think it should be left to the experts or ’smarter’ Christians, or because we believe that there is no room for intellect in the Christian faith.

The authors offer good insight as to how we ought to employ rational apologetics. Succintly put, the problem of unbelief is not an intellectual issue, but rather a moral issue. As Paul puts it, “men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18). There is a place for rational apologetics. Peter exhorts Christians everywhere to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks them to give the reason for the hope that they have” (1 Peter 3:15). There is a manner in which we ought to use rational apologetics. “But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience.” This is because the Christian faith is a reasonable faith.

Nevertheless it is faith – it requires us to believe in the invisible God, who reveals Himself as He pleases. And He has fully revealed Himself in the person of Jesus, who fully revealed Himself on the cross. But the cross is “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles”; however “to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:23-24). Rational apologetics can help us establish reason, but faith is a gift of God. It is a gift that comes when God opens our blind eyes and deaf ears, and removes our hostility towards Him, so that we can see and hear and savour the truth and beauty of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, don’t expect to convince an unbeliever to come to Christ by mere reasoning alone. It needs more than that. It needs the miracle of new birth. But skillfully wielded, rational apologetics can reveal that unbelief is not a matter of reason. It can expose the rebellious hearts of unbelievers. If unbelievers come face to face with their naked hostility towards God, perhaps God might give them eyes to see it for what it truly is. 

Additional note: The authors go on to suggest that we ought to employ relational apologetics as unbelief is a relational issue. There is merit in their argument, and I wholly agree with Francis Schaeffer’s view that the church is the ultimate apologetic, in that our relationship with one another is the criterion which the world uses to judge the truth of our message. As the old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. Nevertheless, we needs words to give proper context to the actions. So let us not make the opposite error of living without thinking  even as we strive to avoid thinking without living.