Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

All of Life is about Theology

In this series, we've considered what exactly it means to do theology, and what theology is all about. We learned that, when we're honest with ourselves, we discover that all of life is about theology. That is, any part of life that is worth knowing about and understanding leads us to ask questions, and those questions are always, invariably, ultimately questions about God. And answers to those questions come from learning who God is and what He is like.

We've also considered that there are quite a few people with quite a few differing ideas on how to go about answering those kinds of questions. Some people think we should follow our heart and do what our feelings tell us. Others think we should hang out with our friends and discover what is "true" relative to our particular community. And yet we've seen that God Himself speaks into His creation and to His creatures through His Word -- the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments in which He has revealed Himself.

All of Life is about Worship

We learned that the world is fundamentally about the worship of God, because that's precisely how God designed it. And so the answers to our questions are all relative to that chief purpose for which the entire world was created, for which we all exist to this day: for the worship, honor, glory, and praise of our Creator who is worthy of the highest of worship, the most exalted honor, the most magnificent glory, and the most passionate praise.

We Worship What We Know

And Jesus, the object of all this worship, told us how true worshipers worship. True worshipers of the true God worship what they know. They don't have some vague, ethereal, esoteric fabrication of a god that they would like to exist. They don't make up whatever feels right to them. They don't take pieces from this religion, and aspects of that philosophy, until they come up with a perfect mosaic of a god made in their own image. And most of all, true worshipers don't simply abandon the pursuit of a true knowledge of God because they think doctrine is overrated and we should all just "love Jesus" and have "no creed but the Bible." No, life is about worshiping God, and true worshipers worship what they know. So true worshipers don't mind giving their life to diligent and disciplined study if it means that they will rightly know and thus rightly worship the God they were made to know and enjoy.

We Worship What We Know

And yet, in response to that anti-intellectual emotionalism there has emerged an anti-emotional intellectualism that seeks to squelch all true expression of affections. We see some of the nonsense that goes on in the name of being "Spirit-filled" or "passionate," and we don't want any part of that. So we do our best to turn life, to turn theology, to turn the pursuit of knowing God into a merely academic exercise by which we assimilate and formulate propositional content. We actually abort the actual doing of any real theology by forgetting that theology -- just like everything else in the universe -- exists for the purpose of worship. Yes, we worship what we know, but we also worship what we know.

And you don't honor what you don't enjoy. I don't know any artist in the world that is honored by someone who comes into a museum and analyzes their painting with a cool, wholly dispassionate disposition. Even if that person is an art connoisseur, and can identify the particular technique, the light/dark contrast, the method of the brush strokes, and the use of perspective, but recognizes all those things only with a furled brow and an occasional raised eyebrow. The artist desires to affect those who behold his work, and he is more honored by the one who sees all those things for what they were meant to communicate, actually receives that communication, and revels in the genius of the artist who could produce something so magnificent.

Just the same, to gaze into the most glorious exhibition of beauty and genius revealed in the face of Christ, who is the image of God, and to be intellectually stimulated without being affected, and moved in the depth of your soul, is to dishonor God, and treat as common that which is holy.

Theology exists for worship. Thinking deeply is necessary in order to enjoy fully.

Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

Therefore, our commitment to doing theology must have worship as its end, and our theological method must be entirely shaped by that aim. “Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full (or half-full) of artificial admirers….On the other hand, emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates shallow people who refuse the discipline of rigorous thought” (Piper, Desiring God, 82).

But as a Christian—as a true worshiper—I must worship in spirit and truth. I must engage in theology and arrive at the formulation of doctrine because I desire to know and enjoy my God as He is. This is impossible without both accurate knowledge and a heart exhilarated by beauty.

As a pastor, I need to do the same, because God has entrusted me with the care and oversight of a flock of His people, and I must shepherd them in the knowledge of Him. I must indeed be the lead worshiper, because if I myself am not thrilled by the clear, contoured, unadulterated vision of an all-glorious, all-satisfying, exalted God as is revealed in His Word, I will never be able to lead people there. And without such a vision, the church is left unfilled by the Spirit, powerless in our fight for holiness, because apart from that vision of the glory of God in the face of Christ we have no resources to battle the desires of our flesh with superior desires for Christ (2 Cor 3:18; Gal 5:16-18).

It's fitting for me to close this series with the thoughts of Jonathan Edwards, a pastor, theologian, and worshiper of the first order, who embodied the Christlike example of a mind enlightened by the knowledge of God as He is and a heart warmed by the passion to enjoy the glory he was created to behold:

If a minister has light without heat, and entertains his auditory with learned discourses, without a savour of the power of godliness, or any appearance of fervency of spirit, and zeal for God and the good of souls, he may gratify itching ears, and fill the heads of his people with empty notions; but it will not be very likely to reach their hearts, or save their souls.

And if, on the other hand, he be driven on with a fierce and intemperate zeal, and vehement heat, without light, he will be likely to kindle the like unhallowed flame in his people, and to fire their corrupt passions and affections; but will make them never the better, nor lead them a step towards heaven, but drive them apace the other way.

But if he approves himself in his ministry, as both a burning and a shining light, this will be the way to promote true Christianity amongst his people, and to make them both wise [and] good, and cause religion to flourish among them in the purity and beauty of it. (The True Excellency of a Gospel Minister, Works, 2:958)

Series Outline

Light and Heat: Introduction

1.1 - In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know
1.2 - Systematics and Doctrine Matter
1.3 - Loving God with All Your Mind

2. In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

3. Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

Thus far in our series we have battled against an understanding that is critical of theology in general, an ideology that is an ignorant, anti-intellectual emotionalism. However, there is another contemporary enemy of the opposite extreme. More popular in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, yet prevalent today especially as a reaction against feelings-driven theology, this ideology stops theology short of its goal by conceiving of it as a merely intellectual exercise.

We must return to our previously stated, working definition of theology, especially the second half: it is “the comprehensive, holistic interpretation of Scripture for the purpose of intimately knowing and rightly worshiping God.” To stop short of this purpose clause is to abort the God-given purpose for engaging in theology: to become worshipers of God in spirit and truth. If our theologizing does not affect us—if it does not change the way we think, feel, and act—we fail the task of doing theology.

No one has been a greater help to me in assimilating this truth into the depth of my soul than Jonathan Edwards. In his Miscellanies, he writes with staggering insight:

God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that He might communicate, and the creature receive, His glory; and that it might be received both by the mind and the heart. He that testifies his idea of God’s glory [does not] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it. (Miscellanies, No. 448)

That is a life-shaping, worldview-shattering paragraph.

If nothing else, it certainly provides the vision of the proper goal of the theological process. We must not only endeavor to know about God, studying to tantalize our intellect and amass theoretical knowledge. Rather, our labors in theology are a means to the end of knowing God Himself—in relationship. And then, knowing such a magnificently glorious God, necessarily loving and enjoying Him for the fullness of His goodness.

And it is impossible to have one without the other. What I mean is, God is not the kind of Being who can be known to a greater degree without being enjoyed to that same degree. To know God is to enjoy Him. Biographer George Marsden summarizes Edwards’s thinking in this regard:

“Beauty”…is not just an object of passive contemplation, but rather a transforming power. If one sees a beautiful person, said Edwards, one cannot help but be drawn to that person. One’s heart is drawn to that beauty, and one’s actions will follow one’s heart. So it is with the surpassing beauty of God as revealed in Christ.…If one glimpses the perfect beauty of such love, one cannot help but be drawn to it. (A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards, 141)

There is no room -- not even in a theology classroom, and especially not a Sunday school classroom -- for a passive contemplation of the glories of God in Christ. To study Him dispassionately, entirely unmoved by the stunning beauty that we behold in the face of Christ would be woefully dishonoring to God.

If we are to glorify God, we must not only see His glory (light), but rejoice in it (heat). We must cultivate that vision of who He is and what He has done so well that, as Vanhoozer says, "when we perceive it, it stops us in our tracks and elicits our praise."

Series Outline

Light and Heat: Introduction

1.1 - In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know
1.2 - Systematics and Doctrine Matter
1.3 - Loving God with All Your Mind

2. In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

3. Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

Loving God with All Your Mind

Worship Requires a Commiment to Thinking Deeply and Studying Diligently

It is not surprising that the pursuit of truly knowing and thus rightly worshiping God requires a resolved commitment to thinking deeply and studying diligently (2 Tim 2:15). Indeed, the greatest commandment in the Law is that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind (Mt 22:37). Yet in this age of “evangelical pragmatism…pietistic anti-intellectualism…[and] journalistic bite-sizing” (Piper, Think, 17), it is common that such a call to rigorous study be met with scoffing from those both inside and outside of the church. Many look upon the desire for doctrinal precision as academic snobbery, as they are content to “worship God in their own way.” “As long as one is sincere in their devotion,” contemporary wisdom proffers, “ignorance of truth is to be excused. After all what is truth anyway?”

However, at the well at Sychar the Lord Jesus proclaimed a view of both worship and truth that flies in the face of the relativistic doctrinal apathy that plagues our postmodern culture. “You worship what you do not know” (Jn 4:22), He scolds the Samaritan woman, and thus teaches His people that, as Kevin Vanhoozer notes, “sincerity alone is an insufficient condition of right worship” (Worship at the Well, 8). A true worshiper, as He soon tells her, worships in spirit and truth. It is certainly right for one to be zealous for God and passionately committed to Him. But if that zeal is not according to knowledge, that person is not a true worshiper of the true God, even if he thinks he is (Rom 10:2).

See, it is possible to live our lives intending to worship and glorify God as He has prescribed while worshiping Him defectively (and therefore not truly worshiping Him at all) because of a lack of knowledge. John Calvin underscores the dangers of such an enterprise: “For unless there is knowledge present, it is not God that we worship but a specter or ghost.” Vanhoozer comments, “All of our pious intentions are struck by this thunderbolt, by this thought that we cannot help but worship falsely unless we are guided by God’s Word” (8).

This is precisely why the Christian must commit himself to doing theology, for it is the true Christian’s desire, not to worship in his own way, but to ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name in the way He Himself has prescribed. The stakes are indeed high, especially for those surrounded by a culture such as ours. Bruce Ware admonishes the pietistic anti-intellectualists: “If we are to escape the cult of self and find, instead, the true meaning of life and the path of true satisfaction, if we are to give God the glory rightly and exclusively owed to him…we must behold God for who he is” (God’s Greater Glory, 9).

And so a Christian must diligently apply himself to the discipline of theology, showing himself to be a workman who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. For otherwise he will not worship God for who He is, but who he has imagined Him to be.

And there’s where the pastor’s role comes sharply into focus. This stuff certainly affects the Sunday gathering for corporate worship. Vanhoozer calls us to consider:

What do we do when we worship? We acknowledge and celebrate God’s worth. In worship we come together to remember and to respond to who God is and to what God has done for us. In short, we come together to do theology, though in a form that is more informal, participatory, and musical than it is systematic. (4)

The congregation gathers to remember and respond to who God is and what He has done for us. Yet, by failing to rightly interpret Scripture (comprehensively, holistically, and accurately) the pastor risks leading his people to remember and respond to a god who simply does not exist, a god of the congregation’s own imagination. The severity of such an infraction is arresting, especially in light of Jesus’ statement that eternal life consists in the knowledge of God (Jn 17:3) As we consider such things, I cannot help but hear the terrifying echo of Matthew 7:21-23: “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

With the stakes so high, both the undershepherd and the sheep must make war against every speculation and lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10:5).

Series Outline

Light and Heat: Introduction

1.1 - In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know
1.2 - Systematics and Doctrine Matter
1.3 - Loving God with All Your Mind

2. In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

3. Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know

As we reflect on the doing of theology as a means to the end of the worship of God, the first thing to consider is, as Jesus says to the woman at the well, true worshipers worship what they know. Worship in ignorance is no worship at all. Therefore, if we are to worship God, we must go to the only source of His self-revelation that He has given: the Scriptures.

Many different understandings of what it means to do theology abound even within evangelicalism. For our purposes, we will define theology as "the comprehensive, holistic interpretation of Scripture for the purpose of intimately knowing and rightly worshiping God" (Andy Snider, Class Notes).

First of all, our definition of theology has Scripture, the Word of God, at its center. This is so because this is how god has chosen to reveal Himself to His people. We are aware that there are those who view such a conviction as inherently rationalistic. For example, in an article on theological method entitled, "How I Changed My Mind," John Armstrong wrote, "Theology must be a humble human attempt to 'hear him' -- never about rational approaches to texts."

Such men prefer instead to focus on the experience of God, whether that experience be personal or communal. Friedrich Schleiermacher is the archetypical liberal, emphasizing the individual's personal experience with God (his "God-consciousness") as the source of doctrine. Postliberals such as George Lindbeck and Brian McLaren focus more on theology as a community's dynamic experience of God.

While such detractors object to this exaltation of Scripture, arguing that is in the person of Christ Himself that God is supremely and preeminently revealed (Jn 1:18; 14:9; Col 1:15; Heb 1:2), they err by pitting the Living Word against the written Word. In the opening verses of the letter to the Hebrews, the author indeed acknowledges that in these last days God has spoken to us in His son. And while he does intend to showcase the supremacy of Christ over even the Old Testament revelation to the fathers through the prophets (Heb 1:1-2). God has indeed spoken through the prophets, and such revelation has been recorded for us in the Old Testament Scriptures.

Further, the Apostle Peter, who himself saw the revealed glory of the transfigured Christ on the Mount of Olives, declared that we have in the Scriptures "something more sure" than that glorious revelation (2Pet 1:19). Apparently, Peter regarded Scripture as a superior source of revelation even than his own amazing experience of Christ Himself.

Finally, Christ Himself has legitimized this focus on Scripture as the foundational source of theology (cf. Robert Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, xxviii). When He came to the synagogue in Nazareth intending to teach doctrine, He turned to the words of Scripture and announced that the prophecy of Isaiah had been fulfilled in their hearing (Lk 4:16-21). When He was questioned about the doctrines concerning marriage and divorce, He appealed to the text of Scripture as His authority (Mk 10:1-9). When He sought to expound the doctrine of the Messiah, He presented an exegesis of Psalm 110 (Mt 22:41-46). And when He was teaching the doctrine of the Messiah's sufferings and resurrection, He established its truth by appealing to "all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms" (Lk 24:44).

Thus, the study of the Scriptures, indeed profitable to equip the man of God for every good work (2Tim 3:16-17), is the divinely-appointed means of the study of God Himself. Any vague notion of "knowing Jesus," "studying Jesus," or "pursuing a relationship with Jesus" that does not include the study of, the knowledge of, and the pursuit of the Scriptures, is subbiblical and should be considered suspect. If we are to know God, we must seek Him by means of His revelation: the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments.

Series Outline

Light and Heat: Introduction

1.1 - In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know
1.2 - Systematics and Doctrine Matter
1.3 - Loving God with All Your Mind

2. In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

3. Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

Light and Heat: Introduction

Reflecting on Theology as the Means of Worshiping God in Spirit and Truth

Upon a moment’s sober reflection, any honest thinker will admit that life is about finding the answers to ultimate questions. “Who am I?” “How did we all get here?” “What is the purpose and meaning of life?” “Why are things as the way they are?” Most foundationally, these questions are all theological questions; that is, answering them requires the study (-logia) of God (theo-)—the study of both who He is and what He has done. He is, as John Frame says, “the supremely relevant one” (Doctrine of God, 11), for He is the self-existent, self-sufficient Creator of all things (Gen 1:1) and does successively uphold all things by the word of His power (Heb 1:3; cf. Col 1:16-17). He is the One who assigns meaning to life—for it is by Him that life itself exists. So we look to Him for the answers to life’s most ultimate questions. "Who am I?" Well, we know ourselves to be creatures by virtue of His being the Creator (Gen 1:26-30; 2:7). "How did I get here?" Well, we look to His divine command as the answer to where everything came from (Gen 1:1-2:3; cf. Ps 33:6-9; 148:5).

And so it's fitting that we look to the Creator of life to discover the purpose of our lives. To ask why things are the way they are is to ask what God’s end, or aim or goal, was in creating the world as He has. The Scriptures teach us that the ultimate purpose of God in all that He does is to bring glory to Himself; for He declares that all who are called by His name have been created for His glory (Isa 43:7), and that He will not give His glory to another (Isa 42:8; 48:11). Indeed, as the Apostle Paul makes reference to His eternal decree and His working all things after the counsel of His own will, he repeats three times that His purpose is “to the praise of His glory” (Eph 1:6, 12, 14). Elsewhere Paul declares that even the exercise of God's wrath is to make known both the might of His power and the riches of His mercy (Rom 9:22-23). And He works out the entire drama of redemption and salvation unto the end that He be known, magnified, and glorified among the peoples of the world (Isa 43:7; Jer 24:7; 31:34; Ezek 38:23).

And so God’s will is to be known and worshiped by all of His creation. To achieve that end He created human beings to be worshiping creatures so that they might “honor Him as God [and] give thanks” (Rom 1:21). That's why we're here. That's why things are the way are. Therefore, if we are to live our lives in accordance with the purpose declared by our Creator, we must shape our lives around the pursuit of knowing and worshiping Him.

That pursuit is nothing other than doing theology. Over the next couple of weeks I want to look into the task of doing theology. How do we go about this process of studying the God of the universe? What undergirds a proper theological method? I'll attempt to answer these questions by insisting that doing theology is the means to worship. If our engagement in theology is to be Biblical, it must be driven by both light and heat, both spirit and truth, both by a commitment to think deeply and a commitment to feel deeply. As we will see, when one of these is abandoned in favor of the other, the ship has begun to sink, and the task of theology is almost irreparably sabotaged. And all of this is to be done in keeping with the purpose for which the universe exists: for the worship of the God who created us all.

I hope you'll read along.

Series Outline

Light and Heat: Introduction

1.1 - In Pursuit of Light: We Worship What We Know
1.2 - Systematics and Doctrine Matter
1.3 - Loving God with All Your Mind

2. In Pursuit of Heat: We Worship What We Know

3. Conclusion: Light and Heat, Spirit and Truth

His Mercies Are Over All His Works

So, seminary and other responsibilities have totally gotten the better of me for the month of October. Thanks to all of you for being patient with me. I do still intend to get those few posts out eventually on learning how to suffer righteously from Jeremiah in the book of Lamentations. For now, here's something that I came across from a site called Creation Moments. It's pretty amazing. It's a sort of "Isn't Evolution Wonderful?" kind of thing that Dan Phillips does from time to time. May we worship God for the wonder of His creation. For He but spoke, and it was done. He commanded, and worlds came into being and stood at attention (Ps 33:9).

Genesis 35:17 - When she was in severe labor the midwife said to her, "Do not fear, for now you have another son."

Ever since Old Testament times, midwives have been helping mothers during the birthing process. They are especially valuable should there be difficulties since they not only offer an extra set of hands, but experience in dealing with common problems. Some of the scientists who were studying amoeba behavior observed some very strange behavior which suggests that some amoebas, too, employ midwives.

The scientists were studying an amoeba that lives in the digestive tract of reptiles. As all amoebas, they reproduce by splitting in half. Scientists noted, however, that this particular species is not very good at it. Up to a third of the time, the amoebas fail to split. They begin the process but never manage to complete it. When that happens, the amoeba is doomed to exist as long as it can with two sets of genetic information.

But as scientists watched, when an amoeba had difficulty dividing, other amoebas would move in on it and help the division process, thereby serving as a midwife. Further study revealed that the amoeba having difficulty dividing releases a chemical which apparently summons help to finish the process. The midwife amoeba have been seen traveling up to 40 times their own length to help in the birthing of a new generation.

The Bible teaches us that God cares for all of His creatures. Here we see that He provides even for the needs of the lowly amoeba. How much more does He love us and provide for our needs!

Yahweh is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works.
All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Yahweh,
And Your godly ones shall bless You.
They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom And talk of Your power;
To make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts
And the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
Yahweh sustains all who fall And raises up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to You, And You give them their food in due time.
You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.
Yahweh is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds.
Yahweh is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.
He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He will also hear their cry and will save them.
Yahweh keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.
My mouth will speak the praise of Yahweh,
And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.
- Psalm 145:9-21 -

What Love for God Is and Isn't

I was listening to a sermon by John Piper on Romans 8:28 this week (as I've been listening through his Romans series, chapters 6 through 8) called "All Things for Good." And I was just overwhelmed with delight to come to this point in his sermon. He was discussing the "those who love God" part of Romans 8:28, and thus discussing what it means for us to love God. In order to do that, he also spent some time discussing what love for God is not.

I've spent some time (with Piper's help) trying to unfold this doctrine of love for God in my own thinking here and here, along with the posts under the "Love of God" tag that can be found on the sidebar. Yet what Piper said in this sermon is exactly what I want to say, and exactly what my soul resonates with.

This topic -- what it means to love God -- is what the universe is about. And so when I hear these things, everything I experience of reality is that much more real. When I'm contemplating the purpose for which I was created, I am more alive than at any other time. I am made to worship more greatly and more purely, which is to say, I enjoy God more at this time than at any other time. I pray that the same be true for you.

If you'd like, you can listen to the sermon as well here. The stream loads pretty quickly, and the section that the below edited transcript is taken from starts at either "-27:00" or "-22:10." For whatever reason it seems like two different versions might load. So you can just let it load for a minute and then click over to -27:00 or -22:10 and listen along. (I always recommend listening to Piper along with reading him when possible.)

Anyway, he says:

What the Love of God Is Not

So what does it mean to love God? How can you know if you are in this number? The best way I can think to make the answer clear is to say three things that love for God is not. At least the essence of love for God is not these three things.

Loving God is not meeting his needs. The way we love man is different from the way we love God. In Acts 17:25 Paul said, "He [is not] served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things." God is radically different from us. He is the source of all things and has no needs. He cannot be helped or improved. There are no defects to reverse or deficiencies to supply. We cannot love him by supplying his needs. He has none. Therefore the essence of our love for him must be an experience of receiving. (And I do regard joy as essentially receiving pleasure from the object of our delight.)

That leads to the second thing that love for God is not. Loving God is not, in its essence, love for his gifts – gifts like forgiveness, justification, escape from hell, resurrection to a pain-free life, etc. Indeed if we love God, we will cherish these gifts and be thankful for them, because we would not have God without them. But loving God is treasuring God himself revealed in his gifts and treasuring God himself beyond his gifts. His gifts are precious to the degree that they bring us to God and show us more of God. When you love God, God is central in your affections, not his gifts.

This word "affections" leads us to the third thing that love for God is not. The essence of loving God is not the things that love for God prompts you to do. Love for God may prompt you to leave mother and father and forsake all that to declare his glory among the nations. But leaving mother and father and forsaking all are not the essence of love – they are the fruit of love. Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." This does not mean keeping his commandments is love. It means love is the kind of heart that prompts you to keep commandments.

In John 21:15-17 Jesus illustrates this connection when he asks Simon Peter three times, "Do you love me?" When Peter says, "Yes," Jesus does not say, "Good, that must mean you are obeying my commandments, because obeying my commandments is love." No, he said, "Feed my sheep." In other words, if you love me, act like it. Love my flock and feed them. Feeding sheep is the fruit of loving Jesus.

In other words, what I am saying is that love for God is a matter of the heart’s esteem for God before it produces anything else. It is something internal and involves spiritual emotions. It is not, in essence, a deliberated choice or a deed. It is more like a reflex of the heart to the perfections of God revealed especially in Christ. If you equate the deeds of love with the essence of love you will produce hypocrites – people who imitate the deeds and claim to love God when their hearts are far from him. If you equate love for God with love for his gifts, you produce hypocrites – people who are very glad to feel forgiven and declared righteous and delivered from hell and heaven-bound, but have no pleasure in God himself. They don’t love God. They just don’t want to have bad guilt feelings or go to hell.

What the Love of God Is

Therefore I think it is absolutely crucial that we clarify what the essence of love for God is. Let me grasp for the kinds of words that I think will help us know if we love God. Loving God is desiring God himself beyond his gifts. Loving God is treasuring God himself beyond his gifts. Love for God is delighting in God himself beyond his gifts. Love for God is being satisfied in God himself beyond his gifts. Love for God is cherishing God himself beyond his gifts. Love for God is savoring God himself beyond his gifts. Love for God is valuing God and prizing God and revering God and admiring God beyond his gifts. All these words are grasping for that essential response of the heart to the revelation of the glory of God, especially in Christ through the gospel. It is a glad reflex of the heart to all that God is for us in Christ.

Homework for a Sinning Brother

Homework?!

Yes, homework.

In discussions like the one we've been having on repentance, there is a great need to be practical. It's easy to speak hypothetically and to throw around platitudes, but it's another thing to get into someone's life and really minister God's Word to them. This kind of discipleship involves not only unfolding the Word to each other, but also enfolding it back onto the lives of those with whom we live and grow in Christ.

In the last post in this series about Biblical repentance, I offered some ways that I would counsel a brother who has confessed to committing adultery and desires to repent Biblically. I encourage you to read that post.

But in a counseling situation -- whether a formal pastoral counseling session or just one-on-one, layperson-to-layperson discipleship -- it's easy to just get together and talk. We're all prone to the "take two verses and call me in the morning" approach to counseling, where we just throw Bible verses at people and expect that to take care of things. That rather careless approach hardly works, because sin is rarely, if ever, about a lack of information. Instead, it's about the clarity of our vision and the desires of our heart. Sheep don't need food thrown at them. They need to be led to a good, green pasture to graze. The pastor (or counselor) must feed his fellow sheep in a 'shepherdly' way.

In that situation, then, it's helpful to walk with a counselee through a thorough, Biblical understanding of the issue, as well as through practical ways to break bad habits and establish godly ones. One way that's often done is through homework. I know it sounds kinda quirky, but it's true for a couple of reasons.

• It sets expectations of actual change (cf. Prov 14:23) and gives hope by underscoring in the mind of the counselee that change is possible.
• It's obviously a helpful tool to evaluate progress.
  
• It gives the counselor an opportunity to "be with" the counselee in between the times that they can actually physically get together. Because he'll be consistently meditating on and working through the homework, the counselee's progress won't sag in between counseling sessions.
  
• It also helps wean the counselee's dependence off the counselor and on Christ Himself through the Word of God.
  

To that end, I offer a sample of four weeks of homework assignments for a sinning brother in Jim's position. You might notice that much of the material in the assignments comes from the material I've presented in this series. This is a way of applying our study to the real lives of the sheep. Also, I've provided sample answers to my questions in brackets to help the reader understand my intentions in asking these questions. The counselee would not see these answers before providing his own. These answers also provide a frame of reference for discussion of the counselee’s own answers in the following session. Here's the outline:

Week 1: The Nature of Biblical Repentance
Week 2: Sin and Obedience are Matters of Worship
Week 3: The Sweetness of Christ’s Lordship
Week 4: Putting Off and Putting On

Week One: The Nature of Biblical Repentance

The Bible teaches that when a believer has sinned, the appropriate response is repentance (Lk. 17:3). It is necessary, then, that you understand the nature of Biblical repentance. What does it look like? What does it involve? The following passages contain the words the Bible uses to describe repentance. Please look up these passages and read them carefully. Then, answer the questions that follow. A helpful pace might be one assignment per day coupled with a time of meditation on the indicated passages.

1. Read Psalm 32:3-4, Psalm 28:6-8, Jeremiah 31:19, Joel 2:12, Matthew 26:69-75, Romans 7:14-25, and 2 Corinthians 7:9-10. What do these passages teach are necessary components of repentance? If you had to summarize in one word a common theme in these passages, what would it be? [Sorrow, or remorse.] Does this characterize you? If so, how? If not, what would that look like in your life?
2. Read Psalm 32:5, Psalm 51:1-4, Hosea 14:2, and 1 John 1:8-10. What do these passages teach concerning repentance? In one word or phrase, what is the common theme? [Sin must be acknowledged and confessed.] Read the following passages and state how each character demonstrates this characteristic of repentance: (a) 2 Samuel 12:1-15, especially verse 13; (b) Job 38:1-2 and 42:1-6, especially 42:3. Have you evidenced repentance this way? If so, how? If not, how would your confession sound?
3. Read Jeremiah 18:11-12, Ezekiel 18:21, 27-28, 30-31, and Daniel 9:13. Now read Jesus’ admonitions to sinning churches in Revelation 2:4-5, 21-22, and 3:15-19. What is the common theme in repentance here? [Turning from sin.] Re-read Job 42:1-6. How does Job demonstrate this characteristic in 42:6? [He retracts his statement.] According to Hosea 5:4, can one continue in their sin and repent toward God? What might it look like for you to turn from the sin in your life?
4. Read Luke 3:7-14, Acts 26:19-20, and Revelation 2:5. What is the common theme in repentance in these passages? [Obedience.] In what three ways does David declare that he will bear fruit in keeping with repentance in Psalm 51:13-15? Also, read Luke 19:1-10. How does Zaccheus demonstrate his repentance? Finally, read Acts 4:8-11, 18-20 and 5:27-32, 41-42. How is Peter’s repentance of his denial of Christ made evident? In each of these cases (David, Zaccheus, and Peter), does their obedience happen before or after they are forgiven? [After. It’s a fruit, not a cause, of repentance.] Finally, read Deuteronomy 4:30, 2 Kings 17:13 and 23:25, Ezekiel 18:21, and Daniel 9:13. What is our standard of obedience? [The Word of God.]
5. Read Deuteronomy 4:29-30 and 30:2, 10, 1 Samuel 7:3, 1 Kings 8:47-48, Jeremiah 3:10 and 4:1-4, Joel 2:12-13, and Acts 8:21-22. Above all else, what is repentance concerned with? [The heart.] Is repentance merely external, or does it include the internal also? Does the external shape the internal, or does the internal shape the external? [The latter. Obedience is the free and joyful response of a truly repentant heart.]
6. Read the following passages and list some results of repentance: 1 Samuel 7:3, 2 Chronicles 30:9, Job 22:23, Psalm 32:5, Isaiah 1:27-28, Ezekiel 18:21-32, Acts 3:19, 2 Timothy 2:25.
   

Week Two: Sin and Obedience Are Matters of Worship

1. Read Isaiah 42:8, 43:7, and 48:11, Ezekiel 36:22-23, and Ephesians 1:11-12. What do these passages teach about the reason you exist? [To glorify/worship God.] Now read Romans 1:18-32. What are the fundamental sins of mankind that invite the wrath of God mentioned in 1:18? Focus particularly on 1:21, 1:23, 1:25, and 1:28. [They did not acknowledge, honor, nor give thanks to God; exchanged His glory for a glory-substitute and His truth for a lie; worshiped the creature not the Creator.]
2. Read Deuteronomy 29:2-4 and 30:6, Jeremiah 31:33, and Ezekiel 6:9 and 36:26. What is the common theme running throughout those passages? [Obedience from the heart.] Now, according to Mark 7:18-23, where does adultery come from? [The heart.]
3. Read Matthew 6:19-21. Ponder the statement in verse 21 for a few minutes. What is the relationship between your desires and the allegiance of your heart? [We worship what we desire, what we love, what we delight in.] How does this relate to Mark 7:21? [What we worship shapes our actions.] And according to Romans 1:25, to whom does our worship rightly belong? [God, not created things.]
4. According to Ephesians 5:3-5, sexual sin is related to covetousness. Examine your heart. What was it that you were coveting when you engaged in adultery? [Approval, appreciation, attention, comfort, etc.] How does this relate to worship? [I worship those things rather than Christ.]
5. Ephesians 5:5 calls covetous men idolaters. With this in mind, read Ezekiel 14:1-8. What idols have you erected in your heart that have led to your sin? (Hint: What were you coveting in #4?) In what ways are you worshiping these idols in the way you ought to be worshiping Christ? [I am shaping my life to receive the joy and satisfaction that they offer, when God tells me I was created to rejoice in and to be satisfied by Him, and nothing else.]
6. With Isaiah 43:7 in mind, read the following Psalms. What do they teach about what we were created to be satisfied by? Psalms 16:11, 17:14-15, 21:6, 26:8, 27:4, 36:8-9, 43:4, 63:1-5, 65:4, 73:25-28, 90:14, 107:9. [We are to rejoice in and be satisfied by the glory of God Himself.] Next, read Philippians 3:2-11. What did Paul worship, or treasure, more than anything else? [Christ. Paul counted Him more satisfying.] Finally, read Hebrews 11:23-27. How did Moses battle against being enticed to worship the idols of the sinful pleasures and treasures of Egypt? [He was looking to the reward, seeing, being enticed by, and preferring Christ Himself.]
7. What did/does your heart crave more than Christ? Why does it crave those things more than Christ? [I crave things more than I crave Christ because my sinful flesh deadens my spiritual taste buds so that they taste better to me than He does.]
   

Week Three: The Sweetness of Christ’s Lordship

Having discussed that true Biblical repentance results in obedience, as well as how that obedience comes from a worshiping heart, we will now turn to the Bible’s teaching of the Lordship of Christ. Romans 10:9 teaches that an essential characteristic of a Christian is that he confesses that Jesus is the Lord, or master, of his life. To not know Christ as Lord is to not know God.

1. Read 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8. What is the relationship between lust and the knowledge of God? [Lustful passion comes from a failure to know God as He is.]
2. Read Luke 9:23-27 and Luke 14:25-34. What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ? [I must submit all of my life to Him. He is my master.] In what areas of your life is Jesus to be Lord? [All of them.] What kinds of thoughts and emotions spring up in you as you read these passages? [This question evaluates the counselee’s desire to be lovingly ruled by Christ vs. his desire to rebel against Him.]
3. Read Matthew 11:28-30. What does it mean to take Jesus’ yoke upon you? [Receiving Him in faith means submitting to Him as Lord.] What is the nature of Christ’s Lordship according to this passage? Is Jesus a burdensome, tyrannical Lord? [No. His Lordship grants rest for the weary soul.]
4. Read Psalm 23:1-6 and Psalm 32:10, Proverbs 13:15, Jeremiah 31:25, Matthew 7:24-27, John 6:35, John 13:17, Romans 2:9-10, and James 1:22-25. What are the benefits of living according to Christ’s Lordship? What are the negative consequences of rebelling against His Lordship?
5. Read “Faith in Future Grace vs. Lust,” pp. 329-338 in John Piper’s Future Grace. Look up all of the Scriptures that are not fully quoted but only referred to. Underline at least 10, but not more than 15, statements in that chapter that you find particularly striking, important, and/or helpful. Come prepared to discuss the chapter.
   

Week Four: Putting Off and Putting On

1. A vital principle of the Christian life is that we continue to mortify the deeds of the body (read Romans 8:1-13). The strategy Scripture provides for doing this is putting off sinful attitudes and behaviors and replacing them by putting on godly ones (read Ephesians 4:17-24). Using these principles, as well as those you learned from the chapter in Future Grace, list at least five attitudes and behaviors which contribute to your lust that you will put off. List five that you will put on in their place. How will you go about putting these off and the others on in the context of your own life? Be specific.
2. What regular practices in your lifestyle need to change and/or be avoided to safeguard you from future temptation? [E.g., avoiding certain neighborhoods or restaurants, not allowing yourself to be alone, commitment to going on regular dates with your wife, etc.]
3. In the moments that you are tempted by lust, how will you take up the sword of the Spirit in the fight of faith against lust? What are some promises of God you will recall and trust in when sinful lust tempts you to trust in its promises? [E.g., setting my mind on the things of the flesh brings death, but setting my mind on the things of the Spirit brings life and peace, Romans 8:6].
4. This week, keep a folded sheet of 8.5"x11" paper in your back pocket at all times. Whenever you are tempted by lust (and/or adulterous thoughts or desires), immediately write the following on the paper: (1) Where you were, (2) what you were thinking immediately before, (3) what it was that lust was promising you that seemed enticing, (4) any Scripture passages that come to mind which expose those promises as lies, and (5) any Scripture passages that come to mind which promise greater happiness in Christ.
   

As should be obvious, none of this can be one-size-fits-all. The counselor/discipler will have to evaluate which topics need to be addressed in further detail and which can be gone through more quickly. Also, all of these answers provide a lot of data for discussion during the sessions. Just because it's homework doesn't mean it stays at home. If you're going to ask your counselee to be as serious as to do all this work, go through it with him. Don't make him feel like it's busy-work, but use this very personal and pointed feedback to shepherd him through to Biblical repentance.

So then, brethren, we are under obligation,
not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh--
for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die;
but if by the Spirit
you are putting to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.
- Romans 8:12-13 -

Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work;
be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work.
Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.
- John Owen -

Biblical Repentance: Introduction

1. Exegesis
1.1. Nacham: Biblical Repentance Involves the Emotions
1.2. Shuv: The Heart's Obedient Turn from Sin to God
1.3. Metanoeo: A Fundamental Change of the Whole Man

2. Discussion
2.1. Summary and Discussion: Intellectual, Emotional, Volitional
2.2. Repentance for the Christian

3. Application
3.1. Repentance vs. Penance
3.2. Counsel to a Sinning Brother
3.3. Homework for Sinning Brother
3.4. The Effect on My Personal Walk with Christ

Around the Table of the King

In our most recent communion service at Grace Church we sang the following song as the elements were being passed out. It's a song co-written by Stuart Townend and Keith and Kristyn Getty entitled "Behold the Lamb (Communion Hymn)." The last line of the chorus, "Around the table of the King," always gets me though, and so wins the title of the blog post.

What a great reality to ponder! We have such sweet, intimate fellowship with our Savior, whom we killed and deserved nothing of, that we can be described as eating Him as the Bread of Life (Jn 6:51) and drinking Him as the Water of Life (Jn 4:10, 13-14; 7:37-38), whose blood is true drink (Jn 6:55-56), in whose blood are all the blessings of the New Covenant (Lk 22:20; cf. Jer 31:31-34; Ezek 36:25-27). And we enjoy such fellowship "around the table of the King." We were rebels -- treasonous, murderous enemies of this King. And now we celebrate our reconciliation with Him around His own lavish table! Praise be to God for His glorious grace!

Behold the Lamb who bears our sins away,
Slain for us: and we remember
The promise made that all who come in faith
Find forgiveness at the cross.

So we share in this Bread of life,
And we drink of His sacrifice,
As a sign of our bonds of peace
Around the table of the King.

The body of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
Torn for you: eat and remember
The wounds that heal, the death that brings us life,
Paid the price to make us one.

So we share in this Bread of life,
And we drink of His sacrifice,
As a sign of our bonds of love
Around the table of the King.

The blood that cleanses every stain of sin,
Shed for you: drink and remember
He drained death’s cup that all may enter in
To receive the life of God.

So we share in this Bread of life,
And we drink of His sacrifice,
As a sign of our bonds of grace
Around the table of the King.

And so with thankfulness and faith
We rise to respond: and to remember.
Our call to follow in the steps of Christ
As His body here on earth.

As we share in His suffering,
We proclaim: Christ will come again!
And we’ll join in the feast of heaven
Around the table of the King!

And when He had taken some bread and given thanks,
He broke it and gave it to them, saying,
"This is My body which is given for you;
do this in remembrance of Me."
And in the same way He took the cup
after they had eaten, saying,
"This cup which is poured out for you
is the new covenant in My blood."
- Luke 22:19-20 -

A Caveat and Some Applications

I'm taking a break from the regularly scheduled Repentance series this Tuesday to tack a few extra thoughts onto Friday's post on pursuing First Things first. My point there was that as we consider how to love our neighbor as ourselves, and so fulfill the Law (Mt 7:12; Mt 22:40; Rom 13:8; Gal 5:14; Jas 2:8), it leads us into the discovery that we fulfill the Second Greatest commandment by pursuing the First: to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Because "by this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments" (1Jn 5:2). The way we love people is by loving God.

That is, when we are so consumed with the glory of Jesus Christ, when He becomes our All in all, and when our hearts are captured to just seek Him first, in our satisfaction we proclaim Him, and our lives tell the truth about His sweetness. We manifest the glory of God, because our lives are a product of seeing Him. And we prefer Him more than we prefer the deceptive satisfaction-substitute that comes from sin. That is loving the world. Because the greatest good that can be done to the world is to see Jesus Christ. And when we esteem Him rightly and prefer Him, we present Him to everyone around us as He is: as supremely desirable, supremely beautiful, supremely attractive, supremely compelling, supremely preferable.

To be satisfied in Christ, then, is to love the world; because we present to them what gives them most joy and what is most satisfying. When we love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, in that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Love for people overflows from love for God. And if it doesn’t start there, we have become idolaters, and therefore cannot benefit them. If your love for people starts with them, you have failed to love them, because you have failed to love Him. Just as Lewis said:

When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.

And so we need to have this complex, brain-bending, deep-into-the-soil-of-Scripture theology undergirding our love for people. If we American pragmatists ignore this First-Things-First lesson, and tell people to just go out and love people and perform acts of service because that’s 'what Jesus would do,' we totally blow it. We pursue secondary things first, and lose both the first and secondary things.

A Caveat

Now, some people will read this and believe that I’m saying that we should forget about loving and serving people. They'll hear me saying that it’s really loving God that matters, and if you love God, you’re automatically loving people. So you don’t have to actually do anything. But that is emphatically not what I’m saying.

A couple of months ago, my wife and I took a road trip up the California coast from Santa Monica up to San Francisco via the beloved Pacific Coast Highway. That highway is exhibit A of how we can be sure that the west coast was populated after the east coast. Somebody thought enough to put a highway right next to the ocean. I mean what a beautiful drive it was. Now, our 8-hour drive was chock full of sighs, and wows, and calls from one to the other to "Look at that!" You'd think that we'd get tired of being so impressed! But that wasn't the case. The beauty of God's creation in the ocean, in the mountains, in the grass, in the rocks, in the trees, in the flowers, and in the clouds was absolutely stunning. And we couldn't help but talk about it! What we learned from that drive is that true beauty compels praise. When you look at something that is glorious, the delight it produces in you wells up into expression.

In the same way, when you behold the glory of Christ, the affections that are created in you from such satisfaction and such beauty necessarily find expression in your life. By definition, you don’t look at something that is beautiful and remain unaffected. Beauty compels action. Whether you’re proclaiming to people how beautiful and satisfying God is, or whether the glory of God motivates you to go out and serve people, it’s going to compel you to be a practical benefit to people. So don't think I'm trying to give myself and others a free pass to not serving people, to not loving our neighbor as ourselves. I don't mean that at all. My point is simply that it’s got to be in the proper order; we must pursue first things first, otherwise we’re idolaters. Our love for people must be God-centered.

Applications

So with that in mind, I want to make some applications of this First-Things-First principle. Here are some things you can do to love your neighbor as yourself by presenting to them their greatest benefit: God in Christ Himself.

Read the Word of God daily, because it’s in the Word that you behold the beauty of Christ. Show people that He is so satisfying, that He delightfully compels you to seek Him out in His Word.

Pray daily, because it’s in prayer that you have communion and fellowship with God, and it’s in prayer that that relationship thrives. Show people that He is so beautiful and satisfying that He makes it a joy for you to give up an hour of your busy schedule to pray.

Be in church on Sunday, because it’s in the fellowship of the Lord’s people on the Lord’s Day that gives particular expression to the glory of God as it manifests the work of God’s grace in these people’s lives, and is the pinnacle of the worship of God, which is the most satisfying thing we can do. Show people that He is so satisfying that He makes it a pleasant thing to get up at 6:30 on a Sunday morning.

Meet with each other, because it’s an opportunity for believers to present that glory of Christ to each other, by speaking the Word to each other and even rebuking each other when we see that it will benefit each other.

And open your mouth and preach the Gospel to those who don’t know Christ, because (1) as you speak His message you savor the Person and the work of Christ that saved you, and (2) the preaching of the Gospel is how other people get saved, and how more people come to worship God as He deserves. Show people that He is so satisfying that it’s a joyful honor to risk being thought of as weird or a religious nut in order to preach this message both to strangers and to people we’ve known for years. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And out of that love, love your neighbor as yourself.

"What a Great God!"

I came across the following post over at Tullian Tchividjian's blog, On Earth as it is in Heaven. I just really appreciated his God-centered focus and his very eminent aim to see the glory of God have prominence in the Church's Sunday worship. I reproduce the post below and offer some comments to follow.

In the opening verses of Isaiah 6, what the prophet encounters first in the house of God is the glory of God: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple” (v.1). It doesn’t first say he encountered well-dressed people or hot coffee or influential power brokers or a booming sound system or a great organ. What he caught site of first was God’s glory.

There’s a growing trend in some churches to offer door prizes to any returning visitor. One church visited recently by a friend of mine promised him a ten-dollar Starbucks gift card if he came back the following week.

Isaiah shows us the door prize that awaited him when he walked into the house of God—the uncomfortable, wrecking presence of God’s glory: “Woe is me!” (v.5).

In the Bible, the glory of God refers to God’s “heaviness,” his powerful presence. It’s God’s prevailing excellence on display. The glory of God is the “augustness” of God—an old term conveying his awe-inspiring majesty. In fact, one reason why Christians in the Roman Empire were persecuted is that they refused to use the word august for the emperor—such a description belonged to God alone, they said. They understood that there is a transcendent majesty unique to God. This high and lifted up greatness of God is what Isaiah encountered—a God who is majestically and brilliantly in command.

All this means we ought to come to worship expecting first and foremost to see God. We come to encounter his glory, to be awestruck by his majesty. A worship service isn’t the place to showcase human talent but the place for God to showcase his divine treasure. We gather not to be impressed by one another—how we sound, what we wear, who we are—but to be impressed by God and his mighty acts of salvation. We come to sing of who he is and what he’s done. We come to hear his voice resounding in and through his Word. We come to feel the grief of our sin so that we can taste the glory of his salvation. We gather to be magnificently defeated, flattened, and shrunk by the power and might of the living God.

This is in stark contrast to the world’s insistence that the bigger we get and the better we feel about ourselves, the freer we become [that is, the man-centered notion that being loved is being made much of]. That’s why many worship services have been reduced to little more than motivational, self-help seminars filled with “you can do it” songs and sermons. But what we find in the gospel is just the opposite. The gospel is good news for losers, not winners. It’s for those who long to be freed from the slavery of believing that all of their significance, meaning, purpose, and security depend on their ability to “become a better you.” The gospel tells us that weakness precedes usefulness—that, in fact, the smaller you get, the freer you will be. Nothing makes you more aware of your smallness and life’s potential bigness than encountering the glory of God in worship. Corporate worship services in the church today desperately need to recover a sense of God’s size!

Not long ago I was in desperate need for God to liberate me from the slavish pressure to perform by reminding me of my smallness and his bigness. And since God has used the preaching of the late Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones throughout my Christian life to bring great perspective and reorientation to my troubled soul, I went back to one of his 1959 sermons on revival. With great unction, Lloyd-Jones delivered the reminder I craved:

Our supreme need, our only need, is to know God, the living God, and the power of his might. We need nothing else. It is just that, the power of the living God, to know that the living God is among us and that nothing else matters…I say, forget everything else. Forget everything else. We need to realize the presence of the living God amongst us. Let everything else be silent. This is no time for minor differences. We all need to know the touch of the power of the living God.

“The touch of the power of the living God”—that’s what Isaiah experienced. He was freed by realizing that God is big and he was small—that God was God and he was not. And this is what God intends for us to experience when he gathers us in worship. Isaiah didn’t leave the temple thinking, “What a great angelic choir” or “What a great temple.” He left thinking, “What a great God.”

As pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, I’ll be the first to admit that we are blessed with great music and a world-class facility. But, as I often remind our church, if people don’t leave our church thinking first, “What a great God” then our music and facilities mean nothing. Whatever else we may see in worship, we must see God first and best.

Our churches should not be places where the unbeliever is made to feel comfortable, but where he is made to feel decidedly uncomfortable by the weightiness of the glory of God -- the kind of discomfort that makes someone fall to the ground and pronounce a curse on himself because of his sinfulness (Is 6:5) or say, "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!" (Lk 5:8). Our churches should not be places where unbelievers go and feel like we are just like them, but where they realize that they have just been somewhere that is not of this world -- not like anything they've ever known.

Our churches should be places where the Word of God is heralded in such a way that unbelievers are convicted and called to account by all, the secrets of their hearts disclosed, such that they fall on their face and worship God, declaring that certainly God is among us (1Cor 14:24-25).

"God is among them. And He is astonishingly glorious, and nothing like anything I've ever seen or heard of before!" That is what should be the impression in the hearts and minds of unbelievers as they visit our churches.

Fellow Christians, is that the impression you give on Sunday mornings? That you are in the very presence of God? Do your conversations and interactions with each other, the way you participate in the singing and the prayer and the offering, and the way you listen to the sermon communicate to those who might be observing that you are collectively appearing before the altar of Almighty God Himself to offer a spiritual service of worship?

Pastors and church leaders, is that the impression you give on Sunday mornings? That you are leading your flock in to the very presence of that holy, glorious, weighty God that has called you into His service? Does your worship set, your pastoral prayer, and most importantly your sermon -- in both content and delivery -- communicate to those who might be observing that you are leading your people beyond the veil into the Holy of Holies before the Throne of Grace in the name of Christ? Will these people sit in your churches and hear from Almighty God because of what you do and say?

We want people, both our congregation and those who happen to be visiting, to leave our churches every Sunday afternoon saying, "What a great God!" Do everything you do on Sundays to achieve that great end.

But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an ungifted man enters,
he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all;
the secrets of his heart are disclosed;
and so he will fall on his face and worship God,
declaring that God is certainly among you.
- 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 -

Biblical Repentance: Introduction

Few doctrines of the historic Christian faith lie closer to the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the course of the Christian life than the doctrine of repentance. Indeed, when our Lord was said to first preach the Gospel of forgiveness of sins in His name, the first command He uttered was, “Repent” (Mk 1:15). Yet within Christendom – and even within Evangelicalism – there is widespread confusion and disagreement about the precise nature of repentance.

What does it mean to repent? What is the place of our feelings in repentance? Should we feel like we haven't repented unless we've felt sorry enough? Or should we confess and move on and trust that our feelings will catch up with us later? What about our works? Do we have to offer some sort of satisfaction for our sin beyond what Christ has accomplished, like feeling sorry enough or confessing to others? Or does the requirement of "obedience in keeping with repentance" undermine justification by faith alone? What is it, exactly, that God wants from us when we confess our sin and seek forgiveness? How should our walk with Christ look if we have a Biblical understanding of repentance?

Over the next couple of weeks I want to do a series on Biblical repentance. In the upcoming posts, I'll try to answer some of the questions I asked above in a number of ways. First, I'll examine three of the most common words used in the Bible to signify repentance. We'll study each word in its original Hebrew or Greek from a lexical and semantic perspective. The analysis of these words and their surrounding contexts will give us a theology of the nature of Biblical repentance. We'll see how Scripture uses these terms and look at what the authors of Scripture mean when they talk about repentance.

Once we have an idea about the nature of repentance, we'll look to apply that understanding to repentance both in justification and sanctification. In justification, we'll look at repentance as the sinner's turning from his sin as the ruling principle of his life. This takes place at conversion. Regarding sanctification, we'll look at the believer's habitual, ongoing repentance of specific sins throughout his Christian walk.

After this, I will spend some time contrasting Biblical repentance to the Roman Catholic doctrine of penance. That might seem a bit random, but I assure you that I'm not just going out of my way to pick on Catholics. The reality is, many Evangelical Protestants who would vehemently denounce the Roman Catholic doctrine of penance -- a sort of paying God back for your sins -- unwittingly practice penance while thinking they are practicing Biblical repentance. This is something that so many of us are prone to, because it is a natural human inclination to try to earn one's own righteousness before God. This goes to the heart of the Gospel, and calls into question the sufficiency of Christ's atonement.

Then, after all of those theoretical considerations, I'll do my best to specifically apply these principles to a practical counseling situation in which a church member has confessed to an immoral affair. I'll try to show how a Christian should come along side his brother and lead him to Biblical repentance while leading him away from the dangers of penance. This way, we can see what it would look like for us to practically live out these Biblical principles in the context of the body of Christ. Examining this hypothetical case study will also demonstrate how church leaders might evaluate the genuineness of a sinning member's repentance.

Finally, I'll conclude the series by presenting how my own study of the doctrine of repentance has affected me personally in my walk with Christ, and how I hope it will have affected you who undertake to study it with me. May God grant that this be a fruitful and beneficial endeavor, and that it serve to raise our affections high toward Him as we look into the wonderful things He's revealed in His glorious Word.

Satisfy us with Yourself, O God, as we carefully study the Word you have given us in order to see the beauty of Your manifold perfections with ever-increasing precision and clarity! And as we behold that glory, grant that we would become transformed into the very image of Your Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren and come to have the preeminence in everything, and that You might be honored above all things!

Amen.

Biblical Repentance: Introduction

1. Exegesis
1.1. Nacham: Biblical Repentance Involves the Emotions
1.2. Shuv: The Heart's Obedient Turn from Sin to God
1.3. Metanoeo: A Fundamental Change of the Whole Man

2. Discussion
2.1. Summary and Discussion: Intellectual, Emotional, Volitional
2.2. Repentance for the Christian

3. Application
3.1. Repentance vs. Penance
3.2. Counsel to a Sinning Brother
3.3. Homework for Sinning Brother
3.4. The Effect on My Personal Walk with Christ

A Sample Prayer Plan

For my class, the Biblical Exposition of Prayer, our final project was to prepare a three-part expositional series on prayer, with the goal of drawing our hearers into a vibrant, thriving prayer life. For that project, I chose Psalm 50, Hebrews 4:14-16, and Matthew 6:5-13. My outline was sort of: (1) Prayer results in God's glory (Ps 50:15); (2) Prayer results in our benefit (Heb 4:16), and (3) How to pray (Mt 6:5-13). (I may post pieces from those lessons in the coming weeks.)

At the end of that project -- as well as at the end of a semester of intentional personal prayer -- I drafted a sample prayer plan that I thought might help give some structure to people who want to pray but don't because they don't have a good plan to pray. John Piper, in Desiring God, makes that very point: a main hindrance to prayer is our lack of planning. He tells us, "If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don't just get up one summer morning and say, 'Hey, let's go today!' You won't have anything ready. You won't know where to go. Nothing has been planned."

And so to that end, I offer the following, not as something to be rigidly followed, but as a suggestion to help get you into -- or back into -- a thriving, regular, consistent time of worship of and communion with God in prayer.


Wake up: 5:30 am
Time: Daily, 6:00 am to 7:00 am
Place: Kitchen Table

6:00-6:05 - Drawing Near & Confession

• Come before your Father in the name of Jesus Christ, on the basis of the work He's done in the Gospel.
  
• Acknowledge your dependence upon the Holy Spirit even in your prayers (Rom 8:26-27). Ask for His help in the coming hour.
  
• Pray that the Father would receive this time as worship from a heart gladdened by His glorious grace.
  
• Confess your sin in light of God's holiness. Ask for forgiveness on the basis of Christ's shed blood on the Cross.
  

6:05-6:10 - Praise & Thanksgiving

Spend time simply delighting in all that God is for you in Christ. Meditate on the beauty of His manifold perfections and His wondrous deeds throughout the ages. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name (Ps 96:7-9), and honor Him as God by giving thanks to Him (Rom 1:21) for all His good and perfect gifts (Jas 1:17).

6:10-6:20 - God-Centered Petitions

• Pray for God's name to be glorified above all things by all peoples.
• Pray for His kingdom to increase through the ministry of the Church.
  
• Pray for His kingdom to come in its fullness. That is, pray for His second coming and the establishment of His consummated reign upon the earth.
  
• Pray for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven; namely, without hesitation and full of joyful zeal.

6:20-6:30 - Personal Petitions

• Pray for growth in grace and godliness. Be specific.
  
• Battle in prayer against specific sins. Engage in the work of mortification (Rom 8:12-13).
• Pray for opportunities of personal ministry, that your light would shine before men to the glory of your Father (Mt 5:16).
  
• Pray for God to provide (and to continue to provide) for your daily necessities: for food, shelter, employment, etc.
  
• Pray for freedom from temptation, and, when temptation comes, strength to endure it without falling.
• Pray for the strength to persevere and endure in trials.

6:30-6:40 - Intercessory Prayer

During this time, pray for the requests of particular circles of friends and family. This may involve keeping a prayer list and referring to it as you're praying. Pray for different circles on different days. For example on a 5-day cycle:

• On Mondays, pray for particular requests from your immediate and extended family.
• On Tuesdays, pray for the requests of those in your small group Bible study.
• On Wednesdays, pray for your pastors and elders, as well as the missionaries your church supports. (You might pick a different missionary family or two each week and cycle through.) Pray also for pastors, elders, and missionaries you know outside of your own church.
• On Thursdays, pray for the requests of those whom you interact with at your job. What a great way to both minister and witness to those at your job!
• On Fridays, pray for other friends outside of the aforementioned circles, as well as specifically for the salvation of unbelievers you know.

6:40-6:55 - Meditation

Choose a passage of Scripture to meditate on and pray through. This should be regular. That is, don't just pick a random passage every day. You might choose to meditate on the main text and the supplemental texts of your pastor's sermon from the previous Sunday. That would be a great way to be an expositional listener. You might also do a Psalm per day. You could also pick 8 verses of Psalm 119 per day, as that's broken up very nicely. For example,

• Monday - Psalm 119:1-8
• Tuesday - Psalm 119:9-16
• Wednesday - Psalm 119:17-24
• Thursday - Psalm 119:25-32
• Friday - Psalm 119:33-40

Really pray these texts into your soul. This is not reading merely for exposure or content. This is reading to see and know and worship God. This should be different than your daily Bible reading, and should be a small enough passage that you can pray through it in 15 minutes.

6:55-7:00 - Summarize

• Thank God for the time spent with Him and for His gracious revelation of Himself in His Word.
• Express your trust in Him to grant the things you've prayed for according to His sovereign, wise, and good will, and according to glory of His name.
• Pray again for strength and grace to glorify Him and serve people in His name throughout your day.

One thing I have asked from Yahweh, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of Yahweh
And to meditate in His temple.
- Psalm 27:4 -

Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
- John 14:13 -

Ask and you will receive,
so that your joy may be made full.
- John 16:24 -