Consider the Possibilities

Through the first 4 chapters of Romans, Paul asks us to contemplate the real nature and extent of sin, both in humanity as a whole, and in each individual.

Then, in chapter 5, he asks us to contemplate, over against this stark soulscape of sin, the nature and extent of God's grace to those who believe.

This is a teaching I drank deeply of in my Lutheran days, but the question that always concerned me was, what then? Or, in Schaeffer's famous words,"How should we then live?"

In chapter 6 of Romans, Paul's answer begins with a rather grand assertion. In sum: we died with Christ, and now, through union with him in his resurrection we can live his kind of life.

I always hesitate to use pretentious theological terms, but what we are talking about now is union with Christ and sanctification. The church's teaching on this has been all over the block in the past century or two. Nevertheless, here is where the Christian's existential thirst becomes most apparent. We desire righteousness, and we see it lovely in Christ, but in ourselves marred almost beyond recognition.

This issue, this problem, this thirst, is where the conscience of the sinning Christian--that means all of us--tosses and turns. Shall we avoid the frustration by lowering our expectations? Such is not Paul's way. He says, "Consider yourself dead to sin." If this is true, then it must be a matter for me of believing something that I do not see. A matter, that is, of faith.

On this question of holiness Paul's aim is always very high. He seems to assume holiness to be always possible!!! [If that statement does not deserve multiple exclamation points, nothing does.] This is why Paul can say,

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Now I want to turn your attention to an old book called Thoughts on Christian Sanctity, by H. C. G. Moule. I'll just say this: read his first chapter, called Aims, Limits, Possibilities (on Google books). It is a wonderful exposition of some stunning Bible truths.

On the matter of the Christian Aims, he writes:

The Christian's aim is bound, absolutely bound, to be nothing less than this--"Let the words of my lips, and the meditation of my heart, be always acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."

And on the subject of Limits, Moule has this to say:

Here I hold, with absolute conviction, alike from the experience of the Church and from the infallible Word, that in the mystery of things there will be very real limits to [the attainment of Christian holiness], and very humbling limits, very real fallings short. To the last it will be a Sinner that walks with God. To the last will "abide in the regenerate" that strange tendency, that "mind of the flesh," which eternal grace can wonderfully deal with, but which is a tendency still.

Finally, under the heading, Possibilities, Moule writes:

It is possible, I dare say, for those who will indeed draw on the Lord's power for deliverance and victory, to live a life--how shall I describe it--a life in which His promises are taken as they stand and found to be true. It is possible to cast every care on Him daily and to be at peace amidst the pressure. It is possible to have affections and imaginations purified through faith, in a profound and practical sense. It is possible to see the will of God in everything, and to find it, as one has said, no longer a sigh, but a song. It is possible, in the world of inner act and motion, to put away, to get put away, all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and evil speaking, daily and hourly.... These things are possible. And, because they are His work, the genuine experience of them will lay us, must lay us, only lower at His feet, and leave us only more a thirst for more.

What's in your wallet?

Have you heard about Jeff Weddle's new book, The Gospel Filled Wallet? Jeff's been on my blogroll since way back when (anti-itch meditation). Jeff's a fine blogger, and he has now established a book-blog (here) as well. His subject is important, and his handling of it seems at once winsome and yet uncompromising. Looks like a nice piece of work.

By the way, the book is the initial offering from Transforming Publications, Milton Stanley's new venture. You know Milton from Transforming Sermons. of course.

"Love bade me welcome . . ."

Romans 5 has pretty much fired me up! I'd kind of like to write something about Paul's use of the word "reign" there, and something else about his phrase "hope of glory." Maybe I'll get to that here, maybe not. But this morning something jumped out at me that I hadn't really noticed before. It happens right at the end of verse 10:

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Ray Ortlund, in his Romans devotional, Passion for God, translates it this way:

After all, if, alienated from him as we were, God broke down the barriers by the death of his Son, how much more certain is it, now that we are back on good terms with him, that we will be fully saved as he imparts his life to us.

It's that last phrase that really grabs my attention here. Ortlund's words, "... fully saved, as he imparts his life to us."

Boy, if that doesn't lift the shades on your wonder-window, nothing does.

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A timely post by Jared Wilson, quoting Augustus Toplady, might just relate. Also, this poem by George Herbert.

The Romans Reading Plan

Since I'm back to blogging through Romans again, I thought I'd just mention again what this reading/blogging plan is all about. I'm reading through Romans very slowly this year, spending the whole year on this one book. I've divided it up into 12 segments, one for each month. The April segment, for example, is 5:1-6:14. Here's the whole plan:

January Rom 1:1-2:11
February Rom. 2:12-3:20
March Rom. 3:21-4:25
April Rom. 5:1-6:14
May Rom. 6:15-7:24
June Rom. 8
July Rom. 9:1-10:4
August Rom. 10:5-11:24
September Rom. 11:25-12:21
October Romans 13 & 14
November Rom. 15
December Rom. 16

I'm trying to look at my life through the lens of Romans. I'm trying to let the words of Paul, in effect, sit me down and ask me discomforting questions. I find that this reading and re-reading longish passages of Scripture every day has the benefit, eventually, of breaking through your rote responses and routine applications.

Since commentaries can sometimes get in the way of devotional reading, I'm not using them (although I've been tempted at times). But I am reading a devotional based entirely on Romans and written by Ray Ortlund, called Passion for God. It's really wondrful. And Ray Ortlund is of course a wonderful blogger, too.

Stand by Me

I've shared this before. I'm sharing it again.

Satsifying Riddles

Here's another Chestertonain nugget:

The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.

Things are not as they seem!

Last night I shared a Chestertonian nugget with you, something I'd found in Viola and Sweet's new book, Jesus Manifesto. Here, I'll give it to you again:

There is a great difference between a mystery of God that no one understands, and a mystery of God laid hold of, let it be but by one single man.

As I've come to chapters 5 and 6 in my Romans Reading Plan this month (reading 5:1 to 6:14 all month), I feel like I've been meandering down stream in a kayak, but just now I've hit the rapids. There's just so much here!

But getting back to the Chesterton quote, I take his "laid hold of" to mean, simply, believed. Believed, and lived out. A truth of God, mysterious, not fully understood (the truths of God never are), but believed and lived.

Here's another quote for you. It's not from the Romans passage, but it compliments what Paul says there nicely:

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)

By the way, Ray Ortlund has something to say about this brief verse at his blog the other day. Check it out.

Making a similar point, John says:

Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

But here's what I'm getting at. It's one thing to read the word of God. It's another thing to lay hold of, to believe and to live out, what it says there. I died? And my life is now hid with Christ in God? Things are not what seem, brothers and sisters. If I were to really lay hold of that, how would it change my life?

Back to Romans. I could choose any number of statements from this chapter-and-a-half, but let's go to 6:11:

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

This means believing that what Jesus accomplished on the cross really does stick. It really does make a difference. The imperative is: consider it done.

Lay hold of this mystery. You are now dead to sin, alive to God. You thought you were alive before, but you were under the dominion of death. When you were born again, your were born into a new kingdom, a new dominion. A dominion of life and light. It may not seem so, but things are not as they seem. Trust God and walk in newness of life.

Can I do that? Can I take my own advice and lay hold of this mystery today?

Mystery Laid Hold Of

Said G. K. Chesterton:

There is a great difference between a mystery of God that no one understands, and a mystery of God laid hold of, let it be but by one single man.

[p. 81, Jesus Manifesto, by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola]

Monday Whatnot

Every time I see a quotation from Paul Miller's The Praying Life, I want to hurry up and buy the book. So that's what I'm doing.

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Jonathan Dodson on why missional church is not enough. A really great post. It will keep missional folks from making an idol out of "missionality."

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Skye Jathani on the "de-churched" (part 1, part 2). This has been getting a lot of attention, but I thought I'd make a note of it because I seem to recently slipped into the "de-churched" category without even trying.

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Finally, read Michael Paton's post, Broken. Read it, think hard about it, and pray for Michael.

Romans: Stranger than Fiction

So I've been reading chapter 5 of Romans this month, and on into chapter 6 to verse 14. The more you read these mighty words of Paul's, the more humbling their impact. It is an amazing passage, and seems only to deepen in resonance with each re-reading.

Frequent re-reading is useful that way. I highly recommend it. The biggest roadblock to really receiving Scriptural truths and working them out in our lives is the presumption that we already understand them well enough. We move on too quickly. In a hurry to "read the Bible in a year" or find a passage more immediately stirring, we turn the page too readily. The truths of Scripture are both simple and yet deeply resisted within us. We disbelieve them more than we are willing to admit. Frequent re-reading can, rather than making us over-familiar, break though our jadedness and open our eyes to the wonder of it all.

The truth of God is stranger than fiction.

Anyway, Paul's descriptions in Romans of the nature of the Christian life can really set you to wondering. Take the passage in Romans 8:

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

Not a spirit of fear, you read, and you begin to wonder about fear, about your own fear, the things you fear, the fear you felt yesterday or just a moment ago. Silly, indefensible fear. And it occurs to you once again that your own life, admit it, does not exactly coincide with what Paul is describing here. But why not?

Let's go back to chapter 5, where I've been nesting all month. There Paul describes certain conditions as given for Christians, based on the justifying work of Christ. Peace with God, for example. And then, unashamed certainty concerning the glory of God that is our destiny. Which of course allows us to endure what we have to endure in this life while still "rejoicing" despite it all. That's all in the first paragraph of chapter 5.

Stop me when it all seems routine and, you know, obvious. If rejoicing even as you "endure" and "suffer" is normal for you, way to go. I guess I'm not there yet.

Toward the end of the chapter Paul says that since we have been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus and have received the free gift of righteousness, we will reign in life through Christ Jesus. Life won't defeat us. We'll reign. We have this righteousness gift, so "sin death and the devil" will not master us. Instead of being reigned over by life and its burdens, by suffering, by the stubborn sin that seems to live in us, we will "reign in life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Think about the word "reign" and tell me this doesn't just make your jaw drop?

It should seem at once unbelievable--unreasonable!--and yet, somehow, deeply resonatingly true and very believable.

Last week I was on the elevator at work with a co-worker (a Catholic Christian) who was clearly feeling depressed. We got to talking, and she said, "Bob, how do you keep this place from getting you down?" I said what popped into my head: "Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world."

That's from 1 John 4:4. And it takes me back to chapter 5 of Romans, where Paul says we're able to rejoice even in the midst of suffering because "the love of God has been poured into our hearts." Love pour into our hearts! And, One in us greater than whatever the world can throw at us! Can you believe it?

Well, her eyes went wide with surprise and yet also, it seemed, recognition. It was as if I had reminded her of something she had forgotten. And the cool thing is, it turned her day around!

So we have, taking these 3 passages mentioned above, the spirit of adoption in us, the love of God poured into our hearts, and One in us who is greater than the one in the world. The New Testament is positively blooming with these kinds of strange and mysterious truths.

If I really understood them, well, I should be crazy with love and passion for God and all that.

It should all feel, I think, both amazing and surprising on the one hand, and on the other so real and so true that it can even provoke rejoicing in the midst of suffering. But, as I've been at pains to say, how seldom it seems to correspond with the way we live from day to day. How often it seems that the one who is in the world has the upper hand! And yet, when we let ourselves dwell on these Scriptural truths, perhaps we may begin to understand it just a little. We might just begin even to feel it. Even if we're enduring something--and of course we are! Suffering, after all, is another Biblical given, but as given as suffering is for the believer, so is (for the believer) peace. And so is hope. And rejoicing. And so is, in ways that none of us fully comprehend yet, reigning.

It's all so strange. And it's all so true!

Saturday Book Notes

Through Semicolon I discovered this site listing the top ten best selling books, year by year, of the 20th century. It's interesting how few of them from the first half are ever read or even remembered any more. But I like re-discovering a neglected masterpiece, so I'll probably research some of these titles and pick one or two from the first five decades anyway. The list for the second half of the century is far less interesting to me.

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Lately I've been wandering around the library fiction shelves looking for such forgotten or neglected novels. They'll have nondescript library bindings, and they will not have been checked out for a decade or two. With no gushy praises on the covers, the only thing commending them to you is perhaps an intriguing title or a vaguely remembered author. Well, anyway, that's one way to choose what you're going to read. That's how this week I discovered the amusing Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (a best seller back in 1946), which really cracked me up at times.

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I'm also reading Michael Chabon's Manhood for Amateurs, a book of personal essays about fathers and sons. Chabon can be very insightful, although he has the modern wiseguy prejudices about "the God of Abraham." Still, his chapters on his own boyhood are terrific. His chapter on the uses of (and the need for) "wilderness" in childhood is brilliant and needed.

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I'm intrigued and a little amazed by book bloggers. I just did a Google blog search for "manhood Chabon," looking for reader reviews, and discovered a few more of these blogs dedicated to chronicling the blogger's reading history. They're mostly written by women, it seems, and these people are Olympian readers. They set all kinds of reading "challenges" for themselves and they seem to read dozens of books at at a time. They also provide more reliable book info than the traditional review sources, it seems to me. One such reader blog is The Captive Reader.

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Oh, and speaking of neglected books.

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And finally, Reformissionary featured a wonderful poem by Ted Kooser, called Grasshoppers. That's a poem I'd like to have written!

Twang Thursday

Uncle Earl:

Jesus Manifesto

I just received my "reader's edition" of the upcoming book by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola, Jesus Manifesto. I'll be sharing nuggets from this as I read, and also reviewing it later in May. The book's publication date is June 1.

"A much neglected means of grace..."

John Stott is retiring from public ministry (at the age of 88). His little book, Basic Christianity, was a great help to me in my early years as a Christian. Now, in his final book, The Radical Disciple, he leaves these words of gentle exhortation and farewell:

As I lay down my pen for the last time (literally, since I confess I am not computerized) at the age of eighty-eight, I venture to send this valedictory message to my readers. I am grateful for your encouragement, for many of you have written to me.

Looking ahead, none of us of course knows what the future of printing and publishing may be. But I myself am confident that the future of books is assured and that, though they will be complemented, they will never be altogether replaced. For there is something unique about books. Our favorite books become very precious to us and we even develop with them an almost living and affectionate relationship. Is it an altogether fanciful fact that we handle, stroke and even smell them as tokens of our esteem and affection? I am not referring only to an author’s feeling for what he has written, but to all readers and their library. I have made it a rule not to quote from any book unless I have first handled it. So let me urge you to keep reading, and encourage your relatives and friends to do the same. For this is a much neglected means of grace. . . .

Once again, farewell!

HI: Andy Unedited.

Communitas

Michael Frost. He's a missional church guru. His new book is Jesus the Fool. I recently posted a brief video of Frost here. Now here's another:



HT: Brad Briscoe

Functionally Illiterate Christians

Found on Randy Alcorn's blog:

One of my lifelong loves has been reading great books. I lament the decrease in the number of Christians who are avid readers. We seem to be more interested in television, movies, popular culture, and all kinds of trivia than in great books. And we are leading our children and grandchildren into functional illiteracy, shallowness, and superficiality. Most sadly of all, someone who isn’t a reader will never be a reader of God’s Word. What does this suggest about where church leaders, and therefore churches, will be tomorrow?

Saturday Book Notes

Three baseball novels recommended at New Dork Review. I love baseball lit.

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Choose Love Not Power

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This one sounds really good:Cross Talk: Where Life and Scripture Meet

[HT: Joshua Otte]

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Darrell Johnson calls it the best book in English on the Kingdom of God--Announcing the Reign of God: Evangelization and the Subversive Memory of Jesus, by Mortimer Arias.

The Johnson comment, by the way, comes in the end notes of his wonderful little book on the Lord's Prayer, 57 Words that Change the World, which I highly recommend.

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Contraconditional Love

David Powlinson:

The Gospel is better than unconditional love. The Gospel says, “God accepts you just as Christ is. God has ‘contraconditional’ love for you.” Christ bears the curse you deserve. Christ is fully pleasing to the Father and gives you His own perfect goodness. Christ reigns in power, making you the Father’s child and coming close to you to begin to change what is unacceptable to God about you. God never accepts me “as I am.” He accepts me “as I am in Jesus Christ.” The center of gravity is different. The true Gospel does not allow God’s love to be sucked into the vortex of the soul’s lust for acceptability and worth in and of itself. Rather, it radically decenters people—what the Bible calls “fear of the Lord” and “faith”—to look outside themselves.

Did you see the trailer? The movie's gonna be even better!

Michael Frost's new book is provocatively titled Jesus the Fool. I read and very much like his book ReJesus. Here's Michael speaking about "the purpose of the church."

The Thankless Task of Retrieval

I'm looking for the lost letter
under the rank leaves
in the last light

in the valley that is memory
in the valley that is forgetting

where the house is disassembled
at the brink of its recollection
where the house is disremembered
at the point of its resurrection

and in the back yard
by the last light
the molecules of the lost letter
cascade through the deepening mulch
forever.

Dodson on Hirsch

Alan Hirsch's new book, Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship, is reviewed nicely by Jonathan Dodson here and here. I liked Hirsch's book ReJesus a lot.

Michael Spencer, 1956-2010

I just learned that Michael Spencer has died.

He was the blogger from whom I have learned the most. I admired his frankness, his daring and restless thoughtfulness, and his freedom from religious cant. He led the way in focused, intelligent, Christian blogging. He was one of a kind.

I am saddened for his family, and pray for them the peace that soars past understanding. I'm glad Michael is no longer in pain.

Trevin Wax has penned a nice tribute (here).

Monday Whatnot

Well, it's about time someone poked a little fun at the pretensions of the Christian-conference industy.

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Jared "King of the Simile" Wilson:

why do churches treat the resurrection like it's the heartworm medicine you put in a hot dog to trick the dog?

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In case you hadn't heard, self-loathing is not a fruit of the Spirit. Mark Galli wisely guides the discussion away from self-worth altogether. This is a great article. Galli is so frequently quotable, it's hard to choose, but here's another just-right piece of thinking:

At this point, many will wonder, "So what's wrong with feeling good about ourselves?" and "But don't people have value?" These very questions, however, arise out of a worldview that is addicted to thinking about the self. It's like an alcoholic asking, "Isn't wine a gift of God to be enjoyed in gratefulness?" In one way, it's a legitimate question, but when asked by an addict, the right answer will only tempt the addict and make things worse! If we who are addicted to the self try to answer questions of human dignity and self-worth head on, we'll just fall into a drunken stupor of narcissism.

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And now just do me a favor and read this. Really.

Easter, and a kind of explanation

It's Easter, and I am rather contentedly staying home this morning, for the first Easter in eighteen years. I know this may seem disconcerting to some of my old church acquaintances. After all, this is the biggest day of the year in Christian churches across the world, and the church is, I might add, the bride of Christ. Today she celebrates the salvation that He won for us. Hallelujah!

I believe in all that. I do. Not only the "old, old story" of Jesus, Son of Man and Son of God, the rugged cross, the empty tomb. But also I believe in the church. Love the church. And desire once again to be a part of one.

But not today.

Bottom line, I am tired. And maybe I'm a little jaded. In the last few months I've been going to an Acts 29 church. I admire the pastor, the congregation, and have no quibbles about what's going on there. I'll be going back there in the future. But for whatever reason I haven't gotten plugged in there yet. It's a 20 and 30 something congregation, and I'm a 50-something guy. Maybe that's the reason.

Whatever.

Much of my church experience in recent years has been all about manufactured enthusiasm. It makes me very unenthusiastic. Much lip-service was paid to the idea of "relationships," but on the ground that played out in rather superficial get-togethers for bowling or ballgames or chattering about sports and trucks over donuts and coffee. All of which would be fine, if out of that there grew a couple of relationships of which I could say, this man knows me well, and I him. There is a oneness between us.

Nothing like it.

I heartily confess that I myself am a big part of this problem. I'm an introvert, and don't readily jump into the deep end of relationships. I'm cranky at times, impatient with what I consider nonsense (especially church nonsense). Also, I seem to have a particular set of interests and tastes that few people share. I don't care about TV, don't go to movies (much), and don't read the latest Christian best sellers.

Anyway, none of that was really the reason I left my church of ten years. But it's back-story to the reason why I'm not leaping into some other Sunday church-experience with both feet.

So, back to the here and now. It's Easter, and I'm sitting here blogging, listening to Ralph Stanley sing Listen to the Shepherd. Willie Nelson sing Uncloudy Day. I'm not "in the wilderness." I'm not a lone-ranger Christian. I want that thing that churches call "fellowship," and I know I'll have it again someday. But for now I'm resting. I'm waiting. I'm watching and praying. And I'm looking forward to an uncloudy day.

Listen To The Shepherd - Jim L...

Uncloudy Day - Willie Nelson

And for your added listening pleasure:

Uncloudy Day - The Staple Sing...

Bookish Saturday

I haven't been posting any inspiring Holy Week ruminations this year, but Trevin Wax at Kingdom People has been leading the blogging pack on that score. His 5-part series is called, The Beauty of the Blood-stained Cross. Trevin's book, Subversive Christianity, looks good.

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The Gospel Coalition now has a book review site: TGC Reviews. I'm pretty jazzed about this.

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Books and Culture features a review of recent baseball lit. I like baseball lit better than baseball itself (at least the pro game).

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Speaking of baseball lit, I'm reading the autobiographical essays of The New Yorker's great baseball writer (and perhaps the greatest ever), Roger Angell. Angell is 90, and was the step-son of E. B. White. His book is called, Let Me Finish. His reminiscence of the 20s and 30s are wonderful short-story-ish gems.

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This isn't a bookish item, but it's sweet. Have a blessed Easter.

Twang Thursday

A couple of Easter Posts

The Last Supper

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The Cross of Christ: God instead of Us [Part 1, Part 2]