Good Soil in Thessaloniki

The first 3 chapters of 1 Thessalonians give a great picture of the 4th, good soil in  Jesus’ parable of the soils (Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:1-15). This young church in Thessaloniki was filled with believers who had heard the good news of the kingdom of God through Christ and had responded with faith and obedience:

1 Thess 1:6 – “You welcomed the message (of Christ) in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” The Thessalonian believers received the word with joy, like the second soil in Jesus’ parable, but unlike the second soil they withstood the pressures of “trouble” and “persecution” (Mark 4:16-17). They were beginning to exhibit a faith that endured. More than merely a human decision or evaluation, the response was marked by the Holy Spirit’s power. When people respond to God’s word in saving faith, this is a work of new birth carried out by the Holy Spirit.

1 Thess 1:8-9 – “Your faith in God has become known everywhere . . . . You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” The believers made a clean break from their idolatrous past when they embraced the one true God. In other words, they experienced conversion from one way of worship and living to another. Their purpose in life was now to serve God, being wholly devoted to Him.

1 Thess 2:13 – “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the Word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.” The Thessalonians rightly evaluated the message proclaimed to them. They received it as a divine message, originating with God. They recognized the eternal risks of ignoring it and the eternal blessings of heeding it. They were like the 4th soil, the person “who hears the word and understands it” (Matthew 13:22), making the connection between its content (the good news of the kingdom of God, centered in the death and resurrection of Christ) and its implications (this is a treasure to be valued more than anything in this world, demanding an urgent and wholehearted response - see the parables of the hidden treasure and the precious pearl in Matthew 13:44-46).

1 Thess 3:6 – “But Timothy (Paul’s co-worker) has just now come to us from you and has brought good news about your faith and love.” The Thessalonians were fruit-bearing soil: “Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” (Luke 8:8). The Thessalonian believers were demonstrating the two cardinal virtues of the Christian life: faith and love (Gal 5:6). Paul uses “faith” to describe the Thessalonians’ stubborn allegiance to Christ in the midst of hardships, and he uses “love” to acknowledge their affection and humility towards Paul (1 Thess 3:6b), and their concern for other believers in their region (1 Thess 4:10).

Good soil - the message of the gospel is heard, and its divine authority is recognized. A joyful response follows, which results in conversion and transformation, regardless of the opposition faced.

The Biblical Doctrine of Election – An Overlooked Point

The Bible uses language of “election” to talk about people who are part of God’s family and share in the blessings of that family. A discussion on this topic is usually dominated by questions and debates about predestination and free will. In fact, some people think only about the philosophical category of determinism when they encounter language about election in the Bible.

But there is something more consistently emphasized when the Bible affirms the idea of election – that God chooses surprising candidates as recipients of his blessings and as participants in his plans for the world.

Jesus with the disciples he chose

Mark 1:17 – “And Jesus said to them (fishermen Simon and Andrew), ‘Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.’” And Mark 1:19-20 – “And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boats mending the nets. And immediately he called them.” Mark 2:14 – “And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’”

Jesus chose disciples who had no exceptional characteristics that made them stand out from the crowd. Quite the contrary: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13).

Similarly, the women God placed in Jesus’ genealogy (Matthew 1:1-17) – Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba - were Gentiles (Rahab and Ruth), widows (Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba), and had been taken advantage of by people more powerful than themselves (Tamar, Bathsheba). Even Jesus’ own mother Mary was poor and a virgin – an unlikely candidate for being the mother of a king.

James, reflecting on the beatitudes that Jesus had proclaimed (Matthew 5:3, Luke 6:20), confronts his readers’ preferential attitude towards the rich with the question, “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom?” (James 2:5).

Paul develops this theme in 1 Corinthians 1:26-28 – “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in this world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.”

Jesus applauds God’s intentional disclosure of himself to the overlooked in Matthew 11:25 – “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.”

Paul looks back on Israel’s history from this vantage point in Romans 9 through 11 - discerning that “God’s purpose of election” (Romans 9:11) involved many surprising turns, such as God’s choice of Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over the firstborn Esau, and his inclusion of “wild olive shoots” (the Gentiles) into the family tree of Israel.

This fits in with God’s words to Israel in Deuteronomy 7:6-8 – “For you (Israel) are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers.”

What can be learned from this repeated theme of God’s surprising choice? First, God’s choice highlights his grace and silences human boasting (“so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” – 1 Cor 1:29). We are not part of God’s family based on our own credentials. Second, God’s election of unexpected people puts the spotlight on Jesus’ power working through them (as seen in the Jewish leaders’ observation that the lowly fishermen who spoke so boldly “had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). Third, God’s loving concern for the overlooked means that we should share God’s heart for those who are poor and discounted - not “dishonoring the poor man” but “loving your neighbor as yourself” – James 2:6-8.

God’s election of unlikely people throughout Scriptures, and his election of us, should spark thankfulness, humility, reliance on God, and an active love for the people around us.

Nothing new under the sun?

The other day when I was reading George Eldon Ladd’s New Testament Theology (published in 1974) I came across his description of “the old liberal view” of Christianity, represented by Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930).

Ladd begins with a quote from Harnack (page 55): “In the combination of these ideas – God the Father, Providence, the position of men as God’s children, the infinite value of the human soul – the whole Gospel is expressed.”

Ladd then describes Harnack’s understanding of the kingdom of God as “the pure prophetic religion taught by Jesus: the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the infinite value of the individual soul, and the ethic of love” (page 58).

Observations:

1. From my work with Christian college students, I suspect that a number of today’s young evangelical Christians would summarize Christianity similarly and would find this vision of Christianity to be quite appealing.

2. Harnack highlights some important biblical ideas here. God is called Father in a number of places in the Bible, and people are called children of God in certain passages. We do share a common humanity as individuals, and we all have been created in the image of God. Love is central to Christian living.

3. Harnack also leaves out crucial clarifications of these topics. For instance, the Bible reserves the “Father-child” (or “Father-son”) language specifically for believers – those who have been adopted into a new relationship with God through the sacrificial and saving work of Christ on the cross, and by the life-giving and transforming action of the Spirit (see John 1:12-13, Galatians 4:4-6, for instance). In addition, to limit Christianity to the teachings of Jesus (the “pure prophetic religion taught by Jesus”) ignores the purposeful, saving work of Jesus (namely, his sufferings, sacrificial death, resurrection, ascension, session, and return).

4. Harnack’s summary of Christianity basically amounts to an incomplete picture of biblical love: God’s universal love as Father of all and our need to love others by affirming their worth as a valuable part of God’s creation.

5. Once Harnack’s vision of Christianity is embraced (either explicitly or inadvertently), topics such as a final judgment, the distinction between the church and the world, Jesus Christ being the only way to God, the experience of conversion and new birth, and the need for evangelism and church planting seem more and more foreign and unnecessary. How does judgment fit into the picture if all people are children of God? What makes people within the church any different from people outside the church? If Jesus simply teaches about God, couldn’t others fill that role adequately as well? Why do I need to believe in Jesus and be “born again” if I am already a child of God? Isn’t it more loving simply to affirm others as valuable rather than to challenge them to repent and believe?

6. Back to my work with Christian college students, the topics mentioned in point #5 (judgment, church/world distinction, Jesus as the only way to God, conversion/new birth, evangelism/church planting) are the very topics that I find young Christians expressing misgivings about. There may be a cause and effect relationship here. Love can be defined so generically, apart from the broader biblical story, that the resulting definition no longer leaves room for these other biblical topics.

Evangelicals – those who value the evangel or euaggelion proclaimed by Christ and explained by the apostles – will notice the gospel being flattened or distorted in various ways in the culture around them. As currency specialists point out, the best way to spot a counterfeit is to be well-studied in the real thing. The full, rich gospel of Jesus Christ (regarding his person, teaching, and works) is presented clearly in the Scriptures for those who have ears to hear.

Tipping Points – Understanding the Bible

This is the final post of our series on tipping points in the Christian life (a tipping point is “the one small step” that can lead to a “giant leap” forward in an area of life or field of study).

Today’s tipping points are small steps that can yield major leaps in understanding the Bible.

There is so much to understand in the Bible. Many of us are just scratching the surface when it comes to understanding the Bible. Others are intimidated by the Bible, feeling that the theological, cultural, and historical obstacles of the Bible are difficult to surmount. But we can see breakthroughs in the way we understand the Bible if we are willing to adopt certain perspectives and practices in our Bible study.

1. Read the Bible according to its design and intent. See the Bible as the God’s disclosure of his character and his plans for us and for this world. The Bible is not simply a record of thoughts about God. God speaks through the prophets and apostles who wrote the books of the Bible. When we read the Bible we are dealing with divine revelation. The Bible is also not simply God’s instruction manual for how we are to live life.  In the Bible God speaks primarily to reveal himself and what he has done, is doing, and will do in this world, through Christ and by his Spirit. There is no more valuable pursuit than knowing our God: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let those who boast boast about this: that they understand and know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24, TNIV).

Jeremiah 9:23-24 in Chinese

This tipping point gives us the motivation we need when reading the Bible. We are learning about God himself, and we are encountering the good news of how he is re-implementing his reign over this world, through the sacrificial and saving work of Christ. Moreover, we learn that the God who reigns is also our Father, since those who have faith in Christ have been adopted into God’s special family and are in a permanent and intimate relationship with him as his plans for the world move forward. This ought to give our Bible study a sense of urgency and excitement.

2. Read words, sentences, and paragraphs within their greater contexts. Words are intelligible as parts of sentences, sentences are intelligible as parts of paragraphs, and paragraphs are intelligible as parts of entire books of the Bible (particularly in keeping with the genre of each book). The Bible contains discourse that is coherent rather than disjointed. The parts support the whole, and the whole gives clearer meaning to the parts. Since we know that the Bible communicates coherent discourse, we can study the Bible with persistence and hope. When the meaning of a passage is not immediately evident to us, we can be confident that additional examination of the context can yield more insights and uncover fresh connections within the text.

3. Read the Bible with covenantal sensitivity. God interacts with the world and the people of the world according to various covenants – from the covenants with Noah, Abraham, Moses and the Israelites, and David, to the new covenant in Jesus. God does not change in his character, but he relates to people differently according to his covenant relationship (or lack thereof) with them. Understanding how the relationship between God and his people is defined in any given setting helps us make sense of each scene of the Bible. Without an awareness of the covenantal structure of the Bible, some of God’s actions, commands, promises, and responses will seem arbitrary and confusing (think of some of the conquest passages in the Old Testament, for example). Another way of looking at this is that we need to understand the overall, unfolding story of the Bible (which is carried along by covenants implemented by God) in order to see how the individual books of the Bible fit together as part of the bigger picture.

4. Read the Bible with the right outcomes in mind. This brings us back to the first tipping point in this post. The Bible is given to us to help us know God. He has chosen to reveal his heart in the words of the Bible. Our response each time we read the Bible should be to believe, worship, and obey God. God wants us to experience life-change when we hear his words, to be the wise builders of Matthew 7:24-27, or the observant mirror-gazers of James 1:22-25, or the emotionally responsive crowds (first mourning then celebrating) of Nehemiah 8:8-12.

Reading and studying the Bible can be a joyful and enriching lifelong practice. Reading the Bible as God’s purposeful revelation, according to its literary and covenantal context, and with a prayerful longing for life-transformation helps us break through barriers of aimlessness, confusion, passivity, and apathy in our Bible reading.

Tipping Point – Christian Affections

I have been inactive on the blog front for over a month, but now that finals week at Taylor is winding down, I should be able to step back into a more regular posting routine.

At last check we were making our way through a series on “tipping points” in the Christian experience. This current post looks at the crucial adjustment that helps ignite our affections for God. In our Christian lives, we may believe the right things in our minds and practice the right things in our habits, but what helps our hearts to be drawn towards God in ever-increasing affection for him, so that we worship, trust, and obey him from the core of our being?

A critical step, or tipping point, for capturing our affections towards God is to learn to read the Bible with in a way that is sympathetic, first and foremost, to God’s perspective, rather than a human perspective. In other words, read the Bible with a sense of wonder, looking to appreciate God’s glory as we read. God cannot capture our affections for him if we are unwilling to trust him, by submitting ourselves to his revelation of himself in the Bible and see him for who he really is.

We are naturally inclined to place ourselves at the center of the universe and judge what we read in the Bible from that perspective. This can create skepticism and resistance towards God, especially when the way he acts fails to conform to our sensibilities. A great starting point for reading the Bible with God’s interests and viewpoint guiding us is found in Isaiah 55:8-9 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Submitting to God’s revelation requires trust that “the Judge of all the earth does what is right” (Genesis 18:25).

It is entirely appropriate to read the Bible in this way, since the Bible is written with God as the hero of the overall story and in the individual passages. In Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart’s influential book How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, the authors remind us, “In any biblical narrative, God is the ultimate character, the supreme hero of the story. . . . To miss this dimension of the narrative is to miss the perspective of the narrative altogether” (page 98).

Why is this approach to reading relevant to our affections towards God? Without an appreciation for God as the hero of the Bible we will yawn at glimpses of God’s holy majesty, bristle at scenes when God judges, underestimate the gravity of sin, or overlook the riches of God’s blessings for us. We need to have our attention focused on the beauty, power, justice, and grace of God at the center of the Biblical storyline. This grand vision of God’s greatness has fueled the worship and devotion of generations of believers. We should expect no less when we give God a chance to impress us when we encounter him in the Scriptures.

This process takes time. But once we are open to God being the center of the story, we learn to appreciate him on his own terms, without requiring him to fit into our preconceived notions of him, notions which are usually shaped by our own short-sighted goals and needs. And when we see God on his terms, we will grow in awareness of his beauty.

When we value God’s perspective and his glory above all things, Bible reading becomes a gateway into increased affections towards God and more ardent worship. We can emerge from reflecting on God and his word with the same sentiment that Paul expressed in Romans 11:33-36: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”

Tipping Points – Christian Practice

In the first post in this series, I identified Christ’s resurrection from the dead as the tipping point that helps ignite change in our belief – replacing doubt with a greater confidence in God.

(As a reminder, Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines a “tipping point” as “the critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place.”)

Today’s tipping points relate to our practice, or actions, as believers in Christ. What are two tipping points that promote breakthroughs in spiritual growth and Christ-likeness in our lives?

The first is the theological concept of “cruciformity” a term that has been popularized by biblical scholar Michael Gorman, among others.

Cruciform means “cross-shaped,” and its abstract meaning points to a life that is shaped by Jesus’ crucifixion. In its broadest sense, cruciform living can exhibited in a number of ways:

1) Profound gratitude for God’s sacrificial love for us, in Christ’s death on the cross. Christ’s death on the cross brings us forgiveness of sins (1 Corinthians 15:3) and results in our adoption into God’s family (Galatians 4:4-6). Our gratitude for Christ’s redeeming work should disarm our pride and create sincere worship, humility, and a heart of mercy for others.

2) Sober awareness of the reality of opposition to God, his work, and his people in this world. Christ was crucified by “rulers of this age” who did not recognize Jesus as the “Lord of glory” (1 Cor 2:8). Christians can expect similar opposition as followers of Christ (John 15:18-21). Those who seek to live cross-shaped lives will identify themselves with Christ even when the prevailing winds of culture blow against them.

3) A radical others-centeredness in our actions and attitudes. On multiple occasions Jesus moved seamlessly from talking about his own death and resurrection to talking about the need for his followers to adopt similar practices of service and sacrifice for others (Mark 8:31-38; Mark 9:30-35; Mark 10:32-45; and parallels in other Gospels). Likewise, the apostle Paul emphasizes putting the needs of others ahead of our own (Philippians 2:3-4), inspired by the pattern of Christ (Philippians 2:5-11).

When we buy into cruciformity, we buy into values that are polar opposites to the norms and values of this world. Christians who ”carry their crosses” live humbly, sacrificially (laying aside rights and comforts as servants of others), and faithfully (as servants of Christ, willing to suffer for him). The tipping point effect occurs when we embrace this vision of service and others-centeredness and let it shape our decisions, attitudes, and practices.

Cruciformity provides the “what” of Christian practice, describing what the “shape” of our lives should look like. But what is the “how” of Christian living? How can we be enabled and equipped to consistently please God with our actions? The second tipping point is the Holy Spirit’s empowerment of Jesus’ followers. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the key to the believer’s ongoing fruitfulness for God. For a more extended look at this tipping point, see my earlier post on this topic: Grace, Works, and Fruitfulness.

Tipping Point – Belief

According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, a “tipping point” is “the critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place.” In coming weeks I will propose some tipping points in our experience as believers – tipping points related to belief, practice, affections, and Biblical interpretation.

Today I begin with a tipping point related to the strength of our belief, faith, or trust in Christ (the same Greek word pistis is translated as belief, faith, and trust in English). Is there a specific catalyst that can help a person’s waning confidence in the truth of Christ regain momentum?

I believe that “the critical point beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place” in our struggle to believe in Christ is the reality of his resurrection.

First-century tombs – Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Belief in the resurrection of Jesus is not a blind leap of faith. There is credible historical rationale for believing that Jesus was raised from the dead. As N.T. Wright and other scholars have pointed out, only the resurrection explains both the empty tomb and the disciples’ conviction that they had seen Jesus alive again.Jesus’ resurrection was a tipping point for Jesus’ disciples, who moved from confusion and uncertainty to assurance of faith when they realized that Jesus had been raised from the dead (of course, the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost made a big difference as well) . “Doubting Thomas” was able to confess, “My Lord and my God” when he saw the resurrected Jesus (John 20:28). Saul/Paul, who persecuted Christians, was immediately and dramatically changed after seeing the resurrected Jesus on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9). James the brother of Jesus was skeptical about Jesus as the Messiah before the resurrection but became a believer and faithful church leader after the resurrection.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:14, “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith, and in 15:17, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Paul realized that Jesus’ resurrection was the linchpin of the Christian faith.

From a logical standpoint, if there was truly a man who died, was buried, and was raised on the third day (never to die again), then that changes everything about our world. Death has been conquered. Miracles are possible. The claims of this resurrected one suddenly become believable. His identity as Savior, Messiah, and Judge is validated: “God has given proof of this to all men by raising Jesus from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

When it comes to my faith in the Christian story, if Christ has been raised from the dead, the rest is details. Why couldn’t the resurrected one have died for my sins? Why couldn’t he have existed from eternity with God the Father? Why couldn’t he send the Spirit to inspire his apostles’ teachings? If Christ is risen indeed, it is OK if I can never fully resolve the problem of evil or grasp the mystery of the Trinity.

In my moments of doubt I always return to the resurrection. It is the tipping point for my faith in Jesus and the rest of the story of the Bible. Jesus is risen; He is risen indeed. Enjoy celebrating that truth this coming Sunday!

Sign inside Garden Tomb – Jerusalem