The Christmas story is in fact a strange one. On a night about two-thousand years ago, God became man. Born of the Virgin Mary in the town of Bethlehem, Jesus was (and still is) God in the flesh. That Christmas story gives rise to the Christmas message. So it's worth asking: What is the message of Christmas? A few thoughts follow.
1. God has assumed human nature not just to see what it’s like. That would be like a lifeguard jumping into a pool in which a man is drowning, not to save the man but to experience what it's like getting wet. The true lifeguard jumps into the pool to save the man who's drowning. Just so, God has assumed human nature in order to redeem that nature and save human life from sin, death, and the grip of the devil.
2. Though the world be dark, “the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:5) Though the world be filled with unrest, “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:7) Those who cling to Christ through the obedience of faith see the divine Light, even in the midst of the world’s darkness. They rest in the divine Peace, even in the midst of the world’s unrest.
3. Apart from Christ, the humility and mortality of man hangs a question mark over human existence. Does human life – its ups and downs, its being hemmed in by death – have any meaning? Is there a God? If so, does He care? In Christ, those questions are answered: yes, human life is eternally significant; yes, there is one true God; and yes, this “God so loved the world that He gave his only Son.” (John 3:16)
4. Christ is confirmation of the fact that God is not some crazy tyrant whose will is utterly untrustworthy, but rather the God of love and reason whose will is utterly good. "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in Me." (John 14:1)
5. In Christ, the humility of man has been forever joined to the glory of God, and the mortality of man to the immortality of God. Therefore, in Christ, the humble see God’s glory and the dead are raised to new life.
6. As said above, God has redeemed human nature in Jesus Christ. But what's the appropriate human response? “Turn to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10)
7. Turning from lust for idols to the love of God, ordinary people actually participate in the divine nature: “Thus He has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants in the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4)
8. Ultimately, the Christmas message is that God became man. Why? So that men (and women) might become gods - participants, that is, in the divine nature. Such participation comes not by way of some worldly achievement, but by Way of the humble Christ - by Way of faith, hope, and love.
The incarnation is one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith. All reflections of mine aside, the following is worth hearing over and over again: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14) Merry Christmas.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
What Would Mary Do?
“What would Jesus do?” is the common question, but I’d like to propose a new one: What would Mary do? This question seems appropriate, since it’s Mary who gives birth to Christ. If our own lives are to bear Christ (that is in fact our calling), then it’s only right we look to Mary, the Christ-bearer. So what did Mary do? To answer, here’s a breakdown of Luke 1:26-38:
So what did Mary do? It’s quite simple: she trusted and therefore obeyed the Word spoken to her. God’s will was announced to Mary, and she responded with the obedience of faith. She had plans in life, but God’s plan took precedence. Her plans didn’t have to disappear (the engagement with Joseph was still on), but they had to take a backseat to the overarching will of God.
God chose Mary to bear the Gift of Salvation. She could have said “no”, but by the grace of God she did not. She believed that Message which told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” She believed in God’s favor, and so she was unafraid to respond with a wholehearted surrender to the will of God.
Such faith is always a discomforting venture, but through it God's favor is received and Christ is born. So again that question: What would Mary do? She would trust in the favor of God, and because of that trust she would prefer obedience to God’s will over and above her own will. She would say, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your Word.” (Luke 1:38) In, with, and under those words lies the obedience of faith. And through such faith, the Gift of Salvation is born.
- The announcement of God’s Word to Mary: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.” (1:30-32)
- Her question: “How can this be, for I am a virgin?” (1:34)
- The answer: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…Nothing will be impossible with God.” (1:35, 37)
- From the lips and heart of Mary, perhaps the most beautiful confession of faith that the world has heard: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your Word.” (1:38)
So what did Mary do? It’s quite simple: she trusted and therefore obeyed the Word spoken to her. God’s will was announced to Mary, and she responded with the obedience of faith. She had plans in life, but God’s plan took precedence. Her plans didn’t have to disappear (the engagement with Joseph was still on), but they had to take a backseat to the overarching will of God.
God chose Mary to bear the Gift of Salvation. She could have said “no”, but by the grace of God she did not. She believed that Message which told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” She believed in God’s favor, and so she was unafraid to respond with a wholehearted surrender to the will of God.
Such faith is always a discomforting venture, but through it God's favor is received and Christ is born. So again that question: What would Mary do? She would trust in the favor of God, and because of that trust she would prefer obedience to God’s will over and above her own will. She would say, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your Word.” (Luke 1:38) In, with, and under those words lies the obedience of faith. And through such faith, the Gift of Salvation is born.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Thoughts on Advent
I’m no longtime follower of the liturgical calendar, but I’m beginning to appreciate its rhythms and emphases. To speak of Advent, it seems only right that the church focuses her attention on the preaching of John the Baptist, the forerunner and witness to Christ, as we await the celebration of Christ’s coming.
While it might seem right, it’s worth asking why John the Baptist still matters. Christ has come, right? Doesn’t that render John’s ministry superfluous? Ultimately, the question of John’s relevance is best answered through another set of questions: Have we fully entered into the Promised Land? Has Christ come to full maturity in our lives, and are we completely free from temptation and sin? If not, then John’s message still matters.
Perhaps something that gets overlooked in John’s ministry is that it took place “in Bethany across the Jordan.” (John 1:28) I don’t think this is an accident. It makes good sense that God would place John east of the Jordan River, just outside the Promised Land, as a sign that Christ was coming. Christ, of course, would be (and still is) the Way across that River into the true Promised Land above.
The same relationship of John to Christ continues to be true. That is, before Christ comes into the life of a man (and even as he comes to greater and greater maturity in that man’s life), John’s message must do its work: “Make straight the Way of the Lord.” Truly, it seems to me that life in this world is one long Advent of making the Lord's Way straight.
Said differently, life in this world is the true Advent – a time of preparing for and growing toward the fullness of Christ. It’s a time of saying “no” to temptations, pride, distractions, worldly appetites and ambitions, etc. (This would change the current, increasingly commercialized “Advent” quite a bit.) Ultimately, life east of the Jordan is a time of saying “no” to self. We’re not finished products, and for that reason John’s message of repentance and humility is as necessary today as it was then.
So I guess I’m proposing that the Advent emphasis on repentance and humility is one that ought to be lived in every season of life. “Make straight the Way of the Lord” is a message to be heard and heeded as long as Christ has not yet come to full maturity in our lives and as long as we’re still east of the Jordan River.
The good news of this lifelong Advent? As John’s message of repentance is heard and heeded, Christ comes. And as Christ comes, John’s message takes on a second part: “Behold! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) It might seem too early to say it, and this is not the Promised Land, but to those who have heard and heeded John’s message, the saying need not be avoided: Merry Christmas. Christ is come.
While it might seem right, it’s worth asking why John the Baptist still matters. Christ has come, right? Doesn’t that render John’s ministry superfluous? Ultimately, the question of John’s relevance is best answered through another set of questions: Have we fully entered into the Promised Land? Has Christ come to full maturity in our lives, and are we completely free from temptation and sin? If not, then John’s message still matters.
Perhaps something that gets overlooked in John’s ministry is that it took place “in Bethany across the Jordan.” (John 1:28) I don’t think this is an accident. It makes good sense that God would place John east of the Jordan River, just outside the Promised Land, as a sign that Christ was coming. Christ, of course, would be (and still is) the Way across that River into the true Promised Land above.
The same relationship of John to Christ continues to be true. That is, before Christ comes into the life of a man (and even as he comes to greater and greater maturity in that man’s life), John’s message must do its work: “Make straight the Way of the Lord.” Truly, it seems to me that life in this world is one long Advent of making the Lord's Way straight.
Said differently, life in this world is the true Advent – a time of preparing for and growing toward the fullness of Christ. It’s a time of saying “no” to temptations, pride, distractions, worldly appetites and ambitions, etc. (This would change the current, increasingly commercialized “Advent” quite a bit.) Ultimately, life east of the Jordan is a time of saying “no” to self. We’re not finished products, and for that reason John’s message of repentance and humility is as necessary today as it was then.
So I guess I’m proposing that the Advent emphasis on repentance and humility is one that ought to be lived in every season of life. “Make straight the Way of the Lord” is a message to be heard and heeded as long as Christ has not yet come to full maturity in our lives and as long as we’re still east of the Jordan River.
The good news of this lifelong Advent? As John’s message of repentance is heard and heeded, Christ comes. And as Christ comes, John’s message takes on a second part: “Behold! The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) It might seem too early to say it, and this is not the Promised Land, but to those who have heard and heeded John’s message, the saying need not be avoided: Merry Christmas. Christ is come.
Friday, December 2, 2011
A Clunky Christianity
There’s a saying I’ve heard in Lutheran circles: “We do good works not in order to be saved, but because we’ve been saved already.” As far as it goes, this saying is true: salvation is the free gift of God in Christ, and good works are the result of this gift. (Ephesians 2:8-10) However, the way this saying gets used can be nasty stuff. There are a number of reasons why this is so, but I’ll limit myself to three.
First, often this saying is nothing more than a passive-aggressive way of getting someone to do something against his will. It’s said with the intention not of assuring someone of the goodness of God, but of forcing him into action by (secretly) questioning his salvation. This gets even worse when the “good works” being urged aren’t even commanded by God’s Word.
Second, this saying gets used with the underlying assumption that salvation is achieved by way of an attitude change: “If you do this for the right reason – that is, if you do this while keeping in mind that you’re already saved – then you’ll indeed be saved.” It seems to me that this is a new, increasingly subtle promotion of works-righteousness. Contrariwise, we must insist that choosing the right reason to do something is not the new good work that wrests salvation out of God’s hands.
These two problems are rooted in a third: we’ve made no clear connection between the gift of salvation and the good works that follow. Thus, our saying betrays a clunky Christianity that takes God’s gift of salvation and then clumsily tries to attach good works to it. The result is a combination of a dead, ineffective faith with an unnatural appendage called “good works”.
If we’re going to avoid these problems and use our saying rightly, then we ought to draw the connection between God’s gift of salvation (which is the gift of Christ and his Spirit) and the virtue issuing out of those who have received that gift. The connection is quite simple: it is the same God who (1) commands a life of virtue/love, and (2) freely saves from sin and death. The second proposition does not abolish the first, but rather makes its fulfillment possible. We could even say that for those who have faith in the second proposition, obedience to the first is the necessary form that their faith freely takes.
Thus, faith gives rise to love as naturally as a good tree produces good fruit. (Matthew 12:33) Said differently, faith works through love. (Galatians 5:6) It’s a logical connection: those who trust in the love of God will delight in fulfilling that same God’s commandments. True, to the eyes of the flesh, God’s commandments look like nothing more than a call to self-denial and death. But to the eyes of faith, from such self-denial and death comes new life. To the eyes of faith, the crucified Christ is the risen Christ, and dying with him in humility means rising with him in glory.
To go back to our saying – “We do good works not in order to be saved, but because we’ve been saved already” – I hope that its proper use is clear. As a passive-aggressive way of coaxing love out of unwilling hearts, it will succeed only in producing new Pharisees. Any “love” produced by such hearts will be restrained by a deep-seated fear of self-denial and death. (Hebrews 2:15) However, if we use our saying to simultaneously assure one another of the goodness of God and instruct one another in his commandments, then the result will be not hard-hearted Pharisees, but Christians who love freely and joyfully.
Used in this way, and met with the obedience of faith, our saying will be true: We do good works not in order to be saved, but because we’ve been saved already.
First, often this saying is nothing more than a passive-aggressive way of getting someone to do something against his will. It’s said with the intention not of assuring someone of the goodness of God, but of forcing him into action by (secretly) questioning his salvation. This gets even worse when the “good works” being urged aren’t even commanded by God’s Word.
Second, this saying gets used with the underlying assumption that salvation is achieved by way of an attitude change: “If you do this for the right reason – that is, if you do this while keeping in mind that you’re already saved – then you’ll indeed be saved.” It seems to me that this is a new, increasingly subtle promotion of works-righteousness. Contrariwise, we must insist that choosing the right reason to do something is not the new good work that wrests salvation out of God’s hands.
These two problems are rooted in a third: we’ve made no clear connection between the gift of salvation and the good works that follow. Thus, our saying betrays a clunky Christianity that takes God’s gift of salvation and then clumsily tries to attach good works to it. The result is a combination of a dead, ineffective faith with an unnatural appendage called “good works”.
If we’re going to avoid these problems and use our saying rightly, then we ought to draw the connection between God’s gift of salvation (which is the gift of Christ and his Spirit) and the virtue issuing out of those who have received that gift. The connection is quite simple: it is the same God who (1) commands a life of virtue/love, and (2) freely saves from sin and death. The second proposition does not abolish the first, but rather makes its fulfillment possible. We could even say that for those who have faith in the second proposition, obedience to the first is the necessary form that their faith freely takes.
Thus, faith gives rise to love as naturally as a good tree produces good fruit. (Matthew 12:33) Said differently, faith works through love. (Galatians 5:6) It’s a logical connection: those who trust in the love of God will delight in fulfilling that same God’s commandments. True, to the eyes of the flesh, God’s commandments look like nothing more than a call to self-denial and death. But to the eyes of faith, from such self-denial and death comes new life. To the eyes of faith, the crucified Christ is the risen Christ, and dying with him in humility means rising with him in glory.
To go back to our saying – “We do good works not in order to be saved, but because we’ve been saved already” – I hope that its proper use is clear. As a passive-aggressive way of coaxing love out of unwilling hearts, it will succeed only in producing new Pharisees. Any “love” produced by such hearts will be restrained by a deep-seated fear of self-denial and death. (Hebrews 2:15) However, if we use our saying to simultaneously assure one another of the goodness of God and instruct one another in his commandments, then the result will be not hard-hearted Pharisees, but Christians who love freely and joyfully.
Used in this way, and met with the obedience of faith, our saying will be true: We do good works not in order to be saved, but because we’ve been saved already.
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