Jellyfish Christianity

Over 100 years ago J.C. Ryle wrote of an epidemic that was destroying the churches of his day. It is something that he called 'Jellyfish Christianity'. Sadly, his description could easily have been written in the 21st century. Listen to how he describes jellyfish Christianity :

[Dislike of dogma] is an epidemic which is just now doing great harm, and specially among young people. It produces what I must venture to call a “jelly-fish” Christianity in the land: that is, a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or power. A jelly-fish is a pretty and graceful object when it floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little, delicate, transparent umbrella. Yet the same jelly-fish, when cast on the shore, is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defense, or self-preservation. Alas! It is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, of which the leading principle is, “No dogma, no distinct tenets, no positive doctrine.” 

We have hundreds of “jelly-fish” clergymen, who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity. They have not definite opinions; they belong to no school or party; they are so afraid of “extreme views” that they have no views at all.

We have thousands of “jelly-fish” sermons preached every year, sermons without an edge, or a point, or a corner, smooth as billiard balls, awakening no sinner, and edifying no saint.

We have Legions of “jelly-fish” young men annually turned out from our Universities, armed with a few scraps of second-hand philosophy, who think it a mark of cleverness and intellect to have no decided opinions about anything in religion, and to be utterly unable to make up their minds as to what is Christian truth. They live apparently in a state of suspense, like Mohamet’s fabled coffin, hanging between heaven and earth and last.

Worst of all, we have myriads of “jelly-fish” worshippers—respectable church-going people, who have no distinct and definite views about any point in theology. They cannot discern things that differ, any more than color-blind people can distinguish colors. They think everybody is right and nobody wrong, everything is true and nothing is false, all sermons are good and none are bad, every clergyman is sound and no clergyman is unsound. They are “tossed to and fro, like children, by every wind of doctrine”; often carried away by any new excitement and sensational movement; ever ready for new things, because they have no firm grasp on the old; and utterly unable to “render a reason of the hope that is in them.”

Never was it so important for laymen to hold systematic views of truth, and for ordained ministers to “enunciate dogma” very clearly and distinctly in their teaching.
 

 Therefore, let us be challenged afresh to ensure that our 'body of divinity' has a strong backbone.

Common Grace and Evangelism (4): A Gracious God and Evangelism

In the previous posts in this series we’ve spent some time thinking about what God’s common grace is. In this final post, I shall explore how understanding common grace can help us in one particular area: In the area of evangelism. I want to apply what we've previously seen about common grace, to how we speak with our non-Christian family members and friends.

Recognising that God is gracious to all will give us confidence in speaking the gospel to non-Christians. There are two main ways that common grace gives us confidence in evangelism:

1) The non-Christian has a constant testimony to God’s grace

We live in a world where God restrains sin and enables good. This means that the non-Christian is constantly experiencing God’s grace. They are surrounded by pointers to the fact that God is a gracious God. They cannot escape the

Think about it. Without realising it, the non-Christian is completely dependent upon God’s common grace. All that is good and beautiful in this world, all that they enjoy, all their favoirite hobbies and activities, they would never experience without God’s common grace. Further, without his grace restraining their sin, the non-Christian would completely destroy themselves and others. What is more, if God had not held back the day of judgement, they would be in hell right now. However, in His grace He is holding back that day, so that people have opportunity to repent and turn to Jesus before it is too late.

The non-Christian, even though he refuses to submit to God's rule and wants to live life without Him, it completely dependent upon Him for life, and everything they enjoy (This is why one writer has described the non-Christian as being like a child sitting in his fathers lap and slapping him in the face!). They daily experience God's common grace. They live in a universe that is constantly testifying to the grace of God.

All of this means that no conversation is ever far from the gospel. This is because no conversation is never far from a gracious God. This world is constantly testifying to God's grace.

2) The non-Christian will be inconsistent at some point

This is because God is restraining their sinful nature from being worked out to the full in their life. If they were completely consistent with who they are they would be as wicked as they could be. But they are not. God restrains sin in them, which makes them inconsistent (as we saw in our previous post).

Because the non-Christian is inconsistent it is possible to have conversations with them. It means that we are able to talk with non-Christians about the gospel. Their opposition to God is not fully worked out in this life, making gospel conversations possible.

More than this, when we do speak with our non-Christian friends or family members, their inconsistency makes it possible for us to challenge them to repent and turn to Jesus. Because God graciously makes them inconsistent there will be things that they do, beliefs they hold or desires that they have that they will not be able to explain without the God of the Bible.

Let me give an example: Suppose you have an work collegue who is a strong atheist, they constantly remind you that they believe in the survival of the fittest. Well, there will be some things that they will not be able to explain. An atheist cannot explain hospitals without God. They will never be able to give a reason why they think medical care is a good idea, unless they believe in God. It would be a very rare thing to find an atheist who does not think medical care is a good thing. Almost any atheist you speak to will agree that hospitals are good. However, he cannot hold this view and be consistent with his view of the world. Why should they care about something that provides for and cares for the weak? Huge amounts of money that is spent to care for babies who are born with defects and for those who are chronically ill. Why should your atheist friend care about this if he believes in the survival of the fittest? This provides an opening for us to challenge their view of the world, and to call them to look at the gospel, which alone makes sense of reality.

The fact that the non-Christian is inconsistent at some point gives us opportunities to challenge them on where they stand, and to share the gospel of grace with them.

Now, you don’t need to be super-clever to be able to discover these inconsistencies. All you need to do is to take a genuine interest in people, and ask them questions about what they believe. The more you do this the more obvious their inconsistencies will become.

It is in this way that God’s common grace serves his special grace. Because God, in his common grace holds back people’s sinfulness,making them inconsistent, people will be able to hear the gospel, which gives life.

God is a gracious God. He is good to all that he has made. He is gracious to both the Christian and the non-Christian, and shows this common grace by restraining sin and enabling people to do good.

The more we recognise this,the more confidence we will have in evangelism. The more we recognise that God is a gracious God, the more bold we will be in challenging false ideas of the world, and calling people to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus.

Previous posts in this series

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Just in His Sight

Common Grace and Evangelism (3): How God is Gracious to All

This is the third post in a series on the doctrine of  'common grace' and its significance for evangelism. Click here to read the first and second posts in the series.

In the previous post we established that God is gracious to all, both to those who are His people and to those who are not. However, we also made an important distinction, a distinction between saving grace and common grace. Common grace is a grace that God shows to all people whether Christian or non-Christian, saving grace is a grace that only those whom He has chosen will experience.

In this third post I want to focus on how God is gracious to all people in a non-saving way. That is, how he is commonly gracious. This will shed light on the question that we asked in the first post about how the unbeliever can do good things if they are totally depraved.

There are two particular ways that God shows His common grace that helps us aswer this question:

1) He Restrains Sin and Its Consequences

God is gracious to all by restraining sin and its consequences in the world. He does this by holding back peoples sinfulness from being worked out to the full.

We’ve already seen that sin has affected every part of us, that we are ‘totally depraved’. However, this does not mean that people are as bad as they can be. That’s not true. A look at the world around us shows us this.

The reason that people are not as wicked as they could be is because God, in his grace, restrains sinfulness from being worked out to its fullness in peoples lives. Even though people are totally depraved, this is not expressed fully in this life. God shows His common grace by restraining their sin.

More than this, God is also gracious by restraining the consequences of sin in this life. Think about it: The world would be a horrific and chaotic place to live if we faced the full consequences of sin in this world. Sin causes disintegration and disorganisation in every area of life. Simple things such as the relationships we take for granted would be impossible if God had not restrained the effects of sin. Friendships, marriages, parent and child relationships, none of these would be possible without God's restraining grace. Neither would society be able to function if human sinfulness was allowed to express itself fully. But God, in His grace holds back this sinfulness, so that society and human relationships are possible.

God also holds back the punishment sin deserves. The anger of God that we deserve has not yet been poured out. Each one of us deserves to be in hell this very moment. But God, in His grace, is holding back that day of judgement that more  Peter tells us that the Lord "is patient...not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (2 Peter 3:9). God is patient. He is holding back that day of wrath so that people may come to repentance.

We need to be clear, this does not mean that God will not punish sin. He will. He has set a day when He shall judge the world through Jesus His appointed judge (Acts 17:30-31). On that day the fullness of His wrath shall be poured out, as sin is punished.

God is gracious to all is by restraining sin and its consequences. If you want to do a bit more thinking on this read and think through Genesis 3:22-33; 4:15; 20:6; Acts 17:30; and 2 Peter 3:9.

2) He Enables People to Do Good

Not only does God show His common grace by restraining sin and its consequences in the world, He also, positively, enables people to do good. Now, they are not able to do good in the full sense of good. The non-Christian does not do things to the glory of God. Nevertheless, they are able to do things that are, in a sense, good. God graciously enables them to do this.

This explains why non-Christians are able to live good lives – God not only restrains sin, but also enables them to do good.

In Luke 6:33 Jesus says to his disciples: “…if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.” Those who are ‘sinners’, are still those who do good. This is because God in his grace enables them. This is why non-Christians can be great husbands, wives and parents, why they can be faithful workers, why they can be involved in aid work, hospital care and providing for others in need, and sometimes even better than us.

Not only this, but God also enables people to make progress and create things for the good of society. In his grace, God enables people to create technology, literature and art. Advances in society, standards of living, excellent medical care: none of this would be possible apart from God’s grace restraining sin and enabling good.

God is gracious to all by enabling people who are totally depraved to do good. If you want to do a bit more thinking on this read and think through Luke 6:33; Matthew 5:45; Romans 2:14; 1 Timothy 2:1-2; 1 Peter 2:14.

Self-Unaware

How does God do this? How does he restrain the non-Christian's sin, and enable him to do good? The answer is that in both these things – the restraining of sin and the enabling of good – God makes the non-Christian unaware of who they truly are.

Think about it. The non-Christian is in complete opposition to God, and refuses to submit to his rule through Jesus. Yet, God makes them unaware in their thinking and inconsistent, so that this opposition is not worked out to the full in every area of life. This means, that, without realising it, the non-Christian does God’s will in some areas of their life. This is why a non-Christian can be a faithful husband, and care for his family, even though marriage and family are God’s institutions. If he was fully aware and consistent with his opposition to God, he would have nothing to do with them because they are from God.

Implications

If we understand this, that God is gracious to all by restraining sin and enabling good, it has a number of important implications:

This makes governments and rulers possible. Peter tells us that rulers are sent by God “to punish those who do evil and praise those who do good.” Government is only possible because of God’s common grace (restraining sin and enabling good), and they are themselves a means of restraining evil and promoting good. This is why a non-Christian government can make good policies.

It means that it is possible for a Christian to be faithful, and to work in a secular job, under a non-Christian boss.

This means that, as Christians, we are able to enjoy art and culture and have hobbies. And we are able to do this all the more so because we know that they are ultimately only possible because of God’s grace. We ought to be all the more thankful for these things, because we know they come from the good hand of a gracious God.

It means that as Christians we are able to benefit from non-Christians. It is possible for our children to get a decent education at the hands of a non-Christian. We are able to enjoy music and movies made by non-Christians. We are able to benefit from the services that non-Christians provide. Think about the vast amount of good quality medical care we receive from non-Christian doctors and nurses.

Also, as we will explore in the next post, it makes conversations possible between Christians and non-Christians.

Justified

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith..." (Romans 5:1) This is at the heart of the good news of the gospel, that those who have believed in the Lord Jesus are justified.

But what does it mean to be justified, and why is it such good news? Martyn Lloyd-Jones puts it better than I could:

But this is the amazing message, and this is what is meant by justification – that God tells us that, as the result of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of his life, his death and his resurrection, if we believe on him and trust ourselves solely and entirely to him, God pardons and forgives our sins. Not only that, he declares that we are free from guilt: more than that, justification includes this. He not only declares that we are pardoned and forgiven and that we are guiltless, he also declares that we are positively righteous. He imputes to us, that is, he puts to our account, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who was entirely without sin, who never failed his Father in any way, and who never broke a Commandment or transgressed any law. God gives to us – puts upon us – the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and then looks upon us and pronounces that we are righteous in his holy sight. That is the biblical doctrine of justification.

Common Grace and Evangelism (2): A Gracious God

If sin has affected human beings right down to the core of who they are, then why is there so much good in the world?

This is the question we were left with at the end of the previous post. Over the next couple of posts we are going to answer this crucial question as we explore the Bible's teaching on common grace. In a final post we shall tie things together by looking at the implications our answer has on how we do evangelism.

The first thing we need to do is to establish an important truth about God. That God is a gracious God.

God is Gracious to All

As we turn to the pages of the Bible we see that God is a God who is gracious to all that he has made.

Psalm 145:9 tells us: "The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made." That’s pretty comprehensive! He is good to all, to all people. More than that, He is good to all of his creation. He has compassion on all that he has made. Notice that this is a goodness that he shows both to those who are his people, and to those who are not.

Consider Matthew 5:45, where Jesus tells His disciples that "your Father who is in heaven...makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." God gives the blessings of sun and rain to the righteous and the unrighteous. Sun and rain are a sign of God’s goodness and favour. Notice how he shows this goodness and favour both to those who are his people and those who are not his people. He is gracious to both the Christian and to the non-Christian.

There are plenty more passages we could look at (such as Luke 6:35; Acts 14:17; 17:30). What we see, from this short study is that the Bible affirms that God shows undeserved kindness to all people. This includes both those who are his people and those who are not.

An Important Distinction

Now, we need to be clear here. The fact that God is gracious both to the believer and the unbeliever does not mean that all people will be saved. The Bible does not teach this.

Before the world was created, God chose some to be saved and others for destruction (See Romans 9:21-23; Ephesians 1:3-10). This means that some receive the special grace of God’s salvation, and others do not. However, at the same time we must affirm that he is gracious to all, even to those who will eventually end up in hell.

This means that we need to make a distinction: A distinction between what theologians call ‘common' grace and ‘saving' or 'special' grace. Common grace is a grace that God shows to all people whether Christian or non-Christian, saving grace is a grace that only those whom He has chosen will experience. Our focus in this series of posts is on ‘common grace’.

In this post we’ve laid an important foundation, and have shown that God is gracious to all people (and indeed all of his creation) with a common grace. In the next post I shall look at one particular aspect of how he shows this common grace. It is there that we shall begin to see more clearly the answer to the question of how totally depraved people can do so many good things.

Common Grace and Evangelism (1): Introduction

God is by nature a loving God. He is a gracious God.

This is a foundational truth. This is how God reveals Himself to Moses in Exodus 34:6: "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious...". It is what many of the Psalms delight in. Psalm 136 repeatedly tells us "...his steadfast love endures forever." It is what Jonah recognises when he says "...I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful..." (Jonah 4:2). It is what we are told of the Lord Jesus, that He is "...full of grace and truth..." (John 1:14). It is what John recognises when he says: "God is love." (1 John 4:16). God is a gracious God.

What implications does this have for how we speak with our non-Christian friends and family members? How does knowing a gracious God equip us to do evangelism?

In a short series of posts I want to explore this question by looking at a specific aspect of God’s grace, and examining its significance for how we do evangelism. I am going to look at an area of doctrine that theologians call ‘common grace’.

It's always good to be clear on what I'm talking about. So, what do I mean by common grace? A helpful definition of what we mean by common grace is given by the theologian John Murray. He defines common grace like this:

Common grace is “every favour of whatever kind or degree, falling short of salvation, which this undeserving and sin-cursed world enjoys at the hand of God.”

We shall come back to this later. However, before we can explore common grace further and the significance it has for how we do evangelism, we need to recognise something important about human nature first. This is what I want to focus on on this post.

Understanding Ourselves

What we are about to look at in this series of posts will only make sense if we understand something about ourselves first. We won’t be able to grasp God’s common grace, and its implications for evangelism, unless we first recognise what human nature is like.

The Bible teaches that human beings are, by nature, sinful. That is why we sin. We sin because we are sinful by nature. This is a deep problem. Sin has affected the whole of who we are, down to the very root of our being. This is what theologians call ‘total depravity’.

Jesus teaches this in Mark 7:21-22. He says:

"...from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within, and they defile a person."

Jesus says that the heart of our problem is our heart. All the evil that humans do comes from the heart. In Bible language, the heart is the control centre of all of who we are. It affects the whole of the rest of our being. Our hearts have been tainted and corrupted by sin, which means that all of the rest of us is also tainted and corrupted by sin.

Ephesians 2:1-3 sheds a little more light on our condition. Paul tells the Christians in Ephesus :

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Notice the imagery here. Paul says that we were dead. We were spiritually dead. Before we became Christians we were spiritual corpses. This means that we were unable to make a single move towards God or think or feel rightly about him. More than this, we couldn’t help but sin. Verses 2-3 say that we actively followed the world, the devil and our sinful desires (which come from our hearts). We were unable to do anything pleasing to God, and were helpless to do anything about it.

Sin has affected the whole of who we are, right down to the very core. So, there is not a part of us that remains uncorrupted by sin. Our minds and thinking, our wills, desires and emotions, all of who we are has been affected. There is not one part of us that we can say, ‘this is alright. We can trust this’.

An Important Question

Now all of this leaves us with a question. It’s a question that is right at the heart of what we are looking at in this series of posts. The question is this:

If this is the case, if sin has affected our whole person, then why is there so much good in the world?

Now, I’m not talking about Christians here. We can understand why Christians do so much good. The Bible tells us that they are ‘new creations’ in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). No, the question has got to do with those who are not Christians. How is it that those who are not Christians can do so many good things? Why is it that non-Christians can be faithful husbands, loving parents, good members of society? If ‘total depravity’ is true, then why are unbelievers capable of doing so much good?

The answer to this question is found in what the Bible teaches about God's common grace. This is what we’re going to spend the rest of this series exploring. It is vital that we answer this question rightly, otherwise we could find ourselves wanding down some very unhelpful roads.

Over the next while I shall, God willing, explore this under three headings:

1) God is Gracious to All

2) How God is Gracious to All

3) A Gracious God and Evangelism

For the moment, however, I shall leave you with an unanswered question: How can bad people do good things? That is, if people are totally depraved, why is it that they are capable of so much good?

Not an Atom More or Less

Charles Spurgeon:

I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—
that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit, as well as the sun in the heavens—

that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses.

The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence—

the fall of sere leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche.

Recognising the Reality About Ourselves

It is important that we recognise some difficult truths about ourselves. Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon The Spirit of Love the Opposite of a Selfish Spirit (from 1 Corinthians 13:5), gives a vivid description about what happened to mankind at the fall (Genesis 3): 

The ruin that the fall brought upon the soul of man consists very much in his losing the nobler and more benevolent principles of his nature, and falling wholly under the power and government of self-love. Before, and as God created him, he was exalted, and noble, and generous; but now he is debased, and ignoble, and selfish.

Immediately upon the fall, the mind of man shrank from its primitive greateness and expandedness, to an exceeding smallness and contractedness; and as in other respects, so especially in this. Before, his soul was under the government of that noble principle of divine love, whereby it was enlarged to the comprehension of all his fellow creatures and their welfare. And not only so, but it was not confined within such narrow limits as the bounds of the creation, but went forth in the exercise of holy love to the Creator, and abroad upon the infinite ocean of good, and was, as it were, swallowed up by it, and became one with it. But so soon as he had transgressed against God, these noble principles were immediately lost, and all this excellent enlargedness of man's soul was gone; and thenceforward he himself shrank, as it were, into a little space, circumscribed and closely shut up within itself to the exclusion of all things else.

Sin, like some powerful astringent, contracted his soul to the very small dimensions of selfishness; and God was forsaken, and fellow creatures forsaken, and man retired within himself, and became totally governed by narrow and selfish principles and feelings. Self-love became absolute master of his soul, and the more noble and spiritual principles of his being took wings and flew away.

God's Love and God's Wrath (Part 3)

We come to the third and final post in this short series getting to grips with how God's love relates to His wrath with the help of Don Carson. In part one we saw how these two, love and wrath, relate together as both being attributes of God, He is both loving and wrathful at the same time. In part two we saw the relation between the Old and the New Testaments with reference to the love and wrath of God. Now in this third part we clear up another misunderstanding of how God's love relates to His wrath as Carson helps us to understand God's relationships within Himself, as we look at how God the Father relates to God the Son.

[Another]...common misconception pictures God as implacably opposed to us and full of wrath but somehow mollified by Jesus, who loves us. Again, there is some wonderful truth here. The Epistle to the Hebrews certainly lends some support to this way of thinking, especially in its portrayal of Jesus as the High Priest, who continuously makes intercession to God for us (Heb. 7:25). All this is modeled on the Levitical worship established at Sinai. Or more precisely the system established at Sinai was meant to be, according to Hebrews, the shadow of the ultimate reality. Jesus is the Advocate who speaks to the Father in the believers' defense (1 John 2:1).

But other strands of New Testament theology must be brought to bear on this subject. God loved the world so much that He gave His Son (John 3:16). This does not mean that God was reluctant while His Son won Him over; rather, God Himself willingly sent His Son. Even though Jesus as the believers' great High Priest intercedes for us and pleads His own blood on our behalf, this is not an independent action the Father somehow did not know about, or reluctantly approved, being eventually won over by the independently originating sacrifice of His Son. Rather, Father and Son are one in this project of redemption. The Son Himself came into the world by the express command of the Father.

Thus propitiation does not mean the Son, full of love, offered Himself and thereby placated (i.e., rendered propitious) the Father, who was full of wrath. The picture is more complex. The Father, full of righteous wrath against sin and sinners, nevertheless loved us so much that He sent His Son. Perfectly mirroring His Father's words and deeds, the Son stood over against us in wrath (displayed vividly when sinners will call for rocks to fall and hide them "from the wrath of the Lamb," Rev. 6:16), and yet He was obedient to His Father's commission, offering Himself on the cross. He did this out of love both for His Father, whom He obeys, and for us, whom He redeems. Thus God is necessarily both the subject and the object of propitiation. He provides the propitiating sacrifice (He is the subject), and He Himself is propitiated (He is the object). That is the glory of the Cross.

All this is implicit in Romans 3:21-26, a great atonement passage. After devoting two and a half chapters to showing how the entire human race is cursed and is rightly under the wrath of God because of its sin (1:18-3:20), the apostle Paul demonstrates how Christ's death was God's wise plan "to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus" (3:26). God presented Jesus as a propitiation in His blood, received through faith (3:25).

Don Carson's full article can be read by clicking here.

God's Love and God's Wrath (Part 2)

In seeking to understand how we ought to relate God's love to His wrath, many of us will have come across the argument that in the Old Testament God is primarily a God of wrath, whilst in the New Testament He seems to have changed His tune and is more a God of love. To say this is to misunderstand what the Bible says about God. A clear reading of Scripture shows that this is not the case. Jesus speaks about hell more than anyone else in the Bible. How then should we apprach this misunderstanding? Don Carson takles this misconception of how we ought to relate God's love to His wrath:

[One Misconception that circulates widely]...is that in the Old Testament God's wrath is more strikingly transparent than His love, while in the New Testament, though doubtless a residue of wrath remains, a gentleness takes over and softens the darker period: God's love is now richer than His wrath. After all, Jesus taught His disciples to love their enemies and turn the other cheek (Matt. 5:39, 41).

Nothing could be further from the truth than this reading of the relationship between the Testaments. One suspects that the reason this formula has any credibility at all is that the manifestation of God's wrath in the Old Testament is primarily in temporal categories: famine, plague, siege, war, slaughter. In the here and now those images have a greater impact than what the New Testament says, with its focus on wrath in the afterlife. Jesus, after all, is the One who in the New Testament speaks most frequently and most colorfully about hell, this Jesus of the other cheek. The apostolic writings offer little support for the view that a kinder, gentler God surfaces in the New Testament at this stage in redemptive history.

The reality is that the Old Testament displays the grace and love of God in experience and types, and these realities become all the clearer in the New Testament . Similarly, the Old Testament displays the righteous wrath of God in experience and types, and these realities become all the clearer in the New Testament. In other words both God's love and God's wrath are ratcheted up in the move from the Old Testament to the New. These themes barrel along through redemptive history, unresolved, until they come to a resounding climax in the Cross. Do you wish to see God's love? Look at the Cross. Do you wish to see God's wrath? Look at the Cross.

Don Carson's full article can be read by clicking here.

God's Love and God's Wrath (Part 1)

Many misunderstandings of the doctrine of hell have come about because people have not clearly thought through how the love of God relates to the wrath of God. Don Carson has written a helpful article looking at how these two relate to one another, and shows how they are complimentary, not contradictory. In a short series of posts, using exerpts from this article, we shall address three misunderstandings of how God's love and His wrath relate to one another. Here is the first exerpt which deals directly with the question of how the two relate:

How...do God's love and His wrath relate to each other? One evangelical cliché has it that God hates the sin but loves the sinner. There is a small element of truth in these words: God has nothing but hate for the sin, but this cannot be said with respect to how God sees the sinner. Nevertheless the cliché is false on the face of it, and should be abandoned. Fourteen times in the first fifty psalms alone, the psalmists state that God hates the sinner, that His wrath is on the liar, and so forth. In the Bible the wrath of God rests on both the sin (Rom. 1:18-23) and the sinner (1:24-32; 2:5; John 3:36).
Our problem in part is that in human experience wrath and love normally abide in mutually exclusive compartments. Love drives wrath out, or wrath drives love out. We come closest to bringing them together, perhaps, in our responses to a wayward act by one of our children, but normally we do not think that a wrathful person is loving.

But this is not the way it is with God. God's wrath is not an implacable blind rage. However emotional it may be, it is an entirely reasonable and willed response to offenses against His holiness. At the same time His love wells up amidst His perfections and is not generated by the loveliness of the loved. Thus there is nothing intrinsically impossible about wrath and love being directed toward the same individual or people at once. God in His perfections must be wrathful against His rebel image-bearers, for they have offended Him; God in His perfections must be loving toward His rebel image-bearers, for He is that kind of God.

Don Carson's full article can be read by clicking here.

To Hell with Joy

You may have noticed by now that all this talk of Hell has gotten under our skin here at AEN. Simon’s post yesterday spelled out three major doctrinal consequences of denying the reality of Hell. Today I would like to add another pastoral/ doxological reason why Hell is important, and it’s this:

The reality of Hell is a source of sober joy for the Christian.

Without having read the book 'Love Wins', it is still fair to assume that Rob Bell wishes us to rethink our stance on Hell. And whether his desire is to declare it 'empty' or to erase it from our theological frameworks, the sad fact remains that to tamper with the doctrine of Hell is to tamper with Christian joy.

Time and time again in the New Testament Paul speaks of God’s work of rescuing us from judgement in doxological terms; that is, Christ’s saving us from hell compels us to worship him:

^"and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."  (Col 1:12-14)

And again:

"For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." (1 Thess 1:9-11)

And again Paul recounting the mercy he received bursts with praise:

^"But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen." (1 Tim 1:16-17)

And finally the heavenly multitude praise God saying: 

"After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: 

'Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.
He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.'

And again they shouted:

'Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.'

(Rev 19:1-3)

Paul new the reality of his sin but staring into the abyss he was then able to turn aside and say simply that, “…God has not destined us for wrath”. It is therefore little wonder that the chief of sinners flung himself before the throne of grace in adoration and worship.

In the same way; Hell, our rescue from it and the full disclosure of God’s righteous judgement ought to leave us abandoned to the praise of his great grace. Our voices must join the cry of the saints in worship because God has been vindicated, and we have received grace upon grace.

If you get rid of Hell, not only does the whole doctrinal house of cards come crashing down but you silence the quiet ‘hallelujah’ which resounds from the hearts of every believer who embraces the reality of Hell and allows it to magnify the salvation which is theirs in Christ Jesus.

Avoiding Having a Wonky Gospel (Or 'Why We Need to Speak About Hell')

One of the most common reasons people give as to why we should not speak about hell is this: "But people don't like to hear about hell?" They're not supposed to! Nobody likes hearing about being run over by a double-decker bus, but that doesn't stop us from warning people about the dangers of standing in the middle of a busy road. It's not an unloving thing to warn people of a real danger.

If we merely tell people what they like to hear then we are no different to the false teachers that Timothy had to deal with, who taught what people's "itching ears" wanted to hear (2 Timothy 4:3). Just because someone doesn't want to hear about something does not mean that they do not need to hear it.

We need to speak about hell. If we neglect this it gives us a wonky gospel. The reality of God's eternal judgement is part of the gospel. In Revelation 14:6 John sees an angel "with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people." What is the content of this eternal gospel? John tells us in verse 7, the angel proclaims: "Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgement has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water."

Therefore, if we are to be faithful in proclaiming the gospel, and to avoid having a wonky gospel, we need to speak about God's judgement, which means speaking about hell. Hell is a real place where real people, who have not submitted to the Lord Jesus, shall spend eternity (see e.g. John 3:36, Revelation 20:11-15). This ought to grieve us and we ought to tremble over the thought of people facing such a future. Therefore, if we love people, instead of shying away from speaking about the reality of God's just judgement, we ought to speak of it with tears in our eyes urging them to flee to the Lord Jesus that they might have life.

In order to help us think through why we shouldn't neglect speaking about hell here are some initial thoughts on what happens to the gospel if we lose our doctrine of hell. What do we lose if we ignore hell?

1) We Lose a Just God
If there is ultimately no final judgement where people recieve the justice due to them for rebelling against an infinitely holy God, then this would mean that God is not just. It would mean that there is no hope that every wrong shall one day be righted.

2) We Lose the Seriousness of Sin
If God does not judge sin fully and finally then it implies that He doesn't really care about sin. This would then lead to us not really caring about sin. If God doesn't care enough about sin to punish it, why then should I care about seeking to live a godly life and turn from it. Yet, sin is infinitely serious. Dragging the glory of the eternal and infinitely holy God through the dirt, which is what we do when we sin, is of the utmost seriousness.

3) We Lose the Glory of God's Grace Displayed in the Cross
If there is no such thing as hell then we lose the ultimate display of the glory of the grace of God: the cross of Christ. If there was no such place as hell then what was the point of the cross? If God is not going to judge sin eternally then the cross was the biggest waste of time. But this is not true. God shall judge sin eternally, therefore the cross is infinitely glorious. At the cross God is showing that He is both just and the one who justifies sinful people, who have faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-26). At the cross the one who shall be the judge on that final day (Acts 17:31), has taken upon Himself the full weight of the wrath of God in the place of His people. If we neglect to speak about hell then the glory of the cross, the blazing centre of the revelation of the glory of God, loses its lustre.

Ussher Article 24: Our Civil War

A friend once asked me how I was doing spiritually and when I said I was 'fine' he smiled and said that wasn't an answer, that all it stood for was; "Feelings Internal Never Expressed".

I didn't think much of it at the time but actually it highlights something really quite important, because below of the waterline of every Christian's life things are not 'fine', we are at war... with ourselves.

The Holy Spirit having brought new life to our dead bodies has provoked our flesh into declaring war on our new enlivened spirit. This means, that as the tectonic plates shift from honouring self to honouring God our flesh squirms to obscure motives, thwart godly action and wallow in sin.
This is the civil war which rages in the members of each Christian.

As Ussher so aptly put it:
Corruption of nature doth remain even in those that are regenerated, whereby the flesh always lusteth against the spirit, and cannot be made subject to the law of God. And howsoever, for Christ's sake there be no condemnation to such as are regenerate and do believe: yet doth the Apostle acknowledge that in itself this concupiscence hath the nature of sin.

Here Ussher confronts us with two things: Stunning Realism and Stunning Assurance.

Stunning Realism
Ussher's response to the question of Christian experience (this side of heaven) is not that everything is 'fine' or that sin becomes a distant memory. Rather he frankly admits the conflict we each find ourselves in so that we might be prepared and equipped to fight. For Ussher the question becomes not,"Will there be a conflict in your life" but "Will you fight? Fight for the glory of God in every area of your life?"
Thankfully we are aided in our flight by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who "teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age" (Titus 2:12). Paul earlier in this chapter of Titus also urges the church to look out for one another, pastoring, encouraging, training, and if we begin to grasp that we are all experiencing this civil war together it should arouse in us a broken hearted honesty with those close to us and a humility to help those around us.
How many Christians miss out on this opportunity to fight along side others, to share the pains and trails of these present wranglings because they fear what others will think?
The biblical image is of God's people striving together against sin until they reach that final day when we behold the Lord Jesus face to face.

Questions:

In what area(s) of you life does the battle rage most?

Do you feel alone in your civil war?

Have you asked the Holy Spirit for the help to say "No" (Titus 2:12)?

Have you spoken to a godly friend or pastor?

Stunning Assurance

Earthly battles are unpredictable, a master tactician can change the fortunes of an army in moments to ensure victory... not so with our civil war.

Ussher reminds us that there is no condemnation to such as are regenerate and do believe (Rom 8:1). Justice has been served, we have been declared innocent in Christ and adopted as sons of the living God.This means that we fight daily with renewed vigour because the outcome is certain.

Our war is not against a weak enemy but it is against a defeated one and despite our constant failings and need for repentance one things stands fast... that we will no longer face God's righteous condemnation for our actions because Christ "bore our sins on his body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24)

Predestination: Getting the Right Angle of Approach

One of the dubious pleasures about being a student away from home is that I get to use low cost airlines several times a quarter. On the whole it's a convenient and safe way to travel, you can sit back and relax while someone else is concerned with setting you back on dry land.

Indeed the landing is the most nerve wracking part of any flight, the pilot must get the angle of approach just right or risk loosing some regular custom! If he comes in with the nose too low we will crash head first into the tarmac, too high and the back end could hit the ground and rupture the fuel tanks. The correct angel of approach is crucial...

Coming at the complex issue of predestination also requires the right angle of approach. Focus too much/ or wrongly on ourselves and we risk smashing into the theological tarmac. Fortunately James Ussher, while not a frequent flyer, still has some helpful points of orientation.

Article 13. Predestination to life, is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby, before the foundations of the world were laid, he hath constantly decreed in his secret counsel to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ unto everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honor.

The angle which causes a lot people to crash is the one which approaches the issue saying, "How can a loving God send people to Hell", with the underlying presupposition that decent, upstanding, middle class folks don't deserve Hell.

Unfortunately this drastically misses the point, it is not that people 'miss out' on life because God is irritable and capricious but that we are, in fact, ALL objects of wrath, dead in our transgressions and sins. (Eph 2:1)
It is NOT that some deserve life and some death but that we are all under curse and damnation and God in his goodness chooses to save some in Christ.

Taken from this angle, predestination emphasises both our helplessness because of sin and God's goodness and love to bring dead people to new life in Christ. This makes the doctrine of election a love doctrine, a way of understanding God's fatherly pursuit of his children as Eph 1: 4-5 tells us; "in LOVE, he predestined us for adoption as sons".

This raises another angular question: Why does God choose to save some?
To answer this our angle of approach is should not focus on ourselves but on God and his purposes in salvation. Ephesians 1 repeatedly stresses that God's work in redeeming some is "to the praise of his glorious grace". This is the motivation of God... His Glory.
God is glorified both in his loving election of some and his just judgement of others. Those whom he calls to himself have done nothing/ will do nothing to merit their adoption. This is a source of remarkable assurance because our salvation is based, not on ourselves, but on God's choosing of us "before the foundations of the world" or as Ussher puts it Article 15. [election] is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons.

Therefore when it comes to predestination and election lets get our angle of approach right, working to more fully grasp our standing before this Holy God who, even though we are engaged in treason against his divine majesty, loves us from eternity and makes us his sons.

Trinity 2: The Holy Spirit

It is no secret that in our evangelical constituency we tend to be more comfortable talking about Jesus than we are the Holy Spirit. Some even baulk or squirm when conversations to do with the Spirit go beyond the inspiration of Scripture... but should they?

There is no doubt that a lot of very important ground needs to be defended concerning the person and work of Christ (e.g. his substitutionary atonement) but Article 10 of the 104 Irish Articles encourages us to maintain a well rounded Trinitarian theology:


Article 10. The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God.

The Holy Spirit is no less majestic, no less glorious that the Father or the Son. He is the one who opens blind eyes to see the glory of Christ, who unites us to Christ by faith to make us partakers of his risen life. He equips and enables our Christian service and binds us together in love for one another as the Church.

Surely these are not things to squirm at but cause us to rejoice and motivate us to more fervent prayer that the Spirit would work in our lives for the glory of Jesus and the good of others.

A lot more can and should be said here but, suffice it to say, it is worth considering when you last asked the Holy Spirit for help? Help to see Jesus more clearly, help to minister to a friend in need, asking him to heal, to convict or to bring new life...

And if that wasn't provocative enough check out this short video interview with John Piper.

Quotable Quotes: Calvin on the Holy Spirit

Here Calvin is helping us to grasp the vital importance of the Spirit's role in uniting us to Christ, he says;

"Until our minds become intent upon the Spirit, Christ lies idle because we coldly contemplate him as outside ourselves - indeed, far from us."

Institutes Book III, Ch 1

Trinity 1: The Uncreated Creator

Human language is never wholly adequate to communicate personal life. We often find ourselves stammering and fumbling for words trying to convey how we feel. We fight to express the depths and contours of our love the those closest to us, or to articulate the sorrow which shreds trough us during difficult seasons. We often find ourselves 'lost for words...'

However the words which we cling on too, no matter how inadequate, are never useless. Even when we recognise the limitations of words it does not stop us using them to good effect.

So to when talking about the Trinity. Of course this is one of many parts of Christian belief which terminates in mystery and can never be fully expressed by human language. Nonetheless, not being able to say EVERYTHING true does not mean we cannot say ANYTHING true!

In our series in the 104 Irish Articles James Ussher now moves us from the doctrine of the Scriptures to the doctrine of the Trinity, and in doing so uses language to greatly expand our understanding of the Godhead.

8. There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three persons of one and the same substance, power, and eternity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

We could easily spend a whole series unpicking and expounding each of the statements here, but for now it's worth drawing a couple of reflections.

The opening statement orientates us to the 'one-ness' of God and to his 'true-ness', not in the sense of being the correct option (although that's correct) but as being truth in himself and the originator of all that is true.

 He is the "everlasting... maker and preserver of all things". In other words he is THE UNCREATED CREATOR. The one who stands distinct from his creation yet intimately involved in sustaining it. This vital distinction urges us once again not to worship the creation but the creator; in the same way that we do not fall in love with the love poem but with the lover!

 Finally Ussher finds the words to express both God's unity and his diversity; three persons of one and the same substance...the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. In doing so he attempts to describe for us a community of unceasing love, joy and self giving which, while causing our words to fail provokes the christian heart to sing because we have glimpsed (albeit falteringly) the love relationship which defines and transcends all others. I guess in the light of this great truth we cannot help but be left in slack jawed wonder at the Father who loves the Son and the Son who loves the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

Just Shut Up!

It's easy to fall in love with the sound of your own voice. Often it seems like you are the only person who makes any sense so you end up talking constantly, offering opinions and perspectives (and no, the irony of saying these things on a blog is not lost on me).

But what happens when this constant chatter infects our Bible study? What happens when we trip over something tricky and have no idea where to go with it? Do we talk, debate, reason it out or even explaining it away?

Again James Ussher provides some insight:

5. Although there be some hard things in the Scripture (especially such as have proper relation to the times in which they were first uttered, and prophesies of things which were afterwards to be fulfilled), yet all things necessary to be known unto everlasting salvation are clearly delivered therein: and nothing of that kind is spoken under dark mysteries in one place, which is not in other places spoken more familiarly and plainly to the capacity of learned and unlearned.

Ussher doesn't shy away from the difficulties in the Bible, instead he meets them head on and helps us to see that what is muddy in one place is often clearer in another.

Therefore, where the temptation may be to debate a difficulty or an apparent inconsistency Ussher says... keep reading. Remembering the attitude of humility he describes in the earlier articles, coming to the Scriptures and gracious asking for God's help in untangling the messy bits so that we might see Him more clearly.

John Piper in the second Tuesday Teaching on The Pleasures of God encourages us all to just shut up for a moment when we come to hard texts, and humble ourselves, recognising or finitude and our need for God's help.

Sometimes what is needed is not more talk but some serious quiet reflection on God as he reveals himself in the Bible, silently rejoicing in the complexities because it allows us more time to sit under the sound of his voice.