Insightful article here by Chris Armstrong.
HT: @JimBelcher
The other day while driving home, I noticed these two bumper stickers on the back of the car in front of me:
1) Keep Abortion Legal
2) Hate Is Not A Family Matter
Anyone notice the odd conjunction of these two statements?
We are socialized interpreters of Scripture. No mind comes to the text as a tabula rasa–deriving unmixed meaning from its Author.
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This post’s method inspired by Abraham Piper. Content inspired by yesterday’s lunch conversation with John Hannah.
Individuals in the Old Testament needed to know and believe that Yahweh was “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty…”(Exod. 34.6-7). One of the only bases the OT people had in trusting God for who he says he was, was his promises to them that he would provide for their every need, including redemption. Now, he could not be a God who kept steadfast love for thousands, and forgive iniquity and transgression and sin, unless his promise of redemption was to ultimately and finally be fulfilled in his one and only Son. The apostle Paul says, “God put Jesus forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins” (Rom 3.25). Whose sins did God pass over? Everyone’s sins, including those in the OT, since “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb 10.4). So, Jesus “appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb 9.26). But some of the OT individuals may not have even had the fulfillment of the sacrifices (i.e., Jesus) in mind. Yet, they trusted God who promised he would be their God and their salvation.
1. CREATION
I love the way the scenery changes…. The lay of the land and the things people build on it all seem to be saying ‘don’t miss this–this is a one-in-a-million scene.’ It’s in that quiet, too, that all the garbled, frantic feelings and thoughts begin to settle, and slowly you begin to see the shape of the love of God…. The quiet, the still, small voice of God, the scenery, the freedom of this helpless moment where you have no opportunity to be a Martha–just this privilege to sit like Mary.
2. CHRIST
Folks, God knew you at your worst before he ever sent Christ to die for you. And the good news of Christianity is not that Christ came into the world to make good little boys and girls. Christ came into the world to take away those sins that you’ve allowed to come between you and God. It’s sad to me to believe–to look out there and see–when you’re driving down the road and you see people who are afraid, you see people who are angry, and you go, ‘If only you knew how crazy about you God was! God has already loved you, if only you knew!’
3. CHRIST’S COMMUNITY
I am a Christian because I have seen the love of God lived out in the lives of people who know Him. The Word has become flesh and I have encountered God in the people who have manifested (in many ‘unreasonable’ ways) His presence–a presence that is more convincing–it is a presence that is compelling. I am a Christian, not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity to me, but because there were people who were willing to be nuts and bolts.
PART I: HUMAN MISERY
3. How do you come to know your misery?
The law of God tells me.
Ro 3.20; 7.7-25
4. What does God’s law require of us?
Christ teaches us this in summary in Matthew 22: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
Dt 6.5
Lev 19.18
5. Can you live up to all this perfectly?
No. I have a natural tendency to hate God and my neighbor.
Ro 3.9-20,23; 1Jn 1.8,10
Ge 6.5; Jer 17.9; Ro 7.23-24; 8.7; Eph 2.1-3; Tit 3.3
From the Heidelberg Catechism.
For your next four days’ enjoyment, here are three articles and an audio message to stimulate one another to love and thanksgiving, as we celebrate God’s goodness toward us in Christ together:
Thankfulness: Even When It Hurts by Sue Lutz
Thankful People by David Powlison
How Not to Commit Idolatry in Giving Thanks by John Piper
Who Should We Invite to Thanksgiving Dinner? by John Piper
The premise: “Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America?”
In this recently released film, Dan Merchant travels the country as a “human bumper sticker” asking people of various beliefs what they think about Christians, Jesus, the Bible, and the like. In the Spring of 2008, I had the privilege of previewing this film in my Intercultural Communication class. Here’s a sampling of the mixed emotions I felt during that 99 minutes: conviction, regret, anger, compassion, encouragement, hope…
While I do not fully agree with Merchant’s premise, I do find this timely film as a whole extremely helpful as confessing Christians and non-Christians continue the dialogue toward truth and renewal that can only be found in the one Triune Creator. More information on the film, and whether it’s at a theatre near you, here.
A shorter clip:
Jesus:
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
