Christ the Conqueror - Christ the Savior

As a follow up to my post on The Gospel In All Its Forms, I wanted to make all seven of my blog followers aware of a great post by Peter Leithart Good news in which he show how the Greek word for “gospel” is use in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament). The Gospel takes on new dimensions when the word is studied in its wider Jewish context, dimensions that are helpful to us as we consider what good news we are to announce in our modern world.  I quote it in full:

” The Septuagint uses the word-group euaggel- primarily in military and political contexts to describe the proclamation of victory.    This is not invariable (cf. Jeremiah 20:15).

The Philistines cut off Saul’s head and strip his gear so that they can carry the “good news” to idols and people (1 Samuel 31:9).  In his lament over Saul and Jonathan, David warns Israel not to evangelize Philistia with the news of the fall of Israel’s heroes (2 Samuel 1:20).  When David later describes what he did to the Amalekite who thought that the death of Saul would be “good news” to David, he uses the same term (2 Samuel 4:10).  2 Samuel 18, where David awaits news of the battle with Absalom, is studded with the word (vv. 19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 31).

Adonijah expects Jonathan the son of Abiathar to bring him good news (1 Kings 1:42), but he doesn’t.  The lepers who find the Aramean camp abandoned realize after eating their fill that they shouldn’t keep the “good news” from the rest of the people in the city (2 Kings 7:9).

This meaning is in the background of the more “theological” uses elsewhere in the LXX.  The “new song” of Psalm 96 is the “good news” (v. 2) of Yahweh’s s salvation, which comes when He judges the world in righteousness (v. 13).  Good news comes because Yahweh the Divine Warrior gains His victory.  The same goes for the good news of Yahweh’s reign announced in Isaiah 40:9, 52:7.  The good news that the Spirit-anointed servant brings to the afflicted is good news of rescue and deliverance, liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners (Isaiah 61:1).  The good news is good news of peace (cf. Nahum 1:15; 2:1 in LXX), a peace gained by righteous victory.”

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 4:21 am  http://www.leithart.com/2011/03/29/good-news-2/

What most people conceive of as “the gospel” seldom contains an image of the Lord as Divine Warrior. And yet, the New Testament does (Rev. 19). To truncate the good news to ‘Jesus died to save sinners’ is to so compartmentalize and minimize what God has and will do in the world to make it almost no news at all to the hearts and minds of moderns.

How small has become our view of what Jesus came to do, what He accomplished, and what He has promised to do in our world. Do we have the faith to believe, let alone to announce, that our God, Jesus, is progressively judging the world in righteousness? Is our confidence in God’s word sufficient that we can take for granted as true, and declare openly, that the reign of King Jesus does in fact bring “rescue and deliverance, liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners?” Do we true believe that the only hope and good news for a world in turmoil (you name the turmoil: international finacial meltdown, terrorism, the impact of the collapse of middle-eastern governments, etc) is Jesus?  Or is that just a little too simplistic to say outloud? Isn’t it possible that all of these culamities are in fact part of the work of God to gain the victory on behalf of His people? Is that too much to believe? Is it a bit too religiously edgy to actually tell someone that the good news is that God is using all of these things to bring salvation to the world?

Anything short of this kind of conception of the gospel does an injustice to what God has done through our Lord Jesus.

Tags: evangelism, gospel, LXX, Old Testament, Peter Leithart, Septuagint

Christianity Today (by Tim Keller | posted 5/23/2008)

I recently received a request to comment on this article by Tim Keller.  I created a file to easily read the article here.  I very much like Keller’s perspective and I hope that it gets a wide reading.  I won’t take the time to go through it point by point. However, I do think that he presents some very compelling remarks about various forms of the gospel and how we can use these forms to help us in our own presentations of the good news. His final paragraph gives a good summary of his reason for writing:

Today there are many who doubt that there is just one gospel. That gives them the warrant to ignore the gospel of atonement and justification. There are others who don’t like to admit that there are different forms to that one gospel. That smacks too much of “contextualization,” a term they dislike. They cling to a single presentation that is often one-dimensional. Neither of these approaches is as true to the biblical material, nor as effective in actual ministry, as that which understands that the Bible presents one gospel in several forms.

I primarily want to make a few simple but important points to expand on what Keller offered:

1)    The gospel is always contemporarily good news to those to whom it is announced. To illustrate my point: To say that we in the United States of America are no longer under British rule is good news generally, but would have been even better news to Americans in the late 1700’s. Thus, it (the gospel) has its power in people’s lives when there is something new and applicable in the announcement of the news to them. It changes their situation in the world.

a.     People (the Jews and Gentile God-fearers) in the first century AD knew experientially about salvation by grace through faith. They knew that they needed a vicarious sacrificial offering to cover their sin. To be told that this is the gospel would not be such good news – because they already knew these things and felt the power of them.

b.     What they didn’t know was the means by which God would fulfill His promises throughout history to that point. To those who lived in the days following the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus – the gospel was good news because all of the biblical and prophetic expectations were met in the person of Jesus. He is the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent. He is the descendent of Abraham through whom the nations of the world would be blessed. He is the son of David who would rule forever at the right hand of God the Father. He is the Messiah, the Son of God, who would bring forth the Kingdom of God, and right the wrongs of the world. Now this was good news indeed! The coming of Jesus changed everything in their world for them.

c.      To those (pagans throughout the world) who knew nothing of salvation by grace through faith, or the promises of God, the gospel was good news because it gave to them an understanding of who the one true God is, salvation from sin and death, freedom from oppression (both human and Satanic) by living as servants of Christ, and hope for the future (both in history and eternity). The announcement of the gospel meant an entirely new way of relating to the world around them.

2)    Our presentation of the gospel today must have the same sense of relevance that it did to the Jews and to the Gentiles of the first century. It is the answer to all of the problems faced by men today.

3)    We live in a time when Christians no longer know how to speak into the world situation in such a way that people for the first time see the solution to their troubles personally and the resolution of the problems of the world. As Keller so well explained, we need to learn to articulate the good news so that it feels like good news to people.

Keller tells us that the one simple gospel can be understood in a three-point outline:

1)    That Jesus was the promised Messianic King and Son of God come to earth as a servant, in human form. (Rom. 1:3-4; Phil. 2:4ff.). I would add that Jesus came to reveal the Father (Jn. 1:14, 18).

2)    By his death and resurrection, Jesus atoned for our sin and secured our justification by grace, not by our works (1 Cor. 15:3ff.).

3)    On the cross Jesus broke the dominion of sin and evil over us (Col. 2:13-15) and at his return he will complete what he began by the renewal of the entire material creation and the resurrection of our bodies (Rom 8:18ff.). I would add that the implications of this point of the gospel extend to all of life that we live in history. Thus, in Christ, humanity will experience over time a renewal of all of life, including culture and the products of culture.

4)    I must add a fourth point: Christ is operating in the world through His Body, the Church. However imperfectly she appears, the Church is the Body of Christ, through whom the world is being transformed. There is no salvation apart from Christ or His Church.

How we articulate this good news to our world is informed by the way the New Testament communicates it: by speaking of the gospel in its various forms or manifestations to various people in various ways. Keller does a marvelous job in making clear how applicable these different expressions of the gospel are. May God, by His Spirit, enlighten us individually and corporately as the Church, to learn to present the gospel in such a way that it is truly felt to be good news to our modern world!

Tags: good news, gospel, Tim Keller

Not Reformed Enough

WARNING: I know this post will be controversial – Which I seldom am here.

I have, for the last few years, become exceedingly concerned about how important it is for some people to be “Reformed” and “Confessional” and “Traditional.” I have seen, read and heard people express this commitment in ways that are sectarian beyond description, blind to the history of both the Reformation and Confessional development, and subordinate the scriptures to systematic theology (which is necessary and inescapable), confessionalism, and modern expressions Calvinism that little resembles Calvin or the 16th century Reformers. Brothers are wiling to discard, discipline and destroy brothers for the sake of what they consider matters of such great importance that the gospel is at stake.

Without agreeing with every point below (which I clearly do not), I offer the following thoughtful satire to illustrate the way this goes from”The Institute”:

This poor schmuck just ain’t Reformed enough for “The Gospel”

The poor schmuck in the photo doesn’t believe “the Gospel” because he struggles with some combination of the following (like me, Doug Hayes). He:

(1) Does not believe that any Reformed confession is divinely inspired and understands a confession to be a consensus document to provide theological space for differences so people can get along and get to work. Subscription to a Confession is the floor not the ceiling.
(2) Believes that the Hebrew word for “day” does not limit the days of creation to a literal 24 hour-day cycle.
(3) Actually thought that “Reformed and always Reforming” was true (what an idiot, what a schmuck).
(4) Believes that Christianity started before 1517.
(5) Does not find evidence in the Bible that drums, guitars, etc. are prohibited in Scripture or that the Bible prescribes everything in worship
(5.5) Does not believe the liturgies of the Geneva and other Reformation churches provide the closed canon for liturgical style in worship.
(6) Reads N.T. Wright (even if he doesn’t agree with Wright on key issues). The poor schmuck didn’t know that reading Wright defiles you and requires priestly purification. Wright reading will land you outside the city gate. (Personal note: this is why I haven’t really read much Wright, and probably won’t, but I do read Thomas Sowell).
(7) Believes that baptized covenant children should be treated as such throughout the liturgical life of the church and not quarantined to “youth and children’s” ministries for outsourced spiritual nurture.
(7.5) Wonders why the Lord’s Supper has such a low sacramental role in “Gospel-centered,” “Christ-centered” Reformed churches that Christ’s people only partake of it monthly (maybe) following the Methodist practice of using grape juice instead of wine like Jesus said? Seriously, grape juice? Why not grape soda or grape kool-aid?
(8) Believes that the tradition of adopting Sunday as “The Lord’s Day” allows him to watch football on Sunday, or even play the game if he’s in shape enough for physical activity (warning: please see a doctor before beginning strenuous physical activity).
(9) Has come to learn that church judicial courts actually play out on the internet (blogs) instead of following denominational procedures developed in accordance with Matt 18 and other conflict resolution passages. Oops! Did you know that blogs are credible and authoritative?
(10) Is willing to say when Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, and others Christian communions “get it right” theologically or otherwise (esp. social issues).
(11) Does not conflate “The Church” of Jesus Christ with his denomination.
(12) Believes the 1973 publication of Rousas J. Rushdoony’s Institutes of Biblical Law and in 1977 of Greg L. Bahnsen’s Theonomy in Christian Ethics both missed the mark (theologically) in key areas.
(13) Remembers the Norman Shepherd controversy on the relationship between justification and the covenant and understands that this new N.T. Wright controversy may just be a variation on theme regarding the level of Lutheran centrality of that doctrine for all Protestants.
(14) Is not a Republican or, even more worse, confesses to be a Democrat–even though libertarianism is more consistent with Althusius!! (haha–fodder for another discussion).
(15) Is more concerned about what women can do in the life of the church than what women cannot do. Rejects the notion that women exist primarily for managing the Kingdom’s hospitality, teaching children, making crafts, baking for church functions and knitting.
(16) Wonders why it is that when conservative Baptist folk join Presbyterian churches those churches tend to become Bapto-Presbyterian with the only distinction between 1st Prez and 1st Baptist being the baptizing of children (maybe) and the occasional consumption cheap beer and bottom-shelf alcohol (maybe). Everything else is the same (Lord’s supper, “youth” ministry, etc.).
(17) Knows that SEC is the best college football conference in America!!

At any rate, the schmuck deserves the stones to hit him right in the head. He should have known better? What a schmuck? Idiot.

I thought I was being provocative with my list and then I saw a similar list here so I added a couple. I hate not being original!!!

by Anthony Bradley

Tags: Anthony Bradley, gospel, Reformed, satire

Over the years I have marveled at how children, my own included, are able to learn to imitate those around them (for both good and ill) and participate in things that they have no understanding of.  They catch onto the liturgical actions of the church more readily than most adults.

I have seen children less than 2 years old sing along with the congregation the Doxology and other songs, recite the Apostles creed and pray the Lord’s Prayer.  They have no idea of the meaning of the words – but they are worshiping as truly and by faith (child-like) as we old folks do. I am certain, based on the words of our Savior, that God looks down on these faithful little ones with joy and pleasure – accepting their worship as a sweet smelling savor.

Having said that, when I see videos like this I just feel sad for the children – and about the level of maturity of the church.  I know this sounds judgmental – but its not.  I’m not talking about style.  I’m talking about knowing the difference between a godly child-like faith that is a foundation upon which to build and a mature, articulate and effective faith that labors to see the will of God done on earth as it is in heaven.

If we (the Church and Bride of Christ) are to effectively build the Kingdom of God and bring Christ’s word to the world, we must have more maturity than to think that 2 year old children can be our “preachers” and leaders.

May God grant to us all to grow up in wisdom and stature, before both God and men – So that through our preaching of the gospel there may be “Peace on earth, and goodwill toward men.”

Tags: children, gospel, Liturgy, preaching