What’s the Problem Here?

There are very few people who can look at the world and see nothing wrong with it, nothing that is in need of change, nothing that needs improvement, nothing that needs salvation. (And those who do say everything in the world is the way it should be ought to have their head examined.) Just about everyone agrees the world is not the way it’s supposed to be.

What needs to change? That depends on who you ask.

Karl Marx seemed to think the key problem in the world is economic systems, like capitalism, that create class warfare, envy, and alienation. What is needed, he thought, is a classless society. The way to get there is communism. Thus communism “saves” you from the horrible effects of capitalism, and brings the “salvation” of a society without economic class of any kind.

Plato thought the main problem of the world is ignorance. People are like prisoners in the cave of their ignorance, happily watching the shadows of reality instead of understanding reality as it truly is. The result of this ignorance is vice, improper habits, thoughts, and attitudes. The solution to vice is virtue, and the way to get virtue is knowledge. Thus knowledge “saves” you from ignorance and its vices, and brings you the “salvation” of virtue instead.

Buddha saw all the suffering in the world and concluded that the problem is whatever causes the suffering. If there were no desires, he reasoned, there would be no suffering. For you can’t have unmet desires if you have no desires at all. The way to reduce desire is through destruction of the self, the slow killing off of anything that makes you you. This leads to nirvana, which literally means extinguished, as in your life is extinguished. Thus cycle after cycle of self-denial leads to a decrease of desire and suffering, which yields the “salvation” of your personal existence.

Many people today seem to think that what is wrong with the world is unhappiness. Unhappiness is the result of restrictions in our lives that prevent us from becoming happier than we are. Some see poverty as the ultimate restriction to happiness, thus they are “saved” from unhappiness by money, which releases them from the restriction of poverty. Others, taking a page from Plato’s playbook, see ignorance as the primary restriction to happiness. Thus they are “saved” from unhappiness by education, which frees them from their ignorance in order to better themselves in some way. Finally, there are some who see rules, laws, or morals as the main restriction to happiness. “If only we were totally free to do as we like,” they say, “then we would be happy.” Thus they are “saved” from unhappiness by the overturning of any law, rule, or moral that hinders them from doing as they like.

Certain types of religious people, those who see themselves as devout, moral, and upstanding, tend to think the biggest problem we face is acts of evils committed by people other than them. The religious types are good, in their own eyes, and others who are not like them are evil, bad, and problematic. The whole world would be a better place if God removed everyone unlike them. “That sounds like heaven,” they say. And they mean it, literally. Salvation in heaven means being rescued from the evils of others to enjoy a paradise they earned for themselves.

Salvation as Defined by Jesus

Jesus saw things differently than all of those groups. He said that the biggest problem facing the world is sin, which results in every kind of vice, every form of selfishness, and even death itself. But the solution to sin is the gift of life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Thus, according to Jesus, life in him saves us from sin and all of its consequences, including death.

The word for “rescue from sin and death” is salvation.

The Scriptures teach that salvation is God’s work. “Salvation comes from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). That means it isn’t something that we can do or earn for ourselves, contrary to what many people think.

Those who think our main problem is unhappiness due to a lack of education, lack of freedom, or lack wealth, try to earn “salvation” for themselves through lots of schooling, the changing of laws, or hard work, respectively. But when they get what they thought would save them from unhappiness—a new degree, a new freedom, a dream house on the lake—they find satisfaction to be fleeting. It’s like sand slipping through their fingers. Instead of concluding that they have misdiagnosed what is wrong with the world, they double down on their efforts: another degree, even more freedom, a much nicer house. But none of it works.

The religious types who think our main problem is evil people try to earn salvation by being good. If they are religious Christians, they may say that they are rescued by “faith alone,” but live as if they are rescued by being nice, by working hard, by following the rules, and by treating others like they want to be treated. That is because, deep down, they still believe that God owes them something for all their good behavior. Though they would never say it, they think they have saved themselves from the fate of all evil people by being better than them.

(As an aside, it’s really hard to be an honest religious person. You can’t go on forever pretending like other people are what’s wrong with the world while knowing your own sins as well as you do. That’s why work-hard-be-good religions produce quitters and self-righteous hypocrites. The honest ones give up. They quit trying, because they know they’ll never be good enough to earn salvation. The dishonest ones become hypocrites who trade one sin for another that is easier to hide. On the outside their lives look prim and pristine, but on the inside they full corruption and decay, and their hypocrisy eventually produces an arrogant self-righteousness that really does believe that they are better than others.)

If Jesus is right, however—if sin really is our biggest problem—then we should know we can’t save ourselves any more than a leopard can change its spots. (For how can someone who is sinful by nature change the core of who he is?) We need God to forgive us, to cleanse us, to heal us, to change us, and to make us new. And that’s precisely what he does in Jesus. Jesus brings salvation.

United with Jesus, Adopted as Heirs

The language of being “in Jesus” or “in Christ” is found throughout the New Testament. It was Paul’s way of talking about union with Christ, which is the way we receive salvation from sin and death. Those who trust in Jesus are united to him by the work of the Holy Spirit. To be united to Jesus means that “our life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). Moreover, we are said to have “died with Christ” (Rom. 6:8) and to have been “raised with Christ” (Col. 3:4). Paul says, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom. 6:5).

How can this be? For those who depend upon Jesus, God graciously allows his life to count for our life and his death to count for our death. Jesus lived the life we should have lived, but haven’t, and died the death we deserve to die for sin, but won’t because of him. “He became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). To be “found in Jesus” means that we can’t claim to have any righteousness of our own. Instead, we recognize that our only hope is the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith in Jesus (Phil. 3:9).

More than this, we are told that salvation in Jesus means that we also receive adoption as sons and daughters of God. We now have God as our Father (Gal. 4:5), Christ as our brother (Rom. 8:29), and the Spirit as our Helper, Comforter, and Advocate (John 14:16). And if that were not enough, God makes us heirs to his eternal kingdom where there is no sin, no death, no sickness, no sorrow, only life and joy and peace.

For Your Consideration

1. No matter what is you think you need in order to be happy, I can find millions of people who already have it but are still miserable. What makes you any different from them?

2. If you are tempted to think that God will accept you, love you, and forgive you because you’re a good person, how does your life measure up to Jesus’ life? Why should you be the standard, instead of him?

3. What are some implications of believing that are who are united to Jesus by faith freely receive the salvation that he accomplished on our behalf?

The post WHAT IS SALVATION? appeared first on Remnant Resource.

For more than seventeen centuries Christians have used the word Trinity to describe God’s basic nature. It is a term that speaks to God’s three-in-one-ness: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of the Trinity has always had a few objectors. Some claim that the concept isn’t true because the word isn’t found in the Bible. These people need to realize that words like Bible, atheism, and theology aren’t found in the Scriptures, either, but that doesn’t make them untrue. Others object that the doctrine isn’t stated plainly enough (for them) in any one verse. Perhaps these people have never tried to summarize their lives with a single sentence before. (Try it, and see how well you fare.) Some things are so rich and complex that an entire book is required to describe them adequately.

In truth, however, the biggest objection to the doctrine of the Trinity doesn’t concern whether it is true, but whether it is useful (or helpful). It’s like the fellow who says, “I’ve gotten this far in my life without knowing that sort of thing, why should I bother to learn it now?”

Simply put, many think understanding God’s identity isn’t all that important unless it is useful for something else. Of course, it is “useful” for understanding a few things (as we shall see in the conclusion), but that shouldn’t be our primary concern. Rather, we ought to wonder how that fellow would feel if his wife said to him, “It’s just not useful for me to learn much about you.” Their marriage isn’t likely to last long. Real relationships, it seems, require that we know at least something  of the other person’s identity. And God’s identity is Trinity.

But suppose someone says something terrifically stupid like, “Doctrine divides, but Jesus unites.” Overlooking the irony of their own doctrinal statement, we could ask in turn, “Who is Jesus?” Now if they respond, “Jesus is the one who saved me,” there still remains a slew of follow-up questions: How did Jesus bring about this salvation? And what is salvation anyway? And who must Jesus be, if he is able to save in that way? And who must God be, if that is true of Jesus?

In other words, a faith that is serious about seeing the practical aspects of statements like, “Jesus saves,” must journey back to the question of who God is and what he is like. That journey leads us right to the doorstep of the Trinitarian God who made the universe.

What or Who Is the Trinity?

Talking about the Trinity can be confusing. First, the word Trinity itself is used in two different ways. Sometimes the word refers to the doctrine (teaching) that describes God’s existence. At other times, however, the word refers to God himself, not our thoughts about God. Both uses are correct, when used in context. The basic point here is that we must not think that God is equivalent to a set of propositions (statements) about God. God is God. What we say about him may be right or wrong, but our statements about him don’t change who he is.

The second reason it’s tricky business talking about the Trinity is that our existence differs from the nature of the Trinity’s existence. Whenever you see a human being you also see one human person, for each human being is a human person. But it’s not like that with the Trinity. The Trinity exists as one divine Being in three divine Persons. Humans = one being, one person. The Trinity = one Being, three Persons.

Here’s how a theologian would describe the life of the Trinity:

God exists as three persons.
Each person is fully divine.
Yet there is only one God.

Or you could say it like this:

The Father is God, but he is neither the Son nor the Spirit.
The Son is God, but he is neither the Spirit nor the Father.
The Spirit is God, but he is neither the Father nor the Son.

If that seems a little confusing, well, you’re in good company. Christians throughout history have tried to explain the doctrine with easier-to-understand analogies or word pictures. Some of these are able to capture certain truths about God’s nature, but none of them are perfectly fitting. In fact, some of them are quite bad and deeply misleading. Among the less helpful analogies are those that make God seem like something that can be dissected (e.g., the analogy of the three-leaf clover and the analogy of the egg) and those that make God seem like just one person acting in three different positions (e.g., the analogy of a man as husband, father, and worker, as well as the analogy of water as ice, liquid, and steam).

There are no perfect analogies for the nature of God as Trinity. Perhaps that is why the Scriptures do not give us one outright. Still, the analogy of marriage gives us a few hints and glimpses of what the interior life of the Trinity may be like. (Some theologians think that Ephesians 5 renders the analogy of marriage an “authorized approximation” of Trinitarian relationships, though they are careful to point out that it is still just an approximation.)

When a man and a woman marry, they become “one flesh” according to God. They do not lose their personalities, but they do shed their individual lives before God. They share one life now. They are two persons, but one flesh. They share one bed, one house, one bank account, the mutual responsibility to care for each other, and so on. Their union is so close, in fact, that wherever the husband goes, his wife can be said to be “there” even without being present (by virtue of his vicarious representation).

In a similar, but not completely analogous way, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are distinguishable persons who share one common life as God. The members of the Trinity are in complete agreement in all that they do, working together in a perfectly harmonious and complementary way. While the roles of the Father, Son, and Spirit are unique, their union is so perfect that the Scriptures also repeatedly say, “The Lord is one.”

Where Do We See the Trinity?

We see the doctrine of the Trinity throughout the Scriptures. In some places it is subtle, in other places it is obvious. Some verses emphasize the “threeness” of the Trinity, while others emphasize the unity of God.

The opening chapter of the Bible contains the following words: “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’” (Gen. 1:26). Note the subtlety of the Trinity’s presence: “God [singular] said, “Let us [plural] make man in our [p] image [s], after our [p] likeness [s].”

The basic prayer of every faithful Israelite and the centerpiece of Israel’s worship were the words, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deut. 6:4). Jesus reaffirmed these when he spoke about God (Mark 12:29), but he also spoke of the shared glory he had with his Father before the world existed (John 17:5). That same glory, Jesus said, is lavished on him by the Holy Spirit, who works alongside God the Father and God the Son (John 16:14-15). Who can share God’s glory? No one. Who existed before the universe? God alone. So when Jesus says that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are equal in glory, he is making a statement about their essential tri-unity as God. Each person remains unique in role yet united in presence and purpose.

At Jesus’ baptism the heavens opened up, and the Spirit of God took the form of a dove to rest upon him. Then from heaven a loud voice declared, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:16-17).

The Great Commission that Jesus gave to his followers reads, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matt. 28:19). Close readers will notice that relationship of the Father, Son and Spirit is so close that Jesus shares they share one “name.”

Paul the apostle writes, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:4-6).

To those who are willing to accept the testimony of Scripture, the verdict is plain: There is one God who exists as three persons. The Father is called “God” (1 Cor. 8:6). The Son is called “God” (John 20:28). The Holy Spirit is called “God” (Acts 5:3-4). Yet, different works are ascribed to the Father, Son, and Spirit. For example, Peter the apostle said that his readers were chosen “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood” (1 Pet. 1:2). Paul adds, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14).

What Does Belief in the Trinity Change?

The first words of Scripture tell us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Why did God create? Was God lonely? Was God bored? Was God empty or incomplete? Did or does God have needs?

The doctrine of the Trinity answers “No!” to all of those questions. It’s true that God cannot be God without relationships, but it doesn’t follow that God needs to create in order to have them. After all, as one Christian author eloquently puts it, “God has the endless dance of perichoresis, the ceaseless exchange of vitality, the infinite expense of spirit upon spirit in superlative, triplicate consciousness” (Cornelius Plantinga, Engaging God’s World, 22). In everyday speech, he’s saying that the doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that God has enjoyed a communal life for eternity. Like an endless dance of three partners in which each lavishes love and glory upon the other, the life of God has no need or lack of any kind. (For who can beat the fellowship of the Father, Son, and Spirit?)

The tri-personal love of God, therefore, doesn’t need anything else for completion. As a result, we should never present the gospel in such a way that makes it seem like God is begging us to return to him so that he can finally be happy again. God is not depressed, bored, or lonely without us. Thanks to the eternally rich fellowship of the Trinity, God is the happiest Being in the universe.

The Trinity, therefore, clearly shows us that our salvation is not a matter of completing God’s happiness, but one of completing ours. We were made to know the Trinitarian God of the universe who reveals himself in Jesus and through the Scriptures. God made us to know him and to worship him. Our life falls apart when we give ourselves to pursuing something other than him. That is why Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”

The Trinity also changes how we understand the relationship between value (worth) and function. The spirit of the times says that your value is directly related to what you do or what you have. If you are successful and important, you are seen as valuable. If you are creative and intelligent, you are seen as valuable. If you have a job that is respected in society (a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist), then you are seen as valuable. The mantra of our time is that your value comes from what you do or have.

The Trinity shatters that lie. The differing roles and responsibilities of the Father, Son, and Spirit exist without any diminishing of their equal glory and worthiness to be worshipped. The Trinity proves that value does not come from what you do, but from who you are. In our case, we are people created by God and for God, and redeemed by God for God. Our value, our worth, comes from that and that alone.

Practically speaking, consider the following example. If a mom decides to stay at home to raise her children, she suffers no loss in value whatsoever. (Regardless of what feminists may tell her.) But it would be equally wrong for her friends to console her by saying, “It’s OK. You just ‘switched jobs.’ Your new ‘job’ is being the best stay-at-home mom you can be.” Their words are poor advice. All they’ve done is switch her value search from her career to her kids. This will leave her with the same feelings of stress, disillusionment, and self-doubting. Instead, she needs to know that the Trinity is proof that her value comes from who she is (a woman created in the image of God), not what she does.

Similarly, suppose you find yourself in one of those “crazy” churches who insist on believing all those Scriptures which clearly teach that God created men and women to be different, honoring each with unique and irreversible roles? Well, the doctrine of the Trinity helps again. While Jesus walked the earth, God the Son submitted to the will of God the Father (Luke 22:42). Yet there was no distinction of value between the Father and the Son. The Father was not “more glorious” or “more important” or “more worthy” in any sense. Likewise, Jesus says that the Spirit’s job is to glorify him (John 16:14), but God the Spirit is not less valuable or glorious than God the Son.

In the Trinity there is remarkable diversity of role, but perfect equality of deity and worthiness. The Trinity proves that people can be equal without being the same. So if God has called women to some tasks and men to others, this isn’t a slight against women or men. Women aren’t “better” than men because they have been designed and called to sustain the live of God’s new image-bearers as they come into the world. Nor are men any “better” than women because they have been designed and called to lead their families with responsible humility. Only those who see value in terms of what you do argue about this. They say it’s “unfair” that woman are designed and called by God to do some things that men aren’t, and vice versa. Unlike them, the Trinity is perfectly happy to see equality in the midst of difference, and unity in the midst of diversity. Indeed, that kind of diversity-without-inequality is the very fabric of God’s Trinitarian life.

Finally, belief in the doctrine of the Trinity affects even how we see ourselves. It is tempting for us to construct an identity in terms of “I, me, and my,” but the Trinitarian God of the universe, in whose image we are made, stands over against that individualistic notion. God has eternally existed in community, and each member of the Trinity is defined in community. God the Father knows himself in relation to the Son and the Spirit, God the Son knows himself in relation to the Spirit and the Father, and God the Spirit knows himself in relation to the Father and the Son. By God’s design, we too have been created for community. This means (1) that we should avoid anyone attempt to construct an identity for ourselves apart from relating to others, including God; (2) that we should seek to live our lives in the context of close-knit fellowship with other men and women who know what it means to be made in the image of God.

The post THE TRINITY appeared first on Remnant Resource.

As a parent and a pastor, I’m concerned about the rise of parenting books and blogs that only further confuse, frustrate, and complicate things. “Mommy wars,” “the bottle battle,” and the ever present debates about homeschooling and discipline come to mind. Some say, “Do it this way,” while others say, “No, don’t do it like that. Do it like this.” People take sides, usually picking whichever side they like, whichever they prefer. (It’s almost like parenting choices are seen on the same level as what we choose to wear for the day.) That is why the most popular blogs are the ones that say, “Neither side is right. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Just do what works for you.”

Yet when discussion about serious matters, like parenting, has sunk to the level of mere preferences, the battle is already lost. You see, the whatever-works-for-you-is-right mentality doesn’t come from the Scriptures; it comes from postmodern relativism, which denies universal truths and says whatever works is “true for you.” God never says anything remotely like that. Of course, neither does God say, “Thou must breastfeed thy children,” as if it were the eleventh commandment or something.

So where does this leave us?

Principles and Practices

We have to understand the difference between principles and practices. A ‘principle’ is a general rule that is based on truth. A ‘practice’ is the application of that general rule. The Bible doesn’t give us specific instructions for every parenting practice (though it does give us some), but the Bible does give us parenting principles that we need to raise our children in a way that honors God.

Principles are a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. God has given them to us, so they are binding upon us all—whether we like them or not. But we should like them, for God is a heck of a lot smarter than we are, and he loves us and gives us commands for our good (as well as the good of our children).

Practices, on the other hand, can change a little with time and circumstances. That doesn’t mean that all  practices are created equal, however. Something is obviously a bad practice if it violates a biblical principle. You can’t honor your spouse (a  principle) by cheating on him or her sexually (a practice). Additionally, some practices uphold a principle better than others. Eating junk food 24/7, for example, does not fulfill the principle of stewarding all things for the glory of God—including my body—nearly as well as eating well-balanced meals with the occasional treat or festive celebration.

Principled Parenting

All this means that we must be principled parents. We must seek to uphold God’s principles for parenting (in addition to whatever practices he directly prescribes), to the very best of our knowledge and ability. Sometimes this means we might stop one practice and start a different one, if we become convinced that a certain practice better upholds the biblical principle that we aim for.

If you focus only on the practice while forgetting the principle, however, you will become like those moms and dads who argue stringently for their practice, as if it’s the only way for the biblical principle to be upheld.

At the same time, if you focus only on the principle without considering the outcome of a practice, you might go around thinking that you uphold the biblical principle while failing to do what God actually requires. (Can you really say they’re upholding the principle of stewarding their bodies if they eat only ice cream for every meal of the day?)

What we need is commitment to obey God and humility to receive correction from wherever it comes (the Scriptures, wise counsel from parents or friends, or biblically-informed books and articles). What we must never do, therefore, is avoid confrontation. Of course, we are all guilty of this to some degree. We have put up signs in certain areas of our lives that say, “No trespassing,” so that no one is allowed to speak to what we do. And because parenting is such a tremendous blessing and sobering responsibility, most of us are doubly wary of letting other people speak into our lives.

That’s why we read blogs that “affirm us” by saying “there is no right way to parent,” which isn’t true from a principled standpoint, and “you can’t judge me,” which isn’t true from a community standpoint, and “just do what works for you,” which isn’t right either if God has anything to say about it.

Comfort and Truth

Just to be clear: I’m not trying to offend; I am trying to help. (Though, often the truth hurts before it heals.) I’m weary of seeing people whom I love cling to destructive lies about parenting because of their longing to be comforted and affirmed.

To paraphrase one of C. S. Lewis’ warnings, ‘If you go looking for comfort in things like affirmation, you’ll get neither comfort nor truth. You’ll get only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with, and in the end, you’ll have despair. But if you go looking for truth, you’ll find comfort in the end.’

So it is with parenting. If you go looking for truth—the truth of what God says about parents and about raising children—you will find both comfort and confrontation. Confrontation isn’t comfortable, but it’s necessary for everyone who isn’t perfect. (That includes you and me.) But if you go looking for comfort without confrontation, you will have no real comfort in the end, only a heart full of grief and despair in the form of poorly raised children and a disorderly household.

Responsibility: The Basic Principle of Parenthood

If you could sum up the basic principle of parenthood in a single word it would be responsibility. Parents are responsible for raising children to know God, love God, and obey God.

Parents are held responsible for how they raise their children, because they are “managers” (stewards) of God’s image-bearers when they are at their most fragile and impressionable state. Our children are “on loan” from God, so to speak. They have been given to us, but they still belong to him. We are responsible for parenting them accordingly.

Parents Are Responsible for Their Children’s Well-Being

You are responsible for your child’s health and safety. The practices you adopt, therefore, should uphold that principle to the best of your knowledge and ability. A child’s health and safety are obviously important, and not a few blog wars have been started over these issues.

Consider the debate between breast milk and formula. Those who debate over practices without considering the principle simply take sides (usually whatever they have already chosen to do), and then defend their positions. If you recall the principle of responsibility for the child’s health and safety, however, you are better able to make wise and informed decisions.

For example, formula is a blessing of modern science that enables moms to have children who might not be able to breastfeed them for medical reasons. That is a wonderful thing. The formula isn’t harmful to the child. It is nourishing and sustaining. In fact, if it weren’t for the invention of formula, some moms would not be able to feed their children (which obviously harms their health and safety!). So, if you are a mom who is forced to use formula, you should thank God for this gift and not feel guilty about it.

On the other hand, there are some people who choose to use formula for reasons other than the child’s health and safety. Let’s say, for example, a mom doesn’t want to deal with “the hassle” of having to breastfeed, even though she knows breast milk is easier for the child to digest and is totally free, unlike the expensive cost of formula. Her decision has nothing to do with the child’s well-being, but has everything to do with her selfishness. The principle of the child’s health (not to mention the principle of being a good steward of your money) suggests that the practice of using formula is wrong in her case.

Now suppose that a mom has been told by several doctors that she can’t produce enough milk to keep a child healthy. She is a staunch opponent of formula, however, and she loves the thought of participating in breastfeeding “sit ins,” where all the moms whip out their equipment in local restaurants to do the “natural thing.” Even though the doctors have warned her about the health of her child, she stubbornly refuses to use formula because of her own pride. In this case, using formula would be the right thing to do.

The principle also applies to what your toddlers eat for breakfast. Obviously, the principle isn’t violated if you enjoy donuts with them once in a while. In fact, to refuse your kids certain foods seems to violate another principle in Scripture, namely, that God wants us to enjoy his creation. (After all, what do you make of God’s occasional commands for his people to enjoy the rich and fatty foods as a sign of his blessing?) But that doesn’t mean that letting your kid eat Cheetos for breakfast every day is smart, economical, or healthy for the child. The principle rules that practice out because, as everyone knows, Cheetos are anything but healthy eating. (And before you think I’m getting legalistic about Cheetos, I think they’re completely fine as a side item to a sandwich or some other item. I’m just pointing out that while eating cereal for three meals a day might be a little strange, eating Cheetos for three meals a day might be borderline neglectful. The difference is clear, and everyone knows it.)

Parents Are Responsible for Their Children’s Education

Just as parents are responsible for a child’s physical well-being, so they are responsible their spiritual and mental well-being. Parents are routinely told in the Scriptures that they must instruct, teach, and train their children. Parents are responsible for their child’s education. That’s the principle.

Now, a parent shouldn’t make the mistake of equating “education” with schooling. Children learn in school, but their education doesn’t start or stop there. A child’s primary education always begins and ends in the home. They learn so much more from mom and dad than subjects like math and English and science. So when we say that parents are responsible for their child’s education, we mean their total education, from what they think about God, to how they think about themselves, and even how they think about the place and importance of schooling in the life that God has given them.

But a parent is responsible for a child’s schooling, too. That is part of their education, even though it isn’t all of it. That doesn’t mean, necessarily, that you must choose homeschooling. But it does mean that regardless of what form of schooling your child receives, you (the parent) are responsible for overseeing and directing their learning.

For example, let’s say that a single dad who works two jobs to care for his three kids has to send them to public school. Is he forfeiting his responsibility over his children’s education? Not necessarily. He could talk with his children about what they are learning, and he could supplement what is lacking or correct what is wrong in what they are being taught.

Let’s say that another family has chosen to homeschool their kids because they believe that “it’s the only way to educate your children.” The agree with the principle of overseeing a child’s education, but they confuse the principle with the practice of homeschooling itself. As a result, they are likely to think that by homeschooling their children they automatically fulfill the principle to oversee their child’s education. But they’re wrong. Bad homeschooling is just as irresponsible as bad public education. Simply schooling at home doesn’t fulfill the principle of directing your child’s education.

Whether you homeschool your kids or you send them to private or public schools, you are responsible for what they are learning because you are responsible for their total education. If that sounds like a lot of work, it’s because it is! A child’s education shapes them, for better or for worse, in significant ways. But a parent doesn’t get off the hook by neglecting their responsibility.

So Many Issues, So Little Time

There are so many other “hot button” issues that we could address. But we can’t address them all here. What we must avoid at all costs, however, is the lie that parents simply choose “what works for them” without considering the principles that God has given us. For example, how might the principle that fruitful discipline should be painful (Heb. 12:11) inform the practice of spanking? How might the primacy of the marital relationship (between husband and wife) affect whether or not co-sleeping  with your children is an acceptable practice? All these are worth considering, but they can’t be answered without knowing the principles and truths of the Scripture. Otherwise we are left to mere opinions of what seems to work for us, without consideration for how we might be violate the principles God has given us.

Am I a Bad Parent?

The message of the gospel is not, “You’re good just the way you are.” Rather, the good news is that, despite our many flaws and failures, God has chosen to make us good through the love of Jesus. Admitting that we are not good is the starting place for receiving grace, and it should be the starting place for thinking about whether or not we are good parents. All of us have “room to improve.” All of us have things we could do better, and we know we should. We don’t help ourselves when we deny these errors or faults. That only makes things worse. We have to own up to our errors before they can be made better. We have to say, “I haven’t done a good job of parenting in this area,” before we can receive the loving correction of God’s grace.

But if you’re asking, “Am I bad parent?” as a way to wonder whether or not God loves you and is pleased with you, then you are asking the wrong question. God loves even bad parents because of Jesus. The difference is that bad parents who know the grace of Jesus won’t want to stay that way. They’ll want to change whatever they can to improve how they shepherd, care for, protect, lead, and love the children that God has entrusted to them.

The really good news is that you don’t have to do this on your own. God’s grace toward us doesn’t leave us in our backwardness and error-laden ways. His grace comes into our lives to change us. It humbles us, it corrects us, and it teaches us (Titus 2:11-12). All of this is grace from God, who wants us to shepherd our children (his image-bearers) to the best of our ability. He will do this in you, if you continue to humble yourself, listen to what he has said, and seek wisdom from godly parents in your community. The community part isn’t optional, either. For we all have hearts that pollute our thoughts and lead us astray, but God says that wisdom is found through many advisers (cf. Prov. 11:14; 15:22), and “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment” (Prov. 18:1).

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @dougponder.

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We’ve Lost Ourselves

“Who are we?” is one of the basic questions that humans have wrestled with over the ages. It is central to understanding what it means to be human. It is this fundamental question that forms our sense of identity and purpose. What does it mean to be human? Who are we?

Martin Luther King, Jr. remarked, “Although there is widespread agreement in asking the question, there is fantastic disagreement in answering it.” He was right. The views of what it means to be human range from merely animal to nearly divine. In between are all sorts of viewpoints, with some concluding that we are whatever we make ourselves out to be. For example, I recently heard a graduation speech given at one of the top private colleges in the nation. The speaker said, “The two most important days of your life are the day you are born, and the day when you find out why.” He went on to explain that you find out ‘why you were born’ whenever you commit to what you’re going to do with your life.

But what happens when the ballet dancer breaks her leg and can’t perform anymore? Her purpose for living was shattered with her leg. (This actually happened to a world-class dancer in the Netherlands. She took her own life when she learned that she wouldn’t be able to dance anymore.)

In the crisis of identity, people to look to all sorts of things to define themselves. You’ve heard them all before: You are what you eat. You are what you do. You are what you feel. You are what you choose. You are your past. You are what you believe yourself to be. You are just your biology.

These attempts to define ourselves have left us with endless questions about our identity. But what remains when our desires and our choices are stripped away? Who are we really?

The sad reality is that many of us don’t know. We don’t know what it means to be human. We have no idea who we are.

God Knows Who We Are

Yet God never intended for us to be lost and confused. He made us to know who we are by knowing who he is. Only when we start with God can we work out our own identity. It never works the other way around.

The account of our creation in Genesis reveals three things about our identity in light of God’s identity:

1. God is the creator. Therefore, we belong to him.

2. God is the ruler of creation. Therefore, we are meant to be ruled.

3. God is the author of everything good. Therefore, we find our satisfaction in him.

On top of all this, God explains that we possess a unique identity as those made “in his image and likeness.” We have been created to reflect God as we represent him in creation, ‘having dominion’ over all that he has made.

From Rejection to Restoration

The main problem facing humanity, from the beginning until now, is that we have rejected our identity as people made to be owned and ruled by a good God. We have tried to go our own way, to be our own master, to be our own judge, and to find happiness on our own terms. The chaos you see and feel every day, both in your life and in the wider world, is a direct result. The world is broken because those who have been made in God’s image have turned their backs on him.

But God hasn’t left us to ourselves. Though we created the mess we’re in, he took it upon himself to sort things out and make things right. The making-right-of-all-things began with God’s commands. He gave laws to his people in order to show them what is good, to keep them from being worse than they otherwise might be, and to remind them of their need for him. As anyone would tell you, trying to keep God’s commands consistently with a pure heart is an impossible task.

His commands aren’t the problem; they merely uphold what is good. The problem lies with us. In our corrupted state, we are incapable of consistently doing the good, even when we have been told what it is.

Jesus: Our Creator and Redeemer

This is why Jesus came into the world: to turn our hearts back to God, just as the prophets had said the Messiah would do (Mal. 4:6).

He begins by illustrating who we have been created to be: people who live under the gracious rule of God as we trust him and listen to what he says. Jesus did that perfectly, showing that the problem lies with us, not with God.

But Jesus didn’t stop there. He didn’t merely leave us an example, he also embraced the judgment of God against sin so that God’s people might be forgiven, cleansed, rescued, and restored to be the people that God has created them to be. In other words, in Jesus, we become the people God has created us to be in the very beginning (2 Cor. 3:18). Here’s how: When you come to see that Jesus is Lord, trusting that he died for your sins and rose in victory over death, something truly miraculous happens. God’s Spirit takes up residence in your life. Like a new tenant in a run-down building, God moves in and begins to make some changes—a lot of changes.

C. S. Lewis put it like this: “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself” (Lewis, “Counting the Cost” in Mere Christianity, Book 4, Ch. 6)

All of this happens as we continue to submit to Jesus as Lord, trusting him and listing to what he says. Through the Spirit and the Word, Jesus recreates us into true depictions of the image of God who resume our calling, as in the beginning, to live as God’s people in God’s world, colonizing the earth with the life of heaven.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @dougponder.

The post WHO ARE WE? appeared first on Remnant Resource.

Suppose a man takes a boat to travel halfway across the world in an effort to tell some people the good news about Jesus. He has studied the area where they live. He knows a great deal about their lifestyle and customs. And he knows that they’ve never heard the gospel. What he doesn’t know, however, is how to speak their language.

After several days of preaching (in English) to villagers with puzzled looks on their faces, the man packs up his things to return home. He’s a little discouraged by the complete lack of “decisions for Christ,” but he tries to cheer himself with the thought that he has faithfully preached the good news about Jesus to them. But has he really done so?

Kinda. Sorta. Not really. The man tried to preach about Jesus, but since he couldn’t speak the people’s language—and since they didn’t understand English—the man didn’t really communicate anything about Jesus to the people. They are just as ignorant of Christ as they were before the man came.

The moral of that story is not, “Learn to speak the native tongue when serving as a missionary.” That much should be obvious. Rather, the point is that we all see the significance of an audience’s ability to understand what we are saying. This is true even when both you and your hearers speak the same language. If you talk about the truth in a way that your hearers can’t understand, then you aren’t really communicating the truth to them.

Know Your Hearers Well

One of the leading theologians of the last century put it like this, “Preaching is not exposition only, but communication, not just the exegesis of a text but the conveying of a God-given message to a living people who need to hear it” (John Stott, Between Two Worlds, 137).

Now, he was talking about the kind of preaching that occurs in a local church gathering, but his main point is true for all of us who want to talk with others about Jesus. We must know our hearers well. We must anticipate their most likely misunderstandings, talking in such a way that the gospel stands out clearly against the backdrop of the various errors of the culture in which we find ourselves.

For example, I remember hearing a story in seminary about a missionary in rural India. After befriending one of the men in the village, the missionary gave him The Jesus Film, a movie based on the teachings of the Gospel narratives. After a few days, the missionary bumped into the man in the marketplace. When he asked him what he thought of the film, the villager responded, “It was very good. I have placed the video of Jesus alongside my other gods.”

For a Hindu who believes in thousands and thousands of gods, Jesus was just one god among many. His incarnation was just another of the many incarnations of the god Vishnu. His death and resurrection were just another in a series of divine acts intended to bring salvation to faithful Hindus. The missionary did not communicate the gospel to that Hindu man, because he failed to consider how his message would be heard.

Jesus and His Hearers

Jesus himself understood this better than anyone. His own teachings are full of symbols and messages that spoke directly to the people of his day. Jesus knew exactly how his hearers would understand him, so he crafted his messages to fit the audience.

The most-well known example of this is perhaps the story of the prodigal son. Although we usually focus on the return of the rebellious son who ran away, Jesus concludes by focusing on the older son whose hardheartedness causes him to miss out on the party. Here’s the set up for Jesus’ parable: “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So Jesus told them this parable…” (Luke 15:1-3). Do you see what Jesus was doing? He tells a specific parable targeted right at his religious, hardhearted hearers who were mad that Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them. Just imagine the looks on their faces when Jesus concluded the story by having the father welcome the rebellious son and throw him a feast, while the religious older brother is left outside of what the father is doing!

Jesus knew if he had only told the story about the prodigal son who ran away, his religious hearers would think, “Well, we haven’t rebelled like that. We’re better than him. Surely, God accepts us and will give us a reward.” But they were wrong. Their rebellion was of a different kind. They refused to see themselves as sinful and in need of the Father’s mercy, just as much as the openly rebellious son who ran away. In all their law-making and rule-keeping, they never supposed that they needed the grace of God.

Communication: Anticipation and Clarification

What this means for us is that when we tell others the good news about Jesus—the good news about the God who came into the world to conquer sin through death and conquer death through life for all who trust in him—we must try our best to anticipate how the message might sound to our hearers. Our goal is not merely to speak the truth, but to communicate the truth such that it is rightly heard and truly understood. That doesn’t mean that everyone will like what we have to say. But we ought to make sure that it’s the real Jesus, and not a caricature of him, that others are rejecting.

In our conversations with others about Jesus we must be sure that we are clear about the meaning of very basic words. Don’t take anything for granted. Take the time to define words like “sin,” “faith,” “grace,” “love,” “salvation/saved,” and even “God.” A majority of people—even many who consider themselves Christians—don’t have a biblical understanding of these terms. So don’t just spout off Bible verses, for they won’t make much sense to someone who doesn’t understand what those terms mean. (Just imagine trying to read Ephesians 2:4-9 without any of the words we’ve mentioned above.)

You might find it helpful to ask questions like the ones below:

“When I say the word ‘God’ what comes to mind? Who do you think God is? What is God like? Can God be known? Do you think that Jesus was/is God? How do you know any of these things?”

“When I say the word ‘sin’ what comes to mind? What do you think sin is? Might sin be more than just breaking rules? Do you think a loving God can let sin continue making a mess of his creation forever? Do you think it’s just for a judge to let a convicted criminal off the hook without some kind of judgment?”

“When I say the word ‘salvation’ what comes to mind? What do you think salvation is? What if I told you that salvation involves more than just forgiveness and heaven? How do you think people are saved? Do you think that you are saved? How do you know for sure?”

“When I say the word ‘grace’ what comes to mind? What do you think grace is? Can we earn grace? If yes, how? If not, what decides where saving grace is applied and where it isn’t? Do you believe that you have received God’s grace? How can you know for sure?”

“When I say the word ‘faith’ what comes to mind? What do you think faith is? The Bible makes a clear distinction between ‘dead faith’ and ‘saving faith’—what’s the difference? The Bible says that even the demons believe that Jesus is God’s Son and the savior of the world—what makes your faith different than theirs?”

“When I say the word ‘love’ as in, ‘Jesus loves you,’ what comes to mind? What do you think that kind of love means? Do you think it’s possible for God to love and punish someone at the same time? (If it’s possible for parents, why not God?) Do you think that God loves you? If no, why not? If yes, why? How can you know for sure?”

Gospel Communication

Never forget that the power to change belief lies not in your persuasion, but in the gospel itself (Rom. 1:16). As the Scriptures say, “faith comes through hearing the message about Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Of course, the Scriptures also say that the message has to be understood (Neh. 8:8). That means your job is to make the gospel understandable. Leave the rest up to the Spirit. He’s really good at what he does.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @dougponder.

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Don’t read the Bible like a textbook.

The Bible was written to soften our hearts, not just fill our minds (Ps. 19:7-8, 14). In fact, the Scriptures tell us that head knowledge only “puffs up” (1 Cor. 8:1). People who read the Bible like a textbook study it for tidbits of wisdom and new insights about religious information, they are “always learning yet never able to come to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7).

Signs you may be guilty of reading the Bible like a textbook: You love reading about the Bible’s ancient history and customs, or about Greek and Hebrew lexicography, or about systematic theology, but you are no more like Jesus today than you were a few years ago. Your head is full of knowledge about Jesus instead of actually knowing him at a personal or relational level. For you, Jesus is an object to be studied, not a Savior to be worshipped.

Don’t read the Bible like a magic book.

The Bible was meant to be read like any other book: start to finish, beginning to end, each part building on what you’ve already read before it. That’s because the Bible is a story. It’s a story about who God is and what he is doing in the world through Jesus. It’s not a mystical reference book, like something that you open up to at random “looking for a sign from God.” Nobody in the entire Bible is ever shown to read Scripture in that way. Jesus certainly didn’t. In addition to a lot confusion surrounding the basic message of the Bible, you’ll also badly misunderstand what God actually wants you to do.

Signs you may be guilty of reading the Bible like a magic book: You don’t read the books of the Bible from start to finish. Instead, you just flip around at will, reading a little bit here and a little bit there. You think that God wants you to open your Bible to a random to “give you a word for today,” but you fail to realize that Jesus himself is the Word of God (John 1:1, 14), and that you ought to be reading the Bible like it’s a story about him (because it is).

Don’t read the Bible like a rulebook.

The Bible isn’t a rulebook, though it does contain a few rules here and there. The Bible is not a do-it-yourself manual from God. You are not supposed to read the Bible, follow the rules, and clean up your life—because you can’t. No one can “clean up their life” by following the rules. Jesus taught this over and over again (Luke 11:39). Instead, the “rules” (a.k.a., laws and commands) in the Bible were given for a different reason. They show us what is good and right (Rom. 7:16), they show us our sin (1 Tim. 1:8-9), and they show us our need for Jesus (Gal. 3:21-26).

Signs you may be guilty of reading the Bible like a rulebook: You think of the Bible as ‘Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth’ (B.I.B.L.E.), or you think of the Bible as a “guide to living life,” instead a story about how to find life in Jesus. You believe that God accepts you and loves you because your obedience to him, instead of realizing that God accepts you and loves you because of what Jesus has done for you.

Don’t read the Bible like a Chicken Soup for the Soul book.

Over one hundred million copies of “Chicken Soup for the Soul” have been sold to date. These books are collections of true stories meant to be “uplifting and inspirational.” Don’t read the Bible like that. It isn’t a book of cute or sentimental stories meant to inspire you and fill you with warmth. Instead, it offers real hope, real beauty, real power in Jesus, who has conquered sin and death on your behalf. It doesn’t stop with cheap inspiration; it’s meant to convict you, correct you, encourage you, and spur you on to good works (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

Signs you may be guilty of reading the Bible like a Chicken Soup for the Soul book: You think of the Bible as a collection of inspiring vignettes, like the story of Adam and Eve, Joseph, Ruth, David, Jonah, and so on, instead of seeing the Bible as one story about Jesus. All the other “stories” are part of his story. Also, when you read the Bible you hope for warm fuzzies instead of praying for conviction and correction or encourage and exhortation.

Don’t read the Bible like a goldmine of random sayings.

Some people go mining for quotes, commands, and promises they like, ripping these things out of their original context—discarding their purpose and role in redemptive history like useless dirt. The problem is that many of God’s promises and commands were given to specific people, in specific places, at specific times, for specific reasons. For example, when God told Israel, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer. 29:11), he was talking about his plans for Israel when they return from exile, as the previous verse makes clear (Jer. 29:10). To take those promises out of their context and to apply them directly to your life is to overlook how God says they will be fulfilled, substituting a different meaning for what God actually meant.

Signs you may be reading the Bible like a goldmine: You think that every promise God has made was given directly to you, for you. (Try living the story of Noah’s ark and see how well it works out for you.) Your favorite verse is Jeremiah 29:11, which you think means that God is going to prosper your future. You look for comfort in random promises scattered throughout the Bible, instead of in Jesus himself.

Don’t read the Bible like a fairy tale.

The Bible is not fiction, but fact. The history it records is real history of real people from real times in real places. Their lives and ours is part of the true story of the whole world. It won’t do you any good to have inspiring stories about people and places that didn’t actually happen. If God didn’t really rescue Israel from Egypt, for example, then the basic pattern for salvation is based on a scam. If Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead, then your faith is futile and you’re still dead in your sins.

Signs you may be reading the Bible like a fairy tale: You have lots and lots of doubts about the truthfulness of miraculous stories in the Bible (e.g., creation, the flood of Noah, the parting of the Red Sea, the fall of Jericho, Jonah and the sea creature). You find yourself saying things like, “It doesn’t really matter if these things happened. All that matters is what we can learn from these stories.”

Don’t read the Bible in isolation from others.

The notion that the Bible should be studied all by ourselves is the product of Western individualism. You won’t find anything like that in the pages of Scripture. The Christian life itself is a community project, not a solo effort, and the same is true with understanding the Scriptures. When the Bible is read in isolation from the wisdom of church history, the confessions of their faith tradition, and the gifts of teachers in our churches, all sorts of errors abound. Some of these errors may be minor, but others are so major that they lead people away from the faith, destroying whoever is caught up in their wake (2 Pet. 2:1-22).

Signs you may be reading the Bible by yourself all the time: When you think of “studying the Scriptures,” you think of a “morning quiet time” or “devotional.” You are unconcerned with church history, believing that you can understand what you read in the Bible without any help from the wisdom of the past or from gifted teachers in the present (Eph. 4:11-12).

Don’t read the Bible only for other people’s sake.

There’s a huge temptation to read the Bible for information that is relevant for someone else. Say you want to find out what the Bible says about sexual immorality, because a friend is living in some sort of sexual sin and you want to challenge them on this point. Reading the Bible for the sake of someone else overlooks your own need for what it contains. This isn’t to say that you can’t speak the truth in love about some issue that needs addressing; you are commanded to do that (Eph. 4:15). But if you read the Bible only like it’s a manual for condemning others, you own flaws and faults will not be corrected. In fact, they will only intensify.

Signs you may be reading the Bible only for other people’s sake: You are always highlighting or memorizing verses which condemn sins that you never struggle with. Whenever you hear a sermon or read a passage of Scripture, you find yourself thinking, “I wish So-and-so would hear/read this!”

Don’t read the Bible with a closed mind.

Whether you’re a committed Christian or a unconvinced skeptic, it would be a serious error to read the Bile without an open mind. For Christians this can lead to pride and arrogance of the worst sort, for you will think that you already have the Scriptures figured out. Your misunderstanding will never be corrected. For skeptics this will lead you to a place of hardheartedness in which you unfairly doubt everything in the Scriptures, without also doubting your own doubts. You will walk away from the Scriptures without having given them a truly fair shot.

Signs you may be reading the Bible with a close mind: You approach the Bible without any expectation to learn something, to be challenged in your thinking, or to be confronted in your sin. You already think that every idea you hold is right and true, and you’re unwilling to rethink certain assumptions.

Don’t read the Bible occasionally.

The Bible is meant to be read frequently, not just “from time to time.” The Christian life is a daily struggle, a “fight of faith,” which takes every ounce of Spirit-enabled effort, diligence, and commitment that you can muster. Without the confrontation of the Scriptures, you have no hope for repentance, and without the comfort of the gospel, you have no hope for joy.

Signs you may be reading the Bible occasionally: You know if this is true of you or not. If you find it hard to make a habit of reading the Scriptures, try setting up a routine with a friend so that you can hold each other accountable in this way. Set an alarm on your phone or your electronic devices so that you remember to do it each day. Or get into the habit of starting every morning (and/or finishing every evening) with the discipline of reading the Scriptures.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @dougponder.

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Is There a God? Can We Even Know?

Since the dawn of our kind, humans have sensed that there must be Something or Someone “out there” who is ‘before us’ and ‘greater than us.’ We know this to be true in the same way that we know a rolling ball must have come from somewhere (it didn’t appear out of thin air) and must have had someone to set it in motion (for inanimate matter, by definition, does not move itself).

You don’t have to think about a rolling ball to come to those conclusions. You simply intuit them. You know them to be true, because the universe runs on that kind of cause and effect. Of course, you could be wrong about where the ball has come from, or about who has set the ball in motion, but being wrong in either of those conclusions doesn’t remove the need for an explanation of the ball’s existence and movement.  In other words, just because you are wrong about who moved the ball doesn’t mean that no one moved it.

This explains why so many people, for so much of the world’s history, have sensed that there must be Something or Someone who is before us and greater than us. (Perhaps it is atheism, not religion, that is the studied position.) But if almost everyone senses this to be true, then why are the world’s religions so divided? Is there a god, and can this god be known?

Christians say, “Yes.” God is there, and he is not silent. His works “pour forth speech,” the psalmist declares. They “reveal knowledge” about their Maker (Ps. 19:2). Just as a painting shows us the skill of a painter, we ought to sense God in the skies and the stars, in the oceans and the mountains, in animals and in trees. All these things display God’s craftsmanship; they declare his goodness, his power, and his glory (Gen. 1:31; Ps. 19:1-2; Ps. 104:1-35). As Paul the apostle summarizes, “Ever since the world was made, God’s eternal power and divine nature have been seen and known in the things he has made” (Rom. 1:19-20).

The Problem Lies with Us

If creation reveals its Maker, then why don’t we see God more clearly?  Why don’t the world’s religions agree more readily on the nature and purposes of God?

God himself tells us that it’s neither a problem with him nor his creation; it’s a problem with our ability to perceive him accurately, thanks to our inner corruption that results from sin. Here how it works:

“The anger of God is unveiled from heaven against all the ungodliness and injustice of human beings, whose own injustice suppresses the truth. What can be known about God, you see, is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the world was made, his eternal power and divine nature have been seen and known in the things he has made. As a result, we have no excuse: we knew God, but didn’t honor him as God or thank him. Instead, our thinking became futile and our foolish hearts were darkened. We declared ourselves to be wise, but in fact we became foolish. We swapped the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of mortal man, and of birds, animals, and reptiles. So God gave us up to the sinful desires of our hearts, with the result that we dishonored our bodies among ourselves. We swapped the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 1:18-25)

That is the story of humanity. It is our story. The very first sin of mankind was swapping truth from God for a lie (remember the Garden of Eden?). And we’ve been doing the same ever since. Our internal corruption stretches all the way down to the roots of who we are. Like a tree that is rotting from the inside out, our darkened hearts pollute the fruit of our thinking such that we can’t see God rightly without his help. At best we have only incomplete glimpses that lead to guesses about Who or What might be before us and greater than us. That is why there are so many contradictory world religions. They are all trying to discern the truth about God from what they can see and perceive. That’s like trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle while wearing a blindfold. No wonder there is so much confusion!

He Is There, And He Is not Silent

So we can’t reason, feel, or guess our way to a complete picture of God. How, then, can we know anything about him? The truth is, we wouldn’t know anything about God unless he told us about himself. And that’s exactly what he did.

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in many ways, but at the end of these days he has spoken to us by his Son. He appointed this Son to be heir of all things, and through him he created the universe. He is the shining reflection of God’s own glory, the precise expression of his very own being” (Heb. 1:1-3).

As the author mentions, God formerly revealed himself through human beings called prophets. Sometimes this happened in written form (the Scriptures), and sometimes this happened through their public teaching and preaching. In both instances God was making himself known to us through the use of human language so that we might come to trust him, love him, and find life in him.

But to speak even more powerfully than he could through human words alone, God spoke through the entire life of Jesus, who is “the shining reflection of God’s own glory and the precise expression of his very own being.” This is why the apostle John calls Jesus the Word of God who dwelt among us in order to make God known (John 1:1, 14, 18). In short, God’s revelation can’t get any clearer than Jesus.

Look to Jesus

This means that if we want to know what God’s like or what he’s doing in the world, we must look to Jesus. He is both the “image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15) and “the light of the world” (John 8:12) who overcomes the darkness of our hearts (John 1:5).

For example, Jesus reveals hat God is Trinity, a community of persons who share one life. Jesus spoke of the shared glory he had with his Father before the world existed (John 17:5). That same glory, Jesus said, is lavished on him by the Holy Spirit, who works alongside God the Father and God the Son (John 16:14-15).

Jesus is also reveals that, as God, he is our creator. “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” Indeed, “all things were created through him and for him” (Col. 1:16).

Jesus reveals that God is good. In everything from his rebukes of our rebelliousness to his atoning death for our sins, Jesus shows that God is holy and just. He hates sin and evil because they spoil the goodness his creation. Sin breaks the peace between God and the sinner, between the sinner and another person, and between the sinner and God’s world. God is for the good of his creation, and therefore, against sin (Acts 10:31).

Jesus reveals that God is love. If God is against sin and evil, that puts you and me in a precarious place, for we ourselves are sinful by nature and by choice. Yet Jesus shows that God is love by dying for his enemies. It’s not that we loved God or deserved his forgiveness in any way. Rather, he loved us and sent Jesus to be the atonement for our sins (1 John 4:10).

The Search Is Over

The life and teachings of Jesus remind us that he owns us, doubly so. He is our Lord and our Redeemer. He created us and he rescued us from sin and death. Or as one popular confession of faith begins, “What is your only comfort, in life and in death? That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.”

Jesus is proof that the God of the universe, the God who made you and owns you, loves you more than you could ever imagine. Not with a sentimental, warm fuzzy sort of love. He loves with you a costly, powerful, death-on-the-cross kind of love. It’s a love that one will day put a stop to sin and evil—including those who refuse to repent of doing evil—because sin and evil spoil God’s good world and wreck the lives of his people. It’s a love that longs to heal, to cleanse, to forgive, to restore.

All that is who God is. You were created to know him. Jesus doesn’t just “show you the way” to God. Jesus himself is the way to God: “Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18). If you long to know the God you were created to worship, then keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @dougponder.

The post WHO IS GOD? appeared first on Remnant Resource.

I’ve never met a committed Christian who didn’t want to grow spiritually, to grow more mature, or to become more like Christ. Indeed, that desire to grow is one of the vital signs that we have a new heart (cf. Titus 3:3-7).

But when it comes to knowing how to grow, many Christians seem to be terribly confused. Some talk as if we grow mainly because of our own effort. “It all depends you,” they might say. Meanwhile, others talk as if there is nothing we can do to help or hinder our growth. “It all depends on God,” they claim.

So who is right? Does our growth all depend on us? Or does it only depend upon God? Who gets the credit for spiritual growth? Who gets the blame for our lack of maturity?

People who think that spiritual growth is left up to us tend to agree with the idea that ‘God helps those who help themselves.’ They think that God left us the Bible—which they see as Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (B.I.B.L.E.)—and then asked us to “get to work.” He did his part, and now we have to meet him halfway.

While those who think this way do recognize that God has commanded us to do certain things, they totally overestimate our ability to obey God in our own strength and with the right motives. This often happens because they downplay the seriousness of sin. Unfortunately, this view of spiritual growth produces people who are either very prideful or very shame-filled. If they think they’re mature, they have themselves to thank. If they think they aren’t, they have themselves to blame.

On the other hand, people who think that there is nothing we can do to help or hinder spiritual growth aren’t much better off. They go around saying things like, “It’s all grace, brother.” “Let go and let God.” Or, “Pray Until Something Happens.” You can’t do anything, remember? You’ve got to wait for God.

Those who think this way at least understand that we can’t obey God on our own. They know that we need God’s grace to change at every point. That’s good. What’s bad is they don’t understand how grace works. Ask how people grow and they’ll say, “All I know is, we grow because of grace.” Yes, but how? “All I know is, God grows us through the gospel.” Yes, but how? “He grows us through the gospel because it’s the good news about grace.” Frustratingly unhelpful, isn’t it? This way of thinking tends to produce very passive people who wait for God to move, or else it produces very frustrated people who wonder why it seems like God isn’t moving.

Growth Takes Grace-Enabled Effort

The truth is this: spiritual growth depends upon grace-enabled effort. God’s grace enables your effort that leads to spiritual growth. That’s the message of the Scriptures over and over again. That’s why Paul repeatedly tells us to “put off” our old self with all its sinful practices, and to “put on” the new self that is being renewed in the image of Christ.

Paul was teaching that growing in the grace of Christ does not happen automatically, that spiritual growth does not happen passively. It takes grace-enabled effort. For while it’s true that Jesus says, “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5), it’s also true that those who do nothing will have nothing to show for it.

One of the brightest Christian scholars of our time has summarized the relationship between God’s grace and our effort like this: “Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Effort is action. Earning is attitude.”  That means no one will be able to say, “I earned my growth because of what I did,” but neither will anyone ever be able to say, “I grew more mature by doing nothing.”

Paul, the apostle of grace, understand the relationship between grace and effort very well. Listen to how he describes grace-enabled effort:

“By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” (1 Cor. 15:10)

“To this end I strenuously toil [work hard] with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.” (Col. 1:29)

“And so, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only when I was with you but even more now that I am absent, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is producing in you both the desire and the ability to do what pleases him.” (Phil. 2:12-13)

You see? God’s grace enables our effort that leads to growth. God gives us the desire and the ability to do what pleases him, and then we actually do it. In other words, we “work out what God works in” (cf. Phil. 2:12-13).

Peter the apostle calls the growth that comes from grace-enabled effort “growing in grace” (2 Pet. 3:17-18). He writes:

“God’s divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with perseverance, and perseverance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.”

In other words, God has given you everything you need for a godly life (grace) . . . therefore, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue (effort) . . . for if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful (growth).

Or as one theologian has put it, “God’s working in us [for our growth] is not suspended because we work, nor is our working suspended because God works… God works in us and we also work. But the relation is that because God works, we work.”

God’s grace enables our effort which leads to spiritual growth.

How Does All This Work?

The word “grace” means unmerited favor. In other words, God’s grace toward us means that he gives his love, kindness, blessing, and approval to people who haven’t deserved or earned these things in any way.

Normally when we think of “grace,” our minds run to the cross of Jesus. That is good and right. This act of grace brought salvation for undeserving people. But grace doesn’t stop there. According to Paul, the same grace that brings salvation also trains us in how to live. “For the grace of God has appeared,  bringing salvation to all people, training us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:11-12).

But how can grace “train” us? God’s commands, Jesus’ example, and the Spirit’s work to convicts us of sin and empower us for living are all grace. In grace, God gives us commands as a way to show us what is good, to demonstrate our need for him, and to restrain us from being worse than we otherwise might be (1 Tim. 1:8; Rom. 7:16). In grace Jesus not only died for us to forgive our sin, he also lived for us, leaving us an example that we might follow in his footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21). In grace, the Spirit convicts us concerning sin and righteousness and judgment (John 16:8-11), and to put to death the sins of our flesh as we walk in his strength (Rom. 8:13).

What Should I Do Now?

In the church where I grew up, we used to sing an old hymn that repeats the phrase “trust and obey” over and over again. The tune is campy, and some of the verses are odd, but the refrain is powerful and true: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” (Note: When this hymn was written, the word “happy” did not mean momentary giddiness, as it does in our day. It meant something closer to our word “joyful.”)

The same is true for growing in grace. Do you want to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? (cf. 2 Pet 3:17-18) Then trust and obey. Trust that Jesus has done all that is needed to cleanse you, to forgive you, and to satisfy the demands of the law. Trust that your future is secure because Jesus has risen from the dead, as the firstfruits of those who are in him. Trust that your life is hidden with Christ in God, having been crucified with him in his death and raised with him to walk in newness of life. Trust that the Spirit of God now lives and dwells within you, fixing your eyes ever on Jesus’ face.

And as you trust these things, simply do as God says. Listen to his Word. Obey what he has asked you to do: talk with him in prayer; saturate your mind and heart with the Scriptures; gather with the church to hear the gospel preached; receive the sacraments of communion and baptism as living pictures of his grace toward you; spend time with other Christians in edifying fellowship; share the good news about Jesus with others; care for the sick, the poor, and the needy;  sacrifice your time and money for the good of others; seek justice and plead the cause of the helpless; forgive one another as Christ forgave you—seek to do all these and many more besides. Whatever God has asked us to do, let us heartily obey, not in the fear of his judgment, but in warm-hearted love of his mercy and grace.

In the slightly re-worded rephrase of the old hymn, let us ‘Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to become more like Jesus, but to trust and obey.’

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

The post GROWING IN GRACE appeared first on Remnant Resource.

I don’t know any Christian who hasn’t wondered about the will of God for their life. What does God want me to do? How can I know if God’s will, not mine? What am I supposed to do next?

Unsure of what to do, many people feel that they must “pray hard,” “live right,” and “look for a sign” in order to discover God’s will for their life. What a destructive lie!

But I heard it growing up in church. I heard it in youth group. I heard it in sermons. I heard it in classes at the Christian college I attended. And I see versions of it almost every day on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

It’s like everyone wants to know what God’s will for their life is, but almost no one seems to know where to find it.

Here’s the good news: God’s will for your life is not a mystery. He is not hiding it from you. He is not forcing you to go looking for it. He has told you plainly what he wants from you.

“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of mankind.” (Eccl. 12:13)

Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:36-38)

There you have it. That’s what God wants from you. Love and obey God as you love and serve others. Or as Jesus put it in the sermon on the mount, he wants you to trust him and build your life upon his teachings. Of course, if you want to know what that looks like, you need only look to the Scriptures. There God reveals to us plainly who he is, what he is doing in the world, and what we ought to do about it.

For example, the Scriptures tell us that Jesus came to defeat sin and evil, and that he will one day return to destroy them both forever. Anyone who refuses to go to him for forgiveness and redemption will be swept away at his return for continuing to collude with the evil his kingdom will destroy.

But we aren’t left to “put the pieces together” for ourselves, because God has told us plainly what he wants. He loves us and gives us commands for our good, and these commands are not random. Rather, they are designed to demonstrate God’s glory and power as they promote our own flourishing as his people in his world.

Ignoring or Twisting the Will of God

So what’s the problem? Well, most of God’s commands are remarkably straightforward. The problem, it seems, is that we just don’t like them. Perhaps that is the deepest reason beneath why so many people have turned knowing the will of God into a game of hide and seek. Consider the following examples.

Jim and Laura have been married for several years. They have a large home with several bedrooms, but no children. They know that God has commanded his people to be fruitful and multiply. They’ve read where God says children are a blessing. But they like not having kids, and they hope to keep it that way. And besides, they’ve asked God to give them a sign if he wants them to have children. But they haven’t seen any clear sign from him yet.

Rachel is about to graduate from high school. She’s thinking about going to a college that will cost her over $150,000 in loans by the time she graduates. She plans to be a general studies major because, as she readily admits, she just wants to be a stay-at-home mom. When asked how she plans to pay back those loans, Rachel just shrugs her shoulders and says, “I guess God wouldn’t let me get into the school if he didn’t want me to go there.”

Mark is a worrier. He’s broken off his last three relationships because, in his words, “God didn’t tell me that she’s the One.” Now he’s in another relationship, and he really, really likes the girl. She loves God, serves others humbly, and seems to be madly in love with Mark. But God hasn’t given him any signs, so Mark is worried. “What if she’s not the One either?” He’s beginning to think he should go ahead and break it off before he gets even more attached to her.

Billy and Susan are thinking about moving in together. They attend the same church, and they’ve heard the same sermons about God’s design for sex in marriage. But this is the 21^st Century. Surely God doesn’t mean all that stuff, right? Just to be sure, they ask God if it’s OK for them to move in together. After a quick prayer, they both agree that they have a really good feeling about it.

Alice and her roommate Tiffany have been fighting again. It seems like they argue about everything these days. Alice is a Christian, but Tiffany is not. Often after their fights Alice wonders if she should apologize and ask for forgiveness, but she never gets around to it. “After all,” she thinks, “Tiffany will never ask me for forgiveness. So why should I forgive her?”

James and Philipp have been in an open homosexual relationship for a few months now. They came out of the closet together for mutual support. Both of them grew up in the church, but neither of them goes very often anymore. “Who wants to put up with bigoted people who don’t accept us?” they say. They used to wonder whether or not homosexual eroticism was sinful, but not anymore. “Everyone knows that the part of the Bible that condemns homosexuality also forbids shrimp, bacon, and clothes of blended fabric,” they explain. “And since plenty of Christians don’t mind those things, why choose to condemn us?”

Tim has been a deacon in his home church for years. He’s a good, clean, moral person. He gives to the church regularly. When not serving as a police officer during the day, he volunteers at the local hospital for disabled kids. But Tim is also deeply prideful and prejudiced. He often posts rants on his Facebook wall about minorities, illegal immigrants, and people who use food stamps. He knows what Jesus says about loving your enemy and helping the poor, but that hasn’t stopped him. Besides, he’s just repeating what he hears from Fox news, country music, and his pastor’s sermons. They can’t all be wrong, can they?

Ted and Janice are looking to buy a new home. Although their current home more than meets their needs, they are already tired of it after just five years. Not to mention, Ted just got a substantial raise, so now they can afford the dream home they’ve always wanted. It’s much larger than they actually need, but it’s so beautiful. They pray about it, and decide that it must be God who put that desire in their hearts. Why else would they love it so much?

Different Stories, Just One Problem

Despite their different stories, all of these people have the same problem. They have some vague familiarity with the Bible, perhaps, but they are not submitting to what it says. That is God’s will for their lives (and yours). He wants us to trust him and obey what he says (Eccl. 12:13).

So when Jim and Laura, the couple with no children, come across the verses in the Scriptures where God clearly commands them to have children, they shouldn’t continue in their selfishness. Though they “pray for a sign” from God to have kids, they ought to realize that God has already told them to do so. His will is for them to have children as soon as they can afford to (which is much sooner than many people think).

When Rachel, the recent high school grad, considers that she may never be able to pay back $150,000 as a stay-at-home mom, she should probably pick another school (or perhaps even skip out on college altogether). And though she might be tempted to think that an “open door” means that God wants her to walk through it, she should consider the fact that the Scriptures never teach us that simply because we have an option left open that necessarily means that God wants us to choose it. His will is for her to obey what he has told us, not guess about what he hasn’t.

Mark, the worrier, is no better off. He’s ended several perfectly good relationships because he is afraid that he will miss out on “the one” that God has for him. Yet God never tells us to spend their life looking for “the one.” Instead, he just tells us about what mature Christian men and women ought to look like. If Mark’s girlfriend is a mature Christian woman, then he doesn’t need any other sign from God. His will is for Mark to get married to a girl who loves him and wants to follow him as he follows Christ.

Billy and Susan, the couple who have moved in together, don’t need to pray about what God has already forbidden. He designed sexual expression for marriage, and they don’t need to pray about whether or not he still wants them to follow those commands today. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His will is for them not to move in together, and not to sleep together until after they are married.

Alice, one of the arguing girls, shouldn’t pray about whether or not to forgive her roommate. God says that we should forgive one another as the Lord has forgiven us. That doesn’t leave any room for her to pray and ask God for a sign about whether or not to do it. His will is for her to forgive her roommate.

James and Philipp, the gay couple, have made the mistake of assuming that because God asked the theocratic nation of Israel to abstain from certain foods and civil practices, that he must not care about sexual ethics anymore. They completely ignore the rest of the Bible’s clear teachings on sex and marriage, however, as well as the teachings in the New Testament that condemn homosexual acts of eroticism. God’s will is for them to honor his commands regarding sex and marriage, even if that means that they remain celibate. (Jesus was celibate, and it didn’t seem to bother him.)

Tim, the prideful deacon, misses the will of God for his life, too. While he understands that God wants him to be involved in his church and his community, he is like the Pharisees who overlooked mercy and justice, the weightier matters of God’s law. God’s will for his life is that he stop looking down on other people in pride, and stop posting inflammatory things on Facebook that don’t actually help the people that Jesus calls him to love and serve.

Ted and Janice are guilty of assuming that just because they want something, it must be God who gave them the desire. Not only have they overlooked the fact that our hearts are easily able to trick us and lead us astray, they also have ignored Jesus’ repeated warning against the dangers of materialism. In fact, more than any other issue God warns his people against the dangers of greed. Jesus devoted one quarter of his teaching to this point, but it doesn’t seem to affect Ted and Janice—and that’s the problem. More than they love heeding God’s warnings about materialism and greed, they love having nice things and endless comforts. But in view of God’s call for his people to sacrifice, that sort of comfort isn’t God’s will for their life.

Yes, but…

I know what you’re thinking. The title of this article was “Knowing the Will of God” but most of it has been talking about different ways that people don’t submit to the will of God that’s already been revealed in the Scriptures. So, what gives?

The truth is that most of the important decisions you will have to make in life are the ones that the Scriptures talk plainly about. It may not feel that way, but it’s true. If you already know what the Scriptures say, but you still have no desire to trust and obey them, then you need a heart change…

But what about areas that the Scriptures don’t talk about? What about things that are not so black-and-white? For example, what about a person who is trying to decide whether or not to spend their life as a lawyer or a social service worker?

In cases like these, the Scriptures are still our guide. Though they may not give us verses  that speak directly to every situation, they contain all the wisdom we need in order to make informed, Spirit-led decisions in our lives. What we mean is that God has already said a great deal about the kinds of motives we should have and the kinds of outcomes we should seek when making decisions.

Here is a list of practical questions to help you with the areas where the Scriptures do not directly tell you what to do. (In the cases where they do, you don’t need to question any further.)

Are you leaning toward this decision because you think it will make you look good?
Are you pursuing this because you want to be rich or famous or powerful?
Are you the only person who will benefit from this decision? What will it cost others around you?
Are you pursuing this because you want to be loved, accepted, valued, or approved? Have you forgotten that your value comes from what Jesus has done for you, not what you do for him?
Will your decision hinder something of greater importance, like your fellowship in a local church?
Have you talked with mature believers and the pastors in your church about this decision?
Are you being patient and wise about this decision?
Will you be setting yourself up for greater temptation if you make this decision?
Have other people warned you not to do this but you insist upon doing it anyway?
Are you hoping for a change of circumstances to fix your problems? Or are you relying on the Spirit to change you as trust and follow Jesus?
Is this decision something that will better position you to serve other people or tell them about Jesus?
Does your decision make sense in light of the story of the Bible? Or will it be wasted time and effort that contributes nothing to the kingdom of Christ?
What will your decision ‘say’ to others about the mission of the church in the world? Will it make Jesus look like the surpassing treasure that he is?

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

The post KNOWING THE WILL OF GOD appeared first on Remnant Resource.

Consider Jesus (You Owe it to Yourself)

Whether you consider yourself to be a Christian or not, and whether you consider yourself an expert of Jesus or someone who knows little about him, you owe it to yourself to consider the life and teachings of Jesus. You owe it to yourself because the impact of Jesus’ life and teachings upon the world is unrivaled by any other figure in history. No one is more loved and hated than Jesus.

How could this be? Jesus never traveled more than a couple hundred miles from his rural, backwoods home in first-century Israel. He never held a political office. He never wrote a book. He never married. He had no professional degrees. He never won any major awards. He died poor and homeless.

And yet, Jesus is the most famous person in history. Fully one third of the world today call themselves “Christians” (Christ-followers)—a nearly fifty percent increase in self-proclaimed adherents over the world’s second largest religion. More songs have been sung about him, more books have been written about him, more artwork has been created of him, more buildings have been built for him, and more charities have been started because of him than any other person in history. In fact, Jesus’ impact is so huge that we even divide our calendars into the years before and after his birth. (This is even true for international calendars, as the global community uses these divisions as their standard.)

No nation or person has changed human history as much as Jesus has. You owe it to yourself to see why.

Popular Misconceptions of Jesus

Now, none of this should be taken to mean that everything done “in the name of Jesus” has turned out for the better. There are a lot of people in the world, some of whom are confused about Jesus and some of whom deliberately twist Jesus to suit their own agendas. The problem in such cases, however, is not that these people were too much like Jesus. On the contrary, they didn’t really consider who Jesus was and is.

For example, consider the following common misconceptions about Jesus:

1. Hippie Jesus – Jesus was a wandering tree hugger who would never swat a fly or say anything harsh to anyone, no matter how evil they might be. People who follow Hippie Jesus have mistaken his kindness for passivity, and his humility for weakness.

2.  Ethnic Jesus – People who wrongly speculate about Jesus’ skin color, trying to claim him for their own ethnicity, are followers of Ethnic Jesus. They overlook the fact that Jesus’ Jewishness had less to do with his skin color and more to do with the fact that he was a member of the people that God had entrusted with his promises.

3. Sweet Little Jesus Boy – Jesus was the cute and cuddly baby who gives us a reason to celebrate at Christmas time. This image overlooks the fact that Jesus grew into a man, let alone the fact that he is the Lord of the universe.

4. Buddy Jesus – Jesus is your pal, your chum, or even ‘the man upstairs.” Jesus is not seen as the Sovereign, the one who has the authority to command them or rebuke them or call them to turn from sin.

5. Syncretistic Jesus – Syncretism is the blending of a one belief system with another, despite their contradictory claims. So Jesus was just a good Muslim prophet, preparing the way for Muhammad; or Jesus was an enlightened sage of Buddhism; or Jesus was one of the many reincarnations of the god Vishnu. Yet Jesus made plenty of statements that contradict the central tenets of Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Clearly, he should not be viewed as one of the teachers of those religions.

6. Co-Pilot Jesus – If you have the “God is my co-pilot” bumper sticker on your car, then you’re probably guilty of following Co-Pilot Jesus. People who think of Jesus as their Co-Pilot basically imagine him to be just a helpful life coach who sits beside them and doesn’t do much until they say, “Jesus take the wheel.”

7. Hyper-Political Jesus – It’s true that you can’t separate belief from politics. But some people take this to another level by trying to claim Jesus for their own way of thinking. If you think that Jesus would be a Republican (or Democratic) presidential candidate, then you’re guilty of following Hyper-Political Jesus.

8. Liberation Jesus – Jesus did a lot of good for the oppressed in his day. Unfortunately, his acts of charity and compassion have been twisted by modern groups to support their devotion to things like Communism, Socialism, or even total tolerance of everyone and anything. These people love Liberation Jesus because he always opposes “the man” and helps “the people,” who supposedly don’t need any correction from him.

9. Action Figure Jesus – Jesus was a legendary hero after the likes of Spiderman or Batman. To you Jesus will be little more than entertainment and inspiration. He’s a legend, but he’s not a real person who lives and acts within history to heal, to judge, and to restore.

There are many other horribly misguided images of Jesus that remain popular today. (Perhaps you can think of a few of your own to add to the list.) So where should we go to get the real image of Jesus? To the source of his life and teachings, of course.

The Life of Jesus

In the Scriptures we see several stories that give us glimpses from the life of Jesus that correct our misguided notions of who he was and is.

Jesus claimed to forgive the sins of others. Every Jew knew that only God can do that. So why would Jesus tell others he forgave their sin? Furthermore, how could Jesus forgive others for their sins against you? Who does Jesus think he is? (cf. Mark 2:1-12)

Jesus also calmed a storm. Although, that sounds pretty tame compared to what he actually did. The Scriptures say that he rebuked the wind and the waves—Shut up!—and they obeyed him. His disciples were so scared they wondered out loud, “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Luke 8:22-25)

Jesus also cast out evil spirits from those who were oppressed by the forces of darkness. With a single word he did what imprisonment and banishment could not do—he restored a man to his right mind by driving out his tormenting spirits. The eyewitnesses of this were so terrified by what they saw that they begged Jesus to leave their town quickly. What kind of man is Jesus, that even the demons fear him? (cf. Mark 5:1-20)

Jesus healed the sick on many occasions, restoring their sight, reversing their paralysis, and curing their ailments completely. The religious leaders who saw these things wondered, “Who is Jesus? One of the prophets?” For they couldn’t understand how a man could do the works of God while associating with the kind of people that the religious leaders despised (cf. John 9:1-41)

Not only did he heal the sick, Jesus even raised the dead. After coming upon the tomb of a friend who had been dead and buried for four days, Jesus spoke to the dead man, saying, “Come forth!” And the dead man obeyed the call of Jesus. It was Jesus was the master over death. Maybe that’s what he meant when he said, “I am the resurrection and the life”? (cf. John 11:1-44)

Jesus also did many acts of compassion, feeding the hungry and helping the poor wherever he went. On one occasion he miraculously multiplied a few loaves of bread and some fish to feed more than five thousand people. All of this because he was pull of pity and moved with compassion for their needs. (cf. Luke 9:10-17)

Jesus was no softy, though. The Jesus who healed the sick and helped the poor and needy was the same Jesus who made a whip to drive out some religious thieves from God’s holy temple. They were abusing the place that God had established for his people to worship, using it to make money through exhortation. So, Jesus’ love for his Father’s glory spilled over into righteous anger as he stormed the temple and turned over their tables, spilling the spoils of their robbery onto the temple floor. (cf. John 2:13-22)

Yet Jesus was no angry, self-righteous judge. He was a “friend of sinners” who befriended the very lowest and most despised members of society in his day. Others mocked him and called him terrible names because of his love for the people, but he insisted on hanging out with them. When it was pointed out to Jesus that his friends were transgressors of God’s law, Jesus replied, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Mark 2:13-17)

Even if none of Jesus’ teachings had been written down, the stories from his life paint a thorough picture of the kind of person he was. He had power over nature and the supernatural. He had the ability to heal the sick and raise the dead. He was compassionate and selfless. He was humble and welcomed everyone who came to him. He firmly upheld the righteousness of God, yet he went around telling others that their sins were forgiven. Who else but God-in-the-flesh, the Lord and the promised Messiah of Israel, could do all these things and more?

The Teachings of Jesus

We don’t have to wonder about what he wanted us to do based on pictures or glimpses from his life. He tells us plainly.

“Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. (cf. Mark 8:27-31)

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” (Luke 9:23-26)

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord,’ and do not do what I say? As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.” (Luke 6:46-49)

This is what led those who met Jesus to agree with the testimony of men like John the Baptist, who said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! . . . I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. . . And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” (cf. John 1:29-34)

Jesus is the Messiah, the chosen Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That’s why he has the authority to forgive the sins of others, for he laid down his own life to atone for sin. Jesus is also the Lord. That’s how he was able to heal the sick, raise the dead, and even be raised from the dead himself. Jesus was raised from the dead as proof of his righteous place as the world’s Savior and Sovereign Ruler. He will come again to redeem his people, restore his creation, and judge every evil once and for all.

Do you follow this Jesus? Have you considered the implications of his life and teachings? He is your boss. He is your rescuer. He is your judge. He is your friend. He is your teacher. He is your helper. He is Jesus, and everything you do should be weighed in the light of who he is.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

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When you consider the fact that almost 90% of all Christians will marry at some point in their lives, it’s completely appropriate to talk about how the gospel shapes our views of singleness, dating, and marriage.

As one of the pastors of a somewhat younger congregation (thankfully, this is changing), I’m frequently part of conversations dealing with all three of those issues. Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of really bad counsel on each, and I’ve even been guilty of giving some of that bad counsel myself. But we’ve got to stop doing that. Confusion on these matters is wrecking the lives of many people. Our only hope is to return to the Scriptures for correction and encouragement.

(Note: Our church has already released a free eBook on marriage and the family, so those topics will not be addressed in full detail here. We will only look at them insofar as they relate to singleness.)

Some of what you read below will be direct. I don’t apologize for that. Instead, I pray that you would humbly ask God to help you assess your own life as you read this. May he lead you and guide you into all truth.

Are There Sinful Desires for Marriage?

Are you sinning if you want to be married? Is it wrong to desire marriage?

The answer is, “Maybe.” It depends upon why you want to get married.

Do you think that your worth in God’s kingdom will be diminished if you never marry? Do you think that a marriage partner will bring you more joy than knowing God? Do you think that your life will be hopelessly miserable if you never have sex?

If your answer to any of those is “Yes,” then you’ve got a problem. Actually, you may have several problems.

It may be that you think your value or worth comes from what you do for God, not from what he has done for you in Jesus. This is backwards, and it is contrary to the gospel. The gospel says that God accepts you because of what Jesus has done in your place, not because of what you do for him. That is where your value or worth comes from. You are precious to God because of Jesus. You are loved by God because of Jesus. You are valuable to God because of Jesus. None of that changes if you marry or remain single. So it would be sinful to want to get married in the hopes of improving your worth in the eyes of God.

Or, maybe you are counting on another person (in this case, a spouse) to bring you the kind of happiness that they will never be able to deliver. This is dangerous for two reasons. One, it will crush your future spouse. They will feel forced to make you happy, and your law-based demands will burden them beyond what they can bear. Two, you are looking to a sinful, fallible person to bring you the kind of peace, comfort, and joy that only God can give. That’s stupid. You are setting yourself up for failure. This is part of the reason why so many marriages end in divorce. When both people expect the other to do for them what only God can do, they will eventually give up on their spouse for failing to meet their demands. Then they “trade them in” for another spouse that they, wrongly, think will do a better job.

Or, if you think that your life will be miserable without sex, you are deeply mistaken. Jesus was the most joyful person who ever lived, and he lived a life without sex. Now it’s not “cheating” to look to Jesus as our example. He was as human as you or I, so he didn’t live a life without sexual desires. Plus, the Scriptures say that he was tempted in every way that we are, yet he never sinned (Heb. 4:15). That means that Jesus knows what it’s like to have sexual urges that go unfulfilled. Yet there he was, joyful as ever and happy as a clam. Jesus did not go around saying ,”Woe is me! I have sexual desires that cannot be fulfilled!” Instead, he kept looking to the God who is even greater than any of the gifts he gives us (like sex). The life of Jesus shows us that surpassing joy in God awaits those who go to him. I know this sounds crazy in our sex-crazed society, but perhaps this just shows how sick and twisted and far off the right path we actually are. If we cannot imagine a joyful life without sex, it is we who are crazy, not Jesus. And if you marry for the purpose of sex only, you are pursuing marriage for sinful reasons.

Objection: But Paul Says…

I just said it’s wrong to pursue marriage for the sake of sex only. But Paul the apostle says, “It is better to marry than to burn with passion” (1 Cor. 7:9). So which statement is right?

Both.

It is good, acceptable, and right to marry someone else if you have the urge to get married. Paul was not saying that you should just suppress your sexual urges forever because that is what Jesus did. Rather, he was combating a heresy in that church. Unfortunately, there were some in the church at Corinth who were teaching that spiritual things are good, while physical things (like sex) are evil. Therefore, this church was wrongly telling others that it was wrong to get married because of the “evil” sex that was entailed. Paul’s statements about “burning with passion” must be seen against that backdrop. He was writing to tell others that it is okay to want to get married, that not all desires for marriage are evil.

But Paul would never have agreed that it’s okay to marry just for sex. That’s not what he is saying at all. Paul was the same guy who wrote that everything you do must be done for the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:17), so he of all people would know that “everything” includes marriage. Furthermore, Paul lays out some of the fullest teaching on marriage in Ephesians 5, none of which mentions sex explicitly. Thus anyone who wants sex  more than they want to spend a lifetime serving and caring for their spouse, is deeply in sin and headed for a load of trouble.

Is Singleness Ever Sinful?

Are you sinning if you never marry? Is it wrong to remain single?

Once again, the answer is “Maybe.” It depends upon why you want to remain single.

Are you single because you refuse to take responsibility? Do you like the flirtatious attention you get from multiple people? Are you using your singleness to serve others or to serve yourself? Do you plan to remain single because you believe it more spiritual, or a higher calling from God?

If the answer to any of those is “Yes,” then you have a problem. Actually, you may have several problems. (Noticing a pattern?)

It may be that you choose to remain single simply because you don’t want to take responsibility for anyone, including yourself. If the thought of taking responsibility for another person is a deterrent to marriage for you, you need to ask yourself whether or not this is because of your own cowardice or immaturity. For example, let’s say you live at home in your mom’s basement, and the thought of getting a job in order to provide for yourself (not to mention a family) sounds undesirable. If that were true of you, then your singleness may be the product of your immaturity. When someone else looks at you, they see someone who won’t take care of themselves, let alone another person. Why would they want to date you? I know this sounds harsh, but I can tell you it’s true from firsthand experience. I was the guy who sat at home and played video games for hours and hours without end. I was the guy who refused to take responsibility for myself in basic areas, like personal hygiene (gross, I know). And I was the guy who didn’t have a single date during that same period of my life. That’s no coincidence.

Or, maybe you’re still single because you love the attention you get from multiple people of the opposite sex. You hate the idea of being “tied down” to one person forever, so you are prolonging your singleness as long as possible. If that’s true, you’d be sinning by remaining single for this reason. You shouldn’t be seeking that kind of attention from your brothers and sisters in Christ in the first place. All you are doing is training your heart (and theirs) to be an attention whore for many years to come. It won’t just “stop” once you get married. You’ll continue to feel the drive to receive praise, recognition, and flirtatious gestures from other men or women who aren’t your spouse. Obviously, this is sinful.

Or, it may be that you aren’t single for either of those reasons, but you’re still sinning in your singleness. Here’s what I mean. For 90% of the singles who are reading this, your singleness is just a season of your life. (And if you believe what Jesus teaches about marriage and divorce, then singleness will probably be the shortest season of your life.) So, how should you live during this short season? The answer from Paul’s own life goes something like this: use your singleness to serve others in Jesus’ name in ways that you won’t be able to do once you are married. For example, spend your “free” time loving and serving the people in your church and in your community (since you won’t have as much time to do this after you have a family). Or spend your “free” time volunteering with local service projects or on foreign mission fields where your skills and services might be needed. If you use your singleness to further your own selfishness, however, you will waste the time that God has given you, and you will set yourself up for failure in your future marriage. (Better to start learning how to sacrifice and serve others now, instead of waiting to learn it after you’ve already committed yourself to someone for life.)

Finally, some people say they want to remain single because “it is higher calling than marriage.” This is false. There is only one passage that is seems to support this error (1 Cor. 7), but the trouble is that Paul says a bunch of things in that text that don’t make sense unless we understand the context first. Paul says God told him that “the appointed time is very short” (1 Cor. 7:29). He was talking about a coming day of great distress and anguish. Jesus himself talked about the same time period when he said, “How terrible it will be or women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the land and wrath against this people” (Luke 21:23). Jesus and Paul were both talking about the destruction of the temple and the assault on Jerusalem. When this occurred, Roman soldiers caught and killed thousands and thousands of Jews. Anyone who could not flee—like pregnant mothers and children, for example—were easy targets. The Romans were merciless, killing even small babies with the sword. So when Paul says things like: “I wish that all would remain single, as I am” (1 Cor. 7:8), or “The one who marries does a good thing, but the one who stays single does even better” (1 Cor. 7:38)—these statements should be understood to mean that it was better for that specific time. Obviously, it would be better not to be pregnant or have small children to care for when the Romans come knocking on your door. But since that time is over, Christians are wrong to continue using these verses to say that singleness is better than marriage. If you think that this is the case, you are making the same mistake that we have already mentioned above. You believe that your value or worth before God come from what you do for him, instead of what he has done for you in Jesus.

Moving Forward

There are several things that we must not do if we are going move beyond the confusion surrounding singleness and marriage while remaining faithful to the Scriptures:

First, we must not “demote” marriage in our churches out of fear of making our singles feel excluded. The Scriptures repeatedly affirm the beauty and normalcy of marriage. And although marriage will one day be no more, God established it as a necessary part of his plan in the world for the time being (Gen. 1:28). If it weren’t for marriage, there would be no image-bearers. So demoting marriage isn’t a good solution. Instead we should call people who want to marry to pursue marriage with a pure heart, not idolizing the gift of marriage, but pursuing it as God calls them to.

Second, we must continue to remind singles that their value is found in Jesus, not their relationship status. You aren’t worth more or less to God because you have a ring on your finger. At the same time, the call for all people—married and single—is the same. All your time, all your money, all your talents, and all of your life belongs to God. You are his. Live your life accordingly. If you are single, live like a single man or woman who is passionate about Christ and his kingdom, not using your singleness as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God. Show the world that Jesus is a surpassing treasure by abstaining from sex before marriage. Use your singleness to glorify God.

Third, we must continue to warn against the dangers of individualism in our increasingly individualistic society. If I could go back and re-live the single season of my life, I would do some things very differently. For example, I would get a roommate as quickly as possible. If you’re a guy, live with another guy. If you’re a gal, live with another gal. This not only helps with matters of accountability, it also helps you put your selfishness to death. This is a good practice whether or not you ever marry, since Jesus calls us all to learn how to put others first, put ourselves last, and serve other people. Living alone makes it so much harder to do this because no one is around you to oppose your will. Whatever you want, you get. And even though that isn’t sinful in and of itself, it will train you to have certain expectations of what you are used to or even feel entitled to have. Not only are such expectations impossible to fulfill in marriage, they also make it harder for you to live as part of a local church family (for you will recoil at the idea of having to sacrifice to serve people other than yourself).

Fourth, we must never stop calling singles to greater levels of maturity. As our society sinks to lower and lower expectations for what is acceptable of men and women in their twenties, the church must be the place where young men and women are expected to act like adults. Part of this may mean putting away childish things like video games, comic books, endless TV watching, shopping sprees, and so forth, as we all strive to become the kind of men and women who will be God-honoring husbands and fathers, or wives and mothers. This is a good pursuit even for those who may never marry, since these Christ-like virtues ought to be present in all of God’s children who love the truth.

The Grace of Jesus

In the end, only grace can enable us to live as a single or a married Christian is called to. You will never be single and joyful if you are not confident that God has been gracious toward you in Jesus, and will continue to be gracious toward you through his Spirit. As people of grace, we must be thankful for the grace of God and continue to show that grace to one another. This means praying for each other, helping each other in various ways, and living together as people who have the same hope, the same joy, and the same treasure in Christ—whether single or married. Let us all continue to look to Jesus, who was single yet joyful, for grace to pursue what is truly valuable in this life and the next.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

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The ancient community of Israel had three basic “offices” (not places for your desk, but roles for people in authority and responsibility). These were the offices of prophet, priest, and king.

Prophets spoke to the people on God’s behalf. They were God’s chosen spokesmen. Their words came from God, and they preached to call people back to faith in God and obedience to him.

Priests represented God’s people in his presence. They were mediators between God and his people. They served the people on God’s behalf and represented the people before God himself.

Kings ruled over God’s people as an extension of God’s own rule. They were responsible for upholding justice and keeping the peace. Kings were also symbolic reminders of God’s power and authority.

Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be

In the beginning, however, none of those offices were needed. In fact, we all were meant to be like prophets, priests, and kings of creation. He called us to have dominion over what he had made (a kingly role), to serve creation through our work (a priestly role) and to fill the world with people who reflected God in all they said and did (a prophetic role).

But all that changed when Adam and Eve turned their backs on God. Their hearts (and the hearts of their descendents) were hardened, and their sin introduced evil in the world, causing all kinds of barriers to seeing, hearing, and experiencing the goodness of God. Not only that, clearly people of that sort were incapable of being the kinds of prophets, priests, and kings that God desired.

Yet God did not give up on his people. Even in the midst of their sin he rebuked them directly, provided for them personally, and promised to give them a son who would conquer their enemy (Gen. 3:14-19). The rest of the Old Testament is the story of how God worked through his people to prepare the way for the arrival of that promised son.

God called prophets to preach and turn the people back to him. God called priests to make sacrifices for the people’s sins. God called kings to protect his people from their enemies. But like their parents before them, these people were imperfect prophets, priest, and kings. The prophets who preached God’s laws were not able to obey them. The priests who were offered sacrifices for sin were full of sin themselves. And the kings who ruled the people were often ruled by their own selfishness, greed, and lust. There’s not a single example of a perfect prophet, priest, or king in Israel. That is, until Jesus.

Jesus: Prophet, Priest, and King

Jesus is the son that God promised would come through Eve. And not only was he the king who won the battle against sin and death, he’s also the priest who represented us before God and the prophet who pointed us back to him. In fact, the New Testament authors go out of their way to make all three of these connections.

Jesus is more than any prophet who simply spoke from God, for he himself was God in the flesh (John 1:14). All that he did was a perfect reflection of God’s exact nature (Heb. 1:1-3). This is why John calls Jesus the “Word” (John 1:1) who perfectly reveals God (John 1:14).

Jesus is more than any priest who represented the people before God, for Jesus is the sacrifice and the priest who makes the sacrifice (Heb. 10:11-14), as well as the temple where God and man perfectly meet (John 2:21). That’s why the Scriptures say that Jesus is the one mediator between God and man  (1 Tim. 2:5).

Jesus is the king (Acts 17:7) and ruler of creation (Col. 1:16-17). He has conquered sin and death on our behalf of his people (Heb. 2:9). He now sits victoriously heaven until the day when he comes again to destroy sin and evil forever (1 Cor. 15:25). This is why the Scriptures call him “Lord” (Phil. 2:11).

Jesus was not only the perfect prophet, priest, and king in our place. He remains a prophet to us, a priest for us, and a king over us. In other words, he did not just fulfill those offices in our place. He continues to fill those offices for our good. If you diminish his role in any of them, you are likely to miss the point of all that Jesus came to do. In other words, you miss the good news of the gospel.

Distorted Faith from a Distorted Jesus

The following sections have been adapted from Vintage Jesus, an excellent book that introduces you to the meaning of Jesus’ life and teachings.

Prophet + King – Priest = the Jesus of Fundamentalism

If you see Jesus as a prophet and a king but not a priest, then you will love the idea of Jesus the truth-teller,  Jesus the judge of sin, the Jesus the commander of repentance. But you ignore the idea of Jesus as a loving, gracious, merciful, caring priest who serves us in time of need. As a result, you are likely to think of Jesus as a super critical judge who sits on his throne far away waiting for you to screw up, but he never gets off that throne to help. Jesus seems harsh, stern, distant, even cruel. This view of Jesus will trap you in a cycle of religion that goes back and forth between pride and despair. You’re proud of yourself when things are going well, but you look down on others who seem to be having a harder time obeying Jesus than you do. And the moment you screw up, you fall into despair because wonder if your stern and critical Jesus loves you anymore.

Prophet + Priest – King = the Jesus of American Evangelicalism

Evangelicals are people who believe that Jesus is Savior and Lord, believe the Scriptures are true, and believe that God wants us to live for him and tell others about Jesus. So what’s wrong with their Jesus? For many evangelicals, they agree to the basic ideas of the gospel while living a moral life that is virtually identical to the non-Christians around them. They believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. They believe he holds the truth. They believe he died for sins. That’s why they know when they screw up, Jesus will forgive them and love them. Their problem is that they live and act as if they were still kings and lords of their own lives. Their problem is they still think they own their money, their time, their gifts, and their lives. Thus they rule as king over their life with Jesus as little more than an assistant. But Jesus says to such people, “Why do you call me Lord if you don’t do what I tell you?”

Priest + King – Prophet = the Jesus of Liberalism

If Jesus is your Priest and King only, then like much of liberal Christianity, you will think of Jesus as the king who rules to extend all people unqualified acceptance, total tolerance, unending patience, and sentimental love. The sad result is that Jesus is never seen as someone who would offend us, point out our sin, or command us to repent. When Jesus is not seen as a prophet, sinful beliefs and behaviors are overlooked, condoned, even endorsed. That’s why liberal Christianity never stands up for anything other than issues that modern secular humanism already agrees with. In the end, liberal Christianity ends up looking no different than modern progressives, except that they go to church services on Sundays. Also, many liberal Christians never tell others about Jesus out of a fear that they will “offend” them. Worst of all, if Jesus is not a prophet to you, then you will never believe that you are in the wrong about anything either. You will never see your for his truthful corrections. You’ll just think you need to “try a little bit harder.”

Who Is Jesus to You?

Jesus came to earth to be the prophet, priest, and king that we were created to be in the garden, but have not been ever since. As the ultimate prophet his words and actions perfectly revealed God to the world (Heb. 1:1-3). He not only spoke the truth, as other prophets had done before him; he himself is the truth (John 14:6). As the ultimate priest his compassion and mercy served others selflessly without ceasing (Mark 10:45). His greatest act of service was offering himself up in our place, so that we might live through him (Heb. 9:11-14). As the ultimate king Jesus rules over all creation with righteousness and justice without end (Isaiah 9:7). His kingly victories have defeated sin and death on our behalf, and he will one day come again to destroy them both (1 Cor. 15:25).

Furthermore, Jesus holds the three-fold office forever as the prophet who speaks to us, the priest who walks with us, and the king who rules over us. His words continue to convict us of sin and call us to faith and repentance (Luke 5:32). His grace continues to come to our aid in time of need (Heb. 4:16). His reign continues over all the earth, directing all things to the day when all is made new (Rev. 21:5).

Honestly ask God to reveal to you which of Jesus’ offices you are most likely to ignore or deny, and read Scripture with a humble heart seeking to see Jesus in the fullness of his glory.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

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Looking Back

As we come to the close of the book of Acts, it’s helpful to remember where we started. Having risen from the dead in triumphant victory, Jesus continued to visit with his disciples during a period of forty days, teaching them about God’s redeeming rule (Acts 1:3). You can’t blame them for thinking that now that Jesus had risen, he surely was going to restore everything about which the prophets of Israel had spoken. But that isn’t what he told them. Instead, he said this: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8). This was Jesus’ promise that God would come, through his Spirit, to empower his people to live on mission for him. They had a part to play in all that God would do.

He did send the Spirit (Acts 2), and now the second half of his promise was coming true as well. Paul was finally in Rome, the capital of the empire. It was said that “all roads lead to Rome” because it was the hub of economic, political, and social life of Paul’s world. And if every road led to Rome, then roads from Rome could get you just about anywhere. Paul knew this, and he wouldn’t miss a chance to take the gospel of Jesus to the one place that could spread the good news “to the ends of the earth,” just as Jesus had said.

Moving Forward

What will Paul do now that he has reached his destination? How will this sweeping story of the early church come to a close? We’re told that Paul stayed in Rome for two years, “welcoming everyone who came to him and proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:30-31).

That’s it. That’s how it ends. Not much of an ending, right?

But then you begin to wonder… Maybe that’s the point. The story continues, and we’re part of it! The book of Acts may finish with chapter 28, but the story of Acts continues in the church today. You and I are invited to take part in the same story ourselves as people with specific roles and speaking parts. Like the rest of Jesus’ followers throughout the book, we are called to proclaim Jesus as Lord—not as a distant memory of a fallen ruler—but as a living and powerful King, a person who continues to act within the real world. The resurrection was real. Jesus really is alive. And his risen body marks the beginning of God’s new creation, a renewal that restores what God has made through the powerful working of the Spirit who liberates us from our slavery to sin and death, and calls us to proclaim Jesus’ redeeming reign in all we say and do.

No Matter What

If you and are I called to participate in the continuing story of Acts, then like everyone else in the story, we must look to the Scriptures as the “script” for God’s unfolding drama of redemption. They give us our role, our speaking parts, our stage directions, and they tell us how everything began and where everything is headed.

In this way, the lives of Paul and the other early disciples are instructive examples for our own lives. Their mission is our mission. They were sent out to proclaim the good news about Jesus, the King of God’s kingdom. And they kept telling others about Jesus, even at great cost to themselves (Acts 28:31), even their own lives (Acts 7:58-60). Whenever they encountered opposition (Acts 4:2-3), they continued to tell the world about Jesus’ saving reign. Indeed, they said “we cannot stop speaking about Jesus!” (Acts 4:19-20).

As with the early disciples, we ought to expect that responses to the gospel will differ (some will welcome the redeeming rule of Jesus, while others will hate the thought of submitting to him). Regardless to the response, however, our mission is the same: keep telling others about Jesus.

Go, Show and Tell

God sends us out, in the power of his Spirit, to proclaim the good news about Jesus.

As we tell others about Jesus, God builds his church. The church is another name for the people of God, all those who have trusted and hope in the work of Jesus to purify their hearts, forgive them of sin, and make them new. God uses the gospel to reconcile sinners to himself by telling them of his forgiveness of their sins, by awakening faith in their hearts, by raising to life those who were spiritually dead, and by reform even the most rebellious lives. The gospel is “the power of God,” Paul writes. The Spirit uses the message about Jesus to work faith into our hearts as we hear it and receive it with joy (Rom. 10:17; John 1:12). Therefore, the church is established and built up by the proclamation of the gospel.

As we tell others about Jesus, God accomplishes his mission. God’s response to sin and evil is what we mean by “the mission of God.” It is his gracious decision to heal, to restore, to renew, and to bless his creation through the judgment of sin and evil and through the redemption of his people. Jesus is at the heart of the mission of God because all that God promised to redeem, restore, and renew is accomplished through his life, his death, and his resurrection. As we tell others about Jesus, they are made a part of God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) as both a sign and the means by which God begins to redeem, renew, and restore. These people become “salt” and “light,” as Jesus said. They are made to be ministers of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18), who bless and serve others in the name of Jesus.

As we tell others about Jesus, God receives his glory. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3). The prophet Habakkuk wrote, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14). So the whole earth is filled with God’s glory now. That’s a fact. But one day the whole earth will be full of the knowledge of the God’s glory. That’s the  future. As we tell others about Jesus, they behold the glory of the Lord in the face of his perfect Son who died for sin and rose again in victory over death. Telling others about Jesus, therefore, extends the recognition of the glory of God. He is glorious, and we should long for others to see and know him as such.

For Your Consideration:

1. We are called to proclaim the fullness of who Jesus is to all people.  What does this actually look like for us today?

2. When Jesus is proclaimed, God continually builds his church. If this is the case, why is it important for Christians to be involve themselves in a local church?

3. What does it mean for you to rely on the power of the Spirit to tell others about Jesus?

4. Take a moment to think on the glory of God (the beauty and power of his perfect nature and character). Now say the following to yourself: “God is more glorious and more precious to me than _________.” How does your heart feel when you say these things? Is there anything that you are unwilling to put in that blank? If so, pray that God would help you to trust him and see that he is more glorious than anything else in life.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

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If you want to know what pop culture thinks about an issue, Google’s Autocomplete Me is a wonderful tool.

(For those who aren’t familiar with how this works, when you begin typing in the Google search box the search engine shows a list of popular words that may complete your intended search. The suggested words or phrases are a reflection of what other people have searched for or written on. Thus, Autocomplete Me gives you a window into what people think about an issue.)

I recently used Autocomplete Me to confirm what I already suspected to be true concerning what most people think about science and the Bible. Here’s what it came up with:

science proves the bible wrong
science proves god is fake
science disproves god
science disproves religion
science disproves christianity

Just to be clear, no respectable scientist would ever claim that empirical research can disprove the existence of God. They might say that science can’t prove that God exists, or that we don’t have enough evidence to believe in God. But they would never say anything like what I found through Autocomplete Me. Even famed agnostics like Richard Dawkins qualify their claims, saying, “There is probably no God.”

So what should we make of the results of Autocomplete Me? At the very least, they show us what many (or even most) people think about science and the Bible. That is, most people believe that science and Scripture are incompatible. They think one is true and the other is false, but they can’t both be true. Many people think this way, including those who call themselves Christians and those who consider themselves to be agnostic or atheistic. All these have one thing in common: they’re completely wrong.

The Roles of Science and Scripture

For much of the past several centuries, many of the best scientists in the Western world were people who loved the Scriptures. They believed Scripture, and saw no real contradiction between what they observed in the world and what they read in the Bible. In other words, they believed that Scripture and science are friends. They are “partners” who, when doing what each was designed to do, shed light on different areas or spheres of life.

It’s a little bit of an oversimplification, but usually science is good at answering “What?” and “How?” questions, while Scripture is good at answering “Who?” and “Why?” questions. For example, Scripture can’t help me identity what kind of tissue I’m looking at under a microscope. Nor does Scripture tell me anything about how the neural synapses function in my brain. But the Scriptures do tell me who created brains and why God created them in the first place, whereas science could only guess about these things.

Science tells us how many different species of beetles there are (over 400,000!), while Scripture tells us why God created beetles—and plants and clouds and people. Science tells us what takes places during sexual reproduction, while Scripture tells us why sex was created and who sex was created for. Science tells us how people die (biologically), while Scripture tells us why people die in the first place (the wages of sin is death).

Dilemmas and Debates

So why all the fuss? If Christians have believed for centuries that Scripture and science are friends, then what is the problem today? Why are there some many debates?

There are two problems. First, one problem is that there are some areas where the apparent claims of Scripture and the contemporary findings of science seem to contradict each other. We will look at one of these areas in a moment.

The second problem is that many people are happy to point out the natural limitations of Scripture without fairly admitting the natural limitations of science. For example, Scripture is of no help for getting someone to the moon. It isn’t a book on calculus, rocket science, or orbital trajectories. But no Christian expects it to be that, either. Why would they? That isn’t the purpose of Scripture according to Scripture.

But notice what happens when you begin to talk about the limitations of science. Some people get antsy. They start suspecting that you are trying to “force religion on them.” All you are doing, though, is questioning the limitations of science. You are exploring where the helpfulness of science ends, and where the need for some other discipline might begin (like philosophy or theology, for example).

The Limitations of Science

Remember the scientific method from your days in school? (Identify a problem. Research the issue. Make a hypothesis. Test the hypothesis with an experiment. Analyze the results.) Well, notice what the scientific method is designed to test: observable, measurable, repeatable phenomena. This means that the scientific method is incapable of analyzing nonphysical objects (things without mass or movement) because its methods of discovery are limited to only that which can be observed, measured, and repeated (i.e., empirical data). From the outset, therefore, the scientific method prevents itself from discovering things such as God, angels, souls or minds, abstract numbers, ideas, propositional statements, consciousness, mental images,  personal agency, and first-person identity. The point is not that all of those must exist because science cannot disprove them. The point is simply that science can say nothing about them. It cannot discover them, even if they do exist.

And here’s where the problem gets worse. It is a huge assumption to say that because science cannot speak to the existence or non-existence of any of those things, that they must not be real or important. That is circular reasoning. It is like saying, “The only things that are real or important are those that science can discover.” How do you know that? “Because if they were real or important, then science would be able to discover them.” Do you see how viciously circular that is?

That kind of thinking is not science; it’s what we will call scientism. Scientism believes that the scientific method is the only appropriate way of discovering truth in the world, and that science by itself is able to explain the world we live in. The following is a widely quoted statement from Richard Lewontin, a famous scientist. Note how he admits that many such scientists hold their beliefs with rigid dogmatism:

“Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.” (Lewontin, “Billions and Billions of Demons,” The New York Review of Books, January 7, 1997, 31).

If you are willing to continue to believe in the ability of science to answer all important questions in life in spite of its apparent absurdity, its well-known failures, and its obvious limitations, then science has become a religion for you. You are an adherent of scientism who is no longer open to the possibility that science might not be able to explain everything. You have become truly close-minded in the very worst way.

God and Science

A common objection usually comes up at this point that goes something like this. “If science can’t prove or disprove the existence of God, are you suggesting that I should just believe in God with blind faith?”

That’s not what I’m suggesting. Rather, I’m saying that we should let reality determine our methodology or way of learning, instead of allowing a predetermined way of learning (e.g., the scientific method) to determine what is real or what counts for evidence. To say this another way, you cannot know the best way to study what exists until you are adequately acquainted with what exists.

1. That means we must begin with a casual acquaintance with the object under investigation,
2. for the purpose of learning more about the nature of the object,
3. which allows the object of investigation to determine the best way to further investigate it,
4. resulting in the development of a method of study best suited to the object’s nature.

In other words, I’m saying that reality should inform us of how to study it, instead of our deciding beforehand how we will study reality. For example, if the God of the Bible is real, then I shouldn’t expect to find him in a test tube or under a microscope. For he is both Spirit (nonmaterial), and he is the author of everything else in creation. His does not exist as a part of his natural creation, but as someone who relates to it through supernatural means.

What I’m saying is this. If God exists, then my relationship to him is not that of an observer studying the facts of the world for “traces of God.” Rather, my relationship to God is more like Shakespeare’s relationship to Hamlet. What could Hamlet know about Shakespeare? And how could Hamlet know these things? He could only know Shakespeare if the author had written something about himself into the story. Hamlet would never be able to find out anything else about his author in any other way. This led Christian author C. S. Lewis to conclude that we won’t be able to find God through the scientific method. We’ll only know about God if he has written something about himself into our life, into our world. And that, of course, is precisely what the Christian faith believes he did.

In the person of Jesus, God wrote himself into the pages of history. By becoming a human being, he stepped into our world and lived among us. The people who saw Jesus, therefore, saw God. They ate with him. They talked with him. They watched him die on the cross. And then, several hundred people in several different cities over the course of several weeks saw him after he rose from the dead—something that can’t be repeated or measured by the scientific method, but something that people saw and believed. They didn’t just see it, either. Their lives (and the lives of billions of others since) have been changed forever by the God who rose from the dead.

So how can you investigate Christianity to see if it’s true? You can’t “go back” to see Jesus for yourself, but you can read about him in the pages of the Bible. As you do so, try viewing the world through the eyes of Scripture, just as you should try to do through the eyes of scientism. See which “lens” (scientism or Scripture) makes the world look clearer. Like billions of people in the world today, I think you’ll find that Scripture can account for much that scientism can’t. Not only that, Scripture makes room for true science to flourish in its proper role, without expecting it to address the kinds of questions that it isn’t designed (or able) to answer.

What About the Contradictions?

Maybe you’re thinking, “What about the contradictions between Scripture and science that you mentioned?” Well, technically, they’re just apparent contradictions. That is, they are things that seem to contradict each other but actually don’t.

Take the infamous example of the creation story in the book of Genesis. For years people have been getting into arguments about creation and evolution. Does science contradict the creation story in Genesis?

Hardly. Although, there are many who think so. As a result, these people either throw out science altogether (which is a horribly unhelpful thing to do), or else they throw out the Bible altogether (which is eternally unwise).

The problem is usually that someone has rigidly accepted one of two things: (1) a certain interpretation of the creation story or (2) a certain scientific interpretation of the data.

It should be noted, however, that in both cases interpretations are being made. The Bible and the data itself (the evidence in the world) are not the problem. They simply are what they are. Our problem lies with the fact that we sometimes interpret information wrongly. This happens with both Scripture and with science.

Interpretive mistakes in science are many. We are constantly overturning old theories to explain how the world works. None of that makes science bad, but it does means that we should hold on to scientific theories with humility. We may be wrong about lots of things, and even at this moment there are many theories competing to explain the data we have available. Not all of them can be right, and it’s possible that all of them may be wrong. This is why we need to be conscious of our role as fallible interpreters.

The same is true with Scripture, though, and Christians should not forget this. The Bible means what it means, but our interpretation of what it means can be wrong (just like scientific interpretations). For example, Christians have disagreed for years whether or not the creation story should be seen as poetry or as history. This had been going on long before concerns about evolution arose. The reason for the debates have changed in every age, but the debates have always been there. Case in point, one man named Augustine wondered why it took God six days to create the world. He thought six days seemed far too long, believing that God could have created everything in a moment. Augustine noted that the phrase, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” seems to suggest that God created everything in a moment. So, he reasoned that perhaps the rest of the story was a poetic way of describing why God created, not what or how God created.

Christians and Science Today

For the record, I don’t think Augustine got it quite right. But I do think it’s important to point out that many Christian theologians debated the meaning of the creation story long before the theory of evolution came on the scene. Still today there are Christians who hold to one of several contrasting views. Some Christians believe the six days of the creation account are literal, twenty-four hour periods of time. Other Christians believe the six days are poetic ways of describing longer ages of time. Other Christians believe the entire account is a poetic arrangement, giving us theology instead of history. Still other Christians believe that the story is actually an account of the creation of the promised land, not of the whole world (since the whole world’s creation is already recorded in the first two verses). Not all of these can be right, but all those who hold them can still be Christians (people who follow Jesus by trusting him and listening to what he says).

Just because there are many theories or interpretations doesn’t mean that we are free to pick the ones that we like, either in Scripture or in science. We must make good interpretive judgments based on all the available evidence to us. It’s also important to point out that not all Christians are “comprising their faith” if they believe that the creation story is a poetic account of how God created all that exists. You can’t say that someone “doesn’t believe the Bible” if they merely disagree with you about the best way to interpret what is written. They may be wrong (or you may be), but neither of you are trying to deny the Bible; you are simply disagreeing about what it means.

Does this land us in uncertainty? Are we left with guesses and the possibility of discovering that all we believe and care about will actually turn out to be false? I don’t think so. If the God who raised Jesus from the dead is real, then here’s something we can bank on: When all the facts are known and rightly interpreted, there will be no final conflict between science and Scripture. For the same God who made this world, wrote the Bible.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

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Like many Southerners, I spent a good part of my life in a church that held services on Sunday mornings and Sunday evenings. We always knew what to expect from each: Sunday mornings were about dressing up to “give your best to God,” but Sunday evenings were more relaxed and casual (did that mean we were giving God our worst?). Sunday mornings were packed full of people. Sunday evenings were sparsely attended. Sunday mornings meant singing with a large choir. Sunday evenings meant the music minister leading songs by himself. And Sunday morning sermons were from the New Testament; they were always about Jesus. But Sunday evening sermons were from the Old Testament, and Jesus was lucky to make a cameo appearance.

My church wasn’t alone in this. Lots of people aren’t sure of what to do with the Old Testament. They want to like it. They believe they should read it. But they don’t understand it.

The fact is that we have a problem when 75% of the Bible is a mystery to us. So what should we do? Well, if we paid closer attention to what the New Testament itself says about the Old Testament, we’d be a lot less confused.

Jesus Says It’s All About Him

“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40)

At the time when Jesus spoke these words, there was no “New Testament.” It hadn’t been written yet. That means Jesus was talking about the Hebrew Scriptures, or what we call the Old Testament. Jesus then added the following words to drive the point home further, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me” (John 5:44). You may know that Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament, which Jesus here clearly says is all about him.

Apparently a lot of people missed the point of the Old Testament in Jesus’ day, too. That’s why he went around giving lessons on how to interpret it. “Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). He even had to teach his own disciples the same: ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:44-45).

‘The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms’ was a common way of referring to the entire Old Testament. Jesus was leaving no part out when he said that it all points to him. And notice, too, that Jesus did not say that the Old Testament is now about him, as if it used to be about something else. No, Jesus said the Old Testament has always been about him.

Paul the apostle also believed that the Old Testament was always about Jesus. He wrote to remind his friend that “the Holy Scriptures, which you have known from childhood, are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). And his ministry proves his point. When Paul went into the cities and towns to preach the good news about Jesus, he didn’t use a Gideon New Testament with Proverbs. He preached about Jesus from the Old Testament.

How to Read the Bible and Miss the Point

Here’s why this matters. Suppose one day that you’re reading the well-known story about Joseph and Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39). You’ve been scheduled to speak at a Christian high school in a few days, and you think this would be the perfect message for hormonal, sex-crazed teenagers. So you decide to teach them them about how Joseph fled the sexual advances of Potiphar’s wife, and you explain that God wants them to flee temptation, too.

There’s just one problem. That story wasn’t written to give us a step-by-step guide for dealing with sexual temptation. According to Jesus, the author of that story (Moses) was writing about him. What you’ve just done, therefore, is take a story that Jesus says is about him and turn it into a moralistic lesson about how to stay pure before marriage. Jesus is more than disappointed by this; he’s righteously angry. You’ve robbed him of his glory and you’ve robbed your audience of a chance to see the real hope that they have in Jesus.

“Okay, smarty pants. Show me why I’m wrong for doing that.” Well, if that’s your heart when you read this, then you have missed the point. We shouldn’t strive to interpret the Old Testament correctly so that we can belittle those who get it wrong and feel good about ourselves for getting it right. Rather, we strive to interpret the Old Testament correctly because we believe Jesus when he says that it’s all about him.

Test Case: Reading Genesis 1 Like It’s About Jesus

When Jesus said that the Old Testament is all about him, he didn’t mean that every word on every page were secret symbols pointing to his life and ministry. Imagine trying to read it that way: “You see, when God said, ‘Let the birds fly across the expanse of the skies,’ he really was talking about Jesus, who one day would “fly” through the skies as he ascended into the heavens. So basically, Jesus was created on the fifth day as one of the birds.” Reading the Old Testament like that is just stupid.

So what did Jesus mean when he said that it was all about him? He meant that the meaning of the Old Testament, in the parts and in the whole, was always about him. The point of the creation story, for example, isn’t about how old the earth might be—contrary to how you might often hear it taught. The point of the creation story is to introduce you to Jesus, the creator of all things. That’s what you should “get” out of this text.

You should come away from it thinking something like, “If Jesus created everything, then that means he is the Lord over everything. I’m part of the ‘everything’ that he created. He must be my Lord, too. My life is not my own.” That’s why the saints and angels sing this for eternity: “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created” (Rev. 4:11).

Or maybe you’ll think on the fact that Jesus calls his creation “very Good” (Gen. 1:31), so that must mean that he is the source of all goodness and beauty in the world. An application of this truth might lead you to conclude that if you reject Jesus, the Lord of creation, you will be turning your back on the source and giver of every good thing in the universe.

As you read Genesis 1 you might also conclude that since Jesus created the world, he obviously cares about it. This has tremendous implications for things like litter, pollution, and greedy waste of natural resources, doesn’t it? For this world isn’t ours to abuse; it’s a gift from Jesus to be stewarded for his glory.

And we haven’t even mentioned how the description of human beings created “in the image of God” has obvious implications for understanding how Jesus perfectly reflects that image better than anyone else who ever lived (Col. 1:15). In other words, Jesus shows us what it looks like to be human, to live as God intended us to live.

All of this (and more!) from that one little chapter, simply by thinking on what it says about Jesus.

How to See Jesus in the Old Testament

“Yes,” you say in protest. “But Jesus isn’t mentioned in Genesis 1. Only God is.” Kind of, sort of, not really. This kind of thinking actually misses the forest for the trees (not to mention, it contradicts what Jesus himself has said about the Old Testament).

Think of the last time you watched a movie that ended differently than you were expecting. If you try to re-watch the film, it will never be the same to you. For you now know how it ends, so you can see clearly where it is heading right from the very start.

In some ways, the Old Testament is a bit like that. Just as the directors of the movie knew what they were doing, the authors of the Old Testament knew where everything was headed (because God had told them, cf. 1 Pet. 1:10-11). But some of their readers missed the point, hence the need for Jesus’ correction. After Jesus opened their eyes to see what they had been missing, though, they could never read the Old Testament the same again.

For example, the Old Testament opens with the famous words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” (Gen. 1:1). In the New Testament the apostle John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… All things were made through him; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:1, 3). (The “Word” is John’s description for Jesus, the one who took on human flesh in order to make God known to us, cf. John 1:14, 18.)

John isn’t changing the creation story; he is explaining it. “In the beginning God created,” says the Old Testament, and “that God was Jesus,” says the New. It’s not a change of meaning, it’s more clarity about what has always been the case.

John wasn’t the only one to make this connection, either. As Paul reflected on Jesus and Genesis, he wrote the following words: “He is the image of the invisible God, the heir of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” (Col. 1:15-16).

Jesus is the creator, so all things belong to him. Jesus is the Lord, so he rules over all things. Jesus is the perfect image of God, so he reveals to us both God and true humanity. Aren’t those the exact conclusions that we came to in our own reading of Genesis 1?

It didn’t take too long to come to these conclusions. It just took believing that the Old Testament is really about Jesus (because it is).

Reading the Rest of the Old Testament Like It’s About Jesus

So what would happen if we read the rest of the Old Testament that way? Here’s an incredibly short list of some of the discoveries that you would find:

When God promised that one of Eve’s sons would crush the head of God’s enemy while he himself was pierced (Gen. 3:15), you would know that this is a promise about Jesus, who destroyed the work of the devil and was pierced for our transgressions (Isa. 53:5; Col. 2:15).

When God saves the human race through Noah (Gen. 6 – 9), you wouldn’t see a cute story for children. Instead you’d see a reminder of God’s righteous anger toward sin and a preview of how God would again spare the human race through the faithfulness of another man, Jesus.

When God promises Abraham that he will bless all the families of the world through his offspring (Gen. 12:1-3), you would expect for Jesus to be the one to do this. Not to mention,  the repeated failures of Israel to do so, demonstrate that Jesus was the only one of Abraham’s offspring who truly blessed the world. That’s why Paul says that God’s promise to Abraham was always a promise made about Jesus (Gal. 3:16).

When God calls Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac (Gen. 22), you wouldn’t read the story as if it were about how you should blindly obey whatever you think God is telling you no matter how crazy it is. Instead, you would see in this story a picture of how God would one day provide everything his people need in Jesus, his only Son and the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

When God rescues Israel from slavery (Exodus 1 – 12) by sending his messengers to slay the firstborn son of all those who didn’t paint the blood of a lamb on their doorposts, he was previewing the ultimate way that Jesus would fulfill the entire exodus story: he is the firstborn who is slain that we don’t have to be; he is the lamb whose blood is on the doorpost; and he is the one who leads us out of slavery to sin and death (Jude 1:5).

There are many, many more examples, for the entire Old Testament beckons to be read as its authors intended. Only by reading the Old Testament as if it were about Jesus will you be able to understanding its continuing meaning for your life.

Jesus, the Fulfillment of the Old Testament

Therefore, Jesus is the promised son of Eve who crushed God’s enemy and was bruised for your sake. Jesus is true and better Noah, who saves us not from temporary waters but from the everlasting wrath of God. Jesus is the true and better Abraham, who left his perfect home in heaven to and seek out the lost. Jesus is the promised offspring of Abraham, who blesses the entire world. Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was provided as a sacrifice for sins. Jesus is the true and better Joseph, who though betrayed by his brothers, was raised to authority that he might bless even his betrayers. Jesus is the true and better Moses, who didn’t just give us God’s law but fulfilled it completely on our behalf. Jesus is the true and better David, who conquered sin and death on our behalf because, like Israel in the face of Goliath, we were unwilling and unable to fight. Jesus is the true and better Solomon, whose kingdom brings peace in more than name only. Jesus is the true and better Jonah, who was willing to obey the call of God to preach the good news, and who spent three days in the belly of the earth—not as punishment for what he’d done, but to free us from the punishment we deserve. Jesus is the true and better temple, where God and man met perfectly in his own body. Jesus is the true and better Israel, who faithfully lived as the chosen servant of God.

If you see Jesus as all of that, then you will clearly know how your life fits in the story of what God is doing through him. You owe him your gratitude, your dependence, your devotion, your service, your worship, and your life. Jesus is the Creator, the Lord, the One Who Conquers God’s Enemy, the Blessing of God, the Hope of Humanity, the Lamb of God, the Faithful Servant, the Suffering Savior, the Redeemer, and the Eternal King. And that’s just what the Old Testament says about him!

What If I Can’t Do This?

After finishing the rough draft of this article, my wife (who is true servant of an editor) asked me this: “But what if I can’t do this?” “Do what?” I said in reply. “See Jesus in the Old Testament like you can. I’ve read the Bible for years but never saw any of that.”  She had a point. It was a great question, and here’s what I said in reply:

Not everyone has to be able to read and interpret the Bible equally well. That sounds elitist to our ears, but that’s because we have believed the lie of Western individualism, which completely overlooks the diversity of the gifts that Jesus has given his body (1 Cor. 12:7ff). So you are not a failure if you can’t see Jesus in the Old Testament as easily as someone else can.

But you are responsible for joining yourself to a church family that preaches the Old Testament like Jesus would. This means if your the pastors of your church preach the Old Testament like a bunch of moralistic principles and inspirational stories (instead of one story that points to Jesus), then it’s probably time to move on. Your life is too short to waste sitting under the teaching of someone who doesn’t preach from the Old Testament in the same way that Jesus, Paul and the other apostles did. Yes, it really does matter that much. For someone who can’t see Jesus clearly in the Old Testament is probably not very good at understanding him in the New Testament either. Join yourself to a church that preaches Jesus faithfully and consistently from the whole of the Scriptures.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

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Those Poor, Perplexed People of Malta

You hear a voice outside the door to your hut. “Probably someone who needs help picking up after the storm,” you think to yourself. “Guess I should stop pretending like I’m not home and go see what he wants.”

You’re barely outside before your friend Sergio begins talking excitedly at you. In between breaths he tries to tell you why he’s just sprinted all the way to your home.

“A ship has crashed,” he began, “on the reefs.”

You’ve lived your entire life on the island of Malta, so you’re used to ship wrecks by now. Why all the fuss?

Sergio continues, “All 276 survivors…” he says, still catching his breath. “Survived.”

“In a storm like that? You can’t be serious!”

But he was right. All 276 of the ship’s crew had washed safely ashore, still clinging desperately to pieces of cargo and bits of the broken ship.

“What does this mean?” you ask your friend, who now has your full attention.

“It’s a sign. The gods want us to welcome these people.” (Acts 28:2)

He must be right. Why else would they all have arrived safely on our island?

Later that night, as you sit with your new guests around a fire, a viper emerges from the wood and bites one of the prisoners (Acts 28:3). His name is Paul, but that hardly matters now. He’s only got a couple of hours left to live.

“Another sign from the gods,” you think to yourself. Some of your friends have already thought the same, and one of them speaks his mind. “No doubt this man is a murderer. He may have escaped from the sea, but Justice has caught up with him at last!” (Acts 28:4)

You wait for him to swell up or fall down dead, just like everyone else does after a run in with that kind of viper. No point in trying to save a murderer. He’s getting what he deserved.

An hour goes by, and then another. But still nothing happens. The man named Paul suffers no harm from the snakebite whatsoever (Acts 28:5). He doesn’t even seem phased by the incident.

What could this mean? Is it yet another sign? Before you could make up your mind, someone blurts out, “Surely this man is a god!” (Acts 28:6)

And so it was that in the span of just a few hours, you and your friends went from thinking that Paul was a murderer to thinking that Paul was a god.

You see, that’s the tricky thing about trying to interpret things as signs. You can never be quite sure what anything actually means. Are these people our enemies or our guests? Is that man a murderer or a god? How could you possibly know?

Are We Any Better?

We shouldn’t be too hard on the people of Malta. They weren’t doing much different from other ancient cultures. Even the sophisticated Greeks, with their love of logic, would visit oracles who used hallucinogenic drugs as a way to “predict the future.” The Romans weren’t any better. Their love for order and reason didn’t stop them from slaughtering bulls and throwing the entrails on the ground in the hopes of finding a meaningful sign. (How would you like to have gotten your degree in the art of reading bull guts?)

Some cultures tried to read tealeaves. Other cultures have tried to read the stars. (Astrologists still claim to do this very thing in our own time.)

What these groups of people all have in common is this: their religions taught them to look for signs and interpret them as clues about life.

If you think about it, religions like that put an awful lot of pressure on the people, don’t they? You must find the signs. You must interpret them.  And if you don’t do it right, then who knows what kinds of horrible things might happen. Most of life would be a mystery to you. Never knowing, always waiting for the next sign, hoping that when it comes you can recognize it quickly and interpret it correctly.

What an uncertain, distressing way to live.

Are we much better than all that? Maybe we don’t enthrone snakebite survivors as gods and goddesses. But we many of us do seek truth through mystical signs. This is an especially common practice when it comes to knowing God.

Looking for God in Feelings

Most of us are guilty of making decisions on the basis of our feelings (or intuition) from time to time. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” “Go with your gut.” “I prayed, and I have peace about this.”

And when it comes to looking for God, people believe that if they feel good about something it must be right or true. It must mean that “God is in this,” or “God wants me to do this.”

That kind of thinking is foolish, and dangerous too. By themselves, our feelings aren’t very trustworthy. We all have tons of stories of when we felt like we should do something, but our feelings proved to be horribly misguided. (So why do we continue to make decisions this way, let alone try to know God like this?)

Another reason feelings are a terrible source for truth is that the Scriptures warn us that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:4), seeking to lead astray whomever he can. If I were him, I’d give people “good feelings” about all sorts of things that poison their souls and wreck their lives.

Looking for God in Circumstances

“I knew this was ‘the one’ God wanted me to marry, because she wore a necklace with a cross on it.” (But you get divorced two years later.)

“I asked God to show me which world religion is true, and a Mormon missionary knocked on my door fifteen minutes later.” (But a Jehovah’s Witness also shows up an hour after that.)

The problem with trying to read your circumstances is that they change quickly (just as they did in Paul’s case) and they can be twisted to suit whatever you want them to say.

Take the guy who prayed to know which religion is true. How should he interpret the circumstances? Is Mormonism true because their missionaries arrived first? Or are the Jehovah’s Witnesses right, because they came afterward as a “correction” to the Mormons? Or are both groups wrong? How could you even know?

When circumstances change so quickly and can be taken to mean so many different things, they are the very last place we should go looking for the truth about God.

Looking for God in Religious Experience

Thirdly, many people look for God in religious experiences. They throw themselves fully into some kind of religion, thinking their devotion will help them discover the truth about God. (“If I work hard, then God will show me the truth…”)

The end result of this kind of life is typically one of two dead ends. Either you feel good about your conclusions, thinking that you have come to know God through your own efforts. This produces very prideful people who look down on others that haven’t worked as hard to know God as they. But God says he opposes the proud (Jas 4:6), so clearly these people haven’t found God.

The other dead end is despair. People who work hard to know God but feel like they can’t make any progress end up thinking one of two things: either (1) the problem lies with them for not working hard enough to find God, or (2) the problem lies with God, who doesn’t want to be found, can’t be found, or maybe doesn’t even exist. (If God doesn’t exist, that would explain why he is so hard to find.)

Looking for God in All the Wrong Places

Maybe you’ve tried looking for God in feelings, in circumstances, or in religion. You came up empty-handed, more confused, more hurt, and more frustrated than before you began.

Maybe because of this you’ve given up on God all together, concluding either that God doesn’t exist or that we can’t know if he exists.

But maybe you’ve never realized that you were looking for God in all the wrong places.

The True Sign of God

You see, unlike all the examples above, Christians have always taught that if you want to know God you must look to Jesus.

“God has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” (Heb. 1:2-3)

Jesus himself is the “sign” of God (Col. 1:15). He shows us what God is like, how God loves us, why God judges sin, and how God is making all things new.

The key difference between Jesus and every other sign you might seek is this: Jesus came looking for us, instead of making us look for him. And Jesus tells us why he lived, died, and rose again, instead of making us guess about what it all might mean.

Jesus is unlike every other sign because he doesn’t make us put the pieces together; he himself is the picture that makes sense of all the other puzzle pieces. By looking to Jesus, the light of the world, the dark mysteries of life are chased away.

Looking to Jesus in the 21st Century

How can we “look to Jesus,” since he is no longer with us?

Well, it’s not actually true that Jesus is not with us today. Jesus is alive, and he is with us through his Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, who dwells inside everyone that has died to sin and been made alive in Christ. Thus he personally leads us and guides us into the truth.

“But,” you say. “How is that any different than our feelings?” The difference is this: We have the Scriptures, which were co-authored by the Spirit. In them we see who God is, what he is doing in the world through Jesus, and what he wants us to do in the power of the Spirit. So when someone says, “God told me to…” Go back to the Scriptures, and you’ll know whether or not it was the Spirit who told them to do that. The more you look at Jesus, the better you’ll know the story of the Scriptures. And the better you know the story of the Scriptures, the better you’ll know what to do in life.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

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I remember hearing a small child in elementary school say the following to his (former) friend: “You’re a loser. I’m sorry, but the truth hurts.”

He wasn’t sorry. He was using an old saying (“the truth hurts”) as justification for his rudeness. It was a convenient excuse to say what he wanted without having to care about how he said it (not to mention whether or not it was actually a true statement).

Adults are no better. We just get more creative with how we use, “The truth hurts,” to justify saying whatever we want to the people around us. (Well, some people get more creative. Others still sound a lot like third graders.)

Now, when I say “the truth hurts and heals” (as in the title of the article), I don’t mean that the truth hurts because it’s rude. I mean that truth reveals to us things about ourselves that we don’t like to hear, at least not initially. Thus the truth “hurts.” But it also “heals.” It helps us and shows us what we ought to know and be and do.

Amazingly, Jesus taught that the same truth both hurts and heals. It’s not like this truth over here hurts you, while that truth over there helps you. Like a surgeon that must cut his patient in order to heal his body, the truth is a sharp-edged sword that must pierce our heart before it can heal our souls. In other words, the healing and hurting are connected for a purpose. The truth must hurt us in order to heal us.

Quod Est Veritas?

But what “truth” are we talking about? Any truth? All truth?

When we talk about “truth,” we are talking about specific truth. Not just truths like 2 + 2 = 4, or the fact that America was the first nation to put someone on the moon. Rather, we’re talking about the message that Jesus called the truth. Addressing his Father in heaven, Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).

Jesus was talking about what Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer called “true truth.” The Scriptures (God’s written word) give us the truth about God, the truth about ourselves, and the truth about the world we live in. Of course, the Scriptures don’t give us exhaustive knowledge about all things; they weren’t meant to do that. (You can’t figure out how to get to Argentina by reading the Bible, for example.) But the Scriptures do give us true and unified knowledge about our Creator, our own nature, and our environment. It is this truth that we have been speaking about all along. In other words, it is the truth about God, about ourselves, and about the world we live in that hurts us and heals us.

But how can a message hurt us and heal us? And what do we mean by “hurt” and “heal” anyway?

The Truth Hurts

It may be obvious, but I’m not saying that the Bible’s message will physically hurt you. That’s just silly. What we are talking about, rather, is the ability for the Bible’s message to offend us. It “hurts” our pride, for example, by reminding us that we are basically nothing before the power of God (Daniel 4:35) and that even the world’s mightiest empires are like a drop from a bucket or some dust on the scales (Isaiah 40:15, 17). The message of the Bible might even hurt our feelings, for it tells us that we all are sinful, guilty, and corrupt in our hearts (Rom. 3:10-18; Jer. 17:9).

That’s not exactly the kind of news that you go shouting from the rooftops. “Hey, everyone! I’ve got something I want to tell you. I’m sinful, guilty, and corrupt!” It may not be pleasant, but it’s true nonetheless. Furthermore, denying our sin, our guilt, and our corrupted hearts won’t change anything. In fact, that’ll only make things worse for us. (It would be like trying to deny the existence of gravity as you jump off a cliff.)

This is why we said the truth must hurt before it can heal. Or as Christian author Frederick Buechner famously wrote, “The gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the bad news. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. That is the good news” (Telling the Truth, p. 7).

The Truth Heals

To be “healed” is to be cured of a problem. As the Scriptures make clear, our “problem” is our sin, both our guilt and our corruption. Therefore, we need to be healed of sin. But how?

If we can be honest about ourselves, if we can believe what God says about our sin, about our need for him, and about his provision for us in Christ, we can be healed. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). He’s talking about freedom from slavery to our own sinful desires. That kind of freedom doesn’t come easy, though. Jesus called it “dying to self.” That was his way of saying that the truth will hurt you and heal you. It may feel like death, but it is actually setting you free—free from your blindness to the way things are, free from your ignorance of your need for Jesus, free from your selfish desires, free from your guilt for sin.

All this gives us a fresh perspective to what the author of Hebrews meant when he said the Scriptures are sharper than a sword. (“The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart,” cf. Heb. 4:12.) A surgeon’s scalpel cuts us in order to cure us, and the truth of the Scriptures hurts us in order to heal us. Or as one Christian artist sings: “When what is true / looks more like a knife / It looks like you’re killing me / but you’re saving my life” (Derek Webb, ”I See Things Upside Down”).

You Can Run But You Can’t Heal

One major implication of this is that Christians—people who ought to be committed to the truth of the Scriptures—should not try to run from conviction. When the Spirit of God uses truth from the Scriptures, whether delivered by a sermon of the church, a conversation over coffee, or an idea brought to mind, we ought not bury it. Here’s why. If you flee from the truth—say, by denying your sin or your need to change in one area—then you will never be healed by the truth. Some people do this by leaving their church family (or their community group, or their circle of friends) every time something is said that offends them. They never suppose that it might be God’s truth hurting them in order to heal them of their sinful thinking, their sinful attitudes, or their sinful actions. If what Jesus said about being set free by the truth and “dying to self” have any importance to us (and they should!), then perhaps we should be slow to run and quick to listen.

God wants to save your life. You must let the light of Christ shine into your darkened heart (John 8:12). The other option is death (Rom. 6:22-23). I’ll pray you’ll let his truth hurt you so that he may heal you.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

The post THE TRUTH HURTS (AND HEALS) appeared first on Remnant Resource.

The oldest known icon of Jesus is the Christ Pantokrator. (Icons are religious works of art meant to teach and to help with worship and prayer.) In this painting of Jesus, he is shown with one eye looking straight at you, while the other eye seems to be staring off into the distance.

Modern observers have mistakenly concluded that the painter made Jesus look cross-eyed, but that’s just because we don’t understand the symbolism of the painting. On one side Jesus’ face looks happy, his hand is raised in blessing, and his eye is fixed on the observer. No matter where you move, Jesus is there to bless you. But the other half of Jesus’ face looks stern, his other hand clutches the Book of Life, which records everything you’ve done whether good or bad, and his other eye stares in a different direction—not off not into the distance, but into your future. The point is clear: Jesus is both our savior and our judge.

Chances are, though, you don’t think of Jesus as your judge. You probably think of him as your Savior, your Redeemer, your forgiveness, and so forth. Perhaps you might even call him your “Lord” (which is true and powerful, if we really understand all that it means). But the point I’m getting at still remains. You almost never think of Jesus as your judge. To our ears, Jesus the judge doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as Jesus the Redeemer, does it?

And yet it’s true.

“God has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). We’re even commanded to tell this to others: “He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42).

A Common Theme: Jesus the Judge

As surprising as it might be to some, Jesus’ identity as the just judge is repeated in almost every letter of the New Testament (cf. Matt. 25:31-46; Luke 12:42-48; John 5:22-24; Rom. 2:16; 14:10-12; 1 Cor. 3:11-15; 4:5; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Thess. 1:5-7; 1 Tim. 5:24; 2 Tim. 4:1-8; Heb. 9:27; 10:30; 12:23; James 4:11-12; 5:9; 1 Pet. 1:7; 1:17; 2:23; 2 Pet. 2:9; 1 John 4:17; Jude 1:14-15; Rev. 11:18; 20:12, et al.).

In case your eyes skipped over all those Scriptural references, let us draw your attention once more to the fact that the theme of judgment is repeated in almost every book of the New Testament, and usually it is mentioned more than once in each of these books. You almost get the idea that the biblical authors thought judgment was an important thing for us to consider… (But if you’re like me, you probably don’t think on it often. We’re saved by grace, so who needs to worry about judgment. Right?)

Here we’re left with two conflicting realities: (1) The description of Jesus as the just judge is one of the most repeated themes of the New Testament, but (2) virtually no one thinks of Jesus in that way. We mostly think of him as our gracious Savior, not our righteous Judge.

This discrepancy seems to reveal what we think of Jesus and of what we think of ourselves. There are two reasons we reject the idea of judgment:

1. We don’t like authority.

“Don’t judge me.” “You can’t tell me what to do.” “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” The last popular quote is, of course, from the Bible. But we miss the point of what is being said there. Those were the words of Jesus given to sinful people. He says that we ought not judge others in such a way as to think that we are above the same judgment ourselves (Matt. 7:1-2). But Jesus never said that no one will be judged. He simply meant that only the proper authorities should do the judging.

Think about it. A world without judgment would mean anything goes. Rape, murder, child molestation, lies, greed, hate, racism, infidelity—all of these would be acceptable. But those sorts of things are not acceptable, and everyone knows it. So you could say that we need judgment in order to live in just and peaceful societies. That is not a strange thing to say when you understand what judgment is. Judgment is the authoritative declaration that one thing is good and to be upheld, while another thing is evil and to be avoided. It is to be avoided, because it will be stopped by the proper authorities. The same is true with Jesus, our ultimate authority.

And with that last sentence we have arrived at the heart of our problem. We don’t like the idea that someone else is the authority over us. We have a government that must answer to the people (or else they won’t get re-elected). But it’s not so with Jesus. He doesn’t answer to us; we answer to him. And if you wonder what “right” Jesus has to judge any of us, if you find yourself thinking, “Who is he to judge me?” You should know that thinking like that is result of belittling Jesus and inflating our own egos. You have reduced to Jesus to your buddy, your equal, when he is first and foremost your Lord. He’s the boss. He created the universe. You exist because he wants you to, not the other way around (Rev. 4:11). What he says goes, whether you like it or not. But you should like it (and not as you should like a vegetable that is good for you but tastes bad). Rather, you should like this because of who Jesus actually is. He is the source of all goodness and beauty and truth; therefore, his judgments are perfectly fair. Not to mention, if you turn your back on the source of everything good, what will you have left? (Nothing good, obviously.)

You see, the judgment of Jesus would be a scary reality if he were some malicious dictator hell-bent on ruining our lives. But he’s not. Instead, he is dead set on ruining evil, by judging it and stopping it completely. His just judgment means that he won’t let evil go unchecked, and that’s good news. Judgment is good news.

Now for the bad news: we deserve judgment. This factors into the second reason why we tend not to think of Jesus as our judge.

2. We don’t like guilt.

We feel the weight of our guilt for not doing the things we ought to have done, or for doing the things we know we shouldn’t have. Some try to deal with this guilt by explaining it away. They say, “I’m not really so bad as all that. Look at that guy. He’s way worse than me.” That kind of thinking may relieve your conscience for a moment, but it won’t lessen your guilt (nor the judgment your actions deserve).

Other people try to relieve their feelings of guilt through religious activity. They think, “If I do a bunch of good for God, then maybe he’ll overlook all my failures.” Depending on your background, you might think of feeding the homeless, giving to churches or to charities, passing out gospel tracts, reading the Bible, obeying God’s commands, and so forth. Regardless of what you choose, all of those are ways of trying to “bribe God.” Maybe you don’t think of it in those terms, but that’s basically what you are doing if you try to earn God’s forgiveness through good behavior. But what kind of judge would let a murderer off the hook simply because he had also given a bunch of his money to the judge’s favorite charity? We would rightly call into question the justice of that judge’s actions.

The Judge and the Pardoner

And so we are left with a problem: judgment, in general, is good news for it means that evil will be stopped. But when we look at ourselves, judgment sounds like bad news because we are caught up in the evil that will be judged. What are we to make of all this? Is there no hope for us?

Behold, Jesus is the judge who took upon himself the judgment that we were due. It’s as if you were guilty of wrecking a car that you couldn’t afford to repair, and Jesus volunteered to repair the car for you at great cost to himself. Only in this case, the “car” that was wrecked is actually your life. It represents your failure to love God and love your neighbor with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Your failure to do so will be judged; indeed, it must be judged if God is truly just. That is the good news of the gospel. Jesus the judge took upon himself the judgment we deserve so that we might be freed from our guilt.

But there are those who say to Jesus, “Thanks, but no thanks.” In effect they are telling him that they don’t need or want what he offers. As a result, they are choosing to face the judgment of God for their sin on their own. They will fact the full force of his justice for the evil they have committed, and the only just “reward” for that is separation from the goodness of God forever. “We know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:30-31).

Everyone who follows Jesus, however, need not fear that kind of judgment. Jesus himself says that those who believe in him will not come into that kind judgment (John 5:22-24). There is “no more condemnation” for them, since Jesus has already bore the judgment they deserve in his death on the cross (Rom. 8:1).

Free From Condemnation, Not From Obedience

Jesus’ free pardon doesn’t mean that we can get on with our lives doing whatever we please. In fact, Jesus himself said the person who calls him Lord but doesn’t want to do what he says isn’t really his disciple (Luke 6:46). So it simply won’t do for us to pretend like Jesus’ sacrifice means that obeying God is optional. Once again, Jesus said that obeying God is one of the main ways we demonstrate our love for him (John 14:15).

Nor does it mean that once you are “in Christ Jesus” that what you do doesn’t matter to God. Some people have taught, quite wrongly, that if you have been rescued by grace through faith in Jesus that what you do is ultimately irrelevant. “After all,” the thinking goes, “since I can’t improve upon the righteousness of Jesus, my actions are of no real value.”

That may be how you learned the gospel in Sunday School, but it’s not how the Scriptures apply the that truth. For the same man who wrote, “there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” also wrote, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10). He also wrote, “We will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’ So then each of us will give an account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:10-12).

Forgiven Yet Accountable

This theme of accountability to God runs throughout the New Testament as a continual reminder not to waste our lives (Matt. 14:45-47; 25:14-30; Luke 12:35-48; 16:1-13; 17:7-10; 19:12-27; Rom. 2:16; 14:10-12; 1 Cor. 3:8-15; 4:5; 9:17-27; Col. 3:23-25; 1 Tim. 2:3-6; 2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Pet. 1:7; 5:4; Rev. 4:4, 10; 22:12).

Jesus himself told many parables about unfaithful managers, people who did not steward the time and talents they had been given by God to bless others in his name (e.g., Luke 12:35-48). The point of his parables was always the same: if we are true followers who know the goodness of our Lord, we should faithfully invest our lives in the service of his kingdom. His followers who have done much good will be rewarded, Jesus said. Those who were selfish, lazy, disobedient, and unfaithful will receive some kind of punishment. They will “suffer loss,” as Paul says. Listen to his words:

“For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one’s work will become evident, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:11-15).

This teaching has upset many people, for they feel offended that Jesus doesn’t give everyone a gold star for participation. Others wrongly claim that this teaching is some kind of legalistic works-based salvation. But that’s not true. It simply says that (1) those who love Jesus will strive to serve him and (2) that those who do will be rewarded, while those who don’t will “suffer loss.”

What Kind of Rewards?

We don’t know exactly what these rewards will be like, but Jesus’ teachings give us some idea. When the master comes back to check on the work of his servants, he will say to some, “‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” (Matt. 25:21). This suggests that God will praise the faithfulness of his servants (cf. 1 Pet. 1:7), that God will give them greater responsibility and opportunity in his eternal kingdom (cf. Matt. 25:24), and that the servant’s may have a greater capacity to share in the Lord’s happiness (cf. 2 Cor. 1:14; 1 Thess. 2:19-20). Meanwhile less faithful servants will still be saved “as through fire,” Paul says, but they will be rebuked for their unfaithfulness (Matt. 25:26; Luke 12:48), stripped of some responsibility in Jesus’ eternal kingdom (Matt. 25:29), and perhaps feel some grief at the realization of how much time they wasted when they could have been serving their king.

Whatever the other rewards may be, it’s important to point out that the greatest reward is seeing Jesus face-to-face and living in his presence without sin (1 John 3:2). It’s also important to point out that Jesus, though our Savior, is still the one to whom we give an account. So while we do not live as people afraid of being cast out of God’s presence forever, neither should we wander aimlessly through life wasting the time that we have been given. Jesus says to you even now, “Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed are those who keep the words of this book” (Rev. 22:7).

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

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The Moral of the Story

Stories often shape the way we live in the world. When you first heard the story about the ‘boy who cried wolf,’ for example, you didn’t need someone to tell you the point. Like everyone else, you intuitively knew that the point of the story was to warn little children of the dangers of pretending to be in trouble. It was like that with every other story from your childhood, too.

The same thing tends to happen when we read “stories” (technically, they’re narratives) in the Bible. There’s just one catch: The smaller stories in the Bible are telling one Big Story—a story about Jesus. And if you miss that point, you’re bound to draw the wrong conclusion about the smaller stories every time.

That’s especially easy to do with a story like the one we have in Acts 27. With even half an imagination you can almost feel the strong wind, the crashing waves, and the rocking boat. It’s a story wonderfully told. But why is Luke telling it? What are we supposed to learn here? Or as we say, What’s the point?

It would be easy for us to conclude, as so many have done, that the point of the story is that God will keep us safe and sound from the “storms of life,” just as he kept Paul and all the sailors safe, too. That message might seem to work for a little while, but the moment tragedy strikes we’ll be left wondering, “Where was God? Why didn’t he keep this from happening?” Depending on the seriousness of the tragedy,  you might even give up trusting God altogether.

But you shouldn’t.

Trusting the Wrong Things

The problem wasn’t with God; the problem was with you. It’s easy to see how it could happen. You’ve been told all your life that you’re supposed to “trust God,” and so you do. The trouble is that you have been trusting God for all the wrong things.

Sometimes we trust God for promises that he didn’t give to us. Consider God’s promise to keep Noah safe from the flood if he built a massive ship. That was a one-of-a-kind promise made to a specific person in a specific situation for a specific reason. We can’t just “claim” all of God’s promises as if they were all made to us. (Think about it: You wouldn’t like it if I took a promise that you made to someone else and forced you to make good on it for me, too!)

Other times we go around saying things like “God is faithful” without having any clue what that means. In fact, people use it to refer to just about anything these days. You got a check from your grandma—God is faithful! You got your first date in two years—God is faithful! Your dad died last week—God is faithful? When the words “God is faithful” can mean anything, then they really mean nothing.

Or maybe we trust God to give us things that were actually our desires, not his. For example, suppose you wanted to go to a crazy expensive college where you had no scholarships and no financial aid. After graduating, you would be in almost $200,000 worth of debt. You pray about it and decide that God wants you to go there because you “have a peace about the situation.” Years later, when you are struggling with bills because of your massive monthly loan payments, you keep saying that you are trusting God to provide because, after all, it was his will for you to go that school. (Or was it?)

And then there are those who trust God for all kinds of material comforts. They are always trusting God for something—a bigger house, more money, a new husband, a better job. But when life circumstances don’t improve, they aren’t sure who to blame. Did they not have enough faith? Was some evil force blocking their blessings? It never occurs to them that they’re trusting God for something he never promised to give.

Or maybe you say things like, “God, I’ll trust you if…” It just so happens that everything you put on the other side of the “if” always pertains to you. “God I’ll trust you if you give me what I want.” But when you don’t get everything you want, you’re left wondering whether you can trust God for anything at all.

There also people trust God because they are confident in themselves. It sounds strange when you put it like that, but basically these are people who believe that “God helps those who help themselves.” Far from being a verse in the Bible (it isn’t) this idea is actually the complete opposite of the kind of trust that God wants from us.

Finally, some people find it hard to trust in God for anything. Perhaps they think they don’t need him at all, or they aren’t even sure that he exists. It’s hard to trust someone when you don’t see your own need.

Our lives are not meant to be lived like any of those examples, blindly groping around in the dark with no certain hope, no security, no assurance, and no idea of who God is or what he can be trusted to do.

What Faith Doesn’t Guarantee

You see, the only reason that Paul knew he would be rescued safely from the storm is because Jesus had already promised him that God would get him to Rome to testify before Caesar (Acts 23:11). And on top of that, an angelic messenger from God appeared to Paul in the midst of the storm to remind him of Jesus’ promise (27:24). Paul didn’t have to doubt what God had double-promised him.

But God hasn’t promised me anything like that. (And since the Caesars are long gone, I can say with some confidence that God hasn’t promised you that, either.) So it would be complete foolishness to conclude from this story—as so many people have done—that the point (or “moral”) of the story is to show us that God keeps us safe in the “storms of life.” It’s almost as if we say, “See? God told Paul he would rescue him from trouble if he only trusted him. So God will rescue me from trouble, too, if I just have faith.”

Sadly, there are many Christians who have been taught that if they have faith, if they just “trust God”, then everything will flow smoothly for them. “Come to Jesus and he will give you a full bank account,” they say. “God will provide.” “God will make you happy.” “God will make your problems go away.” “God will give you a life of peace and comfort.”

But if you read the Bible with even one eye open, you’ll see in two seconds how terribly, dangerously false those claims truly are. For the Bible is filled with stories of people who had great faith but still had really horrible things happen to them. Jesus himself is a perfect example!

Jesus did not go around telling people that if they trust God, they will never run into any kind of trouble or tragedy. Actually, he told them the opposite. He said that if he experienced trouble and tragedy in his life, how much more should we expect to face the same in our lives?

God Is Faithful; Look to Jesus

If all this leaves you wondering, “What’s the point in following Jesus?” then you’ve not considered the full picture. Perhaps you have not considered the horrific brokenness of the world. You have not considered the weight of sin, both yours and the sin of others. And you have not considered the deliverance we have in Jesus.

Jesus faced the very worst that the world could through at him—temptation, misjudgment, mockery, cruelty, abandonment, torture, death—and he emerged victorious. He let the world do its worst to him so that even if the world throws its worst at us, we don’t have to be afraid. We have victory in Jesus, as the old hymn sang. We can trust that his death and resurrection will deliver us from sin and death.

That’s what Jesus went around telling people. He didn’t say, “Trust that God will make you comfortable”, or “Trust that God will spare you from every trouble.” Rather, Jesus called us to trust that God would deliver us from his just judgment against sin, that he would deliver us from the power of sin and death, and that, one day, he will deliver us from the presence of evil completely (after Jesus makes all things new).

Those are all things you can trust God for, and the cross and the resurrection prove that he’s faithful to keep those promises.

Hope For Later and Hope for Today

And if we’re tempted to think that this somehow just gives us “hope for later” while we trudge through this world alone, then we’re terribly mistaken. The more confidence you have in God’s faithfulness to deliver you from sin and death, the more you will be able to live in the midst of brokenness, not with hopelessness but with hope that God will set things straight again; and you can live in the midst of tragedy, not with grief but with joy, for you have a better possession in Jesus that cannot be taken away; and you can even face great injustices committed against you, not with rage but with forgiveness, for you know that God has judged sin on the cross, forgiven you of your sin, and called you to do the same for others.

In all of this God never leaves us or forsakes us. Jesus said he would be with us always, all the way to the end of the age. God is with us through his Spirit, helping us to trust that he’ll be faithful to deliver us through Jesus—just as he promised he would do.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

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A Baby, His Future, and My Hope

A little over two months ago my wife gave birth to our first child, Athanasius (we call him “Ash” for short). He was named after a very important figure in the early history of the church. Though he’s only been with us for a short period of time, it’s already hard to imagine life without him.

As I was changing his diaper one day the thought occurred to me that my parents had once been where I am now. This is obvious, of course, but the force of it strikes you differently when you first step into the role of being a parent. Then another thought occurred to me. One day my son would be where I am. (Even if he never knows the joy of being a father, he will still become an adult.) Though tiny, helpless, and in need of constant assistance, the only essential difference between my son and I was one of time. I had been where he was; he would one day be where I am. He has a future like mine.

The Beginning of Our Future

It may seem odd, but I reflected on that idea for quite a bit that day. It became clear that as long as the normal course of life were not interrupted (by death, for example), my son would grow to be an adult just like every other human being who lives to adulthood. He has a future like ours.

But when did his future like ours begin? Did it begin on January 17th, the day he was born? That seems strange to say, since the only difference between my son on January 17th and January 16th was a matter of a location. He was no more alive on the 16th of January than he was on the 17th. He was no smaller (how much difference could one day make?). He was no more helpless and needy than he was after birth. So when did his future like ours begin?

This question has significant implications for discussions about a baby’s right to life. To interfere with the natural course of life (by abortion, for example) seems to terminate a baby’s future like ours after the possibility for that future has already begun. In other words, terminating the life of a baby, even very early in the womb, deprives him or her of access to the same kind of future that you and I have obtained.

The End of a Future Like Ours

That abortion prevents a baby from obtaining its future is undeniable, since abortion by definition means “to stop” something. In this case, what is being stopped from occurring is a baby’s future like ours. Had we done nothing to the developing baby in the womb, the natural course of life would have brought into the world a human being who has no essential differences from you or I except for the matter of age or time. When simply refraining from acting allows a developing baby to obtain a future like ours, the burden of proof rests on those who think they have the right to interfere with the natural course of life to stop what would otherwise come to fruition.

Please don’t misunderstand. I do not mean to suggest that this idea alone can answer the question of how best to handle the issue of abortion in our country (the United States of America). There are many people who would agree with what has been written here but who, for various reasons, still disagree about the best way to reduce the number of abortions every year. Some believe that laws restricting abortion will not help the situation, while others strongly believe that such laws are the best way to help. I suspect we will still be arguing about these things until the day when all people everywhere agree that depriving a baby of a future like ours is fundamentally wrong.

What we must not overlook in the meantime, however, is that what we have been talking about seems to have serious implications for Christians who believe that God is actively involved in the development of every human being from the moment when their future like ours begins to the moment when their life comes to a close (Psalm 139:13-14). It simply won’t do for Christians who take God seriously to act as if protecting a baby’s right to a future like ours isn’t important. It truly is.

God’s Heart And Our Calling

Christians throughout history have always understood the importance of life. That’s why when other cultures actively engaged in abortion, they refused to perform abortions on themselves. And when other cultures left their unwanted babies on remote hilltops to die, Christian couples would rescue the babies and adopt them as their own. But their respect for human beings didn’t stop there. Christians popularized hospitals in an era when you went to the hospital because you were dying, not because you hoped to get better. Their treatment of the sick and the poor caused one Roman official to exclaim, “They care for our own people better than we do!” Christians were also known for their radical love for all people, even their enemies. More than a few times Christians went to their deaths praying for the well-being of the people who were about to kill them.

God’s people have always had a heart to help the helpless, defend the defenseless, and speak up for those who have no voice, because God’s call to promote the well-being of others is a theme throughout the Scriptures: “Learn to do what is good; seek justice; alleviate oppression; take up the cause of the fatherless; and plead the case of the widow” (Isa. 1:17). And again, “Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place” (Jer. 22:3). And, “A religion that is pure and faultless according to God the Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows who are suffering…” (James 1:27). And the verse that covers all these with one simple command: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).

What You Can (And Must) Do

An honest look at the world today must conclude that there are many, many people being deprived of a future like ours—which is actually true in more than one sense.

First, there are nations like China and India where the number of babies who are deprived of futures like ours is utterly astronomical—and many of them are deprived of a future like ours for the simple reason that they are female. The Chinese government admits to having deprived more than 336 million babies of futures of like ours since 1971. That’s more than all the people killed in 10 deadliest wars combined. And most of these babies were little girls. It is a truly tragic irony when the people who claim to be fighting for the rights of women endorse practices that decrease the number of women in the world. Christians who care about the right for all babies—including unwanted little girls—to have a future like ours need to have serious conversations about what we can do to help the not-yet-born wherever they are.

Second, there are many places where children already born are being deprived of a future like ours in another important sense. In underdeveloped countries children have little to no access to basic human necessities like food and water. Many of them die early deaths as a result, being deprived of a future in any sense of the term. Others live to adulthood only to contract AIDS or some other preventable disease because they lack basic the medical attention that we take for granted. There is much work to be done here as well. Christians must see issues of justice as essential to the full-orbed proclamation of the gospel in a sick and dying world.

Finally, I pray that you will see that this is not primarily a political issue. It’s so much more important than that. This is a matter of love and justice. Out of love for those who have futures like ours and out of a desire to give them the same kind of life that we have enjoyed, we can’t let political disagreements stop us from taking action. To do so would be counter to the gospel itself. For our God is the one who said to his people, “I know the plans I have for you: plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11). God gives us that in Jesus, who is the author of every future like ours. Let’s honor him with the future that we’ve been given by giving a future to those who have little hope for one.

Doug Ponder is one of the founding pastors of Remnant Church in Richmond, VA, where he serves in many of the church’s teaching ministries. He has contributed to several published works and is the author of Rethink Marriage & Family. His interests include the intersection of theology, ethics, and the Christian life. Follow him on Twitter @DougPonder.

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