Knowing Good and Evil

Perhaps you’ve been disheartened in recent years at our growing inability to discourse in a civil way regarding important topics about which we disagree.  What happens is typical: Conversation starts when an opinion is shared; then the opposing side responds to the extreme pole of the original; the originator "clarifies;" but the tension has already risen so high that the conversation either splits or lapses into name-calling.

I’ve been guilty (and I think many others have been too) of speaking to a person’s motives as I perceive them, instead of staying on point with the topic in question. Don’t minimize that we all do this, and it is especially common in our day where we can interact with virtually the whole world without leaving our bedroom.  It seems that we are all so clearheaded on where everyone else is coming from, giving ourselves (and our "tribe") the benefit of the doubt.  A younger liberal assumes an older conservative with whom they’re speaking has a certain worldview that is easily the same as the other older conservative they've spoken to in the past (and vice-versa).  We thus broad-brush very easily, and never doubt ourselves.

One reason we do this is because often generalizations are true.  But something happens when we rely on this: we automatically dismiss the person opposing us because we think we already know what they’re going to say, instead of listening and trying to learn something (which happily doesn’t require that we abandon our view; it only forces us to think critically about it).

The Tree

As a church pastor and reader of Christian literature for many years, I’ve learned that people (myself included) are prone to confusion over the nature of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2-3.   All kinds of theories have been advanced about what the tree is, and I’m sure that if you’ve spent any time studying the Bible you’ve formulated an opinion about it.  Most have rejected the view that it is an evil tree which God placed there as a temptation in the midst of the Garden of Eden.  They’re right to reject this view, because the evidence points to the tree itself being good, along with all of the creation (ch. 1, 3:7).  Further, God isn’t the one himself who tempts (James 1:13), though he’ll allow temptations to befall us that we’d grow in Him (Matthew 18:7).  In any event He does create the tree, places it in the garden, and it is clearly off-limits to the couple placed there (Gen. 2:17).

You might know the story: God creates man to live in this special garden, and there are many trees in the garden, but two special ones which are placed right in the middle: the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  God tells the man he can eat of any tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when he eats of it he will die.   Through the wiles of this mysterious talking serpent*, the woman who is made from man’s rib is tempted to distrust God’s warning, to which she caves, and the man with her.  Then their “eyes are opened,” and they are suddenly ashamed at their nakedness, which before, as though they were at a California beach, wasn’t a problem.

It is not my intention to go into the myriad of details here – just to make a few points.  In any event, it is clear that eating from this tree has radically altered man who is made in God’s image, and the creation which has been prepared specifically for him.

What was the tree? 

Many things can be surmised from the text of Genesis itself regarding what this tree is.  Here’s what we know:

1. To eat from the tree will bring death (Whereas, to eat from the tree of life will bring life) 2:9, 17.

2. The serpent, who very clearly is out for the peoples’ destruction, wantsthem to eat of the tree 3:1-5.

3. When the people eat of it, their eyes were opened, and this opening brings about a profound shame 3:7.

4. At the end of the Biblical timeline (world history), the tree is not in heavenly Jerusalem; but the other tree – the tree of life – is (Rev. 22:2).

5. “Knowledge” in the Old Testament Hebrew more often than not connotes intimacy (as in 4:1, when it says Adam knew his wife, and she bore a son); so there will come an intimacy with the knowledge of good and evil.

As I mentioned before, it isn’t that the tree itself was evil.  God made all things good.  But this appears to be a test for the people made in his image: Would they obey their Creator and trust his truth and love for them, or question him and take their lives in their own hands?  

Sinclair Ferguson has said that this is exactly what Satan attacks when he speaks by the serpent: getting them to believe they can’t trust God’s goodness or his commitment to their happiness.**   A thought from Graeme Goldsworthy might help fill the idea out even better: “The perfect relationship bw Creator and creature, between ruler and ruled, cannot exist if the creature seeks to usurp the role of Creator rejecting his rule”,^ and that is what Satan is after: usurping this relationship.  Thus Goldsworthy says elsewhere,  “Dissatisfied with their humanness, the couple reached for godhood.  In lusting after a throne that was not theirs they lost the privileges they already had.”^^  The two trees are in essence two ways which God sets before them, so they should choose life (and doubtless this is in Moses’ thought when he says these exact words to Israel in Deut. 30:19).  But the people in the garden choose their own way (Is. 53:6), and the creation is ruined for a time (Rom. 8:18ff).  

This promised "knowledge" will be the death of truth and relationships 

God calls one tree the tree of life, and the other the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Since 3:22 makes plain that to eat from the former will lead to eternal life (and Jesus says the same thing in Revelation 2:7), it follows that to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will lead to the knowledge of good and evil.  This actually sounds good to our ears.  But bear in mind, the serpent wants the woman and her husband to long for this, instead of leaving this knowledge to God.  The clear implication is that with this knowledge will come death.  And this point is further seen in the shame that they feel after eating.  It hasn’t turned out well for them! 

The death promised and then experienced here is both a physical death (later experienced), and a spiritual death that day.  Thus Jesus says that if a person embraces Him as the Savior of the world, they “pass from death to life” (John 5:24), and Paul tells the Christians in Ephesus that before they were raised with Jesus, they were “dead in trespasses” (Eph. 2:1).

And Jesus says that to know the truth will set free.  So this knowledge of good and evil is apparently not a knowledge of truth or any kind of freedom.  But it is an intimate acquaintance with the reality of both good and evil, and it isn't good.  We may say that at this point the struggle between goodness and evil has come into them, and this is why they feel shame at their nakedness: They know they were made this way, but now it doesn’t feel right and they’re confused.

And with this loss has come a loss of relationships.  So Adam blames Eve, Cain kills Abel, and the Bible is a mess of relationships, starting in Genesis (and seriously, read Genesis - it is a mess which makes Jerry Springer look like a Nick Jr show).  So in the NT, the world is characterized as those who are “hated by others and hating one another” (Titus 3:3).

This loss of relationships is caused by none other than man’s taking the reigns as his own thinking being, apart from God, and thus becoming a mess of inconsistency and contradiction.  But he only realizes this about others, and not about himself.  Thus Adam is held accountable (3:9, Rom. 5:12-21), but he blames the woman (3:12).  Later in the Bible, David rages at a story told him of a sheep-owner who had his lamb ripped out from his arms and killed, only to be told by the prophet that he himself is the man in the story (2 Sam. 12).  The point is this: Because man is ashamed in his own sin, he’ll do whatever he can to cover up his own shame.  So he sees others sins easily, but he cant see his own very well at all.

John Macarthur has rightly said that, in taking of the tree and having their eyes “opened,” it can be said of Adam and Eve that, “The innocence before had been replaced by guilt and shame (vv. 8-10), and from then on they had to rely on their conscience to distinguish bw good and their newly acquired capacity to see and know evil.”*   What has happened?  Man now is his own thinking being, and being fallen from his original state of perfection, he is full of inconsistency and sin, yet he gives himself the benefit of the doubt, and holds others to the standard that he himself should keep, and can't.  One might say that in receiving the knowledge of good and evil, we received the tension of good and evil.

Since we can't think truly, we can't dialogue truly

To get back to where we started, this is why it is so difficult to discuss tense topics today.  We are not ourselves able to consistently and faithfully engage with what is good and evil.  But we think we are.  And we easily see other’s inconsistencies, while not owning our own.  So when we’re arguing with another person online or in person, we attribute motive to people who are standing up for what they believe in, without questioning our own; the reality is that we need God to lead us into the proper motive, because Biblically, there is no one “side” that has proper motives, but rather “the intentions of man’s (read, everyone’s) heart is only evil continually,” (Gen. 6:5).  It is not only that all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory, but all have bought into lies, have thus been filled with shame, and are doing all they can to cover it up.

The fact that we are sinners is obvious.  The fact that the world is a mess is obvious.  Every religion in the world agrees that we are not where we should be (and the differences come in giving an answer regarding how to get where we need to be).  But I suggest that the most subtle part of our fall in Adam which stems from eating of the tree is that we now have a clear knowledge that both good and evil exist, and while we are each and everyone of us confident in our abilities to discern, we are profoundly confused and ashamed, though unwilling to admit it.  What we need is repentance and grace, and then transformation of mind so that we not only can discern between what is right and wrong, but can ourselves love what is right, hear what is good in others’ contributions, and see a conversation forward.  This is very difficult, but it is certainly God’s will for the church to walk in the truth, and be patient with one another as we pursue truth together.  But we can't unless we get honest about our biases and blindspots, and that only comes with bringing ourselves to the real Jesus.

John Calvin comments well on the tree of knowledge.  I’ll close with this quote: 

“We now understand what is meant by abstaining from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; namely, that Adam might not, in attempting one thing or another, rely upon his own prudence; but that, cleaving to God alone, he might become wise only by his obedience. "Knowledge" is therefore taken disparagingly, in a bad sense, for that wretched experience which man, when he departed from the only fountain of perfect wisdom, began to acquire for himself. And this is the origin of free-will, that Adam wished to be independent, and dared to try what he was able to do.”**

Friend, we need deep transformation of heart and mind, to discern truly between what is good and evil. And this is what Jesus offers us, if we'll come for him to change our hearts and minds.  Paul says in Ephesians 4:23-24 that the one who is following Jesus is to be "renewed in the spirit of their minds, putting on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."  This is because God is making a new creation through Jesus who, unlike the couple in Eden and the nation in the desert, withstood the temptation.  Therefore His people are those who delight not in their (in)ability to figure things out, but in God’s perfect knowledge and righteous leading.  “He who trusts in his own mind is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26).  But he who lacks wisdom and asks God will receive it (James 1:5).  It may sound too simple.  But it is in fact the profound simplicity that proves it is true.

So let’s seek the real Jesus - the one the Scripture says is ruling and reigning now - together.  In doing so we'll regain both our sanity and our unity.  And it'll be infinitely better than a "sanity" or a "unity" which we can make, because it'll be based on His truth and perfection.  And there is no evil with Him, but only good. 

*if you take a Biblical theological approach, the serpent is clearly identified with Satan, as Revelation 12 says; also it is only one of two animals in Scripture who speak, the implication being that the God who made the animals to not speak can animate them and allow them to speak if he wants to.
**Ferguson, "The Whole Christ," see pp47ff
^Goldsworthy, "Gospel and Kingdom," p 60
^^Goldsworthy, "According to Plan," p 106
*Macarthur, "One perfect life," p 19, emph. mine
 **Calvin’s Commentary on Genesis, p 118, emph. mine

Born Again to Follow Jesus

I’m reading a John Piper book right now called Finally Alive.  It has been available for years for free on Piper’s Desiring God website.  It is a study on the topic of rebirth or regeneration in the New Testament.  Virtually every NT writer speaks about the new birth. Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3 is most famous.  Elsewhere Paul speaks of the new birth in Ephesians 2:4-5, Peter does so in 1 Peter 1:3, James in James 1:17-18, and the idea comes up multiple times in 1 John. 

In beginning his study, Piper alludes to a contemporary study put out by the Barna group that suggests that “born-again Christians” display characteristics that show them as no different in any way from those who don’t identify as “born again.”  The upshot of this notion is that Christians in the western world are just like the rest of the world; so they’re, on the whole, hypocrites.  Examples are given to prove this point, such as divorce rates, tithing rates, racism, and others.*  This should be startling to a Christian who knows that being a Christian is supposed to show itself in how one lives. 

Piper continues, showing how the Barna group defined “born again” in their research:

“Born again Christians were defined in these surveys as people who said they have made ‘a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today’ and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.  Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as ‘born again.’  Being classified as ‘born again’ is not dependent upon church or denominational affiliation or involvement.”**

Using the Term Backwards

Piper concludes that because the Barna study thus uses the term “born again” to describe people who merely say things, they are making a profound mistake, because the New Testament "moves in the opposite direction."  Piper says it better than I can: 

“I’m not saying their research is wrong.  It appears to be appallingly right.  I am not saying that the church is not as worldly as they say it is.  I am saying that the writers of the NT think in exactly the opposite direction about being born again.  Instead of moving from a profession of faith, to the label “born again,” to the worldliness of these so-called “born again” people, to the conclusion that the new birth does not radically change people, the NT moves in the other direction.  It moves from absolute certainty that the new birth radically changes people, to the observation that many professing Christians are indeed not radically changed, to the conclusion that they are not born again.  The New Testament, unlike the Barna Group, does not defile the new birth with the worldliness of unregenerate, professing Christians.” (emphasis mine)^

Piper then goes on to list several passages from 1 John that drive this point home: 

-1 John 2:29 says that everyone born of Christ practices righteousness like him.  

-3:9 says that no one born of God makes a practice of sinning, because God’s seed abides in him (not saying Christians never sin, but there is a decisive change in their behavior).  

-4:7 says that whoever loves has been born of God.  

-5:4 says that everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. 

What we find from the Apostle John (and secondarily from Pastor John) is that if one is truly born again, it changes how they live.  Therefore, one can be tragically mistaken in what they say about their faith or their convictions – what matters is whether or not one truly is born again; if they are, it’ll show itself in how they live.  And if the life doesn’t match up to the profession, then the profession is phony.  This is why Paul labors in Galatians 5:16-24 in teaching about the so-called fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peach, patience, etc.)  If one has the Spirit, they’ll live like and look like Jesus.  If they don’t live like Jesus, they don’t have the Spirit.  This is not to say that every Christian is perfect like Jesus.  But it is to say that their life has been changed by Jesus, and changed decisively.

The Shift 

Iain Murray makes the point in his Revival and Revivalism that in the 19^thcentury, Christianity began a massive shift in the Western world.  Before the shift, Christians were people who love Jesus and live like Him (as John says). After the shift, a Christian is a person who has walked an aisle, prayed a prayer, and given a profession of faith.^^  The (generally faithful) labor of the late Billy Graham unfortunately exacerbated this notion.  Therefore, if one has made a profession of faith, they must be born again. But if they don’t follow Jesus, what then?  Some may say that they’re hypocritical converts.  John the Apostle would say they’re no converts at all.  They might be hypocrites and liars (1 John 2:4), but they are no convert and certainly are not born again.

The reality is that if one doesn’t follow Jesus, it isn’t that they stopped following him at some point in the past.  It is that they never were following to begin with.  Thus, again, John, speaking about some professing Christians who had left the church, says, “They went out from us to prove that they were not really of us” (1 John 2:19).  Elsewhere, Jesus said that his sheep are marked by their following Him (John 10:27) and Paul wrote of our need to test ourselves to see if we’re indeed in the faith (2 Cor. 13:5), because it’s possible one to only think they are.  Further, while many in Timothy’s church had “made shipwreck of their faith” (1 Tim. 1:19), the reality is that their faith is simply being proven as a pseudo-faith, because true faith is faithful to the end (Gal. 5:22; see also Jude 24).

This is what lies behind the stern warning of Jesus when he warns about telling a certain people in the final judgment, “Depart from me, for I never knew you” (Matt. 7:21-23).  If you read that section, you see that the people to whom he speaks are entirely convinced they’re “in” with Him.  But notice the proof to which they allude: “Did we not cast out demons and perform many mighty works in your name?”  Jesus then tells them that those things are no proof that they’ve been born again.  In fact that is why they allude to those things – they’ve missed the truth that people only come into God’s presence because of Jesus’ righteousness, accounted to the guilty sinner by faith.  The answer to the question, “Why should you enjoy the new heavens and the new earth?” isn’t, “Because I did this or that,” but is, “I shouldn’t – my only hope is you, Lord, as the perfect man who lived for me, died for me, and rose to make me a new creation.”  And these people in Matthew 7 don’t have that reality.

To Be Truly Alive in Jesus

But those who do have it not only believe it and profess it, but they show it in how they live. Again, Iain Murray helps: 

“The first and invariable result of the new birth, according to Christ, is ‘sight’ (John 3:4).  By this rebirth an individual comes to belong to the number of whom it is written: ‘They shall all be taught by God’ (John 6:45).  He possesses an enlightenment which sets apart the teaching of God from all the teaching of men; for this reason the promise ‘You shall know the truth’ is a reality (John 8:32).^*

One sees Jesus for who He really is, sees their need for Him, and senses that He came for them, to give them life.  This truth has taken hold of them, and it will keep hold of them for forever.  And being constrained by the truth, they are truly living in the freedom that the whole world longs for, but won’t (and can’t) find because it won’t look to Jesus for it.  And neither will those who merely say they’ve been born again, but don’t treasure Jesus, follow Him, and live the way He does.   

May we repent from a wrong doctrine of conversion that holds a false notion that one can be born again and not love and follow Jesus.  The truth is that if one has been born again, it is because they’ve seen God’s glory in Jesus’ face.  And beholding the glory, they, like Moses on the mountain (Ex. 33:13, 18), can’t help but to seek more.  

*John Piper, Finally Alive, 22 

**Ibid, 23-24

^Ibid, 25

^^See especially chs 7-9 in Iain Murray, Revival and Revivalism.  Also click here for a helpful summary of the book.

^*Murray, Evangelicalism Divided, 153

Eagerness and Longing

“… so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of man, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” 

                                                                                                                      Hebrews 9:28

We were discussing some passages from Hebrews this past Sunday night at church, being encouraged by the promise that there is a high priest who mediates between us fallen people and a holy and just God.  Indeed, that reality, one which is too easily forgotten about when we consider the work of Christ, is included by the writer of the Hebrews at the beginning of the letter as part of the very gospel message itself.  After highlighting Jesus' "making purification for sins," he concludes that Jesus then: 

“... sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs” (1:3-4)

It is a big deal that the man Jesus went to sit at God’s right hand.  Indeed, the whole book of Hebrews is given to explaining and applying this reality.  It wraps up the whole system of sacrifice and atonement as the people of God had experienced it throughout history.  

He came once

Tim Mackey has recently said that Leviticus was written to show how an unworthy people could close to God.  God’s glory had come down on the tabernacle when Moses obediently oversaw the building of it (Exodus 40:34).  But Moses couldn’t enter the tabernacle because of the glory.  Then, when the priesthood is established, the glory descends again, but only after Moses and Aaron had left the tabernacle (Leviticus 9:23).  So priests are going to act as mediators between God and people, so that the people, subject to the fall in Adam, can still have working and active relationship with Him, though they are cast out of Eden, where God lives.  This is why the tabernacle has a menorah (because it resembles the tree of life), cherubim over the mercy seat (because cherubim guarded the way into Eden after the fall), and the mercy seat itself where sacrifices are offered (which resembles God sacrificing the first animals to cover the shamed sinners).  The tabernacle is meant to resemble Eden in it’s meant-to-be, ever-expanding over the whole earth glory, as Psalm 78:69 says.

But Hebrews says these practices connected to the tabernacle system were shadows and types of the heavenly realities.  God doesn’t truly live in a little room in a tabernacle or in a temple.  He lives in heaven.  So the plan is that one day One is coming who will bring people fully into God’s presence by God’s Spirit (Isaiah 11), by Mediating between the living God and the people by means of His own blood and sacrifice.  The whole system which predates Him is set up to make clear what He's come to do, so people will follow Him into life.

This is what Hebrews addresses, concluding that, because of Jesus’ work on earth, He was thus worthy to enter, 

“not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (9:24).

Priests under the old system had to purify themselves extremely before doing their work in the tabernacle or temple.  This Jesus is perfectly pure in himself, and He actually enters into the direct presence of God.  And that was the point of the resurrection – that He’d live forevermore post-death, and be able to enter God’s presence on our behalf.  This is what Graeme Goldsworthy says is the point of the resurrection: not to show that Jesus is God, but to show that he’s man, the man who can enter God’s presence on our behalf.

He's coming again

But the passage above speaks to Jesus’ second coming, not his first.  Since he dealt with sin in his first coming (what the Bible says is our real problem – not just our actions but the disease in each of us that manifests different ways; see Romans 1:23-32), he is thus worthy to enter God’s presence to keep sinners in God’s grace.  Thus he is “able to keep us and present us before” God "with great joy" (Jude 24).  But His work as Mediator at God’s right hand won’t continue forever.  He will come again, like he came the first time (Acts 1:11), not to bear the sins of anyone, but to save those who wait for him.  That is to say, there is a remnant of people who have seen, by virtue of his first coming, that He is indeed the Savior of the world and the hope of the nations who fixes the real problems regardless of popular opinions’ diagnosis.  And the remnant knows that the only reason they know and walk with God presently is because of His continued work in heaven.  

But further, they know that His carrying out of true justice, righting all wrongs, and making all things new, which will be finalized at his second coming, is their only hope for life and freedom.  This is why Hebrews 9:28 says they wait eagerly for Christ to return.  And indeed, they are partners with the fallen creation in waiting eagerly for Jesus’ return (Rom. 8:22-23).  They chomp at the bit to see Jesus, and they guard their hearts from loving the things of this life too much.  Thus they set their treasure in heaven (Matt. 6:19f).  

This is what CS Lewis referred to when he ingeniously wrote of longing as a proof of heaven – the “scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have not yet visited."*  The one who knows the living Jesus knows what Lewis refers to.  It is the experience of having life with God now, but knowing it is only a foreshadowing of the eternal life with God which we were made for.  And Jesus’ sheep eagerly wait for Jesus to return and bring them into it fully.

They are not sleepily waiting for him, tired and wearied by the battles of life, though life is a battle (and it is wearying). They are not content to long for things to get better in this world, and thus only eager for change today, because they’re afraid of being so "heavenly minded they’re no earthly good" (and I’m convinced whoever said this either didn’t know Christ or repented after it became a famous quote).   No, they are eagerly waiting for Christ’s return.  They know that only at God’s right hand are “pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). Indeed their only pursuit in life is God’s presence (Ps. 27:4).  So the prospect of being with Him is all they long for. 

I was driving in New York the other day, trying to escape the city in the 4:00pm range.  Bad decision.  I sought to leave by way of the Lincoln Tunnel, because it was the closest way to Jersey from where I was.  The problem is that everyone else was looking to leave that way as well.  And the eagerness to simply escape the city at that time of day was manifest by cut-offs, last-second lane changes, and gridlock.  People were willing to do whatever it took to get ahead in line.

While this is a poor illustration of the eagerness of the believer to see Jesus with their eyes and have the work finished, it isn’t Biblically inappropriate.  Discipleship is sometimes called a race to the finish (1 Cor. 9:24, 2 Tim. 4:7, Heb. 12:1).  Jesus said that people force their way into the kingdom (Lk. 16:16). I can’t help but picture the seemingly thousands of cars forcing their way into the tunnel the other in Manhattan, doing whatever it took to get to the “Promised Land” of New Jersey (and mark this as the only time NJ will ever be called that).  This is how Jesus says people enter His Kingdom.  They long for His presence, and they'll do whatever necessary to get there.

Therefore, the believer's eagerness is intensely practical.  Christian, live like you are running a race, eager to get to the finish line in one piece. It is through your labors and endurance that Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep and High Priest, will keep you and present you clothed in His life before the Father.  Indeed, we are guarded and secure in Him, but we are guarded "by faith" (1 Pet. 1:5).  He'l get you there.  And once there, you’ll be home forever.

*CS Lewis, the Weight of Glory, pp. 4-5

The Patient Endurance That is In Jesus

“... The patient endurance that (is) in Christ Jesus” (Revelation 1:9)

It is interesting to me that when the Apostle John begins perhaps his most famous Biblical book, he starts by describing the Christian life as being marked by “tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Christ Jesus” (Rev. 1:9).  He doesn’t describe it in terms of self-confidence, political identity, or even head knowledge of theological terms.  He describes this life as one marked by struggle (tribulation) and a need for patience (patient endurance) as the real Jesus rules over our lives (the kingdom).  

This provides the context for the whole book of Revelation.  I recently started reading a book by my favorite writer and theologian Graeme Goldsworthy called “Gospel and Revelation,” where he seeks to apply a Gospel-centered hermeneutic (your hermeneutic is the lense through which you approach the Bible and interpret what you read) to the book of Revelation.  He makes the case that chapter 5 – where the once-slain Lamb is depicted as the hero of the story who completes God’s purposes by virtue of his crucifixion – provides the Big Picture as it were to Revelation, and chapter 1 – where we find this talk about suffering and patience – provides the audience to whom the book is written.  In short, the Word of Jesus’ sovereign Lordship over history is meant to encourage believers who are struggling to endure through this life where they know they aren’t home.

A Christian in America today is not suffering persecution the likes of which John’s subjects had suffered.  But every Christian lives with a sense that they are not home, and they are thus waiting for the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13).  As they struggle through the constant refining process of looking more and more like Jesus, their refrain is the same as all the saints throughout time: 

-“Though you have not seen (Jesus), you love him.  Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9)

-“Whom have I in heaven but you?  And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25)

Considering the Peter passage, though the Christian lives life not seeing Jesus with their eyes, they love him and are filled with a joy that can’t be put into words because it is from heaven.  It is God’s song that he alone can give (Psalm 42:8).  And as they rejoice with this inexpressible joy, they presently obtainthe outcome of their faith, which is the salvation of their souls.  That is to say, as they glory in Jesus Christ who is Himself ultimate reality and truth embodied, they are truly living and they’ll never stop.  This is why Jesus said that whoever believes in Him haseternal life and has passed from death to life (see Jn. 5:24); these are present realities with a past starting point.   

I mentioned that this glorying in Jesus Christ is something that must be given.  It can’t be put into words because the kind of words we would use would be, to borrow from Luther, too human.  This glorying refers to a paradigm of joy that one only gets when Jesus is, by faith, seen and treasured as the eternal life from which all of life flows (John 1:4).  Therefore Paul said that the true circumcision (that is, the true people of God) are those who aren’t confident in themselves (that is, they doubt themselves and their own objectivity, they don’t trust their own or the world’s solutions to the rampant problems, and they see with clarity that the world is living in a fallen existence that turns reality upside down) but glory in Christ alone, worshiping God by His Spirit (Philippians 3:3).  And Paul elsewhere described the Christian as one who has been “circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands … the circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11), going on to describe their death to the world and sin, and subsequent resurrection with Jesus.  

So John writes Revelation as an encouragement to those who are struggling to keep their faith grounded, and he encourages them two ways: First, by reminding them of what Jesus had said (Luke 8:15), that walking with Him in new life is done with patience; and second, by reminding them of what Jesus accomplished: life from the dead, giving the serpent a death blow, as He himself now reigns as king (cf. Matt. 28:18). 

This reality with Jesus who is Life himself is only available to those who are broke in the world’s currency and too low to trust themselves enough to get up and continue the fight.  To have Jesus is to have won already in Him.   The present fight is against the sinful flesh within yourself and any other ideology that either muddies the way or shuts the door on the reality of Jesus’ ruling and reigning.  This is because every other competing truth claim is the very thing it claims not to be: a lie, and one that will destroy us in the end.  And we were made for truth.  

So let’s press on to know Him.

The Madness of March and the Foolishness of the Cross

People who know me know I love basketball.  So naturally this is an exciting time of year for me.  I can’t say it’s exciting every year, because, being a fan of particular teams, my excitement usually depends on how well my teams are doing.  My teams are generally pretty competitive so I’m always at least a little interested.  This year things look good.

On the NBA side, my Pacers are currently seeded #3 in the East.  To be clear, they traded their star player (Paul George) away last off-season because he said he’d leave when his contract was up (this off-season).  Everyone – following conventional wisdom – said the Pacers would barely win 30 games (of an 82 game season) and would miss the playoffs.  But the opposite has occurred.  Young talent (Myles Turner) has continued to develop, and the players for whom George was traded have paid enormous dividends (Victor Oladipo was an all-star and will no doubt win Most Improved Player, becoming the fifth Pacer to do so since 2000).  Now the Pacers are 40-28, nine games ahead of their projected 31 wins with 14 games left in the season.  No one knows the future.  I’m excited. (For the record, I was one of the few who liked the Oladipo trade when it first happened).

On the NCAA side, my Purdue Boilermakers were ranked #3 in the country for several weeks in a row mid-season, having won 19 in a row, only to lose three in a row and sputter to a 2 seed in the Big Dance starting today.  Everyone is talking about Arizona, Michigan State, Duke, Xavier, and Villanova, and rightly so.  But Joe Lunardi has said not to sleep on theBoilermakers, because they are built for tournament success.  Though they lost some games mid-season, every team lost games mid-season. 
The reason I bring them up is that I thought they were in for a rebuild after losing Caleb Swanigan to the NBA last year. And this is the third season in a row where I predicted a rebuild, only for the team to actually be better than the year before.  Again, conventional wisdom said one thing, but the results said another.

It reminds me of the storyline of the Bible.  The goal of Biblical history is to show how God reveals Himself through redemptive activity which he initiates and sees through.  But how he does it is not according to conventional wisdom.  Conventional wisdom says to bring about salvation through strength.  But God, while showing himself through mighty acts, does it first through weakness.  Thus when Satan brings about “the Fall” of man through tempting the first people, God tells him a child will come to the people one day who will defeat him.  When those first people have two sons, one son murders another one in a show of strength, thus making the Genesis reader think the serpent’s seed will win.  So God gives the people another son so that his promise of salvation through a son one day will be kept intact.  (Genesis 3-4)

The line is intact through a crazy man Noah spending 100 years building an ark for a flood that he had been told was coming, though when he told everyone else about it, they didn’t repent, probably thinking he was insane.  But it came, and his family alone survived. (Genesis 6-7)

When Egypt’s Pharaoh tried to kill all the firstborn sons of Israel, one son’s mom acted swiftly to keep him safe.  And he was the one who eventually grew up to lead Israel out of Egyptian slavery. (Exodus 2, and so on)

When Israel cowered away from entering the promised land because of the “giants” who lived there and would surely fight and defeat them, there were two courageous young men who said, “Wait a minute; GOD is on our side.  Why are we afraid?”  They were the only ones who survived from that generation; and they led Israel into the land years later. (Numbers 13-14)

When giant Goliath made Israel shake in their sandals with his threats, a little shepherd boy said he’d take care of this man who blasphemes God.  And so he took a rock and crushed the head of the giant, proving in a lesser way that, as God had said, one would one day come and “crush the head of the serpent.” (1 Samuel 17)

Then Jesus came into the world in the redneck side of the country, to parents who had to escape another plot by the powers that be to kill the firstborn sons of Israel (Jesus included).  He grew up and eventually worked as a homeless itinerant preacher, with basically nothing to his name (Luke 9:58).  Yet his name healed every sick person who touched him and rose up the dead whom He chose to raise.  And though he was murdered, it was by his own plan (John 10:18) so that through the weakness of the cross, the wisdom of the world – conventional wisdom – would be shown a sham, and God would get glory for saving as only He could.

This is why Paul the Apostle said that the word of the cross is “foolishness” (Greek moronic) to the world.  It is not conventional wisdom.  But to those who are called, it is indeed the power and wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:18-24).

On the whole, the great sports teams end up rising to the top at the end of the season.  The blue bloods of college basketball will probably outlast the Purdues of the field.  And there are only so many Cinderella stories like VCU in 2011 or George Mason in 2006.  Those are rare.  And it’s no secret that either Golden State or Houston (probably Golden State) will win the NBA championship, leaving Pacers fans like me to try to be content with 4^th or 5^th place.

But as I reflect on the reality that the status quo on the whole stays unchanged and likely will this year (though there have been some surprises particularly by my teams), I’m reminded that there is one narrative in which conventional wisdom doesn’t stand a chance: how one finds reality with God and stays there for eternity.  It’s either the foolishness of the cross and the discomfort of repentance, or it’s nothing.  And instead of it being a proof against God (ie, that Christianity is for suckers who believe anything), it is a proof for God, because He attaches himself to those who are too broken and poor in spirit to go anywhere else but to Him.  The good news is that the cross wasn’t the end of the story, but the resurrection was.  And that truth, while being unconventional, will be all the reality left to celebrate in the end.

We Have Deeper Problems

We have far deeper issues than guns – what people have been doing with guns recently is just an extreme and tragic microcosm of the real issues.

Our real issues are these:

            -we don’t know how to treat one another with dignity and respect

            -we don’t know how to raise our children to be sane and reasonable adults

-we don’t know how to value each individual equally regardless of their social standing or opinions (so kids and adults who are “weird” fall through the social cracks and no one cares because they don’t “contribute”)

-we don't know how to have real friendships (though we think we do), where we can ask someone "How are you doing?" or "How are things going?" and really be interested in the answer to the question, more than just niceties and civility

            -we don’t know how to teach or practice self-control

-we don’t know how to stay married and work through our problems, modeling longsuffering, patience, and humility

-we don’t know how to maintain sexual purity (because sexual purity is relative to each person’s experience; that is, until they commit some kind of heinous act that objectifies and victimizes another individual, at which point we’re finally concerned and in a justified outrage – but why does it take getting to that point for us to be outraged?)

-we don’t know how to discriminate between what’s fun and what’s potentially harmful (ie that shoot-em-up video game is harmless because my kids know it’s just a game, and they’re not being subliminally taught that how you handle your problems is by removing people who are in your way)

-we don’t know how to have a real conversation about what’s right or wrong without getting angry and insulting (because the ages-old narrative of corruption in positions of power blinds us from the fact that the same corruption is actually inside of each of us, seen in that we are now empowered by being able to state our opinions on social media for all to see, and we turn into jerks with anyone who disagrees with us, proving we’re not different than any corrupt leader throughout world history)

-we don’t know how to have a real conversation, period; the communication age has backfired so that we actually are less able now to communicate than before

-we don’t know how to judge what’s truly right or wrong (because we act like truth is relative, though we don't really think so)

            -we don’t know how to love well and make people feel loved

-we don’t know how to regulate our depressed mental and emotional moments without victimizing ourselves and making everyone else who has ever wronged us “the problem”

-we don’t know how to see where we ourselves have contributed to the world’s problems, because “every way of a man is right in his own eyes” (Proverbs 21:2)

-we don’t know how to truly measure our self-worth and have a strong sense of identity, even with our warts, instead fluctuating anywhere between overvalue (I’m proud of myself, true to myself, and my party is the savior of society) and undervalue (I hate myself and want to be someone else)

But there’s good news.  If Jesus is alive, then we can come to Him, and He can help.  If recent events have laid your heart in the dust so that you can be described as “poor in spirit,” (and aren’t you by now?) Jesus calls you “blessed” (Matt. 5:3), because you’re right in the place where He can move in make things new.  The problem is far greater than what everyone else is doing or what you yourself are doing - there is something wrong with us.  But Jesus came to make you and me into the real you and me, and if we come to Him, we'll find truth, and with it, peace.

Why must we be in the driver’s seat when we repeatedly drive ourselves off the cliff?

Praying During Senseless Tragedy

I’ve done a lot of praying recently, because every time a tragedy happens, I’m drawn to prayer, and since a lot of tragedies have been happening recently, I’ve been praying a lot.  Tragedy – and terrorist tragedy at that – typically is much more complex and confusing than what I know to do with it.  But one thing I do know is this: Jesus commanded that His people cry out to him day and night (Luke 18:6).  So the safest place I know to go when dealing with grief is the arms of Jesus – He in fact says to come, and His death for me proves that He isn’t lying in His invitation.  I'm not always quick there - and in fact am too often sluggish.  But He seems to draw me each time, for which I'm thankful.

But I’ve noticed recently that some well-meaning friends have taken offense that a person would respond, especially to a gun crime, by saying they’re rushing to prayer.   Based on my reading and hearing responses, it seems to me that critics think of a prayerful response as an escapist pie-in-the-sky excuse to not actually do anything, “because I’m too busy praying.”

But I think they respond this way because of a pervasive defective view of God and of tragedy.  God is sovereign –which means He’s in control – even when I don’t understand why.  Ask the sold-into-slavery-by-his-brothers Joseph on his way to Egypt, the betrayed-to-the-cross Jesus suffering Roman crucifixion, or any Christian undergoing intense painful trial, while God’s Word tells them that such trials are necessary (Matthew 18:7, 1 Peter 1:6).

When tragedy strikes, we typically rush to one of two extremes: Blame God who could have stopped it (which He could have), and so He must not be good because He didn’t; or treat God as though He’s powerless because it can’t be true that it’s His will for tragedy to happen, which did happen.  But what if there’s a third way, where God grieves with us in our suffering, and yet has a sovereign plan which He is working out behind the scenes, like there was when He Himself came to earth to get involved in the suffering at the cross?  That worked out pretty well, didn’t it? 

The real reason I think people respond with anger at “I’m praying” is that they really don’t think God is active and working today, and they hear in the prayer response a meeger well-wish from the pray-er, saying they hope God comforts the victim or their family.   And of course that is a well-wish.  But the critics of such a notion say that that doesn’t go far enough – so you should instead act.

But when I say I’m praying, what I mean is this: Our real problem is seen most keenly in senseless tragedy such as murder.   The disease of murder that is in the shooter is in me, and is in you.  Jesus equated resentment with murder (Matt. 5:21-22), as did his brother James (Jms. 4:2), and John the Apostle (1 Jn. 3:15).  Jesus went even further, to teach that that kind of capability doesn’t get sown into you from the outside – instead it comes from the inside, “out of the heart of man” (Mark 7:21).  If I’m capable of a resentment and a hatred that holds a person under a grudge (and I am capable of it), then what if that resentment is allowed to fully grow?  James gives the answer: it leads to death (James 1:15).  Therefore when a tragedy like this strikes, it doesn’t just reveal something about the killer.  It reveals something about me, you, and all of us.

So when I say I’m praying, what I’m saying is that only God can change the heart and uproot the bitterness, hatred, and delusional reality that leads a person to act this way, and that that is what I’m praying for.  Ask King Nebuchadnezzar about God’s ability to humble the proud and restore a person’s reason (or, since Nebuchadnezzar is dead, read Daniel 4).   If I’m praying, it is because I’m seeing the power of God over my life, in that He’s transformed me, given me new desires that accord with His Word, and is working repentance in me daily as I walk by faith, and I’m wanting that for others, and asking God to do it in them.  When a person responds, “Prayer is not enough,” I’m not surprised.  But I’m also not duped – it is enough, because we will never outrun tragedy or murder.  But God can outrun the tragedy or murder that is in a person’s heart (see the Apostle Paul).

Should we consider changing laws to prevent murder if we can? Absolutely.  But will we legislate tragedy, and even senseless tragedy, out of existence?  No we will not.  The Bible’s diagnosis for the world is this: Hatred from one to another (Titus 3:3), and swiftness to shed blood (Romans 3:15).  Each speaks peace to his neighbor but inwardly plans ambush (Jeremiah 9:8), and – get ready for this – all toil and work result from man wanting to outdo his neighbor (Ecclesiastes 4:4)  My point is this: we will never kill killing.

But this is the message of the Bible: God looked at the fallen world, came into it, took killing on himself, and rose again to begin defeating death at that time, until one day it’ll be put down completely (1 Corinthians 15:26).  If God can call creation into existence, uphold all things by His own Word, give to mankind life and breath and everything, and rise up from death at His own will, then the God whom I call upon can change the hearts of men.  That’s why I pray.

And I actually am hopeful that this is precisely how God will use all of these senseless tragedies: In our education-driven self-trust, where we assume that all that’s needed is to on one hand learn and on the other hand follow our hearts, we are appalled at tragedy because we just don’t understand how it’s even possible, with all of our advancements, expertise, and knowledge now.  My hope is this: That said false narrative of reality will be exposed for the fool’s gold which it is, and we’ll realize that we need life from the dead ourselves.  And that only comes through the death of One who was unjustly killed a long time ago, that He’d rise again and defeat death once for all.

So at death, I grieve, but not as one without hope.  I hope, because one died to defeat death.  And He lives now, that we’d call on Him in our grief. 

So I pray.