by Michiana Covenant | Apr 8, 2012 | Pastoral Notes, Pastoral Practice
“Do you know what your problem is? Your problem is that you don’t love God!”
Do you have any idea how much trouble you can get into with those words?!! At Pastor in the Pub yesterday, I had a fellow suggest that we “step outside” and he’d show me how much he loved God! Such is the deceiving power of sin, that we can convince ourselves that we love God — and that it is some outside force (or split personality) that “makes” us sin.
John Owen makes the useful distinction between the “dominion” of sin and the “indwelling” of sin in the believer. Sin shall not have dominion over the believer — but it still dwells in us. Okay, that’s not particularly original to Owen — Paul said it first!
But too often we don’t want to admit that sin has even taken up residence in us. “I’m a good person,” said my acquaintance, “I love God and I pray regularly.” But his actions make clear that sin has residence — at least!
So — what do you say? You may suspect that sin has dominion — that the person you are talking to is (in fact) unregenerate. But he insists that he believes in Jesus, that he loves God, that he is a believer. What do you say? I take comfort in knowing that whether sin has dominion over him — or whether sin merely has a very strong presence in him – the solution is the same! Repent and believe the gospel! Whether it would be the first time or not doesn’t really matter. If he has been living in bondage to sin, under the dominion of the devil, then he needs to repent and believe the gospel. If he is a “believer” who has been ensnared in sin for many years, then he needs to repent and believe the gospel. Either way, he has believed a lie and he has devoted himself to the service of something other than the Triune God, and he needs to repent and believe the gospel!
Of course, this will have a host of practical consequences as well. Repentance and faith must then work itself out in new obedience — your new identity in Christ must also be reflected in the new community, the “one new man” including both Jew and Gentile that God has established in Christ. This is why Jesus said to make disciples, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit [new identity], and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you [new community].”
by Michiana Covenant | Feb 26, 2012 | Pastoral Notes, Worship
I often say, “Your biggest problem is that you don’t love God”? We had a good discussion about this in the Men’s Discipleship Study on Tuesday morning. I usually emphasize how we love the creature rather than the Creator — and some people have wondered, “what about selfishness? Isn’t our problem that we love ourselves?”
In one sense, I would agree that loving the creature is self-serving — namely, we think that we will get what we want — but in that sense you could also argue that loving God is self-serving, since we will certainly get the best thing by loving and serving him!
My overall point is that we were created to worship — and very few people actually worship themselves. You could look at this in terms of prophet, priest and king.
As prophets we are meaning makers. We were created to interpret and explain God’s world and word. But instead we listen to other voices and explain ourselves and our world in terms of other gods and their words [lies]. And so we wind up speaking lies to others as we speak on behalf of our gods. As prophets we trust the idol, and assign meaning or value to the idol. We think that it is capable of helping us achieve our goals. An athlete may believe that an Olympic gold medal will give him fame, importance, etc., and so he trusts in the gold medal–he sets his heart upon it.
As kings we use authority and power. We were created to use God’s authority to serve others. But instead we wield the authority of other powers to dominate and control others. Ironically, we end up enslaved to the very powers we sought to control and manipulate. And so we obey the idol’s demands. The worshipper is under the authority of the “god” he serves; he rules for the sake of the god. The athlete obeys the idol of the gold medal by strict training, and forsakes all other “gods” so that he might obtain the desired blessing. Power is exercised as trust becomes active.
As priests we mediate blessings. We were created to receive God’s blessing and give it to others. But instead we seek blessing and happiness from created things. Of course, the opposite of a blessing is a curse — and so we wind up under the curse of our gods, and mediate those curses to others. We receive the idol’s blessing or curse. The athlete wins the race, and receives the gold medal, with the supposed blessings and peace which he sought. But such blessings are illusory. It does not satisfy. If he fails, and loses the race, he receives the idol’s curse–he has no peace because he has failed his god.
As you begin to understand the idols in your own heart, you can begin to understand patterns in your life. Often, what we call “personal development” is actually the refining of our skills as idolaters! The athlete will someday learn that his body will not let him pursue the gold medal anymore. So then he turns to relationships, and tries to find meaning and purpose in his wife. He trusts her to provide a warm and caring home which gives him security and happiness (prophet); so he then obeys her demands and his whole life is consumed with attempting to make her happy (king); when he succeeds, he receives her blessings, but when he fails, he receives her curse! (priest) ESPN interviews him a few months after his retirement, and does a special feature on how the great athlete has become such a devoted family man. The sportscaster even makes a comment about how beautiful it is to see him exercising the same devotion to his family that he used to have for his athletics. What they could say is that he has simply refined his idolatry and has merely switched gods. The heart hasn’t changed.
Because honestly, is his wife capable of providing everything he wants from her? Of course not! She will fail him–just like his pursuit of the gold medal couldn’t satisfy, neither will she.
Only faith in Christ can break the death-grip of fear and bondage to idols. But how?
First we need to understand the nature of idolatry better:
Idolatry as Defiance–Gen. 3:5
We were created to imitate God for his glory–instead we imitate God to defy his glory (Rom. 1:21)
Imitation as son became perverted into imitation as rival (“you will be like God…”)
Why do people sin? Some people suggest that sin is a misguided attempt to find satisfaction, happiness, etc. Others suggest that sin is selfishness–putting self at the center, and trying to gratify the self. But if people were really seeking happiness, if people really wanted to find contentment, what would they do? Wouldn’t they turn to the truth?
Prov. 8:35-36–sin is folly. Sin is irrational. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is the love of death.
Only a covenantal perspective can make sense of this. Man is a priest who expects blessings from his covenant partner. He has a purpose for his sin. Hence there is an element of rationality involved. But this priest serves idols rather than the true God. His goal is unattainable, self-defeating, disordered, and inconsistent. Hence the irrationality of sin.
Idolatry is not merely something which arose from fearful people who were attempting to deal with the human dilemma (evolutionary portrayal of religion), idolatry is a deliberate, hateful, rebellious provocation of the Almighty God (Jer. 7:17-18)
The fear of punishment, fear of rejection, and fear of failure do not explain sin–rather, they describe the experience of those who are sinners.
The psychological confusion which so many people experience is not the unavoidable, pitiable lot of the weak and misguided–rather it is an expression of defiance against God. There is not a human being on the face of the planet who is innocent. Rather than respond to their situation with trust and obedience toward God, they prefer to follow their worthless idols–who inevitably lead them in a downward spiral.
And yet, if we are to be sons of God, imitating our Heavenly Father, then we must have compassion on these people–showering them with the peace of Christ, the Word of God, and Power of the Holy Spirit. But compassion may be expressed in numerous ways. These people think that they can have their lusts, and yet not be ruled by them. But the sinner is a slave of sin.
The solution is the gospel — Christ, the prophet who has spoken to us the Word of God and show us the way of salvation, the king who has subdued us to his will and rules and defends us from all our enemies, and the priest who has blessed us with every blessing in the heavenlies through his once-for-all sacrifice which has removed our sin!
A Religion for Everyone?
The following link is an intriguing proposal from an atheist as to how to create a “Religion for Everyone.” He suggests that the death of religion has resulted in the death of community. I especially appreciated his comment that “A church gives us rare permission to lean over and say hello to a stranger without any danger of being thought predatory or insane.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204883304577221603720817864.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
All around us are people who are disconnected and alienated from one another (and from God). When we understand that the human problem is not merely ignorance (the prophetic symptom), nor merely rebellion (the kingly symptom), nor merely sin and misery (the priestly symptom), but that all of these things are the constituent parts of idolatry — loving and worshiping the creature instead of the Creator — then we can also see how the solution is not education (by itself), nor good order in society (by itself), nor simply the forgiveness of sins (by itself), but a return to worshiping the living and true God!
And where the living and true God is worshiped and glorified aright, you will find true knowledge, good order, and the forgiveness of sins, as the prophetic, kingly, and priestly ministry of Christ is exhibited in the life of the church, unto the salvation of the world!
by Michiana Covenant | Feb 5, 2012 | Job, Pastoral Notes
Job 1-2 recounts the worst three days in Job’s life. They were not necessarily sequential (each time it merely says, “And there was a day”), but by condensing the story of Job into three days, we are being encouraged to see the whole of Job’s sufferings as a three day descent into hell!
And it is all God’s fault!
There are some interesting parallels with Jonah – who spent three days in the belly of the fish. But in Jonah’s case, while it was true that God was the one who had done this, it would be easy to see how Jonah had (if anything) deserved worse of God. But Job has done nothing to deserve what happens to him.
It’s all nice and good to say, “Oh, but Job was a sinner!” The problem is that the text disagrees with this diagnosis. After all, when they asked our Lord Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answer was, “Neither!”
The story of Job is the story of God’s suffering servant. Job is all that Israel was supposed to be — and he endures a sort of exile, abandoned by God to torment and despair. And during his exile, God is silent. God does not explain anything until Job has passed through the ultimate test. But when Job passes the test, the LORD restored the fortunes of Job. There is an eschatological message in the book of Job: the suffering servant must wait patiently, because the LORD will make all things right in the end.
And because our Lord Jesus Christ waited upon the Lord, and endured all that Israel was called to endure, he has been raised up in glory — and we who are called by his name are now called to endure patiently through our “light and momentary” trials because Jesus has already been seated in glory — the Lord has restored his fortunes, and has given us his Holy Spirit as the guarantee of the full inheritance!
by Michiana Covenant | Jan 22, 2012 | Parenting, Pastoral Notes
On Monday, after a romp in the snow, the children fixed hot chocolate. Wee Pete demanded that his brothers give him “the red cup,” and threw a fit when they tried to give him a different cup. I’ve been trying to help Peter understand how “sin makes you stupid” (thanks, Mark, for that splendid line), so I intervened. After disciplining him for throwing a fit, I went to the kitchen and surreptitiously emptied the red cup, then took it back and handed it to Peter. As he saw me coming, he had this big grin on his face (“Daddy is giving me what I want!! I am the center of the universe!”), but when he looked into the cup, and saw only a few drops of hot chocolate, his face fell.
He looked up at me, somewhat puzzled. I smiled at him:
“You said you wanted the red cup. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
He looked back down at the empty cup. I could see that he wasn’t sure how to answer. He did want the red cup — but not this way! He wanted a red cup full of warm, sweet, chocolate goodness!
I knelt beside him and said, “There’s a big difference between wanting a cup, and wanting something in the cup! Why don’t you go to your brother and ask him to forgive you for being selfish — and then ask him for some hot chocolate in any cup he wishes to give you.”
Robert, of course, had seen all of this, and so when the little guy reached the kitchen, he quickly forgave him, and then filled the red cup with chocolate (“I had already started drinking out of the other cup,” he explained).
Heavenly Father, grant us wisdom to seek first the kingdom of your Son — trusting that you will provide for all of our daily needs. Forgive us for lack of faith, and our persistent demands that you do things our way. Grant us the humility to trust that your way is best, and then grant us the wisdom and strength to walk in your way, denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following Jesus. Amen.
by Michiana Covenant | Jan 15, 2012 | Pastoral Notes, Pastoral Practice
I’ve been having a remarkable number of conversations with unbelievers and unchurched people lately. I know that I have prayed for that — and sought to put myself in situations where that would be more likely to happen — but still, I am thankful to God for providing these opportunities.
One result of this may be that we will start to see people coming to church who don’t normally go to any church. Some of these people may be doing things that God forbids. They may not yet realize that what they are doing is sinful. And when they hear the “fencing of the table” — they may not yet realize that this is speaking to them! And since they were baptized, and they think of themselves as professing Christians, they may even come to the Lord’s Table.
This is not a good thing — and the goal is to bring them to an understanding of the truth — but we must remember that the gospel comes to people where they are. It will not leave them where they are — it will change them and transform them more and more into the image of Christ (just like the gospel will not leave you where you are!). The only other alternative is that they will reject the Word and be hardened in their sin and rebellion.
But we do not expect them to change in order to be saved! To use an example: in Ephesus the gospel came to a bunch of people who believed in magic and sorcery. They came to faith and were baptized — and only then, after they were part of the church, did they come “confessing and divulging their practices,” and thus burned all their books on magic. (Acts 19:18-19)
In the modern day we have a somewhat different problem: there are lots of people who are baptized, and say they believe (and perhaps really do believe!) but who have very skewed views of the Christian faith. We want to “take hold of them by their baptism” and call them to the reality of faith in Jesus Christ. If you tell them “you don’t really believe” — they won’t listen, because they do believe — or, at least, they think they believe (maybe their faith is misguided — what they need to be guided back into the path of the Word). So you take them at their word!
And that means (since they are professing believers who have been baptized) that you don’t fuss when they come to the Lord’s Table. Rather, you disciple them — you teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded. This takes time — at least, it has taken time for me to “unlearn” many of the faulty things that I once thought I knew! In the end, if they won’t listen (or won’t do) what Christ commands, then they will need to be “excommunicated” — but if you start from the judgment of charity (“love believes all things, hopes all things…”), then you give people the benefit of the doubt from the start, and trust the gospel to do its work!
Some who know the history of these debates might ask, “Are you saying that the Lord’s Supper is a converting ordinance?” (Namely, that partaking of the Lord’s Supper is designed to convert people). My answer is, No, the Lord’s Supper is not a converting ordinance — that is not its design and purpose. The Lord’s Supper is designed to nourish and sustain us in our sanctification. What I am saying is that we must use the judgment of charity in our dealing with people who profess faith in Christ — and especially when they have been neglected and abused by the church in the past. I do not want to see wolves creep in among the flock — and will do all in my power to defend you from such! — but as Ezekiel 34 says, the strong sheep should not push aside a weak, bedraggled sheep. When a weak, frail sheep returns to the fold, the first priority is to feed and nourish the sheep — in time, we will deal with its bad habit of barking like a dog as we help it learn how to live like a sheep again!
