Lent, Ligon Duncan, and Legalism

Collin Hansen wrote an article for the Gospel Coalition entitled Should You Cancel Good Friday? which has brought to the attention of many a conversation they have never had before. What is Lent? Why celebrate it?

As a committed Protestant, I am committed to the Church Calendar, not because I want to be a slave to it, but because I am aware of its inevitability. We all follow some calendar. The question is which calendar? I ask that question because Protestantism is grounded in a Trinitarian view of the world. In its best expression it does not isolate ideas; it brings ideas together to form a coherent system.

I suggest that Lent is highly Trinitarian. As the Trinity is a communion of love, so Lent provides a means to express that love to one another in the community. Where sins are confronted and battled, there you find a vigorous Trinitarian community and vision. Lent is service to the community by giving us a season of determined battle against sin for the sake of our neighbors.

It offers a vision of history that undergirds the biblical history and that reflects the normal routines, liturgies, and rituals of human beings. Lent is a form of restructuring our lives. All Christians need a re-structuring of order in their own lives. All Christians need to re-balance and re-form areas where there is disproportionate indifference. We all undergo a Psalmic journey of lamentation and feasting. Lent draws us into this journey.

In essence, Lent reveals the God who suffers in the Person of Jesus Christ. God’s image-bearers are formed from the dust of a fallen Adam to the glorification of the risen Final Adam. To disconnect Lent from the Church Calendar is to disparage history.

It is true we live in the age of an ascended Lord, but this same Lord guides a Church that is still broken, suffering, and healing from brokenness and suffering again and again. The removal of Lent is to proclaim an over-realized eschatology.

It is true that Lent can be abused, and history teaches us that it has. But it is also true, as Luther so memorably stated, “the abuse of something is not an argument against its proper use.” So if Lent can be proven to be profitable, then is there a legitimate way to benefit from it without falling into some its former abuses. Protestant Christians are not bound by Romish structures of food or rituals. We use wisdom in forming healthy habits for a Church and individuals while not binding the Church or the individual to a particular habit.

Lent and Wilderness

Lent teaches us that Satan’s gifts are easy to master. They come with first grade instruction manuals. They are made to be mastered quickly and enjoyed rapidly (fornication, drugs, alcohol; various temptations). God’s gifts are a little harder to master. They require self-control and patience. They anticipate spiritual growth; they demand a kingly attitude to grasp kingly wisdom. God’s instructions mean you have to seek others in the community to understand them properly. You have to exercise and express a theology of patience built into a theology of blessings.

In the wilderness, a garden stripped of colors, fruit, and water, Jesus faced the devil again in a re-match. He knew well that temptation had a triumphant history of subtly winning arguments. Jesus wasted no time and rebuked temptation. just like He would do with the demons and the demonic-like religious teachers of the day.

We are not to sit in temptation’s classroom. God already said we are to flee it; to rebuke it with the only source of authority that is permanent and stamped with divine truth.

The Church finds herself in a wilderness scenario. She is stripped of her former glory. But she is destined to journey from glory to glory like her Lord and Master. As in Luke four, we need to sit in Yahweh’s school house. We need to be instructed by the two-edged sword that muzzles the Tempter and tells him to not come back again. He is not welcome and neither are his offers.

Lent offers us a 40 day class on temptations and the glories and rewards of resisting it.

But Why 40 Days?

Lent follows the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness. His fasting for 40 days speaks to the evil and the hardness of heart of the Israelites who succumbed to the Serpent’s whispers. So as the Church walks with Jesus from wilderness to Golgotha she re-lives the messianic journey. The 40 days are symbolic for that wilderness testing, and as a result it is chronologically set before the Great Paschal Feast, commonly referred to as Easter.

Should Lent be Observed?

Ligon Duncan and others in the Southern Presbyterian tradition argue that Lent has a history based on merit. Lent was a way to earn something. The Reformation fixed this soteriological error, and therefore Lent is no longer to be observed.

Duncan and others also go on to say that celebrating Easter and Christmas offer no such harm (he also believes that a National Holiday like Thanksgiving is also a uniquely American holiday to be celebrated). There is no doubt Easter and Christmas, and even Thanksgiving–to a lesser degree–offer wonderful benefits. But the question and the opening presupposition is that Lent is not biblical therefore it should not be practiced in the Church. If that is the case, then the question is not whether one day (or Season) is more beneficial than the other, but rather is it explicitly stated in the Bible or not? If the “explicit reference” argument is used, then Duncan will have to conclude that this is faulty reasoning.

I concur with Vance Freeman that “each of his (Duncan’s) reasons for not observing Lent are undercut by the observance of Christmas and Easter.” Mr. Freeman also concludes:

The biggest threat to Christianity today is not the church in Rome, or that Americans are prone to elevate traditional Christian rituals, like Lent, over discipleship. The biggest threat to the church is that our rituals are increasingly only secular ones. We are Americans before we are Christians. Super Bowl Sunday not only competes with the Lord’s Day, it dominants it. And when we relegate the Christian life to a mere facet of our American lives we fall into Moral Therapeutic Deism.

The formation of godly habits is the issue at hand. In other words, is there an adequate time of the year where the Church should have an explicit focus on the cross of Jesus and how that cross must shape our understanding of sin? Is there room for setting aside a season for a cruciform hermeneutic? I believe there is.

As Peter Leithart so ably summarizes:

Lent is a season for taking stock and cleaning house, a time of self-examination, confession and repentance.  But we need to remind ourselves constantly what true repentance looks like.  “Giving up” something for Lent is fine, but you keep Lent best by making war on all the evil habits and sinful desires that prevent you from running the race with patience.

If this is true, then Lent serves an enormously important role in the life of the Christian. Naturally, to quote Luther’s first thesis, “the Christian life is a life of daily repentance.” A faithful understanding of the Lord’s Service provides that for us weekly. However, an extended period where our sins are deeply brought to our attention by the preaching of the Word and prayer (and fasting) are regularly considered, practiced and meditated upon can provide great benefits for all Christians on each Lord’s Day and throughout the week.

The legalism concern is legitimate. We are all tempted to fall into this trap, but it does not have to be so. If we view Lent as a time to additionally focus our attention on mortifying our sins and killing those habits that so easily entangle us, we can then consider the cross in light of the resurrection, not apart from it. If we do so, Lent will become legalism’s greatest enemy and repentance’s best friend.

The Gospel Defined and Clarified

Rev. Jeff Meyers writes:

The Gospel can’t just be that God saves sinners or that he’s gracious and justifies those that have faith. That’s always been true. It wasn’t NEWS in the first century. The Good News, according to Apostles is that God has accomplished all that he has promised in the past by his Son uniting himself to our humanity and living, suffering, dying, rising, and ascending, all to deliver humanity and usher in a new world (Acts 2, etc.). The new news in the new age is that God the Father has installed the man, Jesus Christ, as Lord over his creation. God has always been Lord, but now Jesus is Lord.

A Cross-Centered Gospel?

Andrew Sandlin offers a sober critique of this defeatist and incomplete model of gospelizing:

Jesus is incapable of commiserating with a life of defeat.  He can only lead us from defeat to victory.  Jesus knows no other way.

Too many Christians live as though Jesus is still buried in the ground.   But that Jesus is gone forever.  There is no other Jesus to love and serve.  The risen Lord is the only Lord there is.  The victorious Lord is only Lord there is.  The joyous Lord is the only Lord there is.  The powerful Lord is only Lord there is.

It is this Lord to whom we are united.

Paul’s point: there is no other Christian life possible except the life of victory and joy and power and hope and worldwide transformation (1 Cor. 15:56–58; 1 Jn. 5:4).

For this reason it may be most prudent not to say that we are “Cross-centered.”  It is better to say “Lordship-centered,” because this Lordship is the key to the resurrection, just as the resurrection is the key to the Gospel.

It is the risen Jesus whom we serve, and there is simply no other Jesus.

The Tim Tebow Time

Americans love a show.  It is no surprise then Tim Tebow has stolen that show. The 24 year old Denver Broncos quarterback has been the source of intense scrutiny. Tebow’s startling success in this season, most notably Broncos’ playoff victory over the Steelers, has catapulted Tebow to overwhelming fame.

Tim Tebow is known for his vivacious expressions of the Christian faith. This has led to bizarre fury from sports figure like Charles Barkley to atheist commentator, Bill Maher. Maher’s anti-Christian obsession has made Tebow his prime target. Does any of this cause Tebow to diminish his Christian testimony in the field? The opposite is true. He seems more determined, and has proven that he can play with the big boys in the NFL.

How are Christians to think about this?

Tim Tebow is the product of evangelicalism. He grew up in a counter-cultural home. He was home-schooled, son of missionaries, and his mother gave birth to him, even when counseled to abort him. He is everything the mainstream media hates about Christians. But he continues to pound his message in and out of the field.

While many criticize him for his bumper-sticker gospel and his 3:16 themes, there is plenty of room for a Tim Tebow in the public arena. In fact, the gospel is public. Tebow’s message is simple. Christians should encourage and pray for his testimony. The media is just waiting for that one moment to discredit his message. By God’s grace, Tebow’s time will cause many to consider the gospel, and John 3:16 may just be that good starting point.

Ruth’s Twists and Turns

The book of Ruth is a perfect story; a story made in heaven. It offers the reader in four concise chapters the intrigue and suspense of the gospel. Far from a mechanical demonstration of God’s works, the gospel is a relational and covenantal display of God’s works in and for us. We do not live in a mechanical world. We live in a relational world where we are constantly confronted with twists and turns and where we are constantly being forced to adjust to a new situation. When we expect the story to be over God is going to reveal Himself again to be faithful. And when we suspect the waterfall of grace to have stopped pouring this is when God surprises us with more…endlessly more.

Summary of Ephesians

My study through Ephesians leads me one simple conclusion. This is a conclusion reached by James Jordan long before N.T. Wright ever came into the scene. Ephesians teaches that the gospel is much greater than individual salvation or forgiveness (though this is strongly included in Ephesians), but the mystery of the gospel is as Peter Leithart summarizes:

The mystery of the gospel, God’s secret now openly told in the gospel, has to do with the union of all things in heaven and earth in Christ; it has to do with the union of the heavenly people (Jews) and the earthly people (Gentiles) into one new man who stretches between heaven and earth.

Calvin on Law and Gospel, John 10:14

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Every Sunday after I give the Lord’s commission to His covenant people (this month from Acts 1:8) I tell them to live according to the commands of the gospel. This would appear to be an unthinkable dichotomy in some Reformed circles. How can one obey the gospel? Law and Grace are to be treated separately. Some would say: “Law condemns,” but “Grace Saves.” There is no obedience involved in the gospel, but only the mercy of God poured out to sinners. Some would even trace this thinking back to the Reformers. It is true that Luther viewed this distinction clearly. But for those in the Reformed side of the tradition (The Calvinian branch), we see a very different picture displayed.  In preparing for my sermon on John 10 this coming Lord’s Day, I came across Calvin’s brief observation on John 10:14. He says the following:

But it means also that he utterly disregards all who do not obey the Gospel, as he repeats in the second clause, and confirms what he had formerly said, that — on the other hand — he is known by the sheep.

This may be a difficult sentence to understand, but Calvin’s point is still clear. The great shepherd disregards those who do not obey the gospel. Here we have obedience and gospel brought together.

What happened to the Christians in Iraq?

Neo-cons like to play “gotcha” when they ask the question to liberals or classic liberals–paleo-cons like myself–Do you think we are better off with Saddam dead? Neo-Conservatives then gleam with excitement, because if those who oppose the war say “no,” then the O’Reilly’s of the media will harp at the many lives that died under Saddam before the US occupation. If they respond with “yes,” then the animated neo-cons will have achieved they desired aim: to continue the occupation indefinitely.

After six years of this undeclared war, Christians need to turn that question around. What happened to the Christians in Iraq after the US invasion? What happened to the proclamation of the gospel in Iraq after the invasion? Why have Christians in Iraq been systematically killed after the US aggression? And finally, what happened to the 2,000 year tradition of Christians in the Middle East? Christians who support this war need to take another look at the outcome of the war. They need to stop looking at the interest of their humanistic party and start looking at the interest of the gospel. CBS News reports:

But now, after nearly 2,000 years, Iraqi Christians are being hunted, murdered and forced to flee — persecuted on a biblical scale in Iraq’s religious civil war.

The 60 Minutes report on Christians in Iraq will lead us to take another look at the devastation and perpetual damage US interventionism has caused for the gospel of our Lord.