Category: Theological Thoughts

The Bible begins with relational brokenness. Jesus came to reconcile broken humanity to Himself.

This reconciliation needs to be renewed each time we gather. And in this recognition we begin to grasp that our personal and corporate relationship with our Lord is always in need of refining, and Christ is committed to refining us as a faithful Lord.

Christ is the perfect husband and the more we commune with him the more we understand his ways and his desires for us as members of the Bride of Christ.

Christ is not a despotic husband. He serves and serves and loves and loves and he dies for our sake to show us that no greater love exists than that of a Lord who gives Himself wholly for His Bride.

Here is an excerpt from my little book The Trinitarian Father that comes back and again to convict me:

The idea that God our Father wants to give us all good things and equip us to inherit all good things actually began in the garden. The Fall did not take away that desire from our Father. In fact, we can even say that now—because of Christ’s ascension to the right hand of the Father—God wants to give us even more wonderful things for our enjoyment. It is easy to stop and think, “Things are going so well, therefore I should not expect things to continue this way.” But the reality is that we should expect a loving Father to continue to shower us with good gifts. He is the abundant God who gives abundant life to his own (Jn. 10:10). It is his nature to do so. Our expectations should not be that God is always up to hurting or damaging us—a cosmic red light on the road to blessing—rather, God’s pleasure is to provide a table for us in the presence of our enemies and show us “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). It is this Father that has adopted us as sons and daughters (Rom. 8:15).

What follows is a lengthy portion from Josh Hayes over at REVELANT:

As A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Therefore, how we think about the Trinity (i.e., the Christian view of God) is of highest importance. So, here are three trinitarian basics to keep in mind when considering this weighty, mysterious and often-misunderstood concept:

1. God is one in essence and three in person.

Without reciting the first several centuries of church history, we can, in a nutshell, say that after much careful reflection and discussion, Christians came to confess that God eternally exists as three personal subjects—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—who possess one undivided nature (also sometimes, essence or substance). Each person is fully and equally God because each enjoys the attributes that qualify as divine (i.e., self-existence, eternity, omnipresence, etc.).

We use the terminology, which today seems really odd, “essence” and “person,” while not found in Scripture, so that Christians can affirm with Scripture that only one God exists (Deuteronomy 6:4; James 2:19), while also acknowledging that Scripture in various places identifies Father, Son and Holy Spirit each as God (e.g., 1 Cor. 8:4-6; John 1:1-3,14; 20:28; Heb. 1:1-3,8, 10; Acts 5:3-4; 28:25-26; 1 Cor. 2:10-11).

The doctrine of the Trinity is not irrational (against reason), though it is supra-rational (beyond reason).

So, instead of speaking of one God with three “aspects,” as Martin suggests, it is more accurate and helpful to use the word “persons” in order to avoid intimating that God is somehow made of pieces or parts.

2. Christians distinguish the three persons of the Trinity by their respective personal properties and coinciding relationships.

As the Church reflected upon what the Bible teaches about the one-in-three God during its first several centuries, theologians and pastors came to adopt the terms of “unbegotten,” “begotten” and “proceeding” to speak respectively of each person: The Father is unbegotten; the Son is eternally begotten by the Father; and the Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son.

In other words, one is not the loneliest number, because for God the one never exists without the three.

There has never been a point when God was not a Father (and a Son). And there has never been a time when the Spirit did not exist as the one who unites the Father and the Son in active abiding love. The Trinity isn’t conjoined triplets with identical personalities; the three really are eternally distinct (while one in essence) and participate in relationship with one another.

They don’t just become different in the parts they each play in the drama of God’s story of redemption.

The doctrine of the Trinity, gives content and structure to the statement “God is love” (1 John 4:8,16), for love requires more than one person. Love requires relationships, and so the doctrine of the Trinity shows us how God is loving even before His creatures existed.

The terms “unbegotten,” “begotten” and “proceeding” don’t refer to properties found in God’s unified nature but to the persons and the relationships that exist among them eternally.

To Martin’s childhood question “So he’s his own father and own son?” we should respond, “No, God the Father is the father of God the Son, according to their eternal relationship and respective personhood, yet they are mysteriously one God with respect to their essence.”

3. The Trinity’s actions in history reveal who the Trinity is in eternity.

The third truth serves as the basis for how we know the first two basics. God acts in accordance with who He is; so, any time He reveals Himself, it’s a trinitarian revelation.

We know what is true about God’s relationships in Himself before creation (e.g., the Father eternally loves the Son in the Spirit) because of the relationships we see among the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in creation (e.g., the Father sends, the Son comes, and the Spirit completes). There is a “fittingness” between their roles in history and who they are in the Godhead from eternity.

This is the distinction that Christian theologians make between what’s called the “ontological Trinity” (God as He exists apart from creation) and the “economic Trinity” (God as He is known to us in creation). Confused? Theologian Fred Sanders might be of some help here:

Because God’s actions tell us something about who He is, the economic Trinity reflects the ontological Trinity. The roles of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in history are more than God doing different jobs and using different titles. It is God’s way of saying to the world, “This is who I am!”

This all can seem complicated and technical, but the point is that God really does reveal Himself to us; He isn’t putting on masks randomly or arbitrarily.

And to some, the above might seem trivial. But no Christian should think like this, however, because the gospel itself is trinitarian in both its shape (Rom. 1:1-4; Gal. 4:4-7) and its goal (John 1:18; 17:3; cf. Matt. 11:27; Heb. 1:1-2).

The same truth holds for Martin as it does for us: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

Here is the bad news: Pentecost will likely not have the prestige of Christmas and Easter. In some ways we are still trying to persuade evangelicals of the need for the Church Calendar. But we move on with our agenda. It is crucial to know that we are talking only about Classic Reformational and Lutheran celebrations which include Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost.^a In other words, these are conspicuously Christ-Centered feasts. These feasts exalt the work and name of Jesus.

Some may say, “But we celebrate Easter all year long. Why do we have to set time aside to celebrate it in particular?” While this comment is noble, it is important to note that you can’t say everything all the time lest you say nothing at all. In other words, there is simply no way to celebrate all these events all the time. Hence, the Church has developed a way of celebrating, remembering, and internalizing the life of Jesus throughout the year.

So, what is Pentecost and what are some ways we can celebrate this Feast?

Pentecost means the fiftieth day because it is the 50^th day after Passover. This was also the Feast of the Harvest. In fact, we can say that Pentecost in Acts 2 is the great fulfillment of all previous Pentecosts. The Old Testament Feasts led us to this fiery moment of redemptive history in the first century. The Great Harvest Feast is now being fulfilled and God is harvesting the nations, and since Christ is sitting at the Father’s right hand, the nations are being given to Jesus Christ as an inheritance (Ps. 110).

How can I celebrate this Feast?

Pentecost goes from the 24th of May to October 31st. One way to be liturgically self-conscious is by putting a few things into practice.

First, you may consider wearing something red this Sunday. Remember the promise of Acts 2 that the Spirit would be poured out like fire. Pentecost is the re-birth of the Church. Red symbolizes the fire that came from heaven and indwelt the Church as they moved from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Secondly, use this time to talk to your children about the Holy Spirit. The Third Person of the Godhead is often set aside as the forgotten Person of the Trinity, but he should not be. We must remember that Jesus refers to the Spirit as our Comforter (Jn. 14:16). Reading Acts 2 and other passages about the work of the Spirit is a healthy way of bringing recognition to the One who is truly God.

Thirdly, allow this feast, which celebrates the reversal of Babel, to be a reminder that God has made a new humanity through his Spirit. We are no longer a divided ethnos, we are one new creation of Jews and Gentiles, blacks and white. Live out gospel reconciliation in every possible situation.

Fourthly, educate yourself about other Church traditions. As a Reformed pastor, I can honestly say that I have learned much from my Anglican, Lutheran, and Baptist brothers and sisters. Pentecost is a reminder that our differences should never cause us to divide from other Trinitarian believers.

Finally, do not be hopeless in this season. God has not left us orphans. The absence of Jesus’ physical body on earth means his presence at the right hand of the Father in heaven ruling and reigning by his Spirit forming a resurrected creation under his reign.

Happy Pentecost! Rejoice greatly! The Spirit is among us!

1. There are some special celebrations within these main ones like Trinity Sunday  (back)

As we approach Holy Week and prepare ourselves to re-enter that brutal narrative of Jesus’ final days before death, I want to discuss one profound accomplishment of the cross of Jesus. Generally, discussions about the cross focus on the covering of sin Jesus provides in his sacrifice, but another element that should receive attention concerns the paralyzing blow that Jesus’ death has on the serpent, the Devil. The serpent is the root and symbol of deception. And so, the story of the Bible means the undoing of Satan’s deception to the world. This blow is given to us in Genesis 3.

Yahweh God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock

and above all beasts of the field;

on your belly you shall go,

and dust you shall eat

all the days of your life.

The serpent was cunning above all, so he is cursed above all. To be cursed is to be banished or isolated.[1] This is why when God send his people into exile it is a form of curse. The meaning of Genesis 3 is that the serpent is now cut off from being a part of the cattle and the beasts of the field. He is separated from the animals.[2] In Leviticus 11, there is a description of clean and unclean animals, and among them are listed the creatures that break the boundary of a human life and invade a human house.[3] Anyone who touches these animals is considered unclean. Out of the eight mentioned, six are animals that move on their belly. The serpent became an unclean animal, precisely because it invaded the human house—the Garden—and made it unclean. This curse in the Torah is a reference to the deception of the serpent and consequently the curse that followed that deception.

Another element of the curse is that the serpent would “eat dust all the days of its life.” The author is not referring to dry dirt. The idea of “dust” expresses “the deepest form of degradation.”[4] This is the picture of humiliation. This is a curse, but for us this is a promise that the enemies of God will lick the dust, as Psalm 72 states.[5] It is also a promise of final victory over the devil. Our Messiah defeated the evil serpent at his death, but he will defeat the devil and his demons once and for all at the end of history.[6] The reason Lent is so important for us is because through death he destroyed the one who has the power of death (Heb. 2:14). The promise of the curse is the promise that at the death of our Lord—fulfilled many centuries later– we will witness by the success of the gospel the utter humiliation of the devil. In fact, we live in the age of the serpent’s humiliation. Death, resurrection, and ascension sealed the fate of the evil serpent. In this curse the progress of the gospel implies the enemies of Yahweh licking the dust just like their father, the devil.

Verse 15 forms the famous proto-euangelion passage; the first gospel. This is an expansion on the curse of verse 14 detailing the way in which the serpent will be destroyed.[7]

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and her offspring;

he shall bruise your head,

and you shall bruise his heel.”

Think for a moment that throughout this curse, the tempter is absolutely silent. There are no smart retorts; no subtle attempt to trick Yahweh; simply silence. And the separation God puts into place is this antagonism between Lucifer and humanity, to prevent humanity from blindly following Satan to destruction.[8]

The implication here is that the serpent has offspring who will war with the offspring of the woman.

Then we come to the final element of this curse, which seals the future of the serpent. As the serpent quietly sits listening to the curse he hears that his head will be crushed. The Book of Judges brings this theme to the forefront when it lists several examples of enemies of the gospel whose heads were crushed. You may remember most notably Jael crushing Sisera’s head with a tent peg (Judges 5:24-27). This is all, of course, a little reminder that the promise of Genesis 3:15 is alive and well. Again, not the precious moment imagery if we were expecting a sanitary Bible. The Bible is extremely violent. Yahweh does not allow his justice to go unanswered. He destroys and brings justice far as the curse is found. The devil has received this temporary blow at the death of Jesus. Lent culminates in the seed of the woman crushing the head of the serpent at the cross (Rom. 16:20). This curse on the serpent signifies blessings for God’s people.

[1] Trees and Thorns. JBJ. See also Cassuto’s comments on this text. The nature of exile can also be added to this concept. Exile is a form of death. The Israelites died in the wilderness both physically and spiritually, since they lived exilically.

[2] E.J. Young. 97

[3] The implications of this text are many. The unclean/clean motif is remarkably potent in the Bible.

[4] E.J. Young.

[5] Verses 8-9 -May he have dominion from sea to sea,

and from the River to the ends of the earth!

May desert tribes bow down before him,

and his enemies lick the dust!

(Psalm 72:8-9 ESV)

[6] See Revelation’s description.

[7] I have preached an entire sermon on this verse.

[8] Trees and Thorns.

What kind of people are we called to be? We are called to be a liturgical people. Typically, these questions about liturgy entail the type or style of worship we are engaged in, but by liturgical people I have something else in mind. The term leitourgia, composed of the Greek words ergon (work) and laos (people) actually means “the work of the people.”[1] To be liturgical in a church culture refers to the activity of the laity; of the parishioner.

So, when you hear people say, I don’t like liturgy, technically what they are saying is I don’t like to participate in the activities of the kingdom. It is not a matter of being liturgical, because to be liturgical is inescapable, but the question is what kind of liturgy you want to embrace. Ultimately, there are three choices: a liturgy of life, a nominalistic liturgy, or a liturgy of death. Those are the options.

In Malachi 3 Yahweh’s Messenger is going to offer himself as an offering pleasing to Yahweh. Jesus became an offering because he wanted a liturgy of life for the world. He wanted to be life in a world of death.

I met with someone recently who said his experience growing up as a Christian was a very nominal experience. The pastor may have seen him on Sunday morning, but there was no expectation to see him participate in the life of the body. In other words, he was satisfied with a nominal liturgy. Fortunately, he began to see that this was not producing the type of human being he wanted to be, so he decided to engage more and he found life as he began to immerse himself in the Bible and his community.

A dead type of liturgy simply indicates someone who has no inclination towards truth or righteousness. C.S. Lewis talked about this when he said that we don’t go to church to be entertained, we go to church to work through the structure of acts and words as we receive the sacrament, repent, supplicate and adore. Dead liturgy is pure entertainment; passive worship.

Liturgy, then, the work of the people, is sanctifying work. Hebrews 2:11 says that “for the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father.” So, as we approach the season of Lent, how does a liturgical life look like?

First, the liturgical man or the liturgical woman need to be aware of his role in the community. Every time I hear people say, “I love this community,” I think to myself: “This community was not created ex nihilo.” It takes your initiation and actions to make this a community where people are loved and desire to participate. It is incumbent upon those who are older in the community to set an example for those who are younger of what it means to live in community; what it means to live in a place where hospitality is second-nature and where encouragement and edification is a part of who we are.

Secondly, liturgical life is theological. It is hard to work, to act, to participate in the kingdom of God.  to be liturgically theological means that we need to practice the means of grace. They include, but are not technically limited to, prayer, which is contemplation of the Triune God; Scripture reading, which is discovering more about the Triune God, and worship, which is adoration of the triune God. These things are given to you so that you will become more like Jesus. How do you become theological? Far from an isolated academic exercise, a liturgical man is theologically communal. He seeks theology from the mouth of babes and the wisdom of the Church.

Finally, a liturgical person, it is obvious, is a person who treasures Jesus as his most precious treasure. Hebrews 2 says:

              For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, ¹²saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”

Our Lord is not ashamed to be engaged in our family neither should we be ashamed to carry His name wherever we go. To be more precise, we should not be ashamed to proclaim his name in the assembly. You can’t be liturgical and not participate in the liturgy. As we near the Lenten Season, prepare your hearts to be with one another, to sing with one another, to join one another in this congregation praise. We are brothers and sisters. We are a family in the most biblical of ways. While the biological family will no longer exist in eternity, the church family endures forever. So, treasure worship, desire it, work in it, add your voices to it, help the visitor find his place in the service, help the mommy with three or ten little kids, show up, call, e-mail, text, pray, facebook, love, appreciate, and seek the well-being of your community.

This is how we become liturgical people. This is how we work well as liturgical beings and by doing so we become a liturgy of life to the world.