Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue: Reflections on Five Days in South Korea

By / Nov 15

I recently had the opportunity to visit ministry partners and church leaders in South Korea with MBTS Provost, Jason Duesing, and Dean of Asian Studies, Sun Jin Park. I wrote these reflections for my team at Midwestern Seminary and was later encouraged to submit the piece for a broader audience. I hope you enjoy my reflections on our time overseas.

Something Old

I knew that Eastern culture was a traditional culture, with formalities and pleasantries embedded into everyday life. I did not know just how embedded these customs would feel. As this was my first trip to Asia, I was overwhelmed by the perpetual politeness and steady stream of service coming my way. The bowing, the greetings, the ushering, the gifts, the food… The Food… THE FOOD. I was honored to be the guest everywhere we went, but I was also ready to be something other than a guest. I suppose this is how our Korean students feel, except I wonder if they ever feel like our guests in the first place? Knowing now what they expect a guest to receive, I am somewhat ashamed at how little I notice or welcome them with hospitality that is befitting of a heavenly host. I walk away from this experience much more acquainted with Eastern culture and hope to bring a little of it back for our Eastern students at home.

Something New

During one evening’s dinner, Dr. Jason Duesing and I were able to hear Dr. Minsoo Sim (a professor in the doctoral program at MBTS) describe the identity of the Korean people. In Korean-English, he reiterated repeatedly that Koreans are “fast, fast!” What makes Koreans unique from other Asian counterparts is their smarts and their hustle. They are “geniuses,” he claims, and they are willing to make a move when others are not. They hustle when others slog behind. Quite literally, if you go walking with a Korean, they are not walking. They are scurrying. This is who they are.

One of the values I have appreciated during my time at Midwestern Seminary is our commitment to a “fast, fast” strategy. The new Korean undergraduate program at Spurgeon College is a great example. We noticed a need for more theological education among the younger Korean demographic, and we went for it. There are countless other similar initiatives over the years that have been launched with great hustle and strategic speed. We pride ourselves in being an agile institution, ready to spring for action when the moment is right. There’s no room for dilly-dallying when Christ’s mission is urgent. I hope we will continue this culture of hustle, and perhaps learn a thing or two along the way from our “fast, fast” Korean friends.

Something Borrowed

Upon arrival in the country, I was immediately struck by English signage everywhere – on street signs, buildings, walkways, packaging, checkout counters – you name it. These markers were just small symbols of how modernized and westernized the country has become. Unfortunately, we have imported the bad with the good. Just as one can travel to the liberal coasts of the States and find more dogs than children, so also in Korea, there is a rising denigration of family life. South Korea is ageing faster than any other developed nation in the world. They have an extremely low fertility rate of 1.05 children born to women of child-bearing age. This is one of the most significant problems facing their country today, and most citizens do not even see it.

As we partner with their churches and train their future leaders, we must help them disciple families to prioritize children. How can we do this? I do not ultimately know. But I do know that a church without littles will soon be a church without elders. Let’s continue to pray that their churches – along with ours – recover vibrant homes for the gospel’s sake.

Something Blue

Near the end of our trip, we were able to visit the Demilitarized Zone between North Korea and South Korea. The experience was sad and sobering. It was “blue,” you might say.

While there, visitors are able to scale a perch and look over a valley with barbed-wire fence separating the North from the South. Through binoculars, one can survey North Koreans in the distant rice patties and statues glorifying the Kim regime.

As you engage the tour, you learn about South Korea’s Dorasan Train Station, which contains an international customs facility built in 2002 along the North Korean border. The customs facility has never been used. It contains a ticking clock counting the hours since the peninsula was divided in the 1950’s, and it sits in waiting for the day when the North reunites with their kin in the South.

Before walking into an underground tunnel (dug by North Koreans who hoped to surprise-attack the South decades ago), there is a short video explaining the DMZ. Halfway through the video, I noticed one word sneaking into the script repeatedly: “Peace.” The experience was oxymoronic. How can South Koreans be so convinced of a peace that does not exist? Why do they hold such hope for a reunification that is not coming?

What makes for such hope? I think it is heartbreak. The North Koreans are not ugly enemies to Southerners. They are family. They are not “another country.” They are them. They recite the mantra of “peace” and “reunification” because that’s what the heart does when someone so loved is so lost. You hope against all hope. Perhaps this is the heart of the Father on the porch in Luke 15, waiting for his prodigal son. And perhaps this is the heart of evangelists, waiting for friends and family in the far country. We who are God’s people should be heart-broken for our long-lost brothers in the world until they come to their senses, until they change, until they come back.

Until they do, let us recite one word… over and over. “Peace.”



Principles for Seeing and Celebrating Christ in His Scriptures

By / Nov 3

Editor’s Note: The following post is taken from Five Views of Christ in the Old Testament edited by Andrew King and Brian Tabb. Copyright © 2022 by Zondervan. Used by permission of Zondervan. harpercollinschristian.com

My redemptive-historical, Christocentric approach identifies at least seven possible ways of faithfully magnifying Christ in the Old Testament. All seven principles assume that we are reading the Old Testament through the lens of Christ, for only in him are we empowered to see, live, and hope as God intended from the beginning.13

1. See and Celebrate Christ through the Old Testament’s Direct Messianic Predications (P1)

Christ fulfills the Old Testament as the specific focus or goal of direct messianic predictions and redemptive-historical hopes. The Old Testament contains many explicit and implicit predictions.14 For example, Peter agrees that Isaiah’s words directly predict the Messiah: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds we have been healed” (1 Pet 2:24 ESV; cf. Isa 53:5).

2. See and Celebrate Christ through the Old Testament’s Salvation-Historical Story and Trajectories (P2)

Scripture’s entire story line progresses from creation to the fall to redemption to consummation and highlights the work of Jesus as the decisive turning point in salvation history (cf. Luke 16:16; Gal 3:24– 26). Five major covenants guide this story line, each of which finds its terminus in Christ (Adamic/Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, David, new).15 Furthermore, various themes develop or progress as God gradually reveals more of himself and his ways, including covenant, God’s kingdom, law, temple and God’s presence, atonement, and mission. Christ fulfills all of the Old Testament’s salvation-historical trajectories.

3. See and Celebrate Christ through the Similarities and Contrasts of the Old and New Ages, Creations, and Covenants (P3)

Jesus’s saving work creates both continuities and discontinuities between the old and new ages, creations, and covenants. For example, while both the new and old covenants contain a similar structure (i.e., God redeems and then calls his people to obey), only the new covenant supplies free- dom from sin and power for obedience to all covenant members; the old covenant did not change hearts (Deut 29:4; Rom 8:3). Similarly, whereas Adam disobeyed and brought death to all, Christ obeys and brings life to many (Rom 5:18–19). Whereas access to Yahweh’s presence in the temple was restricted to the high priest on the Day of Atonement, Christ’s priestly work opens the way for all in him to enjoy God’s pres- ence (Heb 9:24–26; 10:19–22). These kinds of similarities and contrasts between the old and new ages, creations, and covenants encourage a messianic reading of the Old Testament within the redemptive-historical approach.

4. See and Celebrate Christ through the Old Testament’s Typology (P4)

The author of Hebrews said the Old Testament law was “a shadow of the good things to come” (Heb 10:1), and Paul spoke similarly (Col 2:16–17). In the New Testament, these anticipations and pointers are called “types” or “examples” (Rom 5:14; 1 Cor 10:6) that in turn find their counter in Jesus as their ultimate realization. God structured the progressive development of salvation history in such a way that certain Old Testament characters (e.g., Adam, Melchizedek, Moses, David), events (e.g., the f lood, the exodus, the return to the land), and insti- tutions or objects (e.g., the Passover lamb, the temple, the priesthood) bear meanings that clarify and predictively anticipate the Messiah’s life and work.

5. See and Celebrate Christ through Yahweh’s Identity and Activity (P5)

When we meet Yahweh in the Old Testament, we are catching glimpses of the coming Christ. Recall that Jesus said that “no one has ever seen God” the Father except the Son ( John 1:18; 6:46), but that “whoever has seen me has seen the Father” ( John 14:9 ESV). Minimally, this means that those who saw God in the Old Testament enjoyed preliminary and partial glimpses of his glory (Exod 33:18–23). It also may imply that, at least in some instances where Yahweh becomes embodied in a human form in the Old Testament, we may be meeting the preincarnate Son (e.g., Gen 18:22; 32:24–30; Josh 5:13–15). Additionally, since the New Testament identifies Jesus with Yahweh (cf. Phil 2:10–11; Isa 45:23), when we hear God speaking or acting in the Old Testament as the object of people’s faith, we are seeing the very one who would embody himself in the person of Jesus (see, e.g., Heb 11:26; Jude 5).

6. See and Celebrate Christ through the Ethical Ideals of Old Testament Law and Wisdom (P6)

The Old Testament’s laws and wisdom provide fodder to magnify Christ’s greatness. The Mosaic law pointed to the importance for Christ in the way it identified and multiplied sin (Rom 3:20; 5:20), imprisoned the sinful (Gal 3:10, 13, 22), and showed everyone’s need for atonement. The law by its nature, therefore, predicted Christ as “the end of the law” (Rom 10:4 ESV).

Moreover, as God’s word was made flesh, Jesus manifests in his person the essence of every ethical ideal aligned with Yahweh’s revealed will, and he then imputes this perfection to believers (Rom 5:18–19; cf. Phil 3:9). When you observe how the Old Testament law and wisdom express ethical ideals, know that the justifying work of the divine Son fulfills them all.

7. See and Celebrate Christ by Using the Old Testament to Instruct or Guide Others in the Law of Love (P7)

Jesus came not “to abolish the Law or the Prophets . . . but to fulfill them” (Matt 5:17), and the way he fulfills the various precepts guides our pursuit of love. While old covenant instruction no longer bears direct authority in the Christian’s life, it still indirectly guides us when read through the mediation of Christ (2 Tim 3:15–16). Through Christ, the very texts that used to condemn now lead us in a life of love, and God empowers such love (Rom 13:8–10) by changing our hearts and filling us with his Spirit (Ezek 36:27; Rom 2:26, 29). The Old Testament helps guide our Christian obedience, and every step of this obedience magnifies Jesus’s sanctifying work.

 

  1. For more on these seven areas, see Jason S. DeRouchie, “Question 3: How Does Biblical Theology Help Us See Christ in the Old Testament?,” in DeRouchie, Martin, and Naselli, 40 Questions about Biblical Theology, 41–47.
  2. For a few examples, see Gen 22:17–18 with Gal 3:8, 14; Ezek 34:23 with John 10:16; Micah 5:2 with Matt 2:6.
  1. See Jason S. DeRouchie, “Question 22: What Is a Biblical Theology of the Covenants?,” in DeRouchie, Martin, and Naselli, 40 Questions about Biblical Theology, 215–26.


Five Views of Christ in the Old Testament

By / Oct 25

An Interview with Andrew M. King and Jason S. DeRouchie

Andrew M. King serves as Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College and Assistant Dean of Spurgeon College. Jason S. DeRouchie serves as Research Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology at Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College. Their latest book, Five Views of Christ in the Old Testament, explores five different approaches on how the Old Testament points to Christ. King served as an editor for the publication and DeRouchie contributed one of the five views.

In the book, views and contributors include:

  • The First Testament Priority View, John Goldingay
  • The Christotelic View, Tremper Longman III
  • The Redemptive-Historical Christocentric View, Jason S. DeRouchie
  • The Reception-Centered Intertextual View, Havilah Dharamraj
  • The Premodern View, Craig Carter

They both joined me to answer a few questions about their book and the importance of Christ in the Old Testament.

BF: What inspired you and your fellow editor Brian J. Tabb to initiate this new book Five Views of Christ in the Old Testament? How did you narrow down the contributors for this publication? 

AK: I attended a session at the Evangelical Theological Society in 2019 on the topic of Christ in the Old Testament. Dr. DeRouchie was a presenter alongside other Old Testament scholars. There was standing room only, as attendees eagerly heard different perspectives on this question. I thought about how to bring this important conversation to a broader Christian audience. Dr. DeRouchie connected me with Dr. Tabb and we submitted a proposal to the publisher. We sought to find scholars who represented different approaches. We assembled a long list of potential contributors for the major views out there and worked with Zondervan to find the best fit.

In the book, you had the opportunity to engage with four differing views on Christ in the Old Testament. What was the experience like to interact with scholars on this topic in a publication like this?

JD: Faithful study includes observing carefully, understanding rightly, and evaluating fairly. All three of these habits of heart and mind were tested in this exchange of perspectives, and the topic required me to work very hard in the strength God supplied to accurately represent and critique my counterparts in humble and accurate ways that remained true to what I believe the Bible teaches. The interaction also forced me to critique and refine my own approach and presentation and to trust the Lord to guide readers in their own evaluations.    

Why is this topic of Christ in the Old Testament so important for Christians today? 

AK: The question of seeing the relationship of Jesus to the Old Testament is fundamentally about how we understand the nature of Scripture and how the two Testaments of our Bible fit together. As a people of the Book, Christians desire to read their Bible’s well. Through seeing seasoned scholars wrestle with the biblical text with an eye towards Christ, readers can grow in their own interpretive skills. We desire to be more faithful in our interpretation so we can worship rightly and be on mission fruitfully. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus called the men he spoke with “foolish and slow of heart” for failing to see how the Old Testament bore witness to him. Our hope is that this volume, in part, will help believers today avoid a similar rebuke.

You defend the redemptive-historical Christocentric approach in the book. Can you give us a preview of your chapter by briefly explaining the heart behind the redemptive-historical Christocentric approach?

 JD: An approach that is redemptive-historical is one that accounts for how God’s work and purposes in Scripture progress, integrate, and climax in Christ, and how all faithful biblical interpretation must account for the way Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection inform and influence everything God is doing in space and time (Luke 16:16; Gal 3:23–26). Through Jesus God discloses mysteries (Mark 4:10; Rom 16:25–26), allows shadows to reach their substance (Col 2:16–17), and inaugurates a new creation (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15), new covenant (Luke 22:20; Heb 9:15), and new law (1 Cor 9:21; Gal 6:2). A redemptive-historical approach requires that we consider every text in view of its close, continuing, and complete contexts within Scripture as a whole to fully discern what God meant in any passage.

By Christocentric I mean that all we do and teach is in some way tied to the cross (1 Cor. 2:2). Indeed, we need to interpret Scripture through Christ and for Christ. To interpret through Christ means that we start our reading as those believing in Jesus, with God having awakened our spiritual senses to see and hear rightly (1 Cor 2:14; 2 Cor 3:14). To interpret for Christ means that we recognize that that Old Testament history (Mark 1:14), prophecy (Acts 3:18), law (Rom 10:4), and promises (2 Cor 1:20) point to Jesus, that he fulfills all of them (Matt 5:17–18), and that the Spirit who inspired the biblical text is working to glorify the Son through it all (John 16:13–14; cf. 1 Pet 1:11). Christian biblical interpretation reaches its end only after we have beheld Jesus’s glory and found him transforming us into his image (2 Cor 3:18).

What do you hope readers will take from this book? 

AK: We have designed this book to allow each contributor to “put their cards on the table.” Every essay unpacks the presuppositions necessary for the view, the specific steps readers must take to follow the approach presented, and three case studies from different genres of Scripture. In all of this, readers can see the process of each view from start to finish. The critiques of each view from the other contributors raise important objections that readers can evaluate. Our hope is that by the end of the book, readers will not simply align with a particular view, but have a robust toolkit for their own study of Scripture. We hope this book will help believers do their personal devotions more faithfully, preach and teach more boldly, and exalt our Triune God globally.

What encouragement would you give to readers as they pick up this book?

JD: Readers must be very discerning with their Bible’s open as they consider the multiple views in this volume. The book’s format may suggest that any of these perspectives are viable options for Christians, but readers should not assume this from the start. The discerning reader will ask questions like:

  1. Is this scholar approaching Scripture as God’s unified Word (2 Tim 3:16) and allowing Scripture’s claims in both the Old and New Testaments to stand?
  2. Does this proposal require biblical warrant for the way it presents seeing Christ in the Old Testament?
  3. Does the view allow Christians to try “to convince” others “about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets” (Acts 28:23)?
  4. Do the claims affirm with Jesus that “the Scriptures … bear witness about me” (John 5:39), that “Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day” (8:56), and that Moses indeed “wrote of me” (5:46)?
  5. Does this perspective agree with the apostles that (a) Isaiah spoke as he did “because he saw [Jesus’s] glory and spoke of him” (12:41), (b) “what God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled” (Acts 3:18; cf. 10:43), (c) “the gospel of God … concerning his Son” was “promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures” (Rom 1:1–3), (d) “it was revealed to [those prophets] that they were serving not themselves but you” (1 Pet 1:12), (e) the meaning of Scripture’s “spiritual truths” can only be “spiritually discerned” by “those who are spiritual” (1 Cor 2:13–14), and (f) “only through Christ” are minds softened to “read the old covenant” in a way that lets us “behold the glory of the Lord” so that we are in turn “transformed” into his image (2 Cor 3:14, 18)?

 

Editor’s Note: Five Views of Christ in the Old Testament is now available for purchase.



There is a Crack in Everything (Including Us)

By / Oct 19

The beginning of blessedness—and the beginning of real change—is not in realizing that we are okay, but in realizing that we are not okay.

It is not in becoming convinced that we are superior to everyone else, but that we are no better than anyone else.

It is not in believing that we are strong and capable and competent, but in accepting that we are frail and incapable and weak, while also being fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).

It is not in thinking that God expects us to be awesome and prettied-up and all put together, but in gaining confidence that God has first and foremost, in Christ, caused us to be forgiven, loved, faithful and free. It is from this humble place—and only from this place—that we have any chance of growing into the virtues of Christ.

It is only when we can cry out, “God, have mercy on me, the sinner” that we are sent home justified, blameless in his sight, and confident in his love (Luke 18:9-14). As a pastor friend of mine has said, “God does not love us to the degree that we are like Christ. Rather, God loves us to the degree that we are in Christ. And that’s one hundred percent.”

It is essential that every journey in Christ begin with the realization that none of us has the ability to get better apart from the redeeming and restoring work of Jesus in our lives.

The first step in becoming like Jesus is acknowledging how unlike Jesus we are. We must not suppress the doubts we have about ourselves. Instead, we must start listening to those doubts and applying the truth about Jesus to them. We must not try to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. Rather, we must realize that we don’t even have boots. We must not merely think that we have problems. Rather, we must understand that we are our own biggest problem, our own worst nightmare, our own worst enemy.

As Shakespeare quipped, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves.”

In his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones shares a similar perspective on our human condition:

The first thing you must realize, as you look at that mountain which you are told you must ascend, is that you cannot do it, that you are utterly incapable in and of yourself, and that any attempt to do it in your own strength is proof positive that you have not understood it.

God’s call on our lives, then, is first and foremost not a call to action but a call to brokenness and contrition, for a broken and contrite heart he will not despise (Psalm 51:17).

So how do we grow toward holiness? As my friend and songwriter Tom Douglas often says, “We stumble on.” This may feel contradictory, but the call remains: In the midst of our being fractured and frail, we continue our journey towards becoming more like Jesus.

The Apostle Paul’s wish for the first-century Galatians is still our Lord’s wish for us today: that Christ be formed in us (Galatians 4:19) and that the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control—become the most dominant, visible, increasing, and operative attributes of our lives (Galatians 5:22-23).

Though we will remain less-than-completed and conflicted and beset by sin until our last breath, we cannot allow ourselves to ignore our pursuit of Christ and his Spirit-filled virtues. Even though we will never fully attain it in this life, we must continue to strive with all the energy Christ supplies toward the perfection for which we were made—recognizing that even the striving is a gift given to us by him.

And even our flaws and frailties and the acknowledgment thereof is a grace, a sign of God’s kingdom at work in us. As Leonard Cohen has said, “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

From beginning to end, our confidence is not in ourselves, but in God. He began a good work in us, and he will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6). In the same way that he saved us, he will ultimately complete us—by grace, through faith, and in Christ, so that God alone might receive the glory.

And whenever God gets glory, we will get joy.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published at scottsauls.com. 



Political Gospel

By / Oct 18

Editor’s Note: This post is excerpted with permission from Political Gospel by Patrick Schreiner. Copyright 2022, B&H Publishing. This book is available everywhere Christian books are sold.

Christianity is political. Though it might sound crazy in our supercharged political climate, I don’t think the average Christian is nearly political enough.

It has become a truism to state that Jesus didn’t come with a political message. As the common trope goes, though Israel expected a warrior-king to come riding on a white horse to over-throw Rome, he came with a spiritual message about their hearts. Jesus simply wants a relationship with you.

The problem is, this is a half-truth.

Jesus made a political announcement. He declared himself to be King. We have one ruler to whom we are loyal.

Kanye West popularized this political message with his album Jesus Is King. However, many still think “Jesus is King” means, “He is Lord of my life.” We forget Jesus is more than that; he is the King of kings.

Jesus was not “conservative” or “progressive,” but we must not miss the politics of Jesus. The whole biblical storyline can be put under the banner of politics.

  • God put humans here to rule the earth.
  • Sin is insurrection.
  • Redemption is the offer of amnesty and citizenship in a new kingdom.
  • Restoration is the empire come.

Rule out politics, and you throttle the proclamation of God’s saving power. Almost all the vocabulary of salvation (justification, peace, faithfulness, and kingdom of God) has a political dimension. The substance of Christian hope at its foundation is political. Thus, Jesus was not merely urging a revolution in personal values. He was not aloof to political concerns; it was the very purpose of his coming.

I hope to show you that the spheres of religion and politics are not only partially overlapping, but completely and wholly overlapping. Yet, maybe not in the way you think.

Politics Defined

When you hear me arguing for a more “political” understanding of the gospel message, you might mistakenly assume a few things.

First, you might think I’m speaking about a partisanship. Many equate being political with being partisan, but politics is larger than partisanship. I’m not arguing we should do more wheeling and dealing along party lines, or that pastors should endorse candidates. I’m not arguing Jesus can be smuggled into one of our political parties or that preachers should be more like politicians. That is not what I mean by “political.”

Second, you might think I’m arguing for the merging of church and state. While instituting Christian law into our political processes is a complex topic, we need to recognize the authority of the church and the authority of governing officials are distinct. We must not imitate imperialist forms of religion: the Spanish Inquisition, Charlemagne, the cross-carrying conquistadors, the Nazi co-option of Christianity— these are all corruptions of Christianity’s political vision. We have seen through history that using political power to implement God’s law ends in disaster.

If I don’t mean these things, then what do I mean?

My subject is politics in the historical sense of the word. I mean politics in terms of public life, the ordering of society, enacting justice, and the arranging of common goods.

“Political” simply means the activities associated with the organization and governance of people. It has to do with rulership and who has the right to order our lives. It is what happens in the public domain. To paraphrase Augustine, politics is people bound together by common loves.[1]

Politics comes from the Greek word polis which means city, or politikia meaning the affairs of the cities. In some ways, “a political gospel” simply means a public reality, and the governance of that public activity, as opposed to a private or individualistic one.

God is sovereign over the whole world, not merely the inner reaches of the human heart. His project includes the ordering of society, of public life, the establishment of a coming city, and even its present manifestation in the church.

But I’m also not merely suggesting Christianity has political implications. Christianity is itself a politic.

It is an all-encompassing vision of the world and human life. This all-encompassing vision is meant to be enacted in the church, showcased to our neighbors, and spread to the world.

Politics answers the questions: How do we live together? How do we deal with money? How do we treat our enemies? What is authority? How should we love? Whom should we love? What does it mean to be human? How do we form communities? What is justice? Who is in charge? And how do we disagree?

Politics is simply how we partner together for the flourishing of humanity and the world. We must open the horizon of politics past partisanship and allow God to have his say again. Christian politics concerns how we integrate our confession that Jesus is Lord with our call to love our neighbors.

Many people wonder if Jerusalem has anything to do with Athens, but it should also be asked whether Bethlehem has anything to say about Rome? The answer is actually quite easy.

King Herod, the puppet of Rome, didn’t kill the baby boys in Bethlehem because a spiritual guru was born. He killed them because a new Ruler had arrived, and he knew his days were numbered.

That is why Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross. Why Peter was crucified by Nero upside-down. Why Paul was beheaded by the same Caesar. Their messages were the tremors of a new regime.

[1] Augustine, City of God, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1.



I Don’t Want To Be A Pastor Anymore

By / Oct 13

Twenty-something months into pastoring through this pandemic on a Thursday afternoon I had to reckon with the thought, “I don’t want to do this anymore.” I don’t want to be a pastor anymore. In 18 years of vocational ministry and nearly 8 years as pastor here, there have been times of burnout and leading from a place of emptiness. But this was different. This had been a season where every decision feels like a bad one and the Church seems divided on every issue imaginable. I wanted out. If “bearing with one another in love” met “seventy times seven,” I felt like I had reached the tipping point. I was done. It wasn’t one thing in particular. It’s the endless drip, drip, drip that had finally worn me down.

I hadn’t been sleeping well. I began to be short with my kids and distant from my wife. And I couldn’t see an end in sight. With the Fall approaching and everyone getting back into their routine after Summer, this should be the time when we are ramping things up. But I was drowning and I simply didn’t think I had it in me. And I didn’t need anybody’s Jesus jukes or platitudes.

So, I talked to a friend. Then my wife (I know… I should’ve talked to her first. But it’s that kind of constant criticism that led me to this place) Jenny & I went for a walk. I vented. She lovingly listened. We got home. Talked some more. I cried. A lot. I didn’t know what to do. I love my church and I love what God lets me do, but I knew I just couldn’t keep doing what I’ve been doing.

Then came the gracious ultimatum from my wife: “Either you can talk to the elders or I will.” So… I reached out to these faithful brothers that I get to shepherd alongside, told them I was struggling, and asked them to pray for me. They did, and I am so grateful for them. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for God’s grace shown to me through these brothers.

Over the next few days I met with a few of these brothers individually then we met together as a group like we do every Tuesday at 6:15am. I was honest. They let me vent. They offered encouragement & correction where it was needed. And we prayed.

Sometimes it’s in difficult days like those that God reminds me of His Faithfulness. Here’s a few lessons I learned:

  1. There’s still work to do in my heart.

My nagging, Narcissistic Messiah Complex still needs to be put to death (among many other besetting sins). Colossians 3:5a reminds us to “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you.” By God’s grace, I’ve come a long way with this, but the Spirit reminded me He has yet to complete the good work He has started in me (Phil. 1:6). And the know-it-all, please everyone, fix everything because it all depends on my nature that shows up sometimes still has a ways to go! But I’m confident, The Spirit will complete that work as well!

  1. My wife is a gracious gift that I often overlook.

In Andrew Peterson’s song “My One Safe Place” he writes about his wife, “And I know that you’re broken too, but you are a sacrament God has spoken through. He has spoken through you.” This certainly wasn’t the first time God has spoken through Jenny. I know it won’t be the last. But I thank God for the grace He has shown me through my wife over the last 17 years. She really is my safe place.

  1. A Grace-filled Church Culture shines even on the dark days.

In a meeting several years ago that was tumultuous, to say the least, our worship pastor, Josh Hilliker said something that has defined us in many ways since that day. In the midst of some tough times, he said, “The Gospel frees us to have hard conversations.” Man, has that stuck with me! And I thank God that though our Church isn’t perfect, He has shaped us into a people that are free to be transparent. To be honest. To have hard conversations. When I was struggling with whether or not I had it in me to continue on I didn’t run from our elders, I ran toward them (with my wife’s nudging, of course). But even that is a gift. My wife, while I was in despair, loved me and then said without hesitation, call the elders! I’ve been in Churches where that wouldn’t have been the case. But not here. Even though we have a long way to go as a Church, God has created a culture where brokenness, transparency, and honesty are welcomed, not shunned. That has been a salve for my weary soul!

Dear Pastor, you are not alone! A lot of us are struggling. Some of us have thought seriously about quitting. But don’t give up. The God that began this good work in you is going to complete it! So breathe. It’s all gonna be alright.

And if you’re not a pastor but you are a Christian, check on your pastor. There’s a good chance he’s struggling. He probably needs a little encouragement. Or a lot. Just let him know you love him and appreciate him. It’ll mean the world to him.

I’ll talk to Jenny first next time.



Legal Issues in Biblical Counseling

By / Oct 5

Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted with permission from Legal Issues in Biblical Counseling by Dale Johnson, published by New Growth Press. This book is available everywhere Christian books are sold.

The origin of this book lies in the numerous questions I have received regarding the application of scriptural principles to legal issues.

The pressures on pastors are immense. Pastors ask questions that express the tensions between honoring the government and acting as proper authorities within the church. Pastors wrestle with fear of incurring legal liability and a fear of God that compels them to engage in messy and broken lives. Pastors want to shepherd their flocks. They want to provide soul care, but they are often uncertain about the legal ramifications for them personally, for their flocks, and for the wider church body.

Three broad threats, and several smaller ones, confront the church. The first is the threat to religious liberty. This may not have been an issue in the middle of the twentieth century, but it is now. We want to safeguard the freedom of religion guaranteed in our Constitution, but we need to remember that this freedom comes with the responsibility to remain faithful to Christ as supreme authority, no matter what the government in this country or any other may decree.

The pressures on the church are not simply judicial or legislative; they are also cultural. The tide of the culture is turning, resulting in a moral code that in some significant ways contradicts scriptural morality. In the middle of the twentieth century, there was a shift in the Western world toward a relativistic view of morality, which allowed for a different “truth” for each individual.

More recently, another shift has occurred, this time to a new cultural morality that demands conformity of everyone. Those who do not conform must pay in some way. The Bible, with its moral absolutes, is no longer viewed by the culture as one of several ways toward good, as it was during the period of relativism. Rather, the Bible and those who promote it by their lives or their teaching are looked on as opposing the cultural milieu. The conflict between the morality of the culture and biblical morality is giving rise to legal threats to the freedom of religion. We need to be aware of cultural and legal trends so that we do not lose the freedom to express our religion with a free conscience and in lives lived quietly and peacefully according to Scripture.

The second threat is to orthodoxy. There are two ways ortho- doxy is threatened. It is threatened when we neglect the truths from Scripture in our doctrinal confessions. But orthodoxy is also threatened when the church fails to act upon the doctrinal truths it teaches. Revelation from God has a purpose that extends beyond mere understanding; God commands us to respond to the truth he has revealed by acting and living in accordance with his wisdom. If the church is paralyzed because of legal pressures or fears, then we will be in danger of losing our orthodoxy.

History has demonstrated that orthodoxy is always at risk when the church is under cultural pressures. We must remain vigilant, fearless, and grounded in the Word of God, obeying his clear commands regardless of the shifting shades of “wisdom” and “truth” presented by our culture. If those of us who are pastors, teachers, and counselors acquiesce to these very real pressures and do not present the clear teachings of Scripture, we are in danger of harming the sheep. The prophet Jeremiah denounces the shepherds of Israel for not feeding the sheep with God’s Word: “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14).

Finally, there is a threat to the proper authority God has granted to the church.[13] God established the offices of overseers and deacon within the church to govern it in a wise and orderly way. When these church leaders fail to execute their roles with integrity, the church is impotent.[14] All of us who are in a position of authority need to be alert to the danger of becoming like the leaders of Israel to whom God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah: “For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely” (Jeremiah 6:13). We must bear the burden of leadership with both humility and strength as we seek to lead God’s people with his faithful wisdom.

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13. One way the church loses its power is by becoming subjected to the state’s political system—by trying to exercise its power as a mere political actor.

14. I have appreciated 9Marks’s ecclesiological approach as they discuss the authoritative role of elders—see Church Elders by Jeramie Rinne (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014).



A Thrill of Hope

By / Oct 3

Editor’s Note: This article is excerpted with permission from Gifts of Grace by Jared C. Wilson, recently published by The Good Book Company. This book is available everywhere Christian books are sold.

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“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”—1 Peter 1:13

“You can’t sing Christmas carols yet!” Thus began an email I once received while serving as a pastor of a small congregation in New England. The sender wasn’t angry—just concerned. I puzzled over the directive, as it was the first time I could remember ever encountering such an assertion. The context gave the reasoning: because, I was told, Advent is about anticipating the birth of the Messiah, we shouldn’t sing songs celebrating that birth until the Sunday after December 25th.

I confess this was a tall order for me, especially given that I live in a household that decorates for Christmas around the end of October and begins playing Christmas music nonstop before the end of November. “What do you mean, I can’t sing Christmas carols yet?”

The concept of “advent,” of course, refers to an arrival or a coming. During the advent season, Christians redirect their focus to the spirit of anticipation of the first advent of Christ. We do this to affirm the incarnation more thoroughly and commemorate the beginning of the New Testament gospel story with more joy.

But I sometimes struggle with the way many Advent observances are conducted. The forbidding of songs about Jesus’ birth before Christmas Day is one such practice. It just feels a bit too much like playacting to me. I know why these things are insisted upon—it allegedly better helps us get “in the spirit” of Advent and is thought to heighten the joys of Christmas Day observance. But I’m telling you, it’s hard for me to act as if I’m waiting for the birth of the Messiah when I know he’s already come and, indeed, has already been crucified, buried, and raised, and has ascended to where he came from!

Second Advent

I don’t know about you, but I can’t pretend every year that Jesus hasn’t been born, even if doing so might help me muster up some extra-spiritual feelings. But there is one thing I can do that helps get me close to that pre-Christian sense of anticipation: I can think hard about the second coming of Christ—the one still ahead, the second advent.

In fact, the feelings most of us have right now about the state of the world and the sin, chaos, and brokenness that seem to reign everywhere we look is very much like the feelings of those who anticipated the first coming of the Messiah. “How long, O Lord?” is a cry that goes up throughout the Old Testament, a lament for the shalom of Eden, which was lost at the fall, and an expression of grief over the evil, suffering, and injustice continually pervading the earth. How in the world could the children of God before the time of Christ remain faithful year after year, decade after decade, century after century as the arrival of their righteous King seemed to be delayed? 

Our Hope is Still in God

And how in the world can we in the 21st century remain faithful as the Lord, in his second coming, appears to tarry? After seeing so much bloodshed on a daily basis and feeling so much heartbreak year after year, knowing that in so many places hostility to Christianity is always increasing, and knowing that for all the technological, medical, and other intellectual advances mankind can make, we are no closer to eradicating injustice in the world, much less death, how do we not give in to despair?

The answer is hope.

Before Christ’s first coming, God’s people hoped in God. And before Christ’s second coming, God’s people hope in God.

Our Hope is God

God had birthed this hope in the children of Israel through his past faithfulness and goodness to them, so much so that the psalmist could say, despite his depression, that he knew he would come to a place of praise again (Psalm 42:11); the prophet could say that the God he felt was giving him the silent treatment was nevertheless still his only hope (Isaiah 8:17); and the sufferer could say that even if God killed him, he would still hope in him (Job 13:15).

They didn’t know how long it would take to get to their deliverance, but they knew in their bones that it was coming. And this is why the people of God in all times hope differently than the people of the world. When the world hopes, there is the prospect of unfulfillment. The world “hopes” something will happen, but they know it might not. That’s not how God’s people hope. Our hope comes with assurance (Hebrews 11:1), our hope abides (1 Corinthians 13:13), and our hope will “not put us to shame” or disappoint us (Romans 5:5). Why? Because our hope is not in other people or in the times or even in ourselves—these things always change and are all stained by the fall.

No, our hope is in God! In fact, our hope is God!

Our Hope is Living

So I can sing Christmas songs on December 1 and still get close to feeling how those who wrapped themselves in messianic expectation felt before that first Christmas Day, because I know what it’s like to feel the weight of the weariness of the world around me but be anchored by the sure and steady hope of the Messiah to come. In 1 Peter 1:13, the apostle Peter instructs us to set our hope fully on the grace that will be coming to us at the coming of Jesus. Our hope cannot be half-hearted like the world’s because our King is tried and true. And Peter connects this hoping fully in grace to readiness for action and sobriety of mind. When people hope in things that may or may not be true, they can become lazy and muddled. But when we hope in Jesus, we find the reason and the energy to live and to think in ways that magnify Jesus.

And this is itself a gift from God. As Peter says earlier in the chapter, God “has caused us to be born again to a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3). And in giving us Christ by grace, God has also given us “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

Today, then, as you think about what may feel like a long road of Advent before you, remember that as tired or wounded as this season may find you, the day is coming—and not too far off now—when the blessed hope (Titus 2:13) will appear and you will be able to say, “I knew it all along!” If it helps you hope, you could even sing some Christmas carols today.



The Good News of Great Joy

By / Sep 29

Ultimate

I want you to see what is ultimate, true, and good in your life. And before you jump to conclusions, let me just say – it’s not you. Ultimately, what is most important in your life is not your home or health, your family or finances. These things are certainly important, but the universe will go on if these things don’t. What is ultimate is God Himself. And while much could be said about God, what must be said is that He is completely satisfied in Himself, filled with life, as a communion of three persons, a unity of three – or Trinity. The Trinity is not a complex math problem or philosophical conundrum; it simply means that the Father loves the Son in the Spirit.[1] And because God, as Trinity, is complete in Himself, He needs nothing to make Himself happier or more satisfied or more complete; He always is full of life and full of love.

The Father’s love for the Son is so full in fact, that it overflowed to create all things after the likeness of His Son – so that the whole world would be filled with the beauty of the Son! Each aspect of creation perfectly reflects the Son’s resplendence in its own unique way. In this way, the Father was showcasing what He admires most, His Son! The world would be filled with perfect reflections of the Son, the very image of God, and the Son would be magnified throughout the world as His excellencies shine forth to the ends of the earth through all things. The Father intended all of creation to be a gift to the Son, expressing His deep delight in the Son and displaying in great detail the intricate beauty inherent in the Son through creation.[2]

And, when He created all things, we can know that His actions were completely altruistic – or completely unselfish – because there is nothing that creation could have offered Him that He didn’t already have. He simply desired everyone to see and everything to show how good it was to love the Son.

And the Bible says the Son acted with the Father in creation, working inseparably with the Father and the Spirit. His creative work was fueled by love, because He knew that in creation the great love of the Father would be displayed for all to see, and everyone would know how great it was to be loved by the Father. And the pinnacle of creation was man and woman, Adam and Eve. They were designed to be God’s representatives on earth to carry out this divine mandate of establishing His garden paradise as the beautiful showroom where the full display of His love would be evident for all to see. Adam and Eve were meant to extend this paradise to the ends of the earth so the whole world would be filled with the image of God as they bore fruit and multiplied and cultivated the earth in light of this divine mandate; and in turn, all would experience the magnitude of His love.

This is what is ultimate, that we would find our life in the divine life of God, participating in the very life and love of the Trinity.

And this is the way the story of time began.

Adam, having received His command, was placed in the garden to begin his good work. Upon successful completion of his mission, he as mankind’s representative would usher all of humanity into an eternal age of knowing and enjoying God as their source and foundation for eternal bliss and happiness, like we were meant to.

If he failed, though, and disobeyed the High King’s command, the punishment was exile – separation from Him who is the source of all things good, true, and beautiful, which would result in death – not only for Him, but for all His posterity and descendants after Him. As they say, “As goes the king, so goes the people.” And if our experience tells us anything about reality, we know which path our representative took (the same one we would have!).

True

In a cosmic rebellion, Adam and Eve committed treason against God as High King. Refusing to enjoy eternal communion with God as their source of all things good and happy, they took their happiness into their own hands. They failed to realize though, that the happiness they sought was unattainable apart from Him. God designed humans in such a way that all that our heart most truly desires can only be satisfied through communion with Him. Fullness of life can only be found in Him; and now, Adam and Eve had detached all of mankind from the only source of life.

This reminds me of learning to drive stick shift on the bush roads of Madagascar. Our vehicle was designed to be operated in a specific way; only then would its purpose truly flourish. No matter how hard I tried to shift the stick to the next gear, the subsequent grinding noise told me that I was only damaging the vehicle (and frustrating the stew out of myself!). My failure to operate the vehicle the way it was designed had twin effects: an internal dissatisfaction and a path toward destruction for the vehicle (which I can unfortunately attest).

The same is true of our lives. God designed our lives to be lived in a specific way – namely, in communion with Him – and only in this way will we experience human flourishing. All other paths lead to a lack of fulfillment, dissatisfaction, and ultimately the destruction of death.

Adam and Eve failed to realize that their mistake not only plunged them into separation from God, but, as the representatives for all mankind, they plunged the entire human race into separation. If we probe our hearts enough, we intuitively know that we are cut from the same cloth as Adam and Eve, constantly seeking to base our happiness and source of life on things much lesser than communion with God.

And since God is holy, sinners cannot dwell in His presence and live. Just as a bright light extinguishes all the darkness in a room, God would effectively extinguish, so to speak, all sinners if brought into His presence.

To say it another way, the severity of our punishment for sin is in direct proportion to the value of the One sinned against.

For example, say I keyed a car. My action of scratching a brand-new BMW at the car dealer would invoke a greater punishment than the same action against a beater at the junk yard. In a much more infinite way, then, the slightest sin against the One who is most holy and infinitely valuable would rightly invoke an equally infinite punishment. The punishment fits the crime.

So infinite is our punishment in fact, that our finite selves can’t hope to pay it back to God for our redemption. Our problem is God-sized; and a God-sized problem requires a God-sized solution.

This is where the good news comes in.

Good

The good news is Jesus Christ Himself. Out of no obligation in Himself or to us, God sent Jesus Christ into this world to save sinners. Up to this point, mankind had only seen one representative – the first man, Adam. But now the King Himself was coming into the world to renew all things and establish His Kingdom as He intended in the beginning. God was coming into the world to give us a new and better representative, One who wouldn’t fail us and could restore us to the communion with God we were designed for.

This was the God-man, Jesus Christ. As truly God, born of a virgin, He possessed the infinite value we needed for a hope of redemption; and as truly man, He could identify with us and suffer and die for us. Only He could pay the infinite price we owed!

Jesus Christ came into this world so that – in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension – we could be made one with God again. He was restoring us to the life and happiness we experienced with Him in the garden, and continuing His original plan for this world to be filled with the glory of God.

The saying remains true with this new representative, “As goes the King, so goes the people.” But rather than coming under this new representative by birth, as with Adam, we become His people by faith. And through faith in this representative, we are redeemed. All that is true of Jesus becomes true of us. His perfect life and status of righteousness becomes ours. His death on the cross and its payment for sin becomes ours. His resurrection from the dead and inherent power for a new life becomes ours. His ascension to heaven and presence before God becomes ours. Again, all that is true of Jesus becomes true of us by faith. And all that was true of me; namely my sin and debt and shame, were taken by Christ, paid for, and jettisoned from my life.

Just like a marriage between a prince and a pauper, He takes my debt and shame and gives me His status as a child, access to His bank accounts, and brings me into His home.

And He does all of this by the gift of faith and repentance.

Response

Rather than merely an intellectual exercise as some may claim or a matter of willpower, faith is seeing and savoring all the excellencies of God in Christ and resigning yourself completely from all other pursuits for worth, value, and purpose. When you see this for the first time, you begin to realize, “He is all my heart has been longing for.” And rather than trying to continue on in life with your old operating system bent on performing or pretending your way toward an exhausted emptiness, you simply collapse into faith in Jesus and allow Him to be for you all your heart most deeply desires and needs.

This experience of saving faith is so formative that the Bible speaks of it as a new birth. In other words, when this happens for you and you see these things to be not only true, but true for you (and good!), you respond, “my life as I know it is over.” In a very real sense, your old life dies.

And you begin to realize, that “far from this being a sad state of affairs, this turns out to be the best news you’ve ever heard. Nobody can blame a corpse, especially not the corpse itself. Once dead, we are free from the blame speakers and guilt spreaders forever and fire from the messes we’ve made of our own lives. And in this state, God raised the dead, not on the condition of reform, but by sheer grace.”[3]

These phrases the Bible uses – new birth, life from death, sight to the blind – all describe the reality that everything from now on will be different as we live life in light of this glorious, good news.

And now, with this new faith, we follow this man Jesus Christ in all of life. Our new operating principle for life is called faith as a disciple (or apprentice) of Jesus. In other words, a disciple of Jesus is someone who is learning to submit all of life under the leadership of Jesus.[4]

And so, faith is not merely a one-moment decision that impacts eternity, but it’s a life of trust – a moment-by-moment turning to God in trust in our normal, everyday experiences.

The reality is – if you try to build your joy on anything less than Jesus, you will never experience the happiness you desire. But if you reject building your joy on anything less than Him, which the Bible calls idolatry, and instead yield to Him, you will then find the joy you were after in the first place in abundance.

This is the good news of the gospel.

As I’ve heard Tim Keller say before, ultimately, “the gospel is this – that I am more sinful than I ever dared imagine, but more loved and accepted in Christ than I ever dared hope.”[5]

And if you’ve never believed that before, I want to invite you to rest in Jesus who by virtue of His atoning death, is able to forgive and save all those who put their trust in Him. If you haven’t done that, your representative is still Adam – the first man – and your future is an eternal separation from the source of life and all things good.

You need Jesus. And He offers Himself to you. And if you would receive Him today by trusting in Him, you are promised all the benefits of His death secured for His people, and life forever with Him.

In possessing Christ through faith, you possess all things – a new family, a new identity, a new life, a new status, a new power, and so much more. Christ is all your heart most deeply desires, so come to Him by faith and find Him to satisfy every longing you could possibly have.

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[1] Inspired from Glen Scrivener’s 3-2-1 Gospel Presentation

[2] Inspired from Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity

[3] Robert Farrar Capon, The Romance of the Word

[4] Jeff Vanderstelt, on several occasions

[5] Tim Keller, on several occasions



Surgeons of the Soul

By / Sep 27

One day when we lived in New York City, I was in a hurry to get from one meeting to the next. The first step to getting there was to descend to the lobby from the twenty-eighth floor of the building where my first meeting took place. I was joined on the elevator by a mother and her young daughter, who smiled at me and said, “Watch this!” Then, with a mischievous look on her face she proceeded to press every single button on the elevator wall like Buddy the Elf.

Needless to say, I was late to my next meeting. Thirty-five minutes late, to be exact. But even worse than being late was when the girl’s mother looked at me, after her little cherub punched the buttons that would cause the elevator to stop at every floor between us and the lobby, one by one—and said to me, “Isn’t she just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”

Everything in me wanted to say, “Truthfully, ma’am, right now your daughter is the furthest thing from that.” Instead, I held my tongue and offered a weak, disingenuous smile.

Several years later, I am still mystified by the mother’s response to her daughter’s act. Why didn’t the mother stop the little girl from pushing all those buttons? Why didn’t she treat it as an opportunity to teach her child about self-control, sensitivity to others, and the value of time? Furthermore, why didn’t I—though a stranger to both of them—do the mother a small kindness by responding honestly, “Well, since you asked, I wonder if you might think differently about her actions if you knew that as a result, I’m now going to be very late to an important meeting.”

I passed up this opportunity to help a young mother parent her (possibly spoiled) daughter in a healthier way in the same way we all pass up such opportunities on a regular basis: We don’t see them as opportunities. Truth be told, most of us don’t value this kind of redemptive truth-telling because we are cowardly. The drive to be liked compels us to not rock the boat, even when rocking the boat can potentially keep the boat from sinking.

I wonder if this is why so many Christians don’t regularly tell others about the good news of the gospel. We have such good news in our possession of grace, truth, beauty, and everlasting Paradise offered to all who anchor their trust in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Is it because we don’t think it will be received as good news? Are we afraid it will offend someone and rock the boat? Consider, however, the following words from atheist, illusionist, and comedian, Penn Jillette:

“I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward… How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?” [1]

If an outspoken atheist would take issue with the lack of courage that prevents many Christians from speaking the truth about God and about life, how much more should those of us who are Christians take issue with the same? And yet, this isn’t always the case.

While none of us wants to run around telling other people what’s wrong with them, it is a mistake to think that never offering critique—especially a humble one—is a loving thing. In fact, sometimes love requires that we stand up and in humble boldness speak hard words to those whom we love. I believe this is what David and Paul both meant—at least in part—when they said that believers should be angry, but sin not (Psalm 4:4; Ephesians 4:26).

Anger toward sin in particular, though a negative emotion, should be motivated by positive love for those caught in it—similar to a surgeon who uses a scalpel on a patient with cancer. The surgeon will cut into the patient not because she is against the patient, but because she is for him. Passionate for his restoration to health and longevity, she is against—even angry toward—the cancer that could cut his life short.

In a similar way, there is an appropriate and necessary anger that must be nurtured in our hearts toward the sin in ourselves and others. As we channel our anger in this way—as we correct and rebuke one another not as with a sword to destroy, but as with a scalpel to heal—we become channels of God’s love toward one another. Yes, love and anger go together. Both are necessary for the redemptive exchange that must take place between flawed sinners when one or both is “caught” in transgression (Galatians 6:1-2). Consider these words from Rebecca Manly Pippert:

“We tend to be taken aback by the thought that God could be angry… We take pride in our tolerance of the excesses of others. So what is God’s problem… But love detests what destroys the beloved. Real love stands against the deception, the lie, the sin that destroys… ‘the more a father loves his son, the more he hates in him the drunkard, the liar, the traitor…’ Anger isn’t the opposite of love. Hate is, and the final form of hate is indifference… To be truly good one has to be outraged by evil.”[2]

Over the years, as a pastor I have had to preach hard words against the sin and foolishness to which we are all susceptible. As one who is called to preach the word of God “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2) and to use God-breathed Scripture to “teach, correct, rebuke, and train” my flock in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16-17), confronting sin is not an optional endeavor.

In my role as pastor—and also in my life as a Christian—over the years I have also had to arrange private meetings, and in some more serious and ongoing cases, group interventions, to challenge behaviors that dishonor God, that damage community, and that disorient those who are caught in transgression.

These uncomfortable occasions have challenged sins like gossip, slander, divisiveness, aggression, sexual immorality, marital unfaithfulness, financial impropriety, greed, narcissism, and more. In some of these conversations, God has worked to bring about repentance in those I have confronted. In other conversations, the other person responded in kind—opening my eyes to things that I, too, have needed to repent of. And sadly, other conversations have led to strained or even broken relationships.

I suppose what I’m trying to say here is that the “faithful wounds” God sometimes calls us to inflict on one another as mutual “surgeons of the soul”—always as with a healing scalpel and never as with an injurious sword—can sometimes create further relational strain.

And yet, because God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours, we must hold out hope that God remains at work. We must also remember that it is an unspeakable privilege to participate with God in one another’s redemption stories, for “he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published at scottsauls.com.