a new creation

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
How many times have you heard a Christian say; “I’m a sinner saved by grace.”
I submit that half of this statement is correct. Christians, those who are in Christ, redeemed by the blood Christ, the perfect and forever and only atonement for sin, made alive in Christ by the Holy Spirit who indwells them, are indeed saved by grace.
Half of this statement is incorrect. Christians are not sinners.
I know this may challenge your paradigm. If you are a Christian and you disagree with me, consider why you would refer to yourself and other Christians as sinners. I think there are primarily two reasons Christians say this. First, because we have heard it said many, many times. We have heard it from church leaders and pastors. We have heard it from the pulpit. Second, because we sin it seems to fit our experience. I submit that both of these are poor reasons to embrace something as truth.
Scripture should inform our thinking about everything. As Christians, our worldview is to be biblical, not informed by popular sayings or by forming our own truth around our experiences. Scripture says; “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” I submit that saying that we are a new creation in Christ, the old having passed away and the new having come, and calling ourselves sinners is a contradiction.
Before I was born again, I sinned because I was a sinner. I still sin, but I am no longer a sinner. I say this because before I was born again I was dead in sin, I was a sinner by nature and behavior; unregenerate sinner was my identity. Now I am alive in Christ. I have a new nature and a new identity. My identity is not sinner, one who is in sin; it is Christian, one who is in Christ.
Yet I live in a body corrupted by sin and in a world corrupted by sin, and I sin. My new nature produces new behavior and at the same time I find that I still do things that I did when I had the former nature. Does this mean I now have two natures, the old and the new? No, I am a new creation, the old has passed away.
The apostle Paul wrote: I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:15-20)
The apostle Paul battled with sin. He did things he didn’t want to do, things that didn’t conform to his new nature. Paul was a man; he lived in a corrupted body in a corrupted world. He was redeemed and regenerate, a new creation in Christ, living in the old body in the old world. In these bodies and in this world we will be tempted and we will sin, but in the new nature sin is not what we want so we fight against it. We keep fighting or sin wins, there is no other alternative, but we will keep fighting because we are in Christ it is in our new nature to fight. Note that this isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. We can battle some sin and at the same time give in to other sin. I can avoid committing adultery and at the same be a liar. I can tell the truth and at the same time be proud. Most of us will not commit murder, but who of us has not been angry enough to try and beat another to death with our words?
I suspect that Paul was man who did battle with every sin in his corrupted body and put up a defense against every temptation in his corrupted world. Yet he must not have won all of those battles, or else why would he say; “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”
Before we go on I need to say something about this passage. There are those who believe that Paul is talking about himself before he was a believer. This is not correct. I come to this conclusion by reading the text in context. The reason I bring it up is because if this is your thinking you will not get what this passage is about. This is the apostle Paul relating his ongoing battle with sin as one who has been born again, who has been given a new nature, and is indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit, yet lives in a body corrupted by sin.
If you are a Christian, that describes you. You have been born again, you have been given new nature, and you are indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit, yet you live in a body corrupted by sin.
All who are in Christ are fully redeemed. We were slaves to sin, but the blood of Christ purchased us for himself, setting us free from slavery. Imagine you were a slave, the property of another, and could do nothing but what your master commanded. The only alternative is to die. Now imagine that someone comes to your master and negotiates to buy you. You leave with your new master, but instead of pressing you into service he sets you free. You are no longer a slave, you are free! Would you continue to call yourself slave?
We were slaves to sin; we were by nature and identity sinners. We are no longer slaves to sin; we are not by nature or identity sinners, yet we still sin. There is the rub. Why do we act like slaves when we are free?
Imagine being a slave your whole life. Freedom might be a dream, but you would not think like one who is free. If suddenly you gained your freedom, you would still think like a slave and act like a slave. It would take time for your thinking and behavior to change.
In Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin, but we still think like slaves and act like slaves. As we live as free people we learn what it is to be free, we learn to think like we are free, and we learn to act like we are free. We become progressively like Jesus, the One who set us free. We call this sanctification.
The illustration of being a slave doesn’t work for us because we cannot consider ourselves as slaves. We need a more accessible illustration. Think of how many things you do in a day where you are reacting to what you have learned. If you’re driving down the freeway and the guy in the car in front of you locks up his brakes you don’t consider what to do, you react to what you have been taught. Your training takes over. The brain moves the foot to the brake pedal with all urgency because that is what the brain and the foot have been trained to do.
Think of soldiers and police officers and fire fighters and athletes; they devote themselves to many hours of ongoing training so that when they are doing what they were trained to do their training takes over. When they don’t have time to think they react to their training.
Consider a perfect double play. The pitch is hit and the runner at first base takes off for second, the ball, grounded to the short stop, is tossed to the second baseman who tags the base and then rifles it to the first baseman ahead of the batter. This happens because these guys have trained and they are reacting to their training. Each player does what he does because he has been trained to do it.
Now imagine what happens when a right fielder becomes a shortstop. He must be retrained, leaving his right fielder training behind and learning to react like a shortstop.
Our experience is somewhat like this. We have a new position – we are in Christ – but we have to learn our new position. We bring to our new position everything we learned in our old position, and sometimes we react like we did when we were in our former position. Yet, regardless of what our experience suggests, we are not what we were.
Our position is secure. No one who is in Christ is going back. Our redemption is complete because it is complete in Christ, yet we do not completely experience our redemption because we live in corrupted bodies and in a corrupted world. We live with our former training as we are being retrained. There is a tension between the old and the new. Christians live in the tension of being alive in Christ and at the same time living in bodies corrupted by sin. We live in the tension of the new nature and the old training, but we do not live with two natures.
In the new birth we receive a new nature, the old nature is no more, yet we still live in the old body which has been trained by the old nature and will sometimes react to its training. God has changed our position. Our job is to apply ourselves to retraining for and living in our new position, and this will be our job as long as we live here. The best shortstop is the best because he applies himself in practice and he practices throughout his career.

Love Like God Loves

The gospel requires of us that which we cannot do, and it empowers us to do what we cannot do. The power of God in the gospel by the Holy Spirit in regeneration and sanctification changes us. Apart from the finished work of Christ providing atonement for sin, and the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit giving us spiritual life and a new nature, we are hopelessly lost (condemned) and helpless to do anything about it.
Once we have been born again (regenerated) by the power of God in the gospel, we begin the process of sanctification, the process of growing in grace to be more like Christ. We participate in this by pursuing spiritual disciplines – prayer, Bible reading and meditation, fellowship with other believers, being active in a local church, evangelism, etc – but sanctification does not happen apart from the Holy Spirit in us. We grow in the grace of sanctification as the Holy Spirit informs our thinking through Scripture and empowers us to do what we cannot do.
The hardest demand on us is to die to self, being obedient to the Lord and loving others sacrificially. We are called to love others when we will not benefit from it. We are called to love others when we will suffer for it.
Consider the demands made on us in the Sermon on the Mount, specifically in what Jesus says about not getting even with someone who has wronged us, and that we are to love those who persecute us (see Matthew 6:38-48). This passage is part of a record of what Jesus said while teaching His disciples. He is showing that the common interpretation had tweaked the Law of Moses, making it easier for the people to obey, and He is telling the disciples – and us if we are His disciples – that His demands are far more stringent than the Law.
Jesus teaches that we are not to seek retaliation or retribution, that we are not to resist the one who is evil. We are to turn the other cheek, we are to give more and go farther than is asked. We are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.
I summit that these demands are impossible. These demands go against our human nature. I’m not saying that some won't do this in a limited way, but what Jesus is demanding is not self-willed good behavior. What Jesus is demanding is different behavior from a different heart. What Jesus demands is real love, love that costs the lover, love that is given regardless of the response of the one loved, love for those who don’t love back, love for those who persecute and revile.
What Jesus is demanding cannot be done apart from regeneration, the Holy Spirit giving us spiritual life, and sanctification, the Holy Spirit empowering us to die to ourselves and live with Jesus as Lord of everything, and putting others ahead of ourselves.
Yet, even as we have been given a new life and a new nature we are still influenced by our old life and our old nature, and will struggle to love our enemies and not keep a record of offenses. What is our weapon in this struggle? It is, as always, Scripture. Our consideration of those who oppose us must be informed by Scripture.
Matthew 5:43-46 says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
With this, Jesus is calling His disciples to love like God loves. God makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. Since most of aren’t farmers, the timing of the sun and rain are not quite as important to us as it was in the agrarian economy of Jesus’ time. The sun and rain at the right time meant prosperity, or at least survival. The sun and rain at the wrong time meant disaster. God, in His love for all of mankind, makes the sun rise and the rain come and all mankind shares in the blessing. Sometimes He withholds the sun and the rain, and all mankind shares in the suffering.
Consider how many of these people that God blesses with the sun and the rain are His enemies. They rebel against his righteous commandments, they revel in their sin, they use His name as a curse, and some even curse him openly. Consider that kind of love.
Consider the grace that God extends by holding back His wrath, instead blessing His enemies with air and water and food and work and people to love. God does this for all, it is called common grace. Not that it is common in what it is, but that it is common to all.
God will not always hold back His wrath. His justice will be met. The penalty for sin will be paid. Grace has been extended for sin, but not to all; only to those who are born again and believe in Jesus and embrace His finished work on the Cross for their sin and repent, turning away from their sin. This grace, grace for salvation, is not common to all.
Consider the love that God has for those who have rebelled against Him. He sent His Son, incarnated as human, God putting on a body and living as a man in every way, yet without sin. Then this man, Jesus, was falsely accused, wrongly arrested and executed, having committed no crime. He was beaten nearly to death, his features marred beyond recognition, in a way that brought the maximum pain but not the relief of death. Then He was stretched out and nailed to a Roman cross to die in the greatest humiliation and in the greatest pain imaginable.
As he hung on that cross, every nerve in His body sending non-stop, unrelenting screams of pain to His brain, knowing that as bad as it was the pain would get worse, knowing that taking the curse of humanity’s sin would cause God the Father to turn away from Him, Jesus looks at the soldiers who drove the nails and the ones that accused Him and the ones that were there to mock Him, and says; “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they are doing.”
What! How can this be? How can Jesus not want every one of these people dead and burning in Hell?
This can be because Jesus is God and He loves like God. He loves those who are persecuting Him as they are persecuting Him. He prays for those who are persecuting Him as they persecuting Him.
By saying; “they don’t know what they are doing” Jesus is not saying that they didn’t know that what they are doing was evil. They did. He is not saying that they weren’t responsible for what they were doing. They were. What He is saying is that if they knew who He was they would be on their faces worshipping Him.
The persecution was real, the pain was real, the humiliation was real, and these people were guilty of every offense, yet Jesus loved them and did not retaliate. This is the kind of love that Jesus calls his disciples to, to love like God loves.

on the new atheism

Have you heard of the new atheism?
There is nothing new about atheism; people have been denying the existence of God for a long time. What is new about the new atheism is that it is anti-theism. The new atheism is not just disbelief in or denial of a supreme being who created us and to whom we are accountable, it purports that belief in a supreme creator to whom we are accountable is evil.
R. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, author, and keeper of Dr. Mohler’s blog, writes about this in his book Atheism Remix.
The new atheism is different in its position and, perhaps more importantly, is different in its proponents. Historically, atheism’s proponents have been on the fringe and no one paid much attention. Our world was decidedly theistic. While not all believed in the true and living God, the majority had a theistic worldview and atheism didn’t get much of a hearing.
Philosophers tried and failed to run God out of our thinking, but naturalism has been more successful. What philosophy could not do, science has done. After all, empirical evidence that disputes the biblical account of our origins must cause us to reevaluate. If the naturalists are right and there is no creation, then the next step becomes a very small one.
(It is not my purpose here to argue the methodology or conclusions of naturalistic scientists, but I will say that all too often their conclusions have preceded their evaluation of the evidence, and much of their methodology has been built around their conclusions.)
Atheism is not on the fringe anymore. The new atheism has rock stars, guys who are selling books and have a place in the media. Four men in particular, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, who Dr. Mohler poetically calls “The Four Horsemen of the New Atheist Apocalypse,” are writing books popular enough to be stocked at your local Borders.
This Christmas I received a book entitled Is Christianity Good for the World? It is a debate between Christopher Hitchens, anti-theist, author and one of the new atheism’s stars, and Douglas Wilson, Christian theist, pastor, and author. I read this slim volume on Christmas day. I also received and watched the companion video, entitled Collision, that documents a series of oral debates between Hitchens and Wilson. I admit I read and watched from my own Christian theist worldview, owning a conclusion before opening the book or putting the disc in the machine.
So, why read and watch when my mind is already made up? So that I might be informed; and I was informed and encouraged.
Wilson made the point well that knowledge of truth is not limited to the empirical, but that there is revealed truth. We know the truth of the existence and character of God because He has revealed himself to us. The apostle Paul wrote: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:18-21
Sounds like Paul had a pretty good grasp of the new atheism.

the wonder of the incarnation

Consider the wonder of the incarnation, that God the Son would become flesh taking the form of mankind, born as Jesus of Nazareth, the righteous, eternal, king of the universe born to humble parents in the most humble of circumstances. Consider that He did this to come and die for our sin.
This was not plan B, God did not devise His plan of redemption in response to our sin, He created us knowing that we would betray Him and knowing the price of redeeming us from our sin and reconciling us to himself would be the perfect life and the perfect death of Jesus.
Paul wrote; “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” Romans 5:6-11
As you celebrate this year, remember that the birth of Jesus was the prelude to the death of Jesus. Know that in His life and in His death and in His resurrection, Jesus defeated sin and death. We who have been born of the Spirit live in the tension of the now and not yet of redemption. Our redemption is complete in the finished work of Christ, yet at the same time we do not experience the fullness of our redemption while we live in corrupted bodies in a corrupted world. Sin and death have been defeated, yet at the same time we experience sin and death.
Celebrate the birth of the baby born in the barn in Bethlehem so long ago, the Christ, the One who came to save us from our sin.

On Reading and Writing and Preaching

I read for entirely selfish reasons. I read because I love to read. In this activity of undisciplined self-gratification, I attempt to benefit from the discipline of reading by having direction in what I read.
I read books on preaching because I love to preach, and reading about preaching pleases me, much like one who loves to play golf is pleased by reading about golf and one who loves to race motorcycles is pleased by reading about racing motorcycles. I read about preaching in the hope that I might learn something and perhaps be a better preacher, again much like one would read about golf technique to learn something about being a better golfer and one would read about motorcycle racing technique to learn something about being a better motorcycle racer.
I’m not denying the work of the Holy Spirit in the preacher in preparing to preach and in preaching, that is a given; if the Holy Spirit doesn’t show up the preacher shouldn’t either. At the same time, we need to invest in our preaching and work to improve our craft. One way we do this is by reading about preaching as well as theology, doctrine, history, biography, culture, literature, etc.
Recently, I read a book about preaching by T. David Gordon entitled Why Johnny Can’t Preach. His premise is that we can’t preach because we don’t read and can’t write. We can read, but we don’t read texts. We read like we use the phone book, mining the fact or quote we need without engaging the text as a whole. We don’t engage the train of thought of the writer because we don’t read it. Because we do not read in this way we cannot write, and because we do not read and cannot write, we cannot put our thoughts together in a way that our people can follow as we preach.
When a young man comes to Dr. Gordon with a desire to pursue the preaching ministry, he recommends that they major in English literature before they study to be preachers. For those of us who are years past the university and the seminary, Dr. Gordon tells us that we can benefit by learning to read poetry and other classic literature on our own.
This book has certainly broadened my reading, and I believe that it will be of benefit to you who preach. It will also be of benefit to you who listen to preachers and to you who communicate belief and ideas, and all of us are in the latter category.

Of the Making of Blogs There is No End (With apologies to Solomon the Preacher.)

The obvious question is why? Why another blog? The second obvious question is do I have anything to say, or the ability to say it?
The answers may not be as obvious as the questions, but the short answer to the first is that I write. A friend suggested this as an outlet for that. Not as therapy, but as a way to connect with an audience. That audience is you, dear reader.
Writing is a solitary occupation. The work of writing is crafting words. In the space, on the paper or the screen, words are arranged just so. They are arranged so the reader can see into the writer’s heart. What is in the heart is filtered through the brain and is given to the reader in words and sentences and paragraphs. Beyond the self-editing process, others are needed to see what is written from other perspectives; this completes the writer’s vision. That’s why there is a team of people involved in the publishing process of all good writing, but the work of writing is solitary because it comes from one heart.
Primarily, reading is a solitary endeavor as well. We do read aloud (apart from the formal reading aloud to children and in teaching), sharing those bits of a book or article that speak to us with our spouse or older children, but the connection from the printed word to the eye, to the brain, and to the heart happens most often in a one text, one reader relationship.
This connection of the heart and brain of the writer to the brain and heart of the reader is made with written words, words received by the eye instead of the ear. In my opinion, there is nothing like engaging the heart of a writer in this way.
So, dear reader, there is the why. I want to share my writing with you which is to say I want to share my heart with you. Whether I have anything to say or any ability to say it I leave to you.