Is It Really About a Personal Relationship with God?

Mike Horton answers that question in an interview with Christianity Today:

CT: You also say it's not "a personal relationship with God" or "making Jesus your Lord and Savior." What do you mean?

MH: I realize that those are deeply held, personal convictions among many evangelicals. But everyone has a personal relationship with God. You start with Genesis and work your way to the Book of Revelation—everyone has a relationship with God. In Romans 1-3, Paul says Gentiles have a relationship with God, even when they are engaging in idolatry. The question is whether the relationship is with a father, who has justified and adopted his heirs, or with a judge.

The phrase "making Jesus Lord and Savior" does not appear anywhere in Scripture (any more than does "personal relationship"). It assumes we are the ones who make God something. It is hard to imagine a Jew saying he made God his liberator and Lord in the Exodus. No. God made the Israelites the recipients of his saving and lordly work. So we don't make God anything; it is he who makes us his people. The Good News is not that Jesus has made it possible for you to make him Lord and Savior. The Good News is that he has actually saved and liberated you, and that he is your Savior.

(Emphasis in bold mine)

The Gospel Is for the Broken

This, from Rod Rosenbladt, is a great corrective to the "to-do" lists found in both fundamentalism and the theological left/emerging church. While the author doesn't spend time discussing the necessity of the fruits of the gospel in our lives (sanctification), I think his emphasis on the gospel itself is important.

In this article I want to address a particular problem: What we might do as Christians with those who see themselves as "alumni" of the Christian faith. By that I mean those who once professed that Christ shed His blood, freely justified them before God, forgave their sin, gave them eternal life -- but now they don't believe it.

Given my limited space, I can only deal with today's "sad ones," the "having-given-up-on-it-all" ones. (In the full address of which this article is a condensed version, I also talk a little about the gospel of Christ for today's "mad ones," the angry ones.)

For some reasons that I think are fairly specifiable, more people than we would like to think leave "Bible-believing" Christianity. Some are sad about it. Some are mad about it. In our day, there are so many of these people that it is hard not to come into contact with them. Many of these people were broken by the church. I know that sounds harsh. As Christians, it's upsetting to hear words like that. But for many people, this is how they really see what has taken place in their lives.

By the "sad alumni" of the Christian faith, I mean the hundreds whose acquaintance with the Christian church was often one in which they were helped to move from unbelief (or from rank moralism) into professing faith in Jesus Christ. They heard the preaching of God's law and then heard the announcement of Christ's work on their behalf on the cross -- Jesus as the God-man who met the Law's demands for them and died for their sin, died to save them, died to give them eternal life. And they came to believe that the cross of Christ was their salvation.

But something happened after that, something that broke them. And, in many cases, I think what happened is nameable. It has to do with what our first president at Christ College Irvine called "law-gospel-law." It's that third point that, if executed badly, results in a lot of the "sad alumni" of Christianity. If Reformation folk execute this badly, the sensitive Christian believer can be driven to a slavery as bad as any slavery done by any totalitarian dictator. If the Ten Commandments were not impossible enough, the preaching of Christian behavior, of Christian ethics, of Christian living, can drive a professing Christian into despairing unbelief. Not happy unbelief -- tragic, despairing, sad unbelief.

In the beginning, it seemed that now that we had been justified by the death of Christ, we were equipped to obey verses like "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). Or in 1 John 3:9: "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning." Or Paul in Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." And then, the unexpected. Sin continued to be a part of our lives; it stubbornly would not allow us to eliminate it the way we expected. Continuing sin on our part seems to be evidence that we aren't really believers at all. We start to imagine that we need to be "born again again."

When the major stress in pulpit and curriculum shifts from "Christ outside of me, dying for me" to "Christ inside of me, improving me," the upshot is always the same: many broken, sad ex-Christians who despair of being able to live the Christian life as the Bible describes it. So they do what is really a sane thing to do -- they leave. The way it looks to them is that "the message of Christianity has broken them on the rack." To put it bluntly, it feels better to have some earthly happiness as a pagan and then be damned than it feels to be trying every day as a Christian to do something that is one continuous failure -- and then be damned anyway.

The key question here is a very basic one: Can the cross and blood of Christ save a Christian (failing as he is in living the Christian life) or not? Most of us would say, I hope, that the shed blood of Christ is sufficient to save a sinner all by itself. So far, so good.

But is the blood of Christ enough -- all by itself -- to save a still-sinful-Christian? Or isn't it? Is what Luther said about the Christian being simul justus et peccator biblical or not? Can Christ's righteousness imputed save a still-sinful Christian? And can it save him all by itself? Or not? I think the way we answer this question determines whether we have anything at all to say to the "sad alumni" of Christianity.

Has the Law done its killing work on these "sad ones?" Boy, has it ever. They need more of the Law like they need a hole in the head. For them, the gospel often got lost in a whole bunch of "Christian-life preaching." And it "did them in." So they left. And down deep there is a sadness in such people that defies description.

C.F.W. Walther said that as soon as the Law has done its crushing work, the gospel is to be instantly preached or said to such a man or woman. What the "sad alumni" need to hear (perhaps for the first time) is that Christian failures are going to walk into heaven, be welcomed into heaven, leap into heaven like a calf leaping out of its stall, laughing and laughing as if it's all too good to be true. It isn't just that we failures will get in. It's that we will get in like that. "You mean it was just Jesus' death for me, that's why I'm here?" But, of course. That's the point isn't it? As a believer in Jesus you won't be condemned! No believer in Jesus will be. Not a single one!

*****

The Glory of God

Here's a terrific article from the Desiring God blog:

We use the term “glory of God” so often that it tends to lose its biblical force. But the sun is no less blazing, and no less beneficial, because people ignore it.

Yet God does not like to be ignored. “Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!” (Psalms 50:22). So let’s focus again on the glory of God. What is it? How important is it?

What Is the Glory of God?

The glory of God is the holiness of God put on display. That is, it is the infinite worth of God made manifest. Notice how Isaiah shifts from “holy” to “glory”: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3). When the holiness of God fills the earth for people to see, it is called glory.

The basic meaning of holy is “separated” from the common. Thus, when you carry that definition all the way to the infinite “separation” of God from all that is common, the effect is to make him the infinite “one of a kind”—like the rarest and most perfect diamond in the world. Only there are no other diamond-gods. God’s uniqueness as the only God—his God-ness—makes him infinitely valuable, that is, holy.

The most common meaning for God’s glory in the Bible assumes that this infinite value has entered created experience. It has, as it were, shined. God’s glory is the radiance of his holiness. It is the out-streaming of his infinite value. And when it streams out, it is seen as beautiful and great. It has both infinite quality and infinite magnitude. So we may define the glory of God as the beauty and greatness of God’s manifold perfections.

I say “manifold perfections” because specific aspects of God’s being are said to have glory. For example: “the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:6) and “the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). God himself is glorious because he is the perfect unity of all his manifold and glorious perfections.

But this definition must be qualified. The Bible also speaks of God’s glory before it is revealed in creation. For example, Jesus prays, “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5). So I would suggest a definition something like this: God’s glory is the outward radiance of the intrinsic beauty and greatness of his manifold perfections.

I am aware that words are poor pointers here. I have replaced one inadequate word with two others: glory with beauty and greatness. But we must try. God has revealed himself to us in words like “the glory of God.” And he does not want them to be meaningless.

We must constantly remind ourselves that we are speaking of a glory that is ultimately beyond created comparison. “The glory of God” is the way you designate the infinite beauty and the infinite greatness of the Person who was there before anything else was there. In other words, it is the beauty and the greatness that exists without origin, without comparison, without analogy, without being judged or assessed by any external criterion. It is the all-defining absolute original of greatness and beauty. All created greatness and beauty comes from it, and points to it, but does not comprehensively or adequately reproduce it.

“The glory of God” is a way of saying that there is objective, absolute reality to which all human admiration, wonder, awe, veneration, praise, honor, acclaim, and worship is pointing. We were made to find our deepest pleasure in admiring what is infinitely admirable, that is, the glory of God. The glory of God is not the psychological projection of human longing onto reality. On the contrary, inconsolable human longing is the evidence that we were made for God’s glory.

How Central Is the Glory of God in the Bible?

The glory of God is the goal of all things. “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). All things were created for God’s glory (Isaiah 43:6-7).

The great mission of the church is to declare God’s glory among the nations. “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” (Psalms 96:1-3; Ezekiel 39:21; Isaiah 66:18-19).

What Is Our Hope? Seeing the Glory of God

Seeing the glory of God is our ultimate hope. “We rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). God will “present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24). He will “make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:23). “He calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:12). “Our blessed hope [is] the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

Jesus, in all his person and work, is the incarnation and ultimate revelation of the glory of God. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). “Father, I desire that they . . . may be with me where I am, to see my glory” (John 17:24).

What Is Our Hope? Sharing in the Glory of God

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed” (1 Peter 5:1). “The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). “We impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7).“This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). “Those whom he justified he also glorified” (Romans 8:30).

Summary

Seeing and sharing in God’s glory is our ultimate hope through the gospel of Christ.

Hope that is really known and treasured has a huge and decisive effect on our present values and choices and actions.

Get to know the glory of God. Study the glory of God, the glory of Christ, the glory of the world that reveals the glory of God, the glory of the gospel that reveals the glory of Christ.

Treasure the glory of God above all things.

Study your soul. Know the glory you are seduced by, and know why you treasure glories that are not God’s glory. Study your own soul to know how to make the glories of the world collapse like Dagon (1 Samuel 5:4) in the pitiful pieces on the floor of the world’s temples.

Hungering to see and share in more of the glory of Christ, the image of God,

Pastor John

Christians and Art

Frank Turk at TeamPyro had some interesting remarks about Christians and the arts. I can't help but agree with a good deal of what he says. He singles out Mennonites (Anabaptists) as being the originator of a false dichotomy between truth and art. To a degree, this is likely true. That said, in fairness, I think it is also important to credit the Mennonite tradition for its strong emphasis on practicality over opulence. I think there's a balance to be struck.

Here's a few excerpts that stuck out at me:

As a people, we Christians have adopted one of the worst attributes of the anabaptist tradition, and that is a rather sincere disdain for things which are true and beautiful. Here's what I mean by that: we have set up a false dichotomy between "true" and "beautiful" so that anything which is "true" must be plain or otherwise homely, and everything which is "beautiful" must be the work of the devil because it appeals to our eyes and ears. And we have also let the world dictate to us what is "beautiful" so that we don't even know it when we see it anymore.

So what we wind up with, for example, is the ocean of vacuous "worship" music in Christian bookstores which is neither true nor beautiful; we wind up with Christian "art" which is hardly suited for comic books let alone the walls of our homes; we wind up with t-shirts being the high fashion statement of our subculture; we wind up with literature-ignorant and theology-vacant "poetry" that neither moves emotionally or inspires intellectually.

...

Let me suggest something instead which I think many people probably have heard but no one has bothered to apply to this problem: all great art demonstrates the tension between love and death. That's not a Biblical proverb per se, but it is, in fact, true. All great poetry is about the tension between love and death -- even if it's not the love of another person or the death of a particular person. And one of the great failings of modern culture is its shallow vision of love (which is explicitly and almost exclusively sexual and sensual) and its obsession with death (either by avoidance in worshipping youth, or its glamorization of suicide).

...

The great topic of art belongs to us. The great purpose of art is not, as someone once said, to frame a lie which seems pleasant, but to frame truth by analogy -- and the greatest truth-by-analogy of all time is the Bible.

On balance, here's Kevin DeYoung on the same topic. By nature, I'm inclined to be in agreement with DeYoung's reservations.

What We Have In Common

Although I've been persuaded by the Calvinist view of things, I always think it's unfortunate when Calvinists and Arminians speak as though the other has a different gospel. They don't. Their gospel is the same, they differ over how the gospel is applied - by sovereign grace, or by free will.

There are other important gospel-related issues on which both can agree. And it is worth noting that these points of agreement are more important than the points of disagreement. These unifying similarities make it possible, even necessary, for Calvinists and Arminians to share in the Great Commission - to go and make disciples of all nations.

- The gospel is the good news that Christ has taken our sin upon Himself, and has given us the gift of His perfect righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21)
-Without grace it is impossible for man to be saved (Romans 3:23)
- Nobody will be saved apart from genuine, heartfelt repentance (Luke 13:3)
- Nobody will be saved apart from knowingly, consciously receiving Christ (John 14:6)
- Nobody is saved apart from hearing the gospel message - faith comes through hearing (Romans 10:14-15)
- Everybody who believes will be saved (John 3:16)
- Personal sanctification is a sign of genuine conversion (Matthew 7:21-23)
- Only those who persevere to the end will finally be saved (Matthew 24:13)
- "whosoever wills may come" - everybody who has the desire to come to Christ, can. (Revelation 22:17)

So we all agree that salvation is by faith in Christ alone. God will not turn a single person away who comes to Him with genuine hate for their sin, with a desire to be justified, and with a love for Him. All who desire to be saved can be saved. We also agree that we have no biblical warrant to believe people will be saved unless they hear and accept the gospel. The call for evangelism is clear all through the New Testament. We are called to share the gospel with everybody, knowing that many will reject it, and many others will accept it (Mark 16:15-16).

We are not responsible for the results of evangelism. However, e are responsible to proclaim the gospel clearly to everybody, and to make Christ look good with our thoughts, words, and actions.

Natural and Moral Ability

Here's a great little video about Jesus and the possibility for Him to sin. Think about how the concepts of natural and moral ability relate to our own human choices.

What is The Purpose of History?

One of the reasons I've gradually moved to embrace Reformed theology has been the purpose of human history. I think it's important for Christians to try to take pause from the everyday details of life and think about important things. One important question we might ask is "Why did God create man?" "What is the purpose of the continual progression of human history?"

We cannot say that God created man because He was seeking relationship (what relationship could be more fulfilling, enjoyable, and all-satisfying than the perfect relationship that exists within God Himself as Father, Son, and Spirit?), or that He needs man for anything (Job 22:2; 35:7; Mark 10:45; Acts 17:25). I believe that the purpose of everything God does is to display His own glory.

All through history, God has been acting for His own glory. He parted the Red Sea not because He exists to please people, but for the glory of His own name (Isaiah 63:12). He led His people not so that they could have "their best life now", but because it served His own interests to do so (Isaiah 63:14). God is merciful because it serves Him (Isaiah 48:9). God's people suffer and are cast out by society for God's glory (Isaiah 66:5; Acts 9:16). God redeems for His purpose (Ezekiel 20:9, 14, 22, 44). God sanctifies His people and makes them holy also for the sake of His own praise (Ezekiel 36:22). God raises up and destroys kings and kingdoms according to His will (Daniel 4:17, 25, 32). God even decrees that sin happens (note: this is different from doing and being guilty of sin) in order that His purposes are carried out (Genesis 50:20; Acts 2:22-23; 4:27-28; 1 Peter 3:17). The Bible affirms that absolutely everything that happens in the entire Universe is according to the purpose of God! (Isaiah 46:9-10; 55:11; Psalm 33:11; Proverbs 16:1, 4, 9, 33; 19:21; Matthew 10:29; Ephesians 1:11; Hebrews 6:17).

At this point someone may object that this makes God out to be an egomaniac. After all, aren't we supposed to put others ahead of us? Yes, we are. The reason that it is wrong for us to seek our own glory is the exact same reason why it is the greatest good for God to seek His own glory - God is good. Man is not. If God is good, and God loves good, then God must love Himself above everything else, and He must seek His own glory as the ultimate good, and in fact, the entire purpose of the universe. If He did not do this, then He would not be good or loving.

So, the Reformed have a ready answer to the question "What is the purpose of human history?". The purpose of human history is for God to create man with the ability to perceive, observe, interpret, think, and make volitional choices, and then to display His glory to him. For some, this results in rebellion and ultimately God being glorified in His wrath towards their evil. For others, this results in repentance and a heart inflamed for God's service, and ultimately God being glorified in His mercy for rescuing sinners from their depraved state (Romans 9:19-23).

But what about those truly evangelical Christians who are not Reformed? How do they answer this question? This is a genuine curiosity for me. I have spent most of my Christian life being non-Reformed, and to be honest, I would have had no answer for this question. I might have even said "history exists for God" or something like that. Ultimately, though, my theology would have provided no basis for such an answer. If we accept a form of free will that allows man to choose contrary to his own nature, then we have "free-will choices" being made outside of God's determination. God's will may be overcome by the power of man's freedom.

In the Arminian/non-Reformed view, it would seem to me that the only consistent answer to the question must be that history exists to display the glory of human freedom. God cannot be sovereign in this scheme, because He cannot determine the outcome of events. He can attempt, He can even foresee, but He cannot cause or determine. That God would ever get His way is almost impossible, for the longer history goes on, and the longer the chain of libertarian human choices become, the less certain any outcome is (if you dump out a box of cards off the roof of your house, it is unlikely that they will all land in order on a neat stack. If you dump them out from an airplane, the chances of this happening are even more unlikely).

If this is the case, though, there are several serious implications. Here are but a few 1)man has a greater degree of freedom and sovereignty than God; 2)the future may be known by God, but it is still out of His control; 3)we cannot be assured that God will eventually bring all things to an end, destroy evil once and for all, and redeem His creation; 4)even if He did, this would actually be the result of the correct chain of human choices, and not by the power of God. In sum, man gets not only the blame for history, but he also gets the glory.

I am genuinely curious, though, how other non-Calvinists would answer this question in such a way that preserves all glory for God? Is there another way? I'd like to hear.

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. Isaiah 48:11