Bible

What do you want for your children?

/ davidsschrock

In preparation for the new Young Married class we are starting at our church (Calvary BC), I started reading The Gospel-Centred Family by Tim Chester and Ed Moll.  Though, I am only two chapters in, I already have a great appreciation for the book, and am excited about wading into the content with some of the young families in our church.

In their second chapter, “Gospel-Centred Hopes,” Tim and Ed address a common problem among American evangelicals–namely, placing primary importance on things other than Christ and the gospel.  Yes, Jesus is good for Sunday, but real life starts on Monday and finishes Saturday night.

In a biblical exhortation to parents, they challenge parents to rethink the hopes they have for their children.  In short, they call families to live for Christ by re-orienting their lives around Christ Monday-Sunday.  They point us Jesus’s call to pick up our cross and follow him, and in so doing, they make their case that Gospel-centred families must eschew the venerable idols of education, success, and respectable living.  They write,

I’ve often heard people say they would consider living in the city, but they’re concerned about their children’s influences and education.  But that begs the question: what do you want for your children? If you want them to be middle-class, prosperous and respectable, then live in a leafy suburb, send to a good school, and keep them away from messed-up people.  But if you want them to serve Christ in a radical, whole-hearted way, then model that for them in the way you live.  That won’t necessarily mean moving to the inner city.  But it does mean exposing them to costly ministry.  Teach them that following Jesus, denying yourself and taking up the cross is what matter (Mark 8:34)…

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with education, career, marriage or prosperity.  But when we make these things more important than knowing and serving God, then they’ve become idols.  The problem is they are respectable idols! It can easily become okay, even in churches, to make an idol of education or career or respectability.

May our minds be renewed by this counter-cultural word (cf Mark 8:34).  May the Spirit of God show us the innumerable ways we crave these vain idols. And may we commit ourselves, by God’s grace, to lead our families to put Christ and his cross at the center of our lives, so that our children will live for more than what they can taste, touch, feel, or get in this world.  After all, that is what Scripture instructs us to want for our children.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Two Weddings and a Funeral :: Two Funerals and a Wedding

/ davidsschrock / 2 Comments

A Wedding Sermon

If you look at the big picture of the Bible, you will see that it is about two weddings and a funeral!  In the first book of the Bible and the last, weddings take center-stage.  And between them, leading from one to the other, is a funeral, but one without a grave.

In Genesis 1, God says in verses 26-28,

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

What Genesis 1 tells us in brief Genesis 2 gives with more detail.  Genesis 2 records that when God made Adam, he was alone and it was not good.  So God paraded all the animals of the earth before Adam, and yet a suitable helper was not found.

Then we learn that Adam was put into a deep sleep by God, and that from his rib God made a helper suitable for him.  Genesis 2:23 tells of Adam’s exuberant reaction, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh or my flesh; she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of Man.”

Genesis 2 continues,

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.  And the man his wife were naked and were not ashamed.”

 So it was in the beginning, God created marriage.  He called it good.  It was his idea.  His invention.  One man.  One woman.  In covenant together, forever.  A union of love, intimacy, pleasure, and security.

And so human history, in every culture and in every land, has celebrated marriage, as we do today.  Even with the effects of sin that plague marriage, it is a glorious gift that God has given to humanity.  The joy that we feel today, as with the regular joys of home life, is a taste of God’s goodness and love.  In a world torn-apart by sin, it is the place that God has designed for as a refuge from the storms of life.

But marriage is not an end in itself.

God gave marriage to Adam and Eve, and God gave marriage to everyone else to point to a greater marriage.  This is where the second marriage comes in.

In Revelation 19, the Bible records the marriage of Jesus Christ to his bride, the church.

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (19:6-9)

It is not an accident that one of the last acts in the Bible is a marriage.  For this was God’s plan from the beginning—to establish an eternal covenant of love between himself and all those who trust in Christ.

So the Bible begins with a marriage and ends with a marriage. But to get from one to the other, it has to pass through a funeral.

The central feature of the Bible, is the cross of Jesus Christ.  The death that he died on Calvary, to pay for the sins of the world.  And interestingly, one of the ways that the Bible describes Jesus’ death, is that of a husband for his wife.

Ephesians 5:25 reads:

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church, and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor…

What we see described in Revelation 19 was accomplished by Jesus death on the cross.   The second and eternal marriage of Christ is the wonderful result of Christ’s death and resurrection.  The death and resurrection which overcame all the corruptions that have marred humanity and the marriages that have come after Adam and Eve.

So today, as we consecrate this marriage, I want to remind you that for your marriage to last and experience God’s blessing, it requires an ongoing and growing relationship with Jesus Christ and hope in marriage to Him.

In fact, what we see today in your wedding depicts in minuet, what that final wedding will be like.  A faithful husband taking a radiant bride and loving her and caring for her for eternity.  In this way, your marriage is not just your own, it is Christ’s!

Two Funerals Before Your Wedding

This wedding today marks out the fact that you are covenanting together today to be husband and wife.  A husband and wife that are first committed to Jesus Christ, and from his saving love, you are committing to love one another until death – and death alone – separates you.

To the husband

You are committing to love your bride like Christ loved the church, to give up yourself for her, to be her spiritual leader, and her sacrificial lover.  To cherish her, to nourish her, to consider her before yourself.  You are taking on the role as one who promises to love like Christ, and to lay down your life for her.

In order to be the kind of husband that she needs, you will need to die to self, daily.  The cross of Jesus Christ must become more precious to you every day.  The forgiveness that God gives to you in Christ must spur you on to love him more, and in turn to love your bride more purely, more passionately, more completely.   The death of Christ must become ever increasing in your sights, so that the resurrected life of Christ will continue to work in you.

To the bride

Today you are pledging to be your husbands helpmate.  To trust him, to respect him, and to submit to his leadership.  Just as the church lovingly follows Christ, so you are to walk by his side, as a woman of virtue and character, cultivating a godly home and co-laboring with Ryan to raise children who know the love of God because of your model before them.

But in order to be the kind of wife that he will need you to be, and to be the kind of wife that Scripture commends, you too will need to die to yourself daily.  You must look to the cross of Christ for the grace that you will need to love and live with this man.  And some days you will need it more than others!

In the Bible, there are two weddings and a funeral.  A funeral that was cut short, because Christ rose from the grave!

In your lives, as the two of you become one, there must be two funerals for your marriage to succeed. For your marriage to know and show the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the two of you must die with Christ daily, and live by the power of the Holy Spirit—directing you, empowering you, helping you to love one another, learning to forgive one another and to pursue peace with one another, in a way that only Jesus Christ can give to you.

We live in world today where marriage is a cheap and disposable thing.  Where God created it to last forever, too many people treat it like plastic silverware.  Use it a time or two, and get rid of it.

In treating it with such disdain, the world misses God’s purpose for marriage and his blessing.  Satan will tempt you with the same thoughts, but if you look to Christ together every day, God will accomplish his plans and purposes in your marriage, and your marriage will shine like a light, a light that point others to the marriage supper of the lamb, one that will last forever.

You see, Christ’s funeral did not end in a tomb, it won a bride and finished with a feast.  So too, the power of the resurrection is available for your marriage, if you will daily look to Christ and ask him to establish your marriage in grace and truth!

May God be pleased to make your marriage one that is filled with the joy and love of Jesus Christ and shows to the world the coming Marriage Supper of the Lamb!

Sin Boldly: Because Only Sinners “Get” Amazing Grace

/ davidsschrock

I am preaching on Luke 7:36-50 this Sunday, a message entitled, “Only Sinners ‘Get’ Amazing Grace!”  In preparing, I was struck again by the radical nature of grace and the very fact that what qualifies us for grace is sin (cf. 1 John 1:9).  In fact, if you are not a sinner, you won’t “get” grace.  Only sinners get it!

As Jesus said in Luke 7:34, He is a friend of sinners!  Earlier in Luke, Jesus said “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (5:31-32).  The wonder of Jesus and the appeal of his ministry, was that he knew how to pierce hearts and heal them with the grace of God.

Oh what good news, that my sin does not have to drive me away from God (cf. Psalm 103:9-10).  Rather, in this age, it is the very thing that qualifies me for grace.  As Paul said, Paul who was a murderer of Christians, “Where sin has increased, grace has increased all the more” (Rom 5:21).  Grace is truly amazing, but only for sinners!

Law-keepers do not get grace, because law-keepers do not need grace.  Only law-breakers get grace, because only those who have stopped trying to justify themselves see their need for it.  As the publican said, “Have mercy on me, THE sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

Meditating on God’s amazing grace reminded me of Martin Luther’s quote on the subject of man’s sin and the Messiah’s mercy.  Consider his words, place your faith in God’s grace, if you are a preacher proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ this Sunday, and sin boldly!  You have a sufficient savior, who is a friend of sinners!

If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong (sin boldly), but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign.

It suffices that through God’s glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner. (“Let Your Sins Be Strong: A Letter From Luther to Melanchthon,” Letter 99, Paragraph 13. Erika Bullmann Flores, Tr. from: Dr. Martin Luther’s Saemmtliche Schriften, ed. Johann Georg Walch (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, N.D.), Vol. 15, cols. 2585-2590).

Hallelujah!  What a Savior!

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

The Wisdom of God is Seen in Intended Obsolescence

/ davidsschrock

If God is the architect of the Old Covenant, and the Bible says that the Old Covenant failed (Hebrews 8), the question may rightly be asked: Did God create something that did not work?  Did the sovereign, omnipotent God make a lemon?  Was the New Covenant (Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:8-13) a repair job?

Hardly!

The relationship of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, shows the unfathomable riches of God’s wisdom! (Rom 11:33-36).

On this challenging subject of covenantal relations, Barry Joslin gives an inspiring (but not inspired) vision of the way God wisely designed the first covenant with “purposed insufficiency.”  God’s plan did not fail.  It was designed to break down, so that Christ’s better covenant could be installed for eternity.  Professor Joslin explains,

The inadequacy of the first covenant espoused in verse 7 centers on the inabilities of its sacrificial system to deal with sin and in the “rebellious hearts” and “stiff necks” of the people (recall [Hebrews] 3:7-4:13 and the indictment of Ps 95).  The criticism here [Heb 8] comes from God, the speaker.  This is significant given that he was responsible for making the first covenant.  God, the covenant-maker, established a covenant which he knew to be anticipatory and limited in its abilities.  He knew that it would be insufficient and that its sacrificial system would ultimately not be acceptable to him in order to take away sin (9:1-10:18). Therefore one must pause and make the assertion that God had, in this manner, always planned for a [New Covenant] that would be superior to the old, and one that would consist of the blessings both to take away sin as well as to make obedience a hallmark of the NC People.  Thus [Hebrews] 8:7 reinforces the point that the first covenant was not a failure, but was insufficient due to its built-in insufficiencies that anticipated a new arrangement.  Therefore the [Old Covenant] fulfilled its divinely-ordained anticipatory purpose (Barry Joslin, Hebrews, Christ, and the Law: The Theology of the Mosaic Law in Hebrews 7:1-10:18, 183-185).

From before the foundation of the world, God had planned the salvation of his people, and from Genesis 1:1 until the cross of Jesus Christ, God’s history was being worked out according to his sovereign and wise plan.  The intended obsolescence of the Old Covenant is just one feature of God’s perfect wisdom refracted through redemptive history.  It is for this reason that all the redeemed should study the works of God (Ps 111:2), so that they may praise with Paul,

Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has know the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?
Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Amazed at the wisdom of God in redemptive history, dss

Fern-Seed, Elephants, and Pseudo-Scholarship, or Another Reason Why I Love C.S. Lewis

/ davidsschrock / 1 Comment

C.S. Lewis said that he was no theologian, but somehow whenever he commented on the subject, his reflections bear wit and wisdom, and thus they bear repeating.

Such is the case with a quote that comes from Lewis’s Fern-Seed and Elephants. In addressing a number of Cambridge students, hear Lewis wise counsel on the subject of historical-criticism in biblical studies.  Speaking on the historical reality of Jonah, he writes,

Scholars, as scholars, speak on [the miraculous] with no more authority than anyone else.  The canon ‘If miraculous [then] unhistorical’ is one they bring to their study of the texts, not one they have learned from it… Whatever these men may be as Biblical critics, I distrust them as critics.  They seem to me to lack literary judgment, to be imperceptive about the very quality of the texts they are reading… These men ask me to believe they can read between the lines of the old texts; the evidence is their obvious inability to read (in any sense worth discussing) the lines themselves.  They claim to see fern-seed and can’t even see an elephant ten yards away in broad daylight” (C. S. Lewis, Fern-Seed and Elephants (Glasgow: Fontana, 1975) 109, 111; quoted in by T. D. Alexander in “Jonah and Genre,” Tyndale Bulletin 36 (1985) 35-59; quoted by O. Palmer Robertson, The Christ of the Prophets, p. 252, fn. 71.)

Though ad hominem and laced with British sarcasm, Lewis’ point is dead on. Why bother listening to the speculative criticism of biblical scholars, when they waffle on the extant text sitting before them.

May we be those who spend our time in the text, and little time behind the text. May we search the Scriptures for the delightful purpose of behold the majestic oaks and taste the abundant fruit of God’s holy Word; and may we forsake the fruitless and impossible task of determining how the forest grew.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Don’t Despise the ‘Plain Things’ of Life: What the Lord Uses to Prepare His Ministers

/ davidsschrock / 1 Comment

Thinking about ministry and concerned about your ‘theological’ preparation?

Consider that some of the greatest “pastor-theologians” (biblical authors) were entrenched in mundane occupations and the plain things of life for decades before God opened the door to ministry.  For instance, consider Jeffery Niehaus’s words that remind us of Moses’ calling and equipping:

When Moses flees to Midian, he learns to be a husband (Ex 2:2), a father (v. 22), and a shepherd (3:1).  These [plain things] are theologically important facts for him, because he now encounters the God who chooses to become a husband (Jer. 31:32; Eze 16:1ff–both reflecting the Exodus events), a father (Dt 1:31), and a shepherd (Ge 49:24) to his people (God at Sinai: Covenant & Theophany in the Bible and the Ancient Near East, 185).

For 40 years, Moses learned the plain things of life–caring for a wife, leading a family, and tending a flock.  Each of these prepared him for his ministry to Israel, and his ability to record God’s Word.  Likewise, for us, marriage and work, the common but significant lot which all humans enjoy (or despise), prepare us greater Christian service.  In fact, 1 Timothy 3 disqualifies ministers who fail at home.  Thus marriage (which pictures Christ’s love for the church), fatherhood (which reflects God’s love for his adopted children), and vocation (which requires thoughtful creativity, organization, and physical strength, resemble God’s work in the world), all demonstrate aspects about God and his gospel. And thus, all of these “plain things” prepare you and I  for more fruitful service.

Moses example teaches us to stop fearing insufficient training and to recall the fact that for those who God has called, he will use all of life to prepare us for our “received” ministry (cf. John 3:27; Col. 4:17). So, while we ought to look for ways to further our knowledge of god (cf. Ps 111:2; 2 Pet 3:18), we should at the same time realize that all of  life points to God, and prepares us for useful service–with or without “theological training.”

In the plain things are hidden the main things, if we look at them with eyes of faith and minds renewed by God’s Word.  In this way, God reminds us that he is the one who uniquely prepares us for his service, and that our plans are accomplished according to his steps (Prov 16:9).  May we seek God and see him in all of life, so that we may better communicate the divine truths of God’s word as we encounter the daily regimen of life.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Silas Graeme Schrock

/ davidsschrock / 5 Comments

At 3:07pm, God blessed our home with our second son: Silas Graeme Schrock.  Our little guy, weighed in at 6 pounds, 12 ounces, and was 19.25 inches.  He and mommy are doing well.  Here are a couple pictures, which do not disclose the fact that he has dark, wavy hair :-)

To God be the glory for giving us a healthy son, dss

The Gospel and Wisdom: Learning to Apply the Gospel to All of Life

/ davidsschrock

This evening, our church will look at the Book of Proverbs in our ongoing study of the Bible.  In preparation this morning, I came across this helpful reminder by noted Biblical Theologian, Graeme Goldsworthy, that the gospel of Jesus Christ necessarily includes the conversion of the mind and the application of the gospel to all areas of our thought life (cf. Rom 12:1-2;  2 Cor 10:3-6).

Listen to what Goldsworthy has to say,

The Christian mind-set comes about through the gospel, and so we must come to think of Christian wisdom as a conforming of the mind to the gospel.  If, then, we understand the gospel only in its basic terms of Jesus dying for us, we will probably wonder how this can affect the way we think totally.  We need to remind ourselves that the simple gospel is also profound.  The truth, ‘Jesus died for me,’ actually implies everything that God has revealed in the Bible about his relationship to humanity and to the created order. Growing as a Christian really means learning to apply the fact of the gospel to every aspect of our thinking and doing (Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and Wisdom in The Goldsworthy Trilogy [Waynesboro, GA: Paternoster, 2000], 341).

May we as Christians continue to turn from the pernicious patterns of this world to the mind-renewing truth of the gospel that informs every aspect of creation, wisdom, and life.  For in Christ all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden (Col 2:3).

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Why then the Law? : Counter-Intuitive, Gospel Logic

/ davidsschrock

“Why then the law?”

In Galatians 3:19, Paul poses that question, and in the rest of the chapter, he sets out to explain the purpose of the law.  To answer his own question he says that the law came to increase sin (v. 19; cf. Rom 5:20; 7:7ff) and to imprison all mankind under sin (v. 22).  Why would God do that?  Why would God do something that would increase law-breaking in the world?  If God knew that adding law to the world would increase sin, why wouldn’t he do something else to help rehabilitate his people?

Because God is not in the business of rehabilitation!  His aim is to destroy the works of the devil, defeat death, and render powerless the curse of the law. So…

God sent the law to enfeeble and imprison all mankind–Jews and Gentiles–in order to that all who are held captive by the law would feel the effects of its shackles, so that the sinners woudl be spurred to long for the gospel of grace.  In God’s wisdom and according to God’s word, it appears that God instituted his law to crush us in our self-confidence, to reveal our wickedness, and magnify our unworthiness, so that in the end, you and I would look away from ourselves, disgusted by our sin, and to gaze upon Christ, the only one who can free us from the law, sin, and death.

Like chemotherapy, God’s law does not make us better; it makes us worse, so that our lives might be spared as we turn to the Great Physician.

Hear Martin Luther’s stunning commentary on how the law tills the soil of our heart, preparing the way for justification, but not accomplishing justification itself:

The Law with its function does contribute to justification–not because it justifies, but becasue it impels the promise of grace and makes it sweet and desirable.  Therefore we do not abolish the Law; but we show its true function and use, namely, that it is a most useful servant impelling us to Christ…; for its function and use is not only to disclose the sin and wrath of God but also to drive us to Christ [Amen!]… Therefore the principle purpose of the Law in the theology is to make men not better but worse; that is, it shows them their sin, so that by the recognition of sin they may be humbled, frightened, and worn down, and so may long for grace and for the Blessed Offspring: [Jesus Christ]!” (Luther on Galatians, quoted in Philip Graham Ryken, Galatians, p. 137).

When was the last time you heard something like that?  “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” namely that God intends  to “humble, frighten, and wear you down” so that you will find grace in time of need (Heb 4:16).

The law shows us our need, our weakness, and our God-forsaking sin.  It points us to Christ, the blessed redeemer and the one who is full of grace and mercy.  He is a sympathetic high priest, who extends to us God’s hand of favor, when we look to him in faith.

May we embrace the law with its terrifying vision of ourselves, and may we flee to the gospel where we find forgiveness and freedom purchased on Calvary’s hill.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Think Well!

/ davidsschrock

Desiring God has put up a new video challenging American evangelicals to think and to think well.  The first two minutes are worth a look (and so is the rest, as it begins to promo their upcoming conference: Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God).  John Piper reminds us that our love for God is dependent on our thought life, and that failure to cultivate the mind leads to “diminished” worship, joy, and love for God.

May our thinking charge our loving of God and others!

Soli Deo Gloria, dss