Church

Extra- “Ordinary Pastors”

/ davidsschrock / 1 Comment

This week I had the privilege of spending four days with more than 1000 pastors at Moody’s Pastor’s Conference.  It was a joy to get to know just a couple of these faithful shepherds as I manned the SBTS booth and talked to brothers, young and old, about ministry and on-going equipping for ministry.

At the same time, in the off hours of the conference, I had the chance to read through D.A. Carson’s inspiring tribute to his father, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflection of Tom Carson. It was a fitting book to read at a pastor’s conference and it reminded me why no faithful pastor is ‘ordinary,’ and why the ‘ordinary pastors’ that I have come to know in my life are my heroes.  They are the ones I look at and say, “I want to be like them.”  “Ordinary pastors”  long to see Christ glorified at the expense of their own reputations; they sacrifice  time, money, personal leisure, and even ministerial advancement for the sake of soul-winning and commitment to their local flock; they put everything else down so they can pick up their cross and follow their savior.

Most pastors, like Tom Carson and the ones I met this week, will never be known in the world as great, powerful, respectable, or extraordinary, but at the day of judgment they will be the ones whom the Lord Christ honors as those who served his church well–with hearts filled with Christ-adoring faithfulness and not crowd-pleasing fanfare.  They will be the ones who will receive an unfading crown of glory when the chief Shepherd appears (1 Pet. 5:4).  Until then, they may be overshadowed, marginalized, and/or rejected by the men and machinations of this world, but when Christ comes and sets the record straight, any ordinariness will replaced with unreserved and undeserved glory–for the first will be last, and the last shall be first.  This point was brought home this week and gave me a greater appreciation for and desire to be an ordinary pastor.   Consider this moving quote and ask yourself how God might make you more faithful  as a servant of Christ (cf. Heb. 13:7),

Tom Carson never rose very far in denominational structures, but hundreds of people in the Outanouais and beyond testify how much he loved them.  He never wrote a book, but he loved the Book.  He was never wealthy or powerful, but he kept growing as a Christian: yesterday’s grace was never enough.  He was not a far-sighted visionary, but he looked forward to eternity.  He was not a gifted administrator, but there is no text that says, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you are good administrators.”  His journals have many, many entries bathed in tears of contrition, but his children and grandchildren remember his laughter.  Only rarely did be break through his pattern of reserve and speak deeply and intimately with his children, but he modeled Christian virtues to them.  He much preferred to avoid controversy than to stir things up, but his own commitments to historic confessionalism were unyielding, and in ethics he was a man of principle.  His own ecclesiastical circles were rather small and narrow, but his reading was correspondingly large and expansive.  He was not very good at putting people down, except on his prayer list (D.A. Carson, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor [Wheaton, IL: Crossway,  2008], 147-48).

Men like Tom Carson and the brothers I met with this week, challenge me to serve our Lord more faithfully and remind me what really matters in life–God, God’s Word, Christ’s church, and telling lost souls the Good News of Jesus Christ.  May we who are in or about to enter the ministry, aspire to such faithful service, and may those who are not called to pastoral ministry pray for their pastor that he would have such a zeal for souls, energy for service, and freedom from pleasing this world.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Oscar Cullman on Irenaeus and Redemptive History

/ davidsschrock

Here is a great quote from Oscar Cullmann that shows the centrality and importance that redemptive history had for Irenaeus and should have for us.  He rightly understood that Christian preaching divorced from the fullness of redemptive history, had no vitality.  May our preaching be filled with biblical theology and its Christ-centered, gospel witness.  Here is the quote found in Aloys Grillmeier’s Christ in Christian Tradition:

Down to the theologians of the ‘redemptive history’ school in the nineteenth century…there has scarcely been another theologian who had recognized so clearly as did Irenaeus that the Christian proclamation stands or falls with the redemptive history, that this historical work of Jesus Christ as Redeemer forms the mid-point of a line which leads from the Old Testament to the return of Christ (Cullmann, Christ and Time, London 1962, 56-7).

May we exhaust ourselves defending and declaring, exegeting and extolling the glories of Christ unveiled in the history of redemption.  The power and the purity of the gospel depends on it.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Top Ten Books of 2009 (D.V.) :: A Call for Prayer

/ davidsschrock / 6 Comments

Lord willing (Deo volente), the next year or two will have a host of books that will benefit and uplift Christ’s church.  Many of these books are from SBTS professors, others from some of the choicest biblical theologians today.  Below is a list of ten books that, Lord willing, will be appearing soon:

1. The Cradle, The Cross, and The Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament by Andreas Kostenberger.

2. Adopted for Life by Russell Moore.

3. The Center of Biblical Theology by Jim Hamilton. 

4. History of Southern Seminary by Southern Professor Greg Wills.

5. Doctrine of the Church book in the Crossway series by Gregg Allison.

6. Doctrine of Christ book in the Crossway series by Stephen Wellum.

7. Commentary on 2 Corinthians in the Pillar series by Mark Seifrid.

8. Hebrews commentary in the Pillar series by P.T. O’Brien. 

9. Colossians commentary in the BECNT series by G.K. Beale. 

10. Commentary on Galatians by Tom Schreiner.

As we look forward to these resources, may we be faithful to pray for the men who writes these labor-intensive tomes.  Studying under, working with, learning from, and worshiping alongside the professors at Southern, I have grown in my thankfulness for their ministries and more aware of the need to pray for them.  (See Pray for a Professor).  They sacrifice much and labor strenuously to provide us with such excellent scholarship. 

May we thank the Lord for the gifts he gives to his church in these men (cf. Eph. 4:11ff; Gal. 6:6:6ff), and let us pray for them.  May the Lord support his servants of the Word and give them wisdom, biblical clarity, and Christ-honoring fidelity as they write the books we will read.  May Christ receive all the glory as these books edify the church.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Carl Trueman on Academics and the Local Church

/ davidsschrock

Lately, I have been thinking about my entrance into the PhD program and the impact such heavy-duty training has on the edification of the local church.  Such academic equipping is certainly not required.  Most biblical prophets and apostles were “regular joe’s.”  Amos was  a shepherd.  Peter and John were fisherman, “uneducated, common men” who had been with Jesus (cf. Acts 4:13).  Jesus himself was an unschooled carpenter, while his cousin, John the Baptist, was a self-taught wilderness prophet.  According to the Bible, theological education is no panacea for heresy (cf. John 5:39ff); nor is it the golden key that unlocks the mysteries of God’s word.  All true understanding is Spiritually given (1 Cor. 2:1-16). 

Nevertheless, assiduous study has its place and the church has benefitted greatly from the likes of its church doctors.  Augustine, Luther, Machen, and Mohler have each benefitted the church in God-honoring ways because the Sovereign Lord of all wisdom (Col. 2:3) has been pleased to use their scholarly gifting and theological training for purification and expansion of his church.

In a recent edition of Themelios, Carl Trueman in hi article, “Minority Report: The way of the Christian academic,” reflects on the relationship between theological academic(ian)s and the church.  He concludes with an exhortation to wannabe theologians:

The calling of a Christian academic is a high one, for anyone charged with the teaching of God’s truth will, as the Bible tells us, be held to a higher level of accountability than others. The path is marked with difficulties and challenges; but none are insurmountable, and the basic disciplines of the Christian life are in fact more, not less, important and useful. You want to be a Christian academic? Work hard, pray, read your Bible, and go to church.

Personally, I am still working out how my own theological training serves the local church.  However, the question is not own of principle, but of specification.  The church is central, not theological education.  This is an absolute: all investments in biblical and theological studies must be for the church (cf. Eph. 4:11-16).  Why?  Because I, along with all those pursuing doctorates in theology, will be judged accordingly (cf. James 3:1). To those who have been given much, much will be required (cf. Luke 12:48), and those of us who have had the privilege of studying the Bible for years are accountable for sharing the riches. 

When we stand before our Lord and beneficient giver of all Truth, may we be found faithful.  Until then, may we labor to tell the Good News to the lost and build up the church with the nourishment of God’s Holy Word.  Theological training and biblical institutions of higher learning must be committed to the local church.  Until that end, may we pray and labor.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

(HT:JT)

N.T. Wright: The New Testament and the People of God

/ davidsschrock / 4 Comments

new-testament-and-the-people

N.T. Wright.  The New Testament and the People of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God.  Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1992.

In N.T. Wright’s first book in a series of three (with two more projected), the British New Testament scholar gives a full-orbed presentation (535 pp.) on the history, culture, and worldview of the land and the people into which Jesus was born and from which Christianity arose.

Part I introduces the book and the extended project.  He attempts to show that premodern, modern, and postmodern attempts at interpreting Scripture are all deficient, and that a synthesis of premodern’s authority, modernity’s critical eye, and postmodernity’s subjective impulse are needed to rightly understand the Bible.  He procedes to layout a three-fold method for considering the NT–examining its history, literature, and theology, which he unites with studies about Jesus, the gospels, and Paul, respectively. 

Part II picks up these three evaluative lens.  After dealing with issues of epistemology in chapter 2, Wright develops his understandings of history (3), literature (4), and theology and authority (5).  His interpretive grid is that of a “critical realist” (44-46) and he argues that we should understand the Bible according to its meta- and micro- narratives (this is developed further in chapters 13-14: “The Stories in Christianity”).   In his chapter on “Literature, Story, and Worldview,” Wright addresses the problems of hermeneutics, language, and reading.  He suggests a hermeneutic of love and goes on to propose a worldview-informing narrative hermeneutic.  Reading the Bible as an interactive story upholds the immutable Bible and the interpretive challenges of an everchanging world–in this Wright seems to fuse modern and postmodern tendencies.  Chapters 4 develops the view that history is never objective and that intrinsically it should be seen as historiography, history delivered with specific authorial intent to shape the account through selectivity, sequencing, and shaping.  Chapter 5 finishes his introductory section by considering the worldview-shaping effects of narrative theology.

Part III is comprised of five chapters that recreate the world of second temple Judaism (fourth century BC – first century AD).  In Chapter 6, Wright gives an historical account of the Greco-Roman world that dominates the landscape for the Jewish people.  Chapter 7 subdivides the Jewish thoughtlife, societal structures, and political machinations to show the diversity of second-temple Judaism.  While chapters 8-10, unfold the Jewish heritage, highlighting the stories, symbols, and praxis that shape their day-to-day life (8), tracing the storyline that informs contemporary beliefs (9), and referencing the apocalyptic hope that the Jew’s maintained in the face of enemy oppression (10).  

Wright bases much of his findings on the works of Josephus and much intertestamental Jewish writings.  His analyses contravene many historical positions on the 1st Century Judaism, while helpfully demonstrating the variations of Jewish belief at the time of Jesus’ birth.  Nevertheless, it is evident that he is clearing the way for New Perspective teachings on Paul (aka E.P. Sanders and James Dunn), which deny any kind of works-based righteousness–which will redefine justification by faith alone– and promotes a responsive covenantal nominianism (law-keeping)–that advocates a kind of “gracious” law-keeping.  (For a response to this see: John Piper’s The Future of Justification).

Wright juxtaposes the Jews with the oppression of the Roman empire and shows why covenantal markers are so important to the Jewish people.  He articulates that since the zenith of the covenant is dwelling in God’s presence (i.e. in the land and within the Temple), and that when this function is disable or at least inhibited by sin that leads to exile that leads to indwelling opposition in the land, that the Jews recast dwelling with God with covenantal markers (i.e. circumcision, Sabbath, ritualistic days, etc).  The difference between OT and NT is not type and fulfillment, but spacio-temporal, obeying the Torah becomes preeminent to keep covenant.  Entering the covenant is assumed by birthright.   Wright’s emphasis is clearly more corporate, to the detrimental exclusion individuals and their need to be reconciled to God.  While emphasizing the covenantal and corporate elements of salvation (of which he speaks in exodus language, restoration from exile), he minimizes the doctrine of personal salvation.  Moreover, nowhere in his lengthy discussion does he include matters of personal guilt, individual transgression, or need for atonement (cf. Ezek. 18; Leviticus 1-6, 16), leaving essential matters of redemption out of his discussion.   Consequently, he seems to be working with a semi-Pelagian understanding (anachronistically applied to second-temple Judaism, I understand) of the Jewish nations ability to keep covenant.

The value of Part III is its illuminating descriptions of second temple Judaism; the criticisms are clearly the New Perspective emphases which undermine the Reformation doctrines of salvation.

Part IV is the most helpful section in the book.  Chapter 12 begins with a discussion of praxis, symbols, and worldview that informed second-temple Judaism, but more pertinently shaped the first-century Christian community.  Looking particularly at the significance of the Land, the Temple, and the Torah, Wright asserts that all were updated in Christ, so that in the NT they take on metaphorical realities.  His approach in this chapter is overtly cultural-historical-sociological, not biblical-theological.  (This is a trait that runs throughout the book.  Wright devotes most of his energy retelling the story of the people from a sociological angle, not an exegetical outworking of the Biblical canon).  Nonetheless, his typological applicatons to Christ do stress the OT shape of the NT.

Chapters 13 and 14 unfold the message(s) of the biblical authors.  Chapter 13 examines the form and function of the synoptic gospels, the Pauline letters, Hebrews, and the Johannine corpus.  This chapter masterfully displays the wisdom and the logic of the NT writers, who retell the story of Israel in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  For instance, Wright compares Luke’s gospel to the work of Josephus–both of whom are making an apology to the Roman empire–and he goes on to show how the doctor recaptures the Samuel narratives to provide the outline of his Davidic biography.  Moreover, Matthew seems to employ Deuteronomy to construct his gospel, and Mark utilized Daniel as an apocalyptic narrative.  These intracanonical connections demonstrate the NT use and dependence on the OT.  In so doing, Wright argues that this more that simple typology.  It is rather a kind of mindset that sees the history of Israel being recapitulated (my word, not his) in the life of Jesus and the church.  Paul further does this in inviting Gentiles into the story of Jesus, the Israel of God.

Chapter 14 moves from the larger units (NT books) to the contents of those books–Jesus teaching, miracle stories, parables, etc.  He argues that these did not develop over time, but from the beginning they were well-formed.  He explains why this is so, using simply analogous logic, appealing to the ways stories are told and retold.

Finally, Wright concludes with an overarching description of first-century Christianity in “The Early Christians: A Preliminary Sketch” (15).  The take away point is that Christianity’s identity is fully Jewish.  The earliest church was shaped not by the historical events of Jesus life only.  Rather Jesus life and the birth of the church were understood, defined, and developed according to the well established patterns and promises of the OT, so that the life, death, and resurrection–an old testament pattern of exodus–was “according to the Scriptures.”  Without hesitation, this is the most helpful aspect of the book.  It makes the reader more aware of the intracanonical connections by way of appeal to historical-cultural-sociological expectations of the Jews.

The book is long and filled with abberrant teaching about the doctrines of justification and sin, but its Jewish reading of the Scriptures is very helpful and worth perusing.  I look forward to reading, with cautious selectivity, the other books in this series.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Colossians 1:24: Suffering for the Sake of the Body (pt. 2)

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My Final Answer:

The “lack” that Paul’s sufferings are filling up is the representative absence of Christ’s redemptive sufferings. Let me expound: What Christ did on the cross was a singular event in space and time, yet it was for all time and for all people. The distance between the singular event and the fullness of humanity is the lack. The application of reconciliation needs to be extended to all people. That is where Paul’s suffering, and your suffering and my suffering come in. We suffer to fill up the lack of proclamation of Christ’s propitiation. Therefore, what Christ propitiated, we proclaim. What he did, we declare. The redemption he accomplished we make known through declaration, and as the Lord ordains our sufferings for his sake, we demonstrate his death and resurrection in our bodily afflictions.

Commenting on this, John Piper writes:

Christ has prepared a love offering for the world by suffering and dying for sinners. It is full and lacking nothing—except one thing, a personal presentation by Christ himself to the nations of the world. God’s answer to this lack is to call the people of Christ (people like Paul) to make a personal presentation of the afflictions of Christ to the world…In [our] sufferings they see Christ’s sufferings. Here is the astounding upshot: God intends for the afflictions of Christ to be presented to the world through the afflictions of his people (Desiring God, 225).

In short, Paul’s suffering validated and attested to the life-giving power of the message he proclaimed, so that in his life he demonstrated Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection power (cf. Phil. 3:9-10).  In the church, the world is able to see the body of Christ. In the suffering of Christ’s body, they are given a living, breathing, suffering testimony of the savior who bled and died to make reconciliation with God possible. This was God’s design for his church from the beginning.  Reflecting on this call to suffer, Romanian pastor Joseph Tson comments:

[Speaking in first person, in the life of Paul, he says]: If I had remained in Antioch…nobody in Asia Minor or Europe would have been saved. In order for them to be saved, I have had t accept being beaten with rods, scourged, stoned, treated as the scum of the earth, becoming a walking death. But when I walk like this, wounded and bleeding, people see the love of God, people hear the message of the cross, and they are saved. If we stay in the safety of our affluent churches and we do not accept the cross, others may not be saved. How many are not saved because we don’t accept the cross? (Quoted by John Piper in Desiring God, 230).

Let me summarize: Christ’s sufferings redeemed; Paul’s sufferings reveal. They do not add to Christ’s all-sufficient work, but they do extend its all-sufficient power and message (cf. 2 Cor. 4:7-11). The purpose of God in Christ’s sufferings was to redeemed a people dead in trespasses and sins; the purpose of God in Paul’s sufferings was to bear witness to the sufferings of another, and amazingly Paul’s bodily afflictions were designed by God to advance that message.  So then, Paul’s sufferings for the gospel, and ours, are not supplementary, but complementary.  They are essential, not optional.

Jesus promised his followers a cross. He said that if the world hated the master, they would also hate his servants. Therefore, in telling the world about his saving work, we can expect to suffer. Yet, in that suffering we demonstrate in our flesh the power of God’s love and the very cross that we declare. When the world sees suffering, bleeding, dying Christians telling of their suffering, bleeding, dying savior with joy (“I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,” Col. 1:24a), they are filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions—namely the representative witness of the savior’s redemption. And in so doing, we follow in the faithful footsteps of Paul and we fill up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.

Lord Jesus, give us more grace to move towards the suffering you have designed for us to embrace in our bodies, and may the world know that while we suffer, we do it joyfully, looking forward to the resurrection of the body in the age to come.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

P.T. O’Brien, W.E. Vine, and the Heavenly Assembly

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Peter O’Brien in his commentaries on Ephesians and Colossians, in his article on the church in the IVP Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, and in his extensive chapter on the heavenly assembly in The Church in the Bible and the World  (edited by D.A. Carson) has argued for the eschatological orientation of the NT term “ekklesia.”  His arguments are persuasive and worthy of consideration for understanding the NT language of church and churches–though not all agree.  (I look forward to Gregg Allison’s book on ecclesiology and his interaction with O’Brien). 

Nevertheless, one person who does agree with O’Brien is W.E. Vine, the early twentieth-century philogist who is most well-known for his Expository Dictionary of OT and NT Words.  Reading W.E. Vine’s commentary on “the church” in Colossians 1:18 (in Volume 2 of The Collected Writings of W.E. Vine), I found a helpful discussion on the subject.  In it Vine makes an appeal for the plain reading of the Bible and concludes that the New Testament conception of the universal church is a heavenly concept.  He writes:

The word ‘church,’ as used in this and similar passages [Col. 1:18, 24; cf. Eph. 1], contemplates the entire company as it will be seen when the Lord comes to receive it to Himself.  it is nowhere in Scripture viewed as an earthly organization established in the world, it is heavenly in its design, establishment and destiny.  Its individual members are incorporated into it as each one is born of God through faith in Christ.  At no period can all the bleivers living in the world have constituted the church.  They could not at that particular time be spoke of the body of Christ.  Most of the church had not come into existence in the early part of the  present era.  At the present time most of those who form part of it are in Heaven (they are not ceased to be members because they are there [cf. Heb. 12:23]).  By some the term “the church” is applied to all the believers living in the world at any time, but such a view is not borne out by the teaching of the New Testament.  Belivers are formed into local churches, each of which is called a ‘body’ (1 Cor. 12:27).  But nowhere are the churches in any district or country or in the world organized into an entity or body.

Local churches, Scripturally formed, are visible communities, professing the same faith, governed by the same Lord, but this has never afforded any found for their external amalgation of for their being considered a church.  There is no such phrase in Scripture as “The Church on earth,” nor is the whole number of believers on earth viewed as, or spoke of, the church of God.  The idea is a pure inference and conveys a false impression, being a contravention of the teaching of Christ and the apostles (Comments on Colossians 1:18, p. 341-342).

May the Lord Jesus Christ give a greater love for his church as we understand it in its local and heavenly expressions.  

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

Salvador Dali, Marriage, and the God Who is There

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In his book The God Who is There, Francis Schaeffer points to Salvador Dali as an example of someone whose world reshaped his worldview.  Unlike many whose lives are marked by inconsistency, promoting one system of thought but living out another, Salvador Dali, the twentieth century painter, readjusted his artwork to accord with his home life.  Describing this transformation, Schaeffer remarks that Dali’s loving tribute to his wife marks the time in which his paintings took on a more humane and sensible form.  He says, “So on this particular day [describing the day he painted his wife] Dali gave up his surrealism and began his new series of mystical paintings.” (71).

In his later artwork, Dali turned to Christian symbols and figures to express his non-Christian mysticism. For instance in The Sacrament of the Last Supper, he depicts a vaporous savior seated with his disciples overshadowed by a human figured on a cross, presumably Jesus, but whose head is unseen, cut off by the top of the painting.  Thus his paintings have Christian motifs but ignore the historic Christian message.  The painting that Schaeffer points to most and the one that he attributes to his remarkable “conversion” is that of his wife.   In the painting Dali depicts his wife with one breast exposed, her name prominently on the picture, and great artistic emphasis on the ring on her finger, unashamedly supporting their marital vows.  Schaeffer’s assessment is that, “his loved jarred him into a modern type of mysticism” (71). 

But if marital love moved him to some kind of transcedent mysticism, it, by implication, saved him from the suicidal nihilism of a worldview devoid of love and meaning–the worldview that accompanies surrealist art.  Dali named this painting of his wife, “A Basket of Bread.”  Interestingly, this is the same name he gave to two other “eucharistic” paintings.   It seems by such a title that he is applying eucharistic overtones to and deriving spiritual elements from his marriage.  And though Dali does not have the categories or the definitions to understand what he is seeing, in his marriage he sees something transcedent and spiritual.  In short, in his marriage he is given a picture of a greater reality–that is the mystery now revealed of Christ and the church (cf. Eph. 5:32).  Sadly Dali never embraced this greater reality, but it is apparent that his marriage made him thirst for more.  His marital union, it appears, allured him to long for more of Christ, though in the end he ignorantly revolted against the one who drew him near.

Dali’s artistry and life are illuminating.  They remind of us of the impact marriage can have and is designed to have.  It was made to awaken our senses for God.  More specifically, marriage was made by God as a witness to Jesus and his bride, the church.  It is a mystery, but every marriage–Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Wickan, or otherwise that unites one man to one woman–portrays Christ and the church.  Even those like Dali, who reject the Bible, taste and see something eternal, holy, and true in their own marriages, but without Spiritual illumination they will never comprehend that which they experience.  

Salvador Dali’s life and art is a helpful reminder that marriage beckons us to the God who is there.  Even in the lives of agnostics and atheists, marriage serves as divinely-crafted institution to assist the Great Commission and to bring unbelievers to Christ.  Consequently, Christians should see marriages as evangelistic weapons in the spiritual warfare we wage.  As we point married men and women to Christ, we can call on their own marriages to testify to their need and desire for the heavenly marriagee.  Marriage is a personally authenticating reality that testifies to the world and to those who are married (or those who long for marriage) that there is a God who is there, and that he is not silent, and that his message is a wedding invitation for all those who are willing to wear his ring (cf. Matthew 22:1-14).

May we like John the Baptist (John 3:27-30), be faithful groomsmen, calling people to come to the wedding to which all weddings foreshadow.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

The Creative Power of the God’s Word

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When God’s people hear about God and what he requires, they will respond.

– Mark Dever

Meditate on this quotation with me for a minute, and consider the creative power of God contained in his life-giving, faith-inspiring, soul-saving Word.

“When” – in the fullness of time God sent his son (Gal. 4:4), and at just the right time God sends his Word to us on the lips of faithful saints.

“God’s people” – when the elect of God hear the Word of God, the power of God converts them and they are saved.  “You do not believe because you are not part of my flock,” Jesus says in John 10:26, for if you did believe you would prove to be sheep.  The good news of the gospel is that all that God intended to save, he in fact does save, and he does so as His word comes to them.  This is a missions imperative.  “I have many in this city who are my people,” God says to Paul (Acts 18:10), and the same is true for us (cf. John 10:16).

“hear” – The gospel comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17), and this hearing comes by the general and prolific call of the gospel.

“about God” – This is the good news.  We know God in and through and because and by way of Jesus Christ.  As we proclaim Christ and him crucified, we make known the love and justice of God.

“and what he requires” – This reflects both the law which leads us to cry out for mercy and the instruction necessary for believers to live lives pleasing to God.  Either way, God’s requirements are not left hazy for those who have the Word. 

“they” – The gospel is for the masses.  This plural reflects the countless millions who have not heard the name of Jesus, and the millions who have.  The gospel creates new covenant communities, and it nevers accomplishes salvation apart from drawing people into fellowship with one another (cf. Heb. 10:24-25; 1 John 1:5-8).

“will” – Positively, absolutely, the gospel will accomplish all that was intended to do (Is. 55:8-9).  It is the power of God for salvation (Rom. 1:16) and it effectually calls men and women to faith and effectively converts them from wrath-deserving enemies to reconciled children.  It will save and it will upbuild the church wherever it goes.

“respond” – The gospel requires a response of repentance and faith.  Nothing more, nothing less.  This response is singular event with lasting and life-changing effects.

Perhaps, in writing this sentence, Mark Dever did not pause to consider each word like this, but he could have.  God’s omnipotent Word calls dead souls from the grave to new creation lives filled with good works.  Likewise, God’s word creates and shapes the church.  May we never forget the potency of the Spirit-breathed Scriptures and may lay everything aside to participate in carrying this message across the street and all over the world.

Sola Deo Gloria, dss

reMARK’s on the Church

/ davidsschrock

Reading Mark Dever’s section on the church in A Theology for the Church, I came across a couple stimulating quotations.  One about the already-but-not yet marks of a true church by Donald Bloesch, another from Robert Reymond about the mark of true church being found in its connection with the apostle message, and finally one from Mark Dever himself that displays the power of the Word to form and reform the church.  Consider them with me: 

One, Holy, Universal, and Apostolic: Already and Not Yet

“The church is already one, but it must become more visibly one…in faith and practice.  The church is alread holy in its sources and foundation, but it must stirve to produce fruits of holiness in its sojourn in the world.  The church is already catholic [i.e. universal], but it must seek a fuller measure of catholicity by assimilating the valid protests against church abuse…into its own life.  The church is already apostolic, but it must become more consciously apostolic by allowing the gospel to reform and sometime even overturn its time-honored rites and interpretations” (Donald Bloesch, The Church [Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002], 103; quoted by Mark Dever, “The Church” in Theology for the Church, edited by D. Akin [Nashville: B & H Academic, 2007], 778).

The Continuity of the Church: Dependent on the Ink of the Word and not on the Trail of Blood

“Just as the true seed of Abraham are those who walk in the faith of Abraham, irrespective of lineal descent, so also the apostolic church is one which walks in the faith of the apostles, irrespective of ‘unbroken succession'” (Robert Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1998], 844; quoted by Mark Dever, “The Church,” 778).

This has implications for Catholic theology and for those Baptists who depend upon the trail of blood for the legitimacy of their church.  Mark Dever continues the thought, focusing on the presence of the Word as the demarcation of a true church.

The physical continuity of a line of pastor-elders back to Christ’s apostles is insignificant compared to the continuity between the teaching in churches today and the teaching of the apostles…God’s people in Scripture are created by God’s revelation of himself (cf. Gen. 1:30; 3:7; 3:15; 12:1-3; Ex. 3:4; Ex. 20; Ezek. 37)…The right preaching of the Word of God that creates the church is not only the Word from God; it is the Word about God [i.e. the Gospel of Jesus Christ]… When God’s people hear about God and what he requires, they will respond (Dever, “The Church,” 778, 780).

May our churches be built on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ and the steady foundation of the apostles and prophets teaching (cf. Eph. 2:20).