Ephesians Extra - Redemption Future

I spent an entire Sunday morning talking about redemption from Ephesians 1:7.  The redemption story is that I was on the blocks in the slave market of sin. I was living out my slavery to sin every day. I was a captive to this master. I was owned by sin. Jesus Christ came to the slave market and paid to set me free. The price paid was His blood! The One who never sinned died to purchase me out of sin. I have a new Master.

But what about verses like Ephesians 1:14, where Paul writes of the Holy Spirit being a "deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession"? Ephesians 4:30 also speaks of being sealed "for the day of redemption". In both instances redemption is a future event. What gives? One of the best clues is found in Romans 8:23. Paul tells of how we "who have the "firstfruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." We talk about salvation past, present and future. I have been saved (justification), I am being saved (sanctification) and I will be saved (glorification). We can speak of redemption in the same way. The day will come when redemption will be completed with our release from the captivity of our earthly bodies. Our glorification will include a new suit of clothes! (See 1 Corinthians 15:35-55)

Every time the Holy Spirit bears fruit in your life He is not only making you more like Jesus now, He is promising you that one day His work will be completed! Every time you are amazed by the life-giving work of the Spirit in your life, remember that it's only a deposit. The full inheritance is yet to come! The Holy Spirit is God's down payment or "earnest money" to guarantee that He WILL finish His work. He is the engagement ring that tells us the wedding is coming. The Holy Spirit bears the fruits of joy and peace, but He also helps us to groan with waiting and anticipation.

A Supernatural Faith Worth Believing

"The world will never believe in a religion in which there is no supernatural power. A rationalized faith, a socialized church and a moralized gospel may gain applause, but they awaken no conviction and win no converts."  Samuel Chadwick (1860-1932)

I may be mistaken by what the world wants to see in God's people, but I think Chadwick was on to something. I think the world really wants to see a people who are different - awake, alive, full of sacrificial love. This is far more than just being naturally good or nice.  This is a supernatural, life-transforming work of God. Look at the three things Chadwick says might gain applause:

"Rationalized faith": There is a difference between explaining the faith away and explaining it to death. It is in the latter sense that Chadwick means rationalized. Christians may decry postmodernism with its tendency to relativize the faith. But the answer is not a modernism that has every apologetic 'i' dotted and every doctrinal 't' crossed. The answer is a faith that is both rational and real, making sense and changing hearts.

"Socialized church": By this I take him to mean a church whose identity is based in its involvement in solving social ills - feeding the hungry, stopping human trafficking, political reform, etc. All of these are good if they are a fruit of the gospel and not a root of the gospel. Help an unemployed man get a job and you have done a good thing and the world might applaud. Help him get a job as you help him encounter Jesus and the applause may not be so loud.

"Moralized gospel": The gospel is not just Jesus helping you keep the rules.  Jesus did not live, die and live again just so you could do five things to be a better spouse and know five secrets to better time management.

Much more could be said, but maybe Chadwick was just explaining 2 Timothy 3. There we read of people who love self and love stuff and who have a form of godliness but deny its power. These people want a godliness that is enough to get them the approval of others but not enough to make them do anything too crazy.  Take a moment to pray for the church you are a part of and the churches in your community. Pray that they would be places where people are encountering Jesus and His grace and truth are transforming lives. Pray for preachers who will do more than get people to their sermons and its points. Pray for preachers who will get people to the Bible and its Author who convicts and converts. Pray for a church full of lives that can only be explained by supernatural intervention.

Full of Life Application & Pleasant Surprises

Seeing as how there are currently 180 reviews of Eric Metaxas' Bonhoeffer on Amazon, I would like to simply share a few of the many applications and pleasant surprises I received from Eric Metaxas' "Bonhoeffer".

• When Bonhoeffer is described, one of the first words most often used is ‘scholar’.  That is an appropriate label. The pleasant surprise was learning how much he loved teaching and mentoring kids. One of his first paid ministry positions was working with children. He started with a small handful of kids and the group grew quite large.  Years later he mentored a group of underprivileged teenage boys, even taking them away for weekends to his family’s country home.
• There is a lot of fascinating German history in this book.  For example, I knew Martin Luther's influence in Germany was deep and long-lasting.  I had no idea just how much so!  For example, with his translation of the bible into German, Luther united a nation with many dialects into a people with one language.
• It seems there was always somebody in his life whom he was showing and telling the truth.  And someone seems to have always been doing the same with him.  He was always both a Paul and a Timothy.
• Truth must not be just defended and proclaimed.  It should be loved and meditated upon.  It was Bonhoeffer’s practice to spend extended time every morning simply meditating on one or two verses of Scripture.  As a teacher he required his students to do the same.  This created a deep well of truth in his   life from which he would often draw in the spur of the moment and in demanding situations.  His love for Scripture and his belief in its relevance came out in his advice to his students: “A truly evangelical sermon must be like offering a child a fine red apple or offering a thirsty man a cool glass of wather and then saying, “Do you want it?””
• Bonhoeffer’s relevance for today cannot be understated.  Metaxas writes of Bonhoeffer’s second trip to America: “Reflecting on the American church scene, he was fascinated that tolerance trumped truth.”  Bonhoeffer wrote in one of his letters from the states: “Hence the American tolerance, or rather, indifference in dogmatic questions.  A warlike encounter is excluded, but so too is the true passionate longing for unity in faith.” A casual look at the American church scene would surely reveal a similar attitude today.
• I knew that Hitler was a wicked man, but I did not know the extent of his wickedness.  I also did not know that he had been planning his atrocities for many years before he came to power.  Bonhoeffer saw Hitler’s evil early on and was a courageous voice in opposition.  Oftentimes he was nearly alone in his courage.
• Lastly, Metaxas describes Bonhoeffer’s understanding of guilt and freedom in the life of a Christian.  “Bonhoeffer knew that to live in fear of incurring “guilt” was itself sinful. God wanted His beloved children to operate out of freedom and joy to do what was right and good, not out of fear of making a mistake. To live in fear and guilt was to be “religious” in the pejorative sense.”

Reading to Finish or Reading to Be Changed?

I love to read.  I love that my kids love to read.  This blog is really just me sharing what I read.  This is the second year of my effort to read my age in books every year.  Last year I made it, but this year is looking doubtful.  Lately I've noticed a bothersome tendency in my reading: I'm reading to get finished instead of reading to get changed.  (I was introduced to this idea by Jeremy Kingsley, with whom I went to college.  I didn't know Jeremy that well, but I've listened to several of his messages through the Columbia International University podcast.)  Now obviously everything I read isn't going to result in earth-shaking life transformation.  Sometimes I read just for fun.  But I usually read to learn and in learning to be changed.  Yet I have found myself reading to get done instead.

• I often look to see what percentage read number on my Kindle
• I delight in checking off the boxes on my Bible Reading Plan
• I often scan to see how many chapters I have left, even of a book I'm enjoying.
• Every time I add a book to my 2010 Books Read document I count to see how many I've read

I'm wondering why I do this because I'm a bit frustrated with myself!  At heart it probably comes from my sinful desire to depend on my works to satisfy God and justify myself before Him and people.  I want to check lists in order to feel like I have done my spiritual, intellectual and social duty.  Other than preach the gospel to myself, I'm wondering what I need to do.

• Do I need to slow down, meditate more and not worry about quantity?
• Do I need to regularly remind myself that Bible is about relationship, which cannot be "checked off"?
• Do I need to get rid of the plan and the list?
• Do I need to put a piece of tape over the percentage read number on my Kindle?

A friend of mine once told me, "Next year you will be the same person you are now except for the places you go, the people you meet and the books you read."  That's not the whole story, but there's some wisdom to that.  I'm praying that I'll not start putting people and places in check boxes and on lists too!

The Law of the Farm & My Heart

In the previous post I talked about the law of the farm, that we simply cannot "cram" when it comes to how we use our time.  A farmer would never survive if he procrastinated on sowing seed and then tried to "cram" a crop in August, hoping to reap a harvest in September.  I've been thinking about how this same principle as it applies to my heart, especially in relation to the Apostle Paul's words from Galatians 6:7-9:
"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.  The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
I wonder how often I try to "cram" the fruit of the Spirit after spending more time sowing to the flesh?  Do I think I'm pulling one over on God by doing this?  A pastor with whom I once served used to say, "A lot of Christians spend Monday through Saturday sowing to the flesh and then go to church on Sunday and pray for crop failure."  Paul says sowing to the Spirit requires perseverance and faith that God will cause fruit to be born in my life.  I really want love, joy, peace, patience, etc. in my life and I pray that God will give me grace to apply the law of the farm to my heart

How College & Seminary Did Not Prepare Me For Life

My years at CIU and SEBTS were amazing times in my life.  I cannot imagine where I would be without the people and truths that I encountered during those years.  I was changed while I was there and prepared for what came after.  But there is a way of approaching any education that leaves us unprepared for life. In First Things First Stephen Covey talks about "The Law of the Farm":

"In agriculture, we can easily see and agree that natural laws and principles govern the work and determine the harvest. But in social and corporate cultures, we somehow discmiss natural processes, cheat the system, and still win the day. And there's a great deal of evidence that seems to support that belief."

Covey goes on to talk about "cramming" in school - goofing off during the semester then spending all night before the big test trying to cram a semester's worth of information into your head to spit back out on paper the next day. He goes on to talk about how this simply would not work on the farm. A farmer could never put off planting in the spring, waste time all summer, then rip up the soil and throw in some seeds in the fall and hope to get a bountiful harvest before winter.

 "Cramming does not work in a natural system, like a farm. In the short term, cramming may appear to work in a social system. You can go for the "quick fixes" and techniques with apparent success. But in the long run, the Law of the Farm governs in all arenas of life."

In college and seminary cramming wasn't my usual mode of operation.  Yes, I did some cramming and it wasn't too unusual for me walk into a quiz or exam with study notes still in hand!   But it was rare for me to be completely unprepared for a test.  Nonetheless, when I graduated from seminary, I felt a bit lost.  I was a pastor while I was in seminary, but for 7-8 years of my life someone had been telling me what to read, what to study, when to turn things in and when the test would be.  Suddenly, no one was doing that.  I had a sermon due every Sunday morning and I couldn't turn it in late and get a letter grade off!  But other than that, I had to figure out how to manage my time on my own.  I consider it providential that I was reading "First Things First" at about the time I got out of seminary.  I have not applied it to nearly to the degree I wish.  But I have often maintained or regained my equalibrium by returning to those principles: 

• Weekly connect to mission, roles and goals
• Check my system for projects and things to read or review
• Plan the week accordingly by putting in the 'big rocks' first
• Adjust in the moment as needed
• Weekly review.

I am in serving in a new place.  I am in the process of figuring out my roles here and what the 'big rocks' are.  I am trying to figure out what this will look like in my weekly and daily routine.  It hasn't been an easy process, but my hope is that by laying this groundwork now I will reap great rewards later.

Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus

I won't be giving a full review of D.A. Carson's latest book, "Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus". I am almost finished reading it and it is full of powerful truth.  Carson has obviously spent a lot of time pondering and savoring the cross and resurrection of Jesus.  On every page I've encountered truths that cause me stop and say "Thanks, God" or "I never looked at it that way before."  This book is well worth your time.  Buy it and read it and your heart will be glad you did.