One of the most famous verses in Paul's letter to the Romans is Romans 3:23:
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
I have realised recently that the glory of God here refers to the glory men and women had from being made in the image of God and that one of the major themes in Romans is God's work to restore that glory in us.
God, indeed, made Adam and Eve in his image and this made them glorious. (1 Corinthians 11:7). Their glory was not something inherent in them but was dependent on their reflection of the character of God. Their glory was not something that should lead to self-congratulation but to praise of the God whose goodness their glory reflected.
But men did not give thanks to God for the glory he had given them. Instead they focused on their own glory and worshiped the creature rather than the creator. (Romans 1:20-25).
In focusing on their own glory, they lost their glory and became worthless, not fit for purpose, (Romans 3:12) because the purpose of their glory was to reflect God's own glory and was dependent on it doing so.
This is true for every human being. All of us, through sin, have fallen short of the glory that God gave to us when he created mankind. (Romans 3:23).
But now, through the Gospel of God accepting us on the basis of Christ's righteousness, we have a promise that we will be glorified again as God restores his image in us, conforming us to the image of Christ.
We have "the hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5:2), which means the image of God being restored in us. We rejoice that the glory that we lost will be restored, a glory that depends on our dependency upon God as sons as we submit to him, thank him and rejoice in his goodness and grace. So strong is this hope that we can even rejoice in suffering knowing that suffering is one of the things that will transform our characters to the image of Christ. (Romans 5:3-4).
In fact, suffering and glory have been inseparably connected. Following Jesus, who was himself rejected and hated by civil society, involves a call to suffer with him. If we do not suffer with him when suffering comes, this will appear as evidence that we do not really belong to him. We will not be glorified with him if we do not suffer with him, because unwillingness to suffer with him demonstrates not belonging to him. (Romans 8:17).
It is certainly worth suffering with him because there is no comparison between what we suffer now and the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18). We have never experienced what it means to be fully human with a fully human body living in a world the way it was meant to be, because God subjected us and the world to frustration after we threw away our glory. (Romans 8:20-24).
We can be sure that God is working all things together to glorify us, and himself through us, because he has promised that he is working all things together to conform us to the image of his Son. We should have no doubt that those whom he has justified will also be glorified. (Romans 8:28 - 30).
Going outside of Romans, it is clear that we are changed from one degree of glory to another in this life as we look at the character of Christ in his word, (2 Corinthians 3:18). Then, when we see him face to face, the transformation will be complete because seeing him as he is in his glory and goodness will make us like him in an instant. (1 John 3:2).
Sunday 2 August 2015
Friday 13 February 2015
The mainstream approach to religion today
The quote below is from Chapter One of Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology. Although he was writing in the nineteenth century, his account of the natural form of the mystical method describes brilliantly the approach to religion that has become mainstream in the twenty-first century in Britain.
Mysticism, in its application to theology, has assumed two principal forms, the supernatural and the natural. According to the former, God, or the Spirit of God, holds direct communion with the soul; and by the excitement of its religious feelings gives it intuitions of truth, and enables it to attain a kind, a degree, and an extent of knowledge, unattainable in any other way. This has been the common theory of Christian mystics in ancient and modern times. If by this were meant merely that the Spirit of God, by his illuminating influence, gives believers a knowledge of the truths objectively revealed in the Scriptures, which is peculiar, certain, and saving, it would be admitted by all evangelical Christians. And it is because such Christians do hold to this inward teaching of the Spirit, that they are often called Mystics by their opponents. This, however, is not what is here meant. The mystical method, in its supernatural form, assumes that God by his immediate intercourse with the soul, reveals through the Feelings and by means, or in the way of intuitions, divine truth independently of the outward teaching of his Word; and that it is this inward light, and not the Scriptures, which we are to follow.
According to the other, or natural form of the mystical method, it is not God, but the natural religious consciousness of men, as excited and influenced by the circumstances of the individual, which becomes the source of religious knowledge. The deeper and purer the religious feelings, the clearer the insight into truth. This illumination or spiritual intuition is a matter of degree. But as all men have a religious nature, they all have more or less clearly the apprehension of religious truth. The religious consciousness of men in different ages and nations, has been historically developed under diverse influences, and hence we have diverse forms of religion, — the Pagan, the Mohammedan, and the Christian. These do not stand related as true and false, but as more or less pure. The appearance of Christ, his life, his work, his words, his death, had a wonderful effect on the minds of men. Their religious feelings were more deeply stirred, were more purified and elevated than ever before. Hence the men of his generation, who gave themselves up to his influence, had intuitions of religious truth of a far higher order than mankind had before attained. This influence continues to the present time. All Christians are its subjects. All, therefore, in proportion to the purity and elevation of their religious feelings, have intuitions of divine things, such as the Apostles and other Christians enjoyed. Perfect holiness would secure perfect knowledge.
It follows from this theory, — (1.) That there are no such things as revelation and inspiration, in
the established theological meaning of those terms. Revelation is the supernatural objective
presentation or communication of truth to the mind, by the Spirit of God. But according to this
theory there is, and can be, no such communication of truth. The religious feelings are providentially
excited, and by reason of that excitement the mind perceives truth more or less clearly, or more or
less imperfectly. Inspiration, in the Scriptural sense, is the supernatural guidance of the Spirit, which
renders its subjects infallible in the communicating truth to others. But according to this theory, no
man is infallible as a teacher. Revelation and inspiration are in different degrees common to all
men. And there is no reason why they should not be as perfect in some believers now as in the days
of the Apostles. (2.) The Bible has no infallible authority in matters of doctrine. The doctrinal
propositions therein contained are not revelations by the Spirit. They are only the forms under
which men of Jewish culture gave expression to their feelings and intuitions. Men of different
culture, and under other circumstances, would have used other forms or adopted other doctrinal
statements. (3.) Christianity therefore, neither consists in a system of doctrines, nor does it contain
any such system. It is a life, an influence, a subjective state; or by whatever term it may be expressed
9
or explained, it is a power within each individual Christian determining his feelings and his views
of divine things. (4.) Consequently the duty of a theologian is not to interpret Scripture, but to
interpret his own Christian consciousness; to ascertain and exhibit what truths concerning God are
implied in his feelings toward God; what truths concerning Christ are involved in his feelings
toward Christ; what the feelings teach concerning sin, redemption, eternal life, etc., etc.
Mysticism as applied to Theology.
Mysticism, in its application to theology, has assumed two principal forms, the supernatural and the natural. According to the former, God, or the Spirit of God, holds direct communion with the soul; and by the excitement of its religious feelings gives it intuitions of truth, and enables it to attain a kind, a degree, and an extent of knowledge, unattainable in any other way. This has been the common theory of Christian mystics in ancient and modern times. If by this were meant merely that the Spirit of God, by his illuminating influence, gives believers a knowledge of the truths objectively revealed in the Scriptures, which is peculiar, certain, and saving, it would be admitted by all evangelical Christians. And it is because such Christians do hold to this inward teaching of the Spirit, that they are often called Mystics by their opponents. This, however, is not what is here meant. The mystical method, in its supernatural form, assumes that God by his immediate intercourse with the soul, reveals through the Feelings and by means, or in the way of intuitions, divine truth independently of the outward teaching of his Word; and that it is this inward light, and not the Scriptures, which we are to follow.
According to the other, or natural form of the mystical method, it is not God, but the natural religious consciousness of men, as excited and influenced by the circumstances of the individual, which becomes the source of religious knowledge. The deeper and purer the religious feelings, the clearer the insight into truth. This illumination or spiritual intuition is a matter of degree. But as all men have a religious nature, they all have more or less clearly the apprehension of religious truth. The religious consciousness of men in different ages and nations, has been historically developed under diverse influences, and hence we have diverse forms of religion, — the Pagan, the Mohammedan, and the Christian. These do not stand related as true and false, but as more or less pure. The appearance of Christ, his life, his work, his words, his death, had a wonderful effect on the minds of men. Their religious feelings were more deeply stirred, were more purified and elevated than ever before. Hence the men of his generation, who gave themselves up to his influence, had intuitions of religious truth of a far higher order than mankind had before attained. This influence continues to the present time. All Christians are its subjects. All, therefore, in proportion to the purity and elevation of their religious feelings, have intuitions of divine things, such as the Apostles and other Christians enjoyed. Perfect holiness would secure perfect knowledge.
Consequences of the Mystical Method.
Sunday 8 February 2015
Theology a science
This is the introduction to Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology. It has helped me to see why genuine Christians who sincerely believe and study the Bible may come to different conclusions on points of doctrine even though the Bible is God's word. We should be no more surprised at this than we are when scientists in other areas come up with different theories to explain the data that is observable by everyone.
IN every science there are two factors: facts and ideas; or, facts and the mind. Science is more than knowledge. Knowledge is the persuasion of what is true on adequate evidence. But the facts of astronomy, chemistry, or history do not constitute the science of those departments of knowledge. Nor does the mere orderly arrangement of facts amount to science. Historical facts arranged in chronological order, are mere annals. The philosophy of history supposes those facts to be understood in their causal relations. In every department the man of science is assumed to understand the laws by which the facts of experience are determined; so that he not only knows the past, but can predict the future. The astronomer can foretell the relative position of the heavenly bodies for centuries to come. The chemist can tell with certainty what will be the effect of certain chemical combinations. If, therefore, theology be a science, it must include something more than a mere knowledge of facts. It must embrace an exhibition of the internal relation of those facts, one to another, and each to all. It must be able to show that if one be admitted, others cannot be denied.
The Bible is no more a system of theology, than nature is a system of chemistry or of mechanics. We find in nature the facts which the chemist or the mechanical philosopher has to examine, and from them to ascertain the laws by which they are determined. So the Bible contains the truths which the theologian has to collect, authenticate, arrange, and exhibit in their internal relation to each other. This constitutes the difference between biblical and systematic theology. The office of the former is to ascertain and state the facts of Scripture. The office of the latter is to take those facts, determine their relation to each other and to other cognate truths, as well as to vindicate them and show their harmony and consistency. This is not an easy task, or one of slight importance.
The answer to this question is, in the first place, that it cannot be done. Such is the constitution of the human mind that it cannot help endeavoring to systematize and reconcile the facts which it admits to be true. In no department of knowledge have men been satisfied with the possession of a mass of undigested facts. And the students of the Bible can as little be expected to be thus satisfied. There is a necessity, therefore, for the construction of systems of theology. Of this the history of the Church affords abundant proof. In all ages and among all denominations, such systems have been produced.
Theology a Science.
IN every science there are two factors: facts and ideas; or, facts and the mind. Science is more than knowledge. Knowledge is the persuasion of what is true on adequate evidence. But the facts of astronomy, chemistry, or history do not constitute the science of those departments of knowledge. Nor does the mere orderly arrangement of facts amount to science. Historical facts arranged in chronological order, are mere annals. The philosophy of history supposes those facts to be understood in their causal relations. In every department the man of science is assumed to understand the laws by which the facts of experience are determined; so that he not only knows the past, but can predict the future. The astronomer can foretell the relative position of the heavenly bodies for centuries to come. The chemist can tell with certainty what will be the effect of certain chemical combinations. If, therefore, theology be a science, it must include something more than a mere knowledge of facts. It must embrace an exhibition of the internal relation of those facts, one to another, and each to all. It must be able to show that if one be admitted, others cannot be denied.
The Bible is no more a system of theology, than nature is a system of chemistry or of mechanics. We find in nature the facts which the chemist or the mechanical philosopher has to examine, and from them to ascertain the laws by which they are determined. So the Bible contains the truths which the theologian has to collect, authenticate, arrange, and exhibit in their internal relation to each other. This constitutes the difference between biblical and systematic theology. The office of the former is to ascertain and state the facts of Scripture. The office of the latter is to take those facts, determine their relation to each other and to other cognate truths, as well as to vindicate them and show their harmony and consistency. This is not an easy task, or one of slight importance.
Necessity for System in Theology
It may naturally be asked, why not take the truths as God has seen fit to reveal them, and thus save ourselves the trouble of showing their relation and harmony?
The answer to this question is, in the first place, that it cannot be done. Such is the constitution of the human mind that it cannot help endeavoring to systematize and reconcile the facts which it admits to be true. In no department of knowledge have men been satisfied with the possession of a mass of undigested facts. And the students of the Bible can as little be expected to be thus satisfied. There is a necessity, therefore, for the construction of systems of theology. Of this the history of the Church affords abundant proof. In all ages and among all denominations, such systems have been produced.
Second, A much higher kind of knowledge is thus obtained, than by the mere accumulation of
isolated facts. It is one thing, for example, to know that oceans, continents, islands, mountains, and
rivers exist on the face of the earth; and a much higher thing to know the causes which have
determined the distribution of land and water on the surface of our globe; the configuration of the
earth; the effects of that configuration on climate, on the races of plants and animals, on commerce,
civilization, and the destiny of nations. It is by determining these causes that geography has been
raised from a collection of facts to a highly important and elevated science. In like manner, without
the knowledge of the laws of attraction and motion, astronomy would be a confused and unintelligible
collection of facts. What is true of other sciences is true of theology. We cannot know what God
has revealed in his Word unless we understand, at least in some good measure, the relation in which
the separate truths therein contained stand to each other. It cost the Church centuries of study and
controversy to solve the problem concerning the person of Christ; that is, to adjust and bring into
harmonious arrangement all the facts which the Bible teaches on that subject.
Third, We have no choice in this matter. If we would discharge our duty as teachers and defenders of the truth, we must endeavor to bring all the facts of revelation into systematic order and mutual
relation. It is only thus that we can satisfactorily exhibit their truth, vindicate them from objections,
or bring them to bear in their full force on the minds of men.
Fourth, Such is evidently the will of God. He does not teach men astronomy or chemistry, but He
gives them the facts out of which those sciences are constructed. Neither does He teach us systematic
theology, but He gives us in the Bible the truths which, properly understood and arranged, constitute
the science of theology. As the facts of nature are all related and determined by physical laws, so
the facts of the Bible are all related and determined by the nature of God and of his creatures. And
as He wills that men should study his works and discover their wonderful organic relation and
harmonious combination, so it is his will that we should study his Word, and learn that, like the
stars, its truths are not isolated points, but systems, cycles, and epicycles, in unending harmony and
grandeur. Besides all this, although the Scriptures do not contain a system of theology as a whole,
we have in the Epistles of the New Testament, portions of that system wrought out to our hands.
These are our authority and guide.
Sunday 11 January 2015
Three types of work during wartime
During wartime, there are three types of work, broadly speaking.
First, there is the ordinary work that everyone was doing before the war broke out. In part, it is the goodness of these jobs that makes the war worth fighting. Communities can only function when people do good, ordinary work. "Look at the chair you are lounging in...Could you have made it for yourself?...How [would you] get, say the wood? Go fell a tree? But only after first making the tools for that, and putting together some kind of vehicle to haul the wood, and construing a mill to do the lumber and the roads to drive on from place to place? In short, a lifetime or two to make one chair!...If we...worked not forty but one-hundred-forty hours per week we couldn't make ourselves from scratch even a fraction of all the goods and services that we call our own. [Our] paycheck turns out to buy us the use of far more than we could possibly make for ourselves in the time it takes us to earn the check...Work...yields far more in return upon our efforts than our particular job puts in. Imagine that everyone quits working, right now! What happens? Civilized life quickly melts away. Food vanishes from the shelves, gas dries up at the pumps, streets are no longer patrolled and fires burn themselves out. Communication and transportation services end, utilities go dead. Those who are survive at all are soon huddled around campfires, sleeping in caves, clothed in raw animal hides. The difference between [a wilderness] and culture is simply, work."1 If such work were not present in a society, such a society would hardly be worth defending in a time of war. During wartime, this work must continue if society is to function. The amount of time that can be devoted to it may well be reduced, but it needs to continue. It should continue not simply so that food and ammunition can be supplied to the troops, but in order for there still to be a society when the war is over.
Second, there is ordinary work that is applied specifically toward the war effort rather than toward the development of culture. For example, engineers that used to build commercial aircraft may now put their skills to use building bombers and fighter jets; clothes designers designing military uniforms; doctors treating injured soldiers; marketing strategists designing army recruitment adverts.
Third, there is the specific work of engaging with and killing the enemy. This work is the full-time occupation of the infantry, air force pilots, artillery and other front-line service men and women. This is the work that only takes place because the nation is at war.
Once the war is over, the third type of work will cease and those who were engaged in the second type of work will redirect the application of their skills, so that the only type of work that remains is the first.
At Avenue Community Church, we have just started a new series on work and the Gospel. As I was listening to the sermon this morning it struck me that the church is always on a wartime footing until Christ returns, and so there are three types of work that any Christian can be involved in.
First, most Christians will be engaged in ordinary work, directed to the "ordinary" purpose of fulfilling God's command to, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1:28). For most Christians, following Christ does not mean doing "Christian work," but involves the high calling of doing ordinary work in a Christ-like way: recognising that work is a good gift from God, through which we worship him and benefit our neighbours. Most Christians are called to the great privilege of putting Genesis 1:28 into practice in the context of knowing as our Father the God who has called us to this task: becoming a responsible adult who can bless others, finding a spouse with whom to have children and, in cooperation with others, using the skills he has given to us to develop the world that God has made and build civilisations.
Second, some Christians will do ordinary work that is applied specifically to the war effort. These are the office workers and administrators who run mission agencies, the engineers who maintain the planes used by the Missionary Aviation Fellowship, the architects who work exclusively in designing meeting places for churches, and many others. This is the type of work I do as I provide legal advice to churches and Christian charities through FIEC Practical Services.
Third, there are the some whose full time work will be prayer and the ministry of the word. (Acts 6:4). This is the work that only exists because of the war and that will end when the war is over. This is the war declared by Satan against God that affects every human being. The end of the war is already known. Christ, who has defeated Satan through his death and resurrection will return to cast Satan into a lake of burning fire, together with all of his followers. Those who have swapped sides from following Satan to following Christ will then live with Christ in a renewed and purified world. The second and third type of work will no longer be needed and everyone will be joyfully engaged in worshiping God through the ordinary work of ruling the world and the universe with Christ and all his people.
Some Christians will be engaged in some of all of these types of works, and many who do the first type effectively do two or three jobs as they engage in the second and third types in their spare time.
1 Lester DeKoster, Work: The Meaning of Your Life (Christian Library Press, 1982), 5, 7, 9-10 as cited in Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavour (Hodder and Soughton, 2012) 75-76↩
First, there is the ordinary work that everyone was doing before the war broke out. In part, it is the goodness of these jobs that makes the war worth fighting. Communities can only function when people do good, ordinary work. "Look at the chair you are lounging in...Could you have made it for yourself?...How [would you] get, say the wood? Go fell a tree? But only after first making the tools for that, and putting together some kind of vehicle to haul the wood, and construing a mill to do the lumber and the roads to drive on from place to place? In short, a lifetime or two to make one chair!...If we...worked not forty but one-hundred-forty hours per week we couldn't make ourselves from scratch even a fraction of all the goods and services that we call our own. [Our] paycheck turns out to buy us the use of far more than we could possibly make for ourselves in the time it takes us to earn the check...Work...yields far more in return upon our efforts than our particular job puts in. Imagine that everyone quits working, right now! What happens? Civilized life quickly melts away. Food vanishes from the shelves, gas dries up at the pumps, streets are no longer patrolled and fires burn themselves out. Communication and transportation services end, utilities go dead. Those who are survive at all are soon huddled around campfires, sleeping in caves, clothed in raw animal hides. The difference between [a wilderness] and culture is simply, work."1 If such work were not present in a society, such a society would hardly be worth defending in a time of war. During wartime, this work must continue if society is to function. The amount of time that can be devoted to it may well be reduced, but it needs to continue. It should continue not simply so that food and ammunition can be supplied to the troops, but in order for there still to be a society when the war is over.
Second, there is ordinary work that is applied specifically toward the war effort rather than toward the development of culture. For example, engineers that used to build commercial aircraft may now put their skills to use building bombers and fighter jets; clothes designers designing military uniforms; doctors treating injured soldiers; marketing strategists designing army recruitment adverts.
Third, there is the specific work of engaging with and killing the enemy. This work is the full-time occupation of the infantry, air force pilots, artillery and other front-line service men and women. This is the work that only takes place because the nation is at war.
Once the war is over, the third type of work will cease and those who were engaged in the second type of work will redirect the application of their skills, so that the only type of work that remains is the first.
At Avenue Community Church, we have just started a new series on work and the Gospel. As I was listening to the sermon this morning it struck me that the church is always on a wartime footing until Christ returns, and so there are three types of work that any Christian can be involved in.
First, most Christians will be engaged in ordinary work, directed to the "ordinary" purpose of fulfilling God's command to, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1:28). For most Christians, following Christ does not mean doing "Christian work," but involves the high calling of doing ordinary work in a Christ-like way: recognising that work is a good gift from God, through which we worship him and benefit our neighbours. Most Christians are called to the great privilege of putting Genesis 1:28 into practice in the context of knowing as our Father the God who has called us to this task: becoming a responsible adult who can bless others, finding a spouse with whom to have children and, in cooperation with others, using the skills he has given to us to develop the world that God has made and build civilisations.
Second, some Christians will do ordinary work that is applied specifically to the war effort. These are the office workers and administrators who run mission agencies, the engineers who maintain the planes used by the Missionary Aviation Fellowship, the architects who work exclusively in designing meeting places for churches, and many others. This is the type of work I do as I provide legal advice to churches and Christian charities through FIEC Practical Services.
Third, there are the some whose full time work will be prayer and the ministry of the word. (Acts 6:4). This is the work that only exists because of the war and that will end when the war is over. This is the war declared by Satan against God that affects every human being. The end of the war is already known. Christ, who has defeated Satan through his death and resurrection will return to cast Satan into a lake of burning fire, together with all of his followers. Those who have swapped sides from following Satan to following Christ will then live with Christ in a renewed and purified world. The second and third type of work will no longer be needed and everyone will be joyfully engaged in worshiping God through the ordinary work of ruling the world and the universe with Christ and all his people.
Some Christians will be engaged in some of all of these types of works, and many who do the first type effectively do two or three jobs as they engage in the second and third types in their spare time.
1 Lester DeKoster, Work: The Meaning of Your Life (Christian Library Press, 1982), 5, 7, 9-10 as cited in Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavour (Hodder and Soughton, 2012) 75-76↩
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