CHAPTER TWELVE—The (True) Story Of The Cross

“Why did Jesus have to die? Couldn’t God just forgive us?” This is what many ask, but now we can see that no one “just” forgives, if the evil is serious. Forgiveness means bearing the cost instead of making the wrongdoer do it, so you can reach out in love to seek your enemy’s renewal and change. Forgiveness means absorbing the debt of the sin yourself. Everyone who forgives great evil goes through a death into resurrection, and experiences nails, blood, sweat, and tears.

Should it surprise us, then, that when God determined to forgive us rather than punish us for all the ways we have wronged him and one another, that he went to the Cross in the person of Jesus Christ and died there? As Bonhoeffer says, everyone who forgives someone bears the other’s sins. On the Cross we see God doing visibly and cosmically what every human being must do to forgive someone, though on an infinitely greater scale.

Rather, this is a God who becomes human and offers his own lifeblood in order to honor moral justice and merciful love so that someday he can destroy all evil without destroying us.

CHAPTER TEN—The Problem Of Sin

When we turn good things into ultimate things, we are, as it were, spiritually addicted. If we take our meaning in life from our family, our work, as cause, or some achievement other than God, they enslave us. We have to have them. St. Augustine said that “our loves are not rightly ordered.” He famously said to God, “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee!”

CHAPTER SEVEN —You Can’t Take The Bible Literally

It is often asserted that the New Testament gospels were written so many years after the events happened that the writers’ accounts of Jesus’ life can’t be trusted—that they are highly embellished if not wholly imagined. Many believe that the canonical gospels were only four out of scores of other texts and that they were written to support the church hierarchy’s power while the rest (including the so-called “Gnostic gospels”) were suppressed.

In his landmark book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, Richard Bauckham marshals much historical evidence to demonstrate that at the time the gospels were written there were still numerous well-known living eyewitnesses to Jesus’ teaching and life events. They had committed them to memory and they remained active in the public life of the churches throughout their lifetimes, serving as ongoing sources and guarantors of the truth of those accounts. Bauckham uses evidence within the gospels themselves to show that the gospel writers named their eyewitness sources within the text to assure readers of their accounts’ authenticity.

Mark, for example, says that the man who helped Jesus carry his cross to Calvary “was the father of Alexander and Rufus” (Mark 15:21). There is no reason for the author to include such names unless the readers know or could have access to them. Mark is saying, “Alexander and Rufus vouch for the truth of what I am telling you, if you want to ask them.” Paul also appeals to readers to check with living eyewitnesses if they want to establish the truth of what he is saying about the events of Jesus’ life (1 Corinthians 15:1-6). Paul refers to a body of five hundred eyewitnesses who saw the risen Christ at once. You can’t write that in a document designed for public reading unless there really were surviving witnesses whose testimony agreed and who could confirm what the author said. 

 All this decisively refutes the idea that the gospels were anonymous, collective, evolving oral traditions. Instead they were oral histories taken down from the mouths of the living eyewitnesses who preserved the words and deeds of Jesus in great detail.

The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, however, were recognized as authoritative eyewitness accounts almost immediately, and so we have Irenaeus of Lyons in 160 A.D. declaring that there were four, and only four gospels. The widespread idea, promoted by The Da Vinci Code, that the Emperor Constantine determined the New Testament canon, casting aside the earlier and supposedly more authentic Gnostic gospels, simply is not true.

Timothy Keller excerpt …

CHAPTER FIVE – Science Has Disproved Christianity

The first reason that many people think science has disproved traditional religion is that most of the major faiths believe in miracles, the intervention of God into the natural order. The miraculous is particularly important for Christian belief. Christians annually celebrate the miracle for the incarnation, the birth of Jesus, each Christmas, and the miracle of the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead each Easter. Armed with this presupposition, scholars turned to the Bible and said, “The Biblical accounts can’t be reliable because they contain descriptions of miracles.” The premise behind such a claim is “Science has proven that there is no such thing as miracles.” But embedded in such a statement is a leap of faith.

Below are some excerpts from Timothy Keller’s book entitled, “The Reason For God!”

Enjoy …

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Just because you can’t see or imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn’t mean there can’t be one. Again we see lurking within supposedly hard-nosed skepticism an enormous faith in one’s own cognitive faculties. If our minds can’t plumb the depths of the universe for the good answers to suffering, well, then, there can’t be any! This is blind faith of a high order.

Many people have to admit that most of what they really needed for success in life came to them through their most difficult and painful experiences.

Though none of these people are grateful for the tragedies themselves, they would not trace the insight, character, and strength they had gotten from them for anything.

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If you try to explain away all assertions of truth as one or the other or something else you find yourself in an untenable position. C.S. Lewis writes in The Abolition of Man:

But you cannot go on “explaining away” for ever: you will find that you have explained explanation itself away. You cannot go on “seeing through” things for ever. The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque. How if you saw through the garden too?…a wholly transparent world is an invisible world. To “see through” all things is the same as not see.

 NEW SERIES SUNDAY MORNING (JAMES CHPT 4)

“I’m trying to figure out God’s will for my life.”

Have you ever said that?

I’m sure you have. We all have!

But what is God’s will? Should we think in terms of specific blueprint that we are to find and follow? And, if so, if we were to step out of God’s will, can we get back into it or is it too late? How detailed is the will of God for our lives?  What’s the difference between God’s Sovereign Will and God’s Moral Will? Are there some decisions in life that God leaves to us? Is God a micro-manager or a Shepherd-King? Aahh only some of the questions we’ll be answering!

As you know, we’re studying the book of James on Sunday morning (fast becoming one of my most favorite books!). And, now, we’re entering chapter four of James that specifically addresses the will of God. Is there a more important subject?

I really encourage you to study with us as we grow in the subject of God’s will for our life — and invite some friends too! Let them know that we’re beginning a series on “How Can I know The Will Of God For My Life!” You never know – for them, experiencing God’s will for their life may begin by turning to Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord!

God wants you to experience His will! He’s not keeping it a mystery.

See you Sunday!

JOIN ME 🙂

I’d love for you to join in a discussion on the book “The Reason For God” written by Timothy Keller!

I read the book a few month’s ago but I am excited about going through it again and I’d love to read it through with you in the next few months.

As I mentioned Sunday morning, I thought it would be a good idea to read a few chapters each week and open it up for comments and perhaps even some dialogue here on the blog.

If your unable to read through the book at this time, that’s ok – you are still welcome to join in the conversation and it would be great to hear from you!

I’ll be posting some of excerpts from Keller’s book that I have found particularly interesting and insightful that I hope you enjoy (see below the first excerpt from the Introduction to, “The Reason For God”).

Enjoy.

FIRST EXCERPT FROM “INTRODUCTION”

I want to make a proposal that I have seen bear much fruit in the lives of young New Yorkers over the years. I recommend that each side look at doubt in a radically new way.

Let’s begin with believers. A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard  questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person’s faith can collapse almost overnight if she has failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.

Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts—not only their own but their friends’ and neighbors’.  It is no longer sufficient to hold beliefs just because you inherited them.   Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous or offensive. And, just as important for our current situation, such a process will lead you, even after you come to a position of strong faith, to respect and understand those who doubt.

But even as believers should learn to look for reasons behind their faith, skeptics must learn to look for a type of faith hidden within their reasoning. All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs. You cannot doubt Belief A except from a position of faith in Belief B. For example, if you doubt Christianity because “There can’t be just one true religion,” you must recognize that this statement is itself an act of faith. No one can prove it empirically, and it is not a universal truth that everyone accepts.  If you went to the Middle East and said, “There can’t be just one true religion,” nearly everyone would say, “Why not?”  The reason you doubt Christianity’s Belief A is because you hold unprovable Belief B. Every doubt therefore, is based on a leap of faith.

The only way to doubt Christianity rightly and fairly is to discern the alternate belief under each of your doubts and then to ask yourself what reason you have for believing it. How do you know your belief is true?”  It would be inconsistent to require more justification for Christian belief than you do for your own, but that is frequently what happens. In fairness you must doubt your doubts. My thesis is that if you come to recognize the beliefs on which your doubts about Christianity are based, and if you seek as much proof for those beliefs as you seek from Christians for theirs—you will discover that your doubts are not as solid as they first appeared. 

BLESSED SUBTRACTIONS

Have you ever heard the expression, “It’s a blessed subtraction?” It’s an expression that has taken a life of it’s own over the years among Christians. The reason for it is because believers have experienced that in God’s economy, He subtracts in order to ADD!

On Wednesday nights we’re studying the book of Acts. Presently we’re in Acts chapter 16.

Paul is just beginning his 2nd missionary journey but it began bitter-sweet. His faithful companion Barnabus has set out in another direction and has taken along John Mark. So, there has been a subtraction in Paul’s life. However, when he arrives in the city of Lystra he finds a young disciple named Timothy who will become like a “son” to him and will join him in his 2nd missionary journey – ultimately becoming a great leader in the church. In addition, when the team ends up in Troas, there is strong indication that Luke, a medical doctor, joins the team. This is the same Luke who will later pen the book of Luke and the book of Acts.

So, while there had been some “subtractions” in Paul’s life, there had also been some blessed additions as well!

I want to encourage you. Often the Lord will subtract in order to add to your life. It’s not always a comfortable process though. Sometimes there is pain like when the surgeon removes a cancerous growth in order to add health. The apostle Paul spoke of a painful “thorn” that hurt him for years. However, although there was a subtraction of comfort, God added POWER in Paul’s life promising that His strength is “perfected in weakness” and it was.

Be encouraged.

Keep your eyes on Jesus!

Chances are what you’re going through is a “BLESSED SUBTRACTION!”

I trust you will enjoy these great perspectives on the power of the Word of God in our life!

This is MY Bible …

I am who it says I am. Matthew 5:16
I can do what it says I can do. Philippians 4:13
I am going where it says I will go. John 14:3

God’s Word is milk for my soul. 1 Peter 2:2
God’s Word is seed for my faith. Luke 8:11
God’s Word is light for my path. Psalm 119:105
God’s Word is power for my victory. Hebrews 4:12
God’s Word is freedom for my life. John 8:32

When I read God’s Word it brings me joy.  Jeremiah 15:16
When I study God’s Word, it keeps me from shame.  2 Timothy 2:15
When I memorize God’s Word, it purifies my heart.  Psalm 119:11
When I quote God’s Word, it defeats my enemies.  Ephesians 6:10, 17
When I meditate on God’s Word, it brings me success.  Joshua 1:8
When I abide in God’s Word, it gives me confidence.  John 15:7

AMEN!

Contentment comes when you realize that you have everything you need right now.

If you needed anything else, God would give it to you.

What a liberating thought!

So, if you are struggling with contentment at this time, the source of the problem is not the Lord. The reason is because He’s given you everything you need for this very moment. He’s given you the GRACE you need!

And, remember, the GREATEST NEED we have is the Lord and He will never leave us.

The Bible says, “…be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Heb 13:5)