Christ the Truth

[1] The parable of the land mines.

There was once a farmer in a war-torn land. He had ten fields, yet he couldn’t farm any of them except for a small plot of land around his one-room shack. This was because the whole farm was riddled with land mines.

Years earlier his father had tried to clear the first field. Tragically, he set off a mine and died in the blast. The farmer was left all by himself with only the smallest patch of safe ground where the mine had detonated. As time wore on, the farmer eeked out a pitiful hand-to-mouth existence. He soon realized that unless things changed, a slow starvation awaited.

One day some army officers passed through the country. They had a special piece of equipment that could defuse all the farmer’s landmines. The farmer was overjoyed as the soldiers passed their device over each of the ten fields. In a single day, every deadly mine was made safe.

The next morning, the farmer awoke eager to get to work. He took a spade in hand as he ventured out beyond the ‘safe area’ and onto dangerous ground. His heart skipped a beat as he heard a clicking sound underfoot. He had stepped on a mine. He closed his eyes and prayed as he removed his foot again and… nothing. Floods of relief! The land was truly safe. He set his shovel into the ground with glee as he dug up this old foe. He held the heavy metal contraption in his hands with amazement and disgust. Here was something with the power of death, something that had made him a prisoner on his own land. And here it was – defused, benign. With a feeling of exultation he threw the mine into the corner of the field, beginning a pile that would mount up over the course of the next two weeks.

After a fortnight, the farmer had cleared the mines from the first field around his shack. As he surveyed the land he felt a deep satisfaction he’d never before known. Yet the work did not end there – it had only begun. Once the mines were dug up, then there was the clearing of thorns and thistles that had grown over the un-tilled ground. Just to clear the weeds took him another six weeks of exhausting labour. Next came the breaking up of the soil and the sowing of new crops. Every night the farmer climbed into bed with aching muscles, blistered hands and cuts and bruises all over his body. Before the mines were defused he had only known frustration and a dull hunger. Now he was alive, he had purpose, and never had he hurt so much!

After a year the farmer ate the produce from the first field. Others may have eaten grander banquets with richer food, and perhaps the farmer would eat better in the future, but for now – this was the most extraordinary feast he had known. As the sun set on his harvest supper he surveyed his land. Much accomplished but so much to do. One field cleared, nine still ravaged by thorns and thistles. Perhaps next year he’d open up the second field. Perhaps he would soon turn a profit and build a bigger house. Perhaps he’d get help in. Would he ever clear the whole farm? Probably not. Would there be set-backs? Plagues? Illness? Certainly. But now the farm and the farmer were released. The work had begun. Praise God it could begin. And praise God that now he could suffer in ways not possible a year ago. Hardship had not ended – far from it. But, from now on, all his suffering would be enduringly fruitful.

[2] Love is putting your happiness in the happiness of another (Jonathan Edwards).

It’s like we have a whole control panel with levers which most of us spend all day pulling. Things like ensuring we have enough rest, enough “me time”, enough satisfaction in our work, enough affirmation and approval by others. But love is leaving your own control panel and moving over to someone else’s and helping them pull their levers. You leave your own well-being and invest yourself in another’s. Of course, the only way you’ll do this is if you think someone is going to take care of your levers. We only love because God first loved us.

To love selflessly is to be first secure in the love of God (1 John 4:10). Then you can give away to others the love that you’ve received (John 13:3-5). Otherwise you’re just feeding your need to idol worship (Jer 2:13) - this a) dishonours God (Ex 20:3); b) it puts immense strain on the relationship and c) gives them the power of God over you - to destroy you if you don’t get the love you’re looking for.

[3] The Bubble Ring:

The creation was like the Father breathing His omnipotent Spirit through Christ like a bubble ring. It all came through Jesus. Everything is defined and shaped by His character and personality.

[4] What are our qualifications for speaking of Christ? A certain degree of learning? Proper schooling? No: Acts 4:13 “Now when [the ruling council] saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” Being an educated man is nothing compared to ‘being with Jesus’!

[5] The upper room discourse in John gives us three picture of the way the love of the Father relates to Jesus and to us:

In John 15:9 we have the ‘waterfall effect’: ‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.’ Here love cascades from the Father over the Son to us.

In John 16:26-27 we have the ‘divine promotion’: Jesus does not have to ask the Father for us, we can ask ourselves for what we need for ‘the Father Himself loves you.’ In Jesus we have been promoted to His beloved status – shoulder to shoulder with Jesus in enjoying the divine love.

Finally in John 17:26 we have the ‘internal compass effect’: The love the Father has for the Son is placed in the believer. Thus the Father’s own ‘true north’ setting, which places all His affection on Jesus, is put within the Christian – now the Father has reached into the Christian and set their love-compass on Jesus. He has placed His divine love for Christ in us. We now love Jesus with the Father’s own love (the Spirit!). Inconceivable!

[6] The grace at the end of 2 Corinthians provides a wonderful basis for enjoying the Persons of God. Grace of Jesus, love of God, fellowship of Spirit. It’s similar in Jude 20-21: prayer in the Spirit, love of God and mercy of Jesus. Do we know the Persons in their distinct personalities? The Father’s love, the Son’s grace and mercy, the Spirit’s intimate fellowship.

[7] The human problem is not so much sin but God’s anger at sin. In fact we ought not to define it as a human problem but a predicament to which God has bound us - Rom 11:32. The problem is wrath.

Back in the garden, Adam’s problem wasn’t so much his nakedness and shame – his problem (and his one great Hope) was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and about to confront him.

It is the LORD’s response to sin and not simply ‘sin’ that is our problem. If we see the problem as human-centred then at least notionally the solution could be man-centred. (Like Islam’s solution to Adam’s nakedness: ‘Clothe yourself in good deeds.’) But no - the problem is God’s and God solves it. God propitiates God while we look on. If we see the problem of sin from man’s side then all our applications to the problem of sin will be “repent” rather than “stand back and watch God justify God.”

[8] Christianity is not a religion of repentance but of redemption. This flows directly from the point above, that the problem is God-centred, not man-centred.

[9] Human religion is man justifying man before a watching god.

The gospel is God justifying God before a watching humanity.

[10] Substitutes for the Spirit.

We have endless substitutes in our thinking for a true pneumatology, here’s a sketch of just a few off the top of my head. It’s possible to live out a form of discipleship that looks to all the world like a Christian walk and yet it is not Spirit-led. Beware these imitations. Of course, many of these are means by which the Spirit works yet if they are cut off from the Source they have no life in them:

Doctrine of Omnipotence

An a-topic, abstract power is assigned to God, equivalent to a similarly ill-defined notion called ‘sovereignty’. This is all rather than the active and immanent Person who is God’s Power – the Spirit of Christ.

Doctrine of Omnipresence

‘God is everywhere’ becomes a substitute for the indwelling personal presence of the Spirit

Doctrine of Omniscience

This happens for instance when the living nature of the Spirit-breathed Word is replaced by a doctrine of God’s omniscience in the original authorship of the Bible. It is asserted that God’s Word speaks powerfully today not because the Spirit makes His Word alive today but because thousands of years ago, God, in His omniscience, foresaw every situation into which that Word would be spoken. In this way the living, Spirit-breathed Word of God is fossilized!

Assurance found in moral performance.

Romans 8:16 says ‘the Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.’ Few evangelical preachers teach that we should seek our assurance in the fellowship we have with the Spirit. Instead, most point to our works as signs of our election.

Fellowship of believers.

‘The fellowship of the Holy Spirit’ (2 Cor 13:4) is not a Spirit-generated church-fellowship! Yet so many take it in this way. No, just as the love of God is an enjoyment of God in His love and just as the grace of Christ is an enjoyment of Christ in His grace, so the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is fellowship with the Spirit!

Human advice

In the realm of guidance

Human aptitude

In the realm of gifts

Apologetics

In the realm of evangelism

Strategy

In the realm of Kingdom-work

Oratory skill

In the realm of preaching

Fruit of the Spirit

Rather than the Spirit Himself! (The fruit grows organically from a relationship with the Spirit). NB: ‘walking’ by the Spirit is an incredibly relational term (eg. Gen 3:8; 17:1; Lev 26:12; Amos 3:3)

The Bible.

Let us never divorce Word from Spirit. But let us also never replace Spirit with Word. (This is possible. Cf. 1 Cor 3; John 5:37-46; 1 Thes 1&2). The evangelical Trinity can all too easily become ‘God, the Gospel, the Bible’ In this, the Bible brings us the Gospel, in the Gospel we meet God. (Rather than the Spirit brings us Christ and in Him we meet the Father).

Grammatical-historical method.

Text critical tools give the meaning of the Bible, not the Author Himself

‘Now but not yet’.

We often speak of this age (truly) in terms of absence and in-between-ness. We live in between the comings of Christ. This is all absolutely correct and vitally important. And how we should feel our distance from Christ – do we miss Him? We should! But let’s not forget the presence! This is the age of the Spirit. The Spirit’s presence as down-payment ought to shape our understanding of the times, not simply an abstract notion of ‘now-and-not-yet’. Where does the ‘now’ come from – from the Spirit!

[11] Faith is simply receiving. Rom 4:18ff is Paul’s example of Abraham’s faith. The occasion for Abe’s faith strengthening was the impossibility of the task. There could be no contribution towards its accomplishment. But we trust the God who justifies the wicked, who raises the dead, who calls into existence the things that are not. He is the God of the impossible. The God of Paradox whose grace shatters men. Faith is receiving!

[Influenced by John Piper] And if faith is receiving and we live our lives “by faith” “from first to last” (Rom 1:16) then all of the Christian life is receiving. There is not a single moment where you repay God for His kindness. This is the debtors ethic (or gratitude ethic) - e.g. “It’s a cross for a cross, a life for a life.” All that God is able to do in our lives He does through us. It is all by grace. We never turn from grace to repay God. The whole Christian life is about going deeper and deeper into debt. “Who has ever given to God?” Acts 17 - God is not served. Mark 10 - the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve. Beware lest you switch places with the Son of Man! All those crap analogies about faith then works must be rooted out. It’s not like a marriage where my gratitude towards my wife makes me do nice things out of love. It is more like a marriage where my wife’s giving in the past leads me to want to take more from her in the future. Human analogies don’t work because God is the all sufficient Giver (Acts 17). And the Giver gets the glory. How dare we valiantly lay down our lives in service of God as if this is we’re repaying God! Only He can give us the strength to do this! How dare we ‘render’ it to Him! This steals away His glory. The giver gets the glory. We glorify Christ by taking, taking, taking. The whole Christian life is the empty hand of faith which brings to Christ only our filthy sin and takes all His grace and righteousness and peace and life.

Note John 3:19-21 - those who come into the light can only do so because God has done His good deeds through them. If we present our own deeds, they are filthy rags. Those who present good deeds on the last day will be presenting the Spirit’s own good deeds back to Him - HE GETS THE GLORY.

Application: Radical dependence on God’s grace. We cannot breathe unless He is pleased to grant us another lung-full. This is what excludes boasting. And God gets the glory!!!!