Word Incarnate

Not sure if this is right. But here goes …

When John tells us that ‘the Word became flesh’ I take it he is being more specific and detailed then simply saying ‘the Creator became a human being’ (though of course, he is not saying less than that).

It is the Word who became flesh, the Word of God. The incarnation is not just an act of revelation per se. (there had, of course, been plenty of revelation prior to the incarnation), it is revelation made incarnate. It is not just the case that the Creator became flesh but that the Word of the Creator became flesh.

Or put another way, it’s not merely the case that in the incarnation the Author of the story entered that story as a human character, but also that the story itself [or 'Story himself' perhaps is better?] became a human character within the story.

If correct, I think this could help us tie together such biblical themes as ‘Christ as Logos’ and ‘Christ as recapitulation of Israel’s history,’ or ‘Christ as Last Adam.’

 

 

the virgin birth?

I’ve heard it said (probably most recently in this) that the virgin birth doesn’t really have a lot of theological or salvific significance. Obviously, it is true, and we should believe it, and it is an example of God wonderfully fulfilling his promises. But apart from that, there’s not a lot else we can say about it. Or so the argument goes.

I must confess to being uncomfortable with this. Admittedly there’s little comment on the significance of Mary being a virgin elsewhere in scripture. And we should reject those views on this that seem to lead to or are based on a negative view of sex. Likewise those views that tie Jesus’ pre-existence to this (as if the Logos provided in the human what had not been provided from male sperm!) as they undermine the full humanity of Christ.

But that said, I still have a problem with this. I’m uncomfortable with something God does not having theological significance. I’m uncomfortable with something about Christ’s incarnation not having any salvific significance. And it seems to me that the bible is really quite big on issues of who begat who, on who your father is, on male headship (not the same as but linked with begetting for sure) – so that for something ‘irregular’ (that’s one way of putting it!) to occur in this whole area and yet not be significant in some way seems very odd.

So, anyone got any thoughts or suggestions?

 

As CSNY once sang …

… ‘teach your children well.’

Good thoughts from C.H. Spurgeon on sunday schools, schools in general, and parenting, here.

 

Go home to your friends …

My friend Scott and his brother Ben have a new album out, for free, at their bandcamp site. Or you can just play it below:

 

Nice Juice

John Piper on Hebrews 10:29b

‘They drank the cup of the new covenant, said, “Nice juice,” and went away to sin – as if it were not the most precious reality in the universe.’

 

Fresh thinking

Kenny Larsen is doing an apprenticeship with us this year. He and his wife Jenny have been members of Central for several years, and faithful, able small group leaders for much of that time. Kenny recently started blogging here.

 

Truncated gospel 2

Here are some things that I think we are in danger of when we truncate the gospel like this post described.

1. We are in danger of preaching a gospel that is entirely reduced to a narrowly-defined ‘need-solution’ formula, open to charges of being man-centred, and which obscures lots of things that are highly significant for faith and life.

2. We are in danger of disconnecting the gospel and the christian life from creation. At a bare minimum the ‘shape’ of the biblical storyline (of which the gospel is the controlling centre) is

A. Creation > B. Fall > C. Redemption > D. New Creation

A truncated gospel often misses out A. and D. (or reduces them beyond recognition). Since discipleship and christian living flow from the gospel, a gospel that has been divorced or distanced from creation will tend to result in the same kind of discipleship. Such gospel preaching is ill-equipped to tackle problems such as those caused by individualism in the wider culture or those caused by various kinds of neo-gnosticism in the church.

3. We are in danger of giving ‘law’ a primacy that rightly belongs to grace. A truncated gospel starts with ‘the problem,’ and thereby (ironically) frequently defines the problem inadequately. There is a difference between defining sin as a violation of a naked law or standard and defining it as violation of a law given in the context of extravagant unearned kindness. A truncated gospel detaches God’s prohibition to Adam in Genesis 2 from the surrounding context, which is all lavish gift and favour.

All of this tends to miss the way in which, in the creation story and indeed throughout all scripture, grace and ‘gift’ are primary, and provide the context in which both law and sin are best understood. This skews understandings of Christ’s work, but also (therefore) significantly skews understanding of the nature and character of God and the nature of our covenant relationship with him.

4. We are in danger of reducing Christ to a mechanistic solution to our problem of sin. A gospel disconnected from creation and new creation will preach a Christ who is disconnected from those things too. A truncated gospel will contain a truncated Christ. It can feel like Christ ‘enters’ the story only in response to our sin and mess, when in reality he is the one through whom and for whom all things were originally made. A truncated gospel doesn’t ‘need’ Christ to be any more than that, just as it doesn’t ‘need’ the vast majority of the material recorded in the four gospels.

And there’s more, no doubt.

 

Do, done, will do

One of the major differences between the Gospel and the message of many other world religions can be described as the difference between ‘do’ and ‘done.’

But the Christian faith is not only about ‘done,’ it is also about ‘will do.’ Union with Christ doesn’t just mean his righteousness is imputed to me, it also means he lives his life through me (Galatians 2v20, Colossians 1v24).

I suspect this is also important when we consider the matter of fulfilling the covenant purposes of God and completing what God intended through his Adam/ Israel project. It’s not just a case of ‘Jesus has done it so we don’t have to,’ there is also the matter of what Jesus will do through us as he carries out the Father’s work (John 14v12-14).

Truncated gospel

‘The third unhelpful perspective I picked up in my early evangelism training concerns the gospel message itself. The particular course I studied summarised the gospel in the theological concepts of sin and grace. The goal of the presentation I had to memorise was to convince my hearers (a) that they were unworthy of God’s acceptance because of their rebellion and (b) that God’s acceptance was offered on the basis of faith alone, not good works. The gospel, in other words, was condensed to two doctrines with little attempt to connect these ideas to the flesh-and-blood story of Jesus’ birth, teaching, miracles, death, resurrection, appearances and return for judgment.’

John Dickson, Promoting the Gospel, p13

Understanding the debt crisis

If you want a quick, non-partisan explanation of what’s going on in the global debt crisis, see here.

 

Give me the fries

I’ve been reading ‘Notes from the tilt-a-whirl’ by Nate Wilson. Here’s one (there are many) of my favourite bits [comment in square brackets mine]:

While in grad school I met a man, scrawny, with a patchy beard, prime to be philosophical.

He smirked at my Christianity and pouted lines from the angry German who died gibbering [Nietzsche]. We stood in a soulless academic hallway and looked at each other. I’m afraid I didn’t listen carefully. I was watching him eat while he talked, munching fries. I could see a burger box still tucked into the bag.

‘What is rightness?” I asked. I’d interrupted a train of thought. He chewed and raised his eyebrows.

“Whatever comes from strength. Evil comes from weakness.”

“Give me the fries,” I said quietly.

“What?”

“I straightened up and stepped toward him. I had at least six inches on him, and more than fifty pounds. “Give me the damn fries. The burger too.”

I was ready to hit him, to throw him against the wall. Panic bubbled in his eyes, but I couldn’t follow through. Laughing, I stepped back. He stayed long enough to blaspheme, and then he moved down the hall. His fries went with him.

I wish all Nietzsche’s disciples were as small.

Grace messes up your hair …

If I lived in the USA I’d try really hard to go to this conference.

Goldingay on psalm 74

“When the people of God finds itself thus abandoned by God, as it is in much of the West as the church is in decline, the appropriate response is not to pretend that this has not happened or to turn away from God or to try and fix things ourselves but to turn to God in protest. We then direct God’s attention to our sorry state, to its implications for God, who is also discredited by this situation, and to God’s covenant commitment to us. We thus urge God, “Defend your cause.” One basis on which we do that is that God has already won the decisive victory over resistant powers. God did that at creation, did it at the Red Sea, and did it at the cross and resurrection. It is therefore weird of God to let forces that dismiss God look as if they have won the victory now. It is not in our interests for God to do that, but more profoundly, it is not in God’s interests.”

[Psalms, Vol 2, p436]

 

Completely insane

So, we had our 20 week scan this morning. We got to see the baby’s spine, bladder, the heart with its four chambers, the sections of the brain, and the lips. The heart rate was measured, as was the length of various bones (thigh bone of 3.5cm). We could’ve found out the gender of the baby but declined.

And I couldn’t help but think about the fact that, if we wanted to, we could still make the appointments, have the necessary conversations with the professionals, etc. and then go get him/ her killed. If we wanted to. For the next four weeks.

And I find that to be completely insane.

I know that’s not a knock-down argument that closes down the debate.

And ultimately I don’t want to argue for personhood, value, and the right to life on the basis of how much someone has all the necessary limbs and organs.

But it still strikes me as completely insane.

Crabs, turtles, & Christendom

Really, really interesting article on First Things by Matthew Milliner, writing about the relationship between the gospel and culture, and the whole matter of Christian culture.

HT: Justin Taylor