Sanam Doctrinam

I am continuing to read Wells and I am thoroughly enjoying it! Although I am sure that Dr. Wells and I would disagree about the specifics, I do agree generally with the Eschatological view of an already/not yet tension.

It is of particular interest to me in regard to the culmination of our salvation. We are saved (justified), we are being saved (the process of ongoing sanctification), and we will be saved (our future glorification.) This tension of the already/not yet exists because we know what we will be to some degree and we long for the day when we will be made like Him in utter completeness(1 John 3:1-3.) this longing exists as we agree with the Apostle that we want to be freed from this body of sin (Romans 7:24-25.) So we see this “kingdom” tension residing within us as well.

I want to live with this ever in mind. I want to have on the forefront of my thinking that all I struggle with today will one day be left behind. I want to bear in mind that one day I will no longer reside in this flesh and in this there is true hope.

The point Dr. Wells made in the section I read this morning was that there is only a real sense of lasting hope in Biblical Christianity. I believe this is because we as believers currently live with the reality of transformation and are assured of final transformation in the future, when the tension of the already/not yet is turned into the eternal.

Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
Yes, our God is compassionate.

Psalm 116:5

I thought today it might be refreshing to take a few moments to consider the character of God. I had someone say to me once that I ought to be very careful about what I think about God, because what I think about Him will influence every area of my life. I believe he was right. Perhaps we might consider today’s Monday Musing a bit of a refresher course on who God is. One caveat is in order: The aspects of God’s character we are considering today are certainly not comprehensive. We’re only looking at three components of His character.

I think it is interesting how people sometimes paint caricatures of God. In fact, some folks actually refer to two different gods. We encounter this when we hear the terms, “God of the New Testament” and “God of the Old Testament.” If not falling into error to this degree, sometimes even Christians speak of God as if He underwent a personality makeover between Malachi and Matthew. Nothing could be further from the truth. Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, depicts the same God. His character is unchanged and unchanging. Typically, the charge that is leveled against the Bible is that the Old Testament pictures God as a vengeful, angry deity who likes nothing better than to cast lightning bolts at people for the slightest infraction of His Law. In contrast, critics of the Bible claim the New Testament depicts God as a gentle, benevolent, pastoral type, constantly patting people on the head and sending them on their way, His face wreathed with a benign smile. This sort of dichotomy is just plain wrong. Today’s verse serves as a case in point. With this lengthy introduction, let’s turn our attention to Psalm 116:5. What I would like to do in today’s Monday Musing is to consider the different character attributes that are ascribed to God.

The first thing we come across in this verse is that fact that our God is gracious. We need to take note of the fact that of all the attributes of God the psalmist could single out, he chose His graciousness as the most prominent. It is God’s character to give. He is a giving God. James reminds us of this when he writes, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17). In perhaps the most well known verse in all of Scripture, John 3:16, we are reminded of the single greatest expression of the giving-ness of God: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Were we to inquire as to what it is that delights God’s heart more than anything else, it is the act of giving. Jesus said as much. In Matthew 7:11 He told us, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” God is gracious.

Second, our God is righteous. Another word for righteous is “just.” The idea is that God always does what is right, not according to an arbitrary standard, but according to the standards of His own character. He is ultimately fair in what He does. He does not cheat and swindle and defraud, things with which we are deeply familiar due to our living in a sin-cursed world. God always acts justly. While the Bible resonates with the childhood parental rebuke, “Life is not fair!” God is fair. Unfairness in our world is due to the inequities brought about through human sin, not due to the oversight, or worse, injustice of the God over all. It might be worthwhile to pause at this point and consider the importance of the fact that God is both gracious and righteous. To have a God that possessed one of these attributes to the exclusion of the other would be tragic. He would either be a benevolent dictator that allowed sin to continue forever without remedy or a draconian despot who was stingy and thoughtless toward His creatures. In our God, we have both, in perfect symmetry.

Third and finally, Psalm 116:5 tells us that God is compassionate. The word contains the idea of greeting someone with love or taking pity on someone. The word conveys the idea of God looking upon someone and being aggrieved at their tragic plight. It’s a word of tenderness and concern. We have a God who is full of pity for the sorrowing and hurting. Perhaps one of the greatest complaints of atheists is that God doesn’t care, in their estimation, about the suffering in the world. Psalm 116:5 says something dramatically different. God is concerned. God does care. He is brokenhearted. He allows human sin to evidence itself through tragic consequences to demonstrate the severity of sin and our desperate need for rescue from our sinful condition. Jesus’ tears at the tomb of Lazarus were visible expressions of God’s heart, a heart broken over the griefs of humanity.

Who is our God? Psalm 116:5 gives us a snapshot of His character. He is gracious. He is righteous. He is compassionate. Such a God is eminently worth our worship and love.

As I continue to read Above All Earthly Pow’rs by David Wells, his insight continues to amaze me.

The above title is a paraphrase of something he said in his chapter on the “Veiled Nihilism of the Postmodern” (my words not his).  I find this so interesting and convicting.  How often to I through my material purchases, try to construct myself as something I am not?  I try to “be” a certain person by dressing a certain way, which of course is determined by the clothing choice I make in a given purchase.

The real question is, “Am I cognizant of the ‘why’ of my purchase?”  What is my heart in the purchasing of the next pair of shorts or the next big electronic gizmo?  I own a MacBook.  Did I do that for status or because of a need.  If I did it for the latter, could I have purchased something cheaper to accomplish this need? (Side note:  the reality is I am a tech junky, and have always been curious about Mac, that is my motive.)

The reality of my life as a Christian as defined by the Scriptures is that I am to be identified with Christ.  It is found in the meaning of the word Christian.  It is defined in Scripture:

Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, I no longer live, it is Jesus Christ who now lives in me.  And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

All other attempts at fulfilling purpose and identity will fail in emptiness.  It is only in Christ that one will find ultimate fulfillment.

Sow with a view to righteousness,
Reap in accordance with kindness;
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the LORD
Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.

Hosea 10:12

I am neither a farmer nor the son of a farmer, but I do know that farming is a critical occupation. Without farming we have no food. In the western world we are privileged with an abundance of agricultural bounty. When there are fluctuations in food production, the increased prices are merely an annoyance. In other areas of the world, food price fluctuations cause real hardship. The food farmers produce is absolutely vital to the world.

The ancient prophet Hosea wrote about farming in Hosea 10:12. The farming of which the prophet Hosea wrote, however, was even more important than the food production in which millions of people worldwide are engaged. In today’s verse, Hosea wrote about sowing, reaping, plowing, timing, and precipitation. Every one of these things is absolutely critical to the enterprise of farming. Even though many of us are not involved in the type of farming that fills the shelves of supermarkets, the ancient prophet beckons us to be engaged in a type of farming, nonetheless.

Sowing. Sowing seed is an absolute requirement for farming. If we do not sow seed, we may be doing something, but we’re not farming. The farmer has no promise or hope of reaping a crop if he or she does not plant. Hosea called ancient Israel to sow righteousness. Righteousness, as the ancient Israelite prophets often used it, is a word that speaks of acting in a way that conforms to the character of God. What’s more, righteousness involves treating people justly and fairly. God is the greatest of all judges. We are called to be honest or just judges in our every dealing. Planting righteousness is essential to the type of farming Hosea references.

Reaping. When Hosea speaks of reaping, he speaks of harvesting kindness. The kindness here is not human kindness, but God’s faithful, unfailing love. We sow by doing what is right and God’s response is to give us a harvest of rich fellowship with Him. His faithful love fills our lives with the delights of a close walk with Him when we act justly in an unjust world.

Plowing. Plowing in this verse is likely a metaphor for repentance of sin. As untilled ground becomes hard and unyielding with time, our hearts can do the same. The writer of Hebrews cautioned his readers against being “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13). That is our danger, as well. The solution is, as it was for ancient Israel, repentance before God that our fellowship with God may be restored. Confession of sin to God plows the hardened soil of our hearts and allows our fellowship with Him to be restored.

Timing. Timing is critical in farming. If a farmer plants too early or too late in the growing season, he or she runs the risk of reaping nothing. Hosea speaks of timing in today’s verse. Specifically he tells us that it is time to seek the Lord. His words are reminiscent of Paul’s in 2 Corinthians 6:2 where he says, “now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation.” Today is the day to seek the Lord. Hosea’s words reveal the need for immediacy and earnestness in seeking God. The timing is perfect for us to passionately pursue a deeper fellowship with God.

Precipitation. Few things are as great a delight to a farmer as good precipitation. Precipitation can make or break a crop. In Hosea 10:12, precipitation is a promise for faithful farming. Hosea tells Israel that God will reign down righteousness on them. Sometimes God’s righteousness in Scripture is a reference to His righteous judgment that brings deliverance and blessing to people. That’s what is in view here. God says if His people Israel would respond to Him appropriately the result would be that the nation would experience His goodness in the form of blessing.

How is our farming? If we respond appropriately to God, Hosea 10:12 points to the promised blessing that will be ours—the delight of walking in close fellowship with our Creator, unfettered by sin.

If you have noticed in the sidebar under “Jason’s Current Reads” I have been working on David Wells’ book Above All Earthly Pow’rs for quite some time.  It is a great book, but I am a poor reader.  Don’t get me wrong I love to read, but whenever I read Wells, I have to have a dictionary open (because I wasn’t learned how to read them there big words so good.)

That said, it is an intriguing look at Postmodernism and especially that of the “American” sort, if such a distinction can be made.  In the most recent section of the book Wells draws out that Americans live in a sort of masked Nihilism (definition: the rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless.  New Oxford American Dictionary.)  He explains (and I paraphrase) that America has this sort of upbeat external image, but inside the dark parts of the soul, there is really nothing but this emptiness.  Wells argues that this is amplified by the mentality of Postmodernism that purports there is no ultimate truth.  Wells explanation is that for all of our dressed up tolerance of one truth being on the same plain as the other, at the end of the day, their is emptiness, because no one can be certain of anything.

This led me to consider how this is being played out in modern day Evangelicalism.  The movement to say that there is uncertainty is growing.  At the end of the day, if as a movement, we are unsure of how one can be made right with God, where does that leave us?  Now this is not to say we have figured out all of God nor His Word, but we must be certain of what He has revealed plainly or hope is lost.  What hope do we offer sinners if we can’t be sure that they are sinners?  What hope can we offer if we write fiction novels that portray the Trinity in an unbiblical manner?  If in the end all we can say is, “We’re not sure,” is this not a road that leads us to no hope which leads us to the empty existence of Nihilism?

Wells wisely points out that this is not a philosophical “living out” but rather psychological, which is lived out in the mind, but dressed up with an “ideal American existence.” (My words not Wells’.)

I also want to be quick to say, I think most people in the “uncertainty” movement, are unaware of this.  I don’t think they are belligerently steaming ahead with the idea of a Nihilistic world domination.  But it is the end result of uncertainty.  I think most people are caught up in the “hipness” of the movement.  I think they are guilty of what my buddy Eric Herb used to say, they are to busy, “trying to be non-conformists like everybody else” to recognize the faulty ground on which they are standing.