Currently Listening Yesshows By Yes Parallels see related

Romans 1:3,4

While we are not all creative geniuses, I think each of us can try to imagine what it’s like to be one. When a person makes something new and unique, and pours himself into that thing he is making, the person is often closely attached to his creation. The name Henry Ford is still attached to the cars made by the company he started. Bill Gates is almost synonomous with Microsoft, the computer software giant. Leonardo da Vinci, or Renoir, or Johann Sebastian Bach are all closely linked to what they created. If the creator is the author of a novel, he pours himself into the story, and knows each character intimately. If the creator is a musician, he will often give up meals and sleep to find the exact combination of words and sounds which expresses his heart and soul. If the creator is an inventor, he likely sacrifices a great deal of time, energy and wealth to see his idea come into being. And when the inventor, or the author, or the musician has finished his work, he will probably waste no time in establishing his rights to his creation at the patent office, or the copyright office. Why? Because the creator owns what he has made, and should receive all the benefit he can from his creation. The creator rightly wants to leave his signature on the painting, or his name on the company letterhead. Others who enjoy the new invention, or story, or song, owe something to the creator.

What about the creator of all things? Unlike a human author, or musician, or inventor, the creator of the world is not a person. The creator of the world is three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. These three persons have lived in harmony from eternity. Before time began, before the stars were placed in the heavens, before Adam received his first breath, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit lived together in beautiful harmony. And they always will. This eternal relationship within the Trinity is, I believe, a relationship of love. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit always honour and glorify each other. In the Trinity there is not a culture of debt or demands; rather these three persons have from eternity been building each other up in love. The Father gives all things to the Son. The Son does only what he sees the Father doing; Jesus prayed "Not my will but thine". The Spirit glorifies the Father and the Son. This is a culture of true friendship, of giving up self for others. The Son doesn’t have to earn His Father’s love. The Father gives it freely to Him. The Father doesn’t have to ask for glory from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit naturally honours and glorifies the Spirit. The three persons constantly communicate and bless each other, for this is their nature. This is their love. God is love.

And so how is it different for us trinitarian christians, having three persons like this as our creator, rather than a single, unitarian God like the Moslems, among others, imagine? The unitarian imagines a single God who has lived alone from all eternity, and who has now, contrary to his nature, for reasons unknown, created the world. The world is something alien to this sort of a god. The unitarian god has no eternal culture of communication, communion, love and mutual glorification. The unitarian god exists perfectly for and unto himself. He does not love--unless you equate self-love with the real thing--for why should he love anything less than his own perfection? He does not communicate--except perhaps as a dictator commands his slaves--for why should he waste his breath on puny creatures who are infinitely beneath him? It is beneath him to bother with mere mortals, for he alone is the unitarian god. He is alone, the unitarian god. What he has created can’t benefit him, for he is already eternal and perfect. What he has created doesn’t merit his favour, for how can what is less that perfect deserve anything from he who is perfect? The unitarian god will not give up his perfection to help his creation. Why should he? To give would be contrary to his perfect and eternal solitary nature. It is the Trinitarian God of christianity, the God of love, the God who is not silent, who both speaks and hears, who can lift up and glorify the other, who can give himself to another unselfishly.

This Trinity is the God who breathed his own breath into Adam. This Trinity is the God who walked and talked with Adam in the garden. This Trinity is the God who gave Adam and Eve animal skins to cover their nakedness, and promised a seed who would crush the serpent’s head. This Trinity is the God who promised that His Spirit would not strive with sinful men’s flesh forever. This Trinity is the God who sent the only son, to put on earthly flesh, in order to be the firstborn from the dead, to bring many sons into glory. This Trinity is the God who gives his Spirit, to lead us into all righteousness. His Holy Spirit no longer strives with sinful children of Adam (Gen 6), for the Son, Jesus Christ, the second Adam, has begun a new race of mankind. We join this new race of men when we are born again. We become members of this new race when we are joined with Jesus in baptism, putting off sinful flesh and rising again to life in Christ. And we continue day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, as members of this new human race, children of Jesus Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, in good standing before God the Father. We continue as members of this new human race as we participate in the life of Christ. And how do we participate in Jesus’ life?

He gives us bread and wine, a meal of fellowship with our Lord, to show us how He gave us His own flesh and blood, how he gives us Himself. 1 Cor. 11:24-26:

Come to this table and seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Come to this table, eat and drink the body and blood of your Saviour, setting your minds on the things that are above, and not on the things that are on earth. Come to this table in faith, and Jesus will give you himself that you might have all things necessary for life and godliness.

Currently Listening Big Swing Face By Buddy Rich Standing Up in a Hammock see related

Romans 1:2

Romans 1:2

In the last century, many authors published new stories, not in book form, but by instalments in periodical magazines. Readers would get one chapter in each magazine, anxiously awaiting each new issue as they enjoyed the story and looked forward to the end. Imagine a story like that, where throughout the story, the author made promises about how the story would end. On every page, the author would say something like "although things look bleak at present, our characters can trust my promise that I will make all things right and give them all they hope for". People reading a story like this would have confidence that a happy ending was in store, so long as the author was not a fool, determined to ruin his own story. Even in chapters with horrible or terrifying turns of events, the reader could remain confident in the ultimate conclusion, even when he didn’t know how things would get from here to there.

Our Triune God is the author and creator of all things, and all time. The universe, time and all of history are His work, and he unfolds His story moment by moment, as time moves on inexorably. And like an author who promises a happy ending throughout his story, our Omnipotent God promised time and again, throughout his scriptures, that all things would be made right, that He would redeem and bless His own people.

Paul writes of the gospel of God, not as a new thing, but as a newly-fulfilled promise. A promise which had been made by the prophets, written in the scriptures over and over, throughout the whole of the scriptures. A promise which is made over and over by a reliable person is a sure bet. How much more a promise made by the omnipotent creator of all things? But the promise is not the fulfilment. The fulfilment is the gospel. And the gospel is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek". Salvation means much more than angel wings and a harp. Salvation means life, health, and blessing from the Lord.

This gospel, this salvation, is the same blessing Abraham anticipated in faith. The Seed of Abraham, Jesus, gives salvation, life and blessing to all the nations of the world. In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed; He is true to His promise. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; out from the faith of Abraham into the faith of the Church.

This gospel, this salvation, is the same blessing Adam looked forward to in faith. Adam died in his sin, but God promised that Eve’s Seed would crush the head of the serpent. God promised a way out from the death of Adam’s sin into the new life we the church have in Christ, the seed of Abraham, the head of the church, the new Adam. Out from the Jewish nation into the whole world. The righteousness of God is revealed in the person of Jesus.

In Luke 24:13-43 are two stories of the disciples’ encounters with the resurrected Jesus:

In both of these encounters, Jesus expounds the Old Testament scriptures, showing how the whole Old Testament, from Moses through the prophets, kept on promising this gospel, this good news, concerning Jesus Christ. The good news is that all the promises to the Old Testament patriarchs--Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, David--are fulfilled in Jesus. The good news is that right-standing with God, lost by Adam, has been recovered as God has come to us.

When you are in the middle of the story, in the middle of a predicament, it’s difficult to remember that the author has promised a rosy ending. The immediate crisis looms large, and it seems there is no possible escape; no way to get from here, the current distress, to there, the promised happy conclusion. That is why God graciously gives us things we can touch, and see to help us remember, to prove that His promise is there for us. He gave Adam and Eve fur coats which showed that other life would be sacrificed for theirs. He gave Noah the rainbow, to show that He would be faithful to remember. He gave Abraham a child in his old age, to show that a seed would be born. He gave Moses laws written on stone tablets, to show his enduring truth.

He gives us bread and wine, a meal of fellowship with our Lord, to show us how He gave us His own flesh and blood, how he gives us Himself. 1 Cor. 11:24-26:

Currently Listening Fragile By Yes "South Side of the Sky" see related

Friends from Oz

Tuesday night, I visited with old friends.  The last time I'd seen Bill, Vivienne or their daughter Emma was about 13 years ago; they've lived in Perth Australia for most of the years since then. 

The group, of about a dozen people, consisted of people from my "olden days", when I attended a local "charismatic" church.  Some of the group have taken the same "becoming reformed" path as me.  Others have moved to a more "mainline evangelical" church.  A few have remained dyed-in-the-wool charismaniacs.

At one point in the conversation, we were remembering instances when, in the charismatic context, someone had been prayed for and miraculously healed, or in other instances, prayed for and not healed.

While I have no problem with miracles, and would love to see one, it seems to me that a fascination with the extraordinary leads to boredom with the ordinary.  I pointed out to the group my recently-skinned knuckles, indicating that they were healing quite nicely, and giving God all the glory for that healing.  There were a few polite laughs, perhaps some rolled eyes.  I'm not sure if many (or any) understood my point:  THE ORDINARY IS MIRACULOUS TOO!  Miraculous in the sense that it is God's grace that gives me each breath, allows my heart to beat, and heals my knuckles.

The idea that breathing and beating and knuckle-healing are not by God's grace is implicit deism, the religion that supposes God set the cosmic ball a-rolling with all the natural laws etc., but has nothing to do with the ordinary day-to-day working of his created machine, the universe.  To me it is much more marvelous that God upholds creation by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3) than that He might do the occasional miracle.

It seems to me that the deists, modernists and post-modernists, are so concerned with the extraordinary, they've lost sight of the ordinary.  They can't see the forest for the trees.

Currently Listening Achtung Baby By U2 One see related

Romans 1:1

Every 8 weeks or so, on Sunday morning, Claire  (who is 17 today!) and I lead a little service at a local retirement home.  So here's what they get this Sunday...

Romans 1: 1

When we think about the Apostle Paul, we tend to think of him as a great church leader, the author of several books in the New Testament, a great intellectual, a great organizer and founder of the early church. But Paul speaks of himself, not in such grand terms, but rather as a slave. Paul begins his letter to the Roman church by referring to himself as a slave of Christ Jesus.

Paul began his career as a slave of Jesus somewhat late in his life. He had begun his life with the name Saul; he was named after the great king Saul, the first king of Israel. Like King Saul, the apostle Paul was from the tribe of Benjamin. Also like King Saul, the apostle Paul began his life as a most promising candidate for a prestigious career as a leader in the Jewish nation. Born to a good family, educated by the best teachers, Paul was "extracted" from his Jewish career by the Lord Jesus Christ himself when that bright light blinded him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). Pulled out of his life, his career, his religion, his family; Saul became Paul. Where King Saul would not submit to God’s judgment on his sin, this Saul did repent, giving up his life work for the Son of David. Where King Saul would not give up his kingdom for God’s anointed David, this Saul did give up his career hopes in Judaism for the sake of God’s anointed Messiah, the Son of David. The promising young Jewish leader died to his old life and was born again. Beginning with his new name, Paul had to start again with a new perspective on not only his life; he began again with a new perspective on his whole world.

Paul, who began as Saul the Pharisee, is representative of the nation of Israel both in his early life and also in his re-birth as Paul the Apostle. How is Paul representative of Israel? The Jewish nation began when God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham was the first father of Israel. Like Paul, Abraham was given a new name (no longer Abram) and a new perspective, a new mission. He wasn’t merely to herd sheep and dig wells and be a father to his children; God gave Abraham a long-term perspective, outside of himself, that he would be father of a multitude; that through his Seed all the nations of the world would be blessed. Abraham was "extracted" from his Mesopotamian life to start over with a new nation. Israel was founded by God with a purpose; to bless all the nations through the promised Seed. Likewise, Paul was "extracted" from the ingrown nation of Israel near the beginning of the new nation which is the church, the new Israel.

We now know that the promised Seed of Abraham was Jesus--the Jews 2,000 years ago only knew that they were waiting for the Messiah. But it seems as if they had lost sight of their God-given purpose; forgotten what the Messiah was supposed to do, to bless all the nations of the world, not only Israel. In fact, when Jesus, the promised Seed, the Messiah, came to them, the Jews didn’t recognize him. And the thought of blessing all the nations of the world would have seemed very foreign to those Jews; they thought of the Gentiles as inferior races, like human cattle. This is what Saul the Pharisee was like, I think. He was a leader of the Jews, but he was leading them into themselves, not out into the world. God had called the nation of Israel into being with an outward-directed calling, but they had become inwardly-directed. The Jews were more concerned with their culture, their land, their customs than with blessing the nations of the world. The Jews couldn’t see that Jesus was calling them to participate in the church, as the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, to bless the nations. In fact, they saw the nascent chuch as a threat to their nation, a heresy to their religion.

In a way, the early church truly was a threat to Israel; it was in fact a new Israel, being pulled out of the old Israel. Just as Paul and Abraham were pulled from their families and careers to a higher calling, and Israel the nation was pulled out of the older Chaldean nation, the early church, the new Israel, was being pulled out of the old Israel to a higher calling. This higher calling was the original purpose of God’s promise to Abraham; to bless all the nations of the world. The gospel was not only for Jews; it was for all the peoples of the world.

And so, on the road to Damascus, when Jesus called him, Paul had to turn away from his old career, from the strong tradition of Israel-ism, to begin again as a slave of the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ. Paul had to admit that he had been going in the wrong direction, he had to let go of all that he thought he had accomplished. As a slave of Christ Jesus, he was given a new job; he was sent outward, to the Gentiles rather than inward, to the Jews. The gospel was sent first to the Jews, by the ministries of Jesus, Peter and James. With Paul began the fulfilment of the ancient promise to Abraham, the blessing of all the nations of the world.

And so in the first line of the letter to the Romans, Paul makes it clear that: First, he has given up his old name, calling and career. Second, he has started at the bottom in his new career, as a slave of Jesus. Third, that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed, the Messiah, the hope of Israel. Fourth, that as an apostle, Paul is sent forth by Jesus. Sent to do the work to which Abraham looked forward in faith, which King Saul and the nation of Israel had forgotten about, which Jesus died to bring to birth, the work of the church, declaring the good news, the gospel of God.

And what is this gospel, this good news? Verse 16 tells us the gospel is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek". Salvation means much more than angel wings and a harp. Salvation means life, health, and blessing from the Lord. This gospel, this salvation, is the same blessing Abraham looked forward to in faith. The Seed of Abraham, Jesus, gives salvation, life and blessing to all the nations of the world. In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed; He is true to His promise. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; out from the faith of Abraham into the faith of the Church. Out from the death of Adam’s sin into the new life we the church have in Christ, the new Adam. Out from the Jewish nation into the whole world. The righteousness of God is revealed in the person of Jesus. And we partake of Jesus’ righteousness by faith: "The righteous shall live by faith", or as a footnote reads, "The one who by faith is righteous shall live." Our salvation is in Jesus; we need Jesus to extract us from our old life, just like He extracted Paul on the Damascus road. We come to Christ as his slaves, like little children, with empty hands. Our salvation is by faith. Our faith is the gift of God to us, not our gift to Him (Ephesians 2:8). Our faith results in righteousness. Our righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, again, a gift of God to us, not our gift to God. This saving Christ-righteousness is the plant that grows up from the seed of faith which is planted in us by God.

As Paul wrote in another letter, "Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!" (2 Cor. 9:15).

Currently Listening Reed My Lips By Tom Scott Walk a Mile see related

rats

Maybe I'm crazy.  I seem to have covenant-on-the-brain.  When Kayleen and I went to the movie Ratatouille on Saturday, it seemed to me the movie was a parable of the new covenant.  Kayleen thinks I'm crazy.  Maybe I am.  Heh heh heh.

The plot in brief:  A gourmet rat named Remy loves to watch a chef, Gusteau, on television, and to read Gusteau's cookbook.  Gusteau's theme is "Anyone can cook!"   Gusteau has died, leaving his restaurant in the control of his sous-chef, Skinner (refer to psychologist B.F. Skinner, who believed man is an only an animal like a rat, whose actions can be controlled by environment).  The restaurant has been losing ratings, and Skinner is trying to diversify by creating a line of frozen microwaveable food.  The restaurant's new garbage boy, Linguini, accidentally ruins some soup, which is saved by Remy the rat's quick action.  Remy and Linguini team up to save the restaurant with Remy's cooking skills and Linguini's human body.  A restaurant critic, Anton Ego, expects to close down the restaurant because of its insipid food, as does the health inspector, who sees Remy and his rat family in the kitchen.  But the health inspector is tied up.  And Ego the critic loves Remy's ratatouille.  Although their restaurant is in fact soon shut down by the health inspector, Ego invests in a new restaurant.  Remy the rat chef and Linguini the rightful heir of Gusteau live happily ever after in their new restaurant, The Rataouille.

The movie has a gospel: "Anyone can cook", which assumes that men are made in the image of God, and are not just animals.  And there is a false, or anti-gospel: "Food is just fuel", which assumes that men are just animals.  The false gospel's result: microwaveable frozen food.

The restaurant is the covenant, which was created by Gusteau (God the Father).  The employees of the restaurant (the Jewish priesthood, or any other christian bureaucracy) follow Gusteau's recipes, but have lost his spirit, and have begun preaching a false gospel (frozen microwaveable food).  They are unable to create new recipes, and so can not fulfill the high calling of the restaurant.

Gusteau sends his spirit (Remy: rhema, the word) and his son (Linguini: lineage) to bring new life.  They save some poisoned soup (remember Elisha and the deadly gourd stew, or Moses and the waters of Marah; both types of Christ).  Skinner (christian bureaucracy/the old covenant) wants to reject this salvation both because it breaks the rules (rats are unclean) but more because he loves his false gospel more than the spirit or the gospel of Gusteau.

Anton Ego (representing mankind, who must accept or reject the gospel) is restored to life when he eats the heavenly spiritual food (the ratatouille).  The law / satan the accuser / the health inspector is bound and thrown into darkness (the cooler) for a time, while all things are made new.  Most of the employees leave the restaurant, leaving no one to cook.  But Remy's family of rats (unclean Gentiles) are baptized (in the dishwasher) into the covenant, and take over the restaurant.   The restaurant can't continue as it was, but is transformed into a new and better, millenial paradise.  The false gospel, of frozen fast food, is discarded.  The new restaurant feeds the people of Paris (the world) as well as the family of rats, who live in the ceiling above.  Linguini, the son, and his bride chef Colette, team up with Remy to see that the heavenly food (ratatouille) is dispersed to the world. 

Or maybe it's just a movie about a rat.