Walk as pilgrims in this world: in sobriety, righteousness & godliness

In a culture where it is considered freeing and mature to be free of all more shackles, here are words of permanence deserving our attention:

“Elsewhere in Scripture Paul describes more clearly, if briefly, the elements which make up a well-ordered life. ‘The grace of God,’ he writes,

has appeared for the salvation of all men, teaching us to cast away all ungodliness and worldly desires, and thus to live sober, righteous and holy lives in this world, as we await the blessed hope and revelation of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself to redeem us from all iniquity and to make us his hereditary people, purified for him and devoted to good works (Titus 2:11-14).

Having thus encouraged us by recalling us to God’s grace, and wishing to open for us the path which leads to God’s service, the apostle removes two obstacles which could greatly hinder us.

The first obstacle is ungodliness, to which we are all too prone by nature; the second is worldly appetites which extend even more widely. The term ‘ungodliness’ signifies not just superstition; it also includes whatever is opposed to the true fear of God. Worldly appetites are equivalent to the desires of the flesh. That is why Paul bids us give up our natural reluctance to observe the two tables of the law, and to have done with all that our reasons and will suggest to us.

For the rest, Paul reduces all our actions to three elements or categories: sobriety, righteousness and godliness. Sobriety doubtless designates chastity and moderation, and a pure and disciplined use of God’s gifts, together with patience in time of poverty. Righteousness includes the idea of equity, which determines how we live alongside our neighbours, so that we render to all what is rightly theirs. Godliness, which the apostle places third, cleanses us from the world’s defilement, and unites us to God in holiness. When all three virtues are inseparably joined together, they constitute complete perfection.

Nothing, however, is harder for us than to abandon reason, master our appetites and indeed totally renounce them, in order to devote ourselves to God and our brethren, and to contemplate, while mired in earth’s slime, the life of the angels. Paul therefore seeks to free our souls from all their bonds by reminding us of the hope of blessed immortality. He declares that we do not fight in vain, because Jesus Christ, having appeared as our Redeemer once and for all, will an his final coming display the fruit of the salvation he has won for us. In this way the apostle weans us from all the seductions which habitually dazzle us, and which prevent us longing as we should for the glory of heaven. In the meantime, he urges us to walk as pilgrims in this world, so that the inheritance above is not lost to us.”

—Johannes Calvinus (aka John Calvin), translated by Robert White from book 3 of the 1560 French edition of Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 3, Avoiding Ungodliness and Worldly Desires, under “Denying Self: The Key to Christian Living,” in A Guide to Christian Living (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2009), 24-28. This exposition of Titus 2:11-14 appeared for the first time in the 1559 Institutes. It is the most substantial addition made by Calvin to his 1539/1541 text, ‘On the Christian Life.’

CrossTalk: inform & transform

God’s Word is meant to inform and transform God’s people.

Michael Emlet’s book CrossTalk: Where Life & Scripture Meet is a great read [more from the publisher].

The author’s purpose is to aid the reader of Scripture to grasp God’s words, so he or she can adequately counsel others. It is certainly not a selfish premise, and connecting our broken stories to the whole Story is key for any lasting transformation to take root. Here’s a helpful section early in the book:

“The Bible proclaims one comprehensive true story of God’s relationship with people. It moves form Creation to the Fall of humanity into sin, suffering, and death, to Redemption — ultimately accomplished through Jesus — and finally, to a vision of God’s Kingdom, complete at Jesus’ second coming.

It is the story of God creating a people to rule the world on His behalf, for their good and His glory. It is a story of their rebellion against God’s wise design. But it is also a tale of God rescuing His people from their sin and misery, and the climax of that narrative comes in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.

Everything in the Old Testament looks forward to this climax and everything in the New Testament looks back to it and/or works out its implications for the lives of God’s people. Of course, the New Testament also looks forward to Jesus’ second coming. This is what the gospel is all about: the good news that God entered history as the Man Jesus to bring about the redemption of a people and a world bound in sin and suffering.” (pp. 6-7)

[See a related post, "A Visual Primer on the Story of God."]

The author summarizes why this matters for real-life application:

“Understanding both the Story of God and the stories of the people we serve is necessary to help others embrace the transformation the Bible envisions for God’s people.”

Emlet then invests the rest of the book to aid the curious and devoted reading of Scripture to bring God’s text to bear on human problems. Along the way he helps us see our various identities, as:

• saints
• sufferers
• sinners

Perhaps I can give a quick, albeit incomplete, summary of how these fit together: We have all rebelled against God (preferring to find our satisfaction, worth and significance apart from our good Father — as sinners), live as fellow sufferers of the human condition in a fallen creation (this is not how it was meant to be), and “in Christ” — and in Him alone — can we be rightly called saints. That is, our position before and relationship with God is as chosen people, declared by God our Father as righteous and holy (synonymous with ‘saint,’ Greek hagios).

In Jesus a reconciliation takes place that can happen no other way: we are made right with God, have opportunity to be reconciled with others, the creation, and ourselves. (Fourfold: God, others, creation, self.)

That’s why people’s stories matter. Their dirt, denial, fears, hopes, failures and successes. Mine too. We’re in this together.

What is Worship … & the biggest sin in the world…

Well said…

That is a timeless answer by Luke Hendrix. Part of it:

“Worship is a fully-integrated life … that [we] would recognize God in all things.”

The biggest sin in the world is self-love.

—
[HT: Ken Wytsma & Antioch Church Redux]

Visual primer on The Story of God

We’ve begun studying (and enjoying!) The Story of God among our high school students. God’s Word (the Bible) and God’s world follow the same storyline: Creation, Fall & Rebellion, Redemption & Restoration (Glory).

I sure wish I could have been there last night as one of our leaders, Aaron enjoyed preaching on Creation. We were created by God (in the triune God’s image), and for God (for His glory, to worship Him at all times, in everything). We looked at Genesis 1-2, in this first ‘chapter’ of the Big Story. Here’s a little summary of what we put on a bookmark for the students:

CREATION | The story does not begin with a God in hiding. God initiates the story by creating all that exists, including His prized creation – human beings – whom He pursued in relationship. What God created in the beginning was not just good, but perfect, whole, complete, lacking in nothing. He designed the Earth as an ideal environment for His creation to flourish.

We use these summaries on a site for students (and others) devoted to engaging with God daily through reading the Bible. We call it The ROAD.

The Story of God: Creation, Fall, Rebellion, Redemption, Glory

(The idea for the website was inspired by and adapted from a venture by The Journey Church.)

Good theology from a 3-yr old

Today our son climbed up a step-ladder, turned, and said solemnly:

“Faith and hope and love
and and love comes over the clouds
and over your heart
and the nails hold Jesus to the cross.
And Jesus is the Lord.
And God protects.
And lazy hands make a man poor.”

Pretty good theology!

(This proves he is listening, and he talks about what we talk about in our home.)

Bread

Here’s more than you ever wanted to know about ‘bread’ in the OT; some background for this weekend’s message by a visiting pastor in our area. Source: Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (thanks Logos):

לֶחֶם (leḥem) food, bread, grain.

(Strong’s Hebrew #3899)

This noun occurs 296 times in the OT. But “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the lord” (Deut 8:3). Man is not what he eats!

Yet all food is the gift of God. He planted the garden of Eden and caused all the trees to grow which were good for food (maʾăkāl, Gen 2:9). Likewise the Psalmist asserts that God “caused the grass to grow for the cattle and vegetables for the service of man: that he may bring food from the ground … and bread which strengthens man’s heart” (Ps 104:14–15). Yes, he “gives food to all flesh” (Ps 136:25); to the hungry (Ps 146:7) and to the beasts and young ravens (Ps 147:9). God himself even instructs man the artand principles of agriculture: how to prepare the ground, how to sow the seed in rows or to broadcast others, and how to harvest each after patiently waiting the appointed number of days (Isa 28:24–29, note grain in v. 28).

Man must never presume that this “staff” on which he leans will always be available, regardless of how he acts. God can and did “break the whole staff of bread” (Ps 105:16; Isa 3:1; Ezk 4:16; 5:16; 14:13; Amos 4:6). This was the principle announced by Moses in Lev 26:26: God would send increasingly severe judgments on any nation that refused to walk in righteousness before he brought the ultimate calamity. Even worse than a famine of bread was famine of the Word of God (Amos 8:11) both of which resulted from the same cause: compounded sin.

Sadly enough, even though God was richly supplying Israel with her grain, fine flour, oil, and honey (Ezk 16:19), she, like the adulterous Gomer, insisted on running after her lovers, not realizing that God had been the source of those gifts (Hos 2:5, 7–8 [H 7, 9–10]).
What could the few righteous like Habakkuk do when they saw their nation headed for such disaster as a result of hardened and entrenched sinfulness? He would “rejoice in the Lord” and “joy in the God of [his] salvation” even though outwardly he was shaking with fear and the fields yielded no food (ʾōkel), (Hab 3:17–18).

There is another kind of bread, wine. and milk that can be bought without money or labor. Men may have it if they repent and seek the Lord (Isa 55:1–7). Jesus later calls himself the true bread from heaven just as the manna in the wilderness was “bread from heaven” (Ex 16:4ff.). Even Elijah was fed food by God’s ravens when there was none to be had (I Kgs 17:6). At other times, God provided grain by sending visions and leadership in Joseph (Gen 41:54, 55; 43:25, 31, 32; 45:23; 47:12, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20). Both spiritual and physical bread come from the Father of all good gifts.

The dough which the Israelites took with them from Egypt was unleavened, because they had to leave in haste (Ex 12:34, 39). Note, however, Lev 23:17. The Pentecost wave loaves were to be baked with leaven! So leaven cannot always be a principle of evil. The “bread of wickedness” (Prov 4:17) or the “bread of deceit” (Prov 20:17) is always obtained by wrong and results in bitterness of life. No better is the “bread of adversity” (Isa 30:20), which spells times of persecution, or the “bread eaten in secret” (Prov 9:17) with the seductress, for the act of adultery will poison a man’s whole life.