Dallas Willard writes in ‘The Divine Conspiracy’, “There is now not a single moral conclusion about behavior or character traits that a teacher could base a student’s grade upon.” (p.3) Willard is making the case that moral knowledge has disappeared from the educational system. Is he right? Can we not teach our children that hatred is morally wrong? What about discrimination? If a student in answering an essay said that discrimination against others on the basis of their nationality was acceptable, would a teacher be able to mark that comment as wrong? Surely math, science and for the most part history have facts that are acceptable. Is that not the case for moral knowledge? Could a teacher ask the question , ‘Is racism wrong?’ and have a student answer, ‘No.’ And would that have to be an acceptable answer in the education of our children. I’m not sure. Maybe there are those of you out there who could answer that for me with some evidences.
I am suspecting that without God and a moral universe we ‘organisms’ are at a loss in regard to moral knowledge and virtue. I know Congress makes laws, states make laws but where are the citizens getting their information for some moral foundation upon which to make those laws?
Can students today learn the meaning of love, respect for life, forgiveness? How about reconciliation? There’s one that the politicians sure could use. Is setting a cat on fire ‘morally wrong’?
Can we not tell our students that killing someone is wrong? Sure maybe we would have to address the issues of abortion, war, capital punishment and euthanasia and somewhere along there we need a master teacher to point the way. Otherwise we just all do what we feel like doing and vote the same way.
Let’s put it this way, fact: 2+2= 4. But are there ‘moral facts’?
Well, there you have it. For the moment. I look forward to your thinking on these matters.
Bite Your Tongue
Self Control
In Galatians 5:23 the Apostle Paul writes that part of the fruit (result) of the spirit of God working in us is ‘self-control’. That word in the original language means ‘self- government’ a fitting description of watching carefully over ourselves.
Here’s the thing. This self control which is necessary in all of life as a certain kind of temperance, moderation if you will, means that you and I literally can control our own self’s desires and actions toward a desirable end.
But it does not happen automatically when we decide to follow Jesus. It is a skill developed in us by the grace of God. It comes through disciplines, self disciplines if you like.
Philosopher and author Dallas Willard was fond of saying that we do the things we can do in order to do the things we cannot do. That means for example if you want to be a guitar virtuoso you would start out by learning the scale perhaps or how to strum the strings and then build up towards being proficient at the instrument. The fact that you have a brain and natural abilities will assist you to become skilled.
Well, in somewhat the same manner God places his life within us and then instructs us to access that life through disciplines such as prayer, learning scripture, doing particular actions until we begin to experience, in this case self-control. By the grace of God it becomes second nature.
Self-control is wonderful for the tongue, the temper, or any addictive behavior. Maybe at first we will have to ‘bite our tongues’ in conversations. Maybe if we are married and we are too attracted to a member of the opposite sex as in lusting, we will look elsewhere or be mindful of that wonderful Bible verse ‘I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully’ (Job 31). Maybe the way we begin to govern ourselves is to govern our time with God and with others. We could bring to our remembrance Jesus words, ‘do not judge’ as a way towards self-governance. All of this we do not with the intention to be more righteous but to develop a heart that is more given to the life that Jesus would have for us, a heart and thus a life that is helpful for citizens of the Kingdom. Such citizens are more joyful, peaceful, loving and aware of God’s life in them.
Self-control is a virtue of the character of one who is learning Jesus.
Virtue, virtuous, virtuoso. Voila.
New Book Recommendation
I want to recommend a book by N.T. Wright, New Testament Professor at St. Andrews in Scotland. The book title is ‘Simply Jesus.’
I have just finished it and found myself absorbed in a book that puts the life of Jesus right in front of us. Jesus is in the context of his world and using a wonderful analogy of the event that took place in the Northeast in 1991, The Perfect Storm, Wright helps us to understand the events then and now that have confused our understanding of Jesus.
The author writes about the three storms that converged in the Middle East at the time of Jesus and how Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of God. This book is a wonderful way to step away from our various denominations and discover perhaps for the first time Jesus and God’s purpose for his Son and for us. Reading this book makes me really believe that we live right now in the Kingdom of God. Jesus established it at his entrance into the world and particularly as he entered Jerusalem.
Next I am going to read Wright’s newest book called How God Became King.
Why Did Jesus Die?
What does the death of Christ actually accomplish?
How is it that Jesus the Lamb of God really does take away the sin of the world? Jesus as the Passover lamb creates for humanity a new Exodus. The Pharaoh of death and evil has been destroyed. Satan in all his attempts to chain humanity and separate us from God has been destroyed. Paul writes in Colossians 2:15: “He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.”(Message)
I dare say that all humanity has crossed over into new life. I suspect that like the Israelites some will stay disobedient to Christ and even deny him. But Jesus has by his death removed any enmity with God. The wall of separation has been taken down so that now we can enjoy intimate friendship with our God.
See, when you forgive someone a part of you has to die and so Christ’ in forgiving the sins of the world has died fully for all of us in order as Paul writes in 2Cor. 5:19 “ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them”. Jesus through his final encounter with death exhausts the power of evil from stopping the movement of the Kingdom of God. Not even the gates of hell can prevent its progress. That’s Good News.
We Are Winning
Paul writes in Romans 8:37 that in the midst of the greatest trials, afflictions and even death we are more than conquerors, we have the victory through Christ who loves us. Let’s take a look at that thought for a moment for it has much to do with our lives in God’s Kingdom in the here and now. This thought goes along with the words of Jesus in John 16:33 that in the world we are going to have tribulation but we don’t have to be afraid because Jesus has overcome the world.
For the early Christian community words like conqueror or victory belonged in the sphere of Roman occupation that oppressed the early Christian community sorely. So how were the new christians to become victorious?
When Jesus came into humanity he established the beachhead as it were for the Kingdom of God. He was by his person the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven to use the other Biblical expression founds mostly in the Gospel of Matthew. Those who followed him were privileged to enter this Kingdom. Early christians knew something of the meaning of a kingdom. Kingdoms came and went in those days.
The Kingdom of God thought by some to reside in the heavens had come to earth in Jesus. He invited people to place their confidence in him and believe that God was with them, that God was initiating what would be the eventual renewal of the face of the earth. God was having the victory against all attempts of evil to thwart his love and plan for humanity. Paul put it in words like this, God was working everything towards a glorious purpose for those who had the eyes to see and will to trust.
And so no matter what is in store for us on this planet, the Kingdom of God supersedes it all. Our relationship with God through Jesus Christ brings within this kingdom and within our selves a sense and satisfaction of ‘winning’ even when it looks like we are losing. The weak are actually strong in the Kingdom and the poor rich and the dead are alive. This was established at the coming of Christ, throughout his life and finalized by his death on the cross which looked like defeat but proved the greatest victory through the resurrection.
So if today you are facing enormous obstacles, adversities and even death, say with the Apostle,
‘We are more than conquerors through him who loves us.’
God with and in us.
I would like to expound somewhat on some of my earlier comments regarding intimacy with God. I had written that belief is not enough, that in fact we need a personal encounter with God. Well, not that we ‘need’ but the grace of God includes a personal encounter with the Trinity.
Paul writes that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Romans 8. I take that love as a real and personal as well as powerful entity living and breathing life in us. Jesus said on one occasion that he would along with the Father would come and make his home IN us. John 14. He said that concerning followers who were in love with him then and now. In Ephesians 3 Paul writes these words
“16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
I take this to mean that there is a real presence of God in us assisting us to know his love. It is by God’s grace that such a presence, a power, a love can reside in us though our own personal disciplines of such things as prayer, fasting, reading the scriptures, doing acts of service and meeting as community.
In the twenty third Psalm we read ‘I will fear no evil for thou art with me’ This means that nothing evil can affect those who are in love with God because God is a reality that governs their lives, God is a love that provides for them, God is a person made actual in Jesus Christ to keep us with God, forever.
And finally (for now) when Paul prays that he yearns for Christ to be formed in us, I believe he means the real nature of Christ residing in our lives wherever you are comfortable locating that presence.
I can live in this world solidly for Christ because I know that Christ is living in me. Nothing else can define my life but my relationship with my God, which I understand by his grace to be quite fine.
If we are to live as students of Jesus, followers, disciples who make a difference in this world we are fortunate to have this assurance from God.
Belief is not enough
Belief Is Not Enough
Simply believing in God, call it trust or faith, is not enough for the disciple. God can be too much like a concept, idea or philosophy. No, the disciple wants a living, breathing relationship with God, one that is personal and intimate. We don’t want to follow at a distance but rather walk hand in hand with our Lord.
For myself, I want to cultivate something of a lover’s passion for my God so that I am lonely without him, yearn for his company, daily think his thoughts, run to him for comfort and with him celebrate the joys that I experience in life.
When I approach my home after being away I look forward to being with my wife. I want to experience that same attraction when I go to God’s house, or open his word, or enter into my den of prayer. I desire to have that desire. But even more I long to feel that God is always near, beside and within me through his Spirit.
So I will search and pray for that assurance. I am too easily pleased with things done well and not superbly. I pray for the fervor of knowing my Savior and my God.
So Clear
There was a time when the gospel of Jesus Christ was so clear, so succinct, so pure and unadulterated. When Jesus walked the earth he announced the good news and invited people to turn to him from wherever they were no matter who they were. There were no doctrines, orthodoxy, or rituals. He was straightforward. “Follow me,” he said. And along the way he healed and showed compassion to the outcasts and so-called “sinners”. He said he was the way, the truth and the life and that those who followed him would walk in light. He instructed folks to simply listen to his words and do what he said. He enlisted disciples (students and apprentices) who were interested in sharing his love with the world and even told them that those who love know God. Could it be any simpler?
Yet in the ensuing years we have so complicated his gospel that we hardly can distinguish what he really meant and did. Could it be that through pride we have made his gospel exclusionary? Is it possible that we have decided who can be a disciple when Jesus simply proclaimed that disciples were those who followed him by listening to his words and putting them into practice?
Jesus, the Bible says, came to bring grace and truth. Law, while it is fulfilled by the life and death of Jesus, is not the guiding principle anymore. And yet when you look at the 30,000 plus Christian denominations most of what you see are laws, principles, creeds, and doctrines that divide rather than create a unity among us that Jesus indicated would show the world the true nature of discipleship
So, let’s keep our eyes and ears as well as our hearts centered upon Jesus about. He said that anyone who believes, who places their confidence in him, will live forever … starting right now.
Kingdom Life
There is a fallacy in the Christian life that salvation ends when you have accepted Christ as your Savior and your sins are forgiven. Not so. That’s just the beginning of lifelong discipleship under the tutelage of Christ. We have to keep on. Kingdom life is not just about being forgiven and going to heaven. Kingdom life is about living with Christ in the here and now. Then we won’t have to cram for the finals.
Jesus invites us to follow him, not just believe that what he says is true. At the end of chapter 7 in the Gospel of Matthew he says that whoever hears his words and does them is like the person who builds his house on a solid foundation. Nothing in this world can shake that house.
The book of James says that faith without works is dead. Faith and life go together with Christ. He is not just our Savior. He is our teacher, our boss, our friend; and he calls us to make every day of our life a day that is lived with him, for better or worse. On the good days we celebrate. On the bad days we can still say, “I believe.”
Grace Matters 