Years ago when I was first starting out in the ministry in the late 50’s I was pastoring a Community Church in Santee, California. This was long before I had come to the Biblical Faith as given to us in the creeds of the Reformation. I remember I had on my letterhead, “No Creed but Christ” and “No Law but Love”. Little did I realize as Michael Horton of the Whitehorse Inn pointed out in a recent article where he wrote that, “All we need is love” and “All we need is law” make exactly the same point.
In Matthew 22, when Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 little did I think about the fact that loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves is indeed the requirement of the law of God. But I considered it so lightly that I must not have given thought to the fact that I failed in doing this as all men fail. My glib statement “no law but love” showed my ignorance but this was the teaching with which I had grown up. And then the statement “No creed but Christ” was every bit as foolish for in all reality without the doctrine of Christ, (Christology) I had no means of loving God and my neighbor perfectly for unless the perfect obedience of Christ is imputed to me, I had no hope of heaven for I could not and indeed did not keep that law of love for it is a requirement of our entrance into heaven. “Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect” Matt 5:48
How thankful I am that God has enlarged my understanding and now I rejoice in the teaching of God’s word that does not remove the responsibility of love, but has made a way of escape for since the law of love demands perfect obedience and I can only claim such obedience only in the imputed righteousness of Christ. Now I rejoice for the law has been fulfilled in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In a book by Stephen J Nichhols, Jesus made in America he wrote;
Finally, American evangelicals are strongly influenced by pietism, which emphasizes personal religious experience, and values devotion and practice over doctrine. For example, pietism leads us to say that imitating Christ is far better than having a right set of beliefs about who Christ is. Pietism leads to viewing Christ primarily from the lens of personal experience rather than the lenses of the Gospel pericopes or of theological formulations. David Wells offers a fascinating example of this in his No Place for Truth. He contrasts two sets of articles in Christianity Today that appeared thirty years apart. The first, from 1959, dealt with Easter by lining up articles on the historicity of the event, apologetic discussions of the resurrection and theological reflections. The next set of articles appeared in 1989. This time prominent popular authors such as Walter Wangerin and Philip Yancey approached the event of the resurrection from the perspective of “What does the resurrection mean to me?“
Here are some questions for discussion:
Do you see a trend in the Evangelical church that emphasizes “religious experience, values devotion and practice over doctrine”?
What is the difference between an “apologetic discussion of the resurrection” versus the even approached from the perspective of “What does the resurrection mean to me?”
Do you see that as something to be concerned about and why?
Let me know your thoughts.
Pastor Brice
How Great is Our God?
Recently I read an article from the science magazine, ‘Answers in Genesis’, where they pointed out that as of 2010, astronomers hope to complete a multi-million-dollar project called the “Sloan Digital Sky Survey”. It will be quite an accomplishment when you realize that they will be cataloging over one million galaxies! The survey will include over 100 million stars and other objects. Answers in Genesis being a scientific magazine from a Christian perspective pointed out that yes, it is quite an accomplishment but they went on to say, “imagine what’s left.”
You see, the universe is believed to contain over 100 billion galaxies, and within each galaxy may be an average of 100 billion stars! That’s 10 thousand billion billion stars that are yet to be identified. Therefore all that has been accomplished by man will be a list of perhaps only one one-millioneth of the universe. Whereas our Lord tells us in Psalm 147 verse 4, “He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.” Therefore we can rightly conclude then that the scientific understanding of man is but a minute speck of knowledge compared to the infinite knowledge and wisdom of our God. I find it amazing then that mankind actually thinks they can correct God’s revelation as to how He spoke the whole of creation into existence.
Man foolishly questions the ability of God to create all things in the space of six days with an amazing appearance of age, yet this same God can tell us the exact number of stars in the billions of galaxies with billions of stars in each galaxy. Little wonder God refers to the wisdom of man as nothing but foolishness. As the Apostle Paul points out, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” 1 Cor 3:19-20
I tremble for those who think they know so much more than God and think they can question His revelation of who He is and what he has done. I tremble for them because one day they will stand before this eternal all-powerful God of creation as their judge.
Let us then as God people continue to proclaim the greatness of our God and Redeemer Jesus Christ and ever be mindful, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isa 55:9”
Pastor Brice