Our church's home groups are studying Romans 12-16 this term, and this past week we looked closely at Romans 12:1-2. We spent quite a bit of time discussing the idea that we must be 'transformed by the renewing of your minds', and how we work this transformation out in practice. The group that meets at our home talked about the importance of recognising the role of Scripture in this renewing of our minds. This meant devoting ourselves to sitting under the preaching of the Word, engaging in the study of the Bible in groups and individually, and so on.

Some years ago, I remember reading a portion of Don Carson and Douglas Moo's book, An Introduction to the New Testament, that related to this discussion of the importance of the Word of God in our transformation. In their chapter on the book of Acts, they write this:

An easily overlooked theme in Acts is the power of the word of God. Again and again, Luke attributes the growth and strength of the church to the dynamic activity of God's word. Preaching the world of God is what the apostles do wherever they go. 'Received the word of God' is another way of saying 'became a Christian' (Acts 11:1). Especially striking are those places where Luke, usually in transitional summaries, claims that the word of God 'grew' or 'spread' or 'increased' (Acts 6:7; 12:24; 13:49; 19:20). For Luke the word of God is especially the message about God's gracious redemption through Jesus Christ. For all Luke's emphasis on the importance of apostolic preaching, therefore, he makes clear that it is only as they are faithful witnesses to the Word that spiritual transformation takes place. As C. K. Barrett notes, 'Luke's stress on the proclamation of the Word...shows that the Word itself was the decisive factor,' and that the church is an agency of salvation 'only in so far as it provides the framework within which the preaching of the Word takes place.'

It really testifies to the significance of Scripture in the transformation of people that Luke gave it so much emphasis in Acts. And as we see in Romans 12, Paul felt the same way. If we are to be truly transformed, we must allow the Bible to have a prominent place in our lives. As David simply and honestly writes, 'How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word' (Psalm 119:1).

Don Carson spoke at the annual Yorkshire Evangelical Ministry Assembly back in February, and over the last couple of days I have been listening to the audio recordings of the sessions (which you can find on the Yorkshire Gospel Partnership's website). One thing he touched on I found particularly interesting, given some of the things I have been thinking about lately with regard to celebrity leaders in the church. Speaking on 2 Timothy 3, he first discusses false teachers and says that they are easy to spot and, in a sense, not particularly harmful to the church. But, he goes on,

Far more serious is the kind of person who has been a Christian teacher, a revered Christian teacher, and then who gradually moves away from the center of the gospel. Just a little bit here, and a little bit there, and a little bit somewhere else, until someone begins to raise questions and says, "Uh, is that quite right? Does that actually square with the Bible?" And immediately there will be a lot of voices in unison saying, "Don't be so critical. Judge not lest you be judged! I mean, don't be so critical! He's been a great teacher. He's led many people to Christ, you know!" Then he moves a little farther away, and a little farther away, until he's actually teaching some things that are pretty blatantly untrue. But he's got such a reputation for piety and a heritage for godly teaching that many, many people don't see any danger, and if anybody raises a flag, then immediately they're hushed down because clearly they're being judgmental.

Carson notes two particularly important problems with celebrity culture in the church. The first, implicitly, is that celebrity leaders are not often held as accountable as other leaders (a point I made last time I addressed this issue). The second, related to this, is that when someone does try to hold a leader accountable, they are often attacked by the leader's followers. His remarks on this point are spot on. For the sake of example (and not at all to imply that they are the type of leaders Carson is talking about here), just look at the fallout when someone critiques a leader like John Piper or Mark Driscoll.

What is important to remember is that while it is good to have those we look up to for wisdom and knowledge, we cannot hold them in such high regard that they are beyond critique. Followers of celebrity leaders have a tendency to let discernment fall by the wayside, but it is not right to assume that their prominent position necessarily coincides with an unmatched standard of biblical fidelity. In fact, perhaps they need to be subjected to an even greater degree of accountability, because the demand of their position often exerts undue pressure on them to have opinions and responses about everything in short order, and to come up with a steady stream of profound and original insights.

Leaders need to remain humble and be conscious of how easy it is to stray off the path without proper accountability, and their followers need to be much more willing to listen to critique of their leaders. Without this, the danger posed to the church is all too serious.

Surveying the horizon of the evangelical landscape, you cannot help but notice that there is a disturbing lack of holiness in the Church—or perhaps conversely, that it is marked by a disturbing degree of self-righteousness. There are probably several reasons for this, but some of the most significant are the Church's unfaithfulness to Scripture and the negligent way in which it has allowed itself to succumb to the values and norms of our culture.

Our culture is so antagonistic towards rules and authority that both those raised as Christians and those who become Christians later in life seek out an expression of Christianity that requires very little of them. They don't want a God who, despite freeing them from sin by His infinite mercy, love, and grace, requires that they live to glorify Him in all that they do. They only want a salvation that makes their eternal destiny sure, not one that forces them to look at all of life through the lenses of a new paradigm. They don't want a gospel that transforms everything, but instead one that makes them feel good and loved and can be used whenever is convenient for them. And regrettably, the Church has made this distorted gospel readily available to them.

Missing the Point
What pains me so much about this is that people in the Church, leaders and laymen alike, don't see it and continue to feed the problem. In a post the other day, I quoted D. A. Carson, who said that while the gospel may have peripheral benefits such as improving your marriage or how you handle your finances, that is not the heart of it. Yet that is what has become of it in the Church today. We turn Jesus into a weak, smiling figure who loves us and gives us some good advice on how to make our lives better. I am not a big fan of Brian McLaren, but the title of one of his books is perfectly relevant here—we have embarked on adventures in missing the point.

While that might be a bit humorous, make no mistake about it, there is nothing funny about this. It is terribly serious business. Carson rightly says that at the end of the day the gospel is about ultimates. It is about life and death, sin and grace, death and redemption. It is the root and foundation of all that we are, all that we say, think, and do. The problem is that far too many Christians have it reversed. Instead of making the gospel the starting point, we begin with cultural norms and patterns. We then take the gospel and selectively baptize some of the elements of life in order to make them Christian. The gospel is imposed from above on whatever parts of life we choose. It takes minimal effort, makes us look and feel good, and gives us the freedom to live largely as we please.

The Gospel Transforms Everything
But the fact of the matter is that we don't have a choice. If we believe the gospel, we need to believe in it in such a way that it transforms absolutely everything. Christ, as sovereign King, makes a claim over every part of life. If we do not live as such, we have sinned and have enthroned someone or something else as king. Furthermore, we are not living in the fullness that God intended humanity to live in. That fullness of life is only realized when we live with Christ as our King.

All this does not mean that life will become easier or make us more happy, as we have been taught to believe. Quite the contrary. When you begin to learn just how the gospel transforms all of life, you realize very quickly that it makes life a great deal harder. The narrow road is a difficult road. Yes, there are mountains we will overcome, but there are also some very deep valleys we will go through. If you haven't yet figured that out, you're missing something key. Read Pilgrim's Progress.

This is a hard truth, and I am just as guilty as the next person of making my faith into something I want it to be instead of what it ought to be. But there is no excuse. God has entered into relationship with His people by means of a covenant. His grace is immeasurable in that He demands nothing of us and brings us into that covenant relationship because of His love for us. However, once we are in that relationship, He requires that we worship and serve Him alone. That worship is all-encompassing; it means that the totality of our life is lived in worship to Him. God does not ask that we honor Him now and then, or when it is convenient, or when something good has happened to us. No, He demands our total and complete allegiance. Simply put, if you are not worshiping God, you are worshiping something else.

Neither our culture nor the modern Church like the language of "demands" or "duty" because it is suggestive of legalism. Ironically, they shed the shackles of legalism only to rapaciously embrace the shackles of antinomianism. What appears to be freedom is anything but. True freedom is found always and only in Jesus Christ. When we come to understand and believe that, the things which God requires of us no longer seem like demands. Instead, we joyfully desire to serve Him and strive to do everything to His glory. That is true freedom. Anything less is slavery to ourselves or another.

Regaining our Footing
We have missed the point of the gospel, and have substituted another gospel (Gal. 1:6-10). The implications of this are enormous. Our lives are lived out of the convictions and beliefs we hold, and when those basic convictions are not biblical, they are sinful. John Piper says in his Battling Unbelief, "We sin because it offers some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us until we believe that God is more desirable than life itself (Psalm 63:3). Only the power of God's superior promises in the gospel can emancipate our hearts from servitude to the shallow promises and fleeting pleasures of sin." It is a complete reordering of life which places the true gospel at the center.

There is a great deal of work ahead and we need leaders who are wholly committed to the gospel, prepared to show how the gospel revolutionizes all of life, and willing to stand against the unfaithfulness that has become so prevalent in the Church. Pray that God will raise up those leaders. Pray that we as the Church might see how we have wandered and turned to our own ways, and that instead we would fix our eyes on Jesus and yearn for the freedom and joy found only in service to Him. Pray that we might forsake ourselves and all others for Him. Pray that we might no longer seek to accommodate the gospel to our own desires, but allow ourselves to be transformed by its power. Pray that it will be soon.

Let us take up our cross and follow Him (Matt. 16:24-26). We rest in the assurance that when we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive them and cleanse us from unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

Lord, revive Your Church.

A quote from D.A. Carson

The only way that Jesus could become the resurrection and the life was by dying Himself…Jesus comes up against moral and spiritual death and gives life by dying Himself…What we must see is that these sorts of themes (sin, death, substitution, redemption, resurrection, etc.) are central to the Bible, central to the gospel, and these are the frameworks in which we need to address people. It is right to say that the gospel comes along and improves your marriage, challenges you about how to handle your finances, or rear your children—the gospel has all of those peripheral benefits, sure—but at the end of the day, it deals with the ultimates of life and death and sin and guilt and resurrection and eternal life. It deals with these ultimates…Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26). It transforms absolutely everything.

This comes from the end of the third session he led at Mars Hill Church's recent conference, "A Day with Dr. Don." Click here for the media from that conference. I recommend it highly.

Interesting discussion today in class on the fourth commandment of the Decalogue. We began by talking about the nature of the Sabbath. D.A. Carson argues that the Sabbath was abrogated with Christ’s fulfillment of the law, and we now have the Lord’s Day, which he distinguishes as different. He is contrasted by the former Princeton theologian Charles Hodge, who maintained that while the day is different, the Sabbath remains. Carson says that as we are on the other side of the crux of redemptive history (Christ’s death and resurrection), we must now view it in a different light.

This is where it gets interesting. Some say that as we live in the already/not yet mentality---that is, in this stage of the coming of the Kingdom where it has been established by Christ, but not yet consummated by his second coming---we need to view the Lord’s Day in this manner as well. The rest that we observe on the Lord’s Day is a foretaste of the eternal rest that we will have when the Kingdom comes in fullness. As such, we should not require unbelievers to observe the Sabbath. Thus, if they want to have their stores and restaurants open on Sunday, if they want to work on Sunday, let them do so.

That is a peculiar line of thought to me, and one that I have not come into contact with up until now. As I've understood it (according to Calvin's threefold division of the law), all people are bound to the moral law, due to the fact that we are in covenant with God. The Sabbath, though a creation ordinance like marriage and work, is distinguished by the fact that it is eschatological in nature. So it is reserved for believers only.

I'll have one more post on this for sure, maybe more. But for now, any thoughts on this? Is this a new understanding for you?