If someone said to you, “Your main problem in life is that you want your will over God’s will,” how would you respond? If that were said to me, I would probably say something like this, “Tell me something I don’t already know. I’m very aware of what my main problem is. I know that God’s will is not done in my life like it is done in heaven. So rather than just telling me what my main problem is, why don’t you also tell me what the solution is.”

“Well,” he says, “the solution is to ask the Father that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, that His will be done in your life as it is done in the lives of those in heaven.”

I respond, “So you are telling me that the solution to my main problem in life is simply to habitually ask God to do this?”

“Yes, ask, wait, and strive to obey. Well, you’ll need to read your Bible, identify biblical principles, and daily apply them to your life too.”

“Oh, okay, I now understand. What you are essentially telling me is that in order for God’s will to be done in my life as it’s done in heaven, I need to tell God daily that I want His will to be done in my life as it is in heaven and then just do it? That does make sense. After all, Jesus did instruct us to petition the Father that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. But I do have one last question. Where’s the gospel in all of this? Where is the good news in all you’ve told me? If the bad news is that I don’t do God’s will as I ought, what’s the good news?”

That’s the question that I wish to address in this post. Where is the gospel in this petition of Matthew 6:10? How did Matthew envision this petition being answered? How should we envision this petition being answered when we consider it in the light of the entirety of Matthew’s Gospel?
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Everyone who knows me knows that I am a Tolkien fan. If you come to my blog often, you also know it has been a while since I’ve posted anything about him or his works. So if you’ve been waiting for your Tolkien fix, wait no longer. Actually, this post was written by Matt Sims, a former student of mine (a long, long time ago!). So take a read and visit his blog if you have a few minutes.

Fleming Rutledge, The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings

I just finished reading this book and I highly recommend it to any Tolkien lover. The book examines what Rutledge calls the “deep narrative.” He writes his book with the flow of Tolkien’s narrative.

Rutledge says, “In particular, I believe Tolkien has given us a rare glimpse of what human freedom within God’s Divine Plan really means” (The Batatle for Middle-earth p. 5). This statement exemplifies the thrust of this book.

Rutledge focuses on the implicit Providence in Middle-earth. Tolkien did not want Middle-earth to be a Christian world, per se. Think of Shakespeare’s King Lear and its distictly pre-Christian setting yet Christian themes.

Tolkien masterfully weaves the hand of God into The Lord of the Rings by his use of the passive tense and by the balance struck between characters realizing that there is a higher purpose at work. Rutledge examines different scenes which focus on this, such as Gandalf speech about Bilbo’s pity or the council of Elrond.

For any Tolkien fan who is interested in having the many Biblical allusions revealed and discussed, this book does excellent job of just that.

Soli Deo Gloria

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Five)

One last post in this series before we begin to look specifically at the application of the gospel to particular family and societal relationships. Consider Colossians 3:16.

Colossians 3:16—Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

The phrase “the word of Christ” is just another way of referring to the gospel. The word that is to dwell richly in the congregation at Colossae is the word about the Messiah, the one who in himself, seated at the right hand of God, is the New Creation. Paul is exhorting the Colossians to let the message of what God has done in and through the Messiah fill every aspect of their corporate existence. This is what it means for the word of the Messiah to dwell richly in them.

Paul goes on to say that not only must the gospel dwell richly in their teaching and admonishing and in their singing, but also in everything that they do, in word or deed (verse 17). It is not until after this point in his epistle that Paul begins to make concrete applications to specific areas of life. In other words, it is not until after Paul has established the functional centrality of the gospel in all of life that he gives commands to wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and masters. Therefore, as interpreters, we must be very careful not to separate these commands from the gospel message as it is articulated in Colossians.

It’s an add for an insurance company, but the theological implications are there. It is directed by the man who made the animated feature Triplets of Belleville.

Video Spot: A Town Called Today (lives in fear of Tomorrow)

(HT: Scott Anderson)

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Six)

This is the post were we move from discussing the stated centrality of the gospel in Colossians to discussing the gospel’s functional centrality. Paul has not stressed the basis for the functional centrality of the gospel in the life of the Colossian (and every) church so that our churches can then preach the imperatives of chapters 3-4 without explicitly demonstrating how they connect to the gospel content of chapters 1-2. Therefore, in Colossians 3:1-2, Paul makes that connection for us as he begins to bring out some of the ethical implications that flow out of the truth of the gospel.

Colossians 3:1-2—If [“since”] then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

Paul’s argument here, in part, is essentially this: since, according to the gospel, it is true that you have been raised with the Messiah, set your minds on that which you have been given in the Messiah, namely, the life of the New Creation. Why do I think Paul is calling the Colossians to set their minds on the life of the New Creation as it is found in the Messiah? This is where we need to remember a couple of Paul’s earlier thoughts. First, it is important to recall Paul’s obvious use of creation language when describing the activity of the gospel in Colossians 1:6 where he states that the gospel “is bearing fruit and growing.” Second, Paul again uses creation language when he refers to the Messiah as both “the firstborn of all creation” (1:15) and “the firstborn from the dead” (1:18). So not only is it through the Messiah that the original creation was created and is sustained, but it is also through him that humanity is re-created. It is this Messiah, Paul says—the Messiah of the New Creation—that has ascended to the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1). So when Paul calls the Colossians to seek the things that are above, he is calling them to think on the life of the New Creation as it is found in the Messiah and on their participation in it.
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Mark Lauterbach of Gospel Driven Life has been writing a series of great posts about Christ-centered preaching in response to his reading of Charles Bridges’ book The Christian Ministry. Let me encourage you to give him a visit.

P.S. Mark just posted an excellent example of a Christ-centered sermon here.

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Five) (Part Six)

If you are waiting for me to move from writing about the basis for the functional centrality of the gospel to actually writing about the functional centrality of the gospel, never fear. I’m almost ready to make that necessary and all important move. After all, one of our primary concerns is that the gospel not merely have the stated centrality (i.e. “The gospel is central in all that we say and do here.”) but also the functional centrality in the life of the church. But for now, let’s look again at the gospel’s essential stated centrality by considering Colossians 2:13-14 briefly.

Colossians 2:13-14—And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Paul says that God made the Colossians alive together with the Messiah, having forgiven them all their trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against them with its legal demands. “Paul,” we ask, “where did God do this? Paul says, “This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” God did this at the cross. What we read here of the gospel in these verses is described very eloquently by John Stott in his book entitled The Cross of Christ.

“The Biblical gospel of atonement is the good news of God satisfying himself by substituting himself for us. The concept of substitution may be said then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation…For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God; while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone” (John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p. 160).

This is what happened when God canceled our damning record by nailing it to the cross. Paul is essentially saying that legally the Messiah became the record of debt that stood against us and in his death destroyed it (per James D.G. Dunn, The Epistle to the Colossians and to Philemon, p. 166). Paul states within this gospel-rich context that the Colossians have been buried and raised with the Messiah (verse 12) so that what is true of him as the firstborn from the dead is now true of them. This emphasis in chapter two sets us up nicely for part five of this series on the functional centrality of the gospel. Please stay tuned.

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six)

My concern in this series of posts is to demonstrate the necessity of maintaining the centrality of the gospel even with texts where the gospel is not explicitly mentioned. If the gospel is only central in our preaching when the text at hand refers to it, can we really claim gospel-centeredness for our preaching? I have become convinced that true gospel-centered preaching recognizes the necessity of demonstrating how every text finds its ultimate reference point in what God has accomplished in the Messiah. This means that a gospel-centered handling of “fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged” (Colossians 3:21) will seek to show its relationship to the gospel of grace. But if we are to do that, we must discern what aspects of the gospel Paul emphasizes in the chapters of Colossians leading up to the imperatives of chapters 3 and 4. So let’s continue to consider this epistle’s focus on the gospel by looking at Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians at the end of chapter one.

Colossians 1:21-23—And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, [22] he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, [23] if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard…

The occasion for Paul’s letter to the Colossians was that there were false teachers who “thought that Christ was no more than a beginning; to go on to spiritual maturity, it was necessary to follow their rules and practices” (Carson, Moo, and Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, p. 335). The church’s steadfastness in the gospel was what was at stake in Colossae. So what does Paul do? He exhorts them to continue in the faith, that is, to remain steadfast in the apostolic gospel. So it was essential for the Colossian church to keep the gospel central in its corporate existence.

Notice that Paul states that they are not to shift “from the hope of the gospel” (Colossians 1:23). This is the second time Paul mentions hope in this epistle. However, we are left wondering, once again, what this central-to-the-gospel hope actually is. We do know at this point that whatever this false teaching was that was threatening the church at Colossae, it was attacking the hope of the gospel. So Paul writes this epistle to protect this gospel-hope. What I think we will find is that this hope holds the key to identifying the fuctional connection of Colossians 3:21 (”fathers, do not provoke your children…”) to the gospel.

Now consider Colossians 2:6-7.

Colossians 2:6-7—Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, [7] rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Paul says that the Colossians “received Christ Jesus the Lord.” The word “receive” is a technical term that is used when referring to the practice of transmitting a corpus of teaching from one individual or group to another. So when Paul says that they “received Christ Jesus the Lord,” he’s referring to the reception of doctrinal content that concerns the Messiah. What we find, then, in the phrase “Christ Jesus the Lord” is the content of the gospel in compressed form. In essence, what Paul is saying is that they received the corpus of truth about the Messiah (i.e. “Christ”) who is none other than the crucified and risen Jesus (i.e. “Jesus”) and now the exalted Lord (i.e. “the Lord”). This is the message that they heard and understood when it was presented to them (Colossians 1:6). So Paul, once again, exhorts the Colossian church to remain steadfast in the truth of the gospel.

(Part One) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six)

I introduced part one in this series on The Functional Centrality of the Gospel by writing, “One of my main concerns for preachers and teachers of the Word is that the gospel would not merely have the stated centrality (i.e. “The gospel is central in all that we say and do here.”) but also the functional centrality in the life of the church.” This was Paul’s main concern for the church at Colossae. So, using creation language, he begins his epistle to the Colossians by stressing the absolute centrality of the gospel in God’s redemptive activity not only in the whole world but also in Colossae (Colossians 1:5-6).

The Functional Basis (continued)

Notice what Paul does in Colossians 1:15-18 to take us deeper into this gospel-centered New Creation thinking that he introduced in verses 3 to 6. There are two key parallel phrases, though they are not exact parallels, which open and close these rich Christo-centric verses; and if we are to follow Paul’s line of New Creation thought, it is important that we discern how these two phrases are related.

Colossians 1:15-18 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [16] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. [17] And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. [18] And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead…

In what sense is the Messiah “the firstborn of all creation”? Paul tells us in verse 16. He is the firstborn of all creation in that it was “by him that all things were created.” He is not the firstborn of all creation in that he was the first to be created but rather in that he was the agent through whom the original creation was made and is sustained (verse 17). It makes sense, then, that the pre-incarnate Messiah, the Father’s agent in creation, would become man in order to bring about the renewal or recreation of the created order, which is with what the second phrase—the firstborn from the dead—is concerned. So verse 15, then, tells us that the pre-incarnate Messiah was uniquely qualified for the redemptive work of verse 18 where Paul refers to him as “the firstborn from the dead.”

Therefore, given the creation language of verse 6 and the parallel phrases in verses 15 and 18, we are to understand that the Messiah is not only the one through whom the original creation came into existence and is sustained, but that he is also the one through whom humanity is redeemed from the dead—death being the climactic effect of the corruption of sin upon the world—and ultimately the one through whom the entire created order is renewed (cf. Romans 8:18-21). So what Paul is doing in this section of Colossians is identifying what exactly is at the heart of this gospel that is bearing fruit and growing, namely, the New Creation work of the Messiah in redemption (Colossians 1:6). As I will argue in future posts, if we are to interpret and apply the imperative sections of Colossians properly (Colossians 3:1ff), the New Creation work of the Messiah must be central in our thinking.

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six)

One of my main concerns for preachers and teachers of the Word is that the gospel would not merely have the stated centrality (i.e. “The gospel is central in all that we say and do here.”) but also the functional centrality in the life of the church. It is one thing to state that the gospel is central in our corporate existence when the Word is preached. It is another thing to demonstrate explicitly—regardless of the text that is preached—that the gospel is central functionally in the church’s life. If the gospel is not central functionally, though it holds a stated centrality, can we really say that it is central in our church’s existence? I don’t think we can. The very nature of the gospel demands that it be the functional center of every church and not merely the stated center.

It is with this issue that my next several posts are concerned. I hope to demonstrate from a short survey of Colossians the necessity of the functional centrality of the gospel in the life of the church. Let’s begin by observing Paul’s emphasis on the centrality of the gospel in this epistle to the Christians at Colossae.

The Functional Basis

Notice, particularly, the words in bold throughout. First, in Colossians 1:3-6, we learn of the central place the gospel had in the church at Colossae.

Colossians 1:3-6—We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, [4] since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, [5] because of the hope laid up for you in heaven (Key Question: What is this hope that is laid up for us in heaven? We’ll come back to this in a latter post.). Of this (laid-up-in-heaven-hope) you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, [6] which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth

Paul says that the gospel had come to them and was like a plant that grows covering more and more ground and bearing fruit—the fruit of faith and love (Colossians 1:4). Verse 6 also says that the gospel was growing in their midst since the day they “heard it and understood the grace of God in truth” (verse 6). Concerning these verses Tim Keller writes:

“Here we learn: 1) That the gospel is a living thing (cf. Romans 1:16) which is like a seed or a tree that brings more and more new life—bearing fruit and growing. 2) That the gospel is only “planted” in us so as to bear fruit as we understand its greatness and implications deeply—understood God’s grace in all its truth. 3) That the gospel continues to grow in us and renew us throughout our lives—as it has been doing since the day you heard it… [The gospel] is a living power that continually expands its influence in our lives, just as a crop or a tree would grow and spread and dominate more and more of an area with roots and fruit” (article: The Centrality of the Gospel, p. 1).

Interestingly, Paul uses creation language to describe the gospel’s activity in Colossae. It is—note the verb tense—bearing fruit and growing. I think he uses creation language because he intends that we recognize that the gospel is God’s power unto the life of the New Creation (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:6; 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Ephesians 2:10; 4:24; Colossians 3:10; also Romans 1:16-17; 8:20-21)? We will see this developed as we move farther into Colossians. But Paul’s point here is that God’s power unto New Creation life, namely, the gospel, was at the very center of God’s ongoing work in Colossae. Paul does not want the Colossians, or us for that matter, to think of the gospel only as that which gives entrance into the life of God’s New Creation, but also as that which sustains it and will ultimately bring it, this new creation life, to completion. So the gospel, according to Paul here in Colossians, is God’s power unto the entirety of New Creation life, and is, therefore, God’s power to grow the Colossian church. In other words, the gospel is to be the functional center of the church.

One of the main objectives of this blog is to encourage preaching that is gospel-centered. Because of this emphasis I am occassionally asked, “What does a gospel-centered sermon look like?” Those who have asked me this question are often already convinced of the necessity of preaching from a gospel-centered perspective, but how this kind of sermon should actually look in practice is still not clear to them. So, below you’ll find a link to a sermon I recently preached that is an attempt to preach a gospel-centered sermon on the baptism and temptation of Christ (Matthew 3:13-4:11). My emphasis is not on the illustrative value of this section of narrative. Rather, it’s on how this baptism and temptation narrative fits within the unfolding of salvific history.

To download: right click on link below and select “save as”

Vicarious Humanity

P.S. the first couple minutes of the sermon were not recorded. A written version of the missing introduction is below.

P.P.S. If you want to expose yourself to sermons that are consistently and beautifully gospel-centered, listen to Tim Keller. I agree with Mark Lauterbach when he says, “No one, and I mean no one, preaches Gospel saturated messages better than Tim Keller. Buy his sermons and see how the Gospel is everywhere in the Bible.”

Sermon Introduction:

I have the privilege of teaching 18-19 year old young people an introductory course on Bible study. Teaching freshman in this particular area is one of the most exciting things that I do. One of the areas where I have to work extremely hard to correct their thinking is in how they approach biblical narrative. Every freshman who has entered my classroom the past year and half has treated all biblical narrative texts as if there primary purpose is to be illustrative. There seems to be this underlying conviction that biblical narrative is primarily for exemplary value. In other words, they all seem to assume that the primary intention of the biblical writers is to give us examples to follow or not to follow to aide us in navigating life. So what I spend a considerable amount of class time doing is demonstrating that biblical narrative is primarily historical rather than illustrative.

What do I mean by historical narrative? By that I mean that biblical narrative is primarily about what God has done within space and time to accomplish redemption. It is not primarily about illustrating how we should live within space and time. Biblical narrative is primarily about God’s entrance into history to accomplish His redemptive purposes. The reason is spend so much time arguing that biblical narrative is historical rather than illustrative is because when our dominant focus is on the illustrative value of the text, the gospel of Jesus Christ begins to lose its central place in our thinking and living. And when preachers primarily preach narrative as illustrative material, the gospel subtly loses its centrality functionally in the life and practice of the church.

As long as we live on this side of glorification, we will always be tempted to interpret biblical narrative as illustrative rather than historical. So what I would like to do this morning is look at a text, half of which is too often thought of as illustrative rather than an historical account of God’s activity within history to accomplish redemption.

Matthew 3:13-4:1 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. [14] John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” [15] But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. [16] And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; [17] and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” [4:1] Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

I’m sure you’ve heard a speaker say something like this before: “The [eighteen] inches that exist between your head and your heart is what is keeping you from being a truly sold out Christian.” Les Newsome of Common Grounds Online writes about the danger that accompanies this kind of head/heart dichotomy. I appreciate his application of gospel-centered thinking to this issue. Les writes:

“There’s nothing wrong with you spiritually right now that can’t be cured with 18 inches,” the dynamic youth communicator dramatically said. “The [eighteen] inches that exists between your head and your heart is what is keeping you from being a truly sold out Christian.”

Am I the only one who absolutely hated hearing this on just about every youth retreat I attended as a teenager? And since I’m feeling uppity today, I want to entertain the possibility that my irritation was not entirely ill-founded. This head/heart dichotomy is sub-Christian…

Go here to read the rest of his short article. The last two paragraphs are well worth the time it takes to read his post.