A good read
I haven’t posted much recently due to deadlines and exams (still ongoing) but I though I would link this fantastic essay by Simon Gathercole (senior lecturer in New Testament studies at Cambridge University). Don’t let the description in brackets put you off, Gathercole is an excellent and clear writer. If you feel fuzzy on what the New Testament Gospel actually is, I’d recommend taking 15-20 minutes to work through this.
Gathercole engages with a false conception which has plagued academic New Testament studies for years, that Paul and Jesus had different Gospels. Perhaps the most popular work arguing along these lines is A. N. Wilson’s Paul: The Mind of the Apostle. Gathercole, with admirable lucidity and skill shows that this conception is a false one. Jesus, Paul, and the early apostles all proclaimed the same Gospel.
Gathercole’s essay is divided into two sections which follow the same structure (one devoted to Paul; one devoted to Jesus). In each section he finds that the Gospel is about (1) the identity of Jesus; (2) the work of Jesus in his death and resurrection and (3) the dominion of Jesus. This pattern is present in both the Pauline Gospel and the Gospel of Jesus. In short, Paul and Jesus agree!
Have a read even if you haven’t heard of the particular controversy which Gathercole engages with because this essay will sharpen your grasp of what the Gospel actually is!
I’ve seen him! I’m going to die!
I don’t know what reaction you feel you would have if you saw God face to face. To be honest, it’s difficult to know how we would respond to encountering God face to face. Interestingly, in one of the few places in the Bible where a human being encounters Yahweh in all of his glory, that person’s reaction is to cry out (in other words): “I’ve seen him! I’m going to die!”
In Isaiah 6:1-5, the prophect recounts his encounter with Yahweh of hosts. It’s well known but always sends a shiver down my spine (which by the way is nothing compared to the shiver it sent down Isaiah’s). Isaiah writes:
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of hosts!”
Imagine seeing something like that. Imagine seeing the almighty creator of the universe face to face. In fact the sight of the Seraphim would be enough to drain anyone’s face of colour. Don’t get these angels mixed up with the nice little babylike creatures we get on Christmas cards. The word Seraphim literally means burning ones. These are impressive, burning, fiery creatures. In Isaiah 37 the angel of Yahweh is powerful enough to kill 185000 soldiers on his own in one night. These are not safe, cute creatures. The shout of one of these angels is enough to shake the very foundations of Solomon’s temple (v.4).
But notice what these angels do. They cover their eyes and feet before Yahweh of hosts. The sight of Yahweh is too much for even these powerful, holy creatures to look upon. So if you’re a mighty sinless angel your response to an encounter with God would be to cover your eyes at the sight of him.
What about a human being? Isaiah’s response to this overwhelming sight is to cry out “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” We don’t tend to say “woe is me” too much nowadays and if we do it’s generally in a humorous context, but woe is anything but a funny word. Isaiah is essentially crying out: “I’ve seen God! I’m going to die!” When Isaiah stood in front of Yahweh in all of his holiness, his reaction was to assume that his time had come. He suddenly became aware of his sinfulness and of God’s holiness!
What kind of a God is it that leads a bunch of creatures that can wipe out as many humans as a nuclear missile to cover their eyes at his sight? What kind of a God is it that leads a prophet to assume that he was about to die simply because he had caught a glimpse in his glory and holiness? Sadly, not the kind of God many of us feel that we worship on Sundays. Our God is too small and I can say that confidently because I do not think human imagination could even get close to picturing just how mighty, how holy and how terrifying God really is. And it is this God who would be against you in all of his otherness and glory if it were not for Jesus!
What on earth is the kingdom of God?!
There’s a lot of talk at the moment in Christian circles about the kingdom of God. Bearing in mind Jesus used the term countless times in the Gospel, I think that’s a pretty good thing. The danger, though, as always, is that the expression runs the risk of becoming an incomprehensible buzzword, another piece of Christian jargon that no-one, including Christians, understands. It is not uncommon to hear of “bringing in the kingdom” or “having a kingdom lifestyle” or “the breaking in of the kingdom”, which all sounds pretty cool, but still begs the question: what on earth is the kingdom of God?! Think about it; if someone who had never been to church or heard anything about the kingdom of heaven invading earth asked you that question, how would you explain what the kingdom of God is?
So what on earth is it? Well, that question in itself provides part of the answer. Some people think of the kingdom of God as another way of saying heaven. This is probably because in Matthew’s gospel, the term “kingdom of God” is often replaced by “kingdom of heaven” for reasons which we don’t have time to go into. One thing is certain though, the kingdom of God/heaven is not a reference to some disembodied existence; it’s not about floating around on clouds with harps. That’s simply not what Jesus meant when he said “the kingdom of God is at hand.” Tom Wright does an excellent job of debunking this misleading view in his book Surprised by Hope – I’d recommend having a read.
To be honest, the English term “kingdom” itself may be misleading because (warning: Greek alert), the word basileia can also mean “rule” or “reign”. So when you read the expression “kingdom of God” in the New Testament, you could justifiably replace it with “the rule of God” or “the reign of God”. That being said, the term kingdom does help us quite a bit because it starts with a key term. You guessed it: “King”. The kingdom of God tells us something about the nature of God: he is a king. That seems pretty obvious, but fling around a few common phrases like “bringing in the kingdom” or “kingdom lifestyle” and you can forget that the “kingdom of God” is about a king, not a concept.
When we pray, “your kingdom come on earth as in heaven”, we’re not praying for something abstract. In fact, I don’t think it’s even primarily about thinking “this is true in heaven, therefore this should be true on earth”, although that is a helpful way of thinking. When we pray “your kingdom come on earth as in heaven” we’re praying that God would assert the uncontested rule which he has in heaven over the whole of creation. We’re essentially saying: “please rule everywhere!”
When Jesus said “thing kingdom of God is like…”, I don’t think he was talking about some odd realm which we bring down to earth. I think he was talking about the concrete reality of God being in control over his creation and people. We don’t really do the conquest thing anymore nowadays (at least not as obviously as in history), but if you were a soldier in medieval times advancing the kingdom of England you were not fighting for some odd metaphysical reality, you were fighting to make sure that the king whom you served was in control of a greater and greater territory. It’s about a king being in charge and so “living a kingdom lifestyle” or whatever, means living as though the king is on the throne.
So when Jesus taught about the kingdom/rule/reign of God, he wasn’t talking about going to heaven, or about some weird abstract and intangible realm. When Jesus said “the kingdom of God is at hand”, he meant something along the lines of “check it out! God is coming to assert his rule”. When he said “the kingdom of God is like…” he meant “this is what it looks like when God is the king.” Kingdom is about a king and that king is God. When his rule is demonstrated all sorts of things happen such as healings, miracles, salvation, the poor being fed and the oppressed being set free, but that’s not because some abstract realm has been brought down through some heavenly lightning rod (again, I’m not criticizing illustrations, just issuing the warning that they can sometimes obscure more than they reveal). When God’s kingdom comes on earth, things happen because a powerful God is in control and is extending the borders of his empire.
This post is not intended to criticize the idea of bringing in the kingdom of God or forcefully advancing the kingdom. I’m all up for that, provided we understand what they mean. My suspicion is that many people who hear these expressions (and even agree with them in prayer) actually don’t really have a clue what they mean. It’s so easy to forget, but the kingdom of God is about God being king and reigning! It’s concrete, it’s real and it’s a reign that will reach to the ends of the earth!
Romans 8:28-39
If there was one passage in the whole Bible I think I would recommend memorizing it would be Romans 8:28-39 (although preferably the whole chapter). I got up early this morning to revise for a New Testament Greek exam on Tuesday. The set text is Romans 6-8. Greek-geekiness aside, how lucky am I to be examined on the Bible?! I thought I would post my translation of Romans 8:28-39 as a way of revising and a way of giving you an awesome piece of scripture to read on a sunday morning:
But we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose, because whomever he foreknew he also gave the destiny of being conformed to the image of his son so that he could be the firstborn amongst many brothers and whomever he gave that destiny to he also called and whomever he called he also justified and whomever he justified, yes those ones, he also glorified.
So what shall we say about these things? If God is on our side, who is against us? Indeed, the one who did not spare his own son but gave him for all of us, won’t he also graciously give us all things with him? Who will accuse the elect of God? God is the justifier! Who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died. In fact he also was raised and is at the right hand of God interceding for us! Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or lack of clothing or danger or sword? Just as it is written: “For your sake we are put to death all day, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we more-than-conquer [yeah that's actually a word in Greek] through the one who loved us, for I have been convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor present things nor future things nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else created will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord
Awesome!
Are we more politically correct that God?
There are some ideas about God that become commonplace and assumed to the point that no-one ever thinks of questioning them or checking them against scripture. One of those ideas came up today at a conference on Calvinism which I attended. During a panel discussion, one of the panellists suggested that God causes good whereas he allows or permits catastrophe.
That thought-pattern is almost standard in Christian circles. God sovereignly initiates good stuff, but simply passively allows bad things to happen. Another panellist responded asking how you could square that with God’s explicit raising up of evil nations in the Old Testament to punish his people. I had this verse in mind during the discussion:
Isaiah 45.7: [I am Yahweh] forming light and creating darkness, making peace and creating evil.
Ok, so the modern philosophical idea of evil as a non-concrete entity may not be present in this verse, but nonetheless it is clear here that God not only allows, but actively initiates catastrophe. (The Hebrew word translated “calamity” in the ESV is the generic word ra which is often translated evil elsewhere). I find that idea emotionally hard to deal with, but I cannot explain this text otherwise. I think the fact is that sometimes, as Christians, we can be more politically correct than God and feel the need to defend him when, for example, Isaiah doesn’t feel the need to. For him, God is God and does what he wants. God requires no defence.
What does this kind of stuff mean for apologetics? Can we simply claim that God allows bad things to happen because of our freewill? I don’t think it’s that easy really. Genuine apologetics will have to make space for the fact that God himself does not feel a need to defend what he does. Because of this, we should be cautious about defending him more than his word does. Let’s not be more politically correct than God.
“It’s that stupid rain that gets you wet”
I have actually just heard someone say that. I was walking down to Sainsburys to get some food when I heard a couple of school-girls under an umbrella and one of them said: “it’s that stupid rain that gets you wet”. I was tempted to say something along the lines of “no! really? Wet rain? You’re kidding me right?” Truth be told though, I knew exactly what she meant. It was that fine, mist-like rain that doesn’t look like it’s going to get you wet, but that, given enough time, can soak you through.
I have been thinking a lot about joy and how to fight for it recently. In fact that I was having a conversation with myself about it on the way down to Sainsbury’s. Yep, I have conversations with myself; not out loud most of the time, but still there was definitely a dialogue going on inside that thing I call my brain. I’d been thinking about Habakkuk (as you do) and how after a long and depressing argument with God, including such things as the idea of Israel being invaded by a foreign nation, he turns his thoughts in the last few verses to his Joy in God. Despite the depressing circumstances, he would rejoice in Yahweh (3:18). Yep, I thought, Habakuk was able to rejoice in Yahweh in the midst of depressing circumstances, so can we.
Then I heard it! “It” being “it’s that stupid rain that gets you wet”, that is. It was pretty funny to hear but actually very profound and spoke to me about joy and the battle for our thought-lives. You see, most of the time, Christians will not necessarily struggle with their world falling apart (like Habakkuk did), but they will spend a significant amount of time standing in “that stupid rain that gets you wet.” What I mean is they will let small, seemingly insignificant ungodly and joy-reducing thoughts into their mind. It doesn’t seem like it’s worth taking captive and killing those thoughts, because they don’t really strike us as depressing or unhelpful. In fact, it’s almost like those thoughts are a mist. And so little by little we let in more and more, only to realise after a while that we’ve been standing for days in that “stupid rain that gets you wet”. And we wonder why it’s so easy to get our joy sucked out!
That girl had unknowingly just given me a profound insight into the Christian’s daily fight for joy; Not just the fight for joy when your world falls apart in one go, but the daily battle of taking every seemingly small and insignificant thought captive and making it obey Christ (ok so I’m taking that verse out of context, but the truth there is Biblical). We too often just let negative and ungodly thoughts into our lives – a paranoid thought, a joke that someone made about us that we’ve just chosen to dwell on, a “what-if-this-happens” worry… On their own, these thoughts are like tiny droplets that won’t get anything wet. Make this a daily practice though and you may just find yourself standing in “the stupid rain that gets you wet”.
Don’t just stand there in the rain, get some truth into your mind. All throughout the day!
One of the most incredible descriptions I know of God is found in Ephesians 1.11. Literally, the verse reads: “In him [Jesus] we were appointed having been foreordained according to the prior purpose of the one who works all things according to the council of his will.” Let’s do some hyphenating: God is here called the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will. That’s a pretty impressive title!
What strikes me about this title is the pure zeal of God for his purposes that it shows. Paul, writing this as a Jew who knew his Hebrew Bible very well must surely have had many examples in mind of God’s passion for his purpose. There is more behind the title the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will than meets the eye.
God was the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will when he created mankind in his own image to spread his glory to the ends of the earth. In the ancient world, people would make an image of the god they worshipped in order to let people know what divinity was in charge in that area. So if the storm-god Baal was worshipped in a particular area, people would make a statue (or image) of Baal so that those who came to that part of the world could stop and think “ah! This is the god who is in charge here.” Interestingly, God’s people were not allowed to make an image of him. I reckon a reason for this is that God’s image was not displayed in a man-made statue, but in human beings themselves. God made both man and woman in his image and told them to populate the earth so that wherever people went they would see images of the God who created the universe and be impressed at how powerful that God was. God, from the beginning, has been zealous to work all things according to his purpose.
God was still the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will when, despite the fall, which we read about in Genesis 3, he chose a pagan idol-worshipper from Ur called Abram and chose him to be the father of the people through whom he would undo the curse of Adam. God was so zealous for his purpose that although Abram and his wife were well past the age of having children, he enabled Abram’s wife to conceive and even gave Abram the name Abraham (father of many).
God was the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will when he set his people free from Egypt. He knew that it was through this particular people (Israel) that he had purposed to bless the nations and undo the curse of Adam and so he did not let the Egyptian empire get in the way. Pharaoh was mere putty in Yahweh’s hands. The plagues upon Egypt were another way of saying: “do not get in the way of my purpose!”
God was the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will when he gave his people victory in the promised land so that he could fulfil his promise to Abraham. He did not let the mighty nations of the Canaanites get in the way of this. Nothing stood in front of God’s people because at their head they had the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will. Don’t get in the way of this God’s purpose!
God was the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will when he promised Israel’s great king David an everlasting dynasty. God’s purpose was to have a king at the head of his people in order to lead them to be a blessing to the nations in order to undo the curse of Adam and spread his glory to the ends of the earth!
God was still the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will when he sent his chosen nation into exile in Babylon. He was so passionate about his glory that he could not tolerate his people, who were meant to be a light to the nations, being a display of injustice and immorality. In the midst of the exile in Babylon, God’s purpose was steadfast and his zeal for his purpose was ever present!
God was the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will when he raised up a foreign king called Cyrus, called him his messiah and gave him victory over the Babylonians in order to free his people and let them return to the land.
God was the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will when in about BC 6-4 he came in the form of a man into a nation under Roman rule. He was still so when he walked around Galilee proclaiming that God was becoming king again and that his people needed to turn back to him. You could not get in the way of this God’s purpose!
God was the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will when a wreck of a human figure hung on a Roman cross on a his outside of Jerusalem. God’s zeal for his purpose had never been so clearly at work as when he met Satan, sin and death face on, disarmed them and paraded them as conquered powerless tyrants when he burst out of the grave on 9th April AD 30.
For Paul, God was God the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will. All of the story of the Bible points towards this God whose zeal for his purpose could not be curbed nor tampered with. God had from the beginning been zealous for his glory to fill the earth as the waters cover the seas and nothing could get in his way when this plan seemingly went wrong. From creation to the cross and beyond, God is the-one-working-all-things-according-to-the-council-of-his-will.
