Blood People

"Dia, What are you doing? Dia! Look at me, look at me. What are you doing? You are Dia Vandy, of the proud Mende tribe. You are a good boy who loves soccer and school. Your mother loves you so much. She waits by the fire making plantains, and red palm oil stew with your sister N'Yanda and the new baby. The cows wait for you. And Babu, the wild dog who minds no one but you. I know they made you do bad things, but you are not a bad boy. I am your father who loves you. And you will come home with me and be my son again." Blood Diamond (2006)

If you have not seen Blood Diamond, the foregoing dialogue comes from a powerful scene where Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) tries to convince his young son (Kagisa Kuyers), who has been brainwashed by a local warlord, to put down his pistol. Solomon is successful through reminding his son of his love for him and just who he is, and hence bringing him back to reality.

I was reminded of this scene as the pastor preached on 1 Peter 1-2 this morning: "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you." (ESV)

Like Vandy's young son, we often need to be reminded of who we are in Christ - a covenant child, heir to the promises, purchased with his son's precious blood, predestined to be his. The apostle Peter opens his first letter accordingly. Only when we know who we are can we truly respond, albeit not perfectly, in love and obedience to our Lord.

How quickly we forget...

Grasshopper’s Challenge

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." John 10:27-29 (ESV)

Do you remember the 70's hit TV series "Kung-Fu?" I used to love it as a kid. You may recall at the beginning of each episode they would show the scene were "Grasshopper" is challenged to take the pebble from his master's hand before he closes it. Of course, it takes many years of martial arts training before Grasshopper can accomplish the task.

I remember my friends and I would argue as to whether or not the master just let Grasshopper take the pebble when he was "ready" or whether he really was quicker than his master. Nonetheless, when I read the above scripture passage recently, I was reminded of that scene. Do we really think that we are faster than God or that we have the strength to wrestle our salvation out of his hand? Rather, is it not the master who snatches us from the fire.

Grace and Peace.

Moby-Dick and Calvinism

Bradford Mercer has a great post over on the First Presbyterian Jackson MS blog entiled Moby-Dick and Calvinism.

God of Promise -- Holiness

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' Matthew 7:21-22.

In addition to Hebrews 6:4-6, I use to worry about the Matthew 7 passage above. I read these verses to mean, Jesus was saying you can never have assurance of salvation. Even if you have prophesied in the Lord's name, cast out demons, and done many mighty works that may not be sufficient. How could I have hope of salvation when I had done so little comparatively?

I read it differently from a Reformed perspective now. If you look closely, the folks in this passage are not saying have mercy on us because we are wretched sinners. Rather, they are saying look at OUR good works -- look at what WE did for you Lord. Surely, we DESERVE to enter the kingdom of God. Patently bad answers! Are we not lost unless we rest on the complete and finished work of Christ? His sheep have no room to boast.

Michael Horton writes on holiness:

"Jesus made it amply clear that the sheep will be distinguished from the goats on the last day by the marks of their profession (Matthew 24). It is important to remember, however, that the sheep are apparently unaware of their having fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and cared for the poor and those in prison, while the goats insisted that they had. Holiness, which is defined by love of God and neighbor, is usually something that is seen by others rather than by us [Matthew 25:34-40]." God of Promise P. 182.

The Potter and the Clay

In his post entitled Don't be Stingy, John Hendryx, over at Reformation Theology (one of my favorite blogs), responds to Brian McLauren's assertion that anyone who believes in election must be so self-absorbed in their standing before God that they view themselves as having what he calls 'exclusive privilege' over others. Here are a few nuggets from his response. . .

"If Jesus died for all our sins, this includes the sin of unbelief. So even the very heart and new life needed to apprehend the excellency of Christ are granted to us. Our unregenerate wills are not sufficient to pull ourselves out of our own hostile nature. In other words, the moment we remove divine election from Christianity is the moment we remove salvation by grace alone in Christ alone."

"Let me say this, if you reject election, EVEN if, in word, you say that all glory goes to God, your theology loudly declares otherwise, for it is not the grace of Jesus Christ alone that saves but grace plus some additional element you wish to keep back for yourself. So in actuality it is those who reject the biblical doctrine of election that can boast of privilege due to some factor in their natural selves."

Steven Camp, of the Calvinist Gladfly, has called for the discipline of McLauren for his heretical beliefs, i.e. his challege to "the veracity and authority of Scripture; justification by faith alone; imputation of the righteousness of Christ; substitutionary atonement; the omniscience of God, Hell-eternal punishment, etc." While I second the motion, I doubt the Emergent Church folks have the courage or the structure to begin such a task.

Sovereignty v. Responsibility

"All Christians believe in divine sovereignty but some are not aware that they do, and mistakenly imagine and insist that they reject it. What causes this odd state of affairs? The root cause is the same as in most cases of error in the Church--the intruding of rationalistic speculations, the passion for systematic consistency, a reluctance to recognize the existence of mystery and to let God be wiser than men, and a consequent subjecting of Scripture to the supposed demands of human logic. People see that the Bible teaches man's responsibility for his actions; they do not see how this is consistent with the sovereign Lordship of God over those actions. They are not content to let the two truths live side by side, as they do in the Scriptures, but jump to the conclusion that, in order to uphold the biblical truth of human responsibility, they are bound to reject the equally biblical and equally true doctrine of divine sovereignty, and to explain away the great number of texts that teach it. The desire to over-simplify the Bible by cutting out the mysteries is natural to our perverse minds, and it is not surprising, that even good men should fall victims to it." J. I. Packer

Kingdom Confusion