A Cruciform Worldview

In his helpful article "Beyond a Veggie Tales Gospel: Why We Must Preach Christ From Every Text," Russell D. Moore writes:

I have never seen the film, The Sixth Sense, and I doubt I ever will. It's not only because my movie picks don't typically extend to horror pictures (although that's true). It is also because the movie's been ruined for me. Long ago, a friend explained to me the premise of the film. A detective, played by Bruce Willis, investigates a young boy who "sees dead people," ghosts who can only be seen by him. At the end of the move--at least according to my friend--the Bruce Willis character is himself seen to be a "dead person," a ghost, who can only be seen by the troubled little boy. "When you see the movie the second time, you'll notice that Bruce Willis is never seen interacting with anyone of the other characters," my friend said. "He is just shown talking directly to the boy." If I were to see the movie now, I would see the same film that everyone else saw at its release, but I would be seeing it with the mystery decoded. I would notice patterns and themes. I would see where the story was going.

The same is true of the storyline of Scripture. The apostles announce that a great mystery has been revealed in the gospel of Christ Jesus--a mystery that explains the "whys" of everything from the creation itself to the existence of the nation of Israel to the one-flesh union of marriage. What God has been doing in His universe for all these millennia, Paul tells the church at Ephesus is not accidental or haphazard. It is part of a blueprint, a purpose "which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth" (Ephesians 1:10). Paul tells the church at Colossae of Jesus that "all things were created through Him and for Him" and that "in Him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:16-17).

Every text of Scripture--Old or New Testaments--is thus about Jesus, precisely because, at the end of the day, everything in reality is about Jesus. Why is there something instead of nothing? Why are human beings religious? Why do people want food and water and sex and community? Why are there galaxies and quasars and blue whales and local churches? God is creating all that is for His heir, for the glory of Jesus Christ. When you see through Jesus, you see the interpretive grid through which all of reality makes sense.

What Moore applies to preaching can also be applied to teaching biblical worldview. Those of us who ballyhoo the biblical worldview can come dangerously close to the error of the Pharisees to whom Jesus said "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life" (John 5:39-40). Could He not just as easily say to us "You study the Scriptures so that you might develop a biblical worldview, and it is they that bear witness about Me, the key to interpreting all of reality; yet you fail to see Me in every text and sometimes are willing to build a worldview apart from believing in and becoming like Me"? We want the Bible to shape the way we look at the world, but our view of the Word is too often Christ-less and cross-less. Jesus Christ crucified is the lens through which we truly make sense of God's Word and world (1 Corinthians 1:20-25). With all the talk about biblical worldview, we must remember that our worldview is not biblical unless it is also cruciform.

[HT: Of First Importance]

3 Ways to Understand the Bible

My friend T. M. Moore writes a daily email devotional called Crossfigell in which he includes a quote from a noted Celtic Christian and a related portion of Scripture followed by his brief commentary on them. [Crossfigell means "cross vigil," a Celtic prayer practice in which one would hold out his or her arms in a cruciform position while praying. Legend has it that one Celtic saint prayed in this posture long enough for birds to build a nest in his hand!]

This week T. M. sent a series of 3 devotionals on the topic of interpreting God's Word. I've included the full text of all 3 here, but you really should sign yourself up to receive his rich daily messages. Sign up for Crossfigell at his website, Paruchia (see the menu on the left side).

Understanding Scripture (1)

For Holy Scripture is understood by three methods of approach. The first way of reading it is when it is understood only literally without any figurative purpose, as St. Jerome says, "The Acts of the Apostles seem to me to speak of plain history." - Liber de Ordine Creaturarum, Irish, 7th century

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundrend years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, full convinced that God was able to do what He had promised. - Romans 4.19-21

One mistake people make in reading the Bible is failing to allow it to speak to them with respect to the plain teaching of the historical record. There is much to learn simply from understanding events in their proper setting and time. How shall we lay hold on the promises of God? Paul says, Well, look what Abraham did: He looked past the restraints of his circumstances, gave glory to God for what He had promised and what He could do; thus, he envisioned himself in possession of the promised blessing and took the necessary steps of faith to attain it. There is nothing mystical or allegorical here, just the straightforward lesson from history as to how we, who are the heirs of those same promises, may expect to realize them in our own day. This is the starting point for all right understanding of Scripture: what does the record say, in its plain historical meaning and original historical setting, and what can we learn from observing this example? So don't be too quick to let your response to the Word of God fly to heights of spiritual implication and application. That may be important, as we shall see. Begin by asking, What's happening here, and how can what's happening help to shape my own walk as I take up the example of our forebears in the faith (Rom. 15.4)? Much power and many blessings are to be had by simply taking the Word at face value and bringing its historical lessons into our own walk with the Lord each day.

Understanding Scripture (2)

For Holy Scripture is understood by three methods of approach...The second way is when it is investigated following a figurative understanding without any regard for actual events, as with the first and final parts of Ezekiel, the Song of Songs, and the exposition of certain Gospel parables, which say one thing and represent another. - Liber de Ordine Creaturarum, Irish, 7th century

As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. - Song of Solomon, 2.3, 4

It may or may not be possible to identify the historical situation referred to in the Song of Solomon, but it matters very little. There are those who would reduce the Song to a kind of manual of human love. And, while the exchanges between Solomon and his beloved can yield insights into the beauty and wonder of marital love, deeper mysteries seem to be at work here. If we miss these, we miss the point of the Song altogether. Prompted by Paul and John to think of the Church as the Bride of Christ, we find the Song a bright source of illumination into the richness, depth, and fullness of joy that relationship affords. The Song teaches our hearts how to love our heavenly Groom, and creates in us a hunger for a deeper relationship with Christ and a more overwhelming experience of His love. If churches knew this love of Christ and loved Him as much in return, would not their common love for Him inflame them for one another as well, and lead them to overlook the many differences that divide us, so that we might celebrate and encourage one another in seeking greater heights of love for our glorious King and Groom? Let us sit in the shadow of Christ's love, cool and protected against the heat of the secular day, and let us feed on His fruit and grow fat in His spiritual provision, unfurling together and in every situation our banner of love by and for the King Who has saved us!

Understanding Scripture (3)

For Holy Scripture is understood by three methods of approach...The third way is when, retaining the record of historical events, it is understood with a mystical meaning, for instance, Noah's ark, the tabenacle, and the temple were actually built, and through them are traced with understanding the mysteries of the church. -Liber do Ordine Creaturarum, Irish, 7th century

I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. - 1 Corinthians 10.1-5

All that sad history of Israel's sojourn in the wilderness has ongoing spiritual significance for us today. That's Paul's argument in a nutshell when he is trying to get the Corinthians to live in a manner consistent with their profession. The Israelites "tasted" of the Lord, but they did not feed on Him. Just so, many who have been baptized and participate in the life of the church are merely "tasting" of the Lord; they have not truly known Him in a life-changing way. Their baptism, church attendance, even their public profession of faith won't save them if there is no turning away from the idols of the age and the lifestyle of unbelief to follow Christ in the way of self-denial and sacrificial love. "Therefore" Paul continues "let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (v. 12). The stories from Biblical history have important practical lessons to teach us, but they also hold vital spiritual significance, if only we know how to read them. We must read them in the light of Christ, Who is the Focusing Light of all the revelation of God, for in Him the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. Our study of God's Word - like our profession of Christian faith - is not complete until we see Jesus in the text, meet and feed on Him there, and are through this encounter transformed into His image by the Spirit of God. Some of the Corinthians were deceiving themselves, for they had not yet come to know Jesus. May the same not be true of us. "Examine yourselves" (2 Cor. 13.5).

Are We Seeking Disciples or Crowds?

We’ve been seeking crowds, not disciples. We’ve considered every possible means of getting the most people into our buildings and keeping them there, and we’ve attracted people on the basis of mere self-interest, so that what we have are congregations ecstatic to belong to some place that, in the name of the Lord, takes their self-interest as seriously as they do.

Read the entire article "To Follow Jesus: Counting the Cost of Discipleship" by T. M. Moore.

[HT: Breakpoint]

Gospel-Saturated Parenting

John Piper knocks one out of the park by casting vision for a gospel-driven generation in a sermon entitled "Let No One Despise You For Your Youth". He closed with this final word to parents:

Parents, successful parenting is more than compliant kids. It is gospel-saturated living and teaching. Show your children how Christ, crucified for our sins, and Christ, raised for our justification, and Christ, showing the Father’s love, and Christ, guaranteeing the Spirit’s daily help—show them how this gospel is not just something that begins the Christian life but empowers it and shapes and sustains it. Pray and love and teach your children until Christbreaks in on their hearts and becomes their Treasure.

May God give us a vision for the next generation that glorifies the gospel of Christ, and leads thousands of young people to the cross where they find forgiveness of sins, and broken-hearted humility, and Christ-exalting courage to rebel against low expectations and “do hard things.”

[HT: Desiring God]

Raised With Christ

“Jesus Christ did not rise alone. He rose as the head of a whole body of people elected to have faith in him, to benefit from him, and to extend his mission in the world.”

- Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Engaging God’s World (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2002), 81.

[HT: Of First Importance]

Cruciform Ministry of Word and Sacrament

"The public ministry of Word and sacrament is first and foremost a vertical, eschatalogical event of the Spirit's disrupting grace that generates a horizontal extension of covenant succession in history while also drawing in outsiders by that same ministry.

Christ is serving us, building his kingdom, drawing people by his Spirit from the dominion of sin and death, leading them in ever-richer understanding of the gospel, extending that message and acts of love outward to the neighbor. The Triune God is the one creating a new world in the midst of this fading evil age, not simply keeping the old one going or dressing it up in perpetual innovation" (italics mine).

- Michael Horton in "All Crossed Up" (Touchstonemag.com)

[HT: Gospel-Driven Church blog]

Tim Keller on Sanctification

“Sanctification is not by ‘works’ but by a continuous re-orienting ourselves to our justification. So sanctification is not moralistic. Yet it takes enormous effort (so it is not quietistic.) When we feed on, remember, and live in accordance with our justification, it mortifies our idols and fills us with an inner joy and desire to please and resemble our Lord through obedience. But the feeding on, remembering, and living in accordance—takes all our effort.”

(Thanks to Tullian Tchividjian for posting this quote at his blog "On Earth As It Is In Heaven")

It's always Spring when you're planted in Scripture

I found the following sentence on a piece of paper in my nine-year-old daughter's handwriting on the floor in her room the other day.

"Even through the rain, snow, and ice, we can still blossom in God's Word." - Abi Davis, 3-12-08

"Did you write this," I asked. "Yes." "These are your own words," I continued. "You didn't get this from someone else?" "No, I didn't. Why?" "Wow, Abi. I love this. This is so true. And so poetic," I beamed. Turns out she wrote it on a day when snow was falling outside her window while she was reading her Bible on her bed.

Has your heart for God and others grown cold lately? Plant yourself in the Word of God and watch the fruit of love begin to blossom in you.

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away" (Psalm 1:1-4 ESV).

Pastures & Pleasures, Cows & Christ

"I have often seen a cow stick her head through a barbed wire fence to chew the stubby grass bordering a highway, when behind her lay a whole pasture of grass. I have always been reminded of Christians who have not learned to completely trust Christ, reaching out to the world for sensual pleasure when rivers of pleasure were at their disposal in Christ."

"No, no one is denying that there are pleasures to be had in this world. . . . That is not the point. The point is that there are other pleasures to be had in this life. Pleasures so great in depth, significance, satisfaction and duration, that they far exceed the pleasures of sin. They are the pleasures to be found in the knowledge and service of Christ."

Bill Piper, father of John Piper. Listen to Bill Piper's story.

What Is A Poet?

"Poets are people who see the indescribable glory everywhere and will not be daunted in their passion to make language serve its revelation."

John Piper, speaking of his father in a recent biographical message given about his evangelist father, the late Bill Piper. It's worth listening to.

Cross Shaped Quotes

Thanks to Jared over at The Gospel-Driven Church for pointing out Of First Importance, a blog that catalogs great gospel-centered quotes from past to present. Here's a sample:

Christianity In A Sentence
“The essence of the Christian religion consists in this, that the creation of the Father, devastated by sin, is restored in the death of the Son of God, and recreated by the Holy Spirit into the kingdom of God.”
- Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol 1

Breathe the Gospel

“When [James 1:21 says] ‘receive the implanted word,’ I think there is an implication that the gospel remains the center of the word that we receive every day. It is the gospel—the central message that Christ died for our sins and rose again and gives us eternal joy in God through faith—it’s this gospel that took root in our lives when we were born again. The gospel is implanted in us, and we need to breathe it in every day. You never outgrow your need for the good news of forgiven sin and imputed righteousness and eternal life and God being totally for you—and all of this by grace alone, on the basis of Christ alone, through faith alone, to the glory of God alone. You never graduate to a class where that is not the center of the curriculum. I think this is implied in saying that the word that saved us and is implanted in us is what we should go on receiving every day.

But God’s word, the Scripture, is more than just the gospel. And Paul says all of it is inspired and profitable (2 Timothy 3:17). It is one piece of fabric. The gospel is the supremely glorious design in the center of the fabric. But all of it is woven together as one fabric. So my biblical exhortation is: Every day with meekness receive the word of God. That is, every day be in the Bible. Breathe the Bible. Don’t try to hold your breath from Monday to Wednesday. Breathe every day.’”

John Piper in “Receive With Meekness the Implanted Word” (Sermon given January 6, 2008)

The Cruciform Life Requires a "Drastic Conversion"

"The diagnosis of the world's sickness (and, therefore, of the individuals who comprise the world) is that the power to love has been wrongly directed. It has either been turned in upon itself or given to the wrong things. The outward symptoms, and the results, of this misdirection are plainly obvious (at least in other people) in what we call 'sin' or 'selfishness.' The drastic 'conversion' which God-become-Man called for is the reversal of the wrong attitude, the deliberate giving of the whole power to love, first to God, and then to other people."

J. B. Phillips in Your God Is Too Small, page 121.

Cruciform = "A Striking Likeness of Jesus Christ"

“A Christian should be a striking likeness of Jesus Christ. You have read lives of Christ, beautifully and eloquently written, and you have admired the talent of the persons who could write so well, but the best life of Christ is His living biography, written out in the words and actions of His people. If we, my brethren, were what we profess to be; if the Spirit of the Lord were in the heart of all His children, as we could desire; and if, instead of having abundance of formal professors, we were all possessors of that vital grace, I will tell you not only what we ought to be but what we should be; we should be pictures of Christ, yea, such striking likenesses of Him, that the world would not have to hold us up by the hour together, and say, ‘Well, it seems somewhat of a likeness;’ but they would, when they once beheld us, exclaim, ‘He has been with Jesus; he has been taught of Him, he is like Him; he has caught the very idea of the holy Man of Nazareth, and he expands it out into his very life and every day actions.’”

C. H. Spurgeon in “Christ’s People—Imitators of Him” (Sermon given April 29, 1855)