Justification, Sanctification, and Moral Effort

There is a brand of "gospel-centeredness" that makes me nervous. I know that sounds bad, for who does not want to be gospel centered? There is a view in Evangelicalism that we grow in sanctification primarily through deepening our understanding of justification. As a Luther guy, I resonate with this and agree in part. But more than a Luther guy, I strive to be a New Testament guy, and I feel that this brand of gospel-centeredness does not due justice to the teaching of the New Testament on the necessity of moral instruction and moral effort. Generally speaking on this topic, I tend to side with Platt/Chan/Hood/DeYoung over against Horton/Tullian/Ortlund/Keller and their followers. Here are a round-up of links that I think are helpful on this topic:

• Make Every Effort - DeYoung
• Gospel Driven Effort - DeYoung
• Is Sanctification by Faith Alone? - DeYoung
• Holiness is Indicative and Imperative - DeYoung
• Heresy is Heresy, not the Litmus Test of Gospel Preaching - Hood
• The Cross in the New Testament - Hood (I think this is a very important article)
• We Who Have the Spirit Have the Power to Change - Hood
• Christ-Centered Interpretation Only? -Hood (I cannot find this excellent article online, but have linked to Patrick Schreiner's summary. If you live near a seminar, go find this article!!)
• Christ-Centered Cautions - Hansen
• Ethics, Preaching, and Biblical Theology - Frame

A Peculiar Irony

"(It is a peculiar irony that in the modern - and 'postmodern' - world, Christianity has come to be regarded as narrow and moralistic. Originally, it was quite the reverse: figures such as Jesus and Paul were widely regarded as rebels, antinomians, disturbers of decency.)"

-Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the NT, 37

Literal Drug Commercial

Zaspel Review of Perspectives on the Sabbath

Speaking of Perspectives on the Sabbath, Fred Zaspel has a nice review here.

Blake Griffin vs Knicks: Just Dirty

Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl Movie

If this movie is as half as good as the book was, it will be well worth $8.80. Buy it and throw a party inviting your fellow church members. I plan to. Here is more info.

Almost Cool

N.T. Wright on Discontinuity

"Obvious examples of discontinuity are all over the place. The ancient Jewish purity laws are seen as no longer relevant to a community in which Gentiles are welcome on equal terms (Mark 7; Acts 15; Galatians 2). The Temple in Jerusalem, and the sacrifices that took place there, are no longer the focal point of God's meeting with his people (Mark 12:28-34; Acts 7; Romans 12:1-2; Hebrews 8-10); indeed, there will be no Temple in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21-22, the more remarkable since that passage is built on the Temple-centered climax of Ezekiel). The sabbath is no longer mandatory (Romans 14:5-6), and indeed if people insist on such observances they are cutting against the grain of the gospel (Galatians 4:10). There is now no holy land: in Paul's reinterpretation of the Abrahamic promises in Romans 4:13, God promises Abraham not just one strip of territory but the whole world, anticipating the renewal of all creation as in Romans 8. Perhaps most importantly, the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile has been abolished (throughout Paul, and summarized in Ephesians 2:11-22). These conclusions were reached by the early Christians, not by a cavalier process of setting aside bits of the Old Testament which they found unwelcome, bu through a deep-rooted sense, worked out theologically and practically, that all of that scripture had been summed up in Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:17, itself summing up the message of much of the book; Romans 3:31, 2 Corinthians 1:20) and that now God's project of new covenant and new creation had begun, necessarily taking a new mode. . . . Precisely because of the emphasis on the unique accomplishment of Jesus Christ, the Old Testament could not continue to have exactly the same role within the Christian community that it had had before."

-The Last Word, 55-56

What is New Covenant Theology?

Here is a link to a one hour class I taught attempting to answer this question. Here is the handout I used:

I. 3 systems

a. Covenant Theology

i. Emphasis on Continuity

ii. Mostly Presbyterian

b. Dispensationalism

i. Emphasis on Discontinuity

ii. Mostly Bible Churches

c. New Covenant Theology

i. Both Continuity & Discontinuity

ii. Believer’s church traditions. Rooted in Anabaptism.

II. 5 Distinctives of NCT

a. One Plan of God Centered in Jesus Christ

i. Eph 1.8-10

ii. No Covenant of Grace

b. Read OT in light of NT

i. Heb 1.1-2

c. The Old Covenant was temporary by divine design

i. Not Under Law

ii. Gal 3.19-21, 23-25

iii. Old Age

d. There is no tripartite division of the law

i. Exod 19-24

ii. Heb 7.11-12

iii. 10 Commandments

e. We are not under the law of Moses, but under the Law of Christ

i. Gal 6.2, 1 Cor 9.20-21

ii. Purpose is God’s Glory, Pattern is Jesus, Principle is Love, and the Power is the Holy Spirit

f. All in the New Covenant Community Have the Holy Spirit

i. Ezek 36-37, Joel 2, Isa 32, 44

ii. Israel/Church

1. Gal 3.7, 29, 6.15-16, Rom 2.28-29, Phil 3.2-3

Good Lookin' Out: Perspectives on the Sabbath

The Sabbath is a very important topic in biblical and theological studies. It is a major hermeneutical test case for how one lets biblical theology inform systematic theology. The differences between the theological systems of covenant theology and new covenant theology in many ways revolve around the Sabbath. It is an important topic to think through.

Having said that, I want to recommend Craig Blomberg's chapter in a recently published book called Perspectives on the Sabbath: 4 Views ed. Christopher John Donato. Blomberg advocates the "Fulfillment view." Although he does not use the label, this is the New Covenant view of the Sabbath, and he does a fantastic job interpreting key passages and responding to opposing views. Here is an excerpt from his section on Hebrews:

"Because Jesus fulfilled the Law, and thus fulfilled the Sabbath commands, He, not some day of the week, is what offers the believers rest. We obey the Sabbath commandment of the Decalogue as we spiritually rest in Christ, letting Him bear our heavy burdens, trusting Him for salvation, and committing our lives to Him in service, then remaining faithful in lifelong loyalty to Him rather than committing apostasy."

He then quotes Everett Ferguson as a fitting summary of his view:

"The view that the Sabbath is binding on Christians rests on no explicit text in the NT or early Christian literature. It is surpassingly strange that a supposedly central Christian religious duty depends on the interpretation of an OT text. Rather than seeing a continuing validity of the Sabbath, which was changed from Saturday to Sunday, whether legitimately by the apostles in the first century or illegitimately by the church in the second (or by Constantine in the fourth), it is better to see the Sabbath command as a part of the superseded Mosaic institution and the Lord's Day as a different type of day, a day of assembly and worship."

(For several helpful resources on the Sabbath, see here)

1st Time Biker Kid Gives Speech to the Nation

1st Time Biker's Inspirational Speech

God's Goal in Marriage

"It is God who designed change to be a process and not an event. It is God who chose to put flawed people together in the intensity and close proximity of the intimacy of marriage. It is God who designed marriage to expose your heart, to take you beyond the borders of your own strength and wisdom, and to mature and grow you as you quit relying on yourself and begin to seek the help that only God can give. It is God who created marriage as a workroom to form you into a person who loves as you have been loved and finds joy in giving the same kind of grace that you have been given. It is God who knew that the messiness of marriage would be productive in advancing the work that he began in us when he adopted us as his children. . . . God's goal is that you marriage would be a major tool in his wise and loving hands to rescue you fro claustrophobic self-worship and form you into a person who lives for nothing smaller tan his kingdom, his righteousness, and his glory. God's goal is to transform you at the causal core of your personhood - your heart."

-Paul Tripp, What Did You Expect?, 243-44