Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of the day I heard and accepted God's call to vocational ministry. Years later I was ordained at Real Life Church, where I currently serve, and as part of the ordination ceremony I offered promises to those present about what I considered myself called to be and do. I think this is a good occasion to offer those promises to the wider community of whoever it is that reads my blog. I will offer them exactly as I wrote them at the time.

As a minister of the Gospel,

I promise first and foremost to die to self and seek the glory of God in all that I think, say and do, giving no regard for my own status or recognition, embodying the words of Jesus himself: “Not to be served, but to serve.”

I promise to never stop meditating on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, so that my living and teaching of the Christian life will be based on who he actually was and is.

I promise to pursue a life of character, modeling Jesus’ intimacy with and obedience to God, seeking to embody the virtues of faith and hope, love and joy, peace and gentleness, patience and generosity, humility and discipline.

I promise to regularly engage in practices that will create space for the Holy Spirit to work in my life so that I might grow as a holy and faithful man and minister of the gospel.

I promise to always critique my own assumptions—theological, philosophical, and pastoral—so that my care for individuals and communities will be based as closely as possible on truth.

I promise to always tell the truth with courage and grace, neither ignoring truth’s difficult demands nor overlooking its promise of hopefulness for the world and the people in it.

I promise to labor for justice and peace, caring for and defending those who cannot care for or defend themselves, always modeling the nonviolent but powerful love that was displayed in Jesus’ death on the cross.

I promise to imitate the attitude of the Apostle Paul, considering my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying, in both word and deed, to the good news that God has acted to save and transform the world.

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This is the eighth and final post in a series in which I've tried to offer simple answers to questions often asked in our church. It's really more of a table of contents rather than an actual post, I guess. Here are links to the questions I've dealt with:

How do we know God exists? (pt 1)

How do we know God exists? (pt 2)

Why does God allow pain and suffering?

If Jesus is the only way to Heaven, what about people from other religions? (1)

If Jesus is the only way to Heaven, what about people from other religions? (2)

How can we trust the Bible? (pt 1)

How can we trust the Bible? (pt 2)

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(This is the seventh of eight posts in which I’ll answers questions that come up often in our church, and the second in which I deal with this particular question.)

Science and history have never disproved the central claims of Scripture. I do not mean by this that every statement the Bible makes about ‘history’ or ‘science’ is absolutely accurate in every way. I mean that in many cases they were never intended to be. The Bible is not primarily about history, and not about science at all. It is about God, and how God is moving through history. Science doesn’t really have a say one way or another about the Bible’s credibility. Science and Scripture are talking about the world from very different angles; one could argue that these angles call one another into question, but that is another question altogether, and involves a faith decision one way or the other (see above on the existence of God). This may be frustrating for us because we are socially conditioned to believe that something must be scientific to be true, but this simply isn’t the case (as much of our lives prove quite clearly; see above on the existence of God). As for history, of course the Bible’s retelling has been edited and stylized. They were not primarily concerned with recounting facts, but with telling a story that shapes a community of faith by rendering the truth of/about God. The formal discipline of history (as we think of it) is a relatively new phenomenon and would have been entirely uninteresting to the writers of Scripture. Most importantly, once again, the resurrection of Jesus stands up to the toughest historical scrutiny, and its dependability validates the rest of the story of which it is part (though certainly critiquing much of the earlier story).

I would also stress that we have to trust in something, whether an ancient book or the contemporary mindset/mood of ‘the times’ in which we live. Many people in our world distrust the Bible, choosing instead to figure the truth out for themselves. What they don’t seem to realize is that they have been socially conditioned to make this decision – shun tradition and follow your intuition. In other words, someone (or rather some tradition) has told them to think like this, which means that this someone or tradition is their authority. The idea that they are free to think for themselves is a myth. And like all myths, it is one established by people in power to keep us out of their way. If everyone is concerned with their own private life and private spirituality and personal choices, the powers that be can continue to do their thing without any interference from something so annoying as an ancient tradition which exposes their claims as idolatrous and their pretension as empty arrogance. Anyhow, back to the point: even if you choose to distrust the Bible, you’re trusting some authoritative tradition. You’re believing in something. I just happen to think this is the most reliable - that is, truthful - tradition.

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(This is the sixth of eight posts in which I’ll answers questions that come up often in our church.)

Scripture's story centers on an historical event that stands up to critical scrutiny: Jesus’ resurrection. In discussing the trustworthiness of the Bible, I never start with the Bible, but with Jesus, and particularly Jesus’ resurrection. I believe with very good reasons that Jesus rose from the dead. I believe that this is the most historically likely way to explain the facts: Jesus was crucified under the authority of Pontius Pilate; his tomb was later found empty (otherwise the movement would never have gotten off the ground); the disciples believed Jesus appeared to them in a new physical body (they wouldn’t even have thought to make up the story, since they never expected Jesus to be resurrected alone within history, and it is very unlikely that they would have died for something they knew was a lie); the Christian movement was founded and took off, centrally based on this event. There have been many attempts to account for this evidence, but the only historically tenable conclusion is that something did, in fact, happen on Easter morning, and that this something was Jesus being resurrected from the dead. And this validates the rest of the story; Jesus’ resurrection proves that Jesus was God’s Messiah, and thus the world’s true Lord, which affirms the central lines of Old Testament hopes and promises. Jesus is likewise validated as the clearest revelation of Israel’s Creator God.

Its description of the world tells the truth about our world. To put it differently, it’s story fits. It describes the world truly. This is a huge point, so let me just offer an example or two. Take the story of Adam and Eve. When we free this story from questions like, ‘How did the serpent talk?’ or ‘Did Adam and Eve have belly-buttons?’ or ‘Why can’t we find the garden of Eden?’, we see that it accurately describes the human situation. We have all – as individuals and societies – listened to the voices in our world and in our heads, and chosen not to trust that God loves us and is out to do us good. We have all taken our destiny into our own hands, rejecting whatever it is we know of God’s command. We know that something is wrong with the world, and that it manifests itself in relational strife, toil, labor, and frustration from the ground (famine, drought, etc), and pain in childbearing. This story describes our world truly. There are many more ways this is true, both in general and of specific stories.
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(This is the fifth of eight posts in which I’ll answers questions that come up often in our church, and the second in which I tackle this particular question.)

If God plans to “save” people who aren’t explicitly identified as Christians, he hasn’t told us. All we know is how God has purposed to bring salvation to the world – through Jesus – so until God tells us otherwise we’re going to focus on that. This brings up two other points:

1. God hasn’t told us to spend a lot of time speculating what he might do with others. (In the Bible, this is one of God’s people’s favorite ways of avoiding looking at our own problems.) And he hasn’t told us to determine with certainty who will go where and experience what when God returns to make things right.

2. Consider that God might sometimes intentionally not tell us things for our own good. You’ve probably heard of the age of accountability – the idea that children are not held responsible before God for their actions until they reach a certain point in maturity. Well, Scripture never tells us specifically when that is. But if you think about it, that’s probably a good thing. If God had said, “All children are safe from judgment until they reach the age of 10” (or whatever age), then what would happen? You’d have some crazy person going around killing all the children under a certain age in places where the message of Christianity was not present or allowed. Do you get my point? If we knew that there was some “other way” for people to be saved – not other than Jesus, but another way of being saved through Jesus – then lots of (or lots more) people would never worry about telling people the truth about Jesus. (I owe this point to my friend Nick Parsons!)

So does God save people apart from explicit faith in Jesus? We don’t know. If he does, he hasn’t told us about it, and for that we are grateful. Within this, we hold out the possibility that God may accept into “heaven” persons not explicitly identified as “Christians” (such as Ghandi or someone who never heard about Jesus). We are not saying that we’re sure this is the case; that would take us beyond the bounds of what we think God has revealed. But we are affirming that we don’t think it would contradict the character and ways of God revealed in Scripture’s witness to Jesus Christ. So does God save people apart from explicit faith in Jesus? We don’t know, but we’re not willing to say we know for sure that he doesn’t. And more importantly, we believe that God has come to us in Jesus, offering salvation in both the next life and this one. Our task is to faithfully respond to what we believe God has revealed.
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(This is the fourth of eight posts in which I’ll answers questions that come up often in our church.)

There is a huge problem with this question, which generally assumes that the thing God is concerned about is individual persons getting to heaven when they die. But God’s goal is not to save individuals out of the world to live with him in heaven, but to redeem – and eventually re-create – the world, including the people in it. Moreover, the Bible does not teach that we will live together with God in heaven forever, but that God will come from heaven and dwell with us on a freshly created and fully healed “new earth.” Nevertheless, the question still remains as to who will “be there,” so to speak, wherever “there” is and whatever it will be like. So we continue. (For the most part, I will use the language of “saved” and “heaven” in the way they’re typically used, but keep in mind that I find this usage problematic.) I will offer my thoughts on this topic in two posts.

God can be trusted to do the right thing. It’s his call, and I’m very glad about that. Whatever God does will be right, and it will not violate his love, his grace, or his holiness.

If anyone will be in heaven, it will be because of Jesus. No one can be “good enough.” The only reason any of us can be “saved” – that is, liberated from the powers of sin and death (in the next life and/or this one) – is because Jesus both averted God’s wrath and broke the stranglehold of sin/Satan over humanity. Had Jesus not done what he did, none of us would be saved. So there is no way anyone can be saved apart from Jesus.

We want God to save as many people as possible! We never rejoice at the prospect of anyone being shut out of God’s future. If we get to heaven and out that God’s mercy and grace were wider than we imagined, we will certainly celebrate. We don’t use God as a way to make ourselves feel better than other people.
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(This is the third of eight posts in which I’ll answers questions that come up often in our church.)

(This question is obviously much more than merely an intellectual problem. The words 'suffering' and 'pain' hardly grasp the realities they speak of. So I offer the following thoughts as woefully inadequate reflections on a much deeper problem.)

To put it in simple terms we can understand, when God created the world he had two options: (1) Create a world where creatures did not have an opportunity to rebel against him. If he chose this option, then the world might be tragedy-less, but human beings would be more like robots than actual people. Most importantly, love would not have been a real possibility in the relationship between God and humanity, and between humans and one another. (2) Create a world where creatures did have an opportunity to rebel against him. In choosing this option, he opened the door to the possibility of evil, suffering, and death entering his world, but he also kept open the door of love and authentic relationship.

So either you have a world of love with suffering, or a world with neither suffering nor love. And the whole purpose of creation was for our Triune God to share Divine Love, to invite other creatures into this dynamic interplay of life and love. Basically, it goes against God’s nature to avoid love, even though love is always inherently risky.

Another important biblical teaching is that there are beings in this world – evil spirits, if you want to call them something – that work against God’s purposes by leading humankind into personal and corporate rebellion. One of the main purposes of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection was to defeat these powers of evil that enslave human beings and cause both 'natural' evils (earthquakes, tsunamis, etc) and personal evils (murder, pollution).

This brings us to what the Bible considers to be the more crucial question: What is God doing to overcome the problem created by sin and death entering the world (that is, evil and suffering)? From the very beginning, God has been working to overcome the sin problem begun in Adam. He has done this by calling together a community of people committed to worshiping, obeying, and trusting him alone. Through this community God seeks to show the world what life is like when God is honored as God, draw all people back into relationship with him, and to put the world back together again. We believe Jesus stands at the center of this plan as God taking upon Godself the world’s evil and overcoming it. Once gain, it is now through the church that God seeks to continue this mission. So in a very real way, we are God’s answer to the problem of evil and suffering.
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(This is the second of eight posts in which I’ll answers questions that come up often in our church.)

Yesterday I argued that no one – neither believers nor atheists – can be absolutely certain about God’s existence. Yet we (Christians) believe that God is here and that he is not silent. Here are a few reasons why:

Design – When we consider the brilliant and complex design of our world, we believe it makes most sense to believe in an intelligent designer. (FYI, this is different from the specific position in modern scientific debates called “Intelligent Design”.)

First cause / Final explanation – If you continually ask the question Why? or How? of our world, eventually you must answer either ‘God’ or ‘That’s just the way things are.’ We think it probable that God is the first cause, rather than mere chance.

Moral conviction – While it is certainly true that morality differs among different cultures, there is always some sort of moral expectations among human beings. Something is seen as right (or commendable) and something is seen as wrong (or punishable). We think that ‘moral law’ implies a ‘moral lawgiver’ (even if we don’t think those terms best describe God or what God asks of us).

Spirituality – Throughout history, the majority of human persons and societies have sought some form of spiritual or transcendent experience. Either 99% of human beings are stupid and/or deceived (and/or not 'scientific' enough to believe that science can and must explain everything), or there is some reality beyond us that calls out to us.

Beauty and goodness – Much is made of the problem of evil and suffering, but we think that the opposite question is equally powerful and problematic for those who deny God’s existence: Why is there so much beauty and goodness in the world? How do you explain the way we feel when we stand on top of a mountain, or what we experience in authentic friendship or romance, or when people selflessly sacrifice on others’ behalf? Of course there are many possible explanations, but once again, we think the one with God in it seems most likely.

Jesus’ resurrection – Most importantly, we believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, and this would not be possible if God didn’t exist. God raised Jesus from the dead, which validates this story about God as the true story about God. The story of Jesus’ resurrection is unexplainable apart from the reality of God. (I realize there are many who deny the resurrection and thus consider this point null and void, but I simply disagree. If anyone wants to know why feel free to ask, and I'll try to eventually present a case (though it might be a while).)

We should note that the Bible never tries to prove God’s existence to us. The Bible simply assumes we’ll believe in some form or idea of god or gods, and it tells us a story of the One it claims to be the True God. It ignores the question, ‘Is there a God?’ in favor of the question, ‘What is God really like?’ The difference between our world and theirs is that we can believe in, for instance, the value and authority of democracy or individual autonomy (freedom), and yet separate these beliefs from any talk of 'God.' Biblically, these things simply are our gods, and we are all idolaters. In other words, from a biblical perspective, idolatry is much more interesting than atheism, because atheism is simply a disguised form of idolatry (since, once again, all people give allegiance to something, even if only themselves or their own human reason / opinions).
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(This is the first of eight posts in which I’ll answers questions that come up often in our church.)

We'll start with a question that seems foundational to many people: How do we know God exists? I'll offer my thoughts in two entries.

First we have to acknowledge that we don’t know for sure that God exists, any more than we know for sure that he doesn’t. Absolute certainty about whether God exists or not is impossible.

Some people might say God doesn’t exist because God’s existence can’t be proven “scientifically.” But if anything like what we mean by the word “God” does exist, there is no way science could answer the question one way or another. Others might say that God has to exist because we’ve experienced him; but there is no way to know for sure that our experience matches the reality we’re claiming is behind it.

It is impossible for us to find a place or perspective from which we can look down and determine God's existence either way. This would only be possible if God were below us, which would make him something other than God.

Instead of certainty, we are dealing with degrees of probability. Those who affirm and deny God’s existence are looking at the world, gathering information, and making an educated evaluation – a guess really – about the best explanation for what they see. Some think the world is best explained by the existence of a God. Others think the opposite. But neither position is inherently more logical, and both involve faith – a risky commitment we each have to make given our limited knowledge and perspective.

Within this, there are many reasons I think it more likely that God exists than that he doesn’t. I will post them tomorrow.
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So I’m not officially back as a regular blogger – I’ve needed a break to reflect on some important upcoming milestones in my life, and I’m not done taking this break yet – but I have some material I put together for another venue that I think will make for decent blogging. At Real Life (the church where I am a pastor), we do an annual “Q&A Sunday,” where some of the pastors and laypeople host a Q&A session with the people in our church. Some questions are planned ahead of time, but about half are based on questions asked from the audience during our time together. We’re doing this in a few weeks, and my boss asked me to offer some thoughts on a few questions that always come up. So I did. And as I did, I thought to myself, “I should blog this stuff.” So here I am, blogging this stuff. The answers are mid-length – brief when compared with all that needs to be said, and long when compared to what we have time to explain on Sunday – so I think they provide a decent introduction into how I approach the issues. Here are the questions (his wording, not mine):

How do we know God exists?
Why does God allow pain and suffering?
If Jesus is the only way to Heaven, what about people from other religions?
What is our church’s view on homosexuality?
How can we trust the Bible?

Starting tomorrow (if I have computer access; otherwise starting Wednesday) I will post my reflections on these questions every two or three days. I hope you enjoy thinking about these things, and as always I welcome any and all feedback.
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PS I received some pretty heated comments from someone in Melbourne a few posts ago. I will gladly and I hope graciously respond to them soon!
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Sorry I haven't been posting much at all. Life comes at you fast. As I mentioned in the last post, I'm in the middle of a seminar on "world religions" at Real Life called We Are Not Alone. Since I don't have much time to read or think about other stuff (like the books I recently promised to blog through) right now, what I post will probably have to do with world faiths and stuff. At the beginning of the seminar, I wanted to be honest and forthright about my assumptions coming in. There is much that I do not understand about this whole conversation, but like everyone else I have certain assumptions that I bring to the table. Here are some of the most important ones.

What can be known of God is best known by looking at Jesus. This is my way of affirming the uniqueness of Jesus as God's fullest and finalest revelation. Everyone looks at God from somewhere, even the people espousing the whole "all roads lead up the same mountain" (see the poem below). The funny thing about the poem below is that someone is assuming the position of the speaker / observer. And that person makes an implicit claim to know something about God that all the other "religions" miss. I make a similar claim, but I think the answer is not by acting as if we can step outside the historical faiths (which actually involves stepping into yet one more historical faith, this once going by various names: scientific, rationalism, enlightenment, modern, postmodern, etc), but by trusting in Jesus as the way God came to us.

Salvation is about more than what happens to individual humans after they die. First of all, salvation is God's plan for the entire universe. Salvation, for instance, is something creation (or "nature," if you subscribe to the new historical faith mentioned above) looks forward to and will participate in (Romans 8.19-21). Salvation is about all of God's creation being rescued from the disastrous effects of sin. So it is about more than just humans. Humans do nevertheless stand at the center of salvation. This is where the second part comes in; speaking of salvation in terms of humanity, it isn't just about "where we go when we die" (or, more precisely, when Jesus returns). That is certainly important, and I'd never want to deny that at all - like, at all! - but salvation is about freedom from the power of evil and sin and death right here and now. Please understand, I'm not trying to deny the importance of the future, but I am trying to remind us that asking whether a person is "saved" has as much to do with how free they are from sinful ways of thinking and living as it does where they'll go when they die. If anyone cares to ask me to elaborate, feel free and I'll try. (By the way, ARod, I haven't ignored your question; I'm just waiting until I can do it justice.)

God’s saving plan is both “universal” and “particular.” That is to say, everything God does is designed to reach the whole world and all the people in it. He never acts just for this or that group. His plans are as big as the world he created. This is a scandal to some "religious" people who want God to care about only their group. That is also to say, however, that God (for reasons unknown to me) always goes about reaching all people by working in and through particular people (or groups of people). He chose one man out of all the tribes of the earth - Abraham - and promised to bring his blessing through that one family's seed. He remained committed to Israel as his people through whom he would bless the whole world. Etc. So it comes as no difficulty to me to believe that God would remain committed to one person or group as the means through which he will bring salvation to all (or as many as will have it). This is a scandal to many "secular" people, primarily because they fail to recognize that their commitment to universality is but yet another particularity among others.

That's enough for now. I have about five more, but I'll post them bit by bit. Any questions, reflections, or disagreements?

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I'm starting a seminar on "world religions" this weekend at our church, and I want to begin by reading and reflecting on a well-known poem that best expresses current popular thought on the subject in our culture. It is printed below. What are your thoughts on it? What thoughts or questions does it raise for you? What does it settle or unsettle for you? What are some things I might do with it?

It was six men of Indostan

To learning much inclined,

Who went to see the Elephant

(Though all of them were blind),

That each by observation

Might satisfy his mind.



The First approach'd the Elephant,

And happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side,

At once began to bawl:

"God bless me! but the Elephant

Is very like a wall!"



The Second, feeling of the tusk,

Cried, -"Ho! what have we here

So very round and smooth and sharp?

To me 'tis mighty clear

This wonder of an Elephant

Is very like a spear!"



The Third approached the animal,

And happening to take

The squirming trunk within his hands,

Thus boldly up and spake:

"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant

Is very like a snake!"



The Fourth reached out his eager hand,

And felt about the knee.

"What most this wondrous beast is like

Is mighty plain," quoth he,
'Tis clear enough the Elephant 

Is very like a tree!"



The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,

Said: "E'en the blindest man

Can tell what this resembles most;

Deny the fact who can,

This marvel of an Elephant

Is very like a fan!"



The Sixth no sooner had begun

About the beast to grope,

Then, seizing on the swinging tail

That fell within his scope,

"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant

Is very like a rope!"



And so these men of Indostan

Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion

Exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right,

And all were in the wrong!



MORAL:
So oft in theologic wars, 

The disputants, I ween, 

Rail on in utter ignorance 

Of what each other mean, 

And prate about an Elephant 

Not one of them has seen!

John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887)

(For an ancient version of the story in a different form, visit http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~rywang/berkeley/258/parable.html.)

Over the next bit, I’ll be blogging through a little book called The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom by Alan Kreider. I have chosen this book for three main reasons. First, I’ve wanted to read and absorb it for a long time, and blogging through it provides this opportunity. Second, at Real Life we’re presently revisiting what it means to “cross the line” from non-Christian to Christian in our context, and I think this book will provide important insight. And third, those of you who responded to my survey of topics expressed interest in how the church should relate to culture, the church in relation to the use of power (and violence), etc, all topics this book deals with in (I think) an unique fashion.

Kreider aims to better understand the changes that took place in the church during the fourth century (when the Christian faith was legalized and standardized by Constantine and his heirs) by examining their practice of conversion. If we look at how the process of becoming a Christian changed throughout early church history, especially with the beginning of the period called ‘Christendom’, perhaps we will better understand the larger transformation of the church during this time.

In the Introduction Kreider lays out three goals: (1) Tell stories of early conversions in an attempt to distill the essence of conversion during this period. He will analyze these conversions in terms of belief, belonging, and behavior. (2) Attempt to chronicle the changing nature of conversion. He states that as the church gained the power to compel (even force) adherence, the meaning and process of conversion was altered. While some of the words and actions remained part of the package, the relationship of the parts within the package shifted. (3) Look closely at the phenomenon called ‘Christendom’. (Generally, by the way, this term is used to describe a world in which Christianity and the ‘secular’ powers of government are wed together and attempt to co-rule the world.)

I am excited to learn about these things, and I think studies like this can be very helpful to our current 21st century post-Christian situation. We are for the first time in seventeen hundred years in a world in which Christianity is no longer ‘dominant’ in the wider culture. I think this is to be celebrated, but it brings lots of scary realities with it too. As for possible critique, I’m a bit leery of forcing ‘conversion’ to fit within the boxes of belief, belonging, and behavior; I just hope he lets history bend his boxes rather than the other way around.

Let me end with a question: How is conversion practiced in your faith community? (Or in past faith communities of which you’ve been a part?) No complicated analysis needed – just a general description of what is constant and central in the process. How does one cross the line and become a follower of Jesus? If you’re not comfortable with (or capable of) speaking for your entire community, what would you say to a non-Christian who asked you how to ‘cross the line’?

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I want to end our week by drawing your attention to a powerful passage in one of Paul’s letters. Take a look at 2 Corinthians 1.3-7:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

I have a tough question: What’s the main idea in this paragraph? Okay, so it’s not that tough. Paul is pretty clearly concerned with comfort. More specifically, Paul wants to encourage those who are suffering by reminding them that God can use even their pain to further his mission in the world.

The words “encourage” or “strengthen” are actually better translations of the Greek word used here than “comfort.” Comfort sounds soft and cuddly, protected and serene. The word Paul uses is parakaleo. It has to parts: kaleo, which means “to call,” and para, which means “beside.” When you put the two together, the word means something like “to call to my side.”

Picture a man or woman who is exhausted. Not just tired, but weary. It hasn’t just been one of those days, but one of those months or years or lifetimes, or at least that’s how it feels. Nothing is going right, and they don’t know if one more step is even possible. Now picture an old grandfather coming up to our friend, placing his arm around her shoulder, drawing her to his side, and saying, “You may be done for on your own. But you’re not on your own. We are together, and together we can do this. Together we can move forward. Together we can endure.”

That’s what I think of when I hear this word parakaleo. And when I think of that grandfather, I see you. Every one of you.

I see you being the comforter, the encourager, the strengthener, the one who puts your arm around the hurting, the lonely, the depressed, the poor, the oppressed, the anxious, the lost, the scared, the confused, and the weary.

“But wait!” you might be saying. “I can’t be the comforter. I am the one hurting or lonely or depressed or poor or oppressed; I am the anxious, the lost, the scared, the confused, and the weary.”

That’s the point. You are wounded. You have suffered, and perhaps are suffering right now. We are all wounded. We have all suffered. If we did not share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, neither would our comfort abound through Christ. If we were not wounded, we would not be able to heal.

As it is – as we are – we are healers. We are wounded healers.

The good news is not just that we can be free, but that we can participate in the liberation of others. The good news is not just what God has done for us and in us, but what God wants to do through us.

We’ve spent most of our time during this series focusing on ourselves. That’s not always bad, if we do it in the right way. In fact, we’re going to continue talking about how to get our own lives in order (albeit in community with others). But there comes a time to ask how each of us can focus on one another; there comes a time to attend to those who are not receiving attention.

So let me ask you a few simple questions: Who in your life is hurting? Who in your life is lonely or depressed? Who in your world is poor or oppressed? Who in your life is scared? Who in your life is weary? These questions are not hypothetical. Picture someone in your life who is not doing well. Think of someone in our world who needs our help.

Now imagine ways we can comfort and strengthen these people. Imagine something you can do to bring healing and peace to a wounded and broken world. And as you imagine, and as you go and do these things, remember your woundedness. Remember that you are not the world’s Savior, but merely a fellow journeyer; remember that you’ll always be a wounded healer.

People don’t want to know you’re perfect. People want to see that you’re beaten and bruised and yet you’re still standing and moving forward. People want to believe there is a way through captivity and bondage to freedom and liberation. People want to know that even though they are wounded, they too can not only be healed but heal.

As we continue to talk about freedom from our past, from our pain, from our addictions, remember how it’s all supposed to end: with each of us, wounded but nevertheless walking on, participating in God’s great mission to heal the world.

Now go! Go and perform some act of kindness, of compassion, of healing. Offer your time and your energy and your story. Find someone in need and help them – talk to them, listen to them, serve them. Find someone hurting and become a healing presence in their life. Go, experience and share the liberating joy of bringing life and salvation into the world in the name of Jesus, the one who brings life and salvation to us all.

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Let me ask you a question: Why should we be good? Why should we live one way rather than another? Why should we live the way God wants us to live? Why should we pursue the path of cross-shaped and resurrection-empowered faith, hope and love? You can tell a lot about a person or family or church by how they answer these questions.

So go ahead and give it a shot. If/when someone asks you why you try to live in a way that pleases God, what do you say?

I’d be interested to hear what some of you said. Perhaps you said, because he’s God and he said to do it. Maybe you said you simply think it’s the best way to live. Others may have said it’s just how you’ve always tried to do things. Still others may be afraid of the consequences of doing otherwise. I’m sure at least a few of us came to the realization that we really don’t know.

But for the most part I’d say that we believe we’re supposed to be good because, well, were just supposed to. We try to be good because we believe (or at least we think we believe) that being good is good. And that’s good (that we believe this). Or I think it is anyway. But I don’t know that it’s best.

Seeking to be good for goodness’ sake may be a good idea, but it’s not really very compelling, at least now when we’re faced with other options. When something more appealing or comforting or safe comes along, I don’t know that we’ll stick to the path of faith, hope and love simply because for some reason we think we’re supposed to.

Thankfully, there are other, deeper, more compelling reasons for living faithfully to Jesus. We can get at these deeper reasons by reflecting on the concept of being created in the image of God. You may recognize this phrase from one of our creation narratives.

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.
So God created human beings in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
(Genesis 1.26-27)

In the ancient world, this word “image” referred to statues the king would place throughout the land in all the far corners of his empire. The king did this to remind all the people that he was in charge, that he was sovereign, that he was the one to whom they owed obedience and awe. These statues were, of course, made of stone and they were usually statues of the king himself. These stone statues were powerful symbols of his reign; they represented his majesty and power in places where he was not personally present.

So to be created in God’s image means that we are created to be representations of his majesty and might, powerful signs that he is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe. Moreover, he has given us a task, a calling: to express his rule over the entire earth, over the land and sea. Everything else we say about true humanness must flow from this reality and this calling.

Now the fact is that we as a human race have exerted power over the created world. But we have certainly not done so in a loving way. Similarly, because of our lack of hope and faith in God, we have turned on one another, and instead of cooperating together in our shared project we have tried to dominate and rule over one another.

Let me put this simply: When people look at our lives, they should see what God is like. When someone or something sees the way we treat other and the world around us, they should see the loving character of the one who made us and put us here. But we have failed miserably in this task.

I’m reminded of something in the book of Hebrews: In putting everything under human beings, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them (Hebrews 2.8). In other words, things are not as they should be. The world has gotten out of hand. We have lost control. Notice, however, what the author says next: But we do see Jesus. In a few other places Paul refers to Jesus as “the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4.4; Colossians 1.15). Part of what Paul is saying is that Jesus is what we were always meant to be. Where we failed, Jesus succeeded. Jesus is living proof that God is King. When you look at Jesus, you see what God is like.

When we are invited to follow the way of Jesus, we are stepping back into the stream in which we were meant to swim, the song we were meant to sing. To live a life of Jesus-style faith, hope and love is to live, as one follower put it, with the grain of the universe. It’s so much more than merely morality. It’s not about being good because being good is good (or because God will smash us if we’re not); it’s about being holy – being like Jesus – so we can show the world what God is like and what God originally intended humankind to be.

When we are tempted to step outside of God’s design, may we not just tell ourselves to do the right thing because it’s the right thing, but may we also tell ourselves to follow Jesus because by doing the right thing we step in line with who were originally intended to be. And may we remind ourselves that Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. . . . And if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8.31-32, 36)

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If true freedom is not about liberty to do what we want but rather service to the right Lord, what does this authentic freedom actually look like? How would we describe a life – a person – that is free?

Today, I’m going to give it my best shot. And I’m once again going to follow the lead of the Apostle Paul (though I’m afraid Bob Dylan will have to sit this one out). Very early in Paul’s ministry, when he began writing letters to young churches instructing them on how to live a life of freedom, he developed a simple formula for describing the lives of Jesus-followers. Let’s see if you notice the pattern:

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13.13)

But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor circumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Galatians 5.5-6)

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all his people – the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven. (Colossians 1.4-5)

We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 1.3)

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. (1 Thessalonians 5.8).

Do you see it? According to Paul, a life that pleases God consists of faith, hope, and love. Elsewhere (in this week’s memory verse), Paul specifically especially ties the third one to freedom: You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge your sinful nature; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Today I want to briefly examine faith, hope and love. But I want to explore them in reverse because I think that’s the way they best make sense.

So let’s start with love. We actually talked about love last week when we discussed Jesus’ death on the cross as a pattern for our lives. Here is what we concluded: “If we want to know how to live to please God, if we wonder what God’s will is for our lives, we need look no further than Jesus laying down his life for others. Apparently, love means sacrificing yourself for someone else, placing their needs above your own, dying so they might live.” We then looked at specific ways the Scriptures call us to love everyone – our neighbors, people in need, people who are poor and oppressed, people we lead, people who betray our trust, even our enemies and people who attack us.

To live a life of love, and therefore freedom, is to be the type of persons who can and will sacrifice our lives for all of these people. As Paul once put it, we “look not to our own interests but each of us to the interests of others” (Philippians 2.4).

Um, can I just state the obvious? That’s really hard!!! It is easy to love those who love us and do good to us. It’s not too much harder to love people who are in need, as long as they don’t pester us. It’s a little more demanding to love people who are indifferent to us. And it’s downright difficult (and dangerous!) to love those who attack us. If we’re going to love like this, we’re going to need some help.

And that’s where hope comes in. It’s helpful to begin by thinking about it in the extreme. The ultimate expression of love is to give our lives so that someone else might live. The only way this is possible – as an expression of love, not self-centered heroism or psychologically unhealthy “giving in” – is if we know that something else makes this sacrifice worth it. More specifically, we can give our lives away if we believe that we will get them back again.

This is where the resurrection comes in. Our hope is based in the resurrection, the belief that God will one day raise us from the dead and give us new bodies for new life on a new earth (not disembodied souls floating on the clouds! See 1 Corinthians 15 & Revelation 21). Because we believe that God is faithful and will do this for us as he did for Jesus, living Jesus’ way now makes sense. By raising Jesus from the dead, God was saying, among other things, that Jesus’ life of sacrificial love really is the truly human way to live. Our love, which looks ridiculous to the world, is anchored firmly in our hope.

But how do we know that our hope is real? Well, for starters there are good historical reasons for believing that the early Christians’ reports that God raised Jesus from the dead are credible. First, they weren’t expecting this to happen (which is why it surprised them). Second, the details of the resurrection reports are notoriously jumbled. While some people claim this is proof that the documents are corrupt, it actually points to the opposite! If they made up the story, you can bet they’d get together and nail down the details. When children get into trouble and lie about it, your first clue is that they each tell the story in exactly the same way. The less confusion, the more collusion, as they say. And the opposite is true as well: the more confusion, the less collusion. Like painters whose portraits of the same person are all different but nevertheless recognizably similar, the Gospel writers’ resurrection reports have the realistic ring of historical truth about them. Third, if they were making up the stories, they’d be better stories! In their world, you certainly wouldn’t have had women be the first to see Jesus. (Women weren’t even considered credible witnesses in a court of law!) And you’d make the actual resurrection a bit more glamorous – we hear nothing of Jesus’ new body glowing like the sun, or anything like that.

But even with all this “evidence,” it’s a hard pill to swallow. You want me to live a life of unconditionally sacrificial love just because God raised a guy from the dead (even if it did happen)?!?! I just don’t know if I can do it.

And that’s where faith comes in. Faith is not believing the absolutely in-credible; it’s committing ourselves to what may be credible but still seems ridiculous. Faith is trusting – not just once but every moment of every day – that our hope is real, that it is anchored in a trustworthy God who always keeps his promises. There is no certainty in this life, whether you follow Uncle Sam, Muhammad, Nietzsche, the Almighty Dollar, Jesus, or whomever else. There’s no way around it; each of us will make a decision to trust that some way of life is best. Either we keep our money for ourselves or we use it to help those in need. Either we maintain powerful control of the people around us or we serve their needs before our own. Either we attack back those who attack us or we bless and pray for they who hate us.

What I am asking you to consider is that Jesus’ way is worth the risk. I am suggesting that a life of true freedom is found when we commit ourselves to Jesus’ pattern of love, hope and faith.

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Today we begin week three of The Source - Finding Freedom. (Click here to see weeks one and two.) In these meditations we explore this life of freedom available to us - what is it, what does it look like, why is it good, etc.
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It’s not every day that I begin The Source by quoting Bob Dylan, but today it seems appropriate, so let me quote a few lines from his song Gotta Serve Somebody. It’s a simple song in which the chorus is broken up by poetically parallel verses. Here are some of the verses:

You might be a rock 'n' roll addict prancing on the stage,
You might have drugs at your command, women in a cage,
You may be a business man or some high degree thief,
They may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief

You may be a construction worker working on a home,
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome,
You might own guns and you might even own tanks,
You might be somebody's landlord, you might even own banks

Might like to wear cotton, might like to wear silk,
Might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk,
You might like to eat caviar, you might like to eat bread,
You may be sleeping on the floor, sleeping in a king-sized bed

And here is the chorus, which he sings in between each verse:

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

Dylan’s point is simple: No matter what you do, what you drink, what you wear, how much money you make, what others think of you – no matter who you are – you gotta serve somebody.

Regardless of what you think of Dylan (or the song), what he says is important and true. All of us serve somebody or something. All of us have given ourselves to some code or ideal or principle, and in turn that rule or idea quietly and often imperceptibly governs what we think, say, and do. This someone or something guides how we spend our time and money, what we think is important and worth working for, how we respond to those who love or hate us, and so forth.

This actually flies in the face of what our dominant culture tells us. We are told, in effect, that if we “follow our heart” and trust our intuitions, we will indeed be free. We are led to believe that if we allow no one else to tell us what to do and be, we will be liberated from external control and we’ll experience true freedom.

We don’t have time to unpack the root of these assumptions, but it isn’t hard to recognize their problematic character. If true freedom is getting to do whatever you want to do, why do we know so many selfish people who’s lives are a complete mess? If all it takes to create a just and peaceful society is to provide everyone this kind of liberty from external compulsion, why do we still see so much violence, hatred, racism, sexism, corporate greed, and injustice in our society?

If we are honest and paying close enough attention, we must admit that something is wrong with our concept of freedom. Something is wrong with the ideal of getting to do whatever we think is right and good. The value of Dylan’s song is that it suggests there might be something more to this idea of freedom.

In fact, what Dylan says reminds me of something the Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the church at Rome:

Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6.16)

Here Paul fleshes out his earlier claim that “all alike are under sin” (Romans 3.9). It’s another way of putting what Jesus said elsewhere: Anyone who sins is a slave to sin. (John 8.34)

For Paul, obedience is not a choice we make – we may choose who to obey, but we don’t choose to obey or not. Obeying something is simply part of being human, something we can’t avoid. Authentic freedom, therefore, is not a matter of doing what we want, but of listening the right counsel. Real freedom means serving and obeying the right master, the right Lord.

I know all this sounds authoritarian and goes against the grain in our world, but think about it like this: Picture someone telling you that you should listen to no one and do what you want, what you think in your heart is right. And you do it. Are you not listening to them and doing what they’re telling you to do? Consider also the fact that many of those telling us this are trying to sell us something, whether a product or experience or whatever. They know they can influence what we want, so if they can convince us to seek whatever we think we want, we’ll seek what they’re offering. We’ll buy what they’re selling. No one is as free from others’ influence as they think – especially those who aren’t aware of who they’re listening to.

In other words, no matter who you are you gotta serve somebody.

Both Dylan and Paul simplify the decision we must make into two competing options. Using Paul’s words, we can either serve sin and self which results in death, or we can serve righteousness and holiness which results in life (see Romans 6.20-23). We can do things our way, which means we will unknowingly be tossed back and forth by whatever our culture or sub-culture shapes us to want and be. Or we can do things God’s way.

There are all sorts of things we want that we think we need or deserve. There are all sorts of lifestyles we think make sense. “There is a path” that seems right to all of us (see Proverbs 14.12). To complicate matters, we’re very good at telling ourselves that God wants for us what we want for ourselves. So I’m certainly not saying it’s an easy choice. But I am saying – with the Apostle Paul and Bob Dylan – that each of must choose.

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This is the last of four guided meditations on the atonement, all of which are part of a “devotional” we hand out each week at our church. (The other meditations can be found below.) Parts of this were designed for the people to write in their own reflections, which of course can’t happen on a blog. Nevertheless, here it is.

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I don’t know if you’ve noticed this yet, but the Bible talks about the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection in many different ways. The official word for this whole discussion is atonement and the various ways of looking at it are often called models or theories of atonement. Throughout history the church has echoed the Bible’s diversity by reflecting on many theories or models, and that’s what we’ve been doing this week.

We’ve seen how Jesus’ death overcomes the problems of our guilt and shame. We’ve explored Jesus’ death as a victory over cosmic powers that brings us freedom to live as God intended. Yesterday we dove into the problem of our fear of death, celebrating Jesus’ victory even over this final enemy which frees us from death’s deathly grip. And today we’re going to discuss one more, one that has been present throughout the church’s story in one form or another.

We’re going to look at Jesus’ death as an example for us to follow.

The authors of Scripture develop this one theme in many different ways too, and I should admit from the start that my hope is not to exhaust all the possible ways in which Jesus’ self-sacrificial death serves as a pattern for us to follow. My hope is rather to point to some of the ways Scripture develops this theme, suggest how we might faithfully continue following Jesus’ example, and encourage you to reflect on these things in your own life situation.

Let’s begin with this week’s memory verse. Though not specifically about Jesus’ death, it helps us understand his death’s full meaning. The verse makes a very bold statement, namely that all of God’s commands can be summed up in a single statement: “Love one another.”

Now, we all are very familiar with and fond of this teaching. Our entire culture enjoys talking about loving one another, but I fear that we often say this without knowing what it means. We must at least acknowledge that the word “love” is not self-defining. We ourselves use it in hundreds of ways, to describe everything from ice cream to our families, and I would hope that we mean something different by it in these different cases.

Love begs for a definition, and according to the Bible it finds that definition most poignantly in Jesus’ death on the cross:

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for one another. (1 John 3.16)

Pretty powerful, isn’t it?

In other words, if we want to know how to live to please God, if we wonder what God’s will is for our lives, we need look no further than Jesus laying down his life for others.

Apparently, love means sacrificing yourself for someone else, placing their needs above your own, dying so they might live (1 Thess 5.10).

Right now I want to guide you through some of the ways other biblical authors develop this idea. Take a look at each example and reflect on how you can manifest this kind of love in your own life.

Sacrificially loving those who are in need.

Read and reflect on 1 John 3.16-18 and Luke 10.25-37

How can you put this teaching into practice?

Sacrificially loving those we lead and live with.

Read and reflect on Mark 10.35-45 and Philippians 2.3-8

How can you put this teaching into practice?

Sacrificially loving those who betray our trust.

Read and reflect on John 13.1-5 and Ephesians 4.32-5.2

How can you put this teaching into practice?

Sacrificially loving our enemies and those who attack us.

Read and reflect on Luke 6.27-36; 1 Peter 2.18-25; 3.8-18

How can you put this teaching into practice?

I firmly believe that Jesus’ example calls us to care for the poor and needy, lead and serve with humility and selflessness, forgive when wronged, and respond to insult and injury without retaliation or violence. Someone once called this way of life cruciformity. I love that word because our calling is neither more nor less than to walk as Jesus did (1 John 2.5), and Jesus’ way of life got him crucified. I have no idea what will happen to us if we actually take these teachings seriously, but I do know three things: (1) God will be very pleased with us, (2) the world will take notice of such radical love, and (3) we need not fear whatever might happen in this life because God will one day raise us from the dead.

Through his death on a Roman cross and his resurrection three days later, Jesus has saved us from ourselves – our selfishness and greed, our bitterness and anger, our hatred and violence – by showing us a new way to live and enabling us to live it.

“Father, we want to truly love. We want to reflect your love to the world. We want to love others so much that we, like you, will be willing to suffer so they might see the truth, to die so they might live. Help us to be faithful, even if that means being foolish in the eyes of the world. You were a fool in the eyes of the world – in our eyes. But we now see that in your eyes, what looks like foolishness is true wisdom, what looks like weakness is true strength, what looks like defeat is true love. Help us walk in your way of wisdom, strength, love, and truth. Help us walk as Jesus did. We ask this in his name. Amen.”

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Quiz time: I took the title of today’s entry from a recent popular movie. Anyone know what it is? I’ll give you a hint: One of the main characters said it numerous times. I’ll give you another hint: This character had tentacles. That’s right, tentacles.

The movie is of course Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, and the character is Davy Jones. He has been given the unlovely task of ferrying dead souls to the underworld (or something like that), and each time he approaches someone about to die he asks them this question, “Do you fear death?” If they do, he offers them a chance to postpone death by joining his crew of creatures other characters in the film affectionately refer to as “the fish people.”

Anyhow, it’s a decent movie, and a great question. Do you fear death?

Today we’re going to dial back a bit and focus on one passage in particular from Scripture: Hebrews 2.14-15:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Now I don’t know about you, but I find this an interesting way to characterize humanity. We are those who (apparently) fear death. It makes sense, I guess. Death is not our friend. Death is an enemy lurking in the dark, promising to steal life from us without so much as an ounce of consent.

I’ve read two books in the last year about this idea of fearing death, both of which were very interesting. The first was The Denial of Death by an anthropologist named Ernest Becker. Becker argues that fear of death is a fundamental human motivator, “an innate fear which haunts us from birth.” We fear death because we love life, so we try to deny our death in all sorts of ways: increasing our security so that we aren’t in danger, increasing our strength so we look and feel less liable to harm, seeking friendships so we aren’t alone and unprotected, improving morality so we deserve to continue living, etc. Becker calls all of these efforts “the vital lie.” He argues that in these ways we repress our knowledge of our own mortality, and also that these things rest at the root of anxiety and mental illness. Becker’s book is complex and interesting, and while there are some problems with his overall thesis, I find it fascinating that this non-religious student of human behavior comes to similar conclusions as the author of Hebrews: at the core, we human beings fear death.

The second book I read was Sin: Radical Evil in Soul and Society by Ted Peters. In the first chapter Peters traces all sinful activity back to a similar root: anxiety or the fear of loss. “Anxiety arises when we anticipate some sort of diminishment of who we are, when we anticipate the possibility that a part of us or all of us is going to die.” To put it not so simply, it is “the fright we feel at the prospect of losing our existence, of dropping into the abyss of nonbeing.”

Like Becker, he argues that we try to transcend the natural limits of life by seeking infinite existence; when threatened by death we respond in fear or frustration or perhaps even rage. Listen to his analysis of how this works: “If we find we cannot accept our own death with grace, we may embark on a path of self-delusion, painting a picture of ourselves as immortal. In this delusionary state we may seek to create our own immortality by stealing life from others. Whether through such trivial habits as harboring resentments and gossiping about our boss or through such dramatic action as military aggression wherein we capture the wealth and prestige of defeated nations, we try to steal the lifeblood of others in a misguided attempt to escape the anxiety caused by the prospect of our nonbeing. Whether by ourselves as individuals or together as a communal group, we kill – figuratively or literally – in the vain hope that someone else’s death will sustain our life. Anxiety, in short, is the sting of death affecting the living.”

Wow, that’s quite a brainful! Maybe we should all take a deep breath (or perhaps a nap)! Notice what Peters is helping us see: not only do we fear death, but our fear of death lies behind much human evil and hatred, from our private worlds to the political realm and everywhere in between.

Why have we taken this tour through the strange world of my reading list? Because I wanted to enlist the voices of trained professionals to elaborate on the simple claim that all of us, whether we notice it or not, fear death. Moreover, if we are going to live godly, healthy lives of freedom and love, we must face this fear.

So let me ask you, What would it take for us to be freed from this prison of fear? What would have to happen in order for human beings to no longer fear death?

I suggest, as you might be predicting, that God has supplied the one possible answer to this puzzle: resurrection. As a fully human person, Jesus stared death in the face and conquered it. Jesus was put to death by being nailed to a cross, but God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. (Acts 2.23-24)

For those of us who confess Jesus as Lord and Savior of the world, who have accepted Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf and begun to live in the freedom he brings, who have died to sin and been made alive to God, this is good news. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6.5)

It is therefore impossible for death to keep its hold on us as well. We will one day be freed from death altogether, and are now freed from its fear-filled prison.

If our fear of death leads us on a path of self-delusion, our confidence in the resurrection enables us to face the truth about who we are.

If our fear of death causes us to demean other people – especially those in authority over us – in order to prove something to ourselves, our faith in eternal life frees us to love and support everyone around us.

If our fear of death moves us to kill – literally or figuratively – in order to sustain our own life, our faith in God’s ability to raise us again liberates us to lay down our lives in self-sacrificial love.

Do we fear death? We certainly don’t have to. Let’s celebrate our Savior – the Messiah, Jesus – who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1.10). Let’s walk in our newfound freedom, not only in our hearts and minds but with our hands and feet as well. Let’s live in this freedom of Jesus’ victory over death.

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I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but people in our culture love to express their opinions through bumper stickers. I suppose you can tell a lot about some people by their bumper stickers. One that is somewhat common in Christian circles asserts the following:

“Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven.”

If you have this bumper sticker I don’t fault you; it’s making an important point – that Jesus-followers are not automatically sinless, that we struggle and fail and sometimes regress like all people. But I have to be honest: I think this bumper sticker is mistaken.

Now, once again, it’s not the first part I question – Christians are certainly nowhere near perfect. With that I agree. The second statement, however, bothers me a bit. It’s not that I think we aren’t forgiven, of course. And it’s not that I think forgiveness is no big deal. It’s not even that I think everyone uses this idea to feel better about not actually living like Jesus (though some certainly do). But to say that we’re just forgiven . . . I’m not so sure.

Surely there is something in between perfect and just forgiven, isn’t there? Surely there is someone out there who, though far from perfect, is at least improving. We’re not perfect, but shouldn’t there be something distinct about us, something different? If we claim to follow Jesus, shouldn’t we be expected not to live like everyone else who doesn’t claim to follow Jesus?

Think about some of the things Paul said:

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. (Romans 6.6-7)

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8.1-2)

Part of the gospel is certainly that God no longer counts our sins against us. Like we learned yesterday, Jesus the Messiah has taken away our guilt and shame by taking them upon himself in his own sacrificial death on the cross.

But that’s not the whole gospel. The good news isn’t just that we’re forgiven, but that we’re also free.

Free to live a new life. Free to honestly face our past, learn from it, and move on. Free to live in faith, hope, and love. Free to be transformed into the persons and communities God created us to be.

Now think about this for a minute. If a major part of what Jesus came to do was set us free, what does that say about our condition before or without Jesus?

We are not free. We are in bondage. We are slaves to the things we think serve us. As Jesus put it, “Whoever sins is a slave to sin” (John 8.34). In Romans 6-8, Paul talks about “Sin” and “Death” not only as specific behaviors but as quasi-personal forces, tyrannical powers that hold us in bondage and keep us from living as God intended.

Think about what we call “addictions.” An addiction is when some substance or habit exerts such dominant control over us that we can’t not do it, even when we don’t want to. Addictions begin with our own choices. We decide to take in some substance or participate in some activity, thinking that our lives will be enhanced. But in doing so we create our own self-imposed prisons. We become slaves to what we thought we wanted, so much so that we can’t even not want them anymore. In a very real sense we are all addicted to sin. Whoever sins is a slave to sin.

We are addicted to being in control or appearing innocent or achieving status. We are addicted to having our own needs met or using other people for our purposes or cutting others down to make ourselves feel good. We are addicted to inflated egos or self-hatred or the refusal to accept God’s acceptance.

The Bible says that there is more to this situation than the merely human element. Paul sometimes talks about “powers and principalities” or “elemental spiritual forces,” and by this he probably means two things: (1) some sort of demonic beings who seek to keep us in bondage, and (2) the cumulative force of human behavior; what we call “systems” or “structures.”

Think about a particularly graphic example – the porn industry. Why do some men (and women) look at pornographic material? Part of it is their own choice, no doubt. But many will tell you that even when it’s the last thing they want to do, they feel some power coming over them and forcing them into it. (Sometimes I think this is an excuse, but other times I believe them.) I don’t know much about demons, but if I hated people I know I’d try to push them into destructive activities such as these. So there is no doubt some real “spiritual” dimension involved. But let’s not naively say, “The devil made me do it,” and leave it at that. The fact is that there is a whole industry, created and sustained by countless decisions of thousands of human beings, that takes on a sort of machine-like persona, a “mind of its own” as we say. And at this point the beast can’t be stopped; it has become a “power” or “force” that we started and yet we cannot control, and it gobbles people up every single day, often against their will.

We could point to a hundred examples (sports, nations, governments, religions, races, classes, tribes, etc), but you get the point. God made us so that our holy and loving decisions would gain cumulative force and become health- and life-producing forces to be reckoned with, but therefore the same is possible on the negative side.

Anyhow, these machines or beasts, or whatever you want to call them, are part of our bondage. We have become enslaved by powers we can’t control. But as you might have guessed, that’s not the end of the story. As you might have guessed, Jesus’ death and resurrection has something to say about all this. As you might have guessed, Jesus sets us free from even these monumental realities.

This is what John means when he says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work” (1 John 3.8). This is what Paul means when he says, “The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age,” and again, “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Galatians 1.3-4; Colossians 2.15).*

We’re going to spend the next few weeks learning how to walk in this freedom we’ve been given. It will be a long journey, no doubt, one that will continue beyond this series and through the rest of our lives. But as we close today let’s take just a few more minutes and celebrate what God has done for the world in Jesus. Let me draw your attention to one more statement from one of Paul’s letters:

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2.11-14)

Let’s thank God for what he has done, and commit ourselves to living out this wonderful vision, becoming a people that are God’s very own, freed from what is evil and destructive and eager to do what is good.

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*For more on this theme, see 1 Corinthians 15.54-57; Galatians 4.1-7; Ephesians 1.18-23; Colossians 1.15-20; 1 Peter 3.21-22

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