Once You Know That God Loves You

"If I speak in the tongues of mean and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritating or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends..."

1 Corinthians 13:1-8

"Once you know that God loves you as you are, you are free to make the choice that love makes: not to rejoice at wrongdoing but to rejoice with the truth that God has grace for other sinners. You are also ready to do what love does: you are ready to forgive, ready to serve, and ready to pour our the treasure of your heart for Jesus."

Phil Ryken, President of Wheaton College, commenting on 1 Corinthians 13.

Staying Christian in Seminary

An unbelievable helpful post from Dane Ortlund, How to Stay Christian in Seminary.


What's the secret to soul-health while in seminary?

There are many good things to be said. Stay prayerful, be involved in the local church, cultivate meaningful friendships, fight for sexual sanity, find a brother to confess your sins to, get enough sleep, don’t neglect your wife if married. All important.

But above all else I would say two things to a young man given the privilege of seminary: you are justified by another, and you are strong in weakness.

1. You are justified by another. 

Fallen human beings are walking courtrooms.

In a strange and wonderful text in Isaiah 28, God declared that the inscription on the cornerstone of the future temple would be, “Whoever believes will not be in haste” (Isa. 28:16). Have you tasted that?

Internal, tense, anxious, emotional scurrying about will define your seminary experience if you do not settle the astounding truth that for those united to Christ the courtroom verdict over your life is now a past reality rather than a future one. It’s behind you, not before you. A period, not a question mark. You are justified.

The unanswered questions of the heart not at rest are: Am I ok? Do I matter? Who am I before others? How do I measure up? Am I significant? What’s the judgment over my life?

But when Jesus came he didn't tell us to prove ourselves. He said he gives rest (Matt. 11:28-30). He came to stop the haste. Paul even took Isaiah 28 and said Jesus is that cornerstone so that whoever believes in Christ will not be in haste (Rom. 9:33; 10:11).

In seminary as much as any time in your life you must remember that the sigh of the soul you so desperately desire is yours, freely, abundantly, as you trust in Christ, the radiant Friend of screw-ups. United to him, you are co-justified with him. For you to be un-okayed, Jesus would have to be un-okayed. His verdict is in, and therefore yours is in.

That’s hard, strangely hard, to remember. For various reasons it’s especially hard to remember in seminary. While studying the Bible as a full-time student I found I could write a paper on justification by faith alone and then seek to be justified by its publication.

At Covenant Seminary I startled myself with how quickly I slipped into impress-mode around professors I admired. I forgot the verdict was in. I was bolstering what God thought of me with what others thought of me. Justification plus. Haste.

The pressures of seminary will force you either into greater rest or greater haste. One thing determines which way you go: regular bathing of heart in the gospel of a secured, irreversible verdict won by the now un-condemnable Christ.

His unflappable hug, his undentable favor, is impervious to your mediocre grades, fickle human approval, up-and-down marriage, number of Twitter followers, or how long it’s been since you abused Youtube.

How do you stay Christian in seminary? Above all else, defibrillate your heart daily with the invincible favor of God shining down on you because of the love and sacrifice of another.

Only the doctrine of justification by faith alone will enable you to experience seminary as joyful, relaxed ministry training rather than frantic, fretful impressing.

2. You are strong in weakness. 

Few things bring our weakness to the surface like seminary. Spending all day with classmates who read faster than you, memorize paradigms more easily than you do, and preach better than you do pours gasoline on the flames of our insecurity. Ongoing moral failure--for young men in today's hypersexualized world I am thinking especially of sexual failure, though spiritual pride, laziness, envy, intellectual haughtiness, and a bent toward divisiveness also reveal our weakness.

Seminary gathers up all our latent insecurities and forces them before us. We begin to ask questions of ourselves.

Am I supposed to be here? we wonder. Shouldn't I be better at the languages if this is where God wants me? Shouldn't I be able to preach in front of 8 brothers in a homiletics practicum without my eyes being chained to my notes and my palms sweating? Shouldn’t my finances be less strapped if seminary is the Lord’s good purpose in my life? Shouldn’t I be able to finally kick that habitual sin if I’m spending so much time pondering God and the Bible?

Brother: those soul-squeezing questions are your friends. Without them you would coast through seminary and graduate a shallow, twaddling little man with no depth and trite answers.

God’s grace is sufficient for you. Get over yourself. You are weak. You are inadequate. You always will be. And the story of the Bible is God’s delight in taking weak, inadequate men and doing the unthinkable. Stop insulting the Holy Spirit. Your weakness is the single crucial prerequisite for him to make your life a miracle. To think “I don’t have what it takes” is precisely what it takes. Don’t try to overcome your weakness. Leverage your weakness into a lifetime of 1 Corinthians 2:1–5 ministry.

God’s power is made perfect in your weakness.

Observation # 4: Justification is Rooted in Our Union With Christ

We are only able to receive the benefits of Christ through our present union with Him. Because we are united to Him, we are seen as if we achieved His righteousness. The imputation of Christ's righteous to us finds its roots in our union to him. The Bible comes back to this teaching time and time again. Here are just a few verses that talk about our justification being 'in him', which is the equivilent to being united in Christ.

"It is because of him (God) that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God- that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption." 1 Corinthians 1:30

"God made him (Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might became the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21

"...that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." Philippians 3:8-9

These 3 verses specifically refer to our righteousness before God, that is, our justification, as being rooted in our present union with Christ. It is 'in him' that we have attained a righteousness. We receive this righteousness because we are in him. 

The Delight of Eternity

"But, as it is written,

'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

nor the heart of man imagined, 

what God has prepared for those who love him.'"

1 Corinthians 2:9

"The conversation led us towards the conclusion that the pleasure of the bodily senses, however delightful in the radiant light of this physical world, is seen by comparison with the life of eternity to be not even worth considering."

Saint Augustine, Confessions, page 171. 

Dimly Lit Mirror

"And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience"  Romans 8:23-25

""For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

Restoration is at the very heart of the Gospel. In creation, we see that humans are made in the image of God, as whole creatures. Sin dehumanizes and thwarts this wholeness. Our relationship to our creator is broken, and our relationships with each other are broken as a result. However, the Gospel restores. In these verses, we see that humans are made to be whole, and through the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are offered glimpses of what this restoration means. When we are in Christ, the process of being renewed to be truly human begins. However, these verses also depict the future orientation of human life. Restoration or redemption from Sin and to God is part a present reality and part a future orientation. Our full renewal or restoration awaits its full discloser at the return of Christ (Sherlock). Our restoration to wholeness, our full redemption from Sin, our renewal to being truly human awaits our future resurrection. Along with Paul, I too eagerly await, and inwardly long for that glorious day, when everything that I am will be renewed in the image of God, and I can enjoy and worship God without the hindrance of sin. Then I will see God for who He really is, and I will see others and myself for who they are.

What Makes us Disciples?

What really makes us disciples of Christ?

Some might say it is primarily

• acting in obedience to God (going/serving in church)
• having the right doctrine
• having the right feelings toward God (experience)
• trying hard to follow God

These are all connected to true discipleship, but fail to get at the core of what being an actual disciple of Christ is. The core of what makes us a disciple is the Life of God in the soul of man. Many (I dare to say most) people who consider themselves Christians, consider themselves as such because they are generally "good" people and "try hard to obey". However, these notions of what it means to be a disciple deflate the reality of John 3:3 that "unless they are born again, they can't see the kingdom of God." The Gospel of Jesus Christ demands change. It is impossible to come to any true knowledge of God without a complete overhaul of one's nature. That's why being a disciple is more than just trying hard and attempting to be obedient to God's commands. We can't change ourselves and our attempts to do so always fail. We are only made disciples by the Life of God taking root in our souls, thus causing us to be born again.

The Apostle Paul writes, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ..." (2 Corinthians 5:17). We see here, that this new life is only given by God. Moreover, this new life is supernaturally given through Christ. We are reconciled to God through our union with Christ. The only way for us to have a complete overhaul of our nature, and thus become disciples, is by Christ supernaturally causing us to be born again into new creations through His power, manifested in His law fulfilling life, sin defeating death, and life giving resurrection.

In other words, being united to Christ is what makes us His disciples. Not human effort, not behavior modification, and not a warm fuzzy feeling. It is the supernatural indwelling of God in the soul of the believer. This is called union with Christ, and it is the grounds for our

• Justification: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" Romans 8:1
• Sanctification: "and from him you yourselves are in Christ Jesus, who became wisdom for us from God, and righteosness and sanctification and redemption." 1 Corinthians 1:30
• New Life: "But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness." Romans 8:10
• Glorification: "God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power" 1 Corinthians 6:14

"Because I live, you also will live. In that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you." --John 14:20

Washed, Sanctified, Justified

"Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Today, as I came across these verses from the Apostle Paul, they both struck me and reminded me of what the Gospel is about. For a large portion of my Christian life, my basic idea of the Gospel went a little something like this. 'People who are unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Therefore, if you want to be a Christian, if you want eternal life, you need to muster up the obedience and discipline to not be sexually immoral, or idolize, or steal, or drink, or revile, or cheat, or lie. Then you will be a good Christian'.

Looking back, it is glaringly obvious how ignorant I was to the truth of the Gospel, and how much I relied on my own self-righteousness and discipline to secure my inheritance in the kingdom of God. Isn't it interesting that the Apostle Paul, after listing acts of unrighteousness and stating that those who practice such things can't inherit the kingdom of God, goes on to say that 'and such were some of you'.

Paul does not continue by saying that the Corinthians used to be unrighteous, but then in obedience cleaned themselves up and started doing righteous things. Rather, he says that they were washed, sanctified, and justified. He says this in the passive. The acts of washing, sanctification and justification were something done TO them, not BY them. Their goodness had nothing to do with it. Rather, it flowed from the free grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was pleased, according to His purpose, to wash, sanctify and justify sinners.

This verse struck me because I still do, and always will have a sinful tendency to put an emphasis on my actions playing a role in my salvation. But, it is an even better reminder that it is God who washes by the precious blood of His Son, it is God who sanctifies by the power of the Holy Spirit, and it is God who justifies through the finished work of Jesus. We are all alike unrighteous and unable to inherit the kingdom of God. But God, being rich in mercy, took upon himself the unrighteousness of us all, and provides for believers the perfect righteousness we need to inherit the kingdom.