Gospel Transformation

Hannah Anderson post:  When the Gospel Hits Home

Several weeks ago, my 8-year-old daughter and I stumbled into a conversation about the family structure within our home. Although my husband and I embrace a complementarian dynamic, it's not the centerpiece of our dialogue with our children. Daddy and Mommy simply try to love each other well, we try to serve each other with kindness, and we expect our children to learn to do the same. And yet, there are times when we must intentionally and more obviously apply headship principles, particularly when there is a disagreement or an issue affects the long-term direction of the family.

This was one of those times. As a result, I was giving my daughter a Cliffs Notes version of how husbands and wives relate. Halfway through my explanation, she interrupted me and exclaimed, "Oh, I get it--you follow daddy because he's a man and men are bigger and stronger and older." Unfortunately, she did not get it. In her defense, most of her confusion came not from missing the reality of headship but from not having all the pieces and thus missing the bigger picture.

This kind of incomplete understanding of family life is not limited to 8-year-old girls, however. As we strive to honor God's Word, we devote tremendous effort to understanding the nuances of Scripture and its application. But because we deal so often in details, we can easily miss the bigger picture if we don't regularly step back and remember what God's design is all about in the first place.

This has become increasingly apparent as children grow up moral but somehow unregenerate. It has become increasingly apparent as women struggle to understand their significance comes through Christ and not their casserole. And it has become increasingly apparent as we splinter into groups defined not so much by the Cross but by our private applications of headship and home life.

So even in pursuing beautiful, God-honoring families, perhaps we need to remember how the gospel relates to our homes. Specifically, we must remember that the significance of family life lies not in structures or standards but in displaying our love for God and for each other.

Gospel 101

So if the "bigger picture" means loving God and each other, why does the New Testament devote so much ink to tracing the frame of Christian family life? Why are elders judged by their homes and widows evaluated by their domestic history?

The key to understanding how home life and spiritual life relate is as simple--and as complicated--as the gospel itself. The gospel is fundamentally about transformation, not simply conformity; about restoring brokenness, not simply avoiding it; and about relationships, not simply roles. The family structures we embrace are not goals in and of themselves. They are ultimately made for the benefit of loving relationship, for the larger goal of loving God and each other.

Reframing our conversation this way allows us to concentrate on God's purpose for every one of us---being made into the image of Christ. It also provides clarity when we deal with passages that can easily be misapplied, passages that can feel like burdens instead of blessings. Passages like those in 1 Timothy.

In discussing the office of elder in a local congregation in 1 Timothy 3, Paul details the qualifications of a man fit for the position, including whether he has healthy home dynamics. Because we understand that Christ's love for us informs our homes (and not the other way around), we recognize that this passage must be more than a list of standards to be met. Instead it deals with answering the question of whether the man has truly been transformed by Christ: does he truly love God and his neighbor as himself? How will you know? Look at his life, look at his home. Has the gospel become so much a part of his identity that he lives it out even in private? Does he love behind closed doors?

In 1 Timothy 5, the qualifications for widows being brought under the care of the church are strikingly similar. And in 1 Timothy 2:15 and 5:8, Paul connects both men and women's standing before God with how they interact with their families. Again, our domestic structures do not convey grace upon us---thank the Reformation for that bit of theological corrective--but our domestic life will be the first place the gospel reveals itself.

Moral Proximity

If Christ is changing us into people who love him and love each other, if our love and faith are real, they will first find expression with the people closest to us, the people within the four walls of our homes. If you can't love there, you can't love anywhere else. If you aren't learning to say no to yourself in little areas, if you can't submit your will to your husband's, how do you expect to submit it to Christ? If you can't love sacrificially, if you can't daily die for the good of your wife, how do you expect to do it for the sake of the kingdom?

This is also why, among other reasons, hospitality is so significant to proclaiming the gospel. Hospitality invites others into close proximity---it invites them to become our neighbors--not to display our Pinterest-perfect rooms and Food Network meals, but to display our Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered relationships. To display wives and husbands who value and honor the differences between them instead of belittling each other; to show families that love and sacrifice for each other and forgive despite deep hurt; and to model not simply children who obey their parents, but parents who are patient and merciful when they do not. And ultimately we can do this, not because we have imposed legalistic structures onto our homes, but because Jesus has changed us from the inside out.

Trust me, your neighbor will know the difference.

Microcosm of Grace

Reframing how home life relates to the gospel also frees singles and those without children from feeling spiritually inferior. In the end, the issue is not about your marital or parental state---as good and valuable and sacred as those may be. The issue has always been, "Do you love those closest to you well? Do you love your neighbor?" All of us have opportunity to do that.

In this sense, home is magical in that it is a microcosm, not of traditionalism, but of gospel transformation. But the home is not the only place this happens. Work, school, church---all these places and the relationships surrounding them give us ample opportunity to display and practice the change that has taken place in our souls. Here, in our everyday relationships, the Holy Spirit is visibly changing us from glory to glory and making us into Christ's image in real, practical ways.

Not Strange - Situation Normal

Scotty Smith post:  A Prayer about the Normalcy and Gift of Suffering

     Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 1 Pet. 4:12-13 

     It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. (Phil. 1:29) Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. Col. 1:24

     Dear Lord Jesus, these portions of your Word offers a critical corrective and incredible encouragement. To know that suffering is a normal part of the Christian life brings many of us a great deal of relief today; for many of us have endured the destructive consequences of bad teaching about suffering and hardship.

     As a young believer I was taught that if had enough faith I wouldn’t suffer illness, lack, loss, defeat, doubt, economic struggle, emotional duress, and the list goes on. But you tell us painful trials and suffering are not to be considered strange at all—that suffering is a gift, just like believing in you is a gift (Phil. 1:29).

    It’s not that I want to suffer more, Jesus, but no one wants to suffer in vain or with a sense of being a disappointment to you. It’s a horrible thing to live under the lie that we’ve been abandoned by you or are being punished by you. Pain and the condemnation of Satan can be an unrelenting source of torment.

     Jesus, please help us understand how our suffering can be understood as participating in your sufferings. Your death on the cross was a once-and-for-all suffering—perfectly securing the salvation of your people. However, you’re not a distant, disconnected, dispassionate Savior. You’re presently making all things new, and this involves showing up in the messes and madness of life. Where there is injustice, disease, brokenness, and suffering, that’s where you will be found, and where you call us to meet you. Grant us grace, Lord Jesus, to desire and to enter the fellowship of your suffering (Phil. 3:10).

     A Day of no more suffering is coming (hallelujah!) (Rev. 21:1-5)—the Day when your glory will be fully revealed—and what a day of rejoicing that will be! Until then, give us all the sufficient, sustaining, serving grace we need now to suffer with you and for you. Free us to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. As your tear wiping hand comes to us, may it reach through us to the broken and hurting people in our world. So very Amen we pray, in your wonderful and merciful name.

Purest Joy

Ray Ortlund post:  When the Spirit is poured down

“The purest joy in the world is joy in Christ Jesus.  When the Spirit is poured down, his people get very near and clear views of the Lord Jesus.  They eat his flesh and drink his blood.  They come to a personal cleaving to the Lord.  They taste that the Lord is gracious.  His blood and righteousness appear infinitely perfect, full and free to their soul.  They sit under his shadow with great delight. . . . They lean on the Beloved.  They find infinite strength in him for the use of their soul — grace for grace — all they can need in any hour of trial and suffering to the very end.”

Robert Murray M’Cheyne, preaching on Psalm 85:6, “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?”

Gateway to Freedom

Tullian Tchividjian post:  The Freedom of Defeat

(Today is an exciting day for me. My new book, Glorious Ruin: How Suffering Sets You Free, is officially released. It is the most important book I’ve written so far. The excerpt below may be the most vivid illustration in the book of how suffering can set you free.)

I heard something on the radio recently that made me pull my car over to the side of the road. A young woman named Sara was telling the story of her family’s very public fall from grace. She grew up in a privileged family—enormous house, beautiful clothes, expensive cars (and schools), and country club memberships. Everything in her life growing up was very prim and proper. But Sara claimed that despite the excess that could be seen from the outside, on the inside, her home environment was one of constraint:

Rules were very important. Etiquette, very important. And my dad’s insane temper could be set off by the slightest offense. When I heard the Porsche rumble up the driveway every day when he came home, I would run into my room and hide. Because maybe today would be the day he found the candy wrapper in the sofa cushion…. It was all just all about avoiding awakening the bee’s nest.

Sara went on to describe the fateful day when her parents called a family meeting to tell the children that her father had done something very wrong and was going to have to pay. He embezzled much of their money, it turned out, from a trust fund of one of his disabled clients. In other words, he stole it. Her father, who was a prominent lawyer, wept on the couch as he confessed his wrongdoing to his children. The guilt-induced suffering became too much to bear. He couldn’t live with his wrongdoing any longer. “We’re going to have to start over. We are going to rebuild our lives.” Sara then shared how her father was disbarred from practicing law, how they had to sell their house and cars and move to the other side of town. Her mother went to work. The scandal made headlines. At school, kids teased Sara for being the daughter of a “bankrobber.” And yet in that death—of security, wealth, achievement, identity, etc.—we find out that new life is born.

The radio commentary described it this way:

But my dad was instantly better…. He was happy. He chewed gum, which didn’t happen before. And wasn’t such an … all the time.

Commenting on this story, Ethan Richardson wrote:

With less money, the family gave more. With less status, they imputed status upon those who had none. In becoming the judged, they relinquished their judgments. Downward mobility was now the name of the game: the formerly constrained household became a “free for all.”… In being freed from their bondage to the law of progress and upward mobility, Sara’s family was now able to live in the reality of downward-directed love.

Wow.

Sara’s story is a powerful testimony of how suffering can liberate us, a tangible echo of the theology of the cross. The suffering of Sara’s father was self-inflicted, as much suffering is, but there was nothing minimal about it. There is zero sense that he viewed his crisis as an avenue for personal growth. And yet real transformation did happen! The disaster actually freed him from himself: from his attachment to his possessions (and affections), from his obsession with appearances, from his judgments of others, from his need to remain upwardly mobile, and the list goes on.

Failure, it turns out, was his gateway to freedom.

Seal It

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let that grace now, like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

Why This World?

Excerpt from John Piper:  Why Did God Create the World?

...

But we can’t leave it here. It’s too general. It’s too disconnected from the specific persons of the Trinity and from the flow of history the way God is guiding it. The question is not just, "Why did God create the world?" but why this world? — why these thousands of years of human history with a glorious beginning, and a horrible fall into sin, and a history of Israel, and the coming of the Son of God into the world, a substitutionary death, a triumphant resurrection, the founding of the church and the history of global missions to where we are today? Why this world? This history?

And the short answer to that question is, for the glory of God’s grace displayed supremely in the death of Jesus. Or to say it more fully: This world — this history as it is unfolding — was created and is guided and sustained by God so that the grace of God, supremely displayed in the death and resurrection of Jesus for sinners would be glorified throughout all eternity in the Christ-exalting joys of the redeemed. Or let’s just keep it short: this world exists for the glory of God’s grace revealed in the saving work of Jesus. Which means that Bethlehem is not just a God-centered church, but a Christ-exalting church and a gospel-driven church. For us there is an unbreakable connection between the glory of God, the glory of grace, the glory of Christ, the glory of the cross.

The Glory of God and the Cross of Christ

Now let me show you this from God’s word. We can do it in five steps.

1. The apex — the high point — of God’s display of his own glory is the display of his grace.

“God predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5–6). In other words, the glory of God’s grace — what Paul calls “the riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7) — is the highpoint and endpoint in the revelation of God’s glory. And the aim of predestination is that we live to the praise of the glory of this grace forever.

This is the endpoint of his glory, and everything else, even God’s wrath serves this. So Paul says in Romans 9:22–23, “Desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, God has endured with much patience vessels of wrath . . . in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy.” Wrath is penultimate. The glory of grace on the vessels of mercy is ultimate.

2. God planned this — the praise of the glory of his grace — before creation.

“God chose us in him before the foundation of the world . . . to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:4, 6). Grace was not an afterthought in response to the fall of man. It was the plan, because grace is the summit of the mountain of his glory. And he created the world for his glory. He planned the world for the glory of his grace.

3. God’s plan was that the praise of the glory of his grace would come about through the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

“He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ . . . to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5–6). This predestination to the praise of the glory of God’s grace happened “through Jesus Christ.” In the eternal fellowship of the Trinity, the Father and the Son planned that God’s grace would be supremely revealed through the saving work of the Son.

Again, Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:9, “God called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” So, before the ages of time began, the plan was for the revelation of the glory of the grace of God specifically through Christ Jesus.

4. From eternity God’s plan was that the glory of God’s grace would reach its high point in the saving work of Jesus on the cross.

We see this in the name that was already on the book of the redeemed before the creation of the world. Before there was any human sin to die for, God planned that his Son be slain for sinners. We know this because of the name given to the book of life before creation. “Everyone [will worship the beast] whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (Revelation 13:8).

The name of the book before creation was “the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” The plan was glory. The plan was grace. The plan was Christ. And the plan was death. And that death for sinners like us is the heart of the gospel, which is why in 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul calls it “the gospel of the glory of Christ.”

5. Therefore, the ultimate purpose of creating and guiding and sustaining this world — this history — is the praise of the glory of the grace of God in the crucifixion of his Son for sinners.

This is why Revelation 5:3, 9 shows that for all eternity we will sing “the song of the Lamb.” We will say with white-hot admiration and praise, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). We will praise ten thousand things about our Savior. But we will not say anything more glorious than: You were slain . . . and ransomed millions.

So we ask in conclusion: "Why did God create the world?" And we answer with the Scriptures: God created the world for his glory. God did not create out of need. He did not create the world out of a deficiency that needed to be made up. He was not lonely. He was supremely happy in the fellowship of the Trinity — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He created the world to put his glory on display that his people might know him, and love him, and show him.

And why did he create a world that would become like this world? A world that fell into sin. A world that exchanged his glory for the glory of images? Why would he permit and guide and sustain such a world? And we answer: for the praise of the glory of the grace of God displayed supremely in the death of Jesus.

...

But Not Therefore

Tullian Tchividjian post:  Grace Always Comes As A Contradiction

God’s grace always, always, always comes as a contradiction to what makes natural sense to us–it always comes as a but, not a therefore.

The wages of sin is death…BUT the gift of God is eternal life. (Rom. 6)

We were dead in our trespasses and sin…BUT God made us alive. (Eph. 2)

By works of the law no flesh will be justified before God…BUT now the righteousness of God has been revealed…(Rom. 3)

Not long ago a gentleman approached me after a talk I had delivered and said, “I’m 60 years-old and have had great success as a businessman and I’m here to tell you from experience that grace doesn’t work in this world.” My immediate response was, “Well maybe it appears that way only because grace isn’t from this world.”

This quote from Robert Kolb makes the point beautifully:

God promises righteousness and freedom to sinners. That promise contradicts ordinary human expectation. Sinners ought to receive punishment rather than pardon, incarceration rather than freedom. But by the double work of his law and gospel, God teaches sinners to close their eyes to ordinary human expectations and the conclusions of common sense and to open their ears to the promise which offers life and freedom.