Hey, everyone.
I'm shifting my focus for how I will use this blog. I'll be keeping my original focus of theological exploration in the hope of applying Scripture to life as James exhorts in James 1:22-25.
However, I plan to do this in a new way by exploring a piece of Scripture in three phases:
1) Figure out the point of the Text, Monday
2) Give a practical demonstration of living as the text exhorts, Wednesday
3) Giving an illustration usually in narrative form, Friday
I believe that as I do this I’ll be doing theology the way James does in his letter. An example comes from James 4:13-17. In verses 13-14a, James provides his big point. In verses 14b, James provides a picture analogy. In verses 15-17, James provides a practical demonstration. I believe this is how he operates throughout his entire letter and it is a method of doing theology I am very attracted to and wish to master.
So, here I am and may God do a mighty work through this blog to the praise of His Son, Jesus Christ who bore our sins to give us His righteousness.
I’ll also be doing this at http://remembertheimage.tumblr.com/ but there I will be doing different passages of Scripture. For instance, at Tumblr I might blog through Scripture I am personally studying and here it will be for passages for Bible Studies, etc.
-Alec
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Sunday, October 25, 2009
When The Church Decides To Wear A Short Skirt
When the church tries to look sexy to the world, such as downplaying the gospel of Jesus Christ and revving up the show in a church service, God works to make her look ugly to the world.
"The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts" (Isaiah 3:16-17).
One way God can make the church look ugly to the world is not allowing her to do good works and letting her pride lead to neglecting things such as justice.
But when the church decides she would rather look beautiful to God in obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ even if it means she will look ugly to the world, she will do some wonderful things that the world cannot ignore. See Philippians 3:7-11, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, 4:10-12, Acts 19.
One example:
"The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts" (Isaiah 3:16-17).
One way God can make the church look ugly to the world is not allowing her to do good works and letting her pride lead to neglecting things such as justice.
But when the church decides she would rather look beautiful to God in obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ even if it means she will look ugly to the world, she will do some wonderful things that the world cannot ignore. See Philippians 3:7-11, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, 4:10-12, Acts 19.
One example:
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Eating The Good of The Land
In Isaiah 1:14-17, God makes an impossible demand on Israel: "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes" (1:16). Why is this an impossible demand? Israel is bloody and devestated by his sin. But God desires that Israel be whole, sound, and righteous in order to have fellowship.
What then? God's response to the paradox he creates is beautiful:
"Come now, let us reason together says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
Israel needed something to happen in order that his sins would be as white as snow, but Israel was too weak and devestated to do anything. And so, the Son of God, Jesus Christ came to earth. He was given up for our trespasses on the cross and raised three days later for our justification (Rom 4:25).
Now that Jesus is physically alive, Israel and all men may count themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ (Rom 6:11).
Paul gives an incredible analogy for this in Romans 7:2-4, "For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. / Likewise, my brothers you have also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead in order that we bear fruit for God."
In other words, Christ died to sin. Now we may die to sin. However, as long as we are not killing our sin by obeying the Scriptures in faith to Christ (Rom 8:13), we are legally bound to it and may not be united to Christ. But if our sin dies, we are no longer legally bound to sin and may unite ourselves to Christ. Christ will lead us into a good land, a land of eternal joy and righteousness where we have unfiltered fellowship with God. Part of the good news is we get to taste how good that land will be in our lives now.
To obey Jesus and to follow him into the good land is not easy. 30 years ago today John Piper was called into the pastoral ministry by Jesus. When he told his father this, his father wrote him a letter telling him of the joy of obeying Jesus and how he'll enter the good land but also warned him of the heartache:
"As in all of our Lord’s work there will be a thousand compensations. You’ll see that people trust Christ as Savior and Lord. You’ll see these grow in the knowledge of Christ and his Word. You’ll witness saints enabled by your preaching to face all manner of tests. You’ll see God at work in human lives, and there is no joy comparable to this. Just ask yourself, son, if you are prepared not only to preach and teach, but also to weep over men’s souls, to care for the sick and dying, and to bear the burdens carried today by the saints of God" (HT: BTW).
Ask yourself, are you prepared to count yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ that you may eat the good of the land even if it means weeping over men's souls, bearing the burden's of the saints, and enduring much heartache?
What then? God's response to the paradox he creates is beautiful:
"Come now, let us reason together says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
Israel needed something to happen in order that his sins would be as white as snow, but Israel was too weak and devestated to do anything. And so, the Son of God, Jesus Christ came to earth. He was given up for our trespasses on the cross and raised three days later for our justification (Rom 4:25).
Now that Jesus is physically alive, Israel and all men may count themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ (Rom 6:11).
Paul gives an incredible analogy for this in Romans 7:2-4, "For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from the law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. / Likewise, my brothers you have also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead in order that we bear fruit for God."
In other words, Christ died to sin. Now we may die to sin. However, as long as we are not killing our sin by obeying the Scriptures in faith to Christ (Rom 8:13), we are legally bound to it and may not be united to Christ. But if our sin dies, we are no longer legally bound to sin and may unite ourselves to Christ. Christ will lead us into a good land, a land of eternal joy and righteousness where we have unfiltered fellowship with God. Part of the good news is we get to taste how good that land will be in our lives now.
To obey Jesus and to follow him into the good land is not easy. 30 years ago today John Piper was called into the pastoral ministry by Jesus. When he told his father this, his father wrote him a letter telling him of the joy of obeying Jesus and how he'll enter the good land but also warned him of the heartache:
"As in all of our Lord’s work there will be a thousand compensations. You’ll see that people trust Christ as Savior and Lord. You’ll see these grow in the knowledge of Christ and his Word. You’ll witness saints enabled by your preaching to face all manner of tests. You’ll see God at work in human lives, and there is no joy comparable to this. Just ask yourself, son, if you are prepared not only to preach and teach, but also to weep over men’s souls, to care for the sick and dying, and to bear the burdens carried today by the saints of God" (HT: BTW).
Ask yourself, are you prepared to count yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ that you may eat the good of the land even if it means weeping over men's souls, bearing the burden's of the saints, and enduring much heartache?
Saturday, September 26, 2009
A Few Survivors
Instead of writing down my thoughts on Isaiah 1:9, I'll quote Ray Ortlund Jr. in a blog post he wrote earlier this week:
"If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah." Isaiah 1:9
Did you notice how God intervened this week? The Church of Jesus Christ did not go completely apostate. The Gospel Coalition did not disown its Confessional Statement. Acts 29 did not repudiate church planting. Together For The Gospel did not fragment in mutual recriminations. Sovereign Grace Ministries did not deny the new birth. And I did not walk away from Jesus.
We all sinned this week, and a lot. No surprise there. After all, original sin means our wills are unfree. But we held fast to Jesus our Savior, and for a whole week.
Truly, the age of miracles is not over.
HT: CDS
P.S. Ortlund wrote the footnotes for Isaiah in the ESV Study Bible.
"If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah." Isaiah 1:9
Did you notice how God intervened this week? The Church of Jesus Christ did not go completely apostate. The Gospel Coalition did not disown its Confessional Statement. Acts 29 did not repudiate church planting. Together For The Gospel did not fragment in mutual recriminations. Sovereign Grace Ministries did not deny the new birth. And I did not walk away from Jesus.
We all sinned this week, and a lot. No surprise there. After all, original sin means our wills are unfree. But we held fast to Jesus our Savior, and for a whole week.
Truly, the age of miracles is not over.
HT: CDS
P.S. Ortlund wrote the footnotes for Isaiah in the ESV Study Bible.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Children Hit By A Bomb
Visualize a person that matches this description:
"The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil" (Isaiah 1:5b).
Where have you seen a person like this before? It sounds like someone that has barely survived a bomb blast and will die soon if they do not receive treatment, doesn't it?
This is the Bible's description of mankind. This is not unique. Most people would agree that mankind on the whole is somehow wounded.
What makes the Bible's description of mankind unique is that God claims mankind has experienced this bomb blast because mankind is a child that has run away from a perfectly good, perfectly loving father thus cutting ourselves off from him. And that bomb blast is called sin. When God looks at us rebelling against him, this is what he sees:
"Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me... Why will you continue to be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel" (Isaiah 1:1b, 5a)?
It makes a little more sense that God is angry when he sees sin if what he sees is his children bloody, devestated, and dying for no good reason; it's senseless that we have turned away from a perfectly good, perfectly loving father. So what did God decide to do about it?
"For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:3-7).
"The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil" (Isaiah 1:5b).
Where have you seen a person like this before? It sounds like someone that has barely survived a bomb blast and will die soon if they do not receive treatment, doesn't it?
This is the Bible's description of mankind. This is not unique. Most people would agree that mankind on the whole is somehow wounded.
What makes the Bible's description of mankind unique is that God claims mankind has experienced this bomb blast because mankind is a child that has run away from a perfectly good, perfectly loving father thus cutting ourselves off from him. And that bomb blast is called sin. When God looks at us rebelling against him, this is what he sees:
"Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me... Why will you continue to be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel" (Isaiah 1:1b, 5a)?
It makes a little more sense that God is angry when he sees sin if what he sees is his children bloody, devestated, and dying for no good reason; it's senseless that we have turned away from a perfectly good, perfectly loving father. So what did God decide to do about it?
"For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:3-7).
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Who Is The One Forsaken?
Humanity says, "God, you have forsaken me, you have despised me, and you are estranged from me." See: Any philosophy class.
God says, "Humanity, you have forsaken me, you have despised me, and you have estranged yourself from me because of your sin." See: Isaiah 1:4.
Is there any good news? Yes.
"For if, because of man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17).
God says, "Humanity, you have forsaken me, you have despised me, and you have estranged yourself from me because of your sin." See: Isaiah 1:4.
Is there any good news? Yes.
"For if, because of man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17).
Thursday, August 27, 2009
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