food for thought: January 2006 Archives
Here are a couple of my stated beliefs:
1. God in Christ alone is my salvation. 2. God has made Christ to be my righteousness, my worth, and my significance.
These are beliefs that I am quick to state and explain if provided an opportunity. I am quick to affirm verbally that there is no salvation for me apart from that which God has accomplished in the Messiah. He alone is my righteousness, worth, and significance. It is only in the Messiah that I am accepted in God’s sight. Only in him is true humanity progressively restored in me.
I could go on and on with statements like these, but I have learned that stated beliefs are often just that—stated. Those beliefs listed above are too often not functional in my life, that is, too often my thinking, desiring, and living do not flow out of them. So, I am learning to ask myself questions like these:
1. Where am I actually seeking my salvation in any given moment? 2. Where am I actually locating my righteousness, my worth, or my significance right now as I teach this class or lead my community group? 3. What am I thinking I must have right now in order to feel truly human?
Questions like these force me to move beyond thinking merely in terms of beliefs that I affirm intellectually. They aide me in discerning what my heart is currently functionally believing regarding where my salvation, righteousness, and worth are found. Too often I find myself seeking salvation in how people think of me or in how successful I am at this or that. Though my stated belief is that Christ is my significance, I often catch myself locating my significance in my performance as a husband or father or as a professor.
Fortunately (understatement), the gospel frees me to admit this and face it head on. Jesus once said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick…I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:12-13). Seeking my salvation, righteousness, worth, or significance in anything other than God are symptoms of the sickness of which Jesus speaks, that is, they are symptoms of a profoundly fractured and corrupted humanity. My default mode as a fallen human being is to seek my salvation in something other than in God’s Son, to seek my worth and significance in my vocational performance rather than in Jesus. But this means that Jesus came to seek someone like me, to call someone like me. He came to restore in me that which was lost at the fall, namely, a humanity that is joyfully centered upon God.
So, because of who Jesus is and what he accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection, I am free to confess my sin of wayward seeking and locating and rejoice afresh in what God has made the Messiah to be for me. Amazingly, the good news of God’s accomplishment in Jesus is His power to progressively make my stated beliefs functional in my living.
These are posts that I personally wrote this past year (except for one). I gave myself about 5 minutes to rank them. It may be that you would rank them differently. In any case, here is my personal Top Ten list for 2005 posts.
#1 – NT Survey Lecture Summary – If you want to know what doctrine has had the greatest impact on me over the last 8 years and only have time to read one of my Top Ten Posts, this is the one to read. The truth of the Messiah’s vicarious humanity has been a life-giving fountain for me.
#2 – Real Men and Women are Gospel-Driven – I really do not like the title, but I do really love the content of the post. It represents my thinking on biblical interpretation and living… I’m currently revising these notes in preparation for presenting it at a pastors’ fraternal on January 24th.
#3 – Moralism Versus Christ-centered Exposition by Tim Keller – I ranked this post third because it fits very nicely with post two. Most significant (and why it makes the top ten lists for posts that I have written) are the comments that follow Keller’s thoughts. It generated some great discussion. Also, I must include Functional Gospel-Centeredness at #3 because it is an article that was heavily influenced by Tim Keller's exposition of Galatians 2 in his article entitled The Centrality of the Gospel.
#4 – Spiritual Blessings that Value the Physical Creation: A Gospel-centered View of the World – This post will tell you what most occupies my thoughts as of late. I will never read Ephesians or Colossians in the same way again.
#5 – Orphans, Adoption, and Fuling, China: James 1:27 – This one is about adoption. Need I say more? It’s really a short biblical theology of adoption.
#6 – Leadership in the Home: Morals-driven or Gospel-driven – Guess what one of my New Year’s resolutions is…
#7 – Sanctification: Becoming More Than a Mere Outline of a Human Being – If you want to know a little about how I view sanctification, curl up with this post with a cup of hot chocolate.
#8 – Preaching Matthew 18:15-20 from a Gospel-centered Perspective – What thinkest thou?
#9 – The Gospel of Deliverance – Deliverance is an absolutely wonderful thing! If you feel the need for it, Psalm 3 is a great place to go.
#10 – The Wonder of Bobble Heads – This post is last but it’s not least. It generated more hits than any other post this past year. Go figure…
Which of my Top Ten is your top choice?
