5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

There is much to be said here. Verse 5 bridges the hymn back to what Paul has been talking about. The model that Messiah’s colony should follow is that of their Messiah. The Love and Humility that are to be the central virtues of the colony are shown in the gospel story, the story of Jesus. The relationships that make up the colony, not just personal relationships but those of business practices and those of commerce. This mustn’t be reduced to how one treats his friends or fellow Christians. It is the entirety of human life. The parent-child, husband-wife, employer-employee, teacher-student, business-client relationships must all be built around this narrative, this story. The king must rule and govern according to this narrative, the people governed by the king must follow the king according to this narrative. The whole society and community must be centered on the virtues this narrative glorifies.

The hymn itself contains so much to be digested. From Philippians 2:6 we learn that Jesus existed in form as Yahweh and yet distinct from the person Yahweh. We learn about the place of Jesus within the triune nature of God. He is equal with God in his nature and being and existence. And yet there are at least two distinct persons sharing this same nature, God. There is the father and there is Jesus, both God yet not the same person.

Secondly the hymn teaches the incarnation of God in the Messiah Jesus. Jesus, one of the persons who shares the nature (μορφή) of God, became a man. The hymn doesn’t say that Jesus ceased being God but rather became a servant to God, giving up his rank and status. Just as the Psalms say man is lower than the angels, so Jesus descended down to the level of human. But he didn’t just go down the level of human where he could have rightfully taken and/or established a throne to rule of the entire planet. The incarnation went farther and God became a servant. Not just some one who serves another person voluntarily or is paid for the service. Rather Jesus became a doulos, a slave (μορφὴν δούλου λαβών). He gave up all rights. He so humbled himself that he died the death required of him.

Thirdly the hymn gives us the justification of Jesus, the vindication of Jesus. God exalted Jesus to the highest place and gave Jesus the name above all names, Lord. Hidden in this exaltation is the resurrection. The spirit of Jesus didn’t receive this reward but the whole person, the God-man Jesus. He was raised from the dead and brought before God to receive his vindication before all of the world. Jesus is Lord of the world. He is lord over all lords, even Caesar.

Fourthly, the hymn gives the eschatological goal of Jesus’ mission: the bringing the world under the rule of Jesus. Every tongue confesses and every knee bows. He is their king, not Herod in Jerusalem. He is their Lord, not Caesar in Rome. Jesus, the one exalted to Lord, will bring all the world under his rule and dominion. And not in the providential rule of Jesus as God, but the kingdom of the Jewish Messiah and the Jewish God. And at the confession of Jesus as Lord by all of the world and all who live in it, the father of Jesus, God the Father, will fully display his glory in the whole world being filled with knowledge of him.

Fifthly, this eschatology of Jesus gives the church its mission, to declare to the world that Jesus is Lord–not Caesar. He is the rightful king. They must repent and surrender to him, bowing the knee and confessing the tongue. The church is to be the colony the brings Jesus’ lordship to the earth and shows the world what the lordship is to look like when Jesus bring the whole world under it. And by seeing that lordship on display in the church, God’s imperial colony, they will abandon the domain of sin and death and join the dominion and lordship of the Messiah Jesus.

Thus as individuals we must model our lives after the life of Jesus, being obedient to God to the point of crucifixion. As a community, the church is to be obedient to God to the point of crucifixion. The world must see what it looks like to be obedient to its Creator and Lord. It must see the true strength of humility and love, forsaking the self to look to the well-being of the other. By living lives of other-focused humility and love, the church completes its task of declaring that God has retaken his throne as king.

And when that task is complete, the world will be transformed into a world that not even the Garden of Eden could compare to. It will be the world that God had envisioned Adam and Eve to create. We won’t go back to the Garden because we will go forward to the heavenly city come down to earth with Jesus seated on the throne ruling as a slave to his God and to his people. And it is this slavery that we model our lives after, giving up all rights to any claims we might have in the knowledge that such abandonment will be vindicated with the greatest reward God will give. So let us figure out how to create a society whereby the virtues are not ambition at the cost of the other, but rather humility and love for the other at the cost of the self. Every level of that society will love the other above the self. That will be when we make heaven a place on earth, if I may borrow from a certain song.

1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Paul gives his command or admonition within the framework of a “if…then” conditional statement. It’s like when as a kid I wanted to go play video games with my high school friends, Jay Wolf and Christopher Bunch, and seeking permission from my parents. They would say, “If you will clean your room, do the dishes, and finish the laundry,then you can go play video games at your friend’s house.” My parents would give me conditions to fulfill and upon filling those conditions I could go and have fun. Parents are the masters of “if…then” statements.

Philippians 2:1 gives the conditions: encouragement from union with Christ, comfort from his love, common sharing in the Spirit, tenderness, compassion. In other words, Paul is saying if the Philippians are these things then they can obey the command. Are they united with Jesus? This union means to be joined with Jesus in such a way that one’s own identity becomes Jesus. He represents us before God and we represent him before the world. His name is our own. That which God has given him–vindication and resurrection and blessing etc.–we share with him. Read passages like Romans 6:1-11 or Ephesians 2:1-10 or Galatians 2:16-21. Paul wants to know if there is encouragement from this union.

Do the Philippians possess Jesus’ love expressed most fully in his incarnation and death and resurrection? It’s the love that means Jesus doesn’t cling to his divinity but is found as a slave in human likeness and becomes obedient to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8). It’s the love that enables his people to overcome all things (Romans 8:38-39). Do they possess this love from Christ?

Do they share together the Holy Spirit? Does the Spirit inhabit and indwell the Philippian Christians?

If these conditions are true of them, then Paul has one request: complete his joy. What’s his joy? From Philippians 1, correct me if I’m wrong here, it is his declaring that Jesus is Lord to the world in partnership with the Philippian church. He rejoices in seeing God complete his good work in them. He rejoices in those who share the gospel, whatever their intentions and desires. Christ, himself, is his greatest joy. He asks the Philippians to complete that joy, complete the sharing of the gospel message that Jesus, through his life and death and resurrection, has been declared and made Lord of the world. Complete the work of the kingdom.

To complete his joy, the Philippians are to be unified in their love for others and valuing them above themselves (Philippians 2:2b-4). The unity they are to exemplify is one that takes their differences and bring them together in a glorious harmony. This unity brings order to their chaos. It allows each person to come to the community as an equal and participate. They are all united to the one Christ, experience his one love, fellowship in the one Spirit. They are one, therefore be one. Have the same purpose and love. Accomplish the task of proclaiming Jesus is lord. Show the world which is in chaos that Jesus brings shalom, peace and order. Be like a song, which takes various instruments and singers and brings them into one. Be like a body which has many parts that do different tasks but is still one (1 Corinthians 12-14).

To do this he changes their virtues that they are to esteem and value. No longer are they to seek their own glory and ambitions but they are to act in humility. They must lower the value they place on themselves. Paul turns their focus outwards, away from the self of the individual and the community, to the world around the Philippians. If they were sitting in pews at a church, Paul would want each individual hearing the letter read aloud to seek to fill the needs of the persons to the left and right. Then this community of individuals who value and esteem others more than themselves would seek the interests and needs of the communities around theirs. And these communities would then seek to fill the interests and needs of the society around them and the world.

It was Jesus who said he came not to be served but to serve and give his life. Paul points out the humility of Jesus in Philippians 2:6-8 as he empties himself to take on the form of a servant in human form and became obedient the point of crucifixion. That is our model. This is the virtue that the King has established for his kingdom. If we belong to his kingdom, then that is our virtue. We humble ourselves and look to the other. We are to show the world what the future kingdom looks like by living it out right here and now. It starts at home with family and moves in the local and state and national and global scenes.

It’s time for preachers of the gospel to stop looking only at how to help individuals to be more humble in their own immediate spheres. It’s time to start thinking in a kingdom way, a kingdom that spans the globe as Revelation envisions. How do we get these individuals to be humble? How then do we get these humble individuals to come together as a community and a kingdom and show the world the way God created it to be? That has to be the question.

And it is that question that I just cannot think in terms of. How does one get an entire community to look totally away from self? What does that look like at a systemic level? I don’t know. It’s so different from the Western World that I live in which is based upon the “American Dream” that creates poverty and injustice, and then feeds off of it. My ways of thinking are so ingrained in this mindset that I cannot help but think, “Do what’s best for me and mine.” That’s not humility. That’s selfish ambition and vain conceit, even if I’m doing it with the best intentions.

I look at the nation I look in. It worships the economy and that idolatry is coming back to visit us. The Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement has sprang up to say that there is something wrong with the system that this nation lives in, the system that worships the economy. Neither movement has the answer, but Jesus’ kingdom does. But the church needs to get the model down so that we can go to the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movements and say, “Here is the answer to the problem you’ve correctly identified. It’s the Kingdom of Jesus!” But how do we model it on a large-scale, systemic fashion. How can we move this country, not just the individuals living here, to this virtue of humility and love?

Oh God, help me become more humble like my King Jesus and love others and value them more than myself. What can I do to be more Christ like? How can I move this people, this nation, this human race to be the people you created them to be? Oh please show us how to be model Jesus to a world that is crying out for him to come and be their king! It’s in his name that I plead. Amen.

For Paul, being worthy isn’t about wielding a hammer–although I would love to have Mjolnir as my hammer–it’s about something else entirely. Something more powerful than a hammer that was forged in the heart of a star with an indestructible metal called “uru.” For Paul it’s to wield a message. It’s to stand in a spirit. It’s to strive for a faith. He puts it like this in Philippians 1:27-30 (NIV),

27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

Paul pleads for the Philippians to “conduct [themselves] in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” He is pleading with them to conduct their lives (Gk: πολιτεύομαι; “I live”) in a way that is worthy of the message that they carry. Much like Thor was to conduct himself worthy of the position he held as firstborn to Odin and heir to Odin’s throne–signified in the carrying the hammer, so to are Christians to live in a way that is worthy of carrying the message that Jesus is Lord and not Caesar. This means we must live all of life in a way worthy. The way in which we interact with fellow Christians, non-Christians, the way we work at our jobs, the way we manage our monies, the way we vote and interact politically with the governing authorities. Every area needs to be lived in a manner worthy of the message that Jesus is Lord. Not only must we care for the unborn, but for the born who are impoverished and oppressed. Those who have no food both here in America and abroad. We must live worthy in how we view immigrants and the environment. We must live worthy in how we conduct business with other people.

If the Philippian Christians are living a worthy manner, then Paul will know two things: they are standing firm in the one Spirit (Greek can also read: standing firm in one spirit [ἑνὶ πνεύματι; heni pneumati]); they are striving together as one for the faith of gospel. I see this as meaning that Christians are walking worthy of the Gospel of Jesus when they are unified in their stand for Jesus as Lord. Together, in the Spirit, they are showing the world what it means for Jesus to be King of the world and not Caesar, not the US Constitution, or any other government. That’s what it means to be worthy. Living the future world now, in the present. It starts with love and moves to unity. This unity is not one in mind like a hive mind. But rather a oneness that comes from the one Spirit and from the one faith. We live together in this oneness that brings together our diversities in a beautiful tapestry.

And this living in a worthy manner speaks a powerful message. When the world sees the kingdom people living out the kingdom they see their doom. Caesar sees that Jesus has defeated him. The world will come back. But they know it’s a futile attack. They know they will be destroyed (Gk: ἔνδειξις ἀπωλείας; lit: declaration of destruction) and that we are safe. Caesar is doomed, we are safe. Jesus’ kingdom will last, not the empire of the world. And in the process, people will see the unity of our diversity, see our safety, and will jump ship from Caesar’s empire to God’s kingdom.

Thus Paul says to live worthily without fear. Be bold in telling the world that Jesus is Lord. The sign of our unity will not speak the message it is intended to speak. Fear destroys everything Jesus set out to accomplish. Thus Paul bolsters the Philippians up with his own example (Philippians 1:12-26, 30). And he also gives the Philippians one fact to ponder, it is God’s gift to his people to not only believe on behalf of Christ, but to suffer on his behalf. By suffering without fear, fighting for our unity in the faith of the gospel, the world will receive it’s message.

What Paul isn’t saying to the Philippians is to create a counter-culture that is divorced and disengaged from the world around them. He wants their community to interact with the larger community. To participate in dialogue about all the important issues of their day. To bring the Word of Christ to bear on the larger Roman world. Christians today have bought into the myth that the framers of the constitution worked so hard to establish, namely keep the church and state separate. Well, I take that back. Except for two issues (homosexuality and abortion), Christians keep their Christian worldview out of the public square. And I feel that this has helped to establish some of the anti-intellectual sentiment in Christianity. Give me Jesus to save me from my personal sins and the rest of the world can burn in hell. The entire mission of the church has been refocused into a salvation narrative, salvation for personal sins, instead of a kingdom narrative that brings the ideals of Jesus to bear on the world. Paul wants Christians to interact and to challenge the world with the truth that God has reclaimed his throne through Messiah Jesus. Let us get back to fulfilling that biblical command to live life, all of it, worthy of the good news that Jesus is King of the world, not Caesar.

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

The first thing I noticed as I read this passage was that the church is a partnership. Paul says he and the Philippian church are a “partnership in the gospel” (1:5). He says that the Philippians “share in God’s grace with me” (1:7). This imperial colony, established by Jesus, is nothing less than Christians partnering together in the gospel, declaring Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:11), defending (ἀπολογία, apologia, apologetics) his Lordship and confirming it. It is Christians partnering together, willing to suffer imprisonment with Paul to defend and confirm Jesus as Lord. There are no lone-ranger Christians out there doing it on his or her own. It is the church together who is most capable of this task. It takes men and women working together exercising their gifts, given by the Spirit, to carry the church forward. It’s the same mission that Roman colonies had, they defended and confirmed Caesar’s claim on the land. And we do the same, not for Caesar, but for the Messiah who is the true Lord of the world.

The second thing I noted in reading this passage was that the church’s mission was eschatologically focused. In 1:6 Paul speaks of God completing the work he began in the Philippians “until the day of Christ Jesus.” Again in 1:10 he talks about being pure and blameless “for the day of Christ.” Our eschatology drives us as Christians and the church. It is the kingdom that God will establish in the future breaking into the present through the resurrection of Jesus and now the people of his kingdom. On the day of Christ God’s reign over the earth will be consummated. What Jesus began God will complete. The church is here to bear witness to God having reclaimed his throne over the earth, and all that is in it. Hence we defend his reign and confirm his reign. We are the sign-post to the world of the future reality here in the present as we await God to complete his redemptive work.

Thirdly, the church is divinely energized and empowered. As Paul says in 1:6, “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Again Paul says in 1:11, [We have been] filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” God is working through his kingdom-people to bring about the work of the kingdom. He began the work in Jesus and carries it forward through his people. And in each Christian, God works to bring about the work of the kingdom in a way that is unique to each person. Thus he paints a beautiful picture of the coming world that is fully redeemed and under God’s wise sovereignty. Thus we work to show the reign of God through Jesus in our own lives as individuals, but also as the collective colony established by the Messiah to declare to the world that he is Lord. Through us God shows what the world will look like under his wise reign–a world without sin in all of its manifestations. This has implications both politically and socially and economically as well as on the personal level of behavior and person-to-person interaction.

Fourthly, to be the kingdom people who declare to the world that God is now King and Jesus is Lord, and the world should look like with God as King, it requires us to be active in love. Paul prays for us to love (1:9). But that love needs to be “abound[ing] more and more in knowledge and depth of insight [αἴσθησις, judgment].” Our love must be an informed love that is able to discern and judge. And because it is full of knowledge and and correct judgments, love is able to examine and discern what is best (διαφέρω, be of more value), making us pure and blameless when Christ comes to consummate his kingdom work (1:10). The kingdom people declare God’s wise rule through loving this world in a wise and discerning way. The kingdom is shown to the world by the people of God loving the evil world it inhabits. The work that God has begun and will complete in the believer is the work of love.

Which brings to this conclusion, love grounds all things for the Christian and God’s church. It grounds our knowing. It grounds our relationships. It grounds our deeds. But the question that I am left wrestling with is how to articulate such a worldview. Love must be abounding in knowledge. What implications does this have on a person’s epistemology, a person’s way of knowing the world around them? How does one “know” through love? It moves beyond modernity and even post-modernity. But exactly how it does so I cannot figure out. It impacts our political decisions. We vote for which law and which candidates through the lens of love, as it is love which declares the wise sovereignty of God. Which laws and lawmakers run on a platform that will show God’s love for the world to the world? I’m not talking about some law that will create a “Christian nation” but laws to establish the world that reflects God’s reign over the earth. It’s tricky and it requires Christians to be informed and wise to approve what is best, as Paul says. But we seek to know through love how to vote, how to spend one’s wages and earnings and income.

It’s a concept that I have only began to think through and it’s one that I think the church needs to begin to reflect on and develop. We need to understand that our mission can only be accomplished through love. And to do that, to love in such a way that we discern what’s best and therefore be pure and blameless, we must rethink our entire worldview through the lens of love–shown must vividly and completely through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. God’s love declares boldly God is King and Jesus is Lord. Let us learn how to reorganize our entire existence through the framework and worldview of God’s love.

So I want to start out with some background on the city. The city was established by Philip II of Macedon to take possession of neighboring gold mines as well as establish a garrison on the strategic route between Amphipolis and Neapolis. The city remained autonomous until Philip V of the Antigonid Dynasty brought it fully into the Macedonian kingdom. The Romans defeated the Antigonids in 167 BCE and moved the political power to another city. The city disappears from the record until 42 BC when Marc Antony and Octavian pursued Julius Caesar’s murderers to a plain west of the city and defeated them. Soldiers from one of Octavian’s legions were settled here to colonize Philippi. In 30 CE Octavian became emperor of Rome and settled more soldiers there, possibly members of the elite Praetorian Guard. The idea of the settling soldiers there was to remind the people of the area that Rome owned the land. The presence of the colony was to wave the flag of Rome over the surrounding territory.

And it’s this narrative of Roman colonization that intrigues me as I read Paul’s letter. It’s my conviction that this is a primary narrative through which one is to understand the church and her mission. The church is to wave the banner of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, is the Lord of the world. Just like the presence of Roman soldiers in the colony of Philippi was to remind the region under its authority that Rome was here and ruled over them. It reminded the people that Caesar is lord. I see the church as the same, the church is here to remind the world that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar in his various incarnations today, and he rules over them.

This narrative makes the most sense of the letter to me and I’ll hit on them as I go through the letter. In short, Paul says in Philippians 1 we are to advance the gospel–the message that the risen Jesus is Lord–even chains. Modeling Christ to the world, shining his light (Philippians 2), shows the world how their Lord expect them live. Our citizenship belongs to Messiah’s kingdom, not Caesars (Philippians 3). But I’ll get more into it when I get the specific texts.

It is my sincere prayer that those who read this will be blessed as they journey with me through this letter and learn how to live as proper citizens in Christ’s kingdom.

Mark 10:35-45

But Jesus, sensing this fear, turned to them and told them, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and experts in the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, spit on him, flog him severely, and kill him. Yet after three days, he will rise again.” This isn’t what they were expecting.

In fact watch what James and John, brothers and sons of the fisherman Zebedee, ask of him, ‘Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” He said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” They said to him, “Permit one of us to sit at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.”‘ These two men wanted the place of honor in Jesus’ kingdom.

To sit at the right and left hand of the king was to be honored above all others in the kingdom. The person who sits there answer only to the king. They are in a position of power, prestige, fame, and fortune. Short of the king, this person is the most powerful person in the kingdom. They rule over the kingdom as the second in command.

And it is this position we are all trying to achieve. We want to be recognized by the king. We want to attain positions of power and prestige. We want the fame. And sadly enough we will do whatever it takes to get it. If it means walking over our friends, family, and loved ones we will do it. We want the position of honor. We crave it.

And for good reasons too. We as humans have a place in this universe. God created us to be royal priests. And here’s what I mean by that. Humans, in God’s story, were specially created to be a mirror. To the rest of the world we are to reflect God’s wisdom and sovereignty to bring order to the world. We are to rule over the world as God’s representatives. And we are to reflect to God the praise and love and adoration from creation. We are to offer worship on behalf of all of the world. We as human beings were to sit at God’s right hand.

But then sin came into the picture. That story that humanity was to tell was corrupted. Instead of being God’s representatives, we humans have rebelled and tried to take the mantle of king of the universe from God. As a result we are greedy, prideful and arrogant, rude, unkind, hateful, slanderous, murderous, and lustful. We will use all of those things to achieve power, to take God’s throne and make ourselves the king.

Jesus responds to this audacious request, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I experience?” He asks them if they can endure the path that has been set before him: to be reject by his own people, beaten, mocked, spat upon, to be killed. Can they endure that?

And James and John answer him, “We are able.” They say yes to his question. So Jesus say this, “You will drink the cup I drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism I experience, but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give. It is for those for whom it has been prepared.” They will endure the hate and mockery. They may even be put to death. Oh yes they will. But it has already been determined who is at his right hand and left.

The others hear this and get angry and Jesus takes this moment to teach all twelve of his disciples, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions use their authority over them. But it is not this way among you. Instead whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus redefines power and authority, and how to use them. Looking to the Romans, the Gentiles, Jesus points out how they use power. They exercise their power and authority as tyrants, violently holding on to power if need be. They will hurt anyone, in any way needed, to hold on to their power. But not in Jesus’ kingdom, not amongst his followers.

His followers must become slaves to all and serve them. That is the path to greatness in Jesus’ kingdom, in God’s story. It’s putting others first. It’s the path of mercy, the way of love. And Jesus points to his own future as his example. He has come as king to rule over Israel, to be that human who was both king over creation and the priest on behalf of creation. He was being the true human who served others, had mercy and compassion on others. He loved others.

In the movie Braveheart, William Wallace is about to invade England. He’s just won his first major victory against England and has been knighted by the Scottish nobles. The nobles ask him to name a king but he just walks to the door.

One noble asks, “What will you do?”

Wallace responds, “I will invade England and defeat the English on their own ground.”

The noble mocks, “Invade? That’s impossible.”

Wallace defends himself with this impassioned plea, “Why? Why is that impossible? You’re so concerned with scrabbling over the scraps from Longshanks’ table that you’ve missed your God-given right to something better. There’s a difference between us. You think the people of this country exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide the people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it.”

It is the Christian life to serve others before oneself. To love others and be compassionate towards those in need. It is to follow Jesus own example. For he did not come demanding people to bow to him as a future king. He did not raise up an army and rebel against the governing authorities.

He came and healed the sick, conquering disease. He fed the hungry, fighting unjust hunger. He cast out demons, reclaiming the spiritual realm. He calmed storms and took small lunches and fed thousands, subduing nature. He called men to himself and empowered them to continue this service, rescuing his fellow humans. And people flocked to this man, hoping him to be the long expected king.

And then he entered Jerusalem and confronted both the ruling class of Jerusalem and the Roman governor. Instead of fighting them with violence, he loved them and submitted himself to their authority. He allowed them to perpetrate their injustice against him. He allowed them to kill him. He fought them with non-violence. He fought with mercy. He had every right to fight back. But instead chose to have compassion one more time and endured the most heinous death known to man ever.

And on the third day, God vindicated him. God showed the world the way he wants his creatures to live and to govern themselves and the world: with love. Jesus used his title to provide the world with freedom from tyranny and from being tyrants. He paid the price of freedom. He became the slave to the Gentiles and subverted their power from them.

The Challenge
So I challenge you today. How do you live your life? Is the way of the Gentiles, trying to gather up all the power and authority and position you can? Do you force people into giving you that power and position? Do you live like the Scottish nobles and English did in the movie Braveheart?

Or do you live the way of the crucified Messiah? Do you live the way of love and mercy and compassion? Do live to sere others? Are you going to make war against tyranny by being the slave and helping others? Do you want to be the human that God wants you to be?

Understand it will not be easy. For those who were with Jesus when he came in his glory were convicted criminals. Insurrectionists who deserved to be crucified. To sit in the place of honor in Jesus’ kingdom is to be crucified with him.

But what awaits you is far greater. Though you will die, you will be raised up to eternal life in a new heaven and new earth. There will be no more death and disease, no more heartache and tears. There will no longer be any hate or pride or greed or jealousy. It will be a place of pure, unpolluted joy. All there will love each other. And everyone in that new heaven and earth will be the royal priest they were intended to be.

Which do you chose? The life of the Gentile or the life of Jesus? You must chose.

Recently some friends asked why I have been silent on the whole Rob Bell saga. My answer was that there isn’t a whole lot to say about it and that my Reformed brethren’s rush to judgement about the theology of a pastor based upon the promotional material for a book due out on Tuesday (March 15, 2011) was embarrassing. But that’s what I do want to talk about, the Reformed response.

Before I talk about it, I want to make something clear. I’m not a Rob Bell fan. I’ve never really liked him. As a student of Greek I find his handling of the language to be laughable at best–and to me discredits him as an authority. I also want to say that I haven’t read all his books, watched his Nooma video series, or listen to his podcasts. I’ve only read Velvet Elvis and laughed as I put it back on the shelf.

So with that established, I want to offer a critique of the Reformed response from within camp. There are two points that I want to make. The response was premature and thus unfair. And the response was based upon presuppositions about Rob Bell before actually hearing him.

When Rob Bell released his promo material for his book Love Wins at the end of February he touched off a violent F-5 tornado from the Reformed community. Justin Taylor blogged that Rob Bell has moved farther away from orthodoxy, going so far as to label him a universalist. John Piper tweeted, “Farewell @robbell” (I’m assuming he meant @realrobbell, which is the twitter account of the author/pastor under scrutiny). The dean of Boyce College (part of Southern Seminary), Denny Burk, joined Piper and Taylor. Kenny DeYoung came to Taylor’s defense in the wake of the backlash.

As a Reformed guy, especially as one who looks up to Piper in many ways, it was sad to see this happen. I understand that Bell has some out-there ideas. I understand he has a lot in common with the “emerging church” movement (Bell has denied being part of that group and I’ll give him benefit of the doubt there).

But why rush to judgement on the promotional material? If Piper was getting ready to publish a book, made the promo controversial, and people were labeling him a heretic without having read his book, he’d be upset and rightfully so. He would want people to wait and see what he said in the book where his actual claims are being put forward and his reasons for claiming them can be examined. His supporters, like Taylor and Burk, would plead for people to read the book before coming to conclusions. They would call it rushing to judgment and premature to label Piper as a heretic.

So to label Bell as a heretic, however true it may turn out to be next week, was rushed. And because it’s rushed it’s not fair at all. Isn’t one of the great things about America, and being a Christian, supposed to be a person isn’t going to be assumed guilty without first proving that guilt? I mean DeYoung’s post grasps at straws to say Bell’s questions were more than mere questions, but didactic by nature, smuggling in truth claims through the back door. There’s no interest in being fair here at all.

Which leads me to my second point. The Reformed response seems to have read in their presuppositions about bell into the video. When I watched the promo video and read the publisher blurb, I didn’t immediately think universalism. In fact, I thought Bell raised some good questions that should be answered by myself and my Reformed brothers. I didn’t assume Bell was setting up a heresy in these questions. And because of that I didn’t feel Bell was sneaking heresy in.

But Taylor, Burk, DeYoung, and others have assumed heresy first, without reading what the book actually claims, and then viewed the promo material. They are reading Bell with presuppositions of heresy.

I remember at the Desiring God national conference on postmodernism back in 2006 (I believe it was 2006). Mark Driscoll was preaching on the church in a postmodern context. He discussed Velvet Elvis and the illustration of a brick wall the Bell used. Driscoll, giving the exact page, claims that Bell said we can throw away the virgin birth of Jesus, and that Bell doesn’t believe in it. In the book all Bell is doing is challenging the idea that doctrine should be placed together like a brick wall. Bell even states that he believes in the virgin birth. Love Wins isn’t the first time people presupposed Bell is stating heresy. But this is probably people have done so before actually reading his book.

When I look at how hard and devastating the Reformed response to Bell’s promotional video and publisher’s note, I am reminded of the F-5 tornado. The funnel cloud can be up to a mile in diameter. Winds range between 261-318 mph. These things can turn cars into missiles and take the bark off of a tree. They are the most destructive force in nature. Skyscrapers cower in fear before the F-5 tornado. And that’s what I saw from the Reformed guys like Justin Taylor and John Piper.

There was no grace. There was no waiting to see what the book said. Piper’s tweet comes awfully close to saying that Bell is dead to him. “Farewell Rob Bell.” There was no invitation for dialogue and discussion and debate. There was only casting about the label of heretic. There was only condemnation. There was only the devastation of the F-5 twister.

I have no clue what Rob Bell is going to say. I prefer my heresy to come from N. T. Wright. When it comes to the doctrines of heaven and hell Rob Bell may believe that love wins, whatever that may mean. But when it came tommy brothers’ response to his promo stuff, Bell was devastatingly wrong. Love did not win.

Today we continue looking at the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. We are going to look at Matthew 5:7 and 5:9, being merciful and making peace. As young people, these two sayings can be the most difficult to live by, adding in pure of heat in 5:8. Therefore it is vital that we get a grasp on the terms “mercy” and “peace” and what it is exactly Jesus is talking about in this passage.

Giving and Receiving Mercy (Matthew 5:7)
First let us define the term “mercy” and move out from there. The modern English dictionary defines mercy this way: compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm. But the Bible goes a little further, is a bit more nuanced than that. It’s loyalty to someone or to the promises made to someone. It’s being faithful even when a person doesn’t deserve it. When we look at God in the Old Testament him being merciful meant not only forgiving Israel but also fulfilling his covenant obligations when Israel had violated theirs and God was no longer required to fill them. He continued to preserve Israel despite the nation rebelling against them. He wasn’t just being nice and not punishing Israel, he blessed them and continued to work for them.

Jesus quotes this statement from Hosea 6:6, ἔλεος (חֶסֶד) θέλω καὶ οὐ θυσίαν, twice. In Matthew 9:9-13 he was answering the charge of the Pharisees, διατί μετὰ τῶν τελωνῶν καὶ ἁμαρτωλῶν ἐσθίει ὁ διδάσκαλος ὑμῶν? In Matthew 12 Jesus is rebuking the Pharisees’ condemnation of Jesus’ disciples eating on the Sabbath, pointing back to David and his men eating the Bread of Presence which is only for the priests. Both instances, the Pharisees have placed cultic purity–not doing anything that would make them unclean in the Temple–above doing acts of mercy.

Jesus gives this rebuke to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:23, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” When God becomes King, it’s not enough to be going to church, reading your Bibles, saying your prayers. It wasn’t enough for the Pharisees to tithe. Those who live under God’s rule are those who practice justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You must be doing the church stuff, but if that’s all you are doing, you are not under of God’s rulership.

Now we come to an important observation. Jesus says in Matthew 5:7, μακάριοι οἱ ἐλεήμονες, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἐλεηθήσονται. Jesus seems to be saying that we receive mercy when we are merciful. In other words, it is when we give mercy that we will receive mercy. But is this true of God and his mercy towards us? Must we be merciful to our fellow creatures in order to receive divine mercy?

My answer is “no.” I say this for two reasons. First is the context of Matthew 5:7. This is part of a sermon where Jesus is filling out what it means to be part of and under God’s rulership. And the coming of that rulership isn’t because of God seeing man as now being merciful creatures. We’ve seen that Israel herself struggled with this and was corrected by Jesus in just a couple of chapters from now. No the very coming of Christ to bring about God’s becoming King is an act of mercy, grounded only in God’s faithfulness to his promises made all the way back in Genesis 3 and Genesis 12 and on through the prophets.

Second, Jesus also says in Matthew 7:15-20 and again in Matthew 12:33-37 that a person is judged by their fruits. A good tree bears good fruit, a bad tree bad fruit. But a good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor a bad tree bear good fruit. Thus in order to bear good fruit one must be remade from a bad tree into a good tree. In order to be merciful and receive mercy, God in his mercy must kill and resurrect us.

Thirdly, Jesus is the one who was merciful first and received God’s mercy in return. He showed mercy to sinners and to God’s enemies. As a reward, God mercifully raised him from the grave and gave him the kingdom that rules all kingdoms.

Peace-Making and Sons of God (Matthew 5:9)
The other beatitude that we will observe this evening is Matthew 5:9, μακάριοι οἱ εἰρηνοποιοί, ὅτι υἱοὶ θεοῦ κληθήσονται. In order to understand this saying there is something we must understand about the culture Jesus lived. A person is known by his father. And what it was that the father did, so did the son. Jesus can be referred to as the carpenter and the son of a carpenter and the same thing is being said.

Consider this exchange in John 8:39-47,

39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.

If Abraham was their father, they would do what Abraham did. But because the devil is their father, and him being a liar and a murderer, they are liars and murderers.

This idea works here in Matthew 5:9 too. Those who make or do peace, shalom, will be called sons of God. God makes and does things of peace. If he is your father then that is what you will do/make.

So what does Jesus mean by “peace?” The Hebrew idea of peace, or shalom, is that of well-being. When something is at peace it is as it should be. When we read in Genesis 1 that when God looked at all of his creation and said it was tov, “good,” it was at peace. We tend to think of peace as merely the absence of violence, like there being no wars. Shalom goes beyond that. Peace is the absence of hatred and malice. There is no lust or envy or jealousy or greed. The very state of mind that Jesus preaches is a mind at peace. It is the human being as it was and is truly meant to be, and will be.

And when we learn to do/make peace we will be as we truly were meant to be, God’s image bearers, God’s children and family. Son of God here is different from Jesus. His sonship is understood in a couple of ways. First, as the king of Israel he is to rule the people as if it were God on the throne. The king isn’t God in a trinity way, but merely the representation of God, seated on a throne and ruling a people.

Secondly, Jesus is different from us as God’s sons in that he shares the identity of God. In John 5:16-24,

“16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working.’ 18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19 So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.’”

His “doing what his Father does” requires him to be be God and yet not the Father. Jesus’ sonship forces us to begin to understand him in the Trinity.

Challenge for the Week
In high school and middle school I know it is easier and “cooler” to not be merciful. Most often to show mercy to one who doesn’t grant you mercy is unfair and unjust. But that’s why we need to be in our Bibles every day. Our concepts of what is just and unjust are not derived from Scripture. They are derived from sin natures that worships the self instead of God. Mercy AND justice, for the Christian, must be grounded in love–which we saw last week to be the great command that God gives his people and the great marker which distinguishes them from all else; love is the essence of holiness. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, he could have everything but without love they are nothing.

“4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:4-6, 13).

In seeking to love others you will be merciful. In seeking to love others, you will condemn their wrong. But you will not repay it in kind, letting God take vengeance for you. In love, you will make peace, you will be truly human. And you will be truly a child of God.

This discussion of N. T. Wright’s case comes from his book Justification: God’s Plan & Paul’s Vision (IVP, Downers Grove, IL, 2009) on pages 216-224. Wright’s argument follows on his discussion of Romans 3:21-30 as he sees Romans 3:21-4:25 as one whole argument by Paul. So one needs to read the whole chapter to really see Wright’s interpretation (really the whole book).

The issue for Wright is not about how gets “saved” or goes to heaven when they die. Justification is about more than just that. It’s about the promises God made and the covenants he gave to accomplish them. Thus in Romans 4:1-8, Paul is discussing Genesis 15 and what was promised and sealed by covenant to Abraham. It is not a mere abstract discussion of Genesis 15:6 and Psalm 32:1-2.

Wright retranslates Romans 4:1-2 as, “What then shall we say? Have we found Abraham to be our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has a boast–but not in the presence of God.” This translation is significantly different from what you find in the standard translations like the ESV or NIV. In Wright’s translation, the issue is how did Abraham become the forefather to the family of God that was to be the vessel through which God sets the world right. Was it by something in Abraham, giving him grounds to boast on, or God’s grace through Abraham’s faith?

The citation of Genesis 15:6 loudly shuts down the idea that it was by works. Abraham believed the promise made in Genesis 15:4-5. And that faith, that trust, that believing God’s promise counted as Abraham’s righteousness (Genesis 15:6; cf. Romans 4:3). Abraham did not work to put God in his debt, making the given righteousness a wage earned. Rather, understanding that he is a sinner and is ungodly, Abraham trusted God–looking away from himself–and believed that God justifies the ungodly. God graciously counted this faith for righteousness.

Wright wants to keep in mind what it was that Abraham was believing, namely God’s promise to give him a family (Genesis 15:5). It was not “forgiveness of sin” or “how one gets to heaven when they die.” There is no combat against Pelagianism or Roman Catholicism. Yes the fact that because Abraham was “ungodly” when God called him, and that it was his faith in God’s promise that was counted as his righteousness, that these heretical theologies are incorrect. But Paul is not writing about and against those heresies.

And when Paul brings in the citation of David from Psalm 32:1-2 Wright argues that Paul is saying it’s in the covenant of Genesis 15, in the family given to Abraham, that God was going to forgive sin, not counting sin against a person.

Thus we find Abraham to be our forefather by faith. God graciously gave Abraham the covenant by faith. It is by faith that he received his membership into God’s saving purposes. It is by faith he is the first in the family of forgiven sinners. He was ungodly and God did not count his sin against him.

Righteousness becomes one’s status as a member of that family, as in and heir to the Genesis 15 covenant. Faith is that which identifies one as part of that family and covenant. Faith is the badge that circumcision once was. Abraham became part of that family, received the covenant, justified by his faith in the promises God made. Genesis 17:11 said the badge (“sign and seal”) of the covenant was circumcision; Romans 4:11says the badge (“sign and seal”) of righteousness is faith (Wright observes that Paul turns covenant in Genesis 17:11 into righteousness in Romans 4:11).

That faith is believing God brings life from death. For Abraham, it was that God can cause Sarah to become pregnant by Abraham in their old age, when their bodies were dead. For the Christian, faith that God brings life from death is that Jesus was raised from the dead.

This has prompted some interesting exchanges on Dr. Burk’s website between himself, his readership, and none other than N. T. Wright (click here and here). In these exchanges Dr. Burk insists that Wright has changed his position on final justification being on the basis of works, saying that Wright has conceded on that point. In the comment sections Wright maintains that he has not changed his position but maintains that he never said that.

When one reads some of the quotations Dr. Burk produces it’s easy to see Burk’s point. Wright seems to state repeatedly that justification is on the basis of works. To any Reformed reader that screams a return to Rome and leaving the doctrine of justification by faith alone, sola fide. Wright counters that a.) he doesn’t use “basis” the same way that Burk and the Reformed tradition does, in a very rigid fashion where basis can only mean one thing; b.) the texts that Reformed exegetes adduce refer to present justification and not future justification.

What this leads me to see is that many of my Reformed brethren–which even N. T. Wright wants to be labeled as!–are too blinded by their own tradition. That is not saying that they aren’t trying to go to the text of Scripture. They certainly are doing that. But the tradition so clouds their reading and exegesis that they aren’t seeing what Wright says and how close they really are.

Take this issue of “basis” versus “accordance,” the difference between the Greek prepositions ek and dia (Romans 3:9-30), and kata (Romans 2:1-16). Reformed tradition defenders will read a hard and fast distinction between these prepositions. Thus there is a major difference between “basis” and “accordance.” For Wright the distinction is there in the Greek but he uses the English terms more loosely. Reformed defenders will see “basis” language and fill it with what they mean by it and read that into Wright’s writings. Because they cannot let Wright define the term by context they see the heretical “justification by works” in his writings. But Wright will say that this justification on the basis of works is a justification that agrees with the justification by faith. It’s works that flow from a vital and living faith created by the indwelling Spirit of Christ in the Christian. Works are evidential on the last Day for Wright, it’s just that he will use “basis” to express this evidential reading and not “accordance.”

Let me illustrate. Dr. Burk quotes the following from Wright’s essay “New Perspectives on Paul” (Wright here is trying to defend his position over and against other NPP readings as well as from charges of heterodoxy),

I am fascinated by the way in which some of those most conscious of their reformation heritage shy away from Paul’s clear statements about future judgment according to works. It is not often enough remarked upon, for instance, that in the Thessalonian letters, and in Philippians, he looks ahead to the coming day of judgment and sees God’s favourable verdict not on the basis of the merits and death of Christ, not because like Lord Hailsham he simply casts himself on the mercy of the judge, but on the basis of his apostolic work. ‘What is our hope and joy and crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus Christ at his royal appearing? Is it not you? For you are our glory and our joy.’ (1 Thess. 3.19f.; cp. Phil. 2.16f.) I suspect that if you or I were to say such a thing, we could expect a swift rebuke of ‘nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling’. The fact that Paul does not feel obliged at every point to say this shows, I think, that he is not as concerned as we are about the danger of speaking of the things he himself has done – though sometimes, to be sure, he adds a rider, which proves my point, that it is not his own energy but that which God gives and inspires within him (1 Cor. 15.10; Col. 1.29). But he is still clear that the things he does in the present, by moral and physical effort, will count to his credit on the last day, precisely because they are the effective signs that the Spirit of the living Christ has been at work in him. We are embarrassed about saying this kind of thing; Paul clearly is not. What on earth can have happened to a sola scriptura theology that it should find itself forced to screen out such emphatic, indeed celebratory, statements?

This is the conclusion that Dr. Burk draws from this citation, “Wright is clearly arguing that Paul’s final justification would be “on the basis of” his apostolic “works.” He even highlights the idea that Paul says this without reference to Christ’s work on the cross.”

But as Wright will later point out, the reason for his wording like this is because of Paul’s own language. Paul mentions being judged on his ministry to the Philippians but doesn’t include the work of Christ. Wright is trying to incorporate this into his own theology. But not only does Paul’s language sometimes mention being judged by God apart from the work of Christ but Wright clearly says that it is by Christ alone we are justified and enter into God’s new creation. Hear the paragraph before what Burk writes,

This passage has often been read differently. We heard yesterday that Augustine had problems with it (perhaps the only thing in common between Augustine and E. P. Sanders). That is hardly surprising; here is the first statement about justification in Romans, and lo and behold it affirms justification according to works! The doers of the law, he says, will be justified (2.13). Shock, horror; Paul cannot (so many have thought) have really meant it. So the passage has been treated as a hypothetical position which Paul then undermines by showing that nobody can actually achieve it; or, by Sanders for instance, as a piece of unassimilated Jewish preaching which Paul allows to stand even though it conflicts with other things he says. But all such theories are undermined by exegesis itself, not least by observing the many small but significant threads that stitch Romans 2 into the fabric of the letter as a whole. Paul means what he says. Granted, he redefines what ‘doing the law’ really means; he does this in chapter 8, and again in chapter 10, with a codicil in chapter 13. But he makes the point most compactly in Philippians 1.6: he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus. The ‘works’ in accordance with which the Christian will be vindicated on the last day are not the unaided works of the self-help moralist. Nor are they the performance of the ethnically distinctive Jewish boundary-markers (sabbath, food-laws and circumcision). They are the things which show, rather, that one is in Christ; the things which are produced in one’s life as a result of the Spirit’s indwelling and operation. In this way, Romans 8.1–17 provides the real answer to Romans 2.1–16. Why is there now ‘no condemnation’? Because, on the one hand, God has condemned sin in the flesh of Christ (let no-one say, as some have done, that this theme is absent in my work; it was and remains central in my thinking and my spirituality); and, on the other hand, because the Spirit is at work to do, within believers, what the Law could not do – ultimately, to give life, but a life that begins in the present with the putting to death of the deeds of the body and the obedient submission to the leading of the Spirit.

What Wright is trying to do is to wrestle honestly and exegetically with Romans 2:1-16, where judgment is based upon and accords with one’s works. He cites Romans 8:1-17 as the answer and the way through Romans 2:1-16 in a way that doesn’t “explain away” the judgment according to works. The works are those that come from the union with Christ and his indwelling Spirit working in and through the Christian.

Wright saying, “The ‘works’ in accordance with which the Christian will be vindicated on the last day are not the unaided works of the self-help moralist. Nor are they the performance of the ethnically distinctive Jewish boundary-markers (sabbath, food-laws and circumcision). They are the things which show, rather, that one is in Christ; the things which are produced in one’s life as a result of the Spirit’s indwelling and operation,” puts him in the same camp as the Reformed tradition in saying that works evidence saving faith and the vital matrix of union with Christ.

Again listen to N. T. Wright on faith and conversion, “Becoming a Christian, in its initial moment, is not based on anything that a person has acquired by birth or achieved by merit. Faith is itself the first fruit of the Spirit’s call. And those thus called, to return to Philippians 1.6, can be sure that the one who began a good work in them will complete it at the day of Christ.” This doesn’t sound like belief in works as the sole ground of one’s justification/vindication.

And finally consider this paragraph,

And we now discover that this declaration, this vindication, occurs twice. It occurs in the future, as we have seen, on the basis of the entire life a person has led in the power of the Spirit – that is, it occurs on the basis of ‘works’ in Paul’s redefined sense. And, near the heart of Paul’s theology, it occurs in the present as an anticipation of that future verdict, when someone, responding in believing obedience to the ‘call’ of the gospel, believes that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead. This is the point about justification by faith – to revert to the familiar terminology: it is the anticipation in the present of the verdict which will be reaffirmed in the future. Justification is not ‘how someone becomes a Christian’. It is God’s declaration about the person who has just become a Christian. And, just as the final declaration will consist, not of words so much as of an event, namely, the resurrection of the person concerned into a glorious body like that of the risen Jesus, so the present declaration consists, not so much of words, though words there may be, but of an event, the event in which one dies with the Messiah and rises to new life with him, anticipating that final resurrection. In other words, baptism. I was delighted yesterday to discover that not only Chrysostom and Augustine but also Luther would here have agreed with me.

Yes Wright says the final vindication occurs “on the basis of ‘works’ in Paul’s redefined sense.” And this future judgment is “on the basis of the entire life a person has led in the power of the Spirit.” But given that the final verdict is to reaffirm the verdict given upon the union of a believer to Christ by the Spirit, the works are what Dr. Burk and the Reformed defenders argue, evidence. The present justification says we have been united to Jesus and indwelt by the Spirit. That Spirit, beginning with faith, works in the person to live the life that God will vindicate with resurrection on the last day. But also those Spirit-empowered works point to union with the Messiah and his death and resurrection. But either way one looks at it, we are raised by God because of Christ’s work on the Cross and resurrection in N. T. Wright’s theology of Paul and justification.

Both sides look at the Spirit-empowered works in the life of the believer as evidence of saving faith in Jesus. But N. T. Wright doesn’t use the standard language of the Reformed tradition. It thus seems that those from a decidedly Reformed perspective have a hard time seeing that subtle change in language where “basis” is no longer that hard and fast defined term. It now becomes very much overlapping with “accords with” and it must be Wright’s context that determines what “based upon” means, not the Reformed context.

I conclude with this quote by Wright,

I’ve said it before and this is the place to say it again: if we are thinking Paul’s thoughts after him, we are not justified by faith by believing in justification by faith. We are justified by faith by believing in the gospel itself – in other words, that Jesus is Lord and that God raised him from the dead. If, in addition, we believe in justification by faith itself, we believe that, amazingly considering what God knows about us, we are now and for ever part of the family to every member of which God says what he said to Jesus at his baptism: you are my beloved child, with you I am well pleased.