The traditional understanding of Jesus’ life that I have been immersed in is this. I am a sinner, violating God’s law. That law demands perfect obedience to it by me to enter into heaven, to be saved. John Piper paints this picture. Imagine a large boulder, a rock that is immeasurable. That rock is God’s righteousness, his moral perfection and standard that he demands his creatures live up to. Because I, like all human beings, have sinned against God and do not meet God’s standard, that boulder stands over me as God’s wrath and judgment. The doctrine of imputation comes into play at this point in the metaphor. Jesus has perfectly obeyed the law and has met this impossible standard that God has set and demands. He exchanges with me, by faith, his perfect obedience for my sin. The effect is that this boulder now becomes my rock-solid, immovable foundation upon which I stand before God in his judgment. Jesus now stands under the same boulder and stands condemned by God for my sin. That picture is a beautiful picture that Piper paints, and is very helpful in understanding his doctrine of imputation.

This year, along with some guys at my church, I am reading through the entire Bible in 90 days–I should be done in March. Recently the reading plan completed the Torah, the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. After reading those books I don’t feel like this is the best reading of Israel’s Law. Nor do I believe that it is the most desirable reading of the Law.

Genesis 1 paints a vocation for humanity. That is to be God’s image on the earth, exercising God’s dominion and filling the earth with his image through family. Adam and Eve, as we know, failed to complete this task. When God called Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 the promise of a family living in a land climaxes in the promise that through Abraham’s family God would bless all the families of the earth. Abraham’s descendants would restore humanity to its original vocation. When rescued from Egypt God gives Israel the vocation of the royal priesthood (Exodus 19:6).

Pushing this farther is how God introduces the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. The wording of the commandments indicates that the Law is a moral standard that Israel is to live up to in order to be God’s people and live in the land promised to Abraham. Rather, it is how they are to live because they are God’s people and are going to possess the land.

In Deuteronomy 27 God lists out the blessings and curses for faithfully living out God’s Torah. The blessings climax with God saying that Israel will be so blessed that the nations will have to come to them for sustenence. If Israel is unfaithful to the Law she will not be blessed and will be so dependent upon the nations that they will be carried off into exile.

The picture that emerges is that Israel’s obedience to the Law is about fulfilling Israel’s task, her vocation, Adam’s task. The blessing that God intended to unleash upon the world through Adam will be realised through Israel being faithful to God through Torah. It’s how Israel is to live as God’s people. It’s eschatological.

So when Jesus comes and is the fulfillment of Israel, he is taking on this eschatological destiny. He is observing the Torah in the way God intended so that God’s blessings could come upon the earth. It’s not the picture that Piper paints, as attractive as the picture is. Jesus is bringing Israel’s vocation to pass. He is bringing Adam’s mission to completion. His miracles are part of this blessing that God planned and promised to unleash. The healings and forgiveness and love and compassion are the eschatological blessings being realized.

As a Southern Baptist, one of the most crucial battles my denomination fights is over the Bible. More specifically, one of the battles it fights is for the authority of the Bible in the life of the Christian. Wayne Grudem devotes an entire chapter to defining and defending the authority of the Bible.

So what is the authority of the Bible?

In my circles the authority of the Bible is similar to that of a court of final appeals. In ancient Israel, when a person filed suit, the case would go before a judge. The judge would render his decision either for or against the person filing suit. If dissatisfied that person could appeal to the king of Israel or Judah. But the king’s decision in the matter is final. There’s no place else in Israel/Judah to go once the king decides. When we think of the Bible’s authority we think of it as appealing to the king.

In contemporary times, it would be similar to filing a suit in the courts. If the lower-level judge rules against the person filing, there is an appeals judge that can overrule the decision. This process can go all the way up to the US Supreme Court. But once the Supreme Court rules, there’s no other court to turn to. The decision is final.

But is this right? Is the Bible a document that we turn to as that final court to vindicate one’s claims to doctrine and ethics? Is that the way the Bible has authority?

I don’t think so. I think there’s a better way that the Bible wants us to understand authority and how it is exercised in relationship to Scripture.

First, let us understand this central point. Only God has authority. All other authority is delegated by God to the individuals or institutions. Jesus tells Pilate during his trial, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above” (John 19:11 NIV). Paul writes to the church in Rome, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1 NIV).

Second, that authority is given to Jesus. The Messiah himself says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18 NIV). As Paul tells the Colossians in Colossians 1:15-17 NIV,

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Jesus exercises this authority in the idea of the Kingdom. In the Greek, the verbal root from which the Greek term “kingdom” is the verb that means “I reign/rule.” It speaks to a sovereign ruling over his territory and people. And thus God’s authority is synonymous to his rule or reign as king to judge and heal. It’s his reign to put sin to death and bring new life to his creation through resurrection. God’s authority, given to Jesus, is his authority to put away sin and heal his creation.

The Bible, first and foremost, is a story. It’s the story of the Triune God creating and recreating. It’s the story of God defeating sin and healing his creatures. It’s the story of God redeeming his creation through the family of Abraham and his family, climaxing in the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. It’s the story of God’s exercising his authority to put sin to death and put his creation project back on track.

And in encountering this story, the Holy Spirit brings God’s authority to bear on the reader, whether the community or the individual. God speaks life to the reader in the power of the Spirit through the Bible. The Spirit works through the reading, preaching, teaching, and studying of Scripture to unleash God’s authority. And through that power new life and holiness is brought to bear on the reader/hearer.

One might compare this to the creation song of Genesis 1. The newly converted Christian is like the newly created earth, formless and void. The Spirit hovers over the dark earth, just as he indwells the new believer. God speaks to the earth, ordering and shaping it, filling it with land and trees and seas and fish and all kinds of creatures. God in a similar way speaks through the reading of the story of Scripture to produce the virtues and habits in the individuals to shape and create a community to speak to the world who the true God really is.

Thus as the narrative that is above all other narratives, the meta-narrative, it determines the doctrines and dogmas we believe. It outlines the virtues and habits of behavior the kingdom-people are to hold and follow. It creates the culture we present to the world ensnared by sin and death and darkness.

To paraphrase N. T. Wright in Scripture and the Authority of God, the authority of the Bible or Scripture is God’s authority exercised through Scripture. It’s God exercising his authority through Scripture, not the Bible having authority.

The title of this post sounds like it’s going to be an exposition of 2 Peter 1:10 (NIV) where Peter says, “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble.” But it’s not. Not exactly, anyways. It is about election and the foundations for approaching the massive terms of “calling” and “election.” They are a major source of controversy for the last 500+ years of church history. The Calvinism vs. Arminianism debate is a fierce one and I don’t pretend to provide the solution to end the debate. What I want to do is provide some things that have come into my mind as I ponder my Calvinism–a belief system I’ve made no attempts to hide.

What has recently come to my mind attention is where to root the terms. And I’m talking about some place other than Scripture. But how to place the term within Scripture. There’s a presupposition in play that I was never aware of having before. But now that my reading of Scripture has changed, it’s not a text that provides systematic theology and the resulting ethics of that system of theology but a narrative that tells God’s story of creation and redemption in Christ, my presuppositions have changed.

The presupposition in question is this. Before I started to delve into N. T. Wright, I was assuming abstract definitions of “calling” and “election.” I presupposed Paul was using these terms in abstract ways, divorced from playing a role in history. God chose, for himself for his own glorious reasons, a people to save from sin and death. I believed Scripture presented an abstract system of salvation and ethics.

But reading Wright has forced me to come to terms with the notion of “vocation.” When God chose Abraham and called him, it was within the context of giving him a vocation. When Abraham’s calling and election was past on to his family, and the nation created with that family, it was a calling and election to the same vocation. To Abraham, the vocation was to bring God’s blessing to the families of the world through Abraham’s family. To Abraham it was to be royal priests. Royal in that they declared the sovereign reign of the Creator to the world and order the world according to his wise rule. Priests in that Israel was to gather before God all the praise and worship of the creation. In short the vocation was to restore the creation to the goal that God had given it in creating it.

Israel’s vocation had a goal. It was a God-centered goal for creation. If one were to ask why did God choose Israel? It was to be the vessel through which God reconciled creation to himself and restored creation to his purpose for it. That was Israel’s vocation to which she was chosen and called within history. It was that calling and election to which Jesus took up as Israel’s Messiah and brought to a climax.

When the Calvinist, and the Remonstrant Arminian as well, asks the question of why did God choose Israel? The answer is always framed in terms of merit and earning God’s choice. The Calvinist will say God did not choose Israel for something within her or because of some action. The Arminian will say that it is because she responded to God’s grace with faith. But the goal of God’s choice of Israel was what, in those systems? What was he hoping to accomplish in his choice? The Calvinist will say to save a people for himself to be the people from which Jesus comes to save us from our sins via penal substitution and imputation and bring us into a far away heavenly existence in the presence of God. God’s purpose in election is to save me.

And this forces me to realize that in going in the abstract route, I’m unconsciously making God’s actions about saving me. He chose me, he irresistibly called me, he justified me, he glorified me. When we read Ephesians 1 and Paul’s use of election there, holiness and blamelessness is not Israel’s task but to personal salvation, positional holiness and blamelessness, and the resulting ethics, living out holiness and blamelessness. Being predestined to adoption of sonship, it’s not about summing all things up in Jesus Messiah and uniting heaven and earth in a new creation; it’s not about fulfilling the royal priesthood. It’s about going to heaven, an otherworldly existence. Same with the Calvinistic reading of Romans 8:29-30. It’s not about carrying forward Israel’s vocation in God’s cosmic scope and plan of reconciliation and restoration.

But in focusing on God’s goal in choosing Israel in the Old Testament, Jesus taking up the Messianic task of bringing Israel’s history (indeed all of human history) to its climax, and the reconstituting Israel as the kingdom-people/church, leaves behind the questions of merit. No God did not choose Abraham for something within the patriarchal figure, either his character or birthright or deeds or faith. Yes the Reformers were right to challenge the Pelagian and semi-Pelagian ways of the Roman Catholic Church. But the Reformation failed to ask why did God choose Israel? What did God seek to accomplish in this choice? What was his purpose and goal? It still stood in the human-oriented, merit theology of its day.

I am grateful for the Reformation. The Reformers were right to seek reformation for the Christian church. However, the Reformation could not break free from the worldview of merit theology–as I am trying to break free of my own worldview that is reactionary to both the Enlightenment and postmodernism. I’m realy trying to come to terms again with election and calling, rooting it in Israel’s history recorded on the pages of Scripture. Understanding Scripture as the grand narrative it truly is, I am being forced to rework all of my theology. I thought I was done with this when I became a Calvinist.

As we near Easter I’ve been thinking over the Passover narrative from Exodus 12. Some things have bubbled up to the surface that I had never really seen. Images from the actual event and different contexts within the Exodus narrative. And I want to take the time to share them. They’re probably nothing new to some of my readers but they are to me.

The first observation is going to take two posts to cover. And it is this, the Passover is the climax of the confrontation between the force of creation, the Creator, and the forces of anti-creation, sin and evil. And I break it up into two parts to focus on the characters and the actual confrontation.

Moses is called by Yahweh in Exodus 3-4. In Exodus 4:10-17 Moses gives his objection to go before Pharaoh to demand the liberation of the Hebrew slaves is a lack of eloquent speech. That shocks me given Moses was risen in the Pharaoh’s house as a prince. Not saying it’s out of the realm of possibility just that I found it shocking.

Yahweh’s answer is simple Aaron will speak for Moses. God will tell Moses what to tell Pharaoh and Aaron will say it. And it’s in 4:16 that we find this, “He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him.” Moses is set up as God to Aaron, and Aaron as the prophet. And thus we have the side of the force of creation, the Creator, Yahweh.

And as Moses rival, Pharaoh is cast up as the anti-God, the force of anti-creation. In this narrative the personification of sin and evil, as Moses is the personification of God. Pharaoh, in the Egyptian pantheon, is said and believed to be the embodiment of The sun god Ra, the chief god. Pharaoh is the parody of the creator God. He is set up to be man’s attempt at replacing God.

And this confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh becomes something greater. Exodus 5-15 is really the confrontation between God and the evil that has attempted to depose him as king and thwart his redemptive plan began through Abraham and his family. The forces that would seek to defeat God’s redemptive activities will not go unchecked (even those in Canaan, but that’s another topic; Genesis 15:12-16).

As Admiral Adama told the mutineer Mr. Gaeda, “There will be a reckoning.” For Pharaoh, his time has come. And it will cost him and his people dearly, personally, economically, and nationally. And the climax of this reckoning will be the events of the Passover.

Psalm 24
There are three points established by David in this poem. The dominion, the people, the king.

In 24:1-2 David declares, “The earth belongs to Yahweh, and so does everything in it. The world and all of those who live in it. Upon the seas he established it and upon the rivers he founded it.” David claims that in light of God being the creator of everything, he has dominion over his creation, the entire creation. There isn’t anywhere in all of reality and escape God’s domain and the step outside the place where he reigns. From the land to the seas to the skies and all that fills them, He owns and has dominion over all things. The universe is his dominion.

In 24:3-6 David asks this question, “Who will go up the mountain of Yahweh? Who will stand in his holy place?” Who are the ones who will live in God’s dominion? Who bears the distinction of being God’s people that he will enter into covenant with to be their God? David’s answer is this, “He who has clean hands and pure in heart. He who does not lift his soul on what is false. He who doesn’t swear deceit to his neighbor.” This person, David says, “will receive blessing from Yahweh, and will receive mercy from God his savior.” In other words David sums up his answer like this in 24:6, “This is the people seeking him, seeking the face of the God of Jacob.”

The third point establishes Yahweh as King of this dominion and people. And Yahweh is coming as king to rule. Watch starting in 24:7, “Your rulers open the doors, and lift up the gates of the ages and the King of glory will come in.” There is a king waiting to enter, the gates and doors need only to be opened. David asks and then answers the all important rhetorical question, “Who is this ‘King of glory’? He is Yahweh, mighty and powerful. He is Yahweh, powerful in war… Who is this king of glory? He is Yahweh, the one who commands armies! He is the king of glory!”

I think this Psalm is teaching us that God possesses all of creation. And that God is returning to his creation to rule over it as king, doing away with his enemies in victorious battle. And David’s charge is to prepare himself and those who will hear his call for this coming by cleansing their hands, purifying their hearts, and rededicate themselves to worship Yahweh and follow his Torah.

Matthew 5:8
Remember what we talked about when we first started looking at the beatitudes. In Matthew 4:12-17 Jesus is preaching that the kingdom of heaven, the promised return of God as king to rule over the world through his Messiah as king over Israel. It is God’s return as king.

And in the Psalm David says that God is ready to return as king. He stands waiting for the gates to open. The victorious King of glory has come and is ready to rule.

It is Jesus’ mission to call Israel to open the gates to welcome God in as King, as well as to act out God coming in and re-establishing himself as king. And therefore his ministry in Galilee is the calling of Israel to become the pure in heart and open the gates for the king to rule. Jesus is calling Israel to be those who ascend the mountain of God and stand in God’s holy place. And in going to Jerusalem Jesus opens the gates for Israel and enacts God’s return. In dying on the cross Jesus shows God to be the powerful one in war by defeating sin and evil. And in raising him from the dead God establishes his reign through Jesus, the risen Christ, over the whole creation.

And hear what the Psalmist says about those who dwell in this kingdom, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (16:11). To stand in the presence of God, the reigning king, is to be in the presence of joy and pleasure. There is no evil and no sin to steal that joy. There is only love, vibrant and living, flowing from person to person.

Matthew 15:1-28
What then does it mean to be pure in heart? The prevailing idea in Jesus’ day was to be a Jew, and not a Gentile. Gentiles weren’t the people whom God chose, given Torah and Temple, entered into covenant with. It is the Jews. And even further there differing ideas within Judaism about what it meant to follow Torah and worship in the Temple. The Sadducees had their way, the Pharisees their way, the Essenes their way. Everyone argued about what it looked like to follow Torah in the way God intended so that they could be seen as holy, separated from the pagan and evil Gentiles.

In Matthew 15 Jesus challenges this whole notion. Jesus’ disciples failed to wash their hands before eating a meal. The Pharisees saw this and called Jesus out on it for breaking the traditions of the elders. The hand washing wasn’t for sanitary reasons, germs and stuff, but to show them to be faithful Jews over against faithless Jews and pagan Gentiles. Jesus counters with saying they fail to obey the written Torah with these traditions, climaxing with him quoting Isaiah 29:13.

Then Jesus goes on to say this about being clean and pure, “10 And he called the people to him and said to them, ‘ Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.’ 12 Then the disciples came and said to him, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?’ 13 He answered, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. [3] And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” 15 But Peter said to him, ‘Explain the parable to us.’ 16 And he said, ‘Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? [4] 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.’”

Jesus redefines purity from external observations of rituals and traditions to internal attitudes and thoughts. Sexual immorality is a matter of the heart, not of deeds. Lying and cheating comes from a heart that lies and cheats. His disciples aren’t clean and pure, holy and set apart as God’s people, because they don’t wash their hands but because their hearts are evil.

In Matthew 7 and 12 Jesus says ones deeds reflects the condition of the heart like fruit reflects whether or not a tree is healthy. If the fruit is healthy fruit, the tree is healthy. If the fruit is bad then the tree is bad. Good trees don’t produce bad fruit and bad trees don’t produce good fruit. So how then does one become “pure in heart” if we are sinners and have unclean hearts?

We have to be made into a good tree. We have to have our hearts changed. In short, we need the resurrection. It is only through the resurrection that we can be created anew with a pure heart. And we can only experience the resurrection if the Holy Spirit will apply it to us and begin the new creation in us. As Paul says in Galatians 6:15, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

And that brings us to something Paul said in just the previous chapter, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). What sets us apart from the rest of the world is faith, believing the Jesus was raised from the dead and is the Lord of the world. And what evidences that belief is the action of love. Love expresses faith in Jesus.

So pray that God will show you how to love, those in this room, in this building, and those to whom this church is sending you to. Learn to love. Learn to no longer keep accounts of wrongs but be kind and gentle. Swallow pride and arrogance. Endure, bear up, hope, and be faithful. For it is through love that we will truly lean and know as God intended for us to do.

Let us pray: We bow our hearts, we bend our knees. Oh Spirit come make us humble. We turn our eyes from evil things. Oh Lord we cast down our idols. Give us clean hands, give us pure hearts. Let us not lift our souls to another. Oh God let us be a generation that seeks your face, oh God of Jacob.

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.

As a Christian, I would decry such a view in theory but never in practice. I find myself wanting to talk about “spiritual” matters, issues of “holiness,” and focus on “discipleship” as an individual. But when it came time to participate in the political discussion, on in the issues of homosexuality and abortion did I really ever muster my Christian worldview–and I have to say that was because I was playing follow the leader to those Christian teachers who said these things are wrong.

I would profess that Jesus was King of the universe. But what was Jesus King over in the universe? As I was taught, he was king over my “heart.” He was king in a providential way, guiding history the way he wanted it guided, upholding the laws of the universe to keep it from spiraling apart and everything is destroyed. Jesus kingship was to forgive sins and save people from hell. Christianity was a religion.

To justify this worldview, I would go read the Scriptures. But when the text would accuse Israel of idolatry by seeking salvation from Assyria or Babylon by turning to Egypt, I would take those symbols and turn them into metaphors for personal sins and idols. Now don’t get me wrong, that reading is valid when applying the text to an individual’s situation.

But I have realized that I missed out on the political implications. As I have stated elsewhere, recently I have seen that texts like Mark 10:35-45 aren’t focusing on the debates on atonement theology. Atonement is most definitely there but it is located inside a politically charged statement. In that text Jesus’ atonement is set as the model for exercising governing authority.

I truly believe that the Bible, God’s word, is the place to think about how to do government. In upcoming posts I want to explore, think out loud really, how to do government from. A decidedly Christian point of view. I seriously question much of the political divide in terms of the various ideologies at play in my political setting.

I’m not going to be call so much for a restructuring of the government, like abandoning the representative republic model the US follows. But how Christians should approach this governing body

Being Poor, Meek, and Persecuted (Matthew 5:3-10)

But before we can get to the Beatitude texts, we have to cover some context and background issues. You can see that Matthew 5:3 and 10 speak of the “kingdom of heaven.” what does that speak to and how does it play into these beatitude sayings of Jesus?

The Kingdom of Heaven
When you hear the phrase ἤγγικεν γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν, what do you think of? What do you think ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν is or means?

It’s common for people think it is a place, specifically the place thought of as heaven. But that’s not what is meant by ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. Rather it refers to the “rule of heaven” or “God’s rulership.” It’s how God rules over his kingdom in heaven. And in Jesus, it has dawned upon the earth.

In Matthew 4:17 Jesus preaches this message: μετανοεῖτε, ἤγγικεν γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. God’s rule over his kingdom in heaven is about come to earth. It has come near. In Matthew 6:10 Jesus teaches us to pray: ἐλθάτω ἡ βασιλεία σου, γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου, ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς. We pray that God’s kingdom come and as his will is done in heaven so it is to be done on earth. The kingdom of heaven is about God’s will being done on earth. The kingdom coming to earth is God reclaiming his throne over Israel, and thus the world, so that his will is done on earth. What he intended for the whole creation to be and do is finally achieved. That’s what ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν means.

And this rulership of God is the good news that the Old Testament looked forward to. In the prophet Isaiah we read, “Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young” (40:9-11). Again the prophet says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” The voice of your watchmen they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” (52:7-10).

And Jesus told this story in his life and ministry, death and resurrection. He was God returning to Zion, to Jerusalem, to reign as King and Lord. And this becoming king is God’s salvation. When God becomes King in Jerusalem evil will be defeated and sins forgiven. And all of that was accomplished on the cross where Jesus was crucified with this charge against him: οὗτός ἐστιν Ἰησοῦς ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν Ἰουδαίων. He was “paraded” in a robe of purple, the color of royalty, and with a crown of thorns and a reed for a scepter. But like the Son of Man in Daniel 7:13-14, Jesus was vindicated by God and given God’s kingdom and throne. Jesus was raised from the dead, declared to be the powerful Son of God. And like the king in Psalm 110 he now sits at God’s right hand, extending forth his rule among his enemies, breaking them and their power.

Poor in Spirit, Meek, Persecuted for Righteousness
Now we are looking at Matthew 5:3; 5:5; and 5:10. Since 5:3 and 5:10 both talk about αὐτῶν ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν they form a nice beginning and end, as well as tell us what the entire section is about, ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. And this Sermon is an expansion of this message of μετανοεῖτε, ἤγγικεν γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν. When God becomes King, what will the people he saves and rules over look like? What sets them out as his people? That’s what Jesus’ sermon is talking about.

So what does πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι in Matthew 5:3 refer to? It’s not about being poor in terms of money and possession, though that might be included. In the Old Testament, such as the Psalms and the prophets, the people called πτωχοὶ are the faithful Israelites who are being oppressed by the wicked Israelites and pagan Gentiles. Often times this oppression comes in terms of money and possessions. But being πτωχοὶ was to be put down by society for being faithful to God. Jesus is calling them μακάριοι οἱ because it is those who are being oppressed that will receive the kingdom. God’s rule is going to save them and rescue them from their oppressors, judging them as evil.

What about the πραεῖς in 5:5? Who are they? Again the Old Testament sees the πραεῖς as those faithful Israelites who are oppressed for their faithfulness. The wicked in Israel and the pagan nations surrounding Israel attack and push down those loyal to God and faithfully obey his covenant commands. They are μακάριοι οἱ because God will destroy the wicked and the pagan and give the πραεῖς the whole land, the entire earth.

Now what about the δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης in 5:10? Notice a recurring theme here? Those who are persecuted because they seek after δικαιοσύνης as if it were food and drink will not only receive their δικαιοσύνης, but they will receive God’s coming reign upon the earth. They were put down for their faithfulness to God by obeying the covenant. God will save them and set himself as their King in the world they are to inherit.

Being the Poor, the Meek, the Persecuted
So where do we fit in? Jesus was preaching to Israelites. When Jesus told them to repent, it meant take my message and go back to the Law of Moses, the covenant God made with the people, and reapply it in light of his teachings. But what about us Gentiles? We aren’t under the Law of Moses. We aren’t part of that covenant, but the new covenant of Jeremiah 31:31-34 (cf. Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-23).

In Matthew 7:12 Jesus says: πάντα οὖν ὅσα ἐὰν θέλητε ἵνα ποιῶσιν ὑμῖν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, οὕτως καὶ ὑμεῖς ποιεῖτε αὐτοῖς· οὗτος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται. In Matthew 22:34-40 Jesus says the Greatest command is: ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν σου ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ καρδίᾳ σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ ψυχῇ σου καὶ ἐν ὅλῃ τῇ διανοίᾳ4 σου. The second command is: ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον5 σου ὡς σεαυτόν. And he sums them up like this: ἐν ταύταις ταῖς δυσὶν ἐντολαῖς ὅλος ὁ νόμος κρέμαται6 καὶ οἱ προφῆται. In Romans 12:9-21 and Galatians 5:13-15 Paul echoes Jesus in summing up the Law as love. In 1 John, again and again the apostle reminds us that it is love that we as Christians are to practice.

What about faith? Paul links faith and love together like this: ἐν γὰρ Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ οὔτε περιτομή τι ἰσχύει οὔτε ἀκροβυστία, ἀλλὰ πίστις δι’ ἀγάπης ἐνεργουμένη (Galatians 5:6). And in 1 Corinthians 13:13 we read: νυνὶ δὲ μένει πίστις, ἐλπίς, ἀγάπη, τὰ τρία ταῦτα· μείζων δὲ τούτων ἡ ἀγάπη. True righteousness, truly being faithful to the Law covenant is to love.

It is by seeking to love each other as Christians that we become one with the πτωχοὶ τῷ πνεύματι. It is when we love God over and above all else and our neighbor second (please note we are third on the list!) that we become part of the πραεῖς. It is when we pursue God and his creation with the radical love shown on the cross of the Messiah and forsaking the false gods of the world for the one true God, will we be counted among those δεδιωγμένοι ἕνεκεν δικαιοσύνης.

And by turning to the Bible can we see what true love is. By seeing love incarnate in Jesus do we understand what it is to love God and love neighbor, for faith to express itself in love.

There is one section in this paper that really caught my attention as a conservative evangelical Christian. Wright observes,

And then they turn the screw: If you let this man go you are not Caesar’s friend. Have you ever felt that argument in 21st-century America or Europe? I have: If you do this, the empire’s not going to like you. And that’s the point at which this great Jewish leadership says, “We have no king but Caesar.” Devastating denial of two-thirds of the Old Testament. You find the same scene — just leave John 18 and 19 for a moment and come to Mark 10. Mark 10, with James and John meeting Jesus, or coming up to Jesus as they’re going up to Jerusalem, Mark 10, verse 35 and following. And they know that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem to become king. And so naturally they want to be sitting at his right hand and at his left. And Jesus says, listen, you don’t know what you’re talking about, actually. And they didn’t, of course, because those who end up at Jesus’ right and his left when he comes in his kingdom in Mark and Matthew and Luke are the two who are crucified alongside him.

But he then says, “Listen, the kings and rulers of the earth lord it over their subjects and exercise a tyrannous authority over them. But it must not be so among you, because anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be king must be the slave of all, because the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” And you know we New Testament scholars and teachers, and you preachers, we have all often taken Mark 10, verse 45 and said, “There is our atonement theology — Daniel 7 plus Isaiah 53 equals Mark 10:45; “The Son of Man, who is the servant, who gives his life as a ransom for many.” And we wave it around: “Here is a nice bit of atonement theology.” And we fail to see that that atonement theology is the sharp edge of Mark’s political theology. It is the redefinition of power. It’s the reason why, though the rulers of this world do it one way, you’re going to do it a different way. And Jesus is leading the way in that redefinition of power, all the way to the cross, exactly the same point as the “What is truth?” question in John 18 and 19. You get the atonement theology — boy do you ever — but you get it inside that political theology. And I’ve sometimes said that, and people have said, “Surely this is all about Christ dying for me.” Absolutely, right on, but you get that inside; again, it’s like a Russian doll. You get this Kingdom of God theology, which is a redefinition of what power is all about; inside that you get the meaning of the cross, the full atonement theology; and inside that there is room for every man, woman, and child in the world to find that Christ died for their sins according to the Scriptures. Let’s have the holistic biblical theology.

As I read those two paragraphs I was stunned. Too often Mark 10:45 gets swallowed up in atonement debates between the various schools of thought (Penal Substitution, Christus Victor, Moral Example, Governmental, etc.). Before I get too far into this, let me be clear. When Jesus says, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many,” the “giving his life” is atonement. I’m not denying the use of the verse for debating the atonement, and neither does Wright.

But I do think conservative evangelicals have really missed out on what Jesus was doing in Mark 10:35-45, at least in my experience. Jesus, and thus Mark as well, is not debating the nature of atonement. Mark 10:45 must be read in the light of 10:42-44,

“You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.”

The subject is the exorcise of power within the kingdom versus that of the Gentiles. Jesus is playing a different sort of game than James and John, who ask to sit at Jesus’ right and left hands in the kingdom.

The kingdom that Jesus heralded did not operate the same way Rome did, or the empires before and after her. The King of this kingdom was to be crowned and enthroned by way of the cross and in the vindicating power of God in resurrection. This is to be our King:

I feel like this redefinition of power that Jesus preached in the kingdom, transforming the image of a cross from one of failed insurrection to that of God’s kingdom successfully inaugurated (cf. Mark 8:34-38), isn’t put in its proper place. It gets passed over by preaching on the need to have sins forgiven to avoid going to hell. It gets pushed to the side by the need to preach a moral sanctification.

Again, we need to preach to Christians the need to live out the moral standards that the New Testament has laid down. But it’s about more than that. It’s about a new way of doing things. As Wright would say, a new way of being human. To the sight of the beaten and flogged Jesus presented to the Jewish mob in John 19:5 we read, “So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Behold the man!’” John shows us the new way of being human, the new way Jesus uses power. He is the true King, only mocked as a failed insurrectionist. He is the true Human. That is the way not of just “Christian discipleship,” it’s the way of the kingdom of God, the new creation.

Now all of this my sound like preaching to the choir, even to my fellow conservative evangelicals. But really think about this. Wright uses the issue of voting and government, so let us continue in that vein. To my fellow conservative evangelicals, when you vote, how often do you side with the political right (aka the Republican Party) and play that power game? We have to be wholly Republican because of the issues of homosexuality, abortion, and marriage. But when one looks at the New Testament and at Jesus, there is a lot there about giving to the poor and “social justice.” Yet you find yourself voting against social justice because it’s liberal.

The government provides a real way to reach out and help the poor but because we have sold out to conservative politics and small government — a government that God has ordained — we vote down bills and representatives who will care for the poor and the orphans and the widows (cf. James 1:27; Galatians 2:9-10). We have power to help the poor, but we don’t use it because we have bought into theories of government not found in the kingdom of God.

All this to say that evangelism is, in a large measure, telling people that the narratives and lenses they use to view the world are wrong. It is the narrative of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (cf. Mark 1:14-15; Romans 1:2-4; 1Corinthians 15:1-4) that they must adopt. Paul makes that clear in Acts 13:13-51 and Acts 17:22-33. But then we must also live out that narrative–in part to show the world that the narrative is supremely more desirable than that of the world–to bring about God’s wise, healing reign.

The kingdom message transcends the “Me and My Sin” narrative that conservative evangelicals have locked in on. In Mark 10 Jesus was questioning not how religion was being done but how politicians were using power. And his reordering was centered around Jesus own death. Politics are done differently under God’s rulership. The traditional political spectrum is subverted by the enthronement of God in the Messiah.

Atonement and forgiveness is there, those who submit to the reign of God are forgiven from their sins. But we are about doing things, living life, differently. The old creation and way of living has passed away and the new way, the way of the Son of Man who became the Suffering Servant and was vindicated by God (note that Jesus combines the narratives of Daniel 7 and Isaiah 53 in Mark 10:45), has come. The Jesus presented by John in John 19:5 is the genuine human standing in Rome’s court charged with the political charge of being king rising up in opposition to Caesar.

It’s time to cast aside these narratives outside the realm of religion and embrace the full narrative the God’s reign through his Messiah. We must not only do religion differently, but politics and the various art forms, philosophy, all of life. As Wright said, we need the holistic message of the kingdom, not the modernist’s reductionism of “Me and My Sin” or the postmodernist’s reductionism “Authentic Spiritual Experience.”

PS: This ended up in a different place from where I started. Sorry.

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.