Geoff's Miscellany

Miscellaneous Musings

evangelical myths

Evangelical Myth: God’s Love is Unconditional

by 5 Comments

Now, this post could be controversial, but that’s okay.

Three things:

  1. God’s love for the world (thus for all of humanity) is unconditional and precedes the sending of Jesus (John 3:16). So when people say things like, “God would hate you if it weren’t for Jesus’ work on the cross,” they are literally being ridiculous. Even if they refer to statements concerning God’s hatred for people and so-on, John’s gospel makes the claim that God’s way with humanity is more exactly described by its exposition of Jesus than the Old Testament’s exposition of Moses (John 1:1-18).
  2. Nevertheless, it is false to say that every form of love God shows to human beings is unconditional. For instance, John 3:16 says that God loves the world in such a way that he sent his only son, so that whosoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life.” So, God’s love is for the whole world, but the results of said love are conditioned upon ones response to Jesus Christ. One might say, “But, what about universalism? If God saves everybody, then God’s love is still unconditional.” Though I’m not a universalist, it would still be the case that God’s receiving everlasting life as a quality of life now, is conditional upon faith. Indeed, in John 17:1-3, everlasting life is described as living life with a knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ.
  3. There are other passages which make it clear that God’s love in sending Christ and initiating the redemption of humanity is not the same as God’s reciprocal love for believers.
    1. Joh 14:23  Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
    2. Rom 1:7  To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
    3. 1Jn 2:4-6  Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,  (5)  but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:  (6)  whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Now, none of this has to do with earning. It also is not about saying that God does not love everybody. It is about being careful with our words. For the Christian who is walking in sin, having God’s love perfected in you is conditioned upon obeying Christ’s commands. For the person who wants forgiveness of sins, 1 John 1:9 says to confess your sins.

In conclusion, God’s love for the world is unconditional. God’s love for his saints is conditioned upon becoming a saint. God’s love perfected in the saint is conditioned upon the keeping of Christ’s commandments.

Again with the confusing ideas: Jesus and Ethics

by Leave a Comment

As somebody who teaches Bible to college students at my local church, I’ve grown increasingly frustrated by popular misconceptions about Christianity that seem merely to confuse people for the sake of sounding novel. For instance, the claim that Jesus didn’t come to make people good confuses people who do not read theology books for a living.

In a post over at Reknew, Greg Boyd makes the claim (by title and content) that Jesus and by extension the New Testament do not teach ethical behavior. Here are some quotes:

Jesus did the same thing throughout his ministry. He was not calling people to a new ethical system; he was calling people to life. When someone wanted him to settle an inheritance dispute with a brother, for instance, he responded, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” (Luke 12:14). He was telling the man that he did not come to give definitive answers to our many difficult ethical questions. He rather came to offer an alternative way of living to all ethical systems.
The New Testament is not about ethical behavior; it’s about a radical new way of living.
In some sense, the bold portion is true. Jesus invited people to himself, to God, and to eternal life in God’s kingdom. On the other hand, Jesus’ preaching was summarized by these words: “Repent and believe the gospel.” In a famous sermon, Jesus told his disciples, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees you absolutely will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” In other words, Jesus taught about ethics.
Let me demonstrate further, here is what my copy of Webster’s dictionary says that ethics means:
The doctrines of morality or social manners; the science of moral philosophy, which teaches men their duty and the reasons of it.
Here is what a recent bible dictionary says ethics is:
A term drawn from Greek philosophy, “ethics” denotes an effort to present norms of behavior in a systematic way that shows their internal, rational coherence.
L. William Countryman, “Ethics,” ed. David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, and Astrid B. Beck, Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000), 431.
Now, where do ethics appear in the New Testament? Well, the word repent, in the gospels, carries the connotation of rethinking one’s life on the basis of Jesus and his gospel. This is a highly ethical notion and the Bible treats it as a summary of Jesus’ message! Similarly, the Sermon on the Mount is intended by its author to be a disclosure of solid ground upon which to base your life and character and it is filled with Jesus’ reflections upon ethical matters (Matthew 7:24-28). Similarly, the great commission includes a command from Jesus for Jesus’ disciples to teach other people how to “observe all which I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19).”
Jesus doesn’t merely teach ethics by way of command and example, but he gives explanation for ethical norms as well as motivations based upon the normal human perceptions of goodness and beauty. His teaching about loving your enemies, for instance, is based upon Jesus’ perception of God’s kindness even to those who are evil.
I think that the problem with Boyd’s piece and others like it is that for the sake of rhetorical punch many authors make absolute statements that melt under simple examination. Boyd makes a true point at the end of his article when he says that our holiness is a gift of grace from God. But, the grace of God comes to train us to renounce evil and to become zealous for good works (Titus 2:11-14). So, if ethics is about our behavior, our character, our intentions, the source of character norms and their coherence, and the nature of human duty, then Christianity is precisely about ethics (Bonhoeffer’s argument that ethics is the reason for the fall is silly). Now, Christianity is certainly more than mere ethics. It is an experience with the living God who is revealed in the resurrected Christ. But it is not less than ethics.

Evangelical Myth: Let God Do It Through You

by Leave a Comment

There is a method of Christian advice giving and sermonizing that is very popular today that essentially involves claims of this sort: Don’t try so hard to over come sin, you’ve got to stop trying and just let God do it through you!

It’s a persistent notion and I’ve over heard it given as advice in coffee shops, in hall way discussions in seminary, at chapel messages, etc. It often finds its iteration, for pastors and the like, in phrases like this, “I just had to get out of the way and then watch God work.”

In my experience this has been very common amongst my more charismatic brethren (perhaps influenced by the Keswick movement), amongst generic evangelicals who attend mega-type churches, and folks who have a particular approach to Calvinism that is somewhat allergic to notions of trying.

I wish I had sources for this error, but it seems to rarely make it into writing in the circles of books I read. It does appear in at least one song I know, “Heroes Will Be Heroes” by Cool Hand Luke. Anyhow, for anybody who wonders, “How do I stop trying and let God do my sanctification through me?” or “Why should I feel guilty about trying to obey Jesus rather that just doing it out of joy and gratitude?” Here’s why it is okay to actually do the things Scripture says:

  1. Nowhere in the Sermon on the Mount does Jesus say, “Don’t try this stuff, but let me do it through you.” He is actually very clear that his hearers are obligated to “hear these words of mine and put them into practice.”
  2. Paul, for all his talk about the Spirit’s activity in believers, never once tells believers to “let God” do anything through them. He does tell believers that “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Romans 8:13).”
  3. One rationale I have heard for this advice is that “trying is still ‘in the flesh,’ you just need to get out of the way.” There are three reasons that this is mistaken.
    1. This metaphor doesn’t work. ‘Getting out of the way’ is still a form of trying.
    2. The works of the flesh in Scripture are represented as sinful behaviour in Galatians 5 and the grounds for boasting in the flesh is related specifically to certain practices of Judaism that some early Christians were attempting to require of new, non-Jewish followers of Jesus. Either way, the flesh, in these cases is not referring to trying so much as it is referring to human life opposed to or ignorant of God’s purposes in the gospel (so either sinful abandonment to the passions or misunderstanding the relation of the New Covenant to the Old Covenant).
    3. Jesus himself gives stark imperatives to people who are sinful: “Sin no more. (John 5:14)” If he meant for us to not actually try to overcome sin, I suspect he would have said, “wait upon God to deliver you of the arrangements you’ve made to allow for sin in your life.” Or he might have said, “The kingdom of God is at hand, DO NOT REPENT, rather let God repent through you.”
  4. The rest of the New Testament, the Apostolic Fathers, the apologists, the Nicene era Fathers, the reformers, the Desert Fathers, the Methodists, and C.S. Lewis all report that the Christian life requires a great deal of effort, self-regulation, self-denial, spiritual discipline, and rigorous reflection upon the gospel message.

Conclusion
All told, when Jesus came he not only preached the gospel, he was the gospel. Paul described that coming thus, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Tit 2:11-14 ESV)”
There’s a lot in there about God’s grace doing what we cannot do. But that does not discount the need for training and training means trying. So do it, go actually do the Christian life today. It’s what makes sense.

Evangelical Myth: Jesus came to die for us so we would not have to be perfect.

by Leave a Comment

Another popular myth in evangelicalism is the idea that Jesus died to obviate our need for righteousness. This is a dangerous half truth. It is perpetuated in silly bumper stickers, “Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven,” popular sermons (I teach at a Christian school and students bring this one up a lot…it’s coming form somewhere), and even in a Derek Webb song where he sings:

I am thankful that I’m incapable
Of doing any good on my own
I’m so thankful that I’m incapable
Of doing any good on my own

Now, it could be the case that brother Derek it thankful that he knows that he is incapable. But it seems rather that he’s thankful that the results of the fall are so comprehensively deleterious. Anyhow, back to the myth: false, untrue, silly, not thought out, out of sync with scripture, tradition, and sound reason:

  1. The gospel is nearly always accompanied by a command to repent in Acts, this is because the call to repentance is no mere accompaniment to the gospel, it is part of the gospel. Seriously, just read Acts on this one.
  2. The teaching of Jesus is almost all about repentance and what repentance entails due to the arrival of the kingdom of God. In fact, Matthew, Luke, and Mark put it that way (Matthew 4:17, Mark 1:15, and Luke 5:32). There is even an interesting parallel between John’s gospel and the synoptics, when Jesus tells Nicodemas that he must be born again (John 3:5-8), and Jesus tells the disciples that they must turn and become like children. The connection between Baptism and being born again, as well as repentance and Baptism is pretty clear. Anyhow, faith in Jesus requires some measure of repentance. In Protestant theology this is not a meritorious work, it is simply fealty to Jesus.
  3. If your theology comes from a bumper sticker that’s just a bad sign.
  4. Here is a miniscule sampling of other scripture says Jesus came to make us righteous:
    1. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom 8:3-4)
    2. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. (Tit 2:11-14)
    3. 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 your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mat 20:26-28) Jesus came to atone for our sins here, but he also sets himself up as the exemplar of a great personage in his kingdom.
  5. The Westminster Confession (about as Calvinistic and thus as evangelically grace focused a document as possible put it this way:

 Although repentance be not to be rested in, as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof, (Ezek. 36:31–32, Ezek. 16:61–63) which is the act of God’s free grace in Christ; (Hos. 14:2, 4, Rom. 3:24, Eph. 1:7) yet it is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it. (Luke 13:3, 5, Acts 17:30–31)

Conclusion

This post is probably obvious information to many. But this myth is so persistent that I thought these few points could put it to rest. I didn’t translate out the passages of Scripture quoted precisely so that they might be looked up and read. This is especially important in the case of Acts. It is not mere slogan that the gospel of the Apostles is found in the sermons of Acts and the four gospels. Calling sinners like you and I to repentance is one of the many things Jesus explicitly claimed to have come to do. It would be weird to divorce his mission from the content of his preaching. The appropriate way to say this idea is that Jesus came to die for us so that we would be conformed to his image (Romans 8:28-30).

So there.