I finished my EMT class this semester at OSU OKC with a 95 (A) and just yesterday passed the national registry for skills. In August I will be able to take the national registry written which will make me an official EMT if passed.
Cool stuff. ;o) Now, onto New Testament Greek Exegesis, Introduction to Philosophy, and Christian Missions for the summer.
I got an email from Desiring God about John Piper’s most recent writing leave (which received a lot of prayer from me), and I was thrilled to see the results. The book that he has completed and I am most anxious to read is what he hopes to call God is the Gospel: Meditations on the Love of God as the Gift of Himself. His main premise is that all the good news in the Gospel, such as forgiveness of sin, freedom from enslavement to unsatisfying sins, etc., are all subordinate to a greater end, namely, seeing and savoring the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
As I have applied the Gospel more and more to my soul, I do find joy in the freedom from unsatisfying sins it provides when it is banked on. I love the release from my troubled conscience. I love the power it gives me to turn from those things and break away from sins I used to not be able to stop committing. These are pleasing in and of themselves… but they are all means toward something greater. I think I should let him explain the rest.
[In God is the Gospel,] I ask whether justification by faith, or forgiveness of sins, or the removal of the wrath of God, or redemption from guilt and liberation from slavery to sin, or salvation from hell, or entrance into heaven, or eternal life, or deliverance from all pain and sickness and conflict are the highest, best, and final good that make the gospel good news.
I answer no. These blood-bought gospel gifts are precious beyond words, but there is a reason they are precious that is not yet mentioned in any of them. There is something beyond them that makes them good because they are means to this other thing. When this other reality is missing, none of these things is good news. The highest, best and final good that makes the gospel good news is the revelation of the glory of God in Christ for us to behold and embrace and enjoy increasingly forever. The central text of the book is 2 Corinthians 4:4-6, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God…. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
In other words, as the gospel events of Christ’s death and resurrection unfold in history and in the gospel, they reveal a glory that we were made to see and enjoy as the highest, best, and final end of our existence and of the gospel. Therefore, justification is good news because it makes us stand accepted by the one whose glory we want to see and savor above all things. Forgiveness is good news because it cancels all the sins that keep me from seeing and enjoying the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Removal of wrath and salvation from hell are good news because now in my escape from eternal misery I find eternal pleasure beholding the glory of God in the face of Christ. Eternal life is good news because this is eternal life, Jesus said, that they know me and him who sent me. And freedom from pain and sickness and conflict are good news because, in my freedom from pain, I am no longer distracted from the fullest enjoyment of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.
John Piper, Thanks for Praying for Me on Writing Leave—Here’s What Happened
I agree with him. I do love being freed from enslavement to sin, but I love even greater being enslaved to righteousness (valuing God supremely), as Paul nails it in Romans 6:18. I have been divorced from the law of sin and death to be married to the grace of God that pardons and empowers me to enjoy Him forever.
If I were to do something wrong to my dearly beloved, Rosanna, and find myself having offended her, I do want to repent and hear her tell me, “I forgive you, Rob.” But, if I received that forgiveness and she told me, “I do not want to talk to you again, though,” forgiveness would have no meaning to me. What good is forgiveness if our relationship is not restored, if I can’t tell her that I love her, if she recoiled if I tried to take her hand in mine? Now, if she said, “I forgive you, Rob,” and she took my hand again, like we did before I offended her, then I would be truly happy.
With my God, if all He does is forgive me and not hold my sin against me, what use is that if He does not take me into His fellowship again and remove the things in my life keeping me from enjoying Him? He is my Treasure. My sin has separated me from my Treasure. I long for forgiveness to have access again to my Treasure.
Though I can argue this from several biblical texts, I’m anxious to see Piper’s more thorough explanation of many more texts as he’s so far been faithful to do in his books. God is the Gospel, the enjoyment of Him is the truest good news.
Maybe I can put more than just theological meanderings and such up here and make the site more readable because I actually update the stupid thing more than once a month. So, I was reading a FoxNews article about television shows that feature males with more sensitive characteristics. I read the opening line to the article…
If television is to be believed, America’s cities are flooded with packs of sensitive, professional men looking for meaningful relationships, meeting male friends for brunch and talking about the states of their hearts.
That’s hyperbolic, but hey, that describes me. I do meet with my male friends for breakfast at Panera in order to pray, to talk about what I’m struggling with, to talk about my relationship with Jesus and with Rosanna. The author of the article makes it sound like this is a bad thing, or at least exaggerates that the new TV shows mentioned are trying to picture every man like this.
Well, whatever. I just got my beans steamed when I read the following, near the end:
Female viewers agree that it’s nice to see guys who are a little more in touch with their feminine sides.
This is what sparked me to write this in the first place. I really despise the whole “get in touch with their feminine side” mantra, implying that tenderness, sensitivity, brokenness, vulnerability, etc., are female traits that we men must tap into. While I think I’d agree that, naturally, women tend to express that more readily and in different ways than men, I think men who lack those qualities are not real men in the first place.
Blech. A plague on both their houses.
This is a post I recently made on the necessity of feeling the weight of our sin in order for the beauty of the Gospel to shine forth. This post was meant to point out that the Gospel will be good news when we’re very much aware that our sin is bad news.
Kinda hard to blackmail someone who is “broken and contrite”. Good thing.
You’re right. Blackmail works to the degree that you’re afraid of your secret being exposed. It plays on fear. But, when you’re open about your sin and that you’re not trying to put on a false front, there is nothing more to fear and blackmail ceases to work.
The funny thing is, it’s not that this person doesn’t have dirt on me (nor that he sought it out, nor that he doesn’t have dirt on others); he does. The thing is I’m not afraid for that dirt to be exposed.
Like, in politics, every candidate is afraid of their past being exposed. The whole concept of politics seems to be that, of covering your weaknesses and presenting your strengths. But if you’re not afraid of being humbled by your past then what do you have to lose? Nothing. No one can blackmail you. The enemy cannot get you down because you’ve already been brought low because of your sin and find your hiding place in Jesus Christ.
[Rosanna said…] What greater joy than to think that my suffering, shame, etc. might contain a faint glimmer of hope of showcasing the mercy of God to other sinners … and the reward of seeing them RETURN to Him?!
That’s why, Rosanna, we are called vessels of mercy. We are not called righteous trophies, because we are not. Jesus is. And when God looks at us He sees Jesus. We are guilty, all. Micah’s confession of this is one of my favorites in all the Bible.
Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.
I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication. (Micah 7:8-9)
I owe John Piper my life when I expound on this (which he pointed out to me in his book, When I Don’t Desire God). Though Micah was sitting in the darkness that he himself brought upon himself because of his sin against the Lord, Micah turns his guilt into “gutsy guilt” by turning against the enemies who are trying to rejoice over his discipline, gets in their faces, and says, “Don’t rejoice over me, though I experience the discipline of God because of my true sin, God will turn from being my Discipliner to my Defense Attorney.” He will execute judgment for him, he says, and will look upon His vindication.
How does a person completely guilty of sin who receives discipline because of it turn around and say “Justice will be served, and I’ll be vindicated”? Wouldn’t justice be Micah’s damnation?
That’s because God showed mercy to Micah and He showed no mercy to Christ. Though Micah could not see it, God had a plan whereby all the sins God passed over would actually be paid and God would be just to justify the ungodly.
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:23-26)
I am getting ahead in the Desiring God study we’re doing, Rosanna, but this was the verse that last time I went through the book hit me like a ton of bricks. Previously, like with Micah, God seemed to wink at sin. It seemed that His mercy was over against His justice, as if the two attributes of God were in conflict. As a result, the value of His name was questioned. If God’s name is so valuable (which He spends so many places talking about His name and His glory and the value of His worth above everything in the OT, Psalm 106:6-8; Ezekiel 20:5-9; 1 Samuel 12:19-23; Deuteronomy 9:27-29; Exodus 14:8,18; ET CETERA), how can He allow it to be profaned by these people and still reward them with mercy and the reward of His fellowship? How can He give access to what is Supremely Valuable (namely, Himself) when His name isn’t valuable enough to defend with justice?
I value Rosanna more than any person in my life. If I stood idly by while someone came in and hit on her, said vulgar things about her, and finally assaulted her, it would be clear that I do not value her. She is not worth much to me if I allow her to be profaned. But in the OT, God seemed to wink at such people who maligned what was most valuable to Him (namely, Himself, see Isaiah 48:11 for the clearest exaltation of His name as the root of His forgiveness). He shows mercy toward people who maligned Him. What does this mean about the value of His name?
That’s what the cross SHOUTS louder and clearer than anything. That is why it is, as Piper calls it, the blazing center of the glory of God. As Paul says, Jesus was presented on the cross because God had “passed over former sins.” The worth of God was called into question, and the cross is the answer to the tension found in the OT between God’s great mercy and God’s great justice. In the cross, as the song that you love points out, Rosanna, the love of God and the justice of God conspire to bring maximum glory to the Father. It’s a Divine Conspiracy: permit sin to occur, show grace, pay for the sin Himself, get glory. That’s redemption. That’s redemptive history.
In other words, in the cross we see God’s great passion for justice (shouting, “My name will not be profaned!”) and His great passion for mercy (shouting, “I will blot out your transgressions because My Son will pay for what you truly deserve!”). His love for His name is seen in His love for sinners. And it all points right back to the worth of His name, to His value, to His glory. That’s why we were created. We, the elect (2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 2:10; Romans 9:11, 16, 19-24; John 6:37-40), are vessels of mercy, helpless recipients of a Divine Planner to bring about maximum glory to Himself.
And my main point in this thread is the very first point of all, and that’s that we are real sinners, and it does us good to meditate on that to the point of really feeling it. Because if we aren’t really, as sinners, pleading for grace, then grace isn’t all that special. It ceases to be amazing if I’m not really feeling and believing that I’m really that bad.
How unstable is my heart! Sometimes I take the tempter’s part And slight the tokens of Thy grace And seem to want no hiding place!
But when Thy spirit shines within Makes me feel the plague of sin And how I long to see Thy face ‘Tis then I want a hiding place!
Lord Jesus, shine and then I can Feel sweetness in salvation’s plan And as a sinner plead for grace Christ, the sinner’s hiding place!
Longing, wanting, desiring grace comes from feeling the weight of sin, and this isn’t a one-time deal. I am more convinced this should be a daily experience striven for, prayed for, pleaded for. And when we receive that grace and all that God promises to be for us in Jesus Christ, what can sin possibly offer that’s better than that? This is why Paul says that the world is crucified to him and him to the world… by the cross (Galatians 6:14)! And I think this faith comes first by confession to God and then by confession to others of how sinful we have been even the previous day. So, again, I’m still a sinner, brothers and sisters. A real sinner. How good it is to be brought low because of our sin, because then we can find the beauty in the Gospel and cling to it alone.
I love you guys. Man, I really do.
