Thinking Deeply for God’s Sake

 

by Alastair Begg Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything 2 Timothy 2:7 It is not unusual—in fact, it’s quite common—for Christian faith to be regarded as a kind of illogical belief in improbable events. For some, faith is seen as a crutch to prop up less rational people as they navigate life’s challenges. Such critics may be surprised to learn that in reality, Christianity calls its followers not to neglect their minds but to critically engage them. When we read the Bible, we discover that it never invites us simply to feel things; it never attempts merely to sweep us up in an emotional surge. God never once asks for or endorses the disengagement of our thinking processes. Instead, God’s word repeatedly shows us that Christianity is actually a call to think rightly and deeply about God, His world, and our place in it. When the apostle Paul addressed the Ephesians, we read that he was “reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus,” which was likely a school for philosophy or rhetoric (Acts 19:9). Paul wasn’t just singing songs or attempting to stir up some emotional experience. No, he essentially said, Citizens of Ephesus, I want you to think and reason with me today. In Thessalonica, too, Acts tells us that Paul “reasoned” with the people, “explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead” (17:2-3). The book of Isaiah begins with a similar call to think earnestly: “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD” (Isaiah 1:18). This exhortation to think and reason isn’t just for proclaiming the gospel but for growth in Christian maturity too. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul said, “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking” (1 Corinthians 14:20). He wanted the church to think intently and intensely about the issues they were facing. Paul was even more direct when he wrote to Timothy: “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” We do need God’s Spirit to be at work in order to think rightly (Luke 24:45; 1 Corinthians 12:3), for our intellects are as affected by sin as every other part of ourselves (Ephesians 4:17). But it is as we expend mental energy to consider the wisdom of the Scriptures that God will give us greater and greater understanding. To follow Christ, then, is not to take a step of blind faith into the darkness but to have your eyes opened to the light of rigorous truth. It will take a lifetime—and more!—to unearth the riches of the truth you encounter in God’s word about His Son, but one thing is sure: today, as every day, God wants you to love Him and honor Him with all your mind.

True Friendships

 

By Jill Briscoe

We can learn from the Bible what strengthens friendships and what kills them. For example, taking offense easily kills friendship. Amy Carmichael, in her little booklet If, says, “If I take offense easily–if I am content to continue in a cool unfriendliness though friendship be possible, then I know nothing of Calvary love.” Again Amy says, “If I do not give a friend the benefit of the doubt but put the worst construction instead of the best on what is said or done, then I know nothing of Calvary love.” And, “If I can hurt another by speaking faithfully without much preparation of spirit and without hurting myself far more than I hurt that other, then I know nothing of Calvary love.”

Good forgivers make good friends too. This is not contradicting what I have said about saying things that need to be said. Remember, “faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Prov. 27:6, KJV). But when necessary hard things are said, afterward forgiveness is needed to heal the rough edges of those painful conversations. Sometimes we even have to forgive our friends for being faithful friends and telling us the truth!

David had two good friends, Jonathan and Nathan. Jonathan loved David to death. In Jonathan’s eyes, David could do no wrong. We all need that sort of friend. Nathan loved David too. But when David did something wrong, Nathan called him on it! We need a “Nathan” too.

Encouragement isn’t always “soft.” I well remember a great friend of mine listening to my litany of woes and then saying firmly but kindly, “Have a good cry, then wash your face, get up, and get on with it.” It worked. The word “encourage” means to “put courage into.” She surely put it into me!

We also need to be a Jonathan and a Nathan for others, as well as looking for those types of friends for ourselves. In fact, if we try to offer these two elements of friendship we will probably find the real friends we are looking for. In other words, be a friend and you will find a friend!

A friend loves at all times, and it is this element of “Calvary love,” as Amy Carmichael puts it, that helps us listen to our friends’ loving encouragement and act on it. Paul said, “I have you in my heart” (Phil. 1:7) and then proceeded to correct and rebuke his friends. When you know someone loves you and has you in their heart, you can hear their words of correction. It’s called “speaking the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15) or sometimes we call it “leveling in love” but when it happens you aren’t “leveled.”

Remember this bit of advice...Real friendship needs to be based on biblical principles, and it also needs to be practical. For example, we can offer words of encouragement but we also need to think of concrete ways to help. It’s more than talk–it’s offering a meal if your friend is sick, a ride in your car if she needs it, help with her kids if she is exhausted and needs a break. Sometimes your help will be verbal. As Ecclesiastes warns, however, there is “a time to be silent and a time to speak” (3:7).

A friend of mine took a risk on our friendship by talking to me about a problem that had arisen. First (she told me afterward), she fasted and prayed about whether to talk to me at all. That is a good start. Second she told me she decided she would not say anything more than she had to say. The old saying, “The less said, the sooner mended” is a very sound principle! My friend did it right, and said it right, and I was pleased to respond to her. What does “Calvary love” mean to you? What are some ways you can make this a reality in your friendships?

What does it mean that God draws us to salvation?

 

Answer from Got Questions . . . . . 

The clearest verse on God’s drawing to salvation is John 6:44 where Jesus declares that “no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.” The Greek word translated “draw” is helkuo, which means “to drag” (literally or figuratively). Clearly, this drawing is a one-sided affair. God does the drawing to salvation; we who are drawn have a passive role in the process. There is no doubt that we respond to His drawing us, but the drawing itself is all on His part.

Helkuo is used in John 21:6 to refer to a heavy net full of fish being dragged to the shore. In John 18:10 we see Peter drawing his sword, and in Acts 16:19 helkuo is used to describe Paul and Silas being dragged into the marketplace before the rulers. Clearly, the net had no part in its being drawn to the shore, Peter’s sword had no part in being drawn, and Paul and Silas did not drag themselves to the marketplace. The same can be said of God’s drawing of some to salvation. Some come willingly, and some are dragged unwillingly, but all eventually come, although we have no part in the drawing.

Why does God need to draw us to salvation? Simply put, if He didn’t, we would never come. Jesus explains that no man can come unless the Father draws him (John 6:65). The natural man has no ability to come to God, nor does he even have the desire to come. Because his heart is hard and his mind is darkened, the unregenerate person doesn’t desire God and is actually an enemy of God (Romans 5:10). When Jesus says that no man can come without God’s drawing him, He is making a statement about the total depravity of the sinner and the universality of that condition. So darkened is the unsaved person’s heart that he doesn’t even realize it: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, it is only by the merciful and gracious drawing of God that we are saved. In the conversion of the sinner, God enlightens the mind (Ephesians 1:18), inclines the will toward Himself, and influences the soul, without which influence the soul remains darkened and rebellious against God. All of this is involved in the drawing process.

There is a sense in which God draws all men. This is known as the “general call” and is distinguished from the “effectual call” of God’s elect. Passages such as Psalm 19:1-4 and Romans 1:20 attest to the fact that God’s eternal power and divine nature are “clearly seen” and “understood” from what has been made, “so that people are without excuse.” But men still do deny God, and those who acknowledge His existence still do not come to a saving knowledge of Him outside of His drawing them. Only those who have been drawn through special revelation—by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God—will come to Christ.

There are tangible ways in which those who are being drawn to salvation experience that drawing. First, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sinful state and our need for a Savior (John 16:8). Second, He awakens in us a previously unknown interest in spiritual things and creates a desire for them that was never there before. Suddenly our ears are open, our hearts are inclined toward Him, and His Word begins to hold a new and exciting fascination for us. Our spirits begin to discern spiritual truth that never made sense to us before: “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Finally, we begin to have new desires. He places within us a new heart that inclines toward Him, a heart that desires to know Him, obey Him, and walk in the “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) that He has promised.

Do You Pray This?

"Come, Lord Jesus!"

SCRIPTURE READING — REVELATION 22:20-21

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

— Revelation 22:20

by Kurt Selles


Prayer is so essential to the Christian life that the Bible closes with a short prayer: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

The words “Come, Lord” probably draw from an Aramaic expression used by early Christians: “Maranatha!” For example, the apostle Paul used this Aramaic phrase as he closed his first letter to the church in Corinth (see 1 Corinthians 16:22).

Why would Paul use an Aramaic phrase while writing to a Greek-speaking church? Well, Aramaic was the common, local language spoken in the region where Jesus and his disciples lived. Some have suggested that maran was a word the people used to voice their longing for the Messiah to come. And by adding atha, they say, Paul echoed a confession of the early Christians in his day. Pointing to Christ, those words mean, “Our Lord has come.”

In Paul’s day, Christians apparently also used maranatha as a mutual greeting, identifying themselves in a world that was hostile to them. They also used similar words as a short prayer repeated throughout the day, Maranatha, “Come, O Lord.”

Significantly, at the close of the Bible, this prayer for Jesus’ second coming is preceded by a promise from Jesus himself: “Yes, I am coming soon.” Can there be any greater assurance?

As we work and long for the coming of God’s kingdom, may our prayers often include these words from the closing lines of Scripture: “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”


Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.

How do we see ourselves, ladies?

 

Posted on September 21, 2023

By Elizabeth Prata

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes. ~Job

To possess dignity is to be worthy of respect. Worthy of high esteem. Absorb this: you are worthy of respect. ~Beth Moore

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” ~Isaiah

Be kind to yourself. Be compassionate to yourself. Be loving to yourself. Be patient with yourself. Have the courage to be yourself. ~Christine Caine

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” ~ Simon Peter

Who you are is more important than what you are called to do. ~Priscilla Shirer

Man was created to glorify God. (Isaiah 43:7). Our inherited sin nature makes it impossible to do that without His redemptive work in our heart. It’s important to see ourselves as we are (were). Ladies, yes, it’s good to have “self-esteem” to the extent that we know who we are: We’re sinners, saved by grace alone.

Women’s Ministries these days over-emphasize that we are women of valor, courage, of worth, esteem, and bravery. We’re princesses, running around sunlit meadows in wedding dresses dripping pearls.

Or we are as Isaiah, Job, and Peter saw themselves when they saw God: as worms in the dust, sinning with the pigs and needing to rely totally on the Father for any scrap of righteousness we might possess.

Praise the Lord He came, died for sin, was buried and resurrected. He glorified the Father and His reward will be…us. The Father will give Him a Bride, redeemed and washed. It is all about the Trinity and His work. It is not about us, our worth, our esteem, dignity, or “who we are.”

O Lord, depart from me, I am a sinful woman. Yet He lifted me from the muck and mire and gave me His righteousness, robes, Spirit, and future. From that moment, when I search inside myself to see my worth, esteem, or dignity, what I see is His.

from the-end-time.org 

Real Zeal vs. False Zeal part 2

 

By Elizabeth Prata

Photo by Nycholas Benaia on Unsplash


Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (Romans 10:1-2).

By this verse we see there is such a thing as a zeal that is not of God. There can be zea, or fervor or energy around religious things, but not according to what we know from the Bible. AKA knowledge.

Zeal: great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective. Synonyms: passion, fervor, enthusiasm.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached on the Romans 10:1-2 verse in a sermon called False vs. True Zeal. The sermon is stunning, relevant, and informative. He laid the foundation as he always does, logically, then laid out tests to determine of someone is exhibiting false zeal. Then in the later part of the sermon he laid out how to determine if a person is exhibiting true zeal. I paraphrased the part of his sermon discussing false zeal, here. Today, we have an exam of true zeal.

Lloyd-Jones’ sermon can be heard here, for free: True Zeal and False Zeal: A Sermon on Romans 10:1-2. Or on Youtube with closed captions (which might help due to his accent).

What follows is Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ excerpt from the sermon True Zeal vs. False Zeal, focusing on true zeal.

What are the characteristics of a true zeal? A true zeal is never a zeal that’s put on. It’s not put on you by anybody else it’s not put on by you yourself. If you’ve got a zeal you’ve got it not because you’ve been told it’s the thing to do when you join this church or this society. That’s not the reason if you are doing it, simply because it’s the thing to do in this society or company. It’s never put on or mechanical either by other people or the thing to do or by ourselves as the result of a decision.

Secondly, it is always the result of being the man who’s got a true zeal has it because he is what he is. He has it because he’s grown in grace and because he’s grown in sanctification. It’s not an act.

Thirdly and putting it still more specifically and in terms of our text true zeal is always the result of knowledge. It is always the outcome of knowledge. With the Apostle is really put this very wonderfully for us already in chapter 6 in verse 17, (KJV)

But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Now you notice the order. He actually puts the obeying first. That the obeying actually in practice was the last. This is what he says has happened to you – he says the first thing was this a form of doctrine was delivered. The gospel was preached to them and they received it and believed it with their minds. But it wasn’t only in their minds, the heart was involved. They were moved by it and because the heart was involved they were moved by it. They gave it obedience. Their will came into action but that was the order they received it with the mind first, it moved the heart it moved them to action.

That is the true order of true zeal. The trouble with a false zeal is that it puts the will first and is not interested even in the heart nor in the head. The man who says ‘nothing matters but activity’ is exhibiting a false will. That’s the danger of activism. It goes on in his headlong blind manner. The right order is the mind, the heart, then the will.

The man who has the true zeal he knows what he’s doing and he knows why he’s doing it. Zeal is according to knowledge!

The fourth test is that it’s a deep zeal. Not superficial. It’s not a spectacular, showy blaze, but a controlled fire that’s longer lasting and more useful.

As such, the true zeal displays control. Fire is a bad master, but when zeal is controlled by knowledge it’s as it should be. If a fire is in the hearth it’s controlled and warming the room and pleasant to be around. Fire that is out of control is damaging and unwanted. It burns and destroys. It is the same with zeal. A person exhibiting true zeal controls it.

Sixth, a true zeal is never self-confident. He’s always reverent. He doesn’t get excited. The Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians that when he went amongst them he did so in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, Paul, trembling, apprehensive, fearful nervous? How different that is from the false zeal and the confidence and the assurance and the mastery of the occasion some men show in their false zeal!

A person with true zeal knows he operates under grace and not in his own strength. His confidence comes from knowing his energy is deposited by the Spirit of God.

Remember, the Corinthians were despising Paul because he wasn’t boasting about himself. Some of the false teachers were boasting about themselves. They were recommending themselves. Well, says Paul, if you really want to know I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God that was with me. I am what I am by the grace of God .

Seventh- What’s the motive that animates true zeal? Well it isn’t just to be busy and to do things and to get results. It’s the glory of God… the glory of God. The love of Christ. Their motivation is the love of Christ and wanting to share that with others who are lost.

A man of true zeal is not simply anxious that people should decide for Christ. He wants them to come to what Paul calls our knowledge of the truth. He’s not interested in superficial results. He is very concerned that men and women should have a knowledge of the truth that will save them from hell.

It comes to this – that the man who is animated by a true zeal however successful he may be he is never elated he’s never excited with his own success. When the Lord sent the seventy out to preach and to cast out devils and they were so successful that they came back full of excitement. They said ‘master the very devils are subject unto us!’ and our Lord looked at them and said ‘In this rejoice not that the devils of the spirits are made subject unto you, but rejoice rather that your names are written in heaven.’

I ask you a question as I close. What’s the effect of all this upon you is it that you are so afraid of the false zeal that you do nothing at all. If it is I have spoken in vain if you are so afraid of a false zeal that it paralyzes you, then you’re the very antithesis of Paul. You’ve not understood the truth. Knowledge of the truth always moves the heart and moves the will.

If the knowledge of the truth hasn’t moved you, hasn’t engaged your affections and your emotions hasn’t made you do something, you have not known the truth properly. When a man really knows this truth he says we cannot but speak of the things which we have seen and heard.

In any case the Apostle teaches us in Romans that we must not be slothful in business we must rather be fervent in spirit serving the law not a false zeal but a true one. Fervent in spirit serving the Lord. He’s not writing to apostles he is writing to ordinary church members. Are you fervent in spirit? Are you moved by what you claim to believe? Do you really believe it? If you do you know that everybody who doesn’t believe it is going to hell, can you be passive and quiet and paralysed and say nothing and do nothing?

To what extent are you concerned about the souls of the Lost? How can a man believe the gospel and not be concerned about those who don’t? How can a man sit down feeling his own pulse worrying about his own temptations and sins and problems and have no concern about the lost?

————end MLJ sermon part 2 on true zeal.

We don’t often talk about zeal, or energy, or fervor for the lost. We talk of how ‘busy’ we are, but as we saw in part 1 and in part 2, there can be a false motivation, a false energy propelling us in this busyness that is completely vain. Make sure your energy comes from the Spirit, that it isn’t something put on and springs from a fountain of carnality. Matthew 7:21-23 shows the unmasking of people who exhibited a false zeal, only to find they were doing it in their own strength and not in the Lord.

Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. (Romans 10:1-2).

The only way to obtain knowledge of God is to go where God is: the Bible. That is where he has revealed Himself, and is the source of truth and knowledge.

Christ or Chords? The Manipulated Emotionalism of Hillsong, Asbury, and Pentecostalized Evangelical Worship

 This applies not only to music but other forms of art such as movies and TV shows like The Chosen and The Jesus Revolution. Satan is an expert at manipulating humans - their feelings and emotions - so don't be fooled. There is only one real Jesus and it's not the Jesus of The Chosen. So maybe you will get goosebumps or cry, but  beware of these things.

MAR 13, 2023

SCOTT ANIOL


When Christ was asked about the great commandment in the Law, he answered without hesitation: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37). True worship of God is centered in our affections for him. As Jonathan Edwards rightly observed, “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.” Indeed, a purely intellectualized worship is no worship at all.

This is one reason God has commanded that his people sing in corporate worship. Singing, Paul explains, allows believers to express their hearts to God, particularly thanksgiving (Col 3:16, Eph 5:19). The inspired songs of Scripture are filled with heart expression such as lament, contrition, thanksgiving, love, and praise.

However, the role of emotion and music in worship today has departed considerably from biblical precept and example. In fact, I would suggest that the relationship of emotion and music to worship in contemporary Christianity has shifted to such a significant degree that it hardly resembles what Scripture models.


The relationship of emotion and music to worship in contemporary Christianity has shifted to such a significant degree that it hardly resembles what Scripture models.


This reality is clearly evident with recent events like the faux revival at Asbury University, the global popularity of worship music of groups like Hillsong, or, frankly, the entire contemporary worship movement. It is almost impossible to engage in thoughtful, biblical conversation with contemporary Christians about worship, music, and emotion due to fundamental shifts that have come to characterize contemporary evangelicalism.

In each of these cases, intense emotional expression has come to define the essence of true relationship with God. “The students at Asbury are so passionate about God!” So we dare not question the validity of what’s happening. “I can feel God’s presence in that worship!” So why wouldn’t we promote that music? If the nature of true worship is love for God, why would we question whether these movements are biblical?

John MacArthur summarized the reason well in the recent Shepherd’s Conference Q&A session when he described what happened at Asbury as “chords over Christ.” “Shut off the music and see what happens,” he challenged.

MacArthur put his finger on the issue I have been identifying for many years: music has taken on an unprecedented and, indeed, unbiblical role in contemporary evangelical worship today, in which music is used to create what modern Christians assume to be “feelings of spirituality,” “the felt presence of God,” and “revival.” And because this function has become so intrenched in contemporary evangelicalism, to question the music, the feelings, or the experiences is to question the very work of God in many evangelicals’ minds.

No wonder I get so much hate mail.


Music has taken on an unbiblical role in contemporary evangelical worship today in which music is used to create what modern Christians assume to be “feelings of spirituality,” “the felt presence of God,” and “revival.”

Nothing More Than Feelings

Yet carefully defining the true nature of spiritual experience based upon the Word of God is critical. And, in particular, we need to recognize how modern notions of “emotion” are not the same thing as what the Bible calls praise, joy, or love.

The category of “emotion” is a relatively recent term, only entering common discourse about 200 years ago. Prior to that, people didn’t use the term, and consequently, they had a far more nuanced understanding of human sensibility.

Thomas Dixon traces the creation and evolution of this idea in his very helpful book, From Passions to Emotions. He demonstrates how the idea of emotion “is little more than a hundred years old. Darwin’s Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals (1872) and William James’ “What is an Emotion” (1884) are the first studies of the emotions using scientific methodology.”1

The category of emotion, shaped as it was by Enlightenment rationalism and Darwinian evolution, is defined primarily by effects upon the body, what we might call “feelings.” Then, with this more recent category firmly entrenched in modern thought, Christians read biblical descriptions of worship and relationship with God and define such realities also primarily in terms of feelings. Consequently, exhilaration, euphoria, and other merely chemical affects upon the body have come to define Christian worship and spirituality for most Christians today.

However, the biblical concept of affection was something entirely different. The fruit of the Spirit, for example, are by definition affections not inherently defined by physical feelings. Since God is a Spirit and does not have a body like man, affections like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are fundamentally spiritual. Though each of these affections certainly may affect the body, they are not defined by physical feelings.

Furthermore, even the nature of how spiritual affections affect the body or what kinds of feelings may accompany them differ from the nature of physical feelings typically associated with worship in contemporary evangelicalism.

For example, Michael Brown recently tweeted the following:


Immediately you can see his assumption that the modern category of emotion is inherently an essential part of worship. And so I responded to his tweet by listing many passages that do, indeed, caution against unbridled physical feelings:Romans 12:3 – Think with sober judgment
Gal 5:23 – The fruit of the Spirit is self-control.
1 Thess 5:6, 8 – Be sober.
1 Tim 2:9 – women should be self-controlled.
1 Tim 3:2 – An overseer is to be sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable.
1 Tim 3:8 – Deacons must be dignified.
1 Tim 3:11 – Deacon’s wives must be dignified and sober-minded.
2 Tim 1:7 – God gave us a spirit of self-control.
2 Tim 3:3 – The last days will be characterized by lack of self-control.
2 Tim 4:5 – Paul commands Timothy to be sober-minded.
Titus 1:8 – An overseer should be self-controlled and disciplined.
Titus 2:2-6 – Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women are to be reverent in behavior. Younger women and younger men are to be self-controlled.
Titus 2:12 – Renounce ungodliness and worldy passions, but be self-controlled.
1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 4:7 – The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.
1 Peter 5:8 – Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
2 Peter 1:6 – Add to your faith self-control and steadfastness.

Unbridled emotion is actually a mark of spiritual immaturity, while true spiritual affections have more modest affects upon the body. Religious affections will be characterized, not by intense euphoria, but by what Jonathan Edwards calls “the lamb-like, dove-like spirit or temper of Jesus Christ.” Truly Spirit-formed religious affections, according to Edwards, “naturally beget and promote such a spirit of love, meekness, quietness, forgiveness, and mercy, as appeared in Christ.”2

Instead of cultivating true biblical religious affections, contemporary evangelicalism has become what a former professor of mine called a “glandular religion.”
Musical Manipulation

With the secular category of emotion thoroughly impacting Christian interpretation of worship and relationship with God, Christians in the nineteenth century began to look for means to cultivate the kinds of feelings they assumed to be essential characteristics of conversion, spiritual growth, and worship.

They found the perfect tool in pop music.

Charles Finney was among the first to urge those leading his revival services to use music to create “feelings of spirituality.” Believing it was the preacher’s responsibility to create the proper conditions for revival through raising excitement, a kind of music designed to quickly manufacture such excitement was the ideal stimulant.

And stimulant is exactly what that music is. Pop music is specifically designed to produce immediate gratification through direct stimulation of bodily feelings. After Finney, this kind of music began to replace the substantive hymnody of church history past that was carefully chosen to give expression to biblical religious affections.

Since the earliest days of the church, church leaders had cautioned against using music in worship that was simply designed to stir up feelings. Clement of Alexandria, for example, insisted,


But we must abominate extravagant music, which enervates men’s souls, and leads to changefulness—now mournful, and then licentious and voluptuous, and then frenzied and frantic.3

Rather, Clement argued that the church’s hymnody should employ “temperate harmonies.”4 In A New Song for an Old World, Calvin Stapert notes how uniform this understanding of music was among early pastors and theologians.

This emphasis was renewed during the Reformation. Martin Luther and other German reformers insisted that worship music embody reverence. For example, Johann Konrad Dannhauer required that music be “sacred, glowing with love, humble, dignified, the praise of God sung by the voice of men and instruments with becoming grace and majesty,” contrasted with “profane music, which is unspiritual, frivolous, proud, irreverent.”5 Likewise, Balthasar Meisner insisted,


Let all levity, and sensualism be absent [in worship music]. On the contrary, let gravity and a pious intent of the mind prevail, which does not contemplate and pursue bare harmony but devoutly fits and joins to it the inmost desires and affections. For unless a ready spirit is joined to the turns of the voice and a vigilant and fervent heart to the varied words, we weary God and ourselves in vain with that melody. For not our voice but our prayer, not musical chords but the heart, and a heart not clamoring but loving, sings in the ear of God.6

John Calvin, too, insisted that music used for worship fit its solemn purpose, having “weight” and “majesty” rather than being “light” or “frivolous.”7

These theologians understood the proper place and function of music in worship. They knew that biblically, emotion and singing come as a result of the Spirit’s work through the Word of God in a believer’s life, not as a cause of the Holy Spirit’s work. Calvin Stapert helpful makes this point with reference to Ephesians 5:18–19 and Colossians 3:16:


“Spirit filling” does not come as the result of singing. Rather, “Spirit filling” comes first; singing is the response. . . . Clear as these passages are in declaring that Christian singing is a response to the Word of Christ and to being filled with the Spirit, it is hard to keep from turning the cause and effect around. Music, with it stimulating power, can too easily be seen as the cause and the “Spirit filling” as the effect.8

“Such a reading of the passages,” Stapert argues, “gives song an undue epicletic function and turns it into a means of beguiling the Holy Spirit.” He argues that such a “magical epicletic function” characterized pagan worship music, not Christian.9

In other words, in Scripture, it is Christ over chords. True spiritual affections are created within us by allowing the Word of Christ to richly dwell within us; singing then helps us to express those affections that were created by the Spirit of Christ filling us with the Word of Christ.


Singing then helps us to express those affections that were created by the Spirit of Christ filling us with the Word of Christ.

The Pentecostalization of Evangelical Worship

The evangelical expectation of intense feelings manufactured by music as the essence of spirituality was only exacerbated by Pentecostalism in the twentieth century. Charismatic theologians argue that the Holy Spirit’s primary work in worship is that of making God’s presence known in observable, tangible ways such that worshipers can truly encounter God. This theology places a high emphasis and expectation in worship upon physical expressiveness and intensity, resulting in what is sometimes called a “Praise and Worship” theology of worship. The goal, in this theology, is to experience the presence of God in worship, but praise is considered the means through which Christians do so.

This change in theology of worship led to a new understanding of worship music perhaps best described by Ruth Ann Ashton’s 1993 God’s Presence through Music,10 raising the matter of musical style to a level of significance that Lim and Ruth describe as “musical sacramentality,” where music is now considered a primary means through which “God’s presence could be encountered in worship.”11
Musically Manufactured Emotion is No Work of God


We must be careful to define spiritual affections biblically and put music in its proper place. Otherwise, we risk worshiping chords instead of Christ.


The use of music to manufacture “feelings of spirituality” is exactly why Hillsong and the whole contemporary worship music movement are so popular—take away the music, and you eliminate the “feelings of spirituality.” In fact, the Hillsong documentary that came out last year made this very point:

The use of music to manufacture “revival” is what drove the events at Asbury—take away the music, and you eliminate the “revival.” Since when is a bunch of college kids swaying to music for multiple consecutive days revival?

MacArthur was right: in most of evangelicalism today, it is chords over Christ.

True religion does consist in the religious affections, and music is a wonderful gift from God that helps to give expression to the affections created by the Spirit through his Word.

But we must be careful to define spiritual affections biblically and put music in its proper place. Otherwise, we risk worshiping chords instead of Christ.

Avoid the Victim Mentality

 By Elizabeth Prata

Do you have a victim mentality? Photo by Alice Alinari on Unsplash

I was saved as a 40-something adult, never having attended church or had been involved in religion or ‘churchy’ things. I spent 18 months following Joel Osteen then rejected him when I actually got a Bible and began comparing his teachings to it. I moved to Georgia and began listening to Woodrow Kroll in “Back to the Bible”, Adrian Rogers, then John MacArthur. Solid men. I was grateful for this time of firming up my faith before I started attending church, because when I got there…

The first ‘Bible study’ I was exposed to in church was “Experiencing God” by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. I was told “It will completely change me…” “Powerful…” and all the hype. Nope. Here is a good review of that ‘study’ from Critical Issues Commentary. Blackaby was the one who in modern times of the Southern Baptist Convention church (SBC) set the course toward mysticism and contemplative prayer. I praised the Lord he had given me time & space to develop discernment before I was thrust into the soup of rotten Bible studies.

The second one was a Kay Arthur inductive study which at the time (2007-2008) was good. But the next one I was exposed to, heavily and pressingly, almost forced, was Beth Moore. I was attending a SBC church and at the time (2010-onward) Moore was reaching Everest heights of popularity. There was no escaping her studies, books, simulcasts, retreats, and conversations about the latest thing she said or did or taught. She was everywhere. Like Blackaby, Moore’s studies focused on self.

I was surprised and dismayed by the constant emphasis on self by Moore and Blackaby, and other studies I saw people doing or did myself. I’d spent 42 years before salvation studying myself and I was thoroughly sick of myself. I wanted to know about Jesus.

Along with the emphasis on self, as time went on, these studies inevitably drew a focus on our injured self. Sin was described as ‘messiness’, not sin. We know messes can be cleaned up by ourselves. Maybe that was why the term caught on. Sin needs repenting to God for, but if I’m a mess, or my life is a mess, or I’m in a mess, just clean it up, no Jesus needed.

And further away from the Godly terms of sin and repentance, we went not only in studies but also in conversation, from messiness to victim. My life is a mess because I’m a victim, not a sinner. It’s all someone else’s problem, not my fault! You see how the drift away from Biblical standards of behavior, from commonly understood terms, and from His commands to stay close to the word have gone from ‘mortifying sin’, to ‘my life’s a mess because I’m a victim.’

Here is one example of the victimhood mentality from recent days. Lysa TerKeurst wrote-

@LysaTerKeurst: “Your heart is much too beautiful of a place for bitterness. They made choices that hurt you. And chances are, those choices are an indication of their brokenness, not yours. Remember, it should be God’s words, not their words, that reveal the truth of who we are.”

The heart is not beautiful. Mark 7:21-23 says

or from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders, adulteries, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”

Meg Basham commented on TerKeurst’s tweet, saying: “The heart is deceitful above all things, & desperately sick; who can understand it? ‘I the Lord search the heart'” Jer. 17:9-10 Bitterness is bad, but so is soft-focus spiritualism that teaches women to see themselves only as victims, only as sinned-against rather than sinners.

I don’t know TerKeurst’s work well at all, but quick perusal of recent posts showed many in same vein—women’s great struggle is dealing with pain others are inflicting ON them. Hence my comment. Only one post in 2022 about dealing with your own sin. Only one the year before…

thinking further, if you’re gonna weight these things for general audience, how much should focus be on teaching how to deal with sins in our own lives vs how to react to other people’s sins hurting us? Because for Christian women’s books, breakdown seems 75% their sin, 25% mine. –end @MegBasham

So these days, a commonly understood state of woman, even after conversion, is not having to constantly deal with our own sin, but rather its watered down definition-change to messiness. This diminishes sin’s potency. Then the word changed to victimhood, meaning other people are the problem, not us. Then enter the latest iteration- misogyny, defined as dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women. The mentality now is we are the way we are due to everyone else’s hatred of us.

If you listen to these modern women who craft Bible studies, you soon get the idea that all men hate all women and all institutions are prejudiced against the female sex. That, it’s everywhere. And every time you encounter something distasteful against you, just call it “misogyny” and it’s the reason you’ve been hard put by- rather than probably your OWN sin nature as the root cause of your current issue.

It never occurs to these women Bible teachers who teach soft victimhood, that everyone is hard put by at some point in our lives. Everyone has something happen to them that is distasteful or worse, a crime. Everyone has something they can claim victim status about. Sadly these days, many women do claim it, whether it’s real, exaggerated, or sadly, just made-up.

That is because everyone is a sinner. Sometimes what happens to us is our own sin being reaped against ourselves. If you’re disobedient at work, or fail to produce, or a rule-breaker, you’ll be fired. That’s not misogyny, that’s the natural consequence of your own sin. Other times it’s pure injustice for no reason. A drunk driver rammed your car and someone died. It’s an injustice but nothing to do with anything you did or chose or said. That’s the world- it’s evil. It’s under the temporary dominion of the evil one. (2 Corinthians 4:4).

But if you have a victim mentality, you will see your entire life through a perspective that things constantly happen ‘to’ you. Victimisation is thus a combination of seeing most things in life as negative, beyond your control, and as something you should be given sympathy for experiencing as you ‘deserve’ better. At its heart, a victim mentality is actually a way to avoid taking any responsibility for yourself or your life. By believing you have no power then you don’t have to take action. 

Source

If you believe you’re a victim, then you think you don’t have to take action. If don’t have to take action, you don’t have take Godly actions like resisting temptation, repenting, pursuing holiness, and the like.

No, resist the victim mentality and avoid ministries that focus on the ‘something bad’ that happened to you. You’re not a victim. You are a trophy of grace, a person made in the image of God who has been given the gift of mercy because you’re saved from His wrath against your sin.

We are all sinners. We all have a past, we all do wrong things, and we’re all totally depraved. Once we are born again, all those sins are forgiven AND they are forgotten by Jesus.

A Bible study is not an extended therapy session about yourself, your wounds, the ‘toxic relationships’ holding you back. It is an opportunity to learn more about the triumph of Jesus on the cross and His ongoing gracious ministry to His people.

The Crushing Obligation to Keep Doing More and More

 

by Kevin DeYoung

Doing More for God

I understand there are lazy people out there who need to get radical for Jesus. I understand that many people are stingy with their resources and fritter their time away on inane television shows. I understand there are lots of Christians in our churches sitting around doing nothing who need to be challenged not to waste their life. I am deeply thankful for preachers and writers who challenge us to risk everything and make our lives count. I know a lot of sleepy Christians in need of a wake-up call.

But I also know people like me, people who easily feel a sense of responsibility, people who easily feel bad for not doing more. I was the kid in grade school who was ready to answer every question the teacher asked. I signed up for things just because they were offered. I took on extra credit just to be safe. I never skipped a class in college and would have felt bad for missing any chapel service. I took the practice ACT the year before I really took the practice ACT, which was a year before I took the real ACT. For all sorts of reasons—pride, diligence, personality—opportunities have often felt like obligations to me.

And surely I’m not the only one. Surely there are many Christians who are terribly busy because they sincerely want to be obedient to God. We hear sermons that convict us for not praying more. We read books that convince us to do more for global hunger. We talk to friends who inspire us to give more and read more and witness more. The needs seem so urgent. The workers seem so few. If we don’t do something, who will? We want to be involved. We want to make a difference. We want to do what’s expected of us. But there just doesn’t seem to be the time.

Calming the Crazy Man Inside

I think most Christians hear these urgent calls to do more (or feel them internally already) and learn to live with a low-level guilt that comes from not doing enough. We know we can always pray more and give more and evangelize more, so we get used to living in a state of mild disappointment with ourselves. That’s not how the apostle Paul lived (1 Cor. 4:4), and it’s not how God wants us to live, either (Rom. 12:1–2).1 Either we are guilty of sin—like greed, selfishness, idolatry—and we need to repent, be forgiven, and change. Or something else is going on. It’s taken me several years, a lot of reflection, and a bunch of unnecessary busyness to understand that when it comes to good causes and good deeds, “do more or disobey” is not the best thing we can say.

Here are some of thoughts that have helped me get out from under the terror of total obligation.

I am not the Christ. The senior sermon for my graduating class at seminary was given by Gordon Hugenberger of Park Street Church in Boston. The sermon was based on John the Baptist’s words, “I freely confess I am not the Christ.” Hugenberger’s point to a group of soon-to-be pastors was simple: “You may be part of the bridal party, but you are not the groom. You are not the Messiah, so don’t try to be. Along with the Apostles’ Creed and the Belgic Confession and the Westminster Confession, make sure you confess John the Baptist’s creed: I am not the Christ.” I still have a copy of the sermon and listen to it whenever I can find a tape deck. Our Messianic sense of obligation would be greatly relieved if we confessed more regularly what we are not.

There is good news. I was also helped with my busyness issues in seminary by reading a little book by Tim Dearborn called Beyond Duty: A Passion for Christ, a Heart for Mission.2 Dearborn, the director of faith and development for World Vision, argues that for too long the church has motivated people to mission by news of natural catastrophes, complex humanitarian disasters, unreached people groups, and oppressed and exploited minorities. We’ve been given statistics and stories about the all-too-sad conditions of the world. The good news of Christ’s death and resurrection, Dearborn maintains, has been turned into bad news about all the problems in the world and how much more we have to do to make things right. The take-home then becomes: serve more, give more, care more, do more. Dearborn reminds us that the gospel is good news of great joy, and that God is the only hope for the world.

Care is not the same as do. At the Lausanne missions gathering in 2010, John Piper made the statement that “we should care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering.” He chose the word “care” quite carefully. He didn’t want to say we should do something about all suffering, because we can’t do something about everything. But we can care. This means when we hear about grinding poverty or legal abortion or biblical illiteracy, we are not indifferent. We think and feel that these things ought not to be so. We won’t all care about every issue in the same way, but there are some issues we should all care about, some issues that should at least prick our hearts and prompt us to pray. Not giving a rip about sex slaves is not an option for the Christian. Not doing something directly to combat this particular evil *is an option.
We all have a cross to carry. But it’s a cross that kills our sins, smashes our idols, and teaches us the folly of self-reliance.


We have different gifts and different callings. Every Christian must be prepared to give an answer for the reason for the hope that we have (1 Pet. 3:15), but not everyone will do beach evangelism. Every Christian should be involved in the Great Commission, but not everyone will move overseas. Every Christian should oppose abortion, but not everyone will adopt or volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center. We need Christians who spend their lives improving inner-city schools and Christians whose dream is to get great theological books translated into Polish. And we need Christians who don’t make others feel guilty (and don’t feel guilty themselves) when one of us follows a different passion than another. I read and write a lot. That’s what I do well. But that doesn’t mean anyone should feel guilty for not reading and writing as much as I do. You have your own gifts and calling. We have to be okay with other Christians doing certain good things better and more often than we do.

Remember the church. The only work that absolutely must be done in the world is Christ’s work. And Christ’s work is accomplished through Christ’s body. The church—gathered in worship on Sunday and scattered through its members throughout the week—is able to do exponentially more than any of us alone. I can respond to Christ’s call in one or two ways, but I am a part of an organism and organization that can respond and serve in a million ways.

I can always pray right now. Prayer can feel like the biggest burden of all. We can always pray more, and we can’t possibly pray for every need in the world. Even if we are extremely organized and disciplined, we won’t be able to consistently pray for more than a handful of people and problems. But that doesn’t mean our prayers are limited to the items we can write on a 3 × 5 card. If your aunt’s cousin has upcoming heart surgery, pray immediately after you hear about it. When a missionary shares her requests, pray right on the spot for them. Don’t let the moment pass you by. Pray a short prayer. Trust God for the results and, in many cases, move on.

Jesus didn’t do it all. Jesus didn’t meet every need. He left people waiting in line to be healed. He left one town to preach to another. He hid away to pray. He got tired. He never interacted with the vast majority of people on the planet. He spent thirty years in training and only three years in ministry. He did not try to do it all. And yet, he did everything God asked him to do.

Take Time to Be Holy

I pray that nothing in this encourages you to embrace cheap grace or easy believism. We all have a cross to carry. But it’s a cross that kills our sins, smashes our idols, and teaches us the folly of self-reliance. It’s a cross that says I’ll do anything to follow Jesus, not a cross that says I have to do everything for Jesus.

No doubt some Christians need to be shaken out of their lethargy and to get busy for the kingdom. But many Christians are too busy already. I can take “redeem the time” (see Eph. 5:16, KJV) as a summons to better time management when in reality it’s a call to be holy more than a call to possess the seven habits of highly effective people. I can turn every “is” into an “ought.” I can overlook the role that necessity and proximity play in establishing divine obligations.3 I can forget that my circle of influence will inevitably be smaller than my circle of concern.

Above all, I can lose sight of the good news that the universe is not upheld by the word of my power (see Heb. 1:3). That’s Christ’s work, and no one else can do it. Hallelujah—he doesn’t even expect me to try.


Notes:
See my chapter “The Pleasure of God and the Possibility of Godliness,” in The Hole in Our Holiness (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012).
Tim Dearborn, Beyond Duty: A Passion for Christ, a Heart for Mission (Federal Way, WA: World Vision, 1997).
Cf. Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert, What Is the Mission of the Church: Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission(Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2011), 183–186, 225. See also my article “Stewardship, Obligation, and the Poor,” at http://www.9marks.org /journal/obligation-stewardship-and-poor.

This content was originally published on Crossway

On The Chosen: Jesus Is Not the Law of Moses. He is Far Better.

 by Grayson Gilbert  

Recently, The Chosen posted an image of the actor who plays Christ with a line from season 3 that is supposedly a “mic drop” moment for the show’s producers. It shows the character responding to one of the Pharisees by saying, “I am the Law of Moses.” While many flocked to the post in support of the “mic drop,” many others expressed how flatly unbiblical this is. They rightly said that Jesus is not the Law, but that the Law instead reveals the righteous standard of our thrice holy Lord. Likewise, they were right to say that Jesus came to fulfill the Law in His perfect, active obedience to it all His earthly life.

Contrary to the expression of infamous pastors like Steven Furtick, the active obedience of Christ means that He in no way “violated the Law” out of love. More importantly, the active obedience of Christ is a vicarious obedience. We think of the vicarious substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, meaning that He died in our place as our Substitute, and paid the wrath that we deserved. In the vicarious obedience of Christ, Jesus lived in perfect obedience, likewise, on our behalf. He fulfilled what we could not do: Jesus obeyed the Law, and due to His active obedience, and His passive obedience on the cross, we actually gain the benefit of being counted righteous before God. This is the doctrine of imputed righteousness, which is an alien righteousness—a righteousness not of our own, but Christ’s. This is important, so hang with me.

As we come back to the “mic drop” moment of season 3 in The Chosen, this becomes all the more nefarious. In fact, nowhere in Scripture does Jesus say to anyone, “I am the Law of Moses.” In the book of Mormon, however, you will find such a statement in 3 Nephi 15:9, “Behold, I am the Law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life.” That alone should give people enough pause on the show, owing to the fact that Mormonism is a false religion that teaches a contrary gospel to the gospel of our Lord. In short, Mormon doctrine holds that it is your active obedience that will please God in the end, and earn your salvation.

2 Nephi 25:23 states, “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (emphasis mine). Often this verse from 2 Nephi is used in conjunction with Moroni 10:32 to give clearer meaning, which says, “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God” (emphasis mine). It is quite important to notice the all-important temporal modifiers to these Mormon scriptures, because they explicitly teach that grace is a commodity earned only after one has exhausted their own spiritual muster.

The LDS Bible Dictionary puts it like this:

“This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts. Divine grace is needed by every soul in consequence of the fall of Adam and also because of man’s weaknesses and shortcomings. However, grace cannot suffice without total effort on the part of the recipient. Hence the explanation, ‘It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do’ (2 Ne. 25:23)” (p. 697).

But what does the Bible say of all of this? It is bupkis. Rubbish. Ultimately, it is damnable doctrine. Romans 3:10-20 lays out the plight of mankind so incredibly clearly that it leaves anyone without a source of comfort in their own ability to earn grace. Likewise, Ephesians 2:1-10 displays not only the hopelessness of those born under the dominating power of sin—but it lifts up the reality that we are saved “by grace through faith…and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8-9). The good works which we walk in were prepared beforehand for us by the Father (Eph. 2:10), meaning that even our good works are a production of this grace in us. In other words: even our active obedience to Christ is a display of the riches of God’s grace. They are not what produces salvation, but a production of salvation.

The lynchpin of my argument today though is not the tie The Chosen has to Mormonism, which is without dispute at this point. That should be enough—but for many, it is not. What I want to do then is simply take this “mic drop” moment from The Chosen and show just how flatly unbiblical, and truly sad it actually is. The reason for this is quite simple: Not only does Scripture simply never say in any one of the great “I AM” passages that Jesus Christ is the Law of Moses, Jesus is far better than the Law. Here’s why.

The apostle Paul begins in Romans 7 by describing the plight of mankind before the Law of God because of the dominating power of sin. The problem is not the Law. The Law, as Paul says, is “holy, righteous, and good” (Rom. 7:12). The problem is us. The Law is spiritual, but we are not; we are sold as slaves to sin, bound under obedience to the Law, but unable to keep the Law in perfection as it demands—and the result is that the Law produces death in us. Ultimately, we are caught up between the power of sin and death—we are bound by the flesh, and it is so bad that Paul tells us four results of being bound by the flesh, according to Romans 8:5-8:

The mind set on the flesh is death.


The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.


The mind set on the flesh does not subject itself to the Law of God because it is not even able to do so.


Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

This is the fundamental problem of the Law. As holy, righteous, and good as it is, it cannot free man from this body of death we bear under the weight and power of sin. The Law was never designed to do this. Even if one takes into account the threefold use of the Law—all should recognize that the Law was never designed to be a means by which sinners are freed from the power of sin and death—but Jesus is powerful enough to deliver us from sin and death. This is why is it so heinous that The Chosen depicts Jesus Christ saying, “I am the Law of Moses.” It equates Christ with the Law, rather than with Him being the second person of the Trinity, who is far greater than the Law.

The Law could not set you and I free from sin and death—but Jesus did. The Law was powerless to free one from the condemnation they deserve—but Jesus is not. This is why so many find comfort in Paul’s argument in Romans 8:1-4:

“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

What rendered death in us before and bound us all under the power of sin—is no longer binding us. We’ve been freed, not only from the power of sin and death, but from the judgment to come, and this is particularly why the gospel is such good news. The hopelessness of being bound by the flesh in death, hostility toward God, our inability to subject ourselves to God’s Law, and our utter inability to please God, has been replaced by a renewed hope under the law of the Spirit. The Spirit dwells within us (Rom. 8:9), gives us life (Rom. 8:10-11), enables us to put to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:12-13), allows us to be called “Sons of God” (Rom. 8:14-15), and testifies that we are His children (Rom. 8:16) and heirs to the promises of God (Rom. 8:17). The Law does none of these things.

Perhaps greatest of all though is that the Law was powerless to cleanse us from the stain of sin, but Christ’s sacrifice was not. Hebrews 10 speaks of this wonderful reality, showing that the Law was merely a shadow of the glorious things to come through Christ. It could never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to God in worship (Heb. 10:2). But Jesus can. Instead of a continual reminder of the power of sin and death, we have a perfect sacrifice found in Jesus Christ, who satisfied the wrath of God and rendered us pure and blameless before the Father. In other words, we are truly counted righteous.

And this is where the vicarious obedience of Christ comes full circle—because it is only through the active obedience of Jesus Christ that we have come to be counted righteous (Rom. 5:19). It is only because the Son lived in perfect obedience to the Law that He could offer up His life in our place, and truly satisfy the wrath of God. To tie that all together: Christ proved that He was not only greater than the Law by this, but showed He was greater than the power of sin and death. Sin might take advantage of the commandment and produce death in us (Rom. 7:8), but it could not in Christ.

Did the producers of The Chosen intend to knock against all of this? Perhaps not. It is difficult to say, simply owing to how steeped in Mormon doctrine the show is—but I am inclined to not give them the benefit of the doubt as so many wish to do. This is their “gotcha” moment. This is their proverbial “mic drop.” But this isn’t quite the mic drop they believe it to be. Rather than showing people a genuinely biblical portrayal of Christ and His power over sin and death, they display an impotent Jesus, who is powerless to actually save people from their sins. Instead, they show a Jesus who is mastered by the dominating power of sin. That’s what truly gets communicated in one little line, because that’s what the Scriptures say about the Law. When you equate Jesus with the Law of Moses, that’s what you get.

Unfortunately, many don’t see this, but have fawned over the mic drop and been reduced to tears. They have, in other words, been profoundly impacted by the show—but in all the wrong ways and for all the wrong reasons. The sad reality is that until professing Christians start to pick up their Bibles and critically examine shows like these, those of us who do so will continue to be labeled curmudgeons, and “fun-ripper-outers.” In part, I’ll take that because I am sardonically asking along with Maximus Decimus Meridus to the blood-thirsty crowd who watched him dispatch of another in the gladiatorial arena, “Are you not entertained?” Things should not be this way, but they are.

What the show relies on is an ignorance of what the Scriptures actually teach, which is to say precisely why it is so popular. It offers much of the same style of Christianity pervading the Evangelical world currently, where the inch-deep, mile-wide preaching of the Word, the “At the Movies” canned sermon series, and the vapid emotionalism brought on by manipulative “worship” music laden with sentimental musical prompts, are commonplace. Indeed, it brings people to see Jesus—just not the biblical Jesus; but it is highly entertaining, is it not? The problem is that we keep asking the wrong question. The question isn’t if it is entertaining, but why so many are entertained at the expense of biblical truth.