Why Did Jesus Die?

One of the things that has struck me recently is the way that we view baptism and some of the efforts to change that in the past 10 to 20 years. For example, I remember hearing that we shouldn't be preaching baptism in the "language of fear" but rather we should be talking about it like it is the believer's wedding ceremony. In fact, F. Lagard Smith wrote a whole book titled, Baptism: The Believer's Wedding Ceremony. There is some truth in that. Baptism is where you enter the church and the church is the bride of Christ so in this way Baptism is like a marriage ceremony. Others have pointed out that baptism is like a marriage ceremony in that when you say "I do" you are married, but the work really begins after that since as marriage is the beginning of our relationship to our spouse baptism is the beginning of our relationship with God. As I mentioned before, there is truth in these views, but we have to keep focused on baptism's root meaning:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Rom 6:3-4)

So baptism is a re-enactment of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It is therefore centered on the crucifixion and it forces you to ask, "Why did Jesus have to die?" Why did Jesus die? Why did he come?

But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mat 9:12-13) And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." (Luk 19:9-10) For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:6-8)

The last verse is really the root meaning of baptism for me. It is an admission of your own helplessness and need for the redemptive power of the death and resurrection of Christ. Baptism has to be tied back to the cross and back to the power that the events there had - the power to save us from sin. Therefore an acknowledgment of our sin is absolutely central to baptism. If you don't acknowledge you have any sin (and sin in America seems to be at an all-time low, you know, unless you actually read the Bible, of course) and you only view baptism as a wedding ceremony or as getting your entry card punched to the church rolls then you are completely missing the point. Which leads to the question: without a view of the purpose of the cross, is baptism effective for anything beyond washing the dirt off of your body?

The More You Learn From Hollywood About Sex, The Less You Will Know

It is ironic that we have so much "sex education" in America now and yet we know less than ever before.  The great "teacher" in this respect is Hollywood.  These are the lessons it speaks:

1.  Happiness comes from having sex with the hottest person available
2.  Good marriages come from great looks and lots of money

And these are the lessons it lives:

1.  Great looks and lots of money are not sufficient for good marriages
2.  Sex with the hottest person available will not satisfy you

We know this because of the magazines in the grocery aisles.  We can see that Hollywood is constantly patting itself on the back and congratulating itself for finally finding the right match.  Ben and Jennifer Lopez, no Ben and Jennifer Garner, no Brad and Jennifer, no Brad and Angelina, and on and on it goes.  The story is always the same.  The magazines have no memory, either short or long-term.  The article on Brad and Jennifer forgets everyone in their lives before, claiming that now, finally, they have found the perfect person; the person who is finally sexy enough and rich enough to satisfy; but that article will be forgotten by the one on Brad and Angelina.  Like a religion which annually predicts the end of the world and is endlessly wrong Hollywood preaches its filth and the worshipers at its altars keep showing up at the designated arrival point, never questioning why they're still here.

But quietly the Bible simply states its message, and it stands in direct opposition to the twisted rationality from High School sex-ed courses handing out condoms and spewing ignorance about consensuality between those who are barely teens, espousing the false wisdom of having sex with your chosen mate as quickly as possible and reviling the wise foolishness of thinking anyone could enjoy one person for life.  God simply holds out the truth and waits for you to listen:

Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.
(Pro 5:18-19)

The so-called wise of our society mock this, but by their lives they prove its truth.  That's sex education.

God Knows Us Better than We Know Ourselves

The shooting of the Amish schoolchildren has set off a firestorm of opinions regarding the role that the Christianity of the Amish has played in their reaction to the killings. Many people seem shocked about the fact that the Amish have made an effort to reach out to the family of the murderer and many contrasts have been drawn between the Amish and mainstream Christianity and American culture. This discussion is further complicated by the fact that the Amish are not perfect. A Legal Affairs article in early 2005 described the problem of incest and child molestation as a "plague" in some Amish communities. Atheists line up to use this as evidence to disprove God's existence just as Christians point to the good aspects of the Amish as a proof of Christianity. The problem with this is that human behavior is not a reflection on God in any way, shape, or form. It does not prove or disprove his existence. From a biblical perspective we have got to understand a very simple fact: God sent Jesus to die because humans cannot be good enough. Therefore the behavior of humans, good or bad, is not a reflection on the existence or person of God. Are people in the church sinless? Can they be?

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 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. (Rom 3:21-25) If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1Jo 1:8-10)

I have to confess, I get confused by people who say, "I believe in God, but I can't go to church because of all the (hypocrites, sinners, bad people, etc.)." This is a misunderstanding of Jesus' purpose:

And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mar 2:16-17) For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:6-8) The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. (1Ti 1:15)

And so the church is full of those who were hypocrites, liars, thieves, murderers, homosexuals, etc. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) Sometimes these stumble because they are human. Could it really be any other way, given the realities of humanity? I am forever thankful that God is more realistic about our shortcomings than we are.

Finally Done!

I can't believe it since sometimes it seemed like it would never be over, but I am finally done with God's Holy Fire: The Nature and Function of Scripture and although I'm relieved I'm also a little sad. I didn't buy the book so I could insult it. I bought it because I was looking forward to the lessons it had to teach me and the most pathetic part is that when it wasn't being atheistic or trying to undermine my faith it was just so mediocre. The latter half of the book was certainly better than the first and in a way it gave me a little gift. In the first chapter, on page 8, the authors write:

If the Bible has lost its place in our churches, then there are reasons. First, past experiences in classes may have immunized people from serious Bible study. Sunday School classes often fail to demonstrate the relevance of the Bible for our lives. Many people have memories of Bible study that consisted of mind-numbing, fill-in-the-blank questions. They remember the tedium of plowing through passages one verse at a time, passages that they could never connect to their lives. Biblical material was reduced to a kind of trivia, even before trivia was a game: "Which of the judges was left-handed?" "Name the kings of the Northern Kingdom - in order." "Name all of the cities of Paul's third missionary journey." Many people wondered what significance this information had for their lives.

Then, in the next-to-the-last chapter, on page 225, the authors wrote:

I'm reminded of my experience at the Broadway Church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas. Every five year old had to know the books of the Old Testament, the books of the New Testament, the names of the twelve apostles, and the entire Twenty-third Psalm before graduating to first grade Sunday School. ...

What can we do to equip our children to love Scripture and benefit from its message? This plea is not merely a call to learn a mass of facts. As the personal reflection about my experience at the Broadway congregation in Lubbock suggests, however, memorization, or at least basic literacy, forms the foundation that permits study at a greater depth.

But wait, I thought that having to memorize Bible facts "immunized people from serious Bible study" rather than forming "the foundation that permits study at a greater depth." So the book flatly contradicts itself. I say that this is a gift because it proves how amazing the Bible is. God's Holy Fire: The Nature and Function of Scripture was written by three different authors and it shows. The style changes dramatically throughout the book and the book contradicts itself more often than the one example given above. But the Bible consists of 66 books written by many authors, and although the style changes throughout there is a remarkable thread of continuity that runs from beginning to end and it does not contradict itself. The authors of God's Holy Fire could stand to give it a little more respect.

You Can't Always Get What You Want

As I'm reading along in God's Holy Fire: The Nature and Function of Scripture I have come to a section where the authors are discussing the various genres in scripture. When talking about epistles (letters) they make a point of saying (on page 146):

We can recognize [Paul's] works as ancient letters, and because they take this form we know not to read them as narratives or theological treatises or handbooks covering every imaginable eventuality that the church might face for all time. They cover specific events in the life of the congregations in which Paul ministered. (Emphasis theirs.)

Why would they say such a thing? Well, that becomes evident in a few pages (page 148):

[Paul's] precise rules on head coverings or the display of miraculous gifts or the silence of women may not have been in force in other churches (then or now).

And there you have it. How refreshing! I can be released from the odious "rules" in Paul's letters because after all, he wrote these to specific churches, which aren't us. We can have what we want! This is what you have to guard against when you read the Bible. The Bible is not concerned with what you want and in fact it tells you that many of the things you want are not good for you, but there is a great temptation to find complex theological methods so that when the Bible seems to obviously say that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because of their sexual sins we can decide that they were, in fact, destroyed because of a lack of hospitality. Then we can indulge in sexual sins all we want. The apostle Paul's teaching on women is embarrassing to our society:

For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. (1Co 14:33-37) Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. (1Ti 2:11-12)

And it comforts many who want to be thought of as "scholars" to be able to rid themselves of such "rules." Of course the thorny problem of wording like "as in all the churches of the saints" (1 Co 14:33) and the fact that Timothy is written to an evangelist who is dealing with multiple churches is, I suppose, just irrelevant. This is also something that happens when people make such an error (finding in the Bible what they want rather than what is actually there). They typically run to it and make hasty interpretations that are often proved absurd by just a little bit of reading. And therein lies the antidote to such poison... it's a book... READ IT!!!