"It is one of the most important principles of biblical ethics" (+N.T. Wright)

H/T to Creedal Christian for this quote from +N.T. Wright.

It is one of the most important principles of biblical ethics, and one trampled in the mud again and again in contemporary debate: that God's grace meets us where we are, but God's grace, thank God, does not leave us where we are; that God accepts us as we are, but that God's grace, thank God, is always a transforming acceptance, so that in God's very act of loving us and wooing our answering love we are being changed; and, more dramatically, in baptism and all that it means we are actually dying and rising, leaving one whole way of life and entering upon a wholly different one.

Hmmm. Might there be a soon to be retired "bishop" over here in the states who needs to be reminded of this inconvenient principle?

A Wide, Grateful, and Undivided Heart

A narrow heart is an ungrateful heart. An ungrateful heart has no room for God and cannot offer him the praise due his name. Writing to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 6:3-13, 7:1), Paul says, "our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections."

The Corinthians were imprisoning themselves by crowding out the true faith with carnal and worldly appendages. The temple of their heart was not clean. Instead, it was corrupted by outside influences. The Corinthians were trying to hold on to some of their old pagan ways while still claiming to love God wholeheartedly. Paul says this is not possible. Righteousness has no partnership with lawlessness. Light has no fellowship with darkness. Christ has nothing in common with Belial. Believers share no portion with unbelievers. The temple of God, that is, the body of believers, has no agreement with the temple of idols.

Paul's plea to the Corinthians to "widen your hearts also" has a certain irony in light of the present day. We often hear that to be "open hearted" is to be accepting of all religions, all viewpoints, all opinions. But Paul says the opposite. The syncretism of the Corinthians was not a demonstration of open-heartedness, but of double-mindedness. Their hearts were so divided as to be devoid of the joy and gratitude due to God for his promise to make of them a holy people, set apart for service to him. They had not given given their hearts fully in praise to God but had, instead, taken advantage of his graciousness and indulged their carnal nature. As a result, their hearts were not wide, so as to overflow with the joy of the Lord, but narrow and unable to express gratitude.

Like the nine lepers who failed to return thanks to Jesus for healing them (Luke 17:11-19), narrow-hearted persons take the grace of God for granted and go about their lives indulging themselves with no sense of gratitude toward God. The Samaritan, however, is an example of the truly open-hearted person. When he saw that he had been healed, he "turned back" (literally, "repented") and fell at Jesus' feet, praising and thanking him. An undivided heart is a heart surrendered wholly to God.

A Glory That Never Fades

Excerpted from today's column for Columbia Faith and Culture Examiner:

The modern age of relativism teaches us to value personal opinion above objective truth. As we journey through life, our experiences either confirm or contradict our presuppositions about God and the world around us. The result is a multiplicity of contrasting worldviews, each forming a barrier to reality.

Just as the Jews stood condemned in their zeal for the Old Covenant of the law, so are those who continue to have their minds dulled by refusing to follow Christ. We remain steadfast in ignorance affirming the fallacies of subjective experience. The deceit of our own lives veils our eyes from the revelation of Truth, which is Jesus Christ.

"But," says Paul, "whenever anyone turns to the Lord [that is, Jesus Christ], the veil is taken away." That means that we can now see clearly the awesome glory of God—a glory that does not fade, but lasts forever. The barriers have been removed. We are not condemned but are made righteous because Jesus has perfectly fulfilled the requirements of the law on our behalf. In his presence, where there is his Spirit, there is freedom. But what kind of freedom? Not the false freedom to do as we please according to the desires of the flesh, but the true freedom to please God under the power of his Spirit as "we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

Read the whole article here.

The Story That Ends With Grace

"Always end with grace." That was the advice given to aspiring preachers by one of my old seminary professors. Not only is this sound advice. It is also richly biblical, for the Bible itself ends with a comforting word of grace: "The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen" (Revelation 22:21).

Without grace, the story which shapes our lives as Christians would have an unhappy ending. The Bible is filled with tragic tales of rebellion and disobedience; of the people God chose for his very own turning away from him and embracing every form of wickedness imaginable and even some unimaginable. But God is relentless in pursuit of his beloved. At last, he takes the extraordinary step of sending his own Son to die a most painful death on a cross in order to pay the penalty for a people still lost in their sins.

Before Jesus came, the trajectory of human history was on a downward spiral toward death and destruction. But now, because of Jesus' death and resurrection, that trajectory has been turned around. All who follow Jesus, identifying with him in his suffering and death, will share with him in the resurrection. He will lead them into the very presence of God where they will find their true home with him, and he with them.

Resurrection, eternal life, a new heaven and a new earth. That is the end of the story, and it is all made possible because of the infinite and inexhaustible grace of our loving Lord. But if grace is infinite and inexhaustible, the best news of all is, a story that ends with grace has only just begun.

Living Responsibly Under Grace

Grace is a two-edged sword. On the one hand, it frees us from the burden of righteousness under the law but, on the other hand, it eliminates all our excuses for not living righteous lives. That we are justified freely by grace means that we have placed upon us the responsibility to live the kind of life that bears witness to our justification. As forgiven sinners, we are responsible to "go and sin no more" (John 8:11).

But how are we to live responsibly under grace? John Wesley emphasized the need for spiritual disciplines, what he often referred to as "the means of grace." These included worship, the sacraments (particularly the eucharist), prayer, Bible study, and Christian conferencing. By practicing such disciplines, we continue to grow in grace and cultivate a life of holiness. Salvation is not a one-time event, but a continual journey by faith under grace unto sanctification.

Wesley himself said he came within a "hair's breadth" of Calvin. Yet, the Wesleyan view of salvation is much more holistic than the Calvinist view. Calvinism sees salvation as little more than a forensic matter, a legal transaction whereby the righteousness of Christ crucified is transferred or imputed to us. Wesleyanism sees salvation as far more than this. Not only is Christ's righteousness imputed to us, but through faith in him, his righteousness is also imparted to us so that we are not merely accounted righteous, but actually made righteous in order to stand in the presence of God. For without holiness, no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14).

The Wesleyan perspective provides an excellent paradigm for responsible Christian ethics. Ironically, it is this perspective, more than any other, which has proven highly susceptible to being hijacked by revisionists. Evangelicals in the Wesleyan tradition have often proven the most timid when it comes to confronting the cultural accommodationalists who constantly invoke Wesley's name. If the message of Scriptural holiness, the very heart of Wesley's theology, is to live up to its potential for igniting again the fires of genuine revival in our day, contemporary Wesleyans need to overcome their penchant for what our founder would have referred to as "hellish harmlessness."

With grace comes responsibility and, under grace, we are called to live responsible, holy lives. That, above all else, ought to be the message of the Wesleyan movement in the 21st century.

Reflections on Two Centuries of Desperation

Regular readers here will not be surprised to learn that I believe one of the most blatant examples of the preaching of "cheap grace" is the elaborate mythology of Hal Lindsey, John Hagee, Tim LaHaye, and other purveyors of dispensational premillennialism. This grievous hodgepodge of gnosticism, dualism, sensationalism, and escapism has been infecting the evangelical wing of the Christian faith for nearly two centuries. Although apparently in its death throes, it continues to command a large and devoted following because, at its root, it speaks to a deep felt, albeit unredeemed, human need. On the occasion of John Hagee's endorsement of John McCain, Anthony Sacramone reflects on the enduring popularity of "parsing the end times."

For those of you who have not been counting down to Armageddon since that concatenation of false prophecy The Late Great Planet Earth hit bookstores back in 1970, John Hagee’s ministry consists of oversize illustrations of who-is-going-to-invade-Israel before the always imminent Rapture sweeps all true Christians into the clouds with Jesus until the tribulation period, in which the Antichrist pursues some unfortunate economic policies until Christ returns again and establishes his 1,000-year reign on earth until Satan is loosed again to wreak havoc until Christ returns again again and Satan is finally thrown into the lake of fire with his minions and this guy Earl.

Everybody got that? Lots of killing, Rapture, clouds with Jesus (return 1A), Antichrist, Jesus returns (1B), lions and lambs, Satan loosed, Jesus returns (2), The End. (For a more interminably drawn-out version of this scenario, see the Left Behind books, movies, and videogames, which turn the bloodfest that is the end of history into madcap fun for the whole family—and a great Sunday school tool, too!)

The only thing wrong with this parsing of the End Times is that its biblical foundation is based on one or two badly misinterpreted verses of Scripture and a desperate need to hurry divine judgment before an awful reality sets in—sometimes life does not get any better. It bespeaks a now two-centuries-old desperation on the part of some folk who are having a hard time of it and just want out—or at the very least want to be vindicated for their beliefs in the face of so much unbelief. I do not doubt the genuineness of their faith, only the vacuity of some super-preachers’ dividing of the Word.

As N.T. Wright ably demonstrates in his new book, Surprised by Hope, there is work to be done here on the Third Rock from the Sun that is intrinsically linked to the coming Kingdom of God—and not just in terms of evangelism. Oh, and there is only one return of Christ, not two.

In a presidential election year in which we may well have to decide between the lesser of two evils, it is hardly comforting to know that the presumptive Republican nominee now has the endorsement of the man affectionately known as "Dr. Armageddon."

Cheap Grace and the Pew Survey

The much heralded Pew Forum study on the U.S. religious landscape is only one of numerous such reports by numerous such research groups. However, the Pew folks seem to be more adept at public relations and media publicity than their lesser known rivals. The findings in the report may present an exaggerated picture of reality (as most such surveys usually do), but the media, not surprisingly, have honed in on the increase in the number of persons who now say they are "unaffiliated" with any religious group.

More than one-quarter of American adults (28%) have left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion - or no religion at all. If change in affiliation from one type of Protestantism to another is included, 44% of adults have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.

The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.

Looking to capitalize on the publicity generated by the report, CNN conducted its own online insta-poll during its morning newscast yesterday. The results were more reflective of the audience appeal of CNN than of the actual religious landscape of the country. A whopping 59 per cent of the participants said they had "called it quits" with regard to religious affiliation.

It will be all too easy, and many in the media will doubtless follow CNN's dubious lead, to use the Pew survey as a launching pad for stories about the waning influence of religion in American life. The secularists among us would like to think that more and more people are "calling it quits" because religious faith in general, and Christianity in particular, places too many demands on their lives. But the truth is likely the opposite. In his classic work, The Cost of Discipleship, German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw the decline of the church in his country in the years prior to World War II as the tragic consequence of its failure to take up the cross.

Cheap grace is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly grace.

Cheap grace means grace as bargain-basement goods, cut-rate forgiveness, cut-rate comfort, cut-rate sacraments; grace as the church's inexhaustible pantry, from which it is doled out by careless hands without hesitation or limit. It is grace without prices, without cost . . .

Cheap grace means grace as doctrine, as principle, as system. It means forgiveness of sins as a general truth; it means God's love as merely a Christian idea of God. Those who affirm it have already had their sins forgiven. The church that teaches this doctrine of grace thereby conveys such grace upon itself. The world finds this church a cheap cover-up for its sins, for which it shows no remorse and from which it has even less desire to flee. Cheap grace is, thus, denial of God's living Word, denial of the incarnation of the word of God.

Cheap grace means justification of sin but not of the sinner. Because grace alone does everything, everything can stay in its old ways. "Our action is in vain." The world remains world and we remain sinners "even in the best of lives." Thus, the Christian should live the same way the world does. In all things the Christian should go along with the world and not venture . . . to live a different life under grace from that under sin . . .

Cheap grace is that which we bestow on ourselves.

Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance; it is baptism without the discipline of community; it is the Lord's Supper without confession of sin; it is absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without the living, incarnate Jesus Christ.

The effect of preaching cheap grace was so devastating, Bonhoeffer observed, that it called for a radical remedy.

The word of cheap grace has ruined more Christians than any commandment about works . . .

For integrity's sake someone has to speak up for those among us who confess that cheap grace has made them give up following Christ, and that ceasing to follow Christ has made them lose the knowledge of costly grace. Because we cannot deny that we no longer stand in true discipleship to Christ, while being members of a true-believing church with a pure doctrine of grace, but are no longer members of a church which follows Christ, we therefore have to try to understand grace and discipleship again in correct relationship to each other.

Certainly, "grace" and "discipleship" are popular terms in American churches today. But, as in the days of Bonhoeffer, "grace" is little more than a doctrine, a principle, a system. Worse yet, "discipleship" is little more than a program, a course of study, a curriculum. Cheap grace produces cheap disciples who will all too easily "give up following Christ" when worldly opposition becomes the least bit intense. It is not the burden placed upon them by the church but, rather, the burden placed upon them by the world--a burden which the church has not equipped them to bear--that leads them to "call it quits."

Legalism, Libertinism, and Grace

"Legalism," properly defined (that is, in the biblical sense of the word), is that relic of Old Covenant Judaism whereby one seeks to attain righteousness in the sight of God through perfect adherence to the Mosaic Law. This, of course, is an impossible task despite the fact that the Pharisees in Jesus' time and the Judaizers in the early days of the Church claimed to have accomplished it.

Paul repudiates Jewish legalism as a "work of the flesh" in much the same way that he repudiates the lascivious living so characteristic of Gentile libertinism. Drunken orgies and sexual license were as integral to the myriad of Gentile religions as were holiness and righteous living under the Law to the Jewish religion. As these two religious cultures came together in the early Church, certain parties within both of them wanted to import characteristics of their respective old religions.

Paul and other New Testament writers make it clear, however, that neither Jewish legalism nor Gentile libertinism will define life under the New Covenant. Rather, life under the New Covenant will be defined by grace, meaning neither strict (and superficial) adherence to the Law nor unrestrained indulgence of carnal passions. Grace is the unmerited favor of God whereby all are accounted righteous who place their faith in Jesus Christ and his perfect sacrifice on the cross, whereby he fulfilled the Law and put an end to sin, not only with regard to its consequences but also with regard to its power over a fallen humanity.

Present-day revisionists who attempt to recast faithfulness to orthodox Christian teaching in a negative light as some “new” form of legalism make a mockery of the grace they claim to live under. The same Tradition which teaches that a person must live a holy and righteous life in obedience to God also teaches that such a life is not attainable through any human effort to follow an arbitrary set of rules and regulations. It is only possible because of the cross, and only attainable through the faith which is itself a gift of that unmerited favor of God which the Church calls grace.