A woman visited a local rabbi with the
plea, “Please pray to G-d that He give me a child.” The rabbi replied, “G-d has heard your
request. Next year you will have a child.”
But then the Lord spoke to that rabbi, “How could you make that promise?
This was not my word! Now, the woman
will have the child as you promised, but, as punishment, you cannot enter my
Kingdom.” Soon thereafter, the same
rabbi was dancing for joy. God asked him, “Why do you dance for joy?” The rabbi replied, “Earlier my praises for You
were from mixed motives. Now I need not praise you in order to get your
approval or blessing. From now on I can just praise you for Who you are!” (a story
told at a teachers’ convention in Coaldale, Alta, about 25 years ago)
When I
started to study the Bible for myself and meditate on its message, I was struck
by the blindness of Israel during the time of the kings. For many generations they maintained their
holy hills to bring their unholy sacrifices to the Holy God. And, although God
was angry about this and warned them about it, the people continued to follow
the practices of their fathers. “Everybody” seemed to do it, for generations
already, so what could possibly be wrong?
And when a prophet would warn them about it, they dismissed him as a
trouble maker or perhaps “a holy roller”.
As a young man this really troubled me; if this how we –as humans- are,
then there might well be “acceptable sins” and blind spots in our own church
community! Which things were tolerated,
accepted, and even propagated in our churches that were against God’s will?
What were our high places?
In later
years I noticed an incongruence between the teaching of Jesus and the teaching
in our church. While our Lord talked a lot about the arriving Kingdom of God,
our preachers rarely mentioned it. Yet, while the Gospels record very few
occasions where Jesus used the word “covenant”, our preachers seemed to use it
all the time. Apparently there was a mismatch in the emphasis, or perhaps our
tradition forced us to look at the Bible from its own perspective. When our people talked about the covenant, they
always seemed to link it to (infant) baptism, the seal or guarantee that we
were God’s covenant people. And when we
talked about infant baptism, this seemed to refer to an assurance that our
children, too, were saved. Every time an
infant was baptized we were reminded that Abraham’s covenant was also for his
offspring, and that Peter at Pentecost assured the Jews that “the promise is
for us and our children”. Such passages
were highlighted from the Scriptures as key passages for the true doctrine,
which characterized our churches.
Somehow the Gospel was all about us (in our denomination)! Other churches make it look like the focus
must not be on the church and its growth from within but on saving souls in our
community and beyond: at the exit of the church parking lot the members are
reminded: “You are now entering the mission field!” Yet, when I started to adopt this evangelical
line of thought I was surprised by Paul’s approach. Why did he -after he and his companions were
shipwrecked on Malta- not preach on the beach, telling the local people (who
were so hospitable to them) how they could be saved by Jesus Christ? Perhaps there was a language barrier? I wondered about this: Here is the first
missionary, and God used the shipwreck to land him in this brand new mission
field! And yet, apparently Paul does not
jump into action, even when God works miracles to support the Gospel. Perhaps, being a Christian is not first and foremost
about our mandate of saving souls?
The recent
publication “The purpose-driven life” makes the bold statement that we -as
Christians- often think that God is there for us. Even in our “Christian thinking” we
subconsciously put ourselves in the centre, as if God’s first concern must be
to save us from this wicked world. Contrary
to some evangelical teaching, the Bible is not meant as “Basic Instructions
Before Leaving Earth”. The Bible teaches
us that God created us for his glory, and that we are saved to bear
fruit for Him (here and now). We are called to embody and build His
Kingdom here on earth, for his glory, as the beginning of his new creation!
The Bible is the story of God’s
Kingdom: God created it, but through our first ancestors it was broken. Yet,
God promised already then and there that He would not abandon his creation. He
would preserve it and restore it through the Serpent-crusher. Matthew 1 gives us the big story line from
Abraham to the Son of Abraham: Formation, Fall, and Restoration of God’s
Kingdom. God made a new creation in Abraham’s seed. In the
first era (two times seven generations) He built Israel to be his Kingdom under
David: the man after his own heart. Yet, in the next era this Kingdom fell
apart. Yet, God kept his promises to Abraham and David, so we see a third era
in which God prepares to rebuild his Kingdom in a better way: through the Son
of Abraham, the Son of David, yes the very Son of God! Nevertheless, it must be clear that God wants
to build His Kingdom through people like us.
It was through human rebellion that it was corrupted; now the whole
creation is groaning in anticipation for the sons of God to be revealed!
God uses people to build His Kingdom
and to embody his Kingdom. In the Old
Testament, God called Israel for this role. Nevertheless, on numerous occasions
God pruned away the persistent covenant breakers to continue his plan with a
righteous remnant. He kept his promises to Abraham and his seed (to restore His
Kingdom through them), even as most of them perished (as they proved not to be
true children of Abraham).
Jesus told Pilate that it was His
destiny to be king. Although it was clear that his Kingdom was not of this
world, (He would not use murder weapons and force, but the power of his love),
yet he was tortured and executed as rebel against Rome and as “King of the
Jews”. After he rose from the grave,
however, all authority (in heaven and on earth!) was given to Him.
Therefore, (he told us,) we are now to participate in the building of His new
Kingdom in obedience to His commands and in teaching others to do the same!
We are to
pray “Your Kingdom come, also here on earth!” As we pray this, we are reminded
that He seeks to involve us in this work. First we are to walk with Him: God’s
Kingdom must grow in our own lives! This
means that everything in our lives must be subjected to God and to his
will. As we walk with the Spirit,
allowing Him to clean house in all compartments of our lives, we will discover
idols in our hidden corners. As we smash these idols, Jesus’ Kingdom is
established in our lives. And then, as
we grow in Him, He prepares and equips us to not only walk with Him, but to also
work with Him. We are to be his
witnesses and to live as public mirrors of his truth and love. God’s Kingdom must grow in us but also through
us in our families, work places, communities, and cities.
What about
our salvation? At the surface it’s a simple situation: God is calling people
from all nations to be a part of His Kingdom, that is: to submit to His rule
and authority. Those who live under His
kingship here and now will also live and rule with Him on the new earth- forever! (Hidden from our direct observation is God’s
eternal plan by which he has predestined, called, justified, and glorified
those who are of his Kingdom.)
A few weeks
ago Tom Wright was the celebrated speaker at a Reformation commemoration in
Kampen (in The Netherlands), apparently at the invitation of the (seminary of
the) GKV. He argued that many churches
had shifted the doctrinal focus from the biblical theme ‘the Kingdom of God’ to
a (creedal) emphasis on ‘sin and grace’. Jos Douma has the impression that most attendees had little
problem with these words of Wright. He also had the impression that most do not
see these ideas as a paradigm shift: although more marginally, perhaps, we did
teach about the Kingdom of God. Douma agrees with Wright that “the creeds may not rule over the canon (Scriptures),
which seems to be the practice in many… churches.” So, he suggests that Tom Wright “at least forces us to reconsider whether or
not our old reformed identity (based on 16th and 17th
century creeds) has contributed (by being so outdated) to obstructing a true
perspective on the Gospel.” (http://josdouma.wordpress.com/)
Perhaps the
reformed churches have their creedal defenses pointed in the wrong direction.
Today’s greatest attack is not from Romanism, Arminianism, or revolutionary
Anabaptism. It was in response to their teachings and practices that the
confessions were written. Yet, today the
Enemy comes from other directions where he may find little or no defense: the
New Hermeneutics, the New Age, and (perhaps) the New Perspective on Paul
(regarding justification). Tom Wright
may have hit the nail on the head on the issue raised above, but on the topic
of justification (and Paul’s view of it) we need to do some careful study. As Don Carson writes (in a review on another
one of Wright’s publications), “Tom
Wright says some things so wonderfully well one cannot but be grateful for his
contribution. But, as usual, he reserves a place for a few things that are
doubtful, mistaken, or (at best) out of proportion, or just plain annoying.” (http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/5581_5877.pdf)
