Another one completed

This morning I've finished the second 'big' book of my 2010 reading list, Larry Hurtado's 'Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity'.

I've posted some comments on this book earlier - here.

This is a good book and well worth reading.

I think Hurtado is persuasive in showing that devotion to Jesus as God began early, in the first century certainly, most likely in the 30's and 40's, the very earliest period of the Christian church.
Hurtado's historical work is valuable not least because our Christian faith and hope depends upon the history of Jesus incarnate, crucified, buried, resurrected and ascended for us.

It is helpful that Hurtado illustrates the difficulty faced in second century Christianity was to articulate their faith in Jesus as Christ and God - within the framework of Jewish/OT monotheism. That there is only one God, and that he is only one, is the constraint placed upon expressions of devotion to Jesus. To deny the divinity of Jesus is easy, to collapse God into Jesus is also easy, to portray Jesus as one among many gods is easy. All these moves were made in the second century, but none of them were found to be adequate in describing this Jesus who is both human and divine, one person within one God.

In the final pages Hurtado offers, 'The devotional practice of earliest Christianity was particularly foundational for doctrinal developments.' (page 649) Today we often think of worship practices as culturally conditined, and I think that is right. However, there remains something about our worship and devotional practices that shapes and informs our doctrine. I think that for the earliest Christians, including the apostle Paul, it was the encounter with the risen Lord Jesus and their subsequent worship of him as God that largely shaped their expressions of the gospel. The question then is what do our current worship and devotional practices say about our understanding of the gospel and what are we communicating of the gospel through them to the world?

So, my list needs amended.
Gordon Fee's 'God's Empowering Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul' moves up to the top of the list. I'm really looking forward to this one. Hopefully I'll finish this in the third quarter of 2010.
For the final quarter then, an addition to the list:
Bernhard Lohse's 'Martin Luther's Theology: It's Historical and Systematic Development', T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1999. I've had this book for three years now, I bought it in the Free Church Bookroom while at a Rutherford House Dogmatics Conference. So I'm looking forward to spending some time with Luther and learning from him something of the gospel.

History is better than nonsense

I'm giving thanks to God that when Philip Pullman published his latest attack upon the gospel I'm reading a really good work of biblical history.

Pullman repeats the old lie that Jesus of Nazareth was a good man who has been manipulated and abused by the church and turned into the Christ - a title he neither claimed nor wanted for himself.

Hurtado in a work of careful historical study shows, among other things, that devotion to Jesus predates the writtings of the apostle Paul.

By devotion to Jesus what Hurtado is describing is the worship of Jesus as God and the ascription to him of titles like Christ, Son of God and Lord (kurios). In Paul's letters, from the 40's and 50's AD we find repeated comments in passing recognising the divine worship being given to the Lord Jesus. That such comments are made in passing tells us that they are not considered controversial by Paul and would be readily accepted by the churches.

Within 10 to 20 years of the resurrection of the body of the Lord Jesus he is being worshipped as God. If only Philip Pullman and others understood history rather than attacking the church and the gospel.

On this day our Lord was tried before the High Priest, Pilate and Herod; was scourged, mocked, and condemned to death. He was led out to Calvary.

At the third hour He was crucified.

At the sixth hour the sky became dark.

At the ninth hour, crying out, 'It is finished', He died.

Mark 14:53-15:47

A trial that wasn't a trial, because the 'judges' had already made up their minds - he must die.
Pilate knows the right thing but won't do it, and Herod just wants to be entertained.
The soldiers do their job well, beaten and bloody he bears his cross until the nail him to it.

The darkness is not only covering the sun in the sky, but covers our understanding. We know it happened, we know that Christ died for our sins - he took our place and bore our penalty. But there is the limit of what we know.
Why did the Father choose this way?
How does it work that Christ's suffering secures my freedom?
     I don't know, and I'm pretty sure you don't either.

'But this I know, He heals the broken-hearted,
and stays our sin, and calms our lurking fear,
and lifts the burden from the heavy laden,
for yet the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is here.'

Holy Week - Thursday

On this day our Lord went to the Upper Room in Jerusalem, He washed His disciples’ feet; instituted the sacrament of His Body and Blood. He spoke to His disciples words of comfort and peace, gave the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and offered the prayer of the Great High Priest. He endured the trial of the garden of Gethsemane; was betrayed by Judas and arrested.

Mark 14:12-52



Events now tumble, one after another.
Seemingly out of control, inevitable and terrible.

Yet one character in this drama is calm and focused,
the centre around which all else moves.
(Except perhaps when he prays in the garden,
filled with the sorrow of death, troubled by a weak flesh,
and then sustained and strengthened by prayer.)

The Passover sacrifice always meant Jesus,
now he makes this clear.
His body broken, his blood poured out,
not for himself, but for us.

He attracts betrayal and denial,
like a servant with no beauty to be desired,
one from whom we all hide our faces.

All happens under the titlos
'Let the Scriptures be fulfilled' (v. 49)
The God who has the whole world in his hand
will not let his one-of-a-kind Son slip through his fingers.
Tumble as they may,
nothing is out of His control,
nothing is out of His purpose.

Holy Week - Wednesday

On this day our Lord remained withdrawn in silence at Bethany, preparing Himself for the agony that awaited Him.

In the house of Simon the Leper, He was anointed by a woman, in preparation for His burial.

Judas was bargaining with the chief priests to betray Him.

Mark 14:1-11

A day of contrasts.
Judas is busy; secret meetings with enemies, money changes hands, greed is satisfied.
Jesus is quiet; no parables, no apocalyptic discourses, no signs.
 
A woman comes, no name given, but her story told wherever the gospel goes. She recognises Jesus: no, she doesn't know about the Trinity, or the incarnation, or the hypostatic union. She has not been trained in Creed or Confession - but she recognises Jesus.
The Jesus before her is worthy;
    worthy of her love,
    worthy of her devotion,
    worthy of her perfume,
    worthy of her tears.
The Jesus before her is greater;
    greater than any man she has known, (in all the senses of that word)
    greater than her fear,
    greater than her shame,
    greater than her need.
 
So she comes, she honours Jesus with the best she has and is accepted by him and given as an example for all to follow.
 
There's a Brenton Brown song 'Jesus You Are Worthy', I don't know how to copy audio files into a blog, so here are the words:
 
Jesus you are mercy, Jesus you are justice
Jesus you are worthy that is what you are
you died alone to save me, your rose so you could raise me
you did this all to make me a chosen child of God

(How) Worthy is the Lamb that once was slain
To receive all glory power and praise
For with your blood you purchased us for God
Jesus you are worthy, that is what you are.

Perfect sacrifice crushed by God for us
bearing in your hurt all that I deserve
misjudged for my misdeeds you suffered silently
he only guiltless man in all of history.

Welcoming the King

Mark 11:9-10

Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!"
"Hosanna in the highest!"

Three cries of welcome for the King.

1. Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.
Literally, 'save now', becomes a cry of praise and thanksgiving. We welcome the King by recognising our need, depending upon him alone and thanking/praising him for our salvation.

2. Blessed is he who comes in God's name.
An affirmation, not a prayer request for blessing. We welcome the one who comes as God himself because this is who Jesus really is, God with us.

3. Blessed is the coming Kingdom of our father David.
The great human king, promised an eternal kingdom, foreshadow of the Christ. We welcome God's Christ and together with him we welcome the Kingdom now come among us.

How do we welcome Jesus our King?

Will We Allow Jesus To Save Christians?

I've just finished this book, Rob Bell & Don Golden 'Jesus Wants To Save Christians', and would recommend you to read it.

The four compass points which give shape to the book are:
Egypt - our experience of slavery
Sinai - where through grace we find purpose and identity
Jerusalem - the challenge of what to do with the blessing God has given us
Exile - when we lose the plot and fail to live the blessing God has made us, but also the place where we can confess, repent and be renewed by God's grace all over again.

A very helpful way of thinking through the implications of the biblical story and our path of discipleship. But, in the end, what does Jesus want to save Christians from?

Jesus wants to save our church from the exile of irrelevance (p.174) - in a world of poverty, AIDS, despair and suicide we can be church in a way that will never connect with the suffering to be a blessing to them.
Jesus wants to save us - from the kingdom of comfort, from the priority of preservation, from the empire of indifference, from an exile of irrelevance (p. 177) Using the theme of Eucharist (see earlier post here) Jesus will save our church, will save Christians from being so into themselves as not to notice a world of need which Jesus loves and is giving his church to as a blessing.

Jesus wants to save us from making the good news about another world and not this one.


Jesus wants to save us from preaching a gospel that is only about individuals and not about the systems that enslave them.


Jesus wants to save us from shrinking the gospel down to a transaction about the removal of sin and not about every single particle of creation being reconciled to its maker. (p. 179)


I could go on, but then I would end up copying out the whole final chapter. Is Jesus really saving us from these things? He needs to, and I hope and pray we will let him.

Missing the point

I'm still enjoying Rob Bell's book - Jesus Wants To Save Christians.

Writing about exodus and exile as the background into which the Lord Jesus came in a section on the Emmaus Journey (see Luke 24) we read:

whatever the stranger on the road taught these disciples from Moses and the Prophets, they got it. Their eyes were opened. The suffering and death and crucifixion of Jesus made sense to them.


In a couple of hours, using nothing but the Hebrew Scriptures, this man converted all of their despair to hope and a vision of a new future. p.90.

Where this really bites for me is just a few sentences later:

In Jesus' day, people could read, study, and discuss the Scriptures their entire lives and still miss its central message.
In Jesus' day people could follow him, learn from him, drop everything to be his disciples, and yet find themselves returning home, thinking Jesus had failed.
Which is a bit like walking with someone for hours,
only to discover that you had missed who they really are the whole time.
Because the stranger is, of course, Jesus. p. 90

I certainly know too many scholars, some of the finest intellects I've ever met, who've studied the bible their whole working lives and never met Jesus, and don't know what it is to follow him. But what strikes me is not where this affects others. No matter how faithfully, passionately, skillfully I read and study Scripture I must confess that I will and do get it wrong, I miss the point - worse I can walk beside Jesus and not recognise him.

We can have great confidence in Jesus and in the Scriptures, of the Old and New Testaments, Jesus can and will use them to open our eyes to his grace for us in the cross and empty tomb. That I get it wrong does not mean I need to abandon the gospel or the bible. Rather, in all humility, however much I think I know I need to come again and walk beside Jesus and hear him teaching the gospel from Scriptures until my heart burns within me.

And if you'll forgive me, I think you do also.

Something's Wrong

I've started reading Rob Bell and Don Golden's Jesus Wants To Save Christians. Now, there's a provocative title to think about.

In the first chapter Bell writes of something being wrong - a sense we share, even if we're not quite sure what's wrong.

Jesus was a Middle Eastern man who lived in an occupied country and was killed by the superpower of his day. (page 17)
For a growing number of people in our world, it appears that many Christians support some of the very things Jesus came to set people free from. (page 18)


What's wrong? People are not free.
What's right? Jesus came to set people free!
What's wrong? People today are living in bondage, and living in ways that condemn others to the
                        bondage from which Jesus came to set them free.
What's right?  ???
What's wrong? People who claim to know Jesus are living in ways that would have, and will again,
                         condemn Jesus to death
What's right? Jesus is right and we need to learn to live like him.

Jesus and the Constraints of History

I've borrowed the title of A E Harvey's 1982 book for this post. I've been thinking about the play 'Jesus Queen of Heaven' which is causing a bit of a storm in Glasgow in which Jesus is presented as a transgender, or transsexual, depending upon which newspaper report you read.

Some comments:
1. This is offensive. However, we do not live, and I don't want to live, in a Christian state and so we cannot expect non-Christians to be at all sensitive or caring about offending our Christian faith.

2. Jesus is an historical figure. You can imagine Jesus however you like, but if you do you must know this is idolatry - making an image of God which is not real or true. Jesus was male, there is no evidence to suggest Jesus was ever sexually acitve in any way, these historical facts constrain our thinking about Jesus.

3. Jesus is at the centre of Christian theology. This only applies to Christian theology since Jesus is not at the centre of non-Christian theology. The Jesus who takes the central place in Christian theology is the same Jesus who is constrained by history. Christian theology depend upon history this because of the nature of revelation and the facts of the incarnation, the crucifixion and resurrection, the ascension and sending of the Holy Spirit, all of which are events in history. Any Christian theological reflection which is a-historical, or which denies historical fact is bad Christian theology.

4. I therefore conclude, whatever is being imagined, or presented in this play, it is not the Jesus of history and therefore not the Jesus of Christian theology. The path of faithful Christian discipleship is not to conform our image of Jesus to our ways of life but to transform our ways of life until they conform to the life of Christ, for the glory of God the Father.

Everything Must Change

Holidays are a great time to finish reading books.

I got stuck in the middle of Brian McLaren's Everything Must Change. Not that it's a difficult book to read, just that there is only so much of Brian's writing I can take at the one time.

Everyone should read this book and think deeply about the issues Brian raises. The picture of the suicide machine is very powerful and well used to describe the system and processes that are ruining our environment, communities and relationships.

I'm just not convinced that Brian's analysis of how Jesus is the answer to the suicide machine is radical enough. The Jesus presented in this books reads a bit like a very clever social analyst who has offered a very profound answer to a complex problem. Brian, correctly, identifies God's Kingdom as the solution to the suicide machine, but I'm not clear about what he thinks Jesus role in God's Kingdom is? Is Jesus a teacher of the way to God's Kingdom or is Jesus the way? Is Jesus the divine King in God's Kingdom or a human subject of God's Kingdom?

These criticisms should not deflect from the powerful call to change, the challenge to step outside of the destructive systems that are entrapping us and enslaving our discipleship to serve a suicidal system.

Everything must change, but change begins when we submit to Jesus as Christ, the King in God's Kingdom who alone is the Way we can enter this new, subversive Kingdom of God.

The Jewel: The way of the cross (Matthew 16:21-28)

An example
Children are copycats. Unfortunately when we grow up we stop copying those wiser than ourselves and start make our own mistakes. And then we copy ourselves, repeating our mistakes. Almost always these are mistakes others have made before us and we could have avoided, but we’re such copycats.
The Lord Jesus is our example as he tells us in John chapter 13:15 in relation to feet washing, but surely he is an example to us in many other ways also. He is an example for us in his work on the cross.

The way Christ walked
The Lord Jesus kept his eyes fixed upon the cross. He taught his disciples that his way was the way of the cross.
Knowing what lies before him the Lord Jesus lives in obedience to his Father’s will. This is what he must do; this is what he does.
In all that he suffered he was personally innocent and suffered unjustly. And yet he endured patiently this unjust suffering. He could have escaped and avoided this suffering, but he did not.
He really was crucified, dead and buried. There is no greater self-denial than dying for another. He gave up everything for us.
This is the way of Christ that he calls us to follow.

The way we follow
In Matthew 16:24 the Lord Jesus takes each of these three examples and directs them to his disciples.
Disciples don’t lead, they follow. This is self-denial. Serving others first is the way we must follow our Servant King.
Disciples patiently endure unjust suffering, there is no plotting revenge, no exploding with rage. ‘Father forgive them’ is the prayer of the disciple following the Servant King.
Disciples obey their Lord and master. Learning what the Lord Jesus says disciples commit themselves to obedience, to learning the way of the Servant King.

The way of the cross
This is the example Christ has set us, this is the only way anyone can follow as his disciple. Will you follow him today?

The Jewel: Christ our Substitute (Galatians 3:1-13)

Substitutes
We all know what a substitute is. With the amount of sport on TV it would be difficult not to be aware of substitutes. In one of our Easter hymns we sing together, ‘Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned he stood.’ The Lord Jesus is our substitute.

A legal picture
The only way to understand Jesus being our substitute is to realise this is a legal picture. The law which God has given us is conditional: if you keep the law you live, if you disobey you will not live. Our human condition is that no one can keep God’s law. We need a substitute; someone who will take our place and do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Christ our substitute
Christ, who does not deserve to be cursed, becomes a curse for us (Gal 3:13). We deserve the punishment which falls upon him. This is why the word penal can be used when referring to Christ's work as our substitute.
But we must remember Christ is innocent; he is perfectly obedient doing all his Father’s will. He is obedient for those who cannot obey: you and me.

The benefits of Christ’s substitution
All that we need to do to be right with God Christ has done for us. By faith we swop places with Jesus. Now that Christ has paid our penalty God will not demand a second payment from us. All that we need to be right with God is found in Christ, and is ours by faith in Christ, as we are united with him.

A great jewel
What will you do with such a precious jewel?
When you look at it remember that you have God’s promise. God promises to make you right with him in Christ, because of all that Christ has done for you.
Do you remember, gazing upon this jewel, that God loves you, loves you so much that Jesus came and died for you. God loves you this much, Jesus took your place.Will you keep this jewel to yourself? Will you not rather show it off to all whom you meet, telling them how much God loves you, and if you, how much he loves them? What a gracious and loving God we have. ‘Hallelujah, what a Saviour!’

All Things Made New

“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

These famous words of Neil Armstrong when stepping onto the surface of the moon work just as well if we imagine them being spoken by the Lord Jesus as he steps across the threshold of the now empty tomb.

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ makes all things new.

Death is made new in life
They went to the tomb on that Sunday morning looking for a dead man, a body now three days in the tomb. But they didn’t find him. Not because they went to the wrong tomb, no, they knew very well where to go. They didn’t find him because death has been overcome by life. “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen.” (Luke 24:5, 6)
Now that one man has risen again from the dead the resurrection has started, the new life of God’s Kingdom is breaking out among us.

Weeping is made new in witness
After a while we find Mary weeping outside the empty tomb (John 20:11). Her tears are wiped away when she meets the now risen Lord who absence has caused her tears. Then Mary “went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’”. Her tears bear witness to her love for her Lord, her devotion to him. The absence of her tears bear witness to her joy at his resurrection, no more tears, Jesus lives!
The good news of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is just too good to keep to yourself, it is just made for sharing, for telling everyone.

Doubt is made new in faith
It took a whole week, but Thomas found his doubts replaced with faith. When offered the chance to touch his Lord and feel his glorified wounds Thomas simply falls before him, “My Lord and my God.” (John 20:28)
With his eyes cleared of doubt Thomas can see that this risen Jesus is both Lord and God. His nature, shared with God, is now revealed. That he is King in God’s Kingdom is now declared. Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not (nor is any other human ruler).

One small step – just over this threshold.
A giant leap – God’s King is revealed as God’s Kingdom comes, all things are made new.

Remember - you can visit other resurrection posts:

http://mikeaddis.blogspot.com/

http://blogdyfedwynroberts.blogspot.com/

http://theurbanpastor.wordpress.com/

http://lifefaithetc.blogspot.com/

http://www.meetalancraig.com/

www.knightswoodcongregational.org.uk/blog/

http://www.markmeynell.wordpress.com/

http://www.deeperwaters.wordpress.com/

http://www.bibleandmission.wordpress.com/

http://www.bigcircumstance.com/

http://www.adrianwarnock.com/

http://andybeingachristian.wordpress.com/

http://thesimplepastor.blogspot.com/

The Jewel: Christ the obedient second Adam (Romans 5:12-21)

Adam and Christ
Decisions once made can be unmade. Mistakes can be corrected. As the light catches another face of that jewel, which is the cross work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we see reflected Christ the obedient second Adam.
Adam is a pattern, a foreshadow, of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the climax of God’s creation Adam was to have dominion over creation. God gives great promises to Adam. When he falls Adam falls from a great height; when he falls, we all fall with him.

Repeats in reverse
Where Adam disobeyed in every way Christ obeys. But in reverse. Christ works over the story of Adam, repeating Adam’s fall in reverse. All that Adam should have been, but wasn’t, Christ is.

Restoration
As he works over Adam’s story the Lord Jesus restores all that Adam has lost. And this not only for himself, but for us all. In place of death Christ works for us life. In place of condemnation, justification. In place of alienation from God, now there is a renewed fellowship with God.

Realisation
The Adam story is told using the language of covenant; God has made promises to Adam. What would have become true for Adam had he not fallen this is made true for us in Christ. The promises, the blessing are for now through Christ Jesus for those found in him.

Cash it in
No, it isn’t ungrateful to speak of a cash value for these things. What we believe, what God has done for us in Christ Jesus is for our lives today. The free gift of God is beyond price, our greatest treasure and our joy. Where Adam fell before enemies he could not defeat: sin, the devil, death, Christ triumphed and united with Christ we share his victory over every enemy.

Red Letter Bibles/Christians

I suppose following my blog conversation with Peter, see my earlier post, the whole idea of red letter bibles/Christians has been in my mind.

At our Holy Week service last night, led by Eric Boyle from Kirkcowan and Wigtown, we were reading in John 12. The bible I was following the reading in is a red letter edition and I noticed the following passage:


John 12:27-28 27 "Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven: "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." (ESV)

Now I understand the thinking behind highlighting the words of the Lord Jesus in red. But what about the words I've underlined? Whose words are these? Are they not the words of God? In what sense is it appropriate to highlight the words of the Lord Jesus but not to highlight the words of God?

By extension, since I believe the words of the bible to be breathed out by God, 2 Tim 3:16, I generally have a problem with red letter bibles. A passage like this one merely brings the point into sharp focus.

By using the term red letter Christians I wonder what someone using this designation would make of such a passage? Are they saying they are more committed to the words printed in red, giving them priority over the words printed in black? But what happens when the words printed in black are the words of God?

The Jewel: God’s Free Love (1 John 4:7-12)

I wanted to post this week on the theme of the Cross of our Lord Jesus, which I often speak and think of as a great Jewel of unsurpassed beauty and worth which we can find in the pages of Scripture.

The Jewel
Diamonds are a girls best friend. There is a great jewel of unsurpassed worth lying before us in our New Testaments. Each year, every Easter we remember the cross of our Lord Jesus and yet few appreciate how precious and wonderful this work of Christ is.

Where do we begin?
To survey the wondrous cross, where do we begin? At the first Easter week? In Bethlehem’s stable? In the garden where Adam sinned? No, before this. “God so loved the world that he gave ...” (John 3:16)
The beginning of the formation of this great jewel is the free love of God for all peoples.

God’s free love
This free love of God is one of the themes of the passage, 1 John 4:7-21. God is love, but we ask, “Show me your love.”
Verses 9 and 10 – 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (ESV)
God displays his love in the cross of the Lord Jesus.
God’s love is free because there is no necessity compelling God to love us, to give his Son for us. He is free to love and to give.

Love one another
Knowing of the cross of the Lord Jesus we are to know that God loves us.
Knowing of God’s love for us, we are to tell others, for God also loves them.
Knowing God’s love we do not live in fear of the future, or the final judgment of God, because the Lord Jesus has died for us nothing can separate us from his love.Knowing God’s love for us we should love one another, sharing and displaying in our lives his great love for all peoples.

Resurrection Blogging

The EA Slipstream team are inviting bloggers to take part in what is called synchronised blogging on Thursday next week, the 9th of April, Maundy Thursday.
I've copied their email below, the idea is to blog on the theme of the resurrection.


I'll be joining in, why don't you take part also? If you are joining in leave a comment and email the Slipstream team.



Synchronised Blogging Day
Attention all bloggers: in light of our special Easter Slipstream edition, we're asking you to blog about Jesus' resurrection as part of a synchronised blogging day on April the 9th, which is Maundy Thursday. There are no perameters, but if you decide to participate please email us with your blog address at slipstream@eauk.org.

Some questions on Jesus from N T Wright

I’m still in the introduction to N T Wright’s Jesus and the Victory of God (ok, I’m reading this excellent book for the second time!).

In his chapter on the ‘Third Quest’ Wright offers five, or six, questions that have emerged from this ‘Third Quest’ and are worthy of being answered.

1. How does Jesus fit into Judaism?
2. What were Jesus’ aims?
3. Why did Jesus die?
4. How and why did the early Church begin?
5. Why are the Gospels the way they are?

Clearly these questions belong together. It is possible to offer an answer to one without addressing the others, but any such answer will necessarily have implications for the other four.
These questions cannot be answered either by theology or by history alone, but require a combination of history and theology to provide any reasonable answer.

The historical fixed points are:
1. Second Temple Judaism
2. About 100 ad the existence of a vibrant and growing Christian Church.
Between these two points we have the life and death of Jesus, the beginnings and expansion of the early Church and the writing of the Gospels. N T Wright is correct to challenge us that any account of Jesus must address all of these points.

The rejection of history as important in the study of Jesus has been made in a number of ways. Amongst others Bultmann rejected the Jesus of history as compromising the Christ of faith. One should encounter Jesus afresh in the existential moment of encounter and there is no need for a Jesus of history. A certain type of piety also rejects the Jesus of history, this is done for faith, or as it is claimed to promote faith, we approach the Gospels, and other New Testament writings with faith and when challenged by history retreat into a form of faith which rejects all need for evidence from history.
Both of these forms of rejecting history are themselves to be rejected.

Our Christian faith rests upon the history of God’s work of Salvation in and through Jesus Christ his Son, who is this Jesus of history. This Jesus must recognisably be located within second Temple Judaism and there must be in his life and death something of such significance as to explain the growth and expansion of the Church within just a few decades of his death.

The possible sixth question is, ‘So what?’ Why after all these years are we still bothering with Jesus? Why is it we can leave him alone and carry on without him? What difference does a historical account of Jesus, his life and death make? Or, what difference would an historical account that disproved the Gospels historical claims make? These are questions that thinking disciples of the Lord Jesus cannot fail to address.

A display of love

I'm preparing a sermon for Sunday night on 1 John 3:11-24. In the midst of this section we read the following:

1 John 3:16-18 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

I've just written down for my sermon, 'Love is not a word to define, but a deed to do.'

In the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross God displays his love for us. The death of the Lord Jesus is self-giving, self-sacrificing, so that we might know the love of God for us Christ held back nothing of himself but gave everything for us.

This becomes for us the example we are to follow as we love one another, self-giving, self-sacrificing that God's love might be known by many in and through us.