I was flipping through the channels the other day while exercising and came across a talk show. I’m really not sure which one it is and as far as I’m concerned, most of them are basically interchangeable. Regardless, they were talking about how angels are involved in our daily lives and how we should even consider praying to them because they are so infinitely more wise than us they are and how much more powerful. This thinking is all-too common and it is quite unbiblical. Consider Hebrews 2:14-18:

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted

Or, consider 1 Peter 1:10-12:

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Think about what’s being said here, God does not help the angels the way He does people and our salvation in Christ has been something into which angels themselves even long to look. Oh, if only our talk-show hosts would read their Bibles. If only we would read our Bibles. If only we would understand the glory of salvation the way angels long to do.

• Read The Incomparable Christ by John Stott

The recent interview with Todd and Angie of The Agents of Future provoked a lot of great discussion, particularly in regards to local church communities and the way they worship. Much of that discussion reminded me of a set of principles we use at our church (Grace Community Church, Glen Rose, TX). This list was formulated by Gary Brumley, now Minister of Worship at Redeemer Church, Fort Worth and originally appeared at his blog, God-Centered Worship.

In light of many of the opinions regarding worship, I wanted to present these helpful principles. What follows is the document as Gary originally presented it on his blog. The only changes that have been made consist of formatting. The content is unchanged and appears as Gary intended:

By Gary Brumley

A few years ago I felt compelled to put on paper the values in worship that would both provide guidance to my church fellowship as well as serve as a teaching tool to help us grow and maintain harmony on the issue of corporate worship. Any worship leader knows, because worship is charged with so many cultural values that if wrongly understood (and man-centered in its orientation) it can be an explosive issue resulting in division among the church. God may that never again be so! The following ten principles are the result of my labor in the study of what the Bible says about God and our appropriate response to Him in worship. They have since become part of the ethos of Grace Community Church. I continue to hear people speaking of these principles on Sunday mornings around the coffee and donuts, in small group fellowships, and in various formal and informal settings. Here they are to share with you. I pray that they might serve you as well.

As a worshiping church we will seek to…

1. Be God-centered, understanding that God’s glory is His highest purpose in all things. We seek to make God central in our mind’s attention and our heart’s affections. We will seek to exalt Him by delighting in His glory (Isaiah 26:8; 48:9-11).

2. Worship in spirit and in truth. We understand worship to involve the Spirit-stirred affections of the heart, the devotion of the mind, and the submission of the will according to the truth of God (John 4:23-24).

• In spirit—worship that flows out of a new life in Christ (a new spirit given birth by the Holy Spirit) which involves our whole being – mind, heart, and will (Philippians 3:3; Ephesians 5:18-20; Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Romans 12:1-2).
• In truth, we will seek to be Bible-saturated and doctrinally sound, giving Scripture prominence in worship as the basis of our response. We will read Scripture publicly and corporately and sing songs that reflect the truth of Scripture. All music will be examined for doctrinal correctness.

3. Hold worship as our highest calling, understanding the supremacy of worship in the believer’s life and in the mission of the church. Worship is the fuel and goal of all other ministries at GCC. Worship is the purpose for which we evangelize and do missions and the purpose for which we encourage and build each other up in the faith. Worship is the eternal purpose of the Church (Revelation 14:6-7; Psalm 96:3).

4. Incorporate both revelation and response, understanding that all response in worship is based upon God’s revelation of Himself. As God reveals His power, we respond in wonder. As God reveals His holiness, we respond in confession and contrition. As God reveals His grace, we respond in humility. As God reveals His purpose, we respond in surrender and commitment. As God reveals His plans for our lives, we respond in prayer. As God reveals His goodness, we respond in thankfulness (Isaiah 6:1-12; Psalm 100:4-5).

5. Be congregational. The Greek word, “leitourgia,” (used to describe worship in the New Testament for worship) is made up of ergon = “work”; and laos = “of the people.” The literal meaning then, would be, “work of the people.” The early Church understood worship to be a communal event in light of the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer. Every believer freely and enthusiastically participated in worship before the Lord (1 Peter 2:9). Therefore, we will seek to be congregational rather than leader/performer-driven in worship. We believe that any worship service whereby a worship leader, musical ensemble, soloist, etc. is given prominence over a congregation’s expression is not biblical leitourgia.

6. Worship God both in His transcendence and His imminence, understanding that God is worthy to be worshiped as the great King upon His throne in Heaven, as well as the Savior who meets with His children intimately (Revelation 7:9-12; 3:20).

7. Blend contemporary and historical songs of worship. We will seek to mine from history the very best of hymnody and couple these with the most passionate new God-centered songs of worship from our generation (Matthew 13:52).

8. Lead by the principle of undistracting excellence. “We will try to sing and play and pray and preach in such a way that people’s attention will not be diverted from the substance by shoddy ministry nor by excessive finesse, elegance, or refinement. Natural, undistracting excellence will let the truth and beauty of God shine through. Sound system, music playing… all undistracting from the aim of thinking about God. Avoid the flair of words and chords that draw attention mainly to the performance and style and not the substance” (John Piper, from Gravity and Gladness on Sunday Morning: the Pursuit of God in Corporate Worship). We will seek excellence in all we do for the purpose of drawing attention to the supreme excellencies of God (Psalm 33:3; John 3:30).

9. Maintain a balance of form and freedom in worship.

10. Be continually growing in our biblical understanding and our practice of worship (Psalm 40:3; 98:1; 149:1).

• Read Engaging With God: A Biblical Theology of Worship by David Peterson
• Read Worship By the Book edited by Mark Ashton
• Read Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts by Harold Best

Gary Brumley graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1998, with a Bachelor of Vocal Music Education. He received his Master of Arts in Worship Studies degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, in May of 2004. Gary also serves within the Redeemer Church Care Group ministry. He and his wife, Christi, married in December, 1995.

There are some things in life I just don’t understand. I don’t understand weak coffee. I don’t understand the appeal of Dancing With the Stars or even American Idol. I don’t understand Christians who claim that abortion is a “gray” area or even support abortion. I also don’t understand Christians who support Barack Obama. I don’t understand Southern Baptist legalism. And I don’t understand people who say that the Bible does not teach that God chooses people.

The truth is that the idea of God’s sovereign choice is everywhere in Scripture for those with eyes to see. Israel is repeatedly referenced as God’s “chosen people.” For example, in Deuteronomy 7:6, Moses addresses the people saying: ‘The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” This is idea is repeated throughout Scripture, including Deuteronomy 14:2 and Psalm 135:4 which says that “the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession.” Psalm 105:6 refers to Abraham’s descendants of Abraham as “the chosen ones” as does Psalm 106:5. Psalm 65:4 says:

Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple!

Some try to wiggle around such clear statements by arguing that this is merely an Old Testament concept, it does not apply to the New Testament Church. Yet Jesus quite clearly told the Disciples in John 15:16: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.” Furthering this, Jesus says in Matthew 11:27:

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Clearly the implication here is that the Son does not choose to reveal the Father to everyone. Luke 10:22 cites the same teaching while Jesus, in John 6:44 says that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws Him, and then repeats this same idea in John 6:65. John 1:12-13 says that believers are born “not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

This of course has not included references to “God’s elect” which is another way of saying “God’s chosen people.” For example, Matthew 24 repeatedly refers to “the elect.” Romans 8:33 asks who will bring a charge against God’s elect while Romans 9:11 speaks of God’s purposes in election. In 2 Timothy 2:10 and Titus 1:1, Paul speaks of ministering on behalf of the elect. 1 Peter 1:1 addresses the “elect exiles” while 2 Peter 1:10 urges believers to make our calling and election sure and 2 John 1:1 addresses “the elect lady and her children.”

There are many other verses teaches the same thing but neither time nor space allows a comprehensive survey in a blog format. We might disagree as to what it means that God chooses, we might disagree on what grounds God chooses and even how He chooses, but it seems to me that the least we can do is be honest with the Scriptures and say that the concept is there in one form or another.

• Read The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination by Loraine Boettner
• Read Chosen By God by R.C. Sproul

By Adam Groza

The Times London once invited several prominent authors to write a response to the question “What’s wrong with the world.” Christian author G. K. Chesterton submitted the following:

Dear Sirs,

I am.

Sincerely yours,

G. K. Chesterton

Chesterton echoes Paul: “Sin is the problem and I am the chief sinner”. Not what the editors were expecting. Self-deprecating humor is socially acceptable because it’s taken with the general understanding that we really don’t think we are bad people. Only for the sake of laughs to we expose (and usually exaggerate) our foibles.

But Chesterton isn’t joking, and he isn’t exaggerating. He is making a statement about human depravity, but in a way which makes us uncomfortable. We usually don’t mind affirming human sinfulness, but it is far more uncomfortable to acknowledge my sinfulness, that I am a willing rebel against the God of the universe and deserving of His wrath.

Think about it. How would you answer this question: What is wrong with the world? My first reaction would be sin, but not my own sin. I tend to see my own faults after I have railed against others. Once I have exhausted the reserves of frustration with other people’s evils I add as an afterthought, “Well, I’m a sinner too.”

But Chesterton voices the Christian confession. Not that sin is a problem in general, but that my sin is causes pain and suffering in the world and negatively affects my family, workplace, church, etc. The Christian identifies with both sinners and saints: Simul justus et peccator.

Accepting our role as willing participant in cosmic rebellion allows us to see in ourselves no good thing and in Christ all beauty and righteousness. There are essentially two ways of dealing with the tragedy of sin and pain. We can follow Oscar Wilde, who advocated (as Robert Herrick wrote) that we gather rosebuds while there is time: Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die. Or we can take up our cross, confess our sins, and follow the Master into the kingdom. But in order to take up the cross of discipleship, we must make a stunning confession:

I am wrong with the world.

• Read G.K. Chesterton

There seems to very little talk in most contemporary “Christian” circles about what we are saved from in salvation. There is a sometimes vague notion of sin and even fuzzier notion of judgment, but nothing too concrete and nothing too specific about who is the Judge. Salvation has been reduced to little more than a personal experience without any real context. But what if Jesus meant what he said in Matthew 10:28:

do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

If Jesus meant what He said, then salvation is by God from God.

• Read Jesus and the Gospels by Craig Blomberg
• Read Jesus the Messiah by Robert Stein
• Read Synopsis of the Four Gospels (English Only) by Kurt Aland

One of my great passions in life is studying theology. Life’s circumstances (under the guiding Hand of Providence of course) sometimes allow me to pursue this passion more than at other times but it is a constant and has been for nearly 15 years.

During the course of those years, I’ve come in contact with people who express an anti-theology sentiment. Sometimes it is said as explicitly as the man who looked me right in the eye and said “Don’t give me theology, just give me Jesus” (yes, people actually say that). At other times, it’s wrapped a bit more piously under the pretense of not wanting to influenced by the “opinions of men.” These people say that all they need is their Bible and the Holy Spirit, not all the clutter of sinful men. At still other times, it’s put as bluntly as someone saying that “theology is not practical.” Though expressed in different ways, the sentiment is often quite similar: theology is tainted by arrogant men and should be relegated to the classroom and dusty studies.

Though many people might not actually say this, they believe it in practice. When sermons are boiled down to nothing more than self-help nuggets, the preacher is really telling his people not to worry about “all that theology stuff.” Sadly, this is far too common. We’re told that if we get “too deep” we’ll scare people off (which begs the question of whether the Sunday morning gather is primarily to feed the sheep or win the lost but that’s a topic for another day). Many of these approaches carry the implicit charge that our experiences with God are “real” while the study of theology is not.

C.S. Lewis helps to show why these approaches to theology are misguided at best and arrogant at worst in his book Mere Christianity. Please forgive me for the heavy use of quotes that follow but I do believe Lewis says it better than I. Lewis reflects upon a friend telling him of an experience he had had with God in the desert and how theology was so unreal compared to this experience. Lewis comments:

if a man has once looked at the Atlantic from the beach, and then goes and looks at a map of the Atlantic, he will also be turning from something real to something less real: turning from real waves to a bit of coloured paper. But here comes the point. The map is admittedly only coloured paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it. In the first place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic. In that way it has behind it masses of experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach; only, while yours would be a single isolated glimpse, the map fits all those different experiences together. In the second place, if you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you are content with walks on the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun than looking at a map. But the map is going to be more use than walks on the beach if you want to get to America.

Now, Theology is like the map. Merely learning and thinking about the Christian doctrines, if you stop there, is less real and exciting than the sort of thing my friend got in the desert. Doctrines are not God: they are only a kind of map. But that map is based on the experiences of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God - experiences compared with which any thrills or pious feelings you and I are likely to get on our own are very elementary and very confused. And secondly, if you want to get any further, you must use the map. You see, what happened to that man in the desert may have been real, and was certainly exciting, but nothing comes of it. It leads nowhere. There is nothing to do about it. In fact, that is just why a vague religion - all about feeling God in nature, and so on - is so attractive. It is all thrills and no work; like watching the waves from the beach. But you will not get to Newfoundland by studying the Atlantic that way, and you will not get eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music. Neither will you get anywhere by looking at maps without going to sea. Nor will you be very safe if you go out to sea without a map.

In other words, Theology is practical: especially now. In the old days, when there was less education and discussion, perhaps it was possible to get on with a very few simply ideas about God. But it is not so now. Everyone reads, everyone hears things discussed. Consequently, if you do not listen to Theology, that will not mean that you have no ideas about God. It will mean that you have a lot of wrong ones - bad, muddled, out-of-date ideas.

When someone says that they only need their Bible and the Holy Spirit, they are saying that they are free from the faults that have perhaps clouded the vision of so many prior. They are saying that God will give them revelation He has not yet given to others. This is a very dangerous sentiment indeed for it immediately creates a chasm. Everyone else is wrong because they have not received this revelation from God, which put the person in a quite awkward position. While on one hand telling the church not to listen to men, that person is also imploring that we listen to him because he can show us where everyone else is wrong! His very argument is that we should not listen to him!

This also removes one from the community of faith. Though we are saved as individuals, we are saved into community and our ideas about God are worked out in community precisely because we are such gullible creatures. When left to ourselves, even with a Bible, we are quite prone to re-create God in our own image or redefine orthodoxy itself. This understanding automatically removes one from nearly any community of faith which is certainly at odds for the way the New Testament envisions living out the Christian life.

To say that theology is not practical is to proclaim one’s ignorance about theology. Granted, we have all heard teaching and preaching that is not “practical” but that is the fault of the communicator rather than the material.

• Read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
• Read Systematic Theology by Louis Berkhof
• Read A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith by Robert L. Reymond

When most of us see a diamond, we immediately think oh, that’s a diamond, of course it’s valuable! But an appraiser is going to take it and literally look at the stone from every angle and they’ll tell you just how valuable that diamond is and why.

They’re not as popular now, but do you remember those pictures that at first look just a bit rough, like something’s a bit out of place? The closer you look, you realize it’s actually made up of thousands of smaller pictures. I don’t know how they do it, but all of those thousands of tiny pictures are arranged somehow to look like a larger image. The final product is certainly about the larger image, but it is also about more; it is about all of those thousands of other images. Similarly, we often think of certain things in the Bible only in particular ways, forgetting about the many facets that go into the larger truths.

We often think of Jesus’ resurrection only at Easter and even then, we often think in very limited terms. We think that Jesus rose from the dead, therefore Christianity is true or we think that Jesus rose from the dead, therefore there is life after death. The resurrection is certainly about these things but it is more. It is not less but it is more. I wonder how often we think of the Resurrection having very real impact on our lives today? Having to do, not just with who Jesus is but what our response to Him ought to be?Paul forces us to a larger view of the resurrection in Romans 1:1-6:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ

Paul says that by His resurrection, Jesus was declared to be the Son of God but the Greek communicates more than just that He was shown to be the Son of God. The Greek literally communicates that at His resurrection, Jesus was appointed the Son of God. This doesn’t mean that Jesus wasn’t God prior to His resurrection but that after the resurrection, Jesus was a Son of God in a way that He was not prior to the resurrection. We might think of Acts 10:42, which uses the same word, saying: “And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.”

The key is in properly understanding the term the “Son of God.” We’re prone to think of this as a term simply ascribing deity to Jesus. It is that, but biblically, it has other implications as well. Ancient Near Eastern and biblical text understand one aspect of the title “Son of God” to mean royalty as well. Paul has already primed the pump, so to speak, for this understanding, by reminding his readers that Jesus was a descendant of David. This of course is made clear in 2 Samuel 7 and Psalm 2.

In other words, by His resurrection, Jesus was appointed king, not just of Israel, not just of the Jews, not just of the Church but of all creation. Whereas some rulers conquer lands, Jesus has conquered sin and death. His resurrection is about the truth of Christianity, it is about life after death, but it is about more than that. I wonder the last time most of us thought of the resurrection demanding our allegiance to Jesus as the risen King? But that’s exactly what Paul says. Christ’s resurrection means that He is King. The question remains: what is our response?

• Read Thomas Schreiner’s commentary on Romans
• Read Douglas Moo’s commentary on Romans

One of the things I’ve been pondering much lately is the connection between the “Kingdom of God” and salvation. I’ve come to believe that we have, perhaps inadvertently, cheapened what salvation truly is. We have lessened it both in scope and impact and turned it into something purely “personal” and internal. We have so stressed the idea of eternal deliverance from hell that salvation has come to have little if any impact on this side of glory. We certainly do not preach salvation in terms of kingdom conflict, but this is one of the primary themes of the New Testament.

I’ve been meditating particularly a bit on the implications of the idea of Kingdom as it relates to believers and our continuing struggle(s) against sin. The Bible certainly describes salvation in terms of being rescued from the kingdom of darkness and delivered into Christ’s Kingdom. Consider Colossians 1:13:

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son

But the Bible goes even further (or should that be farther?) in its depictions of salvation. According to Scripture, not only are we made citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven (Philippians 3:20), we are made heirs, along with Christ (Romans 8:12-17, Galatians 3:29, etc.).

The more I meditate upon this reality, the more serious the issue of sin becomes for me. Think about the implications of what Scripture teaches. Sin among believers is nothing less than treason. It is the heir of one kingdom (the Kingdom of Christ) proclaiming allegiance to another (the domain of darkness), the very kingdom from which they (we) have just been freed. When we choose sin (We are never made to sin. We sin because we choose to), we are no different than the just-freed Israelites saying that it was better in Egypt (Exodus 14:12, Numbers 11:18, etc.), that it was better in slavery.

The more I meditate upon the implications of the Kingdom, the more I am becoming convinced that it strengthens, deepens and intensifies the implications of salvation for our lives. This is interesting (at least to me), seeing that, the move away from this approach, the move towards an emphasis on “escape from eternal damnation” actually seems to cheapen the very doctrines it was meant to intensify. I wonder your thoughts on this.

• Read Christ Triumphant: Biblical Perspectives on His Church and Kingdom by R.O. Zorn
• Read The Goldsworthy Trilogy by Graeme Goldsworthy
• Read Biblical Theology by Geerhardus Vos

Some time ago I reviewed and interacted a bit with the Modern Parables DVD series. Subtitled “Living in the Kingdom,” the series reminded me just how many of Jesus’ parables are centered around the idea of the kingdom of God. Yesterday’s post also reminded us just how central to Jesus’ teaching the idea of the Kingdom truly is.

And yet, this seems to be a foreign concept in much of our understanding of salvation. To the modern sophisticate, salvation has become something merely and completely personal. It is your personal “salvation experience” and it is about you going to heaven. Yet, it seems that the biblical proclamation of the Gospel was not only much less individualistic, but also more kingdom oriented. Jesus’ message was about the arrival of the Kingdom.

This can be seen by the way Jesus introduces many of the parables: “The kingdom of heaven is like” (Matthew 13:31, etc.). This ought to immediately raise the concern that we have quite possibly misunderstood many of Jesus’ parables because we have misunderstood the Kingdom. Jesus Himself says that understanding the Kingdom is the purpose of a good deal of the parables and yet, it’s almost as if we simply pick, choose and ignore His words as we see fit, turning the parables into nice little morality tales removing any notion of “kingdom” from them.

Much of this seems to be because we have come to believe that the kingdom of God is only future. We’ve limited it to a literal 1,000 years of Jesus literally reigning from a physical throne literally in Jerusalem. Anything otherwise, and we’re told we don’t believe in the literal interpretation of Scripture. But this neglects Jesus’ own message that men, women, boys and girls were to repent, because the arrival of Jesus signaled the arrival of the kingdom itself (Matthew 3:2, etc.).

Of course, the Kingdom has not arrived in its fullest sense. We are not yet fully glorified. We still struggle with sin. We still trip through thorns and thistles and bow under the weight of death and decay. However, to deny that the Kingdom has come in its initial phases is to deny the teaching of New Testament itself. Jesus’ continually attached the Kingdom to His person and Work. John the Baptist questioned because the Kingdom didn’t look like what he thought it should. He expected Jesus to save His people and judge His enemies. For John and many others, this meant a physical deliverance bringing a physical kingdom. Yet, when he doubted, Jesus responded by telling Jesus that the exact things John looked for to signal the arrival of the Kingdom had come: “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matthew 11:3-5). In other words, when John thought that it didn’t look like what he expected, Jesus responded by assuring him that the Kingdom had, in fact, come, because the King had come.

We find ourselves in the “in between” time. When the Kingdom has already come but not yet in its fullness. Jesus meant it when He said that the parables were about the Kingdom because He understood the Kingdom to be present. This is why Paul can speak of salvation as being delivered “from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). Salvation is about the Kingdom and we will only begin to fully grasp the dramatic nature many of the parables when we understand this.

• Read Christ Triumphant: Biblical Perspectives on His Church and Kingdom by R.O. Zorn
• Read The Goldsworthy Trilogy by Graeme Goldsworthy
• Read Biblical Theology by Geerhardus Vos

Today we continue our series of challenges from the words of Jesus. So far we’ve been challenged specifically from the Sermon on the Mount but today we branch out a bit to consider the broader implications of one of Jesus’ many statements regarding the Kingdom of God and its arrival, an aspect sorely missing from much our our current gospel understanding and presentation.

Today’s challenge comes from Matthew 12:28-20:

But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Think about the implications if Jesus really meant what He said: the kingdom of God is here and Jesus is plundering Satan’s house because he has bound him. Sort of wreaks havoc on much of our modern theological understanding, doesn’t it?

• Read Christ Triumphant: Biblical Perspectives on His Church and Kingdom by R.O. Zorn
• Read The Goldsworthy Trilogy by Graeme Goldsworthy
• Read Biblical Theology by Geerhardus Vos