I think the Christian equivalent of ‘the bogey man’ or ‘the monster under the bed’ is the much beleaguered street preacher. We imagine an aggressive, poorly shaven man with a bad stereo speaker system, a big black leather bible, and a short stool to stand on with a billboard that says ‘TURN OR BURN’ on one side and ‘ABORTION IS MURDER’, shouting down a microphone about how everyone on the otherwise placid shopping street is going to hell. Lets face it, it’s the thing we tell the kid’s at seminary about to keep them up at night.

What we fear is an evangelistic approach so divorced from in tone from its content that it drives people away from the gospel rather than drawing them close. The problem comes when we extend that fear out to all forms of persuasive evangelism, as if ‘Maniac Street Preacher’ is the only option. What we may need to reclaim then is a view of the persuasive that is positive and engaging, disagreeing with people and showing them the truth in such a way that they feel the warmth and love of the gospel in the process of receiving it.

Not persuading people simply isn’t an option in all this, to some extent there can be no evangelism without persuasion as we are always seeking to change people’s minds about the truth and praying that the spirit changes their hearts in relation to God. Without Christians being persuasive in evangelism you are merely left with, unpersuasive evangelism, which may as well be words spoken to the wind.

From another side then, I think our fears in persuasive evangelism come from the worry that we are offering people something so important and valuable that if we get it wrong, the judgement falls on us if they don’t believe. Drawn to its logical conclusion though that thought just ends up in there being no evangelism, surely that worse than imperfect evangelism? There will simply never be a perfectly persuasive way to speak the gospel, and we cant leave the work to a small group of professionals to get on with because those professionals are very unlikely to meet the people in your office and the members of your family, unlike you. So we are left with a question- How do we persuade people of the truth of the gospel in a way that makes sense of its content?

We believe in a persuasive God. Take the way Jesus talks to the people he meets in the gospels, he is always persuading, but of course he is, he is god himself, come in the flesh to redeem his people, to teach them that he is the messiah and everyone must repent and believe, he also speaks a lot about hell, so, doesn’t that lead us to the worrying conclusion that Jesus sounds quite a bit like our street preacher? Thankfully he is far from that, we need only look at Jesus interactions with those he meets and the interactions of his followers with the people they met to see the love and compassion with which they speak, but they are always persuading people. Those two things aren’t at odds in Jesus life or in the early church then. Lets take two short examples:

Jesus and the woman at the well in John 4 – Jesus pushes through myriad social and conversational barriers to give this woman the life he offers that she so desperately needs. At no point does Jesus hector her, in face he is remarkable humble, ask her first for a drink, he also doesn’t respond aggressively to her retorts, he responds with compassion and the offer of eternal life, persuading her to change her mind. In response to this persuasion the woman is changed so thoroughly that her whole village hears of Jesus.

Paul in Athens in Acts 17 – Paul observes, understands and speaks to these thinking men in terms they understand, having observed and interacted with their culture. Hugely different as an example from the woman at the well but here we see again, a calm, clear and persuasive message that makes sense of those who are being spoken to and after which some reject but some want to hear more.

Evangelism is by nature persuasive, but when we have the words of life and the spirt, how could it not be. That persuasion far from socially aggressive and unacceptable is one of the most loving things we do, risking the potential social discomfort for the sake of offering people eternal life. We must let this impact our view of persuasion, we see the imaginary street preacher for what they are, a misguided (and mostly fictional) extreme that must not dissuade us from the call we have receive to ‘go and make disciples of all nations’ a task that is essentially persuasive. Be persuaded that persuasion is the way!

Psalm 42 – http://tinyurl.com/htjpcdz

What if they don’t come? What if I’m stuck up here forever? What if I die up here? But they are coming. But what if they don’t? what if I’m stuck like this? what if I can’t work? But I know they are coming. What if they drop me? What if I have to get down this mountain myself?

Those are the questions that were running through my head on the 15^th of April 2015, stuck up a hill in the Scottish countryside; in in a storm, with a leg broken in 4 places. Having been stuck up there for 2 hours waiting for mountain rescue you can imagine that not everything going through my head was positive.  A good friend and good Doctor was with me and over the course of 2 hours’ distress kept calmly reminding me, the paramedics were on their way, help was coming. Without a voice of reason telling me the truth that help was on its way, I would have lost all perspective and been in complete despair. Knowing that rescue is coming doesn’t take away the pain, but it does give you hope that a time without pain will come. Sometimes remembering hope is the toughest of battles, and you have to force yourself to remember what is true.

Thankfully few of us have been through something as directly traumatic as limb fracture and mountain rescue, but there are a lot of times when hope seems hard to find. When pain and suffering comes life can be a battle for perspective in remembering hope, telling ourselves the truth and trusting in God. Part of the process of maturing as a Christian is learning the discipline of remembering the truth and applying hope when we feel far from God, and suffering feels immense. We learn to tell our souls what is true, when they wander off in search of other things.

Psalm 42, as with many of the psalms speaks right into the heart of human experience. This psalm deals with the reality of feeling far from God, what it’s like to thirst for God, how we experience grief and the strange tension between suffering and hope. The psalmist speaks about the state of his soul, his inner being, describing it through the psalms as: thirsty, poured out, and downcast. We find him not only crying out to God in his distress but also speaking to his own soul, applying the truth to it, and remembering hope.

The psalm is written by one of the sons of Korah, one of the temple psalmists from Jerusalem. However, we find him located far away from the temple almost 100 miles north, away in the upper land of the Jordan river. We are not told why he is far away, but it seems that he is being prevented from returning to Israel, and being mocked by the people around him. Being separated from the temple and God’s manifest presence he feels the anxiety of separation.

In order to understand this psalm, we are going to look at it in three parts; first in verses 1-4 where the psalmist describes his thirst for God, then verses 6-10 where the psalmist grieves the distance he feels from God and finally we will look at the refrain in this psalm found in verse 5 and in verse 11 where the Psalmist finds hope for his soul in God. A thirsty soul, a downcast soul and a hopeful soul.

 

A thirsty soul

I don’t know if you have ever been dehydrated, it’s like thirst gone native. Your body stops feeling thirsty but starts feeling physically sick, you become light headed and unable to think properly, all you can do is follow your body’s deep seated need for water. Real dehydration is a matter health and at its worst, a matter of life and death.

The psalm opens with the psalmist describing what this thirst in his soul is like. He describes it like a deer panting for flowing water. We might not think much of that, coming from an ever drenched Scotland that has never seen hide nor hair of a dehydrated deer. But in Israel, in the dry season, the height of summer, the land is arid and dusty. A deer that can’t find water is in deep distress, a flowing stream of life sustaining water is vital. It’s that kind of intense longing that the psalmist feels for God. He is far from the temple, far away from the direct presence of the Lord, and he is in distress, longing for the living God.

This separation from the temple isn’t the psalmists only trouble however. It seems that he is being taunted by the people around him for being far from God. See verse 3

‘My tears have been my food day and night,

while they say to me all the day long,

“Where is your God?”

The psalmist is having sleepless nights because of his distress from those taunting and mocking him. We can hear in this the feeling of injustice and pain, this is the language of real suffering. But this therefore is language we can relate to. Many of us will have had sleepless nights; kept up by stress, the trouble and anxiety of life. We may even be able to empathise more directly with the psalmist; having experienced the anxiety of feeling far from God. When I read this I find myself thankful that my bible contains this, that God’s word speaks both to the realities of anxiety and suffering but also to the reasons we feel them.

So what does the psalmist think is the cure for a thirsty soul? How does he begin to respond to this distress? His first step, we find in verse 4, is to remember. The thirsty soul remembers. As he pours out his soul to God in prayer he actively recalls what he is missing. Being one of the psalmists of the temple would be quite a position. The responsibility of leading the temple worshippers in procession into the temple to perform their sacrifices and worship the lord. We need only look to how important our praise leaders are in church to begin to get an idea of how important this role was in the temple. And it was a role that the psalmist took great joy in. He reminds himself of the height of this joy, leading the praises of God’s people at festival time, surrounded by shouts of joy and praise.

This is the first step for the thirsty soul, to remember the joy of serving the lord in times past. Whilst it cannot call in to being the event and the emotion it gives the psalmist perspective and helps him to remember what is true. Remembering times of joy when in distress is a double edged sword; it can comfort but it also heightens the sense of loss. However, these memories are important, the psalmist sees them as a tool for dealing with his distress and giving him hope. It is this remembrance that leads to the first hopeful refrain of the psalm.

I wonder how good we are at retaining perspective when we suffer? I know personally that I can start to see the world in shades of black when things go wrong. One of the things God blesses us with however is our experiences of joy; that when trouble and suffering comes, often the first step towards hope, is remembering our joy in God in times past. These things are meant to be a comfort for our souls and are something we must keep in mind. As Christians we are called to strong memories in remembering the works of the lord, not just in history but in our own lives. That is the first part of the psalm, a thirsty soul.

 

A downcast soul

No matter how strong the re-assurances of a friend; after 2 hours of pain, soaked to the skin, chilled to the bone; you really seriously begin to doubt the availability of a mountain rescue team. Have they just forgotten? Maybe the helicopter has crashed? Maybe the weather is just too bad? You KNOW that help is coming, but you keep asking those questions, the tension and turmoil still remains.

What we get in verses 6 to 10 is an insight into the turmoil that the psalmists mind is in. He knows that God is with him, even when he is far from the temple, but that thought isn’t necessarily taking away his distress. In these verses the Lord is the God of steadfast love, but also the one who has brought the psalmist waves of distress. In the one sentence of verse 9 he calls God his rock but asks ‘why have you forgotten me?’. This is the turmoil and the distress of knowing that God is present in suffering yet crying out ‘where are you?!’. If you haven’t found yourself crying out to God like that in your life that I can almost guarantee that one day you will. This is a downcast soul, filled with grief.

This part of the psalm starts, as the last part finished, with the psalmist remembering God. He shows his distance from the temple as he looks south to Jerusalem from mount Hermon in the north. The second water analogy in this psalm is in verse 7. This time the psalmist describes his troubles with the language of deep waters, follow along verse 7:

Deep calls to deep, at the roar of your waterfalls;

all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.  

It’s remarkable how common certain analogies are to humanity; how often people use the language of being swept up in their problems or drowning in troubles. This is the language the psalmist uses to describe his grief at the circumstances the Lord has brought him. When under pressure though, the psalmist refuses to forget his God. In verse 8 he again affirms that he prays to God, and that the steadfast love of God is with him; even seemingly singing psalms to remind himself of God; a tradition not lost in the church today. He is remarkably clear, he doesn’t blame God for his trouble, but that God has brought these circumstances to him, God is very much in control even when his life feels chaotic.

The strongest example of grief in this psalm is in verses 9 and 10.  God is his rock but his soul says ‘why have you forgotten me?’. He is oppressed and mocked by enemies, who are asking ‘where is your God?’. His grief is as deep as to the point of calling it a deadly wound in his bones. Undoubtedly the pressure the psalmist faced from his enemies brought him into deep distress was immense. But notice whilst he questions God’s presence and action, he doesn’t question his existence or his character. This is a downcast soul that still believes, grief and trust running side by side.

I think many people will find that very unusual, the idea that a person could be in deep distress, questioning the presence of God and yet still believe and trust firmly that God is good and is at work. It’s a supposition the world doesn’t like at all, but it’s one that is right at the heart of the Christian experience. Grief and trust are not in opposition, in fact much of the time they go hand in hand; sometimes it’s only in the deepest distress that we find the most vital dependence on God. We live in a different age to the psalmist, there is no longer a temple for us to long for; In Christ we simply couldn’t be closer to God. But that doesn’t mean we always feel that way. We may share similar experiences with the psalmist, a multiplicity of troubles, even mockery for our faith; trying circumstances that we will all face. And yet the psalmist still has hope, and how he finds it, will teach us how we must seek God when the turmoil of faith and grief comes to us. The psalmist truly understands the reality of a downcast soul.

 

A hopeful soul

Finally then, the refrain in verses 5 and 11, how we find hope for our soul:

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

The first step for the psalmist was to speak the truth of his distress, the second to remember God, the third then is to apply truth to his soul. This refrain really crystallises the feeling of the whole psalm. The downcast soul of the psalmist is met with hope of his saviour God. What is the answer to the psalmist’s distress and grief? The truth of about God.

The psalmist here does something that some people today would consider basically impossible. He speaks to and commands his own soul. The modern world says – ‘what matters is your feelings; you are subject to your emotions’. The word of God says ‘your mind is subject to you, take control of your soul’. The psalmist is questioning his soul and its turmoil, as legitimate as its concerns are; and commanding it to hope in God.

For a world caught utterly at the whim of its own desires how refreshing to find the Psalms sees life quite differently. We must learn the truth of this psalm and develop a discipline that we often lack, of speaking truth to our own souls and bringing them in line with God’s word. I say this is a discipline because clearly even within this psalm it is something the psalmist has to battle with and fight for. The inner turmoil caused by the friction between grief and hope can be massive. The way hope will hold out is by constant application of the truth.

 

Speaking to our souls

How quickly we forget the cross. How often we find our souls have worked through and concluded our thoughts on a situation whilst, completely bypassing the truth of the gospel. I think this is especially true of our reactions to suffering. When in distress it is so easy to ask ‘where is God?’ without applying the truth of his presence. We present God less honestly than the psalmist does, if we are willing to count him absent in our sufferings. Our greatest example, far above the admirable attitude of the psalmist is in Christ. He is the only one who has ever been truly forsaken when we see him on the cross shouting ‘My God My God, why have you forsaken me’. He bore the price of separation from God on our behalf. When we are anxious, when we find ourselves in distress and turmoil then we must turn to Christ. Only he truly understands the distress of separation from God that we sometimes feel. What we can learn from the psalmist we can learn further from Christ. A life of knowing the truth and applying it to our hearts. Living by it even in our deepest distress and grief. This life however is one of hope, that even in the darkest pit, the greatest trouble and the most fearful anxiety there is hope for our souls in the true and living God. A hope to be found in Christ alone.

So that’s Psalm 42, a comforting one that deals with the reality of life. I wonder if you’re not a Christian, how you read that psalm? Ask yourself, what do you turn to in distress, and do you see your own suffering as a barrier between you and God? The bible certainly doesn’t, in fact is says that they go hand in hand: so what is your hope? If you are a believer lets nurture this discipline of seeking our hope God in times of trouble, and always applying the truth of Christ to our hearts.

What could be the summation of a time,

That over this year has changed,

So very much, this life of mine

For good?

 

How to condense so vast and erratic a learning,

Cut questions face doubt and issues

More than unanswered but yearning

For more, a desire yet unfilled

 

And how to do even the slightest justice to the one

Who far before this year began had already

In my heart decided to make a change

And my soul he divided,

In two parts he made, space for an whole

And changed that which lacked

The light of a soul,

One greater and brighter than that heart divided

 

How could I measure that brilliance?

That terrible fire applied which hence

Changed the divided heart

But burning yet warm,

Eradicating the twist which in me resided

But yet clings to my walls

 

You see, unto me Christ has been imparted

But this long before my effort had started

He knew my soul well as in his hand

He had formed its shape, its time, its movement

And knew of its turning away from improvement

And desire to implode in its blindness for self

Denying it knows the incredible wealth

That was given to it and by which it was conceived

The one above all, the one that breathed

Life unto that heart

 

So now that which was twisted is being remade, mended

And by grace’s soft sound my flesh is now tended

Having the gift not gained but imparted,

So I shall always say, my soul had no part, it

Merely responded, to that soft call

To know one’s self, through the maker of all

 

So to Christ is all glory and power divine,

My joy is to say, not our will, but thine

For whilst our bent, broken darkness in ourselves abounded

Your grace has arrived, purified and founded

A temple within us, now your holy place

Where before only thorns, pride, and evil had space

 

I may never understand the work of my maker,

But all this to say, I will thank him, regardless

Praise his name, praise my lord

Oh my soul

This is my relay study response for the work on Union with christ.

What naturally comes to mind when you think about who Jesus is?

Thank the Lord that my answer to this question has changed over time. I can’t help but think of the answer to this question in response to how I might have previously answered it. Naturally my mind would go to the stereotype Jesus, the long brown hair, perfectly crafted beard, and Daz white shining robes and this, to be honest is probably not uncommon; if anything it is a response that is characteristic of many. This was probably to some extent my view of Jesus pre-university. Any thoughts of his character would come secondarily to this picture of a blissed out hippy Jesus from the kids’ illustrated Bibles. His character would be, of course, that of a loving and caring teacher, surrounded by children and lambs under a tree in as meadow, essentially idyllic.

The important question then is what has changed? By the grace of God my picture of Christ has significantly deepened (let’s ignore the possibility that it could have been much shallower). My natural instinct now is to respond to this question with joy, having learned so much over my time in university and on Relay my picture of Christ is far more full of the excellence and majesty of his reality and thus as my thoughts turn to the Author and Perfector of my faith my heart is lightened.

First then he was a man, really fully human in all the factors that entails, right down to dirt in his fingernails and stubbed toes. A dusty carpenter’s son living in a fishing community near a lake in the Near East. As a picture of humble origins goes this is a decent one, the saviour of the universe started here. Having recently seen the Mark Drama when I think of Jesus my view is inextricably linked with the account Mark gives, but here I see a man who expressed real humanity, real feeling and real emotion. As we see a saviour who was made perfect in weakness, the gospels really do show us an incredible reality. I see a man who was incredibly courageous, who could walk into a city with a crowd of people cheering his name, who 3 days later would be cheering for his death. But I also I think there is a stark loneliness to the gospels, not that Jesus was without friends but that he was resigned to his task and to his death. And as such he was walking the earth often in contact with people who would be his murderers and betrayers, fully worthy of the title of a ‘man of sorrows and well acquainted with grief’.

How has your understanding of who he is grown?

The core of my understanding has changed by really applying the truth – this man was God. This should be immediately obvious, and it is in the background that the existence and importance of the Trinity means that Christ’s deity should always be at the forefront of my mind, but it isn’t always. It’s possibly too easy to have a working picture of Christ and a good understanding of the Trinity and yet still look at the gospels with the view of a ‘storybook Jesus’. Dangerous indeed, but what weight is lent to every page of the gospel when seen through the lens of the triune God, that this 2000 years dead (and risen) Israeli carpenter really was fully God.

When we read of Jesus speaking to the Pharisees about their spiritual blindness do we really connect that with the God of Malachi who says:

“A son honours his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honour due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty.

“It is you priests who show contempt for my name” (Malachi 1:6)

Or do we just see it as a mild rebuke? Do we see Jesus clearing the temple merely as a moment of frustration with injustice or the righteous anger of a God whose glory has previously filled the most holy place? These comparisons are necessary, in all honesty our theology makes neither sense nor impact without them. The question that comes to my mind then is ’how can this Jesus have any part with me?’.

Recently then I have been writing Bible studies on Hebrews as part of my Relay discipleship. Hebrews’ drawn out description of our union with Christ then has been incredibly helpful to me in improving and correcting my picture of our union with Christ. Forgive the lengthy quote here but it has been deeply formative in the last month.

5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:

 

“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,

a son of man that you care for him?

7 You made them a little lower than the angels;

you crowned them with glory and honour

8     and put everything under their feet.”

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says,

“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;

in the assembly I will sing your praises.”

13 And again,

“I will put my trust in him.”

And again he says,

“Here am I, and the children God has given me.”

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. – Hebrews 2:5-18

An incredible piece of scripture and how glorious the picture of Christ we see here painted. How often do we think of Christ as both creator and sustainer? The reality of that means that he was sustaining the life of the very people who were beating him as he was crucified; what incredible mercy and grace that this could be true. A sensible question really is how as imperfect human beings could we ever have any part with a perfect God? Our only hope is that God himself would come to us, we need an mediator.  The author of Hebrews’ view on this is borne straight out of the incarnation, the creator of the universe sets aside his glory to take the lowly position of a created thing, lower even than his heavenly servants, the angels. We see that he suffered, even to death on a cross fulfilling all that was said of him. His reward though? That he would be crowned with honour and glory, that which only he is truly fit to attain.

The consequence of all of this for us? That Jesus, fully man, fully God, is not ashamed to call us brothers, our Lord has claimed equality with us. Astounding the model that salvation takes, and what humility we see in Christ that he would take our place, be our atonement, bridging the gap we could never leap in order that we could participate in his death and subsequently in his resurrection. Faith in the atoning work of Jesus blood is the very core of our belief, as we are reminded earlier in Hebrews ‘how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?’ (Heb 2:3). How beautiful a theology then, to have a humble saviour, the very picture of saving grace. Few things have made such a profound impact to my faith as this work in Hebrews recently, I feel my picture of Christ now flows naturally out of these passages, and is in all facets, more glorious than I previously saw.

What practical steps will you take to “warm your heart by the fire of the gospel” every day?

If there was ever a clearer exhortation to keep studying then I have not found it, Hebrews is as incredibly profound as it is deeply complex and I must admit to spending more time than I expected trying to pull apart each passage and understand it, but all to my good I am sure. Applying the truth of this passage to my heart daily , however a struggle, is what is daily fortifying the foundations of my faith; that Christ comes down and proclaims me ‘brother’ is staggering. Especially considering my continued understanding of how little I merit that situation.  ‘shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means!’ but do I grow in my understanding of my sinfulness, yes each day and painfully so. So either my understanding of grace increases in tandem or I am utterly crushed, thus my knowledge of my status as a brother of Christ becomes by the day more astounding.

Tim Keller once described the death of Christ as ‘violent, voluntary and vicarious’; that Jesus died a painful, prolonged and violent death, willingly for a people who would constantly reject him. Few things give this insight quite as forcefully as the Mark Drama, the whispers, shouts and eventually roars of ‘CRUCIFY HIM’ that come from the crowd, the stark pain of that scene, a man so alone, so utterly abandoned. And to have to sit there and say to yourself ‘that is what my sin cost’ and to acknowledge that you are just as culpable as those Pharisees screaming abuse in his face. Do I want that to be my place? Absolutely not, yet it is correct, that is my human nature right there, that I would call for the death of my Lord. So how beyond my understanding that after that he would still call me brother. Praise his name.

Guilty, vile, and helpless, we,

Spotless Lamb of God was He;

Full atonement—can it be?

Hallelujah! what a Saviour!

Here is another Study response for Relay – this time on the Atonement.

If the cross is where God punishes his innocent son instead of me is it an act of cosmic child abuse?

Defining the above question

This question is a common challenge levelled at the Christian belief in the atonement. To examine this objection then we first need to define the atonement itself. The word atonement is a contraction of at-one-ment, to unite two other things. This is very much at the core of understanding the atonement, it is the method by which the Christian is brought together with God; it is the answer to the question, how can a holy God have any part with sinful man.

Important questions must be answered for any serious discussion on the atonement to occur:

What is atoned for?

The sin of fallen man, deserving punishment, being under a penalty that must necessarily be paid if God is to be just.

Who is atoned for?

Fallen humanity, any that accepts the atonement, by faith, comes under its power and status.

Who is the one that atones?

Christ, the one whose death at the cross, paid the penalty for sinful man.

What did the atonement achieve?

That any person, by faith in Jesus Christ through his atoning death might not be subject to the penalty of sin but live in harmony with God.

Why was it necessary?

For God to be just the penalty for sin must be met, a perfect sacrifice was needed to atone for the sin of humanity that no man could bear or pray the price for.

With this in mind we are able to start assessing this question of whether Jesus death on the cross is an act of cosmic child abuse. First we must deal with the ‘If’ at the start of the statement. The cross is where Jesus takes the punishment of the wrath of God in place of a fallen humanity; there is no other action of any other person existent and no other part of the life of Christ by which atonement may occur. Secondly the use of the word ‘me’, to be clear whilst this question is personal, with its application to self the actuality of the atonement is necessarily greater in that the atonement envelops the sinfulness of the whole of humanity (1 John 2:2). Having dealt with those two ideas in the question we are able to move further in an analysis.

What is atonement?

A further understanding of the atonement would be gained through looking at when and where the bible mentions atonement (taken from the NIV), these together will provide a clearer picture of the atonement as a whole. In the NIV there are 98 direct uses of the word atonement in the Old Testament (OT) and yet only four in the new, the OT context is then likely of importance.

Put the atonement cover on the Ark of the Covenant law in the Most Holy Place – Exodus 26:34

The atonement cover of the Ark of the Covenant is the first use of the word atonement in the bible. The atonement cover refers to the lid of the chest containing the stone tablets on which the ten commandments were inscribed that was contained in the most holy place in God’s sanctuary in the centre of his people. The atonement cover had two cherubim wings outstretched and God’s presence was manifest, in the most holy place, on the atonement cover between them.  If atonement is to be united with God then this would come forth logically from the place where God manifests his presence, thus atonement is the place where God meets his people.

The priest shall then offer the other as a burnt offering in the prescribed way and make atonement for them for the sin they have committed, and they will be forgiven. – Leviticus 5:10

Sacrifices of atonement were common in Levitical law; the priests are to sacrifice animals to atone for the various sins of the people in order to bring about forgiveness. Something had to die, blood had to be spilled, symbolic of the cost that was paid for the sin, the penalty incurred. In numbers Aaron has to make atonement to appease the wrath of the lord.

The sacrifice of atonement culminates in a yearly ‘day of atonement’ in which the high priest makes atonement for the sins of all God’s chosen people.

Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat – Leviticus 16:6-10

On this day the high priest is to wear his sacred garments and sacrifice first a bull for his own household, sprinkling its blood on the atonement cover of the ark. Then there are two goats, note that when the lords goat is the one that is slaughtered as a sacrifice and the sin is transferred to the second goat which is sent away. Through this, symbolically, the sin of God’s people is taken away and his punishment is taken, quite specifically by the lord himself, it is his goat that is slaughtered.

So what insight are we given from these views? We take from the OT that it is necessary that something has to be sacrificed for sin, thus it has a cost, or a penalty that must be paid. It is necessary for that sacrifice to be made for the whole of God’s people to bring about forgiveness for the sin of all of them. We also see that on the day of atonement it is God’s own sacrifice that is given the penalty, he himself who takes the sacrifice.

So what of the four verses from the New Testament? Well two refer respectively to the day of atonement (Acts 27:9) and to the atonement cover (Hebrews 9:5), the others then are here quoted:

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – Romans 3:25

For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people – Hebrews 2:17

What we see in Christ is the fulfilment of what was a symbolic act in the OT. We see Christ as the sacrifice of atonement, by whose blood forgiveness is bought (propitiated) and by whose death sin would be cast away (expiated). And that it would be God himself, coming in Christ, made in every way human who could be the great high priest, worthy to make the sacrifice once and for all for the sins of God’s people. This forgiveness that is bought is to be received by faith, by God’s chosen people. Using this information we can finally answer the question.

A bad response

Child abuse is defined as the physical or emotional maltreatment of a young person. This is important as at the age at which Christ went to the cross he was in his early thirties, he would be regarded as in control of his mental faculties and of an age at which he could make informed decisions. Thus Jesus made the choice in his own free will to go to the cross and received the punishment we deserved thus diffusing the wrath of God against humanity.

Why is this a bad response? Whilst not wrong its entirety it falls down for two reasons, first that if a person is choosing to be abused, even of their own free will that still merits abuse; but even without that this answer very much sees Jesus as a third party in the propitiation of our sins and very much misses the reality of the triune God. To extract Jesus from the trinity and make him separate would be to either remove his deity, or class ourselves as polytheists; under which accusations of ‘cosmic child abuse’ would be nigh on impossible to refute.

A good response

The God of Christianity needs to be understood in no uncertain terms as a triune God were God to send his own son to the cross as a being fully separate to himself then abuse could be mandated. However is the Lord of heaven himself comes to earth himself in humility as man and through his death, takes himself the penalty that his people deserve then not only does any idea of abuse very quickly disappear but  we are given the most incredible picture of grace the world has ever or will ever see. That God not only bears our just punishment thus propitiating us but also removes our sins and purifying us but that he does so out of Love for his chosen people – beyond any comparison.

By this God was able to both maintain his righteousness by showing perfect justice but also show his love in incredible mercy and grace to his people. We are loved and held close by a father who desires our good and is not only powerful enough but also loving enough to carry that out. What other hope do a sinful people have? we simply can’t self-propitiate, nor could we stand before God without his intervention to justify us through Christ. This view doesn’t allow for any idea of ‘cosmic child abuse’ but instead leads us to praise the name of the one who brought us life by the death of Christ on the cross.

Our right response

Oh that the atonement may ever occupy the highest place in our theology and in our hearts that we could not help but praise in the words of Robert Lowry:

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can for sin atone,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

Naught of good that I have done,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

My response to the first Relay study  question – How does knowing God is three in one make a difference to your Christian life?

Coming into this study I didn’t know what to expect; would it be something new? Would it be something I had heard before? Would it even be interesting? Consider it not pessimism on my part but a lack of expectation. Understand therefore that what I have looked at in the past 3 weeks studies and seen in my own daily bible studies has been wonderfully and surprisingly joyful.

I am a scientist, as much as I would like to forget that fact sometimes, it remains true. One of the left over effects of my study is the need to find logical conclusions and patterns to what I see in the world, this is inherently useful and an analytical mind is generally useful in life.  The unfortunate temptation I find in myself then is to switch off this part of my brain when I come to my faith, as if I subconsciously perpetuate a sacred secular divide internally whilst externally looking to bring my faith to bare in all areas of my life, this would of course include science. So why this temptation to come to theology, to my own faith, with a lack of logical analysis? Musing on this I came to the realisation of how affected by the world I am even in my own thinking. The world would like to believe that Christianity is illogical and irrational, that the concept of God makes no reasonable sense and therefore can be dismissed outright. Whilst of course disagreeing with the latter statements my tendency would be to live out my faith as if this was in fact true. Though I had my theology I would always keep it with a closed hand in case someone who didn’t believe would point out the obvious flaw in my thinking.

Where then is the remedy for me? Well stark blindingly obvious as it is it took me a time to realise, theology can of course be both rational and reasonable. Some things that are difficult are not impossible but merely complex, and complex is by no means illogical, a fact I have learned well from my previous degree in physiology. What I find in studying the trinity then is a deeply logical union of three persons in one being allowing the attributes of each member of the trinity then to exist logically in relation to each other. To illustrate this I will look at some of the attributes of God that interested me most when studying the trinity and analyse why these truths matter to my picture of God.

God eternally loves. This concept only makes sense when we have a God in three persons. How could God eternally love if his love had no object? No wonder people dismiss Christianity offhand when they believe that we have a God who is sits on a cloud, alone and angry, they see God as judge and without love. There can be no real love without the relationship between the father, son and spirit in the trinity. The constant outpouring of love from the father to the son that flowed out into all creation is a love that is far above human love, and this is a love that can be eternal, if the father spirit and son have always existed then eternal love is possible. Without the trinity there can be no eternal love as before creation there is no object for God’s love and therefore no love, and that, would make God a liar.

Communication between God and man. I am human, how can I convey anything to God? How can I communicate with the almighty creator of the universe? By means that are not my own, by that almighty God giving me a part of himself to communicate with him, by his spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit, something often overlooked in day to day normal Christianity in favour of making it something that imparts publically demonstrable and exclusive gifts like speaking in tongues or prophecy, that which Christians often covet above the more regular expressions of the spirit. In my mind this seems to cheapen the work of the spirit, how quickly we forget the daily work of the spirit in our prayer and understanding. The spirit is the one by which the father reveals himself to us, by him we can understand scripture, by him we can experience Christ. By the spirit we can communicate with our father God in prayer, the spirit enables us to bring our concerns before God when we can’t even articulate them ourselves.  Not only is this true but God desires that we communicate with him, he knows our hearts the spirit intercedes with him on our behalf.

Romans 8:26-27 – In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

God is hardly unaware of our weakness, he knows we need him, and desires that we come to him for our good. When we don’t even know what the pray the spirit ‘the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express’, I can barely express how important and wonderful that truth is to me.

Unity in diversity. What hope does a fractured, eclectic and dysfunctional church have of ever joining together in community? The fact that we worship God who is a unity of diversity. I love the work of UCCF and the vision of the CU’s joining together Christians from a wide variety of backgrounds and traditions and coming together to worship and support each other in mission. It gives me hope for the future of the church that CU’s exist. If generations grow together understanding the need for unity and what we unite around (the truths of the gospel) then there is a future potential for a more united rather than divided church. Why this need for unity though? Many reasons, a message not short of examples in the scriptures, especially when an understanding of the body of Christ comes in, but I also think that the trinity itself gives us an idea of what unity is like. The 3 members of the trinity are distinct, performing different roles and being specific persons and however are yet completely unified. Each member of the church and each local church as part of the church worldwide contains a huge diversity, but all are called to unity. How could so many people over such an expanse of distance and years have any unity? By worshiping a God who calls us together to show love to the world, to love as a family as the trinity itself does.

Having spent the majority of last four years in a Scottish Free church I have learned some scripture by the singing of the psalms in church. Like the unimpressed child at Christmas who asks for toys then gets given a lovingly knitted jumper I was initially dismissive and unimpressed but over time began to appreciate the incredible gift I was being given. I love singing psalms; it is like bathing your soul in truth. My favourite by far would be psalm 103 from sing psalms most of which I have now remembered by heart, here is a small part that really affects me:

As far as east is from the west, so far his love has borne away,

our many sins and trespasses, and all the guilt that on us lay.

Just as a father loves his child, so God loves those who fear his name.

For he remembers we are dust, and well he knows our feeble frame.

God knows his creation through and through, we are weak children, but he knows that, and he loves us, he knows us better than we know ourselves. he wants us to turn to him as a loving father wants his children to turn to him  for their own good and growth, this depth of loving relationship is only possible when the father has a son, and not only does our eternally loving father have the eternal son Jesus Christ but he adopts us into his family. So does having a three in one God make a difference to my Christian life? How could it not, how glorious a love that is given to us! Praise the lord.

I meant prolonged…

 

So, for anybody who has chosen to keep up with this blog at all, about a month ago I said I would take a brief break from posting for dissertation and coursework. This I have done, however, sadly this must continue for just a while longer. I love writing and posting here, but A) it takes time that I should be using to do revision and B) my mind has barely anything but anatomy and physiology in it at the moment. That’s how it should be, indeed ‘There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens’ (Ecclesiastes 3:1), currently it is time for exams. So on to a further cessation, I shall return properly after may 6th, in the mean time here’s a wee thought from the psalms; God bless St. Peters for teaching me them!

 

Psalm 103:12-14 – Sing psalms (to the tune of ‘before the throne’)

As far as east is from the west,

So far his love bas borne away

Our many sins and trespasses

And all the guilt that on us lay.

Just as a father loves his child,

So God loves those who fear his name.

For he remembers we are dust,

And well he knows our feeble frame.

 

I have come to really love and hold dear the psalms we sing at St. Peters. It is an incredible gift to be able to remember bible passages at the best of times, but some of the words of the psalms that we sing stick in my head better than most others. Psalm 103 is a joy to sing and is powerful in its message to us, I often find myself singing those verses above to myself as the promise they give is incredible. I think that this passage is best understood in reverse, follow me if you will.

God created us, ‘he remembers we are dust‘, he knows how he created us, down to each atom of our being, he knows us intimately, better than any human could ever know us. He knows our entire biology, every atom, cell, tissue and organ. He also know our souls, he knows our troubles, our temptations our hopes, fears, joys and failings. He knows our ‘feeble frame‘, he is in full understanding of our weakness, how easily broken we are, physically and spiritually. So what? He knows we are weak, where does that get us? Surely if we are weak he doesn’t care, if he cared he would make us strong?

God has made us what we are, he knows us completely, in every sense of knowing, I’m sure this extends to many ways we ourselves don’t understand. And with this knowledge, he still loves us. An incredible truth, that God can love us, even though we are broken, indeed no matter how broken we are. ‘Just as a father loves his child, so God loves those who fear his name‘, A child is weak, a father knows that, but that doesn’t make a single bit of difference to his love for that child, the father teaches the child to live, teaches it and disciplines it to make it grow, because he loves the child. And we are told that God loves us like this, he wants us to grow, to learn and to live our best lives to honour him. We need to acknowledge God in all we do, if we have some understanding of who God is then of course we will fear his name, the one who loves us completely and is our father also created the whole universe, and even with knowledge of the whole universe he still knows you intimately enough to know the number of hairs on your head, that is a God we should know, that is a god we should honour, not a god of limited power but a god of unlimited love.

How does he love us? what form has this love taken that we sould know it? That he chose to create us at all, out of his love and power came all creation. He made things good for us even though we would use them badly. And when we mess up? Make mistakes? Sin? He takes all these away from us, taking the punishemnt as well. When we fear his name, enough to want rid of our sin and give it up to him asking for forgiveness he takes our sin, trespasses and guilt ‘as far as east is from the west’. ‘So far his love has borne away’; his love is the reason these things are taken from us, the reason we can live a life free of guilt, free from our mistakes, free from punishment that we deserve for our actions. And that, is mercy and grace that we can never fully comprehend, taking our actions against him, the punishment for those actions and taking it from us. We offer our stained and broken lives and he makes us new, all through the sacrifice of his own son Jesus Christ. What an incredible position we have, being called children of god, this should fuel every action, every day of our lives. It is our assured and incredible hope. What a love, what a cost, we stand forgiven at the cross.

 

No person, animal, flower, or even pebble, has ever been loved too much—i.e. more than every one of God’s works deserves. – C.S. Lewis