A study in Contrasts: The Old Adam and the New Adam

This is a helpful study based on Dr. Akin's "The Person of Christ" in his Theology for the The Church, page 499.

Philippians 2:5-11 presents Christ as the ultimate humble servant who did not strive to exalt himself but instead gave himself up for all of us, for God's glory and our salvation

Consider the work and attitude of Adam in Genesis 1-3: Adam was made in the divine image and was persuaded by the serpent's twisting of God's Word to grasp divinity as a prize. He spurned a life as God's servant and sought to be in the likeness of God. He, being found in fashion of a man from the dust, exalted himself. He reached up to a tree, taking what was not his, and became disobedient unto death. Therefore, Adam was condemned and disgraced and brought judgment on humanity.

Now, consider the work and attitude of Christ: Jesus was and is the very essence of God, the 2nd person of the Trinity but did not grasp after equality with God, having spurned and resisting the serpent's twisting of God's Word. He made himself of no repute and took on the form of slave, being made in the likeness of man. Being in the fashion of man, he humbled himself onto a tree, giving up all he had, and became obedient unto death. Therefore, Jesus Christ was highly exalted by God, given the position of Lord, and brought a way of salvation to humanity.

Thinking About the Incarnation

Just in time for Christmas Eve, I want to pull together a few resources on how we might better think about the mystery of the Incarnation in the face of a society that has over-sentimentalized and commercialized the season where we celebrate the greatest miracle in the universe: God the Creator becoming a man, our Redeemer. Those in Invert youth Sunday School will recognize some of these as the basis of my talking points for our lesson on the Incarnation.

First up, Russel Moore's blog post about the "holly jollyness" of much of our Christmas music and how it betrays the stark reality of God's purposes in Christmas. We should be careful not to overstate the point - I think it is absolutely appropriate to celebrate holidays with lots of festive cheer, and I love listening to Christmas music on repeat all of December (just ask my wife!).

In a time of obvious tragedy, the unbearable lightness of Christmas seems absurd to the watching world. But, even in the best of times, we all know that we live in a groaning universe, a world of divorce courts and cancer cells and concentration camps. Just as we sing with joy about the coming of the Promised One, we ought also to sing with groaning that he is not back yet (Rom. 8:23), sometimes with groanings too deep for lyrics.
http://www.russellmoore.com/2012/12/18/crucify-your-holly-jolly-christmas/

Next, the historical-theological masterpiece of Athanasius, On the Incarnation. Athanasius, who battled Arius over the deity of Christ at a pivotal stage in church history, can wax a little philosophical in his writings, but I think students of most ages can get through at least a chapter or two and benefit a lot from his reflections. The whole thing can be read in a few hours. Just reading C.S. Lewis' introduction to this translation is worth the time to click through:

 His epitaph is Athanasius contra mundum, "Athanasius against the world." We are proud that our own country has more than once stood against the world. Athanasius did the same. He stood for the Trinitarian doctrine, "whole and undefiled," when it looked as if all the civilised world was slipping back from Christianity into the religion of Arius—into one of those "sensible" synthetic religions which are so strongly recommended today and which, then as now, included among their devotees many highly cultivated clergymen. It is his glory that he did not move with the times; it is his reward that he now remains when those times, as all times do, have moved away.
http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/ath-inc.htm

It's a little late to really dive into and savor a good Advent devotional, but this one by John Piper is certainly good enough to read at any time and any pace (you could read the whole thing in the next 2 days and finish while the rest of your family is napping on Christmas evening!). http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/books/good-news-of-great-joy

Finally, a couple contemporary Christmas songs that melodically make the point that Christmas is much more than decorations and singing carols, both from my favorite Canadian Christian band, downhere. The first is "Christmas in Our Hearts."

The second is perhaps my favorite Christmas song written in the last 100 years, "How Many Kings."

I hope you enjoy this Christmas and take time to reflect on how Christ came into this world not just to give us a squishy feeling, but that all of God's eternal and divine purposes came together in this event: God became Man.

The Persistence of God in Making His Name Great in All Nations

Deuteronomy 4:27-31
    And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice. For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them.

Jeremiah 24:5-7
    Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

Ezekiel 36:20-27
    But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.
    “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Acts 1:8
    But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

1 Thessalonians 1:6-8
    And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything.

2 Corinthians 2:12-3:3
    When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.
    But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.
    Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

 Isn't it comforting to know the great desire of God to put his Spirit into people from all nations in order to make his name great, a desire that persists through suffering, through exile, through the darkest disobedience of his own people who forsake him, through the ignorance and fear of Christ's most intimate disciples... The plan of God is clear and unfailing! So what are we waiting for? He will bring us to the nations with or without our approval. 

Matthew 28:18-20
    And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus Christ - Everything we got and Everything we'll get

One of the great realities of life is that basically everything that culture desires or esteems is completely backward to what God requires and reveals in Christianity. Confessing and following Christ means that we no longer seek the world's wisdom, we no longer try to become prominent or popular or powerful in the eyes of society. By ourselves, because of our wretchedness, our sinful desires, all we are is ignorant, impure, immoral, and imprisoned. What is our reason to boast in anything we have done on our own? Instead, we know that it is in Jesus we find everything.
 
There is a great verse in the Bible that reminds us of the all-encompassing nature of who Jesus is and what he means for us. Here is Matthew Henry on 1 Corinthians 1:30:

He is made of God to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (v. 30): all we need, or can desire.

We are foolishness, ignorant and blind in the things of God, with all our boasted knowledge; and he is made wisdom to us. We are guilty, obnoxious to justice; and he is made righteousness, our great atonement and sacrifice. We are depraved and corrupt; and he is made sanctification, the spring of our spiritual life; from him, the head, it is communicated to all the members of his mystical body by his Holy Spirit. We are in bonds, and he is made redemption to us, our Saviour and deliverer.

Observe, Where Christ is made righteousness to any soul, he is also made sanctification. He never discharges from the guilt of sin, without delivering from the power of it; and he is made righteousness and sanctification, that he may in the end be made complete redemption, may free the soul from the very being of sin, and loose the body from the bonds of the grave: and what is designed in all is that all flesh may glory in the Lord

Memorizing Galatians in under 6 Months

There are many resources available to help us treasure up God's Word. Paul exhorts the church to let "the Word of Christ dwell in you richly," or as my pastor puts it, 'stockpile' Scripture so we may further study it, share it, and sing it in worship and thankfulness to God (Colossians 3:16). Just today, John Piper linked to a blog post here that details some practical tips on how to memorize Scripture, along with this helpful encouragement:

The reason memorizing Scripture is important is that remembering God's word during the day is a matter of defeat or victory.
— John Piper (@JohnPiper) June 30, 2012

One of the more creative and practical ways that has come out was the Memory Moleskine by Timmy Brister. A couple years ago he wrote about how he divided the book of Ephesians into several weeks' worth of memorization, printed out the text and glued it into a moleskine so he could add his own journaling notes. Last year it became a group effort when Brister and The Resurgence put out a more polished PDF of Philippians that broke up the book into 4 months (January 1 to Easter Sunday) so that everyone on the internet with a moleskine could "partner together" to learn and meditate on the togetherness-servanthood of the church in light of Christ's sacrifice.

We've reached the halfway point of 2012 and if you're like me then you have long ago disappointed yourself with your New Year's reading/memorizing goals. Take heart, because by the end of 2012 you can memorize all of Galatians and become enamored with the Gospel. I put together my own homemade PDF you can download here:

Memorize Galatians in 24 Weeks


You should be able to print the document out and fit the columns into a medium-sized Moleskine (check out the Philippians link above for details on how to put it together). The last few pages are the same tips that The Resurgence provided, summarizing Andy Davis' popular extended memorization plan. If you just want the schedule, then here is what you can memorize each week to get all the way through (Remember, review is the key, every day! But there are extra weeks for catch-up and review):

(Week 1) Galatians 1:1-10
(Week 2) Galatians 1:11-20 
(Week 3) Galatians 1:21-2:5
(Week 4) Galatians 2:6-14
(Week 5) Galatians 2:15-21 
(Week 6) Galatians 3:1-9
(Week 7) Galatians 3:10-16 
(Week 8) Galatians 3:17-23 
(Week 9) Galatians 3:24-29
(Week 10) – Review 1-9
(Week 11) Galatians 4:1-7
(Week 12) Galatians 4:8-14
(Week 13) Galatians 4:15-20
(Week 14) Galatians 4:21-27
(Week 15) Galatians 4:28-5:3 
(Week 16) Galatians 5:4-12
(Week 17) Galatians 5:13-21
(Week 18) Galatians 5:22-26
(Week 19) Galatians 6:1-6
(Week 20) Galatians 6:7-12
(Week 21) Galatians 6:13-18
(Week 22) – Review weeks 11-21
(Week 23) – Recite weeks 1-22
(Week 24) – Meditate, Pray, and Rejoice!

If you look at the length of the text or the number of verses per week, you can tell I slightly front-loaded the work - if you start today, half the book will be done by Labor Day. This was intentional for three reasons. I assume most of us have a slightly less busy life in the summer and can spend a little more time on Scripture Memory. Also, when I start a new project most of my good energy comes at the front so I will want to memorize more earlier. Finally, it's easier to memorize more early because there is less to review.

I included a black title page if you wanted to put something on the front of your journal. Brister had a catchy title for the Philippians work, "Partnering to Remember," that matched both the intent of the memory project and a major theme of the letter. I tried thinking of a similar catchy title for memorizing Galatians but came up blank - "Gospeling Galatians," "Grounding in Faith,"... Nothing really fits. What do you think?

Where Cross the Crowded Ways of Life: The Work of Christ in the City

One night near the end of our time in New York (yes it is true, I came back home), the team sat around at our guest housing and got out some of our 'authentic' market-bought djembes and sang songs in a very touching time of worship. Since we all came from different churches and musical backgrounds, we made use of some old hymnals in the building (it was Baptist guest housing, after all) to get on the same page with lyrics and melody. After several rounds of familiar hymns, one of the guys flipped open to a song that was a poignant reminder of the pain and challenges of living in the city, and also an encouragement of the many graces that Christ provides in such an environment. As the world becomes more urban, more crowded, more tense, it seems the gospel of Christ has the ability to ring out even more clearly to those broken souls who long for a Savior.

Where cross the crowded ways of life,
Where sound the cries of race and clan
Above the noise of selfish strife,
We hear your voice, O Son of Man.

In haunts of wretchedness and need,
On shadowed thresholds dark with fears,
From paths where hide the lures of greed,
We catch the vision of Your tears.

From tender childhood’s helplessness,
From woman’s grief, man’s burdened toil,
From famished souls, from sorrow’s stress,
Your heart has never known recoil.

The cup of water given for You,
Still holds the freshness of Your grace;
Yet long these multitudes to view
The sweet compassion of Your face.

O Master, from the mountainside
Make haste to heal these hearts of pain;
Among these restless throngs abide;
O tread the city’s streets again.

Till sons of men shall learn Your love
And follow where Your feet have trod,
Till, glorious from Your Heaven above,
Shall come the city of our God!

Unfortunately I could not find one decent vocal recording of this hymn so here is a nice piano rendition. Apparently the common tune can be traced back to Beethoven.

New York: Week Wrap

Our work in Harlem is practically finished. We still have a little bit of packing, cheap sightseeing, and a plane to catch, but conversations that are happening have happened. The work now is in the hands of Chris Clayman and his small team of full time missionary workers and church planters. They have already done much work, in fact some of the people we met, Chris already knows them well and has even visited family members back in actual Africa, wives and children of those unable to visit them while financially stuck in New York's Little Africa. Hopefully our conversations have pushed the people here who have been stuck in a cultural and hardened Islam to consider Chris's constant Gospel testimonies anew and fresh. Definitely keep praying as our team will, that our short relationships with the West Africans will lead to fruitful long friendships for the missionaries and ultimately reconciled relationship with our God and Father.

It would be remiss of me not to make known that the work is great and the workers are few, but New York is always looking for more sowers, tillers, and harvesters. Chris would love to receive a team from any church or ministry group. His website has some more information, including a flyer and short brochure on a doing one year internships with the team. http://ethnycitybook.com/NYC-Missionary-Training-School.php