Neither legalism nor laziness: working out responsibility in Christian leadership

It's very difficult to manage responsibility effectively in Christian leadership. Often it seems that Christian leaders are burdened, tired and even joyless. CU leadership is no different. Here are three case studies:

Chloe is frustrating her small group co-leader, Harry. She was apparently at first very enthusiastic about leading the group. However, as time has gone on, Chloe’s productivity has declined. She appears less committed to leading studies, constantly asking Harry to stand in for her, and she’s reluctant to take on any extra responsibilities.

Joshua is very passionate about evangelism and Bible study and was delighted when he was asked to be a CU leader. He’s not very bothered about his course and regularly skips lectures to be involved in CU activities. Nor does he work very hard at his essays – after all, he reasons, God is more bothered by eternal fruit than by activities that don’t have eternal importance. Joshua is a talented sportsman but chooses to sacrifice his place in the university team for the sake of being able to encourage his Christian brothers and sisters.

Ollie has a reputation amongst most of the CU for being something of a hero who has a real desire to serve others. He seems to always be the first to volunteer for anything. As evangelism secretary, Ollie has pioneered a number of new initiatives which have gone well. However, underneath the surface, things are not well. Ollie feels exhausted and finds himself constantly telling others how busy and tired he is. He’s not prayed on his own in weeks, and has slipped behind with university work. Nor is Ollie eating or sleeping well. If he was honest with himself (which he normally isn’t) Ollie measures his worth through his accomplishments in CU.

Ultimately, all of these students need to believe and trust the promises of the gospel and in the character of God in their situations:

• CU leaders can look lazy for a number of reasons - Chloe may actually be lazy (in which case she needs to discern those things that really are God-given responsibilities), although often seemingly lazy people feel over-burdened by concerns that are not truly responsibilities (therefore leading to perfectionism and procrastination). If the latter were true, Chloe needs to know that God's strength is made perfect in weakness, and let the Spirit do what only he can.
• Joshua tends towards super-spirituality, with a low view of what it means for Jesus to be his Creator - and therefore has a compartmentalised view of worship. He may look spiritual, but in fact he is with-holding certain parts of his life as areas dedicated to the Lord.
  
• Ollie is a legalist. He is probably using his CU accomplishments as a way of making and keeping himself acceptable to God (and other Christians). He needs to rediscover the truths of God's grace: that Jesus is our perfect righteousness and that we need no other. He needs to stop trying to be what he is not, admit what he is - and then realise that he does not need to prove himself to either God or others.
  

Joel and the gift of the Spirit

I'm studying through Joel at the moment with the Relay Workers. It's been a real treat. This week we arrived at God's restoration of blessings following the repentance of the people in chapter 2.

Verses 18-27 are beautiful. I was particularly struck by the phrase, 'I will repay the years the locusts have eaten' - what grace! The people deserved the covenant curse that they had received, but not only is the LORD happy to restore them to parity upon repentance, but then repays them for that curse! A marvellous reminder that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.

But it was verses 28-32 that particularly struck me afresh. They're the famous verses that are quoted by Peter at Pentecost, explaining the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. In Joel these verses are tied to the section of blessing for God's people. It appears to me that there are two blessings here:

• Firstly, that the Holy Spirit himself will be poured out generously on all of 'Israel' - that is, that all God's people will have the same Spirit that caused Joel to speak out and write his prophecy. In some ways, all of God's people will be 'Joels', having a far more intimate relationship with the LORD than before;
• But - and here was what was new for me - the second blessing is that the gift of the Holy Spirit is tied to the deliverance of Jerusalem and Zion. The LORD promises that the gift of the Spirit will be closely linked to the day of the LORD - a time of judgement and deliverance. In fact, the pouring out of the Spirit is a sign that judgement against God's enemies is coming - and with this judgement comes a final deliverance of those that call on the name of the LORD.

This second point is, of course, stated propositionally in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit is a deposit, an engagement ring, a foretaste. It's sometimes difficult to see God's final judgement in positive terms, but that is how it is stated in Joel. At last we will know the full extent of the relationship for which we have been saved. At last our bodies will be redeemed. Sometimes that seems like a far-off illusion. But the gift of the Holy Spirit proves it to be a reality.

Knowing Jesus and 'knowing' Jesus

I had the pleasure yesterday of spending an hour or two with a Lancaster student who has grown into a close friend. As we were approaching the end of a stretching two-week period of Gospel distribution and mission, we chatted about what God had been teaching us personally.

One of the things that my friend said was that he'd appreciated for the first time what it felt like to be a jar of clay, what it felt like to know one's weaknesses and not to rely on oneself. He went on to say how he'd intellectually understood this before (he said he thought he understood the passages and he certainly knew the cliches) but now he now understood what it meant to be a jar of clay in experience too. There was a real feeling that, over the past fortnight, my friend's life had changed. Grace was no longer just a word for him, it had become a reality.

How common an experience this is! I think of my own life and see that this has happened so many times: that theological truths that I might have been able to agree with, assent to and even explain only later become realities that I experienced and knew all the more deeply.

I was reminded of Philippians 3:10-11 where Paul speaks of a 'knowing' that cuts much more deeply than mere intellect: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead."

Real life ministry

Closing in on Day 8 of a 10-day mission at Lancaster University, many of us involved are now beginning to feel a bit weary. Like any CU mission there have been real frustrations and some sadness, but also a whole load of encouragements and joys.

A particular joy today was spending time with Christian students from the English Literature department who put on an evangelistic event dedicated to Biblical motifs in secular literature. I then asked as part of this event to present an overview of the Biblical story to help the students see how these themes work themselves out in Scripture. There were about 20 of us there, nearly half were not Christian. Some fascinating stories and really interesting questions. A great event organised by students who are convinced of the gospel's truth and reality, and who are growing in discerning common grace in literature. I'll try and upload my talk if I get a chance.

It's tempting during a mission week to begin to resent the sacrifices that one has to make. It was really helpful, then, for my own godliness and perspective to study Philippians 1:12-28 with the Cumbria cell leaders this afternoon. It was great chatting about how Paul's view of the gospel isn't that of a religious maniac but of someone who just sees the gospel as it really is. I've blogged about how amazing I consider this passage before, and so I'm now praying that I'll see my time now to serve others with Christ-centred and Christ-empowered ministry and death as gain.

Joys and sorrows, feeling out of one's depth, relying on God's grace to keep persevering: it is real life ministry after all.

The penny-dropping moment

One of the CU Guests up this week, and a friend of mine, Rachel Earnshaw, writes about the penny-dropping moment experience she had on mission at Lancaster this week.

She writes about a late-night conversation with a Muslim:

But the amazing thing I went away from this conversation with, as well as an encouragement for both me and the guy I was with that we could explain the Gospel (which when you aren't constantly coming into contact with people who ask such blatent questions, doubt can creep in...) was this overwhelming thankfulness and joy that what I said was true and it applied for me! I am such a classic rule setter, and the type that beats myself up every time I fall into the same sinful things I struggle with time and time again... and yet just as I told the guy we spoke to, I am saved from that! I was practically dancing as I walked back, both out of excitement that God could use someone as unwilling and uncooperative and broken and bumbly as me, and also that this amazing message, that seems too good to be true sometimes when you say it out loud, IS true and IS applied to me!

Read the post in full here.

A better covenant (Hebrews 8)

I arrived at Hebrews 8 today in supervision time with the Relay Workers. It's another chapter that shows the folly of legalism when compared with the utter supremacy of Jesus' sacrifice and all that it guarantees.

Covenants are legal agreements between two parties, and covenants between God and humans feature significantly in Scripture. Some of the covenants that God makes with humans are unilateral - in other words, they can't be broken by humans. This includes the covenant that God makes with Abram where he promises to give a land and descendants to him.

Other covenants have an element of performance built into them. The most significant of these is the covenant that God makes with the nation of Israel at Sinai. Although the heart of this covenant is faith, covenant blessings and covenant curses are given to Israel dependent on the extent to which they humbly submit to the LORD as their God (see Deuteronomy 28 and 30).

The sad story of the Old Testament is that Israel - themselves, remember, a mirror of humanity - failed to keep the covenant. Indeed, they ended up in exile because of this. And so Jeremiah (31:31-34) foresaw a new covenant - like the Sinai covenant, one that brought the possibility of blessing - but that was unilateral. Indeed, the very things that caused Israel to abandon their blessings - their lack of desire to keep the law, and the way that this showed itself in sin - are those things that are addressed in the new covenant: the law will be internalised, and sin will be forgotten forever.

The writer to the Hebrews was writing to a group of Jewish Christians who felt under pressure to abandon Christianity, keep making the Levitical sacrifices and return to Judaism. Perhaps they considered it necessary to keep making these sacrifices so that they would experience covenantal blessings. But Hebrews 8 shows that vast supremacy of the new covenant: what people hoped for through performance in the old covenant, Jesus has guaranteed through his sacrifice, resurrection and the giving of the Spirit. Christ's sacrifice for us and righteousness imputed to us guarantees our blessing forever (and so led Paul to write Ephesians 1:3).

As we reflected on Hebrews 8 earlier, we spoke of how the human heart causes us to want to write another covenant with God (where our blessing is based on legalism and performance). How ridiculous when Christ has guaranteed our blessings forever! How much better to glory in what has already been won and given to us!

Our priest forever (Hebrews 7)

The Hebrew Christians were under extreme pressure to recant their faith in Jesus Christ. Christianity was, at this time, viewed by at least some within orthodox Judaism as a sect. Faith in Jesus seemed to ride roughshod over the Old Testament, didn't it? After all, what of the Levitical priesthood and sacrifices?

Hebrews 7 is the beginning of an answer to this objection.

1. There is a model of priesthood in the Old Testament other than the Levitical model
The writer's first part of an answer points his readers to Genesis 14 and the enigmatic passage about the priest-king Melchizedek. After a military victory, Abram tithes and gives away 10% of his plunder to Melchizedek. Unlike many other OT characters, nothing is said about Melchizedek's origins or what happened afterward. But the fact that even the great patriarch Abram tithed to a priest 'external' to Israel shows that priesthood can operate outside of the Levitical system. Significantly, this priesthood pre-dates the institution of the Levitical model.

2. A priest-king in the order of Melchizedek was prophesied after the institution of the Levitical model
The writer then points his readers to Psalm 110. This was written by David, when the Levitical priesthood had already been established for several hundred years. David prophesies an all-conquering king (who seems to be divine), who himself will be a priest in the order of Melchizedek.

3. God has sworn under oath that this new king will be a priest forever
In the third stage of his argument, the writer points to the language of oath in Psalm 110: 'The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind...'. In other words, the priesthood of the Messianic king will last forever. Presumably this means that his priesthood will be utterly effective.

Jesus, of course, applied Psalm 110 to himself (Mark 12:35-37). And so, although he was not from the tribe of Levi, he was a priest: the promised priest in the order of Melchizedek. Unlike the Levitical priests, he has risen, never again to die. And, therefore, he is able to save completely those who trust him: he sacrificed for sins (past, present and future) once for all when he offered himself.

In 21st Century Britain, we might not feel tempted to return to the Levitical sacrifices. However, we can sometimes wonder (explicitly or implicitly) whether Jesus really is enough. Such questioning can lead to ugly legalism. Hebrews 7 confidently announces the complete sufficiency of Jesus' priesthood and sacrifice. His resurrection declares it. The oath of God promises it (it's not as if God will announce at judgement that he's changed the rules of how we can get right with him). I can rest complete assured in Jesus, my priest forever who won't let me down.

Amazing grace in one life

Whilst tidying up, I recently stumbled across a letter written by a friend of mine, John from Colombia, at the end of the week in August 2005 when he'd first started professing as a Christian. Some readers will know that the circumstances through which John became a Christian whilst learning English in Bournemouth were miraculous.

My heart brims with thankfulness to God each time I read this letter for the grace he's shown (and continues to show) John. I've reproduced the letter uncorrected:

Hi dear Peter, I have been thinking about all this experience and this travel, that I am going to take, and I know that it won't be easy, but I will be a soldier and my God (our God) is going to walk behind of me; he won't leave me alone.

I want to share with all the people in your church, and also I want to learn more of the Bible.

In this letter is wrote my deal, my compromise that I have with God, to be by him side and to become his friend.

Thank to much to teach me about beautiful and fantastic things about Jesus and the thing and to remember me that life can be better.

I take the oath about my faith in God.

John

Two ways to miss out on the kingdom

Jesus' parable of the great banquet (Luke 14:15-24) - representing the kingdom of God - shows that there are two ways of missing out.

The first way - the emphasis of the parable - is through having wrong priorities. People give poor excuses for why they can't attend the banquet. All of these excuses underline that, in fact, they just consider other things to be of greater importance. So often people's rejection of Jesus and his invitation into the kingdom comes not through investigation or because they've come to the conclusion there isn't really a banquet. Instead, they have wrong priorities... which lead them missing out on the greatest banquet of all time, hosting by the God they were created to be in relationship with.

Perhaps the second way is hinted at in verse 23. 'Unworthy' people have to be compelled to come into the banquet - they consider themselves not good enough for the banquet. They don't realise that their invitation is not based upon their performance, but upon the goodness of the host.

How can we best speak of the kingdom to these two groups of people?

"Love the sinner, hate the sin"

The old Christian adage goes that we're to 'love the sinner but hate the sin'. Recently I've been reading the excellent book Walking with Gay Friends which has helped me see how difficult this sometimes is.

I've found the book immensely helpful not just in terms of thinking about best loving and engaging homosexual people with the gospel, but also in helping me to reflect on how I must welcome those people who are believers but who are working through issues of lifestyle.

In one section, author Alex Tylee writes a very powerful (and true) case study. In it, a Christian has a gay friend. However, their friendship has stalled. In the name of 'loving the sinner but hating the sin', the Christian has ended up hating elements of her friend's character. She had began to think that the 'sin' was her friend herself, because her sexuality seemed to permeate every aspect of her life. Her friend had begun to think that the friendship was conditional.

Here's a quote from the book:

'I had to ask Karen [the Christian] whether there was any truth in what Louise [the non-Christian] was saying. Was it in fact true that Karen loved only the 'ideal' Louise, with her sexuality removed? If this really was the case, then there was something wrong. When we witness to our straight non-Christian friends, do we honestly believe that we will really be their friends only once they are 'saved and sorted'? I hope not! I hope that they are our friends and we would love them even if they were never saved, though it breaks our hearts to think of it. There is a delicate balance here. God loves us as we are; yet it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for the ungodly. Yet his love always tells us the truth and will not leave us as we are, no matter how hard it is to change. He loves us too for what we will be, when he has finished working on us and we are perfect in Christ, totally conformed to the image of Jesus. That is our ultimate destiny and our completed identity.'

I find this a very helpful passage. Not only has it drawn me to repentance in terms of how I have sometimes been guilty of treating my gay friends, but I have also been made to realise that there are others people with major 'lifestyle issues' that I've been guilty of not loving. There's one friend in particular who is very promiscuous, and I now realise I've at times ended up hating him rather than just hating his sin. And this (worryingly) shows that sometimes I've lost sight of God's grace, and been dangerously close to becoming a Pharisee.

God help me.

Lessons from Judges, Part 3

Been doing some more work on Judges as I prepare the small group leaders' notes for Lancaster University Christian Union.

Most recently, I've been doing work on Judges 3:5-31 which gives an account of the first three judges Othniel, Ehud and Shamgar. Tim Chester's recent post very helpfully shows the cyclical nature of proceedings in Judges: a downward spiral of idolatry and disobedience that is punctuated by God's gracious actions on behalf of his people through the judges he raises.

However, what struck me today is the nature of the judges themselves. Othniel is often help up as the 'typical' judge; he embodies all of the things that we'd want a judge to have: of good stock, inspired by the Spirit, and so on. Yet the truth is that Othniel must have been pretty old by the time he led Israel to victory in war. Chapter 1 speaks of how Othniel was Caleb's nephew. He was probably a pensioner by the time he became judge and defeated the Cushanites.

Ehud is more better known as being a less than orthodox judge. He couldn't use his right hand. It may well have been withered. Yet it is that very disability and a bizarre set of circumstances that God uses to deliver his people.

Shamgar is perhaps the most elusive of all of the judges. Compared to the chapters that other judges receive in recording their exploits, Shamgar receives just one sentence. Yet the commentaries tell me that even Shamgar was a surprising judge. His name is Canaanite. It seems that God used a very recent convert to deliver him. And that he did with what he had: an ox-goad.

And so there we have it: a pensioner, someone that is disabled and a recent convert from paganism are those that God uses. I think Paul would have called them 'jars of clay' - ordinary people, nothing special to look at. But this, of course, is how the God of grace chooses to work; he uses ordinary and weak people and resources them to do his work, showing that his all-surpassing power is from himself and not from us.

What a relief! I may be an Othniel or an Ehud or a Shamgar: I may be physically weak, I may be the butt of jokes, I may not be as wise as others. But I can be confident that the God of grace will use me nonetheless.

The ridiculousness of snubbing grace

I'm still 'coming back down' from being at the awesome New Word Alive conference in Pwllheli. We had a great time. This post isn't going to be a review - for that I suggest you check out Adrian Warnock's blog or posts like this one that reflect on the place of the conference in the future of evangelical Christianity in Britain.

What instead I want to write about is a reflection that I had on site during the week, following Terry Virgo's excellent talk on the opening night. Terry expounded verses from Romans 5 and Romans 7. He reminded us of how the law is like a demanding marital spouse that never lifts a finger to help us. What's more, the law is always right and will never go away! But good news, of course, is that we have died to the law and now have a new 'marital relationship' with Christ. We were also reminded of how we cannot be saved by the law, and how the law cannot change us either. Grace is how we are saved, and grace is how we are changed. Grace is absolutely central.

The following day I reflected on how far we often drift away from this message. I know it from my own life - as so often I fall into legalism, as so often I trust in rules to change me, and as so often I am completely unbothered by my sin. And as I chatted with old friends, I was reminded by how hard it is for Christians to stay committed to grace. One friend in a church situation where they preach salvation by grace but practice grace by law. Another friend spoke of the condemnation she feels at the hands of the judgemental Christians around her. The message of grace is, in so many ways, so simple - and it is so good and so liberating - and yet we drift from it so quickly; as individuals, as organisations, as churches.

I think that this is perhaps the epitome of sin. We are told that God has done everything to cancel the penalty of sin. We are told that he alone as expert surgeon can free us from the power of sin in our lives through Word and Spirit. He is everything we need - and he alone can give it. And so as I walked through the site at Pwllheli I was struck again by how sad and how pathetic it is that we turn back to ourselves and our own efforts to save and to sanctify ourselves - something that we can never hope to acheive by ourselves, snubbing the God who can.

Christians: judgemental hypocrites - why listen?

Text of a talk I'm giving today at Lancaster University. Any thoughts most welcome.

In a speech in 2006, Tony Blair called on the West not to give up on its moral responsibilities to the subjugated peoples of the world at Georgetown University in Washington. He received a distinctly frosty reception. One of the journalists that was reporting the speech in The Independent, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, described that Tony Blair’s speech ‘was an idealist message immediately contaminated by the messenger.’ She went on: ‘His words sounded fraudulent, because he had lied over Iraq and was in contempt of the UN.’ And I guess that, whatever our view of the intervention in Iraq and its aftermath, we know what Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is describing. Blair’s speech was an idealistic message contaminated by the messenger and the broader context of the decisions that he had made. When we hear such speeches, we get cynical. We stop listening. And not only do we get cynical about the messenger, but also the message itself.

And I think that this is the kind of issue that today’s lunch-bar addresses with regard to Christianity. So often the mates I have seem to think that Christians say one thing and do precisely another. The East Enders character Dot Cotton is a good case in point. So often she’s keen to quote Scripture at others, so often she denounces the sin of others and casts judgement on others, yet seems oblivious to her own moral shortcomings – particularly her gossipy nature and craving to be at the centre of all news about others dirty washing (figuratively I mean in this case, and not just the dirty washing at the laundrette!). And so although Christians speak about things like truth and about living with authenticity and integrity, it seems like these things don’t even match up in their own lives. It seems that they are just being spiritual equivalents of Tony Blair’s Georgetown speech. I recently heard it put like this: ‘If Christianity is about a transforming relationship with God, why are Christians so hypocritical?’

When asked what one question about the Christian faith he finds most difficult to answer, a Christian friend of mine answered, “If Christ transforms us why do we see so little evidence of this in some of his followers?” And in saying this, he wasn’t saying that there aren’t many wonderful individual Christians and communities of Christians out there. Rather that a widespread objection to the Christian faith is the quality of life displayed by many Christians.

I remember hearing of a famous British Christian leader in the late 1990s, who had been held in high esteem in a well-attended church. Yet for many years he’d been having extra-marital affairs and eventually left his family. The devastation felt by his wife and children at this senseless betrayal was made all the more awful by the pain and disappointment felt by the many hundreds of members of the thriving church he had led. Naturally, the newspaper headlines followed, screaming ‘hypocrite’, and I guess many critics were reassured in the opinion that Christianity was impotent and empty, a useless religion for a bygone age, demanding moral standards which even its leaders were unable to live up to.

See, what this example shows is that the charge that Christians are hypocrites assumes one of two things: firstly, that a Christian has no right to judge another for their behaviour when they are themselves morally flawed; or secondly, that an encounter with Christ should morally transform a flawed person, but that this simply doesn’t seem to happen. Either way, it shows that the Christian worldview should be rejected.

I guess it’s also worth saying that people bring this objection for a number of reasons. For some this issue is simply an excuse to hide behind. If I can prove the statement “Christians are hypocrites”, then I don’t have to take the claims of Christ or the evidence for the truthfulness of Christianity seriously. For others, this question is personal and real. The victims of sexual abuse at the hands of a priest, the congregation of a pastor who turned out to have his hands in the coffers, or those who’ve rubbed shoulders with self righteous and selfish churchgoers all paint a similar picture of disappointment with Christians causing them to close their hearts to Christ.

There may even be people here that have been hurt by Christians. Perhaps even coming to a lunch-bar like this is hard because of the bad memories. For that, I can only say sorry.
Jesus himself had a lot to say about hypocrisy, and particularly about religious hypocrisy.

Matthew 23 records one of the most devastating parts of Jesus’ teaching. Here Jesus addresses some of the religious people of his day. At one point he says to these religious hypocrites, “Everything that you do is done for others to see.” And Jesus particularly singles out the flowing religious robes that they sauntered around in; clothing that they wore to imply that they were obedient to God in every other respect. At another point Jesus says this: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” Do you see what Jesus is saying here? The religious people of his day are hypocrites because they are obedient externally, to minute detail, and to the degree where they feel that they can pass judgement on others – yet internally, in the heart, where it matters, they are utterly corrupt and unchanged. So Jesus makes it very clear that he is completely against any form of religion – including any form of Christianity – founded upon hypocrisy where religious activity is not based upon integrity. If you resonate with wanting to distance yourself from religious hypocrisy for any reason, then you resonate with Christ.

However, I think I’d also want to say that people often charge Christians with religious hypocrisy because they have fundamentally misunderstood what it means to be Christian.

As Christians, we should be the first to admit that we haven’t got it all together. When, as Christians, we fail to live out our faith, we must recognise that this is a serious matter. However, I’d want to argue that this should not discourage those looking into Christianity from looking first and foremost at Christ himself. In other words, I may not be the best example of a Christian but please don’t let that stop you from seeing Christ for yourself. Gandhi once said, “I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” It’s a grave charge, but the admission that even the followers of Jesus don’t match up to his example points to the very heart of the Christian faith. A person is not a Christian because they are good, but a Christian is a person that has received forgiveness and grace from God in Christ and are being transformed by knowing him.

Many of you will know that the central part of the Christian message is the death of Christ. According to the Bible, Jesus’ death wasn’t a horrific mistake where events span out of control, but the very reason why he came. As God in human form, and as the only one who genuinely and legitimately could pass judgement on others, being morally perfect, Jesus willingly went to the cross and took the punishment we deserve for ruling out God and hurting ourselves and others in the process.

At one point, Jesus described his message like this, “For even I, the Son of Man, did not come to be served but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many.” In other words, Jesus came for imperfect people. On another occasion, Jesus said this: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Put differently, Jesus’ only criterion for accepting a person as his follower is the admission that they are not righteous; that they have not lived up to God’s standards, and that they need to be forgiven. The Christian message is a message of grace: that we are accepted not on the basis on what we’ve done, but on the basis of what Jesus has done, through which we receive something for nothing when we don’t deserve anything. And so, it should not be surprising to us that Christians are not perfect since the heart of Jesus’ message is our very need for forgiveness.

Let me say, for me, this is one of the most beautiful things about the Christian gospel; that we can come to Jesus in all of our ugliness and impurity and brokenness, just as we are. Many people think that being a Christian means being a good person who tries hard and considers themselves morally superior, but in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Some people think: there’s no way I could be a Christian, not now, not after what I’ve done. But, can you see, at the heart of Christianity is the offer of forgiveness? We only have to recognise our own moral bankruptcy and our need for this forgiveness in order to access it.

And let me say, this doesn’t only happen at the beginning of a relationship with God. The continuing journey of faith involves a constant process of confessing our sins to God. 1 John 1:8,9 says this: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

This ongoing reliance on Jesus’ death for our forgiveness means several things. Firstly, it means that Christians cannot be judgemental of others. Sometimes, when Christians tell other people that they need to be forgiven by God, we are heard to be saying that, “You need to be forgiven by God because you are a bad person, much worse than me.” I hope now that when I tell you that you are sinful, that you have rebelled against God, that you realise I am not making a character judgement on you. I am not saying that you are a particularly evil person. I am not saying that you are worse than me. I am saying that, like me, you need to be forgiven for having rebelled against God and broken his standards.

Additionally, if Christianity is at its centre the offer of forgiveness by Jesus, then it should not be surprising that broken people take this up and during the ongoing process of transformation by Jesus hardly shine as examples of “good” people. God’s transformation of a person takes time as he cleans them up from the inside. It’s this cleaning up that, slowly and over time, shows itself in outside transformation of behaviour and attitude. And so perhaps a helpful question to ask might be this: What would the individual in question’s life have been like without their faith in Christ? If they are not yet an amazing saint, has their life changed direction since encountering Christ?

A few years ago, I had the privilege of seeing a guy called Matt come to faith as a Christian and place his trust in Jesus for his forgiveness. Matt had come from an extremely sad background. He’d lived very promiscuously, treated women awfully in his life, been a local drug dealer and had lots of other problems. Yet he came to Christ as he was. Now, if you’d met Matt a few months into being a Christian, you’d probably have still been quite shocked by him. His old habits died hard. His language, particularly, was still rough. His addictions took a while to overcome, and led to occasional outbursts of violent behaviour. Now, if all Christians were judged on the basis on meeting someone like Matt, who professed to be a Christian, then you might write Christianity off as violent and hypocritical. But as the work of God in Matt’s life, cleaning him up from the inside out, was only beginning, the very evident changes in Matt’s life, despite his faults, were major steps of discipleship for him. He genuinely was forgiven all this time, because he had recognised his need for forgiveness, but his relationship with Christ was only starting to bear fruit in his life. Now Matt has become a passionate followers of Jesus Christ.

Now, the Bible says that if becoming a Christian has made no difference at all then we must question the genuineness of the individual’s faith. The Bible certainly says this: “The man who says, “I know him” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word God’s love is truly made complete in him” (1 John 2:4). As we’ve seen, Jesus was very harsh about people claiming to be religious whose hearts and lives didn’t match up to their outward projections and he certainly taught that not everyone who claimed to be his follower actually was.

When you see a Christian who appears to be a hypocrite, who is causing you to reject the gospel because of their life there are a number of possibilities. The first is that they have come into a relationship with God but are only at the beginning of the process of transformation. Changes are happening but the brokenness is still all too evident. The second is that the person is a Christian who has been following Jesus and experiencing his life transforming power on the journey but then has a spectacular slip up. They have let a lot of people down, including themselves. This happens in the Bible and does not completely nullify the individual if they come to repentance and seek restoration. A man called David committed adultery and even murder in the Old Testament. Peter denied Jesus in the New Testament. Both of them suffered serious consequences, but were able to be forgiven and restored.

A third possibility is that the person is not a true follower of Jesus at all and that their actions, attitudes, desires and words reveal what is in their heart. They consistently live in a way which is contrary to Jesus’ teaching and there is no evidence whatsoever of his work in their life. And just as you wouldn’t reject sex as a good thing because it can sometimes be used in an evil manner in rape, so a misuse of Christianity can’t be used to reject Christianity.

And so, as I close, and before we take some questions, let me finish with a challenge: will you come clean? That’s what Christians are, people who have come clean about themselves and their need for forgiveness. I remember an elderly Christian who was once asked, “Isn’t the church full of evil people?” And he replied, “No, there’s still plenty of room for you.” Will you admit your need for forgiveness and come to Christ for forgiveness and transformation?

The heart of God through the Christmas message

At this time of year, as I reflect on the Christmas message, I love taking a mental step back and thinking about what the incarnation reveals about the heart of God.

One of my favourite hymns, I think, captures this excellently. Verses 1 and 2 capture the depths of humility and grace that the incarnation reveals, pre-shadowing the further humiliation and kindness that Jesus would ultimately show in going to the cross.

I commend thinking deeply about these lyrics:

1. Astounding grace, that God the Son should choose
to leave the Father's glory and refuse
to clutch his dignity, exploit his right
and make himself a no-one in our sight.

All praise Christ and his astounding grace,
all praise his name.

2. The word made flesh, the Son of God a man,
the timeless one clothed in a mortal span.
Now born of dust, and in a manger laid:
transcendent God in human likeness made.

3. Astounding grace, that we should enter in;
he tore the veil, and cast away our sin;
he saw our hate, our dark and desperate lust;
he bore our guilt, and then declared us just.

4. Astounding grace, that Christ should suffer death,
and know first-hand the grave's corrupting breath,
the Prince of life, creation's gracious Lord:
he paid the price that we could not afford.

Words: D.A. Carson
Music: Steve James & Philip Percival

If you've never listened to it, let me also commend Mike Cain's sermon on Philippians 2:5-11 to you this Christmas.

Calvin on 1 Timothy 1:15

I'm preparing a series of small group Bible studies on 1 Timothy for next term. Found this gem of a quote from Calvin on 1 Timothy 1:15, which is perhaps particularly appropriate to reflect on at Christmastime:

"Even those who recognize that Christ's work is to save admit that it is more difficult to believe that this salvation belongs to sinners. Our mind is always prone to dwell on our own worthiness and, as soon as our unworthiness becomes apparent, our confidence fails. Thus the more a man feels the burden of his sins, he ought with greater courage to betake himself to Christ, relying on what is here taught, that he came to bring salvation not to the righteous but to sinners."

An update

Recent busyness has meant that I've not really had time to write much on this page, and so great thanks go to Gareth - both for coming up to visit and partner in the ministry, but also for his entry.

There have been plenty of highlights from the last couple of weeks. Gareth described many of them below. I've found it particularly encouraging to be around the folks from the University of Cumbria CU in Lancaster. It was great to be on their houseparty this weekend just gone. Alex and Julie Kittow opened up the book of Jonah and pitched their material brilliantly. It was awesome again to reflect on the God of grace who welcomes and forgives people just because he is the sort of God who loves to welcome and forgive. Praise God for Jesus and his amazing grace!

I've also been so encouraging by reading CJ Mahaney's Living The Cross Centered Life and JC Ryle's Christian Leaders of the 18th Century. Both are books that exult Jesus and his work on the cross, and also practically show what it means to live in the light of God's grace and his amazing gospel.

The coming weeks are exciting. This coming weekend, I'm heading down south to speak at Bournemouth CU's weekend away. Together we'll be opening Acts 1-8 as we prepare for the upcoming mission in Bournemouth, which I'm also speaking at. There's also a real treat in store on Thursday in Lancaster, as former UVF terrorist Billy McCurrie will be speaking at a lunchbar on the title Why Jesus forgives terrorists like me. Over the next couple of weeks, the evangelistic Bitesize Bible study courses draw to an end - it's been exciting to see how so many have wanted to look into Jesus' life and claims. Hopefully some will choose to follow Jesus for the first time.

As I prepared my Acts talks, I was reminded from Acts 1:1-2 that Jesus is alive and active in the world. Sure, he began to do and teach things climaxing in his death and resurrection, and now he is continuing to change people's lives through the Holy Spirit. It's a real privilege to see the Lord of the Universe at work.

Gospel vs. religion

I was rooting through some paperwork from the last couple of months and found some seminar notes from Forum. In the seminar, led by Tim Rudge and Alison Williams, we were helped to contrast 'religion' with living in the light of the gospel of grace. I found it really helpful and so I thought share it here.

Religion	Gospel
I obey therefore I am accepted	I'm accepted therefore I obey
Motivation is based on fear and insecurity	Motivation is based on grateful joy
When circumstances in my life go wrong I am angry at God or myself since I believe that anyone who is good deserves a comfortable life	When circumstances in my life go wrong I struggle, but I know my punishment fell on Jesus and while he may allow this for my training, he will exercise his fatherly love in my trial
When I am criticised I am furious or devastated because it is critical that I think of myself as a 'good person'. Threats to that self-image must be destroyed at all costs	When I am criticised I struggle, but it is not critical for me to think of myself as a good person. My identity is not built on record or performance but on God's love and Christ's performance for me. I can take criticism - that's how I became a Christian
My prayer consists largely of petition; it heats up when I am in time of need. My main purpose in prayer is to control my environment	My prayer life consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration. I enjoy fellowship with him
My self-view swings between two poles. If and when I am living up to my standards, I feel confident. Then I am prone to be proud and unsympathetic towards failing people. If and when I am not living up to those standards, I feel like a failure and am full of self pity	My self-view is not based on a view of myself as a moral achiever. In Christ I am 'saved yet sinning still' - simultaneously sinful yet accepted in Christ. I am so bad he had to die for me, but I am so loved he was glad to die for me. This leads me to deeper humility and confidence at the same time. I am neither swaggering nor snivelling
My identity and worth is based on how successful I am, how hard I work, being right etc. This leads me to disdain those who appear weaker than me, or need to be accepted by those who perform better than I do	My identity and worth are based on the one who died for his enemies, who was excluded from the city for me. I am saved by grace alone. So I cannot look down on those who believe or pracrice something different from me. Only by grace I am what I am. I don't have to win any arguments
Since I look to my own pedigree and performance for my acceptibality, my heart manufactures idols. It may be my talents, my moral record, my personal discipline, my social status etc. I absolutely have to have them, so they serve as my main hope, meaning, happiness, security and significance, whatever I might say about what I believe about God	I have many good things in my life - family, work, spiritual disciplines, etc. But none of these things are ultimate things for me. None of them are things I absolutely have to have, so there is a limit to how much anxiety, bitterness and despondency they can inflict on me when they are threatened or lost

Evangelists' conference audio now online

Last week I attended the Northern Evangelists' Conference in Leyland. The audio of the plenary sessions from the conference, given by Tim Keller, are now online here. It's well worth downloading.

I was particularly struck by one point that Dr. Keller made in his final talk. This was that a necessary thing for real church growth is a radical grasp of grace. It's grace which converts nominal Christians and 'wakes up' sleepy Christians to the fact that we're accepted by God through no merit of our own in any way. When a church starts to realise this, then 'religious' unbelievers are challenged with the truth of the gospel, and then those who falsely think that Christianity is just a series of rules begin to realise nature of the true gospel of grace.

Since the conference took place, I've unexpectedly had the opportunity to meet and study the Scriptures with a couple of lads who are both churched and both 'religious'. Yet it's already become evident that neither of them have grasped the essence of Christianity. They are trying to be Christianity but have no spiritual life (something I wrote about a few weeks ago here). I'm excited and prayerful that these young men might come to know the reality of grace in their lives, and that in turn this might impact the lives of others too as they see the difference it makes.

Not the God of merit

Sometimes you get the impression that God is trying to say something when it feels like every day you are hearing the same thing. That's something I've felt over the last few days.

I've been so fortunate to have spent the last few days thinking about, writing about and speaking about the God of grace, who does not treat us as our sins deserve through the cross of Jesus.

On Monday, I was writing a talk to give on Tuesday at Lancaster CU on the prodigal son and his older brother. The big point: grace cannot be earned, but is freely given.

On Tuesday, the UCCF North West team (of which I am a part) had an incredible overview of the whole of Mark's Gospel by Justin Mote. I was struck again by Mark's point in chapters 8-10: where we cannot help ourselves, the God of grace has intervened.

On Wednesday, I met up with several students who wanted to talk further about God's grace, following the prodigal son and older brother talk from the night before. And I had the joy of studying Colossians 1:15-23 with cell leaders at the University of Cumbria campus in Lancaster. Again, the big point: Christ has done it all, and by trusting in him you have everything.

Then yesterday, I was privileged to have attended the Northern Evangelists' Conference in Leyland, where Tim Keller expertly showed how it is the gospel of grace that changes the hearts of both moralists and relativists. In the evening, it was great to engage with God's word from John 3, where Jesus tells Nicodemus that he can be part of the Kingdom of God only through a miracle of God's grace.

I think this week has shown me how prone I am to what Tim Keller calls 'older-brotherishness', the trap of obeying God for something more than just the relationship this represents. It's been so liberating to have been confronted and buffeted by the message of grace from all sides. It's been so amazing to remember that the God of the Universe is not the God of merit or the God of karma, but the God of grace who is drawing a people together to be his very own. He is the God who does not treat us as our sins deserve.

I was struck by the words of this simple song as I drove back from Preston:

Holy God in love became
Perfect man to bear my blame.
On the cross, he took my sin
By his death, I live again

Some reflections on Forum

So Forum 2007, entitled Transmission, has been and gone. 800 Christian Union leaders gathered at the Quinta for a week of praising God together, teaching, praying and looking ahead to the new academic year.

I think it was a wonderful time, and it might even have been my favourite of the Forum gatherings I've so far had the privilege of attending. Here are a few thoughts that I've had since I've been back:

Brother Andrew was incredibly inspiring. I'd re-read his book God's Smuggler whilst on holiday, and he was even more rousing in person, as he shared stories of sharing the gospel in the Islamic world, including with the Taliban. I guess I wouldn't completely sit happily with his theology of guidance, but I came away from his sessions realising how much more prayerful I need to be, and excited by the doors that might open if I was more reliant on God in prayer in this way.

Linked to this was a strong emphasis on world mission in this year's conference. UCCF has been at its strongest historically when world mission has been a key influence in all that we do. Brother Andrew and Lindsay Brown both spoke passionately about the gospel to the nations, but this concern for God's glory around the world came out in many other sessions too.

The teaching from Romans by Hugh Palmer felt really fresh. I'd never heard Hugh Palmer preach before, but he brings remarkable clarity in his teaching. His talk on Romans 8:12-17 was a particular personal highlight. Although I don't really feel like I'm suffering very much at the moment, I know that I have no need to fear. Our present suffering is not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed.

I was struck time and again last week of how wonderful it is to be a part of UCCF. In particular, I was reminded of how awesome it is to be surrounded by people that love to speak about God's grace - fantastic for the soul! A particular way in which this was shown was in the third part of Tim Rudge and Alison Williams' Dig Deeper training track, which looked at sanctification (being made more holy) in the light of our justification (having been declared righteous). It's brilliant being around people who are so passionate about standing firm in grace in all of the Christian life.

Finally, it was great to see a real commitment to being inter-denominational. I felt that this year's incarnation of Forum was perhaps consciously more inter-denominational than others in previous years. It is wonderful to see students from across the evangelical spectrum uniting together to make Jesus famous - long may it continue.

Talks from Forum 2007 will soon appear on the UCCF website - very worthwhile downloading if you get a chance.