The Trinity and Humility

I have been given the opportunity to lead a Sunday morning group on the basic doctrines of the Christian faith this semester. Last week I asked my good friend, Justin Kohns, who is in this group to be prepared to discuss how an understanding of the Trinity ought to produce humility in Christians. God blessed Justin with some great content and he has allowed me to share it with you. I hope you enjoy what Justin has to say on this subject as much as I do. 

The Trinity and Humility 

by Justin Kohns

Sometimes studying doctrine can seem disconnected from our personal holiness. The Bible even says that knowledge can “puff up” our minds if it is independent of us growing in love. To be on guard against this, we should always seek to connect what we know with how we live. Our doctrine should shape our thoughts, attitudes and actions. Our “head” must inform and transform our “hands.” This is a brief explanation of how the doctrine of the Trinity can and should produce humility in us.

How does a deeper understanding of the Trinity produce humility in us?

I can answer this question a couple ways.   First, there is a sense of mystery to the doctrine of the Trinity, and our inability to fully grasp it should produce humility in us.  The doctrine of the Trinity transcends reason and logic.   It is hard to fully comprehend or easily explain.   Yet it is true.   So when studying the Trinity we are confronted with a truth that our minds are too small to fully grasp or explain.   We are left with this realization:  ultimate truth is not found at the apex of human thought.  There is truth that is beyond us.   Knowing our limits produces humility.  While we are privileged that God has revealed himself to us, and given us capacities of intellect and reason, we should be reminded that those capabilities are a gift from God (so that no one should boast) and that they are limited.   A study of the Trinity can be a healthy reminder that we don’t fully comprehend all things, which hopefully produces humility.

 

A second truth that we see in the Trinity is this:  God has been eternally fulfilled and he has eternally lived in community.  God lacks nothing yet lives interdependently.  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have been forever united.  We need to realize that truth about God so we realize this about us:  we don’t need each other because we’re sinful.  We need each other because we are human.  It’s in our nature.  Even before sin entered the world, God knew “it is not good for man to be alone.”   The idea of the “independent man” goes against our very nature.   We are designed to live interdependently.  That is the whole basis of marriage, family, church, and nation.   Humility is realizing that God created me to be interdependent rather than independent.  I am neither self-sufficient nor self-fulfilled.  I must humbly pursue to live interdependently.

 

The third, and I think primary, lesson for us is this:  God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are in all ways equal in their divinity, yet they display submissiveness and humility.  They are equally holy and equally powerful.   There is no distinction between them in value, goodness or love.  Yet this is true:

“though he (Jesus) was in the form of God, (he) did not county equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Php. 2: 6-8).

Jesus’ humility has nothing to do with his worth.  Jesus is God!   Yet he humbled himself, taking the form and role of a servant.    True humility is not something that others press into you, and it’s certainly not a feeling of worthlessness within you.  Humility is choosing to honor others ahead of yourself.  Humility is gladly serving and submitting to authority.  And here’s the thing worth wrestling with in your own heart.  Taking the role of a servant does not indicate a lack of significance.   Jesus was submissive to the Father’s will, but he was no less divine.   Role and authority are not the same thing as value and worth.  If the God of the universe exercises authority, and practices submission and humility, we as his family should do the same.

“Therfore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Eph. 5: 1-2)    

Humble yourself, even as Christ humbled himself to the Father, and love others, even as Christ has loved you.

A Cry for Deliverance

Heavenly Father,

Save me entirely from sin.

I know I am righteous through the

righteousness of another,

but I pant and pine for likeness to thyself;

I am thy child and should bear thy image,

Enable me to recognize my death unto sin;

When it tempts me may I be deaf unto its voice.

Deliver me from the invasion as well as

the dominion of sin.

Grant me to walk as Christ walked,

to live in the newness of his life,

the life of love, the life of faith,

the life of holiness.

I abhor my body of death,

its indolence, envy, meanness, pride.

Forgive, and kill these vices,

have mercy on my unbelief,

on my corrupt and wandering heart.

When thy blessings come I begin to idolize them,

and set my affection on some beloved object –

children, friends, wealth, honour;

Cleanse this spiritual adultery and give me chastity;

close my heart to all but thee.

Sin is my greatest curse;

Let thy victory be apparent to my consciousness,

and displayed in my life.

Help me to be always devoted, confident, obedient,

resigned, childlike in my trust of thee,

to love thee with soul, body, mind, strength,

to love my fellow-man as I love myself,

to be saved from unregenerate temper,

hard thoughts, slanderous words, meanness,

unkind manners,

to master my tongue and keep the door

of my lips.

Fill me with grace daily,

that my life be a fountain

of sweet water.

Valley of Vision – A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Learning Evangelism From Jesus

I just finished reading, Learning Evangelism From Jesus by Jerram Barrs. This is an excellent and challenging book on evangelism. This isn’t a book about technique or methods or programs. In it, Barrs examines passages of Scripture  looking at Jesus’ interaction with people to challenge our assumptions, heart, and approach to non-believers. Will you agree with all of his conclusions? Maybe, maybe not, but you will have to wrestle deeply with what it means to be a sinner, redeemed by God who has been blessed to be a blessing in this lost and hurting world. When looking at Jesus’ practice of spending time with the outsiders, tax collectors, etc… and the criticism Jesus received from the Pharisees for spending time with “sinners”, Barrs challenges us with this…

“What God desires from every true Christian believer is mercy for sinners. This, after all, is who God is, someone who delights in showing mercy to sinners. If it were not so, there would be not a single Christian in the world. Even if the friends we have appear to be so sinful that they scandalize some of our fellow believers, we need to be ready to endure criticism and persevere in loving those whom others may consider unlovable. “

I’m I ready to do this? Am I doing it? It got me thinking about the friendships I have or don’t have and why I have and don’t have them. Who would I have trouble being friends with and why? Who, by appearance or lifestyle, do I immediately dismiss the idea of being friends? Why?  What am I affirming or denying about the Gospel by my friendships or lack thereof?

Wondrous Cross

As of late I have been doing a lot of thinking about what type of music I fill my head with.  Does this mean I have given up the relm of secular music, No.  I still love the Allman Bros, Railroad Earth, Country Music, but I will be trimming down some of my selection of the other stuff.  In particular most of what is on the radio today, which leaves much to be desired in regards to wholesome lyrics.  So leaves me looking at new “Christian” music (I use that term loosely) on the market which also leaves much to be desired.  Maybe I’m getting old or maybe it is as bad as I think both lyrically and quality!  Not much compares to the lyrics of Psalms and Hymns to contemporary music IMHO.  Speaking of which there is a group called Page CXVI that is on task to make hymns known and accessible again.  Novel concept huh!?  Make music which deep and rich lyrically known in what appears to be a shallow and wide world.  One of my favorites by them is the remake of When I Survey the Wonderous Cross by Issac Watts.  So much truth.  Enjoy the lyrics by Watts and Page CXVI version to music below.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

To Christ, Who won for sinners grace
By bitter grief and anguish sore,
Be praise from all the ransomed race
Forever and forevermore.

Public Prayer

As of late Carl Trueman has become one of my favorite bloggers to read which is hosted over at Reformation 21.  I found his blog Another Thing We Do Badly yeterday particularly striking.  I have personally been in the presense of some bad prayer and some magificient prayer.  It was convicting and challenging as I get the opportunity to pray publicly somewhat frequently during the adult Sunday School class I lead.

In fact, pulpit prayer should be a vital part of the worship service.  It is at those moments that the pastor has the task of leading the people into the very presence of God.  This is an awe inspiring task, not to be undertaken lightly.  Such leading should be clear, suffused with biblical allusions and shaped by biblical thought patterns.  It should be built on the foundation of a solid grasp of the mediation of Christ and should reflect that in its content.
…
To listen to a lot of public prayer in churches is too often like listening in to a private quiet time — and that is not meant as a compliment.  The erosion of the boundary between public and private and the relentless march of the aesthetics of casualness have taken their toll here.  It seems that unless somebody prays in public precisely as we think they might do in private, we all fear that this might be a form of affectation which prevents the prayer from being `authentic’ — whatever that might mean.  Yet often there are people in the congregation on Sunday who have come from a week of pain, worry and confusion; they may be spiritually shattered; they might barely be able to string two words of a prayer together; and at this moment a good pastor can through a well-thought out and carefully expressed prayer draw their eyes heavenwards, lead them to the throne of grace and give them the words of adoration, confession, thanksgiving and intercession which they cannot find for themselves.

Read the rest here at Reformation 21.

Don’t forget the books that are linked as well to give us a healthy example.

Valley of Vision : A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Pastor in Prayer by Charles Spurgeon

Pray the Bible by Matthew Henry

The Help

Over the Christmas break I watched a movie called, The Help with my wife’s family.  It is a story about life in Mississippi during the Civil Rights era. If focuses on life from the perspective of the black maids who work for southern white families.

While watching it, I was very angered and saddened by how poorly the black women were treated by most of their white employers. They were treated as if they were sub-human. But interestingly what came out to me in the movie, was that the more that the white women acted in a way that denied the Image of God in the black women, the more in-humane (or sub-human) they became. For are we not truly human when we are living in life in restored relationship with God, restored relationship with man, and restored relationship with creation, in accordance with God’s Word.

Another thought I had was what in the world was the Southern Church doing during this period of our history, and even before. The marks of the church are preaching the Word, administering the Sacraments, and the practice of discipline. These marks were severely distorted by the Southern church to allow slavery and behavior as portrayed in the movie to go on unaddressed, and in some cases approved and argued for by the Church. What did this communicate about the work of Christ and the truth of the gospel? If the church had worked to fulfill its calling during this time we might be in a different place today.

If you grew up in the South, as I did, another question I have is this- If I had grown up during that period would I have acted any different? Would I have ignored how Scripture spoke into my culture, my life, my prejudices?

What are the areas of our lives and culture that we are blind towards today? Where does the Gospel  need to speak into our lives? Where are we acting sub-human? Does the reality of Christ’s finished work on behalf of sinners impact how we treat others, how we live our lives today?

The Sovereignty of the Savior

Let me ask you some questions: Do you struggle with anxiety, people pleasing, inordinate anger, lust for influence, or hunger to rule? If so: Do you trust in the King of God’s Kingdom or are you trusting in the knockoff kings of your perceived kingdom? Who or what is the lord of your life? Your heart is giving allegiance to someone or something at all times. Is your allegiance in Messiah, who has come from heaven to earth to reconcile you to God?

In John 3, Jesus is clear in his discussion with Nicodemus; Jesus has authority to speak on the necessity of the New Birth because he is the Sovereign of God’s Kingdom. Jesus has absolute rule and ultimate power. Remember, Jesus is God in flesh. This is all true, but the way Jesus goes about ruling his subjects is counterintuitive to the monarchs of this world. Look at John 3:14-15 to see what I mean: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Now, Jesus is referring to a disturbing story out of the book of Numbers in the 21st chapter. Moses was leading the people in the desert after they were brought out of Egypt. This is when God miraculously redeemed the Israelites out of slavery and they were on the way to the promised land. Although God had provided the Israelites with both drink and food while they journeyed, the grew incredibly discontent and irritable. So much so that they spoke against Moses and God, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”

Whats Up with the Fiery Serpents?

Then the LORD sent the snakes, not just any snakes but “fiery serpents.” Maybe some of you have a different translation, where it describes the snakes as “venomous.” This is true as well, but the literal Hebrew here is “fiery serpents.” What is the big deal? Its not that these snakes where on fire, but they set you on fire when they bit you, in a figurative sense. The symptoms were scorching inflamed swelling around the bite that spread. Also, it wouldn’t be long until the victim would have a raging fever and unquenchable thirst. This all added up to what felt like a consuming fire within and eventually you would die. Some of you are thinking, “all of this because some kids in the cafeteria complained about the lunch at school.” On the surface it might come across as an overreaction, but this was the way God chose to show the Israelites what was ultimately killing them, the poison in their souls: the venom from the Serpent in the Garden of Eden.

When God created everything, it was perfect and good. Humanity was in perfect communion with God where he was their father and they were his children. Their was no need for a new birth, because the first birth was not tainted by any sin. But something terrible happened. The Serpent came into the garden and his venom passed into the souls of humanity and since then we have been born with a consuming fire within our souls of deep discontent and dissatisfaction with God. Thus we live with an unquenchable thirst for something to satisfy us and we never find it because apart from deep communion with God, we will be forever discontent, forever irritable and forever grumbling. This is what was wrong at a soul level with the Israelites and the same goes for us. God sent the fiery serpents so they could understand what was really wrong with them and we can learn about us through this story as well. So what happened next?

What the Bronze Serpent Was, I am

The people realized what they had done and they confessed to Moses they sinned against him and God. They asked Moses to ask God to take away the snakes. But God had a better plan. Instead of just taking away the snakes, he provided a way for all those already infected with the poison to be healed. We see here that God knows that forgiveness is not enough for us, we need to be healed of the damage that sin has caused in our lives. So he told Moses to “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” Really?, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole? Does this sound a little disturbing to you? Make a huge representation of the very thing that was killing them and by looking to it they would be healed, what is going on here? This would have been disturbing to the Israelites as well, the serpent represented evil and the animal was an unclean animal by the standards in Leviticus. But remember, Jesus connected himself to this story by basically saying, “What the bronze serpent was, I am.”

Paul helps us make sense out of the story of Numbers 21 and how Jesus references himself to it. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul writes: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Do you see what is happening here? On the cross Jesus does not become sinful, but he becomes sin. We see on the cross a huge legal representation of what it killing us and if we look to him we will not only be forgiven, but we will be healed as well. We see here that there is a great exchange happening on the cross. Jesus, in our place, on our behalf, takes the poison of sin upon himself so we would not ultimate die of it. Although completely righteous, he takes on the punishment of our evil. Although he is spotless, he absorbs the wrath of the unclean who eventually look to him.

Jesus is the Savior King of the Kingdom of God, So Trust Him

All the Israelites had to do to be healed was look at the bronze serpent. Moses did not say that those who could climb the pole at touch the serpent at the top would be healed. This would leave the weak dying and only the strong would live. Moses didn’t tell the people to do anything but look at the bronze serpent. Jesus’ shifts the word “look” to “believe” and the word “live” to “eternal life.” So what does Jesus mean here? He wants us to realize that all the other oppressive rulers of our hearts, the ones we trust more than him are really a sham. He wants us to realize we have been bitten by the Serpent and there is an evil poison within us that is swelling with fire, raging in fever and creating in our souls an unquenchable thirst for everything but God. And the only remedy, the only medicine that will forgive us and heal us his Jesus. This is repentance. Then he wants us to stop trusting in our doing, and start trusting in what he has done for us. This is faith. Based on the story Jesus alludes to in Numbers 21, this is the essence of what he means by “believe”: repentance and faith. Here is the main point of verses 9-15: Jesus is the Savior King of the Kingdom of God, so trust him.

Yet many of us have been truly born again and yet we still continue to sin and we still feel the effects of the Serpent’s poison. Although God has imparted new spiritual life within us, we live in a fallen world and are still people who sin. Until we await the New Heavens and the New Earth as depicted in Revelation 21, where there will be no sin and God will be with us; how do we deal with the Serpent’s poison in the here and now? The same way. Let me ask you some questions: What are you grumbling about? Why are you so discontent? What is the Egypt of your life that you want to return to as if your life will be better? What oppressive slavery do you find yourself running back to? Your chains are gone, the prison cell is unlocked and yet you willingly walk back in and shut the door behind you? God has provided so much sweet manna for you and you want to turn back on him in your complaining and nagging and never-ending grumbling about your situation. You are exchanging the truth for a lie and it is killing you. The Serpent’s poison has entered your system and your situation is on fire, you are flaming hot and are experiencing an unquenchable thirst. Nothing will cure it, you have tried everything. Jesus is saying, all your unbelief and doing will never heal you. You must admit you are poisoned and you must admit the only cure is Jesus. Look to Jesus and he will heal you and continue to heal you. As you believe the gospel more fully and consistently, God puts to death the sin that is killing you. Obviously, we will not reach perfection in this life, but those who are born again will see the results of repentance and faith, which leads to godliness – not the other way around.  Oh, how we should rest in the Sovereignty of the Savior!

Brilliantly Hopeless

A few weeks ago, Christopher Hitchens, one of the most influential atheists of our day, died of cancer. In 2010, he did an interview, where he discussed how he was processing life and death, in the midst of his cancer. Below is an excerpt.

“One of my occasionally silly thoughts is: I wish I was suffering in a good cause — a cause larger than myself. Or, larger than just the mere survival,” he says. “If you’re in pain and being tortured, and you felt it was helping the liberation of humanity, then you can bear it better, I think. I just feel this is partly random, and partly the sort of cancer that gets people like me at about this age. It’s a part of life. It’s a dress rehearsal for an important episode of life, which is how you wind it up and how you agree to face that — which is something you’re aware of even when you’re in apparently good health.”

On Beliefs

In his writings about his diagnosis, Hitchens has asserted: “To the dumb question, why me? The cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: ‘Why not.’ ” Hitchens concedes that the dumb question “is bound to occur” — but not for long. He says he decided on his beliefs a long time ago, well before he became ill.

“I’m here as a product of process of evolution, which doesn’t make very many exceptions. And which rates life relatively cheaply,” he says. “I mean, most human beings who’ve ever been born would have been dead long before they reached my age. And I would think in most of the rest of the world — well, I know it — is still true. So to be relatively healthy at 62 is to be dealt a pretty good hand by the cosmos, which doesn’t know I’m here — and won’t notice when I’m gone. So that seemed the only properly stoic attitude to take.”

Oh, Mr. Hitchens, how I wish you looked to the personal Triune God and not the impersonal cosmos. How I wish you knew that there was One who’s suffering accomplished much for others, and invites us to participate in a mission much greater than ourselves. How I wish you knew the hope that is found in Jesus. (1 Thess. 4:13-18)

How would you respond to Christopher Hitchens, or others with beliefs like his?

 

A twenty-something generosity story

In this inspiring, creative video story from Flood Church, Tom O’Hara recounts his journey of generosity. The young videographer talks about his step of faith and God’s amazing provision.

via A twenty-something generosity story.

Discipleship fighting for our friends!

Do we fight for our friends sanctification?  I don’t mean the stereotypical accountability groups.  These are defined well in Fight Clubs by the statement, “All too often Christians are either wimps or bullies.  Wimps wuss out of the fight of faith, pathetically following the vain promises of the world.  Bullies beat one another up over petty issues instead of fighting together.  When Christians fight, very few fight in faith for one another.” pg 19

Does this define your view and/or experience with accountability?   Lets not make discipleship and accountability a legalistic checklist of yes’s and no’s and stop there!  Should we act and ask the questions of our Christian duty?  Of course!  But lets not stop there with a pitty party when we fail, lets stick together, address the root issue, and attack it with the forgiveness and power that has been given by accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“Only then will we find something truly worth fighting for…. What will motivate us, and how can we keep the gospel central in our obedience?” pg 22

My charge for you and me is to find others to fight for and with and keep the gospel central in the fight.

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
(Hebrews 3:13 ESV)