Christianity and Liberalism

J. Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism is one of the most important books of the last century.  It is still extremely relevant for today when many believe that doctrine is irrelevant or unimportant.  Machen makes the biblical and historical case for the relevance and importance of doctrine.  He argues persuasively that doctrine matters because the gospel is doctrine.   When you lose doctrine, you’re in danger of losing the gospel.

Machen himself wrote elsewhere about the book:

In my little book, Christianity and Liberalism, 1923, I tried to show that the issue in the Church of the present day is not between two varieties of the same religion, but, at bottom, between two essentially different types of thought and life. There is much interlocking of the branches, but the two tendencies, Modernism and supernaturalism, or (otherwise designated) non-doctrinal religion and historic Christianity, spring from different roots. In particular, I tried to show that Christianity is not a “life,” as distinguished from a doctrine, and not a life that has doctrine as its changing symbolic expression, but that–exactly the other way around–it is a life founded on a doctrine. (From “Christianity in Conflict,” an autobiographical essay on Machen’s life and works).

The book is still available for buying, but because it is public domain you can also read it online here.

(Reposted from Yinkahdinay, 11.10.06)

True or False?

“God will not deny his grace to those who do what lies within them.”

True or false?

This was a popular medieval saying.  Its modern equivalent is “God helps those who help themselves.”  At a 1996 Christian Booksellers Association Convention, 54% of those surveyed agreed with the medieval formulation.  Other surveys have shown that Christians often believe “God helps those who help themselves” to be a quote from the Bible.  It is not — in this form it comes from Benjamin Franklin.  It is not from the Bible, nor is it true.

Martin Luther had this to say in the Heidelberg Disputation:

Thesis 16:  The person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him adds sin to sin so that he becomes doubly guilty.

On the basis of what has been said, the following is clear:  While a person is doing what is in him, he sins and seeks himself in everything.  But if he should suppose that through sin he would become worthy of or prepared for grace, he would add haughty arrogance to his sin and not believe that sin is sin and evil is evil, which is an exceedingly great sin.  As Jeremiah 2 says, ‘For my people have committed two evils:  they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water,’ that is, through sin they are far from me and yet they presume to do good by their own ability.

Now you ask, ‘What then shall we do?  Shall we go our way with indifference because we can do nothing but sin?’  I would reply, By no means.  But, having heard this, fall down and pray for grace and place your hope in Christ in whom is our salvation, life, and resurrection.  For this reason we are so instructed — for this reason the law makes us aware of sin so that, having recognized our sin, we may seek and receive grace.  Thus God ‘gives grace to the humble’ and ‘whoever humbles himself will be exalted.’  The law humbles, grace exalts.  The law effects fear and wrath, grace effects hope and mercy.  ‘Through the law comes knowledge of sin,’ through knowledge of sin, however, comes humility, and through humility grace is acquired.  Thus an action which is alien to God’s nature results in a deed belonging to his very nature:  he makes a person a sinner so that he may make him righteous.

(Reposted from Yinkahdinay, 10.30.06)

Our Faith is Not a “Fix”

I have found Michael Horton’s Too Good to be True [now published as A Place for Weakness] to be an enormous source of encouragement.  If you or someone you know is struggling with some kind of tragedy, I can highly recommend this book.  It’s very pastoral and above all, scriptural — which is to say, it points to Christ.  In this excerpt, Horton again mentions his friend Steve who took his own life:

Christianity is not true because it works.  In many cases, it does not work.  That is to say, it does not solve all the problems we think it should solve.  It isn’t a technique for our personal therapy, but the truth that God has overcome sin and death in the cross and resurrection of Christ.  Those who became Christians because they were told that it would fix their marriages, only to find themselves in divorce court, might well give up on Christianity.  Those who expected to be free of all their sinful habits, temptations and desires after a conversion in which sudden victory was promised may find themselves disillusioned with God altogether, when they realize they are still sinners saved by grace.

At that difficult funeral of a pastor, friend, father, and brother in Christ who had ended his life of suffering, many people were wondering out loud, ‘If Christianity didn’t work for someone like Steve, how can it work for me?’  It is an honest question, an understandable question.  But it assumes that Christianity fixes everything.  It doesn’t fix everything, not at least here and now.  It does promise that everything will be fixed at the end of history, but in this wilderness experience, we are on pilgrimage to the Holy City.  Some pilgrims will find the journey much more difficult than remaining back in Egypt, in unbelief.  Steve was not one of those pilgrims who turned back to Egypt.  Others will bear their lot in life as best they can, and Steve and his wife were towers of strength to me in my own pilgrimage, as I watched them meet successive disasters by turning again and again to God and his gracious promise.

But Steve was a pilgrim for whom the hike to that eternal city eventually became so heavy that he looked for a shortcut.  With his godly wife, he was ‘longing for a better country’ (Hebrews 11:16), but was unwilling to wait.  He did not accept God’s timing — and yet he still found a mediator who interceded for him at the Father’s right hand.  He, with us, will receive the prize for which he hoped, even in weakness.

Well said, Mike.  Well said.   And there’s far more like that in this book.

(Reposted from Yinkahdinay, 09.27.06)

Luther on the Lord’s Prayer

“To this day I suckle at the Lord’s Prayer like a child, and as an old man eat and drink from it and never get my fill. It is the very best prayer, even better than the psalter, which is so very dear to me. It is surely evident that a real master composed and taught it.  What a great pity that the prayer of such a master is prattled and chattered so irreverently all over the world! How many pray the Lord’s Prayer several thousand times in the course of a year, and if they were to keep on doing so for a thousand years they would not have tasted nor prayed one iota, one dot, of it! In a word, the Lord’s Prayer is the greatest martyr on earth (as are the name and word of God). Everybody tortures and abuses it; few take comfort and joy in its proper use.”

From A Simple Way to Pray

(Reposted from Yinkahdinay, 09.14.06)

Jesus Reveals the Fatherly Heart of God (Luke 15:11-32)

In our text for this morning we encounter a dysfunctional family.  This parable vividly displays the messiness of a world vandalized by sin.  At the same time, it also points us to the gracious God who provides a way out and a way forward.

It’s probably the most well-known parable.  You probably know it as the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  Contrary to what many think,“prodigal” does not mean “lost.”  Rather it means extravagant or wasteful.  Then it’s the parable of the son who blew his inheritance on wasteful living.  Recently, Presbyterian pastor and author Tim Keller came out with a book on this parable and he called it the Parable of the Prodigal God.  It’s a parable about a God who extravagantly lavishes his children with blessings.  In our NIV Bibles, it’s called the Parable of the Lost Son.  There’s something of worth in all these different titles.  But all of them miss the fact that there is more than one lost son in this parable.  And we also need to account for the fact that this parable is also here to teach us something about God.  There’s something here about us, about the two brothers, but the most important element in this parable is the father.

Please click here to continue reading this sermon.