This is the question Klinghoffer asks in the introduction to his book, "Why the Jesus Rejected Jesus." His point is to say that it is actually in Christianity's favor that the Jews didn't accept Christ.
He sets up the arguments betweent the Lord's brother, James, and Paul, as recorded in the book of Acts. But he misunderstands what happened. He treats Paul's rejection of the Jews rejecting him and his claim to turn to the Gentiles as though it only happened because the Jews rejected him (like a salesman moving to another location to sell his wares - my metaphor).
"Had the Jews embraced Jesus, therefore, followers of the church of James would have continued to be obligated in the biblical commandments of circumcision, Sabbath, kashrut (eating only kosher food), family purity...and so on. Thus, in every key respect, the Jesus movement might have remained a Jewish sect" - Klinghoffer, p7.
But Klinghoffer misses the point of Galatians and the whole New Covenant under Jesus in this consideration. James, or at least those who considered themselves "of James" were in error. They were in error of what the ceremonial law was pointing to and they were in error of the correct teaching of Paul - and Jesus. If the Jews (as many actually did) had come to Christ, they would have heard the good news of the gospel and within a generation, rituals like circumcision would have been subsumed in the fulfilled work of Jesus Christ, the Messiah who would come and make all things new.
This looks to be a good, irenic, and helpful debate with a Jew who wishes to make his case without the shrill. However, from the start, he is missing the point of the gospel, the shadows of the law and temple, and the fulfilment of Jesus not only to the Jews, but to the whole Adamic race.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
The Gospel and God of Love
(thanks to Peter Leithart and many of these thoughts from his book, "The Four")
The Gospel is the Story of Israel and the Gospel writers tell us the story of Israel rejecting Yahweh. Each time God comes, Israel turns from Him. God comes to Israel in Moses, and is rejected. God comes to Israel through priests and kings and prophets, yet Israel refuses to listen to her LORD. God comes to Israel through Joshua, Solomon, Elisha and Jeremiah, and yet Israel rejects the servants of Yahweh. Even when Yahweh comes in the flesh, in person, as the Son, Israel still rejects him.
That is not good news – but that is not the end of the story. The God of Israel does not stop coming. After His servants have been rejecting Him again and again, He still keeps coming and will not give up coming. Israel’s history is a story of a spurned husband who refuses to give up on His bride. His bride spurns Him and finds other husbands, but He woos her back. He is the relentless pursuing Hound of Heaven.
That is the message of the romantic comedy. Yahweh comes in flesh, and is rejected even to the point of being put to death – a horrible, humiliating death. But the resurrection shows that Israel’s God will not let Israel have the final word. He will not let Israel’s rejection stand. He keeps coming back, even after Israel thinks they have killed Him.
This is great good news, the unsettling gospel of God. This Gospel reveals that God is love, and shows us what kind of love God is: He is relentless, faithful, persistent Love. And this Love has pursued You again. He will not cease to come to you. Regardless of whether you had a good week or a bad week – a week of obedience or a week of failure – He is coming again – to You – in this service of worship. He will have you. He will love you. He will wash you and renew you and speak His covenant faithfulness to you. And He will grant you faith to respond in faith – and you will be renewed. So come and worship this God of Love.
The Gospel is the Story of Israel and the Gospel writers tell us the story of Israel rejecting Yahweh. Each time God comes, Israel turns from Him. God comes to Israel in Moses, and is rejected. God comes to Israel through priests and kings and prophets, yet Israel refuses to listen to her LORD. God comes to Israel through Joshua, Solomon, Elisha and Jeremiah, and yet Israel rejects the servants of Yahweh. Even when Yahweh comes in the flesh, in person, as the Son, Israel still rejects him.
That is not good news – but that is not the end of the story. The God of Israel does not stop coming. After His servants have been rejecting Him again and again, He still keeps coming and will not give up coming. Israel’s history is a story of a spurned husband who refuses to give up on His bride. His bride spurns Him and finds other husbands, but He woos her back. He is the relentless pursuing Hound of Heaven.
That is the message of the romantic comedy. Yahweh comes in flesh, and is rejected even to the point of being put to death – a horrible, humiliating death. But the resurrection shows that Israel’s God will not let Israel have the final word. He will not let Israel’s rejection stand. He keeps coming back, even after Israel thinks they have killed Him.
This is great good news, the unsettling gospel of God. This Gospel reveals that God is love, and shows us what kind of love God is: He is relentless, faithful, persistent Love. And this Love has pursued You again. He will not cease to come to you. Regardless of whether you had a good week or a bad week – a week of obedience or a week of failure – He is coming again – to You – in this service of worship. He will have you. He will love you. He will wash you and renew you and speak His covenant faithfulness to you. And He will grant you faith to respond in faith – and you will be renewed. So come and worship this God of Love.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Even the Wrath of Man Shall Praise Thee
“Even the wrath of man shall praise thee” (Cantus Christi version of Psalm 76:10a), that’s an interesting phrase – what are we singing?
Matthew Henry tells us that these are words of comfort to the believer, He writes, We live in a very angry provoking world; we often feel much, and are apt to fear more, from the wrath of man, which seems boundless. But this is verse is a great comfort to us, for as far as God permits the wrath of man to break forth at any time he will make it turn to his praise, will bring honour to himself and serve his own purposes by it: Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, not only by the checks given to it, when it shall be forced to confess its own impotency, but even by the liberty given to it for a time. The hardships which God’s people suffer by the wrath of their enemies are made to redound to the glory of God and his grace; and the more the heathen rage and plot against the Lord and his anointed the more will God be praised for setting his King upon his holy hill of Zion in spite of them, Ps. 2:1, 6…
He continues - Men must never permit sin, because they cannot check it when they will; but God can. He can set bounds to the wrath of man, as he does to the raging sea. Hitherto it shall come and no further; here shall its proud waves be stayed. God restrained the remainder of Sennacherib’s rage, for he put a hook in his nose and a bridle in his jaws (Isa. 37:29).
We live in a world full of sin, full of terror and terrible events. But even this wrath of man shall praise God and so we gather to sing His praise. We often do not know how such vile events and catastrophes will turn out for good – what we do know because we are promised is that they will.
We must believe this and worship accordingly – and we must worship that we might believe this at ever deepening levels. God is God and that means He is God over this sorry world – controlling the affairs of every nation and every household. More wonderful, God knows every storm, every trial, every test in your life right this minute – and He has a hook in its nose – it will go no further than where He says, “stay – here – and no further” And then, He will manifest His praise in and through it as He vindicates you, relieves you, renews with you, and even when He raises you up at the last day.
Matthew Henry tells us that these are words of comfort to the believer, He writes, We live in a very angry provoking world; we often feel much, and are apt to fear more, from the wrath of man, which seems boundless. But this is verse is a great comfort to us, for as far as God permits the wrath of man to break forth at any time he will make it turn to his praise, will bring honour to himself and serve his own purposes by it: Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, not only by the checks given to it, when it shall be forced to confess its own impotency, but even by the liberty given to it for a time. The hardships which God’s people suffer by the wrath of their enemies are made to redound to the glory of God and his grace; and the more the heathen rage and plot against the Lord and his anointed the more will God be praised for setting his King upon his holy hill of Zion in spite of them, Ps. 2:1, 6…
He continues - Men must never permit sin, because they cannot check it when they will; but God can. He can set bounds to the wrath of man, as he does to the raging sea. Hitherto it shall come and no further; here shall its proud waves be stayed. God restrained the remainder of Sennacherib’s rage, for he put a hook in his nose and a bridle in his jaws (Isa. 37:29).
We live in a world full of sin, full of terror and terrible events. But even this wrath of man shall praise God and so we gather to sing His praise. We often do not know how such vile events and catastrophes will turn out for good – what we do know because we are promised is that they will.
We must believe this and worship accordingly – and we must worship that we might believe this at ever deepening levels. God is God and that means He is God over this sorry world – controlling the affairs of every nation and every household. More wonderful, God knows every storm, every trial, every test in your life right this minute – and He has a hook in its nose – it will go no further than where He says, “stay – here – and no further” And then, He will manifest His praise in and through it as He vindicates you, relieves you, renews with you, and even when He raises you up at the last day.
Love Never Fails
(This was my Call to Worship Exhortation on Feb 13th, the day before Valentine's Day)
Valentines Day is tomorrow – and so listen again to what love is – and Who love is –
Jesus said, John 15:9-17 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
Paul later defines true love – he writes, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails…
That is why God has summoned You, His people, brothers and sisters in Christ, to come before His presence with thanksgiving and joy. Love never fails – and God is love. He has never failed. He never will. He accomplishes all that He intends through and in His love – the Father’s love for the Son, the Son’s love for the Father, the Sending of that Love in the Holy Spirit who causes us to live and love in the abiding love of the Triune God – and therefore to love one another in other-worldly ways – ways that should not make sense to the rest of the world – but they do to those who know the love of God. Far beyond the sentimental Hallmark moment of Valentine’s Day – Jesus commands you in His name and in the power of His Holy Spirit – love one another – as I have loved you.
Valentines Day is tomorrow – and so listen again to what love is – and Who love is –
Jesus said, John 15:9-17 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.
Paul later defines true love – he writes, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love - 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails…
That is why God has summoned You, His people, brothers and sisters in Christ, to come before His presence with thanksgiving and joy. Love never fails – and God is love. He has never failed. He never will. He accomplishes all that He intends through and in His love – the Father’s love for the Son, the Son’s love for the Father, the Sending of that Love in the Holy Spirit who causes us to live and love in the abiding love of the Triune God – and therefore to love one another in other-worldly ways – ways that should not make sense to the rest of the world – but they do to those who know the love of God. Far beyond the sentimental Hallmark moment of Valentine’s Day – Jesus commands you in His name and in the power of His Holy Spirit – love one another – as I have loved you.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Sabbath Rejoicing and Delight
Conisdering the variety of sabbaths instituted in the Old Testament, Rushdoony comments, "There is thus a wide difference between the sabbaths....so that rest is not the essence of every sabbath; rejoicing and faith are. The other sabbaths were largely seasons of feasting and celebration. All the sabbaths were to be a delight to the covenant people."
"...The merely external rest of the sabbath was important, but an even deeper and more basic rest was the rest in the authority and work of God, and man's delight in it."
It seems this must be essentially recovered and practiced in order to call the Sabbath a delight.
"...The merely external rest of the sabbath was important, but an even deeper and more basic rest was the rest in the authority and work of God, and man's delight in it."
It seems this must be essentially recovered and practiced in order to call the Sabbath a delight.
Monday, January 24, 2011
God of the Storm
Matthew 8:23-25 Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. 24 And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. 25 Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
How often in your life do the situations you find yourself in seem far stronger than the LORD in whom you believe? Who looks stronger on the boat – A Killer Storm or a Sleeping Savior? How often does it look like the problem is far greater than Jesus could handle? How often does it appear that He is asleep or doesn’t care?
That is why you are summoned here to worship and renew covenant with your God – so that in the midst of your life and in the midst of our corporate life as a church, and even as a priesthood of this nation, we might go to God and wake Him up if we think He needs to be awakened. Is He oblivious to your financial difficulty or the problems in your marriage? Is He asleep while our nation continues into a moral decline and multiple seeming disasters? In covenant renewal we hear, “I will be Your God and You will be my people”.
Matt 8:26-27 But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?
It is here, in this service of worship that He will correct and strengthen your faith, redirect it where it should go, reveal more of His mercy and love, and call upon you to trust Him again in the midst of whatever storm He has placed you – or us. You have come to worship the God of the winds and the sea, the God of the stars and the mountains, the God of the storms and the God of the calm. In every situation, He is God – in every circumstance, He is your God. Come, He would speak with you…
How often in your life do the situations you find yourself in seem far stronger than the LORD in whom you believe? Who looks stronger on the boat – A Killer Storm or a Sleeping Savior? How often does it look like the problem is far greater than Jesus could handle? How often does it appear that He is asleep or doesn’t care?
That is why you are summoned here to worship and renew covenant with your God – so that in the midst of your life and in the midst of our corporate life as a church, and even as a priesthood of this nation, we might go to God and wake Him up if we think He needs to be awakened. Is He oblivious to your financial difficulty or the problems in your marriage? Is He asleep while our nation continues into a moral decline and multiple seeming disasters? In covenant renewal we hear, “I will be Your God and You will be my people”.
Matt 8:26-27 But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 So the men marveled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?
It is here, in this service of worship that He will correct and strengthen your faith, redirect it where it should go, reveal more of His mercy and love, and call upon you to trust Him again in the midst of whatever storm He has placed you – or us. You have come to worship the God of the winds and the sea, the God of the stars and the mountains, the God of the storms and the God of the calm. In every situation, He is God – in every circumstance, He is your God. Come, He would speak with you…
Is Abortion a Sin?
If you are faithful to the Scriptures, there is no debate. Abortion is nothing less than the murder of a human being (Ex 20:13, 21:22-25, Psalm 139:13-16). Modern medical technology has not only made abortion a far safer procedure for the mother, it has also revealed the glorious hand of God in the womb in living color and in our growing knowledge of the details of the life and development of a baby during his or her nine months in his or her mother’s womb. And the logical fallacies of our nation betray us even in the recent news. Conservatives and Liberals all joined together in acknowledging the ongoing, life-saving work of doctors over Rep. Gabrielle Giffords even though her life depended upon the skill, care, time, sacrifice and expense of others. No one called for a debate as to whether such costly care required determining whether or not Giffords was a person; no one was given a choice. How much easier should it be to see the simple, normal, and yet profound work going on in the womb of an expectant mother?
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