Cornerstone Presbyterian Church

Sunday School 9:00am | Sunday Worship 10:15am
2607 5th Street, Castle Rock, CO

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The Value of the Gift (Part 2)

A second aspect of acknowledging the value of Jesus requires us to admit our need. If you look up the definition of humble, you will find something like: not thinking of yourself as better than other people. From Genesis 3, and throughout Scripture, we learn that every human person is guilty of sin. None of us should think that we are better than others when it comes to sin. The problem of sin defines our most pressing need. We need forgiveness from God because of our rebellion against Him. Humility compels us to admit that none of us are exempt from this indictment.

It is not merely that that we have made mistakes, or even that we have lived morally deficient lives, though we have done both. Nor is just that we have done things that have hurt other people, though we have done those things, too. It is especially that we have rebelled against our benevolent Creator. We have defied the One who made us, and who is in charge of this world. We have turned our backs on Him, and have sought to go our own way. We have become traitors against God. We have lived as if He is of no account, as though He is unworthy of our time, attention, or devotion.

Jesus is our Savior, and that means that He rescues us from sin and its consequences. He came into the world to live in perfect obedience, which is far beyond the life that any of us have actually lived. The Father accounts the righteousness of Jesus’ perfect life to everyone who acknowledges his or her need, and to everyone who believes that Jesus has met that need. Jesus also died the death that our sins deserve, in our place. We must admit that we need His righteousness, and the forgiveness that He has secured by His death. We need them every day, every single moment.

We must admit these things because they are true, and also because Jesus alone is able to meet our most pressing need. Our most pressing need directs us to our greatest need. We need the peace with the Triune God that we have forfeited by our sin. God provides the breath we breathe, the food we eat, and the human relationships we enjoy. Indeed, he provides every good gift that we enjoy. But most of all, our lives can only become whole and complete if we are reconciled to Him. God created us to worship and enjoy Him. As long as we remain alienated from God, life simply will never be the way it is supposed to be.

Why did God choose to reveal the birth of the most glorious King in all of human history to lowly shepherds? The angel did not appear in Caesar’s palace in Rome to make his momentous announcement. He didn’t announce it at the Areopagus in Athens. He didn’t proclaim it in India, or to the Han dynasty in China. The Lord simply did not choose to deliver the announcement to the political, intellectual, cultural, or economic centers of power. Instead He chose those of low estate, those who were prepared to acknowledge the value of the gift, and to praise the glory of God. As we humble ourselves to acknowledge the value of the gift of Jesus Christ, we come to experience that He is our joy.

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The Value of the Gift (Part 1)

My Dad is seventy-seven this year. As people tend to do when they reach his age, he has begun to think about the reality that he has arrived at the twilight of his life. A couple of years ago, when we visited my Mom and Dad over the New Year holiday, he called me over because he wanted to talk to me about his financial affairs. He wanted me to have direction in the event that he dies.

For the better part of his life, he has collected coins. Through financial ups and downs he has held onto his collection. Over the years his collecting habits have ranged from old coins to special edition mints. My Dad wanted to make sure that, when he dies, I understand the value of his collection. He wanted to make sure that I don’t let it go for less than its worth. He wanted to insure that I get the full value out of his collection. The passages we have read this evening point to something similar when it comes to Jesus.

We must acknowledge the value of the gift of Jesus Christ. I want to reflect on two elements of acknowledging His value. The first depends on acknowledging Jesus’ stature. He’s the King over all, the second person of the Triune God. He is also the greater Son of David, who took to himself a true human body in order to save us from our sins. But He has now been exalted to right hand of the Father, and He reigns with the Father. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, and His reign is everlasting.

He is the King of glory. He possesses the glory of God that was revealed to the shepherds through the angel when he appeared to them. The disciples caught glimpses of his glory throughout their time with Him. They saw the glory of His wisdom in His teaching; they saw the glory of His power in his miracles; and they saw that it was His personal glory on the mount of transfiguration.

We must acknowledge that, as God, Jesus sets the agenda. It follows that we don’t set the agenda. That is fundamental to the difference between God and us. We sometimes tell our children, or maybe our siblings, that the world doesn’t revolve around them; and we believe that. But neither does it revolve around us! It revolves around God, and that’s true whether we acknowledge or not. However, if you would benefit from the gift of Jesus, you must acknowledge that, as God, He sets the agenda.

If you acknowledge that He sets the agenda, it will have implications for how you order your life. God’s agenda, as He reveals in Scripture, will meet your most pressing need. It will not meet all of your wants, especially as they change from one moment to the next. Jesus will not meet your disordered desire for God-substitutes, for example. He will not meet your broken desire to be a little god yourself. God’s agenda does not promise endless entertainment, or possessions, or wealth. Instead, He promises Himself in Jesus Christ. He promises to be reconciled with you, so that you can live in peace with Him as your God.

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Grace and Jesus Christ

grace and jesus christ

stock.xchng/vancanjay

Awhile back a pastor friend, Wayne Larson, wondered why pastors tweet and post comments on “grace” so much more than Jesus. Many consider the book of Galatians to be a treatise on grace. It insists that God’s grace in saving sinners cannot be separated from the person and work of Jesus Christ. Wayne was right to question grace talk separated from Jesus. We pastors need to make sure we’re talking about Jesus. We all need to keep grace and Jesus Christ together in our minds and conversations.

Grace and Jesus Christ in Galatians 3:15-18

Contrary to what the Judaizers insinuated, the law introduced through Moses didn’t nullify the promise the Lord made to Abraham. It came later, but it didn’t annul the promise. Paul provides a human example to illustrate. His example works from the lesser to the greater. If this principle is true on the human plane, how much more is it true with God?

By “covenant” he has in mind a final will or testament that determines who inherits a person’s estate. Scholars quibble about whether he’s thinking about Greek, Roman, or Hebrew testaments. They each had their legal differences. It really doesn’t matter because they all reach a point when they are ratified and cannot be annulled. Such is the case with God’s covenant with Abraham. Since it has been ratified, it can’t be annulled.

Grace and Jesus Christ: the Abrahamic Promise

God made the promise to Christ. That’s the point in verse 16. Paul goes back to the Abrahamic promises, and observes that the Lord made them to Abraham’s “offspring.” Paul was trained as a Pharisee. He understood that Jews interpreted that word as a collective singular. But he also knows that they understood it biologically. There’s a better understanding in this case. God made the promise to a particular offspring. That offspring was Jesus Christ. God had Christ in view when He made the promise. Therefore, although the law came 430 years after the promise, it didn’t annul the promise. 

That brings us to verse 18. The conditional assumes the “if” part of the statement to be false. The “then” part must also be false. If the Abrahamic inheritance comes by the law, then it cannot come by the promise. By insisting that it comes by law, a person would nullify the covenant that God already ratified. But, as we’ve seen, the promise stands. In other words, the idea that the inheritance comes through law conflicts with Scripture.

Grace and Jesus Christ: the Heir

The promise to Abraham is received in Jesus. He’s the designated heir in whom a person receives the inheritance. Josh’s mother married a man of whom her father disapproved. For that reason, Josh didn’t see his grandfather very often. They weren’t close. They were together only a handful of times in the seventeen years that Josh knew him. Despite that fact, his grandfather had a soft spot for him.Though he hadn’t seen Josh for several years before his death, he named him the heir of his estate.

It included a 36-acre island and more than 80 acres of valuable farmland. But there was something even more unexpected in the will. There was a detailed list of antique jewelry and loose gems that were in “the thermos.” There was no hint as to where this thermos was. But Josh’s mom remembered an oblique reference her father once made to “treasure island.” If and when the thermos turns up, it belongs to Josh. His grandfather named him the heir

Just as his grandfather named Josh the heir of his estate, so Paul argues that Jesus is the heir in whom the promise to Abraham is received. Grace and Jesus Christ are inseparably linked. To receive the promise, you have to receive Jesus by faith. To receive any of the promised blessings, you have to receive the heir. For God to be your God, and to have all the other specific promises, you must be united to Jesus. He’s the first and chief blessing in whom all the other blessings of God are received. Apart from Jesus there is no redeeming grace. It’s great to talk about grace. But Jesus is the subject really worth talking about!

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Fix Our Eyes On Jesus

let us fix our eyes on jesus

Monogram of Christ, Museo Pio Cristiano, Vatican, undated.

Commenting on my post “Tell Me What Spiritual Issues are Important to You Right Now” David wrote: “I would love to get your perspective on Jesus Christ being the focus for all who claim to be Christian. It seems to me many churches have chose to make him a footnote in their overall message. As a pastor and church leader what is your viewpoint?” A worthy topic to consider if there ever was one! As believers in Christ we are especially called to “…fix our eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2, NIV).

Fix our Eyes On Jesus: Why It’s Important

I share David’s concern that churches can tend to lose focus on Christ. On the one hand, one wonders how it happens. How can a Christian church reach the point of making Jesus a mere footnote to the church’s overall message? Unfortunately that is an apt description of exactly what can happen. How can the One who is the very center of our identity so easily end up at the periphery of what we proclaim?

On the other hand, if we know anything of our own weakness it is understandable. As with Martha, service can distract us. Like her we can be anxious and troubled by many things (Luke 10:40-41). Priding ourselves on being “missional” can become an end in itself. It can get in the way as we seek to fix our eyes on Jesus. Worry about all that we need to do can mean we fail to sit at Jesus’ feet and enjoy Him. Or, like the church in Ephesus, we can abandon the love we first had for Jesus (Revelation 2:4). That statement, after all, addresses a church.

Learning to Fix Our Eyes on Jesus

What first comes to mind in response to David’s comment is that we as church leaders must first evaluate whether we fix our eyes on Jesus. While it is always tempting to point the finger at other churches, we need to begin with ourselves. Humbly recognizing that we are prone to lose focus on Christ, that we are not immune to that danger, is one of the best preventatives against losing our focus.

A useful place to begin our evaluation is with our own preaching and teaching in the church.  One of the best metrics of evaluation we can use is 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (quoted in the ESV), which says:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Paul’s focus was not to gather crowds through demonstration of astounding rhetorical ability. Contrary to the conventional wisdom of his day, he made a point to avoid that. Nor did he seek to engage people according to worldly wisdom. In fact, he refused to know of anything in Corinth except Jesus Christ and him crucified. It was not that he was incapable of employing those other means; he deliberately refused to resort to them. He eschewed them knowing full well that Jesus Christ was foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews (1 Corinthians 1:23).

The allure of latching on to whatever means might attract people to the church is powerful. That temptation arises from the desire to achieve personal glory. Paul faced the same temptation. But means matter. Rhetorical skill and demonstration of wisdom were the sorts of things in Paul’s time (and in Corinth) that someone could reasonably expect to draw a crowd. In the face of the temptation to use what was most practical, he instead resolved to fix his eyes on Jesus.

Why did Paul resolve to know of nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified? He knew that using means God had not prescribed would only tend to lead to people’s faith resting on the wisdom of men. The wisdom of men is not a stable basis for the truth of God. Nor is the wisdom of men a stable foundation for the church of Christ. Following Paul in this manner enables us to fix our eyes on Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the foundation upon which the church must grow. We must build the church by proclaiming Jesus Christ and him crucified. In this light, it is entirely possible that churches have lost focus on Christ because they never truly had focus on him in the first place. The consequences for pastors and elders failing to keep their eyes fixed on Jesus does not remain limited only to them. That failure reaches to the entire church.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV).

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The Uninspirational Glory of Christ

One of the prayers of Jesus that Peterson examines in Tell It Slant is found in John 12:28 and consists of four words: “Father, glorify your name” (ESV). Commenting upon that prayer, Peterson says some things that I suspect Luther would have viewed approvingly. He writes:

The glory with which Jesus is glorified is not inspirational. It does not promote emulation. It is not conspicuous. It is not glamorous. It is not the sort of glory that is featured in glossy magazines and travel posters advertising sun and sand on the Greek islands. You can’t take a picture of it.

We pray in the company of Jesus in order to learn this, to re-learn the meaning of words that have been corrupted by our culture and debased by our sin. Jesus is the dictionary in which we look up the meaning of words. We look up “glory” and what do we find? Obscurity, rejection, a sacrificial life, an obedient death. And through and in and around all of that, the bright presence of God backlights what the world despises and ignores–what we so often despise and ignore. Jesus’ life and death come to focus in this prayer and illuminate life–all of life–so convincingly that we drop to our knees and say, “Glory–that is the kind of life I want. Father, glorify you name.”

So true. And a compelling case for why I absolutely need to spend time praying in the company of Jesus. The desire for such glory doesn’t come naturally.

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The Corruption of All Communities

In preparation for a Sunday school class I’ve been reading Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. The book is an argument for Christ being at the very center of what it means to be a Christian. While it should go without saying that Christ should be at the center for Christians, the authors explore just how easy it is for us to get off track. For that reason alone I find the book compelling.

The picture at the left, however, is neither Sweet nor Viola, but Reinhold Niebuhr. In their chapter, “A Collision of Two Empires” Sweet and Viola show that the church is alarmingly prone to confuse the kingdom of God with the kingdom of this world. In that regard, they quote Niebuhr:

Christ is crucified by the priests of the purest religion of his day and by the minions of the justest, the Roman Law. The fanaticism of the priests is the fanaticism of all good men, who do not know that they are not as good as they esteem themselves. The complacence of Pilate represents the moral mediocrity of all communities, however just.

Perhaps I’m writing this post to provide some balance to the previous one. I still think that post is right as far as it goes; but even moral clarity is a long way from actual righteousness. Many people assume that if they had been in Joe Paterno’s position, they would have done the right thing. Maybe. But they weren’t in his position. They don’t really know what they would have done. And Niebuhr is devastatingly correct when he exposes the, “…fanaticism of all good men, who do not know that they are not as good as they esteem themselves.” That’s why we all need a Savior who is truly righteous, and who has delivered us from our unrighteousness–offensive as that may be.

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Calvin on the Efficacy of the Lord's Supper

I’ve been doing a little reading in Calvin’s Institutes regarding the Eucharist (a designation with which Calvin has no problem). He makes the point that, biblically, we receive Christ in the Supper. It isn’t an exercise in mental recollection. We don’t receive Him only by understanding or imagination. He insists that believers truly feed upon Christ. He writes:

To summarize: our souls are fed by the flesh and blood of Christ in the same way that bread and wine keep and sustain physical life….Even though it seems unbelievable that Christ’s flesh separated from us by such great distance, penetrates to us, so that it becomes our food, let us remember how far the secret power of the Holy Spirit towers above all our senses, and how foolish it is to wish to measure his immeasureableness by our measure. What, then, our mind does not comprehend, let faith conceive: that the Spirit truly unites things separated in space.

For Calvin, it’s impossible to conceive that God would, “put in your hand the symbol of his body,” and then fail to give you a true participation in it. He thus concludes, I believe correctly, that when we receive the symbol of the body, we must also trust that the body itself is as surely given to us. In this way, God gives believers Christ and all his benefits through the Sacrament of Communion. That’s something for which we can truly be grateful.

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Calvin on the One Sacrifice of Christ

 

calvin one sacrifice of christCommenting on Hebrews 9:28, Calvin writes:

“The Apostle urges this one thing, –that we ought not to be disquieted by vain and impure longings for new kinds of expiations, for the death of Christ is abundantly sufficient for us. Hence he says, that he once appeared and made a sacrifice to abolish sins and that at his second coming he will make openly manifest the efficacy of his death, so that sin will have no more power to hurt us.”

(Commentaries on the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews, translated by the Rev. John Owen; Grand Rapids: Baker Books, reprinted 1999, page 219.)

Cornerstone Presbyterian Church a historically rooted, reformed community.

Cornerstone Presbyterian is a church devoted to cultivating a deep faith of vibrancy and integrity centered on the Triune God. We are also committed to serving the people of Castle Rock. Whether you are curious to explore historic Christianity, or you are an earnest believer seeking to live out a weighty Biblical faith, you are warmly invited to join us.