God’s New Humanity

“Many evangelicals act like they are still living in Jerusalem or Samaria. Consider, for example, the issue of . . . taking personal offense at the behavior and language of unbelievers. If I go to see a movie in Babylon, should I not expect the film to reflect Babylonian beliefs and values? As a Christian, I may disagree strongly with those beliefs and find the values utterly contrary to God’s law, but surely that should not be surprising. Nor, if I am living in exile in Babylon, does it make sense to be offended that Babylonians act like Babylonians, or that they fail to make films that reflect the beliefs and values of Jerusalem . . . It is hard to live in exile, hard to be surrounded by people who do not share our deepest convictions. It is much easier to be reactionary in Babylon, and more satisfying, too, because being offended by them makes us feel so very righteous. Besides, it is disappointing to be stuck in Babylon when what we really want is to live in Jerusalem. It is hard work to find creative and winsome ways to translate the gospel into terms they will understand. It requires discipline to develop skill in discernment, and single-mindedness to nurture biblical literacy in the midst of busyness that presses in on us. It takes time and energy – and perhaps a great deal of study and thinking – to give honest answers to honest questions . . . It takes perseverance to love sinners whose sin we find repugnant, and  humility to remember that our sin seems less wicked only because it is ours . . . Seeing ourselves as living in exile will help us better understand what that faithfulness consists of.”

– Denis Haack

“The world is drowning in its efforts at life; it does not need lifeguards who swim to it carrying barbells.”

– Robert Farrar Capon

How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible.”

– C.S. Lewis

“The sin I once feared to lose became a delight to dismiss. You turned them out and took their place, pleasanter than any pleasure.”

– Augustine

“The deepest word that can be spoken about sanctification is that it is a progress towards true humanity. Salvation is, essentially considered, the restoration of humanity to men . . . The greatest saints of God have been characterized, not by haloes and an atmosphere of distant unapproachability, but by their humanity. They have been intensely human and lovable people with a twinkle in their eyes.”

– James Phillips

“[The difference between the husband and the wife] is not one of worth, ability, or intelligence, but of role. It is functional, not organic. It is based on the exigencies of the dance, not on a judgment as to talent. In the ballet, in any intricate dance, one dancer leads, the other follows. Not because one is better (he may or may not be), but because that is his part. Our mistake…is to think that equality and diversity are irreconcilable. The common notion of equality is based on the image of the march. In a parade, really unequal beings are dressed alike, given guns of identical length, trained to hold them at the same angle, and ordered to keep step with a fixed beat. But it is not the parade that is true to life; it is the dance. There you have real equals assigned unequal roles in order that each may achieve his individual perfection in the whole. Nothing is less personal than a parade; nothing more so than a dance. Marriage is a hierarchical game played by co-equal partners. Keep that paradox and you move in the freedom of the dance; alter it, and you grow weary with marching.”

– Robert Farrar Capon

“True shalom, comprehensive flourishing, mirrors the pattern of the Trinity itself, in which there is both unity and diversity. The choice between teeming and order, diversity and unity, is a false choice. True abundant life is found where “the one” and “the many” meet in “the three.” Healthy institutions provide the ordered context in which surprise and diversity can flourish, but they also provide the diverse and varied environment that makes order healthy rather than repressive.”

– Andy Crouch

“We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.”

– Nicene Creed

“The Christian life after all is a life, it is a power, it is an activity. This is the thing we so constantly tend to forget. It is not just a philosophy, it is not just a point of view, it is not just a teaching that we take up and try to put into practice. It is all that, but it is something infinitely more. The very essence of the Christian life, according to the New Testament teaching everywhere, is that it is a mighty power that enters into us; it is a life, if you like, that is pulsating in us. It is an activity, and an activity on the part of God.”

– Martin Lloyd-Jones

“Hoping for others is hard, but not the hardest. Praying for others is hard, but not the hardest. The hardest task for people who believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ is in ‘living the sort of life that makes people say, ‘Ah, so that’s how people are going to live when righteousness takes over our world.’”

– Cornelius Plantinga

“The purpose of our lives is to remove the veil from the Father’s face and to display something of God’s glory to the world.”

-Dale Bruner

“I ask for thee for the daily strength, to none that ask denied, A mind to blend with outward life, while keeping at thy side, Content to fill a little space, if thou be glorified.”

-Anna Waring

There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all . . . it is God upon the throne that we love to preach.  It is God upon His throne whom we trust.”

– Charles Spurgeon

Come ye sinners, poor and wretched
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus, ready, stands to save you,
Full of pity, joined with power.
He is able, He is able;
He is willing; doubt no more.

Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness he requires
Is to feel your need of Him.
This He gives you, this He gives you,
‘Tis the Spirit’s rising beam.

– Joseph Hart

“A needy heart is a praying heart. Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer . . . If you are not praying, then you are quietly confident that time, money, and talent are all you need in life . . . Learned desperation is at the heart of a praying life.”

– Paul Miller

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

—C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“Spread for thee the festal board
See with richest dainties stored
To thy Father’s bosom pressed
Yet again a child confessed
Never from His house to roam
Come and welcome, sinner, come!”

—Thomas Haweis

“Seismic shifts in thinking have occurred between Augustine’s day and ours, not least of which is the emphasis on the individual rather than the collective. Today, we’re tempted to privatize our choices. Church membership is presented as one of many appealing choices in the spiritual growth cafeteria line, participation in a local church as optional as pie. Spiritually, there’s no real sense of need for church, only preference. But according to the language of Scripture, we cannot divorce ourselves from the church any more easily than we could cut off one hand or renounce our blood lines. The church is the believer’s new family. It is home.”

—Jen Pollock Michel, Keeping Place

“In his letter to the Philippians Paul writes about his own identity culturally. He calls it “the flesh,” that is, all that we have as human persons that comes from our history and heritage. He says in Phil. 3:4, “If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them dung, that I may gain Christ and be found in him.” Each one of us needs to substitute whatever our own cultural history, cultural identity, cultural heritage, racial identity—whatever we like to put in there—in place of Paul’s words right there. We need to be prepared to say with the apostle Paul, “I am white, I am English, I am Reformed, I am Presbyterian”—or whatever it may be for you—and say, “I consider this manure.” Those are Paul’s words. It is not just rubbish, I consider this dung in comparison to knowing Jesus Christ.”

—Jerram Barrs

“It is important to see that this “peacemaking” work of the cross – reconciling Jews and Gentiles and creating one new humanity – is not just a by-product of the gospel, but it is at the heart of the gospel itself (Eph. 3:6). Paul includes it in the work of the cross. In other words, Paul is not merely saying that now that lots of individual sinners of different nations have been saved and are on their way to heaven they really ought to try to get along with each other in the meantime. He is saying that the creation of a new humanity is the good news that Christ came to accomplish.”

—Christopher Wright

“If we are going to live fully in the grace of God in Christ and participate in his cosmic work, then we must live out the story of reconciliation both as reconciled people and agents of reconciliation. Even as Christ, our peace, made peace through the cross, so we are to be peacemakers in every dimension of life: in our relationships and families, in our neighborhoods and workplaces, in our churches and denominations, and in our cities and nations.”

—Mark Roberts