On the go again

This past weekend we took our first trip since Adeline's birth. She and Viviane both traveled very well. We visited Community Baptist Church in Clayton, NC--a church that is already partnering with us in many ways. Mike Knight gave me the opportunity to update the church and thank them for their partnership. Liz and I also sang a special number for the worship service. We spent the rest of the time visiting with the people and furthering relationships. The Lord used the church to encourage us through their fellowship and care.

Next weekend, off to Alabama!

Miscellaneous quotations from Cross of Christ

Concerning Acts 20:28, Stott writes "If the church was worth his blood, is it not worth our labour? The privilege of serving it is established by the preciousness of the price paid for its purchase" (Cross of Christ, 181).

In connection with 2 Cor 5.18, 19, Stott writes: "It is not enough to expound a thoroughly orthodox doctrine of reconciliation if we never beg people to come to Christ. Nor is it right for a sermon to consist of an interminable appeal, which has not been preceded by an exposition of the gospel. The rule should be 'no appeal without a proclamation, and no proclamation without an appeal'" (Cross of Christ, 201).

Justification

Stott addresses these four aspects of justification in The Cross of Christ, pages 189-92:

1. Source: God's "utterly undeserved favour" (Justified by his grace, Rom 3:24)
2. Ground/Basis: the substitutionary death of Christ (justified by his blood, Rom 5:9)
3. Means: faith-"faith's only function is to receive what grace free offers" (justified by faith, Rom 3:28)
4. Effects: (justified in Christ, Gal 2:17) this indicates a relationship with Christ that places us in community of God's people and makes us eager to do good works.

I am thankful for clear writing, but much more thankful for a merciful God who sacrificed so much to be just in justifying me.

Propitiation

John Stott addresses some of the objections people have expressed concerning the biblical doctrine of propitiation:

"It is God himself who in holy wrath needs to be propitiated, God himself who in holy love undertook to do the propitiating, and God himself who in the person of his Son died for the propitiation of our sins. Thus God took his own loving initiative to appease his own righteous anger by bearing it his own self in his own Son when he took our place and died for us. There is no crudity here to evoke our ridicule, only the profundity of holy love to evoke our worship" (The Cross of Christ, 175).

More from Schnabel

Schnabel summarizes Paul's missionary goals as:

1. Preach the message of Jesus Christ (Rom 1.1; 1 Cor 2.2)

2. Preach gospel of Jesus Christ to Gentiles “that is, to polytheists who worshiped other gods” (32; Rom 1.14, 16; 1 Cor 1.23)

3. Reach as many people as possible (Rom 15.19, 23-24)

4. Lead individuals to believe in the one true God and in Jesus—Christ, Savior, Lord (1 Thess 1.9-10; 1 Cor 1:18-2:5)

5. Establish new churches, communities of followers

Schnabel on Missions

Eckhard Schnabel defines mission as the "activity of a community of faith that distinguishes itself from its environment in terms of both religious belief (theology) and social behavior (ethics), that is convinced of the truth claims of its faith, and that actively works to win other people to the content of faith and the way of life whose truth and necessity the members of that community are convinced” (Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies and Methods, 22).

After looking at three important aspects for understanding missions--intentionality and movement, the nature of missionary work in the NT, and the reality of the apostolic method--he summarizes the work of a missionary as follows:

“missionaries establish contact with non-Christians, they proclaim the news of Jesus the Messiah and Savior (proclamation, preaching, teaching, instruction), they lead people to faith in Jesus Christ (conversion, baptism), and they integrate the new believers into the local community of the followers of Jesus (Lord’s Supper, transformation of social and moral behavior, charity)” (29).

January-February 2010 Update Letter