Scribbling Theology:

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    • Short Reflections on Christian Politics

      Posted at 1:43 pm by Camaron G. W. Smith, on May 21, 2022

      Voting as a Christian is hard. Why? Because (as I’ve argued in a previous post) how you engage in politics is a part of your worship. This means four things. First, it means that who you vote for is an expression of your faith, your place in, and your vision of God’s Kingdom. Second, who you vote for expresses your love towards your neighbour and the world around you. Third, who you vote for expresses your love towards God. Fourth, not only does voting impact the world around you, but it also forms and transforms you inwardly. For some Christians, this makes voting easy (whoever is pro-life, right?). For me, it complicates it. Gone are the days when I could pick a single issue and vote with it in mind. Gone are the days when I could make fun of politics (though I still do that) and not care about who influences our nation. Voting matters because, as James K. A. Smith says:

      The call to follow Christ, the call to desire his kingdom, does not simplify our lives by segregating us in some “pure” space; to the contrary, the call to bear Christ’s image complicates our lives because it comes to us in the midst of our environments without releasing us from them.

      – James K. A. Smith in Awaiting the King

      As my faith and theology mature, voting becomes increasingly tricky. If voting profoundly impacts the world around me (including myself), then my vote can’t be taken lightly. Add to that the lack of reasonable candidates to vote for is the perfect recipe for a Lamentations part II. No matter who I vote for, I compromise on something. Do I care for the unborn? Of course. Outstanding, but voting for a party with anti-abortion policies means I have to compromise on climate change policies (and the lives climate change affects around the world) and vice versa. There’s always a trade-off, and I hate that this is the reality in which we live. Trying to love one group of neighbours means I have to neglect the other groups. I understand why some people avoid politics altogether (not a luxury we have in Australia). So what do we do? Do we abstain from voting (illegal in most cases in our country)? Do I donkey vote (that feels like a waste of a vote)? Do I vote for independents and hope for the best (does that ever make a difference)? What is the appropriate Christian response here? There’s no clear answer, to be honest. However, there are perhaps a few things to consider before giving up on the system altogether. Nationwide change, where God’s kingdom comes and His will is done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-13), begins within the Christian, then in the church, and then extends into the world.

      1. It starts with the Christian. What I mean by this is before you hit the voting booths and you loudly proclaim who you’re voting for, a Christian must learn to live out the values and ideas wisely that they are voting for in the first place. Do you care for the environment and climate change? Then start taking practical steps to reduce your own carbon footprint. Eat a more plant-based diet, and consider changing your lightbulbs to LED. Plant some trees. Do you care about the unborn? Love and educate parents who are considering it and might not know the impact of their choices. Invest in organisations that will incentivise mothers to give up children for adoption rather than aborting, or better yet, help to find ways of addressing why they’re aborting at all in the first place. Finally, no matter the issue, serving in that area only goes so far. The Gospel of Jesus Christ will cause changed hearts that lead to the right praxis. You can plant all the trees in the world and feed all the hungry people you can, but real change happens at a heart level that forms communities of people who want to represent Jesus. This is the local church.
      2. It moves to church. There are Christians worldwide from different traditions and walks of life who vote and are passionate about various issues. Each one believes they are doing what they think is best to express how they understand the kingdom of God coming to earth. This is called the universal Church. However, God doesn’t leave us to do the work by ourselves. Through His Spirit, God forms visible communities of believers to work out how to do the Christian life together. While members of a local church might differ on politics, what binds them together is the Gospel that saved them and their allegiance to King Jesus – the person every Christian has cast their first vote for. I have argued elsewhere, and I’ll repeat it – the local church is supposed to be a little slice of heaven on earth. The local church is a community of political tyranny made up of different people from different ethnicities, genders, ideas, and such that submit to the one true King. Local churches challenge, spur, encourage and sharpen one another to live out the Gospel and extend the Kingdom of God into the world around us. The pulpit isn’t supposed to be hijacked to peddle anyone’s political agenda. However, the Gospel of King Jesus is intrinsically political as we urge one another to be a part of His Kingdom in all that we do.
      3. Now, if you must vote, vote. This, I realise, has left us with no real answers on how to vote faithfully. What I’m getting at here is that voting is actually the last thing we do on a list of many meaningful steps of authentic transformation. As we make real changes around us and form Gospel centred communities of people who ultimately see Jesus as the only real solution to anything, voting will be carried along with the ebb and flow of whatever impact we have as we witness to the ends of the earth (or to the darkest corners of our local areas).

      Whatever you do during this election, just remember to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself” (Luke 10:27).

      Posted in Scribbles | 0 Comments | Tagged Christian, church, Jesus, Politics, voting
    • Theological Reflections on Spiritual Formation

      Posted at 1:11 pm by scribblingtheology, on September 11, 2020

      The outcome or ultimate goal of spiritual formation is described in Scripture in a variety of general ways: “righteousness” (Matt 5:20; Eph 4:24), doing the Father’s will (Matt 7:22; 12:50; 1 John 2:17), transformed into Christ’s image (Rom 8:29; 2 Cor 3:18) / God’s image and likeness (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10), holiness (Eph 4:24; 1 Pet 1:15), godliness (1 Tim 2:2; 4:8), obedience (1 Pet 1:14), etc. Other words or phrases are used to describe the outcome of spiritual formation more specifically: “fruit” (Rom 7:4; Gal 5:22), “works” (Jas 2:14–26), “a new life” (Rom 6:4), “no longer . . . slaves to sin” (Rom 6:6), to “live as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6), etc. 

      The ‘umbrella’ word used to describe what all the above terms and phrases are driving at is love (Rom 13:8; 1 Cor 13:13; Gal 5:6, 14; Jas 2:8; 1 Pet 4:8; John 13:34–35; 15:12; 1 John 3:14, 16; 4:7–11). The reason love is the umbrella word used to describe the Spiritually formed life is because every one of God’s commands is an expression of love (Rom 13:9). For it is love that sums up the Law and the Prophets (Matt 7:12; 22:36–40; Rom 13:8–10). Love, in other words, is the defining mark of a Christian. However, love is not something that we define. Love has been prescribed for us: it is seen in Jesus laying down his life on the cross for us (Rom 5:6–8; John 3:16; 15:13; 1 John 4:10). Hence, to love others, in the way that the Bible thinks about love, is to love as Jesus loved (e.g., John 13:34; 15:12; Eph 5:2, 25).

      None of the descriptions in the above two paragraphs can be achieved by merely keeping more laws or commands, regardless of how diligently or sincerely. Real spiritual formation is not only outward and cannot even be summed up as mere obedience, even committed obedience. Obedience is certainly a way to describe the spiritually formed life, but outward obedience without inward change is nothing more than Pharisaic formation (see, e.g., Matt 15:8; 23:25). Neither should we think that the above paragraphs describe a sinless state. Spiritual formation is a journey, hence the reason the Christian life is often described as a “walk” (e.g., Eph 4:1). Furthermore, one can be holy/righteous/obedient/bear fruit, etc. without being ‘sinless.’ This is clear from something like the Sermon on the Mount, which essentially describes the surpassing righteous life while at the same time acknowledging the need for forgiveness of sins (Matt 6:12). 

      Because spiritual formation is not limited to outward change, no amount of motivation and willpower can produce it. One may as well try and push a camel through the eye of a needle (Matt 19:24). The two necessary ingredients—if I can call them “ingredients”—for spiritual formation are faith and the Spirit. The Spirit is essential because spiritual formation is ultimately supernatural and not only beyond our mere human abilities but beyond our inclinations. Furthermore, because spiritual formation is also internal, the Spirit is the only one who is able to go to work in the deepest parts of our being (see Eph 3:16). Faith (in Christ) is necessary because the Spirit only works through faith (e.g., Gal 3:1–5). This is best seen in Galatians 5, where faith in Christ produces love (Gal 5:6), but the Spirit also produces love (Gal 5:22). Hence, the righteous will live by faith (Rom 1:17), but it is the Spirit that enables one to live a righteous life (Rom 8:4). Faith produces obedience (Rom 1:5; 16:16; 1 Thess 1:3; Jas 2:14–26) but so too does the Spirit (Rom 7:6; 1 Pet 1:2). Both faith and the Spirit are necessary (Gal 5:5).

      To explain this further, the basic principle behind spiritual formation is that we become like what we worship, or in the words of Psalm 115:8, we become like what we have faith in. (Thus, genuine faith and worship cannot be separated). This is true of those who have faith in idols (e.g., Ps 135:18; Isa 44:9; Jer 2:5), but equally true when talking about Christian spiritual formation. For example, faith in Christ who “loved” us by dying for us (Gal 2:20) produces “love” for others (Gal 5:6). The principle is best summarised in 2 Corinthians 3:18 where those who behold “the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” But notice how this happens: through “the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). Such was Moses’ experience who upon seeing the glory of the LORD, “worshipped” (Ex 34:8) and was subsequently transformed (34:29–35). Isaiah, likewise, saw the LORD—described as Jesus’ “glory” in John 12:41—and was transformed (Isa 6). Thus, when we finally see Christ face to face “we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). In summary, then, worship of Christ/seeing Christ/faith in Christ leads to transformation. And because one can only worship/see/have faith through the Spirit, transformation, or spiritual formation is ultimately something that is God’s doing. But it is only God’s doing in the sense that he is forming himself in us and working to transform every part of us, so that as Paul says, we might “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:19). 

      The dynamic at work here, briefly, is that our hearts influence our conduct, attitudes and how we live (e.g., Matt 15:18–19), but it is “treasure” that influences our hearts (Matt 6:21). Treasure is simply that which we worship or trust in; treasure engages our affections! Hence, it is treasure and not law that moves the heart, and it is the heart that determines how we live. The point is that it is not enough to simply fix or deal with the heart, one must focus the heart on the right treasure, which is Christ and his rule (e.g., Matt 13:44). This explains why the apostle Paul, for example, resolved to “boast” in and “preach” nothing “except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2; see also Gal 6:14). For in the cross is power to save and transform (1 Cor 1:18—2:5). In the cross, we see the glory of Christ (John 7:39; 12:16, 23; 17:1, etc.), which among other things means that in the cross we see the full heart and character of the Father revealed in his Son (John 1:14, 18). In short, we are put in contact with treasure / that which we can trust in and worship.

      This gets to the heart of what Paul means by walking by the Spirit. The Spirit’s goal is to glorify Christ (John 15:26; 16:14), and it is only through trusting and treasuring Christ that we have any hope of resisting the desires of the flesh (Rom 8:13; Gal 5:16) in a way that brings glory to God (see also 1 Pet 2:11–12).

      To put this another way, everyone will experience transformation, but the transformation we will experience will be determined by what we treasure/worship/trust in. This process then will happen regardless. This helps explain why spiritual formation is not passive. The person who treasures money or career does not sit idly by waiting for money or their career to change their life. The same is true for those who treasure Christ and the life he offers (see, e.g., Matt 6:33). We do not become transformed people through some kind of divine osmosis. 

      Hence, while God’s “divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through” knowing Christ (2 Pet 1:3), we are also to “make every effort” (2 Pet 1:5, 10; 3:14). And yet making every effort, as defined by Peter here, is not and cannot be the kind of effort that produces outstanding outward obedience, but with no or little change in the heart. The rich young ruler serves as a good example. By all accounts, he was a man characterized by effort in his approach toward God’s commandments. However, his effort was powerless to move his heart when asked by Jesus to sell his possessions and give to the poor (Matt 19:16–22). The kind of effort that Peter is talking about is the effort required to trust in God’s “very great and precious promises,” for it is through these promises that we “participate in the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). Since promises are received by faith, making every effort is to trust that one has been “cleansed from their past sins” (2 Pet 1:9)—that is, to grow in grace (2 Pet 1:18)—to trust in the sure and reliable Word of God (2 Pet 1:16–21; 3:2), to be vigilant about those that would seek to distort God’s Word and his promises and trust the warnings against those who don’t (2 Pet 2; 3:3–7, 16–17), and to patiently rely in the future restoration of the new heavens and new earth (2 Pet 3:8–15).

      Effort must be driven by faith; otherwise it is powerless. And “everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Rom 14:23). Faith produced effort will be Spirit or divine produced effort (see, e.g., Phil 2:12–13). For example, if we become like what we trust in or worship, this means that those who trust in idols will lack the ability to speak, see, hear, smell, feel, etc. since that is what idols are like (Ps 115:4–8). In other words, those who trust in idols will lack the ability to ‘experience’[1] God. One way to illustrate how this works in spiritual formation is from Hebrews 12:14: “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness, no one will see the Lord.” “Every effort to live in peace”—defined here as “holiness”—is driven by the desire to “see the Lord,” whether that being seeing the Lord in eternity (1 John 3:2) or now (Eph 1:18). I, therefore, make every effort to live in peace, trusting that my eyes will be opened further to God. Or Matthew 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Again, the effort required to be pure in heart is driven by the desire to want to see God. I, therefore, make every effort to be pure in heart, trusting that my eyes will be opened further to God. In this way, a number of things from above come together:

      • Faith/trust produces transformation.
      • We increasingly “participate in the divine nature” “through” God’s “very great and precious promises.” 
      • Treasure influences the heart, which in turn affects our actions and attitudes. 
      • Worship leads to transformation.

      When this is understood, the role of spiritual disciplines (e.g., prayer, reading God’s word, etc.) is understood as various means of serving us in the spiritual formation process. They serve us in the same way that a phone or cutlery might serve us: they put us in contact with the person on the other end of the phone or with the food on our plate. They are not an end in themselves, and neither do they necessarily define a spiritually formed person. Clouds are necessary for rain, but the presence of clouds does not mean rain. Similarly, spiritual disciplines are essential as we seek to know Christ, but their presence in our lives by no means indicate a (healthy) knowledge of Christ. The Pharisees being a case in point.

      Life, of course, is not as neat and tidy as the above suggests. Tests are always coming at us, in the form of trials and temptations, to test our faith (Jas 1:2–4; 1 Pet 1:6–7). They may either rule us, in which case, escape, pleasure and comfort become more of a treasure than clinging to Christ (Luke 8:13–14). Or they may serve us, in which case, clinging to Christ becomes more of a treasure than escaping, pleasure or comfort offers (Rom 5:3–5; Jas 1:2–4). The reality is that “now we see only a reflection as in a mirror” (1 Cor 13:12), in other words, “what we will be has not yet been made known” (1 John 3:2). But once again, spiritual formation is a journey; and it is a journey of grace. The ego, because of its need to accomplish and be rewarded, resists grace and unconditional love. Grace effectively puts the ego (think of the “flesh”) out of a job. But there is power in grace to transform (Titus 2:11–12 cf. 1 Cor 15:10; Acts 11:23 and Isa 6:6–8). In fact, Paul articulates it well by indicating that it is only by experiencing Christ’s unconditional love that we experience “the fullness of God” (Eph 3:17–20), indeed this is the goal of spiritual formation. Thus, as we experience more of Christ’s grace and love, we become more like what we worship, Christ formed in us, loving others as Christ himself has loved us.   

        [1] I am using the word “experience” to summarise what idols cannot do in Ps 115:5–7. 

      By Alan P. Stanley

      Posted in Scribbles | 0 Comments | Tagged Christian, Disciplines, Jesus, Sanctification, Spiritual
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