A Purpose-Driven Scolding
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This is Perry Noble of New Spring “Church” scolding those people in the congregation that expect him to behave like a pastor.
Confession Apart from Obedience is Worthless
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There are many false teachings in our time within the visible Church. What we must never forget is that there is nothing new under the Sun. The heresies we encounter now are actually very old. Some have been around a long time in their current form while others are recycled versions of an older heresy that was dealt with hundreds of years ago. Why should our enemy and his seed come up with new attacks when the old ones wreak havoc, deepen spiritual blindness, and keep people mired in man-made religiosity instead of becoming spirit-filled, obedient Christians?
(click here to read this post)
“Christian Band” Family Force 5 On How To Become A Christian
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Apprising Ministries shares an email in this post concerning the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) scene, and more specifically the Christian band Family Force 5. It speaks very loudly and clearly to the detrimental effects that teachers of a counterfeit Christianity in this growing Emergence rebellion against Sola Scriptura like Rob Bell and Shane Claiborne, as well as others who mentor them such as Brian McLaren and Marcus Borg, are having upon your evangelical youth.
*Madison Update*
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Missionaries to the Preborn here in Milwaukee sent out this alert about the Madison hospital situation where they are hoping to begin second trimester abortions at their surgery clinic. Anyone who is able should let their voices be heard.
A PUBLIC HEARING will be held this Wednesday, February 4th, at 2:00 p.m. by the UW Hospital and Clinics Board in the UW Medical Foundation Administration Building located at 7974 UW Health Court in Middleton, Wisconsin.
Take action today to help protect preborn babies from a brutal death! Abortion is murder, and the preborn have a God-given right to life.
The UW Hospital Board will be voting on this decision this coming week. Please take action in 4 easy ways to help ensure that abortion services are accessible at the Madison Surgery Center and to show that the community supports this decision:
1. Email the UW Hospital Board asking them to NOT allow second trimester abortions at the Madison Surgery Center.
2. Call the UW Hospital Board at 608-890-9220 and leave a message expressing your appreciation for their leadership and to ask them “to vote against the unjust killing of the helpless preborn.”
3. Write a letter to the editor to the Wisconsin State Journal, The Capital Times, or your local newspaper to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves – the helpless preborn in Madison!
4. Tell 5 friends and ask them to email, call, and write a letter to the editor as well.
Attend the Public Hearing & show your support
UW Hospital and Clinics Board
Wednesday, February 4th @ 2pm
UW Medical Foundation Admin Building
7974 UW Health Court, Middleton
CHRISTIAN BAND FAMILY FORCE 5 ON HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN
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The following email concerning the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) scene, and more specifically the Christian band Family Force 5, was sent to Apprising Ministries and is published here by permission of the young person who wrote it.
As a pastor I felt led to post it because it speaks so loudly and clearly to the detrimental effects that teachers of a counterfeit Christianity in this growing Emergence rebellion against Sola Scriptura like Rob Bell and Shane Claiborne, as well as others who mentor them such as Brian McLaren and Marcus Borg, are having upon your evangelical youth:
—– Original Message —–
From: AM Reader
To: apprising@hughes.net
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 6:06 PM
Subject: Contemporary Christian Music — Apprising Ministries contact formI went on Family Force Five’s MySpace (that’s a supposedly “Christian” band, they are quite popular) a little while back, after attending Christian Music Day at Carowinds in North Carolina a few months ago. I asked the band on their MySpace page “How does one become a Christian?” And here is what Chap Stique, one of the band members, told me:
Thanks for the cool question! The answer is easy, yet difficult: Here’s the easy (and true) answer: LOVE!
The best way to experience the message of Christ is by loving those in need, caring for others, and being selfless!
Following the teachings of Jesus Christ is a beautiful and life-changing experience, and I hope it is something that interests you.
I’m not sure what your spiritual background is, or how you feel about Christianity, so I apologize if any of this is repetitive or old to you.
The truth is: there is no formula for spiritual enlightenment. There is no path, 5-step process, or secret. It’s like a relationship…you can’t teach
a person how to fall in love with another. It happens differently for everybody. However, in the end, it is worth it.Some important elements you should keep in mind are: -ALWAYS question and seek growth. You will hear a lot of different messages = from Christians. Let your faith grow and change.
-Nobody will ever have all the answers. One of the most embarrassing things Christianity has done is that it often pretends to claim 100% knowledge of God and the universe. We are humans, and will never be all-knowing. That’s the beauty of God!
It is incredible if you can get involved in some type of church/community group/Bible study that challenges you and welcomes you.
If you’re interested, check out one or two of these books:
-Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
-anything by Marcus Borg (these are tough reads, but incredible ones)
-The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren
-The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne
-much moreOr, I like checking out the Mars Hill podcasts from Grand Rapids, MI. They’re free on itunes.
Take care, and I hope you continue to pursue the experience of Jesus. Just remember, although Christians have used the name of Christ to justify awful deeds in the past (and present), the heart of the message is love, liberation, peace, joy, justice, and equality!
Thanks,
Chap StiqueThat is what he said, and notice the books he recommends! I have done a good bit of research on CCM, going to that concert and doing extensive research online, and it is my belief that the vast majority of CCM bands believe in this same type of gospel as presented by Chap Stique. The reach of CCM is deep and wide, particularly on the young people. Many may not initially be into books by Bell or Borg, but after they find out that that is what their favorite “Christian” artist is into, they pick up these books and accept it without question, simply because they like the CCM band’s music. Believe me I know I’m 19 and have seen how teens soak this filth up.
I think this is very dangerous and needs to be talked about more. The dangers of CCM are the same as those of the Emergent Church, because they are all interrelated, they all hold to the same beliefs. Thanks for reading this, and I entreat you to post some stuff about the dangers of Contemporary Christian Music for others on your website.
Thank you,
AM Reader
Family Force 5 - “Radiator”
A Purpose Driven Scolding from Purpose Driven Hireling Perry Noble
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This is just sickening. I’m thankful that the Lord delivered my girlfriend Susan and I from Perry’s congregation.
What Makes Something A Sacrament?
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From Westminster Seminary California:
Michael S. Horton
First published in Evangelium, Vol. 4, Issue 1 (Jan/Feb 2006)
Someone has invited you to a new, cutting-edge worship service especially targeting the twenty- and thirty-somethings. Identifying itself as part of the “emergent” network, the group does not identify itself as a church (too many bad associations). It doesn’t look like church either, but more like a large living room, with different stations for various spiritual activities. These stations include perhaps a prayer labyrinth, incense, icons, and a cup and bread set on an end table. Eventually, someone begins speaking, as at least most of the folks find their way to couches and chairs. This is not a sermon (too hierarchical), but a heart-to-heart conversation, trying to “connect” with Christians and non-Christians alike in a way that is “vulnerable” and “authentic” in contrast to the canned pragmatism and hype that they knew in the megachurches (or wannabe megachurches) of their youth.
The setting I am describing can be found in literally hundreds of gatherings each Sunday, many of them non-denominational, but others at least informally connected with just about any denomination you can think of. Burned out on what they regard as inauthentic hype, many of these young people are starved for mystery and transcendence. They want to actually come into contact with God and not just their own “felt needs.” Their Boomer parents liked stage lighting; these folks like candles.
The assumption today often is that because faith is a direct, unmediated relationship with God within our spirit, outward forms don’t really matter. Therefore, we can do whatever we want in worship as long as the doctrine is right. In this setting, we too easily pick and choose our own “means of grace.”
New Measures?
While we can affirm the struggles and many of the impulses of this “emergent” generation, this movement risks becoming simply another verse of the same tired hymn, which we might call “An Ode to New Measures.” The nineteenth-century revivalist Charles G. Finney, a Presbyterian who disliked just about everything that defined Presbyterian faith and practice, sharply rejected the Calvinist teaching that human beings were totally unable to regenerate themselves. According to Finney, we are not saved from God’s just wrath and ingrafted into Christ’s visible church by a supernatural work of God’s Spirit working through the ordinary means of grace, that is preaching the gospel and administering the sacraments. Rather, since conversion is “not a miracle or dependent on a miracle in any sense, but is the philosophical result of the right use of means” (“new measures,” as he identified them), it is the job of the successful evangelist to find “excitement sufficient to induce repentance.” If salvation is in the sinner’s hands, then the conversion of sinners in the evangelist’s hands. (1)
America is a marketplace of desire, a super-store of consumer craving, and its do-it-yourself religious life is as much a testimony to that fact as any other aspect. In our culture, shopping is therapy. We are not so much Pilgrim making his way with the communion of saints to the Celestial City as individual tourists bouncing from booth to booth at Vanity Fair. As much as the “emergent” movement criticizes religious inauthenticity, it exhibits more than it disproves that thesis. Its most visible leader, Brian McLaren (named recently by TIME magazine among the most significant evangelical leaders), in addition to redefining or challenging core evangelical doctrines, says that he appreciates the “sacramental” world-view of Roman Catholicism. “Once we say there are seven sacraments, we can then begin to see everything as a potential sacrament,” he writes. To be sure, McLaren’s theology is different from Finney’s. Unlike the celebrated revivalist of yesteryear, McLaren eschews “hell-fire and brimstone.” Yet like Finney, he downplays the seriousness of sin as a condition from which nothing short of a substitutionary, vicarious sacrifice of Christ can alone redeem us. The theology may be described as “Finney-lite.” And practice cannot be separated from theory. Like Finney, McLaren and many in the “emergent” movement seem to think that it is up to us to decide what constitutes a “means of grace.”
Man’s Terms vs. God’s Terms
The Protestant Reformers recognized that if you start with a human-centered “gospel,” you will need human-centered methods. Even the ordained sacraments can become means not of divine grace but of human striving. Just as Finney looked for “excitements sufficient to induce repentance,” Rome offered various strategies for obtaining remission of sins through penance. The Reformers, by contrast, recognized the logic of Paul in Romans, especially chapter 10. In that chapter, Paul says that there are two answers to the question, How can I be reconciled to God? One answer is “the righteousness which is by works,” the other is “the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ.” One is founded on our zeal for God, the other on God’s zeal for us and for our salvation.
Paul recognized that the message creates its own methods, as he unfolds the argument in that famous chapter. Works-righteousness looks for ways of climbing up to pull Christ down or descending into the depths to bring him up, while faith-righteousness receives Christ as he has descended already to us and where he promises to be present to us for our salvation. For works-righteousness, faith comes by striving; for gospel-righteousness, faith comes by hearing Christ preached. One need not catch a plane for the latest “revival,” get caught up in the latest crusade or spiritual fad, go on a pilgrimage, fast and pray for it, walk through a labyrinth, bow before an icon, or follow the most recent “principles for victory.” Christ is never closer to us than when he is actually giving himself to us in the preached Word, in baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper.
Imagine a wealthy benefactor promised you a million dollars for a life-saving operation. He tells you to meet him at a certain spot, where he’ll give you the check. Dropped off by a friend at an inauspicious corner, in a derelict part of town, you locate the appointed coffee shop. This can’t be the place, you think to yourself, as the neon sign hangs precariously with letters missing. Entering, you seat yourself in a rickety booth, noticing that your cup is stained with coffee and smeared with lipstick, the saucer chipped, and the service is appalling. You look around and cannot imagine that anyone vaguely resembling a millionaire might be among the patrons. Just as you are about to leave, a man in shabby clothes saunters over to your table and addresses you by name and as you acknowledge him, he slides in the booth with you and joins you for a meal. Then and there he hands you the check and you celebrate your new-found friendship. Come to find out, this gentleman has frequented this coffee shop for years—it’s his favorite spot.
Like the idolatrous nations, we look for “god” at all the high places but the true God inhabits the low places, when and where he has promised to be present to dispense his gifts over a conversation and a meal. We find this God-for-Us at the cross, bleeding and dying for sinners—hardly the sort of “coronation” that the disciples were looking for in Jerusalem. Furthermore, this same God shows up precisely where we would not expect to find him in our lives here and now. If we’re going to fly up to heaven to bring God down to us, it will require some pretty powerful means, but God comes down to us in weakness. We look for the clever route, the path that makes the most sense—“excitements sufficient to induce repentance,” but God refuses to be found by us on our terms. He finds us on his.
The Sacraments
The Corinthian church was immature, always on the lookout for a slick “super-apostle” to deliver something more spectacular than the inauspicious ministry of this weak Apostle to the Gentiles. Yet, Paul demands, “What do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (1 Cor 4:7). In his second letter he writes, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Cor 4:7). Like the benefactor in my illustration, the power lies in God’s promise to deliver his gifts when and where he pleases.
Not because of any inherent power or cleverness, sacraments are means of grace—and not of grace in general, but of redeeming grace. Reformed theology has long encouraged us to see the whole world as a theater of God’s goodness and providence. A magnificent sunset, a beautiful concert, the smile of a child, a wonderful meal with friends and the marital embrace are signs of God’s general care for all that he has made. Yet this care extends equally to believers and unbelievers alike (Mt 5:45). While general revelation reminds us of God’s power and majesty, the preached gospel communicates God’s saving grace. God is present everywhere, in all that he has made, yet he is only present to save where he has promised to meet us. While the Grand Canyon may fill us with awe, the preaching of Christ fills us with faith. Answering the question, “Where does this faith come from?”, the Heidelberg Catechism (Q. 65) answers, “The Holy Spirit produces it in our hearts by the preaching of the holy gospel, and confirms it through our use of the holy sacraments.”
While God can create and confirm faith whenever and however he chooses, he has only promised to do so through the means he has appointed. In the sacraments, God unites the signs (water, bread and wine) to the things signified (regeneration, the body and blood of Christ), in order to deliver to us that same gospel promise announced to us through his Word, so that we both hear and see that God is good! God himself condescends to our weakness, attaching the royal seal of his covenant of grace. As Edmund Clowney wrote,
Spreading the sacramental over the whole creation dilutes its force. If everything is sacramental, then bread and wine are already sacraments before their consecration, and the mystery of the Eucharist differs only in degree from the sacramentality of an incarnate creation….The revelation of God in nature does display God’s ‘eternal power and divine nature’ (Rom. 1:20), making all humankind accountable to him, but God’s special revelation in word and deed provides the signs of his redeeming power (The Church, 270-271).
So should we try to be wiser than God? Do we know better how to receive Christ and all his benefits? When we do set out to scale heaven’s heights, to possess God as he is in all of his majesty rather than simply receive him as he condescends to us, we usually make golden calves. But this is to worship God on our terms rather than on his, to create an “experience” with God that we can manage and control through our own spiritual technology rather than to humbly accept the gift that he promises to give us.
Whatever feeds us with God’s Word and guides us by his law is profitable. Yet these are not, strictly speaking, the means of grace. Many things are required as duties in the Christian life, and many other things not required by God may be useful. Yet these are not, strictly speaking, means of grace but means of discipleship. In other words, they are appropriate means of responding to God, while preaching and sacraments are God’s means of reaching us. The Heidelberg Catechism calls prayer, for example, “the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us” (Q 116). It is indispensable to the Christian life, just as communication is for a fruitful marriage. Nevertheless, prayer is the response of faith, while preaching and sacrament create and confirm faith. As means of grace, sacraments communicate something from God to us, while in all exercises of Christian gratitude and obedience we respond in love to God and neighbor.
Conclusion
While there are many things for a Christian to do, nothing that we do can communicate grace to ourselves. There are, of course, many things that we must do in order to receive God’s Word and sacraments: getting dressed, going to church, spending the day in meditation on God’s riches in Christ. But the communication of these riches is itself entirely God’s act, not ours. The good news is that God has not only found his way to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, but in the weekly Sabbath he has carved out of this passing age time for his meeting with us. Indeed, the medium is the message. “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 13:28-29).
Footnotes
1 Finney’s “new measures” and the revivalism that followed in his wake led to what historians have called the “burned-over district” in upstate New York, where the acceleration of “excitements” eventually led to spiritual exhaustion, both in the form of hardened unbelief and in the form of radical spiritualities. Many of the mind-science cults were born along the path of these revivals. Like a heroine addict, a victim of “bad religion” often discovers that there are only two options: to break the habit of religion altogether or to go deeper and deeper into cultic binges, trying desperately to satisfy the cravings. But whether the craving is for more immanence (sense of God’s nearness and familiarity) or more transcendence (sense of God’s majesty and mystery), idolatry is a perennial human temptation.
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A Purpose-Driven Scolding
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Here is “Purpose-Driven Rock Star” Perry Noble letting us all know what we can expect from this new breed of Seeker-Driven hireling goat herders.
UW Madison Hospital—Meet the Resistance!
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I am fiercely thankful that over 2000 defenders of human life turned out today in Madison, Wisconsin, to witness against the attempts of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and clinics to perform second trimester abortions. 2000+ Wisconsin residents stood in the cold to say, “No, you’re not going to do this in a closet. You’re not going to engage in the butchery of these children without the spotlight being shone on your barbarism.” One of those standing for life was Randy Melchert, a young Christian with a commitment to truth in the midst of our death-obsessed culture. He took video and posted it here. The ugly chanting you hear on the video is from the death enthusiasts. Yes, UW-Madison’s finest showed up, and you can hear the anger in their voices at seeing the Christians. Christians are supposed to stay in church, right? “Not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate!” they yelled. Praise God for each and every one who took a stand against this evil. God is not dead and neither are His people.
The Gift Nobody Wants (Paul Washer)
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http://tinyurl.com/74j36y
http://www.heartcrymissionary.com
Author: LaneCh
Keywords: paul washer the gift nobody wants decisionism
Added: January 31, 2009
TADD GRANDSTAFF WANTS YOU TO TAKE THE TITHE CHALLENGE
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Tadd Grandstaff, lead pastor goat-herder, and his Pine Ridge Church wants to put God to the test. Here are some of the contest…oops…tithe challenge rules:
I understand that this form must be completed and received by the Pine Ridge Church Finance Team prior to the beginning of the 60-day Tithe Challenge Period.
I understand that my household qualifies for participation because we have not been tithing for the last six months.
I understand that if I choose to begin giving to Pine Ridge Church that my tithe must be paid by; check, completed giving envelope when using cash, or by giving online. This is to ensure that your tithe can be properly credited.
I understand that I cannot seek a refund prior to the end of the 60-day Tithe Challenge Period, and that I cannot seek a refund for any contributions made prior to the beginning of the 60-day Tithing Challenge Period.
I understand that any request for refund must be received by the Finance Team within 30 days of the end of the 60-day Tithe Challenge Period.
I agree that for the 60-day period I state below, my household will contribute to God, through Pine Ridge Church, a tithe equal to 10% of our income. At the end of the 60-day period, if I am not convinced of God’s faithfulness to bless my life as a result of my obedience to His Word, then I will be entitled to request a refund of the full amount of contributions made during that 60-day period.
I would like to test God’s faithfulness by accepting the 60-day Tithe Challenge. (Online source)
See also:
TADD GRANDSTAFF, APPRISING MINISTRIES AND “DEALING WITH CRITICS…”
*UPDATE* TADD GRANDSTAFF: A BLOGGING COWARD COMES CALLING
Tadd Grandstaff Wants You To Take The Tithe Challenge
Click the post title to be taken to the source.
Tadd Grandstaff, lead pastor goat-herder, and his Pine Ridge Church wants to put God to the test. Here are some of the contest…oops…Tithe Challenge rules:
I understand that this form must be completed and received by the Pine Ridge Church Finance Team prior to the beginning of the 60-day Tithe Challenge Period.
I understand that my household qualifies for participation because we have not been tithing for the last six months.
I understand that if I choose to begin giving to Pine Ridge Church that my tithe must be paid by; check, completed giving envelope when using cash, or by giving online. This is to ensure that your tithe can be properly credited.
I understand that I cannot seek a refund prior to the end of the 60-day Tithe Challenge Period, and that I cannot seek a refund for any contributions made prior to the beginning of the 60-day Tithing Challenge Period.
I understand that any request for refund must be received by the Finance Team within 30 days of the end of the 60-day Tithe Challenge Period.
I agree that for the 60-day period I state below, my household will contribute to God, through Pine Ridge Church, a tithe equal to 10% of our income. At the end of the 60-day period, if I am not convinced of God’s faithfulness to bless my life as a result of my obedience to His Word, then I will be entitled to request a refund of the full amount of contributions made during that 60-day period.
I would like to test God’s faithfulness by accepting the 60-day Tithe Challenge.
See also:
TADD GRANDSTAFF, APPRISING MINISTRIES AND “DEALING WITH CRITICS…”
*UPDATE* TADD GRANDSTAFF: A BLOGGING COWARD COMES CALLING
Costly Grace
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“Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will [...]
Living Water
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Possibly one of the most devastating things that can happen to us as Christians is that we cease to expect anything to happen. I am not sure but that this is not one of our greatest troubles today. We come to our services and they are orderly, they are nice ‒ we come, we go [...]
Private Prayer
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“But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret, shall reward you openly” (Matthew 6:6).
Eight times in the space of this verse, is the pronoun used in the singular number and the second [...]
CHARLES SPURGEON: JESUS IS THE ANTAGONIST OF THOSE WHO LESSEN THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE
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Find Jesus where you may, He is the antagonist of those who would lessen the authority of Holy Scripture. “It is written,” is His weapon against Satan, His argument against wicked men. The learned at this hour scoff at the Book and accuse of Bibliolatry those of us who reverence the divine Word; but in this they derive no assistance from the teaching or example of Jesus.
Not a word derogatory of Scripture ever fell from the lips of Jesus Christ; but evermore He manifested the most reverent regard for every jot and tittle of the inspired Volume. Since our Savior, not only His death, but after it, took care thus to commend the Scriptures to us, let us avoid with all our hearts all teaching in which Holy Scripture is put into the background.
Charles Spurgeon
THE GOSPEL’S FIRST DEMAND—REPENTANCE
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From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)
The message that Jesus brought to the people—the “great light” He revealed to those “sitting in the land of shadow and death”—was always very clear. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Our Lord thus began with the same basic exhortation that His herald, John the Baptist, had begun with (cf. Matt. 3:2).
Repentance is a crucial but often neglected or omitted element of the gospel. “Repent” means to turn from sin, to change your orientation, and in so turning to seek a new way of life. The person who repents has a radical change of will and heart, and as a result, a change of behavior (cf. Matt. 3:8) The repentant sinner will radically change the way he or she views sin and righteousness.
Repentance was, is, and always will be the foremost demand of the gospel. It is quite simply the first part of the saving work of the Holy Spirit in the sinner’s soul. In his Pentecost sermon, Peter also issued a call for repentance: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 2:38). Paul reassured Timothy that repentance leads “to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:25). If repentance was crucial for the people of Jesus’ day, it is even more imperative for everyone today, because the kingdom is nearer than ever.
Ask Yourself
Like all of us, you’ve confessed many things, many times before. But today is another good opportunity to take repentance seriously. What sins need its corrective touch in your life? Bring them before the Father. Receive His mercy. Walk away refreshed and in freedom. (John MacArthur, Daily Readings from the Life of Christ, January 30)
There Is A Way To Be Happy, Even In Sadness
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Godly Sorrow: Jesus’ and Ours
By John Piper
Christian Hedonists embrace necessary sorrow for the glory of God. On the one hand, we are utterly committed to pursuing joy in God at all times. But on the other hand, we know there is more to the emotional life of godly people than joy. Joy is not the only good emotion. But without delight in God, no emotion would be good. Either as component or the concomitant of all godly emotions, it is joy in God that makes them good.
Consider sorrow. Neither Jesus nor the Holy Spirit has ever sinned. But both have grieved. Both have been sorrowful. Therefore, godly sorrow is possible.
Not only that, godly sorrow is possible also for sinners. It is possible precisely because of our sin. One form of sorrow is sorrow for doing something wrong. So Paul writes to the Corinthians:
For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it. . . . I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. (2 Corinthians 7:8-10)
At least two things govern what makes sorrow good. One is the cause, the other is the outcome. The cause of godly sorrow for our own sin is the spiritual perception of its moral ugliness, not just its negative consequences. We see it as morally repugnant. This repugnance is owing to our spiritual preference for the taste of the truth and beauty of God. Therefore our sorrow for sin is rooted in our savoring of God. Sin is a revolting flavor in the feast of godwardness. Therefore, sorrow over this is a signal that we delight in God. That is what makes the sorrow good.
The outcome of good sorrow for sin is repentance and holiness. In fact, repentance includes sorrow for sin and extends it to a more durable experience of holy living. This holy living is the outward form of delighting in God above all sin. Therefore delight in God is what makes the sorrow and repentance good.
But what about sorrow that is not for our own sin, but for the way we are sinned against or the way we are hurt by calamity and loss? Jesus sorrowed like this. For example, when he saw the Pharisees murmuring about his healing on the Sabbath, “He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart” (Mark 3:5). And in the garden of Gethsemane, he said, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch” (Mark 14:34).
Jesus’ sorrow was not owing to his own sin, but to the sins of others. This is the way it is with the Holy Spirit as well. Paul calls us to put sin out of our lives so that we do not grieve the Spirit: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:29-30).
In the same way believers embrace godly grief not only for our own sins but for the sins of others and for the pain that loss brings us. For example, Peter speaks of our grieving over trials: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, as was necessary, you have been grieved by various trials” (1 Peter 1:6). Paul speaks of our grieving over lost loved ones: “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). And Paul refers to his own grief over the lostness of his kinsmen: “My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart (Romans 9:1).
Nevertheless Paul makes the astonishing statement in 2 Corinthians 6:10 that what marks his life and should mark ours is “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” This is what makes our sorrow godly. I do not claim that this experience is simple or that we can even put it into adequate words—what it means to be joyful in sorrow. Heaving sobs at the loss of a loved one does not look like joy. Indeed is not joy in its fullness, as we will know it when “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).
Rather the joy that endures through sorrow is the foretaste of that future joy in God which we hope for in the future. When Jesus was “very sorrowful, even to death” in Gethsemane he was sustained by “the joy that was set before him” (Hebrews 12:2). This does not mean that he felt in the garden or on the cross all that he would feel in the resurrection. But it does mean that he hoped in it and that this hope was an experienced foretaste of that joy.
Therefore, we groan here, waiting for the redemption of our bodies and for the removal of all our sins (Romans 8:23). This groaning and grieving is godly if it is molded by our delight in hope of glory (Romans 5:2-3). The delight is muffled by the pain. But it is there in seed form. It will one day grow into a great vine that yields wine of undiluted delight.
So let us embrace whatever sorrow God appoints for us. Let us not be ashamed of tears. Let the promise that joy comes with the morning (Psalm 30:5) sustain and shape our grief with the power and goodness of God.
End of post.
On Sacrifice Part 3- On The Value Of Man
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What then should we say of Man? What value can he have that would dispose a perfectly holy God, Himself the recipient of unrighteous treatment, to provide an alternative to Death for the very criminals against His Character? It is this question that men and angels have sought to understand since time out of mind and another ten thousand eternities would not give time to explain the perplexing Love and Grace of God. But we may still seek to understand as much as He will allow our minds to digest. Though we know that our knowledge will fall very short, it is the privilege provided by Grace that we may endeavor to learn of the Most High and pursue His ways. [...]
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