Truth, Sin, and the Cross

 We've been reading "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a family, and we read a portion the other night which really stood out to me, especially as I've also been reading "Living The Cross Centered Life" by CJ Mahaney. I took the book to my room last night to reread that passage, and I ended up staying up way too late, as I couldn't help reading ahead. :P Sooo good. But anyways, since I don't have anything longer and more original, and I wanted to post something today, I thought I'd share a bit of it. The bulk of the book is an exposition on the sermon on the mount, and this particular chapter was focusing in on Matthew 5:33-37.

The commandment of truthfulness is really only another name for the totality of discipleship. Only those who follow Jesus and cleave to him are living in complete truthfulness. Such men have nothing to hide from their Lord. Their life is revealed before him, Jesus has recognized them and led them into the way of truth. They cannot hide their sinfulness from Jesus, for they have not revealed themselves to Jesus, but he has revealed himself to them by calling them to follow him. At the moment of their call, Jesus showed up their sin and made them aware of it. Complete truthfulness is only possible where sin has been uncovered, and forgiven by Jesus. Only those who are in a state of truthfulness through the confession of their sin to Jesus are not afraid to tell the truth wherever it must be told. The truthfulness which Jesus demands from his followers is the self-abnegation which does not hide sin. Nothing is hidden, everything is brought forth to the light of day.

In this question of truthfulness, what matters first and last is that a man's whole being should be exposed, his whole evil laid bare in the sight of God. But sinful men do not like this kind of truthfulness, and they resist it with all their might. That is why they persecute it and crucify it. It is only because we follow Jesus that we can be genuinely truthful, for then he reveals to us our sin upon the cross. The cross is God's truth about us, and therefore it is the only power which can make us truthful. When we know the cross we are no longer afraid of the truth. We need no more oaths to confirm the truth of our utterances, for we live in the perfect truth of God. ("The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pg. 138-139)

How clear this is, that only those who know Jesus Christ and have looked to the cross can be unafraid of truth. The cross, the place where we see the depths of the horror of our sin as we realize the cost of the atonement through the sacrifice of God's only Son, is a place of mockery for those who love their sin.

God's truth about us. What a heavy thing, for that truth reveals us as completely ugly, completely unworthy. And yet, where that sin is revealed, it is also atoned! This two-fold truth about sin and sanctification is the marvel of the cross, the crowning jewel of the revelation of God's truth, and the foundation of our faith. This is the truth Christ calls us to live in every day. I was really encouraged by this passage, and I hope you were too. :) Let us be encouraged that even when others revile us for clinging to the truth, it is for the sake of Christ.

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, 

and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)

Fellowship...

I randomly thought of The Fellowship of the Ring the other morning when I heard the word "fellowship". The ring, standing for evil, for temptation, brought together a company which together sought to destroy and defeat its dark power. Fellowship isn't a passive thing - it has to constantly be engaged in building unity and carrying one another's burdens.

Sometimes I find true fellowship difficult. I think it has a lot to do with today's society, and a lot to do with sin. Being social in our culture often means constantly checking our phone for texts or spending hours on facebook. For some, it means going to parties, or maybe in the church it means going to every Bible study and event you possibly can. Sometimes the most "social" people are the hardest to really know. I know for me, pride and false assumptions and expectations can become a barrier to true fellowship.

I think we all long for community, real community. And the tough thing about this is that seeking community and fellowship can sometimes become an idol that keeps us from seeking the truth and purity of God and His word. But I don't think it has to be that way. (There I go again, using "and" and "but" to begin sentences.)

What is it that makes the fellowship found in Tolkein so important and memorable? I should think it is the fact that they are brought together for a common cause - to fight and destroy the power of evil, even the evil that is within themselves.Yet what about the times when we feel alone, when we feel frustrated by a "lack" of fellowship?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Love community and you will kill it. Love your brother and you will build it." That is such a profound reality, because it is only in obedience to the command of Christ and love for our brothers and sisters that true spiritual community exists. Once again, I'm reminded of the definition of love - sacrificing, unconditional, and not self-seeking. “Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.”(Bonhoeffer, Life Together) It is our common redemption in Christ that gives us fellowship. We are not to pursue an ideal or a vision, but rather offer ourselves to God in service and compassion, even to the least of these. 

We are each "ring bearers" of sorts, constantly battling our flesh. But even when we feel alone, we are not alone. We fight a battle, "not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph 6:12)

You are no longer foreigners and strangers, 

but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 

with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 

In him the whole building is joined together 

and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 

And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling 

in which God lives by his Spirit. (Eph 2:19-22)

Now that, my friends, is an extraordinary promise! He has given us a fellowship with Him and with the redeemed that can never be taken away. Though our relationships with one another will never be perfect, and will never "fulfill our needs", He himself will supply our needs as we "follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Eph 5:1-2) I want to truly learn this, as I pray for a greater fellowship with my brothers and sisters, and a more abandoned obedience to Christ.

Speak

The persecuted church and the issue of abortion have been on my heart lately.  Maybe they seem unrelated to you, but they are linked as issues on which the church must stand, even in this dark and fallen world, to lift up the downtrodden and relieve the oppressed. If you haven't seen the documentary 180, a film by Living Waters that compares abortion with the holocaust, I'd highly recommend watching it. As I've been studying the holocaust lately, I'm horrified by the atrocities that were sanctioned by society. True, the holocaust happened 60 years ago, but it is sobering to realize that my grandparents were alive at the time, and likely knew little about it. The parallels between the age we now live in, and the world around the time of Hitler are seen in almost every way - socially, religiously, morally. The church in Germany had become merely a social institution, rather than the body of Christ. And I can't help but wonder, what has become of the church today? Still, there were some then, and there are some now, who shine even brighter in the midst of this darkness. The international day of prayer for the persecuted church was this past Sunday - let's remember to keep these brothers and sisters continually lifted in prayer.

I want to share a few quotes with you today - may the Holy Spirit use His Word and the words of these wise men to awaken our hearts and minds to action - to care for the widow, the orphan, the unborn child, and our persecuted brothers and sisters, in the name and power of Christ. God is alive! May we prove this by our lives.

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"Where the world despises other members of the Christian family, Christians will love and serve them. If the world does violence to them, Christians will help them and provide them relief. Where the world subjects them to dishonor and insult, Christians will sacrifice their own honor in exchange for their disgrace. Where the world seeks gain, Christianity will renounce it; where it exploits, they will let go; where it oppresses, they will stoop down and lift up the oppressed. Where the world denies justice, Christians will practice compassion; where it hides behind lies, they will speak out for those who cannot speak, and testify for the truth." - Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"I am concerned that there is no outcry. I can well understand that there are people who are led to starve children to death because they think that they are doing something right for society or are following a principle of Hegel that is utilitarian for society. But I cannot understand why the other people, and I know that there are many, don't cry out. I am concerned about this because when the first 273,000 German aged, infirm, and retarded were killed in gas chambers there was no outcry from that medical profession either, and it was not far from there to Auschwitz." - C. Everett Koop, M.D.

“Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life, to raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue.  The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life and that is nothing but murder.” - Ethics by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Either life is always and in all circumstances sacred, or intrinsically of no account; it is inconceivable that it should be in some cases the one and in some the other." - Malcolm Muggeridge

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute." (Prov. 31:8)

"We forget that man stands alone before the ultimate authority and that anyone who lays violent hands on man here is infringing eternal laws and taking upon himself superhuman authority which will eventually crush him; the eternal law that the individual stands alone before God takes fearful vengeance where it is attacked and distorted.... Leaders or offices which set themselves up as gods mock God." - The Fuhrer Principle by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body." (Hebrews 13:3)

I'm making friends with dead people....

This has nothing to do with Halloween or necromancing, in case you're worried. ;)

It all started in the frozen food section at Costco this summer. Amongst the herds of people gathered around the sample stations, my eye randomly fell upon a girl who was holding a book in her arms. In a glance I took in the front cover. It was nothing extraordinary - just a black and white photo of a bespectacled man. Something about the title seemed familiar though. Bonhoeffer... hmm, where have I seen that name before?

Suffice it to say that my steps soon led me to the book section, where I picked up a biography on a man of whom I had barely heard. Not one to make hasty purchases on anything over $5, I nonetheless was enticed to purchase the book, lured on by my current obsession with WWII. Anyhow, $9.99 could be easily justified if it turned out to be half-decent.

It did.

I just started reading Eric Metaxas' biography of Bonhoeffer last week, and it has been incredibly fascinating.  I've really been getting into biographies/journals lately, which isn't really typical for me, but I've been so encouraged by them.  As Brett and Alex Harris say, I've been "making friends with dead people".  These accounts remind me of the "great cloud of witnesses" that Hebrews 12:1 speaks of, and the hall of faith in Hebrews 11, which lists many examples of faithful men and women who lived their lives in obedience to God.

This is the same type of life I discovered as I began to research the legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man who searched for truth and was found by God, and ultimately paid the ultimate price for his obedience when he was hanged by the gestapo.  I won't go into the details of his life here, but you can watch a 1/2 hour summary by Eric Metaxas here. (It starts slowly - if you want to skip the intro, go to 8:00) One of the things I have been most struck by so far is just how similar the world of Bonhoeffer's time was to the world of today, especially in terms of culture, philosophy, religion, and the church. I want to share a few quotes that really hit me. I pray that this generation of believers would be inspired by these words from the past, and empowered by the Spirit to seek and live the truth of God's Word.

  

"The religion of Christ is not a tidbit after one's bread, on the contrary, it is the bread or it is nothing. People should at least understand and concede this if they call themselves Christian."

"Humanism and mysticism, the seemingly most beautiful blossoms put forth by the Christian religion, extolled today as the highest ideals of the human spirit; indeed often as the crown itself of the Christian idea - [but] it is precisely the Christian idea itself that must reject them as an apotheosis of the creature and as such a challenge to the honor belonging to God alone."

"In New York they preach about virtually everything; only one thing is not addressed, or is addressed so rarely that I have as yet been unable to hear it, namely, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the cross, sin and forgiveness, death and life."

"Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic... Do not defend God's Word, but testify to it... Trust to the Word."

The Letters of C.S. Lewis

My mom gave me a book of C.S. Lewis' "Letters to an American Lady" last month for my birthday, and I've been finding them most interesting.  It's been great getting to know the real Jack Lewis, the person behind the literature I love.

Here are a few quotes that stuck out to me.  Enjoy!

His humility and honesty:

June 16, 1953

"One of the things that make it easier to believe in Providence is the fact that in all trains, hotels, restaurants, and other public places I have only once seen a stranger reading a book of mine, tho' my friends encounter this phenomenon fairly often.  Things are really fairly well arranged."

Spiritual depth of insight:

27/xi/53

"Anxiety is not only a pain which we must ask God to assuage

but also a weakness we must ask Him to pardon."

May 30th, 1953

"If I were a parson, I should always try to dwell on the faults of the clergy:

being a layman, I think it more wholesome to concentrate on those of the laity.

I am rather sick of the modern assumption that, for all events,

'WE', the people, are never responsible:

it is always our rulers, or ancestors, or parents, or education, or anybody but precious 'US'.

WE are apparently perfect and blameless.  Don't you believe it."

Nov 1st 54

"The allegorical sense of [Mary Magdalene's] great action dawned on me the other day.

The precious alabaster box which one must break over the Holy Feet is one's heart.

Easier said than done.  And the contents become perfume only when it is broken.  

While they are safe inside they are more like sewage.  

All very alarming."

And jolly good sense of humour:

March 10/54

"Verily 'He that but looketh on a plate of ham and eggs to lust after it,

hath already committed breakfast with it in his heart.'"

21/3/55

"We were talking about cats and dogs the other day and decided that both have a conscience

but the dog, being an honest, humble person, always has a bad one, 

but the cat is a Pharisee and always has a good one.

When he sits and stares you out of countenance

he is thanking God that he is not as these dogs,or these humans,

or even as these other cats!"