Could it be that Satan wants to make things more complicated?  As I teach my three young children gospel truths, I’m reminded how those simple answers are what my soul desperately needs, as well.  "Sunday School answers" are sometimes the best answers. 

Sunday School Answers

A believer experiences an unexpected break-up, and a friend responds, “God works all things for good.”  Another Christian expresses struggles with his future job prospects, and his brother answers, “Trust in the Lord.”  The discouraged disciple becomes frustrated.  He looks at his Christian friend and says, “Well, I know that.  Give me something that helps.”  Or, more likely, the truths are never stated.  The basics are just assumed.  After all, people know the Sunday School answers, right?

Certainly we must fight against insensitivity. It’s often appropriate to hold a hand, give a hug, or simply sit in silence.  Most of us don’t want to be preached at in the midst of suffering.  But the basics are truly what we need.  Truth is what comforts us.  There is a tragic sophistication and cynicism toward basic Christian truths today by many young people.  We’ve heard those answers.  They’re too simple, we reason.  We ask for more.    

The Simplicity of the Gospel

Jesus taught us that the kingdom belongs to children.  We are to receive him with the faith of a child (Luke 18:16-17).  What’s the answer to monsters under the bed?  God is in control.  How are we comforted when someone teases us on the playground?  He loves us, and that’s what counts.  What do we do if we find ourselves sad?  We reflect upon our joy in Christ.  Our need is not for better answers.  It’s for our hearts to embrace the right ones.  Gospel truths are not simplistic.  They are rich and deep.  But they’re simple.

I remember a skit, back in my college ministry days, where three Christians were competing in a game show.  One girl, trying to play the airhead, kept answering “Jesus,” with much enthusiasm, to every question.  Everyone laughed.  But maybe it was our Enemy who was truly laughing.  If he can get us to assume gospel truths, he’s won most of the battle.  If he can get us to mock God’s word, that’s success for him.  In our counseling, in our preaching, and in our evangelism, is “Jesus” our answer?  Are the promises of Scripture our comfort?  If not, we might just need to go back to Sunday School.

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Andy Naselli is Research Manager for D.A. Carson and Administrator of Themelios. His digital book Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology is being published by Logos.

What Is Keswick Theology?

Keswick theology—one of the most significant strands of second-blessing theology—assumes that Christians experience two “blessings.” The first is getting “saved,” and the second is getting serious. The change is dramatic: from a defeated life to a victorious life, from a lower life to a higher life, from a shallow life to a deeper life, from a fruitless life to a more abundant life, from being “carnal” to being “spiritual,” from merely having Jesus as your Savior to making Jesus your Master. According to this view, people experience this second blessing through surrender and faith: “Let go and let God.”

Why Is Keswick Theology Pervasive and Appealing?

Keswick theology is pervasive because countless people have propagated it in so many ways, especially in sermons and devotional writings.

It is appealing because Christians struggle with sin and want to be victorious in that struggle—now. Keswick theology offers a quick fix to this struggle, and its shortcut to instant victory appeals to genuine longings for holiness.

Why Is Keswick Theology a Bad Idea?

Keswick theology is not biblically sound. My book lists fifteen negative theological critiques of Keswick theology, but I’ll mention just seven here:

1. Disjunction: It creates two categories of Christians. This is the fundamental, linchpin issue.
2. Perfectionism: It portrays a shallow and incomplete view of sin in the Christian life.
3. Quietism: It tends to emphasize passivity, not activity.
4. Pelagianism: It tends to portray the Christian’s free will as autonomously starting and stopping sanctification.
5. Methodology: It tends to use superficial formulas for instantaneous sanctification.
6. Impossibility: It tends to result in disillusionment and frustration for the “have-nots.”
7. Spin: It tends to misinterpret personal experiences.

How Should Pastors Watch Out for Keswick Theology?

You can tell that Keswick theology has influenced people when they give their Christian “testimony” like this: “I was saved when I was eight years old, and I surrendered to Christ when I was seventeen.”

By “saved,” they mean that Jesus became their Savior and that they became a Christian. By “surrendered,” they mean that they finally gave full control of their life to Jesus as their Master, yielded to do whatever he wanted them to do, and “dedicated” themselves through surrender and faith (i.e., “let go and let God”).

That two-tiered view of the Christian life is let-go-and-let-God theology.

For more information, see Let Go and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology.

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In several psalms, the biblical authors ask God to curse people (Pss 35, 60, 70, 109, 137, 140).

Christians feel embarrassed by these imprecatory psalms. Yet, rightly understood, these psalms testify to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here’s how:

We're all cursed.

All persons stand rightly condemned (cursed) before a holy God (Rom 3:23). No one can accuse God of injustice or partiality in the Day of Judgment (Ps 7:11; Rom 3:19).

God is Judge.

In both the Old and New Testaments, the authors of Scripture point to God’s ultimate intervention against evildoers as a source of comfort (Ps 73:17-20; Rom 12:19; 2 Thess 1:6-8). In calling out to God for justice, the worshiper releases his emotions and relies upon the only Judge who knows all hearts, words, and actions (Ps 44:21; Acts 1:24).

The Psalmist represents his people.

In the imprecatory psalms, the psalmist often speaks as representative of Israel, God’s people. The individual psalmist’s call for vindication is actually an appeal for God to show himself faithful to his people. The technical interpretive term for this alteration between individual and nation is “corporate solidarity.” Assumptions of corporate solidarity also underlie the central doctrine of the Christian faith—that Christ died for us—taking the punishment we deserve on the cross. “One has died for all, therefore all have died” (2 Cor 5:14)

The Psalmist isn't sinless.

The psalmist’s protestations of innocence are situational (Ps 73:13). That is, the psalmist is not claiming to be completely sinless, but in the matter disputed, he is claiming that he is “in the right.” Similarly, if you were wrongly charged in a modern court with robbery, you might passionately appeal, “Listen, I’ve done nothing wrong!”

Jesus took our curse.

The imprecatory psalms remind us that we have wronged other people. Others could rightly pray these cursing psalms against us! Yet, Jesus bore the divine curse we rightly deserve (Gal 3:13). The gospel empowers us to reconcile with those we have wronged and to find freedom from guilt and condemnation in Christ (Rom 8:1).

Rob Plummer is an elder at Sojourn Community Church, an Acts 29 church in Louisville, KY. He is also Associate Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Southern Seminary. This blog post is adapted from his new book, 40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible.

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Breathed Out By God

The Holy Spirit works through the Word, therefore, understanding his work in the Word is the vital starting place for discussion. Since Scripture is the means of God’s revelation of his character and will, the Holy Spirit’s inspiration of Scripture is foundational to illumination and obedience.

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” This is the one occurrence of theopneustos (translated “breathed out by God,” “given by inspiration of God,” or “inspired of God”) in the New Testament. Erickson defines inspiration as “that supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit on the Scripture writers which rendered their writings an accurate record of the revelation or which resulted in what they wrote actually being the Word of God” (Christian Theology).

Inspiration is a supernatural influence on a few selected persons, the result being the divine product of God’s creative breath: Scripture. Grudem notes the metaphoric use of “inspiration,” since the word is referring to the writings, and prefers the rendering “God-breathed” for the authoritative Scriptures (Systematic Theology). The Holy Spirit’s influence on the authors thus makes the writings both trustworthy and authoritative since God himself is attributive authorship (Evangelical Dictionary of Theology).

Inspiration vs. Illumination

Inspiration differs from illumination in that inspiration was to a select group of divinely appointed authors whereas illumination applies to all believers (Systematic Theology Index). Both are works of the Holy Spirit, thus inspiration is foundational to illumination in that the Holy Spirit does not illumine the minds of believers apart from the Word. As Luther states, “We must…recognize the ‘God-breathed’ character of Scripture, and the ‘Spirit that makes alive.’ Only so will the Scripture be profitable.” Likewise, Calvin states, “…only when God shines in us by the light of his Spirit is there any profit from the Word” (Saved by Grace).

Since the Holy Spirit inspired Scripture, the illumined understanding and empowered obedience can only come from him as well. As J.I. Packer notes, “Without the Holy Spirit there would be no gospel and no New Testament… there would be no faith and no new birth… without the Spirit there would not be a Christian in the world” (Knowing God).

The Holy Spirit’s work in Scripture is the vital starting point for his work through Scripture to the believer, what we know as “illumination.”

To be continued.

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Check out this interview with Matt Chandler from the SBC Pastor's Conference. He talks about how a pastor can refocus his church on the gospel and how cancer has affected his family.

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Dr. Michael Horton will be speaking at the John 10:16 Conference August 4-5 in New York.

When it comes to interpreting Christ's saving work, everything turns on our view of God's character and the seriousness of sin. God's law is not merely a reflection of his will but of his moral nature. God cannot relax his holy will or righteous demands. Death is not merely an example of his displeasure or an arbitrary punishment. Rather, it is the legal sentence for violating his covenant (Ezek 18:4; Rom 6:23).

Losing Substitution

Yale theologian George Lindbeck says that at least in practice, Abelard's view of salvation by following Christ's example (and the cross as the demonstration of God's love that motivates our repentance) now seems to have edged out any notion of an objective, substitutionary atonement. "The atonement is not high on the contemporary agendas of either Catholics or Protestants," Lindbeck surmises. "More specifically, the penal-substitutionary versions...that have been dominant on the popular level for hundreds of years are disappearing."

This situation is as true for evangelicals as for liberal Protestants, he observes. This is because justification through faith alone (sola fide) makes little sense in a system that makes central our subjective conversion (understood in synergistic terms as cooperation with grace), rather than the objective work of Christ. "Our increasingly feel-good therapeutic culture is antithetical to talk of the cross" and our "consumerist society" has made the doctrine a pariah....

(Click here to keep reading.)

You can download this article with footnotes as a PDF.

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Recently a firefighter in our church was told by one of his colleagues that belief in Jesus was for weak people. I found that ironic coming from a firefighter.

I have a fire hydrant in our side yard. I have never looked at the fire hydrant and felt any shame. I drive by a firehouse every day. I never think, “If this community didn’t have weak people than we would never need firehouses.” Every month when I pay my property taxes, which go towards financing fire departments, I never get angry at myself, thinking, “if I could just handle fire myself I wouldn’t have to write this check.”

Imagine a person whose house is on fire. The fire is raging out of control and the fire truck pulls up, sirens blaring. The person runs out of his house in a rage and says, “How dare you come to my house and think that I can’t handle this fire myself! Firefighters are for weak people, not for me.”

What would you think of someone like that? Insane.

We know that fire departments are for “weak” people because a power exists that we simply can’t deal with on our own: fire. Actually, we admire firefighters because they are people who have committed themselves to take on the power of fire at personal expense.

Christians are weak in the same sense that a community is “weak” for having fire departments. They are people who acknowledge that a power exists that they can’t confront and live — the holiness of God. This, however, is not cause for shame, because there was one man who dealt with that power at personal expense, on a cross. And, as every firefighter can admit, when someone is rescued from the flames, they’re not thinking about their weakness; they’re overjoyed that someone would risk it all to save them.

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From the recent sermon Jesus Heals a Centurion's Servant, on Luke 7:1–10.

There are ten things we learn about Jesus from his healing of the centurion's servant in Luke 7:1–10.

1. He is a sovereign ruler

I love the fact that the centurion gets this. He says, “I understand chain of command. I rule over a hundred warriors, and you, you’re in a completely different rank.” God becomes a man. He has complete authority. He is sovereign ruler. The Bible says he is king of kings, lord of lords. For some of you, your Jesus is way too small. He’s just a helper, a counselor, a comforter, a friend. He’s not Christ. He’s not ruler, Lord, savior, God, king, and judge. This man, the centurion, the soldier, he understands who Jesus is. “I understand chain of command. You’re at the top. Creator, that’s who you are.” That’s who Jesus is.

2. He is a humble initiator

This sovereign king comes into human history as the man Jesus Christ. He goes on a tour to preach in towns. He goes to people. When requested to go to the home of the centurion, he is on his way. He’s a humble initiator. He is going out to serve. He is going out to help. He is going out to preach, teach, cast out demons, and heal. And unlike religion, where we go looking for God, Christianity is about God looking for us because we’re lost, and he’s not. Some of you don’t know it, but Jesus is looking for you. He is seeking you. He knows you. He loves you. He died for you. He’s pursuing you. He’s a humble initiator. He doesn’t owe us anything, but he pursues us in love.

3. He is a global savior

We see Jesus in this story serving Jew and Gentile, rich and poor. . . (Click here to keep reading.)

How Jesus Made Disciples

Reflections from the book of John on How Jesus Made Disciples.

Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt seem to prize the Bible more as mystery than knowable, propositional, eternal truths about God and man. If by mystery it means they are acknowledging the glory and ways of God that reigns supremely over mankind’s finitude (Isa 55:8–9; Job 42:2–6), or reacting against the downsizing of God to a mere box of propositions, then fine. But, as Kevin DeYoung’s critique of the movement asserts, if mystery is somehow linked to an “implied doctrine of God’s unknowability,” and used as a way to jettison taking responsibility for the clear truth claims of Scripture, then something has gone awry with how these preachers are interpreting, or to draw from emerging church vernacular, dancing with mystery.

Dancing with Mystery?

For example, Pagitt claims, “Mystery is not the enemy to be [conquered] nor a problem to be solved, but rather, the partner with whom we dance.” He continues, “We are called to show each other the way into mystery.” This may sound postmodern and spiritual, but does it sound biblical? The Apostle Paul, one who proclaimed the words of God (1 Cor 14:37; 1 Thess 2:13), called believers into a meaningful, joyful, hope-centered relationship with God; not by leading them into some vague spirituality or existential maze of mysticism, but rather into the revelation, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of the revealed mystery—the person and finished work of God in Jesus Christ (Eph 1:17–18; 3:1–12; Col 1:24–29).

Get Your Preaching Directives from Jesus

Paul’s teachings did not focus on humanity coming into the way of mystery; Paul’s teachings, according to David Wells, focused on humanity coming to the “knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 2:25; cf. 3:7–8; 4:4). Where did Paul receive such an idea as objective, rational truth, having not lived in the age of enlightenment or modernity? Paul claims to have received his directives from Jesus (Gal 1:12), the full embodiment of truth, who naturally taught truth and established his followers in truth (John 17:17). Jesus himself even ties the believer’s joy to the knowledge of truth: “These things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves” (John 17:13, emphasis added).

Preach the Mystery Revealed—Jesus

McLaren and Pagitt, in contrast to Jesus, seem to relish tethering joy to mystery, not knowable truth. Doctrine, dogma, and deliberate truths are out; mystery is in. For both preachers to continue down this postmodern epistemological path, one that Wells claims cherishes a “studied uncertainty,” it might imply (or expose?) that conversing about mystery, as a biblical trait to treasure, is nothing more than an emergent cloak to cover a denial of the knowable “knowledge of truth”—at least as revealed in Scripture and understood (down through the ages) as “God’s perfect knowledge of himself and of all reality.” Mystery is a beautiful thing, but so is mystery revealed, “Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).

From Preaching and the Emerging Church, Chapter 9. Emerging Church Revisionists: McLaren and Pagitt (pgs. 211-214). Get it here.

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According to numerous studies, most Americans consider themselves “spiritual, not religious.” In other words, they dabble in whatever beliefs and practices they find intuitively valid and useful for daily living, but they resist any threat to their individual autonomy. Consumers in the spiritual marketplace they are willing to be, but not disciples of Jesus Christ. In spite of all the evangelistic efforts over the last several decades, including sprawling megachurches catering to every niche market, there has been no growth in reported conversions. In fact, church attendance is on the decline. Most Christians cannot articulate what they believe, much less why they believe it, and these tragic statistics include evangelicals as well as Unitarians.

We do not lack impassioned pleas for being more “missional.” A plethora of programs for outreach, discipleship, and spiritual disciplines are available at any Christian bookstore and on countless websites. Yet what we need most is a renewed understanding of and commitment to the Great Commission. We assume that we already know the nature of this Commission. We assume that we know its message, although the statistics do not bear that out. We assume that we already know the appropriate methods, although our feverish activism seems to lack the power of previous missionary movements.

In this brief space I want to explore some of the radical aspects of the mandate that Jesus gave to his church before he ascended to the Father.

1. The Indicative: Jesus Has All Authority

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matt. 28:18).

Every new covenant command is grounded in the gospel... (Click here to keep reading)

You can download this article, with footnotes, as a PDF here.

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