Book Review: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World

Start a conversation today with a non-Christian and you may notice quite a bit of difficulty in maintaining a rational discussion. Today’s American culture is becoming much less familiar with the Christian story. Our country is becoming more biblically illiterate making evangelism a much longer more difficult endeavor. Many in our society don’t know who Jesus Christ is or what the cross represents. The number of people claiming to not believe in a God at all is on the rise. And increasingly, several dialogues may leave your head spinning or pounding as you try to understand the postmodern mindset that says you can’t know what is true or that all beliefs are true.

In The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World, seven essays are compiled by John Piper and Justin Taylor explaining how we must engage this postmodernism with the truth of Christ. The authors who contributed to the book include: David Wells, Voddie Baucham Jr., D.A. Carson, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, Justin Taylor, and John Piper. Each author biblically expounds on the importance of truth, joy, love, the gospel, and the church in relation to this increasingly postmodern world. Justin Taylor summarizes them all in the introduction; “The church should become that for which it was created, namely, the pillar and buttress of truth, joy, and love in order to display the glory of God and the supremacy of Christ in all things.” (pg. 14)

David Wells begins the book with a chapter calling for defending the truth of the Christian faith. Our culture is increasingly becoming pluralistic, seeing little difference in religions. The church has been unable to offer anything of deep meaning to the culture. It has tried to accommodate other religions to the point of offering simple life enhancement and appearing to be no different from the rest. We must strive to hold to truth, declaring the counter message that Christ is the only way. Instead of pandering to the culture’s ideas, we are to offer a message that contradicts the world’s ideas. “Is the evangelical church faithful enough to explode the worldview of this new spiritual search? Is it brave enough to contradict what has wide cultural approval? The final verdict may not be in, but it seems quite apparent that while the culture is burning, the evangelical church is fiddling precisely because it has decided it must be so like the culture to be successful.” (pg. 38)

In the chapter on Truth and The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World, Voddie Baucham Jr. dissects the truth of the Bible in answering four basic questions of life: who am I, why am I here, what is wrong with the world and how can what is wrong be made right? He answers these in full detail by explaining that we are the beautiful creation of God; that we were made to give glory to Him; the thing that is wrong with the world is you and me through sin; nothing we can do can make it right, but Christ made it right by taking the punishment on the cross for us. “[According to postmodern secular humanism] the solution to our woes is more education and more government. That’s the only answer our culture can propose: teach people more stuff and give them more information…If you take a sinful, murderous human being and educate that individual, here merely becomes more sophisticated in his ability to destroy.” (pg. 57) Our only hope in the world is to throw ourselves at the mercy of God and trust in Christ for righteousness.

John Piper continues the theme of his entire ministry writing about joy in The Supremacy of Christ. He gives the condensed version of the chapter by saying, “(1) Jesus’ greatest joy is in the glory of his Father, and (2) he shares this joy with us by means of understandable propositions (or Bible doctrine) about himself and his Father and his work, which the Holy Spirit illumines and ignites as the kindling of our passion for Christ.” (pg. 72) Piper explains it as we are being made to be more like Christ, our greatest joy also becomes that of Him; giving glory to the Father. By revealing Himself through the Bible, he gives us an opportunity to know Him more and through that knowledge we find more joy in His infinite glory. “If you say, ‘My joy is in the journey toward knowing, not the arrival,’ you make an idol out of the journey and you turn heaven into a disappointment…If you get most of your joy from what you don’t know about God, God is not glorified in your joy. His Son and his Book and his world are the revelation of his glory. He has made the knowledge of himself possible…Therefore, the joy you have in what you know of God is intensified by the expectation that there is so much more to see. The mystery of what you don’t know gets its God-glorifying power from what you do know. God is not glorified by strong feelings of wonder that flow from ignorance of what he is like.” (pgs. 80-81)

Especially in our culture the word “love” is very misunderstood. We say so often the promise of John 3:16 and because of the misuse of the word we often miss the depth of God’s love. D.A. Carson discusses God’s love for us (and how we are to relate it to the lost world) by first meditating on the love within the Trinity. “All of this manifestation of glory, of the goodness of God, is displayed because the Father loved Jesus before the creation of the world. The thought is stunning. All this display of the glory of God focuses finally on the goodness of God in the cross and vindication of the Son for the sake of poor sinners – and al of it is grounded in the sheer love of the Father for the Son – the same love, Jesus insists, that the Father has for us.” (pg. 94) What an amazing thought that the all-sufficient Creator of the universe who was supremely satisfied with the love He shared within the Trinity, decided to create us humans to pour out even more of His love!

Tim Keller, in the chapter focusing on the gospel itself and how we must share it with the world, stressed the importance of being very clear in our presentations. The old ways of programmed, scripted evangelism don’t work anymore because of the biblical illiteracy of our country. We were a country founded on Christian principles and shaped by biblical themes. However, many people today on the street have never heard the Christian story or are completely ignorant of any biblical references. Keller explains that we must start our evangelism farther back at the existence of God and the creation of the universe far before we can walk someone through the Romans Road. “The problem with virtually all modern evangelism programs is that they assume listeners come from a Christianized background, and so they very lightly summarize the gospel and go right to [personal commitment]. But this is no longer sufficient.” (pg. 115) We must be complete in our gospel proclamations; not just declaring salvation from sins, but also giving hope of the restoration of all things. People recognize that something is wrong with the world, and we can give them hope of a new creation.

The final chapter is written by Mark Driscoll who challenges the church to stand for truth and be an example of Christ in the world. “Jesus is as popular, controversial, and misunderstood as ever. Therefore, it is imperative that Christians contend for a faithful and biblical Christology and contextualize that Christology for a fruitful and cultural missiology.” (pg. 127) There are a lot of popular “Christs” in the world today, but it is important for us to be clear which is the true Jesus revealed to us in the Bible. Many today focus on the humble incarnation of Christ and forget that He is the reigning King of kings who will return in flaming glory to pour out His wrath on sinners. We are commissioned to tell the world of His patience and loving-kindness that is displayed until the time He returns. Driscoll, however, reminds us that while we have been given this authority to proclaim the gospel message to the world, it is Christ who is in charge and we are simply to be an example of the humble Jesus who proclaimed the good news and sacrificed his life for those He loved. Similar to Keller’s essay, Driscoll says, “Sadly, too often the church is filled with language, customs, and styles that are so altogether foreign to the average lost person that unless contextualization occurs and explanation is given, lost people will remain, in Paul’s words, ‘foreigners’ and not friends.” (pg. 144)

The entire book presents concepts that are important for every faithful Christian to understand. As missionaries in our own sub-cultures we cannot assume a changing culture will understand and embrace our unchanging message. But, we must stand for truth while we live humble lives expressing joy in God and love for others that gives us an opportunity to explain the complete gospel to a world that misunderstands the message of Christ.

Those Sanctifying 'Lil Whipper-Snappers

We are, by nature, very selfish creatures. Think about it. We cry for milk from day one, we argue for our toys not long after that, and on and on it goes. As teenagers (and adults), we guard our reputation very closely. Call it what you want--self-preservation, the Freudian "id," your sin nature--but know that, at its core, it is nothing but unabashed selfishness.

That is why, I believe, God has especially ordained the institution of the family as a sanctifying means of grace. Our instinctual need for camaraderie, fellowship, love, and companionship requires, when rightly done, a level of self-sacrifice. Consider, gentlemen, when you began dating; if you cared at all about your date, you would go see that movie, even if it was a "chick flick," or you would try that new restaurant, ladies, even if it wasn't quite your taste. I even remember at my wedding ceremony being reminded that my wife and I were now one, and I must consider her needs as highly as my own.

And, now...well, the Lord has gifted us with a precious (albeit, very selfish) little girl. Now, more than ever, I understand the implications of love, and family, as it requires of me a level of selflessness I have never yet experienced. I surely never would have, either, by my own devices. I'm far too selfish to go looking for self-abasement.

And, so, God, in His sovereign grace and wisdom, has crafted our love relationships in such a way as to engender selflessness. I remember the day I came to terms with the fact that my aversion to having a child was not rational and fiscally prudent, as I would have liked to have believed. Rather, it was from selfish motives that I came to this conclusion, because I realized that, if I were to wait until I had enough money, or enough time, or even enough desire, that time may never come, when God has given me all the resources, here and now, to have said baby (Kristine's her name).

I simply can't get past the fact that God has, by sheer biology, created husband and wife with the ability to procreate, and I see now, from this side of parenthood, that it was to refine me that he graced our home with a screaming, fussy, poopy (sorry), tireless little helpless creature that insists I (and her mother, of course, and, all the more so) see to her every need. And, in the transaction, I further see that my perceived needs I had prior seem largely inconsequential.

Now, I don't want to rub insensitive to those who find themselves single, or unable to have children. By and large, however, it is God's design that we marry, and we have children. I fear our world's mentality has creeped into our church far too well, to allow us to think that it's mydecision, my body, my timetable. As children are a natural consequence of a God-honoring marriage, it seems it is His intention that we have them, as it is our express purpose on this earth to grow in grace, and experience deep, and satisfying, sanctification. But, that's just my opinion.

The Reason for God

I've begun reading Timothy Keller's The Reason for God, and, thus far, I have been impressed. I'll not do a full book review here, but I was encouraged by a couple of excerpted quotes, which I submit here. One, in regards to the problem of evil, was from C. S. Lewis: "They say of some temporal suffering, 'No future bliss can make up for it,' not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory." I would certainly recommend this chapter (Chapter 2), as it treats the problem of evil in a different way than ever I've heard, and with an even more compelling argument, in my opinion.


More than an apologetic, however, this book serves as a testimony of a growing, vibrant, and (as best as I've been able to surmise) orthodox church in the heart of Manhattan. Redeemer Presbyterian Church represents a "third camp," in Keller's estimation, a group who had a "concern for justice in the world but who grounded it in the nature of God rather than in their own subjective feelings." They were "neither the Western Christendom of the past nor the secular, religionless society that was predicted for the future."

A few "downtown art-types" of his church testify to this end, stating that Redeemer "lacked the pompous and highly sentimental language they found emotionally manipulative in other churches." Also, the people of this church spoke to each other with "gentle, self-deprecating irony." Reinhold Niebuhr said that this [amusement at seeing human beings try but fail to be Godlike] is a very Christian way of looking at things. People were real, and "did not think more highly of themselves than they ought" (Romans 12:3).




Furthermore, Redeemer people held beliefs with charity and humility, making Manhattanites feel included and welcomed, even if they disagreed with some of Redeemer's beliefs. And, most of all, an intelligent and nuanced mode of teaching and communication attracts these city dwellers (and any self-respecting person, I might add).

We need not couch the Gospel in fuzzy language or less-offensive packaging. We need not look like the world to attract the world. No amount of pyrotechnics or gyrating worship is necessary to appeal to the unbeliever. We need only to be honest with them and ourselves, appeal with integrity and intelligence to the Gospel, and intersect with social needs because Christ did so. People are hungry; may we feed them.

Leaving a Legacy

I’ve just finished reading C. J. Mahaney’s book, Humility: True Greatness, which I would heartily recommend to anyone. I was especially smitten with the final chapter, which pertains to leaving A Legacy of Greatness. As I don’t have children yet (but will very soon, Lord willing), I pray this is of even more benefit to you.

He begins by making this statement: “As I understand it, parenting is about preparation. Preparation for our children’s future and preparation for the fast-approaching final day of judgment.” Wow! Never have I envisioned parenting in such grand and cosmic terms! But, it’s true, isn’t it?! He goes on: “Do your ambitions for your son or daughter include a certain vocation or a certain level of education? Graduation from a certain college? Professional or athletic or artistic recognition? If so, let me ask this: Are any of these ambitions in line with true greatness as defined in Scripture?”

He cites Mark 9:35 as the definition of true greatness, which says “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all,” (emphasis mine) and Mark 10:43 (“whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant”). This, of course, was the example Jesus set, as we’ve just been reminded by this past Sunday’s sermon (John 13:1-20). Will this, then, be the bar by which we judge our children’s greatness? Mahaney puts it this way: “Are you more interested in temporal recognition for your child than you are in his eternal reward?”

As he does with other chapters, Mahaney then outlines some practical ways of implementing these truths. “First and foremost, parents are to be an example of greatness for their children,” modeling humble servanthood. Second, we must define true greatness for our children, in light of Christ’s example. We must also learn to teach our children to discern and admire true greatness. A great way to do this is to “not celebrate anything more than you celebrate godly character in your children.” He says that he commends his son for academic achievement or an athletic award, but they break out into real celebration when there’s a demonstration of humility, servanthood, or godly character.”

Instead of admiring sports figures or celebrities, Mahaney suggests (and I agree) that “the local church is filled with truly great people.” Every week, there are those who are “faithfully serving others for God’s glory.” He cites you, as parents, as well, as you all have served “unselfishly and continuously.” His final suggestion is this: teach your children to serve. “Your family’s higher purpose, even ultimate purpose, is to serve the local church.”

Junk Mail Evangelism

I often hear from Christians that they just are too introverted to share the gospel. In their minds they have a fear of knocking on doors or standing on a street corner preaching the gospel to the masses and think, “I can’t do that so I can’t do evangelism.” There are so many easy ways for us in this country to get the good news out that we have no legitimate reason to be disobedient.

I hope to be able to provide here many fun and simple ways to get the gospel out so we can all be faithful evangelists. Keep checking back here for more and let us know if you tried any or if you came up with one of your own.

If you own a mailbox, you no doubt receive more mail that you throw away than mail that is important. As frustrating as it can be, some of this unsolicited mail can be used for evangelism. If you hate that you have to fill your garbage can (which you pay to empty) so quickly with all of that junk mail you could do this.

Or you could eat the cost trash removal and take advantage of the free postage to get the gospel out. A couple months ago we purchased a bunch of gospel tracts and spent a day giving them out around town. We still have many tracts left over and if you think silently handing a piece of paper to someone is still to scary, junk mail evangelism provides the easiest evangelism opportunity for the shyest person of all.

From now on, instead of throwing away all of that junk mail, keep that postage-paid return envelope, put a couple of tracts in there and send it on back. It’s not that often that people give you such and easy opportunity to get the gospel into their hands.

What a great chance this is to get your children excited about the sharing the gospel too. Get excited about junk mail and get a collection of postage-paid envelopes awaiting their gospel proclaiming destiny. Next time you are at church, stop into the office and pick up your own collection of tracts and get stuffing envelopes.

A Gospel that atTracts

My yard and I are in a grand battle of the ages. It's me vs. the weeds, and it's to the death (preferably theirs)! And, like any other Christian person, I started wondering how that related to my walk with Christ. So, here goes:

In sharing the Gospel, we must first sow the seed. We will never reap a harvest if we don't first sow the seed of the Gospel. It's a very simple truth, but we all so often fall into the routine of expecting that, if we do the right programs, if we're nice enough, etc., that people will be attracted to the Gospel. They can only be attracted to that which we clearly and verbally demonstrate to them.

And, you have to know the Gospel before you can throw, or sow, the Gospel, right? So, stay in the Word; commit it to memory; allow it to inform your witness. And, know something about your soil, too, which would be the person with which you're sharing. Find a point of common interest with even a total stranger, even something as simple as the weather, or the insanely high gas prices. And, if you know the person, there's all the more context from which to share.

Now, if someone has gone before you and sown the Gospel into someone's life, then you may have the opportunity to hoe that Gospel, nurturing it and stirring it deeper into the person's life. You may even be graced with the privilege of bringing that person to the Lord. Either way, both "the sower and the reaper may be glad together" (John 4:36-37). Never discount the role of the sower, as they are afforded equal honor to that of the reaper (compliments of Dr. Roy Fish).

We must be mindful, however, of the role that merits no honor whatsoever, which is the role of the mower. These are those of us, and we've all done it at some point(s), who in some way have ruined our witness and disgraced the glorious name of Christ. We may have spoken wrongfully, or with mal intent. Perhaps we grew impatient or hostile or angry. Whatever it is, we must be careful never to mow down the seeds that have been planted for the Gospel.

That brings us finally to growing. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that evangelism and discipleship are two mutually exclusive things. No, we must constantly be reminded as Christians of the Gospel, and the change it has wrought in our life, as we are so prone to otherwise give in to sin. The Spirit is at work in both the unbeliever and the believer to woo them to repentance and application. We must work, then, to make disciples, be disciples, and grow disciples.

I pray this is an encouragement to you all. May God commend our efforts, unto His glory alone.

Humble Righteousness

I was reminded this morning that we are only as useful as we are both humble and righteous, and the grand irony of it all is that they are to be as our right hand is to our left, with one not knowing what the other is doing (Matthew 6:3). If pride replaces my humility, I am no longer righteous. If sin displaces my righteousness, I need be humbled yet again. And, so we have yet another presumed paradox (http://ebcrochester.blogspot.com/2008/05/paradox.html) in our Christian faith that requires the constant check and balance of the Lord's admonition, through His word, His people, His orchestration of circumstances, etc.

May we ever be mindful of the grand necessity of both our groveling humility before God and each other, and our imputed righteousness secured by Christ's blood. Only then can we be of maximum impact for the Kingdom, doing that which He requires in both a humbling and pristinely righteous manner.

Stewardship

This morning, at the glorious hour of 3:30, the good Lord saw fit to stir me from my sleep (that, and I had to go the restroom), and my mind was awhirl with ideas for worship. Taking a moment to jot those down, and a further moment to partake of some strawberry shortcake and a quick round of Solitaire, I laid back down (it's now about 4:15). It was at this moment, for reasons I still can't be sure of, that the Lord impressed upon me thoughts of giving, for some reason.

Maybe it was the shortcake talking, but I wonder, too, if it had something to do with my previous study of Scripture. I had been looking at the opening chapters of Acts in preparation for Prayer Meeting (which was a delight, by the way; thank you all!), and I casually observed Acts 2:42-47, which speaks of the believers holding everything in common. We don't often look at this passage in the light of giving of our tithes and offerings, but it obviously held some serious import (see Acts 5 regarding Ananias and Sapphira).

Now, I know this seems an awkward exhortation coming from one who receives his income through a portion of those gifts, but, let's be honest here; I'm not in it for the money. My true concern, truly, is the ministry of our church, which is to make disciples. Nothing more, certainly nothing less. As we sat on the lawn last night as a praying body of believers, I was overcome with the visibility of that witness, and I was excited to imagine what visible ministry we might have in our community as it is enabled by our faithful giving.

The Old Testament adage is to give 10%; the New, to give 'til it hurts (as Christ did). I'm under the personal conviction that we should tithe on our gross, because my Lord is Christ, not Uncle Sam, and I want Him to get the first fruits. Nevertheless, just imagine if our body of 130-odd folk were to give faithfully even just 10%. In our affluent community of doctors and techies and such, would that not more than meet our budget, and exceed it, unto His glory?

Barna's research shows that, as best we can tell, there are 101 million born-again Christians among a U.S. population of 301 million. Imagine if your witness, and that enabled by our corporate body at large, were able to bridge that gap. In the Midwest, 45% of the population claims to be born-again. If that is true, and we as a mere 130 folk were to be faithful to give to the ministry our all (our tithes and offerings, our time, our witness), then we would reach the estimated 96,975 persons in our city with the Gospel very easily. In fact, if we each did our part to share the Gospel in some capacity with just one person each week, we will have spoken to every person in Rochester! And, certainly we can do better than that to compensate for the population growth!

May we learn from the admonition of Acts 4, to hold all things loosely, sharing all we have, whether it be our financial resources, our various areas of ministry, etc. This church is not ours; this ministry is not ours. He has graciously gifted us with this task. May we be faithful to hold all things in common, and pool our resources for the only thing that matters: sharing and living the Gospel. All else will fade away, save His glory alone! May we invest in that!