Christmas in April: On the Virgin Birth

I know this is an oddly timed blog on the virgin birth, but I think the absence of any "Christmas spirit" may actually serve us well to approach this topic afresh. 

    Mary, a virgin, conceives before she “comes together” with Joseph, as Matthew puts it (1:18). This is the miracle we call the virgin birth of Christ. But what’s the big deal about this birth? Myths like this must have existed before Jesus came along. Just think of the pagan myths that involved virgin births like this…oh wait, there aren’t any. 

    Yes, it is true that there are pagan myths where a deity impregnates a woman through a sexual encounter or where contact with an inanimate object mysteriously results in the conception of a child (my favorite is an Aztec myth where a woman is impregnated by feathers). 

    While these stories are often cited as pre-Christian “virgin births,” I think we can all see the substantial differences. In fact, to compare the two is very much, pardon the cliché, like comparing apples to oranges. Or if we want to avoid similes and metaphors all together, to compare pagan myths with the virgin birth is to compare worldviews that are fundamentally in contradiction to one another.

    If you read the accounts of these pagan myths, you will find many similarities. Often these tales include evil, capricious, and sexually promiscuous gods who are more comparable to marvel superheroes/villains than to the omnipotent Creator of the Bible. These “miraculous” events tend to be immoral and braggadocios demonstrations of the deity's superpowers.  

    In contrast, when you approach the biblical narrative, there is one God. He is not just another player in the story, for he has shaped the story. He is not corrupt or capricious, for he is the very standard of good, justice, and beauty. And finally, we see that the God of the Bible is up to something very big in the virgin birth — far bigger than saving face. 

    Matthew tells us that his gospel is the “book of the beginning (or genesis if you will)” of Jesus; It’s interesting for Matthew to put it this way. Moses uses the exact same phrase in chapter two of the Book of Genesis when talking about the creation of the world (2:4) and also in chapter five when he details Adam’s family tree (5:1). So, Matthew’s point, and he is in harmony with the rest of the New Testament, is that Jesus is a second Adam as well as the start of a new creation. The birth of Jesus, then, should be less Hallmark Channel or Charlie Brown’s Christmas and more Garden of Eden in our minds. 

    Jesus has come to begin something new and to fix something profoundly broken. How does God key us into it? He does something that hasn’t been done since the Creation of the heavens and the earth. He creates a man by the Holy Spirit.     

    Have you ever wondered how Mary became pregnant without a male counterpart? It was not like the perverse myths of the pagans, rather, God created something from nothing in order to provide the seed necessary for life. Now that’s what you call an attention-grabber! God sampled from one of his grandest of acts, creation, to alert us that Jesus was here. And this Jesus is the forgiver of sins, the mediator between God and man, the LORD of and the Son of David, the final sacrifice, the great high priest, and the Son of God. 

You see, the virgin birth is no myth, isolated from reality. It is an act of the God who made reality and is re-making it through Jesus. 

Pastor Scott

Now That's One Messy Family

    History is our recorded past, and each of us has a history. That history can be broadened to include movements, communities, nations, and even to include the entire world. But we also have our own, more personal histories as well. The people that we come from, our genealogies, and the events that surround those people contribute to the make up of our personal pasts. 

    This week I’m tasked with researching the ancestry of a very famous person, namely Jesus. In the first chapter of the first book of the New Testament we find a family history of Christ. Now, to many, this text in Matthew is a fly-over chapter, so to speak. "It's just a boring list of names," you may say. I get it; I have been there. But as I’ve been looking into the individual names and stories of those names, it is hard not to marvel at the great meaning of this chapter in Matthew’s Gospel.

    Let me give you just a little taste before I go back to my studies. Matthew starts with three familiar names: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The fourth name in the list is Judah. At this point we should pause to ask a question. Why is Judah listed when Reuben was the oldest? Judah wasn’t even the second oldest of the twelve sons of Jacob. There were three brothers older than Judah. Yet, the reason for Matthew’s choice is clear; Jacob, by God’s choice, had chosen Judah as the heir to the messianic promise (Gen. 49:8ff). Judah and his sons, not Reuben's, would carry on the line of promise leading to the messiah. 

    But before we think that Judah was chosen because of his moral purity, Matthew gives us this particular piece of information about Judah: “the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar.” In case you’ve forgotten, Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law. Now to be fair to Judah, he was under the impression that he was sleeping with some random prostitute, not his daughter-in-law Tamar (Gen. 38). Not much of a defense of his character you say? Perhaps. And yet, this wicked act of incest and adultery is only one example of many less than pure aspects of Jesus’ family tree.  

    So, if you think that your family history is bad, I’m sure that Jesus can relate. But remember that Paul tells us why Jesus came into the world; "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). No matter what you or any family member has done, the Lord Jesus likely has family members who have done the same. He came for people like you and like me; the godly died for the ungodly. He came to bring forgiveness, to bring newness of life, and to bring a way of reconciliation with God to even the most vile of sinners.

For further reading on why Jesus died check out Christ Crucified by Donald Macleod.

Pastor Scott

Book Review: Seeing With New Eyes by David Powlison

    Powlison has the unique ability to gently critique falsehood in a manner that is clear and intentional. He takes the best of the biblical counseling movement and applies it to the modern context. This book teaches the Christian how to bring Scripture to bear on our everyday moments. 

    In a chapter focused on Psalm 131, Powlison comments on human pride and how it creates noisiness and anxiety. “I just want a little respect and appreciation…I want approval and understanding…I want to feel good…I want my way…I want God to do my will. I want to be God…doesn’t everybody?” (79).  These moments in the book are challenging and insightful. The effects of sin on our thinking is a doctrine that many forget but that Powlison brings to the foreground in this book.

    The author examines a handful of psychological perspectives and compares them with biblical Christianity. He does this effectively and without sounding overly critical. On page 191 he gets to the root of “defense mechanisms” by re-naming them “war-making tendencies.” Powlison's critique flows out of a distinctly covenantal perspective. All people are either covenant makers (in Christ) or covenant breakers (in Adam). By doing this Powlison is able to examine the offensive nature of defensiveness. This is something that an overly psychologized church needs to hear, because once we diagnose the problem correctly we are that much closer to the biblical solution.

    Powlison also critiques popular “Christian” perspectives on counseling. He takes an entire chapter to critique the extremely popular book, The Five Love Languages. In this chapter, Powlison is at his most polemical.  He attacks the unbiblical premises that lead to “deplorable” conclusions and methods. The author of The Five Love Languages, Gary Chapman, writes that people sin because of a love deficiency rather than because of willful sin.  Certainly there may be sin done to the individual which may even be connected with a lack of love, but this does not cause sin. Chapman's perspective leaves the sinner with a viable excuse for his sin; this is something that the Bible never does. For this reason, Chapman’s system appears to commend an unbiblical view of sin and love. Powlison handles the issue well and is a must read for those who have embraced the love language philosophy. 

I highly recommend this book for the Christian who longs to apply Scripture to one's own life and to the lives of fellow Christians. 

Pastor Scott

Who Says?

    How can Christians answer fellow believers who embrace the new sexual ethic of our day without sounding smug?

    These professing Christians will often defend their position by protesting, “Who am I to say that my homosexual friends cannot love each other and be who they really are? It’s not like these homosexual men and women are hurting anyone.” 

Well, who wants to disagree with that?

    These Christian brothers and sisters have often not been given the tools to engage with the arguments of the broader culture, so, as a result, they have surrendered to the culture. They may even admit that the Bible lists homosexuality as sin but refuse to declare, “Thus saith the Lord.”

    When discussing these issues with confused believers, it is important to wrench them out of their culturally defined worldview and place them back into the world of the Bible (which is the real world). Take them back to the beginning…    

    In the beginning God made everything including humans. He spoke clearly to Adam and Eve about what they could and could not do. God told them to eat from every other tree but not from the one tree, for its fruit was deadly.

    Along came a serpent and said that God was wrong. The serpent proposed another interpretation of the fruit. “No, no, no, Adam and Eve, the fruit is not deadly; it is life!” 

    Adam and Eve had two interpretations set before them. The fruit probably looked like all the other fruit. It was not magic. It did not contain black ooze that would pour from its center the moment its fragile skin was pierced. There was a troubling absence of empirical evidence to aide them in this dilemma. The Word of God set the fruit apart (deadly), and the word of Satan set it apart (life). So Adam and Eve climbed atop the throne of authority in their hearts and minds, ripped God off, and took a seat. From atop this throne, Adam and Eve declared that the fruit was life! But what happened?

    No matter what Adam and Eve believed about this fruit, or what the serpent said, that fruit was deadly. Why? Was it really deadly, or had God just arbitrarily declared it to be deadly? Well, the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

   Death, spiritual and physical, actually followed the eating of the forbidden fruit. Why? Well, because God’s speech is not like ours, nor is it the counterpart to Satan’s speech. God’s speech is not arbitrary. It is not groundless commentary on what exists.

    Remember how God created? He spoke and so it was. His Word brought the universe into existence! Do we really think it is any different with morality? God declared the fruit on that particular tree to be deadly, and so it was deadly. 

    No matter what the culture says about homosexuality, ("it is love", "It is good", "it is all the same", "it is my true identity", "it is my personal right") the truth remains, it is death. Like all other sins, it is death. Let us now answer the question posed above:  "Who am I to say...?"

    You are right. You have no authority to declare homosexuality right, wrong, or neutral. Your word is just a word, but the Word of the Lord is authoritative for all. He has said that sin is death, so the most loving thing for you to do is to speak and act in accord with this Word. Remember fellow Christian, if you are able to identify sin, you are able to point the world to the Savior. It takes wisdom to speak such truth in a loving fashion. Yet it is far better to take up this work than to assist the serpent in his endeavors by asking God, “who says?”

For further reading check out The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Butterfield and The Same Sex Controversy by James White

Pastor Scott

Paul's Apologetic Encounter at Athens

Here are some reflections on Acts 17 and how Paul’s confrontation with the philosophers at Athens is instructive for Christians today:

    The apostle Paul was a master of discernment. When faced with the impressive culture of Athens, Paul demonstrated how Christians today should interact with unbelievers. As Peter instructed (1 Peter 3:15,16), Paul showed “gentleness and respect” as he interacted with the Athenian philosophers of the first century. Yet, he was unwavering in his Christian faith. 

    At no point did Paul doubt his Christian worldview or put God on trial for the sake of supposed intellectual honesty. Rather, Paul assumed the truth of his religion and sought to bring its truthfulness to bear on the thinking and living of the Athenian philosophers.

    Paul was brought to the Areopagus to share and defend his Christian faith. The apostle opened his address by saying that the Athenians were superstitious. What did Paul mean by "superstitious?" Well, he meant that the Athenians, like all of us, were religious by nature. Yet, because of sin they were misguided in the object of their worship. 

    Paul was in Athens to authoritatively proclaim the true God, who is worthy of worship (v. 23). This God is the Creator of all things (v24). Then, in verse 27, Paul says that all men are groping for God, but in reality this God is not far from them. In other words, the Athenians were without excuse for their false worship; they knew the true God but denied him in their idolatrous worship.  

    In verse 28 Paul gives examples of this culpable suppression of truth by quoting two Greek philosopher-poets. The first quote comes from Epimenides whom Paul also quoted in his letter to Titus. The Cretans had come up with a story about Zeus’ death, so Epimenides wrote against the Cretans in response. Epimenides argued from living men and women to a living Zeus as he says, “in him we live and move and have our being.” If we are alive, this philosopher argues, so is Zeus. Paul is doing the exact opposite by moving from an independent God, who is the source of life, to living men and women (Acts 17:24-26). From this living God's existence we derive our very being! 

    Paul’s meaning for this quote, as well as the second quote by a Stoic writer, was that God is the Creator and Sustainer of all life. Paul was not adopting the false teaching of either Epimenides or the pantheist, Stoic writer who penned, “For we are indeed his offspring.” These pagan men could say what is right, not in accord with, but only in spite of their unbelieving worldviews. In fact, taken as the authors had intended (pagan motivation and pagan goal), their statements must be deemed false.  

    Paul, then, is re-locating these assertions, from a false and falsifying system, to the only worldview that can interpret such statements aright. This is a microcosm of what Paul is trying to do with his audience in this chapter. The Athenians are image bearers who worship wrongly and in ignorance, and so Paul longs for their worship to be relocated in Christ by completely replacing their pagan system of thought with a Christian worldview. Paul's intention with these Athenians is an entire shift from darkness, ignorance, and rebellion to light, knowledge, and faithfulness. This apologist doesn't want the Athenians to add Christianity to their paganism; he wants Christianity to supplant and totally replace their paganism. His goal is grand and requires divine assistance.

Christians, then, should remember these 5 key principles from Paul’s experience in Athens:

1. Approach unbelievers with gentleness and respect, because they are image-bearers, they are your neighbors, and they are in need of the saving truth of the Gospel.
2. Remain faithful to the Lord in your thinking as well as in your affections and actions.
3. View unbelief and other faiths/worldviews through the lens of the Bible.
4. Demonstrate for the unbeliever that any truth found in the non-Christian worldview can only find its natural home in the Christian worldview (think of what Paul did to Epicurus' quote). 
5. Make the gospel call to repentance and faith your main goal (go read the end of Paul’s interaction with the Athenians in Acts 17 to see how Paul does it)

For further reading check out Paul at Athens by Cornelius Van Til and Covenantal Apologetics by K. Scott Oliphint

Pastor Scott