Theology of Depravity

As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dialogue over the creation of the universe, God makes a remarkable comment about creating humans in Gen. 1. He says, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…so God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him” (v. 26, 28). So humans have the special privilege of being created with the unique dignity of reflecting and representing God; glorious and holy, powerful and good, righteous and giving; we could go on and on.

The problem we have in believing this is that the stories of our lives seem to lack these qualities. We experience among other things, frustration, heartbreak, misunderstanding, abuse, confusion, and tragedy in a way that makes us feel powerless and insignificant. So what happened?

In Creation, God created Adam as a representative for all people. Gen. 1 describes the creation of humans generally as male and female and in Gen. 2, God describes creating Adam as the specific representative head of the human race. To Adam was given the rule of not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Adam was the one responsible for keeping that rule. Yet, he could not contain himself and decided to stray and blame others for his distrust of God, trampling of his image, forsaking of responsibility, etc. (Gen. 3:6,10-12). Eve had been deceived, but Adam, who was “with her,” was willfully disobeying (I Tim. 2:14).

God doesn’t weakly and powerlessly overlook Adam’s rebellion. In holy justice, He responds by cursing Adam. The curse involved losing intimate communion, right standing and becoming defiled and cursed enemies of God (Matt. 25:41, Rom. 5:12-14, 6:23, Eph. 2:3-5, II Thes. 1:9). This affliction was passed on to all humans as all now have a heart after Adam’s image and likeness to rebel spiritually (Gen. 5:3, Gen. 6:5, Rom. 5:12). While in popular thought, it is often taught that people are condemned because they commit sin, the Scriptures teach that we are condemned because we are sinners, that we commit sin because it is in our heart to do so (Eccl. 7:20, 29, Jer. 17:9, Rom. 3:9, 10, 23, Gal. 3:10, Eph. 2:3-5, I Jn 1:8).

This is what is meant by “depravity.” Humans were created for greatness, but have been corrupted. They do what they shouldn’t (what the Bible calls, “trespass”) and don’t do what they should (what the Bible calls, “sin”) (Rom. 7:15-20, Eph. 2:1). This perversion saturates people to their very depths. Though many want to celebrate a “free-will,” human will is held in captivity to this corrupting influence, evidenced by our inability to live perfectly or live forever. People need God to intervene over their wills (Psalm 51:1-12, John 6:44, 16:8-9, Rom. 7:18, 9:16).

This begs the question, how can we explain beauty and justice if we are corrupt? In other words, how do people who don’t indicate any inclination toward God do such good things? The Bible points out that although we are defiled, we still bear the image and purposes of God (Gen. 9:1-7). All people have exposure to the truth of God through creation and through the law written on their hearts (Ps. 19:1, Rom. 1:19-20, 2:14-15). This is called “Common grace,” and it explains why God allows good fortune to fall on all people (Eccl. 9:2, Matt. 5:45) sometimes causing trouble for those who lean into God (Psalm 73).

So what is our hope of escaping the curse of God? We need a representative who is not depraved and does from the heart what people were created to do. The good news is that Jesus is that representative (Rom. 5:16-19, Rom. 8:1-4). He became cursed for us and was raised in victory over God’s curse (Gal. 3:13, I Cor. 15:1-4). We now have the hope of being reborn, recreated, renewed and restored (John 3:1-21, II Cor. 5:17-21, Eph. 4:20-24). And our hope is to return to the urban garden where we have unbroken fellowship and joy in life as we reflect God (Rev. 22).

Vintage Faith: Unpacking Hebrews 11

Our next preaching series is underway this Sunday, April 19. We're going to spend several weeks looking at the exemplary faith of those in the OT, who were grounded in the promise that God was working to make all things new.

This series is directed at anyone who has not experienced the Christian faith and for those who have, but have considered (or are currently considering) walking away from it.

Join us as we look at the beauty and worth and value of enduring in faith, holding on to the promise that God has worked in Jesus to make all things new and what tangible results should flow out of our lives as a result.

Why not polygamy? It's in the Bible, you know...

On Sunday, I made some bold claims that polygamy is not for God's people in light of New Testament revelation. While I stated this emphatically, and generally everyone seems agreeable, there is a mountain of evidence in Scripture and throughout history that contradicts that claim. Let me introduce this topic by offering a few examples.

Just because we understand very little of ancient Israelite culture, does not permit us to overlook and flippantly dismiss passages of Scripture that should be strikingly shocking. One such shocking passage is Deuteronomy 21:15-17:

"If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his."

Many things are occurring in this passage that are culturally unfamiliar. While Americans are not far-removed from understanding inheritance law, the first phrase, “If a man has two wives,” causes many to scratch their heads and ask, “Why would anyone want two wives and why keep a wife who is unloved?” This is not the first or last mention of polygamy in the Bible. There is another passage that gives instruction on the legal dealings with polygamy.

The text is Ex. 21:10 and the context of the passage is the dealing of a master with a female slave, which he has taken as a wife. If the wife becomes displeasing, the master has several options. The last option in the passage reads thus, “If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital (NASB reads, “conjugal”) rights." In essence, this ordinance requires that the man provide for and carry on a physical relationship with more than one wife.

Not only do these passages deal with the legal handling of polygamy, several examples where polygamy is practiced can be cited. Abraham, the man with whom God made an everlasting covenant, had more than one wife at a time. “So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife” (Genesis 16:3).

Later, in Genesis 21:12-13, we see that God blesses the results of the polygamous marriage, “And of the son of the maid I will make a nation also, because he is your descendant.” Interestingly, though, God does not refer to Hagar as Abraham’s wife. He refers to her as “the maid.”

Moses too had multiple wives. In Exodus 2:21, Moses takes the daughter of Jethro, a Midianite priest and in Numbers 12:1, Miriam and Aaron complain about Moses as a result of his marriage to a Cushite woman.

An example where God seems to bless polygamy is found in II Samuel 12:7-8 with King David, a man after God’s own heart, another man with whom God would covenant. Nathan the prophet is rebuking David, but he points out that God “gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and…if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.” God gave David more than one wife and if David had asked, He would have given him more. While there are further examples, it is primarily with these that God seems to bless the practice of polygamy.

Moving from Scripture to historical practice, the ancient historian Josephus, writing about Jewish leadership at the time of Christ stresses “it is the ancient practice among us to have many wives at the same time” (The Works of Josephus 451-52).

In a letter to Philip of Hesse, Martin Luther writes, “I confess for my part that if a man wishes to marry two or more wives, I cannot forbid him for it does not contradict the Scripture.”

So how do we get from these passages and practices to the conclusion of the Westminster Confession of Faith, which reads, “Marriage is to be between one man and one woman: neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband; at the same time,” without explanation of how this was lawful, or even allowed, in the Old Testament or subsequent historic practice? We’ll unpack this in anther post.

Exposed: The Naked Truth...

Title and graphic for our series on roles, relationships and sexuality. The series starts this Sunday, Jan. 11 at a new time 10 am.



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Election Day

I wanted to remind/encourage all of you, who either vote or out of conviction (not laziness or apathy) do not vote, to proceed prayerfully. Bryan and I spent yesterday fasting and praying asking wisdom on behalf of our congregation and all of God's people.

Do not forget the words of St. Paul, who said, "There is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God" (Rom. 13:1). Remember that "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to (Jesus)" (Matt. 28:18). We need not put our hope in the election, but in Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father and grants His people true freedom.

If your guy does not win, it will be okay. If your guy does win, Jesus is still the Savior.

PS - I WAITED IN A LONGER LINE FOR MY FREE STARBUCKS THAN I DID TO VOTE - HA!

Men's Midrash (מדרש)

I will try to conclude the John 8 post in the next week or so, but have been sidetracked by various events at Missio lately.

We have been planning to kick off the fall with our first "public" gatherings. Up to this point, we have been trying to develop a core group to develop a Gospel embracing community. Over the past several weeks, I have been developing our theology of community and Bryan and I have been teaching the various aspects of that community (possibly fodder for more posts on this blog). Two of the main aspects we have been developing include small group life and service to the city. Developing these has been time constraining, and has kept me from blogging, but as things are being put into place, I will have more time to publish.

That said, we are holding our first Midrash tonight at Barley's Taproom. Midrash is a Hebrew term that involves study, interpretation, and commentary. For four weeks, we will discuss various questions about Jesus. tonight we will ask, "Is Jesus the only God?" We've had a decent number of our guys sign up and look forward to some good discussion.

They Like Jesus, but not the Church

This is a review from a book that I read a few months back, but I thought it would be helpful to resurrect it for all of you.

Kimball does a good job of grappling with the way the church is percieved in culture. Too often, he is overly apologetic for the things he says, which quite often are not as biting as the apology makes them seem. For example, he profusely apologizes for calling pastors, "weaklings." I wouldn't think to apologize for this and would probably choose a more colorful vocabulary to describe these guys. Sometimes it is the thing to do to grab someone's attention. Paul did this in his letter to the Galatian false teachers (i.e. consider Gal. 5:12, "I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!").

The book does what it sets out to do, which is to explore and expose how people feel about Jesus and the Church. People are oftened turned off to methods used in the church rather than the Gospel. A lot of guys get excited about this as a sort of freedom to radically change methods in the church. Unfortunately, the result is a lot of guys motivated by methods and new ways of doing church trying to start new congregations. The problem is that when our motivation to start a church is anything besides the Gospel and the glorification of Jesus Christ, we are actually starting immature religious clubs at best and cults at worst.

The answer to our culture's criticism of methods and culture is to measure it against the truth of the Gospel. Some things that are done in the name of Jesus are no longer culturally relevant and even offensive, but because they are NOT intrinsicly tied to the Gospel, we can change those methods. An example of this would be door to door sales (I mean visitation). In generations past, it was an effective way of disseminating the Gospel story to a culture that by and large recieved it. No longer is this method effective in all cultural situations. Our calling is to prayerfully reflect on new ways of pointing out man's greatest need; a right relationship with God through the death and resurrection of our sinless Savior Jesus.

When we celebrate our style or method of doing this, we celebrate something other than Gospel transformation and we dishonor God. This could be the celebration of old methods or new. If your congregation gets really excited about the rockin' music or the casual atmosphere or the bible version you use or anything other than the risen and ruling Christ, you may be a part of a religious club, and not a church. You may be an offense to God and not the aroma of Christ to a dark and dead culture. Our desire at Missio Dei Church is to be a people called out of culture that lives and proclaims the good news of a restored relationship to God and each other to our city. So much more could be said, but that's all for now.