The King of kings is not Indifferent to this World

All Things New

Tullian Tchividjian:

For a long time now, I’ve been convinced that the way most Christians think about redemption is influenced more by ancient Greek philosophy than by the Bible.

Find out how by reading the rest of the article.

Christians: Heaven is NOT Your Final Destination

For those suffering from blog withdrawal, this article by Vern Poythress should occupy you for a little while.

It seems to me that if we don't include the redemption and restoration of the cosmos in the fruits of Jesus' victory at the cross and empty tomb, then we've not given Him the full glory He is due for the awesome work He accomplished on the cross.

Give the article a read and let me know what you think...

The First Installment

This week I've been reading through John Piper's book Finally Alive (read the book in its entirety for free here). I've been in a season of spiritual lethargy and weariness, and being reminded of God's sovereign work of begetting me anew has been an aid to my weary soul.

Here's one quote that I especially enjoyed, in which Piper is commenting on Titus 3:5. Paul uses the word 'regeneration', and the only other time he uses that word it describes the regeneration of the entire creation in Matthew 19:28:

"So when you think of your new birth, think of it as the first installment of what is coming. Your body and the whole world will one day take part in this regeneration. God's final purpose is not spiritually renewed souls inhabiting decrepit bodies in a disease- and disaster-ravaged world. His purpose is a renewed world with renewed bodies and renewed souls that take all our renewed senses and make them a means of enjoying and praising God."

What a great reminder, that the miracle of our being born again is just a taste of the glory that is to come...not only in us, but in the entirety of God's creation.

I didn't really care about seeing Avatar; now I do

A faithful reader emailed me this article from CNN's website about how the movie Avatar is making people depressed because of the picture of a utopia called Pandora that the movie depicts. One viewer said this:

"Ever since I went to see 'Avatar' I have been depressed. Watching the wonderful world of Pandora and all the Na'vi made me want to be one of them. I can't stop thinking about all the things that happened in the film and all of the tears and shivers I got from it," Mike posted. "I even contemplate suicide thinking that if I do it I will be rebirthed in a world similar to Pandora and the everything is the same as in 'Avatar.' "

This is tragic, but also insightful. It's not hard to imagine why people yearn in the depths of their souls for a perfect world. We yearn for that because we were made to celebrate our Maker and Redeemer on a New Earth, one in which the entire cosmos is healed from its present corruption and decay and transformed into the perfect theater of God's all-satisfying glory.

So now I want to see Avatar, knowing that no matter how beautiful Pandora is, it will not make me depressed. It will only make me eagerly await the New Heavens and New Earth that is our inheritance in Christ.

Has anyone else seen this movie yet? If so, what did you think?

A Little Taste of Shalom

On this blog I try to keep regular reminders to groan, because with all of our American comforts and luxuries, we sometimes are numb to the fact that this world isn't the way it's supposed to be. We know that, but I try to help myself feel it by posting my Don't Forget to Groan posts.

As important as it is to remember to groan, it's also important to remember that what we are groaning for is shalom...that is, the way things ought to be.

While this "webbing together of God, humans and all creation in justice, fulfillment and delight" will never be perfect until Jesus returns to make all things new, we do get little glimpses of it in this life. I found one such glimpse in this video of some unexpected reunions between children and their fathers as they return home from deployment. There's something glorious about seeing reconciliation happen, isn't there? It is, I think, a little foretaste of that awesome day when the entire cosmos will be reconciled to its Maker:

Paradise ain't cheap...it's free

Michelle saw this at Bed, Bath & Beyond last week and told me I should write a blog post about it. So I'm happy to oblige today.

Yes, the makers of this...whatever the heck this thing is...probably didn't have any important theological truths in mind when they made this, but they've got it just right. Paradise ain't cheap. It cost the Son of God His life to redeem God's broken creation from its bondage to decay.

But entrance into Paradise is free:

"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." (Isaiah 55:1-2)

Fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore at God's right hand are available to all without money. Through faith in Christ and His atoning death and resurrection, we are eternally rich, and heirs of paradise.

Made for the City

Today on my day off I packed my three lovely ladies into the car to visit my Mom-Mom in Wayne. She turns 90 tomorrow. As we passed through Philadelphia on the Schuylkill Expressway I took my customary few seconds to gaze at the skyline.

I thought about how many times I'd driven past the Philly skyline in my lifetime, either as a driver or passenger. It's at least several hundred times, maybe in the thousands. Yet every time I drive past it, I find a bit of awe in me as I look at that skyline. 30+ years of driving through the city has not dulled the excitement of admiring all those massive buildings.

This is true not just of downtown Philly, but any big city I have visited. I lived in Chicago for 9 months and drove through downtown every day to and from work, and the city had the same effect. Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Baltimore, New York, Toronto, Milan. They all have the same effect on me. But of course Philly is the nearest and dearest to my heart. There's just something about cities that produces a childlike wonder in me.

And just today it hit me what that "something" is: I was created to enjoy a city as my eternal home. The last chapters of the Bible describe the glorious return of Jesus Christ, bringing to consummation God's eternal plan to personally dwell with His people and renew the entire cosmos from the decay and corruption that have marred it since the Fall. At the center of this vision is a city:

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. (Revelation 21:10-11)

Creation began in a garden, but it will end in a city. A big city. A few verses later, John writes that the city is about 1,400 miles long, wide and high. That's around the length from Tallahassee to Minneapolis, and the width from Philly to Dallas. The glory and honor of the nations will dwell in this city; the possibilities of what it will be like are astounding.

Our final state will not be a disembodied state floating around in clouds. It will be reigning in the city of God with King Jesus, whose glory will so radiate throughout the city that there will be no need for the sun or moon.

After driving through Philadelphia and being impressed by the skyline, I simply can't begin to fathom what it will be like to watch the city of God coming down out of heaven, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. But I believe Jesus is honored when we try to imagine it. After all, He gave us a lavish description of it at the end of the Bible to whet our appetites for it, don't you think?

So the next time you drive through Philly (or whatever big city you're closest to), let the glory of earthly cities act as a beam pointing you to the majestic reality of the heavenly city that will be our final home.

Eschatology Discussion

If, like me, the area of eschatology (the study of the last things) is an area where your knowledge is limited, you might find this two-hour discussion helpful. John Piper, Sam Storms, Doug Wilson, and Jim Hamilton weigh in on the different schools of thought regarding Christ's return.

If anyone watches this, let me know what you think.

The Completion of Redemption in Creation

Here's a good word from John Piper at last weekend's conference on John Calvin:



I suppose in some ways I am one of the people Piper is warning here. I am excited about the completion of redemption in the New Heavens and New Earth, because I believe God is excited about it and Christ's highest glory will shine most brilliantly in it. In that way, I certainly hope that I "take it where it's going."

I also hope that lovers of Christ will not throw away the baby of the New Heavens and the New Earth with the bathwater of a pseudo-Christian excitement about a utopia that is essentially devoid of Christ. By all means, let's throw that bathwater out...but the baby is still precious!

The New Heavens and New Earth is a glorious reality, so the hope of it should be cherished. But the renewed creation is intended ultimately to magnify the glory of Christ, so it's imperative that we cherish Him more than the renewed creation.

Echoes of Redemption

I thought this was a great set of photos from The Big Picture blog on the one year anniversary of Hurricane Ike, which caused more than $29 billion in damage. When you click on a photo of the devastation from a year ago, the picture fades to a shot of what that same location looks like today.

As I clicked on these photos and saw the way in which things in Galveston have been made new, I found myself being stirred by these little foretastes of the coming redemption that Christ will bring to the whole cosmos upon His glorious return (you'll have to click through to the Big Picture site to see the pictures fade):

Jesus preached the good news of the Kingdom; do we?

Yesterday, in response to Luke 4:43, I tweeted this:

Jesus: 'I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God.' So is it a problem if our Gospel talks say NOTHING about the Kingdom?

I thought it was timely, then, that later in the day on the Of First Importance blog, I read this quote from Alan Wakabayashi's book, Kingdom Come:

“The gospel is Good News concerning the Kingdom, and the Kingdom is God’s rule over the totality of life. Every human need therefore can be used by the Spirit of God as a beach-head for the manifestation of his kingly power. Whenever and wherever we confront the effects of sin, that interaction becomes a place for us to seek and serve the kingdom of God. It’s not just about lost souls but also about a lost creation. And the kingdom of God is about a creation restored.”

Much about this quote resonates with me. My love for Christ and the Gospel has been enhanced as I have come to learn some of the cosmic implications of Christ's life, death and resurrection. As I have learned that the Kingdom is not only about saving lost souls, but about restoring the entirety of God's lost creation, my wonder and amazement at the glory of Christ's redemptive work has deepened.

But I still wonder if quotes like this unintentionally minimize the priority of evangelism. The curse on creation was a consequence of man's rebellion; likewise the creation's healing is a consequence of man's redemption. If we start talking about the restoration of the creation divorced from the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen as a substitute for sinners to be received by faith, we get into serious danger (see the Emergent Church). That was one of my concerns about Wakabayashi's book, which on the whole I enjoyed (see here and, more along the lines of this post, here).

Despite the dangers, I think Evangelicals probably need to be talking about the cosmic scope of God's Kingdom more than we currently are. If it was a necessity for Jesus ('I must preach the good news of the Kingdom...'), then it ought to be for us too, right?

Anybody have thoughts about all this?

Loving God, AND His Gifts

Abraham Piper wrote an insightful post the other day on the DG blog about all the attention they have been paying to John Calvin during this, the 500th anniversary of his birth. In it he writes:

Yes, we're focusing on Calvin a lot this year in commemoration of his 500th birthday, but it's not for the sake of Calvin. Being a Christian doesn't mean ignoring everything but God; it means celebrating God and each of his good gifts—whether it's a meal, a family, or a 500-year-old reformer.

If we tried to listen to God or admire God at the expense of listening to or admiring what he's given us, then we would miss out on much of what God has for us. We should be deeply thankful for what God has given us, and that means we're going to think about these gifts and talk about them.

I think this is great advice. There have been times when some loving friends have spoken to me of the danger of emphasizing the New Heavens and the New Earth, because it could make some people excited about the wrong things. People might just use God in order to get His gifts.

This is a legitimate concern, and a real danger for God's people. Nevertheless, I am persuaded that cherishing all of God's gifts is the way to most fully honor Him. He has promised us some extraordinary things in the resurrection, and we do well to contemplate and look forward to them.

My prayer for myself and those who read the blog is that we would love and enjoy all the good things God has given to us, but that most deeply we would love God for who He is in Himself.

Hmm, nature actually is a mother

I always thought talk about 'Mother Earth' was some new-age way of staying spiritual about the world, while ignoring the Creator of the world. But in Romans 8:22, the Apostle Paul writes that there is a profound sense in which Earth really is like a mother:

"For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now."

John Piper comments:

What he says here is that the upheavals of creation are like labor pains during the last stages of pregnancy. In other words, something is about to be brought forth from creation, not in place of creation. Creation is not going to be annihilated and recreated with no continuity. The earth is going to bring forth like a mother in labor (through the upheavals of fire and earthquake and volcanoes and pestilence and famine) a new earth.

Jesus used the same imagery of labor pains when he said (in Matthew 24:7-8), "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 8 But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs."

This earth is like a mother about to give birth to a new earth where righteousness dwells and where God reigns in the midst of his people.

It would be nice if everyone who spoke of 'Mother Earth' had such hope.

What exactly are we 'just passing through?'

I'm in need of a day away from the blog world, so I'll just offer a short quote today. This one is from John Piper's Twitter feed, in which he quotes Doug Wilson, who is speaking at DG's upcoming conference on John Calvin. I believe Wilson must be commenting on the old hymn, 'This world is not my home, I'm just passing through':

Heaven is the place that we are just "passing through" from this earth to the new earth.

That's an interesting way of thinking about our final state; thoughts?

God's purpose for the world; then, now and forever

"God created the universe and all that is in it as an emanation or manifestation of the fullness of his glory. We have no reason to think that God has ever changed his mind in this regard. There is no reason to think that God would now prefer that there be no created universe.

"Christianity is not a platonic religion that regards material things as mere shadows of reality, which will be sloughed off as soon as possible. Not the mere immortality of the soul, but rather the resurrection of the body and the renewal of all creation is the hope of the Christian faith. Just as our bodies will be raised imperishable for the glory of God, so the earth itself will be made new and fit for the habitation of risen and glorified persons."

John Piper, Future Grace (p. 374)

Lions and Lambs...and Elephants and Dogs?

I saw this video on Randy Alcorn's blog and thought it was pretty cool:



As Alcorn says, perhaps this is somewhat of a foretaste of the peace to come in consummated Kingdom when, according to Isaiah:

“the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

Why Do We Groan?

This blog is called Redemption Groanings, and on the weekends I try to post photographs that help us remember to groan. Why?

The key biblical passage is Romans 8:19-22, which says:

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

To understand what Paul is talking about here, you have to go to the very beginning of the Bible. Genesis 1:1 says 'In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.' After the description of God creating all things, at the end of the chapter we're told that God looked at all He made and declared that it was very good. There were no flaws or defects whatsoever; no suffering, no pain, no tears, no evil, no death.

But then Adam and Eve did something horrifyingly evil -- preferring a piece of fruit over fellowship with their Creator God -- that God not only sentenced them to death, but also cursed the entire created world because of their sin: "cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life."

Whereas once there was no suffering or evil, now every human dies. every human suffers innumerable pains and hardships before death, rivers overflow and sweep villages away, hurricanes destroy whole cities, tsunamis kill hundreds of thousands of people in one night, AIDS, cancer and heart disease kill millions of people old and young, droughts and famines bring millions to the point of starvation, and helpless babies are born without breath in their lungs or blood in their veins.

If we could see all the pain and misery of this world, we would collapse under the weight of it. This endless groaning is a perpetual reminder of the horror of human sin against our loving, benevolent God. When we see the misery of this fallen world, we should mourn over our sin, which is the cause of all this futility and pain.

But even in God's original curse on the created world, there is a window of hope. In Eden, God said to the soul-destroying, creation-corrupting serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

God promised that one day He would send a Redeemer to crush the serpent and undo all the futility that has resulted from that horrible sin in Eden. Paul knew this, so he said in Romans 8:20, "For the creation was subjected to futility...in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." The day is coming when the whole creation will be set free from its corruption and decay (all the disease and droughts and tornadoes and death that infests this material world).

Paul knew that the promised Redeemer was Jesus Christ, who came to destroy all the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), not just in individual human lives but in the entire cosmos. Christian writer Neal Plantinga describes this cosmic healing like this:

"[It will be a] new age in which human crookedness would be straightened out, rough places made plain. The foolish would be made wise, and the wise, humble. They dreamed of a time when the deserts would flower, the mountains would run with wine, weeping would cease, and people could go to sleep without weapons on their laps.

People would work in peace and work to fruitful effect. Lambs could lie down with lions. All nature would be fruitful, benign, and filled with wonder upon wonder; all humans would be knit together in brotherhood and sisterhood, and all nature and all humans would look to God, walk with God, lean toward God and delight in God. ”

Everything will be the way it ought to be, the way God originally designed it to be. It will be a New Heavens and a New Earth, where the glory of God will be our all in all, and where everything sad in this decaying world will come untrue and be transformed into greater glory. That is the hope of redemption, and this great hope was purchased on the Cross when Jesus Christ shed His blood as a substitute for hopeless sinners.

Jesus is not only reconciling individuals to God, but He is also determined to put right everything that has gone wrong in this sin-soaked, misery-filled world. And because of His bodily resurrection, we know that no power of hell nor any scheme of man will be able to stop Him from this cosmic restoration. He will one day, in the words of Revelation 21:5, make all things new. This hope is for all who unite themselves to the crucified and risen Jesus through faith.

What a magnificent hope it is...but while we wait in hope for that wonderful day, we groan. And the groaning is both a reminder of the horror of human sin, and the hope of redemption that is found in Jesus Christ alone.

That is why we must remember to groan, today and every day until Jesus comes again to make all things new.

Cursed, In Hope

Today is Earth Day, and for me that is a reminder of both the curse of sin and the hope of redemption.

Last week I heard a message in which one of the most well-known Bible teachers in the world cited an evangelical statement of commitment to care for God's creation. The statement said, 'We commit ourselves to extend Christ's healing to the creation.' The Bible teacher then said, with great cynicism, 'I've got news for you: He cursed it! He started all the weeds and disasters.'

After quoting another evangelical statement saying, 'The cosmos in all its beauty, wildness and life-giving bounty is the work of our loving Creator,' the Bible teacher continued, 'What did they do, skip Genesis 3? He cursed it. God created it good, man sinned, and He corrupted it.'

This grieved me, because it seems to be a gross distortion of the Biblical teaching. Yes, some Christians have become so extreme in their commitment to preserve the environment that they seem to care very little about preaching the saving message of Christ crucified and risen for sinners. This is a grievous error. But it does no good to react to that error by plunging to error on the far opposite side of the pendulum, and doing it with great arrogance and smugness as well.

In reality, what this Bible teacher did was not distort the truth, but truncated it. Yes indeed, God did curse the entire created cosmos as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve. But that is NOT the end of the story, as this Bible teacher seemed to suggest so adamantly. Sadly, the Bible teacher did not mention how Romans 8 fit into his scheme of good creation, sin, and curse. In that chapter, Paul writes,

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Yes, the creation was subjected to futility; it was cursed. But it was cursed in hope, that one day the entire creation will be set free from the curse of bondage and corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. The created world that God cursed is groaning for its coming redemption from that curse, as part of the glorious triumph of the Son of God over sin, death and hell on the Cross.

How a reputable Bible teacher could so casually, cynically speak of God's curse on the creation without mentioning this verse is unfortunate. And whether this Bible teacher agrees with me or not, I believe that Earth Day is a day for Christians to both grieve and celebrate. To grieve, because our sin is what condemned this creation to its current state of bondage and corruption. But also to celebrate, because one day Jesus the Redeemer will set the entire cosmos free from the curse to the praise of His glorious, extravagant grace.

The Redemption of Culture, #2

A few weeks ago I started looking at the theme of the redemption of culture, but never came back to it. For those who would like to read more about this, I would recommend Richard Mouw's When the Kings Come Marching In, and Chapter 10 of Andy Crouch's Culture Making. What follows is basically a very short summary of material found there.

A comparison of Revelation 21-22 with Isaiah 60 will show that John's vision of the New Jerusalem seems to be shaped by his understanding of Isaiah's vision. And Isaiah depicts a holy city teeming with cultural goods not only from Israel's culture, but from the surrounding nations: domesticated animals, ships, precious minerals, jewels and timber. So as John echoes Isaiah's vision, it does not seem like he is picturing only 'Christian' cultural artifacts when he says that 'the glory and honor of the nations' are brought into the city.

Take the ships of Tarshish, for instance. Isaiah mentions these ships will be a part of the New Jerusalem (60:9). This is odd, because earlier in Isaiah (2:16) we are told that in the coming day of God's judgment, the ships of Tarshish will be among those things that the Lord is against. Yet in chapter 60 they are a part of the redeemed Holy City, being put to good use for God's glory.

How can this be? It seems that the judgment in chapter 2 is not a condemnation of the intrinsic value of these ships, but of the idolatrous function that these vessels are playing in the life of pagan societies. The judgment seems to be a purifying one, not a destruction. When the ships are stripped of the haughtiness and rebellion with which they are presently associated, they are freed for service to God and His people. That is how Isaiah can speak a word of judgment over the ships of Tarshish, yet chapters later speak of their use in the New Jerusalem.

Mouw writes, 'When the Kings come marching in, then, they bring the best of their nations -- even the cultural goods that had been deployed against God and his people. The final vision of the City is one filled, not just with God's glory and presence...but with redeemed human culture too.'

While this initially seemed far-fetched to me, reflection on the reference to the ships of Tarshish leads me to agree with Mouw. Just as our bodies will be redeemed and transformed yet still be our bodies and recognizable to those who knew us, so also cultural goods will be redeemed and transformed, while bearing some resemblance to what they were in the old creation.

This has caused me to ponder which of my favorite cultural artifacts might be cleansed and transformed on the New Earth. If the ships of Tarshish can be stripped of their idolatrous function and put to good use in the New Jerusalem, why not the best of music, film, sport, food, theater and architecture? For these are the things that our nation glories in, aren't they? So here are a few cultural artifacts I'd be delighted to see in the redeemed city of God:

Faithful readers of the blog know that Dave Matthews Band is one of my favorite culture-makers, and their CD Before These Crowded Streets is one of the most musically beautiful recordings I own. Yet I am often grieved that some of the songs contain lyrics that reveal ignorance of and/or hostility toward the God of Scripture. It would be sweet to see Jesus transform this cultural product and put it to use for His glory and honor.

I imagine we'll still love good stories on the New Earth, and this movie is one of my favorite parables of redemption. Cleansed and purified of course, but recognizable nevertheless.

Imagine the thrill of victory and the excellence of athletic greatness, purified from the egos, the greed and the idolatry of so many fans. Perhaps there will be some kind of World Series on the New Earth.

I prefer regular rye as opposed to marble, but a corned beef special would be a nice treat. Of course, as Andy Crouch points out, for the cow's sake I suppose that transformed meals will be vegetarian, but surely they will be a lot better than tofurkey!

Please remember, that my goal on this blog is to share my musings. I am not saying that I know Dave Matthews' music and the Philadelphia Phillies are definitely going to be a part of our experience in the New Jerusalem. All of us see through a mirror dimly when it comes to these matters. But I believe that God is honored when we use our Bible-grounded, sanctified imagination in pondering the wonders of His new creation, so long as we are looking to Him as our ultimate hope and the supreme joy and treasure of all our other joys.

So now it's your turn: what artifacts of culture would you like to see brought into the New Jerusalem?