Colossians Archives - Christ Church

Science, the Bible, & Defending the Faith (CCD)

Christ Church on August 28, 2022

INTRODUCTION

There’s a new dogma in our culture which insists that Science must always be capitalized. You must bow low in the divine presence of Science. But if you haven’t noticed, the science always seems to flow in the unscientific direction of totalitarian entities tightening their grip on power. They want Science to be an infallible word, a sovereign decree, and to have preeminence above all. But mainly they want to use it as a tool for the vanity project of human pride.

THE TEXT

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist (Col. 1:15–17).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

In this epistle from Paul, he lays the cornerstone upon which all the rest of his arguments will rise. The central confession of the early church centered upon this man Jesus, who was the promised Messiah and the embodiment of the divine Logos. That confession is here in the form of a hymn.

Pauls insists on a few things about Jesus in this poetic theology. Much controversy & speculation has centered around the meaning of the phrase “firstborn of every creature.” The meaning however is quite plain when you examine what comes before & after. He’s the image of the invisible God (likening Christ with the first Adam), He’s the firstborn of every creature (likening Christ with Israel, Cf. Ex. 4:22) (v15), but unlike Adam & Israel, Christ is the headwaters & estuary of all creation (vv16-17).
Though He’s the image and first-begotten of the Father, He is also God. By this we have assurance that the same God who personally made all things, is the same God who became a man and for our salvation laid down his life and rose again to personally remake all things. Paul also gives a thumbnail description of what took place in Gen. 1-2. All heavenly & earthly things were brought into being by Him; this includes any division of angelic entities: thrones, dominions, principalities, powers. He made them all and their continued being is due to Him alone and for Him they are and were created (v17, Cf. Eph. 3:9 & Pro. 8).

THE DARWINIAN HERESY

This Pauline explanation of the origin of all things is diametrically opposed to the explanation that currently has prevalence in our culture. Darwin introduced a heresy that the church at large has yet to satisfactorily jettison. Instead, many have sought to harmonize Darwinism with the Biblical account. But that’s like trying to harmonize orange juice and toothpaste.

The central claim made by Science since the Darwinian revolution is that being isn’t contingent on Divinity. Everything can come from nothing. But this turns the entire universe into a blind, unfeeling, impersonal place. There’s no order, rhyme, or reason. There’s no right, because we’re all just shrapnel. There’s no one to say “thank you” to for all the splendors. This doesn’t comport with what a minute of genuine scientific observation informs us of.

This revolution has resulted in Science becoming a religion itself, instead of a servant in service of faith. Science, done rightly, is like a systematic theology of general revelation. But modern man wants Science to do heavier lifting than it’s able to. It wants reason to supplant faith. But this is like trying to take your eyeballs out in order to look at them. Where does reason come from?

Modern thinking wants to insist that “the science is settled” until it isn’t. That’s played out in fast-forward over the last few years in regards to pandemics, vaccines, global warming, gender, and the list could go on. The planet is dying, except where it isn’t. Masks work, until they don’t. This tells you that we aren’t dealing with science, but the hardened paradigms of Scientism. The current insistence is that Science speaks an infallible word of order from chaos; but with each new discovery we find orderliness, design, engineering beyond our wildest imaginations. From rhododendrons to rhinos to rhomboids, we live in a gloriously tidy place.

SOMETHING FROM NOTHING

But both the materialistic view of creation, and the Genesis account agree that once there was no creation, and then there was creation. What Genesis gives to us, however, is that creation came from a Creator. Darwin needs the pixie dust of millions, wait…hundreds of millions…hold that…tens of billions of years to win the existential lottery. The evolutionary explanation for the heavens and earth is like the sad gambler in the Vegas airport who is pulling the slots even as his plane is boarding, thinking, “This time I’ll hit the jackpot.”

As Lewis points out in Miracles, when Jesus fed the 5000 he was simply doing something that usually takes a full season. He made more bread from bread, and the Colfax granaries add their witness that these things be so. Our trouble is thinking that Jesus could take a process we take for granted and somehow perform it in the amount of time it took for Him to offer a simple prayer of thanks to His Father.

Miracles are not unreasonable. They’re the most logical thing in the world if you first acknowledge that created being is itself a gift and a miracle. The problem when Christians refuse to acknowledge the first miracle of Creation, endeavoring to curry favor with the evolutionary worldview, is that they end up confronted with what to do with the supreme miracle: the resurrection. But if you grant the first “life from death”, the second & superior “life from death” follows easily.

ENCHANTED CREATION

So not only is the Darwinian explanation factually incorrect (as we see in the comedic attempts to explain missing links, “prehistoric” fossils in places they don’t belong, and soft tissue in dino bones), it is an incredibly bland, boring, and unenchanted way of seeing the world.

Woodpeckers peck trees with enough force that their brains should explode (the deceleration of pecking is 1000 g). But they’re designed such that their long tongue and a spongy pocket combine to provide cushioning which prevents such an unfortunate demise.

The sun is an inferno 800,000 miles wide, 100,000,000º inferno, warming us from 93,000,000 miles away. This distance just so happens to be not too close & not too far. It’s perfectly situated. The Sun’s energy output is 3.8 x 1033 ergs/second. Enough energy to melt a mile thick & two mile wide bridge of ice which extends the entire way from the Earth to the Sun in one second. Each second the sun’s energy output would power the US for 9,000,000 years. Or to use a more explosive illustration, one second of solar output is equivalent to the detonation of the entire world’s nuclear stockpile times 7,000,000. The largest power plants have a total energy generation of 3-5 GW. Comparatively, every second the sun produces the energy of ten million such power plants per human. And the sun is just one star amongst trillions.

What we find when we look around us isn’t an ugly mechanical pragmatism. We find beauty. While there’s a function to the peacock’s feathers, there’s also a sheer, over-the-top beauty. Butterfly wings, nebulas, the eye-pleasing patterns we find in sea-shells, flowers, galaxies, and cell-structures all are ostentatious displays of derivative glory. It isn’t just an orderly world, but it is objectively beautiful one. Putting this all together, we live in an enchanted world, made by God the Father, Son, Spirit.

BY HIM AND FOR HIM

Not only was it made by Jesus Christ. But it was made for Him. This is something which Scientism can’t answer. It has no reason for why we’re here. It can’t answer, “What am I here for?” But as our catechism wonderfully puts it, your chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
You were made, and every atom was made, and every galaxy cluster was made, and every termite was made for Christ. As Col. 1:18 declares that all this was done so that in all things Christ might have the preeminence. Reason must bend her knee and acknowledge the task for which she was made. That task is to render worship to the fountainhead and ocean floor of all the glory: Jesus Christ. He made the world, and then He remade it. This is the good news. Behind all these shadow-glories which surround us, awaits the real glory.

Science, the Bible, & Defending the Faith (King’s Cross)

Christ Church on August 28, 2022

INTRODUCTION

Christians do not merely believe that God created all things from nothing and an intelligent design of the universe, we believe that the only fully rational accounting of the universe, science, logic, reason, and human experience begins with the authority of Scripture, submits to the supremacy of Jesus Christ in all things, and surrenders in glad worship at His throne.

THE TEXT

“Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Col. 1:15-17).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The Apostle Paul is in the process of reviewing the gospel that was preached to the Colossians and has begun to bear fruit in their lives (Col. 1:4-8), and the prayer the apostles now have for the Colossians is that it might bear much fruit in their lives in knowledge and wisdom and good works and strength and joy (Col. 1:9-11), since salvation is deliverance from darkness into the kingdom of the Son, redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1:12-14).

This is where our text picks up underlining the power and potency of the gospel by underlining just who Jesus is: the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all of creation (Col. 1:15), the Creator of all things, the reason for all things (Col. 1:16), and that means that He is before and greater than all things and He is the One who upholds all things (Col. 1:17). Because that is Who He is, He is the Head of the New Creation, the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18), the fullness of God Himself, and therefore His cross is potent to reconcile all things, reconciling His enemies to Himself and presenting them holy and innocent in His sight (Col. 1:19-22).

ACKNOWLEDGING THE CREATOR

Paul’s argument is this: If we preach the death and resurrection of Christ and men and women who are dead in their sins come to life, full of peace, from the madness and violence and confusion of sin and darkness, then a New Creation has begun. And if Jesus is the Head of that New Creation, He is the Head, the Source, the Firstborn of the Old Creation. He is the Center.

Another way to put the argument is that everyone must have a standard for truth, a standard for evidence, a standard for making sense of everything. Paul is claiming that Christ and His authority is that universal standard for all men everywhere. Christ is the ultimate standard because He is the image of the invisible God, the Creator all things, and because without him nothing could exist (Col. 1:15-17). Of course the comeback is something like: But you can’t simply assert what you must prove. And our response is twofold: First, why not? You’re asserting a canon of reason, but you haven’t proven that you must prove every assertion in order for it to be valid. But the fact is that everyone must start with a presupposition that ultimately trusts God or man, the Creator or something in creation. You might start with reason, logic, science, experience, psychoanalysis, or consensus. But then you are beginning with a presupposition that one or more of those things are reliable guides to truth and coherence, but you haven’t (and cannot) prove their full reliability. In fact, all of those things are highly limited and have let people down in every era, and the last few years is no exception. Second, the proof of the authority of Christ is the forgiveness of sins and peace with God.

EVIDENCE BASED FAITH

It is sometimes claimed that reason and faith are opposites, or that science and religion are at odds. But the Bible everywhere teaches that God is reasonable, His creation is reasonable, and He expects human beings who bear His image to think and reason. What the Bible rejects is autonomous reason. We reject human reason that rejects the authority of God’s Word. Faith is simply reason in submission to God.

This means that all thinking people must reject Darwinism as complete nonsense and irrationality. It makes no sense at all to trust reason or science based on the assumption that the present world emerged by accidents and mutations. This is to claim that order and meaning emerged from chaos and meaninglessness, but every canon of reason and science rejects this.

Unlike irrational religions and superstitions, the Bible everywhere assumes that God has established certain natural patterns and habits to the created order. This order is what allows nature to be studied, for the nature of things to be observed, logged, experimented with, and learned from. Cause and effect, logic, reason, and the scientific method all require an orderly and intelligent universe. In fact, modern science emerged from a largely Christian and Protestant worldview that believed in a personal and rational Creator God.

CONCLUSION: WHAT ABOUT MIRACLES?

One of the obvious questions following the assertion that God has created the world with an order and nature that is fix and stable is: then what about all the miracles in the Bible? The simple answer is that the Bible itself presents miracles as, well, miraculous, unusual, deviations from the norm. In addition, it assumes that in order to believe in miracles, any rational human being would need evidence, testimony, and proof.

The central miracle of the Bible is the announcement that Jesus rose from the dead. And when John records the resurrection, he records the doubt of Thomas, who says he will not believe unless he sees the nail prints in the hands of Jesus and puts his hand into the side of Jesus, where the spear pierced Him. Then John says that the next time Jesus appeared, that was exactly what Jesus presented to Thomas (Jn. 20:27). And Thomas answered and said, “My Lord and my God” (Jn. 20:28).

And John’s gospel closes with these words, “And Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you might have life in His name” (Jn. 20:30-31).

Forgiveness & Your Feelings

Christ Church on August 7, 2022

INTRODUCTION

The habit of modern man is to act based on his feelings, instead of action based on fact. The Disney catechism has worked its way deeply into our culture: follow your heart. We are the foolish man, building on the sands of emotion, instead of the rock of the Word. The pile of grievances swept under the cultural rug is getting quite obvious. Yet no one knows how to actually sweep out the grime, because no one feels like humbling themselves.

THE TEXT

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him (Colossians 3:12-17).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul instructs Christians to put on a particular disposition due to their standing as the elect of God (v12, Cf. Rom 13:4, Gal. 3:27); this disposition includes various attributes which are, to the carnal man, like drinking castor oil with a vinegar chaser. The disposition of the saints is to be one of patient mercy & humility (v12). By putting these virtues on, we are equipped to the action of forbearance and forgiveness of the quarrels we may have against another. Forgiveness is not a passive event which happens to you, it is an imperative. It puts a victim of offense as an actor in the restoration. This forgiveness is in imitation of Christ’s great forgiveness of the saints (v13). Agape is like the jeweled clasp that holds all these virtues in place (v14), while the peace of God rules in our hearts individually and corporately. Our response to it all should be gratitude (v15).

We both put on Christ, and Christ dwells in us. His Word is to dwell in us richly. The fruit of His presence is made evident in our teaching and admonishing of one another. This is done most poignantly in our biblically founded and faithful praise (v16). All of this should be done with grace in our hearts (v16). The whole scope of Christian activity is be offered up entirely to God, through Christ, with thankfulness (v17).

THE SHIPWRECK OF TRAUMA-PEDDLERS

In the midst of a culture where apologies have been weaponized, both by faux-victims and by real perpetrators, a great deal of misunderstanding has arisen about what forgiveness is, and how it works. Trauma-peddlers are not interested in the fire of bitterness to be put out by the water of forgiveness. Cruel men are only interested in apologies as a means of preserving the brand. We must reject both approaches.

Scripture gives us a way out of the shipwreck of feelings, and onto the solid ground of truth. If you’ve been wronged, true harm has been done. Whether the harm is physical or verbal, emotional or financial Scripture equips us to handle the harm done to us with, as Paul puts it in our text, the peace of God ruling in our hearts.

Grace is in our hearts and so we sing one to another the songs of God. God’s peace rules our hearts, and so we forgive as He forgave us. Notice in the text that it is by God’s presence within us that enables us to the action of forgiveness. By resting in our justification before God through Christ we are enabled to go about the activity of objective reconciliation. This doesn’t dull our emotional state; rather it is by the Spirit’s governance within us that our emotions are strengthened, sharpened, and sweetened. Elsewhere, Paul instructs that true forgiveness is tied up with tenderheartedness (Eph. 4:32). A new heart, in other words, is absolutely necessary.

TRANSACTIONAL FORGIVENESS

When you’re wronged, Scripture gives a few routes to take. This text in Colossians sets forth one path plainly and implies the second. You can forbear the offense, covering a whole catalogue of sins (Cf. Pro. 10:12). The second path is to pursue the offense straight up the middle, seeking to address the wrong in order to extend forgiveness.

Again, forgiveness is a transaction, not a feeling. This is where many modern grief counselors, like blind guides of the blind, stagger off into the marshlands. Say in a quarrel with a spouse, friend, or coworker you utter a truly cruel insult to them. You’ve done objective harm, so by seeking forgiveness you are identifying the true guilt of your actions, along with the objective harm you did, and then seeking to restore what you harmed. The option for the victim is to either extend forgiveness and receive the restitution, or curl up into hardened shell of resentment.

This transactional aspect of biblical forgiveness removes relational restoration from the fluctuating realm of feelings and excuses and “sweep it under the rug” approaches. Biblical justice requires restitution (Ex. 22:12), ranging from double what was stolen (Ex. 22:7), to a fifth for lesser faults (Num. 5:7) to four-fold (Lk. 19:1-10). Did you gossip about someone? You need to seek their forgiveness as well as seek to restore the good name you tarnished. Did you lie? You need to come clean, then restore the harm done by your falsehood. This doesn’t just factor in material harm, but the harm from time-lost.

I DON’T FEEL LIKE FORGIVING

For the offended party, the last thing you may feel like doing is forgiving. True forgiveness isn’t dependent on the alignment of heavenly bodies, or hormones to balance, or enough time to pass. Put on Christ, and grace rules in you.

You get the forgiveness ready, from the heart, because your heart is under the authority of Another. It isn’t under the authority of what your feelings are doing. Furthermore, while extending forgiveness it’s lawful to lay out the clear damages needing restitution.

What is not an option is to say that you just won’t forgive. Jesus gives stern warnings to the unforgiving. You are insisting on receiving infinite kindness from God, and refusing to extend finite kindness to your brother.

AS GOD FORGAVE YOU

Once more, the virtues we are commanded to cultivate are all derivative. You don’t draw up forgiveness juice from the well of your own inward goodness. The well from which your forgiveness springs from is the same well that you have drunk from. The infinite ocean of God’s kindness to you through Christ.

See how God sees you. The Gospel draws open the shades, and allows you see the pristine view of God’s mercy toward you. God calls you elect, chosen. Through no deserving on your part. God calls you holy. God calls you beloved. None of it earned. None of it because you were on your best behavior. All of it freely given by the cross. Lay hold on the cross, and then forgive as God forgave you. Not because you feel like it, but because you have a new heart.

The Ascension and the Gunk in Our Brains

Christ Church on May 29, 2022

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Introduction

Whenever we discuss the incarnation of Christ, or His death and resurrection, or His ascension, we are talking about something that is much more important than simple location. We are not just interested in certain powerful works that He performed, but rather are interested in the meaning of those works. In the ascension of Christ, we are not interested in how He moved from here to there. His ascension was the occasion of His investiture to cosmic office. In other words, we are called upon to live our lives here in the light of His transcendental authority. And so this brings us to consider the ethical ramifications of the ascension of Christ.

The skeptic may want to allege that we are talking fairy tales about a divine being going up to a sky castle. But if we hear the story correctly, our response should be, “Man, that’s ethically serious.”

The Text

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:1–5).

Summary of the Text

The Scriptures teach us that Christ is the archetypal man, the Adam of a new race, the representative of all who have faith in Him. Just as we all sinned when Adam ate the forbidden fruit, because he was our representative and federal head, so also the obedience of Christ is our obedience—on the same grounds. He is an Adam, our federal head. By faith, we experience everything He experiences. When He died, we died (Gal. 2:20). When He was buried in the cave, we were buried in the cave with Him (Rom. 6:4). When He rose from the dead, we rose from the dead in Him (Eph.2:5-6). And to the point of our celebration today, when He ascended into the heavenly spheres, we ascended together with Him (Eph. 2:6). From His suffering, which is ours by grace, to His glory, which is also ours by more grace, the whole story is one of a salvation on earth which is anchored in the heavens. It began there, and it ends there.

So turning to our text, if we in fact are risen with Christ, then this should orient us to those things which are above (v. 1). The location of this “above” is identified as the right hand of God, where Christ is seated (v. 1). The Colossians are told to set their affections there, and not down here on the earth (v. 2). The reason for this is their prior participation in the death of Christ (v. 3), and as a consequence, their life is hidden with Christ in God (v. 3). Our life is hidden with Christ, and Christ is in fact that life. When Christ, who is our life, comes again in glory, then we will be manifested there with Him in that glory (v. 4). And so here we see the ethical ramifications of the ascension. Mortify, put to death, Paul says, your members which are down here on the earth (v. 5). He then lists those members, all of which appear to be sexual in nature—fornication, uncleanness, inordinate passion, evil desire, and covetousness—which amounts to idolatry (v. 5). One of the central reasons why our generation is caught in a morass of sexual deviance is because we have forgotten the transcendent reality of Christ’s rule.

A Hard Juxtaposition

Because of the work Christ has done on our behalf, we have a new identity in Him. Because of this work, the old man has been crucified, and reigning sin no longer has dominion. This is why Paul can address this letter to the “saints and faithful brethren” in Christ (Col. 1:2). This is who they are. But they (and we) still have to deal with remaining sin, and that is what Paul is dealing with here—our members which are on the earth.

Three Mortifications

So when it comes to the Christian life, there are three mortifications that we have to understand. To mortify means to put to death.

The first mortification occurs at conversion, when God by His grace puts the old man to death. “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24). This occurs when God rototills a weed patch, transforming it into a garden.

The second kind of mortification occurs here, in our text. Paul is addressing saints who are already saints, but who have allowed certain weeds to grow up in their garden. But this is a garden, not a weed patch any more, and so the weeds must be put to death. “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth” (Col. 3:5). The command here is an aorist imperative, meaning that it is a definitive, over and done kind of action. Kill those weeds.

The third kind of mortification is a daily thing, an ongoing thing. “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:13). So if we continue with the gardening metaphor, this is a mortification of weeds that a good gardener performs, as she goes out every morning at 5 am to weed. It has never been the case (when a good gardener does this) that she comes back with nothing.

Gunk in Your Brains

Someone who is being moral isn’t thinking about how moral he is. Being moral and being moralistic are quite different. Moralism is a fussy sort of business, avoiding things that it wishes it didn’t have to avoid. Moralism suspects that the non-believers out there are having a good time, and wants to put a stop to it. At the end of the day, moralism is frankly impotent.

The liberating power of grace is found in this. God wants you to contrast your affections on things above with your inordinate affection for things below. He wants you to put them into the same sentence. He wants you to set the transcendence of the risen Christ on one side of the balances, and your favorite porn site on the other. He wants you to evaluate your life with a Temple measure.

Your members which are on the earth have this resilient characteristic—nothing earthly can put them to death. No sword fashioned down here on earth can penetrate the hide of any of these creatures—every blow glances off.

You are the saints of God, which means that you have gunk in your brains. Do not be astonished at this. You are saints and faithful brethren, just like the Colossians. They had gunk in their brains too. But notice what Paul is up to here. He does not say to leave the gunk behind because that gunk is sinful and bad. That is true enough, but it doesn’t work. He says to leave it behind because Christ has ascended into the heavenlies, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.