Tag Archives: New Testament

Arts, Christianity, Culture

Luke’s Gospel: A signpost for seekers

NEW TESTAMENT

IF Matthew is the Gospel for the Jews, Luke is the seeker’s Gospel. Written in stylish language, it is carefully researched and easy to read.

Luke, who was a doctor and a travelling companion of St Paul, has several special interests. He includes, not unnaturally, some helpful details about Jesus’ healings. He also shows how Jesus regarded women and the poor with special compassion at a time when they were usually seen as second-class citizens or outcasts.

At the other end of the scale, he has strong warnings for the rich. His chief concern, however, is to show that Jesus is the Saviour of the world, sent by God to rescue people from the kingdom of evil and darkness.

Luke alone tells the familiar parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan: he alone records the joyful conversion of the corrupt tax inspector Zacchaeus. And only Luke gives us real insight into Jesus’ birth and records the encounter of two ordinary people with the risen Jesus on the Emmaus road. It all makes the book user-friendly and faith-inspiring.

A narrative – God’s magnificent manifesto

Luke 1:46-55, 67-79

MATTHEW’S Gospel launches Jesus’ ministry with the revolutionary teaching of the Sermon on the Mount. Luke launches Jesus’ life with an equally revolutionary sound of music.

The two poems found here (Mary’s is more of a song, Zechariah’s more of a prophecy) speak theological volumes. They lay down the themes to which Luke will return time and again.

In both cases the praise is directed to God, not simply for what he has done for Mary and Zechariah personally. That is the nature of true worship: lifting us from the immediate to the eternal, from the personal to the corporate.

Mary’s song called the Magnificat, in some ways resembles that of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2:1-10. Both their sons were to be special servants of God, but Hannah was married and unhappily childless.

Mary’s ‘humility’ was genuine in terms of her human poverty as well as her attitude of heart. She could offer only the poor person’s traditional sacrifice (2:24; Leviticus 12:8) and for some while she lived as a homeless refugee (2:7; Matthew 2:14).

But her God is not only holy, he is also merciful (v 50), an implicit acknowledgement that Mary considers herself tainted by original sin.

God’s holiness and righteousness are expressed by the way he turns the tables on the rich and powerful (vv 51-54), a constant Lucan theme. This is a prophetic declaration of righteousness which may have its spiritual dimension in terms of personal salvation, but which is far wider-reaching.

To that Zechariah also turns, in the prophecy known as the Benedictus. He sees his son’s birth as a stage in God’s purposes not just for himself and his wife, but for the nation. He focuses on forgiveness (v 77) but as a Jew this was never separated from God’s wider purposes (v 74).

Christians cannot separate the spiritual and personal message from the wider context of God’s plan for the world. John the Baptist called for a radical change in lifestyle, and neither he nor his cousin Jesus were afraid to confront the authorities with their unrighteousness. The Christian gospel is both personal and corporate.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Galatians: The heart of the gospel is here

THE BOOK OF GALATIANS

“Galatians”, the sixteenth-century theologian Martin Luther once said, “is my Katie.” She was his wife and this letter was his love. He lavished his attention upon it. Galatians focused entirely on the central truth, forgotten by much of Christendom and which was then being rediscovered.

It asks the most important question a person can ever ask: what do I have to do, in practical terms, to gain a right relationship with God? Paul’s answer is simple: nothing. Admitting there is nothing you can do and putting your faith in Christ, as the one who has already done for you everything that is necessary, is all you need.

Which is an answer few human beings except the selfish type can accept easily. We value our independence and our ability to look after ourselves. When we become dependent on others we feel worthless.

The Galatians certainly found it hard to accept. They wanted to work their passage to the kingdom of God, to pay their entrance fee into heaven. On his visit Paul had explained that the price had been paid already; they just had to get on board. But as soon as he left they developed a set of regulations (including male circumcision) which they insisted must be kept by anyone wishing to remain right with God.

That, Paul claims, is “another gospel”, a denial of what Jesus had done and the apostles had taught. So after a lengthy resume of his own credentials as a reliable teacher, he explains again what it means to be “justified by faith”.

It is the heart of the New Testament gospel, whatever Christian tradition you come from or whatever emphasis of Christian living you espouse. By understanding it, rejoicing in it and applying it to your worship and daily living, you will be able to enjoy the privilege of developing a personal relationship with the living God.

That explains Paul’s passion in Galatians. For him, as for Luther, this concept was his true love.

How To Grow God’s Fruit – a narrative

Galatians 5:16-26

YOU do not just pick berries off bushes and eat them. Some are poisonous. You need to distinguish between good and bad. Jesus usd that analogy in Matthew 7:15-20, referring to the black berries of the Palestinian buckthorn which, when seen from a distance, looked like grapes. Paul tells us how to “grow” good fruit: the genuine, visible product of our inner faith.

But he first warns us of what we know but which still surprises us: that we must expect a conflict (vv 16-18). Our imperfect human nature (some versions of the Bible use the word “flesh”) has been “crucified” with Christ (v 24), but it will not lie down. However, we do have the “new nature” of the Holy Spirit to counter it and conquer it.

Our task, Paul says, is actively to cultivate that new nature and weed out the old. Only God can make the fruit grow (another example of living by his grace through faith) but we have to prepare the soil by keeping “in step with the Spirit” (v 25): allowing his holiness to penetrate our lives.

It is not an option but an obligation. Bishop J C Ryle said in his book Holiness that “there is far more harm done by unholy and inconsistent Christians than we are aware of . . . They supply the children of this world with a never-ending excuse for remaining as they are.”

Christians are under new management. They have been given a spiritual make-over. But sometimes we still look a mess. Moment by moment, ask: what fruit should sprout in this situation?

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

The Book of Jude

THE BOOK OF JUDE is one of the shortest New Testament books (only one chapter) but, as the early church writer Origen said, “it is full of mighty words”.

Jude tells his readers in no uncertain terms to withstand false teachers and to hold fast to the apostolic faith.

NARRATIVE

Keep the fences mended

AS any pet owner or farmer knows, it is a chief purpose of animal life to get through fences. Rabbits will burrow under them, sheep will squeeze through them, and goats will eat them.

Jude wanted to write a letter or tract about the delights of the spiritual meadow in which the Church grazed, but instead he spends his strength telling his readers to stay within the fences which surround it: the doctrines “once for all entrusted to the saints” (v 3). The reason for his change is that some church members have torn down the barriers and others are in danger of falling.

They have impure motives and bad intentions. They have “secretly slipped in” like enemy agents in a government department, like wolves in sheeps’ clothing (Matthew 7:15). They look right, and sound right, but subtly undermine faith. They also encourage immoral conduct.

To counter them, Jude says we are to stay within the boundaries of faith previously laid down. Today, these are encapsulated for us in the creeds which are based on Scripture, and in the broad but definite boundaries of conduct outlined in the historic Ten Commandments.

In an age of moral relativism, there are many voices advocating practices and beliefs which are not genuine interpretations or fresh applications of unchanging truths, but denials or distortions of those truths. We are to resist them as Jude’s readers were to resist the false teachers of their time.

G.K. Chesterton once wrote that the breaking of barriers could be the breaking of everything. The fence of faith is not a prison wall to restrict our freedom but a guard rail for our benefit and safety. And human beings are not meant to behave like animals searching for greener grass.

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Are unbiblical sources vehicles of God’s truth?

IT must be pointed out that Jude was rejected by some early Church leaders because he used books not recognised as authoritative Scripture and considered to be “unsound”.

He quotes from The Assumption of Moses (v 9); draws from The Book of Enoch (vv 6,8, 13-15), a bizarre work full of extravagant symbolism, and possibly from The Testament of Naphtali (v 6) and The Testament of Asher (v 8). These were all deemed as items of Jewish fiction.

Other biblical books quote dubious sources: Paul used Greek and Cretan writers (Acts 17:28; 1 Corinthians 15:33; Titus 1:12). Old Testament authors acknowledged outside sources (for example, Numbers 21:14; 1 Kings 14:19,29) and Luke says there were many records of Jesus’ life (1:1-4). Jesus himself quoted an old wives’ tale (Matthew 16:3)!

Jude’s use of the Michael legend does not imply that it is true; all we can say is that he uses a familiar story to make a point about the false teachers.

This encourages us to take a robust view of biblical authority and inspiration. God draws on surprising sources. Many of the people whose story is told in the Bible and who were used by God were far from being “saints”. They were, in fact, pretty sinful! But, then again, we all are other than God himself.

So, the sources used for and quoted by the Scriptures were far from perfect too. But woven together under the direction of God’s Spirit the overall message of the scriptural writings became his. Use of other authors does not imply that all they wrote was right, inspired, or even helpful; only that what is quoted is now, in its context, the vehicle of God’s message.

– Note: The Podcast ends after Part I

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