Born To Give Us Second Birth

This Christmas season, I have been pondering a particular line in the familiar carol Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: “Born to raise the sons of earth / Born to give them second birth.” One of the glorious aspects of Christmas is that the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ from a virgin’s womb secured another miracle, namely the gift of new birth for fallen human beings. We can see why genuine Christian conversion and this second birth are nothing short of miraculous when we consider the testimony of Scripture concerning the universal human condition:

We “were dead in our trespasses” and were “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1-4).

We “once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds” (Colossians 1:21-22).

We were haters of God and enemies of God (Romans 1:30, 5:10).

The word of the cross was folly to us (1 Corinthians 1:18).

We “were once slaves of sin” (Romans 6:17-18).

How did we who were dead in our trespasses, enslaved to sin, and in willful rebellion against God come to the point where we saw our desperate need for a Savior and that our only hope is in the crucified and risen Christ? Why do we no longer see the word of the cross as foolishness but rather as the power of God for salvation? Jesus Himself gives us the answer: “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27). God did for us what we could never have done for ourselves. He gave us the gift of new birth. He, “being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4). God fulfilled in us the promise He made long ago through His prophet Ezekiel: “I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them” (Ezekiel 11:19-20). He “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). To use an analogy from Pastor John Piper, what once tasted like rubber bands to our dead spiritual taste buds now tastes like the sweetest honey. Our spiritual eyes now perceive beauty and glory in Jesus Christ that once was veiled to us.

A stunning implication of this second birth is that our faith in the Lord Jesus is the effect, not the cause, of our being born again. Jesus told Nicodemus that one can neither see nor enter the kingdom of God unless that person is “born again”—“born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:3, 5). If you are trusting in the Son of God as your Lord, Savior, and Treasure, it is because God in His mercy has first given you eyes to see and ears to hear. He has given you the gift of new birth. Such is the mysterious and wondrous nature of the saving grace of God. May our response to this glorious truth of the second birth reflect the words of the Apostle Peter:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)

Every Christian is a miracle. And the new birth we have experienced could never have come to us apart from the Christmas story and the purchasing of sinners with Christ’s own blood. May the truth of His cross and the joy-producing hope He gives be our unshakable foundation as we make our way to the Celestial City.

In Memory of Bae Hyung Kyu (1965-2007)

There’s nothing like reading real stories about real people in far-away continents who are laying down their lives in difficult places for the glory of Jesus Christ. Their accounts help me in my fight for joy. More than that, they serve as sobering reminders to my soul that “only one life, ‘twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.” Life is a vapor. I don’t want to waste it.

Bae Hyung Kyu did not waste his life. Last week, he was murdered by the Taliban on his 42nd birthday, just a few days after he and a group of 22 young South Korean missionaries (men and women) were taken hostage in Afghanistan on 19 July. Bae, the leader of the group, was a Presbyterian pastor in Seoul and known by fellow church leaders as “Mr. Smile.” According to the UK news site TimesOnline, “Reverend Bae knew the huge risks of leading young Christian missionaries into the Islamic heart of Afghanistan, but did so with irrepressible good cheer.” Imagine the opposition he must have received, even from some Christians, for embracing such a great risk for the sake of Christ.

Two paragraphs later in that same article, I read the following: “Even as he faced slaughter at the hands of the Taleban, Reverend Bae’s main concern was not for his own life. He wanted desperately to donate his organs to medical research at a hospital in Anyang, but feared they would be rejected if riddled with bullet-holes.” The Taliban militants did just that: ten bullet holes were found in Bae’s head, chest, and stomach. At the brink of death, Bae’s concern was not for his own life but for the lives of others back home who could benefit from his organs. Indeed, Pastor Bae’s final thoughts on earth were a sweet echo of the Apostle Paul’s words:

“I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” [Acts 20:24]

Bae faced death unafraid because he knew he would gain Christ. “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matt. 16:25). The One who suffered and became a curse on a cross in Bae’s place, this glorious and resurrected Christ was the One enabling Bae to suffer and die for His name’s sake. This is the power of God.

Bae Hyung Kyu, thank you for showing us what it means to live an un-wasted life of radical love for people, a life that takes great risks to display Jesus Christ and to bear witness to His atoning work for sinners. Your life is a beautiful testimony to the glory of the grace of God.

See you in heaven, brother.

Bae leaves behind a wife and a nine-year-old daughter.
Let us pray that God would deliver the remaining hostages from their oppressors.

Abortion and Treason

As I was driving around town yesterday, I noticed the bumper sticker on the car in front of me: “pro-choice and proud.” I was disgusted and saddened, and then I pondered for a moment how revealing such a message was about the universal human condition. I thought about the fall of man as recorded in Genesis 3. The devil in the form of a crafty serpent told Eve that by eating of the tree that God had forbidden, she and her husband would not die but instead would be “like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). Enticed by the serpent, Adam and Eve decided to eat of the fruit of that tree. This was not just a lapse of judgment; it signified profound rebellion against their Maker. It was as if they thought, “God warned us that we will surely die if we do this, but we know better than God. He must be keeping something good from us. We will be gods unto ourselves.” Since then, every one of us is born with the inclination to rebel against God, for “by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners” (Romans 5:19). None of us is neutral in relation to God; naturally our minds are hostile to God (Romans 8:7). And the root of this rebellion is pride: man places himself on the throne of his life and becomes the arbiter of what is good and evil, right and wrong. C.J. Mahaney, quoting Charles Bridges, describes this as “contending for supremacy with God” (Humility, p. 31).

The “pro-choice and proud” bumper sticker is just another tragic example confirming the treasonous nature of mankind: “We, and not God, will decide at what point a living fetus is worthy of the term ‘human being.’ We know better than God. In fact, we are gods unto ourselves, and we will make our own judgments as to whether abortion is evil or not.”

Has shaking our fists against God brought us liberation and satisfaction? Far from it! It has brought death into the world, made us slaves to sin, placed us under a curse, and destined us for the just wrath of a holy God. But eternal thanks be to God for sending His only Son into the world to absorb such fierce and holy wrath on a cross for the sins of all who would turn from their treason and trust in Him.

I prayed for the owner of that vehicle, that he would taste the saving grace of God purchased by Jesus Christ at Calvary. Only the power of the Gospel can reverse the curse of sin and reconcile us to the glorious and all-satisfying God for whom we were made, so that we desire to turn from being proud self-exalters to humbled Christ-exalters.

[I am indebted to John Piper’s sermon “Abortion and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” for the insights in this blog].

Reflections on Na 07: Part 2

At the beginning of New Attitude 07, Josh Harris reminded us to think of ourselves first as we listened to each message of the conference. What he meant was this: when listening to a convicting sermon, we often tend to dwell on thoughts like “so and so really needs to hear this” while forgetting that we ourselves really need to hear what is being preached (how guilty I am of this!). This is not an easy principle to follow. Indeed, examining our own hearts in light of the truth of Scripture can be painful: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). But truth wounds in order to heal.

For the fourth general session of Na 07, C.J. Mahaney preached on discerning the idols in our heart. Entitled “The Idol Factory” (an allusion to a John Calvin quote), C.J.’s sermon was undoubtedly one of the most significant messages I will ever hear. By God’s grace I hope to continually apply the weighty truths that C.J. communicated so effectively that night. Here’s a recap of his main points:

• Idolatry is the most frequently discussed and most seriously condemned sin in Scripture
• In our culture, idolatry seems antiquated and irrelevant. Idolatry today exists in more subtle and sophisticated ways.
• Defining idolatry
• In Romans 1:18, 21, 25, Paul defines the essence of idolatry: man has exchanged the truth of God for a lie and has worshipped the creature rather than the Creator
• Idolatry is a sinful craving for one of God’s gifts more than God Himself
• C.J. cited the following from John Calvin: “The evil in our desires usually does not lie in what we want but that we want it too much.”
• This powerful, spiritual concept of idolatry is the most overlooked in the Church today
• For Christians, the propensity to idolatry remains in us after conversion because of remaining (or indwelling) sin (James 1:14)
• How we as Christians detect and destroy the idols of our hearts
• Through Holy Scripture and the illumination of the Holy Spirit
• Through the Church (the preaching of the Word and people in the church)
• Through our circumstances (tests of adversity and tests of prosperity)
• Fruit of identifying and fighting idolatry in our hearts
• Growth in godliness
• Growth in gratefulness to God—idolatry reminds us of our sin and of the greatness of the Gospel . . . we have been forgiven much! (Luke 7:47)
• We need discernment to detect and destroy the idols of our hearts.

C.J. noted that the test of adversity especially reveals our hearts. He posed the following question that I must ask myself in such seasons of life: What is my response if I don’t obtain what I want? Wow. Few questions are more effective in exposing the God-belittling idols that lurk in my own heart. As C.J. explained, the tests of adversity are meant to shift the ground of our joy from the creation to the Creator.

I’m grateful for C.J.’s pastoral care in reminding us that idols never deliver and always disappoint. Remaining sin, he said, is a fully functioning idol factory that is open for business 24-7. What a wake-up call to my slumbering soul! The Holy Spirit used this profound message to illumine areas of my heart where I have bowed down to idols in recent months (how subtle and deceiving this sin really is). No wonder it is at these times that I’ve felt spiritually sucked dry! When I yield to the sin of idolatry, I become blinded to the compelling beauty of Christ. I forget that He alone is the fountain of Living Waters that satisfies my parched and thirsty soul. What hope we have in knowing that God does not ultimately leave His children to wallow in the broken cisterns the world offers us. And how much more precious the Gospel becomes when we see our ugly idolatries with new eyes and then look upon the crucified Christ, who in His suffering bore the judgment we deserved for those sins. Clinging to this glorious truth is our only hope for detecting and destroying the idols that seek to blind us to the all-satisfying Treasure—Jesus Christ.

Reflections on Na 07: Part 1

The New Attitude 07 conference concluded over a day ago, and I write this blog freshly aware of the magnificence of the grace of God. I am grateful to God for the rich feast of teaching, worship, and biblical fellowship with fellow believers that has characterized these past four days. Through New Attitude, the Lord in His kindness enabled me to see more clearly areas of sin in my life, and at the same time He has taken me back to the glorious Gospel of His Son, through which I no longer stand condemned. Wow—how good this Good News really is!

The theme of NA07 was “Humble Orthodoxy Takes Discernment.” Josh Harris’ introductory message on Saturday evening laid the groundwork for the rest of the conference. On Sunday morning, Mark Dever preached on discerning your doctrine, followed in the afternoon by Al Mohler on discerning your culture. One of the highlights for me was the fourth general session Sunday evening, when CJ Mahaney preached on discerning your heart. Without doubt, Monday was my favorite day of the conference: Eric Simmons preached an excellent message on discernment in grey matters, and then God blessed us with two messages back-to-back from John Piper that afternoon and evening. CJ concluded the conference on Tuesday morning with a profound and convicting application message . . . this is a message that I especially need to re-listen to every few months, for my experience at New Attitude will have been in vain if I am merely a hearer and not a doer of the word (James 1:22-23). I pray that the doctrinally rich teaching that I received from such world-class speakers this past weekend would be applied to my heart in increasing measure for the rest of my life. Praise God that He gives us His Holy Spirit to accomplish this.

In the first message of the conference, Josh Harris explained that the mission of New Attitude is to encourage Christians to believe, represent, and live the truth humbly. Discernment is crucial in this mission, for as Josh put it, you can only love the truth if you can discern it from error. The gravity of Josh’s message really hit me when he said that whether we as Christians have spiritual discernment is a matter of life and death—our souls are at stake because we are dealing with truth that has the power to redeem fallen humanity. Ultimately, the glory of God is at stake. Josh reminded us that discernment is a gift from God that comes from diligently studying His Word and His precepts as revealed in the Bible. The reason we want to grow in discernment, he explained, is because we want to glorify God . . . we want God Himself.

The final point of Josh’s message proved to be the most important: discernment requires the Gospel. His text was Romans 12:1-2 (ESV):

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God [NIV: “in view of God’s mercy”], to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Josh helped us to see that the finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf—His life, death, and resurrection—is the rock solid foundation of our lifelong pursuit of discernment. Any effective application of discernment in our Christian lives is only possible because the sinless Son of God bore the wrath of God on the cross for our sins and then was raised from the dead so that those who have faith in Jesus would be justified before the righteous Judge of the universe. Thus, at Calvary, all grounds for arrogance and boasting are demolished. As Josh so wisely noted, let us be preoccupied with the great mercies of God poured out onto sinners through the cross as we seek to practice Christ-honoring discernment in our daily lives for the glory of God.

Countdown to New Attitude 07

Well, the semester with all of its stresses and pressures is now over and summer break has arrived. These past few months have not been without periods of spiritual dryness in my life, but the Lord has once again demonstrated His faithfulness to me. Why do I doubt Him? How precious are verses like this one:

if we are faithless, He remains faithful—
for He cannot deny Himself.

2 Timothy 2:13

On Saturday I will be headed to Louisville for the New Attitude 07 conference. The theme is “Humble orthodoxy takes discernment” and the speaker line-up is fantastic: John Piper (!), CJ Mahaney, Al Mohler, Mark Dever, Josh Harris, and Eric Simmons. Lord willing, I will be posting a blog each day of the conference with a recap as well as some of my thoughts. I’m very excited to see how God will work in our hearts during the four days at NA… I hope to return home with clearer spiritual vision of Jesus Christ, a deeper love for Him as He shines forth in the Scriptures, and a more passionate commitment to serve the body of Christ.

Stay tuned for more in a couple days.

He Made Him To Be Sin Who Knew No Sin

As I write this, former Iraqi dictator and mass murderer Saddam Hussein was executed just a few hours ago. While watching the news off and on in the hours and minutes leading up to his death, I kept reflecting on the fate of this man and the biblical reality of hell. Saddam was not at all prepared to meet his Maker. Any religious duties he carried out during his time on earth mean nothing now. He went to the gallows clothed in unrepentant sin and now faces the judgment of the One “who dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Timothy 6:16). There is absolutely nothing more terrifying in all the world. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” We would do well to meditate on these words and tremble.

Scripture teaches that hell is the fate not only for brutal dictators like Saddam but also for all who have sinned against God. It is easy for me to think, “Saddam deserves hell for all the blood on his hands.” As true as that is, I must remember that I too deserve God’s punishment in hell for all the ways I have rebelled against and dishonored Him in my thoughts, words, and deeds.

In my last post, I pondered the (unpopular) attribute of God’s wrath on sin and how it stems from His absolute holiness. The biblical text I focused on was John 3:36 – “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” Let us not overlook this word “remains.” The Scripture here is testifying to the terrible predicament that has existed since the fall of mankind in Genesis 3: all of us have willingly rebelled against the God who made us, and therefore God’s righteous wrath hangs over us. Not only are we all subjected to a physical death, but also because of our sin we are already spiritually dead. We are born with our minds set on earthly things, and naturally we love drinking from the broken cisterns of our own sin rather than from the Almighty God, who is the Fountain of Living Water for our souls (Jeremiah 17:13). Naturally we are self-exalters rather than God-exalters. We have despised His revealed Law and bowed down to other gods. In this condition, we stand no chance before the Sovereign Lord of the universe. The gate to heaven is shut. God’s wrath remains on us. But does the story end there? Thanks be to God that it does not end there!

Now let us turn to the most astounding and precious message that will ever be proclaimed.

I just want to focus on one particular verse in the New Testament that sums up so succinctly the glory and wonder of the Gospel:

“For our sake He [God the Father] made Him [Jesus Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him [Christ] we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

When I heard this verse preached (perhaps for the first time) in a sermon about three years ago, God began to open my eyes to see the Gospel like I had never seen it before. This Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, in whom there is no sin, took on flesh to dwell with us—and not only to dwell with us, but to become our Substitute through the suffering and humiliation of the cross. As Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ helped to illustrate, the physical suffering Jesus endured was more horrendous than we can fathom. But far more dreadful for Jesus was drinking the cup of His Father’s wrath as He suffered and died on Calvary. We get a glimpse of Christ’s agony in Mark 15:34 (also Matthew 27:46), when He cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” What is going on here? As Paul’s exposition of the Gospel in 2 Corinthians 5:21 indicates, God the Father sent His Son to the cross to be sin on our behalf. As we have seen, God’s holiness means that no sin will go unpunished. The Good News is that Christ bore our sins in His body on the cross and absorbed the full wrath of God for the sins of all who would repent and trust in Him. Going back to the first half of John 3:36: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.” What a mind-blowing truth! For those who become united to Christ in faith, our sinful self is crucified with Christ, we are cleansed from our wickedness, and we no longer have to fear God’s righteous wrath and judgment. As redeemed children of the Most High, we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ and enabled to worship Him and savor His infinite glory for all of eternity. Our boast is only in the cross and what God has done for us!

Let us herald this Gospel and take it to the nations, that more and more people from every tribe, language, people, and nation would trust in the wrath-absorbing, substitutionary work of Christ Jesus in their place and embrace Him as their supreme Joy and Treasure.