One of the boys that I tutored in English is a refugee from Afghanistan. He is only a few months older than my son Isaac. After his father was killed by a bomb recently he fled from Afghanistan with his extended family. In the words of his uncle, "The Taliban, they mess everything up."
Over lunch he told me about the trip. It was quite harrowing. The border from Afghanistan into Iran was closed, so they had to go into Pakistan first and then into Iran. At one point they had twelve people crammed into a small car. At another point in the journey they walked twelve hours in one day. From Iran they made their way into Turkey and from Turkey they hired a smuggler to ship them to Greece. The unscrupulous boat captain took a high price from each member of his cargo and then proceeded to load over seventy people into a boat that was only 9 meters long. It must have been riding low in the water. The waves rolled in quite high. As he told the story his eyes grew very wide. "The waves were two meters high!" They survived the passage and are hoping to start a better life in a more stable place. He speaks good English and has a winning smile. Like many children in Greece, the U.S. and the MIddle-East he loves watching sports on T.V. and he follows pop music. In many ways he is like many 12-year old's that I know in the states. We are starting our third full day in Athens. Life has been a whirlwind and it has been a little hard to sit down and write. We survived our trip across the Atlantic and things generally went pretty well. Our apartment has been a real blessing. It is located in a seemingly safe area which is fairly "touristy". That means that most of the shops have English speakers and we tend to not stand out as much as foreigners. It also means that there is a fairly visible police presence, which is a comfort for us. We are also very close to a subway stop and have only 3 stops (about a 10 min ride) to get to the church where we are serving. By contrast the location of the church is in a much rougher area and we would not likely feel as safe there after dark. We have been to the church each of the last two days and I am going again (by myself) to teach one-on-one language classes. We'll write more about the refugee ministry later, but for now I will just say that it is going quite well and has been very encouraging.
Let me tell you a little bit more about our apartment and neighborhood. We are about 2 blocks away from the Acropolis and have a great view of that historic section of the city from a rough top deck of our apartment building. (Above is a picture of me and Stella celebrating the Penguins victory.) On Monday night we did family devotions on the roof top and I read from Acts chapter 17 and Paul's address to the Areopagus. The Areopagus is a section of the larger Acropolis and it was a place for regular philosophical discussion in ancient Athens. The entire acropolis is a section of the ancient city which was located on top of a large rocky outcropping. It made for a great defensive position and was a fortified stronghold that the Athenians could retreat to in times of trouble. It was the home to the temple to Athena which was (as the name says) a very important goddess for the Ancient Athenians. Reading Paul's address to the Athenians while the Acropolis was in sight was a pretty powerful experience for me. I have been blessed to travel a fair amount in my life, but this is the first time that I know for sure that I was in the same location as a biblical character. I can say, for sure, that Paul walked these same streets. Perhaps sat on some of the same stones. It is one way that the biblical stories come to life. But there are other ways that stories are coming to life. Many groups of people that had previously existed for me as vague characters in the events of our modern world have also become more personal. We have spent the last two days eating lunch with refugees from Afghanistan, Palestine and Syria. We will need to write much more about that, but for now my simple observation is that it is always a powerful experience to meet - in person - the people that you had only read about. Suddenly the refugee crisis becomes more real and personal. Real people with stories and hopes and dream. Real experiences of suffering and loss. We are thankful to be hear and ask for your continued prayers to make Christ known in a hurting place. I am still plugging away reading and writing about William King. It is slow going, but the story is so good and relevant for our own time that someone needs to try write about it. Right now, no one else is lining up to do it.
I have also reading Sinclair Ferguson's new book, "The Whole Christ" over the last six weeks and found it to be helpful. The book discusses the age old challenge of legalism and antinomianism, but sets it in the context of a 18th c. Scottish Presbyterian debate. That may seem a little too technical or a little too historically distant for some of you, but trust me... it is relevant. You may or may not know the terms "legalism" and "antinomianism", but if you have been around Christianity for any significant amount of time you know the concepts. The term "legalism" has the obvious root "legal" and relates to a misuse of the law, or using the law to achieve salvation through our own religious efforts. By contrast, the term "antinomianism" has the root "nomos" which also means law and with the prefix "anti" it means against the law, or a rejection of the law of God in the Christian life. The stereotypes can help us get introduced to the problem. The legalist says, "If I want to be a good Christian, then I need to work harder to keep the rules. Then God will love me." The antinomian says, "Jesus died for my sins, it doesn't matter if I keep the rules." Now both of those stereotypes are a little off, but they do represent two trends in Christian thought. Sometime we approach the matter by thinking in terms of law and grace on a spectrum. That is, we think that a legalist has too much law or too much Old Testament... but the antinomian has too much grace and not enough law. If we approach it that way we tend to think that the antidote for one is a little more of the other. As if a legalist has just swung too far to one end of the spectrum and needs more grace to lighten up. In actual practice, people do often swing from one mistake to the other. That is a person who grows up in a legalistic church setting regularly swings the other way. They end up saying, "Now that I know grace, what is the point trying to be more spiritual. God just takes me as I am." But the goal of the Christian life is not merely to get a proper balance of grace and law and land right in the middle of the spectrum. Instead, the goal of the Christian life is to deepen our spiritual life by becoming more like Jesus. Here are two quick references: 2 Corinthians 3:18 Beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image. Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, Here is where Sinclair Ferguson's book comes in. Through the lens of this historical controversy, Ferguson puts his finger on the solution to this important problem. His premise is by no means new - in fact, it is probably the most obvious thing that one might say about Christianity. That is, the solution to our struggles with law and grace is not to focus on "law" or "grace" as abstract qualities. Rather, the goal is to focus on the way both law and grace are expressions of God's character. And since Jesus is the manifestation of God's character (Heb 1:3), we can say that our goal is to look at the way grace and law are expressed through Jesus Christ. Viewed through this lens, the problem with legalism is not that someone is too serious about rules. God's commands are good and meant to be a blessing. If only more Christians agonized over the commands that God has given to his people. After all Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Instead, the problem with legalism is that a legalist has separated the law of God from the person of God. As a result, the experience of law is no longer viewed as coming from the same loving father who has saved us and dealt graciously with us. Instead, the law becomes an enemy. (Now some of you may be thinking: "Doesn't Paul say that the law has a ministry of death." Ferguson deals with this is detail, and I won't rehearse all of the arguments there. His main point is that the context of this passage shows that Paul is referring to a misuse of the law. Or, the same sort of abstraction of law that Ferguson is warning against. Simply put - if all you have are a bunch of religious rules and you lose sight of God's gracious character, then your experience of the law will bring spiritual death to you. If that drives you to Christ, then it is a good kind of death. If you don't go to Jesus then it will not be.) On the other hand, the antinomian makes a similar mistake with both grace and law. They detach grace from the person of Christ. Grace is not a substance that floats around in the air. It is not something that we can store up. It is not something that we access outside of our relationship with Jesus. Grace is not an abstract quality. It is a quality that a person possesses. God is a personal being and he is gracious. He is gracious to us in Jesus. That doesn't mean that we can never use "grace" as a noun, but conceptually it must be linked to a person. Here is Ferguson's summary: "Practical antinomianism has many forms today. One of them is the secular gospel of self-acceptance masquerading as Christianity. 'Since God accepts me the way I am, I ought to not get straight-jacketed by the law of God - what God wants is that I be myself.' This has very concrete expressions in what are euphemistically described as "lifestyle choices": "This is how I am, God is gracious... and he accepts me as I am, and therefore I will remain as I am. "... But it is misleading to say that God accepts us the way we are. Rather he accepts us despite the way we are. He receives us only in Christ and for Christ's sake. Nor does he mean to leave us the way he found us, but to transform us into the likeness of his Son. "...There is only one genuine cure for legalism. It is the same medicine the gospel prescribes for antinomianism: understanding and tasting union with Jesus Christ himself." Here are a few very practical applications: 1.) This means that the goal of the Christian life is to draw closer to Jesus a truth found on nearly every page of the NT. 2.) It also means that relationships are a great way to learn about salvation. Real relationships impose demands on our life, and also provide opportunities to experience grace. This is why the church is so important - a truth found on nearly every page of the NT. 3.) It means that my ability to produce good spiritual fruit is directly related to cultivating a relationship of dependence upon Jesus. See - John 15. 4.) It means that even though I am growing in the grace of Jesus, I am still capable for falling into sin when I stop leaning on him. That is a truth that I know all too well. 5.) It means that our goal as a church is not to focus on either "grace" or "truth" in abstract ways. Doing that obscures the gospel. Instead, we must focus on both grace and truth as they are expressed in Christ. Salvation is relational from beginning to end. 6.) It means that a person doesn't get saved by simply saying a prayer or raising their hand. Saving faith is always personal - it connects us to Jesus. If you said a prayer of "accepting Jesus", but have no relationships with Jesus, then you really do not have saving faith. (see picture) It has been over week since our last post. That is due to the fact that we have been at the cabin without internet access.
This past week I feel like I was finally able to focus my energy on writing a little bit. Currently, I am at my mom's house in Clearfield. Chrissie is at Ligonier with the three oldest for a school overnight trip. I am here in Clfd with Stella at "Grandma Camp." Yesterday was full of business and stress of dealing with some aspects of my fathers estate (which I had put on the back burner for quite some time.) I got nothing else done. It highlighted the beauty of sabbatical. It really does help you to focus on a particular task when you are able to set aside the regular responsibilities. One of my prayer requests is to consider how I can build time for reading and writing more into my schedule on a regular basis when I return to full time ministry. Today I am holed away in a back room of my mom's house reading the autobiography of William King. He is a remarkable man, and the text that I am reading is apparently unpublished. His handwritten manuscript was typed by someone and made available on a website from the Canadian national library. It is surprisingly well written, but the text is difficult to read. I would guess that only a handful of people have ever read through this. That is a shame and something that I hope will eventually change. Today I was reading the section in his autobiography in which he writes about the death of his wife and daughter. (His son had died less than two years earlier.) It was particularly moving, and I thought I should post the text here. I don't understand the medical terminology, but I was touched by the faith of a man who wrestled with profound loss and yet found hope in the resurrection. Here we have the voice of a human being who experienced enormous grief, and dealt honestly with his sorrows. And yet, he saw hope in the gospel and pressed on to do the work that God had for him. I also noticed the supportive role that the community in his grief - something that I have personally experienced in the past year. "Towards the end of the first year after we arrived in Edinburgh [for Seminary], my wife gave birth to a daughter. After the birth of the child my wife showed some signs of consumption. She went out one night in November to hear Dr. Chalmers, who was to preach in West Fort and Baptize our child. The evening was damp and chilly. I brought her home from the church in a cab. The next day she complained of being unwell and coughed a little. I sent for Doctor Simpson who came at once to see her. On examining her case, he told me that she had consumption and that she would not live. Both lungs were affected, and she might probably live until spring. I asked if a change of climate would not do her good. He informed me it would be of no use because she was too far advanced in the disease to recover. The only thing that could be done was to nurse her well and keep her warm. I got a wet nurse to take care of her and the child. Sir James Simpson visited her regularly, giving her such medicine as would alleviate pain. It was a great comfort for me to know that she was a decided Christian and had a saving interest in Christ. During her long painful illness she fully sustained the Christian character, while a lingering consumption wasted away her frame. Each succeeding day witnessed the gradual waning of life. Her mind continued to be calm and her faith was firm in her Redeemer. The triumph of her faith was clear in the last dark hour, enabling her in a peculiar manner to exemplify the Christian life by the Christian death. On the 25th of February 1846 she fell asleep in Jesus. ...The death of my wife was a severe trail to me, as I was finishing my theological studies in the college and preparing for my final examination, but I was greatly comforted by the sympathy and Christian kindness of the Professors and students of the college. They attended the funeral in a body and Dr. Chalmers conducted the funeral service. After the death of my wife my whole affection was placed on the child now left. She was the last of my family and the very image of her mother. Her playful innocence had drawn my affection strongly towards her. On my return from class she would stretch out her arms as soon as she saw me enter the door. She would leave her nurse and come to me and was quite contented when she got on my knee. But God, who had given her to me as a pledge of our mutual love, was soon to take her to Himself forever to be with her mother in heaven. My work was not yet done - I was to remain a while longer on earth to finish the work that he had given me to do. My family had all gone before me. I will follow in the appointed time when we shall meet again in a land where death never comes, and where there is no sorrow, and where there is no separation. My child who had been growing well with her wet nurse was take suddenly with "Hydrocephalus" or "water in the head" and died on the ninth day of May. All that the best medical skill could do for her was done, but it was of no avail. From the time that the child was taken from me she had one convulsive fit after another until she expired. Dr. Chalmers again performed the funeral service and went with me to Leist cemetery where the child was laid in the same grave with her mother - to lie until the morning of the resurrection when they shall both rise together. After the death of my child - the last of my family - I was left alone. Dr. Chalmers kindly invited me to call upon him frequently without any ceremony and breakfast with him..." - From the autobiography of Rev. William King, p58-60, sections 193-199. |
AuthorMatt Koerber is the senior pastor at City Reformed Presbyterian church. This is his personal blog that he also asks guest writers to participate on. Archives
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