Category: Gospel and Culture

Evangelism or Social Action?
Take a few minutes to read my review of Michael Frost’s helpful book The Road to Missional over at the Gospel Coalition. His book is helpful in addressing whether we should prioritize evangelism or social action.

Gospel Discipleship

Check out the three new articles at GospelCenteredDiscipleship.com by Tim Chester, Bill Clem, and Jared Wilson:

• Change is a Community Project
• Worship Distorted
• 6 Gospel-Awakened Resolutions

Apologetics for Faith

In preparation for my Spring sermon series on FAITH: Is Christianity Worth Believing, I’ve been helped by:

• Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism, by Alvin Plantinga
• The first, not second chapter, on “Faith” by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity
• “Noah and the Reasons for Faith” sermon by Tim Keller

I’ve been pleasantly surprised with a number of books I’ve read at the close of the year. Here are a few of them:

The Road to Missional (Frost) – This is one of those clarifying books for the missional conversation, especially on the topic of evangelism vs. social justice. I’ve marked quite a few lines and have a review forthcoming with Gospel Coalition.

The Holy Spirit in Mission (Tyra)- A book I would have been proud to write. It integrates biblical theology, pneumatology, and practice of mission well. Very clear and compelling.

Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, & Naturalism (Plantinga) – Plantinga writes with such cogency, that’s half the joy of reading him. The book is much more than well-written prose, however. He argues well for a distinction between Science and Naturalism, the latter having all the trappings of a religion, offering answers for religious questions and requiring faith. He also demonstrates a deep concord between Science and Faith, particularly Christian theism.

The Meaning of Marriage (Kellers) – It opens with a nice apologetic for marriage on both cultural and theological grounds but moves quickly into the specifics of a marriage constructed on the gospel, truth and love, between husband and wife. In the chapter entitled “The Power of Marriage” the Kellers uncorks the Spirit of Truth as the power for a gospel-centered marriage. Refreshing but conservative on the Spirit. Here’s a video intro. There are some inspiring vistas and deep pools of wisdom in The Meaning of Marriage.

Read this helpful excerpt from an interview with Tullian Tchividijian regarding his new book: Jesus + Nothing = Everything.

Legalism: The Enemy of the Gospel

There’s a common misunderstanding in today’s church, which says there are two equal dangers Christians must avoid. On one side of the road is a ditch called “legalism”; on the other is a ditch called “license” or “lawlessness.” Legalism, they say, happens when you focus too much on law, on rules.

Lawlessness, they say, happens when you focus too much on grace. Therefore, in order to maintain spiritual equilibrium, you have to balance law and grace. If you start getting too much law, you need to balance it with grace. If you start getting too much grace, you need to balance it with law. This dichotomy exposes our failure to understand gospel grace as it really is; it betrays our blindness to all the radical depth and beauty of grace.

2 Legalisms

It’s much more theologically accurate to say that there is one primary enemy of the gospel–legalism–but it comes in two forms. Some people avoid the gospel and try to “save” themselves by keeping the rules, doing what they’re told, maintaining the standards, and so on (I call this “front-door legalism”). Other people avoid the gospel and try to “save” themselves by breaking the rules, doing whatever they want, developing their own autonomous standards, and so on (“back-door legalism”). In other words, there are two “laws” we can choose to live by apart from Christ: the law which says, “I can find freedom and fullness of life if I keep the rules,” and the law which says, “I can find freedom and fullness of life if I break the rules.” Either way, you’re trying to “save” yourself, which means both are legalistic because both are self-salvation projects. So what some call “license” is just another form of legalism.

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