Soli Deo Gloria - part 2
Being Christ Centered to the Glory of God (theology)
So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:1-5
Last week we ended on these verses, and I would like to review them in order to begin today with the same train of thought. Verse 1 tells us to remove all forms of sin and crave the pure spiritual milk like newborn infants so that we can grow in our salvation. Now, verse 3 has a caveat that we should not skip. “If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” brings up the point that some who claim to be a Christian have failed to actually taste and see the Lord is good.
That means some who go through the rituals of Christianity have never actually experienced the love and goodness of the Lord, because they have never repented and surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are unsure if that means you, simply ask yourself this: When you read Peter’s admonition to rid yourself of those sins, do you find yourself wanting to crave the Lord and removing those sins in your life, or do you think you are already fine? True Christians understand they are in an ongoing battle with sin, because they have already confronted the reality of their own sin. It is the lost, pew-sitter who believes Peter is talking about someone else.
Now, verses 4 and 5 state we Christians are being built up into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, in order to offer spiritual sacrifices through Jesus Christ that are pleasing to God. These spiritual sacrifices fall into a few categories, and though I’m sure someone else may choose other categories, these are the ones I am working on. Ask me in a few years, and I may decide to alter them myself. The categories are not set in Scripture, but they are just a way to understand what God has left us in His Word. They are: Theology, ecclesiology, doxology, Missiology.
Theology = what we believe about God and His work
Ecclesiology = how we function as a local church
Doxology = how we worship as a local church
Missiology = how we seek the lost as a local church
We will discuss these in the following weeks, but in each one, we will ask the question, “How is God glorified best?” Last week, we established that as a Christian Church, our primary goal is to glorify God alone. The First Great Commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. We love Him first in all we do, and so it makes sense that as a church, we should love Him first. Whatever good we do must begin with loving the Lord, which means what we do must glorify Him.
In terms of theology, what we believe about God and His work, this necessity to glorify Him centers around the Truth that God walked among us. Each Christmas we remember Jesus is the Incarnate Lord. God, who created Heaven and Earth and desires our salvation, took on flesh and walked among us. The glory of God came in Christ, and thus for us to glorify Him, we must give glory to Christ by centering our theology on Him.
What does it mean to have a Christ-centered theology
All of Scripture points to Christ.
you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
1 Peter 2:5-8
Notice in verses 5-8 how Peter is using Isaiah to make his point. Isaiah prophesied many things about the Messiah, but here Isaiah was noting how the Messiah would be the cornerstone on which the House of God would be built. The cornerstone was the most important piece in ancient construction and had to be perfectly shaped. If it was not a perfect 90 degrees, the whole building would be off. The reason is simple. As each brick was shaped, it would be placed flush with the piece before it. As long as the corner was a perfect right angle, the building would be square. If it was off, the wall would be off, and the rest of the building would begin to look ridiculous—if it stood at all.
The same works for our theology. When we have a better understanding of Christ, then the rest of our theological house will function and look as it should. He is the corner stone, and if we have some bizarre idea about who He is, it will affect everything else we believe. Now, the primary doctrine about Christ and the Word of God is found in the Redemption Story which permeates all of Scripture. This is why we say:
How we read and interpret Scripture is governed by the Truth that all Scripture points to the Redemption Story.
Christ Himself said that all Scripture is about Him. Look at Luke 24:44-49.
Jesus explains the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms each point to Jesus in some way. He summarizes their message in 46, “The Christ must suffer and die, and then on the third day rise again. Then, repentance and forgiveness should be proclaimed to all nations.” And this leads us to the second point:
Our witness is governed by our theology which should include both repentance and forgiveness.
In the history of the Church, there have been times when believers erred to one side or the other. Some, such as today, have preached Christ’s forgiveness without Christ’s call of repentance. This falsehood is not new. It is called antinomianism, and this heresy has cropped up in the early church in some Gnostic groups. It crept up during the Reformation with groups who misunderstood “faith alone”, such as in Scotland with the Marrow Controversy. On the other hand, there have been groups who preached repentance to the detriment of forgiveness. Some Puritans never really knew if they were saved, because they constantly looked for signs of election despite their own desire to repent and believe in the name of Jesus. Jonathan Edwards is best known for being a brilliant preacher and theologian, and yet, he spent much of his Christian life unsure of his own salvation, simply because of his own battles with sin and unwillingness to embrace God’s forgiveness.
Today, as we examine our own theology, we must maintain two doctrines which are not exclusive to each other, they in fact very much work hand-in-hand. First, to become a Christian, a person must repent of their sin. A person must accept the fact they have sinned and surrender to the Lordship of Christ, which is repentance—turning from one’s old way of life. Second, forgiveness is freely offered to anyone who will repent and turn to Christ. This forgiveness is for the sins of the past, present, and future. Christ says in Matthew 6:14-15, “If you will forgive others, my Father will forgive your sins. But, if you do not forgive others, your sins will not be forgiven.” Likewise, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). Forgiveness is offered to whomsoever, and that forgiveness must be extended by us as well, if we are to be forgiven. Go back to 1 Peter 2:6, “whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.”
If God places no shame on those who believe, then who are we to ridicule, shame, judge, or condemn those who come to faith in Christ? To bar anyone from joining in Christian worship, regardless the reason, is to place yourself as a greater judge than God Himself. You are not THAT special.
God does not change, and neither does what He teaches.
The last point here is simply the fact that Christ has revealed the will and nature of God. From the Old Testament and into the New, we see that God does not change. His will has remained, His Law has remained, and His desire for mankind has remained as well. One of the earliest debates in Christianity is recorded in the Book of Acts, and the debate was simply how Jewish a person had to be to become a Christian. Christ fulfilled the Law, so Christians are not bound to the Law, however, the ethical and spiritual mandates of the Law remain. Christ spent much of His time explaining how the Law points people to righteousness. It is the need to remove sin and replace it with the righteousness of God that then shows us our need for a Savior. We cannot fulfill the Law as we should, so Christ fulfills it for us. We are then governed by the Law of Love in Christ. His death and resurrection provides us with eternal life and the transformation needed to fulfill the Law of Love—love for our Father and Savior, and love for our fellow humans.
Now, that continuity flowed into the various periods of Church History and into today. In order to help people summarize and understand what Christ and the Apostles taught, pastor-theologians developed the creeds. The earliest creeds can be found in the New Testament, though the first formally adopted creed is the Apostle’s Creed.
Look at Philippians 2:6-11:
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:6-11
If you were to compare this section with the rest of Philippians, you will notice it sounds a bit different. That is because it is most likely a quotation of a common creed that circulated in the mid-first century. Notice it summarizes the Gospel fairly well. Christ, though in the form of God, did not count Himself equal, but rather emptied Himself taking on flesh. (John would say “The Word became flesh”.) He humbled Himself to the point of death on a cross, and God then exalted Him (including raised to life) above every name, so that, at the name of Jesus Christ every knee would bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
Turn now to 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
Paul summarizes the Gospel with one sentence, Christ died for our sins in accordance to Scripture, and then was buried and raised, also in accordance to Scripture. He then will list the many people who saw Jesus after His resurrection, including himself who was last.
As the Gospel continued to spread through the known world, there have always been those who would subvert the Gospel with false teachings. Paul warns in Galatians that if even an angel preaches another gospel, let the angel be condemned. I find it fascinating that many cults with false doctrine have developed from some charismatic leader who swore to hear from an angel. Joseph Smith supposedly heard from Moroni, and Muhammad supposedly heard from Gabriel.
As Southern Baptists, we typically do not put much stock in creeds, however they can be helpful in teaching sound doctrine. Our statement of faith is the Baptist Faith & Message, which is general enough to allow for diversity of thought regarding secondary issues, but specific enough about primary issues to maintain orthodoxy. There is a copy in each of the pews. Feel free to get one and read it.
Our practice is shaped by Christ’s teachings. 9-12
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
1 Peter 2:9-12
As we continue in our passage, I would like to emphasize how Peter describes the Christian person.
Christians are not like the rest of the world.
“A Chosen Race” and “Holy Nation” - Ethnic and political boundaries disappear for those who are in Christ. Still, today, (And I don’t know how, because I thought we learned our lesson in the 20th century) there exists the idea that one ethnic group is superior to all others. There are Caucasians who state this, as well as some Africans, and the idea permeates several other groups as well. Humans have had an air of superiority over other humans since the Tower of Babel. The Romans believed they were the superior race. Hitler preached Arian supremacy. History is filled with it, and even today, it exists as a symptom of the corruption of sin.
For the Christian, there is no place for this sinful attitude. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female, for those in Christ Jesus.” “Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord” means “Whosoever”. Regardless of ethnicity, nationality or even former faith, once a person surrenders to Christ Jesus as Lord, that person is now our brother or sister. And, if that is true (which it is), then the Christian has no business hating any group of people, regardless their position in life, because every person is a potential brother or sister in faith. Even the most militant atheist, militant Muslim, or militant anti-Christian whatever, can one day open their eyes to the Truth of God’s love in Christ, repent and believe.
Vengeance belongs to the Lord. Our place is to demonstrate the love of God, because as Jesus says, “Forgive others their trespasses, and my Father will forgive yours.” Some of you may now realize that standard does not match how you feel or what you believe. How you feel doesn’t matter—What Christ has spoken does.
Next, we are chosen “to proclaim the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.” Peter does not give much specifics on how we are to proclaim the excellencies of God. In fact, throughout the New Testament, you will not find too many rituals or mandates for how to operate a church. What we do find are several principles. We will look closer at those principles when we discuss ecclesiology, however for now, we should simply note that our theology drives our ecclesiology.
Christ provided the foundation for the Church and continues to provide through the ages of the Church.
Verse 10 reminds us that once we were not a people, but now we are God’s people. God has provided everything we need to operate as a local church. And, He will continue to provide as time moves on. The question is simply whether we will follow where He is leading, or will we remain loyal to a past that no longer exists.
Notice what else Peter calls us: “sojourner and exiles”.
We must always remember that this world is not our home. For those who are facing death, this is a beautiful reminder of what awaits those who are in Christ. For those who are facing another day on this earth, it is a reminder that we are just passing through. We are not building a kingdom here, because the Kingdom of Heaven will become fully realized after this earth passes away.
Regardless how you view the End of Things, the fact remains this world is in a constant state of change. Some believe it is perpetually getting better until Christ comes. Some believe it will continue into a state of decay until Christ intervenes. Again, whether you find yourself an optimist or a pessimist, we can all agree this world changes with time. That is why we must adapt ourselves in the changing climate. In the beginnings of Christianity, Christians found themselves on the far outskirts of society. They were driven out of markets, martyred, and ridiculed as a bizarre people. One day that changed. Then, as time went on, Christians became the dominant force in the Western World. Christendom ruled Europe and eventually the Americas, Australia, and pockets of the other continents. Beginning in the 18th century, Christendom began to wane and a secular nationalism took over. What we are seeing today are the last remnants of Christendom falling away. Secularism is attempting to unite the nations into one global national system. What this means for Christianity is that we are finding ourselves in a similar state to those early Christians of the first and second century.
The message of the Gospel of Christ will ever-remain, however how Christians share that message will continue to change—simply because we are no longer in a place of dominance. I know that can be disheartening for some, but take heart, our faith is not in Christendom or any political system. Our faith is in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We may not understand what God is doing today, but I assure you, there will come a day we will.
So, again to the point: Christ has left His Word for us to use. He has also provided in each period of the Church resources for the Church. In the times of persecution, God granted Christians great apologists of the 2nd century (whom you should read in this new age of persecution). When Rome fell to the barbarians, God granted Christians like Augustine who helped congregations reconcile the End of Rome with the Goodness of God. He also gave us the monks of Europe, especially those in Ireland, who recorded and guarded the history of the Western World, including the Western Church. When the Roman Catholic Church found herself corrupted by sinful leadership, and popes who spoke blasphemy, God granted the Reformers who looked back to Scripture and the Early Church to point people to the Truth of the Gospel. This Reformation would even reform the Catholic Church into something more like Christianity and less pagan. Today, as we face the demise of Cultural Christianity, God will continue to provide to the Church so that His Word will endure forever as He promised.
Our witness is testifying to what Christ has done and is doing.
In verses 11-12, Peter tells us as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war on us. Again, this mandate falls directly in line with what we believe. If we believe that Christ came to abolish the works of the devil, to remake humanity and this world into what God originally designed this world to be, then we must live out that truth in our own lives.
If we do not study Scripture, we cannot testify to what we do not know.
Theology will always be an important part of Christian growth. We cannot be obedient to what we do not know. We cannot live as sojourners and exiles if our only education comes from the native land. Consider the immigrants who enter a new land. Now, as good parents, they want their children to know where they come from and their heritage. But, they also need their children to acclimate to the new culture, so there is a tension there. The children also feel the tension, because they want to honor their parents, but they also want to fit in with their new friends. What typically happens is within a few generations, the old culture disappears and the new one takes over. The family has become fully assimilated to the new environment.
For Christians, we are the immigrants, but we are not remaining here on earth, we are on our way to a new, eternal home. We are like Israel after the Exile. Our ancestors have picked up the culture of this world, but we are heading to a place where this world’s broken culture will not exist. So our task is not to assimilate to the world around us, it is to remember that our permanent home has a culture that is very different from this world. We must continue to study and acclimate ourselves to that culture, because the old is passing away—the new has come.
We will continue this train of thought next week. To conclude today, I will summarize with this:
A "Christ-centered theology" means simply placing first things first. If Christ is the center and foundation of our faith, then it is perfectly logical to place Christ at the forefront of all that we do as individual believers and as a local church. All that we believe, teach, and do must center around the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Right Belief leads to Right Action.
"Study to show thyself approved."
As we end for this week, it is time for each of us to ask a simple question:
Are my beliefs and actions governed by the Truth of Christ, or are they governed by something else?
The answer to this question lies in where we spend our time studying. Are we studying popular culture through movies, music, social media, and every other opportunity for entertainment that exists? Are we studying through our political systems, leaning on the views of politicians and the news rather than leaning on the Word of God? Or, are we studying our thoughts and heart, leaning on our own understanding rather than searching the Truth of Scripture and letting it transform our hearts and minds?
Today, shut out the noise of this world. Be still and Know the Lord. Seek His Word and His will.