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During our walk-through of the Gospel of John during this year’s Cor Deo Women’s Programme, we were quite moved by the heart of John the Baptist towards Jesus. While he may seem a somewhat enigmatic figure with his clothing of camel hair and diet of locusts (thus our affectionate nickname “Hippy Best Man”), we can learn much from his example.

In the opening chapter, John the Baptist is questioned about whether he is Elijah, or perhaps the Prophet promised back in Deuteronomy, or even the Messiah.  John’s response is that he is none of those, but rather, that he is preparing the way for the one who is coming after him, “the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to tie.”  The very next day, John the Baptist sees Jesus and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”  It’s as if he’s holding up a big neon arrow, pointing at Jesus, and saying, “This is the guy I told you about!”

A few chapters later, in John 3, John the Baptist’s disciples express concern about the fact that people are leaving him and going to Jesus.  Instead of frantically trying to hold onto his waning popularity, John launches into a discourse about weddings.  He tells his disciples that the one who has the bride is the bridegroom.  In other words, Jesus is the bridegroom who has come to claim his Bride, and as the bridegroom’s friend, John the Baptist is happy about that!  Further, in response to seeing Jesus gathering his Bride, he says, “Therefore this joy of mine is complete.  He must increase, I must decrease.”

Imagine for a moment that you are at a wedding.  The bride is dressed in her beautiful gown.  The groom is in his tuxedo, waiting at the end of the aisle for his bride to reach him.  The wedding march begins, and the bride begins to make her way towards the groom.  Then, out of the blue, the best man—the guy who is presumably a good friend of the groom—begins to try to catch the attention of the bride.  Although at first she had her eyes fixed on the groom, they are now being drawn to the best man.  Although he is standing right next to the groom, the best man is now flexing his muscles, winking, and smiling widely, as though to say, “Look at me!  I’m so handsome!  I’m a much better catch than the groom you’re about to marry!”

Now, obviously, that’s an exaggerated picture.  Yet, can you imagine the horror if, even subtly, the best man was trying to attract the attention of the bride at a wedding?  We would consider him a rascal and no friend of the groom at all!  But John the Baptist isn’t like that.  He comes to Jesus’ Bride and says “He is greater than I am.  I rejoice to hear his voice.  He is the one to whom the Bride belongs.  He must be the focus, not I.”  John the Baptist is a noble best man and a true disciple.  As such, his desire is that the eyes of the Bride be fixed only on Jesus.

Even in a Christian context, we can sometimes get caught up in people who seem to have super faith, extraordinary life stories, or apparent celebrity status.  Yet as I consider John the Baptist’s example, I wonder.  Do I live my life in such a way as to point others to Jesus?  Do those who need Christ see in me a neon sign that says, “Look to Jesus!”? For those who are already part of the Bride of Christ, do my words, my relationships, and my priorities, speak of my love for Him and serve as an invitation to others to love Him more?

John the Baptist shows us what it means to be a faithful disciple of Jesus. As he lived out his mission, he was not concerned with his own popularity, his own reputation, or even his own life.  His sole aim was to point others to Christ.  Oh, how I long to be like this “Hippy Best Man.”

The post The Example of a “Hippy Best Man” first appeared on Cor Deo.

In this story God—the Father, Son, and Spirit God—is the protagonist. And the Son’s captivating qualities set the scene: to know him is to love him. The Father delights in the Son and wants him to have a Bride who can love and enjoy him as the Father does. The Spirit’s mission is to arrange the marriage: he sets up introductions.

God’s motive in this is love—a giving heart—and marriage is his venue for sharing. The story began before the foundation of the world as the Father, Son, and Spirit communed in a shared glory. It was in this period that the Bride was anticipated: “chosen” even before creation.

Of course this marriage transcends human marriage: it is neither physical nor temporal. Instead the Bride is the collective body of men and women who respond to the Spirit’s wooing. So the Bride is spiritual in the sense that she is “one” not in any tangible sense but in the reality of the shared Spirit.

How the divine Son can take a bride from the creation is central to the plot. First, humans were made in God’s “likeness” to be suitable candidates. But another step was needed. The Son had to join humanity: to share the tangible life of the Bride. And as such he became a bridge for the Bride to join the Father’s family. The Son was already united to the Father in his divinity and then by a physical birth he joined humanity to take his Bride. And all—Father, Son, and Bride—share the one Spirit. By this bond the Bride has eternal life.

This epic story explains both our creation and, for the Bride, salvation. Yet to many of us it sounds odd and unfamiliar. Why?

Because an antagonist muddles this true story with false accounts.

This is the Liar: an angel gone bad. In his beauty and free self-expression this figure became an arch-narcissist: loving himself in place of God. And with that he sought to take over the creation by forming a counter-kingdom: a realm of moral opposition.

He was, of course, only a creature himself and unable to form his own creation. Instead he plotted to take over humanity and through seduction to rule the creation through humans. His ploy has been to replace good with evil in every aspect of reality. This is the moral equivalent of making old-style film negatives: he converts light to darkness and vice versa.

In his plan he presumed God, as pure goodness, would lose access to all who were part of this morally-reversed realm. And when the Holy Spirit’s bonding love was quenched in Adam—and the Spirit now stood outside human souls—humanity as a whole turned instead to the reversed narratives offered by the Unholy spirit.

And this spirit—Satan—reconceived each element of God’s goodness by overt reversals. His new realm treats God as a disaffected singularity rather than a God who is love; it offered animated death in place of Life. It replaced love for others with a love of self; a devotion to light with a fascination for darkness; the power of love with the love of power; a proper form of marriage with improper forms; and much, much more.

So the Bible calls him the Serpent, the Devil, the Accuser, and more. The Son called him the Liar and the Father of lies. No truth will ever be found in him or offered by him.

His ultimate Lie is that we can “be like God.” As if humanity, apart from God, can do just fine. God may still be useful since he sustains the creation but he seems to be impotent.

The Bride in God’s story is gathered from those who accepted the Lie and were then devoured by Satan’s living death. But, in an amazing turn, the Son devours death for those who love him. He entered death to rescue us and to reverse our moral polarities. Satan didn’t anticipate this.

How did the blameless Son die? In the great exchange of marital properties he took on our evil; and we received his life. He, as God, swallowed our death and was raised from death on the basis of his unquenchable life. And so we now live in him by faith.

So the true Epic ends with the Bride returning to the Living Truth and sharing his glory—the glory of the Father—with the new life of the Spirit making it all work. The Unholy spirit, on the other hand, still has death—along with all who spurned the Son’s Life—forever.

It’s an epic reality that brings us to the one True Love worth living for.

The post Living Truth first appeared on Cor Deo.

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Just a few words of a telephone conversation, overheard quite by accident, changed my life forever. Why? Because they were the words of my then husband to the woman with whom he was having an affair. Searing pain ravaged my heart that day. It was an emotional pain so deep that I felt it physically—first like the thrust of a hot poker, and then a throbbing, aching pain that seemed like it would never go away. What I didn’t know that day was how much that experience would teach me about the heart of God. In the midst of my pain, God tenderly drew me into His Word. There He showed me that He understood the pain of having an unfaithful spouse.

Many of us balk at the idea of God feeling pain. Yet, listen to His words in Ezekiel 16 (portions from verses 8-30, ESV):

⁸ “…behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you,” declares the Lord God, “and you became mine….¹² And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. ¹³ Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth…You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. ¹⁴ And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you,” declares the Lord God. ¹⁵ “But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his. ¹⁶ You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be. ¹⁷ You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. ¹⁸ And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them. ¹⁹ Also my bread that I gave you—I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey—you set before them for a pleasing aroma; and so it was,” declares the Lord God.  ^{30 “} How sick is your heart,” declares the Lord God, “because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute, ³¹ building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square.”

The Lord’s heart is broken over the unfaithfulness of His people. He is saying, in effect, “I lavished my love on you. My love made you beautiful, and I gave you every good gift. And then you threw yourself into the arms of another lover. You used your beauty and all that I gave you to seduce someone else!” You can hear His heartbreak again in Jeremiah 2: 2, 5 (ESV): “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride…. What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?”

I found such comfort in seeing how the Lord understood the pain I was going through. But then, with such tenderness and kindness, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart, “You, too, are an unfaithful Bride. Consider all of the ways you have been unfaithful, all of the things that have drawn your heart away from me.” I was cut to the core. The pain I felt over my husband’s unfaithfulness was the pain God felt over all the things my heart loved more than Him. I cried out, “Oh, Lord, I’m so sorry!”

My heart was melted by the Lord’s response to His unfaithful people…to me. He says to His unfaithful Bride in Joel 2:13 (ESV) “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love…” And in Hosea 2: 2 (ESV), “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” I could scarcely take it in. Even though I was the unfaithful one, the Lord was pursuing me!   His love completely overwhelmed me.

And as if that weren’t enough, listen to what God says to His people just after pouring out His heartbreak in Ezekiel 16 over their unfaithfulness, “Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign LORD” (Ezekiel 16: 64, ESV).  Wonder of wonders! I am the unfaithful one, and yet, not only does He pursue me and call me to return to Him, He makes atonement for all I’ve done.

All those years ago, I couldn’t have imagined that having an unfaithful husband could teach me so much about the Lord’s heart. His lavish, drenching love for me causes me to love Him ever more deeply. How beautiful are His words in Isaiah 54:5-6 (ESV):

⁵ “For your Maker is your husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name;
and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer,
the God of the whole earth he is called.
⁶ For the Lord has called you
like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit,
like a wife of youth when she is cast off,”
says your God.

Is anyone else like me, an unfaithful Bride? May our hearts be drawn to our tender, kind, faithful Husband.

The post Faithful Husband, Unfaithful Bride first appeared on Cor Deo.

Hopefully, yes, but let’s pause to think about it. And let’s ask the question in light of God as the Father, Son, and Spirit God.

Justification—our engaging God’s righteousness—is a biblical linchpin for Christians. The English terms “righteous” and “just” are two translations of one root word in the original language. The idea of being set right with God seems simple enough but how it happens is more complex. Debates about justification are common as was illustrated by an exchange between Tom Wright and John Piper not so long ago.

In this small space I’d like to consider a narrower aspect of justification that doesn’t get much notice: what does our justification accomplish for God?

To answer I’ll return here to a theme I see throughout the Bible. I now refer to it regularly but I was shy to use it until I found it in the writings of Martin Luther and some of the 17^th century Puritans.

Here it is. God the Father wants to share his beloved Son with others. So he created those who would become the Son’s beloved ones—his collective “bride”—to receive from the Son what the Son receives from the Father: devoted care and creative fellowship.

This narrative starts in the beginning as we meet God in his plurality: “let us” make “him” and “them” in “our” image. Later we discover the Son as the Father’s beloved companion—his “Word”—who reveals the Father to others. Together with the Spirit they are “one.”

Later in the Bible we discover labels for God: He is good, holy, righteous, pure, blameless, just, wise, and so on. These are words that describe his triune communion. And so it is that he is also said to be love—a word expressing God’s mutual devotion and the basis of his overflowing care for the creation.

This love sets up God’s gift of companionship. In love he walked in the Garden of Eden to be with Adam and Eve. Adam, however, spurned God’s love and lost confidence in God as he usurped God’s place.

Adam’s lost confidence was tied to his lost love: for a fallen person to trust God, God must fulfill that person’s will. And God must live under the fallen pretense that humans are autonomous: made to be free.

But God treats this as utter nonsense. He knows that all humans were enslaved from Eden onward by the great Liar and his one Lie: “You can be like God!”

But even after Adam’s fall God was determined to live among us. He chose a people for himself and set up, first, a tent and then a temple as his earthly home among us.

The Father also sent the Son at an appropriate time to offer humanity the ultimate expression of his love—the God-man who was not fallen. His was a life of total dependence on, and unrestrained affection for, the Father and with that a love for his creation.

Sin is a violation of this love: a complete disaffection for God. The bond of the Father, Son, and Spirit is a mystery to fallen people—and the willingness of the Father to send the Son to die and redeem his bride is sheer folly. Life in sin, instead, endorses the Enemy’s ambition to dismiss God.

The Father laughs at this—as the “nations rage”—and refuses to allow for self-love as an alternative to a love for his Son (Psalm 2). God’s love is unrestrained and unrestricted otherness—what fallen humanity can’t begin to comprehend—as in the eternal love of the Father and the Son as communicated by the Spirit.

So the sum of God’s eternal communion is love. The Old Testament refrain, for instance—“his loving kindness endures forever”—sets out God’s motivation. And that warns humans that self-love—the motive behind fallen assertions of freedom and independence—has no future. God condemns sin to a single realm: death.

The Spirit shares this mutual love of the Father and the Son. His role in humanity is to whisper God’s word—expressing his love—in our hearts. Most humans remain deaf in their sin—hard-hearted. But others begin to hear and respond to Scriptures—especially those who have been damaged by the proud and successful god-pretenders. The hearers are the elect: the bridal ones.

There’s much more to be said about God, of course, but this is enough for now. As we return to the question of our being righteous with God—of being justified—we find a lover waiting for us. The Father offers his Son in love. The Spirit woos us with that love and wins some but not all. Faith is a dawning that Satan lied and that God loves us on his terms, not ours. We were made by God, for God. And faith works through love.

Listen, then, to Jesus as he prayed on our behalf:

“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you and these know that you have sent me” (John 17:24-25).

So justification is the culmination of a love story: it is our gazing into Christ’s eyes by faith and saying, as his bride, “I do.”

And with that we become what God meant us to be from the very beginning: his beloved ones who share all that he is, including his righteousness.

The post Justified first appeared on Cor Deo.

It is a beautiful image.  I want to ask, though, what image comes to mind when we consider the Christianity we are presented with and experience?  I want to offer three human level pictures to highlight the variety of versions of Christianity:

1. The Legal Marriage.  In this version of marriage, the focus is on the legal status.  She was given an opportunity to trade in her problematic past for a new name, a new status, and a new set of benefits.  Her past debts were wiped when she said, “I do.”  She really appreciates all that her spouse did for her back then, and she tends to look back to the beginning of the arrangement.  On anniversaries and perhaps many other times during the year, she looks fondly at the marriage certificate and remembers her status change.

Legally she is his and she is thankful.  She spends her days trying to follow his instructions and she looks forward to the day when he returns from his business trip (he is working on a building project for now).  When he returns she hopes he is satisfied with how she has performed in his absence.

2. The Mythical “Marriage.”  This shouldn’t really be called a marriage, more of a chase.  There is this absolutely perfect and amazing being out there and I am chasing.  It is a bit like the Bible has hinted at a possibility, and others have spoken much of the offer of a blind date with a supermodel of a God.

So I chase.  I know that if I can just find the right conditions, if I can just get myself into the right state, then maybe, well, there will be this connection.  It will be so amazing I won’t be able to describe it to you.  I don’t know if it will happen, but I will chase hard.  In fact, I may end up pretending there have been some mini-encounters just to fit in with others who are chasing the same mythical mystical union, but who hint at more success in their quest.

3. The Beautiful Marriage.  Two people met and he pursued her heart.  She knew she wasn’t deserving or beautiful, but she became convinced of his love for her.  She found herself trusting him more and more, loving because she was first loved, and responding with delight at his proposal that they spend the rest of their lives together.  Legally their union transformed her status, removing her debts, giving her a new name and identity.  But her gaze is not on the marriage certificate.  Her gaze is on her husband.  Her ears and heart are always open to hear his heart speaking through his words.

It isn’t just her status that is changed.  She is changed.  As the years pass she becomes more and more beautiful.  It doesn’t seem to be that he loves her because she is beautiful, but that she is more beautiful because he loves her.  There are “firework” moments of connection, but they are like the icing on a good cake, they aren’t the whole thing and they aren’t the focus of a constant chase.  A lot of the marriage is spent in the nitty-gritty realities of daily living, of companionship and conversation, of living through the tough times together, as well as the good times.  It truly is a beautiful marriage.

So What? God made marriage a picture of his relationship with his people, a picture for the world to see and be drawn toward.  But does God want the world to be pondering all three types described here?  Is it any surprise that the enemy seems to work to fill the world with people chasing the elusive experience for the pseudo-marriage of a mythical ideal union?  Is it any surprise that many marriages are corrupted into a purely legal status change that lacks any real intimacy, union or relationship?

It is the beautiful marriage that God is both using as his illustration and offering us in his Son.  Legal?  Of course.  Ecstatic?  Perhaps at times.  But profoundly relational, hearts bonded, shared lives, intimate by communication at the heart level, united by the Spirit into a wonderful oneness.  Think about what human marriage could be and should be, then consider the implications for what Christian faith could be and should be.  I am my beloved’s and he is mine – what a delightful privilege!

The post Three Versions of Divine Marriage first appeared on Cor Deo.