Baby Don’t Hurt Me: Four Things Love Isn’t

Let’s define love.

My absolute favorite extra-biblical definition of love comes from J. Budziszewski’s “Ask Me Anything.”

“Love is a commitment of the will to the true good of the other person.”

This succinct, profound, and jam-packed definition is my favorite because it clears up so many misconceptions about love that people have these days. Let me show you four of them.

The Gate Is Small (Pt. 1)

“For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are they that find it.”

As I was hiking through the mountains, and following a pleasant little trail, I came upon a gate. It was small and unassuming as it sat alongside the trail; I had nearly passed it by. Wrought iron framed the parallel bars that ran up its middle and a small wooden sign hung on the gate. “To Life” it read, barely legible, in faded painted letters. I looked down the path, thinking that I couldn’t spare the time. There was so much more to see, and the path I was on was so beautiful and spacious.

To Be "in Christ": This is the Gospel

To Be “in Christ”

To be “in Christ” is a curious thing. It’s a distinctly Pauline idea. He seems to use it of anyone who is a believer in the gospel, as in anyone who has been saved by grace through faith in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ to save them from the penalty of their sins. Galatians 2 gives, I think, the clearest explanation of what he means by the phrase.

“Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

What’s he saying? He’s saying that having faith in Jesus to save you from the penalty of sin puts you in the camp of “in Christ.” He’s also saying that if you think you can work your way to perfection, you’re not in the camp of “in Christ.” Being “in Christ” means living by faith in the son of God, not by the works of the law. The law reveals sin, grace deals with it.

Introducing Theology: A Forgotten Essential

Below is a paper written for an Introduction to Theology class at DTS. It is a response paper to two introductory books about theology, but let me explain the picture.

I think theology is much more essential to Christian faith than the average Christian realizes. It's a forgotten essential, as this paper tries to prove. Hence, I show you a rusty old gear without which many a machine would cease to run. Theology is like that gear. We need it for Christianity to run, and you can hate it all you want, but without it, the Christian life goes no where.

 I hope you enjoy.

The Kingdom of God

This is my first graduate level paper... I think it's about the same as my other papers, but I haven't had time to write blog posts because I've been writing stuff like this. I hope you enjoy it! Ask yourself, "What do I think Jesus meant by 'the kingdom of God'?"

INTRODUCTION

The kingdom of God (KoG) is one of the few major biblical themes that literally spans from the beginning of the book to the end. It is in Genesis 1 and 2 that we see God creating a kingdom on earth to rule, and it is in Revelation 21 and 22 that we see the New Heaven, New Earth, and New Jerusalem become the ultimate, perfect kingdom that God will one day rule from within, walking amongst his people once more. But in the Gospels Jesus is seen preaching, “the gospel [good news] of the kingdom of God,”[1] “the kingdom of heaven is like…”[2] and “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”[3]The questions that then spring to mind are similar to the following: Was Jesus preaching about a different kingdom of God than the one that spans the full bible? Is there a difference between “the kingdom of heaven” and “the kingdom of God”? If the “kingdom of heaven” was at hand then, is it still? Has “the kingdom of heaven” been established? What is the nature or substance of “the kingdom of God”, literal, spiritual, figurative, or all? Unfortunately, not all of the questions can be answered conclusively, and there isn’t space to give them all a worthy treatment. Instead, this paper will focus only on scratching the surface of the question, “What is the kingdom of God”? The main goal will be to define the concept. First, the basic components of any kingdom will be defined, then the concept of the KoG in the Bible as a whole, and then in Matthew in particular.