Author Archives: Kyle Barton

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Religion for Atheists?

Dinner with Christians in New Zealand

The world has lost its bearings. Not that ideologies are lacking, to give directions: only that they lead nowhere. People are going round in circles in the cage of their planet, because they have forgotten that they can look up to the sky… Because all we want is to live, it has become impossible for us to live. Just look around you!

-Eugene Ionesco, founder of the theater of the absurd, 1972

I recently read Alain de Botton WSJ op-ed article entitled “Religion for Everyone.”

In it he suggests importing the Christian love (agape) feast into secular society to remedy the threatened and waning sense of community apparent in postmodern life.

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The Humanity of Jesus

humanity-of-jesus2

The gospel of Luke presents, in detail, the incomparable and indescribable human living of the God-man Jesus Christ. Since such a life had never existed or been observed before, it is difficult to categorize.

Holy? Godly? Righteous? Kind? Loving? Humble? Ethical? Noble? All fall short and leave something wanting.

Aromatic is a good word to describe our perception of it. We detect something and yet can’t quite discern what we are experiencing.

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Characteristics of Luke

Saint Luke by Simone MartiniI am now in the book of Luke and I am paying particular attention to the humanity of Jesus as the outstanding characteristic of this gospel.

Witness Lee defines it like this,

The record in the Gospel of Luke has a particular characteristic. This characteristic is that Luke always shows us in the Man-Savior the mingling of the divine attributes with the human virtues to produce the highest standard of morality for the New Testament jubilee.

The beauty and loveliness of Luke’s Gospel lies in the stories and sayings he records, which vividly capture the interaction between Jesus’ human and divine natures. This interaction produces a unique kind of morality, a quality of conduct that is supremely right and good. When a human being comes into contact with that species of conduct, he or she experiences a liberating salvation.

The following quote from A. T. Robertson sums up well some general thoughts I am keeping in mind as I read. It particularly touches on, what can be called, the principle of incarnation by highlighting aspects of Luke’s person.

According to this principle, what the Lord wants to reveal and impart, He does through a human channel. However, the human vessel needs to match the content of the ministry that flows through him. In this way there is no separation between what one is and what one does. Otherwise, we may build up some by what we do, but tear down more by what we are. The most important thing in the work is the person.

So, here is Luke…

He was the most versatile of the Gospel writers. He was a Greek, a Christian, a physician, a man of travel, a man of world-outlook, sympathetic, cultured, poetic, spiritual, artistic, high-minded… The breadth of his literary equipment is thereby shown. He not only uses many medical terms common to technical circles, but he has the physician’s interest in the sick and afflicted, as shown in the large number of miracles of healing narrated. His interest in the poor is not due to Ebionitic prejudice against the rich, but to human compassion for the distressed. His emphasis on the human side of the work of Jesus is not due to Ebionitic denial of the Divinity of Jesus, but to his keen appreciation of the richness of the human life of the Son of God.

His rich and varied vocabulary reveals a man who read and mingled with the best life of his time. He wrote his books in the vernacular, but the elevated vernacular of an educated man touched with a distinct literary flavor. His poetic temperament is shown in the preservation of the beautiful hymns of the nativity and in the wonderful parables of Jesus in chapters 10, 15-18. They are reported with rare grace and skill. Luke is fond of showing Christ’s sympathy with women and children, and he has more to say about prayer than the authors of the other Gospels.

His cosmopolitan sympathies are natural in view of his training and inheritance, but part of it is doubtless due to his association with the apostle Paul. He comes to the interpretation of Jesus from a world-standpoint and does not have to overcome the Pharisaic limitations incident to one reared in Palestine. It is a matter of rejoicing that we have this book, called by Renan the most beautiful book in the world, as a cultured Greek’s interpretation of the origin of Christianity. He thus stands outside of the pale of Judaism and can see more clearly the world-relations and world-destiny of the new movement.

With Luke, Jesus is distinctly the world’s Saviour. The accent on sin is human sin, not specifically Jewish sin. John in his Gospel came in his old age to look back upon the events in Judea from a non-Jewish standpoint. But he rose to the essentially spiritual and eternal apprehension of Christ, rather than extended his vision, as Luke did, to the cosmopolitan mission and message of Jesus, though this did not escape John. The Gospel of Luke thus has points of affinity with Paul, John and the author of Hebrews in style and general standpoint. But while Luke’s own style is manifest throughout, it is not obtrusive. He hides himself behind the wonderful portrait of Jesus which he has here drawn in undying colors.

(International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “Gospel of Luke”)

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Can Man Hinder God?

Locked Old Door

In reading through the gospel of Mark recently, I ran across a peculiar passage.

Mark 1:40-45 is the simple story of Jesus healing a leper. Stories of this nature are strewn throughout the Bible. What struck me was not the miracle itself or even the Lord’s compassion, but the Lord’s instructions to the leper after He healed him.

And sternly charging him, immediately He thrust him out, and said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone… –Mark 1:42-43

Why did Jesus charge him not to tell anyone?

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What does the gospel offer? 23 Eternals

At the most basic level, what the gospel offers is a solution to the fundamental problem of human existence- vanity.

As many intellectual objections man may have to the Bible or as much disdain he may harbor for the shortcomings of Christianity throughout history, the basic promises in the gospel should be a beacon of hope to those unmoored in the sea of absurdity.

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What is the Gospel? Scot McKnight Interview: “The King Jesus Gospel”

Frank Viola recently interviewed New Testament scholar Scot McKnight on his book The King Jesus Gospel.  I have written recently on 9 aspects of the gospel that go beyond justification or heaven and this interview in a way follows a similar line of thought.

The gospel isn’t a “plan” as much as it is a Person.

Yes, the gospel is a plan. But this plan transcends the common understanding of many Christians. Your personal salvation is not the grand goal of that plan, especially if salvation is merely understood as going to heaven. The plan from God’s point of view is something like this: “How can I impart this Person into millions of chosen yet fallen human beings so that I can be glorified?”

The plan and the Person coincide.

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Psalm 90: Dwelling in God to Escape Vanity

grey beach

If you missed my last two posts, Does Science Incriminate the Bible? and Why Can’t Science and Faith be Friends?, I suggest you read them first before continuing on to this one. I have been following a loose but developing line of thought throughout them.

This third post picks up at the assumption that science/life is all there is, i.e. there is no supernatural, spiritual, or eternal elements to the world and human experience.

The most basic human condition is inescapable vanity.

The biggest muscles, atrophy. The sharpest minds, dull. The prettiest faces, wrinkle.

Nothing not only doesn’t satisfy eternally, but nothing even lasts eternally. Man is confronted, not merely conceptually, but actually in experience with his mortality and resulting vanity.

The days of our years are seventy years, or, if because of strength, eighty years; but their pride is labor and sorrow, for it is soon gone, and we fly away.

-Psalm 90:10

If a newborn child could think rationally upon birth and came out of the womb with the full ability of the creative use of language, he might ask his parents on his first day, “What can I expect to gain out of all this?” His mother may look off to the side, pause, and then answer sheepishly, “Seventy years of labor and sorrow.”

Psalm 90:10 describes the quantity and quality of human life.

The quantity of life that we can expect is 70-80 years. Monaco, population 30,500 in July 2011, has the highest life expectancy in the world, at 89.73. So, 3500 years later, Moses’ word still stands. The quality of life we can expect isn’t much better- labor and sorrow.

O Jehovah, cause me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is. May I know how transient I am. Behold, You have made my days as mere handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before You; surely every man at his best is altogether vanity. Surely man goes about as a semblance; surely they bustle about in vain: he heaps up riches yet knows not who will gather them. And now what am I waiting for, O Lord? My hope—it is in You.

-Psalm 39:4-7

Modern technology however, masks man’s true condition.

We can cover up the quantity of life with our new available quality of life.

Just think how difficult cooking, childbearing, and life in general were just 100 years ago. In these events, man felt the sagging weight of his mortality. He felt the transience. Moses, the writer of Psalm 90, surely had a poignant sense of this, trudging around the wilderness for forty years while leading the children of Israel. The rawness of human life reminded man that “it is soon gone, and we fly away.”

Technology may be a welcomed form of temporary relief or distraction, but it ultimately has no recourse against the fall.

The promise of a technological salvation is empty. The gospel of Steve Jobs ends up being little more than ingenious entrepreneurship. Apple’s original logo of the bitten, forbidden fruit imprinted with a rainbow, a Biblical symbol of hope and promise, implies that technology can reverse the effects of the curse. But this only creates false hope.

The most it can do is mask the symptoms. Even if modern medicine gives man a little extra strength to extend his days, what does it benefit him? It’s pride is labor and sorrow. Even if man could live to 969 years, the longest recorded life span in the Bible, what would he have to boast of in the end? ” We bring our years to an end like a sigh (Psa. 90:9).”

O Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.

-Psalm 90:1

Only by dwelling in the eternal God, can our finite life have eternal value and satisfaction. The Christian was “regenerated unto a living hope” (1 Pet. 1:3), a hope contingent on the life of God. A multifaceted hope for this life and the next. To be a Christian is to believe into God. This meets not just a religious need but a very human need.

Dwelling in God is the only solution to the human condition.

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Why Can’t Science and Faith be Friends?

A thousand times over, the death knell of the Bible has been sounded, the funeral procession formed, the inscription cut on the tombstone, and the committal read. But somehow the corpse never stays put.[1]

–Bernard Ramm

Despite many eminent scientists, who know a whole lot more than the rest of us, who have not merely ceded to the idea of God being plausible or necessary but have fully embraced Him, the friendship between science and faith still seems to be tenuous.

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Does Science Incriminate the Bible?

Recently I have been following a few blogs discussing the historical reliability of the Bible, the historicity of Adam, and questions on the compatibility of science with the Bible.

Christians should not feel threatened by science. Science, in the sense of the way things are and the processes that govern them, is God’s work as much as the Bible is. Actually, both are God’s means of revelation- general and specific (Rom. 1:20, 2 Tim. 3:15).

However, some of what is touted as scientific fact is scientific speculation, assumption, or a leap to conclusions. One common instance of this is the claim that humans descended from chimpanzees because we share 98.6% of our DNA with them. While the latter may be fact, the former is speculation, not science. And this scenario can play out and repeat endlessly as science observes more of the visible universe.

But it is abundantly clear that science can not answer all the questions.

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The Bridge of Time

Bridge of Time

I created this Bridge of Time diagram because I have often drawn rough sketches of it in speaking to people and thought that it would be nice to have a more detailed version online somewhere as a resource. The overall concept is that God’s eternal economy is accomplished in time, which can be viewed as a bridge connecting the blueprint of God’s plan before time with the finished masterpiece in eternity forever.

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Romans—The Fifth Gospel

One, two, three, four… five? The Gospel of God in Romans

How many gospels are there?

This depends on a number of things. Primarily, what is the gospel? Who is it for? What does the message of good news include?

Of course traditionally we refer to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as the four gospels. But Paul seems to consider his message in the book of Romans as the gospel too, although in another sense.

Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, a called apostle, separated unto the gospel of God –Rom. 1:1

This is how Paul kicks off this epistle- invoking the gospel of God as the raison d’être of his ministry. Now I know what you’ll say, this is not conclusive evidence to claim that Romans is a so-called fifth gospel (nevermind the spurious or apocryphal gospels). But look closely at verse 15:

So, for my part, I am ready to announce the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

The question is, who is the you here? Verse 7 makes it abundantly clear:

To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, the called saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul is saying that he is ready to announce the gospel to already believing Christians in Rome! Paul is saying that even the Christians need the gospel. Not in a New Calvinist kind of way, but the gospel in its entirety with its proper focus.

What is the gospel? Good News

The most basic definition of the gospel is the good news. The traditional four Gospels are packed with good news. That good news however is largely focused on man’s benefit—his salvation, rescue from eternal damnation, and restoration to a proper humanity. This is certainly good news. But this is admittedly shy of God’s eternal purpose.

Thus, Paul in Romans lets us know that there is much more good news. This is ultimately good news to God, because in the working out of this gospel God is the principal beneficiary.

For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled. –Rom. 5:10

The four Gospels all end with “the death of His Son” resulting in our reconciliation to God and with His subsequent resurrection as the receipt or proof our justification (Rom 4:25). They zoom in on the three and a half years of Christ’s life and ministry on earth which culminated in the cross. They are four distinct but harmonious biographies of the God-man Jesus.

But Paul is here to tell us that there is something “much more.” This implies that if you don’t know this gospel, Paul’s gospel, than you know much less than the totality of the good news.

The gospel in Romans concerns God’s purpose (Rom 8:28-29), God’s will (Rom 12:2), and God’s mysterious economy (Rom 16:25, Eph 3:9).

God’s purpose is to produce many glorified sons that Christ might be the Firstborn among many brothers. God’s will is to obtain the Body of Christ with many members. God’s economy is to mysteriously work Himself in Christ as the Spirit of life into the spirit, soul, and body of His believers for His manifold expression.

Actually the word gospel shows up more times in Romans than in any other book in the New Testament (totaling 9 times as a noun, a few more as a verb including verse 15 above).

  1. Rom. 1:1 …separated unto the gospel of God…
  2. Rom. 1:9 …I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son…
  3. Rom. 1:16 …For I am not ashamed of the gospel…
  4. Rom. 2:16 …when God judges the secrets of men according to my gospel through Jesus Christ…
  5. Rom. 10:16 …But not all have obeyed the gospel…
  6. Rom. 11:28 …According to the gospel they are enemies for your sake…
  7. Rom. 15:16 …a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, a laboring priest of the gospel of God…
  8. Rom. 15:19 …I have fully preached the gospel of Christ…
  9. Rom. 16:25 …my gospel, that is, the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery…

In this sense then, Romans is the fifth gospel.

The gospel of God is an all-inclusive unveiling of God’s full counsel concerning His good pleasure, His will, His purpose, and His economy. This is presented to humanity as a proclamation, as an official announcement made by a herald who has the responsibility to proclaim under official sanction this tremendous announcement.

-Ron Kangas, Crystallization-Study of the Gospel of God

How is the gospel good news for God?

The gospel is good news for God in that through it His eternal purpose to gain the Body of Christ and the kingdom of God is realized and His enemy Satan is crushed (Rom 12:5, 14:17, 16:20).

Next time you are out preaching the gospel then, and someone says, “Oh yes, I’m already a Christian” why not do what Paul did and announce the gospel anyway, for God’s sake?

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