Vern Poythress on the Lordship of Christ

I’ve just ordered a copy of the latest book from Vern Poythress:

Vern S. Poythress, The Lordship of Christ: Serving Our Savior All of the Time, in All of Life, with All of Our Heart (Wheaton: Crossway, 2016).

Meanwhile, a pdf excerpt of the book is available here, and Poythress has posted an article here on ‘10 Things You Should Know about the Lordship of Christ’, which are as follows:

1. Christ is Lord over all because he is God.

2. Christ is Lord over all because in his human nature he has accomplished perfect obedience, has won salvation for us, and has been given universal dominion as a reward.

3. Christ claims authority over both believers and unbelievers.

4. We are to obey Christ in all things.

5. We are to serve Christ all the time, in all of life, with all of our heart.

6. The means of grace guide us and equip us to grow in serving Christ.

7. Serving Christ makes a pronounced difference in every area of life.

8. Because of Christ’s lordship over the world, we can sometimes learn from and cooperate with unbelievers in short-term projects.

9. Christ gives distinctive authority and responsibilities to people in various spheres of life.

10. Through Christ, God establishes a pronounced distinction between the church and other institutions on earth.

Tom Wright on How the Church of England Can – and Will – Endure

Tom Wright, ‘Keep the Faith’, The Spectator (20 August 2011).

Tom Wright’s recent Spectator article – ostensibly on the Church of England – is now online.

Wright reminds us of William Temple’s line about the church being the only society in the world that exists for the benefit of its non-members. He claims that ‘this vision is alive and well, and that the Church of England, though not its only local expression, is in the middle of it’.

‘This is the real “Big Society”. It’s always been there; it hasn’t gone away. Check out the volunteers in the prison, in the hospice, in charity shops. It’s remarkable how many of them are practising Christians. They aren’t volunteering because the government has told them we can’t afford to pay for such work any more. They do it because of Jesus. Often they aren’t very articulate about this. They just find, in their bones, that they need and want to help, especially when things are really dire. But if you trace this awareness to its source, you’ll find, as often as not, that the lines lead back to a parish church or near equivalent, to the regular reading of the Bible, to the life of prayer and sacrament and fellowship. To the regular saying and singing of prayers and hymns that announce, however surprising or shocking it may be to our sceptical world, that God is God, that Jesus is Lord, that the Holy Spirit is alive and well and active in a community near you.’

What follows are some familiar Wrightean themes, all wonderfully put, about Jesus being ‘in charge’ as ‘king of the world’, and about the church – like Jesus – being commissioned ‘to bring healing and hope, to rescue people trapped in their own folly and sin, to straighten out the distorted pictures of reality that every age manages to produce, and to enable people to live by, and in, God’s true reality’.

I try not to be too polemical on this blog, and I deplore the Tom Wright-bashing that goes in some quarters, and I know it’s a short piece and it’s in The Spectator, etc... but I wish he’d been able to say some more about all this ‘Big Society’-type activity on the part of the church flowing out of what lies at the heart of the gospel, the things of ‘first importance’ – Christ died, buried, and risen again, according to the Scriptures. I know the lordship of Christ is at the centre of the gospel – and Wright is up front here in asserting the lordship of Christ – but it is as the crucified and risen Lord that he is ‘in charge’.

Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible (50/50) – To the Glory of God

‘Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible’, from London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, is a series of fifty emails designed to look at the main milestones of the biblical story, seeking to show how whole-life discipleship is woven through Scripture as a whole, from beginning to end. Here is the final one of the fifty emails.

In your relationships with one another, have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God
something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human being,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11

The lordship of Christ and the glory of God – there could hardly be a more appropriate place to end our tour through Scripture.

Actually, it’s where we began too – with Jesus as Lord of all in Colossians 1:15-20. Here as there, the biblical story of salvation – never far below the surface of Paul’s letters – rises to the top. Here as there, we are taken from the beginning of all things to the end of all things, an account in which Jesus is central. Here as there, it is this story of this one that shapes us – providing a pattern of thinking and living that is ours by dint of being ‘in Christ’.

And at the centre of the story stands the cross, Paul’s words here evoking the horror and shame associated with the public execution of criminals. And yet, it is the scandal of the cross that was central to Christ’s own determination to press on to Jerusalem, showing the true nature of God’s self-giving love. And it is the cross that is central to understanding what it means to be a disciple, to follow in his footsteps in serving others – his death not only bringing about redemption but providing a model for our lives.

Even then, the cross is not the end of the story, for God raised Jesus to a place of highest status and assigned him a name that reflects his vindication, with the result that all will confess him ‘Lord’ – Paul’s language here deliberately echoing Isaiah 45:22-23, with Christ receiving the glory God says is reserved for him alone. Beyond this, the confession would have carried political overtones, perhaps especially in Philippi, a colony of the Roman empire in which emperors were proclaimed as ‘Lord’. The church’s worship of Jesus as Lord not only qualifies the empire’s rule, but anticipates the confession that will be offered by the whole universe – the sovereignty of Christ over all things.

All of which has profound implications for the daily life of Christians in Philippi, and of Christians everywhere since, as we ‘work out’ our salvation, with God himself working in us ‘according to his good purpose’ (2:12-13), concretely applied in our relations with each other and our integrity of witness in the world, where confessing him as Lord means committing to a way of life marked by his lordship.

And all for the glory of God.

For further reflection and action:

1. Some scholars think this passage in Philippians might be an early hymn, perhaps even pre-dating the letter itself, and thus one of the oldest parts of the New Testament – a poetic celebration and confession of Jesus as Lord sung by groups of Christians, putting us in touch with very early expressions of faith in Christ. Reflect on the significance of this possibility, and turn it into an opportunity for praise.

2. Read Philippians 2:5-11 again, thinking about some of the suggestions for the background of the passage: (1) personified divine wisdom who leaves her dwelling-place with God to come into the world to be with humankind (Proverbs 8:22-31); (2) a contrast between Jesus and the first human beings in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3; cf. Romans 5:12-21) and the different choice made by Jesus, where equality with God was not something to be exploited for his own personal advantage; (3) parallels with the suffering servant of Isaiah 52:13-53:12, who humbled himself (53:4, 8), was obedient (53:7), and poured himself out to death (53:12). Which, if any, provides the best ‘fit’ with the passage, and why?

3. Even though there are political implications in calling Jesus ‘Lord’, the early Christians still submitted to Roman authority, understanding that the Emperor had lawful authority delegated by God (e.g., Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17). If Jesus, not Caesar, was Lord, why did they act this way? If it is more fitting to describe the early Christians’ approach as ‘subversive’ rather than directly ‘counter-political’, how appropriate is it to follow their lead in our own context?