The Surprising God

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. What song is this? You’re the worship leader but suddenly you don’t recognize the piano intro, so the next few moments are, well, “interesting.” Or have you ever forgotten lyrics? Ever lose your place and need a few moments to find it again? Ever start singing the second verse instead of the first? Ever belt out the first two words of a chorus only to discover that everyone else is singing the bridge you have skipped? Ever start a song in the wrong key? If you’ve led worship for any time at all, you’ve run into some “interesting” situations. I’ve been there. Some are a little frightening or embarrassing, and some are humorous. I think my hair has turned a little more gray with each interesting episode, and now it’s nearly completely white. Once at our national pastors’ conference I was sitting on a wooden stool onstage between worship songs, when suddenly with a resounding “craaaack!” the stool broke apart, and I just barely c...

Trinitarian theology (with its doctrine of God) is the basis for a Trinitarian  ecclesiology (with its doctrine of the church) and a  Trinitarian  missiology (with its doctrine of the church's participation in the mission of the triune God) . For an in-depth look at all three, I recommend Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ , and Atonement: The Person and Work of Christ .  Both books  contain the lectures of T.F. Torrance as edited by  Robert T. Walker . Chapter 11 of Atonement  sets out Torrance's Trinitarian ecclesiology . He notes that the church, "formed in history as God called and entered into communion with his people," has three historical forms: A preparatory form before the incarnation (beginning with Adam and focusing on Israel under the old covenant). A new form in Jesus, through the Spirit (the present church under the new covenant). A final and eternal form in the new creation ushered in at Jesus' comin...

GCI elder Eric Wilding is working on his thesis for a DMin degree. He is researching the impact that the writings of Karl Barth, TF Torrance and JB Torrance have had on GCI ministers - particularly with regard to their views of theology (doctrine of God), anthropology (doctrine of man) and ecclesiology (doctrine of the church). Let's help him out by posting here our response to his query. Short bulleted points are fine. As with all posts on this blog, you can reply by signing in to Blogger and then clicking on comments below any post. Or you can email your reply directly to me at Ted.Johnston@gci.org.

I like the mission statement of Reality Ministries : Helping adolescents live into the loving presence and life-changing reality of Jesus Christ. I think they do a wonderful job of ministering out of a Trinitarian, incarnational vision. For them, it's about "being real." At issue here is understanding two competing "realities" that we might refer to as God's reality and fallen-human reality . God's reality is the truth of who God is (as Trinity) and who humanity is because God (in the person of the Son of God) has united humanity to himself. Through the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, all humanity has been reconciled to God. In Christ, humanity is re-born - given a new reality. Fallen-human reality is what most humans see and live by. Though God has reconciled them to himself, they do not "see it." They continue to believe and thus live in unreality . This has devastating consequences. What Reality ...

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. Invitation to Theology, A Guide to Study, Conversation and Practice , by Michael Jinkins, with Foreward by Alan Torrance (2001, InterVarsity Press) includes a discussion of God’s calling us out of isolation into community, along with the related issues of the myth of solitary religion and the dangers of being shut up in the solitude of our own hea rts. (Dr. Jinkins is a trinitarian theologian and Academic Dean and Professor of Pastoral Theology at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.) We recently quoted Dr. Julie Canlis [ see 03.22.10 post ] as saying that things done in the community of church – praying together, taking Holy Communion, and listening to scriptures (which were addressed to whole communities in the first place) – are things that “liberate me from myself.” Michael Jinkins provides additional detail to that picture in Invitation to Theology . Here are some quotes. “…the Holy Spirit creates community among ...

In presenting the gospel, many use  The Romans Road  - a presentation that uses certain verses in the book of Romans. Though I have used this presentation many times, I have come to see it as less than adequate. I find that it "cherry picks" isolated verses from Romans, leaving one with a truncated message that tends to be more  person-centered (focused on human response) than it is  Christ-centered . The net result is a message not fully faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ taught by Paul in Romans and elsewhere. Certainly, one can (and should) use Paul's epistle to the Romans to proclaim the true and full gospel. But these days, I tend to use Paul's gospel presentation in his epistle to the Ephesians. Trevin Wax (in  Holy Subversion ), refers to this presentation as The Ephesians Road .  It focuses on the finished work of the Father, Son and Spirit toward the salvation of all humanity. Here is that presentation in outli...

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. Christmas and Easter. Growing up, I remember our family photo album wasn’t complete each year without picturing the joy of both annual celebrations. So from toddler to teen years, there were pictures of us kids grinning from ear to ear by the Christmas tree in the living room, and a few pages later we were outdoors, dressed in Easter outfits and squinting in the sunlight of Spring. As years passed, each combination of pictures help show who we were and who we were becoming. Matthias Grunewald,  Annunciation and Resurrection (public domain via Wikimedia Commons) Of course we were not theologians—just a typical church-going family with three kids in the 1950’s and 60’s. But incarnation and resurrection really are inseparable, as T.F. Torrance makes plain in Atonement, the Person and Work of Christ (2009, InterVarsity Press): The teaching of the New Testament makes it clear that we cannot isolate the resurrection from the whol...

On Easter, followers of Jesus celebrate the central truth of the Christian  faith: Jesus is alive (and we are alive in him)!  Here is what T.F. Torrance writes (in Atonement, The Person and Work of Christ ): "The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead... is a stupendous deed, comparable only to the original creation of the universe. Indeed like the incarnation itself, when God himself entered the creation as one of the creatures he had made in order to operate within it, the resurrection transcends it in significance" (p. 221). "Jesus Christ rose...the new Adam who heads the race in the new creation opened up in the resurrection from the dead [see 1Cor 15:45ff; Rom 1:4, 5:12; 2Cor 5:17]. As such he rose clothed with the power of the resurrection and is spoken of as 'life giving spirit' [1Cor 15:45]. He was not only an Adam into whom God breathed the breath of life and made a quickened soul, but the Adam with such fullness of life in himself that even...

Nineteenth century author, poet, theologian and pastor  George MacDonald (1824-1905), influenced many authors and theologians after him, including C.S. Lewis, who wrote the following concerning MacDonald in the introduction to his book, George MacDonald: An Anthology: "This collection...was designed not to revive MacDonald's literary reputation but to spread his religious teaching. Hence most of my extracts are taken from the three volumes of  Unspoken Sermons . My own debt to this book is almost as great as one man can owe to another: and nearly all serious inquirers to whom I have introduced it acknowledge that it has given them great help-sometimes indispensable help toward the very acceptance of the Christian faith. "I know hardly any other writer who seems to be closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ Himself. Hence his Christ-like union of tenderness and severity. Nowhere else outside the New Testament have I found terror and comfort so in...

Good Friday bids us reflect on what T.F. Torrance calls, "the paradox of the cross." Following are comments from Torrance in  Atonement, the Person and Work of Christ : "In the cross of Christ we have humanity's final rejection of God, and in that cross we have God's final rejection of humanity's sin. But in the cross we have behind it all the holy will of God to take upon himself human sin in rejecting God, and to take upon himself his own rejection of humanity, so that he makes the cross the most positive act of the divine love. The cross not only opposes the human will to isolate itself from God and so to reject God, but so takes that rejection, that sinful refusal by humanity upon himself, that God directs toward humanity the amazing act of assumption in which, in pure grace, he gathers men and women in spite of their awful wickedness into fellowship with himself and refuses to let them go. "The cross means that God does not let any positive decision...

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. Ever been embarrassed by your local church? Perhaps it’s small and unimpressive—a tiny group of common, broken people with limited means? The preacher does his/her best, but certainly isn’t a best-selling Christian author or a well-known televangelist. There’s no stellar music either—just a humble little worship service. Small, plain, common. And you wish it were somehow more “spiritually uplifting.” So why not stay home and avoid the whole messy business? Besides, you might even feel more satisfied and spiritually uplifted by downloading and privately listening to a nourishing sermon from Pastor Big Kahuna, the dynamic speaker at the regional mega-church down the road. Dr. Julie Canlis touches upon such notions in portions of a public lecture she gave in 2008 at Regent College in Vancouver ( click here to listen). She points to common confusion surrounding our expectations of “doing church.” She also describes historical e...

A Surprising God reader sent this question: What does Trinitarian, Christ-centered theology say about eternal security ? Or asked another way, Can one lose one's salvation ? In answering, Trinitarian theology begins with the all-important question, Who is Jesus? The Bible answers that Jesus is the permanent union of God with all humanity. On the basis of this truth (this personal union ) we can answer our immediate question: Can one lose one's salvation? Unfortunately, salvation often is viewed as a transaction  with God -- a sort of bookkeeping exercise in which we give God our faith, and in exchange he grants us forgiveness and justification (salvation). But what the nature of the incarnate, crucified, risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ tells us is that salvation is a relationship  -- it's about fellowship  not transaction. Moreover, we are shown that this relationship-fellowship between God and humankind has been established and occurs in and through Jesus h...

Pastor, author and theologian Jule Canlis has written an essay titled, Calvin's Institutes: A Primer for Spiritual Formation ( click here to access the issue of Crux in which her essay appears). In her essay she notes that John Calvin emphasized the doctrine of the Trinity in his writings (including his Institutes ). Sadly, this emphasis was diminished by some of Calvin's followers as they further systematized Calvin's theology. One might say that some hyper-Calvinists "out-Calvined" Calvin! In the essay cited above, Canlis discusses Calvin's Trinitarian view on spiritual formation . Following is a representative quote. "Spiritual formation is all about entering this Father-Son relationship, about living out the truth of our adoption. It is the hard work of laying tasks aside in order to contemplate and receive the words, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). Only when we hear that word can our tasks have a...

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. We have been exploring Worshipping Trinity: Coming Back to the Heart of Worship , by Robin Parry, and last time we highlighted quotes in which the author describes our spirituality being shaped in community—especially in the dynamic of congregational worship. Below are more quotes about ‘doing church’ as the ‘living echo’ of the communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. “In our lives together we are placed ‘in Christ’ by the Spirit and so relate to God the Father ‘in’ the Son, by the Spirit. We relate to Christ as the head of the body and we know the Spirit’s indwelling, empowering and gifting. Being church is about as Trinitarian as you can get!” (p. 56) “Many contemporary theologians see the community of the Trinity as a model for God’s community of the church. In God one finds mutual love between persons-in-relationship who recognize the equality and also value the differences of the ‘others’. Although human relationshi...

Many Christians will participate in a Last Supper memorial service on Maundy Thursday evening (April 1 this year).  At the original Supper midway through Holy Week, Jesus revealed himself clearly to his disciples as the prophesied Suffering Servant. This was not a new revelation, for Jesus had spoken of it earlier:  "The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mat. 20:28). Now, at the Supper, Jesus enacts these words. First he washes the disciple's feet (John 13) - a vivid demonstration that he is the servant of all, and an invitation to his disciples to join him in that service to all humanity. Then during supper, Jesus takes common table elements (bread and wine) and uses them to represent the giving of his own human life to secure within himself as our representative and substitute, atonement with God. Concerning the bread, Jesus says, "Take and eat; this is my body..." Concerning the cup, he s...

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. Last time we began exploring the book Worshipping Trinity: Coming Back to the Heart of Worship , by Robin Parry, and highlighted sections making plain that the primary emphasis in worship should not be on our own faith, decision or response, but rather on the perfect faith, decision and response of Jesus – the Son of God and Son of Man – and that the Holy Spirit enables us to share in the resurrected and ascended Son’s ongoing prayer and worship of the Father.  Below are additional quotes as to what that dynamic means for congregational worship. “Trinity should be related to our other beliefs like hydrogen is related to water.  Take the ‘H’ out of H2O and you no longer have water.  Take the Trinity out of Christian faith and practice and you no longer have Christian faith and practice.” (p. 5) “Christian theology is not an interesting exercise in abstract speculation but is intimately connected to Christian living and...

Kudos to the  Experimental Theology  blog for highlighting the work of Douglas Campbell (pictured right) in The Deliverance of God . Though Campbell's book is long, dense and expensive, it's an important trinitarian analysis of Paul's doctrine of justification. Paul's thesis in Romans is summarized in 1:17: "For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, 'The righteous will live by faith.'"  Here Paul is quoting Habakkuk 2:4: "See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright - but the righteous will live by his faith." Paul's point is often misunderstood by viewing the one referred to here as "the righteous" who will "live by faith" as you or me. That misunderstanding then leads to another, namely that we attain a state of being "righteous" through our faith in Jesus.This view leads on to a transactional theory of justif...

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. “I doubt that there is any other factor with undermines the mission and worship of the church more tragically than the widespread failure to appreciate the Trinitarian dynamic of worship….” Those are strong words!  They come from Alan J. Torrance in his endorsement of the book Worshipping Trinity:  Coming back to the heart of worship , by Robin Parry (2005 Paternoster Press).  Alan is Chair of Systematic Theology at St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews (and if his name sounds familiar, he is son of James Torrance and nephew of Thomas Torrance, each a highly respected minister, mentor and Trinitarian theologian). Certainly none of us want to unknowingly undermine mission and worship in our congregations, so what is this Trinitarian dynamic of worship, and how might we be failing to appreciate it?  We already believe in grace, so what’s the big concern? Robin Parry writes, “(Some) people think that although ...

[This post was updated on 12/24/12] Christian theologies acknowledge that the atonement is accomplished through the person and work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. However, they differ in how they explain  how the atonement is accomplished. Trinitarian, incarnational theology emphasizes that the atonement is not accomplished merely by what Jesus has done for us, but who he is for us--the incarnate Son of God  who was born, lived, ministered, suffered, died, rose bodily, ascended bodily and now, remaining fully God and fully human ( 1Timothy 2:5 ), lives to intercede for us. This incarnational view of the atonement is explained by C. S. Lewis (pictured at right) in  Mere Christianity  (for Thomas Torrance's similar view of the atonement,  click here ): "We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself.  That is the formula.  That is Christianity.  That...

The book "Atonement, the Person and Work of Christ" compiles the lectures of T.F. Torrance. In the introduction, the book's editor, Robert Walker, notes that the "linchpin" of Torrance's Trinitarian, incarnational theology is his understanding of the nature of Jesus Christ: "He who is the eternal Son of God, of one being with the Father, is he who is now also man and the fact that the same person who is fully and truly God is now fully and truly man, means that his person is and constitutes in itself...the union of God and humanity... In his one person, therefore, God and man, God and all humanity, are now irrevocably and eternally united. God and man can now no more be separated from one another in Christ than the person of Christ can be undone, or the incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection be reversed" (pp.xxxvii-xxxviii). Torrance understands this union of God and humankind in the person of Jesus to be   an "event, a becoming, the ac...

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. One of my favorite doxologies is Romans 11:33-36.  Those verses are also the lyrics to All Things by Joel Hendrickson, Steve Mills and Jeff Crumb (1992 Little Peach Music).  For years our praise band Higher Ground has often used this powerful song to place a rousing exclamation mark at the end of worship services. This doxology (from the Greek doxa – glory) captures the awe and wonder that thankful believers express when confronted with the “deep riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God” revealed in Christ. It also captures some of the mystery that is in the message. It touches upon several key elements in Christ-centered (Trinitarian) worship and theology – that all things begin and end with God – and that even though his thoughts and ways are completely beyond our ways of knowing, all things (everything in heaven and earth) are accomplished through him and to his glory.  And although God does not owe anyone anythi...

This post was contributed by worship leader Mike Hale. “I’m not really of much use to this church.  I’m only a volunteer worship leader, and not a full-time staff member.  My role here is so small, and besides, I really need to know a lot more about the theology of worship.” It was well over a dozen years ago, but still seems like yesterday.  I was feeling down and had begun to question my value as a volunteer member of a worship ministry team—wondering if those few hours of ministry each weekend were making any difference to anyone, and also wondering if I was really up to the task. Part of the problem was that for most of my adult life I’d been employed by a church, but severe budget cuts and large-scale layoffs had put an end to church employment, so it was easy to feel less a part of “real ministry.” Added to that, at the time I was stuck working as a temp on part-time jobs, and the kind of work wasn’t what I would have preferred as a career.  On the bright side,...

A trinitarian, incarnational understanding of the sacraments has significant implications for how we approach both baptism and the Lord's Supper. This issue is helpfully addressed by many trinitarian theologians. Here are two examples: Paul Fiddes writes in Participating in God: [We understand] the sacraments as pieces of earthly stuff that are meeting places with this [triune] God who exists in ecstatic movements of love. They are doors into the dance of perichoresis in God. [They are a means] of God’s gracious coming and dwelling with us. They are signs which enable us to participate in the drama of death and resurrection which is happening in the heart of God. We share in death as we share in the broken body of the bread and the extravagantly poured out wine, and as we are covered with a threat of hostile waters. We share in life as we come out from under the waters…to take our place in the new community of the body of Christ, and to be filled with the new wine of the Sp...