The Self-Righteous Young Man

And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: 'Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'" And he said to him, "Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth." And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Mark 10:17-22

What's going on here? Here's my paraphrase:

Young man (Mark 10:17): Jesus, how much does eternal life cost?

Jesus (Mark 10:18-19): Keep the law. Can you pay it?

Young man (Mark 10:20): Yes, I can!

Jesus (Mark 10:21): Let's try this again. It'll cost you everything you own. Can you pay it?

Young man (Mark 10:22): No, I can't.

The young man's problem wasn't primarily a matter of money. The young man's problem was primarily a matter of righteousness. Jesus merely used money to reveal the deeper spiritual reality that the young man wouldn't have otherwise been able to see: "I can't pay for my salvation."

Trust in money or any other idol we don't want to let go of (e.g. family, known comforts, Mark 10:29) reveals a heart that trusts in self more than God. At the root of idolatry is self-righteousness. If there's an idol of any sort that you're struggling with, then your main problem is self-righteousness. So the proper way to deal with an idol isn't to try to get rid of it (because, just like the rich young man, you can't!) but rather to repent of self-righteousness and trust Jesus alone as your righteousness. Only then will you be irresistibly compelled to leave behind every idol and follow Him (Mark 10:28).

The attribute that most characterizes this man that we've come to know as "the rich young man" isn't so much that he's rich but rather that he's self-righteous. If only he had known that Jesus pays it all (Mark 10:27, Isaiah 53:3-12) so that he doesn't have to, he wouldn't have went away sorrowful (Mark 10:22) but instead would have went on his way rejoicing like the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:39).

Solemn Joy

Not an oxymoron. Here's an excerpt:

There is a frothiness that laughs and jokes and jeers which is utterly devoid of real joy. And there is a quiet sobriety that fights back tears, the joy is so intense. One is external joy hiding internal misery. The other is external seriousness hiding internal delight. Do a search for 'laughter' in the Bible. It is more often discouraged than encouraged.

...

Have you ever met someone who wasn't comfortable with more than thirty seconds without some snide comment or trivializing joke? Someone for whom seriousness is just too awkward? I have just one question: Will you go to such a one when the heart is breaking?

The Death of Disobedience in the Death of Christ

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Romans 6:3

When Jesus died 2,000 years ago, the effects of His death were incalculable. The effects of His death were incalculable in that He died for people of every tribe, nation, and language, to the utmost corners of the world, far as the curse is found. The effects of His death were incalculable in that what His death has done for each individual who trusts in Him will have ripple effects to eternity. And the effects of His death were incalculable in that His death produces numerous changes in the life of each individual who trusts in Him.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Matthew 12:40

During His lifetime, one of the ways that Jesus foretold His death was by comparing it to how the Old Testament prophet Jonah was swallowed by a fish. In the same way that Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, Jesus, the Son of Man, would spend three days and three nights buried in the heart of the earth. In other words, what Jesus is saying is that He's going to die, be buried, and then rise from the grave after three days.

Of all the illustrations that He could have used to describe His death and resurrection, why does Jesus use the illustration of Jonah being swallowed by a fish? This compelled me to look again at the story of Jonah, specifically with this question in mind: "How can this story better help me understand what Jesus accomplished through His death and resurrection?"

The story of Jonah begins in chapter 1:

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me." But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.

Jonah 1:1-3

What's the point of these first three verses? Jonah is disobedient. God commands Jonah to do something, but Jonah doesn't do it. God commands Jonah to go in a certain direction, but Jonah goes somewhere else. Jonah is disobedient.

Now, look with me at the beginning of chapter 3:

Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you." So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD.

Jonah 3:1-3

What's the point of these three verses? Jonah is obedient! God commands Jonah to do the very same thing that He commanded him to do back at the beginning of chapter one. Think about this: it's the very same command! And, this time, Jonah obeys!

And what happened in between the beginning of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 3 to transform Jonah from disobedient to obedient?

And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights...And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.

Jonah 1:17, 2:10

The decisive event that brought about Jonah's transformation from disobedient to obedient was the three days and three nights that he spent in the belly of a fish. And just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish, the Son of Man was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40). What does this teach us about what Jesus accomplished through His death and resurrection?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:4

The story of Jonah foreshadows the death and resurrection of Christ. Before Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, his life as communicated to us in the Bible was one of responding to God in disobedience. But after being vomited out on dry land by the command of God speaking to the fish (the glory of the Father in Romans 6:4!), we most certainly see a newness of life in Jonah: He responds to God in obedience. Spending three days and three nights in the belly of a fish brought him from disobedience to obedience!

This shows us that one of the reasons Jesus died was so that when we put our faith in Him, we would share in His death, burial, and resurrection. Not in a literal sense but in the sense that we would, like Jonah, be brought through this spiritual experience of death, burial, and resurrection from disobedience to obedience.

Paul tells the Ephesian church that they "were dead in the trespasses and since in which you once walked following...the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience--among whom we all once lived" (Ephesians 2:1-3, emphasis added). Apart from Christ, we all walk in a certain kind of life. It's a life marked by disobedience. It may not be the outrageous, flagrant kind of disobedience that lives in shameless rebellion. For some of us, it's a subtle, quiet kind of disobedience that on the surface parades as being good but deep down pursues the agenda of self rather than the agenda of God. Apart from Christ, we are all sons of disobedience.

And what we deserve as a result of this disobedience is the wrath of God, which is why another way Paul describes the Ephesians apart from Christ is as "children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2:3).

When Jesus died, one of the main things His death accomplished was to take upon Himself the wrath of God that we all deserved.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"

Galatians 3:13

After living a life of perfect obedience, Jesus died in our place so that instead of being cursed by God we would be accepted by God on account of His obedience, not ours (2 Corinthians 5:21).

But Jesus didn't just live, die, and rise again in order to perform the perfect obedience to God that we couldn't. Jesus lived, died, and rose again in order to make it possible for us to obey God as His adopted children (Ephesians 5:1-2). He died so that we could go from being sons of disobedience who walk in trespasses and sins to resurrected sons who walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:3-4 (emphasis added)

Does walking in this newness of life (Romans 6:4), walking according to the Spirit (Romans 8:4) mean that we will no longer disobey? That we will always walk in perfect obedience? Of course not. The story of Jonah shows us that even after spending three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, Jonah still struggled at times with having desires, attitudes, and behaviors that weren't fully in submission to God (Jonah 4:1-2, 9-11). But the trajectory of his life had significantly changed.

The cross doesn't take away the need for us to obey God. The cross makes it possible for us to obey God. God's standards haven't changed. He still demands and requires our obedience. And the only reason obedience to God is possible is because of the death of disobedience in the death of Christ, which happened decisively 2,000 years ago and will be brought to its perfect completion when Jesus comes back one day soon.

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Matthew 12:40

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:3-4

Do you even have a clue what happened to you when He died?
When that tomb got rolled when He rose in the sky
...
When Jesus died in our lives something strange happened

--Flame, from verse 2 of the song "Make War" by Tedashii

Salvation Costs Us Nothing, Discipleship Everything

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple."
Luke 14:25-33

2 minutes from The Cost of Discipleship by Mark Driscoll:

A Biblical Approach to Guidance

Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

Psalm 25:8-10

Earlier today, I read a blog post by Justin Buzzard that highly recommended chapter 6 of J.I. Packer's book God's Plans for You as "the best exegetical, theological, and practical treatment of knowing and doing the will of God/God’s guidance."

This topic of God's guidance is one that has been on my mind alot over the past couple of years as I've prayed, prepared, and made plans to pursue church planting in Kenya. And now that I'm in Kenya, that hasn't changed. Or, I should correct myself. It has. I feel the need for God's guidance even more now that I'm here.

Because of my experience and reading how Buzzard was recently redirected by God from planting a new church in Phoenix to planting a new church in downtown San Jose, I was eager to get my hands on that chapter. And I don't know what I would have done without my brand new Amazon Kindle. All it took was jumping onto Amazon.com, searching for the book, one click, and voila! There was the book in my Kindle library here in Nairobi in a matter of minutes (at half the price of the paperback I might add)!

With that, I highly recommend the Amazon Kindle if you're regularly looking for that next good book to read. But, more importantly, I highly recommend chapter 6 of J.I. Packers' God's Plans for You as "the best exegetical, theological, and practical treatment of knowing and doing the will of God/God’s guidance." Here's Packer's summary from that chapter:

How may we formulate[a biblical approach to guidance]? I offer the following ten checkpoints:

1. Ask the question: What is the best I can do for my God?
2. Note the instructions of Scripture. The summons to love God and others, the limits set and the obligations established by the law, the insistence on energetic action (Ecclesiastes 8:10; 1 Cor. 15:58), and the detailed drilling in wisdom (see Proverbs and James especially) enable one to make the best choice among behavioral options.
3. Follow the examples of godliness in Scripture. Imitate the love and humility of Jesus himself. If we do this, we cannot go far wrong.
4. Let wisdom judge the best course of action. Consider not only the wisdom God gives you personally, but the corporate wisdom of your friends and mentors in the Christian community. Don't be a spiritual Lone Ranger. When you think you know God's will, have your perception checked. Draw on the wisdom of those who are wiser than you are. Take advice.
5. Note nudges from God that come your way--special concerns or restlessness of heart might indicate that something needs to be changed.
6. Cherish the divine peace that Paul says "garrisons" (guards, keeps safe and steady) the hearts of those who are in God's will (Phil. 4:7).
7. Observe the limits set by circumstances to what is possible. When it is clear that those limits cannot be changed, accept them as from God.
8. Be prepared for God's guidance to be withheld until the right time comes for a decision. God usually guides one step at a time.
9. Be prepared for God to direct you to something you do not like and teach you to like it!
10. Never forget that if you make a bad decision, it is not the end. God forgives and restores. He is your covenant God and Savior. He will not let you go, however badly you may have slipped. "Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me" (Micah 7:8).

Micah's words, just quoted, offer great comfort to all who want to do God's will but find themselves afraid they may have missed it. The Lord is my Shepherd. He leads me. He restores me. He stays with me. I need not be uptight! What a relief!

--J.I. Packer, God's Plans for You, Chapter 6

What a relief, indeed!

The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want [= lack].

Psalm 23:1

In other words, as long as Jesus is my shepherd, I'll never go without. It's impossible.

That's really good news!