jesus-our-high-priest-july-aug-2019

MODERN REFORMATION VOL.28 | NO.4 | JULY-AUGUST 2019 | $6.95

Jesus, Our High Priest

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FEATURES

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Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet B Y DA R L E N E N. B Ö C E K

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Abiding in Jesus B Y JA C O B S M I T H

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The High Priestly Prayer

BY HYWEL R. JONES

COVER ILLUSTRATION BY BRUNO MANGYOKU

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THE GOSPEL OF JOHN. E X P L O R I N G T H E P E R S O N A N D W O R K O F J E S U S C H R I S T. Throughout John’s eyewitness account of Jesus’ life and ministry, one key question is asked of Jesus again and again: “Who are you?” Our hope with this yearlong exploration of the Gospel of John is to enable you to meditate more deeply on the person and work of Jesus. For it is only as we believe the Jesus presented to us by the eyewitness testimony of John that we can be saved. Join the conversation, submit your questions, and access free resources at whitehorseinn.org/john.

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DEPARTMENTS 5

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But God: The Powerful Drama of Love B Y J I M P O C TA

BOOK REVIEWS

Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

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REVIEWED BY LESLIE A. WICKE

Can We Trust the Gospels?

REVIEWED BY JOHN BOMBARO

FOCUS ON MISSIONS

Liquid Religion

How Democracies Die

B Y B A S I L G R A FA S

REVIEWED BY N O R M A N VA N E E D E N P E T E R S M A N

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B A C K PA G E

“It Is to Your Advantage That I Go Away”

The Church

B Y M I C H A E L S. H O R T O N

BY ERIC LANDRY

MODERN REFORMATION Editor-in-Chief Michael S. Horton Executive Editor Eric Landry Managing Editor Patricia Anders Review Editor Brooke Ventura Marketing Director Michele Tedrick

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Creative Direction and Design Metaleap Creative Copy Editor Elizabeth Isaac Proofreader Ann Smith

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LETTER from the EDITOR

what probably seemed (to some of them) like a normal Passover night, enjoying the meal that generations of faithful Jews before them had enjoyed. But this night, of course, is different.

Before dawn breaks, Jesus will be betrayed, arrested, and condemned to die.

In this issue of Modern Reformation, we’ve asked three friends to tackle three important parts of Jesus’ final night with his disciples.

First up is Darlene Böcek. Böcek, a writer in a Muslim-majority country, helps us understand what Jesus was doing when he washed his disciples’ feet in John 13. Along the way, we learn ith just a few hours left before how to obey Jesus’ “new commandment” of love Jesus’ suffering and death on a for one another and the world. Next, Episcopal cross, the Gospel of John shows priest and cohost of the Same Old Song podhim still at work: washing his discast, Jacob Smith, looks at Jesus’ teaching ciples’ feet, teaching them about his unity with about the vine and the branches in John 15. the Father, and praying for them Too many of us, Smith argues, and for those who would know him see these verses as one last gasp by their testimony. If you and I were of law before Jesus dies on the given only hours to live, I imagine cross—when, in fact, they are “ JESUS . . . that our mind-set and our activities powerful and compelling word FAITHFULLY would be quite different from this. pictures of his gracious work Jesus, however, faithfully fulfills his on our behalf. Finally, our good FULFILLS priestly ministry—right up until the friend Hywel Jones, a minister in HIS PRIESTLY moment he becomes the sacrifice. the Presbyterian Church of Wales MINISTRY— John 13–17 contains some of the and retired professor of practiRIGHT most beloved passages of Scripture. cal theology at Westminster There is an intimacy here to Jesus’ Seminary California, takes us UP UNTIL words and actions that has drawn into the heavenly temple itself, THE MOMENT in readers from the very beginning. examining the intricacies and HE BECOMES Even in our voyeuristic age, where implications of Jesus’ “High every word and movement of “celebPriestly” prayer.

THE rities” are celebrated, analyzed, Now that we’re more than halfSACRIFICE.” critiqued, and copied, it seems way through our journey this year almost improper to be granted the in the Gospel of John, send us a kind of access John gives us to Jesus note at editor@modernreformaand the disciples. In these chapters, tion.org to fill us in on what you’re he describes the scene when they are out of learning and how you’re putting it into practice view of the crowds that had flocked to Jesus in your church or community! early in his ministry; when they are beyond the reach of the religious authorities who (with naked ambition) are plotting to arrest and try Jesus; when they are by themselves on ERIC LANDRY exec utive editor

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But God: The Powerful Drama of Love

by Jim Pocta

’m stuck. I’m having difficulty finding a home in the church. I’m either being given less than the gospel or more than the gospel.

One side denies transformative grace, and the other demands adherence to a severe legalism.

Shortly after I came to faith and was baptized, I was told by a well-known pastor to “fake it ’til you make it.” So, I did. Or at least I tried. For the next decade, I became increasingly anxious, depressed, and obsessed with relief. I fell into a deep depression and anxiety. I couldn’t even leave my home for a few

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years, and every day was a struggle just to remain alive. I had a wife and three sons to think about.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The faking it was an attempt to deny my story, my struggle, my shame, my sin. My iniquity appeared as gay and transgendered living.

That was not well addressed by the church in the mid-1970s, and it was not being dealt with in evangelicalism, except for strange and illconceived reparative therapy groups. Faking it seemed like an attractive option—until it didn’t. Blatant celebration or vitriolic picketing seemed to be my only other alternatives.

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The Left demanded that I embrace this identity, while the legalists demanded I deny my feelings and experience. Demand versus denial. Stuck.

What could God possibly want from me? What should I do with my story?

I was five when the inklings were first noticed.

I felt like the proverbial “girl in a boy’s body.” I knew I would never measure up to the kind of hyper-masculinity the culture around me portrayed. My father was a big, burly, ex-army man who loved to hunt, fish, and work on his cars.

He built the home we moved into as I entered second grade. I, on the other hand, was sensitive, tender, and creative: art over autos. We never meshed and he let me know it.

When I was four or five, I played a game of “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” with a young friend and got caught, and I fell deeper into the world of self-contempt. My parents looked down at me and in their scolding told me, “Only dirty old men in prison do that sort of thing.” So at five, I was already a “dirty old man.”

It informed my future of predatory acting-out.

It reinforced my lack of having anything to offer as a male. It fit me.

After many years looking at other boys as my opposite, I went from “I wish I were like them” to “I wish I were liked by them.” This fell in line

The depression was always just below the surface. The constant reminder of hopelessness ever present.

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with the idea that “the exotic becomes the erotic.”

Exposed to pornography early on, I thrilled at the power of lust to help me forget my story—at least for a while. So, when I was very young, I directed my demand for relief more and more toward identifying as gay and transgendered. While I did find the identification uncomfortable, it felt better than the consistent failure of fitting what I envisioned maleness to be. It provided the justification necessary not to move into my world as a strong, secure boy. Safety.

I became the butt of many jokes, teasing, and bullying. This only proved to me that there was something deeply different and disturbing about me, within me. In that context, I was increasingly intrigued by those in the growing gay rights movement. When as a teen I saw stories about Dr. Renée Richards, a well-known transgendered person, I felt jealous. How could I get that surgery as well?

At fourteen, I gathered my courage and told my father I thought I might be gay. He regaled me with stories about how he, in his younger days, would set up men who were attracted to him and then beat them up. He especially enjoyed telling of their humiliation at his hands.

He’d laugh heartily as he told tale after tale of his gay bashing. So I told him I must have been mistaken, merely confused—much to his relief.

I sunk further.

The depression was always just below the surface. The constant reminder of hopelessness ever present. I even went to a church service, going forward for prayer. For a bit, I thought God might change me. It was the same church I’d attended for some time as a boy. Never gospel, always “power of positive thinking.” It was one last effort to be “straight.” I failed—again—or God failed. He and I were clearly not on the same page. Easy come, easy go. Further down.

I got kicked out of my house. I now had no one.

Drugs and alcohol helped during those days to ward off feelings of shame and self-contempt.

When I turned eighteen, I left that town for good and joined the navy, spending the next four years in San Diego. There I drenched myself in gay bars,

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But God was doing something to me, and no amount of sex, drugs, or alcohol was going to thwart his work, though I did put up a good fight.

clubs, and relationships with untold numbers of men. I dressed and performed as a woman and lived with another young man for the next several years. I embraced this identity. Freedom!

“But God . . .” (I do love it when Scripture uses that phrase: Rom. 5:8; Eph. 2:4; 1 Cor. 10:13).

But God was doing something to me, and no amount of sex, drugs, or alcohol was going to thwart his work, though I did put up a good fight.

I became a cook and then a baker in the navy.

While working in the mess hall one day, a young man introduced himself and there in front of everyone began to share the gospel with me— boldly, passionately—and he was attractive. So when he invited me to do a Bible study through the Gospel of John, I eagerly agreed. I told him I’d already been down this religious road. Even so, a couple times a week he’d bring his Bible, and we went through the verses. Of course, I wasn’t telling him about my gender and sexuality—not this time. Slow and steady. Careful, cautious, self-protective. I’d go home, but definitely not mention I’d been to Bible study. I was committed to keeping these two lives separate.

“A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).

After a few years of diving into the Bible and reading books by Sproul, Pink, and other Reformed men, I decided I really should stop my immoral behavior. I had no idea how to do this, so I listened to the pastor who baptized me. I pretended. And that was at the same time I headed to Asia with the navy.

On arrival at Subic Bay in the Philippines, I met a young woman, Linda, who was a civilian

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working on base as a school nurse. Then it dawned on me. God was clearly not going to really love or bless me, being as sinful as I was; but if I married a good Christian girl, I’d have him over a barrel and he’d bless her—and I’d get the crumbs. Yes, getting married would “straighten” me out. So I set my sights on Linda, and after leaving the island and moving on to Japan, I proposed. We married in six months. I got out of the service, and she traveled home to the States. We moved to Dallas to attend a Bible college. We wanted to become missionaries.

But God . . .

In my determination to fake it, I had failed to let my new bride know who I was and what I was up to. She didn’t know my story at all. When I failed both “psychology” and “marriage” classes during my last semester at Bible school, she figured something was up.

We got pregnant. After several months, there was suddenly no fetal heartbeat. Carrying the baby another month, waiting for her body to naturally deliver, was excruciating. And I knew it was all my fault. God was still out to get me. This destroyed my “crumbs” theory, and now I was stuck—once again—but this time with a wife who had no clue what she was in for or what she was up against.

Time plodded on, and we found ourselves with child again. I was so miserable. I wasn’t loving her well at all. I was faking and white-knuckling it as best I could. That’s why I thought that this was the right time to tell my wife she’d married a gay man who would rather be a woman. We had no family nearby. We had no real friends.

We had no church. We had only each other. So I

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spilled it. To say she was devastated would be an understatement. Crushed beyond belief.

But God . . .

We now look at that moment as a glorious turning point for us. Recently, we were at the cemetery visiting our stillborn daughter’s grave, and through tears I pointed and exclaimed, “She is when God showed up. She started the journey of redemption for us, pointing us to a good Father who doesn’t give bad gifts to his children. Jesus wrote himself into our pain there.”

It would be a while before we could embrace that part of our story. We do now.

I started meeting with a pastor friend of mine to discuss my gender/sexuality issues. I was still addicted to pornography and temptations were killing me. I kept “turning over a new leaf ” and doing penance and making promises. I was going to beat this. The pressure to do so was insurmountable. I thought I had a problem. I needed to stop my sexual sin, and then life would work, finally.

So I met with this man, and over time he’d meet another guy struggling. Then I met a guy struggling, and another, and another. As AIDS became more of an issue, the number of men and women seeking to leave homosexuality grew and grew. I decided to begin a ministry to help those who felt stuck too. The faking it expanded.

My motto had always been: “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing.” If I could succeed in my denial of my temptations by helping others do the same, then I could finally convince God to bless me.

But God . . .

I fell apart. Boundaries disintegrated, ministry failed, people were hurt. And I was once again alone in my self-proclaimed worthlessness. I tried. I failed. I quit.

I weighed four hundred pounds and couldn’t leave my house. I left the ministry. I left the church. I left my God—or at least my version of God. Linda was a psych nurse and then an oncology nurse. She had attended a conference on grief and came home showing me a list of fifty-four

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things I had never mourned. This was not going to happen. No use crying over spilled milk; the past is the past. Too much pain to dredge up. It wasn’t worth it. Doesn’t the Bible say to press on to what lies ahead?

But finally, having nothing to lose, I risked it.

Grief: the existential reality of loss. As I began to trust God, little by little, to help me see my story honestly, I risked finding the sin, sorrow, and shame in it. “Blessed are those who mourn.”

If God really is involved in the ministry of reconciliation, then he is one who redeems stories.

So repentance can be risked. And while godly sorrow over sin is necessary for repentance, regret and guilt are not. In fact, self-contempt itself is an offense to be repented. We do not have the luxury of beating ourselves up if Jesus already took the beating for us. The more I grieved, the more I saw Jesus’ fingerprints on every page of my story. Now, I could stop accusingly demanding an answer to “Where were you?” in the abuse, the bullying, the fear, the abandonment. He could clearly be seen drawing me to himself by actually using the sorrow of my sin-filled, shame-soaked story. In that I received the empathy, understanding, and discernment necessary to extend the ministry of reconciliation to others (2 Tim. 2:2). All things really do work for the good (Rom. 8:28). That is what redemption means: God giving value to our stories through his mercy. He frees us from having to “fake it ‘til you make it.” That’s not possible anyway, I’ve gratefully come to realize.

Exposure is grace. When I was caught early in our marriage hiding gay pornography, rather than see it as a blessing toward accepting the gift of repentance, I became enraged. I kicked my foot through a wall, hit the stud, and broke my ankle.

Now I can see the good that comes from seeing that I don’t just have a problem, but that I am the problem. When we see ourselves as having a problem, it allows us to think we can get the tools to manage or fix it. “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the

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ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Rom. 7:18–19). I needed to lose all hope in being able to fix my “problem,” so that I—as the problem—could turn toward a Savior. Jesus loves a good messy story. Temptation, any temptation, becomes holy ground, a sacred space to worship appropriately and walk accordingly.

By faith.

The gospel for me, I now realize, is the gospel for everyone. I didn’t and don’t need special deliverance, multiple steps, awkward procedures, or monotonous rituals. I needed (and need) Jesus. It’s always more of him.

I am now moving from “fix it” to “fixate,” focusing on Jesus, the author (of my story) and perfecter of my faith (in his worth). My samesex attraction, transgenderism, lying, stealing, drunkenness, drug use, and so on, were never my real, deepest problems. My lack of dependency on my Creator was. My refusal to find my identity and subsequent relational movement in him was the problem. My insistence that I could define, design, and demand life my way, in my timing, was the problem. Therefore, just stopping those activities couldn’t and wouldn’t save me, as they were only manifestations of the deeper problem: me, with my heart bent toward quenching Godgiven thirst with sewage (Jer. 2:13).

Faith could and would reconcile and redeem me (Rom. 1:17). My same-sex attraction and being transgendered were sin, not just because they were bad in and of themselves; they enabled and encouraged me to refuse to look outside my gods of comfort and control for meaning and purpose. These works of the flesh, these manifestations of faithlessness, disallowed me from seeing the identity of a God-designed, God-defined maleness (Gen. 1:27). Those activities kept me “safe” from the terrifying risk of loving others from my core-gendered identity (which is the summation of the law). My identity is foundationally that which God intended to reflect his glory.

It is not something to be either demanded or denied, but something to grow in by faith.

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The gospel for me, I now realize, is the gospel for everyone.

I didn’t and don’t need special deliverance, multiple steps, awkward procedures, or monotonous rituals.

I needed (and need) Jesus. It’s always more of him.

And so I have now found my home, deep in the center of a scandalous story of reconciliation and redemption, as a character in his powerful drama of love. I do not need less than the gospel, being encouraged to be or label myself as gay or transgendered. I do not need more than the gospel with the rules, rituals, or regulations not required of those who are not gay. No, I need the gospel alone—like every other sinner saved by grace.

But God . . . being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. (Eph. 2:4–5) JIM POCTA, a licensed professional counselor, has practiced

biblical counseling for over thirty years. He is in private practice, specializing in sexual trauma, abuse, and related issues. He is also a ruling elder at New St. Peter’s Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas.

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Liquid Religion

by Basil Grafas

rotestant theology and missiology have been experiencing a flood, and it seems to be surging right now. It started trickling back in the 1970s and has been building ever since. It is a flood of books all framed by a single umbrella issue. Let me frame it as a question: “Who are you?” It is the great question of our time. What is my identity? What is your identity? How do you define identity? Where do identities come from and who determines them?

Can they change? Who decides? Can you prioritize identities so that some are more fundamental than others?

I am a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), which is a conservative

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Reformed denomination. The issue of identity is perhaps the question of our time. I became aware of the subject and its related issues about twenty years ago, when I found out that evangelical missionaries were persuading Muslims that they could embrace Christ as Lord and remain faithful Muslims. This opened me up to a world of hybrid identities. My engagement with this led to my becoming part of a denominational committee for three years, studying every aspect of the issue and then reporting back to our General Assembly in 2014. We did not all agree. Eventually, a majority view that opposed these practices (loosely labelled as “insider movements”) prevailed over a minority report. Our denomination overwhelmingly

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affirmed that one could not, in fact, maintain a dual religious identity.

I made a prediction that summer—and I was right. I said that the issue of dual (or many) religious identities would proliferate, because the underlying issue of identity was postmodernism’s cause célèbre. Let me explain.

“Postmodernism” is a largely opaque term that evolved in the literary, art, and philosophy communities—which means that most of us do not really understand what it is, but there is help.

Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman coined another phrase that more usefully describes a critical element in this new (mostly post-1945) thinking we call “postmodernism.” He referred to this as “liquid modernism.” To suggest something is postmodern is to imply that it is a way of thinking that replaced modernism. Bauman disagrees (and so do I). He thought of it as a radically accelerated version of the modernism that conquered the West in the past few centuries.

While changes in society, the arts, and so on were valued before, we now value faster change and change without inhibition. Liquid modernism sees things such as structures, doctrines, and institutions as impediments to individual freedom and, in particular, the freedom to change.

If you just look around, you see liquid modernism. Some of its proponents describe it as fluid identity. The idea that one may change one’s own identity is de rigueur for the day. It is an assumed right. But what are our identities?

Better still, what makes up our identity? Well, there is our biology. Nancy Pearcey’s triumph, Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality (Baker, 2018), explores the impact that liquid or fluid modernism has on human sexuality, gender, procreation, and so on. Liquid moderns do not even find genetics, historical identity, and biology in general as problematic. What matters is who you wish to be. There is nothing that trumps your choice.

When we consider it in this way, liquid religion should be a far simpler matter. There is historical precedent. We used to call much of that syncretism, but let’s leave off that for now. Suffice it to

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Liquid modernism sees things such as structures, doctrines, and institutions as impediments to individual freedom and, in particular, the freedom to change.

say, it is almost instinctual for liquid moderns to embrace multiple religious identities. One may hold to two or more versions of faith, depending on whom one is with. We may choose to have an inward religion and an outward one. What I am describing is not analogous to ancient Christians and catacombs. The Roman persecutors who raided these would find people who either consented to encountering lions in the arena or asked for forgiveness as they slipped back into paganism. The latter was an easy out for classical Romans. For them, liquid or hybrid identity was perfectly acceptable. The only thing that wasn’t acceptable was Christian exclusivity. One could be exclusively Roman (pagan)—and for liquid moderns, one can be exclusively liquid—but one must not be exclusively Christian.

Some scholars today seek to help exclusive Christians realize that there is no need for such a strident lack of compromise, writing in ways that demonstrate the benefits of a kinder, gentler, more inclusive world. One example of this is When One Religion Isn’t Enough: The Lives of Spiritually Fluid People (Beacon, 2018), by Duane R. Bidwell. In this book, Bidwell advances the liquid-modern understanding of identity and religion, especially as he describes himself as a Buddhist, as well as a Christian.

I see at least three serious problems with the ideas and overtures Bidwell makes. First,

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without his admitting as much, his ideas run the gamut from simple syncretism to panentheism. The religion he envisages is not Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism.

Second, the porousness of religious identity suggests an orientation that favors an Eastern Asian perspective. One immediately thinks of the pioneering work by Peter Jones in exposing the Eastern vein that throbs below the surface of these thoughts. Third, I believe that one more word encompasses the Western fascination with liquid religious identity: Gnosticism.

Philip J. Lee’s Against the Protestant Gnostics (Oxford University Press, 1987) illuminates the connections. In the first place, Lee highlights an obvious feature: Gnosticism is inherently syncretistic. He links this to origins in Hellenistic religion, where individual cults devoted to separate deities were routinely combined.

Gnosticism also makes sense as a description of liquid religion, given its fundamental rejection of the necessary connection of Christ to the visible Christian church. This is a basic feature of insider movements, and it is fundamental to Gnosticism. Believers are necessary, but the church is not.

Similarly, both Gnosticism and Bidwell’s fluid religious identity leave no room for Christianity’s “scandal of particularity.”

Bidwell affirms in his incoherent assertion that Jesus is his savior, but Buddha provides the blueprint for his life. To affirm his second point is to negate his first. There is no Christ as savior without Christ being lord. Bidwell’s God is Gnosticism’s “Mystery”—more of an unidentified who than a what. Mystery apparently has a will or at least good intentions for humanity. In classical Gnosticism, however, the supreme deity is distanced from creation to avoid being tainted by it. The dirty work of creating the material world and interacting with it fell to a sort of demigod, the demiurge.

Following the same logical pattern, Bidwell appears to see humans, at least the ones with sufficient insight, as demiurges who not only respond to the world as it is, but who create new

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worlds out of old material. It is a fascinating and horrible thought.

By denying established religions the right to define themselves, police the ranks and proselytize, Bidwell has autonomous “spiritual” people appropriate those rights for themselves. In other words, people decide who they ultimately are, what they should believe, and what the consequences of their choices should be. There is not much room for God when you have put him out of a job.

The source of the author’s blind spot is shared with Gnosticism in general. The point of Gnosticism is ultimately the lordship of self.

The individual chooses who he or she is, how he or she is saved (if the need for salvation is acknowledged), and how to define ancient religions, even if these choices utterly repudiate the sacred texts of these faith systems. This sort of liquid modernism allows any sort of ideological “manhandling.” After all, not only are religions liquid, but so are words, facts, history, biology, and so forth.

This is not Christianity, nor is it partially Christian. Bidwell asserts the logical impossibility of being 100 percent one religion and 100 percent another. That unreality is a denial of God’s own revelation, which makes it a denial of him. I believe that orthodox Christians should be able to spot the foundational conflicts between Bidwell’s understanding of God, humans, and devotion.

We still, however, are not out of the woods.

Contemporary Protestants, including selfconfessing evangelicals, have gone a considerable distance down the liquid version of reality. We have, with the death of a thousand cuts, already embraced liquid history, liquid Bible translation, liquid theology of religions, liquid sexuality, and most basic of all, liquid identity. Perhaps the greatest value of When One Religion Is Not Enough is that it slows down liquidity enough for us to see how it really functions and where it really leads.

BASIL GRAFAS is the pen name for an American missionary

working overseas.

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“It Is to Your Advantage That I Go Away”

by Michael S. Horton

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

(John 16:7) “

t is to your advantage that I go away.” What a strange thing to say. Right at the verge of Jordan in this new covenant conquest, how does Christ’s leaving benefit the disciples—or you and me? First of all, we need to exercise empathy here. When we read about how the disciples had not yet experienced

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the Holy Spirit’s illumination of their hearts so they could understand what was happening, we have to imagine how they would have heard this.

In this light, it makes perfect sense that they were stunned. Here is the true and great Joshua—Jesus—standing on the verge of the Jordan, on the verge of the conquest, ready to lead the armies of God into the Promised Land, and he says, “Okay, it’s time for me to go.” Allow yourself to enter into their confusion about this, because it makes perfect sense.

In John 13:36, Peter had asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, is the answer to Peter’s question. Why

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Whatever horrible suffering we might experience on earth does not compare, Paul says, to the glory that will be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18).

would Jesus desert the disciples right after he triumphed over sin and death, the cross and the resurrection? Why would he now ascend to the Father? Why would he have to leave Jerusalem in order to assume the throne of his father David? After all, Jerusalem was the very place where he was supposed to ascend to the throne of David. No, he’s going to assume the throne of David at the right hand of the Father himself. It’s not that the disciples’ thoughts were too great or that their hopes were too costly. They were too small! The horizon of their thinking was too narrow. Yahweh declares concerning his Servant-Son, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6).

In his teaching on the Holy Spirit, Jesus began by telling them that judgment would begin within the church. Although the world will judge the church, Jesus said that the ruler of this world had already been judged. Satan may persecute us now on earth, but he can’t prosecute us in heaven! Whatever horrible suffering we

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might experience on earth does not compare, Paul says, to the glory that will be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18). Because of the work of Christ— because he took his place at the right hand at the Father, because he took that throne, and because Satan has been cast out—all authority has been given to Jesus in heaven and on earth.

In John 16:1–4, Jesus says, “They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” That is, your own parents, your own siblings, your own children will consider it an act of piety to turn you over to the police. And so there’s going to be an apostasy within the church itself. That’s already what John the Baptist had proclaimed—a pruning, a period of division within Israel. The Holy Spirit will be the prophet of all prophets; the Holy Spirit will come with that word of prosecution to his people—the word that cuts, that divides.

But the Spirit who convicts through the law will also convince sinners of the gospel. So by faith, the heavenly Paraclete, the heavenly attorney, will save his people.

The Spirit’s work in the church through the word will become, Jesus says, the anticipation of the great judgment in the future. The Holy Spirit will not only bind them to the Jesus of history, the Jesus of the past, the Jesus the disciples knew, walking on the road with him and fishing on the sea with him—the Holy Spirit will also bind us to the Jesus of the future, the one who has entered into his glory. In a very real sense, then, we know Jesus Christ better than the disciples knew him when they were eating fish with him by the Sea of Galilee.

The same Spirit, who ushered into this present evil age the future resurrection of the dead by raising Jesus, will now bind us to the resurrected Jesus in anticipation of that resurrection.

He will first of all raise us spiritually from the dead, so that we will be able to understand and embrace Jesus Christ as our vine, with us as his branches. The future has arrived! But it could happen only when Jesus ascended. That’s the paradox here. Only when Jesus left would the

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future arrive or the new creation dawn—not just upon and for Jesus, but upon and for us. Only then, would we be swept into the age to come.

Before that happens, though, the apostate church will expel the true church. Think of Saul of Tarsus who became the apostle Paul. This is the paradox. Stephen might have appreciated it if, in God’s providence, the Lord’s timing could have been a little different—that Saul could have become Paul before Stephen was stoned to death (Acts 7).

But this is how Christ continues to move the conquest forward. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Not even the disciples understood this. But they would, Jesus said, when the Spirit brought his words to mind. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26). The same Spirit who inspired the prophets to speak of this outpouring of the Spirit would inspire the apostolic writings and illumine the hearts of believers in all generations to understand these words.

The world judges the church now, but the Spirit will judge the world. This is not the last judgment, however, which has been entrusted into Jesus’ hands. It is the judgment before the last judgment. This is the wonderful period between the two comings of Christ where the Holy Spirit’s prosecution actually brings us to salvation. When Jesus comes, the prosecution will move only in one direction: conviction and sentencing.

But the Holy Spirit comes to us to tell us, “I’m bringing to you right now my verdict of you on the last day. Whoever does not believe in Jesus is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. I’m bringing to you that verdict from the age to come, and it’s not good. Your future is not good.” The Holy Spirit does that mercifully now so that we won’t actually hear that verdict in the future. Instead, when we read that verdict, it will say, “Acquitted for the sake of Christ.”

Jesus says he will send another paraklētos.

What a wonderful word that is. Unfortunately,

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“helper” is just about as lame as you can imagine for this description. Part of our demotion of the Holy Spirit is due to our translation of the Greek here. Jesus says, “I will send you allos paraklētos”—“another paraclete.” I think, however, that when we’re talking about Jesus as paraklētos, as in 1 John 2:1—“We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”—we should think of Jesus. But when we think of the Holy Spirit as paraklētos, we should translate it as “comforter.” The ESV translates this word as “helper,” but that misses Jesus’ point. Jesus is not saying, “I’m sending someone of lesser importance.” Otherwise, why would he say, “It’s good that I go. But if I go, I will send you another paraclete”? That is, “He is equal to me but different from me. I didn’t hover over the waters in the beginning, impregnating them. I didn’t hover over the waters of the Red Sea, parting them so that my people could pass through. I didn’t hover over the waters of my mother in my

Only when Jesus left would the future arrive or the new creation dawn—not just upon and for Jesus, but upon and for us. Only then, would we be swept into the age to come.

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own incarnation. But this paraklētos did, and he is the one who will unite you to me.”

Jesus is the one with whom we need to be united, but the Holy Spirit is the only one who can unite us to him! There are certain things the Father does, certain things the Spirit does, and certain things the Son does. While they don’t do different works, they do different things in every work. The Father is the origin, the Son is the mediator, and the Spirit is the perfecter.

And that’s why these are the last days. The Spirit will be poured out in the last days, because the Holy Spirit is the perfecter; he’s the one who finishes the job. In other words, Jesus is saying— astounding as it is—“You don’t need me on earth right now.”

Like the disciples, we don’t understand what he’s talking about. How can we not need him on earth right now? Some think it would have been wonderful if Jesus could have stayed on earth after his resurrection. If he hadn’t ascended, then he would still be here today, enjoying long, long life. You could even shake hands with him!

But Jesus said, “It is good that I go.” Why? Why is it good that he left? Because if he didn’t, the Paraclete would not have come.

Here’s the thing: Jesus was an evangelist. If you look at the history of evangelism and missions and then look at Jesus, however, you may not think he was too spectacular in this area. But that wasn’t his primary mission. His primary mission was to be the gospel, not to be the missionary of the gospel. His primary mission was to be the Lamb of God that we proclaim. His primary mission was to proclaim good news to the poor—the day of liberation, through his death, burial, and resurrection, and through his ascension to the right hand of the Father. We need one attorney in heaven pleading our case before the Father, with Satan cast out of the courtroom.

Jesus says that we need him in heaven; we need another attorney on earth who will actually lead the campaign! If you misunderstand the nature of the kingdom and what the conquest really is, then you won’t appreciate why we need the Holy Spirit on earth right now and not Jesus.

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What we see at Pentecost proves exactly what Jesus is saying here. In Acts 2, we’re told that the people were “cut to the quick.” Hundreds, then thousands, and multiplied tens of thousands of people start believing, because Jesus was indeed successful in his mission. He completed his mission to be the gospel, and now the Holy Spirit was being poured out to unite those dead in trespasses and sins to him. Now they would have ears to hear, eyes to see that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God. The distinction here is not between Jesus as advocate and the Spirit as comforter or helper, but between a heavenly attorney and an earthly attorney. We need Jesus to be our attorney in heaven, exercising his case before the Father for us; but we need the Holy Spirit as our attorney on earth, bringing us to conviction and faith in Jesus the Messiah, so that we will be covered in his righteousness. That verdict of the future— “Justified!”—can be heard even in the present.

In John 16:7, Jesus assures us that “it is for your good that I go, for if I do not go away, then the advocate will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.” First, he will convict the world of sin (vv. 8–11). This activity underscores the role of the Holy Spirit as attorney. The language is legal: he will convict; he will expose. He will bring our secrets out into the open.

You see this also unfold in Peter’s Pentecost sermon in Acts 2. He prosecutes the case against the people in the crowd (“You put him to death”), while proclaiming God’s righteousness (“God raised him from the dead”) and judgment (“It was impossible for death to keep its hold on him”). Therefore, the external word goes out in the power of the Spirit, who inspired this preaching; and the internal word is effective, because the Holy Spirit is the one who goes to court within us, bringing us to trial so we will cling to our heavenly attorney. Cut to the heart, about three thousand were added to their number that day. This is quite different from the ministry of Jesus! Again, not because he wasn’t a sterling preacher and not because he wasn’t a great orator, but because the Holy Spirit had not yet come. In

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We need to breathe in deeply that rarified air of the Holy Spirit that continues to waft through this evil age—the stench of death that is pushed aside as we have a scent of the age to come.

that great passage earlier in chapter 7, John said that the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out because Jesus had not yet ascended to the Father.

So we need both paracletes: Jesus is God with us, and the Spirit is within us. And that’s why the apostles knew Jesus even better on the Day of Pentecost than they had known him all those years they walked with him. That’s why a person in San Diego or Singapore today knows Jesus better than Peter knew him when he was traveling as his companion. Because we know him not just according to the flesh, not just as a great person in history. We know him as the head of the body, of whom we are members! We know him as the vine, of whom we are the branches!

The firstfruit, of whom we are the harvest! We know him in a much more intimate way than the disciples ever knew him before Pentecost.

Thank God for the Holy Spirit. This was the point Jesus was making. The disciples didn’t understand then, but they did when the Spirit came. The Spirit was waiting in the wings for that cry from Jesus on the cross, “It is finished!”

Then, when that crucified Savior was raised in the power of the Spirit to the Father’s right hand in glory, the Holy Spirit was poured out to win a conviction in our hearts, so that we will be justified before God in him. When the Spirit comes, Jesus says, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And so the Spirit’s ministry is not to add something to Jesus’ work,

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but to crack open our stony hearts to understand and embrace what he has accomplished.

In this critical hour in the Upper Room when Jesus approached his hour of crucifixion, we are amazed that foremost on his mind were not the nails or even the Father’s wrath. The last thing on his mind before he was taken out and arrested—as we see in this final prayer—was for you and for me to become one with him, which could happen only when the Spirit came.

Indeed, it is the Spirit who unites us to him.

We live, gathered here, in the aftermath of Pentecost. We don’t need another Pentecost any more than we need another resurrection or crucifixion of Jesus. We need to breathe in deeply that rarified air of the Holy Spirit that continues to waft through this evil age—the stench of death that is pushed aside as we have a scent of the age to come. Every time the Holy Spirit opens people’s hearts to see Jesus for who he really is—which is why Jesus said, “He will glorify me”—you can be absolutely sure of where the Holy Spirit is. You know the Holy Spirit is present in power and majesty wherever Christ is being proclaimed in languages that people can understand, and where they are crying out, “What must we do to be saved?”

MICHAEL S. HORTON is the J. Gresham Machen Professor

of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California in Escondido.

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FEATURES

God—who knows the end from the beginning—has shown us the end, so we know and see what it was all about and where it’s headed: that God might dwell with his covenant people; and this fantastic vision of Christ with a towel in his hand carries the heart and soul of that plan.”

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JESUS WASHES THE DISCIPLES’ FEET

ABIDING IN JESUS

THE HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER

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JESUS WASHES THE DISCIPLES’ FEET

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By Darlene N. Bรถcek

I L LUST R AT I O N BY B RUN O MAN GYO KU

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t is our Lord’s final night, the beginning of his finale. He knows the cup that awaits, he knows the betrayal and the pain, and he knows that we would be watching thousands of years later. What does he do? Through John’s eyes, we see how Jesus demonstrates the heart of the Bible: Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (John 13:3–5) Everything Jesus teaches about the world— about God and about our duty in this world—is evidenced, encapsulated, and emphasized in Christ’s washing of the disciples’ feet. In this act, he shows the incarnation and the crucifixion. He shows David’s loving shepherd and Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer. In this act, he shows the genesis of God speaking the universe into existence, all the way to John’s revelation of the Lamb on his throne. In this act, he shows the final separation between the friends and the enemies of God, and he shows us the narrow way that defies all human wisdom and values.

He shows that moment before God said, “Let there be light.” For in the example of our Lord and a wiping cloth, he shows the purpose behind everything—God’s plan compressed into an everyday task.

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”

(John 13:12–15)

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THE MYSTERY od’s ways are mysterious, yet he hasn’t been working in a corner silently and secretly. He has been progressively telling humanity what he’s up to: covenant. The Bible is this document, his journal, so to speak.

The church with Bible in hand has no doubt of the Almighty’s great intention: covenant.1 God—who knows the end from the beginning—has shown us the end, so we know and see what it was all about and where it’s headed: that God might dwell with his covenant people;2 and this fantastic vision of Christ with a towel in his hand carries the heart and soul of that plan.

Before the creation of the world, a plan was made: All the power and majesty and thoughts of the Almighty would be wrapped up and encapsulated into flesh. Starting as a cell, he would grow into a man to be the walking, talking mind of God. God in the flesh would turn the world upside down by making a people who pleased God.

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“You are the sons of the prophets and the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.” (Acts 3:25–26) Covenant, incarnation, atonement, and Godpleasing servanthood are all wrapped together in the mystery of the gospel.

Christ redeemed us . . . so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

(Gal. 3:13–14) The kingdom of God would come with insideout power, and a humble mustard seed would take over the universe (Matt. 13:31–32; Dan. 2:35). All this starts and ends with the Creator himself demonstrating a considerate, serving

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heart (Phil. 2:5–11): “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights” (Isa. 42:1). The leaders of this world expect servants to wait on them hand and foot.

“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’?” (Luke 17:7–10) God’s Son came as a humble shepherd who tended his flock (John 10:2–18; Ezek. 34:15).

Not only was he here to redeem his people as the Lamb of God, but he was also here to sanctify. When his disciples settled in the Upper Room after their busy day, what did Jesus do?

Knowing God’s plan and his part in it, our Lord Jesus did the opposite of worldly-wise people. He took off his robe and got to work washing their feet. In front of him were men whose feet had a destined path before them. Some would be “led where they did not want to go” (John 21:18), and others would walk to the corners of the earth.

One man’s feet would soon be hanging from a tree (Matt. 27:5), but all twelve would be touched by the Savior.

In a few hours, Jesus would be on his knees, sweating blood. In a few more, his own nowperfumed feet (12:3) would be nailed to a cross.

In the ultimate act of service, he would meet our greatest need and face the wrath of God in our place. His disciples would soon be weeping while washing their Lord’s dead body from head to foot. But at this moment, our Lord showed them the full extent of his love, by washing their weary feet.

Peter, though, knew Christ as lion. His Lord was the child born of the promise, the one called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). Sensitive to all this, Peter revolted at the apparent backwardness of Christ as servant. Recall how Christ responded to Peter, “If I do not do this you have no part of me.” Something was going on, however, that was

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bigger than Peter understood at that moment.

God’s plan “Up” was being demonstrated.

UP IS DOWN DEMONSTRATED: HUMILITY AND REPENTANCE clear scriptural truth is this: The kingdom of God is entered on one’s knees. Christ entered our world in obscurity and left in glory, and in this model “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).

Since the beginning, God has been clear about his expectations. Micah 6:8 summarizes God’s desire for man in these words:

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He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? While human society merely gives lip service to justice, kindness, and humility, this is not the way to power. Rather, to be on top, they “lord it over” others.3 Instead of valuing the way they know they should be, they choose not to comply.

So God “gave them up to shameful passions” to “do what ought not to be done.” All the brokenness, pain, and suffering in this world stems from this antithetical, self-absorbed perspective on justice, kindness, and humility (Rom. 1:26, 28–32). And in God’s economy, those who choose to push themselves up on the backs of others hurt this world and will soon be thrown down from their exalted place. “He opposes the proud” (James 4:6).

On the other hand, those who acknowledge God begin by going down on their knees in humble fear and trembling—in repentance, helplessness, and self-loathing (pachad). And thus “he gives grace to the humble.” The dread and fear of Yahweh turns into a different kind of (pachad) trembling: “Your heart shall thrill and exult” (Isa. 60:4–5).4 This terrified trembling is transformed into joyful exultation for those who are welcomed into covenant with Yahweh. The

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real way up to joy unspeakable is this low door.

The way up is down.

Here in John 13, Christ’s greater purpose was to show the kind of people God’s kingdom will be made of: those who know their God. God’s plan has always been to create a people for himself,5 those who have the kind of demeanor that puts God’s thoughts above humanity’s thoughts, God’s way above humanity’s way. God’s prime requirement is our denial of the world’s honor economy.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; . . . blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matt. 5:3).

Living before the face of God, we shun the siren calls of this world, as Thomas Brooks says, “where one thousand are destroyed by the world’s frowns, ten thousand are destroyed by the world’s smiles. The world, siren-like, sings us and sinks us.” We tie ourselves to the mast of truth, we plug our ears with hymns, and we look ahead to the throne of God. This is reality. This is what Jesus was showing to us. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24). His act modeled the incarnation’s downward movement that would turn the world’s values upside down. Like the counterweight of a catapult, the Creator lowering himself to servanthood flipped everything.

THIS UPSIDE-DOWN WORLD RIGHTED: SANCTIFICATION AND JUSTIFICATION hen Christ washed the disciples’ feet, he brought into this dark and wicked world pure light, pure goodness, and pure truth. Still, we feel with the disciples the tragedy that “he came to his own and they did not receive him.” Rather than honor, Jesus received ridicule.

“Despised and rejected of men,” he lifted his chin valiantly, shining in the darkness. His downward path of condescension led to our salvation and God’s approval, and there was no dishonor in that.

On the evening he was betrayed, Christ spoke, compacting all of human history into his words through his high priestly prayer, the first

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[Jesus’] act modeled the incarnation’s downward movement that would turn the world’s values upside down.

Like the counterweight of a catapult, the Creator lowering himself to servanthood flipped everything.

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TRUE JUSTICE, MERCY, AND PEACE COME INTO THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO HAVE THIS CHANGED RELATIONSHIP. WITH GOD . . . IT’S THE LOW WAY THAT CHRIST SHOWED US. 26

Communion, his washing the disciples’ feet, his announcement of his betrayal—all fulfilling God’s promise to our first parents (Gen. 3:15).

“In the form of God, [he] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:6–7).

Whatever was to his profit, he considered loss.

The people in God’s kingdom are those who know this God and bend to his will. Notice how Peter bends to Christ’s promise of sanctification, when he asks Jesus to be thorough: “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”

(John 13:9). His words here echo David’s: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Ps. 51:7). In repentance and rest is our salvation (Isa. 30:15).

Our Lord gave it all up to be the promised seed of Adam and the son of David. He thus opened the way to the eternal world, becoming the doorway to God: “I am the door,” and “I am the gate” (John 10:9; 10:7). To enter through that door, we die to ourselves and then find the pearl. As we bend to Christ’s humble sanctifying work, our lives join the lives of other men and women of faith who found this secret way down that led up.

True justice, mercy, and peace come into the lives of those who have this changed relationship.

With God it’s no longer a dog-eat-dog survival of the fittest; it’s the low way that Christ showed us.

In the kingdom, we are made right in God’s sight, enabled to “look not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4).

The sanctified are daily changed into the image of the Creator. Giving ourselves to be washed by the Lord’s servant brings grace and blessing. He changes us. “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:11). Think about the use of the word justify in everyday life. It’s about how words or actions are balanced, righted, and squared off. It’s the term a builder uses. The church the carpenter is building yields to the touch of his hands.

For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes

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and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

(1 John 2:16–17)

GOD’S PLAN AND PURPOSE EXPLAINED: A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS hrist washing his disciple’s feet not only shows our need to bend the knee and yield to our Master, but it also explains the larger plan and purpose of God for the world: multiplying a people for himself who jubilantly worship the Lamb (Rev. 7:9).

A kingdom of God, by God, for God: this is the reason for it all (Rev. 5:10). It’s the reason for a carpenter-king, the reason for a babe in a manger, the reason for a lion on the cross. And this is why the one who was “before all things and in whom all things hold together” would take off his robe and wrap a towel around his waist. It was never about this world. It was about separating out a remnant. The wheat from the chaff—those who would bend, yield, and propagate after their kind (Gen. 1:26; Matt. 28:20).

Puritan theologian John Owen wrote:

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It was out of infinite condescension and love unto our souls that the Lord Christ took on himself this condition. . . . And God knows such an example we stood in need of, both as a pattern to conform ourselves unto under our infirmities, and to encourage us in the expectation of a good issue unto our present deplorable condition.6 Christ came as a model for us of how to be.

For things on earth to propagate after their kind, DNA is needed. The replication of DNA is similar to the model we see in the Bible: Adam to Seth, Moses to Joshua, Elijah to Elisha, and Christ to his disciples. The DNA of godliness, as a visual expression of the heart of God, is something caught and taught, a pattern learned and repeated. Paul is explicit about following

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this pattern. “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you” (1 Cor. 11:23). “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus,” and “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 1:1; 2:2).

Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, gave us a specific pattern to replicate: “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” Our Lord Jesus modeled who God is, who we are, and where this whole thing is going: a kingdom of priests to serve our God, a servant-hearted people living for God’s pleasure and glory. Listen to the new song in heaven recorded in Revelation 5:9–10, and see how it shows the heart of his people: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Behold what love! John 3:16 tells us the extent of the love—that God loved the world so much “that he gave.” As if this beautiful world wasn’t enough, and as if love and family and blue skies and waterfalls weren’t enough, he also wanted to make all things right and to create a kingdom of priests to serve God. So he gave his Son. He gave himself.

He came secretly and silently, announced to strangers on camels and to smelly shepherds in the hills. His warmth was drawn from swaddling clothes and hay in a manger. This is the ultimate down-ness. Behold what love! He had a group of people who respected him, honored him, followed him. They “got” him, and they knew he was from God (Luke 9:20). He was coming into the honor and glory that was rightfully his.

Satan tried to tempt our Lord: “All [the kingdoms of this world and their glory] I will give

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you, if you will fall down and worship me” (Matt.

4:9). Our Christ would not take a knee to that, but he would kneel for this bigger gain. In front of these sons of the kingdom, he knelt down to demonstrate the Big Switch: the upside-down, inside-out, invisible, already/not-yet kingdom of God. He picked up a towel and a bowl of water and showed them the values and economy of God—tangibly. Christ’s hands touched those weary feet.

The theme of washing represents the sanctification of the church. But why the feet? Those men had been on the road with him for three years, walking the Promised Land with the Holy One of God. Oh, how good a foot massage feels when you finally sit after a long week on your feet. They probably had no idea their feet hurt so much.

BEAUTIFUL FEET hat was Christ thinking as he touched his beloved disciples?

Perhaps he was thinking the words of the bridegroom, “How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter!” (Song 7:1). Or maybe he was thinking of what Paul would soon write:

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Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Eph. 5:25–27) When he came to Judas, he might have thought of God’s earlier words to treacherous Israel: “I spread the corner of my garment over you. . . . I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil” (Ezek. 16:8–10). Oh, the great love of Christ for his enemy-friend, to show such kindness on the night he was betrayed. “And you are clean, but not every one of you” (John 13:10; cf. Matt. 5:45).

Everything he hoped for redeemed humanity

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would come through the feet of these twelve men. They were the chosen vessels—some for noble purposes, some for not so noble. Two feet would be quick to rush to evil, while the twentytwo other feet would carry the good news to you and to me.

How could Jesus wash the feet of his disciples without thinking of Isaiah’s words about “beautiful feet”? Perhaps he prayed and dwelled on this truth in Isaiah 52:6–9 as he cleaned and comforted the ones he so loved: “Therefore my people shall know my name.

Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here I am.”

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings goodnews of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion.

Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.

Without those feet in his hands, without those vectors, those receptacles of his new covenant, his kingdom wouldn’t come and his will wouldn’t be done on earth as it is in heaven. These were his people, his sheep, his under-shepherds.

These were the ones who would teach his way of humility, his way of rightness before God. These would soon be filled with the Holy Spirit and enabled to do miracles and teach mysteries.

And these very feet would carry his words along the dusty Roman roads.

Likewise, we show our love for God by practical acts of service, especially to the church—remembering that each believer is a vector of the gospel and a holy vessel of the Holy Spirit. We can only speculate about Christ’s

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thoughts that night. But one thing we know for sure: those feet, one day “having done everything” (Eph. 6:13), would stand, multiplied, before the throne.

A great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev. 7:9–10)

WHAT SORT OF PEOPLE OUGHT YOU TO BE?

P WE SHOW OUR LOVE FOR GOD

BY PRACTICAL ACTS OF SERVICE, ESPECIALLY TO THE CHURCH— REMEMBERING THAT EACH BELIEVER IS A VECTOR OF THE GOSPEL AND A HOLY VESSEL OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

eter, having come so far on his old, tired feet, spoke with great wisdom when he warned us that the “day of the Lord” would “come like a thief.”

The heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be? (2 Pet. 3:10–11) This is still his answer to us today: Be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. . . . [T]ake care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Pet. 3:14, 17–18) Christ-matching deeds follow true repentance. The replication of his pattern, his “DNA,” is sure enough that Christ will use it as a measure on the Day of Judgment. When Christ separates the sheep from the goats, he will know which is which. When onlookers ask why he made this

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Christ’s humble washing of his disciples’ feet shows us all this. If we have been washed, renewed, righted, and taught to teach the mysteries of the kingdom of God, then our deeds will also prove who we are.

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selection, he will point to their deeds—deeds that will prove he knows what’s what and who’s who (Matt. 25:31–40), that he “may be justified in [his] words and blameless in [his] judgment” (Ps. 51:4; Rom. 3:4). The deeds “after his kind” will reveal to onlookers which of those loved him and kept his commands.7 God’s plan is this: By means of this broken and hurting world, God is creating a people to dwell with him forever. On that day, these people will delight to eternally declare the love of God shown in Christ. Today, they are known by their fruits. In a backward tug-of-war, they struggle to lift others higher than themselves. With a soft heart, sensitive to serve the needs of others, they are found to be just, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God. Their humble deeds, sacrificial service, and switched priorities today declare that they are a part of God’s kingdom. They live counter to the wisdom of this world, counter to its value system. It is a new type of people, being prepared now for the new heavens and the new earth, clearly severed from the world’s powerhungry, narcissistic economy.

They live to exalt the Lamb on the final day.

Forever grateful for grace, they know as Christ did, where they came from and where they are going (13:3). They know the incarnation, the atonement, the Lamb, and the glory. They live, with Abraham, for that upside-down, already/ not-yet world. Where up is down and greatness puts others above oneself. What a delightful world it will be when there are only people like this around (Isa. 32:15–20).

Christ’s humble washing of his disciples’ feet shows us all this. If we have been washed, renewed, righted, and taught to teach the mysteries of the kingdom of God, then our deeds will also prove who we are.

“I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel, and rebuild them as they were at first. I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me. And this city shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and a glory before all

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the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. They shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity I provide for it . . . ‘[T]he voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voices of those who sing, as they bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord: “‘ Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!’

For I will restore the fortunes of the land as at first, says the Lord.”

(Jer. 33:7–9, 11; cf. Isa. 44:1–5) For this purpose, we strive in our short lives to be those people he modeled for us on that night he was betrayed: to fear and tremble, to be found in him, to be washed by him, to bend to him.

Thus we make it our goal, as a church, to move together like starlings, yielding and sensing and capitulating our own wills. Our hearts, minds, souls, and strength consciously live before the throne of God—here and now. We long for the day when we will finally “after everything” stand on our beautiful feet, face-to-face before our merciful, beloved, precious Lord and Savior.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

DARLENE N. BÖCEK is a missionary, author, and teacher.

For eighteen years, she has served in Izmir, Turkey, with her husband, Fikret Böcek, working together to plant the Protestant Church of Smyrna, a confessionally Reformed congregation. She is active in apologetics on Quora.com and is the author of Trunk of Scrolls (Entrust Source, 2017), a novel about the christological controversies in the Byzantine church.

1. Gen. 22:18; 26:4; Dan. 2:18–19, 35; 4:9; 5:12; Eph. 1:9; 3:3, 9–12; Ps. 72:17; Jer. 31:33; Mal. 3:12; Acts 3:25; Heb. 8:10–18.

2. Zech. 2:10–11; Ezek. 37:27–28; Gal. 3:8–9; John 14:2–3, 17:24; Luke 23:43.

3. Luke 22:25; Matt. 20:25; Mark 10:42.

4. See Gen. 31:42; Jer. 33:9; Mark 16:8; Phil. 2:12.

5. Gen. 17:7; Exod. 6:7; Jer. 7:23; 31:33–34; Isa. 36:27; 54:13; Ezek.

34:23–24; 36:28; John 10; Heb. 8:10–11.

6. John Owen, The Works of John Owen (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1966), 512.

7. John 14:15, 23; 15:10; 1 John 2:3; 5:3; 2 John 1:6; Luke 11:31–32.

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ABIDING IN JESUS

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By Jacob Smith

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n the marketplace of American religion, most people are looking for something practical: a religion that will improve their lives, enable them to become more self-sufficient, or leave a mark on society.

Whether it’s getting fit at SoulCycle, becoming more mindful through meditation, or partnering with Jesus to renew all things, Americans love religion because we need to be needed and to make a difference. In his book Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus, Robert Farrar Capon writes: Christianity is not a r eligion; it is the announcement of the end of religion. Religion consists of all the things (believing, behaving, worshiping, sacrificing) the human race has ever thought it had to do to get right with God. About those things, Christianity has only two comments to make. The first is that none of them ever had the least chance of doing the trick: the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins (see the Epistle to the Hebrews) and no effort of ours to keep the law of God can ever succeed (see the Epistle to the Romans). The second is that everything religion tried (and failed) to do has been perfectly done, once and for all, by Jesus in his death and resurrection.

For Christians, therefore, the entire religion shop has been closed, boarded up, and forgotten.1 In John 15, the disciples sense that the final confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders is about to take place, and it appears that Jesus leaves his disciples with one final “to do” list before they reach Gethsemane. In verse 4, he says, “Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.” In verse 8, Jesus says, “By this [bearing fruit] my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

Finally, in verse 10, he says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as

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I have kept the Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” This is followed by the coup de grâce: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you” (vv.

12–13). Abiding like me, bearing like me, keeping like me, dying like me—here Jesus seems to upend the entire notion of grace. The Christian reader’s surface-level reaction may be: Who doesn’t want to abide? Maybe there are some practical ways for me to bear more fruit? What about a new discipline to keep Jesus’ commandments? I guess dying for my friends once will make a difference, but what about the second or third time? Contrary to Capon’s statement, John 15 can appear to be not the end of religion but the beginning of a religion—the most impossible religion ever envisioned.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Magic Eye 3D posters were all the rage. When you first looked at the poster, all you could see was a series of shapes that made no sense at all. But if you put your nose right to the paper and allowed your eyes to adjust as you slowly pulled the image away, then you could see an intricate and amazing 3D image: an airplane, a giant ship, the Statue of Liberty, or Big Ben. I would argue that by looking closely at John 15 and allowing our eyes to adjust, we will suddenly observe the profundity of grace alone; instead of a new and impossible religion of works, we will observe the end of religion, as Capon called it.

John 15:1 is the position where we fixate our eyes as we focus on this chapter. Jesus tells his disciples, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.” The vine had become a sacred symbol of Israel, harkening the people back to the time of the Maccabees. Its image also adorned the top of the temple. In the Old Testament, however, the vine was an image that typically illustrated Israel’s faithlessness or punishment (for example, Ps. 80:8–16; Isa. 5:1–17; Jer. 2:21). Yet, Jesus takes this image of Israel and attaches it to himself. He is the vine and his Father—who is also now, by faith, our Father—is the vinedresser. Although there is no doubt that in John 15 Jesus brings before us

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the importance of fruitfulness in the Christian life, our hunger for religion naturally causes us to focus on the imperatives in the passage and to miss who is actually doing the work. As Jesus points out in verse 2, it is the Father—not the disciples, or any of us, for that matter—who does the pruning in order to secure the fruitfulness in the branches. This is profoundly important.

I have yet to meet a vinedresser who grows vines for the sake of not producing fruit. Branches do not prune themselves, and they are cultivated for a purpose.

The words in Greek for “pruning” found in John 15:2 and “clean” in 15:3 are etymologically related to the same Greek word katharos.

In his commentary on John’s Gospel, Leon Morris writes,

I HAVE YET TO MEET A VINEDRESSER WHO GROWS VINES FOR THE SAKE OF NOT PRODUCING FRUIT. BRANCHES DO NOT PRUNE THEMSELVES, AND THEY ARE CULTIVATED FOR A PURPOSE. MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

For maximum fruitfulness extensive pruning is essential. This is a suggestive figure for the Christian life. The fruit of Christian service is never the result of allowing the natural energies and inclination to run riot. The interest is in what happens with people rather than with vines. The action of the Father is such as to cleanse his people so that they will live fruitful lives.2 Jesus is making the point that we are already clean, and yet we are going to be made clean, by his word, which creates faith to do the Father’s will—namely, belief in Jesus.

The sudden observation of this profound truth—that Jesus and the Father are the protagonists in this chapter, not the disciples—helps the text begin to take its shape.

Jesus tells his disciples in verses 4 through 7 to “abide” in him. “Abide” in Greek is the word meno and is difficult to translate directly into English. The implication in translated English is “stay connected to the vine.” If John 15 were a Magic Eye 3D poster, however, we would miss the image the Scripture is attempting to convey. In fact, “abide” in the Greek is much more passive; it actually means to rest, to remain, or to stay. It is to do nothing more than just be. Healthy branches are not told to abide in the vine; it is what they do as healthy

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Christians just abide, because to be Christians means they are resting in Jesus—not doing something to make sure this is the case.

If apart from Jesus you can do nothing, then how much can you really do?

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branches, whether they are in fact “wild” or pruned and bearing fruit.

This passive yet nuanced sense of the word abide changes the entire meaning of the passage from “the beginning of religion” to what the Magic Eye 3D poster is ready to reveal: an image of an active God working to make his people fruitful. It is an image of grace and, according to Capon’s definition, the actual end of religion.

Rest in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, neither can you, unless you stay in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever rests in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. (vv. 4-5) The revelation that Christianity is the end of religion comes more clearly into focus in verse 5 when Jesus reminds his disciples, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Jesus does not give the disciples tips on staying in the vine or better ways to abide. For to abide in Jesus is what the Christian life is all about, although Christians do this not through their own ability. Rather, Christians just abide, because to be Christians means they are resting in Jesus—not doing something to make sure this is the case. If apart from Jesus you can do nothing, then how much can you really do?

Now that our eyes are adjusting, we come upon this seemingly contradictory statement from Jesus in verse 10, “If you keep my commandments [then] you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” This if/then statement appears to be a serious imperative given by Jesus. Surely, keeping the commandments of Jesus is our part of the bargain.

However, if we do not read the text closely, we can blink and miss the complete picture found within these verses. There are two parts to verse 10 that help us keep our eyes on the broader picture and accentuate the image of the end of religion. First, the Greek word for “keep” is teresete, which can be understood as “cling to” or “to treasure.” To “cling to” or

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“to treasure” is a response evoked when something has already been given. When Jesus says “keep” at the front part of verse 10, this can be compared to asking a drowning person to keep a life preserver. No one has to tell the drowning individual to cling to the life preserver! It is what they do. In this case, the disciples—who are about to face sin, death, and the devil—are told to keep Jesus’ commandments. However, the commands of Jesus are different from the commandments of the Father; and in this passage, in order to comprehend the Magic Eye 3D poster in John 15, we need to grasp this distinction.

The commandments of the Father are clearly the Mosaic law. By Jesus’ perfect life and obedience, he has kept the law; hence, Jesus has abided in the Father’s love. What makes this distinction between the commandments of Jesus and the commandments of the Father is the setting of John 15. Jesus and the disciples have just concluded their Seder meal, the Last Supper.

At that Seder with bread and cup, Jesus takes another Jewish sacred symbol and points it to himself, commanding the disciples to continue this meal in remembrance of him. In the service of Holy Communion in the Book of Common Prayer, we are reminded that this is a command of Jesus when we pray: Wherefore, O Lord and heavenly Father, according to the institution of thy dearly beloved Son our Savior Jesus Christ, we, thy humble servants, do celebrate and make here before thy divine Majesty, with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy Son hath commanded us to make; having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension; rendering unto thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured unto us by the same.3 At that same supper in John 13:34, Jesus gives his disciples a new command: “That you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” This command to love

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At that same supper gives his disciples a you love one anothe you, you also are to

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in John 13:34, Jesus new command: “That r, just as I have loved love one another.”

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is also reiterated in John 15:12. Commands are also given by Jesus in the Great Commission, where Jesus sends his disciples into the world to baptize and teach all his commands— namely, that salvation comes only through his name. Therefore, we begin to understand the commandments of Jesus not as a new law or obligation. Rather, the commandments of Jesus have become tangible for us; they are the sacraments of the new covenant—word, water, bread, and wine—all subjects he has commanded and in his name.

In verse 13, Jesus brings John 15 into focus: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” In that moment, the disciples probably heard this as simply another thing to do. This is how we hear this passage when we believe that Jesus has just given us another divine checklist. In light of the cross, however, instead of giving just another lecture on the end of religion, we can all see that the 3D image is a fully developed picture of how Jesus the vine, with his Father the vinedresser, works in our lives to enable us branches to bear fruit.

So often we gaze at the Magic Eye 3D poster of Scripture and miss the true picture, because we are busy looking for an image that is not there: ourselves. The image conveyed in John 15, however, stands in stark contrast to ourselves and any notion of a new religion.

Instead, John 15 seeks to express something else altogether.

It is God our Father, who, as the vinedresser, does the pruning to make our lives fruitful. Sometimes this means our lives can be trimmed back to a nub. Yet, the cross assures us that we are already pruned—already clean (katharos). So when things are taken away— even good things—or when we face trials and tribulations, these are not signs of God’s absence. Instead, they are most often signs of his redemptive presence, assuring us that we are clean, as Jesus by his word prunes away the idols and dead branches of our lives so that we can produce fruit that lasts. Throughout periods of both harvest and pruning in our lives, as Christians we abide in Jesus as we

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THE CROSS ASSURES US THAT WE ARE ALREADY PRUNED— ALREADY CLEAN (KATHAROS). SO WHEN THINGS ARE TAKEN AWAY—EVEN GOOD THINGS— OR WHEN WE FACE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS, THESE ARE NOT SIGNS OF GOD’S ABSENCE. VOL.28 NO.4 JULY/AUGUST 2019

keep those commandments that connect us to Christ: his word preached, baptism, and Holy Communion. These commands of Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, lead us to repentance, to seek his forgiveness, and to receive the full assurance that we are still abiding in the vine.

At the same time, through the commandments of Jesus, his joy is found in us; and our joy is full, as we receive the gospel of Christ and share it with the whole world, laying our lives down as living sacrifices.

This picture of a loving God working on and for his people comes into vivid relief when Jesus tells his disciples in verse 16 that “you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” Religion of law is all about choices, but with this statement Jesus tells us that it is officially dead. This is formally known as the doctrine of election, and this doctrine can make people feel out of control due to its lack of practicality. When faced with this controversial doctrine, many wish to push it aside so we can keep all of our bad choices out of the picture. In my own ministry, I have had several people tell me how upset they felt when they began to engage with verse 16. “Wait a minute,” they would say, “I thought I decided to follow Jesus.” Existentially, this may have been your experience; but Jesus tells us that long before you ever knew or met him, despite your good and bad choices, he chose you.

I am the rector of Calvar y Church in Manhattan where the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous were composed. We host one of the oldest AA groups in the country, and many of those in recovery will tell you that sometimes choice can be extremely cruel. One longtime attendee in the program told me that sometimes the only choice you have is Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, or Jose Cuervo—and all three choices will kill you. In religion, the deadly outcome of choice stems from either pride at commandment-keeping or ultimately the discouragement that comes from the following questions: Are you still abiding in Jesus? Are you still keeping all of his commandments? Did you really lay down your life for your friends?

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In the Thirty-Nine Articles, Article 17, “Of Predestination and Election,” reminds us that “the godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons.” This is the great image that emerges from the Magic Eye 3D poster of John 15: Jesus chose you!

During the 2018 Mockingbird Conference at St. George’s Church in New York City, theologian and author Alan Jacobs referenced The Kingdom by Emmanuel Carrère. In this book, Carrère puts himself in the place of Luke and describes a journey from faith to unbelief, which ends with Carrère crying out in the midst of his so-called unbelief: “I have forsaken you Lord.

Please do not forsake me.” In the midst of all of our failed choices, this more often than not is the cry of all of us, even as Christians. The Magic Eye 3D poster of John 15 is the image of a God who continues to choose us; and despite the fact that we may want religion, by virtue of Jesus’ cross, he is the end of religion and has appointed us—working through us—to go and bear fruit that will last.

THE REVEREND JACOB SMITH is the rector of Calvary-St.

George’s in New York City and is the cohost of Same Old Song, the weekly Mockingbird Lectionary podcast.

1. Robert Farrar Capon, Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 253.

2. Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, rev. (Grand Rapids:Eerdmans, 1995), 594.

3. Book of Common Prayer, 335 (italics mine).

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THE HIGH PRIESTLY PRAYER

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By Hywel R. Jones

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lthough John 17 has been known as the “High Priestly Prayer” of the Lord Jesus Christ for many years, some reservations have of late been expressed about the suitability of that designation. It has been pointed out that Jesus was praying on earth and not in heaven, that he made no mention of “sacrifice” but of “consecration,” and that not only of himself but also of his disciples. The range of the prayer is therefore regarded as being larger than what is properly sacerdotal. By way of reaction to that critique, Leon Morris’s comment is as effective as it is perceptive: “Everything I suppose depends on what range one would expect to find in a high priestly prayer.”1 The rather ordinary term “farewell” has therefore been employed because of the connection between Jesus’ prayer and his prior declaration about his impending departure. Valedictory addresses and prayers are contained in the Old Testament, notably by Jacob (Gen. 49) and by Moses (Deut. 32–33). Jesus’ prayer is not only different from theirs in form, but it is vastly superior in content. It is one of a kind—unparalleled and incomparable. Robert Traill, a seventeenthcentury Scots divine, wrote, “The best sermon that was ever preached in the world was followed by the best prayer that was ever offered up in it.”2 Matthew Henry said that it was “a prayer after sermon, after sacrament, a family prayer, a parting prayer, a preface to his sacrifice . . . [and] a specimen of his intercession.”

Its opening words make it clear that it was a prayer Jesus himself prayed, and it is essential to give full weight to that fact. But this does not mean that Christians may not use this prayer in appropriate ways. It is important that they should do so. It has significant bearings on the faith and life of the church, because the incarnate Son was talking with his own Father about their saving intervention in a fallen world.

As an entrée to the study of this prayer, which will be more devotional than exegetical, grateful use is made of a remark by the New Testament scholar Raymond E. Brown. Noting how often Jesus addressed God as “Father” in this prayer,3 Brown commented that “the disciple and the reader are party to a heavenly family

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conversation.”4 John, the son of Zebedee, was surely (!) “the disciple” who heard what Jesus said to his Father, and what John recorded by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit has enabled “reader(s)” also to listen in, as it were, and so to be included in the circle of apostolic fellowship with the Father through the Son and by the Holy Spirit (1 John 1:1–3).

AN EARTHLY FAMILY CONVERSATION ut first, some notice should be taken of the fact that an “earthly” family conversation had just concluded and John’s record of it exhibits all the hallmarks of ear and eyewitness authenticity. In it, Jesus described the eleven disciples as his “little children” (13:33); and as on previous occasions, when they did not understand what he said, clarifications—even corrections—became necessary. Peter, Thomas, Philip, and Judas (Thaddaeus) all took issue with Jesus as he spoke about his imminent departure; but like a kind parent, the Lord answered their questions patiently but firmly. He dealt with their Jewish mind-set that focused on things material and visible, and prophet-like he assured them that better covenantal days were ahead as a result of his “departure” and the Spirit’s consequent “coming.” Jesus’ last words to his disciples at that family conversation were: “I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart. I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

They have b ecome life -giving words to Christians throughout history.

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A HEAVENLY FAMILY CONVERSATION hen rather suddenly, 5 and cert a i n l y b e fo r e t h e y r e a ch e d Gethsemane (18:1), the eleven di s ciples b e c ame “p ar ty t o a heavenly family conversation.” While still in their company and not

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unmindful of them (see v. 13), Jesus looked heavenward and spoke to his “Father” (v.1).

His prayer respected the distinctions between time and eternity, earth and heaven, but they were transcended in his filial consciousness and this familial communion. He began with a focus on himself (vv. 1–5), then on his disciples/apostles 6 (vv. 6–19), and finally on Christians throughout history (vv. 20–24).7 As his prayer thus soars in mind and widens in its scope, it is more appropriate to think of it in terms of motion rather than division, phases rather than sections. We will pick out some of the terms that had importance in his mind, because they are repeated, and comment on them.

PHASE 1: “THE HOUR” AND “THE GLORY” (VV. 1–5) lthough Jesus is praying for himself, he is not doing so in a self-centered way. His opening words revolve around two closely connected matters that relate not only to him but also to his Father. They are “the hour” and “the glory.” He knows that the “hour” has come and that his Father does too, and that they both are well aware of its importance in terms of “the glory” to be revealed.

Time and again during his earthly life, Jesus had been aware that this hour had not come. Twice he resisted family pressure on the matter (2:4; 7:1–8), and twice he was protected from the evil intention of his foes because of that fact (7:30; 8:20). But two harbingers of it had just crossed his path, and each was a portent of death and glory to him. On the one hand, some Greek-speaking Jews had come to the Passover from Galilee and wanted to see him—a foretaste of the Gentile harvest (12:20– 33) that would result from his death. On the other hand, the traitor Judas Iscariot had left the Upper Room to bring it about (13:31).

Both events convinced him of the imminence of the hour, and he spoke accordingly to his disciples. It was at one and the same time the

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IT WAS AT ONE AND THE SAME TIME THE HOUR OF GLORY AND OF “THE POWER OF DARKNESS” (LUKE 22:53).

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hour of glory and of “the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). It coincided with “the cup” of the cross (Mark 14:35) on the way to the crown. So he said, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him” (13:31). “The hour” is therefore fraught with great significance and consequences—on earth and in heaven, for the world and for hell.

But what is glory? And what does it mean to glorify? The word glory is common in both testaments and is familiar to Christians.

But what does it mean? A. M. Ramsey has indicated that the word contains “the greatest themes of Christian Theology,” bringing together “in a remarkable way the unity of the doctrines of Creation, the Incarnation, the Cross, the Spirit, the Church and the world-to-come.”8 By way of a working definition, it can be said that “glory” refers to “something or someone revealed in some way or other.” It has associations in the Old Testament with “weight” and in the New Testament with “light,” so it is connected with honor and splendor. Whenever the word occurs in the Bible, the questions to be considered in order to appreciate it are: Who (or what) is being revealed, how or by what means is that done, and (sometimes) why? It is used of the created and governed universe (Ps. 19:1–6), the prestige of nations (Isa. 16:13), the transient dignity of man (Isa. 40:7) and the permanent majesty of the Lord (Isa. 40:5).

But there is another revelation of God that no one can see that exceeds them all in its fullness and finality. It is in the “Word made flesh,” the full actualization of the Shekinah of the tabernacle, the incarnation of “grace and truth” (1:14–18). This means that Jesus is the full and final disclosure of all that God is (see also 2 Cor. 4:6; Heb. 1:3), and he will be so even in the new heavens and the new earth, which will be lit up by the glory of God shining in “the Lamb, its lamp” (Rev. 21:23).

So what does this amount to with reference to his request? Jesus (the man) prays that through all the shame and horror of Gethsemane to Golgotha, the Father will reveal him magnificently in his true messianic divinity. As his

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JESUS IS THE FULL AND FINAL DISCLOSURE OF ALL THAT GOD IS . . . AND HE WILL BE SO EVEN IN THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH, WHICH WILL BE LIT UP BY THE GLORY OF GOD SHINING IN “THE LAMB, ITS LAMP.” VOL.28 NO.4 JULY/AUGUST 2019

ever-true incarnate Son who could not and would not think, speak, or act independently of him (see 5:19), Jesus declares that he is determined to reveal the Father as the only true God by accomplishing what he has been sent to do on earth—and in his mind and spirit, it is as good as done. On that basis, all that Jesus asks for in relation to himself is that the Father will be true to him, attesting him as his “Christ” to all the elect, and exalting him, now incarnate, to his immediate presence by way of resurrection and ascension.

PHASE 2: THE NAME, THE WORD, AND THE WORLD (VV. 6–19) t is clear that Jesus is now praying for his disciples. But which ones? Was he thinking only of those who were to become his apostles, or did he have others in mind? ESV’s translation of “people” (v. 6) opens up the larger possibility, for there were others who had been following him (Luke 8:2, 3) to whom more were added prior to his resurrection and ascension (see Acts 1:15; 1 Cor. 15:6). However, we think the older translation “men” is much better for three reasons. First, Jesus refers to them as being with him and to all of them as having been “guarded” by him, with the single exception of the “son of destruction” (v. 12). Second, what he says about “name,” “word,” and “world”—the three words that dominate this section—better fit that particularity of reference. Third, the final phase of the prayer is prefaced with “I do not ask for these only” (v. 20). Making this specific identification does not, of course, mean that all that Jesus said in these verses referred to them exclusively, any more than that they are excluded from what he says about others in the subsequent verses.

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“The Name” In our culture, whatever a person’s name may actually mean, it says nothing about his or

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her character or significance. That is not the case in the Bible, where a name is not just a means of identification but a disclosure of identity in the purpose of God. This is why name changes are of particular importance; for example, “Abram” to “Abraham” (see Gen. 17:5). So it is with God’s “name,” which reveals the kind of deity he is, as does the word glory when used of him. Those two terms are often combined, as in the expression “the glory of his name” or “glorious name.” In the Old Testament, his personal name is “the Lord” (see Gen. 15:7; Exod. 3:13–15). Rendered with more than a touch of mystery as the “I am that I am,” or the “I will be what I will be,” it combines his eternality and supremacy. These are manifested in covenant commitment to his people by a threefold redemptive activity of (1) hearing/seeing their need, (2) coming down to deliver them, and (3) leading them on (Exod. 6:2–8). This is the rich background to Jesus’ reference to his Father as “the only true God” and to himself as the One “whom [he] has sent” (v. 3).

“The Word” God is revealed by his word, which Jesus says he has “given” to his disciples just as he had “manifested” God’s “name” to them. Speaking with the same certainty he had about his work having been finished before it was done in time and space history, he declares that his future apostles know his identity as God’s sent one revealed in his word (vv. 6–8). Neither “name” nor “word” can be separated from God himself, and that is why the “word” is said to “keep” (vv.

11–12) and also to “sanctify” (vv. 17–18), both of which are divine activities. His name and his word are equally true (v. 18); and while he is greater than both, he is not something other than either. What is more, this revelation is expressed in “words” (v. 8). Words have edges in the sense that there are limits to their meaning; they do not embrace opposites. The God of whom Christ spoke is real and consistent, and all Jesus said about him—every jot and tittle—is truth. It is expressed predictively and precisely

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in “Scripture” (v. 12), which “cannot be broken” (10:35). It cannot be falsified.

receive eternal life (v. 2). That astounding story of the gospel in the world begins to be told in the rest of the New Testament.

“The World” In this chapter (as elsewhere in the Gospel), the word world is used in more than one sense.

It refers to the human environment and to the human condition, and the difference has been summed up in the catchphrase “in it but not of it.” In the first sense, Jesus was in it but about to leave it, while the disciples were remaining in it (vv. 11, 15). In the second, he was never “of it” (v. 14), while they had been; but having been chosen and called, they no longer were (vv. 6, 15–16). These two “worlds,” however, are not worlds apart, because of the presence and activity of the evil one, whom Jesus was to meet and conquer (14:30) and whom the disciples were to encounter as well. It is a “world” that hates whatever and whoever is different from it, because it loves itself (16:19) and does not know God (v. 25).

But Jesus’ declaration “I am not praying for the world” (v. 9) does not mean that there is no place for it in the redemptive plan of God. This is monumentally clear by John 3:16, where “world” means humanity as condemned, perishing in the darkness because of its wickedness and yet loved by God. What Jesus meant by the “world” in 17:9 is shown by his immediately preceding and following words, which underlined that it was those the Father had chosen and entrusted to him for whom he was praying. He had been keeping them together while he was with them; but now that he was about to leave them in such an impure and hostile environment, he requests his “Holy Father” to undertake that responsibility. As this is with a view to their being sent into the world in his name, he sets himself apart to God’s will that they might make him known in the world as gladly as he had made the Father known. The world that rejects the Savior is therefore neither rejected by him nor by the One who sent him. Nor should it be rejected by those Jesus sends, because his desire is that many should believe in him as God’s Messiah (v. 21) and

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PHASE 3: ONENESS IN GLORY AND LOVE (VV. 20–26) he Lord Jesus concludes his intercession in f ilial a doration, because prayer is more than petition—whether for oneself or for others. He gives voice to two requests and makes a resolve. He asks the Father that all who believe in him will be one and that they will all be with him in heaven; and finally, he commits himself to serve them further in making the Father known to them.

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Requests: Oneness in Love Jesus had already prayed for oneness among his disciples, describing it in terms of the oneness that existed between his Father and himself (v.

11). He now amplifies that request as he extends its scope to include all who “will believe [in him] through their word.”

The term “oneness” is being used rather than “unity,” because it is more personal and also to differentiate what Jesus is speaking about from the ethos of the World Council of Churches of the last century. Setting aside the serious doctrinal issues raised by such ecumenical activity, what bedeviled its aim was a pursuit of structural reunification of churches, for which they argued on the basis that visibility was necessary for “the world [to] believe.” Jesus, however, did not only say, “That they all may be one”; he added, “Just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you that they also may be in us.” He then went on to speak about the glory and the love of such indwelling! Those extra words are all important. They make clear that the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son supplies the pattern for the oneness Jesus prayed for and that the glory and love they share supplies its dynamic. The glory of the Father is revealed in the exalted Son, and their love is

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their mutual delight on account of the finished work of redemption—a glory far greater than the work of creation.

What can have greater “binding” force between a Father and a Son than love? What can preserve the distinctions of the three persons in the Godhead and yet unite them as much as love—between each of them and each believer— on earth and afterwards in heaven? How else can they all “be perfectly one”? Is not “love the bond of perfection” (Col. 3:14)? Is the divine glory not commended by loving service to God and neighbor more than anything else? If that is the case, does it not follow that the increasing selfgiving of Christians and churches—to the Father through the Son and by the Spirit in accord with apostolic truth—demonstrate to the world the mystery of the self-giving God in Christ? There is a powerful mystery at work here that unites believers on earth with the Father through his incarnate Son by the Holy Spirit (14:23), and it will be made visible and effective.

But the horizon of Jesus’ intercession is not curtailed by time and space. It reaches beyond into eternity. His final request—preceded by “Father, I desire”—reveals his intense wish that all his people should be with him in his Father’s presence and see the glory that was given to him as a result of the work he completed. Beholding Jesus glorified, they will not only worship the God-Man but be transformed into his likeness (see 1 John 3:2). “They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads” (see Rev. 22:4). It will be abundant life and love that is both heavenly and everlasting at “the marriage supper of the Lamb.” In love, he had come to be like them and with them on earth, and now he prays that they might come to be with him and like him in heaven.

Resolve in Love Although the closing verses do not contain a petition, one is implied in Jesus’ appeal to God as “Righteous Father.” This is because he is summarizing his ministry over against the world’s rejection, and yet declaring his intention to continue it. Jesus is therefore looking to

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The rest of the New Testament unfolds that unique ministry; and by means of it, the Lord Jesus Christ makes known his love to all believers by his indwelling Spirit.

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God to uphold what is right and true. (Is this an echo of the “Johannine sounding” statement in Matthew 11:25–27?)

The solemn declaration “I will continue to make [your name] known” is intriguing—and enriching. But to what does it refer? There are two possibilities, the second including the first but going beyond it. Jesus could be referring to all that he will teach his disciples in the period between the Upper Room and his ascension, because his disclosure of the Father did not come to an end with this prayer.

But it could also refer to such ministry being done by him as exalted at the Father’s right hand. Either way, it has more to do with the Messiah’s prophetic ministry than with his priestly office. It is a continuation of what he had done before his atoning death but now with a difference—a great difference because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as a consequence of his glorification. Prior to Calvary he said to his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now [but following this with the promise] when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” (16:12–13) The rest of the New Testament unfolds that unique ministry; and by means of it, the Lord Jesus Christ makes known his love to all believers by his indwelling Spirit (v. 26).

Conversations consist of statements and replies. But in this “heavenly conversation,” Jesus receives no audible reply from his Father as he did at his baptism or on the Mount of Transfiguration or when Greeks came to the Passover. The question could therefore be raised as to whether or how the Father responded, and we mention it only to point out how impossible it was for heaven to be as brass.

The Father always heard the Son (see 11:42) and did what he asked, because the Son always did what the Father said and asked (5:19; 8:29).

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He upheld him in his agony in Gethsemane, sustained him in the darkness of the cross, raised him from the dead, and enthroned him at his own right hand. The disciples were preserved and empowered, and the gospel word took root in Jerusalem and was extended to Judaea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. The Christian church has come into being and been maintained in spite of the world’s continuing hostile unbelief—and at times, in spite of her own faithlessness. Although answers are still forthcoming in the gospel being spread, there is one that is still outstanding in the sense that all for whom he died and rose are not yet with him in his Father’s glorious presence. But it will happen! The Son is there in his glorified humanity, and he “will come again and will take [them] to [himself] that where [he is they] may be also” (14:3).

Meanwhile, all the believing hearers/readers of what the apostles spoke and wrote are in that “heavenly family” of which Jesus said, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (20:17).

HYWEL R. JONES is professor emeritus of practical theology

at Westminster Seminary California in Escondido.

1. Leon Morris, Commentary on John’s Gospel, New London Series (London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1971), 716.

2. Robert Traill, qtd. in John Brown, An Exposition of Our Lord’s Intercessory Prayer (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980), vii.

3. It is used six times in the chapter but 137 times in the Gospel, of which 122 refer to God. 4. Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John, vol. 29, Anchor Yale Bible Series (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), 747.

5. The expression in 14:31 does not have to mean that Jesus and his disciples leave the Upper Room. It is an idiom, referring to a verbal rather than a physical move, paralleled in Matthew 26:46 and Mark 14:42. On this understanding, Jesus prayed in the Upper Room prior to leaving for Gethsemane (18:1).

6. In verse 6, ESV opts for the gender-neutral term “people.” We think the immediate context requires the older rendering “men,” e.g., as in NASB (see discussion later).

7. It exhibits a similar progression to Aaron’s prayer on the Day of Atonement, which was first for himself, then his house, and finally the people (see Lev. 16:11–19).

8. A. M. Ramsey, The Glory of God and the Transfiguration of Christ (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1949), 5.

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HELP EACH GENERATION REDISCOVER AND APPLY THE GOSPEL N U M E R O U S S U RV E Y S , polls, and sociological studies have conclusively shown that evangelical Christians—that is, those who profess to take Scripture, Christ, and the gospel seriously—are increasingly unaware of or unclear about some of the most basic issues of Christian faith and practice. While many pastors and elders are faithfully devoted to their ministry, it must be concluded with a grave sense of duty as well as soberness and humility that this is the exception rather than the rule.

In a time when the “nones” (or those claiming no religious adherence) are, according to pollsters, growing and when our own churches are stagnant or shrinking, it is more important than ever to identify and celebrate the gospel: the glory of God manifested in the grace he shows to those who deserve the very opposite. This is Christ-centered Christianity at its best and we want to partner with you to help inform the next generation of Reformers. Will you join us?

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GET MORE CONTENT AT “THE MOD.” H O M E T O W E B - E XC LU S I V E A R T I C L E S BY M O D E R N R E F O R M AT I O N .

Every week, we feature brand-new articles discussing the social and theological topics of the day, as well as reviews of the books we and our contributors are currently reading, along with monthly contributions from our esteemed colleague and longtime MR contributor Dr. Carl Trueman.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviews 56

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Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

Can We Trust the Gospels?

How Democracies Die

by Peter J. Williams

by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt

REVIEWED BY

REVIEWED BY

REVIEWED BY

Leslie A. Wicke

John Bombaro

Norman Van Eeden Petersman

by Cal Newport

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Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

by Cal Newport Portfolio/Penguin, 2019 304 pages (hardcover), $26.00 t seems that every other week, another think piece or investigative report drops about how much social and personal dislocation Facebook, Twitter, Apple, or Google have caused. From privacy invasions to behavioral addictions, what seemed like promising technologies and harmless baubles have become a source of perennial worry. We—the authors of think pieces, the heads of organizations, the mothers of children—ask ourselves: What manner of beast have we invited into our homes?

C a l Ne w p o r t’s D ig i ta l Minimalism is a practically minded entry in this ongoing conversation about “new technologies” such as smartphones and social media. After establishing the problems of these technologies in the early chapters, Newport prescribes “digital minimalism,” which he calls a philosophy of technology geared toward maximizing what we value and escaping technology’s costs.

The rest of the book is taken up with his thirty-day “digital declutter” and reflections on topics related to digital minimalism—particularly solitude, leisure, and social interactions.

Newport is clear from the outset that this story has villains: the new technology corporations that have built themselves on the “attention economy,” where serving the user’s needs is secondary to keeping the user hooked into the app, device, or platform. Every second used in this technology equals revenue from

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advertisers—the real customers in this economy.

It may not have begun this way—in fact, the inventors of these new technologies were largely oblivious to the risks—but by now these corporations intentionally and ruthlessly exploit human psychology to increase their bottom line. The outcome is that our lives are measurably worse, and we struggle to control our technology use.

For Newport, this is a problem, because it undermines our autonomy. The freedom to pursue and express one’s own values is a paramount good; and the way that the attention economy hijacks our brains is bad, because it “steals” our ability to make free choices about tool use. But autonomy is not a good in itself, in a traditionally biblical view. In fact, the quest for autonomy is arguably a major part of the first sin. In addition, the emphasis that Scripture lays on creaturely dependence renders the concept of autonomy a questionable one. This raises the question, then, for the Christian reader: Is Digital Minimalism really describing a problem? Or is this just a whole lot of nothing?

It’s helpful to reframe the narrative in terms of eternal values, rather than the kind of nebulous “personal values” Newport wants us to individually, autonomously maximize. Newport persuasively argues that these new technologies degrade our relationships with others and dominate our leisure time. These, rather than autonomy, are values we find in Scripture. To the extent that social media attenuates our relationships with fellow believers and with a world in need of good news, it’s a problem for Christians. To the degree that wasting time on smartphones keeps us from employing our leisure in God-honoring activities, it’s a problem for Christians.

This is not to say that Christians can read

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The strategy of digital minimalism should be evaluated for its compatibility with the values of Christianity, not as a self-contained philosophical outlook on technology.

this book uncritically. The studied secularity of Digital Minimalism creates some jarring contrasts and omissions. For instance, in the chapter on solitude Newport begins a historical survey of the concept, but then he informs us that he’s ignoring anything prior to the Enlightenment for the sake of “concision.”

Ignoring the long, rich history of thought on solitude that church history affords seems almost comical, given how readily Newport turns to Aristotle elsewhere.

It also makes his recurring call to use technology in line with one’s personal values an almost empty exhortation. Which values? Why certain values over others? Why not values that maximize constant social media use? This may seem like nitpicking—obviously anyone reading a book called Digital Minimalism is unsatisfied with a value system that prioritizes Twitter—but it is symptomatic of the philosophical shallowness that dogs this book.

In fact, though Newport calls digital minimalism a philosophy, it lacks the intellectual thickness required to qualify. It’s a strategy that may be adopted as part of various philosophies. This is an important distinction for the Christian: the strategy of digital minimalism should be evaluated for its compatibility with

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the values of Christianity, not as a self-contained philosophical outlook on technology.

While Newport grounds his strategy on secular humanism, the Christian should use different criteria and may find aspects of the strategy more or less valuable in consequence. So, for instance, where Newport looks only at post-Enlightenment concepts of solitude, we may consider the church’s contemplative traditions and reframe solitude not as an experience of absolute selfhood free from other minds, but as an opportunity to give our full attention to God’s mind as he has revealed it to us. This in turn will govern how we approach the book’s practical suggestions for achieving periods of solitude.

In general (as the reader may have guessed), Newport struggles with humanities such as philosophy and history, using the historical record largely as a source for pertinent quotations and anecdotes. This gives those portions of the book a thin quality, and the reader might do just as well to skip them (for example, his lengthy discussion of Abraham Lincoln’s love of solitude does little to advance understanding). Newport seems to be much more at home when discussing science; he summarizes studies and explains neurological processes in an engaging and comprehensible way. These glimpses into the bodily

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We are all beset not only by sin but by physical and mental frailties characteristic of life in a fallen world.

processes through which our minds operate are sometimes encouraging, sometimes unsettling, and usually illuminating.

Alongside his facility with scientific material, Newport is at his best when articulating practical advice. The chapter on the thirty-day digital declutter may seem obvious, but the practices he recommends in the later chapters are well explained and thought provoking. Not everyone, however, is going to have the resources and flexibility to put into practice his suggestions for three-hour walks or taking up welding. For the harried mother of multiple small children, such “high-quality leisure” is the stuff of fantasy. Those who suffer from physical or mental disease may also find some suggestions unrealistic. The book’s advice, especially in the later chapters, requires patience and discernment to render useful.

This is where the larger framework of Christian anthropology can provide the context that Digital Minimalism lacks. We are all beset not only by sin but by physical and mental frailties characteristic of life in a fallen world.

But when these frailties pose great obstacles to our practice of responsibility and discipline,

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we are not left to our own discouragement and sense of failure. The practice of continual repentance and reliance on the power of the Spirit is a strong antidote to the superficially bracing but ultimately unforgiving healthiness of self-help books such as Digital Minimalism.

One additional perspective on Digital Minimalism may transform some of its weakness into strength. Many explanations and analyses only skim the surface of their subject matter, leaving important questions underdeveloped. However, there are plenty of references to other works and authors to whom the interested reader can turn. In this way, Digital Minimalism also acts as an entry point into a constellation of topics on how we use technology. As long as the reader takes it in this spirit, there is plenty to be gleaned despite the relative shallowness of the analysis.

While Digital Minimalism makes no earthshaking revelations or major contributions to the conversation about our new technologies, it is an accessible and engaging look at one way to move forward in negotiating daily life with the beast.

LESLIE A. WICKE graduated with a degree in history from

Patrick Henry College. She is a writer and artist whose work can be found at www.leslieawicke.com and www.tbjeremiah. com. She and her husband currently live in Virginia.

Can We Trust the Gospels?

by Peter J. Williams Crossway, 2018 160 pages (paperback), $16.99 ith dozens of books on the reliability of the Gospel accounts on the shelves, Can We Trust the Gospels?—by Tyndale House principal and Cambridge University lecturer Peter J. Williams—distinguishes itself by its mastery of materials, high accessibility,

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and relevance. Williams is a world-renowned expert on New Testament texts and manuscripts (debating to considerable effect the likes of Bart Ehrman), and therefore he is eminently qualified to answer the question, can we trust the Gospels? His learning and experience find evidence on each page, substantiating the conclusion that with each passing generation our confidence regarding the reliability of the New Testament grows. In less than two hundred pithy pages, he efficiently narrates in nonspecialized language the state of the art regarding the reliability of the four Gospels by touching on both major talking points and areas of dispute, without needless filler.

In the opening chapter, Williams compares the contents of the Gospels with non-Christian authors closest to the composition of the Evangelists to ascertain the historic reliability of overlapping persons, events, and locations. Tacitus, Josephus, and Pliny the Younger provide a great deal of credibility for the Gospels in each category.

The Gospel authors seem to have provided not only accurate accounts when compared to their pagan counterparts, but even the transmission of the same proves extraordinarily reliable. Christian scribes, Williams reminds us, were the transmitters of all Greek and Latin literature from the classical period to the Middle Ages. “They preserve the reference to Greek and Roman gods and faithfully copied religious ideas that differed from their own Christian views” (21). In other words, Christian scribes, like Jewish scribes before them, give every appearance of being the most reliable transmitters of texts—both Christian and non-Christian.

Williams notes how compressed the time is between the purported historical events of

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the miracles, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, their record in the Gospels, and the proliferation of the gospel per se: “The problem with supposing that novel beliefs arose later [than AD 62] is that, by then, Christianity had spread so far and so fast, that it would have been difficult to introduce innovations” (34).

What we do find is cumulative evidence for the Gospels being produced within the time limits of reliable memory—that is, “from the first generation of Christians” (49).

Comparatively, we learn that having four Gospel narratives on one person—Jesus Christ—is remarkably incomparable. That is an abundance of material to have about any individual of that period. “Even though Jesus was on the periphery of the Roman Empire, we have as many early sources about his life as we have about the activities and conversations of Tiberius” (39). In fact, we have more information given Paul’s attestation and other epistle writers, to say nothing of non-Christian sources.

Wi lliams r ev iews t he authenticity of material in chapter 3, “Did the Gospel Authors Know Their Stuff?”

Here, the details are what matter: the Gospel authors knew intimate details about ge ogr aphy, p opular i ty of names, disambiguation of names, finances, and Jewishness. Williams then explodes the much-used analogy of “the game of telephone” as altogether unsuitable for the detail-oriented content of the Gospels. Whereas the game is specifically optimized to produce corruption, the Gospels are optimized to confirm veracity. As the author states, The very conditions in early Christianity were unsuitable for producing corruption: they were marked by a high emphasis on

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truth, sense of authoritative teaching, a wide geographical spread among followers of Jesus, and a high personal cost to following him. A plausible scenario for accidental corruption simply was not there. By contrast, the view that people passed on reliable information explains the data more simply. (78) Chapter 4 may provide for readers altogether fresh material on “undesigned coincidences”— that is, signs of authenticity that show “agreement of a kind that is hard to imagine as deliberately contrived by either author to make the story look more authentic” (87).

Again, attention to details within the Gospels are compelling in making an aggregate case that, in fact, the Gospels are highly reliable as historical accounts of the teaching and events of Jesus who is called Christ. The details, however,

never disappoint the reader regarding biblical insights and significance. Williams has a way of introducing us into greater depths within the Gospels’ details that never feels pedantic, but always like serendipitous discoveries while beachcombing.

The concluding chapters treat the authenticity of Jesus’ actual words, the transmission of the texts through the centuries, supposed contradictions and ancient biographical forms, and miracles, offering the most salient points from modern scholarship in the least intimidating way.

Can We Trust the Gospels? provides honest, clear, simple, and well-reasoned scholarship and arguments about the authors, dates of composition, and sources that are easily recalled and readily shared by readers. Within its apologetic genre, it’s one of the best of its kind.

Outfitted with footnotes, fifteen tables, two indices, and space for marginalia, the publication befits the quality of its contents. Thoughtful lay people, high schoolers, and college students will doubtless benefit from its contents as a competent response to pop skepticism concerning the word of God. REV. JOHN BOMBARO (PhD) is the programs manager at

HDQRTS USMC, The Pentagon. He lives in Virginia with his wife and children.

Can We Trust the Gospels? provides honest, clear, simple, and well-reasoned scholarship and arguments about the authors, dates of composition, and sources.

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How Democracies Die

by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt Crown, 2018 320 pages (hardback), $26.00 hat are the precursors to democratic decline? This is the question Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt set out to answer in this careful piece of historical scholarship and contemporary analysis. They cover approximately one hundred years in their survey of the

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It is striking to see the way that the subversive overthrow of a democratic government can occur in a series of important steps.

death of democracies around the world. Their point is that democracies can be subverted and overthrown in a multitude of ways, the most obvious of which is the coup d’état as seen in Argentina, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand, Turkey, and Uruguay.

“But there is another way to break a democracy,” explain the authors, for there are powerful ways for leaders to “subvert the very process that brought them to power.” The authors flesh out their arguments by studying the rise of Benito Mussolini in Italy, Adolf Hitler in Germany, Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, and Alberto Fujimori in Peru. These chapters make for fascinating reading and certainly offer the most value to the reader. It is striking to see the way that the subversive overthrow of a democratic government can occur in a series of important steps.

So how does this subversive over throw occur?

First, the leaders of established parties fail to serve as effective gatekeepers.

MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

The authors argue that “parties have two imperatives: choosing a popular candidate and keeping out demagogues” (41). Second, the subversive candidate succeeds in rejecting many of the unwritten rules of the game and even pushing against the boundaries of the written rules without consequence. Third, the subversive candidate denies the legitimacy of their opponents. Fourth, a “fateful alliance” of the candidate and party insiders occurs. This accelerates the takeover of the party apparatus and, through electoral success, the takeover of the state apparatus.

Fifth, violence is tolerated or encouraged against opponents in order to harden views of opponents as enemies. Sixth, civil liberties are curtailed in terms of movement and freedom of the press. Seventh, the courts are packed with justices who are partisan loyalists. Eighth, the constitutional restrictions for political leaders are erased or modified to tilt the field in favor of the insurgent candidate. These steps are all common features of the

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BOOK REVIEWS

Believers, then, have a powerful calling to live with grace and wisdom, as we engage in civil discourse with our allies and opponents.

autopsy report that were issued in the past century when a democracy died by nonmilitaristic means.

Woven into the historical analysis are a series of chapters assessing the current state of affairs in the United States. The authors look at the Republican Party’s reaction to the candidacy of Donald Trump and the constitutional checks and balances brought into focus during his presidency. The book ends with a chapter titled “Saving Democracy,” which goes beyond historical analysis and contemporary analysis to offer policy and political responses.

Once I understood the book’s framework, I decided I would read the historical analysis portions (chapters 1–2 and 4–6) and the conclusion (chapter 9) before circling back to read their contemporary analysis of the Trump candidacy and presidency (chapters 3 and 7–8). I recommend this approach to other readers, as they will be able to pick up their insights into the historical parallels of our current situation. The authors, with sixty-five pages of endnotes to bolster their claims, offer a compelling explanation of how democracies can die without tanks in the streets and army generals suspending constitutional rights and assemblies. Having made their case in a clear and rigorous way, it is sobering to read their “take” on the signs of democratic dysfunction in the United States today.

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Whatever your political views may be, it is worth reading a book like this within the context of a Christian understanding—that it is by God’s grace that rulers, nations, and empires rise, continue for a season, and fall into disarray. We may demand that our rights be respected, as Paul did when asserting the rights of a Roman citizen. We may plead for our leaders to choose wise, self-disciplined, and virtuous candidates for office. Through it all, we are to pray regularly for all who lead us—for the Lord can raise up a wise King Cyrus and bring low the prideful Nebuchadnezzar.

After all, we live in a time where our governments are better than we deserve them to be as sinners and are also worse than we hope them to be as those who know what righteousness, truth, and justice in action look like.

Believers, then, have a powerful calling to live with grace and wisdom, as we engage in civil discourse with our allies and opponents. As 1 Peter 2:11–17 reminds us, we must do good.

We may not excuse or accept incivility and the marginalization of others in these heated times. Our political engagement occurs for the good of our neighbor and the glorification of God through our honorable conduct.

NORMAN VAN EEDEN PETERSMAN (MDiv) is the pastor of

Vancouver Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Canada. He lives in Richmond, BC, with his wife and son.

VOL.28 NO.4 JULY/AUGUST 2019

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05

B AC K PAG E

The Church

by Eric Landry

very Sunday, Christians around the world confess their belief in “one holy, catholic and apostolic church” in the words of the Nicene Creed. The irony, of course, is that the church doesn’t look united, is often beset by scandal, seems ever fragmented into competing interest groups, and often rejects what the apostles explicitly commanded.

How then can we confess this truth?

We do it by faith. Just as we acknowledge that Jesus speaks the truth when he says that we are holy in him (even though we continue to sin), we also say the same thing about the church. It is one, even though it is divided. It is holy, even though scandal and sin mar its life. It is catholic, even though we often intentionally segregate ourselves into smaller and smaller niche demographics. It is apostolic, even though we struggle like the apostles who were with Jesus to understand and implement all that Jesus taught.

We often use the phrase “already/not yet” to describe our Christian life; it’s also a good phrase to apply to the church. In fact, it’s at the heart of Jesus’ prayer for both the present and the future manifestations of unity, mission, and love of the church. The church Jesus loves will look more or less ideal through time. That’s one reason we don’t see any one church or denomination as the only true church. We believe that all churches are more or less pure. Even apostate churches contain true believers. So, our thoughts about the church need to reflect the Bible’s realism.

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Now, just because we believe something by faith doesn’t make it any less true—nor does it mean that it is entirely in the future. Believing something by faith means that we take God’s word about the truth of something, even if it doesn’t seem possible at the time. Believing is not pitted against “doing.” We believe that we are 100 percent righteous in the sight of God, but that doesn’t mean we don’t also strive to obey the commands of God. So it is with the church’s unity. We believe by faith that the church is one, just as Jesus prays. But we also know that the church is divided, weak, and failing. We must therefore try to be in practice the one church that Jesus says we already are.

What stands in our way? Sometimes it’s pride and arrogance, which are sin. More often than not, however, the issue is truth— the word about Jesus that is supposed to unify actually divides believers. There have been plenty of unified communities throughout history, but unity by itself (political, special interest, or family) doesn’t testify to the world about Jesus. Only those communities grounded in the word and work of Jesus should seek unity with one another. Until then, the differences among us are necessary to prove genuine adherence to Jesus’ word and work (1 Cor 11:19). Our efforts toward formal, visible unity are not unification but reunion— returning to the reality that Jesus effected by his ministry here among us.

ERIC LANDRY is executive editor of Modern Reformation.

VOL.28 NO.4 JULY/AUGUST 2019

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