How Should We Then Live? (James Montgomery Boice)

As Christians we are not only to know the right worldview…but consciously to act upon that worldview so as to influence society in all its parts and facets across the whole spectrum of life, as much as we can to the extent of our individual and collective ability. (Francis A. Schaffer)

Harry Blamires is an Englishman who has written an important Christian book titled The Christian Mind: How should a Christian Think? He was a student of C.S. Lewis, and his book was first published in 1963. It’s main thesis, repeated over and over in chapter 1, is that “there is no longer a Christian mind.” Blamires meant by this that in our time there is no longer a distinctly Christian way of thinking. There is to some extent a Christian ethic and even a somewhat Christian way of life and piety. But there is no distinctly Christian frame of reference, no uniquely Christian worldview to guide our thinking in distinction from the thoughts of the secular world around us.

Unfortunately, the situation has not improved since Blamires put forward his thesis. In fact, it has grown worse. Today, not only is there little or no genuine Christian thinking, there is very little thinking of any kind, and the western world (and perhaps the world as a whole) is well on its way to becoming what I and many others have frequently called a “mindless society.”

What a challenge to today’s Christians! It is a challenge because we are called to think, even though the world around us does not think or at best thinks in non-Christian categories. The best statement of the challenge is the powerful statement that the apostle Paul provides in the great opening paragraph of Romans 12. He calls it mind renewal:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:1-2)

These two verses introduce what has often been called the “practical” section of Paul’s letter. But I do not like that way of talking about it. What people usually mean by using that word here is that the first 11 chapters of Romans are doctrinal or theological, and that the letter finally gets down to practical matters at this point. But doctrine is practical, and practical material must be doctrinal if it is to be of any help at all. A far better way to talk about Romans 12 through 16 is to say that these chapters contain applications of the very practical teachings or doctrines that Paul presented earlier.

“Application” is the word that John Murray, one of the best modern interpreters of Romans, uses in his introduction to this section: “At this point the apostle comes to deal with concrete practical application.”

Or maybe an even better word is “consequences,” which occurs to me because of the compelling slogan of the Hillsdale College newsletter Imprimis: “Because Ideas Have Consequences.”

Americans are a practical people. That is good! But we are not a particularly strong-thinking people, and that is bad, since what we do practically always flows from our minds and therefore needs to be directed by our thinking.” In other words, if you and I were to examine our lives…our actions and our interactions…these things speak volumes about our thought process, or lack there of, and of our worldview. If we call ourselves by the name of Christ then we must view everything through the lens of Jesus’ teachings in Scripture. To hold views and to act contrary to this, is neither worthy of the name by which we call ourselves or profitable for our lives or the lives of those that we are hoping to influence through the gospel. If it is true that we necessarily do what we think, then my question to the people of the portico is, “What are we thinking?”

The Incarnate Wealth of The Compassion of God (John Piper)

God is the wealthiest person in the universe. He not only owns more than anyone else. He owns everyone else and everything everyone else owns. When you create something, it belongs to you. And God created everything-including us. “It is He who made us, and not we ourselves [marginal reading]; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm 100:3) There is one ultimate owner in the universe, God. All others are trustees. Neither we nor what we have is finally our own. It is all a trust to be used for the aims of the owner. In a sense, therefore, all sin is embezzling.

But, strikingly, the New Testament describes the wealth of God not mainly in terms of what He created and owns, but mainly in terms of the glory He has from all eternity. Repeatedly we read of “the riches of His glory” or “His riches in glory” (for example, Ephesians 3:16; Philippians 4:19; Colossians 1:27). If God were only rich because He made and owns all things, He would have been poor before creation. But that means He would have created out of need and would be dependent on his creation. But that is not the picture of God we find in the Bible. God did not create to get wealth; He created to display wealth-the wealth of His glory for the enjoyment of His people (Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14).

But even more specifically, the focus of the New Testament is that the wealth of God’s glory is, at its apex, the wealth of His mercy. This is something the world takes very lightly: “the riches of [God’s] kindness and forbearance and patience” (Romans 2:4). God created and redeemed the world so that He might “make known the riches of His glory for vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory” (Romans 9:23). Or, to put it another way, He creates and saves His people “so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). The universe exists primarily to display the wealth of the glory of the mercy of God for the enjoyment of His redeemed people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Justice is essential among the perfections of God’s glory. But mercy is paramount. “He who justifies the wicked and He who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 17:15). Yes. Therefore justice is essential. But something else is also true: “It is [a man’s] glory to overlook an offense’ (Proverbs 19:11). Therefore, if justice can be preserved, it is the apex of glory to show mercy.

For this reason Jesus Christ came into the world. Jesus is the mercy of God incarnate and visible. He is also the justice of God incarnate; but justice was subordinate: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17) God the Father offered up His Son in death “so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). The substitutionary death of Jesus Christ created the backdrop of justice where justifying mercy would shine with unparalleled glory. Therefore, the glory of God’s mercy is the aim of Christ’s coming. This is explicit in Romans 15:8-9: Christ came into the world “to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the gentiles might glorify God for His mercy.” The aim of the incarnation was to magnify the mercy of God for the enjoyment of the nations.