Good Pharisee? or Bad Pharisee? A Dark Knight Rises understanding

Being a modern day "Teacher of the Law" (religious authority) is not a bad thing in and of itself, but it can cause one to actually get in the way of the Spirit of Christ moving unconventionally in how he saves the day. The Pharisees were basically the teachers of the law in Jesus' day. In our day, Christian teachers, whether emerging or established, (including those of us who go to seminary like myself) are the 21st century teachers of the law.

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." - John 3:8

The way the Spirit of Christ moves is, for the large part, pretty unconventional and "outside the box" of what we predict and plan. God's Spirit is creative, dynamic, and is not restricted to our ossified systems of doing things and is not afraid to work "outside the system". We'd better not dare to try to put the Holy Spirit on a leash. We can't really anyways. We should either colabour with him in overcoming demonic strongholds to save the day, or simply get out of the way. But we dare not try to stop him effectively doing his thing, which, according to Isaiah 61:1, includes:

"binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners"

In this Parable of the Dark Knight Rises clip, we see 4 types of Enforcers of the Law (metaphorical Pharisees):
1)newbie Christian religious authority not used to the Spirit of Christ moving unconventionally
2)experienced Christian religious authority open to the Spirit of Christ moving unconventionally
3)spirit-of-the-law-following young Christian religious authority
4) experienced Christian religious authority not open to the Spirit of Christ's unconventional movings

Just like how some Gotham City enforcers of the law (legal authorities) can sometimes get in the way of Batman effectively fighting crime "outside the established system" of doing things, modern day Christian religious teachers and leaders can sometimes get in the way of the Spirit of Christ effectively fighting demonic strongholds "outside the established system" of doing things.

0:05 - 0:20:
"what's going on with the environment?" -  newbie Christian religious authority not used to the Spirit of Christ moving unconventionally
*Spirit of Christ shows up on the scene*
"Oh boy, are you in for a show tonight son!" - experienced Christian religious authority open to the Spirit of Christ moving unconventionally

0:28 - 0:40:
The Spirit of Christ moving in "outside the system" to save the day

1:10-1:20 (Luke 13:10-17)
"I'm going to do what an experienced and open-to-the-Spirit Christian religious authority couldn't do." - experienced Christian religious authority not open to the Spirit of Christ's unconventional movings
"What's that?" - spirit-of-the-law-following young Christian religious authority
"I'm going to religiously take down the Spirit of Christ!" - experienced Christian religious authority not open to the Spirit of Christ's unconventional movings
"Sir, what about the spiritually armed demons?" - spirit-of-the-law-following young Christian religious authority

0:42 - 0:50:
*newbie Christian religious authority begins to try to use an extra-biblical law within his system to stop the Spirit of Christ* "sorry"
"Put that extra-biblical law away before you hurt yourself like in Luke 13:10-17!" - experienced Christian religious authority open to the Spirit of Christ moving unconventionally

3:10 - 3:29 (John 7:32-47)
*Spirit of Christ escapes away from those ordered to arrest him*
"We lost him" - Teachers of the law
"How could you lose him?" - experienced Christian religious authority not open to the Spirit of Christ's unconventional movings
"He has a lot of Supernatural explanatory power" - Teachers of the Law
"What?! And you don't?!" - experienced Christian religious authority not open to the Spirit of Christ's unconventional movings

4:13 - 4:32 (Matthew 22:15-22)
"Like a rat in a trap gentlemen" - experienced Christian religious authority not open to the Spirit of Christ's unconventional movings
*Spirit of Christ escapes out of a religious trap with wisdom*
"You might have the wrong theological animal there sir" - experienced Christian religious authority open to the Spirit of Christ moving unconventionally


Just like how Batman refuses to be domesticated by the established legal human authorities if they oppose his unconventional/outside-the-system effective crime fighting, so the Spirit of Christ refuses to be domesticated by the established Christian authorities if they oppose his unconventional/outside-the-system effective demonic stronghold demolishing.

The Church needs more Commissioner Gordons out there, who are there to colabour with the Spirit of Christ in fighting spiritual evil.

X-men meets The Matrix in Christian mysticism

The word "mystical" unfortunately has such a heretical connotation for modern day Christians. This is very unforunate! Of course the word mystical may have pretty weird and bad connotations, like engaging in some sort of spirituality that’s cultish and off the radar of established orthodoxy. I’m not talking about that type of mysticism. I'm talking about experiencing spiritual realities in the Jesus walk that transcend (but do not contradict) reason/rationality/logic/abstract systematic theology.

Biblical examples that come to my mind are experiencing a "love that surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19), a "peace of God that transcends all understanding" (Philippians 4:7), and an "inexpressible joy" (1 Peter 1:8), all within the theme of being experientially in union with Christ. Because God is spirit and we must worship him with our spirits (John 4:24), we have to first learn to detect the movings of our own spirit and God's Spirit and do our part in uniting the two, which is very mysterious, yet can be concretely sensed in one's consciousness. I am strongly convinced, after reading some non-Protestant Christian literature, that Paul had a strong mystical side to him. I don’t think he was someone who was purely rational/logical for the most part, then turned on his mystical attitude when he was writing 2 or 3 verses, then turned it off and turned back on his purely rational/logical personality. No, I think he was a mystic and good intellectual thinker combined.

With the exception of some Charismatic/Pentecostal spirituality in North American Evangelicalism, the North American church seems to be missing this mystical side of the Jesus life.

I think that although modern day Protestants may think that Christian mysticism is "weird", Paul and the early Church would have probably thought that the non-mystical "wooden spirituality” of a lot of modern day Protestants is "weird" indeed. If 2Pac and Biggie saw hip-hoppers in 2050 being “wooden” and “purely rational” in their hip-hop due to them being completely sucked dry of the urban-hipness of hip-hop in the late 1990s with its distinctive vibrancy and vivacious spirit of “hypeness” and “coolness” and “sickness”, they would be shocked out of their wits and find that hip-hopless-hip-hop dry and weird.

And yet, there is a difference between how North Americans Charismatic Christians seem to experience this biblical “love that surpasses knowledge”, “peace that passes understanding”, and “inexpressible joy” compared to how people who follow the Christian spirituality of medieval Catholic and Eastern Orthodox monks and nuns experience it.

(I do recognize that there is some overlap and that not all experiences fall neatly within only 1 category, and that there are distinctions amongst the experiences of medieval Catholic spirituality and Eastern Orthodox spirituality themselves. But for the sake of making a generalized observation, the following are my thoughts after dabbling, for a limited time, in both spiritualities)

North American "Charismatic" spirituality is, in my opinion, pretty "Western" in its mystical experiences of union with God. Although it is cool and friggin wicked, it is different from the Christian mysticism of awesome medieval catholics and wicked eastern orthodox monks. This Charismatic mystical stuff is more like Christian X-men with direct cause-and-effects experienced "in your face", where unexplainable yet undeniable events are unmistakably unfolding in your midst. The mystical stuff is localized in time and space somewhere in distinct events in certain times and places, whether it's how your Spirit-filled emotions feel at a given time, somebody's body parts getting supernaturally healed with resulting effects of divine warmth on the body parts, casting out demons in order to worship God and feeling "spiritual darkness leave" and "spiritual light entering" in one's spirit, speaking and praying in tongues, and tuning into the Spirit in a distinct time and place for a Spirit-filled worship session.

On the other hand, the mystical spirituality of medieval Catholics and Eastern Orthodox monks is like the Matrix, where your whole experiential interpretation of the whole of reality undergoes a subtle yet noticeable "tectonic shift" in how you understand the fundamental nature of things. It seems that rather than the focus of mystical experiences being really concentrated and localized in certain distinct events in time and space, there seems to be a whole settled transformation of the “wallpaper of one’s consciousness” and with the resulting metamorphosis of perceived reality, you use that contemplative lens of the soul to interpret reality in a permanently changed way for the rest of your life. The result of this is that one experiences subtle yet noticeable effects on the physical world while living from another reality, which is the Kingdom of God (John 3:8).

Both are friggin awesome. The "spiritual chemical reaction" of mixing the two approximates the spirituality of the Jesus walk of the New Testament baby.

The hip-hop puppet-popping righteousness of the Kingdom

"... Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness." - Romans 6:19

"Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart." - Ephesians 6:5-6

A Christian is supposed to be a "slave of righteousness". 

A Christian is supposed to be a "slave of Christ".

What connotations does the word "slave" naturally invoke in our minds? 

Who wants to be a slave in their right mind?

Sure, the Apostle Paul was a slave to Christ. But what was his experience like being a slave of righteousness/Christ? Honestly speaking, was it a miserable experience? Or was it mildly torturous? Or was it okay-la (as Chinese people would say)? Or was it a moderately enjoyable experience? Or did he experience an overall posture/condition of joy that was the "climate" of his heart while being one?

Paul writes elsewhere about his experience in the Kingdom of God:

"For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" - Romans 14:17

Zeroing in on the "joy" aspect of being a slave of Christ, how did Paul see and experience the enslavement of God as a joyful thing? I am starting to read Paul's Epistles with a principle of "Paul never lied in his Epistles". Paul is not like some authors/speakers who only say pretty things about the Christian life abstractly, things which are exempt from the day-to-day tests of concrete corroboration because they remain too abstract to practically test. If Paul genuinely didn't find the Kingdom of God in the Holy Spirit something of "joy", he wouldn't say it. If he truly felt that the Kingdom of God was boring, torturous to live in, unexciting, unfulfilling, disappointing, in short non-joyful, he wouldn't write that it was so. Because Paul wouldn't lie.But Paul didn't describe being a slave to Christ like that.

On the contrary, Paul writes that he has:
"learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." - Philippians 4:12-13.

Now this is a very specific description of Paul's concrete expectations of what mature living in the Kingdom of God is like. He, through practicing the presence of God and remaining in communion with him, has learned in "every situation" how to be content based on his ongoing/unceasing communion with God through being a slave to Christ. For us modern day Christians to expect otherwise is to have non-biblical expectations of what being a slave to righteousness/Christ is like.

For Paul, being a slave of Christ was fulfilling, refreshing, lively, meaningful, and full of energy (Colossians 1:29). These characteristics were not just "moody emotional weather" that kept coming and going like the physical weather. They were like the climate of the condition of his categorically different experience of living from the Kingdom of God (as opposed to living from the Kingdom of this world) that he lived in on a daily experience.

Now, a lot of us will bluntly ask (in our hearts silently, if not out loud verbally): "how the heck is that honestly possible? I can't wrap my head around it. It seems impossible for someone to experience the settled texture of supernatural experience that Paul had that enabled him to be purely content in every single situation that he was in".

It may seem impossible. But it is possible with God (I myself do not pretend that I have fully mastered this through Christ yet. I haven't. But I have experienced significant supernaturally-enabled improvement over the past few years. I honestly think it will take decades to master in this lifetime, but with significant life-changing improvements along the way). It is possible, because more is going on than what meets the eye. The Holy Spirit is involved. And he can't be detected by those who only expect resources to come from the physical/natural realm of existence (John 14:17). 

For the non-Christian who sees a modern day Paul who can remain content in every situation (i.e. Dallas Willard), he will be confused as to how the heck it is actually possible, because he does not acknowledge the day-to-day concrete reality of the Holy Spirit's availability to the slave of Christ.

And bluntly speaking, the Christian who has read and believed about the Holy Spirit intellectually but who does not know how to detect/sense the Holy Spirit in his first person consciousness and sees a modern day Paul who can remain content in every situation (i.e. once again, Dallas Willard) will also be confused, because while he has acknowledged the day-to-day concrete reality of the Holy Spirit's availability in theory, he has failed to experience it first-hand in his first-person consciousness.

But the good news is that help is available. There is hope. With the help of God, other Christians who have mature experience in sensing the rhythms of the Holy Spirit, failure, experiencing, and practice, one can learn how to not only read about Romans 14:17, but experience it as well.

Now what is this category of experience like?

"If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit." - Galatians 5:25 

This passage in Galatians 5 about the fruit of the Spirit gives us a hint of what this looks like. Galatians 5:25 imply that there is a difference in "living by the Spirit" and "keeping in step with the Spirit". Doing the former does not necessarily imply that one is doing the latter. The latter seems to imply a rhythm of the Spirit's moving, to move with. Or dare I say, dance with.

A modern hip-hop analogy perhaps can help us digest a little bit of how exactly the nature of being a slave to righteousness/Christ:
-involves submission of one's will to somebody else's authority
-is a sincerely enjoyable experience
-involves moving according an external rhythm that is not the rhythm of choice of the slave

(I do recognize that there are flaws of this analogy, and, like every analogy, it breaks down in certain areas. Nevertheless, we can learn from it)

In a modern form of hip-hop dancing (more accurately called "popping"), the hip-hop dancer submits oneself to the "will" of the hip-hop "puppeteer" and his authority. He is "controlled" by what the puppeteer wants the puppet to do. He is a "slave" of the puppeteer. (let's pretend for the sake of the analogy that the puppeteer in the back choreographed the whole dance and the puppet-dancer had to submit to it)

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LikXwgTyu90

It is an enjoyable experience for the hip-hop popping puppet in the front. He is having an enjoyable experience. Although he did not choreograph the dance sequence, since it is a good sequence, he is having a joyful time.

 Moreover, he is dancing to the rhythms of the hip-hop beat outside of him. He did not create the beat, but he must move according to it nevertheless. He must not only "live according to the beat" but "keep in step with it" literally.

In short, it is not a miserable experience for him. It is not only an experience that is "okay-la". But he is fulfilled while he is doing it.

(I recognize that in the clip, in the last couple seconds, the puppet rebels and scares the puppeteer off, but just pretend that didn't happen haha)

Now, let us return to our comparison of how this hip-hop puppet-popping is like being a slave to righteousness/Christ. For the slave of Christ, the "puppeteer" (God the Father), the "strings" (Jesus Christ), and the "hip-hop beat" (Holy Spirit) are all invisible to the physical eyes. The world cannot see these Trinitarian participants that the hip-hop-slave-to-Christ is "dancing with" in life. Therefore, they are surprised by what they see with their carnal eyes with regard to the effects of the whole process which is embodied in the puppet. Meanwhile, the hip-hop-slave-to-Christ is "dancing" to a whole other reality, namely the spiritual realm, that is operating behind the curtains of physical reality. If the puppeteer, strings, and the hip-hop beats were gone, then it would be a chore, burden, and dread to try to produce the effects of joyful righteousness that the 3 hidden Trinitarian participants enable one to produce. Many have tried to do so, and have become legalistic and focused on the letter of God's commandments at the cost of the spirit of God's commandments, and have made life miserable for themselves as well as others (some would call them "modern day Pharisees"). However, for the slave-of-Christs who have grown and matured in hip-hop enslavement-to-Christ, they will realize more and more from experience that the Trinitarian help that they receive (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit), although invisible to the physical realm, is not totally hidden from themselves in corroborating experience after corroborating experience.


"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." - Matthew 5:16

A translation in light of this hip-hop dancing analogy would be "let your spiritual dance shine before others, so that they may see your "spiritually sick" moves as a hip-hop puppet-popper, and glorify the awesome hip-hop puppeteer/choreographer, who is your Father in heaven."

Batman Begins training. Christian spiritual formation. The story of my life for the past 4 years... and counting. Much progress has been made by God's grace. But I still have light years to go.

Sure, there are specific areas in this movie, more specifically this scene, that just go against the Gospel. The trainer lacks compassion, his views on justice are different from the Bible etc.

But the overall "spirit of training" really captures the proactive attitude of training that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 9:27.

Always new levels to attain in the art of spiritual warfare.


"You know how to not gossip, we can teach you how to never look down on people in your heart, just like Jesus."

"You know how to not praise yourself in front of others, we can teach you how to earnestly yearn that they do/appear/become better than you, just like Jesus."

"You know how to be honest with your money, we can teach you how to find greed uninteresting, just like Jesus."

"You know how to not curse your enemy, we can teach you how to joyfully bless your enemy, just like Jesus."

"You know how to avoid watching porn, we can teach you how to be so sexually pure in Christ, so that the thought of having sex with a woman who is not your wife will become just as naturally repulsive to you as the thought of having sex with your biological sister, just like Jesus."

"You know how to not complain, we can teach you how to be so inexhaustibly satisfied in communion with God that coveting seems boring, just like Jesus."

"You know how to keep God in your mind every hour, we can teach you how to keep God in mind every minute, just like Jesus."


gUmmI, you have much to learn still. Continue to humble yourself and learn from the great spiritual masters who have concrete/hands-on experience of mastering these Christlike traits as you follow them as they follow Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).

Privileged to re-experience some "Great Commission bonding" again

It's interesting how pursuing the Great Commission bonds people together.

When I was a missionary with Campus for Christ for 2 years in East Asia, I colaboured for the Great Commission alongside with people of 6 different nationalities (including my own). Fellow Canadians, such as myself, Americans, Singaporeans, Koreans, Japanese, and Chinese. All for 1 purpose. To fulfill the Great Commission, specifically through the Back to Jerusalem route. There was a type of spiritual camaraderie in Christ that I felt with them that I didn't, and just couldn't feel with some of my Christian friends that I spent years developing friendships with in Toronto. There's something different about proactively pursuing the Great Commission together with other soldiers of Christ... rather than... just... talking about it. Sure, with my Toronto Christian friends, a lot of us talk about the Bible together, pray together, and eat meals together. But that's about it. Maybe it's satisfying for them, but not me. Maybe that's all they're looking for at the moment, but not me.

To draw a simile, that is like a bunch of Americans on American soil, during World War 2, just talking about the war happening against the Nazis in Europe together as well as eating together. Their bonding can only happen to a certain degree as well as kind. In contrast, the soldiers who are actively running together in the same direction against Nazi bullets being fired at them on Normandy Beach on D-Day are going to bond to a different degree, and also different in kind.

The same goes with the Great Commission. I've been almost 2 years "out of the game" of missions ever since I came back in August 2010. I miss that "Great Commission bonding" feel that I had with fellow missionaries in C4C. I haven't had it for a while.

But recently, I was so privileged to encounter a bunch of Koreans in a Korean organization that sends missionaries to unreached people groups in the 10/40 window. As I was sharing tonight at their Church about how God led me to go on missions this summer, my heart re-experienced that "Fellowship of the Ring" feel that I had with people of different nations over 2 years ago. My spirit could feel that unspoken, yet deeply felt bond as I was saying bye to them and thanking them for training me to go to the nation I am going to. My heart could sense the unseeable, yet undeniably felt link between our hearts in Christ as they (all of which who have done the kind of Luke 10 missionary style in the 10/40 window which I am about to embark on), told me that they would pray for me as I went, and received their "goodbye-send-off" prayer.

And yet, I just got to know them a few months ago. Once a week for 8 weeks. Yet, my spirit feels this bond with them that is deeper and incomparable, both in degree and kind, to my friendships with Christian friends in Toronto whom I've known for many years. Just like how the mission of destroying the Ring in The Fellowship of the Ring united the hobbits with the peoples of different races (elves, humans, dwarfs, wizards). It is reasonable to assume that Frodo and Sam bonded with Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, and Gandalf, in the short but deep time they spent together, in a way that they haven't and couldn't bond with their fellow hobbits in the Shire whom they grew up with all their life.

Thank you Lord, for allowing me to re-experience these great Great Commission bonds once again. My spirit missed them. And you are one who allows these deep bonds to take place in You.

Thoughts on finding a Christlike significant other

“Nobody’s perfect” we all concede. Very true. However, there is a world of a difference between an imperfect person who has prioritized pursuing Christlikeness above all else versus someone who is complacent in his or her imperfection. In terms of a model Christ-centered relationship, I am always struck by my conversations with Kaarina Shieh (Dean of Seminary Students at Tyndale Seminary), who has been married for 15 years. While talking to her about my relationship with my girlfriend, she casually remarked that her and her husband have never got in a heated argument, raised their voices at each other, or emotionally “fought” during these 15 years of their marriage. Taking my whole knowledge of her character into consideration, I can tell that she and her husband are not holding up pent up negative emotions towards each other that have been suppressed all these years. No one can suppress bitterness, anger, or hostile emotions towards one’s significant other for 15 years no matter how good of an actor one is. The only rational explanation for how that is possible is that both partners, although imperfect Christ followers themselves, are nevertheless experientially living from the Kingdom of God on a daily basis in such a way that has extraordinary effects on the moment to moment ups and downs of daily existence. Imperfect people? Of course. But they are imperfect people who have learned and are learning how to consistently step into, operate from, and utilize God’s divine resources from another reality (the Kingdom of God) that cause superhuman effects of being truly loving, caring, and selfless in the 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 sense. The end result is an imperfect but supernaturally loving person who can love others like Jesus in a way that exceeds our natural capacities and is beyond human.

In contemplating what characteristics are important for one’s significant other to have, I would have to say that there is a difference between searching for the gifts of the Spirit in one’s partner, and searching for the fruit of the Spirit in one’s partner. According to the Bible, the gifts of the Spirit are unique in each disciple of Jesus. According to 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, Paul writes that each person is supernaturally gifted by the Holy Spirit in their own unique ways. In addition to the specific examples given in these lists, some of us followers of Christ have a strength of being a leader, others are good thinkers, others are gifted in empathy, other are skillfully artistic, others are skillful with their words and communication and the list can go on and on. What we desire in a significant other in terms of how they are gifted in their strengths may vary according to personal preferences. However, when it comes to the fruit of the Spirit, Paul writes in Galatians 5:22-26 (within the context of Galatians 5:16-26) that the fruit of the Spirit should not be “optional” for the disciple of Jesus. While it is reasonable to think that some members of the Body of Christ are to be teachers, others evangelists, others with the gift of hospitality etc., we should not think that some members of the Body of Christ should only be gentle, while others should only be patient, while others are only kind. In other words, it is the duty and responsibility of each member of the Body of Christ to learn how to have a hands-on grasp of how to be led in the Spirit in such a way as to naturally produce the fruit of the Spirit as a byproduct of abiding in Christ. This, on the human side of things, is done through connecting with God consistently through Christian spiritual disciplines.

 I would say that when choosing a significant other, the gifts of the Spirit in the disciple of Jesus that one is considering should be secondary and even optional according to certain preferences. However, the fruit of the Spirit should not be optional, and although no one is perfect, the person under consideration should be a person who has it as their priority to abide in Christ so deeply and consistently that the fruit of the Spirit naturally grows in the person. A person who is so connected with God that the fruit of the Spirit are growing abundantly in them is a joy, pleasure, delight, and thrill to be with (provided that you have social and spiritual chemistry with them). If you have the added bonus of being romantically attracted to them, and the attraction is mutual, you have found a partner where, although you both will never be perfect, you can have the type of Christ-centered relationship where you two can experience a marriage where both partners do not raise their voices angrily, vent out frustration, and emotionally fight with each other for fifteen years. Effortlessly and easily. Even if fights, outbursts, and tension do arise from time to time, they will not be the regular pattern of things, and the texture of the relationship will be qualitatively different from the texture of the relationship where one or both members of the relationship do not have abundant amounts of the fruit of the Spirit to produce superhuman effects of Christlike character in each person as a result from being led by the Spirit to deeply abide in Christ.

I am so immensely blessed to have found my current girlfriend who strives to deeply abide in Christ through being led by the Spirit to have such great character. The fruit of the Spirit definitely are exhibited in her character and she is such a joy to journey together to serve God with and grow with in God. What a blessing to be with her.

Meditating on Scripture can actually be more engaging than any favourite hobby of ours

The events of John 7:32, 45, 46 truthfully are just overwhelmingly stunning.

"Earlier, when the temple police came to arrest Jesus, he sent them away, telling them it wasn't time yet. They actually went away, much to the confusion of the chief priests and Pharisees. Their explanation was, "No one ever spoke the way this man does." - Jan Johnson

Temporarily don't concentrate on the theological truths that can be extracted from this passage (as important as they are in themselves). For the moment, just imagine a modern day equivalent of this passage occurring. Let's say Jesus chose to live in 21st century North America with the average physical appearance of one of us. And the police chief of the district that he's living in sends cops to arrest him. The cops arrive and are ready to arrest him. They talk with Jesus. Then, they are sent back empty handed to the police chief. The police chief asks them "why didn't you arrest him and bring him in?" And the poor cops reply "Because no one ever spoke the way this man does."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The output of the power of Jesus' words create mind-blowing effects that vastly outweigh an impact coming from mere human capacities. The supernatural/divine power of the words he spoke had an effect that was super-human, divine, and not of this world. That is the only way to explain how a person who is supposed to be arrested by cops can send them back to their police chief empty handed without the person himself engaging in self-defense, hostage taking, threats, name calling, or blackmailing the police. Just speaking words peacefully, calmly, with love, and without hate. Words with an impact that is not only different in degree but in kind, which are coming from another world.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbYQb-WhOak

Friggin' think about the implications of this man! CRAZY! Now that's a Lord I want to follow!

What Does it Mean to be Saved? The Inherent Connection Between Justification and Sanctification

For my second systematic theology 2 paper, I wrote an essay about my understanding of salvation, and the need for an inherent connection between one's understanding of justification and sanctification. Although it's kind of long, I decided that I would post it. For those interested, here it is.







In modern Protestant theology, the term “salvation” immediately brings up a host of connotations associated with its meaning. At times, the mention of the word salvation automatically brings up the notion of substitutionary atonement where Christ took the punishment from God for our sins so that we will not have to experience God’s eternal wrath because Jesus bore it upon himself already (Isaiah 53:5, Romans 3:25). This substitutionary atonement is then supposed to enable Christians, those who have chose to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, to attain eternal life in heaven with God because Jesus Christ has provided a way to connect sinners with God through the penal substitution that was enacted when Jesus was crucified and then resurrected from the cross. The notion of sanctification is then sometimes included as an afterthought of what it means to be saved, where the Christian, through the Holy Spirit after one has been justified through Christ, grows in grace, holiness, and good works. Although I agree with these orthodox ideas of the Protestant understanding of salvation, it is my understanding that the popular understanding of salvation in our Western culture lacks a logical connection between salvation and sanctification that is intrinsic and natural in and of itself, rather than just theoretically being stated that the two are connected on an abstract level somehow. Upon theological reflection and understanding, I have arrived at the conclusion that the notions of justification and sanctification in the Protestant understanding of salvation need to be understood in a way that makes sanctification a natural outworking of justification that is intrinsic in its essence, instead of being incidental in its nature. It is my understanding that a proper understanding of heaven will aid this endeavour.


If heaven is understood merely as the absence of eternal punishment, then it follows that all humans would want to spend their afterlife in heaven, rather than in hell. However, if heaven is understood as a place where everything and everyone is going to worship God (serve God out of reverence for who he is) for the rest of their afterlife, the question of whether or not a person would like to spend eternity there has to be rethought carefully. Since it is clear that some humans in this lifetime abhor the idea of worshipping God an hour or two a week, it would be absurd to think that these same humans would desire to spend the rest of their afterlife in a place where worshipping God every moment will take place.


With this proper understanding of heaven in mind, it is easier to see why the idea of justification under the penal substitution model of salvation in and of itself can have a difficult time showing the intrinsic connection between justification and sanctification. While being helpful to understand certain aspects of soteriology, the penal substitution model of salvation may find it challenging to show how its idea of justification (God declaring a sinful person to be “just” on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus which leads to God’s peace, God’s Spirit, and God’s “salvation”) inherently causes one to desire to spend eternity in a place where the core and central activity is going to be the eternal worship of God. With this understanding of justification under this model of salvation, it is problematic to see how the “justification” of a person in front of God with the “imputed righteousness of Christ” inherently causes the justified person to have a transformed inner desire to spend an eternity worshipping God, instead of spending an eternity worshipping something idolatrous (whether it is money, fame, power, or lust).


An illustration of a legal judge in human affairs may be of some help in illustrating this point. Suppose a judge is to justly punish a criminal who stole a new car worth fifty thousand dollars from a car dealership. However, just before the judge punishes the guilty person, a generous businessman decides to pay the fifty thousand dollars out of his own pocket to take the punishment for the criminal. All the criminal has to do is to “freely accept this gracious offer”. If he does, then the criminal has the legal right to be declared “righteous” in front of the judge, and is legally absolved from the punishment for his crime. However, it is possible for the absolved criminal, who accepts permission from the judge to accept this gracious offer from the businessman, to have unchanged desires in his heart to continue stealing after he has been acquitted. Although he is declared “righteous” in the eyes of someone else, namely the judge, and even may have a degree of gratitude in his heart, he may not have decided to become the type of person who finds stealing unattractive, and the opposite of stealing (which we will identify as generosity for the sake of illustration) attractive. For the judge to grant him the freedom that a law-abiding citizen has in civil society, because somebody else has paid the price for his crime, has no connection of whether the inner desires of his heart want to be a law-abiding citizen that honours societal laws in the future.


In the Christian understanding of “eternal citizenship”, the true Christian is understood to be a person whose ultimate citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20) while being a “foreigner” in this world (Hebrews 11:13-16). With this in mind, it can be understood that the destiny of someone justified is to go to a country where everything and everyone worships God forever. This is where a proper understanding of sanctification can help us understand the inherent link between itself and justification. It is my understanding that a crucial (although not exhaustive) aspect of Christian sanctification involves the changing of one’s inherently sinful desires into inherently holy desires. Sticking with this theme of going to a country where one worships, serves, and reveres God for the rest of one’s life, in Hebrews 8:10 we are told of the New Covenant where God will start to change the hearts of the people who truly belong to him. He will do that in a way that involves the laws of his country (the Old Testament laws including the Ten Commandments) being “written on the hearts” of his people. In contemporary terms, this involves the laws of God being internalized in one’s heart which results in changing one’s heart’s longings to pump out desires that are inherently in conformity to the order of God’s kingdom.


With this in mind, perhaps an analogy following the same theme of citizenship will help us grasp how a biblical understanding of justification should be inherently linked with sanctification. Suppose that one is a son of immigrant parents from China. This son, while he is in Canada, commits a crime against the Chinese government. Since he has committed treason against the Chinese government, he is denied access to ever again enter and live on Chinese soil. However, someone else has graciously offered to take the punishment for his crimes against the Chinese government, so that he is “justified” in the eyes of the government of China and has gained his citizenship in China. If only this were the case, it does not follow that this act of the Chinese government naturally causes the son to desire to live in China, where (for the sake of illustration) Chinese people eat Chinese food on a daily basis, interact with others using Chinese customs, speak the Chinese language in everyday life, engage in Chinese arts and entertainment every night, want to abide by the laws of the Chinese government, and want to serve and honour the Chinese government. Whereas, if the Chinese government not only accepts the “justification” of this son of Chinese immigrants, but also sends a native Chinese citizen to live with this son in Canada to model, embody, promote, and encourage this son to desire more and more the permanent destiny of one day spending the rest of his life in China, the yearnings of his heart will inherently change and he will have greater and deeper longings to live in his home country more and more over time, because he will be desiring the natural outworking of what he was “justified” in attaining by grace.


Returning to the Protestant understanding of justification and sanctification, this illustration shows how justification and sanctification, while distinguished from one another in abstract analysis, cannot and should not be separated in reality. If one fundamental (although not exhaustive) aspect of sanctification is the inherent changing of the desires of one’s heart from originally desiring to hate, be proud, covet, and worship something created to the changed desires of desiring to become the type of person who is more loving, humble, content, and desirous of worshipping the Creator Yahweh, then one can better understand how justification (a sinful person being “just” on the basis of Jesus’ righteousness so that one day he/she can enter heaven) is intrinsically connected to sanctification (partially the changing of one’s sinful desires to holy desires congruent with the order of God’s kingdom which are perfectly implemented in heaven). Although one is never justified in God’s eyes because of the changing of one’s heart’s desires, we have seen here how one cannot really be justified in the end if one does not have a change of desires in one’s heart as an intrinsic effect of justification.


One practical implication of this failure to see the inherent connection between justification and sanctification in modern day Protestantism is the erroneous notion that one can be saved by Jesus without longing and yearning for the journey of becoming like Jesus (which includes having the transformed desires that Jesus had while he was on earth). This, in turn, sometimes leads to the notion that one can be a “saved Christian” without being a disciple of Jesus, who is someone who desires more and more to follow Christ and emulate his lifestyle not because one has to, but because one desires to. Although one will never be perfect in this lifetime, a truly saved Christian should be one who, in this life and the life to come, is not only saved from the guilt of sin (eternal damnation), but from the power of it as well. And one is saved from the power of sin largely by having sin lose its inherent attraction, so that it is no longer attractive, but disgusting. One reason for this is the fact that heaven will be a place where sin is not only absent on the menu of spiritual food, but is realized to be as distasteful, filthy, and repulsive to play with as dung.

witnessTO.com post

Some time ago, witnessTO posted a blog entry that I wrote for them about my journey in labouring for city wide revival in Toronto. It describes some of my spiritual journey for the past 3 years or so.

http://witnessto.com/post/17604741240/sharpening-for-city-revival