The Gospel Is For Christians
There is nothing unique in Chase’s book. Everything he writes can be found in a number of other books written by great evangelical authors. However, this very fact makes The Gospel Is For Christians unique. The very best of what can be read in a number of books can be found in this one book. Why? Because of the simplicity and comprehensiveness of Chase’s main idea.
Chase explains:
[W]e need to remember that the gospel is not something that we leave behind at the front door of the Christian faith so that we can pursue other things. The gospel is everything for the believer” (9).
The gospel isn’t only for unbelievers. As the title says, the gospel is for Christians because the truth of the gospel affects every area of the Christian’s life.
Chase intentionally imitates the style of Paul’s letters. He begins with an explanation of the gospel and then turns to application of the gospel in the second half. Because the gospel is comprehensive in the second half of the book Chase applies the gospel to several areas of life: personal spiritual growth, the church, church growth, missions, marriage, and parenting. He does not cover each subject as thoroughly as he could, but his task is breadth rather than depth.
For this reason, The Gospel Is For Christians is an ideal book for use with young believers. Whether you are guiding a young believer through one-on-one discipleship, leading a small group, or teaching a class of adults or youth, this book is perfect for founding young believers on a solid understanding of the gospel and for teaching them how the gospel affects many areas of life.
If I was a pastor, college minister, or youth pastor, I would order cases of this book to give out to everyone in my ministry because if every Christian could understand the gospel and its application as clearly as Chase presents it we would see unparalleled transformation. As Chase himself writes, “Remember, we can’t assume that people know the gospel” (270), and likewise we can’t assume that people know how the gospel ought to affect every aspect of life.
A Quest for Godliness
Many lovers of the Puritans posses the cultural irrelevance and kookiness of hardcore Trekies or Renaissance faire nuts. Going to a church led by a Puritan-obsessed pastor can be a bizarre experience as twenty-first century persons try their best to pretend they are in fact living in the seventeenth century with the exceptions of their clothing, sound system, and electric lights. To many more normal people, such practices seem just as disconnected from real life as learning to speak Elvish.
Although I have long been an admirer of the Puritans from a distance, the bizarre practices of many who emulate Puritan forms as the means to the Puritans’s godliness have long caused me to keep the Puritans at arms length. J.I. Packer’s A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life finally proved to me that both my approach and the approach of the Puritan-ophile are wrong.
Both in secular history and Christian history, there is a tendency to portray the Puritans as being “so heavenly minded that they were of no earthly good.” In my public school education, the Puritans were portrayed as the enemies of Shakespeare, the hysterical witch-hunters of Salem, or the hypocritical victimizers of Hester Prynne. The only primary Puritan source that I recall reading in high school was Jonathan Edwards’s sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” but even in my conservative school, it was derided as uncouth, judgmental, and, well, Puritanical.
Going to Boyce College was quite a different experience when it came to the study of the Puritans. I learned to better appreciate them and respect them, but even there I got the impression that, with a few exceptions, the Puritans were largely irrelevant. I know this was not the intention of my instructors, but this was the perception I received from the Puritans’s own book titles, which are about as long as the books themselves, and the reports that certain Puritan preachers spent decades preaching through books of the Bible. I thought of the Puritans as great men, great theologians, and great men of devotion, but largely irrelevant residents of an ivory tower.
Packer takes great pains to portray the Puritans as truly earthly saints—men of God who wanted to apply God’s truth to every area of their earthly life. Like Roman Catholic monks, Puritans sought a life wholly devoted to God, but, unlike Roman Catholic monasticism, the goal of Puritan “monasticism” was to live out piously in the context of normal human relationships. Rather than pursuing godliness by escaping the world, the Puritans pursued godliness in the world—in their countries, in their communities, in their churches, and in their families.
For the Puritans, no dichotomy between doctrine and godly living existed. The study of, writing about, and preaching of doctrine was important because right doctrine is the means to godly living. Due to this, the Puritans set a great example for us to follow. They were “physicians of the soul,” masters of application. They were not superficial but were penetrating in the way they applied the Word to life. They understood people—their motives, actions, and processes—much better than we do even with all our studies in psychology.
Because of this, the Puritans can aid us today as we attempt to apply the truth of Gospel to our own day and to the lives of people to whom we minister as Christians. Their wisdom should be valued by us today, and it is my hope to read many more Puritan works myself, not because I want to cloister myself away from the modern world but because I want to reach it. Let us imitate the Puritan heart and not merely their forms in a superficial way. Let us not sin against these brothers—these fathers rather—in the faith either by ignoring them or by making of them the Reformed pastor’s equivalent of nerdy, anti-social sci-fi obsession.
The Pilgrim’s Influence
Our tears to joy, our fears to faith
Are turned, as we see.
Twice I have read the first part of The Pilgrim’s Progress, but only now have I completed the entire book including the second part.
The first part is the classic story. Christian escapes the City of Destruction by going through the narrow, wicket gate. While taking the King’s Highway, he faces many trials and temptations. He fights and overcomes Appolyon. He remains faithful at Vanity Fair, and he escapes destruction by Giant Despair. In the end, he wades through the River with his friend Hopeful, and the two are escorted into the Celestial City where trials are no more and only joy awaits them. There are few passages in all of un-inspired literature that compare with Christian wading through the River, almost losing sight of the Celestial City, and then crying out in triumph:
Oh, I see him again! And he tells me, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.” Then they both took courage, and the enemy was after that as still as a stone, until they were gone over.
While the second part is about Christian’s wife and sons, it is equally about Christian’s influence. The story of Christian—of his trials, ultimate victory, and glorious state—have become almost legendary in the City of Destruction. These stories bring great guilt to Christian’s wife, who had rejected his pleas for her to join him. Christian’s faithfulness eventually compels Christiana to forsake all for the Celestial City. Christiana and her four sons are joined by their neighbor Mercy. Along the way, the pilgrim party grows to include a number of other characters: Mr. Honest, Mr. Ready-to-Halt, Mr. Feeble-Mind, Mr. Valiant-For-Truth, and Mr. Stand-Fast. The group is led by Mr. Great-Heart who symbolizes the ideal pastor. Mr. Great-Heart guides the group, protects them, slays the giants along their path, and finally encourages them as they pass through the River to the Celestial City.
All along their journey, the little church recounts the story of Christian, and as they arrive at various places they marvel, saying, “This is where Christian did such-and-such.” Were Bunyan not a Puritan Baptist, we might think that he was signifying the importance of pilgrimage to holy sites and veneration of the saints. However, knowing his theology, this cannot be the case. Instead, he is pointing out the incredible influence of a faithful life. The fruit of Christian’s faithfulness ripens in the lives of these people.
In my journey to the Celestial City, I often cannot see beyond my trials. I fight with Appolyon. I must pass between lions. I have been imprisoned by Giant Despair. I must remain faithful at Vanity Fair. While traveling through the pain, the disappointment, the temptations, and even the despair, we must not forget that even in these things we are moving closer to seeing our God face-to-face and also that God uses the faithfulness of his saints to influence others. God uses our faithfulness to convict sinners and to encourage other saints to press on.
As Christiana says, “The bitter must come before the sweet, and that also will make the sweet the sweeter.”
Why Read Books? For People.
Mega-bookstores are overwhelming. On a date last week, Stacy and I went to Barnes & Noble to drink coffee and browse around, and as we were there, I came away with two conflicting impressions. First, so many books exist that should never have been written and should never be read. I saw so many titles that seemed absolutely worthless—books destined to be in the penny bin of a local used bookstore for the next twenty years. I was saddened by the wasted time of the authors, editors, publishers, and readers of such books.
However, just when I was beginning to get discouraged, I spotted a shelf featuring the Barnes & Noble Classics series. I carefully studied the titles to see which books Barnes & Noble had deemed classics. I saw many books that I had read—Pilgrim’s Progress, The Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn to name a few—but I began to covet the many books in the series that I have not had opportunity to read. I began to imagine spending a lifetime reading such classic books—treasuries of human thought. I imagined myself locked away in some ivory tower—or rather some cabin in Kentucky with a fireside chair—devouring all this information and storing it away into my mind for—for what?—for me, just for me, all for me.
When I realized where my thoughts were leading, I became disgusted with my envisioned self—the miser of knowledge. So, I reacted in my mind by fleeing in the complete opposite direction—I want to give my life to God’s word and ministering in Jesus‘ name to people. I don’t want to lock myself away for the selfish pursuit of human knowledge but give my life for the sake of humanity like Christ gave his life.
It was then that the pendulum which I had been riding slowed to the center. I had made enemies of friends. Perhaps my years of study at institutions and under teachers that cherish books had unconsciously preconditioned me to this. In Bible college and seminary, it seems that many students choose fairly early on to be either a book person or a people person. I had tried to walk the line between the two, but finally in Barnes & Noble I reconciled these friends by coming to this conclusion: People are the purpose of reading. Reading the Great Books opens a window into the minds, hearts, and souls of people. Great literature opens our eyes to the emotions, motivations, and values of people. By understanding people better, we are better able to apply the gospel of Jesus Christ to people’s lives.
I was even more encouraged by this thought when I realized that I was proposing for myself nothing less than the practice of the greatest missionary the world has ever seen—the Apostle Paul. The great missionary had read the great books of his time, even though such books were not available as $6 paperback editions at mega-bookstores. On Mars Hill, he quoted Epimenides and Aratus (Acts 17:28). He quotes Menander in 1 Corinthians 15:33. Then, again he quotes Epimenides in Titus 1:12. Paul’s wide-reading did not hinder his pursuit of biblical study or love for people—he excelled in both. Rather, he filtered such authors through his biblical worldview and used them to understand, explain, and reach the Gentiles with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
There are many, many worthless books, but there are also many that help us understand humanity within their cultural contexts. As any missiologist will tell you, if you want to reach people, you must understand people. Read for the purpose of people. I want to read so that all peoples will worship God in Christ.
Another Müller?
For several years now, I’ve desired to read a biography of George Müller. I had heard many stories about this man of prayer, but I did not know the whole story of his life. Finally, through Roger Steer’s George Müller: Delighted in God I’ve fulfilled that desire.
I found that the typical stories which I had heard about George Müller’s extraordinary faith were true. At the time of his death, the Bristol Times (not to be confused with the Bristol Snoop, for all you Veggie Tales fans out there) eulogized Müller as a man who was “raised up for the purpose of showing that the age of miracles is not past, and rebuking the skeptical tendencies of our time” (233). Müller set out to live a life that would prove to the world that God answers prayers. To that end, he was a man of childlike trust in God. Müller once told a poor, overworked man to work less and spend more time with God because, he said, “It is not your work which supports your family, but the Lord” (57). I would be afraid to give such advice thinking that it might blow up in my face, but Müller’s childlike faith was such that it seemed completely natural and biblical.
Despite such an emphasis on childlike faith, Müller was not the forerunner of modern prosperity preachers. The true substance of his faith can be observed in the various trials that he faced throughout his life. His power in prayer did not lead him to a life of ease. Rather, he faced many, many trials and heartaches. When Müller’s fifteen month-old son Elijah died of pneumonia, Müller wrote, “My soul rejoiced, instead of mourning, that my beloved infant was far happier with the Lord, than with me” (51). Similarly, when his first wife died, he wrote, “Yet, without an effort, my inmost soul habitually joys in the joy of that loved departed one. Her happiness gives joy to me…God himself has done it, we are satisfied with him” (165).
His confidence in God further displayed itself in a humble lifestyle. Müller handled large controversies with poise and grace. J.N. Darby, the famed Bible-teacher who may have been the first person to teach a pre-tribulational rapture, excommunicated Müller’s entire church for disagreeing with him on certain points of doctrine, but Müller did not panic or fire back. He patiently endured the wrongdoing, and the historical record now justifies him and condemns Darby’s action. However, Müller’s humility was not limited to his public persona. He was the same man at home that he was behind the pulpit or anywhere else for that matter. The following journal entry bears witness to a man who had overcome pride and was able to acknowledge and overcome his sin: “This morning I greatly dishonored the Lord by irritability, manifested toward my dear wife, and that almost immediately after I had been on my knees before God, praising Him for having given me such a wife” (72). I wrote in the margin beside this quote, “I do this everyday! For such humility!”
When we read of a man like Müller, it is easy to grant ourselves excuses. He was exceptional. We are ordinary. However, even in this, Müller corrects us. After reading a biography of George Whitefield, Müller wrote, “What hinders God to make of one, so vile as I am, another Whitefield? Surely God could bestow as much grace upon me, as He did upon him” (73). Let us now ask, “What hinders God to make another Müller?” Müller reminds us that nothing hinders God. Absolutely nothing hinders God! O that he may bestow as much grace upon me, as he did upon Müller!
