Plymothian

²³ But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, ²⁴ but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

The Object of Our Faith

Abraham believed the words that were spoken to him.  We have a different challenge.  We are to believe in Jesus.  The focus here is on the new life.  We are to believe in the resurrection.  Hid death took the punishment for breaking God’s law.  His life has purchased for us a guiltless existence.  Is that our reality?

I know that I live sometimes as though I were still under the law.  I live as though I were weighed down by judgement.  This shows a lack of belief.  To think once more on Jesus’ death and resurrection reminds me of what has been purchased and the source of my faith brings hope.

Prayer

May my faith not be abstract.  May it be in the person of Jesus.  May I believe in his death and resurrection.  May I live the new life he has purchased.

Questions

1. What is to be the object of our faith?
2. What was the object of Abraham’s faith?
3. How should a life of faith be distinctive?
4. What is the object of unbelievers’ faith?
5. Is it possible to have saving faith apart from Jesus?

¹³ For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.¹⁴ For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶ That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,¹⁷ as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. ¹⁸ In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹ fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. ²² That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness”. ²³ Butthe words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, ²⁴ but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ²⁵ who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Faith Against All Hope

Douglas Moo writes in his commentary on Romans:

Few words are more important to Christians than the term faith.  This is as it should be.  For as Paul explains in the gospel in Romans, faith is at the heart of the matter.  But faith can be something that we talk about without really understanding.  Some Christians seem to equate “faith’ with agreeing to a set of doctrinal statements.  Others think that allowing themselves to be baptized and participating regularly in communion is faith.  Still others view faith as an emotion that they can stir up as a way of getting what they want from God.  We cannot here give a full biblical view of faith or deal here with all the current perversions of the word.  But Paul says three things about faith in 4:13-22 that go a long way toward us filling out for us its meaning.

(1)  Faith is distinct from the law (4:13-14).  Paul here reiterates a point he has already made several times in the letter (see 3:20, 27-28; 4:4-5).  the law is something that must be “done”, commandments that are to be obeyed.  Faith, by contrast, is an attitude, a willingness to receive.  Calvin likens faith to “open hands”.  Believing means that we stretch out our arms and open our hands to receive the gift God wants to give us.  We can take no credit for accepting a gift, nor can we take any credit for our faith.  For faith is not exactly something that we “do.”  Some extreme Lutheran theologians were so anxious to distinguish faith from what we do that they spoke of God believing through us.  But God calls on us to believe.  We believe, even if God creates the situation in which our faith is possible.  But our faith is a response to God, not a “work” that puts him in our debt.

In Our achievement oriented world, giving faith its necessary place in our lives is not always easy to do.  We are tempted to ground our relationship to God in what we do think that our “doing” is so impressive that God will be forced to bless us for it.  Such an attitude toward God breeds serious problems.  One of my former students is a counselor in a church located in a part of North America where hard work and human achievement are greatly admired.  He is constantly counseling believers who are in despair about their ability to “live up to God’s expectations of them.”  His message to them can be summed up in one word:  faith.  God accepts us not because of what we do but because we have humbled ourselves before him and have received from him the gift of salvation.  Doing God’s will is a necessary result of faith, but t must never be put in its place as the mainstay of our relationship with God.

(2)  faith has power not in itself but because of the one in whom we place our faith.  One of the most famous lines in all of sports history in Al Michaels’s rhetorical question toward the end of the 1980 Olympic hockey match between the United States and the USSR:  “Do you believe in miracles?”  Believing in miracles has become a common way of speaking >  Its popularity owes much to the current fad in religion:  a belief in some kind of supernatural power that has a positive influence in people’s lives.  Preoccupation with angels, as witnessed in at least one popular television program, is another indicator of this fad.  But the Bible does not talk about belief in miracles;  it talks about belief in the God who works miracles.

This is just the way Paul speaks about God in the midst of describing Abraham’s faith in 4:17-21.  Abraham recognized in God the One who can give life to things that are dead and can speak about things that do not exist as if they did.  These points had specific application to Abraham’s own situation.  He needed to believe that God could bring life , a son, out of the deadness of Sarah’s womb and his own impotence.  He had to believe that the things God promised him were so sure that God could address them as if they already existed.  God’s character and person guides our faith and channels its expectations.

(3)  Faith is based on God’s Word, not on the evidence of our senses.  Abraham fully confronted the physical impossibility that he and Sarah would ever have children, but this did not keep him from believing God would do exactly as he had promised.  Even when a son had been born to him and he had been ordered to kill the child, Abraham did not doubt God would fulfill his promise to create for him a great people through that child.  For, Hebrews tells us, Abraham believed that “God could raise the dead” (Heb. 11:19).

The key to a full-bodied Christian experience is the ability to keep believing, day in and day out, that the ultimate reality is not what we see around us but what we cannot see – the spiritual realm.  Paul calls this spiritual real the “heavenly realms,” a key idea in his letter to the Ephesians, for just this reason.  Like Abraham, therefore, we need to believe “against all hope”:  trusting in God and his promises even when the evidence goes against it.

But Paul also says that Abraham believed “in hope.”  By this he means that Abraham’s faith was based on the hope that God had given him through a specific promise.  In order to highlight the fact that faith often goes against the evidence of our senses, some theologians have called faith “a leap in the dark.”  But this is not accurate.  Abraham did not arbitrarily and without any basis put his faith in the God of Israel, or think that he would have a son with Sarah.  God had spoken to him, and his word was the basis of Abraham’s faith.

Similarly, we must also realize that our faith is based on the solid reality of God’s written Word to us in the Scripture and of his living Word, Jesus Christ, active to capture our hearts for himself.  We must carefully read scripture and seek to understand the working of God’s Spirit in the world so that our faith is not misdirected.  I think here of the many Christians who are convinced that God has promised health, or wealth, or a particular job, or a particular man or woman to marry, and so on.  their faith, while often noble, probably has no basis in God’s Word.  As our faith must be directed to the God in whom we believe, so also it must be directed by what he has revealed to us.

Prayer

Give us faith to take hold of the dreams that have been shattered and to see them as opportunities for growth.  Give us strength to walk into the realities of the world and see the realities of what you can construct.  Help us to see the impossibility that your will can be thwarted.  May we bring your kingdom and participate in bringing life, and light, and peace.

Questions

1. What is biblical faith?
2. How does Abraham illustrate true faith?
3. Why does Paul use the example of Abraham?
4. How do you resonate with Abraham?
5. In what way does God want you to exercise the faith that you have received?

⁹ Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised?We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. ¹⁰ How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. ¹¹ He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, ¹² and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Which Came First, Circumcision or Faith?

Paul is arguing that God’s blessing is for all.  The Jewish people in Rome would think that because they had followed the rites of Judaism they were to receive God’s blessings.  those who did not follow the rites, especially circumcision, could not be blessed with God’s plan of salvation.  Paul argues that the blessing was given before the rites were issued.  Abraham was blessed by God and then, as an symbol of God’s blessing, the Jewish people have adopted circumcision.

It is Paul’s point that Abraham had faith and exercised it before he had the rituals which showed his faith. The faith enabled him to follow God.

In today’s world we may think that Bible-study, prayer, and serving others make us faithful.  However, it is a core of faith, given freely by God, that works itself out in those actions.  If we do not know God, our Bible-study, prayer, and acts of service are empty.  If there is a lifelessness to our acts, we need to reconnect to the source of life.  Paul is showing that a life of religious service has to serve a higher power.  God, as the ultimate one in the universe, wishes for us to serve him faithfully.

Do you need to take time to connect with the source of life?  Are you resting on your behaviors to prove something to yourself, God, and others?  What is the quality of your relationship with God?  Do you have a dynamic faith?

Prayer 

Dear God, I often feel like I am not able to serve you well.  In those times I realize that I am serving you in my own strength.  Let me have faith that depends upon you.  Let my life reflect a vibrant faith which flows from a heart which is in the Spirit.

Questions

1. Who is used as an example?
2. What is Paul trying to prove through this example?
3. How do you think Jews in Rome might respond?
4. How do some people think that their acts of obedience to God will save them?
5. How can you know if you have the faith Paul is advocating?

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? ² For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³ For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” ⁴ Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. ⁵ And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, ⁶ just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

²⁷ Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸ For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. ²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰ since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. ³¹ Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

No Cause for Boasting

Jewish people might feel proud because of their Jewish heritage.  They may have contempt for Gentiles who do not have the history that they do.  Gentiles might feel proud too.  They did not walk in ways which led to the diaspora.  They did not have the chance to live in rebellion to a law they never knew.  We can all develop a superior attitude, but God gifts Christians with faith equally no matter what their background is.

If you are a Christian it is not because of any great  act of your own.  God rescues all people equally.  Is faith something that we generate?  I think that faith is a gift.  God gives people the fortitude to choose him and the fortitude to continue in their choice.  Emotional highs and lows might put pressure to deviate from the course.  However the gracious gift of faith keeps us true to God.

Prayer

God, thank you for faith.  I do not want to be dismissive of those who struggle with faith.  I have struggled with my emotions, especially feeling connection.  However, you have brought me through hard times.  You have saved me, and you work your salvation out through me.

Questions

1. What becomes of boasting?
2. What worth are works?
3. Describe the faith as Paul sees it.
4. What is the source of your faith?
5. How do you know you have faith?

²¹ But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— ²² the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, ²⁵ whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. ²⁶ It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The Central Passage to Understanding the Bible

Martin Luther believed the above passage was the central passage to understanding the Bible.  It is a link between the 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament.  The ‘but now’ connects the old to the new.  In the beginning of Romans we see that under the Old Testament a case was made through God’s revelation which condemned mankind.  There was no hope because all humanity starts life in an estranged condition.  The Old Testament points forward to a coming salvation, but in the first century that mysterious salvation was revealed to the world.

Faith/Belief is central to God’s salvation.  Only those who believe actually take hold of what God has provided.  Everyone needs saving, everyone can be saved, only those who believe are actually saved.

Legal language and commercial language are combined in this paragraph.  Legally, Jesus takes on the punishment which sin demands.  We are therefore declared ‘not guilty’.  Commercially, God purchases his children from slavery to sin.  In either case, God has brought about the salvation of the same wretches that know themselves to be condemned because of chapters 1-3.

Prayer

Father, thank you for the justification that you have provided.  Thank you for the redemption.  You have reached so far into the depths of our darkened world and you have brought light and life to us.  May we be grateful.

Questions

1. With what words does this paragraph begin?
2. What words are repeated in this passage?
3. Why might Luther have called this passage the central passage of scripture?
4. How do you define justification and redemption?
5. What difference does being freely justified and redeemed make to you?

⁹ What then? Are we Jews^[a] any better off?^[b] No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, ¹⁰ as it is written:

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. ²⁰ For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

No-one is Righteous

Ironically the mantra that no-one is righteous leads to more happiness.  Let me explain.  If happiness=reality-expectations, then having low expectations of people leads to more happiness.  In our backwards society we try and boost people’s expectations of themselves and others and they are constantly disappointed.  If we understand that people are corrupted and tend to failure, goodness and success come as pleasant surprises.

The question remains, then, which one is true?  Are people good, evil, both or neither?  Matthew 7:11 and these verses combine to give a bleak answer from scripture.  All people are evil.  This does not mean that they are as bad as they can possibly be, it means that they are in rebellion against God.  God’s purpose is to bring goodness, flourishing, and prosperity to the world he has created.  Mankind was created to be agents of God’s goodness, but we have broken the flow.  We no-longer are born as conduits of goodness.  We fall short.  We are twisted.  We do not connect to the source.

Some people miss by a little.  Other people miss by a lot.  Our present strategy to justify ourselves is to change the standards.  We deny evil and we redefine it as good.  We even do away with the categories of good and evil completely.  As Nietzsche famously wrote, we have gone beyond good and evil.  However, we lost something in the process.  We are more disconnected, less satisfied, more miserable, less resilient.  Call it frailty.  Call it failure.  Call it what it is: sin.

Without sin, there is no good news.  Without evil, there is no gospel.

Prayer

Father, before revival comes to the West we must see our condition.  I pray that people would take sin seriously.  No matter how beautiful the stories are that redefine us as good, and kind in our nature, we find that we are miserable because we are in denial.  Bring truth.  Let us be unashamed of this part of the gospel, so that people will see there is more to life than the false.

Questions

1. What words are repeated in Paul’s description of man?
2. From where does Paul draw his evidence that mankind is corrupted?
3. How is this point essential to the gospel?
4. How has today’s society changed their opinions about mankind?
5. Does an expectation that mankind be good lead to happiness or disappointment?

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?² Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. ³ What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? ⁴ By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,

⁵ But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) ⁶ By no means! For then how could God judge the world? ⁷ But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? ⁸ And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

Jewish Advantage

Has Paul ripped apart the Jewish people in such a way that they have no advantages.  He keeps coming back to ‘first the Jew,’ but what does that mean?  Jewish people have been chosen by God.  As a Gentile, I do not have a problem with that.  I am glad to have been grafted into the people of God, even if Jewish people came first.

Jewish people have had the word of God for centuries more than Gentiles.  It is a privilege to be entrusted with something so special.  God has been faithful to them.  His faithfulness, though, can be defined as a constant focus rather than a constant bounty.  He has been faithful in delivering judgement when they have failed to institute his righteous ways.  However, he has been faithful in using Israel as the people through whom Messiah has come.  However, if God is glorified whether Jewish people serve him or whether they rebel, what difference does obedience make? This would show a heart of self-interest rather than God-focus.  Such people in Israel or wherever they are found are justly condemned.

Prayer

Father, may you continue to work in your people the Jews.  May your name be glorified by your faithfulness to them.  May they be inspired to jealousy because of how you use Gentiles.  may they be roused to action.

Questions

1. What advantages are there in being Jewish?
2. How would you describe the faithfulness of God if God allows Jewish people to suffer so much?
3. Are there advantages in being Jewish today?
4. How have you told someone Jewish of their high position?
5. What might encourage a Jewish person to follow Jesus?

Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions.

Stone the Christian: Addressing the Coddling of the American Mind

I teach Bible college students in the classroom and in my office. In the classroom I cover the broad sweep of education. I write goals and objectives that grow out of our scope and sequence. My lesson plans apply to all and, although I try to differentiate my instruction by teaching in groups and allowing multiple book choices, I know that there is a better way to teach.

In my office I have placed a rocking chair and an arm chair under the window. My office is where the truly differentiated instruction really takes shape. Many students want to discuss worldview issues, identity formation, and relationships. It’s in my office that we peel back the façade and see what is underneath. It’s in my office that I see the heart of my students. And what I see supports the trends I have been reading about in The Atlantic, The Telegraph, and WaitButWhy.

In the September 2015 issue of The Atlantic, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt wrote “The Coddling of the American Mind,” where they make the following observation: “In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like.” Then they explain why this is “disastrous for education—and mental health [i].”

In Britain, The Telegraph and other papers are talking about what they call “Stepford Students”—students who keep a Pollyanna perspective on life. These young people make sure that any views which are too far from their own are universally marginalized and labeled as ‘intolerant’ or ‘hate speech’. Manchester University’s Student Union event “From Liberation to Censorship: Does modern feminism have a problem with free speech?” is a clear example of how far things have gone. Both the radical feminist Julie Bindel and right wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos were disinvited after complaints from students about their stance on the issues[ii]. It used to be that the diversity of the perspectives in a debate were testimony to its potential for learning. Now it is reinterpreted as the potential for harm to the student.

Similarly, WaitButWhy explained why twentysomethings might be a bit more depressed than previous generations. Tim Urban does not write an academically sound blog, but he writes a wildly popular one. His article “Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy” has over 500k shares[iii]. It resonates with people. His basic thesis is that twentysomethings are depressed because reality does not meet their expectations. They have been told they are special, which they translate as exceptional. They graduate from college, he argues, with the erroneous belief that the world is waiting for them.

These trends of entitlement and a lack of resilience could be dismissed by Christians as a “pagan trends.” The world is going to hell in a handbasket, we could argue, so the spoiled, sheltered, coddled products of grade-inflated public schools are now reaping what has been sown. But I don’t think that Christian schools and homeschools can so easily let themselves off the hook. Christian Smith has shown that the children in our churches have much the same worldview as those from other religions. David Kinnaman and The Barna Research Group have shown us the statistics of what our churched children believe when they enter their twenties[iv]. As a fifth grade teacher in a Christian school, I personally experienced the overprotection of helicopter moms and anxious fathers, who wanted to make sure that their child wasn’t made to feel uncomfortable.

However, discomfort is a catalyst to learning. We have a special word for discomfort in education; we call it “disequilibrium.” The mind tends to want to return to a calm state of equilibrium. When we challenge a students’ perceptions, they are forced to learn so that they can reestablish an inner sense of calm. Are we really challenging children enough that it rocks their world? Have we become so afraid of accusations of hurting a child that we do not challenge them? We have to think about whether the students in our Christian schools have an expectation that life is safe and predictable and that, if things get too hard, Mom and Dad will rescue them. Students coming to Moody Bible Institute out of a Christian school report that as long as you play the game of compliance with school policies, smile at your neighbor, and participate in acts of service you are basically left alone. But Chris Browne of Wheaton Academy has tested his high school students, largely raised in Christian homes, and he has found that their good behavior is not really supported with solid doctrinal beliefs[v]. My own conversations with children going through Christian schools lead me to believe that Christian children have similar values to the world and believe that everyone is basically good deep down (which, of course, is not biblical [Mtt. 7:11]).

So, what shall we do? I believe we need to challenge students in ways that do not destroy them, but that make them uncomfortable. We need to prepare them for the harsh realities of what some commentators call the “quarterlife crisis[vi].” We need to help them develop the critical analysis that can engage with an agile, technological culture. We need to expose our children to the realities of the world and not to hide them in a cloistered environment from which they emerge like beautiful, innocent butterflies just to be crushed under the heel of the first college professor who calls them a moron, or the first friend to unfriend them on Facebook because of their religious views. In short, we need to develop resilience in our children.

If we are to challenge our students, how might we start? I like to stone them. Before you call child safety, let me explain. First of all, I am always willing to be stoned first, and second, this is not a literal stoning. (My guess is that you had that one figured out.) When I play “Stone the Christian” in Christian schools and at camps, I let students ask me questions which they think a Christian would find hard to answer. It’s on-the-spot apologetics. The student or camper who asks a hard question can earn class rewards or camp points. Students can also collaborate to come up with really hard questions. With 8 through 11-year-olds the questions are usually simple ones like, “Why are there so many religions?” or “How can you trust your Bible?” When I have done this with highschoolers, the questions are more difficult, but not as difficult as you might hope. After a while of showing them that I am unafraid to have their stony questions thrown at me, I turn the tables. I have them answer my questions. I try and pitch the level just above what I think they can answer comfortably. And here is the essential part–I don’t rescue them. I ask them hard questions, and I let them sit with the questions at least overnight. The disequilibrium then does its work.

Instead of discouraging or deconstructing the children’s faith, this method is a positive challenge. Then I go a little deeper. I pretend that I am either a naturalist or a postmodernist. (In my college classroom, we work with fourteen different worldviews.) After I have explained what each worldview believes, I let them choose which one will attack them. Then I go after their faith from that very specific worldview perspective. The fifth graders I taught usually did well against the naturalist, but the postmodern perspective was like a greasy pole they couldn’t get a hold of. Too, they often found the postmodern worldview rather enticing.

Of course, some parents were skeptical about my talking to their children about their beliefs in such antagonistic ways. However, when I explained carefully that I was preparing them for difficult conversations after high school, the parents were quickly on board. Some of them helped their children think through the questions over night, but others joined me in letting the disequilibrium sit for a while.

Your solution to the coddling of the American mind needn’t be “Stone the Christian.” However, we must work with God to disrupt the comfort of the feathered nest. In Deuteronomy 32:11 God is described as an eagle. This is not the eagle soaring high and majestic in the clear blue sky. This eagle is busy snuggling up to its young and then pushing them out of the nest. As the eaglet wonders what on earth is happening, it plummets toward the ground, flailing wildly. But the parent eagle swoops down and catches the eaglet before it is dashed to pieces. Then it repeats. Finally the flailing becomes flapping, and the eaglet learns to fly. If we want our students to soar and not fail-to-launch, we need to emulate our loving father who throws adversity our way. We need to expose our children to some things that trouble them, and we need to let them flail a while before we raise them to the safety of the nest.

We want students who engage the world and are resilient. The peace of God–His shalom–will guard their hearts and minds as they engage the most difficult situations. Can you imagine the effect of students on their college campuses who have had their worldview attacked vigorously by friends, family, and teachers who have trained them? The reality of dorm floor debates and watercooler conversation might seem trivial compared to the paces that we have put them through. They will already be used to the discomfort of disagreement and rather than responding in fear and anger they will respond with poise and grace. If we have regularly pushed our students to do activities outside their comfort zone, when they need a job, they will not be averse to knocking on doors or making cold calls until they find someone who will give them a chance. If we intentionally let students engage in situations where they will struggle and fail, they will not collapse completely because their identity has already been built around unrealistic expectations.

We are already seeing that the Christian worldview and its values do not have dominance in the marketplace of ideas. There will be arguments and haggling, bartering and badgering. Those who stand strong will have a voice. Those who allow themselves to be silenced will be marginalized. Those who speak up in adverse conditions must be born from adversity–even if it is a rigorous simulation in our classrooms.

As an administrator you might consider using Social Studies and Bible times in your school to coordinate sequential steps into more adverse environments. Both subjects address societal conflict, so they can house simulations of current cultural contexts or past biblical narratives. The gradation can be intentional, based on developmental appropriateness.

As a classroom teacher, you can think of ways to upset the nest. If your students study The Hiding Place, role-play a Nazi looking for Jews and do not be nice about it. I did this days after a Corrie Ten Boom reenactor had come to tell my fifth grade class her story. I was delighted at how vehemently the students fought to keep her whereabouts a secret and vowed to defend her with their lives.

Among the first Christian schools, according to Paul Kienel[vii], were Martyr Schools. These schools met in secret and prepared their children for the persecution which was to come. It did so by drill and simulation. We would do well by being equally prepared to engage with the culture in which we live. Let’s train our children vigorously to be able to withstand the post-Christian attacks that will come their way. Let’s prepare them for the rigors of life in their twenties. Let’s bathe the whole process in prayer and petition to our God.

[i] Lukianoff, Gregg; Haidt, Jonathan The Coddling of the American Mind, September 2015 Issue of The Atlantic.  The article was accessed on 10/31/2015 on-line at http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

[ii] Ardehali, Rod Stepford Student Culture Threatening Free Speech published by The Telegraph accessed on line at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/student-life/11930441/Stepford-student-culture-threatening-free-speech.html on 10/31/15

[iii] Urban, Tim Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Not Happy online article http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/09/why-generation-y-yuppies-are-unhappy.html accessed on 10/31/15

[iv] Kinnaman, David You Lost Me Baker Books 2011

[v] Personal conversation

[vi] Robbins, Alexandra; Wilner, Abby Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties (Tarcher, 2001)

[vii] Kienel, Paul A History of Christian School Education, Volume 1 (Purposeful Design 1998)

Prayer

May we have courage to challenge the young.  May we upset the nest of those who are in our charge so that they develop resilience.  Let us not coddle our young, but let us challenge them.

Questions

1. How does God develop the children of Israel according to Deuteronomy 32:11?
2. How can care and compassion come from the same source as one who overturns the nest?
3. What might an ancient Israelite think when reading this verse in context?
4. How has your nest been overturned?  What did you learn?
5. How have you challenged another person by participating in the overturning of their nest?

¹⁷ But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God ¹⁸ and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; ¹⁹ and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, ²⁰ an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— ²¹ you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? ²² You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? ²³ You who boast in the law dishonour God by breaking the law. ²⁴ For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

²⁵ For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. ²⁶ So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? ²⁷ Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. ²⁸ For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. ²⁹ But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

We Will Never Succeed in Saving Ourselves

Jewish people in Paul’s time saw themselves as law-abiding citizens.  Not just abiding by Roman law, but possessing and being obedient to God’s law.  They saw themselves as held to a higher standard and successfully living by a higher standard.  Because God had chosen them, he gave them the law.  They showed they were chosen by observance of the law.  Some would even go so far as to serve the law to prove they were chosen.

However, Paul shows that God is not fully honoured by their obedience.  Their obedience falls short of the perfect standard of holiness that would mean they were set apart for God by their own efforts.  A person needs to stop relying on law-keeping as a means of being right with God.  A person needs a transformed heart.  This is not primarily transformed feelings, but it is a transformed orientation.  One needs to be focused on God and set apart by God.

Jewish people still need to hear this gospel.  A life of rules sucks the joy from living.  God is providing something higher.  However, many ‘Christians’ need to know this, too.  A life of rules and churches that police each other can be very damaging too.  To level the playing field, Paul points out that all people are under condemnation to begin with.  By the end of chapter three, the question will be, “Can anyone be saved from the just punishment of God, since everyone disobeys?”

Prayer

You are holy and we are dust – disobedient dust at that.  Help us to lose ourselves in you.  Take away the fear of ‘getting it right’.  Help us to be comfortable with being less than perfect and then work out your perfection in us.

Questions

1. To whom is Paul writing in this section?
2. What point is he trying to make?
3. Can this passage be applied to anyone other than Jewish people?
4. Who do you know who is Jewish?
5. How do Jewish people today seek to be right with God?