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The Glory of Kings: A Festschrift for James B. Jordan
Fyodor Dostoevsky
(Christian Encounters Series)
Athanasius
(Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality)
The Four: A Survey of the Gospels
Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom
From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John
Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
INTRODUCTION
One of the great evils of American Christianity is the idolization of the family. American Christians believe that blood is thicker than baptismal water, and that the family is a redemptive institution. But the primary family for Christians is the “brotherhood” of the church, and Jesus stressed that discipleship may require breaking ties with the blood family (Matthew 10:35-37; Luke 14:26). Though families are not redemptive in themselves, through the gospel they are redeemed and become powerful agents for redemption. Our aim here in Moscow is to build strong churches composed of healthy families.
THE TEXT
“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. . . .” (Ephesians 5:21-6:9).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 1:18 pm
Laughter is a gift of God, a sign that we are made in God’s image. The Lord enjoys slapstick humor and pratfalls, laughing at the folly of the raging nations that conspire against Christ (Ps 2) because He knows that the wicked will fall, like Wile E. Coyote, into the trap they set for the righteous (Ps 37:13; 59:8). The Lord invites the righteous to join in: “The righteous will see and fear, and will laugh at him, saying, ‘Behold, the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and was strong in his evil desire’” (Ps 52:6-7).
Laughter is a gift of God, but as sinners we twist and pervert laughter as much as we pervert and twist everything else. We twist it by laughing at the wrong things, and we twist it by the way we speak. In our sermon text, Paul mentions two perversions of humor,
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, September 11, 2005 at 8:47 am
INTRODUCTION
Ephesians is about the formation of Christian culture, or, in Paul’s terminology, a corporate Christian “walk.” Once, we walked, zombie-like, in death and sin (2:1), but God raised us in Christ to walk in good works (2:10). We are called to walk in a manner worthy of our calling to unity (4:1), avoiding the divisive ways of the Gentiles (4:17). In the first part of chapter 5, Paul exhorts us to walk so as to form a culture of love (5:2), light (5:8), and in wisdom (5:15).
THE TEXT
“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints. . . .” (Ephesians 1:1-21).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, September 6, 2005 at 9:47 pm
Hope is one of the traditional “theological virtues” – faith, hope and love. Hebrews 11 defines faith as hope, and for Paul “hope,” like Victor and Faith, is another name for Jesus (1 Timothy 1:1). In our sermon text, Paul encourages hope by saying God is able to do “exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine, according to the power that works within us” (Ephesians 3:20).
Hope is one of the marks that distinguishes believers from unbelievers. Those outside of Christ are without God and without hope (Ephesians 2:12). For unbelievers, death is a cause of unmitigated grief, because they have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13). “Hope deferred makes the heart sick,” says Solomon (Proverbs 13:12), and for the wicked hopes are always deferred because they set their hope on things that cannot deliver.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, August 28, 2005 at 7:54 am
Is the “mystery of Christ” in Ephesians 3:4 a mystery about Christ or is Christ Himself the mystery? Let’s take the latter option – Christ Himself is the mystery (cf. Colossians 1:27). How does that connect with the way Paul unpacks the mystery in terms of Jew/Gentile union (v. 6)? Through 1 Corinthians 12:12: Christ is the body, the body is Christ; and the mystery is that Jews and Gentiles together make up the body that with the head is the totus Christus.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, August 27, 2005 at 12:02 pm
NT Wright points out that the ascent and descent language in Ephesians 4:7-10 is reminiscent of Moses ascending Mount Sinai and then descending with the tablets of the Ten Commandments. Jesus ascends to heaven, and when He returns He does not bring the law of commandments on tablets of stone, but comes in/as the Spirit who writes on tablets of human hearts.
We can put it another way too: Moses went up on the mountain, and came back with a law that was to guide the people of Israel in the way of life. That law ultimately cursed Israel. Israel was not the Adamic race that God called it to be. Torah did not produce a human race that lived before God as GOd wanted human beings to live.
But what the law could not do, God does: What ensures that the church will be the unified new race that God intended? Because the Greater Moses comes with the Spirit, and more concretely with Spirit-filled people. When the Greater Moses Jesus ascends, He comes back with people, not a set of laws. The blessing of the New Covenant is that we have a government of men not laws.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, August 27, 2005 at 11:05 am
INTRODUCTION
In the first chapters of Ephesians, Paul describes God’s eternal plan for the human race and for the world. He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, and He has now intervened in the history of death and sin to rescue us, to exalt us with Christ to heavenly places, and to unify the human race in His Son. In the remainder of the letter, Paul teaches the Ephesians about the way of life consistent with this gospel.
THE TEXT
“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles – if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men. . . .” (Ephesians 3:1-4:16).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, August 23, 2005 at 7:02 am
Markus Barth highlights the judicial cast of Paul’s statement in Ephesians 2:7 that we “show the surpassing riches of His grace.” The verb “show” or “prove” is a lawcourt term, pointing to the presentation of evidence or a judicial demonstration. God has raised us up in Jesus to the heavenly places as part of His case against humanity, as part of the demonstration of His righteousness and goodness. In God’s suit with the world, the church is the centerpiece of His defense and prosecution.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, August 21, 2005 at 9:33 am
According to Paul, the church is being built into a holy dwelling, a temple in which the Spirit dwells. This has many implications, but let me highlight one. According to the Old Testament, temples were holy places whose holiness had to be guarded and defended. Levites guarded the tabernacle and temple armed with swords to prevent any unauthorized person, any stranger, from drawing near.
By protecting the holy place, the Levites were protecting all Israel. If a stranger, got into the holy place, Yahweh would break out in wrath would break out against Israel. If the house of God became defiled, He would abandon His house, as He does in Ezekiel, and leave the house to be destroyed by Gentiles.
If the church is a holy temple, the church must be guarded from defilement. But who does the guarding? Certainly pastors and elders have a special duty in this area, but pastors and elders are not the only temple guards. We believe in “the priesthood of all believers,” and that means we are all charged with guarding the holiness of God’s house.
If you discover your friend is indulging pornography or drinking too much, what should you do? You are a priest; confront him and guard the holiness of the house of God. If you know your neighbor screams at his wife and kids, what do you do? You are a priest: Guard the holiness of God’s house. What if you learn that your friend has cheated on a math test? You are a priest; guard the holiness of God’s house. What if you hear your brother or sister complaining about your parents: You are a priest. Guard the holiness of God’s house.
Don’t wait for someone else to act. You are a member of the royal priesthood. Guard the holiness of God’s house.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, August 21, 2005 at 8:31 am
INTRODUCTION
According to Ephesians, the gospel is about God’s formation of a new humanity. This is true in two senses: First, in Jesus, the Last Adam, believers are made new Adams and Eves; and, second, in Jesus the divided human race is united into a new family, the temple of God.
THE TEXT
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. . . .” (Ephesians 2:1-22).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 at 11:18 am
INTRODUCTION
What are we up to in Moscow? The simple answer is that we are embarked on an experiment in Christian culture. Ephesians teaches us how we are to do this.
THE TEXT
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, . . .” (Ephesians 1:1-23).
EPHESIANS AND CHRISTIAN CULTURE
Is Paul interested in helping the Ephesians form a Christian culture? Yes. A “culture” is a way of life pursued shared by a particular group of people. A culture includes beliefs about how the
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Tuesday, August 9, 2005 at 11:20 am
“You,” “we” and “us” are interesting in Eph 2: Let’s try “you” = Gentiles and “we” = Jews. This becomes explicit at least by verse 11, and I suggest that we read vv 1-10 in the same way:
“You Gentiles were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked…..we Jews too formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us [His people], even when we Jews were dead in our transgressions and sins, made us Jews alive together in Christ…and raised us up with Him and seated us Jews with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us Jews in Christ Jesus. For by grace you Gentiles have been saved through faith.”
As in Galatians and (perhaps) in Romans 5, the cross and resurrection is specifically for the redemption of Israel, and once Israel has been redeemed, the blessing goes to the rest of the nations.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Wednesday, November 12, 2003 at 12:13 pm
In the Greek text of Ephesians 2:8, the statement “and this not of ourselves, it is the gift of God” is chiastically structured. A wooden translation is: “and this not out of ourselves, of God the gift,” with the EX HUMON (“out of ourselves”) chiastically matching the genitive THEOU (“of God”).
OK, so what? Chiasm works, at least at times, by moving the text “down” to a depth or “into” a center, and then digging it out again. In the flood narrative, the first part of the chiasm takes us to a point where we return to the utter formless-and-voidness of Gen 1:2, before the second half of the chiasm “ascends” back to an ordered cosmos. That may be part of the implication in Eph 2:8: Things that are “of ourselves” move us to the bottom of a pit, but “of God” brings us back out to receive the gift.
Perhaps a labyrinth image is more fitting. In the first half, a chiasm takes us into the center of the maze, and in the second half it brings us out. Alternatively, if you take John Breck’s view that chiasms actually function spirally (A->A’, B->B’, C->C’, and so on), then the whole chiasm functions to take us to the center of the labyrinth, which is normally where the treasure is buried, where the tree of life has fruit for the taking.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Friday, September 19, 2003 at 6:32 am
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