Contending For Our All

I listened to this John Piper biographical message on Athanasius and was struck by how relevant it is for situations we are praying for right now, including our own efforts to educate and equip our own children.


What may we learn about the sacred calling of controversy from the life of Athanasius?...

*Joyful courage is the calling of a faithful shepherd [and every Christian].
...Athanasius contra mundum should inspire every pastor [and every Christian] to stand his ground meekly and humbly and courageously whenever a biblical truth is at stake. But be sure that you always outrejoice your adversaries. If something is worth fighting for, it is worth rejoicing over. And the joy is essential in the battle, for nothing is worth fighting for that will not increase our everlasting joy in God....

*Loving Christ includes loving true propositions about Christ.
...Athanasius would have grieved over sentences like, " It is Christ who unites us, it is doctrine that divides." And sentences like "We should ask, Whom do you trust?, rather than what do you believe?" He would have grieved because he knew this was the very tactic used by the Arian bishops to cover the councils with fog so that the word Christ could mean anything. Those who talk like this -- "Christ unites, doctrine divides" -- have simply replaced propositions about Christ with the word Christ. It carries no meaning until one says something about Him. ... This leads to a related lesson...

*The truth of biblical language must be vigorously protected with non-biblical language.

Bible language can be used to affirm falsehood. ... Over the years, I have seen the misuse of the Bible especially in liberally minded baptistic and pietistic traditions. They use the slogan, "the Bible is our only creed," but in refusing to let explanatory, confessional language clarify what the Bible means, the slogan can be used as a cloak to conceal the fact that Bible language is being used to affirm what is not biblical. ... R.P.C. Hanson explained the process like this: "Theologians of the Christian Church were slowly driven to a realization that the deepest questions which face Christianity cannot be answered in purely biblical language, because the questions are about the meaning of biblical language itself. The Arians railed against the unbiblical language being forced on them. They tried to seize the biblical high ground and claim to be truly biblical people -- the pietists, the simple Bible-believers -- because they wanted to stay with biblical language only -- and by it smuggle in their non-biblical meanings. ...

* Pastors [and parents] should not aim to preach [and teach] only in categories of thought that can be readily understood by this generation. Rather we should also aim at creating biblical categories of thought that are not present.

...Some of the most crucial and precious truths of the Scripture are counterintuitive to the fallen mind. They don't fit easily into our sin-soaked heads. .. But the Bible will not let its message be fitted into the categories we bring with our fallen, finite minds. It presses us relentlessly to create new categories of thought to contain the mysteries of the Gospel. ... If you want to grow a church, the temptation is to give the people what they already have categories to understand and enjoy. But once that church is grown, it thinks so much like the world that the difference is not decisive. The radical, biblical Gospel is blunted, and the glory of Christ is obscured.... From the very beginning, we are to be speaking to them God-centered, Christ-exalting truths that shatter fallen, human categories of thought...we must labor to create categories like these (to mention a few):

--God rules the world of bliss and suffering and sin, right down to the roll of a dice and fall of a bird and the driving of the nail into the hand of His Son; yet, though God wills that such sin and suffering exist, He does not sin, but is perfectly holy.

--God governs all the steps of His people, both good and bad, at all times and in all places, yet such that all are accountable before him and will bear the just consequences of His wrath if they do not believe in Christ.

--All are dead in their trespasses and sin and are not morally able to come to Christ because of their rebellion, yet they are responsible to come and will be justly punished if they don't.

-- Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, divine and
human, such that he upheld the world by the word of his power
while living in his mother’s womb.

-- Sin, though committed by a finite person and in the con-
fines of finite time, is nevertheless deserving of an infinitely long
punishment because it is a sin against an infinitely worthy God.

-- The death of the one God-man, Jesus Christ, so displayed
and glorified the righteousness of God that God is not unrighteous
to declare righteous ungodly people who simply believe in Christ.

... These kinds of mind-boggling, category-shattering truths demand our best thought and most creative labors. We must aim to speak them in a way that, by the power of God's Word and Spirit, a place for them would be created in the minds of those who hear. We must not preach only in the categories that are already present in the listeners' fallen minds, or we will betray the Gospel and conceal the glory of God.

--John Piper, Contending for Our All