Obedience

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Fatherhood, authority, and longevity in one church...

Growing up, the Baylys had only three churches and the Taylors simply one. Soon after they were married, my parents moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where they made Boston’s Park Street Church their home. Some years later when they moved to Philly and made Blue Church their home. Fifteen or so years later they moved to Chicago and made College Church their home. It was College Church where Mary Lee and I met. From the forties when Dad and Mom Taylor moved to Wheaton, College Church has always been the Taylors home—right up to this present day. At ninety-nine years old, Mom and her two children who live in Wheaton faithfully attend worship there each Lord’s Day. (Also a number of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.)

In other words, neither the Baylys nor the Taylors ever changed churches unless a move required it. Think about that for a second. How long have you submitted to your present church?

You’re a bit surprised I put the question that way, aren’t you? “Submit” to a church? Few of us think in these terms...


If your church doesn't teach you to fear God and obey Him, run for your life!

Romans begins and ends with the phrase, "obedience of faith." Chapter one, verse five reads, "we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles." Then the Apostle Paul brings the letter to an end with these words:

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.  - Romans 16: 25-27

Intriguing, isn't it, that the Apostle Paul starts and ends his letter with this pairing "obedience of faith?"

We'd never word it this way. We'd speak of the confession of faith, the grace of faith, the blessing of faith, the certainty of faith, justification by faith, the assurance of faith—anything but the obedience of faith. As we see it, in Christianity faith has displaced obedience from the pride of position it holds in all man's religious schemes of salvation. Further, any talk of obedience is dangerous because man's pride is always chomping at the bit to turn away from dependence upon God's grace, returning to dependence on his own self-righteousness.

"It's all of grace! That's what it means to be Protestant and Reformed! Catholics and Arminians talk about obedience because they believe in salvation by works, but all of us know they're wrong. Grace is everything!"

And yet, there the phrase is at the beginning and end of the book of Romans: the obedience of faith. We must admit it surprises us. If we didn't know it was there, we'd not think it wise for the Apostle Paul to speak this way. We'd warn him that a phrase like this will be used by some people...


Yes, you did misunderstand Mayor Parker's subpoenas...

[NOTE FROM TIM BAYLY: A few minutes after I published my piece, "No, we did not misunderstand Mayor Parker's subpoenas...," longtime Baylyblog contributor, Craig French, asked me to review this piece he wrote. Reading it, I realized we'd both been working on opposing pieces without knowing it. So I simply changed the title of Craig's piece to make the point/counterpoint obvious, and now I'm publishing it. Please keep in mind neither of us knew the other was writing, nor what he would say. And yes, I'm happy for Craig's piece. Iron sharpens iron.]


A Christian response to transgender individuals...

I just finished reading a great article over at the Federalist discussing the indoctrination of school children (K-5) in Queer Theory. Last year it was so-called transgender students being used to push the agenda. This year it is a teacher. Mr. Reuter now wants to be known as Ms. Reuter. The article is excellent and makes a number of important points. I encourage you to read it, but two things occur to me that weren't covered.

First, I wonder if anybody with a child at that school will instruct him to continue calling Mr. Reuter "Mr. Reuter"? There is a lot that we can and should do to make people feel welcome and accepted and loved, but love is never of God when it lead us to...


Reformed Therapeutic Gospel (RTG)

In Adam's fall, victims of circumstance and conditionality all...just rolls off the tongue.


Learning our shapes...

In our Pathway (small group), we are going through 1Peter. As noted before, the Holy Spirit connects our lives to the ministry of the prophets of old with those who announce this grace to us. Though R2K adherents would have us think otherwise, the announcement of grace has implications for every facet of our lives. Grace does more than alleviate our consciences...