Declaring God's Victory in Worship - Part 2

In part 1 of this post I shared about a new perspective I had gained from the book God at War and Greg Boyd's insight into Ephesians 3:10-11.  Boyd says that the church is to be like a case full of trophies that show off God's grace before the whole angelic realm, and more particularly, we are to manifest the truth that Satan's kingdom is defeated because of what Jesus has done. I'll share some practical ideas of how I think we can manifest this truth, focusing mostly on the worship service.  Just about any element of the worship service can help us proclaim God's victory of Satan. Songs, prayers, sermons and testimonies all have the potential.  

Song - Here are a few sample lyrics that enable us to tell man and the heavenly realms about Jesus' victory over evil. 

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

("A Mighty fortress is Our God" by Martin Luther)

For His returning we watch and we pray

We will be ready the dawn of the day

We'll join in singing with all the redeemed

Cause Satan is vanquished and my Jesus is King!

("Sing to the King" by Billy Foote and Charles Sylvester Horne)

Prayer - An excerpt from St. Patrick's Breastplate which is also used as a hymn.  Makes me think of Ephesians 6.

"I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart’s idolatry..."   

Testimony - Personal testimonies can often reveal God's reign in a person's life, which implies that the person is no longer a child of darkness, but is able to be victorious against the powers of evil because of Christ (1 Peter 2:9-11).  Click here to see a really cool testimony idea that shows many examples of God's will being done in people's lives and in many cases a specific victory over sin or affliction.

I think the issue here is particularly about intention and awareness.  A lot of churches probably do sing songs, pray prayers, preach sermons and share testimonies that mention the defeat of the kingdom of darkness. However, I doubt that this is done consistently and intentionally.  In other words, I'm guessing that most worship leaders and pastors don't sit down to plan their weekly worship service and ask, "Did I make sure to have something in the service that announces Satan's defeat to whatever people and angelic beings are present?"  My suggestion is that leaders ought to be intentionally consistent about doing this.

Additionally, even when victory over the darkness and the cosmic implications of Jesus' redeeming work is proclaimed in some way during the service, the church as a whole probably isn't actively engaging in that moment as their time to make God's wisdom and victory known to the "rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms."  So leaders, make time for teaching moments so the congregation can be more aware of this Ephesians 3:10-11 concept and engage accordingly.

Beyond the worship service,  it occurs to me that growing in Christ's likeness (via spiritual formation) is another way the church should be manifesting the truth of Satan's defeat.  In fact, we can seem to be fully engaged in this manifesting of God's victory while we're in a worship service, but it doesn't mean a whole lot if we leave the service and go out living a life that's still enslaved to sin, and thus the devil.  1 John 2:3-6 makes it quite clear that the evidence of whether we are living in the kingdom of God, the life of Jesus, is whether we are walking like he did and obeying His commands.  

If the church remains as it is, with many professing some kind of faith, but very few actually seeking and allowing for complete transformation into the likeness of Christ, the kingdom of darkness and all the unbelieving humans in the world still don't see what difference Jesus makes since nothing has really changed from their point of view. However, if our bodies and thoughts are no longer enslaved to sinful behavior, and instead are moving in the will of God, that speaks very loudly to the kingdom of darkness (and unbelievers) that the kingdom of God is here on the earth and that it can overcome the evil that is (for a limited time) still overwhelmingly present in our world. 

Declaring God's Cosmic VIctory Through Worship - Part 1

Probably the most important concept God has expanded my mind and heart with over the last year has been seeing Jesus Christ's incarnation, earthly ministry, death and resurrection as being primarily about restoring God's creation as a whole, not just about making individual humans debt-free in regards to their sin.  Embracing this perspective has forced me to acknowledge that contemporary Christian worship does not usually emphasize this "cosmic" view of Christ's redemptive work, and in many cases, contradicts it.  In this post I will explore one way in which the purpose of our redemption goes beyond the personal benefits we receive from it. 

In Ephesians 2, we learn that we are saved from sin and death by God' grace, not by anything we have done, it is a gift from God.  Why did God do this?  I think the most common answer you'll get is something like "because God chose us and loves us."  And that is a true answer.  Just look at Ephesians 1:4-5 and see how it was part of God's plan from the beginning to adopt us as sons through Jesus Christ, because of His choice and love.  However, the plan and reasoning behind why God did what He did through Christ encompasses more than just His love for us and His desire to make us holy and blameless.  Ephesians 3:10-11 offers some insight into one of those other purposes.

"His (God's) intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord."  

Commenting on this passage, Greg Boyd says the church is like a trophy case for displaying God's grace to the whole angelic society, especially those who oppose Him.  He asserts that "The church is to manifest the truth that Satan's kingdom is defeated.  Thus, in its own way, under the victorious authority of Christ, the church is to engage and overthrow evil powers, just as Jesus himself has done.  Indeed, when the church does this through the Spirit, it is Jesus himself who is still doing it."

I love the irony of this purpose God has for us.  The ones who were once enslaved to the kingdom of Satan have been set free to show its former captors that the true king, Jesus, is on the throne, and that He has vanquished them!  The question is, how many of us truly realize that this is part of why Jesus redeemed us?  Are we actively living out this purpose?  

Next time we'll explore how we can fulfill this role of manifesting the truth of Satan's defeat in worship, and thus help to bring the bigger cosmic picture of God's redemption plan back into the church and recognize that it is not just about us.

God at War

I started a new book last week called God at War: The Bible & Spiritual Conflict by Gregory Boyd.  I've had a hard time putting it down ever since because it has shed some light on some big questions that believers in Christ and unbelievers alike ask, like "Where does evil come from?" and "How do do terrible atrocities fit into the idea of everything being a part of the plan of a perfect and loving God?"  If you're reading this post you've probably seen some of my other posts on spiritual warfare and know that I take the bible at it's word when it talks about satan being the "god of this world" and that I think that many in the church in "the West" are not seeing with spiritual eyes and recognizing demonic activity in regards to the evils in this world, whether they be habitual sin, sickness, mental illness, violence, political powers, etc.  We don't recognize or do much about the work of the demonic in the world around us, even though we have been charged by our Lord to battle against the forces of darkness in this world.  We explain it all away with natural reasoning or blame it solely on man's sin.  Even worse though, the common teaching given for centuries now is that all bad things that happen are to be seen as coming from our Father's hand. Greg Boyd calls this overall perspective "the blueprint theory."  

There are a lot of things we are led to believe to be "biblical" just because it's the dominating idea in the theological circles we run in.  This blueprint view of explaining evil in light of a good God is one of those things many of us have accepted as true because of it's dominance. Basically, as far as I can summarize, this theory says that everything good and evil that happens in the world is all part of the sovereign will of God and was all planned out/foreknown from the beginning of creation.  All evil that happens to us happens as He allows- and allows for a good specific reasons.  This idea is largely attributed to the thinking of Saint Augustine and the classical-philosophical line of reasoning.  However, this concept, as Boyd tries to argue throughout the book, is not founded in the bible, but rather in the "Hellenistic view of divine omnipotence and providence (viz. as meticulous control)."  I'm not going to get into the specifics that Greg lays out in several chapters, but basically he contrasts this view of God's meticulous control with the view that God put angels in control of many elements of this world, and Satan and many others rebelled because they are like man in regards to free will (unlike some views which say angels are all puppet agents of God's will and have no free will).  Those forces that are in rebellion against God are where we ought to be directing our blame for evil. One of the major points that this book drives home is that neither Jesus nor the early church asked why God let all sorts of evils happen, and certainly didn't say it was from Him.  They had this warfare worldview that saw everything bad that happened in light of the "prince of the power of the air" and his legions of demons that are trying to thwart God's will and cause man to suffer, or worse, to continue rebelling against God.

The "yeah but what about that scripture that says..." example that kept coming to my mind in conflict with Greg's argument was in John 9:1-3 where Jesus heals the blind man.  Prior to healing him the disciples ask who sinned that caused this man to be blind, and Jesus responds (in the NIV translation), "Neither this man nor his parents sinned...but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."  Greg notes that a lot of "blueprint" thinkers hinge on this New testament verse as justifying the idea that God's will lies behind even apparently evil events in this world to either punish, build character or glorify Himself.  He first points out that even if this man's blindness was from God's hand to glorify himself, that it would be an exception, not an absolute principle based on the fact that most of Jesus' other miracles were explicitly rebuking works of the devil (not God).  How often we try to lock God's workings in a box and limit Him to a formula for how He operates based on a few examples from scripture.  A further point is that the greek more accurately translated simply says "But let the works of God be manifested" which gives us a picture of Jesus telling us that this is yet another opportunity for Him to release this man from suffering "under the power of the devil" as Peter says in Acts 10:37-38.

This change to a warfare perspective can help a lot of people that have a bad view of God (understandably) because of the idea that evil things come from God's will.  Two, singing songs that paint the warfare perspective will help us to see it in the world around us (and thus help us have the right view of what's going on instead of thinking God is doing evil things) and also help to engage us in the battle that we've been called to as the children of light.  Some song suggestions are "In Christ Alone," "A Mighty Fortress is Our God," "Sing to the King," "This is My Father's World," I don't like the music but the words to "For This Purpose" by Graham Kendrick are very fitting for this theme, at Christmas time "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," and I've loved "Shout Unto God" by Hillsong for a while as more of a battle cry, repetitive song.  

If you'd like to hear a little bit more about why Gregory Boyd decided to write this book, click here,  it is a pretty crazy story.  I also found a link that has a debate between him and John Piper on some theological issues that is very interesting, especially since I just finished a Piper book and really appreciate his work.

Surely some of you have some thoughts on this, please share...