I am also continuing to study at Birmingham Theological Seminary. This term I am planning to take my 4th Systematic Theology course, Ancient and Medieval Church History and either Greek 2 or New Testament Studies 1.

I do hope that I can again begin working a bit on this blog. There are many things that I intended to write, but have not yet done. The theology section is a prime example. I wanted to have many articles, but have written only one so far. Hopefully that will change. Of course, I also intended that to be a forum for discussion and haven’t seen a lot of reply activity there.

I spoke from Philippians 2:12-18. There Paul speaks to the Philippian church about obeying even when he is not there. (don’t cling to the approval of others) He contrasts obeying when he is present with obeying because it is God who is at work in us. What is our heart motivation for obedience? Is it a fear of man? Is it a fear of punishment? Are we motivated by guilt; trying to atone for our past sins and failures?

Paul’s specific command in this passage is to do all things without grumbling or questioning. When we think about how easy it is to grumble and question, we realize our lack of pure delight in God and His law. We noted the similarity of the Pharisees’ external righteousness and our own tendency toward mere external obedience when other Christians are watching. We recognized that we must have internal righteousness. But, we then see that by ourselves we cannot produce this type of righteousness. “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:16 & 24) But, thanks be to God, He sent Jesus not only to atone for our sins, but He also fulfilled all righteousness as our representative (the second Adam, cf. I Cor. 15:45). And we concluded by seeing that though Christ obeyed perfectly in our stead, we are not released from our duty to obey; rather we are now motivated and empowered to obey by His great love for us . We must cling to Christ and His perfect work as the source of our salvation and as the source of power to live the Christian life.

This will be a short post. Preparing for our trip to the States and ministry in Japan prior to leaving is keeping me quite busy.

My family and I are about to return to the U.S. for the first time in two years. And though it will only be a three-week stay, I think that it will be quite a bit of culture shock for us.

The picture above is my breakfast. doesn’t it look delicious? This is a wonderful way to start the day! A bowl of miso soup, a piece of fish, cooked vegetables, and a cup of tea. Now, I don’t have to eat a Japanese style breakfast everyday just because I live in Japan. The rest of my family doesn’t. But, I love it! Not to mention I am allergic to egg whites. So, I can’t eat a typical American breakfast anyway.

All of this to illustrate that many things that we would have thought wierd or strange two years ago, are the norm for us now. Experienced world travellers will tell you that the real culture shock takes place not when you arrive in the foreign culture, but when you return. This happens because many of the things that you once took for granted are precious, what you used to think was culturally normal you now see through the lens of another culture.

Although I am not completely unprepared for this shock, I am not that sure what to expect. Maybe this short trip will lessen the shock of when we come back for our scheduled year of itineration.

Please pray. Although we have already purchased tickets and are definitely going, please pray that the needed funds for this trip will come in.

My wife and I are in the midst of transitioning from short-term to long-term missionaries. We have been serving here in Japan for 2 years now. Before Mother’s Day 2002 I had never really considered serving overseas. I believed that God was calling me to full-time ministry, but to me that meant in the U.S. At the time, I didn’t see the inconsistency of my position.

It’s not that I didn’t understand the Great Commission. It’s not that I didn’t have a heart for missions. We had been serving our church’s missions committee for several years. But, I had not really ever considered the possibility that God would call me to serve in ministry somewhere other than my home country. Then, it happened. On Mother’s day a missionary from Japan that we supported came to our church. After Sunday school I cornered him to ask him how he and his family was doing. We got to talking and he asked me about my future plans for ministry. He asked if I had ever considered foreign missions. I answered as honestly as I could. I said, “No. Not really. My wife would probably love it. But, me? God, would have to open that door and kick me through it!”

Little did I know…but, God was pulling on his boot!

Immediately after I said this the music that signaled the beginning of the worship service began. “Whew!” I thought, “saved by the organ!” The missionary preached. He shared many things about Japan. But, he also preached from Isaiah 60:1-3 and Matthew 28:18-20. It was a simple message not unlike many that I had heard from missionaries in the past. But, God moved in my heart that day. As he preached, it broke on me like a tidal wave: Here I was, saying that God was calling me to ministry. Yet, I was only willing to do so in my home country where we have an over abundance of ministers! In countries like Japan, there are very, very few. Oh! Don’t think that I immediately obeyed and said “Yes, Lord.” I struggled and fought. But, I knew that I couldn’t fight. finally, I gave in and prayed, “God, if you want me to go, I will go.”

Later, the missionary (without preamble) asked me to come to Japan. What do you think I said? …I didn’t say anything! I hadn’t even mentioned to my wife what I was struggling with. Not to mention, I was still fighting! On the way home, however, I told my wife, “I think God may be calling us to Japan. What do you think?” She said, “I think you’re right.” Now, ordinarily I am a very conservative Christian. But, this answer floored me. God was working the same thing in my wife that He was in me. Though, I don’t think she needed quite the kick that I did.

God has grown in us a love for the Japanese people and a deep desire to see them changed by the power of the gospel.

If you click the graphic above, you will see that the Japanese are the largest unreached people group. This info is from Joshua Project. This doesn’t mean that Japan has a smaller percentage of Christians than other countries. Although the percentage of Christians in Japan is extremely low, the statistic states that it is the largest, by population, unreached people group in the world.

Why are there so few Christian missionaries in Japan? Because it is expensive. Japan is the second richest nation in the world (in terms of per capita income.) So, who is going to reach out to this rich nation? Isn’t it the responsibility of the American church? We, the church of Jesus Christ in the richest nation in the world, with all our money and resources; we must financially and prayerfully support and send missionaries to Japan!

Living in a foreign culture like Japan is really an eye-opening, thought-provoking, and often heart-wrenching experience. It is easy at times to be deluded into thinking that “this isn’t that different from America.” Japan is a modern country. We have all of the technological conveniences that we had in America. Most people drive nice cars in Japan. We have many American based businesses in Japan like McDonald’s, Starbucks, and 7-11.

But, Things are so, so different! For one thing, when you order a medium size drink at McD’s it is a lot smaller than in America. But, more importantly the size of the church and individual churches are smaller. The church in Japan makes up somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of 1%. Less than 1/2 of a percent! The average church in Japan is around 30 members. The growth of the church in Japan is also very slow.

Make no mistake. Japan is indeed a pagan culture. It has deep roots in Shintoism and Buddhism. This is not to be read lightly or dismissed out of hand. It is easy to say, “yes, yes, we know. We’ve heard that countries like Japan and China worship false gods.” That is easy to say when you aren’t looking into the face of someone you have been preaching the gospel to for 2 years, when she says that she went to the Shinto shrine on Sunday to pray for a safe delivery of her new grand-son/grand-daughter. Who or what is she praying to!? I pray that God will open the eyes of the Japanese people to see that there is only one true God who can hear and answer prayer.

The temples and shrines in Japan are really beautiful. But, the longer I live here and the more I think about what they really are, the more I dislike them. The real beauty of Japan is its people.

Me and my dear friend and co-laborer in the gospel, Mr. Dedachi

Now, we certainly do not want to hold on needlessly to church traditions that are of purely human origin. Those traditions that have no basis in Scripture need to be examined carefully in light of Scripture to see if they are worth continuing.

But, what is needed is a proper contextualization of the truths of Scripture. What does that mean? It does not mean a compromise of Biblical truth. It is sharing the truths of Scripture in ways that connect with the people in the context that the church finds herself. This isn’t easy! We don’t want to isolate ourselves by becoming too much of a sub-culture. Though, the church will be somewhat isolated simply by the nature of being Christians in a non-Christian world, we are called to engage the culture as salt and light.

We are to love our neighbors, not look down in disdain at them. We ought to know that we are just as undeserving of God’s love as they. The only difference is the love of Christ and the grace of God in our lives. We have done nothing to earn the love that God has lavished on us. This is true not only of our past, before we became Christians, but it is also true of our lives now. Even the righteousness that we think we have attained since becoming Christians is tainted with impure motives and impure actions. Our only righteousness before God is what Christ acheived on our behalf in His life. His perfect righteousness is credited to us by grace alone through faith alone.

It is with this attitude of humilty, knowing that we are Christ’s only by grace, that we can engage the culture in love. This is the kind of contextualization that we need in order to reach the lost while not compromising Biblical truth.

It is so exciting to be a part of building God’s kingdom in Japan! God is so gracious that He is allowing us to be a part of His work!

The night before we held an outreach event. I built a fire outside (much safer than inside) and we roasted marshmallows, made s’mores, and drank hot cocoa. My kind of outreach!

Introduction
I think that it is safe to assume that you all know the situation that occasioned Paul’s letter to the Galatians. That the Galatians were being deceived by a group of people who were telling them that they, being gentile converts to Christianity, must follow all of the old covenant Jewish laws to be real Christians. Essentially telling them that they must add to their faith in order to be saved. Paul writes to correct them and reminds them that “the righteous …live by faith” not “by observing the law.” In Chapters 1 and 2 he defends his authority as an apostle and the authenticity of his gospel; and that both were affirmed by the other apostles.

In Chapter 3 Paul begins his formal defense of the gospel. In the passage that we just read, however he is drawing some conclusions based on what he has discussed previously in chapter 3. So, before we get into the passage I would like for us to look at some of his arguments that lead up to these conclusions.

1^st – Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. (v. 6)
2^nd – Those who believe are Abraham’s children. (v. 7-9)

This second point is extremely significant. The men who were pressuring the Galatian believers to be circumcised were probably using Abraham as their chief argument to insist that the Gentiles must be circumcised in order to be included in the covenant blessings given to Abraham and those of his household. Entrance into the household and covenant blessings of Abraham would have to come first through the rite of circumcision. But, Paul is telling us that this is not the case.

3^rd – All who rely on observing the law are under the curse of the law.

(v. 10-12)
4^th – Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. (v. 13-14)

a. to give us the blessing given to Abraham

b. (righteousness and the promise of the Spirit)

c. these blessings come by faith.

5^th – The covenant depends on God’s promise not the law. (v. 15-18)
6^th – The law is not opposed to the promises of God. (v. 21)
7^th – The law was put in charge until Christ came. (v. 23-24)
8^th – Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under the

supervision of the law. (v. 25)

If I am a son, why do I feel like a slave?

i. We will feel and behave like slaves (under the curse of the law) to the extent that in practice, we judge our Christian lives, primarily, by how well we are performing. (by our ability to keep the law).

Paul tells us that before Christ came, we were under the supervision of the law. He uses a word in verse 24 that tells us what kind of supervision this was. Pedagogue was a word used to describe a trainer of boys. Some versions translate it schoolmaster. But schoolmaster is really quite different. The pedagogue was more a guardian and disciplinarian. The picture he is trying to give us is that of a guardian to restrain and discipline the boys’ behavior. This guardian would go with him wherever he went to keep him out of trouble.

When I was a boy, I got into a lot of mischief. I did not have a guardian watching me when my mother wasn’t looking. When I was about 7 years old my family lived with my grandparents for a year. My grandmother had these beautiful flowers in front of the house. The flowers had a really long stem with purple flower on the top. My friend and I thought it was really fun whacking the tops of these flowers off with a stick. I can still remember my grandfather yelling at me in German. I was terrified because I had no idea what he was saying. But I got the point: don’t decapitate the flowers.

Now, that’s a really mild example compared with some of the other things we did. But, If I had had a guardian with me watching my every move, do you think I would’ve gotten into so much trouble? This is what Paul is telling us the law was like. God’s people were being guarded and restrained by the law until Christ came.

Paul has told us already that now that Christ has come, we receive the covenant promises through faith and not through the law.

When we live our Christian lives thinking God is watching us waiting for us to slip up so that he can whack us with a big stick and yell at us in German, we are living in fear. We are living like the slave under the law.

When we think that God will love us and bless our ministry to the extent that we are able to keep the law, we are behaving no different than the slave still under the curse of the law. We will feel and behave like slaves ( under the curse of the law) to the extent that in practice, we judge our Christian lives by how well we are performing.

When we struggle with sin, and we all do, and we fail to remember the gospel promises are for us then we begin to think that we are under the condemnation of the law. When I say struggle with sin, I mean struggling with it not living in it. And when I say believing the gospel promises, I include in that belief, turning in real repentance back to the Cross and recognizing that Christ has paid the debt for that sin.

This is where I have the most difficulty with feeling like I am still a slave under the curse of the law. Sometimes I really get into the rut of thinking that I am on probation again. I don’t mean that I have ever been arrested. But I mean probation in the theological sense. What I mean is that Adam was on probation (or under a time of testing in the garden). After the fall, Man is in a state of reprobation (or rejection). But in Christ, we are in a state of approbation (or a state of acceptance). Some think that after we become Christians, we go back to a state of probation like Adam in the garden. And every time we sin we go back to a state of reprobation till we repent and rededicate our lives to Christ again. And in this theology you had better hope you don’t die with unconfessed sin.

But, in Christ we are accepted by virtue of His perfect righteousness. We don’t go back to a state of probation.

When we, in practice, begin to think that we are back on probation with God, we live a defeated life. We are again living in fear. When we sin, God is just an angry judge and not a loving father. And it is in this state that we behave like the slave under the curse of the law and fall more easily into more sin. Because Paul tells us in Romans 7 that through the law comes the knowledge of sin. And when we try to live under the law, sin seizes the opportunity and brings forth death.

For example, we set out to live by a set of good Christian disciplines in order to be good spiritual Christians. And the first time we fail to get up to that 4:30 alarm. Or we fail to keep up with our prescribed daily Bible reading. We begin to kick ourselves for not doing better. We say “I’ll just try harder.” And we become discouraged and think that God doesn’t love us much, or He won’t bless our ministry because we’re failures. Now, this example really belongs with judging your Christian life by performance. But, what about when we sin? We do the same thing. We kick ourselves because we’re failures. We think that a real Christian would have been stronger. So, what do we do? We try to be stronger, we try harder. It’s like falling into a deep hole and trying to dig your self out. But, you can’t dig yourself out of this hole. Actually, I’ve always thought that digging yourself out of a hole was a strange expression. What is the usual product of digging? :a deeper hole, right? So, if you’re in a hole and you begin digging, what are you going to get? :deeper. That is exactly what happens when we try to dig ourselves out of sin.

The only solution is Christ.

It is only through trusting in what Christ Jesus accomplished for us that we will live a life of holiness. Christ in His passive obedience, His sacrificial death on the cross, paid the debt of our sin, and in His active obedience, of living a perfectly righteous life, He secured perfect righteousness for us. So, it is only through faith in Christ that we can live righteous lives. By this I mean two things 1) That we are righteous in Christ’s imputed righteousness. And 2) that as we are gripped by the knowledge that God loves us so much that He sent Jesus to accomplish for us what we could not do for ourselves, then our personal righteousness will flow out of a heart of thankfulness and love for Christ. The second is built on the first. That we are righteous by virtue of Christ’s imputed righteousness. And then as we are gripped by the knowledge that God loves us so much that He sent His Son to redeem us without any view to our merit, then our personal righteousness will flow out of a heart of thankfulness and love for Christ. This is why we obey his commands: because we love Him. Not out of fear of reprisal or rejection (See Romans 8:14-15). When we sin there may certainly be consequences. But, if we are His children, we are not rejected, we are dearly loved children. And as such, our heavenly Father will discipline us as needed. But, never confuse the two.

i. all who believe become “sons/daughters of God

ii. all who believe become equal with all of the other saints. They are not lower than any other Christian. There are no second class Christians.

iii. all who believe become heirs according to the promise

Adoption

We have already looked at Paul’s description of the law as guardian. Now, he continues here to contrast our old lives before Christ and our new lives now in Christ.

We are no longer under the guardian of the law. Christ has redeemed us so that we might receive the full rights of sons. If you are in Christ; if you have been justified by the free grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus, then you are a son/daughter of God. Has God sent His Spirit into your heart, that cries out “Abba, Father?” How great a love is this, that He has redeemed us from the curse of the law, and adopted us as sons and daughters? “So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”

God is the king of the universe. And he has adopted you as his son or daughter. As a slave you had no rights and no property. You had no choices in how you lived your life. You could really do nothing to change your situation. But, now the king has adopted you and made you a co-heir with the great prince. You are now part of the King’s family. You have the privilege of fellowship with the rest of the family. You are now an equal with the princes and princesses of the kingdom. And now instead of a life of despair as a slave with no hope of ever being anything other than a slave (And that is what living under the law is like: no hope of being able to fulfill all of it any more than the slave thinking that he could become a prince of the kingdom by his own effort.) Now you are an heir of the Kingdom, because the King, for the good pleasure of His will, has adopted you and lavished all the blessings of the Kingdom on you. What great joy we have in our great and glorious King! He has shown us such love!