The Primal Cry of “Abba! Father!”

Many Christians would be familiar with the passage in Paul's epistle to the Romans, where he wrote to the church, "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”" (Romans 8:15, ESV)

 

One of the best illustrations of the meaning of the primal cry of "Abba! Father!" I have heard to-date comes from a message preached by Russell Moore, "Primal Scream Theology: The Call and Response of the Abba Cry", originally preached on Sunday, 3 May 2009, at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, where Moore recounts part the story of the adoption of his two sons from a Russian orphanage:

[The] creepiest sound I ever heard in my life was nothing at all.

My wife Maria and I were walking into a Russian orphanage on the first of two trips to the former Soviet Union to meet two boys to whom we had been directed to adopt as our sons.

We'd never seen them; we didn't know all that much about them, but when we walked into the doors of that orphanage, the thing that struck us right away was not the stench, although it was overpowering; I had to resist the urge to walk outside and vomit. It wasn't the squalor of the walls cracking apart and the dilapidated building although that was awful.  

The thing that struck me right away was the silence.

I said to Maria, "Will you just listen for a minute?"

The place is completely still and quiet and there are babies everywhere. As you walked up and down the halls of that orphanage, room after room after room of toddlers and infants, but there was not a cry. It was almost like the Christmas carol that we sing, "all is calm, all is bright", no crying any of them made.

And it slowly dawned on me that what had happened was that you have an institution full of babies without mothers, without fathers, who are learning that when they cry, no one is going to respond. And so a baby learns if he is hungry or distressed or alarmed, that when he cries out, when she calls out, if that happens enough, they will stop crying.

And so all that you heard in this orphanage is the sound of cribs rocking and hitting against the walls as infants comforted themselves in cradles.

And every day, for a week, my wife and I would walk into a room where we found these two little Russian boys. And every day we would play with them and read with them and tell them - even though they couldn't understand us - that we would come to get them and they would be our children soon. And every day we would leave, and we would leave to silence.  

Until the last day of that trip.

Maria and I were told, "It's time for you to go, you're going to have to leave these boys behind, and you're going to have to go back to the United States and you'll have to wait for all the paperwork to be done, and you're going to have to leave now."

We said, "Can we have five more minutes with these boys?"

They said, "You can have five more minutes."

And we hugged on them and we kissed them, and I said, "We will not leave you as orphans. We will come to you." And we walked out of the door.

And as soon as we walked out of the door, one of those little one-year-old boys - little Maxim, whose name now is Benjamin - fell face-first into that crib filled with excrement and screamed.

It was the most beautiful sound I have ever heard.  

Not because of his agony, not because of his sense of abandonment, but because in that scream he recognised us as his parents. He knew that we would hear.

That is exactly what the Apostle Paul says is happening in the life of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, when through the Holy Spirit you cry out "Abba! Father!"

 

This is our primal cry to God when we cry out "Abba! Father!" It is a cry with the knowledge that we have a God who will hear us. As the Psalmist writes, speaking from God's perspective, "He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him." (Psalm 91:15)

 

This is the spirit of adoption, the spirit of sonship, that we receive through God's beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

Strength to be who He truly wants us to be

Something interesting caught my eye in the papers today. It was an article about Cassandra Thng, a transgender woman, which the Sunday Times says it means "she identifies with a gender different from the one she was born as". In other words, Cassandra Thng is biologically male, but identifies as female.

 

Cassandra Thng held a sign which said "I am trans. Will you take a photo with me?" at the shopping belt from Bugis to Orchard, seeking to raise awareness on the Transgender Day of Visibility from 5.30pm to 10pm on 31 March 2017.

 

 

(From Cassandra Thng's Facebook page)

 

The Sunday Times reports in "Hostile stares and friendly words on the streets" (16 April 2017):

But while Ms Thng did receive some hostile stares, she also found support on the streets. 

"The most interesting thing that night... was three Christian girls asking to say a prayer for me - and they prayed that I may have the strength to be myself, and have the labels not put on me by God to be cast off. 

"I really experienced the kind of extremes that faith can bring people to that night," she said.  

"I could not have asked for things to go better."

 

The account of the three Christian girls is indeed beautiful and fitting especially in light of this weekend with Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday as we remember the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Assuming the account is correct, I'd affirm their prayer with a firm "amen".

 

Yet, I believe that Cassandra may not have understood the thrust of the prayer made by the three Christian girls.

 

Indeed, in God's eyes, we are created "male and female" in His image (Genesis 1:27). Likewise, Jesus taught that "at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female'" (Matthew 19:4).

 

From God's perspective, every single human being has inherent worth and dignity as His image-bearer. Our biological sex is not an accident of nature nor a social construct, but is of divine design. Male and female are made complementary, equal but different. Who we truly are is truly who we are in Him. 

 

No matter what labels that society may place on us or what labels we may place on ourselves, what truly matters is how God sees us.

 

Every human being is an integrated unity of heart, soul, mind and body (cf. Mark 12:30). Our bodies are not our enemies or our prisons, and we are not trapped in the wrong body.

 

I once prayed for a number of transgendered persons at the red light district in Singapore. My prayers were very similar to what the three Christian girls prayed for Cassandra Thng. In my prayers for them, I prayed that God would reveal Himself to them and show them who they truly are in Him, and that they would have the courage to be who He wants them to be.

 

There is no denying that people who identify as transgender feel strongly that their bodies are not part of who they are.

 

But as Jesus died to reconcile to God all things by making peace through His blood shed on the cross (Colossians 1:20), my prayer is that Christ's ministry of reconciliation can be brought to everyone, to reconcile everyone to God and give us strength to be who He truly wants us to be - His sons and daughters. And may every label that does not come from God be cast off.

Sex is a gift, but no substitute for the Giver

At the 2014 Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) National Conference on "The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage", Sam Allberry spoke on the topic "Is God Anti-Gay? Answering Tough Questions About Same-Sex Marriage".

In his message, he addressed four "biggest ground-level questions" that are commonly raised:

1. Did Jesus even mention homosexuality?
2. Can't we just agree to differ over this issue as Evangelicals?
3. Isn't a same-sex partnership okay if it's faithful?
4. Isn't the kind of traditional Christian position on sex and marriage deeply harmful to people?

The responses given by Allberry on these questions are deeply insightful. Given that he is himself same-sex attracted and has been for "pretty much [his] entire adult life", his sharing is not purely theoretical, but practical as well, sharing his personal experiences in the issues and questions.

The final question that Sam Allberry addressed was: "Isn't the traditional Christian position on sex and marriage harmful?" This is the objection that says that the traditional Christian position is the cause of acute mental health problems even suicide among gay people.

As part of his response to this objection, Allberry hit the nail in the head on the allegation that the Christian position was driving same-sex attracted people to commit suicide:

Next thing to say on this issue; on my understanding and in my experience, we Evangelicals are not the ones who say sex is everything. We are not the ones who say that a life without sex is no life at all.  

And the idea that, the assumption behind that, the kind of challenge that celibacy is in itself harmful means that sex has become an idol. If life without sex is not conceivable for you, it is very clear what is really 'god' in your life.

A friend of mine Andrew Wilson back in the UK once a recently spoke on the issue of "Why does God care who I sleep with?" And a part of his answer was to turn the question around and say, "Why do you care so much who you sleep with? Why is that where you draw the line and object to following God? Why is that your one non-negotiable?"

It strikes me that it is our culture that is making sex into an idol, and therefore is saying to people when your sex life doesn't work out your life hasn't worked out. It is not the Evangelical Church but our society around us that is putting the stakes up that high.

And my question is, which perspective is most likely to make someone feel that their life is not worth living: the perspective that says sex is everything and if it's not fulfilling then there's no point - life without sex is no life at all? Or the Christian perspective that should be saying sex is a wonderful gift from God, but it is but a gift and is no substitute for the Giver?

We are not the ones who say that a lack of sexual fulfilment is a lack of human fulfilment. So friends, I don't deny that the church has been the cause of ungodly and unwarranted pain and abuse for people over the years and we should not be slow to confess that and to repent of it. But I want to challenge the culture around us to say, I think it has blood on its hands as well, in making sex the centre.

This is certainly the unfortunate result of the Sexual Revolution and the culture wars of our modern times. It is not exclusively limited to homosexuality, but certainly does include it.

 

With the message on the one hand from the sex-driven culture that sexual relations are a core part of one's identity or an integral part of human fulfilment, and the Christian message that the only acceptable form of sexual expression is in the context of marriage between a man and a woman on the other, it is no stretch of imagination how this may lead those struggling with their sexual desires (same-sex or otherwise) to feel sandwiched between two impossible alternatives, thus leading to despair.

Taken together, these two messages present a same-sex attracted person with the (false) dilemma of either embracing one's "identity" and being "true to oneself" by giving in to one's sexual desires or of following God's commands and therefore denying one's "identity" and thereby giving up perceived human fulfilment in this lifetime.

How should the Church respond then?

Despite how political or theological debates are often about whether homosexuality is right or wrong, acceptable or otherwise, the real issue at its core is a concept of identity.

Modern culture attempts to define human identity based on one's sexuality, thereby defining people as either "gay" or "straight", "homosexual" or "heterosexual", or some other form of "gender identity" or "sexual orientation". Perhaps even some Christians may be tempted to adopt these definitions and labels.

However, this is not how God defines or sees us as human beings. The Bible teaches us that our identity comes from being made in the image of God, male and female (Genesis 1:27). If one is a Christian, one's identity comes from being a child of God and, through the Spirit, we are able to call out as children to God, "Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).

As Sam Allberry said earlier in the same message, "my same-sex attraction is not who I am. It's part of what I feel, but it's not who I am."

Indeed, in Christ, our identity comes from being the children of God. Like Jesus at His baptism, God looks down upon all who are in Christ, and what He said to Jesus He says also to us, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." (Luke 3:22)

And as children, we are able to look to God for every good gift that the Father intends to give us, be it the gift of marriage or singleness, just like any other good gift that the Father deems fit to give His children.

At all times, it is worth remembering that sex remains a gift, but is no substitute for the Giver, from whom all good things come.

"Sisters of First Century Christians" in the Soviet Gulag

Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's classic, Gulag Archipelago, recounts the horrors of the Soviet forced labour camps where "political" offenders (referred to as "politicals") were imprisoned and subject to brutal forced labour on account of various "political" offences which ranged from the ridiculous to absurd, as were other prisoners who were jailed for other offences. 

Among those imprisoned for "political" offences were Christians. In Solzhenitsyn's book, he records the best and worst of their responses to persecution. Of these were a group of believers, simple people with a simple faith, that shone in the darkness of the Soviet Gulag: 

And not only socialists were now politicals. The politicals were splashed in tubfuls into the fifteen-million-criminal ocean, and they were invisible and inaudible to us. They were mute. They were muter than all the test. Their image was the fish. 

The fish, symbol of the early Christians. And the Christians were their principal contingent. Clumsy, semiliterate, unable to deliver speeches from the rostrum or compose an underground proclamation (which their faith made unnecessary anyway), they went off to camp to face tortures and death - only so as not to renounce their faith! They knew very well for what they were serving time, and they were unwavering in their convictions! They were the only ones, perhaps, to whom the camp philosophy and even the camp language did not stick. And these were not politicals? Well, you'd certainly not call them riffraff. 

And women among them were particularly numerous. The Tao says: When faith collapses, that is when the true believers appear. Because of our enlightened scoffing at Orthodox priests, the squalling of the Komsomol members on Easter night, and the whistles of the thieves at the transit prisons, we overlooked the fact that the sinful Orthodox Church had nevertheless nurtured daughters worthy of the first centuries of Christianity - sisters of those thrown to the lions in the arenas. 

There was a multitude of Christians: prisoner transports and graveyards, prisoner transports and graveyards. Who will count those millions? They died unknown, casting only in their immediate vicinity a light like a candle. They were the best of Russia's Christians. The worst had all... trembled, recanted, and gone into hiding.

For these blessed believers, perhaps "the world was not worthy of them" (Hebrews 11:38), and certainly "God had planned something better for [them]" (Hebrews 11:40). 

They may have died silently, unknown and unrecognised by the world; but on the side of eternity awaits a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to them on that day of His appearing (cf. 2 Timothy 4:8).

Faith Without Action is Dead: The cowardice of a pastor in the face of Nazi terror

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?" (James 2:14)

It is often only in times of testing when the rubber hits the road and when faith is put to the test that we truly see whether one's faith is a living faith accompanied by action or a dead faith.

The Bible records numerous accounts of heroes of faith, well-known and relatively unknown, who have stood against evil even when it cost them dearly. The genocidal impulses against the Hebrews or the Jews have always been strong and, on many occasions, godly men and women stood against the tide. For example, there were the Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah, who disobeyed Pharaoh's order to kill the Hebrew newborn boys (Exodus 1). There was Esther, who stood against Haman's edict seeking to exterminate the Jews.

The pastor, from the film The Hiding Place (1975)

In our own not-too-distant history, the evil one has not relented in his efforts to destroy God's people. In her book, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom records an account where she was looking for a place where she could hide a Jewish mother and child from the Nazi secret police, the Gestapo. With the scourge of Nazi Germany and its genocidal impulses, arrest would almost certainly mean death:

And the very next morning into the shop walked the perfect solution. He was a clergyman friend of ours, pastor in a small town outside of Haarlem, and his home was set back from the street in a large wooded park.

“Good morning, Pastor,” I said, the pieces of the puzzle falling together in my mind. “Can we help you?”

I looked at the watch he had brought in for repair. It required a very hard-to-find spare part. “But for you, Pastor, we will do our very best. And now I have something I want to confess.”

The pastor’s eyes clouded. “Confess?”

I drew him out the back door of the shop and up the stairs to the dining room.

“I confess that I too am searching for something.” The pastor’s face was now wrinkled with a frown. “Would you be willing to take a Jewish mother and her baby into your home? They will almost certainly be arrested otherwise.” Color drained from the man’s face. He took a step back from me. “Miss ten Boom! I do hope you’re not involved with any of this illegal concealment and undercover business. It’s just not safe! Think of your father! And your sister – she’s never been strong!”

On impulse I told the pastor to wait and ran upstairs. Betsie had put the newcomers in Willem’s old room, the farthest from windows on the street. I asked the mother’s permission to borrow the infant: the little thing weighed hardly anything in my arms. Back in the dining room I pulled back the coverlet from the baby’s face.

There was a long silence. The man bent forward, his hand in spite of himself reaching for the tiny fist curled round the blanket. For a moment I saw compassion and fear struggle in his face. Then he straightened. “No. Definitely not. We could lose our lives for that Jewish child!”

Unseen by either of us, Father had appeared in the doorway. “Give the child to me, Corrie,” he said.

Father held the baby close, his white beard brushing its cheek, looking into the little face with eyes as blue and innocent as the baby’s own. At last he looked up at the pastor. “You say we could lose our lives for this child. I would consider that the greatest honor that could come to my family.”

The pastor turned sharply on his heels and walked out of the room.

So we had to accept a bad solution to our problem. On the edge of Haarlem was a truck farm which hid refugees for short periods of time. It was not a good location, since the Gestapo had been there already. But there was nowhere else available on short notice. Two workers took the woman and child there that afternoon.

A few weeks later we heard that the farm had been raided. When the Gestapo came to the barn where the woman was hidden, not the baby but the mother began to shriek with hysteria. She, the baby, and her protectors were all taken. We never learned what happened to them.

Such was the cowardice of the pastor. Indeed, faith without action is dead.

Give Glory to God

Then Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give him the praise. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me."

(Joshua 7:19)

A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. "Give glory to God, " they said. "We know this man is a sinner."

(John 9:24)

Many would be familiar with the taking of oaths to tell the truth in a courtroom. 

In a Singapore court, a Christian would take the oath by placing his left hand on the Bible, and raising his right hand, saying the words "I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give in this Court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help me God."

In Biblical Israel, "Give glory to God" was a solemn charge to tell the truth. In the Book of Joshua, Joshua begins questioning Achan about his disobedience by asking him to "give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give him the praise". In John 9, the Pharisees question the man born blind who had been healed by Jesus by charging him to "give glory to God". 

We see the very same principle expressed in Mark 9:39 when Jesus told His disciples, "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me". Superficial praise offered to God will not glorify Him if we curse our fellow brothers. For this reason, James highlighted this grave inconsistency in his epistle:

With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. 

(James 3:9-12)

We glorify God when we tell the truth. At the same time, we tell the truth when we glorify God. Justice, whether in court or otherwise, is inextricably linked with truth. Without truth, there is no justice. All that is left is your "truth" versus my "truth" with no objective standard to adjudicate between them, leaving only what Friedrich Nietzsche called the "will to power".

Is it any wonder that the collapse of justice that we see in these last days comes hand-in-hand with the denial of God and the objective, absolute Truth? 

Be Faithful with the Little Things

2016.

I began this year feeling purposeless and meaningless, feeling like I have seen all that I need to see in life. Whether in my work, ministry, or anything else, I felt that I had enough and there was - to borrow a phrase used by the writer of Ecclesiastes - "nothing new under the sun". 

"What's next?" This was the question I posed to God repeatedly over the next few days. 

This morning, God finally gave me an answer, "Be faithful with the little things."

It was a deeply unsatisfactory answer, since I had been hoping for something I would consider more precise, such as a clear direction to "do this" or "do that". 

But upon further reflection, I recalled various passages that I had read recently in my quiet time. As Jesus said, "One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much." (Luke 16:10, ESV)

Likewise, in both the Parable of the Talents and the Parable of the Minas, the talent or mina of the unfaithful servant was taken and given to the servant who had been faithful with what he was given. 

Jesus added, "I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." (Luke 19:26, ESV)

The little things that God entrusts to us are not to be taken lightly, since faithfulness is what counts in God's eyes. So, take heed, and "Be faithful with the little things."