My "First" Blog Post from 2010

Nov 23, 2009 (I am posting this here for posterity because the website this was originally posted on is being discontinued. My original title was "The imperatives are based on the indicatives," which I subsequently changed. Though I had posted occasionally from 2009, I regard this as my "first" blog post.)

Ben Toh  //  The one Jesus loved 1st, husband of 1, father of 4, grand-father of 2, unrepentant Chicago sports fan of winning teams only, and bi-vocational: pastor and self-employed physician in Chicago.

Religion/Imperatives Versus the Gospel/Indicatives

Bryan Chapell said, "The imperatives are based on the indicatives and the order is not reversible." (Chapell is the President of Covenant Seminary and author of Christ-Centered Preaching. He gave a lecture at the Advance09 conference in Durham, North Carolina titled "Communicating the Gospel through Preaching.") Related post: Imperatives - Indicatives = Impossibilities

What does this mean? Imperatives are commands which Christians must do, while indicatives are what God has done. A closely related statement is, "What you do is based on who you are and the order is not reversible."

Some biblical imperatives: Some common biblical imperatives are: love God (Dt 6:5), love your neighbor (Lev 19:18), fear God and keep his commandments (Ecc 12:13), preach the gospel (Mk 16:15), preach the word (2 Ti 4:2), make disciples (Mt 28:19), deny yourself and take up your cross (Mt 16:24, Mk 8:34, Lk 9:23), feed my sheep (Jn 21:15-17), ask, seek, knock (Mt 7:7), the ten commandments (Ex 20:1-17), repent and believe (Mk 1:15), give thanks (1 Th 5:18), look after orphans and widows (Jas 1:27), etc.

Biblical imperatives are wonderful but ... they are not primary. These imperatives are always based on the indicatives through out the Bible, although the indicatives may not be readily obvious. For example, when God gave the Israelites the 10 Commandments, God did not say, "Obey them or you're dead!" Instead, God prefaced the 10 Commandments (imperatives) with an indicative, saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery" (Exo 20:2). God did not say, "Obey the 10 commandments, and then I will deliver you from slavery in Egypt." Rather, God said, "I delivered you from slavery (the indicative), therefore, obey the 10 commandments (the imperative)."

Imperatives are primary in all religions except Christianity: Christians often communicate imperatives rather than indicatives, while thinking that we are faithful to the teachings of the Bible. What is the problem with communicating imperatives rather than indicatives? We are then no different from any other religion in the world. All religions communicate imperatives as the way to be righteous before God. All religions in the world teach about being good, kind, selfless, loving, forgiving, not taking revenge, to be morally upright and not be a drunkard, liar, cheat, adulterer, murderer, etc. Only in Christianity is a man not righteous by what he does (or doesn't do), for in the Bible man is saved and is righteous only by faith alone, by grace alone, by Scripture alone, by Christ alone, and for the glory of God alone (The Five Solas). Titus 3:5 says, "he saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy..." Ephesians 2:8,9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith...not by works, so that no one can boast."

Our default is always toward imperatives: So how might we communicate imperatives when sharing the Bible? We say, "If you don't shape up, how can God bless you?" Or, "If you don't repent, how can God forgive you?" Or, "Unless you obey God, God will punish you." When we do this, we communicated that God's blessings for us is up to us and on what we do (imperatives), and not on God's mercy and grace (indicative).

We also think on the basis of imperatives: "God did not bless me day today, because I did not pray and read the Bible this morning." Or, "I better not give in to sin, so that God will bless my finals and give me an A." Or, "I better pray more and purify my heart more, so that I can preach better." Even if these thoughts seem to play out accordingly, we're still thinking and reasoning in terms of imperatives, and not indicatives.

The Difference between the Gospel and Religion: Tim Keller says it best: Religion says, "If I obey, then I'll be accepted by God." But the gospel says, "I'm accepted by God through what Jesus did on the Cross, therefore I obey." On the surface, both religion and the gospel look alike: both believe in Jesus, read the Bible, obey the 10 commandments, want to live by the "rules" of the Bible, go to church and Christian fellowship, serve the needy and the poor, etc. But in their hearts, their attitude is completely different. How? One does so to receive God's blessing and approval (religion); the other does the same thing because they know that they have already received God's blessing and approval (gospel).

Conclusion: Religion, is what we do (the imperatives we live by), while the Gospel is what God has already done for us in Chirst (the indicative). Bill Hybels said, "The gospel is done, not do."

If we regard what we do (imperatives) as primary, I will either become proud because I think I'm living up to it (and look down on those who are not), or I will despair because I'm failing to live up to it. I will either become confident and not humble (because I think I'm doing well), or I will become humble and not confident (becuase I'm not doing well).

But when we base our Christian lives on the indicative, which is what God has done for us in Christ, then our lives will be an expression of what Jesus has done for me in spite of all my sins. When Jesus is our indicative, we can always be confident and humble at the same time, confident becase Jesus loved me so much that he was glad to die for me, and humble because I am so bad that Jesus had to die for me. (Simul justus et pecator.)

We do not love in order to be loved by God or others. 1 John 4:19 says, "We love because he first loved us."