Social Drinking and Weak Consciences

D.A. Carson comments on 1 Corinthians 8:12-13, which reads

"When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, lest I make my brother stumble.

(1 Corinthians 8:12-13)

"There are two elements in this spiritual counsel that must be understood.

First, the kind of situation Paul is facing here must not be confused with quite a different one. Suppose you are a Christians who, owing to you r cultural background, has always engaged in social drinking. Now you move into a circle that is more socially conservative. Some senior saint comes up to you and says, 'I have to tell you that I am offended by your drinking. Paul tells us that if anyone is offended by what you do, you must stop it. I'm offended; you must therefore stop your drinking." How would you respond?

This senior saint is simply manipulating you. He (or she) is not a person with a weak conscience who is in danger of tippling on the side because of your example, and thus wounding his weak conscience. Far from it. If he sees you drinking again he will likely denounce you in the most unrestrained terms. In his eyes, he is the stronger person, not the weaker. In other words, this case is not at all like the one the apostle had to deal with. Indeed, you might be wise to tell him, 'I'm sorry to hear that you have such a weak conscience.' He will probably be so unclear as to what you mean that he may actually leave you alone for a couple of weeks.

To develop a modern example somewhat akin to what Paul faces, we would have to change the story somewhat. Now you have become a youth sponsor in a church. Some of the young people from socially conservative homes see you drinking and, against the conscience they have developed over such matters, follow suit; in time they become sloppy about all kinds of serious moral issues. You have thus become party to their substantial destruction."

--D.A. Carson,  The Cross in Christian Ministry

Was It Hidden or Not? The Gospel in the Old Testament

How can exactly the same gospel that be said, on the one hand, to have been prophesied and now fulfilled, and on the other hand, to be have been hidden and now revealed? The question is not an easy one...I do note that in one remarkable passage Paul dares to bring both of these themes together. At the end of Romans, he writes, 

"Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him— to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen" (Rom. 16:25-27)

This is astonishing. At one and the same time, Paul says that the gospel has been “hidden for long ages past,” yet now that it has been revealed and made known this act of disclosure is through the prophetic writings! So is it hidden or not? If it has been hidden, how can it be made known through the Scriptures? If it is made known through the Scriptures, how can one reasonably say that it has been hidden, when the Old Testament Scriptures have been around for a long time?

Paul’s point, I think, is that believing the OT Scriptures are true is not enough. After all, until he became a Chrsitian, Paul himself passionately believed in what we would today call the OT—but that did not ensure that he found there the message of the crucified Messiah…

The point is that however much the OT points to Jesus, much of this prophesy is in veiled terms—in types and shadows and structures of thought. The sacrificial system prepares the way for the supreme sacrifice; the office of high priest anticipates the supreme intermediary between God and sinful human beings, the man Christ Jesus; the Passover displays God’s wrath and provides a picture of the ultimate Passover lamb whose blood averts that wrath; the announcement of a new covenant (Jer. 31) and a new priesthood (Ps. 110) pronounce the obsolescence in principle of the old covenant and priesthood. Hypothetically, if there had been some perfect people around to observe what was going on, people with an unblemished heart for God, they might well have observed the patterns and understood the plan. But the world has been peopled with sinners since the fall, and the OT Scriptures God gave were often in some measure misunderstood. That there was human fault in this misunderstanding was presupposed by Jesus himself when he berates his followers: “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:25-26). Yet at the same time, matters had to be veiled. If the prophesies about Jesus had all been crystal clear and absolutely univocal, one could not imagine how the Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate and Herod could have so radically misunderstood what they were doing. True, they should have understood anyway. But Paul says, empirically, none of them did: “None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). Thus, it was God’s wise plan to have wicked human beings effect his own good purposes of redemption; it was his matchless grace and wisdom that provided revelation clear enough to be understood after the events to which pointed had occurred, but veiled enough that rebellious sinners would in some measure misinterpret it and put it together in wrong ways.”

--D.A. Carson, The Cross and Chrsitian Ministry 

We All Want to be Number One

"By the cross, God sets aside and shatters all human pretensions to strength and wisdom.

This is a central theme of Scripture. God made us to gravitate toward him, to acknowledge with joy and obedience that he is the center of all, that he alone is God. The heart of our wretched rebellion is each of us wants to be number one. We make ourselves the center of all our thoughts and hopes and imaginings. This vicious lust to be first works its way outward not only in hatred, war, rape, greed, covetousness, malice, bitterness, and much more, but also in self-righteousness, self-promotion, manufactured religions, and domesticated gods. 

We ruefully acknowledge how self-centered we are after we have had an argument with someone. Typically, we mentally conjure up a rerun of the argument, thinking up all the things we could have said, all the things we should have said. In such reruns, we always win. After an argument, have you ever conjured up a rerun in which you lost?

--D.A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry (1993 A.D.)

 

We're All Going to Die

“Much more to be condemned is that form of theology that tells believers they ought to be healed, and that if they are not, it is because they lack faith. As far as I have been able to observe, those who propagate such theology die at no slower a rate than those who do not adhere to such theology. The sad fact is that this triumphalist theology is not only theologically ungrounded, it is pastorally cruel. Thoughtful Christians must come to grips, not only with the truth that God can and sometimes does heal, but also with the truth that this side of Jesus’ return “people are destined to die (Heb. 9:27).” 

-D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil 

Protecting Ourselves To Death

"Sometimes we want to want to protect our children or our flock from too many things. For instance, we sometimes try to protect them from the caustic scorn of peers who have little time for Christian values. After all, we console ourselves, the Bible says much about earning a good reputation with outsiders. But that reputation is for integrity, kindness, love; it is never to be won at the expense of silence. I look at my children, and I wish for them enough opposition to make them strong, enough insults to make them choose, enough hard decisions to make them see that following  Jesus brings with it a cost. A church that is merely comfortable, that never evangelizes, never encourages its people to stand on the front line, will never be a strong, never be a grateful, never be able to sort out profoundly Christian priorities."

--D.A. Carson, How Long, O Lord? Reflections on Suffering and Evil (2006 A.D.) 

Only One Penance

“I finally, this evening, confessed my sins and got to work somewhat. It seems so utterly hypocritical to go on as though no sin had been committed without some kind of penance, but God says there is only one penance—Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary, Jesus’ blood. I plead it and go on, knowing that I shall fall again”

--Tom Carson, quoted in Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor, D.A. Carson.