Adrian ☧

The game plan: 1) Humble ourselves before God 2) Ask God to help us by his grace 3) Invest in the family, church, public square, and missions 4) Do all we can to support good candidates and causes 5) Never lose hope in Christ 6) Remember our home is not here 7) Pray much

What Hebrews teaches on the old covenant law (from Jason DeRouchie): “The law made nothing perfect” (7:19); but in Christ, we find: --a “better hope” (7:19) --a “better covenant” (7:22; cf. 8:6)' --“better promises” (8:6) --“better sacrifices” (9:23) --“better possession” (10:34) --a “better country” (11:16) --a “better life” (11:35) --and a “better word” (12:24) None of this entails or enfranchises antinomianism, whether individually, ecclesially, or societally. What it does mean is that we are no in way trying to go back to the old covenant law. We Christians are under the new covenant, and so we obey all the New Testament, and look in an even broader sense to the person, work, teaching, and example of Jesus Christ. He is now our standard of holiness, not the old covenant law; he is the incarnate and embodied fulfillment of all the old covenant law. The law (generally meaning what is sometimes called the "moral law," a term that is nowhere found in Scripture) has value in society as a restraint on sin (1 Timothy 1:8-11). Further, the law continues to teach us about the perfections of God and his moral will for our world. However, Hebrews is clear that we are under the reign and rule of Christ. The old covenant, then, was not bad; it was good. But it is abrogated and fulfilled by the person and work of Christ (2 Cor. 1:20). We seek good law for the public square, to be sure. But we do so knowing that our mission is not to restore old covenant law in the nation; our mission is to make disciples of all nations by the power of the gospel (Rom. 1:16; Matthew 28:16-20). Nowhere does the New Testament lay upon the church the burden to reestablish old covenant law in a given society. We have freedom to work to institute good law in our country, absolutely; that's good to do! But that is not how the kingdom advances. You can enforce the Sabbath in every hamlet, town, and city in America--that is not the same as the advancement of the gospel. Nor is that our mission; nor is that our marching orders from the apostles and New Testament authors. To make it so is to lay a new burden on the backs of God's people, and ultimately to transfer precious resources of time and energy away from what our calling as the church actually is: not to "Christianize" America, but to make disciples by the power of the gospel. You cannot change or adapt the mission of the church without real consequences. You must stay on mission as Christ defined it. Any deviation from this, however noble and well-intended, will have effects, and they will not be positive. (If you doubt this, in historical terms, look at how legalistic enforcement of such strictures fared in the age of both English Puritanism and New England Puritanism. Trying to enforce the standards of old covenant law in society failed, quite frankly, in both contexts. Reinstituting Sabbath observance did not transform either context, not even close. It muddled the mission of the church, and even created fearsome backlash against the church.)

A few thoughts on family worship: 1. Family worship is a blessing. 2. We have complete freedom on how we do it. 3. There is no biblical command to do family worship 6-7 days per week. 4. We never want to "exasperate" our children, even with good things (Eph. 6).

A super-quick theology of governmental justice from Romans 13: 1) It is right to want justice when evildoers do wicked things. 2) You need not be an ethno-nationalist, furthermore, to desire your government to punish evil. 3) Romans 13:3 could not be clearer. Rulers are "a terror" to "bad" conduct. 4) Romans 13:4 indicates that government "does not bear the sword in vain." 5) Public leaders are called "the servant of God" and they are called to be "an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer." 6) This means that Christians should WANT and PRAY FOR the sword to crack down on evildoers. 7) For particularly heinous crimes like the slaughter of Iryna Zaruska, I believe that the death penalty is warranted. 8) All this shows us: a government that does not punish evil is not functioning correctly--not at all. 9) I will repeat myself: the view I have just lined out is *in no way* connected to ethno-nationalism. This is basic biblical Christianity. 10) Christians should want justice, support the justice system, pray for justice, and be a public voice that opposes evil, honors good, and holds the wicked to full and terrifying account. 11) There is zero tension between loving the gospel and standing for justice--in fact, the gospel of grace is what fully awakens our conscience and ignites our ethics, charging us to be "salt and light" in the public (Matthew 5:13-14), a people who speak for the voiceless and defend the defenseless.