Holy #*$*!!*$#??

The delicacy of communicating the truth in love is one that is not easy to find and too often imbalanced both in the presentation as well as in the reception due to the bias of the speaker as well as the hearer. For example, by virtue (which is disputed by some) of being a graduate of The Master's Seminary and having attended Grace Community Church for many years, much of what people hear is filtered through a preconceived grid that I presume to know more than others about the Scripture and that I, and only I, have the correct view and everyone else is dead wrong. Not only that, there is an assumption that I am totally lacking in love and simply want to win the theological debate at any cost. It is a foregone conclusion for many to simply assume that I will parrot whatever John MacArthur says out of blind loyalty and that I do not have a mind to think on my own. To add the whipped cream and cherry on top of all that, it is also assumed that I am anti-everything that is opposed to the hyper-fundamentalist viewpoint, which typically equates to being anti-Holy Spirit, anti-women, anti-love, anti-fun, and anti-reality.

To all this I would simply respond in this way - I am an earthen vessel, not fit for anything of my own merit but because of the imputed righteousness of Christ, I have been called to the heavenly grace of salvation granted by the atoning death of Christ on the cross on my behalf, and through His resurrection am secured to the hope of eternal life. Not only that, I have been granted a stewardship of the mysteries of the gospel as a preacher of God's Word, not because I deserve it, but because I have been called to proclaim His excellencies as opposed to the caving in to the agenda of the world.

I have to admit that I am not quite perfect, in fact, far from it. Yet I am compelled by a high view of God and a high view of His Word not to accommodate the tickling ears of the majority, but to simply please my commander by accurately and boldly conveying His message. To that end, I hope to be a humble vessel, not seeking to draw attention to myself but to point people toward the one way, the one truth, and the one life - Jesus Christ.

So for those of you who have a difficult time understanding why I preach what I do, it's because I'm not ultimately called to preach for your sake, but for the sake of honoring God. And the preaching of God's inspired Word does include the purposes of teaching, reproving, correcting, and training in righteousness. We must defend the honor of Christ most of all. As He is our Lord and Savior, anything that demeans Him and defames Him must be addressed without hesitation and without shame. I am all the more convinced that those who would advocate the idea of our Lord "cussing" and dropping F-bombs on people with His speech (alluding to my response of a certain speaker commenting on the cleansing of the temple in Luke 19:45-46) are at best showing an insensitivity to the holiness of Christ for the sake of being sensitive to man, and at worst, blaspheming the holy name of our Lord Jesus by attributing sinful speech to the perfect Son of God.

There is no room for "holy cussing" (as alluded to in the title) in the life of our Savior. Neither should it be in our own lives. In a vain effort to try and make Christ relatable to sinful man, we are never to denigrate and defame our Lord with such insidious claims. This is to cross a line that is not to be crossed. We treat God as holy because His holiness demands it. Not that we are perfect in doing so - we all do fail each day in our own lives to our sinfulness, which will never be fully dealt with in regard to its presence in our lives until we reach heaven in our glorified state. But I am not talking about us in this instance. I am talking about the person of Christ and how we are to present Him and to portray Him not only to this world through our evangelism, but also in edification to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Consider Colossians 1:13-29 - we are called to proclaim a high view of Christ and are called to ADMONISH and TEACH every man with all wisdom to present every man complete in Christ.

Jesus is the Word (John 1:1). Let's not put words in His mouth that He would never speak forth. Instead, let us humbly submit to the words that have come from the mouth of the Son of God and humbly obey them.

Sola Christus - Christ alone
Sola Scriptura - Scripture alone
Sola Gratia - grace alone
Sola Fide - faith alone
Soli Deo Gloria - to the glory of God alone

Amen.