L'Abri 101 The Lordship of Christ over ALL of Life This Summer we are trying something new! We are beginning our Summer series of lectures with a short five-week course on the essentials of L'Abri teaching, what we sometimes refer to as the 'Five Themes of L'Abri'. Each Friday, Greg Jesson and Jock McGregor will co-teach one of these themes. For those of you who have wondered about what makes L'Abri's teaching distinctive or who want to learn more, this will be a good opportunity. Each lecture is stand alone, but if you can attend all five lectures that make up this short course, that would be best. This week we conclude the course with our fifth theme, which looks at the transforming reality that Christ has come to make ALL things new. Dr. Schaeffer stressed that Christ is not just Lord of our heart or in the Church, but is Lord over all of life. Greg Jesson's journey from Los Angeles took him to Switzerland, where he studied at L'Abri with Francis Schaeffer, back to LA where he earned a BA at UCLA and an MA at USC under Dallas Willard, and finally to the University of Iowa for a Ph.D. in philosophy. Most recently, he was a professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Ethics and Public Life at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. Having decided to leave the university, he now spends his time writing, lecturing, restoring an old home, and looking after his dog, Dr. Watson. Jock McGregor and his wife Alison direct the Rochester L'Abri where they have lived for the past 25 years. They met at Swiss L'Abri and previously worked at English L'Abri for ten years. Jock has a B.Sc. and an M.Div from Regent College in Vancouver. He lectures widely on many topics that bear on the relationship between Christianity and contemporary culture. \/ \/ Greg Jesson's Syllabus \/ \/ Pondering the Five Themes of L’Abri: #5: The Lordship of Christ Over ALL of Life Dr. Greg Jesson gregrjesson@gmail.com “Christianity is not merely what a man does with his solitude. It is not even what God does with His solitude. It tells of God descending into the course publicity of history and there enacting what can—and must—be talked about.” C.S. Lewis, “The Founding of the Oxford Socratic Club” in God in the Dock, p. 133 We are looking at the nature of the Christian spiritual life. In the context of: Christianity being true That we live in a supernatural universe That we are living in the shadow of the Fall & Christian spirituality is about restoring of our God-created humanity; “Outside of God the biggest thing in the universe is the human soul (mind).” Or, another way to think about tonight’s theme: “What are the conditions under which human beings flourish?” Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics Think of “The Sermon on the Mount” as addressing the same question: What are the moral conditions under which a person lives the most fulfilling life possible? Living in the availability of God’s Kingdom, what are the conditions and processes under which humans can flourish? These themes are based on what is actually real (reality) Here is the reality: The infinite personal God eternally exists and is always available to reach out to us The issue of our life before God is if we are actively responding to His plans On/off spirituality can’t be correct because God can’t be part-time Think of the thoroughly non-Christian designation “full-time Christian work” If Christian belief isn’t applicable to every part of life (emotional, education, career, relationships, politics, etc.) it can’t be true Why? Because that means God and His guidance are restricted to very limited parts of human life Compartmentalization: Occasionally putting on the spiritual hat Sacred/secular distinction Mafia movies, such as The Godfather, killers who cross themselves and attend Mass Obviously can’t be true, Christianity as an activity, usually Sunday mornings, 10-12 Christianity as a hobby Christianity as a philosophy; a purely academic pursuit in academic settings, no commitment whatsoever The Bible, from beginning to end, presents two Kingdoms or Realms: Kingdom of Man vs. Kingdom of God These Kingdoms war against each other At every moment of life everyone lives in one or other of these two Kingdoms. So, for example, when Jean-Paul Sartre says, “Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.” Nausea, p. 133, that is affirming a particular set of realities, and therefore, a particular set of possibilities of the human person (dispositional properties) We forget what it is like to feel spiritually healthy and thriving Jesus came to teach us The Availability of the Kingdom of God (salvation) and The goodness of rightness (sanctification) We live surrounded by false caricatures of what real goodness is, and what real life is The message of Jesus is so utterly radical, beyond everything that had ever been hoped or dreamed for, that people, even after twenty centuries, have trouble even grasping it what it is all about 14,000 biographies written about Jesus The full, but simple, message of Jesus is often missed Dallas Willard often said, “Life is about more than having our sins forgiven.” The picture that we are often given is one of contentless ritual unconcerned about truth as opposed to propositional truth about the love of God that restructures human life on every level Lordship is not as the oppressive, hope-crushing condemnation by God in every situation like the kingdoms of this world, but it is God’s ever-present offer of reconciliation in each situation of life (Luke 15. 2, “This man accepts sinners and eats with them.”) The Lordship of Christ brings the authority of God into every corner of human life, not by the soul-crushing ways of the Kingdoms of this world, but with the radical message of God’s grace and truth. It is an RSVP (the chance of a lifetime) A gracious invitation, not a burden, not the constant threat of condemnation and judgment. Most people think of God as a giant condemnation machine. What is often missed is that we can’t follow the teachings of Jesus without being transformed by Him The context is everything: Without the Biblical context: Christianity is true, the supernatural is real, we live in the shadow of the fall, and genuine Biblical spirituality is what it means to be a fulfilled human being You simply cannot follow what Jesus said, apart from the context of His ever- present availability (Lordship). “The kingdom of God is at hand” Matt. 4.17 “Love your enemies” Matt. 5.43-48, (Hamas leader’s son) “Pray for those who persecute you” Matt. 5. 44 (According to Dallas Willard “Vernon Grounds was unflappable. I’ve never seen anything like it.”) “Pray without ceasing” I Thess. 5.17 Forgive, not “seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Matt. 18.21-22 “Be anxious for nothing” Phil. 4.6 “Deny yourself” Luke 9.23 “Be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect” Matt. 5.48 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself” Phil. 2.3 Doctrine is important, but it alone does not magically save you or transform you What does it mean to believe? Not mere mental assent, not a mental checklist of approved doctrines James 2.19: “the devils believe—and tremble” Their lives are not submitted to the reality of God’s love and it’s availability How the Qualifications of Discipleship look Impossible Apart from the Lordship of Christ over all Things: Luke 14.25: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sister, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14.27: “And whoever does not bear his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14.33: “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all he has cannot be my disciple.” John 13. 34-35: “A new commandment I give unto you: As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Luke 4. 18-21: Do you hear the Lordship of Christ over All things in these verses? Finally, what is the result of rejecting the Lordship of Christ over everything; what is the result of ignoring the Kingdom of God as it has been revealed in general and special revelation? This is the cost of non-discipleship This explains so much in the world today Here is a quotation that I have always found compelling: “Plato and Aristotle have left us awesome portraits of the effect on human character of choices known to be immoral…Such choices are motivated by love of my associates and/or myself, but end up in destruction of all human friendships and in loathing for the self that has so preferred inadequate goods…to practical reasonableness [what is known to be good]. And this self-loathing still does not inspire repentance, because this person has effected a partial but concentrated integration of his character around some set of experiences—say, of domination, or sensual pleasures [and/or indifference]. “It is not too difficult to envisage, then, the constitution by free choices of a character that would be described simply as repudiating all friendship with God…The possibility of having constituted oneself thus, at the time of one’s death, is the possibility of being in the situation which those who offer to transmit the divine self-disclosure to us have called hell. No-one who has thought seriously about ethics, and about his own character, will be inclined to shrug off the possibility that that is the situation he is heading for because he has already, implicitly, chosen it, or might tomorrow do so.” Fundament
