Ends in Themselves

“I suggest that these analogies [church as fill-up station or as football huddle] are radically insufficient and misleading. … Athletes do not play football in order to huddle and fans do not attend games in order to watch the huddles—what athletes and fans really care about are the plays executed whne the ball is snapped. People do not go on road trips in order to stop for gas—drivers and passengers set out to enjoy the scenery and to arrive at their destination. Huddles and gas stations are means to an end. The life and ministry of the church are not means to an end. They do not exist to recharge our batteries or to give us a strategy for facing the week ahead. The church’s worship and fellowship are ends in themselves. Nothing that we do in this world is more important than participating in these activities. Participation in the life of the church, not participation in the cultural activities of the broader world, is central for the Christian life.”

[David Van Drunen, Living in God’s Two Kingdoms, 133]

We Are Not New Adams

“Adam was to have his entire obedience in the entire world determined through a particular test in a particular location. So it was for the Last Adam. Like the first Adam, the Lord jesus was confronted by the devil who tried to entice Christ to obey him, and King Jesus resisted the devil and conquered him. Like the first Adam, the Lord Jesus was called to priestly service, and Christ the Great High Priest purified God’s holy dwelling and opened the way for human beings back into his presence. Like the first Adam, the Lord Jesus was to enter God’s royal rest in the world-to-come upon finishing his work perfectly, and this is precisely what Christ did, entering into heaven itself, taking his seat at God’s right hand, ministering in the heavenly tabernacle, and securing our place in the world-to-come.

… If Christ is the last Adam, then we are not new Adams. To understand our own cultural work as picking up and finishing Adam’s original task is, however unwittingly, to compromise the sufficiency of Christ’s work.”

[David Van Drunen, Living in God’s Two Kingdoms, 50]

We May Not Win That Game

“When Christians articulate cultural values, they should be values that non-Christians can embrace as well, not because we have some prior commitment to ‘pluralism,’ and thereby seek to be inoffensive, but because we have expressed values which are in fact common values. Some, perhaps most, of our fellows will reject those values; likewise, as Calvin points out, some people refuse to obey civic laws, and prefer thievery to industry. The answer is not to retreat from a defense based on appeals to general revelation, and scurry behind the allegedly impervious shield of special revelation. Miscreants who ignore common sense are unlikely to pause before citations from Leviticus. The answer is to be better philosophers, better art critics, better film producers, better journalists, better social theorists. The answer is not to ignore the rules of the game to which God has commited us, the game in which both the faithful and the infidel must play, and insist on the rules of the game that only the faithful can play. The answer is to play the game we are in (by God’s direction) as best we can. We may not win that game. The city of man may deteriorate into something bestial. But God never promised that it would evolve into his holy city. Yes, it is in our interests that our culture conform to the norms of creation, but it may not be God’s will that it do so. There have certainly been many cultures throughout history not blessed with the leaven of believers and the measure of common grace that ours has had. But it may well be that it is in God’s purposes that he is withdrawing the common grace that has restrained our culture for centuries. We cannot know.”

[Ken Myers, “Christianity, Culture, and Common Grace,” 44]