Growing in Christ CHRIS KANG

Growing in Christ

CHRIS KANG

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the English Standard Version.

Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

ESV Text Edition: 2016

Growing in Christ Copyright © Chris Kang 2015, 2018. Contemplative Directions | Brisbane, Australia (2015) Centre for Global Theology (Australasia) | Singapore. Brisbane, Australia (2018) Centre for Global Theology (Australasia) Publication • FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION • All commercial rights reserved. The Good News should not be sold like goods in the market place. Permission to reproduce this publication in any way (with exception of content quoted from other published works, for which copyright restrictions apply) for free distribution, as a gift of God, is hereby granted and no further permission need be obtained. Reproduction in any way for commercial gain is strictly prohibited.

This book is dedicated to my brother Mark

and our gracious Mum and Dad, Florence and Johnny.

Thank you for walking with me in the grace and truth of our

Lord Jesus Christ.

CONTENTS

Foreword by Wilfred Yeo 1 Author’s Preface 3 ONE Baptism of the Triune 5 TWO My Love Story with the Church 7 THREE Searching for Happiness 10 FOUR Blab It and Grab It Gospel? 15 FIVE Grace Anti-Grace 18 SIX I Am He 24 SEVEN Believing Into Him 27 EIGHT Going Beyond Mindfulness 32 NINE Gospel Contemplations 38 TEN United in Christ 41 ELEVEN Growing in Christ 46 References 51 About the Author 55

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Foreword

These initial reflections, drawn from Chris' encounter and personal relationship

with Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God, are refreshing, unabashedly and

unashamed snapshots of a man who has experienced love and fallen in love with his God.

His reflections, meditations, revelations and applications, arising from his 'organic journey

of growth' with Christ, to and into the ever-Triune God, Father, Son and Spirit, engenders

hopes that the reader may be drawn into a communion relationship with the Triune God,

drawn by Father, revealed through the Son in Jesus, empowered and experienced by, with,

through and in the Spirit.

Each person's life journey is similar and different, personally singular and jointly

related in all its simplicities and complexities. These snapshots of Chris' life prompts one

to pause, re-look and reassess the veracity and validity of experiences, relationships and

realities with, in and through Christ Jesus, the Word who was God, Who became flesh.

Snapshots remain snapshots. Many more snapshots will be penned as Chris' 'organic

journey of growth' progresses with its many twists and turns and myriad of encounters and

experiences. Here, they ever remain Chris' records of his life's moments in time shared with

us in love.

Received by the reader in love in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit, I believe that

the reader will be freed to embark on a similar unique 'organic journey of growth' of a love

relationship with the Triune God, Father, Son and Spirit. In this light, and through Him

Who is Light, I commend this book.

Wilfred Yeo 3 June 2015 A seeker in all his human frailties, touched, loved, enabled and being transformed by the Triune

God to continue his exploration of life, in the Son, Who is Life, Who has become flesh, through the

Spirit, into the Father.

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Author’s Preface

More than a year after coming to faith in Christ, I continue to be amazed by the love

of my Lord Jesus. The past year has been an intense period of biblical study, theological

reflection, contemplative prayer, and participation in the ekklesia of Christ – His Church.

It has also been a period of quiet waiting on the Lord, for His will to shine through my life

as I walked where He led me. Even now, He leads and I follow.

This book is but a tiny snapshot of my ongoing relationship with my Lord Jesus. It

is a journal of my formation and shaping by the Lord to bring glory to Him through my

earthly vocation. In His grace and mercy, the Lord has helped me launch my small

independent ministry. Tiny though my works in Him may be, I hope they may nonetheless

impart some portion of God’s wonderful grace to you and magnify His holy name.

I thank God for my darling wife and soulmate, Elaine, who walks with me in Christ

every moment of our life together. She has been and still is God’s greatest blessing to me

on this side of creation. May all my readers be fully restored and deeply loved.

Chris Kang

Brisbane, 2015

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Chapter 1 BAPTISM OF THE TRIUNE

Soon after coming to faith in Christ in 2014, I was baptized in the name of the Father,

the Son and the Holy Spirit. I remember it was a slightly drizzly and cloudy day. But at the

moment of my rising up from the water after immersion, the sun broke through the clouds

with its shining rays warming my heart and welcoming me home. It was something special.

Soon after that, I visited my parents and witnessed Christ to them. They decided to

receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. And so did my brother. It was a most blessed and

joyous time together as we reconnected as a family born again in Christ. They found their

home church and have been imbibing the gospel of grace week after week. Day after day,

they fed on the Word of God and engaged in prayer, deepening their relationship with their

Lord and Saviour. Now one year on, I was blessed again - this time to witness my Mum's

and Dad's water baptism. It was an occasion of joy and affirmation as they publicly declared

their new identity in Christ. Their journey of faith, grace and truth continues ...

Reflecting on the significance of baptism, I am reminded of what Thomas F.

Torrance (1913-2007) wrote about the one baptism of Christ - a Baptism into which we as

His followers are all baptized. What strikes me is that our salvation depends on Christ and

Christ alone. That it is not so much our faith but His faith that saves us. Not so much our

obedience but His obedience that reconciles us to God. Our faithfulness and obedience is

faltering, weak, inconsistent; but His faithfulness is constant and strong, and His obedience

perfect and pristine. In this connection, our baptism depends not so much on our self-

willed act of ritual immersion in or sprinkling by water, but on Christ's perfect one baptism

of water, Spirit and blood. It is Christ's singular baptism into which we are all assimilated.

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Therein lies the power and significance of baptism, not in the mere enactment of the rite

of water baptism. Beyond that, one can also contemplate more deeply on what exactly

makes it possible for us to be baptized into Christ in the first place? What does the Son's

incarnation as a human being have to do with His baptism into us so that we may be

baptized into Him?

A profound mystery indeed. The baptism of the Man Jesus in the river Jordan is not

to be divorced from His baptism in the Spirit. For as Scripture says, "When He had been

baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened

to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him"

(Matthew 3:16; see also Mark 1:10, Luke 3:21-22, and John 1:32-33). And His one baptism

culminates in His baptism of blood on the cross of Calvary, through which His divine

purpose of creation's salvation was finally fulfilled. As we are ourselves baptized, we do so

not from our own strength and faith but by identification with and assimilation into

Christ's impeccable baptism:

"In Baptism, we are baptized out of a centre in our own repenting and believing

into a centre in Christ who died for us and rose again, so that Baptism seals to

us the fact that our old selves with all our vaunted rights have been crucified

and renounced in Christ, and that we have been given new being through His

resurrection in which we are freed from the shackles of the past."1

Deeply grateful to God for His gift of baptism in and through Christ, anointed in

and with the power of the Holy Spirit, I pray that all who are yet to enter into this intimacy

and communion with our Triune God may soon do so. I pray that they will soon be freed

from the shackles of the past and come to new Life in and through Christ. I declare this in

Jesus' name.

1 Torrance, T. F. (1992). The Meditation of Christ. Colorado Springs CO: Helmers and Howard, p.96.

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Chapter 2 MY LOVE STORY WITH THE CHURCH

Recently, my local church at Creek Road started a new series on Love My Church

focusing on the Book of 1 Corinthians. Paul's scriptural passages on love remain for me the

best description on love to be found anywhere in the spiritual texts of the world. My lifelong

experience with Buddhists has shown me lots of rhetoric about love but mostly abysmal

failure to embody it. My excursions into various spiritual traditions revealed dizzying

volumes of writings on mercy and love, some of which sound quite good while others seem

too abstract or just plain cliché. If only the textual and oral verbosity was matched by true

concrete expressions of love!

My initial experience of the Church was not entirely edifying either. As a teenager

(when I had not yet come to faith in Christ), I had Christian friends who cried out they

'love' me in one breath and condemned me to hell the next. I had hyper-emotional

Charismatics who spared not an ounce of energy begging me to go to church with them to

experience miracles, faith healings, and gibberish tongues - which to my young and

rationally inquisitive mind seemed like utter nonsense. Thus, my early experience with

what I deemed 'fanatical' Christians turned me off the Church entirely. Having said that, I

must admit that though their approach did not appeal to me, my friends did seem to be

truly passionate for my salvation, a passion that can be attributed to their love and concern

for me. Thus, I cannot fault them for their zeal despite my sense of recoil from such zealous

expression of faith.

Later in life, seeing the seemingly insensitive conversion tactics of so-called

preachers and pastors made me resolve to have nothing whatsoever to do with the Church.

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Sadly, as a result of these unpleasant experiences, I'd foreclosed the door and missed out

on the beauty, intimacy, challenge, amazing grace and truth of a personal relationship with

Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour. But God is merciful and gracious. He never left me. He

quietly and skilfully drew me close to Him. I now realize just how much He was present in

my life especially during times of major decisions and tribulations. He met me where I was.

My sister in Christ said to me recently that all roads do not lead to Christ but Christ meets

us on all roads. I know that statement to be true.

Jesus came to me on the road to Bodhgaya (the site of the Buddha's enlightenment),

so to speak, and as He spoke, He fired up my heart with elucidation on the law and the

prophets, and the splendour of His grace and truth; the path to enlightenment replete with

ethics, concentration, wisdom; the union of bodhicitta and emptiness; resting in the

absolute space of pristine awareness; silent illumination and breakthrough of no-mind; and

the purity and potential of buddha-nature. In the end, they all point to Him anyway.

Decades passed and now I've finally come home to Christ. I can only look back with

bemused discernment, chuckle at His sense of humour, and rest infinitely beyond

conception in the everlasting embrace of my lovely Lord. I pray for my friends and wish

them well. Our God is one who takes the pain and the bad in our lives and weaves them

into good. He does this in His distinctively graceful way and in His sovereign timing.

Now, a bit more than a year after my personal transformative encounter with Christ,

I see all the pain and joy of that one-year period in a light clearer and deeper than ever

before. It is not enough to be saved by grace through faith. One needs to grow in wisdom

and stature and bear fruit even as one grows in relationship with the Lord. And growth is

seldom a path strewn with rose petals as puerile prosperity theology would have it. A true

relationship is never static nor is it always a mind-numbing dose of facile happiness and

hedonic blessing to which one gets addicted. Relationship that works requires all parties to

get real.

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Abounding joy in the Lord is not simply walking around every day with shouting

and laughing, telling everyone how happy you are and how happy everyone in Christ should

be. That strikes me as contrived and infantile, masking deep inner pain that one seeks at

all costs to avoid but that inevitably manifests as over-compensatory behaviour. When

confronted by those who insist I should appear cheery all the time, I'd simply say this: "I

have wellsprings of joy far deeper and richer than anything you can imagine. There is no

need for me to wear it on my face for your viewing pleasure. My joy comes not from denial

or avoidance of pain (physical, emotional, financial, relational, societal, global) but from

total encounter with pain in all its diversity and intensity. When my whole being breaks

and shatters, my Lord holds them all together. His joy enlivens and sustains me. His

faithfulness keeps me strong. Friends, if you want to know the joy I feel, be prepared to

touch the pain I feel too. Are you willing to give up all that you are and offer it at the altar

of His love? Will you take up your cross, follow Him, and be crucified in Him?"

Friends, I feel as if the Body of Christ is in pain. To my mind, I see polarities of

shallow/hollow theology versus theological overdrive; promiscuity of 'spirit-concussed'

preaching versus hyper-rigidity of 'word-fixated' teaching; reified dichotomy of law versus

grace that is unnecessary and possibly harmful. In short, a division in the Body of Christ

that urgently needs healing and restoration if we are to be effective witnesses to the Gospel

in these end-times.

Remove the cosmetics. Throw off the yoke of 'affluenza.' Forget the corporatist

fantasy. Get real. Are we up to the challenge?

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Chapter 3 SEARCHING FOR HAPPINESS

Happiness. We all want it. We hear famous spiritual figures say: "The very motion

of our lives is towards happiness." “It is our natural birthright to seek for it." Well, at least

that is what the world tells us. The world with all its religious celebrities, self-help gurus,

new-age princes and messiahs, and prosperity gospel preachers. They talk over one another

to sell us the same message of self-made happiness.

Some claim that happiness is "an art" that we all can learn and train in. Just a few

years ago, the Dalai Lama spawned or at least gave a boost to the "happiness industry" with

his bestselling "The Art of Happiness". Not a bad business idea to cash in on the huge

demand for a scarce resource. Or is it more a case of the proverbial generation of false needs

fueling market demand where it did not previously exist? Do we really need to commodify

"happiness" in order to find it? More fundamentally, is "happiness" some thing or entity

that you go all out to seek and find? Is it true that behind every human activity is some

deep need to experience "happiness"?

I think not. For me, the whole notion that you can package "happiness" into a

product or spawn a profitmaking industry out of the commodity of "happiness" is terribly

wrong and morally repugnant. Honestly, I do not even think it can last as a business idea

beyond the initial allure of slick and savvy market deception. Why? Because at the end of

the day, none of these happiness-inducing sleight-of-hand techniques, principles, or

products really work. Why do they not work? Simple. Because they are all based on false

premises.

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First, the premise that happiness is something we all desperately need or want; and

secondly, that happiness is something you can pursue directly and eventually find. Nothing

strikes me as more narcissistic than this rhetoric of "the very motion of our lives is towards

happiness". There are countless examples of people who sacrificed themselves not for the

sake of happiness but because they did what they felt convicted to be true and right.

Righteousness and truth can stand on their own two feet without recourse to some vague

notion of "lasting happiness." In fact, more often than not, such acts of selfless nobility

bring not happiness but more pain and suffering. To hanker after happiness and make it

into an idol or counterfeit god worthy of our pursuit strikes me as selfish to the core, blind

to the truth, and harmful to true community. This brings me to my second point of rebuttal.

Happiness is, at best (if at all), a side-effect or by-product of engaging in what is

good, true, worthwhile, and meaningful. And what is ultimately meaningful is that which

each of us needs to find, not happiness. By making happiness as the be-all and end-all of

human existence, we subvert our real end of ultimate meaning to placate a false need

created by mass marketing. In our quest for ultimate meaning, we may struggle with

obstacles and wrestle with our inner demons, and the process may be less than edifying let

alone "happy". We may go through periods of despair and darkness; we may traverse the

many ups and downs of unpredictable precarious life; and so to describe happiness as the

endpoint of all that human journeying is to trivialize and insult the loftiness of purpose

that points beyond the self. And guess what? The endpoint may never come in this earthly

life. For the promise of eternal life in all its fullness lies just beyond the horizon of this

mortal sojourn. This life will be over before you know it. What comes after far surpasses

anything we can ever imagine.

I would like to invite you to listen to what the Bible has to say on our search for

happiness. Timothy Keller gave an impassioned and illuminating sermon on this topic.

Click on link below to download and listen for free:

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Modern Problems Ancient Solutions: The Search for Happiness by Timothy Keller

(Redeemer Church): https://gospelinlife.com/downloads/the-search-for-happiness-6280/

The Biblical perspective on life challenges us in the West to think beyond the

narcissism and shortsightedness of our postmodern pursuit of happiness. Such pursuit has

been made bourgeoisie respectable at least in part by foreign imports from the exotic East,

a chief exporting centre being feudal buddhocratic Tibet. The Bible is iconoclastic in its

insistence on God our Creator and Father as the uncompromising source of meaning, far

above and beyond all else (see e.g. Exodus 20:2-7). The written Word tells us that seeking

for happiness directly in the flesh will destroy us, for it can never be found there (see e.g.

Romans 8:4-6 and 9-13). Worse, such a pursuit will lead us into perilous seductive blind

alleys of idolatry where we crave for desire-fulfilment in things of the flesh and the world.

And the flesh/world here includes both the material and the pseudo-spiritual.

Materially, we might pursue happiness in sensuality, possessions, money, status,

self-improvement courses, power, fame, celebrities, and what not. Pseudo-spiritually, we

might fall captive to religious legalism, works righteousness, meditative experiences,

spiritual techniques – a sort of ideational and experiential idolatry. To seek happiness as if

it is a thing through these material and pseudo-spiritual avenues will ruin us in the end.

Why? Because none of these avenues will bring you what you seek. They all fall short. In

fact, they were never designed to be repositories of "happiness" in the first place.

“Happiness" is not and has never been a commodity to be extracted by consumers like us

from the soil of this world. What is front and centre in the Bible is not happiness but the

love of a just God and His unfathomable grace. And "... in Him we live and move and have

our being"(Acts 17:28). No other way is there to true Life (see John 14:6).

For that matter, what is front and centre in Buddhism is ironically not happiness

either. Gotama the historical founder of what we now know as Buddhism was never in the

final analysis interested in seeking and finding "happiness." Certainly at least not in the way

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the Dalai Lama and other modern Buddhist revisionists would have it. Rather, for Gotama,

the key issue was the problem of seemingly repetitive and endless suffering and how to

escape from it once and for all. His solution was and is still the attainment of nibbāna (Skt.

nirvana), a permanent cessation of suffering and its roots that enables the 'nibbanised' one

to exit the world of life, death and rebirth. While Gotama might have used a phrase

paramam-sukham or "highest pleasure" to describe nibbana, we are told from reading

numerous passages forming the context for the notion of nibbana, that its "pleasure" is not

to be confused with any kind of material or psychological happiness that we are

accustomed to feel. If anything, 'nibbanic' happiness is so utterly devoid of anything we

might associate with sensation and perception that to label it as "happiness" is a misnomer.

Thus, the word "happiness" just does not compute here.

For modern Buddhist revisionists to call Buddhism an art or even science of

happiness is disingenuous if not blatantly deceptive. I've heard it touted many times before

and I read it again in the Dalai Lama's recent 2015 tour of Australia that love and

compassion is of the essence. Nice words. And nice smiles to go with them too. But here's

the catch. Love and compassion are regarded as means to happiness! So, if we all want to

be happy individuals living in happy families and communities and societies, we need to

practice love and compassion. Sounds quite sensible at first. Until you realize just how

twisted the logic is. Like righteousness and truth, love and compassion can stand on their

own two feet! Love is not a means to an end. Compassion is not a strategy to achieve a

target. And love and compassion are certainly not inputs into the factory assembly line

producing the product of happiness! Simply put, love and compassion are not expedients.

To me, to subvert and sublate the sacrificial nobility of love into the ego-driven agenda of

happiness is an abomination.

A Christian friend of mine once told me many years ago that he could never see how

Buddhist compassion is genuine compassion at all. When I asked him why, he said that

Buddhist compassion is ultimately nothing more than an "input" into "enlightenment" and

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is thus essentially selfish. I debated vehemently with him then. I know better now. And he

is right. My experience with many Buddhists in my lifetime has attested to this "voidness"

of compassion at the heart of Buddhism. Personally, I've found alienating detachment and

smiling hypocrisy more than I have the truly sacrificial and selfless heart of compassion

despite the sophistication of Buddhist rhetoric.

The Bible tells us that only in Christ can we find an unshakeable purpose,

unconditional meaning, and unsinkable joy beyond all our trivial pursuits. Yes, Christ is

exclusive. Yes, Christ is King. Yes, Christ does not mince his words. And yes, Christ has

every right to do so for He is the eternal Logos by and through Whom all things are made

(see John 1:1-3). When Jesus said that whoever loses his life for His sake will find it (see

Matthew 16:25), He wasn't joking. Just as Jesus the Son of God emptied Himself fully in

order to assume our full humanity out of His self-emptying or kenotic love, just so we who

believe into Him are called to empty ourselves in love for His sake and in imitation of Him

(see Philippians 2:5-8). We are called to do so without fanfare, without ulterior motives for

"happiness" or "enlightenment" or whatever else, without guile and duplicity, but with

sincere humble hearts at once broken and surrendered. And in our brokenness and

surrender, He is able to use us as earthen vessels to usher His Kingdom into this fallen

world (see 2 Corinthians 4:7 and Hebrews 12:28). For His glory and for the good of all

creation.

Happiness is not the goal. Christ is. Happiness is not a result of love. Love is. God

loves and is love. And Jesus is proof of that.

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Chapter 4 BLAB IT AND GRAB IT GOSPEL?

Friends, I wish to share something about a strand of teaching with roots in the late

19th and early 20th centuries in the United States, which has become popular once again

through the ministries of several high-profile American preachers. Today, what we call the

'prosperity gospel' is fervently being exported to the rest of the world by means of well-

financed media structures and savvy marketing strategies. Prosperity gospel, by whatever

other name it is called, is rooted in a "... quasi-Christian heresy ... known as New Thought"

(Woodbridge, 2015). New Thought, beginning with the teachings of mesmerist, clockmaker

and healer Phineas Quimby (1802-1866), was soon popularized by the likes of Mary Baker

Eddy (1821-1910) who founded Christian Science, and positive thinking gurus Napolean Hill

(1883-1970) and Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993). The ideas of New Thought influenced

Christian preachers like E. W. Kenyon (1867-1948) and Kenneth E. Hagin (1917-2003), the

latter a father of the Word of Faith movement and arguably the most famous prosperity

preacher. And thus did the repackaging of New Thought in Christian gloss begin.

As did the evolution of the Gospel of Christ in ways conforming to the dominant

culture of acquisition, power and desire-satisfaction. I cannot help but notice stark

contrasts with the spirit of simplicity, contentment, and self-abnegation in the Sermon on

the Mount. The Gospel Coalition has published an informative series on the prosperity

gospel in the month of June 2015. Here are two pieces I enjoyed reading:

• Prosperity Gospel Born in the USA by Russell S. Woodbridge.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/prosperity-gospel-born-in-the-usa/

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• 5 Errors of the Prosperity Gospel by David W. Jones.

http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/5-errors-of-the-prosperity-gospel

To my mind, the crux of prosperity gospel teaching lies in a hyper-inflated view of

'positive confession' (never saying words that may seem 'negative' even if they are true) and

an exaggerated power of individual faith and mental visualization for positive outcomes.

Needless to say, such faith and visualization are more often than not directed at one's

individual desires and needs. So much for Christocentric self-surrender. Rather it becomes

a kind of 'Christo-pedagogic' self-gratification, where Jesus is warped and subsumed to

serve the fantasies of the ego.

Christ becomes sublated into a mere means to an end. Our end. Sadly, a hyped-up

Gucci-brand sort of spirituality that fails to acknowledge the reality of our human

brokenness, our human suffering both physical and emotional, also seems to ignore our

minority-world complicity in social injustice and planetary exploitation, our tacit or explicit

propping up of the global military-industrial complex, and more. There also seems to be a

lack of emotional wisdom in being honest about and confessing our human frailty,

vulnerability, and total dependence on God. In short, I don't see this as good news.

The practice of only confessing 'positive' statements regardless evinces a kind of

cognitive blindness that either cannot or will not see reality as it is - full of the good, bad

and ugly, and a messy blend of sin and virtue, joy and sorrow irrespective of our ideological

lenses, fears, and desires. As psychologists would say, experiential avoidance for fear of

feeling difficult negative emotions and thoughts conduces not to psychological health but

psychopathology. And what about confession of sins, a central practice of the Christian life

as our Lord himself taught and our church luminaries extolled? Remember Martin Luther's

"simul iustus et peccator"? There is potentially an abusive side to this sort of "blab it and

grab it" gospel too. For a teaching that espouses positive health and wealth outcomes to

those who confess positively in faith, a less than healthy or wealthy result could only mean

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one thing - that the Christian has failed to 'confess positively in faith' or stumbled in their

'walk in grace' thus falling prey to the devil's schemes. For all the rhetoric on 'faith' and

'grace', it seems that such preaching has made both faith and grace into a Law – legalistic

yardsticks to judge Christians as they wrestle with the crosses they bear. Imagine the

potential for punitive damage that can be done in the name of 'faith' and 'grace' as

prosperity gospel ideologues use these yardsticks to judge and name-call their flock?

All this points to a shallow and misleading hermeneutic and theology that fails to

grapple with the totality of God's counsel in the Bible, especially the variegated nuances

and strands that do not always fit neatly into a simplistically thought-out ideological box.

There is a real and urgent need for robust theological reflection and care as we seek to

establish ourselves in the Gospel that can withstand the quaking to come.

Friends, it is time we think in biblically nuanced ways about wealth and poverty.

Perhaps this blog article below might help us some way in that direction:

• 16 Myths About Wealth, Poverty and the Bible by Derek J. Brown.

http://derekjamesbrown.com/2015/05/25/16-myths-aboutwealth-poverty-and-the-bible/

Let us remember: Jesus is our one and only End. He is not and never should be a means to

our carnal ends. Every breath we take, every moment we live, is nothing other than a gift

of His grace. In our love for Him, let us not fall into the subtle trap of creature idolatry, an

ever-present threat in a world of counterfeit gods. And if we do get trapped from time to

time, let us not be shy in confessing our sin and expressing our repentance before God.

Our Father loves us. Grace awaits us. All because of Jesus.

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Chapter 5 GRACE ANTI-GRACE

"For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace [Gk. charis anti

charis]. For the law was given through Moses; grace [Gk. charis] and truth [Gk.

aletheia] came through Jesus Christ." (John 1:16-17)

These two verses of John 1:16-17 have been the subject of varying interpretations by

Christian theologians and preachers. Here, I wish to highlight some problems of

interpretation that in my view threaten to sabotage our reception of this profound

teaching. At the outset, let me mention that these two verses are among my personal

scriptural favourites. To me, the teaching and revelation in these verses are pivotal to our

entire approach to Christian doctrinal understanding, living, and practice. They reflect how

we are to assimilate and participate in God's relationship to creation and humanity, the

law's relationship to grace, and our personal relationship to the triune God in and through

Christ Jesus. They are also easy to memorize and recite (inwardly or outloud), rendering

them a useful biblical reminder for our daily walk in Christ. That said, let us begin with

some problems of interpretation we need to be mindful of and to avoid or correct as

necessary, as I see it.

Dichotomy of Law and Grace First, let me look at the dichotomization of 'law' versus 'grace' and its resultant

dilemmas. In the name of 'rightly dividing the Word', it is possible for us to go too far in

rigid compartmentalization of law (referring to the moral law given through Moses) and

grace (referring to the Gospel of Jesus Christ) resulting in a contrived dichotomy of the two.

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I follow eminent Reformed theologian T. F. Torrance (1913-2007) in arguing that the whole

of God's redemptive plan and history is a ‘covenant of grace' where it is God Himself who

has provided in love for humanity ways and means of accessing Him in spite of our rebellion

and sinfulness.

Right from the start, as for example in the Book of Genesis, one can see God's grace

in action where God Himself graciously walked with Adam and Eve before the Fall and

provided for them after the Fall; through His gracious provision and protection of

Abraham, Noah and Joseph; to His giving of the Sinaitic covenant of the Ten

Commandments to Moses and ordained means of sin remediation for regaining access to

God; and culminating in His self-communication and self-revelation in and through the

vicarious humanity of Christ Jesus, the one and only Mediatorial King between God and

humanity. In Christ, we see a fulfilment - not abolition - of the law in His perfect holiness

and obedience and a conferral of grace and truth by His very being and action. In Christ,

the law of the Spirit of life now operates for us who are in Him. Through faith, we have the

laws of love written in our hearts so that we can work out our salvation that He has first

worked into us. As such, the move of rigid compartmentalization of law staunchly opposed

to grace sadly balkanizes the integrity of the written Word and risks further dividing the

Church into rhetorically defined 'law' versus 'grace' camps. The apparent dilemma of

'balance' (touted by some as 'mixture') of law and grace that threatens to nullify both the

severity of the law and the salvific power of grace then results from that initial

presupposition. But the thing is this: the dilemma does not need to be. In fact, the dilemma

is an artificial construct of the initial premise in the first place. When one is able to see the

whole sweep of redemptive history as God's covenant of grace, where law is integral and

not rigidly separate from it, then the dilemma naturally disappears.

The real issue here is actually not between law on one side and grace on the other.

Rather, the problem seems to be the spirit of legalism and condemnation as contrasted

with the spirit of grace and love. Yes, legalistic application of the law kills. So does legalistic

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application of the ideas and norms of grace. When apostle Paul says that the "strength of

sin is the law" (see 1 Cor 15:56), it seems premature and an over-reach to interpret his

statement as meaning the law effectively causes sin to come into being. It is true to say, in

my view, that the law does create a consciousness of having sinned through providing a set

of standards or criteria for one to evaluate one's behaviour. But and this is the crucial point,

to claim that one automatically experiences condemnation and death as a result of

consciousness of one's sins is an over-reach. Why? Because consciousness of sins is not

necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it can be a very good thing. Sin consciousness can evince a

conviction by the Holy Spirit of our faults and mistakes in our relationship with God,

propelling us to honest acknowledgement of our sins before Him. Such acknowledgement

followed by contrition and repentance does not cause death or condemnation. On the

contrary, it leads to even deeper gratitude for the mercy of God and richer appreciation of

His grace. It urges us to turn away from sin and turn towards God, to move ever deeper

into a life-giving relationship with Him rather than a deadening separation from Him

through sin. And all this without a sense of condemnation. In short, sin-consciousness is

not self-condemnation. Fierce condemnation comes from the enemy. Quiet conviction

comes from the Spirit of God. To throw away the baby of law with the bathwater of legalism

is to fall into a seductive blind alley that might well derail our journey of relationally-rooted

growth in grace and truth.

Dynamics of Grace Secondly, from the passages in John 1:16-17, we see the phrase "grace upon grace".

The term "upon" comes from the original Greek anti which connotes "in place of", as in

something being put in place of another. Thus, grace anti grace would mean grace in place

of grace. So, what do these two instances of grace refer to? My view is that in the first

instance, grace has already been flowing from God to humanity from the First Man through

the Old Testament patriarchs, kings, priests and prophets to the time of Christ. When the

living Word became flesh (Gk. egeneto sarx) to be one of us, at that juncture in space and

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time, the second (and surpassing) influx of grace broke through to creation and took the

place of the first influx.

When Christ came, He did so in and as grace and truth. The distinction between

'grace' and 'truth' is significant, not superfluous, in my view. It is tempting to conflate grace

and truth into a single entity, given the third-person singular form of the verb 'came' (Gk.

egeneto) that follows. But herein lies the problem. Do we conflate grace into truth or truth

into grace? Should we conflate them at all? I suggest the temptation to conflate grace and

truth into one entity belies a presupposition of substance – inherent, independent,

ontological essence – of both grace and truth. Such onto-substantialist conception of grace

and truth creates a seeming tension between the two resulting in a need to relieve that

tension through conflation.

But if we see grace and truth in relational terms, where both of them are mutually

and interdependently established, they can then co-exist as two distinct realities yet co-

inhere functionally as one singular event. Without going into too much detail here, it can

be said that grace relates to truth and truth to grace is no different than the way one Person

of the Godhead relates to another. While there are three Persons - Father, Son and Spirit -

it remains true that there is only one God. While there is grace and truth, they nevertheless

can function as one while remaining distinct realities. Conflation of the two would result

in a distorted and disabled notion of a rich nuanced reality. In this light, we can understand

truth as pertaining to not only what is real and not false, but also to truth in the moral

sphere and divine truth as revealed to humanity (see Strong's Concordance 225).

It is telling to note that 'truth' in this passage does not exclude truth in the moral

sphere, which suggests that moral living is not to be dismissed or excised from its

counterpart of 'grace'. Such a view is consistent with the earlier understanding of law (not

legalism) as seamlessly meshed with grace in God's redemptive covenant of grace

throughout history. As an aside, what I have said so far is closer to a Reformed theological

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interpretation of John 1:16-17 than to what theologians call a Dispensationalist

interpretation of scripture. I do not subscribe to the latter view, which I find rather

contrived and retroactive. To me, a Dispensationalist hermeneutic commits the fallacy of

retrofitting and retro-imposing a neat controllable structure (with the benefit of hindsight)

onto an organic living scriptural history that defies such control. Also, to divide God's

action in history into neat chronological blocks might be conveniently married to the

stance of dividing the (written) Word into 'old' and 'new' covenants standing in stark

antagonism but may wind up failing to meet the standards of veracity in the final analysis.

For who are we to confine the patterning and sequencing of God's redemptive design into

tidy chronological dispensations?

Theological Reflexivity

This brings me to my third point. As preachers and theologians, we might find it

difficult to avoid the pitfall of trying too hard to fit all of scripture into preconceived

theological boxes. I do not absolve myself from this tendency. That is why we need to be

constantly mindful of the way we exegete, interpret, and preach the Bible. There is no

presupposition-less exegesis. All exegesis is, in a sense, an interpretation. The dialogical

hermeneutic of Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) lays bare the necessary co-mingling of

the reader and the text in every act of interpretation. That is why my interpretation of the

Bible in general and of John 1:16-17 in particular relies on the fusion of my horizon

(constituted by my life-world and life-history) with the horizon of the text. Only in and

through the fusion of these two horizons can there be a production of meaning that seeks

to make its claims on us. But as a Christian, I must also declare at the outset that In the

midst of both horizons is the Holy Spirit who defies categorization and reification, let alone

complete explication.

Thus, I offer my interpretation of John 1:16-17 above in the spirit of dialogical fusion

of horizons. This fusion is mysteriously permeated by the presence and activity of the Holy

Spirit, whose workings I am in no position to tame or confine. I do not claim to do anything

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more than sharing the truth as I see it in a spirit of grace. And I might be wrong. But I will

do my best and keep on learning and growing. I do hope and pray that preachers and

theologians will likewise take care to avoid hubris (e.g. presumption of prophetic Word and

the like) as they seek to witness the beauty and power of the Gospel to a lost afflicted world.

We owe it to all who are lost. We owe it to all who are found. We owe it to our Lord

Jesus Christ to be as faithful to His Word as we can. And in so doing, may we grow to

savour, treasure, enjoy, delight in all that God is for us in Christ Jesus above all else so that

that God can be most glorified, and His name most magnified, in us.

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Chapter 6 I AM HE

"Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to Him, came forward and said to them, 'Whom do you seek?' They answered Him, 'Jesus of Nazareth.' Jesus said to them, 'I am He.' ... When Jesus said to them, 'I am He,' they drew back and fell to the ground. So He asked them again, 'Whom do you seek?' And they said, 'Jesus of Nazareth.' Jesus answered, 'I told you that I am He. So, if you seek Me, let these men go.' This was to fulfil the word that He had spoken: 'Of those whom You gave Me I have lost not one.' " (John 18:4-9)

In our postmodern condition, it is common and respectable to adopt a so-called

'inclusive' and 'universalist' paradigm when it comes to questions of spiritual ultimacy. An

inclusive paradigm would seek to include all the world's religions and religious founders

by placing them on equal standing, being of equal value and veracity, and with equal

efficacy for reaching the highest spiritual good. A universalist paradigm would espouse the

idea that somehow all religious roads ultimately lead to the same Rome of humanity's

salvation, despite differing concepts and narratives that appear to conflict 'superficially.'

Thus, in this inclusive universalist discourse, we can hope to hide behind the facade of

'tolerance' or 'diversity,' keeping a safe distance from intellectual ridicule by sophisticated

folks of the 21st century. Yet, the worth and substance of a paradigm as well as its

truthfulness I might add, depends not on utility and convenience. Surely a paradigm is

merely a model, a way of viewing and framing reality, that is subject to critique and

examination - to be thrown away when the cumulative weight of observed data deems it

no longer relevant or explanatory.

This is precisely what happens when we try to apply this inclusive universalist

paradigm to the Gospel. The paradigm just does not fit the facts. Rather, the facts of the

matter tear this paradigm into bits. In the passages from John 18 cited above, we see Jesus

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doing exactly that - tearing down our pretense of any kind of inclusivism or universalism

by proclaiming His exclusive authority as the uncreated God incarnate. No other religious

founder, prophet or sage has to my mind dared claim something as audacious as this. The

designation Jesus used for Himself in this case is "I am He" which translates from the Greek

ego eimi. In the Greek, ego eimi literally means "I am." And this is precisely the name (in

Hebrew) that God uses for Himself in the biblical account of Moses' encounter with His

Creator. In other words, Jesus of Nazareth is proclaiming Himself to be the uncreated

Creator who has come in human flesh, breaking through to our reality as the Man standing

before the Roman soldiers. And in a fleeting glimpse of His superlative glory, the soldiers

could do nothing but draw back and fall down to the ground. This is what happens when

the created meets its Creator – one is so overwhelmed that one breaks apart; we fall down

on our faces before the awesome majesty and brilliant infinity of the Most High. In that

fleeting moment, just before He gave Himself up to be captured and tried, subsequently

tortured and crucified, Jesus revealed Himself (albeit minutely) as none other than the God

of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the thrice Holy Lord and King who fashioned the entire globe

and all its inhabitants into being. The one and only God Who is prior to all that is, Who is

singularly true, and Who keeps His covenant with His people. No one else has had the

audacity to claim what Jesus of Nazareth claimed.

In light of this bold proclamation of Jesus, what do we make of who Jesus is? Well,

we can think that Jesus is either an unhinged lunatic and megalomaniac who is totally

deluded or that Jesus is truly God Himself came down in the flesh. What we cannot think,

if we are to have any integrity at all, is that Jesus is merely another great prophet, teacher

or sage, or just another enlightened buddha, altruistic bodhisattva, or avatar, who teaches

the way to Truth or God. Why? Purely and simply because Jesus disavowed this kind of

presumption of Himself. What Jesus said of Himself utterly opposed the notion that He

was a mere Teacher or Exemplar. And He said it so emphatically and unambiguously that

we can either choose to dismiss all that He said as delusional or accept all that He said as

true. If we believe Jesus, then He is the one and only Saviour and Lord who is the only Way,

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the Truth, and the Life and no one comes to the Father but by Him. There is no in-between

position, no sitting on the fence. The inclusive universalist paradigm breaks down here. We

either believe Jesus or we deny Him. Either way, we need to make a choice and commit to

that choice. So, if that is indeed the case, then we see in Jesus our only hope and only

solution to the human condition – a condition of sin, corruption, depravity, evil, darkness,

injustice, torment, affliction that humanity tries but fails to remedy, redeem, overcome.

There is no other cure for that condition save our Saviour crucified, resurrected, and

ascended. And that is exactly what Jesus has accomplished for us and as us through His

incarnation, vicarious humanity, passion, resurrection, and ascension. From His mighty

proclamation, "I am He", we can begin to unravel the plenitude of all that He was and is.

I pray that all who have yet to be enlightened to the Truth, the Way, and the Life of Christ

be quickly brought to such illumination by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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Chapter 7 BELIEVING INTO HIM

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. that whoever

believes into Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

Who is a 'believer' of Christ? What does it mean to 'become' a Christian? Common

questions. Yet, questions containing deep implications and nuances. In this post, I'll

attempt to share some musings on this topic. It is tempting to think of becoming a Christian

as simply possessing some kind of vague or even blind faith in Christ as our Lord and

Saviour. After all, are we not enjoined to believe in Him? Is it not simply a matter of having

Christ as an object of one's belief system? A check-box kind of religiosity where one's

Christian identity is no more than a nominal one. Is that what it means to be a believing

Christian?

Perhaps we have 'experienced' God when attending to inspirational sermons,

trekking in wild nature, listening to a soul-stirring musical concert, or meditating in

solitude on a mountain retreat. We may attribute all these experiences to our Lord Jesus

Christ. We can say with exuberance and conviction that we have experienced the Divine,

we have seen God. But would that make one a Christian? More than that, would that make

one a Christian who believes into Christ? We may even find comfort in a familiar

longstanding 'relationship' with Jesus whom we call 'the Christ'. We may have prayed to

Jesus for our needs, to get us out of our troubles. We may even feel He has responded to

our prayers. We 'relate' to Jesus as a kind of cosmic Santa Claus, whom we think will always

give us what we want, regardless. We continue in our habitual pursuits, occupations,

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desires of a life shaped by the world. Our whims and fancies remain fundamentally

unchanged by our 'faith' in Christ. We persist in viewing Christ as the most awesome wish-

fulfilling boyfriend in the universe ... until we fail or think we fail to get what we want from

Him. Then, our faith starts to wobble and our hope dissipates. In the words of Tim Keller,

we have fallen into the fallacy of seeing Jesus as merely a "new battery" for an "old life"

rather than as our "new Life" in all its splendour and totality.

But that can never work, can it? Following Jesus costs us everything. Everything that

is not of the Spirit. For Jesus has said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses

his life for my sake will find it" (see Matthew 10:39; also Matthew 16:25, Mark 8:35, Luke

9:24 and 17:33).

So, who is a 'believer' of Christ? What does it mean to 'become' a Christian? For me,

the key to answering this question lies in the word 'into' or in Greek, eis, which is found in

the bible verse quoted above in Matthew 10:39. Often translated into English as 'in', the

Greek word eis denotes a dynamic movement forward. Thus, to translate eis as 'into' seems

to me more accurate and appropriate. While 'into' could include the more static sense of

being 'in', the same cannot be said for the converse. In light of this seemingly small

semantic detail, I'd suggest that a believer of Christ or one who becomes a Christian is one

who believes into Christ as their Lord and Saviour. What does believing into Christ look

like? What characterizes the process of believing into Christ?

Deepening Intimacy with Christ First, I believe that believing into Christ goes beyond mere acknowledgement of

faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. Professing one's faith in Christ is absolutely

necessary though insufficient in itself. What is needed is a desire and will to grow closer,

deeper, and richer in one's personal relationship with the living Christ. This entails an

ongoing process of mutual communication between the believer and the resurrected

Christ. A deep and rich prayer life is what is needed.

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Discerning His Person and Work Secondly, in order to have a real living relationship with Christ, one needs to first

and foremost have a genuine revelation of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ, the Son of

God and eternal Word (logos) Who became flesh as Son of Man for our sake out of his self-

emptying Love. We need to be able to answer, at least provisionally, the question posed by

our Lord Jesus Himself: "Who do you say I am?" We also need to be clear about the nature,

dimensions, and extent of His Work for creation and humanity – His incarnation, vicarious

humanity, passion and resurrection, and ascension. In this regard, we need to have some

insight into the perfection of Jesus' finished Work displayed all the way from incarnation

through crucifixion and resurrection to ascension. Granted that full knowledge on the

Person and Work of Christ is not ever accomplished on this side (or even other side) of

creation, we nonetheless need some enlightened understanding of Who Jesus is and What

He has done for us and as us.

Accountable to our Lord

Thirdly, believing into Christ means a willingness to be accountable to the Lord

Jesus in one's thoughts, emotions, intentions, speech, and actions, not to mention one's

vision of and commitment to the true Gospel. This means we maintain a flow of gospel-

shaped, Spirit-empowered, and grace-based awareness of our inner and outer life. We

infuse all our personal life and social relationships, including our fellowship with members

of His church, with the Love, Light and Life of Christ in us, through us, and around us. In

other words, we choose to let go of our grasping at carnality and worldliness. We choose to

let the Spirit of Christ mould and shape us from inside-out and outside-in.

Apprenticing to Jesus Fourthly, we do not shy away from discipleship even as we adopt the spirit of

Sonship on our walk with Christ. In and through Christ, we have been redeemed, justified,

sanctified, anointed and empowered to be the salt of the earth and light of the world. All

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because of Who Jesus is and What He has done for us through His incarnational and

crucifixional atonement. We have been totally forgiven for our sins, saved from death into

Life, clothed with His righteousness that can never be earned, adopted by God as His

children with our citizenship in His Kingdom. Even so, we are moved to work out our

salvation that has first been worked into us by Christ.

This outworking of our salvation points to a process of spiritual formation. Spiritual

formation is where our whole being is gradually conformed to the image and likeness of

Christ Himself. Such spiritual formation may involve, not exhaustively, disciplines of

silence and solitude, prayer and worship, study and contemplation, fasting and service,

fellowship and sacrament (e.g. regular communal partaking of Holy Communion). Richard

Foster and Dallas Willard, amongst others, have written books on a range of Christian

spiritual disciplines to which we may refer for more details. While the source, impetus,

ground, and completion of spiritual formation in discipleship comes from the living waters

of His Spirit, there is a case to be made for our active choice and participation at least on

the outset. As our walk deepens, our puny input of choice and participation becomes

increasingly assimilated into the vast plenitude of Christ's perfect participation. Christ's

participation, in fact His full immersion, in our salvation is rooted in His choice to first love

us. Jesus’ vicarious humanity and atonement on our behalf is testimony to this fact.

Receiving His Spirit's Gifts Fifthly, believing into Christ means we open ourselves to receive the gifts of the

Spirit. Of course, we apprentice ourselves to Jesus, growing in the Spirit and bearing Spirit's

fruit manifested in love, kindness, patience, peace, joy, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness

and self-control. At the same time, we allow the mysterious presence and action of the

Spirit to fall upon and impact us in unexpected ways. As the Lord wills and purposes, we

may receive various gifts of the Spirit such as word of knowledge, prophecy, healing,

speaking in tongues, administrative capacities and so forth, in order to benefit the part of

the Body of Christ in which we are planted. Our Spirit-formed, Spirit-imbued, and Spirit-

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immersed character adorned with good qualities activates and facilitates further growth

and fruition of the Spirit in us. It also provides a sturdy and safe foundation for the exercise

of Spirit's gifts so as to edify and benefit the church at large (see e.g. Dallas Willard 2014:

The Great Omission).

In turn, these manifest gifts of the Spirit evoke, encourage and nurture others in the

church to grow and blossom in the fruit of the Spirit. Hence, there is a positive feedback

and feed-forward loop in this spiritual formation process. We are transformed and anointed

to be a transformative and anointing context for others in the church to be transformed

and anointed – in the Spirit, through Christ, into the Father, for God’s glory.

In summary, believing into Christ, for me, entails at least these five aspects (1) desire

and will to relate ever more deeply and intimately with our Lord Jesus Christ on top of our

sincere faith in Him; (2) genuine revelation of the Person and Work of Christ Jesus; (3)

submitting in accountability to Jesus as our Lord; (4) apprenticing ourselves as disciples to

Jesus our Master so as to undergo spiritual formation in a spirit of Sonship; and (5)

openness to receive gifts of the Spirit for one's continual growth and for serving others in

the Body of Christ.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever

believes into Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

For me, believing into Christ has emptied me of more than I can ever imagine or describe.

Believing into Him has also filled me with more than I ever dared hope. He has given me

Life and Life more abundantly. Jesus Christ is He Who is Life. He Who is the Giver and the

Gift. He comes to you freely in Love as a pure Gift so unearned, undeserved, unmerited.

Will you open your hearts to Him?

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Chapter 8 GOING BEYOND MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness has become a buzz word. From popular books and self-help programs

to research articles and professional workshops, mindfulness has caught the attention and

lust of a world hungry for affliction relief. So much so that mindfulness, originally part of a

comprehensive spiritual formation process taught by the historical Buddha for his

disciples, has now become detached and excised from its Buddhist context. In secular

settings, mindfulness has taken on forms that might catch the Buddha by surprise and even

cause consternation, if he was still alive that is. In its alienated, perhaps distorted but

certainly commoditized forms, mindfulness has become somewhat of a 'silver bullet' for all

our problems ranging from overeating to addictions, from daily stress to psychiatric

disorders, from social isolation to societal dysfunction.

At the top end of town, we hear of mindful leadership, mindful management,

mindful corporations, and even mindful politics. Not that we see any substantive positive

change in the integrity, culture, spirit, attitude, and behaviour in our corporations and

politicians overall. The world spirals into increasing armed conflict, people displacement,

minority-world complicity and apathy. And the best we can come up with is more 'mindful'

attention to our petty cocooned lives. Narcissistic? Having been a Buddhist practitioner

and scholar for years and having taught mindfulness theory and practice for nearly two

decades, I feel it is time to take a critical relook at this modern mindfulness movement for

the fad and idolatry that it is.

Bold statement? Maybe. And here are my reasons.

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Self As Locus And Focus

First, mindfulness as it is popularized and sold in the marketplace these days focuses

almost exclusively on the self. The self with all its thoughts, emotions, sensations,

intentions, imaginations, urges, desires, frustrations, stress, bliss and the lot. We can call

all this stuff the 'full catastrophe' of our lives, as some would have it. But the fact remains

that the self is inextricably bound to the catastrophe.

Ultimately the objects of mindfulness are located within the experiential space no

bigger than the size of a football (the size of a human head). And this space is instinctively

grasped as 'my' mind or 'my' heart, however hard we may try to distance ourselves or get

rid of the self from the presumed 'impersonal' process of mind. Soothing ourselves with

platitudes of 'there is no I, me, my' and 'there is only thinking, feeling etc.' does little except

to reinforce the very agent that is supposedly absent.

Of course, the above dilemma is not as acute when mindfulness is practiced within the

Buddhist context. The various aspects of a total Path to awakening offer deeper and more

penetrating deconstructions of the self in ways that modern mindfulness techniques fail to

do. But that is another conversation to be had elsewhere.

Happiness As Alpha And Omega Secondly, modern mindfulness is ultimately aimed at hedonic fulfilment of the self.

We can call the goal 'happiness' or 'wellness', 'stress reduction', being 'depression-free' or

'anxiety-free' or 'relapse-free'. We seek as our end nothing that is beyond the locus of the

self. Mindfulness is self-referential in its purpose and goal. Even when we speak about

compassion and lovingkindness in the context of mindfulness, such seemingly other-

oriented qualities are almost always referenced to the self, implicitly or explicitly.

We are concerned with how much happier or fulfilled we will be if only we have these

'altruistic' qualities well-forged within us. In the same vein, personal happiness becomes

the end-point of the practice of 'self-compassion'. Apparently, self-compassion is

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something the western world desperately lacks due to a self-critical culture and pervasive

low self-esteem. But in directing attention back to the self and its contentment or lack

thereof, we inadvertently reinforce the very thing that traps us in our malaise. A malaise

that is self-wrought and self-sustained. A malaise of self-occupation.

Happiness can never be the end-point. Happiness is at best a side-effect or by-

product of endeavors that take us beyond the self. A discontented self-seeking happiness

as its goal will only worsen the problem, not solve it.

Morals? What's That?

Thirdly, modern mindfulness is conflated with nonjudgmental awareness. The state

of amoral flatland awareness is branded as a preferred mode of consciousness that liberates

us from our habitual reactive emotions. Apparently, on the terms of such mode of

awareness, judgments of 'right' and 'wrong, 'good' and 'evil' are put aside as unnecessary at

best and destructive at worst. This sort of amoral rhetoric in modern mindfulness

contradicts the highly moralized discourse of the Buddha in his presentation of

mindfulness.

Sadly, even Buddhists have jumped headlong into the bandwagon of modern

mindfulness to hastily ride the wave of mindfulness's popularity. All in all, sadly but truly,

mindfulness as non-judgmental awareness ends up being little more than non-discerning

foolishness unable or unwilling to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil.

Totems Of Mindfulness

Fourthly, we deliberately or unintentionally set up totems of mindfulness attracting

our undeserved worship. We unsuspectingly and naively place human beings on a pedestal,

those persons whom we regard mistakenly or otherwise as 'experts', 'masters' or 'gurus' of

mindfulness. In fact, many are tempted to brand and promote themselves as such experts

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and masters. They morph into heroes we adulate and worship, even though our defense

mechanism of rationalization lulls us into thinking otherwise, that we are still in control.

Researchers look to mindfulness to carve out a lucrative niche for themselves. Who can

blame them? Mindfulness research has become a sexy avenue for researchers to get a

portion of the scarce research funding pie. Expensive professional training workshops,

seminars, conferences on mindfulness bloom up everywhere, plugging into a 'happiness'

industry that has voracious appetite. Suddenly, it has become hip and cool to be either a

dispenser or consumer of mindfulness. We have found the social legitimization we desire

for a self-occupied lifestyle of individualistic pursuit of inner happiness.

Thus, the modern mindfulness market ends up being a cynical game inflating the

pride of 'expert' dispensers of mindfulness, while inflaming the lust of mindfulness-starved

recipients seeking to fill their inner void, a project that will ultimately fail.

Credit-Card Pseudo-Spirituality

Fifthly, mindfulness often does not come cheap. The modern mindfulness market is

teeming with retailers only too eager to sell their wares to unsuspecting cashed-up

consumers. For all the mindfulness that is touted and floating around, there seems to be a

ludicrous lack of mindfulness of the all-pervasive alluring net of consumerist capitalism.

Needless to say, a mindful critique of the paradigm within which these sellers operate

would be self-defeating. Once again, the self - this time the money-theistic platinum card-

wielding one - wins the day.

Notwithstanding the historical fact that the Buddha eschewed the selling of

spirituality and admonished his disciples to refrain from doing so, it is ironic that

mindfulness has now become a fad with a price tag. Many in our time of volatility,

uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA for short) long for a deep ground of

meaning, peace, purpose and hope that transcends the self. Modernites – mostly white,

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middle-class, post-Christian – with robust disposable income seek a spirituality that can

ground their lives yet remain afraid to relinquish control.

We insist on being behind the steering wheel, the prideful self that is source of our

malaise unable or unwilling to surrender its sovereignty. Through swiping of credit cards

and accumulation of mindfulness experiences, we comfort ourselves that we are getting

somewhere, that our lives mean something.

Jesus: Our Alpha And Omega

In the end, by placing our trust and faith in that which is ultimately false and

unsatisfying, we fall into the abyss of despair. Why? Because pseudo-spirituality bought by

money will fall like a house of cards. And we are the ones who suffer, cry and gnash our

teeth as we burn in our self-inflicted sorrow and disillusionment. We have come perilously

close to idolizing mindfulness.

This is not good news. But there is still time. Let us not wait too long before turning

away from our self-occupation to look towards the One Who has come to save us, the One

Who has done it all for our peace, meaning, purpose, hope and more. Let us relinquish a

mindfulness that has self as its locus and focus; that fixates on individualistic happiness;

that celebrates amoral non-discerning foolishness; that idolizes its expert dispensers; and

that markets a false spirituality to be purchased with a credit card.

Instead, let us consider an alternative. Let us at least be willing to explore the

possibility of another kind of mindfulness that takes us out of ourselves into a truth so

gracious and glorious that it sets us truly free. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew verb zakar

connotes 'remembrance' pertaining to God and to His people. Zakar occurs frequently in

the case of God remembering His covenant with His people (e.g. Noah, Abraham, Isaac,

Israel), showering them with His grace, mercy, and provision.

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In fact, the original Pali term for mindfulness is sati connoting 'remembrance' or

'memory'. Traditional Buddhist meditation practice is replete with various forms of

remembrance with respect to spiritual objects like the Buddha, Dhamma or Sangha, and

positive states like loving-kindness (metta) and generosity (caga). Thus, God's zakar or

remembrance can be viewed as His special 'mindfulness' of His precious children to whom

He has covenanted Himself out of His abounding mercy and grace.

Right now, wherever we are, in whatever situation we are in, the Son of God and our

living Christ is remembering us, mindful of us in all our specificity and personal

distinctiveness. He knows how many strands of hair there are on our heads. He cares for

our every need. He cares so much that He has given Himself up for us, to be first a human

being, and later to be nailed to the cross at Calvary in agonizing pain. Jesus remembers us.

Jesus is eternally mindful of us.

Whereas our mindfulness is weak and unreliable, His mindfulness is ever mighty

and certain. Let Christ's mindfulness be our liberation. Let us assimilate our weak and

faltering mindfulness into His perfect, unfaltering, pristine and immaculate awareness that

is shalom (peace and wholeness) and hesed (lovingkindness) inseparable. A pleroma

(plenitude; fullness) Who is beyond compare. A pleroma that unstintingly empties Himself

in pure love yet remains inexhaustible, incomprehensible. And as we rest into Him, our

emancipated hearts will longer be anxious or despairing but full of His everlasting joy and

glory. Communing with Him in silence, solitude, solidarity and service, we are truly free.

Free to be who we are in Him. Free to love and give as He has given. And that is more than

enough for us all.

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Chapter 9 GOSPEL CONTEMPLATIONS

Friends, let me share with you some Zen-like aphorisms fresh from a heart abiding

in and into my Lord, Jesus of Nazareth, Who is truly and fully Man and truly and fully God

– Jesus the Christ. Only when we are willing to allow our entire life to be shattered, our

whole identity pulverized, and our heart broken into nothing, can Christ be our everything.

May He be your everything.

Before cultivation-enlightenment,

samsara is samsara; nirvana is nirvana.

During cultivation-enlightenment,

samsara is no longer samsara; nirvana no longer nirvana.

After cultivation-enlightenment,

samsara is again samsara; nirvana again nirvana.

But in Christ Jesus,

both samsara and nirvana get swept away,

melted down and released in the fire of His love.

No samsara. No nirvana.

Only You, O LORD.

In and through the light of Christ,

irrefutable truths of our corrupt samsaric existence –

disintegration (anicca),

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unsatisfactoriness (dukkha),

and non-self (anatta) –

get transfigured into the Cross that saves and transforms.

Grace changes everything.

The life and ministry of Christ is not just a model for living, much less a mere

precursor to the cross of Calvary. Rather, I see Christ's life, lived as us and for us, as a

template for our transformation through, by, and in Him. For who is He but the Way

through Whom; the Truth by Whom; and the Life in Whom we are transformed from glory

to glory into His likeness?

Christ Jesus and Jesus Christ is one Name in two forms. The first speaks of the eternal

Logos – the deep rational and all-encompassing order of the universe – choosing to ‘become

flesh’ as the Incarnate Word, Christ Jesus. The second speaks of the Man Jesus who lived

out his earthly sojourn in complete obedience and perfect faithfulness to the will of the

Father, even to the point of death on the cross of Calvary. The sordid point of utmost

humiliation at Calvary is also the grand moment of highest exaltation for Jesus, the Son of

Man. Jesus’ painful and humiliating crucifixion on Calvary’s cross was also the entry to His

triumphant exaltation to the highest throne far above all principalities and powers in

heaven or on earth.

Elsewhere, I have written about the practice of the presence of Jesus and resting in

Christ (see my book Resting In Christ, 2015). In that book, I emphasized the crucial

difference between Christian contemplation and Asian brands of meditation. The

aphorisms I shared in this chapter further underscore the seismic shift in perspective

required to truly understand the unique power of the Gospel and be changed by that

understanding. At its heart is the dramatic and irreversible shift away from self-reliance to

Christ-reliance, from self-occupation to Christ-occupation, from self-salvation to salvation

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by grace through faith. Any movement of insight less than that super-quantum leap will

never grant the serene assurance and exuberant joy that these aphorisms point to.

They point to none other than a loving union with the living Christ Who has

promised never to leave or forsake us. It is a union that is ‘now’ and ‘not yet’ all at the same

time. This is a mystery to be fathomed from moment to moment for all eternity. We begin

to fathom this mystery when we rest without reservation in the Person and Work of Christ.

We break the alabaster of our hearts and pour out our entire life at His feet, anointing Him

with the fragrance of our total trust and love. In this total surrender lies our deepest rest.

But resting in Christ and His finished work is not lazy inactivity or irresponsibility.

Rather it is Spirit-directed activity and Christ-mastered responsibility. Shirking our

responsibility and passively laying our problems entirely on other people or circumstances

are symptoms of self-occupation and self-fixation, not signs of true restedness. Self-

occupation and self-fixation always bring pride, condemnation, jealousy, anxiety,

depression, stress, and isolation in their wake. Such is the nature of self-worship that

supplants the rightful place of God in our lives – the primary sin of idolatry.

But deep restedness comes when we turn away from self to behold Christ as front

and centre of our live stories. Christ-occupation restores the rightful place of God in our

lives and sets us free to be real and present to love.

And God is love.

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Chapter 10 UNITED IN CHRIST

The Christian Church is none other than the Body of Christ in this world. The risen

Christ is the head of the Church. And just as the physical head controls the body with all

its members, Christ leads and controls His Church. Christ is the sole Prophet, Priest, King,

Lord, and Master of His Church deserving of all worship, praise, service, and surrender.

Christ is the bridegroom and the church His bride, whose consummation occurs when He

comes again at the end of the age. All that we do in the meantime prepares us and the world

for that eschatological moment. The mass consumerism and relativism of our age has

insidiously consumed swathes of the church resulting in theological rootlessness and an

over-realized eschatology. Zeal without knowledge, devotion without discipleship, and a

lazy, shallow, judgmental Christianity are some symptoms of that deception.

Theological rootlessness hollows out the depth and richness of the gospel. An over-

realized eschatology carnalizes the heart and subverts the soul away from God. It does so

by promulgating the deluded hyperbole that all of the Kingdom's blessings and Godly

inheritance are now ours to claim without exception in this fallen world. Idiosyncratic,

agenda-driven, careless and shallow reading of the Bible tends towards such over-realized

eschatology. We thus need to be ever vigilant and discerning in these precarious end-times.

Lazy Christianity says, "Believe in Jesus and God will save you from hell and transport you

to heaven. That is all." Deceptive Christianity says, "Believe in Jesus and God will make you

healthy and wealthy. That is all." Judgmental Christianity says, "If you are not healthy or

wealthy because of your belief in Jesus, you lack faith or do not know grace. That is all."

Lazy, deceptive, judgmental Christianity is not the Good News. It hurts the church and

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sabotages the true gospel. Be done with it all and truly follow the true God of the Word.

How do we do that?

First and foremost, I believe we need to pay attention to cultivating theological

rootedness, enlightened and empowered by the Holy Spirit. This means a rigorous

disciplined study of the Word of God to discover the God of the Word. This means opening

to the anointing and illumination of the Holy Spirit in our dialogical hermeneutic of faith

and wisdom. This means not disparaging but rather respecting theologians over the

centuries who have wrestled with the thorniest and deepest issues of biblical revelation and

Christian doctrine to give us frames of understanding otherwise unknown and impossible.

This means not succumbing to the seductive trap of carnalizing the gospel for the sake of

boosting our puny sense of significance in a big consumerist world. And this means the

courage to take up our cross, follow Jesus, and be mastered by our Lord as authentic

disciples who love God with all our hearts, all our minds, all our souls and all our strength

without exception. We need to be disciples with zeal backed up by knowledge, devotion

buttressed by discipline, faith conjoined with obedience, grace inseparable from godliness,

and love manifesting in good works.

Rev. Edmund Chan, a respected teacher and leadership mentor from Singapore’s

Covenant Evangelical Free Church, gave a captivating and significant teaching on the “Five

Features of Theological Rootlessness.” This talk was part of the Intentional Disciple-Making

Church (IDMC) conference held in 2009. Going deep into God’s Word integrating theology

and prayer is not a luxury but a necessity. It is key to engendering an approach to the

Christian life that goes beyond shallowness and divisiveness. A shallow Christianity is the

confluence of several factors – disparagement of theology and theologians, marginalization

of theological reflection in the life the believer, presumptuous prayer that subverts God’s

will to our own desires, a spirit of anti-intellectualism, and carnalizing of the gospel in the

service of worldly attachments, amongst others.

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A divisive Christianity emerges from the strident rhetoric and rigid conceptual

dichotomies vehemently touted by some populist preachers. For example, the recent

‘hypergrace’ movement within charismatic Christian circles has provoked vocal opposition

from other preachers in those circles, and in turn unleashing trenchant counter-attacks

from hypergrace defenders and promoters. The ‘hypergrace’ camp’s rigid dichotomization

of ‘law’ versus ‘grace’ in their caricature of Christian doctrine and church typology creates

a highly charged and emotive atmosphere of ‘them’ versus ‘us’. It is probably not an

exaggeration to say that a quasi-siege mentality may even come to affect the collective

psyche of ‘hypergrace’ followers to the extent that it potentially isolates them from the rest

of the Body of Christ.

The fault lines between opposing groups grow deeper with each rhetorical blow, as

‘hypergrace’ defenders label (perhaps unreflectively) others in the mainstream church as

upholding the ‘law’ or a less than satisfactory ‘mixture of law and grace’. The underlying

assumption is of course that any church that does not preach biblical grace in line with

‘hypergrace’ interpretations must necessarily be preaching the wrong message of ‘law’ or at

best a ‘mixture.’ This is a recipe for division.

Recently, there have been a small number of intelligent analyses published,

including a book by scholar of Near Eastern Languages and Literature Dr. Michael Brown,

on the quasi-celebrity phenomenon of the ‘hypergrace’ gospel. Such analyses allow for a

cool-headed stock-take of the theological grounds and doctrinal underpinnings of the

‘hypergrace’ message, a timely task considering the relative lack of such reflexivity within

‘hypergrace’ circles (at least to the best of my knowledge).

A shallow and divisive Christianity does not serve the Church. It hurts the Church

and sabotages the mission of preaching the true gospel to all nations. Our worldly

obsession with size and sizzle has clouded our judgment of what constitutes a truly

successful ministry. The size of a church or number of congregants in a church is no gauge

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of true success of a ministry. Neither is the size of a church’s bank account nor the sizzle of

a church’s buildings. These are fleshly features that bedazzle us with our fleshly eyes,

distracting us from true measures of fruitfulness in Christian ministry. Fruitfulness is an

authentically biblical theme for evaluating success of Christian ministry, far more than

superficial numbers of people, money, or buildings.

Timothy Keller (2012), one of a rare breed of pastors and teachers I admire and

respect, wrote of fruitfulness with reference to a gardening metaphor thus:

“Gardeners must be faithful in their work, but they must also be skilful, or the

garden will fail. Yet in the end, the degree of the success of the garden (or

ministry) is determined by factors beyond the control of the gardener…. When

fruitfulness is our criterion for evaluation, we are held accountable but not

crushed by the expectation that a certain number of lives will be changed

dramatically under our ministry.” (pp. 13-14)

According to Keller, Jesus exhorted his disciples to “bear much fruit” (John 15:8) while Paul

spoke of conversions as “fruit” (see Romans 1:13) and extolled the “fruit” of godly character

that includes what he called the “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22). Fruitfulness can be

seen in the signs of personal and communal holiness, the church’s positive impact on

community and society, and its defense of social justice and mercy for the poor and

marginalized. And such fruitfulness is to be evidenced not just incidentally and marginally

but intentionally and pervasively throughout the church. Thus, a ‘successful’ church is not

necessarily super-rich and mega-sized but super-generous and mega-loving in every way.

In other words, shallow Christianity idolizes the three B’s in their measurement of

evangelical success: Bodies, Bucks, and Buildings (with credit to Rev. Edmund Chan). But

conforming our measure of success to the standards of the world does not help us in

transforming the world. Rather, it helps the world transform us. And before long, we cease

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being the salt of the earth and light of the world because we have been conformed to the

world instead of to Christ. Counteracting shallow and divisive Christianity requires more

than good will on the part of leaders and pastors. It requires a commitment on the part of

all – leaders, pastors, and congregants – to theological rootedness and spiritual formation.

This is an urgent imperative in these last days. Theological rootedness means grounding

and rooting oneself in the deep theology of Scripture as purposed by God – a process of

disciplined study, meditation, application and prayer, in solitude and in community.

Spiritual formation is a process of intentional discipleship through apprenticing with Jesus

as our Master and Teacher. I am inspired by this definition of authentic discipleship that

describes and defines an authentic disciple of Christ of a certain kind: “A Christ-mastered

kind with depth in grace, growth and godliness who seeks God’s empowering to fulfil God’s

will, in God’s timing, for God’s glory” (see http://www.cefc.org.sg/index.php/about-

us/who-we-are).

Fostering a community of believing disciples of a certain kind united in Christ is not

easy. But by God’s grace, we will be able to transcend the shallowness and divisiveness of

our postmodern church in order that we can better testify to the lost world the faithfulness,

goodness, grace and mercy of our majestic Triune God. I share Edmund Chan’s teaching

here again that you might listen to and benefit from it.

• Five Features of Theological Rootlessness (Edmund Chan):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqAInUr8zYA

May God bless you and enlighten your heart, mind, and soul with His limitless effulgence

and wisdom.

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Chapter 11 GROWING IN CHRIST

I agree with Rev. Edmund Chan when he commented that the greatest problem

facing the contemporary Church is that it is large but shallow, big in numbers but lacking

in depth. While the Church is sophisticated in technologies of preaching, I agree with

Edmund Chan that there is often a shallow truncated gospel that is preached. The

prosperity gospel that is seemingly pulling crowds into megachurches in America, Africa,

Latin America, and Asia (including Singapore) is a case in point.

Megachurch Delusions Of Grandeur? At the outset, let me just say that I am not ideologically opposed to megachurches

per se. I am not advocating that churches must remain small in order to be ‘spiritual.’ I am

also not generalizing all megachurches as guilty of preaching a truncated gospel

accompanied by theological rootlessness. But I do see worrisome signs of such biblical

truncation and theological rootlessness in the church regardless of size, but especially

salient in large swathes of contemporary Christians caught up in the tsunami of mass

consumerism. Megachurches with their dazzling buildings and swelling numbers do face

significant temptations to succumb to world-conforming measures of success, namely the

three B’s as discussed previously. The pressure to maintain their numbers and financial

returns to upkeep their gigantic real estate acts as a strong lure to truncate and oversimplify

the Gospel so as to attract a regular supply of financial members. And that is in addition to

the reality of funding generous pastoral salaries.

A ‘health and wealth’ or ‘blab it and grab it’ gospel may speak to the carnal and

covetous nature of our hearts but fails in the end to engender deep and genuine growth in

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believers. The diminution of significance, degree, and prevalence of Christ-mastered

discipleship then results. As a Church, we compromise our ability to fulfil the Great

Commission of our Lord to make disciples of all nations. Instead, we end up inadvertently

making fans of all nations, fans of the celebrity Jesus whom we adulate but shy away from

following. Why? Because to follow Jesus is to be willing to surrender our all to Him, to allow

ourselves to be broken into nothing so that He can be our everything. And that is a very

scary thing to do. It is the very thing that the prosperity gospel will prevent us from doing.

And guess who will be clapping his hands when believers fail to grow in depth of grace and

godliness? What darkness will continue to maintain its hold over humanity when believers

wave their hands, sing with tears, convinced they are ‘resting’ in Christ but failing to follow

through with lives of godliness, integrity, peace, humility, gentleness, graciousness,

kindness, goodness, patience, faithfulness, joy, love, and self-control?

Does preaching and feeding on a message of God’s grace in and by itself

automatically result in Christlikeness? Or is there need for more? In line with church

fathers, theologians, pastors, teachers, and preachers of the Word over the ages to the

present day, I believe that there is a need for more. With them, I contend that an intentional

process of Christ-mastered, Spirit-empowered discipleship is absolutely vital for depth of

grace, growth and godliness. Without such intentional Word-centred, Spirit-led

discipleship, simply hearing about and experiencing preaching on grace however anointed

may be necessary but insufficient in itself. An undue emphasis on hearing the Word from

the pulpit as sole means of blessing and transformation can create a sense of dependency

on the preacher instead of on God for one’s spiritual growth. It can inadvertently result in

a kind of religious consumerism and spiritual materialism through over-reliance on the

preacher’s commercial products – books, CDs, DVDs and the like. While financially

inconsequential for affluent customers, such spiritual consumerism is not good news for

those who struggle financially. There is also a real risk of seduction into slick promotion of

the preacher in place of sole testimony to the glory of our Lord. We can see this in front

covers of books and products splashed large with photos and images of the preacher, giving

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the impression that preacher exaltation trumps God glorification. But more than that, a

consumerist commoditized approach to gospel teaching begs the serious question of

whether it glorifies God, aligns with God’s Word, and obeys God’s commands and

injunctions of us.

Realities Of Gospel-Shaped Living

Furthermore, a truncated gospel of grace that excludes growth and godliness or

conflates them into one-word slogans stops perilously short of fulfilling the Lord’s ultimate

purpose in redeeming us. For the Lord, we are all redeemed for more than just enjoying

worldly wealth, health, marriage, making babies, or even performing charitable works,

church works, and partaking in spiritual blessings. We are saved to be transformed into His

image and likeness in an eternal loving communion with Him. We are redeemed to grow

into the unfathomable plenitude of the Triune God by believing into Jesus. We are called

to empty ourselves completely, pour out fully the aromatic oils of our existence to anoint

His head and feet, and partake in the divine life of the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.

We are enlightened to the finished work of Christ so that abiding in Him, we allow our

entire existence to be mastered, led, directed, enabled, and transfigured by Him.

From the side of the Lord, His work for us and as us is indeed finished. Judgment

has been done and atonement has been made. Judgment not as vindictive wrath inflicted

on depraved humanity in accord with man’s legalism but judgment as robust love in action

in accord with God’s righteousness. For God, righteousness implies right relationship

between the three Persons of the immanent Godhead and between all of humanity and the

Triune God in His divine economy. Thus, restoration of humanity’s righteousness vis-à-vis

God is tantamount to restoring humanity to a new and right relationship with God. This is

accomplished not through vindictive punishment but through all-encompassing and

robust love. Such robust love rooted in God’s righteousness allows God to deal vehemently

with sin without abusively destroying either man or His Son in the process. Seen in this

light, it is not God’s wrath that put His Son to death on the cross of Calvary. Rather it is

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humanity’s wrath rooted in their sinful depravity that put Jesus to death.2 God could have

easily stopped this. Jesus could have easily denied humanity the opportunity of executing

Him. The Holy Spirit could have easily wiped out the executioners in one fell swoop. But

our Triune God did none of that. Instead, He allowed the crucifixion to go ahead. Why? To

demonstrate to all creation what man really is – utterly depraved – and Who God really is

– totally and unconditionally loving, holy, wise and just. The sinful depravity of humanity

juxtaposes sharply and unequivocally with the holy goodness of God. Thus, humanity in its

squalid condition can never hope to save itself. Only God who is almighty and all-loving

can save humanity and the initiation, progression, and culmination of redemptive grace

rests on God and God alone. Such is the majesty of the LORD.

From the Lord’s side, His work of atonement is done. But from our side, we remain

as yet unfinished products. We have yet to be perfectly Christ-mastered disciples who

manifest in full the glorious salvation first worked into us by our Lord. Though

ontologically justified and sanctified in Christ, we have yet to fully express His perfection

in our day to day experience, thought life, emotions, and behaviour. We hear of testimonies

by believers who have been touched by God’s grace speaking of their victory over

addictions, bad habits, poor health, illnesses, psychological malaise, financial troubles, and

marital problems. This is indeed news worthy of rejoicing and praise. But is that all there

is to the Christian walk? Is a panacea to all of life’s worldly problems, even if it can be found,

all there is to total redemption in Christ? My answer is a resounding no.

Couching the gospel in ways that highlight the ‘Jesus panacea’ to our fleshly

problems may be enticingly attractive given our desperate hard-wiring for happiness and

hope, but will we inadvertently misrepresent and water down the Person and Work of

Christ in all His splendour? It would be grossly unjust to the true Gospel of biblical grace

2 I credit my brother-in-Christ Wilfred Yeo for his ideas on the atonement in the discussion that follows.

Influenced by his ideas, I share my thoughts on the subject here. Any error or misrepresentation of Wilfred’s

views solely mine.

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when our preaching subverts Christ into a mere pedagogy for our desire gratification rather

than subjugating our desires to the lordship of Christ. And that is the crux of the problem

facing the contemporary Church – a pervasive sense of theological rootlessness with lack

of spiritual formation through intentional discipleship resulting in a shallow, truncated,

hyped-up, consumerist brand of Christianity that falls short of the glory of God.

Will Christians be bold and wise enough to stand up for what is true, right, beautiful,

and truly transformative despite the real possibility of challenging conditions in our lives?

Can we be so truly in love with our God that we are willing to go the whole way with Him

for better or for worse (in worldly terms), for richer or for poorer, in sickness or in health,

never shall we part? Only in such profound loving communion with the Lord can there be

a gradual unfolding of our salvation, a deepening growth in Christ, and an experiential

sanctification that leads to the divine glory of being like Christ – now and eternally, world

without end.

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REFERENCES

1. Michael L. Brown. Hypergrace: Exposing the Dangers of the Modern Grace Message. (Florida: Charisma House, 2014).

2. Hans Georg Gadamer. Truth and Method. (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2004). 3. Chris Kang. Resting in Christ. (Brisbane: Contemplative Directions Publishing, 2015). 4. Timothy Keller. Center Church. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2012). 5. Thomas F. Torrance. The Mediation of Christ. (Colorado Springs: Helmers and Howard Publishers, 1992).

6. Thomas F. Torrance. Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ. Edited by Robert T. Walker. (Illinois: IVP Academic, 2008).

7. Thomas F. Torrance. Atonement: The Person and Work of Christ. Edited by Robert T. Walker. (Illinois: IVP Academic, 2009).

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Salvation Prayer

If you believe who Jesus is and all that He has done for you, and want to make Jesus Christ your Lord and Saviour, please pray this prayer*:

Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me, coming into this world, and dying for me on the cross, for paying the penalty for my sin. Your precious blood washes me clean of every sin. I am sorry for all my sins and I turn to You now for my salvation. Jesus, I confess You are my Lord and Saviour now and forever more. I believe that You rose from the dead and You are alive today. Because of Your finished work, I am now a beloved child of God and heaven is my home. Thank You for giving me eternal life and filling my heart with Your peace and joy. Amen.

We Would Like To Hear From You

If you have prayed this prayer or if you would like to share a testimony after reading this book, please write to kenoticgrace@gmail.com

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Other Materials by Chris Kang

We trust that you have been blessed by reading this book. For more reading materials from Chris Kang to edify, inspire, and catalyze your thinking and being, please visit his websites and blogs:

• Centre for Contemplative Wisdom: https://contemplativewisdom.weebly.com/

• Centre for Global Theology: https://centre-theology.weebly.com/

• Contemplativa: https://contemplativa.weebly.com/

• Sky Mirror Blog: https://professorchriskang.weebly.com/sky-mirror-blog

• Truth of Grace: https://truthofgrace.weebly.com/

• Philosophical Meditations: https://philosophicalmeditations.weebly.com/

Chris is general editor of an innovative open access, open peer review academic journal that bridges multiple disciplines to focus on the contemplative dimension of human existence:

• Journal of Contemplative Studies: https://contemplativa-journal.weebly.com/

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About the Author

Chris Kang is an academic and theologian in philosophy and

contemplative wisdom – with special interest in Christian theology

and Asian philosophy. He received his PhD from The University of

Queensland in 2003. Chris has lectured and taught in Australia at

The University of Queensland, Griffith University, Queensland

University of Technology, and Nan Tien Institute. He was Assistant

Professor at Singapore Institute of Technology from 2016 to 2018.

He serves as inaugural faculty and director of the Centre for Global

Theology. He has over 200 publications and presentations

including seven books in Asian and Biblical contemplative praxis.

GROWING IN CHRIST

This is the second book in Chris Kang’s trilogy of reflections

following his unplanned conversion to faith in Christ in 2014. This

life-changing event took place during his sabbatical meditation

retreat as a dedicated Buddhist. This book follows from his first

Resting in Christ (2015) and offers his meditations on growing

with Jesus in the first two years of his new life in Christ. This book

records some of his thoughts on the joys and challenges of

Christian living. Soli Deo Gloria.

CHRIS KANG was born and raised in Singapore, and educated at

The University of Queensland (Australia) where he received his

first class honours in occupational therapy in 1993 and PhD in

Asian religions in 2003. He was an academic and Buddhist teacher

in Australia, a professor in Singapore, and now serves as inaugural

faculty and director of Centre for Global Theology (Australasia).

Centre for Global Theology (Australasia)

Singapore | Brisbane, Australia