Transforming Grace

Ministry burnout was a hot topic a few years ago, especially around the time Peter Brain’s book Going the Distance was published in 2004. I believe there is a link between neonomianism and burnout. Uncertain of God’s acceptance, the neonomian drives himself hard morally and practically to win God’s approval and in doing so burns out.

By enjoying the love and acceptance of God though faith in Christ the pressure to perform for God is off. There is a danger, however, of swinging too far the other way and copping out. There is a balance to be struck between self-sacrifice and self-love. This balance is different for each person according to the way God has put them together. I get mentally tired quite easily and so need to be reminded to watch out for symptoms of burnout without copout. Here’s a list of symptoms of burnout and some checks and balances:

1. Exhaustion and easy tiring
2. Disenchantment with work
3. Feeling isolated–socially, psychologically, and/or physically
4. A growing apathy towards colleagues, customers, clients, family
5. Unprofessional feelings, attitudes or behaviour at work
6. Increase in cynical attitudes
7. An unhealthy increase in alcohol or food consumption or changing healthy behaviors for unhealthy ones
8. Lacking interest in client outcomes
9. Having persistent, recurring thoughts about whether you are in the right profession or about changing jobs
10. Missing work
11. Developing health problems
12. Being slow to return clients’ phone calls or to reschedule canceled meetings.
13. Showing pessimism about outcomes
14. Displaying less enthusiasm and intensity toward client
15. Feeling unappreciated
16. Loss of the ability to laugh or to see the “light side”
17. Dreading going to work
18. Having trouble sleeping

B. PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE & OVERCOMING YOUR OWN OR STAFF BURNOUT
The best way to avoid problems due to fatigue, overwork, and burnout is to prevent it. The following are some guidelines of guarding against burnout:

1. Arrange working and environmental conditions so that fatigue and burnout are not likely to occur
2. Schedule short “breathing spaces” during the day
3. Always take a lunch break
4. Develop a support system with other colleagues
5. Consult frequently with your supervisor
6. Arrange your office or work space in a pleasing manner
7. When not working, learn to engage in relaxing activities
8. Don’t bring your work home with you
9. Don’t dwell on what happened at work during leisure time
10. Let off steam about your feelings to an empathic listener
11. Change the size or type of load you carry
12. Take some time off from work (quiet days)
13. Do something each day that in some way is pleasing to you and meets your needs
14. Avoid being taken in by co-workers wanting to abdicate their responsibilities
15. Keep meetings brief and to the point. Have an agenda
16. Exercise selectivity in responding to emergency calls
17. Remind yourself you cannot control other people’s behavior
18. Realize that progress includes setbacks
19. Maintain your sense of humor
20. Avoid alcohol or drug abuse
21. Get adequate rest
22. Watch your physical health and nutrition
23. Get plenty of exercise
24. Keep abreast of current advances in your profession
25. Organize priorities in your work to maintain physical stamina
26. Learn to delegate authority
27. Learn to admit the need for help in the job
28. Limit the number of hours you work

(HT Carroll)

Yesterday I went to the annual Oak Hill school of theology where Tom Schreiner was speaking on the nature of warning passages in the New Testament. His four accessible and pastorally applied lectures were entitled:

> How to understand the warnings in scripture
> Persevering in faith is not perfection
> Persevering in faith is not works-righteousness
> Faith and assurance

Here’s my palmpilot notes from the day:

Lecture 1 - How to understand the warnings in scripture
Herman Bavinck - Reformed Dogmatics (Vol ?) - p266 does God uphold the gift of grace he began or can sin destroy grace? (full quote needed)

Often said “Once saved always saved? No matter what happens, no matter what you do you’ll always be saved.”
This statement is not helpful.

Passages exhorting the believer to persevere:
Acts 11:23 - be faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose
Acts 13:43 - continue in the grace of God
Acts 14:22 - encouraging them to continue in the faith
1 Thess 3:1ff - there will be troubles on the way

It’s not how you start but how you finish.

More passages exhorting an ongoing practice:
1 Pet 5:12 - stand firm in the grace of God
Jude 20,21 - keep yourselves in the love of God (balanced with v24,25)
Heb 12:15
1 Cor 6:1 - do not receive the grace of God in vain

Various views of these sorts of passages:
Arminian - passages addressed to believers, concerning salvation, apostasy is possible.
Grace evangelical society view - passages addressed to believers, not concerning salvation but rewards. Salvation secure. Rewards at stake.
Tests of genuineness view - passages addressed to almost believers, concerning salvation, those who fall away never had real faith.
Federal Vision - passages addressed to almost believers, concerning salvation, elect and non-elect members of covenant “believers” those who fall away not elect.

Passages relating the life of the believer to saving faith:
Matt 10:32 whoever denies me before men I will deny them.
Matt 10:22 persevere to end
Matt 10:37 love me

John 15:6 abide in me or be burned
Gal 5:2-4 turn to the law and you severed from Christ.
Rom 11:19ff provided you continue in his kindness
1 Cor 6:7ff - warning about wrongdoing.
Rom 10:12 - take heed lest he fall
Gal 5:
2 John 7,8 - watch that you don’t lose eternal life, abide and remain
Rev 2:7,11, - conquer or die
Heb - if we go on deliberately sinning we will not be saved

There is an undeniable link between how we live after conversion and salvation. So, Schreiner’s view is that the warnings are addressed to believers, concerning salvation and salvation is at stake.

Lecture 2 - Persevering in faith is not perfection

perseverance is not perfectionism because
1. we pray for forgiveness
none of us reach the point where we don’t need to pray this prayer (cessesionists believed in perfectionism 1 John 1:8 )
2. perfection is ours at the resurrection (Phil 3:12) Christ has made me his, so I persevere (no presumption of inability). Romans 8:10 - we are righteous yet in the flesh.
8:23 - first fruits (assurance) + groaning as we wait (perseverance)
3. exhortations to abstain from powerful desires of the flesh (1 Peter 2:11, Gal 5:17, Rom 7:21-23, 8:13)
4. even the best Christians can do better - Jas 3:1-2 we all stumble in many ways - tongue. Do not give excuses for sin (tired etc), just confess.
1 Thess 4:1 - do it more and more! Affirm people where they are an encourage them to do better
5. Perfection will be ours on the last day. Eph 5:27, Col 1:22, 1 Thess 3:12ff, 1 John 3:2
6. biographical examples - Zechariah in Luke 1:6 (blameless not sinless, sin = unbelief, he goes on sinning
Gal 2:11 - Peter sinned by pulling back and mixing only with the circumcision party (Christian law party), even Barnabas sins!

Lecture 3 - Persevering in faith is not works-righteousness

Persevering in faith is not works-righteousness.
Obedience is necessary for salvation.

Gal 6:8 - sows to the Spirit
Romans 15:18 - obedience
Jas 2: - works are necessary for salvation

obedience of faith (Romans 1:5)
obedience flows from faith (Romans 16:26)
Romans 2:6-7 - render according to works, 25ff inward circumcision done by the Spirit. This is the obedience of faith. Not hypothetical.
1 Thess 1:3 labour of love
Gal 3:3 - begun by Spirit (believing, trusting, resting in Christ) do not move on.
We disobey if we disbelieve Christ is our Saviour
Faith, faith, faith will always produce works (root and shoot)
Perseverance is not a call to try harder, focusing on our works, but to go on believing in Christ.
Apostasy is turning to the law and depending on it for salvation (legalism) rather than depending on the cross.
Heb 10:17ff Perseverance is a call to faith in the blood of Christ shed for sin.

The obedience of faith is an ongoing, day to day, humble dependence on Christ which is nurtured by the both the gospel and the warning passages.

Romans 8:33ff - assurance
John 10:29 - assurance

Lecture 4 - Faith and assurance

Warnings are not declarations nor are they descriptive of what is happening or what will inevitably happen. They are prospective not retrospective.

A coach shouts at the runner during the race urging the runner to keep going to finish the race. The runner will keep going and finish. Warning passages are not retrospective commentary “you didn’t finish because you…”

Warning passages are like marriage counsellor saying to a couple he is aiming to help “divorce would be disastrous for you as a couple”

A friend parked car on Tom’s drive. Unthinking and in a hurry, Tom reversed toward it, his friend shouted “Tom, stop”. Tom stopped and avoided crashing into the parked car. Warning stopped the accident from happening.

Acts 26:22-24 promise no one will die
Acts 26:31 warning to stay on board
warning functions as a means of fulfilling his promise

Mark 13:22-23 not possible for elect to be lead astray, but must be on guard.

Matt 7:21 - i never knew you
2 Tim 2:18 -
1 Cor 11:19 - retrospectively

warnings not to develop an attitude of introspection but action. “kids, don’t run into the road” designed to produce action not for the kids to ask “am i still alive? Does my daddy love me” Warning passages to exhort believer to go on hating sin and trusting, loving, obeying Christ NOT ask “do I still believe, am I a Christian, have I sinned too much, have I renounced Christ?”

Heb 6 addressed to believers to keep them in the faith not to generate introspection or judgement.

Warning passages a means of perseverance for the elect. Like the message on a bottle of poison “do not drink, this poison will kill you” I have no intention of drinking, so the warning passages say “do not abandon Christ and turn to other ways of salvation or you will die” I have no intention of turning from Christ but the warning is real.

Post-script: Please read James Oakley’s comments on this post and Matt Mason’s comments and Neil Jeffers’ comments on the new covenant and the elect.

The two images below are taken from Wayne Grudem’s section on sanctification in his Systematic Theology. The first graph is as it appears in the book and the second as it appears in my copy (my thanks is due to Chris Green, vice-principal of Oak Hill College, who taught me that it is good to write in books, even if my writing is practically illegible). Can you spot the difference?

The first graph represents the way I used to think about Christian life. I had been saved from slavery to sin at conversion; with great gratitude for what Christ had done, I struggled on in the strength of the Holy Spirit and the word to grow in holiness; at death I thought I’d finally be made perfect in holiness. My life was shaped by wanting to be what I wasn’t yet but would be. I now realise that this way of thinking brings about joyless obedience and a nagging sense of guilt.

The true gospel is represented in the second graph. At conversion I was sanctified by Christ (1 Cor 1:2). I am already graciously made perfect, justified, righteous, holy in his eyes. I now look back to the cross with gratitude and forward to glory (1 Peter 1:3-5). The rest of my life is shaped by wanting to be what I already am.

Last week I posted Thomas Watson’s eleven reasons to attain a peaceable disposition, but this is easier said than done. Here’s Watson’s biblical advice for becoming a peacemaker.

It’s hard to read this without thinking about the Lambeth conference. At the last conference in 1998, hot tempers were on display for the whole world to see. As much of the furore was fuelled by biased and inaccurate media reportage, points 1(i) and 2(iv) give wise advice for how to handle the media.

Additional reasons I’ve heard given for the anger at the last conference include: lack of air conditioning in the main hall, long queues for food, language barriers, arrogant American pioneering and African/Asian post-colonial liberation confidence. All of these might have contributed, but Watson gets to the heart of the matter, the heart:

How shall we attain to peaceableness?

1 Take heed of those things which will hinder it. There are several impediments of peace which we must beware of, and they are either outward or inward.

(i) Outward: as whisperers (Romans 1: 29). There are some who will be buzzing things in our ears purposely to exasperate and provoke.

2 Take heed of inward lets to peace; for example:

(i) Self-love: ‘Men shall be lovers of themselves’ (2 Timothy 3: 2). And it follows they shall be ‘fierce’ (verse 3). The setting up of this idol of self has caused so many lawsuits, plunders, massacres in the world. ‘All seek their own’ (Philippians 2: 21).

(ii) Pride: ‘He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife’ (Proverbs 28: 25). Pride and contention, like Hippocrates’ twins, are both born at once. A proud man thinks himself better than others and will contend for superiority. …Let us shake off this viper of pride. Humility solders Christians together in peace.

(iii) Envy; envy stirreth up strife. The apostle has linked them together. ‘Envy, strife’ (1 Timothy 6: 4). Envy cannot endure a superior.

(iv) Credulity. ‘The simple believeth every word’ (Proverbs 14: 15). A credulous man is akin to a fool. He believes all that is told him and this often creates differences. As it is a sin to be a talebearer, so it is a folly to be a tale-believer. A wise man will not take a report at the first bound, but will sift and examine it before he gives credit to it.

2 Let us labour for those things which will maintain and cherish peace.

(i) As faith; faith and peace keep house together. Faith believes the Word of God. The Word says, ‘Live in peace’ (2 Corinthians 13: 11).

(ii) Christian communion. There should not be too much strangeness among Christians.

(iii) Do not look upon the failings of others, but upon their graces. There is no perfection here.

(iv) Pray to God that he will send down the Spirit of peace into our hearts.

All good Christians ought to be peacemakers; they should not only be peaceable themselves, but make others to be at peace. As in the body when a joint is out we set it again, so it should be in the body politic. When a garment is rent we sew it together again. When others are rent asunder in their affections we should with a spirit of meekness sew them together again. Had we this excellent skill we might glue and unite dissenting spirits. I confess it is often a thankless office to go about to reconcile differences (Acts 7: 27). Handle a briar never so gently, it will go near to scratch. He that goes to interpose between two fencers many times receives the blow. But this duty, though it may lack success as from men, yet it shall not want a blessing from God. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers.’ O how happy were England if it had more peacemakers! Abraham was a peacemaker (Genesis 13:8). Moses was a peacemaker (Exodus 2: 13), and that ever-to-be-honoured emperor Constantine, when he called the bishops together at that first Council of Nicaea to end church controversies, they having instead of that prepared bitter invectives and accusations one against another, Constantine took their papers and rent them, gravely exhorting them to peace and unanimity.

I’ve posted a number of times on the initial conditions in the Garden of Eden. The following table aims to draw together in one place the contrasts between the traditional “one tree” model of the garden and the “two tree” model.

This table may alter from time to time as I tighten up the language and add some comparisons.

It’s not long until the Anglican Lambeth Conference. The last conference in 1998 will be remembered for flared tempers, angry disputes and a media circus which fed on the strife like famished piranhas. Most Christians know of those who have left church or been put off faith in Christ because of strife between church members. In my case, people have been scared away from Christ because I have been grumpy and short tempered with them or around them.

Thomas Watson’s exposition of “blessed are the peacemakers” should be compulsory reading for all Christians, especially delegates at Lambeth. Here’s an abridged excerpt:

If Christians must be peaceable-minded, what shall we say to those who are given to strife and contention? To those who, like flax or gunpowder, if they be but touched, are all on fire? How far is this from the spirit of the gospel! It is made the note of the wicked. ‘They are like the troubled sea’ (Isaiah 57: 20). There is no rest or quietness in their spirits, but they are continually casting forth the foam of passion and fury. …The lustful man is brutish; the wrathful man is devilish. Everyone is afraid to dwell in an house which is haunted with evil spirits, yet how little afraid are men of their own hearts, which are haunted with the evil spirit of wrath and implacableness.

And then, which is much to be laid to heart, there are the divisions of God’s people. God’s own tribes go to war. In Tertullian’s time it was said, See how the Christians love one another. But now it may be said, See how the Christians snarl one at another, ‘They are comparable to ferocious bears’. Wicked men agree together, when those who pretend to be led by higher principles are full of animosities and heart-burnings.

Be of a peaceable disposition. ‘If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men’ (Romans 12: 18).

1 A peaceable spirit seems to be agreeable to the natural frame and constitution. Man by nature seems to be a peaceable creature, fitter to handle the plough than the sword.

2 A peaceable spirit is honourable. ‘It is an honour for a man to cease from strife’ (Proverbs 20: 3). We think it a brave thing to give way to strife and let loose the reins to our passions. Oh no, ‘it is an honour to cease from strife’.

3 To be of a peaceable spirit is highly prudential. ‘The wisdom from above is peaceable’ (James 3: 17). A wise man will not meddle with strife. It is like putting one’s finger into a hornets, nest;

4 To be of a peaceable spirit brings peace along with it. A contentious person vexes himself and eclipses his own comfort. He is like the bird that beats itself against the cage.

5 A peaceable disposition is a Godlike disposition.

6 Christ’s earnest prayer was for peace. He prayed that his people might be one (John 17: 11, 21, 23), that they might be of one mind and heart.

7 Christ not only prayed for peace, but bled for it. ‘Having made peace through the blood of his cross’ (Colossians 1: 20).

8 Strife and contention hinder the growth of grace. Can good seed grow in a ground where there is nothing but thorns and briars to be seen?

9 Peaceableness among Christians is a powerful loadstone to draw the world to receive Christ.

10 Unpeaceableness of spirit is to make Christians turn heathens.

11 To add yet more weight to the exhortation, it is the mind of Christ that we should live in peace.

He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30

I’ve always wondered why Jesus was not totally silent during his trial and now see that his broken silence was, perhaps, the wisdom of God personified.

It is clear, as Jesus remained silent that he fulfilled Isaiah 53:7. However, by breaking his silence is the prophecy of Isaiah undone? No, something else is going on related to the wisdom of Proverbs when dealing with fools.

The Sanhedrin must have thought that Jesus was a fool, as only a fool would not defend himself against false charges when his life is at stake. Jesus is then certified a lunatic for his claim to be the Son of God. From the Sanhedrin’s perspective Jesus is an idiot and a deluded one at that. Proverbs 26:4-5, however, reveals the real fool:

Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.
Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.
Proverbs 26:4-5.

The charges against Jesus were transparently false and yet Caiaphas foolishly asked Jesus to give an answer for them, to defend himself when a defence was unnecessary. But, the witnesses had committed perjury, so why should he respond? As Jesus remained silent everyone in the court knew that Caiaphas was the fool for asking Jesus to defend himself. Uncomfortable with this situation, Caiaphas then charged Jesus under oath to respond to the charge “are you the Christ, the Son of God?” This too is foolish. Jesus had not made that claim but everyone knew by his teaching action miraculous actions that Jesus was who Caiaphas said he was. Jesus was not going to deny that he was the Son of God, so he replied according to the folly of Caiaphas.

On trial, Jesus is the wisdom of Proverbs 26:4-5 personified and Caiaphas was a fool.

One ongoing struggle I have with myself is my inbuilt desire to be seen to be successful. I seek to achieve success so that others will say “well done Neil”. As I read Leviticus 11:45 this morning, “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy”, my response is to strive for perfect personal holiness so that God will say “well done Neil”. If God left me to do this on my own, I’d chase the rainbow and hate myself for not finding the pot of gold. I’d eventually burn out from the slog of trying to be holy and the guilt of failure. I’d never know God’s smile and his “well done Neil”. I know, because I’ve been there and done that.

That’s why the gospel is so beautiful. In his book The Passion of Jesus Christ: Fifty reasons why he came to die John Piper points me to one reason why Christ’s death meets my deepest felt need. Christ Suffered and Died …To Make us HOLY, BLAMELESS, AND PERFECT

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time
those who are being sanctified.
Hebrews 10:14

He has now reconciled [you] in his body of flesh by his death,
in order to present you holy and blameless and
above reproach before him.
Colossians 1:22

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump,
as you really are unleavened.
For Christ, our Passover lamb,
has been sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 5:7

One of the greatest heartaches in the Christian life is the slowness of our change. We hear the summons of God to love him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength (Mark 12:30). But do we ever rise to that totality of affection and devotion? We cry out regularly with the apostle Paul, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). We groan even as we take fresh resolves: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Philippians 3:12).

That very statement is the key to endurance and joy. “Christ Jesus has made me his own.” All my reaching and yearning and striving is not to belong to Christ (which has already happened), but to complete what is lacking in my likeness to him.

One of the greatest sources of joy and endurance for the Christian is knowing that in the imperfection of our progress we have already been perfected—and that this is owing to the suffering and death of Christ. “For by a single offering [namely, himself!] he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). This is amazing! In the same sentence he says we are “being sanctified” and we are already “perfected.”

Being sanctified means that we are imperfect and in process. We are becoming holy—but are not yet fully holy. And it is precisely these—and only these—who are already perfected. The joyful encouragement here is that the evidence of our perfection before God is not our experienced perfection, but our experienced progress. The good news is that being on the way is proof that we have arrived.

The Bible pictures this again in the old language of dough and leaven (yeast). In the picture, leaven is evil. We are the lump of dough. It says, “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Corinthians 5:7). Christians are “unleavened.” There is no leaven—no evil. We are perfected. For this reason we are to “cleanse out the old leaven.” We have been made unleavened in Christ. So we should now become unleavened in practice. In other words, we should become what we are.

The basis of all this? “For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” The suffering of Christ secures our perfection so firmly that it is already now a reality. Therefore, we fight against our sin not simply to become perfect, but because we are. The death of Jesus is the key to battling our imperfections on the firm foundation of our perfection.

The sad story of Emma Gough, the 22 year-old Jehovah’s Witness mother-to-be who died after giving birth to healthy twins because she refused to accept a blood transfusion, hit the headlines recently. She lived in Telford, 45 minutes from Wolverhampton and her death has affected many local people, including a sister of someone in our congregation, because the JWs are thriving in Wolverhampton with around 13 congregations. It must be so hard for Emma’s husband and family to be left with infant twins and no mother, especially when a simple blood transfusion would have saved her life. It must also be hard for those who adhere to the strict blood transfusion law of the Watchtower. I’ve decided to post this blog to help anyone who is affected by this teaching to ask; does the bible prohibit blood transfusions? If you are a Jehovah’s Witness, I have used the New World Translation in this work in the hope that you will read this post and think prayerfully about what the bible teaches.

I understand that this is a sensitive and controversial subject for Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Watchtower has changed its position on the use of blood products but maintains a policy of automatic self-disfellowshipping for any transgressors of this “law”.

I also understand that the “law” on the use of blood products stems from the letter to the Gentiles recorded in Acts chapter 15, which asks Gentile believers to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat strangled animals and from sexual immorality.

The context and reason for the Jerusalem council edict must be understood before we can answer the question “does the bible prohibited blood transfusions?” Two questions apply to Acts 15 before the issue can be properly understood:

1. What it is the context in which the Jerusalem council made it’s decision?
2. Why were the Gentiles asked to abstain from these four areas and not from stealing, lying, coveting and other such biblical laws?

In Luke’s account in Acts, James said to the council, most especially the circumcision party, that they must recognize and embrace Gentile believers as brothers and sisters in Christ, and not burden them or put stumbling blocks in the way of the salvation of other Gentiles by asking them to add to their faith in Jesus either circumcision or the whole code of Jewish practices (v13-18). At the same time, having established the principle that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, without works (v8-11), it was necessary to appeal to these Gentile believers to respect the consciences of their Jewish fellow-believers by abstaining from a few practices which caused offence to them and which put stumbling blocks in the way of fellow Jews coming to faith in Christ. For, James went on to explain, Moses had been preached in every city from the earliest times and is still being read in the synagogues on every Sabbath (v21). In such contexts, where the teachings of Moses were well known and highly respected, Jewish scruples were sensitive and out of charity should not have been violated by Gentile believers. Paul applied the same argument in 1 Corinthians 8. He knew that food was not defiled by being sacrificed to idols and so it could be eaten by followers of Christ. Some immature Christians, however, were uneasy when they saw other Christians eat idol-food. Paul was, therefore, willing to stop eating meat for the sake of his weaker brother.

In the case of the four abstentions listed in Acts 15, the “weaker brother” appears to be the Jewish believers whose ceremonial customs, all matters of external purity, were being violated by the Gentile believers and this made the Jewish brothers uneasy, their conscience was defiled. So by eating meat sacrificed to idols, eating or drinking ‘blood’ and ‘eating the meat of strangled animals’ Gentile believers broke the ceremonial food laws recorded in Leviticus (Lev. 17:6-15). Sexual immorality was also a matter of Jewish purity, outlawed in Leviticus (Lev 15:16-33). For Gentile believers who came from a background of temple prostitution and general promiscuity the issue needed addressing. This sexual immortality was associated with cultic practice and so it overlapped with both the ceremonial and moral aspects of God’s law.

In essence, the Jerusalem council agreed that all believers in Christ are saved by God’s grace though faith. They are justified and made righteous by hating their moral sin and loving Christ for dying in their place on the cross. As for the law, it is divided into moral and ceremonial and whilst the moral law still stands today the ceremonial law is swallowed up in the cross as Christ fulfills the requirements of the sacrificial system. All believers are held to the moral law of God but not the ceremonial. Whilst the Jews who had come to trust in Christ is their Messiah knew that he had fulfilled the ceremonial laws and so abolished them, it still pricked their conscience when they saw their Gentile brothers breaking those ceremonial laws. God had already revealed through Peter’s visions in Acts 10 and 11 that the food laws were abolished under Christ. All things were now “clean” to eat because the ceremonial law was fulfilled in Christ. Jewish believers could now eat all sorts of meat and blood products, yet it left them feeling uneasy, so Gentiles were asked to abstain for the love of their Jewish brethren.

Carrying this principle forward to today’s ethical dilemma created by the Watchtower, it is clear that blood transfusions do not fit the category of Jewish ceremonial law as no sacrifice for sin or guilt is performed in the donation of blood. Blood donors may believe that they are making a small sacrifice to make them right with God but the bible teaches that only one sacrifice is acceptable to God, the death of Jesus on the cross (1 Peter 3:18). Blood given for transfusion and the blood of animals used in sacrifice are not in the same ceremonial category.

So, do blood transfusions fall into the category of something believers should abstain from because of the uneasy conscience of some? It might be true that Jehovah’s witnesses feel uncomfortable with the idea of having the blood of another person pumped into their veins. The question remains, does the Bible ask people to abstain from the practice of blood transfusion for this reason?

I believe the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 12 sheds some light on the situation. The disciples go into a grain field, pluck heads of grain and eat them on the Sabbath. The Pharisees are angry because Jesus’ disciples are breaking the Sabbath law “do no work”.

Jesus’ reply takes the following line of argument:

1. The priests “worked” every Sabbath in the temple and so “broke” the law yet remained innocent because their temple work took precedent over the law not to work on the Sabbath. The authority of God’s law allowed them to work (v5).
2. Jesus himself is greater than the temple system, he fulfills the law for people and has authority to allow them to do acts of mercy on the Sabbath (v7)
3. Mercy takes precedent over sacrifice (v7)

To prove his point, Jesus then healed a man with a withered hand, on the Sabbath in the synagogue (v9-13) and the strict law keepers wanted to kill him, not for showing mercy but for breaking the law which said “do not work on the Sabbath” (v14). Yet, the same Pharisees would work on Sabbath by rescuing a sheep from a ditch! And Jesus said that a man’s life is worth more than a sheep’s. So, as healing people is a work of re-creation, Jesus himself taught and demonstrated that mercy takes president over sacrifice.

Presuming that someone still argued that the laws of Leviticus 17 stand today, that they were not swallowed up in the sacrificial death of Christ, and that blood transfusions break those laws, Jesus teaches and demonstrates that healing someone is more important than keeping such laws. Jesus “went through the land doing good and healing all those oppressed by the Devil; because God was with him” (Acts 10:38). Saving the lives of people and healing them falls into the category of mercy. Jesus said “I want mercy, not sacrifice”. It is, therefore, necessary for believers to show and receive mercy, to heal people, before adhering to any ceremonial laws on blood.

If you are a Jehovah’s Witness I hope this gives you the courage to accept a blood transfusion as an act of mercy and not to be concerned about breaking ceremonial laws concerning blood.

This extract from If you don’t know me by now reveals an incredible inconsistency in Sikh thought…the teaching of the brotherhood of humanity and yet the prohibition to marry outside the same caste, let alone the same race. Here’s more of Sathnam Sanghera’s inner turmoil as he decides whether or not to break the news to his parents about his relationships with English girls and to tell them that he wants to be free to marry whom ever he likes:

In desperation, I resorted to looking around my family for someone who might at least support me in the event of a confrontation with my mother. My brother was a natural person to consult, but relationships weren’t something we had ever discussed and I worried he would tell her. I thought I’d found an alternative when, during an interminable wedding, a respected elderly friend of the family remarked: ‘You know, we have to move with the times when it comes to marriage. We can’t behave like Punjabi villagers any more.’ But just as images of a white wedding flashed through my mind, me in morning suit, Laura Ill white, my family in the pews, he added: ‘For instance, if one of my sons wanted to marry a girl who wasn’t the right caste, I would try to understand it.’
The right caste?
He would TRY to understand?
The man had enjoyed a successful career in Britain, had spent nearly thirty years in Britain, and this was how far he’d come. The message came through loud and clear: marrying someone who was not a Sikh was the very worst thing you could do…

Despite this, sometimes, tired out worrying, I would allow myself to think positively. Sometimes — encouraged by friends — I’d decide things weren’t that bad. The Sikh faith, founded by Guru Nanak, was liberal. It taught monotheism, the brotherhood of humanity, rejected idol worship, the oppressive Hindu concept of caste, and had tolerance at its heart. Its gurdwaras were open to anyone; it was unique in respecting other religions and other people; Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth guru, had preached equality and proclaimed that his disciples should ‘recognize the Indian race as one’. Besides, Mum must have worked out what was going on…

But these moments of optimism were the worst. With metronomic predictability, a crash would follow. I would visit Will and she would present me with gold jewellery she’d bought for my future bride, or would insist on a particularly depressing arranged marriage meeting. The worst crash came when she rang in tears, announcing that a great scandal had afflicted the family in India: a pretty and lively cousin of mine had run away to marry a boy. When I pressed for further information, it transpired, between her sobs, that the problem with this boy was not that he was from another religion, or from another caste, or the wrong age, or had bad prospects, or was even the wrong height or skin colour. The scandal, it turned out, was that he was - get this - FROM THE SAME VILLAGE AS THE GIRL. Which, apparently, is a no-no.

More than anything else, this story brought home the bleakness of my situation.

I can’t work out whether this makes the biblical teaching that all are one by faith in Christ, Jew nor Greek, male nor female, Punjabi nor English, attractive or unattractive to Sikhs. The demolition of race and caste boundaries through faith in Christ must be attractive. Yet, abandoning parental tradition must make such betrayal almost unthinkable.