Author: Jay Lehman

My father and grandfather both passed away due to heart attacks.  I recognize the likelihood of a genetic predisposition to heart disease.  I trust that my diet choices and heart healthy understanding have improved from previous generations but I do not trust in these things; I trust in the Lord, aware of the fact that none of us have any longevity guarantees.  What I do know is that I celebrate every heartbeat.  I celebrate every moment.  I celebrate every small victory and movement forward in my marriage, my children, my friendships, and my walk with the Lord.

Our daughter, Bethany, is an RN at a local hospital.  She also volunteers at a pregnancy center performing ultrasound evaluations for the newly pregnant clients who come to the center.  She told me that the heartbeat of the baby is the first sign of life she sees by way of the ultrasound.  In the earliest weeks of this child’s life, even before the rest of the body takes form, she can see the steady pulse of a heartbeat.

The significance of this picture to me is here.  The heart, as described in Scripture, is the center of our intellectual, emotional, volitional, and spiritual life.  Our heart is what ties us closest to God, our creator.  Our creation in God’s image starts with our heart and that is why it is no surprise that it is first to appear in the womb.  That is also why a baby in the womb is sacred; created in God’s image with a heart beating in rhythm with a life infused by God Himself.

In the heated political debate of abortion, I fall short of providing any quick answers to stopping it.  I am not sure how to criminalize the act in our current confusion as a country over this issue.  I do know I am uncomfortable with the “legal” label attached to the practice as it suggests that we as a society condone this atrocity.  In the long run, maybe it comes down to providing tangible help to those in a crisis pregnancy while continuing to educate a public that has become blind to the fact that abortion stops a beating heart.

And blind is not too strong of a word to use.  How else can we describe those who willfully ignore these commonly known facts from tenth grade biology class?

1)  Human beings procreate human beings.

2)  Abortion kills a human being.

3)  Abortion must stop.

No matter your political or religious bent, it really is that simple.  Celebrate the heartbeat.

One of the obstacles young people face in fully embracing the Christian message is the struggle with pluralism.  That is, what about all these other faiths?  Can they all be wrong?  The exclusiveness of the Christian message borders on intellectual arrogance in their mind.

I would approach this objection from two angles.  First, understand and be able to explain that Christianity does not have a corner on common grace, God’s general revelation to man.  The golden rule, honoring one’s parents, and caring for the poor are not exclusive to Christian teaching.  With an attitude of humility, we must recognize and celebrate God’s truth that is revealed in a variety of belief systems.  We can agree with unbelievers in their goal of strengthening their marriage and loving their children.  By virtue of being created in God’s image, all people have some level of moral ability.  And we demonstrate generosity, when we acknowledge truth wherever we find it.

Where Christianity does have exclusive claims, we need to be firm in our teaching.  Jesus’ own words could not be more clear; Jesus is the only way to eternal life with God, the Father, our Creator.  There is no room or need to compromise on this foundational tenet of our faith.  All paths do not lead to heaven.  Our rescue from sin, our deliverance is only through faith in the work and name of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12 and a hundred other texts).

The second angle is to proclaim the exclusive message of “Jesus is the only way” in love, not condemnation.  Rather than excluding people, love emphasizes the inclusiveness of the wide open invitation.  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world should be saved through Him” (Jn 3:16-17).  The salvation message of Christ is open to all.  There are no limits; no barriers of race, culture, sophistication, location, or time in history.  “For there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile [or any race, for that matter]; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him; for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:12-13).

If you think about it, most religions are basically cultural and nationalistic.  Christianity is just the opposite.  And because of that, its movement has spread at various times and in various ways across the whole world.  We so often associate Christianity with Western Europe or the United States, but that is because our understanding of the history of the church is naturally colored by our own cultural experience.  The cultural variety of Christianity extends from families in Palestine who have a Christian heritage going back a thousand years to the explosion of Christianity today in the global south.

We partly dismantle the pluralism objection by emphasizing the wide open invitation for people everywhere to join in.  In my opinion, Christianity is not a narrow view to be defended, but a wide open invitation to be extended.  There is incredible cultural diversity in Christianity.  And young people may be surprised to find this out.

As we think about these lifestyle issues, one of the challenges faced by both unbelievers and doubting Christians is the caricature of the biblical standards on these issues that is called “Christianity.”  Our culture’s confusion about feminism is a good example.

The caricature is a concept of male headship that is colored by the abusive patriarchal model of many cults, domineering husbands and fathers operating under a misunderstood biblical mandate, and a vague notion of what the term “submission” implies.  Attaching the Christian label to the abuse of male headship has thinking people running for the exits, and I don’t blame them.  But the concept they are rejecting is not the biblical teaching but a cheap imitation.

The biblical concept of male headship is covered many places in Scripture, and the most succinct is, “But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ” (I Cor 11:3).

Our Christian bookshelves are filled with books about “the man is the head of a woman” running the gamut from the man is always in charge no matter what to trying to explain away the concept altogether as a first century cultural overprint.  What I have rarely seen is a book that tackles “God is the head of Christ.”  Maybe that concept is a little too much to get our minds around.  I bring it up because a proper understanding of male headship is inextricably linked to understanding the relationship between God and Christ.  And Jesus explains it for us in John, chapter 5.  (Much of what follows here is based on a Christianity Today article Headship with a Heart by Steven Tracy.)

“For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.  Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son does in like manner.  For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel” (Jn 5:18-20).

The Jews clearly understood Jesus’ repeated claim to equality with God, the Father; so much so that they sought to kill Him.  In this passage we see this equality in action as the work of God the Father and the work of God the Son is shown as the collaboration of intimate equals.  Their relationship is rooted in equality, not superiority.  Does this equality diminish God’s headship?  Apparently not.  Thinking about how this applies to male headship, particularly in the marriage and family setting, this is the first application:  we are to treat our wives as intimate equals.

Continuing, “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes.  For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgement to the Son” (Jn 5:21-22).  God shares His authority with the Son.  Does this diminish God’s headship?  Apparently not.  Christ did not use His shared authority to usurp the Father.  He was responsive to the Father’s authority; He did the will of the Father.  We are to share authority with our wives.

Finally, God shares His honor with the Son.  “So that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father.  He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (Jn 5:23).  Isaiah wrote, many years before, “I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another” (Is 42:8).  But God does share His honor and glory with the Son because He wants all people to honor the Son.  Does honoring the Son diminish God’s headship?  Apparently not.  We are to honor our wives.

When we take this back to I Corinthians 11:3, we find the concept and practical implications of male headship are rooted in the relationship of God and Christ explained in John chapter 5.  This approach to male headship also fits the example of Christ’s own ministry in which He honored women far above the cultural expectations.

The feminist answer to the abuse of male power is to reject the concept of male headship altogether.  The biblical response is to clarify, explain, and celebrate headship with a heart.

When we embrace the gospel message of Jesus Christ we become saints, sanctified ones, “set apart for God’s holy use or purpose.”  How does God view that which He has sanctified, but not being used for its holy purpose?  Let’s get a snapshot look in Daniel chapter 5.

“Belshazzar the king held a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand.  When Belshazzar tasted the wine, he gave orders to bring the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, in order that the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.  Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God which was in Jerusalem; and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines drank from them.  They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone.  Suddenly the fingers of a man’s hand emerged and began writing opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the back of the hand that did the writing.  Then the king’s face grew pale, and his thoughts alarmed him; and his hip joints went slack, and his knees began knocking together” (Dan 5:1-6).

Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, during a great feast brought out the sacred vessels stolen from the temple of God and profaned them by drinking from them and using them as items of worship to his pagan gods.  During this profanity, a man’s hand appeared and wrote an inscription on the wall.  It read, by Daniel’s interpretation, “God has numbered your kingdom and put an end to it.  You have been weighed on the scales and found deficient.  Your kingdom has been divided and given over to the Medes and Persians” (Dan 5:25-28).  Sure enough, before the night was out, Belshazzar was killed and his kingdom passed to Darius the Mede.

Why this punishment for Belshazzar the king?  Listen to Daniel’s summary of the king’s actions.  “Even though you knew all that happened to your father, Nebuchadnezzar [made to live like a beast of the field because of his pride], you have not humbled your heart, but have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven.  They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines have been drinking wine from them; and you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see, hear or understand.  But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and your ways, you have not glorified” (Dan 5:22-23).  Belshazzar exalted himself by using the holy things of God in idol worship.  As a result, his kingdom was taken away and he was slain; all because he chose to desecrated the holy things of God.

Viewing the Old Testament as “examples written for our instruction” (I Cor 10:11), here’s the application that I take away from this story.  Your body is a holy temple.  Do not desecrate what God calls holy, what God purchased with the “precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (I Pet 1:19) by worldly living.  When we live in sin, we are treating Christ’s death – Christ’s substitution in our place – as trivial.  And it is a dangerous thing to desecrate or trivialize the holy things of God.  Remember, saint, your label over and over in the New Testament is “holy one.”  Live your life worthy of your holy calling (Eph 4:1).