In Depth:  Michael Reeves

everyday theology

Michael Reeves

Underneath every mistake the Pharisees made lay a root problem. Jesus put it simply: ‘They loved the glory of men more than the glory of God’ (John 12:43, my translation).

Jesus’ words cut like a scalpel through to their fundamental motivation. They would not confess Him because of what they loved. But what exactly did Jesus mean? Did He mean that they loved the glory that comes from men more than the glory that comes from God? Or did He mean that they loved the glory of men more than the glory that belongs to and is due to God?

everyday theology

Michael Reeves

Evangelicals are never about propositions alone: we want the theological truths of the gospel to transform us by the renewing of our minds (Rom.12:2).

We want to know God, in a personal way. We don’t simply affirm that Scripture is our supreme authority and that we are justified by faith alone through Christ alone. We actually submit to Scripture as our supreme authority and enjoy Christ as our only Saviour, praising Him from our hearts for His all-sufficiency and grace.

everyday theology

Michael Reeves

Justification of sinners by grace alone lies at the heart of the gospel. It is the proof and consequence of the fact that Christ is so entirely all-sufficient a Saviour that His work needs no supplementing by us. While this may be good news, it is not an easy truth for the fallen to swallow.

The fact that Jesus pronounces a foul sinner righteous while condemning a life committed to religious uprightness (see Luke 18:9-14) offends our pride. For the humbling effect of Jesus’s teaching, so entirely condemning our self-reliance, makes it far easier to reserve the message of justification by grace as one only for beginners or outsiders. Justification may be an essential evangelical truth, but it is one that all evangelicals struggle to live by.

everyday theology

Michael Reeves

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’

everyday theology

Michael Reeves

To be faithful to the gospel means treating Christ and His redeeming death and resurrection as matters ‘of first importance’ (1 Cor. 15:3-4). And yet, through the centuries, Christians have managed to downgrade Jesus, cast Him in their own image, or use Him as the icing to sell some other agenda.

But that is not the evangelical way. Evangelicals look to Scripture to know Christ, and there they find the unique Son of God, exclusive in His glorious identity and completely sufficient as a Saviour.

everyday theology

Michael Reeves

At the heart of being an evangelical is humility. That might seem a laughable claim amid all the empire-building and hubris that has blackened the name of evangelicalism.

And there is something about evangelicalism that can make it a fertile soil for pride. Evangelicals are people of the word, and so learning is in the blood. Yet learning so commonly fosters arrogance.

everyday theology

Michael Reeves

If the desire of the Father, the work of the Spirit, and the purpose of Scripture is to herald Jesus, then so it must be for the faithful preacher.

If the Son’s great and eternal goal is to win for Himself a bride, then His heralds must woo for Him. They are like Abraham’s servant in Genesis 24, commissioned to find a bride for His master’s son. Only when we take our eyes off ourselves and herald Him will we truly glorify God. But when we do that, we may be sure that our preaching will always be evangelistic and, at the same time, always edifying to the saints.