Peter SmytheA Different Kind of Word Preacher

This invasion of one’s mind by ready-made phrases … can only be prevented if one is constantly on guard against them, and every such phrase anaesthetizes a portion of one’s brain. (George Orwell, Why I Write, “Politics and the English Language” at 117)

Along with their stunning resumes, power point presentations, and their copywriters, our market-savvy, theologized preachers have brought along with them those modish little theology phrases that borgicize our minds to our acerbic Gospel: “Just a sinner saved by grace,” “imputed righteousness,” “great exchange,” yada, yada, yada. As such Newspeak is blared into our inner consciousness by repeated broadcasts, books, product promotions, watercooler talks, or what have you, it becomes so entrenched in our minds that our whole climate of thought has transmogrified and we don’t even realize that our faith has left the building.

In Jesus’s prayer to the Father in the book of John, we see something significant for our age of the soundbite-driven church with its uber-theologians:

for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me (John 17.8, NASB)

I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17.14, NASB)

In his prayer, Jesus refers to God’s revelation as both word and words. As God has chosen to give us the mystery of Christ in writing, the separate words that form the mystery mosaic must possess the same importance and authority as the revelation itself. Each piece of the puzzle is just as God-breathed as the whole thing. This idea that it is not just the “word of God” that we preach, but the “words of God” was backed up by an angel in the book of Acts:

But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. (Acts 5.19-20, KJV)

Consequently, we cannot refashion the words of this God-life for preaching without crystal clear clarity in our thought life about what those original words are and what exactly they must mean. Cheap marketing phrases and chic theological gloss only produce souls stupefied to the stern facts behind our redemption.

This coming week, we intend to take on the nemesis of most of the theological world: 2 Corinthians 5.21. As we wade into the waters of heresyland and become targets for the Holy Thought Police, we considered it a good idea to give our readers a taste of things to come. We took 2 Corinthians 5.21 which says:

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (NASB)

to our resident rock star theologian, Cheesy Mac, and asked him to compare the text (the words) to John MacArthur’s exegesis of the scripture:

On the cross, God treated Christ as if He had committed all the sins of every believer who would ever believe, so that he could treat believers as if they had lived Christ’s perfect life. (John MacArthur, The Gospel According to the Apostles, Sermon 2000)

On a butter-stained napkin, he scrawled out these notes before heading out to yet another theologian powwow:

1. “On the cross” - The verse does not say “on the cross.” While it may be true that 2 Corinthians 5.21 occurred on the cross, we need to be sure that “on the cross” is an accurate portrayal of the verse. For instance, did we “become the righteousness of God” on the cross or was that part later?
2. “God treated Christ as if” - The verse does not appear to create a legal fiction. The grammatical structure of the verse says “He made Him sin” which is quite different from “treated as if.” Why I could treat my dog as a low-down, good-for-nuthin’ mutt, but that doesn’t mean that he actually is a low-down, good-for-nuthin’ mutt. “Treated as if” is light years away from the actual words of the text.
3. “He had committed all the sins” - In the Greek, the word “sin” is singular in both instances. “All the sins” isn’t in the verse at all.
4. “Every believer who would ever believe” - That’s quite a hop, skip, and jump from “we.” Being the theologian I am, I know that this little ditty carries with it that theological bomb that some people are predestined to go to hell no matter what they do. Also, 1 John 2.2 - “sins for the whole world” comes to mind. Again, it is a wide deviation from the text.
5. “He could treat believers” - Again, “treat as if” is the rendition of a legal fiction that doesn’t appear anywhere in the text. Look above about my dog.
6. “Christ’s perfect life” - “Christ’s perfect life” is absolutely nowhere in the text. The words say “righteousness of God.” I really don’t know how you get “Christ’s perfect life” out of “righteousness of God.” Maybe that’s why I’m never asked to speak at any of these conferences.