Transformed Minds: The Five Commitments of Christian Learning

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Boyce College

Convocation Message — Spring 2021

February 2, 2021

It is our great privilege once again to gather by one means or another to celebrate the stewardship of a new academic semester at Southern Seminary. So now, as we are in February of 2021, we find ourselves in terrain that’s pretty familiar to us. We find ourselves opening an academic semester in a time of war, and by this, as I referred to the same in my opening convocation for the fall, it’s a a time of war that has to do with war against a pandemic. But we have seen our lives affected, we have seen schedules reshaped, we’ve seen, yet at the same time, in the midst of this pandemic, the most remarkable tenacity and commitment on the part of students and faculty and the administration of this school and the entire constituency and the support of the Southern Baptist Convention. What we’ve discovered over the course of the last several months, and we’re now looking at almost a year of pandemic, what we have discovered is the sweetness of the stewardship that is given to us in teaching and learning.

What we’ve discovered is the absolute determination of this institution, both the seminary and the college to teach and students to learn. What we have discovered is that there are those who love this school and support this school. There are churches that nourish this school and send us its students and support us financially. And so to the entire Southern Baptist Convention, uh, to the churches that have supported us and prayed for us, for the Christians individually and corporately who have made the last academic year possible, the beginning of this academic year to faculty, students, administrators, and others, I simply wanna say, welcome to this new chapter In the Adventure of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. And Boce college scholars, Christian scholars in particular, have gathered together the beginning of the academic term going back to the origins of the medieval university, and scholars and learners altogether came and convoked gathered together in a great convocation, which was a service of worship.

And even as the secular world and secular institutions have abandoned that, we still meet for convocation because we understand there is a commitment that is necessary, a consecration that is just right as we think about the beginning of an academic term, and we’re gonna turn together in scripture. I want to invite you to turn with me to the 11th chapter of the book of Romans, Paul’s letter to the Romans. And we’re going to look together the last few verses of chapter 11 in the first two verses of chapter 12. These are verses familiar to virtually all of you, I’m sure, but I want us to look at these verses in particular as we think together in this opening convocation about the commitments of Christian learning. What are the necessary commitments that mark genuine Christian learning and what is required of us in the enterprise of Christian learning?

Let’s look to the scripture together, Romans chapter 11, verse 33, and following, oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor, or who has first given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him, and to him are all things to him be glory forever. Amen. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. This is God’s word, and it’s right that we turn to God’s word as we think in the beginning of an academic term, this spring semester of the academic year, 2020 2021, it’s right that we think about what’s required of us.

It’s right that we celebrate the grandeur of what is given to us. We think in terms of stewardship and discipline. We think of consecrated Christian learning. We understand that it is a commitment. It’s, it’s not something that will just happen. An education that is genuinely Christian, authentically Christian learning will not just happen. It comes by deep investment in an institution such as this. It comes by multiple lifetimes invested in a school as you see representative on this faculty here and, and the portraits on the wall and, uh, the students who are now in the classroom. It’s a, it’s a cycle of generations, and it’s a succession of faithfulness. In Romans chapter 11, beginning in verse 33, we find this doxology with which Paul ends this crucial chapter. It’s a turning point in the book of Romans. And, uh, there will be a, a different mode to Paul’s expression as he’s writing to the Romans, as he begins with what we know as chapter 12 and the call to be a living sacrifice.

But before turning to that, the Apostle Paul, having dealt with so many of the greatest truths of the gospel, the greatest truths of the Christian faith, and having demonstrated everything from the reality of justification by faith and as definitive of the gospel and defending the gospel against, uh, misunderstandings, defending Christ and his accomplished work, making very clear what the gospel is and those great passages of the therefore is there is therefore now no condemnation to the one who’s in Christ Jesus. You, you just think about all that the apostle Paul has dealt with already. And at the end of what we know as chapter 11 and verse 33, we find these few verses that together are a doxology. And, uh, that just simply means an exclamation of the glory of God. Uh, the doxology I knew to the tune of old 100 as a boy in my church, we sang it every Sunday morning.

We, we stood to sing it after the offering had been taken. And, uh, the words of that doxology will be with me forever, praise God from whom all blessings, flow and, and, and just a, a recapitulation of the doctrine of the Trinity and a a, an affirmation of the glory of the one true living God. But a doxology is broader than any song. It’s broader than any single Psalm. It’s, it’s, it’s the glory of God declared. It’s an exultation in the glory of God. It’s a, it’s an affirmation, it’s a confession. It’s an act of worship. And as a matter of fact, there can be no worship without doxology, and there can be no doxology without worship. And Paul just so overcome, it appears as he’s inspired by the Holy Spirit having declared the gospel in such clear terms, he then turns simply to exalt in the glory of God with specific language it has to do.

And this is absolutely crucial. I think it has to do with his exultation primarily in the omniscience and wisdom of God. It’s very interesting, uh, as we think in doxology, of course, we declare the greatness and the glory of God and every single dimension revealed to us, uh, we would declare His, his infinite perfection and every single revealed respect. He is just as our own confession says infinite in all of his perfections. He’s omniscient, he’s omnipotent, he’s omnipresent. You can go through all of the list, in fact, the tables of the revealed attributes of God. But the one that is Paul’s singular focus here in particular is the omniscience of God. It begins, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. Three different terms here. Riches, first of all, which is not a term that’s absolutely, uh, the same as the other two.

So it it’s the one one that stands out a bit because the, the second word is wisdom. And the third translated into English is knowledge, the wisdom and knowledge of God. But it’s, it’s the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. So the, the riches here just affirms the fact that there is, there’s so much here beyond our estimation. There is so much here beyond our knowing. But the one thing we do know is to declare, even as we say that God is infinite in all of his perfections, we speak of the riches of God’s attributes of wisdom and knowledge. The depth of them, the biblical category of depth is actually very, very important. It’s a dimensionality that makes sense to us. Now, we speak of an experience that was deep. We speak of thinking that is deep thinking. This is the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God that Paul here exalts in before us.

And, and then he, he says, how unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways, how ins searchable his judgements and inscrutable his ways. I can still remember a preacher years ago saying something I thought was remarkably profound, in which he said, almost every heresy is an attempt to screw the inscrutable. And, uh, there’s a lot of wisdom in that. But it requires us to think for a moment about what it means to speak of God’s ways as inscrutable. First of all, we’re told is judgments are unsearchable. And the unsearchable in this sense doesn’t mean that they’re not revealed to us. It simply means that it’s, they’re beyond our understanding. We, we do not have the equipment to search out the meaning of the judgments of God. What’s behind the judgments of God there, that we can’t get into the knowledge that is God’s own personal possession.

That’s unsearchable to us. But nonetheless, God’s wisdom and his judgments are revealed to us inscrutable as ways. Inscrutable is one of those very necessary words in English. And the Greek word behind it just, it’s, it’s a, it’s a necessary word because we have to say there are, there are just certain categories of knowledge that are denied to us. And, uh, that’s a good thing for us to admit to one another at the beginning of an academic term. It’s a, it’s a good thing for us to say, you know, we are not now nor will we ever in the past, nor will we ever be in the future able to screw the inscrutable Southern Seminary. Boys College are not about <laugh> getting behind the revelation of God. Instead, we are situated in the gracious self revelation of God. Luther referred to the inscrutability of God’s ways in, in these terms.

He said, God has a right-hand and a left hand. And of course, he was speaking metaphorically, even as we see it in scripture. And, and, and so he said, on the right hand or with the right hand, God acts in ways that he shows to us. And he says, look, here’s what I’m doing. Watch what’s about to happen. He, he, here’s the difference I’m making in the world. Look at this sea about to part or in the life and ministry of Jesus. Look at this man born blind who now sees he here is where I am acting, and I’m telling you I’m acting. And in many cases I’m telling you why I’m acting. Luther said, that’s how God acts with his right hand. But with his left hand, Luther said, he holds what he never reveals to us, and we have no right to demand what is in God’s left hand.

And we have more than we can ever fully receive or exhaust in what he has shown us in his right hand. This truth is actually articulated directly in scripture in a passage like Deuteronomy chapter 29, verse 29. The hidden things belong to God alone, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever. That distinction between the things that are revealed that are ours and belong to us and to our children forever, and the things that are hidden that belong to God alone. One of the necessary acts of humility for Christian theology and for the Christian knower, the Christian learner, is to understand that we are given to the absolute thirst and hunger to know the revealed things of God. It is not given to us to seek to know the hidden things of God. Now, an interesting question is how will our knowledge in the kingdom be different than our knowledge now?

Because after all we’re told that right now we see through a glass darkly, but then we’ll see ’em face to face. There will be a qualitative and quantitative difference in the knowledge we have in the kingdom, in the knowledge that we have now, but it’s not gonna be a correction of the revelation that’s given to us now. It’s, it is, it is going to be an expansion of the revelation that has given us now. But even in the kingdom, even in that personal intimate fellowship with God, we will never know the hidden things because our knowledge as a finite creature will never be co-extensive with the knowledge of the creator. For Paul, this is so important, and I think this is absolutely crucial. We understand where this text comes in the flow of the book of Romans. This is absolutely crucial for us to understand.

We’re accountable for everything that has been revealed to us, and we dare not trespass further. Instead, the rightful response of the redeemed creature, given the gift of divine revelation, is to stand back and say, we receive all of this gratefully as God’s gracious gift, and we dare not seek to press beyond. That would be the sin of speculation. That would be what the Bible speaks of as a vain imagination. That would be some form of idolatry, which is not what we know we, we must resist and, uh, a trap from which we must escape. So part of what we’re doing in this opening convocation is to say, let’s just remind ourselves it is indeed God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge that are infinite. It is his ways that are inscrutable, but everything that’s revealed is given to us. And then there are these hypothetical questions repeated from the Old Testament for who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor.

It’s a great question. Who, who’s ever known the mind of the Lord that, that, to answer that question, well, all you have to do is hear it. Uh, to hear it is to know the answer. No one’s ever known the mind of the Lord and who’s ever been his counselor. Well, of course, in the original context, the the context is that wherever you find an earthly power, an earthly king, an earthly emperor, a pharaoh, well, you find concentric rings of counselors and advisors, but not before the throne of God. Before the throne of God. There are those who worship him and whose sole purpose for existence is to worship and glorify him. They do not advise him. And then of course, the second questioner who has given a gift to him that it might be repaid, God is never in debt to anyone. We are infinitely, eternally in debt to God.

He’s never indebted to us. And then that last verse, which is all encompassing, verse 36, for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever. Amen. You know, even in just the last few days, I was reminded of reading a scientific article in which, uh, physicists were debating the difference between the classical model of physics and the quantum model of physics. And they were, uh, there were both saying that if, if indeed there’s ever full resolution between the classic model of physics and the quantum model of physics, and they said that we’ll have a, an absolutely true knowledge of the universe, we will know the one truth that will unlock the, the key to the entire universe. And I’m going, no, we already know it. When I read the article, I thought, you know, it’s, uh, it’s not that I’m not interested in this academic quest.

It is that at the end of the day, we already, by the things revealed know that singular principle of the universe, and it is this for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever. Amen. And then, you know, there’s this, therefore that links chapter 12 of Chapter 11, I appeal to you, therefore brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Now, the older I get, the more I recognize, I read the Bible somewhat differently just given experience and age, but I also know that I now see things I didn’t see before. And I ask questions that I didn’t ask before, but to reverse the situation. I now sometimes surprised at how strange something looked to me at a previous age in life.

And that’s just an honest statement. And, uh, the older I get, I guess the more honest I can be about this. When, when I go back and look at chapter 12 verse one, I can remember as a, as a teenager, as a young person, as a college student being struck by the idea of a living sacrifice, as if that is now, especially after the therefore, that is now the astounding truth that is supposed to shock us. And, and it is shocking. It’s an oxymoron. Two words which put together don’t automatically make sense, living sacrifice, you know, the Old Testament, you know, the centrality, the sacrificial system. And you understand the, the truth that the one thing the sacrifice didn’t do after the sacrifice was live. And so the category of a living sacrifice is shocking. But uh, now I have to tell you, I think that for most people in the world, it is the previous claims that would be even more shocking for from him and to him.

And as the scripture says through him, are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. The declaration of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. I think that’s actually perhaps more shocking if rightly understood to the secularizing society around us than even the intentionally shocking category that the Holy Spirit spoke through the Apostle Paul of a living sacrifice. But we do understand that’s the odd thing. As soon as we hear it, it does make sense. Given the totality of the biblical revelation. Being a living sacrifice does almost immediately make sense. That’s why it’s really never been a controversial issue in the Christian Church. This has not been a text that’s been a stumbling block for Christians as if Christians have said throughout the 20 and more centuries of the Christian Church. Well, we don’t know what that means. No, we do kind of immediately intuitively understand what it means.

It means to be dead to self and alive to Christ. It means to be so dedicated to him, uh, a disciple of Christ to such a degree that we live unto him and to to live unto Christ in every dimension as a living sacrifice. It means obedience. Yes, it means discipleship. Yes, it means commitment and consecration. Yes. And that’s why if we just looked at that verse and we just looked at that phrase, it would be, it would be so much for us to consider as a convocation thought in the beginning of a new academic term because we certainly want to live out this academic term and every academic term, and we wanna live out every moment and day of our lives until we are at rest. We want to live it as a living sacrifice. That’s the power of the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ alone explains both the, the logic of being a living sacrifice and the possibility of being a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

You know, that language harkins right back to the Old Testament in terms of the animal that was qualified to be sacrificed. And you think, well, how in the world can we qualify to be a living sacrifice? The answer is we are not qualified even to be living sacrifices, but Christ qualifies us. It is the, it is the infinite righteousness of Christ imputed to those who believe makes possible even our being a living sacrifice. We’re also told this is our spiritual worship, whereas the old King James said, our reasonable service, it is it, it is the rightful response of the redeemed creature to the redeemer. It’s the rightful response of the redeemed creature to the creator.

But then that next verse, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Now, I preached this text in order to get to this verse at times. There, there, there are times in which addressing the issue of the will of God and, uh, all kinds of theological confusions about the will of God, all kinds of theological corruptions about the will of God. I’ve often preached this text just as it is. And indeed, I’ll tell you, this text is actually the first text I ever preached in a Christian Church, in my home church. I had the honor of preaching youth week now more than 40 years ago. And I preached this text, but I preached it basically as a, as a high school student in order to get to the will of God.

Because honestly, that was the consuming question of my life. What is the will of God for me? What is, how, how do I find the will of God? How I discover the will of God? How do I know the will of God? And uh, and and what will that be for me and for my life? I had some clues. Um, but my purpose in turning to this text today is not to turn to chapter 12, verse two in particular and talk about right and wrong ways of thinking about the will of God. But, but rather I want us to look at it in the totality of the text and understand that even as the text begins here in verse two, I tell you it’s not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. The good news is that the, that the verse ends basically by telling us that if we do that, if by the power of Christ and, and in the wisdom of God by God’s self revelation in scripture, if we as living sacrifices are not conformed to the world as this, this command comes to us, but we’re transformed by the renewing of our mind.

And that doesn’t mean some kind of mental energy. That means a mind saturated in scripture. It means the mind of Christ. If, if we are not conformed to this world, but transformed by the power of the gospel, by the power of Christ, then the good news is that we will discern what is the will of God, which by definition is good and acceptable and perfect will not be conformed to the world. We will be transformed by the renewing of our mind, and by testing demonstration, we’ll live out the will of God for our lives. You’ll at verse two in this dichotomy, this contrast between being conformed to the world versus being transformed by the renewing of our minds. That is a life changing understanding. It’s a, it’s a daunting commandment. It’s, uh, it’s also exhaustive in terms of our imagination to think about everything that it would mean.

But as we think in the beginning of this term about the commitments of Christian learning, I I wanna suggest five commitments that are necessary for Christian learning. I can well imagine there will be more than these, and I’m absolutely certain there will be different ways of expressing these. But consistent with what’s revealed in this text from Romans 11 and Romans chapter 12, I want us to think together about five commitments that I believe we must make together. And we, we make communally together, we make publicly together, we face to face and in every way we can under these unusual COVID circumstances. We say together these are commitments that Southern Seminary represents. These are commitments that are the very core of Boyce College. This is, this is who we are and that’s why we’re here. That’s why this school exists in the first place. And it is why we pray it will exist until Jesus comes faithful.

The first commitment is this an unqualified commitment to true Christian learning. And and those words are very crucial, true Christian learning, not just learning. That’s called Christian, not just Christians who are learning, but true Christian learning. And that means learning that is self-consciously, intentionally Christian. And, and that means that it begins with the revelatory truth claim. It, it begins with the, the knowledge that comes to us by scripture and, and it situates true Christian learning in the word of God. True Christian learning isn’t Christian because Christians are learning. It’s, it’s not Christian because someone calls it Christian or the institution was once established by Christians or it has some kind of relationship to a Christian Church. It’s only Christian learning if it is drawn from saturated in and and judged by the word of God. In that case, it’s Christian learning. An unqualified commitment to Christian learning means that we understand that the distinctive of this school is that understanding of Christian learning.

And, and as we’re gathered together is Christians in the beginning of a term, specific Christians in one school with a seminary and a college. And we’re together as a community of learners. All of us, uh, our commitment to Christian learning, our commitment to learning that is authentically Christian means that we begin with the scripture. And that means that, that we forego, we fores swear any other ultimate intellectual authority. And, uh, you know, I think as the secular world would hear us talk about this, they would think, well, that is like an intellectual prison into which you put yourself. You’re saying that there’s no intellectual authority that can, that can trump revelation. There’s no intellectual authority that can compete with the authority of the word of God. But even as the secular world may see that as a form of limitation, I see it as true liberation, true intellectual liberation.

And it is because whether you arene decart or Plato or, or, or Aristotle or you can just go down the list of philosophers, we just have to admit that any effort for human beings to learn as if we stand on our own two feet is doomed to fail. The cart may have said cojito igo sum. I think therefore I am. But, uh, that in itself is a proposition that cannot deliver on its promises because the self simply can’t stand that centrally in the entire, well, you can say epistemological equation. Let’s put it another way. If it’s not true before us, it will not be true after us. And if it’s truth depends upon us to establish its facticity and authenticity and truthfulness and it’s it’s weight, then we’re doomed. But the truth is, the liberating truth is that God never sleeps nor slumbers. That he’s the source of all truth.

That he’s revealed truth and indeed deed. No one has ever been his counselor, he’s never been indebted to anyone. And no one’s ever known his mind except to the extent he reveals it. And in that revelation is true Christian learning. The second commitment is this, a steadfast refusal to conform to the world that’s right out of Romans 12, two, to not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing your mind. This is shocking to me, I think because it, it simply awakens us to the reality that in the first century, in the ministry of the apostle Paul, Christians in Rome, in the earliest decades of the Christian Church already faced the danger of being co-opted, the danger of intellectual conformity. And it’s a particular kind of conformity. It’s very much like what you see in the Old Testament about idols being formed in the, in the minds of human beings. And it’s, it’s very similar here. It’s says, we’re not to be conformed to this world, but this tells us that we have to be told this. In other words, we, we have to be told, don’t do this. It’s just like a, a parent with a toddler. You tell that young child to do things you would think you wouldn’t have to tell that child not to do. Don’t touch that.

Don’t jump from there. That you, you find yourself saying things that you would think you wouldn’t have to say. But then, you know, you do have to say, and this frustrating thing is you’re gonna have to say it again. And if you have another child, you’re gonna have to say it many more times after that. And the reality is that we have to be told over and over again not to be conformed to this world because the automatic default factor, the, the all the automatic default setting for sinful humanity is conformity to the world. Now again, it’s bracing for us to recognize that that was a warning indeed a command in the first century. But just imagine the engines of conformity in our day. If I had time, I, I would speak more expansively about so many of these engines of conformity, the, uh, the, the mechanisms of intellectual coercion in an age of instantaneous publishing and indeed self-publishing in a day of social media and digital technology in, in a day of increasing coercion and intellectual conformity in the, in the rarefied circles of elite academia and the increasing cultural coercion and control from those who control its production, who, and, and, and police those who can enter and those who do not enter into cultural production, those who may and may not have cultural influence.

And of course, in the context now we have 15 and 16 year olds who are just falling all over themselves to line up on the right side of history. Conformity to the world comes with enormous powers of coercion and the powers that be intend if those powers do nothing else to conform the world. And then of course to have the chief greatest victory in conforming the church to the world. It’s really good that we receive this command as a matter of obedience. It’s really good that we receive it as a matter of warning, but it also means in this second commitment that we, we, we are committed to a steadfast refusal to conform to the world. Now here’s what changes in my own lifetime in thinking about this. Just to be honest. I now believe that the only way that we can do this faithfully is to keep saying it out loud to ourselves and in public to say right up front before the first class is taught, before the first lecture is given.

Before the book is, is read or the paper is written. Let’s just commit to ourselves what we know is required of us in scripture as obedience to Christ as a living sacrifice. We can’t be conformed to the world and, and the world is trying to make us conform by every movie it makes, by every song that it produces by, by every hiring and, uh, and policy decision that it announces, uh, known by this ideology or that ideology. The engines of coercion and conformity are overwhelming except, except for Christ in Christ’s faithfulness too, the church and his preservation of the church, a steadfast refusal to conform to the world. That means we recognize there is no intellectual, there is no academic neutrality, there is no neutrality anywhere on planet earth. There’s not one square millimeter on planet earth that is a place of true intellectual neutrality.

Every idea is declared. It has a source, it has a destination, it has an explanation. Every, every idea, every thought, every ideology, every theory, every book, every author, every lecture, every speaker, every producer. But there is no neutrality. We’re either bearing witness to the revelation of God or we are seeking to subvert it. We are either building up the kingdom of Christ or we are seeking to undermine it. And that’s true of every idea, every ideology. It’s true of every theory, every book, every lecture we’ve been warned. The third commitment is an unquenchable confidence in the power of the gospel. It’s an unquenchable confidence. In other words, the the, the ground of our assurance as Christian learners is the ground of our assurance as Christians. It is the fact that we aren’t able to keep ourselves, but he is able to keep us from falling.

And this is really good news because even as in epistemology and in knowledge and truth, we can’t stand on our own two feet. We can’t even stand ourselves up in terms of the process and commitment of Christian learning. It’s only by the gospel of Christ. It’s only by the sovereign God’s determination to bring glory to himself, to the salvation of a people through the atonement accomplished by his son and his perfect obedience, his active and passive obedience, his obedience even unto death in which he died, a substitutionary death paying the price for our sins. It’s a propitiation in his blood put forth by the Father. And then that same Jesus Christ raised from the dead in order that he may be not only the, the Savior vindicated in, in his obedience to the Father, but also so mighty to save. He might bring many brothers and sisters to glory and keep us.

And if he can keep us saved, he can keep us safe in every dimension of life that we rightly would pray to be safe and certainly safe in learning. We understand the danger be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing your mind. But we don’t have confidence in ourselves, individually or collectively to do this. We’re committed communally to do this, but we understand we’re not capable of this, but he is able to keep us from falling and may we pray together to be an institution and then to be together learners and teachers who regardless of the seductions of the age, regardless of the perennial heresies that come up in every generation, regardless of the temptations by the power of Christ and the power of the gospel, we do not fall fourth, a happy demonstration of the will of God, which is good and acceptable and perfect, a happy demonstration of the will of God.

Now here’s what’s really interesting. I’m not commending to you to demonstrate the will of God. I’m not exhorting you to demonstrate the will of God. I’m not commanding you on the authority of scripture to demonstrate the will of God. I’m just telling you that if you do what we’ve been called to do in Christ, you will demonstrate the will of God. It’s this, it’s this happy demonstration of the will of God, which is also very liberating. And Romans chapter 12, verse two, we’re not already told to go out search for the will of God. We’re not told to go seek after find to discover the will of God. We’re told to do it by testing, by demonstration to prove it. And we know ahead of time because we know who God is, whose will it is that even as he is good and acceptable and perfect, his will for us will be good and acceptable and perfect.

So a part of what it means to be a community of Christian learners is that together we are demonstrating the will of God. That’s a part of our ambition In every lecture, a part of our ambition, in every course, every class and every project, every paper, every test demonstrate the will of God good and acceptable and perfect. The fifth commitment I would speak of is an effusive determination to doxology, effusive, determination, turning this text on its head. I wanna go back to Romans chapter 11 and and go back to the spirit and the substance of the doxology that the apostle Paul gives us, beginning with the depths and the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments inscrutable his ways. Tho those rhetorical questions. Who’s known? The mind of the Lord is who has been his counselor, who’s first given a gift to him that he might be repaid? And then that that wonderful doxological exclamation of verse 36, for from him and through him and to him are all things to him, the one true in living God to him be glory forever.

You exist. I exist. Every particle of dust, every atom and molecule of the cosmos exists for the glory of God. We in the image of God as his human creatures, we have a consciousness. We can know that we’re made for the glory of God. We can not only know that, we can know God by his grace and mercy, his gracious self revelation and consummate revelation to us in the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We have true knowledge of him because he has given it to us. And that knowledge turns into ology. It doesn’t just turn into books, it doesn’t just turn into degree programs. It doesn’t just turn into classes and lectures. It doesn’t just turn into to test and exams. It doesn’t just turn into ideas. It doesn’t just turn into knowledge rightly. It turns into the glory of God For, from Him and through him and to him are all things tomb.

Be glory forever. Amen. May Southern Seminary and Boys College Now and forevermore, until Jesus comes be known for our unqualified commitment to true Christian learning, for our steadfast refusal to conform to the world for our unquenchable confidence in the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in our happy demonstration of the will of God and in our effusive determination to doxology. ’cause at the end of the day, the one thing we know to do is to glorify God for, from Him and through him and to him, tell us the end are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Now, as to that semester, to the glory of God, let’s get to it. Let’s amen.