Copernicus figured it out 500 years ago. Why do we still believe it?

Ephesians 2.4-7

God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus published De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), arguing against Ptolemy’s geocentric model of the universe. In response, Martin Luther said:

People gave ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon ... This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth.

Melanchthon also wrote against Copernicus, asking for “severe measures” be taken to against him. In 1610, Galileo published his Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger), promoting the heliocentric theory of Copernicus. His views were opposed by the Catholic Church, and in 1616 the Inquisition declared heliocentrism to be heretical.

If God would grant me just one wish it would be for the Church to understand this: It’s not about you! I can’t imagine anything that has been more hurtful to the work of God than the belief that God does all this for us.

Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline tells us how to develop the disciplines of solitude, silence, fasting, frugality, worship, confession, and many others: to show us the way into mature Christian spirituality and abundant life. His explanation of submission, for example, says:

Self-denial conjures up in our minds all sorts of images of groveling and self-hatred. We imagine that it most certainly means the rejection of our individuality and will probably lead to various forms of self-mortification.

On the contrary, Jesus calls us to self-denial without self-hatred. Self-denial is simply a way of coming to understand that we do not have to have our own way. Our happiness is not dependent upon getting what we want.

Our difficulty is due primarily to the fact that we have failed to understand Jesus’ teaching that the way to self-fulfillment is through self-denial.

Foster paints a picture of horror: control, seething anger, bitterness, groveling, self-hatred, self-mortification. Of course we don’t want that! And so he gives us his solution: self-fulfillment. Who could be against self-fulfillment?

Well, the Scriptures. The Scriptures say neither than submission leads to feelings of anger or retaliation or hatred, nor that the outcome of submission is self-fulfillment. The Scriptures do not say that our happiness is a concern, whether we get what we want or not. The problem is Foster’s concoction: monsters in the dark, and the solution is his invention: chasing them away by flipping on his light of wisdom.

The Christian ideal is Phil 2: Christ emptying and humbling himself, being obedient to the point of death. Heb 4 says the same thing: that Jesus was heard by God because of his submission and obedience and suffering. We are told to submit to God, his word, one another, and our leaders. Scriptural submission is about doing what God says. That can never be a bad thing! To say that doing what God says leads to anger and hostility is obscene. Yes, we are told to fear God, but for disobeying, not for obeying! Nor is there a hint in Scripture that submission is for our self-fulfillment.

Foster, who likes to sell books and has found that people like to be told there is benefit to our relationship with God, assures people there is a way to do it that maximizes the benefit for us (he even tells us how to choose a place and a posture in which to meditate). Nothing in Scripture escapes his twisting and wrenching. Nowhere does Foster tell us to do it for no reason other than God said so. He insists there must be a benefit, and if there’s not, we’re doing it wrong!

Foster’s universe has the Christian in the center and everything else orbiting this star of ultimate value—including God. God, the Son of God, the Spirit of God, the word of God, the work of God, the plan of God—everything exists for us and for our benefit.

If we stopped at verse 7 in Eph 2 we might be justified in coming to that conclusion. But we must continue on, for there is a verse 8:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God

and a verse 9:

not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

and a verse 10:

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Ahh, there’s the “for”: It’s not about us: it’s about Christ! We live not for ourselves, but for Christ! We were made for this purpose. We exist for this purpose. We are not the reason. We are not the center. We are not the sun. We are the servants, not the masters. We are the ones who are told to submit. And why? Because he does, and we are not greater than him, and if we want to follow him, we do what he does, and if we want to get close to him, we live as he lived, and if we want to be glorified with him, we stay on his path to the end.

And still, despite the clear Scriptural demand to submit (because we are the creature, not the Creator), Foster assures us it is about us: our self-fulfillment. And he hustles us away from the horror of submission (anger, hatred, mortification)—even though Scripture never says or hints at anything to do with that, and guides us over to a safe place of self-fulfillment—away from harm, away from Christ—to a place where we can be everything we are expected to be.

Self-centered, self-interested, self-protecting.

Useless for anything.

If it is about us, God becomes our servant: protecting for us, caring for us, giving us our desires.

“God has a wonderful plan for my life.” No, God has a wonderful plan. Full stop. Whatever plans you have are not God’s. His plan is for you to do what he wants. Your plan is to do what you want. One lifetime isn’t long enough to do both. You have to choose.

“My job is my ministry.”

No, it isn’t: it’s your job.

“My children are my ministry.”

No, they aren’t: they’re your children. And don’t let them hear you talk about them like that. It’s not nice. How would you feel if your husband told people you were his ministry?

“I’m a steward of God’s gifts.”

And you can show me the verse in Scripture that says that?

“I’m already an elder.”

Good: that’s an okay first step.

“God loves me.”

Do you know someone he doesn’t love?

“I need to finish college.”

And after that you’ll want to marry, and then you’ll have children, and then they’ll be in school, and they will marry and have children, and then you’ll retire and take some time off with your wife...

“I’m engaged to be married.”

See!

“We’re buying a house.”

Yup. Everyone says that’s a good investment. How many years is the mortgage?

“We want to have children.”

Told you so.

“Our children are in school.”

I think we’re about to lap ourselves.

“We’re going to be grandparents.”

Congratulations. Have a good life.

There is never a convenient time. Saying we will do it later is not true. Life always gets more complicated and we always get more deeply nested.

Asking yourself “What Would Jesus Do?” will never get you the right answer. Asking what Jesus would do if he were in your situation can only be answered if you ask what you would do if you were in his situation. You cannot put him in your situation if you cannot put yourself in his. The simple answer is: he would never be in your situation and you would never be in his. It’s a question that cannot be answered.

That may seem harsh but it’s not. If you ask what he would do in your place but cannot ask what you would do in his, then that’s your answer: you would never do what he would do. What Jesus would do, he did. You don’t have to ask; you already know. And of all the things he did, the one thing he didn’t do is ask. We ask because we are hoping for an answer other than the one we have. Jesus didn’t ask because because he knew what to do (just like you do) and he did it. And that’s the difference. You know but don’t want to do it, so you ask for some other possibility.

Obedience might be a dirty job but it is not a dirty word. If obedience is a bad word then so is faith. If submission is a bad word then so is grace. Submission is fulfilling our role in God’s plan. It is how Christ lived every moment and is how we must live if we expect to be like him.

Submission is the only possible way a servant can live. If not submission, then what? You want to reign with Christ? Paul slapped that idea down pretty harshly in 1 Cor 4.

There is no such thing as a servant who does what he wants and disregards the Master. The servant exists for no other purpose than to do what the Master wants. Even if we place ourselves at the highest level we have been granted—child of God, bride of Christ—submission is still there! Even though Christ called the disciples his friends, he still told them to obey if they were to abide in his love.

Only in the Kingdom do people show up for work and tell God what they’re going to do. In the world, your boss assigns work to do that is needed for the business to thrive. We allow God no such freedom. We come to work (or not) and tell him what we’re going to do (or not), when we’re going to do it (or not), and how long we will stay. Then we walk away if it’s not to our liking or we think of something else to do.

Yup. Just like Christ.