Many American churches are in a mess. Theologically they are indifferent, confused, or dangerously wrong. Liturgically they are the captives of superficial fads. Morally they live lives indistinguishable from the world. They often have a lot of people, money, and activities. But are they really churches, or have they degenerated into peculiar clubs?
What has gone wrong? At the heart of the mess is a simple phenomenon: the churches seem to have lost a love for and confidence in the Word of God. They still carry Bibles and declare the authority of the Scriptures. They still have sermons based on Bible verses and still have Bible study classes. But not much of the Bible is actually read in their services. Their sermons and studies usually do not examine the Bible to see what it thinks is important for the people of God. Increasingly they treat the Bible as tidbits of poetic inspiration, of pop psychology, and of self-help advice. Congregations where the Bible is ignored or abused are in the gravest peril. Churches that depart from the Word will soon find that God has departed from them.
What solution does the Bible teach for this sad situation? The short but profound answer is given by Paul in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” We need the Word to dwell in us richly so that we will know the truths that God thinks are most important and so that we will know His purposes and priorities. We need to be concerned less about “felt-needs” and more about the real needs of lost sinners as taught in the Bible.
Paul not only calls us here to have the Word dwell in us richly, but shows us what that rich experience of the Word looks like. He shows us that in three points. (Paul was a preacher, after all.)
First, he calls us to be educated by the Word, which will lead us on to ever-richer wisdom by “teaching and admonishing one another.” Paul is reminding us that the Word must be taught and applied to us as a part of it dwelling richly in us. The church must encourage and facilitate such teaching whether in preaching, Bible studies, reading, or conversations. We must be growing in the Word.
It is not just information, however, that we are to be gathering from the Word. We must be growing in a knowledge of the will of God for us: “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Col. 1:9). Knowing the will of God will make us wise and in that wisdom we will be renewed in the image of our Creator, an image so damaged by sin: “Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (3:10).
This wisdom will also reorder our priorities and purposes, from that which is worldly to that which is heavenly: “The hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel” (1:5). When that Word dwells in us richly we can be confident that we know the full will of God: “I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known” (1:25). From the Bible we know all that we need for salvation and godliness.
Second, Paul calls us to expressing the Word from ever-renewed hearts in our “singing.” Interestingly, Paul connects the Word dwelling in us richly with singing. He reminds us that singing is an invaluable means of placing the truth of God deep in our minds and hearts. I have known of elderly Christians far gone with Alzheimer’s disease who can still sing songs of praise to God. Singing also helps connect truth to our emotions. It helps us experience the encouragement and assurance of our faith: “That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:2–3).
The importance of singing, of course, makes the content of our songs vital. If we sing shallow, repetitive songs, we will not be hiding much of the Word in our hearts. But if we sing the Word itself in its fullness and richness, we will be making ourselves rich indeed. We need to remember that God has given us a book of songs, the Psalter, to help us in our singing.
Third, Paul calls us to remember the effect of the Word to make us a people with ever-ready “thanksgiving.” Three times in Colossians 3:15–17 Paul calls us to thankfulness. When the “word of Christ” dwells in us richly, we will be led on to lives of gratitude. As we learn and contemplate all that God has done for us in creation, providence, and redemption, we will be filled with thanksgiving. As we recall His promises of forgiveness, renewal, preservation, and glory, we will live as a truly thankful people.
We need the word of Christ to dwell in us richly today more than ever. Then churches may escape being a mess and become the radiant body of Christ as God intended.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Quote of the Day
“The work of God in the cross of Christ strikes us as awe-inspiring only after we have first been awed by the glory of God.”
- Matt Chandler
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Quote of the Day
“We are too free from wonder nowadays, too easy with the Word of God; we do not use it with the breathless amazement Paul does.”
– Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Very Much Better
As Paul sits chained to a Roman soldier, waiting for his trial before Nero at which he would discover whether he would be released to minister freely or be executed at the hands of the Empire, he writes to the Philippians that he has an intense, yearning desire “to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better” (Phil 1:23).
Sadly, many professing Christians know little of such intense yearning. Many have become so distracted and enchanted by the allurements of this life that the idea of death and reunion with Christ is viewed as little more than an undesirable consolation prize for the failure to realize our worldly ambitions. Even in the pursuit of even good things, our hearts can grow cold to our Savior.
The antidote for this—to learn to look upon the prospect of death with joy and anticipation, even as Paul did—is to stir up our hearts unto such a delight in what God has revealed that death will be for the Christian. Today I want to consider three things.
The End of Limited Knowledge
First, death will mean the end of our limited knowledge and finite understanding. I don’t mean to say that we all become omniscient; I actually believe that the glory of the character and work of the Triune God is so inexhaustible that we will continue to learn of Him and increase in knowledge throughout all eternity. Nevertheless, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 verse 12: “…now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”
That is an amazing statement. One day we will know just like God knows us. One day, we’ll finally be able to see the grand mosaic of history from the perspective of the Divine Designer. And on that day, all will make perfect sense! Every trial, every tear, every grunt in the battle against sin, and every groan in the endurance of suffering will arrive perfectly at home in our understanding. Experiences that we do our best to avoid at all costs now—experiences which God nevertheless ordains that we receive—will at that time seem to us to have been so necessary that we won’t be able to imagine that it could have been any other way.
We will know with perfect clarity how a sovereign, righteous, and wise God can ordain for His greatest glory the massacre of 20 elementary school children in Newtown, Connecticut. Don’t you long for the day when the cognitive and emotional dissonance that is produced by what seems to be such senselessness is banished by the gift of heavenly knowledge!
And as a result of all of the circumstances of this life that now perplex us, we will see in greater measure and fullness the glory of God.
The End of Sin
A second end that death will bring: Death will bring the end of sin. James Montgomery Boice wrote, “The Christian who has tasted the delight of God’s righteousness longs for a purity that he will never have on earth. He longs to be free of sin . . . and he knows that death brings [this].”
In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul gives vent to this longing: “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven.” He says in Romans 8:23 that along with creation, “we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”
Oh dear reader, do you groan? Are you tired of the fight with sin? Are you wearied by the war that is waged in your members? I know I am. I want to be done. I want to serve and worship Christ in perfect purity and holiness.
And the promise that one day I will—that one day by God’s grace I will finish this race—gives me the strength and power to keep running, and keep fighting, and keep battling, with my eyes fixed on Jesus, and the rest to be had in Him at the finish line.
Fellowship with Christ
And that leads to the greatest benefit of all. Ultimately, death is gain for Paul because it brings more of Christ to Paul, and more of Paul to Christ. Death for the Christian is not merely the escape of the worst this life has to offer; it’s an improvement on the very best this life has to offer. Because it brings us to unhindered, unmediated, sin-free, face-to-face fellowship with our Lord Jesus. He is the great gain and the great glory of Heaven. He is the great end of the Christian life.
That is why death is “very much better,” as Paul says in verse 23. Literally: “much more better.” Paul just piles on the comparatives, one after another, to try to find some way to express how wonderful it will be to finally be with Christ. Just as much as marriage is “very much better” than the engagement, so is death “very much better” than life, if it means that it will bring us to Christ.
The Puritan pastor Richard Sibbes, in a sermon on this text, puts it like no one else can put it:
Why doth [Paul] not say, I desire to be in heaven? Answer: Because heaven is not heaven without Christ. It is better to be in any place with Christ than to be in heaven itself without him. All delicacies without Christ are but as a funeral banquet. Where the master of the feast is away, there is nothing but solemnness. What is all without Christ? I say the joys of heaven are not the joys of heaven without Christ; he is the very heaven of heaven. … To be with Christ is to be at the spring-head of all happiness.
And the Scriptures agree with him. Listen to these passages from the worship songs of the saints of old:
•Psalm 16:11 – You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
•Psalm 17:15 – As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake.
•Psalm 27:4 – One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.
•Psalm 65:4 – How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You to dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple.
•Psalm 73:23–28 – Whom have I in heaven but You? … My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
And as the Apostle John brings his glorious report of his heavenly vision to a close, he speaks in Revelation 22:1–5 of the great end of God’s people. He summarizes the consummation of their entire lives lived by faith when he says in verse 4: “They will see His face.”
Jesus is what makes Heaven Heaven. Jesus is what makes death “much more better” than the very best this life can offer.
Is He enough for you?
If He is, then there’s no need to slavishly cling to this life. Everything this life could offer you is dwarfed in the light of Christ’s glory. If He is enough, then there’s no need to fear death. By repentance and faith in Christ, the death which was once our greatest and final enemy has now become our friend—merely the passageway to our greatest delight.
May the Holy Spirit, by the power of His own Word, kindle in us a holy ambition to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better.
Sadly, many professing Christians know little of such intense yearning. Many have become so distracted and enchanted by the allurements of this life that the idea of death and reunion with Christ is viewed as little more than an undesirable consolation prize for the failure to realize our worldly ambitions. Even in the pursuit of even good things, our hearts can grow cold to our Savior.
The antidote for this—to learn to look upon the prospect of death with joy and anticipation, even as Paul did—is to stir up our hearts unto such a delight in what God has revealed that death will be for the Christian. Today I want to consider three things.
The End of Limited Knowledge
First, death will mean the end of our limited knowledge and finite understanding. I don’t mean to say that we all become omniscient; I actually believe that the glory of the character and work of the Triune God is so inexhaustible that we will continue to learn of Him and increase in knowledge throughout all eternity. Nevertheless, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 verse 12: “…now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”
That is an amazing statement. One day we will know just like God knows us. One day, we’ll finally be able to see the grand mosaic of history from the perspective of the Divine Designer. And on that day, all will make perfect sense! Every trial, every tear, every grunt in the battle against sin, and every groan in the endurance of suffering will arrive perfectly at home in our understanding. Experiences that we do our best to avoid at all costs now—experiences which God nevertheless ordains that we receive—will at that time seem to us to have been so necessary that we won’t be able to imagine that it could have been any other way.
We will know with perfect clarity how a sovereign, righteous, and wise God can ordain for His greatest glory the massacre of 20 elementary school children in Newtown, Connecticut. Don’t you long for the day when the cognitive and emotional dissonance that is produced by what seems to be such senselessness is banished by the gift of heavenly knowledge!
And as a result of all of the circumstances of this life that now perplex us, we will see in greater measure and fullness the glory of God.
The End of Sin
A second end that death will bring: Death will bring the end of sin. James Montgomery Boice wrote, “The Christian who has tasted the delight of God’s righteousness longs for a purity that he will never have on earth. He longs to be free of sin . . . and he knows that death brings [this].”
In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul gives vent to this longing: “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven.” He says in Romans 8:23 that along with creation, “we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”
Oh dear reader, do you groan? Are you tired of the fight with sin? Are you wearied by the war that is waged in your members? I know I am. I want to be done. I want to serve and worship Christ in perfect purity and holiness.
And the promise that one day I will—that one day by God’s grace I will finish this race—gives me the strength and power to keep running, and keep fighting, and keep battling, with my eyes fixed on Jesus, and the rest to be had in Him at the finish line.
Fellowship with Christ
And that leads to the greatest benefit of all. Ultimately, death is gain for Paul because it brings more of Christ to Paul, and more of Paul to Christ. Death for the Christian is not merely the escape of the worst this life has to offer; it’s an improvement on the very best this life has to offer. Because it brings us to unhindered, unmediated, sin-free, face-to-face fellowship with our Lord Jesus. He is the great gain and the great glory of Heaven. He is the great end of the Christian life.
That is why death is “very much better,” as Paul says in verse 23. Literally: “much more better.” Paul just piles on the comparatives, one after another, to try to find some way to express how wonderful it will be to finally be with Christ. Just as much as marriage is “very much better” than the engagement, so is death “very much better” than life, if it means that it will bring us to Christ.
The Puritan pastor Richard Sibbes, in a sermon on this text, puts it like no one else can put it:
Why doth [Paul] not say, I desire to be in heaven? Answer: Because heaven is not heaven without Christ. It is better to be in any place with Christ than to be in heaven itself without him. All delicacies without Christ are but as a funeral banquet. Where the master of the feast is away, there is nothing but solemnness. What is all without Christ? I say the joys of heaven are not the joys of heaven without Christ; he is the very heaven of heaven. … To be with Christ is to be at the spring-head of all happiness.
And the Scriptures agree with him. Listen to these passages from the worship songs of the saints of old:
•Psalm 16:11 – You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
•Psalm 17:15 – As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; I will be satisfied with Your likeness when I awake.
•Psalm 27:4 – One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple.
•Psalm 65:4 – How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You to dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple.
•Psalm 73:23–28 – Whom have I in heaven but You? … My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
And as the Apostle John brings his glorious report of his heavenly vision to a close, he speaks in Revelation 22:1–5 of the great end of God’s people. He summarizes the consummation of their entire lives lived by faith when he says in verse 4: “They will see His face.”
Jesus is what makes Heaven Heaven. Jesus is what makes death “much more better” than the very best this life can offer.
Is He enough for you?
If He is, then there’s no need to slavishly cling to this life. Everything this life could offer you is dwarfed in the light of Christ’s glory. If He is enough, then there’s no need to fear death. By repentance and faith in Christ, the death which was once our greatest and final enemy has now become our friend—merely the passageway to our greatest delight.
May the Holy Spirit, by the power of His own Word, kindle in us a holy ambition to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Quote of the Day
“If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord’s will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Do not suppose that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to the worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their Savior, while they are wedded to their idols, and their hearts are still in love with sin. If I do so I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel , insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.”
– C. H. Spurgeon
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Quote of the Day
“The true penitent repents of sin against God, and he would do so even if there were no punishment. When he is forgiven, he repents of sin more than ever; for he sees more clearly than ever the wickedness of offending so gracious a God.”
– C.H. Spurgeon
Saturday, February 23, 2013
God's Word
"The judgments of the Lord are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb" (Ps. 19:10).
I have a friend who has a beautiful collection of rare Bibles. My favorite is one of the earliest printed copies, dating back to sixteenth-century England. The first time I held it in my hands I noticed that the top third of every page was covered with a dark stain. Tears filled my eyes when I realized it was from the blood of its original owner.
My friend explained that when Bloody Mary ruled England, she delighted in terrorizing Protestants and murdering as many as she could. Her soldiers would execute their victims through some bloody means, then take his or her Bible and dip it into the blood. Some of those Bibles have been preserved and are known as Martyrs' Bibles. Scientists have confirmed that the dark stains on every page of my friend's Bible are, indeed, human blood.
That same Bible is well worn from being studied. And many of its pages have water stains on them--perhaps from tears. Obviously it was someone's most precious possession, and his or her blood is there to prove it.
Psalm 19:10 captures the heart of such people, extolling the preciousness of God's Word. To David, Scripture was more valuable than the best gold and purest honey. Meditating on it meant more to him than the richest and sweetest things in life. He knew its ability to satisfy every spiritual appetite.
As precious as God's Word is, many Christians take it for granted and become complacent in their studies. Some go for long periods without gaining fresh insights from its pages.
Perhaps you know someone who is in that situation. If so, ask the Lord for wisdom as you gently encourage him or her toward greater faithfulness in the Word. At the same time be careful not to become negligent yourself.
- John MacArthur
Quote of the Day
“It is no legalism to obey God’s law. Though the moral law be not a Christ to justify us, yet it is a rule to instruct us.”
– Thomas Watson
Friday, February 22, 2013
The Second Greatest Commandment
Oldie but goodie from Phil Johnson:
God's image in every person is the moral and ethical foundation for every commandment that governs how we ought to treat our fellow humans. Scripture repeatedly makes this clear. Why is murder deemed such an especially heinous sin? Because killing a fellow human being is the ultimate desecration of God's image (Gen. 9:6).
In the New Testament, James points to the image of God in men and women as an argument for allowing even our speech to be seasoned with grace and kindness. It is utterly irrational, he says, to bless God while cursing people who are made in God's own likeness (James 3:9-12).
That same principle is an effective argument against every kind of disrespect or unkindness one person might show to another. For example, to ignore the needs of suffering people is to treat the image of God in them with outright contempt. Proverbs 17:5 says, "He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker." Neglecting the needs of a person who is "hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison" is tantamount to scorning the Lord Himself. That's exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 25:44-45: "Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me."
Who is our neighbor? That's the question a lawyer asked Jesus when He affirmed the priority of the first and second commandments (Luke 10:29). In response, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, poignantly making the point that anyone and everyone who crosses our path is our neighbor—and truly loving them as ourselves means seeking to meet whatever needs they might have.
One of Jesus' main points in that parable was this: we're not to love our own brethren and fellow believers to the exclusion of strangers and unbelievers. God's image was placed in humanity at creation, not at redemption. Although the image of God was seriously marred by Adam's fall, it was not utterly obliterated. The divine likeness is still part of fallen humanity; in fact, it is essential to the very definition of humanity. Therefore every human being, whether a derelict in the gutter or a deacon in the church, ought to be treated with dignity and compassionate love, out of respect for the image of God in him.
The restoration of God's image in fallen humanity is one of the ultimate goals of redemption, of course. God's paramount purpose for every Christian involves perfect Christ-likeness (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2). That will consummate the complete restoration and utter perfection of God's image in all believers, because Christ himself is the supreme flesh-and-blood image of God (Col. 1:15).
But if you're a believer, your conformation to Christ's likeness is gradually being accomplished even now by the process of your sanctification (2 Cor. 3:18). In the meantime, Jesus taught that one of the best ways to be like God is to love even your enemies. Not only do they bear God's image, but (more to Jesus' point) loving them is the best way for us to be like God, because God Himself loves even those who hate Him.
God's image in every person is the moral and ethical foundation for every commandment that governs how we ought to treat our fellow humans. Scripture repeatedly makes this clear. Why is murder deemed such an especially heinous sin? Because killing a fellow human being is the ultimate desecration of God's image (Gen. 9:6).
In the New Testament, James points to the image of God in men and women as an argument for allowing even our speech to be seasoned with grace and kindness. It is utterly irrational, he says, to bless God while cursing people who are made in God's own likeness (James 3:9-12).
That same principle is an effective argument against every kind of disrespect or unkindness one person might show to another. For example, to ignore the needs of suffering people is to treat the image of God in them with outright contempt. Proverbs 17:5 says, "He who mocks the poor reproaches his Maker." Neglecting the needs of a person who is "hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison" is tantamount to scorning the Lord Himself. That's exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 25:44-45: "Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me."
Who is our neighbor? That's the question a lawyer asked Jesus when He affirmed the priority of the first and second commandments (Luke 10:29). In response, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, poignantly making the point that anyone and everyone who crosses our path is our neighbor—and truly loving them as ourselves means seeking to meet whatever needs they might have.
One of Jesus' main points in that parable was this: we're not to love our own brethren and fellow believers to the exclusion of strangers and unbelievers. God's image was placed in humanity at creation, not at redemption. Although the image of God was seriously marred by Adam's fall, it was not utterly obliterated. The divine likeness is still part of fallen humanity; in fact, it is essential to the very definition of humanity. Therefore every human being, whether a derelict in the gutter or a deacon in the church, ought to be treated with dignity and compassionate love, out of respect for the image of God in him.
The restoration of God's image in fallen humanity is one of the ultimate goals of redemption, of course. God's paramount purpose for every Christian involves perfect Christ-likeness (Rom. 8:29; 1 John 3:2). That will consummate the complete restoration and utter perfection of God's image in all believers, because Christ himself is the supreme flesh-and-blood image of God (Col. 1:15).
But if you're a believer, your conformation to Christ's likeness is gradually being accomplished even now by the process of your sanctification (2 Cor. 3:18). In the meantime, Jesus taught that one of the best ways to be like God is to love even your enemies. Not only do they bear God's image, but (more to Jesus' point) loving them is the best way for us to be like God, because God Himself loves even those who hate Him.
Quote of the Day
“In the New Testament love is more a verb than it is a noun. Love is defined in terms of action not feeling.”
– Dr. R. C. Sproul
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Disciplines of a Godly Man
"It is impossible for any Christian who spends the bulk of his evenings, month after month, week upon week, day in and day out watching the major TV networks or contemporary videos to have a Christian mind. This is always true of all Christians in every situation! A Biblical mental program cannot coexist with worldly programming."
Kent Hughes - Disciplines of a Godly Man, p. 75.
Quote of the Day
“If the glory, gospel, and greatness of Christ aren’t clear in the songs you’ve planned for Sunday, start over.”
– Bob Kauflin
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Call to Discipleship
"The gospel Jesus proclaimed was a call to discipleship, a call to follow Him in submissive obedience, not just a plea to make a decision or pray a prayer. Jesus’ message liberated people from the bondage of their sin while it confronted and condemned hypocrisy. It was an offer of eternal life and forgiveness for repentant sinners, but at the same time it was a rebuke to outwardly religious people whose lives were devoid of true righteousness. It put sinners on notice that they must turn from sin and embrace God’s righteousness. It was in every sense good news, yet it was anything but easy-believism."
John MacArthur - The Gospel According to Jesus, p. 21.
Quote of the Day
“A church has no right to make anything a condition of membership which Christ has not made a condition of salvation.”
– A. A. Hodge
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Unremitting Triviality
"It’s the unremitting triviality that makes television so deadly. What we desperately need is help to enlarge our capacities to be moved by the immeasurable glories of Christ. Television takes us almost constantly in the opposite direction, lowering, shrinking, and deadening our capacities for worshiping Christ.
One more smaller concern with TV (besides its addictive tendencies, trivialization of life, and deadening effects): It takes time. I have so many things I want to accomplish in this one short life. Don’t waste your life is not a catchphrase for me; it’s a cliff I walk beside every day with trembling.
TV consumes more and more time for those who get used to watching it. You start to feel like it belongs. You wonder how you could get along without it. I am jealous for my evenings. There are so many things in life I want to accomplish. I simply could not do what I do if I watched television. So we have never had a TV in 40 years of marriage (except in Germany, to help learn the language). I don’t regret it."
Quote of the Day
“If I please God it doesn’t matter who I displease; and if I displease God it doesn’t matter who I please.”
– Dr. Steven Lawson
Monday, February 18, 2013
Discipleship
"It is a shameful thing for a man to profess discipleship and yet refuse to learn his Lord's will upon certain points, or even dare to decline obedience when that will is known. How can a man be a disciple of Christ when he openly lives in disobedience to Him?
If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows his Lord's will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Has not the Lord said, "He that taketh not up his cross, and cometh after Me, cannot be My disciple"? Mistakes as to what the Lord's will may be are to be tenderly corrected, but anything like willful disobedience is fatal; to tolerate it would be treason to Him that sent us. Jesus must be received as King as well as Priest; and where there is any hesitancy about this, the foundation of godliness is not yet laid."
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Plain Style Preaching
Today I am thankful for contemporary preachers who model what the Puritans called “plain” style preaching.
This style of preaching, according to William Perkins, did three things:
1.It gave the basic meaning of the text of Scripture within its context;
2.It explained the points of doctrine gathered from the natural sense of the text;
3.It applied the doctrines “rightly collected to the life and manners of men.”
—Meet the Puritans (Reformation Heritage Books, 2006), 694.
Sounds to me like a guaranteed recipe for relevance, in case that interests you.
This style of preaching, according to William Perkins, did three things:
1.It gave the basic meaning of the text of Scripture within its context;
2.It explained the points of doctrine gathered from the natural sense of the text;
3.It applied the doctrines “rightly collected to the life and manners of men.”
—Meet the Puritans (Reformation Heritage Books, 2006), 694.
Sounds to me like a guaranteed recipe for relevance, in case that interests you.
Quote of the Day
“If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord’s will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Do not suppose that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to the worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their Savior, while they are wedded to their idols, and their hearts are still in love with sin. If I do so I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel , insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.”
– C. H. Spurgeon
Saturday, February 16, 2013
How Could God Command Genocide in the Old Testament?
This is a good, hard question. The way we answer it will both reflect and inform our understanding of justice and mercy.
In the book of Joshua God commands Israel to slaughter the Canaanites in order to occupy the Promised Land. It was a bloody war of total destruction where God used his people to execute his moral judgment against his wicked enemies. In moving toward an answer it will be helpful to think carefully about the building blocks of a Christian worldview related to God’s justice and mercy.
1. As the maker of all things and the ruler of all people, God has absolute rights of ownership over all people and places.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1) “and the sea and all that is in them” (Act 14:15). This means that “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Ps. 24:1). As God says, “All the earth is mine” (Ex. 19:5) and “every beast of the forest is mine” (Ps. 50:10). God’s ownership of all means that he is also free to do as he wishes over all things. “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Ps. 115:3). Within this free sovereignty God “determined allotted periods and the boundaries of [each nation's] dwelling place” (Acts 17:26). God has Creator rights, and no one can say to him, “What are you doing?” (Job 9:12).
2. God is not only the ultimate maker, ruler, and owner, but he is just and righteous in all that he does.
Abraham asks God the same question that we are asking, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Gen. 18:25). The implied answer is, “By all means!” This is the flip side of Paul’s question in Romans 9:14: “Is there injustice on God’s part?” Paul’s answer: “By no means!” Moses will later proclaim, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he” (Deut. 32:4).
It is commonplace in our culture to ask whether this or that was fair or just for God to do. But if you stop to think about it, the question itself is actually illegitimate. Merely asking it presupposes that we are the judge; we will put “God in the dock” and examine him; God must conform to our sense of fairness and rightness and justice—if God passes the test, well and good, but if he doesn’t, we’ll be upset and become the accuser. Perish the thought. As Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “all God’s ways are justice”—by definition. If God does it, it is just. (And since the triune God is inherently relational, the Bible says that God is love—and therefore all of his justice is ultimately born from and aiming toward love.) To think otherwise is the ultimate act of arrogance, putting your own mind and opinions and conceptions as the ultimate standard of the universe.
This does not, however, preclude humble questioning and seeking in order to gain greater understanding. While it is ultimately illegitimate to ask if God’s ways are just in securing the Promised Land, it is perfectly appropriate and edifying to seek understanding on how God’s ways are just—whether in commissioning the destruction of the Canaanites or in any other action. This is the task of theology—seeing how various aspects of God’s truth and revelation cohere.
3. All of us deserve God’s justice; none of us deserve God’s mercy.
As noted above, God is absolutely just in all that he does. The only thing that any of us deserve from God is his justice. We have broken his law, rebelling against him and his ways, and divine justice demands that we receive divine punishment in proportion to our traitorous, treasonous rebellion. It is fully within God’s rights to give mercy, but he need not give it to all—or to any. It is also helpful to note that in biblical history, an act of judgment on one is often an act of mercy for another (e.g., the flood was judgment on the world but a means of saving Noah; the plagues were judgment on the Pharaoh but a means of liberating Israel). Likewise, the destruction of the Canaanites was an act of mercy for Israel.
4. The Canaanites were enemies of God who deserved to be punished.
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”—”None is righteous, no, not one”—and “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 3:23; 3:10; 6:23). Therefore if God destroyed Adam and Eve after the fall he would have been entirely just. When he wiped out over 99.99% of the human race during the time of Noah, he was being just.
Sometimes we can mistakenly think that God just wanted to give his people land and kicked out the innocent people who were already there. But in reality, the Canaanites were full of iniquity and wickedness, and God speaks of the land vomiting them out for this reason (cf. Gen. 15:6; Lev. 18:24-30; Deut. 9:5). All of this is consistent with the fact that God “avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people’s land” (Deut. 32:43).
It’s also important to note Deuteronomy 9:5, which says that Israel’s possession of the land and the Canaanites’ being kicked out would not be due to Israel’s righteousness, but would rather be on account of the Canaanites’ wickedness. God very pointedly tells Israel that if they do not follow the Lord and his law, then they will suffer the same fate as the nations being vomited out of their land (cf. Lev. 18:28; Deut. 28:25-68; cf. also Ex. 22:20; Josh. 7:11-12; Mal. 4:6). God gave his special electing love to Israel (cf. Deut. 7:6-9), but his threats and promises of punishment for unfaithfulness show his fairness and his commitment to justice.
5. God’s actions were not an example of ethnic cleansing.
The Pentateuch (Genesis-Deuteronomy) provides laws for two types of warfare: (1) battles fought against cities outside the Promise Land (see Deut. 20:10-15), and (2) battles fought against cities within the Promised Land (Deut. 20:16-18). The first type allowed for Israel to spare people; the second type did not. This herem practice (the second type of warfare) meant “devotion/consecration to destruction.” As a sacred act fulfilling divine judgment, it is outside our own categories for thinking about warfare. Even though the destruction is commanded in terms of totality, there seems to have been an exception for those who repented, turning to the one true and living God (e.g., Rahab and her family [Josh. 2:9], and the Gibeonites [Josh. 11:19]). What this means is that the reason for the destruction of God’s wicked enemies was precisely because of their rebellion and according to God’s special purposes—not because of their ethnicity. “Ethnic cleansing” and genocide refer to destruction of a people due to their ethnicity, and therefore this would be an inappropriate category for the destruction of the Canaanites.
6. Why was it necessary to remove the Canaanites from the land?
In America we talk about the separation of “church” and “state.” But Israel was a “theocracy,” where church and state were inseparably joined and indistinguishable, such that members of God’s people had both political and religious obligations. To be a citizen of Israel required being faithful to God’s covenant and vice-versa.
The covenant community demanded purity, and egregious violations meant removal (e.g., see Deut. 13:5; 17:7, etc). This also entailed the purity of the land in which they were living as God’s people, and failure to remove the unrepentant from the land meant that the entire nation would be pulled down with the rebellious, resulting in idolatry, injustice, and evil (e.g., Deut. 7:4; 12:29-31)—which sadly proved to be the case all too often under the old covenant.
Christians today are not in a theocracy. We are “sojourners and exiles” (1 Pet. 2:11) with no sacred land in this age. We live in the overlap of the old age and the age to come—”between two places” (in the creation that groans—after the holy-but-temporary Promised Land and awaiting the holy-and-permanent New Heavens and the New Earth). In this age and place we are to respect and submit to the governing authorities placed over us by God (Rom. 13:1-5)—but they are not, and should not be, a part of the church (God’s people called and gathered for Word and sacrament). Furthermore, God’s gift of specific, special revelation to the whole church has now ended (cf. Heb. 1:1-2: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son”). These factors combine to ensure that nothing like the destruction of the Canaanites—required for the theocracy of Israel to possess the physical land—is commissioned by God or is permissible for his people today.
7. The destruction of the Canaanites is a picture of the final judgment.
At the end of the age, Christ will come to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1; 1 Pet. 4:5), expelling them from the land (the whole earth). That judgment will be just, and it will be complete. That is the day “the Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might (2 Thess. 1:8-9). Amazingly enough, Paul asks the Corinthians something they seem to have forgotten, if they once knew it: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? (1 Cor. 6:2).
How does this work? What will it look like? We don’t know for sure. But God’s Word tells us that God’s people will be part of God’s judgment against God’s enemies. In that way, God’s command of the Israelites to carry out his moral judgment against the Canaanites becomes a foreshadowing—a preview, if you will—of the final judgment.
Read in this light, the terrible destruction recorded on the pages of Joshua in God’s Holy Word become not a “problem to solve,” but a wake-up call to all of us—to remain “pure and undefiled before God” (James 1:27), seeking him and his ways, and to faithfully share the gospel with our unbelieving neighbors and the unreached nations. Like Job, we must ultimately refrain from calling God’s goodness and justice into question, putting a hand over our mouth (Job 40:4) and marveling instead at the richness and the mystery of God’s great inscrutable mercy (Eph. 2:4). At the end of the day we will join Moses and the Lamb in singing this song of praise:
“Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Rev. 15:3-4)
In the book of Joshua God commands Israel to slaughter the Canaanites in order to occupy the Promised Land. It was a bloody war of total destruction where God used his people to execute his moral judgment against his wicked enemies. In moving toward an answer it will be helpful to think carefully about the building blocks of a Christian worldview related to God’s justice and mercy.
1. As the maker of all things and the ruler of all people, God has absolute rights of ownership over all people and places.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1) “and the sea and all that is in them” (Act 14:15). This means that “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Ps. 24:1). As God says, “All the earth is mine” (Ex. 19:5) and “every beast of the forest is mine” (Ps. 50:10). God’s ownership of all means that he is also free to do as he wishes over all things. “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Ps. 115:3). Within this free sovereignty God “determined allotted periods and the boundaries of [each nation's] dwelling place” (Acts 17:26). God has Creator rights, and no one can say to him, “What are you doing?” (Job 9:12).
2. God is not only the ultimate maker, ruler, and owner, but he is just and righteous in all that he does.
Abraham asks God the same question that we are asking, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Gen. 18:25). The implied answer is, “By all means!” This is the flip side of Paul’s question in Romans 9:14: “Is there injustice on God’s part?” Paul’s answer: “By no means!” Moses will later proclaim, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he” (Deut. 32:4).
It is commonplace in our culture to ask whether this or that was fair or just for God to do. But if you stop to think about it, the question itself is actually illegitimate. Merely asking it presupposes that we are the judge; we will put “God in the dock” and examine him; God must conform to our sense of fairness and rightness and justice—if God passes the test, well and good, but if he doesn’t, we’ll be upset and become the accuser. Perish the thought. As Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “all God’s ways are justice”—by definition. If God does it, it is just. (And since the triune God is inherently relational, the Bible says that God is love—and therefore all of his justice is ultimately born from and aiming toward love.) To think otherwise is the ultimate act of arrogance, putting your own mind and opinions and conceptions as the ultimate standard of the universe.
This does not, however, preclude humble questioning and seeking in order to gain greater understanding. While it is ultimately illegitimate to ask if God’s ways are just in securing the Promised Land, it is perfectly appropriate and edifying to seek understanding on how God’s ways are just—whether in commissioning the destruction of the Canaanites or in any other action. This is the task of theology—seeing how various aspects of God’s truth and revelation cohere.
3. All of us deserve God’s justice; none of us deserve God’s mercy.
As noted above, God is absolutely just in all that he does. The only thing that any of us deserve from God is his justice. We have broken his law, rebelling against him and his ways, and divine justice demands that we receive divine punishment in proportion to our traitorous, treasonous rebellion. It is fully within God’s rights to give mercy, but he need not give it to all—or to any. It is also helpful to note that in biblical history, an act of judgment on one is often an act of mercy for another (e.g., the flood was judgment on the world but a means of saving Noah; the plagues were judgment on the Pharaoh but a means of liberating Israel). Likewise, the destruction of the Canaanites was an act of mercy for Israel.
4. The Canaanites were enemies of God who deserved to be punished.
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”—”None is righteous, no, not one”—and “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 3:23; 3:10; 6:23). Therefore if God destroyed Adam and Eve after the fall he would have been entirely just. When he wiped out over 99.99% of the human race during the time of Noah, he was being just.
Sometimes we can mistakenly think that God just wanted to give his people land and kicked out the innocent people who were already there. But in reality, the Canaanites were full of iniquity and wickedness, and God speaks of the land vomiting them out for this reason (cf. Gen. 15:6; Lev. 18:24-30; Deut. 9:5). All of this is consistent with the fact that God “avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people’s land” (Deut. 32:43).
It’s also important to note Deuteronomy 9:5, which says that Israel’s possession of the land and the Canaanites’ being kicked out would not be due to Israel’s righteousness, but would rather be on account of the Canaanites’ wickedness. God very pointedly tells Israel that if they do not follow the Lord and his law, then they will suffer the same fate as the nations being vomited out of their land (cf. Lev. 18:28; Deut. 28:25-68; cf. also Ex. 22:20; Josh. 7:11-12; Mal. 4:6). God gave his special electing love to Israel (cf. Deut. 7:6-9), but his threats and promises of punishment for unfaithfulness show his fairness and his commitment to justice.
5. God’s actions were not an example of ethnic cleansing.
The Pentateuch (Genesis-Deuteronomy) provides laws for two types of warfare: (1) battles fought against cities outside the Promise Land (see Deut. 20:10-15), and (2) battles fought against cities within the Promised Land (Deut. 20:16-18). The first type allowed for Israel to spare people; the second type did not. This herem practice (the second type of warfare) meant “devotion/consecration to destruction.” As a sacred act fulfilling divine judgment, it is outside our own categories for thinking about warfare. Even though the destruction is commanded in terms of totality, there seems to have been an exception for those who repented, turning to the one true and living God (e.g., Rahab and her family [Josh. 2:9], and the Gibeonites [Josh. 11:19]). What this means is that the reason for the destruction of God’s wicked enemies was precisely because of their rebellion and according to God’s special purposes—not because of their ethnicity. “Ethnic cleansing” and genocide refer to destruction of a people due to their ethnicity, and therefore this would be an inappropriate category for the destruction of the Canaanites.
6. Why was it necessary to remove the Canaanites from the land?
In America we talk about the separation of “church” and “state.” But Israel was a “theocracy,” where church and state were inseparably joined and indistinguishable, such that members of God’s people had both political and religious obligations. To be a citizen of Israel required being faithful to God’s covenant and vice-versa.
The covenant community demanded purity, and egregious violations meant removal (e.g., see Deut. 13:5; 17:7, etc). This also entailed the purity of the land in which they were living as God’s people, and failure to remove the unrepentant from the land meant that the entire nation would be pulled down with the rebellious, resulting in idolatry, injustice, and evil (e.g., Deut. 7:4; 12:29-31)—which sadly proved to be the case all too often under the old covenant.
Christians today are not in a theocracy. We are “sojourners and exiles” (1 Pet. 2:11) with no sacred land in this age. We live in the overlap of the old age and the age to come—”between two places” (in the creation that groans—after the holy-but-temporary Promised Land and awaiting the holy-and-permanent New Heavens and the New Earth). In this age and place we are to respect and submit to the governing authorities placed over us by God (Rom. 13:1-5)—but they are not, and should not be, a part of the church (God’s people called and gathered for Word and sacrament). Furthermore, God’s gift of specific, special revelation to the whole church has now ended (cf. Heb. 1:1-2: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son”). These factors combine to ensure that nothing like the destruction of the Canaanites—required for the theocracy of Israel to possess the physical land—is commissioned by God or is permissible for his people today.
7. The destruction of the Canaanites is a picture of the final judgment.
At the end of the age, Christ will come to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1; 1 Pet. 4:5), expelling them from the land (the whole earth). That judgment will be just, and it will be complete. That is the day “the Lord Jesus [will be] revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might (2 Thess. 1:8-9). Amazingly enough, Paul asks the Corinthians something they seem to have forgotten, if they once knew it: “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? (1 Cor. 6:2).
How does this work? What will it look like? We don’t know for sure. But God’s Word tells us that God’s people will be part of God’s judgment against God’s enemies. In that way, God’s command of the Israelites to carry out his moral judgment against the Canaanites becomes a foreshadowing—a preview, if you will—of the final judgment.
Read in this light, the terrible destruction recorded on the pages of Joshua in God’s Holy Word become not a “problem to solve,” but a wake-up call to all of us—to remain “pure and undefiled before God” (James 1:27), seeking him and his ways, and to faithfully share the gospel with our unbelieving neighbors and the unreached nations. Like Job, we must ultimately refrain from calling God’s goodness and justice into question, putting a hand over our mouth (Job 40:4) and marveling instead at the richness and the mystery of God’s great inscrutable mercy (Eph. 2:4). At the end of the day we will join Moses and the Lamb in singing this song of praise:
“Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.” (Rev. 15:3-4)
Quote of the Day
“It is part of the character and genius of the Church that its foundation members were discredited men; it owed its existence not to their faith, courage, or virtue, but to what Christ had done with them; and this they could never forget.”
– C. H. Dodd
Friday, February 15, 2013
The Greatest of All Protestant Heresies
Sinclair Ferguson writes:
Let us begin with a church history exam question. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) was a figure not to be taken lightly. He was Pope Clement VIII’s personal theologian and one of the most able figures in the Counter-Reformation movement within sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism. On one occasion, he wrote: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is _______ .” Complete, explain, and discuss Bellarmine’s statement.
How would you answer? What is the greatest of all Protestant heresies? Perhaps justification by faith? Perhaps Scripture alone, or one of the other Reformation watchwords?
Those answers make logical sense. But none of them completes Bellarmine’s sentence. What he wrote was: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is assurance.”
A moment’s reflection explains why. If justification is not by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone — if faith needs to be completed by works; if Christ’s work is somehow repeated; if grace is not free and sovereign, then something always needs to be done, to be “added” for final justification to be ours. That is exactly the problem. If final justification is dependent on something we have to complete it is not possible to enjoy assurance of salvation. For then, theologically, final justification is contingent and uncertain, and it is impossible for anyone (apart from special revelation, Rome conceded) to be sure of salvation. But if Christ has done everything, if justification is by grace, without contributory works; it is received by faith’s empty hands — then assurance, even “full assurance” is possible for every believer.
No wonder Bellarmine thought full, free, unfettered grace was dangerous! No wonder the Reformers loved the letter to the Hebrews!
This is why, as the author of Hebrews pauses for breath at the climax of his exposition of Christ’s work (Heb. 10:18), he continues his argument with a Paul-like “therefore” (Heb. 10:19). He then urges us to “draw near … in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22). We do not need to re-read the whole letter to see the logical power of his “therefore.” Christ is our High Priest; our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience just as our bodies have been washed with pure water (v.22).
Christ has once-for-all become the sacrifice for our sins, and has been raised and vindicated in the power of an indestructible life as our representative priest. By faith in Him, we are as righteous before the throne of God as He is righteous. For we are justified in His righteousness, His justification alone is ours! And we can no more lose this justification than He can fall from heaven. Thus our justification does not need to be completed any more than does Christ’s!
With this in view, the author says, “by one offering He has perfected for all time those who come to God by him” (Heb. 10:14). The reason we can stand before God in full assurance is because we now experience our “hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and … bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22).
“Ah,” retorted Cardinal Bellarmine’s Rome, “teach this and those who believe it will live in license and antinomianism.” But listen instead to the logic of Hebrews. Enjoying this assurance leads to four things: First, an unwavering faithfulness to our confession of faith in Jesus Christ alone as our hope (v.23); second, a careful consideration of how we can encourage each other to “love and good works” (v.24); third, an ongoing communion with other Christians in worship and every aspect of our fellowship (v.25a); fourth, a life in which we exhort one another to keep looking to Christ and to be faithful to him, as the time of his return draws ever nearer (25b).
It is the good tree that produces good fruit, not the other way round. We are not saved by works; we are saved for works. In fact we are God’s workmanship at work (Eph. 2:9–10)! Thus, rather than lead to a life of moral and spiritual indifference, the once-for-all work of Jesus Christ and the full-assurance faith it produces, provides believers with the most powerful impetus to live for God’s glory and pleasure. Furthermore, this full assurance is rooted in the fact that God Himself has done all this for us. He has revealed His heart to us in Christ. The Father does not require the death of Christ to persuade Him to love us. Christ died because the Father loves us (John 3:16). He does not lurk behind His Son with sinister intent wishing He could do us ill — were it not for the sacrifice his Son had made! No, a thousand times no! — the Father Himself loves us in the love of the Son and the love of the Spirit.
Those who enjoy such assurance do not go to the saints or to Mary. Those who look only to Jesus need look nowhere else. In Him we enjoy full assurance of salvation. The greatest of all heresies? If heresy, let me enjoy this most blessed of “heresies”! For it is God’s own truth and grace!
Let us begin with a church history exam question. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621) was a figure not to be taken lightly. He was Pope Clement VIII’s personal theologian and one of the most able figures in the Counter-Reformation movement within sixteenth-century Roman Catholicism. On one occasion, he wrote: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is _______ .” Complete, explain, and discuss Bellarmine’s statement.
How would you answer? What is the greatest of all Protestant heresies? Perhaps justification by faith? Perhaps Scripture alone, or one of the other Reformation watchwords?
Those answers make logical sense. But none of them completes Bellarmine’s sentence. What he wrote was: “The greatest of all Protestant heresies is assurance.”
A moment’s reflection explains why. If justification is not by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone — if faith needs to be completed by works; if Christ’s work is somehow repeated; if grace is not free and sovereign, then something always needs to be done, to be “added” for final justification to be ours. That is exactly the problem. If final justification is dependent on something we have to complete it is not possible to enjoy assurance of salvation. For then, theologically, final justification is contingent and uncertain, and it is impossible for anyone (apart from special revelation, Rome conceded) to be sure of salvation. But if Christ has done everything, if justification is by grace, without contributory works; it is received by faith’s empty hands — then assurance, even “full assurance” is possible for every believer.
No wonder Bellarmine thought full, free, unfettered grace was dangerous! No wonder the Reformers loved the letter to the Hebrews!
This is why, as the author of Hebrews pauses for breath at the climax of his exposition of Christ’s work (Heb. 10:18), he continues his argument with a Paul-like “therefore” (Heb. 10:19). He then urges us to “draw near … in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:22). We do not need to re-read the whole letter to see the logical power of his “therefore.” Christ is our High Priest; our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience just as our bodies have been washed with pure water (v.22).
Christ has once-for-all become the sacrifice for our sins, and has been raised and vindicated in the power of an indestructible life as our representative priest. By faith in Him, we are as righteous before the throne of God as He is righteous. For we are justified in His righteousness, His justification alone is ours! And we can no more lose this justification than He can fall from heaven. Thus our justification does not need to be completed any more than does Christ’s!
With this in view, the author says, “by one offering He has perfected for all time those who come to God by him” (Heb. 10:14). The reason we can stand before God in full assurance is because we now experience our “hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and … bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22).
“Ah,” retorted Cardinal Bellarmine’s Rome, “teach this and those who believe it will live in license and antinomianism.” But listen instead to the logic of Hebrews. Enjoying this assurance leads to four things: First, an unwavering faithfulness to our confession of faith in Jesus Christ alone as our hope (v.23); second, a careful consideration of how we can encourage each other to “love and good works” (v.24); third, an ongoing communion with other Christians in worship and every aspect of our fellowship (v.25a); fourth, a life in which we exhort one another to keep looking to Christ and to be faithful to him, as the time of his return draws ever nearer (25b).
It is the good tree that produces good fruit, not the other way round. We are not saved by works; we are saved for works. In fact we are God’s workmanship at work (Eph. 2:9–10)! Thus, rather than lead to a life of moral and spiritual indifference, the once-for-all work of Jesus Christ and the full-assurance faith it produces, provides believers with the most powerful impetus to live for God’s glory and pleasure. Furthermore, this full assurance is rooted in the fact that God Himself has done all this for us. He has revealed His heart to us in Christ. The Father does not require the death of Christ to persuade Him to love us. Christ died because the Father loves us (John 3:16). He does not lurk behind His Son with sinister intent wishing He could do us ill — were it not for the sacrifice his Son had made! No, a thousand times no! — the Father Himself loves us in the love of the Son and the love of the Spirit.
Those who enjoy such assurance do not go to the saints or to Mary. Those who look only to Jesus need look nowhere else. In Him we enjoy full assurance of salvation. The greatest of all heresies? If heresy, let me enjoy this most blessed of “heresies”! For it is God’s own truth and grace!
Quote of the Day
“The church is not perfect, but woe to the man who finds pleasure in pointing out her imperfections. Christ loved his church, and let us do the same. I have no doubt that the Lord can see more fault in his church than I can; and I have equal confidence that he sees no fault at all. Because he covers her faults with his own love—that love which covers a multitude of sins; and he removes all her defilement with that precious blood which washes away all the transgressions of his people.”
– C. H. Spurgeon
Thursday, February 14, 2013
How to Shut Down Gossip
For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.
As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.
The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.
Like the glaze covering an earthen vessel are fervent lips with an evil heart.
(Proverbs 26:20-23)
Gossip kills churches. If you're reading this blog at all, odds are I don't want your church to be killed! So here's what you do.
First, understand what gossip is. Gossip is spreading harmful information in an ungodly manner — without love, and thus to no positive end. Its bastard stepchildren are the triplets: Strife, Dissension, Division. Once again, my focus is the life of the local church.
Second, do any or all of the following steps, as needed. Some of them help identify whether you're actually hearing gossip or not. All of them will stop it dead. But none will work... unless used.
1.Ask, "Why are you telling me this?" Often, that in itself is such a focusing question that it can bring an end to the whole unpleasant chapter. It has the added benefit that it can help a person whose intentions are as good as his/her judgment is bad.
2.Ask, "What's the difference between what you're telling me and gossip?" See above; same effect, same potential benefits.
3.Ask, "How is your telling me that thought, that complaint, that information going to help you and me love God and our brothers better, and knit us closer together as a church in Christ's love?" Isn't that the goal we should share, every one of us? Won't it take the working of each individual member (Eph. 4:16)? Isn't the watch-out for harmful influences an every-member ministry (Heb. 3:12-13; 10:24; 13:12-15)?
4.Ask, "Now that you've told me about that, what are you going to do about it?" While the previous two are subjective, this is not. If neither of the previous two questions succeeded in identifying gossip/whispering/sowing-dissension for what they are, the answer to this question will do so. Tip: if the answer is "Pray," a good response might be "Then why didn't you do that and leave it there in the first place?"
5.Say, "Now that you've told me about that, you've morally obligated me to make sure you talk to ____ about it. How long do you think you need, so I can know when this becomes a sin that I will need to confront in you?" The least that this will accomplish is that you'll fall of the list of gossips'/whisperers' favorite venting-spots. The most is that you may head off a church split, division, harmed souls, sidelined Gospel ministry, and waylaid discipleship. Isn't that worth it?
You're welcome!
As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.
The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.
Like the glaze covering an earthen vessel are fervent lips with an evil heart.
(Proverbs 26:20-23)
Gossip kills churches. If you're reading this blog at all, odds are I don't want your church to be killed! So here's what you do.
First, understand what gossip is. Gossip is spreading harmful information in an ungodly manner — without love, and thus to no positive end. Its bastard stepchildren are the triplets: Strife, Dissension, Division. Once again, my focus is the life of the local church.
Second, do any or all of the following steps, as needed. Some of them help identify whether you're actually hearing gossip or not. All of them will stop it dead. But none will work... unless used.
1.Ask, "Why are you telling me this?" Often, that in itself is such a focusing question that it can bring an end to the whole unpleasant chapter. It has the added benefit that it can help a person whose intentions are as good as his/her judgment is bad.
2.Ask, "What's the difference between what you're telling me and gossip?" See above; same effect, same potential benefits.
3.Ask, "How is your telling me that thought, that complaint, that information going to help you and me love God and our brothers better, and knit us closer together as a church in Christ's love?" Isn't that the goal we should share, every one of us? Won't it take the working of each individual member (Eph. 4:16)? Isn't the watch-out for harmful influences an every-member ministry (Heb. 3:12-13; 10:24; 13:12-15)?
4.Ask, "Now that you've told me about that, what are you going to do about it?" While the previous two are subjective, this is not. If neither of the previous two questions succeeded in identifying gossip/whispering/sowing-dissension for what they are, the answer to this question will do so. Tip: if the answer is "Pray," a good response might be "Then why didn't you do that and leave it there in the first place?"
5.Say, "Now that you've told me about that, you've morally obligated me to make sure you talk to ____ about it. How long do you think you need, so I can know when this becomes a sin that I will need to confront in you?" The least that this will accomplish is that you'll fall of the list of gossips'/whisperers' favorite venting-spots. The most is that you may head off a church split, division, harmed souls, sidelined Gospel ministry, and waylaid discipleship. Isn't that worth it?
You're welcome!
Quote of the Day
“The very center and core of the whole Bible is the doctrine of the grace of God — the grace of God which depends not one whit upon anything that is in man, but is absolutely undeserved, resistless and sovereign. The theologians of the Church can be placed in an ascending scale according as they have grasped that one great central doctrine, that doctrine that gives consistency to all the rest; and Christian experience also depends for its depth and for its power upon the way in which that blessed doctrine is cherished in the depths of the heart. The center of the Bible, and the center of Christianity, is found in the grace of God; and the necessary corollary of the grace of God is salvation through faith alone.”
– J. Gresham Machen
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Minister as Theologian
What is your church's ministry model?
It should now be clear that there are two quite different models of ministry at work in the evangelical Church today, and theology is located quite differently in each. In the model of the Church that has its roots in the Reformation and in the Puritanism that followed, theology is essential and central; in its modern-day evangelical descendants, however, theology is often only instrumental and peripheral. In the one, theology provides the culture in which ministry is understood and practiced; in the other, this culture is provided by professionalization.
The difference between the two models is not that theology is present in one but not the other. Theology is professed and believed in both. But in the one, theology is the reason for ministry, the basis for ministry; it provides the criteria by which success in ministry is measured. In the other, theology does none of these things; here the ministry provides its own rationale, its own criteria, its own techniques. The second model does not reject theology; it simply displaces it so that it no longer gives the profession of ministry its heart and fire.
-David F. Wells, No Place For Truth Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?
It should now be clear that there are two quite different models of ministry at work in the evangelical Church today, and theology is located quite differently in each. In the model of the Church that has its roots in the Reformation and in the Puritanism that followed, theology is essential and central; in its modern-day evangelical descendants, however, theology is often only instrumental and peripheral. In the one, theology provides the culture in which ministry is understood and practiced; in the other, this culture is provided by professionalization.
The difference between the two models is not that theology is present in one but not the other. Theology is professed and believed in both. But in the one, theology is the reason for ministry, the basis for ministry; it provides the criteria by which success in ministry is measured. In the other, theology does none of these things; here the ministry provides its own rationale, its own criteria, its own techniques. The second model does not reject theology; it simply displaces it so that it no longer gives the profession of ministry its heart and fire.
-David F. Wells, No Place For Truth Or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology?
Quote of the Day
“If it is I who determine where God is to be found, then I shall always find a God who corresponds to me in some way… But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not at all congenial to me…whoever would find him must go to the foot of the Cross…This is not according to our nature at all, it is entirely contrary to it. But this is the message of the Bible.”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Gay Animals?
This is not a joke. You really can’t make this stuff up. Here’s the report from the UK’s Independent:
A university academic has criticised David Attenborough’s wildlife shows for not featuring enough gay animals.
Three of the veteran broadcaster’s shows are identified in a new study as perpetuating the notion that animal relationships are predominantly heterosexual.
Dr Brett Mills of the University of East Anglia says wildlife documentaries should be offering viewers a wider perspective on animal behaviour.
Researchers found BBC wildlife documentaries portray animals as heterosexual families too often, even though animals can also be gay.
Read the rest here. Then read Jonah 4:11.
A university academic has criticised David Attenborough’s wildlife shows for not featuring enough gay animals.
Three of the veteran broadcaster’s shows are identified in a new study as perpetuating the notion that animal relationships are predominantly heterosexual.
Dr Brett Mills of the University of East Anglia says wildlife documentaries should be offering viewers a wider perspective on animal behaviour.
Researchers found BBC wildlife documentaries portray animals as heterosexual families too often, even though animals can also be gay.
Read the rest here. Then read Jonah 4:11.
Quote of the Day
“It is only against the pitch blackness of the night that we see the glory of the stars. And it is only against the pitch blackness of man’s radical depravity that we can begin to see the glories of the gospel.”
– Paul Washer
Monday, February 11, 2013
Some words are written down and are here for a day and then gone. Other words are so pointed, so perfect, that they stand for many years. J.C. Ryle is a man who wrote many books and pamphlets and sermons that are as powerful and relevant today as they were in the 19th century. His description of jellyfish Christianity could as easily have been written here in the 21st century.
[Dislike of dogma] is an epidemic which is just now doing great harm, and specially among young people. It produces what I must venture to call a “jelly-fish” Christianity in the land: that is, a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or power. A jelly-fish is a pretty and graceful object when it floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little, delicate, transparent umbrella. Yet the same jelly-fish, when cast on the shore, is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defense, or self-preservation. Alas! It is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, of which the leading principle is, “No dogma, no distinct tenets, no positive doctrine.”
We have hundreds of “jelly-fish” clergymen, who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity. They have not definite opinions; they belong to no school or party; they are so afraid of “extreme views” that they have no views at all.
We have thousands of “jelly-fish” sermons preached every year, sermons without an edge, or a point, or a corner, smooth as billiard balls, awakening no sinner, and edifying no saint.
We have Legions of “jelly-fish” young men annually turned out from our Universities, armed with a few scraps of second-hand philosophy, who think it a mark of cleverness and intellect to have no decided opinions about anything in religion, and to be utterly unable to make up their minds as to what is Christian truth. They live apparently in a state of suspense, like Mohamet’s fabled coffin, hanging between heaven and earth and last.
Worst of all, we have myriads of “jelly-fish” worshippers—respectable church-going people, who have no distinct and definite views about any point in theology. They cannot discern things that differ, any more than color-blind people can distinguish colors. They think everybody is right and nobody wrong, everything is true and nothing is false, all sermons are good and none are bad, every clergyman is sound and no clergyman is unsound. They are “tossed to and fro, like children, by every wind of doctrine”; often carried away by any new excitement and sensational movement; ever ready for new things, because they have no firm grasp on the old; and utterly unable to “render a reason of the hope that is in them.”
Never was it so important for laymen to hold systematic views of truth, and for ordained ministers to “enunciate dogma” very clearly and distinctly in their teaching.
[Dislike of dogma] is an epidemic which is just now doing great harm, and specially among young people. It produces what I must venture to call a “jelly-fish” Christianity in the land: that is, a Christianity without bone, or muscle, or power. A jelly-fish is a pretty and graceful object when it floats in the sea, contracting and expanding like a little, delicate, transparent umbrella. Yet the same jelly-fish, when cast on the shore, is a mere helpless lump, without capacity for movement, self-defense, or self-preservation. Alas! It is a vivid type of much of the religion of this day, of which the leading principle is, “No dogma, no distinct tenets, no positive doctrine.”
We have hundreds of “jelly-fish” clergymen, who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity. They have not definite opinions; they belong to no school or party; they are so afraid of “extreme views” that they have no views at all.
We have thousands of “jelly-fish” sermons preached every year, sermons without an edge, or a point, or a corner, smooth as billiard balls, awakening no sinner, and edifying no saint.
We have Legions of “jelly-fish” young men annually turned out from our Universities, armed with a few scraps of second-hand philosophy, who think it a mark of cleverness and intellect to have no decided opinions about anything in religion, and to be utterly unable to make up their minds as to what is Christian truth. They live apparently in a state of suspense, like Mohamet’s fabled coffin, hanging between heaven and earth and last.
Worst of all, we have myriads of “jelly-fish” worshippers—respectable church-going people, who have no distinct and definite views about any point in theology. They cannot discern things that differ, any more than color-blind people can distinguish colors. They think everybody is right and nobody wrong, everything is true and nothing is false, all sermons are good and none are bad, every clergyman is sound and no clergyman is unsound. They are “tossed to and fro, like children, by every wind of doctrine”; often carried away by any new excitement and sensational movement; ever ready for new things, because they have no firm grasp on the old; and utterly unable to “render a reason of the hope that is in them.”
Never was it so important for laymen to hold systematic views of truth, and for ordained ministers to “enunciate dogma” very clearly and distinctly in their teaching.
Quote of the Day
“To be saved, one must confess Jesus as Lord & Savior, but you cannot BELIEVE in him as Lord or Savior unless he first rescues us from our bondage to sin. “…no one can say “Jesus is Lord” apart from the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3) So grace is not a reward for confessing Jesus as Lord and Savior, it is the cause of it.”
– John Hendryx
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Quote of the Day
“God propitiates his own wrath. Know anybody else like that? Will China pay off the US debt? Will any of the victims of Bernie Madoff personally pay his financial debts? When does the offended personally provide the means to take away his own offense? Only God. This is why he is love.”
– Steve DeWitt
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Quote of the Day
“The church is not perfect, but woe to the man who finds pleasure in pointing out her imperfections. Christ loved his church, and let us do the same. I have no doubt that the Lord can see more fault in his church than I can; and I have equal confidence that he sees no fault at all. Because he covers her faults with his own love—that love which covers a multitude of sins; and he removes all her defilement with that precious blood which washes away all the transgressions of his people.”
– C. H. Spurgeon
Friday, February 8, 2013
Dr. Ben Carson at National Prayer Breakfast
At Thursday morning's National Prayer Breakfast, Dr. Benjamin Carson, a celebrated pediatric neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital, gave a 25-minute long keynote address that directly refuted the key tenets of President Barack Obama’s liberal agenda – with Obama sitting just feet away.
Dr. Carson attacked political correctness as “horrible” and dangerous. Dr. Carson credited personal responsibility, not government assistance, for taking from a childhood of poverty to a lifetime of success.
Dr. Carson attacked fiscal irresponsibility, instead urging restrained spending. “One of our big problems right now...our deficit is a big problem. Think about it — and our national debt — $16 and a half trillion dollars,” said Dr. Carson as Obama watched. Obama increased the federal debt by $5.8 trillion in his first term, the worst ever increase in a presidential term.
Dr. Carson went on to press for a flat tax, rejecting Obama’s call for higher taxes on higher earners. ”When I pick up my Bible, you know what I see — I see the fairest individual in the universe — God — and he’s given us a system. It’s called tithe,” said Dr. Carson. Carson went on to extol their fairness of the flat tax, under which everyone pays the same rate.
Dr. Carson also diametrically opposed ObamaCare, attacking the idea of government bureaucracy funding health care and instead recommending private health savings accounts.
The National Prayer Breakfast, an annual D.C. event that gave us President Ronald Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech, made history again this year with a highly accomplished black doctor directly refuting liberalism and ObamaCare in front of the President.
Dr. Carson attacked political correctness as “horrible” and dangerous. Dr. Carson credited personal responsibility, not government assistance, for taking from a childhood of poverty to a lifetime of success.
Dr. Carson attacked fiscal irresponsibility, instead urging restrained spending. “One of our big problems right now...our deficit is a big problem. Think about it — and our national debt — $16 and a half trillion dollars,” said Dr. Carson as Obama watched. Obama increased the federal debt by $5.8 trillion in his first term, the worst ever increase in a presidential term.
Dr. Carson went on to press for a flat tax, rejecting Obama’s call for higher taxes on higher earners. ”When I pick up my Bible, you know what I see — I see the fairest individual in the universe — God — and he’s given us a system. It’s called tithe,” said Dr. Carson. Carson went on to extol their fairness of the flat tax, under which everyone pays the same rate.
Dr. Carson also diametrically opposed ObamaCare, attacking the idea of government bureaucracy funding health care and instead recommending private health savings accounts.
The National Prayer Breakfast, an annual D.C. event that gave us President Ronald Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech, made history again this year with a highly accomplished black doctor directly refuting liberalism and ObamaCare in front of the President.
Quote of the Day
“If it is I who determine where God is to be found, then I shall always find a God who corresponds to me in some way… But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not at all congenial to me…whoever would find him must go to the foot of the Cross…This is not according to our nature at all, it is entirely contrary to it. But this is the message of the Bible.”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The Republican Savior?
The cover of the most recent Time magazine has a full-size picture of Marco Rubio and dubs him “The Republican Savior.” Senator Rubio tweeted a response today, and it is classic. He writes:
There is only one savior, and it is not me. #Jesus
There was another politician who responded very differently to such acclaim, and the outcome wasn’t so good for him (Daniel 4:29-37). So this is a very good response from Senator Rubio. It’s exactly what he should have said.
"God Listens"
From Dan Phillips at Pyromaniacs:
Driving home the other day I saw a truck with the bumper sticker "God Listens." It's advertisement for a local Christian radio station about which I know next to nothing, since most of the programming fires well wide of my tastes.
My first thought was, "Isn't that the quintessence of 'getting-it-wrong'?" Doubtless, it's meant to be a great warm and loving invitation, and maybe it strikes a lot of people-who-aren't-me exactly right.
But what does it say? Doesn't it tacitly confirm our fundamental Adamic belief, that what really needs to happen is that God needs to listen to us?
Remember the story. Remember the source of absolutely every bit of misery and sadness and brokenness in our universe. What happened? A perfectly adequate summary would be:
God spoke
We didn't listen
And now here is an outreach that says, not "God has spoken, and we'd better listen," but "God listens." God is made passive, we are made the actors. God is a harmless, benevolent Grandpa just waiting for us to climb up in His lap and vent, or a submissive servant waiting for us to work the machinery to extract our Best Life Now©, as The Gospel Coalition's Golden Boy's Golden Boy is fond of saying. It's up to us. We control the relationship.
Of course, you'll search in vain for this note in any of the apostles preaching in the NT. The closest I can think of in the prophets is of a very different spirit. First is Hosea 14:2, which indeed says, "Take with you words and ...to the LORD; say to him..." Okay, that sounds close. Until we quote it in full:
Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 2 Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, "Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. 3 Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, 'Our God,' to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy" (14:1-3)
Then there is the more famous word in Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, let us reason together." That sounds like an invitation to a conversation. Until, once again, the context is brought in:
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. 18 "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken" (1:16-20)
Once again, it is a call to repent in view of the already-known word of God (vv. 2-4, 10).
In both cases, then, you could apply the prophets' words to the bumper sticker in the sense, "When we respond to God's Word with repentance, God listens."
However, if the thought is meant to be, "Just as you are, unrepentant and unbelieving, all you have to do is pray, and God cares and loves and accepts you and will help you fix what you think needs fixing," then it simply is not true. It may be a "precious promise," but it's a false one.
To take some passages opened and developed at length here, Prov. 28:9 says, "If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination." If "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD" (Prov. 15:8), his prayer won't be more acceptable, because "The LORD is far from the wicked" (Prov. 15:29).
My second thought was that the statement is certainly true, taken all by itself — though I don't think it is true in the sense intended.
Proverbs 15:3 — The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
Ecclesiastes 12:14 — For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Matthew 12:36 — "I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak."
So: those times you lied? Those times you manipulated the truth to get your way, to work your will on someone weaker? Those times you denied or twisted the truth of God? Those times you made excuses which amounted to lies and deceptions, to get out of work or trouble?
God listens. And God will judge.
So really, the bumper sticker is true, as-is.
And, to sinners outside of Christ, and apart from the Good News, absolutely terrifying.
Driving home the other day I saw a truck with the bumper sticker "God Listens." It's advertisement for a local Christian radio station about which I know next to nothing, since most of the programming fires well wide of my tastes.
My first thought was, "Isn't that the quintessence of 'getting-it-wrong'?" Doubtless, it's meant to be a great warm and loving invitation, and maybe it strikes a lot of people-who-aren't-me exactly right.
But what does it say? Doesn't it tacitly confirm our fundamental Adamic belief, that what really needs to happen is that God needs to listen to us?
Remember the story. Remember the source of absolutely every bit of misery and sadness and brokenness in our universe. What happened? A perfectly adequate summary would be:
God spoke
We didn't listen
And now here is an outreach that says, not "God has spoken, and we'd better listen," but "God listens." God is made passive, we are made the actors. God is a harmless, benevolent Grandpa just waiting for us to climb up in His lap and vent, or a submissive servant waiting for us to work the machinery to extract our Best Life Now©, as The Gospel Coalition's Golden Boy's Golden Boy is fond of saying. It's up to us. We control the relationship.
Of course, you'll search in vain for this note in any of the apostles preaching in the NT. The closest I can think of in the prophets is of a very different spirit. First is Hosea 14:2, which indeed says, "Take with you words and ...to the LORD; say to him..." Okay, that sounds close. Until we quote it in full:
Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 2 Take with you words and return to the LORD; say to him, "Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. 3 Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, 'Our God,' to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy" (14:1-3)
Then there is the more famous word in Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, let us reason together." That sounds like an invitation to a conversation. Until, once again, the context is brought in:
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. 18 "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 20 but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken" (1:16-20)
Once again, it is a call to repent in view of the already-known word of God (vv. 2-4, 10).
In both cases, then, you could apply the prophets' words to the bumper sticker in the sense, "When we respond to God's Word with repentance, God listens."
However, if the thought is meant to be, "Just as you are, unrepentant and unbelieving, all you have to do is pray, and God cares and loves and accepts you and will help you fix what you think needs fixing," then it simply is not true. It may be a "precious promise," but it's a false one.
To take some passages opened and developed at length here, Prov. 28:9 says, "If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination." If "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD" (Prov. 15:8), his prayer won't be more acceptable, because "The LORD is far from the wicked" (Prov. 15:29).
My second thought was that the statement is certainly true, taken all by itself — though I don't think it is true in the sense intended.
Proverbs 15:3 — The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
Ecclesiastes 12:14 — For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.
Matthew 12:36 — "I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak."
So: those times you lied? Those times you manipulated the truth to get your way, to work your will on someone weaker? Those times you denied or twisted the truth of God? Those times you made excuses which amounted to lies and deceptions, to get out of work or trouble?
God listens. And God will judge.
So really, the bumper sticker is true, as-is.
And, to sinners outside of Christ, and apart from the Good News, absolutely terrifying.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Jesus, the Propitiation of God's Wrath
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
He is the propitiation for our sins. What does it mean? Propitiation is a common religious word used over the centuries to describe something—an offering or religious duty or whatever—that turns away the wrath of a god toward me.
The gods of the ancient religions were unpredictable, so it was believed. The ancients would do all sorts of things trying to manipulate the emotions of the gods, to avoid their wrath and gain their favor so they would bring rain for the crops, keep their livestock healthy, and increase the number of children in their home. But how could you know one way or the other? Is Zeus angry or not? Do I have Athena’s favor or not? Of course these gods were not true gods at all, but this wordpropitiation was used for the offering that turned the anger of the gods into favor.
Here is where more liberal theologians get uncomfortable with the word because they say the God of the Bible is not a God of wrath, but of love. Propitiation cannot mean an offering that turns away the wrath of God because God doesn’t have wrath toward us. So it must mean simply removing the offense in the sinner, not in the god. The RSV goes so far as to use the word expiation to cover for that. It is not God’s wrath that is removed; rather it is our sin that is expiated.
Here is where the word and its definition are so important and why one commentator says, “If we are wrong here, nothing else is right.” (Jackman) The love of God does not contradict the wrath of God. Paul begins his entire explanation of the gospel in Romans, not with the love of God but with his wrath of God. Romans 1:18 says, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
God’s wrath is less an emotion and more a holy opposition and hostility toward both the sin and the sinner. As evidence of this, he does not put sin in hell, he puts sinners in hell. God’s love begins with his commitment to the glory of his own person and glorious character. His wrath is part of his love, like a husband who loves his wife so much as to be righteously jealous for her. God is jealous for his glory and angry at all who fall short of that glory (Romans 3:23).
To understand propitiation, we must have a biblical terror at the wrath of God against all sin and those who commit it. If God is angry, what do we obviously need? We need somehow for that wrath against us to be turned into favor. That it is even a possibility is wonderful, but how is it accomplished?
He is the propitiation for our sins. He is Christ. How does he turn God’s anger into favor? Let’s let Scripture explain it.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18)
…whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (Romans 3:25)
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
Jesus’ death in our place as our substitute was the satisfying offering to God that turned away his wrath toward us. Here is where the one true God is so different than the gods of man’s own making. They were fickle and unpredictable and there was no way to know if man’s offering was enough.
The truth is that we don’t make the offering that turns away God’s wrath. God himself makes the offering that turns away his own wrath. Here is the glory and wonder of the gospel and the cross. The one who is angry and offended personally pays the price to not simply satisfy his anger, but turn it into favor.
Jesus’ death was atonement for sin; his death was in our place and covered over our guilt before God. It completely removed the offense of God toward us which frees God to view us with favor. How much favor? He even adopted us as his own children.
Did you catch it? God propitiates his own wrath. Know anybody else like that? Will China pay off the US debt? Will any of the victims of Bernie Madoff personally pay his financial debts? When does the offended personally provide the means to take away his own offense? Only God. This is why he is love. Not that his love contradicts his wrath; his love provides the means to satisfy his own wrath and Jesus was that propitiation for our sins.
He is the propitiation for our sins. What does it mean? Propitiation is a common religious word used over the centuries to describe something—an offering or religious duty or whatever—that turns away the wrath of a god toward me.
The gods of the ancient religions were unpredictable, so it was believed. The ancients would do all sorts of things trying to manipulate the emotions of the gods, to avoid their wrath and gain their favor so they would bring rain for the crops, keep their livestock healthy, and increase the number of children in their home. But how could you know one way or the other? Is Zeus angry or not? Do I have Athena’s favor or not? Of course these gods were not true gods at all, but this wordpropitiation was used for the offering that turned the anger of the gods into favor.
Here is where more liberal theologians get uncomfortable with the word because they say the God of the Bible is not a God of wrath, but of love. Propitiation cannot mean an offering that turns away the wrath of God because God doesn’t have wrath toward us. So it must mean simply removing the offense in the sinner, not in the god. The RSV goes so far as to use the word expiation to cover for that. It is not God’s wrath that is removed; rather it is our sin that is expiated.
Here is where the word and its definition are so important and why one commentator says, “If we are wrong here, nothing else is right.” (Jackman) The love of God does not contradict the wrath of God. Paul begins his entire explanation of the gospel in Romans, not with the love of God but with his wrath of God. Romans 1:18 says, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
God’s wrath is less an emotion and more a holy opposition and hostility toward both the sin and the sinner. As evidence of this, he does not put sin in hell, he puts sinners in hell. God’s love begins with his commitment to the glory of his own person and glorious character. His wrath is part of his love, like a husband who loves his wife so much as to be righteously jealous for her. God is jealous for his glory and angry at all who fall short of that glory (Romans 3:23).
To understand propitiation, we must have a biblical terror at the wrath of God against all sin and those who commit it. If God is angry, what do we obviously need? We need somehow for that wrath against us to be turned into favor. That it is even a possibility is wonderful, but how is it accomplished?
He is the propitiation for our sins. He is Christ. How does he turn God’s anger into favor? Let’s let Scripture explain it.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18)
…whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (Romans 3:25)
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)
Jesus’ death in our place as our substitute was the satisfying offering to God that turned away his wrath toward us. Here is where the one true God is so different than the gods of man’s own making. They were fickle and unpredictable and there was no way to know if man’s offering was enough.
The truth is that we don’t make the offering that turns away God’s wrath. God himself makes the offering that turns away his own wrath. Here is the glory and wonder of the gospel and the cross. The one who is angry and offended personally pays the price to not simply satisfy his anger, but turn it into favor.
Jesus’ death was atonement for sin; his death was in our place and covered over our guilt before God. It completely removed the offense of God toward us which frees God to view us with favor. How much favor? He even adopted us as his own children.
Did you catch it? God propitiates his own wrath. Know anybody else like that? Will China pay off the US debt? Will any of the victims of Bernie Madoff personally pay his financial debts? When does the offended personally provide the means to take away his own offense? Only God. This is why he is love. Not that his love contradicts his wrath; his love provides the means to satisfy his own wrath and Jesus was that propitiation for our sins.
Looking Unto Jesus
“It is ever the Holy Spirit’s work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan’s work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ.
He insinuates, “Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you have not the joy of His children; you have such a wavering hold of Jesus.”
All these are thoughts about self, and we shall never find comfort or assurance by looking within. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self: He tells us that we are nothing, but that “Christ is all in all.””
— Charles Spurgeon
He insinuates, “Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you have not the joy of His children; you have such a wavering hold of Jesus.”
All these are thoughts about self, and we shall never find comfort or assurance by looking within. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self: He tells us that we are nothing, but that “Christ is all in all.””
— Charles Spurgeon
Monday, February 4, 2013
Only Once in 30 Days
Only Once in 30 Days - Thabiti Anyabwile resolved that he would be a more faithful evangelist, yet he has found that far more difficult than he had thought. This article is very honest, sharing both success and failure.
How often do you share?
How often do you share?
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Bad Charity
Bad Charity - This article from TIME shows once again that not all aid sent to Africa is at all helpful. If that’s news to you, you need to read When Helping Hurts.
Quote of the Day
“[The] term ‘decide’ has always seemed to me to be quite wrong. A sinner does not ‘decide’ for Christ; the sinner ‘flies’ to Christ in utter helplessness and despair saying — Foul, I to the fountain fly, Wash me, Saviour, or I die. No man truly comes to Christ unless he flies to Him as his only refuge and hope, his only way of escape from the accusations of conscience and the condemnation of God’s holy law. Nothing else is satisfactory. If a man says that having thought about the matter and having considered all sides he has on the whole decided for Christ, and if he has done so without any emotion or feeling, I cannot regard him as a man who has been regenerated. The convicted sinner no more ‘decides’ for Christ than the poor drowning man ‘decides’ to take hold of that rope that is thrown to him and suddenly provides him with the only means of escape. The term is entirely inappropriate.”
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Breakthrough Power
Harold O. J. Brown, The Sensate Culture
In our day of exhausting hype, a church with modest resources has all the potential for breakthrough power that the church of Acts 2 experienced – the felt presence of the risen Christ, according to the gospel. Simplicity and honesty are advantages.
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