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Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 1
The Revelation
of Jesus Christ
Part Four:
Jesus the Speaking King
Introduction
Jesus is the Speaking
King who speaks through His Holy, Inerrant and Infallible Word so that His
people might grow in the grace and knowledge of the LORD. Today's
study is from Revelation 1:9-18, entitled Jesus the Speaking King. This will be a
two-part study of how Christ speaks to His people.
You will remember that
in the Old Testament God fed His people with manna and water so that they
would be filled and their thirst would be quenched. The purpose of
this provision was so that His people would be sustained, strengthened and
fit to finish their pilgrimage to the Promised Land. Jesus is the
Manna and the Water who feeds us and quenches our thirst through His
Word. He is the Speaking King who reminds us that if we are to live a
holy life before the face of God we need to know that it must be by every
word that proceeds from His mouth. If we are to grow in
Christ-likeness, it will not be by might, nor by power, but by God's Spirit
and Word working in and through us! Today, the Speaking King gives to
His people His Word so that we might be sustained, strengthened and fit to
finish our pilgrimage to the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Revelation 1:9-18: I, John, your
brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient
endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of
the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the
Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet
11 saying, "Write what you see in a book and send it to the
seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira
and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea."
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking
to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in
the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe
and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his
head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of
fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a
furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In
his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged
sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. 17 When
I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on
me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and
the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the
keys of Death and Hades.
Comforting Words
When I was young and
would get scared and afraid as I grew up and realized the world around me
was not always a safe and kind place, I would rely upon listening to the
comforting words of my mother as she encouraged me that "everything
would be alright". One time in school I experienced trouble with
a bully (I still remember his name: Mark Dunahoo- - Wow, I hope he's doing
well!), and for almost a year I dreaded going to school on the bus, because
he would hit me on the back of the head, call me names, and laugh at my
less than fashionable Sears Best sneakers.
When I would get home, I
wanted to talk to mom. I wanted her to know I was troubled.
Then she would speak, and her words would comfort me and remind me that
everything would fine. She would say to me that life holds these
troubles, but I was not to fear, but I was to face my troubles
courageously. Thank God for mom's words of encouragment to me!
But thank God for Jesus'
words of encouragement to us all in His Word. As we studied in the
previous lessons, John, as well as the churches to whom he was writing, was
experiencing pain, trouble, and the difficulties that come from living in
this scary and sometimes fearful world because of the Evil One. This
passage in Revelation 1:9-18 was (and is) an encouragment from
Jesus to His congregations that "everything was (is) going to be
alright" because he has conquered death, hell and the devil and
he IS the First and the Last, the Living One who holds the very keys
of Death and Hades (vv. 17-18). In John 16:33, Jesus told his
disciples that in this world they would have tribulation, but not to fear
for he had overcome the world.
This passage reveals
Jesus as the Speaking King
who speaks word of encouragement to his people so that they will keep
trusting him, remain faithful in their day-to-day challenges, and to
continue to be obedient to His Word no matter the challenge. Jesus
addresses the seven churches of the Province of Asia, correcting, rebuking,
and encouraging them through His Word (Rev. 2-3; cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17). As we learned in earlier lessons, the
churches were seven true historical congregations, but their virtues as
well as their vices are those experienced by all congregations since Jesus
was exalted to God's right hand.
"Speak
Lord, Your Servants Are Listening"
Today, Jesus still
speaks through His Word to His people. In fact, God has set apart the
first day of the week as the Lord's Day, so that Jesus' people will be
strengthened on their pilgrimage and given help by the Holy Spirit and the
Word to learn more of Christ and their need for him. In many
churches, the pastor raises his hands at the beginning of the service to
remind the people of God that from the call to worship, the rest of the
worship service is dedicated to hearing the Word of Jesus, the Speaking
King.
This is the reason why
the pastor doesn't say: "Hi, how are you? My name is Pastor Bob, and
this is what I need to say to you today." Historically, what
pastors in Christ's Church have said is: "Grace to you and peace,
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." The greeting is
from the Lord and the pastor speaks and stands in Christ's place.
This too is all because of God's grace and has nothing to do with the
pastors own inherent righteousness. The pastor stands and speaks in
the name of Christ clothed in Christ's righteousness just as the
congregation stands to hear the Word of Christ clothed in Christ's
righteousness. The sermon when exegetically derived and faithfully
preached, is the very Word of Christ, the Speaking King!
However, some think of
the sermon as just another nice speech, or a gentle message that should
cause us all to feel good inside and meet our so-called "felt
needs". But the sermon is much more than this. The
sermon on the Lord's Day is the pastor standing in Christ's stead speaking
His Words to His people. What happens in the sermon is unique to all
over times of listening to the Word of God. Some of us listen to the
Word of God in the car on CD or cassette; some listen to the Word of God on
the radio. But nothing compares to listening and hearing the Word of
God through the sermon preached on the Lord's Day when an authorized
(ordained) representative of Christ (minister) stands up in the place of
Christ to speak Christ's Words to His people. (Note: This is not to say
that private Bible reading is not important- -it is! However, there
needs to be a distinction between the true and public worship of the Living
God, and our private time before God).
On the Lord's Day, the
Holy Spirit is present to apply and accomplish God's tasks and desires
through the Word as the sermon is being preached. The sermon on the
Lord's Day, when the people of God are gathered in a special way in
obedience to God's commands, is extremely important for hearing the
Speaking King every week. When we hear the Speaking King revealed here
in Revelation 1, we are reminded of Jesus' life, death, resurrection and
ascension for his people. We are reminded that no matter how
difficult our situation, no matter how much pain we are suffering, no
matter how strong our desire for a particular sin, that Jesus is the First
and the Last, the Living One, and He is the One we look to for grace,
mercy, and forgiveness in our time of need.
Remember to
Never Forget!
Jesus is the Holy One
who has gone before us and represented us. Jesus is the Speaking King
that reminds us again and again that we need his help and his grace.
The people of God are diverse, but there is one thing about us all that is
important for us to remember: We so
easily forget God's grace and goodness in our lives!
Thus, God graciously stoops in our weaknesses and inadequacies to speak to
us at least weekly through the Word by the Speaking King.
But do we have ears to
hear what the Speaking King is saying? When I would go back to school
after hearing the reassuring and comforting words of my mom, once I got
back on the bus, out of her sight and presence, I would practically forget
everything she said to me. Listening to the Speaking King as well as
reminding ourselves of his promises, goodness and strength, will help
us in our struggles against the world, flesh and the devil. In
Revelation chapters 2-3, the Speaking King speaks to the different
congregations as their King and Lord. He corrects, rebukes, and
encourages them. For every congregation to whom he speaks, he says
"For those who have ears, let them hear what the Spirit says (present
tense) to the churches.
We should be reminded of
this as well. Once we leave the sermon, our morning or evening
devotions, how soon we forget and how easy it is for us to forget all of what
Jesus the Speaking King has said, and is saying to us! If we are to
understand more of the depth of His love for us; if we are to understand
His grace and the tight grip by which he holds us all; If we are to realize
more each day that we are indeed the children of God, then we need to
meditate up His Words. In John 15, Jesus told his disciples, if my
words abide in you and you abide in me, you will bear much fruit. He
promises that we will bear much fruit -- eternal and holy fruit- -that will
never be taken away, but will continue to produce a harvest of
righteousness.
Remember that Jesus is
the Resurrected and Living King, He is the Coming Judge and King, and He is
the Speaking King! May God remind you today of what he has said to
you. May you be reminded of all he has done for you in Christ and
what he has told you he has prepared for those who believe. May you
meditate and ponder in your heart of hearts the depths of His grace and the
magnificence of his glorious love for those He loves! In our next
study we will take a look at how Jesus as the Speaking King speaks with a
double-edged sword.
Next
Study: Jesus the Speaking King, Part II
Soli Deo Gloria!
For Further Reading
Herman Bavinck- The Last Things: Hope for this World and the Next.
Edited by John Bolt. Translated by John Vriend.
Published by Baker Books, 1996
G. K. Beale- The Book of Revelation, New
International Greek Testament Commentary, Eerdmans, 1999
G. C. Berkhouwer- The Return of Christ. Studies in Dogmatics Series. Published by Eerdmans,
1972
Dennis Johnson- Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation,
P&R, 2001
Vern S. Poythress- The Returning King: A Guide to the Book of
Revelation, P&R, 2000
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9
S. Locust Street
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 2
The Revelation
of Jesus Christ
Part Four:
Jesus the Speaking King, Pt. 2
Introduction
In our last study we
were encouraged that Jesus is the Speaking King who continues to speak to
His people through His Word by His Spirit. We should thank God that
He truly has always kept his Word to His people and never left them as
orphans in this world. Rather, God has stooped down to us to give us
His very Word. This Word strengthens and sustains His people until He
returns. This Word of God, however is a double-edged sword.
While it promises blessings to those who know the Speaking King and obey His Word, it
promises curses to those who will not hear it.
Jesus ends each message
to the congregations in Revelation chapters 2-3 with "He Who has ears
to hear, let him hear". We must remember that those who do not
hear, or who do not obey the Word of the Living God, those without
"ears to hear" will be judged by this Word. The disobedient
and the sinful who do not have the righteousness of Jesus Christ will stand
naked and ashamed before the Living God on Judgment Day to be judged by the
very Word of the Speaking King
that has been so precious to those He loves! The very Word of Christ
that brought life and encouragement to those who had ears to hear,
will bring eternal death to those who do not have ears to hear.
Today's study will be on Jesus the
Speaking King and His Words of Judgment to the unbelieving.
Revelation
1:9-20
Revelation
1:9-20: 9 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation
and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the
island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of
Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard
behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, "Write
what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to
Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia
and to Laodicea."
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking
to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in
the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe
and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hairs of his
head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire,
15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace,
and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 In his right
hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and
his face was like the sun shining in full strength. 17 When I
saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on
me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and
the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the
keys of Death and Hades.
19 Write therefore the things that you have seen,
those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 As
for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the
seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches,
and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.
Lord's Day
Worship
Notice first that John
was worshipping God on the Lord's Day (v. 10). Since the time of the
resurrection, God's people have worshipped Him on the Lord's Day, the first
day of the week, or the day of the resurrection. We rest and keep the
New Covenant "Sabbath" or Lord's Day on the first day of the week
rather than the last day of the week. The reason for this change
was because Jesus was resurrected on that day, but also that a new
creation has dawned in the coming of the Spirit of God (2 Cor.
5:17-21). Rather than awaiting the fullness of the times as in the
Old Covenant, and so placing the day of worship on the last day of the week
(Saturday), since the coming of Jesus the first day awaits the final day of
salvation and judgment.
So a day of ultimate
salvation and judgment is already in view for all of us who live on this
side of the resurrection. Every time we worship, we should remember
that God has placed our worship on the first day to prepare us for the rest
of the week, but also to remind us of the ultimate rest and restoration
that is to come on the Last Day when Jesus Christ returns for His people.
The Glorified
Jesus Near to Us!
On the Lord's Day
(v.10), John hears the Speaking King.
His voice was like a trumpet - -powerful and resounding! The Speaking King gives orders to his
servant John to write to the seven historical churches in Asia, but these
commands are for all of Christ's people until He returns (Rev. 1:3;
22:17-21). When John turns he gets to see the glorified Christ.
This must have been astounding for him!
This was the Jesus who
loved John, who he remembers walking and talking with, the Jesus who he
laid his head on his breast to speak intimately as to
a brother. Now, the glorified Jesus appears before him!
John sees the glorified Jesus standing among the lampstands (v. 12-13),
which reminds us that Jesus is present among His people. As he
reminded His disciples and us, He will truly never leave us nor forsake us
(Matt. 28:20). Where two or more are gathered in His name, there He
promises us to be by His Spirit. The lampstands are the churches or
congregations who belong to Christ (Rev. 1:20; 2:5).
There is an
encouragement to know that Jesus stands among his people speaking to them
by His Spirit and His Word. There is also an implicit judgment.
We know that judgment begins with the household of God (1 Peter
4:17ff). This means that God's judgment begins with Christ our
substitute, then through a process of becoming more like Christ, being
encouraged, rebuked, and corrected by His Word, we are judged, forgiven,
and slowly restored to be who we were ultimately created to be. We
know that He who began this work in us at regeneration, will continue you
it until He returns. We also are confident that His grace is
sufficient for us to become a spotless and pure bride prepared for
Jesus.
The Judgment of
Christ and the Christian
The Christian's judgment
is Christ's judgment. He is our substitute. We are not judged
for our sins, but He is. We are receivers of His righteousness that
does not belong to us. Yet, God works in and through us by allowing
us to experience the sufferings of Christ our Lord and King. We are
privileged participants in Christ's sufferings, persecutions and
tribulations so that through this "judgment" we might be made
more like Him because we are His children (Matt. 5:11-12; John 16:33; Phil.
3:9-12; Col. 1:24ff; Rev. 1:9). Notice how Peter explains this
difficult subject in his first epistle:
1 Peter 4:12-18:
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to
test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But
rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice
and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted
for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of
God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer
or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. 16 Yet if anyone
suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in
that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the
household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for
those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And "If the
righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the
sinner?"
In verse 13, Peter says
we share in Christ's sufferings that we may rejoice when he is fully
revealed in glory when he returns. In verse 16 and 17, Peter speaks
of judgment beginning with the household of God. The conclusion of
Peter's teaching is that our only judgment as the people of God is a
judgment of identification with Christ. Our judgment in Christ leads
to eternal life!
The judgment of the
wicked, however, leads to eternal death. When the Spirit of God
descended on the Day of Pentecost, the fire did not judge and consume
Christ's people. Rather, the Spirit hovered over their heads.
The implicit teaching was that Christ had taken all of the judgment of God
and undergone a baptism of fire on behalf of His people (Mark
10:38ff). This was so that we could be filled with the Powerful Holy
Spirit -- rather than being consumed by God in fire and judgment.
The Spirit of God now
works in us to make us more like Christ and we experience a "judgment
of grace" by being allowed to participate in Christ's
sufferings. We are identified with Christ with our own cross and one
day our own crown (Matt. 16:24; 2 Tim. 4:8). This is why John writes
in his letters to the churches earlier that perfect love casts out all of
our fears! Fear has to do with judgment, and we will not be judged by
God! (cf. 1 John 4:18-21). Has God's perfect love gripped you with
this reality yet? While our present tense problems can be
overwhelming in this world, we can be reminded of two important truths: (1)
We are identified with Christ in His sufferings and judgment for our sins!
(2) We have eternal life NOW, and await a Living Hope that will be revealed
on the Last Day!
The Double-Edged
Sword of Judgment
But what is the judgment
to be like for those who do not have ears to hear what Christ has
said? Notice in Revelation 1:16, after Jesus is described as the
Glorified-Prophet-Priest-King of His people (1:12-16), John sees him with a
sharp double-edged sword coming from his mouth. The Word of God is
described as a sharp double-edged sword elsewhere in Scripture (Eph.
6:17-18; Heb. 4:12-13). Here John sees the vision of this Word coming
straight out of the Speaking King's mouth. This is a sword of
judgment for those who do not believe.
In the Prophet Isaiah's
vision of the future, God makes clear to His people that those who have
repented and turned to him for help, or "those who have ears to
hear" (cf. Isaiah 6:8ff) will not enter into judgment, but
peace. However, for those who do not hear or obey God's Word, they
will be eternally punished (cf. Mark 9:47-48; Revelation 20:14-15).
Isaiah teaches this in Isaiah 66:12-18, which is very helpful for us having
a better understanding of John's vision in Revelation 1.
Isaiah 66:12-18:
For thus says the LORD: "Behold, I will extend peace to her like a
river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you
shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees.
13 As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you
shall be comforted in Jerusalem. 14 You shall see, and your
heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; and the hand
of the LORD shall be known to his servants, and he shall show his
indignation against his enemies.
15 "For behold, the LORD will come in fire,
and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his
rebuke with flames of fire. 16 For by fire will the LORD enter
into judgment, and by his sword, with all flesh; and those slain by the
LORD shall be many. 17 "Those who sanctify and purify
themselves to go into the gardens, following one in the midst, eating pig's
flesh and the abomination and mice, shall come to an end together, declares
the LORD. 18 "For I know their works and their thoughts,
and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall
come and shall see my glory...
In verses 12-14, God
promises peace "like a river", and a relationship with God like a
child cared for by a loving mother! God will comfort all those who
have trusted in him! Yet in verses 15-18 we see a different
picture. God will come in judgment with fire, anger and fury.
However, those who sanctify and purify themselves (those spoken of above in
1 Peter 4) by God's grace, will see God's glory! In Revelation 1,
John sees a vision of Jesus' glory, the One who will come in judgment to
judge the world on the day he returns. Jesus will judge with His Word
by the double-edged sword. Contrast the passage from Revelation 1, 1
Peter 4, and the Prophecy of Isaiah with the Scripture from Revelation 19
below.
Revelation
19:11-21: 11 And I saw the heaven opened; and behold, a white
horse, and he that sat thereon called Faithful and True; and in
righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12 And his eyes are
a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems; and he hath
a name written which no one knoweth but he himself. 13 And he is
arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood: and his name is called The
Word of God.
14 And the armies which are in heaven followed him
upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and pure. 15
And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite
the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. 16
And he hath on his garment and on his thigh a name written, KINGS OF KINGS,
AND LORD OF LORDS.
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he
cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid heaven,
Come and be gathered together unto the great supper of God; 18
that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the
flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon,
and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, and small and great. 19
And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered
together to make war against him that sat upon the horse, and against his
army. 20 And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet
that wrought the signs in his sight, wherewith he deceived them that had
received the mark of the beast and them that worshipped his image: they two
were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone: 21
and the rest were killed with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, even
the sword which came forth out of his mouth: and all the birds were
filled with their flesh.
This Judgment of Christ
should cause us all to tremble with fear because of the awesome power and
majestic glory revealed in the return of Jesus Christ! For the people
of God we will be with him as the "armies of heaven" (v. 14), so
we do not fear because we have been redeemed by the One Who has the Sword
of Judgment, the Word of God. By His grace we have been given a
salvation from the wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:9-10), and have had ears to
hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Therefore, because this
Word has searched our hearts and taught us, going deeply into the hearts
and minds we scarcely know ourselves (cf. Jer. 17:9), the Word has
also revealed to us a Savior for sinners like us! The Word of God has
corrected, encouraged, and rebuked us and given us everything we need for
life eternal and godliness!
Warning: Judgment for
Those Who Do Not Have Ears to Hear!
But for those who do not
have ears to hear, they will be judged with a severe and everlasting
judgment. As no man has conceived, nor has it entered into the heart
of man what God has prepared for those who love him, so no man can
conceive, nor can it fully into the heart of man the awful and destructive
judgment God had for those who hate him!
The double-edged sword
that proceeds out of the Speaking
King's mouth is one of blessing and curse. When Christ
speaks, those who hear are blessed and by His Spirit enabled to be obedient
to His gracious commands! When Christ speaks, those who do not hear
are cursed and will be judged by Jesus the Faithful and True One on the day
he returns! We must make sure of our calling and election, knowing
that His divine power has given us everything we need as his people for
life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-10). Those who do not love Christ,
those who are apathetic to his Person, Work and commands must be warned
that He will return with a judgment of fire. On that day, all men
without the robes of Christ's righteousness will suffer eternally for their
sins against the Holy and Living God!
One sin against such a
Holy, Majestic, and Powerful is enough to merit eternal death and
damnation, yet because of God's graciousness and mercy, One act
of righteousness by the man Christ Jesus is enough to satisfy divine
justice and judgment and give eternal life which is the gift of God (Romans
6:23).
We all so richly deserve
to perish in the fires of God's judgment for our many and ongoing sins
against the Holy God! Yet, because he looks upon us with pity and
mercy, he desires for all men to repent! But please be reminded that
you do not have much time to repent! If you have not repented of your sins
and turned to the Living God for salvation from death and damnation in
Christ, turn now. Flee the wrath that is to come! If you have repented of your sins and
believed upon the Lord Jesus, continue to repent daily, resting in what His
Word says to you! Continue to rest in His loving and gracious grip as
you ponder the riches and depth of His mercy!
All of us must remember
what 2 Peter 3:3-10 says:
2 Peter 3:1-14:
This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of
them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2
that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the
commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3
knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with
scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say,
"Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell
asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of
creation." 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that
the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and
through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these
the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7
But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for
fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 8
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord
is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient
toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach
repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies
will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done
on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be
dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and
godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of
God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and
the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to
his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness
dwells. 14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these,
be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
Jesus is the Speaking King may we truly hear what
he says to the churches and avoid the wrath that is to come. Do you
have peace today knowing that Jesus is surely your Savior from sin and
knowing that you have an imperishable inheritance preserved in heaven for
you by the Loving Lord Jesus? Do you know for sure you will avoid the
wrath to come? Remember for us to daily repent and turn from our sins
to the Living God as He gives us commands, by His Spirit convicts,
corrects, and rebukes us, so that rather than facing the judgment of the
One who has the double-edged sword proceeding from his mouth, we might through
the blessing of the Word of God, become spotless and pure and more
conformed to His image!
By God's grace, these
studies on Revelation will help you to see Jesus as Lord over all of the
book. If you will prayerfully ponder the first chapter carefully, it
will help you foundationally to understand the remainder of the book.
Don't give up, but be encouraged to read the Book of Revelation. It
is indeed a blessing to read it! It gives us hope for the future and
peace for TODAY! May God richly bless your study and may the
loving-kindness and mercy of God be known to you today!
Next
Study: Jesus the "Ever-Present-Help-in-Times-of-Trouble
King"
Soli Deo Gloria!
For Further
Reading
Herman Bavinck- The Last Things: Hope for this World and the Next.
Edited by John Bolt. Translated by John Vriend.
Published by Baker Books, 1996
G. K. Beale- The Book of Revelation, New
International Greek Testament Commentary, Eerdmans, 1999
G. C. Berkhouwer- The Return of Christ. Studies in Dogmatics Series. Published by Eerdmans,
1972
Dennis Johnson- Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation,
P&R, 2001
Vern S. Poythress- The Returning King: A Guide to the Book of
Revelation, P&R, 2000
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 3
The Revelation
of Jesus Christ
Part Five: The
Ever-Present-Help-in-Times-of-Trouble-King
Introduction
In our last issue we
learned how Jesus was revealed in Revelation chapter one was revealed as the
Speaking King, who ever
lives to instruct and to teach His Church through His Word and by His
Spirit. Today's study will be our final study of chapter one of the
Book of Revelation. We will focus today on the presence of Jesus
Christ with and among His people. From Revelation chapter one, we
learn that Jesus is also the
"Ever-Present-Help-in-Times-of-Trouble-King"! He sits at
God's right hand, but is close and with us by His Spirit.
But some cringe at the
thought of God being "ever present" or close. Some
philosophers in history have described the sense of dread and fear they
have at the thought of the God of the Bible. One such philosopher
described his anguish and angst with an analogy to a canary trapped in a
cage. The bird could do little to prevent the omnipresent presence of
a person around her cage and could not escape the constant gaze of the
omniscient observer. So men who do not know God have every right to
fear God and to abhor his presence, but this was not the way man was created
to be! For Christians, the reality of God's presence in Christ
does not bring painful, gut wrenching, angst and annoyance but true
delight! This is our hope: Christ is ever-present and with his
people!
Revelation
1:16-20: 6 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of
his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the
sun shineth in his strength. 17 And when I saw him, I fell at
his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying, Fear not;
I am the first and the last, 18 and the Living one; and I was
dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and
of Hades. 19 Write therefore the things which thou sawest, and
the things which are, and the things which shall come to pass hereafter; 20
the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand,
and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the
seven churches: and the seven candlesticks are seven churches.
Standing In the
Shadow of Love Incarnate
Jesus speaks through His
Word to His congregations throughout history, but He is also truly with us. Before Jesus ascended
to God's right hand, he told his disciples that he would never leave them
nor forsake them. The author of the Book of Hebrews reminds us of the
same. In Hebrews 13, the author writes that Jesus will never leave us
nor forsake us! Do you ever feel lonely? Do you often realize
how close Jesus is to you? (or perhaps the thought of this closeness scares you).
In the Revelation of
Jesus Christ, John is overwhelmed when he is privileged to see the Risen
Christ. In verse 17, he responds by falling at his feet as though
dead. Seeing the a vision of the glory of God is not the easiest
thing for the human frame, mind or heart! When men encounter the
Living God, they are immediately struck with their sinfulness and
insignificance in comparison to the Great Creator (cf. Isaiah
6:1-12). Here in Revelation chapter one, John is literally standing
in the shadow of love- - incarnate! Jesus will also walk among the
congregations in Revelation chapters 2-3, reminding us that Jesus is close
to his people because of his love and forgiveness he has extended to them.
Despite John's very
understandable reaction to Jesus' glory, notice Jesus' gentle compassion
and nearness that he teaches to John and to His people. Jesus tells
him: "Fear not;
I am the first and the last, and the Living One..." Jesus tells
John and instructs us that although none of us should be able to stand
in his holy presence, he is the One who died for his own and allows
them to come into His Holy presence. Jesus is saying do not fear my
presence, for the judgment of death and Hades is under my power and
authority.
The very thing that
causes men to cringe in fear before the Glory of the Living God is
knowing that we have no right to stand in his Holy shadow, much less his
Holy presence! However, Jesus through His death ("I was
dead") and resurrection ("I am alive for evermore"), he now
has overcome the boundaries that kept men and women away from the presence
of the LORD. Amazingly enough, instead of being consumed by the Holy
and Sovereign One, we call Him "Father" because of the work of
Christ on our behalf. This should cause us to worship in the way that
is revealed in Revelation chapters four and five! Worthy is the Lamb!
The Fragrance of
Our Father
Long, hot and humid,
and many times uneventful summer days were common when I was
young growing up in the South. The summer would hold great promise at
the end of the school year, but by the end of July, my brother and I were
bored and thought we had done about everything that could be done in one
summer. Oftentimes, there was a feeling of loneliness and isolation
that came from hot and humid summer days. These were the long days of
spinning endlessly on my tire swing, situated on my stomach, staring
at the deep red Georgia clay where the only things that seemed to be
enjoying themselves was the June Bugs on the low notes, July Flies on the
high notes, and the crickets filling out the unique orchestration with
the strings. After "doing it all" in one summer, what would
help me to be encouraged during these days? It was the simple,
yet exhilarating anticipation of the return of my father home from work
in the evenings.
I looked forward to the
presence of my father particularly in the summer. I guess I thought
since I was out of school, that he should have been as well.
This was the time of baseball where Dad and I would listen to the
Atlanta Braves on the radio together, sitting on the back porch
in the evenings, rocking slowly back and forth as we sipped iced tea.
He didn't talk much; Dad was very quiet when he got home. He had a
lot on his mind in trying to take care of his family (I realize now), yet he
had a smell, or fragrance that I was comforted by.
Dad had a certain
fragrance or smell about him that was distinctly manly, yet was my
father. No other father or person was like this smell, this
fragrance, this presence. When he would get home, it delighted me to
no end. Sure, he was tired and not always in the best and friendliest
mood, yet I longed for the fragrance of his presence because it meant I was
not alone; it meant that he was near and that everything in my little world
was going to be alright as long as he was around!
We are blessed as
Christians because God our Father has made his permanent presence known and
continued through Jesus Christ and the sending forth of the Spirit of
God. Just like my earthly father who had a fragrant presence, so our
Heavenly Father makes him presence known to us as well. Because of
what Jesus Christ has done for us, we can know that He truly never will
leave us nor forsake us!
May these words comfort
you as you realize that Jesus is truly the Ever-Present-Help-in-Times-of-Trouble-King! There
is not a situation, a day, or a person in your life that can ever threaten
his precious presence in your life to assist you and to help you! And
as I still remember the fragrance or the smell of my own father's presence,
so Jesus comforts us continually by the fragrance of life and favor toward
us proclaimed again and again through His Holy Word! (2 Cor. 2:14).
'Great'
and at the Same Time 'Close' to Us!
As Christians, we
experience challenging times in this world, much greater than the
long, hot, sometimes boring days of the summer of my youth. There are
times of being unsure of what tomorrow will bring. I know
a family who does not know whether their mother will live another
day. Another family is concerned financially; they are
"strapped", credit cards to the limit, and they wonder if God
will help them since they got into the "mess" by their own
foolish doing. Another man wonders if his child will ever be normal
like other children. An elderly couple have been questioning whether
their wisdom is really needed, or even considered in their congregation
anymore. Some are concerned with the way Christ's church has been
given in too much to a pop culture that focuses on mindless entertainment
instead of worshipping God in spirit and truth!
In all these situations
we can be comforted as Christians that God is close to us and present
during these struggles. Because He is both Transcendent as well as
Immanent to us, he is powerful enough to help us, and close enough to love
us! He is great and close! There is hope as Christians that God
is both Transcendent and Immanent. God's Transcendence teaches
us that He is Great and Sovereign and Holy, yet His Immanence teaches us
that He is near to those who love Him in Christ. Long before the
Christ came to this earth to live, die, and be resurrected and ascended to
His throne, Isaiah wrote of God's character to the Israelites who were
going to undergo God's judgment for sin. Isaiah prophesied:
Isaiah 57:15:15
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits
eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and
also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit
of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
Isaiah reveals our God
who is indeed unapproachable without a Mediator, but One who is close to,
or present with those who are of a "contrite and lowly
spirit". The purpose of God's ministry to His people?
Isaiah says: "to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the
heart of the contrite." As God's people, we should rejoice that
although our lives can be perceived as "complex messes". We
should remember that our lives are sovereignly ordered and our destinies
wisely determined by the Holy One who inhabits eternity (Isa. 57:15), and
this one dwells near to His people as the Ever-Present-Help-in-Times-of-Trouble-King!
How should we respond to
this gracious King Jesus who truly is "with us"? We should
praise Him for His work in our lives, for his constant walking with us, and
help in times of our troubles. What he has done, what he has
accomplished, he has done for those whom he loved, so that they would have
an ever present King to rule over them and to help them!
"Flesh of
Our Flesh, Bone of Our Bones"
Part of my fascination
with comic books, and part of what is fueling the revival of comic book
heroes especially in films today is the need of a hero. As the
popular song goes: 'We need a hero." The need for a hero is
better, and more precisely translated "a Savior". We not
only need someone to save us from ourselves and the corrupt world around
us, we need a lasting and living hope for the future! As time-bound
beings we are concerned and need a future. Without hope we know there
is only loneliness and despair.
As a people living in a
fallen world, we are not without hope and without a hero or Savior.
We have searched endlessly to find a Savior, a Redeemer, a
"Superhero" who would save us! Yet we look around and there
is no one to be found here on earth. As Adam searched desperately,
yet in vain for a wife among the animals, so we search for a Savior among
the sinful folk. But then we look and from the Lord's own hand One is
sent to us. One who is "flesh of our flesh, bone of our
bones"- - one like us, one who can be near to us (yet Who is without
all the sin that causes us to find in mere mortals an ironic and sarcastic
anti-hero who is as lonely and fearful as we are, who lives his so-called
heroic life as Nietzsche's 'Superman' and as an intellectual samurai hit
man' from the mind of Quentin Tarrantino!).
The hope of the
incarnation of Jesus Christ is that He is truly Immanuel, "God with
us". In our times of fear and uncertainty we should reflect upon
the incarnation of Jesus. Incarnation
simply means "enfleshed" or "with
flesh". When 'incarnation' is spoken of God it is astounding and
mind-boggling to think about. However, we should always be reminded
that our Glorified Savior, who became man in the fullness of time, is still
man and will remain the Glorified God-Man for all eternity. When God
"put on" manhood, or enfleshed himself, or became incarnate, it
was for the purpose of becoming man to represent and redeem men who
believe. He came to be our true hero and Savior and Lord!
Our God, Our
Brother, Our Hero, Our Savior, and Our Lord
In our times of trouble
and uncertainty we should be reminded that this Glorified God-Man is at the
same time our God, our brother, our hero, our Savior, and our
Lord. But He truly is close to us by His Spirit. In fact, he is
so close to His people that He indwells them by His Spirit (John 15)!
We should never fear the Lord's presence or anything else in the
world. We should be reminded that Jesus Christ is near to us and to
His congregations. As he revealed himself walking among the
congregations (lampstands) in Revelation chapters 1-3, so he still walks
with and among us today! He meant what he said when he promised that
he would never leave us nor forsake us!
Remember that the person
at God's right hand who has been given supreme authority over heaven and
earth has a human face! And when we look to him by faith we see in
the eyes on that human face, eyes of sympathy and understanding. We
see one acquainted with our griefs, sufferings, and our struggle with
sin. We see our hero! We see our Savior! Who or what have
we to fear as long as He is with us? And for all eternity, he will be
with us! Remember in your struggles, the hope that the author of the
Book of Hebrews writes:
Hebrews 4:14-16:
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For
we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet
without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the
throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time
of need.
We will close our study
of Revelation chapter one
with the great and encouraging words of the psalmist. From Psalm 27
David poetically describes our God and King who is indeed always close to
his people!
Psalm 27: OF DAVID.The LORD is
my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of
my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and
fall. 3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not
fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. 4
One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may
dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the
beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. 5 For he will
hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the
cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock. 6 And now
my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer
in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to
the LORD.
7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to
me and answer me! 8 You have said, "Seek my face." My
heart says to you, "Your face, LORD, do I seek." 9
Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who
have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! 10
For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.
11 Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies. 12 Give me not up to the will of my
adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe
out violence. 13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness
of the LORD in the land of the living! 14 Wait for the LORD; be
strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
Conclusion
May you use this study
of Revelation chapter one
to inform your reading of the entire Revelation
of Jesus Christ. May it be profitable as a study to guide
you through a much misunderstood and under read book of Holy
Scripture. As you read the Book of Revelation, remind yourself of how
Jesus reveals himself in chapter one. Jesus is the...
1) Resurrected and
Living King
2) Coming Judge and King
3) The Speaking King
4) The
Ever-Present-Help-in-Times-of-Trouble-King
Soli Deo Gloria!
For Further
Reading: The books below
are helpful for understanding 'Revelation'! Read them all, but read
Poythress and Beale first!
Herman Bavinck- The Last Things: Hope for this World and the Next.
Edited by John Bolt. Translated by John Vriend.
Published by Baker Books, 1996
G. K. Beale- The Book of Revelation, New
International Greek Testament Commentary, Eerdmans, 1999
G. C. Berkhouwer- The Return of Christ. Studies in Dogmatics Series. Published by Eerdmans,
1972
Dennis Johnson- Triumph of the Lamb: A Commentary on Revelation,
P&R, 2001
Vern S. Poythress- The Returning King: A Guide to the Book of
Revelation, P&R, 2000
End Study of
Revelation Chapter One
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 4
This Saturday is my
installation as pastor of Ketoctin Covenant Presbyterian Church.
I have the privilege of having four very fine pastors who will be preaching
to me and my new congregation! One of these pastors recently preached
a charge to another young man who was being ordained. His name is
Chip Hammond. Not only is Chip a friend, he is the pastor of Bethel
OPC, another congregation close to me in Loudoun County, Virginia. I
rejoice in his encouragement, friendship, and instructive wisdom to
me the last couple of years. He was extremely influential and
instrumental in my call to come here as pastor. He has also
contributed a few articles on A Place for Truth.
This issue's 'Word of
Encouragement' comes from the ordination and installation charge to
Harry Ronald "Buster" Mcleod as a minister of the gospel.
Chip's message is from 1 Peter 5:1-4. I pray that it will be as
encouraging to you as it was to me.
I encourage everyone who
reads 'Word of Encouragement' to give a copy of this excellent
sermon to anyone considering the call to the gospel ministry. I would
also encourage everyone to give a copy to their pastor so that they might
be reminded of the importance and value of God's call to the
ministry. In celebration of God's faithfulness in calling me to my
new congregation, I offer this 'Word of Encouragement' to you from the
Reverend Chip Hammond!
The Lord's Ministry
Rev. George C. "Chip" Hammond II
To the elders among you, I appeal
as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also
will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock
that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must,
but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money,
but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being
examples to the flock. And when the
Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never
fade away. (NIV)
Introduction
There was a family that lived just a few blocks
from a Christian elementary school.
They had a little boy, their first child, and when he turned five,
they determined to enroll him in kindergarten there. He was an independent young man, and he
insisted that he be allowed to walk to school alone. The request did not seem unreasonable,
but his mother was not too sure.
After all, this was her baby.
But she had an idea. She had a friend who lived on the other
side of the street up past the school.
Her son had only met the woman once or twice, and so the mother
called the woman and asked if she would clandestinely follow her son to
school each day to make sure all was well, and then call her and report
each day.
“Sure,” the woman said. “I have
a three year old daughter who loves to walk. We’ll be out there by 8:45 every
day, and we’ll keep an eye on him for you.”
This went on for several weeks until one day the
boy’s teacher noticed the woman following him. She took the little boy aside and said to
him, “I don’t want to alarm you but there has been a woman and
a little girl following you every day.
Do you know who they are?”
“Sure,” the little boy replied,
“that’s the Gutnest family – Miss Shirley, and her little
girl, Marcy.”
“Oh,
so you know them?” the teacher asked.
“Well, I don’t really know them, but
I know about them,” the little boy said. “You see, ever since I’ve
started school, my mom has made me learn the Twenty-third Psalm and recite
it every night. And it says right in
that Psalm, ‘Shirley Gutnest and Marcy will follow me all the days of
my life,’ so I figured I’d just better get used to it.”
That little boy knew his Bible, I suppose, but he
just didn’t know what it meant.
We live in an age in which the same could be said about much of
American Christianity, and about the present state of the church in
America: she knows her Bible, it is supposed, but she just doesn’t
seem to know what it means.
Make Disciples!
In Matthew 28, Our Lord commissioned his Church
with the task she was to carry out until his return. That commission consists of a single imperative, with three
qualifying participles. The single
imperative is “make disciples.”
But the Lord did not just leave it up to us to
determine what that may mean.
He’s told us how to
do it. He’s told us that we
are to make disciples by going, by baptizing into the Name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to observe all that he’s
commanded us.
Now when you consider the accounts of the
Lord’s ministry in the Gospels, how many things did Jesus command us
to do? Three or four? A dozen?
Hundreds? The Lord has told
us that making disciples consists in teaching them not only to know, but to
observe all that he’s
commanded us. That will take a long
time. It is not a quick process.
Making disciples is a difficult, long, and
arduous task, and we live in a culture of instant gratification, in which
the idea of something being long, and difficult, and arduous is not
popular. And so the American church
has quietly made a substitution, whether deliberately or in ignorance, I am
not sure. She has pretended that the
command to “make disciples” really meant “garner
decisions.” Garner
“decisions for Christ” in any way you can. Have them bow their heads and raise their
hands; walk the sawdust trail; come to the altar; say the sinner’s
prayer. And in so doing,
congratulate themselves and pretend that they’ve fulfilled the
Lord’s commission to make disciples.
It has become common for churches to boast of,
and measure their success in, “decisions” per month. And there is a corollary to that as well:
in modern Evangelicalism, churches have come to measure success in how full
the auditorium is. Now of course,
all Christians desire the numerical growth of the Church. But we must understand that a large crowd
is a means to making the gospel known, and not an end in itself. Jesus never pandered to a crowd for the
purpose of retaining it. But for all
too many churches today, though they know the words of Jesus, it is
supposed, they apparently think that what Jesus actually meant was “Good for you, when all men speak
well of you!”
Some time ago a woman visited our Church for a
season. One day she took me aside
and told me how much she liked the Church, how much she really enjoyed the
people, and how I was even tolerable to listen to. “But,” she
said, “it’s very disturbing to hear week after week this talk
of sin, and guilt before God, and the necessity for Christ to die if we
were to be made right with God. If
you’d just not talk about those things, I’m sure you’d
reach a lot more people.” I
looked at her and said, “Ma’am; reach them with what?”
The Lord's Ministry
On this solemn and joyful occasion it will be
good for us to consider that the Bible tells us that the ministry to which
this man is being ordained, is the Lord’s
ministry. It is not the Church’s ministry to define as
she wishes or to do with as she wills.
It is the Lord’s ministry,
and he, not the Church, defines its parameters, determines its message, and
establishes the means by which it is brought.
The Apostle Peter was well aware that the
ministry he carried out was a trust from the Lord. Luke the Evangelist alludes to the Gospel
that bears his name when he writes, “In my former book, Theophilus, I
wrote to you about all that Jesus began
to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving
instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.”
The implication is clear: When the apostles faithfully carry out
their task, and those ordained to carry the gospel after them do so
faithfully, is in fact Jesus continuing
to do and teach through them.
The over-arching assumption of the exhortation of
this passage is that the ministry is the Lord’s ministry.
His ministers are only ambassadors
who bring the message of the Kingdom, and do the work of the Kingdom within
the parameters set by the King.
A while ago I had a couple come to me seeking to
be married. They did not know the
Lord, but they had become convicted of living together outside of the
commitment of marriage. Since she
was expecting a child, they wished to be married sooner than later, and so
we did not have time to complete the counseling I usually require.
At their wedding, I charged them with the high
ideals of God’s Word for marriage, and spelled out for them the
God-ordained and appointed roles for husbands and wives. The charge met with considerable
discomfort. The sense of discomfort
from them was palpable, and from those who came to witness the wedding as
well.
I spoke with them after the ceremony about it,
and they confirmed that they had been uncomfortable, that what I spoke of
was not the commitment they wanted to make, and that it was not what they
had in mind for marriage. I
explained to them as gently as I was able that marriage was God’s institution, not
theirs. Because of that, God and not
they themselves set the bounds and parameters of it.
In the Washington DC area, at least, I can tell
you that there are many churches that do not seem to understand that the
ministry is the Lord’s
ministry. They seem to believe that
the Church’s message, methods, and the parameters of the ministry are
the Church’s to determine, and do with as she will.
It is incumbent upon the Church to understand
that she is only the Lord’s vehicle for calling a man to the
Lord’s ministry, and it is to him
that that man is accountable.
The Apostle Peter, under the inspiration and
authority of the Holy Spirit, lays out for us what the Lord’s
ministry is to look like. He says,
I. Shepherd the Flock of God that is under
your care
Now how is a man to do that? Again, the Scriptures do not allow us to
fill in the blanks. The uniform
testimony of the New Testament is that the flock of God is shepherded by
faithfully proclaiming and applying the Word of God.
The man called to the Lord’s ministry must
beware of getting sidetracked with the myriad other things that will clamor
for his attention, by the world’s confident assertions of what will
make a minister “successful,” and even by the well-intentioned
but sometime ill-informed expectations of the part of the people to whom he
ministers.
The Risen Lord said to Peter, “If you love
me, then feed my sheep.”
The apostles determined early on, as we are told in Acts 6, that it was not
good for those charged with the preaching of the gospel to neglect it in
order to wait on tables. Provision
was made so that they could devote themselves to the ministry of the Word
and prayer. And that is the task of
all those who follow after them, of all who are ordained to the
Lord’s ministry.
Buster, those called to the Lord’s ministry
are called to proclaim his Word. It
may be the peculiar providence of your ministry to proclaim the Word less
publicly, and more from house to house,
but never lose sight of what the task is.
Do not be dissuaded from it by the world, the flesh, the devil, or
the church. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy,
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the
living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give
you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season;
correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful
instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound
doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them
a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But
you, keep your head in all
situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all
the duties of your ministry.
“Keep
your head” – How many ministers have become utterly useless to
the Master because they have succumbed to the fear of man, and have given
into the temptation to tickle itching ears when men would no longer endure
sound doctrine?
It must always be borne in mind that this is the Lord’s ministry. The message must not be compromised, nor
must it be cheapened by the use of unbiblical methods of psychological
manipulation. The goal is fidelity
to the Master’s message, not the fame which comes from being loved by
the multitudes.
Remember that in John 6 we read that many of
Jesus’ disciples turned back and would no longer follow him because
he would not moderate his message, nor would he tailor it to the local
demographic. Every time the Lord Jesus preached, his winnowing fork was in
his hand, and he was clearing his threshing floor. By that Word he separated the wheat from
the chaff. His word did not return to him void, but
accomplished exactly the purpose for which he sent it forth. So too, those who enter the Lord’s
ministry are called to take up the Master’s winnowing fork, not
pander to the local population.
The world measures success solely in numbers, and
the Church today has largely followed suit. Many of them have sought to
widen the narrow way,
to make it more comfortable and palatable for the masses, for after all,
the point is the number of “decisions,” right? But how many of those poor souls,
deceived by the local expression of that very institution which is supposed
to be the “pillar and ground of the truth”
will one day lift up their eyes in hell, because those called to the task
shrunk back from proclaiming the whole
counsel of God?
The gospel, rightly understood and faithfully
preached will be a savor of life
to those who are being saved, to the praise of God’s glorious grace.
And that same gospel will be the stench of death
to those who are perishing, to the praise of God’s glorious justice.
Buster, I understand that among your duties, you
will be ministering to the covenant youth.
Wonderful. But don’t be dazzled by the world and lose your
head. So many “youth
programs” today seek to attract and retain youth with a pathetic copy
of what the world offers. No matter
how big your budget is, I am sure it will never be big enough for you to
out-cheese Chuck E. Cheese.
You’ll never be able to out-dazzle Disney or compete with
Hollywood. So don’t even
try. The Lord has given to you
something to offer of which Hollywood and Disney know nothing, and would
have no authority to offer even if they did.
Shepherd the Flock of God. Remember that it is the Lord’s ministry. You are bound and obliged to proclaim his message, by the method of his appointment. Keep your head, and disregard the
world’s siren’s song.
Measure success by fidelity to the gospel.
Secondly, the apostle tells us that those who are
called to the Lord’s ministry must shepherd the flock of God,
2. . . .
Not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be;
not greedy for money, but eager to serve.
The Lord makes it incumbent upon the Church to
provide for the needs of his ministers.
In 1 Corinthians 9, the Apostle castigates the Corinthians for their
failure to do so in his case, and he says, “If we sowed spiritual
things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?” He says further, “. . . Do you not
know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and
those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar? So
also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living
from the gospel.”
Matthew Henry commenting on this passage, says,
“They might expect that those to whom they were sent would provide
for them what was necessary. The
workman is worthy of his meat. They
must not expect to be fed by miracles, as Elijah was. . . . Though they who serve at the altar may
not expect to grow rich from the altar, yet they may expect to live, and to
live comfortably upon it. It is fit
that they should have their maintenance from their work. Ministers are, and must be, workman,
laborours, and they that are so are worthy of their meat, so as not to be
forced into any other labor for the earning of it.”
But the work of the ministry must never be viewed
as merely a way to make a living. I
know many people, and so do you all, who work at jobs that they can’t
stand because it puts bread on the table.
For those who labor in the ministry, it must be just precisely the
other way around – they must have bread on the table so that they can
carry out the great work to which they have been called unhindered, and
unencumbered by worldly care and employment.
Not long ago a man came by my office. He stood in the doorway with his hands in
his pockets, looked around and said, “Boy this is
familiar.” He went on to say
that he used to pastor a Church. He
said that as far as the ministry went he and his family were well-provided
for. He then told me that he left
the ministry ten years ago, “and” he said, “it was the
best thing I ever did.” He
said, “Now I work a lot less hours, have a lot less stress and
aggravation, and I get paid a lot more.” I quietly and unobtrusively
gave up a prayer of thanksgiving to God that this man was no longer
carrying out the Lord’s ministry.
Those who enter the ministry must do so because
the love of Christ compels them;
because the Word of God is pent up in them like a fire in their bones, and
they weary of holding it in.
It is necessary that the Church provide for those
who labor for the gospel, so that the work of the ministry is not done in
one’s spare time, as was the sad case in Nehemiah 13. But those who would shepherd God’s
flock must do so because they are eager to do so, as God wants them to be.
That they make a living at it is a means
for the ministry. The ministry must
never be crassly viewed as a means of making a living.
Thirdly, the Apostle tells us that those who
enter the Lord’s ministry should shepherd the flock,
3. . . . Not lording it over those entrusted to
their care, but proving to be examples to the flock.
The authority of the ministry is not an intrinsic
authority. It is not an authority
vested in persons. The man who here
charges his fellow elders was the man himself called by Jesus “The
Rock” because he had correctly confessed who Jesus was. But moments later Jesus called that same
man “Satan” because he sought to deny Jesus in the work he had
come to do.
The authority that the Lord invests his ministers
with is the authority of his Word.
It is a ministerial and declarative authority. Peculiar an arrangement as it may seem, in
the Lord’s green pastures, the undershepherds are themselves sheep,
and they must never forget it.
In their persons, they have no more standing, no
greater justification, than any other sheep. It is God
who gives them gifts that differ. And he invests them with the authority of
a special office. But that authority
is maintained and applied through the correct confessing of Christ, the
careful wielding of his Word, and the appropriate application of it to saints
and sinners. Again the Apostle Paul says to Timothy,
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but
set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and
in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of
Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which
was given you through a prophetic message when the presbytery laid their
hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself to them, so that
your progress may be evident to all.
Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if
you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
As the writer to the Hebrews says, it is
necessary for the Church to obey her leaders and submit to their authority. But it will be well for those leaders to
remember that their task is to watch over souls, as men who will one day give an account for their stewardship. “. . . Not lording it over
those entrusted to your care, but proving to be an example to the
flock.”
There is one other thing to consider in regard to
the Lord’s ministry, and it is implicit in what the Apostle says
here. It does not come by way of an
imperative.
4. As a witness of Christ’s sufferings, and one who will also
share in the glory to be revealed . . .
Peter was an eye-witness to the arrest, and to
the crucifixion, the death and the suffering of Christ. But that is not solely what he is
speaking of here. His witness to the
sufferings of Christ consisted in not only what he saw, but in what he
experienced. Note that his
witnessing the sufferings of Christ is coupled with his sharing in
Christ’s glory. As the Apostle Paul indicates in the book of Romans,
to share in his glory, we must also share in his suffering.
Acts 9 records not only the conversion of Saul of
Tarsus, but his rather unusual and immediate call to the Lord’s
ministry. And through Ananias, he
says of Saul “I will show him how much he must suffer for my
Name.” That statement was specifically said
about Saul of Tarsus, but it was not proprietary to him.
All Christians – all Christians - will enter into the sufferings of Christ. But
it will be especially true for those who are called to the Lord’s
ministry.
Look at your Bible from Genesis to Revelation,
and you will see that of all the servants of God, there is not a single one
of them that carried out their ministry unopposed. And the opposition came not only from the
world, the flesh, and the devil, but from at least some of the very people
they ministered to.
Every church attender will say, of course, that
he desires in a preacher of the gospel one who’s preaching shows the
unction of the Holy Spirit, which has attendant with it the ability to
convict of sin, and righteousness, and judgment. Every church attender will say that he
wants a preacher who will stand for righteousness, and denounce sin. Every church attender will say that he
wants a man who lives by the bedrock of principle, not the shifting sea of
personal attachment.
Every church attender will say those things. And every church attender will mean
it. Provided the conviction you
bring doesn’t run contrary to their
comfort and convenience. Provided
that the sins you denounce are not their own beloved sins. Provided that your standing on principle
does not impinge upon their personal attachments.
The minister of the gospel is called to shepherd
the souls of men. I do not know the
people of Gwennyd Church. But the
Bible lays bear the thoughts and intents of the human heart, and everyone
called to the Lord’s ministry is called to minister to people who are
fearful, sinful, prideful, and rebellious.
In three internships, Buster, you have already
encountered some of that. When you
are the object of attack, not from without in the world, but from within,
from members of the visible church, it can be confusing, it can be painful,
and it can be dispiriting and disheartening.
You are entering the sufferings of Christ, my
friend, and I want to tell you that you will face seasons and situations
which will make you want to throw in the towel. At those times, you must
remember that it is the Lord’s
ministry.
Consider the Lord Jesus in the garden of
Gethsemane. He wrestled in prayer
that whole night in anticipation of what he would suffer at the hands of
sinners. And from whom would that
suffering come? From the
Sanhedrin? From the Romans? Yes.
But not only from them. His
suffering would come through those he had walked among; those he had
taught; those he had healed and fed and prayed for – all who would
now betray, or abandon, or deny they ever knew him.
Could anyone here have blamed him if in the
garden, he had prayed, “Father, these are the people for whom I have
labored, the people whom I have loved, whom I have prayed for, whom I have
healed and helped. And this is how
they repay me? O Father, I refuse
this cup. I lay down. To the fires of an eternal hell with
these people! They are just not
worth it.”
But he didn’t. Thank God he didn’t.
Remember, Buster, in those times, and I hope they
are rare, when for all your labor and love, for all your prayer and
preaching, for all of your trouble and hardship you are betrayed,
abandoned, maligned - remember that it is the Lord’s ministry.
Remember that you have been appointed, as the great Apostle said, to
fill up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely
say all kinds of evil about you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your
reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were
before you.”
But you won’t always need to stir up a
remembrance that it is the Lord’s ministry by arduous
recollection. Sometimes it will be
obvious. You will often be blessed to
see incredible acts of kindness, of generosity, of love, loyalty and
affection that will be so astonishing as to be impossible to understand
apart from the grace of God operating in the hearts of his people.
You may even be privileged, in God’s good
providence, to have come across your path a young man who is at first
highly offended by the exclusivity of the gospel, its denunciation of sin,
and your insistence that the Bible is en
toto the infallible Word of God; who will nevertheless not be able to
pull himself away from what he is hearing, and will come to be so dominated
and conquered by the message, that he will then himself feel irresistibly drawn by God to
proclaim it to others.
And when things like that happen, you will know
with joy and with confidence that it is the Lord’s ministry.
Shepherd the flock of God which has been
entrusted to your care. Not with
your own message and methods.
Remember that you, shepherd, are first a sheep. The Lord
is your shepherd. And if the Lord is
your shepherd, then surely goodness and mercy will follow you all the days
of your life.
Remember that.
And even when the work is hard, know that it is the Lord’s ministry. Remember what Peter says about it. Conduct yourself by that great
ideal. Strive to live out the truth
of it. And when the Chief Shepherd
appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
CH
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 5
The Beatitudes- Matthew 5:1-12
Introduction to
the Beatitudes
Today we will begin
a study on the 'Beatitudes' from Matthew chapter five. The
Beatitudes teach us of the blessedness, or covenantal happiness we have as
the people of God because of God's salvation and His continued working in
his people.
In the past, the
'Beatitudes' have been falsely interpreted by some as being the steps one
attempts to climb in order to be a Christian. We should never
interpret the 'Beatitudes' in such a way. The 'Beatitudes' are simply
what those who have been gripped by the grace of the Lord Jesus and have
been saved by his precious blood will begin to look like. In other
words, the 'Beatitudes' are the characteristics of Christ-likeness that
will gradually be manifested in the believer's life. The 'Beatitudes'
are, if you will, "Attitudes of Gratitude" for the work that
Christ has already begun in us, and knowing that this work will continue
until the Day when Christ returns for us (Phil. 1:6).
The term
'Beatitudes' may sound like a new Beatles-like rock band or a new
reggae band making it into mainstream music.
However, the term has nothing to do with a rock or reggae band.
The term 'Beatitudes' come from the Latin translation of makarios, a Greek word meaning
"happy" or covenantally "happy". When the Bible
was translated into Latin from Greek, the word makarios was translated as beatus, thus the reason they are
called beatitudes. An
example of true makarios or
covenantal happiness is revealed in Psalm 1.
Psalm 1:1
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands
in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but
his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and
night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that
yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that
he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like
chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not
stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 6
for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the
wicked will perish.
The Blessedness
of the Beatitudes
You could say that the
'Beatitudes' that are taught by Christ in Matthew 5:1-12 are a summary of
the righteous life, hopes, desires, struggles, and praise of all of the
Psalms (more on this as the study develops!). As Psalm 1:6 says:
"The LORD knows the way of the righteous". The 'Beatitudes'
could very helpfully be summarized as the 'way of the righteous'. The
opposite of the 'Beatitudes' is to walk in the counsel of the wicked, stand
in the way of sinners, and sit with the scoffers in this fallen
world. The path of the righteous is much different, and so a
lot more narrower than the broad way of the wicked that leads to destruction
(Matthew 7).
The "blessed"-ness of the
'Beatitudes' should not be misunderstood as our own American way of
defining happiness. The "blessed" or happy come from
"delighting in the law of the LORD" (Ps. 1). The
"blessed" that is spoken of is "covenantal blessings"
or "covenantal happiness". As Moses went up on Sinai to
bring down the Law to the people of God in the Old Covenant, so Jesus is
going up on the mount, as One Who is greater than Moses, to bring down the
Law that will be fulfilled by grace. When Moses told the people about
obedience to the Law in Deuteronomy 28, he spoke of their lives as being
blessed by their obedience. Notice in Deuteronomy 28:9, that keeping
God's commandments is described as "walking in his ways".
This is the "blessed walk" of Psalm 1 and the "narrow
path" that Jesus describes in Matthew 7.
Deuteronomy 28:1-9: "And if
you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all
his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you
high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these
blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of
the LORD your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed
shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your
womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the
increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed
shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you
be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7 "The
LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before
you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven
ways. 8 The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns
and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the
LORD your God is giving you. 9 The LORD will establish you as a
people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the
commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.
Moses also teaches the
people about the curses for disobedience. This is important!
Blessed are those who are obedient to the Law by God's grace, but cursed
are those who disobey.
Deuteronomy
28:15ff: 15 "But if you will not obey the voice of the
LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes
that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and
overtake you. 16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed
shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and
your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb
and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of
your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed
shall you be when you go out. 20 "The LORD will send on you
curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until
you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds,
because you have forsaken me. 21 The LORD will make the
pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are
entering to take possession of it. 22 The LORD will strike you
with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with
drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you
perish....
The curses Moses reveals
are more in number than the blessings in Deuteronomy 28! The path of
the wicked is indeed broader and filled with more curses than the narrow
path of the righteous!
JESUS: the
Blessed Keeper of the Law
The people of God in the
Old Covenant who were awaiting a Messiah, an Anointed King to rule over
them and all the earth, were awaiting one who would enable them to love and
keep the Law of God (Ezek. 36). By the time the Messiah, the Christ
comes to them, the majority of those who call themselves "God's
people", are trusting in their own righteousness and their own works
of the Law, rather than looking to God for grace and mercy. In other
words, many of those who called themselves by the Name of the LORD were not
poor in spirit, mourning over their sins, being meek, hungering and
thirsting after righteousness, nor building Christ's Kingdom through peace
rather than their own might and power!
Jesus wants His people
to know that he has not come to abolish the Law of Moses, but to fulfill
it! (Matthew 5:17). The people of God must be humbled and
forsake any attempt at earning their own righteousness through works!
Jesus is the Blessed Keeper of the Law spoken of in Psalm 1! The
people of God are to trust in Messiah and His fulfillment of the Law,
they are to "live by faith". The Messiah was to be cursed
for their sins against God's holy law and to offer the blessings of His
Law-keeping Spirit to them so that they might have new
hearts! The Apostle Paul would explain this later in his
letter to the congregation at Galatia.
Galatians
3:10-13: For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is
written, "Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written
in the Book of the Law, and do them." 11 Now it is evident
that no one is justified before God by the law, for "The righteous
shall live by faith." 12 But the law is not of faith,
rather "The one who does them shall live by them." 13
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us-
for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"-
Jesus wanted to clear up
the wrong teaching and thinking of his people when he came and this is one
of the reasons why Jesus climbs the mount to give a sermon that will change
the lives and thinking of those who have ears to hear! This Jesus
will turn their world upside down with one sermon. In fact, when
Jesus completes the Sermon on the Mount, the crowds are amazed at his
teaching with authority!
"I'm
Beginning to Look a Lot Like Jesus"
So what does one who has
been saved by grace through faith, one who has been purchased and bought
with a price by Christ's blood, what does one of these people look like who
walk the narrow path, who live by faith in Jesus, and who are blessed? What are their
characteristics?
Jesus said they are
characterized by being poor in spirit; mourning; being meek, yet not weak;
hungering and thirsting after righteousness; merciful, pure in heart,
peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.
Jesus is not teaching that "if" you become all these things, then
you will be a follower of Christ. Rather, he is saying "if you are a follower of Christ" then
this is what you will look like.
It is like the hopes and
aspirations we have for our own lives as well as the lives of our
children. We pray and hope that we, as well as our children, even our
family name will mean something in the big scheme of history. We pray
that we as well as our children will become something worthwhile and
helpful in our little worlds. Well, Jesus is saying that this is not
only a mere hope or aspiration, but it will become a reality as we follow
close to him by his grace. We will become what is revealed as
"blessed" in the 'Beatitudes'. This is great news for sinners!
Kingdom Living
in a Fallen World
Before we begin our next
study with the poor in spirit, allow me to sum up all of the 'Beatitudes',
further illustrating how they relate to the Psalms in the
Old Testament. Let's read Matthew 5:1-12, then we will proceed
with our introduction to the 'Beatitudes'.
Matthew 5:1-12:
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his
disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught
them, saying: 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. 4 "Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted. 5 "Blessed are the meek, for
they shall inherit the earth. 6 "Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 "Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 "Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 "Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 "Blessed
are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when others revile
you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my
account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in
heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Notice that Jesus
notices the crowds, but he specifically addresses the disciples (5:1,
10-12- 2nd person plural, speaking to those persecuted, not the whole
crowd). Jesus seems to be primarily speaking to his disciples, but
the crowds are listening in. Jesus is turning his listener's world
upside down as he usually did through his teaching. In order for him
to explain the way of the Kingdom of God, it is no surprise that it was
directly opposite to the ways and thoughts of this world.
To summarize what Dr.
Sinclair Ferguson calls "Kingdom Living in a Fallen World", Jesus
begins to teach the covenantal happiness, or blessings that come with being
his follower. He begins with the poor in spirit. Before we can
even follow Jesus we must be totally dependent upon the grace and the mercy
of our Heavenly Father if we are to be saved. Then he speaks of
mourning.
Mourners are those who
do not expect constant joy and fulfillment in this world. Rather,
they are those who know what it is like to suffer. They know things
are not as they should be and they await a day when all of creation will be
renewed (Rom. 8:18-25). They mourn for their own sins, not only
totally dependent upon God for salvation, but totally repentant before God
as they grow in their salvation. Those who mourn also are offended
because God's holiness is offended by the sins of man, including
themselves.
Then Jesus says
"Blessed are the meek". Now what the world may call
"weak", Jesus describes as meek. The meek know that they
are citizens of two kingdoms and that ultimately all of their rights here
on this earth should be given up and surrendered to Jesus, the One who did
not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but Who made
Himself nothing, even dying upon a cross meekly for his people! The
meek are not weak, they have just learned to suspend some of their rights
and strength for the sake of love and considering others better than
themselves.
Then there are those who
pursue righteousness. They know that the only thing that will truly
satisfy is to be like Christ their Savior. So, they pursue, they
strive at being Christ-like, by hungering and thirsting for his
righteousness! They want to be like their Master!
Then there are those who
are merciful, because they have experienced the deep, kind, undeserving
mercy of God! They want to show the same mercy to others. They
want justice, but they lovingly want to walk justly and love mercy because
it is a reflection of God's mercy to them. Then there are the pure in
heart who love what God loves and learns to hate what God hates. They
know that God is continually purifying and sanctifying their hearts as they
rest and depend upon His mercy and love to them.
The peacemakers know
that their peacemaking is a double-edged sword. Their ultimate goal
is to share the peace they have with God because of Jesus Christ with
others. Knowing, however, that others who are not at peace with God
and actually war against God will not accept their "terms of
peace". Rather, they will persecute and say all kinds of evil
against them because of Jesus.
In all of this, Jesus
says "Rejoice and be glad for great is the reward of those who are
like this!" The 'Beatitudes' are ultimately pictures of Christ
and pictures of what we as Christ's people will begin to look like.
By the power of Christ's Spirit, Christ will continue to be formed in us so
that we will be presented to Christ when he returns as a pure, lovely,
righteous Bride who will live with Christ forever!
Tomorrow:
"Blessed are the Poor in Spirit"
Update: New
Studies at A
Place for Truth by Chip Hammond.
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 6
The Beatitudes- Matthew 5:1-12
Introduction to
the Beatitudes
In our last study we
learned the meaning of 'Beatitude' as well as what Jesus was communicating
when he was preaching these "blessings". We learned that
the 'Beatitudes' are ultimately a picture of Christ's character, and yet as
we learn from Christ by His Spirit, these are the characteristics of
Christians as well as we reflect his grace and goodness to us. The
'Beatitudes' show the kind of Christians God will produce through grace and
faith in Jesus as we grow and mature!
"Blessed
are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven"
Today, we begin with the
first and most foundational 'beatitude': "Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." What exactly does
Jesus mean about "being poor in spirit"? Simply put, the
poor in spirit are those who are absolutely dependent upon God for their
spiritual and physical needs. They are those who are not self-reliant
and proud, but humble in heart.
It is interesting that
Jesus starts with the characteristic of being poor in spirit as the
foundation for all the others 'Beatitudes'. The reason is that
you cannot know or grow in the Lord Jesus Christ without first
understanding your poor condition before the Living God. We must first
know of our sinful condition and great spiritual need for a Savior, before
we even begin to see or enter the Kingdom of Heaven (cf. John 3:1-18).
The Poor
In the Old Testament,
the poor were often equated with those who were pious. The reason
being was that they were without in this world, and totally dependent upon
the Living God for help both physically and spiritually. This did not
mean that the poor were automatically God's people, but they served as real
and living examples in this world of those totally destitute and in need of
God's help. These were oftentimes contrasted with the rich who were
proud, boastful and powerful (Psalm 9:18; 12:5; 34:6; 51; Prov. 29:23;
Isaiah 25:1-5; Luke 1:46-48; James 4:3ff). For an example of "the
poor" in the Old Testament, carefully read a portion of Psalm 72:
Psalm 72:1-14:
OF SOLOMON.Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the
royal son! 2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and
your poor with justice! 3 Let the mountains bear prosperity for
the people, and the hills, in righteousness! 4 May he defend the
cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the
needy, and crush the oppressor! 5 May they fear you while the
sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations! 6
May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water
the earth! 7 In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace
abound, till the moon be no more! 8 May he have dominion from
sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth! 9 May
desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust! 10
May the kings of Tarshish and of the coastlands render him tribute; may the
kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts! 11 May all kings fall down
before him, all nations serve him! 12 For he delivers the needy
when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. 13 He has
pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. 14
From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood
in his sight.
God's concern for the
poor helps us to remember of his great mercy for his own! The
"poor" in the Old Testament illustrated the importance of what it
meant to be "poor in spirit". We need the LORD for all
things. We are utterly dependent upon his goodness for the sun and
the rain, as well as for all material blessings (Matthew 6:24-33). In
fact, Jesus will later teach in the Sermon on the Mount that God knows of
our great needs, and will meet them and so there is absolutely nothing to
fear or worry about!
Sometimes our fear
drives us, and we refuse to believe that God will provide for us! We
are oftentimes proud of who we are and what we do as our positions in the
world, but if the truth be known, we are all utterly need and dependent
upon the Living God for all things we receive in this world. Most of
the time, it is easier to see this utter reliance and dependence upon
God in "the poor" than it is in "the rich" (James
5:1ff).
"Nothing in
My Hands I Bring..."
Jesus uses the idea of
"the poor", but he specifically speaks of the "poor in spirit" as being
"blessed". Who exactly are the "poor in spirit"? Those who are
poor in spirit are those who know that "nothing in their hands they
bring" to be saved, but "simply to Christ's cross do they
cling" as Augustus Toplady's hymn teaches us! Ephesians 2:1-8
sums this up well:
Ephesians 2:1-8:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once
walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of
disobedience- 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of
our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God,
being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with
Christ- by grace you have been saved- 6 and raised us up with
him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7
so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his
grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you
have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God...
The Apostle Paul tells
us of the grace of God in Christ Jesus in this passage. He tells us
that we were truly "dead in the trespasses and sins" when God
found us. We were "sons of disobedience" and "by
nature children of wrath". Then I love the next two words in
verse 4: "But God." Those are two of the greatest words
ever written: "But God!" But God intervened, God saved, God
intruded by His Spirit in His great mercy and love and he saved us!!
This should cause all to be constantly "poor in spirit".
"...Simply
to Thy Cross I Cling!"
We have nothing to offer
to God. We must continually repent of even our best deeds and works
(Isaiah 64:6)! Yet God loved us not because of something we did for
him- - we were busy being children of disobedience when he saved us!
As Ephesians 2:8 teaches us: "For by grace you have been saved through
faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God..."
This is our great hope as those who are poor in spirit!
Yet some Christians
truly believe that they are saved based on something they do. They
believe that they are saved based on a decision or choice for the Lord
Jesus Christ, rather than being saved and then deciding and choosing.
The point that must be remembered by the poor in spirit is that there is
absolutely nothing we can do to be saved, because we are spiritually dead
(Eph. 2:1-4), until we are born again. Jesus taught Nicodemus that
one must be born again before he sees or enters the Kingdom of Heaven (John
3). It is all because of God's mercy that he saves us, then we
believe and decide for Jesus because we are now able to humble ourselves,
"poor in spirit", so that we might be saved. This is
important for us all to remember. Salvation is all of grace!
Humility before
the Living God
Being poor in spirit
could be called a kind of humility of which we are aware. Oftentimes
I have been told that if you are humble you will never know it.
However, the Bible seems to indicate that some humility we are aware
of. In fact in the Book of James and Peter, there are two commands to
actually be humble. That would indicate to me that there is an
awareness of what is humble and what is not. It would indicate to me
that some do know when they are humble, or poor in spirit, and when they
are not. Notice the following commands from James and Peter, who sat
under their Lord's teaching on being "poor in spirit", both of
whom were there for the entire Sermon on the Mount.
James 4:6-10:
But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble." 7 Submit yourselves
therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you
sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be
wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and
your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he
will exalt you.
1 Peter 5:5a-8:
Yea, all of you gird yourselves with humility, to serve one another: for
God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. 6 Humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in
due time; 7 casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth
for you. 8 Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a
roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour...
In both of these
passages we have commands to be humble, or poor in spirit, or utterly
dependent upon God for grace. We should remember as Christians that
we begin the Christian life as those "poor in spirit" and by
God's grace and the working of His Spirit, continue to learn just how
"poor in spirit" or utterly dependent upon God we should be!
Saved and
SELF-Righteous?
Yet how easy it is for
us to forget from what wretched condition we were saved! After a few
days, a few months, a few years of being Christians, we so easily begin to
be "rich in spirit" or proud and look down our noses at
"poor sinners". Rather than looking at poor sinners with
the eyes of Christ's compassion, we think we are so much better than they
are because we are saved! How low can you go? This is a really
bad place to be in, spiritually speaking. It means that when we are
judging others for being sinners in this way, we are forgetting how sinful
and dead we were when the mercy of God appeared to us! We are
forgetting the two important words: "But God!"
The next time you find
it so easy to judge another for their sins, and you pat yourself on the
back for your great righteousness, or ability to "see through other's
real motivations", remind yourself that you are not being "poor
in spirit", utterly and totally dependent upon God at the moment, but
you are being quite proud of yourself! Repent and remind yourself of
the story Jesus tells about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector which is a
great Biblical illustration of what it means to be "poor in
spirit".
A Tale of Two
Spirits
Luke 18:9-17: He
also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were
righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 "Two men
went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax
collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus:
'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust,
adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a
week; I give tithes of all that I get.' 13 But the tax
collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but
beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' 14
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the
other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who
humbles himself will be exalted." 15 Now they were bringing
even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw
it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them to him, saying,
"Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such
belongs the kingdom of God. 17 Truly, I say to you, whoever does
not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."
Notice something
important from this "Tale of Two Spirits", it was the one
"poor in spirit" who knew of their right standing as a sinner
before God who was considered "righteous" and went down to his
house "justified". Notice the comparison Jesus makes between
the self-righteous, proud, "rich in spirit" person and the one
who knows his poor condition before God and requests God's mercy because he
knows as one poor in spirit that God is indeed "rich in
mercy"(cf. Eph. 2:4-6).
Notice also from the
story Jesus tells that in summarizing the story, Jesus says: "For
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles
himself will be exalted." This is another example of how true
humility can be known in a person by the way they respond to the Living
God. True humility is displayed throughout a Christian's life as an
ongoing dependence and resting in the Lord Jesus Christ and His grace!
Finally, from the Luke
18 story, the way Luke places the other incident of infants being brought
to Jesus right after Jesus tells his disciples this story. He tells
them that they should "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder
them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God." The point in
arranging the stories this way is to illustrate true humility, or being
poor in spirit. Being "poor in spirit", being utterly
dependent upon the Living God is illustrated by an infant totally dependent
and in need of their mother. I do not think it was by accident that
this incident of the infants followed the story of the self-righteous
Pharisee and the "poor in spirit" Tax Collector.
How do you view
yourself? Is it with one eye toward heaven and one toward
yourself? Is it a "balanced" and Biblical view? What
I mean is, do you see yourself as both a sinner and as one saved by
grace? If you do, then this is good. We never want to
underestimate the work God has done in us and is continuing to do in us,
yet we never want to forget that we are "works in progress",
"under construction" by his grace! Therefore, because we
utterly depend upon Jesus alone for salvation, we must utterly depend upon
Jesus and His Spirit to continue to work in us by faith. We must
continue as Christians to be "poor in spirit" by continuing to
trust the Living God, knowing that we are God's workmanshship, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared beforehand for us to walk
in (Ephesians 2:10).
Do you believe that it
is truly "all of grace"? Is your life, your salvation in
Christ all of grace, because of the two words given in Ephesians 2:
"But God"? We must repent of our self-righteousness, and by
His grace continue to be "poor in spirit". We are assured
that those who are utterly dependent upon God will be part of the Kingdom
of Heaven now, but to be fully entered in when Jesus returns for those who
are utterly dependent and patiently awaiting his return, which is also all
of grace!
Rock of Ages
I shall conclude with
the words to Augustus Toplady's Hymn 'Rock of Ages'. You have
probably sung this hymn many times, but truly focus on the words to this
great hymn! Do you believe it? Are you poor in spirit?
The reason why this hymn is such a great illustration of being "poor
in spirit" is that it not only speaks of being humbled by salvation,
but humbled by death and knowing that our only hope in death is Jesus'
help! "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom
of Heaven!"
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee;
let the water and the blood,
from thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure;
save from wrath and make me pure.
Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law's commands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring,
simply to the cross I cling;
naked, come to thee for dress;
helpless, look to thee for grace;
foul, I to the fountain fly;
wash me, Savior, or I die.
While I draw this fleeting breath,
when mine eyes shall close in death,
when I soar to worlds unknown,
see thee on thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee.
Next
Study: "Blessed are those Who Mourn"
Update: New
Studies at A Place for Truth by Chip Hammond and new sermons by
Charles Biggs.
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
Our quotation this week
is from John Calvin. It is a translated essay from Calvin's Preface
to the Geneva Bible of 1550. It is entitled: "Christ the End of
the Law" and is included in a fine book of essays collected to honor
the teaching of Dr. D. Clair Davis, professor of Church History at
Westminster Theological Seminary.
The Book of essays is
called 'The
Practical Calvinist: An Introduction to the Presybterian and Reformed
Heritage'. I highly recommend the book to pastors,
teachers and those new to the Reformed faith. Click on the title
above to order this book.
One of the things I like
about this quotation is that you can sense Calvin's great love and deep
excitement over what Christ has done for His people! From reading
this quotation (as well as much of Calvin's work), one is curious as to how
Calvin was ever misrepresented and caricatured as a boring, dry, and
unloving man. The Devil has a subtle and devious way of causing the
best authors and books in Christendom to be overlooked because of certain
false notions and untrue reports reported by people who have never
taken the time to read him for themselves! May Calvin be read again
in our time and may the people of God drink deep of his wisdom and love for
Christ!
John Calvin from
'Christ the End of the Law'
"Even any good that
could be thought or desired is found in this Jesus Christ alone!
For He humbled Himself
to exalt us; He made Himself a slave to set us free; He became poor to
enrich us; He was sold to redeem us, captive to deliver us, condemned to
absolve us; He was made malediction for our benediction, oblation of sins
for our justice; He was disfigured to re-figure us; He died for our life,
in such a manner that by Him harshness is softened, wrath appeased,
darkness enlightened, iniquity justified, weakness is made strength,
affliction is consoled, sin is impeached, despite is despised, dread is
emboldened, debt is acquitted, labor is lightened, sorrow turned to joy,
misfortune into fortune, difficulty is made easy, disorder made ordered,
division united, ignominy is ennobled, rebellion subjected, threat is
threatened, ambushes are driven out, assaults assailed, striving is
overpowered, combat is combated, war is warred, vengeance is avenged,
torment tormented, damnation damned, abyss is thrown into the abyss, hell
is helled, death is dead, mortality, immortality!
For all those things
which used to be the arms of the devil to combat us and the sting of death
to pierce us, are turned for us into an exercise of which we can profit, so
that we can boast with the apostle, saying, 'O death, where is your
victory? O death, where is your sting?' (1 Cor. 15:55).
From there it comes,
that by such a Spirit of Christ in us, and we are in spirit seated among
the heavenlies, as the world is no longer world to us, though we have
conversation in it, but being content in all, either in countries, places,
conditions, clothes, meats, and other like things. And we are
comforted in tribulation, joyful in sorrow, glorious in vituperation,
abounding in poverty, warmed in nakedness, patient in evil, living in death.
This is in sum what we
should seek in the whole Scripture: it is to know well Jesus Christ and the
infinite riches which are comprised in Him, and are, by Him, offered to us
from God His Father!"
Soli Deo
Gloria!
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 7
The Beatitudes- Matthew 5:1-12
"Blessed
are Those Who Mourn, for They Shall be Comforted."
From our previous
studies, we learned that the Beatitudes characterize how a Christian should
think and live. They are ultimately pictures of Jesus Christ our
Lord. As we come to know him by grace through faith, we begin to be
conformed more and more to his image. Jesus' image and
character are revealed in the Beatitudes. The second beatitude, or characteristic of Christ and His people,
is being those who mourn.
Being a mourner is not being a
“cry baby”. It should
not be perceived as weak or childish, but extremely godly and reflective of
Christ. Living in a fallen world as
redeemed people we are exposed to God’s gracious revelation in
His Word of the way things should be in
God's world. We know the purpose for all people is to glorify
God and to enjoy him forever- -and yet we do not see this fully (and
sometimes not at all)!
You could say that things are not as
they should be, and we realize it.
This causes a tension in our lives.
We know what is good, right, and holy- -that is, what God expects and
how God created all things for his glory- - yet we see sin, suffering, and
problems in the world.
As Christians, we see and
experience the consequences of sin in other people, as well as in our own
hearts! During this time, as we await the return of our
Savior, we must be comforted by the reality that our Lord
Christ is victoriously seated at God’s right hand, and our
eyes should remain fixed on the future when God will renew and
restore all things to the way things
should be!
Those who mourn in this present
age can be assured that they will be comforted by the Spirit NOW, and
fully comforted when Jesus returns for all of those He loves!
Mourners are
Repentant and Blessed!
It is actually not sad
to be a "mourner", but blessed! The reason is that a
mourner is one who is aware of his spiritual condition before the
LORD. A mourner knows that he or she is a sinner and needs the mercy
and grace of the LORD!
Remember the main
message of John the Baptist and Jesus when they preached to the
crowds? The message was "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at
hand." Mourners are those who live repentant for the Living God.
Mourners are those who not only repent when they begin the Christian life,
but live a life of constant repentance and dependence upon the Living God.
Mourners know they are sinners, yet they know they have a Savior Who they
can go to and confess their sins and be cleansed (1 John 1:7ff).
King David gives us a
fine example of a mourner, or how we should respond to our sinful
condition as the Word of God reveals more and more of the depths of sin in
our hearts. Notice his approach to God begins with asking for mercy,
not what he deserves. That reminds us as well of two of the
characteristics of the Beatitudes: Poor in spirit and the merciful!
Psalm 51: Have
mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your
abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my
transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you
only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be
justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 5 Behold,
I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me
wisdom in the secret heart. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me
hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide
your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a
right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy
of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13 Then
I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my
tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my
lips, and my mouth will declare your praise...
David's request as a
mourner is to have a clean heart before God, a right spirit within (v.
10). Mourners know that only God can create this in us, and give to
us a right spirit. Mourners live repentant lives before the Lord,
careful not to presume upon His grace, nor to forget their low
condition. Yet at the same time, realizing that God is merciful,
forgiving, full of steadfast love for sinners, and one who will cleanse us
from our condition (vv. 1-2).
In the context of the
Sermon on the Mount, we should remember that the people who were listening
in to Jesus' message to his disciples, would have known the ways of the
Scribes and the Pharisees. These were not mournful people. In
fact, they do not respond to John the Baptist's message of
repentance. When they come to hear John, he asks them: "Who has
warned you to flee the coming wrath?" He then proceeds to call
them "vipers" and tells them to "produce fruit in keeping
with repentance." His point is that if you are going to enter the
Kingdom, you must be made aware of your low position and condition before
the Living God (being poor in spirit). He wanted them to know that
the "fruits of repentance" was a mournful spirit that came to God
looking for grace, not honor of merit!
Mourning Over
Sin
Think about the lack of
true and Biblical mourning in our culture today, even among some
Christians! In our world, we either excuse the sin we see in others,
or we condemn sinners. Some in our culture on the one
hand, allow others to "do as they please" with no regard to
righteousness. They say "Let the homosexual live freely without
conviction of God's Word"; "Let the rebellious and the lawbreaker
alone"; "Don't judge those who sin"; or "It doesn't
matter what God we worship as long as we worship with faith".
All of these sayings (and there are plenty more), are sayings that justify
or excuse sin! We should never allow this kind of thinking to blur
the righteousness and holiness of God revealed in Scripture.
On the other hand, some
of us condemn sinners. We as Christians see the homosexual, the
rebellious, the lawbreaker, and those who are misguided in their worship
of idols and we condemn them forgetting that we were once among
them! Neither of these positions are correct for Christians. We
should neither excuse sin, nor condemn sinners! Rather, we should
weep and mourn in repentance for what we see around us, calling others to
repentance and pointing them to the same grace and mercy that we have found
in the Lord Jesus!
Our message is one of
repentance, and anyone reading this who does not live a repentant life must
repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus, but we should never forget from
where we came. Our lives now are all because of His grace! We
should mourn over the lost condition of others, not judge them as if we are
any better. Self-righteous people
are never mourners! The Apostle Paul reminds us of this:
2 Corinthians
6:9-11: 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit
the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10
nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers
will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you.
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
This passage to the
Corinthians reminds us that we were all sinners. That should make us
continually repentant, but also grateful! The joy of the LORD is our
strength, and that joy is a reality in the midst of our mourning.
This too is the "already, not yet"! We mourn now, knowing
that things are not as they should be in our world (including our own
hearts!), yet we rejoice and are comforted because we know that Jesus has
overcome the world and made a way to come for cleansing and a righteous
robe before the Most High and Holy LORD of Heaven and Earth!
Have you ever noticed
how mad and angry we get with others when they sin against us? Yet we
often are not moved to tears and a mournful attitude when we see people sin
against a Holy God? It is strange how we so easily are offended by
others, but we don't think about the offense of our own sins before
God! As mourners, we should reflect upon these things. We
should remember, it was our sins that placed Jesus on the cross! It
was our sins that caused him to die, caused him to be afflicted and cursed
by God, taking God's anger and wrath in our place! Our sins were
placed on Jesus so that he was called "sin".
Paul says: "He who had no sin became sin in order that we in Him we might become the righteousness of God!"
(2 Cor. 5:21).
This statement alone
should cause us all to be mourners! Yet at the same time, Jesus was
declared "sin" so that we could be declared
"righteous"! Furthermore, Jesus' resurrection and ascension
to God's right hand should cause us to be comforted!
Jesus the
Mourner
In Jesus' life here
"under the sun", he visited a world full of sin and misery, so as
to redeem those who would come to him by faith! Yet, when he came to
extend his hand of grace and mercy, he was brutally apprehended by sinful
men, abused by those undeserving, and put to death by those unworthy of His
presence! Jesus was a mourner!
Jesus mourned over Jerusalem when he saw how many people who called Abraham
"Father" rejected him and had not the "faith of
Abraham" revealing themselves to be "sons of the devil"
(John 8:31-58). He cried out: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I have
longed to gather you as a hen gathers her chicks and you would not let
me!"
Jesus mourned over
Lazarus when he saw the results of the wages of sin in bringing death to
his friend. Jesus mourned over those who were unrepentant and
unbelieving who stood around him mocking him, laughing at him, and grieving
His spirit within him! Jesus mourned over sinners constantly
throughout his life!
Yet in Jesus'
resurrection, He was comforted! Jesus was raised again to new
life! Jesus ascended to God's right hand upon completion of His heavenly
work for sinners and sent a portion of His joyful and triumphant Spirit to
dwell with His people until He returns! He told his disciples
"In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer for I
have overcome the world!"
What great news for all
Christians! Take comfort, Christians. Although we know that things aren't as they should be, that
there is rampant sin and iniquity around us, as well as in our own
hearts! We can be comforted by the fact that we know Jesus will
return and restore all things! He is preparing a place for us know,
full of joy and salvation and worship, empty of sin and misery! We
know that the problem of sin has been taken care of in the death and
mourning of Jesus Christ! We know that he who began a good work deep
within our sinful hearts, will complete it on the Day of Jesus (Phil. 1:6).
"...They
Shall be Comforted!"
Our comfort today as
Christians is not in this present age, this evil world full of sin and
misery, hating the Creator and Living God who we so long to be like!
Our comfort is found in resting in the power of his Spirit, our knowledge
of the God of all comfort, and knowing that he will wipe every tear from
our eyes when he restores heaven and earth to the way it was supposed to be, yet in a way
that will be beyond what we ever have asked or imagined! As we close
this study, may we be comforted and meditate upon the words of God in
Revelation 21:1-!
Revelation
21:1-6: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and
the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And
I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a
loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God
is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God
himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away
every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there
be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed
away." 5 And he who was seated on the throne said,
"Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write
this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6 And
he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end.
May we as Christians,
continue to mourn over our sins and the sins of others as we seek comfort
in God's Spirit, and await the New Heavens and the New Earth where there
will only be rejoicing because only righteousness will reign with Jesus
Christ, our Glorious Savior, seated on the Throne of Blessed Grace!
Are you longing for the day when you shall see him face to face? When
we shall see him, we shall be like him! (1 Cor. 13:9-13; 1 John 3:2).
Reflect upon the words
of Anne Cousin, who wrote the following hymn based on the dying words of
the great theologian and suffering preacher Samuel Rutherford:
The sands of time are
sinking,
The dawn of heaven
breaks,
The summer morn
I’ve sighed for,
The fair, sweet morn
awakes.
Dark, dark hath been the
midnight,
But dayspring is at
hand;
And glory, glory
dwelleth
In Emmanuel’s
land.
The King there in His
beauty,
Without a veil is seen:
It were a well spent
journey,
Though seven deaths lay
between:
The Lamb, with His fair
army,
Doth on Mount Zion
stand,
And glory, glory
dwelleth
In Immanuel’s
land.
O Christ, He is the
fountain,
The deep, sweet well of
love;
The streams on earth
I’ve tasted,
More deep I’ll
drink above.
There to an ocean
fullness
His mercy doth expand.
And glory, glory
dwelleth
In Immanuel’s
land.
Soli Deo
Gloria!
Next
Study: "Blessed are the Meek, not the Weak"
Update: New
Studies at A Place for Truth by Chip Hammond and new sermons by
Charles Biggs.
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 8
The Beatitudes- Matthew 5:1-12
"Blessed
are the Meek, for they Shall Inherit the Earth."
Today's study from the
Beatitudes is about the meek. Who are the meek? Normally when
we hear the word "meek" we associate it with
"weak". But the meek are far from weak, actually they are
strong in the LORD in the way all should be! As Martin Lloyd-Jones
has written, being meek is "a humble and gentle attitude to
others based on a true estimate of ourselves.” Being meek is to
know who we truly are, and to live a life based upon this knowledge.
Being meek, then is all
about we as sinners saved by grace, having a true estimate of
ourselves before God and others. Meekness is not thinking of
ourselves higher than we ought, as the Apostle Paul teaches in Romans 12.
Romans 12:3 For
by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of
himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober
judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
Being meek is constantly
asking oneself "What is it that I have, that I have not been given by
God?" (1 Cor. 4:7). Meekness is never weakness, but a true
understanding of the grace that has been held out to believers by faith.
The Weakness of
the World; the Meekness of Christianity
In contrast to the meek,
the world and the culture around us demand their so-called rights.
They think that God owes them something and that they should be given lots
of money, happiness, health and everything their heart's desire!
They live their lives with expectations that what they have been given and
what God has ultimately provided to them in his common grace, they somehow deserve.
This is not meekness, but weakness.
Because of the fall and
our separation from God, we all have a tendency to think that each day that
we have been given, as well as each breath we take is something we should
expect. We are often startled by our frail humanity when we are
choked, hurt in an accident, have a brush with death, or are reminded that
we are dust in some way or another (Ps. 103). Ultimately, it is
because by nature we are not meek people. We are weak and expectant
people. We are weak, and do not realize that our great weakness is
found in our great need for God. And because we have such great
needs and do not realize it because sin clouds our understanding, we are
weaker than we could have ever imagined.
When God allows something
to challenge our humanity, or our strength, we are reminded of how helpless
and frail we are in the big scheme of life. When we get sick with a
disease or suffer from an ailment, we feel helpless and look around us for
help. Usually, once we recover (if God has granted that we do), we
often so easily forget those who helped us when we were weak, and we
especially forget God! When troubled times come, some in this world
turn to God for help and prayers, but if God allows them to recover many do
not come back to thank him and to live for him out of gratitude. This
reality Jesus found out when he healed ten lepers and only one came to
thank him (Luke 17).
Lifeblood and
the Blood of Life
If we ponder our human
flesh (skin), we realize that we are sometimes a mere knife cut away from
our life oozing out of us. We are "flesh and blood" people
living in God's world, dependent creatures upon his grace and gifts, yet we
often live our lives with the illusion of our own self-sufficiency (as if
we somehow got our life from ourselves!?). We all so
easily forget that except for the preventive (not prevenient)
grace of God, we are only an accident away from our life blood oozing out,
or for a bodily organ to stop functioning, and we would see our deaths.
I'm not trying to be
morbid, but when we hurt ourselves in a small way with just a small
scratch, we bleed. When we bleed, what is happening in reality is
that a little bit of our life is oozing out. By God's grace he
preserves our life so that we might look to Him and His kindness extended
to us in Christ Jesus and in humble repentance turn to him admitting our
need of physical help, but most all spiritual help.
The hope of all men is
to look away from their sins, to repent, and to turn to the God who took
upon human flesh so that his life blood could ooze out on behalf of those
who believe! Jesus Christ shed his blood so that we might be cleansed
from our self-sufficient rebellion against God Almighty! Jesus' blood
was shed, he lost his life, so that he could offer life to us. What
we as sinners had earned was death. As Paul says in Romans 6:23,
"the wages of sin is death."
But in His grace, God
united our frail flesh to his divinity, so that we might be saved from
self-sufficient and proud living. He became flesh so that we might
partake in his divinity; he became like us so that we could ultimately be
like him (1 John 3:2-3). God, who has life in himself, came to die so
that we might have eternal life in Him (John 5:24ff; 15:1-7). He came
so that we might be meek!
Meekness, Not
Weakness!
Do we really think about
our humble condition, our real state before the Living God? If we do
live this way, with this thought in mind because of what Christ has done
for us, then we are truly meek and will continue to learn meekness as we
are even more ever dependent upon him as we live! This is the mindset
of the meek!
But how do we live out this meekness in a fallen world? Allow
me to suggest two important ways. The first, is meekness to others. As Christians, humility
should not be something we merely talk about, a kind of abstract goal we
would like to reach one day. It should be a reality because
of who we are united to the Living Christ and because of what he is
doing (present tense) in us by His Spirit!
We show meekness to
others particularly in considering others better than ourselves (Phil.
2)! This meekness can be shown
visibly by example when a man overlooks the offense of another because
they know how offensive they can be; It can be shown when an intellectual
can listen and learn from others sometimes, rather than merely being the
one always speaking and teaching others.
Considering others
better than ourselves can be ultimately shown day by day when we reserve
our rights, or our desires and wants, for the sake of extending love to
another. It is when we put another first, even though we so
desperately want to be first, and do this for the sake of love! In
the family, it is sharing with others even though they don't deserve it; in
the workplace, it is letting sarcastic and rude comments go by without
offending you; in friendships, it is overlooking an unintentional offense
of another, because you know how little you know your own sinful
heart.
We thank God for
the rights we have in
this world, but we do not always have to use them. For the sake of love, we “lose our
rights” in order to place others first. We need to remember that our primary call
is not to our so-called rights in
this world, but as Kingdom people to lose our rights and to take up our
cross and follow a king who did not demand equality with God (Phil. 2:
5-11).
Be warned: In culture of self-assertion, you may be
called “weak” if you reserve your rights and do not "speak
up" like every other special interest group under the sun, but
you are in good company with a Savior many thought to be too weak to
save! “He saved others, why
can’t he save himself??!!” They asked as Jesus hung on the
cross!
There are so many ways
the Holy Spirit can teach His people how to put other people and their
needs FIRST! And, in doing so, you place Christ first because you do
it out of love and an understanding that you have been given great position
in God's Kingdom, yet it was not something you deserved - -it was all of grace!
Meekness and
Repentance
The other way of showing
meekness, is a kind of repentant attitude that is lived throughout our
Christian life. As we learned with those who mourn, it is a total
humbling reliance and dependence upon the Living God through a day-to-day
life ofrepentance.
What this means is that, it is never patting oneself on the back for
the righteous things one has done, nor ever presuming that the fruits of
the Spirit somehow come naturally from us! It is simply a humble
reminder that the gospel is not merely for unbelievers, but also for
Christians. We constantly depend upon the grace and mercy that has
been given and we know that as we work out our salvation with fear and
trembling, that it is God who works in us to do and to will
according to his good pleasure (Phil. 2:12-13).
The Prophet Isaiah
describes this kind of lifelong meekness well in Isaiah 30:15-18:
Isaiah 30:15-18:
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, "In returning and
rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your
strength." But you were unwilling, 16 and you said,
"No! We will flee upon horses"; therefore you shall flee away;
and, "We will ride upon swift steeds"; therefore your pursuers
shall be swift. 17 A thousand shall flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on
the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. 18 Therefore the
LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show
mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who
wait for him.
Isaiah wanted the people
of God to know that our strength was in "quietness and
trust" in the Living God. The people of God in
Isaiah's time wanted horses, swift steeds in order for them to
know and appreciate their strength, but God wanted them to find their
strength in total and humble dependence upon Him! God wants His
people to meekly place their trust in the power of God, not
in themselves. Even in salvation, it will be in "repentance
(returning) and rest" and not in anything they have done or
accomplished. From the time we are saved, until the
time Jesus returns, we are to live this kind of meek life, totally
dependent upon the Lord's lovingkindness to us!
"S-E-L-F- - R-E-S-P-E-C-T"
The opposite of meekness
is ultimately SELF. Self-centered, self-sufficient, self-motivated,
self-taught, self-respect, and all the other "self's" that our
hearts conjure up with the illusions that we truly are the masters of our
tiny little universes! We think we are gods, little lords, masters of
our little piece of land and we somehow got where we are on this little
space of land by our own blood, sweat and tears!
Some think as tiny lords
in their little kingdoms, that there is absolutely nothing
that they cannot do; they gain the whole world and then many lose
their souls. Some build up their names and reputations in their tiny
kingdoms because they want to be revered, respected...feared, yet at
the end of the day, all of their striving and self-centeredness to
establish their kingdoms against any other would-be self-centered and tiny
kingdoms, their little kingdom one day becomes their grave! How
foolish we are sometimes! What is it that we have, that we have
not received?
Yet, in the midst of our
struggle to gain and to establish our self-centered kingdoms, God in his
His grace invades our sinful hearts by His powerful Holy Spirit, causes us
to surrender with the Apostle Paul and ask: "Who are you LORD?"
(Acts 9). And if and when this wonderful work of God happens, we
realize that all of our plotting and self-centered conniving, seems quite
empty and hopeless. We realize our great need of dependence upon the
Living God. We realize just how much He has done for us and in our
great gratitude we desire to walk humbly before him.
Trespassers or
Inheritors on the Earth?
We desire meekness for
the first time! An offense is no longer as offensive. Our
rights don't mean as much anymore. We open our clouded eyes from our
restless dreams of conquering our tiny kingdoms only to realize that it is
a rather small plot of ground in this big universe and that it rightfully
and really belongs to the Lord God Almighty! We realize that we are
only here because he has allowed us to be on his property. We should
be shot as trespassers, but we are welcomed not merely as guests, but as
sons who will inherit the earth!
Then we realize: All
this time, I tried to conquer God and establish my tiny kingdom against all
other men- - How futile! All of this time, it belonged to him anyway,
he has clothed me in His best robes as my father, and that I do not have to
forcefully take hold of this tiny kingdom, but by inheritance he will
give me the earth!
What a revelation!
What all men are so desperately trying to steal for themselves and set
themselves up against the LORD and His anointed would be given to them by
inheritance through faith in Jesus Christ, the one who owns the heavens and
the earth! Because Jesus earned the deed, the title to this grand
earth, God will give this place to all those who are his children!
God will renew all things and it will be as he planned from the foundation
of the earth!
God will give them the
earth! The dominion over the earth that was lost in Adam's sin has
been regained by Jesus Christ for his own! God will grant by inheritance and not force, the whole
earth! And most importantly, God will be with them, and He shall be
their God!
"Blessed (truly)
are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth!"
Soli Deo
Gloria!
Next
Study: "Blessed are the Mourners"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
Our quotation this week
is from B. B. Warfield, the great and godly preacher and professor
at Princeton Theological Seminary in the late 19th and early 20th century.
This quotation is from a
sermon preached in the Chapel of Princeton Theological Seminary, entitled
'Jesus Alone' from Acts 4:12. In the context of this quotation, Prof.
Warfield is unpacking what the Bible means we are "saved".
It is interesting to note the great complexity of our salvation, yet also
how simply it is revealed to us in Scripture.
Acts 4:12: "And
there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven
given among men by which we must be saved."
B. B. Warfield
"We certainly shall
never do justice indeed to the Biblical conception of salvation taken as a
whole, save by giving to that term its widest conceivable
connotation. It may be that we are prone to narrow and limit it on
this side and that, and then to feel some surprise, perhaps some
perplexity, when we open the pages of Scripture and light upon passage
after passage which will not square with our poor and starving ideas.
In the Biblical
conception of it, -- we shall not be able to say it too emphatically-
- salvation broadens its beneficient reach to cover every evil that
afflicts the afflicted race of man.
And that with the best
reason. For in the center of salvation's center, in the heart of its
heart, salvation is deliverance from sin, and accordingly it is deliverance
from all the evils that find their roots in sin: and every evil of every
kind that has ever entered the sphere of human life is consequent on sin
and but the manifestation of sin's presence and power in humanity...
...The favorite
expression for salvation in the Biblical record is that great word Life;
which is set over against the equally great word Death, as the best
comprehensive term to gather up all the evils from which we shall be
saved. Whatever Death is, and all that Death is, and all that leads
up to, accompanies and follows Death, in any one of its possible
applications, physical or temporal, spiritual and eternal- - that is what
we shall be saved from in this salvation!
And whatever Life is,
and all that Life is, and all that leads up to, accompanies and expresses,
and grows out of and crowns Life- - in every possible application of that
great conception- - that is what we shall be saved to in this salvation: or
rather that, in Biblical language, is salvation...
...Everything that vexes
and troubles human life in every sphere of its manifestation is but the
issue of this first disobedience (in the Garden of Eden in Genesis
3). Conceive man as a physical organism held together by the subtle
forces which govern material life; all that brings him pain, disease, and
death, emerges as the unavoidable result of sin and therefore the necessary
object of salvation...
"...For if by the
trespass of the one the many died, much
more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one
man Jesus Christ abound unto
the many." There is a superabundance of grace, and an extension
of it immeasurably beyond the ravages wrought even by sin."
This sermon has been
printed in a nice collection by Banner of Truth Trust. The Title of
the collection of Warfield sermons is: 'Jesus: the Savior of the World'
Soli Deo
Gloria!
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 9
The Beatitudes- Matthew 5:1-12
"Blessed
are those Who Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness, for they Shall be
Filled."
In the last three
studies, we learned that the poor in spirit are those who are totally
dependent upon the Living God both for life and salvation. The
mourners are not "cry babies" but those who mourn over their own
sins and the sins of others who sin against a Holy God. In our last
study we learned about the meek, who are not weak, but truly have a right
estimate of themselves in light of their relationship to God
Almighty.
Today's study is about
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Who are these people
and what are they like?
A Big Appetite
for Righteousness
Those who are hungry and
thirsty for righteousness have a big appetite for righteousness.
Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness persistently pursue and long for a righteous,
Christ-likeness so that they may live satisfied and full lives before the
face of God!
It is strange that we
find righteousness and holiness to be so strange when we see glimpses of it
in others. When those who don't believe in Christ see Christ's
followers seeking holiness or righteousness, they are taken back by
it.
We should rather be
taken back by those who do not
hunger and thirst after righteousness. For in reality, hungering and
thirsting after God and His righteousness in our lives is the only thing
that will ever satisfy the hunger of the longing of our souls!
Seeking righteousness should be quite natural and normal for all of
us!
Righteousness and
holiness were the reasons for which we were created because we
were created to be in fellowship with God and to show forth his
likeness (Gen. 1:26-28). The first sin of Adam, and the fall of man
into sin and misery should have ruined any possibility of hope for those
characterized by sin rather than righteousness, but God in His grace held
out hope and grace from the very beginning in promising a Seed who would
accomplish righteousness for those who believe (Gen. 3:15).
"Better
than Life!"
Christ came as
representative and Savior of those who believe and he only hungered and
thirsted after righteousness. He sought it with all his heart!
We see glimpses of this desire for righteousness in David's desires for God
expressed beautifully in Psalm 63.
Psalm 63: "O
God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body
longs for you,in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen
you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because
your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you
as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul
will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth
will praise you. On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the
watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow
of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.
One of my students and friends wrote to me concerning this psalm in a
recent e-mail. She wrote: ”I love this psalm, which was written
when David was in the desert of Judah. Although he does not have much
to feast upon ("in a dry and weary land where there is no
water"), he feasts upon God's word ("My soul will be
satisfied with the richest of foods"), and finds in
it all that he needs to sustain himself.” That's a
living expression of what it means to hunger and thirst after
righteousness.
God's Word teaches us
about the righteousness of Christ. The Word of God reveals Christ to
us so that we might come to know him and be saved. It promises us
that if we believe in Him, we shall be united to Him, and we shall be like
Him. As we come to look upon Christ in His Word (through preaching
and the Lord's Supper), we come to persistently pursue and long for more of
Him to be formed in us! Do you long for Christ to be formed in you?
Notice in Psalm 63 that
David cries out to God that his love is better
than life itself! David knew, as we should come to learn
in Christ, that the only life worth living is the life lived in obedience
to God's Word, hungering and thirsting after righteousness and
Christ-likeness. David, and we who live on this side of the
resurrection and ascension of Jesus, who have a portion of the Spirit of
God given to us, ought to persistently pursue and long for a righteous
Christ-likeness so that we might live satisfied and full lives before the
face of God!
Eat, Drink, and
Truly Be Merry!
Why are those who
hunger and thirst after righteousness hungry and thirsty? Because of the fall into sin
and misery, the world is full of sin and selfish disobedience to the Living
God. Righteousness is not found naturally within our own souls or
hearts, and definitely not found in others around us.
When we look for
glimpses of glory, sparks of divine righteousness around us in our world,
we are more likely to find sin and the consequences of unrighteous and
unholy living. In fact, it makes us feel quite unclean, but we are
not merely the victims as Christians, we are part of the sin problem.
However, as Christians we struggle with our sinful and selfish tendencies
so that we might become more like Christ (Romans 7)!
We want to ask Christ
our Lord for more of a hunger, desire, and thirst for the Living God.
Just as our bodies crave food and thirst for water, so our souls created by
God long to be satisfied with only God Himself! Have you ever thought
how unnatural it is for us not to
pursue righteousness and holiness. Think of the deer
spoken of by David in Psalm 42:
"As the deer pants
or longs for the water, so my soul longs after the God."
Think of this
illustration and analogy to the deer. The deer doesn't think
logically, merely with his mind, "Hmmm, I think it is time for me to
drink." No! Rather, the deer is driven to the
streams of water so that he might quench his thirst. Think about when
we are hungry. We don't say, "I think I will work up an
appetite." We are naturally hungry during the day (3 times or
more?!) and we are driven to seek to eat and drink. It is natural and
normal. If the truth be known, we can’t work up a hunger and
thirst…we don’t make ourselves this way, it happens naturally!
So should our persistent
pursuit of Christ-likeness be for the Christian. As we come to learn
of Christ's loveliness and more of his mercy, we desire to know Him and His
Word much better. We long to truly understand how the Spirit has
united us closely to Him and we long to be more like him- -in every
way. The Apostle Paul wanted to know this. In Philippians 3,
Paul exuberantly writes:
Philippians
3:7-14: But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of
knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all
things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and
be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the
law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from
God that depends on faith- 10 that I may know him and the power
of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his
death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the
resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained
this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because
Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider
that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind
and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward
the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul wanted to leave
behind all of his futile and self-righteous pursuits of righteousness in
his life as a Pharisee. What he wanted was the kind of knowledge and
relationship with God found only in the Person of Jesus Christ! He
said he counted all of his prestigious pedigree as "rubbish" so
that he might gain Christ. But what specifically did he want to
"gain" in Christ?
A Righteousness
in Christ
The Apostle Paul wanted
to be found "in Him", having a righteousness that depends on
faith (v. 9). He wanted to know the power of Christ's resurrection,
the sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, so that he
could attain the unbelievable hope of the resurrection from the dead.
And Paul was determined to strain forward to attain this by faith alone (v.
13-14). This is a picture of a pursuit of righteous Christ-likeness
through a knowledge of our Savior that is both doctrinal and personal.
What it means that this
pursuit of righteousness is both doctrinal and personal is that we pursue
the Christ held out to us in God's revelation of Scripture. We try to
come to a better understanding of how God has revealed himself through His
Word to us, and we remember to do this together with all the saints (Eph.
3:18). Personally, we come to take part in the sufferings of Christ
after taking part in His resurrection when we are regenerated and our hearts
are made new when we first believe in Christ.
We then walk before the
face of God all of our lives, coming to understand better our close bond
and union we have with the Living Christ in our lives. As He is the
Vine, so we are the branches. We draw from his own innate
righteousness throughout the Christian life, as we seek to emulate and
pursue the same kind of righteousness that he has. We don't have an
innate righteousness, but when we become Christians he gives us a clothing
of his righteousness that justifies us before God. Then as we live
"in Him" and "for Him" in obedience to Him, he works in
us that which is good and pleasing, according to his will. As Paul
says in Philippians 3:12, we press on and forward because Jesus has made us
His own. We more and more hunger and thirst for righteous
Christ-likeness!
Those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness ultimately long to know and to be like
Jesus! They long to become more
righteous as the gnawing in our stomachs from hunger, or the dry, parched
mouths desiring water, so the “hungry and thirsty” are looking
to only One for satisfaction.
Who Do You Want
to Be Like?
Who do you long to be
like? We oftentimes want to be like other people. We have people that we know and people
that we admire that we want to emulate.
We have heroes and heroines that are not always examples of
righteousness, yet we look to them to see how they dress, how they walk and
talk, how they interact with others.
We want to be like them!
When we ponder
God’s grace and goodness in Jesus Christ held out to us in the Word
of God and the Lord's Supper, and then consciously and
constantly meditate upon Jesus as Glorified God-Man, we will long to be
like him! I encourage you to
meditate upon Jesus Christ as the ascended Savior at the right hand of
God. We often forget and become
functional Greek Gnostics who deny the humanity of Jesus Christ. However, we must remember that our
Mediator, Jesus Christ THE Righteous One, has a human face at the right
hand of God! This will encourage
your pursuit of His righteousness.
HE is the picture of
perfection and righteousness for which we all truly long! Jesus was
perfect as Divine Being, but when he took upon himself a human nature
without a sin problem of the heart, he learned righteousness and obedience
as a man. It is hard for us to fathom, but when he said "Thy
will be done, O Lord", these were true and sincere words he spoke
prayerfully to the Father.
As Divine,
Christ was indeed omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent,
but this Divine One loved His own so much that he clothed himself with
flesh and became man. As human, Christ was not omniscient, but
learning; not omnipresent, but local; not omnipotent, but limited. It
is hard for us to fully understand, but it is how God has revealed Jesus
Christ to us in His Holy Word! So why is this helpful to your pursuit
of righteousness? Because He can truly both sympathize with your
weakness, as well as, and perhaps more importantly, help you in your
weakness and weak pursuit of righteousness (Heb. 4:14-16).
Read carefully Hebrews
5:1-8 to get a glimpse of this righteousness that was pursued FIRST by
Jesus Christ himself!
Hebrews 5:1-8:
For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf
of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2
He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset
with weakness. 3 Because of this he is obligated to offer
sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. 4
And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just
as Aaron was. 5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made
a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, "You are my
Son, today I have begotten you"; 6 as he says also in
another place, "You are a priest forever, after the order of
Melchizedek." 7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up
prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able
to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8
Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9
And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all
who obey him...
We ought to reflect upon
how Jesus learned obedience through his suffering and was being
made perfect (vv. 8-9). As Hebrews 12 says, he is the ultimate
example of faith that is set for us. Yes, He is truly God; Yes, He is
truly man. For those who trust in him and begin to understand their
living union with Him, should know that hungering and thirsting after
righteousness is set forth for us in the life and death of Jesus.
"Unrighteous
Righteousness"
But a lot of people call
themselves "righteous". There are people all around who do
good deeds, think of themselves as "good" and don't see a need
for Christ and His righteousness. What is the wrong kind of
righteousness? In Matthew 5:20, Jesus warned of the wrong kind of
righteousness. He said that His follower's righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the
Scribes and the Pharisees. Now that would have completely shocked the
people!
If there was one
supposed guarantee in Israel at the time of Jesus, it was that Scribes and
Pharisees were going to be in heaven, even if the rest of the world didn't
make it. They did all kinds of external righteous deeds that
impressed people. But this external righteousness was not good
enough. Neither is this mere external righteousness good enough for
people who are trying live this way today. This kind of righteousness
actually kills, according to Jesus. He said not only that our
righteousness must exceed the Scribe
and the Pharisee, but he said those whose righteousness did not exceed, would not enter the Kingdom of
Heaven. There will be plenty of externally righteous
people, people with good reputations in society that will have gained the
respect of the whole world, but who will lose their own souls on the Day of
Jesus Christ.
"Do the
Right Thing?"
As Isaiah prophesies, we
must repent even of our best deeds because without Christ they are as
filthy rags (Is. 64:6). The wrong kind of righteousness is merely an
external righteousness without a true root of saving faith within the
heart. We should remember (as the Apostle Paul learned the hard way),
that righteousness is not merely living externally by rules.
Righteousness is not only doing the right thing…
(as the Pharisees did fine externally).
The righteousness we are
to pursue is not merely an external,
“going-through-the-motions” kind of righteousness. It is
an internal disposition created in the human heart by the Spirit of God
when we are born again and become new creations in Christ (2 Cor.
5:17). It could be described as a righteousness that is "grateful because of His grace taking away
our guilt before God” kind of righteousness!
As I said before, we are
not merely to do the right thing,
but to be doing the right thing for the right reasons. What is doing the right thing
for the right reasons? Doing all that we do out of love for God and
gratitude for what he has done for
us in Christ! This is an inward change of
heart or a “change of appetite”. One way of checking
your attitude is to ask yourself this question: "Do I concentrate on
the righteous things I do for God,
or do I focus on the righteous things God
has done for me?!"
This will help you to determine whether you are trusting in
God's righteousness revealed in Christ, or your own righteousness.
The good news for sinners whodo not have
any inherentrighteousness, is that a righteousness has beenrevealed by God
for those whowould look to Christ. The righteousness that we need and want
to know is foundin the Person of Jesus Christ:
Romans 1:17: For
in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is
written, "The righteous shall live by faith.
The Pursuit of
Satisfaction or the Pursuit of Righteousness?
Do you pursue
righteousness, or do you cry: “I don’t Get No
Satisfaction”? Have you a desire to have all of your spiritual
needs met by the only One who can do it? We search desperately in
this fallen world to find something or sometimes someone who will meet our needs and satisfy our
longings.
Only God can satisfy,
all other things and others will leave us starving and dry. The
Israelites hungered and thirsted to go back to Egypt rather than
trusting in God’s Word and seeking him. We must watch our tendencies to find in
“Egypt” or in this world the fulfillment of our soul’s
longings. Many try, but many come up
empty and fail. We must place our trust in the Living and Righteous
Christ who fulfilled and exceeded the righteousness of the Scribes and
Pharisees so that we might be found in him, not having a righteousness of
our own, but a righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus!
Furthermore, once we are
united to Him, we must be constantly keeping our eyes on this Jesus.
As we continue to seek him, we will long for him more! As we grow in
our knowledge of His righteousness, beauty and holiness, we will desire to
have this kind of righteousness. An although the world might starve
and die of thirst because their empty souls can only be satisfied by God
alone, those who place their trust in Christ shall be filled!
We will find at the end
of our persistent pursuit and longing for Christ-likeness a true filling
and quenching of our thirsts. As David says in Psalm 17:15:
As for me, I
shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied
with your likeness.
The Apostle John teaches
us of this great hope of being filled, being like Christ one day in his
first letter. He writes:
1 John 3:1-3:
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called
children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us
is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children
now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he
appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
As children of the
Living God, we know that what we will one day be is not yet, but we know
that when he appears and returns for those He loves, we shall be like him,
because we shall see him as he is! John says that this is our hope
"in Christ" and therefore we are to purify ourselves as he is
pure!
Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall indeed be filled!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Next
Study: "Blessed are the Merciful"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 10
The Beatitudes- Matthew 5:1-12
"Blessed
are the Merciful, for they Shall Receive Mercy."
We often so easily
forget the mercy that God has shown to us in Christ. We deserve only God's
wrath and justice for our sins, but he has offered his hand of mercy to us
in Christ! What have you been given by God that you truly deserve (2
Cor. 4)? Be honest!
How do we practice mercy
with others, particularly those who treat us indifferently and cruel?
Are we merciful with others who sin against us? Do we reflect our
Father's goodness and mercy when others sin against us? Not
always! In fact, we many times ask for others to treat us and
to pay us back in a way inconsistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
God offers to us mercy,
a forgiveness that is unmerited or undeserved! We ought to offer that
same unmerited and undeserved mercy back to other people who upset us-
- yet it is so hard for us to do!
It is because we have
not truly understood God's mercy on us! If we did, we would have not
trouble (by His grace) extending hands of mercy to others!
How can we be more
merciful and forgiving as a people? By the power of Christ's Spirit
teaching us the deep and undying love and mercy of God to us! Let
this sink into our unmerciful and unforgiving hearts:
"While we were yet sinners and enemies of
God, Christ died for the ungodly!"
That's mercy! May
we come to understand Mercy, mercy, mercy to others. As Jesus says:
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy."
"Mercy,
mercy me! What an Unmerciful World!”
We live in an
extremely unmerciful world! The most common way of expressing our
evil design toward others when we are angry is summarized in the
saying: “Don’t get mad, get even!” Most people
in our age are looking out for themselves, "number one" and if
you cross them, they will do what they will to get back at you. The
way of Jesus is to offer mercy to those who oppose us and treat us
cruelly. Although this is impossible without the merciful Spirit of
God living within us, it is possible by His grace. The Apostle Paul
sums up the Christian's attitude in Romans 12:
Romans 12:14-21:
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live
in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the
lowly. Never be conceited. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but
give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If
possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved,
never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is
written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." 20
To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is
thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning
coals on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good.
At first glance, this is
seems impossible, but as we reflect on God's mercy that has been shown
toward us in Jesus, so we find the strength by His grace to demonstrate
this kind of attitude toward those who are evil toward us.
Sometimes we see others,
both believers and unbelievers, whose sins and mistakes have caused
them pain. We glance around and see the consequences of others
"reaping what they have sown". Do you reach out to help, or
do you just say: “They are getting what they deserve?”
Mercy reminds us each day that none of those who know the Lord Jesus Christ
are getting what they deserve! What we deserve is eternal death and
God's justice, what we get by faith in Christ is God's abundant
mercy! We should remember that the next time we so easily judge
another for their sins rather than teaching them to turn from their sins to
the Hope we have in Jesus Christ for life!
Forgiveness- -
One More Time??
What is mercy
toward other people anyway? Mercy is about forgiveness- - extending a hand of undeserved grace
to another- -and not just
one time- - but one more time!
Remember when
Peter asked Jesus "How many times shall I forgive my
brother?" He presumptuously answered his own
question with what he thought was a very liberal and kind
"seven times?" before Jesus answered him. However, Jesus
wanted him to know that if he or anyone else understood God's forgiveness,
undeserving mercy toward us, we would all offer forgiveness and
mercy as many times as it is
requested.
This means in reality
that anytime you have forgiven someone "one more time", you have not forgiven
them enough. There will be probably be another time,
and you must be just as ready and willing to extend a hand of
undeserved grace toanother all over again! This means that the next
time you offer mercy to another (one to whom you perhaps have had to
forgive before), you must remember that you cannot think anything like
"Well, this will be the last time for them, I've had it with
'em!"
If you think like this,
you have not understood the number of times daily, no hourly, that you must
return to your God with requests of forgiveness. In other words, you
constantly need forgiveness and mercy from God and others will constantly
need forgiveness and mercy from you! Read carefully Jesus' story in
Matthew 18:
A Story of Debt
Owed and Forgiven
Matthew 18:21-35:
Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother
sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" 22 Jesus
said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times
seven. 23
"Therefore
the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts
with his servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought
to him who owed him ten thousand talents (about 15 years’ wages). 25
And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with
his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26 So
the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, 'Have patience with me, and I
will pay you everything.' 27 And out of pity for him, the master
of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
28 But when that same servant went out, he found one
of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii (a days’
wages), and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, 'Pay what you owe.'
29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have
patience with me, and I will pay you.' 30 He refused and went
and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. 31 When his
fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and
they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.
32 Then his master summoned him and said to him,
'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with
me. 33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant,
as I had mercy on you?' 34 And in anger his master delivered him
to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my
heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your
brother from your heart."
Notice in this story the
following important points concerning mercy: 1) The amount of debt is
great- -it is not merely overlooked!
It costs the king a lot, yet he forgives the debt! 2) The servant could never repay his
master! 3) The King was merciful and forgave
him his debt!
We could never repay God
for our sins! None of us! We all owe God eternal death, for Romans
6:23 says the wages of sin is
death. Yet God, who is rich in mercy, extends a
hand of forgiveness to us in Christ.
“We
owed a debt we could not pay; Christ paid a debt He did not owe!”
Remember: Believing and
actually doing are two different things! You may believe this about
mercy. You may even believe that this is Biblical, but do you
practice mercy? Are you an initiator of mercy? How
many "owe" you a debt today that is eating you up
inside? How many are you unwilling to forgive, to even call or
write and extend mercy toward them? Are you greater than
God? We must come to terms with our sins and face them, so that we
can turn once again to the mercy of God found in the face of
Christ! We must seek out, be initiators of mercy!
Mercy is a "Weighty
Matter" of the Law of God
We often forget that the
Pharisees were very good at achieving merely external righteousness.
They "did the right thing" outwardly even if it didn't come from
a pure heart (Matt. 15:7ff; 23:23ff). Remember that Jesus reminded
the Pharisees and his disciples of the “weightier” or more
important matters of the Law from the Prophet Micah:
Micah 6:8 He has
told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to
do justice, and to love kindness (mercy: hesed, translated “lovingkindness of God), and to walk
humbly with your God?
Matthew 23:23
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and
dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice
and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without
neglecting the others.
“Mercy” or
offering an undeserved hand of grace and forgiveness to others who sin
against us is a very important and “weighty” matter of the
Law! Why? The Law condemns us all!
If God has shown us mercy and not just wrath and punishment,
shouldn’t we show the same to others who may have broken our own
personal and social laws against us?
Receivers of Mercy
We have earned
God’s just wrath and punishment. The only thing we have done to
merit anything before a Holy God is to earn death and wrath. But God,
who is rich in mercy has offered us grace in Jesus Christ. Some of
the greatest two words ever written are "but God" from Paul's
Epistle to the Ephesians:
Ephesians 2:1-8:
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once
walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of
disobedience- 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of
our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by
nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God,
being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5
even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with
Christ- by grace you have been saved- 6 and raised us up with
him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus...For by
grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it
is the gift of God."
The very good news of
the gospel is that we are not getting what we deserve because of what
Christ did mercifully for us! We have been shown mercy by the Living God.
God shows us mercy and
grace so that we might be saved. The Mercy Seat in the Old Covenant is
where justice and mercy meet because of God’s love and mercy to
sinners! In the Old Covenant blood is shed on the mercy seat as a
substitution for sinners. In the fullness of time in the New
Covenant, Christ himself sheds his own precious blood, not merely on the
Mercy Seat, a representation of God's throne, but lays down his life before
the very throne of God itself!
Do you show mercy to
others? Do you say things like:
“Well, they deserved it!”?
Or, do you say unmerciful harsh things in more of a subtle manner,
such as: “I would forgive them, but I’m not going to forget
it!” Or, “I warned them so many times, and now they are getting
what they deserve?
The next time you are
thinking thoughts such as these, ask yourself: What about what I deserve before a Holy
God? This reality should seep deep
down into our heart and cause us to overflow with mercy and grace to
others. You truly owed a debt that you could never in a million years
repay, yet Christ in His mercy to you, paid a debt he never in a million
years would have owed to God. Now, go and offer the same sacrificial
mercy to others!
Soli Deo
Gloria!
Next
Study: "Blessed are the Pure in Heart"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
Martin Luther came to
understand the gospel from his study of the books of Galatians and
Romans. In 1520, Dr. Luther wrote a book entitled 'Treatise
Concerning Good Works'. This most important book (or
"treatise") is still extremely relevant today. Read
carefully this quotation that reveals all of our "sin underneath the
Sins" that we commit each day and how we are to understand God's
graciousness by faith alone! He is commenting on the first commandment:
"You shall have no
other gods before me."
Luther on Our
Common Idolatry
"All those who do
not in all their works or sufferings, life and death, trust in God's favor,
grace and good-will, but rather seek HIs favor in other things or in themselves,
do not keep the first commandment, and practice real idolatry, even if they
were to do all the works of all the other commandments, and in addition had
all the prayers, fasting, obedience, patience, chastity, and innocence of
all the saints combined...
If we doubt or do not
believe that God is gracious and pleased with us, or if we presumptuously
expect to please Him through our works, then all of our compliance with the
Law of God is pure deception, outwardly honoring God, but inwardly setting
up self as a false savior...
...Note for yourself,
then, how far apart these two are: keeping the first commandment with
outward works only, and keeping it with inward justifying faith. For
this last makes true, living children of God, the other only makes worse
idolatry and the most mischievous hypocrites on earth...
If we obey God's law
without a belief that we are already accepted and loved in Christ, then in
all of our "doing good" we are really looking to something more
than Jesus to be the real source of our meaning, and happiness. We
are trusting in our being a good parent, or being a good spouse, or our
moral uprightness, or our spiritual performance, or our service to other
people as our real "Saviors."
If we aren't sure God
already loves us in Christ we will be looking to something else as our
foundational significance and worth.
...And as this first
commandment is the very first, highest and best, from which all the others
proceed, in which they exist, and by which they are directed and measured,
so also its work, that is, the faith or confidence in God's favor at all
times, is the very first, highest and best, from which all others must
proceed, exist, remain, be directed and measured..."
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 11
The Beatitudes- Matthew 5:1-12
"Blessed
are the Pure in Heart, for They Shall See God."
The sixth beatitude, or characteristic of
Christ and His people, is being those who are pure in heart.
We live in a very
compromising world. As Christians, we want to live uncompromising
lives to our Lord because of all he has done on our behalf in Christ.
We want to be pure in heart. Being pure in heart means to live with an undivided and loving
loyalty to the LORD alone. It means to serve and love
only God by His grace and
His power that works within us.
Yet we do not have pure
hearts completely. Even as Christians we sin daily and wrestle
against our sins (Romans 7:7-25). Our hearts are polluted and Christ
has come to make us pure in heart, so that we might learn to love God
alone!
There are many idols
that we have in our hearts. Many things we love more than God.
Yet Christ is committed to smashing these idols as we surrender them to
him. The pure in heart are not perfect people, they are those who
have been saved by the LORD Jesus who is pure in heart and who cleanses them from
sin. The great hope of those who will one day be pure in heart is
that they shall see God.
It is the greatest motivation to continue to ask him for strength for
purity so that on that day we shall see him as He is!
As Jesus says:
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God."
Psalm 24:3-5
says: "Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in
his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who
does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. 5
He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of
his salvation."
We know that the One who
ultimately ascended the hill of the LORD and stands in God's holy
place is Jesus Christ our Savior from sin, He is the only one who
has perfectly clean hands and a pure heart!
Purity of heart
What is purity of
heart? An undivided
and loving loyalty from the heart dedicated to the
LORD alone!
During each day of
our daily walk with God, we experience what is like a walk
through a hall of advertisements: everyone selling to us what we
“truly need”. It’s like a walk in vanity fair,
where Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress is being tempted by everything
to keep him happy and healthy to distract him from fully seeking after
God. It is like a visit to a country with street salesmen, everyone
trying to sell you something – Our lives can be great distractions
from the one thing needful,
as Jesus puts it!
In our world of
compromise, we can have literally “everything we want, when we want
it” and not have the very thing we need the most: an undivided and loyal love from the
heart to the Lord and His Kingdom!
Purity of Heart in the Old Covenant
In the Old Covenant,
Israel was taught to approach God through a mediatorial High
Priest who approached the presence of God in the Holy of Holies only
once yearly on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). God was
instructing the people that if anyone was to approach a Holy God it would
be with a perfect and pure heart. The High Priest approached God with
a bloody sacrifice that symbolized the life that was required as a
substitute in order to bring purity of heart to sinners so that they
might have communion with God again.
In the New Covenant, we
see the full significance of the High Priest revealed in the Old
Covenant. Jesus is our High Priest
who has shed his precious blood, so that we might be pure and
holy, and so we might approach the Living God and all come into his
presence. The Book of Hebrews has much to teach us on this Greater
High Priest:
Hebrews 9:24-28:
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are
copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself
repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood
not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly
since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for
all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes
judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the
sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save
those who are eagerly waiting for him.
76% of Americans
Keep the First Commandment?
God revealed our need of
a Savior and our need of a pure heart, or an undivided and loyal love from
the heart in the first of the commandments: “Thou shall have not other gods before
me!”
In 1993, 76% of
Americans said that they “consider themselves completely true to
the first commandment”. What this means in reality is NOT that
76% of Americans are true to the first commandment, but more likely that
76% of Americans don't fully understand the Gospel!! None of our
hearts are fully devoted to God, and whatever at any particular time is
getting our fully devotion and loyalty is an idol.
Now perhaps you
don’t have idols of wood, stone, or porcelain as
in other cultures in other parts of the world; perhaps you don't offer
incense and prayers to a little porcelain Buddha in your home. But
what does your heart desire and want so much that your heart clamors:
“Give me this, or else
I’ll die!”
According to secular
psychologists (and there is some good we can learn from them- - ALL TRUTH
is God's truth), most people struggle with four main idols (although the
secular psychologists wouldn't call them idols). These four main idols are like colors,
there are many variations and shades of these idols and they can be mixed
like colors to form new idols. The
four main "idols" of our hearts are: (1) Power; (2) Approval; (3)
Comfort; and (4) Control.
In these four idols, you
can find various "sins that so easily beset you" each and every
day. In these four idols, you can
find what takes the place of God many times in your life, on any given
day. Meditate upon these four and
the many variations of each of them, then try to think about how Scriptures
corrects the assumptions of our idols and smashes them as we meditate upon
the Word of God and bring our thoughts into captivity to our Lord Jesus!
"Good Old
Fashioned" Idolatry
What must you have for
life to be meaningful or happy- - money, reputation, position,
respect?” At any given moment, our hearts are ready to be
divided in its loyalty according to whatever we think at any given moment,
will ultimately bring us happiness! So, what do you desire that if
you do not have, you think you will die?
If you answer this
question with anything other than God Himself that “other”
person or thing serves functionally
as an idol or god to you. Jesus teaches us what this means in Matthew
6 concerning serving two masters:
Matthew 6:24 "No
one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the
other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot
serve God and money. 25 …33 But seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
To seek anything
more than the kingdom of God and his righteousness is "good old
fashioned" idolatry! We need pure hearts, undivided and loving
loyalty to the LORD alone, yet we are all idolaters. If you cannot
think of the idols that afflict you at this moment, read this brilliant
insight as to what the first commandment actually means in our daily and
momentary practice, written by 120 godly men who wrote the Westminster
Larger Catechism. This answer is in
response to the question:
“What are the
duties required in the first commandment?”
“The
duties required in the first commandment are, the knowing and acknowledging
of God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him
accordingly, by thinking, meditating, remembering, highly esteeming,
honoring, adoring, choosing, loving, desiring, fearing of him; believing
him; trusting, hoping, delighting, rejoicing in him; being zealous for him;
calling upon him, giving all praise and thanks, and yielding all obedience
and submission to him with the whole man; being careful in all things to
please him, and sorrowful when in anything he is offended; and walking
humbly with him.”
After reading this, we
are reminded that the “heart” is the seat of all of our
affections – we must guard our hearts! After reading the
duties required in the first commandment, I am not tempted to commend
myself and my filthy works to the Living God, rather I am encouraged to
repent and return unto God yet again to seek his loving grace and
forgiveness!
As Christians, We Desire to Be Pure and Clean
Like Our God...
…and we can
be! In Ezekiel 36:25ff, God promised that he would send the
Spirit of God to transform our hearts and cause us to love God and His Law.
Ezekiel 36:25 I
will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your
uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And
I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I
will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of
flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
The promise of God in
Ezekiel's prophecy was that he would provide pure and clean hearts for his
people. In the fullness of the times, after Christ had earned our
salvation and paid our debt for sins committed against God, Jesus received
the Spirit and sent it forth to cleanse His people (John 7:37-39; 1
Corinthians 15:20ff). In fact, Paul says that the work God has begun
in us will be completed and accomplished when Christ returns and we are a
pure and holy bride for Christ.
Ephesians
5:25-27: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave
himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having
cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that
he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
How Can Our Eyes See God Who is Holy and
Majestic?
Jesus says that the pure
in heart shall see God.
What does it mean that we shall see God?
In Exodus 33-34, Moses
the Mediator of God's people in the Old Covenant, wanted to see God's face,
his glory. God allowed Moses to behold his glory passing by, but not
his face.
Exodus 33:18 Moses said, "Please show me your glory." 19 And
he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will
proclaim before you my name 'The LORD.' And I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,"
he said, "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and
live." 21 And the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place
by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory
passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with
my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my
hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen."
As an Old Covenant
servant of God, Moses had the privilege of talking with God closer than
anyone else, but the time had not come for redeemed man to behold God face
to face. No man would behold God face to face until the LORD Jesus, who was God and with God, would
walk among us as man. The Apostle John explains this in John chapter
1:
John 1:1-18: In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things
were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was
made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome
it....
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through
him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and
his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did
receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children
of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the
flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and
we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of
grace and truth. 15 ( John bore witness about him, and cried
out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before
me, because he was before me.'") 16 And from his fullness
we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given
through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No
one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has
made him known.
As his people who are
indwelled by the Holy Spirit, we now see God with eyes
of faith. We look on what is unseen, for what is seen is
temporal, but what is unseen is eternal:
2 Corinthians
4:16-18: So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting
away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this
slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are
seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are
transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
We see God now as he is
revealed in His Word and we see him with eyes of faith. One day
however, we shall see him as He sees us on the Last
Day! The Scriptures teach us in various places that when God renews
all things, we shall behold His glory in the face of Jesus Christ- - and we
shall be like him, truly like him - -pure in heart!
1 John 3:1-3:
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called
children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us
is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children
now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he
appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And
everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
1 Corinthians
13:8-13: Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues,
they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we
know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect
comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I
spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I
became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a
mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know
fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope,
and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The Beatific
Vision
Historically, this great
hope of "seeing God" has been called the “Beatific
Vision”: The final vision of God’s glory and truth given to the
blessed of the Sermon on the
Mount! The pure in heart shall see God! What hope! What a
motivation to serve the Living Lord alone with loving loyalty from the
heart!
If you have never read
St. Augustine's 'Confessions' you must do so as soon as possible (not an
understatement! An extremely important book to read for Christian
encouragement!). Here are some of Augustine's thoughts as he
meditates upon seeing God one day. When we go through difficult and
trying times, when some of the time we desire to give up, we should
meditate by faith upon the face of God revealed in Jesus Christ! And
how do we "see" the face of God in Jesus now? From the
revelation of God's character found in Scripture!
From Augustine’s Confessions:
“Alas! Alas! Tell
me of your compassion, O Lord my God, what you are to me. Say to my soul, “I am your
salvation”. When I hear, may I
run and lay hold of you. Hide not
your face from me. Let me die, lest
I die, if only I may see your face…”
Soli Deo
Gloria!
Next
Study: "Blessed are the Peacemakers"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 12
The Beatitudes- Matthew 5:1-12
[Note: I will be out of town preaching and
teaching next week until the end of August. Your next issue of 'Word of Encouragement' will be sent out the first week in September!]
"Blessed
are the Peacemaker, for They Shall be Called Sons of God."
“Glory to God in
the Highest, and on earth, peace, good-will toward those on whom his favor
rests!”
The seventh beatitude, or characteristic of
Christ and His people, is being those who are peacemakers.
Christmastime is
Here!
During the Christmas
season we are often reminded of Scriptures from Isaiah 9 and Luke 2 that
Jesus is the Prince of Peace who has come to offer salvation to those on
whom His favor rests! We are reminded during the Christmas season
that we have One who has come to save us so that we can be at peace with
God our Creator.
In an amazing testimony
to God's common grace, we hear Linus Van Pelt (that was his last name for
the ill informed), declare on television broadcasts around the world, the
good news of the gospel! Think about it. Since 1965, 'The
Charlie Brown Christmas' special has aired on television stations and the
gospel of peace has found its way into living rooms in almost every country
in the world!
On this show 'The
Charlie Brown Christmas', Charlie Brown wants to know what Christmas is all
about! Lucy says he's suffering from pantaphobia, a fear of
everything, and when he comes to the conclusion as play director that
Christmas is an empty thing if it only means plays, cookies,
"Christmas queeeeens", and artificial Christmas trees, Charlie
Brown loses it!
At the point of his
frustration, Charlie Brown yells "What is Christmas all
about." Linus replies: "I'll tell you what Christmas is all
about, Charlie Brown. Lights, Please." Then Linus moves
into the warm spotlight on the stage and recites Luke 2:
"...And she
brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and
laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. 8
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of
the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them:
and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear
not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to
all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of
David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall
be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the
angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
It's important to note
that the last phrase "peace, good will toward men" is better
translated "peace and favor toward those on whom His favor
rests". The reason is that unless God has shown us his favor and
love in Christ while we were yet
sinners, the message of Jesus is not peace and good will, but
division and conflict! But to this reality, we are called by Jesus to
declare the good news of God's peace found in Christ!
Peacemakers in a
World of "Wars and Rumors of War"
In a world turned
upside down by constant "wars and rumors of war" around the
world, we are reminded by the seventh beatitude that in this age there will
be times of war, but that we are to be peacemakers as sons of
God. Jesus said that the last days (the time between his first
coming and his return) would be characterized by wars and rumors of war
(Matt. 24); this was to be expected. But in this age, peace was to be
held out to all men through the proclamation of the gospel despite the response
of sinful men!
The gospel is
God's terms of peace with sinful man. The gospel is what we bring to the table as God's
ambassadors in Christ when we discuss surrender and repentance with those
who make war against God (2 Cor. 5:17-21; cf. Psalm 2). We want to
implore men at this table to be reconciled to God in Christ. We want
to remind them that it is not the signing of a treaty that will end their
lifelong war against God and His Anointed One, but it will be the Covenant
God signed and sealed in His own blood in order to keep his promises and
make peace with those who will believe!
Being a peacemaker means
placing our sword in its sheathe for now, but being a peacemaker in no
way means that we are to be passive in times of war when our
country needs us to stand up for our nation's rights or the rights of
our family. What being a peacemaker actually means is to be
reminded that our citizenship is ultimately in heaven (Phil. 3:20-21), and
because we know the time is short before Christ returns, we offer the
Gospel of peace to all men! When Christ came, he offered peace.
He came to offer "comfort" and peace to Jerusalem and then to the
Gentiles who would believe (Isa. 40; Eph. 2:14-17).
Ephesians
2:14-17: For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has
broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by
abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in
himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and
might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby
killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you
who were far off and peace to those who were near.
However, Jesus
always reminded his disciples that this peace would also divide and bring
wars and persecution upon his people. The world cries for
"peace" but the only peace they will ever find is in the Prince
of Peace Jesus Christ, who has reconciled us to God our Creator by his
death on behalf of sinners. The truth of our reconciliation and peace
with God is taught to us in Romans 5:6-11:
Romans 5:6-11: For
while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person- though perhaps for
a good person one would dare even to die- 8 but God shows his
love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more
shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while
we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much
more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More
than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through
whom we have now received reconciliation.
We live in an upside
down hateful world at war with God and fellow men, yet it was in this
context Jesus came to die for sinners…to reconcile us to our God
and Creator! We must let that sink into our hearts and minds: Peace has been offered to us in Christ while we
were enemies of God. This was not because of anything
we did at all; it was all because of God's love and grace to those upon
whom his favor rests.
In our struggle to make
this good news, this gospel known to others, we should remember that
“while we were enemies of God” Jesus died for us. Augustine one time said that in some
mysterious way, God both loved us and hated us at the same time! We
too were once were at war with God and others; once we were at war within
ourselves!
By God's grace,
we need to see the enemies of God, our enemies, at this point in
time before Jesus returns, as the object of our evangelism, not the object
of our scorn and ridicule. The day of wrath will come when Jesus
returns, but now is the time to offer peace in Christ!
"I Have NOT
Come to bring Peace, but a Sword"
But, Peace
divides….
That is true!
Jesus, the Prince of Peace said that he did not actually come to bring
peace, but a sword:
Matthew
10:34-40: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come
to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's
enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does
not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever
finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will
find it. 40 "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever
receives me receives him who sent me.
Jesus is making the
point that although he offers real peace with God and we offer real peace
with God in Christ to others, it will bring division and war! This
true peace is not the kind of peace that man wants or desires. In
fact, when we come to the table with the gospel, declaring God's terms of
surrender found in repentance, as well as God's terms of believing the
Gospel of Christ, we find a violent opposition.
The reason for this
violent opposition is because the Gospel holds out to us free and
eternal life in Jesus Christ ALONE, yet sinful man comes to the table to
speak to God about their terms for God. Sinful man does not naturally
want to surrender to the truth of the gospel because they will then have to
acknowledge God as Creator and LORD of all. So, there is a violent
opposition between God's terms of peace in Christ and the terms of peace
sinful men bring to the table and therefore until repentance comes in man's
heart, by God's grace, there will be no peace!
We should remember that
Jesus was teaching this blessing of being a peacemaker in the context
of Roman rule and violent oppression.
Revolutionaries, bandits, and zealots all wanted to overthrow
Gentile rule by force, rather than to wait upon the LORD. Jesus tells them that they are to be
peacemakers now, not warriors!
The REAL War to
End All Wars
In other words, we are
to be evangelists for now until Jesus returns again! When the Son of
God came the first time he offers peace in his Name with God, but when he
returns again those who have rejected Him will see Him in all his wrath and
fury. The sons of God who lived a life of persecution because they
lived as peacemakers, will join our King Jesus in war to end all
wars. A final war, or showdown that will bring in an eternal time of
peace that will never end!
God has extended peace
to those who would believe in Christ. We should remember, as well as
remind others that God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:14), a wrathful
God (Nahum 1), who will not pardon the guilty (Exo. 34:6-8), yet he will
extend peace and reconciliation to those who look to Christ, the Prince of
Peace by faith (Romans 5:8-10). In fact, those who believe will be
called "sons of the Living God".
Christ will return soon
to war against those who do not believe. On that terrible Day of the
Lamb (Rev. 6;19), the unbelievers who have sought peace in everything and
everyone BUT the Living Christ, will find a terrible judgment and
wrath. The Lamb will war against those who have falsely cried
"peace, peace" when there was no true peace with God!
We as peacemakers want
to be constantly reminded of our evangelistic opportunities all around
us. We want to be reminded of the hope and the peace we can truly
offer to those who war within their own souls, against our God and against
other men! Right now, we offer peace as the sons of God, but one day
there will be a war to end all wars. Now is the time of salvation and
hope, the time of peace extended through the gracious message of the Gospel
of the Prince of Peace! Remember how Paul describes the feet of those
who bring the good news of the gospel of peace in Romans 10 (cf. Ephesians
6:13-18):
"For
"everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." 14
But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are
they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to
hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach
unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of
those who preach the good news!" 16 But they have not all
obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he
has heard from us?" 17 So faith comes from hearing, and
hearing through the word of Christ."
"....They
Shall Be Called Sons of the Living God!"
What grace! While
we were enemies, God justified us, declared us righteous in Jesus
Christ! The good news doesn't just stop there, but God goes on to
adopt us as his children. We are called "sons",
"children of the Living God" because of THE SON, our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Jesus reconciles us to
the Father, gives us a portion of His Spirit, so that we might be called
the Sons of God. This should encourage us all when we are being
persecuted (the next study) because we are offering God's terms of peace to
the world in Jesus. No matter how great the struggle and the conflict
here in this world, we can always be assured of our right standing before
God, our status as his beloved children, and we can call out to our Father
who cares in our time of trouble and be encouraged and delivered!
Read carefully the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8 concerning our
sonship or adoption!
Romans 8:14-25:
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For
you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you
have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba!
Father!" 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our
spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then
heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with
him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 18 For I
consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing
with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation
waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For
the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him
who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be
set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of
the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has
been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And
not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the
Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the
redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now
hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But
if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
As children of God wait
patiently for our King to return. By his grace, offer faithfully,
despite violent opposition, God's terms of peace in Jesus, the great gospel
of truth that has been declared to us and believed by us!
The Prince of Peace has come!
Soli Deo
Gloria!
Next
Study: "Blessed are the Persecuted"
[Note: I will be out of town preaching and
teaching next week until the end of August. Your next issue of 'Word of Encouragement' will be sent out the first week in September!]
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Dear family in Christ,
I
had a former student send me a letter that was relevant to our ongoing
study of God's grace, and I thought it would be helpful and thoughtful for
you who are raising young men, as well as teaching young men in your congregation. If
you want my opinion, this is the struggling mindset of many an evangelical
young person. This is one of the messages I will be preaching
and teaching next week at Lake Champion!
I
have included my response to his letter because in it I have tried to
distill what we can all learn about God's grace to us in Christ. I
thought the correspondence would be encouraging to you because we often
think we are all alone in our struggle to believe God's grace to us in
Christ. I thought it also might encourage you in knowing what many
young people are thinking inside themselves. Someone summed it up
well last night at Bible Study: I understand this grace that God tells us
about in the Bible, but HOW do we make it a reality in our lives (this is a
paraphrase).
For
an intro to my correspondence, this is one of my favorite students at
Chapelgate. He was a 4.0 student who was respectful, worked hard,
very insightful, and a great Lacrosse player! We became
buddies. This is his letter to me concerning his frustrations in
life. He is also (unfortunately) attends a very man-centered
evangelical church that continues to tell him to do, do, do, so that God
may be pleased with him. I have placed his letter to me (edited a
bit), then my response. May this encourage you (again!) that God is
faithful in Christ.
It's
fascinating. No matter how old we are, we still want to add something
else and extra to what God has done for us in Jesus!
My Student's Letter
How
you doing? I hope everything has been going well over in VA. im sorry i
missed that one sunday...ive been so busy lately. [my
friend] isnt mowin lawns with me anymore so im doin everything myself,
it takes up a lot of time. You happy over there? Cuz if your not you can
always come back. I'm having some problems and id like your help. I've been
makin a lot of money with lawns. I'm Messiah's number one recruit. i got
really good grades last year. By all accounts ive been doing well. And i
know that without God, without family and friends...im nothing. and im
really feeling it.
I
ask myself what im doin all the time. In Ecclesiastes it says its good to
enjoy yourself on earth but true life is only found in following God's laws
( somethin like that)...and its right. But i've almost gone to far. i dont
enjoy anythin anymore...im angry all the time. I don't have peace with
myself cuz im always angry at somethin. I can't relax. I know what im doin
(lawns, lax, school) isnt a waste of my time but ive found no fulfillment
in it at all. God...thats where my heart should be and it is but sometimes
it feels so stagnant. i can deal with those times cuz they are to be
expected, but right now...im losin my mind.
Everything seems so drab and so boring. Everything makes me mad. i
just want some peace and happiness. I'm not burned out cuz i can mow
lawns and play lax and go to school...they arent chores...just arent
fulfilling. I look at my future and hope that ill be a successful
businessman...and i already feel the emptiness in it. Maybe i just have to many
little things bothering me right now. I used to be able to let things
slide...take everything in stride. but recently i cant, i get upset
and i cant rest. The tim that had peace...i dont know what happened to him.
I dont doubt that im out of the Lord's will and thus not havin peace in my
life..cuz i really believe im doin what i should. Its just...livin life and
havin fun...doesnt exist anymore.
I
dont know what to do...this isnt right and im going to fix it, i just dont
know how. So, if you have any suggestions id appreciate it. It could be
that this is one of those low times that one goes through that you used to
tell me about. Who knows. Lake Champion should be fun though and im lookin
forward to it. Thanks and hopefully I'll talk to you soon.
My Letter to A Student
Hey,
________!! My buddy who ate BIG HAMBURGERS with me a couple of months ago,
paid attention in my class, and only fell asleep two times (I caught ya!)
I
was delighted to get your letter, my brother. Here are the
thoughts from the Biggsman:
The
way you described your feelings sounds like the way I get sometimes: a
little lonely and blue. The world has a way of making us feel this
way, but we have to remember that our feelings can deceive us. What I
mean is that sometimes our feelings are just that- - feelings, when in
reality things are going quite well, we just can't see the good for all of
the bad feelings. Know what I mean?!
If
you'll take advice from one who is constantly trying to make himself better
and to do more things to improve myself, and thus feeling defeated and down
when I don't live up to my high expectations, you need to rest in the
LORD. Now that can be an overused phrase, but what it means is that
you stop "doing" and just know that God is God. What this
means is that you realize that you are accepted by God just because of
Jesus, and for no other reason. Jesus was the only one who did
anything worth remembering: he perfectly obeyed and loved God and his
neighbor because we could not (and would not).
You
believe in Jesus? Yes you do! You believe he died for your sins, was
raised for your justification, is sitting at God's right hand praying for
you? Then BELIEVE IT! We talk so much about what we do for God:
our commitment, our this, our that, yadda yadda yadda...what we often
forget is God's commitment and love for us!
Your
young evangelical mind has been overloaded with "do this"
and "do that for Jesus" and if you "don't do this" and
"don't do that" then you are not that great! Remember
what I said in class one time: "What would Jesus Do" is not the
question to ask FIRST- - the question to ask is "What Has Jesus
Already Done for me?!"
I
had bought into this false concept of grace and salvation myself! In
the great words of Al Pacino, you have to 'FAGGEDABOUTIT!'
(translated "Forget-about-it). We must all learn to look to
Christ for our help! He is our SAVIOR, not merely a helper so that we
can be better people. He is our Savior and the one who begins a work
in us and will continue this same work (Phil. 1:6). Jesus offers to
those who believe the same grace when we are saved, in the midst of our
living the Christian life, and will offer the same grace to us when we
die! The same grace that we are justified, declared righteous by God
and given Christ's righteousness based on ABSOLUTELY NOTHING we have
ever done (even all those hard strivings for his approval in the Christian
life).
"It
is finished." (Think about it!)
What
will really cause you great joy and excitement and gratitude is when you realize
that you will never be more forgiven than you are now; never be more
accepted; never be more loved- - -there is nothing you can do to condemn
yourself, or to better yourself in the eyes of God!!!!!! What
grace! Quit trying and rest in the Lord Jesus' work for
you! Now, when we get ahold of this reality, it causes us to think
"Hmmm, then maybe I can sin all I want!"
But
no! God forbid! That is not taking into consideration the great
grace that has been shown you. We are no longer slaves to sin; sin
shall not be our Master in Christ! We now live lives, not of trying
desperately to gain God's good favor, but gratefully living obediently by
His grace and Spirit JUST BECAUSE OF THE GRACE THAT HAS BEEN SHOWN
TOWARD US! (Read Romans 6-8, this was a paraphrase).
Isaiah
30:15 is a Scripture I remember often:
"In
repentance and rest shall be your salvation; in quietness and trust shall
be your strength."
You
may be wanting to do, do, do, and not just resting in the reality of who
you are because of Jesus. Jesus is literally our everything.
He gives us his Word so that we can by faith believe what it says, but
alas, so many times we choose to believe what we feel and not what God says.
There
is only one reality: God's reality. God reveals that reality in His
Word! But do we believe it? Or, do we (as many times we do)
believe the so-called "reality" of our own making. The
insecure and unsure and frustrating and maddening so-called
"reality" of our feelings? Who are you going to believe? is
what it comes down to for all of us.
Are
we going to trust God and His Word, or are we going to trust
feelings? I say this for effect and not to cause fear in us, but hell
is full of those who had angry, frustrated, tired, and exhausted feelings
of unbelief! The good news is that Jesus Christ came into this world
of sin and misery to provide an "out" an "exit" by His
grace, so that we could rest in him and HIS REALITY. The reality of
being adopted and loved and cared for and in the warm embrace of his delightful
control and sovereignty!
The
French Existentialist Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre used to talk about there
not being an "exit" in this world of misery. He said that
the only hope we have is to choose to exist for we have no choice in the
matter. Why do babies come out of their mother's womb crying?
Live for a few years and you'll find out. No one asked them if they
wanted to be born, and no one ever told them that this world could be
tough.
What
Sartre was correct about was that the world can be a challenging place;
life is hard! Yet, what Sartre got wrong (desperately wrong!) was
that he didn't understand that an exit had been provided. An exit of
grace in a cold and lonely world where we have to settle for glimpses of
God's goodness in the world and in others. The exit of grace will
provide peace and happiness, but there is a pattern I am obligated to tell
you about.
We
commit to Jesus Christ our lives, come what may (sickness and in health,
good and bad times, richer or poorer, 'til death do us part...). We
go through experiences of his grace and love and constant commitment to us,
then our feelings begin to line up with the truth of God's Word.
Usually we look for the feelings first. We say: "I'll follow
Christ when I feel like it." "I will have peace when I feel
I have peace." But that is the opposite way.
In
Philippians 4:4-7, Paul says to rejoice, pray, then peace will come.
We commit, then experience good and bad times in this world with Jesus,
then the feelings of peace comes. However, in reality the peace was
always there because promises to never leave us nor forsake us.
My
friend, what I am saying in all of this, is that you are quite normal. You
are a young man struggling with identity, and pressure to perform, and to
know a little more about your God. I don't want to discourage you,
but your whole life will be learning these things. Learn to rest in
Christ NOW! Learn to stop trying and performing and rest in who you
are because God has loved you in Jesus and made you his son! I love
ya, bro! Think about this and write me back with comments and
questions:
"Trust
in the LORD with all of your heart and lean not onto your own
understanding. In all of
your ways acknowledge HIM, and He will make your paths straight!"
-Prov. 3:5-6.
God
promises to direct us and make our paths straight. He wants us to
believe the reality that he has revealed in His Word by acknowledging Him
as Your God and Creator and Redeemer who is in control of your life!
Talk
to you soon, my brother!
Mr. Biggs
The
(not "a", but "the" Biggsman)
PS
Look forward to seeing you at Lake Champion!
Pastor Charles
R. Biggs
Ketoctin
Covenant Presbyterian Church
9
S. Locust Street
Post
Office Box 628
Round
Hill, VA 20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 13
The Beatitudes- Matthew 5:1-12
"Blessed
are those Who are Persecuted for Righteousness Sake, for Theirs is the
Kingdom of Heaven"
Dedication to
CCA Students
I had a blessed time
with the students, teachers, and chaperones at Lake Champion last
week! It was a wonderful blessing to be with the young people from
Chapelgate Christian Academy again! I dedicate this 'Word of
Encouragement' issue to them. Many young Christians are trying
to follow Christ by God's grace, but are often tempted and threatened by
their friends who do not believe, or don't think the Christian life is
worth their time.
We all undergo peer
pressure to succumb to the ways of the world every day of our lives; it is
not merely teenagers who deal with peer pressure! We need each other
to reinforce spiritual peer pressure
so that we can stand stronger together! We are not alone! Let
us pray for each other as we learn more and more to follow Christ with loving
hearts of undying loyalty to our LORD alone!
Introduction
Welcome to the new life
of following Christ! Welcome to the new life of becoming like Jesus
as he works in you by faith! Welcome to the reality that because you
are united to Jesus Christ you will begin to see evidences of being poor in
spirit, being a mourner over your sins, meekness, hungering and thirsting
for righteousness, purity of heart, yet welcome to a life of going
against everything everyone else in the world believes! Welcome
to the narrow road of life (Matthew 7; cf. Psalm 1).
Welcome to the new life
of grace, mercy, forgiveness, peace with God, yet the new life of becoming
identified with Christ in suffering and in persecution for righteousness
sake. The Apostle Paul told Timothy:
"Yea, and
all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
The way Jesus begins the
'Sermon on the Mount' with the beatitudes, or the "covenantal
happiness" seems to prepare us for the hope of who we will become in
Jesus and that will be evidenced in our lives, but that prepares us for the
difficulty of living in this fallen world. It is as if Jesus is
saying: "I said all that (the "blesseds") to say all
this!" (the persecution that will come).
Everyone likes to be
liked! Yet, when we take up our cross to follow Jesus, we not only
experience the blessings of Jesus, but also the dislike and persecution
that Jesus underwent. As Paul says in various places in the Book of
Philippians (Phil. 1:24ff; 3:7ff), we are blessed to be identified with the
sufferings of Christ. We are not always liked because we stand for
righteousness and truth!
The Good and
Persecuted Life
The life that Jesus says
is blessed is not only the life of being poor in spirit, meek, spiritually
hungry, or pure in heart, he also says that persecution is a
blessing! How can this be? This is hard for all of us to
stomach because none of us like to suffer and to be persecuted. We
should remember however, that naturally we don't like being poor in spirit,
meek, pure in heart, or any of the other characteristics of the beatitudes
either without the life-changing work of the Holy Spirit in our
lives! So with everything else we learn in the Christian life, we
must understand this by faith and believe that what God says about
suffering with Christ is true!
Why are we persecuted is
the question of the moment?
We are ultimately persecuted as Jesus says
"for righteousness sake". We are persecuted because Our Spirit-filled and Spirit-led lifestyle and
character will be in direct conflict and opposition to the lifestyle and
character of the rest of the world!
Read carefully in
Peter's first letter how he prepares us for this "persecuted
mindset". Notice in verse 4-5 the difficulty with trying to live
our new lives with those who knew us before we knew the Living
Christ. All of us have undergone persecution of this kind from family
and friends who remember how we lived before Christ and now notice
that we desire another kind of living after we have come to know Christ!
1 Peter 4:1 Since
therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way
of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,
2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer
for human passions but for the will of God. 3 The time that is
past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality,
passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. 4
With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them
in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; 5 but they
will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead….
….12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial
when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were
happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's
sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is
revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are
blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But
let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a
meddler. 16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be
ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
Peter's letter prepares
us for the right kind of thinking when we are persecuted. He tell us
in verse 1 to "arm yourselves with the same way of
thinking". In other words, we should be happy when we are not being persecuted,
because this is not the norm! The norm is to expect suffering because of
our identification with Jesus. Later, in verse 12 Peter says:
"Do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test
you..." He reminds us of the reality of the "when" it
happens, not the "if" it happens!
Also, Peter says our
hope is ultimately in our God who is Judge and King (v. 5). We will
not always be the persecuted people (v. 13)! We will also undergo
comfort when they are judged, according to verse 5. But remember
according to verse 4, they will give us difficulty and temptation just because
we no longer live like them. When
we choose to live by God's Spirit we show forth visually the way all people
should be living. This causes those who are suppressing the true
knowledge of God (Rom. 1) to feel guilt that they do not like to feel.
Therefore, they persecute us.
The Persecution
of Jesus IN US
But in reality, those
who persecute us for righteousness sake, are really persecuting the
Jesus in us (cf. Acts 9). When the Apostle Paul was made alive
by God's Spirit and met the Risen Jesus on the Road to Damascus, Jesus told
him that when he was persecuting His people, he was in reality persecuting
HIM!
Acts 9:1-6: But
Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,
went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the
synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way,
men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now
as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from
heaven flashed around him. 4 And falling to the ground he
heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting
me?" 5 And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he
said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise
and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."
According to verse 2
Paul was persecuting those belonging to the Way, or Christians both men and
women. However, Jesus clarifies Paul's persecution by telling him
that it is not the people he is ultimately persecuting, but the LORD Jesus
himself!! Take this as a great comfort and encouragement the next
time you undergo disrespect, dishonor, humiliation, rejection and dislike
because of the LORD Jesus Christ. They are not ultimately
disrespecting, dishonoring, humiliating, rejecting and disliking YOU!
They are doing these things to the JESUS in YOU!! Rejoice and be
truly glad!
Positive Peer
Pressure
It is not easy being
persecuted and disliked by others. Yet, it is one of the great
incentives for us to continue to gather together as a persecuted people who
are blessed, or covenantally happy, because we know that we need each other
desperately. We are united to Jesus Christ and to each other and when
persecution comes because we are standing for the truth, we want to stand
firmly in Christ together! We need each other. We need a good
and healthy spiritual peer pressure from within!
Hebrews 10:21-25: and
since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us
draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts
sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water. 23 Let us hold
fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is
faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to
love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is
the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see
the Day drawing near.
Christ's family must
encourage one another (Eph. 4:32)! We need to counter the peer
pressure of wickedness and temptation with the peer pressure of living
godly lives, standing on the truth of God's Word and in the victory of
Jesus. Negative peer pressure is not just for the teenager being
tempted by others to smoke, drink, party, and have sex! Negative peer
pressure is around us constantly. It says: "I want to be liked,
there's nothing wrong with that. I will just keep my Jesus to
myself. I will just try to live quietly and privately as I can,
therefore no one will trouble me with persecution."
This is the kind of
negative peer pressure we all undergo, from within our own minds and
through the mouths of others. We must be there for one another -
-committed as brothers and sisters in Christ to reinforce positive peer
pressure through encouragement in the Word of God! We want to help
others to stand firm and strong. We want to remind them of Paul's
promise in 1 Corinthians 15, as one of my students recently reminded me!
1 Corinthians
15:58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is
not in vain.
Do you see yourself as
part of a family in Christ? Do you long to be with other believers
who believe what you believe and are being discipled by the truth of God's
Word? Jesus said that in this world we would experience tribulation
(even though we are peacemakers as we learned in the last sermon), yet he
has overcome the world! (John 16:33). Be about encouraging your
family in Christ with good, healthy, spiritual peer pressure! Remind
them of these words, and encourage them to believe them by faith!
Phil. 1:29: For
it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only
believe in him but also suffer for his sake…
As we continue to grow
together in Christ as the people of God, may we all be reminded of our
great privilege of suffering with the Risen and Ascended Jesus! May
we be reminded that we are not alone! When the whole world begins to
make us think that righteousness is boring, and even those within Christ's
visible church says we are "old fashioned" when we stand for
righteousness and call a sin, well "sin", let us be reminded
that we are standing together and we are not alone!
Persecution in
the Last Days
In these last days, we are Living and thinking
contrary to the world’s way, which is to say, we are thinking
according to God’s way! We are
awaiting Christ’s return in these last days.
Notice in 2 Timothy 3
how the time in which we live is characterized! Contrast the
characteristics with the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount and you will
understand how contrary, how opposed, how antithetical are the ways of the
LORD and the ways of this world. Contrast the following with being
poor in spirit, mourners, meek, hungry and thirsting after righteousness,
merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted and reviled for
Jesus’ sake:
2 Timothy 3:1 But understand this, that in the last days there
will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of
self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous,
reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.
10 You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim
in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my
persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and
at Lystra- which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued
me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ
Jesus will be persecuted…
These characteristics are opposite of the
commandments of God and the character revealed in the Beatitudes.
In reality, when we
live obedient lives to Jesus we are offering a message of Lordship that
challenges and opposes their own self-centered lordship. The road we
tread is truly the narrow way to life and not the broad way to
destruction described above in 2 Timothy and therefore we suffer
persecution because of our opposition!
Remember: Jesus speaks
of “two ways”/”two paths” –You are on one or
the other. One is characterized by persecution, yet blessedness
in the midst of pain on this narrow path; one is characterized by ease and comfort, yet is
wide and leads to destruction!
The Psalms lay this out
in Psalm one. Notice how you are on
one of the paths:
Psalm 1: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel
of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of
scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on
his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted
by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does
not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are
not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 5 Therefore
the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation
of the righteous; 6 for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
Our focus as the people
of God every day should be an anticipation of being with other
brothers and sisters who are also being persecuted for righteousness
sake in this present age. In light of this we should encourage
one another with the real hope that awaits us in our reward on the day
Jesus returns for his people. We should help our brothers and
sisters with positive and godly peer pressure!
We will not
always be the persecuted people. We are now the heirs of God in Christ (Gal. 3:26ff; Rom.
8:14ff), yet we await a great and glorious day when we shall be vindicated
before the whole world! We await the day when Jesus returns and
renews all things and we are rewarded with reigning with Jesus in a world
absent of unrighteousness, sin, and misery!
"Theirs is
the kingdom of heaven"
Jesus began with this
blessing: “Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” and ends on the
same note of promise. There is truly
now a "present tense” reality to all of the
blessings in the beatitudes!
Stand firm in the
victory of Christ, encouraging one another today as we stand together
against the negative peer pressure of the world and against the persecution
that will come our way because of the Jesus who makes his home in us by His
Spirit!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
This week's quotation is
from a fantastic book by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., entitled 'Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin'.
In a section of the book where he reveals some of the more modern sins that
beset us as the people of God, he reflects on Neil Postman's classic book
'Amusing Ourselves to Death' and how the modern addiction for entertainment
affects our worship of the living God in our church services. This is
a rather lengthy quotation, but it is worth printing it out and digesting
it!
Dr. Plantinga
"If we had no other
barometer of American interest in amusement, we could measure it by the
salaries of professional athletes and other entertainers. By this
barometer, we value amusement more than good law, medicine, government,
ministry, education, architecture, or scientific research. For these
are all salary- -or fee-compensated professions in which, very often,
the financial rewards pale by comparison with those for baseball players,
rock singers, and talk show hosts.
In a capitalist culture,
money is how you keep score, and in the professions, such as medicine or
football, salaries and fees separate the winners from the also-rans...
...Of course, jocks and
clowns are important
people. We need them and what they do. Who doesn't need and
relish amusement now and then? Who doesn't need a partly playful
attitude toward her own work? [But] the value we place on entertainment
suggests that it has become a diversion not only in the sense of playful relief
from the main business of life but also in the sense of a distraction from
it, an evasion of it, a sometimes grim, big-business alternative to it....
.....When people begin
to focus their lives more on amusement than on doing their work well, raising
their children securely, gaining an education, and helping those in need,
they begin to evade responsibility. The problem is that the evasions
are lots of fun and therefore very tempting to all of us. It takes
strength to resist them.
When we fail, when a
whole society fails to resist, life turns around in such a way that
consumerism and the hunger for unreality converge and spending our leisure
time becomes our occupation. Being a deft and knowing consumer of clothes (clothes that
make a statement), films, sports events, pro wrestling, concerts, tapes,
compact discs, and video games - -and especially of the entertainment
products in which these things combine - -becomes a main goal of one's life
and a measure of its success.
....Even Christian worship has been affected
[by our diversion from reality to entertainment]. Perhaps this is in
part because worshipers watch a lot of television, and some of them watch a
lot of televised worship. But worship doesn't fit the television
medium very well, just as the music of a string quartet doesn't fit well
into the warm-up events of Saturday night auto races. The reason, as
[Neil] Postman observes, is that we cannot consecrate the space in which we
experience TV religion- - it's the same room and the same screen we
associate with sitcoms, hockey games, and cartoons. Moreover we are
able, and we know we are able, to change channels on anything, including a
prayer, that lacks pizzazz.
Everything about our
experience of TV tells us that it is an entertainment medium; everything
about our experience of TV religion tells us that its producers know this
at least as well as we do. After watching many hours of TV
evangelism, Neil Postman reports what every sober viewer can see with her
own eyes: on TV, 'everything that
makes religion an historic, profound and sacred human activity is stripped
away; there is not ritual, no dogma, no tradition, no theology, and, above
all, no sense of spiritual transcendence. On these shows, the
preacher is tops. God comes out second banana!' [my emphasis].
When television
saturated worshipers attend their local churches or wonder how to draw
secular seekers there, it's therefore not the songs of Zion they want but
the songs of Babylon and Hollywood -- or something like them. People
attend worship with expectations shaped by television, and evangelical
preachers try to meet them.
In such cases worship
may degenerate into a religious variety show hosted by some gleaming
evangelist in a sequined dinner jacket and patent leather dancing slippers
who chats with celebrities and introduces for special music a trio of
middle-aged women in pastel evening gowns with matching muffs for their
microphones. He may also include, or even perform, certain
eye-popping acrobatics or karate moves.
Each act in the show is
pre-timed, including estimates of the length of audience applause.
Imagine a High Five for Jesus replacing the Apostle's Creed; imagine praise
time beginning when the evangelist shouts, "Gimme a G! Gimme an O!....
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 14
The Unity of the Spirit- Ephesians 4:1-6
Introduction
For the next two or
three studies, we get the privilege of learning from my friend Mr. Jeff
Cagle. Jeff is a student at RTS (Reformed Theological Seminary) has
taught physics, calculus and chemistry for over 10 years at Chapelgate
Christian Academy. He also holds a degree in Music from Princeton
University. The next couple of studies are sermons on Ephesians 4
that he preached. They are well-written and extremely
encouraging. I know that his sermons will be a blessing to you, so I
publish them here and at 'A Place for Truth' (under 'Sermons') for your
edification and learning.
Congregations in the
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ must constantly strive for unity by God's
grace and the power of His Spirit. Jeff's sermon will help us to
continue to strive toward more unity in our congregations as we better
understand our union with the risen Jesus! Read the sermon carefully,
then prayerfully consider how you can strive toward greater personal unity
in serving others in your congregation out of love for Jesus!
Mr. Jeff Cagle
As
many of you know, I began a pastoral internship this summer under the
Chesapeake Presbytery (PCA). The
purpose of that internship is to discern whether God has called me to a
pastoral type of ministry. I’m
testing the waters, so to speak, and I would greatly appreciate your
prayers for wisdom as Colleen and I seek the Lord’s will for our
future.
Part of that internship has included putting together
some different Scriptures which describe the ministry and vision of the
church. I expected that this project
would be helpful for pastoral work, and it is. But something unexpected has also come
out of this project. God used His
Word in my life to change the way I think about being a church member. He caused me to see myself as more
closely attached to the rest of the body – you guys – than I
had ever seen before.
Over the next two weeks, I would like to share with
you one of those passages, Ephesians 4:1 – 16, with the conviction
that the Lord has something to say to us about who we are as a part of
Jesus’ body, which is the church.
This week, I will focus on verses 1 – 6; next week, we will
look at 7 – 16.
Ephesians 4:1-6:
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy
of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all
humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3
eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4
There is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to the one
hope that belongs to your call- 5 one Lord, one faith, one
baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and
through all and in all.
The
"Package Deal"
If you have ever purchased a computer, or a car, or
an all-inclusive vacation, then you are familiar with
the "package deal".
When you purchase a package, say a computer, the distributor throws
in, for “free”, a mouse, a keyboard, Windows XP, Word, Office,
a monitor, a printer, and so on. The
goal of the package is to give you everything you need to get up and
running when you take the computer out of the box. The key point about the package is
meeting needs ahead of time. The
distributor has tried to look ahead and predict your needs so as to provide
a package that meets those needs.
In a similar way, God has provided an entire package
for us that comes free – truly free! – with our salvation. When you believed in Christ and passed
from death to life, whether in a single moment or over a period of time,
God not only forgave you of your sins, but He also provided for your every
need by giving you a salvation package of blessings. In Ephesians, chapters 1 – 3,
Paul describes the package in some detail, outlining the things God has
done for us as part of our salvation.
God is so thorough in His work that He has provided for the past,
present, and future needs that we might have.
If
you are unfamiliar with the terms of your package, I invite you to read
further in Ephesians, chapters 1 – 3 to find out what the Lord
has given you in Christ. Some of the
highlights of our package include adoption as His very own children and
full membership in His own chosen people; the Holy Spirit to live in us and
give us the comfort, encouragement, blessings and righteousness of Christ;
and a future inheritance that goes beyond anything this world can possibly
offer.
Theologians, of course, don’t call our
blessings a “package”; rather, they call it our “union
with Christ”, which is a better way to describe it. The idea is that we have been united with
Christ to such a degree that every blessing that Jesus has earned comes to
us through Him. This union is
similar to, but even more real and lasting than, a man’s union with
his wife.
So for the previous three chapters, Paul has been
describing different aspects of our union with Christ. This is our background as he now
says “I, therefore, the
prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of your
calling.” The calling he
refers to is the calling to be a part of Christ’s body, united with
Him. To put it in other words, Paul
is saying “in light of everything that the Lord has given you …
live up to it!” Your reality
as a believer is that the Lord has provided for your needs and attached you
to Himself. In light of that, there
is only one reasonable response for us, and that is to live in a manner
worthy of that attachment.
Relationship
and Mission
There are two aspects of worthy walking that Paul has
in mind here. The first aspect is
can be described by the word Relationship; the second aspect can be
described by the word Mission.
Verses 1 – 6 describe our relationship with one another, how
we are to actively pursue unity with one another; verses 7 – 16
(which we will save for next week) describe our mission, how we actively
carry out God’s plan to bring the gospel to the world. Those two aspects, as we shall see, are
not separate but entirely related to one another.
To understand the type of relationship that is worthy
of the Lord, we need a picture. As I
mentioned earlier, when you became a believer, you were united to Jesus, so
that you and Jesus are connected, and blessings come from Him to you. However, the connections do not stop
there. The Lord does not simply
connect each believer to Himself, but He also connects believers one to
another. Ryan is connected to Jesus,
and Chip is connected to Jesus, and now the Lord connects Ryan to Chip, and
then He connects Ryan and Chip to Dave (all of them), and to every other
believer who is also connected to Him.
Together, all of the believers all over the world (and throughout
time) are called “the body of Christ” – Jesus is the
head, and we are the body.
To an extent, this connection is invisible, so that
when we pray for someone far away, like Dave Owens, a missionary in
Japan, the Lord hears us and blesses him as a result of our prayers, even
though we can’t see him. In
other ways, this connection is quite visible and concrete. When we walk into church and interact
with one another, we are living out (whether well or poorly) our connection
as fellow members of Christ’s body.
Every action that we take, every word that we say either confirms
and enhances or else denies and degrades the connection we have with one
another.
Now, I should say that our connection to one another
is not like the Borg out of Star Trek.
We don’t lose our personalities and become assimilated
functionaries within the body of Christ.
Instead, when the Lord incorporates us into His body, He gives us each
a unique role according to who we are, how we are made, and how He works in
us by grace. In fact, we are called
the “organs” of Christ’s body, each one with a unique
role in the body, and each one cared for personally by Christ Himself.
With this picture in mind, it becomes clear how
essential it is for our relationships to be worthy of this calling to be a
part of Christ’s body. To use
Paul’s example from I Cor. 12, imagine what would happen to your body
if your eye were to say to your hand “I don’t need you.” Imagine what would happen if the head
were to say to the foot, “I’m all that’s needed in the
body.” Imagine what would
happen if the stomach and the liver found each other so offensive that they
refuse to be in the same abdomen together.
The medical term for this situation is “disaster.” In the same way, when members of the body
of Christ reject one another, pulling apart from one another, it disfigures
the body and makes it an ugly thing.
In the body of Christ, the only way to fulfill our
calling as members is to practice deference and humility, accepting one
another in love. We can spare no
effort – we must exert our whole strength – to actively
maintain the oneness with each other that God has created.
But why “actively”? Couldn’t somebody argue that
because God has already made us one, therefore nothing else need be
done? How could we improve on
God’s work? Aren’t the
connections between us automatic?
Low-Maintenance
Christian Unity
Such
questions simply reveal the motives that cause the problem: in our sinful
way, we want our unity with one another to be low maintenance. We don’t like have to give
ourselves to others. Real relationship is uncomfortable. It can hurt. It puts us in awkward situations where we
have to use words like “Did I offend you?” or “You hurt
my feelings” or “I’m sorry.” Giving ourselves to others can mean
listening when we’d rather talk, or letting someone else shine when
we want credit, or having to plan ahead to take care of someone
else’s needs.
This
is why Paul uses these odd words “humility” and
“gentleness” to describe worthy walking. The connections between us are not
automatic, and they can be easily damaged by pride or rough treatment. We already mentioned that the different
members of the body have unique roles and gifts. It is hardly surprising, then, that
people who are really different from each other and have sinful
tendencies on top of that will naturally experience some friction. The oil that lubricates and cools the
friction between members of the body is humility and gentleness. Even when the body is working well, it
will still require an active maintenance of the unity of the Spirit.
We
might be tempted to take short-cuts with unity. One of the church trends in the 90s was
to have Sunday School classes for people in particular places in life:
middle twenties with kids, for example.
The desire is to provide a niche for people to belong so that they
might feel comfortable. In this
arrangement, comfort is seen as a first step towards unity. But think about the long-term result of
such an arrangement: the place where you form deeper relationships is the
place where you find people who are exactly like you. This is not the unity of hands and feet
and eyes and ears all in one body.
Instead, it is a unity of all hands in one place and all feet in
another … it is a situation where the body never grows up and learns
to be a real body.
The Lord exposes me on this issue of humility. I have this irrepressible urge to want to
be first. It is not natural for me
to defer to others. Furthermore,
being both sinful and male, I tend to cheerfully overlook other
people’s needs. My level of
active maintenance of the unity of the Spirit is woefully inadequate.
I
suspect I’m not alone. Stop
and reflect for a moment about how you relate to the body. How does your self-centeredness entice
you to place yourself over others.
Do you have blinders on, seeing only your own interests? Think about who you interact with at
church, and why. Do you defer to
others? Do you treat others with
gentleness? You have a conversation
with a fellow believer: do they walk away feeling encouraged and accepted
in the Lord or impressed with you?
Are you committed to speaking the truth, in love? What do you do with your anger at the
inevitable irritations which are a part of being in a church?
Let
me be specific. Middle school and
high school students: Are there cliques among you? Do you actively pursue relating to others
who outside of your comfort zone? Do
you show humility and gentleness and refrain from making fun of
others?
College
students: Have you considered how to make and maintain connections with
other people not your own age?
Parents
and elders: How active is your part in the unity of the church?
Our
relationship with one another is made difficult because of our sin nature. Furthermore, the more seriously we take
Paul’s command to diligently pursue the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace, the more our sin nature is exposed by our efforts to be
unified. The “bonds” of
peace that Paul refers to can sometimes seem very much like bondage
indeed. Being a part of the church
is bittersweet.
Sometimes
being a member of Christ’s body can really hurt. When people act with pride or lack of
consideration – almost everyone here has seen it happen before
– there is a sense of disappointment, perhaps even anger which wells
up within us, and we want to fight back or else run away.
Many people stop right there. "Once burned, twice shy" goes
the old saying. If someone has been
in a church and been hurt, or if simply fears being hurt, then he or she
will often attempt to take a passive approach to being in the body. He or she might attend every now and
then; or perhaps come to church but only interact with people who are
“safe.”
Glorious
"Oneness"
But for all of us who find ourselves frustrated at
some level with the unity of the church, there is a strong hope in the
Gospel. The glorious and sweet part
of belonging to Christ is that God not only commands us to be one because
of our union with Christ, but He also provides the resources for us to be
one. When I look at myself, I see
pride and self-centeredness. But
when I look at Christ, He has patience and humility and an incredible
endurance to spare no effort on behalf of His body. That patience, humility, and endurance
are mine, by faith, coming to me through the ministry of the Holy
Spirit. They are part of the package
called “union with Christ” that came with salvation.
Some people think about the Holy Spirit and think of
Toronto blessings or speaking in tongues or miraculous healings. That’s television. The true basic function of the Spirit,
according to John 15, is to bring Jesus’ encouragement and comfort
and righteousness to us. The Spirit
is the one who makes unity possible by changing us, conforming us to
Christ’s image. This is why
Paul calls our unity the “unity of the Spirit.” It is only possible because of the
Spirit, and therefore it has the same character as the Holy Spirit.
This is how
you can tell true unity when you see it: it is characterized by the fruit
of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
God’s work has his unique stamp of grace on it which
can’t be mistaken for anything else.
I don’t want to be naïve about unity in the
church. There are of course serious
doctrinal issues which splinter the church in pieces. There are also personality differences
where the stomach says to the liver that there ain’t room in the
belly for the both of us. We all
have come in contact with awful church situations which make it hard to
believe sometimes that God is really at work in His body. In the face of discouraging news about
the church, we need to recognize that the destiny of God’s church is
to be united. In Revelation 21, we
find the church represented as a bride without stain or blemish, made of
Jews and Gentiles alike, all joined in one body. Just as God does not leave individuals
alone without help, so also God does not leave the whole body alone without
help. Despite the pains and
blemishes and discord that can sometimes characterize the church, there is
also evidence that the Holy Spirit does bring unity and peace in difficult
situations. Our own church has
experienced some of that in its history.
In
fact, in Eph. 4:13, Paul alludes to a time when we will all reach unity of
faith. Perhaps that time will not
come until the Lord returns. But
that time will come. And so we have
confidence, then, that the work of continuing to reform the ministry is not
a vain occupation. Instead, it is
part of God’s plan to bring everything under one head.
Also, we need to know that our unity is an integral
part of the mission of the church.
Our love one for another causes the world to know that we really do
belong to Christ. When we exhibit
unity, even an imperfect unity, we display something supernatural that goes
beyond normal human sinful nature.
When the world sees us giving preference to one another instead of
using each other for our own agenda, it sees a living picture of who Jesus
is.
Your Personal
Mission to Others
So where are we?
Well, the Lord has called us to spare no effort to preserve the
unity of His body. We do that, in
part, by walking in humility: that is, showing deference and gentleness to
one another. We do that, in part, by
patiently bearing with one another’s faults. And we do it all because there is but one
body to belong to, one Spirit that we all partake of, one hope, one Lord,
one faith, and one baptism – there is in fact but one God.
Think about your membership in the church, both in
the larger church and in the little corner of the church at your own
congregation (if indeed you are a member there). I encourage you to pray, as I have and will
also pray, that God will reveal to you ways in which to actively pursue the
unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Perhaps a specific conflict needs resolution. However, most of us, like me, just have a
general blindness that keeps us from seeing other people as fellow organs
in the body.
Jesus can cure our blindness; that’s one of His
special gifts. By faith, take hold
of your union with Him so that you can walk in unity with the rest of His
body.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Special
Edition
Dedicated to All Who Lack Assurance in God's
Grace and Forgiveness in Christ
Introduction-
"Saved, but Not Good Enough!"
It has been on
my mind lately how much we as Christians try to earn our salvation
after we are saved.
What I mean is that we
oftentimes go on our feelings of how well or poor we are doing, or how many
times we have sinned knowingly against God's Law in a given day. What
we fail to realize is the huge problem of our sinfulness. Known sins
are only tips of the deep, deep sinful iceberg that comes forth from the
core of our being and hearts (Matt. 15). We do not rest enough in the
perfect work of Jesus Christ for those who believe! Rather, we always
want to add our obedience to what Jesus has already done (read
Galatians 3-5 for an example of this in the early church).
This 'Word of
Encouragement: Special Edition' is a copy of a letter that
was written to me by a student. I asked this student if I could
send this out to everyone and he agreed, because it is not just this
student who has these concerns. If the truth be known, most of us
live functionally as Christians more on the spiritually schizophrenic
reflections of "He loves me, He loves me not" rather than
resting in the complete, perfect, glorious, obedient Law-Keeping that Jesus
did on our behalf. To put it in modern terms, many of us ask
"What would Jesus do?" too much! We should not be
asking this question as much as we should be asking: "What has Jesus
already done for me?" (then it is proper to ask the other question).
I ask you with
all humility to share this letter with others who struggle with
understanding that the work of Jesus Christ is enough to save. Share
this with young people who have been told a lot of "do's" and
"don't's" without being told enough what Jesus did and did not do
FOR US!
We often do not realize
it, but if we, in any given moment, are looking to our own works, or the
Law of God to bring relief to our guilty and sinful consciences, we are
looking to only that which damns us rather than to Jesus who
brings us full, sustaining, and eternal life. When we focus on
anything other than Jesus for our hope and reconciliation with God in the
Christian life, we are making idols that will kill try to kill us, bring us
into great despair, and take away any assurance of the great love of God in
Christ Jesus.
The enemy of God's
people desires to weaken and afflict our consciences with terror by having
us "try harder" to gain God's approval, or to look to God's Law
for help. We should always resist these temptations and tendencies
and look once again to Jesus Christ, the Author and Perfecter of our Faith,
who took the curses of the Law that we deserved, so that he might reconcile
us to God, give us life and hope and peace, and his perfect
obedience.
The following is the
letter from my student. I have edited details for
privacy. My student is struggling with life with God, not
without him. My student is a Christian young man, but he does all
things well and he gets upset when his feelings of how he is doing with God
get the best of him. Remember that part of my reply to him is based
on previous conversations and knowing that this top student and person
struggles with perfectionism. My reply to him follows his short
letter. Think about it and what the gospel means and how the gospel
of Jesus can truly bring meaning into empty-feeling lives.
I would love to get
comments back from you concerning this. From my experience in
teaching both young and mature, is that many of us struggle terribly with
the reality of our truly being justified by faith alone before a holy God!
Letter from My
Student
Mr. Biggs,
How you doing? I hope everything has been going
well over in VA. im sorry i missed that one sunday...ive been so busy
lately. My friend isnt helping me with my business anymore
so im doin everything myself, it takes up a lot of time.
I'm having some problems and id like your help. I've been makin a lot of
money with my landscaping. I'm a top college's number one
recruit. i got really good grades last year. By all accounts ive been doing
well. And i know that without God, without family and friends...im nothing.
and im really feeling it. I ask myself what im doin all the time.
In Ecclesiastes it says its good to enjoy yourself on earth but true
life is only found in following God's laws ( somethin like that)...and its
right. But i've almost gone too far. i dont enjoy anythin anymore...im
angry all the time. I don't have peace with myself cuz im always angry at
somethin. I can't relax. I know what im doin (my business, athletics,
school) isnt a waste of my time but ive found no fulfillment in it at all.
God...thats where my heart should be and it is but sometimes it feels so
stagnant. i can deal with those times cuz they are to be expected, but
right now...im losin my mind. Everything seems so drab and so boring.
Everything makes me mad. i just want some peace and happiness. I'm not burned
out cuz i can work and play sports and go to school...they
arent chores...just arent fulfilling.
I look at my future and hope that ill be a successful businessman...and
i already feel the emptiness in it. Maybe i just have to many little things
bothering me right now. I used to be able to let things slide...take
everything in stride. but recently i cant, i get upset and i cant
rest. The person that once had peace...i dont know what happened
to him. I dont doubt that im out of the Lord's will and thus not havin
peace in my life..cuz i really believe im doin what i should.
Its just...livin life and havin fun...doesnt exist anymore. I dont know
what to do...this isnt right and im going to fix it, i just dont know how.
So, if you have any suggestions id appreciate it. It could be that this is
one of those low times that one goes through. Who knows. Our future
get-together should be fun though and im lookin forward to it. Thanks and
hopefully I'll talk to you soon.
My Response
I was delighted to get
your letter, my brother. Here are my thoughts:
The way you described
your feelings sounds like the way I get sometimes: a little lonely and
blue. The world has a way of making us feel this way, but we have to
remember that our feelings can deceive us. What I mean is that
sometimes our feelings are just that- - feelings, when in reality things
are going quite well, we just can't see the good for all of the bad
feelings. Now what I mean?!
If you'll take advice
from one who is constantly trying to make himself better and to do more
things to improve myself, and thus feeling defeated and down when I don't
live up to my high expectations, you need to rest in the LORD. Now
that can be an overused phrase, but what it means is that you stop
"doing" and just know that God is God. What this means is
that you realize that you are accepted by God just because of Jesus, and
for no other reason. Jesus was the only one who did anything worth
remembering: he perfectly obeyed
and loved God and his neighbor because we could not (and would not).
God's Commitment
to Us
You believe in Jesus?
Yes you do! You believe he died for your sins, was raised for your
justification, is sitting at God's right hand praying for you? Then
BELIEVE IT! We talk so much about what we do for God: our commitment,
our this, our that, yadda yadda yadda...what we often forget is God's
commitment and love for us! Your young evangelical mind has been
overloaded with "do this" and "do that for Jesus"
and if you "don't do this" and "don't do that" then you
are not that great (or maybe damned which leads us to anger with God rather
than reconciliation!).
I had bought into this
false concept of grace and salvation myself! In the great words of Al
Pacino, you have to 'FAGGEDABOUTIT!' (translated "Forget-about-it).
We must all learn to look to Christ for our help! He is our SAVIOR,
not merely a helper so that we can be better people. He is our Savior
and the one who begins a work in us and will continue this same work (Phil.
1:6).
Our hope is not in the
Law, or the "do's" and "don'ts", in fact, that is bad
news and not good news at all. The Bible says the Law condemns,
it damns us because we cannot perfectly keep it (Romans. 3; Galatians 3-4;
2 Cor. 5:21). But what the Law was unable to do, that is "give
life" to us and ability to keep it, CHRIST DID! In other words,
what God requires and how he reveals we must live in the Law of God,
God provides for us in Jesus!
So, when we realize that
we deserved wrath and punishment for our sins and our law-breaking, and
when we realize that Jesus was the perfect Law-Keeper who earned and
merited eternal life, we realize that it was we who should have been cursed
(Gal. 3:13) and crucified, not Jesus! But God, who is rich in mercy
made him who knew no sin to be sin FOR US, so that we might be the
righteousness of God in Christ! This is all of grace (2 Cor.
5:17-21).
Jesus offers to those
who believe the same grace when we are saved, in the midst of our living
the Christian life, and will offer the same grace to us when we die!
The same grace that we are justified, declared righteous by God and given
Christ's righteousness based on ABSOLUTELY NOTHING we have ever done
(even all those hard strivings for his approval in the Christian life).
"It is (truly) finished."
(Think about it!). As Martin Luther put it so eloquently in his
Commentary on the Book of Galatians:
"We
therefore do make this definition of a Christian, that a Christian is not
he which has no sin, or feels no sin, but he to whom God imputes not his
sin because of his faith in Christ. This teaching of the Bible brings
strong consolation to afflicted consciences in serious and inward
terrors. It is not without good cause, therefore, that we do so often
repeat and beat into your minds the forgiveness of sins, and imputation of
righteousness for Christ's sake: also that a Christian has nothing to do
with the law and sin, especially in the time of temptation. for
inasmuch as he is a Christian, he is above the law and sin....Therefore,
when the law accuses and sin terrifies a man, he looks upon Christ, and
when he has apprehended him by faith, he has present with him the conqueror
of the law, sin, death, and the devil; who reigns and rules over them, so
that they cannot hurt him."
Our Functional
"saviors"
What we normally do is
functionally set ourselves or the Law of God up as our saviors during the
Christian life. Most Christians understand that they are saved by
grace, but they fail to remember that they are being saved by grace as well.
That means when we pat ourselves on the back for doing good, or when we
stumble into sin and disobey God, or when we "try harder" to keep
the Law we are doing everything BUT looking away from ourselves and the Law
to Jesus Christ.
We must constantly look
away from our works, both good and bad in the Christian life to Jesus
Christ and his perfectly good life on our behalf. Jesus did not
merely die for our sins, he did do that! He also lived righteously
and earned the gift of salvation and perfection for those who love
him. To look at any moment to "how well we are doing", or
"how poorly we are doing" is to look to the Law of God and feel
damned. We must rest in the perfect work of Jesus Christ for our
ongoing realization of the acceptance and love of God that we have been
justified and we are, by His grace, being perfected throughout our lives.
What will really cause
you great joy and excitement and gratitude is when you realize that you
will never be more forgiven than you are now; never be more accepted; never
be more loved- - -there is nothing you can do to condemn yourself, or to
better yourself in the eyes of God!!!!!! What grace! Quit
trying and rest in the Lord Jesus' work for you! Now, when we
get a hold of this reality, it causes us to think "Hmmm, then maybe I
can sin all I want!"
But no! God
forbid! That is not taking into consideration the great grace that
has been shown you. We are no longer slaves to sin; sin shall not be
our Master in Christ! We now live lives, not of trying desperately to
gain God's good favor, but gratefully living obediently by His grace and
Spirit JUST BECAUSE OF THE GRACE THAT HAS BEEN SHOWN TOWARD US!
Isaiah 30:15 is
a Scripture I remember often:
"In
repentance and rest shall be your salvation; in quietness and trust shall
be your strength."
You may be wanting to
do, do, do, and not just resting in the reality of who you are because of
Jesus. Jesus is literally our everything. He gives us
his Word so that we can by faith believe what it says, but alas, so many
times we choose to believe what we
feel and not what God says.
Real Feelings
and God's Reality
There is only one
reality: God's reality. God reveals that reality in His Word! But do
we believe it? Or, do we (as many times we do) believe the so-called
"reality" of our own making. The insecure and unsure and
frustrating and maddening so-called "reality" of our
feelings? Who are you going to believe? is what it comes down to for
all of us.
Are we going to trust
God and His Word, or are we going to trust feelings? I say this for
effect and not to cause fear in us, but hell is full of those who had
angry, frustrated, tired, and exhausted feelings of unbelief! The
good news is that Jesus Christ came into this world of sin and misery to
provide an "out" an "exit" by His grace, so that we
could rest in him and HIS REALITY. The reality of being adopted and
loved and cared for and in the warm embrace of his delightful control and
sovereignty!
The French
Existentialist Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre used to talk about there not
being an "exit" in this world of misery. He said that the
only hope we have is to choose to exist for we have no choice in the
matter. Why do babies come out of their mother's womb crying?
Live for a few years and you'll find out. No one asked them if they
wanted to be born, and no one ever told them that this world could be
tough.
What Sartre was correct
about was that the world can be a challenging place; life is hard!
Yet, what Sartre got wrong (desperately wrong!) was that he didn't
understand that an exit had been provided. An exit of grace in a cold
and lonely world where we have to settle for glimpses of God's goodness in
the world and in others. The exit of grace will provide peace and
happiness, but there is a pattern I am obligated to tell you about.
Commitment and
Feelings
We commit to Jesus
Christ our lives, come what may (sickness and in health, good and bad
times, richer or poorer, 'til death do us part...). We go through
experiences of his grace and love and constant commitment to us, then our
feelings begin to line up with the truth of God's Word. Usually we
look for the feelings first. We say: "I'll follow Christ when I
feel like it." "I will have peace when I feel I have
peace." But that is the opposite way.
In Philippians 4:4-7,
Paul says to rejoice, pray, then peace will come. We commit, then
experience good and bad times in this world with Jesus, then the feelings
of peace comes. However, in reality the peace was always there
because promises to never leave us nor forsake us.
My friend, what I am
saying in all of this, is that you are quite normal as a struggling
Christian (see Paul's struggle in Romans 7:7-25). You are a young man
struggling with identity, and pressure to perform, and to know a little
more about your God. I don't want to discourage you, but your whole
life will be learning these things. Learn to rest in Christ
NOW! Learn to stop trying and performing and rest in who you are
because God has loved you in Jesus and made you his son! I love ya,
bro! Think about this and write me back with comments and questions:
"Trust in the LORD
with all of your heart and lean not onto your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge HIM, and He will make your paths straight!"
-Prov. 3:5-6.
God promises to direct
us and make our paths straight. He wants us to believe the reality
that he has revealed in His Word by acknowledging Him as Your God and
Creator and Redeemer who is in control of your life!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
It has been two
years since we saw and experienced the devastating attack on America.
We all thought, "This is not possible!" "This cannot be
happening to us!" We all pondered the question "Why?" Yet
despite the pain and confusion, we still remember that God is gracious to
us all.
Let us remember to pray
for the families of those who lost their lives, asking God to draw them
closer to himself and to grant them true repentance. May we also
remember as James 4 reminds us that we do not always know what today or
tomorrow may bring. Every time we leave our loved ones, plan our days, or
set an appointment in our schedule books, let us always remember to thank
God for guiding and ruling our lives according to his will.
Let us thank God for
allowing us to see one more day and to have one more opportunity to serve
him wholeheartedly. Let us thank God that he gives us one more day to
repent and turn to him in Jesus Christ. When a similar and
devastating incident like 9/11 happened in Jesus' day, when a tower fell in
Siloam, the people wanted to know why it had happened. Our Lord gives
an answer that we must all prayerfully think about. Read the question
and our Lord's answer in Luke 13:
Luke 13:1-5:
There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he
answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners
than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? 3 No,
I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or
those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you
think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in
Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all
likewise perish."
The point Jesus makes in
his answering of the "why's" is that we all deserve punishment
and death (cf. Romans 3:20-23), because we all fall short of God's
glory. None of us deserve each and every day that we live. None
of us are worse sinners because God allows a tragedy in our lives.
Rather, Jesus is saying in verses 3 and 5 that these are reminders of how
frail and weak we are, and it is a reminder of how we should all live
repentant lives because of God's ongoing grace and mercies to us as his
creatures!
It may be difficult to
think about, but in light of these verses in Luke 13 (and later in his
story in verses 6-9), Jesus is carefully explaining to us that every
day is a gift of God, there is nothing that we should ever take for
granted. When we see devastating events happening in the world, God
has removed his hand of protection and he doesn't explain why he does it
fully. Yet, what he does explain is that we should rely upon his mercies
and grace more in our lives and we should take the opportunity to repent,
turning from our sins to the living Christ for our hope!
And what is our
hope? A world without pain, misery and sin. A world without
difficulty and death and pain! As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:
"O Death, Where is your sting?" Death, hell and the devil have
been defeated by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead (Hebrews
2:14ff)! Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved,
and one day you will fully know the "why's" to all of your
questions!
Let us thank God for his
Divine and Sweet Mercies in Christ. Below is a prayer to pray and share
with others as you thank God for his mercy and faithfulness!
"Eternal God,
You are surpassingly great, unspeakably good,
super-abundant in your grace to us;
Your favors toward us are as the number of sands of the sea;
We know but a part of your plan, but that small part exceeds all praise.
We thank you for personal mercies,
health, preservation of our bodies,
comforts of house and home, sufficiency of food and clothing,
continuance of our mental powers,
our family, and their mutual help and support,
the delights of family harmony and peace
the seats in our home and school that might have been vacant,
but are filled.
We thank you for our country, church, the Bible, and our faith.
But, O Lord, how we mourn our sin, our ingratitude, our vileness before
your holiness,
the days we are given that only add to our guilt,
the many times that we have witnessed our offending tongues revealing our
true hearts.
All things in heaven, earth, around, within, without condemn us - -
the sun sees our misdeeds,
the darkness which is light to you,
the cruel accuser who justly charges us,
Your righteous Law, Your Holy Word,
our sin-soiled conscience, our private and public life,
our neighbors, and even ourselves - -
All these write dark things about us!
O Lord, we deny them not, present no excuses, but confess, 'Father, We have
sinned'.
Yet still we live, and run repenting to your outstretched arms;
you will not cast us off, for Jesus brings us near,
you will not condemn us, for he died in our stead,
you will not mark our mountains of sin and ungratefulness against us, for
Jesus levelled all,
and his beauty covers our deformities.
O our God, We bid farewell to sin by clinging ever so tightly to HIS cross,
hiding in his wounds, and sheltering in his side.
By your grace and mercies that are new every morning,
may we never forget to be grateful each moment of every day that you have
given to us!
In Christ's Name,
Amen."
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 15
"Captives in His Train"- Ephesians
4:7-16
Introduction
This is the second part
of a sermon series preached by Mr. Jeff Cagle. The is an excellent
sermon from Ephesians 4:7-16.
Jeff is a student at RTS
(Reformed Theological Seminary) has taught physics, calculus and chemistry
for over 10 years at Chapelgate Christian Academy. He also holds a
degree in Music from Princeton University. The next couple of studies
are sermons on Ephesians 4 that he preached. They are well-written
and extremely encouraging. I know that his sermons will be a blessing
to you, so I publish them here and at 'A Place for Truth' (under 'Sermons')
for your edification and learning.
Congregations in the Church
of the Lord Jesus Christ must not only constantly strive for unity as
we learned in the last study, we need to be about the ongoing mission to
build one other up in the love of Jesus. Because of our unity with
the Lord Jesus Christ and with each other, we vitally need each other
to grow in love and grace. We are Christ's gifts to His Church
and we are to use these gifts as we have been called to use them so that we
might glorify the Lord, spread the gospel, and to mature in Christ!
Ephesians 4:7-16
Ephesians
4:7-16: But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of
Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it says, "When he ascended on
high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men." 9 (
In saying, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also
descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended
is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill
all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the
evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints
for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until
we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and
fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human
cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking
the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head,
into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held
together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is
working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Mr. Jeff Cagle:
Captives in His Train
Today’ssermon
is a continuation of last week’s.
In our last study,we took a look atEphesians 4, verses 1 – 6.
In thatpassage, Paul talks about how we all are united to Jesus in such a
way that weare connected to each other. The maincommand in that passage is
the command to spare no effort to maintain ouroneness in Him. The word that
describesthat aspect of our union with Christ is Relationship: in Christ,
the members ofthe church have relationship of unity one with another.
Today, we will look at
Ephesians 4, verses 7 – 16. These verses describe ourMissionin
Christ, which is to participate in the buildingup of His body. This
building up happensboth in terms of numbers and in terms of maturity. In
terms of numbers, the Gospel goes forthand some believe and are added to
the body of Christ. In terms of maturity, the members of the bodyincrease
in their faith and in the knowledge of Christ, and in their love forone
another. The mission of the body ofChrist is to grow. To explain how nearto
God’s heart this mission is, we should bereminded of Matthew
12:22-32.
Matthew12:22-32:Then
ademon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he
healedhim, so that the man spoke and saw.23And all thepeople
wereamazed, and said, "Can this be the Son of David?"24But
when thePharisees heard it, they said, "It is only by Beelzebul, the
prince of demons,that this man casts out demons."25Knowing
their thoughts, he saidto them, "Every kingdom divided against itself
is laid waste, and no city orhouse divided against itself will stand.26And
if Satan castsout Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his
kingdom stand?27And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom
do your sons castthem out? Therefore they will be your judges.28But
if it is by theSpirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of
God has come upon you.29Or how can someone enter a strong man's
house and plunder hisgoods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then
indeed he may plunder hishouse.30Whoever is not with me is
against me, and whoever does notgather with me scatters.31Therefore
I tell you, every sin andblasphemy will be forgiven people, but the
blasphemy against the Spirit will notbe forgiven.32And whoever
speaks a word against the Son of Man willbe forgiven, but whoever speaks
against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven,either in this age or in the
age to come.
Jesus
describes His mission asplundering thekingdomofSatan, freeing those who
have been made captive tosin. Here in this passage, He directlyfrees a
demon-possessed man. InEphesians 2, all of who have been saved are said to
be taken out of the kingdomof darkness and delivered into Jesus’
kingdom. Our delivery isthereason that He condescended to become a
manand suffer as He did(cf. Hebrews2:14ff). It was His mission. No wonder
that He takes such strong offenseto the Pharisee’s characterization
of His work as being “demonic,” and that Hewarns them against
blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
Although
there are other metaphorsJesus uses to describe His work, such as a
shepherd finding lost sheep, thismetaphor of a triumphant warrior
plundering Satan’s kingdom continues throughoutScripture. From this
perspective, oursalvation is seen as a transfer of kingdoms. In a
military-style rescue, Jesus defeats Satan and leads Satan’sprisoners
(us) into His own kingdom.
Jesus’ mission did
not end when He ascended into heaven. He continues to transfer people from
thekingdom of darkness into His own kingdom by means of the Holy Spirit.
And, the Holy Spirit works through thechurch; the Lord uses us as His hands
and feet in order to continue the work ofrifling through Satan’s
kingdom and rescuing his captives. This is our mission. Ephesians 4:7
– 16 describes in more detailhow the body of Christ works together to
fulfill that mission.
"Who Do You ThinkYou Are? God's
Gift to the Church?"
Paul has just explained
that there is an essential unity in the Body ofChrist: one body, one
spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism: oneGod. But now he also
points to diversitywithin the body. We all have been givengrace according
to the full measure of Christ’s gift. To understand what he means by
“Christ’sgift,” we need to understand this odd quotation
from the Psalm 68, which we readearlier in the service: “When he
ascended on high, he led captives in his train,and he gave gifts to
men.” This scene inthe Psalms is hard for us to relate to because
inAmericawe have a history of ending wars by signingtreaties. But most wars
throughouthistory have been about plunder. Avictorious king would take
gold, silver, precious things, and captives from theland he conquered. He
might even receivetribute, some kind of gift from those he left alive, as a
sort of bribe to gethim to go away.
So
as Paul reads in Psalm 68 thatthe Lord led captives in His train and
received gifts from among men, even theunrighteous, he understands that
those gifts and the captives are the result ofa mighty battle. They are to
be given toGod’s people – that’s what the phrase
“she who sits at home will divide thespoil” is all about. When
he writes tothe Ephesians, he wants to emphasize the fact that the people
of God receivegifts from God. So, he summarizes thePsalm as “when He
ascended on high, he led captives in His train and gave giftsto men.”
He’s not arbitrarily changingthe word ‘received’ to
‘gave’; rather, he is commenting on, or paraphrasing forthe
Ephesians, the content of the Psalm. His purpose in doing so is to focus
their attention on the gifts the Lordhas given to His people.
This leads to some
obvious questions: what battle has God fought, that heshould have captives
to lead? And whatgifts does Paul have in mind? If weunderstand that the
mission of Christ is to plunder Satan’s kingdom, then theanswers are
really clear: God has fought and won a decisive battle against theusurper
Satan. The captives that He haswon are the very prisoners that He came to
rescue. And the gifts that He gives are those verysame captives, but He
gives them not as slaves but as members, adding them on toHis body.
As
part of His victory tour, heleads us, his captives, and gives us as gifts
to His people, the church. In a funny way, we can truthfully say thateach
believer here today is God’s gift to the church. This is not to say
that the Lord chose usbecause of our abilities. Paul himself was not chosen
for his abilities;instead, the Lord worked through his weaknesses. But
instead, as a part of His choosing of us,and as part of His rescuing us
from the kingdom of darkness and delivering toHis own kingdom, He gives
each one of us as a unique gift to the church, Hisbody. The purpose of
giving us as giftsin this way is that the body will be built up. We add on
a member here, and a member there, and the body isenhanced. It is better
able to carry outits mission, to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
Furthermore,
this has been God’splan from the beginning. That is thepoint of
Paul’s argument as he says “This ‘he ascended’,
what does it mean ifnot that he had already descended to the lower parts of
the earth?” Paul is simply noticing that even as far backas the
writing of Psalm 68, David already knew that God was going to descend
toearth and lead captives in his train. Jesus’ mission to rescue us
was not God’s plan B, a second chance sinceIsraelhad failed. Instead,
the church with all its diversity has been God’s plan A sincebefore
the foundation of the world.
Just look at the gifts
God has given! On the one hand, he gave apostles; on the other, prophets,
evangelists,pastors and teachers (the sense of this phrase is
“pastors who areteachers”). Paul’s list here is by nomeans
an exhaustive list of God’s gifts. From I Corinthians 12, we find
that there are those who have faith, thosewho have knowledge, those who
have wisdom, some even who workmiracles.
Paul focuses here on the
teaching and leadership gifts simply toemphasize that the job of teachers
and leaders is to prepare the body for worksof service in order that the
entire body will be built up. He is providing for the Ephesians a vision
oftheir mission to cause the body of Christ to grow. He is giving them a
specific picture ofchurch growth.
God's Plan for
ChurchGrowth
Look
at how the different parts fittogether. The pastors and evangelistshave a
specific role, which is to prepare the other parts of the body for worksof
service – the work of the ministry. Then, as the body carries out the
work of ministry, each part doing whatit does best, in love, then the
result is that the whole body is built up. This is God’s plan for
churchgrowth.
Iwant to stop and dwell
on this picture for a bit because it runs counter to thegrain of our
culture in a couple of ways. First of all, notice that in this picture of
the church working in theright way, the pastor does not carry the full
weight of the ministry. Instead, he has a very specific job: to equipthe
members of the body for works of service. In a properly functioning church,
the majority of the ministry actuallyoccurs at the hands of the members of
the church.
This
picture of church ministry ishard for modern American. One of theunderlying
implicit slogans of our culture is “pay the money, get
theservice.” It is easy to unconsciouslyassume that a pastor is hired
by a church to carry out the mission of thechurch. Not so! The pastor is
instead hired by the church toprepare God’s people to carry out the
mission of the church.
Onthe other hand,
members of the church are often inhibited in their ministrybecause of false
expectations. Ourculture often intimidates us with larger-than-life images
of wonderful beautifulpeople. We see names in the news ofpeople who do
Ministry! like BillyGraham or Mother Theresa or R.C. Sproul or whoever
happens to be the currentChristian celebrity. We know that we arenot
“gifted” like Billy Graham or Mother Theresa. So we shrink back
in unbelief, unsure of howwe fit as members in God’s body, as
participants in God’s mission to plunder thenations. We retreat from
taking up ourrole as a gift to the body because our abilities seem pale and
shabby incomparison to others’. It is so temptingto say, “Let
someone else – someone more able – have vision for
ministry” or“Let someone else – someone more able –
share the gospel.”
My brothers and sisters,we have been deceived in our thoughts. We do
not need miraculous gifts in order to be a part of God’smission. Wearethe
gifts, eachof us God’s gift to His body. He choseus before the world
ever began.
Inlight of that, how can
we doubt that we belong? How can we shrink back from God’s purpose
and calling in our lives? Only by unbelief can we possibly doubt
thatGod’s purpose for us is to be attached to His body, helping it togrow.
Alarge part of the
problem is that we fail to understand that carrying out God’smission
of building His body is not a matter of applying our own abilities tothe
problem. Remember that last Sunday,I mentioned that real unity, the kind
that has the unmistakable stamp of God’sgrace, can only happen by
faith as we take hold of our resources in Christ. Well, the same is true
for our mission. Real ministry, the kind that changes livesand causes real
growth in the body, only occurs as the Holy Spirit works throughus to reach
others. Does He work throughour abilities? Perhaps. More importantly, He
works through ourweaknesses. It is our connection toJesus, our union with
Christ, that makes it possible for us to carry out all ofour various roles
in the body.
Christian
Body-Building:Making
Disciples and Making Mature Disciples
Consider what our
mission is in Christ. Our mission is to build His body. We are all, so to
speak, body builders. This building of Christ’s body has two
different aspects. The first aspect of body-building is thatChrist’s
body grows in numbers and members by continuing Christ’s mission
ofplundering the nations. This is the bigpicture of the book of Acts: the
gospel goes out from Jerusalem to Judea andSamaria and then to the uttermost
parts of the earth.
Bringing
the Gospel to the world isthe primary means by which we carry out our
mission. It is in some ways a military mission, but wedo not make war on
unbelievers – they are not the enemy! The Scripture says that our
battle is notagainst flesh and blood, but our battle is against Satan
himself. His control over people is not mystical. Very few people today
would fall in thecategory of “demon-possessed.” But Satanhas
still bound the rest at the level of what they think, what they believe,
howthey live, what they assume, what they love, and what they fear. So as
we fight, we challenge nonChristianspeculations and thoughts that oppose
God’s truth. Our weapons are truth and love.
Some
of us, given as evangelists, dothis mostly with words. Others of us,who
have the ability to serve, do this mostly with deeds, creating a
livingpicture of God’s love in order that it might spark a pang of
longing in someonewho does not know Him.
But
whether by word or by deed, orby some combination of word and deed, all of
our plundering activity is donewith purpose and by faith.
Consider
for a momentyour own congregation. Consider your workplace or school,
yourneighborhood, your family. You seepeople – friendly or otherwise,
kind or otherwise, people who have needs andmeet needs and present
challenges. TheLord sees something else. He sees peoplein bondage to sin
and to Satan. He hascompassion on them, and His compassion leads him to
make plans. In fact, He has already made plans to rescuesome of them.
You
should have fair warning thatthese plans include you in some way or other
to facilitate that rescue. I encourage you and urge you to pray
forcompassion, the kind of compassion that leads to courage, so that you
might beas bold as need be in order to carry out the ministry He has for
you in thelives of others.
Where
are you with regard to theLord’s mission to build His body? Weneed to
be careful not to dismiss the growth of the church as a matter
forprofessional evangelists. Not everyoneis called as an evangelist. But
all arecalled to participate in the work of the ministry, so that as every
part doesits work, the body is built up. Consideryour calling. Pray about
yourcalling. Talk to other believers, or oneof the elders, about the area
of ministry that God has called you to.
The
second aspect of body-buildingis that Christ’s body grows in
maturity, taking on more of the character ofChrist Himself. Look at
thecharacteristics of the mature body in vv. 13 – 16. It is
doctrinally stable, not following theteachings of man which take us here
and there, but instead holding fast to God’struth. It is important
for us, even aswe function as diverse members in the body, to have one
thing in common: that wehold tightly to the Scripture and loosely to the
opinions of men, even goodmen. If Jesus is to be our head, wecannot buy
into the cult of celebrity, saying, “I follow John Calvin” or
“Ifollow Martin Luther” or “R.C. Sproul” or
“mypastor alone” or any other person other than the Lord Jesus.
If
we are to truly hold loosely tothe ideas of men, then we must, as we mature
as Christians, become self-feedingfrom the Scriptures. All of us, to
theextent that the Lord gives us ability, should read from the Scriptures
on aregular basis. It is our spiritualfood. It is the means that the HolySpirit
uses to work in our lives. Amongother things, it is one of the most
important means that God uses to stir us upto function within the body.
TheScripture guides us and gives us wisdom. The Scripture makes it possible
for us to speak truthfully to oneanother.
This command to speak the truth in
love is integrallyrelated to the maturing process. You andI are easily
hardened by the deceits of sin. As we speak the truth in love to one
another, the Lord uses our words tohelp clear the vision a little bit, help
soften our hearts a little bit, toencourage our faith. It is our faith,
asyou will recall, that takes hold of our union with Christ and causes us
toexperience our connection with Him.
Speaking the Truth inLove
Speaking the truth in love means telling
each otherwhat is true about ourselves, about each other, and about the
Lord, all out of amotive to minister to someone else. Thatis a difficult
task! It is very easy totell people what they want to hear, or conversely
to tell them off. A motive of love, however, tells people whatthey need to
hear for the sake of improving their relationship with Christ andwith His
body. As the body of Christmatures, its members become bold in their
relating to one another, putting asidethe falsehoods and the selfishness
which are part of the fleshlynature.
In a way, then, the Relationship
within the churchand the Mission of the church are an inseparable pair. The
unity of the Spirit which we both haveand also must maintain becomes the
fertile soil in which the members areencouraged to take up their roles and
carry out the mission of building the bodyby plundering Satan’s
kingdom. Conversely, the mission of building the body, when properly done,
resultsin a greater number of members and a better quality of relationship
betweenthose members. That is the way the Lordhas designed the church to
grow.
If you are like me, you feel
overwhelmed by thetask. That is no surprise: we are not upto the task of
body-building. It can behard to know God’s calling in your life. It
is scary to attempt to minister to others. It is culturally awkward to
share the Gospelwith others. It can be difficult tospeak the truth in love
to your fellow members.
In fact, fulfilling God’s
commands in this passage issimply impossible, humanly speaking. Ourresources
for maintaining unity and helping the body to grow do not come fromwithin.
Instead, they are part of thatpackage of blessings we spoke of last week:
our union with Christ. He has the wisdom and power that we need tocarry out
His mission as members of His body. Turn to Him in faith and ask Him to
lead you in the project of buildingthe body of Christ.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20141
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
This week's quotation is
another one from David Wells' book 'No
Place for Truth: Or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology."
Dr. Wells is discussing
the importance of Christians seeking to understand God as he has revealed
himself personally in Scripture by making efforts at studying
theology. Dr. Wells wants us to all realize that all of the knowledge
that we obtain about God and ourselves are found outside of ourselves in
Holy Scripture.
The problem: Many
Christians make the self the center, or the focus of their knowledge of
God. This leads to faithless and unfaithful consequences that we need
to avoid. So, what happens when the self, that is "ME"
becomes the most important thing in life rather than God's objective revelation
in the Bible?
David Wells
“The
sort of Christian faith that is conceived in the womb of the self is quite
different from the historic Christian faith. It is a smaller thing, shrunken in its
ability to understand the world and to stand up in it.
The
self is a canvas too narrow, too cramped, to contain the largeness of
Christian truth. Where the self
circumscribes the significance of Christian faith, good and evil are
reduced to a sense of well-being or its absence, God’s place in the
world is reduced to the domain of private consciousness, his external acts
of redemption trimmed to fit the experience of personal salvation, his
providence in the world diminishes to whatever is necessary to ensure one’s having a good day,
his Word become intuition, and conviction fades into evanescent opinion.
Theology
becomes therapy, and all the telltale symptoms of the therapeutic model of
faith begin to surface. The biblical
interest in righteousness is replaced by a search for happiness, holiness
by wholeness, truth by feeling, ethics by feeling good about one’s
self.
The
world shrinks to the range of personal circumstances; the community of
faith shrinks to a circle of personal friends. The past recedes. The Church recedes. The world recedes. All that remains is the self.”
Soli Deo Gloria
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 16
Genesis 15-"Our Covenant God: A God of Promises"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
The living God who
reveals himself to His people is a God of promises. He stoops to
reveal himself specially and specifically to his people. He promises
verbally to those who believe him that what he says - - He will do. But God also
promises us by showing us his grace visually. In our study today, we
want to consider God's verbal and visual promise made to Abram and to all
of those who would believe God -- like Abram.
When we think of the
term 'covenant', it can be a difficult term to define. To put it
simply however, the word 'covenant' has to do with God's promises to His
people. 'Covenant' is the way God binds himself, or promises, or vows
to his people that he will save them. God binds himself with a verbal
promise to his people, in Genesis 15, to Abram. He then "signs"
his promise with blood visually (which we will see in Genesis 15:8ff), then
he makes sure, or guarantees that what he promises both verbally and
visually will come to pass.
Let us read Genesis 15,
then begin our study today!
Genesis 15
Genesis 15:
After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
"Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very
great." 2 But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for
I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of
Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no
offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir." 4 And
behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your
heir; your very own son shall be your heir." 5 And he brought him
outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you
are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your
offspring be." 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as
righteousness. 7 And he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you
out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess." 8 But
he said, "O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?"
9 He said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat
three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young
pigeon." 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid
each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11
And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold,
dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the LORD said to Abram,
"Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land
that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted
for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that
they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As
for yourself, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in
a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation,
for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." 17 When the sun
had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming
torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant
with Abram, saying, "To your offspring I give this land, from the
river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the
Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites,
the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the
Jebusites."
God Promises Abraham Verbally
In Genesis 15:1-5,
God promises to Abram verbally that he will keep his word to him and give
him numerous descendants by his grace!
Remember that Abram had
left his land of Ur of the Chaldeans by faith because the LORD had appeared
to him and told him to leave the land of his fathers. The LORD was going to bless him with a
great inheritance as he promised him in Genesis 12: 1-4:
Now the LORD
said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your
father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a
great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you
will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses
you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless
themselves." 4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went
with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Time had passed
since Abram had first left his homeland of Ur and he did not as
yet see the fulfillment of these promises.
The LORD appears to him in a vision and tells him that he will be
his shield and protector and that also his reward will be great (Gen.
15:1-2). Just like us, we live between the promises of God and His
fulfillment of these promises! We live between the times of Jesus our
Lord saying that he is preparing a place for us and not to be dismayed, and
the time when he will actually return (John 14-16).
Much of our daily lives
are lived between prayers of request for God to help us, sustain
us, to hear us and to answer our prayer, and the waiting time between as
God fulfills his promises to us to be faithful. Yet, we can be
reminded of our great and covenantal God, that all of his promises are
"yes" in Christ Jesus! (2 Corinthians 1).
Abraham was confused in
our passage today. He only had Eliezar of Damascus, his servant - -he
had no son. How was he to inherit
all of the things God had promised to him? He cannot understand how these things
could be. According to Abram, the
slave born in his house will be the inheritor of everything, including
Abram’s name and heritage. At
this time in history, if patriarchs died without a seed, without children
(a great shame in this culture), then a slave would inherit all that the
patriarch had. For Abram, it was a
difficult thing to believe that God could indeed bless him and make his
name great at this point.
But God tells him that
he will graciously and sovereignly provide for all his needs. In fact, he will provide the seed Abram
needs in order to make all his promises come to pass. God says your “son” will be
your heir. Abram might have replied,
“What son, O Sovereign LORD?”
Then God, reminds Abram what he had told him previously in Genesis
12, that indeed his descendants, Abram’s seed will be not only like
the sand of the seashore, but also the stars of the sky. You can imagine Abram looking up at night
and seeing the innumerable number of stars that seemed so close you could
touch them.
All of these stars were
dazzling before him as a man who would have laid many a night to rest on
his back and been able to observe the great content of these heavens
created by God. At this point in
Abram’s life, he did not see all of God’s provision and all of
his promises would be quite impossible to believe. However, that is just what Abram
did. He believed God, in spite of
how things seemed at the time.
Think back in your own
life when God seemed unfaithful, he seemed quiet, and seemed not to
hear your constant requests when you prayed. You may have
thought at the time that the situation was hopeless, that it was no use
praying or even serving God anymore. Yet, if you recall, God was
faithful and did above and beyond anything you could have asked or
imagined!
Abram Believes God's Word to Him
Genesis 15:6 And
he believed the LORD; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Despite how things
seemed at this point in Abram’s life, he believed God and God
reckoned or counted this to him as righteousness (cf. Romans 4). The righteousness that comes from God
alone by faith alone. Abram knew
that true faith was indeed the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things unseen (Heb. 11). Abram
had followed God and believed him from the beginning when he left his home
and believed God’s promises.
However, this time, for the first time, Moses teaches us that
Abram’s faith was credited or reckoned to him as righteousness.
Abram knew that if any
of God’s promises were to come to pass, it would not be based upon
his own wisdom and efforts, but it must be dependent on the LORD who had
revealed himself to Abram and will continue to be faithful to him. God has sovereignly and graciously
revealed himself to Abram by promising him a great reward and inheritance,
and all Abram had to do was believe.
This can be quite amazing when you think about it. The LORD, the Sovereign Creator of heaven
and earth appeared to a simple and sinful Chaldean man to bring him
knowledge of himself and to even reward him with a great inheritance- -all
because of faith!
It is just because that faith is extraspective in character. That is, it looks away from oneself to
the only LORD and God that can truly provide; the only God who man can
truly believe. This great and
sovereign God revealed himself to Abram in a vision, just so he could bless
he and his descendents. What grace
the LORD shows to his people. Sure
Abram had concerns about how this was all going to “pan out”- -
he is human. He doesn’t know
how this will all come about, but because God has graciously revealed
himself to Abram, he knows the LORD is able to keep his promises. In fact, the LORD not only accommodated
and stooped to reveal himself to sinful Abram, but was about confirm his
promise in an even more astounding manner.
What was about to happen, Abram could have never imagined.
God Confirms His Promise to Abraham
Genesis 15:7-21:
And he said to him, "I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the
Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess." 8 But he said, "O
Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" 9 He said to him,
"Bring me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram
three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon." 10 And he brought
him all these, cut them in two, and laid each half over against the other;
but he did not cut the birds in two. 11 And when birds of prey came down
upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was going down, a
deep sleep fell on Abram; and lo, a dread and great darkness fell upon him.
13 Then the LORD said to Abram, "Know of a surety that your
descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be
slaves there, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years; 14 but I
will bring judgment on the nation which they serve, and afterward they
shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for yourself, you shall go to
your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they
shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the
Amorites is not yet complete." 17 When the sun had gone down and it
was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these
pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying,
"To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the
great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the
Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites."
So Abram had believed
God and God credited this or reckoned this to him as righteousness,
nevertheless Abram sought a little bit more information. He believes God and believes God can do
it, but he wants to know how. He
asks, “But LORD how am I to know that I will possess it?” You see, faith is imperfect. Abram’s faith was not a perfect
faith. It was a small faith, but God
was great. In God’s
sovereignty, he had enabled Abram to believe, but Abram still had
questions.
As we all do from time
to time. You know, when we have those questions of God's goodness and
the "how's" that we all have now and then, we need to be reminded
of this. We should never ask: "Why?", but
"WHO?" That is, when we are troubled by situations and
circumstances, we should be reminded never to try and penetrate the mystery
of God's purposes (the "why's", but simply to rest on Who He is
and how He has always revealed himself as faithful and committed to his
people (the "WHO")!
The LORD then tells
Abram to participate with him in a covenant ceremony. The LORD was not only gracious enough to
promise Abram a great inheritance, he was willing visually to
show Abram just how great his grace and promises are to him. The LORD God of heaven and earth is about
to not only reveal himself but to “cut” a covenant with him as
well to assure and confirm that all of his promises to him are “yes”
and “amen”.
God Promises
Abram Visually: A Covenant Ceremony
Now, before we continue,
allow me to explain what a covenant is as clearly as possible. In the Old Testament, one of the
principal ways of describing God’s dealing with his people is that of
covenant. A covenant is simply the
formal expression or establishment of a relationship as I noted briefly in
the introduction. In the Old
Testament, almost all references to covenant are to God’s formal
relationship to his people. The
covenantal form in the Old Testament is patterned after other ancient
Near Eastern covenants, so that Abraham, and later Moses and the rest of
God’s people could grasp what God was doing. It was unbelievable.
Covenants at this
time in history, typically had four parts (compare this covenant with Abram
to God's covenant with the nation of Israel in Exodus 19-20, particularly
in the revelation of God's Law).
(1) A historical
prologue which named the parties and gave the background to the
relationship [Gen. 15:7a- "I am the God who brought you out of Ur of
the Chaldees]; (2) a statement of the nature of the relationship [Gen.
15:7b- "to give you this land"]; (3) stipulations about the
obligations of the parties in the covenant [In these verses the implication
is faith or belief as the stipulations]; and (4) sanctions, or blessings
and curses to be brought to bear upon fulfillment or violation of the
covenant’s terms [Gen. 15:8ff-the visual splitting of the animals and
the covenant ceremony]. Covenants
were usually ratified or sealed by some oath-taking ceremony which
represented the curses, such as a killing of animals or circumcision.
It is important for us
to realize that in 15:6, “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited to
him as righteousness,” is found in the course of a
covenant-making. The Lord had
promised Abram descendants as numerous as the stars. And following on the heels of
Abram’s “justification by faith,” is a covenant-making
ceremony.
The LORD tells Abram to
divide some animals, and when Abraham goes to sleep, he hears the promises
of descendants and land reiterated, and then “a smoking firepot with
a blazing torch passed between the two pieces.” On that day the LORD made, or literally
"cut" a covenant with Abram and said: “To your descendants
I give this land” in Gen. 15:17-18.
The smoke and the fire were representative of God’s presence
(called a "theophany" or "appearing of God") and this
ceremony was one in which God took the covenant oath.
Notice that Abram
arranges the sacrifices for God as he instructed him. As Abram
arranged the pieces of animal halves, this would have formed a bloody path
for those who were going to promise or "cut a covenant" with
the other in this covenant ceremony.
Suddenly, Abram is in
the midst of terrifying darkness and in a deep sleep. The LORD tells him that his promises will
be fulfilled, but not immediately.
In fact, the LORD reveals to Abram how the whole of history is under
his sovereign control and direction.
In addition, God teaches Abram that the path he will take has been
well orchestrated by him. There is
nothing in the future that is uncertain or unknown in his great
omniscience. The LORD tells him that
before his seed inherits all of the promises, they will be oppressed for
over four hundred years, but this is not by accident.
God
"Cut" Off?
At this time in history,
when a king “cut” a covenant with his people, to keep his
promises to them. The people would
respond to the king’s demands by walking through two portions of an
animal. This signified that the
person who fails to keep his promises to the king, would be cut in half- -
they would be killed for disobedience and failure to keep their oath to the
king. In other words, the covenant ceremonies that Abram was familiar
with would be where the people, like himself, would walk through the bloody
path of animal pieces.
In contrast, what we
have here is not only the unexpected, but the unbelievable. The Sovereign LORD of heaven and earth
has not only revealed himself by his grace to sinful man in spite of what
they deserve; he has not only promised, literally the world to Abram and
his seed; he has not only reckoned Abram righteous because of his faith and
belief in God’s promises; but God covenants with Abram that if the
promises are not kept, God himself would be cut in half, God would have to
die!
The symbolism of the
smoking fire and flaming torch, or the cloud and the fire that God reveals
himself through later, is none other than an appearance of God Almighty as
he passes through the pieces. This
is not just amazing grace, but astounding grace! This is incomprehensible grace, but then
that is the YHWH who Abram believed by faith!
In the fullness of time,
God does come as man in the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus does walk
the bloody path, not with the blood of the halved animals forming a path,
but with his own blood and the blood of others as he walked the via
dolorosa, or way of suffering, to the cross. This is what Galatians 3
is all about when it said that Jesus became a "curse" for us
(Gal. 3:10-13).
The incredible news of
God's gospel and promise to his people is that in order to fulfill the
promises to Abram and to HIS Seed, which is Christ (Gal. 3), God would come
and take upon himself the covenant curses in order to keep his promises to
his people!
Weekly
Commemorative Covenant Ceremonies for the People of God
As the people of God,
when we look upon the cross of Jesus Christ, let us be reminded that God
always keeps his promises to his people! When we come together for
worship on the Lord's Day, let us be reminded that through the preaching of
God's Word, God is still verbally promising us that he is faithful- - and
his people respond by faith. When we come together and take the
Lord's Supper or participate in baptism, we are visually seeing God's
promises to his people. When we believe together as a people God's
Word, both verbal and visual, so we commit to one another, and honor other
above ourselves because of God's commitment to us. You could say that
every time we worship together, it is a covenant ceremony commemorated! Praise
be to God for his faithfulness!
No matter what your
difficult situation or circumstance, rest in the LORD who keeps his
promises to his people. No matter how many have caused you to
distrust, become cynical, or unbelieving of promises in this world.
Believe God! Because in the cross of Christ we see the
"yes" and we yell "amen" to the glory of God- - because
God is a promise-keeping God! When we think of our commitment to God,
let us first think of His commitment to us. Then in light of His commitment
may we live our lives committed in love to Him and to our neighbor around
us!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
This week's quotation
comes from a beautiful hymn by Charles Wesley. Now, all of you have
heard this many times perhaps. But take a moment to slowly and
carefully read the beautiful words. These words express succinctly what
God has done so graciously for us in Jesus Christ. May you ask the
same question out loud: "How can this be? That God would die for
me?" As a friend of mine put it: Oh, what a sweet paradox and
mystery that no man can fathom!
The hymn is 'And Can It Be That I Should Gain',
written by Charles Wesley in 1738. Remember, as Romans 5:8 says:
"While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." [my emphasis]
Charles Wesley
And can it be that I
should gain an int'rest in the Savior's blood?
Died he for me, who
caused his pain?
For me, who him to death
pursued?
Amazing love! How can it
be, that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it
be, that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
'Tis mystery all!
Th'Immortal dies: who can explore his strange design?
In vain the firstborn
seraph tries
to sound the depths of
love divine.
'Tis mercy all! Let
earth adore, let angel minds inqure no more.
Amazing love! How can it
be, that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
He left his Father's
throne above
(so free, so infinite
his grace!); Humbled himself (so great his love!)
and bled for all his
chosen race.
'Tis mercy all, immense
and free; for, O my God, it found out me.
Amazing love! How can it
be, that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Long my imprisoned
spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night;
thine eye diffused a
quick'ning ray;
I woke, the dungeon
flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my
heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
Amazing love! How can it
be, that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
No condemnation now I
dread; Jesus, and all in him, is mine!
Alive in him, my living
Head, and clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach
th'eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Amazing love! How can it
be, that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Special
Edition
Dedicated to Little Addie Eden
Dear Addie,
You are going to be
baptized this Lord's Day! What an exciting time for you and your
family! You are about to celebrate your four month birthday next week
and so I wanted to write you a 'Word of Encouragement'. I am thankful
that I get to be a part of your baptism service this Lord's Day.
You are a child of
God. What does that mean? In our individualistic culture, we
sometimes forget that God binds himself covenantally, or promises to his
people as families TO BE THEIR GOD.
Just as Adam, the head of our earthly family represented us before God and
fell in his transgressions against God, so God uses our fathers as the
instruments by which he communicates the grace of the Lord Jesus, the
Second Adam.
It is true that where
"sin abounds, grace super abounds"! I wanted to write you a
short letter so that you can remember this as you are about to be
baptized. To be baptized into the covenant is to be recognized as a
child of God, an heir of all of the privileges of the children of God
(Genesis 15). The sign you receive is water that symbolizes your
regeneration in Christ. You are presumed to be an elect child of God;
it is not for us to know when your regeneration comes about.
Well, this teaching I am
giving you will be different from popular notions in the evangelical church
as you grow up, unless God changes things for the better! But
remember your baptism. Don't ever forget that infant baptism
is a blessing of God. There is no such thing as an "age of
accountability"; this is unscriptural. The only so-called age of
accountability is when we begin to understand the graciousness of our
covenant God and in a response of gratitude and obedience, we offer
our children to take part in the sign of the covenant as your father and
mother are going to do this Lord's Day.
Lord willing, your Uncle
Boo and Aunt Margaret (pronounced: "Mawl-gwet") will get to see
you grow in the nurture of Christ, as Christ is formed in you throughout
your life. This 'Word of Encouragement' is dedicated to you, a child
of the covenant promises of God in Christ the Seed of Abraham and the Heir
of all of God's goodness!
I have a great quotation
from a book your father and mother should read to you soon: 'The Presbyterian Doctrine of Children in the
Covenant'. This is a classic by Lewis Bevens Schenck,
published presently by P&R.
Lewis Bevens
Schenck
"Although the time
of [the covenant child's] regeneration was not presumed, children of
believers were thought by Princeton theologians and many others to be the
true children of God.
Being within the
covenant with their parents, adoption and the promises of God belonged to
them. They were the channels in which the Spirit of God flowed.
There was an 'intimate and divinely established connection between the
faith of parents and the salvation of their children; such a connection as
authorizes them to plead God's promises, and to expect with confidence,
that through his blessing on their faithful efforts, their children will
grow up the children of God' (Charles Hodge, 'Bushnell on Christian
Nurture').
Dr. Hodge thought that
the intimate relation between parents and children was of such a nature
that the life of one was continued in the other. It was in virtue of
this intimate relationship that by the will of God and the very
constitution of human nature, the parent was regarded as the representative
of the child. For instance, he said, if the father became a citizen
of a country, his children became citizens also. The parent was
recognized as having the right in such cases to act for his child...
...The destiny of the
child was involved in that of the parent (Charles Hodge, 'The Church
Membership of Infants'). On this principle the child was believed to
be 'represented in the parent; and therefore, when the parent enters into
covenant with God, when he takes God to be his God, and consecrates himself
to his service, he does for his child, what he does for himself.'
The Promises of
God for Our Children
It was, therefore, an
ordinance of God, having its foundation in the nature which was given to
us, that whenever a parent professed the true religion and covenanted with
God to believe His truth, and to obey His will, he was bound to lay hold on
the same promises for his children. It was not a privilege merely,
but a duty arising out of the nature of their relationship, and their
allegiance to God.
Dr. B. B. Warfield
thought that...God organized his people, he said, into families first, and
then, into churches, recognizing in their very warp and woof the family
constitution. 'His promises are all the more precious that they are
to us and our children. And though this may not fit in with the
growing individualism of the day it is God's ordinance.'
...In an article on the
'History of Baptism' by Dr. S. J. Baird, we are reminded that the parental
and family relation originated with God. Having created such a
relation, imparted such love, and inspired such desires and prayers, God
answered them by identifying the parents and their children in the covenant
of grace. Hence the administration of baptism to infants, we are
told, 'is not predicated upon their presumed faith; but upon the fact that
God recognizes them as one with their parents, and, therefore, with and in
them parties to the covenant ,' whilst the parents are accepted and
authorized not to dedicate themselves only, but their seed to God.
God condescends on the
other hand to pledge Himself to accept, appropriate, and bless that
seed. [God says:] 'Do you dedicate yourselves to me as living
sacrifices and consecrate your children to be trained for my service and
glory? Then do I accept and appropriate them as mine. I will be your
God and the God of your seed (cf. Gen. 12; 15).
I will be to him a
Father and he shall be to me a son. All the blessings of grace and
glory, which the Father's love can give, the Son's blood purchase, or the
Spirit's power bestow, I give to you and to them; and in pledge of my
faithfulness to this covenant, I ordain the baptism seal.' (S. J. Baird,
'The History of Baptism').
Christian
Nurture
The great means for the
salvation of the children of the church was Christian nurture. Though
recognized as in accord with the historic Reformed doctrine, this truth was
brought freshly to the forefront...in 'Dr. Horace Bushnell's 'Discourses on
Christian Nurture'. In Dr. Charles Hodge's review of this work, he
declared that early, assiduous, and faithful Christian nurture of the
children of believing parents was the great means of their salvation.
This he regarded, as taught in the Scriptures, as reasonable in itself, and
as confirmed by the experience of the church.
Dr. Van Dyke, in his
Stone Lectures at Princeton Seminary, said 'Christian nurture, beginning in
infancy, inheriting traditional influences, and surrounded at the first
dawn of consciousness by a religious atmosphere, is the normal and divine
method for propagating the Church' (Dyke, 'The Church: Her Ministry and
Sacraments').
'The truth is,' asserted
Dr. Samuel Miller of Princeton, 'if infant baptism were properly improved,
if the profession which it includes, and the obligations it imposes ,were
suitably appreciated, and followed up, it would have few opponents. I
can no more doubt, if this were done, that it would be blessed to the
saving conversion of thousands of our young people, than I can doubt the
faithfulness of a covenanted God. Yes, infant baptism is of God,
but the fault lies in the conduct of its advocates. The
inconsistencies of its friends has done more to discredit it, than all the
arguments of its opposers, a hundred fold.' (Miller, 'Infant Baptism
Scriptural and Reasonable').
A Spiritually
Psychological Viewpoint on Baptism
...Dr. Hodge [in his
response to Bushnell comments on how the gospel is nurtured into the
child's soul], said: 'I strongly suspect that more is done, in the age
previous to language, to affect the character of children,- - than in all
the instruction and discipline of their minority afterwards; for, in this
first age, the age of impressions, there goes out in the whole manner of
the parent- - the look, the voice, the handling- - an expression of
feeling, and that feeling streams directly into the soul, and reproduces
itself there, as by a law of contagion.'
Christian parents were
to be deeply conscious themselves, and were to do their utmost to make
their children deeply conscious that they were the 'lambs of Christ's
flock.' Parents were to regard and treat their children as in the
covenant, and in this sense as the children of God.
In accordance with this
belief, Dr. Hodge said the child born in a Christian family was to be
taught that 'he/she stands in a peculiar relation to God, as being included
in his covenant and baptized in his name; that he has in virtue of that
relation a right to claim God as his Father, Christ as his Savior, and the
Holy Ghost as his sanctifier; and assured that God will recognize that
claim and receive him/her as his child, if he is faithful to his baptismal
vows'.
Consequently, the child
was to be made to understand that the feelings, acts, habits, and manners
taught and enjoined by Christ alone were suitable for one in his position,
as truly as if he/she were an adult professing Christian."
-The Presbyterian Doctrine of Children in the
Covenant, Lewis
Bevens Schenck (pp. 140-144). P&R Publishing.
Love in Christ,
Uncle Boo
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 17
Exodus 15-"The Song at the Sea"- Part 1
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
In the next two issues
of 'Word of Encouragement' we will consider the song of Moses found in
Exodus chapter 15. This study is entitled 'The Song at the
Sea'. The first part we will consider today the teaching of the first
part of the chapter, the importance of songs in Scripture, and the mighty
redemption of God revealed in the exodus from Egypt.
Songs.
Songs conjure up for us certain memories of the past. For one reason or another we love to
sing songs. We have all sung or
“whistled while we worked” so to speak. We sing many times when we are happy and
oftentimes even when we are sad. We
remember our favorite songs from the past and what do they do? They conjure of up images of past
occasions, past loves, past memories of which we are fond that enlighten
our present and make us recount the varied steps that got us to our present
place and age. There is a profound connection between songs and
memories.
Songs have importance in
Scripture as well. Like a book of
memories or a collection of photographs, God gave Israel songs to sing that
recalled the past, and his works of salvation on their behalf. The Songs in Scripture are often called
“redemptive songs”. This
is because they are God-centered (or Theocentric)
and point back to the great acts that God performed in real history to
redeem his people.
Like a scrapbook full of
memories, God provided the people of God with songs of redemption to remind
them of the vivid memories of his constant love for them…particularly
in the midst of struggles, temptations and uncertain times. The people
of God have songs to reflect upon and look back with eagerness to remember
the work that God has done on their behalf: his love, care, concern,
faithfulness, and ultimately the fact that no matter how distant in the
past, God never changes he is the same yesterday, today and forever.
These songs,
these memories, enlighten our present and help us on our journey in this
life. This is exactly the purpose of the
‘Song at the Sea’ in the middle of the Book of Exodus. You might ask yourself, “Why did
Moses pen a song in the midst of Israel’s redemption from Egypt and
prior to her coming to Sinai, and her taking the land promised because of God’s
covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?” You might wonder why a song is in the
middle of the story of Israel’s redemption, when God with a mighty
hand redeemed them from bondage and slavery. But remember Moses’ message to
Pharaoh from God earlier in the Book of Exodus: “Let my people god so
that they might worship me! Here is
the beginning of Israel as a “redeemed-worshipping”
community. So let us be reminded of
the events that preceded this Song at
the Sea.
The Crossing of
the Great Sea
Do you remember the
great event of the Exodus that precedes this song? Well, the Israelites were camped at Pi
Hahiroth and Baal Zephon with the raging sea behind them and
Pharaoh’s army mightily pursuing them! This is the proverbial “rock and a
hard place” that you’ve heard tell of! What were the Israelites to do? Were they to perish? Had God really remembered the covenant he
made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as he said earlier in Ex. 2:24? Maybe
now he had forgotten, maybe this was something that God has not
foreseen? Was Israel truly
God’s firstborn son as he said in Ex. 4:24? Was this YHWH (Adonai) able to
save…that is, was he truly the I AM of Ex. 3:14?
In all the 10 plagues,
God showed his mighty power "against the gods of Egypt", but
was he able to deliver them from Pharaoh’s strong army and
chariots? Perhaps YHWH (Adonai) had
the strength to get them “three days in the wilderness”, to
attack Egypt with plagues by his outstretched and mighty hand, but it was
as the Israelites said, only to have his children die in the
wilderness? Was this the case? Was God able to deliver from the strong
hand of Pharaoh? Yes!
God had brought the Israelites out of
Egypt with a mighty and outstretched hand so that they might worship him in
the desert. The trip was not over in
spite of how it seemed to the Israelites at the time! God had Moses stretch out his hand and he
parted the waters of the sea. In
fact, all of the Israelites, men, women and children passed through the
waters to safety. But the Egyptians,
when they tried to pursue were destroyed by the waters! So that when the Israelites got their
breath and stood at a pace in the distance, they looked back and saw the
full redemption of the LORD.
On the other side of the
Sea as soon as Moses reached a “safe” distance, he led the
people of Israel in song. You would
think he would be worried about the next day’s provision; or perhaps
the directions of how he would proceed to the place of worship from there;
or maybe he would have been concerned to understand God’s purposes in
even allowing the Egyptians to hold God’s people in slavery for over
400 years! But no! Moses led the Israelites in worship for the
simple reason of who God is in
his revelation to them and what he
had done in love for his people.
As a community of
saints, many of the Israelites would have sung this song with great tears
of joy and sadness, remembering this event when God made the
impossible…possible, and thus the reason
to worship him. The God who had
indeed remembered the covenant he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
delivered his people from the past bondage and slavery in Egypt so that his
people might be free to serve him in the future! Here is a song that reflected on the
attributes of the only God who could redeem his people. This song would be remembered for many
generations to come and every time that it was sung, it would have reminded
the Israelites of the One whom they serve and love and the One to whom they
owe their utmost allegiance and obedience- -all of their worship!
Now notice the way the
song is given to us in chapter 15 of Exodus; that is, notice the form of the song. Chapter 15, verses 1-12 is about the past
redemption from Egypt, verses 13-18 are the present and future promises, or
redemptive acts that God will perform on behalf of his people, and verses
19-21 are a repetition of the song with Miriam, the sister of Moses and
Aaron.
The immediate repetition
of the song not only shows us that it was for men and women alike as the
people of God, but more importantly, it teaches us that this song was to be
continually sung or repeated. The
acts of God were to be remembered and meditated upon continually! All of the people of God, men and women,
even several generations removed from the Exodus would still sing this song
– the great redemptive event on behalf of God’s people and of
all the OT! The people of God were
to be a worshipping community!
Moses Sings of
God and His Salvation
In the song here in Exodus 15, Moses
is reflecting in a God-centered (or Theocentric)
manner on the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Who has been revealed to him
and now to Israel and even her enemy, the nation of Egypt. He who with a strong arm and mighty hand
delivered them from under the pharaoh of Egypt, the most formidable and
powerful man of his day; the pharaoh who ruled the mightiest nation known
to men at this time in history. God
who delivered his people despite the power of the so-called mighty gods of
Egypt. When God goes to battle, our
Great and Divine Warrior, who can stand?
We must appreciate the fact that God as Divine Warrior or a
“man of ware” always leads his people in victory regardless of
the battle.
In chapter 15, verses
1-12, Moses sings of the attributes of God and he repeats the defeat of the
Egyptian power. Moses leads the
Israelites to begin their song with exaltation of God because of his
holiness and power. Look at v. 1:
“I will sing to the LORD, for He is ‘highly exalted’ or
he ‘has triumphed gloriously’, as some translations have
it. Then in the latter part v. 1 we
see the first mention of his great strength: “The horse and its rider
he has hurled into the sea.”
Then in v.2, Moses sings
that not only is the Lord his strength and the content of his singing, but
in his redemptive work, he has become his salvation. In addition, Moses sings in v. 2b that
God is the covenantal God, the God of his father who keeps his promises to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then the first
part of the song ends with another exaltation. The song begins and ends the first
refrain with an exaltation of the mighty God in Israel.
In v. 3, we want to
appreciate the LORD’s attribute as Divine Warrior or “man of
war”, and his name is the LORD.
Who God is is communicated
in his holy name and what he has done is revealed in the LORD as a Warrior
on behalf of his people. Moses
records here the magnificent and awe-inspiring attribute of God as a Divine
Warrior who wars against the enemies of his people to bring great
salvation! The God who has revealed
himself to Moses and Israel by name, the name of “I AM” back in
Ex. 3:14, is praised for the revelation of his being and power!
Now you should
appreciate a pattern in the song. That is: between God’s attributes
or revelation of himself- - and his
acts. Remember, God and his
acts…Who God is…What God has done…is what
Moses is communicating in this sacred song.
What is the act which Israel was to remember? Again, vv. 4-5: “Pharaoh’s
chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharoah’s officers are drowned
in the Red Sea. The deep waters have
covered them; they sank to the depth like a stone.” God as Divine Warrior has destroyed his
enemies and the enemies of his people!
Just because he is the LORD- - that is His Name - -and there is no
other!
Notice in vv. 6-10,
there is the remembrance of the great war or conflict between the strong
and powerful arm of the Lord and the strong arm or power of Pharaoh and the
Egyptians. Moses sings in v. 6 that
your “right hand” was both “majestic in power” and
that it “shattered the enemy.
Nothing can withstand the power of the Lord’s outstretched
hand…nothing, including the most powerful nation on the face of the
earth!
In v. 7, Moses describes
God’s dealings with Pharaoh and the great Egyptian army. He sings, “In the greatness of your
majesty, you threw down [overthrown;
beat down those who opposed you…you unleashed your burning anger
or wrath…it consumed them.”
God is truly Divine Warrior, notice the devastating language: God threw
down, or beat down, then he sent forth, or better unleashed his wrath against Pharaoh
and his powerful army. You can feel
in the verbs here, God’s power pulverizing and devastating his
enemies!
Verse 8 says that
“by the blast of your nostrils” the waters piled up …they
stood firm like a wall and congealed in the heart of the sea. The wind
or breath of God’s nostrils and the congealing of the sea or the waters should remind us of the
creation account of Genesis 1.
Remember how God’s Spirit hovered or brooded over the face of the
deep, bringing order from chaos?
Remember how God divided or separated the waters to make the heavens
and the seas? This time, God has
used the waters to destroy, to bring death rather than life as in the
creation.
Remember, for
the Egyptians, water was the source of all of their life; ironically, the
LORD makes the source of their life, the place of their death. The God
of the Exodus, is the God who is worthy to be worshipped as the God of all
creation. Not only does he save his
people from slavery and bondage in Egypt, not only does he bring them
through the Red Sea with his almighty, supernatural powers, but all of
creation is ruled by this Majestic King- -there is nothing outside His rule
and authority including the mighty power of the sea!
To Be
Continued....
In the next study, we
will consider the sea in the ancient Near East and meditate upon other
redemptive songs in Scripture as well as the songs of redemption we have in
Christ as the people of God today!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
This Lord's day is the
300th anniversary of Jonathan Edwards' birth (Edwards was born on October
5, 1703). Edwards was a faithful preacher and the greatest theologian
America has ever produced. Edwards taught much on the holiness of God
and by God's gracious Spirit led America in a real revival to Biblical
Christianity in the 18th century. One of his most popular sermons is
called: 'Sinners in the Hands of an
Angry God'. One of his most underrated writings
is called: 'A Dissertation on
the End for Which God Created the World'. Both
are essential reading!
I have included the first
part of 'End for Which God Created the World' as our quote of the
week. It is quite lengthy (as all dissertations, writings and sermons
were before the advent of television), but it is worth the effort of
printing it out and reading it in your devotional or time set apart for
good theological reading. I will send the next part as next week's
'Quote of the Week'. May God bless you richly as you read this
important writing.
Just a short
introduction to the writing. The question was asked: "Why would a
perfect Being such as God, have a need to create when he was perfectly
blessed and beautiful and happy within himself in His Trinitarian
existence?" Edward writes this treatise in response to that
question.
Jonathan Edwards had a
knack, a gift if you will, of explaining and presenting the beautiful
holiness and glorious attributes of the living God. He has helped
many in their thinking about God. In our time, what we need is a true
focus on the God whom we serve as Christians and we need to be reminded (or
taught for the first time), his glorious beauty. May the Holy Spirit
be pleased to use this writing to accomplish this in your life!
[Note: If you would like
me to send this to you as a Word Document attachment, I will be glad to do
it- - just ask!]
Jonathan Edwards
A Dissertation Concerning The End For Which God
Created The World
By
Jonathan Edwards
CHAPTER
I
WHEREIN IS
CONSIDERED, WHAT REASON TEACHES CONCERNING THIS AFFAIR.
SECTION
I
Some things
observed in general, which reason dictates
HAVING observed
these things, to prevent confusion, I now proceed to consider what may, and
what may not, be supposed to be God’s ultimate end in the creation of
the world.
Indeed this
affair seems properly to be an affair of divine revelation. In order to be
determined what was designed, in the creating of the astonishing fabric of
the universe we behold, it becomes us to attend to, and rely on, what HE
has told us, who was the architect. He best knows his own heart, and what
his own ends and designs were, in the wonderful works which he has wrought.
Nor is it to be supposed that mankind — who, while destitute of
revelation, by the utmost improvements of their own reason, and advances in
science and philosophy, could come to no clear and established determination
who the author of the world was — would ever have obtained any
tolerable settled judgment of the end which the author of it proposed to
himself in so vast, complicated, and wonderful a work of his hands. And
though it be true, that the revelation which God has given to men, as a
light shining in a dark place, has been the occasion of great improvement
of their faculties, and has taught men how to use their reason; and though
mankind now, through the long-continued assistance they have had by this
divine light, have come to great attainments in the habitual exercise of
reason; yet I confess it would be relying too much on reason, to determine
the affair of God’s last end in the creation of the world, without
being herein principally guided by divine revelation, since God has given a
revelation containing instructions concerning this very matter.
Nevertheless, as objections have chiefly been made, against what I think
the Scriptures have truly revealed, from the pretended dictates of reason,
I would, in the first place, soberly consider in a few things, what seems
rational to be supposed concerning this affair; — and then proceed to
consider what light divine revelation gives us in it.
As to the first
of these, I think the following things appear to be the dictates of reason:
1. That no
notion of God’s last end in the creation of the world, is agreeable
to reason, which would truly imply any indigence, insufficiency, and
mutability in God; or any dependence of the Creator on the creature, for any
part of his perfection or happiness. Because it is evident, by both
Scripture and reason, that God is infinitely, eternally, unchangeably, and
independently glorious and happy: that he cannot be profited by, or receive
anything from, the creature; or be the subject of any sufferings, or
diminution of his glory and felicity, from any other being. The notion of
God creating the world, in order to receive anything properly from the
creature, is not only contrary to the nature of God, but inconsistent with the
notion of creation; which implies a being receiving its existence, and all
that belongs to it, out of nothing. And this implies the most perfect,
absolute, and universal derivation and dependence. Now, if the creature
receives its ALL from God, entirely and perfectly, how is it possible that it
should have anything to add to God, to make him in any respect more than he
was before, and so the Creator become dependent on the creature?
2. Whatsoever
is good and valuable in itself, is worthy that God should value it
with an ultimate respect. It is therefore worthy to be made the last
end of his operation; if it be properly capable of being attained. For
it may be supposed that some things, valuable and excellent in themselves,
are not properly capable of being attained in any divine operation; because
their existence, in all possible respects, must be conceived of as prior to
any divine operation. Thus God’s existence and infinite perfection,
though infinitely valuable in themselves, cannot be supposed to be the end
of any divine operation; for we cannot conceive of them as, in any respect,
consequent on any works of God. But whatever is in itself valuable,
absolutely so, and is capable of being sought and attained, is worthy to be
made a last end of the divine operation. — Therefore,
3. Whatever
that be which is in itself most valuable, and was so originally, prior to
the creation of the world, and which is attainable by the creation, if
there be anything which was superior in value to all others, that must be
worthy to be God’s last end in the creation; and also worthy to be
his highest end. — In consequence of this it will follow,
4. That if God
himself be, in any respect, properly capable of being his own end in the
creation of the world, then it is reasonable to suppose that he had respect
to himself, as his last and highest end, in this work; because he is worthy
in himself to be so, being infinitely the greatest and best of beings. All
things else, with regard to worthiness, importance, and excellence, are
perfectly as nothing in comparison of him. And therefore, if God has
respect to things according to their nature and proportions, he must
necessarily have the greatest respect to himself. It would be against the
perfection of his nature, his wisdom, holiness, and perfect rectitude,
whereby he is disposed to do every thing that is fit to be done, to suppose
otherwise. At least, a great part of the moral rectitude of God, whereby he
is disposed to every thing that is fit, suitable, and amiable in itself,
consists in his having the highest regard to that which is in itself
highest and best. The moral rectitude of God must consist in a due respect
to things that are objects of moral respect; that is, to intelligent beings
capable of moral actions and relations. And therefore it must chiefly
consist in giving due respect to that Being to whom most is due; for God is
infinitely the most worthy of regard. The worthiness of others is as
nothing to his; so that to him belongs all possible respect. To him belongs
the whole of the respect that any intelligent being is capable of. To him
belongs ALL the heart. Therefore, if moral rectitude of heart consists in
paying the respect of the heart which is due, or which fitness and
suitableness requires, fitness requires infinitely the greatest regard to
be paid to God; and the denying of supreme regard here would be a conduct
infinitely the most unfit. Hence it will follow, that the moral rectitude
of the disposition, inclination, or affection of God CHIEFLY consists in a
regard to HIMSELF, infinitely above his regard to all other beings; or, in
other words, his holiness consists in this.
And if it be
thus fit that God should have a supreme regard to himself, then it is fit
that this supreme regard should appear in those things by which he makes
himself known, or by his word and works, i.e. in what he says, and in what
he does. If it be an infinitely amiable thing in God, that he should
have a supreme regard to himself, then it is an amiable thing that he
should act as having a chief regard to himself; or act in such a manner, as
to show that he has such a regard that what is highest in God’s
heart, may be highest in his actions and conduct. And if it was God’s
intention, as there is great reason to think it was, that his works should
exhibit an image of himself their author, that it might brightly appear by
his works what manner of being he is, and afford a proper representation of
his divine excellencies, and especially his moral excellence, consisting in
the disposition of his heart; then it is reasonable to suppose that his
works are so wrought as to show this supreme respect to himself, wherein
his moral excellence primarily consists.
When we are
considering what would be most fit for God chiefly to respect, with regard
to the universality of things, it may help us to judge with greater ease
and satisfaction, to consider, what we can suppose would be determined by
some third being of perfect wisdom and rectitude, that should be perfectly
indifferent and disinterested. Or if we make the supposition, that
infinitely wise justice and rectitude were a distinct disinterested person,
whose office it was to determine how things shall be most properly ordered
in the whole kingdom of existence, including king and subjects, God and his
creatures; and, upon a view of the whole, to decide what regard should
prevail in all proceedings. Now such a judge, in adjusting the proper
measures and kinds of regard, would weigh things in an even balance; taking
care, that a greater part of the whole should be more respected, than the
lesser, in proportion (other things being equal) to the measure of
existence. So that the degree of regard should always be in a
proportion of excellence, or according to the degree of greatness and
goodness, considered conjunctly. Such an arbiter, in considering the
system of created intelligent beings by itself, would determine, that the system
in general, consisting of many millions, was of greater importance, and
worthy of a greater share of regard, than only one individual. For, however
considerable some of the individuals might be, no one exceeds others so
much as to countervail all the system. And if this judge consider not only
the system of created beings, but the system of being in general,
comprehending the sum total of universal existence, both Creator and
creature; still every part must be considered according to its importance,
or the measure it has of existence and excellence. To determine then, what
proportion of regard is to be allotted to the Creator, and all his
creatures taken together, both must be as it were put in the balance; the
Supreme Being, with all in him that is great and excellent, is to be
compared with all that is to be found in the whole creation: and
according as the former is found to outweigh, in such proportion is he to
have a greater share of regard. And in this case, as the whole system of
created beings, in comparison of the Creator, would be found as the light
dust of the balance, or even as nothing and vanity; so the arbiter must
determine accordingly with respect to the degree in which God should be
regarded, by all intelligent existence, in all actions and proceedings,
determinations and effects whatever, whether creating, preserving, using,
disposing, changing, or destroying. And as the Creator is infinite, and has
all possible existence, perfection, and excellence, so he must have all
possible regard. As he is every way the first and supreme, and as his
excellency is in all respects the supreme beauty and glory, the original
good, and fountain of all good; so he must have in all respects the supreme
regard. And as he is God over all, to whom all are properly subordinate,
and on whom all depend, worthy to reign as supreme Head, with absolute and
universal dominion; so it is fit that he should be so regarded by all, and
in all proceedings and effects through the whole system: The universality
of things, in their whole compass and series, should look to him, in such a
manner, as that respect to him should reign over all respect to other
things, and regard to creatures should, universally, be subordinate and
subject.
When I speak of
regard to be thus adjusted in the universal system, I mean the regard of
the sum total; all intelligent existence, created and uncreated. For it is
fit, that the regard of the Creator should be proportioned to the
worthiness of objects, as well as the regard of creatures. Thus, we must
conclude, that such an arbiter as I have supposed, would determine, that
the whole universe, in all its actings, proceedings, revolution, and entire
series of events, should proceed with a view to God, as the supreme and
last end; that every wheel, in all its rotations, should move with a
constant invariable regard to him as the ultimate end of all; as perfectly
and uniformly, as if the whole system were animated and directed by one
common soul. Or, as if such an arbiter as I have before supposed, possessed
of perfect wisdom and rectitude, became the common soul of the universe,
and actuated and governed it in all its motions.
Thus I have
gone upon the supposition of a third disinterested person. The thing
supposed is impossible; but the case is, nevertheless, just the same, as to
what is most fit and suitable in itself. For it is most certainly proper
for God to act, according to the greatest fitness, and he knows what the
greatest fitness is, as much as if perfect rectitude were a distinct person
to direct him. God himself is possessed of that perfect discernment and
rectitude which have been supposed. It belongs to him as supreme arbiter,
and to his infinite wisdom and rectitude, to state all rules and measures
of proceedings. And seeing these attributes of God are infinite, and most
absolutely perfect, they are not the less fit to order and dispose, because
they are in him, who is a being concerned, and not a third person that is
disinterested. For being interested unfits a person to be an arbiter or
judge, no otherwise, than as interest tends to mislead his judgment, or
incline him to act contrary to it. But that God should be in danger of
either, is contrary to the supposition of his being absolutely perfect. And
as there must be some supreme judge of fitness and propriety in the
universality of things, or otherwise there could be no order, it therefore
belongs to God, whose are all things, who is perfectly fit for this office,
and who alone is so, to state all things according to the most perfect
fitness and rectitude, as much as if perfect rectitude were a distinct
person. We may therefore be sure it is and will be done.
I should think
that these things might incline us to suppose, that God has not forgot
himself, in the ends which he proposed in the creation of the world; but
that he has so stated these ends (however self-sufficient, immutable, and
independent), as therein plainly to show a supreme regard to himself.
Whether this can be, or whether God has done thus, must be considered
afterwards, as also what may be objected against this view of things.
5. Whatsoever
is good, amiable, and valuable in itself, absolutely and originally (which
facts and events show that God aimed at in the creation of the world), must
be supposed to be regarded or aimed at by God ultimately, or as an ultimate
end of creation. For we must suppose, from the perfection of God’s
nature, that whatsoever is valuable and amiable in itself, simply and
absolutely considered, God values simply for itself; because God’s
judgment and esteem are according to truth. But if God values a thing
simply and absolutely on its own account, then it is the ultimate object of
his value. For to suppose that he values it only for some farther end, is
in direct contradiction to the present supposition, which is, that he
values it absolutely, and for itself. Hence it most clearly follows, that
if that which God values for itself, appears, in fact and
experience, to be what he seeks by anything he does, he must regard it as
an ultimate end. And, therefore, if he seeks it in creating the world, or
any part of the world, it is an ultimate end of the work of creation.
Having got thus far, we may now proceed a step farther, and assert:
6. Whatsoever
thing is actually the effect of the creation of the world, which is simply
and absolutely valuable in itself, that thing is an ultimate end of
God’s creating the world. We see that it is a good which God aimed at
by the creation of the world; because he has actually attained it by that
means. For we may justly infer what God intends, by what he actually
does; because he does nothing inadvertently, or without design. But
whatever God intends to attain, from a value for it, in his actions and
works, that he seeks in those acts and works. Because, for an agent to
intend to attain something he values by the means he uses, is the same
thing as to seek it by those means. And this is the same as to make that
thing his end in those means. Now, it being, by the supposition, what God
values ultimately, it must therefore, by the preceding position, be aimed
at by God, as an ultimate end of creating the world.
CHAPTER I
SECTION II
Some further
observations concerning those things which reason leads us to suppose God
aimed at in the creation of the world
FROM what was
last observed, it seems to be the most proper way of proceeding — as
we would see what light reason will give us, respecting the particular end
or ends God had ultimately in view in the creation of the world — to
consider, what thing or things are actually the effect or consequence of
the creation of the world, that are simply and originally valuable in themselves.
And this is what I would directly proceed to, without entering on any
tedious metaphysical inquiries, wherein fitness, or amiableness, consists;
referring what I say to the dictates of the reader’s mind, on sedate
and calm reflection.
1. It seems a
thing in itself proper and desirable, that the glorious attributes of God,
which consist in a sufficiency to certain acts and effects, should be
exerted in the production of such effects as might manifest his infinite
power, wisdom, righteousness, goodness, etc. If the world had not been
created, these attributes never would have had any exercise. The power of
God, which is a sufficiency in him to produce great effects, must forever
have been dormant and useless as to any effect. The divine wisdom and prudence
would have had no exercise in any wise contrivance, any prudent proceeding,
or disposal of things; for there would have been no objects of contrivance
or disposal. The same might be observed of God’s justice, goodness,
and truth. Indeed God might have known as perfectly that he
possessed these attributes, if they never had been exerted or expressed in
any effect. But then, if the attributes which consist in a sufficiency for
correspondent effects, are in themselves excellent, the exercises of them
must likewise be excellent. If it be an excellent thing, that there should
be a sufficiency for a certain kind of action or operation, the excellency
of such a sufficiency must consist in its relation to this kind of
operation or effect; but that could not be, unless the operation itself
were excellent. A sufficiency for any work is no further valuable, than the
work itself is valuable. As God therefore esteems these attributes
themselves valuable, and delights in them; so it is natural to suppose that
he delights in their proper exercise and expression. For the same reason
that he esteems his own sufficiency wisely to contrive and dispose effects,
he also will esteem the wise contrivance and disposition itself. And for
the same reason, as he delights in his own disposition to do justly, and to
dispose of things according to truth and just proportion; so he must
delight in such a righteous disposal itself.
2. It seems to
be a thing in itself fit and desirable, that the glorious perfections of
God should be known, and the operations and expressions of them seen, by
other beings besides himself. If it be fit that God’s power and
wisdom, etc. should be exercised and expressed in some effects, and not lie
eternally dormant, then it seems proper that these exercises should appear,
and not be totally hidden and unknown. For if they are, it will be just the
same, as to the above purpose, as if they were not. God as perfectly knew
himself and his perfections, had as perfect an idea of the exercises and
effects they were sufficient for, antecedently to any such actual
operations of them, and since. If, therefore, it be nevertheless a thing in
itself valuable, and worthy to be desired, that these glorious perfections
be actually exhibited in their correspondent effects; then it seems also,
that the knowledge of these perfections and discoveries is valuable in
itself absolutely considered; and that it is desirable that this knowledge
should exist. It is a thing infinitely good in itself, that God’s
glory should be known by a glorious society of created beings. And that
there should be in them an increasing knowledge of God to all eternity, is
worthy to be regarded by him, to whom it belongs to order what is fittest
and best. If existence is more worthy than defect and non-entity, and if
any created existence is in itself worthy to be, then knowledge is; and if
any knowledge, then the most excellent sort of knowledge, viz. that
of God and his glory. This knowledge is one of the highest, most real, and
substantial parts of all created existence, most remote from non-entity and
defect.
3. As it is
desirable in itself that God’s glory should be known, so when known
it seems equally reasonable it should be esteemed and delighted in,
answerably to its dignity. There is no more reason to esteem it a suitable
thing, that there should be an idea in the understanding corresponding unto
the glorious object, than that there should be a corresponding affection in
the will. If the perfection itself be excellent, the knowledge of it is
excellent, and so is the esteem and love of it excellent. And as it is fit
that God should love and esteem his own excellence, it is also fit that he
should value and esteem the love of his excellency. And if it becomes a
being highly to value himself, it is fit that he should love to have
himself valued and esteemed. If the idea of God’s perfection in the
understanding be valuable, then the love of the heart seems to be more
especially valuable, as moral beauty especially consists in the disposition
and affection of the heart.
4. As there is
an infinite fullness of all possible good in God — a fullness of
every perfection, of all excellency and beauty, and of infinite happiness
— and as this fullness is capable of communication, or emanation ad
extra; so it seems a thing amiable and valuable in itself that this
infinite fountain of good should send forth abundant streams. And as this
is in itself excellent, so a disposition to this in the Divine Being, must
be looked upon as an excellent disposition. Such an emanation of good is,
in some sense, a multiplication of it. So far as the stream may be looked
upon as anything besides the fountain, so far it may be looked on as an
increase of good. And if the fullness of good that is in the fountain, is
in itself excellent, then the emanation, which is as it were an increase,
repetition, or multiplication of it, is excellent. Thus it is fit, since
there is an infinite fountain of light and knowledge, that this light
should shine forth in beams of communicated knowledge and understanding;
and, as there is an infinite fountain of holiness, moral excellence, and
beauty, that so it should flow out in communicated holiness. And that, as
there is an infinite fullness of joy and happiness, so these should have an
emanation, and become a fountain flowing out in abundant streams, as beams
from the sun.
Thus it appears
reasonable to suppose, that it was God’s last end, that there might
be a glorious and abundant emanation of his infinite fullness of good ad
extra, or without himself; and that the disposition to communicate
himself, or diffuse his own FULLNESS, was what moved him to create
the world. For an inclination in God to communicate himself to an object,
seems to presuppose the existence of the object, at least in idea. But the
diffusive disposition that excited God to give creatures existence, was
rather a communicative disposition in general, or a disposition in the
fullness of the divinity to flow out and diffuse itself. Thus the
disposition there is in the root and stock of a tree to diffuse sap and
life, is doubtless the reason of their communication to its buds, leaves,
and fruits, after these exist. But a disposition to communicate of its life
and sap to its fruits, is not so properly the cause of its producing those fruits,
as its disposition to diffuse its sap and life in general. Therefore, to
speak strictly according to truth, we may suppose, that a disposition in
God, as an original property of his nature, to an emanation of his own
infinite fullness, was what excited him to create the world; and so, that
the emanation itself was aimed at by him as a last end of the creation.
CHAPTER I
SECTION III
Wherein it
is considered how, on the supposition of God’s making the
aforementioned things his last end, he manifests a supreme and ultimate
regard to himself in all his works
IN the last
section I observed some things which are actually the consequence of the
creation of the world, which seem absolutely valuable in themselves, and so
worthy to be made God’s last end in his work. I now proceed to
inquire, how God’s making such things as these his last end, is
consistent with his making himself his last end, or his manifesting an
ultimate respect to himself in his acts and works. Because it is agreeable to
the dictates of reason, that in all his proceedings he should set himself
highest; therefore, I would endeavor to show, how his infinite love to and
delight in himself, will naturally cause him to value and delight in these
things: or rather, how a value to these things is implied in his value of
that infinite fullness of good that is in himself.
Now, with
regard to the first of the particulars mentioned above — God’s
regard to the exercise of those attributes of his nature, in their proper
operations and effects, which consist in a sufficiency for these operations
— it is not hard to conceive that God’s regard to himself, and
value for his own perfections, should cause him to value these exercises
and expressions of his perfections; inasmuch as their excellency consists
in their relation to use, exercise, and operation. God’s love to
himself, and his own attributes, will therefore make him delight in that
which is the use, end, and operation of these attributes. If one highly
esteem and delight in the virtues of a friend, as wisdom, justice, etc.
that have relation to action, this will make him delight in the exercise
and genuine effects of these virtues. So if God both esteem and delight in
his own perfections and virtues, he cannot but value and delight in the expressions
and genuine effects of them. So that in delighting in the expressions of
his perfections, he manifests a delight in himself; and in making these
expressions of his own perfections his end, he makes himself his end.
And with
respect to the second and third particulars, the matter is no less plain.
For he that loves any being, and has a disposition highly to prize and
greatly to delight in his virtues and perfections, must from the same
disposition be well pleased to have his excellencies known, acknowledged,
esteemed, and prized by others. He that loves anything, naturally loves the
approbation of that thing, and is opposite to the disapprobation of it.
Thus it is when one loves the virtues of a friend. And thus it will
necessarily be, if a being loves himself and highly prizes his own
excellencies; and thus it is fit it should be, if it be fit he should thus
love himself, and prize his own valuable qualities; that is, it is fit that
he should take delight in his own excellencies being seen, acknowledged,
esteemed, and delighted in. This is implied in a love to himself and his
own perfections; and in making this his end, he makes himself his end.
And with
respect to the fourth and last particular, viz. God’s being disposed
to an abundant communication, and glorious emanation, of that infinite
fullness of God which he possesses, as of his own knowledge, excellency,
and happiness, in the manner he does; if we thoroughly consider the matter,
it will appear, that herein also God makes himself his end, in such a
sense, as plainly to manifest and testify a supreme and ultimate regard to
himself.
Merely in this
disposition to cause an emanation of his glory and fullness — which
is prior to the existence of any other being, and is to be considered as
the inciting cause of giving existence to other beings — God cannot
so properly be said to make the creature his end, as himself. For
the creature is not as yet considered as existing. This disposition or
desire in God, must be prior to the existence of the creature, even
in foresight. For it is a disposition that is the original ground even of
the future, intended, and foreseen existence of the creature. God’s
benevolence, as it respects the creature, may be taken either in a larger
or stricter sense. In a larger sense, it may signify nothing diverse from
that good disposition in his nature to communicate of his own fullness in
general; as his knowledge, his holiness, and happiness; and to give
creatures existence in order to it. This may be called benevolence, or
love, because it is the same good disposition that is exercised in love. It
is the very fountain from whence love originally proceeds, when taken in
the most proper sense; and it has the same general tendency and effect in
the creature’s well-being. But yet this cannot have any particular
present or future created existence for its object; because it is prior to
any such object, and the very source of the futurities of its existence.
Nor is it really diverse from God’s love to himself; as will more
clearly appear afterwards.
But God’s
love may be taken more strictly, for this general disposition to
communicate good, as directed to particular objects. Love, in the
most strict and proper sense, presupposes the existence of the object
beloved, at least in idea and expectation, and represented to the mind as
future. God did not love angels in the strictest sense, but in consequence
of his intending to create them, and so having an idea of future existing
angels. Therefore his love to them was not properly what excited him to
intend to create them. Love or benevolence, strictly taken, presupposes and
existing object, as much as pity a miserable suffering object.
This propensity
in God to diffuse himself, may be considered as a propensity to himself diffused;
or to his own glory existing in its emanation. A respect to himself, or an
infinite propensity to and delight in his own glory, is that which causes
him to incline to its being abundantly diffused, and to delight in the
emanation of it. Thus, that nature in a tree, by which it puts forth buds,
shoots out branches, and brings forth leaves and fruit, is a disposition
that terminates in its own complete self. And so the disposition in the sun
to shine, or abundantly to diffuse its fullness, warmth, and brightness, is
only a tendency to its own most glorious and complete state. So God looks
on the communication of himself, and the emanation of his infinite glory,
to belong to the fullness and completeness of himself; as though he were
not in his most glorious state without it. Thus the church of Christ
(toward whom and in whom are the emanations of his glory, and the
communication of his fullness), is called the fullness of Christ; as
though he were not in his complete state without her; like Adam without
Eve. And the church is called the glory of Christ, as the woman is the
glory of the man, 1 Cor. 11:7; Isa. 46:13. I will place salvation in
Zion, for Israel MY GLORY — Indeed, after the creatures are
intended to be created, God may be conceived of as being moved by
benevolence to them, in the strictest sense, in his dealings with them. His
exercising his goodness, and gratifying his benevolence to them in
particular, may be the spring of all God’s proceedings through the
universe; as being now the determined way of gratifying his general
inclination to diffuse himself. Here God acting for himself, or making
himself his last end, and his acting for their sake, are not to be set in
opposition; they are rather to be considered as coinciding one with the other,
and implied one in the other. But yet God is to be considered as first and
original in his regard; and the creature is the object of God’s
regard, consequently, and by implication, as being as it were comprehended
in God; as it shall be more particularly observed presently.
But how
God’s value for, and delight in, the emanations of his fullness in
the work of creation, argues his delight in the infinite fullness of good
in himself, and the supreme regard he has for himself; and that in making
these emanations, he ultimately makes himself his end in creation; will
more clearly appear by considering more particularly the nature and
circumstances of these communications of God’s fullness.
One part of
that divine fullness which is communicated, is the divine knowledge. That
communicated knowledge, which must be supposed to pertain to God’s
last end in creating the world, is the creature’s knowledge of HIM
for this is the end of all other knowledge; and even the faculty of
understanding would be vain without it. And this knowledge is most properly
a communication of God’s infinite knowledge, which primarily consists
in the knowledge of himself. God, in making this his end, makes himself his
end. This knowledge in the creature, is but a conformity to God. It is the
image of God’s own knowledge of himself. It is a participation of the
same; though infinitely less in degree: as particular beams of the sun
communicated are the light and glory of the sun itself, in part.
Besides,
God’s glory is the object of this knowledge, or the thing known; so
that God is glorified in it, as hereby his excellency is seen. As therefore
God values himself, as he delights in his own knowledge, he must delight in
every thing of that nature: as he delights in his own light, he must
delight in every beam of that light; and as he highly values his own
excellency, he must be well pleased in having it manifested, and so
glorified.
Another
emanation of divine fullness, is the communication of virtue and holiness
to the creature: this is a communication of God’s holiness; so that
hereby the creature partakes of God’s own moral excellency; which is
properly the beauty of the divine nature. And as God delights in his own
beauty, he must necessarily delight in the creature’s holiness; which
is a conformity to and participation of it, as truly as a brightness of a
jewel. Held in the sun’s beams, is a participation or derivation of
the sun’s brightness, though immensely less in degree. And then it
must be considered wherein this holiness in the creature consists, viz.
in love, which is the comprehension of all true virtue; and primarily in
love to God, which is exercised in a high esteem of God, admiration of his
perfections, complacency in them, and praise of them. All which things are
nothing else but the heart exalting, magnifying, or glorifying God; which,
as I showed before, God necessarily approves of, and is pleased with, as he
loves himself, and values the glory of his own nature.
Another part of
God’s fullness which he communicates, is his happiness. This
happiness consists in enjoying and rejoicing in himself; and so does also
the creature’s happiness. It is a participation of what is in God;
and God and his glory are the objective ground of it. The happiness of the
creature consists in rejoicing in God; by which also God is magnified and
exalted. Joy, or the exulting of the heart in God’s glory, is one
thing that belongs to praise. So that God is all in all, with respect to
each part of that communication of the divine fullness which is made to the
creature. What is communicated is divine, or something of God; and each
communication is of that nature, that the creature to whom it is made, is
thereby conformed to God, and untied to him: and that in proportion as the
communication is greater or less. And the communication itself is no other,
in the very nature of it, than that wherein the very honor, exaltation, and
praise of God consists.
And it is farther to be considered, that what God aimed at in the
creation of the world, as the end which he had ultimately in view, was that
communication of himself which he intended through all eternity. And if we
attend to the nature and circumstances of this eternal emanation of divine
good, it will more clearly show HOW, in making this his end, God testifies
a supreme respect to himself, and makes himself his end. There are many
reasons to think that what God has in view, in an increasing communication
of himself through eternity, is an increasing knowledge of God, love to
him, and joy in him. And it is to be considered, that the more those divine
communications increase in the creature, the more it becomes one with God:
for so much the more is it united to God in love, the heart is drawn nearer
and nearer to God, and the union with him becomes more firm and close: and,
at the same time, the creature becomes more and more conformed to God. The
image is more and more perfect, and so the good that is in the creature
comes forever nearer and nearer to an identity with that which is in God.
In the view therefore of God, who has a comprehensive prospect of the
increasing union and conformity through eternity, it must be an infinitely
strict and perfect nearness, conformity, and oneness. For it will forever
come nearer and nearer to that strictness and perfection of union which
there is between the Father and the Son. So that in the eyes of God, who
perfectly sees the whole of it, in its infinite progress and increase, it
must come to an eminent fulfillment of Christ’s request, in John
17:21, 23. That they all may be ONE, as thou Father art in me, and I in
thee, that they also may be ONE in us; I in them and thou in me, that they
may be made perfect in ONE. In this view, those elect creatures, which
must be looked upon as the end of all the rest of the creation, considered
with respect to the whole of their eternal duration, and as such made
God’s end, must be viewed as being, as it were, one with God. They
were respected as brought home to him, united with him, centering most
perfectly, as it were swallowed up in him: so that his respect to them
finally coincides, and becomes one and the same, with respect to himself.
The interest of the creature is, as it were, God’s own interest, in
proportion to the degree of their relation and union to God. Thus the interest
of a man’s family is looked upon as the same with his own interest;
because of the relation they stand in to him, his propriety in them, and
their strict union with him. But God’s elect creatures, with respect
to their eternal duration, are infinitely dearer to God, than a man’s
family is to him. What has been said shows, that as all things are from
God, as their first cause and fountain; so all things tend to him, and in
their progress come nearer and nearer to him through all eternity which
argues, that he who is their first cause is their last end.
CHAPTER I
SECTION IV
Some
objections considered, which may be made against the reasonableness of what
has been said of God making himself his last end.
OBJECT. I. Some
may object against what has been said as being inconsistent with
God’s absolute independence and immutability: particularly, as though
God were inclined to a communication of his fullness, and emanations of his
own glory, as being his own most glorious and complete state. It may be
thought that this does not well consist with God, being self-existent from
all eternity; absolutely perfect in himself, in the possession of infinite
and independent good. And that, in general, to suppose that God makes
himself his end, in the creation of the world, seems to suppose that he
aims at some interest or happiness of his own, not easily reconcilable with
his being perfectly and infinitely happy in himself. If it could be
supposed that God needed anything; or that the goodness of his creatures could
extend to him; or that they could be profitable to him; it might be fit,
that God should make himself, and his own interest, his highest and last
end in creating the world. But seeing that God is above all need, and all
capacity of being made better or happier in any respect; to what purpose
should God make himself his end, or seek to advance himself in any respect
by any of his works? How absurd is it to suppose that God should do such
great things, with a view to obtain what he is already most perfectly
possessed of, and was so from all eternity; and therefore cannot now
possibly need, nor with any color of reason be supposed to seek!
Ans. 1. Many have wrong notions of God’s
happiness, as resulting from his absolute self-sufficiency, independence,
and immutability. Though it be true, that God’s glory and happiness
are in and of himself, are infinite and cannot be added to, and
unchangeable, for the whole and every part of which he is perfectly
independent of the creature; yet it does not hence follow, nor is it true,
that God has no real and proper delight, pleasure, or happiness, in any of
his acts or communications relative to the creature, or effects he produces
in them; or in anything he sees in the creature’s qualifications,
dispositions, actions and state.
God may have a
real and proper pleasure or happiness in seeing the happy state of the
creature; yet this may not be different from his delight in himself; being
a delight in his own infinite goodness; or the exercise of that glorious
propensity of his nature to diffuse and communicate himself, and so
gratifying this inclination of his own heart. This delight which God has in
his creature’s happiness, cannot properly be said to be what God
receives from the creature. For it is only the effect of his own work in
and communications to the creature; in making it, and admitting it to a
participation of his fullness. As the sun receives nothing from the jewel
that receives its light, and shines only by a participation of its
brightness.
With respect
also to the creature’s holiness; God may have a proper delight
and joy in imparting this to the creature, as gratifying hereby his
inclination to communicate of his own excellent fullness. God may delight,
with true and great pleasure, in beholding that beauty which is an image
and communication of his own beauty, an expression and manifestation of his
own loveliness. And this is so far from being an instance of his happiness
not being in and from himself, that it is an evidence that he is happy in himself,
or delights and has pleasure in his own beauty. If he did not take pleasure
in the expression of his own beauty, it would rather be an evidence that he
does not delight in his own beauty; that he has not his happiness and
enjoyment in his own beauty and perfection. So that if we suppose God has
real pleasure and happiness in the holy love and praise of his saints, as
the image and communication of his own holiness, it is not properly any
pleasure distinct from the pleasure he has in himself; but it is truly an
instance of it.
And with
respect to God’s being glorified in those perfections wherein his
glory consists, expressed in their corresponding effects, — as his
wisdom, in wise designs and well-contrived works, his power, in great
effects, his justice, in acts of righteousness, his goodness, in
communicating happiness, — this does not argue that his pleasure is
not in himself, and his own glory; but the contrary. It is the necessary
consequence of his delighting in the glory of his nature, that he delights
in the emanation and effulgence of it.
Nor do these
things argue any dependence in God on the creature for happiness. Though he
has real pleasure in the creature’s holiness and happiness, yet this
is not properly any pleasure which he receives from the creature. For these
things are what he gives the creature. They are wholly and entirely from
him. His rejoicing therein is rather a rejoicing in his own acts, and his
own glory expressed in those acts, than a joy derived from the creature.
God’s joy is dependent on nothing besides his own act, which he
exerts with an absolute and independent power. And yet, in some sense, it
can be truly said, that God has the more delight and pleasure for the
holiness and happiness of his creatures. Because God would be less happy,
if he were less good: or if he had not that perfection of nature which
consists in a propensity of nature to diffuse his own fullness. And he
would be less happy, if it were possible for him to be hindered in the
exercise of his goodness, and his other perfections, in their proper
effects. But he has complete happiness, because he has these perfections,
and cannot be hindered in exercising and displaying them in their proper
effects. And this surely is not, because he is dependent; but because he is
independent on any other that should hinder him.
From this view,
it appears, that nothing which has been said, is in the least inconsistent
with those expressions in Scripture, that signify, “man cannot be
profitable to God,” etc. For these expressions plainly mean no more,
than that God is absolutely independent of us; that we have nothing of our
own, no stock from whence we can give to God; and that no part of his
happiness originates from man.
From what has
been said, it appears, that the pleasure God has in those things which have
been mentioned, is rather a pleasure in diffusing and communicating to,
than in receiving from, the creature. Surely, it is no argument of
indigence in God, that he is inclined to communicate of his infinite fullness.
It is no argument of the emptiness or deficiency of a fountain, that it is
inclined to overflow. Nothing from the creature alters God’s
happiness, as though it were changeable either by increase or diminution.
For though these communications of God — these exercises, operations,
and expressions of his glorious perfections, which God rejoices in —
are in time; yet his joy in them is without beginning or change. They were
always equally present in the divine mind. He beheld them with equal
clearness, certainty, and fullness, in every respect, as he does now. They
were always equally present; as with him there is no variableness or
succession. He ever beheld and enjoyed them perfectly in his own
independent and immutable power and will.
Ans. 2. If any are not satisfied with the preceding
answer, but still insist on the objection, let them consider whether they
can devise any other scheme of God’s last end in creating the world,
but what will be equally obnoxious to this objection in its full force, if
there be any force in it. For if God had any last end in creating the
world, then there was something in some respect future, that he aimed at,
and designed to bring to pass by creating the world; something that was
agreeable to his inclination or will; let that be his own glory, or the
happiness of his creatures, or what it will. Now, if there be something
that God seeks as agreeable, or grateful to him, then, in the
accomplishment of it, he is gratified. If the last end which he seeks in
the creation of the world be truly a thing grateful to him (as certainly it
is, if it be truly his end, and truly the object of his will), then it is
what he takes a real delight and pleasure in. But then, according to the
argument of the objection, how can he have anything future to desire or
seek, who is already perfectly, eternally, and immutably satisfied in
himself? What can remain for him to take any delight in, or to be further
gratified by, whose eternal and unchangeable delight is in himself, as his
own complete object of enjoyment. Thus the objector will be pressed with
his own objection, let him embrace what notion he will of God’s end
in the creation. And I think he has no way left to answer but that which
has been taken above.
It may
therefore be proper here to observe, that let what will be God’s last
end, that he must have a real and proper pleasure in. Whatever be the
proper object of his will, he is gratified in. And the thing is either
grateful to him in itself, or for something else for which he wills it; and
so is his further end. But whatever is God’s last end, that he wills
for its own sake; as grateful to him in itself, or in which he has
some degree of true and proper pleasure. Otherwise we must deny any such
thing as will in God with respect to anything brought to pass in time; and
so must deny his work of creation, or any work of his providence, to be
truly voluntary. But we have as much reason to suppose, that God’s
works in creating and governing the world, are properly the fruits of his
will, as of his understanding. And if there be any such thing at all, as
what we mean by acts of will in God; then he is not indifferent whether his
will be fulfilled or not. And if he is not indifferent, then he is truly
gratified and pleased in the fulfillment of his will. And if he has a real
pleasure in attaining his end, then the attainment of it belongs to his
happiness; that in which God’s delight or pleasure in any measure
consists. To suppose that God has pleasure in things that are brought to
pass in time, only figuratively and metaphorically; is to suppose that he
exercises will about these things, and makes them his end only
metaphorically.
Ans. 3. The doctrine that makes God’s creatures
and not himself to be his last end, is a doctrine the furthest from having
a favorable aspect on God’s absolute self-sufficiency and
independence. It far less agrees therewith than the doctrine against which
this is objected. For we must conceive of the efficient as depending on his
ultimate end. He depends on this end, in his desires, aims, actions, and
pursuits; so that he fails in all his desires, actions, and pursuits, if he
fails of his end. Now if God himself be his last end, then in his
dependence on his end, he depends on nothing but himself. If all things be
of him, and to him, and he the first and the last, this shows him to be all
in all. He is all to himself. He goes not out of himself in what he seeks;
but his desires and pursuits as they originate from, so they terminate in,
himself; and he is dependent on none but himself in the beginning or end of
any of his exercises or operations. But if not himself, but the creature,
were his last end, then as he depends on his last end, he would be in some
sort dependent on the creature.
OBJECT. II.
Some may object, that to suppose God makes himself his highest and last
end, is dishonorable to him; as it in effect supposes, that God does every
thing from a selfish spirit. Selfishness is looked upon as mean and sordid
in the creature; unbecoming and even hateful in such a worm of the dust as
man. We should look upon a man as of a base and contemptible character, who
should in every thing he did, be governed by selfish principles; should
make his private interest his governing aim in all his conduct in life. How
far then should we be from attributing any such thing to the Supreme Being,
the blessed and only Potentate! Does it not become us to ascribe to him the
most noble and generous dispositions, and qualities the most remote from
every thing private, narrow, and sordid?
Ans. 1. Such an objection must arise from a very ignorant
or inconsiderate notion of the vice of selfishness, and the virtue of
generosity. If by selfishness be meant, a disposition in any being to
regard himself; this is no otherwise vicious or unbecoming, than as one is
less than a multitude; and so the public weal is of greater value than his
particular interest. Among created beings one single person is
inconsiderable in comparison of the generality; and so his interest is of
little importance compared with the interest of the whole system. Therefore
in them, a disposition to prefer self, as if it were more than all, is
exceeding vicious. But it is vicious on no other account, than as it is a
disposition that does not agree with the nature of things; and that which
is indeed the greatest good. And a disposition in anyone to forego his own
interest for the sake of others, is no further excellent, no further worthy
the name of generosity, than it is treating things according to their true
value; prosecuting something most worthy to be prosecuted; an expression of
a disposition to prefer something to self-interest, that is indeed
preferable in itself. But if God be indeed so great, and so excellent, that
all other beings are as nothing to him, and all other excellency be as
nothing, and less than nothing and vanity, in comparison of his; and God be
omniscient and infallible, and perfectly knows that he is infinitely the
most valuable being; then it is fit that his heart should be agreeable to
this — which is indeed the true nature and proportion of things, and
agreeable to this infallible and all-comprehending understanding which he
has of them, and that perfectly clear light in which he views them —
and that he should value himself infinitely more than his creatures.
Ans. 2. In created beings, a regard to self-interest may
properly be set in opposition to the public welfare; because the private
interest of one person may be inconsistent with the public good; at least
it may be so in the apprehension of that person. That which this person
looks upon as his interest, may interfere with or oppose the general good.
Hence his private interest may be regarded and pursued in opposition to the
public. But this cannot be with respect to the Supreme Being, the author
and head of the whole system; on whom all absolutely depend; who is the
fountain of being and good to the whole. It is more absurd to suppose that
his interest should be opposite to the interest of the universal system,
than that the welfare of the head, heart, and vitals of the natural body,
should be opposite to the welfare of the body. And it is impossible that
God, who is omniscient, should apprehend his interest, as being
inconsistent with the good and interest of the whole.
Ans. 3. God seeking himself in the creation of the
world, in the manner which has been supposed, is so far from being
inconsistent with the good of his creatures, that it is a kind of regard to
himself that inclines him to seek the good of his creature. It is a regard
to himself that disposes him to diffuse and communicate himself. It is such
a delight in his own internal fullness and glory, that disposes him to an
abundant effusion and emanation of that glory. The same disposition, that
inclines him to delight in his glory, causes him to delight in the
exhibitions, expressions, and communications of it. If there were any
person of such a taste and disposition of mind, that the brightness and
light of the sun seemed unlovely to him, he would be willing that the
sun’s brightness and light should be retained within itself but they
that delight in it, to whom it appears lovely and glorious, will esteem it
an amiable and glorious thing to have it diffused and communicated through
the world.
Here, by the
way, it may be properly considered, whether some writers are not chargeable
with inconsistency in this respect. They speak against the doctrine of God
making himself his own highest and last end, as though this were an ignoble
selfishness — when indeed he only is fit to be made the highest end,
by himself and all other beings; inasmuch as he is infinitely greater and
more worthy than all others — yet with regard to creatures, who are
infinitely less worthy of supreme and ultimate regard, they suppose, that
they necessarily, at all times, seek their own happiness, and make it their
ultimate end in all, even their most virtuous actions; and that this
principle, regulated by wisdom and prudence, as leading to that which is
their true and highest happiness, is the foundation of all virtue, and
every thing that is morally good and excellent in them.
OBJECT. III. To
what has been supposed, that God makes himself his end — in seeking
that his glory and excellent perfections should be known, esteemed, loved,
and delighted in by his creatures — it may be objected, that this
seems unworthy of God. It is considered as below a truly great man, to be
much influenced in his conduct by a desire of popular applause. The notice
and admiration of a gazing multitude, would be esteemed but a low end, to
be aimed at by a prince or philosopher, in any great and noble enterprise.
How much more is it unworthy the great God, to perform his magnificent
works, e.g. the creation of the vast universe, out of regard to the notice
and admiration of worms of the dust, that the displays of his magnificence
may be gazed at, and applauded by those who are infinitely more beneath
him, than the meanest rabble are beneath the greatest prince or
philosopher.
This objection
is specious. It has a show of argument; but it will appear to be nothing
but a show, if we consider,
1. Whether it
be not worthy of God, to regard and value what is excellent and valuable in
itself; and so to take pleasure in its existence.
It seems not
liable to any doubt, that there could be no future existence worthy to be
desired or sought by God, and so worthy to be made his end, if no future
existence was valuable and worthy to be brought to effect. If, when the
world was not, there was any possible future thing fit and valuable in
itself, I think the knowledge of God’s glory, and the esteem and love
of it, must be so. Understanding and will are the highest kind of created
existence. And if they be valuable, it must be in their exercise. But the
highest and most excellent kind of their exercise, is in some actual
knowledge, and exercise of will. And, certainly, the most excellent actual
knowledge and will that can be in the creature, is the knowledge and the
love of God. And the most true excellent knowledge of God, is the knowledge
of his glory or moral excellence; and the most excellent exercise of the
will consists in esteem and love, and a delight in his glory. — If
any created existence is in itself worthy to be, or anything that ever was
future is worthy of existence, such a communication of divine fullness,
such an emanation and expression of the divine glory, is worthy of
existence. But if nothing that ever was future was worthy to exist, then no
future thing was worthy to be aimed at by God in creating the world. And if
nothing was worthy to be aimed at in creation, then nothing was worthy to
be God’s end in creation.
If God’s
own excellency and glory is worthy to be highly valued and delighted in by
him, then the value and esteem hereof by others, is worthy to be regarded
by him: for this is a necessary consequence. To make this plain let it be
considered, how it is with regard to the excellent qualities of another. If
we highly value the virtues and excellencies of a friend, in proportion, we
shall approve of others’ esteem of them; and shall disapprove the
contempt of them. If these virtues are truly valuable, they are worthy that
we should thus approve others’ esteem, and disapprove their contempt
of them. And the case is the same with respect to any being’s own
qualities and attributes. If he highly esteems them, and greatly delights
in them, he will naturally and necessarily love to see esteem of them in
others, and dislike their disesteem. And if the attributes are worthy to be
highly esteemed by the being who has them, so is the esteem of them in
others worthy to be proportionally approved and regarded. I desire it may
be considered, whether it be unfit that God should be displeased with
contempt of himself? If not, but on the contrary it be fit and suitable
that he should be displeased with this, there is the same reason that he
should be pleased with the proper love, esteem, and honor of himself.
The matter may
be also cleared, by considering what it would become us to approve of and
value with respect to any public society we belong to, e.g. our nation or
country. It becomes us to love our country; and therefore it becomes us to
value the just honor of our country. But the same that it becomes us to
value and desire for a friend, and the same that it becomes us to desire and
seek for the community, the same does it become God to value and seek for
himself; that is, on supposition, that it becomes God to love himself as it
does men to love a friend or the public; which I think has been before
proved.
Here are two
things that ought particularly to be adverted to: (1) That in God, the love
of himself and the love of the public are not to be distinguished, as in
man; because God’s being, as it were, comprehends all. His existence,
being infinite, must be equivalent to universal existence. And for the same
reason that public affection in the creature is fit and beautiful,
God’s regard to himself must be so likewise. — (2) In God, the
love of what is fit and decent, cannot be a distinct thing from the love of
himself; because the love of God is that wherein all holiness primarily and
chiefly consists, and God’s own holiness must primarily consist in
the love of himself. And if God’s holiness consists in love to
himself, then it will imply an approbation of the esteem and love of him in
others. For a being that loves himself, necessarily loves love to himself.
If holiness in God consist chiefly in love to himself, holiness in the
creature must chiefly consist in love to him. And if God loves holiness in
himself, he must love it in the creature.
Virtue, by such
of the late philosophers as seem to be in chief repute, is placed in public
affection, or general benevolence. And if the essence of virtue lies
primarily in this, then the love of virtue itself is virtuous no otherwise,
than as it is implied in, or arises from, this public affection, or
extensive benevolence of mind. Because if a man truly loves the public, he
necessarily loves love to the public.
Now therefore,
for the same reason, if universal benevolence in the highest sense, be the
same thing with benevolence to the Divine Being, who is in effect universal
Being, it will follow, that love to virtue itself is no otherwise virtuous,
than as it is implied in, or arises from, love to the Divine Being.
Consequently, God’s own love to virtue is implied in love to himself:
and is virtuous no otherwise than as it arises from love to himself. So
that God’s virtuous disposition, appearing in love to holiness in the
creature, is to be resolved into the same thing with love to himself. And
consequently, whereinsoever he makes virtue his end, he makes himself his
end. In fine, God being as it were an all-comprehending Being, all his
moral perfections — his holiness, justice, grace, and benevolence
— are some way or other to be resolved into a supreme and infinite
regard to himself; and if so, it will be easy to suppose that it becomes
him to make himself his supreme and last end in his works.
I would here
observe, by the way, that if any insist that it becomes God to love and
take delight in the virtue of his creatures for its own sake, in such a
manner as not to love it from regard to himself; this will contradict a
former objection against God taking pleasure in communications of himself; viz.
that inasmuch as God is perfectly independent and self-sufficient,
therefore all his happiness and pleasure consists in the enjoyment of
himself. So that if the same persons make both objections, they must be
inconsistent with themselves.
2. I would
observe, that it is not unworthy of God to take pleasure in that which is
in itself fit and amiable, even in those that are infinitely below him. If
there be infinite grace and condescension in it, yet these are not unworthy
of God; but infinitely to his honor and glory.
They who
insist, that God’s own glory was not an ultimate end of his creation
of the world; but the happiness of his creatures; do it under a color of
exalting God’s benevolence to his creatures. But if his love to them
be so great, and he so highly values them as to look upon them worthy to be
his end in all his great works, as they suppose; they are not consistent
with themselves, in supposing that God has so little value for their love
and esteem. For as the nature of love, especially great love, causes him
that loves to value the esteem of the person beloved; so, that God should
take pleasure in the creature’s just love and esteem, will follow
from God’s love both to himself and to his creatures. If he esteem
and love himself, he must approve of esteem and love to himself, and disapprove
the contrary. And if he loves and values the creature, he must value and
take delight in their mutual love and esteem.
3. As to what
is alleged, that it is unworthy of great men to be governed in their
conduct and achievements by a regard to the applause of the populace; I
would observe, What makes their applause worthy of so little regard, is
their ignorance, giddiness, and injustice. The applause of the multitude
very frequently is not founded on any just view of things, but in humor,
mistake, folly, and unreasonable affections. Such applause deserves to be
disregarded. — But it is not beneath a man of the greatest dignity
and wisdom, to value the wise and just esteem of others, however inferior
to him. The contrary, instead of being an expression of greatness of mind,
would show a haughty and mean spirit. It is such an esteem in his
creatures, that God regards; for, such an esteem only is fit and amiable in
itself.
OBJECT. IV. To
suppose that God makes himself his ultimate end in the creation of the
world, derogates from the freeness of his goodness, in his beneficence to
his creatures; and from their obligations to gratitude for the good
communicated. For if God, in communicating his fullness, makes himself, and
not the creatures, his end; then what good he does, he does for himself,
and not for them; for his sake, and not theirs.
Answer. God and the creature, in the emanation of the
divine fullness, are not properly set in opposition; or made the opposite
parts of a disjunction. Nor ought God’s glory and the
creature’s good, to be viewed as if they were properly and entirely
distinct, in the objection. This supposes, that God having respect to his
glory, and the communication of good to his creatures, are things
altogether different: that God communicating his fullness for himself, and
his doing it for them, are things standing in a proper disjunction
and opposition. Whereas, if we were capable of more perfect views of God
and divine things, which are so much above us, it probably would appear
very clear, that the matter is quite otherwise: and that these things,
instead of appearing entirely distinct, are implied one in the other. God
in seeking his glory, seeks the good of his creatures; because the
emanation of his glory (which he seeks and delights in, as he delights in
himself and his own eternal glory) implies the communicated excellency and
happiness of his creatures. And in communicating his fullness for them, he
does it for himself; because their good, which he seeks, is so much in
union and communion with himself. God is their good. Their excellency and
happiness is nothing, but the emanation and expression of God’s
glory: God, in seeking their glory and happiness, seeks himself: and in
seeking himself, i.e. himself diffused and expressed (which he
delights in, as he delights in his own beauty and fullness), he seeks their
glory and happiness.
This will the
better appear, if we consider the degree and manner in which he aimed at
the creature’s excellency and happiness in creating the world; viz.
during the whole of its designed eternal duration; in greater and
greater nearness, and strictness of union with himself, in his own glory
and happiness, in constant progression, through all eternity. As the
creature’s good was viewed, when God made the world, with respect to
its whole duration, and eternally progressive union to, and communion with
him: so the creature must be viewed as in infinitely strict union with
himself. In this view it appears, that God’s respect to the creature,
in the whole, unites with his respect to himself. Both regards
are like two lines which at the beginning appear separate, but finally meet
in one, both being directed to the same center. And as to the good of the
creature itself, in its whole duration and infinite progression, it must be
viewed as infinite; and as coming nearer and nearer to the same thing in
its infinite fullness. The nearer anything comes to infinite, the nearer it
comes to an identity with God. And if any good, as viewed by God, is
beheld as infinite, it cannot be viewed as a distinct thing from
God’s own infinite glory.
The
apostle’s discourse of the great love of Christ to men (Eph. 5:25,
etc.) leads us thus to think of the love of Christ to his church; as
coinciding with his love to himself, by virtue of the strict union of the
church with him. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the
church, and gave himself for it — that he might present it to himself
a glorious church. So ought men to love their wives, as their own bodies.
He that loves his wife loves himself — even as the Lord the church;
for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” Now
I apprehend, that there is nothing in God’s disposition to
communicate of his own fullness to the creatures, that at all derogates
from the excellence of it, or the creature’s obligation.
God’s
disposition to cause his own infinite fullness to flow forth, is not the
less properly called his goodness, because the good he communicates is what
he delights in, as he delights in his own glory. The creature has no less
benefit by it; neither has such a disposition less of a direct tendency to
the creature’s benefit. Nor is this disposition in God, to diffuse
his own good, the less excellent, because it is implied in his love to
himself. For his love to himself does not imply it any otherwise, but as it
implies a love to whatever is worthy and excellent. The emanation of
God’s glory is in itself worthy and excellent, and so God delights in
it; and this delight is implied in his love to his own fullness; because
that is the fountain, the sum and comprehension of every thing that is
excellent. Nor does God’s inclination to communicate good from regard
to himself, or delight in his own glory, at all diminish the freeness of
his beneficence. This will appear, if we consider particularly, in what
ways doing good to others from self-love, may be inconsistent with the
freeness of beneficence. And I conceive there are only these two ways,
1. When any
does good to another from confined self-love, which is opposite to a
general benevolence. This kind of self-love is properly called selfishness.
In some sense, the most benevolent, generous person in the world, seeks his
own happiness in doing good to others; because he places his happiness in
their good. His mind is so enlarged as to take them, as it were, into
himself. Thus when they are happy, he feels it; he partakes with them, and
is happy in their happiness. This is so far from being inconsistent with
the freeness of beneficence, that, on the contrary, free benevolence and
kindness consists in it. The most free beneficence that can be in men, is
doing good, not from a confined selfishness, but from a disposition to
general benevolence, or love to being in general.
But now, with
respect to the Divine Being, there is no such thing as confined selfishness
in him, or a love to himself opposite to general benevolence. It is
impossible, because he comprehends all entity, and all excellence, in his
own essence. The eternal and infinite Being, is in effect, being in general;
and comprehends universal existence. God, in his benevolence to his
creatures, cannot have his heart enlarged, in such a manner as to take in
beings who are originally out of himself, distinct and independent. This
cannot be in an infinite Being, who exists alone from eternity. But he,
from his goodness, as it were enlarges himself in a more excellent and
divine manner. This is by communicating and diffusing himself; and so,
instead of finding, he makes objects of his benevolence — not by
taking what he finds distinct from himself, and so partaking of their good,
and being happy in them, but — by flowing forth, and expressing
himself in them, and making them to partake of him, and then rejoicing in
himself expressed in them, and communicated to them.
2. Another
thing, in doing good to others from self-love, that derogates from the
freeness of the goodness, is acting from dependence on them for the good we
need or desire. So that, in our beneficence, we are not self-moved, but as
it were constrained by something without ourselves. But it has been
particularly shown already, that God making himself his end, argues no
dependence; but is consistent with absolute independence and
self-sufficiency.
And I would
here observe, that there is something in that disposition to communicate
goodness, that shows God to be independent and self-moved in it, in a
manner that is peculiar, and above the beneficence of creatures. Creatures,
even the most excellent, are not independent and self-moved in their
goodness; but in all its exercises, they are excited by some object they
find: something appearing good, or in some respect worthy of regard,
presents itself, and moves their kindness. But God, being all, and alone,
is absolutely self-moved. The exercises of his communicative disposition
are absolutely from within himself; all that is good and worthy in the
object, and its very being, proceeding from the overflowing of his
fullness.
These things
show that the supposition of God making himself his ultimate end, does not
at all diminish the creature’s obligation to gratitude for
communications of good received. For if it lessen its obligation, it must
be on one of the following accounts. Either, that the creature has not so
much benefit by it; or, that the disposition it flows from, is not proper
goodness, not having so direct a tendency to the creature’s benefit;
or, that the disposition is not so virtuous and excellent in its kind; or,
that the beneficence is not so free. But it has been observed, that none of
these things take place, with regard to that disposition, which has been
supposed to have excited God to create the world.
I confess there
is a degree of indistinctness and obscurity in the close consideration of
such subjects, and a great imperfection in the expressions we use
concerning them; arising unavoidably from the infinite sublimity of the
subject, and the incomprehensibleness of those things that are divine.
Hence revelation is the surest guide in these matters: and what that
teaches shall in the next place be considered. Nevertheless, the endeavors
used to discover what the voice of reason is, so far as it can go, may
serve to prepare the way, by obviating cavils insisted on by many; and to
satisfy us, that what the Word of God says of the matter is not
unreasonable.
End
Chapter One
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 18
Exodus 15-"The Song at the Sea"-
Part 2
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
In our last study, we
considered the first part of the 'Song at the Sea' from Exodus 15. In
today's study, we will look at how the sea was perceived in the ancient
Near East during Israel's time. We will also look at the other songs
that God gives to us in Holy Scripture so that we might be reminded of Who
He is as our Great Sovereign, and be reminded of what He has done for us so
graciously by his holy strength and awesome power!
Exodus 15
Exodus 15:1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD,
saying, "I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the
horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. 2 The LORD is my
strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I
will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. 3 The
LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name. 4 "Pharaoh's
chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were
sunk in the Red Sea. 5 The floods covered them; they went down
into the depths like a stone. 6 Your right hand, O LORD,
glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. 7 In
the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out
your fury; it consumes them like stubble. 8 At the blast of your
nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps
congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 The enemy said, 'I will
pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its
fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.' 10 You
blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the
mighty waters. 11 "Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing
wonders? 12 You stretched out your right hand; the earth
swallowed them. 13 "You have led in your steadfast love the
people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to
your holy abode. 14 The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs
have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. 15 Now are the chiefs
of Edom dismayed; trembling seizes the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants
of Canaan have melted away. 16 Terror and dread fall upon them;
because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone, till your
people, O LORD, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased. 17
You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the
place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord,
which your hands have established. 18 The LORD will reign
forever and ever." 19 For when the horses of Pharaoh with
his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought back the
waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground
in the midst of the sea. 20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the
sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out
after her with tambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to
them: "Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse
and his rider he has thrown into the sea." 22 Then Moses
made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of
Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. 23 When
they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was
bitter; therefore it was named Marah. 24 And the people grumbled
against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?" 25 And
he cried to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a log, and he threw it into
the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made for them a
statute and a rule, and there he tested them, 26 saying,
"If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and
do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and
keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on
the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer." 27 Then
they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy
palm trees, and they encamped there by the water.
The Great and
Frightening SEA in the Ancient Near East
Israel was redeemed from
Egypt and about to cross through the Red Sea. We must understand
that to an Israelite (or for that matter any of the people’s who
lived in the ancient Near East), the sea was a place of chaos. The sea was the embodiment of chaos where
Leviathan lived and lurked in order to destroy (or other frightening sea creatures). Understand this: the sea was no place for
an Israelite, they were terribly frightened of the sea. To have walked through even when God made
a path through the sea would have taken a great amount of faith.
Imagine if you will a
time when there was no Jacques Cousteau, or Discovery Channel Specials
about the sea or ocean. You would
have no idea about what was under those frightening and terrible
waters! In fact, you can imagine the
ancient people at the sea's edge seeing some of the creatures that had
washed up on the shore. If you lived
in a time when you had no explanation of what is beneath the ocean's
surface, what would you think if you saw a huge beached blue whale, or a
shark, or a killer whale, or something as seemingly harmless as a jelly
fish? What would enter your mind as
to what lurked beneath the surface of these waters?! (you would be grateful
to God for revealing himself as Creator in Genesis 1 -- that is for sure-
-especially when you found out that he created all the sea monsters, Gen.
1:20-21!).
For Israel, the sea was
a place of chaos and we must remember that it is in this chaos of the
Egyptian’s death in water, that God is establishing his people. From chaos to order, God is bringing the
flood of his wrath down upon his enemies so that he might save those who
have found favor in his eyes as Noah before them. God divides the waters here as he did in
the creation account in order to bring his people from chaos in Egypt to
rest and order in the promised land.
What a beautiful picture and what a reason to sing along with Moses
this great song!
In verse 9-12, Moses
sings now of Egypt’s boasting in their power and particularly in
their so-called mighty gods. In v.
9, Moses sings of the enemy boasting and God’s response: The enemy
was determined with all their heart to pursue Israel and submit them back
to a yoke of slavery…they were determined in spite of the dreadful
plagues God had sent upon them earlier in the story…they were
determined, because God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that his
power might be displayed over him (cf. Romans 9).
Pharaoh vs.. The
Almighty
What we want to
appreciate about the Exodus from Egypt is this: In one way, God was drawing
Pharaoh out on the battlefield, out in the open, out to the middle of a
clearing in history, so that all the nations around them would know that
YHWH, "I AM" is God, the only God who rules all of creation
(despite the so-called gods of Egypt).
He alone has power, and he alone is worthy to be praised! Again, in v.9 Moses speaks of God’s
attributes and then his actions.
What did God do in response to Egypt’s pride and
boasting? He led them out in the
midst of the waters of the Red Sea, the flood waters of chaos, in order
that he might destroy them when he blew with his breath [ruach], as v. 10 tells us.
After God was finished
with the Egyptians, their memory in this song was not only humiliation from
a few chariot wheels stuck in the mud, but was the memory of a foolish and
sinful people trying to outwit the majestic God of creation in a game of
“cat and mouse.”
How will Israel remember
the mighty power of Egypt? Look at
the end of v. 10: “…the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty
waters.” Remember from this: The enemies of God don’t float for anyone
interested, they sink like lead. The Egyptians sank like lead- - lead that
was as hard and heavy as their hearts toward the God of Israel! What Moses began with exaltation of God,
again ends in exaltation in v. 11: “Who among the gods is like you, O
LORD? Who is like you- - majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working
wonders?”
As the Egyptians were
sinking down to the bottom of the sea, as their mouths were filling with
the raging waters, perhaps they called out to Ra or their god of the waters,
Prince Nu for deliverance and salvation!
But if they had heard the words of Moses from the beginning in his
dialogues with Pharaoh and his magicians, and if they had truly seen and
understood the works which God performed on behalf of Israel, then perhaps
they would have understood the song of Moses when he sings: “Who
among the gods is like you, O LORD?”
But alas, their hearts were hard- - and they could not see nor
understand the acts of God. The
Egyptians trusted in dead idols- - not the only Living God!
God's Unfailing
and Redemptive Love
In verses 13-18, the
focus moves from the past act of deliverance to the present and future
hopes of Israel! As the God of
creation has delivered them in the Red Sea, so he will be faithful to them
as v. 13 says: “In your unfailing love you will lead the people you
have redeemed. In your strength you
will guide them to your holy dwelling.” Here we see the connection we made at the
beginning between a song and a memory, or how a song can conjure up true
hope in the present. What would
drive the Israelite on by faith was knowing God’s unfailing love and
the strength he would use to guide them.
Exodus 15 forms a bridge of hope between God’s great act of
deliverance from Egypt and the beginning of their journey in the wilderness
on their way to the Promised Land.
This song was to be their strength as they passed through every test
in the wilderness, as they received the Law on Sinai, and as they entered
Canaan surrounded by many nations stronger than them!
From the perspective of
this song, nothing could separate Israel from the love of God, nothing
could ever threaten Israel because of the Lord’s strength and
protection on their behalf. This
song must have brought great hope to enlighten the circumstances of the
people of God in whatever situation they would find themselves.
From verses 14-16, we
see the nations that will tremble at the power of Israel’s God:
Philistia, Edom, Moab, and Canaan will be terrified with the news of
YHWH’s redemption of Israel.
Nothing shall stand in their way…nothing, no nation shall keep
God from fulfilling his covenantal promises to Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob. Remember that these were the
nations that inhabited Canaan, the Promised Land of which the Israelites
were to inherit! Moses wrote this
prior to the Israelite’s wilderness testings and their entering the
Promised Land. It was a song that
should have been in their hearts so that fear of greater peoples might not
consume them. No matter how
“big” the people seemed in comparison to themselves, no matter
how powerful the nations seemed, the Israelites were to: “Fear not,
stand still and see the redemption of the LORD.” Their focus was to be on the God who had
already delivered them with a strong arm- - and could do it again!
In the final part of
Moses’ song, in verse 17 (the last refrain if you will), Moses sets
the tone of the future. Because of
the covenant and God’s enduring love and faithfulness, he will bring
and plant Israel on the mountain of their inheritance. The place Moses’ describes as:
“…the place, O LORD, you made for your dwelling [word in Heb.],
the sanctuary, O LORD, your hands established [word in Heb.].” Then Moses ends with one great exaltation
of praise: “The LORD will reign forever and ever!” What he has done for Israel in leading
them out of Egypt is just the beginning of his acts on their behalf. He has revealed himself in all his
majesty, love and power, and He will continue to be faithful to his
promises!
What is
Moses’ focus in the song?
The focus of the Song at the Sea is to teach Israel, particularly future
generations who did not live during the Exodus, that their God is truly THE
All-Powerful and Majestic God of all Creation! He is the faithful and loving God who
keeps his promises and therefore they should never fear, because he will
always be with them, to deliver them from all their enemies. The past deliverance was always to
enlighten Israel’s present circumstances and to encourage loving obedience
to the God who truly delivers them!
These events are designed to teach God’s people, then and now,
to look beyond the events themselves, because the song is about the victory
of God over His and all of our enemies!
In addition to the Song
at the Sea, there are other “songs of redemption” in Scripture! These songs are means by which God is
praised for his saving acts as a worshipping community!
Other
“Songs of Redemption” in Scripture
Many of the Psalms for instance are songs of redemption that we should be
aware of! These psalms praise God
not in the abstract but for some concrete act of deliverance, whether on a
personal or a national level.
The Psalms
as Songs of Redemption (particularly Ps. 78; 80; 136,
particularly Ps. 40)
The author of Psalm 40, after
recounting how God gave him a “firm place to stand” in Ps.
40:2, writes, “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our
God.” There are similar
expressions like this all throughout the Psalms (consider Ps. 28:7; 33:3;
69:30; 96:1; 144:9). The Book of
Psalms as a whole may be thought of as Israel’s melodic response to
who God is and what he had done for his people!
David’s
Song- 2 Sam. 22
Another parallel to
Exodus 15 is 2 Samuel 22:1-51 (also see Ps. 18). This song, too, is set in the context of
a narrative like the Song of the Sea,
and is probably a song sung toward the end of David’s life, praising
God for his deliverance in a variety of circumstances. As 22:1 says:
2 Samuel 22:1
Then David spoke to the LORD the words of this song, on the day when the
LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand
of Saul.
Although David’s song is much
longer than the song in Exodus 15, the focus of the song is still on
God’s faithfulness in defeating David’s enemies. It begins with praise to God, as Exodus
15, and ends with a statement of eternal perpetuity. This reminds the reader that God’s
deliverance extends beyond the circumstances that prompted the song in the
first place. Both songs recognize
that specific instances of God’s deliverance- - and they are both
God-centered in form and content!
Also, we should
appreciate the similar imagery used by David in his song and in Exodus
15. You remember that the Exodus was
the story of the grand cosmic upheaval, with the chaotic waters parting to
provide a safe passage for God’s people. David describes his deliverance in
similar terms. With the Exodus from
Egypt in your mind, look at verses 16-20:
16 Then the channels of the
sea were seen, The foundations of the world were uncovered, At the rebuke
of the LORD, At the blast of the breath of His nostrils.17 "He sent
from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.18 He delivered me
from my strong enemy, From those who hated me; For they were too strong for
me.19 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the LORD was my
support.20 He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me
because He delighted in me.
As King of Israel and leader of his
people, David is extolling God for his Exodus-like victory against the
enemies of God’s people. God
pulled David out of the “deep waters” and brought him to a
“broad or spacious place”.
We do not have the time to speak of
the many other songs of redemption in scripture. In your own study, you may consider
Numbers 21: Song of Provision;
Deut. 32: Song of Moses; 1 Samuel
2:1ff: Hannah’s Song; Luke
1:46-55: Mary’s Song. Notice the connection in all these songs
between who God is in his character and what he has done in his acts to
redeem his people!
But songs of redemption
are not just something found in the OT, or for the people of God in the
past! We today as a people of God
have our own “songs” as a worshipping community living in the
Last Days! God never changes!
Our “Song
of Redemption” in Christ
The death, resurrection and ascension of Christ gives us new songs to
sing because of Christ's redemption from sin, death and the devil! The good news of our redemption or deliverance is
that Jesus, the true Israelite overcame as Divine Warrior all of his and
our enemies. He died for us, was
raised and now has dominion over all of the earth- - all of the
nations!
Our message as the
people of God is to all the nations which should repent and tremble in
fright at the power of our God in Christ, who will come again on the clouds
as Rev. 19 teaches, to judge the world!
Christ’s dominion is forever and God has redeemed us with a
strong arm out of the Kingdom of Darkness and he has transferred us into
the Kingdom of the Son he loves! As
Israel was released from the dominion of Pharaoh, so the Apostle Paul
teaches in Romans 6 that sin is no longer our master: “Sin shall not
have dominion over you,” he teaches us!
Because of the work of
Christ on our behalf, we also sing redemptive songs concerning who God is and what he has done
for us in Christ. Notice those who
have been redeemed by the great act of God in Christ in the Book of
Revelation. Particularly Revelation
5.
In Revelation 5:12, the
creatures and the elders are joined by countless angels:
"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To
receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and
blessing!"
The song sung by the
oppressed Israelites in the OT is now universal, for Christ has come, and
through him all creation is brought back to God. The song ends, as does the Song at the
Sea, with the announcement that God will reign forever and ever. Church: this is our new song in
Christ!
One more passage in
Revelation to consider is Revelation 15:3-4:
3 They sing the song of
Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: "Great
and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are
Your ways, O King of the saints!4 Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and
glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and
worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested."
Conclusion
Let us sing a “new song” to our LORD for the great
things he has done in Christ. Col.
3:17ff teaches us: “Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly as we
sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual
songs, making melody in our hearts.
Our past is noble, our present secure, our future is certain
“in Christ” and so we sing with the Psalmist: “His
steadfast love endures forever”.
Church: Let us say together today: “Christ shall reign forever
and ever”- - this is our new song!
Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to him who is able to do far
more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at
work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 19
Isaiah 6-"Our Holy God"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
Today's study is on Isaiah 6 where Isaiah the
Prophet is sent out to proclaim God's message of judgment upon the
people. Before he is sent out, the LORD of Heaven and Earth allows
him to have a vision of His Great Holiness and Majesty!
During Isaiah's ministry, this
prophet of God had the incredible and challenging task of
bringing the message of God’s judgment to the nation Israel. King Uzziah had died after ruling
Israel for over 50 years and the time of glory in Israel’s history
was about to be over. In response to
the people turning away from God by breaking the covenant they had made
with him to obey his Law, God would send judgment in the Assyrian army and
the people would be sent into exile.
To prepare Isaiah for this difficult preaching
ministry of God’s Word, God revealed himself to Isaiah in a
vision. Isaiah sees what is called a
Theophany, or an appearance of
God [2 Greek words made into 1 English Word-
theo="God" + Phaneo= "appearance"=
"Theophany"]. God reveals
himself to Isaiah so that it would humble him and remind him of the
incredible power of God’s wrath, and the awesome holiness of His
character and person.
This week we celebrate the 300th
birthday of Jonathan Edwards. God
used this man to bring true reformation and revival to the people in New
England. Why? Because Edwards faithfully preached
God’s Word and kept his preaching focused, as well as his
people’s focus, on the holiness and beauty of God.
Edwards never flinched at telling the people of
God about the awesome God who he served and how his holiness demands
infinite punishment for sin because sin has infinitely offended a holy
God. May we return to this kind of
preaching and understanding of God in our time. May it be what brings us all to our knees
in repentance!
Isaiah 6
Isaiah 6:1 In
the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high
and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above
him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face,
and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And
one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of
hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" 4 And the
foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the
house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: "Woe is me! For
I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of
hosts!" 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in
his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7
And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your
lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. 8 And I
heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will
go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." 9 And
he said, "Go, and say to this people: "' Keep on hearing, but do
not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' 10 Make
the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their hearts, and turn and be healed." 11 Then I said,
"How long, O Lord?" And he said: "Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate
waste, 12 and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken
places are many in the midst of the land. 13 And though a tenth
remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose
stump remains when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump.
Summary of
Isaiah 6
Isaiah chapter 6 is
broken down into two main parts: Verses 1-7 is Isaiah's vision of God's
holiness and majesty, his realization of his own sinful condition, and the
atonement for his sins that God makes for him in order that he may approach
him. Verses 8-13 are the commission of Isaiah to tell the people of
God's judgment with a spark of good news or gospel in verse 13, reminding
Isaiah that although the majority will turn away and be deaf and dumb to
God's revelation and holiness, some will repent and live!
God's Throne room
What is God's Holiness (Isaiah
6:3)?
In Isaiah 6:3, the angels are singing
"holy, holy, holy". What does it mean that God is
holy? The term 'holy' can simply mean 'set apart', but God's holiness
is what makes God "GOD". The fact that God is holy is his
glorious beauty and perfect righteousness, his perfect attributes and law,
and his purity and uprightness in all that he is and does.
How have others in the past described
God's holiness? Jonathan Edwards defined holiness as: “Holiness
is more than a mere attribute of God- - it is the sum of all His
attributes, the outshining of all that God is.”
Stephen Charnock, the great Reformed
pastor who wrote the classic 'Character and Attributes of God' wrote:
“Holiness is God’s beauty and glory. When God would be drawn—as much as
He can be- - He is drawn in this attribute of holiness. Power is in His hand; omniscience in His
eyes; mercy in His bowels; but holiness is His beauty!”
One writer wrote (I cannot remember
at this time): “The holiness of God is altogether beyond our
comprehension. It is the blazing
majesty of God’s perfection.
It is the excellency of all that He is, in whole and in part. Everything God thinks, everything God purposes,
everything God does, indeed everything
God is, is altogether and
consistently holy!
And Pastor John Piper wrote
concerning God and His Great Holiness: “All else is creation. He
Alone creates. All else begins. He alone always was. All else depends. He
alone is self-sufficient.”
The Goal of Our Salvation:
Holiness
The holiness of God should be
something that we reflect upon and consider as a people. It is
God’s holiness that places him in a class by himself. It is God's holiness that makes sin
utterly sinful. It is God's holiness that reveals to us that he is
awesome in power, love, grace, mercy, justice, and yet he is holy in all of
these things. God does all things well and for our benefit as His
people.
As the people of God what a
remarkable difference it would make practically in our lives if we could
remember that our God is holy and wants us to be holy as he is holy.
Imagine if the next time you sinned, you didn't merely think of the remedy
of your salvation, but also the design,
goal, or end for which you were saved. What I am saying
is that most of the time we merely think of our forgiveness or the remedy
of sin when facing a temptation. Next time, by God's grace and Spirit
as we allow this vision of God's holiness to recapture our imaginations, we
think of the design, goal, or end of
our salvation, which is to be made holy!
I think most of us think about our
forgiveness when tempted, and the flesh and the Devil come along and
whisper: "Oh, it will be alright, go ahead and sin against God, he'll
forgive you. He has a fine remedy for sin." However, what
we should say in response is this: "I have been saved not merely to be
forgiven by God, to be like God and I am called to pursue holiness.
The design, goal, or end of my salvation from the LORD was so that I might
be holy as he is holy!" What a difference this would make in our
lives if we all were to set out to pursue Christ-likeness or holiness in
this manner.
And we can, by God's grace and by
asking him to give us the same vision that Isaiah had through his Word and
by the power of His Spirit working within us! Remember: Without
holiness, no man shall see the LORD (Hebrews 12).
The Teaching of Scripture on
God's Holiness
It is interesting that Scripture
describes God and His name over 900 times as “Holy”. Here
are a few references as to how Scripture defines God's holiness, or what
makes God "GOD".
In the context of God's redeeming
Israel from Egypt, Moses sings in Exodus 15:11 "Who is like
you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome
in glorious deeds, doing wonders?" David gives praise to God
because of who he is in Psalm 29:2 "Give unto the LORD the
glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of
holiness". In a Psalm concerning God's covenant promises to
David, the Psalmist writes in Psalm 89:35 "Once for all I have sworn
by my holiness; I will not lie to David". Again, considering
God's covenant promises, the Psalmist writes of God's holy promises in Psalm
108:7 "God
has promised in his holiness: "With exultation I will divide up
Shechem and portion out the Valley of Succoth. And in the later
prophecy of Isaiah, Isaiah describes the place of God's habitation in Isaiah
63:15 "Look
down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful habitation. Where
are your zeal and your might? The stirring of your inner parts and your
compassion are held back from me."
God reveals himself as holy so that
we might know of our need for atonement, our distance that has been placed
between God and ourselves because of our sin, and that we might return to
him so that he might make us holy as he is holy! Our great goal in the Christian life is
to be made holy as God is holy!
Yet, why is his holiness so foreign to us
all? Our sins have made us all dull to his holy beauty and caused us
to seek after everything but God in and of himself. We seek his
gifts, what he can do for us, but how often do we actually pursue God and
His Holiness just because of his loveliness and great beauty in and of
himself?
Holiness is not something we think
upon often enough. We have so
many other thoughts that occupy our time, why do we not think more about
this glorious vision of God’s holiness? Holiness is a thing
that men are least concerned with because they are tainted by sin, yet it
is the most beautiful part of God and creation. We should ask God to
give us hearts to pursue him for WHO HE IS in and of himself, in all his
glorious beauty and holiness, rather than merely when he gives us what we
want! In other words, we pray that we can say "holy, holy,
holy" more often than crying to God "me, me, me!"
Do we honor God's holiness in
our worship? God is
present when two or more are gathered in his name to worship him. Are we overwhelmed by His Holy Presence
or do we walk (or casually prance) into worship without a thought
of our sin and his greatness. Do we
tremble at all?? Or, do we come carelessly into the presence of God with no
thought to his great mercy and holiness?
Do you remember the spiritual "Were You
There?" Remember the line that says: "Sometime it causes me
to tremble...tremble...tremble!" I don't think in our worship
services we have enough "tremblen'" goin' on these days. We
do indeed call God "Father", but even Jesus the glorious, eternal
Son of God, addressed God as "HOLY" Father! (John 17)...and
Isaiah when he got a glimpse of God's holiness did not say "Daddy-
-what a super-duper dude you are!"
Do we honor God's holiness in
our prayer: We are reminded
before we ask anything of God (as we learn in the Lord’s Prayer)
that we first “hallow God’s name” or make
“holy” his name before we enter into our prayer for what we
need! We do indeed pray 'Our Father Who is in Heaven' - -but then
right away, we are taught to pray: "Hallowed be Your Name" -
-Holy is your Name. Do you approach God in prayer as a Holy Father as
our LORD Jesus did, or does your attention mindlessly wander as if he is
not a God to be honored and considered "HOLY"? Remember
these words from the worship service in Revelation 15:3-4:
Revelation 15:3 And they sing the song of Moses,
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and
amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your
ways, O King of the nations! 4 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."
"Who will not fear, O Lord and glorify your
name?" is the question asked in the worship service above in
Revelation 15. We must fear God in a good way as Hebrews 12 says:
Hebrews 12:22-29- But you have come to Mount Zion
and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly
of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all,
and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to
Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that
speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 25 See that you do
not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they
refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject
him who warns from heaven. 26 At that time his voice shook the
earth, but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only
the earth but also the heavens." 27 This phrase, "Yet
once more," indicates the removal of things that are shaken- that is,
things that have been made- in order that the things that cannot be shaken
may remain. 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a
kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable
worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming
fire.
We must keep God's grace, love and
fatherly goodness to his people in balance with God's other attributes of
holiness, justice, and wrath. We must have a healthy fear of God as
we approach him in worship and prayer. Notice the genius of the
Westminster Confession of Faith in keeping this biblical balance on the
character and attributes of God:
WCF 2.2
God hath all life,(1) glory,(2) goodness,(3) blessedness,(4) in and
of Himself; and is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing
in need of any creatures which He hath made,(5) not deriving any glory from
them,(6) but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them: He
is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are
all things,(7) and hath most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them,
for them, or upon them whatsoever Himself pleaseth.(8) In His sight all
things are open and manifest;(9) His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and
independent upon the creature,(10) so as nothing is to Him contingent, or
uncertain.(11) He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and
in all His commands.(12) To Him is due from angels and men, and every other
creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience He is pleased to
require of them.(13)
A God like this must be revered as an awesome
God! As Pastor John Piper has written so effectively: "God's
chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Himself forever!" This
captures the ultimate aim of God as a Holy Being and it should cause us to
fear Him and to strive by His grace to do the same with our own lives!
God's Provision for Sinners to
Approach Him
Notice when Isaiah gets a glimpse of God's holiness
and his majesty as He is seated on the throne. He is undone. He
realizes that he is a sinner. He says in essence: "Lord, you're
sending me out to a sinful people to tell of your judgment on their
sins, but I too am a sinner! I too have unclean lips!" We
can imagine God's reply to him: "Yes, but I have chosen you to go- -
and I will prepare you by atoning for your sins specifically so that you
might approach me and represent me to others."
Remember: Unclean Lips Reveal Unclean Hearts-
“Lips are the tip of the sinful iceberg” Isaiah's problem was that his heart, his sinful
problem in the heart, was revealed by his lips. From out of the heart
comes uncleanness, Jesus says (Matt. 15). So, Isaiah's lips are a
"dead giveaway" that he is a sinner in need of redemption if he
is to stand in the presence of a Holy God!
Isaiah was God’s man to preach his Word and
through his lips men would hear judgment and grace. Yet, this was the opening, the outlet,
the tip that revealed Isaiah’s sin and guilt and need for God’s
assistance if he was going to stay in his presence. So, Isaiah is cut
to the heart- “Woe is me!!” He is terrified. The other people in Isaiah’s day
were not so fearful of God. They
continued to break his Law and step on the grace and mercy that God had
shown to them.
“I am undone”, says Isaiah -
-unraveled: It is this vision of the
holiness of God that reveals our sins and our need for his help. Listen to Calvin on this:
“…Until God reveal himself to us, we
do not think that we are men, or rather, we think that we are gods; but
when we have seen God, we then begin to feel and know what we are. Hence springs true humility, which
consists in this, that a man makes no claims for himself, and depends
wholly on God…”
Many in our day are the same. We get “accustomed” or
“used” to hearing of God’s grace and forgiveness. We recognize that we are truly forgiven
and have been given the righteousness of Christ, yet we forget that God is
HOLY and is a consuming fire. Even today, many of us are trying to
change certain behaviors or habits rather than focusing on the real problem
which is the heart.
Only God can fix this deep and radical problem of
the heart. He begins this good work of fixing the root in the heart
by atoning for our sins and sending his Holy Spirit to change what we love,
what we set our affections upon, so that we might ultimately set our
heart's eye and focus sincerely and singularly on the LORD's beauty and
holiness!
God's Forgiveness of Guilt and
Sin
God is willing to remove Isaiah’s guilt and
sin, and send him out as an imperfect but faithful representative of God's
message of judgment as well as his message of salvation for the few who
will hear, see and believe!
When we hear “Holy, holy, holy” we
are like Isaiah: We hear “guilt, guilt, guilt”! But God
takes away our guilt in Christ Jesus. God gives us new hearts so that
we might find him utterly lovely. The angel in Isaiah's vision takes
tongs from the altar, takes a hot, burning coal and makes atonement for Isaiah's
sins by touching his lips. This is symbolic to the Person and Work of
Christ for us in atonement. Christ Jesus our Savior lays down his
life and sheds his blood on the altar in heaven, taking God's wrath upon
him so he can send the Holy Spirit to us.
The coal from the altar symbolizes punishment and
purification. The altar from which the coal was taken was the place
where bulls and goats were placed to shed blood before God and to offer a
substitute in place of the sinner. The fire that consumed the animal
on the altar was God's purification. In Christ, Jesus lays down his
life once and for all as a man, a once and for all sacrifice for sinners to
be punished in their place. After his resurrection from the dead and
ascension back to the throne room of heaven, Jesus sends forth His Spirit
to us so that we might then be purified. So, the coal from the altar
symbolizes the punishment and purification that would come in time because
of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ!
When we get a glimpse God’s beauty by
His Sovereign Grace in the face of Jesus Christ, we see the ugliness of our
sins and the life our sins have tainted! We glimpse God’s holiness,
we understand a little more the unholiness of our sinful affections.
Yet God is gracious to us as well!
He takes our sinful hearts, when we are dead and cold to the life
and warmth of God’s grace, and he transforms us.
He makes atonement for our sins in Jesus Christ
who steps down from the throne of God, takes off the robe that filled
God’s temple, to find himself in a land of sin and misery as a poor
servant under a tyrant king! Jesus takes off this royal robe not to
merely wear our clothing, but to wear our very humanity! He came to
represent us and to be holy as God is holy- - perfectly. Then he laid
down his life not on an earthly altar that merely represented atonement,
but he laid down his life on the altar in the very throne room of God
(Hebrews 7-10). This makes us worship our Holy God as David does in
Psalm 27:
Psalm 27:4-8: One thing have I asked of the LORD,
that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the
days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his
temple. 5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of
trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me
high upon a rock. 6 And now my head shall be lifted up above my
enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts
of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD. 7 Hear, O LORD,
when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! 8 You have
said, "Seek my face." My heart says to you, "Your face,
LORD, do I seek.
The Dullness of Our Hearing and Seeing God
You probably aren’t a prophet being sent
out by God as Isaiah was (in fact I know you're not!). But as a mom seeking for your son or
daughter to grow in the LORD; a father who worries about how much time he
spends with work; a home school parent who wonders if your children
are being taught as much as they deserve; a busy person who is trying to
find your goal, a husband or wife, a career and calling, etc. You approach a holy God who has stepped
down from his throne to make you holy- -to make you like him.
This is the Holy God who you can trust because he
is faithful and he will do above and beyond that which you could ever ask
or imagine. You too have been sent out much like Isaiah in order to
tell the gospel in word and deed and to call men to repentance (Matthew
28:18-20). Don't be surprised when people are bored by holiness and
especially bored or taken back by the Holiness of your God!
Isaiah sent to bring good news, but
the majority of the people were deaf, dumb, and blind.
Jesus comes in the fullness of the times to proclaim the same gospel and to
visibly show God's holiness in flesh and the majority are deaf, dumb, and
blind (John 1:9ff; 12:36ff). That deaf, dumb, and blind kid might be
able to play a mean pinball as the song goes, but they sure cannot get a
vision of God's holiness and their sin until the Sovereign God awakens them
to their peril!
Are we in Christ's Church deaf and dumb to
God’s holiness? Is there true
fear and at the same time an understanding of grace in our lives? Do we
think on God’s glorious holiness in our private times?
Indwelling sin makes our heart’s callous to God’s beauty and we
have to fight it and put it to death! I dare say that there is
too little of the “tremblen'’” (lack of
fear) that we spoke of earlier.
I truly believe if we will ask God to recapture
our minds and imaginations with the vision that Isaiah had, through His
Word and Spirit, that we will see reformation and revival in our
days. We might just even begin to see true holiness in our
lives- -even a pursuit of holiness as the deer pants for the water.
The Hope of the HOLY Spirit!
I am not trying to be
obvious when I say this, but God gives to us his 'HOLY' Spirit (maybe this
isn't that obvious). His "HOLY" Spirit is sent to us to
make us like Jesus, to make us Holy! That is why Paul says we
"quench" Him when we do what He tells us not to do as the people
of God. Remember Galatians 5:17-18: the Spirit wars against the
flesh. That means that it is the flesh that most wants you to deny
the "HOLY" found in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit's work is
to point to Christ and His atonement so that you might have salvation and
assurance in that salvation (John 14-16). Once the Spirit begins a
good work (Phil. 1:6), he continues to make us Holy as Christ was Holy, so
He might present us to Christ as a pure and unspotted bride (Eph. 5:28ff).
In other words, when God
grips us by His grace, he begins a transforming work in us by His
"HOLY" Spirit. Just as
when his presence before Moses turned plain earth into Holy ground; just as when he gave the priests of the temple
garments to wear, they became Holy
garments; just as when God came to accept the sacrifices in the small
room in the temple, his presence made this small room, a cubed box, the Holy of Holies; so he comes to dwell
in us and by his presence he takes those corrupted and tainted by sin and
makes us HOLY PEOPLE. Allow
this reality in Christ to fuel your pursuit of holiness and encourage you
to combat sin, flesh, and the devil with all you of the power you have
within you (Eph. 3:14-21).
The wonder of
God’s Spirit indwelling us as God’s people is that the Holy
Spirit indwelling us is not merely a gift from God, but is a gift of
God. If we want reformation and revival in our time, it will be
because of God’s Spirit and grace working through the preaching of
His Holy Word and a continuous meditation on and glimpse of Our Holy God!
Benediction:
Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly
than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21
to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all
generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
Today I have included
part two of Edwards' 'Dissertation
on the End for Which God Created the World'. Edwards
wrote this dissertation while a missionary to the Mohawk and Mohican
Indians in the frontier town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts in the 1750s
(just a few years before he died in 1757).
By the way, Edwards
wrote this writing on God's glory for Himself after His God and LORD had
allowed him to be privileged to suffer with Christ in the rejection he
received from his own congregation to whom he had preached and served for
over 20 years! Just a couple of years before he wrote this, his
congregation had voted him out and rejected him as pastor, thus he moved to
the frontier from Northampton, Massachusetts in order to make God's glory
known to the Native Americans. It is truly ironic that the greatest
theologian that America has ever produced was rejected by God's people
because he did not live up to their expectations!
Be reminded that last
Lord's day was the 300th anniversary of Jonathan Edwards' birth
(Edwards was born on October 5, 1703).
May God bless you richly
as you read this important writing. Edwards answers the question of
why God created the world in this writing. As pastor and theologian
John Piper says, this writing basically asserts that "God's chief end
is to glorify Himself and to enjoy Himself forever." So the
ultimate reason why God created was that it glorified himself! But
Edwards says it so much better, so take up and read!
May the Holy Spirit be
pleased to use this writing to accomplish this in your life!
Three Books of
Interest if this study has
encouraged you to read more of Edwards: Stephen J. Nichols, 'Jonathan Edwards: A Guided Tour of His Life;
Harry S. Stout, 'A Jonathan Edwards
Reader'; and D. G. Hart, Sean Michael Lucas, and S. J.
Nichols, 'The Legacy of Jonathan
Edwards: American Religion and the Evangelical Tradition'.
[Note: If you would like
me to send this to you as a Word Document attachment, I will be glad to do
it- - just ask!]
Jonathan Edwards
A Dissertation Concerning
The End For Which God Created The World
By
Jonathan Edwards
CHAPTER II
WHEREIN IF IT
IS INQUIRED, WHAT IS TO BE LEARNED FROM HOLY SCRIPTURES, CONCERNING
GOD’S LAST END IN THE CREATION OF THE WORLD
SECTION I
The
Scriptures represent God as making himself his own last end in the creation
of the world
IT is manifest,
that the Scriptures speak, on all occasions, as though God made himself
his end in all his works; and as though the same being, who is the first
cause of all things, were the supreme and last end of all
things. Thus in Isa. 44:6, “Thus saith the Lord, the king of Israel,
and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts, I am the first, I also am the last, and
besides me there is no God.” Chap. 48:12, “I am the first and I
am the last.” Rev. 1:8, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and was, and which is to come,
the almighty.” Verse 11, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and
the last.” Verse 17, “I am the first and the last.” Rev.
21:6, “And he said unto me, it is done; I am Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end.” Chap. 22:13, “I am Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end, the first and the last.”
When God is so
often spoken of as the last as well as the first, the end as
well as the beginning, it is implied, that as he is the first,
efficient cause and fountain, from whence all things originate; so, he is
the last, final cause for which they are made; the final term to which they
all tend in their ultimate issue. This seems to be the most natural import
of these expressions; and is confirmed by other parallel passages; as Rom.
11:36, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all
things.” Col. 1:16, “For by him were all things created, that are
in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were
created by him, and for him.” Heb. 2:10, “For it became him, by
whom are all things, and for whom are all things.” And in Pro. 16:4,
it is said expressly, “The Lord hath made all things for
himself.”
And the manner
is observable, in which God is said to be the last, to whom, and for
whom, are all things. It is evidently spoken of as a meet and suitable
thing, a branch of his glory; a meet prerogative of the great, infinite,
and eternal Being; a thing becoming the dignity of him who is infinitely
above all other beings; from whom all things are, and by whom they consist;
and in comparison with whom all other things are as nothing.
CHAPTER II
SECTION II
Wherein some
positions are advanced concerning a just method of arguing in this affair,
from what we find in the Holy Scriptures
WE have seen,
that the Scriptures speak of the creation of the world as being for God,
as its end. What remains therefore to be inquired into, is, which way do
the Scriptures represent God as making himself his end? It is evident,
that God does not make his existence or being the end of the
creation; which cannot be supposed without great absurdity. His existence
cannot be conceived of but as prior to any of God’s designs.
Therefore he cannot create the world to the end that he may have existence;
or may have certain attributes and perfections. Nor do the Scriptures give
the least intimation of any such thing. Therefore, what divine effect, or
what in relation to God, is that which the Scripture teaches us to be the
end he aimed at, in his works of creation, and in designing which he makes himself
his end?
In order to a
right understanding of the Scripture doctrine, and drawing just inferences
from what we find said in the Word of God, relative to this matter; and so
to open the way to a true and definite answer to the above inquiry, I would
lay down the following positions.
Position 1. That which appears to be God’s ultimate
end in his works of providence in general, we may justly suppose to
be his last end in the work of creation. This appears from what was
observed before, under the fifth particular of the introduction, which I
need not now repeat.
Position 2. When anything appears, by the Scripture, to be
the last end of some of the works of God, that thing appears to be
the result of God’s works in general. And although it be not
mentioned as the end of those works, but only of some of them; yet as
nothing appears peculiar in the nature of the case, that renders it
a fit, beautiful, and valuable result of those particular works, more than
of the rest; we may justly infer that thing to be the last end of those other
works also. For we must suppose it to be on account of the value of the
effect, that it is made the end of those works of which it is expressly spoken
as the end; and this effect, by the supposition, being equally, and in like
manner, the result of the work, and of the same value, it is but reasonable
to suppose, that it is the end of the work, of which it is naturally the
consequence, in one case as well as in another.
Position 3. The ultimate end of God in creating the world
being also the last end of all his works of providence, we may well
presume that, if there be any particular thing, more frequently
mentioned in Scripture, as God’s ultimate aim in his works of
providence, than anything else, this is the ultimate end of God’s
works in general, and so the end of the work of creation.
Position 4. That which appears, from the Word of God, to
be his ultimate end with respect to the moral world, or the intelligent
part of the system, that is God’s last end in the work of
creation in general. Because it is evident, from the constitution of
the world itself, as well as from the Word of God, that the moral part is
the end of all the rest of the creation. The inanimate, unintelligent part,
is made for the rational, as much as a house is prepared for the
inhabitant. And it is evident also from reason and the Word of God, that it
is for the sake of some moral good in them, that moral agents are
made, and the world made for them. But it is further evident, that
whatsoever is the last end of that part of creation, which is the
end of all the rest, and for which all the rest of the world was made, must
be the last end of the whole. If all the other parts of a watch are
made for the hand of the watch, in order to move that aright, then it will
follow, that the last end of the hand is the last end of the whole
machine.
Position 5. That which appears from the Scripture to be
God’s ultimate end in the chief works of his providence, we
may well determine is God’s last end in creating the world.
For, as observed, we may justly infer the end of a thing from the use
of it. We must justly infer the end of a clock, a chariot, a ship, or
water-engine, from the main use to which it is applied. But
God’s providence is his use of the world he has
made. And if there be any works of providence which are evidently God’s
main works, herein appears and consists the main use that God
makes of the creation. — From these two last positions we may infer
the next, viz.
Position 6. Whatever appears, by the Scriptures, to be
God’s ultimate end in his main works of Providence towards the
moral world, that we may justly infer to be the last end of the creation
of the world. Because, as was just now observed, the moral world is
the chief part of the creation, and the end of the rest; and
God’s last end in creating that part of the world, must be his
last end in the creation of the whole. And it appears, by the last
position, that the end of God’s main works of Providence towards
moral beings, or the main use to which he puts them, shows the last
end for which he has made them; and consequently the main end for
which he has made the whole world.
Position 7. That which divine revelation shows to be
God’s ultimate end with respect to that part of the moral
world which are good, in their being, and in their being good,
this we must suppose to be the last end of God’s creating the
world. For it has been already shown, that God’s last end in the moral
part of creation must be the end of the whole. But his end in that
part of the moral world that are good, must be the last end for
which he has made the moral world in general. For therein consists
the goodness of a thing, its fitness to answer its end; at least this must
be goodness in the eyes of its author. For goodness in his eyes, is its
agreeableness to his mind. But an agreeableness to his mind, in what he
makes for some end or use, must be an agreeableness or fitness to that end.
For his end in this case is his mind. That which he chiefly aims at in that
thing. And therefore, they are good moral agents who are fitted for the end
for which God has made moral agents. And consequently, that which is the
chief end to which good created moral agents, in being good, are
fitted, this is the chief end of the moral part of the creation; and
consequently of the creation in general.
Position 8. That which the Word of God requires the
intelligent and moral part of the world to seek, as their ultimate
and highest end, that we have reason to suppose is the last end for which
God has made them; and consequently, by position fourth, the last
end for which he has made the whole world. A main difference between
the intelligent and moral parts, and the rest of the world, lies in this,
that the former are capable of knowing their Creator, and the end
for which he made them, and capable of actively complying with his
design in their creation, and promoting it; while other creatures cannot
promote the design of their creation, only passively and eventually.
And seeing they are capable of knowing the end for which their author has
made them, it is doubtless their duty to fall in with it. Their wills ought
to comply with the will of the Creator in this respect, in mainly
seeking the same, as their last end, which God mainly
seeks as their last end. This must be the law of nature and reason with
respect to them. And we must suppose that God’s revealed law, and the
law of nature, agree; and that his will, as a lawgiver, must agree
with his will as a Creator. Therefore we justly infer, that the same
thing which God’s revealed law requires intelligent creatures
to seek, as their last and greatest end, that God their Creator had
made their last end, and so the end of the creation of the world.
Position 9. We may well suppose, that what is in Holy
Scripture, stated as the main end of the goodness of the moral world
— so that the respect and relation their goodness has to that end, is
what chiefly makes it valuable and desirable — is God’s
ultimate end in the creation of the moral world; and so, by position
the fourth, of the whole world. For the end of the goodness of
a thing, is the end of the thing.
Position 10. That which persons who are described in
Scripture as approved saints, and set forth as examples of
piety, sought as their last and highest end, in the instances of their good
and approved behavior; that, we must suppose, was what they ought to
seek as their last end: and consequently by the preceding position, was the
same with God’s last end in the creation of the world.
Position 11. What appears by the Word of God to be that
end, in the desires of which the souls of the best, and in their best
frames, most naturally and directly exercise their goodness, and in
expressing their desire of this end, they do most properly and directly
express their respect to God; we may well suppose that end to be the chief
and ultimate end of a spirit of piety and goodness, and
God’s chief end in making the moral world, and so the whole
world. For, doubtless, the most direct tendency of a spirit of true
goodness, in the best part of the moral world, is to the chief end of
goodness, and so the chief end of the creation of the moral
world. And in what else can the spirit of the true respect and friendship
to God be expressed by way of desire, than in desires of the same end
which God himself chiefly and ultimately desires in making them and all
other things.
Position 12. Since the Holy Scriptures teach us that
Jesus Christ is the Head of the moral world, and especially of all the good
part of it; the chief of God’s servants, appointed to be the Head of
his saints and angels, and set forth as the chief and most perfect pattern
and example of goodness; we may well suppose, by the foregoing positions,
that what he sought as his last end, was God’s last end in the
creation of the world.
CHAPTER II
SECTION III
Particular
texts of Scripture, that show that God’s glory is an ultimate end of
the creation
1. WHAT God
says in his Word, naturally leads us to suppose, that the way in which he
makes himself his end in his work or works, which he does for his own
sake, is in making his glory his end.
Thus Isa.
48:11, “For my own sake, even for my own sake, will I do it. For how
should my name be polluted; and I will not give my glory to another.”
Which is as much as to say, I will obtain my end; I will not forego my
glory; another shall not take this prize from me. It is pretty evident
here, that God’s name and his glory, which seem to
intend the same thing, as shall be observed more particularly afterwards,
are spoken of as his last end in the great work mentioned; not as an
inferior, subordinate end, subservient to the interest of others. The words
are emphatical. The emphasis and repetition constrain us to understand,
that what God does is ultimately for his own sake: “For my
own sake, even for my own sake will I do it.”
So the words of
the apostle, in Rom. 11:36, naturally lead us to suppose, that the way in
which all things are to God, is in being for his glory. “For
of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory for
ever and ever. Amen.” In the preceding context, the apostle observes
the marvelous disposals of divine wisdom, for causing all things to be to
him, in their final issue and result, as they are from him at first,
and governed by him. His discourse shows how God contrived this and brought
it to pass, by setting up the kingdom of Christ in the world; leaving the
Jews, and calling the Gentiles; including what he would hereafter do in
bringing in the Jews, with the fullness of the Gentiles; with the
circumstances of these wonderful works, so as greatly to show his justice
and his goodness, to magnify his grace, and manifest the sovereignty and
freeness of it, and the absolute dependence of all on him. And then, in the
four last verses, he breaks out into a most pathetic exclamation,
expressing his great admiration of the depth of divine wisdom, in
the steps he takes for attaining his end, and causing all things to be to
him: and finally, he expresses a joyful consent to God’s
excellent design in all to glorify himself, in saying, “to him
be glory for ever;” as much as to say, as all things are so
wonderfully ordered for his glory, so let him have the glory
of all, for evermore.
2. The glory of
God is spoken of in Holy Scripture as the last end for which those parts of
the moral world that are good were made.
Thus is Isa.
43:6, 7, “I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Keep
not back; bring my sons from afar; and my daughters from the ends of the
earth, even every one that is called by my name; for I have created him for
my glory, I have formed him, yea I have made him.” Again, Isa.
60:21, “Thy people also shall be all righteous. They shall inherit
the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hand, that
I may be glorified.” Also chap. 61:3, “That they may be
called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might
be glorified.”
In these places
we see, that the glory of God is spoken of as the end of God’s
saints, the end for which he makes them, i.e. either gives them
being, or gives them a being as saints, or both. It is said, that God has
made and formed them to be his sons and daughters, for his own glory:
That they are trees of his planting, the work of his hands, as trees of
righteousness, that he might be glorified. And if we consider the
words, especially as taken with the context in each of the places, it will
appear quite natural to suppose, that God’s glory is here spoken of
only as an end inferior and subordinate to the happiness of God’s
people. On the contrary, they will appear rather as promises of making
God’s people happy, that God therein might be glorified.
So is that in
Isa. 43 as we shall see plainly, if we take the whole that is said from the
beginning of the chapter, verse 1-7. It is wholly a promise of a future,
great, and wonderful work of God’s power and grace, delivering his
people from all misery, and making them exceeding happy; and then the end
of all, or the sum of God’s design in all, is declared to be God’s
own glory. “I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. — I will be with thee. — When thou walkest
through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. — Thou art precious and honourable in my sight. I will
give men for thee, and people for thy life. Fear not, I am with thee. —
I will bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;
every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my
glory.”
So Isa. 60:21.
The whole chapter is made up of nothing but promises of future, exceeding
happiness to God’s church; but, for brevity’s sake, let us take
only the two preceding verses 19, 20, “The sun shall be no more thy
light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee:
but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy
glory. Thy sun shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw
itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy
mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous; they shall
inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my
hands;” and then the end of all is added, “that I might be
glorified.” All the preceding promises are plainly mentioned as
so many parts, or constituents, of the great and exceeding happiness of
God’s people; and God’s glory is mentioned, as the sum
of his design in this happiness.
In like manner
is the promise in Isa. 61:3, “To appoint unto them that mourn in
Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called
trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be
glorified.” The work of God promised to be effected, is plainly
an accomplishment of the joy, gladness, and happiness of God’s
people, instead of their mourning and sorrow; and the end in which
God’s design in this work is obtained and summed up, is his glory.
This proves, by the seventh position, that God’s glory is the end
of the creation.
The same thing
may be argued from Jer. 13:11, “For as a girdle cleaveth to the loins
of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and
the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord: that they might be unto me for a
people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they
would not hear.” That is, God sought to make them to be his own holy
people; or, as the apostle expresses it, his peculiar people, zealous of
good works; that so they might be a glory to him; as girdles were
used in those days for ornament and beauty, and as badges of dignity and
honor. (See Jer. 13:9, and also Isa. 3:24, and 22:21, and 23:10; 2 Sam.
18:11; Exo. 28:8.)
Now when God
speaks of himself, as seeking a peculiar and holy people for himself, to be
for his glory and honor, as a man that seeks an ornament and badge of honor
for his glory, it is not natural to understand it merely of a subordinate
end, as though God had no respect to himself in it; but only the good of
others. If so, the comparison would not be natural; for men are commonly
wont to seek their own glory and honor in adorning themselves, and
dignifying themselves with badges of honor.
The same
doctrine seems to be taught, Eph. 1:5, “Having predestinated us to
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, unto himself, according to the
good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace.”
— And the same may be argued from Isa. 44:23, “For the Lord
hath redeemed Jacob, he hath glorified himself in Israel.” And
chap. 49:3, “Thou art my servant Jacob, in whom I will be
glorified.” John 17:10, “And all mine are thine, and thine
are mine, and I am glorified in them.” 2 Thes. 1:10,
“When he shall come to be glorified in his saints.”
Verse 11, 12, “Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God
would count you worthy of his calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of
his goodness, and the work of faith with power: that the name of our Lord
Jesus may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace
of God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
3. The
Scripture speaks of God’s glory, as his ultimate end of the goodness
of the moral part of the creation; and that end, in relation to which
chiefly the value of their virtue consists.
As in Phil.
1:10, 11, “That ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may
be sincere, and without offense, till the day of Christ: being filled with
the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory
and praise of God.” Here the apostle shows how the fruits of
righteousness in them are valuable, and how they answer their end, viz. In
being “by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God.”
John 15:8, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much
fruit.” Signifying, that by this means it is that the great end of
religion is to be answered. And in 1 Pet. 4:11, the apostle directs the
Christians to regulate all their religious performances with reference to
that one end. “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God:
if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth, that
God in all things may be glorified; to whom be praise and dominion for
ever and ever. Amen.”
And, from time
to time, embracing and practicing true religion, and repenting of sin, and
turning to holiness, is expressed by glorifying God, as though that
were the sum and end of the whole matter. Rev. 11:13, “And in the
earthquake were slain of men seven thousand; and the remnant were
affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.” So Rev.
14:6, 7, “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having
the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth; saying
with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him.” As though
this were the sum and end of that virtue and religion, which was the
grand design of preaching the gospel, everywhere through the world. Rev.
16:9, “And repented not to give him glory.” Which is as
much as to say, they did not forsake their sins and turn to true religion,
that God might receive that which is the great end he seeks, in the
religion he requires of men. (See to the same purpose, Psa. 22:21-23; Isa.
66:19; 24:15; 25:3; Jer. 13:15, 16; Dan. 5:23; Rom. 15:5, 6.)
And as the exercise
of true religion and virtue in Christians is summarily expressed by their glorifying
God, so, when the good influence of this on others is spoken of, it is
expressed in the same manner. Mat. 5:16, “Let your light so shine
before men, that others seeing your good works, may glorify your Father
which is in heaven.” 1 Pet. 2:12, “Having your conversation
honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak evil against you as
evildoers, they may, by your good works which they behold, glorify God in
the day of visitation.”
That the
ultimate end of moral goodness, or righteousness, is answered in
God’s glory being attained, is supposed in the objection
which the apostle makes, or supposes some will make, Rom. 3:7, “For
if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory,
why am I judged as a sinner?” i.e. seeing the great end of
righteousness is answered by my sin, in God being glorified, why is my sin
condemned and punished? and why is not my vice equivalent to virtue?
And the glory
of God is spoken of as that wherein consists the value and end of
particular graces. As of faith. Rom. 4:20, “He staggered not
at the promise of God through unbelief: but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God.” Phil. 2:11, “That every tongue should
confess that Jesus is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Of repentance. Jos. 7:19, “Give, I pray thee, glory to the
Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him.” Of charity.
2 Cor. 8:19, “With this grace, which is administered by us, to the
glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind.”
Thanksgiving and praise. Luke 17:18, “There are not found that
returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.” Psa. 50:23,
“Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me; and to him that ordereth
his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God.”
Concerning which last place may be observed, that God seems to say this to
such as supposed, in their religious performances, that the end of all
religion was to glorify God. They supposed they did this in the best
manner, in offering a multitude of sacrifices; but God corrects their
mistake, and informs them, that this grand end of religion is not attained
this way, but in offering the more spiritual sacrifices of praise and a
holy conversation.
In fine, the
words of the apostle in 1 Cor. 6:20 are worthy of particular notice.
“Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are his.” Here,
not only is glorifying God spoken of, as what summarily comprehends the end
of religion, and of Christ redeeming us; but the apostle urges, that
inasmuch as we are not our own, we ought not to act as if we were our own, but
as God’s; and should not use the members of our bodies, or faculties
of our souls, for ourselves, but for God, as making him our end. And he
expresses the way in which we are to make God our end, viz. In making his glory
our end. “Therefore glorify God in your body and in your
spirit, which are his.” Here it cannot be pretended, that though
Christians are indeed required to make God’s glory their end; yet it
is but as a subordinate end, as subservient to their own happiness;
for then, in acting chiefly and ultimately for their own selves, they would
use themselves more as their own than as God’s; which is
directly contrary to the design of the apostle’s exhortation, and the
argument he is upon; which is, that we should give ourselves as it were
away from ourselves to God, and use ourselves as his, and not
our own, acting for his sake, and not our own sakes. Thus
it is evident, by position the ninth, that the glory of God is the last
end for which he created the world.
4. There are
some things in the Word of God which lead us to suppose, that it requires
of men that they should desire and seek God’s glory, as
their highest and last end in what they do.
As
particularly, from 1 Cor. 10:31, “Whether therefore ye eat or drink,
or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” And 1 Pet.
4:11, — “That God in all things may be glorified.”
And this may be argued, that Christ requires his followers should desire
and seek God’s glory in the first place, and above all things
else, from that prayer which he gave his disciples, as the pattern and rule
for the direction of his followers in their prayers. The first petition of
which is, Hallowed be thy name. Which in scripture language is the
same with glorified be thy name; as is manifest from Lev. 10:3; Eze.
28:22, and many other places. Now our last and highest end is doubtless
what should be first in our desires, and consequently first in our prayers;
and therefore, we may argue, that since Christ directs that God’s
glory should be first in our prayers, that therefore this is our last end.
This is further confirmed by the conclusion of the Lord’s prayer, For
thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Which, as it stands in
connection with the rest of the prayer, implies, that we desire and ask all
the things mentioned in each petition, with a subordination, and in
subservience, to the dominion and glory of God; in which all our desires
ultimately terminate, as their last end. God’s glory and dominion are
the two first things mentioned in the prayer, and are the subject of the
first half of the prayer; and they are the two last things mentioned in the
same prayer, in its conclusion. God’s glory is the Alpha and Omega in
the prayer. From these things we may argue, according to position the
eighth, that God’s glory is the last end of the creation.
5. The glory of
God appears, by the account given in Scripture, to be that event, in the
earnest desires of which, and in their delight in which, the best part
of the moral world, and when in their best frames, most naturally
express the direct tendency of the spirit of true goodness, the virtuous
and pious affections of their heart.
This is the way
in which the holy apostles, from time to time, gave vent to the
ardent exercises of their piety, and breathed forth their regard to the
Supreme Being. Rom. 11:36, “To whom be glory for ever and ever.
Amen.” Chap. 16:27, “To God only wise, be glory, through Jesus
Christ, for ever. Amen.” Gal. 1:4, 5, “Who gave himself for our
sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to
the will of God and our Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Amen.” 2 Tim. 4:18, “And the Lord shall deliver me from every
evil work, and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory
for ever and ever. Amen.” Eph. 3:21, “Unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end.” Heb.
13:21. — “Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and
ever. Amen.” Phil. 4:20, “Now unto God and our Father be glory
for ever and ever. Amen.” 2 Pet. 3:18, “To him be glory both
now and for ever. Amen.” Jude 25, “To the only wise God our
Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
Amen.” Rev. 1:5, 6, “Unto him that loved us, etc. — to
him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”
It was in this
way that holy David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, vented the ardent
tendencies and desires of his pious heart. 1 Chr. 16:28, 29, “Give
unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory
and strength: give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name.”
We have much the same expressions again, Psa. 29:1, 2, and 69:7, 8. See
also, Psa. 57:5; 72:18, 19; 115:1. So the whole church of God through all
parts of the earth, Isa. 42:10-12. In like manner the saints and angels
in heaven express the piety of their hearts, Rev. 4:9-11, and 7:12.
This is the event that the hearts of the seraphim especially exult in, as
appears by Isa. 6:2, 3, “Above it stood the seraphim — And one
cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the
whole earth is full of his glory.” So at the birth of Christ,
Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest,” etc.
It is manifest
that these holy persons in earth and heaven, in thus expressing their
desires of the glory of God, have respect to it, not merely as a
subordinate end, but as that which is in itself valuable in the highest
degree. It would be absurd to say, that in these ardent exclamations,
they are only giving vent to their vehement benevolence to their fellow
creatures, and expressing their earnest desire that God might be
glorified, that so his subjects may be made happy by that
means. It is evident, it is not so much their love, either to
themselves, or their fellow creatures, which they express, as their exalted
and supreme regard to the most high and infinitely glorious Being. When the
church says, Not unto us, not unto us, O Jehovah, but to thy name give
glory, it would be absurd to say, that she only desires that God may
have glory, as a necessary or convenient means of their own
advancement and felicity. From these things it appears by the eleventh
position, that God’s glory is the end of the creation.
6. The
Scripture leads us to suppose, that Christ sought God’s glory,
as his highest and last end.
John 7:18,
“He that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory; but he that
seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no
unrighteousness is in him.” When Christ says, he did not seek his own
glory, we cannot reasonably understand him, that he had no regard to his own
glory, even the glory of the human nature; for the glory of that nature was
part of the reward promised him, and of the joy set before him. But we must
understand him, that this was not his ultimate aim; it was not the
end that chiefly governed his conduct: and therefore, when in
opposition to this, in the latter part of the sentence, he says, “But
he that seeketh his glory that sent him the same is true,” etc. It is
natural from the antithesis to understand him, that this was his ultimate aim,
his supreme governing end.
John 12:27, 28,
“Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from
this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour, Father, glorify thy
name.” Christ was now going to Jerusalem, and expected in a few
days there to be crucified: and the prospect of his last sufferings, in
this near approach, was very terrible to him. Under this distress of mind,
he supports himself with a prospect of what would be the consequence of his
sufferings, viz. God’s glory. Now, it is the end that
supports the agent in any difficult work that he undertakes, and above all
others, his ultimate and supreme end; for this is above all others
valuable in his eyes; and so, sufficient to countervail the difficulty of
the means. That end, which is in itself agreeable and sweet to him, and
which ultimately terminates his desires, is the center of rest and support;
and so must be the fountain and sum of all the delight and comfort he has
in his prospects, with respect to his work. Now Christ has his soul
straitened and distressed with a view of that which was infinitely the most
difficult part of his work, and which was just at hand. Now certainly, if
his mind seeks support in the conflict from a view of his end, it must most
naturally repair to the highest end, which is the proper fountain of
all support in this case. We may well suppose, that when his soul conflicts
with the most extreme difficulties, it would resort to the idea of his
supreme and ultimate end, the fountain of all the support and comfort he
has in the work.
The same thing,
Christ seeking the glory of God as his ultimate end, is manifest by what he
says, when he comes yet nearer to the hour of his last sufferings, in that
remarkable prayer, the last he ever made with his disciples, on the evening
before his crucifixion; wherein he expresses the sum of his aims and
desires. His first words are, “Father, the hour is come, glorify thy
Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.” As this is his first
request, we may suppose it to be his supreme request and desire, and what
he ultimately aimed at in all. If we consider what follows to the end, all
the rest that is said in the prayer, seems to be but an amplification of
this great request. — On the whole, I think it is pretty manifest,
that Jesus Christ sought the glory of God as his highest and last
end; and that therefore, by position twelfth, this was God’s last
end in the creation of the world.
7. It is
manifest from Scripture, that God’s glory is the last end of that
great work of providence, the work of redemption by Jesus Christ.
This is
manifest from what is just now observed, of its being the end ultimately
sought by Jesus Christ the Redeemer. And if we further consider the texts
mentioned in the proof of that, and take notice of the context, it will be
very evident, that it was what Christ sought as his last end, in that great
work which he came into the world upon, viz. to procure redemption
for his people. It is manifest, that Christ professes in John 7:18. that he
did not seek his own glory in what he did, but the glory of him that sent
him. He means, in the work of his ministry; the work he performed, and
which he came into the world to perform, which is the work of redemption.
And with respect to that text, John 12:27, 28, it has been already
observed, that Christ comforted himself in the view of the extreme
difficulty of his work, in the prospect of the highest, ultimate, and most
excellent end of that work, which he set his heart most upon, and delighted
most in.
And in the
answer that the Father made him from heaven at that time, in the latter
part of the same verse, John 12:28, “I have both glorified it, and
will glorify it again.” The meaning plainly is, that God had
glorified his name in what Christ had done, in the work he sent him upon;
and would glorify it again, and to a greater degree, in what he should
further do, and in the success thereof. Christ shows that he understood it
thus, in what he says upon it, when the people took notice of it, wondering
at the voice; some saying, that it thundered, others, that an angel spoke
to him. Christ says, “This voice came not because of me, but for your
sakes.” And then he says (exulting in the prospect of this glorious
end and success), “Now is the judgment of this world; now is the prince
of this world cast out; and I, if I be lift up from the earth, will draw
all men unto me.” In the success of the same work of redemption, he
places his own glory, as was observed before. John 12:23, 24, “The
hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, it abideth alone;
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
So it is
manifest, that when he seeks his own and his Father’s glory, in that
prayer, John 17. he seeks it as the end of that great work he came into the
world upon, and which he is about to finish in his death. What follows
through the whole prayer, plainly shows this; particularly the 4th and 5th
verses, “I have glorified thee on earth: I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine
own self.” Here it is pretty plain, that declaring to his Father he
had glorified him on earth, and finished the work given him to do, meant
that he had finished the work which God gave him to do for this end,
that he might be glorified. He had now finished that foundation that
he came into the world to lay for his glory. He had laid a foundation for
his Father’s obtaining his will, and the utmost that he designed. By
which it is manifest, that God’s glory was the utmost of his design,
or his ultimate end in this great work.
And it is
manifest, by John 13:31, 32, that the glory of the father, and his own
glory, are what Christ exulted in, in the prospect of his approaching sufferings,
when Judas was gone out to betray him, as the end his heart was mainly set
upon, and supremely delighted in. “Therefore, when he was gone out,
Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and
shall straightway glorify him.”
That the glory
of God is the highest and last end of the work of redemption, is confirmed
by the song of the angels at Christ’s birth. Luke 2:14, “Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will toward men.”
It must be supposed that they knew what was God’s last end in sending
Christ into the world: and that in their rejoicing on the occasion, their
minds would most rejoice in that which was most valuable and glorious in
it; which must consist in its relation to that which was its chief and
ultimate end. And we may further suppose, that the thing which chiefly
engaged their minds was most glorious and joyful in the affair; and would
be first in that song which was to express the sentiments of their minds,
and exultation of their hearts.
The glory of
the Father and the Son is spoken of as the end of the work of redemption,
in Phil. 2:6-11. (very much in the same manner as in John 12:23, 28, and
13:31, 32, and 17:1, 4, 5), “Who being in the form of God, —
made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross: wherefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name,
etc. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, — and every
tongue confess, that Jesus is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
So God’s glory, or the praise of his glory, is spoken of as the end
of the work of redemption, in Eph. 1:3, etc. “Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in
him. Having predestinated us to the adoption of children, to the praise
of the glory of his grace.” And in the continuance of the same
discourse, concerning the redemption of Christ, God’s glory is once
and again mentioned as the great end of all.
Several things
belonging to that great redemption, are mentioned in the following verses:
Such as God’s great wisdom in it, Eph. 1:8. The clearness of light
granted through Christ, verse 9. God’s gathering together in one, all
things in heaven and earth in Christ, verse 10. God’s giving the
Christians that were first converted to the Christian faith from among the
Jews, an interest in this great redemption, Eph. 1:11. Then the great end
is added, verse 12. “That we should be to the praise of his glory,
who first trusted in Christ.” And then is mentioned the bestowing of
the same great salvation on the Gentiles, in its beginning or first fruits
in the world, and in completing it in another world, in the two next
verses. And then the same great end is added again. “In whom ye also
trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation: In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with the
holy spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the
redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”
The same thing is expressed much in the same manner, in 2 Cor. 4:14, 15.
— “He which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also by
Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes,
that the abundance of grace might, through the thanksgiving of many,
redound to the glory of God.”
The same is
spoken of as the end of the work of redemption in the Old Testament, Psa.
79:9, “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name;
deliver us and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.”
So in the prophecies of the redemption of Jesus Christ. Isa. 44:23,
“Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts
of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains: O forest, and every tree
therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in
Israel!” Thus the works of creation are called upon to rejoice at the
attaining of the same end, by the redemption of God’s people, that
the angels rejoiced at when Christ was born. See also Isa. 48:10, 11; and
49:3.
Thus it is
evident, that the glory of God is the ultimate end of the work of
redemption; which is the chief work of providence towards the moral world,
as is abundantly manifest from Scripture. For the whole universe is put in
subjection to Jesus Christ; all heaven and earth, angels and men, are
subject to him, as executing this office; and are put under him to that
end, that all things may be ordered by him, in subservience to the great
designs of his redemption. All power, as he says, is given to him, in
heaven and in earth, that he may give eternal life to as many as the Father
has given him; and he is exalted far above all principality and power, and
might and dominion, and made head over all things to the church. The angels
are put in subjection to him, that he may employ them all as ministering
spirits, for the good of them that shall be the heirs of salvation: and all
things are so governed by their Redeemer, that all things are theirs,
whether things present or things to come: and all God’s works of
providence in the moral government of the world, which we have an account
of in scripture history, or that are foretold in scripture prophecy, are
evidently subordinate to the great purposes and ends of this great work. And
besides, the work of redemption is that, by which good men are, as it were,
brought into being, as good men, or as restored to holiness and happiness.
The work of redemption is a new creation, according to Scripture, whereby
men are brought into a new existence, or are made new creatures.
From these
things it follows, according to the 5th, 6th, and 7th positions, that
the glory of God is the last end of the creation of the world.
8. The
Scripture leads us to suppose that God’s glory is his last end in his
moral government of the world in general. This has been already
shown concerning several things that belong to God’s moral government
of the world. As particularly in the work of redemption, the chief of all
his dispensations in his moral government of the world. And I have also
observed it, with respect to the duty which God requires of the subjects of
his moral government, in requiring them to seek his glory as their last
end. And this is actually the last end of the moral goodness required of
them, the end which gives their moral goodness its chief value. And also,
that it is what that person which God has set at the head of the moral
world, as its chief governor, even Jesus Christ, seeks as his chief
end. And it has been shown, that it is the chief end for which that part of
the moral world which are good are made, or have their existence as good.
I now further
observe, that this is the end of the establishment of the public worship
and ordinances of God among mankind. Hag. 1:8, “Go up to the
mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in
it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.” This is
spoken of as the end of God’s promises of rewards, and of their
fulfillment. 2 Cor. 1:20, “For all he promises of God in him, are yea,
and in him Amen, to the glory of God by us.” And this is
spoken of as the end of the execution of God’s threatenings, in the
punishment of sin. Num. 14:20, 21, 22, 23, “And the Lord said, I have
pardoned according to thy word. But, as truly as I live, all the earth
shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah.” The glory o
Jehovah is evidently here spoken of, as that to which he had regard, as his
highest and ultimate end, which therefore he could not fail of; but must
take place everywhere, and in every case, through all parts of his
dominion, whatever became of men. And whatever abatements might be made, as
to judgments deserved; and whatever changes might be made in the course of
God’s proceedings from compassion to sinners; yet the attaining of God’s
glory was an end, which, being ultimate and supreme, must in no case
whatsoever give place. This is spoken of as the end of God executing
judgments on his enemies in this world. Exo. 14:17, 18, “And I will
get me honour (I will be glorified) upon Pharaoh, and upon all his
host,” etc. Eze. 28:22, “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am
against thee, O Zidon, and I will be glorified in the midst of thee:
And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have executed
judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.” So Eze.
39:13, “Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall
be to them a renown, the day that I shall be glorified, saith the
Lord God.” And this is spoken of as the end, both of the executions
of wrath, and in the glorious exercises of mercy, in the misery and
happiness of another world. Rom. 9:22, 23, “What if God, willing to
show his wrath, and make his power known, endured with much long-suffering,
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction; and that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore
prepared unto glory.” And this is spoken of as the end of the day of
judgment, which is the time appointed for the highest exercises of
God’s authority as moral Governor of the world; and is as it were the
day of the consummation of God’s moral government, with respect to
all his subjects in heaven, earth, and hell. 2 Thes. 1:9, 10, “Who
shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be
glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that
believe.” Then his glory shall be obtained, with respect both to
saints and sinners. — From these things it is manifest, by the fourth
position, that God’s glory is the ultimate end of the creation of the
world.
9. It appears,
from what has been already observed, that the glory of God is spoken of in
Scripture as the last end of many of his works: and it is plain that this
is in fact the result of the works of God’s common providence, and of
the creation of the world. Let us take God’s glory in what sense so
that, consistent with its being a good attained by any work of God,
certainly it is the consequence of these works: and besides, it is
expressly so spoken of in Scripture.
This is implied
in the eighth psalm, wherein are celebrated the works of creation: the
heavens, the work of God’s fingers; the moon and the stars, ordained
by him; and man, made a little lower than the angels, etc. the first verse
is — ”O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the
earth! who has set thy glory above the heavens,” or upon the
heavens. By name and glory, very much the same thing is
intended here, as in many other places, as shall be particularly shown
afterwards. The psalm concludes as it began, “O Lord, our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth!” So, in the Psalm 148, after
a particular mention of most of the works of creation, enumerating them in
order, the psalmist says, verse 13, “Let them praise the name of the
Lord, for his name alone is excellent, his glory is above the earth
and the heaven.” And in the Psalm 104, after a very particular,
orderly, and magnificent representation of God’s works of creation
and common providence, it is said in the verse 31, “The glory of
the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his
works.” Here God’s glory is spoken of as the grand result and
blessed consequence, on account of which he rejoices in these works. And
this is one thing doubtless implied in the song of the seraphim, Isa. 6:3,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of
his glory.”
The glory of
God, in being the result and consequence of those works of providence that
have been mentioned, is in fact the consequence of the creation. The good
attained in the use of a thing, made for use, is the result of the making
of that thing; as signifying the time of day, when actually attained by the
use of a watch, is the consequence of making the watch. So it is apparent,
that the glory of God is actually the result and consequence of the
creation of the world. And from what has been already observed, it appears,
that it is what God seeks as good, valuable, and excellent in itself. And I
presume none will pretend, that there is anything peculiar in the nature of
the case, rendering it a thing valuable in some of the instances wherein it
takes place, and not in others: or that the glory of God, though indeed an
effect of all God’s works, is an exceeding desirable effect of some
of them; but of others, a worthless and insignificant effect. God’s
glory therefore must be a desirable, valuable consequence of the work of
creation. Therefore it is manifest, by position the third, that the glory
of God is an ultimate end in the creation of the world.
CHAPTER II
SECTION IV
Places of
Scripture that lead us to suppose, that God created the world for his name,
to make his perfections known; and that he made it for his praise.
1. HERE I shall
first take notice of some passages of Scripture that speak of God’s name
as being the object of his regard, and the regard of his virtuous and holy
intelligent creatures, much in the same manner as has been observed of God’s
glory.
God’s name
is, in like manner, spoken of as the end of his acts of goodness
towards the good part of the moral world, and of his works of mercy and
salvation towards his people. As 1 Sam. 12:22, “The Lord will not
forsake his people, for his great name’s sake.” Psa.
23:3, “He restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness,
for his name’s sake.” Psa. 31:3, “For thy
name’s sake, lead me, and guide me.” Psa. 109:21,
“But do thou for me, — for thy name’s sake.”
The forgiveness of sin in particular, is often spoken of as being for
God’s name’s sake. 1 John 2:12, “I write unto you,
little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s
sake.” Psa. 25:11, “For thy name’s sake, O
Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” Psa. 79:9, “Help
us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name; and deliver
us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.” Jer.
14:7, “O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for
thy name’s sake.”
These things
seem to show, that the salvation of Christ is for God’s name
sake. Leading and guiding in the way of safety and happiness, restoring
the soul, the forgiveness of sin; and that help, deliverance, and
salvation, that is consequent therein, is for God’s name. And
here it is observable, that those two great temporal salvations of
God’s people, the redemption from Egypt, and that from Babylon, often
represented as figures and similitudes of the redemption of Christ, are
frequently spoken of as being wrought for God’s name’s sake.
Thus that great
work of God, in delivering his people from Egypt, and conducting them
to Canaan. 2 Sam. 7:23, “And what one nation in the earth is like thy
people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself,
and to make him a name.” Psa. 106:8, “Nevertheless he
saved them for his name’s sake.” Isa. 63:12, “That
led them by the right hand of Moses, with his glorious arm, dividing the
waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name.” In
Ezekiel 20, God, rehearsing the various parts of this wonderful work, adds,
from time to time, “I wrought for my name’s sake, that
it should not be polluted before the heathen,” as in verse 9, 14, 22.
(See also Jos. 7:8, 9; Dan. 9:15.)
So is the
redemption from the Babylonish captivity. Isa. 48:9, 10, “For
my name’s sake will I defer mine anger. For mine own sake, even
for mine own sake, will I do it; for how should my name be
polluted?” In Eze. 36:21, 22, 23, the reason is given for God’s
mercy in restoring Israel, “But I had pity for my holy name. Thus
saith the Lord, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for
my holy name’s sake; — And I will sanctify my great name,
which was profaned among the heathen.” And chap. 39:25,
“Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, now will I bring again the
captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and
will be jealous for my holy name.” Daniel prays, that God would
forgive his people, and show them mercy for his own sake. Dan. 9:19.
When God, from
time to time, speaks of showing mercy, and exercising goodness, and
promoting his people’s happiness for his name’s sake, we
cannot understand it as of a merely subordinate end. How absurd would it be
to say, that he promotes their happiness for his name’s sake, in
subordination to their good; and that his name may be exalted only for
their sakes, as a means of promoting their happiness! especially when such
expressions as these are used, “For mine own sake, even for mine own
sake will I do it; for how should my name be polluted?” and
“Not for your sakes do I this, but for my holy name’s sake.”
Again, it is
represented as though God’s people had their existence, at least as
God’s people, for God’s name’s sake. God’s
redeeming or purchasing them, that they might be his people, for his
name, implies this. As in that passage mentioned before, 2 Sam. 7:23,
“Thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself,
and to make him a name.” So God making them a people for his
name, is implied in Jer. 13:11, “For as the girdle cleaveth to the
loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of
Israel, etc. — that they may be unto me for a people, and for a
name.” Acts 15:14, “Simeon hath declared how God at the
first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.”
This also is
spoken of as the end of the virtue, religion, and holy behavior of
the saints. Rom. 1:5, “By whom we have received grace and
apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name.”
Mat. 19:29, “Every one that forsaketh houses, or brethren, etc.
— for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and
shall inherit everlasting life.” 3 John 7, “Because, that for
his name’s sake, they went forth, taking nothing of the
Gentiles.” Rev. 2:3, “And hast borne, and hast patience, and for
my name’s sake hast laboured and hast not fainted.”
And we find that
holy persons express their desire of this, and their joy in
it, in the same manner as in the glory of God. 2 Sam. 7:26, “Let thy name
be magnified for ever.” Psa. 76:1, “In Judah is God known, his name
is great in Israel.” Psa. 148:13, “Let them praise the name
of the Lord; for his name alone is excellent, his glory is
above the earth and heaven.” Psa. 135:13, “Thy name, O
Lord, endureth for ever, and thy memorial throughout all
generations.” Isa. 12:4, “Declare his doings among the people,
make mention that his name is exalted.”
The judgments
God executes on the wicked, are spoken of as being for the sake of his
name, in like manner as for his glory. Exo. 9:16, “And in very
deed, for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee my power;
and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.”
Neh. 9:10, “And showedst signs and wonders upon Pharaoh, and on all
his servants, and on all the people of his land; for thou knewedst that
they dealt proudly against them: so didst thou get thee a name, as
at this day.”
And this is
spoken of as a consequence of the works of creation, in like manner
as God’s glory. Psa. 8:1, “O Lord, how excellent is
thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the
heavens.” And then, at the conclusion of the observations on the
works of creation, the psalm ends thus, verse 9, “O Lord our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth!” So Psa. 148:13, after a
particular mention of the various works of creation. “Let them praise
the name of the Lord, for his name alone is excellent in all the
earth, his glory is above the earth and the heaven.”
2. So we find
the manifestation of God’s perfections, his greatness
and excellency, is spoken of very much in the same manner as
God’s glory.
There are
several scriptures which would lead us to suppose this to be the great
thing that God sought of the moral world and the end aimed at in
moral agents, wherein they are to be active in answering their end. This
seems implied in that argument God’s people sometimes made use of, in
deprecating a state of death and destruction: that, in such a state, they
cannot know, or make known, the glorious excellency of God. Psa. 88:11, 12,
“Shall thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave, or thy
faithfulness in destruction? Shall thy wonders be known in the dark, and
thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” So Psa. 30:9; Isa.
38:18, 19. The argument seems to be this: Why should we perish? and how
shall thine end, for which thou hast made us, be obtained in a state of
destruction, in which thy glory cannot be known or declared?
This is the end
of the good part of the moral world, or the end of God’s
people in the same manner as the glory of God. Isa. 43:21, “This my
people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise.”
1 Pet. 2:9, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an
holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of
him who hath called you out of darkness into marvellous light.”
And this seems
to be represented as the thing wherein the value, the proper fruit
and end of their virtue appears. Isa. 60:6, speaking of the conversion of
the Gentile nations to true religion, “They shall come and show
forth the praises of the Lord.” Isa. 66:19, “I will send
— — unto the nations — and to the isles afar off, that
have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare
my glory among the Gentiles.” — To which we may add,
the proper tendency and rest of true virtue, and holy dispositions.
1 Chr. 16:8, “Make known his deeds among the people.” Verse 23,
24, “Show forth from day to day thy salvation. Declare his glory
among the heathen.” (See also, Psa. 9:1, 11, 14, and 19:1, and 26:7;
and Psa. 71:18, and 75:9, and 76:1, and 79:13; and Psa. 96:2, 3, and 101:1,
and 107:22, and 118:17, and 145:6, 11, 12; Isa. 42:12, and 64:1, 2; Jer.
51:10)
This seems to
be spoken of as a great end of the acts of God’s moral government;
particularly, the great judgments he executes for sin. Exo. 9:16,
“And in very deed, for this cause have I raised thee up, to show in
thee my power; and that my name might be declared throughout all the
earth.” Dan. 4:17, “This matter is by the decree of the
watchers, etc. to the intent, that the living may know that the Most High
ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will; and
setteth up over it the basest of men.” But places to this purpose are
too numerous to be particularly recited. See them in the margin. (Exo.
14:17, 18; 1 Sam. 17:46; Psa. 83:18; Isa. 45:3; Eze. 6:7, 10, 13, 14, and
7:4, 9, 27, and 11:10, 11, 12; and Eze. 12:15, 16, 20, and 13:9, 14, 21,
23, and 14:8; and Eze. 15:7, and 21:5, and 22:16, and 25:7, 11, 17; and
Eze. 26:6, and 28:22, 23, 24, and 29:9, 16, and 30:8, 19, 25, 26; and Eze.
32:15, and 33:29, and 35:4, 12, 15, and 38:23, and 39:6, 7, 21, 22)
This is also a
great end of God’s works of favor and mercy to his
people. 2 Kin. 19:19, “Now, therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech
thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may
know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.” 1 Kin. 8:59,
60. — “That he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause
of his people Israel, at all times, as the matter shall require, that all
the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is
none else.” See other passages to the same purpose referred to in the
margin. (Exo. 6:7, and 8:22, and 16:12; 1 Kin. 8:43, and 20:28; Psa.
102:21; Eze. 23:49, and 24:21, and 25:5, and 35:9, and 39:21, 22).
This is spoken
of as the end of the eternal damnation of the wicked, and also the
eternal happiness of the righteous. Rom. 9:22, 23, “What if
God, willing to show his wrath, and make his power known, endured with much
long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that he
might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he
hath afore prepared unto glory?”
This is spoken
of, from time to time, as a great end of the miracles which God
wrought (See Exo. 7:17, and 8:10, and 10:2; Deu. 29:5, 6; Eze. 24:17). And
of the ordinances he has established. Exo. 29:44, 45, 46, “And
I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the
priests’ office. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and
will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God,”
etc. Chap. 31:13, “Verily, my sabbaths shall ye keep; for it is a
sign between me and you, throughout your generations; that ye may know that
I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” We have again almost the same
words, Eze.20:12, and verse 20.
This was a
great end of the redemption out of Egypt. Psa. 106:8,
“Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he
might make his mighty power to be known.” (See also Exo. 7:5, and
Deu. 4:34, 35) And also of the redemption from the Babylonish captivity.
Eze. 20:34-38, “And I will bring you out from the people, and will
gather you out of the countries whither ye are scattered. — And I
will bring you into the wilderness of the people; and there I will ill
plead with you, as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the
land of Egypt. — And I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.
And I will purge out the rebels. — And ye shall know that I am the
Lord.” Eze. 20:42, “And ye shall know that I am the Lord,
when I shall bring you into the land of Israel.” Verse 44, “And
ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have wrought with you for
my name’s sake.” (See also Eze. 28:25, 26, and 36:11, and
37:6, 13.)
This is also
declared to be a great end of the work of redemption by Jesus Christ:
both of its purchase, and its application. Rom. 3:25, 26,
“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his
blood, to declare his righteousness. — To declare, I say, at this
time, his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him
that believeth in Jesus.” Eph. 2:4-7, “But God, who is rich in
mercy, etc. That he might show the exceeding riches of his grace, in
his kindness towards us through Jesus Christ.” Chap. 3:8, 9, 10,
“To preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and
to make all men see, what is the fellowship of that mystery which, from the
beginning of the world, hath been hid in God, who created all things by
Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in
heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of
God.” Psa. 22:21, 22, “Save me from the lion’s mouth.
I will declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the
congregation will I praise thee.” (Compared with Heb. 2:12, and John
17:26.) Isa. 64:1-2, “O that thou wouldest rend the heavens — to
make thy name known to thine adversaries.”
And it is
pronounced to be the end of that great, actual salvation, which
should follow Christ’s purchase of salvation, both among Jews and
Gentiles. Isa. 49:22, 23, “I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles,
— and they shall bring thy sons in their arms — and kings shall
be thy nursing-fathers — and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.”
(See also, Eze. 16:62, and 29:21, and 34:27, and 36:38, and 39:28, 29; Joel
3:17)
This appears to
be the end of God’s common providence, Job 37:6, 7, “For
he saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth. Likewise to the small rain, and
to the great rain of his strength. He sealeth up the hand of every man,
that all men may know his work.” And of the day of judgment,
that grand consummation of God’s moral government of the world, and
the day for bringing all things to their designed ultimate issue. It is
called, “The day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of
God.” Rom. 2:5.
And the declaration,
or openly manifesting of God’s excellency, is spoken of as the
actual, happy consequence and effect of the work of creation. Psa. 19:1,
etc. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth
his handy-work. Day unto day uttereth speech, night unto night showeth
knowledge. — In them hath he placed a tabernacle for the sun, which
is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man
to run his race,” etc.
3. In like
manner, there are many scriptures that speak of God’s PRAISE, in many
of the aforementioned respects, just in the same manner as of his name and
glory.
This is spoken
of as the end of the very being of God’s people, in the same
manner as before, Jer. 13:11, “For as the girdle cleaveth to the
loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of
Israel, and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord: that they might be
unto me for a name, and for a praise, and a glory.”
It is spoken of
as the end of the moral world. Mat. 21:16, “Out of the mouth
of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise.” That is,
so have you in your sovereignty and wisdom ordered it, that you should
obtain the great end for which intelligent creatures are made, more
especially from some of them that are in themselves weak, inferior, and
more insufficient. (Compare Psa. 8:1, 2.)
And the same
thing that was observed before concerning the making known God’s
excellency, may also be observed concerning God’s praise. That
it is made use of as an argument in deprecating a state of destruction;
that, in such a state, this end cannot be answered, in such a manner as
seems to imply its being an ultimate end, for which God had made man. Psa.
88:10, “Shall the dead arise and praise thee? Shall thy
loving-kindness be declared in the grave? — Shall thy wonders be
known in the dark?” Psa. 30:9, “What profit is there in my
blood? When I go down to the pit, shall the dust praise thee? Shall
it declare thy truth? Psa. 115:17, 18, “The dead praise not the
Lord, neither any that go down into silence: but we will bless the
Lord, from this time forth and forevermore. Praise ye the Lord.”
Isa. 38:18, 19, “For the grave cannot praise thee, death
cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy
truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee.” And
God’s praise is spoken of as the end of the virtue of
God’s people, in like manner as his glory. Phil. 1:11, “Being
filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to
the praise and glory of God.”
God’s praise
is the end of the work of redemption. In Eph. 1, where that work in
its various parts is particularly insisted on, and set forth in its
exceeding glory, this is mentioned, from time to time, as the great end of
all, that it should be “to the praise of his glory.” As
in Eph. 1:6, 12, 14. By which we may doubtless understand much the same
thing with what in Phil. 1:11, is expressed, “his praise and glory.”
Agreeably to this, Jacob’s fourth son, from whom the great Redeemer
was to proceed, by the special direction of God’s providence, was
called PRAISE. This happy consequence, and glorious end of that great
redemption, Messiah, one of his posterity, was to work out.
In the Old
Testament this praise is spoken of as the end of the forgiveness of
God’s people, and their salvation, in the same manner as God’s
name and glory. Isa. 48:9, 10, 11, “For my name’s sake will I
defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I
cut thee not off. Behold I have refined thee — for mine own sake,
even for mine own sake will I do it; for how should my name be polluted?
and my glory will I not give to another.” Jer. 33:8, 9, “And I
will cleanse them from all their iniquity — and I will pardon all
their iniquities. And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and
an honour.”
And that the holy
part of the moral world express desires of this, and delight in it, as
the end which holy principles in them tend to, reach after, and rest in, in
their highest exercises — just in the same manner as the glory of
God, is abundantly manifest. It would be endless to enumerate particular
places wherein this appears; wherein the saints declare this, by expressing
their earnest desires of God’s praise; calling on all nations, and
all beings in heaven and earth, to praise him; in a rapturous manner
calling on one another, crying “Hallelujah; praise the Lord, praise
him for ever.” Expressing their resolutions to praise him as long as
they live through all generations, and forever; declaring how good, how
pleasant and comely the praise of God is, etc. And it is manifest,
that God’s praise is the desirable and glorious consequence
and effect of all the works of creation, by such places as these. Psa.
145:5-10, and chap. 148 throughout, and 103:19-22.
CHAPTER II
SECTION V
Places of
Scripture from whence it may be argued, that communication of good to the
creature, was one thing which God had in view, as an ultimate end of the
creation of the world.
1. ACCORDING to
the Scripture, communicating good to the creatures is what is in
itself pleasing to God. And this is not merely subordinately agreeable,
and esteemed valuable on account of its relation to a further end,
as it is in executing justice in punishing the sins of men; but what God is
inclined to on its own a account, and what he delights in simply and
ultimately. For though God is sometimes in Scripture spoken of as taking
pleasure in punishing men’s sins, Deu. 28:63, “The Lord will
rejoice over you, to destroy you.” Eze. 5:13, “Then shall mine
anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I
will be comforted.” Yet God is often spoken of as exercising goodness
and showing mercy, with delight, in a manner quite different, and opposite
to that of his executing wrath. For the latter is spoken of as what God
proceeds to with backwardness and reluctance; the misery of the creature
being not agreeable to him on its own account. Neh. 9:17,
“Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to
anger, and of great kindness.” Psa. 103:8, “The Lord is
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.” Psa.
145:8, “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger,
and of great mercy.” We have again almost the same words, Jon. 4:2;
Mic. 7:18, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity,
etc. — He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in
mercy.” Eze. 18:32, “I have no pleasure in the death of him
that dieth, saith the Lord God; wherefore turn yourselves, and live
ye.” Lam. 3:33, “He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the
children of men.” Eze. 33:11, “As I live, saith the Lord God, I
have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from
his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye
die, O house of Israel!” 2 Pet. 3:9, “Not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
2. The work of redemption
wrought out by Jesus Christ, is spoken of in such a manner as, being from
the grace and love of God to men, does not well consist with his seeking a
communication of good to them, only subordinately. Such expressions
as that in John 3:16, carry another idea. “God so loved the world,
that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should
not perish, but have everlasting life.” And 1 John 4:9, 10, “In
this was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his
only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is
love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins.” So Eph. 2:4, “But God who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,” etc. But if
indeed this was only from a regard to a further end, entirely
diverse from our good; then all the love is truly terminated in that, its
ultimate object, and therein is his love manifested, strictly and
properly speaking, and not in that he loved us, or exercised such
high regard towards us. For if our good be not at all regarded ultimately,
but only subordinately, then our good or interest is, in itself considered,
nothing in God’s regard.
The Scripture
everywhere represents it, as though the great things Christ did and
suffered, were in the most direct and proper sense from exceeding love
to us. Thus the apostle Paul represents the matter, Gal. 2:20,
“Who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Eph. 5:25,
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave
himself for it.” And Christ himself, John 17:19, “For their
sakes I sanctify myself.” And the Scripture represents Christ as
resting in the salvation and glory of his people, when obtained as in what
he ultimately sought, as having therein reached the goal, obtained
the prize he aimed at, enjoying the travail of his soul in which he is
satisfied, as the recompense of his labors and extreme agonies, Isa. 53:10,
11, “When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see
his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be
satisfied; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities.” He sees the travail of his soul, in
seeing his seed, the children brought forth as the result of his travail.
This implies, that Christ has his delight, most truly and properly, in
obtaining the salvation of his church, not merely as a means, but as what
he rejoices and is satisfied in, most directly and properly. This is
proved by those scriptures which represent him as rejoicing in his obtaining
this fruit of his labor and purchase, as the bridegroom, when he obtains
his bride, Isa. 62:5, “As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so
shall thy God rejoice over thee.” And how emphatic and strong to the
purpose, are the expressions in Zep. 3:17, “The Lord thy God in the
midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy;
he will rest in his love, he will rejoice over thee with singing.”
The same thing may be argued from Pro. 8:30, 31, “Then was I by him,
as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always
before him: rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights
were with the sons of men.” And from those places, that speak of the
saints as God’s portion, his jewels and peculiar treasure, these
things are abundantly confirmed, John 12:23-32. But the particular
consideration of what may be observed to the present purpose, in that
passage of Scripture, may be referred to the next section.
3. The
communications of divine goodness, particularly forgiveness of sin, and
salvation, are spoken of, from time to time, as being for God’s goodness’
sake, and for his mercies’ sake, just in the same manner
as they are spoken of as being for God’s name’s sake, in
the places observed before. Psa. 25:7, “Remember not the sins of my
youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me, for
thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.” In verse 11, the psalmist
says, “For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine
iniquity.” Neh. 9:31, “Nevertheless, for thy great mercies’
sake, thou hast not utterly consumed them, nor forsaken them; for thou
art a gracious and a merciful God.” Psa. 6:4, “Return, O Lord,
deliver my soul: O save me for thy mercies’ sake.” Psa.
31:16, “Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy
mercies’ sake.” Psa. 44:26, “Arise for our help;
redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.” And here it may be
observed, after what a remarkable manner God speaks of his love to the
children of Israel in the wilderness, as though his love were for
love’s sake, and his goodness were its own end and motive. Deu. 7:7,
8, “The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because
ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all
people: but because the Lord loved you.”
4. That the
government of the world in all its parts, is for the good of such as
are to be the eternal subjects of God’s goodness, is implied
in what the Scripture teaches us of Christ being set at God’s right
hand, made king of angels and men; set at the head of the universe, having
all power given him in heaven and earth, to that end that he may
promote their happiness; being made head over all things to the
church, and having the government of the whole creation for their good
(Eph. 1:20-23; John 17:2; Mat. 11:27, and 28:18, 19; John 3:35). Christ
mentions it, Mark 2:28, as the reason why the Son of man is made
Lord of the sabbath, because “the sabbath was made for man.”
And if so, we may in like manner argue, that all things were made
for man, because the Son of man is made Lord of all things.
5. That God
uses the whole creation, in his government of it, for the good of his
people, is most elegantly represented in Deu. 33:26, “There is none
like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven.” The whole
universe is a machine, or chariot, which God has made for his own use, as
is represented in Ezekiel’s vision. God’s seat is heaven, where
he sits and governs, Eze. 1:22, 26-28. The inferior part of the creation,
this visible universe, subject to such continual changes and revolutions,
are the wheels of the chariot. God’s providence, in the constant
revolutions, alterations, and successive events, is represented by the
motion of the wheels of the chariot, by the spirit of him who sits on his
throne on the heavens, or above the firmament. Moses tells us for whose
sake it is, that God moves the wheels of this chariot, or rides in it,
siting in his heavenly seat; and to what end he is making his progress, or
goes his appointed journey in it, viz. The salvation of his people.
6. God’s judgments
on the wicked in this world, and also their eternal damnation in the world
to come, are spoken of, as being for the happiness of God’s people.
So are his judgments on them in this world. Isa. 43:3, 4, “For I am
the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. I gave Egypt for thy
ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou hast been precious in my
sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee; therefore will I
give men for thee, and people for thy life.” So the works of
God’s vindictive justice and wrath are spoken of as works of mercy to
his people, Psa. 136:10, 15, 17-20. And so is their eternal damnation in
another world. Rom. 9:22, 23, “What if God, willing to show his wrath
and make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto
glory.” Here it is evident the last verse comes in, in connection
with the foregoing, as giving another reason of the destruction of
the wicked, viz. showing the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy: higher degrees of their glory and happiness, in a relish of
their own enjoyments, and a greater sense of their value, and of God’s
free grace in bestowing them.
7. It seems to
argue, that God’s goodness to them who are to be the eternal subjects
of his goodness, is the end of the creation; since the whole creation, in
all its parts, is spoken of as THEIRS. 1 Cor. 3:21-23, “All things
are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life,
or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours.”
The terms are very universal; and both works of creation and providence are
mentioned; and it is manifestly the design of the apostle to be understood
of every work of God whatsoever. Now, how can we understand this any
otherwise, than that all things are for their benefit; and that God made
and uses all for their good?
8. All
God’s works, both of creation and providence, are represented as
works of goodness or mercy to his people; as in Psalm 136.
His wonderful works in general. Verse 4, “To him who alone
doth great wonders; for his mercy endureth for ever.” The works of creation
in all its parts. Psa. 136:5-9, “To him that by wisdom made the
heavens; for his mercy endureth for ever. To him that stretched out the
earth above the waters; for his mercy endureth for ever. To him that made
great lights; for his mercy endureth for ever. The sun to rule by day; for
his mercy endureth for ever. The moon and stars to rule by night; for his
mercy endureth for ever.” And God’s works of providence,
in the following part of the psalm.
9. That
expression in the blessed sentence pronounced on the righteous at the day
of judgment, “Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world,” seems to hold forth thus much, that the
fruits of God’s goodness to them, was his end in creating the world,
and in his providential disposals: that God in all his works, in laying the
foundation of the world, and ever since the foundation of it, had been
preparing this kingdom and glory for them.
10. Agreeable
to this, the good of men is spoken of as an ultimate end of the virtue
of the moral world. Rom. 13:8, 9, 10, “He that loveth another
hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou
shalt not kill, etc. — And If there be any other commandment, it is
briefly comprehended in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore love is the
fulfilling of the law.” Gal. 5:14, “All the law is
fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.” Jam. 2:8, “If ye fulfil the royal law, according
to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, thou
shalt do well.”
If the good
of the creatures be one end of God in all he does; and in all he
requires moral agents to do; an end by which they should regulate all their
conduct; these things may be easily explained: but otherwise, it seems difficult
to be accounted for, that the Holy Ghost should thus express himself. The
Scripture represents it to be the spirit of all true saints, to prefer the
welfare of God’s people to their chief joy. This was the spirit of
Moses and the prophets of old: the good of God’s church was an
end by which they regulated all their conduct. And so it was with the apostles.
2 Cor. 4:15, “For all things are for your sakes.” 2 Tim.
2:10, “I endured all things for the elect’s sake, that
they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal
glory.” And the Scriptures represent it, as though every Christian
should, in all he does, be employed for the good of the church, as each
particular member is employed for the good of the body; Rom. 12:4, 5, etc.
Eph. 4:15, 16; 1 Cor. 12:12, 25, etc. To this end, the Scripture teaches
us, the angels are continually employed, Heb. 1:14.
CHAPTER II
SECTION VI
Wherein is
considered what is meant by the glory of God and the name of God in
Scripture, when spoken of as God’s end in his works
HAVING thus
considered, what are spoken of in the Holy Scriptures, as the ends which God had ultimately in view
in the creation of the world, I now proceed
particularly to inquire what they are, and how the terms are to be understood?
I. Let us begin
with the phrase, the GLORY OF GOD — And here I might observe, that it is sometimes used to signify the
second person in the Trinity; but it is not
necessary, at this time, to prove it from particular passages of
Scripture. Omitting this, I proceed
to observe some things concerning the Hebrew word which is most commonly
used in the Old Testament, where we have the word glory in the
English Bible. The root it comes
from, is either the verb, which signifies to be heavy, or make
heavy, or from the adjective which
signifies heavy or weighty. These, as seems pretty manifest, are
the primary signification of these
words, though they have also other meanings, which seem to be derivative. The noun signifies gravity,
heaviness, greatness, and abundance. Of very many places it will be sufficient to
specify a few. Pro. 27:3; 2 Sam. 14:26; 1 Kin. 12:11; Psa. 38:4; Isa. 30:27. And as the
weight of bodies arises from two things, density and magnitude; so we find the word
used to signify dense, Exo. 19:16. (nubes gravis, Vulg. densissima), a dense
cloud; and is very often used for great. Isa. 32:2; Gen. 5:9;
1 Kin. 10:2; 2 Kin. 6:14; and 18:17;
Isa. 36:2. etc.
The Hebrew word
which is commonly translated glory, is used in such a manner as might be expected from this signification
of the words from whence it comes. Sometimes it is used to signify what is internal,
inherent, or in the possession of the person: and sometimes for emanation, exhibition,
or communication of this internal glory: and sometimes for the knowledge, or sense
of these, in those to whom to exhibition or
communication is made; or an expression of this knowledge,
sense, or effect. And here I would
note, that agreeable to the use of this word in the Old Testament, is the
Greek word (äõåá) in the New. For as
the word is generally translated by the just mentioned Greek word (äõåá) in the Septuagint; so
it is apparent, that this word is designed to be used to signify the same thing in
the New Testament with the other in the Old. This might be abundantly proved, by comparing
particular places of the Old Testament; but
probably it will not be denied. I therefore proceed particularly to
consider these words, with regard to their use in Scripture, in each of the
fore-mentioned ways.
1. The word glory denotes sometimes what is internal. When
the word is used to signify what is
within, or in the possession of the subject, it very commonly
signifies excellency,
dignity, or worthiness of regard. This, according to the Hebrew idiom,
is, as it were, the weight of
a thing, as that by which it is heavy; as to be light, is to be
worthless, without value, contemptible. Num. 21:5, “This light
bread.” 1 Sam. 18:23,
“Seemeth it a light thing.” Jdg. 9:4, “Light
persons,” i.e. worthless, vain, vile persons. So Zep. 3:4. To set light by is to
despise, 2 Sam. 19:43. Belshazzar’s vileness in the sight of God, is
represented by his being Tekel, weighed in the balances and found light,
Dan. 5:27. And as the weight of a
thing arises from its magnitude, and its specific gravity conjunctly; so the word glory
is very commonly used to signify the excellency of a person or a
thing, as consisting either in greatness, or in beauty, or in
both conjunctly; as will abundantly appear by considering the places
referred to below.
Sometimes that
internal, great and excellent good, which is called glory, is rather
in possession, than inherent.
Anyone may be called heavy, that possesses an abundance; and he that is empty and destitute, may
be called light. Thus we find riches are sometimes called glory.
Gen. 31:1, “And of that which was our fathers’ hath he
gotten all this glory.”
Est. 5:11, “Haman told them of the glory of his riches.”
Psa. 49:16, 17, “Be not afraid
when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased. For
when he dieth, he shall carry
nothing away, his glory shall not descend after him.” Nah.
2:9, “Take ye he spoil of
silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is none end of the store and glory out of the pleasant
furniture.”
And it is often put for a great height of prosperity, and fullness of good
in general. Gen. 45:13, “You
shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt.” Job 19:9,
“He hath stripped me of my
glory.” Isa. 10:3, “Where will you leave your glory.”
Verse 16, “Therefore shall the
Lord of hosts send among his fat ones leanness, and under his glory shall he kindle a burning, like the
burning of a fire.” Isa. 17:3, 4, “The kingdom shall cease from Damascus, and the remnant of
Syria; they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel. And in
that day, it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be
made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall be made lean.” Isa.
21:16, “And all the glory of
Kedar shall fail.” Isa. 61:6, “Ye shall eat the riches
of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast
yourselves.” Chap. 66:11, 12, “That ye may milk out, and be
delighted with the abundance of her glory.
— I will extend peace to her, like a river, and the glory of the
Gentiles like a flowing stream.” Hos. 9:11, “As for Ephraim,
their glory shall fly away as a bird.” Mat. 4:8,
“Showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory
of them.” Luke 24:26,
“Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into
his glory?” John 17:22, “And the glory which thou
gavest me, have I given them.” Rom. 5:2, “And rejoice in hope
of the glory of God.” Chap. 8:18, “The sufferings of
this
present time, are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in us. (See also Rom. 2:7, 10, and 3:23, and 9:23.) 1
Cor. 2:7, “The hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world,
unto our glory.” 2 Cor. 4:17, “Worketh out for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory.” Eph. 1:18, “And what the riches of the glory
of his inheritance in the
saints.” 1 Pet. 4:13, “But rejoice inasmuch as ye are made
partakers of Christ’s
sufferings; that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad
also with exceeding joy.” Chap. 1:8, “Ye rejoice, with joy
unspeakable and full of glory.” (See also, Col. 1:27, and 3:4;
1 Thes. 2:12; 2 Thes. 2:14; 1 Tim. 3:16; 2 Tim. 2:10; Heb. 2:10; 1 Pet.
1:11, 21, and 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3; Rev. 21:24, 26; Psa. 73:24, and 149:5; Isa.
6:10.)
2. The word glory is used in Scripture often to express the exhibition,
emanation, or communication of the internal glory. Hence it
often signifies an effulgence, or shining brightness, by an emanation of
beams of light. Thus the brightness of the sun, and moon, and stars, is
called their glory, in 1 Cor. 15:41. But in particular, the word is
very often thus used, when applied to God and Christ. As in Eze. 1:28,
“As the appearance of the bow
that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the
brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory
of the Lord.” And chap. 10:4,
“Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub,
and stood over the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with
the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory.”
Isa. 6:1, 2, 3, “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and
lifted up, and his train filled the
temple. Above it stood the seraphim — And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.” Compared with
John 12:41, “These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory
and spake of him.” Eze. 43:2, “And behold the glory of
the God of Israel came from the way of the
east. — And the earth shined with his glory.”
Isa. 24:23. “Then the moon shall be
confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign
in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.”
Isa. 60:1, 2, “Arise, shine, for thy light
is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold
the darkness shall cover the earth,
and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory
shall be seen upon thee.” Together with verse 19, “The sun
shall be no more thy light by day,
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord
shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.”
Luke 2:9, “The glory of the Lord shone round about them.” Acts 22:11,
“And when I could not see for the glory of that light.”
In 2 Cor. 3:7. The shining of
Moses’s face is called the glory of his countenance. And
to this Christ’s glory is
compared, verse 18, “But we all with open face, beholding as in a
glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from
glory to glory.”
And so 2 Cor. 4:4, “Lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God,
should shine unto them.” Verse 6, “For God, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus
Christ.” Heb. 1:3, “Who is the brightness of his glory.”
The apostle Peter, speaking of that
emanation of exceeding brightness, from the bright cloud that overshadowed the disciples in the
mount of transfiguration, and of the shining of Christ’s face at that
time, says, 2 Pet. 1:17, “For he received from God the Father
honour and glory, when there
came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Rev. 18:1, “Another
angel came down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was
lightened with his glory.” Rev. 21:11, “Having the glory of God,
and her light was like unto a stone most precious, like a jasper
stone, clear as crystal.” Verse 23, “And the city had no need
of the sun nor of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God did
lighten it.” See the word for a visible effulgence or emanation of light in the places to be
seen below. (Exo. 16:12, and 24:16, 17, and 40:34, 35; Lev. 9:6, 23; Num.
14:10, and 16:19; 1 Kin. 8:11; 2 Chr. 5:14, and 7:1, 2, 3; Isa. 58:8; Eze.
3:23, and 8:4, and 9:3; Eze. 10:18, 19, and 11:22, 23, and 43:4, 5, and
44:1; Acts 7:55; Rev. 15:8)
The word glory,
as applied to God or Christ, sometimes evidently signifies the communications of God’s fullness,
and means much the same thing with God’s abundant goodness and grace.
So Eph. 3:16, “That he would grant you, according to the riches of
his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner
man.” The expression, “According to the riches of his
glory,” is apparently equivalent to that in the same epistle, chap.
1:7, “According to the riches of his grace.” And Eph. 2:7,
“The exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us,
through Christ Jesus.” In like manner is the word glory used
in Phil. 4:19, “But my God shall supply all your need, according to
his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.” And Rom. 9:23,
“And that he might make known
the riches of his glory, on the vessels of his mercy.”
In this and the foregoing verse, the apostle speaks of God’s making
known two things, his great wrath, and his rich grace. The former on the vessels of wrath, verse
22. The latter, which he calls the riches of his glory, on the
vessels of mercy, verse 23. So when Moses says, “I beseech thee show
me thy glory;” God
granting his request, makes answer, “I will make all my goodness
to pass before thee.” Exo. 33:18, 19.
What we find in
John 12:23-32 is worthy of particular notice in this place. The words and behavior of Christ, of which we
have here an account, argue two things.
(1.) That the happiness and salvation
of men, was an end that Christ ultimately
aimed at in his labors and sufferings. The very same things which
were observed before (chapter
second, section third), concerning God’s glory, are in the
same manner observable, concerning the salvation of men. Christ, in the
near approach of the most extreme difficulties which attended his
undertaking, comforts himself in a certain
prospect of obtaining the glory of God, as his great end. And
at the same time, and exactly in the
same manner, is the salvation of men mentioned, as the end of
these great labors and sufferings, which satisfied his soul in the prospect
of undergoing them. (Compare the
23rd and 24th verses; and also the 28th and 29th verses; verses 31 and 32.)
(2.) The glory
of God, and the emanations and fruits of this grace in man’s
salvation, are so spoken of by Christ on this occasion in just the same
manner, that it would be quite unnatural to understand him as speaking of
two distinct things. Such is the connection, that what he says of the
latter, must most naturally be understood as
exegetical of the former. He first speaks of his own glory, and the glory
of his Father, as the great end that should be obtained by what he was
about to suffer; and then explains and amplifies this, in what he expresses
of the salvation of men that shall be obtained by it. Thus, in the 23d verse, he says,
“The hour is come that the Son of man should be
glorified.” And in what next follows, he evidently shows how he was
to be glorified, or wherein his glory consisted: “Verily, verily, I
say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it
abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” As much fruit is the glory of
the seed, so is the multitude of redeemed ones, which should spring from his death, his glory.
3. Again, the
word glory, as applied to God in Scripture, implies the view or
knowledge of God’s excellency. The exhibition of glory is to
the view of beholders. The manifestation of glory, the emanation or
effulgence of brightness, has relation to the eye. Light or
brightness is a quality that has relation to the sense of seeing; we
see the
luminary by its light. And knowledge is often expressed in Scripture
by light. The word glory very often in Scripture signifies, or
implies, honor, as anyone may soon see by casting his eye on a
concordance (See particularly, Heb. 3:3). But honor implies the knowledge
of the dignity and excellency of him who has the honor; and this is
often
more especially signified by the word glory, when applied to God.
Num. 14:21, “But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled
with the glory of the Lord,” i.e. All the inhabitants
of the earth shall see the manifestations I will make of my perfect
holiness and hatred of sin, and so of my infinite excellence. This appears
by the context. So Eze. 39:21, 22, 23, “And I will set my glory among
the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my
hand that I have laid upon them. So the house of Israel shall know
that I am the Lord their God. And the heathen shall know that the
house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity.” And it is
manifest in many places, where we read of God glorifying himself, or of his
being glorified, that one thing,
directly intended, is making known his divine greatness and
excellency.
4. Again, glory,
as the word is used in Scripture, often signifies or implies praise. This appears from what was observed
before, that glory very often signifies honor, which is much the
same thing with praise, viz. high esteem and the expression of it in
words and actions. And it is manifest that the words glory and praise,
are often used as
equivalent expressions in Scripture. Psa. 50:23, “Whoso offereth praise,
glorifieth me.” Psa. 22:23, “Ye that fear the Lord, praise
him; all ye seed of Israel, glorify him.” Isa. 42:8, “My
glory I will not give unto another, nor my praise to graven
images.” Verse 12, “Let them give glory unto the Lord,
and declare his praise in the islands.” Isa. 48:9-11,
“For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger; for my praise
will I refrain for thee. — For
mine own sake will I do it; for — I will not give my glory
unto another.” Jer. 13:11, “That they might be unto me for a
people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory.”
Eph. 1:6, “To the praise of the glory of his
grace.” Verse 12, “To the praise of his glory.” So verse 14. The
phrase is apparently equivalent to this, Phil. 1:11, “Which are by
Jesus Christ unto the praise and glory of God.” 2 Cor.
4:15, “That the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving
of many, redound to the glory of God.”
It is manifest
the praise of God, as the phrase is used in Scripture, implies the
high esteem and love of the
heart, exalting thoughts of God, and complacence in his excellence and
perfection. This is manifest to everyone acquainted with the
Scripture. However, if any need
satisfaction, they may, among innumerable other places which
might be mentioned, turn to those below (Psa. 145:1-12, and 34:1, 2, 3, and
44:8, and 21:14, and 99:2, 3, and
107:31, 32, and 108:3, 4, 5, and 119:164, and 148:13, and 150:2; Rev. 19:1,
2, 3 — ).
It also implies
joy in God, or rejoicing in his perfections, as is manifest by Psa.
33:1, “Rejoice in the
Lord, O ye righteous, for praise is comely for the upright.”
Other passages to the same purpose,
see below (Psa. 9:1, 2, 14, and 28:7, and 35:27, 28, and 42:4; and Psa.
63:5, and 67:3, 4, 5, and 71:22, 23, and 104:33, 34; and Psa. 106:47, and
135:3, and 147:1, and 149:1, 2, 5, 6; Acts 2:46, 47, and 3:8; Rev. 19:6,
7). How often do we read of singing praise! But singing is
commonly an expression of joy. It is called, making a joyful
noise (Psa. 66:1, 2, and 96:4, 5). And as it is often used, it implies gratitude
or love to God for his benefits to us (Psa. 30:12, and 35:18,
and 63:3, 4, and 66:8, 9, and 71:6,
7, 8, and 79:13, and 98:4, 5, and 100:4, and 107:21, 22, and 138:2, and
many other places).
II. Having thus
considered what is implied in the phrase, the glory of God, as
we find it used in Scripture; I
proceed to inquire what is meant by the NAME of God.
God’s name and his glory, at least very often, signify
the same thing in Scripture. As it has been observed concerning the glory
of God, that it sometimes signifies the second person in the Trinity; the
same might be shown of the name of God, if it were needful in this
place. But that the name and glory of God are often equipollent
expressions, is manifest by Exo. 33:18, 19, When Moses says, “I
beseech thee, show me thy glory,” and God grants his request, he says, “I
will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.” Psa. 8:1,
“O Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast
set thy glory above the heavens,” Psa. 79:9, “Help us! O
God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name; and deliver us, and purge away our sins for
thy name’s sake.” Psa. 102:15, “So the
heathen shall fear the name
of the Lord; and all the kings of the earth thy glory.” Psa.
148:13, “His name alone is excellent, and his glory is
above the earth and heaven.” Isa. 48:9, “For my name’s
sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain
for thee.” Verse 11, “For mine own sake, even for mine own sake
will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? And I will not
give my glory unto another.” Isa. 59:19, “They shall
fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from
the rising of the sun.” Jer. 13:11, “That they might be unto me
for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory.”
As glory often implies the manifestation, publication,
and knowledge of excellency, and the
honour that anyone has in the world; so does name.
Gen. 11:4, “Let us make us a name.” Deu. 26:19,
“And to make thee high above all nations, in praise, in name,
and in honour.” (See also, 2 Sam. 7:9, and 8:13, and 23:18;
Neh. 9:10; Job 30:8; Pro. 22:1. Many other places import the same thing.)
So it is
evident, that by name is sometimes meant much the same thing as praise,
by several places which have been
just mentioned (as Isa. 48:9; Jer. 13:11; 26:19). And also by Jer. 33:9,
“And it shall be unto me for a name, a praise, and an honour,
before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear of all the good I do
unto them.” Zep. 3:20, “I will make you a name and a praise
among all people of the earth.”
And it seems
that the expression or exhibition of God’s goodness is
especially called his name,
in Exo. 33:19, “I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I
will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee.” And chap.
34:5, 6, 7, “And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him
there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, gracious
and merciful, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping
mercy for thousands,” etc.
And the same
illustrious brightness and effulgence in the pillar of cloud that
appeared in the wilderness, and dwelt above the mercy-seat in the
tabernacle and temple (or rather the spiritual, divine brightness and effulgence
represented by it), so often called the glory of the Lord, is
also often called the name of the Lord. Because God’s
glory was to swell in the tabernacle, therefore he promises, Exo. 29:43,
“There will I meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle
shall be sanctified by my glory.” And the temple was called the
house of God’s glory, Isa. 60:7. In like manner, the name
of God is said to dwell in the sanctuary. Thus we often read of the place
that God chose, to put his name there: or, as it is in the Hebrew, to
cause his NAME to inhabit there. So it is sometimes rendered by our
translators. As Deu. 12:11, “Then there shall be a place which the
Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.”
And the temple is often spoken of as built for God’s name. And
is Psa. 74:7. the temple is called the dwelling-place of God’s
name. The mercy-seat in the temple was called the throne of God’s
name or glory, Jer. 14:21, “Do not abhor us, for thy name’s
sake do not disgrace the throne of thy glory.” Here
God’s name and his glory seem to be spoken of as the
same.
CHAPTER II
SECTION
VII
Showing that the ultimate End of the Creation of
the World is but one, and what that one end is.
FROM what has been observed in the last section,
it appears, if the whole of what is said relating to this affair be duly
weighed, and one part compared with another, we shall have reason to think
that the design of the Spirit of God is not to represent God’s
ultimate end as manifold, but as one. For though it be signified by
various names, yet they appear not to be names of different things,
but various names involving each other in their meaning; either different
names of the same thing, or names of several parts of one whole; or
of the same whole viewed in various lights, or in its different
respects and relations. For it appears, that all that is ever spoken of
in the Scripture as an ultimate end of God’s works, is included in
that one phrase, the glory of God; which is the name by which the
ultimate end of God’s works is most commonly called in Scripture; and
seems most aptly to signify the thing.
The thing signified by that name, the glory of
God, when spoken of as the supreme and ultimate end of all God’s
works, is the emanation and true external expression of God’s
internal glory and fullness; meaning by his fullness, what has
already been explained; or, in other words, God’s internal glory, in
a true and just exhibition, or external existence of it. It is confessed,
that there is a degree of obscurity in these definitions; but perhaps an
obscurity which is unavoidable, through the imperfection of language to
express things of so sublime a nature. And therefore the thing may possibly
be better understood, by using a variety of expressions, by a particular consideration
of it, as it were, by parts, than by any short definition.
It includes the exercise of God’s
perfections to produce a proper effect, in opposition to their lying
eternally dormant and ineffectual: as his power being eternally without any
act or fruit of that power; his wisdom eternally ineffectual in any wise
production, or prudent disposal of any thing, etc. The manifestation of
his internal glory to created understandings. The communication of
the infinite fullness of God to the creature. The creature’s high esteem
of God, love to him, and complacence and joy in him; and the proper exercises
and expressions of these.
These at first view may appear to be entirely
distinct things: but if we more closely consider the matter, they will all
appear to be one thing, in a variety of views and relations. They are all
but the emanation of God’s glory; or the excellent brightness
and fullness of the divinity diffused, overflowing, and as it were enlarged;
or in one word, existing ad extra. God exercising his
perfection to produce a proper effect, is not distinct from the emanation
or communication of his fullness: for this is the effect, viz.
his fullness communicated, and the producing of this effect is the
communication of his fullness; and there is nothing in this effectual
exerting of God’s perfection, but the emanation of God’s
internal glory.
Now God’s internal glory is either
in his understanding or will. The glory or fullness of his understanding
is his knowledge. The internal glory and fullness of God, having its
special seat in his will, is his holiness and happiness. The whole
of God’s internal good or glory is in these three things, viz.
his infinite knowledge; his infinite virtue or holiness, and
his infinite joy and happiness. Indeed there are a great many
attributes in God, according to our way of conceiving them: but all may be
reduced to these; or to their degree, circumstances and relations. We have
no conception of God’s power, different from the degree of
these things, with a certain relation of them to effects. God’s infinity
is not properly a distinct kind of good, but only expresses the degree
of good there is in him. So God’s eternity is not a
distinct good; but is the duration of good. His immutability is
still the same good, with a negation of chance. So that, as I said, the fullness
of the Godhead is the fullness of his understanding, consisting
in his knowledge; and the fullness of his will, consisting in his
virtue and happiness.
And therefore, the external glory of God
consists in the communication of these. The communication of his
knowledge is chiefly in giving the knowledge of himself: for this is
the knowledge in which the fullness of God’s understanding chiefly
consists. And thus we see how the manifestation of God’s glory to
created understandings, and their seeing and knowing it, is not distinct
from an emanation or communication of God’s fullness, but clearly
implied in it. Again, the communication of God’s virtue or holiness
is principally in communicating the love of himself. And thus we see
how, not only the creature’s seeing and knowing God’s
excellence, but also supremely esteeming and loving him, belongs to the
communication of God’s fullness. And the communication of
God’s joy and happiness consists chiefly in communicating to the
creature that happiness and joy which consists in rejoicing in God, and
in his glorious excellency; for in such joy God’s own happiness does
principally consist. And in these things, knowing God’s
excellency, loving God for it, and rejoicing in it; and in
the exercise and expression of these, consists God’s
honor and praise; so that these are clearly implied in that glory of God,
which consists in the emanation of his internal glory.
And though all these things, which seem to be so
various, are signified by that glory which the Scripture speaks of as the
ultimate end of all God’s works; yet it is manifest there is no
greater, and no other variety in it, than in the internal and essential
glory of God itself. God’s internal glory is partly in his
understanding, and partly in his will. And this internal glory, as seated
in the will of God, implies both his holiness and his happiness: both are
evidently God’s glory, according to the use of the phrase. So that as
God’s external glory is only the emanation of his internal, this
variety necessarily follows. And again, it hence appears that here is no
other variety or distinction, but what necessarily arises from the distinct
faculties of the creature to which the communication is made, as created in
the image of God: even as having these two faculties of understanding and
will. God communicates himself to the understanding of the creature,
in giving him the knowledge of his glory; and to the will of
the creature, in giving him holiness, consisting primarily in the
love of God: and in giving the creature happiness chiefly consisting
in joy in God. These are the sum of that emanation of divine
fullness called in Scripture, the glory of God. The first part of
this glory is called truth, the latter grace, John 1:14.
“We beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth.”
Thus we see that the great end of God’s
works, which is so variously expressed in Scripture, is indeed but one; and
this one end is most properly and comprehensively called, THE GLORY
OF GOD; by which name it is most commonly called in Scripture; and is fitly
compared to an effulgence or emanation of light from a luminary. Light is
the external expression, exhibition, and manifestation of the excellency of
the luminary, of the sun for instance: It is the abundant, extensive
emanation and communication of the fullness of the sun to innumerable
beings that partake of it. It is by this that the sun itself is seen, and
his glory beheld, and all other things are discovered: it is by a
participation of this communication from the sun, that surrounding objects
receive all their luster, beauty, and brightness. It is by this that all
nature receives life, comfort, and joy. Light is abundantly used in
Scripture to represent and signify these three things, knowledge, holiness,
and happiness.
What has been said may be sufficient to show, how
those things, which are spoken of in Scripture as ultimate ends of
God’s works, though they may seem at first view to be distinct, are
all plainly to be reduced to this one thing, viz. God’s
internal glory or fullness existing in its emanation. And though God in
seeking this end, seeks the creature’s good; yet therein appears his
supreme regard to himself.
The emanation or communication of the divine
fullness, consisting in the knowledge of God, love to him, and joy in him,
has relation indeed both to God and the creature: but it has
relation to God as its fountain, as the thing communicated, is
something of his internal fullness. The water in the stream is something of
the fountain; and the beams of the sun are something of the sun. And again
they have relation to God as their object: for the knowledge
communicated is the knowledge of God; and the love communicated, is the
love of God: and the happiness communicated, is joy in God. In the
creature’s knowing, esteeming, loving, rejoicing in, and praising
God, the glory of God is both exhibited and acknowledged; his
fullness is received and returned. Here is both an emanation
and re-emanation. The refulgence shines upon and into the creature,
and is reflected back to the luminary. The beams of glory come from God,
are something of God, and are refunded back again to their original. So
that the whole is of God, and in God, and to God; and
he is the beginning, and the middle, and the end.
And though it be true that God has respect to the
creature in these things; yet his respect to himself, and to the
creature, are not properly a double and divided respect. What has been said
(chap. I. sect. 3, 4.) may be sufficient to show this. Nevertheless, it may
not be amiss here briefly to say a few things; though mostly implied in
what has been said already.
When God was about to create the world, he had
respect to that emanation of his glory, which is actually the
consequence of the creation, both with regard to himself and the creature.
He had regard to it as an emanation from himself, a communication
of himself, and, as the thing communicated, in its nature returned
to himself, as its final term. And he had regard to it also as the emanation
was to the creature, and as the thing communicated was in
the creature, as its subject.
And God had regard to it in this manner, as he
had a supreme regard to himself, and value for his own infinite, internal
glory. It was this value for himself that caused him to value and seek that
his internal glory should flow forth from himself. It was from his
value for his glorious perfections of wisdom, righteousness, etc. that he
valued the proper exercise and effect of these perfections, in wise
and righteous acts and effects. It was from his infinite value for his
internal glory and fullness, that he valued the thing itself communicated,
which is something of the same, extant in the creature. Thus because he
infinitely values his own glory, consisting in the knowledge of himself,
love to himself, and complacence and joy in himself; he therefore valued
the image, communication, or participation of these in the creature. And it
is because he values himself, that he delights in the knowledge, and love,
and joy of the creature; as being himself the object of this knowledge,
love, and complacence. For it is the necessary consequence of true esteem
and love, that we value others’ esteem of the same object, and dislike
the contrary. For the same reason, God approves of others’ esteem and
love of himself.
Thus it is easy to conceive, how God should seek
the good of the creature, consisting in the creature’s knowledge and
holiness, and even his happiness, from a supreme regard to himself; as
his happiness arises from that which is an image and participation of
God’s own beauty: and consists in the creature’s exercising a
supreme regard to God, and complacence in him; in beholding God’s
glory, in esteeming and loving it, and rejoicing in it, and in his
exercising and testifying love and supreme respect to God: which is the
same thing, with the creature’s exalting God as his chief good, and
making him his supreme end.
And though the emanation of God’s fullness,
intended in the creation, is to the creature as its object; and
though the creature is the subject of the fullness communicated,
which is the creature’s good; yet it does not necessarily follow,
that even in so doing, God did not make himself his end. It comes to
the same thing. God’s respect to the creature’s good, and his
respect to himself, is not a divided respect; but both are united in one,
as the happiness of the creature aimed at is happiness in union with
himself. The creature is no further happy with this happiness which God
makes his ultimate end, than he becomes one with God. The more happiness
the greater union; when the happiness is perfect, the union is perfect. And
as the happiness will be increasing to eternity, the union will become more
and more strict and perfect; nearer and more like to that between God the
Father and the Son; who are so united that their interest is perfectly one.
— If the happiness of the creature be considered in the whole of the
creature’s eternal duration, with all the infinity of its progress,
and infinite increase of nearness and union to God; in this view, the
creature must be looked upon as united to God in an infinite strictness.
If God has respect to something in the creature,
which he views as of everlasting duration, and as rising higher and higher
through that infinite duration, and that not with constantly diminishing
(but perhaps an increasing) celerity; then he has respect to it, as, in the
whole, of infinite height; though there never will be any particular time
when it can be said already to have come to such a height.
Let the most perfect union with God be
represented by something at an infinite height above us: and the eternally
increasing union of the saints with God, by something that is ascending
constantly towards that infinite height, moving upwards with a given
velocity; and that is to continue thus to move to all eternity. God who
views the whole of this eternally increasing height, views it as an
infinite height. And if he has respect to it, and makes it his end, as in
the whole of it, he has respect to it as an infinite height, though the
time will never come when it can be said it has already arrived at this
infinite height.
God aims at that which the motion or progression
which he causes, aims at, or tends to. If there be many things supposed to
be so made and appointed, that by a constant and eternal motion, they all
tend to a certain center; then it appears that he who made them, and is the
cause of their motion, aimed at that center; that term of their motion, to
which they eternally tend, and are eternally, as it were, striving after.
— And if God be the center, then God aimed at himself. And herein it
appears, that as he is the first author of their being and motion, so he is
the last end, the final term to which is their ultimate tendency and aim.
We may judge of the end that the Creator aimed
at, in the being, nature, and tendency he gives the creature, by the mark
of term which they constantly aim at in their tendency and eternal
progress; though the time will never come, when it can be said it is
attained to, in the most absolutely perfect manner.
But if strictness of union to God be viewed as
thus infinitely exalted; then the creature must be regarded as nearly and
closely united to God. And viewed thus, their interest must be viewed as
one with God’s interest; and so is not regarded properly with a
disjunct and separate, but an undivided respect. And as to any difficulty
of reconciling God’s not making the creature his ultimate end, with a
respect properly distinct from a respect to himself; with his benevolence
and free grace, and the creature’s obligation to gratitude, the
reader must be referred to chap. I. sect. 4. obj. 4. where this objection
has been considered and answered at large.
If by reason of the strictness of the union of a
man and his family, their interest may be looked upon as one, how much more
so is the interest of Christ and his church, — whose first union in
heaven is unspeakably more perfect and exalted, than that of an earthly father
and his family — if they be considered with regard to their eternal
and increasing union? Doubtless it may justly be esteemed so much one, that
it may be sought, not with a distinct and separate, but an undivided
respect. It is certain that what God aimed at in the creation of the world,
was the good that would be the consequence of the creation, in the whole
continuance of the thing created.
It is no solid objection against God aiming at an infinitely perfect
union of the creature with himself, that the particular time will never
come when it can be said, the union is now infinitely perfect. God aims at
satisfying justice in the eternal damnation of sinners: which will be
satisfied by their damnation, considered no otherwise than with regard to
its eternal duration. But yet there never will come that particular moment
when it can be said, that now justice is satisfied. But if this does not
satisfy our modern free-thinkers, who do not like the talk about satisfying
justice with an infinite punishment; I suppose it will not be denied by
any, that God, in glorifying the saints in heaven with eternal felicity,
aims to satisfy his infinite grace or benevolence, by the bestowment of a
good infinitely valuable, because eternal: and yet there never will come the
moment when it can be said, that now this infinitely valuable good
has been actually bestowed.
The End
Ephesians
3:20-21: "Now to him
who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think,
according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the
church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.
Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI, Issue 20
"The Wrath of Our
Gracious God"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
In this week's study, we will be
looking into Scripture to see how God’s wrath is revealed against
sinful men in his justice and holiness.
The knowledge of God’s wrath should lead his people and all
the world to a true fear and reverence of our holy God revealed in
Scripture. We remember that the
beginning of true wisdom is the fear of the LORD (Proverbs 1:7; Deut. 4).
John Calvin wrote in his Institutes of the Christian Religion,
“Since our hearts cannot, in God’s mercy, either seize upon
life ardently enough or accept it with the gratefulness we owe, unless our
minds are first struck and overwhelmed by fear of God’s wrath and by
dread of eternal death, we are taught by Scripture to perceive apart from
Christ, God is, so to speak, hostile to us, and his hand is armed for
destruction; to embrace his benevolence and fatherly love in Christ
alone” (II.XVI.ii)
In our study of God’s wrath,
we want to consider the extent of God’s graciousness and
patience toward his fallen people.
From the beginning of his revelation to man in the Garden of Eden,
to his consummate or ultimate revelation of his wrath at Christ’s
Second Coming, God reveals himself as a holy and righteous God, but one
that is merciful to those who believe in his faithfulness and promises.
God's Character and Purposes in
Revealing Himself as Wrathful
We must keep in mind that God’s
acts of wrath are displayed for a purpose: that of repentance and humility
among his people, and that of saving those he has chosen by his great grace
and mercy. As God reveals his wrath
in Scripture, so God also reveals his righteousness and his great mercy in
sinful man’s salvation.
This will also help us to understand God’s character. God never changes, therefore there is no
conflict in between God’s goodness and his wrath. God is loving, but he is wrathful; God is
holy and just, therefore he must punish iniquity; God is good and loving,
but hates sin. To those who would
question God’s wrath, the creature must continually be turned and
face God, his Creator. In him we all
live, move and have our being (Acts 17).
Who has the right to talk back to God and question his righteous
judgment? Romans 9 tells us that no
one has that right, any more than the clay can say to the potter “why
have you made me this way?!”
When you first read the title of the study, you may
have thought to yourself, “Now what is this teaching of the wrath of
God? I already feel guilty and
condemned enough…I try to please the LORD, but I am constantly
falling short!” You may think
that the last thing you need is to be
reminded about God’s wrath in Scripture. “This is 2003,” you say,
“how could this possibly encourage me today when I live day
in and day out in this fallen world of pain, failures and
disappointments?!” Well, don't
run for these truths so quickly!
In this study we will also consider the God of wrath who
comforts his people in Christ; the God of wrath who day in and day out
ministers to us by forgiving us of our sins and pointing us to the work of
our great Savior, Jesus Christ. The
God who in his greatness and sovereignty is near to the contrite and humble
in heart (Is. 55). This is good
news, this is our hope, this is our great and wrathful, but gracious God
revealed in the Bible!
In our study, we must contemplate our sinfulness, our fallenness in
light of God’s holy righteousness to understand now our great hope in
Christ our Savior. What we deserve-
-we do not get; but that which we do not deserve- - we get- -this is
grace! Let us
turn to Nahum, chapter 1 and look at the way this prophet of Israel,
through the Spirit describes God’s wrath and graciousness in a way
that we can see God’s goodness and his justice. Let us begin by
looking at the way God describes himself through the Prophet Nahum:
Nahum 1:2-9: The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD
is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and
keeps wrath for his enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger and
great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty. His way is
in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4 He
rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and
Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers. 5 The mountains
quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world
and all who dwell in it. 6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. 7 The LORD is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. 8
But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the
adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. 9 What
do you plot against the LORD? He will make a complete end; trouble will not
rise up a second time.
When we read the Bible, we see God is truly a vengeful and holy God
who cannot acquit the guilty and punishes sin and sinners sinners. All men deserve the wrath of God, but God
in his great mercy saves some from this wrath. God is a merciful and patient God toward
sin in his anger (Ex. 34:6; Nu. 14:18; Ps. 103:8; Joel 2:13). So we see that while God is a wrathful
God and one to be truly worshiped and feared, he is also slow in his anger
and merciful toward his people, but he never “clears the
guilty” as Nahum writes.
God throughout redemptive-history, in his revelation in the
Scriptures, has had patience on men so they might see his greatness and
repent. When God reveals himself in
his wrath throughout Scripture, in God’s great wisdom, there is a
saving aspect to his wrathful revelation.
God pours out his wrath oftentimes to reveal his righteousness, to
reveal sin for what it is, and to save his people who believe by
faith.
Our study will bring us to three significant events where
God’s wrath is displayed or restrained in redemptive-history: 1) The
Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt; 2) The Revelation of God on Mt. Sinai;
and 3) The Revelation of God on Mt. Calvary. By beginning with the Exodus, we will see
God’s manifested wrath against Israel’s enemies (that is the
enemies of the people of God) which gives us hope and a better understanding
of the protection that God provides.
Next, in focusing on the revelation of God at Sinai, we will get a
glimpse of God’s wrath as it is revealed in righteousness to or among
his people. Finally, we will see
God’s wrath as it is displayed against his own dear son.
God’s Wrath in the Exodus
In the Exodus from Egypt, God delivered the Israelites from bondage
with his great and powerful hand as the Divine Warrior of Wrath (as we saw
in the 'Song at the Sea' in Exodus 15 a couple of weeks ago). In this display of God’s wrath
against his enemies, we see his hand extended to save his people from his
wrath; to be merciful and gracious to a people because he loved them and
set his affection upon this people- - not because they had done anything
good or bad (Deut. 7:7f).
The Exodus event became arguably the single most important event in
the Israelite history (Ps. 74; 78; 90).
Therefore, prior to Moses’ death in the Book of Deut., Moses
told the people to remember the Exodus and remember the wrath of God poured
out on his enemies (“what their eyes had seen”), and how God
had saved them. We see in this
example of the Exodus, that God is a wrathful God against sin and sinners,
but that he saves his people by his patience and mercy (cf. Ps. 18;
106:6-15; Is. 51:7ff).
God’s Wrath at Mt. Sinai
At Mt. Sinai, God came to the Israelites through his Mediator
Moses to reveal His law to the people.
In the descriptions of God’s holiness and justice in appearing
and revealing himself to his people in Exodus 19, we also see his
grace and mercy, while his wrath is restrained.
Exodus 19: And the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I am coming to you in a
thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also
believe you forever." When Moses told the words of the people to the
LORD, 10 the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and
consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments 11
and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will
come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 And
you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, 'Take care not to
go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the
mountain shall be put to death. 13 No hand shall touch him, but
he shall be stoned or shot; whether beast or man, he shall not live.' When
the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain." 14
So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated
the people; and they washed their garments. 15 And he said to
the people, "Be ready for the third day; do not go near a woman."
16 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and
lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast,
so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses
brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand
at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in
smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up
like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And
as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God
answered him in thunder. 20 The LORD came down on Mount Sinai,
to the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the
mountain, and Moses went up. 21 And the LORD said to Moses,
"Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the LORD to
look and many of them perish. 22 Also let the priests who come
near to the LORD consecrate themselves, lest the LORD break out against
them." 23 And Moses said to the LORD, "The people
cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you yourself warned us, saying, 'Set
limits around the mountain and consecrate it.'" 24 And the
LORD said to him, "Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you. But
do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the LORD,
lest he break out against them."
Because God's righteousness is revealed in the law, God's wrath
should accompany that revelation (Exodus 20). However, what we need to be
thankful from what happens at Mt. Sinai is that God reveals his
righteousness through the law to show his people how far short they
fall of his holiness in order that he might extend to them his grace. At Sinai, we see God’s wrath
restrained as he gives the law through Moses, to point the people of God
back to the promises made to Abraham (Gen. 12; 15; 17). This is to point us also forward to look
to God by faith for the fulfillment of his promises in Christ.
The law revealed the righteousness of God that man was unable to
live or keep. We notice that all of
the Israelites, as sinners were terrified before the LORD- -as they should
have been. God in his holiness was
present among these sinful people on Mt. Sinai. If it had not been for the mediator
chosen by God’s own gracious hand, all the people would have died
that day in the consuming power of God’s wrath in his presence (Deut.
32- Israel’s disobedience and Moses interceding for them again; cf.
Is. 6).
As we see at Sinai, it is terrifying for sinful people to be in the
presence of a holy God, but the LORD in his grace tells his people to
“Fear not!” It was these
circumstances of thunder and lightning, trumpet blasts and the trembling of
the people, that God clearly revealed his Torah or Law through Moses to his people. This righteousness which God revealed to
Moses and the people was a revelation of God’s holy character; a
revelation of how all men made in the image of God should live and behave
(cf. Rom. 1:18-3:20 where the Apostle Paul discusses the righteousness of
God and the wrath of God that is revealed to all men). Again, although God was present in all
his majesty, strength, and holiness, he was merciful to his people.
But the people were still terrified even with Moses as their
mediator, which should have pointed the people of God forward, to look by faith
for a more perfect Mediator who would come; a Mediator God would provide
that would fulfill all the promises that he had made. Although God’s holy presence was
terrifying to the Israelites, God graciously provided a mediator in
Moses. Here we see God’s
righteous anger toward sin, but we also see his patience and mercy with his
people. God is a jealous God, a
consuming fire as Deut. 4:24 and Heb. 12:29 teaches us. God chose a mediator in Moses to stand
between God and the people. The
importance of a mediator was necessary, lest Israel be consumed in
God’s wrath. His wrath is not
like man’s wrath that is influenced by sinful outbursts, but directed
and unmitigated in its exhibition against sin. It is the wrath of a just and good Judge.
Why is God Angry?
We have seen events where God’s wrath is manifested, but why
is God angry? We now turn to
consider sinful man in light of God’s wrath. Habakkuk 1:12-13 speaks of God’s
righteousness in light of man’s sins.
Verse 13 says: “You [O LORD], are of purer eyes than to behold
evil and cannot look on wrong…” Man is a sinner and the soul
that sins shall die (Gen. 2:16,17; Ezek. 18:1-4) All men deserve the righteous
manifestation of God’s wrath in the fury of his judgment. Prior to God’s revelation of his
wrath on the Egyptians and on Mt. Sinai, we see a another picture of
God’s wrath and saving goodness in the Garden of Eden.
After Adam failed the covenant he made with God, and knowing that
God had pronounced the sentence of death upon him because of his
disobedience, Adam hides from him when God comes into the garden. God had told Adam that if you
sin…you will die (Gen. 2).
However, in God’s great mercy, God provides a sacrifice for
Adam and his wife. God restrains his
righteous anger toward Adam in order to come to him in blessing rather than
wrath. This is our great and
merciful but wrathful God. Adam and
all of us whom he represented in the garden (Ps. 51; cf. Rom. 5:12-21), are
conceived in sin, born under the wrath of God. The Apostle Paul tells us that we are by
nature children of wrath (Eph. 2:1f).
This is our condition upon our conception, in our birth, throughout
our lives. At any moment, it would
be just and righteous of God to take any one sinner from the face of this
earth and to consume him eternally in the fire of his wrath in hell.
The only
reason any of us were alive for any time at all before we knew Christ is
because of his great mercy and because of his good pleasure (2 Pet.
3). This means that had it not been
for God’s own good pleasure, his desire to preserve us in his
patience, we would all have been consumed.
In His great wisdom, he is pleased to have patience so that some
will come to repentance upon seeing his great work and hearing his great
word.
All men are
sinners and deserve God's wrath as Paul teaches in Romans 3:10-19:
Romans 3:10-19:
as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no
one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside;
together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." 13
"Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to
deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." 14 "Their
mouth is full of curses and bitterness." 15 "Their
feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and
misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known." 18
"There is no fear of God before their eyes." 19 Now
we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the
law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held
accountable to God.
All mouths
must be shut as we constantly stand before God the Judge, our King. We must realize that we have nothing to
appease his wrath; nothing in our power to do the works he has given us to
do in his law; nothing in our power to take away our guilt- -nothing that
keeps us from the anger of God shown upon Pharaoh and his army; nothing in
our power to keep us from being by nature sinners.
There is
nothing that is keeping God from displaying his wrath upon all the world
except his promises he has made to all who believe; nothing that can keep
God from immediately demanding perfect obedience to his law that was
revealed upon Mt. Sinai; nothing that can keep God from punishing us now
eternally for our guilt and sin!
There is absolutely nothing we can claim for ourselves in the
presence of a holy and righteous God except that we are without hope and
without God in the world! NOTHING- -
Except…Except…Except…in the righteousness of Christ. The just and holy God must punish sin,
but how is he to do this? Consider
his great wisdom and grace revealed in the Person and Work of Christ.
The Wrath of God
upon the Cross of Christ
Remember the Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 1:17 when he
quotes Habakkuk chapter 2: “The righteous shall live by
faith.” In God’s grace
he has ultimately and consummately manifested his wrath in order to save
his people because of his graciousness.
The wrath of God was revealed in all its devastating consequences as
God’s righteousness was revealed throughout history to Israel and all
the nations…but it was all the more so devastating that God’s
wrath was revealed at the cross, revealing not only God’s
righteousness and holy justice against sin, but in his great love for his
people that he delivered up his Only Begotten Son so that His only Son
would taste his wrath and the death that comes from sin.
Christ received the wrath of God that had been stored up in the
divine anger against every sin that had ever been committed by his people
in cosmic rebellion against him. God
delivered up his son to taste the torments and afflictions of hell on our
behalf. What love, what
righteousness, what justice, what wrath, what love that the Father bestowed
upon us that we should be children of God…and that is what we are!!
(1 John 3).
When Christ was delivered over to the Romans to be crucified, he did
not merely die a painful death by crucifixion- - that indeed would be
painful enough! In addition to the
pain of crucifixion, Jesus took upon himself the absolute, deliberate,
unmitigated wrath of God upon himself.
He was a close as he could possibly be to our sins without being
tainted by our sins; he became sin for us as our representative (Rom.
5:12-21).
1 Corinthians 5:21 teaches us that “He made [Christ] to be sin
who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of
God.” God forsook Christ on
the cross and turned away his face from his son. God said, “The LORD curse you and make
his face turn away from you,” rather than the LORD bless you and keep
you and make his face shine upon you (cf. Deut. 6:4-6). God’s righteous wrath was so
intense, so severe that even the Son of God himself prayed that if it be
possible to allow God’s cup of wrath to pass from him; not “my
will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42-46).
This cup that Christ drank on our behalf- - the wrath of God and the
death because of sin, Christ now invites his people to partake in a cup of
life- - the life of his blood shed for the remission of sins. This is the true righteousness and
holiness and justice of God revealed in his wrath. God’s patience from the time Adam
sinned, in his forbearance, or the holding back his wrath upon a sinful
people, he now displayed upon his most righteous and holy Son whom he
loved- -and this all for us.
It is
because God poured out his wrath on Christ as our propitiation, our
substitute for our sins, that we can boldly come into the throne room and
not tremble as the Israelites at Mt. Sinai.
For we have not come to a mountain burning and rumbling with fire
and thunder, but to the Holy City, the New Jerusalem (Heb. 12:18ff). Read
Romans 3:19-26. God could be just in punishing sin, but also the justifier
of those who believe by faith in Jesus.
The righteous truly do live by faith! Not so the wicked!
Warnings to the Wicked
The wrath of God abides on all unbelievers, that is those who depend
on their own works of righteousness that is as filthy rags (Is. 1; cf. John
3:36). For those who do not believe
in the only Son of God whether Jew or Gentile, have trampled the Son of God
underfoot and there is no other sacrifice for their sins. As God revealed his righteousness
throughout history, so he revealed his wrath and hatred of sin among both
Jew and Gentiles (Rom. 1:17ff). Now
in the time after which Christ has come, God not only has ultimately
revealed his righteousness in Christ, so he has revealed his wrath from
heaven against sin on the cross and in the eternal torment of the wicked in
hell. May we never trust in our own
righteousness, but only in the righteousness that comes from Christ, by
grace, through faith.
Remember on
the last day, at the Judgment Seat of Christ, there will be some there that
claimed Christ as Savior, who did mighty deeds in his name, but if they
were looking merely to their accomplishment of the Law and not the
accomplishment of Christ living the Law through them, they will hear the
most terrifying words known to man: “Depart from me you
wicked—I never knew you.”
Our righteousness is not our own, it is Christ’s given to us
or imparted to us. As 1 Cor. 1:30
teaches us, Christ is indeed our only righteousness, sanctification and
redemption and therefore because those who do not trust in Christ will be
forever banished to hell and experience the eternal torments of the
wicked. You could say that if Christ
was not in your place on the cross receiving the wrath of God, and you have
not believed this by faith, then you will receive what Christ received upon
the cross, and then some; you will receive God’s wrath upon your sins
eternally!
Regarding
those who do not believe, those who do not know God’s righteousness
through faith in Christ, they will be permanently removed from the presence
of God and his people (Mt. 25:31-46).
The wicked, unrepentant unbelievers must come to Mt. Sinai that
cannot be touched, that burns with fire, and blackness, and darkness, and
tempest (Ex. 19:16-19; Dt. 4:11,12; 4:24; 5:4,23-25). The wicked will not strut with chins held
high (Ps. 12:8) as they approach the Mountain of Sinai: the mountain of
thunder and lightning, thick clouds of smoke, trumpet blasts, and fire, to
be consumed by the wrath of God because they will have no mediator to save
them (cf. Heb. 12).
So fearful
will be the appearance of this mountain that they will quake with fear and
trembling and they will not be able to endure his just judgment; the wicked
will not stand in the judgment nor in the congregation of the righteous
(Ex. 19; Ps. 1:5). The wicked will
no longer plot against the LORD and against his anointed one (Ps. 2:1);
they will no longer prosper but will be brought low, cut down like the
grass and wither as the green herb, both the fool and the workers of
iniquity in the fiery furnace of God’s wrath (Ps. 37:1,2; 73:3). This is because salvation is far from the
wicked (Ps. 119:155) who are like ships on the tossing sea; the breath of
God’s lips will slay them (Is. 11:4; 57:20). The wicked will die for their sins (Ezek.
3:18) although they have been warned by the clear revelation of God’s
wrath, they will continue to be wicked (Dan. 12:10; Rom. 1:18; 1 Cor. 6:9;
cf. Rev. 22:11).
The wicked
must remember the warning of 2 Thessalonians 1:7ff, that the Lord Jesus
Christ will not return as the meek Lamb to live the life as a servant and
to die a heinous death upon the cross.
2 Thessalonians 1:7-9: And to you who are troubled rest
with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty
angels, 8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not
God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 9 Who
shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord, and from the glory of his power...
When the
Lord Jesus Christ is revealed again, he will be revealed from heaven with
his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance upon those who do
not know God and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus (1
Thess. 9,10). As Hebrews 10:31 says,
“It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God.”
Be warned
and do not wait any longer, today is the day of God’s salvation (2
Cor. 6:2), look upon the Christ who has been held up upon the cross and
experienced God’s wrath- -and believe. Believe on the only Begotten Son of God
who has tasted death and hell on your behalf and do not ever look to your
own righteousness again. If you have
believed upon the LORD Jesus Christ, then by His Spirit he will teach you
to say no to unrighteousness, he will produce the good fruits of the Spirit
by faith as you walk and grow in his knowledge by his grace, and he will
ultimately deliver you from the wrath to come. That is why all the believers at
God’s throne in Revelation 4 and 5 are praising God and the Lamb both
day and night.
In
God’s presence these saints know and realize how much God loved them
by not overlooking their sins, but by punishing the Lamb of God in their
stead- - in their place. God’s
wrath on the Last Day will consume the unbelieving and those who have
rejected Christ- - the whole creation will be in agony as God’s wrath
in fire will melt the firmament and the heavens with the heat from his
nostrils in order to bring about a New Heavens and a New Earth wherein
dwell righteousness; where God and the Lamb will be with God’s people
forevermore. O, the wisdom and love
of God, that even in his wrath he restores his people and all creation unto
himself in Christ.
So what
should we understand from the study of God’s wrath in the Scripture
in our daily lives? 1st, We have hope by looking upon Christ and not our
own filthy works, that we know in Christ the wrath of God has been truly
poured out on behalf of his people. When the time had reached fulfillment,
Christ died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6-8); our only Mediator between God and
man revealed himself as one born under the righteous law of God to fulfill
it and take upon himself all the sins of his people (Mt. 5:17-20; Gal. 4:4;
1 Tim. 2:5). Therefore we have hope and confidence that our God is
gracious, he is faithful to his people in our daily lives.
2nd, We should understand that God is not angry at his
people. Although
as believers we continue to sin, we continue to fall short, God is working
in us to do works according to his will (Phil. 2:12-13). The faithful God who began a good work in
us will complete it (Phil. 1:6), and bring us into his presence on account
of the work of Christ (Rev. 21:3ff).
God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and therefore we
beg those who do not believe to be reconciled to God by looking to Christ
alone for their salvation (2 Cor. 5).
We know that we are not what we will be, but that God is purifying a
Bride for Christ- - right this minute, in each of you—in order to
perfect us on that Great and Glorious Day when Jesus shall return for his
people (Eph. 5:25ff; cf. Phil. 3:12-21).
When we
sin, we have a great Advocate with the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ and we
ask forgiveness daily for our sins, but God’s wrath has been
appeased, it has been satisfied on our behalf because of Christ. Therefore, when we fail, we do not beat
ourselves to death and try to condemn ourselves, because Christ has been
condemned on our behalf (Rom. 8:1- “There is now no condemnation for
those who have the Spirit of God dwelling in them”). No longer do we live under the wrath and
anger of a holy God, but we have a relationship to him as a loving Father,
and we cry out “Abba, Father, Come Lord Jesus” because we know
that God is pleased with his people.
He knows that we are weak and fallen, but he has saved us by faith
to do good works- - to fulfill his righteousness by the Spirit that dwells
within us (Eph. 2:6ff; cf. Rom. 8).
This means that nothing can separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus - -even our sins, he forgives- -even our most heinous acts, he
is willing to forgive us when we turn to him in repentance- -even our sins,
he uses for his glory and our good now (Read Romans 8:28-39).
3rd, Do not be afraid of the LORD’s coming, but
look forward to it.
Be alert, sober and watchful, this is our great calling as we wait
on him to return! Live for the LORD
in obedience because of your gratitude for what he has done in Christ! Remember the words of Hebrews 12:28-29,
“Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
and let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; for our
God is a consuming fire.” Fear
the LORD you saints, for those who fear the LORD lack no good thing!
Whatever
your pain, whatever your struggle, whatever your sin this day, know that
the LORD has provided a Mediator- -Christ, so that you may come to God in
boldness, approaching the throne in your time of need (Heb. 4:16-18). Do not condemn yourself because of your
daily failures, but be comforted by the God of all comfort (2 Cor. 1:3-10),
that he loves you and is pleased with you.
Understand that this is the gospel, the true law of perfect liberty
(James 1:25), to be able to live the Christian life by pleasing the LORD by
your imperfect obedience. Come to
the LORD in your pain, when you sin, when you think that your sins are too
great and he will not forgive you again- - put this far from your mind, for
the LORD Jesus Christ truly tasted wrath, death and hell on your
behalf. Remember that you have peace
with God now and look away from yourself to the one who died on your behalf.
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant Presbyterian
Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
Our quote for this week
comes from Dr. John Piper's new book entitled: 'Brothers, We are NOT
Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Ministry'. This book is
a mine of precious wisdom from Piper's pastoral experience and valuable
nuggets of scriptural truth to encourage faithfulness in Christ's
ministry. This book is recommended for seasoned pastors as well as those
newly called to shepherd a congregation. The book is arranged with
fairly short chapters so that you can read this book as a daily devotional
if you wish.
This quotation
is on legalism.
The title of the chapter is: 'Brothers, Don't Fight Flesh Tanks with
Peashooter Regulations'. Read carefully this wisdom concerning the
legalism that we constantly war again in our own hearts.
John Piper
"...Legalism means
treating Biblical standards of conduct as regulations to be kept by our own
power in order to earn God's favor. In other words, legalism is
present whenever a person is trying to be ethical in his own strength, that
is, without relying on the merciful help of God in Christ. Simply
put, moral behavior that is not from faith is legalism (Rom. 14:23).
The legalist is usually
a moral person. In fact, the majority of moral people in the Western
world are legalists because their so-called Judeo-Christian morality,
inherited from their forefathers, does not grow out of a humble, contrite
reliance on the blood-bought, Spirit-wrought, merciful enabling of
God.
On the contrary,
for the legalist, morality serves the same function that immorality does
for the antinomian or the progressive- - namely, as the expression of
self-reliance and self-assertion. The reason some
Pharisees tithed and fasted was the same reason some university students
take off their clothes and lie around naked in the parks in Munich and
Amsterdam.
The moral legalist is
the elder brother of the immoral prodigal (Luke 15:11-32). They are
blood brothers in God's sight because both reject the mercy of God in
Christ as a means to righteousness and use either morality or immorality as
a means of expressing their independence and self-sufficiency and
self-determination. And it is clear from the New Testament that both
will result in a tragic loss of eternal life, if there is no
repentance."
-John Piper, Brothers, We are NOT Professionals, pg. 153.
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 21
"Light--Brilliant
Life-Giving Light"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
The following studies will be on
themes from the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is a magnificent
book of revelation about Jesus Christ our Savior. One of the main
emphasis in the Gospel is that those who read it, both believers and
unbelievers, might come to a true and saving knowledge of the living God
(John 15:1-5; 20:31). As you study John's Gospel, you will notice
theological and biblical contrasts in his book: light-darkness, life-death,
Law-Grace, creation-New creation, Old Testament signs-New Testament
realities, and the present age characterized by sin, death due to Adam's
fall and the age to come that has now dawned in the coming of God in the
flesh. In fact, the Gospel of John opens with many of these
theological contrasts.
The Gospel of John also presents a
horizontal perspective as well as a vertical perspective of history.
One the one hand, John emphasizes the horizontal perspective of a new
creation dawning in history because of the coming of Jesus into the world
(John 1:1-18). This history that extends back to the first creation
is consummated in the coming of a new creation (Thus the reason John begins
his gospel with "In the beginning"). On the other hand,
John focuses our attention on a vertical perspective of history because
real eternal life and knowledge of God is obtained by being "born
from above", Jesus came down from above, His Kingdom is not of this
world, etc. As we study the themes in the Book of John, may we keep
these basic truths in mind.
The Gospel of John as Story, Play,
and Film
I believe that it is helpful to think
of the Book of John with story-perspectives.
For instance, John's Gospel could be understand as the story of
Jesus Christ and how we all either fit into that story, or do not fit into
His story. This story is filled with paradox, irony,
misinterpretations and misunderstandings, and ultimately with a hero who is
resurrected to his proper place upon the completion of his journey for
those he loved [NOTE: the use of "story" in no way means that it
is a fictional story. "Story" is used as a way of capturing
the essence of God's revelation of His reality in Jesus Christ. Some
men make up their own fictional stories, and some men by his grace, submit
to God's Historically True Story].
You could also look at John's Gospel
as a play. Chapter 1 is a prologue to the play, perhaps with
overture music, chapters 2-12 form the content of Act One, chapters
13-20 form the content of Act Two, with an epilogue at the end in
chapter 21. Another perspective for approaching the book of John is
like a film. Chapter 1 contains the opening titles, musical
theme, and credits. It gives you the history prior to the story
in the film. Chapters 2-20 are various angles or shots the camera
captures, then it is edited by John to focus every event, sign, and saying
to reveal Jesus Christ as the Author of the story. Chapter 21 would
be the closing credits and music of the film.
John Chapter 1
John 1:1-14: In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was
in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him,
and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him
was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There
was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a
witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through
him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the
light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming
into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made
through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his
own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who
did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become
children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will
of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of
the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Light in the Darkness
When I was a young boy, I used to be
terribly fearful of the dark as I would go to bed each night. The
dark at night was the place of the unknown, the unfamiliar, and the
unrecognizable. Shadows would lurk about my room, moving from wall to
wall as I would see shapes that my mind would arrange as horrible threats
to my existence. I would try to get up out of my bed to reach the
light switch, and I would do this as fast as I could, because in my mind I
was racing the images I saw on the wall that I thought were not to only
scare me, but to take my life.
If I could not get enough to nerve to
quickly jump out of bed, I would merely wait until the light of morning,
then I could see clearly that there was nothing in my room, and there was
truly nothing to fear but the fear I experienced itself. What a comfort
the light of morning was whenever I was fearful of the dark. Light is
comforting to all of us in this world, because it enables our eyes to see
all around us and to have the ability to observe the beauty of the universe
all around us.
Just like when I was a boy, the world
had been submerged into darkness because of the fall of Adam into
sin. What the Westminster Confession of Faith calls the "estate
of sin and misery" (WCOF, chapter 6) the Apostle John describes in
John chapter one of his gospel as a "darkness" (v. 5). Men
could see all around them the reality of a Creator, and of his beautiful
creation (cf. Romans 1), yet because their hearts were darkened, they could
not comprehend it, nor ignore it by overcoming it (v. 5). So, God in
His grace took upon Himself human flesh to point our way to the true God,
our true and eternal God the Creator.
Who was this man who came to dwell
among us, to show us the light (v. 14)? This man was very God of very
God! John wants us to know that just as there was deep darkness in
the original creation of the world, and God said "Let there be
light!" in the darkness, so in Jesus Christ, God begins the
consummation of a new creation with the coming of Jesus Christ into the
world who will also cry out "Let there be light!"- - and there
was, and will continue to be light until he returns for those who
believe.
With God and Was God
Who was this man who had the ability
to speak and light would come forth from darkness? Who was this
man who could do what God could do in healing men's sicknesses,
enlightening the eyes of those who could not see, causing some to be born
again, or "born from above"? This man was "with
God" in the beginning, as well as "was God". This man
Jesus Christ, the Word who became flesh, who came to dwell among us, so
that we might know the true God in the midst of our darkness.
During a time period in history
when men are offering up sacrifice and praise to every created thing
in hopes of finding fulfillment and instead end up merely creating
another idol to worship because they know there is a true God but are
too blind to see him, or to find him. Jesus Christ the one who was
"with God" and "was God" comes to make this true God
known to us.
The good news of John's gospel in
revealing Jesus Christ as the one "with God" and the one who
"was God" is to remind us of the need of a Savior who would be
"like us, yet not like us". We needed someone who was
distinct from God, that is "with God", who could by his
grace take upon himself human flesh, to become a man to represent us
righteously before God. We also needed someone "not like
us" who was ultimately "like God" or rather "was
God" so as to truly reveal God to us, to truly live for us, to have
the power, holiness and love of God that only God could have!
The sad part of what John writes is
that even though this Jesus was "with God" and "was
God", and the world and everything in it was created by him and for
him (v. 3), the world, because it was submerged in darkness did not
recognize him. The creatures do not recognize their Creator because
they are submerged in the blackest darkness and need the Light of the World
to bring not only light, but
life. The good news was that this Jesus Christ
was not only light, but life, and this life was the light of men (v. 4).
Old Creation and New Creation
Since the "old
creation" ("In the beginning...", Gen. 1) and the
fall that occurred in that "old creation" (Gen. 3), the world was
submerged in an estate of sin and misery, ruled by the results and
circumstances of the fall of Adam. People in the world were ruled by
the dominion of the prince of the power of the air, the god of this age,
and the principles of sin, such as self-centeredness, idol worship, false
religiosity, and lived with the ultimate destiny of death and
separation from God their Creator. Yet God in his grace came to
tabernacle, to dwell with men in darkness so as to give them life, and in
their new life as new creations to be given light!
You see there was nothing wrong with
the light of the "old creation". It was because the people
were submerged in sin and darkness with tainted hearts that they were
unable to see or comprehend the light of God's glorious "good"
revelation in the world around us (Gen. 1:31; Psa. 19). So, Jesus
Christ comes to establish a new creation with new creations (cf. 2 Cor.
5:17), that is people who believe, who will live eternally with him and be
able to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see a
glimpse of this now, but O what we will see people of God when we see
him face to face- - as he is. In fact, as John writes in his first
epistle, we shall be like him!
Do you know that a new creation a
"new beginning" (v. 1) has dawned in Jesus Christ? Do you
comprehend God and see him as God in the flesh? Embrace him by faith
today! Ask him for life so that you might truly live as you were
purposed to live as his obedient creature! Ask him for light so that
you might truly see your sin and the darkness in which you live, so that
you might truly know the beauty of the Lord your God! Praise be to
God for dwelling among us in our own flesh!
This is our hope and the
encouragement that John give us in the first few verses of John chapter 1!
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
Our quote this week
comes from Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Professor of Theology at Calvin
Theological Seminary. This quotation is the epilogue of his excellent
book: "NOT the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary on Sin"
(Eerdsmans, 1995).
Romans 5 says that where
sin abounds, grace super-abounds. In order truly to understand grace,
we must understand sin. To understand sin, we must understand the
grace that we have rejected in God's creation of the world when we rebelled
against our Creator in Adam. This quotation helps us to think about
the great grace of God and how he truly saves his people from their
sins. The grace of God always comes to us with blood on it, because
it cost the life of God's one and only Son to secure our
salvation from the sin that so easily besets us! Read this book if
you have the time. You will not be disappointed.
Dr. Plantinga
"In a book about Ronald
Reagan and his times, Garry Wills pauses, oddly enough, to comment on the
doctrine of original sin. In referring to the 'linked sequences of
disaster, the series calamitatis
of history,' Wills states that
"we are
hostages to each other in a deadly interrelatedness. There is no
"clean slate" of nature unscribbled on by all one's
forebears....At one time a woman of unsavory enough experience was
delicately but cruelly referred to as 'having a past.' The doctrine
of original sin states that humankind, in exactly that sense, 'has a
past.'"
But, of course, our past
also includes saints, civilizations, generous laws for gleaners, hospices,
relief agencies, virtuoso peacemakers, and rural traditions of pitching in
at a neighbor's barn raising. Our experience today includes wonderful
bursts of hospitality by strangers for confused Alzheimer's patients who
wander into their homes. It includes exultant worship, fifty-year
wedding anniversaries, and, on some May mornings, a sense of life's
sweetness and of God's goodness so sharp that we want to cry out from the
sheer promise of it.
Evil rolls through the
ages, but so does good. Good has its own momentum. Corruption
never wholly succeeds. (Even blasphemers acknowledge God). Creation
is stronger than sin and grace stronger still. Creation and grace are
anvils that have worn out a lot of our hammers.
To speak of sin by
itself, is to speak of it apart from the realities of creation and grace,
is to forget the resolve of God. God wants shalom (peace) and will
pay any price to get it back. Human sin is stubborn, but not as
stubborn as the grace of God and not half as persistent, not half so ready
to suffer to win its way.
Moreover, to speak of
sin by itself is to misunderstand its nature: sin is only a parasite, a
vandal, a spoiler. Sinful life is a partly depressing, partly
ludicrous caricature of
genuine human life. To concentrate on rebellion, defection, and
folly- - to say to the world 'I have some bad news and I have some bad
news'- - is to forget that the center of the Christian religion is not our
sin but our Savior. To speak of sin without grace is to minimize the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, the fruit of the Spirit, and the hope of
shalom.
But to speak of
grace without sin is surely no better. To do this is to trivialize
the cross of Jesus Christ, to skate past all the struggling by good people
down the ages to forgive, accept, and rehabilitate sinners, including
themselves, and therefore to cheapen the grace of God that always comes to
us with blood on it.
What had we thought the
ripping and writhing on Golgotha were all about? To speak of grace
without looking squarely at these realities, without painfully honest
acknowledgement of our own sin and its effects, is to shrink grace to a mere
embellishment of the music of creation, to shrink it down ot a mere grace
note. In short, for the Christian church (even in its recently
popular seeker services) to ignore, euphemize, or otherwise mute the lethal
reality of sin is to cut the nerve of the gospel.
For the sober truth is
that without full disclosure on sin, the gospel of grace becomes
impertinent, unnecessary, and finally uninteresting." -pp. 198-99,
'Not the Way It's Supposed to Be'.
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 22
"God's Glory in the
Flesh"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
Are you feeling like you
have gotten yourself into a mess and there is no way out for you? Do you
feel forgotten and lonely perhaps because of age and you think you are no
longer important to your church or family? Do you often struggle with the
same sins over and over, the sin you think you have completely conquered
and forgotten, and then there is is to threaten your intimate walk with
Christ again? Do you feel like there is a situation that God is not big
enough to change? Do you feel like you have prayed and called out to
God about something in particular and he has not answered and you are
questioning his love for you?
In all of these
situations above, the one most important thing we all need is the
realization and knowledge that God is with us and that He is able to do
above and beyond whatever we ask or imagine! Even if it seems too big or
difficult for you, God is able and God is with you! The fact of God
being with us is the great truth that John communicates in John 1.
Throughout
redemptive-history, God's people had awaited the day when God would fully
and permanently dwell with them. He dwelled in the Garden of Eden
with Adam and Eve until the fall of man into sin and rebellion caused
separation. Later, by His grace, God dwelled with Israel in the
Tabernacle of Meeting that He commanded Moses to oversee (Exodus 25ff).
During the "golden age" of Israel's existence as nation, God
dwelled in a Temple built by Solomon. The hope that everyone was
looking forward to was that one day God would permanently dwell with
his people and this presence would ensure His people that He cared for
them, loved them, and would be strong enough and able enough to do whatever
they asked.
John begins his Gospel
declaring the good news of Jesus by pointing us to the reality that God
became flesh and made his dwelling among us- - the living God stepped down
out of heaven to take upon himself human flesh so that he could be a
perfect Mediator on our behalf, sympathize with our weaknesses, to present
himself to God as a sacrifice for our sins and rebellion. The
unbelievable and unimaginable took place: God became one of us! And
in the enfleshing of God,
we see and behold the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ!
Today's study will focus on John 1, verses 1, 14, and 18.
John 1:1-18
ESV John 1:1 In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and
without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and
the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name
was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all
might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness
about the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming
into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him,
yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people
did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his
name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of
blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory,
glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (
John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I
said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before
me.'") 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon
grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through
Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the
Father's side, he has made him known.
"God Was
the WORD"
God’s Glory dwells
with man in the Person of Jesus Christ, but this was something that no one
in their wildest imaginations could have fathomed until God made it clear
in the life and preaching of Jesus. Notice in verse 1. John
says that "In the beginning was
the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God."
Jesus was "With God and Was God". This shows that the WORD
was both distinct from God the Father as well as equal with.
It is important
to explain the Greek Text of John 1:1, particularly since many
want to deny the divinity of Christ, some willing only to acknowledge
him as a "good teacher". In the Greek text of John 1:1,
John literally wants to say that "In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and God was the
Word. Because the Greek text has no article before 'God'
in the last clause of verse 1, some false teachers have tried to translate
this as: "The Word was a god",
perhaps a god-like person, like in Greek thought, but not THE GOD.
John however does not
have an article so as to emphasize the placement of God before Word, so
that it says: "God was the WORD. In other words, there is
absolutely no question as to what John communicates: The Word is distinct
from God (with God), as well as equal to God (was God).
It’s
a WORD, it’s a logos, it’s a man, no it’s God in the
flesh!
John goes on to stress
Christ's "God-ness" or Deity, or Divinity by explaining Jesus
with the use of a Hebrew term as well as a Greek term. To the Greeks,
Word, or LOGOS, meant the rational principle, or logic that held all of
life and the cosmos together. It was an impersonal force that kept
all order from turning chaotic when someone sneezes.
To the Hebrews the Word
communicated God's divine speaking, as when God speaks in the creation and
all comes to pass. The divine fiat that commands life and light and
life and light comes forth into nothing. It also communicates the
Word spoken by the prophets that would not go forth and return empty or
void (Isa. 55-58), that burned within the hearts of God's prophets.
The WORD also communicated God's wisdom and how to live within God's world
(cf. Proverbs 8).
This LOGOS, this WORD of
God became flesh! To use Paul's expression
elsewhere in 1 Corinthians, this would have been foolishness to the Greeks
and a stumbling block to the Jews! This was the unbelievable, but it
was God coming to dwell with man in glory in a way that was so very
unexpected!
What kind of flesh was
this? Real flesh? God had flesh like ours! When we think
if God in flesh and desire to see God's glory displayed in all its fullness
look to the God who became like us, had a body like us (yet without sin
nature), got his feet dirty, who had a heart beat, who would have
sweat and perspired on a hot day in the sun and our God would have even had
body odor. What kind of God is this? What child is this?
Behold, we see the glory of God revealed in a crying peasant child named
Jesus who was probably licked clean by the animals (his own creatures)
in the cattle stall in which he was born. This is the kind of flesh
that God took own -- our own. That is why he understands how we feel
and that is why he sympathizes with us in weakness and in our struggle in
this world!
This is such great news
that God would answer our ultimate prayers to see him and to behold him
with our own face and yet men want to deny the deity, God-ness, or divinity
of the Word. Why? Because since the fall man likes his own will
and way, he likes playing God like a small child playing house with her
dolls, and he neither wants to be obedient to this Word, nor honor him in
worship. In other words, denying Christ’s Deity, God-ness,
or Divinity is man’s last ditch effort to diminish or rewrite the
revelation of God’s hope extended to man.
The
"God-Ness", Deity and Divinity of Jesus, the WORD Enfleshed
John’s main intent
in chapter 1 is to stress the deity, or “God-ness” of
Jesus Christ (compare 1:1, 18; 20:28-31; “I AM statements of
Jesus). In fact, the whole of John's Gospel has an inclusio from the
first chapter to the end of part two in chapter 20. He begins with
the foundational statement that Jesus was God, then he ends book two in
chapter 20 with Thomas' revelation: "My LORD, and My God" as he
believes in Jesus. This revelation of John is held out so that all of
us will believe (John 20:31).
This is the ultimate
question for ourselves, our friends, family and neighbors: “Who Do
You Say Jesus Is?” How you
answer this reveals whether you have a Savior who can truly save: a
Savior like you, as well as not like you; One who was with God,
and was God! But also in the midst of your pain, misunderstanding,
lack of faith, loneliness, and struggling with your sins, you need to also
be reminded of Who Jesus is! If
God is able to surprise even the finest of Bible scholars who taught at the
first coming of Jesus, he is surely able to surprise you each and every day
as you remind yourself that the Word Who became flesh is with you and He is
able to do what He has promised to you that He will do!
C. S. Lewis'
'Liar, Lunatic, or LORD'
Men today deny
his Jesus' Divinity and accept him as just a “good
teacher” or nice religious person.
He is called by some to be the first social activist, feminist,
pluralist, and everything else under the sun other than “very God of
very God, begotten not made, being of one essence with the
Father.” If he is just a good
teacher, he is not even that. C. S.
Lewis said one time, we can call Jesus a liar, a lunatic, or Lord, but we
cannot merely call him a good teacher if indeed he was not God.
To use C. S. Lewis'
comment from his book Mere Christianity,
we can say Jesus lied to us and so we can say he is bad because he was a
nasty liar. We can also pity him and say he was a lunatic to think he
was God and to lay down his life for a cause that was of his own making (or
to surrender himself in his death on the wheel of history). But if he
is who he says he is, and HE IS because he said and proved that he was I
AM, then we must call him LORD and because he is LORD we must obey him and
worship him.
A Search, A
Quest and a Rejection
Even within the pale of
so-called “Christian circles” men are looking for the
“historical Jesus” and the historical Jesus is not divine in
their estimation- - yet that is exactly what John is communicating in his
gospel- - so that all will believe and know the True God and Jesus Christ
His Son (John 17:3-5). If these men on their search or quest for
the so-called historical Jesus are removing Scripture that does not rightly
reveal Jesus, and they believe Jesus is not God, then they will desire to reject
all of the Scriptures that do indeed witness to the fact that he is God --
and that leaves them with a continuous search with nothing ever meaningful
and true found concerning this Jesus!
If
these "scholars" come to the table of their search with
the bias, or the presupposition that Jesus is not God, they are not very
likely to find him revealed as God.
What a shame! For all who deny him in this way, there is only the
threat of eternal death and punishment, eternally realizing and being
reminded consciously while in torment, that this Jesus was the Great I AM
and rather than believing what they saw so clearly in the life of Jesus and
hearing in the preaching of Jesus and about Jesus, they will will realize
that they rejected him and they will glorify God in his great justice
despite their so-called search because they will get what we all
deserve apart from the grace held out in Jesus Christ, the WORD who was
enfleshed!
But for all who believe,
we have God’s covenant promise: To Be Our God and to dwell
once again with Him like we were originally created to do in the creation
of all things. God dwells in the flesh so that we might truly come to
know that God is not silent, rather he reveals himself clearly all around
us in His beautiful creation ("the theater of his glory"-
Calvin), and specially He reveals himself in our own human flesh.
The Glory of the
God in the Face of Jesus Christ and Existential Blindness and Deafness
In Exodus 33:12-34:8-
Moses wants to see God’s face. God in his grace (and protection
of Moses) only reveals his back side as well as his attributes to
him. Moses wants to know as God's Mediator if God is going to be
present with him as Mediator. Moses longs for the presence of God to
be with God's people permanently. He longs for the day when God will
truly be with us! What John writes, Moses could have never conceived:
God would reveal his glory with a face like Moses (and Moses gets to
experience the transfiguration of Jesus with Elijah when the cloaked God
with a human face in our flesh "unzips" his glory for a moment of
revelation in time!)
In the fullness of time,
that John records for us in John 1, the God does come to us to dwell with
us to live for those who believe, and to open up the way for God to come
and dwell permanently with us by His Spirit, and one day in glorified bliss
in the New Heavens and the New Earth (Revelation 21-22). This is the
hope of all those who would believe.
Many unbelieving
people in the world say that if they could just see God, or see
Jesus, then they would believe! But,
Jesus says:
John 20:29 Jesus
said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are
those who have not seen and yet have believed." 30 Now Jesus did many
other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this
book…
In Ingmar
Bergman’s film The Seventh
Seal, the knight (one who represents religious
existentialism) who realizes the meaninglessness of life in the face
of death, who thinks he has searched for God, cried out to God, and God has
not answered him says for all unbelievers who want to see God:
“My indifference
has shut me out. I live in a world
of ghosts, a prisoner of dreams. I want God to put out his hand, show his face,
speak to me. I cry out to him in the
dark but there is no one there…Why can’t I kill God within me?”
Religious existentialism
dealt with God’s so-called “silence” and Francis
Schaeffer wrote the book “He is There and Is Not Silent” based
on this type of thinking. Problem
is, men want God to appear to them on their own terms, not in God’s
terms- - they cannot ever recognize God’s divinity nor their own
humanity in the Person of Jesus Christ! Only by God's grace giving
them true life, so that they might have true light: "In Him was life,
and that life was the light of men" (1:5).
In Christ we
see what Moses longed to see: God’s face, as well as God’s
attributes and even his personality.
If men want to see or hear God they
must look to and listen to Jesus Christ. He is the only One who has seen God and
made him known (1:18). Men can wait around for the rest of their
lives supposedly "Waiting on Godot", but "Godot",
rather, the WORD has clearly made God known to all and the resurrection is
the reason why God calls men everywhere to repent, turn, be obedient to,
and worship this LORD Jesus Christ. Paul says it like this to the
Greek Philosophers at Athens (who were in their own way "Waiting for
Godot"):
"'In him we
live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have
said, "' For we are indeed his offspring.'...The times of ignorance
God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31
because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in
righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given
assurance to all by raising him from the dead." 32 Now when
they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said,
"We will hear you again about this."
God's People are
Reflections of His Glory
May we as a people look
to Jesus each day, each moment to see the love of God expressed and
displayed by faith in the face of Jesus.
May we then go out to each other and into the world with the face
that still shines because of the reflection of the glory of God, not coming
from the outside, but arising internally from our hearts’ affections
to show the love of Christ to others (2 Cor. 3:7-18).
May we share God’s
good news to others and others “see Jesus Christ” in our deeds
and hear Jesus Christ in what we say! May we encourage one another as
believers with the good news that no matter what we are going through,
whatever difficult place we find ourselves in, may we be reminded that God
is With us! He is our "Immanuel"! God is with us in
Jesus Christ and because of Jesus Christ and His resurrection and
glorification at God's right hand, we are given His Spirit and so God
dwells with His people in the most intimate of ways! May we come to
realize the power of his strength that works within us (Eph. 1:15-23).
And may we warn
unbelievers as well as encourage each other that one day God will dwell
permanently with us in glorified flesh as Revelation 21 describes for us in
detail:
3 And I heard a great voice out of the throne
saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with
them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and
be their God: 4 and he shall wipe away every tear from their
eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor
crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away....22 And
I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are
the temple thereof. 23 And the city hath no need of the sun,
neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did lighten it,
and the lamp thereof is the Lamb. 24 And the nations
shall walk amidst the light thereof: and the kings of the earth bring their
glory into it. 25 And the gates thereof shall in no wise be shut
by day (for there shall be no night there): 26 and they shall
bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it: 27 and
there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an
abomination and a lie: but only they that are written in the Lamb's book of
life.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Special Edition- Reformation Day
Celebration
Introduction
"Get over
it!" "The Reformation is an historical event that took
place years ago; it is irrelevant to me and to modern people."
"Just give me Jesus and I will be happy. What good could come
from visiting the teaching of the Reformation in today's
church?"
These are some of the
initial comments one is likely to get from other well-meaning Christians
unfamiliar, uninformed, or disinterested in the Reformation of the 16th
century. Yet, what God did in His goodness during the Reformation was
nothing less than the reestablishment of the gospel, the good news of
salvation in Jesus Christ, that had been eclipsed by the good works of
men.
The Reformation was a
time when God allowed light to shine in the darkness of the failed attempts
of feeble and sinful men trying to earn righteousness from good works, and
only ending in despair. In the Reformation, God allowed his
grace to come again into glorious sight, so that one could truly
know how to be made right or at peace with the living God.
The Holy Spirit through
the light of the Scriptures illumined minds and hearts and reminded needy
sinners about salvation, hope, and true life found only in Jesus
Christ and his righteousness. What can the Reformation teach us
today? Everything! If we are interested in knowing how we can stop
"trying harder" and beating ourselves up when we fail, and learn
to rest in the righteousness of Christ alone! What we can learn from
the Reformation today is to stop saying "I'll try harder" and
begin saying "for me, for me, for me"! More on what this means
later...
Luther's
Reformation
This week is the 486th
anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. On October 31, 1517,
a young pastor and Bible teacher in Wittenberg, Germany posted 95 Theses
(or "things he wanted to discuss with other pastors and teachers in
the church") on the door of the Castle Church in his home town.
Not intending anything other than a discussion with other pastors and
teachers, Martin Luther was used by God to begin a Reformation of the
Church by returning to the foundation of Scripture alone.
Scripture alone taught
that salvation was not sold by indulgences and grace was God's alone to
give. The Pope was offering salvation, hope, and the chance for Uncle
Buck and Aunt Minnie to get out of purgatory if the people of the town
would pay the right price. Luther's '95 Theses' questioned the
authority of the Pope to be able to offer salvation, hope, or
redemption for money. These 95 things Luther wanted to discuss
caused Luther to seek ultimate authority for the church in the Scriptures
and not in the whims of popes and councils, because both erred; Scripture alone was the Church's authority and
sole rule of faith.
What came from this
study of the authority of Scripture alone, and asking what
Scripture taught concerning man's salvation, hope and life in
Christ, was the realization and experiencing of true salvation, real hope,
and the abundant life found only in Christ. The doctrines,
or teachings of the Reformation established upon, and found
in Scripture alone were: faith
alone, grace alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
Luther literally (and
accidentally, albeit providentially) opened up a theological can of worms
that would eventually cause the entire Roman Church and the Pope to stand
against him and to excommunicate him at the Diet of Worms in April of 1521.
So you could say that Luther found salvation in Christ alone
somewhere between the event of his opening of the theological can
of worms in the 95 Theses and his standing for the authority of
Scripture alone at the Diet (Council) of Worms! :-)>
Righteousness
Revealed from God
What Luther discovered
when going to the Scriptures alone was that a righteousness had been
revealed from God, not from
within himself or from external works (Romans 1:17; cf. Rom. 3:20ff).
Salvation was found by going to Christ, not by going through the motions of
external obedience. This righteousness of Christ was received by
faith alone.
The grace of God was not
something man could cooperate with as in the Medieval Roman Catholic
theology (as well as in some Evangelical circles today), it was all of
grace (Eph. 2:5-10). Grace alone meant that man's will was in bondage
to the flesh, the world and the Devil and the only way that the will could
freely choose Christ was for the heart to be regenerated, awakened from the
dead, pass from death to life, and this all by grace so that no one could
boast, as Paul teaches in Ephesians 2.
Christ alone was the
only Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5), our only Savior and Substitute for sin (Romans
5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The truth of Christ alone was summarized
in 1 Corinthians 1:30 and 2 Corinthians 5:21:
1 Corinthians
1:30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our
wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake
he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.
In the Scriptures above from Paul's Letters to the Corinthians, notice
the fullness of Christ's saving work: He is our righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Christ's righteousness, not ours is
our merit before a Holy and Just God. He is our holiness or
sanctification and He is the One who has paid the ransom price to purchase
us back and make us children of God.
Also notice the substitutionary quality of Christ alone: Jesus became
sin (He who knew no sin). In other words, our sins were laid on his
back and he was cursed for us (for us, for us, for us!!! Shout it loudly
wherever you are!). His righteousness would cause us to become the
righteousness of God! This is what Christ alone meant!
And all of this salvation in Christ was for the glory of God
alone! As Romans 11:36 says: "From Him and through Him and to
Him are all things, to God be the glory forever and ever!" Our
salvation is all for the praise of HIS glorious grace, as Paul teaches in
Ephesians 1!
Today's
Reformation
Well, we have a need for
a Reformation today as well! We may not have neighbors selling
indulgences and literally trying to buy their way out of hell (although you
will find some who are sadly doing this). What we do have today are
well-meaning people who are focusing more on what they do for Christ, than
what Christ has done for them. Even though the intention is good, the
bracelets some wear with the phrase "What Would Jesus Do" (WWJD)
seem to focus too much on our doing
and not what Christ has already done!
I believe that the focus
should be on "What Has Jesus Already Done in His Life, Death,
Resurrection, and Ascension for Me?", but then it would
be too long of a phrase for a bracelet or a nice bumper sticker; it
would be "WHJADIHLDRAAFM?" Probably not an easy sell or an
easy fit on a nice porcelain figurine in a Christian book store. Remember:
"It is well with my soul" because "It is finished!" not
because "It is about me and my attempts at righteousness".
We need Reformation today!
Furthermore, there are some in our day- - these are Christians!- - who
think that the reason they are saved ultimately is not because of grace alone, but because they have
cooperated with grace held out to them. This was what the Reformation
was all about! Medieval Roman Catholic theology is quite complex, but
it is foundationally a system of earning salvation by cooperating with
grace held out to men, who then respond with their faith, and then salvation
is merited to them.
If Evangelical Christians in our day would stop and think
about it, I think they would find their theology to be more Roman Catholic
than they would like to admit! The term 'Protestant' used to mean
that one was opposed to this Medieval theology of salvation by cooperation,
but today's Evangelical Protestant is not so much protesting this way of
false salvation as much as they are protesting the Reformed way of
thinking. At one time to be a Protestant meant you were protesting a
false hope held out to you. Now it seems to mean in many circles that
I am protesting against believing what the Reformation taught about grace
alone.
Additionally, this "cooperation
salvation" gives people in this world every reason
to boast, which is what Paul is trying to prevent in Ephesians 2 where he
is explaining grace alone. If (and I do say "IF")
every person in the world had the same access to grace and the same ability
to cooperate with that grace using their so-called 'free-will', it would give
one person who chose Christ over someone who rejected him every reason to
boast. This is the most popular understanding today in Evangelical
circles of how someone is saved! Because there is a reason to boast,
it therefore undermines the grace of God and promotes the good works, will,
and decisions of men (cf. John 1:12-13; Romans 9:10-21). We
need Reformation today!
Also, when Christians are brought up and "nurtured" on a diet
of "Christ and you"
rather than "Christ in you"
(which is the hope of glory, Col. 1:28ff), then we are reminded that we
have need of a Reformation. When many sermons every Lord's Day are on
examples from Scripture rather than being centered on the Christ of
Scripture, men will "dare to be like Daniel's" while failing to
truly know what it means to trust Christ alone, the very Savior of
Daniel! The Scriptures speak of Christ (John 3:30; 5:24ff; Luke
24:25ff), and so must we- - speak of Christ alone! We need Reformation
today!
When our worship becomes just another opportunity for mindless
entertainment rather than focused on God alone and his glory, we can forget
that worship is about HIM and not about us. When we are thinking more
about "what we are getting out of the sermon" and whether it is
meeting our "felt needs", we are not worshipping in spirit and
truth!
Furthermore, when we reach out to the goats and design our worship to
make them feel comfortable, we are failing to reach the sheep and failing
to hear the true voice of our Shepherd (John 10). Jesus says as
Shepherd that His sheep hear his voice in faithful preaching and they will
follow him! We must be reminded about all things being done for the
glory of God alone- - and not for us (including our salvation- - of course
we benefit, but according to Ephesians 1 and Romans 9, salvation is
ultimately for God's glory!) We need Reformation today!
Reformed
Righteousness
So, in our day, we need
to be reminded of the Reformation! If we want revival, we ought to
first seek the Reformation of our congregations so that we might return to
the foundational authority of Scripture alone and not add a lot of our own
modern and "culturally relevant" teachings of men (which we tend
to as idolaters, to place on the same level as Scripture just as the
Pharisees, or the Medieval Church of Rome which Luther stood
against). We need to return to Scripture alone and rediscover daily
the glorious teaching of faith alone- - our righteousness is not our own,
but revealed by God to us so that we can have an 'alien righteousness' or
the righteousness of Christ given to us.
In other words, the good news of Faith alone is that all that we have
done in our sins against God, both committing sins positively against him
as well as negatively omitting certain things we should have done, Christ
has done all of these for us (for us, for us, for us! Shout it
again!). Salvation is by works- - but not ours (our works are never
good enough) -- our salvation is by the work of Christ for us and His earned and
merited righteousness, because of the salvation he achieved by loving
God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, and his neighbor as
himself. This is given to us by faith alone (and this makes us have
really "good news" and hope for the world!).
The Daily
Reformation in Our Own Hearts
From this realization of
Faith alone, we are reminded daily that it is all of grace alone because of
Christ's work alone, and this all for God's glory! May we be
delivered daily of the Medieval mindset of trying to earn our salvation,
even in the sense of cooperating with God. May we be delivered from
looking to our failures as well as our successes rather than looking away
from both to Christ.
May we find that making lists and checking them twice is a Medieval way,
as well as an Old Covenant way to failure, and the a fast and broad way
that leads to destruction. Remember, those who make lists come to
Christ and say: I prophesied, preached, witnessed, cast out demons and did
might works in your name. Christ says to those trusting in their
lists "Depart from me - -I never knew you!" (Matt. 7). The
one who understands grace that is truly gracious is the one that stands
before Christ and says: "Nothing in my hands to I bring, simply to
your cross do I cling!"
In Philippians 3, Paul gives his list for his confidence in the flesh,
then proceeds to discard it. May you discard whatever list you have, whatever thing other than Christ you are trusting
in and receive daily by faith the righteousness revealed in Jesus.
Philippians 3:4-12:
though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If
anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5
circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe
of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as
to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law
blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for
the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because
of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I
have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order
that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes
through faith in Christ, the
righteousness from God that depends on faith- 10 that
I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means
possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not
that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to
make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
May we not make lists of our own, whether it be our successes leading to
self-righteousness, or lists of failures leading to our condemnation and
depression. But may we be as Paul who, putting his lists behind him,
pressed forward to know Christ. Read Philippians 3 carefully
again, and remember that this truth will set you free of list making and
law keeping that has more in common with Medieval Catholic theology (that
Luther fought) and Pharisaical theology (that Paul considered
"dung").
Look to Christ and discover anew the Reformation of the 16th Century in
your own heart of heart. Remember the vital importance of Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ
alone, to the glory of God alone!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 23
Vox Dei and Agnus Dei:
Voice of God and Lamb of God
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
This week's study will be from John 1, verses
19-34 when we are first introduced by the Apostle John to the forerunner of
the Messiah, or the "Voice of God crying in the wilderness" who
prepares the way for Messiah. The first thing we are told about John
the Baptist in John's gospel is that he was "sent from God" (v.
6). This is extremely important for our study and in considering the
context of John the Baptist's conversation with the Jews of Jerusalem and
his authority as a prophet and minister of God. We will consider this
more in our study.
What we need to understand about John the
Baptist's ministry is that it takes place in a unique redemptive-historical
context. When John the Baptist comes as the Voice of God, he comes to the last
period of the Old Covenant ("the sun is setting on the Old Covenant
and the New Covenant is dawning simultaneously" [I learned this
quotation from someone else and cannot give credit because I have
forgotten who said it]. When considering his ministry, as well as the
whole of John's Gospel, we must remember that there is an overlapping of
creations, or ages, as well as an overlapping of covenants. The
Old covenant is coming to an end and the New Covenant is
dawning the coming of Jesus the Messiah.
John the Baptist's Ministry
John the Baptist's ministry as the last of
the Old Covenant prophets, “bridges the gap” between the Old
and New covenants. The overlapping of the old creation
characterized by sin and misery and the dawning of the new creation with
Jesus and the sending of the Spirit happens during John the Baptist's life
time. The Old Covenant of types and signs gives way to the heavenly
reality revealed in Jesus Christ. For instance, where the sacrifices
of animals was an ongoing activity in the Old Covenant, so in the New
Covenant Jesus lays down his life as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world, as the final sacrifice, or the reality to which the
sacrifices pointed forward!
What is the relationship between John's unique
ministry and Jesus the Messiah's unique ministry? There are several ways we
can think about John the Baptist's ministry in contrast to Jesus'
ministry. We can think of it with a building metaphor, as well as a
show, or event metaphor. With the building metaphor, there is
one who surveys the land, clears the way for a construction
project. John surveys and clears the land, preparing the way for
Jesus to build and construct his New Covenant Temple.
Another metaphor is that of a show. There is
one who introduces the main attraction before the curtain goes up, or
“opens up” for the main act. John the Baptist comes
to introduce, but Jesus is the main attraction, or the main
show. Finally, you can think of John's relationship to Jesus with an event
metaphor. For an event, say like a birth, you send an
invitation, then you have the event itself. John’s message is
the invitation, Jesus is the event itself. This is the
relationship between the unique and covenant closing ministry of John the Baptist
and the ministry of Jesus Christ.
Text of Scripture: John 1:19-34
John 1:19-34: And this is the testimony of John,
when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who
are you?" 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed,
"I am not the Christ." 21 And they asked him,
"What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not."
"Are you the Prophet?" And he answered, "No." 22 So
they said to him, "Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who
sent us. What do you say about yourself?"
23 He said, "I am the voice of one crying out
in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet
Isaiah said." 24 (Now they had been sent from the
Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, "Then why are you baptizing,
if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?" 26 John
answered them, "I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do
not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose
sandal I am not worthy to untie." 28 These things took
place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and
said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30
This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me,
because he was before me.' 31 I myself did not know him, but for
this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to
Israel." 32 And John bore witness: "I saw the Spirit
descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I
myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to
me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who
baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I have seen and have
borne witness that this is the Son of God."
Sent From God
The first truth that John reveals about John the
Baptist is that he was sent from God (1:6). He goes on to say that he
was a witness to the Light (1:7-8), not the Light Himself. The Jews
send from Jerusalem priests and Levites to ask John the Baptist: "YOU!
Who do you think you are?" (that is the way the text seems to read in
the Greek). John answers by saying firstly, "I am NOT the
Christ -- I am not Messiah who we are anticipating". Then he
goes on to say that he is not the prophet, nor Elijah (1:19-25).
Now in this final Old Covenant period, there is a
great Messianic expectation in the air. There are hopes among the
Jewish people, as well as Gentile converts, that Messiah will come any
time. That there will be a prophet sent like Moses from among the brothers,
and that Elijah will come before the great Day of the LORD. The two
important Old Covenant Scriptures concerning this expectation were
Deuteronomy 18 and Malachi 4. In addition to the Scriptural teaching
there was a heightened Messianic awareness because of Rome's domination, as
well as teachings, and movements of this time that emphasized the
"nearness" of the coming of the Messianic King.
Deuteronomy 18:15-18: "The LORD your God will raise up for you a
prophet like me from among you, from your brothers- it is to him you shall
listen- 16 just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on
the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of
the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' 17 And
the LORD said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I
will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I
will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I
command him."
Malachi 4:4-6: 4 "Remember the law of my
servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all
Israel. 5 "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 6 And he
will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of
children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of
utter destruction.
The Old Covenant people were anticipating a
prophet like Moses, one from among them (Deut. 18), as well as the sending
of the Prophet Elijah before the day of Messiah (Mal. 4). John is
being questioned by the "church authorities" of his day if he is
Messiah, the Prophet, or Elijah. What the Jews ultimately want to
know is why is he preaching if they have not authorized his baptism
for repentance. If they have not authorized it, then who has?
The Church UNDER the Word
What is sad about the Jews sent to question him
is that although they had authority as the early church teachers (Matt.
23:1-2- Jesus says that they have authority, but don't do what they do!),
they have sadly ceased from being under the authority of the Word of
God. In fact, their own traditions and interpretations of the Word of
God have been placed on the same level as Scripture. Thus, when the
last and final prophet of God, the Voice is sent to His Church, they don't
recognized God's Word, God's prophet, and most of all, God's Messiah.
How many churches, how many congregations have
slowly slipped from submitting the authority of Scripture alone? How
many times do we each day fail to submit to Scripture's authority by living
any way we please, and do what we want to do regardless of what we know
Scripture to teach? None of the people who were once
legitimately the church of Jesus, ever just woke up one morning and decided
not to believe, to become liberal in their theological thinking and to
submit the Word of God to their own reasoning. It happened over
time...they drifted (Hebrews 2:1-4).
We must be diligent not to drift, but to always
be checking our ministries, our messages, our motivations as we learn each
day to once again sit under the authority and light of God's teaching, lest
Jesus return one day and some churches and congregations don't
even recognize him because he does not reveal himself in the manner that
these churches and congregations have taught. Somewhere over
time, people drift out from under the authority of the Word,
begin to come up with ideas of Jesus that are inconsistent with
Scripture, and then create a Jesus of their own making. Hebrews 2 reminds
us of the potential of "drifting" from sitting under the
authority of God's Word:
Hebrews 2:1-4: Therefore we must pay much closer
attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For
since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every
transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how
shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at
first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while
God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by
gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
When this happens, we become like the Jews
who were sending their priest and Levite representatives to question
John the Baptist (notice man sent these men to question John the
Baptist, v. 19, but God sent John,
v. 6). When those who were once legitimately the people of God drift
from under the authority of the Word, they cease to be who they are called
to be and thus their so-called authority is voided, because the authority of
God's people, His church, is always derived from Scripture alone.
When this happens to men and women in
churches and congregations around our world, and the people begin
to care more for the Jesus of their own making, and depend upon
the authority of their traditions and interpretations, and cannot hear
the Word of God when it is preached, nor can they see the Word of God
when he reveals himself, then these congregations can no longer claim any
authority at all, because they are not authorized to speak anything but
what is revealed in Holy Scripture. This is the sad truth here in John 1:19-34. Those who
were in authority as the "teachers of Israel" (cf. John 3:8-11),
were so dependent upon the "word of God of their own making" that
they could not hear the Word of God when he came in the spiritually dry
wilderness to proclaim Messiah, as Isaiah prophesied he would do!
May we all continue to be like the Bereans in
Acts 17, being called noble because we submit to the Word of God! May
we learn truly to submit to our elders sent by God to preach the Word (Heb.
13; 1 Peter 5), and submit to one another out of reverence, as we learn
together with all the saints what is the height, depth, length and breadth
of the love of God in Christ Jesus (Eph. 3:18). May we continue to
learn from this sad incident in the final days of the Old Covenant.
Yes, there are some believers at this time (Anna and Simeon come to
mind, as well as the other Jews who will become disciples, including John
who wrote this gospel), but the majority of Israel's leadership has been
corrupted because they have drifted out from under the authority of God's
Word (there are exceptions as we shall see in Joseph of Arimethea and
Nicodemus).
John's Gospel is "Pro-Semitic"
John's primary calling was to reveal Messiah to
Israel (1:31). Yet when even the Voice of God comes to Israel,
"his own", the Jews do not receive him (cf. v. 11).
Now, let's talk about why John includes in his gospel the term "the
Jews". He uses this term first John 1:19. These are the Jews who
send the priests and Levites to question John. Some have said that
John's Gospel was anti-Semitic, but that cannot be true; John himself
was a Jew as well as many of Jesus' disciples.
John, the author of the Book of John, is a
Jew, and he is using this term "the Jews" throughout
his Gospel to point to two truths. First, in his Gospel John
will use this term to speak of those in Israel opposed to Jesus (cf. John
6:41; 8:33ff; 10:31; 13:33). Secondly, John wants use
the term "the Jews" to show how the Jews are not truly realizing
the fulfillment of their heritage in believing in the Messiah.
The true reason for being a Jew, the consummate
fulfillment of their heritage, is to believe in Messiah. When they
reject their own heritage, John is pointing out to them the triviality of
this earthly heritage, so that they might truly understand their heritage
and hope fulfilled in Jesus. So, John is extremely pro-Semitic, as all of us are who
witness the precious gospel to our Jewish friends so that they might come
to believe in the One Who has come to them, so that by God's grace,
some would truly receive him and become true children of God and Abraham
(John 1:11-13; Malachi 4; cf. John 8:44ff).
Isaiah 40: The Vox Dei
Finally, after John the Baptist tells the Jews
WHO HE IS NOT, he tells them who he knows himself to be by God's authority
and because God has sent him. John says that he is the voice of
God, the one sent by God to prepare the way of the LORD and the time
of the end of all history, or the old creation (as well as the beginning of
a new creation). He is the fulfillment of Isaiah 40:
Isaiah 40:1-5: Comfort, comfort my people, says
your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her
warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from
the LORD's hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries:
"In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the
desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become
level, and the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of
the LORD has spoken."
One thing we need to consider. We can agree
with John that he is not the Prophet spoken of by Moses for that is
Jesus. We know He is indeed not the Messiah, but what about the fact
that John says He is not Elijah. Jesus
says he was the Elijah who was to come, revealed in Malachi 4.
How are we to understand this?
The best way to understand this is that John the
Baptist knew certain things about who he was and his significance in
redemptive-history - -but not everything. What he did not know was
the extent and importance of his ministry. Jesus tells us in another
place found in Matthew 11 that John is indeed more important than he
realized. In fact, all of Jesus' disciples until he returns are more
important than they realize when the preach the Kingdom of God and the
whole counsel of God! This should be an encouragement to us all as
everyday we minister and serve in Jesus' name! Don't ever say your
life, your witness, your ministry is not important- - it is more important
than you will ever realize! (cf. 1 Cor. 15:58).
Matthew 11:7-15: As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning
John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken
by the wind? 8 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in
soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. 9
What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more
than a prophet. 10 This is he of whom it is written, "' Behold, I send my messenger before your
face, who will prepare your way before you.' 11 Truly, I say to
you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John
the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater
than he. 12 From the days of John the Baptist until now the
kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. 13
For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, 14 and
if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
15 He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Jesus clarifies the importance of John and he
graciously recognizes John’s ministry to be more important than John
realized at the time (“I’m not Elijah”, John the Baptist
says…Jesus says: “Yes He is…He is too humble to realize
it!”). Jesus agrees that John is the voice of God crying in the
wilderness, but he goes on to say there is no one greater born of women,
yet those who are least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.
Jesus then goes on to explain the uniqueness of John's ministry in v.
13. He says: For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until
John. John was the last of the Old Covenant Prophets and the
link or bridge to the New Covenant as looked at before.
John’s Message
Well, we have looked at John's ministry, but what
about John's message. John the Baptist's ministry was one under the
authority of the Word and he was sent by God. Only men under the
authority of the Word and those who are truly sent by God are called by God
to declare his good news. That is most important to remember
today. The men and women who have raised themselves up as so-called
prophets or preachers in any age, have not been under God's Word and have
wreaked havoc in Christ's Church. Why? Because the Word of God
teaches that a person never ministers in his own name, raising himself up,
or being called merely by men. God calls men to preach, God sends men
to declare his gospel, and those men submit to the authority of the Word of
God, if they are legitimate. [In fact, Ephesians 4:11ff teaches us
that those sent by God in our own day are gifts of the resurrected and ascended
Jesus!]
John's message was “Behold the Lamb of
God” (1:29). John preached Christ which is still the call of
ministers today! To preach Christ and him crucified. For Paul,
he said although preaching is foolishness to Greeks and a stumbling
block to the Jews, he was to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified for it IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION (Rom.
1; 1 Cor. 1). John preached a message about Jesus, not about
himself. He preached and focused his message on Christ who was
revealed in the Scriptures.
Who is the Lamb of God? Well many Old
Covenant images are conjured up with this declaration and preaching.
John the Baptist's imagery would have reminded the people of Father
Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac and the provision of God
for the sacrifice. They would have remembered Isaiah 53: the Lamb led
to the slaughter, as well as the many temple sacrifices that signified the
need for a substitute and the wages of sin which is death. Also, the
Apostle John would have revealed more of this Lamb eventually in the Book
of Revelation that he would write approximately 10 years after his gospel,
and reveal Jesus as the victorious Lamb Who sits upon the throne.
Christ-Centered Preaching
John the Baptist preaches that this Lamb of God
is the One "Who takes away the sin of the world". Notice
the comprehensiveness of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross (the
world). The world means both Jews and Gentiles, for all of those who
believe. This preaching of the Lamb of God would have called men to
recognize their own sin, and the need for a substitute in
the Lamb. What the Old Covenant sacrifices pointed forward to, Jesus
was the perfect Lamb, the Perfect fulfillment and Final and Sufficient
Sacrificial Lamb of God, who can and will take away, or bear the sins
of those He loves, so that they might receive God's forgiveness!
John's message reminds us all of the importance
of a Christocentic (Christ-centered) ministry and life. Our message
of Jesus to our friends and family should always be pointing away from ourselves
to Jesus and His grace and forgiveness. Men will see our mistakes
and our failures at times. Sometimes we will be called
"fakes" and "hypocrites" because we are not
perfect. But we must continually be showing forth the Lamb of God who
takes away our sins and be humbled by this reality!
Others who God has placed around us in our
everyday life will never come to know his saving truth from merely our good
behavior. They will see that our good behavior is because our hearts
have been gripped by this Lamb's goodness and grace and mercy, and so we
shall point away from anything good (or bad!) that we do, to the Lamb of
God who is our hope, as well as the hope of the world!
Importance of Preaching
We also need to learn from John's method of
declaring his message and remember in our age the importance
of preaching. If we all had it our way, we would hire clowns,
actors, and use PowerPoint Presentations to communicate the gospel of
God's grace. We would build big and shiny buildings and ministries
and cater to whatever the lost world would like to see and hear (2 Tim.
3:1-17- Paul says this is what we are all tempted to do). We would
have bright neon signs that say: "This IS IT!", and we would
design our message as well as our worship so that it would be most pleasing
to an entertainment culture!
Preaching is always going to be foolishness to
the world, according to 1 Cor. 1- - and it is often foolishness to
God's own people! Why, how can this be? Ultimately, this is
because they forget to submit to the authority of God's Word and to use the
manner of ministering Jesus Christ only in the way that God has
commanded and taught them to do in His most holy Word (we must be on
our guard against this). Only those who have true life, will see the
light (1:5). So, we should not bother about trying to make the
ministry, the preaching of Jesus Christ attractive to the lost, only the
true life found in Jesus will open their eyes so that they are not
merely dazzled by downtown neon flashing lights, but are drawn to the
preaching of the Word of God, as they submit their lives
and their thinking to this Word!
Remember as the people of God, is not too
difficult for us to drift out from under the authority of the Word of God
(Heb. 2:1-4). As the hymn reminds us: "Prone to wander, Lord, I
feel it; prone to leave the One I love!" We must be reminded
that as long as we are trying to make the gospel appealing by surveying the
goats to get their input and advice on how to present to them the gospel in
a way that would make them comfortable, we as sheep are slowly drifting- -
out from the authority of God's Word- - and under the authority of popular
culture! Additionally, if we are denying the centrality of preaching
the Word, we are also guilty of entertaining the goats while the sheep
starve to death from a lack of hearing the Word of God declared, and from
that Word hearing of the Christ week after week and how he truly
saves! A Word-Centered,
Christ-Centered ministry is a God-Centered and extremely powerful ministry
regardless of what the world thinks!
John’s Messiah
We have considered John the Baptist's ministry
and his message, now finally let's look at John the Baptist's
Messiah. John says He was "Before Me" (1:16;
30). This is not about age, or preeminence in the community, or
ministry, John was 6 months older and ministered before Jesus. John’s comment is stressing
Jesus’ eternal nature as we learned in John 1:1, 14, 18. But
notice something important, John the Baptist also points to Jesus' true
humanity as one who can sympathize with sinners in their weakness, but
without sin (1:30; cf. Heb. 2:14-18). Jesus was God in the flesh
(1:14), truly a man (1:30).
John the Baptist's baptism was a baptism of
repentance (cf. Matthew 3). There were other baptisms at this time at
the end of the Old Covenant. The primary baptism in Israel was for
Gentile converts who were making a profession of faith in Jehovah God and
were committing themselves to the "visible Church" of God.
John's Baptism, like his ministry, was unique. It was a baptism
that went with his preaching of God's Word to the church and the
world. John's baptism prepared the world, that is, both Jews and
Gentiles for the coming of Messiah.
Now the Jews did not like this idea. Many
of them would not submit to John's baptism for repentance because it
implied they were like "Gentile sinners" outside of the
covenant. John was sent by God to proclaim repentance and a need for
cleansing from sin that would be deeper than merely the surface or the
sign. The baptism John's baptism ultimately pointed toward was
Jesus’ Baptism with Holy Spirit (1:33). This is why John the
Baptist says my baptism is important, but in light of Jesus' ministry, his
baptism is much more important. Jesus' baptism was of the Spirit,
where hearts would be truly cleansed from sin, and men would be refined and
purified so as to love God and neighbor and truly love!
Jesus received God's baptism of wrath upon the
cross as the Lamb of God who lays down his life and takes away the sin of
the world. Jesus does this so that he might take upon himself the
curse that was due to us for our transgressions (Galatians 3:10-13).
After Jesus propitiates God's wrath and takes away our sin, then we are
given his righteousness by faith. We are baptized by his Spirit, so
that we will be partakers in the New Creation to come.
Jesus is cursed and baptized in wrath, so we can
be baptized by his Spirit. His Spirit is the refiner's fire spoken of
in Malachi 3, the "judgment that begins with the household of
God" in 1 Peter 4:16ff, and the ultimate down payment or foretaste of
all of the heavenly blessings to come! Jesus baptizes all of us when
we believe by his powerful Spirit so that we can know his grace and walk in
love, thus loving God and neighbor and so fulfilling the Law!
You will remember in the
beginning of our study, we looked at the Apostle John's purpose in writing
his gospel. It is found in John 20:31. The
Scriptures say: “…but these [things] are written so that
you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by
believing you may have life in his name.”
Do you believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? Do you have life in his name?
These are the most important questions you will ever ask yourself.
Jesus has been revealed as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world- -receive him by faith, and when you are united to Jesus
and believe, you will receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.
12:1-12).
If you reject him, you
have rejected your only hope for salvation and you will experience the
awful reality of a full baptism of God's wrath on the Day when He returns
for His own. On that day, He will separate the sheep from the goats
(Matt. 25). The sheep will come into his presence and experience life
with God eternally, while the goats will be cast away into utter darkness,
where the worms that eat their flesh will never die, and the torment
of God's wrath will never cease.
Be warned, repent and
turn to Jesus Christ! Realize that He is the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
This week's quotation is
from Herman Bavinck, a Dutch Reformed theologian who lived from 1854 -
1921. For those who do not speak or read Dutch, there is a special
theological treat awaiting you because the first volume of his immensely
Biblical and deeply theological 'Reformed Dogmatics' has been translated
into English!
'Dogmatics' is basically
an older word for theology, or more precisely the Church's reflection and
systematic compilation of the truths of Holy Scripture.
In the context of our
quotation this week, Dr. Bavinck is explaining that all revelation, all
truth about God, is received externally from God. As one of my dear
professors used to say, we as the people of God are "revelation-receivers".
This means that dogma, truth, or theology does not derive itself from
within our own consciences or our feelings subjectively. Rather,
revelation, or truth revealed by God, must always be delivered from God
objectively to us. God reveals himself specially in Holy
Scripture.
In our day, we as the
people of God must be reminded of the importance of reflecting upon the
truth of Scripture theologically with
the Church (Eph. 3:17-18). Dr. Bavinck explains in our
quotation why this external revelation from God in Scripture is so
necessary for the people of God in every age.
If you have ever
discounted theology in your study of Scripture, or if you think dogmatics
is a bad word in a feel-good, relativistic culture, or if you have ever
been in a Bible study where a well-meaning Christian says: "This is
what I feel the passage or verse means, or, I feel God is saying to me such
and such", then this quotation is worthy of your time and
reflection.
Dr. Herman
Bavinck
"It is God's will
that we should love him also with the mind and think of him in a manner
worthy of him. To that end he gave his revelation, the revelation to
which dogmatics is absolutely bound, just as every other science is bound
to the object it studies. If dogmatics should cease to recognize such
a revelation, then what is left...is no more than the subjective and hence
individual knowledge of that which belongs to the Christian faith.
But that would also be the end of dogmatics and of the Christian faith.
Dogmatics can only exist
if there is a divine revelation on whose authority it rests and whose
content it unfolds. Consciousness theology["feelings-subjective
theology"], which rejects Scripture and confession as sources of
knowledge and seeks to derive all religious truth from the subject, is
first of all in conflict with a sound theory of knowledge. We are products of our environment also in the
area of religion. We receive our religious ideas and impressions from
those who raise and nurture us, and we remain at all times bound to the
circle in which we live.
In no domain of life are
the intellect and the heart, reason and conscience, feeling and
imagination, the epistemic source [foundation for knowledge] of truth but
only organs by which we perceive the truth and make it our own. Just
as physically we are bound to nature and must receive food and drink,
shelter and clothing from it, so physically- - in the arts, sciences,
religion and morality- -we are dependent upon the world outside of us.
Feeling is especially
unfit to serve at the epistemic source [foundation for knowledge], for feeling
is never "a prior thing", but always "something which
follows later". Feeling only reacts to what strikes it and then
yields a sensation of that which is pleasant or unpleasant, agreeable or
disagreeable.
The assertion that the
religious and moral human being is autonomous ["a law unto
oneself theoretically living in a universe of their own making"] is
always linked with either deism or pantheism. Deism makes human
beings independent of God and the world, teaches the all-sufficiency of
reason, and leads to rationalism.
Pantheism, on the other
hand, teaches that God discloses himself and comes to self-consciousness in
human beings and fosters mysticism. Both destroy objective truth,
leave reason and feeling, the intellect and the heart, to themselves, and
end up in unbelief or superstition.
Reason
criticizes all revelation to death, and feeling gives the Roman Catholic as
much right to picture Mary as the sinless Queen of Heaven as the Protestant
to oppose this belief
[My Note: Reason
also submits the ultimate authority of scripture to our own reason's
authority, making our own thinking master over God's
revelation, and feeling promotes interpretations of Scripture that are
like a wax nose that can be shaped according to one's whims and desires.
Feeling and subjective interpretation of Scripture is why many today reject
Scriptural revelation on God's wrath, hell, depravity of man and other
doctrines considered to be "out of line and tempo" with modern
man].
It is therefore
noteworthy that Holy Scripture never refers human beings to themselves as
the epistemic source [foundation for knowledge] and standard of religious
truth. How indeed, could it, since it describes the 'natural' man as
totally darkened and corrupted by sin in his intellect (Ps. 14:3; Rom.
1:21-23; 1 Cor. 1:23; Eph. 4:23); [totally darkened and corrupted by sin]
in his heart (Gen. 6:5; Jer. 17:9; Ezek. 36:26; Mark 7:21); [totally
darkened and corrupted by sin] in his will (John 8:34; Rom. 8:7; Eph. 2:3),
as well as in his conscience (1 Cor. 8:7, 10, 12; 10:28; Titus 1:15)?
For the knowledge of
truth Scripture always refers us to objective revelation, to the word and
instruction that proceeded from God (Deut. 4:1; Isa. 8:20; John 5:39; 2
Tim. 3:15; ). And where the objective truth is personally
appropriated by us by faith, that faith still is never like a fountain that
from itself brings the living water but like a channel that conducts the
water to us from another source."
-Herman Bavinck,
Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Baker Book House, 2003), pgs.
79-81.
If you overlooked this
one, you may order it at www.wts.edu. Click on the bookstore
and find some of the lowest prices on the web for good theological books!
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 24
New Covenant "First
Things"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
In last week's study we learned of
the ministry, message, manner and Messiah of John the Baptist from John
1:19-34. We considered John the Baptist's ministry as he was closing
the end of the Old Covenant (Matt. 11:1-15) and pointing forward to
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as the New Covenant is
actually dawning in Jesus.
This week's study is on New Covenant
"First Things" as we reflect upon John 1:35-51. We will
consider the "first things" that happen as the Apostle John
records for us in his gospel the "decreasing of John, and the increasing
of Jesus" (cf. John 3:30). You could also say that these
"first things" show the beginning of thinking about time in that
there is the "decreasing of the Old Covenant way of doing things, and
the increase of the New Covenant way taught by Jesus".
[Interpretation Note: Remember from our verses today
that it teaches us something about the relationship between the Old
Covenant/Testament and the New Covenant/Testament. There should
always be a distinction between the two covenants or testaments, but never
a separation or confusion. Notice how John the Baptist is part of the
Old Covenant/Testament as the last prophet, yet he passes the
"revelational baton" on to his disciples, who then follow Jesus
who is the ultimate fulfillment of all Old Covenant/Testament hope.
So, we learn that there should be a distinction between the two
covenants/testaments but never a separation or confusion. This will
prevent overemphasizing Old Covenant/Testament ways of doing things that
perhaps have passed away or been fulfilled in Jesus, while realizing that
Jesus in the New Covenant/Testament is THE INTERPRETER (par
excellence) of the Old (cf. Luke 24:24-49; John 5:24ff).]
First Things
In today's study, we will look at
these first things: (1) the first gospel preached in the New Covenant- -the
Lamb of God is actually "with us"- - come and see; (2) the first
disciples are replacing the 12 tribes of Israel and submitting to the
Lamb's discipleship to follow him- - come and see; (3) the first
Christology or the first realization of who Christ is by the Apostles- -
come and see; and (4) the first self-revelation of Jesus- - come and see --
and "you ain't seen nothing yet!"- -greater things shall you see.
In John 1:35-51 we have many
“first things” that are taking place in the New Covenant. These first things, or priorities in our
passage and context is that the Apostle John wants to establish the
faithful witness of John the Baptist as well as God himself. Then he wants to show how this faithful
witness of Jesus was passed on by John the Baptist to Jesus’ first
disciples (who include the Apostle John as well, he is just too humble to
admit himself and is happy to stay in the shadows as it were).
Let us first remind ourselves of the
conversation of John the Baptist with the Jews in 1:19-27. Then
there is the transition of 1:28-34, followed by verses 35-51
as John the Baptist begins to decrease in importance as Old
Covenant prophet while some of the Jews come to believe in Jesus
the New Covenant Rabbi and Final Prophet.
Remember that in John 1:19-34 John is questioned by the Jews
concerning his identity. He points
them to Jesus and they do not believe.
There is an agonizing “silence” as to their response
(1:19-27).
However, after John the Baptist has pointed
Jesus to other Jews who have been listening to his teaching, they
begin to believe and begin witnessing to their family and friends that
Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Rabbi, the
King of Israel, the Son of God, the Son of Man, and many other
titles).
First New Covenant Gospel
Message Preached (vv. 29-36):
Old Covenant Lambs are Fulfilled
and Replaced by THE Lamb of God...Come and See!
Some hear the message and believe, some do not-
-same with us today (compare the response of John the Baptist's disciples
with the priests, Levites and Pharisees sent by the Jews from Jerusalem in
1:19-34). Oftentimes we think we are
failures with friends and family who do not believe, but we must
remember God’s sovereignty in giving grace as we preach and live for
Jesus and His gospel.
We are called to witness/testify to the Jesus Who
has come, we are not to worry about results. Also, the Jews from
Jerusalem have been God's visible "church" or authority for God's
people under the Word. However, over time they have drifted out from
under the word and now cease to be God's authorized authority or visible
Church. When a congregation, or church altogether ceases to submit to
God's authority in His Word, this congregation and church ceases to be
God's authority on earth.
We must remember that every congregation, every
church is only effective, sent from God and with authority as it derives
that authority from God's Word alone. The early church, the Sanhedrin
(made up of priests, scribes, Levites, Pharisees, and
Sadducees), did not recognize John the Baptist or Jesus (John
1:11-13). (You might say what Jesus will say to Nicodemus in John 3:
"You are Israel's teachers and you don't know 'these things'?!")
But to those who receive him, he have them authority
(important!) to become children of God! (1:12-13). Some of John the
Baptist's disciples do believe and tell others about this Jesus! What
we see on the human level is a willingness to follow, a willingness to be a
learner, or a disciple submitted to God's authoritative Word. At this
point, the disciples who begin to follow Jesus know a little about him, but
they will learn so much more - -in fact, they will see so much more (1:51).
First Disciples (vv. 37-51)- Old
Covenant Israel's 12 Tribes being Fulfilled and Replaced by 12
Apostles...Come and See!
With the passing of John the Baptist, the last of
the Old Covenant prophets, we now have the beginning of the new as we are
introduced to the New Israel, as Old Covenant Israel is being
fulfilled. As Israel had 12 tribes,
they are now being replaced by the New Covenant Israel of 12 disciples.
What are Disciples? They are
“learners”, or “followers” (lit.).
Disciples are followers of
Jesus who are learners, lovers, and livers
Jesus invites the first disciples to "come
and see" when they ask him "where are you staying?"
The Word John the Apostle uses for "staying" is the word for
abide, remain, dwell, stay, etc. The point John seems to be point us
to is this. Jesus says: “Come and See” (vv.
38-39) because they have asked Where are you
staying/abiding/remaining/dwelling?
Jesus does not answer this question, but seems to
implicitly say through John the Apostle's writing that it doesn't matter
WHERE (that’s not important), but WITH
WHOM- -those who are seeking and following him, and thus staying,
remaining, or dwelling (cf. 1:14)- Ridderbos…In other words, God is
dwelling, abiding, remaining, or what we would say
“staying” (in English), "chillin'" (in slang- I couldn't
resist 'chillin' :-)>) -- with man! God is indeed "with
us"!
Verses 38-39 are revealing
about the fact that God is truly abiding, staying, remaining, dwelling with
man and man is face to face as Jesus "exegetes" or teaches the
disciples about the Father (cf. John 1:18; 5:24ff).
This is the hope of all of the Old Covenant, that
God would dwell with man. Remember Genesis 28? Jacob receives a
revelation of God where he reminds him as the son of the promise to Father
Abraham, that God will one day dwell with man. Notice in these verses
God's promise to dwell with Jacob/Israel, but also read carefully for a
later application of these verses as well.
Genesis 28:10-22: Jacob left Beersheba and went
toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there
that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place,
he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And
he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top
of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and
descending on it! 13 And behold, the LORD stood above it and
said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of
Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14
Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall
spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the
south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be
blessed.
15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever
you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you
until I have done what I have promised you." 16 Then Jacob
awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and
I did not know it." 17 And he was afraid and said,
"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God,
and this is the gate of heaven." 18 So early in the morning
Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a
pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19 He called the name of
that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will
be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread
to eat and clothing to wear, 21 so that I come again to my
father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God, 22 and
this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of
all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you."
In this passage in Genesis, we see in 28:15 that
God says he is covenantally present, or with Jacob and will keep him.
Jesus is God in the flesh and he is now with his people as he promised to
Jacob. In fact, with the 12 disciples, we see Jesus as the Creator
and Redeemer of the New Israel.
So, you could say true disciples of Jesus are
followers who are learners,
lovers, and livers -- who dwell with
God! What a great
encouragement for us all. We understand more of what John 1:14 was
teaching in light of this passage:
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the
Father, full of grace and truth.
He is “with us” (John 1:14) and thus
there is no reason for fear of man preventing us from witnessing, nor any
questions about why some believe our witness and some discount
it– that is God’s concern, not ours!
Witnessing the Lamb of God- In reach and Out
reach!
When we think of being disciples who are
learners, lovers and livers who dwell with God, we often first think of
outreach. But I would encourage us first to think of in reach.
In reach is important for us as families and as congregations of Christ
under the Word to be about building each other up, encouraging each other
each day (Heb. 3:10ff; Eph. 4:29ff), as we reach in to one another with the
gospel of grace. Remember: the gospel is for Christians too!
What is In reach (vv.
35-42)- Witness within our
families, our congregations, being instruments of his grace to each
other. Notice how in John's Gospel, after Jesus has Andrew and the
other disciple (the Apostle John) to dwell with him, Andrew immediately the
next day reaches into his own family by witnessing to Peter. One of
the implications we can learn from this testimony in John, is that our
family should be a priority in witnessing the Gospel message.
Remember that with John the Baptist's ministry,
it was one primarily of in reach. Reaching in to those in Israel who
had ears to hear, would repent of their sins, be baptized, and prepare for
Messiah who was among them and about to begin his ministry. Jesus'
ministry to the disciples was for three years, and this was in reaching
long before he sent them to outreach. They were to be first learners,
lovers, and livers from within. They were to learn of God's truth and
get it right before they got it out; they were to learn to love one another
as Christ loved them so that they could love their neighbor as themselves;
and they were live as Jesus lived as they lived before the world.
One of the great benefits of dwelling with Jesus
and in His Word even today as his disciples is that we are captivated by
His grace, love and mercy for us as his people. We can as true
disciples learn from him, love one another, live with and for one another,
then overflow out of love for God as we outreach to the rest of the
world! When we have dwelled with Jesus under his Word, we get a true
sense of His grace and goodness and we are compelled to share it with
family, each other, and to reach out to the rest of the world.
From In reach to Outreach (vv. 42ff)
Then, notice in our passage, how after Peter is
called, Jesus and the disciples go to Galilee and Jesus calls Philip.
This is outreach. Philip is called, then Nathaniel- - then the
outreach continues, at a wedding (chap. 2:1-11), to the Jews in Jerusalem (chap.
2:12-25), then to Nicodemus who is "open" as a Teacher of Israel,
then to a Samaritan woman (4:1-26, then to Galilee of the Gentiles
(4:43ff). You could say that Jesus sends his disciples later with the
same pattern: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes
upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
We need to get the gospel right on the
“inside” before we can get the gospel out! “Getting it right before getting it
out!” Learning of the Christ;
Loving one another; Living according to the truth…THEN getting it
out!
Conversionism or Decisionism
In an age of conversionism and decisionism, this
is important to remember "making disciples" and placing just as
much emphasis on in reach as out reach. These movements of
conversionism or decisionism are zealous for converts and
so-called “decisions for Jesus”. They want to see
congregations grow into the hundreds, thousands over night! They use
marketing techniques and think of effective salesmanship as they think
about what their audience would like to hear (Paul in 2 Timothy
3:1-12 knew this would happen because it was happening in his time as
well).
Conversionism and decisionism are perversions of
the Reformation. The Reformation taught that God made converts- -God
converted people by His grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone
(Eph. 2:1-10)- - Christians were called to make disciples (followers of
Jesus who were learners, lovers and livers in a community under authority
and accountability in the Word of God). Yet a couple of hundred years
later, influenced by democratic, good-old-fashioned, American ingenuity and
individualism, men began to desire "to get people saved!"
The emphasis shifted from God's sovereign grace
to man's so-called sovereign decision in his own conversion. This
robs God of his glory and grace! This eventually became the roots for
heretic preachers who preached what they felt God had called them to preach
that was inconsistent with the Church's confessions for two thousand
years. Conversionism and Decisionism became the seed bed in the 19th
century for Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, Christian Science, and a host
of other holy horrors that still to this day come to our door asking for a
decision!
This also influenced evangelicalism as we see so
sadly today around us in our own circles. People want numbers- -they
want decisions, converts- -but where are Jesus' radically committed,
blood-bought, Spirit-filled works of God's grace and creation- -
followers who are learners, lovers and livers!? We are God's
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared
beforehand for us to do! [Read more in an excellent book: 'The
Democratization of American Christianity' by Nathan Hatch].
When we are merely seeking
converts or decisions "for Jesus" we are not being obedient as
disciples!
Jesus never calls us to make
converts or decision, he calls us to make disciples! These disciples
are then taught by the grace of God how to be learners, lovers and livers
before they “GO!” and make more disciples.
When Jesus teaches us all what has been called
the “Great Commission” (Matt. 28:18-20), he speaks to
disciples who have learned from him for three years, loved with him and
lived for him BEFORE he sends them out! [Note: This is not to say that a
simple "come to Jesus" by a new Christian cannot be used by God
for his glory. It just means that our normal emphasis should be on
discipleship for those who are awakened to the truth of God's love, rather
than on merely counting them as another "fish we have caught"
only to be sent out to get more fish. The emphasis is on quality,
that is, being someone who is growing and maturing, more than on quantity,
just how many numbers you have on a given Sunday in a worship service].
Then there is Outreach (v. 37;
v. 43; v. 45)- Response from
effectual calling of the Spirit (2 Tim. 1:9)- Reaching out to others with
the hope we have in Jesus.
Remember: "Providential
Placement for Proclamation"
You have been placed in a certain place in the
world with certain unique friends and contacts. These are the ones
you are to invite to "come and see". These are the ones by
God's grace you can tell (knowing Jesus is "with you" and dwelling
with you by His Spirit so that you will not fear) that Jesus has come and
that they can know him.
Remember: "Don't
Rationalize, but Relationalize".
This means that you should remember that just
because someone because of their outside appearance seems to be at
odds with the gospel, this does not mean God has not begun a work in their
hearts. Don't say: "I don't think that person is ready to hear
the gospel- - look at them, long hair, scruffy face, loves to party, has a
face piercing that causes me to wince when I look at them!" This
may be a person who is ready to hear the gospel.
The message and the results are God's! He
adds to his church daily those who are being saved- - we do not (Acts
2:41ff)- -we testify and witness to the reality of God with us. So,
don't rationalize, but relationalize. Make a relationship with the
strange people who you are surrounded by. If you were honest with
yourself, you were pretty strange yourself when you came to the gospel (and
maybe you are still pretty strange, who knows?!).
Remember, what Paul said to the Corinthians:
"And such were some of you!" (1 Cor. 6:11a). Paul reminds
us in his letter to the Corinthian church that his outreach by God's grace
reached homosexuals, adulterers, thieves, drunkards, swindlers, idolaters,
fornicators, witches and prostitutes- - most of us would not be seen
with people like this, but then again, perhaps we don't know we are with
people like this! Don't rationalize, relationalize!
People "like this" dress up in ties,
nice shoes, fix their hair, put on dresses and high heals and surround us
in our office place, the market place, and wherever else we find
ourselves. Remember: "such were some of you!" No one
is as they seem on the outside- -they have sin dwelling in their hearts
causing them sometimes to display their sins outwardly so that all can see,
while some are secretly keeping their sins private! But all need the
gospel! Don't rationalize, relationalize!
People want to know about why you live a certain
way as learners, lovers, and livers of Jesus. Think about how you can
interpret for them God's grace in your life through the following:
Your Life- Interpretation of Life. When
someone asks why or how you live the way you do as a disciple of Jesus,
interpret for them the reality of God's grace- -tell them to "come and
see" what Christ can do in their lives! With Blessings- Interpretation
of Blessings. Whatever blessings or difficulties you've been given by
God, when you are asked how you managed by God's grace, interpret for them
from where your strength comes! With Deeds- Interpretation of
Deeds. When you do something nice for a neighbor or friend, visit
them when they are sick, bake some cake or Carmella's famous baked ziti,
tell them why you do what you do. Interpret for them God's grace and
work in your heart. When Jesus did signs, he always interpreted them
for the people to understand who God is. When we witness and
outreach, may we interpret for others from where this grace comes -- we
invite them to "come and see". All of our outreach in
a normal day is witnessing to the reality of WHO JESUS IS!
“So, you’ve made
a mess of your witness…” There is grace for today!
Some of you are reading this and thinking:
"I used to have a good witness for Christ, but I've blown
it!" Well, apologize to those you have offended and interpret
that for them. Let them know that you want forgiveness because you
have been shown mercy and been forgiven by Jesus. If you have acted
inconsistently, join the club, you're a bigger sinner than you realize (I
had a friend who used to say in a characteristically
"Luther-like" way: "Smile. You're a bigger sinner than
you realize!").
What this means is that we all blow it, we all
fall short as Christians. We are saved, but still sinful, therefore
that should cause us humility and more love, and that we can interpret for
others as well! If others see the grace that we have because of
Christ alone, then perhaps they would realize that it is not works, or
their own working for perfection and approval that will cause them to be
accepted by God. If you have blown it, turn to Jesus for help and
grace, then extend that help and grace to others. You are not
inviting people to see you, you are inviting them to see Jesus through you-
- you are inviting them to "come and see" Jesus!
First “Christology”,
or “exegesis” of Who Jesus is- Old Covenant Promises are
Fulfilled and Replaced by Jesus...Come and See!
These are merely the first understanding of the
disciples of Jesus in this passage, but it is a very good start.
Notice how all of the Old Covenant promises of the Person, or the One (the
Matrix has misused this term "the One" so now more think of Neo
than Jesus, but I will use it anyway) who was to come in the last days to
save Israel from sin. Jesus is called by the first disciples the
following titles, but they will come to learn much more as they follow him,
learning, loving and living!
The Lamb of God (v.35)
Rabbi-Teacher (v. 38)
Messiah-Christ (v. 41)
The One Who Moses and the Prophets Wrote
Concerning (v. 45) (cf. Luke 24:24-49)
Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Joseph (v. 45)
Son of God (v. 49)
King of Israel (v. 49)
First Self-Revelation of Jesus-
God's Final Word of Revelation Begins in Jesus...Come and See!
Jesus calls Nathaniel when he meets him an
Israelite ‘Indeed’ (or a “true one”). This is
an allusion to Jacob and the “first family” of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, truly Israel compared to merely “the Jews” who
do not believe (1:19).
Notice how Jesus knew him before he followed him-
-important for evangelism- - we are known by God before we know God
(Galatians 4:9). It is important to remember that when in reaching as
well as out reaching!
Jesus says basically, "You ain't seen
nothing yet!" You shall see me as the great LADDER between
heaven and earth. Remember in the Genesis 28 passage we read earlier
that God promised to be with Israel. Now this passage draws again
from Genesis 28. Jacob in Genesis 28 saw a ladder with angels
descending and ascending on it (or him according to the translation).
This was a gate, an opening into heaven itself where God lives! Jacob
called the place "Bethel" meaning "House of God".
Many times we have heard or sung the spiritual:
"Climbing Jacob's ladder". But we should never sing this
song again! NO man has ever climbed Jacob's ladder! The only
time man ever wanted or desired to climb a ladder up to God was to dethrone
him in Genesis 10-11 at the Tower of Babel! Man does not seek after
God to know him.
Rather, God comes down the ladder- -he has come
to dwell "with us"- - come and see! Jesus is the Ladder;
Jesus is the connecting point between heaven and earth (in the Old
Covenant there are altars, stones, tabernacles and temples that
were, if you will, points on earth where heaven had broken through- -a
place where 2 dimensions of time and space came together).
In Jesus, he is that Ladder, the mediator between
the earth of man and the heaven of God, because he is the Man who is God
and able to bridge the two in himself. Jesus comes down so that
whoever believes would never perish, but have everlasting life!
Jesus tells Nathaniel and the rest of the group:
“Greater things” are coming. There will be more signs
that have yet to come (that will begin in the next chapter- - chapter 2
next week).
John 20:31 says:
“…but these [things] are written so that you may believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have
life in his name.”
Do you believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? Do you have life in his name?
Believe upon this Jesus
John reveals by the Holy Spirit to us- -believe him every day- - He
is your life and your only hope for salvation with God!
Remember when we
partake in the Lord’s Supper as the people of God, what is chiefly
part of our in reach to one another as Jesus’ disciples. It is also out reach, for others
observing it by faith can “come and see” and hopefully
believe. In the Lord's Supper, Jesus shows forth his body and blood
that was "for us" because he is "with us" and
communicates his grace to us by faith- - come and see!
Soli Deo Gloria!
For Further
Reading
D. A. Carson, 'Gospel
According to John'
H. Ridderbos, 'The
Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary'
L. Morris, 'The Gospel
According to John' (NICNT)
J. Calvin, 'Commentary
on the Gospel of John'
R. Brown, 'Commentary on
the Gospel of St. John'
J. Dennison, Articles on
John's Gospel at www.kerux.com
J. Boice, Commentary on
John's Gospel
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
9 S. Locust Street
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
571.334.7420
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 25
"Wine, Whips, and
What Is Within a Man"- Part I
John 2- "Wine of
Joy"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
Today's study will
be from John chapter 2, focusing on verses 1-11. This is the wedding
feast that is taking place at Cana in Galilee and Jesus and his disciples
have been invited to attend. This is the occasion of Jesus' first
sign/miracle after he tells his disciples that "greater things you
shall see" (1:50-51). Jesus is now beginning to reveal the glory
of the Father to those who have eyes to see and believe (2:11). Let
us first read the text, then we will focus on the meaning and the message
of these verses.
This portion of
Scripture has been allegorically or unnecessarily spiritualized quite often
in the history of the Church. The important thing to remember about
interpreting John 2:1-11 is to keep our eyes on John's purpose in writing
(John 20:31- "so that you might believe and have life"), and at
the same time focusing on how the Person of Jesus Christ is revealed, as
well as the actual SIGN-ificance of the
sign/miracles itself.
We should be careful
not to become overly bogged down with the wedding itself because it is
the backdrop, the background, or location for the sign, although it is
specifically chosen by Jesus as the first place for his sign and therefore
does have some significance for understanding the SIGN-ificance of the sign
of Jesus' changing water into wine. Yet, I believe the priority of
the text is on the sign itself in the water changing to wine.
John 2:1-11
2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana
in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was
invited to the wedding with his disciples.
3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said
to him, "They have no wine." 4 And Jesus said to her,
"Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet
come." 5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever
he tells you."
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the
Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7
Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." And
they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them,
"Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast." So
they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water
now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants
who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the
bridegroom 10 and said to him, "Everyone serves the good
wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you
have kept the good wine until now."
11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana
in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. 12
After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his
brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
In our passage today,
we will consider the following outline as a help for what occurs
at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee:
1. Transition from the Old Covenant way of doing things to the
New way fulfilled and replaced in Jesus. We can say here that
“the new has come (in Jesus)…the old has passed away!”
(cf. 2 Cor. 5:17).
2.
Transforming New
Creation power in the presence of Jesus through his sign of turning water
to wine. We see the transforming power of the New Creation in our
lives even today, just as Jesus changed the water into wine, he
changes us by the power of his transforming Spirit (2 Cor. 5:17: “The
old things have passed away!”).
3.
Transfer of end-times
blessings of abundant wine flowing to God’s people to the present.
What was expected at the end of time by the Prophets is dawning NOW in the
Person of Jesus. We today see the transfer of end-times blessings of
joy to us by His Spirit as Jesus sustains us by his Holy Joy because He has
poured out his love on us by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:3-5)!
4.
Translation of sign
which is to show forth and reveal God’s glory to those who have eyes
to “SEE” in Jesus revealed in a little ‘ol town called
Cana in Galilee. Jesus is revealing his glory even here although his
time has not fully come to reveal his glory (John 17:1-5).
What are signs
in John? What is their purpose?
Let us first understand
how the Apostle John uses signs in his gospel. Simply
put, the signs Jesus does before the crowd is not so he
can "amaze him with his magic" as a clown might do at
another celebration like this. Rather, the signs of Jesus are
to point to something greater.
For instance, when you see a sign that says “Disney
World” at the side of the road, you don’t get out of your car
and stand in line for the roller coaster! Do you?! Well, don’t! Rather, the sign points to something
greater.
It is an outward
manifestation of God’s presence with us! Jesus’ signs reveals his
“God-ness”, His divinity, His power that only the Creator and
Redeemer could or would have! Signs
point to the reality, they are not the reality themselves!
The sign here of the
wine points to the greater reality that God's abundant
grace and joy is breaking into this present age in order to bring
eschatological gifts and blessings to the people of God.
A Wedding with No Wine: "What! No Wine? What Kind of Wedding Feast
is This Anyway?!"
This occasion of the
wedding feast was a Messianic Moment, or omnipotent opportunity for
Jesus’ first sign. Weddings are joyous celebrations and
occasions. Everyone loves a
beautiful wedding, where two are gathered before God and man to be united
in holy matrimony (a creation ordinance).
We especially like a wedding with lots of food, drink, fellowship
and dancing- -it is a joyous occasion for all, but especially for the bride
and groom. As many brides and grooms
are informed by "Aunt Lilly" as she pinches your cheeks:
"This the first day of the rest of your lives together!"
All weddings are new
days, new beginnings for the bride and the groom. This
wedding in Cana of Galilee is like that, but rather than merely be a
new day for the bride and the groom, this is the new day when Jesus,
God in flesh, begins to show forth and reveal his glory through
signs. This wedding is not merely a new day for the bride and groom,
but a new day for all- - the beginning of a new creation, a new testament,
a fulfillment and replacement of the Old that is now passing away. We
see the more of the transition of
the Old Covenant to the New that the Apostle John wants us
to understand.
However, this new day
for the bride and groom was about to be destroyed. All of the joy and
the festivities were about to come to a screeching halt when someone
realizes that all the wine has been consumed by those at the
party! May it never be!
Now understand that
wedding feasts such as this one lasted for days and it was the
responsibility of the bridegroom's family to take care of the food and wine
at the feast. If this was not done successfully and properly it could
have meant the shame of the family in this culture, but it could have also
resulted in a lawsuit against the bridegroom's family from the bride's
family. This could literally have caused a division in the two
families. This is a very serious matter. This is the context
that John is communicating concerning the wedding.
"Here Comes
the Bride..."
It is SIGN-ificant that Jesus was at a
wedding when he showed forth his first sign (although as I said in the
beginning, we don't want to unnecessarily spiritualize certain things, we
can draw implications from this). What can we learn about the
imagery of weddings and marriage in Scripture? Weddings are part
of both the Old and the New Covenant time periods, but will not be
necessary when the time will come for the restoration, or regeneration of
all things (Matt. 19). Weddings and
wedding feasts are also symbolic in the Old and New Covenants as
descriptions between God and His People, Christ and His Bride. Jesus honors the guest with his presence
as well as with his gifts at this special banquet.
ESV Isaiah 62:1-5: For Zion's sake I will not keep
silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet, until her
righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning
torch. 2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the
kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of
the LORD will give. 3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand
of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 4 You
shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed
Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land
Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. 5
For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry
you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God
rejoice over you.
Mark 2:19-22: And the
scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and
tax collectors, said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax
collectors and sinners?" 17 And when Jesus heard it, he
said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but
those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." 18
Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came
and said to him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the
Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?" 19 And
Jesus said to them, "Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom
is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot
fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from
them, and then they will fast in that day.
Wedding imagery also
reminds us of the wedding feast of the Lamb that will come when the Bride
of Christ is united eternally with the Bridegroom full of grace and truth!
ESV Revelation 19:1-9: After this I heard what seemed
to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,
"Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2
for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the
blood of his servants." 3 Once more they cried out,
"Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever." 4
And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and
worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, "Amen.
Hallelujah!" 5 And from the throne came a voice saying,
"Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and
great." 6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a
great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty
peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the
Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the
glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made
herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine
linen, bright and pure"- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of
the saints. 9 And the angel said to me, "Write this:
Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb."
And he said to me, "These are the true words of God."
People have
over-spiritualized these verses, and in response to this we need
to emphasize the physical as well!
Let us appreciate the spiritual truths the Apostle John reveals by
focusing as best as possible on John’s purpose, but let us also
“physicalize” and appreciate God’s true presence in the
flesh, showing forth his glory in the making water into wine! What I
am saying is that although the wedding feast is important, it is kept in
the background during the entire passage in order to focus our attention on
the Person and Work of Jesus Christ and what He is actually doing and
communicating by this first sign.
I believe the main focus in these
verses is the wine and what it represents in Jesus’ sign, as well as
the meaning of the hour that Jesus informs his mother Mary about.
Wine Imagery In Scripture
Abundant wine symbolized
abundant joy to the Israelites.
Abundant wine meant joyous occasions, reason to feast and celebrate
(abundant wine doesn't imply a drunken party, it implies a big, crowded,
festive occasion, or party)! Like
when we see baubles, bangles and bells at Christmas, or decorations hanging
with evergreen wreathes and bright red, we think of joy, celebration,
feasting.
Jesus will produce
what was desperately needed at this joyous wedding (that was
about to become an extremely dour occasion), and he will show forth
his glory in this first miracle so that those who have eyes to see
might see that the end times, the last days, the beginning of the New
Creation is dawning! What was expected by the Prophets as
something to occur on the Last Day, Jesus is causing to occur in the
beginning of the Last Days, because these Last Days begin with Jesus' work,
then continue into the Day of Pentecost, the giving of His Spirit, on up to
this very day. Jesus is transferring
end times blessings to the present in this sign.
No Wine Until it is Time
Yet, before Jesus does
this miracle, his mother Mary informs him of the situation, and he has to
remind him that he is on a different time-table, or clock or expectation
than she is on. He will also communicate something else we want to
notice with regard to his mother. So, what does Jesus mean when he
says "My hour has not yet come?"
In the 70s and 80s,
after Orson Welles had been all but forgotten as the great movie
director/auteur that he was, he took a gig working on 'Paul Masson Wine'
commercials (well, he was hungry I imagine -- poor guy didn't even direct
the commercial). Well, in this wine commercial, Orson Welles makes it
known that at Paul Masson Winery, they will sell no wine until it is
time. Thus, the focus was on the long process of farming, growing,
picking, smashing, fermenting, until it was time to bottle it into the wine
container.
Similarly, Jesus is saying
against his mother Mary's request to make some wine, that he cannot do what
he wants to do on his own schedule, but must remember he is on a Messianic
Mission to save His people and to perform signs only at the right
time. His period from his birth, baptism, to the beginning of his
ministry was governed by the Sovereignty of God and His plan to save a
people. He could do no miracle until
it was time. As the vinedresser or farmer waits for
the time to pick the grapes in order to make wine, so Jesus must wait on
the Father in his Messianic Mission for the precise time.
“Hour” in John (2:4)
Because John records the
words Jesus used to tell his mother as "hour" or
"time", we should understand the Apostle John's use of
time. What does he mean by "my hour" or "my
time"? What should be understood about John’s thinking as
he is writing his gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is that
the “time” that was spoken of in the Old
Covenant concerning the last days, the final days, the hour, the end
times generally were breaking in with the coming of Jesus (in what Paul
calls the “fullness of the times”- Gal. 4:4). Here are
the uses of the words "hour" or "time" in John's
Gospel.
Notice the use of
"NOW-Time" as well as "NOT YET-Time":
John 2:4
And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come."
John 4:21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither
on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
John 4:23 But the hour is coming, and
is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to
worship him.
John 5:25 "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead
will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
John 5:28 Do not marvel at this, for an
hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his
voice
John 7:30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him,
because his hour had not yet come.
John 8:20 These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple;
but no one arrested him, because his
hour had not yet come.
John 12:23 And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be
glorified."
Eschatological
Time
Let us consider Jesus'
"hour" or "time" first with regard to the general
eschatological teaching of John and the other New Covenant writers of
Scripture, then look at the "hour" or "time" of Jesus'
mission more specifically as it has to do with his life, death,
resurrection, and ascension and the sending forth of His Spirit to His
people.
Eschatology is the study
of the “end times”, but not as we often think in popular
circles. Eschatology is about the
in-breaking of God’s Kingdom in the incarnation and sending of the
Spirit of the New Creation/ New Age/ New Covenant.
When we use
‘eschatology’ we must understand it has more to do with the
limited context of our own future here in the 20th century. Rather, eschatology encompasses all of God’s
saving historical activity of his people since the Garden of Eden in Gen.
3:15 and how it works out or is being fulfilled in real space and time
history (thus the reason why it is often called
"redemptive-history", or "salvation history", or
"heilsgeschichte" for those who want a new big word). In other words, eschatology should be
viewed from the perspective of the first promise of the gospel into the
future (which is the past, present and the future), as it is coming to
fulfillment ultimately in Christ.
When Jesus comes, there
is the final chapter if you will of this saving history
("redemptive-history"), for the final prophet, priest and king
has come. This is the One who was
promised to come in the last days.
The “last days” are longer than anyone realized and they
are dawning in the ministry of Jesus extending to this very day.
Other people have understood this eschatological time in the phrase
"Already, Not Yet". This means that many
things concerning the last days are already happening in Jesus
(abundant wine of blessing at wedding feast, giving of the Holy
Spirit), but much is "not yet", or yet to come (abundant wine of
blessing at wedding feast of the Lamb when all has been renewed, and the
full dwelling with God in His presence for eternity).
Eschatology is about two
worlds, two ages, a new creation and an old creation overlapping one
another. You see when Jesus came the
New Covenant, New Creation was dawning IN the old creation, and the Old
Covenant as well as the old order of things began to pass away. On the LAST and final DAY of Christ's
return, he will finish this. The New
Creation will be fully realized (Rev. 19-22), and the Old Creation will be
ended permanently (no more sin, sickness, death, and the Devil).
What’s going on with
Christians today? How can we practically understand John's
"eschatological time"? Well, as Christians, we are
like astronauts preparing to go to another world, say the moon or another
planet. Astronauts prepare by living
here as if they are living there.
They do certain things in preparation for the other world. Jesus has sent forth the Spirit of God,
literally the Spirit of the New Creation to transform us, make us new, prepare
us for another place. We go through
rigorous training like the astronauts, as we prepare here to go there. We live as if we will always be here,
influencing thinking, culture, politics, but we truly are preparing to live
somewhere else.
Jesus has gone ahead of
us “as it were” to the other world (the New Creation). He sends forth the Spirit of God to train
and teach us now.
More specifically, in
light of our general understanding of eschatological time, Jesus’
‘hour’ or 'time' points ultimately to
his glorification (John 17), but his glorification encompasses
the whole of his ministry, and climaxes, or comes to ultimate
fulfillment in his death and resurrection because his death secures
our entry into the other world- - the New Creation.
That is why he can
say the 'hour' or 'time' is coming (on the LAST DAY when he returns
for us to go to the other world, or to be in his presence) and the
'hour' or 'time' is NOW as we live by His Spirit for him. Jesus is
telling Mary that his time of glorification is not yet, but it is beginning
here as he turns water into wine in a glorious sign of the Last Days!
From Mother of
Christ to Disciple of Christ
What are we to make of Jesus' response to his
mother as she tells him to make wine and he says "What does that have
to do with me?" The implication is that Mary his special mother and
part of the ministry God favored her with, must now go from self-assertion to submission to Jesus' will!
Mary’s ministry as mother is now ending and
she is to become his obedient disciple (another important transition in
John). Mary is going from being mother to being his disciple.
This was already gently communicated to her earlier in Jesus' life by
Simeon: "A sword will pierce your own heart", as well as when
Jesus was found in the temple with the elders and wise men rather than
following his parents back home to Nazareth. Jesus said to them:
"Didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's house?"
Mary's new position as disciple is actually greater than that as mother
(cf. Matthew 11:1-14- "those who do the will of my Father are greater
than John the Baptist!").
Jesus has a different
time-table than we do. As His
disciples, we must wait upon the Lord’s good timing. David said: “Wait upon the LORD, be
of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, upon the
LORD.”
Jesus’ Messianic
Mission is from God and is to be directed from God and by God and not allow
others to interfere in his mission to save those who believe. There is only one Mediator between God
and man, the man Christ Jesus—not Mary. Mary cannot even appeal to the sacred
heart of Jesus in the flesh, she surely cannot do so now He is glorified!
The Wine of God’s Good
Grace Overflowing Abundantly for His People
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the
Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7
Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." And
they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them,
"Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast." So
they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water
now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants
who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the
bridegroom 10 and said to him, "Everyone serves the good
wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you
have kept the good wine until now."
A culture of technology,
a microwave-mentality and immediate-urgency culture will not fully
appreciate this miracle- - we can change water to wine today – but
this is an agricultural community.
These people knew how long the grapes must grow, how the soil had to
be just right, the temperature just right, the right amount of rain to come
from heaven, the right time of picking, crushing and then a time of
fermentation – this was a long, drawn out process, but Jesus provides
perfect wine in a moment’s notice.
Wine symbolized
God’s continuous, day-by-day care through the process of making this
drink in a culture where water was scarce.
When wine came to the mind of an Israelite it was something that was
joyous, making the heart merry, something for festive occasions, but a
provision for everyday, a food, a richness that symbolized God’s
eternal city and the feast that was to come in the New Heavens and the New
Earth.
Notice this in the
following Scriptures:
ESV
Psalm 104:14 You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to
cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth 15 and wine
to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to
strengthen man's heart.
ESV Genesis 27:28 May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the
earth and plenty of grain and wine.
ESV Jeremiah 48:33 Gladness and joy have been taken away from the fruitful land
of Moab; I have made the wine cease from the winepresses; no one
treads them with shouts of joy; the shouting is not the shout of joy.
ESV Joel 2:24 "The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats
shall overflow with wine and oil.
Moses’ first
miracles was changing water to blood in Exodus in order to bring a curse on
Egypt; Jesus’ the One who brings fullness of grace and truth
(1:18), turns water into wine in order to bring blessing to His
people. [Ridderbos- Theology of John]. Here we see the transfer of end times, or last days blessings to
the present in the Person of Jesus Christ. Another
Old Testament scholar named Richard Crashaw wrote: “the water
recognized its Creator and blushed.”
Notice the following Old
Testament passages on the abundance of wine and how this signified
God's blessing and ultimate picture of His dwelling with his people.
The context of these Scriptures are prophetic pronouncements of what the
future eschatological blessings will be like (see above for eschatological
time)! The scriptures are found in Joel 3:18; Amos 9:13, 14;
Jeremiah 31:12:
Joel 3:15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars
withdraw their shining. 16 The LORD roars from Zion, and utters
his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake. But the
LORD is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel. 17
"So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who dwells in
Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers
shall never again pass through it. 18 "And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet
wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the
streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come
forth from the house of the LORD and water the Valley of Shittim.
Amos 9:11 "In that day I will raise up the booth of
David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and
rebuild it as in the days of old, 12 that they may possess
the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,"
declares the LORD who does this. 13 "Behold, the days
are coming," declares the LORD, "when the plowman shall
overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the
hills shall flow with it. 14 I will restore the
fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and
inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they
shall make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 I will plant them on
their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I
have given them," says the LORD your God.
Jeremiah 31:12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of
Zion, and they shall be radiant
over the goodness of the LORD, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over
the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered
garden, and they shall languish no more.
Over 120-150 gallons of
water turned into wine! Greater
things than this will you see!
Jesus' Glory
11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana
in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. 12
After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his
brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
Jesus revealed his
glory, and his disciples believed him. What was carved into the
hearts of the disciples was the joyous day of celebration and feasting when
God would permanently dwell with man! This day would be a day of
celebration, feasting, full of joy and blessing! It was to be a Day
like no other, when they shall sit at the table with Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven, taking part in God's feast and in the
abundance of wine and milk that he has so graciously and abundantly
provided!
This day had dawned,
this day had begun in Jesus Christ. This new day was not only a new
day for the wedding couple at the feast, this was a new day for all who
believed! It is important to note that the disciples placed their
faith "in HIM". They believed Jesus was the One who
"exegetes" or makes the Father known (1:18) and that the banquet,
the feast, the celebration had begun!
However, as they grow
and understand their Lord as learners, lovers and livers (see last week's
study on John 1:35-51), they realized that they were getting a foretaste of
Jesus' glory while he was with them in the flesh, but that one day he would
have to leave them (John 14-16 that we will do in a few weeks, Lord
willing). He would say that the time to mourn is now, but that the
joy that he would give them in the Holy Spirit would be abundant and
provide what they needed until He returned for them, and all who believe,
on the Last and Final Day.
The same transforming
power of Jesus that changed water into wine also changes us into new
creations! He comes into our hearts by His Spirit and regenerates us
and renews us and fills us with His Holy Spirit so that we will be like
him! What a transforming power we see each day as we begin to more
and more awaken to the reality of the new creation of which we are a part
and we are filled with the joy of Christ's Spirit!
The Holy Spirit has been
given to God's people in abundance as the joy that is beyond measure!
In this world characterized by sin and misery, we do experience tribulation
and suffering, but we are to be of good cheer, for Jesus has overcome the
world. Jesus gives abundantly what we need to provide eschatological
joy for our journey to the New Heavens and the New Earth, and so that each
and every day, despite our troubles and the difficulties in which we go
through, we can know that his joy is our strength!
The purpose of John's
Gospel is in John 20:31. It says: “These things are written so
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing you
may have life in His name.”
Do you believe? Do you
have life? Do you see? Do you have the eschatological joy of eternal life
in the Spirit?
Blessed is he who
believes and is invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb! Read the
parable below on the great wedding feast that is to come! Jesus has
provided those who believe a wedding garment to cover our unrighteousness!
ESV Matthew 22:1 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2
"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding
feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who
were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4
Again he sent other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, See, I
have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered,
and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.' 5 But they
paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6
while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed
them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed
those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his
servants, 'The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9
Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as
you find.' 10 And those servants went out into the roads and
gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was
filled with guests. 11 "But when the king came in to look
at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12
And he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding
garment?' And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the
attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness.
In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 14
For many are called, but few are chosen."
So, what did we learn
and see in Jesus' first sign in John 2:1-11? We saw the following:
1. A Transition from the
Old Covenant way of doing things to the New way fulfilled and replaced in
Jesus.
2. A Transforming New
Creation power in the presence of Jesus through his sign of turning water
to wine.
3. Transfer of end-times
blessings of abundant wine flowing to God’s people to the present.
4. Translation of sign
which is to show forth and reveal God’s glory to those who have eyes
to “SEE” in Jesus revealed in a little ‘ol town called
Cana in Galilee.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to him who is able to do far
more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at
work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 26
"Wine, Whips, and
What Is Within a Man"- Part II
John 2:13-25: "God's
Temple-House"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
Our study today is from
John chapter 2:13-25. Last week we learned the importance of
understanding the first sign of Jesus turning water into wine as a
transition from the Old to New Covenant, revealing the transforming power of
the New Creation, as well as the transfer of end times blessings to
the present in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. We looked at John
2:1-11 and began to consider the signs that Jesus does for us which John
records so that we might believe and in his name have life eternal (John
20:31).
We will look at the
temple and worship of God and how Jesus brings new light and New Covenant
understanding to his people as the glory of God fills the temple of God in
the person of Jesus Christ, then passes out of the temple to focus the
people's worship on himself. The old is passing away....behold, the
new has come!
What is the
important about someone's presence? Well, what makes a
haunted house "haunted"? What
makes a lonely night at home "lonely"?
Well, in both cases, the house is without someone else's presence.
With regard to the haunted house, there is no one familiar occupying space
(or is there!!??). Occupying space is important for us as time-space
people. A mere building, an external structure with "no one
home" is cold, impersonal, and without appeal to us no matter how
beautiful it is on the outside. How many large exquisite
mansions with manicured lawns and pools are full of lonely hearted
people wishing that they had someone's presence to make their lives
better! A lonely evening is lonely because there is no one special at
home or in our presence.
Presence is important to
us as relational beings! Especially when it comes to our relationship
with God and His presence with us. God's presence keeps us from fear
and the unknown. God's presence reminds us of his faithfulness to
dwell with his people permanently which was his covenantal promise all
through redemptive history! God's presence was made known to his
people in different ways, but ultimately and consummately God reveals his
Immanuel-Presence "with us" in the Person of Jesus Christ and the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
The Immanuel-Presence creates true worship and
service from our hearts. It prevents us, because of His grace, from
merely going through the external motions and emotions, but helps us to
seek him with all of our heart!
He will never leave us
nor forsake us because He has determined to be with those who
believe! Let us read our passage from John 2:13-25 as we consider in
more detail God's presence among his people in Jesus Christ and the lack of
belief when God himself comes in the flesh!
John 2:13-25
ESV John 2:13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand,
and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those
who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting
there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of
the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the
money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 And he told those
who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; do not make my Father's
house a house of trade." 17 His disciples remembered that
it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." 18 So
the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these
things?" 19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up." 20 The Jews then
said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you
raise it up in three days?" 21 But he was speaking about
the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the
dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the
Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. 23 Now when he was
in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw
the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not
entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and
needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in
man.
Redeemed for
Worship and Service
True and real religion
comes from the heart! It comes from
a heart captured by God’s grace and presence, and then
externally manifests itself in one's life, thanksgiving, service, and
worship. The people of God have always been called and redeemed
by God to worship him. God redeems a people in order to glorify
Himself and to magnify His glory as He is present among a people. In
fact, from the time of the Exodus with Moses, the main goal or intent of
God's redemption was so that his people might worship him!
Exodus 7:16 And
you shall say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you,
saying, "Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness.
But so far, you have not obeyed." Exodus 8:1 Then the LORD said to
Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him,'Thus says the LORD, "Let
my people go, that they may serve me.
God redeems his people for service and worship
today as well. Redemption is provided by God so
that ultimately His presence can be made know in our hearts and we can
worship him in spirit and truth.
The external
manifestation, or the house of God where worship takes
place has been revealed in various forms throughout
redemptive-history. God dwelled with man in the garden, after the
Exodus from Egypt God dwelled with his people in the tabernacle (Ex.
25-34), in the time of David and Solomon, a house was built for God, a
temple for Him to dwell in among his people.
The purpose for this
dwelling with his people, was so that his people might be close to their
God, in communion with him, offering to him their sacrifices for sin,
praying to him for help and assistance and worshiping him in spirit and
truth. The temple was a house for God where he would live, or abide,
or dwell with his people here. Over time and because of disobedience,
the people of God sacrificed true worship from the hearts and exchanged
them for mere forms and external manifestations that went through the
motions without being tied to true love and emotion for God himself.
The Prophet Jeremiah reminds
the people of God before the exile of the importance of considering their
worship and their hearts before God before they merely go through the
motions of worshiping him in His holy temple:
Jeremiah 7:1 The
word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 "Stand in the
gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the
word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the
LORD. 3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend
your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4
Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the LORD, the
temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.' 5 "For if you
truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with
another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless,
or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go
after other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you dwell
in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. 8
"Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will
you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal,
and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then
come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and
say, 'We are delivered!'- only to go on doing all these abominations? 11
Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your
eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD. 12 Go
now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first,
and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13
And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and
when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you,
you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house that is
called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to
you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast
you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of
Ephraim.
The Prophet Jeremiah
reminded the people of God that because of their sins, God would not dwell
among them if they were merely externally worshiping him, rather than truly
worshiping him from the heart. In fact, they thought that God would
never destroy his Temple-House, but they didn't understand that for God to
dwell with man was an act of His free grace whereby he could at any time
remove his presence if he so chose.
After much warning from
the prophets to God's people, God allows them to be exiled into Assyria and
then Babylon. The glory of God, or the presence of God, departs
from His Temple-House itself (Ezekiel 10). But God promises that
he will one day change his people's hearts and give them true hearts of
worship (Ezekiel 36), as well as come and permanently dwell with them in a
temple that is beyond their comprehension (read Ezekiel 40-48). In
Ezekiel 36, God speaks through the prophet concerning the day when his
people will be given true hearts of worship:
Ezekiel 36:23
And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned
among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations
will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I
vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from
the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your
own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall
be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will
cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new
spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from
your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my
Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to
obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to
your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
The Temple of
God and the Presence of God in the Person of Jesus
The Jewish
Temple through history was the external, visible fixture of
Israel’s worship. It revealed
externally the worship of God that was to come from the hearts of
God's people. The Temple was the
place of God’s presence and glory.
It had been corrupted over time in the Old Covenant and now Jesus,
God in the flesh, comes to cleanse the temple and declares that he is
raising a new and permanent one in its place. It is important to
realize that now God has come to dwell, not in a Temple-House, but in our
flesh:
John 1:14 And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory
as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Our Scripture in
John 2:13-25 shows Jesus as the One who is God in the flesh, the One who
reveals the glory of God and the One who returns to His Temple-House to
find it full of moneychangers and salesmen rather than true
worshippers! Jesus possesses ultimate authority as God in the
worship and service of the Father and in these verses, he
illustrates through his SIGN-ificant sign, that the old way of meeting with
God, represented in the temple, is being replaced by worship of God in
spirit and truth (more on this in John 4).
As the Jews failed to
submit to his teaching- - His Word (see study on John 1:19ff)- -and were
drifting from under the authority of his word, so they are not under his
authority with regards to worship and service. They were doing what was right in their
own eyes as the people of God did over and over in the Old Covenant (see
Book of Judges). Jesus comes to cleanse the Temple-House, the
external place for the worship of God, and calls them to look to Him now
for access to God in true worship and service. This is an extremely
ironic situation John records for us.
Irony of
Ironies!
How is Irony
used in the Gospel of John?: 3 categories of Biblical irony- (1) verbal irony, saying the opposite of what one intends;
(2) situational irony,
when a situation is the opposite of what one expects or what is
appropriate; (3) dramatic irony,
when a reader or audience knows more than characters in a story do (the
last two are frequent in the Bible) (see Ryken, Wilhoit, and Longman,
‘The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery’).
In this story, we have dramatic irony. The people of
God are going about the worship of God, particularly in celebrating the
Passover. When God actually comes to them in the flesh, they do not
recognize him and in fact this will be what they will use to accuse him and
to ultimately have him crucified and killed!
So, we ask ourselves, who are those in the Old
Covenant Temple-House of God worshipping with all of these sacrifices
if the only way to God, the only truth concerning God, and the only life
from God is being rejected in the Person of Jesus?!
The Passover and
the Past-Over
Jesus is God’s
glory in flesh in the temple and he is driving out (physically) the
idolatry, worship of Money/Mammon rather than the worship of God. This is what happens when worship is not
directed by the Word of God alone. Notice the ironic sadness
revealed in this passage.
The Jews are
celebrating the Passover, when God passed over the homes that had blood on
the doorposts in the Exodus from Egypt. Now, God does not merely
Passover, but actually passes through the very Temple dedicated to
his name and the Jews are deaf and blind to this reality. They
continued sacrificing their oxen, sheep and pigeons, while the true and
final sacrifice slipped through their hands and they would ultimately put
this one to death because of his claims to have authority over the worship and
service of God!
Business and
Religion: Moneychanging, Animal Sales, and a Big Kahuna Burger!
Who are the
moneychangers? Moneychanging and selling animals were
legitimate businesses that were needed for all those traveling to
Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover and worship the living
God. People needed to purchase cattle, sheep, pigeons, and doves
in order to make a sacrifice for their sins. There would be
moneychangers, those who would change the currency of the coinage that was
appropriate for temple tax, as well as those selling animals for
sacrifices, conveniently set up in many small towns along the way up to
Jerusalem.
However, these salesmen
and moneychangers had literally set up shop in the temple itself!
Rather than hearing prayers offered up to God and realizing the holy
presence of the living God who would come and dwell there in the temple,
these men were selling their wares. Jesus grabs some cord (perhaps
from the cloth that was hung over a camel or donkey's back for traveling,
or perhaps there was more selling going in a variety of wares), and makes a
whip out of it. He chases out the animals, the salesmen and the
moneychangers and refers to the prophecy of Jeremiah claiming that they
have made his Father's Temple-House a "house of
merchandise".
There is nothing wrong
with moneychanging and animal sales, it was the location chosen for the
business! Lay-a-way has its place, but not in the Temple-House of
God! The moneychanging and animal sales would have been convenient
for business and religion. It would have helped God to be more
accessible in worship. Heck, every now and then I get hungry after
worship and it would be nice to have a Burger King or a Big
Kahuna Burger located in the church building!
Why not? I mean,
it would be a nice marriage of business and religion, I could truly have it
"my way" and then follow my burger with a sip of a delicious
beverage. Why, it would even improve attendance, making God more
accessible if we had one of these burger stands! People could come
eat, drink, then get up to worship! (Does anyone hear a reference from
Exodus 32?). In response to this mixing of business and religion,
Jesus responds with a House-Cleaning program. The disciples remember
that 'zeal for his Father's House consume him'!
Psalm 69:6-10
Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord GOD of
hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God
of Israel. 7 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach,
that dishonor has covered my face. 8 I have become a stranger to
my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons. 9 For zeal for your
house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have
fallen on me. 10 When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting,
it became my reproach.
Think back to the famous “Golden Calf
Incident” in Israel’s history (Ex. 32). God was pleased to dwell with his people
in a tabernacle (Ex. 25-31) that Moses was taught to oversee and build. The minute Moses turns his back, the
people have their first worship service- -a service of idolatry! The
temple was for God’s worship, they had made it a place of trade. They are selling rather than
serving. They are taking rather than
giving! Notice that in this incident as well as in the ‘Golden Calf
incident’ that both attempts were to make God accessible.
In the ‘Golden
Calf incident’ Aaron and the people wanted to see God, make him
accessible. These businessmen in the
temple are trying to help the people traveling from afar so that they can worship
God, so again there is an attempt at making God more accessible. We too today in the name of convenience
and accessibility have oftentimes perverted the worship of God.
In fact, in
the last few years we have seen the growth and prominence of what is
called "seeker-sensitive" churches (these are not new, but a
rehashing of a worldly business-religion in the name of Christianity that
Charles Spurgeon also fought against in the 19th century in what came to be
known as the 'Down-grade Controversy').
Read (and weep!) this
article on 'Peddling God' from an
issue of SMM: Sales & Marketing Management (March 2002):
"Seeker churches try to appeal to the millions of adults who don't
regularly attend church- - people who may harbor religious beliefs and feelings,
but who are either intimidated by or
simply turned off by churches....This new breed of church
is marketing to prospects and working with customers- -also referred to as
attendees- - to ensure that their needs and wants are satisfied...To get
people in the door and attending services, they'll resort to any marketing
and sales tactic.
'Getting a flyer at
Burger King can matter drastically in reaching people who are searching for
God but haven't really had anybody come through their lives to give them
direction,' says David Jordan Allen, Family Christian Center's marketing
director, who adds that the local Taco Bell, McDonald's, and other
restaurant chains now are looking to establish marketing tie-ins with the
church. 'It works.
Of the three thousand or so people who come to our shows, several hundred come up to the altar
afterward and accept Christ as their savior'." [my emphasis added in
italics/underline].
Can you see that this is
exactly what the Temple-House of God in Jerusalem had become when Jesus
came to clean house! The reason the moneychangers and the salesmen
were in the Temple was to encourage the worship of God. It was to
help make God conveniently accessible. Much false worship has always
been with good intentions. For example, the sons of Aaron, Nadab and
Abihu, were worshiping God in a way that was convenient and accessible for
the people and fire from God consumed them (Numbers 3)! In fact, it
is described as "unauthorized fire"! Uzzah didn't want the
Ark of God to fall into mud so he grabbed hold of it so it wouldn't fall
into the mud and God's wrath was poured out on his arrogant impiety (2 Sam.
6).
However, the worship of
God stemmed from disobedience rather than a heart captured by God's
grace and submitted to His Word! These incidents of false
worship were against God's will and revelation of himself. It is
up to God how he wants to be worshipped and approached and we must be
obedient to this by His grace whether it is "convenient" or "accessible"
or "seeker-sensitive" or not! Just one comment (although I
am tempted to make many): The ultimate problem with seeker-sensitive
is found in both of the words used: "seeker" and
"sensitive".
First of all, according to God's clear revelation
in Scripture, no man seeks after God (Romans 3:10-23), and Jesus says the
Father is actually the One seeking true worshippers (John 4:22ff), so there
is no such thing as a "seeker" except in the living God
himself! Secondly, the word "sensitive" sounds nice, but
what it reveals is a sensitivity to sinners who are rebellious idolaters in
reality, who want to worship in their own way, and not God's way!
When thinking about the
worship service at your congregation, always say to you and the other
committee members: "Remember the "golden calf incident" in
the Old Covenant"! This incident was sincere and sensitive
to the so-called needs of the people, yet it was against God's will and it
almost cost the people of God (and Moses!) their very lives (Exodus 32-34).
We cannot be sensitive to God's will and sensitive to the whims of sinful
man's worship desires! So, that is my comment, although I would like
to say more!
The Temple-House
of Jesus' Body
Jesus uses this Passover
and this Temple-House cleaning as a way to show forth the SIGN-ificant sign
that he is God in the flesh dwelling among his people and the only One
worthy of our true worship and service. He is revealing himself as
the One who has the power to raise himself from the dead. As the Lamb
of God, he was the only pure and unspotted sacrifice worth purchasing for a
Passover sacrifice. Yet, Jesus was not purchased, but those who
believe were- - by his precious blood.
The Lamb of God lays
down the body of flesh that was the true place of God's presence and glory
in the Person of Jesus Christ! This body of flesh was destroyed by
some of those Jews who opposed Jesus that day! This act of justice
with the whips in the Jewish Temple would become the main witness
against Jesus in his death (Mark 14:55ff). Jesus says to them:
"Destroy (imperative) this temple and in three days I will raise it up
again!" The real Temple-House of God in Jesus' body would be
destroyed and he would be resurrected to life, so that those who believe,
those who remembered his word, might have life in His name!
Jesus is God's
Temple-House who is the Only true access to the living God (John
14:6). Jesus will say later: "I AM the way the truth and the
life, no one comes to the Father except through me!"
God's Presence
by His Spirit
We too tend toward
idolatry like these moneychangers and salesmen. We want God when it
is convenient for us to worship and serve.
We want a God who is accessible to us in the way we want him to be
accessible. Yet God in His grace is
committed to cleansing us permanently, His Holy Temple of these idols!
Jesus’ body is the
Temple- -the place where God’s Spirit ultimately resides, where he
has the Holy Spirit “without measure” (John 3). Yet Jesus gives us his Spirit today, and
we often harbor unseen idols in our hearts, as well as blatantly disregard
the worship of God and the authority of God revealed in His Word! We
often seek to do things in our worship of God that is foreign to his
commands, and all in the name of convenience or making God "more
accessible"! That was just what these were doing who Jesus
disciplines!
What have we done with
God’s worship today in our own congregations? Do we serve or sell Jesus? Have we
remained faithful to his Word, to sit under the authority of His Word, and
to worship God in the way that He has commanded us to worship him? Do
we merely go through the external motions and emotions, or do we worship
God from pure hearts that have been changed by God's Holy Spirit? We
should remember that it is not extravagant buildings and worship centers
that we need to build for our glory, but we need hearts that have been
gripped by the grace and love found in the Lord Jesus and who want to
worship as the people of God who have now become God's Temple-House!
How are we to understand
that we are God's Temple-House? Well, remember throughout
redemptive-history, God's Temple-House was where he dwelled, where His
Spirit took up residence and His glory was revealed. In the Person of
Work of Jesus Christ, God was pleased not merely to dwell with man in the
flesh (that's incredible enough!), but God now dwells with man internally
by the power of His Holy Spirit. Because of His work for us and in
us, we can be sure of His Spirit dwelling within us and His glory being
manifested outwardly as we grow in Christ.
2 Corinthians
3:17-18: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding
the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one
degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
The temple many in
Israel were expecting was laid out by the Prophet Ezekiel in chapters 40
and following. They pictured
prophetically a beautiful temple that God would ultimately build. The one they had built (and would still
be building for more than 20 years) during Jesus' time in Jerusalem, was
built by Herod the Great (a half-breed Jewish pagan who they hated) and
they longed for the last days when God would build his great temple after
he overthrew all other worldly powers who dominated Israel.
However, this Temple was
Jesus’ body, the body he would lay down for the substitution of
sinners, so that Ezekiel’s great ‘end-times’ temple might
be realized in the people of God who were being made pure by the Spirit
from every tribe, tongue, people and nation, and who would worship truly
from their hearts given to them in the New Creation (more on this in John
3) and be a temple of people. Those
who would worship God in spirit and truth through the Lord Jesus Christ as
Mediator and High Priest (more on this in chapter four).
Listen to the
magnificent, awe-inspiring words of
the New Testament apostles and how they interpret Ezekiel’s
Temple in the people of God united to Jesus Christ by faith!
ESV 1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do
you not know that your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from
God? You are not your own...
ESV 2 Corinthians 6:16 What
agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God
said, "I will make my dwelling
among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be
my people.
ESV Ephesians 2:19 So then
you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with
the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the
cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined
together, grows into a holy temple
in the Lord.
ESV Revelation 3:12 The one
who conquers, I will make him a
pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of
it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of
my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and
my own new name.
Jesus, by His Spirit,
does not come in wrath anymore to cleanse His temple (the people of
God)! Rather, by His gracious
Spirit, he sanctifies, cleanses us, washes us, refines, purifies us so that
we will be a pure and unspotted bride!
In Revelation 21-22, the
Apostle John writes: "There was no Temple." There was
not Temple, but an great multitude of worshippers worshipping Christ in
spirit and truth for eternity!
What is Within A
Man?
Finally, notice in
verses 2:23-25, how did the people respond to Jesus’ signs? Some
see and some do not! “Come and
see”- - “greater things shall you see than this”
(1:49-51)- -some do not see greater things, because they are blind to the
reality of Jesus Christ even though in his presence he gives them
proof and reasonable evidence- -God doesn’t always grant ability,
except by his grace. Seek his grace
so that you might believe.
[Now when he was in Jerusalem at
the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that
he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself
to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear
witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.]
What is
in man? A heart of idolatry,
selfishness, self-centeredness, striving for authority- - but never a heart
of natural submission and worship until the Holy Spirit with
“zeal for his people-temple-houses” overthrows the corruptness
from within! This reality of “what was in man”, his
corrupted heart, leads to the Apostle John’s chapter three where will
find out about the love of God and being re-born, or “born
again” in chapter 3!
In a Jewish Commentary
on Exodus, ‘Mekhilta Exodus, 15:32’ there is a saying that is
similar: “Seven things are hidden from man- - the day of death, the
day of consolation, the depths of judgment, one’s reward, the time of
restoration of the kingdom of David, the time when the guilty kingdom [i.e.
Rome] will be destroyed, and what is
within another.”
We should understand the
connection between the Temple passage and the end of chapter 2 in verses
23-25. ‘What is within a
man’ is visually revealed by the response to Jesus by the Jewish
authorities. The Temple was to be
the place of the worship and service of
God, but when the God of the Temple actually walked in the flesh
amongst them, they approached him in order to lay their hands on him and
kill him (situational irony).
Jesus orders the animals
out with whips as a preview of God’s wrath on the last day. Jesus is the One who is the Lamb of God
and will lay down his life and be sold as these animals by one of his
disciples in order that the Jewish authorities might kill him.
Believe and submit to
Christ’s authority NOW, when he returns it will be too late. You will be placed in submission whether
you like it or not and you will acknowledge his lordship, but it will be
too late:
Philippians 2:9
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is
above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father.
John 20:31 says:
“These things are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the
Christ, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”
Do you believe? Do you
have life? Do you see?
Now, if you want to
stand in God’s Holy Temple, you must be standing in Jesus Christ, by
virtue of your being united to him by faith! Next week: One who was with the temple
authorities who heard what Jesus said comes out from the shadows, and
thinks to himself: “Hmm, I need to speak to this Jesus. We know he is a teacher sent from God
because of his signs, but I must do this privately.” This man’s name is Nicodemus and we
will look at Nicodemus’ interview with Jesus next week!
Soli Deo Gloria!
For Further
Reading
D. A. Carson, 'Gospel
According to John'
H. Ridderbos, 'The
Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary'
L. Morris, 'The Gospel
According to John' (NICNT)
J. Calvin, 'Commentary
on the Gospel of John'
R. Brown, 'Commentary on
the Gospel of St. John'
J. Dennison, Articles on
John's Gospel at www.kerux.com
J. Boice, Commentary on
John's Gospel
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 27
John 3:1-15:
"Birth from Above"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Happy Thanksgiving!
I am sending
this study a little early this week because of the Thanksgiving
holiday. Margaret and I wish you and your family a blessed time of
Thanksgiving with your family and friends! May we be reminded of the
LORD's graciousness to us all!
Introduction
Today's study is from
John 3:1-15 where Jesus dialogues with a Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews and
a Pharisee. Last week we finished our study of chapter two and
considered the transforming power of the new creation seen in Jesus turning
water into wine. We learned of Jesus' zeal for God's Temple-House and
how he went about cleansing it in order to establish true worship by
sending the Spirit into the hearts of His people. Finally, we briefly
considered chapter 2, verses 23-25 that spoke of Jesus knowing what was
within a man. These last verses in chapter 2 prepare us for the
conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in chapter 3.
Jesus tells Nicodemus
that he must be born again, or born from above, or he cannot see or enter
the Kingdom of God. Jesus is teaching Nicodemus as well as all people
who come to Jesus to seek him, that they must have an inner change of heart
wrought by the Spirit of God if they are to see or enter the Kingdom.
This inner change, or transformation, must precede their truly learning of
Christ and becoming a disciple who is a learner, lover and liver.
Now, we know from the Gospels that Nicodemus would later become a disciple
of Jesus, but remember that at this point, he is still a representative of
the Jewish ruling council, and must learn of Jesus' identity over time just
like many of the other disciples.
John 3:1-15
John 3:1 Now there
was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This
man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you
are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do
unless God is with him." 3 Jesus answered him, "Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of
God." 4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born
when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be
born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of
God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to
you, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows where it wishes,
and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it
goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." 9 Nicodemus
said to him, "How can these things be?" 10 Jesus
answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not
understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak
of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not
receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and
you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13
No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven,
the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever
believes in him may have eternal life."
Nick at Night
The Apostle John's
settings for presenting Jesus are fascinating. If you remember, for
Jesus' first sign, he is at a wedding feast. For his next act on his
Messianic Mission, he is a the Temple where true worship in spirit and
truth should have been occurring. Here in John 3, the conversation
between Jesus and Nicodemus is "at night". For John who
uses a lot of contrast between light and darkness, this is
significant. Because the Scriptures have been inspired by the Holy
Spirit, there are no "free motifs". That is, there is
nothing that is included in the text that does not have some significant
meaning and is important for carrying the plot, story, or narrative to its
important conclusion. John didn't have to tell us the time of day, or
that it was dark.
This is not to say that
we should spiritualize, or allegorize things like this (I have already
warned of this in the study on John 2:1-11). Yet, the darkness, the
night is an interesting context for considering and contrasting the
difference between flesh and spirit, earthly things and heavenly things,
births from below and births from above here in John 3. It also seems
to remind us of the greater darkness that Israel generally, and Nicodemus
particularly is experiencing in their understanding and knowledge of Jesus.
So, we could say
concerning this 'Nick at Night' passage,
that the darkness of the night surrounds them during their conversation as
the Light of the World begins to bring forth light on the subject of true
and saving knowledge coming from above! Remember what John 1:4-5
says: "In [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of
men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not
overcome it." After this passage, John 3:19-21 says:
"And this is the judgment: the light has
come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light
because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does wicked things
hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be
exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it
may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God."
So, I believe there is
some importance again to the context of the night, when Nick comes to speak
to Jesus. More on this in the next study! As we proceed in our
study, notice the contrasts presented for our reflection in John 3:1-15
(see how many you can find). This is what is called
"doubling" or "twinning" in literary terms. I
find these: (1) two rabbis; (2) two births; (3) two origins of knowledge;
(4) two existences (fleshly, earthly and spiritual, heavenly); (5) two Old
Covenant scripture references.
Born Again/ Born
from Above
In John 3,
we learn that in order to inhabit the New Creation and be a part of
the New Israel, we must have a New Birth, a birth from above. Now,
when Jesus uses the phrase "born again", it is the Greek word anothen that can be translated
"born again" or "born from above". It is
important to note that being born again is always from above because it is
by God's Spirit. I think it is helpful to focus our attention on the
fact that this term means not just beginning again, but something that
happens "from above" because of God's grace given to us!
What’s the
difference between being born again and being born from above? I
imagine a lot of people today speak more about being born again than
they do about being born from above. "I'm a born again
Christian", many people say. I don't often hear "I'm a born
from above Christian." Well, what other kind of Christian is
there besides one who is "born again" or "born from
above"?!
It is not worthy
nitpicking concerning which of the terms we use, both can translate the
Greek word effectively. However, I would point out that the context
of John 3 is concerned about what is revealed "from above", and
for me the emphasis of this chapter would be that the transforming birth
that occurs by God's Spirit is "from above" and perhaps this
should be preferred, but there is no trouble with either use (cf. vv. 12,
13, 16, 27, 31, 34). I prefer “born from above" based
ultimately on the context and the use of “from above”
throughout this unit in John chapter 3.
In this dialogue that
Jesus has with Nick at night, contrast Nicodemus with the Jews represented
in John 1-2. Nicodemus comes to hear
God’s Word in Jesus, but he is not a believer yet. In fact, in
this passage Jesus is purposely pointed and poignant in his speech to him
because he knows what is within a man (2:23-25), and knows that mere signs
do not in fact create believing disciples.
Jesus points to the fact
that there must be an inner change from
the heart. There is an old saying with which we are all
familiar: "Seeing is believing!" But that is
incorrect. Many saw Jesus' signs and while it did cause them to be
without excuse even more in their accountability to their Creator (cf. Rom.
1), it did not cause them to believe. The better phrase that would
illustrate what Jesus is teaching to Nicodemus is: Believing is seeing! (vv. 3, 5). Yet this
"sight" comes because one has been "born again" or
"born from above"!
Jesus is saying to Nicodemus: "Because
one has been born again, or born from above, one can truly see
and enter the Kingdom of God, but until this transformation by the Spirit
within the heart takes place, you as Israel's teacher (or anyone else
who comes to Jesus) are blind and shut out of the Kingdom
until this transformation occurs!
"Old Saint
Nick" the Reverend Doctor
Nicodemus has been the
Teacher of Israel (v. 10) for many years. He is an old Pharisee and a
member of the Jewish ruling council called the Sanhedrin. He is a
very learned and knowledgeable man in the Old Covenant Scriptures. He
has literally spent his entire life learning and memorizing and teaching
the Old Covenant Scriptures. Nicodemus is in academic and
religious qualification what we might call today a Reverend Doctor.
Nicodemus is ordained and has received his Ph D. So, when he
approaches Jesus, Jesus refers to him as "the" rabbi, or an important
Rabbi-Teacher of Israel (v. 10- Jesus recognizes his earthly
credentials). Notice how Nicodemus begins the conversation, he says
to Jesus that "We know that you are a teacher sent from God" (v.
2), apparently there representing others, particularly his disciples.
Rabbi-Teachers had
disciples just like Jesus. They sat at their feet and learned from
them wisdom and knowledge of the Scriptures (cf. Luke 2:46-48). So,
Nicodemus is representing his group and says to Jesus "we
know". However, Jesus begins to get to his heart and ask him
"What do you really know?" Jesus says you have "we
knowledge", or knowledge from below (wee knowledge?!). Then
through this dialogue, Jesus wants him to come to grips with his mere "we
knowledge" (wee knowledge), or knowledge from below by understanding
that the transformation of the Spirit of God within a man will cause him to
have Spirit-revealed knowledge from above (v. 11- "We speak of what we
know", that is, "my disciples and I speak of what we know", or knowledge
from above). This is the same kind of knowledge the
Apostle Paul will speak of in 1 Corinthians 2:6-14:
ESV 1 Corinthians 2:6 Yet among the mature we do
impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of
this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret
and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8
None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they
would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But, as it is
written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man
imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"- 10 these
things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches
everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person's
thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one
comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now
we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from
God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And
we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the
Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The
natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are
spiritually discerned.
Notice Paul's comment in
v. 8: "None of the rulers of this age understood this [knowledge and
wisdom of God], for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory." So, this passage begins with Nicodemus as a
Rabbi-Teacher of Israel to explain to Jesus what he knows, and Jesus in
essence asks him:
"What do you really know, Nicodemus, you
cannot really see or enter the Kingdom of God at this point, are you
willing to submit to me as THE Rabbi-Teacher in order to truly understand
and become my disciple?" Jesus begins to explain to Nicodemus
the importance of this inner transformation that will give true knowledge
("We knowledge from above"), effect sight, and give ability to
enter the Kingdom.
A New Start or A
New Life?
Notice that in
Nicodemus' response to Jesus telling him "Truly, truly, You must be
born again, or born from above" (v. 3), he hears Jesus' comment
as a mere "new start", or a new beginning (v. 4).
Nicodemus at this point wants to know how he can go back to his
mother's womb and start all over again, going through the motions and
emotions that he has always gone through in attempting to keep
the Law of God. Nicodemus has "upheld the Law" as his
community of Pharisees had interpreted it (cf. Paul's claims in Philippians
3:1-10). Rather than the Law pointing them to the Law-keeping of
Messiah, they thought that they could uphold it in their own strength, by
God's grace given to them through the covenant promises.
Jesus does not want
Nicodemus to try and make a new beginning or a new start, because there is
no way one can. Again, Jesus knows what is within a man (2:23-25) and
he knows this propensity toward sin that comes from a man's heart must be
changed. He must be born from above! He does not need a new
start, but rather he needs a new life. Literally, Jesus is telling
Nicodemus "to get a life".
How many times in our
own lives do we merely try to "work harder", or "turn over a
new leaf" with hopes that God might love us more? How many times
do we give this impression to others that this is what the Christian life
is all about? The Christian life is about a Sovereign and gracious
God who by His Spirit wonderfully intrudes into our hearts, so that he
might transform us into new creations and give us new life! God
breathes new life into us as he breathed life into Adam in Genesis 2 after
he had formed the man from dust. Just as Jesus took water and turned
it into wine, so the Lord takes fallen sinners who apathetically could care
less about the living God, and transforms us into new creations with new
hearts so that we can serve the living God wholeheartedly!
Nicodemus in essence
wants to try a little harder. He thinks Jesus is telling him to go
back to his mother's womb and begin again. This is
"If-at-first-you-don't-succeed-try-try-again-theology"!
However, the problem is, even if Nicodemus or anyone else could do this, begin again
in his mother's womb, he would have the same sinful nature at the
beginning as he did at the middle and end of their life! No, to begin
again is not the answer- - but to be born again, born from above,
that is! The womb was the place where we all were first
corrupted by Adam's sin. David says in Psalm 51: "Behold, I was
brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me." Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, you don't have a problem with
doing, you have a problem of being. In other words, we are not
sinners because we sin; we
sin because we are by nature sinners!
You can imagine what
Nicodemus is thinking talking face to face with Jesus: "I’m a
knowledgeable and respected man in our community- - me? I must be born
again, or born from above too!? I'm not a Gentile 'sinner'- - I
am a Pharisee- - I don't understand. This is where Jesus brings in
some additional teaching on being born of water and Spirit, as well as the
difference between fleshly and spiritual birth. This is framed
between verses 2 and 11, the "we knowledge" that Nicodemus
approaches Jesus with, and the "we knowledge" that Jesus will
impart to those who believe. Let us look at this "We
Knowledge" that is contrasted here.
How Little We
Know, How Little We Care!
Remember, when Nicodemus
first approaches Jesus, he says "We know that you are a teacher sent
from God..." Later, in verse 11, Jesus says: "We know the
things we have seen..." The “We knowledge” of Nicodemus
and his disciples is mere fleshly, human knowledge (v. 2). The “We
Knowledge” of Jesus and His disciples is Spirit-revealed knowledge
(or, “Kingdom Knowledge”) (v. 11). What do any of us know
apart from God’s revelation in Scripture? John 1:1 says nothing! Yet, there are reasonable witnesses testifying
to the truth. This is a good time to think back to John 1. John
1 is a prologue that is expounded and explained in detail in each chapter
of the Gospel of John. Allow me to take you back to two important
truths from the prologue that will hopefully help us to understand this
dialogue better.
In John 1:1-3, the
Apostle John explains that "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and God was the
Word" (see first study on John's Gospel).
What John is implicitly teaching us under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit is that all knowledge is derived
knowledge. That means that all knowledge is ultimately revelational,
or revealed knowledge. John begins with revelation: "In the
beginning was the Word". Unless you were there "in the
beginning" all knowledge that we have of God, the world and ourselves
is derived knowledge. Neither you nor I experientially learned or
gained knowledge of God and the creation, yet it was reasonably and
rationally presented to us by witnesses.
In John 1, there are
several references to testimony or witnesses, primarily speaking of John
the Baptist.
ESV John 1:7 He came as a witness, to bear witness
about the light, that all might believe through him./ ESV John
1:8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light./ ESV
John 1:15 ( John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This
was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he
was before me.'")/ ESV John 1:32 And John bore witness:
"I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on
him./ ESV John 1:34 And I have seen and have borne witness that
this is the Son of God."
These verses
teach us that although all knowledge is revealed knowledge and our
knowledge of God, our world, and ourselves ultimately comes from God's
revelation in His Word, God also gives us reasonable and rational
testimonies or witnesses to the reality of this revelation (John the
Baptist's ministry, the prophets, Jesus' signs and miracles).
However, the reasonable knowledge is based on the revelational knowledge
and not the other way around. In other words, in order truly to know
God, our world and ourselves, we must have more than reason and rational
proofs for God's existence and understanding meaning in this world in which
we live. We must have revelation: "In the beginning was the Word..."
This revelation precedes all other knowledge. We must submit all of
our reason to this revelation in order that we might truly know and believe
by God's grace!
What do
any of us truly know about our world and ourselves?
We must have revelation to
make sense of our world. We must not
try to reason out God's existence and then believe. God's existence in Scripture is always
assumed and asserted: "In the beginning was the Word..." We must believe in order to fully
understand God, ourselves, our world.
God is the Master Interpreter of all things, including knowledge of
himself, knowledge of ourselves, and knowledge of our world. Jesus is
saying to Nicodemus: "What do you know? Unless you are born from
above, you will never truly know!"
God Speaks and
Man Stops, Listens, and Learns
Even with all of the
so-called proofs for the existence of God, what can we really know about
him (is he personal, is he dangerous, is he loving, is he just, is he...)?
Maybe our tastes, seeing, hearing, knowing- - all of this may be deceiving
us - -maybe the world doesn't even exist around us; perhaps all of what we
call reality is an illusion! What if
Eastern philosophy is correct: we are just characters in a dream and all of
our senses deceive us! Our knowledge of God, our world and ourselves
must come from God-- it must come from
above!
Otherwise the only thing
we can be sure of, is that we do not know. All of the greatest of
philosophers have had to say at the end of the day, "I just am not
positively sure about my ideas and theories, I really can't tell you
anything for certain." As great as the philosophers of the world
have been, and as much as they have actually assisted us in understanding
of God's world through observation of general revelation, at the end of the
day, we come back to the 18th century when the philosophers challenged all
experiential and perceptive knowledge. This left all people with
returning to revelation from God if we are to know anything for sure.
This is exactly what God wanted to happen.
God used unbelieving
skeptical philosophers in order to return his people back to submission to
His Word! What grace! True philosophy that can deliver real
answers about God, our world and ourselves is displayed here in this
conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus: If we truly want to know, we must
remember that when God speaks (here in Jesus), man must stop, listen and
learn!
We can all truly know because God has graciously
revealed it to us in His Word, but in order to believe this revelation,
this truth in His Word, we must first be acted upon, we must first be
transformed from the heart by the Spirit of God; we must be born from
above! We never understand, then believe. We believe in order
that we might truly understand!
Jesus says: "Truly, truly, I say to you,
we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do
not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you
do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"
(vv. 11-12)
Water and the
Spirit
Jesus points out to
Nicodemus that to be born again, or born from above, means to be born of
water and the Spirit (v. 5 explains v.3 as well as Nicodemus'
misunderstanding about a new start or beginning again!). What does
the terms “water and Spirit” refer to? It is important to
note first that Jesus is not teaching something new to Nicodemus. He
is amazed that Nicodemus is the Teacher of Israel and doesn't understand
what he says to him (v. 10)! So, when looking at this passage, we
want to be careful not to read too much thought of baptism or modern
scientific knowledge back into the verses without first looking at the Old
Covenant Scriptures for help!
The terms "water
and Spirit" is not teaching baptismal regeneration as some
have thought because the emphasis is on the work of the Spirit in verses
3-10. The Spirit is the One who does the work within us (vv.
8-10). This cannot be baptismal regeneration (or becoming a Christian
through baptism water and the Holy Spirit) because that would be
anachronistic in this context. It would be reading something into
this time period that was not taught until later in the history of the
Church. [Note: Although I would say that the sign of water used in baptism
is an external, visible sign of a Spirit-wrought inward, invisible
reality in the believer. The sign (water) and the thing signified
(new birth) are very closely related. They are to be kept distinct,
but never separated. However, in this passage, I don't believe John
is referring to New Covenant baptism].
"Water and
Spirit" is not merely amniotic fluid suggesting a natural birth and
then a supernatural birth, this would be reading back into that day an
understanding of the birth process that we know that they did not. Rather, “water and Spirit” is
one concept describing an Old Covenant teaching and reality (not merely a
New Covenant reality, because Jesus wonders why the teacher of Israel
doesn’t get it!).
Israel’s teacher
has mere “we knowledge” from below. Revealed knowledge “from
above” has been revealed through the Prophets: Ezekiel: 11:19ff;
36:26ff; Isaiah: Is. 44:3; 59:21; Jeremiah: Jer.
31:31ff; David: Psalm 51. From these Scriptures, particularly
from Ezekiel 36:26ff, we learn of what Jesus is referring to by "water
and Spirit". The reason Jesus is amazed at Nicodemus' lack of
understanding, was that Nicodemus was a Reverend Doctor, a professor
of Israel who taught the Scriptures. If he didn't know about the
promises of God being given by the Holy Spirit from the Book of Ezekiel,
then what did the people know? A student is never greater than his
master/teacher!
Jesus chides Nicodemus
when he says in v. 10: "You are the Teacher of Israel and you don't
know these things?!" Jesus is saying to Nicodemus: "Were
you sleeping in seminary when you took the course on the Prophets,
particularly Ezekiel?" Let us read the passage from Ezekiel to
see the promise that God has revealed to his people through the Scriptures:
Ezekiel 36:22 "Therefore say to the house of
Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel,
that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have
profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will
vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the
nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know
that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my
holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations
and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all
your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And
I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I
will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of
flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You
shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my
people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from
all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant
and lay no famine upon you.
The Old Covenant promise
of the Prophet Ezekiel to those who submitted to God's revelation in His
Word was that God would graciously cleanse his people with
water -- God would purify them, as well as to give them a new heart and a
new spirit. The following chapter, Ezekiel 37 is worth reading and
comparing with this teaching that Nicodemus should have been aware
of. In Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel sees a vision of a valley of dry bones
(representing dead Israel), and the Spirit moves upon those bones and
causes them to live! This is what is meant by the terms "water
and Spirit". The water of cleansing and purification that God
will sprinkle on his people, and the new hearts he will give them by His
grace- - and this all because of the work of God's Spirit (v. 8)!
A Tale of Two
Births
Jesus says: "Flesh
gives birth to flesh and Spirit gives birth to spirit" (v. 6).
Now let's look at the other two terms "flesh and
spirit". It is easy to interpret this as some Hellenistic/Greek
concept. In much Hellenistic/Greek thinking of the time, there was a
dualism between matter and spirit. The flesh, or material things were
evil, corrupt and to be one day destroyed. While spiritual, or
immaterial things were good things and so people sought out spiritual
things over material things.
But Jesus is not a
Hellenist or Greek! He is speaking of two “levels” of
existence, if you will. The flesh he is referring to is a
“from below existence”, and the spirit is describing a
“from above existence”, but both are physical, as well as spiritual
existence and reflective of true humanity (not a Greek conception or notion
of separating body and soul/spirit).
"Flesh",
or “Below existence” is characterized by separation
from God, mere “we knowledge” (v. 2) of who God is (as
well as who we are as God’s creatures), sin, culminating in death and
eternal separation from God our Creator. "Spirit" refers to
“Above existence” or “eternal life”, characterized
by reconciliation with God, “we knowledge” (v.11) as
disciples of Christ (Spirit-revealed knowledge) redemption, life of
repentance, power over sin, and life eternal.
This takes us back to
what we learned earlier in the study. The importance of the priority
of revelation again (v. 11- “heavenly things”, or
Spirit-revealed things, and “earthly things”). Jesus
tells Nicodemus that flesh gives birth to flesh, meaning that flesh or
"earthly beings" give birth to more earthly beings who have the
same sinful condition as all other earthly beings since the fall of
man. These earthly beings are characterized by separation from God,
sin, and ultimately dying and returning to dust.
In contrast, Spirit
gives birth to spirit. The Spirit of God coming down by God's grace
from above, gives new hearts, new life, new sight, new ability to believe
and love God. In other words, the Spirit begets children of God not
because of human will, desiring or working, but because He has the power
and authority to transform earthly, flesh beings, into heavenly, spiritual
beings by His grace. In other words, the Spirit of God transforms
enemies of God (cf. Rom. 5:8-10) into children of God. Remember John
1 again:
John 1:11 He
came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But
to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to
become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of
the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Notice verse 13:
"Who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the
will of man, but of God." From below, as earthly, flesh beings,
we rely on the Spirit from above to reveal to us heavenly, spiritual
things. In John 3:12, Jesus says to Nicodemus before he begins his
sermonette, or monologue on the "love from above" (3:16ff):
"If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you
believe if I tell you of heavenly things?"
Again, this emphasizes
the importance of understanding that all “heavenly things” are
revealed through God’s Word to us.
Earthly things are mere reasonable things, but not
“God-foolish things” like resurrected men from the dead,
supernatural inspiration of the Holy Scriptures and God becoming incarnate,
or enfleshing himself in being born of a virgin, yet without sin. It
is important to remember when witnessing the gospel to family and friends,
heavenly things will always be “foolish things” to those who do
not believe. For those who believe,
heavenly things are “wise things” revealed only to babes (cf.
Matthew 11:25-29). But notice how Jesus points Nicodemus by His grace
to another passage in the Old Covenant Scriptures in order to offer Nicodemus
hope and life in Him!
A Serpent and a
Savior, A Sickness and a Cure
In John 3:14-15, Jesus
says: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so
must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have
eternal life." Jesus has descended "from above"
to give us knowledge of heavenly things. I understand this reference
to Numbers 21 as Jesus presenting the gospel to Nicodemus and also the way
he must come to understand heavenly things by the Spirit of God. Let
us read from Numbers 21:4ff:
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red
Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the
way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses,
"Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For
there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food." 6
Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the
people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people
came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against
the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents
from us." So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the LORD
said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and
everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." 9 So
Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit
anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
Jesus is teaching
Nicodemus that he too, as well as all of Israel should realize that the
only way to life is by looking away from themselves to the One who can take
away their sins and heal them (Isa. 53:1-8). Jesus, like the serpent
lifted up on the pole, was God's only way for God's people to have
life. Sin is like the bite of the serpents, it is deadly and leads us
to eternal death and separation from God (James 1:13-15), yet Jesus is our
cure, the One to bring life to all who look to him to be made well and
reconciled to God.
This reality of Jesus'
healing grace would have reminded Nicodemus as well as ourselves that in
order to be healed, one must first realize they are sick and in need of a
doctor. All of Nicodemus' works for God in his many attempts at
keeping the Law of God as a Pharisee would never make him righteous.
Foundationally, in his heart of hearts lurked sin and death, and the only
cure for his disease was the submitting to the Lord Jesus and His
revelation of salvation for those who believe!
We are distant from this
occasion by many years. Yet, everyone born of the flesh, every human
being must understand, that if they are going to be saved, they must look
to the dying Savior who was lifted up on the cross, to die for the sins of
those who believe. The only cure for our wickedness, our sins, our
problem of death (that is coming for all of us if Christ doesn't return
first!) is the Son of Man who was lifted up for our transgressions and put
to death for our Law-breaking! This Son of Man was resurrected and
seated at God's right hand so that His Spirit might come and dwell within us,
teaching us of His grace, and learning to live and walk as He lived and
walked before His God and Father!
John 20:31 says that
these things were written so that you might believe and have life eternal
in Jesus' name! Do you believe? Are you aware of anything more
than mere "earthly things", or has the Spirit of God worked in
you to bring about a new creation transformation, cleansing your heart with
water and awakening you to true revelational knowledge of God, your world
and yourself! Do you know these "heavenly things"?
Have you been born from above? Seek the LORD today to make your
calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10).
Remember the words to a
favorite Christmas hymn:
"God rest you merry, Gentlemen, let nothing
you dismay, remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas day, to save
us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray; O tidings of comfort
and joy, comfort and joy, O tidings of comfort and joy!"
Soli Deo Gloria!
For Further
Reading
D. A. Carson, 'Gospel
According to John'
H. Ridderbos, 'The
Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary'
L. Morris, 'The Gospel
According to John' (NICNT)
J. Calvin, 'Commentary
on the Gospel of John'
R. Brown, 'Commentary on
the Gospel of St. John'
J. Dennison, Articles on
John's Gospel at www.kerux.com
J. Boice, Commentary on
John's Gospel
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 28
John 3:16-36: "Love,
Light, and Truth from Above"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Update: The previous WOE studies in
the Gospel of John are now available online in WORD format (click the 'Word
of Encouragement' above to be taken to the website).
Introduction
Today's study is from
John 3:16-36. In this passage, Jesus' dialogue with Nicodemus becomes
a trial of faith for the whole world! What can be appreciated about
the movement of theological details and teaching in John 3, is that what
begins as a "friendly theological dialogue" between Nicodemus and
Jesus becomes a meditation and reflection on the Person and Work of
Christ. All of the "We knowledge from above" (3:11-see last
week's study) calls us all to faith in the Lord Jesus! There can be
no neutrality!
From theological dialogue to trial of faith
After the conversation
with Nicodemus where Jesus challenges his beliefs and "earthly
knowledge" or knowledge from below (3:11ff), John the Baptist in
essence teaches the same things to his disciples as well and points them
away from himself to Jesus (3:22-30). He tells them that Jesus must
increase; he must decrease. His ministry is passing away and
therefore if you want to know of the things revealed from above, you must
listen to him! The section that follows is Jesus' ministry outside of
the Jewish circles and from among those who have been introduced to Messiah
by John the Baptist.
Let's begin with an
overview of the chapter to help us to proceed (there are always different
ways of breaking up a piece or pericope of Scripture, but this is the way I
will do it in our study). In John 3:1-15, there is a dialogue between
Jesus and Nicodemus, who comes at night to ask Jesus some questions.
Then the Apostle John records reflections or meditation on what Jesus taught
in 3:16-21
[Note: It is argued
whether this is Jesus who is still speaking, or John the Apostle reflecting
on what Jesus said. Either way, the words are inspired and derived
from Jesus' teaching, but I believe they are the Apostle's John reflections
on what Jesus said after Jesus was crucified and resurrected. This
can be the trouble of "red letter" edition Bibles. We don't
want to give more importance to Jesus' words in contrast
to the apostles' words, and we don't want to unnecessarily quote
Jesus verbatim where we are not sure because there are not quotation marks
in the Greek text. This is for your consideration].
In John 3:22-30 we have
John the Baptist's last works to his disciples as his ministry is passing
away and Jesus' ministry is gaining in importance as God ordained it to (v.
27). Finally, in John 3:31-36 we have more of the Apostle John's
reflections on the ministry of Jesus, a kind of epilogue if you will
because it summarizes much of what Jesus taught and said to Nicodemus in
John 3:1-15. Again, there is debate over whether Jesus, John the
Baptist, or the Apostle John is speaking (see note above). I believe
these are reflections by the Apostle John who wrote the gospel, but the
truth is the same no matter who said it because it was inspired by the ONE
Author, the Holy Spirit, but it is good to know this!
Today, we will look at
these verses in two parts: 1) All men face to face with Jesus Christ and
His Love (v. 16), Light (vv.19-21), and Truth (vv.11-15;
31-34) can never be neutral, and 2) The Friend of the Bridegroom (or
"Jesus' best man") witnesses finally to the Love, Light, and
Truth of God revealed "from above".
John 3:16-36
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not
believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of
the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has
come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light
because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked
things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds
should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the
light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out
in God." 22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the
Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing. 23
John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was
plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized 24 (for
John had not yet been put in prison). 25 Now a discussion arose
between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. 26 And
they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across
the Jordan, to whom you bore witness- look, he is baptizing, and all are
going to him." 27 John answered, "A person cannot
receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28 You
yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have
been sent before him.' 29 The one who has the bride is the
bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him,
rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is
now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease." 31
He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs
to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is
above all. 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard,
yet no one receives his testimony. 33 Whoever receives his
testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. 34 For he
whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without
measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things
into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life;
whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
remains on him.
I. All men face
to face with Jesus Christ can never be neutral! (3:16-26)
Love from above
(3:16-18)
God is love! (1 John
4:8). John 3:1-15 speaks of the subject of faith, that is, it focuses us on
the Holy Spirit and how we are regenerated, born again, or born from above
by God's gracious and Holy Spirit. Now the focus in John 3:16 is on
the object of our faith. We look by faith to the Son of God who has
been crucified for our sins. We look to the Son for life eternal and
for the forgiveness of sins. For in the death of the Son, the Only
Son of God, God gives to us a substitute, a Righteous Substitute for
sinners!
God is righteous in all
he says and does. His Word and His Ways are righteous because He is
righteous in and of himself. God is righteousness and love. God's love requires
that His creatures are righteous and obey him perfectly. Because of
our disobedence and sin against our Righteous Creator, we are unable to
show forth love for God and neighbor and therefore unable to produce true
and saving righteousness from the heart.
We are in the condition
as sinners of being unable to see or enter the Kingdom of God as Jesus says
in John 3:3-7, and so we must be born again or born from above! God
in his love for us not only gives to us knowledge ("We knowledge"
of verse 11) that comes from above, but shows forth his love for us in
giving His Only and Dear Son as a payment for our sins.
God shows forth his love
to us in Jesus! People today request that God would
show them that He loves them. Many people are looking for
evidences of God's grace and mercy in their lives today. I have heard
people say that if God would just show me his love in my life, then I would
believe in Him. Even Christians get caught up in this kind of
"theological tit for tat" by committing to serve and love God
"IF" he will show forth his love in the way they have prayerfully
assigned him to accomplish.
But God does show his
love! Rather, God has in an ultimate way shown his love for us in
real time and space, in real history! In the death of God's only Son,
God has shown forth in the One who was raised up, that He is willing and
able to forgive all those who will believe upon this Substitute that He has
so graciously provided.
The Christian life is
always about looking away from oneself to Jesus Christ, the One who
forgives us all of our sins and provides a substitute for our sins so that
we shall not perish, but live with God for eternity! What more love
could God show than that He already has shown to the world in the Person
and Work of Jesus?!
God is Righteous
and Shows Forth His Righteousness in Jesus
God shows to the
whole world what his righteousness requires in the death of his only
Son. Because we are without righteousness, God provides the righteousness
we need in the Person of His Only Son. Jesus was sent as v. 16 says
by God because He is gracious and "so loved" the world!
Those who believe are "so loved"- - love that is explained and
exegeted in the death of God's Son. The Apostle Paul explains this in
a beautiful and precious passage from Romans 8:31-39 (if ever you doubt
God's "so love" for you, read and re-read this passage):
Romans 8:31 What
then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all,
how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who
shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34
Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died- more than that,
who was raised- who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding
for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or
danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, "For your sake we
are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be
slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that
neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God's righteousness
requires our life as his creatures. We must die for our sins committed
against our Creator (Ezekiel 18:20; Romans 3:10-23). He is Holy and
Just and must punish our many sins! We owe God our very life here on
earth and we use God and his many gifts to sin against Him! God's
justice requires that we pay the penalty for our sins and for our
trespassing unrighteously in His world.
Yet God gives His Son to
die for a substitute! God loves the world "so much" that he
allows his Son to pay our penalty. God is loving, yet just. He must
punish sin, but he can punish sin in His Only Son if He so chooses.
This way, God's holiness and justice is not violated! God's holiness
and justice is upheld because the infinitely Righteous Jesus Who love the
Father more than any of us can ever imagine, dies for sinners by undergoing
the infinitely unbearable punishment for our sins. The Apostle Paul
describes this righteousness of God displayed in the death of His Only Son!
Romans 3:21 But
now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,
although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- 22 the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For
there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a
gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 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. 26 It was to show his righteousness at
the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who
has faith in Jesus.
How much more could God
show forth his love to a sinful and dying world? God never withholds
his goodness and mercy to those who ask him for it! Rather, because
of pride, the sinful and dying world, doesn't want God's mercy and
love! God gives abundantly to us in Jesus Christ, yet the world (both
Jews and Gentiles) refuse His gift to them! What does God give in
Jesus?
God gives to those who
believe the righteousness and life they need to enter his presence and be
saved. Jesus, the Only Son of God and the Righteous One who did
perfectly obey God and love God with all His heart, soul, mind and
strength, so loved us that God gave him to be our substitute in the death
for sins we deserved, and in return when we believe, Jesus unites us to
himself and gives us life in Him! We will never again be separated
from God because the death of Christ has brought reconciliation to God and
man, the Creator and the creatures can dwell together again by faith and
because of God showing forth His love for all who believe!
God gives eternal life for those who believe in
the Name of Jesus! What is eternal life? Life in Jesus the One
Who is with the Spirit without measure (v. 35) and the One in Whom we dwell
or find life. "Life Eternal" is life of the Age to Come
that is NOW because we are united to Jesus by faith and receive a
downpayment of His Spirit.
What An
Unbelieving World!
But the world does not
receive this life (1:10ff and in John 3:32ff). Only those who have
been born again, born from above (3:3-7), or have "we
knowledge" of John 3:11, and who believe! (vv. 15-16). Yet, here
is the awfully sad news! God has shown His love in the in the death
of his Son. He has invited us to partake in life eternal, in His
presence forever, and man does not receive this good news by faith!
Because of this
revelation "from above" (cf. v. 11-15), all men are accountable
to this revelation. Every person who has ever been born, everyone who
is part of this present world, past, present, and future; every person born
of flesh, born of a woman, is held accountable to this reality and
revelation of God "from above" in Christ! There can be no
neutrality since God has acted clearly in real time and history to reveal
his love.
You either love Jesus or you do not! There
is no middle ground! And you must take God at his word by faith for
all that he reveals, not just what you want to believe! You cannot
pick and choose the teachings of Scripture that "seem" or
"feel right" or merely those you want to believe!
In a pluralistic,
postmodern culture today, we must remind everyone that our love for Jesus
is not merely "our preference in religion" or "the one that
makes me feel religiously good about myself". Rather, God has
acted and showed forth his love in this world and men are without
excuse. We must call everyone is this world to repentance! In
Jesus, God "so loved" the world and revealed "from
above" by His Grace and Spirit that a New Creation, a New World
was dawning in Jesus!
Which world are you
a part of? The world full of evil and darkness of this present age,
or part of the World to Come by faith. God so loved this world (Jews
and Gentiles) so that we might become because of the birth from above and
by faith part of the world to come and avoid the sentence of condemnation
that has been passed upon this present world and all its inhabitants.
As J. R. R. Tolkien's imagery of Middle Earth in the 'Lord of the Rings', the
present earth is covered by shadow. This is the Apostle John's
conception of the world in present darkness by sin and the presence of
evil.
Into this wicked world of shadow, God sent forth
His Son to die! What grace and abundant kindness!
"All Men
Are Without Excuse!"
The Apostle Paul also
addressed a very pluralistic and Pre-Postmodern culture (:-)> in
Acts 17. Read carefully how the love, light, and truth of God,
revealed "from above" makes men without excuse, particularly on
this side of the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ! Also
note as we learned last week, that revelation knowledge ("we knowledge
from above", John 3:11) is always to precede reason ("we
knowledge from below", John 3:2). Notice how Paul reasons, but
reasons in submission to God's greater revelation revealed by God in Jesus!
Acts 17:16 Now
while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within
him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned
in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the
marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some
of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some
said, "What does this babbler wish to say?" Others said, "He
seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities"- because he was
preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took hold of
him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this
new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some
strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things
mean." 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who
lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing
something new.
22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus,
said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very
religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of
your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown
god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven
and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he
served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives
to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made
from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth,
having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling
place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might
feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from
each one of us, 28 for "'In him we live and move and have
our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "' For we are
indeed his offspring.'
29 Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think
that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by
the art and imagination of man. 30 The times of ignorance God
overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because
he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a
man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by
raising him from the dead." 32 Now when they heard of the
resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, "We will hear
you again about this." 33 So Paul went out from their
midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also
were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with
them.
Men cannot merely sit
idly by as Jesus Christ and His people declare the good news of God's love
revealed "from above" to the world. As verse 30 above
teaches us, "the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he
commands all people everywhere to repent!" There is no
neutrality in this world. You are either for Christ, or against
Christ.
To put this another way, you are either
Pro-Christ, or Anti-Christ! You either receive God's revelation in
Jesus "from above" or you are merely working with "earthly,
fleshly, human knowledge, from below" and this mere earthly knowledge
from below will damn you (3:18; 36).
Light from above
(3:19-21)
So, why do men now
accept the love God has shown them in the cross of Jesus? Why do men
choose to be condemned and damned? Do they not understand how wonderfully
gracious God is in giving Christ so that no one will perish, but have
eternal life? Ultimately, the reason why (humanly speaking) men do
not believe is because they do
not want to; they do not desire to give up their evil
deeds and come into the light in order for their evil to be exposed by the
living God. Men freely choose NOT to believe and stay in
the darkness, rather than dwell in the light of God's
favor.
Notice something
important from verse 21 is that we all (the whole world) come from the
darkness into the light. Our place of origin, our natural tendency is
toward the darkness and not the light. We are not born in the light,
we are born in the place of shadows. Yet when we come toward the
light, we come by God's grace to show forth the work God alone by His Spirit
has done in us! We come toward the light of God revealed because God
has first acted upon us and in us by His Spirit. This shows forth the
outward manifestation and work of the Holy Spirit, who we cannot see, yet
see his work in people as the wind blows the trees (3:8).
We rejoice to live in the light, not because we
are naturally "light and life people", we are by nature
"dark and death people".
In Jesus is life and
this life was the light of men (1:4-5). When we believe upon the One
and Only Son of God, we become partakers of His life and this brings us
into His light to live by His Word! Only by being born from above, or
born again, will we know this life which is light in Jesus and we will then
believe in Jesus and have eternal life!
Truth from above
(3:31-36)
Truth has been revealed
by God in Christ. This is the knowledge "from above" that
we considered in the last study (3:11; 3:31-34). Either believe upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, or be condemned (v. 18), the wrath of God abides,
remains, dwells on those who reject God's one and only Son (v. 36).
Now none of us like to speak or think of God's wrath. But because the
Love, Light, and Truth of God has been clearly revealed in the Person and
Work of Christ, and because there is no neutrality in the presence of Jesus
and His teaching, men are either with life, or without life.
Men are either by faith "living" NOW,
or "perishing" NOW. Just as Christians have life by the
Spirit NOW, and yet we have not experienced the full life of being
resurrected and fully present in the presence of Christ, so those who do
not have life are under condemnation and God's wrath NOW, even though they
do not fully experience it as of yet.
Just as Christians now
are just as present-tense alive in the Spirit as they will be when they are
fully resurrected to be with Christ (cf. John 5:24ff), so those who are
dead to Christ and God's love are present-tense as condemned and under
God's wrath now. Both are events that will fully occur when Jesus
returns again, it is a present reality now!
Pro-Christ or
Anti-Christ?
We must pray to have
compassion on the lost, those who reject God's love in Jesus, His Light of
revelation, and His truth. They are not merely people who are living
their lives unproductively and without true meaning in God's world!
They are those who are marked with God's wrath and
condemnation.
Sinful unbelievers are marked men like Cain
in the Old Covenant. They are marked men who have the number of the
beast or the Anti-Christ mark upon them. The mark of Revelation 13
(also written by the Apostle John) is a present-tense mark found on all of
those not Pro-Christ, but who are in reality Anti-Christ. Again,
there is no neutrality, we are either for him (Pro-Christ), or against him
(Anti-Christ), there is no getting around it!
We don't have to come up
with some fanciful and fabulous interpretation of the Book of Revelation to
understand that there is light and darkness, believers and unbelievers, the
Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and the Unholy trinity (Dragon,
Beast and False Prophet), and we are either part of the light or the
darkness, we are either believers or unbelievers, and we either serve the
Holy Trinity or the unholy trinity, and with this realization we must
understand that we are either marked PRO-CHRIST,
or ANTI-CHRIST!
Either our names are written in the Lamb's Book and have
his mark on us, or we have the mark of the Beast of Revelation.
If men choose to merely
work with "earthly knowledge from below" and not revelational
"heavenly knowledge from above", then they are bound to end up as
skeptics or fools who have deceived themselves in their own hearts and said
that there is no God (Psalm 14). The reality based on revelation
"from above" is that Men have no right to be atheists, skeptics
and agnostics for the revelation "from above" has been revealed
clearly to all in this world!
Yet sinful unbelievers will do all they can to
suppress and deny it because they do not want to come into the light
because their deeds are evil. So, they stay fooling themselves that
they are "happy, warm and content" in a deep, dark, cavernous
hell of their own making!
They smile and go
through the motions and emotions of everyday life on the outside, but
inside is venomous sin running through their veins, sin that deceives them,
and keeps them locked up in deep, dark, cold cavernous, hell-like darkness
because in reality they know not God, themselves, or understand fully the
world in which they live. They are about exchanging the truth of God
for a lie, suppressing the truth revealed "from above" so that
they can try and silence their consciences and hearts that were created by
God for His glory!
The Apostle Paul clearly
makes this known in Romans 1, an extremely important passage for
understanding revelation "from above" (cf. John 3:2-11), as well
as understanding the present-tense wrath and condemnation of God right NOW
on unbelievers!
ESV Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their
unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known
about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For
his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have
been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things
that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although
they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but
they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were
darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man
and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them
up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their
bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth
about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the
Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
The Christian
Abuse of God's Love, Light, and Truth!
In Jesus, the revelation
of God "from above" has been revealed in his Love, Light, and His
Truth as we learned from these verses, but what we do with God's revelation
of love, light, and truth as Christians? Let's think about this for a
moment. If we were honest enough to admit it, sometimes we practically reject God's love, light and truth.
In fact, sometimes we use and abuse God's love, light and truth.
Let me tell a story to
you. Awhile back, I unintentionally hurt one of my friend's feelings.
I had cancelled on him and was unable to meet him because another event
suddenly came up. My friend was kind enough to tell me that it hurt
his feelings and he felt like that I had not shown to him true
friendship.
He was rightfully hurt
(as I would have been) because I chose another event and person over
him even though we had plans. I couldn't understand why I would do
such a thing. I apologized, but I had to think about my heart and the
"why's" of what I had done. I think it is always important
to check deeper than the behavior- - check your heart to see what
"root tendency" you may be having. Well, suddenly by God's
grace, I was able to explain to myself and my friend what had happened.
My friend was good to
me; he was always there for me. The other event was more pressing and
the person involved was not always good and there for me. So, I chose
the other situation in order to "solve a situation" while taking
advantage of my friend's goodness to me. What happened was, I was
using the friend, the very one that had shown me kindness and favor, and
rather than showing back love and kindness to this friend, I cancelled and
used them. How did I use them? Well, I knew that the friend
'would' forgive me and 'would' still be there for me even if I cancelled!
I repented of this and
asked my friend's forgiveness; he forgave me and we are growing together in
Christ today, yet I learned a valuable lesson from this.
God shows us great favor, love and forgiveness in
Christ. Yet how many times, because we do know that he is
loving, merciful and forgiving toward us, do we take advantage of His
love? How many times to we sin against his love by loving something
or someone more than Him? How many times do we sin against His light in our
hearts by doing what we know to be wrong? How many times do we sin
against God's truth, doing what is right in our own eyes and knowing what
is true about God, yet not believing it?
We can think of this in
our relationships, particularly if you are married. Do you sin
against the goodness of your husband or wife? Do you sin against them and
use them, even unintentionally like I above, because you know they will
forgive you and still love you? We must repent of this toward God and
His love, light, and truth "from above", but also in our
relationships to others.
In fact, we must be
willing to love, care, and treat fairly even those who do not love
us! We must be careful not to use the grace and love, light, and
truth of God revealed "from above", by willingly sinning against
God, then going for forgiveness to him! He will forgive us, but we
must remember that he truly loves us! Let this grip your heart and
you will not desire to ever take advantage of his love, light, and truth
revealed in Jesus!
II. The Friend
of the Bridegroom, or "Jesus' Best Man"(3:27-36)
John the
Baptist was preparing the way, bringing the Bridegroom as God's
"best man" to His Bride. John's ministry was given to him
by God (v. 27), and he was committed to being the forerunner who prepared
the way for King-Messiah. Now the imagery of the bride and bridegroom
is used metaphorically to make a point to John's disciples who are taken
back by Jesus' ministry gaining more disciples and increasing in importance
in their eyes.
One important thing we
can learn from this metaphor is that God was in Christ being betrothed to
His Bride by faith. As the Old Testament spoke of Israel being the
bride of YHWH (Book of Hosea), so God is in Christ now making the betrothal
official through his life, death, resurrection and ascension.
Therefore, John
says:
"I must decrease and He must
increase".
In other words, the best
man is only needed at the meeting of the Bride and Bridegroom. After
the Bride has received the Bridegroom, there is no need for him (rather, he
is in the way!). So, John must allow the Bridegroom to devote himself
to His Bride and now by faith, the Bride must give her all to her
Bridegroom!
"Hey!
What's the best man doing ruining the wedding night?!"
You who are married,
think about this: As much as you appreciated the best man at your wedding,
did any of you ever want him to spend the marriage night with him, or the
honeymoon? My best man was my dad and he planned, supported, and executed
the wedding standing by my side the whole time until I took my bride into
my arms and cruised the wedding scene with people shouting, throwing rice,
and my brother (younger!) trying to give me advice that I might need for my
wedding night!
But my dad stayed at the
wedding ceremony, went home to be with his family because his calling, his
ministry if you will, of being my best man was complete; it was over.
The same is happening here.
God's people, including John's former disciples,
were being united to their long-awaited Messiah-Bridegroom and therefore the
"friend of the Bridegroom", or Jesus' best man understood that
his service was over.
John the Baptist
rejoiced that God called him to be the "best man" as Jesus was
being betrothed to his bride of faith, yet when his time, as well as all of
the ministry of the Old Covenant came to an end in him (cf. Matt. 11:1ff),
his ministry was over! By God's grace, he fully understood the extent
and period of his ministry and when it was time to stop doing what he had
been doing in preparing the way for King-Messiah, he began to decrease.
How about you? Do
you want to decrease and allow Jesus to increase in your life? Do you
seek your will and your way, or are you striving toward asking Jesus
"How can you increase in significance in my life?"
"How can you be seen more clearly and consistently in my life,
Lord?" Speaking as a minister, it is a great challenge for all
of us to remember that our ministries specifically, as well as our entire
lives generally are for the glory and honor of Christ! May God grant
that we continue to meditate on this reality.
Don't forget, John the
Baptist's ministry was extremely important to the gospel of Jesus. I
mean, he was the Messiah's "best man" with regards to the Groom
and the wedding. When the time had come for his ministry to fade away
with the Old Covenant way of doing things, this must have been a great
challenge for the man! We cannot realistically expect a sinful man,
although one sent by God as a witness to Jesus Christ, not to struggle with
the pride and importance of his own ministry. Yet, by God's grace, at
the end of the day, John the Baptist was pleased to give up his ministry
for Christ, and was willing to lay down his life, knowing his time had
come and his ministry had been accomplished (Matthew 11; Luke 7:19ff).
Jesus' Ministry,
or "OUR" Ministry?
The main point of this
passage in John is to record the final words of John the Baptist to his
disciples who have grown very close to he and his ministry, as well as to
again point out the transition from John's ministry to focus ultimately on
the Christ! Yet there is an application we can think of today was we
serve the Lord as well. John was willing to place Jesus' ministry
first, over his own; it was what he was called to do. His attitude reflected
one who had understood his ministry in the right perspective because of the
Holy Spirit. His ministry in redemptive-history was coming to an
end.
We are also privileged to serve in
redemptive-history, yet on this side of Jesus' cross and
resurrection! We also point away from ourselves to the Lord Christ,
but do we have the same attitude as John the Baptist?
How about you? Are
you supportive of other's ministries that seem more important than your
own? When you see other's ministries are you supportive of them
because of what has been given to them by God (v. 27: "A person cannot
receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven."), or are
you jealous and divisive and envious that their ministry is gaining more
disciples than your own? It is not the explicit teaching of John in
this passage, but there is some truth of application worth noting.
John explains to his
disciples that none of us have anything other than what God has given to
us: "A person cannot receive (or have) even one thing unless it is
given him from heaven." The Apostle Paul notes the same truth
when writing to the Corinthian congregation that was divided and jealous of
others' ministries: "What do you have that you did not receive? If
then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?"
(1 Cor. 4:7). In other words, don't you know your calling and your
ministry and your assignment by God is extremely significant and needed as
you diligently obey God where he has gifted and called you. There is never
any reason for us to questions God's call to us.
We are called by God to
personally and as a congregation of Christ to witness to the great truth
that the Love of God, the Light of God and the Truth of God "from
above" has come in the Person of Jesus Christ! He must increase;
we must decrease. The next time you are struggling with someone else
who seems to have a "better ministry" than your own, remind
yourself that you may be being deceived by the Evil One who longs and plots
to divide Christ's people, rather than having them acting according to
their gifts and the faith that has been given them so that they might work
together to proclaim the Name of Jesus Christ - - the One who has come
to die for those who believe (3:16).
You know the truth? If
the Evil One can divide us from within, we will not long for others to
believe and be saved; we will not see the condemned sinners with God's
wrath already resting and remaining on them! We will only be
interested in our self-important ministries that we think so highly of,
while the world around us perishes because of our division, lack of unity,
and lack of love for one another. We must repent whenever we get like
John the Baptist's disciples and say: "Look, that minister or ministry
there is gaining more disciples!" The attitude is wrong and must
be healed by God's grace and forgiveness applied to our hearts!
Do You Believe?
John 20:31 says:
"But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his
name." Do you know of His love from above? Have you believed
upon the Lord Jesus, the One and Only Son revealed by God because he
"so loved" the world?
Do you live in the light
as he is in the light? Do you believe the truth that has been revealed
"from above" through the lips of Jesus and through the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit?
Believe today on the
Lord Jesus Christ and truly begin to live, and to live for eternity in the
presence of God. If you reject him, you are dangerously rejecting
the very God whose wrath is pointed and aimed directly toward you, and Who
is the only One able to take away that wrath and condemnation that is on
you presently because of the Only Substitute that He has provided!
You must understand if
you have rejected the love, light and truth of God "from above"
that the only One Who is keeping you from falling immediately into his Holy
presence and experiencing His eternal wrath, is the One you have made your
enemy because of your rejection! You are under condemnation and His
wrath now! Plead with the living and holy and righteous God, and beg
mercy because of Jesus satisfying God's wrath in your place!
If you make God your
enemy, you have made the only One Who can or will save you, your ultimate
foe and the Scriptures say:
"It is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31).
Seek the Lord while he may be found!
Believe his love displayed in Christ, come into his light, and live by the
truth revealed- - all by His grace "from above"! If you can
see or hear or enter the Kingdom of God- - do so immediately and see cover
from God's wrath and condemnation in the righteous covering of Jesus!
Soli Deo Gloria!
For Further Reading
D. A. Carson, 'Gospel
According to John'
H. Ridderbos, 'The
Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary'
L. Morris, 'The Gospel
According to John' (NICNT)
J. Calvin, 'Commentary
on the Gospel of John'
R. Brown, 'Commentary on
the Gospel of St. John'
J. Dennison, Articles on
John's Gospel at www.kerux.com
J. Boice, Commentary on
John's Gospel
Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to him who is able to do far more
abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work
within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 29
John 4: "The
Well of Hope and Life"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
Nicodemus was an
influential Pharisee (as we learned in our previous study of John
3)! He had memorized the entire Old Covenant Scriptures. He was
the learned "Reverend Doctor" and leader of disciples in the
Jewish community (see John 3 and previous studies). He was respected
everywhere he went, holding his head up as "one who sits in Moses'
seat" (Matt. 23).
She was nameless and
lacked influence as a common woman in the ancient world. She had been
taught only portions of the Old Covenant Scriptures by her teachers
(Samaritans only believed in the five Books of Moses). She was an
unlearned Samaritan woman. She lived a life of shame everywhere she
went for her immoral life and would venture out of her home at a time of
day when every one else in the village was hiding from the noonday sun.
Yet both of them needed the same Jesus, a Savior
Who could save them from their sins!
Jesus had come for the
salvation of all those who would believe (John 3:16). God "so loved"
the world, both Jews, Gentiles...and even Samaritans! Although
Nicodemus the Pharisee and the sinful Samaritan woman had nothing in common
and wouldn't ever have even spoken to one another, they both spoke to Jesus
and they heard the words of life He spoke to them.
What was their response?
At this point in John's Gospel, Nicodemus was poignantly silent (John
3:1-21), while this woman knew of her need after speaking with Jesus and
threw herself on the mercy of his love, grace, and favor toward her!
Jesus told both of them about their need of a truth revealed "from
above" and at this point in John's Gospel, only the sinful Samaritan
woman believed! [Note: This is not to say that Nicodemus did not believe yet. But there
is a silence from Nicodemus after Jesus speaks and there are "no free
motifs" in John's Gospel. I believe he would have included this
had Nicodemus believed. Perhaps Nicodemus was "pondering these
things in his heart" at this point.]
Both Nicodemus and the
sinful Samaritan woman had deeds that were evil (cf. John 3:19-21), only
she came into the light so that the works she did would give praise to
God. Her sins were much more obvious and shameful in the
community. Nicodemus could hide his hypocrisy and unbelief in Messiah
by his outward, external religiosity. She had no hope, except to take
of the water of life that was offered to her!
Today's study is from
chapter four from the Gospel of John. It is a remarkable display of
the glory of God revealed in the Person of Jesus (1:16-18). The grace
and truth we see revealed in Jesus who extends his generous hand of grace
to a woman...a sinful woman...a Samaritan woman. Jesus seeks that
every tribe, tongue, people, and nation ("the believing world" of John 3:16)
would come to him and find the secret of worshipping the Father in spirit
and truth. We will look at the hope and life that this nameless
Samaritan woman receives by God's grace at Jacob's well.
John 4:1-42
ESV John 4:1 Now when Jesus learned that the
Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than
John 2 (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his
disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4
And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town
of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son
Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was
from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her,
"Give me a drink." 8 (For his disciples had gone away
into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him,
"How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of
Samaria?" ( For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus
answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is
saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would
have given you living water." 11 The woman said to him,
"Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where
do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father
Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and
his livestock." 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who
drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks
of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water
that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to
eternal life." 15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me
this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw
water." 16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband,
and come here." 17 The woman answered him, "I have no
husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no
husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now
have is not your husband. What you have said is true." 19 The
woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our
fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the
place where people ought to worship." 21 Jesus said to her,
"Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship
what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the
Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true
worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is
seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those
who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." 25 The
woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called
Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things." 26 Jesus
said to her, "I who speak to you am he."
"Well,
Well, Well"
Let's begin our study by
noting the context and the place that Jesus' dialogue with the sinful
Samaritan woman takes place. We should note three significant points
concerning the wells in the Bible and Redemptive-History. The places
or scenes that the Apostle John records for us are always SIGN-ificant, or significant. John beautifully
paints verbal portraits of the Word of Life and the background or the place
of these scenes can be as SIGN-ificant as what Jesus says and does!
Prior to our passage,
John has given us four important scenes or backgrounds to appreciate how
Jesus was "exegeting" or revealing the Father's glory as the Only
Begotten Son (John 1:18). In chapter One, John the Baptist is
baptizing and the water at the Jordan River serves as the location.
In chapter two, John shows us Jesus' SIGN-ificant signs at a wedding feast
and at Jerusalem's Temple. In Chapter three, John takes us to the
darkness, where Jesus will reveal the Light "from above" to
Nicodemus. In today's study of John 4:1-26, we will notice the
importance of the scene of the well.
One thing to appreciate
about the Apostle John and his gospel is that he uses imagery, contrasts,
Old Covenant theology, and even important places and scenes to show forth
Jesus' glory. When reading Scripture we should be often amazed at how
earnestly God seeks through His appointed and inspired writer (such as
John) to draw us into His story.
We can so easily make
the study and service of God an appendage onto the rest of our lives, or a
nice addition to the story that we are already developing in our
lives.
But in these scenes of John (as well as
throughout the Scriptures), the living God wants to invite us to find
ourselves within His world, within His story, face to face with His Only
Begotten Son! The Apostle John draws us once again into God's world
and story, the story that can only be understood through love, light, and
truth revealed to us graciously "from above"!
Remember as we learned
in earlier studies that John is showing us Jesus' SIGNS that reveal Who He
is who have eyes to see and enter the Kingdom of Heaven (John 3:3-7).
Let us take note of three SIGN-ificant reasons why Jesus ministered at a
well to the sinful Samaritan woman.
The Social
SIGN-ificance of Wells
First of all there is
the social SIGN-ificance of the
well in the Biblical world. It was the
"water cooler" of the day, if you will, the place where the
community came together to talk about life and various things worth
conversing about. Like the water cooler at an office place,
the coffee maker, or the break room, this was the place to meet others
in the community and talk.
The sinful
Samaritan woman came to this well at noon ("the sixth hour")
when it would not be well populated with others from the village
(v. 6). The reason she would have come to the well at the hottest
time of the day, would have been due to her reputation as a sinful
woman in town. Because of her shame, she sought a time of day when
everyone else would have already gotten their water (in the morning), or
would have waited until later to get their water supply (the evening).
Yet Jesus the Lord and
Giver of Life met her there. It is interesting to note that John says
that Jesus "had to go through Samaria" in verse 4. It is an
important point to note (notice how the verse kind of stands in isolation
from the rest of the story, as if John wants to emphasize this point from
the beginning of this incredible scene revealing God's grace!) Jesus
"had to go" is not merely speaking of a geographical necessity,
he could have gone another route, so he didn't necessarily "have to
go" the way he went from Judea into Galilee.
I think the reason for
this "had to go into Samaria" is that the Apostle John's meaning
is working on two levels. Geographically, it would have taken less
time to go through Samaria than the other way north by crossing over the
Jordan. Yet, more importantly, Jesus is providentially placed here
for proclamation.
On his Messianic Mission, Jesus "had to go
to Samaria" because providentially in God's plan for Him there was
those such as this woman who he was seeking. God wanted Samaritan
worshippers in "spirit and truth"! (4:24)- - unbelievable!
The Samaritan's
Hope and Jesus' Peace
Jesus who was tired and
very hot from the journey stops at this well of Jacob in order to get
a drink, and additionally so that He might reach out to one who did not
deserve His grace! The well of Jacob was dug many years prior to
this. The well was over 100 feet deep with "living" or
running water, and was still used by the people at the time of Jesus (The
well is still "living" and used today as well!)
When the sinful
Samaritan woman comes to the well to draw water at the hottest time of day,
Jesus is there to meet her. Notice something the Apostle John is
revealing to us about Jesus' ministry here on earth. Jesus is
"ready to "preach the word; be ready in season and out of season;
reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching" (2
Tim. 4:2). The noon hour was not an ideal time at all for witnessing
in a hot, arid land where the temperature would have exceeded 120 degrees!
Jesus asks this
sinful Samaritan woman for a drink, but like Nicodemus in John 3, she
is only understanding things "from below" with a mere earthly
knowledge (cf. John 3:2, 11). In fact, she wonders what this Jew is
up to, considering that a Jew would not ask her for anything! Yet
Jesus wants to use this time as an example of the "living" water
than only He can give to those who believe.
The well and the water
serve as important illustrations for Jesus. The sinful Samaritan
woman responds to Jesus with surprise. Not only did the Jews have
nothing to do with the Samaritans, a Jewish Male Rabbi would have an
even greater reason for not having anything to do with a woman, much
less a sinful woman! Yet, Jesus is using this well as a place for
bringing Jews and Samaritans together in himself. In the Old Covenant
wells were places of conflict as well as resolutions, as we see in the
lives of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's lives (Genesis
21:19-30; 24; 26:19-32; 29:1ff; Exodus 2:15ff).
In the Old Covenant, scenes
at wells were places where men in clans and tribes could
both have a conflict (such as over a piece of property or over
the ownership of a well), or a place where a resolution and peace was found
between differing clans and tribes. The social significance of
the well was so that men and cattle could be watered, and the location
could serve as a good central place for meetings among tribes and clans.
Here, we see Jesus at the well of Jacob, bringing
together the Jews and the Samaritans who had been at war for years and
bringing peace with one another by making them both his
disciples. More importantly, Jesus is not merely drawing water,
he is drawing the Samaritans to worship the Father
in "spirit and truth" so that they can be reconciled to
God and so God is making peace with believing Samaritans (cf.
Romans 5:1-10).
Samaritans were
"half-breeds" in the eyes of the Jews. The Jews despised
the Samaritans and the feeling was extremely mutual! After
the Assyrian captivity in 722 BC, some of the Jews of Northern
Israel had married into pagan families, forgotten their true religion by
syncretizing and idolatry (it is not as if Israel was all that pure, it's
just hypocrisy has a way of producing not only enmity but
prejudice!). Over time, these former Israelites who became
Samaritans lost their identity as Israelites as a result of this
intermarrying (see 2 Kings 17-18; cf. Deut. 7- Moses had warned
them!).
These "half
breed-Jews" were despised particularly after the Exile when the
Israelites returned home under Nehemiah and Ezra and the Samaritans
persecuted the Israelites as they were rebuilding God's Temple because
of the Word of the LORD through Haggai and Zechariah (see Ezra 4;
Nehemiah 4). The past hostilities continued to increase up unto the
day that Jesus "had to go into Samaria".
This is one of the
beautiful and gracious points that the Apostle John communicates through
this encounter of Jesus and the sinful Samaritan woman.
After all these years of hostility, Jesus brings
together two peoples at war with one another, with no hope of ever making
peace. Jesus is their peace.
Jesus IS our
Peace
Jesus is our peace,
too! Jesus brings all of us together even today- - Jews,
Samaritans, and Gentiles together as one. Divided and at war with
each other by nature, Jesus brings unity and breaks down the
"dividing wall of hostility" that has stood for so long. In
Jesus there is true unity and life. In Him was life and this life was
the light of men (1:5). In Jesus, we who are of different tribes,
language, peoples, and nations, through faith become one in Jesus.
And people of God, this
is why unity in Jesus is so important. This is the reason why we are
to seek to love and to forgive all those from within Christ's
congregation! We are all those who did not deserve the peace he gave
to us! We are all those who do not deserve anything but death, but he
gives to us life and it is the kind of life that causes us to never thirst,
and it becomes a "living" (or "alive") spring within us
welling up for eternity (4:13-14).
This living water Jesus
offers to the sinful Samaritan woman, as well as all who will believe,
refers to his wisdom, truth and revelation "from above" that he
gives to us, and this is possible because He has granted to us
the Holy Spirit (cf. John 7:37-39) who washes us clean from our sins and
begins a process of purification within us! Those who have life
cannot live as those dead and divided.
Seek the same kind of
peace and reconciliation with others in Christ's community as Jesus sought
here in the sinful Samaritan woman. Do not be deceived: Love covers a
multitude of sins; it is always patient; it never bears a grudge;
it is not self-seeking, nor easily angered, but bears all things,
believes all things, and hopes all things- -love never fails (cf. 1 Cor.
13).
Spiritual
SIGN-ificance of the Well
Secondly, we want to
note the important spiritual
SIGN-ificance of the well. In John 2:23-25, we
learned that "Jesus knows what is within a man..." In other
words, He sees us- - He sees our hearts as Hebrews 4:12-13 says!
Hebrews 4:12-13:
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow,
and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And
no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the
eyes of him to whom we must give account.
This sinful Samaritan
woman is an outcast and Jesus "sees" her, and he not only sees
her, but pursues her, seeks her out! If we are to be saved, if
we are to be shown God's favor, it will not be because we were seeking to
find God (Rom. 3:10), we like sheep have gone astray, no one seeks after
God, yet God by His Grace may seek after us (John 4:24). Concerning
outcasts, you may remember a similar incident of God's gracious and
precious revelation to an outcast woman in redemptive-history that happened
to take place at a well! Who was she?
Hagar. She was
Abram and Sarai's proud possession until Sarai tried to "help
God" by allowing Abram to sleep with her in order for her to conceive
Abram a son. Bad idea! Sarai, not realizing her own heart (as
none of us who "help God" realize), she allowed her own
sinful heart to deceive her (Jer. 17:3). What seemed like a good idea
on the surface, was in reality unbelief masquerading itself as something
good (watch this in our own lives!).
Well, Hagar conceived
and Sarai became jealous of her new competition. Therefore, Sarai
throws her servant who bears Abram's heir out of the house, and she becomes
an outcast without the protection of a patriarch in a society where
women had to have a head over them! Read Genesis 16 and notice some
similarities between Hagar the outcast and the sinful Samaritan woman who
is outcast in her village was well!
Genesis 16
Genesis 16:1 Now
Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian
servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram,
"Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to
my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram
listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten
years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian,
her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And
he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had
conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5 And Sarai
said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant
to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me
with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!" 6 But
Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her
as you please." Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from
her.
7 The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the
wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said,
"Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you
going?" She said, "I am fleeing from my mistress
Sarai." 9 The angel of the LORD said to her, "Return
to your mistress and submit to her." 10 The angel of the
LORD also said to her, "I will surely multiply your offspring so that
they cannot be numbered for multitude." 11 And the angel of
the LORD said to her, "Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son.
You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has listened to your
affliction. 12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand
against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over
against all his kinsmen."
13 So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to
her, "You are a God of seeing," for she said, "Truly here I
have seen him who looks after me." 14 Therefore the well
was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered. 15 And
Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar
bore, Ishmael. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore
Ishmael to Abram.
Jesus and
Beer-Lahai-Roi (The Well of the One Who Sees)
To reveal God's glory,
the Apostle John shows us here at the Well of Jacob, that Jesus is El Roi,
or "the God Who Sees"! Just as God saw Hagar who was
sinful and outcast and revealed himself at the well in Genesis 16, so God
in Christ reveals himself to another outcast. Hagar was a despised
Egyptian (remember the Egyptians held the Israelites in slavery) and the
sinful Samaritan woman was a despised Samaritan! They were
both forgotten and bitter outcast women in their worlds, and God
"sees" them both!
Both wells could be called
"Beer-lahai-roi", or "the well of Him who sees!
As the people of God who
believe today, we must remember that we are all outcasts from God's favor
and love, yet God "sees us" and knows us (cf. John
2:23-25). We should always remind ourselves that God "sees"
us and knows us better than we see and know ourselves! We must allow
His Word to interpret and to internally examine our words and deeds!
God sought both Hagar and the sinful Samaritan woman in order to offer them
Words of Life. He seeks us to reveal those Words to us who believe!
It is painful sometimes,
as it was with the sinful Samaritan woman. She had probably kept her
shame and sin to herself for years, not wanting to trust anyone with her
private acts, yet knowing that all knew of her sins as well as she knew of
her sins. In His grace, and at a very inopportune time of the day,
Jesus, El Roi in the flesh, reveals her sins to her, then he
forgives her and she forgets the original purpose for her coming to the
well, drops her water jar and goes to tell the good news to other outcast
Samaritans!
Jesus does the same for
us as well. It is painful, but when Jesus reveals our need of
salvation and repentance, he also receives us by His grace and forgiveness
as His own children in Christ! When Jesus met the sinful Samaritan
woman he reveals to her his gift, tells her of her sins so that she might
turn to him as the Prophet revealed by Moses (Deut. 12), and Messiah (John
4:19; 25). Jesus invites the sinful Samaritan woman to come into the
light because of her deeds are evil (John 3:19-21); He invites her to come
to the One who has Life and is the Light of Men (John 1:5) and full of
grace and truth (John 1:16).
Jesus doesn't approve of
her immoral life. He tells her that she has been living a sinful life
with five husbands, going on six! (verses 16-19). She perceives that
He "sees" and knows her better than anyone else (and is still
talking to her at the well in a public place despite this reality!).
Just as Jesus does for all who believe and are born from above, he makes
himself known to us, revealing our hearts and the grace of God found in
Him, then he gives us the strength by His Spirit to live according to His
Word.
Jesus is about exchanging our immoral lives for
immortal lives!
Think again of verse 13-14: Jesus
said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty
forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of
water welling up to eternal life." What is so revealing about
these verses is that many times the things we pursue and seek after in our
lives are good things. They are good gifts of God that he has given
to us like water from the well. In an arid country such as Judea,
water was especially needed to survive - -to live.
The water itself was a
good thing, but Jesus encourages us to seek something more lasting,
something like the earthly, but so much more richer and something to quench
the thirst of our longing souls (Psa. 42-43). The reason to mention
this is that we often appreciate the many good gifts of God, but sometimes
these good gifts (like good "living" water in a desert)
become the only pursuit and people are left thirsty and dry
after awhile.
What we all really need is only revealed
"from above" and given by Jesus Christ! So many in
this world are searching to have their spiritual thirsts
quenched, yet will not seek the ONLY ONE who can quench their thirsty
desires! "As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after
you, O Lord!"
Read Carefully the
invitation to us all to drink deeply of God's grace from Isaiah's Gospel!
(Notice also in verse 5 the call to other nations, such as Samaritans and
Gentiles.
Isaiah 55:1-5-
"Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no
money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without
price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not
bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to
me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline
your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make
with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4
Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander
for the peoples. 5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do
not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of
the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
Betrothal
SIGN-ificance of the Well
The third important
truth of the scene of the Well of Jacob is the betrothal SIGN-ificance of the well. If you remember in our last
study, in John 3:27-30, John the Baptist describes himself and his ministry
as the "best man", or "friend of the Bridegroom".
He tells his disciples that they are now to be betrothed to the Bridegroom,
because he is merely the "best man".
In the ancient Near East
and in Biblical history, wells were places where men would seek brides (cf.
Isaac and Jacob, Genesis 29:1-14). This is not surprising, this is
where the women could be found. Like today, when men go off to
school, or the workplace and find a bride, so men in the ancient
world would often seek to meet a bride at wells, or places of centrality
in the community. For shepherding people like the Israelites, it
would be easier to find the leaders of clans and tribes by their well
location than by their tents because they moved around from place to
place. In Genesis 29, we see this occur in the life
of Jacob and his pursuit of a bride.
Genesis 29:1-14
Genesis 29:1
Then Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the
east. 2 As he looked, he saw a well in the field, and behold,
three flocks of sheep lying beside it, for out of that well the flocks were
watered. The stone on the well's mouth was large, 3 and when all
the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone from the
mouth of the well and water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place
over the mouth of the well. 4 Jacob said to them, "My
brothers, where do you come from?" They said, "We are from
Haran." 5 He said to them, "Do you know Laban the son
of Nahor?" They said, "We know him." 6 He said to
them, "Is it well with him?" They said, "It is well; and
see, Rachel his daughter is coming with the sheep!"
7 He said, "Behold, it is still high day; it
is not time for the livestock to be gathered together. Water the sheep and
go, pasture them." 8 But they said, "We cannot until
all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth
of the well; then we water the sheep." 9 While he was still
speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she was a
shepherdess. 10 Now as soon as Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of
Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother,
Jacob came near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the
flock of Laban his mother's brother. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel
and wept aloud. 12 And Jacob told Rachel that he was her
father's kinsman, and that he was Rebekah's son, and she ran and told her
father. 13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his
sister's son, he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and
brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things, 14 and
Laban said to him, "Surely you are my bone and my flesh!" And he
stayed with him a month.
As one greater than
Jacob (regardless of what the sinful Samaritan woman thought at the time
from her "from below" understanding- v. 12: "Are you greater
than our Father Jacob?"), Jesus also pursues an unlikely bride here at
Jacob's well in Samaria. Jesus the Bridegroom seeks a Bride in a
sinful Samaritan Woman. He calls her to himself to believe and to be
given the living water that will quench her soul and cause her to be the
very Bride of Christ!
We have everything
against us to be the Bride God wants us to be when Jesus finds
us! We are not a pure and unspotted Bride worthy of the Majesty and
Glory of Jesus! Kings seek equals for their brides, and THE King of
Glory Himself, the Only Begotten Son of God, heir to the entire planet,
only deserves a Bride who is like him. This is the promise of the
Gospel of Grace. Not only does Jesus find us as His Bride, but He
makes us heirs of God, children, like Him, and we reflect His Glory as we
grow in His likeness throughout our lives (Romans 8:15-25; 2 Cor. 3-4).
As he makes himself
known to us however, he cleanses us with his cleansing water and spirit, so
that the Living Water within us gives us ultimate satisfaction and
purification in Him! As Paul explains in Ephesians 5, God is
committed to making us a pure and unspotted Bride for Christ to receive on
the Day He returns:
Ephesians
5:25-27: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself
up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her
by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might
present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Do You Believe?
John 20:31 says that
John wrote this Gospel so that "you might believe Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name."
Do you believe?
Are you at war with everyone in this world, because you care only for
yourself? Do you long for the peace that passes understanding that
only Jesus can give? Are you looking and seeking for peace in mere
earthly things, albeit good things, but things that leave you high and dry,
desiring more? Seek the LORD while he may be found, call on Him while
He is near!
Do you believe? Do you
realize you are an outcast sinner from God's presence only awaiting his
judgment and even now having God's wrath abiding on you (3:18; 36)?
Do you long to hold your eyes up toward the sky and trust the Creator who
has given you life, breath, and everything you need? Are you ready to
worship the Father in "spirit and truth", the One who is the
glory and lifter of your head? Do you know the shame of being sinful
and needing desperately to find the satisfaction and fulfillment that only
Living Water in Jesus can quench?
Do you believe? What is
your identity? The Bride of Jesus Christ, becoming more and more like him
in purity and holiness? If you do not believe, the Scriptures define and
describe you in the Book of Revelation as being NOT a bride, but a harlot,
the Great Prostitute of Babylon, the Impure, Despicable, Bride of
the Beast.
Remember, Jesus extends his hand of grace to the
world, to all those who would believe in Him and receive eternal
life. If you are not for Christ, or Pro-Christ, then you are against
Christ, or Anti-Christ. And those who are Anti-Christ belong not to
the Gracious Creator God, but are motivated, moved, and being manipulated
by the Evil One.
Read carefully portions
from the passage in the Book of Revelation that compares the pure and
spotless Bride of Christ with the impure and despicably dirty Great
Prostitute of the Beast:
Revelation 17:1
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me,
"Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is
seated on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth have
committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality
the dwellers on earth have become drunk." 3 And he carried
me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a
scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads
and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet,
and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden
cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. 5
And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: "Babylon the great,
mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations." 6 And I
saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs
of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.
....These are of
one mind and hand over their power and authority to the beast. 14
They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is
Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen
and faithful." 15 And the angel said to me, "The
waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and
multitudes and nations and languages. 16 And the ten horns that
you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her
desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, 17
for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of
one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words
of God are fulfilled.
18 And the woman that you saw is the great city
that has dominion over the kings of the earth."18:1 After this I saw
another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the
earth was made bright with his glory. 2 And he called out with a
mighty voice, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a
dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for
every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. 3
For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual
immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her,
and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her
luxurious living." 4 Then I heard another voice from heaven
saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins,
lest you share in her plagues; 5 for her sins are heaped high as
heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. 6 Pay her back as
she herself has paid back others, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a
double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
The Apostle John not
only shows us the glory of God's gracious goodness in this passage of the
sinful Samaritan woman at the well of hope and life, but also gives us a
revelation-glimpse of what is to come for those who believe and who do not
believe! Seek the LORD now!
People of God know that
you are the Bride of Christ and because He has given you Living Waters by
His Spirit, you know that you can do whatever He has commanded you to
do. You will grow as He and His Word alone satisfy you. Don't
allow unpeaceful divisions, a lack of identity, or a forgetfulness of His
"seeing" and "knowing" you keep you from experiencing
the grace, love, joy and power of Jesus and the well of Living Water that
is forever springing up and "alive" within us because of our
Union with Jesus!
Coming Soon:
John 4 continued with: "Two Mountains and Two Responses to Jesus"
Soli Deo Gloria!
For Further Reading
D. A. Carson, 'Gospel
According to John'
H. Ridderbos, 'The
Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary'
L. Morris, 'The Gospel
According to John' (NICNT)
J. Calvin, 'Commentary
on the Gospel of John'
R. Brown, 'Commentary on
the Gospel of St. John'
J. Dennison, Articles on
John's Gospel at www.kerux.com
J.
Boice, 'Commentary on John's Gospel'
Ryken, Longman III, et
al, 'Dictionary of Biblical Imagery'
Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to him who is able to do far more
abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work
within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
This
week marks the return of the great 'Lord of the Rings' Trilogy
and many will be going to see 'Return of the King', the final chapter in
Tolkien's magnificent story. To celebrate this, I have included a
quotation from Charles Colson today. This quotation is taken from his
website and radio show called 'Breakpoint with Chuck Colson'. I hope
you will find it helpful before you attend the movie this week!
By the way, there are
two excellent sites on the web for understanding Christianity and
culture. I recommend Colson's site at www.breakpoint.org,
and Ken Myer's 'Mars Hill Audio Magazine' at www.marshillaudio.org.
At 'Mars Hill Audio' you can request a sample audio magazine! I think
you will find it extremely helpful and thought provoking!
Charles Colson
A Triumphant Return
Return of the King
"After seven years in the making, the final film of the Lord of
the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King, opens this Wednesday.
The good news is that, like the others, it was worth the wait. The better
news is that, even more than the others, what we see on screen respects the
Christian faith of the book's author, J. R. R. Tolkien.
Tolkien wrote that Lord of the Rings is a "fundamentally
religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first but consciously in
the revision." Director Peter Jackson and screenwriters Philippa
Boyens and Fran Walsh knew this. So they consciously honored the things
that "were important to Tolkien." Many of his beliefs, thus, come
through on screen.
What sets Lord of the Rings apart from other stories about good
versus evil, aside from its extraordinarily imaginative treatment, is the
way Christian truth is portrayed, how it confounds the wisdom of the world.
While the great and powerful play a role in defeating evil, in the end,
it's the humble and unremarkable hobbits who save the day.
This paradox, the weak shaming the wise and the mighty, is most
prominent in The Return of the King, both the book and the film. At
the end, the hero of the third film isn't Aragon, the king-to-be, or even
Frodo, the ring-bearer. It's Samwise Gamgee, a gardener and arguably the
humblest of the four hobbits.
Time after time, when it appears that the quest to destroy the Ring of
Power is about to fail, Sam somehow summons up the will to go on and, most
importantly, takes Frodo with him. The cinematic Sam mirrors what Tolkien
wrote of in his book: "His will was set and only death would break
it."
Another instance of Tolkien's faith coming through occurs in an exchange
between Pippin, one of the hobbits, and Gandalf, the wizard. Hours before a
battle in which he is sure he will die, Pippin tells Gandalf that he
"never thought it would end like this."
Gandalf replies, "End? No, the journey doesn't end here. There's
another path we all must take. The gray rain curtain of this world
rolls back, and it will change to the silver clouds, and then you see
it." When Pippin asks, "See what?" Gandalf replies,
"White shores and beyond, a far green country under a swift
sunrise." Gandalf's words, with a vivid picture of heaven, comfort
Pippin as he contemplates battle and possible death.
According to screenwriters Boyens and Walsh, The Return of the King
is ultimately about faith: faith in the need for good to oppose evil; faith
in those who join you in that struggle; and faith in a higher power that
ensures good's eventual triumph.
Seven years ago, bringing Tolkien's masterpiece to the screen in a way
that did the story justice was considered unlikely—even less likely
that it would honor Tolkien's faith. But that is what this film does. And
that makes The Return of the King an easy one to recommend. A great
book has become a great film precisely because it remembers what the author
thought was "most important"—the truths of a Christian
worldview."
There are more excellent commentaries at www.breakpoint.org
Soli Deo Gloria!
Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to him who is able to do far
more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at
work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 30
Revelation 19:
"The Return of the King"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
For today's study we
will take a break from our study on the Gospel of John. Today's study
will be from another one of the Apostle John's writings: 'The Book of
Revelation'. Many of us are going to see the third installment in the
'Lord of the Rings' trilogy this Christmas season. Since the third
installment is entitled 'Return of the King', I thought it would be
appropriate to look at the Bible's revelation to us of the ultimate and
consummate Return of the King: King Jesus!
The study will focus on
Revelation chapter 19, specifically verses 11-16 that reveals to us the
armies of heaven led by Our Supreme Commander, Jesus Christ the King!
Much of the apocalyptic imagery that Tolkien used in his wonderful stories
derived from an imagination that had been captured and enriched with
Biblical imagery such as revealed in Revelation 19. In fact, the
'Lord of the Rings' trilogy can actually help us to interpret more
accurately, and give us a helpful reading strategy for reading the
'Book of Revelation' as we will discuss below.
This will be the last 'Word of Encouragement' for
2003. The next 'Word of Encouragement' will be sent after January
5th, 2004. Merry Christmas and Happy 2004!
Revelation 19
Revelation 19: After this I heard what seemed to be the loud
voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, "Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, 2 for his
judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who
corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood
of his servants." 3 Once more they cried out,
"Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever." 4
And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down
and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, "Amen.
Hallelujah!" 5 And from the throne came a voice saying,
"Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and
great." 6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a
great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty
peals of thunder, crying out, "Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the
Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the
glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made
herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine
linen, bright and pure"- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of
the saints. 9 And the angel said to me, "Write this:
Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb."
And he said to me, "These are the true words of God." 10 Then
I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, "You must
not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to
the testimony of Jesus. Worship God." For the testimony of Jesus is
the spirit of prophecy.
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white
horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in
righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a
flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written
that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped
in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And
the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following
him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with
which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.
He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16
On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and
Lord of lords.
17 Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with
a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead,
"Come, gather for the great supper of God, 18 to eat the
flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh
of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave,
both small and great." 19 And I saw the beast and the kings
of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was
sitting on the horse and against his army. 20 And the beast was
captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the
signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and
those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of
fire that burns with sulfur. 21 And the rest were slain by the
sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all
the birds were gorged with their flesh.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ:
A Blessing not a Mystery
The Apostle Paul in his letter
to his disciple Timothy, reminds him that those who want to live godly in
Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Tim. 3:12). In the gospels, the
Lord Jesus Christ tells his disciples that after his death they will be
afflicted, handed over to be judged and put to death on account of his name
(Mt. 24:9ff; Mk. 13:9). In addition, he comforts them by saying that
although in this world his disciples will have tribulation, nevertheless
they are to rejoice, for he has overcome the world (John 16:33).
For the saints of every generation,
there is no other book that claims God's blessing for the remembrance of
these truths than the Book of the Revelation of St. John the Divine. In
this book, the Lord reveals through his angel to the churches the message
to "overcome," continue to be faithful in spite of your
circumstances, because God is sovereign, the Ruler of all History
(Rev. 2:7,11,17,26; 3:5,12,21; 21:7). All history will fulfill God's good
and righteous purposes for his glory and on behalf of his people (Rom. 8:28-39).
Although the Book of Revelation is
founded upon historical circumstances in the Roman Empire, addressed to
seven particular historical churches (Rev. 1-3), there is wisdom and
encouragement for all the saints in every period of the last days before
Christ returns. In the Book of Revelation, we not only see the triumph of
God's purposes and power, but the great and powerful coming of our Lord and
King Jesus Christ- - this is the church's great hope!
The book powerfully lifts the
eyes of the saints to see above the problems and afflictions of this world.
In order that we may know God's perspective on circumstances in our lives;
that is, to see God and his sovereignty; the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world; the saints who have been bought with the precious blood of
Christ are now ruling with Christ; to see the devil, sin and death are
conquered ultimately, and the Lord Jesus Christ is lifted upon his throne
and all his enemies are made to be his footstool (1 Peter 1:3-18; cf. Rev.
4-5). This book is a blessing for those who read it (Rev. 1:3; 22:7,14)!
Because of the great imagery and
apocalyptic style of the book, it is not surprising that many in the church
have misunderstood Revelation and gotten lost in the details, and have
failed to find the great encouragement of our God; that is, his glorious
reign and defeat of all his enemies and the Lord being brought near to his
people, to be in the presence of his people forever (cf. Rev. 21:1ff)!
The Revelation of Jesus Christ:
Recapitulation not a Chronological Account
In approaching the Book of
Revelation as literature, we must remember that recapitulation is the key
to a clearer understanding of the book as a whole. This means that the
structure of Revelation does not relate consecutive events but frequently
cover the same ground in cycles from different, progressive and escalating
perspectives.
Dr. Leland Ryken has written that
"the action [in the Book of Revelation] has the sense of progression
and climax that we associate with stories, with the conquest of evil
occurring in incremental stages until it is finally and totally
complete" (Ryken, Longman; 458). He adds that there is "a spiral
of sevenfold visions that recapitulate and intensify each other and end
with a tremendous sense of final judgment and redemption" (Ryken,
Longman; 466; see also Poythress, 3.8ff). These issues are important to
keep in mind to fully understand the book as God has given it to John to
teach the churches in every age.
It could be
suggested that as one reads the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, so one should
read the 'Book of Revelation'.
[Note: Lord of the Rings is a
fictional story, Revelation is a revelation, inspired of God, yet we can
use the same reading strategy to see the conflict of good and evil, and how
ultimately evil is overcome by the meek and the meek inherit the earth].
Our passage in Revelation
19:14-16 is one of the climatic events of all the Scripture. Since the book
should be interpreted in light of recapitulation, these verses record the
consummate intensification and escalation of the ultimate triumph of Christ
that is also recorded in Revelation chapter 20:7-10. These events from
19:11-20:10 are not to be interpreted chronologically, but they are to be
understood as the ultimate salvation of God's people and judgment of the
wicked.
Prof. G. K. Beale says concerning
Revelation 19:14-16, that it is "the most expanded description of
Christ's defeat and judgment of the ungodly forces at the end of
history" (Beale, 948). Not only is it what the prophets looked forward
to and sought to understand (1 Pet. 1:10,11), but it is the fulfillment of
Christ and his Kingdom from every tribe, and tongue, and people and nation
(Rev. 5:9; 14:6).
The Revelation of Jesus Christ:
A Christophany of the Divine Warrior
This passage also describes the
ultimate appearing of our great God and King, the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is the ultimate Theophany (God appearance) of our God who reigns
forevermore. These verses follow the great conquest of the Lord over the
enemies of his people in chapters 17 and 18: the anti-Christian trinity:
the triumvirate of the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet.
In these verses, all of the prophets,
Christ himself and the NT writers find fulfillment in the hope of our
ultimate salvation in Christ. Verses 14-16 fall within the pericope of
John's total vision that begins in 19:11, when we notice the words:
"and I saw" which also begin other significant passages such as
Rev. 1:7; 4:11; 5:1,2; 6:1; 7:2; 8:2,13; 14:1,6,14; 17:3.
It is important to note that these
passages which begin with "and I saw" are normally at the
beginning of each vision and are usually heavenly visions which God is
revealing to John. What John sees points the eyes of all the saints to look
up into heaven and see God's sovereign rule and the fulfillment of his
promises (Beale, Introduction).
This vision of John in these verses
is the escalating and progressively advanced defeat of God's enemies and
those who have disobeyed his commands. Those who did not repent at the
mercy and patience of the Lord, although they knew of their sins and that
they were in cosmic rebellion against a holy God. Instead, they suppressed
the truth, exchanged it for a lie and God gave them over to follow the
Beast and the False Prophet- -the ultimate exchanging the truth for a lie
(Romans 1:18-3:20; cf. 2 Thess. 2:11-12).
From the description of Christ in
these passages there is great hope for a suffering and persecuted church
throughout the ages since the ascension of Christ; there is revealed here
the focus we should all have as pilgrim saints living in a foreign world.
It is hope for those who have a heavenly city, who look forward to a better
world and do not call this world their home (Heb. 12:18-29). On the other
hand, it is a stark and descriptive warning for those who take lightly
God's commands; who trample the Son of God underfoot and who every day
resist the truth of what God has revealed to them (cf. Heb. 10:39). To
them, this is a perfectly terrifying and poignant call to them to repent!
To the wicked, this is the most dreadful day they could ever imagine.
For at this
moment, those who do not trust by faith in the righteousness found only in
the Lord Jesus Christ, are under the wrath of God (cf. John 3:36; 2 Peter
2:3-4). This is the wrath of God the NT authors spoke of that was to come
(Mt. 3:7; cf. Mk. 1:3-8; Mt. 24; Mk. 13; Rom. 2:5; Eph. 5:6; Col. 3:6).
Before proceeding to the verses of
Revelation 19:14-16, the people of God should consider this passage in
light of the teaching in the OT and the NT concerning the Day of the LORD,
and the ultimate Theophanic judgment of God. A Theophany, or appearing of
God was manifested in many different ways (Poythress, 6.1ff; Kline, chap.
1), but in these verses we see the ultimate "Warrior Theophany"
found in the OT as Christ comes to judge the wicked and to save his people
(Zech. 9:14-15; 14:3-5; Hab. 3:3-15; Is. 63:1-6; 59:17-19; Zeph. 3:17;
Josh. 5:13-15; cf. 1 Cor. 5:5; 1 Thess. 5:2).
In other words, the ultimate
Theophany is revealed as a Christophany.
In the OT, particularly in the "Minor Prophets" we see this
theme of the Day of the LORD revealed albeit proleptically, but
prophetically; here in the Book of Revelation we see it in its
eschatological consummation. The Prophet Joel warns Israel about the coming
Day of the LORD:
"For
strong is the One who executes his word. For the Day of the LORD is great
and terrible; who can endure it?" (Joel 2:11).
The Prophet Amos warns the wicked who
look to the Day of the LORD:
"Woe to
you who desire the Day of the LORD! For what good is the day of the LORD to
you? It will be darkness and not light…" (Amos 5:18).
The Prophet Malachi tells of the
great Day of God in chapter four of his prophecy:
"For
behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes,
all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn
them up…That will leave them neither root nor branch…but to you
who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his
wings…you shall trample the wicked, for they shall be as ashes under
the soles of your feet on the day that I do this" (Mal. 4:1-3).
This vision of the Day of the LORD
was not lost in the writings of the NT, for the NT author's described such
a day as well. In 1 Thessalonians 1:10, the Apostle Paul describes the
wrath that is to come; in 4:15, Paul speaks of the coming of the Lord. In
Romans 2:5, he describes this day as "the day of wrath and the
revelation of the righteous judgment of God."
The Apostle Peter writes in his
epistle of the "day of judgment" in 2 Peter 2:9 and 3:7; the
"day of the LORD" in 2 Peter 3:10 and in 2 Peter 3:12, he
describes this same day as "the coming day of God." Throughout
the OT and the NT, the Day of the LORD pointed to a day of vengeance and
great Theophanic calamity when Christ would appear a second time for
judgment (1 Thess. 5:8-9; 2 Thess. 1:7-8; 2 Tim. 4:1). This was the day
that the world would be cleansed of the wicked, the righteous would come
into everlasting fellowship with God in his presence, and Jesus Christ
would set up his Eternal Kingdom (Hos. 2:19-23; Joel 3:17-21; Amos 9:14,15;
Obadiah 17-21; Hab. 3:18; Zeph. 3:17-20; Zech. 14:20,21).
We also need to approach these verses
with the understanding of the Divine Warrior motif from the OT (Longman;
Reid). In the OT, God is described as the LORD of heaven and earth that
defeats the enemies of God's people (Ex. 15; Deut. 4; Joshua 24; Judges 6).
Here in the passage from Revelation 19:14-16 we see the Divine Christ, the
one like the Son of Man from Daniel 7, who is coming in judgment upon the
enemies of God. Whereas the people of God in the OT were told to "fear
not for the LORD will fight for you," here we see that the saints are
clothed in Christ's righteousness no longer with fears, and they come with
Christ in his great judgment while his wrath consumes the whole earth.
While all the saints of Christ have
no reason to fear, the wicked must be warned of this great Day that is
coming and turn from their wicked ways to the Lord Jesus Christ for
salvation from the coming wrath. If the judgment of God upon the world in
the flood (Gen. 6-9); upon Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:1ff); the judgment
upon Egypt and Pharaoh (Ex. 14; 15); and the judgments upon the nations and
even Israel were increasingly horrible, how much more will the Day of
Christ's wrath be when he consumes the world in his anger because they have
suppressed the truth of his revelation (cf. Luke 13:1ff; 2 Peter 2:4-10).
Jesus and the Armies of Heaven:
Revelation 19:14
In Revelation 19:14 we read that
the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, followed
Christ on white horses. Some commentators think that the armies of heaven
refers to the holy and heavenly angels that surround God's throne (Ladd,
255). However, in this context of the Book of Revelation, this army of
heaven is Christ's faithful saints- - those who were faithful to follow him
to the end; those who fought the good fight and ran the race to the end,
persevering with eyes on the Author an Perfector of their faith (Heb.
12:1,2).
In other parts of Revelation we see
these saints in John's vision who are redeemed and in the presence of God
ruling with Christ. These saints are those who have overcome (2:26,27;
3:21; 4:2-4,9-11; 5:11-14; 7:4-10 (cf. 14:1-5; 15:2-4; 19:1-8; 20:4-6).
Although Jesus told his disciples prior to his ascension that he would
return with his holy angels to judge the nations (Mt. 13:40-42; 16:27;
24:30-31; 25:31-32; Mk. 8:38; 2 Thess. 1:7; Jude 14-15), this is not
contradictory. Christ will appear with his holy angels, but Revelation
17:14 says that "those who are with him," are his saints.
In Revelation, only the saints are
described as having white garments (3:4-5,18; 4:4; 6:11; 7:9,13-14), except
for one exception in 15:6 (Beale, 960). The Lord will return with his holy
angels on the Day of Judgment, but in this passage, the hope communicated
by God to his people is that they will also be with he and the angels when
they come!
These saints are said to wear pure
garments. There are other passages in Revelation that speak of this as well
(Rev. 3:4,18; 6:11; 7:9-17; 15:5-8; cf. Harlot's clothing: 17:4; 18:16-17).
These are those saints who have the wedding garment on who are prepared as
a Bride for Christ and have been made ready for the wedding supper of the
Lamb (Mt. 22:1-14; cf. Eph. 5:23ff).
Revelation 19:7-8 tells us prior to
these verses that because of the defeat of the archenemy of God- - Babylon
the Great, in chapter 18, the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride
has made herself ready. In verse 8 the bride, the saints of Christ are
described clothed with bright, pure, fine linen which symbolizes the
righteous deeds of the saints. This refers negatively to the saints not
giving loyalty to Babylon, but positively, it refers to the testimony of
the saints to Jesus in word and deed (1:9; 6:9; 11:7; 12:11,17; 20:4)
(Beale, 934). The saints are rewarded for their faithfulness to Christ and
perseverance in the faith (cf. 2 Tim. 2:11-13; 4:7-8).
God has
justified them by his grace through faith and in their lives they truly
witnessed to the world in their "righteous deeds" that they
belonged to God (Eph. 2:6-10; Phil. 2:12,13; Rev. 2-3: "to him that
overcomes…").
In Isaiah 61:10, the prophet
foretells what is to come for the people of God when he declares:
"I will
greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; For he has
clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe
of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a
bride adorns herself with jewels."
In Revelation, with the consummation
of Christ's judgment and righteousness, we see the saints adorned just as
Isaiah had prophesied. In contrast, we should notice the comparison of the
saints' clothing to the description of the harlot in chapter 17:3-5:
"…And
I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of
blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in
purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls,
having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of
her fornication…"
What a great contrast between the
rich garments of the evil harlot and the pure and righteous adornment of the
saints vindicated by Christ's righteousness. In the eyes of fallen men,
those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, the harlot is dressed as many
in our society wish to dress. They desire to show their status and riches
in the world, but according to Revelation chapter 17, this is a heinous and
ugly attire. It is the attire described of those who are trusting in their
own righteousness and those who have loved the world and all the evil
behind the world system.
As Christians, we are taught not to
love the ways of the world- -including dress, and the Apostle James warns
us not to judge others on their clothing (1 John 2:15-17; cf. James 2:1-7;
1 Pet. 3:2-6). The clothing of the world system described in Revelation 17
is the clothing of the followers of the evil triumvirate: the Dragon, Beast
and False Prophet. In Zechariah 3:3-5, there is a vision of Joshua clothed
with filthy garments and he is clothed in rich robes and a clean turban is
placed upon his head and clothes are put upon him because God has removed
his iniquity from him. This is another OT example of the importance of the
pure garments that the Lord provides for his saints by his own
righteousness and the hope this verse should give to every generation of
the church.
The saints are wearing wedding
garments, but additionally, according to other verses, it seems that they
are some kind of priestly wedding garments. This vision could teach the
people of God that they are clothed in Christ's righteousness ultimately
because they have been identified and vindicated by Christ their High
Priest (Heb. 2:14-18; 5:1ff). Notice how Christ and the angels are
described in the Scripture as wearing these white priestly garments (Rev.
1:13; 15:6; Dan. 10:5; 12:6; Ez. 9:2).
These garments identify the Christ's
saints as not only the Bride of Christ, but Priests of Christ and God the
Father- - a holy nation, a royal priesthood (Ex. 28:42; Lev. 16:4; 1 Pet.
2:5,9). These garments probably reflect the glory of the One and only True
High Priest, and because of the saints' identification with Jesus the High
Priest, they are adorned just like he and the angels in God's resplendent
glory (cf. Dan. 12:3; Mt. 5:14; 2 Cor. 3:18).
The white horses on which they ride
are symbols of their pure identification with Christ's righteousness; their
identification with Christ's death, resurrection and ascension into heaven.
The Apostle Paul writes in his epistle to the Colossians:
"For
you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is
our life appears, then you will appear with him in glory" (Col.
3:1-4).
Christ's work enabled these saints to
be seated with Christ in the heavenlies and although upon earth it was not
manifested, in reality this is the way God saw them: being remade pure in
Christ's image (Col. 3:1-4; cf. 2 Cor. 3:18ff). This is significant for the
way the saints perceive themselves presently in Christ. As the Apostle John
says in his first epistle,
"Beloved,
we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we
know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he
is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is
pure" (1 John 3:2-4).
The saints of all time, in every age
should be encouraged to this final and climatic appearing of the Lord Jesus
with his people. All those who fought against them and hated them in this
life, will see them with eyes of hatred and jealously along with Jesus, and
the saints will be vindicated before all the wicked world to be seen
associated with He who they witnessed faithfully all of their lives.
Christ has redeemed his people by his
death and resurrection on their behalf. He has taken from them their guilt
and reconciled his people to God (2 Cor. 5:11-21). God is pleased to be
their God and he makes them disciples and works in them to do God's
commands. God is our true redeemer in Christ, who although he had no sin
became a sin offering for us, so that we might be the righteousness of God
in him. The Apostle Paul refers to the saints' status as being in Christ in many of his letters
and this is to help us to understand that not only are we clothed in
Christ's righteousness and sheltered from the wrath of God, we are
identified with his perfect Person and Work on our behalf thus making us truly
righteous (Rom. 5:8-10; Heb. 2:14-18; 4:16-18).
This is a
wonderful vision for God to give to bless and encourage the church
throughout the ages in difficult times, for it is here that we are to
identify ourselves -- as Overcomers in Jesus!
John starkly contrasts Christ's
righteous army of saints with the Beast's army and his followers (9:15-19;
12:17; 13:7; 16:16). This is no "hellish" army who is allowed to
fight against the saints in order to strengthen them and give glory to God,
but Christ's army of those who have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and
the word of their testimony (Rev. 4:5). This army is pure and
unadulterated, it is not unrighteous and unjust, but righteous and just in
the judgments which it brings.
The Lord is slow concerning his anger
and wrath, he is a consuming fire and although the wicked had been warned,
they continually lived in disobedience to God and the Lamb and they sought
one last time to try and overcome the Christ of God and his people; but
they will fail. This is the hope for those in the church who are suffering,
who cry out "How long, O LORD?" and ask "Why do the nations
rage and the enemies of God seem to advance and prosper?" (Ps. 2; 37).
As we turn to Revelation 19:15, these perennial questions are answered with
the hope in the Coming of the LORD Jesus Christ.
This is the
ultimate answer to the perennial "Problem of Evil"!
The Wrath of Messiah:
Revelation 19:15
Revelation 19:15 describes Jesus
with a sharp sword proceeding from his mouth to smite the wicked nations.
It continues that he will rule them with a rod of iron and he will tread
the winepress of the fury of the Wrath of God the Almighty. In considering
this verse, we ought to look at other passages in Revelation that describe
this ultimate and climatic Christophany, or appearance of Christ (Rev.
1:12-16; 2:12,16; 14:14-16 ("one like the Son of Man"; Dan.
7:13ff); 20:11-15).
This is the resurrected Son of God,
the Great King who is coming in final judgment upon those who have rejected
he and his people. The OT and NT warned the wicked and unbelieving of this
great and terrible day (Isaiah; Jeremiah; Daniel; Ezekiel; Amos; Joel;
Zephaniah; Malachi). Although cycles of judgment have been described in
Revelation up to this point, they are described as progressively getting
closer to the end and escalating in severity. Here is the ultimate Day of
Wrath spoken of throughout the Bible. Here is the Messiah for which the
Israelite's hoped, who is finally setting up his Eternal Kingdom and
destroying the wicked; this is the ultimate fulfillment of God's promise to
his servant David (2 Sam. 7:4-17).
Consider the sharp sword proceeding from out of his mouth. The sword is
that of the Divine Warrior who conquers his enemies and the enemies of his
people. The sword is a symbol of perfect and righteous judgement that will
be pronounced upon all the world (Ps. 7:12; Is. 34:6; Jer. 12:12; cf. Rev.
1:16). This is the Day of weeping and mourning, the ultimate Day when men
will pray for the rocks to fall upon them to save them from the wrath of
God Almighty in Christ (Rev. 6). This is Christ coming like a
"thief" who promised he was "coming soon" to those who
were watching for his appearing (3:3; 16:15; 22:7,12).
But there are also other portions of
Scripture that describe this sword that is proceeding out of his mouth. In
Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Servant of the LORD, Isaiah proclaims that
God has made the Servant's mouth like a sharp sword (Is. 49:2). In verse 3,
the LORD says through Isaiah that his Servant will glorify the LORD with
his work. Throughout Scripture the metaphor of the sword has also been used
to speak of God's Word as it is revealed in its power (Eph. 6:12; Heb.
4:12; Rev. 1:16; 2:12,16). The passage in verse 15 is a passage about
Christ's judgment, but his judgment with God's word. This is the word of
God that brought order from chaos in Genesis 1:1 that shows us that John is
here identifying Christ as both the Creator and Judge of all things; that
is, the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega (Rev. 1:8,11; 21:6;
22:13; cf. John 1:3; Heb. 1:2; 12:1,2).
This is the word of power that has
been revealed to all men that speak of his coming judgment and of his grace
and mercy in Christ. It is this sword, the word of God that will smite the
nations. But it is not just the word of God, but the word of God in
judgment for he rules with a rod of iron. This means that although he will
smite the nations with the word, he will rule or reign with a rod of iron.
For a better understanding of "rod of iron" we should turn to
Isaiah 11:4.
In Isaiah 11:4, there is a description of the LORD's Messiah to come. In
verse 4, Isaiah describes the Messiah:
"His
delight is in the fear of the LORD, and he shall not judge by the sight of
his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears; but with righteousness he
shall judge the poor (cf. Mt. 5:3-10), and decide with equity for the meek
of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with
the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked" (cf. 2 Thess. 2:8).
The Messiah will conquer by his word
because although it brings good tidings to those who are poor and humble,
it brings judgment upon those who do not believe (cf. Is. 61:1; Lk.
4:16ff). There have been many kings and judgments in the world, but this is
God's grand climatic judgment of the world for their disobedience to his
only begotten Son. In fact when Christ was being judged before both the
Jews and the Romans as recorded in the Gospel of Mark, he knows that his
sentence of death is sure. But when he is asked if he is truly the Christ
of God, he predicts and pronounces an eschatological and ultimate judgment
upon both Jews and Gentiles: "…You will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven"
(cf. Luke 22:69; Matt. 27:37; Luke 23:24ff; John 18:35ff; 19:12-16).
Christ clearly reveals himself in
this passage as the Messiah and the Son of Man who is foretold in the Book
of Daniel (Daniel 7:13ff). Although Jesus' disciples had hoped and expected
him to set up his Messianic Kingdom immediately, God in his wisdom had a
more progressive revealing of how Messiah's Kingdom would be established
(Dan. 2:44,45; 7:9-14; Mt. 24:1-3; Acts 1:6ff).
In Psalm 2, the Psalmist writes of
the LORD's Messiah and asks: "Why do the nations rage and the people
plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers
take counsel together, against the LORD and against his
Anointed…"(Ps.2:1-2). This passage gives hope to the church in
the OT as our passage gives to us in Revelation. Although the wicked seem
to be advancing against God's purposes and his people, the LORD has
established his Messiah on his holy hill of Zion (Ps. 2:6). The LORD laughs
at the wicked and their attempts to thwart his will throughout history (Ps.
2:4), and the LORD will speak to them in His wrath (Ps. 2:5).
The wicked may plot and be allowed by
the Sovereign God to afflict his people, but their time is short and the
LORD has appointed His Messiah to inherit the nations as his inheritance- -
and all the ends of the earth (Ps. 2:8). The Psalmist foretells that the
Messiah will break the wicked with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces
like a potter's vessel" (Ps. 2:9). This is the ultimate vision and
climatic event that God reveals to his people in the Book of Revelation.
The Psalmist ends by warning the wicked to repent and serve the LORD lest
the Son be angry and they perish. He says, "When his wrath is kindled
but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him" (Ps.
2:12).
This is not only the great OT warning
to the wicked, to those who would plot against the LORD and his people, but
the great hope for those who have put their trust in the LORD's Messiah. It
is because of this hope that the Book of Revelation announces:
"Blessed are those who read the prophecies in this book." Those
who trust in the LORD and believe his word that is like a sharp sword, know
that this is not a hypothetical warning for the wicked, but it is as sure
as the word of the Lord that abides forever (1 Peter 1:24-25; cf. Is.
40:6-9).
Considering the wrath that has been
described in previous cycles in John's visions, consider the seals (6:1-17;
8:1-5); the trumpets (8:6-11:19); the bowls and the seven angels
(15:1,5-8), and other displays of God's wrath that causes the enemies'
hearts to harden and they do not repent although they had been warned
numerous times (11:19; 14:9-11; 17-21; 18:3-6,8; 19:2). Those judgments
were great but are incomparable to this great judgment of the Lamb. For he
comes with a sword.
God's wrath has not been displayed in
this way since the cross of Christ. The wrath upon Christ on the cross was
the great climax and display of God's wrath that had been stored up for
ages in the Godhead. In God's anger and love, he poured out his wrath upon
Christ who bore up in himself the pollution and guilt and punishment for
the sins of his people. Those who turn away from such a display of God's
goodness, mercy and wrath are to be pitied. The foolish- - the wicked- - are
storing up for themselves wrath on the Day of Wrath when God will
ultimately judge them by the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Romans 2:5ff).
In Christ's coming we see the Lamb of
God suffering by crucifixion and taking upon himself the wrath of God, but
in Revelation 19:11ff, we see not the lowly Lamb of God suffering upon a
Roman cross, but the Christ of Glory coming with those he has redeemed to
enact judgment for all the world- - for all those who do not know him! The
way he is described should encourage the believing, but those who have
suppressed the truth, they must be warned! If they thought the wrath of the
cross of God Almighty was terrible and frightening, they have seen nothing
as great as the Wrath of the LORD of lords and the King of kings coming one
final time to judge them. God's judgment is so frightening, John in
Revelation uses the imagery of Christ treading the winepress of God's fury.
Concerning the imagery of the
winepress and Christ clothed in a garment sprinkled with blood (19:13).
Here is the picture of the ultimate wrath of God revealed in the Christ the
Divine Warrior. In Isaiah's prophecy chapter 63:2ff, the prophet describes
the Divine Warrior, or God who establishes his reign over his enemies (cf.
Is. 13:4; 31:4; 42:13; Ezek. 38-39; Joel 3; Zech. 14:3). In verse 2 the
prophet writes:
"Why is
thy apparel red, and thy garments like his that treads the wine press? I
have trodden the winepress along, and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood is
sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my raiment. For the day
of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption has come."
To better understand this ultimate
day of Christ trampling the winepress of God's anger we should compare
these passages to Luke 4:18ff when Christ read from the scroll of Isaiah
61:1ff. Christ proclaimed that on the day he was reading from the scroll
the prophecy of Isaiah had been fulfilled, however, he left off the last
line of Isaiah's prophecy intentionally.
Although in Christ's first coming he
would bring deliverance to the captives and salvation for those looking
with repentant hearts to God, proclaiming the year of the LORD's favor, in
his appearing the second time (here revealed in John's vision), he would
finish the statement:
"…and the vengeance of our God" (cf.
Rev. 14:19). Although we must understand that Christ's first coming was to
bring salvation, but for those who have rejected him there is nothing left
but the day of vengeance and wrath. This shows two things: first, that
Christ's work was to be fulfilled progressively as revealed in the gospels,
particularly the parables of Jesus (Mt. 13:1-51); secondly, that Christ is
slow to anger and wrath, he will patient wanting all to come to him and
find forgiveness. However, once he is revealed as in John's vision, it will
be a day of darkness and wrath.
In
Revelation 19:14-16, the saints come with Jesus in his revelation because
Christ drank the cup of wrath on the cross on behalf of his people. Though
he had prayed that the cup might pass because it was so awesome and
terrible, he nevertheless submitted his will to the Father so that the
salvation of his people might be accomplished.
It was
God who was saving us from God; that is, God was saving his people from his
wrath.
Romans 4:24-26 teaches us that God is
just in regards to his righteous judgment, but the justifier of those who
believe in Christ Jesus. Therefore the saints should rejoice in seeing that
indeed nothing can separate them from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus because he has loved them with a divine and intimate love displayed
in the cross when Jesus became a propitiation for the sins of his people
and expiated God's wrath and fury which all sinful men deserve.
This wrath of God which was expiated
at the cross for those who believe is yet to be displayed and there will be
no mediator between the wicked and God on the Day of his Great Judgment.
They will be cut off to perish in darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth.
All of their hopes of overcoming God's Messiah, all the hopes of
persecuting and defeating the people of God will be dashed immediately upon
the rocks to which they look for shelter. This vision should encourage the
church to know that it is true that the gates of hell will never prevail
against the Church, Christ's people (cf. Mt. 16:18-19).
The Return of the King of
kings and Lord of lords: Revelation 19:16
In Revelation 19:16 we see on Christ's robe and his thigh a name which is
King of kings, and Lord of lords. This is the title of God himself
throughout Scripture (Isaiah 40-46). This shows Christ's deity and
relationship as one with, but distinct from the Father (cf. John 1:1-3;
Col. 1:15ff). Christ himself is the ultimate King and Lord of all.
Philippians 2:5-11 teaches us that Christ became man and was obedient unto
death so that God gave him a name which is above every name- - so that at
his feet every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord to the glory of God
the Father (cf. Is. 45:23).
Christ has many names but the name of
the Messiah, the Anointed One, the hope of Israel in verse 15 is also the
King of kings and Lord of lords. Christ who was also one like the Son of
Man, is also the Great King and Lord God (2 Samuel 7:14ff; Dan. 2:44,45;
cf. Is. 52-53). This name of the Messiah is the name that had been revealed
as "wonderful" (Judges 13); "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Is. 9:6); and all the
wisdom and power in Christ's names are described here consummately as the
King of kings and LORD of lords.
John reveals
to the churches that Christ is the conqueror of all their enemies and the
Lord has made all his enemies to be a footstool for him. This is not the
wrath of a God who is like a man, who bursts out in hatred and anger, but a
God who was patient, who warned, who did not want any to perish but for all
to come to repentance. This Christ who is coming to judge on behalf of his
Father has been merciful to all of creation and they have rejected him in
his life and work. The Creator of every man is now confronting sinful man
one last time with the ultimate judgment that every sinner deserves.
Christ is ruler and the consummation
of all of history. God rules all of creation in Christ and Christ comes one
last time to defeat the death and offer up his kingdom to his God and
Father (1 Cor. 15:27). This is the last in the cycles of judgment that
consummates in his Great Appearing before all the world to see. All of
those who denied him, all of those who said they did not believe, will find
that they were terribly wrong. All of those who persecuted the saints and
thought of them as weak and not worthy of dignity, will see them on this
day clothed in Christ's righteousness, in great dignity wearing Christ's
priestly robes.
For these saints who are coming with
Christ are a holy priesthood, a royal nation and although that is what they
have always been because of Christ, now the world will confess it and they
will be vindicated before the enemies of Christ and God. What a revelation
that God has given through Christ and his angel to the Apostle John! This
should encourage every saint in every age- -those who have believed upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. Their day is coming! "Vengeance is mine,"
the Lord has said, and so it is. Fear the Lord you his saints, for you who
fear the Lord lack no good thing.
Although times can look bleak and
dismal, there is always the blessed Book of Revelation to reveal the ending
of all of God's history. However it may look at times for the church who is
persecuted and are humbled in this world, God has overcome the world. When
the church reads these blessed verses and prays the Lord's prayer, now we
know the hope that is to come when we pray "Thy Kingdom come"
because it most assuredly will; surely as Christ is God, he will keep his
promises that he has made to his people. He will comfort them and make all
things new, he is indeed preparing a place for his people (John 14) and
there we will be with the Lord in his presence forever (Rev. 21).
This is the great paradox of history.
Although throughout the ages it seemed like the wicked were prospering and
God's people were being cast down and forsaken; no matter how long the Lord
in his wisdom and good timing allowed to pass for his return, the truth is
that he will return victoriously for his saints. God chastises his people,
makes them perfect through their sufferings so that they may be perfect and
conformed to the True Image of God in Christ. God's purpose in pain and
suffering finally rids the world of the so-called theodicy of God allowing
evil to exist in the world. For in these verses, the people of God have
their great hope revealed in Christ the conqueror coming with his people to
take vengeance upon all the wicked and the wrongdoing which they enacted
against God and his people.
What a vindication! What a judgment!
What a Christ that he should love us, not that we loved him first, but that
he loved us so much as to make a propitiation of his Son and save some from
his wrath. On that day when the heavens open and Christ shall be revealed,
then men will see Christ and the saints as they truly are! They will wish
that they had listened and obeyed the testimony of their words that
confessed and told of the Christ and his great crucifixion and
resurrection, but it will be too late.
Although God's law revealed all men
as fallen, they did not acknowledge God's reign and his sovereignty.
Instead, they fought against the Lord and his people by the power of the
prince of the power of the air. That power which they could see and feel in
this world, will be the power and wrath of God they will feel eternally in
the next. No, although they will be shut off from the presence of the
Lord's favor, they will not be shut off from the presence of the Lord's
wrath eternally. These wicked unbelievers, idolaters, and every other
conceivable wickedness will be judged on that Final Day when the Christ
appears with his people from heaven.
The Book of Revelation should
teach us that God's judgment is sure because he has judged his Son;
those who disbelieve presently already have the judgment of God upon them
(John 3:36). While the church tries to be patient with these brethren who
misunderstand God's word, they should be warned of calling God
"unfair" in any way. The Book of Revelation teaches us of God's
patient and mercy as he displays his wrath in escalating severity until his
final judgment with Christ on his white horse. This escalating severity of
God's judgment should lead men to repentance now, today (cf. 2 Cor. 6:1,2),
because God has given us the Book of Revelation to bless us in our lives,
not after our deaths. After our deaths, there is no hope of salvation;
today, we must seek his face in repentance and look to the Sovereign Judge
for mercy and forgiveness of our sins.
CRB
Bibliography/For Further Reading (Purchase
these at www.wtsbook.com-
- lowest prices on the web!)
Bauckham, Richard. The Theology of
the Book of Revelation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Bavinck, H. The Last Things: Hope for
this World and the Next. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1996.
Beale, G. K. The Book of Revelation.
NIGTC. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Press, 1999.
Kline, Meredith G. Images of the
Spirit. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1998.
Ladd, G. E. A Commentary on the
Revelation of John. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Press, 1972.
Longman, T. and Reid, D. God is a
Warrior. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Press, 1995.
Martin, R. P. and Davids, P. H.,
editors. Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments.
Downer's Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997.
Poythress, V. S. The Book of
Revelation: A Guide for Understanding (V. 2.0). Unpublished Manuscript,
Westminster Theological Bookstore.
Russell, D. S. Divine Disclosure: An Introduction
to Jewish Apocalyptic. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to him who is able to do far
more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at
work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
The practice and work
of correctly interpreting Holy Scripture is a most important work
for Christians. In fact, the Apostle Paul teaches his
disciple Timothy that interpretation [or 'hermeneutics'] is one of the
most important activities for one to engage as one "approved by
God" (2 Tim. 3:16ff).
The reason why good
interpretation is so important is that it is in the text of Scripture
that one comes to know and apprehend God as He has chosen to reveal
himself; it is in Scripture that we read: "For God so loved the world
that He gave His Only-Begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall
never perish, but have eternal life."
Because of the Fall of man and the taint of sin
in our hearts and minds, interpretation as well as all other things in our
lives must be constantly redeemed and reformed so that by the Spirit's
help, we might better apprehend the truth that God has revealed.
Deconstructionism
In academic circles
today (primarily in the schools of Yale University and Chicago
Divinity School and schools they have influenced), there is an attempt at
reading the text of Scripture not
in order to understand what God the Author of Scripture is saying, but in
order to read it with the reader alone in mind (or "readers",
group-interpretation such as "Feminist interpretations,"
"Environmentalist interpretations," "Gay
interpretations," and many others). This kind of interpretation
is called 'Deconstructionism'.
This practice of
Deconstructionism has been rightly criticized by Christian teachers
today in Christ's Church, because this self-centered practice of reading
Scripture ultimate deconstructs or undermines the meaning that is actually
found in the Bible. And, if we do not have the right meaning, and
have only interpreted the Scriptures with ourselves in mind, then we
haven't actually learned of the God Who exists and reveals Himself to us in
the Scriptures, and we cannot obey something given to us by God if we have
misinterpreted the Bible to say what we want it to say. We should
always remember this:
"The readiness to obey Christ's words is
prerequisite to understanding them." -Vanhoozer
Unfortunately,
misinterpretation and a misunderstanding of the effect of sin on our minds
and hearts in the process of interpretation, has not only affected academic
schools such as Yale and Chicago, but also happens in many Christian small
groups around the country every day. When we all gather around the
Scriptures and ask "What does it mean to you?", we are guilty of
self-interpreting the Scriptures, rather than seeking to understand the
true meaning that God the Author wants to communicate to His readers.
When we try to read and
obey only the Scriptures that have some appeal to us, again we are guilty
of self-interpreting the Scriptures and not truly understanding them.
I would also add that those who spiritualize, or allegorize the Bible are
in essence changing the meaning of the Author of Scripture and making it
say what their self-centered biases want it to say. Anyone who has
heard of Harold Camping, or unfortunately been affected by his teaching,
knows that the true meaning and glory of God found in Scripture is
exchanged many times for a lie.
The Sovereign
Reader
In essence, both in
academic circles and sometimes in Christian circles, the reader has become
sovereign. Whether this happens intentionally or
unintentionally, attempting to deconstruct the meaning that is found in the
Bible, the results are the same: God is silenced (or
"tongue-tied") and our own self-centered biases and opinions
about the meaning in the Bible rules the day.
This week's quotation
(actually next week's, but I will be on vacation, so I am sending it now)
is from Kevin Vanhoozer, from an essay entitled: 'The Spirit of Understanding: Special Revelation
and General Hermeneutics'. This essay is found in
Dr. Vanhoozer's book: 'First
Theology: God, Scripture and Hermeneutics' and is
recommended for all who want to know more about how to interpret God's Word
as well as to avoid some of the hermeneutical pitfalls of which we are all
capable. Dr. Vanhoozer is Research Professor of Systematic Theology
at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is a
prominent authority today on the practice of Biblical interpretation.
This week's quotation
reminds us that we need the Holy Spirit to redeem and reform our
interpretation as we rely on the Spirit of God to give us true meaning and
help in obeying the Scriptures. We should be reminded that the
Scriptures are given to us by God to satisfy our curiosity but to reveal
the living God to us and to reveal salvation to us in Christ, and to teach
us how to live as He created us to live! A classic text on the
Spirit's guide in interpretation is found in 1 Corinthians 2:9-16:
1 Corinthians
2:9-16: But, as it is
written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man
imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"- 10 these
things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches
everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person's
thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one
comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now
we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from
God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And
we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the
Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The
natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are
spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all
things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 "For who
has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we
have the mind of Christ.
Dr. Kevin J.
Vanhoozer
[In the context of our
quotation, Dr. Vanhoozer is critiquing 'Deconstructionism' that seeks to
shape the Biblical meaning of texts like a wax nose. He is
offering a Biblical and Trinitarian alternative to rightly interpreting, or
handling the Word of Truth]
"Because
interpreters are also sinners who suppress the Logos [Word] in
unrighteousness, a certain amount of suspicion can be healthy. A little deconstruction may not be a
dangerous thing...Deconstruction, far from protecting the text as an other,
licenses interpretive violence.
Deconstruction
contradicts two basic principles of a Christian worldview: first, the
'realism principle' (we can adequately know the world and are responsible
for doing so); second, the 'bias principle' (we never know the world apart
from biases that influence our perception of reality).
Now apply these two
principles to hermeneutics. First, the realism principle: we can
adequately understand texts [in the Bible]; second, the bias principle: we
can never understand texts apart from biases that affect our
understanding.
The Spirit of understanding progressively
convicts us of our biases and conforms us to reality.
Language does not bar us
from reality, though reality comes mediated by language. Neither
language nor being finite beings justifies interpretive sloth...Language, a
gift of God, is adequate for the purposes for which it was created.
Babel is not a license for interpretive anarchy, neither does it warrant a
despair of language. The biblical text, taken literally, is an
adequate testimony to Jesus Christ.
...We do not yet have
absolute knowledge. Yet we do have adequate knowledge, enough to
respond to the overtures of the Word of God. Our first reflex upon
being addressed [by God in the text of Scripture] should be trust. We
must at least be willing to hear the other rather than drown out its voice,
even when its message is a potential threat to our way of being in the
world...
...Just what is the role
of the interpreter in understanding? We should remember the bias principle:
"There has never yet been an expositor who
has allowed only Scripture alone to speak."
....All general
hermeneutics [or attempts at rightly understanding the Word of God, even if
trying to be "unbiased" and "objective"] is inescapably
theological....Self-love can pervert the course of interpretation as it
does every other human activity.
It is the Spirit who enables us to transfer
attention away from ourselves and our interests to the text and its subject
matter.
Understanding- - of the
Bible or any other text- - is a matter of ethics, indeed of
spirituality. Interpretation ultimately depends upon theological
virtues of faith, hope, and love. Faith
that there is a real presence, a voice, a meaning in the text; hope that the interpretive community
[the Church] can, in the power of the Spirit, attain an adequate, not
absolute, understanding; love,
a mutual relation of self-giving between text and reader....If
understanding involves obedience, it is easy to see how deconstruction
could quench the spirit of understanding.
....For the sake of
clarity, we can distinguish three aspects of the Spirit's role in the
process of interpretation.
First, the Spirit convicts us that the Bible is indeed
the locution [speech] of God that bears authoritative witness to the living
Word...Second, the Spirit illumines the
letter of the Word by impressing upon us the full force of its
communicative action, its illocutions [what the Word-speech, or locution is
about, namely Jesus Christ]. The Spirit does not alter biblical
meaning. Rather, 'the spiritual sense is the literal sense correctly
understood'...Third,
the Spirit sanctifies us and so helps us to
accept what is in the text instead of preferring our own interpretations.
The Spirit progressively
disabuses us of ideological or idolatrous prejudices that prevent us from
receiving the message. In doing so, the Spirit renders the Word effective. To read in the
Spirit does not mean to import some new sense to the text but rather to let
the letter be, or better, to apply the letter rightly to one's life.
The Spirit of understanding is the efficacy of the Word...
According to John Owen,
the Spirit is the 'primary efficient cause' of our understanding of
Scripture. Yet the Spirit's illumining work is not independent of our
own efforts to understand [against interpretive sloth, or self-centered
understanding]. John Owen says:
"It is the Spirit's activity, effected
through our own labor in exegesis, analysis, and application, of showing us
what the text means for us."
....In short, we
recognize the Spirit of understanding in those who "follow
Jesus," that is, in those who hear and do the Word. J. I. Packer
says:
"Those who would live under the authority of
the Spirit must bow before the Word as the Spirit's textbook....Those who
would live under the authority of Scripture must seek the Spirit as its
interpreter."
Thanks to the Spirit of
understanding, the letter of the text becomes an enlivening and nourishing
presence. Not only do we enjoy the first fruits of understanding, but
we look forward to that day when we will understand as we have been
understood."
Veni spiritus interpres! Come interpreter Spirit!
"The readiness to obey Christ's words is
prerequisite to understanding them." -Vanhoozer
Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to him who is able to do far more
abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work
within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout
all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
This week's
quotation is on the biblical virtue of humility (and one that we can
all remember for this new year). The quotation is by C. S. Lewis,
from his powerful and insightful book called 'The Screwtape Letters' from
1942. This ingenious and helpful book takes the form of a dialogue
between two devils, aptly named 'Screwtape' (the elder devil) and
'Wormwood' (his disciple).
The character Screwtape
writes letters to his younger disciple with devilish wisdom that he has
learned over the years of just how to trip up Christians who are serving
the LORD (translated 'The Enemy' from their perspective). He gives
him advice on how to prevent a Christian from praying, from being
completely and sincerely obedient, and how to cause a Christian to think
more about, and of himself than he does about His Lord Jesus (again
translated 'The Enemy' from his perspective).
So how does the Devil cause Christians to be
proud, self-serving, and full on themselves, yet giving them the false hope
and gratification that they are humble people? Let's read this
dialogue.
C. S. Lewis
"Your patient [the Christian] has become humble; have you drawn his
attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man
is aware that he has them, but this is especially true of humility.
Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle
into his mind the gratifying reflection, 'By Jove! I'm being humble,' and
almost immediately pride- - pride at his own humility- -will appear.
If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride,
make him proud of his attempt -- and so on, through as many stages as you
please. But don't try this too long, for fear you awake his sense of
humor and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to
bed.
But there are profitable ways of fixing his attention on the virtue of
Humility. By this virtue, as by all the others, our Enemy [the LORD
Jesus] wants to turn the man's attention away from self to Him, and to the
man's neighbors. All the abjection and self-hatred are designed, in
the long run, solely for this end; unless they attain this end they do us
little harm; and they may even do us good if they keep the man concerned
with himself, and, above all, if self-contempt can be made the starting
point for contempt of other selves, and thus for gloom, cynicism, and
cruelty.
You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of
Humility. Let him think of it, not as self-forgetfulness, but as a
certain kind of opinion (namely a low opinion) of his own talents and
character.
Some talents, I gather, he really has. Fix in his mind the idea
that humility consists in trying to believe those talents to be less
valuable than he believes them to be. No doubt they are in fact less valuable than he
believes, but that is not the point.
The great thing is to make him value an opinion of some quality other
than truth, thus introducing an element of dishonesty and make-believe into
the heart of what otherwise threatens to become a virtue. By this
method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means
pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to
believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe
may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing
it, and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on
themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible."
-The Screwtape Letters, C.
S. Lewis (1942)
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 31
John 4:20-24:
"Worship in Spirit and Truth"
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
In the Reformation, the
people of God learned that it was not enough to merely be
"Reformed" in name, but that the Church must also be
"Reformed" in principle. That meant that to call oneself
"Reformed" required the constant need to be consistently,
ceaselessly, constantly, and carefully "REFORMING" as the people
of God and returning to Scripture for answers to every question and to fully
know how to be the
Church of the living God (2 Tim. 3:16-17).
Since we are beginning a
new year, it is worthwhile to practice this continuous reforming, by
looking once again at what the Scriptures teach us about true
worship. This can be such a controversial topic, but it must
continually be addressed. Just because it can be controversial and
even a divisive, we still should seek by God's grace to understand what
true worship is according to the Scriptures.
There is no better place
to begin than in John 4:20-24 in Jesus' dialogue with the sinful, Samaritan
woman. There a few points I would like to make from observing this
text and these are by no means the last words on the subject, just a small
attempt at understanding what this means for us as the people of God who
call ourselves "Reformed" in this new year.
In the context, the
sinful Samaritan woman has asked Jesus about the two mountains, and where
is the correct place for worship (John 4:20). First of all Jesus
corrects her assumption that the Samaritans have been rightly worshipping
God on Mt. Gerazim. He tells her that "salvation is from the
Jews" (4:22). Jesus does not mean that all Jews will be saved
(it is the Apostle John's purpose ironically to show the rejection of Jesus
by the majority of the Jews and his acceptance by Samaritans in this
passage and through the remainder of chapter 4).
Jesus basically tells
the sinful Samaritan woman that since I am here in your midst, the Kingdom
is with you, and things are changing right before your very eyes.
Therefore, to merely think about a physical location of worship, and to
consider the way things have been, is not enough to consider. In
fact, he says to her, "you worship what you do not know; we (meaning
the Jews, including Himself) worship what we do know.
Jesus tells her the time is coming, and is now
here, where God's true worshippers will worship Him in spirit and
truth. For God is seeking these kind of worshippers (John 4:23).
Let us look at a few
considerations from this passage that can inform the way we worship the
living God in 2004.
Worship is
Christ-Centered
First of all, it is
important to note that true worship is always Christ-Centered. Jesus
is the Beginning and End, the Alpha and Omega of our salvation, but also of
our worship. Jesus is the reason why we can truly worship the living
God in the first place. He is the only Mediator between God and man
(1 Tim. 2:5), and thus the only way to the true worship of God (John
14:6). Truly, no man comes to the Father, either for salvation, or
for worship apart from Jesus Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
What Jesus
is ultimately revealing to and graciously offering the
sinful Samaritan woman is what he wants to reveal and to graciously
offer to us today: Worship that is Christ-Centered. Jesus is telling
the woman in these verses in John 4 to get your eyes off the mountains,
even the so-called traditions of your Fathers, and get your eyes, worship
and focus on me. Here is Jesus physically present, not merely to discuss
past theological debates about a legitimate mountain on which to worship,
but he is here in the flesh to draw her (as well as our) attention to
Himself alone!
Recently, I have been
thinking that when people in general describe certain congregations
that they visit, they speak of what made them happy, met their felt
needs, or how the worship satisfied them- -apart from any mention of Who
was preached, how He was preached, and what they learned from the preaching
of the Word (of course you may hear how long the sermon was, but not much
mention of the content).
What it seems like from
this general observation is that in our time, it appears that most
visitors to worship services are evaluating the service primarily on the
style of worship and the feelings gained from it, over and above the
priority of Who is preached, how He is preached, and what He tells His
people to do. Notice in your own experience when speaking with other
Evangelical Christians these days if they even mention what was preached, or
if they merely focus on the style of the worship and how it either
appealed, or rather did not appeal to them.
These are just some
thoughts from observations, but oftentimes I hear many speaking not so much
about the Christ of worship, as they do about themselves and what they got
out of the worship. We should remember as a
"Reforming" people, that Christ, His Word, His Way, His Will, His
Worship (as best as we can understand it) is to be central in our
lives. What we desire and pray for as "Reforming" people is
a worship that is primarily about Christ and His presence among us as He
walks among our congregations today.
What we hear, what we
do, what we think, and even what we ultimately feel in our worship, should
always be in light of Jesus and what we have heard proclaimed biblically
and passionately from the pulpit each Lord's Day.
Worship is not primarily about us, but it is
about God alone.
I find it strange that
we mix up what rightly belongs to God and what is given by God for the
benefit of man. For instance, Jesus tells us that God has given to us
the Christian Sabbath for us.
It is for our benefit: "Man is not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man".
However, you will never find Jesus saying that "Man is not made for
the worship, but the worship for
man."
Yet in principle this is
how some of us practically behave! We have been given the Christian
Sabbath to worship the living God in a Christ-centered way because it is
for our good. Yet we have not been given worship ultimately for our
own good (although only good things can come from it; cf. Rom.
8:28ff). Yet we turn this around on its head like everything
else sinful man attempts to do by his own whims and when not submitted
to the Word. We tend to break the Christian Sabbath, taking away what
is rightly ours and for our own good (then wonder why we are such a tired,
unfulfilled and busy people), and we want the worship for ourselves.
Now we don't say it that
way, we say we want the worship to be fulfilling
to us. But when we start out with a focus on ourselves and our own
desires when we are in search of the worship of God with other Christians,
we inevitably will end up only finding what suits ourselves and our own
selfish desires and wants! May it never be, by God's grace.
We need to understand that it takes more than
goosebumps or goosepimples standing up on the back of our necks to
determine whether we are truly worshipping the living God in spirit and
truth!
May we begin this new
year by asking how we can more appropriately worship the Lord by coming to
Him through the Lord Jesus Christ, worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ for
what He has done for us in obtaining our salvation, and thanking him
gratefully by our worship, whether we feel anything for ourselves or
not. May we offer ourselves to the Lord God through the Lord Jesus as
we long to hear Jesus' Word, Way, Will, and Worship!
Worship is
Christ-Commanded
Jesus commands us to worship him in a certain way
lest we end up in our own sinfulness worshipping something, or someone
other than God!
Notice what Jesus says
to the sinful Samaritan woman when comparing the faulty worship tradition
of the Samaritans with the Jews in verse 22: "You (plural, meaning all
of the Samaritans) worship what you
do not know". Jesus uses a relative pronoun:
"what you do not know" rather than a personal pronoun "who
you do not know". When our worship is not Christ-centered and we
approach God the Father by His Spirit through Our Mediator, we worship
something other than God.
It is interesting to
note that whenever men seek out, even with the noble traditions of their
Fathers, yet without submitting entirely to the Scriptures concerning
worship, they end up at the end of the day worshipping something (or
someone!!) other than the True and Living God. (Remember from our last
study that the Samaritans only accepted the Torah, or first five books of
the Old Testament, so they did not know of any new revelation or
developments concerning worship, particularly the instructions to build the
later Temples under David and then after the Exile- cf. 2 Sam. 7; Ezra 1-4;
Haggai 1-2).
In Paul's sermon at the
Areopagus, while Paul was in Athens, Greece, he notices the same tendency
with all men. When men try to worship with mere general revelation,
apart from the special revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures, they end
up worshipping something (or someone!!) they do not know.
Acts 17:22-23:
"Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23
For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I
found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god.' What
therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you."
The Apostle Paul goes on
to instruct them according to the Scriptures how God has clearly manifested
Himself to them and ultimately in the revelation of Jesus Christ, the One
Who can give all of those Who believe access to the God in Whom we all
live, move and have our being (Acts 17:24-32).
John Calvin, in his
commentary on this passage from John 4 says this:
"...We are
not to essay anything in religion rashly or unthinkingly. For unless
there is knowledge present, it is not God that we worship but a spectre or
ghost. Hence all so-called good intentions are struck by a thunderbolt,
which tells us that men can do nothing but err when they are guided by
their own opinion without the Word or command of God....the Samaritans took
the example of the fathers as a precedent; the Jews were grounded on the
commandment of God."
We must recall that
Israel's first formal worship service after their redemption from Egypt,
while Moses was up on the mountain getting the commandments of God, was at
worst a heretical, idolatrous worship service to ultimately an
"unknown god" (Exodus 32). At the very best, it was a
worship perhaps directed to the true God, but not in the way He has
commanded them.
Jesus is not saying here
in John 4:22 that Israel's worship was always exemplary when he says
"salvation is from the Jews" or "we worship what we know".
He is stating that Israel was the chosen nation through which the
Scriptures came that instructed them in their proper worship (even if they
did not obediently comply). This is what Jesus means that
"salvation is from the Jews" (compare also with Romans
9:1-6).
However, since the
"time was coming, and was now here" things were changing and even
the Jews who were worshipping at the Temple on the mountain in Jerusalem,
that at one time was the correct place of worship, NOW the worship was to
be only in and through Jesus Christ and "in spirit and
truth". As Jesus showed with regards to the Temple in Jerusalem
(see study on John 2), the glory of God was manifested in flesh and because
God was present with Israel in the flesh now, the glory of God was moving
out of the Temple with Him!
To prevent all of God's
people from worship something, or someone other than the living God
revealed in Scripture, we must willingly submit to Christ's command and
principles concerning worship. We must realize that in Jesus, and by
His Word we are to be directed as to how we are to worship Him. This
should be sought humbly submitting under Jesus' word, realizing one's own
worship style preferences and presuppositions, and prayerfully seeking
wisdom to do that which is God honoring and obedience in one's
congregation!
The "reforming reformation" of worship
begins in each congregation with humble and prayerful Christians
submitting themselves under the commands of Christ anew and seeking
diligently to obey these commands no matter what the cost to the
congregation.
Worship is
Word-Centered Dialogue with God
Let's look at another
way of understanding worship. Worship is a dialogue with God.
To worship God in spirit and truth is to worship him rightly in Jesus Christ
alone as he has commanded, but it is also in spirit and truth. The term "spirit and
truth" focuses our attention on the spiritually
truthful, and non-physical aspect of worship. In verse
24, Jesus teaches the Samaritan woman and us that God is Spirit and thus we
worship Him in spirit and truth.
We should understand
that in the context, Jesus is drawing the sinful Samaritan woman's
attention away from the question of "where", meaning physicality
or geographical location of worship, because this is passing away and
changing now that the "fullness of the times" have come in
Jesus. Now Jesus is focusing the woman's attention, as well as ours
on the true worship more specifically directed to "Whom".
How does dialogue with
God help us to understanding true worship in spirit and truth? We
must remember that in order for us rightly to respond to God in worship, we
must first be rightly informed of Who God is and What He teaches us in
Scripture.
Who God is as Spirit, in
all of his character and revealed attributes in the Scriptures, informs us
as to how to worship Him. God reveals Himself in the reading,
preaching, and singing of the Word of God in our worship. We
dialogue, or respond back to God with our praise, prayers, petitions, and obedience
to His commandments.
True worship of God is
from a heart wholeheartedly captured and informed by God's Word,
because of the work of God's Spirit. Thus one of the reasons why
"Reforming" congregations have always placed the Word central in
worship. That is why in "Reforming" congregations there is
a call to worship from Scripture, as well as a scriptural greeting
that opens up the worship-dialogue and a benediction from Scripture
closing the worship-dialogue.
In "Reforming" worship, God is greeting
us with His Word at the beginning and closing with His Word at the end
so that our entire worship, as well as our lives would be found in
between, identified in the pages of His Story, and living in His light from
morning to evening each and every day!
In "Reforming"
congregations there is also a great deal of Scripture read from the Old and
New Covenants each worship service, in addition to the sermon text.
The focus is always on the Word of God because "God speaks", his
people listen, and then we respond!
It is tempting in an age
of images to forget the Word-Centered quality of worship.
Because many of us have been brought up on an abundance of
images, it is challenging and difficult for us to pay attention to what is
read and preached through words. But this is part of our culture that
we must also bring under the Lordship of Jesus! We should resist this
image-centered tendency with God's help as much as any other cultural or
worldly tendency that seeks to cause us to live according to the pattern of
this age (Romans 12:1-2).
Seeking
after Word-Centered worship is also part of our spiritual act of
worship in offering ourselves up as a living sacrifice and renewing of
our minds by the Word of God!
We will be unable to
rightly worship because we are not rightly informed! Not only
informed about Who God is, how to approach Him in Christ, understanding
what He has graciously done for us, we will not be able to truly worship
God because we will be seeking him in a shallow and uninformed manner, only
seeking to satisfy ourselves and our own desires for what we think is real
worship revealed through our feelings.
Think about it: If a
congregation of Christ's sheep, instead of being Word-Centered and fed
primarily on the Word, is being merely fed on a diet of short, catchy
praise ditties without much theological content in their worship, then the
response from these malnourished sheep will be short, catchy praise ditties
without much theological content in response to God in their worship.
In other words, as the old saying goes concerning what we eat physically:
"You are what you eat". So, it can be applied spiritually
here with regards to worship. "We are spiritually what we eat!"
Our dialogue in worship will reflect what we are hearing!
Yet true worship in
spirit and truth, must come from the Word of God. God meets His
people every Lord's Day, through the ordained minister, who stands in
Christ's place, proclaiming not merely jokes, good manners, stories, and
his own experiences, but proclaiming the Christ Who saves through the Word
God speaks (Heb. 1:1-2).
In an age of images, we must always
remember that faith does not come by images, but still comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of Christ (Romans 10:17).
This doesn't mean we
will not have to work at being Word-Centered and Word-Focused people in
worship- - we will! It will take a greater amount of grace for us to
pay attention to the word read, sung, and preached. We will often be
tempted to find the surroundings too hot, too cold, too many children
crying, too much work to do when I get home or to the office, too long of a
sermon, too many songs to sing, etc.
When all we are truly
and really saying if we are honest with ourselves is that it is too hard to
listen to God's Word and we don't often find it as interesting as we ought
because we've wasted a lot of time not listening, not paying attention,
relying merely on images and stories to make the point!
Alright, then!
Hard work, but not too hard by God's grace. God has given His Word to
us, so that His people, saturated by the reading, singing, and hearing of
His Word, can appropriately and honestly respond to the living God in
praise, prayer, petitions and obedience! If God has chosen to grow
His people by His Word, then why do we seek anything else? If God
calls His Only Begotten Son, the Incarnate Word (John 1:14), then why would
we want to try and worship Him in any other way than by and through His
Word that tells us about the salvation and grace that has been shown to us
in Jesus??!!
Worship is
wholeheartedly honest and truthful, from the heart when the Word is central
and we dialogue with the living God in our worship. Think about
it! When you are convicted of sin, you respond in true
repentance (that's worship in spirit and truth); when you are sad because
life is upside down because of sin, you are suffering and you hear God's
Word of comfort, you respond with your own sadness to God, but with living
hope (that's worship in spirit and truth); when you are feeling rightfully
guilty for breaking God's commandments, rather than descending
introspectively into shame, you hear that God has sent a Savior who was
shamed for you, and you respond in belief all over again, knowing that
Jesus truly loves you and is the Savior of your soul (that's worship in
spirit and truth).
If Christ is not central in worship, we will be;
If Christ's commandments are not heeded with regards to worship, our ideas
and traditions will be; if worship is not Word-Centered and understood as a
dialogue with God, then we will not be able truly to worship in spirit and
truth.
This is not a
comprehensive analysis of worship from John 4:20-24 as I said earlier, but
hopefully it is a help and a beginning to at least rethink the way you and
your congregation do worship now. Would you say your worship is
Christ-Centered, Christ-Commanded, and a true Dialogue with God in spirit
and truth? Seek the LORD and pray that He would work in and through
you to become even more "Reforming" in your worship in this
coming year.
Don't seek to overwhelm
others in your congregations with your understanding of true worship.
Don't think pridefully you're the only one who understands true worship
(because if you think this, you really don't understand because you are
probably worshipping God insincerely while looking around you and judging
those around you because you know they are wrong). Don't think this
kind of biblical reformation and continual reforming can come
overnight!
But neither be
scared and frightened by men to tell the truth and stand for biblical truth
in love this year! Remember love for others covers a multitude of
sins. You can influence people so much more if you first live true
worship, teach true worship, love true worship, and make connections with
others who have never experienced true worship because they have been so
concerned with themselves and their own felt needs!
If you want a
comprehensive collection of balanced essays on worshipping God in spirit
and truth, you should begin with a brand new book dedicated to the memory,
ministry, and work of Dr. James Montgomery Boice. The book is
entitled Give Praise to God: A
Vision for Reforming Worship- Celebrating the Legacy of James Montgomery
Boice, Edited by Ryken, Thomas, and Duncan III (P&R,
2003). Please purchase this from www.wtsbook.org, so that you might
contribute to the ongoing work at Westminster Theological Seminary.
Soli Deo Gloria!
For Further
Reading
D. A. Carson, 'Gospel
According to John'
H. Ridderbos, 'The
Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary'
L. Morris, 'The Gospel
According to John' (NICNT)
J. Calvin, 'Commentary
on the Gospel of John'
R. Brown, 'Commentary on
the Gospel of St. John'
J. Dennison, Articles on
John's Gospel at www.kerux.com
J.
Boice, 'Commentary on John's Gospel'
Ryken, Longman III, et
al, 'Dictionary of Biblical Imagery'
Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to him who is able to do far
more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at
work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA 20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
Image and Reality
What is real? What is
image? Many people today spend much of their time in 'virtual reality'. It
is axiomatic that 'virtual' reality is not true reality. In fact, my
dictionary defines 'virtual' (as in virtual reality) as that which is
"practically a reality, but not a reality in actuality, only in
name." Christians must be discerning of the difference between image
and reality. Image is what we seem to be. Reality or our character is who
we truly are.
It would be simple to
say that image is concerned with the external person, what ideas about
oneself one wishes to convey to another. In contrast, character is
something developed internally over time (by God's grace) and manifests
externally (quite naturally) in our character ("you will know the tree
by the fruit it bears" suggests that there is a difference between
real fruit and 'virtual fruit').
Here are three
quotations submitted to you that will help you to reflect on your image and
your reality. All three of the writers and books are worth taking the
time on which to read and reflect. Our hope in Christ is that our
image and our reality will be harmonious. In other words,
what we seem to be and who we are will not be in
tension.
First a quotation from
social historian Daniel Boorstin, from his great book 'The Image' (1963)
where he defines the expectations of modern man in the real world and how
this reality tends toward making images more attractive to us.
Daniel Boorstin
(1) "We expect
anything and everything. We expect the contradictory and the impossible. We
expect compact cars which are spacious; luxurious cars which are
economical. We expect to be rich and charitable, powerful and merciful,
active and reflective, kind and competitive. We expect to be inspired by
mediocre appeals for excellence, to be made literate by illiterate appeals
for literacy. We expect to eat and stay thin, to be constantly on the move
and ever more neighborly, to go to the 'church of our choice' and yet feel
its guiding power over us, to revere God and to be God."
-Daniel
Boorstin, The Image, New York: Pelican Books, 1963, 76.
Dick Keyes
(2) "The real world
and our daily experience in it cannot measure up to our expectations- - but
the world of image can, at least for a little while. If we hold dearly to
our expectations, the image world can become more real than reality itself.
The real world becomes bland or gray in comparison. We 'can' make images
that 'do' meet our expectations, or pay others to make them for us- - and
those images are far more vivid."
-Dick Keyes,
'True Heroism in a World of Celebrity Counterfeits', NavPress, 1995, 65.
Os Guiness
(3) "Today,
however, style has become an end in itself. No longer expressive of
substance or inner character, style is all that matters now. No longer
enduring, it is transient, changeable, and fashion-oriented. As a glance at
any magazine rack will show, style is the number one mantra of late
twentieth-century America. Used more often on magazine covers than even the
word sex, style is a leading source of anxiety, hope, and fascination for
millions. To be up-to-date and in touch with one's style is essential; to
be out-of-date or out-of-touch is unforgivable.
At a time when permanence
of personality is as forlorn as permanence of place, change is the order of
the day. Identity is now a matter of perception and presentation. And style
is the art of skillfully presenting illusions as we walk down the corridor
of images that make up modern society."
-Os Guinness,
'Fit Bodies, Fat Minds; Why Evangelicals Don't Think and What to Do About
it', Baker Books, 1994.
Col. 3:9-10: Do not lie to one another, since you have put
off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according
to the image of Him who created him...
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
The next few 'Word of Encouragement'
quotes of the week will come from Dr. D. G. Hart, former professor of
church history and academic dean of Westminster Theological
Seminary. Dr. Hart is now the director of academic
relations and faculty development at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute
(www.isi.org).
(If you live in the Maryland and Virginia area, Dr. Hart will be speaking
at Patrick Henry College here in Purcellville, Virginia in April. If
you want more info, let me know.)
Dr. Hart's passion and
concern for Christ's Church today is that we learn (or relearn) our
great heritage as the people of God and the theological foundations of
our past. His desire, as well as the desires of many others, is that
Christ might be glorified in our teaching of the Word of God, in our lives,
and in our worship.
One of his articles on
theology and worship appeared in the theological magazine 'Touchstone'
(fall 1995). The article is entitled 'Reforming Worship: Reverence, the Reformed Tradition, and the
Crisis of Protestant Worship'. Our quotation this
week is from this article. I have included a list of books by D. G.
Hart at the bottom of this quotation of the week, so that you might study
further on this. I highly recommend his works as a Christian,
professor, and friend.
Our first quotation is
Dr. Hart's discussion on John Calvin's teaching on worship. Remember
something very important:
One's theology always drives or
influences one's worship. What one believes about God is how one
will worship God.
As you read this
quotation, it would be helpful to compare the 'Order of Worship' below from
Calvin's congregation in the Reformation with your own 'Order of Worship'
(or what is in the bulletin at your church) each Lord's Day. If you
notice, the elements of Calvin's worship service are all found in Acts 2:42
and are founded upon clear Scriptural teaching. Additionally, the
'Order of Worship' is not new (apart from changing some of the abuses of
the Church in the Reformation), but is in continuity with the great
heritage and theological history of Christ's Church.
D. G. Hart
"An axiom of
Calvin's theology was the importance and centrality of worship for vital
and genuine Christian faith and practice. In fact, Calvin put worship
ahead of salvation in his list of the two most important facets of biblical
religion. The Christian religion maintains its truth, he wrote, by
'a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is
duly worshipped; and secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be
obtained.'
Calvin also observed
that the first table of the law- - the first four commandments- - all
directly relate to worship, thus making worship 'the first foundation of
righteousness.'
The prominence of
worship led to Calvin's articulation of the regulative principle, one of
the hallmarks of the Reformed tradition. The regulative principle
teaches that public worship is governed by God's revelation in his holy
Word; whatever elements comprise corporate worship must be directly commanded
by God in Scripture. The fact that a congregation has always
worshiped in a particular way or that a certain practice stems from sincere
piety are not sufficient reasons for ordering a worship service in a
certain way.
According to Calvin, God
not only 'regards as fruitless, but also plainly abominates' whatever does
not conform to his revealed will. 'The words of God are clear and
distinct,' Calvin wrote. 'Obedience is better than sacrifice. In vain
do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men' (1 Sam.
15:22; Matt. 15:9).
The desire to obey God
informed Calvin's conception of the regulative principle, but just as
important was the Reformer's understanding of human depravity. The
principle effect of Adam's first transgression was to turn all people into
idolaters. All individuals, Calvin believed, even after the fall
possessed a seed of religion, or a sense of God in their souls. After
the fall, however, this religious sense no longer led to the true God but
instead forced men and women to create gods of their own making, gods that
conformed to their own selfishness and vanity.
The temptation of
idolatry required Christians to be ever vigilant in regulating their
worship by the direct commands of God in Scripture. This temptation
made Calvin especially suspicious of practices in worship that were said to
be pleasing or attractive to members of the congregation.
He said that the more a practice 'delights human
nature, the more it is to be suspected by believers.'
Calvin's theology of
worship required reforms of the Roman Catholic practices he encountered in
Geneva. But the need for reform did not mean the abandonment of
liturgy (order of worship), nor did it require the elimination of all
elements of the Catholic service. The Reformers purified the practice
of their day, transforming the theological and spiritual content of
Christian worship.
They did not create a
new order of worship out of nothing but instead altered the elements of
worship to conform to the theology of the Reformation. Calvin's
liturgy (order of worship) in Geneva, for instance, demonstrates continuity
with the past while also reflecting changes derived from new insights into
God's revelation. The order of worship was basically as follows (this
is what Calvin's bulletin for his church would have looked like):
Invocation (opening
prayer to God)
Confession of Sins
Prayer for Pardon
Singing of a Psalm
Prayer for Illumination
Lessons from Scripture
Sermon
Collection of Offerings
Prayers of Intercession
Apostle's Creed (sung
while elements of the Lord's Supper are prepared)
Words of Institution
Instruction and
Exhortation
Communion (while a psalm
is sung or Scripture read)
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Benediction
Even though Calvin
followed a regular pattern in his worship services, he did not believe it
was possible to prescribe all matters of worship.
He acknowledged the
existence of incidental matters that Scripture did not determine. In
such matters, churches had freedom under the general guidelines of the
Bible to implement practices that would honor God and edify his
people. While the regulative principle teaches that a specific
practice must be commanded by God's Word, it also guarantees freedom
regarding areas in which Scripture is not explicit."
- D. G. Hart
Next Week:
Principles of Reformed Worship from D. G. Hart
Books by D. G. Hart
1) Recovering Mother Kirk: The Case for Liturgy in the Reformed
Tradition http://store.yahoo.com/wtsbooks/0801026156.html
2) With Reverence and Awe: Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship http://store.yahoo.com/wtsbooks/0875521797.html
3) Legacy of Jonathan Edwards: American Religion and the Evangelical
Tradition http://store.yahoo.com/wtsbooks/0801026229.html
4) Deconstructing Evangelicalism: Conservative Protestantism in the Age
of Billy Graham http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0801027284/qid=1074518414/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-9389716-8012967?v=glance&s=books
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 32
John 4:27-54: "The
Harvest and the Healing"- Pt. 1
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
Seeing is believing?
Only when we are seeing with eyes fixed on Jesus
by faith can we truly see He and His work- -otherwise we are blind to Jesus
and His Work.
The disciples come back
from getting food while they are in Samaria. Jesus has been doing the
will of the Father in revealing Himself to one sinful, Samaritan woman that
will become many Samaritans in the town. What will begin as a small
seed being sowed by Jesus in his conversation and revealing himself to
her, will become a harvest of people who will become disciples of Jesus and
be brought into the Kingdom.
But do the disciples of
Jesus see this yet? Are they able to see the harvest all around
them? Are we today able to see all that Jesus can do through us as
the sower and the reaper work together in the Lord's harvest? As we
approach John 4:27-54, let us remember Jesus' words to His disciples in the
Gospel of Matthew chapter 9:
"And Jesus went throughout all the cities
and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of
the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36
When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were
harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he
said to his disciples,
"The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers
are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out
laborers into his harvest."
Our passage in John 4
today concerning the harvest is about whether we as Jesus' followers truly
believe and can see the harvest that is always before us and all around us
in these final days since Jesus has come!
Part 1: The Harvest- SEE WITH EYES OF FAITH
27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled
that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you
seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?"
Jesus had a providential moment of proclamation
so that he could reveal himself to the sinful Samaritan woman in John
4:1-26. Now the disciples return, and what was sown is about to
be witnessed as a great harvest for them to see. When the disciples
return and see Jesus doing the unthinkable -- talking to a sinful Samaritan
woman, they do not speak or ask what was naturally on their minds.
Why did the disciples not ask Jesus about
this? Perhaps it was confusion, or the disciples were pondering
Jesus’ purpose? At this time, it was written in the tradition
of the rabbis that to speak to a woman (including one's wife) rather than
focusing on Torah/Law was a straight path to Gehenna (or hell). So,
the disciples of Jesus would have indeed "marveled"!!
Remember, part of the disciples' training throughout Jesus' earthly
ministry was better understanding Who he was, but also what he was doing.
Jesus has just told the sinful Samaritan
woman about real drink and the eternal spring of water that will
remain in those who believe forever. Now he will teach the
disciples about real food. He teaches them that the real food that
Jesus has is doing the Father's will. The emphasis I want to place
here is on the present active word "doing". The food that
Jesus offers his disciples and us today is a constant food of nourishment
and fulfillment that comes from a present tense, active "doing of
God's will". But do we SEE what is to be done around us?
The disciples at this point do not SEE the will of the Father around them yet,
and many times neither do we today!
Jesus will use the real food to teach them about
their seeing! Now notice the disciples are confused and mixed up
about this food as well. Just as the Pharisees had misunderstood
Jesus' words about the Temple in John 2; just as Nicodemus had
misunderstood Jesus' words about being "born from above" in John
3; just as the sinful, Samaritan woman had misunderstood Jesus' words about
living water; so now the disciples misunderstand Jesus' words about real food.
31 Meanwhile
the disciples were urging him, saying, "Rabbi, eat." 32 But
he said to them, "I have
food to eat that you do not know about." 33 So the
disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to
eat?" 34 Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to
accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, 'There are yet
four months, then comes the harvest'?
How does the real food of God's will instruct us
as to our seeing. Well, remember the importance of seeing by faith in
the Book of John. Here are some passages that we can recall up to
this point about seeing and believing. The emphasis of the seeing is
always on the Lord Jesus and His Work!
In John 1:39, Andrew and Peter
were encouraged by Jesus: "He
said to them, "Come and you will see." So they came and saw where
he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the
tenth hour.
In John 1:46, Philip invites Nathaniel to
come to Jesus: "Nathanael
said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip
said to him, "Come and see."
In John 1:50, Jesus is strengthening Nathaniel's
faith in Him: "Jesus
answered him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,'
do you believe? You will see greater things than these."
In John 3:3, Jesus told Nicodemus about the
importance of being able to see the Kingdom of God: Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to
you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Now in John 4:29, ironically, it is not
the disciples who see around them, but a sinful, Samaritan
woman who has eyes to see the harvest around her. She says to the
crowds in the Samaritan village: "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be
the Christ?"
"My Food"
Jesus’ food was God’s will for lost
people- -what is your food? I don't think we trust Jesus enough
oftentimes with believing and seeing around us day in and day out the lost
and hurting people he brings along our path. I don't know that we
often believe the power of His word and the comfort and hope it brings to
lost sinners! I pray sometimes that the Lord Jesus would cause me to
see better those hurting and lost, without hope in the world and to reach
out to them as best as I can in the way that is natural for my personality.
For some people, outreaching to the lost seems to
come naturally. To others, perhaps with shy or introverted kinds of
personalities, it becomes more difficult. However, for each kind of
personality, for each kind of person, God has made you the way you are so
that you have special outreach and ministry to others that is genuinely
unique!
Think about it: There is no one else exactly like
you in personality and in the way you think and communicate.
Additionally, where you have been placed providentially for proclamation of
God's purposes is the place where you naturally through your own
personality and your own manner, reach out and tell the world through you
life, but also through your words the hope that you have in Jesus.
This doesn't necessarily mean that you will
preach the gospel on a street corner or at the front of a bus, or that you
will hand out tracts to reach the lost. What evangelism and the
harvest of Jesus is about is SEEING, or beginning to SEE the harvest of
Christ's people who have been predestined from the foundation of the world
(Eph. 1:3ff), and believing this enough to bring the words of truth to bear
upon the people of your town, home, community, office, or in whatever
surrounding you find yourself.
Now let's notice verse 34 again:
Jesus said to them, "My
food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.
Simultaneously Seeing and Serving
Jesus is teaching his disciples to believe and
SEE the harvest before them. There seems to be a subtle rebuke
here. The disciples were doing something quite harmless- - they were
going to get food, nothing inherently wrong with such a thing. We are
physical beings who need physical sustenance. But what I think Jesus
is teaching them about the real food of accomplishing the Father's work is
that you can get food and you can SEE the harvest and accomplish the
Father's will -- at the same
time! This means you can be simultaneously seeing the harvest and
serving the Lord each and every day!
In other words, we so often compartmentalize our
lives. Our worship of God goes here, our family is here, our
evangelism goes there; our eating and drinking goes here, our physical
needs are there, and here is where we place our spiritual needs, etc.
What it seems Jesus wants to teach the disciples and us today is to avoid
compartmentalizing our lives and to see that our ultimate goal in life, as we go along our normal journeys throughout the
day, is to glorify God by SEEING the harvest that is always
around us in these last days since Jesus has come.
As the Westminster Shorter Catechism begins:
"What is the chief end (or purpose) of man?" Answer: "To
glorify God and to enjoy him forever." In this brief summary of
the meaning of life, there is no compartmentalizing of our faith and love
for Jesus, nor a separation of our physical and spiritual lives, rather all
of our lives are to be for the purpose of glorifying and enjoying God every day of our
lives, no matter what we are doing.
Our relationship and walk with
Jesus as his disciples is to be sensitive, alert, and watchful as we
prayerfully seek to find true fulfillment in not merely worrying about
ourselves, but concerned about the lost sheep of Jesus Who have no
shepherd.
Going to dinner? SEE the harvest! Going to
meet a friend? SEE the harvest! Going to school, to work, to the
office, to the store, to the ends of the earth perhaps? SEE the harvest!
At the end of the day, the disciples were being
self-centered and selfish. Jesus needed water and sought it, but he
also used it as an opportunity to do the Father's will because He could SEE
the harvest around him in Samaria. The disciples in contrast to our
Lord Jesus go off to get some food, even though they know (and are informed
by the present hostility and prejudice of Samaritan people) that Samaria
needs to know their Lord Jesus too!
In contrast to the disciples, the woman didn't
merely forget why she originally came to the well, she would have satisfied
her physical thirst later. What happened to her here however was that
her priorities changed and she left
her water jar- - she didn't forget the water jar- - she
left her water jar because of the joy of now having her soul's thirst
quenched and she longed to eat of the food of doing God's will.
The sinful, Samaritan woman- -
even BEFORE THE DISCIPLES WHO ARE CLOSEST TO JESUS, SEES the harvest
in her own town and so the Samaritans come running to find the Living Water
for their own souls! Notice the abundant harvest that comes through
the woman's witness and Jesus' word!
28 So the woman left her water jar and went away
into town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a
man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" 30
They went out of the town and were coming to him.
Because of the witness of the woman and the word
of Jesus "they went out of the town and were (continuously) coming to
him!" Jesus, in his instruction to his disciples, then asks them
about the harvest. He again uses the physical, yearly harvest to
explain the significance of the spiritual, daily harvest that is before us
all in these times before Jesus comes!
The Age of the Harvest
35 Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then
comes the harvest'? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are
white for harvest. 36 Already
the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life,
so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the
saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' 38 I sent you
to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have
entered into their labor."
The time of the harvest had come in Jesus, so
Jesus teaches the disciples concerning the great harvest of his Kingdom by
pointing to an accurate statement and familiar proverb that agrarian
people would have understood at this time. Jesus says this saying is true: ‘One sows and
another reaps’ (v. 37). Then
he explains, that in contrast this
saying is no longer true: ‘There are yet four months, then comes the
harvest’ (v. 35).
What Jesus means is that the harvest has come
NOW, in Him. Remember, back in 4:23-24: "A time is coming,
and IS NOW here when worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and
truth...for the Father is seeking such worshippers."
The harvest, the "food that Jesus has that
the disciples do not know about" is the food of seeking a harvest of
worshippers who are not hidden away in a hole in the ground, or far away to
the ends of the earth (although they can be there too!), but a
harvest of worshippers who are RIGHT THERE where they are, where they
live. The same is true for us. If we could only SEE by God's
grace, we would SEE a harvest of worshippers RIGHT HERE- -where we are,
where we live!
In Jesus, the harvest had
begun!
This was the end times harvest that was spoken
about in Amos 9:13-
ESV Amos 9:13 "Behold, the days are
coming," declares the LORD, "when the plowman shall overtake the
reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall
drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it."
The Prophet Amos saw a day coming (and when this
terminology is used: "Behold, the days are coming" it refers to
the last and final days, the last act of the world, or this present age)
when reaper and sower would be rejoicing together! This time had dawned with the coming of
Jesus.
The Age of the Harvest is now
here - -Rejoice!
All of the Old Covenant, including the teaching
of Moses, the Prophets, all the way up to John the Baptist had been
preparatory. This former time had
been a time of sowing the seed of the Word.
But NOW a time had come in Jesus the Word, when the sowing would
continue (Matthew 13- Parable of the Sower), but the harvest would also
begin! Sower and reaper would work
together in God's vineyard!
Let's think about a harvest. It is sometimes difficult for us to
understand this imagery in a non-agrarian culture. We are far removed many times from the
thinking of sowing and reaping because our thinking has been influenced
more by the culture of a modern, mechanical age.
A harvest implies planting,
growing, dependence upon God. A harvest is a slow process that is
difficult for us to understand. We forget how many seeds have been
already planted in people's hearts around us when we talk to them
about our Lord Jesus.
Sowing is a difficult task, yet harvest was
always a time of rejoicing. Sowing
was the beginning of the planting process, harvesting was the end. Sowing was a time of waiting, harvesting
meant the time had come. Jesus is
saying that the sowers and the reapers NOW will do their work together for
the time of rejoicing, the end, the harvesting time that would be
ultimately fulfilled at the end of the world, had come in Him! The
time of sowing was the time awaiting the Messiah who now speaks to those
who have ears to hear (cf. John 4:26- "I who speak to you am
he"), the time of harvest is the fullness of the times that have now
dawned in Jesus (cf. Galatians 4:4).
"Real Food"
This is Jesus’ real food: to do the will of
the Father. The real food of this agrarian culture would have been
when the time of the harvest came and they would all rejoice with bread and
wine!
The real food of Jesus'
harvest is always present tense in our everyday lives!
We do not have to wait for the harvest, it is
present in Jesus and His Word. We are called (with the disciples) no
longer to merely be on the defense as the people of God, but to
"GO" forward, on the offensive making disciples and being reapers
of God's Word. Listen to the joyous message from God through the
Prophet Isaiah:
Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 "For as
the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but
water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower
and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out
from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish
that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12
"For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains
and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees
of the field shall clap their hands.
Jesus is teaching the disciples to be participants in the sowing and
reaping- -primarily the reaping- -for the time has NOW come! In going forward, not merely getting
accustomed to hanging out with Jesus, but getting accustomed to going and
while going for food, or anything else in life, their ultimate goal as
disciples of Jesus would be to take part in the harvest.
The food they sought was physical food that comes
from a mere earthly harvest. Jesus
is saying (not that we do not need this food), but to make your ultimate
priority the obtaining of spiritual food that is from a spiritual harvest
of souls- - thus doing the will of the Father!
Matthew 13:16-17- But blessed are your eyes, for
they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous
people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you
hear, and did not hear it.
Look Around You! What Do You SEE?
Let's think about this message to ourselves
today. How many times do we take our “in house” status
for granted in the covenant? How many times are we guilty of not
SEEING the lost around us, or assuming that these are the kind of
people who would not want the gospel? Remember, that is exactly what
the disciples, under Jesus' covenantal word, nurture, and care
apparently thought. The sinful, Samaritan woman would have been the most unlikely
candidate for gospel witness as a sower and reaper of God's Word!
I was too! And I am
writing this to you (that's a Postmodern moment I just had!)
Yet there's the irony! You would have thought the Jews to be the
first who proclaimed Jesus' message to the world. He came to His own, but His own received
him not! Ironically, a sinful
Samaritan woman (with the emphases on Samaritan and woman) becomes the
first reaper of the Lord's end-time harvest. What the prophets of Israel proclaimed
would come in Messiah was first carried out by Israel's despised enemies!
How about you? Are you merely going
about your daily business being inside the covenant, close and
comfortable to Jesus, or do you think to reach out to the most
unlikely people? Look around you where you are- - what do you
SEE- -blind, ignorant sinners? Or, a harvest that will come by God's
Spirit and His Word? What do you SEE?
Seeing is believing! That is, if you can
see the harvest by God's grace, you will believe that God has prepared a
people to hear His Word. You will also SEE and believe that he has
providentially placed you for proclamation in your place!
There is a harvest - -you ain’t seen
nothing yet- -we must believe that Jesus is faithful to call his own! But do we believe this? Jesus is teaching
his disciples (and will be throughout their ministry) to see with eyes of
faith. We oftentimes see only ourselves in our lives - -we
can’t (or rather, don’t see past the end of our noses).
Jesus wants to train our sight to see His work!
Notice the final words of our passage:
"Many Samaritans from that town believed in
him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me all that I ever
did." 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him
to stay with them, and he stayed there two days.
And many more believed
because of his word.
42 They said to the woman, "It is no longer
because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is indeed
the Savior of the world."
The Samaritans believe- - faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of
Christ (Romans 10:13-17). Christ's message penetrated
the sinful Samaritan woman's heart, and this message that bore fruit in her
life by faith became a larger harvest when Jesus used her as his instrument
of grace to tell more about the good news of His Word! Think about
it: It all starts with our telling others who Jesus is and what He has done
in our lives, that leads others to the Word of Truth - -the fount of all
knowledge and understanding about the Lord Jesus Christ! Remember the
words of the Apostle Paul to the Romans:
Romans 10:13 For "everyone who calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved." 14 But how are they to
call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in
him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone
preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the
good news!" 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For
Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?" 17
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
The Disciples get to
ultimately see the last days, end of the world harvest begin in Samaria as
every tribe, tongue, people and nation (beginning with Samaria) are
realizing that Jesus is “the Savior of the World”!
The Harvest Time
is NOW!
What do you SEE?
Merely yourself, your own family, what is only expedient and good for
you? Ask the Lord Jesus to give you eyes to SEE the harvest. Do
you believe? The disciples did not learn their lesson for good this
day, there was still much for them to learn. In fact, at the end of
John's gospel the disciple Thomas is still wanting to SEE in order to
believe. Jesus gives us all hope for today as he tells Thomas and us:
"Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
We must see with eyes of
faith- -we must believe that we live in the last days time of the
harvest! May we long to sow and reap as the harvest is white before
us, may the Lord truly give us eyes of faith to SEE!
John 20:29-31: Jesus said to [Thomas], "Have
you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen
and yet have believed." 30 Now Jesus did many other signs
in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31
but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
The Final Harvest on the Last Day
On the final day, when Christ shall return to
close the end of the age and the last days harvest, he shall ultimately
reap a great harvest of people who he has loved from the foundation of the
world. For others, who did not know his grace, who never believed
Jesus' Word, they will be punished and reap a harvest according to the evil
they have sown throughout their lives.
This Final Day will be a day of grace for those
who have sowed God's Word and who have believed and participated in the
harvest of grace. For those who have not believed, this Final Day
will be a harvest of wrath, destruction and eternal death! Read
carefully the words found in Revelation 14:14-20:
Revelation 14:14-20- Then I looked, and behold, a
white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden
crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 And
another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who
sat on the cloud, "Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap
has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe." 16
So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth
was reaped. 17 Then another angel came out of the temple in
heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 And another angel came
out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he
called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, "Put in
your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its
grapes are ripe." 19 So the angel swung his sickle across
the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the
great winepress of the wrath of God. 20 And the winepress was
trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a
horse's bridle, for 1,600 stadia.
May we seek the Lord while he may be found!
May we call upon him and encourage others to do the same while he is
near. May we remember that the LORD is patient, not wanting any to
perish, but for all (throughout the world, every tongue, tribe, people, and
nation) to come to repentance and know that Jesus is the Savior of the
World!
Jesus laid down his life for sinners, he sowed
his body to the LORD in death and reaped the wrath of God we so richly
deserve for our sins. God was faithful to His perfect Son and raised
Him from the dead as the first fruits of the Age to Come! Jesus death
was his sowing for us, his resurrection was God's reaping for us so that we
might be given his Spirit and live with him eternally in the New Heavens
and New Earth.
Remember the hope of our resurrection on the
Great and Last Day of the Harvest from the Apostle Paul's letter to the
Corinthians!
1 Corinthians 15:42-50: So is it with the
resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is
imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory.
It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a
natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body,
there is also a spiritual body. 45 Thus it is written, "The
first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a
life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first
but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was
from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48
As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is
the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just
as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image
of the man of heaven. 50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit
the imperishable.
Coming Next Week: "The Healing: SEEING with
Eyes of Faith"- Pt. 2
Soli Deo Gloria!
For Further
Reading
D. A. Carson, 'Gospel
According to John'
H. Ridderbos, 'The
Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary'
L. Morris, 'The Gospel
According to John' (NICNT)
J. Calvin, 'Commentary
on the Gospel of John'
R. Brown, 'Commentary on
the Gospel of St. John'
J. Dennison, Articles on
John's Gospel at www.kerux.com
J.
Boice, 'Commentary on John's Gospel'
Ryken, Longman III, et
al, 'Dictionary of Biblical Imagery'
Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to him who is able to do far
more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at
work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Quote of the Week
Introduction
This week's 'Word
of Encouragement' quote is the second from Dr. D. G. Hart on Reformed
Worship.
Dr. Hart is the former
professor of church history and academic dean of Westminster Theological
Seminary. Dr. Hart is now the director of academic
relations and faculty development at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute
(www.isi.org).
(If you live in the Maryland and Virginia area, Dr. Hart will be speaking
at Patrick Henry College here in Purcellville, Virginia in April. If
you want more info, let me know.)
One of his articles on
theology and worship appeared in the theological magazine 'Touchstone'
(fall 1995). The article is entitled 'Reforming Worship: Reverence, the Reformed Tradition, and the
Crisis of Protestant Worship'. Our quotation this
week is from this article. I have included a list of books by D. G.
Hart at the bottom of this quotation of the week, so that you might study
further on this. I highly recommend his works as a Christian,
professor, and friend.
D. G. Hart-
Principles of Reformed Worship
"...The directions
for worship crafted by Reformed churches from the time of Calvin through
the Westminster Assembly suggested several principles that are to govern
worship in the Reformed tradition.
The first is the centrality of the Word of God.
God's Word not only directs the form or manner of worship but also
comprises the content of worship. It is read, sung, seen (in the
Lord's Supper), and preached. The centrality of God's Word is
especially evident in the Reformed emphasis on teaching....
A second staple of
Reformed theology, very much related to the first, is that worship is theocentric.
Worship is God-centered, and its aim must be the glory of God. It is
the highest form of fellowship between God and his people and must be done
in spirit and truth....
This means that worship
is not designed for evangelism. The fact that services on the Lord's
Day become seeker sensitive shows a perversion of the very nature of
worship. Corporate worship is for God's people, for it is only his
people who can worship him in spirit and truth. Non-Christians may be
welcome and should be encouraged to hear the preaching of the Word, which
the Westminster Shorter Catechism describes as being an 'especially'
effectual means of 'converting and convincing sinners' (Ans. 89). Yet
the means by which God brings people to himself should not cause us to miss
the nature of worship. If we incorporate evangelism into our worship,
it is only a sign of laziness, not an indication that church-growth experts
are correct.
Evangelistic services
have their place, and the church needs to take to heart Christ's command in
the Great Commission. But discipleship is also part of Christ's
instructions to his disciples, and worship is one of the principal means by
which the benefits of Christ's redemption are applied to us.
The dialogical character of worship
is the third principle governing Reformed worship. Corporate or
public worship is the meeting of God with his people. Believers come
at his invitation and are welcomed into his presence. God speaks
through the invocation, the reading of the Word, the sermon, and the
benediction. Worshipers respond in song, prayer, and confession of
faith...
...To note the affinity
between audiences of modern forms of entertainment [sports, music concerts,
etc.] and congregations who participate in contemporary worship is to
pinpoint one of the sources of misunderstanding in much current thinking
about worship: There is a vast difference between responding to
entertainment and hearing and submitting to God's Word. Yet this point
is lost on many members of worship committees in numerous Presbyterian and
Reformed congregations.
The topic of emotions in
worship also leads to an observation about the corporate character of
public worship. The 'Westminster Directory for Public Worship',
crafted by the Westminster divines, is just that, a guide for public or
corporate worship. In our houses of worship, we worship as a people,
not as individuals. Many times people attend a service expecting that
they should be able to express personal emotions as part of their response
to God. What this desire fails to recognize is that worship in the
church is corporate and, therefore, should be appropriate for people to do
as a body or group.
An analogy that may help
explain this point concerns the relationship between a father and his
children. A son may express himself one way to his dad when they are
alone together. Such an opportunity allows the son to be intimate and
expressive. But when the same son, along with two of his brothers and
two sisters, is in the presence of his father, he will generally not
demonstrate the same level of intimacy or affection or reveal to the same
degree the nature of his relationship with his father as when they are
alone together....
The fourth principle of
Reformed worship is simplicity.
The fuller revelation of God in Christ in the new covenant means that
Christians are not dependent on the childish and fleshly elements of the
old covenant. Because of the work of Christ, believers already sit
with him in glory when they gather for worship, and this aspect of Christ's
work greatly diminishes the church's need for visible or material supports
in worship.
Simplicity in worship,
therefore, is closely related to spirituality. In the new covenant,
according to Reformed theology, God is more fully present with his people
than in the old covenant [see Heb. 12:18-29]. But this presence is
spiritual, not physical. Christ's command that his followers worship
him in spirit and truth is consonant with the new arrangement between God
and his people.
Simplicity also suggests
routine....Reformed worship functions according to the premise that worship
should not be novel or creative. Rather, it should be
routine...habitual. C. S. Lewis was by no means a Reformed
theologian, but he did make a point supported by the Reformed tradition
when he said that a worship service 'works best when, through long
familiarity, we don't have to think about it.' [Lewis continues:]
'But every novelty [in worship] prevents
this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking
about worship is a different thing from worshipping....Tis mad idolatry
that makes the service greater than the God. A still worse thing may
happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but the
celebrant....There is really some excuse for the man who said, 'I wish
they'd remember that the charge to Peter was 'Feed my sheep'; not 'Try new
experiments on my rats,' or even 'Teach my performing dogs new
tricks.'"
The fifth and final, and
perhaps the most important, principle of Reformed worship is reverence. According to
Calvin, 'Pure and real religion' manifests itself through 'faith so joined
with an earnest fear of God that this fear also embraces willing
reverence.' Worship should be dignified and reverent, but it does not
achieve these qualities through elaborate ceremonies or complex
liturgies...
To ensure that every
aspect of worship is done decently and in good order, the Reformed
tradition has insisted that every service be supervised by elders, who bear
responsibility for corporate worship, and that the minister, who speaks for
God and for God's people, lead and direct the service."
-D. G. Hart, from an
essay in 'Recovering Mother Kirk'
Books by D. G. Hart
1) Recovering Mother Kirk: The Case for Liturgy in the Reformed
Tradition http://store.yahoo.com/wtsbooks/0801026156.html
2) With Reverence and Awe: Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship http://store.yahoo.com/wtsbooks/0875521797.html
3) Legacy of Jonathan Edwards: American Religion and the Evangelical
Tradition http://store.yahoo.com/wtsbooks/0801026229.html
4) Deconstructing Evangelicalism: Conservative Protestantism in the Age
of Billy Graham http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0801027284/qid=1074518414/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-9389716-8012967?v=glance&s=books
Ephesians 3:20-21:
"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask
or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and
ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
Ketoctin Covenant
Presbyterian Church
Post Office Box 628
Round Hill, VA
20142-0628
www.APlaceforTruth.org
crbiggsman@adelphia.net
540-338-7170
Word of Encouragement
Vol. VI,
Issue 33
John 4:27-54: "The
Harvest and the Healing"- Pt. 2
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Introduction
Part 2: The Healing of the Nobleman's
Son- "BELIEVE AND YOU WILL SEE WITH EYES OF FAITH"
It is axiomatic to say “life is
hard”. We are all born into
this world crying and gasping for air.
It may be a bit of a cliché’ to say that "life is
hard", but we do not actually think about life being hard, well, until something in life causes life to
be hard for us- -then we understand that life is hard and quite difficult.
What we do, and how we react when life
is hard is worth considering.
Whether rich or poor, whether Jew or Gentile, all people need Jesus
the Christ to make sense of this “hard and difficult” life
under the sun. In our passage from John 4:28-42 in the last issue, we
learned that Jesus is Lord of the Harvest and the time of the end-time
harvest has begun in Jesus. We learned how Jesus wanted to teach us
to be able to SEE the harvest all around us. In contrast, in today's
passage we learn how Jesus wants to train our faith to believe His
Word. Many who saw the signs and wonders Jesus performed still did
not believe -- but one did: a nobleman from Herod's castle.
Jesus challenges the nobleman to believe
without sight! The signs and
wonders point to the person of Jesus and his ability to save and
heal. So in today's passage we will learn that:
Jesus
not only wants to train our eyes to see His work - -he wants to train our
faith to believe His Word!
In John 4:43-54, there is a change of scenery
back to Galilee to form an inclusio, a closing to the first part of
John’s Gospel where Jesus first performed SIGN-ificant Signs in Cana of Galilee. Whereas the
previous passage taught that “seeing is believing”, this
passage is about “believing is seeing”. Do we see the
harvest and believe that it is a present-tense reality in these last
days? Do we believe Jesus' Word and see what Jesus is doing in our
lives even when we don't fully understand?
Do we believe the Word of
Jesus, then see what he is doing, or do we have to see first, then believe?
John 4:46-54
46 So
he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at
Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this
man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and
asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
48 So Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs
and wonders you will not believe."
49 The
official said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." 50
Jesus said to him,
"Go; your son will
live."
The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his
way.
51 As
he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was
recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get
better, and they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever
left him." 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus
had said to him, "Your son
will live." And he himself believed, and all his
household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when
he had come from Judea to Galilee.
Life is Hard for All -- both Rich and Poor
The Book of Ecclesiastes teaches us
that for both the rich and the poor sickness, suffering
and death will eventually come as a reality to all. In the Book of Job, we find a righteous,
rich and wealthy man named Job, who experiences the hardness of life in the
most exasperating and extreme of ways.
In John 4:46-54 we have a rich and wealthy
nobleman whose son is dying. The
nobleman is a royal official of King Herod.
Though there are some similarities to the healing of the Centurion's
servant in Matthew 8, this is a different occasion. The nobleman, or royal official is a
"Basilikos" (Gr.), and this should be translated as one who is
royal or in a royal family. He is a
Jew who is in the royal family of Herod.
In our passage, the Apostle John is reminding us in this scene with
the nobleman that position, power, or potential in this life will not keep
us from experience pain, sickness, suffering, and ultimately death.
The nobleman's son was dying
and there was nothing he could do about it!
There was no power within himself to do anything but standby and
watch his own and dear son die.
Many rich and wealthy people think that their
wealth and riches can keep them safe and happy and from all harm. But
when something like pain, illness, or incurable sickness afflicts them, all
the money in the world cannot help them. Both rich and poor, both
those who have as well as those who have not in this world deal
with difficulty and hardship "under the sun". But behind it
all, as Christians, we should see and believe that
God works out all things for the
good who He loves and are called according to His purpose (Romans
8:28ff).
When life is hard for you, do you
believe Jesus? I didn't say "Do you believe in Jesus?" But "Do
you believe Jesus?" Or, do you just seek him when you can
actually understand and SEE HIM working (positively and according to your
will) in your life? Think about it.
In our story today, the rich and wealthy
nobleman of King Herod believes- -THEN
SEES because he simply takes Jesus
at his word. Jesus has just brought the gospel to a poor
Samaritan woman, now he brings the gospel of His grace to a rich and
wealthy nobleman and his family!
We learned in the last passage that Jesus wants to train our eyes to
see His work. In this passage we
learn that Jesus wants to train our faith to believe His Word.
Do You Take Jesus at His Word?
You know as Christians we do alright when Jesus
is “good to us” and when all thing are going the way we would
like them to go.
But then- - unexpectedly (to you, not to God) a relative dies –
“Why?” We ask!
But then- - unexpectedly (to you, not to God) my bank account is low and
bills are still coming in- - “Why? We ask!
But then- - unexpectedly (to you, not to God) you lose a friend in a silly
misunderstanding, you grow sick, you or someone you love is hurt badly and
handicapped in an apparently meaningless accident, you lose your business because
someone else made a stupid mistake, etc. etc. the list goes on!
"Why?" We ask!
Then we realize
“life is hard” and this becomes so much more than a
cliché’ and we don’t care that it is obviously axiomatic, we
cry: “Why?!!”
Well, for the nobleman in this passage, he takes
Jesus by faith and believes Jesus’ Word to him even before he sees a
change. We oftentimes go long
periods of time of experiencing the difficulty and hardness of life before
we SEE the answered prayers from Jesus.
"YOUR SON WILL
LIVE."
However, we must always take him at his Word, believing that He cares
and loves and knows what is best for us.
In other words, we must believe if we are ever going to truly see
the hand of God in our everyday difficult and hard lives. As Jesus showed
himself the Lord of the Harvest in the last passage, here Jesus reveals
himself as the Creator God who speaks words of healing and life!
A Time to Laugh, A Time to Mourn
Compare for a moment the scene at Cana in chapter
2 of John. It was a wedding feast if
you remember, a time of beginning, a time of celebration. This scene at the end of chapter 4 is a
death scene. A nobleman’s son
is dying, it is the end of his life, and will become a time of mourning for
all those related to him and in the community- - Yet Jesus heals him and
changes the course of history with
four little, but powerful words!
"YOUR SON WILL
LIVE."
What would have been a day
of mourning, becomes a day of rejoicing because this nobleman took Jesus at
his word! Jesus is here for us at
the beginning and at the time of celebration, but he is also here for us at
the end and at the time of mourning.
Only Jesus can make sense of the difficulty and hardness of life
under the sun.
As the Teacher in Ecclesiastes says:
Ecclesiastes 3:1 For everything there is a
season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be
born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is
planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break
down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to
laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast
away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a
time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to
lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 a time to tear,
and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a
time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. 9
What gain has the worker from his toil? 10 I have seen the
business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put
eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done
from the beginning to the end. 12 I perceived that there is
nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they
live; 13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take
pleasure in all his toil- this is God's gift to man.
Do you believe Jesus is
the Great Healer and the One Who gives His Word to you as a comfort and a
guide? Do you believe his Word, even when you don’t apparently
SEE His hand in your difficult and hard situation in life? In the
Book of Ecclesiastes, "under the sun" is the phrase used to describe
man's finite and limited vantage point as creatures. The book reminds
us that we need more than our observations, we need a divine and infinite
perspective on life that only God can give to us in His revelation- - His
Word (Ecclesiastes 12). In other words, we need God's Word, we need
to take God at His Word, because
oftentimes from our limited and finite perspective, things do not seem
right- - but vanity, or meaningless (which is another translation of the
word translated "vanity" in Ecclesiastes).
Ecclesiastes 1:2-3: Vanity of vanities, says the
Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 3 What does man
gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
Do you understand that
Jesus came “under the sun” to identify with us, to sympathize
with our weaknesses and to defeat death, hell and the devil along with all
suffering caused by these three?! Do
you believe His Word to you? Jesus is the One who came "under
the sun" to show us the way "above the sun" to the Heavenly
Father! Jesus is the One who came "under the sun" to teach
us how to interpret our lives rightly from God's sovereign perspective
"above the sun". In John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus about
"Heavenly Reality" or revelation "from above" (3:3-11),
here he teaches in the healing of the nobleman's son that we can believe
this "Heavenly Reality" and revelation Jesus brings below to all
of us who still live "under the sun"!
How many times do you think God is less than
alive, active, or accessible in your own life when you do not see what God can do, but doesn’t in
your own life.
God can, but doesn’t- - do you still trust Him as a Person? Do you
still depend upon Him for your hope?
As we learned in the last
story of the Lord of the Harvest, Jesus’ Word is powerful to save and
to change hearts, His Word is also powerful to calm anxiety and take away
your fears and to calm and comfort you in your time of difficulty and pain.
Do you see even when you don’t believe that
there is a great harvest of lost souls? Do you believe even when you
don’t see that Jesus is in control of all of your life - -even the
most difficult and painful of times?
Jesus says: "I Will Never Leave You Nor
Forsake You"
The nobleman believed,
because he took Jesus at His Word- - then the next day, he SAW with his own
eyes the truth of Christ and his entire family believed! Sometimes our belief, even when we
don’t see, becomes the eyes for others to believe and also
see. Biblical faith is family faith.
"YOUR SON WILL
LIVE."
This nobleman took
Jesus at his Word, which ultimately means that he submitted to the
Word of God as His authority. Then this nobleman, as head of his
household, submitted his entire family to Jesus' Word. Your
belief, even when you don't fully SEE God's hand in your life can
become the eyes of belief and sight for others to SEE JESUS! Never forget that! People are watching you and how you
respond when life is hard.
I will never forget my
friend and spiritual mentor Charles Waddy in Atlanta, Georgia. He taught me and discipled me in the ways
of grace and knowing Jesus. When
life became extremely difficult and hard for he and his family when he
was diagnosed with incurable cancer, he was a true encouragement and
example of God’s grace and mercy for he believed God even when He
could not see him and his hand of help in his suffering.
This taught me to
always be aware by God’s grace, to the best of my ability, that Jesus
is always near to us. He is the same
yesterday, today and forever!
Jesus is always with
us even to the end of the Age and we can take comfort that even though we
will never understand all difficult and hard circumstances in our life- -
HE DOES and he will never leave us nor forsake us.
Jesus as Lord of the
End of the Age, is the Sovereign God and Merciful Healer who comforts us in
our time of difficulty (2 Cor. 1).
For His Name’s
sake, he will do with us only that which is the best from his Sovereign and
Great point of view! He will never
allow His own to be put to shame or to be condemned. We often think that if we are having a
difficult and hard time in life, then it must be due to a particular
sin. We must always remember that
this is not true as we will see later in John 9.
What is your concern
today in the difficulty and hardness of your life? Whatever your
difficulty, be reminded to take Jesus at His Word. Be reminded to seek him with all your
heart even though you are confused and surrounded by your pain. Ask the LORD for help and grace to know
through His Word that He loves you and cares for you and is WITH YOU.
Perhaps today you
are not going through a particularly difficult time. Well, use them time as a preparatory time
to remind yourself of these truths.
For all who follow Jesus will deal with sorrow and pain. Yet Jesus’ joy will be with and in
us as we have the power of His Holy Spirit to comfort and guide us.
Will all the “IF Christians” Please
Stand Up
Having looked at John
4:46-52, let's go back to the opening verses of our passage found in John
4:43-45 and consider what it means to be an "IF Christian".
In John 4:43-45, at first glance, some interpreters get confused.
Jesus is returning to Galilee and it says in v. 44 that a prophet has no
honor in his own hometown, yet then in v. 45 Jesus is welcomed with open
arms.
The verses seem
inconsistent, but you want to appreciate the clause "having seen all
that he had one in Jerusalem at the feast". The Galileans
wouldn't have normally welcomed Jesus, but they had seen what he could
do. In other words, these
people welcomed Jesus merely for what he could DO rather than for Who
He was (God in the flesh!!). That is why Jesus'
comment to the crowd is so sharp in John 4:48: "Unless you see signs
and wonders, you will not believe."
John 4:43-45: After the two days he
departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a
prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to
Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all
that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the
feast.
The point is
that once again Jesus knows what is in the hearts of the
people and he knows that they are merely following him and coming
to him to see what he will do. There
is no faith in Jesus’ person, just his miracles (John 2:23-25).
John 2:23 Now when he
was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they
saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did
not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for
he himself knew what was in man.
Are you the kind of
person who only will follow Jesus IF he
does what you ask him to do? Or are
you the Christian who does what Jesus asks you to do, no matter what, and
come what may- -even the difficult and hard circumstances? It is worth asking the question to yourself?
There were many
“IF Christians” in the crowds following
Jesus – those who were not disciples but mere
followers who were waiting on Jesus to do something else that was
great.
Do you have to see, or even
feel Jesus in his works to believe and know that he loves you? Or, do you take him at his Word?
In other words, do you
focus and worship Jesus merely when you see him and feel him as you would
have him? Or, can you see him in His Word and know He is the Person that He
claims to be.
Walk by Faith- -Your Faith in Jesus' Word will
become Sight!
When you go through
difficult times, do you still suffer from lack of sight and vision in
seeing God at work? Do you question his goodness and grace toward you? OR,
do you walk by faith? Remember the words of the Apostle Paul in 2
Corinthians 4. In this passage, the Apostle Paul is speaking of the
POWER of God's Word to those who believe. Read this carefully and
slowly. Paul contrasts the Word of God that is true with what we see
and how what we see in our suffering in this world often seems to conflict
with what the Word of God teaches - -nevertheless we are to believe the
Word of God:
2 Corinthians 4:
Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2
But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to
practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of
the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight
of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to
those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world
has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the
light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus
Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.
6 For God,
who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to
show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We
are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to
despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not
destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so
that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For
we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that
the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So
death is at work in us, but life in you. 13 Since we have the
same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed,
and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing
that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring
us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake,
so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase
thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature
is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For
this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of
glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things
that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are
seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
"Do not lose
heart!" Be careful of the “IF Christians”- -
those who only followed Jesus to see his signs. Then think of the nobleman and his
faith of believing without seeing!
The real truth this passage is communicating causes us to ask the
question:
“Do you follow Jesus
for what he can do for you, or for Who He is?! Are you interested merely in his SIGNS
AND WONDERS, and not interested in the One to Whom the SIGNS AND
WONDERS point as the True God and Savior?
Magicians, Shamans, and Anger with God
Perhaps some people
would be happier with a mere magician, a friendly shaman, or mind reader,
or someone who could perform great feats of so-called healings that
everyone will run to, like on some of those TV shows supposedly professing
the name of Christ, but in reality just making a mockery out of
Christianity (I blush when I see the demonstrations of lunacy and
lies magically performed "Abracadabra-like" in the name
of Jesus!!).
I talk to some people
who say that if God had not taken their son, daughter, wife, husband,
mother, father, etc. then they would not be mad at God. This means ultimately that since God has
not revealed himself to them in the way that they expect, then they will be
angry with God! God hasn't passed
their "signs and wonders" test in their own life!
I had a young lady in
my class when I taught high school who said that the reason she
didn’t believe what I taught was because “God had taken her
Grandmother who was the only real love in her life.” Now
don’t misunderstand, I sympathized with this young lady and I told
her that I was sorry, but that she had a misperception and misconception
about God. God doesn’t owe us
anything: neither life, nor happiness and health (I don’t know where
this idea came from since we are all under the condemnation of Adam as a
consequence of his sin and the fall of man).
Life is hard and we can
expect from unbelievers only, well "unbelief".
Why? Because unless we take God at His Word, we will fail
rightly to interpret this difficult and hard life. Rather than
calling upon the Name of the LORD, those who do not believe, will never see
God as Creator and LORD, and will eventually end up cursing the Name
of the LORD because of their circumstances in this life.
Don't forget when
dealing with unbelievers who have suffered, not "to buy into" the
seemingly therapeutic excuse they offer because of
suffering. The people of God have suffered more than
any other group in this world! And so, while we can comfort and
sympathize, we must never give into a therapeutic excuse for allowing this
to be the reason why one has not called upon the Name of the LORD!
Pure and unadulterated unbelief, the failure to take Jesus at His Word, is
the ultimate reason why they do not believe- - not anger with God.
What we must understand
is that we must seek God for Who He is and submit ourselves to His rule and
sovereignty in our lives. This
includes submitting ourselves to Him when life is hard! Now this is not easy, but it is part of
our being His disciples. Paul says
that he wants to take part in the sufferings of Christ and even “fill
up in what is lacking with regard to Christ’s afflictions” because
those who believe have been united to the Risen Jesus and so can expect to
suffer and be afflicted along with
Him (Col. 1:24ff; Phil. 3:8-14).
What the nobleman did
that was so commendable in this passage is that He believed Jesus. He
took Jesus at His Word. He accepted Jesus as more than a mere
miracle-worker or magician, He accepted Him as Lord and Savior! He looked to Jesus, God in the flesh, and
not merely at the signs that pointed toward this reality. The nobleman believed the Word of
the LORD despite his circumstances and in this particular circumstance,
Jesus healed him.
"YOUR SON WILL
LIVE."
Unanswered Prayers and Our Sovereign God
Now sometimes we
don’t see our prayers answered so quickly, and sometimes not at all
in this lifetime. What do we do
then? We still believe and take
Jesus at His Word as hard as this might be at the time- - we still must
believe!
The nobleman had
his belief confirmed by sight the following day, but oftentimes we do not
receive such a quick “prayer turnaround”- -but we are still
called as Jesus’ disciples to
take Him at His Word and to believe even when we do not see! This is not the only life we live and so
as difficult as it may be at times, we know that Jesus shall come for us
and restore all things, comforting us with his physical presence and
renewing all things!
Then there will be no
suffering, no sickness, no difficulties, and life will not longer EVER BE
HARD!
The same Word of
Power that God spoke into nothing as he said: “Let there be
light”, and there was light;
the same Word of
Power that God spoke into our hearts when he said “Let there be
light” and there was light and life in Jesus;
the same Word of
Power that God spoke to this nobleman when He says “Your
son will live”;
the same Word of Power
that God is speaking right now to you through His Word;
This same Word of
Power is the Word that we will hear when Jesus returns either in this life
or in the next and says to those who did not see, but believed:
“ARISE”!
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18: For the Lord
himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of
an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in
Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left,
will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the
air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore
encourage one another with these words.
May we indeed encourage each other with these
words, because they are trustworthy and true! Why? Because Jesus said them and we can
be assured that whether it is tomorrow or two thousand more years, they
will come to pass and we shall see Him as He is!
Glory be to God for his grace and for Jesus
Christ! God gave His only son to die for sinners in order that not
only the nobleman and his son could live and be saved, but that all those
who would call upon the Name of the LORD would be saved by calling upon the
Name of Jesus- - the only Name given under heaven- - "under the
sun"- - given to men by which we must be saved! (Acts 4:12).
"YOUR SON WILL
LIVE."
Put your trust and faith wholeheartedly in
Jesus’ Word today!
John 20:31 was written
so that those might believe and have life in Jesus- - do you believe?
We learned in the last passage that Jesus wants
to train our eyes to see His work.
In this passage we learn that Jesus wants to train our faith to
believe His Word.
Soli Deo Gloria!
For Further
Reading
D. A. Carson, 'Gospel
According to John'
H. Ridderbos, 'The
Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary'
L. Morris, 'The Gospel
According to John' (NICNT)
J. Calvin, 'Commentary
on the Gospel of John'
R. Brown, 'Commentary on
the Gospel of St. John'
J. Dennison, Articles on
John's Gospel at www.kerux.com
J.
Boice, 'Commentary on John's Gospel'
Ryken, Longman III, et
al, 'Dictionary of Biblical Imagery'
Ephesians 3:20-21: "Now to him who is able to do far
more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at
work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
Pastor Charles R.
Biggs
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