Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Worship According to the Word

In The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor offers this insight into fallen human nature: “So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship.” Though the Grand Inquisitor falls far short as a reliable guide to theology, at this point he is surely correct. Human beings are profoundly religious—even when we do not know ourselves to be—and humans incessantly seek an object of worship.


Yet, human beings are also sinners, and thus our worship is, more often than not, grounded in our own paganism of personal preference. As John Calvin profoundly explained, the fallen human heart is an “idol-making factory,” always producing new idols for worship and veneration. That corrupted factory, left to its own devices, will never produce true worship, but will instead worship its own invention.


The church is not comprised of those who found the true and living God by experimentation in worship, but of those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, incorporated into the Body of Christ, and are then called to true worship as regulated and authorized by Scripture. Worship is the purpose for which we were made—and only the redeemed can worship the Father in spirit and in truth.


But, do we? The British philosopher Roger Scruton once advised his fellow philosophers that the best way to understand what people really believe about God is to observe them at worship. Theology books and doctrinal statements may reveal what a congregation says it believes, but worship will reveal what it really believes. If so, we are in big trouble.


Just look at the confusion that marks what is called worship among so many evangelicals. Instead of engaging in worship that points to the glory of God, many churches feature services that look more like a carnival of chaos than a Christian congregation at worship. Years ago, A.W. Tozer lamented that many churches conceive of worship as “a maximum of entertainment and a minimum of serious instruction.” Many Christians, he argued, would not even recognize worship as “a meeting where the only attraction is God.” True fifty years ago, those words now serve as a direct indictment of contemporary worship.


The pathology of our problem must be traced to realities as fundamental as our worldview and as superficial as personal taste. At the worldview level, we must face the fact that modernism collapsed transcendence in many minds. The focus of worship was “horizontalized” and reduced to human scale. Theological liberalism simply embraced this new worldview, and it made the theological compromises that modernity demanded. Worship was transformed into an experiment in “meaningfulness” as judged by the worshiper, not an act of joyful submission to the wonder and grandeur of God.


Now that postmodernism rules the worldview of the cultural elite and the culture’s most powerful centers of influence, the radical subjectivity, moral relativism, and hostility to absolute truth that marks the postmodern worldview shapes worship in some churches as well. Postmodernism celebrates the victory of the image over the word, but Christianity is a Word-centered faith, rooted in the verbal revelation of God and the identity of Jesus Christ as the incarnate Word.


Postmodernists assert that all truth is constructed, not absolute. As philosopher Richard Rorty insists, truth is made, not found. Those who accept this radical pragmatism will see worship as an experiment in “making” meaning rather than a discipline of preaching, hearing, believing, and confessing eternal truths revealed by God in propositional form.


While all Christians affirm the necessity and reality of the experiential dimension of faith, the experience must be grounded in and accountable to the Word of God. This is of central importance to the question of worship, for, left to our own devices, we will be inclined to seek worship that meets our desire for a “meaningful” experience or matches our personal taste as a substitute for authentic worship regulated by Scripture and centered on God, rather than His people.


Concern for the proper worship of God was central to the Reformation, even as it is central to our most important theological debates today. Nothing is more important than our understanding of worship, for our concept of worship is inescapably tied to our understanding of God and His sovereign authority to reveal the worship He desires, deserves, and demands.


Hughes Oliphant Old once summarized the Reformers’ understanding of worship in terms of “its sense of the majesty and sovereignty of God, its sense of reverence, of simple dignity, its conviction that worship must above all serve the praise of God.” As Old recognized, this path of renewal “may not be just exactly what everyone is looking for.”


This is surely true, but it is the only path back to the worship God seeks, and to the recovery of our witness to the infinite glory, perfection, and worthiness of the triune God. We will either recover the biblical vision of true Christian worship, or we will slide into some form of pagan worship. There is no third option.


This article was originally published in Tabletalk Magazine.

Asking the Right Questions

Sometimes it is less important to have the right answers than to have the right questions. A man named Saul thought he did not need to ask any questions. He had all the answers. The most important question, according to Saul, was “How can I be good enough for God?” He thought he had that answer down cold.

The only problem was, he was wrong. American humorist Will Rogers could have told Saul, “It’s not what you don’t know that will get you in trouble, but what you know for certain that just ain’t so.” Saul’s problem lay in the question “How can I be good enough?”

The answer, of course, is that he couldn’t. But he didn’t understand the holiness of God. No one who is separated from God understands his holiness. To tell you the truth, not many Christians do either.

Saul had never asked the right questions. I think non-Christians often don’t ask religious questions because down deep inside they have a sneaking suspicion of what the answers might be, and they don’t like them. But Christians also are afraid of questions for the same reason, so they get into trouble. Or they are afraid other Christians will call them “doubters” if they are overhead asking the wrong question. They don’t want to seem unspiritual or stupid. They also may be afraid God will lose patience with them.

But God loves to answer questions—the “stupider” the better—because he loves for us to have the ultimate truth we need to complete the sentence “I believe …” He never loses patience with a question, and neither do people who are serving him. If you take a question to more mature Christians, those who really are men or women of God, you likely will find they don’t think it is so dumb. Maybe they used to struggle with the same thing. Maybe they still do.

God tells us in James 1:5-8 that if anyone lacks wisdom “he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault.” James adds that what God doesn’t want is for someone to ask with a wavering heart. The purpose of God’s answer is to build a faith that is strong, single-minded, and founded on truth.

Saul’s faith was strong and single-minded, but it was not founded on truth. He believed that he would please God most by persecuting the followers of that trouble-making rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth. It never occurred to him to ask a rather obvious question: “Who are you, Lord, and who is Jesus of Nazareth?”

So God had a question to ask this pompous religious leader. In order to ask Saul, God had to get the man’s attention, so he tapped him on the shoulder (see Acts 9:1-9).

What he did was strike him blind. God knows how to get a person’s undivided attention. Then he asked the question:

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

Saul, with all the answers, didn’t have a clue as to what God was talking about. Persecuting God? Wasn’t he doing his best to serve God by ridding the world of the followers of a crucified criminal?

But now Saul did know what question to ask. He asked the most important of all questions: “Lord, who are you?”

That is when Saul started to become Paul the apostle—when he was confronted head-on by the holy God. When it comes to evaluating a religion and choosing ultimate truth, “Who are you?” is the question God most wants to answer. Only after you see him for who he is can you have an intelligent belief.

Excerpt from Choosing My Religion by R.C. Sproul.


View the original article here

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Losing Privileges

Is this a Christian country? There are likely as many ways to answer the question as there are stripes on our flag. Yes, the country was populated at its beginning with Christians looking for a place to worship freely. But that was before we became a country. Yes, many of our founding fathers were sincere professing Christians. But many of them were not. Yes, we are Christian in the same sense as all of Europe is Christian—it is the faith tradition of the majority in our country. But no, we have rejected the faith of our fathers. Yes, our country’s laws, traditions, symbols, culture, were shaped by predominately Protestant notions. But no, we are living in times of great change. And therein lies the rub.


Our nation for decades enjoyed an uneasy peace on the question of the Christian faith in the public square grounded in a de pacto secularism and a de facto Christianity. That is, while the state could not, by pact, or on the grounds of a modern understanding of the First Amendment, promote any one particular religion. But, everyone knew our cultural momentum was Christian. Thus our pledge acknowledged that we are under God, our money noted we trusted in Him, and even the astronauts circling the moon read from Genesis to the watching world.


As the culture has been moving more vehemently into an aggressive secularism we are witnessing the steady erasure of the unwritten rules. We have moved from being the dominant cultural force to being the norm, to being oddities, and we are swiftly on our way to becoming pariahs. This, we would be wise to remember, is yet well short of what our brothers suffer in Muslim and communist countries. We don’t want to be the church that cried persecution.


That said, we would likewise be wise to, even as we seek to make known the glory of the reign of Christ over all things, get used to the new normal. It is not easy giving up privileges we once took for granted. The broader culture no longer recognizes our day of rest, and so many of us are expected to work, or to get our children to the game. It no longer recognizes our holy days, so now Turkey Day opens the Winter Holiday Season, and “Merry Christmas” is now less a greeting, more a political statement. The broader culture finds our sexual morality not just silly and old-fashioned but oppressive and demeaning.


While I long for and labor for a day when all men everywhere acknowledge the Lordship of Christ over all things, the loss of these privileges comes with a great blessing, the giving of a greater privilege—we are now hated and despised for His name’s sake.


Or are we? It will not be long, I suspect, before those who believe marriage is between one man and one woman will have all the cultural respect as a member of the KKK. Will the church be telling us to soften on this issue, to not talk about it, so accommodate the broader world for the sake of soul-winning? If so, we will have sold our own soul. Jesus was rather clear—if we were of the world, the world would love its own. But we have been bought with a price (John 15:19). Pray that we don’t sell our birthright of persecution for the pottage of respectability.

Stay-at-Home Moms with Missionary Hearts

Stay-at-Home Moms with Missionary Hearts

Have you ever watched someone else living your dream, the thing you really, really wanted for your life?


As I cut the crusts off my kids’ peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I listened to my young, single friend talk passionately about her upcoming trip back to Cambodia. Before her furlough she’d worked with children in an orphanage and discipled teenage girls. Now, she’ll use her nursing degree in a medical clinic, building relationships, and sharing about Jesus.


As I dropped the carefully cut sandwich triangles in front of my boys, I thought back to when I had dreamed of living overseas for the gospel. Young, ambitious, and filled with hope, I was going to give my life to whatever far away place God put in front of me. “Anywhere, Lord!” I loaded up on evangelism classes, and earned a minor in missions. I was even engaged to a man aimed at the world, a missions major. Together, we couldn’t wait to follow Christ to the ends of the earth.


Ten years later, the missions-major and I are happily married, but we’re not overseas. The Lord hasn’t opened those doors, at least not yet. Instead, we’re making disciples in the suburbs of Houston with our four young children, living out God’s mission in a much different way. Thankful and happy as I am to be a wife and a mother (and I am!), I still feel an enormous burden for the peoples living in darkness, waiting to hear the good news of a Savior. Aside from cutting sandwiches in the shapes of African nations, I’ve had to ask again and again how this missionary heart for the world can keep beating and acting inside this suburban mommy life.


Picking up the mantle of stay-at-home mom or wife doesn’t demand laying down my desire to see the world surrender to God in worship. I really believe we can have both. I can serve as a wife and mother and keep my eyes fixed on missions — all from the relative comfort of my very own home.


Isaiah tells us the Lord wants his “sons from afar” and his “daughters from the ends of the earth.” And that, “everyone who is called by my name whom I created for my glory" (Isaiah 43:6–7). There’s work to be done! God desires for all to hear and he has children who’ve yet to hear his voice.


God’s heart is to redeem the world, to gather his people from every nation. One day, he will be worshiped by people from every tribe and tongue. Until that day comes, we should set our lives to making his name known among all those peoples. Our hearts should grow and grow for God’s glory across the globe, because he cares about his glory among every people, in every place.


Even if we have no plans to physically move and live in a foreign land, if we’re among those who’ve heard and received the gospel and been grafted into God’s people, our hearts should have felt a seismic shift — from our little, personal perspective to God’s grand, global perspective. And when that shift happens in our hearts, and in our home, there are lots of little things we can do that, by God’s power, may have an impact around the world.


1. We Can Listen and Learn


Branch out and learn about the unique people and nations God created — every one of them in his image. See how similar you are in regards to sin and neediness. We have one massive thing — our desperation for forgiveness — in common with every person in every place on the planet. Instead of ignoring people you can’t see in Houston, we can come to know and love them through resources like Joshua Project. Love moves toward need, but not when it doesn’t see the needs.


2. We Can Teach Our Kids


As you listen and learn, bring your kids along for the journey. Show them what God shows you about the world, and help them understand it’s all a part of the world our God created. Teach them the insufficiencies of other religions and the sufficiency of Christ. Teach them cultural awareness and give them a firm grasp of the truth as a foundation and lens through which to see it all. Ask God to soften their hearts for lost people all over the world.


3. We Can Pray


Pray for unreached people groups, for God’s word to go out, and for people to repent and come to faith. Pray for God to send workers into the fields. And pray that the Holy Spirit would open eyes and hearts so that God’s chosen children would find their real, lasting family.


4. We Can Give


Identify ways that you can give your time, money, and resources to supporting what God is doing across the world. Help fund those who are going or volunteer to pray for their specific needs and work. Partner with them sacrificially and joyfully, knowing the worthiness of God’s word going out to all peoples.


5. We Can Go


Even if you can’t live there long-term, go and see God’s big world for yourself. See all kinds of people who are really, really different from you. Connect with them so you’ll have a greater passion to pray for them when you come home. Put faces on the gospel poverty and pain we read about. And witness the good things God is doing through the church, even in the hard places.


Let’s reflect God’s desire for a global family in our families. We can’t settle for the American dream, when we’ve known something better, more worthy, and far more global — God’s eternal kingdom. Let’s live with a heart that beats and pleads for God’s glory and global missions, whether it’s in our kitchen in Houston or on the mission field in the Middle East.


Where you and your children lay your head at night doesn’t keep you from serving God for the sake of the nations. This is your mission — local and global — to see God’s name glorified throughout the earth until the day when every knee everywhere will bow.

Speaking Truth in Love

Speaking Truth in Love

God has called you to serve me, and me to serve you, by speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). This mutual ministry is what drives me to write truth, and to read and listen to truth from friends.

But “speaking the truth in love” is not so simple as hitting a few keys on my laptop. It requires a cosmic backstory to pull off.

The Apostle Paul breaks the story into three movements in Ephesians 4.

The backstory to spiritual gifts begins with the ascension of Christ. You know, that rather bizarre story we tend to think of in terms of a Monty Python sketch with Jesus slowly rising up into the clouds, holding a steady beauty pageant wave to the disciples, in one long, awkward, slowmo goodbye.

But in truth, the ascension marks off his supremacy as a capstone over Christ’s victory over sin.

First, Christ had to “descend into the lower regions” (the incarnation), and then he “ascended on high” (the ascension). And if we follow the life of Christ over all his work — his virgin birth, his perfect life of law keeping, his victory over evil at the cross, and his victory over death at the resurrection — Christ then ascends into the sky as a conquering King, enthroned at the right hand of God (Psalm 110:1; Hebrews 1:13, 8:1, 10:12, 12:2).

Christ is now, and forevermore, King over this universe. It’s all his. He made it. He reclaimed it. The stage is set for his return. In his ascension, Christ “has been given the divine right, the divine appointment, the royal power and prerogatives to carry out the work of re-creation in full, to conquer all his enemies, to save all those who have been given him” (Bavinck). All of this will be finished in the future.

So why is this not an odd way to begin a conversation on spiritual gifts?

As the ascended Christ claims authority over the cosmos, he leverages all his power and authority for the sake of the Church and the spread of his word.

In the ascension, the visible “going up” of Jesus displays Christ’s cosmic reign over the universe, and it simultaneously unleashes spiritual gifts for the Church: all the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. Some of these gifts were temporary, most were permanent, and all of them are essential for the Church to grow in its submission to the word of Christ in order to reflect Christ.

Thus, the reign of Christ gets displayed wherever his creatures submit to his word. Falsehood is the opposite. Falsehood is rebellion (that’s why there’s such a keen emphasis in Ephesians 4 on truth). Lies reject Christ’s authority. Truth, submitted to, displays the beauty of Christ’s kingship to the world.

So get this: The cosmos is under the lordship of Christ positionally. But the Church is living out the lordship of Jesus Christ actually. Which means, the cosmic reign of Christ (his filling all things), which will be fully realized when Christ returns, is being demonstrated right now, on earth, in the Church.

For example, different ethnicities are being drawn together in unity in Christ. The relational fractures of this earth are being mended. In this display of Christian brotherhood and sisterhood, the Church is where you see a little picture of the cosmos being stitched back together — if you have eyes to see.

Thus, the working of spiritual gifts offers us actual evidence of Christ’s reign in this universe. Wherever Christ’s word is embraced, Christ’s reign is manifested to the world — a microcosm of what God intends to do with the entire cosmos. The implications here are profound.

Finally, Paul pulls every Christian into movement and boils the aim down to five words: “speaking the truth in love.” If you want a brief summary of ministry — why you need a church, why you need a pastor, why you need discipleship, why you need to participate in discipling others, and even why this blog exists — it’s these five words. We are called to “speak the truth in love.” This is word ministry boiled down to its simplest form.

Which means . . .

First, God has ordained for our submission to Christ to come about through the help of others. We each have blind spots, we get duped by lies, our perceptions go wrong, and we need friends to help us live out our submission to Christ. Assumed in all of Ephesians 4, is that if I am to live consistent with Christ’s lordship in my life, I need you to show me where I have embraced falsehood, and I must humbly consider what you offer. There’s a very personal and organic makeup of word ministry.

Second, in all these things, God has ordained that our ministry to one another be truth-telling done in love.

As Tim Keller said in a sermon: “Truth without love is imperious self-righteousness. Love without truth is cowardly self-indulgence.” Both are selfish.

Or as John Newton once said of reproof: our natural temptation is to say what we should not say, or to not say what we should say. One is cruel arrogance, the other cruel cowardice, and neither is love.

Rather, we seek to speak the truth of Jesus Christ in love to one another. Such a work — such a balance — requires nothing less than the power and wisdom of ascended King Jesus.

Posts from Tony Reinke:


View the original article here

Are There Prophets and Prophecy Today? — Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Lloyd-Jones,

A prophet was a person to whom truth was imparted by the Holy Spirit. . . . A revelation or message or some insight into truth came to them, and, filled with the Spirit, they were able to make utterances which were of benefit and profit to the Church. Surely it is clear that this again was temporary, and for this good reason, that in those early days of the Church there were no New Testament Scriptures, the Truth had not yet been expounded in written words.

Try to imagine our position if we did not possess these New Testament Epistles, but the Old Testament only. That was the position of the early Church. Truth was imparted to it primarily by the teaching and preaching of the apostles, but that was supplemented by the teaching of the prophets to whom truth was given and also the ability to speak it with clarity and power in the demonstration and authority of the Spirit.

But once these New Testament documents were written the office of a prophet was no longer necessary. Hence in the Pastoral Epistles which apply to a later stage in the history of the Church, when things had become more settled and fixed, there is no mention of the prophets. It is clear that even by then the office of the prophet was no longer necessary, and the call was for teachers and pastors and others to expound the Scriptures and to convey the knowledge of the truth.

Again, we must note that often in the history of the Church trouble has arisen because people thought that they were prophets in the New Testament sense, and that they had received special revelations of truth. The answer to that is that in view of the New Testament Scriptures there is no need of further truth. That is an absolute proposition. We have all truth in the New Testament, and we have no need of any further revelations. All has been given, everything that is necessary for us is available. Therefore if a man claims to have received a revelation of some fresh truth we should suspect him immediately. . . .

The answer to all this is that the need for prophets ends once we have the canon of the New Testament. We no longer need direct revelations of truth; the truth is in the Bible. We must never separate the Spirit and the Word. The Spirit speaks to us through the Word; so we should always doubt and query any supposed revelation that is not entirely consistent with the Word of God. Indeed the essence of wisdom is to reject altogether the term ‘revelation’ as far as we are concerned, and speak only of ‘illumination’. The revelation has been given once and for all, and what we need and what by the grace of God we can have, and do have, is illumination by the Spirit to understand the Word.

taken from: Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the Gift of Prophecy by Nathan Busenitz

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A Slack Hand

Scripture takes a dim view of a slack hand. “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: But the hand of the diligent maketh rich” (Prov. 10:4).


This applies to all of us—men and women, boy and girls. It applies to every station of life—job holder, housekeeper, or student. One of the plain indicators that the Spirit of God is at work is that He creates a work ethic in His people. So let us be honest with one another, and brutally honest with ourselves. Where are we being lazy?


We need to be careful about this because lazy people have trained themselves to be impervious to exhortations such as this, and they sally forth in a panoply of excuses. And those who know how to work—which would be the vast majority of you—take exhortations like this to heart, and resolve to work even harder than you do. But I am speaking here to the handful of you who need to repent of sloth.


Some of you who are adept with a slack hand are also adept in the arts of manipulation. There are people near you who are not allergic to work the same way you are, and you can maneuver them into carrying part of your job for you. But never forget this—God sees it. He is dealing with it. In fact, He is dealing with it right now. So I am also speaking to the hard workers who make the terrible mistake of subsidizing sloth in others.


In this, let us not have false ideals of a pristine state. There is a kind of chaos caused by industry: “Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: But much increase is by the strength of the ox” (Prov. 14:4). But there is also the chaos of sloth: “I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, And nettles had covered the face thereof, And the stone wall thereof was broken down” (Prov. 24:30-31). So if you are a sluggard, pray for light. You don’t want to be a sluggard, and be the last one to know.


 

Monday, January 27, 2014

Understanding 2 Peter 3:9

From Chapter 9 of the book, "Twelve What Abouts - Answering Common Objections Concerning God’s Sovereignty in Election" by John Samson


Without doubt, this is the single most popular verse used to dismiss the biblical doctrine of election, bar none. The meaning of the verse is simply assumed, and because of this, no time is taken to study it, which is the very hallmark of tradition. I have to admit that I did this for many years. Those most enslaved to tradition are those who think they do not have any.


First of all then, let us read the verse in its context:


2 Peter 3:1-9––“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, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 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.’ 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, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 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.


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. 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.”


The first thing we notice is that the subject of the passage is not salvation but the second coming of Christ. Peter is explaining the reason for the delay in Christ’s second coming. He is still coming and will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night (v. 10).


The second thing to notice is that the verse in question (v. 9) speaks of the will of God. “God is not willing” for something to happen.


Theologians have long recognized that there are three ways in which the will of God is spoken of in Scripture.


There is what is called the Sovereign Decretive Will. This refers to the will by which God brings to pass whatsoever He decrees. This is something that ALWAYS happens. Nothing can thwart this will. (Isa. 46:10, 11).This will is also known as the secret will of God because it is hidden to us until it comes to pass in the course of time.


Secondly, there is the Preceptive Will of God. This is God’s will revealed in His law, commandments or precepts. As the course of human history reveals, people have the power to break these commandments and do so every day. It is important to state though that, although men have the power to break these precepts, they do not have the right to do so. His creatures are under obligation to obey all His commandments and will face His judgment for not doing so.


Thirdly, we have God’s Will of Disposition. Dr. R. C. Sproul states, This will describes God’s attitude. It defines what is pleasing to Him. For example, God takes no delight in the death of the wicked, yet He most surely wills or decrees the death of the wicked. God’s ultimate delight is in His own holiness and righteousness. When He judges the world, He delights in the vindication of His own righteousness and justice, yet He is not gleeful in a vindictive sense toward those who receive His judgment. God is pleased when we find our pleasure in obedience. He is sorely displeased when we are disobedient. (Essential Truths of the Christian Faith)


There are many in the Reformed community who look at 2 Peter 3:9 and feel that what we have here is God expressing His will of disposition. They believe the text to be saying that God is not wishing or desiring to see any human being perish (in one sense), even though that is exactly what will happen if a person does not come to repentance. The fact that people perish is not something that makes God happy. He would rather it never happened. But to uphold His holiness and justice, He must punish rebellious sinners by sending them to an eternity in hell.


A lot could be said for this view of the text and I have many Reformed friends who hold to it. It does seem to solve many problems. However, I take a different view because of what I see when I follow the pronouns of the passage.


WHO ARE THE “ALL”?


The people Peter is addressing are clearly identified. He speaks of the mockers as “they”, but everywhere else he speaks to his audience as “you” and the “beloved.” I believe this is very important.


But surely “all” means “all,” right? Well usually, yes, but not always. This has to be determined by the context in which the words are found. When a school teacher is in a classroom and is about to start the class and asks the students, “Are we all here?” or “Is everyone here?” he is not asking if everyone on planet Earth is in the classroom. Because of the context in which the question is framed, we understand that he is referring to all within a certain class or type––in this case, all the students in the class. To say that he is referring to all people on planet earth would be to grossly misinterpret the intended meaning of his question.


So, the question in 2 Peter 3:9 is whether “all” refers to all human beings without exception, or whether it refers to everyone within a certain group.


The context of 2 Peter 3:9 indicates that Peter is writing to a specific group and not to all of mankind. The audience is confirmed when Peter writes, “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved…” (2 Peter 3:1).
Can we be even more specific? Yes, because if this is the second letter addressed to them, the first makes it clear who he is writing to. 1 Peter 1:1––“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect…”


So Peter is writing to the elect in 2 Peter 3:8, 9 saying “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. 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.”


I would agree with Dr. Sproul (and other scholars) who believe that the will of God spoken of here is not God’s will of disposition but His Sovereign decretive will. God is not willing that any should perish. He will not allow it to happen.


Allowing for this premise then, if the “any” or “all” here refers to everyone in human history, the verse would prove universalism rather than Christianity. (Universalism is the false doctrine that teaches that everyone will in the end be saved, with no one going to hell). If God is not willing (in His decretive Sovereign will) that any person perish; then what? No one would ever perish! Yet, in context, the “any” that God wills not to perish is limited to the same group he is writing to, the elect; and the “all” that are to come to repentance is the very same group.


This interpretation makes total sense of the passage. Christ’s second coming has been delayed so that all the elect can be gathered in. The elect are not justified by election, but by putting their faith in Christ. If a person is to be saved they must come to Christ in repentance and faith. The doctrine of Sovereign Election simply explains who will do so. The elect will.


Jesus assured us of this when He said, “All that the Father gives to me will come to me” (John 6:37) and is confirmed by the testimony of Luke in Acts 13:48 when he observed that “… all who were appointed to eternal life believed.”


2 Peter Chapter 3 teaches us that the reason Christ has not yet returned is because there are more of His elect to come into the fold. That is why He did not return yesterday. At this point in time, not all of the elect have come to repentance and faith. Therefore Christ has not yet returned to the Earth in power and glory. Christ’s second coming may seem delayed (to some) but God is being very longsuffering toward us (you, beloved) not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance. Speaking personally, I am so glad that the Lord Jesus did not return the day before I was converted. I would have been lost in sin forever.


Rather than denying election, the verse, understood in its biblical context, is one of the strongest verses in favor of it. The context of 2 Peter 3 shouts and screams that Peter, when writing of “all,” is actually referring to all of the elect.

The Moral and Immoral Both Alienated from God

Both moral and immoral people are alienated from God. God is offended by both. This may be counter-intuitive but moral people are lost because of their "goodness". Why? It is often the case that goodness keeps people from God. In fact many people avoid Jesus by avoiding sin because they are trying to become their own saviors ... attempting to justify themselves. But the gospel is neither moralism nor relativism so it is equally offensive to the moral and the irreligious. But Christ calls us to repent of both our good and bad works, for we have no righteousness of our own.


As an example of Jesus dislike of people who trusted in their own morality, Jesus said, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains." (John 9:41) Those who think God will accept us based on goodness actually understand only part of the truth. Yes, God loves what is good. But since He also loves the truth, we must confess that, in light of God's holy law, we are not good and have woefully failed to do what is pleasing to God, replacing God with worthless self-pleasing idol substitutes, and so we justly deserve to be punished for it. Those who think they have done enough to please God have not understood or considered the seriousness of their condition. John Calvin once said, "Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty." In light of the holiness of God all persons, even the best of us, would become undone. This was the case even with the holiest of the saints of the Bible. When it pleased God to reveal himself to them, they fell at his feet as though dead. God created us to enjoy and glorify Him, but humans voluntarily rebelled against God falling into the bondage of the self-centeredness of sin and cannot help themselves out of it.


For clarification, no one would here dare to somehow reason that because we cannot trust in morality that we thereby should be content to be immoral. Those who are regenerated by the Spirit of God will want to obey God and the commands are not burdensome because such persons have been born of God. (1 John 5:1-4). We obey because we are saved, not in order to be saved.


Puritan Quotes:


[Some people being very moral have] "nothing to do with the business of repentance. They are so good, that they scorn God's offer of mercy. Indeed these are often in the worst condition: these are they who think they need no repentance (Luke 15:7). Their morality undoes them. They make a "savior" of it, and so on this rock they suffer shipwreck. Morality shoots short of heaven. It is only nature refined. A moral man is but old Adam dressed in fine clothes. The king's image counterfeited and stamped upon brass will not go current. The moral person seems to have the image of God—but he is only brass metal, which will never pass for current. Morality is insufficient for salvation. Though the life is moralized, the lust may be unmortified. The heart may be full of pride and atheism. Under the fair leaves of a tree, there may be a worm. I am not saying, repent that you are moral—but that you are no more than moral. Satan entered into the house that had just been swept and garnished (Luke 11:26). This is the emblem of a moral man, who is swept by civility and garnished with common gifts—but is not washed by true repentance. The unclean spirit enters into such a one. If morality were sufficient to salvation, Christ need not have died. The moral man has a fair lamp—but it lacks the oil of grace."


From Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance


---------------------------


[Some people end up] "Trusting in their own righteousness. This is a soul-ruining mischief. When men trust in their own righteousness they do indeed reject Christ's. Beloved, you had need be watchful on every hand, for not only your sins—but your duties may undo you. It may be you never thought of this; but so it is, that a man may as certainly perish by his seeming righteousness and supposed graces—as by gross sins; and that is, when a man trusts to these as his righteousness before God, for satisfying His justice, appeasing His wrath, procuring His favor, and obtaining His pardon. This is to put Christ out of office, and make a Savior of our own duties and graces. Beware of this, O professing Christians; you are much in duties—but this one fly will spoil all the ointment. When you have done most and best, be sure to go out of yourselves—to Christ; reckon your own righteousness as filthy rags (Phil 3:9; Isa 64:6)."


Joseph Alleine, A Sure Guide to Heaven

What About Lost Loved Ones?

Let me address this question by telling you a story from history. In the 4th century, there was a very devout Christian lady named Monica. She was married to a prominent man who did not share her Christian faith. He was often very cruel to her, causing her physical abuse. Every day she would go to the church and pray for his conversion. Later on in his life, he did in fact become a Christian.


Yet the pain and anguish her husband caused her seemingly paled into insignificance compared to that which she suffered because of her oldest son. Her mother’s heart was broken, time after time, seeing the reckless life her son was leading. He not only did not share his mother’s faith but would join himself to anti-Christian groups, using his sharp mind to seek to convince others to follow him. He lived a very immoral life. He had a mistress but left her for another and had a son born out of wedlock, named Adeodatus. Monica was not personally able to convince her son of the truth claims of Christianity, but she determined never to stop praying that he would turn to the Lord.


For two decades this went on, with Monica persisting in prayer for her son, seemingly seeing no results. Her son was later to write about all this and tells us that she wept more for his spiritual death than most mothers weep for the bodily death of their children. Distraught, she went to see the well known Bishop Ambrose of Milan to speak about her plight. Knowing her anguish of soul he said, “Go your way and God will bless you, for it is not possible that the son of these tears should perish.” She accepted the answer as though it were a word from God Himself.


Monica’s prayers for her son were answered very suddenly. One day he was in a garden experiencing much agony of soul because of his sin. God the Holy Spirit was certainly working on him. In his own writings he recalled what happened next––suddenly he heard the voice of a boy or a girl, he was not sure which, coming from the neighboring house, chanting over and over again, “Tolle Lege, Tolle Lege” a Latin phrase that meant ‘Pick it up, read it; pick it up, read it.’


Later, in his own writings, he recounted, "Immediately I ceased weeping and began most earnestly to think whether it was usual for children in some kind of game to sing such a song, but I could not remember ever having heard the like. So, damming the torrent of my tears, I got to my feet, for I could not but think that this was a divine command to open the Bible and read the first passage I should light upon….


So I quickly returned to the bench where Alypius [his friend] was sitting, for there I had put down the apostle’s book when I had left there. I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence I read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: ‘Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof’ (Rom. 13:13). I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away." - Augustine, ‘Confessions’, VIII.12.29


Monica’s many years of prayers were answered in a single moment. Her son experienced a dramatic, life changing conversion to Christ.


What Monica could not have known was the impact her son would have, not only on his contemporaries, but on the many generations to come. Her son became one of God’s greatest ever gifts to His Church, Augustine of Hippo (354 AD to 430 AD). There is no doubt that Augustine was the greatest theologian of the Church (outside of the New Testament) for the first thousand years, and arguably, he was the greatest theologian in Church history.


Augustine’s writings on the subject of grace would become a massive influence on both Martin Luther (who was himself an Augustinian monk) and John Calvin. God used these men to bring about the greatest move of God in the history of the Church as entire nations were brought under the influence of the gospel in the 16th century Protestant Reformation.


In the same way, as we consider the biblical story of the man who found Christ right at the end of his life, the man known as “the thief on the cross,” we should note that even up until the very last day in this man’s life, there was nothing we could observe outwardly that would indicate he was one of God’s elect. Until this time, the man had lived the life of a notorious criminal with seemingly no interest in following Christ. The fact that he was indeed one of God’s elect only became clear when he came to Christ so shortly before death.


While hanging on a cross next to Jesus, he turned to Him and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:42).


Immediately, upon speaking these words, this man was given the unique and unspeakably gracious privilege of being told by Jesus Himself that he would be with Him in Paradise that very day (v. 43). What clear words of assurance! If ever a man could be certain of his election, it was this man.


Yet, using our sanctified minds, perhaps we could imagine his mother as a Christian and praying for him as a wayward son. This is complete speculation of course––but let us for a moment suppose that his mother was still alive, a follower of Christ, and was witnessing the events of that day. There would have been nothing that she could have observed with her senses that would have indicated that the last hour of his life would mean his conversion. It looked like it was going to be a tragic end to a tragic life. I certainly could imagine her bitterly intense sorrow in seeing her son walk the same hill as the Savior, the difference being that her son was walking up the hill because he deserved it… and then, out of nowhere it would seem, God the Holy Spirit moved in invisible but irresistible grace and took out the spiritual heart of stone and gave him a new heart, with new affections so unlike the old ones. Immediately, her son trusted in the work of the One dying next to him. And in no time at all, ultimate assurance was given to him that the day would not be over before he would be with Christ in Paradise.


As I say, this is all speculation concerning his mother and her anguish of heart, but what is indeed certain is that the man was converted with just hours to go before he died. Absolutely no one is beyond God’s reach, even to the last moment of a person’s life. Praise the Lord!


The Scripture tells us, “The Lord knows those who are his…” (2 Tim. 2:19).The identity of the elect is known only to God, not to us. Only upon seeing someone defy God until their very last breath in this world should we assume someone is non-elect. Though the salvation of our children or loved ones is always in God’s hands, it should be an immense comfort to us knowing that if an individual’s conversion is so much upon our hearts, this in itself is a very strong indication that it is God Himself who is behind the whole thing and has laid this burden upon us, in order that He would use this (our burden to pray) as a means to accomplish His ends (the conversion of one of His elect sheep).


Just as the Lord opened up the heart of Lydia to respond to the things spoken by Paul (Acts 16:13,14), so our only hope is that the God who can open any heart will do so for the ones we love and care for. Salvation (and the timing of conversion) is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9).


(From Chapter 15 of the book "Twelve What Abouts - Answering Common Objections Concerning God's Sovereignty in Election" by John Samson)

Joni Eareckson’s Tada’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: The Double Standard of Disability Laws

Joni Eareckson Tada has a strong op-ed in Friday’s edition of the Wall Street Journal arguing that the the celebrated ideals of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) has crumbled under a double standard. It was originally designed, she notes, “to guarantee the basic rights of Americans with disabilities.” But now that the fear of disability “is allowed to influence legislation to allow people with disabilities to kill themselves, the notions of personal autonomy, freedom and dignity that the ADA championed take on a grim irony.”She takes us on a brief survey of our culture of death, starting with assisted-suicide laws to now infants with disabilities, and even children with incurable diseases. Joni notes that “while a disabled person’s civil rights are recognized under federal law, those rights are nullified when confronted with stereotypical notions about the ‘tragedy’ of a disabled person’s existence.”

Life is the most precious and foundational right of humanity. Society’s unwritten moral law has always led us to save our children—and certainly not to allow them to destroy themselves. . . .


What kind of society do we want? If we are seeking a good society, then we do well to defend the rights of the helpless—not nullify their rights in order to destroy them. It benefits all of us to minister to those who are hurting, not to agree with them that life isn’t worth living.


You can read the whole thing here (subscription or login may be required).

Copyright © 2014 by the author listed above. Used by permission.

What Would Jonathan Edwards Say If a Teenage Girl Wrote to Him for Spiritual Advice?

In early April of 1741, the pastor of the church in Suffield (then part of Massachusetts, now part of Connecticut) passed away. On April 14, Jonathan Edwards filled the pulpit, and the church experienced an awakening to the things of the gospel. (Just three months later he would preach his famous sermon on “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in neighboring Enfield, just 10 miles to the east across the Connecticut River.)


Six weeks after his return to Northampton from Suffield, he received a letter from 18-year-old Deborah Hatheway, who had been recently converted (perhaps under his preaching at her church) and wrote to him for spiritual counsel on how to live as a Christian. This letter (reprinted below from the Yale edition), was later published as Advice to Young Converts and became Edwards’s most famous printed work (after Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God), with hundred of thousands printed. It is an interesting window into Edwards’s gentle and pastoral tone with young people in particular.

– 91 –* * *

Northampton


June 3, 1741


Dear Child,


As you desired me to send you in writing some directions, how to conduct yourself in your Christian course, I would now answer your request. The sweet remembrance of the great things I have lately seen at Suffield, and the dear affections for those persons I have there conversed with, that give good evidences of a saving work of God upon their hearts, inclines me to do anything that lies in my power, to contribute to the spiritual joy and prosperity of God’s people there. And what I write to you, I would also say to other young women there, that are your friends and companions and the children of God; and therefore desire you would communicate it to them as you have opportunity.


[1] I would advise you to keep up as great a strife and earnestness in religion in all parts of it, as you would do if you knew yourself to be in a state of nature and was seeking conversion. We advise persons under convictions to be earnest and violent for the kingdom of heaven, but when they have attained to conversion they ought not to be the less watchful, laborious and earnest in the whole work of religion, but the more; for they are under infinitely greater obligations. For want of this, many persons in a few months after their conversion have begun to lose the sweet and lively sense of spiritual things, and to grow cold and Hat and dark, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows, whereas if they had done as the Apostle did, Philippians 3:12-14, their path would have been as the shining light, that shines more and more unto the perfect day. Don’t leave off seeking, striving and praying for the very same things that we exhort unconverted persons to strive for, and a degree of which you have had in conversion. Thus pray that your eyes may be opened, that you may receive your sight, that you may know your self, and be brought to God’s foot, and that you may see the glory of God

– 92 –and Christ and may be raised from the dead, and have the love of Christ shed abroad in your heart; for those that have most of these things, had need still to pray for them; for there is so much blindness and hardness and pride and death remaining, that they still need to have that work of God wrought upon them, further to enlighten and enliven them; that shall be a bringing out of darkness into God’s marvelous light, and a kind of new conversion and resurrection from the dead. There are very few requests that are proper for a natural person, but that in some sense are proper for the godly.

[2] When you hear sermons hear ‘em for yourself: though what is spoken in them may be more especially directed to the unconverted, or to those that in other respects are in different circumstances from yourself. Yet let the chief intent of your mind be to consider with yourself, in what respects is this that I hear spoken, applicable to me, and what improvement ought I to make of this for my own soul’s good? Though God has forgiven and forgotten your past sins, yet don’t forget ‘em yourself: often remember what a wretched bond slave you was in the land of Egypt. Often bring to mind your particular acts of sin before conversion, as the blessed apostle Paul is often mentioning his old blaspheming, persecuting and injuriousness, to the renewed humbling of his heart and acknowledging that he was the least of the apostles, and not worthy to be called an apostle, and the least of all saints, and the chief of sinners. And be often in confessing your old sins to God, and let that text be often in your mind, Ezekiel 16:63, “That thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.” Remember that you have more cause, on some accounts a thousand times, to lament and humble yourself for sins that have been since conversion than before, because of the infinitely greater obligations that are upon you to live to God. And look upon the faithfulness of Christ in unchangeably continuing his loving favor, and the unspeakable and saving fruits of his everlasting love, notwithstanding all your great unworthiness since your conversion, to be as great or wonderful, as his grace in converting you. Be always greatly abased for your remaining sin, and never think that you lie low enough for it, but yet don’t be at all discouraged or disheartened by it; for though we are exceeding sinful, yet we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, the preciousness of whose blood, and the merit of whose righteousness and the greatness

– 93 –of whose love and faithfulness does infinitely overtop the highest mountains of our sins.

[3] When you engage in the duty of prayer, or come to the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, or attend any other duty of divine worship, come to Christ as Mary Magdalene did, Luke 7:37-38. Come and cast yourself down at his feet and kiss ‘em, and pour forth upon him the sweet perfumed ointment of divine love, out of a pure and broken heart, as she poured her precious ointment out of her pure, alabaster, broken box.


Remember that pride is the worst viper that is in the heart, the greatest disturber of the soul’s peace and sweet communion with Christ; it was the first sin that ever was, and lies lowest in the foundation of Satan’s whole building, and is the most difficultly rooted out, and is the most hidden, secret and deceitful of all lusts, and often creeps in, insensibly, into the midst of religion and sometimes under the disguise of humility. That you may pass a good judgment of the frames you are in, always look upon those the best discourses and the best comforts that have most of these two effects, viz. those that make you least, lowest, and most like a little child; and secondly, those that do most engage and fix your heart in a full and firm disposition to deny yourself for God, and to spend and be spent for him.


If at any time you fall into doubts about the state of your soul under darkness and dull frames of mind, ’tis proper to look over past experiences, but yet don’t consume too much of your time and strength in poring and puzzling thoughts about old experiences, that in dull frames appear dim and are very much out of sight, at least as to that which is the cream and life and sweetness of them: but rather apply yourself with all your might, to do an earnest pursuit after renewed experiences, new light, and new, lively acts of faith and love.


One new discovery of the glory of Christ’s face, and the fountain of his sweet grace and love will do more towards scattering clouds of darkness and doubting in one minute, than examining old experiences by the best mark that can be given, a whole year.


When the exercise of grace is at a low ebb, and corruption prevails, and by that means fear prevails, don’t desire to have fear cast out any other way, than by the reviving and prevailing of love, for ’tis not agreeable to the method of God’s wise dispensations that it should be cast out any other way; for when love is asleep, the saints need fear to restrain them from sin and therefore it is so ordered that at such times

– 94 –fear comes upon them, and that more or less as love sinks. But when love is in lively exercise, persons don’t need fear, and the prevailing of love in the heart, naturally tends to cast out fear, as darkness in a room vanishes away as you let more and more of the perfect beams of the sun into it, 1 John 4:18.

[4] You ought to be much in exhorting and counseling and warning others, especially at such a day as this, Hebrews 10:25. And I would advise you especially, to be much in exhorting children and young women your equals; and when you exhort others that are men, I would advise that you take opportunities for it, chiefly when you are alone with them, or when only young persons are present. See 1 Timothy 2:9, 1 Timothy 2:11-12.


When you counsel and warn others, do it earnestly, affectionately and thoroughly.


And when you are speaking to your equals, let your warnings be intermixed with expressions of your sense of your own unworthiness, and of the sovereign grace that makes you differ; and if you can with a good conscience, say how that you in yourself are more unworthy than they.


If you would set up religious meetings of young women by yourselves, to be attended once in a while, besides the other meetings that you attend, I should think it would be very proper and profitable. Under special difficulties, or when in great need of or great longings after any particular mercies for your self or others, set apart a day of secret fasting and prayer alone; and let the day be spent not only in petitions for the mercies you desired, but in searching your heart, and looking over your past life, and confessing your sins before God not as is wont to be done in public prayer, but by a very particular rehearsal before God, of the sins of your past life from your childhood hitherto, before and after conversion, with particular circumstances and aggravations, also very particularly and fully as possible, spreading all the abominations of your heart before him. Don’t let the adversaries of religion have it to say, that these converts don’t carry themselves any better than others. See Matthew 5:47, “What do ye more than others”; how holily should the children of God, and the redeemed and the beloved of the Son of God behave themselves? Therefore walk as a child of the light and of the day and adorn the doctrine of God your Savior; and particularly be much in those things, that may especially be called Christian virtues, and make you like the Lamb of God; be meek and lowly of heart and full of a pure, heavenly and humble love to all; and abound in deeds of love to others,

– 95 –and self-denial for others, and let there be in you a disposition to account others better than yourself.

[5] Don’t talk of things of religion and matters of experience with an air of lightness and laughter, which is too much the manner in many places. In all your course, walk with God and follow Christ as a little, poor, helpless child, taking hold of Christ’s hand, keeping your eye on the mark of the wounds on his hands and side, whence came the blood that cleanses you from sin and hiding your nakedness under the skirt of the white shining robe of his righteousness. Pray much for the church of God and especially that he would carry on his glorious work that he has now begun; and be much in prayer for the ministers of Christ, and particularly I would beg a special interest in your prayers, and the prayers of your Christian companions, both when you are alone and when you are together, for your affectionate friend, that rejoices over you, and desires to be your servant,


In Jesus Christ,


Jonathan Edwards.


—Source: Jonathan Edwards, “To Deborah Hatheway,” in Letters and Personal Writings, ed. George S. Claghorn, vol. 16 of The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998), 91-95. Bracketed numbering and bold emphasis are mine.

Vanhoozer: What Are Theologians For?

Here is a video lecture from Kevin Vanhoozer, asking ”What Are Theologians For? Why Doctors of the Church Prescribe Christian Doctrine.”



[First,] Doctrine tells us who God is and what God is doing in Christ. So, doctors of the church prescribe doctrine in order to preserve the integrity of our Christian witness.


Second, doctrine tells us who and what we are in Jesus Christ. And doctors of the church prescribe doctrine to preserve the integrity of Christian identity. We’re not like the other nations, we’re a holy nation, a people of a new covenant.


Third, doctrine says of what is in Christ that it is. Doctors of the church prescribe doctrine in order, as I’ve said, to minister reality—the only reliable tonic to the toxins of meaninglessness and nothingness.


Fourth, doctrine restores sinners to their senses. Doctors of the church prescribe doctrine to wake up people who are sleepwalking their way through life, helping us see with the eyes of the heart the bright contours of the splendors of God revealed in Christ.


Fifth, doctrine provides a fiduciary framework for understanding God, the world, and ourselves. And doctors of the church prescribe it to dissipate the mist of confusion and apathy about the meaning of life.


Sixth, doctrine directs the church in the way of wisdom, godliness, and human flourishing. If we prescribe doctrine, we’re clarifying the mission of the church and we’re answering another question, maybe for another time, what are the people of God for?


And seventhly, doctrine instructs not only the head, but orients the heart and guides the hand. Doctors of the church prescribe doctrine so that our faith, hope, and love, our credenda, spiranda, and agenda, will go with the grain of the Gospel and correspond to the historical and eschatological reality of what is in Christ.


So, in sum, theology sets forth in speech what is in Christ. And at its best, it’s the attempt to set forth in persons what Christ is like. That is, doctrine is for growing disciples. . . . I’m suggesting, then, that the pastor-theologian is the church’s primary care physician. Problem is, too many pastors have stopped doctoring.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

A Letter from John Newton to a Despairing Woman

Tony Reinke, author of the forthcoming Newton on the Christian Life, recently spoke at Crossway’s chapel and shared a lightly revised letter from John Newton (1725-1807), “A Letter to a Friend in Trouble” (Works of John Newton 6:377-80). He gave me permission to share it here. We don’t have the originating letter, but it was from a correspondent who was friends with a woman struggling with extended periods of depression. This friend wrote to Newton to ask if he might write her some gospel encouragement.



My dear Madam, . . .


They who would always rejoice [in trials], must derive their joy from a source which is invariably the same; in other words, from Jesus. Oh, that name! What a person, what an office, what a love, what a life, what a death, does it recall to our minds!


Come, madam, let us leave our troubles to themselves for a while, and let us walk to Golgotha, and there take a view of his. We stop, as we are going, at Gethsemane, for it is not a step out of the road. There he lies, bleeding, though not wounded; or, if wounded, it is by an invisible, an almighty hand. Now I begin to see what sin has done. Now let me bring my sorrows, and compare, measure, and weigh them, against the sorrows of my Saviour! Foolish attempt; to weigh a [grain of dust] against a mountain! . . .


We are still more confirmed at our next station.


Now we are at the foot of the cross.


Behold the Man! Attend to his groans; contemplate his wounds. Now, let us sit down ere a while and weep for our crosses, if we can. For our crosses! Nay, rather let us weep for our sins, which brought the Son of God into such distress. Agreed. I feel that we, not He, deserved to be crucified, and to be utterly forsaken. But this is not all: his death not only shows our [sin], but seals our pardon.


For a fuller proof, let us take another station.


Now we are at his tomb. But the stone is rolled away. He is not here; he is risen. The debt is paid, and the surety discharged. . . . Where then is He? Look up! Methinks the clouds part, and glory breaks through — Behold a throne! What a transition! He, who hung upon the cross, is seated upon the throne! Hark, he speaks! May every word sink deep into your heart and mine! He says, “I know your sorrows, yes, I appoint them; they are tokens of my love; it is thus I call you to the honor of following me. See a place prepared for you near to myself! Fear none of these things: be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.”


It is enough, Lord.


Now then let us compute, let us calculate again. These scales are the balances of the sanctuary. Let us put in our trials and griefs on one side. What an alteration! I thought them lately very heavy: now I find them light, the scale hardly turns with them. But how shall we manage to put in the weight on the other side? It is heavy indeed: an exceeding, an eternal weight of glory. It is beyond my grasp and power. No matter. Comparison is needless. I see, with the glance of an eye, there is no proportion. I am content. I am satisfied. I am ashamed. Have I been so long mourning, and is this all the causer? Well, if the flesh will grieve, it shall grieve by itself. The Spirit, the Lord enabling me, shall rejoice, yea, it does. From this moment I wipe away my tears, and forbid them to flow; or, if I must weep, they shall be tears of gratitude, love, and joy! The bitter is sweet; the medicine is food.


But the cloud closes: I can no longer see what I lately saw. However, I have seen it: I know it is there. He ever lives, full of compassion and care, to plead for me above, to manage for me below. He is mine, and I am his: therefore all is well.


I hope this little walk will do us both good. We have seen wonderful things today! Wonderful in themselves, and wonderful in their efficacy to compose our spirits, and to make us willing to suffer on.


Blessed be God for his unspeakable gift!


I am, Madam, your affectionate,


John Newton


 

25 Ways Peter Kreeft’s 4-Volume History of Philosophy Is Different from All the Others

The prolific popular-level philosopher, Peter Kreeft of Boston College, has a four-volume history of philosophy coming out in March.


Professor Kreeft explains what makes these volumes different:

It’s neither very long (like Copleston’s twelve-volume tome, which is a clear and helpful reference work but pretty dull reading) nor very short (like many skimpy one-volume summaries) but just long enough.It’s available in separate volumes but eventually in one complete work (after the four volumes – Ancient, Medieval, Modern, Contemporary – are produced in paperbound editions, a one-volume clothbound will be published).It focuses on the “big ideas” that have influenced present people and present times.It includes relevant biographical data, proportionate to its importance for each thinker.It is not just history but philosophy. Its aim is not merely to record facts (of life or opinion) but to stimulate philosophizing, controversy, argument.It does this by aiming above all at understanding, at what the old logic called the “first act of the mind” rather than the third: the thing computers and many ”analytic philosophers” cannot understand.It uses ordinary language and logic, not professional academic jargon or symbolic logic.It is commonsensical (and therefore is sympathetic to commonsense philosophers like Aristotle).It is “existential” in that it sees philosophy as something to be lived, and tested in life. It concentrates on the questions that make a difference to your life. It dares to be human and, therefore, occasionally funny or ironic.Like the “Great Books,” it assumes that philosophy is not about philosophy but about reality; about wisdom; about life and death and good and evil and man and God and “stuff like that,” rather than mere analysis of language. It cooks edible meats rather than just sweeping the floor of garbage.It tries to be simple and direct and clear in showing how deep and dark and mysterious the questions of philosophy are. It combines clarity with profundity, as neither “analytic” nor “continental” philosophy yet does (though they’re both trying).It sees the history of human thought as more exciting, more dramatic, than military or political history. Its running thread is “the great conversation.” It lets philosophers talk to each other.It takes the past seriously. It does not practice “chronological snobbery.” Our ancestors made mistakes. So do we. We can see ours best by reading them.It will stay in print forever or till the Cubs win the World Series and the world ends.It gives more space (16-20 pages) to the 10 most important philosophers, medium space (5-15 pages) to the next 20, and only a little space (2-4 pages) to the other 70.It’s not “dumbed down.” It doesn’t patronize.It can be understood by beginners. It’s not just for scholars.It’s usable for college classes or by do-it-yourselfers.It takes every philosopher serious, but it’s not relativistic. It argues (usually both pro and con), because it believes in Truth.It does not deliver platitudes. It emphasizes surprises. For “philosophy begins in wonder.”It includes visual aids: charts, cartoons, line drawings, and each philosopher’s face.It gives not just the what but the why: why each philosopher asked the questions he did, and the rationale for the answer he gave.It includes many memorable and famous quotations, in boldface type.It prepares readers for reading the philosophers themselves, by warning them what to expect.Copyright © 2014 by the author listed above. Used by permission.

John Piper on Why You Should Read John Owen

From John Piper’s foreword to an unabridged edition of John Owen’s Overcoming Sin and Temptation, which I edited with Kelly Kapic:


As I look across the Christian landscape, I think it is fair to say concerning sin, “They have healed the wound of my people lightly” (Jer. 6:14; 8:11, ESV). I take this to refer to leaders who should be helping the church know and feel the seriousness of indwelling sin (Rom. 7:20), and how to fight it and kill it (Rom. 8:13). Instead the depth and complexity and ugliness and danger of sin in professing Christians is either minimized—since we are already justified—or psychologized as a symptom of woundedness rather than corruption.


This is a tragically light healing. I call it a tragedy because by making life easier for ourselves in minimizing the nature and seriousness of our sin, we become greater victims of it. We are in fact not healing ourselves. Those who say that they already feel bad enough without being told about the corruptions of indwelling sin misread the path to peace. When our people have not been taught well about the real nature of sin and how it works and how to put it to death, most of the miseries people report are not owing to the disease but its symptoms. They feel a general malaise and don’t know why, their marriages are at the breaking point, they feel weak in their spiritual witness and devotion, their workplace is embattled, their church is tense with unrest, their fuse is short with the children, etc. They report these miseries as if they were the disease. And they want the symptoms removed.


We proceed to heal the wound of the people lightly. We look first and mainly for circumstantial causes for the misery—present or past. If we’re good at it, we can find partial causes and give some relief. But the healing is light. We have not done the kind of soul surgery that is possible only when the soul doctor knows the kind of things Owen talks about in these books, and when the patient is willing to let the doctor’s scalpel go deep.


What Owen offers is not quick relief, but long-term, deep growth in grace that can make strong, healthy trees where there was once a fragile sapling. I pray that thousands—especially teachers and pastors and other leaders—will choose the harder, long-term path of growth, not the easier, short-term path of circumstantial relief.


The two dead pastor-theologians of the English-speaking world who have nourished and taught me most are Jonathan Edwards and John Owen. Some will say Edwards is unsurpassed. Some say Owen was the greater. We don’t need to decide. We have the privilege of knowing them both as our friends and teachers. What an amazing gift of God’s providence that these brothers were raised up and that hundreds of years after they have died we may sit at their feet. We cannot properly estimate the blessing of soaking our minds in the Bible-saturated thinking of the likes of John Owen. What he was able to see in the Bible and preserve for us in writing is simply magnificent. It is so sad—a travesty, I want to say—how many Christian leaders of our day do not strive to penetrate the wisdom of John Owen, but instead read books and magazines that are superficial in their grasp of the Bible.


We act as though there was nothing extraordinary about John Owen’s vision of biblical truth—that he was not a rare gift to the church. But he was rare. There are very few people like this whom God raises up in the history of the church. Why does God do this? Why does he give an Owen or an Edwards to the church and then ordain that what they saw of God should be preserved in books? Is it not because he loves us? Is it not because he would share Owen’s vision with his church? Great trees that are covered with the richest life-giving fruit are not for museums. God preserves them and their fruit for the health of his church.


I know that all Christians cannot read all such giants. Even one mountain is too high to climb for most of us. But we can pick one or two, and then ask God to teach us what he taught them. The really great writers are not valuable for their cleverness but for their straightforward and astonishing insight into what the Bible really says about great realities. This is what we need.


The Bible is God’s word. Therefore, it is profound. How could it not be? God inspired it. He understands himself and the human heart infinitely. He is not playing games with us. He really means to communicate the profoundest things about sin and hell and heaven and Christ and faith and salvation and holiness and death. Paul does not sing out in vain, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom. 11:33, ESV). No. He summons us to stop settling for pop culture and to learn what the Bible really has to say about the imponderable depths of sin and grace.


Owen is especially worthy of our attention because he is shocking in his insights. That is my impression again and again. He shocks me out of my platitudinous ways of thinking about God and man. Here are a few random recollections from what you are (I hope) about to read. You will find others on your own.


“There is no death of sin without the death of Christ” (Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, chapter 7). Owen loves the cross and knows what happened there better than anyone I have read. The battle with sin that you are about to read about is no superficial technique of behavior modification. It is a profound dealing with what was accomplished on the cross in relation to the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit through the deep and wonderful mysteries of faith.


“To kill sin is the work of living men; where men are dead (as all unbelievers, the best of them, are dead), sin is alive, and will live” (chapter 7). Oh, the pastoral insights that emerge from Owen! As here: If you are fighting sin, you are alive. Take heart. But if sin holds sway unopposed, you are dead no matter how lively this sin makes you feel. Take heart, embattled saint!


“God says, ‘Here is one, if he could be rid of this lust I should never hear of him more; let him wrestle with this, or he is lost’” (chapter 8). Astonishing! God ordains to leave a lust with me till I become the sort of warrior who will still seek his aid when this victory is won. God knows when we can bear the triumphs of his grace.


“Is there the guilt of any great sin lying upon you unrepented of? A new sin may be permitted, as well as a new affliction sent, to bring an old sin to remembrance” (chapter 9). What? God ordains that we be tested by another sin so that an old one might be better known and fought? Sin is one of God’s weapons against sin?


“The difference between believers and unbelievers as to knowledge is not so much in the matter of their knowledge as in the manner of knowing. Unbelievers, some of them, may know more and be able to say more of God, his perfections, and his will, than many believers; but they know nothing as they ought, nothing in a right manner, nothing spiritually and savingly, nothing with a holy, heavenly light. The excellency of a believer is, not that he has a large apprehension of things, but that what he does apprehend, which perhaps may be very little, he sees it in the light of the Spirit of God, in a saving, soul-transforming light; and this is that which gives us communion with God, and not prying thoughts or curious-raised notions” (chapter 12). How then will we labor to help people know much and know it “in a right manner”? What is that?


“[Christ] is the head from whence the new man must have influences of life and strength, or it will decay every day” (chapter 14). Oh, that our people would feel the urgency of daily supplies of grace because “grace decays.” Do they know this? Is it a category in their mind—that grace decays? How many try to live their lives on automatic pilot with no sense of urgency that means of grace are given so that the riches of Christ may daily be obtained with fresh supplies of grace.


The list could go on and on. For me, to read Owen is to wake up to ways of seeing that are so clearly biblical that I wonder how I could have been so blind. May that be your joyful experience as well.

Copyright © 2014 by the author listed above. Used by permission.

C.S. Lewis’s Argument Against the Strange Idea that You Should Read Only Modern Books

From C. S. Lewis’s introduction to a new translation of Athanasisus’ On the Incarnation (originally written in the fourth century):



There is a strange idea abroad that in every subject the ancient books should be read only by the professionals, and that the amateur should content himself with the modern books. Thus I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as long, all about “isms” and influences and only once in twelve pages telling him what Plato actually said. The error is rather an amiable one, for it springs from humility. The student is half afraid to meet one of the great philosophers face to face. He feels himself inadequate and thinks he will not understand him. But if he only knew, the great man, just because of his greatness, is much more intelligible than his modern commentator. The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavours as a teacher to persuade the young that firsthand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than secondhand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.


This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant than in theology. . . .


Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light. Often it cannot be fully understood without the knowledge of a good many other modern books. If you join at eleven o’clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said. Remarks which seem to you very ordinary will produce laughter or irritation and you will not see why—the reason, of course, being that the earlier stages of the conversation have given them a special point. In the same way sentences in a modern book which look quite ordinary may be directed at some other book; in this way you may be led to accept what you would have indignantly rejected if you knew its real significance. The only safety is to have a standard of plain, central Christianity (“mere Christianity” as Baxter called it) which puts the controversies of the moment in their proper perspective. Such a standard can be acquired only from the old books. It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.


Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books. All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook—even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. Nothing strikes me more when I read the controversies of past ages than the fact that both sides were usually assuming without question a good deal which we should now absolutely deny. They thought that they were as completely opposed as two sides could be, but in fact they were all the time secretly united—united with each other and against earlier and later ages—by a great mass of common assumptions. We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the twentieth century—the blindness about which posterity will ask, “But how could they have thought that?”—lies where we have never suspected it, and concerns something about which there is untroubled agreement between Hitler and President Roosevelt or between Mr. H. G. Wells and Karl Barth. None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill. The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction. To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them.

How to Stop Being a Boring Preacher

John Piper:



Most of us tend to gravitate to abstractions.


We say, “Men tend to choose lesser pleasures and reject greater ones.”


But Newton says, “The men of this world are children. Offer a child and apple and bank note, he will doubtless choose the apple.”


We say, “Men are foolish to fret so much over material things when they will inherit eternal riches.”


But Newton says:



Suppose a man was going to New York to take possession of a large estate, and his [carriage] should break down a mile before he got to the city, which obliged him to walk the rest of the way; what a fool we should think him, if we saw him ringing his hands, and blubbering out all the remaining mile, “My [carriage] is broken! My [carriage] is broken!”


This is not merely a matter of style. It is a matter of life and vitality.


It is a sign to your people that your mind is healthy and a means to awakening their health.


Sick minds can only deal in abstractions and cannot get outside themselves to be moved by concrete, external wonders.


And you will never be a tender person toward your people if you merely communicate the heaviness of unhealthy concepts and theories rather than the stuff of the world in which they live.

Copyright © 2014 by the author listed above. Used by permission.

A Way to Pray in a Time of Controversy

Gracious Father, have mercy on your children in disputes.


We are sorry for any root of pride or fear of man or lack of insight that influences our stance in the controversy before us.


We confess that we are not pure in ourselves.


Even as we strive to persuade one another, we stand in need of a merciful Advocate.


We are sinners.


We are finite and fallible.


On both sides of the matter at hand, we take refuge together in the glorious gospel of justification by faith alone through grace.


We magnify Jesus Christ, our Savior and King for all he has done to make us his own.


We are a thankful people even in our conflict.


We are broken and humble to think that we would be loved and forgiven and accepted by an infinitely holy God.


Forbid, O Lord, that our spirit in this struggle would be one of hostility or ill will toward anyone.


Deliver us from every form of debate that departs from love or diminishes truth.


Grant, Father, as Francis Schaeffer pleaded in his last days, that our disagreements would prove to be golden opportunities to show the world how to love—not by avoiding conflicts, but by how we act in them.


Show us, O God, the relationship between doctrine and devotion, between truth and tenderness, between biblical faithfulness and biblical unity, between standing on the truth and standing together.


Let none of us be unteachable, or beyond correction.


May the outcome of our dispute be clearer vision of your glory and grace and truth and wisdom and power and knowledge.


By your Spirit, grant that the result of all our arguments be deeper humility, more dependence on mercy, sweeter fellowship with Jesus, stronger love in our common life, more radical obedience to the commands of our King, more authentic worship, and a greater readiness and eagerness to lay down our lives to finish the Great Commission.


In all this, Father, our passion is that you would be glorified through Jesus Christ.


Amen.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

The Gospel According to Joshua

In the latest issue of Modern Reformation, I have an article on “The Gospel according to Joshua” (which subscribers can read here).


In the closing section, I look at why the physical-spiritual contrast is a true but inadequate way to compare the work of Joshua and Jesus (who share the same name).



Some interpreters look at Joshua and Jesus through the contrast of physical fulfillment and spiritual fulfillment.


Joshua, they note, is promised covenant prosperity: protection from God’s enemies and success in all his endeavors (Josh. 1:5-8). Jesus, however, gives up physical comfort and protection in order to serve as our final sacrifice.


Joshua leads the conquest of a physical land through physical war; Jesus rules a spiritual kingdom where we fight with spiritual weapons as “sojourners and exiles” (1 Pet. 1:21).


This observation is true, so far as it goes.


It helps us to remember that in this world we are not promised physical safety or success.


It reinforces the crucial truth that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).


But the physical-spiritual contrast is ultimately inadequate.


We must remember that the story is not finished.


There is another act to come in this divine drama.


Christ will return and he will physically (as well as spiritually) defeat all of his enemies once and for all. “Unlike the wars of old that led only to more bloodshed and misery, Christ’s global judgment and victory when he comes again will truly be the war to end all wars (Matt. 3:11-12; 24:27-25:46; Rev. 17:1-20:15).”*


We will enter into the Promised Land, which is no longer restricted to a strip of land in the Middle East but is now expanded to include the whole earth (cf. Matt. 5:5; Rom. 4:13).


Christ himself will wipe every tear from the eyes of our new resurrection bodies as we live securely in his presence forevermore (Rev. 21:4).


One greater than Joshua has appeared and will one day return again.


And on that day, all will see that the battle truly does belong to the Lord.


[* Michael Horton, "Notes on Joshua," ESV Gospel Transformation Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013).]

The Temporal Result Of The Testing of Our Faith

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:3-7 ESV)

Despite what some false “so-called Christian leaders” in our time say, there is no guarantee that the Genuine Christian will be immune from suffering. In fact, suffering is the method God uses to prune the branches that abide in the Vine, our Lord Jesus Christ. (John 15) I have found that the form this suffering takes is nearly always a surprise. When atheists or pagans ridicule, the resulting sorrow from that is relatively minor and easily borne compared to that delivered by professing Christians. In any case, we must not be discouraged, even though that is what our enemy seeks to do to us through it. God is allowing him to do this to us, therefore, what should our reaction be?

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:26-28 ESV)

Because of this promise, we should look upon our suffering with eyes of faith. To do this we must be Spirit-filled. It is impossible for the believer enslaved to the flesh to do this. However, for the believer who is working out his or her salvation with fear and trembling, by His grace, are able to respond to suffering the same way Jesus did.

2 Πᾶσαν χαρὰν ἡγήσασθε, ἀδελφοί μου, ὅταν πειρασμοῖς περιπέσητε ποικίλοις, 3 γινώσκοντες ὅτι τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως κατεργάζεται ὑπομονήν. 4 ἡ δὲ ὑπομονὴ ἔργον τέλειον ἐχέτω, ἵνα ἦτε τέλειοι καὶ ὁλόκληροι ἐν μηδενὶ λειπόμενοι. (James 1:2-4 NA28)
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4 ESV)

In v2, the word “trials” translates the Greek noun πειρασμοῖς or peirasmois, which means “trouble” or “something that breaks the pattern for peace, comfort, joy, and happiness in one’s life.” In it’s verb form it means “to put someone or something to the test.” The purpose of doing that would be to discover a person’s nature or character or a thing’s quality. As we have seen, God does allow these trials in our lives to try us. Why? God, to prove and increase the strength and quality of our faith and to demonstrate that to us as well as to others, designs and carries out these tests. All of our trials become tests of faith designed to strengthen. However, we sometimes make wrong choices during tests and trials that results in them becoming a temptation to evil. (James 1:13-15)

The Greek verb James used for “count” in v2, ἡγήσασθε or hēgēsasthe, means “to consider” or “to evaluate.” We are commanded here to look upon our trials as opportunities to rejoice. As we have seen, this is not natural. It takes a conscious effort to face trials with joy and the ability to carry it out comes from being Spirit-filled. Back in the late 1990’s I had a small group meet in my house on Sunday evenings. It was made up of couples. Three of us in this group were deacons. One Saturday, the wife of one of these deacons came home from shopping to find her husband dead in their garage. He had a history of heart disease and had died of a massive heart attack.

When I went to her house to minister to her and her family, I was in deep sorrow. However, when I went in, she greeted me at the door with a warm smile and hug. She ministered to me that day as I ministered to her. She grieved deeply for her loss, but her hope is not in this life, but in the resurrection. She made a conscious decision to face this trial with joy and was enabled to do that by the working of the Holy Spirit in her by God’s grace.

When we respond to our trials correctly, in joy, God will build up or increase our “endurance” or “patience” or ”perseverance.” This will teach us to withstand tenaciously the pressure of a trial until God removes it. When our brethren comment that we are capable spiritual warriors they are responding to our ability to fight the good fight while taking heavy blows that would make the immature believer flee or stumble. Those patient, mature believers have learned to cherish this spiritual growth as a result of going through the trial. This is not natural, nor is it typical for the immature believer. When we find ourselves here we must also never take this for granted though for it is the work of God that has matured us and enabled us to serve Him this way.

This patience, working in us, is what spiritually matures us. (cf. 1 John 2:14) Why? The testing, the fire, the pressure, tests our faith. This drives us to deeper communion with our Lord Jesus Christ. This always builds our trust in Him. As a result the Lord produces a stable, godly, and righteous character within us. What does this remind you of? Isn’t this what happens when we become Spirit-filled? Therefore, we must understand that the process by which we become Spirit-filled, which is to confess sin, become permeated by the Word of God, and obey God in all things, includes going through trials and tests. Through this, we become complete or mature or whole.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double- minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:5-8 ESV)

This wisdom is the understanding and practical skill that we must have in order to live life for God’s glory alone. This is not intellectual knowledge, which is Human Reason. Instead, it is contained in the pure and peaceable absolutes of God’s will which is revealed in the Word of God. Again, we see another element in becoming Spirit-filled. This is why the Spirit-filled believer is so strange to those who aren’t. They do not seek their own. They seek God’s glory alone. The Greek word that is translated as “hypocrite” throughout the New Testament means one who does all things for self even when they appear to be serving God. The Spirit-filled believer can fight the good fight, be demeaned, falsely accused, and abused without cause and not retaliate because he or she is not fighting the fight for self. Instead, he or she is obedient and seeks God’s glory alone.

Prayer is essential in this. We must ask God for this wisdom. We must ask Him to assist us in becoming Spirit-filled. We are commanded to be so, but we must have help so we must pray and ask in faith, without doubting. This is referring to a purity of heart. The divided heart doubts God while the whole heart (complete, mature) can ask without doubt. Think of when you are being convicted to step out on faith in obedience to do something that will expose you to the ridicule and rejection of the apostate, the atheist, or the pagan. If you have some inner struggle with sin in your heart then you have a hole in your armor that the enemy will use to discourage you. If this is true then it will be highly unlikely that you will make a decision to obey when you must trust God. It works the same way when we pray asking God for the things we need in order to obey Him. This is why we must live pure and holy lives that are in the process of being cleansed rather ones that are no longer shocked by sin.

The Spirit-filled believer is so because he or she has not stumbled and fallen while going through tests and trials. They have confessed their sins and repented of them. They are not conformed to this world. They have permeated their lives with the Word of God. They are drawing near unto God in prayer and fellowship as much as possible. They are asking God for wisdom with no doubt. Their hearts are becoming whole and mature. They are not like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. They are stable and walk joyfully as God answers their prayers and grows them in grace.

On the other hand, the flesh bound believer is so because he or she has stumbled and fallen while going through tests and trials. They have much unconfessed and hidden sins of which they never seem to be able to repent. Their lives are permeated by the world because they are conformed to it. The Word of God seems hard to understand, boring and convicting to them so they avoid it. They seldom pray and they have no joy.

What we must do is to move our walk from the latter as we walk according to the former. If we don’t do this, then we will be living within the curse of mediocrity instead of the blessing of being a Spirit-filled believer who walks in repentance with joy.