The Greater Parts of Scripture?

Sometimes in the name of zeal for biblical fidelity we can inadvertently correct others where no correction is needed. I’ve had the infelicitous experience, on numerous occasions, of being corrected for something for which I ought not to have been corrected. I have also been the culprit of such uninformed action. I have many times made assertions about certain portions of Scripture (e.g. certain chapters in Genesis, Romans, Galatians and Hebrews) being greater than others. On numerous occasions, well-meaning Christians have fired something back along the lines of, “Every portion of Scripture is important. We shouldn’t say one is greater than another.” Not long ago, I happened across a statement by J. Gresham Machen, in one of his sermons in God Transcendent, in which he explained how is it altogether right to insist that some parts of Scripture are greater than others. Machen wrote:

Some chapters of the Bible are certainly greater than others, and it is by no means derogatory to the authority of Scripture to recognize their special greatness. The doctrine of plenary inspiration does not mean, as its opponents often represent it as meaning, that all parts of the Bible are equally valuable–it only means that all parts of the Bible are equally true. Even the least valuable parts of the Bible have, indeed, their place. Lovers of poetry love the level lines of Shakespeare; so we Christians cherish the great level, prose chapters of the word of God. Even in the level pathways of Scripture we can walk with God and learn of Him. But then when we have passed through such a stretch in our reading of the Bible, where distinct scenes are concealed, suddenly we emerge sometimes as we read, as upon the brow of some hill, and discern before us with wondering eyes a wide, free prospect of the world and destiny and human duty. And there, through the great expanse stretched out before, may be seen a narrow path that leads over hill and dale until in the dim distance it loses itself in the mysterious brightness of the city of God.1

In addition to what Machen wrote, the first chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith seems to suggest something similar when the Divines reflect on the clarity of the different portions of Scripture. When they speak of those places in Scripture that reveal “those things that are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation” they surely have in mind what we mind call “the greater parts of Scripture:”

All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all:yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded, and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.2

Believing fully that “all Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16) and that no word that God has spoken will “return to Him void, but it shall accomplish what He pleases and it shall prosper in the thing for which He sent it” (Isaiah 55:11), I must admit that find myself in agreement with Machen: “Some chapters of the Bible are certainly greater than others.”

1. J. Gresham Machen God Transcendent (Wm. B. Eerdman’s: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1949) p. 116

2. Westminster Confession of Faith 1.7

Grace that is greater than all my sin...

Grace that is greater than all my sin...

...the common assertion, "You just need to believe the gospel more," essentially undermines the position of the antinomian... - Antinomianism, Mark Jones

Yesterday, I was speaking with a young student about his faith and he was describing a church he'd attended when he was in high school. He said that, while wrong on a number of Biblical truths, the church "got grace."

A few minutes later, he spoke of the first Sunday he attended another church. He'd been displeased by the preaching because it focussed on specific Biblical truths. As he saw it, specific truths weren't needed as much as simple faith in Jesus, so he left the worship service angry. Another student met with him during the following week, and as he described it, "(John) did an excellent job helping me to see my pride. It was the first time I saw my sin. Grace."

Yes, that's precisely how he said it. "Grace" came out sort of under his breath, as an afterthought. He didn't say, "It was the first time I saw my sin and God's grace." He didn't say, "It was the first time I saw my sin and understood grace." He said, "It was the first time I saw my sin." Full stop. Then a soft and almost imperceptible... utterance: "grace..."

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.
What can avail to wash it away?
Look! There is flowing a crimson tide,
Brighter than snow you may be today.

Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin.

The problem with many churches today is not that there's too much grace, but that there's no grace. Remember my young Christian brother had just said a couple minutes earlier that his earlier church "got grace?" Yet, just a few minutes later he said that it wasn't until a man pointed out his pride to him that he came to see his sin "for the first time." So in what sense did his prior church "get grace" if he'd never been brought under conviction of his sin there?

Let me tell you what I suspect. The earlier church had made a big show of "getting grace" and their marketing worked. Everybody told everybody they were the church that "got grace." And in the church that "got grace," everything was "grace" this and "grace" that and "grace" the other thing. But it was an empty mantra because that church didn't preach God's perfect law and man's perfect depravity and Christ's perfect righteousness. This seems the best explanation of this brother telling me the first church "got grace," but then a minute or two later uttering "grace" almost subconsciously after explaining his first realization of how sinful he was.

Many Protestant churches today are led by pastors who are opposed to calling men to repent. These men are antinomian ('anti' meaning "against" and 'nomos' meaning "law"), but they certainly don't announce it. The sheep would be scared off.

Instead, they patter on and on about "grace" this and "grace" that and "grace" the other thing, with the occasional "Ya'll know you need grace, right?" thrown in for good measure. They are enemies of the holiness without which no man will see God, hiding their hostility underneath grace-patterned camo.

Ask them how the souls in our churches come to know they need grace if God's Law and His coming judgment are never proclaimed, and they answer:

"People already know they're sinners. People are materialistic and selfish—they get it. Everyone gets it! People don't need the law—they need grace. They don't get grace. They think they have to perform better, to be better, to try harder, to make themselves good enough. But no one can ever be good enough for God. It's grace they don't get! The church is all about performance, so I'm calling people back to the wonderful grace of God, to freedom in Christ. That's my calling."

Thus souls seeking relief from ennui, angst, and alienation are pacified with cheap grace, never coming to the knowledge of God's holiness and their depravity, and thus never coming to any knowledge of grace. They sing and talk of it. They drone on about grace being their deepest passion, but they're graceless because they've never been under the preaching of God's Law and judgment.

Any explanation of God's grace to sinful man must begin with this explanation of the ministry of the Holy Spirit given us by Jesus:

But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment" (John 16:7, 8).

In certain circumstances when the sin is serious and has become public, our elders require the repentant soul to confess his sin publicly before the congregation. Anyone who has had the privilege of being a part of those services will testify to you that they have never seen or felt the power of God's grace more than then. Those services of worship are not punitive or moralistic or Pharisaical, but joyful and holy and pure and joyful. All of Heaven rejoices and it's contagious.

Forget all the verbiage: where God's Law is not preached, men are not called to repentance; and men who have not repented know nothing of the precious grace of God.

Ennui, angst, and alienation are simply the sorrow of the world. 

For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. (2Corinthians 7:10)

What we must pray for and preach towards and seek is the sorrow that is according to the will of God, the sorrow that produces repentance without regret, leading to salvation. Pastors who love their sheep will preach and counsel toward that sorrow, knowing it is all of grace.

So, the reason "the common assertion 'You just need to believe the gospel more' essentially undermines the position of the antinomian" is that believing the Gospel more is, in the antinomian scheme, the work that pleases God.

What Did Jesus Mean When He Said We Would Do Greater Work Than He Did?

First of all, he said that to his disciples and only to us indirectly, if at all. He is speaking to the first-century church, and he makes the statement that the works they do will be greater than the works that he performed (John 14:12). Let me tell you what I don’t think it means.

There are many today who believe that there are people running around this world right now who are performing greater miracles, performing miracles in greater abundance, and actually doing more incredible acts of divine healing than Jesus himself did. I can’t think of any more serious delusion than that, that somebody would actually think they have exceeded Jesus in terms of the works he has done. There’s nobody who comes close to the work that Jesus did.

There’s nobody who comes close to the work that Jesus did.

Some say that perhaps we can’t do greater works than Jesus individually but that corporately we are able to exceed in power the things that Jesus did. We see amazing things happening in the first-century church through the power that Christ gave to his apostles. We see people raised from the dead through Peter and Paul. But at the same time I would challenge people by telling them to add up all of the miracles that, according to New Testament records, were wrought through the hands of Paul, Peter, and the rest of the disciples corporately, put them all together, and see if they measure a greater degree than those which our Lord performed. If Jesus meant that people would do greater miracles than he performed in the sense of displaying more power and more astonishing things than he did, then obviously one of the works that Jesus failed to perform was sound prophecy, because that just didn’t happen. Nobody exceeded Jesus’ works. That’s what leads me to believe that’s not what he meant. I think he’s using the term “greater” in a different way.

I heard a church historian say that he was convinced that when Jesus made the statement “Greater works than these will you do,” he was referring to the whole scope of the impact of Christ’s people and his church on the world throughout history. I know a lot of people look at the history of Western civilization and say that the bulk of the church’s influence has been negative—the black eye of the Crusades, the Galileo episode, and holy wars, etc. If you look at the record, you will see that it was the Christian church that spearheaded the abolition of slavery, the end of the Roman arena, the whole concept of education, the concept of charitable hospitals and orphanages, and a host of other humanitarian activities. I think, personally, that that’s what Jesus meant when he talked about greater works.