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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2023 21:54:29 GMT -5
Facebook posts ,teaching from Herman Hoeksema;
REFORMED DOGMATICS
Herman Hoeksema
THE SIXTH LOCUS – ESCHATOLOGY
Chapter 45 – The Parousia
• The Parousia Defined
• The Term Parousia
• The Time of Christ's Coming
• The Error of Postmillennialism
• The Order of Events at Christ's Coming
• The Manner of Christ's Coming
• The Purpose of Christ's Coming
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The Parousia Defined
By the parousia we understand the final, sudden, personal, and visible coming of our Lord Jesus Christ on or with the clouds of heaven, for the purpose of raising the dead and executing judgment, to give everyone according as his work shall be and to make all things new.
The parousia is the consummation of all wonders and, therefore, is necessarily itself a wonder, which passes our boldest comprehension and which certainly cannot be explained from the natural development of things. The parousia is the fulfillment of God’s counsel with respect to all things in time.
The Term Parousia
The term parousia (παρουσ α) means literally “presence” and is opposed to “absence” (ἀπουσ α). In this sense the two terms occur together in Philippians 2:12: “. . . not as in my presence [ἐν τ παρουσ α] only, but now much more in my absence [ἐν τ ἀπουσ α].” The term also occurs in the sense of the presence of one who is coming and, therefore, of the coming itself, the arrival. In this sense it is used with respect to antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2:9: “. . . whose coming [ἡ παρουσ α] is after the working of Satan,” and with respect to Christ’s coming to destroy antichrist in verse 8: “. . . whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming [τ ς παρουσ ας αὐτο ].” In the New Testament the term is very frequently used to denote the final coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is called the coming of the Son of man (Matt. 24:27, 37, 39); the coming of the Lord (1 Thess. 4:15; James 5:7); the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 3:13; 1 Thess. 5:23; 2 Thess. 2:1; 2 Pet. 1:16); his coming (1 Cor. 15:23; 2 Thess. 2:8; 2 Pet. 3:4); and the coming of the day of God (2 Pet. 3:12). In the early fathers it is called the second coming in distinction from the first coming, which refers to the advent of Christ in the flesh.
Another term for the same concept, although from a different viewpoint, is epiphany (ἐπιϕ νεια—2 Thess. 2:8; 1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8; Titus 2:13). Closely related to and synonymous with epiphany is the term apocalypse (ἀποκ λυψις). Epiphany (ἐπιϕ νεια) means “manifestation,” and apocalypse (ἀποκ λυψις) means “revelation.” The two are very closely related. Apocalypse (ἀποκ λυψις) refers to the revelation of that which is hidden by removing the cover or unveiling. Epiphany (ἐπιϕ νεια) refers to the making visible by piercing through that which hides, as the sun becomes visible by piercing through the clouds. All these terms scripture uses to denote the second or final coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Time of Christ’s Coming
The time of this final coming of the Lord is not revealed in scripture. Certain it is that the millennial view that the Lord can come at any time is not correct, for the coming of the Lord is inseparably connected in scripture with the end of the world. This is evident from the question that the disciples asked the Lord Jesus, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matt. 24:3).
This connection between the Lord’s coming and the end of the world is also plainly taught in verses 29–31:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
The connection between the coming of Christ and the end of the world is also the teaching of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:23–24:
Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
The apostle Peter speaks of the mockers who deny Christ’s coming and the end of all things. They ask, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Pet. 3:4). Peter compares these mockers to the people who lived at the time of the deluge, when the world that then was perished in the flood. Then he writes, “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (v. 7). He describes the day of the Lord:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (vv. 10–13).
All of these passages, and others, plainly indicate that the coming of the Lord will mark the end of the world. Besides, scripture teaches that the resurrection of the dead, both of the wicked and the righteous, will accompany the coming of the Lord. However, when that end and the coming of the Lord will be, no one knows. Even the signs of his coming certainly do not enable us to predict the day and the hour. The Lord himself tells us very definitely, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32; cf. Matt. 24:36).
The Error of Postmillennialism
The signs of the Lord’s coming that are predicted in scripture also forbid us to support the view of the postmillenarians, whose philosophy is based on the theory of evolution and who expect a gradual realization of the kingdom of God in the world. They put the coming of the Lord, as far as they believe in such a coming, millions of years into the future. James Snowden writes:
Of course in this general progress there have been points and periods of retrogression. Evolution sometimes results in degeneration. The battle line of humanity does not move across the field with equal step and unbroken front. Here and there it wavers, halts, breaks. At times the whole line seems driven back in confusion, as in the Dark Ages. But this retreat is only in order to reform and move on towards victory. The vast evils and unspeakable wrongs of the world do not disprove this progress; rather it is often progress that brings these evils to light and makes us sensible of them. We have faith that nothing can stop this forward sweep of the gulf current of the ages. The hour hand of history can never be turned back. The oak cannot be crushed back into the acorn. Omnipotence is in this movement. The constellations are marching behind it. God is in his heaven, and all will yet be right with his world.
The world, as we have seen, is yet young. The very planet is still in the workshop and will not be finished for millions of years. Humanity is in its infancy. The centuries stretch out before it in vast vistas. There is before it the prospect of hope and splendid optimism. The future is rosy with morning light. Nothing has been done that shall not be better done. Every human achievement shall be infinitely surpassed. Truth shall be taken from the scaffold, and wrong driven from the throne. More and more shall He whose right it is reign and the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven. This will be the millennium. The visions of the Hebrew prophets of the Messianic kingdom shall be fulfilled in their true spiritual and glorious meaning. Uninspired prophets have caught the same vision. John Fiske, theistic evolutionist, saw it when he wrote: “The future is lighted for us with the radiant colors of hope. Strife and sorrow shall disappear. Peace and love shall reign supreme. The dream of poets, the lesson of priest and prophet, the inspiration of the great musician, is confirmed in the light of modern knowledge; and as we gird ourselves for the work of life we may look forward to the time when in the truest sense the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” And Browning, the profoundly Christian and optimistic poet of our age, struck the same triumphant note and grand chord:
“For these things tend still upward, progress is
The law of life, man is not man as yet.
Nor shall I deem his object served, his end
Attained, his genuine strength put fairly forth,
While only here and there a star dispels
The darkness, here and there a towering mind
O’erlooks its prostrate fellows; when the host
Is out at once to the despair of night,
When all mankind alike is perfected,
Equal in full-blown powers—then, not till then,
I say, begins man’s general infancy.”[1]
These words were written at the time of the First World War. Since that time the world has experienced another and more catastrophic world war. As a result, stark pessimism has replaced this optimistic philosophy. Whatever may be the view of philosophy and philosophic theologians, scripture certainly does not hold out any hope for the world or any hope for a glorious millennium before the coming of the Lord. That coming of the Lord, according to scripture, certainly is not millions upon millions of years in the distant future, but is always presented as near. The signs of the coming of the Lord and of the end of the world are being realized before our very eyes. Although we cannot predict the day and the hour, we may certainly believe on the basis of the word of God, as well as with a view to the realization of the signs of Christ’s coming around about us, that the day of the Lord is approaching.
The Order of Events at Christ’s Coming
The final coming of the Lord will be a personal and visible coming in his resurrection or spiritual body. This coming of the Lord will be physical, but he will not appear in the same body that he assumed at his incarnation, but in the radically different body of the resurrection. The physical eye cannot see this glorious body of the resurrection. Hence the order of events at the coming of the Lord must be pictured as follows: The sign of the Son of man in heaven will be first. What this sign will be we do not know, but it certainly will be a visible representation of Christ in his glory to all who are living on the earth at the time (Matt. 24:30). Immediately upon the appearance of the sign of the Son of man in heaven will be the resurrection of the dead and the appearance of the Son of man in the body of his resurrection glory on the clouds of heaven. This order is also demanded by the fact that all the tribes of the earth will mourn, even those who pierced him (Rev. 1:7), which naturally cannot take place until after the resurrection of the dead.
Whatever the exact order of events will be, it is important that the church maintain the confession that Christ will return personally and visibly at the end of time.
In the modern conception of social Christianity, there is no room for a personal visible return of Christ. In recent decades there is much emphasis on the idea of the kingdom of God, but a purely earthly and social conception is presented:
One of the most marked characteristics of this time is a new interest in the kingdom of God and a new conception of its meaning. In fact so intense is this interest in the idea of the kingdom that it may be called the master thought of our time. And so new and significant is this conception of the kingdom that it is little else than a new revelation from heaven.
. . . The program [of this kingdom] implies the saving of the person by making him Christlike; it implies the proclamation of the Good News to every creature; it demands for every human being the conditions of a pure, strong, full and happy life; it sums itself up in the creation of a righteous and fraternal human society, in which God is known as Father and men are known as brothers, a society with justice as its foundation and love as its law, a society in which every life has a true inheritance and where all share in the Father’s bounties . . . Thus the men who are following the program of Christ and are seeking the kingdom of God are seeking to make the Good News known to every creature; they are seeking to save men from sin and to make them like Christ; they are seeking to secure for all men the conditions of a clean, worthy, human and moral life; they are seeking to build on the earth a city after the pattern of the Divine City.[2]
Walter Rauschenbusch emphasizes the idea of the kingdom of God, but also according to him this idea is a thoroughly worldly conception. He must have nothing of the apocalyptic, biblical conception of a catastrophe at the end of time and of a personal return of Christ. In his opinion the apocalyptic perspective obscured the thought of the prophets of the old dispensation:
So apocalypticism came to dominate the Christian view of future history. Whenever men looked down the future to gain a religious outlook, they saw it in the artificial lay out of apocalyptic dualism and determinism. The apocalyptic hope has always contained ingredients of religious force and value, but its trail through history is strange and troubled reading. It has been of absorbing fascination to some Christian minds, but it has led them into labyrinths from which some never emerged. It has been the inspiration of earnest Christian men in some lines of Christian activity, but it has effectively blocked their minds with strange prejudices against other important lines of work. It has turned the enthusiasm of great historical movements into injurious fanaticism. It has spawned hopeless little sects. It has been one chief cause why the Kingdom hope has not gained the wide practical effectiveness which it might have, for in this debased and irrational form it is hopelessly foreign to modern life and thought. I know that this charge will pain some devout Christian minds whom I would not willingly hurt, but in the interest of the very hope for which they stand I have to say that the idea of the Kingdom of God must slough off apocalypticism if it is to become the religious property of the modern world. Those who hold it must cease to put their hope in salvation by catastrophe and learn to recognize and apply the law of development in human life. They must outgrow the diabolism and demonism with which Judaism was infected in Persia and face the stern facts of racial sin. They must break with the artificial schemes and determinism of an unhistorical age and use modern resources to understand the way God works out retribution and salvation in human affairs.[3]
This conception of the kingdom of God as a social order in the present world—and in connection with this conception the denial of the final and personal and visible coming of the Lord Jesus Christ on the clouds of heaven—is certainly in conflict with Holy Writ in many places (Matt. 24:30; Acts 1:11; Acts 3:20–21; 1 Cor. 15:24; 1 Thess. 2:19; 1 Thess. 3:13; 1 Thess. 4:15–17; Heb. 9:28; Rev. 1:7; Rev. 19:11–21).
The Manner of Christ’s Coming
In close connection with the personal visible return of Christ is the plain revelation of scripture that the coming of the Lord will certainly not be gradual, but will be sudden and unexpected. Even though scripture speaks of the signs of Christ’s coming, these signs are never of such a nature that we can predict the hour and the day of the coming of the Lord:
But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh (Matt. 24:37–39, 44; cf. Matt. 25:1–13; 1 Thess. 5:2–3; Rev. 16:15).
There is a difference of opinion about whether the coming of the Lord will be accompanied by both the saints who died before his second advent and the angels. It seems evident from scripture that this will indeed be the case:
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matt. 24:31).
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works (Matt. 16:27; cf. 1 Thess. 3:13; Rev. 14:16–20).
That the saints who died before the coming of the Lord will accompany him is clearly indicated in Revelation 19:11–14:
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
That the saints will accompany Christ is also suggested by the reign of the saints with Christ in glory during this entire dispensation (Rev. 20).
The Purpose of Christ’s Coming
As to the purpose of the coming of Christ on the clouds of heaven, first, he will come to raise all the dead in order that they may appear before him in judgment. Both the righteous and the wicked will be raised:
Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (John 5:28–29).
Second, in close connection with the preceding, Christ will come in order to pass judgment upon all and to reward everyone according as his work shall be:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10).
And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be (Rev. 22:12).
Third, the purpose of this final coming of the Lord is to make all things new, to redeem the creature from the bondage of corruption, and to cause it to participate in the glorious liberty of the children of God:
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:19–21; cf. Eph. 1:10; 2 Pet. 3:10–13).
Fourth, the purpose of Christ’s final coming is to gather all the elect into the glory of the eternal inheritance, where the tabernacle of God will be with men, and to cast the devil and his angels and all the wicked into everlasting desolation (Rev. 21:1–4, 27; Rev. 20:15).
HERMAN HOEKSEMA
Reformed Dogmatics, Chap. 45, 2 vols., vol. 2, pp. 570-680
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2023 22:02:39 GMT -5
CHAPTER 4 – UNITED WITH CHRIST BY GRACE
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.- Romans 6:5
We are saved by grace not only in the sense that Christ merited all the blessings of salvation for us by His death and perfect obedience, so that we are reconciled to God, but also in this sense, that it is the power of grace which delivers us from all the power of sin and death and makes us actual partakers of righteousness and eternal life.
The word grace has different connotations in Scripture. It may refer merely to an attribute, a perception, a virtue of God: God is gracious in Himself, apart from any relation which He sustains toward us. Grace then means that God is beautiful in His perfections and that He is pleasant and attractive, as well as that He is eternally attracted by His own virtues. There are pleasures with our God for evermore. Grace may also denote a disposition and attitude of God towards the creature, and then it signifies favor. And when this favor is revealed to those who are themselves unworthy of it, who have forfeited it through sin, it stands in opposition to works. It is, of course, this aspect of grace which is revealed in salvation, particularly in God's justifying the ungodly in Christ, and thus reconciling us unto Himself. But this is not all. The term grace also is used in Scripture to denote that power and divine operation upon us and within us whereby we are actually delivered from the dominion of sin and death, whereby we are liberated from sin's slavery, changed from guilty children of darkness into righteous and living children of the light. Also this grace operates upon us from the God of our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is not only the Mediator of our redemption; He is also the Mediator of our deliverance. From Him we receive all the spiritual blessings of salvation. And in order to receive them, we must be united with Christ, incorporated in Him, become one plant with Him. It is to this incorporation into Christ, this spiritual union with Him, that we must now call your attention.
The first truth which we must somewhat understand in this connection is that Christ is our salvation, and that all the spiritual blessings of salvation which we need to become and to remain children of God, redeemed, delivered, sanctified, and glorified, are in Him. This truth is frequently expressed in the Word of God. The apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 1: 30 that Christ Jesus "is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." In Ephesians 2: 14 he writes that Christ is our peace. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to Colossians 1:14; and in chapter 2: 3 of the same epistle we are told that in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. For it pleased the Father that in Him all fulness should dwell, and in Him does dwell all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 1:19; 2:9) Our Lord Himself proclaims that He is the bread of life, so that if anyone cometh unto Him, he shall never hunger (J ohn 6:3 5, 48); that He is the living bread, which, if any man eat, he shall live forever (John 6:51); and He presents Himself as the water of life, and calls the thirsty to Him that they may drink. He is the light of the world; and he that follows after Him shall have the light of life. (J ohn 8: 12) He is the resurrection and the life; and he that believeth in Him shall never die. (John 11:25, 26) He is the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)
Let us try to understand the implication of this as clearly as possible.
For it is exactly in this respect that no man ever spake, nor will any man ever be able to speak as our Savior. And it is because of these claims of Christ that men marveled at Him, but also were offended in Him. You never heard a man speak thus, did you? Nor did you ever hear of a man or read about a mere man that spake thus. Philosophers may probably tell you how you may find life and happiness and satisfaction, and how the world may find rest and peace; and even so, their philosophy always fails and disappoints those who put their trust in it. But this man said boldly and absolutely: "I am the resurrection and the life! I am the bread of life! I am the fountain of living water! I am the light of the world! I am the way, the truth, the life!" He called men unto Him not in order to instruct them as to the best way to happiness; but He boldly promised that He would give them life, rest, peace, everlasting satisfaction. And so He is our righteousness, wisdom and knowledge, peace and rest, sanctification and redemption. He is our all. All the spiritual blessings of salvation which we need to translate us from death into life, from darkness into light, from corruption into righteousness, and to raise us from lowest hell to highest heaven, are in Him. For He did not only die that He might be our righteousness in a juridical sense; He also arose, and He also was exalted at the right hand of God, and He also received the Spirit without measure, in order that as the quickening Spirit He might set us free and bestow upon us the grace of eternal life.
We might, perhaps, employ a few simple illustrations to elucidate the meaning of all this. You all know that in our towns and villages we receive the water in our homes from a central reservoir, or tank or water tower, into which it is pumped from some natural source in the first place. Or, to use another illustration, you are acquainted with the fact that the electric current which brings light into your home is generated in some central power plant in the city in which you live. And the gas which you use to cook your food or to heat your home reaches you from huge storage tanks. From the one reservoir all the homes in your city are supplied with drinking water. That one power plant generates all the electricity used in your town and illuminates all your homes. >From the one central gas plant flows the gas which supplies the whole city. Well, so Christ is the spiritual power-plant in the entire New Jerusalem, from Whom the current of life and light flows into your soul. He is the one and only central storage tank in the entire kingdom of God, the sole reservoir, out of which flows continually all the water of life to quench the thirst of all the citizens of that kingdom. He is God's spiritual reservoir of salvation for all His people.
Now what immediately follows from this?
You say, and quite correctly so: it follows that one must be connected, united with Christ in order to receive salvation. If your home is not properly wired and connected with the central electric plant in your city, you turn the switch in your living room quite in vain. You will have no light. If from the gas main pipes do not conduct the gas into your house, it is of no avail that you put a beautiful gas stove in your kitchen, or gas furnace in your basement. You will have no heat. In vain do you turn the faucet to draw water, if your home is not connected at all with that central reservoir in your town. The same is true in our relation to Christ. If our soul is not spiritually connected with Him, Who is our light, life, righteousness, wisdom, knowledge, sanctification, and redemption, we shall never have light, righteousness, and peace. It will remain dark and miserable in our soul. We must therefore be literally joined with Christ, united with Him. We must be in Him, even as He must be in us, in order that He may become our righteousness, holiness, and eternal life, and in order that we may draw out of Him all the blessings of grace.
This is what Scripture teaches us. This is taught by the figure of the vine and the branches. The branches must be in the vine in order to bear fruit. Christ is the vine; believers, and that, too, in their generations, are the branches. The branches are nothing except for their organic union with the vine. Even as it is the vine that bears fruit in and through the branches, so believers can bear fruit only because Christ lives and bears fruit in them. The same truth is taught us by the figure of the church as the body of Christ. Christ is the Head; the church is His body. And it is only from and by the Head that the body lives. Further, what is true of the body as a whole is equally true of the believers individually as members of that body. They have no life in themselves. Only in virtue of their organic union with the body do they live. For this reason the Bible speaks of believers as being in Christ. For of God they are in Christ Jesus, Who is made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. (I Corinthians 1: 30) And as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive. (I Corinthians 15:22) And "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." (II Corinthians 5: 17) The saints are called "the faithful in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 1: 1) And they were sometimes darkness, but now they are light in the Lord. (Ephesians 5:8) And we are admonished to abide in Him, that we may bear much fruit. (John 15:4; I John 2:28)
This, then, is the first and absolutely indispensable requirement of our salvation: we must be in Christ. Hence, we must be incorporated into Him; we must be united with Him. A spiritual union must be established between Christ and our soul, before we can receive any fruit of Christ's death and resurrection. This union is absolutely first. Unless that living connection is established between Christ and our inmost heart, we are outside of Him. And outside of Christ there is only guilt and damnation, corruption and death, darkness and desolation. Before there can be the faintest spark of new life in us, before there can appear even the faintest glimmer of light in our soul, before the simplest prayer can be uttered from our lips, before even the slightest longing can arise in our soul for God and His Christ, that union must be accomplished. It is an absolute prerequisite for the reception of all salvation. For Christ is our all, and all our salvation is in Him. But we cannot begin to draw our life and light, our knowledge and wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification, from Him until our inmost heart is joined in spiritual unity with Him, Who is the revelation of the God of our salvation.
But how is this union accomplished?
The answer of Scripture is unequivocally: this union is unconditionally and absolutely the work of God's grace in Christ Jesus. By grace are ye saved! That implies, too, that by grace, and by grace only, you are incorporated into Christ, so that you become one plant with Him.
When we say this, we proclaim nothing new. But we do wipe the dust of oblivion from a very old, very fundamental, and very precious truth. And we do claim that this truth is in dire need of a new emphasis over against many false representations, not by modernists, but by those who claim that they preach the doctrine of salvation by grace. For very many directly teach, or indirectly leave the impression by the way they preach, that this first touch of the soul of the sinner with Christ is accomplished by the sinner himself, or, at least, is contingent for its establishment upon the will and choice of the sinner. Yes, they admit, Christ is our salvation; and the soul must be united with Christ in order to receive salvation. But if this union is to be accomplished, the sinner must come to Christ. The Savior is willing to receive him, to come into his heart, to join that sinner unto Himself; but the sinner must first come. He must accept Christ. Or he must be willing to receive Him. Or he must long and pray for this coming of Christ into his heart. And it seems that very sensational preaching, accompanied preferably by a heart-touching hymn and by begging and praying on the part of the preacher, is especially considered to be conducive to persuade the sinner to come to Jesus, to open the door of his heart, and to let Jesus come in. In last analysis, the union of the soul with the living Lord depends not on efficacious grace, but on the will of the sinner!
But, first of all, how absurd and utterly impossible is this presentation of salvation! If it were true, no man would be saved! For according to Scripture, the natural man is in the flesh; and the mind of the flesh is death. It is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Man is dead in sin and misery. He can neither perform nor will that which is good. He loves iniquity, and he is a slave of sin. He loves darkness rather than light. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Such is the natural man. Such is every man before that union with Christ is established of which we made mention. Do you expect that man to open his heart to Christ? Do you insist that this dead sinner must come to Christ before Christ will come to Him? Do you still maintain that this darkened sinner must at least long for Christ, hunger and thirst for Him, seek Him, ask for Him, before his soul can be united with the living Lord? I reply that if such were the truth, then could no man be saved. For before the sinner is united with Christ he can neither come to Him, nor long for Him, nor seek Him, nor utter the weakest prayer beseeching Him to come into his heart. But thanks be to God, this is not the truth! Salvation is not of man, nor of the will of man; nor does our union with Christ depend on man's consent. "No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." (John 6:44) Again: "Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." (John 6:65)
And the Father does draw, and the Father does give, and the Father does unite us with the living Lord! And He does so, too, through Christ Himself, Who is exalted and draws all unto Him. He draws with cords of love, with irresistible power of grace. And when we are so drawn and so united with Christ, and He by His Spirit lives in us, we respond. We hunger and thirst, we long and pray, we come and embrace Him, we eat the bread of life and are satisfied, we drink the water of life and thirst nevermore, we draw from Him Who is the fulness of all the blessings of salvation, even grace for grace! All this is the fruit and manifestation in us of that marvelous, mysterious, blessed wonder of grace, of grace sovereign and free, whereby we are united with Christ. For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God!
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world!
HERMAN HOEKSEMA
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2023 22:05:21 GMT -5
CHAPTER 3 – RECONCILED BY GRACE
... be ye reconciled to God. -II Corinthians 5:20
The first part of the marvelous work of salvation to which we now call your attention is that of reconciliation. That we are saved by grace means, first of all, that we are reconciled by grace. In the wondrous work of salvation God reveals Himself as the Reconciler, full of grace and truth, rich in lovingkindness and tender mercies.
Of reconciliation the Scriptures speak very frequently, not only indirectly in all those passages which refer to the atonement in the blood of Christ, but also directly, using the term itself. "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." (Romans 5: 10) Well known is the passage from II Corinthians 5: 18-20: "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." In Colossians 1 :20 we are told even that God, having made peace through the blood of His cross, purposes to reconcile all things unto Himself, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And then the Word of God continues: "And you, that were sometime alienated in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled." (verse 21) Reconciliation is closely related to atonement and satisfaction for sin, as is evident from such passages as Hebrews 2: 17:"Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."
From these passages a few outstanding truths are evident at once.
First of all, it is everywhere emphasized that God is the Author of this reconciliation, and that, too, absolutely alone, without any cooperation on our part. It is He that reconciles. We reconcile ourselves to God in no sense of the word. Nor does Christ, Who is the Mediator of this work of God, reconcile us to God. God reconciles us to Himself. No more than we have any part in the work of creation, no more have we any part in the work of reconciliation. What is more, we did not only have no part whatever in this divine work; we did not even desire reconciliation, neither seek it. On the contrary, on our part we did all we could to frustrate God's plan of redemption. For we were reconciled when we were enemies! And never did this enmity against God reveal itself in more horrible form than at the very moment when God reconciled us unto Himself: it was when we killed His Son, and that, too, through that very deed, God reconciled us unto Himself! When we were enemies, He reconciled us unto Himself through the death of His Son, Whom we killed! Surely we are reconciled by God alone and through pure grace!
Secondly, let us notice that God reconciled us unto Himself, not Himself to us. It is not the reconciliation of two parties to each other, but of men to God. Often one can read or hear that Christ as the Mediator reconciled us to God, and God to us. But this is a serious error. Scripture never speaks of God's reconciliation to us, nor could He be reconciled. He is the Reconciler, full of a mighty, unquenchable love; and He reconciles us to Himself.
Thirdly, let us note that this reconcilation is presented as an accomplished fact. It is not something that must still take place, or that is constantly being realized: nineteen hundred years ago, on the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord, the work of reconciliation was finished once for all. Through faith, and by grace, we enter into the state of reconciliation with God; but the reconcilation itself is an accomplished fact: we are reconciled to God!
What then is meant by reconciliation? It is that work of God whereby His own beloved elect were translated from a state of enmity and estrangement and wrath into a state of eternal and unchangeable favor and most intimate friendship, and that, too, by the removal of the cause of the estrangement, namely, sin, and the establishment of an eternal righteousness.
Let us analyze this idea of reconciliation.
First of all, reconciliation is the restoration of an existing relationship, whether of love, or friendship, partnership, or some other alliance. The actual existence of such a relationship is presupposed in reconciliation. This is true among men. You do not reconcile strangers. There is no bond between them; there never was; and, therefore, no bond between them can be restored. One may speak of reconciling man and wife, between whom exists the sacred bond of matrimony, when they drifted apart for some reason; or of the reconciliation of friends that are at variance for a time; or of the servant to his master, or the subject to his king. Always a relation or bond of friendship and love is understood. The same is true of God's work of reconciliation. It presupposes the eternal covenant relation of love and friendship into which God entered with His people, a relation that is rooted in His eternal purpose of election. That covenant relation can never be destroyed for the simple reason that it rests wholly in God. God loves His people with an eternal, unchangeable love. He never ceases to love them. No matter what they may do or become, He still loves them. Though their sins be as scarlet, and though they be red as crimson, He loves them still, and will restore them to His favor and fellowship. He may be angry with His people in righteous wrath for a moment, but even in His anger He loves them. He is like a husband that loves and remains faithful to his wife, no matter how often she may play the adulteress; or like the father who, no matter how grievously his son may sin against him, still loves that son and will receive him whenever he may return. If this were not so, how could God be the Reconciler? Reconciliation is an act of infinite love, of unlimited grace, of abundant mercy. God loved His people when they were enemies. Reconciliation presupposes the eternal covenant relation of God with His people that rests in God, the I Am, the Faithful and True!
Secondly, reconciliation implies that the parties to be reconciled are at variance through some fault on the part of either or of both parties. The relationship is disturbed for a time. It cannot properly function because something intervened that makes the exercise of friendship and love impossible. There is separation. One of the parties in the matrimonial covenant was unfaithful, committed adultery; the son sinned against his father and lives in that sin; the friend offended his friend. The same is true of the relationship between God and His people. He created them in His image and took them into His blessed covenant in Adam. For Adam was the friend of God, clothed with righteousness, the object of God's favor. He knew his God and was known of Him. He loved his God and was loved by Him. He walked and talked with God and was blessed by Him. But in and through Adam the whole human race, and with the human race God's own elect, violated the covenant relationship. They sinned and became guilty, the objects of God's righteous wrath, foolish and corrupt, enemies of God. And as they are in their sin and death, they cannot be and function as God's covenant friends. Because of sin they are alienated, and they have forfeited the right to God's favor and love. The covenant relationship has been violated and disturbed. God is terribly angry with His people in their sin, and they are in themselves worthy of death and damnation!
Thirdly, if the disrupted relationship of friendship and love is to be restored, the cause of the disruption must be removed. Among men this may take place through repentance and confession on the part of the party that had offended, and by the promise on his part henceforth to be faithful to the relationship that was violated, and through forgiveness on the part of the one that was offended. An adulterous wife may return to her husband in heartfelt sorrow, and be received by him; and if the woman gives proof of her repentance and renewed faithfulness, the reconciliation is accomplished. The prodigal son returns to his father in dust and ashes, confesses his sin and unworthiness, and his father restores him to his place in the home. But with God this is different. He cannot deny Himself. He cannot permit His holy law to be trampled under foot with impunity. He cannot simply forgive and forget. If the sinner's relation to Him is to be restored, the cause of the separation must actually be removed, so that it is no more. But how can sin be removed? How can the guilt of sin be blotted out? How can the guilty become righteous? How can the object of God's wrath be restored to His favor? There is one, and only one way: that of perfect satisfaction! The sinner must atone for his sin. And atonement for sin consists in perfectly satisfying the justice of God!
But of what does this atonement consist? What can so satisfy the justice of God that the sinner's guilt is blotted out and that he is declared righteous before God? Again, there is only one answer: the sinner must freely, voluntarily, motivated by the love of God and true sorrow for his sin, bear the punishment of sin, eternal death! Mark you well, he must not merely bear the punishment and suffer eternal death, he must do so willingly; the bearing of the punishment must be an act of all his soul, and mind, and will, and heart, and strength. The damned in hell also suffer eternal death, yet they can nevermore atone. They are passive in their suffering. But he that would satisfy the justice of God against sin must sacrifice himself He must be so mightily moved by the love of God that he seeks hell in order that he may atone, and that he voluntarily lays himself on the altar of God's holy wrath. For God's demand upon man is that he love Him. And this demand never changes. Even though man has become the object of God's consuming wrath, he must still love Him. He, therefore, who can perform that act of love, whereby he willingly allows himself to be consumed for God's righteousness' sake, satisfies God's justice.
Now it is at once evident that the mere sinner can never do this. As far as he is concerned, the case is hopeless. No good works, supposing that he could perform them, will ever atone for his sin: for he is obliged to do them in the first place; and as no man can pay a back debt by paying his current bills, so man cannot atone by doing good works. But the case with the sinner is much worse. He is dead in sin. He cannot do any good before God. He stands in enmity against God, and his nature is so corrupt that he loves the darkness rather than light. He is not at all concerned about the righteousness of God. How then could he possibly bring the sacrifice that would atone for his sin? Even if he would, he could not possibly bear the punishment of eternal death, and finish it, so that he would live. But he will not seek God. He does not care to be reconciled with God. It is clear then that his case is hopeless, and that, if he must reconcile himself to God, he will never be restored to God's favor. Reconciliation cannot be of man; it must be of God. It cannot be by works; it must be by grace!
And this is exactly the wonder of reconciliation: God reconciled us unto Himself while we were yet sinners! God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. Never change this truth into something different. Never say that Christ reconciled God to us, and us to God. That would make of Christ a third party between God and us. And although it is certainly true that Christ in His human nature is the Mediator of God and man, this Mediator is entirely of God! Nay, He is God Himself, the Son of God, begotten of the Father eternally, Who is eternally in the Father's bosom, God of God in human flesh! In Him the strong arm of the God of our salvation reaches down into our death, in order to remove the cause of our estrangement from Him, and to restore and raise to a higher, heavenly, eternal level the covenant of friendship between Him and us.
That is the meaning of the cross: God reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son! There God was reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. There God Himself, through His Son in the flesh, satisfied His own justice. The Son of God brought the sacrifice that was required to blot out the guilt of sin and to clothe us with an everlasting righteousness. He could do so, because He was the holy child Jesus, the Lamb without blemish, and the zeal of God's house consumed Him. He could and did willingIy, from the motive of the love of God, descend into lowest hell, to suffer the punishment of sin, to bear the wrath of God to the very end. He stood in the place of judgment, and on Him all the vials of God's wrath against sin were poured out. And when He cried out, "It is finished!" He had completed His sacrifice, removed sin, obtained righteousness, a fact which God sealed when He raised Him from the dead. And He was able to bring this sacrifice as an atonement for the sin of all His people. For God had appointed Him to be the head of His church, representing them. For them He died. And, because it is not mere man, but the Son of God Who died on the cross, His death is abundantly sufficient to blot out the guilt of all His own!
And so the gospel is the ministry of reconciliation. It proclaims that reconciliation is an accomplished fact: the elect are surely reconciled to God. He reconciled us! We are reconciled by grace, by pure, free, sovereign grace! And it is He, too, Who sends out the word of reconciliation. For He gave unto the apostles the ministry of reconciliation, and put the very word of reconciliation in their very hearts, so that they had the power and authority to speak in the name of God the Reconciler, and so that they became ambassadors of Christ, as though God did beseech us by them: "Be ye reconciled to God!" (II Corinthians 5: 18-20) This word of reconciliation is still proclaimed among us, from the Scriptures, and through His own ministry of the Word by the preachers He Himself sends unto us.
Be ye reconciled to God!
That is God's own prayer! O, marvelous grace!
What is more, it is by His own grace that His own prayer is heard, and that the sinner turns to God the Reconciler. For He causes the word of reconciliation to become a mighty power within us, a fire in our bones, so that we repent of sin in dust and ashes and seek reconciliation with God in the blood of Christ!
It is all of Him, none of us!
Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord!
– Herman Hoeksema
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2023 22:12:42 GMT -5
WONDER OF GRACE
Beginning with this post, the book, “Wonder of Grace,” by Herman Hoeksema, which thoroughly treats the salient wonderful aspects of the doctrine of salvation by grace, will be serially presented. The complete presentation consists of fifteen chapters, namely: 1) The Idea of Salvation by Grace; 2) Chosen by Grace; 3) Reconciled by Grace; 4) United With Christ by Grace; 5) Regenerated by Grace; 6) Called by Grace; 7) Believing Through Grace; 😎 Justified by Grace; 9) Converted by Grace; 10) Working Out Our Salvation by Grace; 11) Good Works Through Grace; 12) Suffering Through Grace; 13) Victory Through Grace; 14) Assurance of Grace; 15) Glorified Through Grace.
So with that, following now is the first installment chapter:
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CHAPTER 1 – THE IDEA OF SALVATION BY GRACE
For by grace are ye saved. -Ephesians 2:8
The subject of which various aspects are discussed in the following pages should need no introduction to the believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. That we are saved by grace, not by works, and that, therefore, salvation is the work of God, in no wise of man, is a truth that touches upon the very heart of the gospel. "For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8) The doctrine of salvation by grace is one of those fundamental truths of the Christian faith of which the true knowledge and correct understanding are of great importance for the church of Christ in the world and for the believer individually. One who errs on this point must needs have a wrong conception of all the rest of Christian doctrine and corrupt the truth concerning God and man, concerning sin and redemption, concerning Christ and the church.Moreover, it is a subject of great practical' significance for the believer, one that never fails to arouse his interest. He realizes that it concerns his only comfort in life and death: either he is saved by grace only, or he must needs perish. Hence, he never grows weary of hearing the gospel of salvation by sovereign grace proclaimed and expounded unto him in all the riches of its implications. And as he grows in the knowledge of this truth, he will grow in the grace of the Lord Jesus.
Small wonder, then, that from the earliest period of the history of the New Testament church this subject occupied a central place of interest. It was the theme of millions of sermons. Many a volume was written to expound and defend this truth. It is the theme of thousands of hymns. Often it was the occasion of sharp controversy. Today one may hear of salvation by grace in sermon and song, from the pulpit and on the air, literally every day. And if, perhaps, it might seem well-nigh impossible to say anything about so thoroughly exhausted a subject that has not been said hundreds of times before, we may comfort ourselves with the thought that it may at least be possible to recall some very old truths in connection with our subject which are either forgotten or denied in modern times.
Our subject is, of course, rich in meaning and presents several aspects. To say that we are saved by grace expresses the truth that salvation is of the Lord. This should be emphasized from the outset. For grace is of God, and God is free and sovereign. To be saved by grace, then, means that grace is the only source, the sole explanation, the ultimate reason and ground of our salvation, the efficient cause of all that is implied in the work of our redemption and deliverance from sin and death. We are saved by grace only, without the work or cooperation of man, or we are not saved by grace at all. Hence, one who would speak of salvation by grace, must understand that he is speaking of a divine work throughout. But all the works of God are eternal. Hence, salvation by grace has its source in eternity, and one cannot properly treat the subject of grace without considering the fundamental truth of divine and sovereign election: we are chosen by grace. For God "hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." (Ephesians 1: 3, 4) Grace is sovereign. It is divine and, therefore, eternal. From the inscrutable depths of eternity spring all the spiritual blessings that lift us from the dark depths of sin and death into the glory of eternal life: the blessings of atonement and reconciliation, of redemption and deliverance, of regeneration and calling, of justification and sanctification, of the forgiveness of sins and the adoption unto children of God, of preservation and perseverance, of the resurrection from the dead and the final glorification. All these blessings of salvation are of pure grace: for "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." (Romans 9: 16) And all these various aspects of salvation by grace demand our consideration.
However, we might do well, first of all, to consider"the general question: what is salvation? This question is by no means superfluous. For, on the one hand, on our answer to this question must needs depend our conception of the part grace has in our salvation; and, on the other hand, especially in modern times the truth concerning salvation is distorted and corrupted in more than one way.
Salvation is not the same as reformation, the improvement of man and of the world; it has nothing in common with the modern notion of the building of character. This modernistic conception recognizes, indeed, that man is not what he ought to be. There is something wrong with him and with the world he is making. Especially in our own times, now the whole imposing structure of human culture and civilization threatens to collapse, this is deeply felt. However, it is maintained that man is not inherently corrupt. He is fundamentally good. Bur he is in need of reform. We must apply ourselves to man's reformation, to the building of his character, as well as to the improvement of his environment. And in this noble effort we must take Jesus as our example and turn to His teachings, especially to the Sermon on the Mount, for our program of reformation. If man only learns to follow in His steps and to apply His teachings to all his life and relationships, he will be saved. He will then learn to acknowledge that, like Jesus, so he, too, is the son of God; that God is the loving Father of all, and all men are brethren. And thus he will become a good, peace-loving creature, capable of making of the present world a kindgom of God in which righteousness shall dwell. Needless to say, in such a view of salvation there is no room for grace. Salvation is the work of proud man, not of God. And it is quite superfluous to prove that this human philosophy has nothing in common with the Biblical gospel of salvation.
However, it is not only in modernistic circles that one meets with a perverted presentation of the truth of salvation. On the contrary, also they who ostensibly preach the gospel of Christ, but in the meantime present the matter of salvation as something that ultimately depends for its realization on the will of man, distort the doctrine of sovereign grace. Salvation, according to this view, is something like a present that is all prepared and that is freely and graciously offered, but which one may either refuse or accept. Or it is like a kind invitation to some party or banquet, with which one may either comply or politely decline. So the sinner is offered salvation, chiefly consisting in escape from hell and entrance into heaven after this life, on condition that he will accept Christ. This salvation is all prepared for the sinner. In himself he is damned, worthy of eternal death. But Christ died for every sinner, and merited for all the forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal glory.
So far it is all of grace.
And that the gospel is preached to sinners and this glorious redemption is offered them freely, that, too, is of grace.
But it is at this point that salvation as a work of divine grace and power ends. For beyond the merited redemption of Christ and the offered salvation, grace is not sovereign and efficacious: it is powerless to save and actually to deliver from the dominion of sin and death, except by the sinner's consent. If the sinner only accepts the salvation that is offered to him, if only he will say, "I accept Christ as my personal Savior," all will be well with him, and grace can proceed; but if he is recalcitrant and stubbornly declines the earnest invitation to be saved, grace can do nothing with him. Many a preacher does not hesitate openly and boldly to declare that God is powerless to save the sinner unless the latter gives his consent, and that Christ can do no more than He did unless the sinner permits Him to proceed with His work of salvation. Jesus is willing to save, but His willingness must suffer shipwreck on the rock of man's contrary and refractory will. He stands at the door of the sinner's heart and knocks; but the key of the door is on the inside, and the Savior cannot enter, unless the sinner opens the door.
From this arises that very common form of preaching that is erroneously called evangelical and that always reaches its climax in the well-known, extremely sensational "altar call" I say erroneously, for "evangelical preaching" is preaching of the gospel; and the true gospel never presents a powerless God or a Christ impotent to save. Since the grace of God is dependent on the choice of the sinner's will, it follows that the persuasion of human language, of the voice of the preacher, pleading and begging, may assist him to make the right choice and induce him to let Jesus into his heart!
Thus Christ is travestied!
0, to be sure, salvation is deliverance from hell and damnation. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." (John 3:36). But, first of all, salvation is much more than the mere escape from punishment and hell and a check on the bank of heaven that is to be cashed after death. It is a wonderwork of the Almighty, Who quickeneth the dead and calleth the things that are not as if they were. (Romans 4: 17) It is a work in which God becomes revealed unto us in "the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places." (Ephesians 1: 19, 20) It is a work no less divine, and even more glorious, than the work of creation. All that is required to make of the sinner, dead in sin, filled with enmity against God, cursing the Almighty and raising his rebellious fist in the face of the Lord of heaven and earth, walking in darkness and hating the light - to make of such a sinner a righteous and holy child of God, humbly asking what God wills that he shall do, filled with the love of God, and for ever singing His praises, and to place ,that sinner, thus redeemed and delivered, in living fellowship with the glorious company of all the redeemed and glorified sinners, so that they together constitute a church, a beautiful house of God, a holy temple in the Lord, to the praise of the glory of His grace in the beloved - all this belongs to the work, the mighty work of God that is called salvation!
Secondly, salvation by grace means that it is an exclusively divine work, absolutely free and sovereign, in which man has no part at all and which does not in any sense depend upon the choice of man's will. Even as the work of creation is of God alone, which He accomplished without the cooperation of the creature, so the work of salvation is exclusively God's work, in which man has no part whatever. Even as Adam lived and was an active creature, not in or before his being created, but by virture of this marvelous work of God, so the sinner lives, and becomes positively active, so that he wills to be saved and embraces Christ, not in cooperation with God Who saves him but as a result of the wonder of grace performed upon him. Salvation by grace implies that grace is always first. True, "whosoever will may come," but the will to come is not prevenient to grace but subsequent to it as its fruit.
Consider from what depths of darkness and death salvation delivers man and unto what heights of life and glory it exalts him, and judge for yourselves whether at any particular stage of this marvelous work of God man could be a cooperating party with God. Popularly, salvation has often been defined as that wonderwork of God whereby He delivers the sinner from the greatest evil and makes him partaker of the highest good. But what is the greatest evil from which grace delivers the sinner? Listen to the words of Scripture in Ephesians 2:1-3: "And you ... who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." That is the evil from which grace saves us!
And what does it mean that, apart from grace, we are dead in trespasses and sins?
0, it signifies exactly what it says: that by our sins we are, by nature, just as dead unto God and righteousness, unto all good works, as the corpse in the grave is dead unto all activity of any kind. It means that, apart from grace, we are wholly incapable of doing any good, or even of thinking and willing anything that is pleasing to God. We are bound from within with unbreakable shackles of darkness and corruption. We are slaves of sin, willing slaves to be sure, but slaves withal, loving darkness rather than the light. And this spiritual, ethical death is God's own wrath upon us: the punishment for sin. For we are children of wrath from our birth, guilty and damnable because of Adam's transgression. And we can only daily increase our guilt and our damnation.
Such is our miserable plight! There is a debt we can never pay, nor do we care to pay it. There is a power of corruption from which we cannot and will not deliver ourselves. There is wrath and damnation from which we can never escape, nor do we care to, or seek to escape: for we are enemies of God, and the carnal mind is death!
In that horrible depth of misery grace finds the sinner.
Do you imagine, then, that he is capable or willing to cooperate with God to his own salvation, or that any emotional and sentimental plea of a preacher will persuade him to desire to seek salvation in Christ? I tell you Nay. Before grace takes hold of that sinner and raises him from the dead, he will always refuse to accept the proffered salvation and will prefer death to life, sin to righteousness, the devil to God! He must be saved by grace as a divine wonder!
Consider, too, unto what heights of glory grace saves the sinner.
He is made partaker of the highest good! But what is the highest good? It is eternal life! Yes, but what is eternal life? Is it a sort of carnally conceived everlasting state of bliss in a beautiful place called heaven? God forbid! 0, to be sure, heaven is blessed and beautiful. But it is so principally because God is there, and Christ is there, and the saints in Christ are there. And the blessedness of heaven consists in this, that it is the house of God, and that in that house we may dwell in fellowship with the living God, a fellowship that is more intimate than the first man Adam ever tasted: for it has its center in the incarnated Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ! To be the perfect sons of God, knowing God even as we are known, righteous as He is righteous, holy as He is holy, loving and beloved forever, seeing Him face to face, and having our delight in the doing of His will and the keeping of His precepts, loving Him with all our heart and mind and soul and strength in heavenly perfection and glory -- that is the blessedness of heaven, and that is the height of glory to which grace raises us in Jesus Christ our Lord! But do you imagine that there could be any cooperation on the part of that miserable sinner we just described to reach that height of perfection? Or would you say that the sinner who is an enemy of God even longs for that perfect fellowship with God, that he who loves darkness is capable of yearning for that state of perfect and everlasting light? I tell you Nay. He is saved by grace, and by grace only, as a wonderwork of Him Who raises the dead and calleth the things that are not as if they were!
Saved by grace! Delivered from wrath, guilt, damnation, corruption, and death --all by grace! Clothed with righteousness, holiness, life, and glory - by grace only! Translated into light, from death into life, from shame into glory, from hell into heaven - all by the power of God's wondrous grace! And all because of the eternal, sovereign love of Him Who chose the things that are not to bring to nought the things that are; that no flesh should glory in His presence!
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2023 22:17:04 GMT -5
GOOD NEWS FOR THE AFFLICTED
(Brief Meditations written by Rev. Herman Hoeksema)
THE FATHER'S PERFECT WAY (2)
Isaiah 55:8-9 , "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
How little we understand of the mighty work of God, especially as it pertains to our sufferings, sicknesses and sorrows! Yet our God is doing a perfect work. There is no defect, no flaw in what He does. And the perfection of His work will be revealed in the day of Christ, when our salvation shall be fully accomplished and the tabernacle of God shall be with men.
In this perfect work also our troubles, pains, sorrows and griefs occupy their proper place. They fit somehow. They serve His wise purpose and are necessary to fit us into our place in eternal glory. If we could only see how indispensable they were, we would never grumble or feel dissatisfied with our lot. But we cannot see. His work is too great, too high, too deep for us to understand. In detail we cannot understand the reason for our particular way and lot. Should we ask: "Why?" He would but answer, "My grace is sufficient for thee!"
He would have us believe His Word, know that He doeth all things well, and just surrender and follow where He leads. That is trust.
For added comfort, read: Deut. 32:4 ; Job 23:10 .
– Herman Hoeksema
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2023 22:22:40 GMT -5
GOOD NEWS FOR THE AFFLICTED
(Brief Meditations written by Rev. Herman Hoeksema)
THE FATHER'S PERFECT WAY (2)
Isaiah 55:8-9 , "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
How little we understand of the mighty work of God, especially as it pertains to our sufferings, sicknesses and sorrows! Yet our God is doing a perfect work. There is no defect, no flaw in what He does. And the perfection of His work will be revealed in the day of Christ, when our salvation shall be fully accomplished and the tabernacle of God shall be with men.
In this perfect work also our troubles, pains, sorrows and griefs occupy their proper place. They fit somehow. They serve His wise purpose and are necessary to fit us into our place in eternal glory. If we could only see how indispensable they were, we would never grumble or feel dissatisfied with our lot. But we cannot see. His work is too great, too high, too deep for us to understand. In detail we cannot understand the reason for our particular way and lot. Should we ask: "Why?" He would but answer, "My grace is sufficient for thee!"
He would have us believe His Word, know that He doeth all things well, and just surrender and follow where He leads. That is trust.
For added comfort, read: Deut. 32:4 ; Job 23:10 .
– Herman Hoeksema
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2023 22:28:43 GMT -5
REFORMED DOGMATICS
Herman Hoeksema
THE FOURTH LOCUS– SOTERIOLOGY
Chapte 25 – Regeneration
Part 2 of 3
∙ Regeneration in Paul’s Epistles
∙ Regeneration in John’s Epistles
∙ Repudiation of Regeneration
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Regeneration in Paul’s Epistles
The apostle Paul mentions the term regeneration in only one passage:
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost (Titus 3:5).
Some find in these words an indication of or a reference to holy baptism. Baptism, according to this view, is the washing of regeneration. Although it is true that holy baptism can indeed be conceived as a washing of regeneration when regeneration is understood in the broader sense, yet it is not correct to say that the apostle here calls baptism a washing of regeneration.
There is no principle objection to calling baptism a washing or bath of regeneration. Scripture itself points us in that direction. In baptism we are buried with Christ into his death, and through baptism we rise with him in newness of life (Rom. 6:4). According to the presentation of some, the old man in principle is left behind in the bath of baptism. From that bath the new man in Christ arises, justified and sanctified, and therefore, regenerated. When, therefore, we conceive of regeneration in the broader sense, as changing and sanctifying our consciousness and recreating us in Christ Jesus as a new man, baptism in its essential significance is indeed the washing of regeneration. Nevertheless, the truth is that in Titus 3:5 the apostle probably refers very indirectly to baptism, since he does not speak of baptism, but only of regeneration. He does not call baptism a washing of regeneration. On the contrary, he calls regeneration a washing. Regeneration itself is conceived as a bath washing us from all iniquity.
Although the word regeneration occurs only once in the epistles of the apostle Paul, the fact of regeneration is referred to in many places. Paul teaches that he who is in Christ Jesus is a “new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17). Old things are passed away, and all things are become new. We are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
When the apostle calls the believer a “new creature,” and when he calls the work of grace whereby the sinner is changed and enabled to walk in all good works a “new creation,” this is not to be understood as if the sinner becomes essentially another creature. Yet, according to Paul, it is plain that the spiritual, ethical change wrought by grace in the sinner is effected by nothing less than a creative, even though it be a re-creative, act of God.
The apostle Paul preferably speaks of the calling, in which the work of regeneration is implied and included. By this calling of God, the apostle understands that creative and omnipotent act of God by which whatever he calls really comes into existence. He quickens the dead and calls those things that are not as though they were (Rom. 4:17). Those whom he foreknew and ordained to be like unto the image of his Son, he also called (Rom. 8:29, 30). Those who are called are quickened with Christ, raised with him, and placed with him in heaven; they have entered into death with him through baptism in order to arise in newness of life (Rom. 6:3–11; Eph. 2:1, 5).
All believers may rejoice with Paul:
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal. 2:20).
The content of that almighty calling of God is, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. 5:14). The work of God that the apostle denotes by the term calling, therefore, is the same as regeneration.
Regeneration in John’s Epistles
Even as in the apostle Paul’s writings the calling stands on the foreground, so the apostle John preferably speaks of regeneration. The main thought in his first epistle is undoubtedly that believers are partakers of the life of God in the light. For that reason he constantly views believers from the standpoint that they are children of God (τ κνα το Θεο ). Because they are born of God, they possess the life of God. Having communion with God through that life, they walk in the light:
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:1–2).
He who commits sin is of the devil.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother (1 John 3:8–10).
We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error (1 John 4:6).
This being born of God reveals itself in true faith: “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.” And in that faith he who “is born of God overcometh the world” (1 John 5:1, 4). Thus throughout his epistle the apostle John emphasizes the true, spiritual, ethical sonship of God that is caused by the work of regeneration.
Repudiation of Regeneration
It lies in the nature of the case that all rationalists and Pelagians repudiate this radical and fundamental change in man that is called regeneration. According to them, man is not spiritually dead. He is not totally depraved, wholly incapable of doing any good, inclined to all evil; he is only sick. But his nature per se remains unchanged. His salvation, therefore, depends on his own free will and is effected by human words of persuasion and wisdom. One must work upon the will of man through appealing to his intellect. Man must be persuaded through word and example. This change in his thinking and willing that is effected by human persuasion is really regeneration.
Although rationalists and Pelagians still speak of rebirth, they attach an entirely different significance to the term from what is meant by scripture and the orthodox confessions. For a regeneration that is effected by almighty grace, that takes place even below the consciousness of man in the very depth of his existence, and that consists in the sinner’s receiving a new principle of life and the infusing of new spiritual powers into him—for such a regeneration they have no place, because by such a conception of regeneration every possibility that the sinner can cooperate with his own salvation is cut off.
Regeneration in the scriptural sense leaves the sinner wholly passive and attributes the work of salvation only to the absolutely sovereign grace of God, who is merciful to whom he will be merciful, and who hardens whom he will (Rom. 9:18).However, this sprouting of the seed of regeneration is not realized except through a working of the living and abiding Word of God, through which he calls the quickened sinner efficaciously, and gives him ears to hear and eyes to see. This, therefore, is the efficacious calling through the Word of God. This efficacious calling receives content for our consciousness through the fact that this living and abiding Word of God is also proclaimed among us. Although we will not deny that in a certain sense regeneration may be presented as taking place mediately through the word, nevertheless we maintain that the appeal to 1 Peter 1:23 contains no ground for this contention.
HERMAN HOEKSEMA
Reformed Dogmatics, 2 vols., vol. 2, 31-35
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2023 22:40:30 GMT -5
The Vaunting Ax
Rev. Herman Hoeksema (1886-1965)
The following article first appeared in the Standard Bearer of April 1, 1939.)
In the beautiful but often misinterpreted thirteenth article of our Netherlands Confession of Faith the providence of God is considered and briefly explained especially from the viewpoint of its relation to sin and evil, its control over and rule of devils and wicked men. It teaches that God did not forsake the work of His hands, as is the doctrine of the Deists; that He did not surrender them to the whims of fortune or chance, as is the teaching of fatalists and determinists; but that He rules and governs them according to His holy will, so that nothing ever occurs in this world but by His appointment and determination. This, of course, cannot exclude, but must include the actions and counsels of the rational, moral creatures; and that not only of the good but also of the wicked. All that men and angels, powers and principalities, wicked men and devils do, happens by God's appointment and according to His holy counsel. The article, therefore, continues to emphasize that this confession of God's providence over all things does not imply that the holy One is the author of sin or can be charged with the guilt of sin; but that He knows how to rule justly even through the wickedness of the powers of darkness. And it adds that it is not the purpose of this confession curiously to inquire into the deep things of God, but rather to humble ourselves and to adore the righteous judgments of the living God. And it concludes by pointing out that for the people of God there is unspeakable consolation in this truth of God's government over all things, for by faith in it we feel confident that nothing can befall us except by the will of our heavenly Father, and that He so restrains the devil and all our enemies that without His will and permission they cannot hurt us.
The false doctrine that the Holy Spirit restrains the process of sin in devils and wicked men so as to improve them somewhat and enable them to live a relatively good world-life, which in 1924 the Christian Reformed Church sought to elicit from this article, certainly is wholly absent from it. Yet, on the basis of Scripture, and without becoming guilty of curiously prying into things too deep for human understanding, we may proceed a step further than this article, and, instead of saying that God restrains the devil and wicked men, we may certainly declare that he so uses them that they must serve His purpose and counsel, even though it be unwittingly and unwillingly, yea, contrary to their own will. To this truth I would call your attention in this article.
You guessed, perhaps, that I derived the formulation of my subject from Isa. 10:15: Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself as if it were no wood. The boasting ax and the self-magnifying saw, and the rebellious rod and self-exalting staff are all the same. And in the tenth chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah you find an individual picture of that vaunting ax to the general appearance and significance of which I expect to call your attention. In that chapter it represents particularly the power of Assyria, which at that period of history constituted the world-power. And Assyria has a work to do. He has a commission from Jehovah to fulfill. For, he must marshall his forces against Jerusalem, the City of God, that is, however, at that time filled with wickedness and hypocrisy. He must take the spoil and the prey and tread them down like the mire of the streets. Emphatically it is declared that Assyria has this commission as a charge of the Lord, for it is the Lord's purpose to punish hypocritical Jerusalem. vs. 6. And Assyria will surely acquit himself of his charge and with great zeal and ambition he will carry it out. But in doing so he is not at all aware of the fact that he has a charge from Jehovah. He does not know that he is but serving God and executing His counsel. On the contrary, it is in his heart to exalt himself, to acquire all the world-power, to become great, and to destroy many nations. And for this purpose he boasts in his strength and considers that the God of Jerusalem is as the gods of the other nations and that Jehovah will no more be able to save His people out of his hand than the idols of the nations have been able to deliver them. The result is, therefore, that he performs God's counsel and serves Him unwittingly and in so far he is but an ax in the powerful hand of Jehovah, Who hews with him. But, on the other hand, he is not a mere ax but a rational and moral agent, he has his own purposes and counsels even while he accomplishes the purpose of the Most High; and these purposes are wicked. For that reason the final result is that Assyria does, indeed, execute the will of God and nothing more or less, but in doing so he becomes guilty and is punished and destroyed.
You understand, however, that we may generalize and say that this vaunting ax is always in the world, that the Most High always employs him for His purpose and presses him into his service, and that, on the other hand, he always boasts and exalts himself against the Most High and His covenant and people. Assyria is but an individual picture of him, an appearance of the vaunting ax in time, at that particular period. We shall, therefore, have to consider him in his general significance and power.
In order, then, to obtain a full and correct conception of this boasting power of darkness in all its meaning, in relation to God and to all things, we must remember, first of all, the position in which God originally placed man in the midst of the world. He made him His king-servant. For, He created him after his own image, in true knowledge, righteousness and holiness. And by virtue of this likeness of God in his nature man stood in covenant-relation to his God, that he might rightly love Him, love Him with all his heart and mind and soul and strength, serve Him with all things and have a place in God's very heart. In relation to God, therefore, his name was friend-servant. And this friend-servant God placed at the very pinnacle of the earthly creation. For, he gave him dominion, so that it was his calling to reign over all the works of God's hands in the name of and according to the will of the Most High. He was, therefore, God's king-friend-servant in the midst of the earthly creation. All things must serve him that he might serve his God. In the second place, we must remember, that this friend-servant of God, this king over the earthly creation, became through willful disobedience the friend-servant of the devil. For, the image of God in him turned into its very opposite, so that his knowledge became darkness, his righteousness became rebellion, his holiness changed into corruption. He became the devil's ally and slave. On the other hand, he retained his relationship to the earthly creation. True, he lost much of his original gifts, his power was curtailed; but in relation to the world he remained king. He still rules. The earth and all earthly creatures still serve him. The world in which he lives supplies him with food and drink, with shelter and clothing, with resources and power to develop himself and to express himself in relation to God. And these earthly things he employs and develops. Only, with all his power and gifts, with all his mind and heart, with all his resources and means he opposes the living God in a spiritual ethical sense of the word, and he serves the devil, who in that sense of the word, is become the prince of the world. In the third place, we must bear in mind, that this fallen man in his generations naturally stands opposed to God's cause, His covenant and people in the midst of this world. It is Babylon against Jerusalem; the world over against the church. For, God maintained his covenant. He had anointed his own king over his holy hill of Zion. And He causes him to become the root of a new humanity, the humanity of the elect, the Head of the Church, the seed of the woman, the King of the kingdom of heaven. This covenant people of God, delivered from the slavery of the devil, renewed unto holiness after the image of God, are of God's party in the midst of and over against the power of the fallen and rebellious king and his kingdom. They live in the same world, use the same means, are of one blood with the power represented by this vaunting ax. And, because they differ in deepest spiritual-ethical principle, the latter hates and opposes the former step by step, throughout all the history of the present world. The vaunting ax, therefore, is the power of the world, living and acting and developing from the principle of sin, employing all his power and means to establish and maintain the wicked world-kingdom, in opposition to God and His Christ and His covenant. It includes the devil and his angels and all the wicked in alliance with them.
Of this vaunting ax the power of Assyria at the time of Isaiah's prophecy was but an individual manifestation, for it is always in the world. Its most general description is given in Gen. 3:15, as the seed of the serpent that will bruise the heel of the woman's seed. It is in the world before the flood as manifest in the generations of Cain over against those of Seth, in the children of men in opposition to the sons of God. Even then it is powerful in the world and persecutes and threatens to destroy the Church, but goes under in the flood. It is represented in the builders of the tower of Babel over against the generations of Shem. It embodies itself especially for a time in the world-power of Egypt vomiting fury and death against the sojourning children of Israel. It reveals itself in carnal Israel, as it prevents, for a time, the Church to enter into its rest; and as, later, when Israel has entered into the land of promise, it always causes the nation to apostatize and the remnant according to election to groan and suffer, finally leading the Church into captivity. And it also is represented by the successive world-powers of the old dispensation, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. It is the power of Jew and Gentile, of scribes and Pharisees, of Pilate and Herod combined that rise against the holy child Jesus to destroy Him on the cross. And it is all the powers of darkness combined in the new dispensation, the wicked world and the false church, as they plot and conspire against the cause of God, as they tempt and seduce, by false doctrine and vain philosophy, by the treasures and pleasures of the world, as they fume and rage furiously against the Lord and His Anointed, and as they must ultimately culminate in the realization of the power of antichrist. And it includes the power of the nations that live on the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, that will rise against the camp of the saints to destroy it. The vaunting ax may differ as to appearance in different periods of history, it may accommodate itself to various circumstances, but it is always in the world and always it stands in opposition to the cause of God and His covenant in the world.
Now this power of darkness in all its activity must serve a purpose and the purpose it serves is God's. This is very emphatically and concretely expressed in the passage from which we derived the formulation of our subject. For, the power of Assyria is compared to an ax in the hand of God Who hews therewith, to a saw in the hand of the Most High that draws it, to a rod and staff in the hand of the Almighty that strikes with it. What figure could more emphatically express that all the power of darkness is pressed into the service of God? An ax and a saw and a rod are but instruments. In themselves they serve no purpose. They accomplish nothing. They wait for the hand to strike with them or to draw them. Without that hand they are useless. And the purpose they shall serve is determined strictly by him, whose hand takes them up to use them as instruments. Especially is this true when the figure is applied to Assyria in the hand of God. For, though man may sometimes fail to reach his purpose with the instrument he uses, and, indeed, is always limited by the instrument itself; God never fails in His purpose, and the instrument He employs is most perfectly fitted for the use He desires to make of it. For, God devises, prepares and most perfectly shapes His own tools, in order then to employ them with absolute sovereignty, power, and perfect wisdom to His own end. But this is not only evident from this figure of the ax in the hand of the Almighty, it is the current teaching of Scripture. For, it is said to Pharaoh that God hath raised him up for the very purpose of rebellion that He might show His power in him. Ex. 9:16. And the apostle Paul, referring to this passage in Rom. 9 teaches us that the great Potter hath power over the clay to make vessels of honor as well as of dishonor. In the case of Job the devil serves the purpose of the Most High and is wholly limited in his rage against Job to God's purpose. Job 1, 2. Besides, God forms the light and creates darkness, He makes peace and creates evil, Isa. 45:7, It is, indeed, true, that wicked men crucify and kill Jesus, but only according to and by the determinate counsel of God, Acts 2:23. And the nations do rage furiously against the Anointed of the Lord, and the world-power, Pilate and Herod and the leaders of the people do counsel together and rise against the Holy Child Jesus, but only to do what God's hand had before determined that should be done. Acts 4:26-28. And the apostle Paul is buffeted by an angel of Satan; but only to serve the purpose of God. Indeed, the reprobate stumble at the stone, elect and precious, being disobedient, but unto this they are also appointed. I Pet. 2:8. And many nations are gathered against Israel, and say: Let her be defiled and let our eyes look upon Zion, but they know not the counsel of the Lord, neither do they understand his thoughts, Micah 4:11-12. All the Word of God sounds the same note. All creatures at all times serve the Lord and only execute His sovereign will.
When we contemplate this fundamental Scriptural truth concerning the vaunting ax, it not only affords us unspeakable consolation, but it also causes us to bow down in worship and adoration before the living God and to glorify his absolute sovereignty and unsearchable wisdom. Here the last trace of dualism disappears. God is God alone, everywhere, in time and in eternity. For, it declares unto us that all things have been eternally arranged with the most flawless wisdom to serve the God of Jacob. For, it is evident, that if the power of darkness is but an instrument in the hand of God to serve His purpose, that the purpose and the instruments to serve that purpose have been determined from before the foundation of the world. Reprobation receives a new meaning. For, in the light of this Scriptural teaching it signifies, not merely that God excluded some from the salvation of His people and ordained them unto damnation; nor is its significance fully expressed by saying that reprobation must be to the glory of God's righteousness and severe justice. But we learn that God has a work to do for the reprobate part of mankind and for every one of the reprobate wicked, men or devils, which must be accomplished. Just as it is true of the people of God that the good works in which they walk have been prepared for them from eternity, so that all the saints together and every saint individually bear that fruit that was ordained by God; so also the actual deeds and accomplishments of the wicked have been ordained from eternity, so that all the reprobates together fill the measure of iniquity, but also each of the wicked occupies his own place in the whole and performs his own part in filling that measure of sin. Cain and Lamech, Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus and Antiochus Epiphanes, Herod and Pilate, Napoleon and Mussolini, but also the most insignificant sneak thief, rich and poor, simple and wise, philosophers and moviestars,--all are servants of God, each fitting in his own place and time, each endowed with the necessary powers and means to perform his part, each and all uniting to accomplish that purpose for which God raised them up. They are the ax with which He heweth, the saw He draws, the rod of His anger. For, God has made all things for His own name's sake, even the wicked unto the day of evil. And He is not outside of the world to leave it to its fate, but in all things to govern them all unto His determinate end.
Nor is it, in general, difficult to determine what purpose they serve. For, first of all, it is evident from Scripture that they must serve the glory of God. God is willing to show his wrath. He purposed to reveal His power in Pharaoh. But this general purpose is not to be separated from the whole of God's works nor to be divorced from the end He purposes to attain. That purpose is the highest realization of His covenant in Christ Jesus our Lord, which is to be realized in the way of sin and grace. The realization of that purpose in general and salvation of each of the saints in particular the vaunting ax must serve. This is evident from the text in Isaiah. Jerusalem is become wicked and apostatized from Jehovah. The carnal element reigns supreme in the city of God and the remnant according to the election is crying to Jehovah because of Zion's low estate. And Assyria must serve the true Zion by chastising and punishing apostate Jerusalem. It is the rod of God's anger. This is very clear centrally from the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. Herod and Pilate are gathered with the rulers of the people to do what God's hand had determined that should be done. Christ must be crucified. He must lay down His life for His sheep. The blood of atonement must be shed. And God will be in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. And the vaunting ax of the wicked reprobate must serve that purpose. It is in that light that also the temptation of the devil and the fall of man is to be viewed. God's church is in the loins of the first Adam. And that Church in Christ must be separated from him. From the viewpoint of God's determinate counsel Adam must fall in order to make room for Christ and prepare the way for the redemption and glorification of the Church. And the devil must serve that purpose of God. And from the fall to the ultimate manifestation of the Antichrist the entire government of God with respect to the wicked world is such that all must serve Him in the realization of His eternal covenant.
Nor is this only true in a general sense. Also unto the salvation of God's individual children the wicked must serve the purpose of God. When the angel of Satan buffets Paul, it is that he may not exalt himself and not boast beyond measure. And when the fire of persecution rages and God's people must suffer in the world, it is but that the gold of the work of God's grace may be tried as by fire. For, as fire proves the genuineness of gold, purifies it and brings out its beauty and luster so God employs the wicked world to prove the genuineness of his own handiwork of grace in the Church and in the hearts of the individual believers, purifies and sanctifies them through the fire of persecution and thus causes the beauty of His own work to shine forth, that all may be to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Not improperly has the devil been called the watchdog of Jesus' sheep. Heresy has served the purpose of developing God's truth. And the blood of the martyrs is surely the seed of the Church. All things work together for good to them that love God. And all the wicked must surely serve God and His saving purposes concerning His elect in Christ Jesus our Lord.
However, we must not lose sight of the fact, that there is an important difference between an ax and saw on the one hand and this power of the reprobate wicked on the other. It is somewhat of a contradiction to speak of a vaunting ax. A mere instrument does not exalt itself in the hand of him that uses it, does not boast. It is dead. It is utterly passive. It knows not and cares not what you do with it. But this is not the case with the wicked power of the world. It is an instrument in the hand of God, but it is not dead. Devils and wicked men are agents to accomplish the purpose of God, but as agents they are utterly passive. They are moral, rational creatures, and as such they all act willingly and consciously. They do not act unwittingly, but knowingly. They are not driven like brute beasts, but they act with motivation from within. They have their own purposes, their own ideals, their own ends to attain, their own motives in all their actions. And their thoughts and counsels and motives and purposes are wholly contrary to the thoughts and purposes of the living God. This is plainly stated in Isaiah 10. God's purpose is to punish wicked Jerusalem, and in this purpose Assyria serves Him. But while Assyria serves God and accomplishes the purpose of the Almighty, he does not think so, nor is it his intention to serve the God of Israel. He does not even understand the counsel of God and fails absolutely to perceive His purpose. On the contrary he vaunts. He boasts. He exalts himself. He does not acknowledge that God must lead his armies to battle and give him the victory. He is vain and proud in his own strength. He will become mighty and destroy many nations and even the God of Israel will not be able to check his progress. He, therefore, boasts against the living God. And though He will accomplish the very thing God charges him to do and in that sense of the word is God's servant, he is such in spite of himself and does so in the vain imagination that he opposes God and His people in Jerusalem.
And this is the case always. There can be no question about the fact that the devil in paradise serves God's purpose. For, it is God's inscrutable purpose through the temptation of Satan to open the way for the coming of His only begotten Son in the flesh and the salvation of His church that is in the loins of Adam. That does not imply, as a few years ago a certain speaker from the old country presented the matter, that God simply called on the devil and commanded him to tempt man. No command of God to them do the wicked obey. Nor does it mean that God forced the devil against his will to go to paradise and seduce man to his fall. Formally Satan remains a free agent. And God is by no means the author of sin, though He certainly is the cause of all that is accomplished by sin. Satan has his own purposes and does not see the purpose of God, no more than the fish perceives the purpose of the angler when it swallows the bait. He will tempt man and cause him to fall. He will rebel against God, slander Him, lie about Him, establish his own kingdom and prosper in his purposes. And he does not know, neither does he mean what God knows and intends. The same is true of Pharaoh in Egypt, when he furiously rages against Israel. And very clearly this is true of the power that rises up against God's Anointed at the cross of Golgotha. The nations imagine a vain thing, indeed. They set themselves against God and against his Christ because they are filled with hatred and rebellion. Their purpose is destruction, their motive is rebellion against the living God. Yet, the counsel of redemption they fulfill and they are but instrumental unto the realization of God's purpose of salvation. Throughout, therefore, they act as moral, conscious, responsible agents, with motives and purposes of their own. And because these motives and purposes are contrary to the will of God in seeking God's purpose they sin and gather unto themselves treasures of wrath.
The reward of the vaunting ax or the wicked in serving the counsel of God, therefore, is threefold. In the first place, they have the reward of a certain temporary success, glory and power. For a time the devil succeeds, what he purposes he accomplishes, and with devilish glee he rejoices in his success. Assyria will succeed in destroying many nations and punishing Jerusalem, in gathering the spoil and exalting himself. Judas and the enemies of Christ do succeed in capturing him and performing all their wicked will upon Him and they rejoice in their victory. Nebuchadnezzar does become great in the world, Napoleon does gather for himself a name and glory. And all the anti-christian world will for a time run after the beast and rejoice in its glory and power. But, in the first place, this success of the world is but a means to lead to greater sin and rebellion against the Most high and to gather greater treasures of wrath. And, secondly, this success is essentially failure. It is the success of the fish that swallows the bait and satisfies its appetite, but in so doing swallows his own destruction. In the second place, their reward is the everlasting desolation of hell fire, because they stood and acted in rebellion against the living God. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. And in the third place their reward will be, that they shall clearly know and acknowledge unto all eternity that in all their vain imagination against God they served Him and accomplished his counsel. For God is God and must be acknowledged as such. Not only will He bring the counsel of the wicked to nought in the end, but He will not leave them their imagination that even for a time they opposed him and succeeded to thwart His purpose. In hell they shall know that they but accomplished the counsel of God in spite of themselves. Eternally the Word of God will say to Pharaoh, and to Nebuchadnezzar and to Assyria, and to the raging nations, and to the devil and his angels: For this purpose had I raised thee up! And from the consciousness of desolation the response will come: Yes, Thou art and wert, and forever shalt be God alone!
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2023 22:47:28 GMT -5
THE PURPOSE OF CHRIST'S COMING
As to the purpose of the coming of Christ on the clouds of heaven, first, he will come to raise all the dead in order that they may appear before him in judgment. Both the righteous and the wicked will be raised:
Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (John 5:28–29).
Second, in close connection with the preceding, Christ will come in order to pass judgment upon all and to reward everyone according as his work shall be:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10).
And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be (Rev. 22:12).
Third, the purpose of this final coming of the Lord is to make all things new, to redeem the creature from the bondage of corruption, and to cause it to participate in the glorious liberty of the children of God:
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:19–21; cf. Eph. 1:10; 2 Pet. 3:10–13).
Fourth, the purpose of Christ's final coming is to gather all the elect into the glory of the eternal inheritance, where the tabernacle of God will be with men, and to cast the devil and his angels and all the wicked into everlasting desolation (Rev. 21:1–4, 27; Rev. 20:15).
—HERMAN HOEKSEMA
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2023 22:52:29 GMT -5
REFORMED DOGMATICS
Herman Hoeksema
THE SIXTH LOCUS – ESCHATOLOGY
Chapter 45 – The Parousia
• The Parousia Defined
• The Term Parousia
• The Time of Christ's Coming
• The Error of Postmillennialism
• The Order of Events at Christ's Coming
• The Manner of Christ's Coming
• The Purpose of Christ's Coming
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The Parousia Defined
By the parousia we understand the final, sudden, personal, and visible coming of our Lord Jesus Christ on or with the clouds of heaven, for the purpose of raising the dead and executing judgment, to give everyone according as his work shall be and to make all things new.
The parousia is the consummation of all wonders and, therefore, is necessarily itself a wonder, which passes our boldest comprehension and which certainly cannot be explained from the natural development of things. The parousia is the fulfillment of God’s counsel with respect to all things in time.
The Term Parousia
The term parousia (παρουσ α) means literally “presence” and is opposed to “absence” (ἀπουσ α). In this sense the two terms occur together in Philippians 2:12: “. . . not as in my presence [ἐν τ παρουσ α] only, but now much more in my absence [ἐν τ ἀπουσ α].” The term also occurs in the sense of the presence of one who is coming and, therefore, of the coming itself, the arrival. In this sense it is used with respect to antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2:9: “. . . whose coming [ἡ παρουσ α] is after the working of Satan,” and with respect to Christ’s coming to destroy antichrist in verse 8: “. . . whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming [τ ς παρουσ ας αὐτο ].” In the New Testament the term is very frequently used to denote the final coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is called the coming of the Son of man (Matt. 24:27, 37, 39); the coming of the Lord (1 Thess. 4:15; James 5:7); the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 3:13; 1 Thess. 5:23; 2 Thess. 2:1; 2 Pet. 1:16); his coming (1 Cor. 15:23; 2 Thess. 2:8; 2 Pet. 3:4); and the coming of the day of God (2 Pet. 3:12). In the early fathers it is called the second coming in distinction from the first coming, which refers to the advent of Christ in the flesh.
Another term for the same concept, although from a different viewpoint, is epiphany (ἐπιϕ νεια—2 Thess. 2:8; 1 Tim. 6:14; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8; Titus 2:13). Closely related to and synonymous with epiphany is the term apocalypse (ἀποκ λυψις). Epiphany (ἐπιϕ νεια) means “manifestation,” and apocalypse (ἀποκ λυψις) means “revelation.” The two are very closely related. Apocalypse (ἀποκ λυψις) refers to the revelation of that which is hidden by removing the cover or unveiling. Epiphany (ἐπιϕ νεια) refers to the making visible by piercing through that which hides, as the sun becomes visible by piercing through the clouds. All these terms scripture uses to denote the second or final coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Time of Christ’s Coming
The time of this final coming of the Lord is not revealed in scripture. Certain it is that the millennial view that the Lord can come at any time is not correct, for the coming of the Lord is inseparably connected in scripture with the end of the world. This is evident from the question that the disciples asked the Lord Jesus, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matt. 24:3).
This connection between the Lord’s coming and the end of the world is also plainly taught in verses 29–31:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
The connection between the coming of Christ and the end of the world is also the teaching of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:23–24:
Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
The apostle Peter speaks of the mockers who deny Christ’s coming and the end of all things. They ask, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (2 Pet. 3:4). Peter compares these mockers to the people who lived at the time of the deluge, when the world that then was perished in the flood. Then he writes, “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (v. 7). He describes the day of the Lord:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (vv. 10–13).
All of these passages, and others, plainly indicate that the coming of the Lord will mark the end of the world. Besides, scripture teaches that the resurrection of the dead, both of the wicked and the righteous, will accompany the coming of the Lord. However, when that end and the coming of the Lord will be, no one knows. Even the signs of his coming certainly do not enable us to predict the day and the hour. The Lord himself tells us very definitely, “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32; cf. Matt. 24:36).
The Error of Postmillennialism
The signs of the Lord’s coming that are predicted in scripture also forbid us to support the view of the postmillenarians, whose philosophy is based on the theory of evolution and who expect a gradual realization of the kingdom of God in the world. They put the coming of the Lord, as far as they believe in such a coming, millions of years into the future. James Snowden writes:
Of course in this general progress there have been points and periods of retrogression. Evolution sometimes results in degeneration. The battle line of humanity does not move across the field with equal step and unbroken front. Here and there it wavers, halts, breaks. At times the whole line seems driven back in confusion, as in the Dark Ages. But this retreat is only in order to reform and move on towards victory. The vast evils and unspeakable wrongs of the world do not disprove this progress; rather it is often progress that brings these evils to light and makes us sensible of them. We have faith that nothing can stop this forward sweep of the gulf current of the ages. The hour hand of history can never be turned back. The oak cannot be crushed back into the acorn. Omnipotence is in this movement. The constellations are marching behind it. God is in his heaven, and all will yet be right with his world.
The world, as we have seen, is yet young. The very planet is still in the workshop and will not be finished for millions of years. Humanity is in its infancy. The centuries stretch out before it in vast vistas. There is before it the prospect of hope and splendid optimism. The future is rosy with morning light. Nothing has been done that shall not be better done. Every human achievement shall be infinitely surpassed. Truth shall be taken from the scaffold, and wrong driven from the throne. More and more shall He whose right it is reign and the will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven. This will be the millennium. The visions of the Hebrew prophets of the Messianic kingdom shall be fulfilled in their true spiritual and glorious meaning. Uninspired prophets have caught the same vision. John Fiske, theistic evolutionist, saw it when he wrote: “The future is lighted for us with the radiant colors of hope. Strife and sorrow shall disappear. Peace and love shall reign supreme. The dream of poets, the lesson of priest and prophet, the inspiration of the great musician, is confirmed in the light of modern knowledge; and as we gird ourselves for the work of life we may look forward to the time when in the truest sense the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” And Browning, the profoundly Christian and optimistic poet of our age, struck the same triumphant note and grand chord:
“For these things tend still upward, progress is
The law of life, man is not man as yet.
Nor shall I deem his object served, his end
Attained, his genuine strength put fairly forth,
While only here and there a star dispels
The darkness, here and there a towering mind
O’erlooks its prostrate fellows; when the host
Is out at once to the despair of night,
When all mankind alike is perfected,
Equal in full-blown powers—then, not till then,
I say, begins man’s general infancy.”[1]
These words were written at the time of the First World War. Since that time the world has experienced another and more catastrophic world war. As a result, stark pessimism has replaced this optimistic philosophy. Whatever may be the view of philosophy and philosophic theologians, scripture certainly does not hold out any hope for the world or any hope for a glorious millennium before the coming of the Lord. That coming of the Lord, according to scripture, certainly is not millions upon millions of years in the distant future, but is always presented as near. The signs of the coming of the Lord and of the end of the world are being realized before our very eyes. Although we cannot predict the day and the hour, we may certainly believe on the basis of the word of God, as well as with a view to the realization of the signs of Christ’s coming around about us, that the day of the Lord is approaching.
The Order of Events at Christ’s Coming
The final coming of the Lord will be a personal and visible coming in his resurrection or spiritual body. This coming of the Lord will be physical, but he will not appear in the same body that he assumed at his incarnation, but in the radically different body of the resurrection. The physical eye cannot see this glorious body of the resurrection. Hence the order of events at the coming of the Lord must be pictured as follows: The sign of the Son of man in heaven will be first. What this sign will be we do not know, but it certainly will be a visible representation of Christ in his glory to all who are living on the earth at the time (Matt. 24:30). Immediately upon the appearance of the sign of the Son of man in heaven will be the resurrection of the dead and the appearance of the Son of man in the body of his resurrection glory on the clouds of heaven. This order is also demanded by the fact that all the tribes of the earth will mourn, even those who pierced him (Rev. 1:7), which naturally cannot take place until after the resurrection of the dead.
Whatever the exact order of events will be, it is important that the church maintain the confession that Christ will return personally and visibly at the end of time.
In the modern conception of social Christianity, there is no room for a personal visible return of Christ. In recent decades there is much emphasis on the idea of the kingdom of God, but a purely earthly and social conception is presented:
One of the most marked characteristics of this time is a new interest in the kingdom of God and a new conception of its meaning. In fact so intense is this interest in the idea of the kingdom that it may be called the master thought of our time. And so new and significant is this conception of the kingdom that it is little else than a new revelation from heaven.
. . . The program [of this kingdom] implies the saving of the person by making him Christlike; it implies the proclamation of the Good News to every creature; it demands for every human being the conditions of a pure, strong, full and happy life; it sums itself up in the creation of a righteous and fraternal human society, in which God is known as Father and men are known as brothers, a society with justice as its foundation and love as its law, a society in which every life has a true inheritance and where all share in the Father’s bounties . . . Thus the men who are following the program of Christ and are seeking the kingdom of God are seeking to make the Good News known to every creature; they are seeking to save men from sin and to make them like Christ; they are seeking to secure for all men the conditions of a clean, worthy, human and moral life; they are seeking to build on the earth a city after the pattern of the Divine City.[2]
Walter Rauschenbusch emphasizes the idea of the kingdom of God, but also according to him this idea is a thoroughly worldly conception. He must have nothing of the apocalyptic, biblical conception of a catastrophe at the end of time and of a personal return of Christ. In his opinion the apocalyptic perspective obscured the thought of the prophets of the old dispensation:
So apocalypticism came to dominate the Christian view of future history. Whenever men looked down the future to gain a religious outlook, they saw it in the artificial lay out of apocalyptic dualism and determinism. The apocalyptic hope has always contained ingredients of religious force and value, but its trail through history is strange and troubled reading. It has been of absorbing fascination to some Christian minds, but it has led them into labyrinths from which some never emerged. It has been the inspiration of earnest Christian men in some lines of Christian activity, but it has effectively blocked their minds with strange prejudices against other important lines of work. It has turned the enthusiasm of great historical movements into injurious fanaticism. It has spawned hopeless little sects. It has been one chief cause why the Kingdom hope has not gained the wide practical effectiveness which it might have, for in this debased and irrational form it is hopelessly foreign to modern life and thought. I know that this charge will pain some devout Christian minds whom I would not willingly hurt, but in the interest of the very hope for which they stand I have to say that the idea of the Kingdom of God must slough off apocalypticism if it is to become the religious property of the modern world. Those who hold it must cease to put their hope in salvation by catastrophe and learn to recognize and apply the law of development in human life. They must outgrow the diabolism and demonism with which Judaism was infected in Persia and face the stern facts of racial sin. They must break with the artificial schemes and determinism of an unhistorical age and use modern resources to understand the way God works out retribution and salvation in human affairs.[3]
This conception of the kingdom of God as a social order in the present world—and in connection with this conception the denial of the final and personal and visible coming of the Lord Jesus Christ on the clouds of heaven—is certainly in conflict with Holy Writ in many places (Matt. 24:30; Acts 1:11; Acts 3:20–21; 1 Cor. 15:24; 1 Thess. 2:19; 1 Thess. 3:13; 1 Thess. 4:15–17; Heb. 9:28; Rev. 1:7; Rev. 19:11–21).
The Manner of Christ’s Coming
In close connection with the personal visible return of Christ is the plain revelation of scripture that the coming of the Lord will certainly not be gradual, but will be sudden and unexpected. Even though scripture speaks of the signs of Christ’s coming, these signs are never of such a nature that we can predict the hour and the day of the coming of the Lord:
But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh (Matt. 24:37–39, 44; cf. Matt. 25:1–13; 1 Thess. 5:2–3; Rev. 16:15).
There is a difference of opinion about whether the coming of the Lord will be accompanied by both the saints who died before his second advent and the angels. It seems evident from scripture that this will indeed be the case:
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matt. 24:31).
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works (Matt. 16:27; cf. 1 Thess. 3:13; Rev. 14:16–20).
That the saints who died before the coming of the Lord will accompany him is clearly indicated in Revelation 19:11–14:
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
That the saints will accompany Christ is also suggested by the reign of the saints with Christ in glory during this entire dispensation (Rev. 20).
The Purpose of Christ’s Coming
As to the purpose of the coming of Christ on the clouds of heaven, first, he will come to raise all the dead in order that they may appear before him in judgment. Both the righteous and the wicked will be raised:
Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (John 5:28–29).
Second, in close connection with the preceding, Christ will come in order to pass judgment upon all and to reward everyone according as his work shall be:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10).
And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be (Rev. 22:12).
Third, the purpose of this final coming of the Lord is to make all things new, to redeem the creature from the bondage of corruption, and to cause it to participate in the glorious liberty of the children of God:
For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:19–21; cf. Eph. 1:10; 2 Pet. 3:10–13).
Fourth, the purpose of Christ’s final coming is to gather all the elect into the glory of the eternal inheritance, where the tabernacle of God will be with men, and to cast the devil and his angels and all the wicked into everlasting desolation (Rev. 21:1–4, 27; Rev. 20:15).
HERMAN HOEKSEMA
Reformed Dogmatics, Chap. 45, 2 vols., vol. 2, pp. 570-680
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Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2023 23:21:43 GMT -5
CHOSEN BY GRACE
This doctrine is of fundamental importance and of great practical significance.
Quite properly, it has been called the cor ecclesiae, the heart of the church. The whole system of the doctrine of salvation by grace is built on it as its foundation, stands or falls with this truth. If you deny or distort this basic truth, you may, perhaps, inconsistently continue to speak of salvation by grace for a time, but ultimately you will surely lose all the great doctrines of salvation. Deny it, and you cannot maintain the truth of total depravity: for if to some extent you present salvation as contingent upon the will and choice of the sinner, you must ascribe to him some remnant of goodness in virtue of which he is able to make the right determination and choice. Refuse to accept the doctrine of sovereign election, and you must ultimately deny the truth of vicarious atonement. For if Christ's death is substitutional, those for whom He died are certainly justified and reconciled to God. But it is evident that all men are not saved. Hence, you must choose between two alternatives: Christ represented the elect, or in His death He did not really pay for the sins of those for whom He died. Election and vicarious atonement are inseparably connected. The same is true of the relation of election and all the blessings of salvation which are bestowed on us in Christ Jesus our Lord, of calling and faith, of justification and sanctification, of hopc and love, of preservation and perseverance. Either these are all blessings of grace, and then they flow from sovereign election; or they depend upon the will and work of man, and then they are not of grace. The doctrine of election is of central importance for the whole system of the truth of salvation.
But this truth is also of immense practical significance. It is the indispensable condition for all true religion. For all true religion is God-centered. And this is true only of that religion that has its ultimate source in God's sovereign election. For it alone confesses that God is all and that man is absolutely nothing. There remains nothing for man to boast. All his own goodness, good will, works, religion, piety are cast into the dust as having no value before God. For we are saved according as we are chosen. And we are chosen, not because we distinguished ourselves from others, not because of any goodness or willingness on our part, but solely because it pleased God to distinguish us, and only by grace. God is all! We bring nothing to Him, He gives all to us. We have nothing to boast. Let Him that glorieth glory in the Lord!
Besides, this doctrine affords us unspeakable consolation and is the source of all true comfort and assurance. It dare not be objected to this doctrine that this truth offers no comfort to poor sinners: for nothing could be farther from the truth. True, this doctrine has no consolation for the impenitent wicked. But we ask: is there any form of presentation of the gospel that could possibly comfort the wicked and ungodly? There is no peace, saith my God, for the wicked! But is there a more comforting gospel than that of God's gracious election for the penitent, the seeking soul, the hungry and thirsty, the weary and heavy laden? He may be assured that he will be received and be saved: for his penitence, seeking, hunger and thirst, are the fruit of electing grace. Moreover, when we look about us in the world, full of confusion and madness, of corruption and apostasy, is there any assurance anywhere, except in the truth of God's sovereign election, that His work shall not fail, that His church shall surely be gathered, and His kingdom shall be established and manifested in glory? Salvation is of the Lord: it shall surely be accomplished even unto the end! Let all the powers of darkness rave and rage and rise up against the living God and His Anointed, we know that even their ravings and fury can only be subservient and conducive to the realization of God's sovereign purpose of salvation. The gates of all hell cannot overwhelm the church! Nothing can separate us fromthe love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!
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Post by Admin on Jul 24, 2023 23:49:46 GMT -5
REFORMED DOGMATICS
The sixth Locus: Eschatology
Chapter 46 – The Resurrection of the Dead (1/2)
The General Resurrection and the Resurrection of Believers
When we speak of the resurrection of the dead, we must bear in mind that a distinction must be made between the general resurrection and the resurrection of the believers. There is indeed a resurrection of the dead unto death, as is evident from John 5:28–29. Of this general resurrection the Belgic Confession speaks:
And then all men will personally appear before this great Judge, both men and women and children, that have been from the beginning of the world to the end thereof, being summoned by the voice of the archangel and by the sound of the trumpet of God. For all the dead shall be raised out of the earth, and their souls joined and united with their proper bodies in which they formerly lived.[1]
The wicked, as well as the righteous, will be raised from the dust of the earth, but only to receive the body of corruption that is adapted to be cast into the pool of fire (Rev. 20:13–15). The bodies of the wicked will indeed be changed. As the bodies of believers will be adapted to heavenly glory, so the bodies of the wicked will be adapted to eternal desolation.
The Word Resurrection in Scripture
Scripture speaks of the resurrection of the dead in more than one sense. It speaks of a spiritual resurrection through regeneration and effectual calling:
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live (John 5:21–25).
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light (Eph. 5:14).
Scripture mentions a resurrection immediately after death when the soul of the believer enters into the glory of paradise in the house of many mansions (John 14:1–4; Rev. 20:4, 6).
Scripture also speaks of the resurrection of the body, together with the change of the then-living believers, which will occur at the coming of the Lord (1 Thess. 4:15–17).
These various forms of the resurrection imply deliverance from the power of death and an entrance into life through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the final sense, the resurrection of the dead is the wonder of grace whereby the God of our salvation calls our mortal bodies out of the dust of death through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, in order to make them like unto the glorious body of our risen Lord (Rom. 8:11).
Faith and the Resurrection
The faith that God quickens the dead must not be confused with a general philosophy about immortality or with the universalist’s notion of a general restitution or restoration (ἀποκατ στασς), but is definitely and particularly Christian. The Christian believes the glorious resurrection and looks forward to it as the object of his sure hope only because he believes in Christ crucified and raised. The two are inseparable. Only through the resurrection of Christ do we know by faith that there is a resurrection of the dead. Only because by faith we are united with Christ can we be assured that we personally will have a part in the resurrection unto eternal life. Apart from Christ and his resurrection, it is impossible to know anything about this mystery.
Hence the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 bases his argument concerning the resurrection of the dead on the fact of the resurrection of Christ; the one is inseparably linked with the other. To deny the one implies the denial of the other:
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins (vv. 12–17).
The apostle argues from the position of some in the church of Corinth that there is no resurrection of the dead and exposes the dire consequences of such a position: They who deny the resurrection of the dead deny by implication the resurrection of Christ. This is not to be understood as an argumentation from the general to the particular, as if the apostle merely meant to say, “You say that the dead rise not. Christ was dead; therefore, Christ did not rise.”
The Corinthians had not drawn the conclusion that Christ had not risen; but from their proposition, “The dead rise not,” it is evident that they had excluded Christ. The apostle wants to make them see the impossibility of their position. For this reason he argues from the effect—the resurrection of the dead—to its cause—the resurrection of Christ. The underlying idea is that the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of the dead are inseparably connected as cause and effect. The cause must produce the effect. It follows that if the alleged effect—the resurrection of the dead—is not true, then also the cause—the resurrection of Christ—must be denied. If Christ is raised, his resurrection must surely have the fruit of the resurrection of the dead.
Hence if the dead rise not, Christ is not raised. His resurrection is in principle the resurrection of the dead for all who are his. His is the sole resurrection: outside of his resurrection there is no resurrection at all, for he is the head of the body, the church, both in the forensic and in the organic sense. When he was raised from the dead, all the members of his body were raised. By his resurrection and exaltation he received the power to impart his resurrection life to all those whom the Father had given him. When he draws them unto himself by faith and unites them with himself, they receive a share in his resurrection life. This resurrection shall be perfected when he shall call forth his own from the grave and make their mortal bodies like unto his most glorious body.
This same truth may also be expressed from a different viewpoint. That God quickens the dead (Rom. 4:17) is a truth that can be apprehended only by the Christian faith. No human philosophy can ever discover or embrace this truth, because the truth that God quickens the dead is evident only from the resurrection of Christ. That God is able to raise the dead is self-evident: “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” (Acts 26:8). That he is not only able, but also willing to raise the dead, that this resurrection actually belongs to God’s eternal purpose, and that he actually does quicken the dead, has been revealed and can be known only through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
The Nature of the Final Resurrection
The question then becomes, What does scripture reveal to us concerning the mystery of the resurrection of the dead?
Scripture reveals that the dead rise and that their resurrection concerns their very person and their whole nature, body and soul. The Apostles’ Creed mentions only the resurrection of the body, the resurrection of the flesh.[2] It is good that we maintain this terminology. That the body will be quickened in the resurrection is the plain teaching of scripture. It was evident from the empty tomb and the place where Jesus had lain in the sepulchre of Joseph that the body of our Lord had been quickened.
The apostle writes in Romans 8:11: “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” In 1 Corinthians 15:35–54, the apostle asks and answers the question, “How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?” (v. 35). And Philippians 3:21 teaches that the Savior “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”
The word of God often speaks of the resurrection of the dead. In that resurrection the body will be quickened, to be sure, but the resurrection concerns our whole existence, according to both body and soul. Just as Christ was raised, so also the believers will be raised with him in glory. Just as in death the believer dies and his body is laid in the grave, while his soul is unclothed and in its bodiless state enters into the house of God in heaven, so in the resurrection the same believer is raised from the state of death. His body is quickened, and his soul is clothed with the resurrection body. The final resurrection is a glorification of the whole nature, a glorification that will enable the saints to inherit the kingdom of God in the new heavens and upon the new earth. For “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50), and the unclothed soul apart from the body cannot enter into the final and perfect inheritance of that kingdom. This must wait until the resurrection of the dead when death is swallowed up in victory (v. 54).
We may ask the question, as some do, “How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?” (v. 35). The answer is that essentially the same body that was buried will be raised from the dead. This is very plainly taught in scripture. The resurrection is not a new creation. This is evident from the resurrection body of our Lord Jesus Christ. That in his case no new body was created is evident from the vacated grave and from the fact that he could show his disciples the marks of his suffering in his hands, feet, and side (John 20:20, 27). His body was indeed completely changed and glorified, but it was nevertheless essentially the same body in which he sojourned on the earth in the days of his flesh and in which he was crucified and stored away in Joseph’s tomb.
This is corroborated by the teaching of all scripture, especially 1 Corinthians 15:42–44:
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
In this passage the identity of the body that is buried and the body that is raised is plainly taught. The subject remains the same. The body that is sown is also raised. The figure of sowing is based on the same idea. When one sows wheat, he expects to harvest wheat. This is indeed a profound mystery, and we will never be able to understand it from any natural causes or processes: it is a wonder of grace. It belongs to those things that lie beyond the scope of our comprehension: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).
When we consider what becomes of our bodies in physical death—how they literally return to the dust whence they were taken, so that even their very substances become part of other bodies, and if we contemplate how many bodies of believers were never buried, but were drowned in the depths of the sea, cut to pieces, or burned at the stake and their ashes blown to the four winds of heaven—the resurrection becomes utterly inconceivable to us. It would seem easier, perhaps, to think of the resurrection as a new creation. Yet God will bring again all those bodies and unite them with their proper souls. He is the one who calls the things that are not as if they were and quickens the dead. He is God, and he becomes known as God exactly in performing wondrous things. Always his way is in the sea. The things that are impossible with man are possible with him. He who raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit who dwells in us (Rom. 8:11). Essentially, then, the body that is raised is the same as the body that was buried.
This raises the question, What belongs to the essence of a human body? We indeed say that the body of the resurrection will be essentially the same as the present body, but for the rest it will nevertheless be wholly different from the body of the flesh. This is also very plain from Holy Writ. Hence the question, What belongs to the essence of a resurrected human body?
To this question we may suggest a fivefold answer.
HERMAN HOEKSEMA
Reformed Dogmatics, 2 vols. vol.2, 581-587
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Post by Admin on Jul 25, 2023 16:47:24 GMT -5
REFORMED DOGMATICS
Herman Hoeksema
THE SIXTH LOCUS – ESCHATOLOGY
Chapter 46 – The Resurrection of the Dead
PART 2 OF 2
• The Resurrection Body: A Material Body
• The Resurrection Body: A Human Body
• The Resurrection Body: An Individual Body
• The Resurrection Body: A Glorified Body
• The Resurrection Body: A Spiritual Body
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The Resurrection Body: A Material Body
First, to the essence of a human body belongs the fact that it is material. A spiritual substance is not a body. Although we cannot visualize the form of angels, they apparently have no material body. God made his angels spirits. The resurrection body will undoubtedly be material. When the apostle in 1 Corinthians 15:44 speaks of a spiritual body, he does not use the word in the sense of immaterial. The word spiritual is not employed in distinction from and in contrast with material, but in distinction from natural or, according to the original, psychical.
Although the body of the resurrection is material, it is not of the same kind of matter as that of our present bodies. Our present bodies are flesh and blood, and the apostle plainly teaches that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God (v. 50). Besides, the apostle teaches:
All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory (vv. 39–41).
However, what is essentially the same matter can nevertheless assume different forms. The seed of the tulip is essentially the same as the bulb that finally develops. Ice, water, and steam are the same matter, but they all appear in different forms. So it is also with the body of the resurrection. It is essentially the same as the body that is stored away in the grave, but in the resurrection it appears in an entirely different form. It is not the body of flesh and blood that cannot inherit the kingdom of God; yet it is a material body, that is, essentially the same as the body that was interred at death.
The Resurrection Body: A Human Body
Second, the body of the resurrection, like the body that was buried, is a human body. Through the resurrection, man is not changed into a different being: always he remains man. Through the resurrection, through all the changes to which man is subject—sin, death, regeneration, the intermediate state in heaven, as well as the final resurrection—man remains man. This implies that he is a rational, moral creature. His nature is such that he is adapted to bear the image of God. This is true of man’s spirit and soul. To that soul belongs a body that can serve as its instrument and can reflect the image of God. It is impossible that a human soul could function through the body of an animal. Therefore, the body of the resurrection that is reunited with the soul is an essentially human body, a body that is capable of serving as an instrument to express and reflect the image of God in the new creation. No doubt it will reflect that image in a far higher sense and with a far greater glory than was reflected through the earthly body of the first man Adam. Essentially, this makes no difference. God predestinated his people “to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). The body of the resurrection must serve the reflection of his likeness.
The Resurrection Body: An Individual Body
Third, to the resurrection body belongs individuality, which is undoubtedly preserved through death and resurrection. Individuality is that which distinguishes one’s own body from all other human bodies. All men have the same human nature in common. Wherever you meet man, you experience no difficulty in recognizing him in distinction from other creatures; yet among the millions of men there are no two alike; each man has his own individuality. The glory of God enables him to create millions upon millions of variations in the same nature. The individual characteristics that distinguish men from one another belong to the body as well as to the soul. There can be no doubt that to each individual belongs his proper body; the soul of one could not possibly function in the body of another. As the personal identity and individuality of the soul will be preserved through death and in the glory of our heavenly house, so the body will appear in the resurrection with its own individual characteristics. Each soul will be reunited with its proper body.
Without entering into all kinds of irrelevant questions, on the basis of Holy Writ we may say still more about the resurrection body. Although it will be essentially the same as our present body, it will nevertheless be radically different in form. In the resurrection body we will bear the image of sinless, perfected man, while now we bear the image of sinful man. Further, in the resurrection body we will manifest the image of the heavenly, while now we bear the image of the earthly. Through the wonder of the resurrection, our vile or humiliated bodies will be made like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is evident from 1 Corinthians 15, which explains not only the identity of our present body with the body of the resurrection, but also the difference between the two. Through the resurrection of our body, we are delivered from all the effects of sin and death: “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power” (vv. 42–43).
The Resurrection Body: A Glorified Body
Fourth, our resurrection bodies will be glorified, in contrast to our present bodies, which are “in corruption.” In the sphere of corruption they exist. From within they are corruptible; from without they are subject to the forces of corruption. In our present world, which exists under the curse, several forces of corruption destroy the organism of our body. All kinds of tiny bacterial organisms find their way from without into our lungs and bloodstream and disintegrate the body. To them our present body is subject, for the body is corruptible. It cannot successfully resist their destroying power. Even the science of medicine, bent upon discovering these disease germs and counteracting their corrupting influence in the body, in last analysis stands helpless against them. It is impossible to fight death. This process of corruption has its inception at birth; in corruption we are born, and to the forces of corruption we are subject from the moment we enter into the world. The process continues during our whole earthly life: dying we die. In many different diseases the process of death reveals itself in various ways. It is finally completed when the body gives up the struggle against these forces of destruction and is entrusted to the grave, where the word of God, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen. 3:19), is literally fulfilled. In the sphere of corruption we are brought into the world. In that sphere we exist as long as we live in the present body. Corruption we breathe; corruption we eat and drink; and the process of corruption is consummated at death. The body is sown in corruption.
However, the body is raised in incorruption. The body of the resurrection is subject to these powers of corruption no more. It is immune. It has the victory over them all. It is incorruptible. In the kingdom of God, there is no power of corruption from without. The inheritance that is reserved in heaven for us is incorruptible and undefiled and fades never away (1 Pet. 1:4). There will be no disease germs in the eternal kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth. In the sphere of incorruption, in which no one will ever say any more, “I am sick,” the body will be raised. The resurrection body will be made like unto the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is beyond the possibility of corruption. Corruption can reach it no more. In the resurrection, death has no dominion; it can never enter there in any form. Hence, “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:4).
Moreover, the body is sown in weakness, but is raised in power (1 Cor. 15:43). In part this is already implied in the corruptibility of our present bodies and the incorruptibility of the body of the resurrection. Yet scripture expresses this idea from a slightly different viewpoint. Our present bodies have only limited strength, and they must succumb to death, even apart from the forces of corruption that violently destroy them. The measure of that strength is threescore and ten or fourscore years “(Ps. 90:10). As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth” (Ps. 103:15). Indeed, when the blasting wind passes over that flower, it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But even when the hot wind does not violently break its tender stem, it cannot last. For a while it blooms, but its vitality is limited. Soon it loses its beauty and withers away.
So it is with man in his present state. The strength of his physical organism is limited, and there is nothing to renew it. In the first paradise Adam might eat from the tree of life and perpetuate his existence, constantly replenishing and refreshing his power, not only according to the soul, but also according to the body. Nevertheless, from that tree of life man was separated. In the present world there is neither a tree of life nor a fountain of youth by which man may renew his strength. He is like a candle that burns itself out. For a while he may appear in youthful strength, but soon he begins to bend under the burden of years, and he inclines toward the grave. The evil days come, and the years draw nigh in which he says, “I have no pleasure in them” (Eccl. 12:1). The sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain. The keepers of the house tremble. The strong men bow themselves. The grinders cease because they are few. Those who look out of the window are darkened. The doors are shut in the streets. The sound of the grinding is low. He rises up at the voice of the bird. All the daughters of music are brought low. He is afraid of that which is high. Fears are in the way. The almond tree flourishes. The grasshopper is a burden, and desire fails. All this reveals the weakness of the body and leads to the day when the silver cord is loosed, the golden bowl is broken, the pitcher is broken at the fountain, the wheel is broken at the cistern, and the dust returns unto the earth (vv. 2–7).
Our earthly house (2 Cor. 5:1) collapses over our heads, for it is sown in weakness. But it is raised in power (1 Cor. 15:43). The body of the resurrection will never be wanting in strength. It will draw from a source of unlimited power and vitality. It will not gradually deteriorate, but it will renew its youth like the eagles (Isa. 40:31). Always there will be strength for the task. Just as in the resurrection no one will ever say, “I am sick,” so no one will ever complain of being weary or exhausted. The source of this ever-renewed and ever-youthful strength is the risen Lord through his Spirit. With him the risen saints will be united. From him, the Son of God, they will draw their power. In everlasting youth they will stand in the house of God, to serve him day and night.
Further, while the present body is characterized by dishonor, it will be raised in glory. The body of sinful man is now without its original glory and beauty. No longer is it an instrument for the reflection of the image of God, as it was in paradise. Sin and death, corruption and disease have left their marks on its appearance. As an instrument of unrighteousness it is in dishonor. It is fundamentally ugly. The truth of this becomes increasingly apparent as old age approaches. By many artificial means, men (and especially women) attempt to give their bodies a superficial beauty. Even the repulsiveness of the dead body in the coffin is covered to an extent by the undertaker’s art. But all these attempts are vain. By all these superficial attempts to beautify the body, we know and confess that it is sown in dishonor. All of our aprons of fig leaves cannot hide the fact that our bodies have lost their original beauty and glory.
But through the wonder of the resurrection, the body will attain to everlasting glory. All the effects of sin and death will be erased from its appearance, and it will be clothed with a perfection of beauty that is far greater than the glory it enjoyed in the original state of rectitude. It will be made like unto the most glorious body of Christ. The image of the heavenly it will reflect, as an everlasting instrument of righteousness and holiness. It will serve the manifestation of the likeness of the Son of God. It will be raised in glory.
The Resurrection Body: A Spiritual Body
Fifth, the apostle in 1 Corinthians 15 mentions one more distinction between the present body and the body of the resurrection: “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” (v. 44).
As we have mentioned before, the idea of “a spiritual body” must not be understood in opposition to a material body, nor is this the meaning of the text in the original, in which “spiritual” stands over against “natural.” The literal rendering of the word translated “natural” is psychical. Our present body is psychical, namely, it is adapted to serve as the instrument of our present earthly soul. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7).
Through his present body man lives an earthly life. He is strictly limited to the earthly sphere of existence. He has an earthly eye, and perceives only earthly things. He has an earthly ear to catch only earthly sounds. He is bound to the earth and craves food and drink. He cannot perceive or have direct communion with spiritual realities. Heavenly things are hid from him. Even as far as he can know about them and apprehend them in his present, earthly, psychical state, he can do so only through the means of earthly symbols. Through the hearing of the word with our physical ear, we know God, fellowship with him, and apprehend spiritual and heavenly things. But that word addresses us in earthly terms. On the earthly plane of our present psychical existence, God reveals himself to us. In anthropomorphistic symbols he speaks to us concerning himself. We cannot see him face-to-face. Even the risen Lord in his glorious body had to appear to his disciples in order to convince them of the reality of the resurrection. Angels and heavenly things lie beyond the scope of our experience. We have an earthly soul, and in our psychical body we live an earthly life. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard” things spiritual and heavenly (1 Cor. 2:9). We walk not by sight, but by faith, the evidence of things not seen, the substance of things hoped for (2 Cor. 5:7; Heb. 11:1). Such is the implication of what the apostle calls a natural or psychical body.
The body of the resurrection will be spiritual, which means that it will be wholly subservient to our glorified spirit and to the indwelling Spirit of Christ. In the resurrection body we will be able to inherit the kingdom of God, which flesh and blood cannot inherit. In that new and eternal kingdom we shall see God face-to-face; we will behold Christ and always be with him, and we will have direct contact and fellowship with heavenly things. With new eyes we will see the things that are now unseen. With spiritual ears we will apprehend the things that are now beyond the scope of our hearing:
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:44–54).
Such is the glory of the spiritual body of the resurrection.
The resurrection, therefore, is the reunion of the glorified spirits of the saints with their glorified bodies in the heavenly sphere of incorruption, power, glory, immortality, and spiritual things, to inherit the kingdom of God.
HERMAN HOEKSEMA
Reformed Dogmatics, Chap. 46, 2 vols., vol. 2, pp. 581-587
Next: Chapter 47 – The Final Judgment
PART 1 OF 3
• The Final Judgment Defined
• The Final Judgment in the Old Testament
• The Final Judgment in the New Testament
• The Nature of the Final Judgment
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Post by Admin on Jul 28, 2023 10:18:42 GMT -5
WONDER OF GRACE
CHAPTER 5 – REGENERATED BY GRACE
... Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. - John 3:3
When the scion, or branch, of a fruit tree is grafted upon the trunk of another tree, the very first result of that organic union is that the nature and life of the tree begins to impart itself to the ingrafted scion. This first result is quite hid from our view. It is a mysterious operation. In fact, for a time the very opposite may present itself to the observing eye of the husbandman. It may appear as if the ingrafted shoot is dying because of the operation, and whatever buds or sprouts appeared on it before the ingrafting may wither. Yet the fact is, if the grafting is successful, that the ingrafted twig receives the beginning of a new life by virtue of its union with the trunk.
The same is true of the sinner who is united with Christ. He is a branch of the wild tree of the guilty and corrupt human race. He has a wild nature and brings forth wild and corrupt fruit. And Christ is that new, cultivated trunk, the root of a new tree. When that dead and wild sinner is united with, ingrafted into Christ, the very first result of that union is that the new nature and life of Christ is imparted to that corrupt sinner. He is principally renewed. Spiritually he has become another man. Also this principal change may not become at once apparent. He may not at once become conscious of the profound change that is wrought within him. Perhaps he does not come immediately to repentance and conscious faith. But the fact is there: if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new! (II Corinthians 5: 17)
This first and profound change the Scriptures call the rebirth, or the regeneration, of the sinner. Frequently and in different ways the Bible refers to this rebirth. Of those who have received power to become the sons of God John writes: "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1: 13) This implies nothing less than that the rebirth is that exclusively divine work whereby God imparts His own nature to us, so that we become like Him, as His sons. To Nicodemus the Savior says: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3: 3) This clearly teaches us that regeneration is the absolutely indispensable condition for all spiritual activity. Before a man is regenerated, he can do nothing positive in regard to the spiritual things of the kingdom of God. In I Peter 1: 3 the apostle writes that we have been begotten again unto a lively hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and that, too, according to the abundant mercy of God. And in verse 23 of the same chapter we read that we are "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." In his first epistle the apostle John frequently emphasizes that believers are born of God. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (I John 3:9) And: "If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him." (I John 2:29) And once more: "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not." (I John 5: 18) Hence, believers are frequently called children of God, not only in the juridical sense so that they are adopted to be sons of God, but also in the spiritual sense, according to which they partake of the divine nature and are conformed according to the image of His Son. This change is so fundamental that one who is in Christ is called a new creation. (II Corinthains 5: 17) And it is nothing less than the resurrection from the dead: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. " (John 5: 25)
Now what is this marvelous work of grace that is called the rebirth or regeneration of the sinner? Is it something like a moral reformation, the building of character, the making of a better moral man? Is it the same as conversion? Does regeneration in any sense depend upon man's choice? Does the sinner in any way or to any degree cooperate in his own regeneration? These are important questions: for on our answer to them depends the true conception of salvation by grace only.
In general we may state, as is abundantly evident from all the passages of Scripture which we quoted, that regeneration is that wonderful work of God's grace whereby the sinner is raised from spiritual death to spiritual life in principle. Without entering into a detailed exposition let us note the following main points:
First of all, regeneration, or rebirth, reminds us forcibly that by virtue of his first birth man is dead. He is born dead. For why should the Scriptures otherwise emphasize that he must be born again? Or how otherwise could the Bible speak of this first change of the sinner as resurrection? Besides, that the sinner is dead in sin the Word of God abundantly testifies. Now what does it mean that the natural man is dead? It surely does not mean that he does not possess natural life or that through sin he changed into a different being. That he lives in a natural sense is evident: for he moves about in this world and accomplishes many mighty works. He thinks and wills, he plans and plots, he discovers and invents, he sees and hears and speaks and acts and reacts upon the world about him. But spiritually, that is in relation to God and all that is good, he is dead. His whole nature is corrupt. Sin is not a matter of the deed alone. If this were the case, he would need education and reformation. But spiritual death means that the very nature of the sinner is corrupt. His mind is darkened, so that he cannot discern the good. His will is perverse and obdurate, so that he cannot choose the good. All his inclinations are impure and defiled, so that he cannot have his delight in the good. But spiritual death means still more. The sinner is not a stock and block that is entirely passive, inactive. He is much worse. For, his heart, whence are the issues of life, being corrupt, his mind being darkened, and his will being perverse, he hates that which is good and loves the darkness rather than the light. With respect to the gospel and the things of the kingdom of God, this means that the natural man lacks the power, the faculty, to discern them. He has no eye to see, no ear to hear, no mind to discern, no will to long and to choose for them. He cannot accept Christ, and no amount of persuasion can induce him to accept Christ. He cannot hunger and thirst for righteousness. On the contrary, in that natural condition he will always react against the gospel, resist the Holy Spirit, and reject the Christ of God. Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
But, secondly, we must make one more observation regarding the state of the natural man. He is not only dead in sin; he is also earthy. He was taken from the dust of the earth, and to the earth he is related and bound. This does not mean that Adam in his state of rectitude did not love God and seek His glory in all things. But it does imply that the heavenly things, those things which eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard, and which have never arisen in the heart of man, were hid from him, too. Hence, even if the natural man were not dead in sin, he is still earthly and would still have to receive new powers in order to discern the heavenly things of God's kingdom and aspire after them. This, too, is presupposed in regeneration: for let us remember that the new birth is resurrection; and resurrection is not a return to a former life, but the raising to a higher, heavenly level of life.
In the third place, regeneration is that change in man which empowers him to see and to seek the kingdom of God. It is not the same as conversion, and it must not be confused with it. In conversion man is active: he begins to use the power and faculties which are given him in regeneration. He becomes conscious of the new life. He repents, confesses, turns about, hungers and thirsts after the bread and water of life, believes and embraces Christ and all His benefits, flees from sin and pursues after the good. But this is not the new birth itself, but it is the activity of the spiritually newborn babe. When a child is born, it is active: it cries and moves and kicks and seeks mother's breast and takes nourishment. But the faculties and powers to do all these things that child received in its conception and birth. The same is true of the reborn sinner. He is a newborn babe in a spiritual sense. He must be born again before he can act. He must have eyes before he can see, ears before he can hear, a spiritual faculty before he can discern, a new will before he can long for and accept the things of the kingdom of God. He must have the power of faith before he can believe, the gift of repentance before he can repent; and the love of God must be spread abroad in his heart before he can respond in love. This power is instilled into the heart of the sinner in the new birth, or regeneration. In regeneration God, by the efficacy of the Spirit, "opens the closed, and softens the hardened heart, and circumcises that which was uncircumcised, infuses new qualities into the will, which though heretofore dead, he quickens; from being evil, disobedient, and refractory, he renders it good, obedient, and pliable; actuates and strengthens it, that like a good tree, it may bring forth the fruits of good actions." (Canons of Dordrecht, III, IV, 11) By grace are ye saved, through faith, and that, (that is, that power of faith), not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Moreover, this new birth is a birth from above. It is resurrection.
A new principle of life is instilled into our hearts by the wonder of regeneration. And this new life is not earthly, but heavenly; it is not from below, but from above. It is a beginning of the resurrection; it is a principle of the resurrection-life of Christ Himself! Hence, through regeneration we are empowered not only to seek after righteousness but to aspire after the heavenly things of the kingdom of God. In virtue of that new life, we become principally strangers and pilgrims in the earth, and seekers of the city that hath foundations, whose builder and artificer is God.
In the fourth place, in view of all that has been said about the new birth, it should be perfectly evident that it is a sovereign work of God pure and simple, a work in which the sinner himself has no part whatever, in which he does not in any sense cooperate with God, but in which man is wholly passive. It is important that this be emphasized in order to maintain the truth of salvation by grace only. All the more important this is, in view of the fact that in our day this truth is usually distorted and misrepresented. Those who insist on presenting salvation as contingent upon man's will do not know what to make of this new birth, though they often speak of it. Rebirth as a new creation, or as resurrection from the dead, has no place in their conception of salvation. Hence, they make of regeneration something which depends upon the will of the sinner. If man will only accept Christ, he will be regenerated. They offer to the sinner regeneration! They plead with him and beg him to be regenerated! But this is absurd. As well might a man go to the cemetery and beg the dead to come out of their graves! For no more than Adam cooperated in his own creation, and no more than Lazarus cooperated in his own resurrection, no more does the sinner cooperate with God in his own regeneration. It is a work of God alone, without our help. For "this is the regeneration so highly celebrated in Scripture, and denominated a new creation: a resurrection from the dead, a making alive, which God works in us without our aid. But this is in no wise effected merely by the external preaching of the gospel, by moral suasion, or such a mode of operation, that after God has performed his part, it still remains in the power of man to be regenerated or not, to be converted or to continue unconverted; but it is evidently a supernatural work, most powerful, and at the same time most delightful, astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable; not inferior in efficacy to creation, or the resurrection from the dead." (Canons of Dordrecht III, IV, 12)
In the fifth place, this truth is of great practical significance. For, first of all, this work being absolutely the work of God, in which the sinner is wholly passive, it is evident that there is no age limit to those who may become the recipients of this wonderful blessing of grace. The most hardened sinner, though he be hoary with age, may be regenerated; but also the infant at his mother's breast may receive this grace of God. In fact, there is good reason to believe that within the sphere of the church God usually regenerates the seed of the covenant in their early infancy. Not only, is there no reason to despair of their salvation if they die in infancy, even though they never heard the gospel; but this truth also requires of us as a church, and as parents, that we bring up our children in the sphere of the gospel and instruct them in the fear of the Lord from their earliest childhood. On mother's breast the child may learn to stammer his prayer; on mother's lap he must be instructed in the first knowledge of the gospel. And as he grows older, he must consistently be instructed in the Word of God, not only in the home, and in the church, but also in the school. Christian instruction is not only a calling: it is also a possibility, thanks be to God and His wonderful work of the new birth!
Secondly, this marvelous mystery of the new birth being wholly of divine authorship, we may rest assured that it can never be lost or undone. It might be destroyed as far as we are concerned: for how often we sin and make ourselves unworthy of the grace of God! But God never changes. Once regenerated is always regenerated. For let us remember that this work of grace is wrought by the God of our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is the first fruit of our being united with Him. It is only in union with Him that we receive this new principle of life. But even after we are reborn we do not possess the new life in ourselves. It is always in Christ, and out of Christ it constantly flows into our hearts by the indwelling Spirit. It remains dependent upon our union with the Savior. But this is exactly why it is safe and secure. For He will never leave us. And nothing can ever separate us from His love! The gifts of God are without repentance!
HERMAN HOEKSEMA
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Post by Tumbleweed on Jul 30, 2023 22:58:20 GMT -5
WHAT THE TRUE CHILDREN OF ABRAHAM ARE
The true children of Abraham are called by different names. One name is Israelites. For a true understanding of this and the following two chapters, it is of interest to us to notice the peculiar signification of the term Israel in the text. It has been stated by some that when the apostle in this and the following two chapters speaks of the children of Israel, the term always
means the nation of Israel, the Jews. In verse 6 we already have a plain proof that this is not correct. We read, “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel.” Try reading it this way: “They
are not all Jews, which are of Israel.” That would be absurd. Of course they were all Jews. Already in the text, therefore, we have the proof that the apostle is not speaking of the nation of Israel. He is speaking of the true Israel, that is, spiritual Israel, the people of God. He is speaking of the true children of God, of Israel in the true, spiritual sense of the word.
The true children of Abraham are also called the seed. They are called the seed of Abraham. We read that not the children of the flesh are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. The children of the promise are designated as the seed of Abraham. The true seed of Abraham is Christ. The true children of Abraham, therefore, are
they who are in Christ.
Abraham’s seed are also called children of the promise. The promise in Scripture is always the same. It takes on different forms, but the promise, as to its content, is always the messianic salvation. As to the form of the promise, it is the Word of God, who cannot lie and who is faithful, true, and powerful to realize the promise. God will surely realize His promise.
Nothing can resist His will. When God promises something, He does what He promises, for He is faithful, true, and mighty.
When we read children of the promise [in v. 8], we must not understand “children to whom the promise was made.” Nor does the expression mean “the promised children.” The phrase children of the promise must be interpreted the same way as the phrase children of the flesh. Children of the flesh are children that are born of the flesh, that are born through the instrumentality of the flesh. Likewise, children of the promise are children that are born through the power of the promise. They are children in whom God works with almighty power so that they are, as it were, brought forth by the promise. God brings them forth through the power of the promise by realizing His Word of promise in them. The promise is their mother. They are the children of the promise. That was Isaac, and Isaac was a type of all children of the promise.
Therefore, the true children of Abraham are also called the children of God. Children of God are children to whom God gives the right to be His children through the adoption. They are children, too, in the sense that they are born of God. They have received of Him His own divine life. They are the true children of Abraham.
In the old dispensation all the children of God were for a time Israelites. Don’t turn this around. Not all Israelites were children of God, but all the children of God were for a time
Israelites. All horses are animals, but all animals are not horses. All the children of God were for a time Israelites because they came in the line of the generations of Israel. This is the one
truth. The other truth is that Abraham could not bring forth children of the promise; he could not bring forth children of God.
The same is true today. All the children of God are the seed of believers. I do not say that other believers cannot come in, but the children of God come in the line of the generations of believers. The Word of God to Abraham, “I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed,” is true today. This is why we have our Baptism Form. This is why we are proud of our seed. This is why we have as many children as possible. This is why we have nothing to do with the damnable practice of birth control.
But we cannot bring forth children of God. Abraham could not. Abraham could bring forth only children of Abraham.
And Abraham was a child of Adam. Abraham could bring forth only children of damnation. He could not bring forth children of God any more than he could bring forth Isaac. Abraham could only bring forth Ishmael. But the almighty promise of God works in the line of the generations of His people, and they bring forth children of God. —Herman Hoeksema
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