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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 13:29:13 GMT -5
And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able to admonish one another. Rom. 15:14 Full of goodness!
Amazing fruit of God’s marvelous grace!
For such it is, indeed! Fruit of the wonderful grace of Him, Who quickeneth the dead and calleth the things that are not as if they were, is this goodness of which the Church of the Lord Jesus is said to be full.
And in order to see a little of the wonder of it, just recall whence this same Church, that is full of goodness and filled with all knowledge, sprung, from what mire of iniquity it was lifted, from what power of corruption it was delivered, from what dominion of death it was liberated, out of what darkness of the lie and perversion it was called.
The apostle has now reached the end of this glorious epistle. And now he may write that he is deeply convinced that the Church is full of goodness and filled with all knowledge, so that they are able to admonish one another. But return for a moment to the beginning of this same letter, in order to bring back to your mind the picture that was drawn there of the natural man as he is in the power of sin and under the dominion of corruption, of whom it was said that he is filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; and that he is full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; that he is a whisperer, backbiter, hater of God, despiteful, proud, a boaster, an inventor of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, a covenant breaker, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; who not only delights in his own iniquity, but also has pleasure in them that wallow in the mire of sin….
Filled with evil!
And now: full of goodness, filled with all knowledge!
Tremendous contrast! Amazing change!
And how was it affected? What may be the cause of this radical turning about?
There is but one answer: Grace!
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ took hold of that darkened mind and enlightened it, entered into that evil heart and cleansed it, emptied it of all badness and filled it with goodness.
Wonderful grace!
Full of goodness!
Filled with all knowledge!
Goodness is not to be understood here in the limited sense of beneficence and charitableness, of being good, kind to one another. This is certainly included, is one of the fruits and manifestations of goodness, even as maliciousness is an inevitable expression of badness. Yet, there is no reason to limit the word in this way. Bather must we understand it in its broad meaning and all its implications, in its ethical sense as referring to moral perfection and virtue.
Goodness, not in opposition to unkindness, but as the opposite of badness.
It is rooted in love.
For love is the bond of perfectness. Love, not as the love of those that love us, neither in the natural sense as the bond of blood relations, but in the proper and deep sense of the love of God. For God is love, and all love is of God. He is its Fountain, its eternal spring. And in Him as the highest, as the only Good, love is eternally love of God. For He loves Himself as the infinitely perfect One, and all things for His own name’s sake. Love Is always of God, from God, to God. Prom Him it proceeds also into our ‘hearts, and to Him it returns. And as love of God it embraces all the brethren, the children that are born of Him and reveal His image. And whether as love of God to Him, or as love of God to one another, always it is the bond of perfectness. It loves God. And, therefore, it loves the light. For God is light. In darkness it cannot dwell. Even as we walk In the light, in the light of God, do we love one another!
This love is the principle of all goodness.
Without it there is no goodness. From it all goodness springs. Upon this love as Its root it flourishes. Even as from the root of hatred of God and enmity against him springs all wickedness, so love beautifully blossoms forth and bears fruit in all manner of goodness. Love rejoices in the truth, never in the lie; it delights In righteousness and abhors all unrighteousness; it brings forth fruit unto holiness, the fear of the Lord, wisdom and understanding, humility and meekness, patience and longsuffering, faithfulness and truth, peace and mercy, kindness, purity, obedience, and whatever other goodnesses there may be.
And it reveals Itself antithetically in this world.
For, the goodness of love, of the love of God, manifests itself as a delight in God, a holy zeal to glorify Him, to keep His precepts and thus to be pleasing in His sight; and, therefore, as sorrow over sin and hatred of all unrighteousness. It seeks the good of Zion, it loves the brother, it esteems the other better than oneself. It speaks the truth in love, is kind, merciful, forbearing, forgiving. . . .
Full of goodness!
And filled with all knowledge!
Knowledge that Is knowledge indeed, is here meant. Not a knowledge that is from below, is concerned with the things of this world, but knows not God and the spiritual blessings and virtues of His kingdom; not the knowledge of natural light which is darkness spiritually, is limited by time and death, and blind to the things eternal; but spiritual knowledge and the discernment of faith, whereby spiritual things are spiritually discerned,—such is the knowledge with which the Church Is filled. It is the knowledge of the will of God and of His blessed covenant.
All knowledge!
Knowledge with regard to God and His Christ, the mystery that was hid, but that is now revealed; in whom are all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge of the will of God regarding our personal life, of body and soul and mind and will; regarding our life in every relationship, in the midst of the Church and in this present world.
Goodness and all knowledge!
Intimately they are related. Inseparably they are connected. For, in a sense knowledge is also goodness. Yet, they may be distinguished. Goodness is a matter of the heart, of the will; knowledge of the mind. Knowledge must be motivated by, rooted in goodness; goodness must be enlightened, guided by knowledge. Mere knowledge without goodness is double wickedness; goodness without knowledge is blind.
I am persuaded that you are full of goodness. . . . Filled with all knowledge!
Blessed testimony!
Full. . . . filled!
A strong statement, indeed!
Must we, perhaps, read these words as a form of hyperbole, an exaggeration, that is not literally true?
Does the apostle, perhaps use these strong terms in order to flatter the Christians at Rome? Or, if in their literal significance they were applicable to the Church at Rome, was that congregation, perhaps, an exception, so that the words cannot be generally applied to the Church of Christ in the world?
Filled and full?
Does not the real appearance of the Church of Christ in this present world gainsay this testimony? And would not every Christian, who has knowledge of himself in the light of the truth, hesitate to apply the strong words of the apostle to himself?
Indeed, also with regard to the corruption of the natural man the apostle had employed these same terms. He is filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; he is full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity. And this we readily understand. In us, that is, in our flesh there dwelleth no good thing. The heart is desperately wicked, and all the imaginations of our heart are at all times only and continually evil. No one who has come to a spiritual knowledge of his own heart by nature hesitates at all to accept this testimony of the Word of God. But can these same terms, in the same unconditional sense, also be applied to the goodness of the Church?
Is she, indeed, full of goodness?
Can it be said in truth that she is filled with all knowledge?
It would seem impossible. For it is not the natural man, but the child of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ, and delivered from the dominion of sin by the grace of His good Spirit, that complains in the seventh chapter of this same epistle, that when he would do good evil is present with him, that he does not do the good which he would, but does do the evil which he would not, that he knows, indeed, of a delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but also beholds another law in his members that wars against the law of his mind and brings him into captivity to the law of sin In his members. . . .
How, then, can it be said of that same Christian, of the Church that is composed of just such imperfect saints, that he and that it is full of goodness, filled with all knowledge?
Yet, is must needs be so!
Strange though it may appear, it could not be different. A man is either full of evil and filled with ignorance, or he is full of goodness and filled with all knowledge. Sin could not corrupt man partly; grace could not half deliver him. The corruption of sin could not leave the sinner half full of goodness; the sanctifying power of grace could not leave him half full of badness. The tree is either good or bad. The fountain brings forth either sweet water or bitter. Man is either good or bad. And always he is filled and full!
If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature!
Old things have passed away!
All things have become new!
And the reason is evident. Sin and grace are both matters of the heart of man. Sin is not a matter of habit or training or environment. It is not a gradually deforming or corrupting influence, that eats into has being, to which a man gradually yields, that slowly but surely forces him into subjection, that gradually fills him with iniquity until he is full of evil. It is death! It takes hold of the root of the tree and corrupts it. It searches out the springs of life and corrupts them. It settles in the heart of man and fills it with all badness. And if the heart is corrupt, whence are the issues of life, the whole man is full of evil!
But the same is true of grace!
Grace is not an attempt at reformation! Ah, how -vain would be the attempt to fill a man, whose heart is corrupt, with all goodness and knowledge by a process of reformation. As well might you attempt to change an ever bubbling fountain of bitter water into a refreshing spring by pouring in a cup of sweet water! As well might you try to change the skin of the Ethiopian by grafting a patch of white skin upon his body!
But grace does not reform. It quickens.
The Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ enters into a sinner’s deepest heart, the very center of his whole nature from a spiritual-ethical viewpoint, and the fountain of his whole life, takes hold of it irresistibly, and turns it radically around. Grace is resurrection! It is rebirth1! It is the change from death to life, from darkness to light, from enmity against God to the love of God, from iniquity to righteousness, from corruption to holiness, from the image of the devil into the image of God!
And he that is so changed is a new creature!
He is filled with all knowledge!
He is full of goodness, of the goodness of the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself, Who by His Spirit dwells in him!
He is not two creatures, a good and a bad. He is not half good and half bad. He is not a man with two hearts, the old and the new. In his deepest heart he is filled with goodness. And from the heart, whence are the issues of life, this goodness becomes manifest in his whole life.
His mind and will, his thoughts and desires and aspirations, his seeing and hearing and speaking, his whole life is full of the goodness of the Lord.
True, there are the old ruts of sin in his flesh.
The motions of sin are still in his members!
But even over against these he assumes a new attitude. For, he is sorry for them with a sorrow after God. He hates them. He flees from them. He abhors them. He prays against them. . . .
Full of goodness and filled with knowledge he fights against all the power of darkness, within and without.
Glorious grace!
Blessed Church of Christ!
Blessed is that Church of which it may be witnessed that she is full of goodness and filled with all knowledge.
And the members of which are thus able to admonish one another!
For, the one is dependent upon the other. The one is the fruit of the other. To be able to admonish one another we must, indeed, be full of goodness and filled with all knowledge!
For, to admonish is “to put in mind.” Such is the meaning of the word that is used here in the original. To admonish is not the same as a sentimental, empty prayer, addressed to the sinner, beseeching him with sighs and tears to leave the way of wickedness. Admonition must have contents. It must “put in mind.” And that which must be put in mind is the truth! It is instruction. And thus it shows and recommends the way of righteousness, and warns against the temptations of the flesh, the world, the devil.
And how shall we admonish one another, whether officially, in preaching and teaching, or as members of Christ’s Church mutually, unless we be filled with all knowledge and full of goodness? Both he that admonishes and he that receives the admonition must be filled with the knowledge and the love of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Know, then, Church of Christ, that you are full of goodness, filled with knowledge!
And strive after the manifestation of that fullness!
For, blessed are ye in so doing!
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 13:31:11 GMT -5
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
I John 1:8-9
This is the message!
John has a message, tidings.
For he has heard, his eyes have seen, he has looked upon, and his hands have handled that which was from the beginning, the Word of life, the Life, the eternal Life which was with the Father and is now revealed.
Therefore he has tidings.
He must speak.
And the heart of the matter, the center of the message that he with the other apostles declares to the church in the world about Him, the Life that they have seen and with their hands have touched, is that God is light and that in Him there is no darkness at all. That is what it is about. Everything is concentrated in that. From this follows everything that John has to declare. God is the eternal Good, the perfect, overflowing Fountain of all good, the True One, the Righteous One, the Holy One, the Faithful One, the Gracious One, and in Him is no wickedness, unrighteousness, or lie. There is no darkness in Him at all. He is the only Wise One, who knows and loves Himself in the light!
Therefore we must go to Him!
To the light!
Only in that light do we have fellowship with Him, and in that fellowship we share in life. For if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie. But walking in the light, we have fellowship with Him and with each other.
Walking in the light!
Also now. Also in this world. Even now while we still have only a small principle of this obedience, and in us, that is, in our flesh, dwells no good thing.
Walking in the light, also with our sins!
For if we walk with our sins in the darkness, then we say that we have no sin.
But if we walk in the light, we confess our sins.
And there in the light we find forgiveness! For He is faithful and just! With Him there is always forgiveness!
This is the message!
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Confessing our sins!
Difficult—for the flesh, impossible—a demand contrary to our sinful nature!
It means first of all, that we “say that we have sin!” Exactly the opposite of what we do when we walk in darkness. Then we say: We have no sin!
Confessing is “saying that we have sin,” not as a part of our dogmatics but as an acknowledgment of the heart. Oh, in a doctrinal sense we know it very well, and we say it easily enough: We have sin. We oppose the proponents of perfectionism who teach that the regenerated, converted, sanctified child of God is able to live without sin in this life. As Reformed believers, we find such a saying much too superficial. He who judges this way does not see deeply enough, does not know his own heart, is satisfied with the superficiality of life, does not see the evil of his corrupt flesh, and does not take sin seriously enough. He is in danger of falling into all kinds of sin. And in order to maintain the truth, we should readily call upon this text, for it plainly teaches that whoever says that he has no sin deceives himself and the truth is not in him. And we strongly oppose such a superficial saying, because even the holiest, so long as he is in this life, has but a small principle of this obedience.
No, no, we must have nothing of that superficial perfectionism!
In a doctrinal sense we say it heartily: We have sin! But oh, how completely different it so often is when this truth must be applied to us personally, when it applies to very specific sins committed by us that are pointed out with the finger, and when we come before the demand to acknowledge them, to say that we indeed have committed those concrete sins. Perhaps we have lied and slandered, or made ourselves guilty of backbiting; we have cheated and disadvantaged the neighbor; we are at variance with the brother and we do not want to yield. And God’s Word comes to us with the demand of confession. We are reminded of our sin. We are admonished. We are reminded of this word of the Scripture: If we confess our sins, but only then, do we taste the faithful God who forgives our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And we immediately set ourselves to prove that we have no sin! Or we seek to explain away our sin. Or we call attention to the brother and how he also has guilt. And so we seek all kinds of excuses to escape the trap of the truth regarding the concrete, while we so readily confess the abstract.
Our flesh never says it: I have sin!
And yet this, and nothing else, is the meaning in the word of the text. It is not just about the confession of the truth, but about the acknowledgment of personal guilt.
And in this sense confession of sin is saying that we have sin.
Saying it with God!
Confession of sin is not just a saying, a mere acknowledgment, a consent that we have sinned. Even the world can still do that. Even in the tents of wickedness you can sometimes hear the language of those who loudly proclaim their iniquities, who take pleasure in all kinds of filth, and who openly boast of things that are even shameful to speak about. One gives an open testimony to all the iniquities he commits while in fellowship with the devil!
That is the meaning of the word in the original, a word generally used in Holy Scripture, and also here for “confession.” It means: to testify with someone; to say the same thing as someone else; in this case, to say the same thing about our sins as God says.
We are in God’s covenant! We are of God’s party. We walk in the light! And so standing in God’s covenant, being in God’s party, and walking in the light, we see our sins, we acknowledge our sins, we say about our sins what God says!
Then we hate our sins as God hates them.
Then we condemn our sins as God condemns them.
Then we find ourselves damnworthy before God, as God, on account of our sins, finds us damnworthy outside of Christ. Then we long for forgiveness, as God wills to forgive our sins in Him who has loved us. Then we humble ourselves in dust and ashes.
And we cry out, “Have mercy on me, the sinner!”
We confess our sins.
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Wonderful power of the truth!
For only if the truth is in us do we ever come to the deed of confession.
We are ruled either by the truth, or by the lie.
But not by a truth or by a lie; but by the truth and by the lie.
The truth is that God is an eternally good God; that He is my God and my eternal good, that He is light and in Him is no darkness at all; that He is to be desired above all; that to love Him with all my heart and with all my soul, and with all my mind, and with all my strength is life; that His favor is better than the choicest foods, and His kindness than life; that He is to be served and thanked and praised forevermore, that only in the light can I behold light, and walking in the light can have fellowship with Him.
And the lie is diametrically opposed to this.
It is the evil, willful, spiritual- ethical denial of God as God, the refusal to say my God and my good; the attempt to say: I shall be as God; self-exaltation, enmity, rebellion against Him, the seeking of wealth far from Him; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, the love of darkness.
The lie!
By nature we are governed by that lie. It is in us, in our heart, and from our heart in our thinking and willing and desiring. It is a spiritual-ethical power that governs us from the inside out, and in a spiritual-moral sense always causes us to say: We have no sin!
And if we say that, then we deceive ourselves.
Terrible self-deception!
Unspeakably great folly of lies!
We deceive ourselves! Not God, against whom we think we can exalt ourselves; not the neighbor, against whom we have maintained our lies, saying that we have not sinned; also not ourselves in the sense that we do not know that we have sinned. The wicked shall never succeed in this. God will rise up in justice. He testifies of Himself, that He is a good God, He witnesses also in the conscience of the sinner: you have sin, you are guilty and damnworthy. But he deceives himself, because he does not want and does not seek God, and while he intends to maintain and exalt himself against God, and seeks wealth, happiness, honor, and greatness outside of God, he turns himself to the darkness, he seeks the outermost darkness, he moves himself down the road to eternal damnation, he rushes to destruction!
So it is in the absolute sense with the natural man, in whom there is no truth.
He is always governed by the lie and he deceives himself.
He always seeks his own destruction!
And so it is in a relative sense with us, with God’s regenerated children; so often they walk after the flesh.
Then they subject themselves to the power of the lie. Then they do not confess their sins. Then they say that they have no sin. Then they turn themselves unto darkness. Then they flee from the face of God. Then they seek wealth far from Him. Then they eschew the light. Then they do not find the cross; then they taste no forgiveness; then it becomes dark in the soul….
While I kept guilty silence, My strength was spent with grief, Thy hand was heavy on me, My soul found no relief.1 Yet, wonder of God’s grace! The truth is in us!
It is in our heart, a power, a spiritual propulsive-force. It controls us from within. It enlightens our minds; it converts the soul; it changes the will; it causes us to long for the light, for God, for His favor, His kindness, His righteousness; it fills us with the desire to please Him, with godly sorrow, with heartfelt repentance for our sins….
And we say that we have sin!
And we confess our sins!
And we no longer deceive ourselves, but turn to the light!
And in that light we find the faithful God, the cross, the resurrection, forgiveness, salvation, eternal peace….
But when I owned my trespass, My sin hid not from Thee, When I confessed transgression, Then Thou forgavest me. Wonderful power of truth!
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Lovely fruit!
Thou dost graciously take it away!
Completely away! For, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness!
Forgiveness and cleansing! The guilt is completely taken away—that is forgiveness! The stain of unrighteousness is completely taken away—that is cleansing! I am damnworthy and God does not damn me, for He does not impute sin to me—that is forgiveness! I am defiled and under the dominion of sin, and God liberates me—that is cleansing! I am an object of wrath, and God grants me His favor—that is forgiveness! I am in bonds of sin and death, and God breaks the bonds and gives me life—that is cleansing!
Forgiveness and cleansing—inseparably connected together!
Connected in God, for without forgiveness we have no right to His cleansing; He sanctifies us because He has justified us. And also connected in our own consciousness. For without an inner longing for sanctification, we have no desire for forgiveness. Whoever says, “Forgive!” must also say, “Cleanse me!”
Forgiveness and cleansing—never to be separated in the confession of our sins!
No, not as if we by the confession of our sins make ourselves worthy of the forgiving and cleansing grace of God. God does not forgive and cleanse us because we confess, that is, on the ground of our confession. No, only because He is faithful and just does He forgive the confessor and cleanse him of unrighteousness. He is the Faithful One, that is, He does what He says; He gives what He promises; He keeps the covenant; He fulfills His eternal Word! And He is the Just One, that is, His will is always in accord with His perfect being, and His doing with His righteous will. And His eternal Word is: I forgive the confessor, My child, his sins. And His justice is that He has blotted out our sins in the blood of the cross.
But only in the way of confession can we receive that forgiveness and cleansing!2
Then we hunger and thirst and are satisfied!
Then we seek and we find!
Then we see God’s friendly face in the light!
Unspeakable bliss!
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1 Here and in the next quotation below, Hoeksema quotes from Psalm 32, stanza 2 in the Dutch Psalmen book. I give the English
from number 83 in our Psalter rather than a translation of the Dutch, because in going from Dutch to English the rhyming is lost.
2 Emphasis is Hoeksema’s.
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 14:13:39 GMT -5
6/1/1940 Waiting for the Son of God
HOEKSEMA, HERMAN Meditation Home / Archive / Vol 16 Issue 17 SHARE IT
And to wait for His Son from Heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come. I Thess. 1:10 A living hope and a sanctified walk!
Always these two accompany each other. Inseparably they are knit together, intertwined; essentially they are one.
Without the one the other cannot be. Reciprocally they motivate each other. Each is the other’s stimulant. Where the one fades the other pines. Where the one flourishes the other is strong.
Be the friend of God in Christ, keep your garments clean, fight the good fight of faith in the midst of the world, deny yourselves and consider it grace in the cause of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer with him,—and your attitude will be that of the living hope, toy which you look for the Son of God from heaven, assured, longing, waiting. And, on the other hand, look for the Savior from heaven, with steadfast longing and patient waiting, and the longing and urge to be Hike Him at His coming will be a strong incentive to keep yourselves pure and strive to keep His commandments.
Be the friend of the world in much of your actual life, seek the things that are below, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, refuse to suffer with Christ and carefully avoid the cross,—and hope will pine away, there is no Christian joy in your heart and no song of glad expectation on your lips. Or, again, let hope be weak and wavering, the flame of hope’s yearning be quenched, the strong assurance of hope toe lacking in your soul,—and gone is the power to be patient in tribulation and to endure even unto the end.
Inseparable are they: hope and sanctification.
Mutually they effect each other. They live together and die together. They flourish together and languish together.
Thus it is in the chapter at the end of which occurs the text of this meditation.
It contains a beautiful testimony concerning the Christian life and walk of the saints in Thessalonica. They had received the Word of the gospel in the midst of much affliction, with joy in the Holy Ghost; and they had become followers of Paul and of the Lord. They had become ensamples to all believers round about, in Macedonia and Achaia. The Word of the Lord sounded out from them, and their faith to God-ward was spread abroad. For, by the power of grace they had been called, and they turned away from idols. . . .
To serve the living and true God. . . .
And to wait for his Son from heaven!
Always these two: serving the living and true God and waiting for his Son from heaven!
It is: both or none!
We wait for Him!
For the Son of God from heaven.
For Jesus, whom God raised from the dead.
For Him, who delivered us from the wrath to come.
There, in a few words, you have the entire gospel of our salvation!
For, what is the gospel, if it is not God’s message concerning His Son?
Or what is this message of God concerning His Son if it is not, first of all and chiefly, that He is, indeed, the Son of God? He is the Son, not by virtue of any title or honor or grace or glory or power that was bestowed upon Him, but in Himself, eternally, in coequality with the Father and the Holy Spirit, essentially God, infinite in all His virtues, almighty, all-wise, sovereign, the Lord of all, God adorable above all!
This, indeed, is the heart, the quintessence of the gospel. Deny it, and there is no gospel of salvation possible.
Yet, this Son of God is “even Jesus,” the historical Jesus of Nazareth, who tabernacled among us. And what else does this mean than that the Son of God also became man, came in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that, while He is and remained the infinite and eternal Son of God, He also became like unto us in all things sin excepted. The incarnation of the Son! God also became man; the Creator also became creature; the Infinite became finite; the eternal became temporal; the Lord became servant; He, whose alone is immortality, also became mortal. And yet, withal the Immutable did not change! He is and abides forever God, Creator, Infinite, Eternal, Lord of all, the Immortal!
And again, this Son of God, even Jesus, is said to have been raised from the dead by God! But what else does this imply than that He first died and descended into the nethermost parts of the earth? Yes, indeed, the Son of God died! True, He died in human nature, for how could the eternal and immortal God die except in mortal nature? But, nevertheless, it was the person of the Son of God that, in human nature, was nailed to the accursed tree, that laid down His life, that tasted death for every man, that voluntarily went down into the depth of hell. And it was our death He tasted. For it was our sin He bore. And, therefore, it was for our justification that He was raised from the dead. For, God raised Him up! And that divine act of God whereby He raised His Son, even Jesus, who had died for our sins, from the dead, is the divine response to Jesus’ outcry on the cross: “It is finished!” It is the divine testimony that He, as the Head of His church, had fully satisfied and obtained righteousness and eternal life for all that are in Him!
For Him we wait from heaven!
For, to heaven the Son of God ascended!
He was with us, in our flesh, on our earth, in our life, but a little while. He lived our life. He spoke through our mouth, face to face with us. We saw Him and heard Him and confessed that He is the Son of God, the only Begotten of the Father, and that with Him are the words of eternal life. But He left us. Even His resurrection was no return to us, though occasionally He appeared that we might know that He lives. But finally He definitely left us. For, He was taken up as we saw it, and a cloud of glory took Him out of our sight. On other occasions, after that He had risen from the dead, He also came and was gone; but we expected Him to return. But this time, on Mount Olivet it was different. We know that He has gone into the heavens, and that here we will see Him no more. . . .
To heaven He went!
And heaven is another part of God’s wide creation. It differs from our mundane existence not only locally, but also in its nature. For, while here we have only a reflection of God’s face and see in a glass darkly, there is the very face of God. Heaven is as close to God’s heart as creature can be! Thither He went, the Son of God, in human nature. From thence He reached down and took hold of our humiliated nature, descended with it into the lowest parts off the earth; and thither He returned talking our human nature with Him into highest glory, close to the heart of God. . . .
And there He was glorified with the glory He had with the Father, before the world was!
He, the Son of God, even Jesus!
Whom God raised from the dead!
He was taken up into the highest heavens!
Leaving us the promise that He will come again, with His reward!
To give unto every man according as his work shall be!
For Him we wait!
We wait!
Assured we are that He will come again!
True, He did not leave us orphans. He did come again. Even as He promised before He ascended up to the Father, so He sent unto us the Comforter, that He may abide with us forever. And in that Spirit, He Himself returned to us!
And, indeed, we know that at the end of our earthly course and battle He will come to us, even through His servant death, and take us to Himself, in the House of many mansions, where He prepared a place for us, that we may also be where He is.
Yet, with all the saints we still wait for another coming.
For, He will come again from heaven! He will appear, not again as the suffering Servant, but in glory, with all the power and might the Father has bestowed on Him, as the Lord of Lord’s and King of kings, the heir of all things! And we expect that in that day He will subject all things unto Himself and make our humiliated body like unto His most glorious body. He will make all things new, and will give into our possession the incorruptible and undefilable inheritance that never fadeth away. He will appear as the Victor over death and hell, as the One Who stood for the cause of God’s covenant in the world, and His cause shall be publicly justified before every creature! And in that day every tongue, in heaven and on earth and in hell, shall forevermore confess that He is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!
For that day we wait!
We wait for Him, for His coming!
No, this waiting attitude does not imply that while we look for Him we neglect our earthly calling. On the contrary, because we wait for Him it is our earnest desire and strife to be found faithful at His coming. We know that He called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, in order that we might represent the cause of that Son in this world. And we fight the good fight, conscious of the victory in Him. Nor does it imply that we expect Him at any moment. For we know that all things must be ready. And even though we feel assured that the end of all things is near, and though we see that end drawing nearer every day with astounding rapidity in the events of today, we know that the end is not yet. Yet, we wait for the coming of the Son of God from heaven. We expect nothing of this world apart from His coming. All our expectation is concentrated on His coming. Would you like to make this world better, to see the perfect world? Wait for Him! Would you like to be delivered from the body of this death? Wait for Him! Do you suffer and are you killed all the day long, and do you see the cause of the Son of God suffer defeat? Wait for Him! You are in sin, in death? The enemy persecutes? The mighty men of this world rage and rave and appear to have the victory? Wait for Him! He will set all things straight!
We wait!
And this implies, too, that we long for His coming. To be sure, we wait patiently, fully assured that He will come. But this only means that the hope of His coming makes us strong to endure even unto the end, not that we do not earnestly and fervently long for the day of His coming.
We wait in earnest expectation!
For, in this we groan!
And the Spirit and the Bride say: Come!
Yea, come quickly!
Earnestly we wait!
For, we who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body!
How could it be different?
Already He delivered us from the wrath to come! And this deliverance is the power of our waiting, the impetus of our longing!
More than one reason, indeed, might be given in explanation of that attitude of expectation of the people of God in the world. They wait, because they have His Word, that He will come again, and that Word they believe and is the sure ground of their hope. They long, because, though they see Him not, they love Him and they look forward to the glorious day when they shall see Him, for whom their soul yearneth, who loved them even unto death.
But here it is said, that He delivered us from the wrath to come!
And this deliverance is not complete!
He must come again, fully to grant us the joy of that deliverance!
Wrath is coming! Wrath, the terrible wrath of God, is already, is always upon the world outside of Christ. And that wrath is manifest in all the confusion and suffering and death, in all the corruption and shame, in all the blindness and rage and fury, whereby men seek their own destruction and the destruction of the world. But that wrath is still coming! The day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God is at hand! Fully His wrath, as His wrath, will be manifested. It will be poured out! And it will result in the world’s destruction and the eternal desolation of all the ungodly. . . .
From that wrath He delivered us!
Legally He delivered us from it, for He bore it to the full in our stead. All the vials of that wrath were poured out over His head! They were emptied! There is no wrath of God left for His Church! We were justified, an eternal righteousness is imputed to us. We are the objects of His eternal favor! We are heirs of eternal life! But we are delivered from that wrath also in spiritual reality. For He regenerated us and called us out of this present world. We know and taste the love of God poured forth into our hearts by the Spirit He has given us!
Yet, all this is true only in principle!
We are delivered, yet not delivered!
For, we are still in the body of this death! And we are still in this world upon which the wrath of God abideth and shall presently be poured out! We suffer, we groan, we die!
And thus, knowing that we are delivered from the wrath to come, yet in the midst of this world of wrath, having the first fruits of the Spirit, yet only the first- fruits, we long for the full harvest of glory!
For the final and perfect deliverance!
He must come! For His coming we long!
We wait for the Son of God from heaven!
The Spirit and the Bride say: Come!
Come, Lord Jesus!
We wait. . . .
But are we?
Ah, does it not seem in the Church of today, as if the Bride had abandoned her waiting attitude?
Let us recall the relation and mutual influence of hope and a sanctified walk! The more our life in general is of this world, even as it is in the world, the less we will assume the attitude of waiting for the Son of God. Is this not the reason why so little of true waiting and hoping is witnessed in what is known as the Church of today ?
Let us watch and be sober!
And, girding up the loins of our mind, let us hope perfectly, for the salvation that is to be revealed!
Waiting for the Son of God!
With the Spirit and the Bride!
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 15:08:59 GMT -5
4/1/1939 The Vaunting Axe
HOEKSEMA, HERMAN Article Home / Archive / Vol 15 Issue 13 SHARE IT
In the beautiful but often misinterpreted thirteenth article of our Netherland 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 Churches 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 marshal 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 know 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, 1 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 movie-stars, 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 particular 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 serving 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 naught 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 Jan 6, 2024 15:33:37 GMT -5
6/15/1941 The Apostates Doomed
HOEKSEMA, HERMAN Article Home / Archive / Vol 17 Issue 18 SHARE IT
As was said, It was a hard speech that the people uttered against the Lord, at their hearing of the report of the spies. They wanted to know why He had brought them to the border of Canaan that they, their wives and their children, should be a prey. The people were committing a great sin. In the Lord’s own words, they were despising and rejecting Him in His faithfulness and veracity, His longsuffering and mercy, holiness and righteousness. They did so, not in their ignorance but deliberately, knowingly. For these virtues of God were manifest in them and were clearly seen by them, being understood by the Lord’s signs, by the wonders He had wrought in their sight. “How long,” asked the Lord, will they despise me? How long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs that I have shewed among them?” As was pointed out, the Lord answered His own questions when He said, “I will smite them with pestilence, and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.” The implication of this utterance is that they will not cease despising and disbelieving Him. And, as was said, there was indeed every indication that the vast majority of them were persons reprobated, thus thoroughly profligate. What the Lord said to Moses cannot be taken as expressive of His intention; for He had said that He would destroy not the nation in so far as it was reprobated but the entire people with the exception of one man—the man Moses—that thus He would make a sudden end of reprobate and elect alike. So it is plain that the Lord had spoken as He did with a view to arousing Moses to pray for the nation, to beseech the Lord to pardon its iniquity. And the Lord replies, “I have pardoned according to thy word.” It was a word that we have come upon before. It was spoken originally by the Lord Himself in response to Moses’ request, directed to the Lord, “Shew me thy glory,” and in connection with the great sin of the people—a sin that had consisted in their serving the golden calf at Horeb. Then, too, the Lord had said, “Now, therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.” Then, too, Moses besought the Lord in behalf of the nation. And the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people. Then Moses turned and went down from the Mount, breaking the tables in his descent. After the idolaters were slain Moses returned unto the Lord and again prayed for the people, even going so far as to petition the Lord to blot him out of His book, if He would not forgive their sin. But the Lord replied that whosoever hath sinned against Him, that one He would blot out of His book. It was at this time that Moses voiced the prayer that the Lord show him His glory. The Lord answered that He would do so, that He would proclaim the name of the Lord before him. On the following day the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with Moses there in the mountain and proclaimed the name of the Lord, saying, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and fourth generation.”
This proclamation has already been explained in former articles. But whereas it again forms the ground upon which Moses bases his plea for the life of the nation, let us observe the following.
The Lord forgives iniquity but He will assuredly not clear. This statement must be made to apply to His chosen people. These He forgives, yet without clearing, that is, pronouncing them innocent with their moral debt unpaid. Being the righteous One, His forgiveness is justification; it is an act that consists in His clothing His people with the satisfaction and righteousness of Christ.
The second section of the proclamation turns solely upon the reprobated Israel. As the Lord forgives His chosen ones their iniquity (though he does not clear) and keeps mercy with them in their generations to the end of time and forever, so will He visit the sins of those that hate Him (the reprobated) upon them in their generations to destroy them.
This, then, is the word that Moses again took hold of. And it was according to this word that the Lord pardoned the iniquity of the nation. But though the Lord pardoned, He by the mouth of Moses made to the nation the following doleful announcement. As truly as He lives, all the earth shall be filled with His glory, that is, He will exhibit His virtues, in particular, His righteousness, holiness and justice, through an act of His to consist in His punishing the rebels, those men who have seen His glory—His mercy, grace and compassion, His goodness and truth—by the miracles which He did in Egypt and in the wilderness, but who, instead of hearkening to His voice, have tempted Him these ten times. Those men, He will punish. They shall not see the land which He sware to their fathers, neither shall any of them that despised Him see it. The two exceptions are Caleb and Joshua. As to Caleb, he had another spirit with him. He followed the Lord fully. Him therefore will the Lord bring into the promised land. And his seed shall possess it. As to all the others, they are ordered to turn them and to get them “into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea”.
There now follows an intensification of the judgment, occasioned in all likelihood by the prolonged murmurings of the apostates. So the Lord once more spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me”, The Lord continues in the following vein. “As the Lord liveth, as they have spoken in His ears, so will he truly do to them. Their carcasses shall fall in the wilderness,—the carcasses of all that were numbered of them, from twenty years old and upward. But their little ones which they said would be a prey, shall know the land which they despised. But as for them, their carcasses shall fall in the wilderness. And their children shall wander in the wilderness forty years and bear their whoredoms, after the number of days in which the land was searched, namely forty, each day for a year shall their children bear their iniquities. The Lord has said it, and will surely do it. And the spies, who returned and made all the congregation to murmur by their evil report, died by the plague before the Lord. But Joshua and Caleb lived. So spake the Lord. Moses told these sayings to the people. At the hearing of them, they mourned greatly.
There is ground in the narrative for the view that the vast majority of this crowd of murmurers were persons reprobated and thus not forgiven. There is first of all to be considered the notice that they now have tempted the Lord ten times. The number ten signifies completion, so that the statement is to be received as conveying the thought that these murmurers had now filled their measure of iniquity and were thus ripe for destruction. Secondly, they mourned greatly, when Moses told them the Lord’s sayings. But they wept not because of their sins but on account of their now finding themselves under the necessity of living out their lives in the wilderness. They do say, “We have sinned”. But instead of humbling themselves under God’s hand by their getting themselves into the wilderness in obedience to His command, they get themselves up into the mountain, saying, Lo, here we be. We will go up into the place which the Lord has promised.” Moses warns them that the Lord would not be with them and that consequently they would be smitten before their enemy. But regardless of this warning, they went up. If the Lord refused to go with them, they would go alone. And so they did. For the ark of the covenant of the Lord departed not out of the camp. But this did not deter them. The venture would succeed without the Lord. So did they in their unholy chagrin endeavor to render the saying of God to the effect that the carcasses of all of them should fall in the desert impossible of fulfillment. Here again they brought themselves to the fore as persons of a reprobated mind. Thirdly, there is the statement, occurring in the narrative, “And ye shall know my hostility” (erroneously translated, “And ye shall know my breach of promise”). Chapt. 14:34c.
This notice must be taken to mean that during the forty years the Lord would continuously be against them, would pursue them by His curse until the carcasses of them all be wasted in the wilderness. It is not unlikely that during this period the cloud departed from the tabernacle in token of their being abandoned by the Lord and that the services ceased, so that the wilderness became to this doomed generation the nearest approach to the place of outer darkness.
The apostates that fall in the desert formed a seed of evil-doers that perpetuates itself. And through the centuries of the nations existence this seed will continue to fill its measure of iniquity through its spiritual whoredoms. The Lord will continue to send to them prophets. These they will kill and crucify and persecute from city to city that upon them may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth and that finally their house may be left unto them desolate. It was in this seed that the saying of the Lord through the ages was and is being fulfilled—the saying, “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.”
In the crowd of murmurers must also have been found persons who, despite the fact that they truly loved God, had to a greater or smaller degree involved themselves in the sin of those apostates. That they did so, will not surprise us if it be considered that in God’s people, that is, in their flesh, dwelleth no good thing, so that, when they stand not in their faith, sin in them, taking occasion by trying situations or by the command of God, works in them also murmurings and rebellions. These murmuring believers, who formed the true Israel, the Lord forgave, according to His proclamation. “The Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity. . . . and that by no means will clear.” The proof that there was found among the apostates such murmuring believers is this very proclamation. Why should the Lord have inspired Moses to beseech Him to forgive transgression in His people, to be sure (not in the reprobated), if also they, the majority of them, had in that crisis not also transgressed? The Lord forgave them. Yet they, too, had to live out their lives in the wilderness and thus bear their iniquity in that it is the way of God to chastise those whom He loves.
There were some—their number must have been exceedingly small—who had not rebelled. The representatives of this group were Caleb, Joshua, Moses, and Aaron. As to Caleb, it was to his special credit, that he had reported with such favor concerning the most terrible portion of the land, the region of Anek and Hebron. It was this very region therefore that became his inheritance. The fulfillment of the promise to him is recorded in Joshua 14. In this chapter he appears as addressing Joshua in the following vein. Forty years old was he when Moses sent him to spy out the land. And he brought him word again as it was in his heart. But his brethren that went with him made the heart of the people melt; but he wholly followed the Lord his God. So on that day Moses sware to him that the land whereon his feet had trodden should be his inheritance and his children’s forever. And now the Lord had kept him alive as He had said for these forty and five years. And lo he was that day fourscore and five years old; and yet he was as strong as the day that Moses sent him. As his strength was then, even so was it now, for war, both to go out and to come in. Let Joshua therefore give him the mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day. The Anakins, Joshua knew, were there and the cities were great and fenced; but if the Lord would be with him, and of this he had no doubt, he would be able to drive them out. So Joshua blessed him and gave him and his posterity Hebron for a permanent inheritance. So did Hebron, through its permanent association with the name of Caleb, become to the Israelitish nation a memorial of his obedience and by contrast of the disobedience and apostasy of the seed of evildoers and of the doom by which this seed was overtaken. How the memory of this doom was perpetuated through the centuries of the nation’s existence is evident from the reference to it in the epistle to the Hebrews, “But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter his rest, but to them that believed not?” “Let us labor, therefore,” so the writer admonishes, “to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after that same example of unbelief.”
There are five chapters in the book of Numbers—the chapters 15 to 19 inclusive—that refer to this interval of forty years, but in what part of this period the events recorded in these chapters took place we cannot say. Besides sundry religious laws, these chapters record the following events: The death by stoning of a man who was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. His sin was the doing of servile work in deliberate defiance of the command of God. The rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram was an attempt to bring the priesthood down to the level of the common Israelites, by a perversion of the truth that all the people were “an holy nation and a royal priesthood.”
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 15:46:17 GMT -5
12/1/1942 Revival of the Common Grace Discussion?
HOEKSEMA, HERMAN Editorial Home / Archive / Vol 19 Issue 05 SHARE IT
According to a review in the Calvin Forum the theory of Common Grace was given an airing in a meeting of the Calvinistic Philosophical Club, held at Westminster Theological Seminary on October 8, 1941. Dr. C. Van Til, who had recently returned from spending a sabbatic year in truly sabbatic Redlands, California, was the speaker. And his subject was supposed to have been: the bearing of common grace on non-theistic thinking. But the time was too limited to do justice to the whole theme, hence he discussed the question of “common grace” proper. He divided his subject into four parts: 1. Methodology. 2. Kuyper on Common Grace. 3. The Common Grace Controversy. 4. Suggestions for Solution of the Problem. We would like to have a copy of Dr. Van Tibs speech, in order that we might review it and take part in this interesting discussion through the Standard Bearer. Cannot Dr. Van Til or someone else supply us with a copy?
In the meantime several points in the review of the speech we found rather striking. The reviewer writes: “Particularly pertinent was Dr. Van Til’s contention that Common Grace must not be viewed as an isolated problem. Rather, it must be regarded as one aspect, an important aspect, of the whole problem of the philosophy of history.” Some such contention we made years ago in “Van Zonde en Genade,” though I personally would rather prefer different terms and not speak of “the philosophy of history” and of “looking the Absolute in the face” in our present life in this world. Just see “Van Zonde en Genade,” p. 169ff. And let me remind the reader of the following from my speech in the Pantlind: “The problem of so-called common grace concerns the question of God’s attitude over against and influence upon the whole of created things in their mutual connection and development in time, in connection and in harmony with God’s counsel in general, predestination with election and reprobation, the realization of God’s eternal covenant, grace and sin, favor and wrath, creation and redemption, Adam and Christ, and it inquires into the place and calling of God’s people in and over against the world. Viewed thus it is a question of great importance with respect to both, doctrine and life.” I do not mean to suggest that Dr. Van Til in his speech before the Calvinistic Philosophy Club agreed with this definition of the problem, but I do mean to bring out that when he emphasized the fact that the problem of common grace must not be viewed as an isolated problem, he reiterated what we said years ago. In so far, at least, he agrees with us.
Another interesting point that drew our attention in the review of Dr. Van Tibs speech was that “De Gemeene Gratie, Kuyper’s chef d’oevre, next came up for a thorough overhauling.” Well a thorough overhauling” of this work of Dr. Kuyper’s can also be found in “Van Zonde en Genade,” pp. 85-168. In fact, I consider it questionable whether anyone can give De Gemeene Gratie a more thorough overhauling. It is, of course, possible to differ with the contents of our critical evaluation of Kuyper’s work, to give it another overhauling. But it seems to me, that this could hardly be done without giving a criticism of the overhauling we gave that “chef d’oevre” of Kuyper’s. And I am wondering whether Dr. Van Til took the trouble to do this. Interesting it is, too, to notice that an “overhauling of Kuyper’s De Gemeene Gratie is quite possible in 1941, although it was considered presumptuous in 1922-24. That it can be done now, that the work can even be criticized, and that such criticism can meet with evident favor, I consider a change for the better. We are advancing.
Especially did Dr. Van Til subject to his critical analysis, according to the reviewer, Dr. Kuyper’s conception of “spheres” of life, of different “territories or dimensions”, and of his “realm-between” in which “God’s people must vie with the children of the world for the glory of the world.” The reviewer writes: “Dr. Van Til searchingly analyzed Kuyper’s language on these matters, language which inescapably appears to teach that there is a ‘neutral area’ which Christians and non-Christians have in common and in winch God can be glorified by both.” Also to this point we called attention repeatedly. Only, we think that it is also inescapable for anyone who teaches common grace to create such a “neutral realm” or sphere. And we never saw any “solution” of the problem of common grace that avoids creating such a common ground of operation for the Church and the world.
In making his suggestions for a possible solution of the problem the speaker stated that we must think concretely on the problem, and that such elements as “the glorious absoluteness and self-consistency of God, the utter sinfulness of man” must be fully honored, while the question of “realms” or “territories” “demands thorough re-examination.”
Needless to say that we are all interested in this discussion. And once again, I would kindly ask Dr. Van Til whether he could not let me have a copy of his address. Then we can more fruitfully discuss it than on the basis of a mere review.
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 18:54:29 GMT -5
6/1/1944 As to our Moral Obligation
HOEKSEMA, HERMAN Editorial Home / Archive / Volume 20/1944 / Vol 20 Issue 17 SHARE IT
The contention of those that oppose the movement to establish our own schools is that such a movement is morally wrong, as long as we have not done all that is in our power to keep and support and improve the existing schools. In other words, they claim that we are morally obliged:
1. To join an existing school society, and to support an existing Christian school, wherever there is one;
2. To remain member of that society, and continue to support that existing school, even in cases where it is possible and preferable to organize a separate society;
3. To continue to send our children to that school, even though we know that they do not receive the education they should receive, and though it is possible to provide for them the education that is in harmony with our own convictions.
Now, I have never read or heard any sound argument in support of this contention. As far as I know it is a mere contention. We are simply told that this is our moral obligation, but on what basis this obligation rests, by what principles it is motivated, or by what moral standards or rules it is governed, has never been demonstrated. And I am afraid that, if the brethren that make this contention, would attempt to prove it, they would discover that this would be quite impossible.
That a man has a moral obligation in respect to a society of which he is a member, and as long as he is a member of it, we all grant. His obligation rests in his membership. But that he must remain a member of such a society, even if he can serve more effectively the cause represented by that society by establishing a separate society,—that would seem incapable of being proved. And we deny it most emphatically.
That Christian parents are morally obligated to provide a Christian school education for their children, and, therefore, to work to the utmost of their power for the cause of Christian instruction, may be taken for granted among us. But that parents are morally obliged to support and further this cause only through concrete, existing societies and schools, even when they can more effectively advance this cause by organizing their own schools,—that has never been demonstrated and is incapable of proof.
Suppose that in a certain place the only existing school was Lutheran. And suppose that in the same place there were a small number of Reformed families, too small to establish their own Christian school.
Suppose further for the time being these Reformed parents sent their children to this Lutheran school, in order to provide for them a Christian education “to the utmost of their power.” And, finally, suppose that this number of Reformed families gradually increased, and became strong enough to organize their own society. Would they now be morally obliged to continue to send their children to the Lutheran school, and make the best of it?
You say, perhaps, that this is different, because we have no parochial or denominational, but free Christian schools.
Nominally this is true; actually however, the existing schools are Christian Reformed, even though they are supported by societies. They are entirely controlled by the Christian Reformed Church, and based on Christian Reformed principles. Where do the Protestant Reformed people have any influence, except in as far as they can let their voice be heard in a few local societies? The Union of Christian Schools is wholly controlled by Christian Reformed leaders; the Christian Home and School Magazine is a Christian Reformed publication; and, last but not least, the normal training of prospective teachers is furnished by a department of Calvin, and is, therefore, officially under the control of the Christian Reformed Church. And what is a school really but a staff of teachers?
Do not misunderstand me. I do not blame the Christian Reformed people for making their school education conform to their own convictions. I merely state a fact, and a very patent one. And I claim that their principles are not ours, and that, although I believe that our parents should send their children to the existing Christian schools where there is no other possibility, rather than send them to the public schools, that they cannot possibly have the moral obligation to do so wherever they are strong enough to establish their own schools, and to educate their children in harmony with their own convictions. On the contrary, I maintain that it is their sacred obligation to take the latter course, wherever possible.
And I am sure that no Christian Reformed man or group can blame us for taking this course.
We do not even have to point to certain evils existing in the Christian schools as we know them, as if they must be the reason why we should organize our own movement. This has been done too much, I think, with the result that the main issue has been lost sight of. If the situation were such that we could work on a common basis, and were fundamentally agreed as to what our children should be taught, but that, in spite of this fundamental agreement there were certain evils to be fought and removed, I would agree that we must attempt our utmost to remove these evils.
But this is not the case.
There is a fundamental difference between the Christian Reformed and the Protestant Reformed Churches since 1924, and this fundamental difference, as officially expressed in the “Three Points,” profoundly affects the education in the schools. And this is the reason why we should have our own schools wherever possible, in order that our children may be “brought up in the aforesaid doctrine,” and that we may cause or help them to be brought up in that doctrine to the utmost of our power.
But let us try to analyze this question of our moral obligation a little more in detail.
It may not be superfluous first of all to ask the general question: what is meant by moral obligation, and what is our moral obligation in regard to the education of our children in the schools?
Surely, it must be agreed that moral obligation consists in obedience to the will of God both in respect to our relation to Him, and to our relation to our fellowmen. If one talks to me about my moral obligation in a certain case, he must be able to point out to me that what he considers my moral obligation is the will of God. If he cannot do this, he should refrain from insisting on it.
Now, with respect to education, what is the primary relation in which the will of God must be known and obeyed, and concerning which we may, therefore, speak of moral obligation?
The answer is plain: it is the relation of parents to their children.
Education is the duty of the parents.
On this we are all agreed.
And the moral obligation of the parents is rather clearly expressed in Deut. 6:4-7: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when hou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”
One dare not say that this injunction was given to Israel of the old dispensation, and that it concerned the Old Testament law.
For the very form of this injunction is such that it applies to the people of God of all times. Still the Lord our God is one Lord, and still it is our “part” of the covenant of God to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our mind, and with all our soul, and with all our power. And, therefore, it is still our moral obligation as parents to teach these words to our children, when we sit in our house, or walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise up.
Besides this is the same injunction as comes to parents in the New Testament: “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” Eph. 6:4.
This is the moral obligation of which we are reminded in the Form for the Administration of Baptism. There, too, we are reminded that our “part” in the covenant is “that we cleave to this one God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost; that we trust in him, and ‘love him with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our mind, and with all our strength; that we forsake the world, crucify our old nature, and walk in a new and holy life.”
And we are made to assume this moral obligation with respect to the education of our children, when we are required to answer affirmatively two questions. The first is this: “Whether you acknowledge the doctrine which is contained in the Old and New Testament, and in the articles of the Christian faith, and which is taught here in this Christian Church, to be the true and perfect doctrine of salvation?” And the second follows: “Whether you promise and intend to see these children, when come to the years of discretion, instructed and brought up in the aforesaid doctrine, or help or cause them to be instructed therein, to the utmost of your power?”
Don’t overlook that little but significant phrase: “here in this Christian Church,” in the first of these two questions. Our fathers inserted that phrase quite intentionally. In fact, in the past there has been a rather heated controversy about these words, and repeated attempts were made, either to eliminate them, or to ascribe to them a meaning different from their intended significance. But in spite of it all they were retained.
And they mean just what they state.
When in a Protestant Reformed Church a child is baptized, the whole congregation confesses, and the parents of the children that are presented for baptism expressly state, that they believe the doctrine of the Protestant Reformed Churches to be the true and perfect doctrine of salvation.
And it is in that connection that the second of these two questions must be read: the parents, in answering this question affirmatively, promise that they will bring up their children in the “aforesaid,” that is, in the Protestant Reformed, doctrine, and that they will help or cause them to be instructed in that doctrine to the utmost of their power!
This, then, is our primary and most sacred moral obligation with respect to the education of our children.
On this we are all agreed.
And as we speak of our moral obligation to the existing schools, this primary and basic obligation must constantly be borne in mind.
How this basic obligation affects the particular question we are discussing, we hope to consider in another article, D.V.
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Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 20:16:18 GMT -5
6/15/1946 The Idea of Conscience in the Epistles of Paul*
HOEKSEMA, HERMAN Editorial Home / Archive / Volume 22/1946 / Vol 22 Issue 18 SHARE IT
The Idea of Conscience in the Epistles of Paul*
*Paper delivered at the Conference of Protestant Reformed ministers in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The subject assigned to me is of an exegetical nature. However, the purpose is not the exegesis of certain passages of Scripture, particularly of the Pauline epistles, but rather the arrival at certain synthetic conclusions with respect to the idea of the conscience as defined in these passages. We approach the passages that apply to our subject with certain definite questions in mind. What is the conscience? Is it a distinct faculty of the soul? Or is it rather a certain aspect of our consciousness? ‘The distinction is usually made between sequent and antecedent conscience, the former passing judgment upon the action performed, the latter functioning before any moral action, and enjoining upon the will the right course of action in any given alternative. And the question arises: Is this distinction correct? Is the conscience according to Scripture, equivalent, in part at least, to Kant’s categorical imperative? Do all men, heathen and Christians, have a conscience? Is the conscience infallible, and can one speak of an obligation always to follow the voice of conscience? What is a good or pure conscience, and what is its opposite? And to this might be added, perhaps, whether in the Christian there are two consciences, or, at least, whether his conscience at the same time accuses and condemns him, and justifies and approves him in the sight of God? Although, therefore, our task is largely exegetical, the purpose of our exegesis must needs be from the outset to find an answer to these and similar questions.
My subject limits the exegetical task to the Pauline epistles. Even though. I am, personally by no means sure that the epistle to the Hebrews was written by the great Apostle, I have included in the discussion that follows the passages in that epistle that are related to my subject. We must consider then, the following passages: Rom. 2:15; 9:1; 13:5; I Cor. 8:7, 10, 12; 10:25-29; II Cor. 1:12; 4:2; 5:11; I Tim. 1:5, 19; 3:9; 4:2; II Tim. 1:3; Heb. 9:9, 14; 10:2, 22; 13:18. It would, perhaps, be possible, to arrange these passages from the outset according to a definite classification, such as those that speak of the conscience in the heathen and in the Christian, those that speak of a good and of an evil conscience, and those that refer to the conscience of the weak and of the strong. However, without much fear of repetition we may follow the order in which they occur in the epistles. And it is in this order that we intend to discuss them.
The very first text to be considered, Rom. 2:15, is of great importance for our subject. I translate the passage as follows: “Such as show that they have the work of the law written in their hearts, for with this their conscience bears witness, and by this their judgments or considerations (toon logismoon) accuse or excuse them among one another.” I would call attention to the following points of interest for our subject:
As the general relative Hoitines, that introduces this verse, shows, the text is an explanation and further proof of the fact, stated in the preceding verse, namely, that the heathen which have not the law fusei ta tou nomou poioosin, by nature do the things of the law. I understand the genitive tou nomou as a subjective genitive. Ta tou nomou, therefore, are the things which the law, wherever it exists and functions as a code of precepts, does. The law performs especially three things: it presents to the will of man that which is good and evil, it commands the will to choose the good and to reject the evil, and it judges the moral acts of man, either approving and promising life, or condemning and threatening death. These functions are performed by the heathen fusei, i.e. without any external code of precepts, without a verbally revealed law, by nature: their own natural mind and existence in conjunction with “nature” without them, creation, providence, history, and social interrelations. By doing this, they show, according to vs. 15, that they have to ergon tou nomou grapton en tais kardiais autoon, they have the work of the law written in their hearts. This expression is, to an extent, epexegetical of ta tou nomou poioosin fusei. Also here I understand the genitive tou nomou as subjective genitive: the ergon tou nomou is the work which the law does. Only, the fact that they, the heathen, do by nature the things of the law, so that formally they act according to the law, distinguishing correctly between good and evil, formally giving preference to the good as an obligation, and judging themselves and others, is proof of the fact that they have this threefold groundwork of the law written in their hearts. The latter is the basis of the former, and is manifest (endeiknuntai) in the former. This ground work of the law, this basis of the threefold function of the law, is grapton in their hearts. The writing presupposes a Writer. And from the fact that the writing concerns the law, the work of the law, it follows that the Writer is none other than the lawgiver, that is God. God, therefore, writes the work of the law in the hearts of the Gentiles. The question arises: how does God accomplish this writing? And the answer to this question cannot be dubious in the general light of Scripture. This writing is God’s own testimony, His witness, concerning Himself, His will and law, in the hearts of the Gentiles. And the witness of God always takes place by the Spirit and through the Logos. There is no witness of God without the Logos. And there is no inscription of this testimony of God without the Spirit. Since, therefore, the reference in the text is to the heathen, the inscription of the work of the law in their hearts must be attributed to the general testimony of the Spirit through the Logos in creation, “the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” John 1:9. “Because that which may be known of God (or is known) is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Rom. 1:19, 20. It is evident, then, that this grapton in the hearts of the heathen is not to be conceived as a sort of mystical code that is once for all inscribed into their inner soul and consciousness, as the written law was engraved into tables of stone, but rather as the result of a continuous testimony of God in them, by His Spirit and through the Logos. Now, this testimony of God in the hearts of the Gentiles is not itself their conscience, but is the basis, the conditio sine qua non of it. Without it heir would be no conscience in the Gentiles. The conscience itself is the awareness, the consciousness on the part of the Gentiles of this handwriting of God in their hearts, and their inevitable agreement with it, and consent to it. This is evident from the phrase in the genitive absolute that follows: sunmar-turousees autoon tees suneideeseoos: with which their conscience bears witness. This phrase, and especially in this connection, is significant as far as our subject is concerned, because it throws light upon the meaning of the term suneideesis, and, it seems to me, gives a rather definite answer to the question concerning the subject referred to by the preposition sun in this nomen compositum. The noun suneideesis is derived from the verb sunoida, the perfect of eidon, with the infinitive suneidenai. The meaning, therefore, is “to know together with,” To be witness in conjunction with.” The question, however, arises: to know together with whom? Does suneideesis denote eidenai sun tini, to know together with someone else, or eidenai sun heautoo, to know together with oneself? It is rather striking that in classic Greek the word seems to denote the latter: to know with oneself. This might be expected because of the consideration that the Gentiles did not acknowledge the work of the law in their hearts as the writing of God. They simply knew the work of the law fusei by their own nature, that is, of themselves. (Hence, according to their conception, the conscience was a knowledge which they had with themselves a witness in conjunction with their own hearts. Rut, and again this might be expected, in Scripture this is different. There suneideesis denotes not a knowledge with oneself, but a knowledge together with the judgment and witness of God. This is evident from Rom. 2:15, particularly from the genitive absolute phrase we are now discussing. For the conscience is here said to sunmarturein, to witness together with. And there can be no doubt that the sun in this compound refers back to the immediately preceding, that is, to the work of the law written in the hearts. It is plain, then, that it is the function of the suneideesis to know together, to witness together with that testimony of God written in the hearts of the Gentiles. It is, therefore, an awareness, a knowing and agreeing with the judgment of God concerning our moral actions, This presence of the work of the law written in their hearts is further manifest in the fact that in their judgments of one another they accuse or excuse one another. Thus we would explain the last phrase, another genitive absolute: kai metaksu alleeloon toon logismoon kateegorountoon ee kai apologoumenoon. According to this interpretation alleeloon refers to the Gentiles, not to logismoon, and the meaning is, not that their thoughts or considerations accuse or excuse one another, in which case metaksu is rendered by the rather meaningless “meanwhile”; but that the Gentiles judge one another, the one accusing or excusing the other. This interpretation is based upon the consideration that alleeloon is here used in distinction from the preceding autoon, and that metaksu is evidently used, not as an adverb, but as a preposition with the genitive alleeloon. Time, of course, forbids us to give an equally elaborate explanation of all the other passages in which the word conscience occurs. Nor is this necessary. For we may consider Rom. 2:15 the most important passage for a discussion of our entire subject. In the light of the preceding discussion we may even now establish the following conclusions:
That conscience is grounded in a constant divine judgment written in the hearts of men by the Spirit and through the Word concerning their moral actions. This judgment is, of course, true and infallible. It is, therefore, more than a mere “du sollst.” That conscience is the knowledge man has of the ethical character and value of his acts together with the judgment of God, that he cannot but agree with this divine judgment, and that, accordingly, he approves or condemns, not merely the act, but himself, as the subject of the act. Conscience, therefore, is much more than Kant’s categorical imperative. That conscience is, strictly speaking, not antecedent, but always sequent, a judgment upon the act accomplished. It may, of course, precede the actual, outward deed. Rut an act of man is not limited to its outward expression: it rises from the heart. And to the ethical acta of man, as arising from the heart, conscience is never antecedent. Let us now, briefly, consider the other passages of the Pauline epistles that have bearing upon our subject, to discover whether they corroborate the conclusions reached thus far, as well as, whether they, perhaps, throw additional light upon the meaning of the concept conscience.
In the epistle to the Romans the word occurs twice more. First of all in the well-known text of Rom. 9:1: “I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.” We find here the same general truths we already discovered in Rom. 2:15. First of all, it is very evident that also here the conscience is presented as having its ground in a testimony of God, this time not the general witness of the creation-Logos, but of the Christ, wrought in the heart of the apostle Paul by the Spirit of Christ. This must be the meaning of “speaking the truth en Christoo,” that is, in the sphere of Christ. His speech is determined by the revelation of Jesus Christ. And this is also the meaning of the emphatic addition: “I lie not, sunmarturousees moi tees suneideeseoos mou en Pneumati Hagioo.” The sun in sunmarturousees again is used with a view to the Holy Ghost in Christ, for moi is indirect object. The Spirit, therefore, in the sphere of Whom Paul speaks, passes judgment that he does not lie. Secondly, also here it is evident that the conscience is distinct from this judgment of the Spirit of Christ, is based upon it, and consists of awareness of it, and agreement with it. And lastly, also from this passage it is plain that the conscience is sequent, not antecedent: it is a judgment of the ethical character of his declaration that he lives in constant and profound sorrow because of the state of his brethren according to the flesh.
The other passage where the word conscience occurs in the epistle to the Romans is 13:5: “Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.” Only in a general way can we discover the same meaning of the word here, i.e. as a knowledge and moral judgment together with the judgment of God. The magistrate Is a minister of God. Hence, he represents the divine judgment. For their conscience’ sake, i.e. to keep their conscience free and pure, believers must, therefore, be subject to the higher powers, For If they are not, the judgment of God will condemn them, and they will be conscious of this judgment, i.e., their conscience will become evil, impure, guilty.
Turning now to the first epistle to the Corinthians, we find that the term, conscience is repeatedly used in chapter eight, and again in chapter ten. These passages are of interest to us, because they speak of a weak conscience and, by implication, of a strong conscience. In 8:7 the apostle, having spoken of meat sacrificed to idols as being no different from other meat for the simple reason that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is but one God, continues: “Howbeit, there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour (suneideesei tou eidoolou heoos arti) eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.” We may note here:
That a weak conscience is, evidently, a conscience that is not sufficiently enlightened by the gospel and liberated by the Word of truth. They that are in that condition have the conscience of an idol. The genitive eidoolou is a genitive objective with suneideesei. In their conscience they are aware of the idol, i.e. as a reality, as a real god, perhaps of a lower order than the Most High, In other words, although the Spirit of Christ certainly inscribes the judgment in their hearts through the gospel, that an idol is nothing, and that, therefore, it is no sin to eat meat sacrificed to idols, they do not clearly discern this judgment of God in Christ, because of lack of knowledge and the influence of their former heathenish instruction and life. To eat meat sacrificed to idols was, to them, to have fellowship with real false gods. That, if in that state and for other reasons than the fear of God, those that have such a conscience of an idol eat meat sacrificed to idols, it is sin to them, and they defile their conscience by so doing, even though the thing itself is an adiaphoron. This is evident from vs. 10 in connection with the last part of vs. 7: “For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him that is weak be emboldened to eat those things which, are offered to idols?” And in vs. 7: “and their conscience being weak is defiled.” We learn here, that, although the judgment of God upon which the conscience is based is always true and infallible, the conscience may err, at least in regard to adiaphoro, through lack of knowledge. Through thorough instruction in the truth of the gospel the conscience, the Christian conscience may be and must be strengthened. In the meantime the strong must not become a stumbling block to those that have a weak conscience, but must rather have respect thereunto. This is emphasized once more in I Cor. 10:25-29. The man with a strong conscience may eat whatsoever is sold in the shambles, asking no question for conscience’ sake, for the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. Bidden to a feast, a believer with a strong conscience eats whatever is set before him, asking no questions for conscience’ sake. For the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. But if there should be present a man with a weak conscience, and that man should call his attention to the fact that the meat that is set before him was sacrificed to idols, he should refrain from eating for the sake of the other’s conscience.
In the second epistle to the Corinthians we find three passages that speak of the conscience. The first is in ch. 1:12. Here the apostle speaks of his boasting or rejoicing (kaucheesis), consisting in the testimony of his conscience (to marturion tees suneideeseoos heemoon) that in holiness and sincerity of God (en hagioteeti kai eilikrinia tou Theou) he walked in the world, and more abundantly so toward them, the Corinthians. There is no direct indication here as to the ground of this testimony of his conscience. Indirectly however, we may find it in the expression: in holiness and sincerity of God. The genitive tou Theou is a genitive of source. The holiness and sincerity of which he speaks, and in the sphere of which he walks, is from God. The testimony, therefore, that he walked in that sphere, is principally also from him. And his conscience witnesses together with the testimony of the Spirit of God. Thus his boasting and rejoicing in this testimony of his conscience is not in self, or in the flesh, but in God alone.
The second passage is II Cor. 4:2: “But we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” The last phrase reads in the original: sunistanonentes pros pasan suneideesin anthroopoon enoopion tou Theou. We learn here: 1. That every man has a conscience, and that, moreover, every conscience is bound to respond to the manifestation of the truth. This is implied in the statement of the apostle that by the pure and unadulterated proclamation of the truth he commends himself to every conscience of men. 2. That every conscience of man must give positive testimony to the truth as truth. This is implied in the idea of commendation. Whether men receive the gospel or reject it, they are conscience bound to acknowledge the truth of it when it is proclaimed to them in its purity.
The reason is that the Spirit always witnesses that the Spirit is truth. Here, too, therefore, the testimony of men’s consciences witnesses with the testimony of the Spirit through the gospel concerning the truth. And the third passage is II Cor. 5:11: “Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord (ton phobov tou Kuriou), we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.” The apostle always seeks to be well-pleasing to the Lord, and labors in the consciousness of the impending judgment in which all must be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ. Hence, the fear of the Lord motivates him in all his labors. Of this fact he persuades men. That this is true is manifest to God, and he trusts that it may also be manifest in the consciences of the Corinthians, and that, too, in spite of and in opposition, to the slander of his enemies. This confidence on the part of the apostle can only be based on the knowledge that the Spirit of God in Christ dwells and witnesses in the Church of Corinth. And as his godly and upright walk is manifest to God, he knows that the same divine testimony will operate in the believers of Corinth, and find response in their consciences.
(to be continued)
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