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Post by Admin on Nov 1, 2024 22:06:09 GMT -5
Unveiling the True Nature of Grumbling
Paul Levy
4 Min Read
What Is Grumbling?
I’ve recently tried to reflect on why I’m so prone to grumbling. The Collins Dictionary defines grumbling as “to murmur or mutter in discontent; complain sullenly.” I’m not the first to struggle with this sin. It has been a constant for the people of God.
The first instance of grumbling in the Bible is in Exodus 15:24. The newly redeemed people of God were fresh from joyfully singing the Lord’s praise:
The Lord is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation;
this is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him. (Ex. 15:2)
Just three days later, they grumbled against Moses in the wilderness, saying, “What shall we drink?” (Ex. 15:24). What began in Exodus 15 as a trickle of grumbling becomes a torrent in the next chapter. In Exodus 16, verses 2, 7, 8, 9, and 12 all make reference to the people’s grumbling, and it moves from grumbling about Moses to grumbling “against the Lord.” In Numbers 14–17 we see the same pattern: the people grumble against Moses and Aaron and about their situation, but when God addresses them, He states that their grumbling is actually against Him.
When the people of the Lord lost sight of who God was, what He had done, and how He had provided, they very quickly began to grumble, an action to which they often reverted.
Grumbling reappears in the Gospels when the Pharisees and the scribes (those socially upright and religious leaders) murmured at Jesus’ receiving and eating with tax collectors and sinners (Luke 5:30; 15:2; 19:7). The Jewish people grumbled at His teaching, “I am the bread that came down from heaven” (John 6:41–42). This is a mirror image of the people of Israel complaining in the wilderness. The disciples followed suit, grumbling to themselves that Jesus’ teaching was too hard (John 6:60), and from that point on, many turned away from Him (John 6:66). In the Gospels, grumbling reveals a heart of unbelief.
The Danger of Grumbling
When we come to Epistles of the New Testament, there are commands to be obeyed, imperatives to be heeded: “Do all things without grumbling” (Phil. 2:14), “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged” (James 5:9), “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9), and do not “grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer” (1 Cor. 10:10). The New Testament writers see the obvious danger of grumbling and have no problems commanding us to avoid it.
Grumbling’s evil twin is discontentment. Refusing to recognize the providence of God—that He is sovereignly in control of my life such that the circumstances I face are not random fate—will lead to discontentment. Discontentment inevitably leads to grumbling and vice versa. They go hand in hand, and they are also contagious.
I spoke at a young people’s camp a number of years ago. It was toward the end of the week, and everyone was tired. In the midst of my preaching, I saw one of the young lads deliberately turn to his friend and yawn, and his friend responded in seconds by yawning involuntarily. I saw scores of young people in front of me putting their pens down to yawn. There was a chain reaction. It only stopped when I pointed it out and told them to stop yawning. Even as I write about it, I find myself yawning, and you might feel like yawning as you read that story.
As we look to Jesus for strength and help, we see in Him the perfect Man. Our faith and hope is in Him. It is only in Him that we find the power to change.
There must be some psychological explanation, but yawning is contagious. It is the same with grumbling and discontentment. It happens in a marriage, in families, and certainly in congregations. Sadly, a little grumbling goes a long way.
Seeing grumbling for what it is helps us. My grumbling is not just against others or against circumstances but against the Lord. It is not a little thing.
I’ve found it helpful to think of what the Lord Jesus endured. He was so often misunderstood, abominably mistreated, and spoken against. His words were twisted against Him. He was doubted, denied, and betrayed—even by His closest followers. There were false allegations and insinuations laid against Him. He was bitterly opposed by the powerful. He knew deep loneliness. He had nowhere to lay His head. He had to borrow a coin for an illustration. He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. “Bearing shame and scoffing rude,” He did not grumble. There are no recorded words of His discontent or murmuring.
As we look to Jesus for strength and help, we see in Him the perfect Man. Our faith and hope is in Him. It is only in Him that we find the power to change.
Thankfulness Drives Out Grumbling
Psalm 103:2 tells us,
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
I so easily forget who God is, what He has done, and how He has provided for me in Jesus. Recognizing that our grumbling is sinful, taking it to God, confessing it, and acknowledging that we need the help and strength of the Holy Spirit to deal with it is how we can free ourselves from the death spiral of grumbling and discontentment.
I also think we can help one another. If grumbling is infectious, like yawning, and is only stopped by us recognizing it and calling it out, then we can call it out in one another gently and with love, recognizing that all of us need God’s grace in this area. It is interesting that the instances of grumbling recorded in the Bible are corporate—Israel, the Jewish leaders, the disciples, and so on. We need to help one another in this area.
May the Lord be gracious to us and keep us from being a grumbling people.
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Post by Admin on Nov 5, 2024 10:29:17 GMT -5
What Is the Most Neglected Characteristic of Christians?
Nathan W. Bingham & Burk Parsons
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What Is the Most Neglected Characteristic of Christians?
What is the most neglected characteristic among Christians in our day? Today, Burk Parsons highlights one Christlike quality that we should be asking the Lord to cultivate in us.
Transcript
NATHAN W. BINGHAM: This week, I’m joined by Ligonier Teaching Fellow and the Editor of Tabletalk magazine, Dr. Burk Parsons. Dr. Parsons, in your opinion, what is the most neglected characteristic among Christians in our day?
DR. BURK PARSONS: Well, Nathan, as you know—as a member of our church and a friend of mine—as soon as I talk about this subject that I’m going to mention in just a moment is the minute all my friends, and I’m sure each and every member of our church, can say, “Well, that is not true of Burk Parsons,” and it’s true—that I think that the most neglected characteristic in the church today among Christians is humility.
The moment I mention that, I realize everyone can look at me and say, “Well, you’re not humble,” and I would say, “You’re right,” and that’s why I pray for humility every day. Sincerely, it’s one of the reasons that the thing that I have asked for the most in my life for more than two decades for prayer is humility—that God’s people would pray for me for humility and wisdom because I believe that they are the things that I most naturally lack.
It’s hard to talk about humility because really, none of us is qualified to talk about humility. The only one truly qualified to talk about humility and to teach about humility is Christ, but that’s why Paul tells us to look to Christ. In Philippians 2, he tells us that Christ humbled Himself. He became obedient to the point of death, even death at the cross. So we’re to look to Christ and His example of humility.
The reason why I think humility is one of the most overlooked or neglected characteristics is because we really don’t understand humility. We’ve seen humility too often paraded and put on display, but humility isn’t something you can act. It’s not a play act; it’s not something that you can manifest. It has to be genuine; it has to come from within.
A lot of times we have a wrong view of humility. We think that someone’s humble simply because he or she is quiet, or that someone is humble because they’re never bold, or they never speak out, or they’re not courageous. When in fact, when we look at Jesus, we see Jesus in His humility speaking out. We see Jesus in His humility being bold. That doesn’t mean being harsh, but we do see Jesus being harsh with His enemies and the enemies of His people.
It doesn’t mean just being weak. It doesn’t mean just being a bystander. It doesn’t mean just being silent. But a lot of times, that’s the impression we’re given of what true humility is. But true humility is beautiful, and true humility is rooted in every characteristic that Christ teaches us to possess within. It’s the foundation of everything that the Bible gives to us and how we are to approach God, how we are to approach one another, how we are to approach our neighbor, how we’re to approach our friends, how we are to approach our spouse, and even how we are to approach our children, how children are to approach their parents.
Humility is to be the overwhelming and undergirding characteristic of each and every Christian. When the world sees us, they ought to see a humble people who love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And when we don’t, we’re repenting of it and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And when we are not, we’re repenting of it that they don’t see us as a bunch of hypocrites, but rather as a bunch of repentant sinners who recognize that we are helpless and wayward and lost without God seeking us and finding us.
We who understand the biblical doctrine of God’s sovereignty and of God’s salvation and His grace in our lives ought to be the most humble people the world knows. I think it’s completely oxymoronic that anyone who calls himself a Christian or anyone who calls himself Reformed would be prideful and arrogant and pompous, yet we so often are. We need to be the first ones to cast the stone against ourselves and say we are too often pompous, we are too often arrogant, we are too often full of pride, and we need to confess it and recognize it each and every day of our lives.
Nathan, as a pastor, both of us have seen many men in ministry fall into grievous and heinous sin. One of the questions that I’m always asking is, how did they get there? How did it come to that? While I don’t know and I can’t judge, and I don’t know their hearts and I don’t where it began for each of them, I can say, biblically speaking, that to a certain degree, at one level or another, it began with them not humbling themselves before the Lord and not asking the Lord to make them humble, because when God makes us humble, He makes us content, He makes us grateful.
Humility and entitlement are enemies, but humility produces gratefulness. It produces contentment with who we are, with the wife that God has given us, with the spouse that God has given us, with how He’s made us. When we’re humble, we don’t fall into self-pity. When we’re humble, it means we’re seeking first not our kingdom and our glory, but God’s kingdom and His glory. It means we’re not seeking more than God has allotted to us and given to us. It means that we’re humble in the stewardship that He’s given to us and that we simply try each and every day to be faithful. That we’re first and foremost concerned with giving God His glory and honoring Him and not making the whole world look at us.
That can happen for any Christian, and I would say that it can happen more quickly and more easily for us pastors, for those of us in Christian ministry. We have to be the first ones to hear the applause and the accolades and the thanks from God’s people and to remind them and remind ourselves that we are wretches in and of ourselves, and that we are saved and that we are sustained only by the grace of God. To be truly humbled, not the act of humility, not simply pretending to be humble so that people will look at us, but a real genuine humility that overflows from a heart that is overwhelmed by our own sin and by the beauty and the majesty and the amazement of God’s grace in our lives.
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Post by Admin on Nov 6, 2024 19:38:20 GMT -5
Is Jesus God?
Daniel Schrock
3 Min Read
Is Jesus God? One could turn to many places in Scripture to discover that the Bible answers this question in the affirmative. It does so again and again. However, a preeminent place we find this answer provided in unmistakable terms is Hebrews 1:1–4.
In these verses, and in the remainder of the epistle, the author shows us how Christ has come with a supremacy that far surpasses every other prophet, priest, and king who came before Him. But the author of Hebrews wants us to understand that His supremacy is about more than what He does as a Son of man; it is foremost about who He is as God the Son.
The author says of Jesus in Hebrews 1:3, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” While all the other things said in Hebrews 1:1–4 regarding Jesus’ identity are crucial, this is the most important. This is the centerpiece. This is the bedrock of why Christ far surpasses the goodness of everyone who has come before Him and anyone who could come after Him. The advent of this Prophet, Priest, and King is the advent of God Himself come in the flesh.
We rightly confess in the Nicene Creed that Jesus is “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made.” Hebrews 1:3 is one of the key places in Scripture where we are confronted with that great mystery.
Christ is the radiance of the glory of God. In Isaiah 42:8, we read that Yahweh will not give His glory to another. Yet we read in Hebrews 1:3 that Christ is the radiance of the glory of God. The same glory that shines forth from the Father shines forth in Jesus Christ. The blinding light of God’s glory—the overwhelming refulgence of who He is—radiates from the Father in the Son. That the Son shares the glory of the Father can mean only one thing: He too is the Yahweh of whom Isaiah speaks, the only true and living God.
Furthermore, we read in Hebrews 1:3 that Christ is the exact imprint of the nature of God. The Greek word used in this verse sometimes refers to the imprint that is made by a signet ring in a wax seal. The idea is that every line and contour of the original ring is represented with exactness in the impress that is made. What the analogy communicates about Christ is that the whole of the divine essence that is eternally possessed by the Father is shared by the Son, who is the exact imprint of the nature of God.
The Son is the exact imprint of the nature of God. He does not possess a *part* of deity; He possesses the *whole* of deity. He is not a *part* of God. He *is* God.
This is an opportunity to grasp something about the grammar that the church catholic (universal) uses to describe the life of the Godhead. We ought never to say that the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit are parts of God. God does not have parts as though a piece of God is divvied out to the Father and another piece is divvied out to the Son. No, God is simple. He is indivisible. The Son is the exact imprint of the nature of God. He does not possess a part of deity; He possesses the whole of deity. He is not a part of God. He is God.
Like unto the impress of a ring upon a wax seal, in the eternal generation of the Son, every line and contour of the Father’s deity is communicated to the Son as the Son is begotten in the mysterious depths of God’s life—a begottenness without beginning or end.
That is why the author speaks about what Jesus does in Hebrews 1:2–3. Sandwiched around a statement of the essential deity of Christ are two statements about the work He performs in the creation of the world and its continued governance. We read in Hebrews 1:2 that Jesus is the One “through whom also he created the world.” We read in Hebrews 1:3 that “he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” These are works of the Creator, not of the creature. These are the works of Jesus.
As a result, Christ is worthy to be appointed as the heir of all things (Heb. 1:2). As God the Son, Christ is the One for whom all things have been created and to whom all things are moving.
This is one of the most practical consequences of the deity of Jesus for the Christian. If you are in Christ, then you ought always be aware of how the whole of your being is caught up in the gravitational pull of Christ. You have been created through Him and for Him and you are moving unto Him. We, as His people, are His inheritance. To be His possession is the greatest treasure of our existence.
There is no more practical thing you can do in the Christian life than behold the supremacy of Christ and let that supremacy fill up your imagination, your heart, and your life. Everything else pales in comparison to Him. Everything else in creation may be good, but it cannot begin to rise to the level of His uncreated goodness.
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Post by Admin on Nov 7, 2024 21:25:33 GMT -5
We Must Proclaim the Gospel. Will You Help?
Chris Larson
4 Min Read
“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”
The Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 10:14–15 remind us that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ must be proclaimed with steadfastness and courage in every generation. We joyfully share this saving message of God’s grace, knowing that it eternally changes lives.
Your support of Ligonier Ministries is crucial for taking the message of the gospel to the ends of the earth. To thank you for your donation of any amount this month, we’ll send you a substantial new devotional resource from R.C. Sproul on the book of Romans. More on that below.
As I think about those who have faithfully preached and taught the gospel—whether the Apostle Paul, Augustine, Martin Luther, or even Ligonier’s beloved founder, Dr. R.C. Sproul—each of them pointed not to themselves but always to the Lord.
Ligonier carries forward this Christ-centered legacy today with an unyielding, bold, and unchanging message. The Lord continues to bless this teaching fellowship in remarkable ways as we reach a new generation and more people in new lands.
While I was introduced to Dr. Sproul’s teaching years before, his most pivotal influence on me came as I sat under his preaching week by week. He preached through entire books of the Bible—including Romans—applying the eternal truth of each passage to bolster my faith and edify my family. Next month will mark seven years since he went home to be with the Lord, but his ministry was timeless and now reaches more new people every year.
Thankfully, we still hear him frequently on Renewing Your Mind, and we can revisit his vast teaching library, creating new volumes in helpful editions. So, Dr. Sproul is still my teacher, just as he is yours, and I continue to learn from him every time I read or listen to him.
R.C.’s words endure because he never chased after the latest fad, and he refused to compromise biblical truth for the sake of growing an audience. Dr. Sproul only ever wanted to help us walk the old paths, to know and be transformed by historic Christian doctrine founded upon the Word of God. He well understood and often reminded us that “God’s power is invested in the gospel” and that “God has promised that His Word will not return to Him void.”
Some of Dr. Sproul’s most beloved teaching came to us as he repeatedly turned to the book of Romans. In fact, if I could select only one collection of R.C.’s teaching to revisit time and time again, it would be his teaching through Romans, which is widely regarded as the Apostle Paul’s magnum opus.
R.C. showed us how the beauty of God’s grace shines brightly through the book of Romans. Consider some of the ways that Romans puts the power of the gospel on full display:
God’s righteousness revealed against the backdrop of our sin (Rom. 1:18–3:20)
Justification by faith alone in Christ alone (3:21–5:11)
The certainty of our salvation secured by Christ’s obedience (5:12–21)
Our growth in holiness as we walk by the Spirit (chs. 6–7)
Unshakable assurance that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ (ch. 8)
Our need for a renewed mind and living a transformed life (12:1–2)
Dr. Sproul clearly emphasized all these truths and more, and Ligonier continues to do so, by God’s grace. These are all truths that constitute the gospel and its implications—truths we must seek to herald without compromise.
Throughout history and in our own day, many have twisted the gospel. That is why Ligonier stands firm in the faith once delivered to the saints to fulfill R.C.’s vision: “In every generation, the gospel must be published anew with the same boldness, and the same clarity, and the same urgency that came forth in the sixteenth-century Reformation.”
Through teaching series, conferences, podcasts, radio, video streaming, Tabletalk magazine, the Reformation Study Bible, and now eighteen dedicated-language websites, Ligonier proclaims the same gospel we’ve always proclaimed but to millions more people every year.
The letter to the Romans contains the Bible’s most comprehensive gospel presentation. To help you grow in your understanding of the gospel, we’ve created a new resource drawn from Dr. Sproul’s ministry. It’s a volume titled The Power of the Gospel, which takes Dr. Sproul’s teaching on Romans and presents it as a yearlong devotional.
Just imagine R.C. sitting down with you for an entire year, unpacking Romans, explaining the letter’s theology and its relevance for your life. Each day’s reading also features applications crafted by the Ligonier editorial team to help you put the truths of Romans into practice. When you give a gift of any amount, you will be one of the first to receive this new resource. And your gift will fund the creation and distribution of trusted teaching resources across the globe.
Church history has shown us time and again that persecution will not kill the church, but a compromised gospel will destroy many congregations. Let us never assume the gospel but treasure its God-glorifying truth.
Thank you for standing with us as we seek to proclaim, teach, and defend the truth of Romans and the whole counsel of God to as many people as possible.
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Post by Admin on Nov 11, 2024 14:17:54 GMT -5
Faith and Union with Christ
Albert Martin
Ephesians 2:8
In seeking to answer the all-important question “What must I do to be saved?” we have come to that part of the biblical answer that finds us focusing our attention on the necessity, nature, and fruits of saving faith. The Apostle Paul speaks of this saving faith in Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” In Titus 1:1, it is described as “the faith of God’s elect.”
The faith of God’s elect that unites us to Christ is not simply a momentary act that grants us entrance into a life-encompassing, life-transforming relationship with Christ. Rather, the relationship is sustained by faith. The Scriptures describe this faith in various ways: “The righteous shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17); “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7); and “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20).
There are several inevitable and universal results from the life lived by faith in Christ. Since this faith unites us to Christ, our representative head, who died for sin and to sin, and rose from the dead as the triumphant victor over sin, our union with Him secures our death to the reigning power and dominion of sin (Rom. 6:1–14). Further, because faith unites us to the risen and enthroned Christ, this faith secures our progress in the putting to death of our remaining (but no longer reigning) sin (Col. 3:1–10).
Because of our union with Christ, who is now exalted in glory and provides spiritual life through His Spirit, we will ultimately share in that same glory. This glory culminates in the blessed vision, whereby we “shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2; see also Col. 3:4). Faith will at that point become sight.
Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray is a marvelous distillation of biblical truth. In his chapter on union with Christ, Murray writes:
Union with Christ is the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation. All to which the people of God have been predestined in the eternal election of God, all that has been secured and procured for them in the once-for-all accomplishment of redemption, all of which they become the actual partakers in the application of redemption, and all that by God’s grace they will become in the state of consummated bliss is embraced within the compass of union and communion with Christ.
It is a travesty that the faith of God’s elect that unites the believer to Christ and imparts such wonderful blessings from Christ Himself is so often reduced to a cheap “decisionism” that leaves the self-deceived, unconverted sinner still in Adam, wedded to his sins, and on his way to hell with a lie in his hands. A “decision to accept Christ” is a far cry from that God-produced faith that actually unites the sinner to Christ in life-transforming power.
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Post by Admin on Nov 11, 2024 14:18:55 GMT -5
Repentance and Faith
Albert Martin
Acts 20:21
Once again we take up God’s answer to the first of the two most important questions we can ever ask: “What must I do to be saved?”
In this meditation, we will begin to focus our attention on the response that God demands from all who hear the good news of this “done” salvation freely offered to all without distinction in the gospel.
The response that God commands is nothing other, nothing more, and nothing less than a response of Spirit-created repentance and faith. Because the biblical witness to this fact is both consistent and overwhelming, many texts of Scripture could be cited. However, this truth is well exemplified in Acts 20:21. There, Paul summarizes the substance of his preaching at Ephesus over the course of three years, and he affirms that he testified “both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Before considering separately the distinctive objects and actions of repentance and faith, it is crucial to grasp the fact that they are inseparable in any saving response to the gospel of the grace of God. As John Murray so accurately stated it: “It is impossible to disentangle faith and repentance. Saving faith is permeated with repentance and repentance is permeated with faith.”
It is for this reason that there are some texts that only mention the necessity of faith (16:31), and others that mention only the necessity of repentance (17:30).
Because faith is the appropriating activity of the soul, the Scriptures repeatedly emphasize that we are “saved by faith.” They never affirm that we are “saved by repentance.” However, the Scriptures do repeatedly affirm that we are not saved apart from repentance. Luke 13:3 is one such text, where our Lord Jesus Himself says, “Unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish.”
It is for this reason that in the Great Commission as it is recorded by Luke, our Lord Jesus said “that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations”(Luke 24:45).
In our next meditation, God willing, we will focus our attention upon the nature and fruits of that which God calls “repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18). Meanwhile, I commend to the reader’s serious study and reflection the profoundly accurate definition of gospel repentance found in the Westminster Shorter Catechism: “Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience” (Q&A 87).
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Post by Admin on Nov 11, 2024 14:19:40 GMT -5
The Faith of God's Elect
Albert Martin
Ephesians 2:8
Having demonstrated in our previous meditation the necessity, nature, and fruits of true repentance, we now turn our attention to a consideration of the necessity, nature, and fruits of saving faith.
Dozens of texts could be cited to prove the necessity of faith if we are to enter into the blessings of God’s salvation in Christ. However, I have chosen four texts that epitomize the universal teaching of the Word of God concerning the necessity for saving faith:
"Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God" (John 3:18).
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Rom. 1:16).
"For by grace you have been saved through faith" (Eph. 2:8).
"And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 3:23).
If we are to experience the salvation procured for sinners and sincerely offered to us in the gospel, we must understand the nature of this saving faith.
God nowhere gives us one succinct definition of the nature of saving faith. He has done something far better. He has given us multiple pictures and analogies of what constitutes saving faith. The following are but a sampling of the many pictures of saving faith scattered throughout the Scriptures:
Receiving Christ (John 1:12; Col. 2:6).
Drinking from Christ (John 7:37, 38; Rev. 22:17).
Looking to Christ (John 3:14, 15)
Coming to Christ (John 7:37; 1 Peter 2:4).
Calling upon Christ (Rom. 10:13).
Fleeing to Christ (Heb. 6:18).
Feeding upon Christ (John 6:35).
In all of these pictures of the nature of saving faith, it is clear that the object of such faith is not one or more aspects of the person or work of Christ-—rather, Christ Himself in the uniqueness of His person and the perfection of His work is the object of our faith.
Christ accomplishes His saving work in the exercise of his threefold office as our prophet, priest, and king. Through saving faith, we receive and entrust ourselves to a whole Christ—as a prophet to teach us, as a priest who sacrificed Himself and intercedes for us, and as a king to rule over and defend us.
I ask you, do you truly embrace the Christ of Scripture as your prophet, your priest, and your king?
For Further Study
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Post by Admin on Nov 11, 2024 14:20:33 GMT -5
The Faith of God's Elect
Albert Martin
Titus 1:1
In these weekend devotionals for 2014 I have been stating the biblical answers to these two ultimate questions: (1) What must I do to be saved? and (2) How can I be sure that I am saved?
The Bible’s answer to the first question is unmistakably clear and uniformly consistent. According to passages such as Acts 20:21, if we would experience God’s salvation, we must experience Spirit-wrought “repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We are now examining the scriptural teaching concerning the necessity, nature, and fruit of what Paul calls “the faith of God’s elect” in Titus 1:1. Our Lord Jesus Christ in His threefold office as prophet, priest, and king is set before us as the object of saving faith. The faith of God’s elect involves the whole man (mind, affections, and will) embracing the whole Christ (prophet, priest, and king) in order to obtain a whole salvation (deliverance from the guilt and power of sin, issuing in growing conformity to Christ and culminating in glorification). In this way, the Lord Jesus fulfills the prophecy made concerning Him that “he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21).
Faith is given such a prominent place because it unites us to Christ, and through union with Christ we are made partakers of the salvation procured by Him. According to the Scriptures, union with Christ is the most all-embracing blessing of God’s salvation because all other saving benefits (for example, justification and sanctification) depend on union with Christ.
Although every Christian was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4) and was also in Christ as our federal head and representative when He died and rose again (Rom. 6:1–14; Col. 2:12; 3:1–2), we do not enter into a saving union with Him until we believe. According to 1 Corinthians 1:9, we are brought into this vital union with Christ when we are effectually called and embrace Christ by faith. Only then does 1 Corinthians 1:30 become true of us: “and because of him you are in Christ Jesus.”
Think of our union with Christ as a coin with two sides. From the divine side, our union with Christ is secured by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is the bond of that union (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:13–14). From the human side, the bond of our union with Christ is the Spirit-granted faith that embraces Him as He is offered to us in the gospel (Acts 5:14; Rom. 16:7b).
The power (the Spirit) to believe comes from God; but the act (faith) is our act, though it is guaranteed by the Lord for His elect. Until we believe, we are outside of Christ, and we must believe to enjoy the full benefits of salvation that He has purchased for His elect.
Saving faith is not the act of a moment, but it is the entrance into a life-encompassing relationship with Christ. Next month we will address some aspects of that relationship.
For Further Study
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Post by Admin on Nov 11, 2024 14:21:17 GMT -5
The Salvation of Israel's Remnant
Romans 9:27–28
Romans 9:27–28
"Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: 'Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.'"
Ultimately, election and reprobation are two of Christianity's greatest mysteries, truths God has revealed in part without telling us everything we might like to know about them. The difficulty of election and reprobation means we should handle these teachings with care. Moreover, in order that we might defend these doctrines, we should know the common misunderstandings of them, including the views of election as arbitrary and reprobation as shutting the doors of heaven to people who want to be there. Our answer is that although God does not elect people to salvation based on anything they have done or will do, He has a (not fully revealed) purpose in election (Rom. 9: 10-13). Paul also notes that the Lord draws the reprobate from the same fallen lump of clay as the elect (vv. 21-24); therefore, reprobation is not His standing in the way of people who want to be with Him. He gives the reprobate what they want, for the perverse reality of sin is that unless God intervenes, fallen people prefer His wrath over seeing Him in heaven (1:18-32; 3:9-18; Rev. 22:11).
Another common misunderstanding of divine election is that the Lord elects only a group to salvation, that God chooses to save the invisible church without choosing the individuals who will belong to it. Our response must be brief. First, groups do not exist apart from their individual members. The Lord cannot finally choose to save a group without choosing its members. Moreover, we again note that the objections Paul answers in Romans 9 make sense only if the election of individuals is in view. What seems "unfair" about God's choosing to save a particular group if my membership in that group finally depends on me?
Divine election of individuals to salvation reveals the Lord's mercy in preserving a remnant of ethnic Israelites out of a fallen, undeserving people. It shows the elect's utter dependence on God; without His grace, Israel's fate would be complete annihilation (Rom. 9:27-29). But the Lord has also elected a remnant of Gentiles, fulfilling Hosea 1:10 and 2:23 (Rom. 9:25-26). Hosea originally spoke of the restoration of ethnic Israelites, but Paul fittingly applies it to Gentiles. In Hosea's day, the Israelites had broken their covenant with the Lord so completely that they had made themselves unclean Gentiles, spiritually speaking. Paul sees that saving such Israelites is not essentially different from redeeming Gentiles who have never known the God of Israel. Redeeming Israelites-turned-Gentiles as well as naturally born Gentiles means saving those outside God's covenant.
Coram Deo
God continues to save people who, having been in covenant with Him, sin gravely and put themselves out of the visible covenant community via excommunication. The Lord promises that no matter what we have done, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins when we repent and believe the gospel (1 John 1:8-9). If you have put yourself outside of God's visible church by your sin, know that the Lord is willing and waiting to forgive you when you repent.
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Post by Admin on Nov 11, 2024 14:22:00 GMT -5
The People of God
Romans 9:25–26
Romans 9:25–26
"As indeed he says in Hosea, 'Those who were not my people I will call my people, and her who was not beloved I will call beloved.' And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God.'"
God's election to salvation and His reprobation to punishment are parallel but not equivalent. Most significantly, because the elect and the reprobate come from the same lump of fallen clay (Rom. 9:21), the Lord in effecting salvation must work against sinners' natural inclinations. On the other hand, fallen people oppose the Lord by nature, so in reprobation He needs only to leave them alone. Therefore, we say that God passes over the reprobate, leaving them in sin, or that He permits the reprobate to remain in their existing condition. Still, as John Calvin said, God does not give "bare" permission, for He ordains all things. The Lord has no moral responsibility for damnation and does not work in it the same way He works in salvation, but He does not passively observe His creation either.
The objections to the Lord's hardening of Pharaoh that the Apostle anticipates and answers show us that he is not talking about mere permission (v. 19). Few would object that it is "unfair" for God to allow sinners to choose their own damnation as long as His permission does not guarantee their choice. After all, we give people under our charge the freedom to make choices—even wrong choices—knowing that if they make the wrong decisions, our permission will not have made their choices certain. Yet God's permission guarantees the outcome He has ordained, though He remains blameless when people, having been permitted to do evil, commit sin. That raises questions about the Lord's justice, but Paul's only answer is that we may not believe our Creator is unjust in this matter (vv. 20-21). By faith we continue to believe that God is just even when He has not explained Himself fully to us.
God does not tell us what motivates His election and reprobation in specific cases—we do not know why He saves Alice but passes over Suzie. But He does tell us the elect and reprobate exist to show forth the riches of His glory (vv. 22-23). In passing by some for salvation, He reveals His just wrath against sin and His power. In saving the undeserving, He shows His mercy on sinners and His tremendous love in adopting for Himself a people who by nature are not His people. Without the dual reality of predestination to salvation and reprobation unto damnation, we would not see the fullness of God's attributes and disposition. The Lord shows forth the glory of His character in saving some and condemning others, and this is to be praised because His glory is the highest good of all.
Coram Deo
God chooses us for His glory and not on account of any good in us. John Calvin comments that God's glory is revealed in destroying the reprobate, because the only thing that separates the elect from the reprobate is that the elect "are delivered by the Lord from the same gulf of destruction [as the reprobate] . . . by no merit of their own, but through his gratuitous kindness." Let God's elect—those who persevere in faith—remember this and learn humility.
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Post by Admin on Nov 11, 2024 14:22:45 GMT -5
The Potter and the Clay
Romans 9:20–24
Romans 9:20–24
"Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God . . . has endured with much patience vessels of wrath . . . in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy?" (vv. 21-23).
John Calvin remains well known by his admirers and detractors for His affirmation of double predestination, that God elects some people for salvation and chooses to leave others to damnation. Yet Calvin did not have some cold view of reprobation—the choice to pass by some and leave them to damnation. He called reprobation a "horrible" or "awful" decree. The great Reformer did not mean by this that reprobation is motivated by injustice or that the Lord takes sadistic delight in letting some people go to hell. He meant that reprobation is a hard thing to think about, a most difficult reality for us to fathom.
We do not want to underestimate the difficulty of this teaching, but we must point out that one reason we have a hard time with reprobation is that we have a poor understanding of sin and God's holiness. None of us gets a full glimpse of His holiness in this life, though that is by His grace, for none of us could endure meeting our Creator face-to-face while sin abides. Because we can only progress so far in understanding the holiness of the Lord, however, we must continually return to the biblical teaching that God is so pure so as not to look at sin (Hab. 1:13). He hates sin as well as the sinners who refuse to turn from it (Ps. 11:5).
Paul's teaching on reprobation is somewhat easier to accept when we realize that in reprobation, God is not taking people who otherwise want to be with Him in heaven and keeping them out of His blessed presence for the sake of irrational malice. We see this in today's passage when the Apostle distinguishes God's fashioning of some vessels for glory (the elect) from His making some vessels for destruction (the reprobate) out of the "same lump" of clay (Rom. 9:21). This lump of clay is the mass of humanity in Adam, the same group he describes in Romans 3:9-18 as "worthless" and without any fear of God. In fashioning vessels fit for destruction, the Lord is not taking otherwise good people and making them evil. They are already evil, and all they deserve is destruction. As Dr. R.C. Sproul writes in his commentary Romans: "The elect get grace; the non-elect get justice. Nobody gets injustice." Along similar lines, Martin Luther says, "All men are equally a part of the mass of perdition and no one is righteous before God unless he receives mercy."
Election and reprobation are related, but they are not parallel in every way. In electing children of Adam for salvation and making them vessels for mercy, the Lord overcomes the fallenness of the clay. In reprobation, He confirms this fallenness.
Coram Deo
Election and reprobation are deep truths that defy our attempts to grasp them fully. God has told us some things about His purposes in election and reprobation, but He has not answered every question we have. In cases like these, John Calvin says that “a mystery which our minds cannot comprehend ought to be reverently adored.” Let us reverence the Lord for His love and justice shown in election and reprobation even though we cannot understand these doctrines completely.
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Post by Admin on Nov 11, 2024 14:23:45 GMT -5
The People of God
Romans 9:25–26
Romans 9:25–26
"As indeed he says in Hosea, 'Those who were not my people I will call my people, and her who was not beloved I will call beloved.' And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God.'"
God's election to salvation and His reprobation to punishment are parallel but not equivalent. Most significantly, because the elect and the reprobate come from the same lump of fallen clay (Rom. 9:21), the Lord in effecting salvation must work against sinners' natural inclinations. On the other hand, fallen people oppose the Lord by nature, so in reprobation He needs only to leave them alone. Therefore, we say that God passes over the reprobate, leaving them in sin, or that He permits the reprobate to remain in their existing condition. Still, as John Calvin said, God does not give "bare" permission, for He ordains all things. The Lord has no moral responsibility for damnation and does not work in it the same way He works in salvation, but He does not passively observe His creation either.
The objections to the Lord's hardening of Pharaoh that the Apostle anticipates and answers show us that he is not talking about mere permission (v. 19). Few would object that it is "unfair" for God to allow sinners to choose their own damnation as long as His permission does not guarantee their choice. After all, we give people under our charge the freedom to make choices—even wrong choices—knowing that if they make the wrong decisions, our permission will not have made their choices certain. Yet God's permission guarantees the outcome He has ordained, though He remains blameless when people, having been permitted to do evil, commit sin. That raises questions about the Lord's justice, but Paul's only answer is that we may not believe our Creator is unjust in this matter (vv. 20-21). By faith we continue to believe that God is just even when He has not explained Himself fully to us.
God does not tell us what motivates His election and reprobation in specific cases—we do not know why He saves Alice but passes over Suzie. But He does tell us the elect and reprobate exist to show forth the riches of His glory (vv. 22-23). In passing by some for salvation, He reveals His just wrath against sin and His power. In saving the undeserving, He shows His mercy on sinners and His tremendous love in adopting for Himself a people who by nature are not His people. Without the dual reality of predestination to salvation and reprobation unto damnation, we would not see the fullness of God's attributes and disposition. The Lord shows forth the glory of His character in saving some and condemning others, and this is to be praised because His glory is the highest good of all.
Coram Deo
God chooses us for His glory and not on account of any good in us. John Calvin comments that God's glory is revealed in destroying the reprobate, because the only thing that separates the elect from the reprobate is that the elect "are delivered by the Lord from the same gulf of destruction [as the reprobate] . . . by no merit of their own, but through his gratuitous kindness." Let God's elect—those who persevere in faith—remember this and learn humility.
For Further Study
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Post by Admin on Nov 11, 2024 14:24:34 GMT -5
The Salvation of Israel's Remnant
Romans 9:27–28
Romans 9:27–28
"Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: 'Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.'"
Ultimately, election and reprobation are two of Christianity's greatest mysteries, truths God has revealed in part without telling us everything we might like to know about them. The difficulty of election and reprobation means we should handle these teachings with care. Moreover, in order that we might defend these doctrines, we should know the common misunderstandings of them, including the views of election as arbitrary and reprobation as shutting the doors of heaven to people who want to be there. Our answer is that although God does not elect people to salvation based on anything they have done or will do, He has a (not fully revealed) purpose in election (Rom. 9: 10-13). Paul also notes that the Lord draws the reprobate from the same fallen lump of clay as the elect (vv. 21-24); therefore, reprobation is not His standing in the way of people who want to be with Him. He gives the reprobate what they want, for the perverse reality of sin is that unless God intervenes, fallen people prefer His wrath over seeing Him in heaven (1:18-32; 3:9-18; Rev. 22:11).
Another common misunderstanding of divine election is that the Lord elects only a group to salvation, that God chooses to save the invisible church without choosing the individuals who will belong to it. Our response must be brief. First, groups do not exist apart from their individual members. The Lord cannot finally choose to save a group without choosing its members. Moreover, we again note that the objections Paul answers in Romans 9 make sense only if the election of individuals is in view. What seems "unfair" about God's choosing to save a particular group if my membership in that group finally depends on me?
Divine election of individuals to salvation reveals the Lord's mercy in preserving a remnant of ethnic Israelites out of a fallen, undeserving people. It shows the elect's utter dependence on God; without His grace, Israel's fate would be complete annihilation (Rom. 9:27-29). But the Lord has also elected a remnant of Gentiles, fulfilling Hosea 1:10 and 2:23 (Rom. 9:25-26). Hosea originally spoke of the restoration of ethnic Israelites, but Paul fittingly applies it to Gentiles. In Hosea's day, the Israelites had broken their covenant with the Lord so completely that they had made themselves unclean Gentiles, spiritually speaking. Paul sees that saving such Israelites is not essentially different from redeeming Gentiles who have never known the God of Israel. Redeeming Israelites-turned-Gentiles as well as naturally born Gentiles means saving those outside God's covenant.
Coram Deo
God continues to save people who, having been in covenant with Him, sin gravely and put themselves out of the visible covenant community via excommunication. The Lord promises that no matter what we have done, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins when we repent and believe the gospel (1 John 1:8-9). If you have put yourself outside of God's visible church by your sin, know that the Lord is willing and waiting to forgive you when you repent.
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