By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type.
—Hebrews 11:17–19
Just a few quick observations from this text:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac . . . Genuine obedience is by faith (Romans 14:23).
By faith Abraham . . . was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, “In Isaac your descendants shall be called.” . . . Abraham trusted God to keep his promise, in spite of incomprehensible evidence to the contrary.
By faith Abraham . . . was offering up his only begotten son; . . . He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead . . . Abraham believed that God was able to do the impossible to keep his promise.
By faith Abraham . . . offered up Isaac [and] also received him back as a type. This passage is thick with typology. First, Abraham typifies the Father, offering his only son. Isaac typifies Christ, willingly and knowingly laying down his life in obedience to his father. Abraham’s faith is an example of saving faith in Christ: Abraham surely believed that Isaac would die, yet believed that God would keep his promise and raise him from the dead. Finally, the ram is a type of Christ, and an illustration of substitutionary atonement. Abraham owed God a supreme sacrifice. That sacrifice was his only son, who was more than just precious as a beloved son, but also the fulfillment of God’s promise of Abraham’s future legacy. Isaac was Abraham’s everything, his very life. And that is our debt to God, for our sin. We owe him a death, and he will be paid. But he has provided a substitute. Abraham called the place Jehovah-jireh (the Lord will provide, Genesis 22:14). Jesus is our “ram caught in the thicket.” Calvary is our Jehovah-jireh. Most immediately important to us is that, in Isaac, we see ourselves, desperately in need of a substitute that only God can provide.
All you really need to know about guidance can be summed up in this one sentence: God is faithful, so obey him. Whether or not that seems likely to work is not your business. Being faithful to God’s revealed will is your business.
The series title brings certain expectations. Yours might not be the same as mine, but I have to say that my expectations have, so far, proven inaccurate. My hope was for a cataloguing of specifically Christ and cross centered Old Testament texts. I was thinking of “gospel” in the narrowest sense. What I’ve read has certainly been gospel, but in a much broader sense. The theme has been much more practical than theologically technical, fleshing out Old Testament examples of the gospel truth that “the just shall live by faith.” As such, I would say it has been both less and more than I expected.
These are not difficult reading. The average high school student should be able to comprehend it. Each chapter is followed by study questions, so these would make good texts for high school and adult Sunday school classes.
I do have a couple of criticisms, which apply only to the first volume and its author (the series has multiple authors). The first is rather petty. The author, Iain Duguid, two or three times repeats the tired old phrase, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it,” leaving me shouting back, “It doesn’t matter what you believe! God said it, and that settles it!” I don’t doubt that he would agree with that, and that he is only repeating a cliché, but it does irritate me. My second criticism is more serious. In dealing with the Genesis 22 account of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac on Mount Moriah, he makes the point that Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac in obedience to God even though it meant the end of his promised legacy. He does eventually come back to Hebrews 11 and acknowledge that Abraham believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead, but I think the text tells us more than that. Abraham knew that God would either intervene, or if not, raise Isaac. He knew God would keep his promise, and that he would keep it through Isaac (Genesis 17:18–19). It was that faith in God’s promise that enabled Abraham to carry out God’s command without hesitation.
Having said that, I commend the author for not turning Old Testament narratives into Veggie Tales-style morality plays. At the same time, he does not shy away from taking legitimate practical lessons from the examples of Old Testament characters, without making them the point of the text. For example, of the favoritism of Isaac and Rebekah toward Esau and Jacob, he writes:
Not only is there favoritism here, but also the children were valued for what they could do for the parents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau. The text doesn’t tell us why Rebekah loved Jacob. Perhaps she remembered the oracle concerning him. Or perhaps it was his propensity for hanging around the tents where she was. . . . How easy it would be to love those best whose interests and aptitudes are closest to ours. How easy, but how terrible in its consequences!
It will be interesting to see how other the other authors of other volumes in this series approach their texts. Overall, in spite of my mistaken expectations, I have appreciated the content. I expect to be edified as I continue.
Hymns of My Youth: Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain
This hymn is listed in the hymnal under “Call and Repentance,” intended to be used in conjunction with evangelistic sermons. I’m no fan of that kind of hymn, or of using music for evangelistic purposes at all, as music cannot help but move people emotionally. However, I think it is perfectly appropriate for us to sing the gospel to one another in our worship, and this hymn expresses that gospel beautifully.
253 Come to Calvary’s Holy Mountain
Come to Calv’ry’s holy mountain,
Sinners, ruined by the Fall;
Here a pure and healing fountain
Flows to you, to me, to all,
In a full, perpetual tide,
Opened when our Savior died.
Come in poverty and meanness,
Come defiled, without, within;
From infection and uncleanness,
From the leprosy of sin,
Wash your robes and make them white;
Ye shall walk with God in light.
Come in sorrow and contrition,
Wounded, impotent, and blind;
Here the guilty free remission,
Here the troubled peace may find:
Health this fountain will restore;
He that drinks shall thirst no more.
He that drinks shall live forever;
’Tis a soul renewing flood.
God is faithful; God will never
Break His covenant of blood,
Signed when our Redeemer died,
Seal’d when He was glorified.
The Son of God in mighty love, Came down to Bethlehem for me; Forsook his throne of light above, An infant upon earth to be.
In love, the Father’s sinless child
Sojourned at Nazareth for me;
With sinners dwelt the undefiled,
The Holy One in Galilee.
Jesus, whom angel-hosts adore,
Became a man of griefs for me;
In love, though rich, becoming poor,
That I through him enriched might be.
Though Lord of all, above, below,
He went to Olivet for me;
There drank my cup of wrath and woe,
When bleeding in Gethsemane.
The ever-blessed Son of God
Went up to Calvary for me;
There paid my debt, there bore my load,
In his own body on the tree.
Jesus, whose dwelling is the skies,
Went down into the grave for me;
There overcame my enemies,
There won the glorious victory.
In love the whole dark path he trod,
To consecrate a way for me;
Each bitter footstep marked with blood,
From Bethlehem to Calvary.
’Tis finished all; the veil is rent,
The welcome sure, the access free;—
Now then we leave our banishment,
O Father, to return to thee!
—Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope, First Series (James Nisbet & Co., 1878).
If you’ve been following these Lord’s Day posts, you know that we’ve finished The Gospel of John with J. C. Ryle. Now I need to decide on something else to fill this space. Suggestions are welcome.
Title in honor of John MacArthur’s penchant for alliterated points.
Yesterday, John MacArthur finished preaching through the New Testament, an odyssey he began in 1969. I feel like I should stop everything today in honor of this great accomplishment. As uncalvinistic and irreverent as it is, part of me wishes I could have been fifteen or twenty years older and sitting in Grace Community Church when MacArthur preached his first sermon there. I can’t help wondering who I would be today, after forty-plus years of such excellent biblical exposition. But as I said, it is irreverent, and even blasphemous, to wish for a different life than the one that God, in his unsearchable wisdom, has given me. Besides that, I can listen to every one of MacArthur’s sermons here, no charge, no time machine necessary.
I watched his final sermon on the Gospel of Mark last night on the Grace Community Church live stream page. It was actually a postscript to Mark’s gospel, the final verses having been finished that morning. When I say “final verses,” I mean Mark 16:1–8. Last evening’s “Postscript” dealt at length with textual criticism. MacArthur explained how answering the questions raised by the apocryphal ending of verses 9 and following and similar passages, should increase our confidence in the biblical text. That message should appear here sometime this week.
I thank God for John MacArthur’s long ministry, and pray that God will give him many more fruitful years.
As noted yesterday, John MacArthur completed preaching through the New Testament this Sunday. All 43 years of his pulpit ministry at Grace Community Church can be found here. MacArthur has also written my favorite study Bible. Grace to You has posted the book introductions from the MacArthur Study Bible online.
Q. 22. Did all mankind fall in that first transgression?
A. The covenant being made with Adam as a public person, not for himself only, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in that first transgression.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
—Romans 5:12–14
Lest any doubt the catechism’s answer, take note: everyone dies. The universal mortality we witness all around us tells us that something has gone horribly wrong, and none are untouched. Death is in the news daily. We watch our friends and family get old, get sick, and die. Indeed, we look in the mirror and witness the steady decay of our own bodies. We are going to die.
How did this dreadful state of affairs come to be? The Apostle explains:
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, . . . It might seem odd that Paul says, “through one man.” After all, Eve was there too, and actually started it, right? Yet God held Adam fully responsible, and a little more than five thousand years later, inspired the words, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). The headship of the man is shown to be a creation ordinance. It is not a result of the Fall, and certainly not an invention of a chauvinist apostle.
Notice that Paul does not speak of plural sins, but of sin. It does not refer to specific unrighteous acts, but to an innate condition. Cattle “moo”; that is something they do. But cattle areruminants. It is a characteristic of cattle to ruminate because that is what they are. Just so, sin is a part of the human condition. We do not become sinners when we sin. Rather, we are born that way.
and death through sin, . . . God warned Adam that if he disobeyed, he would “surely die” (Genesis 2:17), and so he did.
and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— . . . As emphasized in the first paragraph above, the human race has a 100% mortality rate. With the exception of two men whom God miraculously caught away, every single person who has ever lived has died or is dying. Death awaits everyone, because everyone is a sinner. If “in Adam all die,” and all die “because all sinned,” it is just simple math to conclude that all mankind did indeed fall in that first transgression.
Only one man has ever been without sin. He is the lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit. And even he died, when he took our sin upon himself — which brings us to the good news. Our text begins with a “therefore,” connecting the following verses to the previous promise of reconciliation to God, and ends with a hopeful finger pointed toward “him who was to come,” “through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (v. 11). However, the Westminster Divines require us to wait for that. We’ll pick this up again around Question 30.
Get your own copy of The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechismshere.
A couple of weeks ago, Tim Challies wrote an excellent article called Letting herself Go, about a woman’s responsibility to remain attractive to her husband. Predictably, it stirred up considerable controversy, receiving 271 comments (as of today), many of them from readers who, also predictably, missed the point, and many who appeared not to have actually read the article. For example, in spite of this paragraph,
It should be noted that in this way a man can let himself go just as much and it would be just as much of a sin. I know of women who have become utterly disgusted by their husbands—husbands who have given up, who do not show their wives the dignity of seeking to remain attractive to them. It is not just women whose clothes and whose appearance make a statement. It is not just women who ought to make a continued effort to be attractive and appealing and dignified.
several people piped up with, “Oh yeah? What about men? Lots of men I know, blah, blah, blah . . .” But all that, as I have said, was predictable.
What caught my attention was the number of comments that included makeup among items necessary for good grooming. This has always been a pet peeve of mine — not that I’m completely against wearing makup, but the notion that a woman isn’t properly finished without it. This seems to be an almost universal opinion, at least among Americans, and it demonstrates a badly twisted definition of beauty.
What does it take to make a woman beautiful? Is it enough that she maintain her health, be clean and tidy, and dressed appropriately for the occasion, or does she need more? If you say “Yes, she needs more,” you may have an unbiblical definition of beauty. What is the biblical definition of beauty? Well, I’m glad you asked. For an answer, we need look no further than creation. Among all created things that God declared “good” were man and woman. There Eve was, as natural as could be: no makeup, natural hair color, and [gasp!] she hadn’t even shaved her legs! She was just as God made her, which tells us, even if God had not written it for us, that she looked good. She was beautiful. Whatever her skin tone, shape, or size, she was beautiful just the way God made her. And ladies, so are you.
I’ve been especially disturbed by several men I’ve known or known of who have told their wives that they liked them better with makeup. Men, before you say such things, think about what you are saying. Would you ever tell your wife, “Honey, you’re just not pretty enough without some embellishment”? I doubt you would say that. I hope you wouldn’t say that. But that is what “I like you better with makup” means: “You’re just not pretty enough.” Shame on you if you’ve ever said that. It’s not just an insult to her; it’s an insult to the one who made her that way.
I know some will object that the effects of the Fall have changed all that. Before objecting out loud, think it through carefully and be prepared to answer
whether or not the Fall effected men, too, and
if so, why don’t men wear makeup and shave their legs?
Be consistent. Whatever made the daughters of Eve ugly also made the sons of Adam ugly.
Reminder:This is not about whether or not it’s OK to wear makeup.
The doctrine of election is a difficult one for many people. They struggle with the justice of the idea that God chooses some for salvation and passes over others. Some people, therefore, have argued that it is a matter of God’s foreknowledge. God knows in advance which people are going to choose him, and therefore he responds by choosing them. The Bible, however, is clear. God’s love for his chosen people existed long before their birth, all the way back to the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4-5). God does not love us because he foresaw we would love him. Rather, we love God because he loved us from the first (Rom. 9:16).
Yet, as we pointed out earlier, even though God’s election is sovereign, it is not arbitrary or unjust. It is not as if Esau desperately wanted to be a chosen son and God harshly turned him away, not allowing him a place among his chosen people. No, Esau has twice turned his back on his spiritual birthright. First, he sold his birthright to his brother for a bowl of lentil soup (Gen. 25:31–34). Now he compromised the fundamental goal of God’s election: the creation of a separate, holy people for God. Under the circumstances, Esau could have no complaints about being passed over.
We should also notice, however, that Jacob is not chosen because, in contrast to Esau, he is such a wonderful person. Jacob shows himself to be a scheming, conniving, calculating little rat, especially during the first part of his life. Nonetheless, because God’s choice rests upon him out of his sovereign mercy, God is going to work on Jacob, reshaping him, purifying him into a person he can use. Neither Jacob nor Esau deserves God’s grace in his life, but God’s sovereign mercy rests upon Jacob for his blessing, and so his grace begins the transforming work in his heart.
So it is also for us. Our election and our salvation are entirely of grace. God did not choose you because you were better or smarter or more beautiful or holier than everyone else. God did not choose you because he foresaw that you would exercise faith while others wouldn’t. God chose us while we were still filthy sinners, because of his electing grace. Even with his transforming power at work in our hearts, thou, the best of saints make only small beginnings on the path of holy living. We never outgrow our need for grace while we live on earth.
But God’s sovereign choice on salvation is not arbitrary. Those passed over by God have no cause for complaint. Their condemnation is thoroughly deserved. Even though we plead with them with tears to abandon their self-destructive course and find salvation in Jesus Christ, they will have none of it. The whole idea is foolishness to them. Those whom God chooses, he then begins to reshape into a people for his pleasure. As Ephesians 1:4 puts it, “He chose us . . . to be holy and blameless in his sight.” The result is that those chosen have no cause of arrogance. Their justification is undeserved by them. It is merited only by the righteousness of Christ that is credited to their account, and it is worked on them by the indwelling power o the Holy Spirit. All is of God, so that God may receive all the glory.
That truth should give us boldness in our sharing of the gospel. We may freely call all who will come to Jesus and be saved. The invitation to the party is open to all. Whoever you are, whatever you have done, your sins too can be paid for by the death of Jesus on the cross. No one is too guilty or too defiled to come. You too can receive Christ’s righteousness credited to your account. You too can participate in the feast that God has prepared for all who are his people on the final day. It’s a genuine offer, and we pray fervently and intently that many people will respond to it in faith. But we trust the outcome of our evangelism to the care of a good god, who chose a people who would be his before the foundation of the world.
That too is a comforting thought, given the imperfection of so much of our gospel witness. It is God who determines the outcome of our speaking for him, not the quality of our speech. It is God’s choice whither our words fall on the ears of an Esau, to whom they are all nonsense, or on the ears of a Jacob, for whom the road to faith may be long and hard but will eventually bring him to glory. It is God’s choice whether our words fall on the ears of an Abraham who is ready now to hear and trust and believe. We therefore invite all to come to Christ of receive the living water from him, confident that all those whom the Lord our God is calling to himself will hear his voice and will come. To him indeed be all the glory.
This truth should also give us great joy on the midst of our manifold sins and failures. Do you know yourself to be a sinner in God’s sight? Are there areas of your life where you continue to fail God over and over again? If so, the bad news is that you are normal. But the good news is that if God has laid hold of you by his electing grace, he will sustain you by that grace through every step of your earthly journey. He will use even that son which you find so difficult to combat as a means of driving you back to the cross. And one day, at the end of all things, you too will be purified completely by his grace and will stand before him without fault or blemish. What a wonderful, heartwarming, comforting, doctrine the doctrine of God’s election is!
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
—Matthew 11:28–30
This is another hymn that offers us an opportunity to sing the gospel to one another.
266 Come, Ye Disconsolate
Come, ye disconsolate, where’er ye languish,
Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel.
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Hymn LVII. The name ofJesus. Solomon’s Song i. 3. John Newton (1725–1807)
How sweet the name of Jesus sounds In a believer’s ear? It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, And drives away his fear.
It makes the wounded spirit whole,
And calms the troubled breast;
’Tis Manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary rest.
Dear name! the rock on which I build,
My shield and hiding place;
My never–failing treas’ry fill’d
With boundless stores of grace.
By thee my pray’rs acceptance gain,
Although with sin defiled,
Satan accuses me in vain,
And I am own’d a child.
Jesus! my Shepherd, Husband, Friend,
My Prophet, Priest, and King;
My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring.
Weak is the effort of my heart,
And cold my warmest thought;
But when I see thee as thou art,
I’ll praise thee as I ought.
’Till then I would thy love proclaim
With ev’ry fleeting breath,
And may the music of thy name
Refresh my soul in death.
— Olney Hymns. Book I: On select Passages of Scripture.
If you’ve been following these Lord’s Day posts, you know that we’ve finished The Gospel of John with J. C. Ryle. Now I need to decide on something else to fill this space. I’m thinking of selections from Horatius Bonar, Light & Truth: Bible Thoughts & Themes.
On that day, the Lord will grant unto his people an abundant reward for all that they have done. Not that they deserve any reward, but that God first gave them grace to do good works. Then took their good works as evidence of a renewed heart, and then gave them a reward for what they had done. Oh, what a bliss it will be to hear it said, “Well done, good and faithful servant,”—and to find that you have worked for Christ when nobody knew it, to find that Christ took stock of it all,—to you that served the Lord under misrepresentation, to find that the Lord Jesus cleared the chaff away from the wheat, and knew that you were one of his precious ones. For him, then, to say, “Enter into the joy of the Lord,” oh, what a bliss will it be to you.
—Charles Spurgeon, quoted in John MacArthur, Slave (Thomas Nelson, 2010), 52–53.
Adoption comes to us by way of redemption. . . . “But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Beloved, prize redemption, and never listen to teaching which would destroy its meaning or lower its importance. Remember that ye were not redeemed with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish. You were under the law, and subject to its curse, for you had broken it most grievously, and you were subject to its penalty, for it is written, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die”; and yet again, “cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.” You were also under the terror of the law, for you feared its wrath; and you were under its irritating power, for often when the commandment came, sin within you revived and you died. But now you are redeemed from all; as the Holy Ghost saith, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” Now ye are not under the law, but under grace, and this because Christ came under the law and kept it both by his active and his passive obedience, fulfilling all its commands and bearing all its penalty on your behalf and in your room and stead. Henceforth you are the redeemed of the Lord, and enjoy a liberty which comes by no other way but that of the eternal ransom. Remember this; and whenever you feel most assured that you are a child of God, praise the redeeming blood; whenever your heart beats highest with love to your great Father, bless the “firstborn among many brethren,” who for your sakes came under the law, was circumcised, kept the law in his life, and bowed his head to it in his death, honouring, and magnifying the law, and making the justice and righteousness of God to be more conspicuous by his life than it would have been by the holiness of all mankind, and his justice to be more fully vindicated by his death that it would have been if all the world of sinners had been cast into hell. Glory be to our redeeming Lord, by whom we have received the adoption!
In the beginning of the chapter, Paul responds to the slanderous charge of licentiousness, concluding that his accusers are justly condemned. Then he turns back on himself and his fellow Christians, asking, As bad as they are, are we any better? (v. 8). No, we “are all under sin,” Jews and Greeks, Pagans and Christians alike.
Then he presents the evidence, a litany of Old Testament declarations that his Jewish audience could not challenge: “as it is written . . .”
All mankind is characterized by unrighteousness, ignorance, indifference toward God, rebelliousness. Consequently, they are spiritually useless and universally unprofitable (v. 10–11).
This character is evident in their speech (Luke 6:45), which is marked by deceit, cursing, and bitterness (v. 13–14). That may sound a bit extreme — surely not everyone has such corrupt speech — but everyone, in his natural state, is indeed “a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6: 5). It’s only a matter of degree, really, and God isn’t interested in comparing malicious lies with “little white lies” and half-truths, or vitriolic, hate-filled invectives with condemnation muttered sotto voce. Sinful speech is sinful, whether or not it’s turned up to eleven.
The corrupt character of sinners is also evident in their actions (v. 15–17). Again, the charge may sound extreme — Their feet are swift to shed blood — but again, it is only a matter of degree. Jesus taught us that “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.” The natural man, whether or not he actually extinguishes a life, has a murderous heart, and is swift to respond with hostility when crossed. He does not naturally seek peace, except though conquest, and so he leaves a trail of destruction and misery in his own life, and the lives of others.
Why is he like this? Because he has no fear of God (v. 18). Because he has no fear of God, he makes a god of himself, living as though his purpose is to glorify himself and enjoy himself forever. Consequently, when he is offended, or deprived of his desire, he reacts as though divine justice has been violated, and visits judgment, inasmuch as he is able, on the offenders.
This describes every human being, to one degree or another. This is the estate of sin and misery into which mankind fell.
Get your own copy of The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechismshere.
A brother asked for opinions about house churches this morning. This was my off-the-cuff reply:
I think house churches are a great idea, especially in low-population areas. In general, the principle is good. However, every single house church I have actually known has been badly motivated.
Extreme separatism: Can’t find a perfect church? Start your own, and micro-manage the details. Possibly born of …
Cult-like spiritual arrogance: We know something the rest of you don’t.
Legalism: We can’t find a church whose members live up to our standards.
Hyper-spirituality/Anti-scholarship: Don’t want none o’ that semetary edikation or book learnin’. I got me a Bible and the Holy Spirit!
Historical obtuseness: This is the way they did it in the New Testament.
Ecclesiastical rebellion: The opposite of Papist ecclesiastical slavery. No authority, no accountability.
Ignorance of purpose (not a plug for Rick warren): Emphasis is on family and fellowship, not worship.
I think house churches have a place, but that place would normally be temporary, until the group outgrew their biggest house. The idea that they should be the norm is just goofy. Garrison Keillor once described late night talk radio callers as “sitting in their basements surrounded by firearms and cassette tapes on Revelation recorded off the radio” (paraphrased). That, I think, approximates the personalities of the house church advocates I have known.
I have had some dead-end jobs, but none like this:
Then, after that, I spent a couple of months as Princess Anne’s assistant. Um . . . well, I chucked that in because, you know, it was perfectly obvious they were never going to make me Princess Anne no matter how well I did the job, and it was a question of . . . of who you were, rather than how well you did the job, and I hate that; I just can’t bear it . . .
—Hugh Laurie, A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Season 3, Episode 2
. . . fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
—Hebrews 12:2
269 My Faith Looks Up to Thee
My faith looks up to Thee,
Thou Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine!
Now hear me while I pray, Take all my guilt away,
O let me from this day Be wholly Thine!
May Thy rich grace impart
Strength to my fainting heart, My zeal inspire!
As Thou hast died for me, O may my love to Thee,
Pure warm, and changeless be, A living fire!
While life’s dark maze I tread,
And griefs around me spread, Be Thou my Guide;
Bid darkness turn to day, Wipe sorrow’s tears away,
Nor let me ever stray From Thee aside.
When ends life’s transient dream,
When death’s cold sullen stream Shall o’er me roll;
Blest Savior, then in love, fear and distrust remove;
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
We Know Not When Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)
We know not when , we know not where,
We know not what that world will be;
But this we know: it will be fair
To see.
With heart athirst and thirsty face
We know and know not what shall be:
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace
To see.
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace,
Beyond all prayers our hope can pray,
One day to see Him face to Face,
One day.
—Christina Rossetti, Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 1993).
Romans 1:14
I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
Paul has many names for himself; none of them lofty, all of them lowly; the highest, simply “an apostle.” Sometimes it is Paul “the servant of Jesus Christ”; sometimes, Paul “the aged”; sometimes, Paul “the prisoner”; sometimes it is “less than the least of all saints”; sometimes, the “chief of sinners.” Here it is another, “a debtor.” It is then of Paul the debtor we are to speak. It is himself that takes the name; he proclaims his debts; no man lays them to his charge; God does not accuse him. It is some profound, inexpressible feeling that leads him to cry out, “I am debtor.”
I. To whom is he a debtor? Not to self; not to the flesh; not to the law. He owes nothing to these. We might say, he is debtor to God; to Christ; to the cross. But these are not now in his mind. It is to Greek and Jew, wise and unwise; men of all nations; the whole fallen world, that he feels himself a debtor. He seems to stand on some high eminence, and looking round on all kingdoms, and nations, and tongues, with all their uncounted millions, he says, “To all these I am debtor, and I must pay the debt.” They have done nothing for him indeed; they have persecuted, stoned, condemned, reviled him; yet that does not alter his position or cancel his debt. Do to him what they like,—hate him, imprison him, scourge him, bind him,—he is their debtor still. His debt to them is founded on something which all this ill-usage, this malice cannot alter. He loves them still; pities them, pleads with them, beseeches them to be reconciled to God; confesses himself to be their debtor in spite of all. We speak of the world being a debtor to Paul; so, in one sense, it was; but in another, Paul is a debtor to the world. Yes, a Christian is debtor to the world,—not to his family only, or his nation,—but to the whole world. Let this thought dwell in us, and work in us; expanding and enlarging us; elevating our vision; throwing back our horizon, delivering us from all narrow heartedness on the one hand, and all false liberality on the other. We speak of the world being debtor to the church; let us never forget that according to Paul’s way of thinking, and to the mind of the Holy Spirit, the church is debtor to the world.
II. When and how he became a debtor. Even as a Jew he was a debtor; for he possessed something which the world did not; and the moment I come into possession of something which my neighbor or my fellow man has not, I become debtor to that fellow man! This is God’s way of reckoning, though it is not man’s; for God’s thoughts are not our thoughts; and it is love only that can teach us to feel and reason thus. Yet it is true reasoning, it is divine logic. It was when Paul became possessed of the unsearchable riches of Christ that he felt himself a debtor to the world. He had found a treasure, and he could not conceal it; he must speak out; he must tell abroad what he felt. He was surrounded by needy fellow men, in a poor empty world: Should he keep the treasure to himself? No. As the lepers of Samaria felt themselves debtors to the starving city, so did Paul to a famishing world. But there is much more than this,—a higher “when” and “how.” Who had done all this for him, and made him to differ? It was God,—Christ Jesus. It is to God, then, that in the first place he feels himself an infinite debtor in the fullest sense. To God Himself he cannot pay this debt directly, but he can indirectly, by pouring out the God-given treasure upon others. His debt directly is to God; but then, indirectly, it is to the world. Thus the Christian man feels his debt,—his obligation to the world because of his obligation to God. But then a man must know that he has the treasure himself before he can be quickened into a feeling of his responsibility to others. The love of Christ must constrain us; a sense of what we owe to him must impel and stimulate us. Do you know yourself to be the possessor of this infinite treasure? and under the expanding pressure of this, are you roused to feel your infinite debt to all?
III. How he pays the debt. By carrying to them that gospel which he had received. That gospel, or the gift which that gospel reveals, has enriched himself infinitely, he takes these riches to others; and so he endeavors to pay his debt to God by enriching the world. He goes to Corinth,—doing what? Paying there a part of his infinite debt. He goes to Athens, to Thessalonica, to Rome,—doing what? Paying in each place part of the infinite debt which he owes to God, for his love, his pardon, and the hope of the glory. He is a rich man, and can afford to give!
We pay our debt,
(1.) By making known the gospel to others. Speak out the glad tidings, wherever you go. You are debtors. Thus pay the debt.
(2.) By prayer for others. We can reach millions by prayer, otherwise inaccessible to us. Pray for others; not your own circle only, but the world. Go round the world. Embrace all nations in your intercessions.
(3.) By our givings. In giving let us remember what we are doing, paying our debt to God. Shew your sense of his love, his gifts, by your generosity.
(4.) By our consistent life. This, at least, is expected of us. Do not misrepresent the gospel. Be a true and faithful witness for God.
Yes, you are debtors to all. Shew that you feel this. Be constrained by a loving sense of your infinite obligations and responsibilities to Him who loved you.
This post is totally frivolous. The hyper-spiritual (<scowl> “That’s not edifying!”) might want to click away.
Well, you did it again. You bought your dad some lame gift that he’ll never use, but won’t be able to throw away because it came from you, his precious, clueless child. Way to go. But there’s always next year, and to help you redeem yourself, I’ve found the perfect Father’s Day gift. With a full year’s notice, you’ll have no excuse.
What is your greatest fear? If I were asking that question in many parts of the world, answers would probably cluster around basic needs such as running water, food, vaccines, and shelter. For most of us in the United States, though, our greatest fears are more likely to be things like the fear of loneliness, some cataclysmic event that throws me off the ladder of upward mobility, divorce, or the inability to find any ultimate meaning in life. None of these fears is illegitimate, yet none is ultimate. These fears haunt us only because we have the luxury of having them haunt us. Until we are confronted with the reality of God—in all of his blinding majesty, weightiness, and frightful claim on our lives—we are overwhelmed by secondary troubles. But when for some reason there is the slightest glimpse of God in his holiness, we either do our best to domesticate him, turn him into a pet by suppressing the truth, or run for the hills to escape the confrontation.
God should be your greatest fear. Yet there is no salvation from God's just judgment from anywhere else than God himself. Only the same God who fills us with fear is able also to give us peace. If we are to escape this judgment, it will only be the result of the greatness in God's heart and not something in our own. That God has moved toward us—even lunged toward us—not in judgment, as we should have expected, but in loving embrace and reconciliation, clothing us in Christ's righteousness so that we can be acceptable in his holy presence, is the good news that you are called here and now to embrace. Christ lived a perfect life in the place of sinners, bore their sins on the cross, and was raised again for our justification. This means that "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Not because of anything that you have done, experienced, attempted, or decided, but because of what he has accomplished for you, can you be assured of God's favor. It is good news, not good advice. It is not a call to self-improvement, but to die to self altogether and be raised a new person, in Christ. It is the free gift of forgiveness of sins, right standing with God, adoption as his heirs, and liberation from the tyranny of sin. As his ambassador, I am calling you in his name to be reconciled to God by turning away from all other saviors and lords and embracing Jesus Christ as your righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Come to him now. His love is greater than your enmity toward him; his grace is greater than your sin; his peace is greater than your fears.
I think I like Horton's answer because he ignored the word limit. The gospel just cannot be explained in 100 words (and it certainly cannot be tweeted). “Nice try” to those who gave it a go, but I don't doubt they wished they were given more space.
A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, any law of God, given as a rule to the reasonable creature.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
—Romans 3:23
With apologies to Westminster, I think the catechism needs a little help here. Not that the given answer is wrong, but that it doesn’t quite get to the bottom of things. Sin, it says, is any variance from God’s law. But what is that?
God’s law is nothing more or less than a picture of his own character. In giving the commandments, he was telling us, “This is how I am. Do this, and you will be like me, as you must” (Matthew 5:48; 1 Peter 1:15–16). None of us do, of course, which brings us to Romans 3:23, which paraphrased says, “I am the standard. You don’t measure up.”
With the bar set so high, we cannot help despairing of any hope. But remember, these are the middle chapters in the book. We’ve read the introduction, and are now in the midst of conflict. The resolution is coming.
Get your own copy of The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechismshere.
The naturalist insists that the universe, life, and our hospitable planet came into being by random chance. Joe Coffey, author of Smooth Stones: Bringing Down the Giant Questions of Apologetics, illustrates the absurdity of that claim, and the necessity of suspending one’s normal way of thinking in order to accept it.
Alvin Plantinga, a professor of philosophy at Notre Dame, compared this theory to a poker game in the Wild West. The dealer deals himself four aces twenty times in a row. Everybody starts to reach for their guns, and the dealer says, “Wait, wait, wait! I want you guys to think about something. In all the billions and billions of poker games that have gone on in this world and other worlds, don’t you think eventually it could happen that a dealer could deal himself four aces twenty times in a row and not be cheating?” And the people around the table would say, “Yeah, that’s a possibility. Now we’re gonna kill you!”
Because nobody operates on a line of possibility that thin.
As you probably would guess, the chances of randomly drawing four aces twenty consecutive times from a deck of only fifty-two cards is many times greater than the chance of unintentionally producing the universe and all it contains. If we all know the dealer is a liar and a cheat, why should we believe scientists who tell much taller tales than that?
Cruciform Press publishes one new book each month, and offers subscriptions in print or ebook formats for a very reasonable price. Books may also be purchased individually. For more information, visit www.cruciformpress.com.
I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
Continual Repentance
O God of grace,
Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute, and hast imputed his righteousness to my soul, clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe, decking me with jewels of holiness.
But in my Christian walk I am still in rags; my best prayers are stained with sin; my penitential tears are so much impurity; my confessions of wrong are so many aggravations of sin; my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with selfishness.
I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in filthy garments, and by grace am always receiving change of raiment, for thou dost always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country, and always returning home as a prodigal, always saying, Father, forgive me, and thou art always bringing forth the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it, every evening return in it, go out to the day’s work in it, be married in it, be wound in death in it, stand before the great white throne in it, enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, the exceeding wonder of grace.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
It is of great moment to know the proper value of a thing before we either praise or dispraise it. Let us beware of either overrating or underrating anything of which we are called to speak. Of the gospel the apostle speaks as one who knew its value. Do we so know its value as to say, What shall it profit me to gain the world and lose the gospel?
The apostle so knew it as to be able to say, I am not ashamed of it; just as elsewhere speaking of the cross he says, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He was not ashamed of it at Jerusalem, or Athens, or Rome. Many things were there to make him ashamed of it; Jewish prejudice and Gentile pride. But these prevailed not. In spite of contempt and hatred he held it fast.
We are apt to be ashamed of it. It looks weak, foolish, unintellectual, unphilosophical. It lags behind the age. It has become obsolete! It is beginning to be supplanted by learning and eloquence! Men are apt to shun the gospel as a feeble, childish thing, that has done its work in time past, but is giving place to something higher and more in accordance with the “deep instincts of humanity.”
There were some places in which the apostle might have been specially tempted to be ashamed of the gospel, or afraid of preaching it. At Jerusalem, for there the whole strength of Jewish ritualism rose against it; at Athens, for there it was confronted by the power of Grecian wisdom; at Ephesus, for there the dazzling subtleties of heathen magic rose against it; at Corinth, for there the torrent of human lust and pleasure rushed against it; at Rome, for there was time concentrated energy of earthly idolatry. Yet none of these things moved him. He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, though all that was intellectual, and eloquent, and sensual, and refined, and powerful in humanity protested against it, or mocked it as folly.
We are tempted in our day to be ashamed of the gospel. It is thought to be bare, unintellectual, almost childish by many. Hence they would overlay it with argument and eloquence, to make it more respectable and more attractive. Every such attempt to add to it is being ashamed of it. The old apostolic gospel seems so bald that before we can avow connection with it, we must introduce something like philosophy into it! This is not treating it as Paul did. Some mistake it, others reject it, others are indifferent to it. But there are others who are ashamed of it.
If any might have been ashamed of it, Paul much more. His education, his life, his teachers, his companions were all such as to make him turn aside from a thing so plain. But, rising above all, he protests that he is not ashamed of that which so many of his former friends and teachers scorn.
But why was the apostle not ashamed of it? Had it been the feeble, childish thing which men said it was, he would have been ashamed of it. But it was not so. It was mighty; mightier than philosophy, or argument, or eloquence. It was “power.”
Many “apologists” for the gospel have, in their defense of it, assumed somewhat different ground from that of the apostle here. They defend it because it is noble, philosophical, reasonable, benevolent. It is all this, and more. Yet such are not Paul’s reasons for glorifying in it. He has fathomed man’s infinite need and misery; he has, with divinely opened eyes, looked into man’s present condition and his prospects. He sees in that gospel that which meets man’s great necessity as a lost being; and it is this glorious suitableness that makes him prize it so much. He is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because it is the power of God unto salvation. Had it been less than this, however intellectual and philosophical, he would have been ashamed of it. No other excellence, however great, however appreciated by the human intellect, could compensate for the want of this. To be the wisdom of man, the wisdom of the world, the wisdom of words, was nothing to him. In thus listening to Paul’s reasons for not being ashamed of the gospel, let us learn what he thinks of that gospel, and what he understands it to be. (1.) It is the embodiment of God’s power for the salvation of the sinner; (2.) it is the revelation of God’s righteousness to the sinner. This is the sum of his reasons for glorying in the gospel of Christ.
I. It is God’s power unto salvation. Men were lost. Nothing but a great salvation could deliver; a salvation which embodied omnipotence. We may say it is a gospel preceded by omnipotence, succeeded by omnipotence, accompanied by omnipotence, containing omnipotence. God’s power was needed. Where has God placed it? In the gospel! Out of that gospel it goes forth to save the sinner. In that gospel omnipotence is wrapped up. Out of that gospel omnipotence goes forth to save. The power that is needed for the salvation of a sinner is that which is contained in the gospel. The gospel alone contains this saving power, and as such the apostle is not ashamed of it. But every one is not saved, even by this mighty gospel. Who, then, are saved by it? Only they who believe. Into all who believe, this mighty gospel comes with saving power, working in them and for them the reversal of all that made them lost; the whole of that which God calls salvation. It is in believing this gospel that we are saved; saved at once, freely, completely, forever. This gospel is wide as the world. It embraces all kindreds, and nations, and tongues. It goes first to the Jew; it begins at Jerusalem; but it does not end there. It goes round the earth; it takes in all men, the Greek as well as the Jew,—barbarian, Scythian, bond and free. To every man this mighty gospel comes and says, “Believe and be saved.” There is salvation for thee; not by working, or waiting, or praying, or reforming, but simply not by believing. He who believes is saved, whoever or whatever he may be.
II. It is the revelation of God’s righteousness. This mighty gospel saves in a righteous way. Its power unto salvation consists in its being a revelation of the righteousness of God. This righteousness is not that which we call the attribute of God. Nor does it merely mean “God’s method of justification”; though it is indeed such. It is that righteousness which was displayed in Him who is the righteous One, whose name is “Jehovah our righteousness.” It is a righteousness planned by God, provided and prepared by God, exhibited and unfolded by God to the sinner.
(1.) It is a righteousness revealed. No longer concealed, or but darkly unfolded; but fully and brightly displayed by God in Christ.
(2.) It is a divine righteousness. Not merely human, yet still human; human, yet divine; the righteousness of Him who was both God and man.
(3.) It is a righteousness by faith. This is the meaning of the words. “Therein is that righteousness of God, which comes to us by believing, revealed to be believed.” We get the whole of this glorious righteousness in accepting God’s testimony to it and to Him who wrought it out.
(4.) It is righteousness presented to us to be believed. God holds it out to us. He says, Take this from my hand; and if you ask, How am I to take it? the answer is, Believe what God says to you concerning it, and straightway it is yours.
(5.) It is the same righteousness which was possessed by the Old Testament saints. “The just shall hive by faith,” or “the just by faith shall live,” are the words of the ancient prophet, not merely predicting what shall be, but what has been and what is. It was Paul’s favorite text. It was also Luther’s. We become, or are constituted just, by or in believing; and we live by and in believing; for both these propositions are contained in the passage. One justification from the beginning, one faith, one life! The patriarchs “lived” by believing in Him who was to come; we “live” by believing in Him who has come. But it is one Saviour, one salvation, one cross.
God’s testimony to this righteousness is very full and explicit. He tells us what kind of righteousness it is, whose it is, and how we get it. It is divine, perfect, glorious, suitable; begun, carried out, completed by Christ during His life and death below: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners; so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” He who believes the divine testimony gets the righteousness. It becomes at once the property of him that believeth,—not of him that worketh. “He that believeth is justified from all things.” All the evil that is in us passes over to Christ, our surety; all the excellence that is in Him passes over to us as soon as we accept time testimony. “He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”
The power of the gospel is wholly saving; it is armed with power,—just in order to save. There is nothing else in our world that can save but this. This gospel contains in it all that is needful to save. It reaches and reverses the condition of the lost. Nothing else does this. It saves, heals, comforts, gladdens, brings out of darkness into light. Salvation! This is its object. Nothing less than this. Not merely to reform, or elevate, or refine; but to save. Whatever it does less than this is in vain. It is salvation that we preach in preaching the gospel,—present, immediate, sure, eternal salvation! What then has the gospel done for you? Has it saved you? If not, it has come to you in vain. If it has only made you moral, or kept you moral, it has fallen short of its end.
It is through believing that this salvation is realized. We are saved when we believe the gospel. A gospel not believed will do nothing for us, but condemn. A believed gospel saves; and saves as soon as believed.
That gospel is the Holy Spirit’s testimony to God’s free love, and to the finished propitiation of the cross. The reception of that divine testimony is salvation. Has this salvation, O man, found its way into you? Or is it still resisted? Is the evil heart of unbelief still shutting it out? Is it still appealing to you in vain? Is it still telling to you the old story of the love of God, the love of Christ, but telling it in vain? Have you not yet discovered the good news which it brings to you! Are you still unsaved? Unsaved, because rejecting this gospel, and refusing the free gift it brings.
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us—what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
1 John 1:1–4
Joe Coffey on the significance of eye-witnesses to the New Testament narratives of the life of Christ:
This matter of having contemporaneous witnesses is really important. Consider that John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Now, suppose I was so enamored with Kennedy that I considered myself his disciple and wanted to start a cult about him in my town. And suppose I know I would have to exaggerate and lie to get it going, but I used the handy excuse that the ends justify the means. I would start preaching, “President Kennedy was a great man, but he was much more than that. When he made his campaign stop here in Hudson, he got out of his car, healed a bunch of blind and sick people and then went to the Redmond Funeral Home and raised a couple people from the dead!” Somebody would say, “Wait a minute! I was there that day and none of that ever happened!” I would ignore the outburst and say, “Hey, the next afternoon Jack took a Happy Meal fed the whole town with it.” And someone else would say, “You nutcase! I was in Hudson the next day and he did nothing of the sort!” That’s probably about the time I would give up on my plan the start a Kennedy Cult.
Since the apostles told their stories about Jesus to people who were alive at the time and place where Jesus lived, the credibility of their testimony goes through the roof. Because if their stories were made up, they could never have gotten away with it.
This excerpt really needs to be read in context to be fully understood, but I’m not going to give you that. I’m just going to lay it out there, hopefully to provoke thought, and possibly to whet your appetite for this good little introduction to apologetics.
The person who sees evil in the world and concludes there is no God has got it backwards. The existence of evil does not tell us there is no God. Instead, our ability to recognize evil tells us there is a God.
So when someone says he has seen such appalling evil that he must conclude God doesn’t exist, he still has not dealt with the underlying problem—the existence of evil. The intellectually consistent answer is to admit, no matter how ironic it may sound, that because evil exists, God must exist as well.
Cruciform Press publishes one new book each month, and offers subscriptions in print or ebook formats for a very reasonable price. Books may also be purchased individually. For more information, visit www.cruciformpress.com.
The two most important words for apologists are the gospel. Do not forget you are sharing good news. The good news tells us that even though you are more deeply flawed than you have ever dared to dream. That good news is made possible by the person of Jesus Christ, who lived the life we should have lived and died the death for sin we should have died, so that we can be made acceptable to a holy God, adopted into his family forever.
It is easy to get into discussion with friends and, in a quest to be right about some particular point, lose sight of the gospel. No one was ever won to Christ through that kind of argument. You did not become a Christian because you were smart or right, or because someone who explained the gospel to you was smart or right. You were saved and are saved because you needed a Savior and he came for you—just because he chose to. That is what grace means. Do not lose sight of grace when you share your faith.
Cruciform Press publishes one new book each month, and offers subscriptions in print or ebook formats for a very reasonable price. Books may also be purchased individually. For more information, visit www.cruciformpress.com.
I watched his final sermon on the Gospel of Mark last night on the 
