Richard Sibbes, The Backsliding Sinner, 2.7 (A vow of praise)

26 Wednesday May 2021

Posted by memoirandremains in Praise, Richard Sibbes, Worship, Worship

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glory, Glory of God, Means, praises, Richard Sibbes, The Backsliding Sinner, Vow, Vows, Worship

2. A Vow of Praise

Now, this promise which the church makes here of praise, is a kind of vow, ‘So will we render,’ &c. To bind one’s-self is a kind of vow.

a. The Purpose of the Vow

Here Sibbes argues in the form of a chiasm. The elements of the argument, reordered, are as follows: The purpose, the end of all things is the glory of God. Human beings fulfill their purpose by giving glory to God. All other things likewise exist for this ultimate end. It is likewise the end of God that God be glorified: God is “moved” by our giving him glory. When we bind ourselves by a vow to give God glory, by giving him thanks, we make an argument which will “prevail with God” (as is explicitly stated in the next paragraph.

This presents a question of the impassibility of God: There is a false understanding of God being impassible which thinks that God must an unresponsive stone, perhaps a pure intellect with the emotional range of a computer. If God has any responsiveness whatsoever to humanity, then God cannot be impassible. This false understanding of impassibility then sets up a false dichotomy, which must contend that since God is shown repeatedly in Scripture to be relational with humanity (God shows wrath, God is love, et cetera), then God must not be impassible.

This doctrine is difficult, primarily I believe, because we start our conception of God with a false conception. A full discussion of this doctrine lies well-beyond this comment on Sibbes’ sermon. However, we can take a quick look, first, at how Sibbes understood the term, and then how of his contemporaries used the term.

He uses the term in reference to our glorified resurrection bodies, “Says he, the body is sown in corruption, but raised in incorruption. Then no more mortality, nor tribulation, nor any sense of sorrow. Some interpreters have thought good to express this by the word impassible, signifying an impossibility of feeling any more hunger, cold, thirst, sorrow, and the like; in brief, not capable of suffering any more; for at first, sin brought in corruption, but then all sin being abolished, corruption, and all things thereunto belonging, must needs cease.” Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 7 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1864), 500–501.

In a related manner, he uses it in reference to Adam (here the word “unpassable”) and in relation to Incarnation: “This should sweeten all our afflictions, that we are dying with Christ, whereby Christ hath communion with us, and whereby we are fitted for communion with Christ; as put case we have sickness or trouble, &c. Christ took upon him flesh, but what? As it was in Adam unpassible?* Christ took upon him our passible nature, as subject to suffer cold, and hunger, and pain, of weariness, and it is fit our bodies should be conformable to the body of Christ, ‘for we are predestinate to be conformed to Christ,’ Rom. 8:29, and therefore when we are put to pain in our callings, or troubled for good consciences, and thereby wear out our bodies, it is but as Christ’s body was used. He took a body that he might suffer, and going about doing good, and be put to hardship. Therefore, if we be put to hardship, it is no more than our Lord Jesus Christ did. And therefore those that be so delicate that will take no pains, endure no sickness, the wind must not blow upon them, the sun must not shine upon them, they love no saving goodness, nothing of the Spirit of Christ, who out of love took our nature upon him, obnoxious to all pain and labour; though not infirmities of our particular persons, yet of our nature. He took upon him our miserable nature, our passible nature, and then he hath our nature in heaven.”

Richard Sibbes, Tvol. 4, p. 408.

In a similar vein to Sibbes, Jonathan Edwards uses it as a reference to the divine nature, in contrast to the state of the Incarnation, “If Christ had remained only in the divine nature, he would not have been in a capacity to have purchased our salvation, not from any imperfection of the divine nature, but by reason of its absolute and infinite perfection. For Christ merely as God was not capable either of that obedience or suffering that was needful. The divine nature is not capable of suffering, for it is impassable and infinitely above all suffering; neither is it capable of obedience to that law that was given to man. ’Tis as impossible that one that is only God should obey the law that was given to man as ’tis that he should suffer man’s punishment.” Jonathan Edwards, “Sermon Fourteen,” in A History of the Work of Redemption, ed. John F. Wilson and John E. Smith, vol. 9, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1989), 295–296.

Charnock uses it to refer to the capacity to be adversely affected by the creation, to suffer, “As patience signifies suffering, so it is not in God. The divine nature is impassible, incapable of any impair; it cannot be touched by the violences of men, nor the essential glory of it be diminished by the injuries of men; but as it signifies a willingness to defer, and an unwillingness to pour forth his wrath upon sinful creatures, he moderates his provoked justice, and forbears to revenge the injuries he daily meets with in the world. He suffers no grief by men’s wronging him, but he restrains his arm from punishing them according to their merits.” Stephen Charnock, The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson; G. Herbert, 1864–1866), 504.

Finally, Thomas Watson uses it in parallel with “impenetrable” and says plainly, the wicked cannot hurt God, “If God be a spirit, then he is impassible,—he is not capable of being hurt. Wicked men set up their banners, and bend their forces against God; they are said to fight against God, Acts 5:39. But what will this fighting avail? What hurt can they do to the Deity? God is a spirit, and therefore cannot receive any hurtful impression; wicked men may imagine evil against the Lord, Nahum 1:9., “What do ye imagine against the Lord?” But God, being a spirit, is impenetrable. The wicked may eclipse his glory, but cannot touch his essence. God can hurt his enemies, but they cannot hurt him. Julian might throw up his dagger into the air against heaven, but could not touch the Deity. God is a spirit, invisible.” Thomas Watson, The Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, Comprising His Celebrated Body of Divinity, in a Series of Lectures on the Shorter Catechism, and Various Sermons and Treatises (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1855), 35.

But saying that God cannot be injured by the creation, does not mean that God is unknowledgeable concerning, nor that God will not act with respect to the creation. That God has said he will hear is an act of promise by God. When Sibbes says that God is “bound” by a vow of thankfulness, it cannot mean that God is unwillingly subjected to the power of the Creature. If the Creature had control over the Creator, then God would be passible.

The nature of the binding is explained in the next paragraph where it says such a vow of praise “prevails” with God: it is a prayer which God has said he will hear. As it says in Ephesians 1:6, God has covenanted and graciously provided for blessed the descendants of Adam “to the praise of his glorious grace.”

The paragraph has been broken out into clauses so that the building up of the argument can be seen more clearly.

Here is the proposition which he will develop:

The church therefore binds herself, that she may bind God; for binding herself by vow to thankfulness, she thereby binds God;

Here he states that God is “moved” – but not in way of suffering:

who is moved with nothing we can do so much as with setting forth of his praise, which was his end in all the creation, the setting forth of his glory.

[There is] nothing we can do so much as with setting forth of his praise, which was his end in all the creation, the setting forth of his glory.

This explains the rationale upon which he can state that God is moved: God created the cosmos for his glory: that is the end of all things. Thus, when God receives glory from the creation, he is merely receiving the end of what he did in the first instance:

The end of the new creature is the end of all things both in nature and grace; the end whereof is God’s glory, from whence all things come and wherein all things end: as we say of a circle, all things begin and end in it.

He summarizes the rationale in a sentence:

All other things are for man, and man for God’s glory.

There is a mountain of theology in that sentence. One thing to briefly note is how this very sentence runs wildly contrary to non-Christian understandings of the world. It revolts against any understanding which detracts from God’s glory. It revolts against any understanding which denigrates humanity to a level of the remainder of the creation: there is a distinct hierarchy here.

When the soul can say, ‘Lord, this shall be for thy honour, to set forth thy praise,’ it binds God.

Hence, that they might move God to yield to their prayers, they bind themselves by a kind of vow.

Do thus, O Lord, and thou shalt not lose by it, thou shalt have praise; ‘so will we render thee the calves of our lips.’

b. The use of vows

This is a topic which I don’t know I have ever heard a sermon preached upon. Perhaps there was a brief mention here and there – with caveat that this is being noted merely to explain this ancient custom. But a sermon which ever encouraged a vow by a living saint, that I do not recall.

But here, Sibbes explains that we do vow and that we should consciously make certain vows to God:

So promises and vows of praise are alleged as an argument to prevail with God, for the obtaining of that the church begs for: ‘So will we render,’ &c. Not to enter into the commonplace of vows, only thus much I say, that there is a good use of them, to vow and promise thankfulness when we would obtain blessings from God. That which a promise is to men, that a vow is to God; and usually they go together in Scripture, as it is said of David, that ‘he vowed unto God, and sware unto the mighty God of Jacob,’ Ps. 132:2. So we have all in baptism vowed a vow. So that it is good to renew our vows often, especially that of new obedience; and in this particular to vow unto him that we will praise him, and strive that his glory be no loser by us.

He then sets forth two reasons we should vow: We are forgetful; we are inconstant.

i. We should vow, because we forget

Take the time to look through Deuteronomy and search for the uses of the words: ‘forget’ and ‘remember’. Over and again, Moses warns them, “Lest you forget” and fall into sin. Therefore, “remember”. The same danger faces us today:

1. It is good thus to vow, if it were but to excite and quicken our dullness and forgetfulness of our general vow; to put us in mind of our duty, the more to oblige us to God and refresh our memories. This bond, that having promised, now I must do it, provokes the soul to it. As it helps the memory, so it quickens the affections.

ii. We should vow, because we are inconstant:

2. Besides, as by nature we are forgetful, so we are inconstant; in which respect it is a tie to our inconstant and unsteady natures.

He makes a point here about conscience: A well-informed conscience has an effect upon us. To vow is to make our relationship with God a matter of conscious conscience. Our inconstancy and forgetfulness make it necessary for us to use means. The use of means is not sinful, but rather a recognition of our status as creatures.

For there are none who have the Spirit of God at all, with any tenderness of heart, but will thus think: I have vowed to God. If it be a heinous thing to break with men, what is it wittingly and willingly to break with the great God? A vow is a kind of oath. This is the sacrifice of fools, to come to God, and yet neither to make good our vows, nor endeavour to do it.

Sibbes here makes an application to the congregation before him, based upon the fact that they had already taken communion. It has been my experience that communion comes at the end of the service and the mediation upon communion comes only before it is received. Here is says, you have taken and this is what this now imposes upon you:

Let us consider therefore what we have done in this case. By permission of authority, there was a fast lately, when we all renewed our vows (we mocked God else), [and] received the communion. Will God be mocked, think you? No; but howsoever man may forget, God will not, but will come upon us for non-payment of our vows and covenants.

He then expands the point and makes a broader application: What else have you done with God? What prayers, what promises?

Lay we it to heart therefore what covenants we have made with God of late. And then, for the time to come, be not discouraged if you have been faulty in it. There is a general vow, wherein, though we have failed (if we be his children, and break not with God in the main, cleaving to him in purpose of heart, occasionally renewing our purposes and covenants), yet let not Satan discourage us for our unfaithfulness therein.

And what if you have failed:

But be ashamed of it, watch more, look better to it for the time to come, and make use of the gracious covenant; and, upon recovery, say with the church, ‘So will we render the calves of our lips.’

Look carefully at how Sibbes makes this point: (1) see your sin and feel the remorse for your sin; (2) repent and look forward; (3) make gracious use of the covenant: God has not rejected. The covenant of grace is still in place. God sits upon a throne of grace for those, like you, who have sinned. You are qualified to receive grace because you need grace and you seek grace. (4) Therefore, give thanks. Our stumbling should become the occasion of our renewing our pilgrimage.

He now presses the point by first a reference to the sacrificial system of Israel:

It was the custom under the Jewish policy, you know, to offer sacrifices of all sorts. But the Spirit of God speaks here of the church of the Jews under the New Testament; especially what they should be after their conversion, having reference to the Jews in Christ’s time, and to the believing Jews in all times, implying thus much; howsoever, not legal sacrifices of calves, bullocks, sheep, and lambs, yet the ‘calves of the lips,’ which God likes better, are acceptable to him.

He moves this to the Church:

And it likewise implies some humiliation of the church.

He then leads the congregation in a prayer on this point: Note that the final application of this point is not: go and do this later. Sibbes does it right then with them. He prays and teaches them how and what to pray:

Lord, whatsoever else we could offer unto thee, it is thine own, though it were the beasts upon a thousand mountains; but this, by thy grace, we can do, to ‘praise thee,’ Ps. 50:23. For God must open and circumcise our lips and hearts before we can offer him the ‘calves of our lips.’ Thus much the poorest creature in the world may say to God, Lord, ‘I will render thee the calves of my lips.’ Other things I have not. This I have by thy gracious Spirit, a heart somewhat touched by the sense of thy favour. Therefore ‘I will render thee the calves of my lips;’ that is, praise, as the apostle hath it, ‘By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually; that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name,’ Heb. 13:15. ‘So will we render thee the calves of our lips.’

Edward Taylor, The Daintiest Draft.2

23 Wednesday Dec 2020

Posted by memoirandremains in Edward Taylor, Uncategorized

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Edward Taylor, glory, Glory of God, image of God, Imago Dei, Meditation 30, poem, Poetry

The second stanza is perhaps the most difficult in the poem in that here the ambiguity of reference is focused. It looks upon the ruined imaged and speaks of the heavenly sorrow at the tremendous loss:

What pity ‘s this? Oh! Sunshine art! What fall?

Thou that wast more glorious than glory’s wealth.

More golden far than gold! Lord, on whose wall

Thy scutcheons hung, the image of thyself!

It’s ruined, and must rue, though angels should

To hold it up heave while their heart strings hold.

What pity is this: What a thing is here to pity.

Sunshine art must refer to the original, before it fell. Since Taylor was writing from a rural place in a Northern latitude during the “Little Ice Age,” a reference to sunshine would be especially potent.

He is looking upon the ruined image which was “more glorious than glory’s wealth./More golden far than gold!” Rhythmically, note the inversion of the iamb to a trochee at the beginning of line 8:

THOU that was MORE GLORiou.

The inversion of the “normal” order forces attention upon the “thou”. He focuses our attention upon the lost image.

Jonathan Edwards who was a generation after Taylor, but whose father knew Taylor, writes of God’s glory in Christ (in the funeral sermon for David Brainerd) with similar imagery:

Their beatifical vision of God is in Christ; who is that brightness or effulgence of God’s glory, by which his glory shines forth in heaven, to the view of saints and angels there, as well as here on earth. This is the Sun of Righteousness, which is not only the light of this world, but is also the sun which enlightens the heavenly Jerusalem; by whose bright beams the glory of God shines forth there, to the enlightening and making happy of all the glorious inhabitants. “The Lamb is the light thereof; and so the Glory of God doth lighten it,” Rev. 21:23. No one sees God the Father immediately. He is the King eternal, immortal, invisible. Christ is the Image of that invisible God, by which he is seen by all elect creatures. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him and manifested him. No one has ever immediately seen the Father, but the Son; and no one else sees the Father in any other way, than by the Son’s revealing him.

Jonathan Edwards, The Works of President Edwards (New York: S. Converse, 1829), 459.

The wall is the thus the human being created to display the image of God. God’s image was hung upon the walls. There are shields upon the walls which show the coat of arms of this royal family. But now it houses a treasonous family.

The closing couplet (lines 11-12) are difficult in terms of their reference:

It’s ruined, and must rue, though angels should

To hold it up heave while their heart strings hold.

“It’s ruined” must refer to the house whose walls bear the image (or at least should do so). But what are we to make of “must rue.” Is that the house should rue it’s loss? Apparently so. But it could also be taken as a cohortative to the reader, you should rue this loss. Both are possible here.

Angels are sent hold up house. This seems to be an oblique reference to Hebrews 1:14, where angels are explained to be ministering spirits sent out to care for those human beings who will inherit salvation on the basis of Christ’s work.

We could also read this entire stanza as a reference to Christ in his passion, where he was struck down, killed and buried. This removes much of the ambiguity of the stanza in-and-of itself. The reader sees this destruction and is called upon the rue the loss of such beauty, while the angels attend to the Savior. And it is angels who “long to look” into this salvation: a salvation which was granted to humanity but not to angels. 1 Peter 1:12.

As noted above, this ambiguity of reference makes theological sense because the image of God which is superlatively in Jesus Christ is by imitation the property of redeemed humanity. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul writes that as the redeemed behold glory of the Lord, the redeemed are transformed into the image which they behold:

2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV)

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Thus, that image is both Christ and also the property of renewed humanity.

There is also reference to the First Adam, Adam of Genesis 2 who was created in the image of God and so quickly rebelled against his place of honor.

All Things to the Glory of God

02 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by memoirandremains in Glory, John Piper, Uncategorized

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Glory of God, godliness, Jerry Bridges, John Piper, The Pursuit of Godliness

In his book, The Pursuit of Godliness, Jerry Bridges defined godliness as devotion in action. Devotion he further defines as “an attitude toward God.”

Devotion is not an activity; it is an attitude toward God. This attitude is composed of three essential elements:

❖ the fear of God
❖ the love of God
❖ the desire for God

We will look at these elements in detail in chapter 2; but for now, note that all three elements focus upon God. The practice of godliness is an exercise or discipline that focuses upon God. From this Godward attitude arises the character and conduct that we usually think of as godliness. So often we try to develop Christian character and conduct without taking the time to develop God-centered devotion. We try to please God without taking the time to walk with Him and develop a relationship with Him. This is impossible to do.
Consider the exacting requirements of a godly lifestyle as expounded by the saintly William Law. Law uses the word devotion in a broader sense to mean all that is involved in godliness—actions as well as attitude:

Devotion signifies a life given, or devoted to God. He therefore is the devout [godly] man, who lives no longer to his own will, or the way and spirit of the world, but to the sole will of God, who considers God in everything, who serves God in everything, who makes all the parts of his common life, parts of piety [godliness], by doing everything in the name of God, and under such rules as are conformable to his Glory.2

Note the totality of godliness over one’s entire life in Law’s description of the godly person. Nothing is excluded. God is at the center of his thoughts. His most ordinary duties are done with an eye to God’s glory. In Paul’s words to the Corinthians, whether he eats or drinks or whatever he does, he does it all for the glory of God.

Jerry Bridges, The Practice of Godliness (Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress, 1983), 14–15.

The application is obvious: Am I doing this to the glory of God? There are two difficulties in this application. First, is the training of oneself to constantly ask this question of oneself. The second trouble: How do I do this mundane task to the glory of God? What does that even mean? John Piper applies this to one of the most simple tasks, drinking orange juice:

Orange juice was “created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe the truth.” Therefore, unbelievers cannot use orange juice for the purpose God intended—namely, as an occasion for heartfelt gratitude to God from a truth heart of faith.

But believers can, and this is how they glorify God. Their drinking orange juice is “sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.” The word of Godteaches us that the juice, and even our strength to drink it, is a free gift of God (1 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Peter 4:11). The prayer is our humble response of thanks from the heart. Believing this truth in the word, and offering thanks in prayer is one way we drink orange juice to the glory of God.

The other way is to drink lovingly. For example, don’t insist on the biggest helping. This is taught in the context of 1 Corinthians 10:33, “I try to please all men in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved” (RSV). “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Everything we do—even drinking orange juice—can be done with the intention and hope that it will be to the advantage of many that they may be saved.

Edward Taylor, Would God I in that Golden City Were.1

19 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by memoirandremains in Edward Taylor, Literature, Uncategorized

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1 Corinthians 15, Edward Taylor, Glory of God, God's glory, Heaven, poem, Poetry, Resurrection, salvation, Would God I in that Golden City were

14764489751_d8dc35e816_o

(Jasper)

Would God I in that Golden City were,
With jasper walls all garnished and made swash
With precious stones, whose gates are pearls most clear
And street pure gold, like to transparent glass.
That my dull soul might be inflamed to see
How saints and angels ravished are in glee.

The reference here is the city of the New (heavenly) Jerusalem:

18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

Revelation 21:18–21 (AV).

Meter: Note in the first line there is the standard iamb, followed by a trochee which forces attention upon the I: would GOD I in that GOLden CITy WERE. It is his presence in the place which is emphasized in the meter.

Paraphrase: The poet wishes that he could be present in the age to come, in the heavenly Jerusalem come down to earth (for the goal of Christianity is not some far away place, but heaven and earth together). The trouble lies with his “dull soul”. This is a constant them in Taylor: the present inability to truly enjoy the glory of God. In the Ascension poems, he would that he could bare the sight of Christ entering into glory and being seated. Here, he wishes for the age to come. This tension will only be resolved by the resurrection:

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1 Corinthians 15:42–44 (AV).

Were I but there and could but tell my story,
‘Twould rub those walls of precious stones more bright:
And glaze those gates of pearl with brighter glory;
And pave the golden street with greater light.
‘Twould in fresh raptures saints and angels fling
But I poor snake crawl here, scare mud walled in.
Reference “I poor snake crawl here”. I an ironic reference to Genesis 3:1 where the Serpent (Satan) appears as a snake to tempt Eve. Genesis 3:15 makes reference to the “seed/offspring of the serpent”. Being subjected to the Fall and the Curse, human beings have now been brought low.

Meter: “Story/Glory”, end the first and third lines. The line scan 11 syllables with a feminine rhyme on the 10 & 11th syllables.

Paraphrase: The story of the poet’s salvation (his coming to this city) of such a marvel that if it were known, it would impart a greater glory to the place than is possible in the mere stones and gold. Those things are beautiful, but the story of the poet’s salvation is greater still.
May my rough voice and blunt tongue but spell my
My tale (for tune they can’t) perhaps there may
Some angel catch in an end of’t up and tell
In heaven when he doth return that way
He’ll make they palace, Lord, all over ring
With it in songs, they saint and angels sing.
Meter: In the first line of the phrase “blunt tongue” again creates a pair of accented syllables by running a trochee after an iamb. The effect is jarring, underscoring the bluntness of his tongue.

Reference: The purpose of salvation is bring glory to God. As Paul writes in Ephesians:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Ephesians 1:3–6 (AV)

Paraphrase: The poet is unable to sing in any manner worthy of God’s glory (much less saints made perfect or the angelic world). Therefore, he will “spell” his story: he will write it out in this poem. His hope is that by spelling it out, an angel may over his story and bring the story back to heaven where the angel’s far greater abilities will make it possible to recount the story (given in this poem) in a song worthy of God’s gory.

As Charles Wesley wrote:

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.

Introduction to Biblical Counseling, Interpretation.1

14 Monday Apr 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling

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Biblical Counseling, Glory of God, introduction to biblical counseling

The previous post in this series may be found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/introduction-to-biblical-counseling-interpretation/

INSTRUCTION

As you gain and interpret information, you will need to instruct the counselee. In the end, counseling is the act of giving counsel. Something has gone wrong in some manner. Counsel is given to help them change. Biblical Counseling seeks to bring someone to a change which conforms to Scripture:

What does this mean? Well, it means that at some point there is an understanding or acceptance of what God says in His Word that turns his [the counselee’s] wrong thinking and living to God’s right thinking and living. The breakthrough, then, is a breakthrough by the Spirit of God into the life of the counselee.[1]

I. The Goal: The Glory of God in Jesus Christ

The goal is to see and then reflect the glory of God in Jesus Christ. First, the goal is to see this glory:

¹⁵For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, ¹⁶I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, ¹⁷that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, ¹⁸having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might ²⁰that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. ²²And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, ²³which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:15–23 (ESV)

¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

4 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. ²But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. ³And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:17–4:6 (ESV)

The sight of this glory transforms the one who sees (2 Corinthians 3:18), which results in a light reflective of such glory:

⁹And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, ¹⁰so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9–11 (ESV)

There is no circumstance in which seeing and reflecting the glory of God in Jesus Christ does not remedy the trouble. If one is sinning, the sin will stop. If one has been sinned against, the restoration will begin. If one is troubled, the heart will be at rest. If one abounds, there will be contentment without covetousness for more.

Scripture is the means of change: The Word of God is the primary means by which the Spirit transforms the life of human beings. The Word of God is the means by which God interacts with Creation.

God creates by means of the word: “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.”Hebrews 11:3 (ESV).

“He upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 11:3).

The physical universe responds to God’s speech:

Psalm 147:15–18 (ESV)

15 He sends out his command to the earth;

his word runs swiftly.

16 He gives snow like wool;

he scatters frost like ashes.

17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;

who can stand before his cold?

18 He sends out his word, and melts them;

he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.

The voice of God is powerful:

Psalm 29:3–4 (ESV)

3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters;

the God of glory thunders,

the LORD, over many waters.

4 The voice of the LORD is powerful;

the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.

God’s Word has the power of salvation: Acts 6:2, 7; 10:36, 11:1, 12:24, etc.

The Word of God will have an effect upon those who hear:

The power of the word brings wonderful blessings to those who hear it in faith with a disposition to obey. But it hardens those who hear it with indifference resistance, rebellion. In considering this biblical teaching, I often warn my seminary students to pay heed to what God is telling us here. For seminarians typically spend two or more years intensively studying Scripture. It is so important that they hear in faith, lest the Word actually harden their hearts and become a fire of judgment to them. God’s Word never leaves us the same. We hear it for better or worse. So we should never hear or read God’s Word merely as an academic exercise. We must ask God to open our heart, that the Word may be written on them as well as in our heads. (52).^{^[2]}

God’s Word creates obligations:

John Frame explains that God’s Word “creates obligations in the hearer. God’s language is authoritative not only in telling us what to believe and do, but in directing our emotions, our preoccupations, our priorities, our joys and sorrows. That is to say, God’s words are authoritative in all the ways that language can be authoritative and their authority is ultimate. (Doctrine of the Word of God, 54).

Frame makes the further observation that since the entire universe exists in the context of God’s Word (both creating and upholding), “the world as a whole is meaningful, its meaning determined by God’s plan” (56). Therefore, “Everything that human beings do or say is a response to God’s Word or a consequence of their response” (56).

God’s Word is destabilizing: “Of course the Word of God not only stands against false teachers and their false teachings, it stands over against disobedience, faithlessness, pride, underdevelopment, legalism, selfishness, xenophobia, lethargy and other sins of the church and its members. Appropriately the Bible is “our adversary”; it always confronts with existential demands for reformation. As John Webster notes “Scripture is as much a de-stabilizing feature of the church as it is a factor in its cohesion and continuity. Gathered as the community of the Word, the Church draws life and sustenance from Scripture in its midst but it also receives conviction and rebuke from Scripture as it journeys on a pilgrim path that needs constant redirecting in order for the church to reach its ultimate destination.” ^{^[3]}

Biblical counseling operates from and relies upon the authority of God in the Scripture, and upon that authority, alone:

The authority inherent in the New Testament prefacing phrase, “it is written,” should be apparent to every serious Bible student. This is the very note that is needed in counseling.¹

No other system of counseling has authority (even though Ellis and Skinner, et al. pretend to it) because no other system has an authoritative base. I cannot help but agree with most criticisms of the use of authority in counseling since they grow out of a recognition of the utter arrogance of any fallible man who attempts to speak authoritatively.

No counselee should entrust his life to the hands of another unaided fallible sinner. Unless the counselor has been converted, and is able to demonstrate that there is biblical authority for the directions he gives, a counselee ought to back off.

The Christian’s authority for biblical counseling comes not from himself; therefore, he has no necessary problem with arrogance (I say necessary, because there are plenty of ways for believers also to become arrogant). The fundamental criticism mentioned above simply does not apply. The authority by which he counsels is divine. The argument from arrogance, when applied to other counseling systems, however, is compelling; but it makes no impact at all on genuine Christian counseling. So, why should those who alone have good reason to counsel with authority hesitate to do so?^{^[4]}

It is the Word of God which brings true change:

Psalm 119:9–11 (ESV)

9 How can a young man keep his way pure?

By guarding it according to your word.

10 With my whole heart I seek you;

let me not wander from your commandments!

11 I have stored up your word in my heart,

that I might not sin against you.

It is the Word of God which is our weapon:

2 Corinthians 10:3–6 (ESV)

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

The Breakthrough. In the counseling we are looking for the point during the counseling where the counselee responds to the Word of God with fundamental change.

[I]t does mean that at this point in his life he has taken a step forward in such a way that he will now be able to overcome and replace some of those old ways with new ones….Of course he may have understood and may even have lived according to the new thoughts and ways in the past, but then he did revert. In that case, the counsel that he receives must focus not so much on new ways of thinking and new living but on those biblical truths that will enable him to repent of disobedience and become instead “rooted and grounded” in those truths (Ephesians 3:17). This rooting and grounding takes place when the Holy Spirit “strengthens” him “with power in the inner person” (Ephesians 3:16) so that Christ dwells in his heart by faith (v. 17). In the parallel passage in Colossians, this dwelling is expressed as Christ’s Word dwelling in him richly as teaching and counseling takes place among believers (Colossians 3:16). Christ works within, through the Holy Spirit, Who strengthens him by the Word in those aspects of his life that previously were weak and had not been firmly rooted and grounded.[5]

The Means: Application of the Scripture

Dr. Street explains that biblical counseling is expository counseling: It begins with a text of Scripture and unfolds that Scripture, making application to a particular situation. Thus, counseling and preaching/teaching are in some ways the same event but just directed to different groups. The best preaching will not merely unfold the text, but unfold it in such a way that opens the human heart and creates change – this is precisely what counseling must do. In this section, I will reference some texts on preaching because the goal is the same.

The counsel must be bound by the text. As Broadus (A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons) notes, a sermon must be bound by the text:

“To interpret and apply his text in accordance with its real meaning, is one of the preacher’s most sacred duties. He stands before the people for the very purpose of teaching and exhorting them out of the Word of God. He announces a particular passage of God’s Word as his text with the distinctly implied understanding that from this, his sermon will be drawn—if not always its various thoughts, yet certainly its general subject. … But using a text, and undertaking to develop and apply its teachings, he is solemnly bound to represent the text as meaning precisely what it does mean. This would seem to be a truism. But it is often and grievously violated.” TPDS, 32

It seems strange that a preacher would not consider himself bound by the text, and yet as Broadus notes, “it is often and grievously violated.”

Now, his diversion may not be from malicious motives (it often is not). However, by substituting his own “good” idea for the text, the preacher places himself above the text and thus above God’s wisdom. He seeks to “improve” God’s exhortations. By so doing, the preacher lays a burden upon the congregation which God did not lay; or he exhorts the congregation to an appropriate goal by an inappropriate means (and thus calls them to work with providing God’s help).

“That is a distorted ministry which deals in any large proportion with subjects which are not logically presented in the Scriptures. It is not a biblical ministry” (TPDS, 34; quoting Phelps).

The counsel must unfold the meaning of the Scripture. William Shedd in his book Homiletics and Pastoral Theology explains that the one expositing the Scripture must draw out the meaning of the text: “it must breathe in, and breathe out from every pore and particle, the living afflatus of inspiration. By this breath of life it must live. If the utterances of the pulpit are to be fresh, spiritual, and commanding, the sacred orator must be an exegete. Every discourse must be but the elongation of a text.”

The power of the counsel resides in the text. Therefore, when giving instruction, the exposition of the text exists for the purpose of making the meaning of the text plain. This does not necessarily mean “simple”, because Scripture often contains some steps in thought. Scripture is not a children’s song. By “plain” we mean that your instruction should be so apparent, so clear and direct, that the point of the text cannot be avoided:

There is no characteristic more important to the preacher than this, and none which ought to be more earnestly coveted by him. Sermons should be plain. The thoughts which the religious teacher presents to the common mind should go straight to the understanding. Everything that covers up and envelopes the truth should be stripped off from it, so that the bare reality may be seen. There is prodigious power in this plainness of presentation. It is the power of actual contact. A plain writer, or speaker, makes the truth and the mind impinge upon each other. When the style is plain, the mind of the hearer experiences the sensation of being touched; and this sensation is always impressive, for a man starts when he is touched (William Greenough Thayer Shedd. “Homiletics and Pastoral Theology”).

Your counsel must have force. By this Shedd means that there is a power in the Scripture which the preacher (or the counselor) must proclaim in giving instruction. Here is the important part: For such force to be present, the Scripture must first affect the person who proclaims it. The Scripture must go into your mind and heart and have its affect upon you. You then communicate that affect to others:

The preacher is a herald, and his function is proclamation. In this way, the ideas which he presents to his fellow-men augment, instead of diminishing his strength. He gives no faster than he receives. He simply suffers divine truth, which is never feeble and never fails to pass through his mind, as a medium of communication, to the minds of his fellow-men.

Second, all the power comes from the text. He begins this argument with a proposition concerning the functioning of the human mind: ““It was made to receive truth into itself, and not to originate it out of itself. The human mind is recipient in its nature, and not creative; it beholds truth, but it does not make it.”

Therefore, “The mind cannot think successfully, without an object of thought, and the heart cannot feel strongly and truly, without an object of feeling. There can be no manifestation of power therefore, and no force in the finite mind, except as it has been nourished, stimulated and strengthened by an object other than itself.”

When it comes to preaching, the objective truth which stands before the mind as truth is the Word of God, “We shall be able to answer this question, by considering the fact that the written revelation stands in the same relation to the sacred orator, that the world of nature does to the philosopher. The Bible is something objective to the human mind, and not a mass of subjective thinking which human reason has originated.”

And, “Human reason, therefore, is the subject, or the knowing agent, and the Scriptures are the object, or the thing to be known. All true power, consequently, in the sacred orator, springs from this body of objective verity”.

Third, to convey the objective reality of the Scripture, the preacher must be “mighty in the Scriptures”: This is far more than knowing everything about the Scripture. Rather, he must know the Scripture. He must be taken by the reality of the Scripture:

“Scripture should not lie in the preacher’s mind in the form of congregated atoms, but of living, salient energies. True Biblical knowledge is dynamic, and not atomic. There is no better word to denote its nature, than the word imbue. The mind, by long-continued contemplation of revelation, is steeped in Divine wisdom, and saturated with it.”

This should greatly encourage you. The act of counseling is first an act which transforms you as you wrestle with the Scripture. Then, you bring the Scripture to someone else who themselves is changed.

“Some practitioners of ‘biblical’ counseling wrongly attempt to expunge the human ingredient, as if ‘you’ interfered with the purity of the Word that needs to be presented to people. They try to reduce biblical counseling to Bible verses and formulas. How different from the Bible and all lively ministry! The attempts to expunge sinful human ingredient – messianic expectations, superiority, fear of man, sheer force of personality, manipulation, morbid curiosity, self-indulgent sharing and the like is admirable. But if you expunge the human ingredient itself you actually interfere with how the Living Word uses both his Word and his servants. Faith, hope, and love are contagious, just like grumbling, anxiety, and contempt are contagious. Biblical counseling is not formulaic. Paul begins Ephesians with joy in the Lord and fiercely intelligent concern for his hearers.

You, like him, enter into personal worlds where the weather report is often ‘storms of sleet and high seas.’ How will you not become discouraged, anxious, blasé, or self-confident? You must bring your own gladness and fierce love to the situation, confident in your Lord.”[6]

[1]Jay Edward Adams, Critical Stages of Biblical Counseling (Stanley, NC: Timeless Texts, 2004), 88.

[2] John Frame, The Doctrine of the Word of God, 52.

[3]Allison, Strangers and Pilgrims, 115.

^{^[4]} Jay Edward Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling: More Than Redemption (Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resource Library, 1986), 20.

[5]Adams, Critical Stages of Biblical Counseling, 89.

[6]David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes: Counseling and the Human Condition through the Lens of Scripture (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2003), 39-40.

Because Christ Suffered for You

26 Saturday Oct 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Peter, affliction, Atonement, Christology, Faith, Glory, Hope, John Piper, Joy, Praise, Preaching

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1 Corinthians 15:56–58, 1 Peter 1:18–20, 1 Peter 1:23, 1 Peter 1:3–7, 1 Peter 2:12, 1 Peter 2:9, 1Peter 2:21, Acts 2:23, Affliction, And Can it Be, Atonement, Brothers We are not Professionals, Charles Wesley, Colossians 2:14, Ecclesiastes 2:11, Ecclesiastes 9:3, Galatians 3:13, Galatians 4:4–7, glory, Glory of God, Gospel, Hebrews 2:14, joy, Luke 22:61–62, Luke 24, Mark 15:16–20, Mark 15:33–34, Peter, Psalm 115:1, Romans 3:20, Solomon, Suffering

(draft notes for a sermon 1 Peter 2:21)

Because Christ Suffered for You. 1 Peter 2:21

Suffering hurts in two ways. First, there is the actual pain of suffering. Illness hurts; poverty hurts; broken relationships hurt. But the actual pain is perhaps not the worst part. I remember hearing an interview with a woman who was being tortured by the secret police in her country. She was tied to a table and the men where torturing her. She said she could take it as long as thought of them as monsters. But during the torture, one man took a phone call and spoke with his wife. He talked about finishing up at work and coming home. That real human beings were torturing her tore her soul.

The worst part of suffering is the shame, the pointlessness, the loneliness. When we come to die, there is regret. It doesn’t how much we acquire or how much we have done. Solomon coming to the end of his life, having done all that any man could do:

“And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure … “Ecclesiastes 2:10. And yet, that could not keep him from regret, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and striving after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).

If drinking in all the money and power and sex and pleasure and wine which the world can give will leave one with regret, what of a normal life? When we suffer, we can think, What’s the point? What’s the point of my disease? When we can’t pay our bills, or a marriage fails; or our life just seems a waste, a getting up and paying bills for what?

We think, What’s the point of my suffering. Then, some well-meaning Christian tells us, “It’s to strengthen your faith!” Or, much worse, “God’s teaching you something.” It sounds as if the point of suffering is some sort quiz; as if there were some test and we need to get a 90% or higher to pass. Those answers are correct – but only in part. It’s like saying that Hamlet is important because it’s about ghosts, or the World Series is about hot dog sales.

Suffering does grow our faith – but faith is only the means to the end. In suffering we feel pain – and we are tempted to feel that our pain is pointless. We feel shame in our suffering and think that it serves no good. When we hear “It will strengthen our faith” – we think, I would settle for just not hurting today.

But what if suffering were an inlet for glory and joy – and not just joy in the future, but joy today? Look at 1 Peter 2:21. Peter writes:

For to this you have been called

Because Christ suffered for you

Leaving an example that you might follow in his steps.

1 Peter 2:21. Consider carefully those words and follow the logic: You have been called – that means that God has called you to patiently enduring suffering, even unjust, undeserved suffering. Peter then gives the reason: Because Christ suffered for you. Then, that you may not miss the point, Peter restates our duty and status in other words, that we might follow in Christ’s steps of suffering.

This does not sound hopeful. But, as you consider the matter, it becomes worse. We are not merely called to suffer, but we are called suffer as Christ suffered.

How does the logic work? You must suffer unjustly. If your boss abuses you, if your husband does not love you, if your wife will not respect you, you must so suffer. If someone pays you evil, you give them good. When someone curses you, you must bless them. Why? Because Christ has suffered for you.

Even more, such suffering will be measured by Christ’s suffering: His suffering is the pattern which you must follow; his suffering is like so many steps in the snow and you must follow behind, for it is the only way to cross.

Peter writes of Jesus being reviled and threatened. Those words do not merely mean a couple of crass shouts by an enemy:

16 And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. 17 And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. 18 And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him. Mark 15:16–20 (ESV)

There he stood alone, beaten, shamed, blood running down his face as they struck him and danced about in their madness, mocking the Lord of glory who had come to rescue the children of Adam from sin and death.

Peter saw some, but not all of these things. You know the story of how Peter, frightened by a girl, denied the Lord. Luke records how that scene ended:

61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly. Luke 22:61–62 (ESV)

Peter’s own cowardice makes the command to suffer with Christ laughable – who is Peter to command me to follow the Lord, when Peter himself ran away and wept? How can this coward think to command our courage when he could not even stand still? How can Peter tell us to follow in the steps of Christ:

And they led him out to be crucified.

Peter’s words that we should follow in the steps of Christ, that we should follow Christ in suffering do not make sense. First, it does not make sense that we should suffer patiently through a bad marriage just because Jesus bore sin. Second, it makes no sense that Peter, of all people, should be the one who could draw such a conclusion. Peter looked at Jesus suffer. He saw that Jesus was going to the cross and Peter responded by lying to a little girl. If seeing Jesus suffer did not give Peter courage, how does Peter think reading about Jesus suffering will help me?

Let us consider the matter more carefully. What was the event? The Lord of glory, God incarnate, was murdered, “crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” Acts 2:23. Peter contends that murder must affect our life here and now.

For to this you were called

Because Christ suffered for you

Leaving you an example that you might follow in his steps.

To suffer because we have done wrong is no great trouble. Only the most morally twisted could conclude that wrong does not deserve a response: “For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it you endure?” 1 Peter 2:20a.

But God does something strange. He commands a thing seemingly makes no sense:

“But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this a gracious thing in the sight of God” 1 Peter 2:20b.

Somehow a line runs between Christ’s suffering for our sins and our suffering even when we have not sinned.

Let’s consider the death of Jesus. If you were to stand on the street in Jerusalem on that Friday morning, you would have seen just another criminal, beaten, filthy, bloody, brutalized; a rough wooden beam upon his shoulders. You would have seen the tatters of meat which had been his back. You have seen him stumble and fall before the soldiers. Perhaps if you had known more, you have seen just another failed messiah; another dreamer and liar who had run into the teeth of Rome. You would have seen betrayal and shame and sorrow.

Even the dearest disciples and friends of Jesus had lost hope as he pushed along the streets to be murdered outside the gate. The women who found the empty tomb, had come to honor a corpse. Cleopas and the unnamed disciple were hopeless and saddened when they spoke to the Lord, not realizing he had risen from the dead:

Our chief priests and rulers had delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Luke 24:20-21a.

No one knew the “hidden wisdom of God” in all this. “For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” 1 Corinthians 2:7-8.

Now there was no secret in the death of Jesus – Rome killed in as a public a manner as they could find. What then was not seen:

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 (ESV)

Thus, something must have happened in this death for our sin which transform everything we think we know about the world.

That is the great connection between Christ’s death and our suffering in this world. When Christ died for sins, the world changed.

We are born in a slaughterhouse. In a slaughterhouse, the cattle stand in long lines, head to tail, waiting their turn to walk through the door and die. The only hope for the cow is the hope of a feedlot and then the line outside the door of the slaughterhouse. This world is little more than a feedlot, than a prison. You are locked in by death. Death stands at the doors of this world and no one escapes.

Sin spreads through the camp and has infected us all, like a plague which eats the mind and poisons the soul:

3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. Ecclesiastes 9:3 (ESV)

Look carefully into this world. The Law has come to town. In every street, the law sends out his soldiers to drag us each and every-one before his court. The young comes with the old; the baby is dragged from the mother; the rich stands with the poor. The tribunal stands in the middle of street; nothing is private. The bailiff reads out your crimes; nothing is hidden. Your boldest wrong and the darkest intention of your heart, so dim you scarcely knew it if was true all are read aloud. The Law knows all.

You fall condemned. No mercy; no defense; no hope. And thus you find yourself in this prison, this slaughterhouse, this feedlot for death. You are food for worms, and nothing more.

Sin and death reign supreme in this prison. All the insanity which spreads around flows from the utter terror of death at the door. As the Holy Spirit explains in Hebrews 2:14, the devil holds the world in life long slavery through fear of death.

Some people deny that death stands at the door. Others think they can bribe the guard when it comes the day to account. Others claim to have brought paradise to the prison and seek a torrent of pleasure to dull their eyes until they die.

No one within this prison deserves the least reprieve. The Law’s judgment was just and true. Nothing less than death awaits. And after death, vast fields of hopelessness and sorrow, despair and death without end. The bars of death cannot be beat. Like a blackhole whose gravity can swallow even light and time, death will not be beat. Justice will not lose one dram of vindication.

Yet, into this world the Son of God came. He takes up the charge laid against you. The Law reads out crimes, one by one, each more vicious and foul to have stained the air with their sound. The charge in full being stated, the Son of God, the King himself says to the Law, I will bear it all. Let death and hell come, I will bear it all.

And so the king, reviled, mocked, beaten, murdered upon a tree, bore the weight of sin and shame. Even more dreadful, the King received the wrath of God which caused the earth to shake and the sun to hide for shame:

33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:33–34 (ESV)

Somehow, upon that cross,

For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Somehow

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— Galatians 3:13 (ESV)

A mystery lies here, that Christ could bear our sin in his body on the tree. And yet, it is true:

4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:4–7 (ESV)

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,

Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;

Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

That is why Peter writes that God has brought us to hope:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:3–7 (ESV)

Look into this hope – as deep as the sorrow of sin once laid upon us, so much greater is the joy and glory of hope now brought by resurrection of Jesus Christ. See further that all this hope is of God, and God alone.

It was God who sent the Law to condemn us each and everyone:

20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20 (ESV)

It was God himself who wrote the “record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” (Colossians 2:14). It was God who kept close track of our sin, of our deeds and intentions. And it was God who sent the Son into the world. Do you not know

that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you …. 1 Peter 1:18–20 (ESV)

And in that ransom, death itself was aside forever. In his death and resurrection, “you were born again, not of perishable seed but imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). The one who lives without Christ cannot be said rightly to live at all. Before him lies only death; his life a life of a feedlot for worms. And after death? Death for eternity, endless fields of sorrow and despair.

But it is not so for you who know him. You have been called to joy which words cannot contain, because you have come to hope in the revelation of Jesus Christ:

8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8–9 (ESV)

But this still may not answer the question we asked at the beginning: How does Christ dying me lead to me suffering in this world? Wouldn’t it be the case that I should come into immediate and full possession of all this joy?

That is where we stumble. You see, we falsely think that there is a joy to be had which is other than the joy of the visible presence of the King. When we joke about mansions in heaven, we laugh at the idolatry of our hearts that even when we think of the King we somehow think of a joy which should centered upon us.

But all so hope is false. We were created for something far greater than ourselves – we were created for God. Nothing less than our king will do for such a heart. No mere trifle, even the most glorious throne to ever arise over the face of the world will be enough. The greatest room in a prison is still a cell.

To dream that we should be happy with something here and now is dastardly – it is lie. The only happiness and contentment we have now is a draught of the Creator being bestowed through the creature. Imagine being thirsty and coming to a faucet. You turn the handle and water comes out. It is not the faucet which drowns your thirst but the water. When you have contentment which flows through the creature it is only gift of the Creator seen in the creature. We must not love anything or anyone for themselves, but rather for the sake of Christ. Even our dearest relations must be loved for Christ’s sake.

Only our foolishness ever permits us to seek contentment in the creature.

When Christ died for us, our entire world changed. Rather than being desperate to find some happiness in this world – which is like trying to find water in the Sarah – we were granted true hope. I can remember the day that one of my daughters first ate chocolate. After that taste, nothing else would be the same. How much more is such a thing true when we come to Christ!

We now know a thirst that can only be slaked by living water.

Our hope is God. Our good is God. Our joy is God. Our inheritance is God.

Thus, our greatest joy and hope is that our King be glorified.

You see, when Christ died and carried away our sin we were brought to a greater a hope and joy: the all sufficient most glorious God. We have come to see that our God possesses such power and beauty that it would be a crime for God to not glory in himself. When the Father looks upon the work of his Son, destroying the reign of sin and death, the Father delights in the Son. And it is the joy of the Father to glorify his Son. It is the joy of the Son to bring glory to his Father. It is the joy of the Spirit to convict us sin that we may come to see the glory of the Father in the Son.

When we were rescued from sin, we were rescued into this kingdom of joy. “Not to us, O LORD, not us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and faithfulness!” Psalm 115:1.

That is where our suffering comes in.

You were saved so that you too could join in the eternal delight of God by proclaiming the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You and I are not the point of the universe. You can understand nothing of true importance in this life, if you do not understand this. You will never understand, faith, obedience, suffering; you will never know blessedness, nor know joy, worship or hope until you grasp this point: “God loves His glory more than He loves us and that this is the foundation of His love for us” (Piper, Brothers, We are not Professionals, 7).

The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And that is the chief end of God. You exist to share in the eternal delight of glorifying God. Look down at 1 Peter 2:12:

12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:12 (ESV)

You proclaim the excellencies of God by keeping your conduct honorable among the Gentiles. And how do you do that? By patiently enduring suffering – even unjust suffering. To endure unjust suffering because you have hope of God’s rescue testifies of God’s goodness and glory. Now, perhaps, the others may think you a fool and may think your suffering shame – but the day will come when you will be revealed to be a child of God and a joint heir with Christ. The time will come that Christ will come and then they will see your good deeds where done in the hope of God. Therefore, you may rejoice today knowing that you are bringing glory to God. Indeed, bringing glory to God is the only true means of joy in all of creation. Where you to search all heaven, all earth; where you to travel to edge of the universe, you could find no other true joy, no greater joy than the joy of glorifying God.

When the Lord had been arrested, Peter did not understand what was happening. It was only later that he finally realized the glory of God. Too often, we live like Peter before the resurrection. We deny Jesus, because the shame and pain of this world become too great. We know it to be wrong, and so we run out and weep. Peter is writing to you and me to spare us the sorrow of hearing the cock crow.

Thus, now that Christ has risen and death has been defeated, we can look upon our sorrows and pangs, sad marriages or painful work, as moments to glorify God – and what could be a greater joy? Christ’s death did not merely transform death for us, it also transformed life:

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:56–58 (ESV)

Angels’ Wits are Childish Tricks

12 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Colossians, Edward Taylor, Literature, Puritan

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1 Corinthians 1:28–31, 1 Timothy 6:13–16, 2 Peter 1:16–21, Christ's Glory, Colossians, Colossians 1:11–14, Colossians 1:15–19, Colossians 2:18, Colossians 2:3, Edward Taylor, glory, Glory of God, Matthew 17:1–3, poem, Poetry, Puritan Poetry, Revelation 1:12–16, Thou Glory Darkening Glory

(This is the first entry on the poem of Edward Taylor, “Thou glory darkening glory” — a meditation on Colossians 2:3).

Thou glory darkening glory,[1] with thy flame

Should all quaint[2] metaphors teem ev’ry bud

Of sparkling eloquence upon the same[3]

It would appear as daubing pearls[4] with mud.

Nay angels’ wits are childish tricks[5], and like

Darksome[6] night unto thy lightsome[7] light.

Taylor’s poem is marked as a meditation on Colossians 2:3:

³ In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:3 (AV)

The Colossian congregation had been invaded by a “philosophy” (as Paul in one place calls it) which sought to give a higher wisdom, a greater spirituality than coul be had in Christ. Therefore, Paul seeks to establish the majesty and beauty of Jesus above all competition.

Paul introduces his argument (following his opening) by speaking of the “glorious might” of exhibited in God in moving those redeemed from darkness to light (all quotations are from the Authorized Version, the King James, so as to give an idea of Taylor’s experience of the Scripture):

11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; 12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Colossians 1:11–14 (AV)

The imagery from this passage seems in part to have suggested to Taylor the imagery of glory, light and darkness.

The reference to the limitations on angels also flows from Colossians. First, Paul extolls Jesus of the creator of all things, including angels:

15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; Colossians 1:15–19 (AV)

The reference to “thrones, dominions, principalities, powers” are references to various angelic beings. Later in the letter Paul condemns the “worship of angels” (there is some debate as to whether the false teachers were instructing one to worship the angels as an object or to worship God alongside the angels in some mystical manner) (Colossians 2:18).

However, Taylor was not limited to Colossians alone as a source for his meditation on God’s glory. The beautiful glory of God in Jesus is a common theme of the New Testament. Taylor opens this poem extolling the glory of the wisdom in Christ with a general praise of Christ’s glory.

13 I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; 14 That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: 15 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; 16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:13–16 (AV)

12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; 13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14 His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. Revelation 1:12–16 (AV)

There was a hint of this glory prior to the Resurrection:

1 And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, 2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. 3 And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Matthew 17:1–3 (AV)

Now, the movement from the glory of Christ generally to the glory of wisdom is not a great movement. Peter, who had witnessed the transfiguration places the prophetic word as more sure than even his experience of the transfiguration:

16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.

19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1:16–21 (AV)

In addition, the proposition that Jesus contains the wisdom of God is not only found in Colossians. Pau makes a similar designation in 1 Corinthians 1:

28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:28–31 (AV)

(Starcluster, NGC265 — click for full size)

[1] The glory of God so outshines the glory of anything created that such things appear to be dark in comparison.

[2] Here, something clever, intelligent – not trite and small, as in American slang.

[3] If I tried to match your beauty with an encrustation of adjectives, it would be like covering a pearl in mud.

[4] To understand the effect of this image, consider how expensive and exotic a pearl would be a frontier pastor in a rural congregation in the 17^th Century.

[5] That is simply a great line.

[6] Note the accent on the first syllable. The unexpected rhythm coupled with the internal rhyme (night/light) and the repetition of long “I” sounds (like, night, lightsome, light) create a memorable effect.

[7] -some, a suffix which designates something as characterized by. See, Fowler’s Modern English Usage for an interesting history of the use of the suffix.

It was this glory

27 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Quotations, Uncategorized

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Bunyan, glory, Glory of God, John Bunyan, Quotations, Uncategorized

It was this glory of God, the sight and visions of this God of glory, that provoked Abraham to leave his country and kindred to come after God. The reason why men are so careless of and so indifferent about their coming to God, is because they have their eyes blinded — because they do not perceive his glory.

You therefore must be perfect

14 Monday Jan 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Peter, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Obedience, Preaching

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1 Peter, 1 Peter 2:1, 1 Peter 2:1-3, a new creation, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Galatians 2:20, glory, Glory of God, Gospel, John Calvin, Lightfoot, new creature, Obedience, Preaching, Psalm 50, R.C. Sproul, Romans 1, Romans 3:20

You therefore must be perfect

Cut to the Heart

It is not uncommon: The husband learns that his wife feels unloved. He asks, What do you want me to do? She says, Love me. Yes, he says, but what do you want me to do? Do you want to get you presents? Do you want a vacation? I want you to love me.

Or, when someone in the church has fallen into some great sin: when I meet with them, they ask, What do you want me to do? God calls for you to repent. Yes, but what should I do? Repent. Yes, but what am I supposed to do?

The husband and the one who does not repent both possess the same trouble: They are willing change their behavior, but they do not understand their trouble lies deeper and elsewhere: the change they need is a change of heart. When Peter preached on Pentecost, Luke tells us that the people present “were cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37). Conduct merely exposes the heart.

God Seeks Heart Devotion

It is heart religion which God seeks. Conduct matters, obedience matters – but it merely matters as it works with the heart. Obedience without a heart of devotion is hypocrisy. In Psalm 50, God explains he does not hunger or thirst for sacrifices – like some vicious pagan god.

Do I eat the flesh of bulls

Or drink the blood of goats?

Psalm 50:13. What then does God desire

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving,

And perform your vows to the Most High,

And call upon me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you and you will glorify me.

Psalm 50:14-15. We think that our greatest trouble comes about because or behavior. We experience guilt and shame and fear and think that if we could only obey the law, all would be right. But behavior will not work:

For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

Romans 3:20. It is true that we cannot be perfect and the law shows how imperfect we are. But the law is the x-ray, our disease is a lack of love.

We are imperfect law-keepers. Yet the real heart and point of the law is that can only be met by love. Breaking the law of God is objective rebellion against God – when refuse to obey, it is because we refuse to love, we fail to “glorify” God – as God calls for in Psalm 50. We refuse to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Paul makes this point in Romans 1. In verse 21, he says the trouble with human beings is that we fail to “honor” God and we are not “thankful“. In verse 23 he human beings have

exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

In verse 25 the trouble is that fail to worship God.

These are heart troubles. It is the heart which refuses to be thankful, to give honor, to worship. These are problems of relationship. These are problems of love.

The deepest trouble for humanity is that we lack God, we lack the dearest and deepest desire of our soul. God has been patient, and his kindness is meant to lead us to repentance (Rom. 2:4). When Paul explains justification – the act of God responding to our law breaking, Paul writes:

5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; 8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.” Romans 4:5–8 (ESV)

The Gospel Glorifies God in Jesus Christ

When we think our deepest trouble is law keeping, we draw all the wrong conclusions. We miss the whole point of the Gospel. We miss the whole point of the Christian life. God does not forgive us because we have obeyed well enough to make up our past transgressions. God forgives on the basis the merit of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is the story of God glorifying Jesus in his incarnation, obedience, death, burial, resurrection, ascension. Thus, as the Jesus nears the cross, he prays:

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. John 17:5 (ESV)

One element of the Father glorifying the Son is the the Father gives the elect to the Son. We are saved for the purpose of God being glorified.

Thus, we cannot be “saved” on our merit — for that would be for our glory. It can never be a matter of great obedience. Rather, we are “saved” solely on the basis of the merit of Jesus Christ. Jesus gets the glory and the honor for our salvation.

Our standing with God derives solely from the merit of Jesus — merit which we recieve by faith through the grace of God. We receive justification, salvation on the basis of a relationship with God in Jesus. We come as beggars and rebels and leave as sons and daughters.

Peter writes that God “redeems” us based upon the payment of the “precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 18-19).

We obtain that merit on the basis of relationship: We are to “believe” in his name (John 3:16).

We must come to God in faith (Heb. 11:6).

We exercise “faith and hope in God” (1 Peter 1:21).

We believe that God has demonstrated Jesus to be the Son of God in power (Romans 1:4; 10:9).

We confess Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9).

We are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8-9).

When we are saved, we are brought into relationship with God. Peter states that we are being “built up as a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). He calls us the “household of God” (1 Peter 17).

Paul writes that we are “in Christ” and thus “a new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17).

We have been raised up and seated with Christ (Eph. 2:6).

We have been buried and we have been raised with Christ (Rom. 6:2-11).

We have been adopted by God! (Rom. 8:15).

We are joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17).

As Paul writes:

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 (ESV)

God deals with our sin by dealing with our relationship to him. Jesus has overcome sin and death. Our job is not to overcome the guilt of sin, but to join in relationship to God in faith, hope and love.

The Gospel is that the King has come. He has overcome guilt of the law. He has overcome sin. He has overcome death. That is the good news. Because of that good news we can freed from sin and death, but only by becoming reconciled to the King.

We Draw the Wrong Conclusion

Unfortunately, Christians draw the wrong conclusions. On one hand, many seek to become extra-saved, extra-righteous by means of effort. They try to set aside the relationship to God and to finally be right before in their personal efforts. This is the husband who asks his wife, What should I do? Surely the husband’s conduct matters, surely his behavior matters to his wife – but only as it points to his heart.

A wife would desire her husband to husband to show her kindness by helping with the housework – but if her husband had broken legs, she would not think him less loving when did not mow the lawn. A wife could desire her husband to take her to a nice restaurant for dinner, but if they have no money, she does not think that he doesn’t love her. The behavior matters – but only as it points to the heart.

There is a second problem: fancy word, “antinomianism”. This is the guy who, “That’s legalism bro,” when you point out his sin. They figure that since we are saved on the merit of Jesus Christ alone, it does not matter what we do. Holiness may be nice, but it is not essential. This is a husband who ignores his wife, because they are married.

In the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, a husband says to his wife, “What I need manners for? I already got me a wife.” His lack of manners reflects a lack of love in his heart.

There is a middle ground which takes a bit from both. This perhaps the most common and subtle version: In this case, one does not go so far as to deny all need for moral life. However, in this third version we make the commands a bit less extreme. We know that we cannot be perfect, so we think lessen the commands and make exceptions and add caveats.

This is a husband who says, I’m good enough and she should be content with that – even though she knows herself to be unloved. He doesn’t beat her, he doesn’t commit adultery. And, he doesn’t love her. It is the man who wants to know why he should repent, because there are other people who are worse.

You Must be Perfect

But consider our command in 1 Peter 2:1

1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.

This is merely the first of many commands which given by Peter. That command contains no limitations, exceptions or caveats. In fact, to make the point emphatic, Peter uses the word “all” three times in one sentence.

I will not humiliate you with a public interrogation. However, I think it safe to say that at the very least the “hypocrisy” clause will catch us all as law breakers.

Later in the letter, Peter will make extraordinary demands upon employees, upon husbands, upon wives. These demands weigh so heavily upon the flesh, that many people think they are unfair. Indeed, many Christians think that God cannot possibly mean what he says.

Servants are supposed to endure beatings and “endure” because “this is a gracious thing in the sight of God” (1 Pet 2:20).

In the same manner, wives are called upon to submit to husbands who “do not obey the word” (1 Peter 3:1) and show “respectful and pure conduct”, a “gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Peter 3:2 & 4). Surely God does not mean that we are called upon to suffer.

But Peter measures the suffering and sacrifice by the sacrifice of Jesus. People calls Jesus the “example” which we are commanded to “follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). We are commanded to be like Jesus.

And that is the point.

God demands absolute perfection:

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48 (ESV)

You must be perfect. Period:

Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisee, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20 (ESV).

What Will We Do?

So, what will we do? Plainly we are not and cannot be perfect. We can try to be perfect, and be disappointed – we can crush ourselves in pain. But that will not work. We can throw up our hands and try nothing at all.

Usually, we seek to shift our ground – we make the command less. We choose a command which we think we can obey. We argue that the command no longer applies.

All of these alternatives are wrong, because they miss the essential point: Our trouble with God is not the law breaking, but the rebellion. Our lack of perfection in obedience only demonstrates the lack of perfection in our love.

The reason a wife cannot submit to her husband is because she loves God too little – her complaints about her husband are excuses for her lack of love of God. The reason a husband does not love his wife is because he loves God too little – his complaints about his wife are excuses for not loving God.

We Must Desire God to Keep the Commandments &

We Keep the Commandments Because We Desire God

The trouble is that we misread the commands. We absolutely must fully and completely obey the commands – but we must obey them in the correct manner. We obey the commands, because we desire God.

I shifted things here a bit – I have been talking about loving God and now I have shifted to desiring God. So pay attention ….

I give you a set of directions. The traveling directions are painstaking and complicated. It will take days to complete the trip. You don’t care if you go. You look at the directions, drive a bit, quit.

Consider a different option: The instructions are identical, but the destination is different. The trip will take days, it will be difficult, there will be many hardships. But – and this is the key difference – at the end of the trip lies the place you want to go. By following the directions, you make it to a place you love. You will make the trip because you desire to obtain the beloved.

Let us say that a dear friend invited you to a dinner at his house in the Hollywood Hills. If you have ever tried to find a place in the hills at night, you know that it can be exceedingly difficult to even know where you are. Now, would you curse your friend for living in the hills, solely because it was a difficult trip?

Why then do we curse God for the difficulty of obedience and moral holiness?

Take the Ten Commandments. We can easily miss the entire point of God’s instruction to the people at Mt. Sinai. We make it ten commandments and lop off the first thing God says:

1 And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:1–3 (ESV)

God had already rescued Israel. The “commandments” were directions on how God and his people would live in relationship with one-another. Paul draws out this idea in 2 Corinthians 6:16, take a look with me:

16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” 1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. 2 Corinthians 6:16–7:1 (ESV)

The obedience comes about because of the relationship. Since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves ….

There are many things which I must do for my children. But I do not obey these rules so that a relationship will exist, but rather because the relationship exists. I care for my wife not for the purpose of creating the relationship, but because the relationship already exists.

But there is something more: I care for my wife and my children not merely because a relationship exists. I care for them so that my relationship will become more profound, more loving. I obey to increase to the love.

I follow the directions so that I can make it to dinner with my friend.

I obey God so that I can dwell with him. I obey because I love, and because I want to love still more. I obey because I desire God.

Psalm 15: We Shall Sojourn

Turn to Psalm 15:

A PSALM OF DAVID. 1 O LORD, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? 2 He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; 3 who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; 4 in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the LORD; who swears to his own hurt and does not change; 5 who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.

Who is going to live you? Who will dwell with God?

First, these demands are absolute. They seek perfection? Who has ever been this perfect? Hold that thought.

Now, one could read this and think: If I do these things, then I can earn access to God. But that cannot be true. The Bible everywhere states the opposite. When God rescued the Israelites in Egypt, the Israelites worshipped Egyptian idols (Lev. 17:1; Deut. 32:16-17; Ezk. 20:3-8). Abraham’s father worshipped idols (Joshua 24:2). As Paul wrote, God rescues the ungodly. And Peter makes plain that God rescues on the basis of the blood of Jesus.

What then must we think when we read Psalm 15? What would someone do with such a Psalm?

The answer takes two steps: First, there is the matter of the one described. The only one who perfectly fulfills such a demand is Jesus. We can only enter into this relationship with God, if we enter with and because of Jesus. Jesus’ entry is our entry. There is no other door to the temple.

Second step: We seek a blessing; we seek God.

But does that mean that we ignore this command for perfection because Jesus is perfect? No.

Think: Why would someone walk blamelessly, speak truth, not slander, et cetera? What is the promise? To sojourn with the Lord – in his tent. The obedience was to deepen and extend the relationship.

The 119^th Psalm states that the one who walks blamelessly in the law of the Lord will be blessed. Why must you obey? So that you will be blessed. You obey so that you may dwell with God.

Consider another text, Isaiah 66:1-2:

1 Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? 2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. Isaiah 66:1–2 (ESV)

This takes the same idea but works from a different direction. Here, God is looking for someone – the one who is humble and contrite in spirit and who trembles at God’s word. God is looking for someone who will be in relationship with him.

Psalm 24:1-2 says,

1 The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, 2 for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Psalm 24:1–2 (ESV)

If God is so great, how then will I come into relationship with him?

3 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. Psalm 24:3–4 (ESV)

Why should I seek to ascend to the hill?

5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah Psalm 24:5–6 (ESV)

The one who obeys is also called the one who “seeks the face of the God of Jacob”. We seek God, because we want God. We want the blessing. Obedience flows naturally out of a desire to obtain God.

In Colossians 3, Paul gives several commands for moral perfection. In verses 1-4 he commands that we set our hearts and minds upon Jesus – that we long and desire for him, to be where he is. He then lays out commands about anger and immorality and covetousness. Then, strikingly, he writes in verse 11

Here there is no Greek and Jew

What “here”: What is the place to which Paul refers? It is the place of obedience, the place of living as renewed, recreated human being[1]. He then goes on to commend love for one another and desire for God. Obedience is the place where the love of God flows out of our hearts and into our lives.

Knowing that, consider our text in 1 Peter 2:1-3:

1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 2:1–3 (ESV)

If you think of the commands and obedience as burdensome things you must do, you will always be seeking some way to get around the problem. But that is not how Peter presents the situation.

Peter writes you are putting these things as you are longing for the milk. Obedience to the command and longing for God are the exact same thing – they are merely viewed from a different aspect.

Why do men work so hard to ride their bicycles through France? To gain a blessing, to win an award. Why would someone travel for hours through narrow, difficult roads, or waste around the indignity of an airport? To see grandmother.

The hard work is inseparable from the desire for the blessing at the end.

See this: In the very act of obedience, we are chasing hard after God.

Tim has been preaching on marriage. Now you could just think of this a marriage seminar. If you’ll do what’s right, you could have a better marriage. Yes, if you love and honor and cherish one-another as God has commanded, you both be happier. But that’s not the point. The experience of your happiness in marriage is an extra benefit of obedience – but it is not the primary purpose of marriage.

Peter gives commands to those in a marriage so that they can be like Jesus – and what did Jesus ever do except seek hard after his Father? What did he desire than his Father’s will?

What Happens in Our Obedience?

I love my wife so that I can understand God. I love my wife. I lead my wife, because in so doing I learn about God. But even more wonderfully, I will come to dwell with God in a more profound manner.

Think of it: When I love my and sacrifice my wife, I begin to understand better what it means for Jesus to love and sacrifice for me. When I love my wife, I am acting like Jesus. My act of love teaches me his act of love. It also teaches my wife about the love of Christ. My obedience to Jesus helps my wife come to know and love Jesus.

When my wife shows deference and honor and submission to me, it teaches her about the church’s relationship to Christ. It also teaches me about the church and Christ.

As I learn God in Jesus Christ, I grow in communion with the Father in the Son by means of the Spirit.

You could think of obedience as the map to a friend’s house. You could think of obedience as coming to stand on the top of a hill from which I can see the ocean. You can think of obedience as clearing out a dam which has stopped a stream.

When I guard my tongue – as Peter expects – I come into deeper fellowship with God in Jesus Christ. Peter writes of Jesus, “He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). Jesus did this, because he “entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).

In 1 Peter 3:8-13, Peter commends love and perfect speech, so that we can obtain a blessing. Now what greater blessing can God give than himself?

When I love my wife, I ultimately seeking to come into the courts of God. When brothers and sisters live in fellowship, they are transformed drink deeply from the living waters.

Consider your own experience. When you have bickered with your wife, slandered your brother in Christ, brooded in anger, coveted, lusted, lied has been your experience that your heart ran more deeply in love for Christ?

Obedient holiness toward God is nothing more than seeking God in self-sacrificing love. I am not saying that obedience does not cross our flesh – it seeks to destroy our rebellion. But obedience can only flow out of love: “Love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10).

In our text, when Peter gives the commands to leave aside wicked speech and to deeply desire God, he goes to say that are thus being built up into a spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5). He goes on to list out a series of relationships which exemplify our place before God: chosen, royal priests, holy nation, a people for his own possession, people who proclaim God’s glory. People who have received mercy, people who needed mercy because they – we — are profound law breakers.

When we live in self-sacrificing manner, our obedience derives from our relationship to God., and seeking relationship. Obedience is not like trying to obey traffic regulations. Obedience is seeking a friend, our dearest friend, our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Obedience Glorifies God in Jesus Christ

As noted above, the Gospel ultimately concerns the glory of God in Jesus Christ. The Gospel is ultimately Trinitarian. Humanity gains greatly when the glory and merit won by Jesus causes us to be “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). While the salvation of human beings is a step in the glory of Jesus Christ, it was not the chief aim of God’s intention:

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:11–12 (ESV)

R.C. Sproul explains:

God predestined from all eternity not only that Jesus should be Saviour, but that Jesus should be King of kings and Lord of lords. God has already crowned his Son, for the coronation has taken place in the ascension; but we live in a world that does not recognise its ruler, that does not kneel in obeisance before its appointed king. The same one through whom all things were made, by whom all things were made and for whom all things were made, will receive all things at the end of time. God’s appointed plan for the universe is to bring all things on heaven and on earth together, under one head. The goal of creation is neither chaos nor disharmony but unity, and the point of unity will be his anointed king.

How does that relate to us? Well it is in him. Paul writes: In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory (verses 11, 12). This universe is destined for glory and Christians are predestined to participate in and witness to that glory.[2]

Calvin puts it well:

Here again he mentions the final cause of salvation; for we must eventually become illustrations of the glory of God, if we are nothing but vessels of his mercy.[3]

We are “illustrations of the glory of God”. Thus, Peter explains that our salvation (the application of the Gospel in justification) and our obedience (the working out of that truth as a practical matter in our lives) are both for the glory of God. Note the progression in the following verses:

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:9–12 (ESV)

First, he chose his be people so that you would “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness”. Second, we abstain from sin in obedience to God’s commands so that even unbelievers will “glorify God on the day of visitation.”

(The audio for this lesson can be found here: http://calvarybiblechurch.org/site/cpage.asp?cpage_id=180033150&sec_id=180008560 The audio tracks the same material, but does differ in certain respects.)

[1] Lightfoot refers to this as the “regenerate life”:

11. ὅπου] i.e. ‘in this regenerate life, in this spiritual region into which the believer is transferred in Christ.’

Joseph Barber Lightfoot, Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon, 8th ed., Classic Commentaries on the Greek New Testament (London; New York: Macmillan and Co., 1886), 214. The region of the new creation:

Ver. 11. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond, free.—“Where” refers to the region of the new creation in Christ, in contrast with the domain of creation without Christ; in the latter there is division, contrariety and discord; in the former union, fraternity. Just as in the parallel passage (Eph. 4:25: “for we are members one of another”), this fellowship of the regenerate, the converted, requires truth and friendship among each other.

John Peter Lange, Philip Schaff, Karl Braune and M. B. Riddle, A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Colossians (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 66. O’Brien further clarifies:

Within this new humanity (ὅπου, a particle denoting place, is here employed figuratively to denote the circumstances or presupposition of what has gone before = “in the realm of the new man,” Dibelius-Greeven, 42) the barriers that divided people from one another—racial, religious, cultural and social—are abolished (Lightfoot, 214, claims that οὐκ ἔνι means: “Not only does the distinction not exist, but it cannot exist”; cf. Martin, NCB, 108; for a contrary view see Abbott, 285). The theological reason is that “all were baptized into the one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free” (1 Cor 12:13).

Peter T. O’Brien, vol. 44, Colossians, Philemon, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 192. This region, this regenerate life, this new humanity Paul calls the “new man” – as opposed to the “old man”. The characteristic of the “new man” is that he has put off the practices of sexual immorality, covetousness, anger and evil speech (Col. 3:5-9). The spiritual and the practical are thus co-incident.

[2] R. C. Sproul, The Purpose of God: Ephesians (Scotland: Christian Focus Publications, 1994), 30-31.

[3] John Calvin, Ephesians, electronic ed., Calvin’s Commentaries (Albany, OR: Ages Software, 1998), Eph 1:12.

We Make it Our Aim

10 Thursday May 2012

Posted by memoirandremains in 2 Corinthians, Numbers, Obedience

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2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Caleb, Faith, faith, Fearing the Lord, Glory of God, intercession, Joshua, Judgement, Moses, Numbers, Numbers 14, Obedience, Paul, Sight, Sin

Paul writes:

6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Verse seven is routinely lifted from context and attached any an every adventure. But Paul puts the phrase into parallel with verse nine: We make it our aim to please him.
He makes sure that the point is plain by mentioning the judgment seat of Christ (10).

A fundamental misapplication of the text would be to locate the object of faith somewhere other than God’s will: for the aim is to please God.

Numbers 14 seems to provide a good illustration of that principle: there is the apparent understanding of the circumstance, the need to trust God to know more, and the context of pleasing God. When reading through the story note that the point of faith and action and punishment and forgiveness is the glory of God (our aim to please him):

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the people of Israel.
6 And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes
7 and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land.
8 If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.
9 Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.”
10 Then all the congregation said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the LORD appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.
11 And the LORD said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?
12 I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they.”
13 But Moses said to the LORD, “Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought up this people in your might from among them,
14 and they will tell the inhabitants of this land. They have heard that you, O LORD, are in the midst of this people. For you, O LORD, are seen face to face, and your cloud stands over them and you go before them, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.
15 Now if you kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard your fame will say,
16 ‘It is because the LORD was not able to bring this people into the land that he swore to give to them that he has killed them in the wilderness.’
17 And now, please let the power of the Lord be great as you have promised, saying,
18 ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, to the third and the fourth generation.’
19 Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now.”
20 Then the LORD said, “I have pardoned, according to your word.
21 But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD,
22 none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice,
23 shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it.
24 But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.