Reading Challenge, Book 5

The fifth book of Tim Challies’ reading challenge for 2019 is “a book about Christian living.” I read Sinclair Ferguson’s Devoted to God: Blueprints for Sanctification (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2016).[1]

Each chapter examines a particular section of New Testament Scripture that describes the growth of a believer in Christ. A lot of times you hear people denigrate confessions or theology as “systems imposed upon the Bible.” Ferguson’s work here reveals the shallow ignorance of such claims. While Ferguson is confessional and holds to a rich theological tradition, the exegetical theology in each chapter of this book shows that the confession and theology grow up out of the Bible, and are far from being imposed on it from the outside.

“Sanctification” (the Christian’s life-long growth in holiness) is in the very title of the book, and it’s to that holiness I turn now by way of personal admission.

For me personally, the most impactful moment in my reading of the book came in the middle. Ferguson asks several rhetorical questions: “What do we want Christ to do for us? Do we really want to grow in holiness? Or has our failure left us content with mediocre levels of sanctification?” (pg. 146). In answering those questions, I realized I couldn’t recall ever once praying that God the Holy Spirit make me holy as He is holy. It’s certainly possible I have prayed in this way at some time or another and just don’t remember, but this request is not one that I regularly make in prayer. This grieved me. I have preached and taught that we should be students of the Bible’s teaching about holiness, but have never made that a matter of prayerful attention. I have lifted up holiness as the highest attribute of God according to the Bible, but have not desired it enough for myself to make it a matter of regular request.[2]

“Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father Who is in heaven,
Hallowed [ἁγιασθήτω, cause to be holy] be Your name’” (Matthew 6:9).

It is the first petition. How can I pray for anything else or in any other way until I have first entreated Him for His holiness in me? If I truly want to be conformed to Christ (which is God’s purpose for me, Romans 8:29), how can I not desire His holiness above all else?

How can we be “praying in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 20) if His holiness is not our highest longing?

For the last weeks, I have made the prayer “Lord, make me holy as You are holy” one that I pray many times throughout the day. The Holy Spirit’s working through that prayer in my life has been significant.

Ferguson defines holiness from the starting point of the eternal Trinity, a devotion of infinite love between the three Persons of the one true God: “Holiness is the intensity of the love that flows within the very being of God, among and between each of the three persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (pg. 2). It is this mutual devotion among the Persons that undergirds the title of the book, Devoted to God. Once reconciled to God in Christ, we are to grow in a devotion to God throughout our lives into completion in Christ alone, according to the Bible, by the Holy Spirit, to the glory of God. This devotion of all that we are to God is holiness.

Chapter 8, “The Law Goes Deep,” was a very helpful meditation on God’s Law and the Christian’s growth in Christ.

• “The law is fulfilled by love, but it is not replaced by love. This fulfillment means that law is love-shaped and that love is law-shaped…love was always at the heart of God’s law. It was given by love to be received in love and obeyed through love…love provides motivation for obedience, while law provides direction for love” (pg. 162-163).

• “The law-maker became the law-keeper, but then took our place and condemnation as though he were the law-breaker” (pg. 179).

Believers, influenced by the world and their own innate sinful desire for autonomy from God, are woefully unable to understand the Law of God in the context of the Gospel. This topic should be the regular meditation of the Christian, keeping us from falling into either legalism or antinomianism (the Gospel is lost in either). This was a very helpful chapter.

I could speak of many other parts of the book that I think are so important (the necessity of holiness through a renewal of our thought-life is one), but I’ll stop short of saying too much and thereby muddying a great work. One of many things I like about Sinclair Ferguson is that he wastes no words in his writing. There is no filler in Devoted to God. It is a rich, thoughtful, and useful meditation on sections of the New Testament which are vital to growth in Christ.

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[1] I started out ahead on this reading challenge, but am lagging a bit…

[2] When I say holiness is “the highest attribute of God,” don’t mean that there is a hierarchy of attributes or that the attributes can be divided into unmingled categories. I mean that all of the attributes of God can be seen as a revelation of His holiness. All the attributes are revealed for our benefit and understanding by His gracious revelation of Himself. He has no parts. He is one.

Modeling the Truth

I recently wrote this: “Purposefully showing the relationship of Christ and Church in the worship gathering on the Lord’s Day should be a regular part of that disciplined pursuit of each other. This isn’t hypocrisy; this is disciplining yourselves to show the ideal of the Gospel. Again, if there are problems, get help. Modeling the goal of Christian marriage (the Gospel relationship between Christ and the Church) in the gathering of the Church is appropriate and a good reminder to you and the rest of the congregation.”

Today I’d like to say a little more about the principle behind this statement. This is advice I’ve given to a lot of people in many different contexts over the years.

We should purposefully discipline ourselves to think, speak, and live out the truth of the Bible, even when we don’t feel like it.

If I wait until I feel like praying, I won’t pray. If I wait until I feel like telling others about Jesus, fear will win. If I wait until I feel like showing my brothers and sisters in Christ the love commanded by Scripture, I will choose being “authentic” over obeying God’s commands.

There it is. The popular buzzword among believers today: “authentic.”

I suspect it’s a barely-Christianized version of the world’s advice to “follow your heart.” But I should not be led by how I feel. I don’t have that option as a believer, for I have been bought with a price, and I am not my own (I am only speaking to those who are believers – non-believers should not imitate the behavior of believers). The command to love (to use one example) is not conditional on whether I feel like loving or not.

I am not to follow my heart, but to lead it in the truth: “Listen, my son, and be wise, and direct your heart in the way…he who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered” (Proverbs 23:19; 28:26). Truth and wisdom come to the heart from the outside – from Scripture alone. It must be actively applied to the heart, which resists in its sin and selfishness.

The Psalmist often commands his soul into action; this command is usually accompanied by a proclamation of truth to self.

“Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him
For the help of His presence.
O my God, my soul is in despair within me;
Therefore I remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the peaks of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls;
All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.
The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime;
And His song will be with me in the night,
A prayer to the God of my life…

…why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God…

…why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why are you disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God” (Psalm 42:5-8,11; 43:5).

“My soul, wait in silence for God only,
For my hope is from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
My stronghold; I shall not be shaken.
On God my salvation and my glory rest;
The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God” (Psalm 62:5-7).

“Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;
Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;
Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle…

…bless the Lord, O my soul…

…bless the Lord, O my soul…

…bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 103:1-5,22c; 104:1,35b).

“Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
Yes, our God is compassionate.
The Lord preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you” (Psalm 116:5-7).

“Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!” (Psalm 146:1).

The Psalmist commands himself to praise, shepherding his own heart with truth.

As believers, we are called to obey, whether we feel like it or not.

We are called to keep the commandments of God, whether we are in a good place in our Christian walk or not.

We are called to apostolic imitation (1 Corinthians 11:1; Hebrews 13:7), even when we want to do something else.

God in Christ is not worthy of our love, praise, and obedience only when it’s “real” for us.

The Father purposes for us to be conformed to the image of His Son. In faith-union with the Son we are growing into His likeness, righteousness, and obedience. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are to die to the “authentic” self (which is a sin-loving idolater) and live unto God in obedience to His commands.

This is not hypocrisy, saints. This is discipleship. Hypocrisy would be someone outside of Christ pretending to be in Christ; what I'm advocating is a believer in Christ disciplining herself to be as the Scripture describes she is in Christ.

Live individually and corporately in the truth of the Word. Remind yourself of this truth constantly.

“I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1,2).

“We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

“…be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Ephesians 5:23,24).

Crisis moments in our minds, character, and discipleship are usually built not on the sudden, but on the habitual neglect of being saturated in the truth in the gathering of the Church and the self-discipline of being in the Word.

When we don’t feel like it,

Lord, hold us in the truth

That we may preach it to ourselves

And live out our self-sermons

Until they become eternal life,

And not just a struggling self-discipline.

Help us to rest not the earthly

Under the excuse of “authentic” or “honest,”

But, Holy Spirit,

remind us of the truth of Scripture

As it is in Jesus.

Take us to what we are in Him,

Away from what we are as sinners.

Help us to think rightly and stand faithfully

By Your grace in Christ.

Without it we have nothing.

Amen and amen.

Transformed for Worship and Communion

I’ve been leading an early Tuesday morning theology reading group for several months now. We’ve been thinking through L. Michael Morales’ excellent Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord? In this post I’d like to summarize his teaching on the offering of Leviticus 1, then take that idea further for application to our experience as worshipers and disciples of Christ here and into eternity’s fulfillment of God’s ultimate purpose for our lives.

The Whole Burnt Offering Is An Ascension Offering (Leviticus 1:3-17)

·         As we’ve been reading Morales, he has repeatedly told us that the most foundational offering of the Old Testament worship system is not, as it is translated in our English texts, a “whole burnt offering.” It’s true that the offering is totally consumed on the altar, but a pile of ash is not the final state of the offering. The rising smoke is the goal of the offering.

·         All three sections describing this offering end with the same refrain: “…a burnt offering, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord” (1:9,13,17).

·         In this offering, the worshiper would select the animal, bring it to the Tabernacle, press his hands on it (identifying with it), kill it, dismember it, and give the pieces to the priest, who would burn it all on the altar. Since the sacrifice represents the worshiper, it pictures the complete dedication of the worshiper to God. The animal (a representative substitute for the worshiper) is transformed from flesh into a different state which is imitative of God’s symbolic presence (the cloud): the worshiper is able to rise up to God through this offering.

The Imagery Behind the Burnt Offering

·         The Hebrew word for “burnt offering” is העֹלָ, from the verb העָלָ (“ascend”). In fact, the same word translated “burnt offering” can even be translated “going up” steps (Ezekiel 40:26). The emphasis of the word is not on the burning, but on climbing up to the altar to put the sacrifice on it and the rising up of the smoke heavenward.

·         In 1 Kings 10:5, the queen of Sheba admires Solomon’s kingly court, his wisdom, but also a curious phrase translated several different ways:

o    “…his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord” (English Standard Version, Holman Christian Standard Bible).

o    “…his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord” (King James Version).

o    Eugene Peterson (b. 1932), in his paraphrase of the Bible, brings all the ideas behind this word together: “…the elaborate worship extravagant with Whole-Burnt-Offerings at the steps leading up to The Temple of God” (the Message).

o    “…his stairway by which he went up to the house of the Lord” (New American Standard Bible).

o    “…the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord” (New International Version).

o    “She saw the steps by which he went up to the house of the Lord” (New Life Version).

o    “…the burnt offerings Solomon made at the Temple of the Lord” (New Living Translation).

o    “…the beautiful stairway that led up to the Eternal’s temple” (the Voice).

·         The burnt offering in Genesis comes in two places:

o    Noah’s sacrifice to the Lord on top of Mount Ararat after the Flood (Genesis 8:20).

o    Abram’s sacrifice to the Lord on top of Mount Moriah (Genesis 22).

o    The two precedents to this offering are on mountaintops. We have to keep this in mind when we see the offering instituted in the liturgy of Israel. The altar is a bridge between earth (the worshiper) and heaven (the domain of God).

·         The section of the Psalter with the Songs of Ascents (מַעֲלָה) also enforces this idea (Psalms 120-134). The pilgrims would have sung these songs on the ascent to the Temple to offer ascension (burnt) offerings (עֹלָה) to the LORD. Again, it’s all about going to where God is.

·         There is a connection between the ascension (burnt) offering and prayer: “Even those I will bring to My holy mountain
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar;
For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples” (Isaiah 56:7).

·         The burnt offering is a symbolic ascent to where God is – the worshiper ascends to God through the sacrifice.

The LORD has appeared in a cloud, representing His glory (Exodus 16:10; 40:35) and the manifestation of His Word (Exodus 19:9; 33:9).

The animal is transformed from flesh to smoke (Leviticus 1:9,13,15,17) on the altar, and the smoke of the offering would rise up, mingling with the pillar of cloud above the dwelling tent/tent of meeting, symbolizing the transformation of the worshiper into that which God is, fit for His presence and communion/union with Him.

This is summary of what we’ve read throughout these first 140 pages of Morales. I want to take this idea and imagery further now. Or rather, I’ll let the apostle Paul do it.

“So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written [in Genesis 2:7], ‘The first man, Adam, became a living soul.’ The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:42-53).

The transformation of the sacrificial animal (a substitute for the worshiper) from flesh into smoke, which rises up to the cloud that represents God’s presence, is a foreshadowing of the reality for all believers in Jesus Christ at the resurrection. We will be changed into that which is fit for the presence of God, something eternally compatible with His nature. “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;  I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:22-24).

This Spirit-transformation is a process seen in this life, as well:

·         “Jesus said to her, ‘…an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth’” (John 4:21,24). Worshipers were not to seek out a physical place (Jerusalem or Mount Gerazim in Samaria), but were to become as God is – Spirit-indwelt beings to worship a God Who is Spirit. Transformation unto communion. Notice, too, the Trinitarian nature of this passage (the Son speaks of the Father seeking those who will worship Him through the Spirit).

·         “…if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him…God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:13-17,28-30). The parallel between these two paragraphs is informative to our transformation. In the first, the Spirit leads us to mortify our earthiness unto being heirs of the Father along with the Son; our inheritance is God’s glory in Christ. In the second paragraph, God is using all things providentially to accomplish His purpose for us, which is conformity with that which the Son is, the very glory of God (2 Corinthians 4:4,6; Hebrews 1:3).

·         “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17,18).

·         “…beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh…many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; Who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:2,3,18-21).

·         This is also the understanding of the apostle Peter: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust” (2 Peter 1:2-4). This conformity with God unto communion with God is not just a function of worship in the Bible; it is reflected in the ethics of the Bible for the covenant people. Peter himself quotes this principle from the Old Testament: “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One Who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written [in Leviticus 19:2], ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:13-16).

·         And the apostle John: “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:1-3).

The representative transformation of the worshiper into that which is able to mingle with God in Leviticus’ foundational sacrifice is the eternal goal of our salvation in Christ Jesus.[1] It is a process that has started for believers in Jesus Christ in this life, as seen in our worship and our ethics. We are becoming as Christ, the image of the glory of God, is, so that we may communion with the Father in the Son by the Spirit. “This union is closer than what joins a man to himself.”[2]

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For [as it says in Isaiah 40:13] who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or [as it says in Job 41:11] who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 11:33-12:2).

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[1] “Although the price of redemption was not actually paid by Christ till after His incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefit thereof were communicated to the elect in all ages, successively from the beginning of the world, in and by those promises, types, and sacrifices wherein He was revealed, and signified to be the seed which should bruise the serpent’s head; and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, being the same yesterday, and today and forever” (1689 Baptist Confession, 8.6). Those worshipers of Leviticus 1 who offered the ascension offering by faith received “the virtue, efficacy, and benefit” not of the offering of the animal, but of what they imaged: the work of Christ. By faith the worshiper who offered the ascension offering was being transformed in Christ (represented by the sacrificial animal the worshiper presented and put his hands on) by the Spirit (the transformation into smoke on the altar) for communion with the Father (the mingling of the smoke and pillar of cloud).

[2] Robert Letham, Union with Christ (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2011), 99.

Thankfulness and Praise in Hebrews 1:9

“…of the Son He says, ‘…You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions’” (Hebrews 1:8,9).

I am thankful for the Son’s passion for absolute truth and its application in judgment and righteousness – and that as a result of this the Father has enthroned His Son with a Spirit-filled gladness.

As the Father continues speaking of His Son in the letter to the Hebrews, the Holy Spirit gives us the words of Psalm 45:7.

While in Hebrews 1:8//Psalm 45:6 the Father calls the Son “God,” in Hebrews 1:9//Psalm 45:7 the Father self-identifies as the God of the Son. Father and Son are both God. They are not two gods, for the Bible is abundantly clear that there is only one God. The Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father. They are distinct Persons Who are both the one God.

A lot of people, including people who do not believe in Him or the Scripture which bears witness to Him, try to make statements about what Jesus is. They tell us that Jesus only helped people, affirmed people, never issued statements about sin or judgment, and was the very model of tolerance for today’s anything-goes society. However, the Bible – the only source for authoritative truth about Jesus – does not tell us of a Jesus Who looks exactly like the government-enforced tolerance of today. It tells us of a Jesus Who was zealous for the Law of His Father.

In the first sermon we have recorded from Jesus in “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; [as it says in Psalm 6:8] depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23). The Son, Who hates lawlessness (Hebrews 1:9), does not have a relationship with the lawless, and will not permit them in His royal presence in “the kingdom of heaven.” They won’t be there if they spurn the Law of God. Those who truly call Jesus “Lord” have a different relationship with the Law of God than the lost world: “…just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification” (Romans 6:19).[1] Further, they have a different relationship with the world of the lawless: “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, ‘“I will dwell in them [Leviticus 26:12] and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate [Isaiah 52:11],” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” says the Lord Almighty’” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).

A day will come when the King Who hates lawlessness will separate pretenders out of His Kingdom: “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then [as it says in Daniel 12:3] the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear” (Matthew 13:40-43).

Is this discussion only about Law – are we moving our Christianity into that hated camp of “Legalism” with all this talk of lawlessness and Jesus’ hatred of it? No.

In our congregation, we observe the Lord’s Supper every week. When we hold up the cup together, we hear Jesus’ words with that cup: “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25). We make a claim to the new covenant (and its promises) at the Table, a claim sealed by the blood of Jesus alone. One of those promises graciously frees us from our lawlessness: “And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying [in Jeremiah 31:33], ‘“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,” says the Lord: “I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them,”’ He then says [in Jeremiah 31:34], ‘“And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more”’ (Hebrews 10:15-17).[2] We do not preach legalism as the remedy from lawlessness. We lift up the cup, make a claim to the new covenant by faith, and rejoice in God’s promise to write His Law on our hearts by His Spirit and embrace the forgiveness from lawlessness which is ours by faith in Jesus Christ. Rejoice. “…to the one who does not work [deeds of the Law to earn salvation], but believes in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks [in Psalm 32:1,2] of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account’” (Romans 4:5-8). This “blessing” is a covenant blessing. It is ours not because we obey the Law. It is ours because of the saving work of Jesus Christ. The other covenant blessing is that the Law is written on our hearts. Law-keeping is not an obligation that keeps us in covenant – only the Holy Spirit seals us in the covenant which is inaugurated by the blood of Jesus. Law-keeping is not a condition. It is a benefit, a blessing. In this new covenant, our lawlessness is forgotten and the Law is written on our hearts. That which the King hates is removed from those united to the King in a covenant that has all its conditions met by the King Himself. Praise Him with great praise!

This King Who hates lawlessness has, as a result of His faithfulness to the Father’s Law, has been anointed with the Spirit of gladness. This is part of the text from another of Jesus’ early sermons: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the Gospel…” (Luke 4:18//Isaiah 61:1; see also Acts 10:38). This Spirit produces a Gospel-purpose, a Christ-centeredness – and a God-given gladness.

We see this God-given gladness at least twice in the New Testament:

• “At that very time [the Son] rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, ‘I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth’” (Luke 10:21).
• Peter quotes Psalm 16 in Acts 2:25-31. He tells us that David “was a prophet” and was speaking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He gives us this testimony of the Son concerning the resurrection: “…my heart was glad and my tongue exulted” (Acts 2:26//Psalm 16:9).

The Son-King’s hatred of lawlessness results in the Father’s eternal giving of His Spirit of gladness to the Son – and through the Son to those united with the Son by faith. With Jesus, let us love God’s Law by the Spirit He has given those who believe in Him. There is gladness here. Praise Him with great praise!

Looking toward Signal Peak from Tadpole Ridge,
Gila National Forest, New Mexico, U.S.A.

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[1] “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:11-14).

[2] Notice that the Holy Spirit is speaking (present tense), though the writer of Hebrews is quoting Scripture over six centuries old. The Holy Spirit’s speaking through the text He authored is always now.

Christ's Suffering, Our Growth, and the Ordinances

“More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship [κοινωνιαν] of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11).

I love the ordinances commanded to the Church by its only Lord and High Priest, Jesus Christ. I am passionate about them, and am convinced that by minimizing them for more flashy and entertaining pursuits, we have robbed ourselves of a blessing the Head of the Church Himself has given us for our spiritual benefit.

Today’s Southern Baptists identify the ordinances as one of the marks of a true Church:

• “A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers...observing the two ordinances of Christ” (Baptist Faith & Message 2000, VI).
• “Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour [sic], the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming” (BF&M 2000, VII).

While we typically read passages like Philippians 3:10 (“the fellowship of His sufferings”) as a reference to persecution (see also Matthew 20:23; Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Colossians 1:24; 2 Timothy 2:11; 1 Peter 4:13), I believe the ordinances to be a regular and consistent liturgical means by which the Lord brings His Church into conformity with His own “sufferings.” I don’t deny that for the apostle Paul (and countless believers in the past and today) these passages speak of a literal experience of Christian suffering, but given what else Paul says on the subject, I would suggest that we shouldn’t limit his language to these persecutions. Instead, there is a way in which biblical Christian liturgy makes these realities a regular experience of the gathered Church for our spiritual growth and sanctification. Let’s consider the language the apostle Paul uses in other places concerning the ordinances.

Concerning baptism: “...do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:3-13). Baptism is “an act of obedience symbolizing” union with Christ’s suffering, but Paul certainly takes it beyond just symbolic act in his teaching on this ordinance. “...we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death...our old self was crucified with Him...we have died with Christ...” This is strong language connected with the ordinance, and we would do well to take it seriously! So when Paul speaks of “the fellowship of His sufferings” and conformity “to His death” to the Philippian church, it is not necessarily limited to persecution and martyrdom. Paul’s own language to the Romans shows us that the ordinance of baptism brings us into this experience which should produce profound ethical/moral fruit in our lives. Let’s look at the Philippians passage again: Paul counts all things (both his sin and his own personal righteousness) as loss, so that he may have a righteousness “which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (3:9,10). Justification (being proclaimed righteous) by faith in Jesus Christ is followed by a union with Christ which includes “the fellowship of His sufferings” and conformity “to His death” as experienced in the ordinances.

In addition to baptism, Paul speaks of the Lord’s Supper as an ordinance which brings us into this “fellowship” and “conformity.”

“Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing [κοινωνια] in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing [κοινωνια] in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:16,17). Just as the doctrine of baptism should have spiritual fruit in a believer’s life, so too does the Lord’s Supper have powerful implications for unity in the Church and dedication solely to Christ (read the rest of chapter 10 through the end of chapter 11...and truth be told, probably through the end of chapter 14!).

We need to continually remember Paul’s confession “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20). We must remember it so that we “do not nullify the grace of God” (2:21) – a continual temptation for every believer. The ordinances are an instrument of this grace and sanctifying work in our lives.

Early in ministry, a wise deacon (now in Glory) once told me that humans never stay in the middle of a position/opinion/doctrine, but are continually swinging back and forth to extremes. My dear Baptists, I fear that in this day we have gone so far on the ordinances that they are barely there in the life of the Church. May we consider the testimony of the Scriptures and carefully, thoughtfully, and purposefully begin moving the pendulum back to a more faithful view of the ordinances which grants them the central place in Christian liturgy that the Scripture itself gives them. The promised fruit of Scripture concerning the ordinances and what they represent is freedom from sin, service to God’s righteousness, unity, and faithfulness to Christ. Sound like something needed in the Church today? All these things come from union with Christ in His death and resurrection – the very reality the ordinances lead us to walk in together.

For by them we regularly “may know...the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that [we] may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Jeremiah's Turning #8: the Wound

Following the word “turn” (שוב) through Jeremiah’s prophecy.

“‘Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover, so you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,’ declares the LORD. A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God. ‘Return [שוב], O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness.’ ‘Behold, we come to You; for You are the LORD our God’” (Jeremiah 3:20-22).

Jeremiah’s not the only prophet to describe the waywardness of the covenant people as their greatest disease, infirmity, or injury.

“Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him. Where will you be stricken again, as you continue in your rebellion? The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is nothing sound in it, only bruises, welts and raw wounds, not pressed out or bandaged, nor softened with oil” (Isaiah 1:4-6).

What do you think the greatest problem is in your life? How high on that list is the progress of your discipleship, your sanctification? I often compare our “prayer requests” with those described by Paul in his epistles. He top prayer request is for sanctification. He doesn’t use that word, but that’s the request. Growth in faith, an increase in love for one another, a deepening of the knowledge of God in Christ, a conquering grace in the proclamation of the Gospel to the unbelieving world...these are the apostle’s requests. Paul never lost sight of the fact that our greatest illness is the remaining sin in our lives that keeps us from growth together in the fullness of Christ. It’s greater than financial debt, physical complications, perceived persecutions, etc. Our sickness is defined – by Paul and the prophets – and whatever is between us and our God.

So Jeremiah speaks of God’s promise, upon repentance, to “heal your faithlessness.” This is our greatest need.

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, ‘MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.’ It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears” (Hebrews 12:1-17). I love this whole section of text, and especially the use of “healed” here in verse 13. The worst thing that happens to us in this world is not physical infirmity, but any struggle with sin that causes us to walk away from the promises of God toward those who persevere (Revelation 21:7).

The Unavoidable Revelation of My Pride

“We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks, for Your name is near; men declare Your wondrous works. When I select an appointed time, it is I Who judge with equity...‘I said to the boastful, “Do not boast,” And to the wicked, “...do not speak with insolent pride.”’ For not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert comes exaltation; but God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another” (Psalm 75:1,2,4-7).

“Jesus said to them...‘You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned’” (Matthew 12:25,34-37).

I’m better at “careless words” than I’d like to be – particularly those woven from threads of “boasting,” “insolent pride,” and self-exaltation. I know the heart from which these words arise. I know the Judge (John 5:19-30; Acts 10:42,43; 17:30,31) – Who is also the Lord and Savior of the confession that will save on the last day (Romans 10:9,10).

Words of “EXALT ME” (no matter how craftily they're disguised) and words thankfully declaring Christ’s wondrous saving, ruling, and judging works don’t belong in the same heart or the same mouth. It is not just enough to be silent; the “evil treasure” is still there down deep. The “good treasure” of God’s truth in His Word needs to be driven deep by the power of the Author of that Word, the Holy Spirit. It is on Him I am desperately leaning more and more these days, prayerfully filling my heart with Christ, Christ alone, Christ crucified and risen and ascended and ruling from on high. Only then will any declaration of His “wondrous works” be more than a shallow echo.

“For consider [often and deeply!] your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world [the reality that counters my prideful self-image] to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world [the reality that counters my prideful self-image] to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised [the reality that counters my prideful self-image] God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, Who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD [Jeremiah 9:23,24].’ And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:26-2:2).

Why God's Children Have Enemies

“O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger, neither chastise me in Thy wrath. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak: O Lord heal me, for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore troubled: but Lord, how long wilt Thou delay? Return, O Lord: deliver my soul: save me for Thy mercy’s sake” (Psalm 6:1-4, Geneva Bible).

This is how David describes his enemies (6:7,8,10) – not as unfair persecutors, but as instruments of God’s anger and wrath. This is not unloving anger and wrath, for David recognizes the Lord to be simultaneously a merciful soul Who hears the prayers of His covenant people for deliverance: “The Lord hath heard my petition: the Lord will receive my prayer” (6:9).

The Lord uses even the enemy to bring us closer to Himself: “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin [in the sense of sinners, see 12:1-3]. And ye have forgotten the consolation, which speaketh unto you as unto children, ‘My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither faint when thou art rebuked of Him. For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth: and He scourgeth every son that He receiveth.’ If ye endure chastening, God offered Himself unto you as unto sons: for what son is it whom the father chasteneth not? If therefore ye be without correction, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Moreover we have had the fathers of our bodies which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: should we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits, that we might live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, but he chastened us for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastising for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: but afterward, it bringeth the quiet fruit of righteousness, unto them which are thereby exercised. Wherefore lift up your hands which hang down, and your weak knees, and make straight steps unto your feet, lest that which is halting, be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without the which no man shall see the Lord. Take heed, that no man fall away from the grace of God: let no root of bitterness spring up and trouble you, lest thereby many be defiled” (Hebrews 12:5-15).

Even if our enemies are unjust in their actions/accusations/annoyances, we are never without need of correction from God on this side of eternity. It’s not about our enemies, it’s about the God Who’s teaching us to rely on Him and seek Him out more and more. Turn away from self-righteousness/defensiveness in the face of the enemy and seek the One Who purchased you with His blood – this is why God has put these enemies around you. In the name of Jesus, the Lord will hear your petition; the Lord will receive your prayer.

Learn this basic truth of discipleship and divine adoption in Christ and you’ll rest more and more in the love and mercy of God, no matter the hateful noise of the enemy.