The Heart of the Gospel - Pt 3

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:21-25 ESV). Today we begin with the five principles of the Gospel. I must remind you that they have been often debated. Many deep divisions have been the result of these debates. As we go through them in the coming days, please remember that my prayer and hope is that these will not divide, but encourage and strengthen each of us in these days of trial and difficulty.

I have decided to begin with the concept of “total depravity.” While not the easiest to accept, it is the beginning of truly understanding grace. When we speak of man’s depravity, we mean man’s natural condition apart from any grace exerted by God to restrain or transform man. The totality of that depravity is clearly not that man does as much evil as he could do. There is no doubt that man could perform more evil acts toward his fellow man than he does. But if he is restrained from performing more evil acts by motives that are not owing to his submission to God, then even his “virtue” is evil in the sight of God. Man simply has no virtue that emanates from himself (cf. Romans 14:23). This tenet is a radical indictment of all natural “virtue” that does not flow from a heart humbly relying on God’s grace. Let me draw an example that might make this first principle clearer. Suppose you’re the father of a teenage son. You remind him to wash the car before he uses it to take his friends to the basketball game. He had earlier agreed to do that. He gets angry and says he doesn’t want to. You gently but firmly remind him of his promise and say that’s what you expect. He resists. You say, “Well, if you are going to use the car tonight, that’s what you agreed to do.” He storms out of the room angry. Later you see him washing the car. But he is not doing it out of love for you or out of a Christ-honoring desire to honor you as his father. He wants to go to the game with his friends. That is what constrains his “obedience.” I put “obedience” in quotes because it is only external. His heart is wrong. This is what I mean when I say that all human “virtue” is depraved if it is not from a heart of love to the heavenly Father. The terrible condition of man’s heart will never be recognized by people who assess it only in relation to other men. Your son will drive his friends to the ballgame. That is “kindness,” and they will experience it as a benefit. So the evil of our actions can never be measured merely by the harm they do to other humans. Depravity is our condition in relation to God primarily and only secondarily in relation to man. Unless we start here, we will never grasp the totality of our natural depravity. However, this only makes the grace of God greater (cf. Romans 5:6-8). God’s love for us is greater than our natural condition. That is the good news!

The Heart of the Gospel - Pt 2

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:12-13 ESV).

My own struggle makes me more patient with others who are on the way. And in one sense, we are all on the way. However, we must remember that even when we know things Biblically and truly, we still see through a “mirror dimly” (v. 12). There can be many tears as we seek to put our ideas through the testing fires of God’s word. But all the wrestling to understand what the Bible teaches about God is worth it. God is a rock of strength in a world of quicksand. To know him in his sovereignty is to become like an oak tree in the wind of adversity and confusion. And along with strength is courage. To begin, we need a bit of history; however, before I get in the middle of that history, I pray you will be strengthened and encouraged. Please don’t feel that you have to read these short devotionals in any particular order. It may be that you will skip a few days and then go back and forth through them. There is an intentional order to the series, but feel free to start and stop wherever it looks most urgent for you. If you get help, then you will be drawn back to the rest of it. I hope that because of our short time together in these writings you will move into a deep and satisfying experience of God’s grace. Let’s begin at the beginning. John Calvin, the famous theologian and pastor of Geneva, died in 1564. Along with Martin Luther in Germany, he was the most influential force of the Protestant Reformation. His commentaries and Institutes of the Christian Religion are still exerting tremendous influence on the Christian church worldwide. The controversy began between Arminianism and Calvinism in Holland in the early 1600s. Jacob Arminius (1560–1609) studied in Geneva under Theodore Beza, and became a professor of theology at the University of Leyden in 1603. Gradually Arminius came to reject certain Calvinist teachings. The controversy spread all over Holland, where the Reformed Church was the overwhelming majority. The Arminians drew up their creed in Five Articles, and laid them before the state authorities of Holland in 1610 under the name Remonstrance, signed by forty-six ministers. The official Calvinistic response came from the Synod of Dort which was held November 13, 1618, to May 9, 1619, to consider the Five Articles. They wrote the Five Points of Calvinism in response to the Five Articles of the Arminian Remonstrants. These so-called Five Points were not chosen by the Calvinists as a summary of their teaching. They emerged as a response to the Arminians who chose these five points to disagree with. These five points are still at the heart of biblical theology. They are not unimportant. Where we stand on these things deeply affects our view of God, man, salvation, the atonement, regeneration, assurance, worship, and missions. They will then form the “points” of our coming study. Today, concentrate on the undeniable love and compassion God has shown toward us in Christ. That is our strength!

The Heart of the Gospel - Pt 1

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 43:5 ESV).

Today we begin a new series. It will be rooted in the Gospel; however, my focus will not be academic, but practical. It is essential to our peace and joy that we understand the great truths of Scripture. In doing this we find the foundation for our encouragement. Of course, the principle declaration as Christians is our love God. He is our great Treasure, and nothing can compare with him. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” There is no doubt that all believers can agree and hold to this truth. God is the One we love. We love the whole panorama of his perfections. To know him, and be loved by him, and become like him is the end of our soul’s quest. Because He is infinite that answers our longing for completeness. Because He is eternal that answers our longing for permanence. Because He is unchangeable that answers our longing for stability and security. There is none like God. Nothing can compare with him. The more you know him, the more you want to know him. That’s the way Jesus prays for us to his Father: “That the love with which you have loved me may be in them” (John 17:26). That is what we long for: the very love the Father has for the Son filling us, enabling us to love the Son with the magnitude and purity of the love of the Father. Then the frustrations of inadequate love will be over. The great old catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” and answers, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Enjoying God is the way to glorify God, because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. But to enjoy him we must know him. So, it becomes clear that a knowledge of God from the Bible is the fuel that sustains our affection for God. And probably the most crucial kind of knowledge is the knowledge of what God is like in salvation. We call that “the Gospel.” To know that we must understand the power and sovereignty of God in general and his power and sovereignty in the way he saves people. Through our series we will examine what are called the doctrines of grace. To experience God fully, we need to know not just how he acts in general, but specifically how he saves us. It will appear at first glance that this series deals with the defense of Calvinism. I will not defend a system. There is no power for a transformed life in a system. However, over the years I have deepened in my conviction that the teachings on the five points basic points of Calvinism are biblical and therefore true, and therefore a precious pathway into deeper experiences of God’s grace. That’s where we must end! The gospel is the story of the grace of God; and, that sustains us! Today, merely “hope in God!” (Psalm 43:5).

Seven Miracles - Pt 30

When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (John 11:43-44 ESV).

We come to a close of the miracles with today’s devotional. I will list five brief applications I see in this last miracle. Each of the others point us to this incredible moment when Jesus simply commands, “Lazarus, come out” (v. 43). And, without any other prompt, he does! 1. First, be strong in the face of hard times and seeming defeat, because God is not simply watching and waiting to turn it all for good. He is in it from the beginning planning it for your good. You will see the outside. It will look hostile and destructive. Inside God is at work for your good. Don’t judge by appearances. Trust the sovereign planning of God for your good. He gets many victories through apparent defeats. 2. Second, in the face of your own ongoing sinfulness, take comfort that the very heart of Christianity is substitution. When Satan and your own conscience condemn you, nothing will have more true power to comfort than this truth: God condemned your sin in his Son (cf. Romans 8:3). 3. Third, the amazing existence of the Jewish people today, and the certainty of their salvation in the future, is a sign in the 21st century that God exists and keeps his covenant. And if he does this with Israel, will he not with you who trust his Son, the Messiah? Don’t take this lightly. There would be no Israel, if there were no God. 4. Fourth, if we love the substitution that saved us, we should love what the substitution bought, a church of global diversity. 5. Fifth, the design of God in the death of Christ to convert and gather his scattered chosen ones should have two great effects on us. It should give us a rock- solid confidence in the invincible success of the cross. And, this design of the death of Jesus should give us an intense and personal sense that we are loved particularly, personally, especially. If you have trusted Christ, he gathered you to himself. He chose you, he bought you in particular. You see, He didn’t just offer us love. He pursued us with love. He conquered us with love. He awakened us with love. He satisfied us with love. And now we live, trembling and joyful, on the love God!

Seven Miracles - Pt 29

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. (John 11:47-53 ESV).

The fifth truth is that inside the universal offer of salvation, God has a particular design in the death of Christ to convert the elect, the scattered children of God, and bring them to himself. John says that Jesus died “to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (v. 52). In other words, God has a people chosen for himself all over this world (cf. Ephesians 1:4-5). Jesus said to Paul in a vision when he came to Corinth, “I have many in this city who are my people” (Acts 18:10). John says Jesus died to gather them. This is so much more than a mere offer. When Jesus died, one of the designs of his death, one of the particular purposes, was to infallibly bring those people to himself. We must not limit the purpose and the power of the death of Jesus to simply providing a way for all people to be saved. It is that! However, it is so much more than that! It is gloriously more than that! It is also the power and purpose to overcome the rebellion of God’s elect and bring them to faith. It is to gather the children of God. So many times the pivotal and much memorized verse that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16) has been misinterpreted. Christ died not only to offer the world salvation, but He also died to overcome the rebellion of the elect children of God and gather them omnipotently to himself. Amen and hallelujah for the true and universal offer of salvation to all who believe. But he did more. He called them and enabled them to believe. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead and defeated death forever is that which enables everyone who has been called to be saved. Not one will be lost. It is not a matter of ancestry; it is not a matter of religion; it is not a matter of geography; it is not a matter of creed or orthodoxy. It is all begun and completed in the power and purpose of God. This gives us the only hope worth having! We are saved because of the competed work of grace through Christ!

Seven Miracles - Pt 28

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. (John 11:47-53 ESV).

The fourth truth is found in the fact that, while we cannot deny the inclusion of Israel from the final Church, we must also see that the blood of Jesus purchases a racially and ethnically diverse church. Look at our reading again: “He prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.” (vv. 51-52). The meaning here is that Christ died to gather gentiles scattered around the world whom God has chosen to be his children. This is important for several reasons. One reason is found in the parallel in John 10:16: “I have other sheep that are not of this fold [that is, this Jewish fold]. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock.” So here he says Christ lays down his life to gather other sheep that are not of the Jewish fold. The aim is the same in both texts: there the aim is to gather them into one flock; here the aim is to gather them “into one” (verse 52). Another reason to see this verse as the gathering of diverse Gentiles is that John unpacks the effect of Jesus’ death with just this kind of Gentile ethnic diversity: “By your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom” (cf. Revelation 5:9-10). These are the children of God ransomed by the blood of Christ. They have been gathered from the all the races and ethnicities into one kingdom. So the point here is that the death of Christ has effects far beyond the ransom of Israel, but including Israel along with all the nations. Same blood, same body. The one blood-bought people will one day include ethnic Israel and people from every race and ethnicity. The encouraging news here is that we can be a part of that new people! God is not looking at our ancestry; he is looking for our connection to Christ by faith.

Seven Miracles - Pt 27

So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put him to death. (John 11:47-53 ESV).

The third essential truth for us to understand is that there is a future for the people of Israel as a redeemed ethnic nation and as part of the single, blood-bought body of Christ. This is very controversial, and I won’t take time to give a long defense. I have often preached about it when dealing with Romans 11 (those sermons are available from the web site at www.gracerestoration.org). I do mention it here so that you may have some foundation for the remainder of the insights we’ll look at through the last sign of John’s Gospel. In our reading John says that Caiaphas “prophesied” (v. 51), that is, God spoke, saying “that Jesus would die for the nation.” The “nation,” the “ethnos,” is not just individual Jews only, but eventually the nation as a whole. The death of Jesus will someday result in a collective turning of the Jewish people to himself, so that the world will know that Israel as a people, as a nation, have been turned to Christ, her Messiah, and become part of the Christian church. I know this is a bit controversial and provocative. You may have heard or read me as I have asserted that no one can be saved unless they become a Jew. When we understand that everyone must believe on Jesus the Messiah and so be united to him we also come to the truth that each of these believers becomes the offspring of Abraham and thus inherit the promises made to the world through Abraham. I hope you have also hear or read me say that the Jewish nation cannot be saved unless it becomes part of the Christian church. That is to say only in Jesus Christ is there salvation, and those who are in him are one body, the church (cf. Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18). As I read the Old Testament and the book of Romans, I can’t escape the truth that God’s covenant with ethnic Israel is irrevocable and will not be satisfied in its fullness until some future generation of ethnic Israel as a whole is saved through Jesus Christ. Their stumbling brings salvation to the Gentiles, and the salvation of the Gentiles will eventually bring Israel to Messiah. God’s promises will all be kept!