Calvin: Why He Still Matters

W. Robert Godfrey, author of the new biography of John Calvin entitled John Calvin: Pilgrim and Pastor, wrote an inspiring article on Calvin’s significance to ministers today.  Here is an excerpt:

Calvin exemplified in his life and work a determination to seek to bring every thought captive to Christ. That was his passion, such was his confidence in the Word of God. That is also what he wanted to teach others. To quote Calvin, “Whoever, therefore, would desire to persevere in uprightness and in integrity of life, let them learn to exercise themselves daily in the study of the word of God; for, whenever a man despises or neglects instruction, he easily falls into carelessness and stupidity, and all fear of God vanishes from his mind” (Commentary on the Psalms, on Ps. 18:22). Calvin was certain that many people tended very naturally to carelessness and stupidity. That is surely a lesson that does not need to be taught from Scripture; it is a lesson that pastors learn by experience! Calvin recognized, and we should recognize because it is even truer today, that we are surrounded by voices that are blaring lies. The only way to sort that out is to be sure that the Bible is constantly speaking to us, that the Bible is in our hearts and in our ears and in our mind so that that authority of the Word of God is a living and vital authority for us. The Bible must constantly challenge the way we look at the world, the way we look at our fellow men and women, the way we think about God and his world.

The Goodness of God and the Pure in Heart: Meditations on Psalm 73:1

For the past week, I have been meditating on Psalm 73:1.  It is my spiritual goal to meditate on one verse of this Psalm each week until I finish it.  I want to share some of my meditations with you.

Psalm 73:1 “Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.”

There is a longing in us that wants to believe in a benevolent God.  We want to believe that God is good–all the time.  Even when we hear the age old question: If God is so good, why does he let evil happen?, we still cling to the promise the Scripture gives of God’s omnibenevolence.

But why is it so hard to believe sometimes?

Asaph wrote Psalm 73.  He doubted God’s goodness.  This desperate poem and song to God truly meditates on the real experience of doubting God’s goodness.  Verse one openly proclaims the truth that Asaph has come to doubt.  It also answers the question I just proposed.  Why is God’s goodness hard to believe? Because our hearts are not pure. I see two things that this verse communicates, both explicitly and implicitly.

1.)  God is good, specifically in the person and work of Christ.

There is no doubt that the scriptures declare his goodness uniformly and specifically.  Psalm 136 is the text of the congregational song of Israel.  It repeats this phrase in its first verse:  “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” It is the phrase that the people of God sing to him when they meditate on his wonderous deeds.  Psalm 118 describes this as well.  The Psalmist who wrote the longest chapter in the Bible declared it completely:  “You are good and do good; teach me your statutes” (119:68).  When Moses pleaded to God to show him his glory, this is how the LORD answered him:

“I will make my all my goodness pass before you  and will proclaim before you my name ‘The LORD.” And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy” (Exodus 33:19).

In the New Testament, Jesus chastizes one man for calling him “good teacher.”

“Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18).

It is the apostle John, however, who ties the encouter that Moses had with God with Jesus.  He makes it clear that Jesus was not denying his own deity in Mark 10:18, but he was rather pointing out the heart of the man who approached him, for this man cared little about the goodness of God.  Though Moses couldn’t see God (Ex. 33:20), Jesus is described as the only one who seen God and can perfectly reflect him.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth…And from his fulness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:14, 16-8).

John doesn’t so much emphasize the Mosaic law (condeming man) and Jesus (liberating man) as he is emphasizing God’s glory being made known perfectly in the person of Jesus Christ.  “He has made him known.”  It is here that we are given the undeniable truth that Jesus is the good God spoken of in the Old Testament.

Indeed, Christ’s miracles manifested his glory (Jn. 2:11), but most specifically, God’s glory in Christ is made known when evil men do not believe in him.

“Though he had done so may signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ [Isa. 53:1] Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them’ [Isa. 6:10]. Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.  Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess, so they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God” (John 12:43).

It was that frightening vision of God’ s glory in Isaiah 6 that changed, justified, and atoned for Isaiah.  It is here that John makes it clear: Isaiah saw Jesus Christ.  “He is the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 4:3). “…the glory of Christ, who is the image of God…the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:4, 6).  Every bit of God’s glorious nature is found in Christ.  Most especially, God’s goodness is found in Christ.  If we look at 2 Corinthians 4:1-6, we see that the glory of God is found in his gospel.

This is the way the writer of Hebrews describes God’s good for his people-

“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11-12).

It is because of God’s goodness in the giving of the Son that we have “an eternal redemption” paid for “by means of his own blood.”  This is the ultimate way God is good to his people.  He gives us his Son so he can bring us to himself.  He wants his goodness to be known to his people, so he provides the way for them to experience it. Notice how Jeremiah prophecies of this giving of the Son as the means by which God will finally dwell with his people:

“And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.  I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them.  I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them.  And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.  I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and soul” (Jeremiah 32:38-41).

God is good to his people-with all his heart and soul. This is amazing!  But notice this passage’s emphasis on the heart. “I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.  I will rejoice in doing them good…”  He even speaks of giving his people “one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever.”  It is in this sense, then, that we see what God’s goodness does to our hearts.

2.) God’s goodness makes us pure in heart.

If God has nothing but good for his people, and this is most specifically manifested in the gospel, we must consider what the gospel does to us.  “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God“  The way in which we draw near to God (and this is the climax of Psalm 73) is through the gospel.  The gospel  purifies our hearts and thusly allows us to see God the clearest.  Matthew 5:8 says it this way: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  There is a direct tie between purity of heart and seeing God for who he is.  Note how the apostle John puts it:

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).

The very appearance of God (as he is) and the fervent meditation of God (as he is) inevitably leads to purity.  Being near to God thus equals purity of heart.  The apostle James says this:

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded” (James 4:8).

Conclusion:

Thusly, I think we see from Scripture that God’s goodness both demands purity and supplies what it demands.  This is grace so amazing!  By being close to God and considering him for who he is, the heart is purified.

Application:

If in those times of doubt, when you speculate and intellectualize over the goodness of God with a heart of unbelief, you are committing grievous sin.  God’s goodness is not subject to your belief.  Your belief is subject to his goodness!  God is good to his people. Though evil surrounds you and doubt fills your minds, the goodness of God is not compromised.  Your purity is compromised!  Hoping in him as he says he is will result in a pure heart.

This has tremendous implications for our holiness because anytime we sin we demonstrate that we are 1.) impure in heart, 2.) far from the true and revealed God, 3.) doubtful of whether or not God is good.  Anytime we sin we demonstrate that we doubt if God’s way (of holiness, godliness, honor, integrity, blamelessness, pleasure) is good.  It is a heart of unbelief.

God says he is good, and though you cannot now see every way in which his goodness is made known to you, you must hope in him as he says he is.  But behold the manifold ways he has revealed his goodness!  Have you forgotten the wonderous deeds of the Lord in your life?  Have you spurned his blessing of life? Have you begrudged his blessing of family, friends, food, home, and other providences?  There is always a reason to give thanks.  But if, by some wise and gloriously good plan of God, you have nothing but loneliness, hunger, homelessness, persecutions, and sword, have you spurned God’s ultimate good blessing?  Have you forgotten the gospel?  He gave his Son! Is that not enough for you? If you, like Asaph, wonder if God is truly good to Israel, you must examine your heart, for it is not God who has ceased to be good, it is your heart that has ceased to be pure.

Fly to the gospel and thusly purify your hearts.  What love the Father has made known to you in Him!  His goodness and glory washes you from all uncleanliness and unbelief.  Purify yourself, and wash your hands by drawing near to God, meditating on who he says he is.

I leave you with four truths from St. Augustine that have helped me:

1.) God always enables that which he commands.

 “Lord command what you will, and will what you command.”

If he says to believe him, he will create that in your heart.  Plead with him until he makes his goodness pass before you!

2.) Our hearts will never rest until they rest in God as he has reavealed himself to be.

“Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.”

You will have a wayward, tossed, double-minded way about you until you rest finally in the truth of God’s goodness.

3.) Our love for God is compromised when we love anything apart from him.

“He loves thee too little who loves anything besides thee which he loves not for thee.”

God goodness wants you to enjoy his blessings.  God’s goodness also wants you enjoy them for him.  His goodness will thus take that from you which will result in your losing sight of his goodness.  He gives! But he will take away, and this is his goodness, kindness, and mercy.  Remember, however, that there is one thing God cannot take away: His promises in the gospel. Find your love for God in this love he has for you.

4.) To truly experience the goodness of God, we require one thing: Humility.

“If I should be asked what is the first thing in religion. I would say that the first, second and third thing therein is humility.”

Doubt and speculation are not admirable.  Humble and contrite hearts that tremble at his word is what God looks to. Carnal speculation and fleshly intellectualism do not impress God.  He does not command your theodicy; he commands your humility.

Working with you for purity,

Vince R.

Regeneration vs. the Idolatry of Decisional Evangelism

It was about the time I heard this sermon that I was only 90% sure how I felt about the “sinner’s prayer.”  After this sermon, I was 100% sure.  I put the “sinner’s prayer” in the ground, buried it, and put up a tombstone that said “anathema.” Our evangelism is weak, unbiblical, and it is eternally destroying some.  What are we preaching? See for yourself, and examine yourself. What are you preaching?

The New Atheism and the Endgame of Secularism

Dr. Mohler’s lecture last year at Dallas Theological Seminary.  I plan on quoting it in my final paper for the class entitled  The Victorian Period.  He speaks of “the Victorian Loss of Faith.”  My working title is: “The Ebb of Faith’s Sea: Doubt and Modernism in Tennyson and Arnold.”

“The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.” -From Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold

Embryonic Stem-Cell Research History: Just in Case You Missed it…Like I did.

I haven’t been living under a rock or anything, but on many issues, my cultural engagement is pretty weak.  Embryonic Stem-Cell Research has been thrown around near my ears, but only over the past year or so have I given myself to trying to stay informed.  Here’s an article summarizing the history and controversy of Embryonic Stem-Cell Research since the first invitro fertilization baby was born in 1981.  It is very helpful for people like me who need a little bit of help understanding the basic facts of the issue.  This is a much needed review in light of President Barack Obama’s woeful decision on Monday March 9, 2009 to repeal President George W. Bush’s 2001 ban on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.

Here is an exhortation for the Church:

We are called to stay informed.  We are the people who know the dignity of human life from conception until natural death.  We are the people whose love for the glory of God in all things must stay engaged in this issue in which the glory of God in the Imago Dei is being destroyed and dishonored.  We are the people who are called to love our neighbor by warning them of lies and deceit while working to think through the same concerns that even the lost world cares for.  We must work to provide biblical and honest answers while not straying or compromising from the integrity and truth of God in his word.   This is a time for God’s people and his scientists to rise up and provide, for the glory of God, an honest alternative.  Pray for the scientists, pray for those whose hurts and afflictions have called for these questions, pray for the families who just wanted to have children but did not think through the reprecutions of this issue, and most of all, pray for the lives that will be intentionally destroyed in the name of human progress and human glory.

I’m still praying for you Mr. President.  God have mercy on you.

Working with you for life,

Vince R.

Echoes of the Reformation in 2009

Check out this article from Time Magazine: Ten Ideas Changing the World Right Now: #3 The New Calvinism.

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Thanks Sareena for finding this.

Few of Days and Full of Trouble: What is the End of the Matter?

Charles Haddon Spurgeon had me thinking just the other night.  I was supposed to be reading the devotional for March 9, but somehow, I had been reading from March 10 that day.  Well, it was exactly what I needed to read at that moment for God had ordained it.  Read it here, but these words that stung hard.

“Let us recollect the frail tenure upon which we hold our temporal mercies. If we would remember that all the trees of earth are marked for the woodman’s axe, we should not be so ready to build our nests in them. We should love, but we should love with the love which expects death, and which reckons upon separations. Our dear relations are but loaned to us, and the hour when we must return them to the lender’s hand may be even at the door.”

My heart began to melt for I sickened myself.  So I turned to the text on which Spurgeon was writing.

“Man who is born of woman is few of days and full of trouble.  He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.” Job 14:1-2

And so I began some meditations on the fleetingness of man, the finitude of life, and the fragility of plans.  I was brought low in a moment.  Everyone I know will go away in the end.  What is the point? Why study so much? Why labor as I do?  Why care?  I turned to Ecclesiastes and read the simple phrases again:

“For in much wisdom is much vexation; and he who increases knowledge increases sorrows.” Ecclesiastes 1:18

I have turned sorrowful of late, vexed with much wisdom and increasings of knowledge.  The closer I grow to the Lord, the more sorrow is mixed with the joy.  The closer I get to God, the more I know my own sinfulness.  The more I know my own sinfulness, the more I know the grace of God.  The more I know the grace of God, the more joyful I am to know him.  The more joyful I am to know him, the more sorrowful I am that others do not.

The sinfulness of sin has vexed me much of late.  I see it in others, and no longer does it make me mad.  It has truly rended my heart in two.  What have we done?

“The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.”  Ecclesiastes 4:5

Man destroys himself, smiling and indifferent to his own decadence.  I am seeing it all around.  We drink down iniquity like water.  There is much bread and idleness.  And we sink lower and lower, deeper and deeper into self-mutilation.  I was particularly sorrowful as I thought of these things.

“All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.” Ecclesiastes 6:7

We cannot get enough.  Our hearts are drawn to iniquity.  Only recently I had been reading through the first three chapters of Romans.  Paul’s main objective there:  To crush man under the condemnation of sin.  Even as I read it, my flesh ached and my heart hurt.

“Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.” Ecclesiastes 7:20

My heart was engulfed with the exceeding sinfulness of sin.  What is wrong with us?  We supress the truth in unrighteousness and we destroy our own flesh with self-hatred.  Though we love ourselves, we really hate ourselves if we love not God.

What hope is there for mankind?  I was particularly distraught with hopelessnes.  But then I knew…I looked to the cross and read.

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die–but God shows his love for us in that while were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” Romans 5:6-9

“The cross has set me free,” I said.  “All our days pass away under your wrath; we bring our years to an end like a sigh” I recited Psalm 90:10-11. “The years of our life are seventy or even by reason of strength eighty, yet their span is but toil and trouble.  They are soon gone and we fly away,” I continued quoting.

But the cross has set us free to fear God in our passing days.

“The end of the matter; all has been heard.  Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Ecclesiastes 12:13

And that is the end of it.  What else are those saved from God’s wrath to do but fear him and obey him?  We are free, counted righteous by the one who once stood in judgment over us.  We were objects of wrath, but now we are objects of delight.  We can now enjoy his pleasure.  We can now enjoy him.  We can now enjoy his blessings.  There is nothing better under the sun in the few days that God has given us.  This is the end of the matter. 

Working with you in these few days,

Vince R.

Albert Mohler and the City of Man: A Book Review

"In the end, the culture and its challenges will pass away. But our Lord has left us here for a reason-as His people, we are to be salt and light to a dying world."

As I finished Dr. Mohler’s book Culture Shift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth, I realized the unrelenting importance of cultural engagement.  I may not be one called toward academic cultural apologetics, but as a Christian, I have a responsibility to know the place where the people dwell.  As I recall Discern Your Culture at New Attitude 2007, I remember a profoundly affecting and simply stated truth Dr. Mohler brought, “The only reason we care about the culture is because the culture is where the lost people are.”  Very simple; but often overlooked.  In the name of cultural engagemet, Christians often forget their responsibility to holiness and Christ-centeredness.  And just the same, in the name of holiness and Christ-centeredness, Christians often forget their responsiblity to love their neighbor.

This book heightens my intensity and passion for engaging the City of Man.  Here is an excerpt that powerfully portrays the necessity for Christian engagement with the culture.  Dr. Mohler springs off the shoulders of St. Augustine with simple theological dexterity:

“The City of God is eternal and takes as its sole concern the greater glory of God.  In the City of God, all things are ruled by God’s Word, and the perfect rule of God is the passion of all its citizens.

In the City of Man, however, the reality is very different.  This city is filled with mixed passions, mixed allegiances, and compromised principles…citizens of the City of Man demonstrate deadly patterns of disobedience, even as they celebrate moral autonomy, and then revolt against the Creator.

Of course, we know that the City of God is eternal, even as the City of Man is passing.  But this does not mean that the City of Man is ultimately unimportant, and it does not allow the church to forfeit its responsibility to love its citizens.  Love of neighbor–grounded in our love for God–requires us to work for good in the City of Man, even as we set as our first priority the preaching of the gospel–the only means of bringing citizens of the City of Man into citizenship in the City of God…

Love of neighbor for the sake of loving God is a profound political philosophy that strikes a balance between the disobedience of political disengagement and the idolatry of politics as our main priority…we are concerned for the culture, not because we believe that the culture is ultimate, but because we know that our neighbors must hear the gospel, even as we hope and strive for their good, peace, security, and well-being.”-pp.3-4

If you are looking for a work that serves as a nice introductory seque into worldview apologetics and cultural engagement, I strongly suggest you begin with Dr. Mohler.  He is a nice bridge into more thorough and dense works from Francis Schaeffer, C.S. Lewis, David Wells, and many more.  As C.J. Mahaney puts it in his review of the book,

“Al Mohler is a unique gift to the church.  His writing combines penetrating theological discernment and insightful cultural analysis with a passion to faithfully proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

I must agree.  Dr. Mohler refuses to leave the gospel.  For him, cultural engagment means that we go straight to the need of the lost–a regenerated soul.  For without that happening to us first, our worldview would not be any different from theirs.

Working with you to bring a gospel-centered worldview to the market place,

Vince R.

The Root of Roe v. Wade: The Contraception Mentality

Here is a powerful examination of the current “contraception mentality.”

Check out this compelling excerpt:

“We submit, therefore, that children are now being aborted in the flesh, because they have already been, in large measure, aborted from the mind.”

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Thank you to Bro. Hank for bringing this the current issue of Touchstone Magazine to my attention.  Go visit his biblicaly charged engagment with the Pro-life movement over at Lawn Gospel.

Working with you for Life,

Vince R.

Preaching to Heart Part II: Watching Pastor Paul at Colossae

“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you…” Colossians 2:1

There is a great struggle spoken of in this passage.  Pastor Paul writes of it to these believers.  It is a great struggle he has for the church at Colossae and for the believers at Laodicea.  He must be struggling inwardly.  Paul was a man of the heart.  His messages emitted naturally from a newborn heart–a heart suffering for the sake of the church, a heart filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.  His is a heart that received from God a certain calling.  He is as he said earlier, “a minister.”  What is the main focus of his ministry?

“And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which you has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.” Colossians 1:21-23

Here we see that Paul ministers to God’s people for their sanctification.  God is working through Christ to present his people “holy,” “blameless,” and “above reproach” before him.  The main end of the minister’s work, therefore, is help God’s people reach these fruits of sanctification–holiness and blamelessness.  If the minister is not aiming for this, what is he doing?  He is not following the lead of Pastor Paul; and likewise, what Bible is leading him?

More particulary, we see that Paul exhorts the people toward these fruits by way of  three qualities–faithfulness, stability, and steadfastness.  If a minister is not exhorting his people to these three qualities, what is he doing? He is not following the lead of Pastor Paul.

But this is made even more particular.  Look at what the people are told to be faithful to, stable in, and steadfast for:

“not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which you has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” v. 23

This clearly demonstrates the way for a people to be holy, the way for a people to be blameless.  The way for a people truly to be God’s people is found in their faithfulness to the gospel, their stability in the gospel, and their steadfastness for the gospel.  Paul says at the end of this verse that he was made a minister of that gospel.  If we say we are ministers of the gospel, are we even preaching it?  If we are not preaching the gospel, we are not ministers of it.  Indeed, we cease to be ministers of anything the Bible has any knowledge of.  We have fallen from our ministership.

Paul says a little later that he is suffering for the church because “[he] became a minister [to it]” (1:24-25).  He then clearly acknowledges the nature of that ministry.  It is a “stewardship from God given to him for [the church]” (1:25).  The minister who calls the ministry his own with no heart-felt knowledge of the stewardship of it, ceases to be the minister the Bible speaks of.  He is a selfish man, building a kingdom, not God’s, but rather his own.

Stewardship signifies reception. If God has called you to this ministry of the gospel, why is there no reception?  You spurn the calling of the Lord, like some disobedient Jonah.  Away to Tarshish, yet God will find you!  A giant fish awaits the called runner. But Paul did not run.  It says in Acts 26:14 that upon the call from the Lord, he had “fallen on the ground.”

Stewardship signifies holding.  The minister of the gospel holds something that is not his own.  He has had something “entrusted” to him (See 1 Timothy 1:11).  It is not his own, yet why do some ministers act as though they invented the gospel?

 ”Man never could nor would have invented and devised a gospel which would lay him low, and secure to the Lord God all the honor and praise.” -C.H. Spurgeon

If any man has forgotten the nature of the gospel as here explained by Mr. Spurgeon, what is he preaching?  The end of the preaching of the gospel is the glory and praise of the Lord God, not the praises of men to the minister.

Stewardship also signifies selflessness.  “the stewardship from God that was given to me for you.”  It is not given by God for the ministers own personal parading prideful pulpiteering!  God has given the minister the stewardship for the sake of others.  Pastor Paul understood that he was given the ministry for the church, not himself.

Stewardship also signfies faithfulness. “…to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.”  Paul refused to do the ministry half-heartedly.  He declared the whole counsel of God!  He made it fully known! This is the faithfulness of the minister.  He knows his mission, and he does it, fully. What mystery has been made known to us! Yet we preach some other thing as though there is no mystery and all people knew of it.  Don’t ever assume your people already know the mystery; and don’t ever think they know it well enough.

“Never be content with your grasp of the gospel. The gospel is life-permeating, world-altering, universe-changing truth. It has more facets than any diamond. Its depths man will never exhaust.” - C.J. Mahaney, The Cross Centered Life

The minister of God also has one proclamation for his people.  “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.” (1:27-28)

What message do we preach?  Is it Christ and him crucified? For Paul would know of nothing else! (See 1 Corinthians 2:1)  What goofy, moralizing, cream-puff exhortations fill the pulpits of men who preach something other than Christ!  They want growth of church, but they forgot the seed–the gospel!  People may have ears for moralistic exhortation, but their hearts will be far from Christ and closer to their own self-righteousness.  “Stop complaining” is no sermon content!  Even the pagans don’t like complainers.  God’s people will stop complaining when they understand the gospel, when they see that the rock guiding them in the desert is Christ (See 1 Corinthians 10:1-11).

The minister of God also has one process for his people. “warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom.”  The only wisdom Paul knows of he gets from Scripture.  “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding” (Psalm 111:10).  Also, Paul knows that his Lord is a truine Lord.  He goes on to say, “Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3).  If a minister wants wise and knoweledgable people with good understanding his process should be to warn them and teach them with this wisdom; that is with this Christ.

The minister of God also has one purpose for his people.  “that we may present everyone mature in Christ.”  That is the purpose the minister of God has for others–their maturity in Christ.  For indeed, he must present them before God!  Will they be mature in Christ?  But yes, they will with God’s help.

The minister of God also has one power for his people.  “For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (1:29).  The minister of God knows that two very difficult truths exist together.

1.) I must work, toil, and struggle. (This is our responsibility.)

2.) God gives the strength to endure that toil and struggle. (This is his sovereignty.)

And so, this was the struggle Paul had within him for the church.  He wanted to declare to them the riches of Christ for their joy and God’s glory.  What else is the minister to do?

Working with you to preach to the heart,

Vince R.