He Became a Curse!

Dr. R.C. Sproul delivered this message at Together for the Gospel 2008.  This powerful excerpt really captures the dymanic impact it had during his session.  The first time I heard it, I broke down in tears.

Sorrowful Love: When You Can’t Love the Sinner, Weep for Him.

It has been in my experience that when I am most sorrowful for the sinner, I love him the most, and I am moved to plead for him before the throne of the Most High Judge. We are often uncomfortable around the carnal man.  His words offend our sensibilities.  His ideas counter our convictions.  As he converses, obliviously and ignorantly, we begin to see his heart.  As a man speaks, so he is.  Why do our hearts sometimes despise him?  Do we hate him? Why does he anger us? It is here that we see our hearts.  It is easy to see the sins of others; it is more difficult to see our own.  Hatred, jealousy, bitterness, wrath, backbiting, slander, and gossip are carnal works.  They proceed from an unloving, wicked, and impure heart.  If one wishes to break this heart, he must know the love of God in the gospel.  Consider the following passages of Scripture:

Elisha looks at the messenger Hazael and begins to weep.  He experiences great sorrow for the sinner:

And he fixed his gaze and stared at him, until he was embarrassed. And the man of God wept.  And Hazael said, “Why does my lord weep?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel. You will set on fire their fortresses, and you will kill their young men with the sword and dash in pieces their little ones and rip open their pregnant women.” And Hazael said, “What is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?” Elisha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you are to be king over Syria.” Then he departed from Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, “What did Elisha say to you?” And he answered, “He told me that you would certainly recover.” But the next day he took the bed cloth and dipped it in water and spread it over his face, till he died. And Hazael became king in his place. (2 Kings 8:11-15)

Elisha wept because he knew the great sins that Hazael would committ.  What sorrow the man of God will experience! He weeps because he loves.

Note, next, the way in which Jeremiah weeps for the wicked Israelites who recieved the just recompense for their unbelief:

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! (Jeremiah 9:1)

Note next the way in which Paul spoke to the Philippians about the enemies of the cross:

For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.  Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. (Philippians 4:18-9)

He speaks of the enemies of the cross with tears! Do we?!

Note next the way Lot related to the sinners around him in 2 Peter 2:7-8:

and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard)

Lot was greatly distressed by the conduct of the wicked; his soul was tormented by what he saw and heard. Do our souls feel a tormenting weight and sorrow for a lost world?

Note next the language of the Pslamist in 119:136, 158:

“My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.”

“I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands.”

The Psalmist has a great zeal for the Lord’s law.  Tears fill his eyes when it is broken.  Do we share in his heart?

Indeed, there is a real hatred for sin in the Christian’s soul, even as his hatred is tempered by love for the sinner’s soul.  It is not some fuzzy love stripped of all justice and righteousness.  It is a perfect love, the kind of love that comes from God (1 John 4:7-8).  No Christian can say he loves God if he does not love the wretched sinner. For so was the Christian in times past! (Ephesians 2:1-7; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Application:

The key to loving the sinner and hating the sin is to know the heart of God.  Do you know his heart? Perhaps, you just know his mind.  Perhaps, you just know his truth but walk ignorantly of his person.  The man who has not the heart of God will become a Pharisee with his doctrine.  Meditate, therefore, heavily upon the love of God in the gospel.  Love is from God, and thusly, he sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10).  You were not looking for God, but he was looking for you.  You were not loving God, but he was loving you.  He demonstrates his love for you in the gospel, even when you were still a sinner.  You who have been enlightened by the gospel: Walk with grief-stricken joy, and love the heathen around you.  He knows not what he does.

Whoever . . . has tasted of the love Christ, and has known, by his own experience, the need and the worth of redemption, is enabled, Yea, he is constrained, to love his fellow creatures. He loves them at first sight; and, if the providence of God commits a dispensation of the gospel, and care of souls to him, he will feel the warmest emotions of friendship and tenderness, while he beseeches them by the tender mercies of God, and even while he warns them by his terrors.

As to your opponent, I wish, that, before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord’s teaching and blessing. This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love and pity him; and such a disposition will have a good influence upon every page you write. . . . [If he is a believer,] in a little while you will meet in heaven; he will then be dearer to you than the nearest friend you have upon earth is to you now. Anticipate that period in your thoughts. . . . [If he is an unconverted person,] he is a more proper object of your compassion than your anger. Alas! “He knows not what he does.” But you know who has made you to differ.

-John Newton

Working with you for sorrowful love,

Vince R.

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.

How to Love One Another when there are Differences Among You

John Piper’s recent “Taste & See” article truly captures the kind of humility it takes to be around those who differ from you.  I am greatly thankful for this helpful articulation; and I am very humbled by God’ s grace, even as he continues to rescue my sinful heart by teaching me these principles in application.  This side of glory, I will never be finished learning them, and neither will you.

Working with you for Love,

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?

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.

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.

The Power of the Cross

A powerful video with one of my favorite modern hymns, The Power of the Cross by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty.

Not What My Hands Have Done

I just wept as I pondered the truths of this hymn; he died for me.  He became a curse! What else is there to preach?

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

-Horatius Bonar, Not What My Hands Have Done

A Feeble Attempt at Humility: A Loss of the Gospel

Christ humbly washing his disciples feet

“God honored His trust and did all for Him, and then exalted Him to His own right hand in glory.  And because Christ humbled himself before God, and God was ever before Him, He found it possible to humble himself before men, too, and to be the Servant of all.  His humility was simply the surrender of himself to God, to allow Him to do in Him what He pleased, regardless of what men might say of Him or do to Him.” -Andrew Murray, Humility: The Journey Toward Holiness, 33.

This morning I read out of Andrew Murray’s book, and I was particularly astounded at this section.  I had a verbal “wow” as I read it.  I find in today’s Christianity a tendency to make the gospel man-centered rather than God-centered.  I find it in my heart so many times.  We take the grace right out of salvation and treat the work of the gospel as exactly that–work.

Here’s what I mean.  Let’s take a passage of Scripture that is often thrown around in evangelicalism to promote service and humility before men.  Philippians 2:3-11 says this:

“Do nothing from rivalry and conceit, but in humility count other more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

We often focus on one aspect of this verse. We focus on Christus Exemplar, that is, “Christ the Example.”  We focus on how Jesus is the perfect example on how to act toward our fellow man.  Look again at this part here that says, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not account equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

What we do here is we automatically turn this  into an order for service and humility apart from the gospel message itself.  This is a result of man-centered Christianity that says the gospel is all about us.  The misinterpretation comes when we see Jesus Christ’s first advent as that which is specifically about us.  We have been taught that Jesus Christ died for me because of me.  This is not the biblical teaching.  Rather, the gospel is primarily and wholly about the confession of Jesus Christ the Son in mind, heart, and will to “the glory of God the Father.”

When any man confesses (and a true confession must come from the heart or it is false, see Romans 10:8-11), “Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God,” we must note that Jesus himself attributes it to the grace and glory of God.  After Simon Peter makes this same foundational confession on which the Church of God is built, Jesus answers him with that very understanding:  “Blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is heaven.” (See Matthew 16:15-18)

Jesus completely attributes the gospel-changed believer to the will and work of his Father in heaven.  So let us ask: why are we saved at all?

“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in [Christ], were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

This passage attributes our salvation’s end to the glory of Christ, but we also see something else is true when we read this passage in 1 Corinthians 15:27-28:

“For ‘God has put all things in subjection under [the Son's] feet.’ But when it says, ‘all things are put in subjection,’ it is plain that he is excepted who put all things under [the Son].  When all things are subjected to [the Son], then the Son himself will also be subjected to [the Father] who put all things in subjection under [the Son], that God may be all in all.”

We see that God the Father is working to place all things under the feet of Christ.  But this does not mean that God the Son will have God the Father under him, too.  “It is plain that he is excepted who put all things under him.”  Rather, the Son himself will also be subjected to the Father in that day.  For what reason?  “That God may be all in all.”

Clearly, we see that God the Father is given the glory for all that he does for the Son, and we see also that God the Son submits to God the Father.  Look at the way Jesus spoke when we was on the earth:

“The Son can do nothing of his own accord…” John 5:19

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” John 5:30

“For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” John 6:38

“My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” John 7:16

“But I have not come of my own accord.” John 7:28

“I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.” John 8:28

“I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.” John 8:42

“Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. ” John 8:50

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” John 14:10

In all of these passages, we see that in the life and teaching of Christ, he was in total submission to God the Father.  But I do not have to go outside of Philippians 2 to show you that.  Look at what it says:

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:6-11

To whom was the Son “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross”? The answer is obviously God the Father.  Why did God the Father highly exalt him?  Was it because Jesus was being humble before men?  The answer is obviously no because we have seen that Jesus was humble before God the Father!  Who gets the glory for Jesus’ perfect humble work?  It is done to the “the glory of God the Father.”

Now, if we view Philippians 2:3-11 as a call to just be humble toward man for the sake of man’s good we have placed obedience to the gospel at the center.  We have said that our highest focus is not what God has done in Christ.  We have said that our highest focus is what we do!  How shamefully man-centered!

A proper reading of this text must be read with gospel-lenses.  Christ was completely humble to his Father in heaven.  As a result, he could say that he practiced what he preached, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:14).  If we look at the context of that verse we that it speaks of a justified sinner, whose conscious and panging shame over his sin caused him to beat his breast and look to God for mercy.  The man who is justified humbles himself before God because a man who humbles himself before God knows that God is his only way for salvation.  Jesus Christ’s perfect humility fell in line with his own teaching (a proper understanding of Christus Exemplar), but it also enabled him to pray with confidence to his Father, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:4-5).

Obedience to God comes from humility before God.  Disobedience to God comes from pride before God.  I have said it many times: Pride is the root of all evil.

Jesus was highly exalted because he was humble on earth, not before men but before his Father in heaven.  “Are you saying that we shouldn’t be humble before men?” asks one.  If you have to ask then perhaps you don’t understand the gospel yet.  Paul said in Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

Paul’s call for humility finds its root directly in the humility of Christ before his Father.  Our obedience is both humbled and exalted because of the perfect obedience of Christ.

When we make the gospel a message expressing our worth and a message all about us, we can sing with many fuzzy feelings words that say Christ was crucified thinking ”of me above all.”  We should be uncomfortable with such words because in singing them we imply that God is not concerned with his glory.  In becoming comfortable with such an ide, we will begin to manifest our own glory because of our obedience rather than Christ’s.  Our obedience to Philippians 2:3-4, then, becomes our feeble attempts to conjure some kind of humble demeanor toward our fellow men.  Friends, our humble demeanor is a false one if we are not humble first and foremost before God.  A humble and contrite heart, God will not despise this.

Working with you to be humble before God,

Vince R.