NT FAiTH

Faith in ROMANS is the key to how someone becomes right with God. That is precisely what Paul was articulating in chapters 1-4. We are justified by faith alone, apart from works of the Law.

Faith in HEBREWS is what grants us endurance to stay right with God. We are not of those who shrink back, but of those who persevere [10.35-39] in "the assurance of things hoped for" [11.1].

Faith in JAMES is the conduit for good works in the Christian life. This is why faith without works is useless [Js 2.20]: because faith is descriptive of the life of a Christian and not just of the hoop one jumps through to become a Christian.

So, why is it so hard to see that these three do not contradict one another but are instead inextricably linked as a whole. Different situations call for preaching and teaching faith in different ways. But without this framework, legality, Antinomianism, and the faith healing prosperity gospel are "crouching at our door" [Gen 4.7]. Furthermore, none of this is ever divorced from the Holy Spirit graciously and sovereignly working in sinners "as He wills" [1 Cor 12.11, 18] to draw us, sustain us, empower us, and cause to serve the King for the kingdom.

EPiSTEMOLOGY 101

Esther Meek is genius in this book. Its flow and tangible illustrations provide her argument with substance. She asks Can we know God?, Can we know anything for sure?, and How can we know if we can know anything at all? She discusses how any kind of knowing is not static, but a process. Our subjective involvement in knowing does not necessarily determine the truths we know, but molds how we know, live, and think about them.

oh, blessed self-forgetfulness!

Never in my life have I heard Christian character and Gospel humility articulated like Tim Keller does here. He paints a picture of humility from the Apostle Paul that is drastically against modern culture and even against what mainline Christianity has posited as walking humbly. You must listen and be challenged.

A WEDDiNG iN AMiSH COUNTRY

10 reasons free will doesn't exist in the way you think it does

1. Most importantly, it is not in the Bible. Any imperative in the NT calls for the activity of the will, not its freedom. Philemon 14 in the NASB and ESV are translated using the words "free will," but the context indicates a meaning far from a self-autonomous libertarian freedom.

2. It contradicts scores of Bible verses that talk about God being over the human will [Ex 4.21; Prv 16.33, 21.1; Ac 16.14; Rom 9.16; and others].

3. If I had a free will I would never want to employ it. This is just to say that if man is really sinful, then our will, our emotions, our desires, and our thoughts are all sinful. "Your kingdom come, Your will be done."

4. It is different than moral responsibility.

5. It is a philosophical impossibility. We live in a cause and effect universe. Therefore, when you choose to drink orange juice, it is because you were thirsty. You were thirsty because you ate too many saltines. You ate too many saltines because you were hungry. You ate saltines because that's all that was in your house. And so forth. Also, culture, family, social status, race, age... all of these are what cause us to choose what we choose.

6. If free will exists in a theistic worldview, it can only be possessed by one Being. Principally, this is also what makes truth absolute as well. Free will cannot be innate to more than one being at a time; it is the nature of free will.

7. It is different than eternal accountability.

8. Free will has become the center of the application of evangelical teaching and preaching and this is far from biblical. The cross, the glory of God, the grace of God, hope, peace... these should be held out to souls. People should not be told it is all up to them; eternity hinges on their volition; their choice is all God is waiting on; and other sappy anthropocentric nonsense.

9. It implies an impotence in God, not a tolerance in His love. If man has free will, then God necessarily is impotent to that will and He can only cross His huge fingers and hope that we do what He wants.

10. We are always bound to do what we want to do. We can never do what we don't want to do. In other words, the will is free in the same way that it is bound if you want a real migraine... it always carries through with what it most desires at any given time. Go read Jonathan Edwards on this.

ROMANS 5.10 and 8.7

By yourself, you hate God. On your own, you would seek to destroy God if you could. Apart from Christ, you would be God's most virulent foe. To even think that this is overstating our sin problem is to highlight the truth of our stiff-necked disposition. This is not hell/fire/brimstone preaching or deranged spiritual pessimism, it is the picture the Apostle Paul hints at in Rom 5.10 and 8.7. He uses language in these two verses that paints the picture of sinners as God's enemies who are hostile and actively opposed to Him. But... He justifies the ungodly. And if "while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more will we be saved through His life" [Rom 5.10].

JOHN NEWTON from 1779

as by the light of opening day
the stars are all concealed
so earthly pleasures fade away
when Jesus is revealed

creatures no more divide my choice
i bid them all depart
his name and love and gracious voice
have fixed my roving heart

ROMANS FiVE

So how does "justified by faith" [Rom 5.1] relate to "justified by his blood" [Rom 5.9]? Moreover, in broader Pauline thought, how do the above two relate to "justified by his grace" [Titus 3.7]? All three of these are the same in Greek [aorist passive participles from dikaiow]. It is clear that both the blood and the grace are acts of God. The context of Romans 5 shows that faith is an act of man. Another way to view it is that the blood is objective and historical; in slight contrast, genuine faith is ongoing and subjective. At what point do all three of these converge? It has to be the cross. I do not know how intricately it all works together, but God forbid if I boast in anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ [Gal 6.14]. Paul wished to know nothing among the Corinthians except the cross [1 Cor 2.2]. It is here that faith can be grounded on blood that was spilt and both can find their source in the grace that saves.

EX NiHiLO

To Him who made great lights, His steadfast love endures forever. The sun to rule over the day, His steadfast love endures forever [Ps 136.7-8].


















From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord be praised. The Lord is high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens [Ps 113.3-4].

SOVEREiGN OVER SiN?

It plagued my heart and humbled my mind for at least three years. It is now being discussed again here, here, here, and elsewhere.

Is God sovereign over sin?

Before a definitive "yes" or "no" one must consider the theological ramifications of their answer. If you submit that He is then you might jump to the unbiblical conclusion that He is the immediate or primary cause of sin in the universe. Or, if you answer negatively then you could suggest that He can do nothing about sin because He is not sovereign over it. So, the following is a very brief biblical survey concerning this issue.

Every time the phrase "evil spirit" appears in the OT, it says that it is from God [Jdg 9.23; 1 Sam 16.14, 16.15, 16.16, 16.23, 18.10, 19.9]. Job declares that YHWH gives and He takes away in 1.21. He also asks if we should accept good from God and not "calamity" [rah in Hebrew] in 2.10. Isaiah says that God creates this same "calamity" in 45.7. In a very summative fashion, Elihu says that "whether for correction, or for His world, or for lovingkindness, He causes it to happen" [Job 37.13]. Peter doesn't hesitate to say that Herod, Pilate, and all those responsible for Jesus' bloody death were to accomplish "whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur" [Ac 4.28]. These texts barely scratch the surface of the biblical data that should be considered when these questions are in view. Others include: Ps 33.14-15, 105.25, 115.3, 135.6; Pro 16.1-4, 16.33, 21.1; Is 29.16, 63.17; Rom 9.11-24; Ex 4.21, 7.3, 9.12, 10.20, 10.27, 14.4, 14.8, 11.10; Mt 10.29; Heb 1.3; 1 Kgs 11.23; Lam 3.37-38; Amos 3.6; Ac 2.22-24; 2 Ths 2.11-12; 1 Pe 2.8; and more.

Brothers from a Catholic, Wesleyan, or Arminian background generally attempt to explain this by turning to man's free will. However, this line of argument simply restates the issue at hand and is also another discussion that is not as closely related as they think.

To ask the question in another way: What verb should be used to feebly attempt to express God's relationship to sin? Did He cause it? Allow it? Decree it? Permit it? Ordain it? Take your pick and ground it on the objectivity of God's Word. The reality is that our Lord and King does not sit upon His throne in the heavens and scratch His head over the extent of His sovereignty. It is our finiteness, our sin, and our creatureliness that gives way to our ignorance.

So, what does all this entail for the believer? It means that we must bow before "the only wise God" [Rom 16.27] and the mystery of His providence. It means that we get to trust and know that His ways aren't like ours and still be a part off His plan. It means that the contrition and humility with which we walk should be evident to those around us. Lastly, we must know that we are always accountable before Him and that He is always reigning and governing all things as "the King eternal, immortal, invisible" [1 Tim 1.17; also see Eph 1.11, Col 1.16-17; Rom 11.33-36].

no other gospel

Please go listen to the gospel. This is Charlie Boyd from Southside Fellowship on Galatians 1.6-12. Brothers and sisters, grace is free and unmerited.

"EVANGELiCAL ART?"

My uncle-in-law went to Bob Jones and is now a Catholic Priest. He's a good man and a delight to talk with. He recently posted a unique approach to why their is such a deficiency of art in evangelical circles. Please read. Here's a sneak:

"Evangelicals find it difficult to produce great art because they do not have a sacramental theology, and without a sacramental theology they cannot have a sacramental worldview, and without a belief that grace is coming to us through the physical world, how can you possibly produce great art?"

the REFORMED PASTOR

Richard Baxter's book The Reformed Pastor must be read by pastors. The "reformed" in its title is not indicative of Calvinism, but of needed transformation. Here are some excerpts:

"Self-denial is of absolute necessity in every Christian, but it is doubly necessary in a minister, as without it he cannot do God an hour’s faithful service. Hard studies, much knowledge, and excellent preaching, if the ends be not right, is but more glorious hypocritical sinning."

"Reverence is that affection of the soul which proceedeth from deep apprehensions of God and indicateth a mind that is much conversant with him."

"I must say, though I condemn myself in saying it, that he who readeth but this one exhortation of Paul to the elders of the church at Ephesus, and compareth his life with it, must be stupid and hard-hearted, if he do not melt under a sense of his neglects, and be not laid in the dust before God and forced to bewail his great omissions, and to fly for refuge to the blood of Christ, and to his pardoning grace."

NT WRiGHT and JUSTiFiCATiON

In What Saint Paul Really Said, NT Wright does a great job supplying the meaning to a lot of Paul's language regarding justification, righteousness, justice, and other words in the dikai- word group...

"First, it is covenant language – not in the sense of that word made famous through some 16th and 17th century discussions, but in the 1st century Jewish sense. When Paul speaks of justification he is operating within the whole world of thought of second-temple Judaism, which clung to the covenantal promises in the face of increasingly difficult political circumstances.

Second, it is law-court language, functioning within the covenantal setting as a strong explanatory metaphor. Two thing must be said about this. First, this metaphor is necessary for understanding what the covenant was all about. The covenant was there to put the world to rights, to deal with evil and to restore God’s justice and order to the cosmos. Second, it is never independent of the covenant setting. It cannot be made in to an absolute and free-standing concept without doing violence both to itself and to the fundamental meaning of the covenant.

Third, justification for Paul cannot be understood properly apart from eschatology. It cannot, that is, be made into an abstract or timeless system, a method of salvation to be randomly applied. It is part of the Pauline worldview in which the creator of the world has acted, uniquely, climactically, and decisively, in Jesus Christ, for the rescue of the entire cosmos, and is now, by his Spirit, bringing all things into subjection to this Jesus."

the barren wombs

So, when women in the Bible couldn’t have babies, that’s when God loved to show off and short-circuit the human reproductive system. It is pretty impressive to scout the line-up of the “barren” women in the Bible. What’s even more impressive is the children these women bore. It is a real shocker that these kids were always main players in God’s redemptive story. Not only does it make me ponder the dead womb of nothingness and matter-lessness before creation [Heb 11.3], but it reminds me of the dead womb of my heart before He revealed and imparted grace.

Sarai [Gen 16.1]
Rebekah [Gen 25.21]
Rachel [Gen 29.31]
Manoah’s wife [Jdg 13.2]
Hannah [1 Sam 1.2]
Elizabeth [Luke 1.7]
Mary [Is 7.14, Mt 1.23]

"shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay?” [isaiah 29.16]

All befuddling and unanswerable questions concerning theology, theodicy, philosophy, psychology, biology, quantum physics and every realm of study must be duly discerned in view of God’s wisdom, His multi-dimensional eternality, His providence, His power, our sin, our finitude, and our limited knowledge on the truth of everything in this list. However, this must not and will not deter us in pursuing His glory in each of these disciplines. If anything, it should cause us to dig deeper, study harder, think broader, and live more humbly.

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen [Ro 11.33-34, 36; 16.27].

EiNSTEiN and MARK 9.35, 10.43-45

Most people would say that Albert Einstein [1879-1855] was a pretty smart fella. He once said something that sounded an awful lot like the guy that he called the “luminous Nazarene.” Albert claimed that “the highest destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.”

iSAiAH 40-66 [perpetual promises]

One can see the substitution of the suffering servant, the freeness of grace in the gospel, and the new heavens and new earth all in Isaiah 40-66. Within these chapters, it is unique to note all the things that are modified with the Hebrew word olam, usually translated “everlasting.” These descriptions show the unending nature of the New Covenant in Jesus.

40.28... everlasting God
45.17... everlasting salvation [also 51.6]
51.8.... everlasting righteousness
51.11... everlasting joy [also 61.7]
54.8.... everlasting lovingkindness
55.3.... everlasting covenant [also 61.8]
55.13... everlasting sign
56.5.... everlasting name [also 63.12]
60.15... everlasting majesty/pride
60.19... everlasting light [also 60.20]

GOOD MUSIC iN NO PARTiCULAR ORDER

1. blindside [Silence]
2. sufjan stevens [Come on Feel the Illinoise]
3. plankeye [Relocation]
4. mxpx [Panic]
5. pigeon john [Is Dating Your Sister]
6. anathallo [A Holiday at the Sea]
7. bleach [Farewell Old Friends]
8. stretch arm strong [The Rituals of Life]
9. kirk franklin [The Nu Nation Project]
10. half-handed cloud [Halos and Lassos]
11. five iron frenzy [Our Newest Album Ever]
12. mewithoutYou [Brother, Sister]

"for what the Law could not do, God did..." He showed mercy.

John Bunyan was in prison for 12 years. There he wrote one of the best sellers of all time. The Baptist tinker painted Moses and the Law with such striking imagry that you must keep reading. The dialogue is Faithful telling Christian of the assaults he has met on his journey. Faithful describes an old man he met named Adam the First, who tried to persuade him to go to his home and be his servant.

Faithful: Why, at first I found myself somewhat inclinable to go with the man, for I thought he spake very fair; but looking in his forehead, as I talked with him, I saw there written, “Put off the old man with his deeds.” Then it came burning hot into my mind, that, whatever he said, and however he flattered, when he got me home to his house he would sell me for a slave. So I bid him forbear to talk, for I would not come near the door of his house. Then he reviled me, and told me that he would send such a one after me that should make my way bitter to my soul. So I turned to go away from him; but just as I turned myself to go thence, I felt him take hold of my flesh, and give me such a deadly twitch back, that I thought he had pulled part of me after himself: this made me cry, “O wretched man” [Rom. 7:24]. So I went on my way up the hill. Now, when I had got above half-way up, I looked behind me, and saw one coming after me, swift as the wind; so he overtook me just about the place where the settle stands... But, good brother, hear me out. So soon as the man overtook me, it was but a word and a blow; for down he knocked me, and laid me for dead. But when I was a little come to myself again I asked him wherefore he served me so. He said because of my secret inclining to Adam the First. And with that he struck me another deadly blow on the breast, and beat me down backward; so I lay at his foot as dead as before. So when I came to myself again I cried him mercy: but he said, I know not how to show mercy; and with that he knocked me down again. He had doubtless made an end of me, but that one came by and bid him forbear.

Christian: Who was that that bid him forbear?

Faithful: I did not know him at first: but as he went by, I perceived the holes in his hands and in his side: Then I concluded that he was our Lord. So I went up the hill.

Christian: That man that overtook you was Moses. He spareth none; neither knoweth he how to show mercy to those that transgress the law.