God's Revelation

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands" (Psalm 19:1).

John the Baptist came preaching the kingdom of God. When Jesus appeared, He also proclaimed God’s good news. Both were “revealing” the truth from God. While God preserved this truth in Scripture, we often wonder about the accuracy or necessity of passages such as genealogies. For the rest of this month, we will concentrate on the authority and inspiration of Scripture.

There are many different ways that God reveals Himself, according to the Bible. For instance, the universe reveals God, in the same way, an artist’s personality is revealed in his art. God made the universe, and thus it shows forth His person and character.

God also reveals Himself in personal appearances: theophanies. Theophany comes from the Greek theos, meaning “God,” and phaneia, meaning “manifest.” A theophany occurs when God reveals Himself through some created means. Examples are the burning bush and the pillar of cloud. The Bible also shows us God revealing Himself to men in dreams and in visions. We remember Joseph’s dreams or the night visions of Zechariah 1–6.

God reveals Himself in events, and also in words. The crucifixion of our Lord is the greatest revelation of God’s love. But, the event by itself is silent. Apart from word-revelation, we only see a man nailed on a cross. Without word-revelation to inform us of the “meaning” of this event, the event is silent.

Word-revelation often comes in the form of God speaking directly to men, as when He spoke to Moses at the burning bush. God also wrote some things down, such as the Ten Commandments and the handwriting on the wall in Daniel 5. God also inspired the prophets and apostles to write the books of the Bible.

Finally, God reveals Himself in Jesus Christ: “In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2).

God is most clearly revealed in Scripture. Since it is to the Christian’s benefit to read all of God’s revelation, reconsider how diligently you have pursued this goal. If you are not reading the Bible through each year, begin today.

The Genealogies of the Gospels

Genealogies are lists of ancestors or descendants of someone who is important to the story of the Bible. Many find them to be boring lists of obscure and unpronounceable names. Some may even react like the man who read the manual for his personal computer and said he would rather read Leviticus. After all, Paul condemns false teachers who devoted themselves to myths and endless genealogies (1 Timothy 1:3–4). So why bother?

The answer is that those genealogies strengthen our faith by showing us the faithfulness of God in fulfilling His promises. The Jewish people had a sinful preoccupation with their natural descent which John the Baptist condemned when he declared, “For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham” (Luke 3:8). Nevertheless, the dozens of genealogies in the Old Testament are important in showing how the blessings and curses of God upon specific tribes were fulfilled. Also, when David brought the ark of the covenant up to Jerusalem after failing in his first attempt, and when Nehemiah restored the worship at the time of the second Temple, they needed the genealogies to accurately determine the priests and Levites who could properly minister.

But nowhere does the real value of genealogies become more clear than in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. Luke traces the ancestry of Jesus back to Adam because he is presenting our Lord as the perfect man, the Last Adam who saves His people from their sins by keeping the covenant that the first Adam broke.

Matthew traces Jesus’ ancestry back to David and Abraham. Through this we know that God has kept His promise to Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. His promise to David was that his seed would sit upon the Davidic throne forever. This is astonishing when we think of all the centuries that passed and how dismal the prospects often appeared. After all, when God rejected Abraham’s only son, Ishmael, as heir of the covenant, Isaac was not yet born. And when he was born, Abraham was 99, and was later commanded by God to sacrifice Isaac. If God had not intervened, humanly speaking, the promise would have ended right there. God’s promise to David was also close to extinction. The wicked Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, king of Israel, became queen of Judah. When her son Ahaziah was killed she set out in jealous fury to destroy the house of David. Ahaziah’s sister, Jehosheba, rescued little Joash, the last heir to the throne, and so preserved the line of David (2 Kings 11:1–3). Uzziah was the grandson of Joash and he appears in Matthew’s genealogy. Thus there is opened to us an exciting view of history. We might call it the perils of the promise. And in the end we see that God in His sovereign mercy and power has kept His promise to send a Savior. The seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David has come. The oath is kept, the Word is sure, our redemption is here. Genealogies, then, are witnesses to the covenant faithfulness of God to His people.

The Greatest Lie We Tell Ourselves

Pop psychology believes that the worst thing we can do is not think positively about ourselves. Apparently, we just need to have the right mindset and then we can do anything. Our negative thoughts then become “the lies we tell ourselves.” Biblical wisdom is far different. It reveals glorious truths and realities that provide us with more motivation than we could imagine. Yet it also reveals the uncomfortable truth about ourselves, leaving us with nowhere to hide. Unless we come to terms with this we will only deceive ourselves. The most glorious thing that the Bible says we can have is fellowship with God. Yet it is hindered by the greatest lie.

Both of these are brought together in one verse. “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth” (1 John 1:6). Hugh Binning opens up the most glorious privilege and the greatest lie.

True Religion is in Fellowship with God

True religion consists not only in the knowledge of God but especially in conformity to Him and communion with him. Communion and fellowship with God is the great goal and design of the gospel. It is the great result of all a Christian’s efforts and progress. It is not only the greatest part of religion but its very reward.

Godliness has its own reward of happiness without borrowing from external things. This sweet and fragrant fruit which perfumes the whole soul with delight and fills it with joy, springs out of conformity to God. This means assimilation of nature and disposition, some likeness to God imprinted on the soul again in holy affections and dispositions. It also means our will coinciding with the will of God, drowning it in the sea of His good pleasure and having His law in the inward parts.

What is the root of this conformity except for the knowledge of God? This has the power to transform the soul into His likeness. You see then where true religion begins lowest and by what means it grows up to the sweet fruit of that eternal joy that shall be pressed out of the grapes of fellowship with God. So then, whatever is declared by God to us in His word concerning Himself is not only presented for our knowledge. It is especially also a pattern for imitation and an inflaming motive for our affection. This is the very substance of the verse “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5).

True Religion is Becoming More Like God

The end of your knowing God is to become more like God. Let us consider that we know only as much about God as we love, fear and are conformed to Him. Any knowledge which is not doing this or does not have this goal will serve no other purpose except to be a witness against us.

If you want fellowship with God then consider what you engage in and what kind of person He is. The intimate knowledge of one another is presupposed in all true friendship. You must know what God is if you want to have communion with Him. There is no communion without some conformity and no conformity without knowledge of Him. Therefore, as He is light, so the soul must be made light in Him and enlightened by Him. We must be transformed into that nature and made children of light who were children of darkness. Now, as there is a light of understanding and wisdom in God, and a light of holiness and purity, so there is in our souls, opposite to these, a darkness of ignorance, unbelief, sin, and impurity of affections. Now, “what communion can light have with darkness?”

Looking often on God until our souls are enlightened and our hearts purified advances the soul to the closest conformity with God. This gives the soul greatest capacity for blessed communion with God. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

The Greatest Lie

There is nothing in which men allow themselves to be so easily deceived as in religion (the matter of greatest concern). The eternal welfare of their souls consists in this. There is no delusion either so gross or so universal in any other thing as in this thing. Delusion together with self-love (which always hoodwinks the mind and will not allow serious impartial self-examination) are at the bottom of this vain persuasion.

If anyone says they are a Christian they really say that they have fellowship with God.  In so far as you pretend to be Christians and yet do not profess holiness you fall under a twofold contradiction and commit a twofold lie. The first is between your profession and practice and the second is in your profession itself.

Your practice is directly contrary to the very general profession of Christianity. You affirm you are Christians and yet refuse the profession of holiness. You say you hope for heaven and yet do not so much as pretend to godliness and walking spiritually. Without this, the name of Christian is empty, vain, and ridiculous.

This is the greatest most dangerous lie. It is the greatest lie because it takes in the whole of someone’s life. It is one great universal lie, a lie composed of infinite contradictions and innumerable individual lies. Every step, every word, and action is in its own nature contrary to that holy profession. But all combined together it makes up a black constellation of lies—one powerful lie against the truth. And, besides, it is not against a particular truth but against the whole complex of Christianity.

Error is a lie against the particular truth it opposes but the whole course of an ignorant, ungodly life is one continued lie against the whole body of Christianity and Christian truth. It is a lie extended across the length of many weeks, months and years against the whole fabric of Christian profession. There is nothing in the calling of a Christian that is not retracted, contradicted and reproached by it.

O that you could examine your ways and see what a cluster of lies and inconsistencies is in them. See what reproaches these practical lies cast on the honor of your Christian calling. They tend by their very nature to disgrace the truth and blaspheme God’s name. It is no less than a denial of Jesus Christ and a real renunciation of Him. It puts you outside the refuge of sinners and is most likely to keep you outside the blessed city where nothing that makes a lie can enter (Revelation 21:27). What shall then become of them whose life all along has been but one continued lie?

The Greatest Lie We Can Tell Ourselves

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). Some are ready to think too highly of themselves. They do not see themselves in a way that may intermingle humble mourning. Rather, they measure their attainments by their desires. Now, indeed, this is in effect, and really to say, “we have no sin” ( 1 John 1:8). We are infinitely below either our duty or our desire and need to be reminded of this often in order not to be drunk with self-deceit in relation to this.

Are there not many Christians who, having experienced sorrow for sin and comfort by the gospel and engage in religious duties who stop in this without desiring further progress? They think that if they keep that attainment all is well with them. They make few endeavors after more communion with God or purification from sin. This makes them degenerate into formalism. They wither and become barren and are exposed by this to many temptations which overcome them. Is this not to really say, “we have no sin?”

Do not your walk and frame of spirit imply as though you had no sin to wrestle with, no more holiness to aspire to, as if you had no further race to run to obtain the crown? Do not deceive yourselves, by thinking it sufficient to have so much grace as may (in your opinion) put you over the line. As though you would seek no more than what is precisely necessary for salvation. Some may find that this is a self-destroying deceit and they have not in fact passed over that line between heaven and hell.

True Religion is Beautiful in Practice

There is nothing so contrary to religion as a false appearance. Religion is a most complete thing, harmonious in all its parts. It is the same inside and out, in expression and action, all corresponding together. Now, to mar this harmony and to compose it out of dissimilar parts and make one part contradict the other is to make religion ugly and deformed. This happens when the course of a man’s life, in ignorance, negligence, and sin declare what is contrary to the profession of Christianity.

Practice is real knowledge because it is living knowledge. It is the very life and soul of Christianity when nothing more is needed except the intimation of God’s will to move the whole being. This is what we should all aspire to and not satisfy ourselves in our poor attainments below this.

The Baptism of Jesus

"When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too" (Luke 3:21).

If John’s baptism was for repentance of sin, and Jesus was sinless, then why was Jesus baptized? This is a question with which many people struggle. Not only have theologians throughout church history wrestled with this problem, but John the Baptist was worried about it as well. In Matthew 3:14 we read that John said to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). What was Jesus saying? He was saying, “John, bear with Me. I have a mission to perform, and this is something we need to do.”

What did Jesus mean by “fulfill all righteousness”? As the Messiah, the sin-bearer, it was necessary for Him to fulfill the law of God in every detail. There are two dimensions to this. First, Jesus identified with the sin of His people. He was the Lamb of God, who would take away the sin of the world. As He was going to bear their sins, He had to enter into their world and walk among them.

Second, Jesus had to keep God’s law perfectly so His obedience could be credited to our account. Jesus not only died for our sins, but He also lived a perfect life so that we could be given a new life. Therefore Jesus was saying to John, “I have to fulfill all the requirements of the Old Testament law, even if that law was given to fallen sinners. Still, these are God’s requirements, and if I am going to fulfill the law of God, I have to do it all.”

Luke goes on to say that “as He was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’ ” (Luke 3:21–22). The coming of the Spirit on Jesus was an anointing that began His public ministry.

Do you recall the joy of pleasing your earthly father? What would you give to hear your heavenly Father say, “With you I am well pleased”? Today and this weekend, consider whether you are motivated by primarily pleasing God, or by pleasing yourself.

Real Repentance

“What should we do then?” the crowd asked (Luke 3:10).

Those who heard John’s message were concerned lest they be among the trees God was going to cut down. In Luke 3:10–14 three groups of people asked him what they should do. What kinds of “actions” were needed to make their repentance real? What should their new lives be like? What was it going to mean to live in the coming kingdom?

The prophet’s first response was to the crowd in general: “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same” (v. 11). Like the prophets of the Old Testament, whose heir he was, John showed a concern for love and a spirit of sacrifice. Those who had more than they needed were to be moved with compassion for those who were poor.

The second group that approached him were “publicans” or tax collectors. They were considered the worst kind of sinners. The Jewish people were under the oppressive tax burden of Rome. The faithful Jew not only paid the exorbitant Roman taxes but also paid his tithes to God. Local “tax farmers” were appointed by Rome to collect taxes, and these people were paid a percentage of what they collected. Thus, many of these people collected more than they were required to raise and pocketed the difference. No wonder these people were hated! They were regarded as traitors to their own people.

John did not tell them to quit their jobs, because this would only make room for other corrupt men to take their places. He told them to remain in office, but not to “collect any more than you are required to” (v. 13).

Finally, some Gentile soldiers asked John, “And what should we do?” Was the kingdom for them as well? Certainly, said John. These soldiers were underpaid and were tempted to coerce money from poor Jews. So John told them, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay” (v. 14).

Now it’s your turn! What question do you have for the prophet? What should you do to make your repentance and position in the kingdom real? Is there anyone that you are exploiting, even without thinking about it? Is there anyone who needs your help? Take stock today, because the King is coming!

John the Baptist

“A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him’ ”

(Luke 3:4b).

Today we return to our studies in Luke, and for a couple of days, we shall consider Luke 3. Here we encounter the greatest prophet of the Old Testament period: John the Baptist. True, his story is recorded in the New Testament books, but his life and ministry took place at the close and climax of the Old Covenant era.

The Jewish historian Josephus says much more about John than he does about Jesus (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18:5:2). We see that John had a tremendous impact on the nation. Remember that Jesus concealed much of His ministry until right before His crucifixion. John, however, operated very publicly, calling all men to repentance.

John was “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3). Baptism was not a new thing to the Jews. The Mosaic law had prescribed many baptisms for various kinds of uncleanness and defilement (Leviticus 11–15; Numbers 19). Moreover, a Gentile who converted to Judaism was baptized to remove all his defilements. John was saying to the people: “You are unclean. You are like Gentiles. You have to repent and enter the kingdom by passing through the Jordan River again.”

John charged all the people with being sons of Satan. He said to the crowds, “You brood of vipers,” that is, you sons of the old serpent! He told them to “flee from the wrath to come.” He warned them not to rely on their tradition, and not to count on being sons of Abraham: “And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children of Abraham” (Luke 3:7–8).

John stated that the judgment of the world was at hand. “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” (v. 9). The bad trees were about to be cut down. It was time to get ready! And the same applies to us: Are we ready to meet the King?

“God has no grandchildren.” This means each new generation must come to personal faith in Christ. Formalism, “historical” faith, and traditionalism can lull church members into wrongly assuming salvation. How would you respond to the question: “Are you ready to meet the King?”

God Omnipotent

"The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them" (Psalm 2:4).

The last of God’s names we will look at is “El Shaddai.” The focus of this name is on the power of God. This name communicates His ability to exercise His sovereignty over the entire created order. God also said to Moses, “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty (“El Shaddai”), but by my name the LORD I did not make myself known to them” (Exodus 6:2–3).

From this, we see that the name God Almighty is associated with God’s promises. God makes promises, and God is mighty to perform them. God is strong enough to accomplish everything He has said He will do. He has the power to fulfill every promise He has made to His people.

Isn’t this where our faith tends to fail? We look at all the masses of evil power arrayed against the Christian church, and we become intimidated. It is like the situation described in Psalm 2: “The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters’ ” (Psalm 2:2–3).

How does God respond to this threat? He laughs. He scoffs at them. The power of wickedness is “nothing” compared to the power of the Creator of all things. But God does not keep laughing forever. “Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath” (Psalm 2:5). He warns them soberly to “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment” (v. 12).

When we come to the assembly of God’s people on the Lord’s Day we should come in the fear of God, trembling at His power, but rejoicing that this omnipotence means that God has the power to fulfill every promise He has made to us.

Consider the four hymns in Luke 1 and 2. How is God celebrated in these songs? God is personal; He is the sovereign Lord Adonai; He is the One who reveals Himself, and He is the all-powerful promise-keeper. Do you see this God in Luke 1 and 2? Review these passages and note specific references to these characteristics of God.

Worship vs. Speculation

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).

The first sentence in the Bible introduces us to God. The remarkable thing about the Hebrew word used for God here is that is it plural: Elohim. We are not sure what the singular word el implies. Some scholars have suggested “strength,” others “primacy,” along with other suggestions as well. We are certain, however, that while God is sometimes called “El” in the Old Testament, He is more often called “Elohim,” and the “-im” suffix indicates plurality.

Why would the name of God appear in a plural form in a religion that is distinctively monotheistic? As Deuteronomy 6:4 puts it: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” Some have suggested that the plural here is a hint of the fact that God is Three and One, alluding to the doctrine of the Trinity.

There may be some truth to that idea, but we are more confident that the Hebrew language sometimes uses a grammatical construction called the “plural of intensity.” Such a plural form ascribes greatness to God, without specifying any particular implication of that greatness.

Secular philosophers and liberal theologians of the nineteenth century were convinced that the word Elohim implied a primitive view of God. These men were all committed to an evolutionary view of the universe and of human history. They held that all world religions were basically the same, and that as human culture has “evolved,” religious sophistication has also evolved.

Originally, they said, men worshiped the spirits of water, stones, trees, and the like. Later on, they said, men became polytheists, worshiping several personal gods. After a while, one of these gods became supreme, and finally men became sophisticated enough to be monotheists. A plural word like elohim, they said, is a holdover from more primitive times. There is, however, no historical evidence for this supposed evolution of thought.

The Bible confronts us with the One True God in its opening statement. Secular humanism asserts that man’s religions are simply the product of his own speculations. Think of elements of Christianity which preclude the possibility that our faith is the product of our imagination.

Lord Sabaoth is His Name

Christians thrill to Luther’s stirring lines based on Psalm 46:7: “Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing; were not the right Man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He, Lord Sabaoth His name, from age to age the same, and He must win the battle.” But what does His name, “Lord Sabaoth,” mean?

Sabaoth is a transliteration of the Hebrew; that is, it is merely changing the letters of the Hebrew word into the corresponding characters of the English alphabet without translating the word. Most English versions translate it “hosts” so that when combined with Lord (Hebrew YHWH, normalized as Yahweh) and/or God (Hebrew Elohim), the combined expression becomes “Lord of hosts” or “Lord God of hosts” or “God of hosts.” The NIV translators, according to the preface of this English version, thought the phrases “the Lord of hosts” and “God of hosts” had little meaning, and so rendered them “the Lord Almighty” and “God Almighty.”

Who or what are the Lord’s hosts? Sometimes they are the armies on the battlefield. Faithful David taunted the blaspheming Goliath: “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied” (1 Samuel 17:45). Psalm 68:12 says, “Kings of armies (Hebrew sabaoth) flee in haste” (see also Exodus 7:4; Psalm 44:9). Angelic hosts also make up the Lord’s armies. The inspired psalmist enjoins: “Praise the Lord, all His heavenly hosts, you His servants who do His will” (Psalm 103:21; see also Joshua 5:14; 1 Kings 22:19). These, in turn, are associated with the stellar hosts, the army of stars that fight for Him (see Joshua 10:12–14; Judges 5:20). Isaiah encouraged the distraught Jewish exiles in Babylon to look up: “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name” (Isaiah 40:26; see also Genesis 2:1; Deuteronomy 4:19). The hosts of heavenly beings and bodies are associated in Psalm 148:2–3: “Praise Him, all His angels, praise Him, all His heavenly hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon, praise Him, all you shining stars.”

In the title “The Lord of hosts,” first used in 1 Samuel 1:3, Sabaoth designates the Lord’s sovereign kingship over all forces, without distinguishing them. Eichrodt in his Theology of the Old Testament (Volume 1, pp. 193–94), wrote that Sabaoth in this title “does not refer to any particular ‘hosts,’ but to all bodies, multitudes, masses in general, the content of all that exists in heaven and in earth … [a] name expressive of the divine sovereignty.” Hartley, writing in the layman’s Theological Word-book of the Old Testament (Volume 2, pp. 750–751), concurs: “It affirms His universal rulership that encompasses every force or army, heavenly, cosmic and earth.… [Psalm 24:10] clearly shows that Yahweh of hosts conveys the concept of glorious king. Yahweh is King of the world (cf. Zechariah 14:16) and over all the kingdoms of the earth (Isaiah 37:16).… Although the title has military overtones, it points directly to Yahweh’s rulership over the entire universe.… Special attention is given to the majestic splendor of Yahweh’s rule in this title.”

The Greek translators commonly render Sabaoth by pantokrator, “the almighty,” “the ruler of all things” (see 2 Corinthians 6:18; Revelation 4:8; 19:6). In the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Michaelis summarized the meaning of this Greek term: “The reference is not so much to God’s activity in creation as to His supremacy over all things.”

In the Intertestamental period, the Jews providentially ceased using the name YHWH and substituted “Lord” (Greek kurios). This change both prepared the way for God’s new revelation of Himself in the name, the Lord Jesus Christ (see Mark 16:17; John 14:13; 20:31), and facilitated identifying Jesus Christ with Israel’s God. Where the Hebrew Scriptures used YHWH, the Greek translators used “Lord” (kurios), and the New Testament appropriated this name to Jesus Christ. For example, the promise, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [with reference to Jesus Christ] will be saved” (Acts 2:21, 38; Romans 10:13) is based on Joel 2:32, which in the Hebrew text has “Yahweh” instead of “Lord.” Luther with theological acumen hymned: “Christ Jesus it is He, Lord Sabaoth His name”!

May this title of our Lord Jesus Christ, revealing that He musters all the powers of heaven and earth to accomplish His will, in a new way succor us in sorrow, restrain us in temptation, and nerve us to fidelity in testing. 

Uncovering the Secrets of Christ's Kingdom

Spies, espionage, and state secrets seem to be prominent in the news once more. China is so exercised about foreign espionage that this week it launched a website encouraging people to report national security threats. Sometimes we get a glimpse of the extent of the hidden world of intelligence agencies in gathering information about foreign countries. The controversy surrounding Facebook and the covert use of data is another dimension of how far attempts to obtain prized information may go. What do we know of the secrets of Christ’s kingdom? It’s a different matter altogether of course. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world and therefore those who are of this world find it incomprehensible. But are governments and organizations more diligent in gathering their secret information than we are in searching into the mysteries of Christ’s kingdom?

Alexander Henderson says it is our necessary duty to make this our study. If this sounds a little strange, consider that Christ says that the secrets or mysteries of His kingdom are given to His disciples to know (Matthew 13:11). The matters of the kingdom of heaven are mysteries which none can understand until this is given to them from God. There are also those to whom God does not purpose to give an understanding of His mysteries. Henderson opens this up in a sermon which he preached before the House of Lords in 1645 on John 18:36-37.

1. Understanding Christ’s Kingdom

(a) The Greater Secrets of Christ’s Kingdom

Since the kingdom of Christ is not of this world but is a spiritual kingdom, it is a necessary duty to study the nature and search into the mysteries and secrets of this kingdom. The kingdom of Satan and sin have many depths and secrets. The kingdoms of the world have their secrets of politics and government. The kingdom of Christ has greater secrets and more hidden mysteries.

Those who are great in the world know many things about the mystery of iniquity and the secrets of the kingdoms and states of the world. Yet, the truth is that many of them are ignorant of the mysteries of the kingdom of Christ. The princes of this world (whether princes in knowledge or in power and greatness) do not know those mysteries. Had they known them they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:6-8). When the apostle Paul says that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man understood the things that God has prepared for them that love Him, he is speaking of the kingdom of grace in this world (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

(b) The Secret Means Used in Christ’s Kingdom

Natural reason requires the right means and well-prepared materials for every work. But the apostles were neither noble nor learned, but poor and simple.  The world altogether unprepared to receive them, it was at that time (as much as at any time before or since) full of learning, power, and politics. Yet they went on, subduing, conquering and bringing everything to the obedience of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(c) The Secret Laws of Christ’s Kingdom

The laws of this kingdom were:

instead of revenge – love your enemies;

instead of lust – do not look on a woman to lust after her;

instead of covetousness – forsake all;

instead of ambition – deny yourselves.

Yet these supernatural laws, by the Spirit and power of the great law-giver, were established and written in the tables of men’s hearts. The promises of reward were not worldly pleasures or ease, but let everyone take up their cross and follow me.

(d) The Secret Wisdom of Christ’s Kingdom

Everything in this kingdom is above the reach of natural reason. The spiritual man, however, by a new faculty created by God, knows the deep things of God and judges all things (1 Corinthians 2:14-15).

Some theologians have observed seven things in the sufferings of Christ that are altogether contrary to the reason of the natural man:

the greatest impotence and weakness in Him who was omnipotent;

the greatest suffering in Him that was impassible [incapable of suffering]

the greatest foolishness (according to the judgment of men) in the deepest wisdom;

the greatest poverty in the God of all riches;

the greatest shame in the greatest glory and majesty;

the greatest forsaking in the most perfect union;

the greatest severity of the Father against His Son in the greatest love of the Father to the Son, in the very time of His suffering.

Many more things might be added in the administration of the kingdom of Christ after His ascension into heaven. This might be observed both at the first planting of the gospel in the earliest times and in the time of the Reformation of religion in various kingdoms and nations.

If we will acquaint ourselves with the secrets of the gospel and the way the kingdom of Christ progresses, we seem to be transported and carried to another world.  We are forced to acknowledge and confess to the glory of God, that flesh and blood cannot reveal these things to us.

2. Join Christ’s Kingdom

When the Lord has opened the eyes of our understanding to behold something of the secrets of this spiritual kingdom, we are to join ourselves to it and become the subjects of Jesus Christ.

(a) Acknowledge Your Natural State

We must first know our condition by nature, we are all by nature subjects (slaves indeed) to the kingdom of sin and Satan.

(b) Acknowledge Christ as King

Acknowledge Christ to be king and Lord of His people, putting our confidence in Him because He has all sufficiency for life, liberty, salvation and every good thing. We ought to seek to feel the kingdom of God within us and His scepter set up in our souls which were formerly tyrannized over by strange lords.

(c) Submit to Christ’s Will

We must submit ourselves in all humility and obedience to do His will. His subjects are a willing people or a people of willingness (Psalm 110:3). If every one of us had many wills, we ought to sacrifice them all in a willingness to serve Him. If we would consider what we are without Him, what we may be through Him we would willingly offer ourselves in this day of His power.

3. Advance Christ’s Kingdom

We must all be zealous in using all good means (according to our abilities) to advance and establish the kingdom of Christ. Beware of selfishness, indifference, division, procrastination, discouragements, imprudence, and inconstancy. Give yourselves to sincerity, zeal, unity, diligence, selflessness, prudence, and perseverance. Thus you may be the choice and blessed means used by God to establish the kingdom of His Son, our Saviour in the land.

Our Sovereign Lord

"O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8:1).

As we consider the God we worship, let us turn our attention today to His majestic lordship. In Psalm 8:1 we see the word 'Lord' used twice. The first time the word is in all capital letters, and translates the personal name of God: “Yahweh.” The second time, the word translates a different term: Adonai.

The word adon originally meant “administrator or steward,” according to Hebrew scholars. It was a title given to a person in a position of authority. An “adoni” held the position of lord over a house or manor, or over some other group of people.

What happens when the suffix “ai” is added to “adon” to form the word adonai? The majority of scholars believe that the suffix intensifies the meaning of the word, so that adonai means “high lord, supreme lord, lord of all.” From this, we see that Adonai is the title of God that calls attention to His sovereignty.

In the New Testament, the most frequently used title for Jesus is Christ, which means “Messiah.” The second most frequently used title is Kurios, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Adonai: the Lord. The New Testament writers consciously applied to Jesus a title that they knew was reserved only for God. Notice how Paul puts it in Philippians 2:9–11: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 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.”

God is a person, and we have a personal relationship with Him. He is also, however, the sovereign Lord of all. When we go to church on Sunday, we say to Almighty God, “You are the Lord, and I am Your servant.”

A political phrase of colonial America read, “We serve no sovereign here.” Somehow this attitude has pervaded American Christianity as well. Examine your faith today for areas where you are unwilling to submit to our sovereign Lord. Consider also what ways you should be more dependent upon Christ.

The Personal God

"God is also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers … has sent me to you.’ ” (Exodus 3:15a).

God not only incomprehensible and wonderful, He is also personal. He names Himself, and He gives us names for Himself. The God who created heaven and earth is a person, and we are persons. That’s what makes it possible for us to have a personal relationship with God.

In fact, a personal relationship with God is inescapable. Often we hear Christians give their testimony of how they were born again, and they say, “Now I have a personal relationship with Christ.” We understand what people mean by this. But what is often overlooked is this question: What kind of relationship did that person have with God before he was born again?

You see, we always have a personal relationship with God because we are persons and He is a person. That relationship is established in creation between God and us. I can deny the existence of God, but all that does is put me in an estranged relationship with God. It is a relationship now of hostility and denial, but it is still a relationship.

So the question is not whether there is a personal relationship, but rather what is the “quality” of that relationship. Is it a healthy or an unhealthy one? It is a redeemed or an estranged one? Is it a relationship of love or of hate?

Notice something else about this personal relationship. When God revealed Himself to Moses, He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). God was personally known by the saints of the Old Covenant, and He spoke to them. The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament.

This fact brings up the following question regarding the God we worship: Do we come to worship on Sunday, do we tend to bring with us only the New Testament? Are we guilty of overlooking God’s personal self-revelation in the pages of the Old Testament?

One of the reasons our worship is often so meager today is that we tend to lose sight of the historical continuity of God’s family. Over the next few days—in your times of devotion and worship of the God of Abraham and the Patriarchs, of Paul and the Apostles, and of the Reformers—consciously thank Him for your great spiritual heritage.

God's Incomprehensibility

"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain" (Psalm 139:6).

The doctrine of God’s incomprehensibility does not mean that God is utterly unknowable. Rather it means that no one has total, comprehensive, exhaustive knowledge of who God is or what His infinite character is like.

There are two errors about God’s incomprehensibility that we encounter in the church today. Some people say that since God is incomprehensible, He is therefore utterly unknowable and everything we say about God is just gibberish. In their opinion, His incomprehensibility even defies the use of reason in knowing Him. This has been a crucial point of debate in the twentieth century. Liberal theologians and secular philosophers often maintain that when we talk about God, we are only talking about our own human wishes.

In some evangelical circles, there is another error, however. Some people have developed the idea that God’s reason is so different from man’s reason that what is irrational or contradictory to man may be rational to God. But we have to ask this: Can truth ever be contradictory? The answer is no. God can never deny Himself.

All Christian admit the human mind cannot grasp everything there is no God. God’s being transcends the limits of human reason. Thus, beyond our human rationality is God’s “super-rationality.” But it is one thing to call God’s omniscience “super-rational,” and quite another thing to call it “irrational.” If God is filled with contradictions, then perhaps His promises to us are both yes and no. Perhaps Jesus’ blood both saves us and does not save us. Perhaps God both loves us and hates us.

Away with such notions! It is true that we don’t understand everything about God, but we can surely know that He does not contradict Himself.

Take a few moments and read Psalm 139, thinking about the progression of thought in this song. Consider the incomprehensible greatness of God. As the psalmist was, are you amazed and horrified that anyone would stand in opposition to God? Ask God to try your own heart, and never to let you move away from Him. Allow God’s incomprehensibility to lead you to worship Him.

The God We Worship

"Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious” (Acts 17:22).

We have now looked at four great hymns in Luke 1 and 2: the Magnificat, or Song of Mary (Luke 1:46–55); the Benedictus, or Song of Zechariah (Luke 1:68–79); the Gloria Patri, or Song of the Angels (Luke 2:14); and the Nunc Dimittis, or Song of Simeon (Luke 2:29–32).

These hymns lead us to the subject of worship. When Christ appeared, all creation worshiped Him. Worship is our first response to God. For the next several days, then, I want to consider the God we worship.

Worship is often dull and boring in our churches today. In fact, it often seems there is not much real “worship” of God going on. Many people have drifted away from Sunday worship. I am convinced there is a profound reason why worship has been in decline, something that goes beyond the “problem of archaic language” and the “difficulty of adjustment to unfamiliar rituals.” I am persuaded that the biggest reason why worship has become irrelevant to multitudes of people is that people are bored by a God they really don’t know and therefore consider Him irrelevant.

Is God boring? The God who made heaven and earth, who parted the Red Sea, who appears in glory surrounded by millions of angels—is He dull? Is such a God irrelevant to us? Of course not. Yet people seem to find it boring to enter His presence for adoration and worship.

As the image of God, human beings have an irrepressible drive to worship something. If we don’t worship God, we shall worship idols. Worship is therefore inescapable. Paul made this point to the Athenians, when he said, “as I walked around and observed your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: To An Unknown God. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23). If we are not excited about the worship of the true God, perhaps we had better start by getting to know Him better.

Do you find yourself bored in church? Before assigning blame elsewhere, determine first whether the problem lies within yourself. Examine yourself. Perhaps you will find a lack of love of Christ, ingratitude towards God, an attitude problem or an improper view of the Sabbath itself.

Jesus Lost and Found

“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”

(Luke 2:49).

Every year many Jews went to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. Luke tells us about something that happened when Jesus was 12 years old. After the feast of Passover was over, “Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem,” but Mary and Joseph did not realize it (Luke 2:43).

Mary and Joseph were traveling in a caravan with friends and relatives. In these caravans, it was customary for the women and small children to travel in the front, and the men and older children to travel in the rear. Jesus was in between these two age groups, so perhaps Mary thought He was with Joseph, while Joseph thought He was with Mary. When the caravan stopped for the night, however, they realized that Jesus was not with them.

When they returned to Jerusalem, they found Jesus “in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46). After the feasts, it was the custom of the theologians in Israel to stay a few days and have theological disputations. Some of the students would remain and sit at the feet of the rabbis, asking questions and being asked questions in turn. This is what Jesus was doing, though He was far younger than the other students. “Everyone who heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers” (v. 47).

When Mary asked why He had done this, He replied, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” Surely it is significant that Jesus’ first recorded words go to the heart of His calling as the Messiah. Here Jesus is identifying Himself as the Son of God, though “they did not understand what He was saying to them” (v. 50).

Having identified His mission, Jesus “went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.” Out of His obedience to God and to His earthly parents, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:51–52).

It delighted Jesus at an early age to pursue intellectual matters of the faith. What He learned would 20 years later become the foundation for His proclamation of the Gospel. If Jesus found it so necessary to study, ask yourself today what you are doing to train yourself in righteousness and in the understanding of God’s Word.

The Deity of Christ in the Gospel of John

The Gospels reveal the God-man Jesus Christ. In Luke, we have studied the miraculous events surrounding the birth of Jesus. We have concluded that this was, in fact, the birth of the Messiah, God in the flesh, the Savior of His people. In our January 30 study of these early chapters of Luke, the “Coram Deo” suggested that an exciting discovery could be made in reading the gospel of John.

Of the four Gospels, John has the most specific references to the deity of Christ. Beginning with the first verse of the first chapter, John affirms that Jesus is more than simply a chosen person: He shares in the deity of God Himself. G. E. Ladd has written, “Jesus’ consciousness of deity is expressed both in sayings about His unity with the Father … but especially in the ‘I am’ sayings [here Ladd cites and quotes 6:20; 8:12; 10:7; 10:10; 11:25; 14:6; and 15:1].

“In addition to such sayings are several where Jesus designates Himself simply by the words I am (cf. 4:26; 8:24, 28; 13:19; 18:5–8). This is a phrase almost impossible to translate literally; in most contexts, the simple 'I am' is not meaningful in English [compare renderings of the NASB (“I am He”) and NIV (“I am the one I claim to be”)]. But in John 8:58, the RSV [and similarly, the NASB and NIV] translates ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’ The language is much stronger in Greek than in English. Before Abraham was born (genesthai), I am (ego eimi) [thus, the NASB and NIV translations].

The Jews picked up stones to throw at Him because of this seemingly blasphemous statement, but He escaped them. In John’s gospel, the hostility and opposition of the Jews was incurred because the implicit claims of Jesus’ language made Him equal with God (5:18)—indeed, of claiming to be God (10:33). Jesus in no way refuted these charges.

“Background for these ‘I am’ sayings, especially those used absolutely, is … found … in the Old Testament. God revealed Himself to Moses as ‘I am who I am’ (Exodus 3:14).… This expression is the most authentic, the most audacious, and the most profound affirmation of Jesus of who He was. By this idiom, Jesus lifted Himself far above all contemporary messianic hopes and claimed that in His life the historical epiphany of God was taking place.

“Thus more explicitly and more emphatically than the other New Testament writers does John declare the divinity of Jesus Christ as eternal Son of God.…”

At the time of his writing near the close of the first century, many, both inside and outside the church, were challenging the doctrine that Jesus could have been both fully God and fully man. Subsequent history bears the scars of this ongoing struggle. In our day, the deity of Christ continues to be assaulted on all fronts with considerable force. Outside the church, nonbelievers and proponents of the cults have challenged this doctrine. Within mainline denominations, some have joined in disavowing Jesus as God, the second person of the Trinity. Stripped of His deity, He is instead portrayed only in His humanity. If this is the case, we are left not with a Savior from our sins, but only with a man whose life stands as an example to us and nothing more.

Hopefully, you have read the Gospel of John in an effort to discover the uniform witness to Christ’s deity. Set aside time this Lord's Day to study each of the passages listed below. Record the heart of each verse on a sheet of paper. You may also want to mark these verses in your own Bible for later reference: John 1:49; 2:11; 3:16; 4:26; 5:25; 6:33; 7:29; 8:58; 9:37; 10:30; 11:27; 12:32; 13:13; 14:11; 15:1; 16:28; 17:1; 18:11; 19:7; 20:28; 21:14. 

What Should We Do if God is Hiding His Face?

Sometimes we have to ask ourselves searching questions. Is the spirit of prayer evident to the extent it ought to be? Is the work of the Holy Spirit restrained in relation to the ordinances of God’s worship? Why does the Word not have the powerful effect it ought to have? No doubt there are exceptions but when we take a general view of the professing Church these signs are evident. It’s what Scripture calls God hiding His face (see Isaiah 8:17-18; Job 34:29; Psalm 44:24; Isaiah 64:6). Why would God do this? And if this is the case, is there anything we can do?

James Renwick deals with this sad reality in a sermon on Isaiah 8:17. He knew what it was to face persecution and the painful difficulties of a backsliding generation. The flocks to which Renwick preached were in his own words, “a poor, wasted, wounded, afflicted, bleeding, misrepresented, and reproached remnant and handful of suffering people.”

Why Would God Hide His Face?

I confess it is hard to tell all the reasons the Lord may have. But the reasons I shall state why the Lord hides His face are:

1. Sin

Sin separates between God and us. Many gross and grievous transgressions have filled this land and defiled it, so that the Lord has no more honor by His people.

2. Hypocrisy

The Lord hides His face in the public ordinances of worship, for the defects of the people in approaching God in them. There is hypocrisy. Few come to hear with a resolution to practice what they hear (Micah 2:7).

3. Need for Prayer

The Lord hides His face, in respect to pouring out the spirit of prayer because He does not have a mind to make haste to deliver the Church (Psalm 10:17). Whenever the Lord has a mind to deliver a people He usually pours out the spirit of prayer.

4. Need for Faith

The Lord hides His face so that He may reduce his people to pure believing or nothing at all.

What Should We Do When God Hides His Face?

1. Search Our Ways and Turn to God

God’s people should search and try their ways and turn again to the Lord. This is considered a common truth yet it is a good old truth. Until the land, and especially the godly in it, search and try the evil of their own ways and turn from it, you need never expect peace with God or that He will be at peace with the land again. This was the way that His people took of old (Lamentations 3:40).

2. Justify God

When the Lord hides His face it is the duty of all the godly to justify the Lord in all that He does and to judge yourselves guilty. Many of you are ready to say, the rulers and ministers have the blame of what is in the land but no one says “What have I done?” But until everyone looks to what they themselves have done and justify the Lord in saying that He has done nothing contrary to the covenant (Psalm 89:31-32) you need not expect that your trouble will cease.

3. Strengthen What Remains

When God hides His face it is the duty of His people to strengthen what remains. Is there anything left? I urge you to strengthen it. Go and take words with you and though there be nothing more except words left, make use of these. Speak often one to another. Is prayer left with you? Use it well. Can you pray better with others than alone? Then use it well. Whatever duty you find most freedom in, make it your concern to do it. Whatever remains, strengthen it. It is the will of the Lord to do so. If you do not, you know what is threatened in Revelation 3:2-3. Strengthen that which remains which is ready to die, for Christ threatens to come upon them as a thief unexpectedly or suddenly.

4. Wait on God

It is the duty of all the Lord’s people to wait on Him when He hides His face (Psalm 130:5-7; Psalm 27:14). Wait, I say, on the Lord with courage, reflect on the grounds of hope you had long since and see what grounds you had more than now. Did you the work of God would yet thrive when it was low before? What grounds of hope do you lack now that you had then? Why should you be ashamed to hope in Him now?

(a) Wait on God because those who do so will never be ashamed.

(b) Wait on God because this is the most quieting and composing posture in an evil time (Lamentations 3:26)

(c) Wait on God because this has been the work of the people of God in time past (Psalm 130:6).

(d) Wait on God because always has a joyful outcome (Isaiah 25:9).

The Ministry of Prayer

"She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying" (Luke 2:37).

Yesterday I wrote about the prophecy of Simeon. At the very moment that Simeon was speaking, an aged woman came up to Mary and Joseph and joined in praising God (Luke 2:38). We are told that this woman’s name was Anna and that she was a prophetess. She was from the tribe of Asher, one of the ten supposedly lost tribes of the Northern Kingdom. In other words, she was part of the godly remnant of Israel.

She had been married when young, but after seven years her husband had died (v. 36). The first part of Luke 2:37 tells us that she had been a widow since then. Either she was 84 years old, or else she had been a widow for 84 years (which would make her well over 100 years old). It is not possible to be certain which translation is correct.

Since her husband’s death, she had lived in the Temple precincts and had devoted herself to helping other women and teaching as a prophetess. But primarily she had devoted herself to prayer and fasting. The word translated as worship in our version of Luke 2:37 can simply mean “service.” She served God with prayer and fasting.

There was once a most unusual man. He was in his 80s and for years had served as a foreign missionary. When age and infirmity had forced him into retirement from active service as a missionary, he decided that he still wanted to have a mission of service to God. Even though he was nearly blind and almost totally bedridden, he committed himself to working for Christ eight hours a day.

That eight hours was spent in concentrated prayer. He knew how to pray, and he prayed fervently. And as James tells us, “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).

How is your prayer life? Take time now to ask God to help you improve your prayers, and then make a list of people you need to pray for. Prayer is service, and it is a form of service all of us can and must do.

A Prophecy of Pain

"Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against” (Luke 2:34).

Some time before the birth of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit told a man named Simeon “that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26). Doubtless many people regarded Simeon as presumptuous or insane, but he believed what God had told him and “was waiting for the consolation of Israel” (Luke 2:25).

One day he went to the Temple to see if the Messiah had arrived. He saw a poor family offering the purification sacrifices prescribed in Exodus 13 and Leviticus 12. Instantly he knew that this child was the Anointed One, the Christ, for whom he had waited. Simeon took the baby Jesus in his arms and sang a song of praise to God (Luke 2:29–32). We call this song after the first two words in its Latin translation, the Nunc Dimittis. The church has sung it for 2,000 years, often at the close of worship.

Then Simeon uttered three prophecies to Mary. The first states that Jesus would cause the falling of many in Israel, but also that He would cause others to rise. There would be no neutrality. Men would be blessed or cursed according to how they responded to Jesus Christ.

Second, “the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed” (v. 35) as people respond to the revelation of Jesus. Simeon calls the revelation of Christ “a sign that will be spoken against.” The word sign here means something visible and demonstrative, a miracle. The visible revelation of Jesus Christ would provoke hostility, because fallen man hates and rejects God.

Finally, the prophecy becomes more poignant and personal, with a word of sadness to Mary: “And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” This can only refer to the sufferings of Christ, which Mary His mother had to watch. She was there when her Son was crucified. As she offered sacrifices in the Temple, she knew her Son was destined to be the final and complete Sacrifice for sin and death.

“In this world you will have tribulation,” said Jesus. What began as a prophecy for His mother was extended through history as some suffer for the Gospel and others suffer in their rejection of it. If today you are suffering for righteousness sake, pray for sustaining strength from the One who has overcome the world (John 16:33).

Jesus' Sinless Humanity

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus was fully God; He was also fully man. He became man in order to save us from our sins. To represent humanity before the Father, He had to be a man. Let us consider an important aspect of this matter, which is that Christ was absolutely sinless.

Some liberal theologians have objected to the doctrine of the sinlessness of Christ. They maintain that in order for Jesus to be like us, and to be truly human, He must have sinned. Against this is the clear statement of the New Testament that Jesus was without sin.

Also against it are a couple of logical considerations. First, if sinfulness is part of the definition of humanity, then Adam and Eve were created sinful by God. God becomes responsible for making Adam and Eve sinful. Second, if sinfulness is part of the definition of humanity, then when we are glorified in the new heavens and new earth, and are sinless, we shall no longer be human!

The atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell argued that it was wicked of Jesus to threaten men with hell. He was simply bullying people, said Russell, and it is cruel to browbeat men with a threat of eternal fire. Well, this would be true if there were no such thing as hell. But suppose that there is? Suppose hell is real? In that case, the most loving thing Jesus could do would be to warn men day and night to flee the wrath to come. Since the Bible clearly teaches that there is a hell of eternal torment, certainly Jesus was not being mean in telling people about it!

Why did Jesus have to be sinless? Our salvation has two aspects to it. First, our sins were put upon Jesus Christ and He took the punishment that we deserve. Second, however, Jesus’ perfect obedience and righteousness were given to us, so that we are made righteous in the eyes of God the Father. Apart from this, we could not be saved.

Attempt to understand today some of the staggering implications of Christ’s sinlessness. He had no sin of commission or omission; no sin in thought, word, deed, or intention. Compare your life and actions to Christ’s and renew your dependence on Him alone.

The Deity of Jesus

“Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7).

The New Testament presents many arguments for the full deity of Jesus Christ. Today let’s look at a few of them. One of the most important is that Jesus forgave sins, and this is something only God can do. In Mark 2 we read that Jesus said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” The Jews knew that this meant He was claiming to be God, and Jesus did not dispute them: “The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” He said (Mark 2:5–10).

Shortly thereafter Jesus claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28). Since the Sabbath was an ordinance set up by God at creation (Genesis 2:1–3), only God Himself could be Lord of the Sabbath. One of the most important lines of evidence for the deity of Jesus is that He accepted worship. The Jews were extremely careful not to give worship to anything or anyone except God, and in the Ten Commandments, all forms of idolatry were strictly prohibited. When Thomas saw the risen Christ, however, he cried “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). Jesus did not rebuke him, but accepted his worship.

Angels also worship Jesus Christ. The author of Hebrews says that Jesus is the Son of the Father (Hebrews 1:5), and then writes this: “And again, when God brings His Firstborn into the world, He says, ‘Let all God’s angels worship Him’ ” (v. 6). The worship Jesus receives is in complete contrast to the angels, of whom it is said, “He makes His angels winds, His servants flames of fire,” because “are not all angels ministering spirits?” (Hebrews 1:7, 14). Angels are servants, but the Son is God Himself.

Finally for today, consider what we find in John 8:58–59: “ ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ At this, they picked up stones to stone Him.” Jesus was using the Old Testament name of God: I AM THAT I AM. Each time in John’s gospel that Jesus said, “I am,” He was claiming to be God.

The gospel of John has the most specific references to Christ’s diety—every chapter attests to it. Mark as many as you can in your Bible.

History and Faith

"He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him"

(John 1:10).

Nineteenth-century liberal thought was highly anti-supernatural, and the liberal theologians of that era sought to strip away all the miracles and wonders of the story of Jesus as we find it in the New Testament. They wanted to present Jesus as some kind of great moral teacher, not as someone who claimed to be the incarnate Son of God. They held that the way to understand what Jesus was all about is to study what he had to say about the kingdom of God. In their understanding, the kingdom is here and now, working itself out in history. It is an evolutionary kingdom, not a supernatural one, in which men are getting better under the moral influences of Jesus’ teachings.

In the early days of the twentieth century, Albert Schweitzer published a devastating critique of this viewpoint. Schweitzer pointed out that the New Testament clearly presents the kingdom of God as a supernatural and catastrophic event that breaks into history from eternity. This is what Jesus announced, said Schweitzer, not some moral rearmament programme. Schweitzer went on to say that Jesus was disappointed when the kingdom did not come and that He died in despair on the cross. Schweitzer himself turned to pantheism.

C. H. Dodd replied to this that Schweitzer was right about the kingdom’s being a supernatural event, but wrong in thinking that it did not arrive. Dodd said that the kingdom fully came in Jesus’ day. He pointed to the miracles of casting out demons, the Resurrection, Ascension, sending of the Spirit, and destruction of Jerusalem. On the cross Jesus cried, “It is accomplished!” Dodd’s view is called “realized eschatology,” and it means that the kingdom came completely in the first century.

Orthodox Christianity teaches there is an “already” and a “not yet” aspect of God’s kingdom. It is supernatural, it is present, and it will yet be fully realized. Only when Christ returns will the kingdom be inaugurated in its fullness.

The same tension between the already and not yet is true of our salvation and sanctification. God has begun a good work and will complete it. Until He does, ask Him for personal diligence, hope, and much growth in Christian grace.

Why is Doctrine Important?

Although apostolic doctrine was central to the life of the earliest churches, this centrality has not always been easy to preserve. Indeed, many of the great reforming moments that came later were really moments of recovery. Lost ways of doctrinal thinking and lost biblical doctrines were retrieved and made central once again. The reason for the church’s rather checkered history in this regard is quite simple: the content of this doctrine, as well as its function in the life of the church, is at the heart of the church’s spiritual warfare.

In the churches of John’s day, both “the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6) were present. They are today, too. The Spirit of truth was heard in the apostolic teaching. Now it is heard through Scripture and through those who teach and expound that Scripture accurately. The spirit of error lives on in false teachers. The Spirit of truth and the spirit of error each have their respective audiences.

The false teachers troubling the Colossians, Paul says, were “promoting self-made religion” (Col. 2:23), conveyed in purely “human precepts and teachings” (Col. 2:22). It was false doctrine, an alternative to what is true. Nevertheless, it seemed wise. Others in that kind of audience are attracted to what is erroneous because of their “itching ears” (2 Tim. 4:3). They have a taste, even a need, for what is new and exciting (cf. Acts 17:21). And they cannot stand biblical truth. They will not tolerate “sound teaching” (2 Tim. 4:3; cf. 1 Tim. 1:6). Their criterion for accepting any teaching is not how well it accords with what the apostles taught or what we now have in Scripture, but how pleasing it is to them personally.

Perhaps there are some in this kind of audience who do not see the falsehood in false teaching because they are immature. They lack discernment. They are unstable in their understanding. Paul cautions us that we must “no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14; cf. Heb. 5:11–14).

Behind it all, though, are the dark designs of Satan. In life, his temptations are of many kinds and reach us in many different ways. With respect to what we should believe, some of these temptations come to us directly. There may be times, for example, when we doubt the truth of Scripture. Other temptations, though, come through false teachers. Paul says that in “later times” some people will slip away from their doctrinal foundations. Yet he immediately speaks of this not as some future yet to come but as a present reality already being experienced. Those giving up on apostolic teaching were, instead, “devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1; cf. 2 Tim. 3:1–17). Likewise, he worried that the Thessalonians, whom he had been unable to visit again, had given up on their faith—that is, the doctrine and practice they had been taught—because “somehow the tempter had tempted you” (1 Thess. 3:5; cf. 2:18). The reason Satan so tempts Christians is that biblical doctrine and its functioning are on the front line of his conflict with God.

Satan’s strategy, then, is to oppose, subvert, and mute the content of biblical doctrine and dislodge it from its place in the church’s life. God, though, has placed in the Christian’s hand a weapon for defense. It is the very truth under attack. It is what Paul calls the “belt of truth” and “sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 6:14, 17)—the Bible. These are parts of the Christian’s armor.

This explains a series of admonitions given in the NT that aim to protect the Bible’s doctrinal truth and secure its function in Christian life. Timothy must keep a close watch on himself and what he believes. He must persist in the truth of the apostolic doctrine. He is to “follow” this doctrine, that is, hold on to it, and “guard” it (2 Tim. 1:13–14). This is the “good [or beautiful] deposit” (2 Tim. 1:14). It is to be guarded as one would a precious jewel. It was “entrusted” to Timothy as it has been to us (1 Tim. 6:20). We are to “stand firm and hold to the traditions” (2 Thess. 2:15). Perhaps the image in Paul’s mind is that of a ship rolling and tossing in a storm and of sailors holding on to the sides or rigging to avoid being washed overboard. We must pay close attention to what has been taught, lest we drift away (Heb. 2:1). This original, apostolic teaching, and our confidence in it, must be held “firm to the end” (Heb. 3:14; cf. 1 John 2:24).

Christians, in other words, stay within the Bible’s doctrinal parameters. They are to persist in this doctrine, follow it, guard it, stand firm in it, and hand it on intact. They do not venture outside of it, for that is where faith becomes shipwrecked (1 Tim. 1:19–20). They resist its alternatives. They know this truth is entirely sufficient for life despite uncertainties and suffering. Later, of course, this truth was formulated into the Protestant principle of sola Scriptura.

It is the Bible’s truth that sustains, strengthens, and guides us. This is why Paul speaks of it as he does. It is, he says, made up of “sound words” (2 Tim. 1:13). It is “sound teaching” (2 Tim. 4:3) and “sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1; 1:9). It is in accord with the “sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Tim. 6:3). This word, translated here as sound, is used also of physical health. Writing to Gaius, John prays that Gaius will be in “good health” (3 John 2). We encounter the same language in the Gospels. The man with a withered hand was healed so that the useless hand became “healthy like the other” (Matt. 12:13). People marveled when they saw Christ’s miracles, for they saw “the crippled healthy” (Matt. 15:31).

These references to “sound” teaching and doctrine, then, are a reminder to us that from such teaching the church’s strength arises. From it comes its health. It is what reverses spiritual ills and, sometimes, even deep paralysis. It is what makes churches whole. It is what lays the foundation for their vitality as well as their longevity. This is why biblical doctrine is important. This is why it is essential.

Moral Revolution and the Seventh Commandment

What has happened to the #MeToo movement which followed the Harvey Weinstein controversy? It certainly gained huge prominence and publicly exposed the abuse that predators wanted to keep hidden. It was vitally important to hear such behavior vilified. It was also refreshing to hear about any limits to our culture’s licentiousness. And yet it was only a matter of time before a backlash of liberal opinion re-asserted the “freedoms” of the sexual revolution. The liberty for anyone to do whatever they please. But we don’t seem to be hearing as much about it as we did. Was it just a moral panic in which the media has lost interest? Has the anti-#MeToo backlash won? But we need to recognize that the discovery of a moral sensitivity did not go remotely far enough. Our culture’s media and entertainment builds on abuse and promotes exploitation and objectification. No one seemed ready to acknowledge this. We desperately need a real moral revolution in relation to the seventh commandment.

Christ showed how the seventh commandment reaches into our hearts and covers our eyes (Matthew 5:28). The Westminster Larger Catechism refers to this in expounding the seventh commandment. It speaks of this commandment forbidding “all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections”. It mentions other ways in which our senses may be defiled. Finally, it includes “all other provocations to, or acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others.”

None of these are matters one would prefer to handle but our current culture requires it. To avoid giving the Scripture’s clear teaching on the matter is to expose many to the most dangerous temptations. James Durham refers to this when he says that, due to our corrupt nature, it is hard to speak or hear of these things in a holy way. Both holiness and wisdom are necessary therefore in case we break this commandment even while speaking or hearing about it. It is necessary to mention it, however, because this sin is so rife and the Holy Spirit has considered it necessary to speak of it in Scripture. Indeed it is covered by a particular and distinct commandment by itself. Our most holy and blessed Lord Jesus Himself commented on it in Matthew 5:28. This makes it a necessary consideration.

Durham also demonstrates that “these abominations are not restricted to the outward act but extend further”. There are many ways in which people commit this sin. It is not pleasant but it cannot be ignored.

1. In Our Hearts

Christ calls a man lusting after a woman committing adultery in his heart (Matthew 5:28). There are various degrees in this according to the extent to which it goes, the reception it gets and other similar circumstances. It is still reckoned by God to be heart-adultery and is called burning (1 Corinthians 7:9 and Romans 1:27). It is exceedingly loathsome to the Lord and hurtful to the inner man. This is so even when men neither resolve nor intend acting on it. They become guilty by not abhorring these imaginations but allowing them to roll in their thoughts (beware of this even in considering the matter now). If the inward fire is allowed to burn it often breaks out into a visible flame. The burning in 1 Corinthians 7:9 does, of course, differ from the burning mentioned in Romans 1:27, but we cannot enter into that matter just now.

2. In Our Senses

Men are guilty of this wickedness when they allow their outward senses sinfully to pursue what they want to. Thus, “eyes full of adultery” are spoken of in 2 Peter 2:14. A lustful look is adultery (Matthew 5:28) and Job says that he made a covenant with his eyes not to look upon a woman (Job 31:1). Thus also seeing as well as delighting in obscene pictures and visual performances cannot do anything except defile someone.

The ears are defiled by hearing and listening to an obscene and filthy discourse. They are defiled by listening to drunken, unclean or light and immodest love songs. Touch is defiled with embracing and the mouth with kissing others. Such are spoken of in Proverbs 7:13: “she caught him and kissed him”. It is not suitable to go into this further but much guilt is contracted in this way which is scarcely noticed or mourned over.

3. In Our Gestures

People may become guilty of breaking this commandment in their gestures. They may be evidence of this vileness or make people more inclined to it. There may be indecent postures contrary to polite behavior and godliness. See what is spoken about a wicked person in Proverbs 6:13-14 and Isaiah 3:16. This is the opposite of walking honestly and decently as commended in Romans 13:13. and a carnal wantonness reproved.

4. In Our Words

People become exceedingly guilty of this evil by lewd and obscene speech. But this sin should not be even named (Ephesians 5:3). In the same way, we should avoid reading salacious and licentious love songs or books because this is as though we were gathering ideas about such a subject. There are also ways of taunting and reproaching one another in kinds of communications that corrupt good behavior. Also guilty are “filthiness”, “foolish talking” and inappropriate “jesting” (Ephesians 5:3-4). This is especially so if it is laughing at the expense of someone who has fallen in some act of filthiness (or anything else that comes close to something like this, see Ephesians 4:24 and 5:3-4 etc)

5. In Our Company

We can fall into this sin by being with light, vain and loose company in a close and unnecessary way. This is more especially true when we keep company with such in private. This is not only an appearance of evil and a snare to that but also evil and loose in itself. It is condemned by the apostle in Romans 13:13. Solomon urges men not to come near the door of such a woman’s house, much less to enter it (Proverbs 5:8).

6. In Our Attitude

People fall into this sin by a carelessness, immodesty and a lack of appropriate shamefacedness etc. Or by any other way in which they give over the reins to the loose, licentious, sensual impulse they have within.

Conclusion

Wouldn’t there be a moral revolution in the Church and in the lives of believers themselves if we were to take these things seriously? Have we allowed the immodest culture around us to shape our attitudes, thoughts, and behavior in a way that allows room for this sin to flourish? The seventh commandment has a positive side too: it is about preserving and promoting purity. Purity “in body, mind, affections, words, and behaviour…in ourselves and others” (Larger Catechism). To do this we need to make use of the grace that is in Christ and cultivate fellowship with Him. It is in “putting on the Lord Jesus Christ” that we avoid making provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts (Romans 13:14).