The antidote to our pride and sloth

"The more sinful you discover yourself to be, the more you realize the radical nature of God's grace. The more radical you see His grace, the more you are freed to recognize your weaknesses and shortcomings without fear. And the more you see those, the sweeter grace becomes and the more you want to boldly live and share it. Thus the gospel creates in you an increasingly intense humility and confidence in God. Without the gospel, humility and confidence only increase at each other's expense. But in the gospel, humility and confidence increase together."

- Tim Keller, Church Planter Training Manual, p. 189

Insight into Adam's sin

"Adam's failure in the task with which he was commissioned includes his permitting entrance into the garden to an antagonistic and unclean being. Although Genesis 2-3 does not explicitly say that Adam's 'ruling and subduing' task was to guard the garden from the satanic snake, this is likely conceptually in mind in light of the following two considerations: (1) the commission in Gen. 1:26-28 to subdue and rule over every creature that 'creeps on the earth'; (2) Eden was a temple in which Adam was placed as a living image of God and as God's priest who was to guard the sanctuary from unclean creatures. Thus, Adam did not rule well because he did not guard the garden, allowing entrance to a foul snake that brought sin, chaos and disorder in to the sanctuary and into Adam and Eve's lives. He allowed the serpent to 'rule over' him rather than 'ruling over' it and, as an obedient priest, casting it out of the garden."

- Gregory Beale, New Testament Theology, pp. 45-46

A comment on commentaries

As a Christian grows in his or her knowledge of Scripture, a desire to mine the wealth of the biblical text often compels one to read beyond the text itself, searching out commentaries written by the most theologically accurate and scholarly keen minds. The array of Bible commentaries available for each of the Bible's sixty-six books is dizzying. How to know which to read? Which are most reliable? Which are a worthwhile investment?

Recently, a new website providing answers to these questions emerged which I've found personally very helpful. Hopefully, you will too. You can find it here.

Preaching at Trinity

These days you never know what you're going to find in a sermon when you visit a church. Some are mostly inspiring stories designed to motivate mere behavior. Others may be dry, theological lectures which rarely connect with people's real lives. Some sermons reference the Bible frequently, and others may give it a nod but little more. Some thoughts by Ed Stetzer, I believe, capture how we seek to approach preaching here at Trinity and what our listeners can expect:

"For a sermon to be genuinely biblical, the text [of the Bible] must set the agenda as the foundation of the message. Scripture should be central. Expository preaching [i.e. preaching based on a biblical text] does not make statements and then look to the Bible for support; it begins by examining the Scriptures." (Planting Missional Churches, p. 272)

I agree. A sermon is not biblical unless the Bible itself sets the sermon's agenda. But that is not all. After the biblical text is explained, it needs to be illustrated, helping those listening understand what the God-driven truth its revealing 'looks like' in their world. Finally, it needs to be applied in a compelling way which both unmasks our sin and drives us in hope to Jesus for forgiveness and holy power to more fully embrace His glorious purpose in making us.

When these three components converge: explanation of a biblical text, illustration of the text in contemporary terms and application of the text's gospel truth to our lives, then you have a truly biblical sermon.

Becoming spiritually legible in 2012

As the father of growing sons who are presently learning to read better than write, on a number of occasions they have written me a note or card which I simply can't decipher. They want to communicate in English, but based on the piece of paper before me, they might as well be from Borneo due to the illegibility of their hand-writing.

Though we all want to be able to communicate by way of our language, as Christians we should be even more concerned to 'communicate Christ' through our lives. Ralph Venning, in his book The Sinfulness of Sin, reminds us that one of sin's dementing effects is how it makes us spiritually illegible to those around us. He writes, "Righteousness and holiness were stamped on man's soul, but sin has blotted this image and superscription, which once told from whence it came, and to whom it belonged, so that man is fallen short of the glory of being God's." (45)

In other words, when God originally made Adam and Eve, prior to the Fall, they were untarnished mirror images of God in which it was easy to 'read' God's glory stamped on them. The Fall 'smudged' God's glorious image stamped on us, making it harder to read. But, by God's grace, regeneration (new life through faith in Christ ) begins the work of cleaning up the smudge of sin so that our lives once again become spiritually legible to the glory of God.

The ultimate work of 'divine legibility' in us is God's, but there is an active role each of us is called to play as well. Every time we choose to sin, we are re-smudging the image of God, making us spiritually illegible to a watching world. But, every time we trust God and live by His righteous Word, we partner with the Spirit in His supernatural work of clearing away the smudge of the Fall so we become increasingly 'legible', allowing others to easily read us as Christ's ambassadors on earth, trophies of His grace.

I don't put much stock in New Year's resolutions, but as 2012 begins, let's pursue greater spiritual legibility by saying 'no' to sin and 'yes' to righteousness. Perhaps you can think of some specific patterns of sin which which made your life in 2011 less spiritually illegible. Today is a new beginning to partner with the Holy Spirit and make choices which will make the label 'Christian' be more legible than ever. Then, not only will God be glorified as we more clearly mirror His glory as we were designed, others will be able to read the gospel stamped on our lives, inviting them, too, to become living signposts pointing to heaven in clearly legible script for all to read.

Gifts for the serious Christian reader

Still need a Christmas present for a thoughtful Christian in your family or circle of friends? Let me suggest a few. On Sunday I mentioned John Owen's master-work equipping Christians to fight sin well: Overcoming Sin and Temptation. Similar, but more accessible, is Ralph Venning's The Sinfulness of Sin. Both are unparalleled in helping us understand sin, hate it and go after it to put it to death.

In the world of theology, some excellent books have been written this year. Two 2011 books I would highly recommend are Michael Horton's The Christian Faith. It is similar to Wayne Grudem's famous work but more integrated and personally written. Greg Beale also recently released A New Testament Biblical Theology. Beale's work, more than any other, has shaped my understanding of Revelation and how Old and New Testament eschatology fit together. I just started this book and am loving it.

Finally, if your friend loves books about the Cross and the gospel, let me recommend George Smeaton's The Apostle's Doctrine of the Atonement. Smeaton was a Scotch theologian in the 19th century and plumbed the depths of the atonement themes in the New Testament more than any other I've seen. If you don't take my recommendation for it, just consider that this is Jerry Bridges' favorite book. Enough said.

Happy reading!

Prophetic interpretive clues

Last Sunday's presentation of the picture of covenant blessing poured out on and through God's people in Micah four may have presented a new way of reading Bible prophecy for some of you. Though we may initially be inclined to interpret the image of a more glorious Temple (4:1), for instance, in terms of a literal, future building in the Middle East, reading such prophecies covenantally reveals a much richer fulfillment not only through Israel's return from the exile but also Christ's first and second comings as well as the ministry and mission of the church.

In his commentary on Micah, Bruce Waltke provides six interpretive clues for helping us understand and apply Old Testament prophecies of covenantal blessing. Hopefully, you'll find them helpful in your own study of Old Testament prophecy.

1. The NT taught that such prophecies found their fulfillment in Christ and His church (Luke 24:44, Acts 3:24, I Peter 1:10, etc.)

2. Prophets represent the new age under the symbols of the old age. Prophecies about events prior to Pentecost find a material fulfillment. With Christ's ascension from earth to heaven and the outpouring of his Holy Spirit from heaven to earth, and with the transformation of his body from an earthly physical body to a heavenly spiritual body, the earthly material symbols were done away and the spiritual reality portrayed by the symbols superseded the earthly shadows.

3. The plain, normal meaning of Old Testament worship primarily had in view the eternal heavenly realities behind the symbols. For example, the tabernacle was a pattern of the heavenly (Exodus 25:9, Hebrews 8:5) and through the pattern the priestly nation participated in the heavenly. In light of such passages as John 4:21-24, the Christian will set little value on the geography and regard it as a cultural adornment to a deeper and universal truth.

4. When Christ lowered heaven to earth, first at his advent and then at Pentecost, the otiose [obsolete] symbols were forever done away, leaving the reality unveiled - which was so much greater than the symbol (Hebrews 8:13, 9:26, 10:9).

5. To show the exceeding greatness of the future, the prophets supercharged the old symbols with larger-than-life imagery.

6. There is a temporal multidimensionality to these prophecies. They embrace a beginning of fulfillment in Israel's restoration from the exile, a victorious fulfillment in the church age stretching from Christ's first advent to his second coming and a consummation in the eschatological new heaven and new earth when Christ's Kingdom becomes coextensive with creation. [Some would add a future, Millennial reign of Christ and His church to these dimensions of biblical fulfillment].

- Bruce Waltke, MICAH, 678-679

Learning to fight well

In Romans 6:12 Paul says that based on Christ's death and resurrection in our place we have both the power and incentive to make double war against sin and temptation. He writes, "Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions."

All of us can think of temptations which seem to dog us, enticing us to sin against God again and again. We may make some show of sorrow, regret and resolve not to do it again, but often, before we know it, we're back embracing that hateful sin.

According to the Puritan theologian, John Owen, our weak warfare, in part, lies in the fact that we fail to war against the very root of the sin. He writes,

"A man may beat down the bitter fruit from an evil tree until he is weary; while the root abides in strength and vigor, the beating down of the present fruit will not hinder [the tree] from bringing forth more fruit. This is the folly of some men; they set themselves with all earnestness and diligence against the appearing eruption of lust, but, leaving the principle and root untouched, perhaps searched out, they make but little or no progress in this work of [sin] mortification [i.e. killing]." - Of The Mortification of Sin, p. 76.

What kind of war are you making against the lusts of your mind, heart and flesh today? Are you merely going after the superficial fruit (e.g. resolving to stay away from Christmas goodies for fear of gluttony or the movie theater for fear of mental lust), or are you going to the root of your temptations (confessing your deep-seated rage at not being God and not having a world which revolves around your self-gratification)? In our fight against sin, let's target the source, make war against the root and apply theological herbicide to the temptations which lure us from the heart of God.

A testimony of God's grace

This week I will be quoting briefly from JC Ryle, that great English preacher of the 19th century whose few published books are worth more to me than a room full of gold. In his Autobiography, Ryle looks back to the days of his conversion in his early 20's and writes these inspiring words:

"It may interest my children to know what were the points in religion by which my opinions at this period of my life became strongly marked, developed and decided, and what were the principles which came out into strong, clear and distinct relief when this great change came over me … Nothing I can remember to this day appeared to me so clear and distinct as my own sinfulness, Christ's preciousness, the value of the Bible, the absolute necessity of coming out of the world, the need of being born again and the enormous folly of the whole doctrine of baptismal regeneration. All these things … seemed to flash upon me like a sunbeam in the winter of 1837 and have stuck in my mind from that time down to this. People may account for such a change as they like; my own belief is that … it was what the Bible calls "conversion" or "regeneration". Before that time I was dead in sins and on the high road to hell, and from that time I have become alive and had a hope of heaven. And nothing to my mind can account for it, but the free sovereign grace of God."

May it be the same for us.

Facing suicide in God's family

Tragically, one of our brothers in Christ last night took his own life. Trinity Church, and Minot Air Force Base, is in mourning and the Kingdom of God on earth is bereft of a precious friend. Since the information may not yet have been released to his family, I am keeping his name in confidence. Nevertheless, you who knew him likely know of the loss. How are we, as believers, to think through and process the suicide of a fellow believer? It's a situation for which we are rarely prepared. One of the most helpful responses to the suicide of a believer was written more than twenty years ago by John Piper. I reproduce it here in full. For you who grieve today, may it bring you insight, peace and hope.

We need firm biblical ground under our feet at a time like this. And so I want to try to take the Bible, God’s Word, and unfold five truths that I hope will give you a firm place to stand in the coming days.

1. Saints sometimes feel so bad that they want to die.
2. It is sin to fulfill that desire by taking your own life.
3. The only way sin can be forgiven is in our relationship to Jesus Christ by faith.
4. Saving faith can be so weak that the heart gives way to grievous sin.
5. Therefore let this death not be in vain: let it make us utterly committed to overcome the weakness of faith that cost him his life.

1. Saints Sometimes Feel So Bad That They Want to Die

Moses was under tremendous pressure from the people to take them back to Egypt. They were dissatisfied with his leadership. And God himself had sent fire against the people. Moses says, “I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness” (Numbers 11:14–15).

Elijah had just endured the incredible strain of single-handedly opposing 400 priests of the idol Baal and the people of Israel and the king. God vindicated his faith, and he ran exuberantly for miles in front of the king’s chariot. Then he heard that the king’s wife, Jezebel, vowed to kill him. In his fear and exhaustion he went into the wilderness, sat down under a broom tree, and said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers” (1 Kings 19:4).

The prophet Jonah displayed one of the most selfish attitudes of all the prophets in being irritated that God had mercy on the pagan city of Nineveh. And God rebuked him with a desert wind. “When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, ‘It is better for me to die than to live’” (Jonah 4:8).

Listen to the account of a young Christian graduate student.

Although I have always been reasonably healthy, insomnia has plagued me from adolescence until now. Only those who are unable to sleep at night can appreciate the distressing toll this ailment takes on one’s life: the omnipresent sense of fatigue, the susceptibility to irritation, and the grossness of an unrefreshed mind. All through the university I struggled against a never ending torpor, mental and animal. Each night the disquiets of mind prevailed over weariness. And the more the tensions of graduate work mounted, the more I fought off the effects of insufficient sleep. One Friday afternoon, as I prepared for the spring language examinations, I emotionally exploded. Having lost sleep with such regularity, I lacked courage to face the future. My mind was like a mass of live rubber: continually expanding, it threatened to divide down the center. This would leave me powerless to cope with responsibilities in the university . . . Everything I conceived became a burden; every anticipated obligation threatened to impale me. Even so ordinary a responsibility as conversing with others overwhelmed me with consternation. Nor dare I conceal that fact that even suicide took on a certain attractiveness.

This graduate student went on to become a great professor of theology. He wrote books that are among the most penetrating and moving I have ever read. But in the end he was found dead of an overdose of sleeping pills. The coroner wrote, "I find death undetermined whether Accidental or Suicidal." But those closest to him conceded that there was an addiction to the sleeping pills and that this was connected to his mental condition and "that dependency finally proved his undoing." If this beloved professor intentionally took too many pills, it would not prove he was unregenerate.

Saints sometimes feel so bad that they want to die.

2. It Is Sin to Fulfill That Desire by Taking Your Own Life

Committing suicide is sin. For three reasons:

1. First, it is disobedience to the command of God, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). And disobedience to God’s commands is sin.
2. Second, it is presumption upon God’s sovereign prerogatives to give and take life. God alone can create a human person, and therefore personhood belongs to God. We have no right to dispose of ourselves or others as we please. The Lord has sole rights over what he has made. Murder and suicide intrude on the sacred ground where God alone is the giver and taker.
3. Third, it is failure to trust in God for the help needed to survive and cope. And the Bible says that whatever is not from faith is sin (Romans 14:23).

Therefore, we are on firm biblical ground when we say: it is sin take your own life.

3. The Only Way Sin Can Be Forgiven Is in Our Relationship to Jesus Christ by Faith

Every one of us is a sinner. It doesn’t matter how many “good” things we do or have done. We have dishonored God by the meagerness of love to God and the shallowness of our trust in God and the inconsistency of our obedience to God. If we don’t find a way for our sins to be forgiven, we will be cut off from God forever, because God is holy and cannot look with favor on sin.

Nor can he sweep sin under the rug as though the dishonoring of his holy name by our sin were of no consequence. It is of infinite consequence. And that’s why God sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world to die for sinners.

The prophet Isaiah foresaw this great sending of the suffering Messiah.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4–6)

Jesus Christ came into the world and fulfilled this great Jewish prophecy by dying on the cross and becoming a curse for those who trust in him. “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

His apostle Peter said, “To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43). So the issue for every one of us is: do we have a relationship of faith with Jesus Christ so that our sins are forgiven? It is the most precious gift in the world. And there is no other way for a sinner to get to God than through the shed blood of God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ—by trusting in his name.

No amount of good works can earn God’s salvation. And no amount of bad works disqualifies a person from God’s converting grace. A thief hung on a cross next to Jesus as he was dying. His life was one total waste of sin and unbelief. And in that last moment his eyes were opened and he threw himself on the mercy of the King of the universe and said, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus, with all the sovereignty of one who would not be defeated by death, said, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42–43).

In the eleventh hour a lifetime of sin and unbelief can be forgiven by faith in Jesus Christ.

4. Saving Faith Can Be So Weak That the Heart Gives Way to Grievous Sin

Or to put it another way, those who are truly forgiven for their sins and accepted by God forever can give way temporarily to temptation and fall into sin.

The biblical evidence for this is:

• The seventh chapter of Romans describes how Christians struggle with the remaining corruption in our lives: Romans 7:15: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”
• Philippians 3:12: “Not that I . . . am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”
• 1 John 1:8: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive we ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
• In Matthew 6:12 Jesus says we should not only pray for daily bread but for daily forgiveness too: “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.”

Saving faith can be so weak at times that the heart gives way to grievous sin.

But this does not mean that the saving relationship with Christ goes in and out of existence with each of our sins. When a believer yields to temptation, his faith in Christ is weak and the enticements of sin and the power of Satan get the upper hand. But there is a great difference between Satan getting a temporary upper hand and Satan being the Lord of life. There is a great difference between yielding with resistance to an evil that I hate to do, and doing that evil as part of the usual pattern of my life.

The evidence of the Master’s hand is the warp and woof of the fabric, not the snags in our thread.

In the years of your friend’s unbelief he was like a captive in a concentration camp far behind the lines of Satan’s territory. Like all of us at one time or another, he had given himself over to the side of the enemy by refusing to trust in Christ. The result was a kind of numbness toward spiritual things.

Then one day, it appears that Jesus set himself to penetrate the lines of Satan’s territory, break through the fences of the concentration camp, and shock him out of his stupor of unbelief.

But as they were leaving the concentration camp, the sirens went off, the ensuing combat was fierce. The sword was knocked out of his hand and the shield slipped on his arm. And the deceptive dart of temptation sank so deep into his heart that he fell in the combat.

And where was Jesus? We believe he caught him when he fell and carried him home.

And if we say to Jesus, “You should have protected him while he was escaping,” I think he would say, “My ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. You can no more grasp my wartime strategies than a child can read the graphs of the Chief of Staff. And remember, if I hadn’t broken through the prison of his unbelief, you would have never seen him again.”

5. Therefore Let This Death Not Be in Vain: Let It Make Us Utterly Committed to Overcome the Enemy That Brought Him to the Grave

• Give his death worth and meaning by letting it make you hate sin and Satan and unbelief.
• Let it make you blood-earnest about spiritual things.
• Let it strip you of unbelief.
• Let it be his last loud cry against the dangers of the powers of darkness.

What could honor him more than to let his death be a covenant between you and him, sealed with his own blood,

• that you, from this day forth, will fight with all your might the enemy that brought him to his grave;
• that you will wear the whole armor of God; and
• that you will take the sword of the Spirit, the Bible, and practice with that sword so regularly, so diligently, so earnestly that you become valiant for the Savior who did not leave him blind, broke the prison walls of his unbelief . . . and caught him when he fell.