Agonizomai

James White on The New Testament Documents

2009-11-14T00:01:00.001-05:00

Here again is Dr. James White - this time in an interview on the program "Ancient Paths". This material is very technical for the average reader, but it does contain some things that will help in seeing how the New Testament documents came down to us, how reliable they are and how apostates, heretics and atheists never cease to attack with what are often largely proven to be specious arguments.

Men like Dr. White labor in the deep dark dungeons of textual criticism, language interpretation and apologetic debate because the light must shine in every dark corner of this world, bringing honor and glory to Christ. I couldn't do it. Maybe you can't do it. But God has raised faithful men who can. Here's one of them...

Heb 3:1-4 - Christ the Creator of All

2009-11-13T00:01:00.006-05:00

Heb 3:1-4 - Christ the Creator of All

Heb 3:1-4 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house. 3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)

On account of all that has been said so far, then those who are holy brothers on account of God’s calling (that is, on account of his effectual call) ought to have this Jesus foremost in their minds. It is this Jesus who is the true and eternal high priest of all the chosen ones. He is missionary and messenger, establisher and founder, priest and sacrifice of and to all that are in Him through faith. We confess - it is our confession - but we confess what He has accomplished in our behalf. We confess, we witness, to His finished, satisfactory and exemplary atoning work. He is both priest and propitiation, as stated in verses 17-18 of the last chapter. He intercedes on our behalf and He turns away the fierce wrath of God upon our sin forever because He is eternally accepted as our substitute.

There are parallels. There are always parallels and figures and types and symbols. The former analogies were given so that when the perfect of which they spoke actually came, He would be recognized for what He is. The sacrificial system, the priestly system, the kingdom - all these pointed with historical facts to the Person they prefigured. It’s almost as if history was a sort of throw-away draft of the final product in Jesus Christ. I say "almost," because God is more than able to make history meaningful on one level and the Son’s incarnation into history meaningful on another, infinitely higher, level.

Moses was a "type" of Christ. He was appointed as the intermediary and the guardian of the God’s chosen nation. And, in his fallible human way, he was stunningly faithful in fulfilling the charge given to him by God. This, the nation of Israel always understood - giving honor and recognition to the greatness of the man in his service to God on their behalf. But what the writer is saying here is that Moses was but a mere shadow of He who was to come. The Christ was of an entirely different order, and his work was in a completely different dimension. Moses and Christ shared their humanity, but the Lord Jesus Christ was infinitely more than a mere human being. He was not less than human. He was not non-human. In his humanity he was not super-human. But he was eternal Son of Almighty God living in human flesh; not living in a human suit that had been somehow pulled over his eternal frame (if that were possible), but God living as fully human, having both natures simultaneously and completely.

The writer expresses it simply by casting Moses as the work of Christ’s hands and Christ as the creator of all things, including Moses. In other words, Moses is only a part of God’s creation and his faithfulness, great thought it was, was owed to his Creator and Redeemer. God made Moses faithful. Moses walked in it, but God chose, equipped, guided and upheld Moses throughout. Moses was, therefore, beholden to God for all that he was and did. He was, in fact, the humblest man that ever lived because he understood precisely what is being asserted here, namely - if it is good, then God did it.

The focus is upon Christ, as it should be. In Christ, the Living Word, God was at work reconciling the world to Himself - and in the process he was creating something heretofore unimagined. God spoke in the complete and completed incarnation of the Living Word - and it was. God spoke redemption, reconciliation, propitiation and regeneration in the Person and work of his Son and, just as in Genesis, it was so. But this focus is upon Christ as the fulfillment of all that was promised and foreshadowed in God’s dealings with Israel.

I think care needs to be taken with the concept of Christ having been "counted worthy" - a thought also found, for example in Revelation {Re 5:9,12}, though not expressed in the same words. Christ is certainly "counted worthy" by we who have been redeemed. Our eyes have been opened to His eternal worthiness, which He always possessed. His nature is and always was and will be "worthy" of all praise and honor and glory, but we have had our eyes opened to that by our redemption and rebirth.

There is also a sense in which I suppose that the Father counts the obedient life and death of His incarnate Son as "worthy" for the purpose for which it was given. Christ came for a purpose, fulfilled that purpose completely and, on account of that, He was counted worthy to be the eternal representative of (redeemed) humanity. His worth was expressed in human form and utterly human obedience on behalf of all who would believe in Him. He did not become more worthy in His divine essence, but He walked worthily in His humanity.

Christ’s perfectly obedient human life was infinitely valuable on account of the fact that it was God the Son living it. Moses’ imperfectly obedient ministry was valuable only insofar as God was at work in Him bringing about faithfulness in a fallen creature.

Justice and Love

2009-11-12T00:01:00.005-05:00

In Jesus the man, God is saying first and foremost, "I will die for what I AM." He is saying, "I will die rather than that my justice and holiness be compromised by my love, though I AM love." This is both profound and terrible, and if it does not answer all of our questions, at least it should stop our mouths.

Gleanings 16.111

Heb 2:14-18 - Christ - The Embodiment of Faith

2009-11-11T00:01:00.006-05:00

Heb 2:14-18 - Christ - The Embodiment of Faith

Heb 2:14-18 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

This section is largely an amplification of the last. We, the ones he came to save, are Adamic in nature. We share the same flesh. We are united in Adam and under the same condemnation as Adam, for in Adam all sinned. {Ro 5:12} It was for this reason that Christ took on sinful flesh. That means that he took on our exact form, with all of its tendencies and vulnerabilities. He had precisely the same natural urges, shared in the same sufferings and temptations through appeals to his bodily passions. But he was without sin. He was not only without sin, He was without original sin because He was not born of an Adamic father, but of God. His Adamic constitution came through his mother (a daughter of Adam) but his underlying nature (his hypostasis) came from His being God.

The writer is again showing the humanity of Christ while maintaining his deity. Now, I do not fully understand the nature of the Christ and neither does anyone else. It is a mystery, partly revealed, but into which we shall be looking for eternity. The baby in the manger was upholding the universe by the word of his power. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man {Luke 2:52} yet was all the time omniscient, omnipotent, perfect, unchangeable God.

Funk and Wagnall’s just doesn’t have a category for that. The church has called it the hypostatic union of two natures - man and God - in which Jesus was always fully God and fully man at one and the same time. Those born of the Spirit know this to be true even though they cannot fully articulate it. Deep calls out to deep. The Spirit who testifies to it in the Word, testifies also to us personally. But a man must be born again before he can truly see the kingdom of God. {John 3:3} Like all things of the spirit, it is a truth that can be apprehended intellectually without being received. {1Co 2:14}. In other words it is possible to be ever learning, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth.

The children that God has given to Christ (see previous verses) are all alike, sons of Adam. They share in his nature. They also share his mutability and mortality. Mutability was something that Adam always had, but mortality is something that arose only with the fall. By sin came death. Again, therefore, the explanation is that:

a) God gave children to Christ and

b) Christ came to save those children and

c) He did so by taking on a human form - mutable and mortal human form, just like those he came to save.

The purpose, then, of his coming was manifold, but it included dying, and by it destroying the one who had the power of death, namely Satan. But how does Satan hold the power of death? Isn’t God in charge of everything and isn’t God the ultimate power in the universe? And the answer is Luther’s answer - that “Even the devil is God’s devil.” Satan is permitted a certain leeway so that the purposes of God from eternity will be fulfilled. In Adam, man sold himself to Satan as Lord (though only God is truly Lord) and incurred the penalty of God. He became a child of the devil, spiritually dead, living death in a dying body until the final sentence of eternal death is pronounced at the end of the ages. "Dying you shall die" as the Hebrew saying literally speaks in Genesis 2:17, and which has the force of absolute certainty - "You shall surely die". Sin and rebellion must be punished. It is not optional. God, if He is truly Holy (and He is), must punish sin. He must hate sin. His wrath must be kindled against it, and against those who live in it - which is every person ever born, except the Son of God incarnate.

To sin is be in bondage to Satan. To do Satan’s will is to work death and judgment and condemnation and to incur the wrath of God, which results in eternal death. Eternal death is not annihilation, but everlasting separation from God in whom is life and light. Sin leads to hell and hell to the Lake of Fire. The daunting prospect of the death of the body, and its absolute certainty, carries with it a dread in the deepest part of men. Men fear death not because they will cease to exist, but because they know, deep inside, that they must meet their Maker and answer to Him for the deeds done in the body. Some atheists or pagan idolaters may say they do not fear death, but this only worsens their situation, making them fools who have suppressed the knowledge of the truth and of conscience, until they are wise in their own eyes but hard of heart when it comes to humility before God.

But how does the fear of death make men subject to lifelong slavery? You would think it would be the other way round - that a lifelong slavery to sin and the devil would make men subject to the fear of death. But that would be to ignore the hardening effects of unrepented sin. Apart from the gracious intervention of God all men harden their hearts, shut out the voice of conscience and stop their ears against the call of God’s universal moral law in their souls. Dead is dead. Men are dead in trespasses and sins.

But the fear of death to an unregenerate man is a call to inevitable extinction (if not judgment). It will drive him to seek to cram his life with pleasures and enjoyments and entertainment and diversions. It will move him towards lust for riches, security, acclaim, power and conquest. And why not? For when his inevitable death arrives he will want to have savored things to their fullest. “Eat, drink - for tomorrow we die!”

The problem is that all other people on earth are clamoring for the same things. They must all face their own mortality, too. And while they may not be sure what, if anything, lies beyond the grave, they nevertheless fear the unknown. The dread of death moves them to serve the flesh fervently, for they cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, being spiritually dead.

Mankind was made to serve. If he will not serve God and other human beings for God’s sake, then he must serve the devil and his own carnal propensities. There is no middle ground. But so depraved is the human heart that the idea of serving either God or the devil is unthinkable. Unregenerate man serves himself above all else but, in so doing, enslaves himself to the devil.

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God (v17). When it says that He was "made like" His brothers it does not mean that He was created, but rather that He was caused to be like them; He was conformed to their state, having previously existed in a different state.

The purpose of this conformity is clearly declared - that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God. This is the actual consummation of the foreshadowing and partial revelation of the office of High Priest among God’s chosen nation of Israel. The office pointed to He Who would encapsulate and manifest the final and complete meaning of High Priesthood for God’s chosen people. This is what He came to do, and why it was necessary for Him to become a member of the human race.

As a human being, He could empathize with all of our weaknesses and temptations - empathize, but not excuse. He could display mercy which was also the sort of mercy that warmly understands the frailty of the human disposition. And from that common position of frailty, He could demonstrate faithfulness to God in our behalf. Had He not been human, His representations would not have been acceptable in our behalf - and had He not also been God, He would not have been free from the taint of original sin (including a corrupt will) and so would have been unable to offer himself up as the perfect sacrifice, once for all.

I think it is important to see exactly how Christ was faithful, since faith is at the very core of Christianity. Remembering that Christ was fully human, it seems reasonable to see that the life He lived He lived by faith. He believed God. He believed He was God. He believed Himself to be both the cause of history, and to be the reason for history. He believed He was the Savior of the world and that salvation would be wrought by Him through His sufferings and through His own perfect faithful obedience to the Father.

This faith, rather than drawing power or authority from His human nature, rested completely in the Father. He trusted Him completely and, through living out this trust to the very end, actually became not just the author, but also the finisher of our faith. Our faith rests upon His. Our faith is found in Christ and from Christ. Our faithfulness depends entirely upon Him because His faithfulness is now ours. He fashioned it for us. We must walk in it, but we walk in it knowing and believing that it is He and He alone who justifies and upholds us.

Worthy of close attention also is that Christ’s office was for the service of God. It was not principally for the service of mankind. It was for the service of God by obediently serving mankind. Those who put man first in the equation (and there is no shortage of them in this age) inevitably end up distorting clear doctrines of the faith whenever the perceived interests of man and God diverge. For example, the clear Biblical teachings on predestination, election, judgment, wrath and punishment are all pushed to the back when it is believed that Christ came primarily to serve man instead of seeing that He came to serve God by serving men.

Before the world began, God foreknew, predestined and chose a certain people in Christ who would be with Him forever in eternity - just, holy and conformed to His image in every way. This necessarily implies that the others He passed over by not choosing them in Christ. It means that the fall of man was ordained by the decretive will of God and that redemption was not plan B, but was plan A from the very outset. This in turn means that, while God shows infinite condescension and mercy in saving some, He purposed from eternity to show His wrath and His justice upon others.

There is no escaping these truths for unbiased and humbled readers of God’s Word. But those who believe that God puts pity, sympathy, mercy or anything else towards mankind before the desire to see His own Name glorified (including all of His attributes - from grace and mercy all the way to holiness, justice and wrath) miss the point. God shows all of these things through His self-revelation in His Word, His Son, His church and His world.

However, for those upon whom His love was settled from eternity, the Son came for their redemption and to redeem them through identifying with them in their humanity so completely that He suffered as they suffered, yet as the just for the unjust. But in His suffering, He understood first hand as a man the temptations and the tribulations that we all suffer justly in this fallen world.

God of the Ages - Travis Doucette

2009-11-10T00:01:00.008-05:00

Well, my good friend and brother in Christ, Pastor Bruce, asked me to listen to this song. It was written by a young man named Travis Doucette, whose family is in long-time attendance at Bruce's church.

I'm putting it up here for anyone to listen to, but I am doing so without comment or embellishment. Modern worship music isn't something of which I have a great understanding, nor for which I have a great affinity. It grates on my traditions a lot. As you will have noticed, there are a few of the more modern things that I almost reluctantly endorse - (and others I damn with faint praise [/smile]) but I am hardly an impartial judge.

Those of you who are more attuned to, and tolerant of, modern stuff can listen and tell me what you think. If you do, maybe I'll tell you what I think, too. The link is to the actual artist performing the song and it will open in the Agonizomai native flash player; the YouTube version immediately below it is a performance by members of the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, VA. (closely associated with Liberty University).

God of the Ages - Travis Doucette

Heb 2:10-13 - Christ - Suffered Willingly and Deliberately

2009-11-09T00:01:00.009-05:00

Heb 2:10-13 - Christ - Suffered Willingly and Deliberately

Heb 2:10-13 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." 13 And again, "I will put my trust in him." And again, "Behold, I and the children God has given me."

For it was fitting... This is by way of an explanation of the condescension of Christ described in the preceding verses. "It was fitting" is the introduction of the readers to the idea of Christ’s total identification with those he came to save. He took on Himself humanity. He became a man, though He was fully God. He never gave up His godhood even though He put aside, for a time, His glory and (in a sense) His power in order to live completely as a man lives, yet without sin. He came in both active and passive obedience as representative man - just as Adam was representative man - in order to both expiate our guilt by suffering God’s eternal wrath in our stead, and forge a faith by which His righteousness could be counted as our very own.

In view of God’s eternal purposes, in view of His desire to glorify His Name, in view of the love with which He loved his own from eternity and purposed the redemption to be the means by which His glory would be magnified in the eyes of all creation - with these things in view, it was fitting, appropriate, apt, suitable, meet, the right thing, that Christ should not only take on human flesh, but that he should do so for the purpose of suffering.

Though he deserved not to suffer, and though there was none that could cause him to do so (for there is none greater than God that he might be compelled) yet nevertheless he so identified with his people that he condescended to make his Own suffering the means by which he would forge the salvation of those who deserved to suffer eternally. What love is this?! How this God is to be feared that he could devise, and would implement such a means of salvation! If he spared not his own Son how we ought to tremble before such wisdom, such wrath, such love and such absolute authority!

This is not something to be passed over lightly, this concept of Christ’s condescension and his identifying with the objects of his salvific love. It is a union. It is an eternal union forged upon the cross at the junction between God’s eternal love settled upon undeserving creatures of his own choice, and his eternal wrath upon their sin. If Christ were not fully human - if he was not the federal representative of elect humanity - if he did not live his entire life as a human being, by faith, in hope in the faithfulness and promises of God - then no one could possibly be saved. A man had to satisfy God. A true human being had to live a life totally honouring to the Father. Yet the value of that human life was infinite because of the nature of the Person who lived it. The Person who lived that fully human life was no less than God the Son.

It is in the Son, in Christ that salvation was wrought and is found. Don’t minimize the prepositions. "In" is not some ethereal or quirky way of expressing arcane mystical truth. It is actual union. Christ in us and we in him. It is indissoluble intimacy by the Spirit. Human union in marriage, even before the fall, stopped at emotional and physical oneness. It was, in the best sense of the word, something fleshly - Adamic. It was always, to some degree, experienced externally. This is certainly the case with fallen human relationships. Yet, even so, they do approximate or stand as analogies of what is to be enjoyed with God in the Spirit.

The same principles exist in both - principles of unity without loss of identity - of a union in which distinction is never lost. But union in and with Christ is vastly more than we could ever imagine in the here and now. Christ draws not only Himself and, with him, the Father, into this union - but also all the saints. There is community in which exists a unity by the spirit (God’s Spirit) composed of great diversity and infinite wonder and complexity.

All of this community, diversity, unity and intimacy was purposed by God and forged upon the cross in Christ, where it was made a reality and a certainty in the world of men, in the historical sense. Eternal things happened at Calvary and in the Incarnation in general. Unalterable and unutterable things. All things were being reconciled there in Christ - only some of which we now grasp but faintly.

But ... the one origin of which the writer speaks is not Adam. The writer is speaking of the common origin in the Spirit of the Christ and those who are in Him. Christ was born into this world of the Spirit of God and we are born into heaven, the kingdom, eternal life, by the same Spirit. Christ proceeded from heaven at the behest of the Father and we proceed to heaven at the behest of the same Father. Our common source with Christ, our common origin, is God. We are born of God. All other human beings are born of Adam alone. We are heavenly seed, just as Christ is the seed of Abraham promised by heaven. Christ was given to us by the Father and we are given to Christ by the Father. God is all in all.

Now do we begin to get an inkling of what God was doing in Christ? Do we see something of the exchange that took place for we who believe? Righteousness for sin, life for death, union for separation, unity for fragmentation and selfishness. Do we see the fitness of God’s methodology? Do we stand in awe and bow the knee in wonder? Do we snatch a glimpse of the infinite condescension of the Eternal Son? Do we get some concept of why He was universally believed by the true church to be both fully human and fully divine, and why only this reality could possibly save us?

It is because of this heavenly connection - in the Spirit - the fact that we are born of God that the Son of God is not ashamed to call us brothers. He sanctifies us (makes us holy by setting us apart) and we are the ones who have received that sanctification. It is all in Him. Holiness is of the Lord and from no one and nowhere else. If we are holy it is because God has declared us holy on account of Christ. If we are being experientially sanctified it is because he is sanctifying us according to his eternal power and purpose in Christ.

The writer goes directly to what is, perhaps the most lucid and direct prophecy of the cross work of Jesus Christ, which is Psalm22. "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." {Ps 22:22} But it is the preceding verse of the psalm that tells why this rejoicing in praise bursts forth from the Saviour’s lips.

The first half of Psalm 22 describes the suffering of the cross, but right in the middle comes a prayer from Christ to the Father (vv 19-21), followed by the thunderous joy of "You have answered me!" It is the ordained end of the cross - the "It is finished" signifying that the work that the Father gave to the Son was accomplished in history and would bear fruit for eternity.

And the writer goes on to quote from Isaiah - from a passage that is also prophetic, speaking in the immediate fore-context of the Lord being a sanctuary to the prophet, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both houses of Israel. {Isa 8:13-15} Undoubtedly we see in this passage a double application, for this was spoken to and through Isaiah initially, yet is a clear picture of the coming Christ. So we come to the words, "Here I am and the children God has given me," {Isa 8:17-18} given in the midst of an injunction to bind up the testimony and to seal the law (v16) and a warning that those who do not speak according to the law and the testimony have no light in them (v 20).

Isaiah may well have been taken in his time to be speaking of himself and those faithful ones gathered around him at the time of writing, but the writer of Hebrews sees Christ as the One who was given children by the God the Father, presenting them to Him as the fruit of His promised labours - made acceptable in Him.

And we also see once more some evidence that the writer was quoting the Septuagint, in which verse 17 is rendered "I will put my trust in Him." I say this because the Hebrews were scattered by one, or perhaps two, Diasporas throughout the known world of the time - and that the language of that world was Greek. This is why a number (supposedly 72) of scholars translated the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek some 1-300 years before the birth of Christ; it was the common language of all Hebrews born into the world throughout the world. It therefore behoved the writer of this general letter to the race to use the translation most familiar to the universal audience, and there is evidence that this is what happened. Scholars readily acknowledge that the Septuagint was also frequently cited by the Apostles and early Church Fathers.

Sermon of the WeekAnd Christ Was Amazed

2009-11-08T00:01:00.007-05:00

Here's Doug Vandermeulen who is one of my favorite preachers. He's gentle in tone, but extremely pointed about the Truth. Doug is the preaching pastor at Community Baptist Church in Fargo, ND. Three unexpected things grabbed me in this sermon.

Firstly, Pastor Vandermeulen brought up a saying that I think is from Francis of Assisi, and which goes something like this - "Preach the gospel at all times - use words if necessary." I have used this one myself in the distant past. It is catchy and it sounds very pious. It fits well into the liberal and emergent emphasis of doing over being. Doug demolishes this sloganesque phrase as a deceptive falsehood. Listen for it.

Secondly, he picks out a phrase I have often seen misused by others concerning the nature of faith. "And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief." I have never fallen into the trap of thinking that the lack of faith in the people hamstrung Christ from doing miracles - which is how some interpret this. My own take was always that Christ, seeing what the Father was doing, perceived when the Father granted faith and acted in perfect accord with it. But Doug has another light on the subject - what might be a better one. Look for it.

Thirdly, he draws an inference I had never noticed before about the disciples being sent out without second tunics or purses. I won't spoil it for you. Just give him a listen...

And Christ Was Amazed - Doug Vandermeulen

The Text:

Mark 6:1-13 He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. 2 And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? 3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4 And Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor, except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household.” 5 And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And he marveled because of their unbelief. And he went about among the villages teaching.

7 And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. 8 He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff––no bread, no bag, no money in their belts –– 9 but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. 10 And he said to them, “Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. 11 And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” 12 So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. 13 And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.

Mission Accomplished

2009-11-07T00:01:00.006-05:00

Here is an excerpt from something by Shai Linne. I've posted stuff from him in the past (Dec, 2008) but I'm recovered enough now to post something else. My traditionalized white Anglo Saxon brain wants to dislike this but can't. O wretched man that I am! This man is preaching truth to a part of the culture I barely know exists. Isn't God wonderful!

If you have trouble with the link in the applet you can listen to the full song here. I hate rap and I still recommend it, if only for the words.

Heb 2:5-9 - Christ - The Federal Head of the Redeemed

2009-11-06T00:01:00.008-05:00

Heb 2:5-9 - Christ - The Federal Head of the Redeemed

Heb 2:5-9 Now it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. 6 It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? 7 you made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, 8 putting everything in subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. 9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

Christians are not engaged in the present world so much as in the world to come. This present life is, for the time being, the means by which the world to come is revealed to us and in us and through us, in the spirit. Our concerns and our hearts are set on things above. This idea probably gives certain liberals palpitations, if not outright heart failure. But we are not speaking of being so heavenly that we are no earthly use. On the contrary we are speaking of being so heavenly that all things are wrought in Christ and, yes - in a sense only Christians understand - that all things are wrought by Christ in us. This is impossible without the heavenly view - without faith as the Bible speaks of faith, which is a belief and trust in God to effect his purposes and promises.

It is by looking to heaven where Christ is seated at the right hand of power, having completed all things - and by trusting in this truth - that we live our lives in the here and now. Getting the order reversed - that is living in the here and now in order to see, attain, or just plain hope in the heavenly reality - inevitably produces at best dryness and at worst a false hope in personal attainment to a righteousness that we should understand is already ours.

All the cults and all the heresies are at some place along this false road. Roman Catholicism does this by adding works to grace. They deny the sufficiency of grace while maintaining its necessity. Arminianism does this by making faith (or at least, the will to exercise it) a work rather than a gift. The Pelagian elements in the modern church do this by denying original sin and making man the deciding element in salvation through moral acts of the will. All these look away from heaven and towards man as the source of all, or of some part of the life we now live.

Of course, all Christians fall into error in this regard, but not all dwell in it. Our flesh wars against the spirit and deceit is all around and within us. We need to be continually reminded of this finished work of Christ and look to Him as both the Author and Perfecter of our faith. And we need to eschew all tendencies to look inwards and sideways, except insofar as we are looking to and for Christ above in all things.

So the writer to the Hebrews is focusing on the world to come, and on how he understands the Person of Christ in this regard. He starts with man as a race. Generic man. Man as God originally made him - righteous but mutable. The original imprint of Adam as God’s representative in the world of creation has never been utterly defaced. Man, it is true, is fallen and rebellious and dead in trespasses and sins - but God has not failed in his grace. Even fallen and spiritually dead men retain the imprint of their supremacy over the created order. They misuse that supremacy; they misunderstand it; they use it for their own glory instead of vicariously, for the glory of God who is above all.

But the imprint or the shadow of the image remains. I think of it as being like the shadow of that poor human being in Hiroshima fused into stone steps after the bomb detonated. The shadow is no longer a functional human being as some knew him, but is a reminder of the glory and vitality that once was a living person. The spiritual death of mankind in Adam is an analogous event.

God is faithful even though we are not, and his mercies are over all His works. As a consequence, man still has authority and power over the world that surrounds him. On account of sin this results in much corruption and suffering, but the original gift of God was indeed both a crown and a glory. This was defaced in the fall but not utterly obliterated. But what remains of that glory and its fruit in the world is a testimony to God’s grace and forbearance, and not to man’s virtue and ingenuity. In order to arrive at right conclusions, real theology takes the real fall really seriously {per Vandermeulen}.

And what God purposed originally has not failed. When the Bible speaks of man having everything in subjection under his feet and of being crowned with glory and honour (as Adam once was, and we in him) this is indeed re-established in Christ, the God/man. He is the federal head of redeemed humanity, and all those who are in Him are - on account of Him alone - partake of his glory and honour and rulership. We, the saints, do this once more not as equals of our Creator God (which God Christ also is) but as subject to His headship. His glory and honour and leadership is reflected in and through us. It is not ours and never will be. But it is graced to us in Christ, in order that we cast it all once more at his feet.

Where are angels in all of this? What has this to do with mere messengers? Mankind in Adam was made a little lower than them but, through redemption in Christ, man has been raised way, way above the angels in Him. God has done a wonderful and fearful thing. He has made man more by his grace than man ever could have been apart from it. Those who are in Christ are not being made lower than the angels, for no holy angel was ever graced by being raised by adoption into intimate eternal fellowship with God, as the saints have been. And no fallen angel has even the hope of grace.

The writer is quoting again from the Psalms. {Ps 8:4-6} His apparent vagueness is not carelessness. It is a confidence in the fact that his hearers know the scriptures. The Psalm was originally a paean of praise regarding God’s handiwork and his grace towards men. Until Christ came, it would be hard to imagine this being regarded as a prophetic writing. But with the aid of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is revealed in all the writings and in places heretofore unseen. Thus, the writer adds the editorial comment in verse 9 deliberately applying the psalm to Jesus himself.

The reference to man and the son of man is taken to mean both men in Adam and the Christ who came to redeem his Own. Mankind in general is seen in the original reading, and Christ is seen as Son of Man in the enlightened interpretation. Christ perfects where Adam failed. Christ redeems what Adam lost. But he redeems it in a totally overarching and transforming and glorious way.

Man fell and the world groaned. The world of creation became a struggle to him. Thorns and briers sprang up, and the sweat of his brow were needed to eke out a living, whereas, before, the world was subject to him because his will was in perfect harmony with the Creator and Sustainer of these things. So when we read the Psalm and we look at the world there is an apparent non sequitur. We do a double take when we come to the "subjection" part. The world is clearly not in subjection to man. But man believes that it is – or that he can make it so of himself. He believes that by more effort, more science, more technology, more understanding - he will make the world a better place.

But the problem at the root of it all is ignored. The root problem is sin. In sin we develop technologies, sciences, moralities, ethics, causes and movements and they are all flawed in concept or in application by their inventors and purveyors and believers. Man cannot redeem the world. Man himself needs to be redeemed. This is why Christ came. He redeemed mankind (that is to say, humanity - not all human beings, but some members of the race).

So God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. He did it through a man - through the man Jesus Christ - so that, as by man alienation came to the world and a curse came upon the whole of creation, so also by a man the race is preserved in a remnant, for which is reserved a new heaven and a new earth.

Note how the heresies are rebutted upon a careful reading of the text. Jesus was not created a little lower than the angels - but was "for a little while" made (to be) lower than the angels. This implies that he was at one time higher, became lower in some sense, and then became higher again. The passage in Philippians {Php 2:5-11} gives an excellent sense of this emptying, this infinite humiliation, this descent, this condescension - like diving into the inky black depths of the ocean, and resurfacing in a blinding blaze of light, carrying denizens of the deep from the sunless abyss.

We see that it was "by the grace of God." It was not on account of anything in his creatures, real or foreseen that He came, but for the demonstration of mercy and grace that had otherwise been forever unseen by creation, but which was now made manifest in Christ. Indeed it was in love that God acted, but it was not that sort of love which looked to its object in order to be moved; it was that eternal love which proceeds from God for his own pleasure and glory, and out of His will alone. Salvation is by grace alone. It is by grace that the wrath of God is appeased for all those who come to him, trusting in him alone.

What can it mean that Christ tasted death for everyone? Learned scholars have differing opinions. The Greek language says that he tasted death ὑπὲρ παντὸς (uper pantos), which translates literally as "in behalf (or stead) of "all" or "every" or "the whole." But it does not specifically say every what. Is it every believer? Is it for the whole church? Is it, in some sense, for every person who ever lived? These are not insignificant questions, and how they are answered has an effect on how we understand the gospel. Good men have differed over what the meaning is.

Gill, a high (some say hyper) Calvinist, thinks it means simply "all the elect". Poole, a Puritan thinks it means that Christ died in order to "render sin remissible to all persons, and them salvable". Others think that Christ paid the penalty of sin for every single human being at the cross.

As I said, these are not easy matters. But a good hermeneutic must not allow that Christ died for people who are ultimately lost. That would mean that their sin was punished twice - once in Christ, and once in themselves for eternity - and that would defy justice. Of course, it could be claimed that it was only for their unbelief that they were punished - but that leads to a messy and irresolvable theology of what happens to infidels who never hear the gospel at all. Why, we would have to introduce a concept like - O I don’t know - purgatory in order to make room for their "chance" at salvation to be appropriated.

Still again, some believe that Christ’s death secured the general or common grace that God shows to all men, but saving grace only for the elect.

The wisdom of the Reformers summarized what it was believed had been the understanding of the Apostles and the church fathers like Augustine and Anselm. They said that all that believed were indeed saved, but that faith itself was a gift of God’s grace, along with repentance. So their understanding was that there is both a general call of the gospel and an effectual call. Those who believe do so solely because God first regenerates them. Those who reject the gospel do so because of their sinful predisposition to enmity with God. They are as we all would be if God did not effectually call some.

This raises the question of whether the general call is a genuine one. Is there a real offer of salvation to all men - and, if so, on what basis are they offered forgiveness if Christ died only for the elect? And wisdom has answered that Christ’s death is sufficient for all men (if they would but believe), but is efficient only for those to whom God grants repentance and faith. And so it goes.

My own understanding of this passage is governed by the context, which is all about the supremacy and superiority of Christ as the message and messenger of God. It includes the idea of Him saving His church because, in verse 10 it speaks of Him bringing many sons to glory through His sufferings. Verse 16 also speaks of Him "giving aid to the seed of Abraham," which means to all who are in Christ - to spiritual Israel.

Some, supposing it to be necessary, wish to ensure the integrity of the gospel by ensuring that the "offer" is both free and real to all men. Some see the gospel as proclamation which is only meant for, and only heard by, those who have ears to hear. Some try to fit both these views into their theology. In any event these three things are absolutely certain:

1) that whoever hears and believes the gospel will be saved. {John 3:16,Ro 10:17}

2) that all the Father gives to the Son will come to him and those who come to Christ will never be cast out {John 6:37}

3) that there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. {Acts 4:12}

We must add to this that the gospel is to be preached to all men without favour or distinction. {Mr 16:15} The results are now, and always were and will be in God’s hands. The rest, as they say, is for the theologians - so long as we understand that all Christians are called to be theologians (the study of God).

The Need for Theology

2009-11-05T00:01:00.003-05:00

Here is Dr. Wayne Grudem speaking at the Advance 09 Conference about the need for theology to be taught in our churches.

This is particularly appropriate to our Hebrews study precisely because the writer of the Homily to the Hebrews makes exactly the same points to them. He even chastises them for failing to press on to the meat of the gospel which is what will equip them for living harmlessly and wisely in this hostile world. It's a short 5 minute clip - enjoy...

Heb 2:1-4 - Christ - IS the Message

2009-11-04T00:01:00.008-05:00

Heb 2:1-4 - Christ - IS the Message

Heb 2:1-4 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Therefore - for all the reasons and in light of all the proofs provided as to the infinite superiority of Christ to angels and other messengers of God - because Christ is the message, the ultimate message of whom all other messengers spoke - then we who profess faith in Him ought to closely guard and heed our doctrine.

Inattention to what we have been taught by Christ and His Apostles will cause us to apostatize. It is not enough to have believed the truth if we then neglect that truth. We must constantly be reminded and we must continually abide in that truth or we shall drift by degrees into something other than the truth, and we may find out that we are reprobates after all. When the saints sing, "Tell me the old, old story," they are not being nostalgic, but prescriptive. We need to be told over and over because our flesh wars against the truth and is susceptible to being deceived.

The "we" I am referring to in these notes was originally the community of Jewish believers. But we are all adopted Jews, and there is great application for all the saints contained in the warnings of Hebrews.

The writer of the homily hearkens back to Israel’s past by reminding them not only that angels and other messengers declared a message (note the choice of verb - the word was declared, not suggested) but that what they said proved to be utterly true and reliable. And both the kindness and severity of God, the Sender, was revealed according to the way Israel responded. Every disobedience was punished. But not only was it punished - it was justly punished. Israel lived under the covenant of works - under law, which required complete compliance, on pain of incurring God’s just retribution.

God has the right to demand compliance from His creatures, and more especially still from His chosen people. Israel was chosen as the recipient of the law and the testimony - as the guardian of the truth and as a light to the world. God condescended to show Himself to the nation and to be their personal God. Yet Israel utterly failed.

And this is the writer’s point - that the communication of God Almighty to His people in times past came by intermediaries and yet was still reliable, and all rejection of it (which is a lack of faith) came with a price. Now that God has spoken "in Son" - the ultimate self-revelation in an intensely personal way, not through an intermediary but directly - then rejection of this ultimate message can only lead to something unimaginably terrible. And that will be a just end.

How can we contrast the message through intermediaries with the personal incarnation of the Message Sender - once for all doing away with all other intermediation? It is like the land owner, having sent servants to inquire of his tenants about the harvest and getting no response, he finally sends his son, whom they kill, thinking that in murdering the heir they shall themselves keep the land. {Mr 12:1-9} God came into history, to His very Own chosen people and was Himself the message. "I AM the way, the truth and the life," He declared, "No one comes to the Father except through Me." {John 14:6}

Jesus is not an example of how to live. He was not a teacher showing us the ten principles of fulfilled living. He is the life. He is the way. He is the truth. The life cannot be known or manifested apart from union with Him. We live, but nevertheless not we, but Christ lives in us. {Ga 2:20} We don’t imitate Christ. He lives in us and we abide in Him. This is what is encompassed in the idea of God speaking to us "in Son." It is an entirely different order of communication. It is infinitely superior to all the other means of communication of God to us, even though these other means were completely true and reliable.

The contrast in the writer’s conception is not so much about the message (for there is consistency between all the messages) as it is about the messenger. Jesus always was the message. He was the message in creation, which witnesses to Him. He was the message in the promises given to the fathers. He was the giver of the law which was itself a message about Him in typology and symbols (in the Levitical, civil and ceremonial laws), as well as in moral content (in the Ten Commandments). He was both the sender and message of the prophets. It was a message that spoke of both holiness and grace - judgement and mercy, punishment and love.

So Jesus’ coming is the ultimate self-revelation of God. It is naked. It is unequivocal. It is unveiled. It is in the open for all to see. And those who claim to have seen, and yet display the same behaviour as the historical record shows of the nation of Israel as a whole by disobedience, are displaying that lack of faith that belies their confession. The writer will go on to describe in more detail the parallel between the profession and the fate of Israel and the profession and fate of those who draw back from Christ.

No mistake should be made here; to reject Christ is a far greater and graver iniquity than to reject His messengers. Both are causes for retribution, but greater knowledge brings greater responsibility and, as a result, greater culpability and punishment.

What was it that the message of Christ and the Apostles attested to? What was it that was declared? It was salvation. But it was not such a salvation as could be separated from Christ Himself. Christ preached Himself as God’s only means of salvation, to be apprehended by faith. All that this includes was fleshed out by Christ, and then the Apostles in every God-breathed word of the gospels and other inspired texts. The message is “God is our salvation” {Ps 62:1-2, 68:19, Luke 2:29-32} and "Salvation (deliverance) is of the LORD." {Jon 2:9}. In other words, salvation is in a Person, and that Person is Jesus Christ.

The properly represented teaching of both Christ and the Apostles makes this clear, which is why close attention (see v1) must be paid to what we have heard from Christ and the Apostles and to keep on checking to see if what we have believed corresponds exactly to what they have said.

Real Authority

2009-11-03T00:01:00.003-05:00

Those are but suspicious Christians, who will take in all that believers do, upon the authority of believers. The comment must be followed no further than while it agrees with the text.

William Secker

Heb 1:13-14 Christ - Whose Servants Are Angels

2009-11-02T00:01:00.007-05:00

Heb 1:13-14 Christ - Whose Servants Are Angels

Heb 1:13-14 And to which of the angels has he ever said, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"? 14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Finally, in making his case about the infinite superiority of Christ from their own scriptures, the writer turns to another psalm {Ps 110:1} This is the very psalm that the Lord Himself used to prove His identity to unbelieving leaders - though they refused to hear. The Pharisees knew perfectly well that this psalm was a prophetic one, too. They understood in their heart of hearts that it spoke of Messiah.

But Jesus quoted this not in answer to their testing; rather it was added after their condescending remarks to Him in Luke 20 (though all the synoptics have this). They had tested him about the afterlife with a ridiculous hypothetical story about a woman who, under the Levirate law, was married to seven brothers, each of whom died. The Lord’s answer was a rebuke to show their ignorance of the scriptures, when he said there would be no marrying or giving in marriage in heaven, but that men and women would be as the angels.

It was only after they complimented Him on the wisdom of His answer that Jesus rejoindered with psalm 110. His point was to let them know that it was not earthly wisdom - not just quick thinking, juggling on the fly, having sharp wits - that He had shown them; it was that He himself was wisdom incarnate. “I am no mere man” was the implication. He was a man, but He was more than a man. He was the Theanthropos - the God/man. He wasn’t there to bandy wits with His detractors, but to declare, preach and manifest the will of the Father.

Wherefore, He took them to psalm 110 and asked them a simple question, "(if) David thus calls him ‘Lord’, so how is he his son?" {Luke 20:44}. They, of course did not answer, and Jesus warned the onlookers to beware of such men.

Now, none of this is directly spoken of here in Hebrews - but the citation the Lord used was the one directly next to this one. In our Bibles, it is in the very same verse. The same Jesus who rebuked the Pharisees for their clever flattery and cunningly intellectual and legalistic nit-picking for the sake of religious argument (but without a real care for meaning) was making a point about His divine Sonship as part of the sentence now brought to bear. Surely this could not escape the notice of the Hebrews who, by now, had the gospels.

Jesus knew Who He was. The Pharisees and other leaders refused to see it. Jesus was the Lord of David and is the Lord of the universe. Not only that, but the incarnate and resurrected Son is now at the most privileged post that there is. He sits at the right hand of God - the power and honour position. Angels - the holy angels - cover their faces and their feet with their wings in the presence of God but the Son sits at the right hand of power and authority and favour and honour. Unveiled. Untrembling. Unafraid. He is Holy, holy, holy - the Lord God Almighty - thinking it not robbery to be equal with God and having laid aside His glory to redeem a people for Himself (a people given to Him by name by the Father) He has finished His journey through the heavens and taken up His glory again, having revealed even greater glory to all creation than was able previously to be apprehended by any of His creatures.

The writer seems to be saying, "Jesus - an angel? Give me a break!" While Jesus sits at the right hand of power and majesty on high, mere angels are sent to minister and serve in the unveiling, the revelation, the unfurling in history of the redemptive plan that Jesus secured. So far from Jesus being an angel, angels themselves are ministers to the (human) saints for Christ’s sake. They are not nearly so glorious as redeemed mankind, for redeemed men experience and enjoy something that angels themselves long to look into. Redeemed men are to be glorified not for themselves, but on account of what Christ Himself did in their behalf. Jesus an angel? Not on your life!

Lecture of the WeekHistory of Christianity -1500-1700 AD

2009-11-01T00:01:00.009-04:00

The following lecture comes to us from Michael Haykin. This is his second week in the last three on the blog. It is indeed unusual here at Agonizomai to post two "Sermon of the Week" audio files by the same speaker in such close proximity, but it is the occasion of Reformation Day that causes us to look for something instructive and reliable relating to Reformation times. Since Dr. Haykin is Adjunct Professor of Church History and Spirituality at Toronto Baptist Seminary, he seemed a very suitable source for our purpose.

This lecture concentrates mostly on Martin Luther and events surrounding and following his great personal epiphany concerning the grace of God. There are many interesting epithets and tid-bits in this, but they mainly serve to frame the whole thing in human terms and to remind us of the common humanity that we share with people in past ages. Haykin is quite ready to present our predecessors "warts and all", which lends great credibility to his observations. Enjoy this one as you celebrate around Reformation Day.

No Other Foundation (1500-1700) Michael Haykin

[Dr. Haykin maintains some other interesting church history audio files and sermons here and here]

The Diet of Worms

2009-10-31T00:01:00.010-04:00

Today is Reformation Day. In light of this I am posting a reprise of a little devotional I wrote years ago. In celebration I have re-recorded the audio in a higher quality. Enjoy...

_______________

The Diet of Worms

Earthworms have a very exclusive diet. They eat dirt. That’s it. They extract from common soil all that is needed for the nourishment of their darkened little lives below ground. Light is anathema to them and, should one of them be caught in the glare of a flashlight when visiting the surface at night, he will dart for the cover of dirt as fast as his follicles can carry him.

If, from the title of this piece, you were expecting a scholarly work on the life of Martin Luther or the beginnings of the Reformation I apologize for misleading you. We may get around to the Reformation later, but by a circuitous route. For now, let us go back to considering worms.

I am struck by the similarities between these blind, light-phobic, dirt-eating little creatures and the Biblical picture of fallen mankind. Do worms eat dirt? Consider how fallen mankind diets delightedly and determinedly upon the unclean vanities of an existence in rebellion against God. Do worms flee from the light? Hear how fallen men prefer the pitch of darkness and will not come into the light at all. Are worms blind? Consider that the Word of God that uses metaphor to portray the nature of fallen man as blind.

Of course, it is forbidden in this day and age to associate worms with the condition of mankind. It is no longer considered acceptable in a post-modern church, where self-image, self-respect and just about self-everything-else has come to the fore. We are far too enlightened to allow that sort of “dehumanizing” description to distort the new picture of men as lovable, but wrong-headed little scamps who need to have their mistakes fixed up. Consider, for example that great hymn of Isaac Watts from 1707 entitled “At The Cross”. The first verse originally read as follows:

Alas! and did my Savior bleed
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

Since then, the old-fashioned “excesses” of diminishing the status of man and of exalting the Name of God have gradually been all but eradicated. Until we have now arrived at the place where we can regard the words of Watts as that sort of over-the-top hyperbole or false humility which was so typical of less enlightened times. God forbid that people today should be offended with such imagery and be encouraged to see themselves as worms!

Yet, when the Bible speaks of men as “worms”, it could just as easily be understood to be comparing them to maggots, which is an even less sympathetic symbol. Job’s friend, Bildad the Shuhite, covered the entire spectrum when he said, “Behold, even the moon is not bright and the stars are not clean in his sight; how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!”

But let us delve a little deeper. That great prophetic Psalm 22 which foretells the agonies and shame of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, upon the cross puts the very word into our Lord’s own mouth when He says in verses 6-7, “But I am a worm, and no man; scorned by men, and despised by the people. All who see me mock at me, they make mouths at me, they wag their heads…”

Yet it was your shame and mine that He was bearing. It was on our behalf that he was regarded as a “worm” in the place of we, the true worms. The Son of Man became a “worm” for the sons of man who are worms. Of course, this is all figurative. But, in using the term “worm” the Lord, the Psalmist, and the Spirit who inspired him actually meant to portray us as utterly corrupt, rather than simply as “naughty children” in need of a good spanking.

In reality, there is a far too inadequate view of mankind’s depravity pervading much of Christian consciousness in the modern age. And shepherds are doing neither sheep nor comers any favours if they fail to present the picture of their condition properly. Through fear of offending congregants or concern that the unsaved will be turned away if we tell them what God says about them in His Word, we have actually sown the seeds of our own downfall.

By our euphemisms we attract not penitents but patients. And we build not disciples but dependents. We are found not demarcating holiness but diluting it. For there is a godly order that must be followed by all who would strive to enter in at the narrow gate. They may not be brought immediately to the denial of all self, but they must be pointed to it from the very first. They must know the cost and count it. They must be shown what they truly are so that they will flee from it into the everlasting arms of their Saviour, and from there keep leaning upon Him. They must be set upon the road that leads to the utter loss of their own life so that Christ may live His life in them.

God will accomplish all that He purposes in those who are truly His. But woe to those who make their journey slower, who retard their sanctification by withholding and misrepresenting the truth and who, thereby, actually put stumbling blocks before them. In the name of false kindness and sensitivity they actually hinder the production of fruit. We must preach the truth in love, but only if we preach the whole truth is it truly love.

Early in the 16th Century, when Tetzel was making a mockery of salvation and holiness by selling indulgences on behalf of the Roman Church, he was doing no differently than when we, the modern church give people a watered-down gospel that circumvents the cross. We do this by failing to tell, in complete detail and unflinching honesty, what God’s Word says about how our own vile corruption makes the cross necessary.

In those times, it took a Luther, raised by God at just the right moment, to sow the seeds that would reset the course – a course that finally arrived at its own Diet of Worms. And what did this Luther say about our fallen abilities?

“If any man doth ascribe aught of salvation, even the very least, to the free will of man, he knoweth nothing of grace, and he hath not learned Jesus Christ aright.”

When will we once more wake up to the truth of the gospel that makes man a helpless, unlovely, sinful, dreadful, disgraceful, perverse, stiff-necked, rebellious, profligate evildoer who is entirely dependent upon the grace of God to even know that he needs salvation, let alone be able to find it or live it? A proper understanding of this truth will serve to magnify the love and the Name of Christ. Continuing in failure to preach it will result in the further exaltation of God’s creatures, instead of the God in whom we all live and move and have our being.

Reformation Day's Eve

2009-10-30T00:01:00.010-04:00

No regular post today. Instead, here's a little reminder that tomorrow is Reformation Day. That beats "All Hallow's Eve".

For the words and an explanation of terms, follow this link

New Perspectives on Paul[Cultural and Textual Contextualization]

2009-10-29T00:01:00.006-04:00

If you are anything like me you will get a theological nosebleed from listening to this one from Dr. Thomas Holland, speaking at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. It goes on for well over an hour (including question time) and a lot of it is way over my head, so I wouldn't blame anybody who reads my blog if they just gave it a pass.

Ostensibly the lecture deals with some fine points about what is known as "The New Perspective on Paul", and contains elements of seminarian and theological dispute that people like me are just not that familiar with, and not really equipped to fully understand. I didn't pick this one so much for the theological debate as for the observations it contains about how culture and presuppositions regarding the cultural milieu of certain writings can be used to misrepresent facts and draw wrong conclusions.

Just one example is the misconception by certain Higher Biblical Critics in the last century about the nature of the Greek language that is found in the early New Testament Biblical texts. It was thought that the language was Classical Greek and they inferred thereby that certain words had meaning exactly corresponding to the classical meanings. But it turned out that the ancient authors were using the meaning of the Greek as employed by the Septuagint translators, which had been "Judaised" during the itertestamental period to make certain classical words fit Jewish concepts. So it was dangerous and wrong to proceed to pontificate about nascent Christianity without making such distinctions. Yet a whole generation of theological academia had plowed into this error willy-nilly.

Anyway, if you have the intestinal fortitude, here is something that speaks again to the need not only for textual context, but cultural context as well, in studying what people in the past believed and why they acted the way that they did. Enjoy...(if you can)...

New Perspectives on Paul - Dr. Thomas Holland

Heb 1:10-12 - Christ - The Beginning and the End

2009-10-28T00:01:00.009-04:00

Heb 1:10-12 Christ - The Beginning and the End

Heb 1:10-12 And, "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; 11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, 12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end."

This is from another of the psalms {Ps 102:25-27}. Psalm 102 is mainly a supplicatory psalm in which the psalmist laments his condition and the opposition of his enemies. It looks forward to the promised Messiah through expressing hope in God as deliverer of His people. In referring to Psalm 104 earlier the writer to the Hebrews made the point that Jesus was greater than the angels, from a psalm in which His godhood is clearly seen.

But here he is more direct in selecting a psalm which speaks of both the creative/sustaining and the judgmental powers of Israel’s deliverer. The inference is now to Christ’s position as the Alpha and the Omega - the beginning and the end. He not only laid the foundation of the earth (creation), but He will roll up the heavens like a cloth at the end of the age.

This is the Christ in Whom the Hebrews have professed belief. God Almighty, Creator and Destroyer of the universe; eternal and unchanging God. This is the God Who has spoken "in Son" to Israel, having already spoken in many and various ways through the prophets - the very prophets whom the writer is now quoting to them. Again, this is preparatory argument which will lead to dire warnings about apostasy. He clearly lays out what they themselves claim to have known and believed and thereby removes any excuse for them to entertain lesser views of Christ.

Orthodox Orthodoxy

2009-10-27T00:01:00.004-04:00

Anything can become our idol. Even our theology, if we are not careful, can be the thing we bow down to in place of the Son of God Who died for us. That is because we can value even orthodox belief above God Himself. This is not endorsing postmodern relativism, but is, rather, a reminder that God alone IS completely orthodox - or, as the word implies "correct in doctrine" or "right in belief". All others err, usually in matters they themselves are blind to. I am a heretic in some areas, just like everyone else, and I need faithful people to tell me when I am.

Gleanings 16.108

Heb 1:7-9 - Christ - The Subject of ALL Scripture

2009-10-26T00:01:00.006-04:00

Heb 1:7-9 Christ - The Subject of ALL Scripture

Heb 1:7-9 Of the angels he says, "He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire." 8 But of the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."

More proofs from the Hebrews own sacred texts are given to reinforce to the Hebrew audience the unique and utterly "other" Person of Christ. This is preaching as it is supposed to be, which is why I called this letter a homily. All preaching takes the word of God and opens up Christ to the hearers from it. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the preaching of whom? The Word, which is Christ. The written word testifies to the Living Word. The letter of the word, made alive to the hearer by the Spirit, is made the food and drink that is the Living Word to the children of God.

So the writer gleans Christ from the scriptures and makes Him visible to those who have eyes and audible to those who have ears. Note that he preaches Christ exclusively from the OT. He doesn’t yet have the complete canon of the NT. His scriptures are those that were the scriptures of Christ Himself. All that he preaches to them is Christ, yet it is Christ revealed out of the OT. How much do today’s preachers mine the very words that Christ Himself, in human form, learned in order to see Himself as Who He was? How much OT preaching is there today? And when there is such preaching, how much of it discovers Christ to the hearers?

Would you believe that there are actually Christians today who think that the OT is obsolete? That it has been superseded? That it is no longer needed or relevant now that we have the NT? What appalling ignorance there is in our churches - even amongst our ministers! What neglect of such treasures! Two thirds of the entire Bible - fully two thirds of all that God has to say to humankind - is contained in the OT. Two thirds of His revelation of Jesus Christ is found there. Without this treasure much of the NT is just hanging out there without a foundation. How can we neglect these riches and, in doing so, cleave to a shallow and incomplete knowledge of our Lord?

But here, the writer hones in on the One who is the subject not only of his homily, but of all true sermons, then and since. Would we know God? Then we must know Christ. Would we know Christ? Then He must be revealed to us through the word by the Spirit sent from the Father and the Son.

Christ is in Psalm 104 not as man, but as Creator, through whom the world was made. Psalm 104 is a hymn of praise to the glories of God’s handiwork. And in it is contained the phrase referred to by the writer, that He, the Lord, says of His angels (the work of His hands) "He makes (them) winds, and His ministers a flame of fire." {Ps 104:4} Again, the Septuagint translation is in view to the writer, for in Psalm 104, the Lord is rendered "kurion" and not "Yahweh" or "Jehovah". Undoubtedly, the translators were loath to transmit the unutterable tetrgrammaton into a pronounceable Greek form - and thus came up with "Lord" (kurion) where the Masoretic text unquestionably gives us "YHWH", which always refers to Jehovah God, and which is rendered in capital letters as "LORD" in the AV.

But what are we to learn from this? Only that to see Christ is to see the Father. They are indivisibly God. The Jehovah of Genesis and of the exodus is the Christ of the cross. We cannot, on the one hand, so distinguish the members of the Godhead that they become separate, independent beings - nor can we, on the other hand, so mix them together that they lose their personality or their functional differentiation. God said to Moses, "Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one." {De 6:4} Jesus the Christ is Author, Creator and Redeemer. So seeing Him in a paean of praise and adoration such as Psalm 104 is not strange. Jesus is God.

He is God incarnate and He is God the eternal Son. Even so, He is not the Father, nor yet the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, as God He is due all praise and worship - exactly as the psalmist does in Psalm 45 where he makes the Christ to be the Son of God - not by earthly generation, but by eternal generation.

Psalm 45 is the source of the author’s second citation here - as it says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions." {Ps 45:8-9}

Ostensibly beginning as a song of praise to the king of the time, it quickly becomes clear that Psalm 45 is a prophetic psalm from start to finish. In verse 2 we see that this King is "fairer than the sons of men" (v.2), and is a "Mighty One" personifying truth, humility and righteousness (vv4-5). So, when the psalmist comes to verses 6-7 it is clear that this is not an earthly king of whom he speaks. It was not a great secret that the Christ was to be Son of God. It was believed and professed by the church that Jesus was this Christ. So this prophetic psalm which the religious Jews of the day would have understood to be speaking of Messiah is perfect ammunition for the writer to the Hebrews in his desire to set Jesus Christ apart from, and above, all of His creation - including angels.

In prophecy He is clearly described as God, yet as being God to whom God speaks, and of Whom God recognizes an achievement involving the love of righteousness and the hatred of evil. This may have been somewhat cloudy to Jews in the time of the captivity, when they looked ahead towards a more complete revelation - but it ought not to be cloudy to the church. The One of Whom this speaks has come and fulfilled all righteousness. To see and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is to profess having seen and understood His work, and the benefits of that work.

Those Hebrew professors who were in danger of retreating to the old time religion (in whole or in part) were being reminded that the profession they had made was grounded in the reality of this Jesus, Who is God incarnate. If this is true, there can be nothing but dire warnings and eternal consequences for any that draw back, as we shall see in chapters 6, 10 and 12.

Sermon of the WeekThe Great White Throne Judgment

2009-10-25T00:01:00.005-04:00

This sermon was delivered by Steve Lawson at the Resolved 2008 Conference. Steve is the pastor at Christian Fellowship Baptist Church, Mobile, AL and the pricipal of New Reformation Ministries

This one deals with a very tough subject that has often been avoided by liberal and postmodern preachers. But such things are avoided only at the peril of both preacher and congregation. And though the subject matter here is dreadful and sobering, Dr. Lawson does not fail to hold forth the gospel of the hope that is in Christ alone. You will want to find a comfortable place to sit and maybe get the beverage of choice ready before starting this one, because it runs to just over an hour.

The Great White Throne Judgment - Steve Lawson

No Salvation Apart from Knowledge - Hargrave

2009-10-24T00:01:00.006-04:00

Here's Dr. R.A. Hargrave again. I don't want to overdo him at the expense of others (I posted something of his only a week or so ago) but this is relevant to a personal experience I had very recently.

I was at a men's retreat a while ago for a couple of days. There was a lot of good stuff there under the general topic of "Counting the Cost". But I met an old fellow congregant of mine and got embroiled in some heavy conversation about the Word and the Spirit and how they work in both believers and unbelievers.

Part of that conversation was his belief that the Spirit can work quite apart from the Word in unbelievers. He cited Watchman Nee and how he supposedly ran across some people who didn't have Bibles but who were believers anyway. Apparently the Spirit had shown them Jesus without the Word.

A lot of us have heard similar stories - such as the tribe that had no contact with the civilized world, but when a missionary finally arrived the tribesmen announced that they knew the truth about God providing a Savior and had been waiting for someone to arrive and tell them His name.

Is such a thing possible for God? I suppose so, for nothing is impossible with Him. But is it the way we are told that He works? Is that the witness of the Old and New Testaments? Or did God make Himself known by the word preached? Was knowledge necessary for the apprehension of Christ? Knowledge such as Who He was, what He did and why? And does the Spirit work in any way other than to reveal Jesus Christ through the proclamation of His person and work?

Well in this short video Hargrave makes the point that "There is no salvation apart from knowledge." I happen to agree with him. And I think it's very dangerous to go down the road of believing that God saves people absent the means He has appointed to the task.

Hargrave's main thrust isn't exactly the same as mine. He is juxtaposing emotionalism and knowledge, whereas I'm juxtaposing numinous infusion and knowledge. But we're close enough.

Heb 1:5-6 - Christ - Is More Than An Angel

2009-10-23T00:01:00.008-04:00

Heb 1:5-6 Christ - Is More Than An Angel

Heb 1:5-6 For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you?" Or again, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son?" 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God’s angels worship him."

Now the writer brings out of the very writings that the Hebrews always held sacred those passages that speak of the incarnate Son. This is because what was known as "Moses and the Prophets" (but which included the whole of our OT Canon) was unquestionably authoritative to them. He eschewed quoting Paul or Peter or Luke - though these inspired writings were probably around at the time.

He starts with {Ps 2:7} and adds {2Sa 7:14}. The first citation was, on the face of it, simply a familiar attestation of Israel (the Son), declaring that it would be victorious over its enemies because, in opposing them, the nations were opposing the Omnipotent God Who was with them. The second is ostensibly a prophecy about Solomon, given to David through Nathan on the occasion when David expressed a desire to build a permanent home for the ark in Jerusalem.

These passages can be and were read by all manner of men in Israel precisely in the ways indicated - and they still speak that way to those who read them apart from the illumination of the Spirit of God. But Jesus, upon Whom the Spirit dwelt without measure, undoubtedly saw Himself everywhere spoken of in the writings - for He had put Himself there by writing history, and by inspiring the authors to record what He put into their hearts and minds concerning Himself. This is the nature of the mystery that was hidden from the ages waiting to be (fully) revealed when Christ came.

I’m not saying that just because Christ came and lived and died then all men can now see what God had hidden in plain sight. I’m saying that for those who are in Christ Jesus, the same Spirit that embedded these treasures in the record also reveals the spiritual relevance of them to the heart of faith in this present age. The Spirit has been given to the church in a unique way and with the full ammunition and context of the actual, historical life of He of Whom it speaks.

Yet we cannot, nor would we wish to, deny that there is a very real contemporary context for these OT passages. In Psalm 2 Israelites of the 9th century BC would have no trouble seeing Israel and Jerusalem and their present earthly king in all the references contained there. And in 2 Samuel Chapter 7 it is quite clear to contemporaries of that time that Solomon and the earthly line of David is spoken of. In fact, there is specific mention within the prophecy of what God will do "if he (the seed) commits iniquity".

This sort of duality is ever present in OT prophecies. Not only are there parallels between Christ and Israel, but between Israel and the church and between Israel and the individual believer. There is virtually no end to the latent imagery, metaphor and typology on both spiritual and economic levels. Christ Himself is everywhere prefigured in the writings, as Jesus Himself showed the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. {Luke 24:27}

So it is hardly surprising that the writers of the New Testament looked for Christ in the Hebrew Scriptures and saw Him all over the place. These two passages are cases in point. In retrospect, and with the aid of the illuminating Spirit, it is not difficult to see Psalm 2 as being all about Jesus Christ; it is a prophetic Psalm. On the other hand, the 2 Samuel passage contains elements that are solely applicable to Solomon and his descendants (the mention of sin, for example), and elements that apply both to Solomon and to Christ.

The Hebrews writer, desiring to distinguish the Lord of Glory from a mere angel, or even from all other prophets, has begun to argue his case. The angels are in fact spoken of as the "sons of God" {Job 1:6,2:1,38:4-7, Ps 29:1,89:6} in the OT. But none is spoken of as the begotten son of God. All these others were creatures - they were created and called sons in that sense, because their existence derived from Him, through that means. But the Eternal Son was never created. He is without beginning or end. He is Alpha and Omega. He is of the same substance as God - is, in fact, of one substance with Him.

So the Son of God is related by eternal generation, meaning that "this day" is the eternal day - the unchanging “nowness” of eternity. It can also be taken to refer to the incarnation of the Son in time into human form. Along this latter line, the second citation from 2 Samuel does not imply that the incarnate Christ will become a son to God - either by being born in the flesh, or by adoption as we saints are - but that He will conduct Himself as only a true son could, being the perfect image of His Father in thought, word and deed. To quote the various translators of the writer to the Hebrews, the incarnate Christ is "the exact representation, the express image, bearing the very stamp of His nature, the very image of His (God’s) substance."

The reference in verse 6 is from Ps 97:6-7, which is taken by the writer of the homily to be a prophetic psalm of the revelation of God in His Messiah, and is why the command to worship follows the pronouncement that "all the peoples see His glory." We ought not to be confused by some translations that say "Let all the gods worship Him." The original Hebrew word is "elohiym," which is indeed the plural for god, but which is also used of angels. In fact, the translation of the OT known as the Septuagint expressly uses the Greek word "aggeloi" (angels) in this psalm to render the original Hebrew "elohiym".

Whatever the details hold, the overall thought of the writer is that Jesus Christ is Messiah and that he is "God with us" - not man alone, not incarnate angel, either before or after His resurrection. He is eternal Son come from the bosom of the Father and returned thereto, more gloriously revealed than before, co-deity and fully worthy to be adored and worshiped.

Sweet Grace - Roxylee

2009-10-22T00:01:00.007-04:00

My good friend and sister in Christ, Roxylee, has come up with another beautiful work - this time based upon Romans 8. What a treasure she is. Please visit her site here and let her know if this song has blessed you.

Sweet Grace - Roxylee

Exceedingly sweet and gracious
Is the gospel of our Lord
He causes me to trust in Him,
Eternal, glorious Word

Who chose to call me to his side
Before all time began
The riches of his mercy
Who can understand?

Sweet grace, irresistible grace
God frees me and keeps me in Him
He banishes fear by His awesome power
And breaks all the bondage of sin

His covenant is lasting
And every promise true
You will receive salvation by faith
If He is calling you

Your heart will leap with joy to see
When He unveils your eyes
The Word will come alive so real,
You can’t deny

Sweet grace, incredible grace
God frees me and keeps me in Him
He banishes fear by His awesome power
And breaks all the bondage of sin

Jesus, our good shepherd
Leads His people in the way
We will assemble joyfully
Before His throne one day

Living in the realm of grace
Redeemed and Spirit sealed
Hearing, by the Word
Incarnate truth revealed

Sweet grace, astonishing grace
God frees me, then keeps me in Him
He banishes fear by His awesome power
And breaks all the bondage of sin

Exceedingly sweet and gracious
Is the gospel of our Lord

Heb 1:3-4 - Christ - Is How God Magnifies His Name

2009-10-21T00:01:00.009-04:00

Heb 1:3-4 Christ - Is How God Magnifies His Name

3-4 he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

Speaking of Jesus, the writer makes sure that his readers hear who Christ is. He is not an angel. He is not just a man. He is the very Creator of all things Who at this moment, and even when He walked the earth, upheld all things by the word of His power. This phrase, "word of his power" is loaded with meaning. The power of the logos is the means by which God effectuates both existence and events. God speaks and it is so, as we find repeatedly in Genesis. Unmistakably, then - and especially to a Jewish audience - the writer is identifying the Son as God. He is simply using a Hebraism, stating the first part of the verse in a new way in the second part. Hebrew writers did this all the time. "God is good; His mercies endure forever." "Jesus the incarnate Son is the exact representation of the Almighty God; when he speaks it comes to pass, as in the upholding of the universe." And nobody could dispute the fact that the universe was certainly holding together.

But it was this same Almighty God, manifested in Son, who was himself the One that suffered and died as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He was the perfect, the true, the only effectual sacrifice for sin. The purification, the catharsis, the expunging, the cleansing of this pestilence to which all men are enslaved - namely sin, which is rebellion and lawlessness arising from disbelief in the Name of God - was made by Him in His life and death. This was accomplished in history. Note that purification was made - it does not say that purification was made possible. This has implications for what we believe, but this is not the place to expand upon that.

Now in what sense did this Eternal Son Who created the worlds and Who was Himself God become superior to angels, who are themselves created beings? Was he ever actually inferior to them? If so, in what sense? We must wait for the next chapter before this becomes clear. {see Heb 2:9-10} For now, the writer is embarking upon a long argument, supported from the Hebrew Scriptures, proving that Jesus was not an angel - a created being. Obviously, for him to spend time here establishing this fact ought to draw our attention to its importance for the Jews of the first century.

Not only is the natural man resistant to the idea of God becoming a man, but the Jews were particularly vulnerable to being scandalized by the idea of their long awaited Messiah becoming a lowly peasant, who was rejected by all the leaders of the nation, ultimately dying a shameful death as a criminal. Alongside this tendency there were the nascent seeds of Gnosticism, which would fit well into the mindset of the Kabbalah. Gnosticism spoke of secret and hidden knowledge available only to the initiated, which would reveal complex hierarchies of angelic beings called demiurges. This sort of heresy threatened the early church and grew in influence well into the second century. Much of the New Testament’s teaching is devoted to refuting this growing heresy, which affected not only the Jewish brothers, but also the Gentile believers.

Jesus was not an angel. He was not a creature. He was not a man who became an angel because he "earned" it through some sort of life of merit. He wasn’t graduating on the eternal evolutionary spectrum to a higher form of life, like the Father and the Son of Mormon theology. Something did happen - something unique, and something about which the powers of darkness never cease to invent twists and corruptions that will mislead people. The aim is to prevent belief. But a close second priority is to induce wrong belief, leading to ineffectual witness.

What is going to be explained here is the incredible passage of the Son from heaven to earth to heaven again - and all that was accomplished by this unendingly glorious series of events that unfolded out of the eternal purposes of God. The Hebrews needed to be reminded of this because, like all the saints, their faith was constantly under attack. The liar and murderer will never rest from tormenting the saints until he is put away forever. All saints need to be reminded of the gospel constantly. The gospel is not to be preached solely to unbelievers. It is also for those who believe. It is, in fact the power of God for salvation to everyone that believes (literally "is believing") {Ro 1:16}. I speak here of the fullness of the gospel, the deeper and more mature aspects, which include a growing understanding of this very "journey" of Christ, and its ramifications from eternity to eternity for all of God’s creatures, men and angels included. The deeper the understanding of what has been revealed, the richer the potential for living it out.

We spoke briefly in the commentary on the previous verses about inheritance. In that context it was about how our inheritance is indissolubly linked to Christ. Apart from him we have no inheritance. In him we inherit all things because all things are His and He is ours. {So 2:16-17} Some commentators link that reference to the one in verse 4, making them one and the same. I tend to agree that they are aspects of the same thing but the previous reference is to "all things" and this is specifically in reference to "His Name". It is a Name that no one can read but Himself, {Re 19:12} yet it is the Name written on the white stone of victory that no one can know, except the one who receives it. {Re 2:17} It is a Name that is more excellent (surpassingly, infinitely more so) than mere "messenger" or "angel." It is a Name that belongs only to the Son of God, Who laid aside His glory in order to take it up again, having wrought salvation for lost men through His blood.

What is that name? Every believer knows it. Do you? It is the name that encompasses all the glories that God purposed, displayed and accomplished in the Incarnate Son. Grace, redemption, mercy, love. It is also a Name by which all will be judged - by which the reprobate will be confirmed as condemned and damned eternally, to the glory of God. It says Author, Creator, Redeemer, Friend, Emmanuel, Almighty God, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Judge of all the World. It is an infinite and eternal Name to which is attached all the meaning and glory that these things convey. Thus it is known only to He who is infinite and eternal - yet is made known to those who are in Him, and He in them. And it will be made known in increasing revelation to His finite saints forever and ever.

So how was this inherited? It was inherited by Jesus, the God-man where much of what it represented had formerly belonged to the Eternal Son. But by his actions in redemptive history through his taking unto himself a human nature forever, unspeakable glories, untold and ravishing glories have been revealed for all of creation to witness. Had God not come, he would still have been loving and merciful and gracious - just not visibly, to undeserving human sinners. (Remember, there is no redemption for fallen angels.) These virtues existed eternally in God, but by exercising them in his creation in the Person of Christ they are inherited visibly by the God-man. Something more of God is manifested in Christ than was apparent to his creatures beforehand. So, as Son of God incarnate, He emptied himself of his glory - but when His work was finished, He inherited and took up a greater glory in the eyes of His whole creation because of what He had accomplished. Thus, the incarnation and the redemption were manifested firstly for the glory of God, and to that end and purpose for the benefit and enjoyment of men.

{As a footnote for the sake of right theology, God never changes. He cannot be increased or added to. He doesn’t learn new things. He doesn’t grow in any respect. He is infinite, complete and perfect as he ever was and will be. But He desires that His name be glorified and that He be enjoyed by His creatures, and the incarnation-redemption-atonement increases for His creatures the visible extent of that glory, that they may appreciate, adore, worship and enjoy Him the more.}