Shepherds' Fellowship

(By John MacArthur)

This week, we’ve looked at the characteristics of a true work of the Holy Spirit, noting that it exalts the true Christ, opposes Satan’s interests, points people to the Scriptures, and elevates truth. Today, we will conclude this series by looking at a final mark of the Spirit’s work.

This material, again, is adapted from Jonathan Edwards’s The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God.

It Results in Love for God and Others

“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” [v. 8].

If the spirit that is at work among a people operates as a spirit of love to God and man, it is a sure sign that it is the Spirit of God. This last mark which the apostle gives of the true Sprit, he seems to speak of as the most eminent. He devotes more space to it and so insists much more largely on it than all the rest.

When the spirit that is at work among the people brings many of them to high and exalting thoughts of the Divine Being and His glorious perfections; when it works in them an admiring, delightful sense of the excellency of Jesus Christ, representing Him as the chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely; when it makes Him precious to the soul, winning and drawing the heart with those motives and incitements to free love of God and the wonderful dying love of Christ — it must be the Spirit of God.

“We love, because He first loved us,” verse 19 says. The spirit that makes the soul long after God and Christ must be the Spirit of God. When we desire the presence and communion of the Savior, acquaintance with Him, conformity to Him, a life that pleases and honors Him, we must be under the influence of His Spirit.

Moreover, the spirit that quells contentions among men gives a spirit of peace and good-will, excites to acts of outward kindness, earnestly desires the salvation of souls, and arouses love for all the children of God and followers of Christ; I say that when a spirit operates after this manner, there is the highest kind of evidence that this is the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, there is a counterfeit love that often appears among those who are led by a spirit of delusion. There is commonly in the wildest enthusiasts a kind of union and affection arising from self-love. It is occasioned by their agreeing on issues where they greatly differ from all others and for which they are objects of ridicule from the rest of mankind. That naturally will cause them so much the more to prize those peculiarities that make them the objects of others’ contempt. (Thus the ancient Gnostics and the wild fanatics that appeared at the beginning of the Reformation boasted of their great love to one another — one sect of them in particular calling themselves “the family of love.”) But this is quite another thing than that Christian love I have just described.

There is enough said in this passage of the nature of a truly Christian love to distinguish it from all such counterfeits. It is love that arises from apprehension of the wonderful riches of the free grace and sovereignty of God’s love to us in Jesus Christ. It is attended with a sense of our own utter unworthiness (see vv. 9-11, 19). The surest character of true, divine, supernatural love– distinguishing it from counterfeits that arise from a natural self-love — is that the Christian virtue of humility shines in it. It is a love which above all others renounces, abases, and annihilates what we term self. Christ’s love is a humble love (1 Cor. 13:4-5).

When, therefore, we see a love attended with a sense of one’s own littleness, vileness, weakness, and utter insufficiency; when it is united with self-diffidence, self-emptiness, self-renunciation, and poverty of spirit — those are the manifest tokens of the Spirit of God.

He that thus dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.

Conclusion

These marks that the apostle has given us are sufficient to stand alone and support themselves. They plainly show the finger of God and are sufficient to outweigh a thousand such little objections as many make from oddities, irregularities, errors in conduct, and the delusions and scandals of some professors. But here some may object. After all, the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:13-14, “Such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”

To which I answer that this can be no objection against the sufficiency of these marks to distinguish the true from the false spirit in those false apostles and prophets — even when the devil is transformed into an angel of light. After all, the very reason the apostle John gave these marks was so that we could test the spirits. Therefore try the spirits by these rules and you will be able to distinguish the true spirit from the false — even under such a crafty disguise.

(By John MacArthur)

In this series, we’ve seen that a true work of the Holy Spirit exalts the true Christ, opposes Satan’s interests, and points people to the Scriptures. Today, we will continue by looking at another mark of the Spirit’s work. The following material is adapted from Jonathan Edwards’s The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God.

It Elevates Truth

“We know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (v. 6).

Another rule by which to judge spirits is that whatever operates as a spirit of truth, leading people to truth, convincing them of those things that are true — we may safely determine that it is a right and true spirit.

For instance, if the spirit at work makes men more aware than they used to be of the central gospel truths: that there is a God; that He is a great and sin-hating God; that life is short and very uncertain; that there is another world; that they have immortal souls; that they must give account of themselves to God; that they are exceeding sinful by nature and practice; that they are helpless in themselves — then that spirit operates as a spirit of truth. He represents things as they truly are. He brings men to the light.

On the other hand, the spirit of darkness will not uncover and make manifest the truth. Christ tells us that Satan is a liar, and the father of lies. His kingdom is a kingdom of darkness. It is upheld and promoted only by darkness and error. Satan has all his power and dominion by darkness. Whatever spirit removes our darkness and brings us to the light undeceives us. If I am brought to the truth and am made aware of things as they really are, my duty is immediately to thank God for it without inquiring by what means I have such a benefit.

(To be concluded tomorrow)

(By John MacArthur)

So far we have seen that a true work of the Holy Spirit exalts the true Christ and opposes Satan’s interests. Today, we will continue by looking at another mark of the Spirit’s work. The following material is adapted from Jonathan Edwards’s The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God.

It Points People to the Scriptures

“We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” (1 John 4:6)

The spirit that causes people to have a greater regard for the Holy Scriptures and establishes them more in the truth and divinity of God’s Word is certainly the Spirit of God.

The devil never would attempt to beget in persons a regard to the divine Word. A spirit of delusion will not incline persons to seek direction at the mouth of God. “To the law and to the testimony!” (Isa. 8:20) is never the cry of evil spirits who have no light in them. On the contrary, it is God’s own direction to discover their delusions.

Would the spirit of error, in order to deceive men, beget in them a high opinion of the infallible Word? Would the prince of darkness, in order to promote his kingdom of darkness, lead men to the sun? The devil has always shown a mortal spite and hatred towards that holy book, the Bible. He has done all in his power to extinguish that light, or else draw men off from it. He knows it to be that light by which his kingdom of darkness is to be overthrown. He has long experienced its power to defeat his purposes and baffle his designs. It is his constant plague. It is the sword of the Spirit that pierces him and conquers him.

It is that sharp sword that we read of in Revelation 19:15, which proceeds out of the mouth of Him that sat on the horse, with which He smites His enemies. Every text is a dart to torment the old serpent. He has felt the stinging smart thousands of times.

Therefore the devil is engaged against the Bible and hates every word in it. We may be sure that he never will attempt to raise anyone’s esteem of it.

(To be continued tomorrow)

(By John MacArthur)

Yesterday we saw that a true work of the Holy Spirit exalts the true Christ. Today, we will continue by looking at another mark of the Spirit’s work. The following material is condensed, adapted and excerpted from Jonathan Edwards’s The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God.

It Opposes Satan’s Interests

“You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.” (1 John 4:4-5)

When the spirit that is at work operates against the interests of Satan’s kingdom, against sin, and against worldly lusts — this is a sure sign that it is a true, and not a false spirit.

Here is a plain antithesis. The apostle is comparing those who are influenced by two opposite spirits, the true and the false. The difference is plain: the one is of God, and overcomes the spirit of the world; the other is of the world, and is obsessed with the things of the world. The devil is called “he who is in the world.”

What the apostle means by “the world,” or “the things that are in the world,” we learn by his own words: “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world” (2:15-16). So by “the world” the apostle evidently means everything that pertains to the interest of sin. The term also comprehends all the corruptions and lusts of men, as well as all those acts and objects by which they are gratified.

We may also safely determine from what the apostle says that whatever lessons people’s esteem of the pleasures, profits, and honors of the world; whatever turns their hearts from an eager pursuit after these things; whatever engages them in a due concern about eternity and causes them earnestly to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness; whatever convinces them of the dreadfulness of sin, the guilt it brings, and the misery to which it exposes — must be the Spirit of God.

It is not to be supposed that Satan would convince men of sin or awaken the conscience. It can no way serve his end to make that candle of the Lord shine the brighter. It is for his interest, whatever he does, to lull conscience asleep and keep it quite. To have that with its eyes and mouth open in the soul would tend to clog and hinder all his designs of darkness. The awakened conscience would evermore disturb his affairs, cross his interests, and disquiet him. Would the devil, when he is about to establish people in sin, take such a course? Would he make them more careful, inquisitive, and watchful to discern what is sinful, and to avoid future sins, and to be more wary of the devil’s temptations?

The man who has an awakened conscience is the least likely to be deceived of any man in the world; it is the drowsy, insensible, stupid conscience that is most easily blinded. The Spirit that operates thus cannot be the spirit of the devil; Satan will not cast out Satan (Matt. 12:25-26). Therefore if we see persons made sensible of the dreadful nature of sin and the displeasure of God against it, we may conclude that this concern is from the Spirit of God.

(To be continued tomorrow)

By John MacArthur)

How can a true work of the Holy Spirit be distinguished from a false one?

From a careful study of 1 John 4, the great theologian and pastor Jonathan Edwards was able to identify five distinguishing characteristics of the Holy Spirit’s work. In short, a true work of the Holy Spirit: (1) Exalts the true Christ, (2) Opposes Satan’s interests, (3) Points people to the Scriptures, (4) Elevates truth, and (5) Results in love for God and others.

The following material is condensed, adapted and excerpted from Jonathan Edwards’s The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God.

It Exalts the True Christ.

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” (John 4:2-3)

When a ministry raises people’s esteem of the one true Jesus Christ, who was born of a virgin and was crucified — if it confirms and establishes their minds in the truth that He is the Son of God and the Savior of men — then it is a sure sign that it is from the Spirit of God. If the spirit at work among a people convinces them of Christ and leads them to Him; if it confirms their minds in the belief of the history of Christ as He appeared in the flesh; if it teaches them that He is the Son of God to save sinners; if it reveals that He is the only Savior, and that they stand in great need of Him; and if it begets in them higher and more honorable thoughts of Christ than they used to have; if it inclines their affections more to Him — that is a sure sign that it is the true and right Spirit. This is true even though we are ultimately incapable of determining whether anyone’s conviction or affections reflect real saving faith.

The words of the apostle are remarkable. The person to whom the Spirit testifies must be that Jesus who appeared in the flesh — not another “christ” in His stead. It cannot be some mystical, fantastical “christ,” such as the “inner light” extolled by the Quakers. This imaginary christ diminishes their esteem of and dependence on Jesus as He came in the flesh. The true Spirit of God gives testimony for that Jesus alone.

The devil has a fierce hatred against Christ, especially in His office as the Savior of men. Satan mortally hates the story and doctrine of redemption; he never would go about to stress these truths. The Spirit that inclines men’s hearts to the Seed of the woman is not the spirit of the serpent that has such an irreconcilable enmity against Him.

(To be continued tomorrow)

(By Massimo Mollica)

On September 23, Mark Zhakevich blogged here at the Shepherd’s Fellowship about the the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit in the OT. On the basis of evidence for regeneration, sanctification, and empowerment in the OT, he concluded that the Holy Spirit indwelt OT saints.  This blog sparked some friendly debate around Grace Community Church as not all around here agreed with Mark’s conclusions.

In response, I offer an alternative approach to Mark’s blog. I will offer some preliminary cautions when addressing the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the OT. Then I will highlight some of the weaknesses of Mark’s approach. Finally, I will make the case that the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit is something unique to the New Covenant.

Preliminary Caution

When understanding the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the OT, one must first let the explicit texts define the Holy Spirit’s OT ministry. Thus, Mark is right in discussing the empowering ministry of the Holy Spirit, as that is one of the primary emphases in the OT. Furthermore, if Scripture does not speak explicitly regarding a specific doctrine, then we should be reluctant to emphasize it. I think this is the case with the question of whether or not the Holy Spirit indwelt OT saints. There is not a single text in the OT or the NT that says the Holy Spirit indwelt OT saints. Therefore, at best it is a theological conclusion. It is that very theological conclusion that I question.

Weaknesses

There are four weaknesses in Mark’s approach that make his conclusions suspect. Prior to highlighting these weaknesses, I want to note that Mark is a personal friend and has been for many years as we grew up together. So, no hard feelings Mark.

1) First, he assumes that because the Holy Spirit regenerated, sanctified, and empowered people in the OT that it means He indwelt them. This is not tight logic. Just because the Holy Spirit had these ministries does not mean that He indwelt the OT saints. In fact, especially in the case of empowerment we must exercise caution because not all who were empowered by the Spirit of God were necessarily believers (i.e. Balaam in Num 24:2). 

2)  Second, Mark does not discuss Scriptures unfolding or progressive development of God’s presence among men, which I believe sheds light on the question of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling ministry.

3) Third, when addressing the meaning of John 7:39 and that which is new regarding the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the New Covenant era, Mark contradicts himself. He says that the OT never says that the Holy Spirit functioned to comfort, to witness to Christ, or to glorify Christ. Thus, Mark concludes these are all new roles in the NT era. Using the same logic, Mark should have concluded that the Holy Spirit did not indwell OT saints because the OT never says He did.

4) Finally, Mark does not look to the explicit texts in the NT that actually discuss the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit to see what sort of light they shed on the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the OT.

The Holy Spirit’s Indwelling Ministry is Unique to the New Covenant Era

As I argue for this position, I want to state up front that I agree with Mark that the Holy Spirit regenerated OT saints, even if the language of regeneration in the OT is a bit anachronistic. This is a safe conclusion from the doctrine of man’s depravity, from the OT use of language regarding the circumcision of the heart, and from Jesus' discussion of the new birth with Nicodemus in John 3. I don’t disagree that that the Spirit empowered people in the OT. I don’t necessarily disagree that the OT believers needed the Spirit for sanctifcation (though I don’t think the OT speaks very clearly to this). I disagree that the three ministries of the Holy Spirit in the OT that Mark discussed--regeneration, sanctification, and empowerment--either together or individually, demand one to believe that the Spirit indwelt OT believers.

In Scripture, the dwelling ministry of God among men is unfolded in progressive fashion. In the OT, God’s presence was made known among His people, first in the tabernacle and later in the Temple. In Ezekiel 10, the glory of God departed Israel and the Temple and will return later in the millennium (Eze 43). If you were to ask an OT believer where God dwelt, they would have pointed you to the Temple. They would not have said, “He dwells within men.” In fact, in Ezekiel 36:27, it says that in Israel’s future restoration under the New Covenant, then God would put his Spirit within in them. So, even Ezekiel recognizes that the Holy Spirit did not indwell OT saints. It is significant that one text in the OT that explicitly addresses the Holy Spirit’s indwelling ministry puts it in the future.

When we come to the gospels, God’s presence is made known in the Person of Christ as the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us (John 1:14). However, after the ascension and prior to Christ’s return, the dwelling ministry of God takes on a different form. The dwelling ministry of God in the New Covenant era is manifested through the Holy Spirit’s corporate indwelling of the church (universal - Eph 2; local - 1 Cor 3) and through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling individual believers (1 Cor 6:19). This started at Pentecost. The Spirit’s descent at Pentecost parallels the presence of God descending into the tabernacle at the end of Exodus and into Solomon’s Temple in 1 Kings.  Thus, both the church and the individual are the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is this “temple” trajectory in biblical theology that Mark’s arguments seem to miss. The indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit in the NT is a step beyond any ministry he had prior to the ascension. To say that the Holy Spirit indwelt saints in the OT is to miss the heightened ministry of the Holy Spirit that started at Pentecost. If Pentecost does not mark a unique transition in the dwelling ministry of God, what exactly does Pentecost represent?

Four texts demonstrate that the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit within the individual is unique to the New Covenant.  First, 2 Cor 1:22 links the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts to the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit when it says of God, “who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.”  In Ephesians 1:3-14, The sealing ministry is something unique to the NT believer since it is linked to the eternal salvation purpose of the Triune God in Christ. Thus, the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit is unique to those who are in Christ. Second, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 link our being indwelt by the Holy Spirit with us having been bought with a price. Since Christ’s blood had not yet been shed in the OT, it is difficult to see how the Spirit indwelt them. Third, Romans 8:9-12 expresses the Holy Spirit’s indwelling ministry in unique relation to his having raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

Finally, and most conclusively, in John 14:17 Jesus says that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is something still future when he says, “He abides with you and will be in you.” Jesus describes the ministry of the Holy Spirit with two different verb tenses and two different prepositions. For the disciples at the time Jesus spoke, and presumably OT saints, the Holy Spirit’s ministry was describes as an abiding “with” (grk: para). In the future, when Jesus would send the Spirit, which we know happened at Pentecost following Jesus’ ascension, the Spirit would abide “in” (grk: en) the disciples. Thus, the Spirit did not take up residence within believers until the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Even if the first three texts are not persuasive, the final one is difficult to get around. Combining these four texts, along with a proper understanding of the progressive development of the dwelling place of God makes it a safer conclusion to see the Holy Spirit’s individual dwelling of the believer as something new post-Pentecost.

(By Mark Zhakevich)

What is Man?

The constitution of man is presented in two major views: dichotomy and trichotomy. [1]  Dichotomists argue that man consists of body and soul/spirit, while the trichotomists maintain that the man consists of body, soul, and spirit. The distinction lies in the definition of the immaterial part of the person, whether there is any difference between the soul and the spirit. [2]  Based on (1) the Old Testament teaching of man as a unified being, (2) the two part presentation of man in the NT, and (3) the exegesis of 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Hebrews 4:12, the dichotomist understanding is preferred. 

OT on Man’s Composition 

The first time man appears in the Bible is in Genesis 1:26 where God contemplates the creation of man. This is followed by Genesis 2:7 where God forms man from the dust of the ground and breathes the "breath of life" into him who then becomes a living being.  Only two aspects are described in this passage: the physical and the breath, there is no reference to a third aspect. [3] The primary OT term for man is nephesh, which refers to "'man's total nature, for what he is and not just what he has;'" [4] this term "stands for the entire person." [5]  Solomon affirms the dichotomist understanding of man when he says "the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it (Eccl 12:7, NASB)."  The OT seems to distinguish only between the spiritual and the physical aspects of man without adding a third component. 

NT on Man’s Composition 

The NT likewise portrays man as possessing a body (soma) and soul/spirit (pneuma/psuche). The former refers to the physical aspect of man; the two latter terms refer to the immaterial.  In 2 Corinthians 7:1, Paul addresses the topic of sanctification, urging his readers to pursue complete holiness.  He writes: "let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness."  As he explains the areas of the individual that sanctification is to affect, he only mentions two: the spirit and the body.  His point is not that only those two parts should be holy, while the mind and the heart can be perverse, rather, he bifurcates the person into the material and immaterial. [6]  Paul is after holiness and if he delineates only two parts that the individual needs to concentrate on to be entirely holy, the implication is there is no third part; otherwise complete holiness will not be attained. 

In John 10:28, Jesus upholds the dual division of man when He encourages His disciples not to "fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”  Jesus is talking about eternity and one would think if there was another part of a person that might be eternally destroyed by God, Jesus would have mentioned it.  Jesus encapsulates the whole of man's material and immaterial existence in the terms "body" and "soul.”     
When the NT mentions "spirit" and "soul," it equates the two terms.  This is seen in Mary's Magnificat in Luke 1:46-47 where she says: "my soul exalts the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior."  One option is to interpret soul and spirit as referring to different parts of a person's being, [7] however, the parallel fails when we apply the same rationale to "Lord" and "God," thereby making these terms to be references to two deities.  A better way to interpret this statement is to apply the rules of Hebrew parallelism, "in which the second line repeats the thought of the first but with different words. Just as spirit and soul refer to man's spiritual or rational nature, so Lord and God refer to one Deity." [8]  Mary is not accentuating a fine distinction by referring to soul and spirit; she is merely referring to the same immaterial part of the human being.

What about 1 Thessalonians 5:23?

Some argue for trichotomy from 1 Thessalonians 5:23 [9] where Paul writes, "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."  Is he referring to another part or is he equating "soul" with "spirit?"  Paul is emphasizing total sanctification of the man (cf. 1 Cor 7:34, 2 Cor 7:1) by compounding synonyms. [10]  In Matthew 22:37, Jesus does the same when he tells the lawyer to love God with all of his heart, soul, and mind.  In Mark 12:29-30, it is written that the individual is to love God with his heart, soul, mind, and strength.  These verses are not attempting to divide man's composition into various parts, rather, they emphasize wholeness.  If division in the person was the focus, then we could derive five or even six parts in the man: body, soul, spirit, mind, strength, and heart.  Jesus, however, is not dissecting the man, rather he is teaching that one's love for God must flow out of every part of the person; the whole being must love God. 

Paul uses a similar device in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and prays that the sanctification of the Thessalonians be whole, which includes the material part (body) and the immaterial part (whether it is called spirit or soul).  Complete sanctification is the central issue, not a lesson on the anatomy of a man.  There is a clear parallel with 1 Thessalonians 3:13 where Paul prays for the purity of their hearts.  The heart controls the life of a person, the mind, the intellect and the emotions of a person; all these should be holy.  F. F. Bruce argues that spirit, soul, and body in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 "together give further emphasis to the completeness of sanctification for which the writer prays, but the three together add but little to the sense of ["your hearts"] in 3:13." [11]  Paul piles up synonyms to refer to the totality of a person's being; praying the same prayer in 5:23 and in 3:13, namely that the Thessalonians would be completely blameless at the appearing of Christ. [12]

What about Hebrews 4:12?

At first glance, it seems that the author of Hebrews 4:12 is calling for a division between spirit and soul.  If that were the case, then the author of Hebrews is listing six different parts of a man, not merely three. [13]  It is better to understand this verse as emphasizing the living Word of God.  The Word of God is so powerful that it is able to reach deep down into the inner parts of a man, call it soul or spirit or mind; it is able to shine light into that deep part.  Nothing is hidden from the penetrating Word of God, "it can scrutinize the innermost thoughts of the human heart." [14]  Grudem comments that "the Word of God is so powerful that it will search out and expose all disobedience and lack of submission to God." [15]  The author of Hebrews is not dissecting the man; [16] rather this verse contains a "rhetorical accumulation of terms to express the whole mental nature of man on all its sides." [17]         

Conclusion

Not only do the OT texts, but passages in which Jesus, Paul and Mary speak, equate the spirit with the soul.  Even though at first glance 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Hebrews 4:12 appear to support trichotomy, based on context and to be consistent with the rest of Scripture, it is better to interpret these verses from a dichotomist perspective.  Paul encouraged the believer to pursue the image of Christ in his total being, not merely certain parts.   

* * * * *

END NOTES:

[1] There is a third view, monism, which maintains that man is a single element and his body is the person. Cf. Millard J. Erickson's, Christian  Theology, 2 vols. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1984), 2:524-27.

[2] The trichotomist defines the soul as the intellect of man, his emotions, and his will. It is the part that can be yielded either to the service of God or to sin. The spirit however, is a higher faculty in a man, it is the part that "most directly relates to God."  In contrast, Grudem argues that there is no clear difference in the functions of each from a biblical perspective. "Everything that the soul is said to do, the spirit is also said to do and everything that the spirit is said to do, the soul is also said to do."  The spirit and soul are both said to be able to think, display emotions, praise God, and are affected by sin (Cf. Mark 2:8, Mark 7:20-23, Acts 17:6, Matt 26:38, John 4:23, Psa 146:1, 2 Cor 7:1, Jam 1:21).  Wayne Grudem, Bible Doctrine: Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith, ed. by Jeff Purswell (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1999), 193-95.  
 
[3] David P. Scaer, "Theological Observer: Body, Soul, and Spirit," Concordia Theological Quarterly 66/2 (Apr 2002): 168.

[4] As quoted in George J. Zemek, A Biblical Theology of the Doctrines of Sovereign Grace (Little Rock, Ark.: B. T. D. S. G., 2002), 14.

[5] Waltke, "nephesh," TWOT, 2:590.

[6] Cf. 1 Corinthians 7:34 where Paul also discusses holiness and consistent with 2 Corinthians 7:1, he writes: "to be holy in body and spirit."

[7] David Scaer notes that trichotomists interpret this statement as a reference to two parts in a human being. David P. Scaer, "Theological Observer," 168.

[8] Ibid.

[9] For thorough exegesis  on 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and the trichotomy-dichotomy debate, please refer to footnote 13 in William Hendriksen and Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of Thessalonians, the Pastorals, and Hebrews, NTC (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 2004), 146-50. 

[10] Grudem, Bible Doctrines, 196.

[11] F. F. Bruce, 1&2 Thessalonians, WBC (Waco, Tex.: Word Books, 1982), 130. Cf. Erickson, Christian Theology, 2:539.

[12] A.T. Robertson notes that both the verb "preserved" and the adjective "complete" are in singular person, therefore "Paul conceives of the man as 'an undivided whole,' [it is a] prayer for the consecration of both body and soul."  Paul is not emphasizing each individual aspect of man, rather the whole of man's being.  A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, 6 vols. (Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman Press, 1931), 4:39.  

[13] Grudem helpfully notes that "we do not divide joints from marrow, for joints are the places where bones meet, not the places where joints meet marrow." Cf. Grudem, Systematic Theology, 479.  Robert Reymond explains that "'soul' and 'spirit' are both genitives governed by the participle 'dividing,'" therefore, the author is saying that "the Word of God divides the soul, even the spirit" (emphasis his).  Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998), 422.   

[14] Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989), 135.

[15] Grudem, Systematic Theology, 479.

[16] "Our author is not concerned to provide  here a psychological  or anatomical analysis of the human constitution, but rather to describe in graphic terms  the penetration of God's word to the innermost depth of man's personality." Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977), 165.

[17] Quoted in James Moffatt, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, ICC (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1952), 56.  Cf. F. F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, rev. ed., NICNT (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990), 113.

(by Kelly Wright)

God’s wrath permeates the pages of Scripture. Its presence cannot be overlooked. The presence of wrath in the Bible has led one author to conclude that:

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. (Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, 31)

Another author has asked the question, “Who – except for an ancient priest seeking to exert power by the tried and tested means of fear – could possibly wish that this hopelessly knotted skein of fable [The Old Testament] had any veracity?” (Christopher Hitchens, God is not Great, 103). The author of that question was not able to come to terms with his observations of anger displayed by God towards the Israelites and other nations. He was also disturbed by the seemingly inhumane laws given to the people through Moses, “The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre...” (Ibid., 102). These authors believe that the Bible, and so all contained within it, is a myth. This is a convenient way for them to dismiss any of what the Bible claims, including the description of God’s wrath. 

These authors expose the difficulty of understanding the wrath of God. Misconceptions concerning God’s character and His relationship to the world are prevalent. Students of God’s Word must be ready to address the issue of God’s supposed character as a ‘capriciously malevolent bully.’ Scripture does not shy away from revealing the wrath of God but it would seem that many Christians do. “It is sad indeed to find so many professing Christians who appear to regard the wrath of God as something for which they need to make an apology, or who at least wish there were no such thing" (Arthur W. Pink, The Attributes of God, 82).

Do we worship a bully? In the Old Testament we read of a global flood that kills everyone except one family. Then we stumble upon the ten plagues sent by God against Egypt. Later, Israel is punished for believing the report of the ten fearful spies and are sent to wander in the wilderness for forty years until every person over the age of twenty dies (except Moses, Caleb, and Joshua).

The New Testament records the gruesome death of the innocent God-man, Jesus Christ. He lived righteously and never sinned, yet, God put Him to death on the cross. Isaiah 53:10 records, “Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him.” Acts 2:23 states that Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.” It was God’s will to crush His son. The death of Jesus Christ was a defined plan of God. Do these realities make God a bully?

It is important that we remind ourselves of who God reveals Himself to be in Scripture. The Bible is our source of understanding concerning the nature of God. Three reminders of God’s essence aid us in answering the question about whom we worship.

First, God is holy. God’s holiness entails both the aspect of being set-apart as well as being morally pure. Isaiah’s vision of the seraphim reveals that “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of Hosts, the whole earth is filled with His glory” (Isaiah 6:3).  This song of the seraphim speaks of God’s otherness. God is set-apart from His creation.

Isaiah’s vision also reveals God’s moral purity. In v. 5 Isaiah cries out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” God’s moral purity is also declared by John, “God is light and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). God has not sinned, cannot sin, and will not sin. In fact, it is God’s holiness which causes Him to react strongly against sin.

Second, God is just. Everything God does is right. No action of His could ever be wrong. Job 37:23, “The Almighty – we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate.” God cannot violate the rules that He has established. God’s holiness necessitates that He do what is right, always.

God’s justice applies to punishing offenders. God’s law can be summarized this way, “Live holy for I am holy.” Anyone who does not live holy (Romans 3:23 exposes that this is everyone) has earned punishment. Romans 6:23 teaches us that the wages of sin is death. This means that all offenders to God’s law, which is everyone, are deserving of death. Consequence for sin is just. God is as fair for punishing law breakers as human judges are for punishing criminals.

Third, God is love. God’s love is one of choice, commitment, and action. Scripture reveals that it is God who first loved us. Love is better appreciated against the reality that we are unlovable. We are rebels, enemies, corpses, and children of wrath; yet God still chose to love us.

First John 3:16 teaches us that we know love because Jesus sacrificed His life for us. Jesus was the substitute for us on the cross. He suffered the just reward of our sin, God’s wrath. The death of God’s Son was not an act of bullying, but rather was a sweet display of His sacrificial love.

God in His holiness hates sin. God in His justice punishes sin. God in His love settles our sinful debt through the death of His Son. We do not worship a bully. We worship a holy, just, and loving God. Amen and Amen.

(By Nathan Busenitz)

I am in the midst of teaching through the Ante-Nicene period of church history. Recently, as we studied the life of Justin Martyr, I came across an interesting quote in which Justin describes a mid-second-century church service.

To give a little context, Justin is explaining Christianity to the Roman emperor, making the case that Christianity should not be illegal (as it was in those days). In the course of his Apology, he describes a typical church service. I think you’ll be encouraged to see what was included in an ancient Christian worship service. (Note that Justin refers to the pastor by the term “president,” namely as the one "presiding" over the worship service.)

On the day called Sunday there is a gathering together in the same place of all who live in a given city or rural district. The memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits. Then when the reader ceases, the president [pastor] in a discourse admonishes and urges the imitation of these good things. Next we all rise together and send up prayers.

When we cease from our prayer, bread is presented and wine and water. The president in the same manner sends up prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people sing out their assent, saying the 'Amen.' A distribution and participation of the elements for which thanks have been given is made to each person, and to those who are not present they are sent by the deacons.

Those who have means and are willing, each according to his own choice, gives what he wills, and what is collected is deposited with the president. He provides for the orphans and widows, those who are in need on account of sickness or some other cause, those who are in bonds, strangers who are sojourning, and in a word he becomes the protector of all who are in need.

But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead.

For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration. (First Apology, 67)

Per Justin's description, we get a pretty good idea of what took place in an ancient Christian church service. Notice at least seven important factors: (1) Scripture was read, from both the New Testament (“the memoirs of the apostles”) and the Old Testament (“the writings of the prophets”). (2) The pastor preached a message ("discourse"), exhorting the people to obey the things they had just heard from the Scripture. (3) The congregation prayed together. (4) The congregation participated in commemorating the Lord’s Supper. (5) In their preparation for Communion, the pastor prayed and the congregation sang songs of affirmation. (6) An offering was taken in order to meet the needs of fellow saints. (7) All of this took place on Sunday, the day on which Jesus rose from the dead.

When I read Justin’s description I am encouraged, because those same things are found at our church too. Like the ancient church described here, we read the Scripture, listen to preaching, pray, sing, give, and regularly celebrate the Lord’s Table. And, of course, we also meet on Sundays.

I sometimes hear proponents of the emergent church arguing that we need to get back to the “ancient practices” of the church. But what "ancient practices" are they talking about? The mysticism of the late medieval period perhaps? 

If you really want the ancient church, it doesn't get any more ancient than the quote provided above. In fact, this description of an ancient church service (written by Justin Martyr around A.D. 150) is the earliest we have outside the New Testament.

So, how "emergent" was the ancient church? According to Justin Martyr, not much at all. For starters, a church that spends "as long as time permits" listening to the reading and preaching of God's Word would hardly fit the Emergent Village paradigm. Yet, that is exactly what the church of Justin's day did. They met each Sunday to fill their hearts with the truth of God's Word. Then, having been overwhelmed with that truth, they responded by praying, singing, giving, and celebrating the Lord's Table.

(By Mark Zhakevich)

While attending the Feast of Booths, Jesus exclaimed, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”  The apostle John comments that “this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37–39).  The latter part of this verse has generated no small amount of discussion in church history.  In what sense was the Spirit “not yet given”? (Literally in the Greek, “the Spirit was not.”)   Although some see this text as support for a lack of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of OT believers, there are three reasons why we can affirm the Spirit’s indwelling of OT saints: regeneration, sanctification, and empowerment.

Regeneration

Regeneration can be defined as “a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us” [1] and this process is the work of the Holy Spirit (John 3:3–8).  If depravity is universal (Rom 3:9–23) and justification is apart from works (Rom 3:20), then OT saints (e.g. Noah and Abraham) were justified solely by the work of the Holy Spirit (Gen 6:9, Rom 4:3).  Otherwise, how were individuals before Christ justified? 

The Holy Spirit has always been the regenerating agent. Although the OT does not explicitly use NT terminology of regeneration, [2] Larry Pettegrew observes that “circumcise your heart” (Deut 10:16, 30:6: Ezek 44:7, 9) is the OT reference for regeneration. [3] Deuteronomy 30:6 shows that love for God is a result of a circumcised heart.  Similarly, in 1 John, love for God is a byproduct of fellowship with God, which occurs after regeneration. Effectively, John is saying unless you are born of God, you cannot love Him.  In the OT, circumcision of the heart preceded love for God; in the NT, regeneration precedes a love for God, both of which are a result of the work of the agent of regeneration, the Holy Spirit.

Sanctification

OT indwelling is also affirmed by holy lives of OT saints.  Arthur Pink summarizes the complete and instantaneous process of regeneration, leading to holiness, in this way: “Regeneration consists in a radical change of heart, for there is implanted a new disposition as the foundation of all holy exercises; the mind being renovated, the affections elevated, and the will emancipated from the bondage of sin.” [4] After the Holy Spirit regenerates, it is difficult to imagine that He would leave that individual to rely on his own ability to produce the fruit of the Spirit.  Paul teaches that no one can live by the law of God unless the Spirit of God lives within him or her (Rom 8:2–17, Gal 5:16–26). 

A glimpse into the lives of OT saints confirms that they did not carry out the desires of the flesh.  Genesis 6:9 presents Noah as a “righteous man, blameless in his time” who walked with God.  Likewise, Job is described as blameless, upright, God fearing, and turning away from evil (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3).  Hebrews 11 is a gallery of OT saints who lived in the power of the Spirit. Since regeneration and holiness are works of the Spirit, any ongoing evidence of holy living must also be done in the power of the Holy Spirit. Leon Wood helpfully summarizes this truth when he says “since these OT saints . . . remained in a regenerate condition, it must have been the Holy Spirit who kept them so.” [5]

Since faith is a gift of God (Eph 2:8) and sanctification is a work of God (Phil 2:12–13), an OT saint’s continual display of the fruits of the Spirit leads to the conclusion that the Spirit indwelt that person, producing the fruit that is pleasing to God and proving genuine faith.

Empowerment

The Holy Spirit’s empowerment of the OT saints for ministry is the final proof of indwelling.  There are numerous examples in the OT that demonstrate the Spirit coming upon certain men for ministry.  The examples can be divided into three categories: craftsmanship, administration, and prophecy. 

Exodus 31:1–5 describes Bezalel being filled with the Spirit of God for the purpose of artistry in the tabernacle. Judges, kings and civic rulers were also filled with the Spirit of God to accomplish the administrative duties required of them.  Samson was chosen by God to resist the Philistines (Judg 14:19).  Joshua was empowered by the Spirit to assist Moses in leading the Israelites (Num 27:18).  1 Samuel 16:13 describes David under the guidance of the Spirit of Yahweh following his anointing as the king of Israel. Prophets were also filled with the Spirit of God (2 Chron 15:1–7, Mic 3:8) and prophesied, resurrected the dead (1 Kgs 17:17–24), and performed supernatural works (2 Kgs 1:10).  These miracles glorified God and were committed in the power of the Spirit. 

The Meaning of John 7:39

If regeneration, sanctification, and empowerment affirm OT indwelling of believers, what is the meaning of John 7:39? What is the meaning of “the Spirit was not”? 

Jesus is saying that in comparison to the Spirit’s upcoming work, His prior activity made it seem as if He was not active on the earth. Leon Morris writes that “there is nothing that we can compare with the activity of the apostolic age.  Then it was ‘Spirit’ in a way it had never been before.” [6] H. F. Woodhouse adds that “the power revealed at Pentecost was so amplified that it was as though till then the Spirit had not been acting.” [7] Woodhouse makes an analogy with an athlete who after performing extremely well in a game is said to “have arrived” or that he “was unknown until now.”  This does not mean that the athlete has never played or played successfully, rather that his current performance is much better than previous competitions; it is as if he were unknown until now. [8] Likewise, although the Spirit acted in the past, His outpouring and explosive activity at Pentecost becomes so much greater that it could be said that He was not active in the same extent.

For example, He is (1) the comforter, (2) a witness to Christ, and (3) one who glorifies Christ. [9] All three of these roles were commenced after Jesus’ ascension. In the OT, the Spirit of God is never described as the comforter, [10] or a witness and glorifier of Christ.  He testifies to Jesus’ death and resurrection through the Scriptures, apostles, and the church. [11] Similarly, the Spirit could not glorify Christ to the full extent until after ascension. All the events related to the mission of Christ were completed and now the Holy Spirit had all the historical events of redemption to refer back to in His work of regeneration, sanctification, empowerment of people and glorification of Christ so that He now operated as He had never done before. The Holy Spirit “was not” in the sense that He was not as majestically active in the OT as He would be post-ascension.

Both the OT and NT present the Holy Spirit as the only regenerating agent in the plan of redemption, the sole agent of sanctification—working in the hearts of OT and NT believers, convicting them of sin and producing genuine God worshippers—and as the only agent of empowerment, enabling the saints of both testaments to live holy lives which are acceptable to God.  He continues to fulfill this role in us today as He had done from the beginning of time.  The extent of His work in believers has increased, but He was always in believers and among believers.

* * * * *
ENDNOTES:

[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000), 699. 

[2] “Born again” appears to be the terminology used in the NT to describe regeneration by the Holy Spirit.  Cf. John 3:3, 7; 1 Peter 1:3, 23. 

[3] Larry D. Pettegrew, The New Covenant Ministry of the Holy Spirit, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications, 2001), 26.  

[4] Arthur W. Pink,  The Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Guardian Press, 1970), 49.

[5] Leon Wood, The Holy Spirit, 70. 

[6] Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1971), 427.

[7] H. F. Woodhouse, “Hard Sayings-IX: The Holy Ghost Was Not Yet Given,” Theology 67 (1964): 311.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Gary Fredricks, “Rethinking the Role of the Holy Spirit in the Lives of Old Testament Believers,” Trinity Journal 9, no. 1 (1988): 99-101.

[10] The Greek term for comforter and helper is parakaleto which occurs once in the LXX in Job 16:12, where a reference is made to Job’s friends being his “comforters.”  G. Braumann, “ Advocate, Paraclete, Helper,” NIDNTT, 1:89.    

[11] Fredricks, 101.

(By Kelly Wright)

* Kelly serves as the Junior High Pastor at Grace Community Church.

It is estimated that 5,500 Americans will die today. Over 2 million Americans will pass from this life to the next this year alone. Worldwide it will be more than 50 million individuals who will learn what lies beyond the grave.

There is no question that death is common in this world. Though death is guaranteed to happen to each living person I would be curious to know how common of a topic death is with us. How often do we contemplate that death will happen to us?

Death has been sanitized in our culture. The exposure to death tends to be during a television show, movie, or the matter-of-fact treatment given by the news media. This exposure numbs us to death’s sting and creates a distance between us and it.

Death is regarded as a disease to be cured. I was recently introduced to the option that a new process, cryonics, provides. Any individual may, for the right price, have their body suspended in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of -320 degrees. The body is suspended after it has been clinically determined dead. One company website advertises their solution this way, “When and if future medical technology allows, our member patients hope to be healed, rejuvenated, revived, and awakened to a greatly extended life in youthful good health, free from disease or the aging process” (http://www.cryonics.org/).

Yet death cannot be escaped. Only a month ago my grandma passed away. My wife and I were present during her final days, we watched as her body began to shut down. We were there moments after her body had finished working and her soul entered into the presence of her Savior. In that moment, the event of death became real. Immediately my mind went to Solomon’s words, “It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart” (Eccl 7:2).

What is it that the living are to lay to heart? There are four thoughts, amongst many, that God has placed on my heart since my stay in the house of mourning.

First, Death Will Happen to Each of Us. Paul helps us to understand in Romans 6:23 that death is a consequence of sin. It is something that cannot be escaped and should be expected by all. In fact, a simple reading of the Bible reveals much death since the sin of Adam and Eve. In Genesis 5 we find a genealogy with reference to Methuselah who lived 969 years along with others who lived many more years than we do today. Yet, found eight times in the list is the phrase, “and he died.” Death has been a constant reality ever since the Fall.

Second, We Will Take Nothing With Us. Solomon makes this point best in Ecclesiastes 5:15, “As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand.” There are no U-haul trailers attached to the hearse. If none of the possessions we have today will come with us to eternity, why do we care so much about them? Solomon’s statement should bring to mind what Jim Elliot aptly stated, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Third, We Will Spend Eternity Somewhere. Existence does not end at death; rather it is the beginning of eternity in heaven or hell. This reality cannot be forgotten. Revelation 20:11-21:4 provides a very clear picture of the lake of fire and the new heaven and new earth. The reality of death should lead us to read, study, and meditate on what is in store in eternity. It will motivate our evangelism and cultivate our anticipation for God’s presence.

Lastly, We Are Not Dead Yet. If you are reading this blog, you are still living. Are you saved? Have you confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead? If not, you still have an opportunity. If you are saved, do you own the truth of 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” Our lives are no longer our own as children of God. We are expected to serve our Savior. If living, this expectation and privilege is always on us.

Death is a common reality that is all around us. We should not ignore it, nor should we fear it. Rather we should prepare ourselves and live in light of eternity. Solomon reminds us that there are lessons to lay to our hearts in regards to death. With that in mind, let us live each day, beginning today, for God’s glory. 

(By John MacArthur)

Yesterday we looked at seven common conditions or tests that don't necessarily prove or disprove the existence of saving faith. What then are the marks of genuine saving faith? Are there some reliable tests from the Word of God that enable us to know for certain whether one's faith is real? Thankfully there are at least nine biblical criteria for examining the genuineness of saving faith.

Nine conditions that prove genuine saving faith.

1. Love for God

First of all a deep and abiding love for God is one of the supreme evidences of genuine saving faith. This gets to the heart of the issue. Romans 8:7 says "the carnal mind is enmity [hostility, hatred] against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." Thus, if a man's heart is at enmity with God there is no basis for assuming the presence of saving faith. Those who are truly saved love God, but those who are not truly saved resent God and His sovereignty. Internally they are rebellious toward God and His plan for their life. But the regenerate person is set to love the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. His delight is in the infinite excellencies of God. God is the first and highest affection of his renewed soul. God has become his chief happiness and source of satisfaction. He seeks after God and thirsts for the living God.

By the way, we must be careful to distinguish the difference between that kind of true love for God that seeks His glory from the kind of self-serving love that sees God primarily as a means of personal fulfillment and gain. True saving faith doesn't believe in Christ so that Christ will make one happy. The heart that truly loves God desires to please God and glorify Him. Jesus taught that if someone loved their father and mother more than they loved Christ, they were not worthy of Him. In Matthew 10:37-39 Jesus put it like this: "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:37-39)

The question then is this: Do you love God? Do you love His nature? Do you love His glory? Do you love His name? Do you love His kingdom? Do you love His holiness? Do you love His will? Is your heart lifted when you sing His praises-because you love Him? Supreme love for God is decisive evidence of true faith.

2. Repentance from Sin

A proper love for God necessarily involves a hatred for sin that leads to repentance. That should be obvious. Who wouldn't understand that? If we truly love someone we seek their best interests. Their well being is our greatest concern. If a man says to his wife, "I love you but I could care less what happens to you," we would rightly question his love for her. True love seeks the highest good of its object. If we say that we love God, then we will hate whatever is an offense to Him. Sin blasphemes God. Sin curses God. Sin seeks to destroy God's work and His kingdom. Sin killed His Son. So when someone says, "I love God, but I tolerate sin," then there is every reason to question the genuineness of his love for God. One cannot love God without hating that which is set to destroy Him. True love for God will therefore manifest itself through confession and repentance. The man who loves God will be grieved over his sin and will want to confess it to God and forsake it.

In examining our faith we should ask: "Do I have a settled conviction concerning the evil of all sin? Does sin appear to me as the evil and bitter thing that it really is? Does conviction of sin increase in me as I walk with Christ? Do I hate it not primarily because it is ruinous to my own soul or because it is an offense to the God I love? Does the sin itself grieve me or am I only grieved over the consequences of my sin. What grieves me most-my misfortune or my sin? Do my sins appear to me as many, frequent and aggravated? Do I find myself grieved over my own sin more than the sins of others?" Genuine saving faith loves God and hates what He hates, which is sin. That attitude results in real repentance.

3. Genuine Humility

Saving faith is manifested through genuine humility. Jesus said blessed are those who are poor in spirit, and those who mourn [their sin], and those who are meek, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matthew 5:3-6)-all marks of humility. In Matthew 18 Jesus said that "unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). True saving faith comes as a little child-humble and dependent. It is not the man who is full of himself who is saved, but the man who denies himself, takes up his cross daily and follows Christ (Matthew 16:24).

In the Old Testament we see that the Lord receives those who come with a broken and contrite spirit (Psalm 34:18; 51:17; Isaiah 57:15; 66:2). James wrote: "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6). We must come as the prodigal son, broken and humble. Remember what he said to his father-"Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son" (Luke 15:21). Those possessing genuine saving faith do not come boastfully to God with their religious achievements or spiritual accomplishments in hand. They come empty-handed in genuine humility.

4. Devotion to God's Glory

True saving faith is manifested by a devotion to God's glory. Whatever believers do, whether they eat or drink, their desire is to see God glorified. Christians do what they do because they want to bring glory to God.

Without question Christians fail in each of these areas, but the direction of a Christian's life is to love God, hate sin, to live in humility and self-denial, recognizing his unworthiness and being devoted to the glory of God. It is not the perfection of one's life but the direction of a life that provides evidence of regeneration.

5. Continual Prayer

Humble, submissive, believing prayer is mark of true faith. We cry "Abba, Father" because the Spirit within us prompts that cry. Jonathan Edwards once preached a sermon titled, "Hypocrites are Deficient in the Duty of Secret Prayer." It's true. Hypocrites may pray publicly, because that's what hypocrites want to do. Their desire is to impress people-but they are deficient in the duty of secret prayer. True believers have a personal and private prayer life with God. They regularly seek communion with God through prayer.

6. Selfless Love

An important characteristic of genuine saving faith is selfless love. James wrote, "If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well" (James 2:8). John wrote, "Whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?" (1 John 3:17). If you love God you will not only hate what offends Him, but you will love those whom He loves. "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death" (1 John 3:14). And why do we love God and love others? Because this is the believer's response to His love for us. "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Jesus said we will know that we are His disciples by our love for each other (John 13:35).

7. Separation from the World

Positively, believers are marked by a love for God and for fellow believers. Negatively, the Christian is characterized by the absence of love for the world. True believers are not those who are ruled by worldly affections, but their affection and devotion is toward God and His kingdom.

In 1 Corinthians 2:12 Paul wrote that "we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God." In 1 John 2:15 we read: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15). True saving faith separates one from the pursuits of this world--not perfectly, as we all fail in these areas, but the direction of a believer's life is upward. He feels the pull of heaven on his soul. Christians are those whom God has delivered from the power of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of His Son. The believer is marked by the absence of love or enslavement to the satanically controlled world system (Ephesians 2:1-3; Colossians 1:13; James 4:4).

8. Spiritual Growth

True believers grow. When God begins a true work of salvation in a person, He finishes and perfects that work. Paul expressed that assurance when he wrote in Philippians 1:6, "being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."

If you are a true Christian, you are going to be growing-and that means you are going to be more and more like Christ. Life produces itself. If you're alive you are going to grow, there's no other way. You'll improve. You'll increase. The Spirit will move you from one level of glory to the next. So examine your life. Do you see spiritual growth? Do you see the decreasing frequency of sin? Is there an increasing pattern of righteousness and devotion to God?

9. Obedience

Obedient living is not one of the optional tracks given for believers to walk. All true believers are called to a life of obedience. Jesus taught that every branch that abides in Him bears fruit (John 15:1-8). Paul wrote that believers "are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). That speaks of obedience. We are saved unto the obedience of faith (see 1 Peter 1:2).

How can we know our faith is genuine? Examine your life in the light of God's Word. Do you see these characteristics in your life? Do you have a love for God, hatred for sin, humility, devotion to God's glory, a pattern of personal and private prayer, selfless love, separation from the world, the evidence of spiritual growth and obedience. These are the real evidences of genuine saving faith.

(By John MacArthur)

What kind of things do and do not prove the genuineness of saving faith?

Answer

Churches today are filled with people who hold to a faith that does not save. James referred to this as a "dead faith"-meaning a mere empty profession (James 2:17, 20, 26). Paul wrote to the people in the church at Corinth to test or examine themselves to see if they were truly in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). As important as it was in Paul's day, how much more important it is for people in our churches today to put their faith to the test and to make sure they have not been deceived.

(By John MacArthur)

Today’s article comes from a booklet John wrote entitled, Is Your Salvation Secure? The entire booklet can be read here.

For many years people have debated the issue of whether a Christian can lose his salvation. Some within Christendom believe you can lose your salvation; others say you can’t. That, perhaps more than any other single doctrine, has been a dividing issue in the church. How sad that is, because the Bible is clear about the matter.

It is surprising that many Christians would deny or ignore the straightforward presentation of the doctrine of security in Romans chapter 8. There are other texts in the Bible that discuss the security of the believer, but none are as pointed as Romans 8:28-30. We find in those verses that everyone who has been redeemed by Jesus Christ, without exception, will be glorified.

The key phrase in this trilogy of verses is at the end of verse 28: “called according to His [God's] purpose.” We are forever secure because that was God’s purpose. The Son of God and the Holy Spirit intercede for us so that the plan of God might come to pass. So our security is guaranteed not only by the purpose of God, but also by the outworking of that purpose through the intercessory ministries of the Son and the Spirit.

The phrase “called according to His purpose” helps us to understand verses 29-30, which explain God’s purpose: “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

God causes all things to work out for the believer’s good, which is “according to His purpose.” There is no other way to explain why He does that; He simply wants to. God is free to make whatever decisions He wants. And He sovereignly chose for all things to work together for the good and glory of those who are redeemed. Nothing can change that.

To read more, click here.

(By John MacArthur)

The apostle Paul perfectly expresses the most earnest desire of every true follower of Christ: “That I may know him” (Phil. 3:10).

“Knowing Christ,” in the Pauline sense is not the sort of mystical relationship many people imagine. Paul wasn’t longing for some secret knowledge of Christ beyond what is revealed in Scripture. In fact, the knowledge of Christ Paul sought was anything but mystical. What he longed to know was the power of Christ’s resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, and conformity to His death.

We err greatly if we think of intimacy with Christ as some lofty level of mysterious, feelings-based communion with the Divine—as if it involved some knowledge of God that goes beyond what Scripture has revealed. That idea is the very heart of the gnostic heresy. It has nothing in common with true Christianity.

Just what do we mean, then, when we speak of intimacy with Christ? How can we pursue knowing Christ the way Paul had in mind in Philippians 3:10? Scripture suggests at least five aspects of true intimacy with Christ:

The Intimacy of Faith

Notice what prompts Paul's  comment about knowing Christ in Philippians 3:10. He had already spent several verses describing his life before Christ (4-6). He cited all the spiritual advantages he enjoyed as a Pharisaic Jew. But then he declared that he had discarded all those spiritual advantages for Christ’s sake:

“What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (vv. 7-8).

As a Pharisee, Paul had sought to earn God’s favor by legal obedience. But he came to realize that the law sets a standard he could never meet. And so he scrapped all his own works of righteousness as if they were filthy rags (cf. Isa. 64:6). This does not mean that he ceased doing good works, of course, but that he gave up trusting in those works for his salvation. Instead, he put all his faith in Christ—and was clothed in Christ’s perfect righteousness instead of his own imperfect works.

This is the doctrine known as justification by faith. Scripture teaches that our sins were imputed to Christ, and He paid the full penalty for them in His death. Now Christ’s own righteousness is imputed to us, and we receive the full merit of it. Without this reality we could enjoy no relationship whatsoever with a holy God.

Moreover, justification by faith—because it means we are clothed in Christ’s own righteousness—establishes the most intimate imaginable relationship between the believer and his Lord. It is an inviolable spiritual union. That’s why Paul often described believers as those who are “in Christ.”

In other words, all true intimacy with Christ has its basis in faith. In fact, no relationship with Him whatsoever is possible apart from faith (Heb. 1:1). As the apostle Peter points out, we love Him by faith, even though we have not seen Him (1 Pet. 1:8).

The Intimacy of True Worship

In Hosea 6:6 the Lord says, “I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

That verse means we should not imagine that worship consists of rote acts of religious ritual—like sacrifices, burnt offerings, and other ceremonies. Instead, we need to realize that real worship is grounded in the true knowledge of God.

If we want God to delight in our worship, we must think rightly about Him. The very essence of idolatry consists in wrong thoughts about God. And conversely, true knowledge of God means knowing Him as He is revealed in Scripture.

To put it another way, sound doctrine, not liturgy and ritual, is the litmus test of whether our worship is acceptable.

Right thinking about God is therefore essential to true intimacy with Him. Anyone who would know Him intimately must know what He has revealed about Himself. And again, this does not mean we should seek some mystical knowledge about God. All we can know with any certainty about God is what is revealed in Scripture. Those who would know the true God in the true way must therefore seek to be thoroughly familiar with His Word.

The Intimacy of Prayer

Jesus himself taught us to seek intimacy with God through private prayer. Prayer is where the worshiper pours out his heart to God. And Jesus Himself stressed the importance of private prayer: “when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret” (Matt. 6:6).

He was confronting the practice of the Pharisees, who loved to pray publicly, for show. Jesus was not teaching that prayers should never be offered publicly, for there are obviously times when Scripture calls us to corporate prayer.

But the true Christian seeking intimacy with God will pray most often, and most fervently, in private. The true audience of all our prayers is God Himself. And if we understood what an incomprehensible privilege it is to be invited to come boldly before His throne of grace, we would surely spend more time there, pouring out our most intimate thoughts, fears, desires, and expressions of love to Him.

The Intimacy of Obedience

Jesus said to the disciples, “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (Jn. 15:14). Thus Christ Himself made obedience to Him an absolute requirement for true spiritual intimacy.

Let no one claim intimacy with Christ whose life is marked by disobedience rather than submission to Him. Those who refuse to obey Christ as Lord cannot claim to know Him as a friend. Scripture plainly declares that He is Lord of all (Acts 10:36), and He is therefore entitled to demand our allegiance to His Lordship.

As a matter of fact, those who withhold that allegiance are His enemies, not His intimates (cf. Jas. 4:4). That’s why true intimacy with Him is utterly impossible without unconditional surrender to His divine authority.

Again, this takes the matter of intimacy with Christ out of the realm of the mystical and defines it in terms that are intensely practical.

The Intimacy of Suffering

Returning to Philippians 3:10, we note once again what kind of intimacy with Christ Paul was seeking: “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

Of course, we easily understand why Paul wanted a share in the power of Christ’s resurrection. But why did the apostle desire to know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings and be conformed to His death?

We can be certain that Paul had no perverse love of pain and suffering. Elsewhere he testified how he repeatedly besought the Lord to deliver him from a “messenger of Satan” that was like a thorn under his skin (2 Cor. 12:7).

In the midst of that experience Paul discovered that God’s grace is sufficient to see us through all our sufferings. Moreover, God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness (v. 9).

God gives a special measure of grace to those whom He calls to endure suffering. In a familiar passage in the Beatitudes, Jesus said this about suffering:

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you (Matt. 5:10-12).

There is a special blessedness known only to those who suffer for Christ’s sake. Those who would desire true intimacy with Him must be willing to endure what He endured.

The Full Picture

Add all those things together to get the full picture: True intimacy with Christ involves suffering, obedience, much prayer, a good knowledge of God’s Word, and a life of faith.

Notice that those are not advanced skills for second-level Christians. They are the most elementary issues of the Christian life. That underscores the truth that intimacy with Christ is not some sort of mystical secret. It is the whole point of our life in Christ. Indeed, it is the chief end for which we were created: to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

(By John MacArthur)

I have in my library a book by the spiritual father of a quasi-Christian cult. It argues that structured doctrine and systematized theology are contrary to the spirit of Jesus’ ministry.

The idea that Christ is anti-doctrine is a foundational belief of that cult. But no idea is further from the truth. The word doctrine simply means “teaching.” And it’s ludicrous to say that Christ is anti-teaching. The central imperative of His Great Commission is the command to teach (Matthew 28:18-20).

Unfortunately, cultists aren’t alone in their bias against doctrine. Some evangelicals have almost the same perspective. Because they view doctrine as heady and theoretical, they dismiss it as unimportant, divisive, threatening, or simply impractical.

People often ask why I emphasize doctrine so much. Now and then someone tells me frankly that my preaching needs to be less doctrinal and more practical.

Of course, practical application is vital. I don’t want to minimize its importance. But if there is a deficiency in preaching today, it is that there’s too much relational, pseudopsychological, and thinly life-related content, and not enough emphasis on sound doctrine.

The distinction between doctrinal and practical truth is artificial; doctrine is practical! In fact, nothing is more practical than sound doctrine.

The pastor who turns away from preaching sound doctrine abdicates the primary responsibility of an elder: “holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict” (Titus 1:9). We teach truth, we teach error, or we teach nothing at all.

Building on the Truth

Practical insights, gimmicks, and illustrations mean little if they’re not attached to divine principle. There’s no basis for godly behavior apart from the truth of God’s Word. Before the preacher asks anyone to perform a certain duty, he must first deal with doctrine. He must develop his message around theological themes and draw out the principles of the texts. Then the truth can be applied.

Romans provides the clearest example. Paul doesn’t give any exhortation until he has given eleven chapters of theology.

He scales incredible heights of truth, culminating in 11:33-36, where he says, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

Then in chapter 12, he turns immediately to the practical consequences of the doctrine of the first 11 chapters. No passage in Scripture captures the Christian’s responsibility in the face of truth more clearly than Romans 12:1-2.

Resting on eleven chapters of profound doctrine, Paul calls each believer to a supreme act of spiritual worship — giving oneself as a living sacrifice. Doctrine gives rise to dedication to Christ, the greatest practical act. And the remainder of the book of Romans goes on to explain the many practical outworkings of one’s dedication to Christ.

He follows the same pattern in Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 1 Thessalonians. The doctrinal message comes first. Upon that foundation he builds the practical application, making the logical connection with the word therefore (Romans 1:1; Galatians 5:1; Ephesians 4:1; Philippians 2:1) or then (Colossians 3:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:1).

Living by the Truth

We have imposed an artificial meaning on the word doctrine. We’ve made it something abstract and threatening, unrelated to daily living. That has brought about the disastrous idea that preaching and teaching are unrelated to living.

The scriptural concept of doctrine includes the entire message of the gospel — its teaching about God, salvation, sin, and righteousness. Those concepts are so tightly bound to daily living that the first-century mind did not see them as something separate from practical truth.

The New Testament church was founded on a solid base of doctrine. First Timothy 3:16 contains what many expositors believe is an early church hymn: “God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (KJV). There, in capsule form, is the basis of all Christian teaching. Without that, no practical application matters.

Departing from the Truth

The next few verses of 1 Timothy describe what happens when men depart from the basis of biblical truth: “Some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth” (4:1-3).

Lying, hypocrisy, a dulled conscience, and false religious practices all have roots in wrong doctrine.

No ministry activity is more important than rightly understanding and clearly proclaiming sound doctrine. In 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, Paul commissions two young men to the ministry. His central theme is the importance of adhering to sound doctrine.

Paul charged Timothy: “In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following” (1 Timothy 4:6). “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching,” Paul adds, “persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you” (v. 16).

Titus 2:10 says we “adorn [or honor] the doctrine of God” by how we live. When it comes to affirming sound doctrine, what we do carries far more significance than what we say. That’s why it’s disastrous when a pastor, seminary professor, or any kind of Christian leader fails morally. The message he proclaims is that his doctrine becomes merely an intellectual exercise.

Hearing the Truth

True doctrine transforms behavior as it is woven into the fabric of everyday life. But it must be understood if it is to have its impact. The real challenge of the ministry is to dispense the truth clearly and accurately. Practical application comes easily by comparison.

No believer can apply truth he doesn’t know. Those who don’t know the Bible’s principles for marriage, divorce, family, childrearing, discipline, money, debt, work, service to Christ, responsibilities to the poor, care of widows, response to governments, eternal rewards, and other teachings will not be able to apply them.

Those who don’t’ know what the Bible teaches about salvation cannot be saved. Those who don’t know what the Bible teaches about holiness are incapable of dealing with sin. Thus they are unable to live fully to God’s glory and their own blessedness.

(By John MacArthur)

In 1874, a Baptist minister named Robert Lowry penned one of the most stirring hymns to ever exalt the resurrection of Jesus Christ—”Low in the Grave He Lay.” Notice how these verses contrast the impotence of death and suffering with the resurrection power of Christ:

Low in the grave He lay, Jesus my Savior;
Waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord!
Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus my Savior;
Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!
Death cannot keep its Prey, Jesus my Savior;
He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!

Death, man’s most dread enemy, is powerless to reign over the Lord of life. And that truth has significance for you and me, here and now in the twenty-first century. You can see it in the most exciting and rousing part of Lowry’s hymn, the refrain that punctuates each stanza:

Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
He arose! He arose!
Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Do you see in those lines what Jesus’ resurrection means to you? If you are a Christian, you can rejoice in the fact that Christ rose from the dead as a victor, a champion who lives forever to reign, “with His saints.” That refers to the promise based on our baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ—it is our hope and the reason and ground of all we believe.

But what if there were no resurrection? What if the resurrection of Jesus Christ is just a first-century myth to be ignored or marginalized as a secondary issue? The implications of that approach are devastating to Christianity.

I want to draw your attention to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:16-19 so that you can see what happens when you forget the resurrection.

For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

Without question, if Jesus is still in the grave, if He is perpetually the sufferer and never the Victor, then you and I are hopelessly lost. And though that is not the case, I want to focus on the hypothetical “what if” that Paul assumes temporarily in 1 Corinthians 15. “What if the resurrection were a myth? What if Jesus Christ were still dead and in the grave?”

First of all, you would still be in your sins, under the tyranny of death along with the most vile and unbelieving pagan. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then sin won the victory over Him and continues to be victorious over you too. If Jesus remained in the grave, then, when you die you would also stay dead. Furthermore, since “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), were you to remain dead, death and eternal punishment would be your future.

The purpose of trusting in Christ is for forgiveness of sins, because it is from sin that we need to be saved. “Christ died for our sins” and “was buried, and … raised on the third day” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). If Christ was not raised, His death was in vain, your faith in Him would be pointless, and your sins would still be counted against you with no hope of spiritual life.

Second, if there is no resurrection, then “those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.” That means every Old Testament saint, every New Testament saint, and every saint since Paul wrote would be suffering in torment at this very moment. That would include Paul himself, the rest of the apostles, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Moody, and the faithful and prayerful saints you’ve known—every other believer in every age also would be in hell. Their faith would have been in vain, their sins would not have been forgiven, and their destiny would be damnation.

In light of the other consequences, the last is rather obvious. “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” Without Christ’s resurrection, and the salvation and blessings it brings, Christianity would be pointless and pitiable. Without the resurrection we would have no Savior, no forgiveness, no gospel, no meaningful faith, no life, and we could never have hope for any of those things.

To have hoped in Christ alone in this life would be to teach, preach, suffer, sacrifice, and work entirely for nothing. If Christ is still dead, then He not only has no ability to save you in the future, but He can’t help you now either. If He were not alive, where would be your source of peace, joy, or satisfaction now? The Christian life would be a mockery, a charade, a tragic and cruel joke. Christians who suffer and even die for the faith would be just as blind and pathetic as those “believers” who followed Jim Jones and the People’s Temple, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, and Marshall Applewhite and the Heaven’s Gate cult.

Since a Christian has no Savior but Christ, no Redeemer but Christ, and no Lord but Christ, if Christ is not raised, He is not alive, and our Christian life is lifeless. We would have nothing to justify our faith, our Bible study, our preaching or witnessing, our service for Him or our worship of Him, and nothing to justify our hope in this life or the next. We would deserve nothing but the compassion reserved for fools.

But, God did raise “Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:24-25). Because Christ lives, we too shall live (John 14:19). “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:30-31).

We are NOT to be pitied, for Paul immediately ends the dreadful “what if” section by saying, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). As Paul said at the end of his life, “I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him [i.e. his life] until that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).

Those who do not hope in Christ alone for salvation are the real fools; they are the ones who need to hear your compassionate testimony about the triumph of Christ’s resurrection. So don’t forget the resurrection; rejoice in it and glory in it, for He is risen indeed.

(By John MacArthur)

No doctrine is more despised by the natural mind than the truth that God is absolutely sovereign. Human pride loathes the suggestion that God orders everything, controls everything, rules over everything. The carnal mind, burning with enmity against God, abhors the biblical teaching that nothing comes to pass except according to His eternal decrees. Most of all, the flesh hates the notion that salvation is entirely God’s work. If God chose who would be saved, and if His choice was settled before the foundation of the world, then believers deserve no credit for their salvation.

But that is, after all, precisely what Scripture teaches. Even faith is God’s gracious gift to His elect. Jesus said, “No one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father” (John 6:65). “Nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27). Therefore no one who is saved has anything to boast about (cf Eph. 2:8, 9). “Salvation is from the Lord” (Jonah 2:9).

The doctrine of divine election is explicitly taught throughout Scripture. For example, in the New Testament epistles alone, we learn that all believers are “chosen of God” (Titus 1:1). We were “predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11, emphasis added). “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world . . . He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (vv. 4, 5). We “are called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son . . . and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (Rom. 8:28–30).

When Peter wrote that we are “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Peter 1:1, 2), he was not using the word “foreknowledge” to mean that God was aware beforehand who would believe and therefore chose them because of their foreseen faith. Rather, Peter meant that God determined before time began to know and love and save them; and He chose them without regard to anything good or bad they might do. We’ll return to this point again, but for now, note that those verses explicitly state that God’s sovereign choice is made “according to the kind intention of His will” and “according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will”—that is, not for any reason external to Himself. Certainly He did not choose certain sinners to be saved because of something praiseworthy in them, or because He foresaw that they would choose Him. He chose them solely because it pleased Him to do so. God declares “the end from the beginning . . . saying, ‘My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure’” (Isa. 46:10). He is not subject to others’ decisions. His purposes for choosing some and rejecting others are hidden in the secret counsels of His own will.

Moreover, everything that exists in the universe exists because God allowed it, decreed it, and called it into existence. “Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases” (Ps. 115:3). “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps” (Ps. 135:6). He “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11). “From Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom. 11:36). “For us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him” (1 Cor. 8:6).

What about sin? God is not the author of sin, but He certainly allowed it; it is integral to His eternal decree. God has a purpose for allowing it. He cannot be blamed for evil or tainted by its existence (1 Sam. 2:2: “There is no one holy like the Lord”). But He certainly wasn’t caught off-guard or standing helpless to stop it when sin entered the universe. We do not know His purposes for allowing sin. If nothing else, He permitted it in order to destroy evil forever. And God sometimes uses evil to accomplish good (Gen. 45:7, 8; 50:20; Rom. 8:28). How can these things be? Scripture does not answer all the questions for us. But we know from His Word that God is utterly sovereign, He is perfectly holy, and He is absolutely just.

Admittedly, those truths are hard for the human mind to embrace, but Scripture is unequivocal. God controls all things, right down to choosing who will be saved. Paul states the doctrine in inescapable terms in the ninth chapter of Romans, by showing that God chose Jacob and rejected his twin brother Esau “though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls” (v. 11). A few verses later, Paul adds this: “He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (vv. 15, 16).

Paul anticipated the argument against divine sovereignty: “You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’” (v. 19). In other words, doesn’t God’s sovereignty cancel out human responsibility? But rather than offering a philosophical answer or a deep metaphysical argument, Paul simply reprimanded the skeptic: “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use?” (vv. 20, 21).

Scripture affirms both divine sovereignty and human responsibility. We must accept both sides of the truth, though we may not understand how they correspond to one another. People are responsible for what they do with the gospel—or with whatever light they have (Rom. 2:19, 20), so that punishment is just if they reject the light. And those who reject do so voluntarily. Jesus lamented, “You are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life” (John 5:40). He told unbelievers, “Unless you believe that I am [God], you shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). In John chapter 6, our Lord combined both divine sovereignty and human responsibility when He said, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (v. 37); “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal life” (v. 40); “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (v. 44); “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life” (v. 47); and, “No one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father” (v. 65). How both of those two realities can be true simultaneously cannot be understood by the human mind—only by God.

Above all, we must not conclude that God is unjust because He chooses to bestow grace on some but not to everyone. God is never to be measured by what seems fair to human judgment. Are we so foolish as to assume that we who are fallen, sinful creatures have a higher standard of what is right than an unfallen and infinitely, eternally holy God? What kind of pride is that? In Psalm 50:21 God says, “You thought that I was just like you.” But God is not like us, nor can He be held to human standards. “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isa. 55:8, 9).

We step out of bounds when we conclude that anything God does isn’t fair. In Romans 11:33 the apostle writes, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?” (Rom. 11:33, 34).

(Today’s post was adapted from John’s book Ashamed of the Gospel published by Crossway Books.)

(By John MacArthur)

Did Jesus really claim to be God incarnate in human flesh? Or, as skeptics argue, did His followers later invent those claims and attribute them to Him? Thankfully, the biblical account of His life and ministry leaves no doubt about who Jesus declared Himself to be.

Jesus frequently spoke of His unique, otherworldly origin, of having preexisted in heaven before coming into this world. To the hostile Jews He declared, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23). “What then,” He asked, “if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?” (John 6:62). In His high-priestly prayer Jesus spoke of the glory which He had with the Father before the world existed (John 17:5). In John 16:28 He told His disciples, “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.” Thus, John described Jesus in the prologue of his gospel with these words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

Amazingly, Jesus assumed the prerogatives of deity. He claimed to have control over the eternal destinies of people (John 8:24; cf. Luke 12:8–9; John 5:22, 27–29), to have authority over the divinely-ordained institution of the Sabbath (Matt. 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5), to have the power to answer prayer (John 14:13–14; cf. Acts 7:59; 9:10–17), and to have the right to receive worship and faith due to God alone (Matt. 21:16; John 14:1; cf. John 5:23). He also assumed the ability to forgive sins (Mark 2:5–11)—something which, as His shocked opponents correctly understood, only God can do (v. 7).

Jesus also called God’s angels (Gen. 28:12; Luke 12:8–9; 15:10; John 1:51) His angels (Matt. 13:41; 24:30–31); God’s elect (Luke 18:7; Rom. 8:33) His elect (Matt. 24:30–31); and God’s kingdom (Matt. 12:28; 19:24; 21:31; Mark 1:15; Luke 4:43; John 3:3) His kingdom (Matt. 13:41; 16:28; cf. Luke 1:33; 2 Tim. 4:1).

When a Samaritan woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us” (John 4:25) Jesus replied, “I who speak to you am He” (v. 26). In His high-priestly prayer to the Father, He referred to Himself as “Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3); “Christ” is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word translated “Messiah.” When asked at His trial by the high priest, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61) Jesus replied simply, “I am” (v. 62). He also accepted, without correction or amendment, the testimonies of Peter (Matt. 16:16–17), Martha (John 11:27), and others (e.g., Matt. 9:27; 20:30–31) that He was the Messiah. He was the One of whom Isaiah prophesied, “His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

The Lord’s favorite description of Himself was “Son of Man” (cf. Matt. 8:20; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:22; John 9:35–37, etc.). Although that title seems to stress His humanity, it also speaks of His deity. Jesus’ use of the term derives from Daniel 7:13–14, where the Son of Man is on equal terms with God the Father, the Ancient of Days.

The Jews viewed themselves collectively as sons of God. Jesus, however, claimed to be God’s Son in a unique sense. “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father,” Jesus affirmed, “and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27). In John 5:25–26 He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.” After receiving word that Lazarus was ill Jesus said to the disciples, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it” (John 11:4). When asked at His trial, “Are You the Son of God, then?” Jesus replied, “Yes, I am” (Luke 22:70; cf. Mark 14:61–62). Instead of rejecting the title, the Lord embraced it without apology or embarrassment (Matt. 4:3, 6; 8:29; Mark 3:11–12; Luke 4:41; John 1:49–50; 11:27).

The hostile authorities clearly understood that Jesus’ use of the title Son of God was a claim to deity. Otherwise, they would not have accused Him of blasphemy (cf. John 10:46). In fact, it was Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God that led the Jews to demand His death: “The Jews answered [Pilate], ‘We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God’” (John 19:7). And in John 5:18 — “The Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” Even while He was on the cross, some mocked Him, sneering, “He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God’” (Matt. 27:43).

Jesus further outraged the unbelieving Jews by taking for Himself the covenant name of God, “I am” (Yahweh). That name was so sacred to the Jews that they refused to even pronounce it, lest they take it vain (cf. Exod. 20:7). In John 8:24 Jesus warned that those who refuse to believe He is Yahweh will perish eternally: “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” (The word “He” is not in the original Greek.) Later in that chapter “Jesus said to [His hearers], ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am’” (v. 58). Unlike many modern deniers of His deity, the Jews knew exactly what He was claiming, as their subsequent attempt to stone Him for blasphemy makes clear (v. 59). In John 13:19 Jesus told His disciples that when what He predicted came to pass, they would believe that He is Yahweh. Even His enemies, coming to arrest Him in Gethsemane, were overwhelmed by His divine power and fell to the ground when Jesus said “I am” (John 18:5–8).

All of the above lines of evidence converge on one inescapable point: Jesus Christ claimed absolute equality with God. Thus He could say, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30); “He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me” (John 12:45); and “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (14:9–10). And thus we can conclude that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9), and we can worship Him accordingly as “our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13).

* Today’s article was adapted from John’s commentary on the Gospel of John 1-11 (Moody, 2006).

(By John MacArthur)

The Trinity is an unfathomable, and yet unmistakable doctrine in Scripture. As Jonathan Edwards noted, after studying the topic extensively, “I think [the doctrine of the Trinity] to be the highest and deepest of all Divine mysteries” (An Unpublished Treatise on the Trinity). Yet, though the fullness of the Trinity is far beyond human comprehension, it is unquestionably how God has revealed Himself in Scripture—as one God eternally existing in three Persons.

This is not to suggest, of course, that the Bible presents three different gods (cf. Deut. 6:4). Rather, God is three Persons in one essence; the Divine essence subsists wholly and indivisibly, simultaneously and eternally, in the three members of the one Godhead—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Scriptures are clear that these three Persons together are one and only one God (Deut. 6:4). John 10:30 and 33 explain that the Father and the Son are one. First Corinthians 3:16 shows that the Father and the Spirit are one. Romans 8:9 makes clear that the Son and the Spirit are one. And John 14:16, 18, and 23 demonstrate that the Father, Son, and Spirit are one.

Yet, in exhibiting the unity between the members of the Trinity, the Word of God in no way denies the simultaneous existence and distinctiveness of each of the three Persons of the Godhead. In other words, the Bible makes it clear that God is one God (not three), but that the one God is a Trinity of Persons.

In the Old Testament, the Bible implies the idea of the Trinity in several ways. The title Elohim (”God”), for instance, is a plural noun which can suggest multiplicity (cf. Gen. 1:26). This corresponds to the fact that the plural pronoun (”us”) is sometimes used of God (Gen. 1:26; Isa. 6:8). More directly, there are places in which God’s name is applied to more than one Person in the same text (Ps. 110:1; cf. Gen. 19:24). And there are also passages where all three divine Persons are seen at work (Is. 48:16; 61:1).

The New Testament builds significantly on these truths, revealing them more explicitly. The baptismal formula of Matthew 28:19 designates all three Persons of the Trinity: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” In his apostolic benediction to the Corinthians, Paul underscored this same reality. He wrote, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God [the Father], and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14). Other New Testament passages also spell out the glorious truth of the Triune God (Romans 15:16, 30; 2 Cor. 1:21–22; Eph. 2:18).

In describing the Trinity, the New Testament clearly distinguishes three Persons who are all simultaneously active. They are not merely modes or manifestations of the same person (as Oneness theology incorrectly asserts) who sometimes acts as Father, sometimes as Son, and sometimes as Spirit. At Christ’s baptism, all three Persons were simultaneously active (Matt. 3:16–17), with the Son being baptized, the Spirit descending, and the Father speaking from Heaven. Jesus Himself prayed to the Father (cf. Matt. 6:9), taught that His will was distinct from His Father’s (Matt. 26:39), promised that He would ask the Father to send the Spirit (John 14:6), and asked the Father to glorify Him (John 17:5). These actions would not make sense unless the Father and the Son were two distinct Persons. Elsewhere in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit intercedes before the Father on behalf of believers (Rom. 8:26), as does the Son, who is our Advocate (1 John 2:1). Again, the distinctness of each Person is in view.

The Bible is clear. There is only one God, yet He exists, and always has existed, as a Trinity of Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (cf. John 1:1, 2). To deny or misunderstand the Trinity is to deny or misunderstand the very nature of God Himself.

* Today’s article was adapted from John’s commentary on 1-3 John.

At the Friday evening session of the Shepherds’ Conference, John MacArthur addressed “The problem of evil,” or theodicy as it is often called in theological circles. In discussing this issue, Dr. MacArthur made the following points:

1. Evil exists and it is folly to claim that it doesn’t. There are several categories of evil:

a. Natural evil (such as natural disasters and disease)

b. Moral evil (the sinful actions of people)

c. Supernatural evil (the actions of Satan and demons)

d. Eternal evil (the eternal condition of those in hell)

2. God exists (and He is the God of the Bible)

God controls absolutely everything. There is no evil outside His plan. There is no evil outside His purpose. He knows everything that can be known, that is knowable. He has comprehensive power to do everything that can be done that is possible. That is what the Bible says about God. And in that perfect knowledge, and in that perfect power, and with perfect holiness, and expressing His perfect love, God ordains everything.

3. God wills evil to exist. He has allowed evil and sin within His sovereign purposes so that His holiness and grace might be put on display.

Without sin and evil, we wouldn't know that He is as righteous as He is, as loving as He is, and as holy as He is.  God allowed sin so that He could display His wrath. Without sin, there would be no display of righteousness, no display of love and no display of holiness.  God endures sin. "He endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction" (Rom. 9:22).  He endures sin patiently so that in the end He might be glorified by displaying both His wrath (v. 22) and His grace (v. 23).

The whole reason God ordained evil to exist was for His own glory sake, so that forever and ever holy angels and redeemed saints would give Him glory in full comprehension of all His attributes.  Prior to sin God was not worshiped fully for His righteousness against the background of unrighteousness.  He was not worshiped nor could be fully for His love until He demonstrated the kind of love that loves rebellious sinners.  He was not worshiped fully for His holiness until His wrath displayed how He hated sin.  And He was not worshiped for His grace until He displayed forgiveness and mercy on the elect.  In every case there is this great disclosure of the nature of God.  Why? In order to fully display His glory.

For another report on Dr. MacArthur’s address, see this site.

(By Nathan Busenitz)

Despite a bit of rain, the Shepherds’ Conference opened with its usual anticipation and excitement. Our church is always so blessed to have hundreds of like-minded pastors and church leaders who come. And this year is no different. The enthusiasm is palpable.

The opening session begins with a choir of men from The Master’s Seminary singing two hymns, followed by the entire congregation of conference attendees lifting their voices in praise to God. The sound is loud. It is so loud that, even when singing at the top of your lungs, you can hardly hear yourself. Only those who have experienced the Shepherds’ Conference before can really appreciate what the singing is like—when three thousand pastors join together as one great choir. It is particularly moving and, in the most real sense, heavenly.

10:28 AM John MacArthur begins by noting that he wants to read to us the beginning of the Bible, and asks us to turn to Genesis 1. He continues by reading the entirety of chapter 1 and the first three verses of chapter 2.

10:33 Dr. MacArthur notes that two years ago, he opened the conference by talking about how self-respecting Calvinists should be premillennialists; and last year regarding how they should reject church-growth strategies. This year he will focus on how self-respecting evangelicals should affirm literal six-day creationism.

10:35 “The Bible does not take a back seat when it comes to getting things right scientifically.” Theology is the queen of the sciences and takes precedence over any other scientific theory. The One who created the universe knows how it was created; and He has revealed that perfect knowledge in the Bible.

10:37 If God is intelligent enough to create the universe, He is certainly capable of doing the comparatively simple task of revealing the truth about how He created the universe in a way that is straightforward and understandable.

10:39 Dr. MacArthur spends several moments talking about false creation views, noting that the true Creator would never reveal something false about His creation. When we come to the true record of creation in Scripture, it is a reliable account of the creation given to us by the Creator Himself.

10:41 Genesis 1 is clear and straightforward; it is simple and yet profound. Herbert Spencer was a non-Christian scientist who died a century ago. His greatest achievement was that he determined that everything that exists fits into one of five categories—time, force, action, space, matter. Genesis 1:1 revealed those categories millennia ago, “In the beginning,” that’s time, “God,” that’s force, “created,” that’s action, “the heavens,” that’s space, “the earth,” that’s matter. 

10:44 There is no such thing as a science of creation. Why?  Because there is no scientific way to explain creation. It was not a natural event or a series of natural events. It was a brief series of monumental supernatural events that cannot be explained by science. All true science is based on observation and no one observed creation. All true science necessitates verification by repetition and creation cannot be repeated, and thus it cannot be verified. Creation had no observers (except God) and cannot be repeated. 

10:48 Creation has no connection at all to science anymore than the behavior of Lazarus could in any way reveal how he was raised from the dead. Creation was a massive supernatural miracle to be equaled by the future uncreation (2 Peter 3) when in a lot less than six days God destroys everything He created. Neither event, creation or uncreation, can be explained by any natural fixed laws. All that is left to the reader is the opportunity to believe.

10:50 Did God use evolution? The question is irrelevant and intrusive. But the answer is no. He couldn’t have used evolution because evolution requires death and the Bible reveals that there was no death before the Fall. God does not equivocate with Himself, He determined to create miraculously which is the only way that it could have happened because it is the way it did happen. And He did it all in six days. This is either true, or it’s not.  If it is true, then Scripture is true. If it is not, then Scripture become suspect from the opening chapters. So from the very outset of the Bible, those who claim to believe the Bible face a formidable test.

10:52 Job 38–40 – Who are we to question God about creation, when He Himself has told us what He has done?

10:55 Evolution is a rejection of biblical revelation, and demonstrates a lack of fidelity to what Scripture has revealed about origins.

10:57 Ask any Christian organization in the world what their view is of Genesis 1 and 2 and you will get a sense for their level of fidelity to the Word of God.

10:58 The Genesis account is by all honest consideration simple, plain, clear, perspicuous, uncomplicated, unmistakable, unambiguous. Note John 1:1; Col. 1:16; Deut. 4:32; Psalm 104; 148; Isaiah 40:28; Eph. 3:9; Rev. 3:14.

11:03 Genesis 1 and 2 is not poetry; it does not have the characteristic of poetry.

11:04 The writers of the New Testament affirm the Genesis record. There are 165 passages in Genesis directly quoted or referred to in the New Testament. They are all straightforward affirmations of the book of Genesis and the simple account of creation that is contained there. Every New Testament writer refers to Genesis, and they universally affirm its truthfulness.

11:05 God created with a clear end in mind. God didn’t create and hope some meaningful plan evolved. He created with a very defined ultimate purpose that would be brought to its fulfillment. 

11:07 Jonathan Edwards said, “Providence subordinates all successive changes in the affairs of mankind.” Everything from creation to consummation is part of one great divine plan being worked by God’s powerful providence.  Note Isaiah 46:9; Eph. 3:8.

11:12 In creation we see the very beginning of the purposes of God in redemption. Note Rom. 5:18 – 19; 1 Cor. 15:21, 47–49; Rev. 2, 22.
 
11:14  One of the richest analogies between redemption and creation is in 2 Corinthians 4: “For God who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness.’” That is referring to creation. God said, “Let there be light.”  Paul sees in the original creation of light an analogy of the light of salvation. 

11:15 It is that same God who spoke light into the primeval darkness who is the One who has shown in our hearts to give the light of salvation. God creating light in the midst of the darkness is a picture of what He does in the darkness of the sinner’s heart.  If some convoluted concept of evolution is introduced into the book of Genesis, the instantaneous miracle of God in redemption also becomes convoluted.

11:16 Jonathan Edwards pursued this idea, and noted that it was a magnificent picture of the life of a believer. This is the glory of redemption tucked in to the testimony of creation.

11:18 In closing his session, Dr. MacArthur switched from discussing Creation to discussing the great “uncreation” of the world described in 2 Peter 3. In so doing, he specifically focused on how silly and unnecessary it is for evangelicals to jump on the environmentalism bandwagon. 

11:20 Evangelicalism’s eagerness to embrace global warming and other environmentalist agenda items is a lost cause.

11:26 The environmental movement is the bandwagon of the evolutionists, and Christians have no business jumping on the bandwagon. [Dr. MacArthur included a number of statistics and articles which we are not able to include here.]

Note: The audio from this session will soon be available for download on the Shepherds’ Conference website.
 

(By Rick Holland)

Today's article comes from Rick's chapter on the problem of evil found in Right Thinking in a World Gone Wrong. To view the publisher's promotional page, click here.

God has not distanced Himself from the problem of evil. On the contrary, He met it straight on. During Jesus’ trial before the Roman procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate declared that he had the power and authority to determine Jesus’ fate. The response of his Galilean prisoner must have been surprising. Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11). Instead of pleading for His life, the Savior consented to His execution with a footnote. Jesus repudiated Pilate’s misapprehension of his own authority and alerted him to the fact that God was the source of his governing power. God is the Conferrer of power and prerogative, not Rome or any other human authority.

The impending crucifixion of the Son of God constituted the greatest evil and injustice ever committed. But there was more going on than met the eye. What Jesus revealed to Pilate was that all the perpetrators, conspirators, and evildoers ultimately act under the authority of God. So what was God doing in this horrific event? John Piper answers, “At the all-important pivot of human history, the worst sin ever committed served to show the greatest glory of Christ and obtain the sin-conquering gift of God’s grace. God did not just overcome evil at the cross. He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil” (John Piper, Spectacular Sins, 12). Any form of evil, every pain, all sorrow, every degree of suffering, each injustice, all sickness, every disease, and any “bad thing” including death lost its sting at the cross (cf. 1 Cor. 15:54–57).

God’s sacrifice of His Son Jesus demonstrates His mysterious wisdom (Isa. 53:10). The Father’s unfathomable loss and the Son’s incomprehensible suffering were the crux of God’s predetermined plan for His own everlasting glory and our eternal good. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Rom 8:32) The only appropriate response is to exclaim with Paul, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (Rom 11:33)

For the believer Heaven is the time and place where we will enjoy the absence of all evil and suffering and the presence of unmitigated joy. The problem of evil is the cry of the soul for that experience. It is placing upon this world expectations that can only be met in Heaven. Considering our unworthiness in light of the infinite tributaries of God’s goodness, sovereignty, wisdom, grace and mercy can reset the troubled heart with the power of perspective.

The realities of Heaven and Hell bring evil and suffering into sharp focus. “For Christians, this present life is the closest they will come to Hell. For unbelievers, it is the closest they will come to Heaven” (Randy Alcorn, Heaven, 28). God uses the troubles of our lives, culminating in the inevitability of our own deaths, to pry our grips off this world and refocus our hearts on what lies ahead with Him. As Maurice Roberts writes, “…the degree of a Christian’s peace of mind depends upon his spiritual ability to interpose the thought of God between himself and his anxiety” (Maurice Roberts, The Thought of God, 7). If a believer can keep his mind on God, no evil in this world can steal his peace. And that will be enough till Heaven.

(By Matt Waymeyer)

Today's post concludes our series on this important topic, with a fifth and final reason why believers should pray in light of God's sovereignty.

5. God has ordained prayer as a means by which He accomplishes His eternal purposes.

At this point, some may wonder how it is that Scripture can teach both that God providentially brings all things to pass in conformity with His eternal purpose and that the prayers of men can have a significant affect in the unfolding of world history. The seeming contradiction between these two truths vanishes, however, when one realizes that “the same God who has decreed the end has also decreed that His end shall be reached through His appointed means, and one of these is prayer” (The Sovereignty of God, 167). In other words, God in His infinite wisdom was pleased to ordain prayer to be a means through which He accomplishes His good pleasure in and through His creation. As A.W. Pink writes,

God has decreed that certain events shall come to pass, but He has also decreed that these events shall come to pass through the means He has appointed for their accomplishment. God has elected certain ones to be saved, but He has also decreed that these ones shall be saved through the preaching of the Gospel. The Gospel, then, is one of the appointed means for the working out of the eternal counsel of the Lord; and prayer is another. God has decreed the means as well as the end, and among the means is prayer (Ibid., 171).

Understanding this relationship between the sovereignty of God and the prayers of men begins with recognizing the comprehensive nature of God’s eternal purpose. Richard Pratt writes,

God’s plan is so comprehensive that it not only includes the final destinies of things but also includes the secondary, creaturely processes that work together to accomplish these ends. For instance, God does not simply ordain light to shine on the earth each day; He also employs the sun, the moon, the stars, and countless other things to accomplish that end. God does not merely determine that someone will recover from a disease; He uses doctors and medicine to accomplish the healing. As the playwright of history, God did not simply write an ending for the book of time. He wrote every word on every page so that all events lead to the grand finale (Pray With Your Eyes Open, 109-10).

In other words, the “all things” which God works out “according to the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11) includes the means that He uses to bring about His ultimate ends. God uses the sun to bring light to the earth, He uses doctors to restore people to health, and He uses prayer to bring about many things He has purposed in eternity past.

When one wants to cross the street safely, he uses the crosswalk and looks both ways before doing so; when one desires his family members to turn to Christ for salvation, he seeks to proclaim the gospel to them; when one desires to provide for his family, he works hard at his place of employment. And in the same way, when one desires such-and-such to happen, he prays to God to bring it about, recognizing that prayer is one of the means through which God brings about His purposes here on earth.

Several examples in Scripture indicate that God has ordained prayer as a means to accomplish His eternal plans. First, when Abraham sojourned in Gerar in Genesis 20, he lied and told King Abimelech that Sarah was his sister, at which time Abimelech took Sarah into his harem of wives (v. 2). In response, God closed all the wombs of the household of Abimelech and threatened the king with further judgment if he did not restore Sarah to Abraham (vv. 7, 17). However, at the same time that God warned Abimelech of this judgment, He also told him, “[Abraham] is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live” (v. 7). In other words, God revealed to the king that His plan was for Abraham to pray and intercede for the King so that divine judgment would be withdrawn. Then, in verse 17, God’s preordained plan came to fruition: “And Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his maids, so that they bore children.”

A second example can be found at the end of the book of Job. God addressed Job’s friend, Eliphaz the Temanite, saying,

I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly (Job 42:7b-8a; NIV)

Then, as verse 9 reveals, Eliphaz “did what the Lord told them; and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer” (NIV). From this it is clear that God not only ordained that His wrath toward Eliphaz would be turned aside, but He also ordained that the means He would use to accomplish that end would include the intercessory prayer of His servant Job.

A third and final example of God’s ordination of prayer as a means to accomplish His end can be found in God’s promise to Israel of future restoration in Jeremiah 29. In verse 11a, the Lord told Israel that He knew the plans that He had for her. In other words, the God who knew the end from the beginning was not unaware of what He had purposed for Israel's future. He continued by telling Israel that His plans were “for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope” (v. 11b). What will happen in the future when God's plan unfolds and He providentially brings it to pass? He continued:

“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile” (vv. 12-14).

God will restore His people in response to their prayers, but these prayers—rather than being an intrusion into God’s eternal plan—are actually part of God’s plan. Both the means and the end—the prayers and the restoration—have been ordained by Him and will be brought to pass by Him (cf. Ezekiel 36:37).

Prayers of petition and intercession, then, should not be thought of as attempts to alter the eternal purposes of God. As Pratt writes, “Trying to alter the eternal decrees of God through prayer is like trying to reach the moon on a trampoline; it is impossible. Our petitions cannot interrupt God’s plan for the universe anymore than a trampoline can break the power of earth’s gravity” (Pray With Your Eyes Open, 109). Instead, prayer should be understood as “one of the many secondary causes through which God fulfills His plan” (Ibid., 110).

It is obvious, then, that one need not deny the sovereignty of God in order to be committed to a life of fervent prayer. For such a life begins in an obedient submission to the command of God and the model of Christ, it flows out of the recognition that God is able and willing to respond to the prayers of His children, and it rests in the assurance that God has sovereignly ordained prayer as a means to accomplish His purposes.

(By Matt Waymeyer)

So far, we have considered two reasons to pray in light of God's sovereignty. Today we will consider two more.

3. God is able to respond to our prayers.

Rather than hindering the prayers of believers, the sovereignty of God ought to motivate them to pray, for “prayer grows from the certainty of God’s omnipotence and sovereignty” (The God Who Hears, 47). Put another way, if God does not reign in sovereignty over His creation and is not able to accomplish whatever He desires in and through it, why bother requesting of Him what He is unable to deliver?

To illustrate, if a five-year-old boy repeatedly asks his mother to make it stop raining on a Saturday morning, this may create a precious memory, but in the final analysis the boy’s request is misguided. As much as his mother might like to alter the weather, she simply lacks the ability to do so, and therefore to request this of her makes little sense. But when the children of God come before the throne of grace, they come with the full assurance that their heavenly Father is able to accomplish whatever He is pleased to do, for nothing is too difficult for Him. And this ought to motivate them to pray.

“To be worth praying to,” Hunter writes, “God has first of all got to have the power to do what we ask. Second, he must have sovereignty over creation to do what he wants to do” (The God Who Hears, 48). So perhaps the question, “If God is sovereign, why pray?” could be replaced with the question, “If God is not sovereign, why pray?” Believers must come to their God presenting to Him their requests because He has both the authority and the ability to grant what they have requested in their petitions and intercessory prayers.

4. God actually does respond to prayer.

The fourth reason that believers should pray is that God not only can, but actually does change the course of history in response to prayer. Jesus said, “[A]sk, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.” As Wayne Grudem points out, Jesus “makes a clear connection between seeking things from God and receiving them. When we ask, God responds” (Systematic Theology, 377).

Scripture is filled with examples of God granting to His people what they have requested in their prayers of petition and intercession. First Chronicles 4:10a records the prayer of Jabez in which he said, “Oh that Thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that Thy hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldst keep me from harm, that it may not pain me!” In response to Jabez’s prayer, “God granted him what he requested” (v. 10b). In Exodus 32:10, God told Moses of His intentions to destroy the people of Israel because of their idolatry. But Moses interceded on behalf of Israel (vv. 11-13), and in response to his prayer God relented and did not destroy them (v. 14). And as James records, God responded to the earnest prayers of Elijah in both initiating and ending a three-and-a-half-year drought (James 5:17-18; cf. Genesis 18:22-33; 32:26; Daniel 10:12; Amos 7:1-6; Acts 4:29-31; 10:31; and 12:5-11).

At the same time that it is acknowledged that God is sovereign, then, it must also be acknowledged that “[t]he effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (James 5:16b; cf. 4:2). In fact, immediately after answering the question of how to pray in Luke 11:2-4, Jesus goes on to answer the question of why to pray by giving two reasons—because God rewards diligence in prayer by granting requests (Luke 11:5-10), and because God delights in giving good gifts to His children (Luke 11:11-13).

In the words of Richard Pratt, then, “Prayer is a powerful human effort that can significantly affect not only the lives of individuals but the very course of world history” (Pray with Your Eyes Open, 112). This truth, no doubt, should be a powerful motive for the children of God to pray. As Grudem writes,

If we were really convinced that prayer changes the way God acts, and that God does bring about remarkable changes in the world in response to prayer,...then we would pray much more than we do. If we pray little, it is probably because we do not really believe that prayer accomplishes much at all (Systematic Theology, 377).

(By Matt Waymeyer)

Why Pray?

In this series, we will consider five reasons why believers should pray in light of the sovereignty of God.

1. God has commanded us to pray.

The most obvious reason to pray is that God has commanded us to pray. This is evident throughout the teachings of both Jesus and the apostle Paul. Jesus taught His disciples how to pray in Matthew 6:9-13, introducing the prayer with the words, “Pray, then, in this way” (v. 9). Afterward, He instructed His disciples to be persistent in their prayers (Luke 11:5-13). In Luke 18:2-8, Jesus told them a parable “to show that at all times they ought to pray” (Luke 18:1). And upon arriving at the Garden of Gethsemane, He instructed them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Luke 22:40).

The apostle Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17); he instructed the Philippians, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (4:6); he charged the Colossians, “Devote yourselves to prayer” (4:2); he wrote to the Ephesians, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf…” (6:18-19a); and he urged Timothy “that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men” (1 Tim 2:1).

The point is clear: God has commanded us to pray, and our response to this command must first and foremost be one of obedience. Even if we never reach a clear understanding of the relationship between the sovereignty of God and the prayers of man, the fact that God has commanded it should be enough to move us to pray. When God promised Abraham a son through whom he would become a great nation (Gen 21:12b) and then commanded him to sacrifice that very son (Gen 22:2), Abraham bowed the knee of submission before His Creator and simply obeyed what was commanded of Him (Gen. 22:3-10). The believer who asks the question “Why pray?” must follow his example and do the same.

2. Jesus modeled a life of prayer.

A second reason believers should offer prayers of petition and intercession to God is that such prayer was modeled by Jesus who “would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” during His ministry (Luke 5:16). Jesus’ consistent example of fervent prayer to the Father is evident throughout the gospel accounts. During His ministry in Galilee, Mark records that “in the early morning, while it was still dark, He arose and went out and departed to a lonely place, and was praying there” (Mark 1:35). After feeding the five thousand in Bethsaida, Jesus sent the multitudes away and “went up to the mountain by Himself to pray” (Matt 14:23).

On the night before He chose the twelve disciples, Jesus “went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12). Later Luke refers to a time “while Jesus was praying alone” (9:18), and eight days later Jesus “took along Peter and John and James, and went up to the mountain to pray” (Luke 9:28). And who could forget His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:39-44; Mark 14:35-39; Luke 22:41-45) or the “High Priestly prayer” of John 17? And what believer fails to cherish the fact that He lives to intercede even now on our behalf (Heb 7:25)?

In offering prayers of petition and intercession, Jesus was not ignoring or denying the sovereignty of His Father. This is obvious from several of Jesus’ prayers, not the least of which include His prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:39-44; Mark 14:35-39; Luke 22:41-45). As Hunter writes, “He knew that by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge he would be put to death by being nailed to the cross (Acts 2:23). He told the incredulous disciples this at least three times…. Yet in Gethsemane, as Mark tells it, he ‘fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him’ (14:35)” (The God Who Hears, 51). In other words, even though Jesus was well aware that His death at Calvary had been preordained by God, He still saw fit to petition His Father that this cup might pass from him.

If the followers of Christ are to be imitators of Him and “walk in the same manner as He walked” (1 John 2:6), they too must be characterized by fervent prayer for themselves and for those around them. Knowing that Jesus prayed as a way of life may not clear up the tension that exists in believers’ minds between the sovereignty of God and the prayers of men, but it should motivate them to imitate the One who Himself saw no disparity between His own prayers and the sovereignty of His Father.

(By Matt Waymeyer)

* Matt pastors Community Bible Church in Vista, California. He is a graduate of The Master's Seminary, and a periodic contributor to Pulpit.

The story is told about a small town in the south. For many years, this town had been “dry” in that no alcohol was ever sold or served there. But one day a businessman in the area decided to build a tavern. In response to this new tavern, a group of Christians from a local church became concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. Shortly after the prayer meeting that night, lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.

In the aftermath of the fire, the owner of the tavern sued the church, claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible for his loss. But the church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. After his initial review of the case the presiding judge began the trial with an official statement. He said: “No matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear: the tavern owner believes in prayer, and the Christians do not.”

It is very easy to dismiss the power of prayer, isn’t it? It is very easy to drift into thinking that prayer is a nice sentiment, but in the end, a waste of time because it doesn’t really make any difference anyway.

For some people, this kind of dismissal arises from unbelief and doubt that God really can answer prayer. For others, however, the question that paralyzes their prayer life is this: If God is sovereign, why pray?

In other words, if God will simply do what He wants to anyway, why offer prayers of petition and intercession? Why bother requesting that God do such and such when everything has been ordained by Him beforehand? If prayer consists of pleading with God to change His eternal purposes, isn’t such an undertaking feeble at best and arrogant at worst?

Although there are no easy answers to these questions, Scripture is not silent on this issue. My purpose here is to examine the Bible’s teaching on the sovereignty of God and the prayers of man with the goal of answering the question, “If God is sovereign, why pray?” This will be done by briefly defining what it means that God is sovereign and then by offering five answers to the question of why people should pray.

God Is Sovereign

When people make plans, it is not uncommon for those plans to fail or to be thwarted in one way or another. In contrast to His creatures, however, Almighty God always brings about that which He has purposed. In a word, God is sovereign.

This truth is perhaps most clearly seen in the words of Isaiah 46:9-11, where God demonstrated His superiority over the Babylonian idols by declaring:

Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, “My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure”; calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.

In this passage, God indicates that He both purposes what He desires to happen and then actually brings those purposes to pass. In other words, God providentially brings about in time and history what He has sovereignly ordained in eternity past. As the apostle Paul writes, God “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph 1:11).

The truth of God’s sovereignty over His creation is taught throughout Scripture. The psalmist declares, “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps” (Ps 135:6; cf. 115:3; Dan. 4:35); Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand;” and Proverbs 21:1 states, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.” As W. Bingham Hunter writes, “From a biblical perspective, your world-history book should be prefaced with 2 Kings 19:25: ‘Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In the days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass’” (The God Who Hears, 49).

(To Be Continued Tomorrow)