I have been thinking recently, over the past week, in light of recent events in my own life, about the way God works in the lives of His own. Specifically, His denying us of many things that we desire, even if they accord with His revealed will! And two passages of Scripture have come to the forefront of my thinking on this, one which comes from my daily devotions and the other which comes from another Bible study I was involved in.
The first passage is chapters 8 and 9 of 1 Samuel, where, in response to the wickedness and injustice that Samuel’s sons perpetrated as judges over Israel, the people of Israel demand a king to rule over them “like all the nations.” Although it seems like a reasonable request, it does not sit well with Samuel, and he inquires of the Lord, who makes it clear that their request is a sign that they have rejected Him as their King and Sovereign, in order to be like the nations around them, in clear rebellion against His intention that they be separate from the nations. But although He makes it clear through Samuel that the people by making this demand have rejected Him as King over them, He allows them to have a king. He even picks one out for them, choosing a man who the Bible only describes as exceedingly handsome and very tall. No mention is made of Saul’s spiritual fitness to lead the people of God, a fact which foreshadows what would be his downfall, his tendency to disobey God’s direct commands. But God gives the people what they want! Of course this must mean that He has blessed their request! Not so. Fast forward to the end of Saul’s reign. His reign ends with defeat in battle and death on the battlefield by his own hand, which comes after he spends most of the last years of his life pursuing the man whom God has anointed his successor in order to murder him. It would seem that God giving the people what they wanted didn’t turn out to be a good thing. This reminds me of Romans 1, which declares that God gave over to their sinful desires those who rejected Him despite knowing the truth about Him. He gave them what they wanted! If we were to follow the thinking of many people today, even in the church, this would mean that God was blessing them. But obviously this is not the case. So it can be seen that God giving someone what they want can be a sign, not of His blessing, but of the opposite.
The flip side of this is 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, a passage known and loved by many Christians for verse 9, which is Jesus saying to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” But what is the context of this beautiful statement made by our Lord? To see this, we have to go back to verse 7, where, after Paul reluctantly tells of his experience with the Lord receiving revelation directly, he declares that “to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.” There are many disagreements as to the precise nature of the “thorn,” but it was assuredly painful, because, according to John MacArthur, “the Greek word translated ‘thorn’ literally means a stake--a sharpened wooden shaft used to impale or torture someone.” In response to this painful trial, Paul did not complain, but turned to God, asking Him to remove it. Three times he did this, and three times the answer came back no. During or after all this, Jesus came to him and said what was quoted earlier, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” And in response Paul declares “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” See, Paul believed what he later wrote in Romans 8:28-29: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Paul knew that because of God’s love for him as an adopted son, He sovereignly caused ALL things to work towards making Paul more like his Savior, including the pain of the trial. I have known about both of these texts before from my upbringing in the church, but it was not until only recently that I have known the joy that comes from truly believing the truths presented in them, which really means believing in the God who inspired them. Christians, believe these truths, and believe the God behind them! He is indeed good, even when He denies us what we desire!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The Wisdom of God's Decree
"He who perceives the workings of admirable skill in the parts of a machine which he has an opportunity to examine, is naturally led to believe that the other parts are equally admirable. In like manner we should satisfy our minds as to God's works when doubts obtrude themselves upon us, and repel any objections that may be suggested by something that we cannot reconcile to our notions of what is good and wise. When we reach the bounds of the finite and gaze toward the mysterious realm of the infinite, let us exclaim, 'O the depth of the riches! Both of the wisdom and knowledge of God' (Rom. 11:33)."-A.W. Pink on the wisdom of God's decree.
Glorious Monotony
"A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical ENCORE." —G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, p. 42 (paragraphing added)
I was considering this quote by G.K. Chesterton (which I saw in a blog post from DesiringGod.org) in light of a recent question posed by a friend in a status update, that is, when the Bible talks about God's mercies being new every morning, are they different or simply the same mercies renewed? And my thought was that they are the same mercies: life, breath, etc., but renewed by God daily. I think this quote relates to that in that we as human beings are always looking for the next thing, the new toy. We are like the philosophers at Mars Hill in Acts 17, who were always ready to hear some new philosophy, but scoffed at Paul's archaic monotheism. We look for a new experience. This is a temptation for believers, especially after that first period of new life in Christ where there is a sense of wonder all the time when we read His Word and meditate on it. Inevitably that passion wanes to a degree, and the temptation is to try to recapture it with new experiences and new methods. But it seems that the Christian life has a certain monotony to it. We preach the gospel to ourselves daily, and the gospel hasn't changed. We read God's Word daily, going over texts that we may have read multiple times before. We seek to establish godly habits, to be steady. There is a certain monotony to that, but it is a glorious monotony in which we glory in old truths about the Ancient of Days who never changes.
I was considering this quote by G.K. Chesterton (which I saw in a blog post from DesiringGod.org) in light of a recent question posed by a friend in a status update, that is, when the Bible talks about God's mercies being new every morning, are they different or simply the same mercies renewed? And my thought was that they are the same mercies: life, breath, etc., but renewed by God daily. I think this quote relates to that in that we as human beings are always looking for the next thing, the new toy. We are like the philosophers at Mars Hill in Acts 17, who were always ready to hear some new philosophy, but scoffed at Paul's archaic monotheism. We look for a new experience. This is a temptation for believers, especially after that first period of new life in Christ where there is a sense of wonder all the time when we read His Word and meditate on it. Inevitably that passion wanes to a degree, and the temptation is to try to recapture it with new experiences and new methods. But it seems that the Christian life has a certain monotony to it. We preach the gospel to ourselves daily, and the gospel hasn't changed. We read God's Word daily, going over texts that we may have read multiple times before. We seek to establish godly habits, to be steady. There is a certain monotony to that, but it is a glorious monotony in which we glory in old truths about the Ancient of Days who never changes.
The Nature of the Church, Pt. 1: The Body of Christ
Here is the next installment of my series on the necessity of the local church for the believer, which attempts to convey the importance of the local church from the biblical nature of the church.
For an understanding of the importance of the church, we must turn to the Word of God, where the sovereign Lord of the Church has given vital insight into the nature of the Church, especially the local church, and why it is important for Christians to align themselves with a local body of believers. Wayne Grudem defines the Church as “the community of all true believers for all time” (853). While this is a very good definition, for the purposes of this discussion, the definition will be narrowed to believers post-Pentecost who were saved by hearing the gospel and responding in repentance and faith, because it is to these people that the New Testament writers like Paul wrote, expounding the doctrine of the church. There are many metaphors that the New Testament uses to describe the church, but three of them stand out in particular: the body of Christ, the family of God, and the building of God. Each of these metaphors convey different truths about how the church relates to God and to its members, but all of them speak to the unity which binds the members of the church, including the local church, together. The church is continually called the body of Christ in the New Testament, especially by the apostle Paul. The most clear passage explaining the importance of this concept of the church as a body is 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. In this passage, Paul begins by telling the Corinthians, who were beset by warring factions within the local church, that because each of the believers “were all baptized into one body” through “one Spirit” (v. 13), they were to be unified as Christ’s body. But in the next section (vv. 14-20), he clearly affirms diversity within the body of Christ, using the analogy of the different parts of the body that make up one body. This was important for Paul to emphasize, because the Corinthians had serious problems with pride and tended to exalt certain people with certain spiritual gifts above others in the church. This attitude has always crept into the church, causing those with more public gifts to become proud, which causes great harm to the fellowship of the body, and Paul is concerned to prevent this from happening. An important statement from this section is found in verse 18, affirming the sovereignty of God in distributing the spiritual gifts. Each believer has been given a specific gift, or multiple gifts, for use in a local church in the context of loving fellowship with other believers. The third and final section of this crucial passage (vv. 21-27), Paul deals a blow to individualistic selfish pride, repeating the concept of the importance of each member, whether they have a public gift or not. He also makes it crystal clear that the purpose of the distribution of spiritual gifts is the mutual care of each member of the body in love. In summary, the body metaphor is an excellent one for the church. All believers worldwide are part of the body of Christ, and this comes out in a beautiful way when one group of believers goes overseas to another country, and have fellowship with the believers there. But Paul’s concern in 1 Corinthians, and his concern in his most of his letters was for the local church, the local body of believers. This metaphor conveys the cohesive unity that believers ought to have with one another, exercised in frequent fellowship and service for edification.
Work Cited:
1. Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000. Print.
For an understanding of the importance of the church, we must turn to the Word of God, where the sovereign Lord of the Church has given vital insight into the nature of the Church, especially the local church, and why it is important for Christians to align themselves with a local body of believers. Wayne Grudem defines the Church as “the community of all true believers for all time” (853). While this is a very good definition, for the purposes of this discussion, the definition will be narrowed to believers post-Pentecost who were saved by hearing the gospel and responding in repentance and faith, because it is to these people that the New Testament writers like Paul wrote, expounding the doctrine of the church. There are many metaphors that the New Testament uses to describe the church, but three of them stand out in particular: the body of Christ, the family of God, and the building of God. Each of these metaphors convey different truths about how the church relates to God and to its members, but all of them speak to the unity which binds the members of the church, including the local church, together. The church is continually called the body of Christ in the New Testament, especially by the apostle Paul. The most clear passage explaining the importance of this concept of the church as a body is 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. In this passage, Paul begins by telling the Corinthians, who were beset by warring factions within the local church, that because each of the believers “were all baptized into one body” through “one Spirit” (v. 13), they were to be unified as Christ’s body. But in the next section (vv. 14-20), he clearly affirms diversity within the body of Christ, using the analogy of the different parts of the body that make up one body. This was important for Paul to emphasize, because the Corinthians had serious problems with pride and tended to exalt certain people with certain spiritual gifts above others in the church. This attitude has always crept into the church, causing those with more public gifts to become proud, which causes great harm to the fellowship of the body, and Paul is concerned to prevent this from happening. An important statement from this section is found in verse 18, affirming the sovereignty of God in distributing the spiritual gifts. Each believer has been given a specific gift, or multiple gifts, for use in a local church in the context of loving fellowship with other believers. The third and final section of this crucial passage (vv. 21-27), Paul deals a blow to individualistic selfish pride, repeating the concept of the importance of each member, whether they have a public gift or not. He also makes it crystal clear that the purpose of the distribution of spiritual gifts is the mutual care of each member of the body in love. In summary, the body metaphor is an excellent one for the church. All believers worldwide are part of the body of Christ, and this comes out in a beautiful way when one group of believers goes overseas to another country, and have fellowship with the believers there. But Paul’s concern in 1 Corinthians, and his concern in his most of his letters was for the local church, the local body of believers. This metaphor conveys the cohesive unity that believers ought to have with one another, exercised in frequent fellowship and service for edification.
Work Cited:
1. Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000. Print.
Is the Local Church a Necessity for the Believer?
Recently my youth pastor, Brent, commissioned me to write a research paper on the question "Is the Local Church a Necessity for the Believer?" (hence the title). Well, I completed it last week, and since it is such an important question I decided to turn the paper into a series of blog posts (and Facebook notes) for the edification of the body of Christ. For those who know me well, don't worry, I have attempted to scale down the language to make it more understandable. What follows is the introduction:
“I love Jesus, but I can’t stand the church.” This phrase, or one worded very similarly, has become the cry of many professing Christians in this postmodern age. One celebrity recently renounced Christianity via FaceBook, issuing this statement:
For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being "Christian" or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to "belong" to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else. (Turk)
She is not alone in this mindset of separating devotion to Christ from belonging to the visible church. Many professing believers claim that the church hinders their relationship with God, and so they do not go, or they simply flit from church to church looking for a new spiritual experience. All this, combined with a culture which views authority negatively, and frowns on organized institutions, has created an environment in which the question is frequently asked whether the visible church is a necessary part of the life of a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. This kind of individualistic attitude, however, goes back even to the days of the “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Spurgeon. Consider this quote from Spurgeon: "I know there are some who say, 'Well, I have given myself to the Lord, but I do not intend to give myself to any church.' Now, why not? 'Because I can be a Christian without it'" (Mack 41). That sounds a lot like our day, doesn’t it? The question stands, “Is the local church, and membership and involvement therein, a necessity for a believer?” More pointedly, can a person be saved apart from involvement in a local church? The answer to the latter question is yes, because all a person needs to be saved is repentance, turning from his sins and trusting in what Christ has done on his behalf. However, apart from faithful participation in the activities of a local church, it is hard to tell a true believer from an unbeliever. Mark Dever puts it this way: “We don’t necessarily know that such uninvolved people are not Christians; we simply can’t affirm that they are” (What is 97). So a person does not have to be a part of a local church as a requirement for salvation, but what about sanctification? Is the local church a necessity for vital growth in holiness? The answer to that question is a resounding “yes.” The local church must hold an important place in the life of a true believer, for biblical and practical reasons.
Works Cited:
1. Dever, Mark. What is a Healthy Church?. Washington, D.C.: Nine Marks Ministries, 2007. Print.
2. Mack, Wayne. Life in the Father’s House. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006. Print.
3. Turk, Frank. “Weekend Extra: Our enemies can be reconciled.” Pyromaniacs. n.p. Web. 17 August 2010.
“I love Jesus, but I can’t stand the church.” This phrase, or one worded very similarly, has become the cry of many professing Christians in this postmodern age. One celebrity recently renounced Christianity via FaceBook, issuing this statement:
For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being "Christian" or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to "belong" to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else. (Turk)
She is not alone in this mindset of separating devotion to Christ from belonging to the visible church. Many professing believers claim that the church hinders their relationship with God, and so they do not go, or they simply flit from church to church looking for a new spiritual experience. All this, combined with a culture which views authority negatively, and frowns on organized institutions, has created an environment in which the question is frequently asked whether the visible church is a necessary part of the life of a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. This kind of individualistic attitude, however, goes back even to the days of the “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Spurgeon. Consider this quote from Spurgeon: "I know there are some who say, 'Well, I have given myself to the Lord, but I do not intend to give myself to any church.' Now, why not? 'Because I can be a Christian without it'" (Mack 41). That sounds a lot like our day, doesn’t it? The question stands, “Is the local church, and membership and involvement therein, a necessity for a believer?” More pointedly, can a person be saved apart from involvement in a local church? The answer to the latter question is yes, because all a person needs to be saved is repentance, turning from his sins and trusting in what Christ has done on his behalf. However, apart from faithful participation in the activities of a local church, it is hard to tell a true believer from an unbeliever. Mark Dever puts it this way: “We don’t necessarily know that such uninvolved people are not Christians; we simply can’t affirm that they are” (What is 97). So a person does not have to be a part of a local church as a requirement for salvation, but what about sanctification? Is the local church a necessity for vital growth in holiness? The answer to that question is a resounding “yes.” The local church must hold an important place in the life of a true believer, for biblical and practical reasons.
Works Cited:
1. Dever, Mark. What is a Healthy Church?. Washington, D.C.: Nine Marks Ministries, 2007. Print.
2. Mack, Wayne. Life in the Father’s House. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006. Print.
3. Turk, Frank. “Weekend Extra: Our enemies can be reconciled.” Pyromaniacs. n.p. Web. 17 August 2010.
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