Your Life is Hid with Christ in God [Seminary Paper]

Union With Christ

This week at Donuts & Doctrine we are looking at the Union of the Believer with Christ. This is not a subject that is frequently preached on the Church today, but it is a primary doctrine and one that really move us on to maturity in Christ. Audio will be posted after the meeting on Saturday, but for now, here is the text of the lesson from my final paper for the class, Salvation and Regeneration which I am taking through The North American Reformed Seminary.  Check it out!

 Union With Christ - AUDIO

Your Life is Hid with Christ in God

God’s providence is evident as I have committed myself to my studies. While I am studying the doctrines of salvation and regeneration, I am also preaching through Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Having spent 14 weeks examining the first two chapters of that letter I have looked deeply at the basis of salvation. It is rooted in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ as Creator, Sovereign Ruler, Head, Redeemer, Justifier, and Sanctifier. In a powerful description of Christ’s redemptive work the Apostle tells the Colossian Christians “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,” (Col 1:15-22 ESV) What an amazing truth. The Creator and Ruler of all has come and offered Himself for His rebellious creation and caused them to stand faultless in His presence. He has reconciled them in the body of His flesh.

The Application of Redemption

This is indeed the “short list” but all of the things mentioned above are very important attributes, offices or works of Christ. All of them were in some way imparted to us as we were “reconciled in the body of His flesh” and it is our union with Him that allows us to partake of those glorious benefits. So many Evangelicals think of salvation as a simple transaction that involves no more than mere assent to some basic truths related to these offices and works of Christ, and yet it is infinitely more. That would be like saying, “If I believe that food is good and nutritious, it will sustain my body and give me the energy that I need to live, though it never enters my mouth and passes through my body.” What a foolish notion! The life and death of Christ must be applied to us or we are no better off than the hungry man who looks through a restaurant window having nothing in his pocket with which he might be able to buy the food that he sees. In his Condensed Theology lecture, Union with Christ, R. W. Glenn quotes John Calvin from his Institutes of the Christian Religion saying,

“We must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us and we are separated from Him, all that He has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us… all that he possesses is nothing to us until we grow into one body with Him” (III. i. 1).

It must certainly be that we cannot purchase our salvation with our own resources. What we need is an interest in the One who is providing it. When the owner of the restaurant is our Big Brother, our money means nothing whether we have it or not. Thank God that He says through the Prophet Isaiah, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” (Isa 55:1-3 ESV) What an invitation! What a blessed call to the starving and poverty stricken soul to partake of the “rich food” of the Gospel! This rich and abundant food and drink which is spoken of here is given to God’s people through the merits of another, given without price, given to sustain the true, eternal, spiritual lives of God’s elect. Not just a snack or enough to get us by, but good and rich food that we can delight in. Food in plenty! Fed to the full! It is spoken of here as coming through union with “David,” as a result of God’s love given to him. It is according to the eternal covenant, that we receive these benefits. They come by faith in Christ as Redeemer (the Descendant of David who was a type). That faith is not a man-generated assent to the facts, but a relationship that is begun in eternity past and applied to the sinner in time, to bring him, not only to faith, but into a real union with His Redeemer. It is a union by way of covenant. A union by way of headship. A union by being, quite literally, joined to Christ.

Amazingly, this union is possible because of; the union within Christ of the natures of Deity and humanity, because of the union between the Father and the Son in the eternal covenant, and through that covenant, as Christ is made our new Head when we are united to Him by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This whole idea of our union with Christ deepens our understanding of redemption. Christ paid our debt, but He did not just pay it and let us go on in our own strength or even a strength, aided by the Holy Spirit. Many man-centered forms of the Christian Faith have taught that this was so, including Roman Catholicismⁱ which teaches that Christ’s redemption only purchased man’s freedom from Original Sin and that life and the hope of heaven are essentially up to their own abilities after that. Men are allegedly given a new disposition and inclination, but if Adam didn’t make it, not having a sin nature and being in a pristine environment, we who are born in sin, and in a world of sinners, are destined to be mired in hopelessness and misery! Rather than being united to Christ and receiving what He has accomplished in our place as He lived in obedience to the Law of God and the requirements of His office as Redeemer (The Eternal Covenant), they only receive the opportunity to make themselves holy. As they sanctify themselves, they work toward justification. Though this is not far from how many, even in the Evangelical Church, understand the Gospel, this is not what the Scriptures teach.

The New Testament is filled with the idea of our union with Christ and makes it very clear that it is on the basis of that union that we have hope of forgiveness (justification) but also, hope to be who God has called us to be (sanctification). Jesus said to His disciples, just before His death, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. (Joh 14:16-20 ESV) By the regeneration and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Christ is united to His Followers just as He is to the Father. He comes to us in the Holy Spirit, as Paul tells the Galatians “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (4:6 ESV)What an amazing and profound concept! Our union with the Godhead by the plan of the Father, the work of the Son and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. John Calvin says this in his commentary on John 14:20 (In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.);

“Some refer this to the day of Pentecost; but it rather denotes the uninterrupted course, as it were, of a single day, from the time when Christ exerted the power of his Spirit till the last resurrection. From that time they began to know, but it was a sort of feeble beginning, because the Spirit had not yet wrought so powerfully in them. For the object of these words is, to show that we cannot, by indolent speculation, know what is the sacred and mystical union between us and him, and again, between him and the Father; but that the only way of knowing it is, when he diffuses his life in us by the secret efficacy of the Spirit….

….For Christ does not speak merely of his eternal essence, but of that Divine power which was manifested in him. As the Father has laid up in the Son all fullness of blessings, so, on the other hand, the Son has conveyed himself entirely into us. He is said to be in us, because he plainly shows, by the efficacy of his Spirit, that he is the Author and the cause of our life.”

As the Holy Spirit was given to those first disciples, uniting them to Christ, He is also given to all who come to faith in Christ. Titus 3:4-7 tells us “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (ESV) This aspect of that union is (or was) accomplished in time, but there is an aspect of our union with Christ which was accomplished in eternity past. In His omniscience and omnipotence, God has, before the foundation of the world, chosen us “in Christ.” The first chapter of the letter to the Ephesians is dominated with the idea that all we have as Christians is due to our union with Christ.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Eph 1:3-14 ESV )

Here we see that our salvation, every “spiritual blessing” our election, redemption, forgiveness, the revelation of the mystery of the Gospel, union with God, our inheritance, our faith and the sealing of the Holy Spirit are all said to be “in Him.” We also see that this began before the world was made “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world…” Seminary professor, Michael Horton, says, “…this doctrine is the wheel which unites the spokes of salvation and keeps them in proper perspective. “In Christ” (i.e. through union with Him) appears, by my accounting, nine times in the first chapter of Ephesians. Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, God has thus, “made us accepted in the Beloved.” He cannot love us directly because of our sinfulness, but He can love us in union with Christ, because He is the One the Father loves. “In Him we have redemption,” “In Him we have an inheritance,” and so on.” (Union With Christ) Therefore we must not just believe in Him intellectually (even really, really believe!), but we must be united to Him in reality.

Paul speaks of this “uniting” to Christ in the sixth chapter of the Letter to the Romans where he says,

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Rom 6:4-11 ESV)

Christ died our deaths and lived our lives. John Owen speaks of this in his work Communion with God where he puts it this way, “He lived for us and He died for us. He was ours in all He did and in all He suffered.” (p. 124) As we are “in Him” we are free from sin and death and free to live for Him. R.W. Glenn says “You have to get into Christ and Christ has to get into you in order for you to be saved.”(Ibid) The Apostle Paul says we need to “consider” ourselves as dead to sin and alive in Christ. To take into account that this is the case. Not to pretend that it is so, not to imagine that we are, but to actually consider that this is a fact. This is essential as we strive to live above sin. We are in Him. We are in Him as He is in the Father. We are called to live as though this is true because it is! This is not only the source of our justification but the substance of and the power that drives our sanctification.

As Believers, we already have Christ, His sacrificial death and His perfect life credited to us by our union with Him. We do not need to obtain more in order to become who He has called us to be. R. W. Glenn speaks of the Ordo Salutis at the beginning of his lesson. This is the order that redemption is applied to us and it is important to consider. It is not as much a chronological order, but a logical order. Paul tells the Roman Christians, “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. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” (Rom 8:29-30 ESV) We already saw, concerning our union with Christ, that though it happened in time (when we were regenerated) it is also something that happened before the foundation of the world. We were first foreknown and predestined (that was before time), we were also called and justified (that was in time, as we heard the Gospel and responded to it in faith), finally, (at the end of time), we will be glorified.

All of this is given to us “in Christ.” Christ has purchased it and given it to His elect, applying it by the regeneration and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This is where the language of the letter to the Colossians is so important. After explaining the Divine Nature of Christ and the work of redemption in the first chapter and declaring Believers to be “complete in Him” in Colossians 2:10, the Apostle begins to command certain behaviors for these Christians in chapter three. These behaviors are actually outgrowths of this relationship to, or union with, Christ. He says,

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” (Col 3:1-5 ESV)

There is a mystical union going on here! Just as certainly as Christ will appear in glory, just as sure as He is, and will be, in the presence of the Father, we are already there. We are with Him, in God! What an amazing and humbling truth! I was the “enemy and alien” of Colossians 1:21, yet, reconciled in Christ, I am with Christ in God. My life is hidden there even now. As noted earlier from the first chapter of Colossians, “And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Col 1:18-20 ESV) His headship is an important aspect of our union. It is possible because of His humanity. But the “fullness of God” was also, “pleased to dwell in Him.” These are both crucial to our relationship to Him and to the Father through Him. His righteousness is the “righteousness of God.” It is not only the satisfaction of the debt of sin, but the positive righteousness credited to my account to make me stand before God fully justified. Paul continues, “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,” (Col 1:21-22 ESV) This is vital to our relationship to God. As John Owen states earlier in his aforementioned work,

“Whatever Christ did as Mediator He did for those whose Mediator He was or in whose place and for whose good He carried out the office of Mediator before God (Rom 8:3-4). What His people could not do because of sin, Christ did for them. He did it so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.

The whole purpose of Christ’s obedience cannot be said to be merely to fit Him for His death and oblation, because He was in Himself the Lamb without spot or blemish and therefore quite fit to be the Sacrifice for sin. He did not need to make Himself a fit sacrifice for sin by a course of obedience.

If Christ’s obedience is not imputed to us, having been done on our behalf, then there is no reason why He should have lived so long in the world as He did in perfect obedience to all the laws of God. Had He died earlier, His death would have been a sufficient atonement in itself for our sins.

If Christ’s perfect obedience had not been for us, then all that would have been required of Him was obedience to the law of nature, the only law to which He, a sinless man, could have been subject. His obedience to this law was a voluntary act of His in becoming man.

Christ’s obedience cannot be reckoned among His sufferings but is clearly distinct from His sufferings. Doing is one thing. Suffering is quite another.” (p. 120)

This is all a part of that covenant that I mentioned earlier. It was, as God and Man, in accordance with the Eternal Covenant that Christ was able to act as Mediator for His elect. It was by the transcendence of His deity and the imminence of His humanity that He could be the Perfect, Sacrificial Lamb of God. Through His humanity He could be the Sacrifice for men. Again, “He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,” Through His deity, His Sacrifice was sufficient and efficient “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things,”

Putting it in Shoe Leather, (or Maybe a Wedding Dress?)

But we must be in that covenant. We must be related to the One in whom are all the “spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.” The “love of David” must be given to us. Though we have seen that it is a work of the Spirit in us, this idea can seem almost impossible and very ethereal. It is by the regeneration and indwelling of the Holy Spirit that this union is made. But there is more to it than an act of God upon an impotent man. The union is mystical and spiritual, but it is real and practical. We have seen that it is the basis of our justification as well as our sanctification and so it is a very practical doctrine. Another aspect of this union is illustrated by the marriage relationship. I believe that this will make this idea more tangible. It will also make the motivation toward sanctification to be grounded in more familiar concepts. It seems that the Scriptures use it this way with some frequency. Much as we saw in Romans 6 and the letter to the Colossians, as the Apostle Peter gives this profound truth, he ties it to intentional holiness and spiritual growth;

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2Pe 1:3-8 ESV)

The promises contained in our union with Christ, here related to us as being “partakers of the Divine Nature,” Peter gives as the impetus to sanctification, “For this very reason…..” But the Apostle Paul gives it even more shoe leather as he tells the Corinthian Believers;

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1Co 6:14-20 ESV)

We are not only united to Christ because of the indwelling of the Spirit which we saw in John 14, Romans 6, Galatians 3 and Titus 3, or because of the covenant between the Father and Son that brought about our reconciliation, but just as one is united in love and by covenant in the marriage relationship, we are also united to Christ in this way. Just as we become “one flesh” with our spouse, we become “one spirit” with Jesus when we are born again. Our entire being is united to Him at our conversion as we become one body with Him (Vs. 14). We become His Body. Paul addresses the idea of sexual sin here and he declares that we who are joined to Christ cannot think so little of that union as to join ourselves, simultaneously, to a prostitute. This would mean that Christ, Himself is joined to that prostitute. What an abhorrent thought! To begin to think seriously about all that Christ has invested into my salvation, to imagine that He not only took on my nature, but took me on, took me into Himself, has to make my relationship to Him all the more profound. Just as the scandal of sin rocks a school or a government, it mars the reputation of our Covenant Head. Yet knowing the weakness of my flesh and my propensity to be unfaithful, He joins Himself to me by uniting my nature to God by His Holy Spirit, by uniting Himself to me by becoming a man that He might die as the innocent Victim for my rebellion, and by entering into a covenant with me to extend to me the “sure love for David” which I, so infinitely and immeasurably, do not deserve.

Having spent the last couple of weeks studying this great truth I just have to ask, how could I ever have missed this? How could I read the Bible in such a selfish way so as to see that Jesus would be the provider of salvation like Walmart is the provider of merchandise? Can I look to the Gospel so that I see it as, “I just need to come to Him and want what He has and make the right arrangements so that I can go and spend what He has given as I see fit,” when in reality, He desires the intimacy of being “one spirit” with me? When in reality He desires to give me wine and milk and rich food to the full while instead, I satisfy myself with a hot dog because that is what I can afford!? This kind of relationship with Christ has been short-sold by people who value human will more than God. It has turned the Gospel into nothing more than a self-help program and gutted it of the love of God which is its very heart. It has produced a bunch of nominal Christians who have no power over sin because the power of God is not present in their lives, because this beautiful and full union is not a part of that relationship. The irony is, that in an effort to have the Gospel and personal satisfaction, we sacrifice the greatest satisfaction we could possibly have for the sake of maintaining our self-worth.

In our sinfulness, we struggle hard to submit. We struggle hard to submit in every area, but especially to God. In our sinfulness we battle to hold back a piece of our hearts because we are afraid to trust and afraid to be honest about what is in our hearts. Yet, Christ laid His heart bare for us. This loving union is based solely upon God’s love, laid bare in the Person of Jesus Christ. What more could the Creator of the Universe have given? He gave His Son, His Spirit, His Righteousness, His covenant, and through this, He united us to Himself in the bonds of love , through this, He gave us all we need for life and godliness, He gave us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, He gave us an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven. But more than this, He united us to Himself by nature and by covenant and guaranteed our presence in the presence of God for all eternity. What a far cry from removing original sin and giving us the opportunity to get ourselves to heaven by belonging to the right church and performing the right rituals as we try to remain pure.

As I mentioned earlier, this complete giving of self and assets, of complete trust and submission is pictured in the marriage relationship. As His Saints, we are married to Christ and this union is modeled in human marriage. Paul wrote to the Ephesians;

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. (Eph 5:22-33 ESV)

Here is the description of that relationship. The wives first submit because of the man’s role as head, but also because he is the savior. (Vs 22-24) Husbands love with a sacrificial love that induces a devotion that purifies the desires through the obvious love that cherishes its beloved (Vs. 25-31) We see in verse thirty-two that, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” That is, that as His bride, we are united to Him through His great love and as a result of our union, He bestows all of His wealth upon us. He is our Savior, not only from sin, but our Protector and Provider. In Him we have an inheritance, every spiritual blessing, etc. In Him, we are lead to singleness of devotion as He purifies and presents us. By His great love and our union with Him in flesh and in spirit, we are free to yield ourselves completely to Him. It is our response to His loving generosity. Just as the husband is supposed to invest himself fully into the marriage relationship, Christ has already done so for His Bride. Just as Her response is loving submission, not only to His authority, but to His care, we are to lay ourselves fully upon Him without reservation. This is the ideal of marriage in the earthly realm. This is the reality of what Christ gives to us as we enter into this covenant with Him and become His Bride.

As I look at myself in light of this, I begin to understand all the more clearly the words of the Epistle of James when he says, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?” (Jas 4:4-5 ESV) Considering the anger and lust, the envy and pride that still resides in me, thinking of this union that I am in with Christ and all the He has devoted to it, I really, for the first time, feel the full import of that word, “adulterous” in verse four. It always seemed like a metaphor in the past, but I believe it is nothing more and nothing less than an accurate description. Yet, as the loving Husband that He is, the words that follow are filled with hope and the reminder of the endless supply of love that flows from my Savior! “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” (Jas 4:6-10 ESV)

The cleansing love of the Savior triumphs for those who know Him. The sanctification process is driven by the blessings of our union. The Spirit that He has put within longs for His presence. The Covenant that He has entered into with this “Gomer” is the token of His unfailing love. The fact that, as the Creator, He would condescend to come to me at all, let alone take on my nature, infinitely more! to take me, individually, into Himself is the ultimate act of mercy. His grace humbles and calls us to submit. It draws us to purify our hearts and set our focus on Him, It causes us to mourn over our sin.

This makes the idea of salvation without submission as ridiculous as digestion without eating! It takes the matter of easy-believerism and neutralizes it completely. How can I imagine to enter into this intricate relationship with God and claim that He is merely providing a commodity to me with no strings attached? Why would I want that kind of relationship with Him if it was not to receive His love so that I could live as though He does not care? What an oxymoron. What an amazing God we serve and what greater proof of my own corruption than to try and exploit Him for my own ends?

Lord, help me to never forget all that I have received in Christ. As the Puritan great, Richard Baxter exhorts his readers in his 17^th century Gospel tract, A Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live, let me always consider what I have attained in Christ. He lists them as follows;

“You shall immediately be made living members of Christ, and have an interest in Him, and be renewed after the image of God, and be adorned with all His graces, and quickened with a new and heavenly life, and saved from the tyranny of Satan and the dominion of sin, and be justified from the curse of the law, and have the pardon of all the sins of your whole lives, and be accepted of God, and made His sons, and have liberty with boldness to call Him Father, and go to Him by prayer in all your needs, with a promise of acceptance; you shall have the Holy Ghost to dwell in you, to sanctify and guide you; you shall have a part in the brotherhood, communion, and prayers of the saints, you shall be fitted for God’s service, and be freed from the dominion of sin, and be useful, and a blessing to the place where you live; and shall have the promise of this life, and that which is to come: you shall want nothing that is truly good for you, and your necessary afflictions you will be enabled to bear; you may have some taste of communion with God in the Spirit, especially in all holy ordinances, where God prepareth a feast for your souls; you shall be heirs of heaven while you live on earth, and may foresee by faith the everlasting glory, and so may live and die in peace; and you shall never be so low but your happiness will be incomparably greater than your misery.” (p. 169-170)

Notice that he begins with being made members of Christ and having an interest in Him. All other attainments flow from this great truth. And what great attainments they are! What a glorious God! What a blessed Gospel!

Works Cited

Baxter, Richard. A Call to the Unconverted. New York: American Tract Society, 1800′s. Print.

Glenn, R.W. Union With Christ. Audio Lecture ed. Minnetonka, MN: Solid Food Media, 2005. N. pag. Web. 26 Sept. 2011

Horton, Michael. Union With Christ. Article ed. Escondido, CA: Michael Horton, 1992. Web. 30 Sept. 2011.

Owen, John. Communion With God. Puritan Paperbacks ed. Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 1991. Print.

The Ministry of the Holy Spirit

The Ministry of the Holy Spirit

Breakfast and Bible Study this morning centered around the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The basis for the lesson was the second of two papers that I have to write as I work toward my Masters of Divinity at The North American Reformed Seminary.

What is the work or “ministry” of the Holy Spirit? It is an important question to ask. There is so much more to it that most of us consider.  As you read, I encourage you to listen to the audio of the lesson from our study.

The Ministry of the Holy Spirit   – Audio

Yet He is Actually Not Far From Each One of Us

Considering the Holy Spirit and His work, if I began with a photograph before my study of this subject, Arthur Pink took my standard photo and gave me a giant, panoramic print, but Abraham Kuyper has taken me to the I-Max Theater of the Holy Spirit where I am surrounded by His presence. On a more celestial plane, if that picture was related to the universe, Pink took me to the observatory and gave me a great telescope to bring His beauty nearer to me, but Kuyper has launched me into space itself, where His presence is observed in every square millimeter that I come into contact with. Parts of Kuyper’s work resonate with my own experience and my understanding of what Scripture teaches about God’s eternal, sovereign power and providence. He has brought it more clearly into view, dividing the work among the members of the Godhead., carefully leaning on the Scriptures and their historic interpretation. Kuyper speaks of our experience as useful in this and I see it as such too. He informs us at the beginning of his work, “Spiritual experience can furnish no basis for instruction; for such experience rests on that which took place in our own soul. Certainly this has value, influence, voice in the matter. But what guarantees correctness and fidelity in interpreting such experience?” (Vol 1, Ch 1, Article I) As valuable as our experience may be, we need to look outside ourselves to understand what has happened within us. Though we feel some certainty in our experience and find value in it, we cannot rely upon it as the source of our understanding. Of course, Kuyper directs us to the Word of God, saying, “Altho there is no subject in whose treatment the soul inclines more to draw upon its own experience, there is none that demands more that our sole source of knowledge be the Word given us by the Holy Spirit.” (Vol 1, Ch 1, Article I)

Considering, as much as I did last time, the Spirit’s work in the application of redemption, I see that understanding Him only by this task would leave Him largely “unemployed” apart from the Fall and the reconciliation that is thus required. It becomes evident that even in the preceding work of creation and that of providence, He is preparing the elect for their rendezvous with eternal destiny. He is leading, guiding and preparing all things and bringing them to their appointed end, and He has been from eternity past. As he hovered over the watery mass and brought the seed of creation to its fruitful harvest, so, He was also there, giving me being and sustaining life in me until He brought me to faith in Christ by regenerating me at the appointed time.

What an amazing thought, to consider afresh and with greater emphasis, God’s eternal love and the work that He has taken upon Himself, to reconcile the alienated orphan who was in abject poverty to the Royal, Paternal care of His household; to consider that it was more than just the work of Redemption that occurred in history some two thousand years ago (as amazingly wonderful as that truly is!), and the application of it to me at a point in time (equally amazing!), but an eternal unfolding of the fabric of the beautiful and baffling love of an offended Creator to a destitute and undeserving rebel. The thought of the former was enough to send the Apostle Paul into one of the most beautiful doxologies in all of the Scriptures, as he wrote to the Ephesians, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith–that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph. 3:14-19) As humbling and awe inspiring as it is to consider God’s work in all the aspects that relate directly to saving sinners, it seems exponentially greater to consider that that was just the visible tip of the proverbial iceberg and that underneath is the hidden providence of history, from time eternal to its consummation, all of which has been and continues to be governed by the Spirit that He sent into the world to animate and propagate His elect.

Providence

As I relate this to my own conversion I can look back and trace the Hand of Providence in my life. This is really where I begin to see the work of the Holy Spirit in my own life all the more clearly. Having been converted at the age of 27, I find Kuyper’s articles on “Preparatory Grace” (Vol 2, CH 3) to be like my own story written a hundred years before I was born. He writes, “It can not be denied that a man, converted at twenty-five, was during his godless life the subject of the divine labor, care, and protection; that in his conception and before his birth God’s hand held him and broughthim forth; yea, that even in the divine counsel the work must be traced which God has wrought for him long before his conversion:” (Vol 2, Ch 3 Article XVII) This is certainly written about me! It was apparent in my life at so many points, though with the exception of someone else pointing it out to me here and there, it went virtually unnoticed by me until after my conversion. I am not sure at what age, but I was still fairly young when I was told that I was supposed to be stillborn. Eight months into her pregnancy, my mother was told that there was no heartbeat and that I had died in her womb. The doctor scheduled her to have her labor induced and so she went through with the procedure, only to find that I was eight-and-a-half pounds of healthy baby boy. However, within three weeks I was down to five-and-a-half pounds. Due to the early birth my stomach muscles had not all completely formed and my food would not move out of my stomach and into my small intestine. I was literally starving to death. After a surgery I eventually regained my weight and I was okay.

Life having started a bit precariously, things seemed to go pretty well until the winter of my twelfth year. I had gotten a new ten-speed bicycle for Christmas and was riding it to friend’s house just down the road. As I peddled quickly, looking backward to escape the neighbor’s dog, I hit a car head-on as it was going fifty-five miles an hour. Amazingly, I emerged virtually unharmed. Bernice, the lady whose family owned the junkyard that it happened in front of, told me explicitly that the Lord was watching out for me that day. As I stood and looked at my relatively new bike that was now only about three feet long, I readily agreed.

There was much more than just saving me from peril that comprised the Holy Spirit’s providential leading and guiding of my life before I came to faith. The summer before the accident, my brothers and I were on a float that was in a parade in our small, rural home town which was about twenty-five miles north of Detroit. (I came from a very UN-churched home with very low moral standards.) Once we dressed up in our costumes for the float, we mounted it at the parade site and the float began to move down the route in front of the hundreds of people who had come out to join in the festivities. During that time, a photographer from the county newspaper snapped a photo of us that ended up on the front page. Twenty miles south of us in a Metropolitan Detroit suburb, a Christian housewife and her friend saw the picture and noticed that one of the kids in the photograph (my then ten-year-old brother) was actually giving the finger to the photographer when he snapped the picture. They were appalled that such a young boy would even think to do such a thing. At my house, it was a great joke and everyone had a good laugh, but in hers, we became the subject of unceasing prayer. Our names were listed at the bottom of the photo, so she and a friend began to pray earnestly for us by name.

Fast forward fifteen years; Then at age 26, I had become a part-owner in a screen printing company in Metropolitan Detroit. Having a need for some help, we hired a pretty young woman for part-time work in our storefront. She and I began to date and we became involved in a serious relationship. She became pregnant. We went to her parents to tell them what had happened. Time passed as I got to know her family. Then one day her mom looked at me and said something like, “I know who you are!” I was not sure what she was taking about. She began to tell me about the newspaper article and that she recognized my name from the picture. She had been praying for me enough to recognize my name from something that happened fifteen years before! Within a few of months all of this transpiring, the Holy Spirit prevailed upon me through the witness of a customer at my shop and also of an elderly widow who was friends with my new fiance’s family. That winter we were married and a few months later my wife was also converted.

Having undergone such things as those brushes with death and amazing “coincidences” like the picture in the paper, I have often contemplated Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill as he told the Greek Philosophers, “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,” (Acts 17:26-27) Here it seems that Paul is contradicting the fatalism and chance of the Greek philosophers and directly crediting Jehovah with the disposal of men and of nations. John Calvin remarks on this passage in his commentary, “For when he saith that the times were ordained before by Him, he doth testify that He had determined, before men were created, what their condition and estate should be. ” (Calvin’s Commentaries) Once I had been converted, It certainly seemed that the Lord had orchestrated my steps and brought me to the place where I saw my need and His gracious solution. I could go on with the details of how the responsibility for my son became the impetus for my conviction and the tool the Spirit used to make me see myself in truth as I related my former life to His holy standard. I was alarmed to think of my son living as I had up to that point. Even the illegitimate conception of a child was not outside His providence. However, we will consider this in a little more detail further on in the paper.

But what does all of this talk of providence prove with regard to the agency of the Holy Spirit? Certainly it was God’s doing, but could it not be left at that? Should we take the time to look into the secret workings of God and see how He relates within the Godhead as he superintends the creation? Kuyper gives us the historic take on this subject as he teaches us,

“In 1 Cor. viii. 6, St. Paul teaches that: “There is but one God the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things.” Here we have two prepositions: of whom, and by whom. But in Rom. xi. 36 he adds another: “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things.”

The operation here spoken of is threefold: first, that by which all things are originated (of Him); second, that by which all things consist (through Him); third, that by which all things attain their final destiny (to Him). In connection with this clear, apostolic distinction the great teachers of the Church, after the fifth century, used to distinguish the operations of the Persons of the Trinity by saying that the operation whereby all things originated proceeds from the Father; that whereby they received consistency from the Son; and that whereby they were led to their destiny from the Holy Spirit” (Vol 1, Ch 1 Article IV)

Taking the time to look into the works done by each of the Members of the Godhead has value for us because it is our duty and it should be our delight, to know God as He is; to be clear in our minds about the care and cooperation of the Godhead in our own estate. It is also very important to realize that each Member of the Trinity has an eternal work and purpose and is not merely a Means for a segment of the eternal plan and purpose of creation or redemption. Taking that kind of view tends to minimize our understanding of the individual Members of the Godhead and even to cause us to exalt One above Another based upon their perceived value to ourselves. Another paper could be written on our deficient views of the members of the Godhead; some regarding the Spirit more than the Father and Son because of the gifting that He gives, some regarding the Son without acknowledging the the eternal plan of the Father or the agency of the Spirit who applied to them the Son’s redemption through His work of regeneration and illumination. If we bring the unity and harmony of their purpose and works into focus, it allows us to see and to worship them more in line with their actual Being. To gain greater insight into the labor they have endured on our behalf should increase our worship for each Member of the Godhead, individually and in cooperation with One Another.

From this basic idea, Kuyper leads us from Creation to Christ and then into the Church which He purchased with His blood. This comprises the first volume of his work. In every area He shows us the special work of the Spirit. As he expounds Job 33:4 which says, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” he tells us , “Hence the principal thought remains intact: When God comes into direct contact with thecreature it is the work of the Holy Spirit to effect such contact. In the visible world this action consists in the kindling and fanning of the spark of life; hence it is quite natural and in full harmony with the general tenor of the teaching of Scripture that the Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters, that He brings forth the host of heaven and earth, ordered, animated, and resplendent. Besides this visible creation there is also an invisible, which, so far as our world is concerned, concentrates itself in the heart of man; hence, in the second place, we must see how far the work of the Holy Spirit may be traced in man’s creation.” (Vol 1, Ch 2 Article VII)

We see here that He has given us being and He has given us life, and yet He continues to give to us as we live.

“… man was not created empty, afterward to be endowed with higher spiritual faculties and powers, but that the very act of creation made him after God’s image, without any subsequent addition to his being. For we read: “Let Us create man in Our image and after Our likeness.” This assures us that by immediate creation man received the impress of the divine image; that in the creation the divine Persons each performed a distinct work; and, lastly, that man’s creation with reference to his higher destiny was effected by a going forth of the breath of God.

This is the basis of our statement that the Spirit’s creative work was making all man’s powers and gifts instruments for His own use, connecting them vitally and immediately with the powers of God. This agrees with Biblical teachings regarding the Holy Spirit’s regenerating work, which also, tho differently, brings the power and holiness of God in immediate contact with human powers.” (Vol 1, Ch 2 Article VII)

So, not only being and life, but all of our power and gifts, and as Kuyper goes on to point out in the next chapter, even our talents are part of the Spirit’s creative work in us as human beings made in the image of God. “He has determined our pre-appointed times and boundaries of our dwellings,” but also, as Paul also informs the Greek Philosophers in the very next verse, In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) All that we do and have is of Him. As the Holy Spirit is the life-giving force of God and active in giving, sustaining and empowering the lives of his creatures, He is, in a real sense, in all of the creatures who are made in His image. This differs from His indwelling of Believers, but is just as real. Again, “… the Spirit’s creative work was making all man’s powers and gifts instruments for His own use, connecting them vitally and immediately with the powers of God.” (Vol 1, Ch 3 Article X)

We can conclude that through the agency of the Holy Spirit, God touches man in his inmost parts, imparting life and personality, gifts and talents and then, through providence, brings His elect to their appointed ends. It is, as we have seen, the Spirit’s job to bring those thus created, to their appointed destiny. As the Father, in His eternal counsel, ordained the elect; as the Son came into the world that He had created, to purchase them from the power of sin and death; so then, the Spirit directs them and conducts them to the time of their regeneration and subsequent conversion and brings them through this life and into eternity. Before a man ever comes to the point of receiving Christ, his whole life has been in the care of God, through the work of His Holy Spirit. Thus, in this too we can say, “This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes!” (Psalm 118:23)

Taking a step back and expanding our gaze from the individual Believer, we see that Holy Spirit has played a part in all of History and all for the same ultimate purpose. We have seen His work in the formation of men. We have noticed in Acts 17 that this extends to nations. In order to accomplish the work of leading creation to its appointed end and thus, the individual members of creation, He has accomplished some very peculiar and important works as well.

He Inspired Old Testament the Scriptures: Kuyper tells us, “As to the divine revelation in its widest scope, it is evident from the Scripture that God spoke to men from Adam to the last of the apostles. From Paradise to Patmos revelation runs like a golden thread through every part of Sacred History..” (Vol 1, Ch 4 Article XV) The importance of this is unparallelled in all of God’s doings in, through and for sinful men. He has given us a clear and authoritative disclosure of His will. He did that through the agency of His Spirit as He worked in the hearts of those sinful men. 2 Peter 1:21 informs us “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” This is certainly a unique and invaluable work! We could also note that the Old Testament Scriptures played a significant part in the formation of the Nation of Israel, preparing the place for the Messiah to come into the world.

He was the Agent of the Incarnation of Christ: Again, an unprecedented work of indispensable value. It was He that overshadowed the virgin and implanted the seed of the Savior’s human nature into her womb. (Luke 1:35) Where would we be without this invaluable work? The Holy Spirit did not “sit the bench” after that however. His work continued as He labored to bring the creation and redemption to their consummation.

He empowered Jesus as He lived and grew and also as He ministered: Kuyper tells us, “THE work of the Holy Spirit in the Person of Christ is not exhausted in the Incarnation, but appears conspicuously in the work of the Mediator. We consider this work in the development of His human nature; in the consecration to His office; in His humiliation unto death; in His resurrection, exaltation, and return in glory.” (Vol 1, Ch 6, Article XX) We saw how the Spirit is at work in the physical lives of people and certainly it was so in the human nature of Christ. As we read of Jesus departing from the Jordan River following His baptism, we find, “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.” (Luke 4:1-2) After His success in overcoming that temptation we see again, the work of the Spirit, just a few verses farther on, “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.” (Luke 4:14-15) As Kuyper tells us, the Spirit was His source of power from His conception to His Resurrection and will be active in His return. Again, where would we be without this ministry of the Spirit?

He Gifts and Empowers the Church: Of this, we know a little bit. We have been taught of His outpouring at Pentecost and of the Gifts that He imparts to Believers for the edification of the Body of Christ. But do we remember His empowering of the Old Testament Saints? From the gifting of Bezalel as an artisan to build the Tabernacle, to the miracles of Elijah, or the prophesies of Isaiah, etc. , He is there.

Gifting and Empowering the Apostles: Yet again we see the Holy Spirit in a unique and indispensable work. The ministry of the Apostles is truly unique in all of the Church. From them we have the foundational doctrines of the Church which has been verified by the miraculous works of the Spirit. From them we have the first declaration of the Gospel outside the confines of Israel. They are the “foundation” of the Church as Christ is its Chief Cornerstone (Eph 2:20)

Through the Apostles He also Inspired the New Testament Scriptures: Again, Kuyper informs us, “Through the apostles the Church received something not possessed by Israel nor imparted by Christ. Christ Himself declares: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak from Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak; and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you” (Johnxvi. 12-14).” (Vol 1, Ch 9 Article XXXIII) Bringing the truths of all the past ages to bear on the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit has once and for all given us the heart of God, written on pages by the men whom He had created, chosen, guided and gifted to accomplish His purpose. Had the Spirit not been at work here, we would still be in our sins though all of the other works had been completed. This is the tool that He uses to open blind eyes and soften hard hearts. What an amazing God we serve! How little we count the works of His Spirit and how great the miscalculation as we add up His works done for our benefit! This brings us to His final special work.

The Creation of the Church: As it is the Spirit’s work to regenerate the sinner and impart faith to him, to indwell, gift and empower him for his service to the Church (1 Cor. 12:11, Eph. 2:18-21, Tit. 3:5). In that sense, He is the Creator of it. This all brings us back around to His work as He guides and cares for the elect before their conversion, preparing us for our place in the Spiritual Temple.

And so we ask, where is the place where the presence of the Spirit is not felt? Not just seen or understood, but encountered, interacted with and benefited from. Should we relegate Him to the mere Giver of Gifts, the Empowerer of Sanctification or even to the Applier of Redemption, we would slight Him and give Him only partial credit for His work on our behalf. Bringing all of this together, as I consider again my own life and conversion, I see that I have failed to give the Holy Spirit His due. The great mass of Christians who deny the truths of God’s foreordination and election, of His providential care and sovereignty, insult the Spirit of Grace and rob Him of His glory. What an amazing contrast to the ideas of God and of the Christian Faith that pervade the Church today!

Regeneration

My pastor’s heart wants very badly to call the Church back to this forgotten knowledge and to exalt the honor of God and particularly of the Holy Spirit to its rightful place. Oh, that we would see where we have fallen from and repent! I see it as my duty to call each one to trace the steps of their own conversion with Scriptures in hand and prayerfully, to seek out the secret and hidden movings of the Spirit in their own case. It was true in my case that the Spirit used my situation as much as my hearing of His word to break my heart and show me my need.

As Kuyper moves into the second volume of his work, he turns the focus to the individual and the work of the Spirit that is involved in the application of redemption. This section is really a study of soteriology in the most rigorous sense. First he deals with man and his nature, sin, the fall and its effects and then the concepts of Original Righteousness and holiness. Next he deals with what the aforementioned “Preparatory Grace” and then regeneration, finally with calling, repentance, justification and faith. He is well inside Reformed circles on his treatment of these topics as evidenced by the following excerpt, “From God proceed quickening, conversion, and sanctification, and in each God is the Worker: only with this difference, that in the quickening He works alone, finding and leaving man inactive; that in conversion He finds us inactive, but makes us active; that in sanctification He works in us in such a manner that we work ourselves through Him.”(Vol 2, Ch 3 Article XXIII) Beginning with the doctrine of Total Depravity, he finds man necessarily dead in sin and incapable of lifting himself to embrace the Savior. Thus, regeneration must be a monergistic effort on the part of God the Holy Spirit. As He regenerates the sinner He makes him willing and able to turn from sin and embrace the Savior and then becomes the Power and Impetus to bring about his sanctification.As the Spirit finds man inactive and must impart life to him in order for him to become able to respond to the call of the Gospel (1 Cor. 2:14), once enlivened he does become active in the conversion and sanctification processes.

Kuyper instructs us, “In conversion the fact of cooperation on the part of the saved sinner assumes a clearly defined and perceptible character. In regeneration there was none; in the calling there was a beginning of it; in conversion proper it became a fact. When the Holy Spirit regenerates a man, it is an “Effatha,” i.e., He opens the ear. When He effectually calls him, He speaks into that opened ear, which cooperates by receiving the sound, that is, by harkening. But when the Holy Spirit actually converts the man, then the act of man coalesces with the act of the Holy Spirit, and it is said: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him” (Isa. lv. 7); and in another place: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” (Psalm xix. 7)” (Vol 2, Ch5, Article XXIX) Here is the point that I would like to focus on for the rest of this paper. Here, I believe, is where the previous providence that we spoke of most greatly impacts the salvation and sanctification of the sinner.

As I recall my own experience and relate it to what we have been discussing, I see this as the powerful emotion, evoked by the pride-shattering revelation, that humbled me and gave me repentance unto life. Though man is regenerated my a sovereign act of the Holy Spirit, he is not brought into the Kingdom of God like a machine who has been switched on. If that was so, all that we have spoken of at the beginning of this paper would be moot. On the contrary, having brought the sinner through the time of his unregenerate life, God, in that time having shown him the goodness of common grace while allowing him to move according to the dictates of his own will, brings the fruit of that will to bear on His own goodness in giving and sustaining life and in His gracious call to reconciliation which comes through His Word. This merging of the Word and Providence as it applied to me as an individual is the most humbling grace that I can see in my own conversion.

After twenty-seven years of living for myself, according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who is at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom I once conducted myself, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind while I was by nature a child of wrath, the “But God!” broke through the darkness of my blind eyes and the scales fell off, showing me the repugnance of my self-centered self-righteousness. Twenty-seven years of lust, greed and self-gratification did not loosen those scales as I lived in an unconscious awareness of God’s love and care. On the contrary, without the Spirit’s life given to me, it only further alienated me from His goodness. Although the Spirit’s care and guidance did not make me engage in sex outside of a marriage relationship, He allowed me to follow the lust of my heart and lovingly gave me enough rope to hang myself. When the reality of the responsibility for the life of my yet unborn son came crashing down upon me, I saw myself for the first time in the true light, but how could I do that when I had lived I so long in utter darkness?.

Having had virtually no exposure to the Gospel until less than a year before that time, The Spirit was preparing me even before I entered the relationship with my (now) wife. He brought me the Word of God in a most uncanny way. For more then a year before the crisis even began to develop, a customer that we had at the screen print shop was having shirts printed (a few each week) with the Bible verse, John 3:3 on them. “Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (KJV) This was followed by a few paragraphs of very small type relating the basics of the Gospel message, including my alienation from God because of my sin, Christ’s remedy and the need of my repentance and faith. I hated that job because it was a small profit and it was very tedious. Each time I printed his small orders, I had to go over every letter in the tiny text to make sure it was clear in the screen and would yield a good quality print. It was just about like attending a Bible study every week as I set up the job. But the man and the job I had once mocked became the tool of the Holy Spirit to instruct me so that when He was ready, He would have what He needed to convert me.

Conviction

The word of God, my previous lifestyle and its resultant crisis all came together at once and the Holy Spirit was there in the midst of it to do the job that only He can do. The funny thing was, there was no one else there, just Him and me. He had prepared me and brought me to that place. He knew exactly what it would take to humble a proud sinner like me. He gave me that tender heart for my son and He used that too, as He brought me to my knees to acknowledge my sin and my need for the Savior. What a glorious God! What amazing Grace! Leading me and guiding me, giving me my way and using my own will to accomplish His purpose.

What Kuyper says of sanctification is equally true of the whole process,

“1. The Word is a vital power in the Church which pierces even to the dividing asunder of the joints and the marrow, and, as such it is a divinely ordained instrument to create impressions in a man; and these impressions are the means by which holy inclinations are implanted in his heart.

2. Life’s experiences also make impressions in us more or less lasting; and these God uses also to create holy dispositions.” (Vol 3. Ch 1, Article XIII)

The result of these two things, as the Holy Spirit brought them together in my life while He opened my ears to hear and my heart to understand, was a profound conviction of the sinfulness of my life. I acknowledge that He is sovereign and calls into existence the things that do not exist, but I am sure that His providence is not without reason as well. I know for certain, that as Jesus said to Simon the Pharisee, “He who is forgiven much loves much” (Luke 7:47) that the reality of my Spirit-generated love, lies as well in my knowledge of Christ’s forgiveness for my previous rebellious life. That love is born out of this true conviction for my sin. Without it I would not see Jesus and His Gospel as being so worthy of my adoration.

As Kuyper speaks of the effectual calling of God through His Word he says this,

“Hence to this is added the illumination of his understanding, which wonderful gift enables him not only to apprehend the general sense of the preached Word, but also to perceive and realize that this Word comes to him directly from God; that it affects and condemns his very being, thus causing him to penetrate into its hidden essence and feel the sharp sting which effects conviction.

Lastly, the Holy Spirit plies this conviction—which otherwise would quickly vanish—so long and so severely, that finally the sting, like the keen edge of a lancet, pierces the thick skin and lays open the festering sore. This is in the called a very wonderful operation. The general understanding puts the matter before him; the illumination reveals to him what it contains; and the conviction puts the sharp two-edged sword directly upon his heart. Then, however, he is inclined to shrink from that sword; not to let it pierce through, but to let it glance harmlessly from the soul. But then the Holy Spirit, in full activity, continues to press that sword of conviction, driving it so forcibly into the soul that at last it cuts through and takes effect.” (Vol 2, Ch 5, Article XXVIII)

As I look around the Church of Jesus Christ, I see this idea of real conviction as very conspicuously lacking. This was so powerful in my experience and I wonder at what is lost to those who have never experienced it? When I came into the Church, I was first instructed that once one said “the prayer” that any further conviction over sin was of the devil and was to be quickly expunged from the mind. Faith was to be anchored in the profession that was made, rather than the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the person professing. And so, as I wonder what has been lost, I must concede that it may well be the very work of regeneration and conversion that has been forfeited by people who have refused to heed the Word of God and the words and works of the men in the Church who have gone before us. Woe to those who have not looked beyond themselves in their study of these sacred truths.

The greater our conviction over sin, the greater our love for the One who rescued us from it. Therefore, as I consider this amazing co-mingling of events; the Spirit’s bringing me to the end of myself as He allowed me to have my way, the bringing in of His Word where I would never have welcomed it otherwise, and His powerful act of regeneration followed by the conviction wrought through this coalescence of those events, remorse and great joy still fill my heart as I contemplate the blessed Providence of God, brought to me by His Holy Spirit. Humiliation and elation lead me simultaneously, to worship at His feet.

Sanctification

Thus, in all of this, the Holy Spirit is given a much greater and more comprehensive adoration for His intimate work within the human heart and life. But His work does not cease at the point of conversion. The Spirit is still at work in the next phase of our lives. As Christians we must be sanctified as well. The experiences that lead to my conversion were entirely the result of sin which was the defining element of my unconverted life. Born in sin and living up to its expectations, this may have been the way to make me see my need, but it is not the way that I can continue as I live in light of God’s grace and mercy. (Romans 6:1-14)

Volume Three of Kuyper’s work deals comprehensively with this part of the Ministry of the Holy Spirit. Once He has brought us to faith, He then begins to conform us to the image of Christ. Working in us, leading us and empowering us, yet working in conjunction with us, He accomplishes this task. The result in us being; holiness, self-denial, love and an attitude of dependence demonstrated through prayer. All of these are brought about in us as a result of the Spirit’s work, as we respond in faith (also initially His work) to the Gospel. From this we are transformed into the image of His Son (See Romans 8:23-30) and brought to glory.

Conclusion

All of this demonstrates the work of the Spirit from the beginning of creation, through all of the vital events of history, and onward, to the calling and perfecting of all that have been given to the Son by the Father. It is certainly the “commonness” of His activity that shields it from our eyes, for He is active in every sphere. That activity is not necessarily a visible activity as we have seen, and so it goes unnoticed by the mass of humanity. Yet, I believe it is also our own lack of due diligence as saints, that keeps us from looking hard into His own Self-Revelation to see the great work that He has done and continues to do. This is combined with a third element that I believe is very definitive of our own culture, that is an ignorance of God’s sovereignty and of His active work of Providence. It has certainly become more fashionable to think of God as our Helper than our Governor, to consider His work an aid to our own rather than for Him to be the Author and Finisher of it. This relates back to our refusal to see our sin in its true light, as absolute rebellion against a Sovereign God, and to see God as He really is, the Ultimate Authority and Holy Judge of the Universe. This is not to push us too far the other way, away from God and His great love. On the contrary, if we understand these fundamental truths we will come to appreciate God’s love all the more.

John Calvin began his Institutes of the Christian Religion with these words, “Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts; the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” (Pg 37) When we choose to give up either one or both, we will never come to a true knowledge of either. We must begin at the beginning. We must continually go back to the Scriptures and allow the hermeneutical cycle to redefine our presuppositions until they are saturated with Biblical truth. We must begin again and again as our minds are renewed by the Scriptures and the Spirit of God and we must let God teach us about Himself and about ourselves. It is a long journey from self-willed and rebellious to humble and teachable, and there is only one way there. It is the way I have described above. How do I know this? Not by experience, though I have had that experience. But by the Word of God which I continually subject my experience to.

Works Cited

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Beveridge ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Grand Rapids Book Mfg., 1975. Print.

Calvin, John. Calvin: Commentaries – Complete. Calvin Translation Society ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996. N. pag. Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI. Web. 9 Jul 21 11.

English Standard Version of the Bible. E-Sword ed. Vol. 1. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Publishing, 2001. N. pag. 1 vols. Download.

Kuyper, Abraham. The Work of the Holy Spirit. 3 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1946. Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI. Web. 21 July 2011.

In Christ!

Kevin

Reconciled! [Colossians Pt. 7]

Reconciled!

What would you do if you had the power to avenge every wrong against  you? How would you handle that power? There is only One who is truly righteous and who has the authority to judge and condemn.  Speaking of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul tells the Colossians;

Colossians 1:16-17  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.  17  And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

We saw a couple of weeks ago, the absolute power and authority of Christ. Last week we saw the absolute rebellion of mankind. Again, the Apostle Paul spells it out;

Colossians 1:21  And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,

Absolute Authority in contrast with men who alienate themselves and are hostile to God. That sounds like an equation with a horrific outcome. This is the situation between man and God. This is the place that man has put himself in relationship to his Creator. This has been our discussion for the past couple of weeks (see Colossians Pt.5 and Colossians Pt. 6 ) We need to reconcile these two polar opposites. Yet though we may possess the power to understand that the reconciliation needs to be made, we do not possess the power to make that reconciliation. We are the rebel. He is the Royal Sovereign whom we have behaved treacherously toward. He has the rights. We have the guilt of our offenses.

The most beautiful words in the book of Colossians are in verses 19 and 20;

Colossians 1:19-20  For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,  20  and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

And so I ask again, What would you do if you had the power to avenge every wrong against  you? How would you handle that power? God in His sovereign majesty does have that power. From where I sit, considering the great gulf between His infinite holiness and our absolute corruption, the most logical answer seems to be our utter annihilation. And yet we see the words in verse 19, “It pleased the Father…” He took pleasure in letting His Son become a man that He might make reconciliation.

God Himself (God the Son), the Possessor of Absolute Authority, came into the world that hated Him and rather than inflict judgment became the innocent Victim who received justice for the enemies and redeemed the rebels. If we understand this we should fall on our faces before Him and worship! Do you see how a proper assessment of God and ourselves magnifies the beauty of the Gospel? If sin is no big deal then neither is the Gospel. If God is not absolutely just and holy and man is not the treacherous villain,  then the Gospel is a sick case of what the skeptics call “cosmic child abuse.”
On the other hand, when we consider what the Bible tells us about God and ourselves it becomes the ultimate act of love as the Son willingly submits Himself to receive the justice of God on our behalf.  The great cost of reconciliation in what seemed to be an impossible situation was the pleasure of the Father to give. And yet it is the pleasure of most men to denounce, reject or ignore it. We are happy in our rebellion. We will not have God to rule over us. The rejection of that great love is even more wicked than the rejection of His authority as Creator.

The call today is to be reconciled to God; 2 Corinthians 5:20-21  Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.  21  For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

“Amazing love, how can it be, that You my King would die for me?” That needs to be our response. Considering songs, I heard one on the radio for the first time this week from Barlow Girl that puts it into perspective;

Why, why are You still here with me
Didn’t You see what I’ve done?
In my shame I want to run and hide myself
But it’s here I see the truth
I don’t deserve You

[Chorus:]
But I need You to love me, and I
I won’t keep my heart from You this time
And I’ll stop this pretending that I can
Somehow deserve what I already have
I need You to love me

I, I have wasted so much time
Pushing You away from me
I just never saw how You could cherish me
‘Cause You’re a God who has all things
And still You want me

Your love makes me forget what I have been
Your love makes me see who I really am
Your love makes me forget what I have been

There is a lot more to this sermon. I encourage you to listen to the audio by clicking on the link below and to consider afresh, the amazing love of a God who is pleased to seek reconciliation rather than justice.

Reconciled!

In Christ!

Kevin

The Person and Agency of the Holy Spirit

The Person and Agency of the Holy Spirit

What is the essential work of the Holy Spirit? Is he the Giver of Spiritual Gifts? The Aide to Sanctification? The Gentleman who introduces us to the Savior? He is sooooooo much more than this.

The following is the first paper for the class on the Holy Spirit I am presently taking at The North American Reformed Seminary.   It was also the subject of our discussion at our monthly Mens’ Breakfast and Bible Study. You can listen to the audio of the lesson by clicking on the link below.

The Person and Agency of the Holy Spirit

We Have Not Even Heard that there is a Holy Spirit.

Sometimes, as an heir of 20^th Century, American, Fundamental Christianity I feel that I have been given an obstacle to understanding the Scriptures regarding many of its most important doctrines. Understanding the Holy Spirit is certainly in that category. Their reactionary response against opposing strains of thought and teaching, as well as embracing key theological errors of their time, so often obscures their ability to see clearly (though I am sure it has been their goal be biblical). Reformed Theology has gone a long way in correcting my incomplete and distorted view in many areas, but none I believe, so much as this one concerning the Holy Spirit (especially in His soteriological undertakings). It is mind-boggling to see what I once understood about the Nature and Work of the Third Person of the Trinity and what I have learned in reading Calvin, Owen and others, and now Arthur Pink in regard to Him.

Thomas Watson’s, A Body of Divinity describes Him in succinct terms as he teaches us, “The third person in the Trinity is the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, whose work is to illuminate the mind, and enkindle sacred motions. The essence of the Spirit is in heaven, and everywhere; but the influence of it is in the hearts of believers. This is that blessed Spirit who gives us the holy unction. 1 John 2:20. Though Christ merits grace for us, it is the Holy Ghost that works it in us. Though Christ makes the purchase, it is the Holy Ghost that makes the assurance, and seals us to the day of redemption.” (Pg. 110) This truly “fundamental” view of the Nature and Work of the Spirit is, in essential areas, so far from the basic idea of His simple empowering work that I was instructed in at the beginning of my walk with Christ. Sure, He was shown to me to be the Third Person of the Trinity and to be at work in me, gifting and empowering for service, but never was I given the idea that He was essential to my coming to faith in Christ.

Never was I informed by my pastor or teachers of the application of Christ’s merits to me through Him. His most important and eternal works were dismissed in favor of His more temporal effects of sanctification and gifting for service. I do not want to diminish the importance of these areas of His labor, yet without the prior work of regeneration, working faith and applying the Work of Christ to me, these would certainly be impossible. Notice Watson, the highly regarded Puritan Divine felt no need to speak of the Holy Spirit’s giftings in his description! Was this some kind of a gross oversight? It would certainly be regarded as such by most Christians of our day. I would argue that is more of a proper description, putting primary things in our view and allowing the secondary to remain unmentioned. His was not an exhaustive treatise, but a basic description. Certainly when we hear of a newborn child we do not immediately ask what kind of clothes it was given, but about its life; its health, gender and size, etc. This shows how far off we can be when we consider the Spirit as merely the Dispenser of gifts and aid to our sanctification rather than the One who causes us to be “born.”

In approaching Pink’s work I see first, a thorough examination of all that Scripture acknowledges of the Person and attributes to the agency of the Holy Spirit. So much more than the average Christian in our 21^st Century environment attributes to Him is included in that agency that I have to begin with the words of the men in Ephesus, when the Apostle Paul met them and asked them whether they had received the Holy Spirit. They responded, “ …we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” (Acts 19:2b) Not that these men did not know that He existed, but had no idea of the work that He was doing in the Church or in the individual Believers. Marvin Vincent tells us, “as Bengel observes, ‘They could not have followed either Moses or John the Baptist without having heard of the Holy Ghost.’ The words, therefore, are to be explained, not of their being unaware of the existence of the Holy Ghost, but of his presence and baptism on earth.” (Commentary on Acts 19:2) As they had legitimate reason for not knowing, ours is because of the obscuring of this knowledge due to the theological wrangling of proponents of man’s free agency, and this, to the disparagement of the agency of the Holy Spirit. This seems to me to be one of the great errors of our time and one of the greatest hindrances to the Gospel in the Evangelical church.

The Spirit’s Nature and Personality

In the first installment of Arthur Pink’s series of articles on the Holy Spirit, he concludes that, “Until the Holy Spirit is again given His rightful place in our hearts, thoughts, and activities, there can be no improvement. Until it be recognized that we are entirely dependent upon His operations for all spiritual blessing, the root of the trouble cannot be reached. Until it be recognized that it is “‘Not by might, (of trained workers), nor by power (of intellectual argument or persuasive appeal), but by MY SPIRIT,’ saith the Lord” (Zech. 4:6), there will be no deliverance from that fleshly zeal which is not according to knowledge, and which is now paralyzing Christendom. Until the Holy Spirit is honored, sought, and counted upon, the present spiritual drought must continue.” What a statement from nearly 100 years ago! And how far have we progressed since his warning? Rather, we have regressed woefully away from this sacred standard and toward the very fleshly zeal that he warned against.

The Holy Spirit’s rightful place is not determined by our take on Him, but by His very Nature as a Member of the Blessed Trinity. Certainly it seems impossible to suggest that He is a mere emanation of power from God and not Himself, Divine. Yet there are many who seem to deny either His deity or His personality or both. Whether it is those in apostate, pseudo-Christian cults like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who see Him merely as God’s enabling power or others closer to, but still outside Biblical Christianity, such as Oneness Pentecostals, who see Him as one of the three offices of Jehovah, there seems to be plenty of disparaging belief and teaching out there concerning Him. Thus, it behooves us to begin at the beginning with the Nature and Personality of the Holy Spirit.

In this area, Pink tells us, “Let us begin by pointing out that a “person” is an intelligent and voluntary entity, of whom personal properties may be truly predicated. A “person” is a living entity, endowed with understanding and will, being an intelligent and willing agent. Such is the Holy Spirit…” (Pt. 2, The Personality of the Holy Spirit) Classic proofs are then given by him which seem to me to be overwhelming. The attributes demonstrated are; His understanding, 1 Cor. 2:10; His will, 1 Cor. 12:11. He is said to be tempted, Acts 5:9; lied to, Acts 5;3; and grieved, Eph. 4:30. Can a non-person understand? Is a non-person able to will something? It seems absurd that anyone reading of these things could count the Holy Spirit among inanimate objects or forces. Certainly, when Ananias and Sapphira are charged by Peter in Acts 5, not only His personality, but His Deity are clearly taught. “But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.’ ” (Act 5:3-4)

In addition to this, the Spirit is said to speak 1 Tim. 4:1, Rev. 2:7; to Teach, Luk 12:12, Joh 14:26; and to witness, Heb 10:15, Rom 8:16 among other things. Sufficient is the proof of the manifold witness of the Scriptures in this regard to the point that to reject the Divine Person of the Holy Spirit is to reject the testimony of the Sacred Canon. Borrowing the language of the revered John Owen, Pink commends to us his words, “By all these testimonies we have fully confirmed what was designed to be proved by them, namely, that the Holy Spirit is not a quality, as some speak, residing in the Divine nature; not a mere emanation of virtue and power from God; not the acting of the power of God in and unto our sanctification, but a holy, intelligent subsistent, or Person.”

“A Holy, Intelligent Subsistent;” He is a person (individual being) who is Holy and intelligent. A Person who not only has the attributes described above, but who is also responsible for acts, so far above any other being that He, Himself is not possibly any other than the True God. Again, Mr. Pink instructs us, “However mysterious and inexplicable to human reason the existence of a distinction of Persons in the essence of the Godhead may be, yet if we submissively bow to the plain teachings of the Divine Oracles, then the conclusion that there subsists three Divine Persons who are co-essential, co-eternal, and co-equal is unavoidable. He of whom such works as the creation of the universe, the inspiration of the Scriptures, the formation of the humanity of Christ, the regeneration and sanctification of the elect, is, and must be, GOD; or, to use the language of 2 Corinthians 3:17 ‘Now the Lord is that Spirit.’ ” (Pt 3 The Deity of the Holy Spirit) I love the way John Calvin states it in the Institutes as well, he says, “The mere fact of His not being circumscribed by any limits (Psalm 139) raises Him above the rank of creatures, while His transfusing vigor into all things, breathing into them being, life, and motion, is plainly divine. Again, if regenerating to incorruptible life is higher, and much more excellent than any present quickening, what must be thought of Him by whose energy it is produced?” (Book I. Par 14. Pg 122)

And I could go on, as Pink does, and show many other attributes such as, His Holiness, Rom 1:4; Eternity, Heb 9:14; Omnipresence, Ps 139:7; Omniscience, 1 Cor 2:10-11; etc. However, I am quite comfortable standing on what we have already seen and do not feel compelled to continue looking everywhere in the Scriptures when we have already demonstrated from so many places, the Divine Nature and Personality of the Spirit. For, from its opening verses in Genesis 1:2 where the Spirit hovered over the watery mass of matter at the onset of creation to Revelation 22:17 where He bids Christ, “Come,” His image and handiwork are across the face and throughout the depths of the whole of the Scriptures. They too, are undoubtedly His work (1 Pet 1:21).

His Most Acknowledged Works

Near the end of Pink’s series of articles, he addresses the more commonly known works of the Spirit, Sanctification and the Gifts, or what he calls, “fructifying” and “endowing.” We have all heard sermons on these, no doubt. I once saw a pastor preach Galatians 5:22-23 while dressed in a grape costume just like the ones the “Fruit of the Loom Guys” wear. Though it was in a Charismatic church, as I recall, it was more to do with cultivating the fruit than with relying on the Spirit. These fruits are, as Pink calls them, “the graces and virtues which the Spirit imparts to and develops in the elect.” (Ch 30, The Spirit Fructifying) These are so necessarily from His source because of man’s inherent and complete corruption. We cannot expect to find them in the lives of those who take it upon themselves to reform themselves. For, as Pink says further on, “In a garden the plants and flowers do not grow up naturally of themselves, they do not spring forth spontaneously from its soil, but have to be set or sown, for nothing but weeds grow up of themselves; so in Christ’s Church, those excellencies which are found in its members are not natural to them, but are the direct product of the Spirit’s operations, for by nature nothing grows in their hearts but the weeds of sin and corruption.” (Ch 30 The Spirit Fructifying)

This is a necessary evidence that one has come to saving faith in Christ, that He has been born from above and is now the residence of the Spirit of God, His temple. As we see in Matthew 7:16-20, it is by their fruit that you may know them. Without an accurate concept of man’s fallen nature and the necessity of the Spirit’s presence and activity in the life of the redeemed sinner, this really makes little sense. We (American Evangelicals) imagine far too often that Jesus is just here to help us over the hump and that we have it from there. We are so bent on self-attainment that we cannot even see that we need the Spirit to work a work in us that we are utterly devoid of any power to work for ourselves. Pink points out, “The Spirit fructifies the regenerate by conforming them to the image of Christ: first to His graces, and then to His example. The lovely virtues found in them do not issue from the depraved nature of fallen man, but are supernaturally inwrought by God.” (Ch 30 The Spirit Fructifying) And this will never happen by human effort, but only when we come to see ourselves as helpless before a Holy God and willing to receive it as His gift. It is not a call to acknowledge abject failure but one to acknowledge our need for Him to work in us with the only possibility of success!

Applying to the “means of grace:” This is without a doubt, one of the great paradoxes of the Christian Faith. Though we are to look nowhere but to the Spirit Himself as the source and power of our sanctification, yet we bear a real responsibility in it ourselves. John Owen says of this principle in Volume III of His works (Pneumatology) “There are some things required of us to this end, that holiness may thrive and be carried on in us. Such are the constant use of all ordinances and means appointed unto that end, a due observance of commanded duties in their season, with a readiness for the exercise of every special grace in its proper circumstances.” (Pg 404-405) God has given us means in order to facilitate our sanctification. We, if we are redeemed, must make use of the means that He has given us. The Holy Spirit will make us willing and disclose them to us through the Word of God, but we bear a responsibility to use them. Pink says, “The Spirit effects this great change both immediately and mediately, that is, by His direct actions upon the soul and also by blessing to us our use of the appointed means of grace.” (Ch 27 The Spirit Transforms) The transforming is done directly by the Spirit, but also indirectly or mediately, by the use of the “means” or tools He has given us. These tools are things like, Bible reading, sitting under sound preaching and teaching, prayer, and the Sacraments. These things are an indispensable part of His work in us.

Following the discussion of the “Fructifying” of the Christian comes that of His gifting or Spiritual “Endowment.” I have to say that I am glad that I did not have to study Pink’s view on this doctrine in detail. His reaction against the growing Charismatic movement seems to send him to an extreme in declaring that virtually every Gift listed in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 is no longer in use. “In 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 we are supplied with a list of those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit which then obtained—we use the word “extraordinary” in contrast from His ordinary gifts, or those which obtain in all ages and generations.” Further on he declares, “Now that all of these special impulses and extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were not intended to be perpetuated throughout this Christian dispensation, and that they have long since ceased, is clear from several conclusive considerations. ” (Pink, Ch 31, The Spirit Endowing) I dealt with this view (probably less extreme) in discussing Brian Schwertly’s teaching of it in my paper on that subject, The Purpose of Spiritual Gifts and Their Use. Though we disagree on the definition of the particular Gifts and the perpetuity of many of them, we do agree that God, by His Spirit, Gifts His Church in such a way as to guide and govern it sufficiently to His purpose. What Pink would call, “ordinary ministerial gifts” he still acknowledges to given by the Spirit for this purpose.

His Most Loving Work

Most of the previous issues are not in dispute in much of the Church today. Though there are polar opposite views of Spiritual Gifts, largely, from Historic Protestantism, to Evangelicalism, and even in Pentecostalism and all the way down to Cults like Roman Catholicism, there is generally a consensus on the Divine Nature and Personality of the Holy Spirit. When we begin to discuss what it is that He does (as we have seen with discussion of the Gifts) we run into many subjective and undiscerning opinions. This is where I believe that Arthur Pink’s work is so compelling and needed, even so many decades after he felt the need to write it. Unfortunately, he seems to have been more the harbinger of ill tidings concerning the Church in America rather than the voice that called us back to the Scriptures. As the prophets of the Old Testament times, he has become to one who calls us to accountability for what we have neglected instead of the one heeded, that we might be restored to proper fellowship with our God.

Though he draws from a long line of great biblical theology, relying heavily on men like John Owen and less so on others like Thomas Goodwin, Charles Spurgeon, Stephen Charnock and John Flavel, it appears the American anti-nomian and egalitarian sentiment is able to disregard him as easily as it has the much else within the great body of truth that is the historic Christian Faith. I certainly do not want to sound divisive on this and I acknowledge that there certainly must be those who do not understand completely (as was once my case), man’s fallen nature and God’s gracious act of regeneration, and yet who understand and believe the Gospel savingly. I also do not want to be understood to believe that the teachings of the Reformers or the Puritans are elevated above or equal to that of the Scriptures. I simply see their teachings as accurate interpretation of the Bible’s most important doctrines. Pink follows a long line of very faithful men of God who devoted their lives to articulating the Gospel and its attendant doctrines.

Recognizing the Holy Spirit’s role in our salvation seems to me to be, for the most part, a lost concept. Speaking to the average Christian about the work of the Spirit would, for most, only conjure up the ideas of His gifting and sanctifying. As I have already alluded, these are impossible if He does not first bring us to real and saving faith in Christ as our Redeemer. Though some speak of His wooing, it is in a rather benign sense. I acknowledge that many Christians will be baffled at this part of the discussion.

Anticipating this, Pink says in chapter 9 of his work (The Work of the Spirit) “But if… all men hate God (John 15:23, 25), and have minds which are “enmity against Him” (Rom. 8:7), so that “there is none that seeketh after God” (Rom. 3:11), preferring and determining to follow their own inclinations and pleasures. If instead of being disposed unto that which is good, “the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Eccl. 8:11). And if when the overtures of God’s mercy are made known to them and they are freely invited to avail themselves of the same, they “all with one consent begin to make excuse” (Luke 14:18)—then it is very evident that the invincible power and transforming operations of the Spirit are indispensably required if the heart of a sinner is thoroughly changed, so that rebellion gives place to submission and hatred to love. This is why Christ said, “No man can come to me, except the Father (by the Spirit) which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44).” Yes, the Reformed doctrine of Total Depravity is at the heart of it. Rejected by the majority of professing Christians in our time, it is still the necessary starting point to understand virtually everything in life. The opening words of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion echo in my mind, “Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” (Pg. 37) In rejecting what the Bible says about man and his nature in favor of what man wants to believe about himself, he forces himself down a road, quickly darkened by ignorance, where he becomes entangled in the hedges of self-will until he is at such a distance from the truth and it has become so obscured that it would show that he is beyond hope. And yet, this proves the very doctrine that it tries to refute and shows the absolute necessity of the Spirit’s intervention on our behalf.

“Surely, this seems a bit extreme!” “What of so many who believe in God and who are involved regularly in attending His worship?” This doctrine of partial corruption by the Fall and of total freedom of the individual’s will raises far more questions than it answers. The problem is not that a biblical view does not answer the tough questions, but that fallen humanity does not like the answers. Pink says of our depravity, “Against what has been said above it may be objected that no such hatred of God as we have affirmed exists in the hearts of the great majority of our fellow-creatures—that while there may be a few degenerates, who have sold themselves to the Devil and are thoroughly hardened in sin, yet the remainder of mankind are friendly disposed to God, as is evident by the countless millions who have some form or other of religion. To such an objector we reply, The fact is, dear friend, that those to whom you refer are almost entirely ignorant of the God of Scripture: they have heard that He loves everybody, is benevolently inclined toward all His creatures, and is so easy-going that in return for their religious performances will wink at their sins. Of course, they have no hatred for such a “god” as this! But tell them something of the character of the true God: that He hates “all the workers of iniquity” (Ps. 5:5), that He is inexorably just and ineffably holy, that He is an uncontrollable Sovereign, who “hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth” (Rom. 9:18), and their enmity against Him will soon be manifested—an enmity which none but the Holy Spirit can overcome.” (Ch 9. The Works of the Spirit) That enmity is often directed at those who speak of God in such terms. But a God who stands helplessly by, waiting for dead men to raise themselves would almost be funny if it was not so sad and absurd.

Yet men want this kind of God. One who offers mercy without making any demands; One who is all love and no justice. Again, it seems to me, an exoneration of the doctrine of Total Depravity to see man reject His diagnosis and attempt to heal himself when the Great Physician stands ready and able to heal completely. Pink describes them this way, “All around us are those willing to receive Christ as their Savior, who are altogether unwilling to surrender to Him as their Lord. They would like His peace, but they refuse His “yoke,” without which His peace cannot be found (Matthew 11:29). They admire His promises, but have no heart for His precepts. They will rest upon His priestly work, but will not be subject to His kingly scepter. They will believe in a “Christ” who is suited to their own corrupt tastes or sentimental dreams, but they despise and reject the Christ of God. Like the multitudes of old, they want His loaves and fishes, but for His heart-searching, flesh-withering, sin-condemning teaching, they have no appetite. They approve of Him as the Healer of their bodies, but as the Healer of their depraved souls they desire Him not. And nothing but the miracle-working power of the Holy Spirit, can change this bias and bent in any soul.” (Ch 9. The Works of the Spirit)

From chapters 10-17, Pink deals with the Spirit’s work in applying Christ’s saving work to men. As He regenerates, quickens, enlightens, convicts, comforts, draws, works faith, and unites us to Christ, we see the greatest of His gifts to fallen men. Let’s briefly examine what the Bible teaches us about these important truths.

Regeneration: Pink tells us here, “The absolute necessity for the regenerating operation of the Holy Spirit in order for a sinner’s being converted to God lies in his being totally depraved…. If the sinner were not wholly corrupt he would submit to Christ without any supernatural operation of the Spirit; but fallen man is so completely sunk in corruption that he has not the faintest real desire for God, but is filled with enmity against Him (Rom. 8:7).” (Ch 10 The Holy Spirit Regenerating) This is a pretty big assertion. Fallen man “cannot” submit to God? But the Bible is certainly clear on this, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Rom 8:7-8) That seems pretty clear. The mind that is not controlled by Holy Spirit is “hostile to God,” it “cannot” submit to Him. So, what is a sinner to do? Again, Pink makes another important statement, “The sovereign work of the Spirit in the soul precedes all holy exercises of heart .” It only makes sense that if we are naturally antagonists to God that He has to come to us first so that we might come to Him.

Ephesians 2:1-7 is a crucial passage for seeing this and seeing why God has done it. It begins, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience– among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” It really is not looking good for anyone here as the Apostle Paul informs the Ephesians Believers of where they (and we) all began. We begin “dead in trespasses and sins.” That is, completely and infinitely distanced from God and His redemptive love. It has been that our “walk” or manner of life was to follow the world system and where we were quite literally under the dominion of the devil himself. We lived to carry out the desires of our fleshly nature. Even if those seemed kind of good at times they were directed at our comfort and not at God’s glory. Living before the great and loving God who gave us life and continually cares for us, only to pursue what we can get from Him without regard to His Holy Character, is to be unthankful and unholy, and deserving of His wrath.

And yet we see in Ephesians 2:4-7, God’s gracious response to His elect, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” All I can say when I read this passage is, “Hallelujah!” For no other reason than that God decided to display His love and mercy, He made me alive. Even when I was, “dead in [my] trespasses!” Not because I was good, but because He is good, He gave me life. This is just the beginning as we see that He has also “seated us in heavenly places with Christ.” And all of this is just a display of “the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness in Christ Jesus.” How do you respond to this? If you say, “No. I’m fine thanks.” you have to be crazy or blind! As a fallen man we are all blind as a bat. We cannot see beyond living for the “passion of the flesh and the desires of the body and of the mind.” We are more concerned that God will take these away than that He will give us eternal life and seat us with Christ. If it was not for God giving us life, we would really never even want it.

Giving Life: Pink says in Chapter 11 (The Spirit Quickening), “All the Divine operations in the economy of salvation proceed from the Father, are through the Son, and are executed by the Spirit.” He supports this with John 6:63, which tells us, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.” Likewise at the beginning of John’s Gospel we read these words, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (Joh 1:12-13) This life is not by any “natural” process. It is not the result of heritage or of desire but has its source only in God. And so the Giver of Life said to his audience as He continued in John 6:65, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

Enlightening: As we receive this life we need light. What do we do with this life that God has given us? Pink tells us here, “By nature fallen man is in a state of darkness with respect unto God. Be he ever so wise, learned, and skillful in natural things, unto spiritual things he is blind. Not until we are renewed in the spirit of our minds by the Holy Spirit can we see things in God’s light.” (Ch 12. The Spirit Enlightening) Many people read the Scriptures through the veil of an unregenerate mind and then suddenly one day speak of how the Bible has suddenly come alive, though it was actually they who came alive by the working of God’s Spirit. Without this we will not receive the things of God. The Apostle Paul declares this very clearly to the Corinthians church as he says “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2Co 4:3-6) Dead men cannot see, thus the regenerating power of the Spirit continues afterward, opening the eyes of the blind. This is aptly described by the hymn writer Charles Wesley as he says, “Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and natures night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free! I arose, went forth and followed Thee. Amazing love, How can it be, that Thou my God would die for me?” (Amazing Love)

Convicting: Once a man is alive and able to acknowledge God’s communication, the Holy Spirit takes the next step. He shows him his situation before the Holy God. Pink tells us, “The Spirit occupies the quickened and enlightened soul with the exceeding sinfulness of sin. He unmasks its evil character, and shows that all our self-pleasing and self-gratification are but a species of sinfulness—of enmity against Him—against His Person, His attributes, His government. The Spirit makes the convicted soul feel how grievously he has turned his back upon God (Jer. 32:33), lifted up his heel against Him and trampled His laws underfoot.” (Ch 13. The Spirit Convicting) The weight of sin becomes crushing and yet it is not the punishment that the convicted sinner feels that is so heavy but the nature of it as being opposed to God’s very Nature. We must be as the men at Pentecost who cried out, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37) Pink describes it with these words, “The pure light of God, shining in the conscience over against vile darkness, horrifies the soul. The convicted one both sees and feels that God is holy and that he is completely unholy; that God is good and he is vile; that there is a most awful disparity between Him and us. He is made to feelingly cry, “How can such a corrupt wretch like I ever stand before such a holy God, whose majesty I have so often slighted?” Now it is that the soul is made to realize how it has treated God with the basest ingratitude, abusing His goodness, perverting His mercies, scorning his best Friend.” (Ch 13. The Spirit Convicting) I believe that this idea is almost altogether missing form modern Evangelicalism. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit does not end His great work at this point but goes on the show the regenerated, enlightened and convicted sinner the great Remedy for his situation.

Comforting: Once the convicted sinner is forced to look completely outside of himself for his remedy, the Spirit directs his gaze to the cross. It cannot be overstated how important it is to see the sinner brought along this path. We so often want to shorten the process, to get a quick confirmation of the state of their souls that we would short circuit this work of the Spirit and take His work upon ourselves. Pink tells us here, “By the Spirit’s powerful illuminating and convicting operations the sinner is made to realize the awful disparity there is between God and himself, so that he feebly cries, “How can a poor wretch like me ever stand before such a holy God, whose righteous Law I have broken in so many ways, and whose ineffable majesty I have so often insulted?” By that light the convicted soul, eventually, is made to feel its utter inability to help itself, or take one step toward the obtainment of holiness and happiness. By that light the quickened soul both sees and feels there can be no access to God, no acceptance with Him, save through the Person and blood of Christ; but how to get at Christ the stricken soul knows not.” (Ch 14 The Spirit Comforting) This is the best place to be! Until we come here, we will not see Christ and ourselves in our proper relationship. Pink concludes here, “And how does the Spirit work faith in the convicted sinner’s heart? By effectually testifying to him of the sufficiency of Christ for his every need; by assuring him of the Savior’s readiness to receive the vilest who come to Him. He effectually teaches him that no good qualifications need to be sought, no righteous acts performed, no penance endured in order to fit us for Christ. He reveals to the soul that conviction of sin, deep repenting, a sense of our utter helplessness, are not grounds of acceptance with Christ, but simply a consciousness of our spiritual wretchedness, rendering relief in a way of grace truly welcome. Repentance is needful not as inducing Christ to give, but as disposing us to receive. The Spirit moves us to come to Christ in the very character in which alone He receives sinners—as vile, ruined, lost. Thus, from start to finish “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9)” (Ch 14. The Spirit Comforting)

Drawing: As the enlivened and enlightened sinner is made aware of his need (convicted) and his inability to rescue himself, though he begins to see an opportunity for rest in the Savior’s blood (comforted), he has not yet embraced it. As a living man who is starving sees the food that is offered to him, he is drawn closer to it, the sight and aroma of it inflaming his senses. This must certainly be the same with the sinner who sees his greatest need and finds Christ as his only relief. Pink tells us, “The Divine Drawer is unto God’s people “the Spirit of grace and of supplications” (Zech. 12:10). Of grace, in making to their smitten consciences and exercised hearts a wondrous discovery of the rich grace of God unto penitent rebels. Of supplications, in moving them to act as a man fleeing for his life, to seek after Divine mercy. Then it is He leads the trembling soul to Calvary, “before whose eyes Jesus Christ” is now “evidently (plainly) set forth crucified” (Gal. 3:1), beholding the Savior (by faith) bleeding for and making atonement for his sins.” (Ch 15. The Spirit Drawing) What a wondrous moment, as before he even takes a bite, in his mind he can already taste the life saving nourishment. Jesus communicated this need to the people near the Sea of Galilee as He ministered to them saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (Joh 6:32-35) Jesus used the very same analogy of a hungry person to tell these people that the eternal trumps the temporal. As much as we feel the hunger, the results from a lack of food, only the Spirit of God can give us the hunger pangs for the True Bread from Heaven. This was evidenced as the entire throng of people were lost in the loaves and fishes and obtuse to the offer of eternal life. “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” (Joh 6:66) O, that the Spirit of God would drive home this inexpendable truth!

Creating Faith: Thus we see that we are desperate for the Work of the Spirit. And being enlivened, enlightened, convicted, and comforted and now drawn to the Source of our relief we must embrace Him. But we need to take Pinks warning here, “Let it be said emphatically, the faith which unites to Christ and saves the soul is not merely a natural act of the mind assenting to the Gospel, as it assents to any other truth upon reliable testimony, but is a supernatural act, an effect produced by the power of the Spirit of grace, and is such a persuasion of the truth concerning the Savior as calls forth exercises suited to its Object.” (Ch 16. The Spirit Working Faith) Though we are at this point making a conscious decision to embrace the Savior, and though the Spirit has acted upon our mind and our will to make us ready to receive Him, faith is not the product of our faculties. As the Apostle Paul calls the Roman Christians to humility, he does it by reminding them that the basis of their standing with God is indeed given to them at His discretion; “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” (Rom 12:3) This is one of the most humbling truths of the Christian Faith. All that we have is given to us, right down to the faith with which we trust Christ. This exalts God above us in mercy as infinitely as He is above us by nature. Yet in or fallenness, we still want to claim it for ourselves.

Uniting us to Christ: All of this may seem to be a rather long process at this point, but the Holy Spirit can bring it to pass in the heart of a man in an instant. However, contrary to what much of modern evangelicalism teaches, it is not necessarily instantaneous. The power of conviction can lay upon an individual for weeks or months, whatever the Sovereign Spirit determines is needed. When finally the sinner has come to faith, his salvation is realized in that instant. At this point he becomes a part of Christ’s mystical body and is forever united to Him. This relationship is critical in understanding our interest in Christ. Is it merely a legal contract that can be broken? NO! As Arthur Pink informs us, “It was [God's] good pleasure that as they were one in law, they should be also one spiritually, that Christ’s merit and grace might not only be imputed, but also imparted to them.” (Ch 17. The Spirit Uniting to Christ) The grace of Christ is not only considered as ours, but is actually applied to us. This is shown in 1 Corinthians 12 and in this context we might understand the true meaning of the “Baptism of the Spirit.” “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body–Jews or Greeks, slaves or free–and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” (1Co 12:12-13) The spirit has united us with Christ in such a way that we have become a part of Him. We are His Body. The Lord has taken a rag-tag bunch of heathens as well as Jews and has, by His Spirit, made us into one, in Christ. Again, this is a reason to fall to our knees and worship God, the Father who called us, the Son who purchased our pardon and also the Spirit who took all the the Father had planned and the Son had executed and applied it to a dead sinner.

The understanding of these truths is essential to our living for Christ. Without it we cannot have the sanctifying and gifting we desire. Without it the pride of self-attainment will stunt the growth of any such fruit. Without it we will never honor God for all that is His due in our salvation; we will never begin to contemplate, let alone conceive of the “immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:7) We will never see His power manifested in our lives as long as we continue to rely upon our own.

Arthur Pink quotes George Smeaton as saying “The distinctive feature of Christianity as it addresses itself to man’s experience, is the work of the Spirit, which not only elevates it far above all philosophical speculation, but also above every other form of religion.” (Ch 1. The Holy spirit) Every other system whether it is psychology or metaphysics, is nothing but man trying endlessly to reach God (or god) without even knowing what they are looking for. Christianity is the infinite and infallible God coming and taking man to Himself. The Agent of that mission is the Holy spirit. In addition to His coming and working in us to revive us, enlighten us and teaching us of our state and His merciful offer; in addition to His creating the desire and then fulfilling it by creating faith and uniting us to Christ; He also gives us gifts and graces. Once we have come to know Christ, The Spirit is still indispensable to us in conforming us to His image and gifting us for His service. But let me ask you, If we only ever looked to our parents as the providers of stuff and not as the givers of life, how would than change our relationship to them? Yet, this is how many of us see the Holy Spirit. I pray that we would begin to see Him more in the light of who He is.

Works Cited

Calvin, John. Institutes of the Christian Religion. Beveridge ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Grand Rapids Book Mfg., 1975. Print.

Pink, Arthur W. The Holy Spirit. Granbury, TX: BM Desktop Publications, 2010. N. pag. Web. 21 May 2011.

Vincent, Marvin. Vincent’s Word Studies. E-Sword Electronic Edition

Watson, Thomas. A Body of Divinity. Edinburgh, Scotland: Banner of Truth Trust, 1974. Print.

The Cause of Repentance [Jonah Pt.7]

The Cause of Repentance

“…it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” It does indeed seem foolish to many that men stand and proclaim Divine truth and expect a supernatural response. That a man would turn from his sin and embrace Christ as Savior is not a mere act of the will, but an act of God in the life of an otherwise fallen and rebellious soul. Paul praises God for His intervention in this matter;

Ephesians 3:14-19 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,  15  from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,  16  that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man,  17  that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  18  may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height– 19  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Jonah had an impossible job to do. He (for the first time in history!) was called to preach the words of Yaweh to the Gentiles. To the angriest, vilest, most brutal people of the region, Jonah was sent to bear the message of God. What hope would a single Jew have to persuade these wicked men that God was serious? What would be the result of this man walking among his enemies, unprotected and denouncing them to their face? (No wonder he did not want to go!) And yet we see his words in the fourth chapter;

Jonah 4:2 So he prayed to the LORD, and said, “Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.

It was not retribution from the Ninevites that he feared, but that his preaching would actually be effective! What power there is in the Word of God! It is His ordained means of changing men’s hearts. And so, what should the content of our own preaching be?

2 Timothy 4:1-2 I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:  2  Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

We need to make sure we are preaching the truth of God on His own authority. Again to Timothy, Paul says, “Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.  14  Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.  15  Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.  16  Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you” (1 Timothy 4:13-16) How important is this? Only a matter of eternal consequence!

1 Timothy 4:16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you

God has ordained that the preaching of His Word be the means of bringing repentance and faith to the rebel sinner. We have the tool we need. Do we have the courage to wield that tool? Jonah managed to bring about the biggest “revival” ever recorded with it. Jonah 3:2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”

Jonah 3:4-5 “And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”  5  So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.” The entire city (600,000 to 1,000,000 people) repented. The preaching of a man. The Words of God. And “the people of Nineveh believed God.  Why would we even think to change what God has ordained and makes effective? The Cause of Repentance is the Word of God preached by the Man of God and made effective by the Spirit of God. Man can never accomplish this result with all of entertainment, psychology and rhetoric he can possibly muster. What is your method?

Audio from this sermon can be heard by clicking on the link below. Take the time to check it out and let me know what you think.

The Cause of Repentance - Jonah 3

In Christ!
Kevin

The Character of Repentance [Jonah Pt. 6]

The Chacter of Repentance

Sometimes we need to grow up and move beyond our childhood Sunday School knowledge of the Scriptures. I was approached by one lady from the church after the service who was amazed at how good the messages from Jonah have been. God’s Word is so powerful! Not to pick on the lady, rather it is the PULPIT that is to blame as much as anything else. Too many milk-sodden pews leave the people in them with no defense against people like Rob Bell and his latest horrific offering to to consumer Christianity. No, I haven’t read Love Wins (and I find myself too busy now to give it my time), but the MSNBC interview with him showed me that the news guy has a better grasp on the Gospel than poor Rob does.

Some sound theologians respond to Love Wins

Michale Horton’s  Whitehorse Inn

Tom Pryde’s Sermons in Song

Today we looked hard at an important aspect of the true Gospel, repentance. Repentance is a part of the Gospel. It is an integral part of the message of Jesus and the Apostles! The way we live in time reflects what our eternity will be like. If we embrace the message of the Gospel by faith, that faith will be demonstrated in a difference in the life we live from that point on.

John the Baptist preached it; Matthew 3:7-8 “But seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?  8  Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance, ”

Jesus Began His ministry with the message, Matthew 4:17 “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

The Apostle Peter’s Pentecost sermon was capped with the very same command, Acts 2:38-39 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  39  ‘For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all those afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’”

So, what does it truly mean to repent? When Jonah finally submitted to the command of the Lord and made it to Nineveh, we see true repentance. It is not so profound from the man of God as it is from the entire city of heathens.  When God’s message reaches the people of Nineveh this is the response.

Jonah 3:8-9 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.  9  Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?

An acknowledgment of sin. A resignation to the authority and justice of God. A realization that only by His mercy will we ever be able to stand. A desire to turn away from that which God hates. Only when these things come together will we ever truly repent. Unless and until we do repent, we have no hope of God’s mercy. Separating repentance from the Gospel is like separating the office visit from going to the doctor. I believe I am sick. I have made an appointment. Then I sit at home and expect to get better without doing what is required. If I really believe I am sick and that the doctor is my hope of getting well, that will affect my behavior. I will go to the doctor.

If I believe I am God’s enemy because of my sin and that He can and will rightfully judge me; that my only hope is to trust in His method of redeeming me, then the act of trusting must be accompanied by an act of departing from that which initially made me His enemy.  This is the message from the beginning of the Scriptures to the end. This is the Gospel. To ignore repentance is to take away the power of the Gospel to save and the evidence that salvation has taken place.  “Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance”

I challenge you to give the message from Jonah 3 a listen. Click on the link below and hear The Character of Repentance and see whether you have found true, biblical repentance.

The Character of Repentance – Jonah 3

In Christ!

Kevin

Psalm 114; God’s Presence

Psalm 114; God's Presence

This week at Garden City Church we had the wonderful opportunity to hear the preaching and singing of Tom Pryde and his ministry Sermons In Song. His blend of preaching and singing as he exhorts and encourages using God’s Word is truly unique. As he preached from Psalm 114 in the morning service, he challenged us to seek God’s presence in our lives. However, when God shows up things are shaken! Shaken in a such a way as to remove that which is temporary and solidify that which is eternal.

Psalms 114:7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, At the presence of the God of Jacob,

Do we tremble at the Presence of the Lord or do we take it for granted? Do we assume that because we have once experienced a change in our lives, albeit years ago, that we have the Presence of the Lord in our lives? Tom challenged us to see the effects of the Presence of the Lord as we examined this Psalm and other Scriptures. I encourage you to listen to the audio of his message by clicking on the link below. I pray that as you do, you are blessed with a greater desire for His Presence in your own life.

Psalm 114; God’s Presence

In the evening service, Tom gave us an overview of the Messianic Psalms as he briefly exposited Psalm 8, 22, 16, 40 and 110 and sung his original music derived from each text. What a blessing to see the richness of Revelation concerning Jesus and His Work of Redemption clearly demonstrated in the Psalms!  You can hear a few of his songs on his Sermons in Song FaceBook page.

The feedback that we got from the congregation was excellent and I would encourage you to invite him to your church and to invest in his work.

In Christ!

Kevin

Salvation is of the Lord [Jonah, Pt.5]

Salvation is of the Lord

In the end, when we have done all that we could (which is really probably less than we imagine) we must come to the same conclusion that Jonah did as he prayed from the belly of the fish, “Salvation is of the Lord!” That is, if we are to be delivered, it will not ultimately be by our own intelligence or strength. This applies to situations both temporal and spiritual. It is especially true of our salvation from sin. Jonah is a remarkable picture of that.

Aware of his own rebellion, informed by the Word of God, and sensing the impending doom of his choices, Jonah looks with the only hope that he can muster to the symbol of God’s covenant faithfulness, the Temple. As an Israelite this is a pretty big deal. Jeroboam I had separated them from Jerusalem and the Temple when he lead the northern kingdom away from Judah. He had established sites of worship using golden calves to maintain that separation. But in the Old Testament economy, the Temple, the dwelling place of God’s covenant Presence, was the only place to go. Being a “man of God,” Jonah knew that much and in his prayer that is exactly where his mind went.

Jonah 2:4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’

When it comes to man’s salvation from sin this is a great picture of what it is like. Though we do not like to admit it, we are in much the same place as Jonah with regard to what we can do for ourselves in this situation.  Romans 3:10-12 tells us, “As it is written: ‘THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE;  11  THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS; THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS AFTER GOD.  12  THEY HAVE ALL TURNED ASIDE; THEY HAVE TOGETHER BECOME UNPROFITABLE; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, NO, NOT ONE.’ “ We also see that God asks through Jeremiah, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil” (Jeremiah 13:23).  We are helpless and hopeless unless and until the Lord intervenes in our situation.

Ephesians 2:1-3 And you who were dead in trespasses and sins,  2  in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,  3  among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

We are born in sin and bound to walk with the world under the power of the devil. The evidence of this is that we live to fulfill our personal desires. We are therefore, “by nature children of wrath,” as are all in the world who have not felt God’s converting grace…

Ephesians 2:4-9 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,  5  even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),  6  and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  7  that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  8  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,  9  not of works, lest anyone should boast.

It is God who makes the dead alive. It is God who comes to us in our need and rescues us from our hopeless situation. It is the demonstration of His great mercy and love. After all, we are rebels, just like Jonah. We are rejecting God in everything that we do. We are running from His presence. We deserve His judgment. If He was to send us all to hell, it would only be right. That is what makes His grace so amazing! He saves men not because we are good, but because He is good. He does not aid us in our own ability, but overcomes our rebellion and makes us alive when we are dead in sin.

Men do not like to believe this because our pride is such that we want some credit for the deliverance of ourselves. This is just another proof of our selfish depravity. We need to be like Jonah in one other important way. We need to acknowledge our sin and our helplessness and look to the sign of God’s Covenant faithfulness and mercy. For us today that is the Cross of Jesus Christ. It was there that the Lord made the ultimate sacrifice for sin. The fulfillment of the promises that He had made beginning with the curse of the serpent in Genesis 3:15.

Galatians 3:7-9 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.  8  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”  9  So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

As we understand our helplessness and look to the Lord’s gracious supply of mercy in the Cross of Jesus Christ, He makes us alive. He forgives us of our sin and fills our hearts with the desire to serve Him rather that self. By His grace, He imparts to us the very faith to believe the promises that He has made to redeem sinners. I encourage you today to look to Him and acknowledge your own inability. To seek His rescue instead of trying to save yourself. To trust in His ability and faithfulness instead of your own.

Audio of this sermon is available by clicking on the link below.

Salvation is of the Lord!

In Christ!

Kevin Hoffman

Our Need for a Savior [Advent; Week 1]

Our Need for a Savior!

It’s that time of year again! This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning our our celebration of God taking on man’s nature in order to deal with our sin. It seems there are a few different approaches to Advent, the Sundays being of different significance. I like the one that I first discovered that arranges the four Sundays before December 25th in this way.  1) Creation and the Fall, God’s authority and our need.  2) Prophecies of Christ, His plan to redeem is foretold.  3)The first Coming (Advent) of Christ, His earthly ministry. 4) the second Coming (Advent) of Christ, His heavenly reign.  Within this we see the entire plan of Redemption so that when we celebrate Christ’s coming into the World as the Babe at Bethlehem, we are thinking of the whole plan of God. The Christ Child is now in His proper context in our minds as we see Him lying in the manger, surrounded by Shepherds and Wise Men.

This year we are looking at these four events as they are given to us in the Psalms. For the first Sunday of Advent we looked into Psalm 5 to see that all men are truly in great need of a Savior. Psalm 5 is a Psalm of contrasts as David prays to God, contrasting the evil man with the righteous.

Psalm 5:9 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; Their inward part is destruction; Their throat is an open tomb; They flatter with their tongue.

This is an important text that tells us not only about men that we might consider “wicked,” but as the Apostle Paul quotes it in Romans 3 it is about all of humanity.

Romans 3:13 “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN TOMB; WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY HAVE PRACTICED DECEIT”

David is aware that men are wicked and deserving of God’s judgment. The Apostle Paul spends the better part of three chapters at the beginning of his epistle to the Romans laying out this truth in great detail.

Psalm 5:4-7 For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You.  5  The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity.  6  You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.  7  But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy; In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.

We see that in his prayer, David lists several characteristics of man that God is opposed to. Therefore he does not presume to enter into God’s presence on his own merit; Psalm 5:7 “But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy…”Even the best of us require the mercy of God in order to approach Him. But then, was David, the “man after God’s own heart,” really the best of men? That man of bloodshed? That prideful man who counted his troops when he was told not to? The murderous adulterer? If not David, that prophet of God and the sweet psalmist of Israel, then who?

Romans 3:10-11 As it is written: “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE;  11  THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS; THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS AFTER GOD.

You say, “Wow preacher, great message for celebrating Advent!” I reply, “Without this message of despair the beauty of the Coming of Christ into the world is not seen in all of its beauty.” It is the blackness of my sin the shows the true beauty of the Jewel of the Gospel. Like a diamond that is displayed on black velvet to show off its true beauty, the Gospel shines most brightly against the backdrop of man’s depraved state.

Romans 3:21-24 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,  22  even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;  23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  24  being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Before we begin to look at the Babe in the manger, let us consider what compelled Him to come.

Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,

I encourage you to listen to the audio of this message and to prepare your heart to celebrate the coming of the Second Person of the Trinity into the world. As the blackness of the sky made it possible for the Wise Men to follow the radiant star to the Christ Child, may the blackness of our sin lead us to the Jewel of the Gospel that is only found in the Person of Jesus Christ!

Our Need for a Savior

In Christ!

Kevin

Sandwiches or Salvation?

If you have been in church for any length of time you know the story of Jesus and His feeding of the 5,000. You have probably heard many sermons on that event as recorded in all four of the Gospels. I am sure that you have heard messages on Jesus’ walk across the Sea of Galilee that night. But did you know that that was all set up by Jesus to create an opportunity to communicate a message of life and death importance to the people of Israel and that once Jesus preached that message to them, the Bible tell us that many of His disciples walked away and ceased to follow Him?

John 6:66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

The miracles are truly amazing! However the message is the important part. The miracles are just there to authenticate the message and even as Christians, we can get lost in the wonders and miss the Word that they are signifying. In this text Jesus is portrayed as the “Prophet” that Moses foretold who would come from among the nation of Israel and who would speak the Words of God to the People ( Deuteronomy 18:15 ). Like Moses who announced bread from heaven, Jesus fed the people in the wilderness with miraculous bread from a boy’s lunch. Like Moses who parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to walk across, Jesus walked across the water to Capernaum. Jesus did this in order that the people might listen to His teaching, but in their hard hearts and political mindedness they failed to see Jesus for who He was.

Once Jesus had done these miracles the Jews followed Him across the sea to get more bread. We see also in the text that they would have made Him their King after He fed them but Jesus went away up into the mountain to avoid them. Now that they found Him Jesus actually rebukes them and tells them that the bread that they had eaten was insignificant and that they really need to labor to know Him ( John 6:26-27 ). Unlike the bread that only preserves life for a short time on this earth, He is the True Bread from Heaven who will give them eternal life if they will but trust Him ( John 6:32-59 ).

Like most of the world today, the Jews only wanted enough from Jesus to achieve their own personal goals. Jesus was to them a means to their own end rather than the Means to God’s end. He is often promoted as a self-help program in the Church today; as a life improver or catalyst for change. Jesus did not die on some bloody Roman cross to make your life better! He died because you are a sinner who has offended a Holy God are are rightfully deserving of His judgment. Rather than writing you off and sending you to Hell, which would have been the right thing to do, He of His own volition chose to take on human flesh and reconcile you to Himself through that bloody sacrifice!

Romans 8:3-4 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,  4  that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

This message was not what the self-righteous Jews wanted to hear. Jesus told them again and again. Political freedom and personal prosperity was on their minds rather than the promise of God to forgive their sins. Christian, you too are prone to this way of thinking. There are false systems of the Christian Faith built around this error! (i.e. The Word of Faith Movement and even much of the Christian Right)  Jesus came to save you from your sin and then to use you as a means to reach out to other sinners who need to be saved. Politics are not taboo in the Church, but we are not a political action committee either. Our focus is on the sinners and we should not be surprised when a sinner rejects the Word of God in favor of their own agenda. We all did that at one time! ( Ephesians 2:1-3 )

Jesus used the mindset of His audience to challenge them to think differently. He challenged them with the idea of eating His flesh and drinking His blood in order to get the nutrients required for eternal life which both they and we desperately need. Eating bread only sustains you for so long. A vital connection to Jesus is what is required for eternal life. That is what the Gospel is all ab0ut!

John 6:47-51 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.  48  I am the bread of life.  49  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.  50  This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.  51  I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

So the challenge for you today is, What are you trusting in Jesus to do for you? If He is merely a “life-improver” then you have missed Him entirely as the Jews of His own day did.  If however, He is the Giver of Eternal Life, the ONLY means of being right with a Holy God whom you and I have offended then you are on the right track.

Listen to the audio of the message by clicking on the link below. I pray that you are challenged to see through your presuppositions all the way to what Jesus said about Himself.

Sandwiches or Salvation? – John 6:47-59

In Christ!

Kevin