faith for faith

Grant, Almighty God, that, since to a perverse, and in every way a rebellious people, thou didst formerly show so much grace, as to exhort them continually to repentance, and to stretch forth thy hand to them by thy Prophets, — O grant, that the same word may sound in our ears; and when we do not immediately profit by thy teaching, O cast us not away, but, by thy Spirit, so subdue all our thoughts and affections, that we, being humbled, may give glory to thy majesty, such as is due to thee, and that, being allured by thy paternal favor, we may submit ourselves to thee, and, at the same time, embrace that mercy which thou offerest and presentest to us in Christ, that we may not doubt but thou wilt be a Father to us, until we shall at length enjoy that eternal inheritance, which has been obtained for us by the, blood of thine only-begotten Son. Amen (John Calvin).

Congratulations, American Church! You are successfully warding off any threat of the incarnation of the Antichrist that Tim Lahaye has taught you to dread! How have you done this? It is quite simple. You have taken the cause upon yourselves, have girded up your loins, and have charged strongly into battle. Many of you were on the front lines this morning, clawing your way through the Black Friday masses, claiming that last bargain for your child. Others of you are bravely preparing your homes by stringing up lighted cables, hanging glass balls, and strategically planting boughs covered with sharp holly leaves. Others of you are preparing spiritually, erecting shrines on your mantles with your household gods arranged under a structure resembling a stable with stockings hanging beneath it to catch the blessings that those gods might bestow.

What is all this preparation for? D-Day: December 25th. The infamous day when your month of preparing the way for your lord, Materialism, reaches is culmination. He will storm the beaches of yours and children’s hearts in form of Guitar Heroes, Barbee Dolls, perfumes, and televisions, and will skillfully obliterate any hint of desire for Jesus Christ and his kingdom. You need not worry about the Antichrist, for you are doing a brilliant job in his stead. But do remember this: The road to Eternal Damnation is paved with Merry American Christmases.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come (1 John 2:15-18).

In semi-related news: Worker dies at Long Island Wal-Mart after being trampled in Black Friday stampede

Ridiculous.

For those who find these things interesting, I am showing my first published draft of Sonnet II by its present draft. It is something to fill the Thanksgiving Day blog post void. Criticism is always welcome.

Present Draft:

Away went Earth’s once White & vestal forms—
Defiled—ravished when Sin’s First Seed was sown;
And now, through Pangs She strains—through wars & storms,
Awaiting Him whose Kin bear Hope, She groans;

Not Her alone, but we the Sons of God,
Whose father’s Seed steeps our marrow & bones;
In Christ, we taste Rest on this war-torn Sod,
We taste but faintly, and with Her we groan;

Although in us we find the Spirit’s hand,
We pray not the Objectives of the Throne,
Nor for the Paths of Love the Father’s planned;
Thus for Harmony Divine, the Spirit groans;

Our Good, we know, is our Father’s delight,
And patiently wait till Faith yields to Sight.

~Romans 8:19-28

First Published Draft:

Away went Her once White & blushing forms–
Defiled; ravished when Sin’s First Seed was sown;
And now, through Pangs She strains–through wars & storms,
Awaiting Him whose Sons bear Hope, She groans;

Not Her alone, but we the Sons of God,
Whose father’s Seed steeps our marrow & bone,
In Christ, we taste Rest on this hostile Sod,
We taste here blindly, and with Her we groan;

And though in us we find the Spirit’s hand,
We pray not the Intentions of the Throne,
Nor the Paths of Love our Father has planned;
For our Divine Harmony, the Spirit groans;

We know our Good is the Father’s delight,
And patiently wait till Faith yields to Sight.

~Romans 8:19-28

And if my feet would go astray,
They cannot, for I know
That Jesus guides my falt’ring steps,
As joyfully I go (E. S. Hall, His Love Can Never Fail).

When we spoke yesterday on the fixed will of the unregenerate, we spoke nothing on their destination. This is partly due to the fact that their destination will be addressed in detail in Romans 9, and also it is assumed to be common knowledge that the wages of sin is death and this death is the final destination of unregenerate. The destination of the wicked could be much more complicated than this (if you wished to engage in the infralapsarian / supralapsarian debate), but it needs not be. Regardless of the timing of God’s decree of their damnation, the wicked will be judged for their deeds and condemned justly.

When we speak of the regenerate, however, we cannot speak of their destination apart from God’s decree, for we find that the two are intimately bound in Scripture. We find this truth most explicitly in the word predestine–a word that attempts to capture both the beginning and end of time in its parts. And when we speak of the predestination of the saints, there is no debate on its timing (as there is in the unregenerate), for Scripture makes it clear that God chose the saints in him before he created the world (cf. Eph. 1:4).

Also, when we speak of the predestination of the regenerate, we cannot speak of it rightly apart from the love of God. In the great chain of the sovereign works of God in the regenerate in Romans 8:29, 30, we see this at the beginning, “Those whom he foreknew, he predestined.” This foreknowledge of which the Apostle speaks is simply put, to know beforehand. This knowledge is not some mental assent to a creature’s eventual existence nor is it some feigned Arminian notion of God’s seeing a person’s faith before time began, but it is God’s choosing to set his love upon particular persons before the foundation of the world. This knowing is the same act of knowing that is seen in God’s declaration to Israel in Amos 3:2, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.” This is made more clear in the declaration of Ephesians 1:5: “In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.” In other words, the saint’s existence is preceded by the love of God and his destination is in the love of God.

Not only is the saint preceded and ended by the love of God, his present life is commanded by the love of God. This portion of the saint’s life brings us back to our topic of yesterday, namely the bondage of the human will. Just as the wills of the wicked are bound to evil deeds and thus their souls to destruction, the wills of the saints are bound to righteousness and their souls to life. And though Scripture is full of exhortations to the Christian to live according the Spirit, to live not according to flesh, to mortify the deeds of the body, etc., these exhortations do not negate the sovereign and providential hand of God in the life of the saint. The Apostle reveals this truth in Philippians 2:12, writing, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. The exhortation to work out one’s salvation or to do good deeds is never apart from the sovereign working of God in the saint.

The objections to this doctrine (as are most objections to orthodoxy) are derived from the experiences of certain individuals rather than from Scripture. The chief objection is found in the so-called “fleshly” or “carnal Christian.” These carnal Christians are those who have made professions of faith in the past, or, more likely, grew up in the Church, and now live lives that make no demonstration of the power of the Spirit. They might have lives that are characterized by drunkenness, sexual immorality, or even apathy to the Gospel, but these are saved by some concocted doctrine of eternal security. Those who profess such a doctrine pay no heed to the Apostle’s warning in Romans 8, “If you live according to the flesh you will die,” or to the declaration of James in his letter, “Faith without works is dead.” Those who believe in the existence of carnal Christians make light of the transformation wrought by God in the regenerate and of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Righteousness in the Christian life to them is a free will choice, just as their belief in the Gospel was, which explains its lack of Power.

However, the necessity of righteousness in the life of the saint is such that the Apostle writes in Romans 6:18, “Having been set free from sin, you are now slaves of righteousness.” He writes this reluctantly (as seen in the phrase “I am speaking in human terms” of v. 6:19) for he knows that he will be writing on the sonship of the saints and their freedom in Christ in Romans 8. Though reluctant, he writes of the saints in this way to make it clear that there are only two types of people in the world–those who present their members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness and those who present their members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification (cf. 6:19). For the freedom afforded by Christ is not freedom of the will to neutrality, but it is the freedom of the will from sin and death so that it might be bound to Another (cf. 8:2-4).

Therefore, as saints, our steps our bound to Christ and his righteousness and are directed by the Father’s loving and sovereign hand. Just as he predestined us in love to be glorified into the image of his Son, so now he works and wills his good pleasure in us and leads us through the good works that he has prepared for us beforehand (cf. Phil. 2:12, Eph. 2:10). All these things are a part of God’s glorious plan to accomplish for us our greatest good by making known the riches of his glory to us, his vessels of mercy.

Man comes out like a flower and withers;
….he flees like a shadow and continues not.
And do you open your eyes on such a one
….and bring me into judgment with you?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
….There is not one.
Since his days are determined,
….and the number of his months is with you,
……..and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass (Job 14:2-5).

There are few philosophies that are as ingrained in the human psyche as is the free will of man. It is as common to the natural man as the craving for food, the desire for companionship, and the drive for sex. Left to himself, the natural man would believe in his autonomy his entire life and would die thinking that he arrived at his end on his own accord.

We, however, cannot come to Romans 9 as the natural man does. Before we begin studying this chapter, we must approach it with minds and hearts that are teachable. We must be willing to question our natural philosophies and also be willing to replace them with the doctrines of Scripture. If we do not, we will either come out of Romans 9 hating it, or more likely, will come out of it with ridiculous interpretations. Our best guide for studying Romans 9 is Romans 1-8, which lays a foundation for the hard teachings of the chapter. Since Romans 9 deals with God’s sovereignty over all men, we will look at his sovereignty over natural man and then his sovereignty over his children in these chapters.

The Bondage of Natural Men
Our first encounter with natural men is in the first chapter of Romans. The chapter portrays men whose morality is in constant attrition. Their moral attrition is attributed to nothing–not to their lack of education, their poverty, etc., but it is portrayed as their natural course forged by their natural condition. Not even their knowledge of God sways their destructive course. The Apostle writes:

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things (Romans 1:21-23).

Though they knew God through the natural law, they also knew a portion of the revealed law of God. Again the Apostle writes:

Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them (v. 1:32).

This is our first encounter in the letter with a will that knowingly fights against its soul’s own good. The Apostle writes that these natural men know their actions and their desserts, but they do them all the same. They know that they will ultimately answer for their wickedness, but they commend the wickedness that they see in others. They know that their good is not to do wicked acts, yet they continue to do them.

Lest we think that Paul is speaking only of the Gentiles apart from the law in chapter one, the Apostle clarifies this, writing, “Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin (v. 3:10).” Again he writes, “There is none who is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God (v. 3:11).” This universal “not doing good” speaks of the bondage of all men apart from God’s divine intervention. Apart from God, all men are bound to sin and can do no good. Though men might “will” to do things that resemble good, they are no more good than graven images are God. Regardless of how we explain or justify the “selfless” acts of good by natural men, the simple truth is that no man apart from God can do any that is truly good and is bound to do evil with every step he takes.

In that same chapter, the Apostle writes, “We know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God (v. 3:19).” As is implied in the first chapter, we find that the law exists over natural men, not to be a stepladder to God, but to demonstrate their guilt before a righteous Judge. In Romans 7, we see also that the law over natural man points to life to those who fulfill it. Since the natural man is bound to sin and unable to fulfill the law and thereby attain life, we find the natural narrator through the lens of the Apostle saying, “The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me (v. 7:10).

In the next paragraph, we find the most vivid portrayal of the natural man’s bondage. In this paragraph, we find a narrative of man who recognizes that the law gives life to those who keep it, who desires that life, and, through the Apostle’s eyes, sees clearly his bondage to sin and his bondage to the flesh. Even in this most enlightened of natural men, we still find that his will is completely and utterly bound, for he laments, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to to do what is right [i.e. so that he might obtain life], but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I continually do (vv. 7:18, 19). Here we find that even the man who is enlightened by the law and its promises is powerless to keep it. Thus he needs a deliverer–one outside himself who is not bound by sin, death, and the flesh to keep the law on his behalf and to break his bonds. Hence we have Romans 8:1-4, but that is beyond our present scope.

Our point in looking at the utter bondage of natural men is so that when we read Romans 9:16, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy,” or v. 9:13, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,” we will have categories for these declarations, and so that we will see that the declarations of Romans 9 are the same as those made in Romans 1-8. Tomorrow we will look at God’s sovereignty over redeemed men.

Thanksgiving Day in America could be more accurately renamed “National Gluttony Day.” The holiday to us is more a day to feed our mouths and to overfill our stomachs than it is one where we reflect on the goodness of the Lord revealed in the abundance that he has given to us and to thank him for it.

This Thanksgiving season, I challenge you (as I am challenging myself) to think of and to pray for the saints abroad who do not share in our abundance. I challenge you to think of them as they starve out of their poverty or imprisonment, and to remember their starvation while you gorge yourself. I challenge you to have a broken heart for those saints who for the Gospel’s sake do not get to eat turkey & dressing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc., and to have a broken heart for yourself knowing that those who starve have a better understanding of the Gospel than we who glut.

I would also challenge you not to forget the saints after you have remembered them this week. Remember them throughout the year, and aspire to help them with your abundance. Remember from the Scriptures the Macedonians who gave out of their extreme poverty with great joy to the relief of the saints in Jerusalem. Cannot we who know nothing of extreme poverty sacrifice a bit of what we have to aid our brothers and sisters who are starving, who have no place to live, and who have no clothes on their back?

Our Father in Heaven, you have been most gracious to us in this country. You have given us much more than our daily bread and have provided for us beautiful homes and closets full of clothes. I pray, dear Lord, that our abundance would not be a snare and a trap to us, but that we would look at our riches as gifts to be given to the saints on whom you have set your love abroad. Burden our hearts with their plight for the rest of our lives so that we might love you rightly by loving your saints and thereby store up for ourselves treasure in heaven. Amen.

Over the course of several posts, we have managed to look at the entirety of Romans 8. It was not exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination, nor was it ever intended to be–That’s what Friday nights are for! Below are the links to the various posts on Romans 8. They are in order by Scripture not date.
..
Romans 8: A Retrospection, Part 1. Freedom in Christ

Romans 8: A Retrospection, Part 2. Walking Rightly

Romans 8: A Retrospection, Part 3. An Inheritance Based on Suffering

Romans 8: A Retrospection, Part 4. Sonnet II

How Should We Respond to Providence?

The Glorious Love of God in Christ

Away went Earth’s once White & vestal forms—
Defiled—ravished when Sin’s First Seed was sown;
And now, through Pangs She strains—through wars & storms,
Awaiting Him whose Kin bear Hope, She groans;

Not Her alone, but we the Sons of God,
Whose father’s Seed steeps our marrow & bones;
In Christ, we taste Rest on this war-torn Sod,
We taste but faintly, and with Her we groan;

Although in us we find the Spirit’s hand,
We pray not the Objectives of the Throne,
Nor for the Paths of Love the Father’s planned;
Thus for Harmony Divine, the Spirit groans;

Our Good, we know, is our Father’s delight,
And patiently wait till Faith yields to Sight.

~Romans 8:19-28

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him (Romans 8:16,17).

Concerning ourselves, there is not a more shocking reality than our adoption as sons into the family of God. While we, in our own imaginations, might contrive a God that would spare us our due penalty out of love or might contrive, as the prodigal son did, a Father who would hire us as a servant out of pity, our adoption by the Father as sons is totally off the radar.

The most significant part of this reality is our adoption as sons. All of the saints of God, regardless of their sex, have been adopted as sons into the family of God. The gender of the phrasing is significant, for our adoption as sons entails an inheritance whereas an adoption as a daughter would not. And this inheritance is no petty inheritance (as if an inheritance from God could ever be!), but is the very inheritance of Jesus Christ, God’s one and true Son! The Apostle writes that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ his Son–the same Son to whom the Father gives the nations as his inheritance in Psalm 2:8. What a glorious thought!

But, the Apostle also writes, “[We are] fellow heirs with Christ, provided that we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” As glorious a thought being fellow heirs with Christ is, equally sobering should be the phrase, “provided that we suffer with him.” The Apostle says that our sonship and our subsequent inheritance are contingent upon our suffering with Christ in this life. How foreign a concept that is to the American Church!–to us who strive to live our “best lives now” and who try to minimize and eliminate all suffering in our lives.

“What is the nature of this suffering that Paul is writing about?” “How do we suffer with Christ?” These are all valid questions that we need to answer if we desire any amount of surety with regards to our sonship and inheritance, for if we do not suffer with Christ, we have no reason to expect an inheritance. Here are my thoughts on these questions:

Our Sufferings are to be Voluntary and Intentional
I am afraid that the typical American Christian would interpret the sufferings of which the Apostle speaks as strictly those that come upon us for being named with Christ. To that Christian, the sufferings in our cultural context would perhaps fall along the lines of being ridiculed for the Gospel or losing a job for being a Christian–things that are possibilities in America but are not very likely. To him, suffering is a passive thing–something to be endured if encountered but avoided if possible.

I believe however that our sufferings should be, well, more like the sufferings of Christ. In his life, Christ suffered in countless ways. Passively, he was ridiculed and harassed by the Jews who did not believe, but most of his sufferings were sought intentionally. He intentionally deprived himself and became a man; he intentionally humbled himself and washed the feet of his disciples; and he intentionally gave himself up to be nailed upon a cross and there intentionally bore our sins. Therefore, if we are to suffer with Christ, we must be intentional about our suffering.

We Suffer with Christ When We Suffer for Our Brothers
Christ said, “Greater love has no one that this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Our lives, in order to reflect the life of Christ’s, must be a laying of them down for the sake of our friends. We may not ever be called to die in the place of a brother or sister in Christ, but we are all called to regard each other as better than ourselves. I firmly believe that Paul gives so much praise in his letters to the Macedonians because they got this. They understood what it meant to regard their brothers in Christ as better themselves, and they proved it by joyfully giving beyond their means and out of their extreme poverty. They were the epitome of suffering with Christ.

How do we suffer with Christ, or do we at all? Do we intentionally seek to suffer for Christ’s sake, and do we intentionally seek suffering by regarding our brothers and sisters in Christ as better than ourselves? We had better find definite answers to these questions, for our sonship and inheritance are contingent upon them.

So, then brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Romans 8:12-14).

At its root, Christianity is a phenomenally simple religion. While other religions go to great lengths and into great detail about how a man by his own power might reach the divine, Christianity offers no such prescription. Instead, according to Christianity, a man can live one of two ways–he can live according to himself and in his own power or he can live according to the Spirit and in God’s power. There is no middle ground, and the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:4-17 goes to great lengths to make this extremely clear.

The nature of Christianity’s simplicity is found not in man but in God. The Christian religion is unlike every other religion in that is fully accomplished by its End, which is to say that God brings the Christian to himself. Thus when the Apostle writes, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God,” it is tantamount to saying, “Those who live apart from the Spirit of God and his power cannot please God.” For there is no satisfaction in the Father save in the Son, whom he crucified so that “the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

The expression, “walking according the Spirit,” carries with it significant connotations. It is first a conformity. All men are said to be walking in accordance to one way or Another. And it is not the destination to where one is walking that is significant in these verses (though there is indeed a destination), but it is the manner in which he walks. A man can either walk in the manner of his flesh (which is in accordance to his own desires and aspirations), or he can walk in the manner of the Spirit. The manner of the Spirit is said to be the fulfillment of the law and righteousness (v. 8:4) and to be the way of life and peace (v. 8:6).

Walking according the Spirit is secondly an activity. A man who is walking is not at any point standing still. Therefore all men at all times are participating in activities that are either according to the flesh or according to the Spirit. These activities, by the Apostle’s testimony, are not isolated incidences in a person’s life, but they are a declaration of his final destination. The Apostle writes, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” Therefore, the activities in which a person consistently participates demonstrate his final end–either fleshliness leading to destruction or Godliness leading to regeneration.

Finally, this activity has a very particular manifestation. The Apostle writes, “If you by the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body you will live.” In other words, walking according to the Spirit means ultimately to put to death the deeds of the body through the power of the Holy Sprit and thereby pursue righteousness. There is no other prescription. Either one lives through the power of the Spirit and actively crucifies the deeds of the flesh, or he lives in his own power and pursues the things of the flesh. This manifestation clearly shows whether one is being led by the Spirit of God and therefore a son of God (v. 8:14) or whether he is led by his flesh and therefore an enemy of God.

How do you walk? Do you walk according to Spirit of God and strive for righteousness, or do you walk according to the flesh and pursue your own personal desires? Know that your answer to this question will show you where your final destination will be.