faith for faith

As for [the seed that] was sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful (Mt. 13:22).

In the parable of the sower, Christ intimates that there are four responses to the hearing of the Word of the Kingdom, three negative and one positive. Three of the responses to the Word are responses that are rooted in the heart of man and therefore bear no fruit, and one response in rooted in the work of God and therefore bears much fruit. In each of the negative responses there is the proclamation of the Word (i.e. the sowing of the seed), and in each there is a different enemy that destroys the effectiveness of the Word.

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I realize that the subject I am addressing is an extremely weighty and relevant one, and I have been blessed to have received wise counsel on my addressing it. I could not tell you the exact reasons for my dealing with the subject now apart from it being placed upon my heart the other day and the change of opinion that I have had on it over the years. My former position was a common one among conservative theologians, and it was in short that there is no biblical foundation for divorce, and that if anyone seeks for divorce for any reason at all, they are dishonoring God and his Word. And since my opinion has since changed from that, I will essentially be rebutting myself and my own former arguments. If you wish to read my former written arguments, they can be found here.

Covenants: Unconditional or Conditional?
One matter that greatly shaped my former opinion on the practice of divorce was that of marriage being a covenant and a former professor’s teaching on the nature of covenants. And while I still highly esteem this teacher, I must say that I absolutely disagree with his view of the covenant, namely that a covenant is an unconditional agreement between two parties. His opinion on all covenants being unconditional is founded upon the New Covenant where the promises of God are not able to be thwarted by human design or transgression. We Christians often call this the “unconditional” love of God, whereby he saves sinners and continues to love them in spite of their constant failings.

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For some reason, I was compelled yesterday to write upon divorce and marriage. I am not sure why, but I shall write a post upon it in the coming days. I have written on the subject before, and I have since essentially reversed my opinion on the matter. I was told at that time by a friend that my thoughts on the matter were at points, “Uncharacteristically Arminian,” and to that I must agree. Below I have posted my former posts on the matter so that you might have them for reference:

Sacred Marriage: An Old Perspective
Christian Divorce and the Distortion of the Gospel
When is Divorce Justified?

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I had the pleasure of listening to John Piper sermon this past weekend, and in it he made the statement that spiritual gifts are stewarded grace. Though I cannot exactly remember the context in which it was spoken, the statement stuck with me, and it has since caused me to think upon the gifts of God in a deeper way than I had before.

What immediately comes to mind from the declaration, “Spiritual gifts are stewarded grace,” is the parable of the talents from Matthew 25. There Christ gives a parable concerning his Return and the ensuing Judgment (sounds Amillennial to me;)), and he likens it to three men who were all entrusted with a sum of money by their master. One man was given five measures of currency, another two, and a third one. The master went on a journey, and the first two men took their five and two measures of currency and immediately went and traded that currency so as to double that which their master had entrusted them. The third, however, did nothing with the one measure he was given, burying it in the ground and hiding it.

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