faith for faith

The true light, which enlightens all men, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 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 (John 1:9-13).

In the opening verses to his Gospel, the apostle John gives us some of the most well-known verses in Scripture. And though they are well-known by themselves, they point to a text that is even more well-known, namely the first verses of the Scriptures found in Genesis 1. And what I believe the apostle is doing in writing these verses is that he is giving us a commentary upon the Genesis 1 account of the Creation in light of the revealed Person of Jesus Christ. And I say commentary and not revelation, because what the apostle is saying is not something that is new, but it is something that is seen more clearly in Jesus Christ.

To explain what I mean, let’s consider the first verses of the Genesis account in light of John 1. In Genesis 1, Moses writes, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). One thing I love about this text is the way by which the Holy Spirit had revealed it to Moses. For the phrase, “In the beginning” (which has been argued by non-Christian Jewish scholars before and after the coming of Christ), is a purposely ambiguous phrase in the Hebrew. For while it does convey the meaning of “In the beginning,” the same words are used later in the book of Genesis to refer to Jacob’s firstborn son, Reuben. These Jewish scholars, ironically, have shown that these first words in Genesis can be alternately rendered, “Through the Firstborn, God created the heavens and the earth.” Now, granting that is true and granting what the apostle Paul has written elsewhere concerning Jesus Christ, namely that he is the Firstborn of all creation, we have in the Genesis account precisely what the apostle John is saying in his Gospel, namely, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1-3).

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When we speak of morality, much is presumed. Indeed, it is a part of our nature to presume morality, for morality is presumed upon us. For if we hold to be true that which can be gleaned from Scriptures, namely that God created men in his image and that we who are of the human race are unlike any other created being in that God instills in us such quality so as to make us God’s Image-bearers, then there is something in us that is defined by the Divine (cf. Gen. 1:26,27). To what degree the nature of the Diving Being is imparted to us we may never fully comprehend, yet there are some things that are without doubt. Indeed, a simple observation of the history of mankind can bring to light many of these qualities by the sheer uniformity of laws, actions, and dispositions among various and diverse peoples (as C. S. Lewis has so wonderfully chronicled in his Abolition of Man), yet to use man’s history as such a gauge is an hopeless endeavor since God’s Image upon man has been inexplicably dulled by the consequences of the transgression of Adam.

And yet we find that there is grace in Adam’s transgression, for in that transgression the knowledge of God was more deeply imparted. And while the knowledge of God is a curse and a judgment upon those who hear it naturally and rebel (cf. Rm. 7:7-8), to those to whom Christ has been revealed specially, it is the knowledge of the riches of God’s mercy (cf. Rm. 9:23). For while it can be said that Adam knew the Lord in the Garden, having walked with him in unbroken fellowship, there are things that Adam would not have known had sin never entered into the picture. It is for this reason that the sinless angels who dwell in the resplendent and matchless presence of the Thrice Holy God are said to peer longingly into those things which have been revealed to those who have been redeemed (cf. 1Pet. 1:12), and it is for this reason that the tree bearing the forbidden fruit was named, “The Knowledge of Good and Evil” (cf. Gen. 2:17). For I doubt there was some special substance in the fruit itself that lent itself to such revelation, but the single act of defiance, the act of transgressing the one command to which God had subjected Adam, was sufficient enough both to damn the human race and to instill in Adam’s offspring the seed of rebellion and of evil.

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The apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions … One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Rm. 14:1, 5). Now, this is not an invitation to quarrel over opinions, but it is an invitation to understand the Revelation of God more clearly by considering the opinions of others who love and cherish the Word of God.

Having taught through Romans, I know the potential response to this text, and I have heard responses outside of that context. Many times the initial response is not, “What does this text mean?” but it is, “Paul is not speaking of the Sabbath here.” Well, the text clearly says that some esteem one day better than another, and others esteem all days alike, yet the apostle’s response is not that one person is wrong and the other is not, but it is that each must be convinced in his own mind. Now if all in this text means every day, then that naturally would include the Sabbath. But if the argument is that Paul does not mean to include the Sabbath in this, then the burden of proof falls upon those who think that Christians are still obligated to keep the Sabbath.

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This is repost from Justin Taylor’s blog. I was studying to write a piece on it myself, but this is far better than anything that I would done:

Tom Schreiner’s 40 Questions About Christians and Biblical Law releases later this month. As I’ve said before, I think it’s now the go-to book for an accessible introduction to all the major issues related to gospel and law, the role of law in redemptive history, application of the law today, etc. I could not recommend it more highly.

Kregel has kindly given me permission to reprint some of the entries. I’ll do so throughout the week. I won’t reproduce the footnotes or the discussion questions, but other than that it’s the full entry.

Today I’ll reprint question #37, “Is the Sabbath Still Required for Christians?”

Believers today continue to dispute whether the Sabbath is required. The Sabbath was given to Israel as a covenant sign, and Israel was commanded to rest on the seventh day. We see elsewhere in the Old Testament that covenants have signs, so that the sign of the Noahic covenant is the rainbow (Gen. 9:8–17) and the sign of the Abrahamic covenant is circumcision (Gen. 17). The paradigm for the Sabbath was God’s rest on the seventh day of creation (Gen. 2:1–3). So, too, Israel was called upon to rest from work on the seventh day (Exod. 20:8–11; 31:12–17). What did it mean for Israel not to work on the Sabbath? Figure 5 lists the kinds of activities that were prohibited and permitted.

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I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your rational service (Rm. 12:1).

Seemingly, we are instructed from our births that the only way by which we will find true fulfillment in our lives is by becoming someone who is great and laudable—someone who is esteem-able. Implanted in our young minds are the society’s virtues of self-esteem and self-aggrandizement, wherein countless sources from parents to teachers, preachers to presidents, cheer us on to be anything that we desire to be, as long as we put our minds and our energies into it. We are inspired to dream dreams, to reach for the pinnacles of human existence, and to loathe whatever evil thoughts might step in our way that tell us, “You’re not good enough, you’re not smart enough, and dag-gone-it, people don’t like you.”

We are taught to become our own cheerleaders and our own advocates to society, and the only thing that holds us back from making our dreams realities is our own lack of positive thinking. And granting the short span of our lives and our preoccupation with them, our dreams nearly all consist of becoming well-to-do, staying healthy, and securing our future by investments so that we will not have the spend the entirety of our days toiling under the sun.

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Well, it was presumptuous of me to think that the whole Ergun Caner debacle would have come to a halt after the overwhelming influx of data concerning his imaginary childhood that was used to elevate his name after 9/11 and the consequent damning demotion of him from the president of Liberty University’s seminary to whatever he is now.
Well, against all odds, he’s back, and from what I can tell, he’s the same man that he was prior to his demotion minus the title of seminary president. My latest glimpse of that other lying Southern Baptist (other than Bill Clinton, that is) came in his address to the “Voter’s Value Summit,” which was broadcasted nationally on C-SPAN, which you can imagine, consisted of a group of conservative, political types who would have made the late Jerry Falwell proud.

And this is to say nothing of conservative politics, because if you were to prick me, you would likely find that my tendency is toward the more conservative of the political scale. What it is to say is that a politician is a politician, a Christian politician is a politician, and the political battle, insofar as this country is concerned, has always been an “ends justify the means” battle. The battle has always been to win the hearts of the voters, and if that means contradicting one’s self, letting moral ambiguity slide, attacking opponents on matters that they fall short on themselves, well, the more the merrier.

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And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (John 1:14-16).

God granted me the grace of watching the testimony of a converted Muslim today, and in it he made quite a profound statement. Roughly it was this, “Can a man become a God? No, he certainly cannot, for how can a weak and finite being take on the almighty and the infinite? But can an almighty, all-powerful God who can do anything become a man? Yes, he certainly can, for he can do all things, and he did so in Jesus Christ.” What this man now knows, by the grace of God, is what the apostle John testifies to in this glorious section of Scripture, namely that the Almighty clothed himself in weakness, the Majestic One arrayed in splendor clothed himself in shame, the One who dwells in the heavenlies became a homeless man, and the King of the Universe took on the form of the lowliest servant. The Lion of the tribe of Judah became the Lamb of Calvary.

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For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake (Phil. 1:29).

The phrase, "faith for faith," is taken directly from the translation of Rm. 1:17 by the English Standard Version, expressly, "For in it [that is, the Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith." I say, "translation," but I mean more "interpretation" for, though the literal interpretation of the passage is "faith to faith," I am thinking (though I am unsure of this) that the translators of the ESV are picking up on part of what the apostle is doing with this phrase, namely using it as an inclusio to bracket with Rm. 3:21, 22 the section of the epistle from Rm. 1:18-3:20. [An "inclusio," is a literary device used to set apart a particular section of literature, bracketing it with common phrases.]
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John 3:16
1 Peter 3:9
1 Timothy 2:3,4

Some people do not have a problem with saying that the Scriptures contain contradictions. Some others believe in the traditional doctrines that they have been taught so much that they simply ignore or radically alter the meanings of texts that do not fit their particular beliefs. I, however, do not have the benefit of such convictions or their lack. I believe that every word, letter, and accent that was originally penned by the prophets and apostles are the very words of God and, being that God does not change and there are no contradictions in him, that which he inspires must possess his same attributes. Therefore, when I encounter a teacher who believes that contradictions exist in Scripture or one who values his traditions over the clear testimonies of Scripture, I react a little like Jesus did toward the Pharisees and Sadducees who did the very same things.

And being that it has been brought up (as it inevitably does) that the doctrines of Romans 9 “contradict” other doctrines in Scripture or that we who “interpret” Romans 9 interpret the text incorrectly (though the Apostle leaves little room for any interpretation in the chapter), I thought that it would be profitable to take a look at some of the texts that supposedly contradict the teachings of Romans 9.

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Muslim Extremists Murder Christian Family in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – On September 28, Muslim extremists charged into the home of Christian lawyer and evangelist Edwin Paul and brutally murdered him, his wife, and his five children who were of the ages 6-17. His crime? For taking the legal case of Robin Mehboob, a Christian taxi driver, who received a hike in interest rate of a small loan (the equivalent of $1,725) from the original terms of 400% to 500% from a lender backed by Muslim extremists. The exorbitant interest rates, whether from the original terms or after, were based solely on the fact that Mehboob was a Christian.

Upon filing the claim, representatives of the lender went to Paul’s home, railing against him, “How dare you Christians go to the police; don’t you know we own the law here?” Upon that, Mehboob testifies, “They assaulted us, beating us with fists and clubs, and warned that if we try to seek any assistance, they will kill us.” Mehboob fled to his brother’s home, and Paul stayed at his home, pursuing the case of his Christian brother. Shortly thereafter, the same men returned and killed Paul, his wife, and his five children.

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