And I believe that it is good and right to feel a certain sort of disgust and outrage when such persons say such things. Often when they do, they skew the truth, promote falsehoods, and lead others astray in the process. But as with all areas of life, I think that the motivations behind our disgust, outrage, etc. must be tested to show whether or not they are right in and of themselves and promote the truth. For though one reacts to the negative act of one, that reaction is not necessarily positive. In fact, it is probably more often the case that the negative acts of a person inspire and produce negative acts in another.

So then, what are appropriate motivations that inspire such hostile feelings in response to the blatherings of our modern village idiots? A few of these might include a desire to see the truth rightly taught and proclaimed, a desire to dissuade confusion in the church, and others like it.

What then are some inappropriate motivations? Perhaps the chief of these is our concern of being associated with such persons by those who are not in the church. Friends, coworkers, etc. who know that we are Christians see these persons who also claim to be Christians and therefore lump us (or so we think) into the same category as them. If this a motivation of our disgust, etc., then it is likely driven by our pride more than it is by our aspirations to sanctify the truth. And, truth be told, if this is our motivation, there are dozens of more true and orthodox doctrines that the world views as loonier than those of the date setters and the judgment declarers.

Another is the belief that these puny, nutty men can thwart the purposes of God. This is a negative motivation because it is simply untrue. Much is said about our witness to the world, but somehow, between the time the apostles penned the New Testament and now, our “witness” became not about Jesus Christ and his work but it became about the façade that we put up in front of the world. In other words, the church has adopted the witnessing practices of the Pharisees. If our appearance to the world was really supposed to be such a concern, I doubt that the Apostle Paul would have written publicly to the Corinthian church about their incestuous relationship problem or to the Galatian church about how easily they turned away to a false religion of works. The church has always been a messy thing, and she will remain so until Christ actually returns.

When people such as Harold Camping go about sharing their “prophecies” on billboards, one of two things happen to those outside the church who see them: either they are hardened in their unbelief, or they are not. And it is the Spirit of God who controls this reaction, not the supposed free will of person viewing it. As the apostle Paul writes:

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ (2Cor. 2:14-17)

In other words, it is not the sanity or reasonableness of our Gospel that saves, but it is the Spirit who saves. And being that this is the same Spirit who raised Christ Jesus from the dead, you’d best believe that he can overcome Harold Camping to call one of his own.

The true light, which enlightens everyone 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 this section of John’s Gospel, we see that the apostle is already defining and clarifying some terms that he is going to be using throughout his Gospel. And the apostle is not shy about his usage of terms, and he uses them in such a way that, though they can be interpreted different ways when standing on their own, they can only have one interpretation in their context.

The first term we encounter is translated in the English Standard Version as everyone. In v. 9, the apostle writes, “The true light, which enlightens everyone was coming into the world.” The literal rendering of the term is all men (panta anthropon), and we can already see that certain interpretations of its usage will not fit into its context. The everyone, the all men of this passage is the exact same construction that Paul uses in his first letter to Timothy, where he writes:

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people (panta anthropon), for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people (pantas anthropous) to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1Tim. 2:1-4).

And while we do not have time to exegete 1 Timothy 2 in this present discourse, it can be gathered that, just as in 1 Timothy, John’s use of the word must be understood in its context to be rightly understood.

What then is the apostle attempting to convey when he says, “The true light, which enlightens all men”? Was he saying that everyone who has ever lived from Adam to Christ’s Second Coming was enlightened by Christ? Was he even saying that everyone who was born after Christ received this sort of enlightenment? From the text in which this all men is spoken, I think it is clear that the apostle was not trying to convey this meaning at all.

Why? Well, in the very same breath that the apostle writes about the true light that enlightens all men, he writes, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.” That’s interesting. The very light that enlightens all men, which we presume is enlightenment to the knowledge of the truth of God and of himself, comes into the world–the very world that he created–and the world did not know him. In other words, the world was not enlightened to the Christ, thus when they saw him they rejected him. Even more, the apostle writes, “He came to own, and his own people (i.e. the Jews) did not receive him.” So the text flows like this, “Jesus, the true light, who enlightens all men, came to a world who did not know him and to his people who did not receive him.”

Well then, who in the world  is this  all men about whom the apostle is speaking? In its context, it seems as though the apostle is using all men in the same way that the apostle Paul uses all men in 1 Timothy 2, namely that Christ enlightens all kinds of men. In 1 Timothy 2, we are given the expression all men, but then the apostle clarifies what he means by writing, “For kings and all who are in high positions” (v. 2:2). In other words, Jesus has not come into the world to save a singular type of men, but he has come to save all types of men—whether poor or rich, foolish or wise, Jew or Gentile, white or black—Jesus is the Savior of them all, and thus there is therefore now no distinction.

Now, the divide of which we have been speaking is made clearer in the following verses, “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.” Here, we see something absolutely glorious unfolding. We see that Jesus Christ has come to into the world as the true light, who is unknown by the world and rejected by his people, yet to those who he has enlightened, that is men from all types of backgrounds and ethnicities, he gave them the right to be the children of God! Let that sink in. If you are reading this and are rejoicing in the salvation that Jesus Christ has wrought, chances are that you are not of Jewish descent. You were not born into the physical covenant that God had made with Abraham and you are not under the History that God had appointed for the lineage of Abraham. Yet here you are, rejoicing in Jesus Christ, the Son of David and are through Christ a child of God through faith. Why? Because Jesus Christ has come into the world enlightening all men, not merely those who were of the seed of Abraham. You who had no inheritance, now have an Inheritance that is undefiled; you who were cast off and rejected, have now been brought into the fold of God; you who had no rights, now have the right to be called children of the Most High God. What a glorious reality!

How then is this enlightenment, this extension of the right to believe and to be called children of God, brought about? The apostle writes that this is brought about in those “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” In other words, there is nothing that is in any man that can bring this benefit of Adoption in Christ about. It is not based upon one’s blood line (even the blood line of Abraham), it is not based on one’s fleshly works or efforts (cf. Rm. 9:16), and it is not based upon on our “free” will, but it is based solely upon the will and pleasure of God. In other words, if you have believed in Christ and have been adopted as God’s child, it is not based upon anything that you have done. If you have, God has granted you all of these good things, and there is no room for you to boast. You have become a part of the all men who have been enlightened by the True Light, and were it not for the grace of God and his glory, you would have been like the world who did not know Christ and the Jews who did not receive him. Praise him for his grace!

Father, we thank you that through Jesus Christ you have given us who had no claims, no rights, no pedigree, no goodness, or anything that would commend us in your sight the right to be called your children. We thank you that you have enlightened us by your grace through your Spirit to the truths of the Gospel, and through that we have believed and have been saved. Let us never forget this glorious Gospel that you have preached to us, and let us ever be mindful of the former wretchedness of our natural state. Amen.

And while we who are Christians profess our immortality to be vested Elsewhere, we are certainly not exempt from this desire to be remembered in this age. And while our ambitions might be sanctified to some degree when compared to those of the world, the underlying desire is the same—to be remembered on this earth after we have passed from it.

Therefore, it is not surprising that many of us find ourselves discontent when we find that our lives on this earth are anything but extraordinary. And it is for this reason that when titles such as “The Purpose Driven Life” find their way into bookstores, they fly off the shelf in the millions. We desire purpose, we desire a high calling, and, most of all, we desire the path of remembrance.

Yet in spite of this, we must consider the possibility that we will not be remembered by this world. Even more, we must consider that we might not be called to be remembered by this world. For what if some of us who call ourselves Christians are called to fulfill what the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, namely to live “a quiet and peaceful life, godly and dignified in every way” (1Tim. 2:2)? What if our purpose is to submit to one another, to our governments, and to God in all things so as to make ourselves of little consequence to the worldly system around us? For as the bumper sticker concerning women is true, namely, “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History,” so it is true of all us, namely, “Well-Behaved People Seldom Make History.” For history loves to remember revolutionists.

This is not to say that the call to discipleship is not an extraordinary call, nor is to say that following Christ is not a revolutionary call, but it is to say that the call to discipleship, as utterly revolutionary as it may be when compared to the world, may not be one that lands our name in the annals of this world. In fact, when we think of it, it is quite revolutionary to desire a life that is quiet and peaceful and desires godliness over remembrance. For even in Christianity we find that we are always on mission or desirous to be on mission about something, whether it be the Great Commission, increasing our church sizes, or conservative politics, so that we scarcely have the time or desire to be quiet and peaceful. Godliness and holiness takes the back seat to greater things, and loving the church—our brothers and sisters in Christ—takes the back seat to that which is bigger, namely the unconverted world and its system.

And this is not to say that these grandiose aspirations are not important or that they have no place in Christian thought, but what if, perhaps, our focus is backwards? What if those grandiose things which we esteem the most should be secondary and a fruit of that which is primary, namely that which is quiet and peaceful? What if those things which are grandiose are contingent upon that which is in our estimations not, and what if our neglect of the lesser, “easier,” and less memorable things is inhibiting the fulfillment of the greater things?

Take for example the Great Commission from Matthew 28. It is a grandiose commission calling for the church to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded us. What we must ask ourselves concerning this commission given by our Lord is is it a commission that stands alone or is it one that is predicated by a certain manner of living? Granting what Christ had taught in the previous twenty-seven chapters and the other Gospels, we see that a certain manner of living must exist prior to the fulfillment of this commission. We must love one another (i.e. the church) as Christ has loved us (cf. Jn. 14:34), we must love God with all our being (cf. Mt. 22:37), we must render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s (cf. Mt. 22:21), we must take up our crosses daily (cf. Lk. 9:23), we must sell our possessions and give to the poor (cf. Mt. 19:21), we must love the least of Christ’s brothers (cf. Mt. 25:40), etc. For how are we going to fulfill the Great Commission that Christ gave to his church, namely to make disciples who observe his commandments if we are not those who are his disciples by following his commandments?

The common problem that exists is that there is a misunderstanding as the what the Great Commission really is. Christ says, “Make disciples who observe my commandments,” and we read, “I am sending you on a urgent rescue mission to save the lost.” For this reason, we often overlook the command for obedience and replace it with a command to preach the Gospel as quickly as possible to minimize the number of souls going to hell. Therefore, we make foreign missions our chief goal, and everything that we do as the church revolves around preaching the Gospel in some form or another, whether rightly or wrongly. Ironically, by doing thus, we thwart the design of the Great Commission altogether. For if we first looked to the church and demanded her obedience to Christ’s commands, then we would first love our brothers and sisters as Christ loved us. By doing so, by loving our brothers and sisters in Christ whether at home or abroad, we would declare to the world we are Christ’s, for he said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:35). And by doing this, we would pave the way for the Gospel and the Great Commission, for by our love for the church in obedience to Christ’s command, God will draw his people to himself.

This is not to say that there is no place for preaching the Gospel where there is no church, but it is to say that it should flow from our love for Christ’s church. And to bring this back to the original subject, this love that flows from our obedience to Christ may not be the path for remembrance or glory. Our part in obeying Christ might be simply (“simply” meaning “humanly impossible”) to live a quiet, godly life, submitting to one another in all things, and loving the church as best we can in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. We may never be granted the opportunity to be at the forefront of the “mission field,” and we may only be granted the small sphere to which we are presently assigned, loving our brothers and our neighbors as best we can, being salt in that place that lacks salt. Whether we are called to remain where we are or are commissioned to “grander” things, we should be content in eating and drinking to the glory of God (cf. 1Cor. 10:31).

And as such, it matters very little that opposition against the principle of the tithe is brought with the desire for biblical fidelity, for it is to them foundational and irrefutable. Therefore, for those who seek to establish a biblical pattern of Christian Giving with their own lives that is not necessarily opposed to tithing (that is, not opposed to tithing for the sake of being opposed to tithing without Scriptural warrant) but is desirous to live lives that accord with God’s Word in all matters of life including giving, the battle is for them an uphill one. For it is not (in many cases) a matter of “Let us search the Scriptures for understanding,” but it is rather a matter of “Why do you break the traditions of the elders?” And as such, one might quote and discern Scripture till he blue is in the face, and yet he will gain little ground in the battle for common understanding.

Therefore, one may wonder whether it is profitable to question the present understanding of Christian Giving at all granting that it will be undoubtedly met with such fierce opposition. For what ground can be gained against a doctrine that is so entrenched in the minds and hearts of the church that it is defended with such fervor? And, if there is ground and progress to be had, what edification, if any, is there that would be profitable enough to justify rifting the status quo and the relative peace on the matter?

For the answers to these questions and others, it would be helpful first to understand the purpose behind Christian Giving and secondly to understand the manner prescribed in Scripture for its fulfillment. For I am convinced that latter bears a great weight upon the former, and by understanding the reason for our giving as Christians we will better understand why certain means and methods should be accepted and why others should be rejected.

The Purpose behind Christian Giving
On the purpose behind Christian Giving, perhaps the best discourse in Holy Scripture is given by the apostle Paul to the Corinthian church. In his second letter to the church, he admonishes them to give, not for the sake of paying the wages of the apostles or for paying the electric bill of the local synagogue, but it was for the sake of supplying the basic needs of their brothers and sisters in Christ. We know this is the heart of the apostle, for in an earlier discourse he declares that it is the right of the apostle and the laborer of God to be compensated for his spiritual work, and yet for their sakes and for their understanding, the apostle relinquished his rights and his due compensation so that he might not lay any obstacle in the way of the Gospel (cf. 1Cor. 9:8-18).

However, though the apostle relinquishes what is due to him for his faithful service, he by no means exempts the church from giving. Quite the contrary, at the beginning of his discourse in his second letter to them, he gives to them an unsurpassable model of giving in the Macedonians. There he writes:

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints (2Cor. 8:1-4).

Now to understand the model of giving given by the apostle to the Corinthian church, we must understand the context in which it was done. First, we must understand who the beneficiary of the Macedonian giving was. The apostle Paul, as is recounted in the book of Acts, was busy collecting aide for the saints in Jerusalem who had suffered great hardship by virtue of being in Jerusalem. Therefore, the saints in Macedonia gave, not for the express benefit of their local congregations, but for the benefit of their brothers and sisters who lived in another province. To put it another way, they did not see their material duty as bound to their brothers who lived among them, but they saw that it was their duty to aid the church universal. All who were in Christ were their brothers (despite their nationality), and they earnestly sought to aid their brothers in any way that they could.

Secondly, we must understand the extent of the Macedonian giving. The apostle Paul recounts to the Corinthian church that the Macedonians not only gave according to their means (meaning that they were giving whatever they could without jeopardizing their own livelihood), but they gave beyond their means. Now, we are not given the manner by which the Macedonians altered their lives so that they could give beyond their means for the sake of their foreign brethren, but we do know this–that they willingly subjected themselves to “a severe test of affliction” and to “extreme poverty.” The Macedonians, bound only by their love for their fellow saints, gave and gave to the point that they had to beg the apostle Paul to take more from them.

Thirdly, we must understand the result of their giving. Apart from the obvious benefit to the impoverished saints in Jerusalem, the Macedonians themselves received a more blessed gift, namely grace. This grace given to them by God (cf. v. 8:1) did indeed result in the exhausting of their material wealth and comfort, but much more than that it resulted in their “extreme joy” (cf. v. 8:2). From their extreme poverty burgeoned a “wealth of generosity” so that they who lacked wealth “abounded in joy.” No, they did not retain their Xboxes or their Cable TV or their meals at Outback Steakhouse, but, in return for their great sacrifice, God was pleased to give them a joy that surpasses all material and fleshly pleasure. The result of their sacrifice is nothing short of ironic to the fleshly minded, but its result in reality is nothing short of Kingdom of God (cf. Mark 12:29-34).

Enter the Tithe
When placed against the instructional example of the Macedonians, the tithe seems nonsensical. For the Macedonians did not sit back with their W-2s and calculators and calculate the ten percent which they thought they owed, but they not only gave one hundred percent of what they were able to give, but (to use bad mathematics) they gave one hundred and ten percent. The Macedonians did not see themselves as bound to an statute of giving given to the Israelites under the Old Covenant (which after multiple tithes given at different intervals came closer to twenty-three percent of their income), but they saw themselves as bound to the law of Christ. And what was this law but that they should love their Lord with all their soul and that they love their neighbor as themselves? And since they did indeed love the saints in Jerusalem as themselves (and, arguably, more than themselves), they did what the rich young ruler could not do, namely sell all of his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor (cf. Mt. 19:16-30). By living thus, the Macedonians were assured that God had pulled them through the gates of Heaven–a feat which is much more difficult than pulling a camel through the eye of a needle.

The Yoke and the Ease of the Tithe
Despite this clear example given by the apostle Paul in the Macedonians and despite the absolute lack of command given to the church to practice tithing, we in the church today are still bound to this statute given to national Israel under the Old Covenant. And though we forego the restrictions of the Old Covenant on the foods that we eat and the commandments given concerning animal sacrifices, we yet cling to this command given to those who did not eat pork and who slaughtered animals day after day and night after night. Why is this? Whether it be tradition, tangibility, lack of understanding, or the perpetuity of poor teaching, the fact remains that we who are in Christ are clearly called to a different standard than that which was given to national Israel. And though it can be certainly argued that the Israelites were instructed as we are to aid the poor and the unfortunate, the fact remains that the tithe is not the only relic that remains to the church from the Old Covenant with the House of Israel.

Some in the church have recognized this from Scripture, and yet they continue to teach tithing propagating it as a “good starting place.” But is it indeed a good starting place? For what has the law to do with the recipients of the Gospel? Is the slaughter of lambs a good starting place for the slaughter of the Son of God? Are the chains of clean animals a good starting place for the freedom afforded in Christ? Is the rebuilding of the temple of a good starting place for coming to Christ? By no means! For what business have we running to shadows when we have already been granted the Reality? By trading the Law of Christ in loving our brothers for the law of the tithe, are we any better off?

Furthermore, the institution of the tithe has been to some in the church an unnecessary burden and to others an escape from duty. For the apostle writes concerning the end for which we are to give, saying:

For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack” (2Cor. 8:13-15).

In other words, our giving is to be so that there is an equilibrium among the saints. For God has ordained that while some have lack, others will have an abundance so that they might be as their Father in Heaven by giving generously to the aide of those who have lack. Likewise, when the tables turn, those who were in need who then receive wealth can give it in turn to others who have need. By living thus, we demonstrate to the world that we love one another and thus declare the Gospel of our Lord to them by our good deeds.

The institution of the tithe, however, works against this purpose of our Lord, for instead of each giving according to his ability and receiving according to his need, each member is demanded to give a fixed percentage of his income to a local congregation. To some, this requirement is a terrible burden for they need much, and they, instead of receiving from those who have an abundance, are forced to give when they should receive. Contrarily to those who have much, the tithe is a light burden, and they give it while they bask in the ninety-percent that remains “theirs” believing that they have somehow given their due. While the poor among them remain poor, they continue in their “American Dream” lifestyles, looking much more like the world than like their Father in Heaven who gives out of his abundance.

Anti-Tithing: The Call to American Christians
The reality remains that to us who live in America who call ourselves “Christians,” we are all, comparatively speaking, wealthy. When we look at the rest of the world and the extreme poverty that is there, even us who are “impoverished” in this country are rich. When we consider that there are thousands, nay millions of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world who are starving and persecuted, why are we so content to hide behind a law of giving misapplied from the Old Covenant? Are we so unlike the Macedonians who saw not the local church but the church universal and loved that church after the manner which their Savior loved them? Are we so concerned about our own comfort and well-being that we are willing to neglect the tears of our brothers and sisters with empty stomachs and unclothed bodies?

The tithe, my dear brothers and sisters, will not fulfill the Law of Christ. Until God has written that Law upon our hearts and has given us his heart concerning the afflicted, the oppressed, and the impoverished among us and abroad, we shall never understand Christian Giving and the Extreme Joy of the Macedonians. May God give to us the same grace which he bestowed upon them so that we might love our brothers and sisters and might receive that Joy which surpasses all fleshly comfort. Amen.

And discerning this is terribly difficult task, especially when you have been brought up in such a culture. And to make things all the more difficult, there is not a black and white line that distinguishes the two, for there are within this Christian subculture many who are indeed in Christ and who serve him as best they know how in the mindset in which they have been raised. They, including myself, have been brought up hearing the name of Jesus Christ, the stories of his life, the teachings from his mouth, etc., and they follow these things according to the manner which their predecessors followed them, and their predecessors before them, and their predecessors before them.

And while such practices (i.e. traditions) typically have no bad in them in and of themselves, they do have behind them the same warning that Christ gave to the Pharisees, namely, “Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?” (Mt. 15:3). For though traditions often have their roots in godly discipline, they do have the tendency in time to become that which they were never meant to be–law. And these traditions in time have the power to so grip and to sway the Religion so that they slowly transform the Religion into a different religion. And while this transformation may take years to generations to take such a hold on the Religion, the slowness with which they grow gives little cause for alarm, much like a vine that slowly but persistently twirls itself around the trunk of a great tree until after years of careful onslaught it strangles the tree of its life.

It is therefore of great necessity that each generation examine its Root and remember what Christianity is and who is her Christ. We must be continually called to remember the Gospel–the true Gospel–and we must continually rid it of any influence that seeks to change it. For the apostle warned the Galatian church, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (Gal. 5:9), and as it was true to that church and that generation, so it is true to us and to the Gospel this day. We cannot afford to be apathetic with regards to the Gospel and its fruits, for as soon as we become thus, we give up Christ and the Christianity of God.

What is the Gospel?
If we were to step back and examine the Root (viz. the Gospel) of our faith (as we are indeed called to do), I believe the best and most concise definition of the Gospel is given to us by the apostle Paul in what is perhaps the greatest chapter in all of Holy Scripture. There he writes, “For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh” (Rm. 8:3,4). In this one statement we are given all of the elements of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are first presented with the ability and preeminence of God–that it is God and God alone who has accomplished this great Salvation in which we boast. Secondly, we are presented with man’s inability. No man, because he is weak and fleshly, can accomplish what needs to be accomplished for his salvation, even though he might have the Law of God. Man is utterly helpless and without hope apart from God, and there is none who can save him apart from God. Thirdly, we are presented with the means by which God has accomplished this great Salvation, viz. that he sent his Son Jesus Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh to fulfill the requirement of the Law which we would could not accomplish in our feeble state, and he was offered up “for sin”–as a sacrifice and as the ransom price for the sins which we who are in him have committed and will commit. It is a Salvation accomplished by God alone for the sake of God alone so that no man might boast in anything save the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How Does Tradition Affect the Gospel?
When we speak of tradition and the Gospel, we are not speaking of those things which have been ordained by God as practices for his people. Those things are prescribed by him for our worship and adoration of him, and they are for our good and for the sake of the Gospel. We can think of such things as the Lord’s Supper which was given to Christ’s Church to be a memorial and a testimony of the Gospel, calling us to remember the Passover Lamb who was given as ransom for many. Those things that conflict with the Gospel are those things that man has instituted oftentimes for the sake of piety, and it is those things which must be continually weighed against the Gospel of our Lord. In the case of the Pharisees of Matthew 15, they laid charge against the disciples for not observing the traditions of the elders, namely, washing their hands before they ate. What had formerly been instituted for the sake of remembering the holiness of God had become a law to these religious leaders, and they in their delusion had remembered their traditions while neglecting the laws of God. What had once been a external practice for the sake of honoring God in his holiness had become to those leaders a means by which they thought themselves approved before God. Christ by his perception exposed their folly, condemning them for breaking a law of God (in this case, dishonoring their parents) for the sake of their tradition (withholding from their parents their due because they claimed what is theirs had been offered to God).

What is common among all traditions that usurp the Gospel and make its Religion a false one is their practice for the sake of God’s approval and/or for the approval of men. For the Gospel declares that no man and no work of man can cause him to be approved before God, for man is in such debt and is so feeble that he cannot make himself approved before God. No practice of man, no matter how good or how pious, can cause him to be righteous before a holy God, for even the righteousness of man is to God filthy rags (cf. Is. 64:6). And these pious practices, when practiced from a heart that desires to achieve its own salvation rather than receive it freely from him who achieved it, always leads to neglect of the weightier matters of God’s law. For as the Pharisees tithed their mint, dill, and cumin, they did so to the neglect of the greater of God’s laws, namely justice, mercy, and faithfulness (cf. Mt. 23:23). They indeed were those who cleaned the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence (Mt. 23:25). For they put on a good show and were esteemed as righteous before men, but they had no concern for him who knew their hearts and who alone would be their Judge.

Pharisaism and American Christianity
When we turn from the pages of Scripture and look to our own generation, much can be surmised by how we speak concerning the Gospel and our witness to it. I cannot begin to recount how often I have heard Christians speaking of their “witness” and then perceiving how little that witness had to the do with the Gospel of our Lord. More or less it has to do with not cursing, drinking, smoking, hanging out with bad friends after work, etc. in order that the world would perceive that they are different, not in that they are sinners who have been forgiven, but in that they are moral people. And while a Christian may or may not do these things because they have been changed by the Spirit of God, our witness to the Gospel is not to be about how good we are, but it is to be about how weak and despicable we are, and how great and powerful and merciful God is. Many times we are so concerned about putting on a show in front of the world based upon a morality that has nothing to do with Christ and Christianity rather than showing the world that we are still a people in need of a Savior. We instead go to great lengths to disguise our weaknesses and to highlight our strengths, when we should rather imitate the apostle Paul who said, “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness” (2Cor. 11:30). For when we show ourselves to be weak, we show Christ to be strong, and when we show ourselves to be needy, we show Christ to be sufficient for those needs. For the Gospel has never been about us, but it has always been about God and his ability to call a people to himself and to make them holy.

Therefore, when we consider the state of our Religion and the practices we practice, let us never forget to test them by the Gospel of our Lord and by what is revealed to us in the pages of Holy Scripture. Let us never build up for ourselves a morality that is not demonstrated in God’s Word for the sake of putting on a show, but let us hold fast to what is revealed so that in all things Christ and his Cross might be preeminent. Amen.

And while I can sympathize logically with the sentiment that every American citizen ought to be involved in politics if indeed the American government is controlled by its citizens, I cannot help but wholeheartedly believe that the American government is not the government we believe that it is. For we are spoon-fed from the time we are old enough to hear that we live in a democracy–a government by the people and for the people. We are bombarded with the ideals of the Founding Fathers expressed over two hundred years ago, and we are taught to believe that what they expressed in ideals existed then when they first spoke them, and they exist today in our present government. And regardless what might happen on Capitol Hill or what might be signed into law in the Oval Office, we hold fast to the belief that the process at its core is democratic (i.e. citizen driven) and it is for the sake of each person’s inalienable rights (whatever that is).

Despite the core belief of each American that “we the people” are our own governors and that we directly determine our own welfare, we deceive ourselves by believing thus. For the government which we esteem is “by the people and for the people” is the same government that has permitted and is continually permitting the slaughter of millions of infants who have never had the chance the breathe their first breath much less enjoy their supposed inalienable rights. And our government permits abortion (read: actively pursues abortion) in spite of the fact that over half of American citizens believe it to be an immoral practice.

And how does abortion and other issues (e.g. socialize heath care) which are staunchly opposed by the general population become legalized in a government that is supposedly ruled by the majority of its citizens? It is because, as Dennis the Peasant so properly put it: “You’re fooling yourself; we’re living in a dictatorship.” The American government has never been and never will be a democracy. It is a republic. And as such, we as citizens do not put forth and pass legislation, but we vote for representatives to do it in our stead. And these representatives, being dependent upon the vote of the populous and being the wicked and twisted people they are, lie and cheat their way into power. And by doing thus, they manipulate the populous by rhetoric and slick campaigns into believing that they have the citizens’ welfare in mind, all the while they are consumed with doing whatever it takes to gain more and more power for themselves. And thus the cycle of elections and terms has perpetuated for two centuries so as to make the small government of centuries past indistinguishable from the government we have at present.

And amazingly enough, we have been duped into believing that we the citizens are to blame for our government’s present state. We have been so brainwashed into believing that we are the government so as to make its missteps and shortcomings our missteps and shortcomings. And while the Congress and the White House continue to pass law after law that is against the good and the will of the people, they stand immune from scrutiny, because it is we who put them there.

And it is against this notion I stand. I did not sit on the panel of Roe v. Wade and declare that the murder of infants is an acceptable practice. I did not vote bill after bill to use false scales in the levying of taxes on different goods. I did not vote to rob those who have wealth to give it to those who are poor. I stood for none of these things. And yet here I am this day ridiculed by those who call themselves my brothers and sisters for not being more actively involved. I am chastised for not watching C-SPAN and Fox News 24/7 so that I might keep up to speed with the politics of our country. I am charged with “taking the easy way out” by wishing to quietly submit to the government in all things save the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is my duty as a citizen to protest and to be revolutionary.

To those who raise such charges against me and other Christians with similar convictions, I ask this, “Where am I called upon by my Lord to be a politician?” “Where I commanded to rise up against my government because I have been fooled into believing I am the government?” “Where am I called to offend the world by my conservative economics?” “Where am I instructed to desire for prayer in public schools?” I cannot think of Scriptural warrant for any of these things, and I dare say that anyone can. Yet here we are as American Christians, polarized and allied with a secular political party who could give a rip about Jesus Christ. We back them more eagerly than we back the Church Universal (read: suffering Christians outside America) and than we back our Lord and his Gospel, and we seek our salvation through thieves and swindlers rather than in Him who alone is King.

Therefore, American Christian, I charge you to strongly consider your zealotry with regards to American politics. I charge you think carefully before you lash out at your fellow brothers and sisters for not being hip to the latest news out of Washington. For we hold that we have a higher calling in the politically-untainted Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that Gospel has absolutely nothing to do with ObamaCare. Grace and peace.

Why then is a new year so alluring? It is so, I believe, because of the desire ingrained in every human being for renewal, for a second chance, for a do-over. For the end of every year is a natural call for retrospection on that year, and everyone of us, being the imperfect creatures that we are, are filled with happiness for the good things accomplished and, more significantly, regret for the things that we did not accomplish and the things at which we failed. And since all of us fall short far more than we succeed, the end of the year marks the end of a failed chapter in our lives, and the new year marks the beginning of a new chapter filled with possibility for change.

It is for this reason that most of us make New Year’s resolutions. We see the goals and desires of the year past, we see how we have failed in those areas, and we resolve that this year will be the year that things are finally different. We resolve that we will start this new year on the right foot and that we will finally take the initiative to be the kind of person that we would like to be, whether it be a thinner person, a healthier person, a kinder person, a wiser person, a more financially stable person, etc.

And though we make these resolutions, there lurks in the shadows the failed resolutions of years past. We know at the back of our minds that this isn’t new–we’ve done this before. We know the resolutions of the previous new year, and those resolutions are oftentimes the same resolutions that we are making this new year. Why should this year be any different? Yet, we still make the same resolutions and are still striving to be who we think we ought to be.

The problem that is inherent in such goals is that we cannot be who we ought to be on our own. We may be resolute at each year’s beginning, but temptation and laziness will inevitably creep in as they always do, and they will dethrone the strength of our “good” desires. We all need a Perfect and Outside Strength to be the good people that we know we ought to be, and we do not simply need a change in attitude or greater resolve, but we ourselves need to be made new. We need to be reborn.

And this is where the Good News of Jesus Christ comes in. Our lives year after year testify against our own strength and desire to become good people by ourselves, and we know that we have failed and that we will fail again and again. We know that in 2011 we will still struggle with the same shortcomings of 2010, and we know that that cycle will continue until the day we die unless something radical happens to us. We do not need more and more resolutions (or more and more laws), we need Someone who has never had to make resolutions to make us into persons who can actually keep the resolutions that we make. Now, I am not saying that Jesus Christ will help make us thinner people, healthier people, more financially stable people etc., but I am saying that Jesus Christ is able to bear the guilt and condemnation of all of our failings and is able to transform us into people with God’s resolutions and God’s strength to keep them. For Christ says:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Mt. 11:28-30).

For we all know that we ought to be better persons, yet we oftentimes do not know what being a better person means. And the only One to whom we are accountable to be better persons is ultimately not ourselves, but it is to God, and it is according to him alone that we must set our bars. God has engrained in all of us this yearning to be better people, because he has ingrained in all of us the knowledge that we ought to be better people. Yet we cannot achieve this ourselves. We must look to him alone, and we must seek his remedy alone. We must cast all of our burdens upon him lest we stumble over him to our destruction.

Therefore, let this not be a new year where you repeat the shortcomings of the year prior because you strive to better yourself by your own feebleness, but cast your shortcomings upon Jesus Christ, and he will give you rest. For the reality is that we must not merely become better people to stand justified before God, but, as Christ said, “You must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48). Therefore believe on Jesus and repent from your folly, and God will be pleased clothe you in the Perfection of his Son. Here’s not to a New Year but to a New Birth. Amen.

Well, when we think upon the all things in Romans 8:28, we must understand it in its context. The apostle Paul is speaking there particularly of the suffering of the saints, manifesting itself in tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, danger, nakedness, and death (v. 35). These things seem to come to the saint from external sources, such as from those whom the apostle labels, “Life and death, angels and rulers, things present and things to come, powers, height and depth, and everything else in all of creation (vv. 38, 39). None of these things, the apostle says, “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39).

But what of our personal sinning and failure, are they included in the all things? We should note that when we find this declaration of the apostle, it is nestled in God’s sovereign plan to redeem a people for himself. He writes:

And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so 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 (vv. 28-30).

After the apostle declares that all things are working to the good of the saint, he then defines what that good is, namely the being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Everything that we encounter as children of God works to our good, because, through these things, we are being made into Christ’s likeness. And this is our salvation, for the apostle writes earlier that we will be glorified with [Christ] provided that we suffer with him (v. 17).

So then, is this all things only relegated to the sufferings that we suffer from external sources? It is interesting to note that following the declaration of God’s glorious plan for the salvation of his people that begins in his foreknowledge (or fore-love) and ends in the glorification of his people, the apostle writes:

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us (vv. 31, 32).

In other words, after the apostle says that all things work together for the good of his people (which we presume at least to include suffering), he speaks of charges being made against God’s elect and yet failing and condemnation being pronounced God’s chosen and yet thwarted. From where do these accusations come? They must come from sources outside of the saint that accuse him of either his past sins or his present sins. And yet these accusations utterly fail, because Christ died, Christ was raised, Christ is at the right hand of God, and Christ is pleading our case for us. Therefore our sins have no power to separate us from God’s love, because Christ has taken care of all of them through his Work.

From this, we can surmise that in the least that our sins were not far from the apostle’s mind when he penned the all things in v. 8:28. But if can be presumed that even the sins that we commit as Christians work to our good, how then do they work to our good?

1. Our sins work to our good, because they draw us back to the Gospel
In the life of the Christian there is the glorious and mind-blowing reality that we are presently counted righteous in the sight of God on the one hand and we are being made righteous on the other hand. In other words, because of what Christ has done in his righteous life and on the cross, we who are in him are looked upon by God as spotless and blameless. However, because we are not yet what we shall be, we are still sinners that are being made righteous by the work of the Holy Spirit. Through the Spirit, we are progressively putting to death the fleshly deeds of our bodies, and we are progressively striving more and more onto holiness (v. 8:13). And so we are counted and considered righteous because of Christ, and we are not righteous but are becoming righteous because of the Spirit.

Therefore, since we are in such a state, we will still sin and will continue to sin until the day we die. The curse that remains upon our bodies is such that a war will always be waged, and, we, because of our inability to see Christ for who he truly is and because of our weaknesses, will continue to fall and to stumble. And every time we fall and stumble and sin against our Lord, it is a call to us to remember the Gospel that saved us in the beginning. For we are not saved from our pre-Christ sins and then left to fend off our post-Christ sins, but Christ has covered all of our transgressions with his blood, and he delights in making us righteous.

It is for this reason that the apostle John writes:

If we walk in the light, as [God] is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1Jn. 1:7-9)

In other words, if we, as children of God–who do not walk in darkness but walk in light–stumble along the path, Christ is there, as he ever was, ready to pick us up, to cleanse us, and to send us back onto the path of righteousness. We simply need to come to him as we first came to him, humble and destitute, recognizing that he alone is our righteousness.

2. Our sins work to our good, because they kill self-righteousness
Now, I must admit that I cannot think of a chapter and verse number for this one, but I can testify to it from countless experiences that I believe accord with the Gospel. There are short seasons in my life where it seems that the Spirit of God is more pleased to produce his fruits in me than in other seasons. And I can tell when these seasons are about to end, because I start thinking to myself, “I doing alright. I have been pretty merciful to the merciless, I have loved by wife like I ought (or as I think I ought), I have been praying regularly, I have been meditating on the Word incessantly, I have been pretty generous, etc.” And I start thinking upon these things and start feeling as though I have arrived or am close to it. “I am righteous, I am holy, and God sure is lucky to have me on his side.”

And as surely as I think these things, my good and gracious attitude drops like a rock, lusts creep in that were not there before, and I stumble and fall into the very things that I was boasting about not falling into just days or hours prior. My sin comes again before my eyes, and I am reminded of how helpless and hopeless I am in my own power. I am again brought down to my knees, pleading for my Savior’s righteousness and asking forgiveness for my self-righteousness.

And it is seasons like these that I praise God for my sins and my failings, not because I rejoice in unrighteousness, but because it brings me back to the Cross. I am reminded again that the Gospel is not something that is merely for the unsaved, but it is chiefly for those of us who are being saved, so that we might not boast in anyone save Christ. And in this way, my sin works for my good, because it drives me back to my Savior and makes me again as I ought to be– like a child in need of God’s absolute and loving care, so that I look up to him who is Perfect alone, so that I am conformed further to his image.

Final Thoughts
My hope is if you are reading this and you are in Christ that you will realize that even your sin is working to your good. For if you are in Christ, the Spirit who first saved you will remind you of the Gospel which first brought you to him, and it will cause you to rejoice again in the great Salvation that was accomplished for you by Christ alone. This glorious truth, however, should never be an excuse by which we “sin so that grace may abound,” but it is call to us to be constantly repenting from those things that do not please our Lord. For our Lord has been most kind and gracious to us, and how shall we continue to sin against such Kindness and Grace? Amen.

And how have Pelagians misunderstood the Gospel? They have done it by misunderstanding the bad news of humanity’s condition. For if good news is going to exist, bad news must go before it, and if extremely Good News is going to exist, extremely bad news must go before it.

It is for this reason that the apostle Paul, after he declares that he is not ashamed of the Gospel for in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith (Rm. 1:16, 17), immediately expounds upon the terrible state of humanity (vv. 1:18-3:20). This terrible state is summarized in that all men are by nature unrighteous and that all men actively and willfully suppress the truth of God in their unrighteousness, and therefore God’s wrath is being stored up for them (cf. v. 1:18). And because of this terrible state in which all men are, the apostle, at the climax of this section upon the bad news of men’s condition, declares, “None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one” (vv. 3:10-13).

Therefore, the bad news of man’s condition is this, namely that God is righteous, and men are unrighteous. And in order for men to stand before a pleased God, they must be righteous, they must understand, they must seek for God, they must repent, they must have worth, and they must do good. However, no man does these things. In his natural state, he is the opposite of what he must be, and he perpetuates his condition by his own will and works. Therefore, by himself, no man can stand righteous before God.

Therefore, after the apostle finishes his discourse on the terrible news of man’s condition, he reintroduces the Gospel using the same language by which he introduced it prior to his discourse, namely, “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” (v. 1:17). He writes:

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law … [namely] the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who have faith (or believe). For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as propitiation by his blood to be received by faith” (vv. 3:21-25).

In other words, the extremely Good News of Jesus Christ is that despite man’s terrible condition, men can now be made righteous through the gracious gift of Christ’s redemption by faith. But how are we to understand this faith by which we are made righteous? Is it an active seeking out and an active trusting in God by our own free volition? By no means! For by himself, no one understands and no one seeks for God (cf. v. 3:11). What is this faith then? This faith is the gift of Christ’s faith to us who could never have faith. It is imputed faith. How do we know this? We know this because the apostle expresses the Gospel in this way: “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith” (v. 1:17), expressly, “Through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who have faith” (v. 3:22). In other words, the faith that we have in Christ is not a meritorious work that we by our own choosing choose to have, but it is a gift granted by Jesus Christ to us–Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Therefore, it is no surprise that since the apostle is teaching in Rm. 3:21-26 the same thing that he teaches in Eph. 2:8-10, namely that faith is a gift of God not a work of man, he then makes the exact same conclusion in each passage, namely, “What then becomes of our boasting? It is excluded” (v. 3:27). For no man can boast in a salvation that is not his doing given to him through a faith that is not his own.

The Pelagian therefore misunderstands the Gospel in that he believes that all men are able in their natural condition to believe upon Jesus Christ despite the testimony of the apostle that no one can understand and no one can seek for God in his natural state. Therefore, for the Pelagian, the bad news of man’s condition is not as bad as Scripture declares, and the Good News of Jesus Christ is not as good as Scripture declares. In this way, the Pelagian misunderstands the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Upon coming to Jesus, Nicodemus said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him” (Jn. 3:2). Nicodemus’s confession to Christ is an astounding one, and it places him in direct opposition to his Pharisee brothers. Yet, despite the greatness of Nicodemus’s confession, Christ does not respond to his confession with a “Thank you,” or a “You are right,” or even the response he gave to Peter upon his confession, “Blessed are you!” Christ does none of these things but seems to ignore the Nicodemus’s statement altogether.

Instead of responding directly to Nicodemus’s bold confession, Jesus says to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again [or from above] he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v. 3:3). Now, where in the world did that response come from? It seems that Nicodemus said one thing to Christ, and Christ simply decided to ignore Nicodemus’s statement and simply chose to say what was on his mind.

In spite of this appearance on the surface, it would likely be a bit of a misunderstanding to say that Christ’s response had nothing to do with Nicodemus’s declaration. What we are seeing here, I believe, is the Rabbi, whom Nicodemus declared was from God, teaching the Pharisee something that he had somehow missed in his studies of the Scriptures. For Christ, after teaching Nicodemus these truths, says to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? (v. 3:10). Jesus scolds Nicodemus for his lack of understanding in his position as a Pharisee, a teacher of Israel, for apparently this what Christ is teaching to Nicodemus is something that he should have already known.

This teaching, this fundamental doctrine that Nicodemus should have known is that a man must be born again or born from above to see the Kingdom of God. In other words, for a man to be saved and to inherent eternal life, he must be born a second time in a supernatural and heavenly way. We know this because the word translated “again” is ambiguous in that it does mean “again” but it also carries with it the connotation of being “from above.” Therefore, salvation is contingent upon this “second birth from above,” and not to be born again means that one has not received God’s salvation.

Nicodemus, understanding the gravity of this teaching, naturally asks how this second birth comes about. He asks, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (v. 3:4). Nicodemus’s response to the claim of Christ is about as natural a response as they come. When Christ declares, “You must be born again to be saved,” Nicodemus asks what he must do. “How can I cause myself to be born again?” he asks. “Must I find my mother and be born from her again?”

This, of course, is a ludicrous response, for what man can be born of his mother twice especially when he is a grown man? However, what is more ludicrous than the image of a grown man being born again by his mother is the question, “What must I do to cause myself to be born?” This question is thus because of the image of birth, for no one has ever caused himself to be born of his mother, but it was an act that happened totally irrespective of the man’s work or will. For, how many of us determined that we would come into existence? How many of us commanded our parents to perform the duty of marriage so as to cause ourselves to be conceived? How many gave direction to God to knit us in our mother’s wombs? The answer to these questions is an obvious, “None of us,” for we had no part in our birth. The passive tense of the construction is evidence enough, for we do not bear ourselves, but we are born.

In spite of the image of birth, our answer to the question is typically as absurd as Nicodemus’s, for, instead of conceding that our births had happened apart from us, we criticize Nicodemus for his ridiculous response and say, “Of course you cannot crawl back into your mother’s womb and be born again. To be born again you must accept Jesus as your personal Savior and let him into your heart.” We, misunderstanding the image birth just as badly as Nicodemus did, still attempt to make our being born again something that we cause by performing some act. It would be as ridiculous as saying that before we were born physically we accepted our mother as our personal mother and were thereby conceived and born by her.

But how does Jesus respond to Nicodemus’s question? He responds, saying:

Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind [or Spirit] blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (v. 3:8).

In other words, Christ responds to Nicodemus concerning the image of second birth just as the image demands, namely by saying that just as no man was born of his mother by his own will, so no man is born of the Spirit by his own will. The Spirit blows where he wishes and wills, and he, like the wind, cannot be captured or directed, and so everyone who is born again is born apart from man’s will or work and by the will of the Spirit alone (cf. Rm. 9:16).

Nicodemus’s response to Christ’s claim is telling, because as a Pharisee he had been living his whole life willing and working his way to God. You can almost hear the devastation in his voice when he cries out, “How can these things be?” (v. 3:9). And yet Christ responds, asking, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” (v. 3:10). Christ is declaring to Nicodemus that these claims he is making are not new claims, but they are found clearly in the Law and Prophets. Christ is rebuking Nicodemus for his ignorance, for he, being a teacher of God’s people, should know these things well, for they are fundamental doctrines to the faith. Indeed, we find these declarations numerous times in different renditions of the New Covenant where God, by his will and work, causes his people to come into his Kingdom. As indeed he writes in Ezekiel:

“I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and [I will] cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ez. 36:26, 27; cf. Jer. 31:31-34).

These writings of the prophet declare that this being born again, this New Covenant that God will establish with his people, is unlike the Old Covenant in that God alone does the work and he alone receives the honor and the glory for it. Indeed, we find this fulfilled by Christ’s work where he, taking the cup of wine, says, “This cup that is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood” (Lk. 22:20).

Christ makes this point clear later in the discourse with Nicodemus, saying, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man” (v. 3:13). The apostle Paul explains this same Scripture in this way:

For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim) (Rm. 10:5-8).

In other words, Paul is saying that righteousness and eternal life comes one of two ways: it either, one, comes from living according to the Law (which is impossible), or, two, it comes from faith in Christ alone. And lest we be confused into thinking that the apostle is declaring that we merit our righteousness by some faith that is our own, the apostle writes a few verses later, “So faith comes from hearing, but hearing by the word of Christ” (v. 10:17). To clarify the apostle’s meaning, he is saying that our faith comes from hearing the Gospel proclaimed (v. 10:15), but our ability to hear the Gospel and believe comes from the spoken and creative Word of Christ. Just as God caused us to see the glory of the Gospel by creatively declaring, “Let light shine out of darkness” (2Cor. 4:6), so too does our hearing the Gospel unto faith comes from God alone (cf. Jn. 12:36-43).

Christ makes this very point later in John’s Gospel, saying to the Jews:

I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (vv. 10:25-30).

In other words, Christ is declaring that belief in him comes from being a part of his flock. If one is not of his flock, they will not believe, because they do not hear his voice. And this flock is ordained by God and is accomplished, if you will, by the free will of the Spirit of God. For Christ testifies earlier, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice” (v. 10:16).

So to summarize the teaching of Christ to Nicodemus concerning being born again, the reality is that our second birth by the Spirit of God is, like our physical births, not caused by the work or the will of man, but it is caused by the will and ordinance of God alone. In this way, the apostle Paul is validated in his claim that “[God] has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills” (Rm. 9:18). Therefore, the Gospel is not a matter of selling a religion to men so as to create converts, but it is the matter of sowing the seeds of Christ and allowing God to cause the growth (cf. 1Cor. 3:6). For this reason, when the apostle Paul gives an analogy of evangelism, he does not give a picture of a salesman peddling a product, but he gives the picture of a victory parade. He writes:

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ (2Cor. 2:14-17).

In other words, the apostle is saying that as a preacher of Christ, his primary concern is not preaching the Gospel for the sake of saving souls, but it is to spread the aroma of Christ around the world. If some hear and believe, the fragrance of Christ is spread; if some hear and reject Christ, the fragrance of Christ is spread. Either way, the name of Christ is proclaimed, and he is glorified.

The questions that remain for you to ask yourself is, “Do you respond like Nicodemus did to the Gospel and look at what work or act of will that you must do to be saved, or do look upon Christ alone as the Author of your faith? And when you evangelize, do you look at the Gospel as something to be distorted and sold to the unwitting, or do you proclaim it boldly with all its offenses trusting that God will call his sheep to himself?” These are not trivial questions, for how you answer these will determine how you think of the Gospel and will greatly influence your methods and preaching of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.