Faith for Faith

Repost: A brother asked this question of me, and I think it is an excellent question: “What did Christ mean when he cried out upon his death, ‘My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?’ (Mt. 27:46).” It is an excellent question biblically, and it is also an excellent question because of modern interpretations of it–some of them helpful and true, and others just plain strange. And the question boils down to two interpretive questions: Was Christ making some sort of commentary upon his crucifixion by crying out those words, or was he crying out a reality that was true of the time when he was crying it out, namely that God the Father had in reality forsaken him?

Before we seek to interpret what Christ was meaning when he spoke his famous last line before his death, it is important that we understand the words themselves and how a witness to the crucifixion (either at time of Christ’s crucifixion or through the lens of Scripture) who knew his Bible well would understand the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | No Comments »

In Joshua 10, it is hard come down from the incredible manner by which God fights for his people and destroys his enemies. On that day when God prolonged Israel’s advantage at Gibeon by causing daylight to be extended for an entire day, we learn that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is able to do anything for the sake of his people and for the execution of his justice. Why did it happen? We may never know on this side of the grave, but we do know that God did it for his good pleasure, and that its record in the book of Joshua was not intended to be a figurative statement, for the author appeals to an outside work called The Book of Jashar that records this same Anomaly.

And it is from this mountain that we come to Makeddah–literally, the Place of Shepherds. Little is known of this place except that after Joshua and Israel had fought the armies of the five united cities, their five kings fled to Makeddah and hid themselves in a cave there. Their place of hiding was not long kept from Joshua, and he commanded that large stones and guards be placed in front of the entrance of the cave to hold the kings until the pursuit against the armies of their cities was completed. After Israel had struck the majority of the armies in battle, they returned to Makeddah to meet the camp of Israel there.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Fridy Night Bible Study | No Comments »

When we think upon the declaration of Romans 8:28, namely that, “For those who love God, all things work together for good,” its implications are staggering. “All things work together for good, you say? Do you mean all things?”

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).

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | 2 Comments »

It is a great pity the yoke that the legalists and self-righteous have often put upon those who are going through times of suffering and hardship. They are precisely like the religious “friends” of Job, who, when God had in his good pleasure smote Job, circled around him like vultures seeking to pick the depths of his heart for some sin so that they could explain his sufferings according to their works-based theology. However, after God was pleased to remove his hand from the head of the righteous Job, he rebuked those fools who sought to explain the ways of God by the philosophies of men, and he, after sufficiently humbling Job, raised up his righteous servant in renewed splendor.

The case with us who are in Christ is no different than that of Job. Because of what Christ has done upon the cross and because of his righteous life, we who are in him are likewise counted righteous. For this reason, when we suffer as God’s children, it is never because we are being judged for some sin that we may have committed or some duty that we may not have fulfilled, for all of our sins, all of our shortcomings, and all of our judgment has been cast upon Christ fully and finally. Therefore when we suffer, it always has a much grander purpose.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | No Comments »

After it was dark one evening, a Pharisee named Nicodemus came to Jesus. He was a ruler and a teacher of the Jews, and his coming by night to speak to Jesus reveals a bit of the sincerity of his heart behind his coming. For while the rest of the Pharisees were notorious for conspiring together and then questioning Jesus during the day so as to attempt to trap him in blasphemy, Nicodemus came at night to Christ so that he would not to be seen by the other Pharisees and associated with their trickery.

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.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | 3 Comments »

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 (Rm. 1:22, 23).

I heard Douglas Wilson at one time give an argument for the existence of God from the existence of God’s gifts. He argued this way: that if a man were walking through a deserted forest and along the way found a gift neatly wrapped, he would likely think it odd to find such a thing on a path going through such a forest. He might receive the gift, though he might consider it a sheer and freak coincidence that this one solitary gift was laid in the path of his footsteps. However, if that same man walked further and started to find gift after gift laid along the path that he alone was walking, he would by necessity conclude that someone had placed these things ahead of him and for his enjoyment. He would know from the string of gifts that there was a giver, and that giver, whoever he is, is deserving of thanksgiving.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | No Comments »

No man can work his way to God, for, “No one does good, not even one,” and no one can will his way to God, for, “No one understands, no one seeks for God.” It is for this reason that the apostle writes later in the Epistle to the Romans, “So then, [salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy” (v. 9:16), and why he quotes the prophet Isaiah later in that same chapter concerning Israel, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah” (v. 9:29).

The Good News is that God has not left us to ourselves. For Paul declares in Romans 5 that that same Offspring that preserved the life and the holiness of ancient Israel has come into the world as the Second Adam–the second head of the human race–and where the first Adam failed, the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, succeeded. Where the first Adam brought judgment into the world, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ brought justification into the world. Where the first Adam brought the reign of death, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ brought the reign of righteousness unto eternal life. Where the first Adam was disobedient, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ was obedient. Where the first Adam brought the condemnation of the law, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ brought the abundance of grace.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | No Comments »

“Lord kill me if I don’t preach the Gospel.” It is the first line of Lecrae’s song, “Go Hard,” and it is a prayer that most of us are terrified to utter. For if we pray such a prayer, we know that if the Lord grants us our request that one of two things will happen: either our lives will be radically changed so that everything we think, say, and do revolves around the Gospel, or we will be killed. And more often than not, neither of those two options appeal to us. For if we must live for the Gospel, we would forfeit the lives we desire to live, and if we do not and are killed, we would lose our life so that we could not live the lives we desire to live. Either option produced by such a prayer requires that our lives in this life become forfeit for the sake of the Gospel.

For the apostle Paul, this prayer was the prayer of his life. For, instead of regarding this life as worth living for and indulging in, he regarded it as rubbish, and it was for this reason that he was able to say, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Ph. 1:21). For his heart’s desire was his Lord Jesus Christ and to glorify his name, and he knew that whether he lived or died, his Lord ruled both the living and the dead.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | 2 Comments »

There is little doubt that when the Holy Spirit through the prophet Moses penned the narrative of the life of Joseph that Joseph was portrayed in such a way to make him a pre-figuring of the coming Messiah promised in Genesis 3:15 and realized in Jesus Christ. We see this in the narrative sinlessness and blamelessness of Joseph (though we know he was a sinner, yet there is never any mention of his failings), and how, through the person of Joseph and his unmerited sufferings, that he saved God’s people from starvation and extinction and thereby fulfilled the Promise of God given to Abraham. In Sunday School yesterday, our teacher made an excellent observation concerning the narrative of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife found in Genesis 39. The observation was in the similarity between the Joseph’s temptation in the house of Potiphar and Adam’s temptation in the Garden. Both, though low in rank compared to their masters’, were given charge of their masters’ estate and were permitted to enjoy all things save one–in the case of Adam, eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and in the case of Joseph, Potiphar’s wife. Both were tempted to take both, yet unlike Adam, Joseph did not fail. Where Adam did not succeed, Joseph did, thereby demonstrating the coming Messiah’s position as the Second Adam, the second head of the human race, who, rather than imputing his sin to his subjects as did Adam, imputes to his subjects his righteousness (cf. Rm. 5:12-21). Just as through Joseph’s righteousness and obedience, God saved Israel from physical annihilation, so too now through Christ’s righteousness and obedience, God has saved spiritual Israel from eternal destruction (cf. Gal. 6:16). Just a thought.

Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Just a Thought | No Comments »