Faith for Faith

When the apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good” (v. 8:28), does he literally mean all things, or is the “all” limited in some way? To clarify his meaning, the apostles writes a few verses later, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or sword? … No, in all these we are more than conquerors through him who loved us (vv. 8:35, 37). In this, the apostle intimates that all things, no matter how terrible they seem to us in this age, work together for the good of God’s saints.

What is interesting about the apostle’s clarification is that he does not say, “What shall separate us from the love of Christ,” but he says, “Who shall separate us,” indicating that the tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, and sword are not things that Christians will endure, but persons. And the language that the apostle uses is not arbitrary, but he is referencing what he had written elsewhere. Earlier in the epistle, the apostle writes, “For those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury; there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek” (vv. 2:8,9). Taking this tribulation and distress defined by Paul earlier in the letter and applying it to those whom Christians must endure, is then the apostle saying that these who incur tribulation and distress from God, namely the unrighteous, are not only unable to separate us from the love of Christ but are also in some way working to the good of the saints? In other words, is Paul saying that the damned in their damnation are working to the good of those who love God?

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

“Calvinism is not the Gospel.” I must admit that it is rather bold of me to contradict the quote of so great a man as Charles Spurgeon, especially granting that I myself unabashedly hold to what are known as the “Five Points of Calvinism.” I do profess to believe that each of those points are biblical, even that one from which many who call themselves “four-pointers” shy, viz. limited atonement–a doctrine upon which I have written quite extensively (see On Particular Redemption).

However, the reason that I am making such a statement is not so much based upon a disagreement with Spurgeon and his sympathizers, but is more of a reaction to an attitude of many that seems to have come about from it. For it is one thing to say, “Calvinism is the Gospel,” and mean by it that Calvinism is the proper understanding of what God has accomplished for men through his Son Jesus Christ, and it is another to say, “Calvinism is the Gospel,” and by that declaration attack every Christian that does not hold to Calvinism as defined by Dordt. For the former is a humble and mature assent to God’s revelation of himself in Scripture, and the latter is a proud and immature conquest to quell every non-Calvinist dissenter. The former comes from a heart-felt realization of unmerited grace received and creates in a person a heart of mercy and love, and the latter comes solely from an intellectual understanding of God’s revelation and creates in a person a heart of arrogance and disunity. The former understands the Gospel; the latter, despite theological precision, misunderstands the Gospel.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Theology | 1 Comment »

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 spiritual worship (Rm. 12:1).

The appeal by the apostle rendered, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers,” is a translation of the word “parakalo” which is the verb form of the noun “paraklete,” which is used elsewhere in Scripture to describe the office of the Son as our Advocate and Comforter–as one who, literally, is “called along side” a soul (”para” beside, “kal” call) (cf. Jn. 14:16, 25, 15:26, 16:7). That being said, the point of the apostle in employing the term is not to call to memory the office of Jesus Christ (though he does do that at times in his previous discourse, viz. Rm. 5:1; 8:35, etc.), but to issue a call to those who are in Christ to live in a particular fashion beside or in light of what the apostle has already taught, put simply as “mercies of God.”

There is little doubt that the apostle is calling to mind everything that he has taught up to this point (viz. Rm. 1-11), for in it is the exposition of the Gospel which is the revelation of the “mercies” of God to men. For from the beginning of the apostle’s discourse, we see him proclaiming without shame the Gospel, which is the revelation of the righteousness of God from faith for faith, viz. “the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe” (cf. Rm. 1:16, 17; Rm. 3:22). For in it, we see the dire state of all of humanity in that no one, neither Jew nor Greek, is better off than the other, for all are under sin and therefore “fall short of the glory of God” (cf. 3:9; 3:23). However, justification has come to men through Christ’s righteousness, which is received by faith (cf. 3:24; 4:24, 25), so that no one may boast in his state of righteousness and subsequent salvation (cf. 3:27; 6:20-23).

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

There are some things that just make your jaw drop with disgust. Take for example the case of Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique who was recently found guilty of medical malpractice after giving “medical” responsibility to unlicensed personnel and after “failing to keep an accurate medical record.” “Failing to keep a medical record of what?” you ask. A cut-out ingrown toe nail? A mole removed from a patient’s back? A drained cyst? No, he failed to accurately document that he had his associate throw away a living baby as though it were a piece of rubbish. Upon further reading of the Associated Press article, it becomes quite clear that a living infant being tossed into a trash can is not what caused the uproar, but it was the improper disposal of the child. The medical board revoked the license of Dr. Renelique, essentially saying to him, “We do not know how you do murder children in Haiti, Doctor, but in Florida we murder our children humanely and without harming to the environment.”

In spite of this and in spite of the millions upon millions of “humane” abortions, we find that God is still true to his Word and he is still just and merciful. God’s Truth is in this way validated in his proclamations concerning the wickedness of men. For Paul writes in his letter to the Romans:

None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.¹

We find today that the state of men, despite public education, social programs, etc. is the same as it has ever been, it is simply more technologically sophisticated. We shed blood, but we do it “sterilely” and “humanely”, and in such a way that does not taint our beloved environment. We do it and explain it away with our naturalistic philosophies, suppressing the fact that the wrath of God is being stored up against such ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

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

Today, I and Haley celebrate our second anniversary—what seemed like three years ago an absolute impossibility.

Ten years ago, Haley and I began dating in high school. At that time, neither of us sought the Lord (evidenced by the way we consistently lived our lives), though you could find us in a church almost every week. We were both foolish, typical teenagers and believed that our lives were defined by high school, being cool, and each other. We, being the petty American adolescents that we were, dated off and on during those years, to suit whatever particular moods we were in or whatever fancies we had, and never truly established what one might called a meaningful and intimate relationship.

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Miscellanies | 7 Comments »

As we have discussed earlier, there are many who do not care for the content of these passages and therefore stamp “Israel Only” across its pages and skip ahead to the more palatable Romans 12, excepting some verses that they enjoy in Romans 10. We have already seen the folly of this in our study on God’s dealings with the Pharaoh, a Gentile, and have concluded that, despite the ridiculous objections of some, this passage is a declaration of God’s dealings with men universally (cf. Rom. 9:16).

But if Paul’s illustration utilizing the Pharaoh was not enough to convince us of the universality of this text, the apostle makes this point crystal clear at the end of his most difficult passage concerning the sovereignty of God, viz. vv. 9:19-23, writing, “What if God [did these things] … to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” (vv. 9:22-24). Paul demonstrates in these verses that not only are the Gentiles included in his election, but that God had deemed it that some Gentiles, just like some Jews, would be vessels of mercy and some would be vessels of wrath beforehand, i.e. before the foundation of the world (cf. Eph. 1:4).

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Posted by D. Matthew Brown under Fridy Night Bible Study | 1 Comment »

When we study the work of Christ on the cross, we are not studying a simple subject. The glorious transaction that took place in that sacred hour not only has implications for the elect but it has cosmological implications. Therefore, when we study the doctrine of Particular Redemption, we are not studying the essence of Christ’s work on the cross, but we are studying a single facet of Christ’s work on the cross.

Before we study the particular and redemptive aspect of Christ’s work on the cross, I believe that it would be helpful to look at the universal and propitiatory aspect of his work. But before we even begin this study, I would like to define some terms. “Universal” and “particular” are the adjectives that we will be using to define the scope of each of Christ’s works. “Redemption” is the act of redeeming a person out of bondage for a price. This term is used solely of the saints of God who have been freed from their slavery to sin and have been brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ through his blood (cf. Romans 6). “Propitiation” is the act of turning aside wrath. With respect to God, this is a sacrifice that temporarily appeases the wrathful hand of the just Sovereign of the Universe. In other words, “redemption” is the complete satisfaction of God’s wrath, and “propitiation” is the temporal appeasement of God’s wrath.

One of the lessons that the Great Flood narrative of Genesis has taught us is that Yahweh is a God of immediate justice. That is, without a mediator, God exacts his sentence upon the guilty swiftly and without delay. As for the world during the time of Noah, its terrible wickedness had been presented before the Lord without a Propitiator. We know this because of the outcome of the story: “Yahweh saw the wickedness of man and . . . said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens’” (Gen. 6:5, 7). And this he did. The glorious Justice of God manifested itself in the terrible downpour that destroyed the whole earth and all its life save the righteous Noah and his party.

After the Flood, God blessed Noah and gave his covenant promise to him and his descendants that he would never destroy the world by water again as he had done with the Great Flood. This covenant that God initiated with Noah does not demonstrate a shift in the nature of God, but it demonstrates the arrival of a Propitiator, for God does not change and neither does his ways. Thus God, when he smells the burnt offering given by Noah after the Floor subsides, gives his covenant to Noah, not because of the sufficiency of the burnt offering, but because of the Great Offering that Noah’s offering foreshadowed.

The Apostle demonstrates this point in his letter to the Romans:

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 a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins (vv. 3:23-25).

Later in his letter, the Apostle reveals the Father’s glorious plan behind his Son’s propitiation of the sins of the world and the Father’s passing over them:

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory? (vv. 9:18-23).

Therefore, when we look at the universal aspect of Christ’s work on the cross, we must look at it as the temporal turning aside of the wrath of God so that God could manifest the riches of his glory to those whom he had chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

How do we know that this universal propitiation is temporal? We know this because Scripture clearly teaches that all men will be judged and, apart from Christ, condemned according to their deeds, be they public or private (cf. Romans 2:16; Rev. 20:12, 13). Therefore, when Christ turns aside the wrath of the Father toward the world, its wrath-bearing effect finds its end on Judgment Day and not beyond.

Tomorrow, we will take a look at the temporal mercy and gifts that the work of Christ has brought to all of mankind.

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