Douglas Wilson Archives - Page 127 of 179

Gospel Presence V: Taste and See

Joe Harby on April 28, 2013

Introduction

We worship God the Father through Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. But in order for this to work, He cannot be a distant Christ. Remember that in Christ God came near, God became our neighbor. We worship God through a close Christ, a near Christ, an indwelling Christ. The point of the message today—taste and see— requires that we serve God through an experienced Christ.

The Text

“The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that the Lord is good: Blessed is the man that trusteth in him” (Ps. 34:7-8).

Summary of the Text

A wonderful theme of this psalm is that God is the great Deliverer. God is the one who saves those who have faith in Him, and whose lives are living indications of that faith. That theme is very much present in the two verses that constitute our text. The angel of the Lord places the one who fears God in the midst of the camp, and entirely surrounds him. He delivers him (v. 7). This is a glorious promise, and anybody is invited to come in order to participate in it. The invitation is to taste and see (v. 8). What do we taste? The goodness of the Lord. We taste the blessedness of trusting in Him.

Notice also the parallel between fearing Him and tasting His goodness. And notice too that being delivered is the blessing that results from trusting Him. Tasting is fearing and blessedness is being delivered.

An Experienced Christ

We identify ourselves as evangelicals, but by this we mean historic evangelicals, or confessional evangelicals. This is to be distinguished from that pop evangelicalism that has commodified the whole thing in order to be able to print it on a T-shirt, available at a Jesus junk store near you. Jesus Himself said that the experience (which is absolutely necessary) is not an experience that we can successfully manipulate. We cannot bottle the wind of the Spirit. We cannot manufacture this because we are talking about the sovereign motions of the sovereign God.

At the same time, we insist that a man must be born again if he is to see the kingdom of God. As I have taught before, you don’t have to know what instant the sun rose in order to know that it is up. And neither may be conclude from the fact that we know that it is up that we have the authority to command it to rise.

God is Good

We serve the God who invites. We serve the God who summons, and who goes out of His way to summon. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, And he that hath no money; Come ye, buy, and eat; Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labour for that which satisfieth not?” (Is. 55:1-2).

Apart from Christ, we feed on little bits of refuse. We bake bread made out of sawdust. We mix our drinks with used dishwater, and we sneer at those pitiful believers who do not know what it means to live the good life. We turn everything into gruel. We clutch at driveway pebbles, calling them diamonds. We collect wisps of straw to make an arrangement for the middle of the table. When God pronounces a woe on those who call evil good and good evil (Is. 5:20), more is involved than simply a mistake in ethics. It all comes down to what you have to eat, what you have to chew, and what you must swallow. And if you consume the meager pickings of self, you are in dietary training for the outer darkness.

Consistency and Variation

God is not locked into the same kind of tight strictures that we are. A vineyard in France, and one in California, and another in Louisiana, can all produce a bottle of Cabernet, and this is completely different than the effect you get when it is a diet soda bottling plant in all those same locations. But no one remarks on the terroir of the Diet Dr. Pepper. No one stands at the drink dispenser, swirling the plastic cup under his nose.

It is the same with the fruit of the Spirit—fantastic variation and remarkable consistency. Legalists want the experienced Christ to taste like it all came from one bottling plant. Antinomians want to pretend that there is no difference between a fine wine and stump water. Never forget that the triune God, who is growing us all up, is holy. And never forget that the triune God, who is growing us all up into a splendid array—of different kinds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control—is not a ball-bearing manufacturer.

A White Stone

A commonplace in Christian circles is the phrase “a personal relationship” with Jesus. However clichéd it may have become, there is an important reality there that we must preserve. We preserve it because it is precious.

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it” (Rev. 2:17).

God the Father, through the Lord Jesus, in the power of the Spirit, has a relationship with you that only He and you know. This is for the one who overcomes, and what is it that overcomes? Is it not our faith? The one who tastes, the one who sees—which can only be done by faith—is the one who knows the goodness of God as it has been evidenced in their relationship. Just the two.

Now this does not eliminate the need for the body of Christ. Every cell, every member, being alive is the prerequisite for living participation in the living body. You want to be a living finger, not a dead fingernail. Don’t be covenantal keratin.

Gospel Presence IV: Who is My Neighbor?

Joe Harby on April 21, 2013

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Introduction

We live in a relativistic and postmodern age, one that loves to muddy distinctions and blur the lines. This is all done with high-sounding language, which the first thing that happens is that we find we have lost the Creator/ creature distinction, which puts us in the idolatrous violation of the greatest commandment. The next thing we discover is that we have blurred the lines between us and our neighbor, which places us in selfish disregard of the second greatest commandment.

The Text

“But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves . . . Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves” (Luke 10:29-36).

Summary of the Text

The parable of the Good Samaritan follows hard after the episode where the seventy returned from their mission. The issues involve individuals, households, cities, and nations. The parable cannot be filed away in one spot. Jesus tells His followers to rejoice because their names are written in heaven (v. 20). He says that great things have been revealed to them (v. 24). And then a lawyer challenges Jesus (v. 25), and they have an exchange about the two greatest commandments (vv. 26-28). But the lawyer, stung by this, wanted to parse things out (v. 29). Jesus then tells the very famous story about the priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan (vv. 30-36).

There are of course national implications, and ethnic implications, and first century implications, and the central implication is that such implications don’t matter anymore. So let us not lose the trees because of the forest. Jesus told His followers to rejoice that their particular names were written in Heaven (v. 20). The set-up question from the lawyer concerned what he individually had to do in order to inherit eternal life (v. 25). He uses the pronoun I. Jesus answer him in kind—do this and you shall live.

The Basics

We begin by noting that having a neighbor to love means that there is somebody else out there. There are, out in the world, other centers of consciousness which don’t look out through your eyes at all, and whom you are to love as you do yourself. That is a tall order.

Note that you are not summoned to love an abstraction like “mankind.” To love everyone is very similar to loving nobody. What could it possibly mean for you to say that you love every last person in China, one billion of them? This would simply be to confess that you love none of them.

Neither may we—in our rascal hearts—settle for loving the idea of loving our neighbor, instead of our neighbor himself. One understands the temptation. The idea of loving your neighbor doesn’t have any bad habits, doesn’t need to take regular showers, and doesn’t return things he borrowed busted.

John asks how can you love God whom you have not seen, when you do not love your brother, whom you have seen (1 Jn. 4:20)? In the same way, and on the same principles, how can you love your “neighbors” whom you have not seen when you don’t love your neighbor, whom you see daily? The priest and Levite who passed by the man beaten up could have been busy composing prayers that they would present in the Temple on behalf of all men everywhere. But “all men,” Jesus taught, were, in an incarnational way, present in that ditch through their appointed representative.

The Options

So we are not allowed to slip off the point by loving everyone indiscriminately. That kind of gaseous approach is nothing but self-absorbed good intentions, which amounts to the bad intention of remaining self-absorbed.

So your neighbor is someone else, and not everybody else. But if this is the case, then which someone is it? The answer to that question is found in the parable that Jesus told. Your neighbor is not everybody else; your neighbor is anybody else. Your neighbor is not everyone, but he is Everyman. When Christ was born among us, He was born in a particular town, of a particular woman. This is why you can always find Christ in your neighbor. Jesus loves humble dwellings—He lives in us, doesn’t He?

So your neighbor is assigned to you by the providence of God. Your neighbor is the one that God has placed in front of you. This is why it is not possible to have a robust theology of your neighbor without a robust theology of God’s sovereign control over all history. How did this person wind up in front of you in the first place?

Answered Prayers

One of the things we have urged you to do is get to know the names of five of your neighbors—straight across the street, two catty-corner across the street, and one on each side of you. Five neighbors. Start praying for each one by name.

Now let me say something about two different kinds of reluctant prayers. One prayer is hesitant to pray because of an instinctive knowledge that such a prayer couldn’t possibly be the will of God—say a prayer for your company to transfer you to the Big Rock Candy Mountain division of your company, where nubile assistants feed you grapes incessantly, and the skies are not cloudy all day. You think, perhaps, that such a prayer might be a tad selfish. God might say no. But the other kind of reluctant prayer is just the opposite. You aren’t concerned at all that God might say no. You are dreadfully afraid that He will say yes. A prayer for patience might be answered affirmatively, along with the trial that makes the patience necessary.

If you start praying for your neighbors, God might throw them spang into your life. He might say yes. They might track stuff in. In fact, they almost certainly will. The problem with this is that you had just gotten your life set up the way you wanted it, the cruise control all adjusted, with nothing left to do but finish your road trip to glory—and no hitchhikers.

Don’t Be Afraid

When it comes to your neighbor, don’t be afraid to go small. Don’t be afraid to go particular—this is a symphony and you are just the third piccolo. Just do your part—your neighbor is not all neighbors.

Gospel Presence II: Gospel Center, Gospel Edges

Joe Harby on April 7, 2013

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Introduction

The gospel message provides a hard center for our lives, but we must make sure that we do not understand this as an isolated hard center. We want the gospel to be a taproot to the entire tree, and not an isolated boulder in a field of scattered boulders. The litmus test is whether you can find yourself moving from a conversation about anything to the gospel without changing the subject.

The Text

“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time” (1 Cor. 15:1-8).

Summary of the Text

The gospel is something which can be declared, preached, and (clearly) summarized (v. 1). It is also something which can be received, and the person who receives it can take a stand in it (v. 1). This message is capable of saving those who remember it, not counting those who believed it in vanity (v. 2). Paul delivered to them what he himself had received, which is that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures (v. 3). He was buried and raised to life, also in accordance with the Scripture (v. 4). This resurrection was witnessed—first by Peter, and then the twelve (v. 5). After that were 500 people, most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote this (v. 6), then James and all the apostles (v. 7). Finally He was seen by Paul (v. 8).

The Taproot

The Scriptures use the word gospel to describe this center. But it is a center that is connected to absolutely everything else. We can see this in other, broader uses of the word gospel. For example the four gospels are called gospels (e.g. The Gospel According to Matthew), and while they contain the facts that Paul points to in our text, they also contain much more. For example, the fact that Jesus went to Capernaum is part of the gospel (Matt. 8:5). Or take the fact that God preached the gospel to Abraham by telling him that through him all the nations would be blessed (Gal. 3:8). Or again, then author of Hebrews says that the law of Moses, given to the Israelites, was gospel (Heb. 4:2). Jesus arrived in Israel, preaching the gospel, but He clearly was not presenting the gospel the same way that we would (Matt. 4:23).

No False Choice

So in Scripture, the word gospel is as narrow as the cross, and is as wide as the world. We must be faithful to both uses. Liberals abandon the center—Christ crucified for sinners—and want to put some kind of happy face over the whole world. Sectarian conservatives guard the center fiercely, making sure that it remains disconnected from everything else. Seeing it as connected might bring the gospel into contact with sinful stuff, and we wouldn’t want to get our gospel dirty. But we have forgotten the power of the cross. When Jesus touched lepers, the healing went out . . . the leprosy did not contaminate Him.

A Fatal Error

One of the first steps in disconnecting the gospel from the world is the step of disconnecting “gospel” verses in the Bible from other kinds of verses (as we imagine them). For example, it is a very easy mistake to try to divide the Bible up into law verses and gospel verses, as though God had divided the Bible up, with happy faces next to some verses and frowny faces next to the remainder.

No. To the unregenerate, the whole thing is law. To the regenerate, the whole thing is gospel. What is more “law” than the Ten Commandments, but what does the preamble declare? God is the one who brought them out of the house of bondage (Ex. 20:2). And what is more “gospel” than the message of the cross—and it is the stench of death to those who are perishing (2 Cor. 2:16). The divide runs, not through the Bible, or through the world, but through every human heart.

Reconciling All Things

God’s purposes in the gospel are cosmic. Christ shed His blood on the cross, and why? So that He might reconcile all things to Himself, whether those things are in Heaven or on earth (Col. 1:20). Now that means that everything is related to Him.

But we do not “connect the dots” by reading big, fat books of theology. They are not tied together with abstraction string—they are all coherent because of the blood of Jesus. So we begin this glorious process by being reconciled ourselves, by receiving forgiveness for our wicked works (v. 21). And as we saw just a few verses before this, Christ is the one in whom all things are integrated (Col. 1:18). He is arche—the foundational beginning, the cornerstone, the axle.

He is therefore the center toward whom all the edges run. He is the sovereign Lord over all. He is the bedrock underneath all things. He is the root. He is the Head over all things. We noted a moment ago that everything is related to Him, and related in Him. But take a moment to reflect—what does that include? That includes carpentry, novel writing, weather reporting, roly poly bugs, lawn mowing, cake baking, leaf raking, software writing, star gazing, doctrine parsing, child teaching, and everything else that men might do. And since He is the one in whom all these things tie together, why can we not detect His presence in these things—a gospel presence—and live in the awareness of that presence as we deal with those who do not believe.

Gospel Presence I: The Resurrection of the World

Joe Harby on March 31, 2013

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Introduction

The resurrection of Jesus was not an odd circumstance in an otherwise unchanged world. This world is not what it used to be because this world is the place where a man once came back from the dead. And when He came back, it was not as a resuscitation, as happened with Lazarus, but as a true resurrection. And as the Bible plainly teaches, when a man comes back from the dead, He pulls the whole dead world after Him. The resurrection was the introduction of an irrevocable principle into a dead world—and there is not a single thing that dead world can do about it except to wait on the approaching life.

The Texts

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:17-21).

Summary of the Text

First we are told what happens when a man is in Christ. When a man is in Christ, he becomes a new creature. Everything old passes away, and everything becomes new in and through Him (v. 17). This is what happens to any man who is in Christ, but how extensive is this phenomenon? The answer is global in scope—all things are of God, who has reconciled the Church to Himself (already) and has given to this Church the ministry of reconciliation (for everybody else). So the message is broadening, and it is enormous in scope (v. 18). What is the heart of that ministry of reconciliation? Paul lays it out—God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing the world’s sin to it, and as a result committing the ministry of reconciliation to us (v. 19). As a consequence we are Christ’s ambassadors, as though God Himself were speaking through us (v. 20). We therefore implore everyone—be reconciled to God (v. 20). This is all based on a glorious and unbelievable exchange (v. 21). But even though the transaction is unbelievable, we are called to summon the whole world to believe it.

Heralds or Campaigners?

As we think about the task of evangelism, it is crucial that we get our mission straight in our heads before charging off to fulfill it. Alacrity in obedience is no virtue if you have gotten your task all muddled in your head.

So here is the issue. We are heralds announcing a salvation for the world that has already been accomplished. There are certain things that people in the world must do because it has been accomplished, but one of the things they don’t have to do (and indeed, must not do) is install what has already been installed. Another way of putting this is that we are heralds, not campaigners. We are proclaiming that Jesus has been enthroned; we are not canvassing for votes trying to get Him elected. We are not manning the phone banks on election night. Jesus has been wearing His crown for a long time.

Our message is x has been done, and so we summon you to y. It is not x is desirable, and so we invite you to join us in making x a reality. The gospel is good news; the gospel is not a good platform.

Man in Christ, God in Christ

If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. We are then told, by implication, that “all things are new,” which is to say, that God has reconciled the world to Himself in Christ, and He was able to do this because God Himself was in Christ. Nothing can be the same. Nothing is the same. We have no authority to consider anything outside of Christ.

The key is to learn how to “implore” those who are not yet in Christ (through faith) in a way that does not drag us into their unbelief. The sun is up, and we implore those hiding in coal cellars to come out and lift their face to the sky. We must never beg them to come out of their coal cellar so that the sun might come up, and so that we might live in this new world.

One other thing must be said in this regard. Note that God is making His appeal through us, and note that it is not supposed to be a lackluster appeal. We implore, plead, beg, beseech non-believers to come to Christ—and we do not do this because we are frail, emotional humans and have run out ahead of the taciturn decrees of God. No, when we plead, God pleads. When we implore, God implores. How can He do that? God was in Christ, remember? God was in Christ, bleeding for the world, and can He not weep for the world? God was in Christ, shedding tears over Jerusalem, and can He not shed tears over a world that He has already purchased? Why will you die, o house of Israel? The world is alive—there is no point in you staying dead.

The Resurrection of the World

What has God done for the world? What has God already done for the world? It says here that He has reconciled the world to Himself. It says, second, that He is not imputing their trespasses to them. And it also says— undergirding this—that we have had the word of reconciliation entrusted to us. But since that word has been given to us, as in a trust, we must take care to be faithful to it.

In Christ, we were raised to life again. In Christ, the Church was raised to life. In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself. In Christ, we plead with the world to be reconciled. Now there is no reconciliation apart from resurrection, and this is why we declare that (in principle) the world is a world of resurrection. We are preaching the resurrection of the world in the resurrection of Jesus.

And so this is the glorious pattern of the indicative and the corresponding imperative. You have been reconciled; therefore, be reconciled. This has been done; therefore believe that it has been done.

A Face Like Flint (Palm Sunday 2013)

Joe Harby on March 24, 2013

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Introduction

As believers in the Lord Jesus, we have to learn how to see Him as our substitute in all things, and not just in His death on the cross. Jesus did not just die in our place (although He did do that), He also lived in our place. The sacrifice of Jesus was for us, but so was the obedience of Jesus for us. The blood of Jesus was for us, but so was His courage.

The Texts

“And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).

“I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed” (Is. 50:6-7).

Summary of the Text

As we consider this text, and the courage of the Lord Jesus, there are four events we should keep in mind together. The first occurred earlier in this chapter (Luke 9:31), when the Lord was transfigured and met with Moses and Elijah. One of the things they discussed on that mountain was the “exodus” that Jesus was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. The second event is this one—the Lord, when it was time for Him to be “received up,” set His face steadfastly in the direction of Jerusalem, which was to be the place of His passion. The third event is His triumphal entry to Jerusalem, the event that we are marking on the church calendar today (John 12:13). The fourth event was His agonized prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32). The Lord knew what the Scriptures had prophesied, He knew the Father’s will, He had set His face already to do that will, and He was willing to go. Our passage from Isaiah concerns the suffering servant, who is the Lord Jesus. He knew the abuse He would receive from the authorities in Jerusalem. His face would be abused—beard plucked out. But He refused to hide His face, and in His courage He set His face like flint in order to pay the price for your salvation and mine.

A True Man

The Lord Jesus had a sense of His calling from the time He was twelve (at least). This was confirmed to Him at His baptism, when God spoke from Heaven, and the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove. But remember that we confess that He was not only fully God but also a true man. Indeed, He was the true man. This meant that He felt and fully experienced the gradual approach of a day of dread. He knew what was coming, but when it was a week away instead of years away the burden was much greater. The Lord Jesus required courage, which He displayed, and the Lord Jesus had to carry the burden, which He did.

He spoke with Elijah and Moses about the great exodus He would accomplish. He resolved to do it, setting His face toward the cross at Jerusalem. He empathized with the rejoicing at His triumphal entry—He supported it and did not think it out of place. Incidentally, it always bears repeating that we have no biblical basis for supposing that the crowd with the palms and the crowd crying out crucify Him! were the same crowds. This was not about the fickleness of the masses.

Active Obedience

Christ is everything to us. He lived His entire life as a public person, as the last and final Adam. Everything He did was for us and to us, and God imputes to us all of His obedience, and not just His obedience of suffering on the cross. Theologians distinguish this by calling one His passive obedience (His suffering obedience on the cross) and His active obedience (His entire life of faithfulness to God). All of this is imputed to us, credited to us.

It was not just necessary for the people of God to pay for their sins. It was equally necessary for them to fulfill the vocation that God assigned to us. This is why Jesus identified with us from the first moment of His ministry (in His baptism). This is why He fasted forty days in the wilderness (remember forty years in the wilderness?). This is why He was tempted there. Who else was tempted there? This is why He invaded Canaan as the greater Joshua, and undertook a great warfare there, expelling demons. Christ is Israel, and Christ is Israel, finally doing it right. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

When Courage is Called For

Let us bring this down to particulars. Every Christian is called to take up the cross daily (Luke 9:23). But this is not a solitary cross (although it will often feel solitary enough). It is not solitary because Jesus invites us to take up the cross in order to follow Him with it. He promises, in the next breath, that whoever loses his life for the sake of Christ will save it (Luke 9:24).

If we are believers, we are in Christ. If we are in Christ, then our crosses are within His cross. We are never alone in what God has apportioned to us. If we are called upon to show courage, then our courage is located where it must be located—inside His courage.

Courage is needed when you don’t think you can do the work anymore. Courage is required when the pain continues to go on and on, and you don’t know what to do with it, or where to put it. Courage is required in the face of uncertainty—perhaps you are threatened by a diagnosed illness, or financial troubles. Courage is required when your reputation is threatened by those who would slander you—not because your work is deficient, or because you have been dishonest in any way, but because you identify with Jesus Christ. Now identifying with Jesus does bring this kind of hostility. But identifying with Him also brings a great and glorious blessing. Why is that? Because His courage is given as a gift to you. The one who gives you this blessing of high-heartedness is the one who set His face like flint in order to go to Jerusalem to purchase you out of the slave market of sin.