Douglas Wilson

Father of Mercies

Christ Church on August 23, 2009

Introduction

Under the direction of God, in recent years we have been led to redouble our efforts and emphases on what we call mercy ministry. Whether it is a continuation of our labor in the Ivory Coast, or a new field for mercy work in Myanmar, or locally through Sabbath House, we have been given some wonderful opportunities. So that we don’t squander those opportunities, we need to love and think like Christians together.

The Text

“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness” (Col. 3:12-14).

Summary of the Text

In the first part of Col. 3, the apostle tells them that they are to set their hearts and minds on things above, not on things below (vv. 1-4). Doing this necessarily involves mortifying your members which are on the earth, dealing fundamentally with the sins of desire, whether sensual or emotional (5-11). After he has told them to “put on” the new way of being human (v. 10), he gets into specifics. As the elect of God, holy and beloved, they are to put on, in the first places, tender mercies (v. 12). The AV has it “bowels of mercies,” mercy in the gut, mercy where you really live. This is accompanied by kindness, humility of mind, meekness, and longsuffering (v. 12). He then says we are to deal with our quarrels in a forbearing and forgiving way, and we are to forgive each other as Christ forgave us (v. 13). On top of all this, we are to put on love—charity—which is the bond of perfection (v. 14).

Foundations of Mercy

The various words in both Hebrew and Greek that are rendered as mercy can create some confusion for us, but our aggregate understanding of what mercy involves is still sound. One of the things we can see is that the overwhelming number of references to mercy in Scripture have to do with God’s mercy toward us.

As Christians, we begin and end with what God is like. He is the Father of mercies (1 Cor. 1:3). Our mercy is to be in frank imitation of His (Luke 6:36). When Jesus had compassion on the crowd (Matt. 9:36), the word used there indicates that He was moved viscerally; His compassion caused His gut to churn. We would say that He looked at the crowd, and it broke his heart. Now, if He is the new man, the ultimate man, then putting on the new man means that we are becoming like that.

Heart Issues

When we live as a merciful people in the world, we are doing so as the body of Christ. The life of Christ works in us in a particular way.

· Scripture presupposes a certain kind of person as the extension of God’s mercy in the world. Cruelty is one of the central characteristics of the old man, and God’s mercy in the world consists of enabling us, through the gospel, to put on the new man (Col. 3:10). There is no room for mercy within the old man. If we want to have mercy, the old man must die, and the new man must live. As the elect of God, put on tender mercies. We must have the gospel.

· We therefore extend mercy, not on the basis of what the recipient has deserved, but rather on the basis of what we received without deserving it. We have been forgiven (v. 13); therefore we are to forgive. We have received mercy, and there is no better reason for extending it. And there are few better indicators that you have not received it, than a refusal to extend it.

· C.S. Lewis says somewhere that when God tells us to feed the poor, He does not give us cooking lessons. And it is here that we must distinguish between what is unique to special grace, and what we can gather from common grace in the world. You can learn how to cook from an unbeliever, and then go to feed the poor. You cannot learn the meaning of grace, mercy, and love from the nonbelievers. Learning this is crucial because we live in a time when numerous unbelievers claim that they have a firm grasp of the meaning of justice and mercy, and everything in between. Their posing can be revealed as the sham it is by simply bringing up the abortion issue. One of the Hebrew words for mercy is raham, closely related to the word for womb. A womb ought to be the best picture of mercy that our broken world has. But we have introduced stainless steel “choices,” and have made it a place of the most terrible cruelties. Anyone who is fine with that does not have the first inkling of what mercy is.

· Guilt is a terrible motivator in giving. True guilt motivates to one thing only—repentance and confession. False guilt is cultivated by some to enable them to “juice” the giving, but the law of diminishing returns always sets in. Once genuine guilt has done its job, for long term, healthy giving—running a marathon as opposed to a dash or a lunge—gratitude, joy, fullness, and love are absolutely necessary.

So these are our four foundational principles: First, God is merciful. Second, mercy is never earned. Third, those who hate mercy cannot love it. Fourth, perpetual guilt hates mercy.

Learning to Cook

Good intentions are not enough. How many meals have been burned by a cook with a sincere desire to feed the family? Zealous motives won’t make the bottom of the pan any less black. We saw above that holiness of heart is absolutely necessary. But it is not sufficient. Love the poor with your head, and not just your heart. A “good Samaritan” might move a guy after a wreck, and break his neck doing it. The Hippocratic Oath is apropos here— first, do no harm.

Americans in particular have to learn how to stop throwing money around. Secondly, we need to master the distinction between absolute and relative poverty. And third, we need to eradicate every vestige of zero sum thinking. We will be lousy cooks otherwise. But if we have resolved to become good cooks, we have a spacious kitchen before us, and wonderful opportunities.

Romans 31: Untouchable (8:32-39)

Christ Church on August 16, 2009

Text

“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:32-39

Romans 30: What Shall We Then Say? (8:28-31)

Christ Church on August 9, 2009

Introduction
We come now to the beating heart of what has been nicknamed Calvinism. But of course, Calvin—a faithful servant of God—did not concoct these doctrines. He taught that where Scripture is silent, we ought not to pry (Dt. 29:29). But he also taught, following Augustine, that Scripture is always a safe guide. The same way that a mother stoops so that a toddler can keep up, so Scripture stoops for us. And if our mother leads us into certain topics, it is safe for us to go there.

The Text
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow . . .” (Rom. 8:28-31).

Summary of the Text
We begin with the phrase “all things.” Do not take this in a small way—Paul has just finished talking about how the entire created order is longing for the day of resurrection, in the same way that a woman in deep labor longs for her delivery. When a woman is pregnant, her whole body is pregnant; she is pregnant. All things are involved. So all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose (v. 28). Who are these people? These are the sons of God, who will be manifested. What is His purpose? We have just learned that it is the restoration of all things.
How does this work? Those whom God foreknew, He predestined to a particular end (v. 29). That end was full conformity to the image of His Son, which will obviously happen at the day of resurrection. Predestination here is to that final comformity. And when we get there, it will be manifested that Christ was the firstborn among many brothers (v. 29). We then come to what has been called the golden chain of redemption—those whom God foreknew, He predestined. Those He predestined, He called. Those He called, He justified. Those He justified, He also glorified, and note the past tense (v. 30). It is as good as done—the glorification is predestined, remember. What is the appropriate response to these things? It is the absolute confidence that comes from the knowledge that God is for you, despite your sins, and the resultant understanding that no one and nothing can effectively stand against you (v. 31)

Foreknowledge
We must begin by dealing with a common evasion. The idea is that God looks down the corridors of time and history, sees you praying to receive Jesus, and on that basis predestines you to eternal salvation. There are (at least) two problems here. The first is textual. It does not say on the basis of what God foreknew, it says whom He foreknew. The foreknowledge is of persons, not events. But of course, this takes the word knowledge into a different realm. God, speaking of Israel, said, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:2). Of course God (cognitively) knew all the families of the earth, not just Israel. His knowledge here is relational, covenantal. The foreknowledge here is therefore a reference to those “upon whom God set His electing love.” Those whom He knew and loved beforehand, He also predestined . ..
Secondly, the theological problem with the “corridors of time” approach is that it makes God a cosmic “me-too- er,” and it does this without solving any of the problems. It says that God loves us because we first loved Him, clearn contrary to 1 John 4:19. And these corridors of time—who created them? Who governs them? If God foreknew cognitively what would happen if He created the world, and He created it anyway, this constitutes a decision. Try as we might, there is no real way to have a Christian faith in which God is not God.

The Same People
Notice how Paul ties everything together tightly. The people foreknown are the same group that predestined “to be conformed to the image of the Son.” This conformity, as we have just been noting, will occur as the day of the apocalypse of the sons of God, the day our adoption as sons is finalized. So those whom God foreknew, He predestined to be conformed to Christ-likeness, which is their glorification. In between the predestination and the glorification (involved the same set of people), we find calling and justification. In between the foreknowledge and the glorification, nobody gets off the train. If it is possible to get off the train, this makes a hash out of Paul’s argument that begins in the next verse.

Yearning In the Right Direction
Napoleon once said that he would rather meet ten thousand well-generalled and well-provisioned men than one Calvinist who thought he was doing the will of God. There is something in this doctrine that brings backbone along with it. And there is something about rejecting it, or sidling away from it, or nuancing the heck out of it, that promotes effeminacy.

But do not mistake this with fatalism—que sera sera. This is not an exhortation to just hunker down and take it. This is a chapter full of yearning, full of longing, and it is our task as the children of God to discover the work of the Holy Spirit in history, and to groan in labor toward that end. History is not just one random thing after another. There is a telos here. The future is all glory. That glory will be revealed in us, and we are predestined to it. Everything that happens to those who love God is in line with that stated purpose.

The universe is enormously complicated, and we should never minimize that. But we have been told the meaning of it—and we should always remember that the Spirit sticks to the agenda.

Romans 29: Too Deep for Words (8:19-27)

Christ Church on August 2, 2009

Introduction

The glory welling up with us is the future of creation, and it is the future of the entire creation. This is a much neglected passage, perhaps because the view from here is so stupefying. We don’t quite know how to take it in – but that is all right because the Spirit will help us.

The Text

“For the earnest expectation of the creature waiters for the manifestation of the sons of God…” (Romans 8:19-27)

Summary of the Text

The creation, everything that was made, is earnestly looking forward to something. That something is the manifestation (the unveiling, lit. the apocalypse) of the sons of God (v. 19). Remember, we have just defined the sons of God as those who are being led to put the old ways to death (vv. 13-14) and who hear the testimony of the Spirit to their hearts (v. 16). When these sons come into their own, the creation will see what it is longing for.

Th reason the creation longs for this is that it will signal the end of creation’s distress. The creation was not willingly subjected to vanity (v. 20), but God did it, intending from the beginning that this futility would look up in hope (v. 20). When that hope arrives, the creation will be delivered from its current bondage, and will share in the liberty of these newly manifested children of God (v. 21). Note Paul’s striking image here – the whole creation is in labor (v. 22). Not only does the mother long to deliver, the baby longs to be born (v. 23). We also groan, and Paul lets us know here what the day of “manifestation” is. It is our final adoption as sons, meaning the redemption of our body (v. 23). He is talking about the coming day of resurrection, the last day.

The creation was subjected to vanity in hope (v. 19). We were saved in hope (v. 24). But it would’t be hope if you could see it, right? Not seeing it enables us to cultivate patience in the groaning (v. 25). Because we can’t see, we can hope. But because we can’t see, the Spirit has to help us in our infirmity (v. 26). We don’t know what to pray for, because this is a baby that has never been born before. So the Spirit groans along with us (v. 26), and His groans are deeper than words. In the meantime, Jesus searches our hearts and He also knows the mind of the Spirit. He is the one who prays for us constantly, and this means that everything is lining up (v. 27).

A Few Oddities

Paul says a few strange things in passing here. The creation was made “subject to vanity” (v.20). The creation is currently struggling under the “bondage of corruption” (v. 21). The whole creation groans and travails (v. 22). But when you couple all this with the false ideas of perfection, you could get the idea that any entropy at all is a sign of the fall. So we should ask (and answer) a few questions about the unfallen Adam. Could he have shuffled a deck of cards before the Fall, or would he have kept coming up with one royal flush after another? Did the leaves of the forest floor of Eden (were there leaves on the forest floor?) form perfect geometric patterns? When Adam ate the fruit he was allowed to eat, did that fruit get digested? In other words, the fact that the creation groans with longing now does not mean that it was made out of stainless steel before. That is not perfection. That was not the world God declared to be so good.

Three Groanings

Never forget that this section of Romans is part of a larger, sustained argument. We need to be reminded of this because there are some memorable phrases here that tend to get quoted out of their context (“all things work together,” “the Spirit groans,” etc.). Paul is here driving toward the eschaton, the day of resurrection. That is the subject. The creation groans, looking forward to that manifestation. We share in that groaning, longing for the same thing. And the Spirit shares in our groaning, meaning that He is straining toward the same end. What is that end? It is the apocalypse of the sons of God; it is glorious liberty; it is our final adoption, the redemption of our body. This is the central meaning of predestinationn for Paul (Eph. 1:5), and the famous predestination in the next section. We are predestined to be conformed, and we groan in the direction of that predestination. Those who truly affirm predestination groan. This is not a denial of a more general foreordination; it rather depends on it. But they are not the same.

So the creation groans toward something. We groan toward that same thing. The Spirit sees us struggling and so He enters in as well. And our great High Priest looks down on the whole thing, lifts it up to God, with His intercession and amen (look ahead to v. 34).

The Apocalypse and Day of Delivery

The entire created order is heavily pregnant with power and glory, and you sons and daughters of God are the baby. This means history is driven before the Holy Spirit of God, and the entire point of the whole narrative is to reveal the Church for who it is – the bride of Christ.

History is pregnant, and there can be no thought of an abortion, however much the devil would love to bring one about. Of course, we know that our abortion culture is murderous, and it is. Blood does pollute the land. But there is something else going on here. The abortion culture that believes itself to be so powerful is actually a desperate and pathetic form of wishful thinking. AS early as Genesis, we knew that the seed of the woman would be born, and He would crush the serpent’s head. And we know now that the sons of God will be revealed in all their glory. This is not some horror flick, where some chthonic monster will be born into the world. No, it will be power, light, glory, and radiance. And when we gaze into that resurrected radiance, we will see… one another.

Romans 28: Coming Glory (8:15-18)

Christ Church on July 26, 2009

Introduction
We should always desire to act biblically, and not to react to the mistakes or abuses of others. Many of us came into the Reformed faith because we were trying to get away from all the relational goo. Well and good. But take care not to react mindlessly. There is no relational goo in a cemetery either, but there should be more to what we want than that. We have something that contemporary evangelicals do not have—but remember that there is often something they have that we do not have.

The Text
“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father . . .” (Rom. 8: 15-18)

Summary of the Text
Sin leads to death, as Paul has been pointing out, and so sin also leads to fear of death (v. 15; cf. Heb. 2:15). All liberation begins with liberation from sin, and all ungodly slavery begins with slavery to sin. The Spirit of adoption works two things in us. The first we have already covered—putting to death the deeds of the body (vv. 13-14)— and the second is here. He does in the context of creating a sense of relationship and belonging. We cry out Abba, Father (v. 15). The Spirit works in our works, testifying to others, and He works in our hearts, testifying to us (v. 16). He shows the world in our lives that we belong to Him, and shows us in the spirit that we do. But certain things follow from this. If we are children, true children, then we not only receive guidance, instruction and discipline now, but we also will receive an inheritance later (v. 17). If we are heirs, it is because we are inheriting alongside Christ. We are joint heirs together with Him (v. 17). If His suffering is ours, then His glorification is ours also (v. 17). And how does that shared suffering compare with that shared glory? The comparison, Paul says, is not worth making (v. 18).

Our Father
Our prayers are not to exhibit the professionalism of a well-run business meeting. We are children (v. 16), and we are children who cry (v. 15), and we are children who cry Abba, Father (v. 15). This is the Spirit we have been given, and this is the work He does. He is at work in our hearts testifying, and because the Spirit is not a false witness, His testimony in our hearts lines up with His testimony in His Word, and His testimony in the character of our lives. And His testimony in these three places lines up and is consistent.
Abba is an Aramaic word, and the rendering Father is from the Greek. Why both? Paul echoes what Mark records for us in the example of the Lord (Mark 14: 36). Now notice how the Spirit leads away from Himself, and brings us to the Father. Jesus teaches us to pray, “Our Father” (Matt. 6: 9). No man comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). For to Him (the Father), we both (Jew and Gentile) have access through Jesus by the Spirit (Eph. 2:18). The Father is the destination, the Son is the road, and the Spirit is the car. The direction of all biblical piety is toward the Father. That is what everything in the kingdom is straining toward (1 Cor. 15:24). And that is why it is so important for you men to be real fathers. You are testifying to something large.

Our Elder Brother
Never consider Christ as just another individual. He is an Adam (Rom. 5:14). What happened to Him in judgment is reckoned and imputed as having happened to you (Rom. 6: 3-5). We are united to Jesus, and this means that everything that happened to Him is ours—His death, His burial, His resurrection, and His glorification. Further, the gulf across which imputation leaps is something we apprehend by faith now. But there is a grand convergence coming, when our union with Christ will be entirely visible.
Christ is our elder brother. When He comes into His final and complete inheritance, so shall we. We are joint heirs together with Him (v. 17).

Not Worth Comparing
The apostle Paul knew what suffering was. He was no armchair theologian ( 2 Cor. 11: 23-28). He was flogged at least five times, and was in prison multiple times. He was beaten with rods at least three times. He was stoned once. He was shipwrecked once. There is much more than that, but you get the picture. He was no delicate flower. He knew suffering. He also knew the ultimate context of that suffering, which was the coming tsunami of glory. This is the scarred man who said that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed from within us.

What does he mean? Take all the sufferings of all God’s elect throughout all history and place that fine dust on one side of the scale. Then take one gold brick of five minutes in Heaven, and place it on the other side. That is what he means. “Not worth comparing” means that God is going to put everything into perspective, so we might as well start getting it into perspective now. God will dry every tear (Rev. 21:4), and they will not hurt or destroy in all His holy mountain. The former things will have passed away.

But Paul is getting the Romans on the edge of their seats with this. We are not yet talking about what is revealed in the latter half of this chapter, but we need to start craning our necks now. What is Paul about to tell us? Let us consider just one element of this now, as a sort of trailer. He says here that this coming glory is going to be “revealed in us.” That is the direction the glory tsunami is coming from. The creation is longing for what? The creation is looking out to sea, gazing earnestly for that tsunami. What is that sea? What is that ocean? Is it not you (8:19)?