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Calvinism 4.0: The Liberty of the Creature

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Introduction

The theologians behind the Westminster Confession said something that was curious, and it was this: They did not want to say that God’s absolute sovereignty was merely consistent with the liberty of creaturely will, but rather that God’s sovereignty was what established the liberty of that will. God does not offer violence to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established (WCF 3.1).

In order to understand this rightly, we have to be careful to define our terms carefully. What do we mean by the freedom of the will exactly?

The Text

“Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” (Matt. 12:33-35).

Summary of the Text

Jesus begins by noting that the nature of the tree determines the nature of the fruit. Good tree > good fruit. In the same way, if the tree is corrupt, then it follows that the fruit will be corrupt as well. Bad tree > bad fruit. Because this is the case, we are encouraged to reason from the fruit to the tree. The Lord then calls them a generation of vipers, poisonous snakes, and says that what comes out of their fangs will be venom and not sweet water. In this first comparison, the words a man speaks are the fruit, and the heart of that same man is the tree. The contents of the heart determine the contents of the speech. The Lord then switches to a third example. You can only take out of a chest that which was already in the chest. A good man has a good treasure chest for a heart, and consequently good choices come out. A bad man has evil treasure, and this is what determines what can be taken out.

Two Definitions

In evangelical circles, there are two differing definitions of freedom that are common. One definition says that free will is the “power of contrary choice.” In other words, take that moment when you were standing at the crossroads, deciding whether to go right or to go left. This definition says that at two different times, with all the antecedent circumstances being the identical, you had the full and complete ability to go either right or to go left.

The other view—and incidentally, the one the Lord was assuming in the text—is that a man is free to choose whatever his heart wants. He is free when he is not externally constrained. You choose what it was that you wanted, and what you wanted was determined by your nature. There are complicated examples of this principle, but there are also very simple examples.

If Smith points a gun at Jones and tells him to take the road to the right, then Jones is not free. But if Jones goes down that road because he loves the view that way, and detests the view on the other way, and has loved and detested them for as long as he can remember, his choice being constrained by nothing other than his desires, then we would say that his choice is unconstrained.

Now if you were to hold your breath right now, and were to do so for over a minute, would you want to breathe? Would the fact that God created your lungs and gave them to you keep that desire to breathe from being yours? Not a bit of it. You choose to breathe, and you choose to breathe because you want to. You want to because that innate desire was a gift to you from God. Some people reason that this desire couldn’t really be yours if it was given to you by God. Others, and we should be among them, should reason that if God gave it to us, then it must be ours.

The Metal Hand Will

So picture one of those games at the fair where a glass bin is full of not very expensive teddy bears, and there is a metal hand there, a metal grappling hook, that the carnie will let you manipulate for fifty cents. The human will is that grappling hook. It has no power to determine or alter the contents of the bin. Its only power is that of identifying “the largest teddy bear.”

Our choices do not decide for us. Our choices reveal us. If what they reveal is unsavory or unflattering, then we are driven to turn to the only one who can do anything to help us.

Think About It for Another Moment

Suppose the elders were to confront a straying member who was getting drunk every weekend. They asked him to explain his behavior, and suppose that he said that every weekend, his strongest desire was to read his Bible and go to church. Instead “mysterious forces” would land him in the bars. But he should not be faulted because what he really wanted to do was study Leviticus.

The reply would be that his will revealed what his strongest desire was. The ability to choose contrary to what you want is not liberty, but rather insanity. “Why did you throw the vase against the wall?” “Because I wanted to go for a walk in the garden.”

Transformation occurs when the contents of the heart are changed. Transformation across a series of decisions occurs when we do things that the Holy Spirit uses to alter the contents of our hearts. He alters it radically in conversion, and then steadily over the course of our sanctification through the various means of grace that He has appointed.

The Plain Necessity of the New Birth

If you could repent and believe with your old heart, then you would not really need a new heart. If you could love Jesus with your old heart, then you didn’t really need for Jesus to give you a new heart.

Our foundational problem, apart from Christ, is therefore not what we do, but rather what we are. What we do does matter, but in the sense that our actions reveal what we are. And this should drive us to adore God’s kindness, for we know that we have no control over our nature. Apart from Christ, we think we have full control over our actions, like the kid playing with a plastic steering wheel in the back of a shopping cart.

God gives us new eyes and then we see. God gives us ears, and it is then that we begin to hear. God gives us a heart that loves Him, and so we turn away from sin in disgust, and toward Him with true affection.

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Calvinism 4.0: God as the Good Author

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Introduction

Many people struggle with the problem of evil. If God is all powerful then he could eliminate evil. If God is all good then He would certainly want to. So then why does the classic Christian position teach us that God is both all powerful and all good, and yet evil continues to exist?

The Text

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field” (Matt. 13:44).

Summary of the Text

I want to work through this short little parable, and summarize it for you. What is the kingdom like? It is like hidden treasure. When a man finds it, he then hides it again, and in his joy he goes and sells everything in order to buy that field. This is a kingdom mystery—it is like the purloined letter in Poe’s mystery. The treasure in this instance is hidden in plain sight. The seller gives it all up, not knowing the value of what he is giving up. The buyer relinquishes everything he has elsewhere in order to obtain that which has value beyond reckoning? Who is the seller here? I take it to be the nation of Israel, not knowing the value of their field, or the treasure in it. Although they did not know the value, their ignorance was culpable. They ought to have known. The buyer abandons all he used to have, gives it up, and comes into his new possession, well knowing the value of what he has. Thus far the point of the parable.

But after that point, I want to step back a few paces and look at the mere fact of the parable.

Gospel Story, the Story of the Gospel, and Story Gospel

“The kingdom of God is like a man who . . .” Time is mysterious, space is mysterious, people are mysterious, and story arcs are mysterious. In order to have a story that is interesting, there must be conflict. Perhaps we should qualify this by saying that in order for story in this world to be interesting, there has to be conflict. Presumably, we won’t be bored in Heaven, and we know that in the resurrection the kind of warfare that we now undergo has ceased. “Her warfare has been accomplished” (Is. 40:2). If the millennial age is one in which the swords are fashioned into plowshares, how much more will this be true of the eternal state (Micah 4:3)?

But in order to keep from becoming bored, there must be a placeholder for that conflict. In our resurrected and glorious condition, there will be no suffering, tears, bloodshed, or anything else like that. But there will be something. We just don’t know what it is yet. My nomination for that post is a little something called difficulty. Maybe God assigned you to the planet Jupiter, and charged you to grow giant turnips, fifty feet across. But all that is just speculation. We know that the resurrection life will be perfect, and that means not boring.

Perfect Storytelling

Whether or not the stories themselves grow increasingly gripping, we know that storytelling will finally come into its own. Perhaps the solution to this dilemma is found in the fact that in the resurrection, the glorious things that God accomplished here will finally find a narration that is worthy of the subject.

“And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing” (Rev. 5:11–12).

God knows how to stack one choir upon another, and so myriads of angels ascend on the celestial risers. And they sing about the crucifixion, about something that happened here, in this life, in our history.

What is Evil?

If you were making the perfect salad, you would take the garden slug out of it. If you were making the perfect wine, you would make sure to remove the battery acid. If you were decorating the living room perfectly, you would take the greasy engine block off the coffee table. If you were making the perfect flower arrangement, you would not drape a bicycle chain over the vase. But we are in danger of becoming the victim of our analogies.

But if you were telling the perfect story, would you remove the evil from it? Think for a moment. Would it have improved The Lord of the Rings if Tolkien had left out Sauron? Or Saruman? Or the Nazgul? Or Gollum? With the disappearance of each villain or antagonist, is the story getting progressively better? Or worse?

“The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done” (Acts 4:26–28).

God is the good author of the good story. God is the perfect author of the perfect story. God freely and unalterably ordains whatsoever comes to pass, “yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established” (WCF 3.1).

God is not the author of sin, but He most certainly is the author of a story that has sin in it. This is not a defect in the story, but is rather the glory of it.

The Bloom of Fallen Creation

When the day of resurrection comes, it is not the case that God has mighty angels pick up big erasers in order to wipe out everything that was. The cosmos is not erased. The cosmos is reborn, and what went before is contained within, and glorified by, that resurrected state.

“Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Rom. 8:21–22).

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58).

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Finding Yourself (Ascension Sunday 2018)

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Ascension Sunday

The Text

21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Mt. 16:21-28)

Introduction

Today is celebrated as Ascension Sunday throughout the Christian Church, marking the ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father as Lord and King of all. In an important sense, this celebration marks the day on which all that Jesus did in this world was fulfilled. He was born as Lord, lived as Lord, died as Lord, rose as Lord, but the ascension marks His enthronement as Lord. In this sense, we can speak of Jesus arriving where His entire life was aiming toward. Or using the language of our sermon text, in the ascension, Jesus found His life.

Summary of the Text

We pick up right after Peter’s famous confession of faith, and from that point Jesus began regularly saying that He was going to Jerusalem to die and rise again (Mt. 16:21). At some point, Peter, having so recently been praised for his correct answer about Jesus, begins rebuking Jesus for talking this way (Mt. 16:22). But Jesus says that this rebuke is a satanic temptation to prefer the things of man over the things of God (Mt. 16:23). Jesus says that His mission is to gain the glory of His Father, and He invites all men to follow Him in preferring these things over his own things, his own life, or even the whole world (Mt. 16:24-26). This path will be vindicated when Jesus comes in the glory of His Father and rewards men according to their works (Mt. 16:27-28).

Finding Yourself

In our world, we are bombarded with messages and advertisements for finding yourself, for finding happiness, success, fulfillment. And in many ways, what we are talking about is glory. Glory is how the Bible describes someone really shining, doing and being what they were created to be (Ps. 8:5). And this glory really is something unique, something without comparison, something different (Prov. 30:18-19). But in a random world, success and glory are necessarily random. Finding yourself is like winning the lottery. Therefore, in a random world, the mantra: be different! really is the best advice. While the odds may not technically be in your favor, if you know that the people with glory are different and unique, then you might as well start trying now. The funny thing is that the images and suggestions given are self-contradictory: be yourself and be different and buy this Coke, wear these clothes, have this phone plan, go organic (like everyone else). Jesus is interested in answering the same question, but He is refreshingly honest and straightforward. He knows that people can never find themselves all by themselves. Finding yourself, finding what you were made for is always found through following others. The only question is who are you following? Who are you trusting?

A Bad Bargain

Jesus says that we are naturally inclined to make deals with the devil, settling for more now in exchange for less later: more life now for less life later, more profit now for less profit later, more glory now for no glory later (Mt. 16:23-26). But this is to assume that there is no ultimate justice in the universe. It is fundamentally atheistic. Notice also that the Satanic offer isn’t the offer of sin on a platter full of worms. Satan comes in this episode in the voice of a close friend, a faithful disciple, and an apostle. As Paul says elsewhere, Satan transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). False apostles, deceitful workers transform themselves into apostles of Christ (2 Cor. 11:13). Satanic ministers transform themselves into “ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:15). In other words, what Satan offers is typically some good thing. The bad deal is what that other good thing is taking you away from, what you are losing in the process. Satan is the thief who comes over to give you a welcome basket only to rob you. But Jesus says that the way to true life, profit, and glory is through following Him with a cross, losing your life for His sake, and being willing to forfeit the whole world (Mt. 16:24-26). One of the ways Christians get this wrong is by assuming that the way of Jesus must be whichever way looks worse. But that isn’t what Jesus says. He says to follow Him, to lose our lives for His sake. This means fundamentally that the way to find your life is through obedience. And what this means is leaning in. The pagan instinct is to pull away, to try to be different, but the way of Jesus is to follow.

A Few Different Applications

For young people, one of the temptations is to find yourself primarily in comparison with your parents. The temptation is to carve out your own space, to try to be different from your mom or your dad. But the fifth commandment is straight forward: honor your father and mother. Lean in, follow their example. Some of you come from broken families, and of course, you must not follow sinful examples. All of us have sinful fathers and mothers, but God knew about sin when He gave us the fifth commandment. Find what there is to honor, and honor it. Let your heart be free to embrace the gifts of your family. Lean in and find yourself.

One of the ways you know Jesus and Peter were friends is by this sharp confrontation and correction. “Faithful are the wounds of a friends, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Prov. 27:6). “Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you” (Prov. 9:8). “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend” (Prov. 27:17). Not wanting to offend or not wanting to let friends down can be some of the most powerful forces in the world, and in the name of friendship and kindness great evil can creep in. Are you trying to find yourself in your friendships? Or are you committed to following Christ in obedience no matter what?

Similar temptations can creep into young families or other new ventures, like a new second service. The temptation can be to zero in on the differences. In our family, what makes us who we are is that we don’t…  (fill in the blank) like our parents. In this new service, what makes us different is … But this is to buy into the world’s way of finding glory. You don’t find your identity by highlighting your differences. You don’t find yourself by strict conformity. You find yourself by following Jesus and following those who have followed Him well (1 Cor. 4:16-17). The point is that we are following Christ, obeying Christ together, trusting that this is the best investment in the world.

How did Jesus find Himself? He obeyed His Father. He knew His duty, and He could not be distracted by the offers of the devil. How did He do this? “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). He considered the joy of the glory of the Father, the fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore at His right hand (Ps. 16:11).

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Palm Sunday (CCD)

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The Text

“And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples,2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.3 And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,7 And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.8 And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way.9 And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.10 And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?” (Matt. 21:1-10)

  • What is the question that Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem raised?  Did the crowds get it right?
  • What do we believe about Jesus?  Is the gospel just about saving us from our sins or something more?
  • How does our belief or understanding about God impact our actions?

Disciples of Jesus

We want to be Jesus’ disciples in this, so let’s step back and look at Jesus seeking to make this point clear to one of his key disciples — Peter.   What lesson did Peter learn about the kingdom:

  • on his trip to Caesarea Philippi?
  • following his denial of Jesus at the High Priest’s home?
  • when Jesus spoke with him over breakfast at the Sea of Galilee?

The Nature of the Kingdom

The point of these examples is that while Christ’s kingdom is undeniable and present in heaven and on earth, it is not the political kingdom that the disciples expected.  What is it based on:

  • the disciples actions in Acts 3-5?
  • Jesus’ response to the Pharisees in Luke 17?
  • Peter’s teaching in 1 Peter 2?

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Palm Sunday 2018

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Introduction

We live in a world that hates authority. The world hates authority because it hates the Author (Jn. 15:17-24). The world hates the fact that God has exalted His Son to His right hand as Lord of all. Because Jesus is Lord, the world hates all lordship. But the good news of Palm Sunday is that Jesus is Lord and God is in, the process of restoring the gift of godly authority to us for the healing of the world.

The Text

“When Jesus drew near to Jerusalem He sent two disciples into a nearby village to commandeer a donkey and a colt for His use (Mt. 21:1-2). Jesus told them that if anyone asked what they were doing, they were to say that the Lord needed them (Mt. 21:3-4). Matthew says that this was done to fulfill Zechariah’s prophecy, and the disciples went and obeyed the command of Jesus (Mt. 21:5-6). The disciples spread their clothes on the donkey and the colt, and Jesus sat on them, and the crowds joined in spreading their garments and cutting down branches and laying them on the path and heralding Him as the Son of David (Mt. 21:7-9). When He arrived in Jerusalem, the whole city noticed and asked who He was and the multitude told them it was Jesus of Nazareth (Mt. 21:10-11). Jesus went all the way into the temple where He cast out those buying and selling, arguing that they had displaced prayer with theft (Mt. 21:12-13). Meanwhile, the blind and lame came to Him in the temple and were healed, and many children were shouting that Jesus was the Son of David (Mt. 21:14-15). This made the chief priests and scribes angry, but Jesus said that this was God’s doing, perfecting praise from infants” (Matt. 21:16).

The Commandeering King

Don’t miss the fact that authority is laced through this entire text. It begins with Jesus commanding two of His disciples to take some poor guy’s donkey and colt (Mt. 21:2-3, 6). And notice that both commands require faith. The disciples had to believe that Jesus had the right to command them and the fellow the donkey and colt belonged to. We know from Luke’s parallel account that the disciples were asked by the owners what they were doing, and the disciples told them exactly what Jesus said to say, the Lord has need of them (Lk. 19:33-34, Mt. 21:3). Notice that: the Lord needs them. No explanation, no further information. This is merely an assertion of authority, and the only possible response is to believe or not.  Matthew says that all of this is actually even higher stakes than just commandeering a couple barn animals. He says that Jesus is fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy that Israel’s King would come to Jerusalem riding on a donkey in order to defend His city, drive away all her enemies, and take up a dominion from the river to the ends of the earth (Mt. 21:5, Zech. 9:8-10). Finally, Jesus exerts His authority by driving out the money changers in the temple, quoting Isaiah 56, asserting that the temple belongs to Him (Mt. 21:12-13). Again, the response to this assertion is either acceptance or rejection. The chief priests and scribes reject His authority (cf. Mt. 21:23), while the lame and the blind and the children believe.

Authority and Faith

If you live in this world, our culture, you are marinating in hatred of authority, and so it cannot be any surprise to find that the Church has imbibed a great deal of this hatred, even while still saying things like Jesus is Lord. But the rot goes down deep, and we create workarounds to deal with our limp. But what we don’t realize is that getting used to the limp is getting used to the wrong sort of weakness. What is it that overcomes the world? “And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 Jn. 5:4). As a result of the Fall, authority has been corrupted and misused and this really does add to the difficulty and challenge of embracing lawful, biblical authority, but in our arrogance, we think it best to just ratchet all that authority talk way down, lest anyone misuse it, lest anyone get hurt. And in so doing, we are insisting that no one actually exercise any faith. Submission to authority requires faith. One time a centurion came to Jesus begging Him to heal his servant, but he told Jesus to just give the word because he understood how authority worked, and Jesus said He never saw such faith (Mt. 8:9-10). Many holy week sermons subtly succumb to exactly what the world wants us to say. You often hear that Jesus came to be a King, but He’s not a king like everyone expected. He’s a suffering King. And this is true as far as it goes, but the cumulative effect is often the message that Jesus wins through laying down His authority. And so the application becomes the same. But this is absolutely not true (e.g. Mt. 26:53, Jn. 19:11). Jesus insisted that no man could take His life from Him, that He was the only one who could lay it down and with the same authority He could take it back up again (Jn. 10:18).

Jesus Our Healer

Far too many people come into the Christian faith thinking that Christianity is a way to get God to bless your plans. But the most basic Christian creed is Jesus is Lord. This means He is your Master, your King. When Jesus calls a man, it is abundantly clear that He demands everything. But this is good news because only Jesus knows what it will take to eradicate our sin. So He assigns judges, pastors, presidents, husbands, fathers, mothers, teachers, etc. He must take our colts; He must overturn our tables; He must die. What is He doing? He’s healing us (Mt. 21:14). This means coming to Him with everything that ails us and praising Him like jubilant kids.

Jesus Our King

Matthew says that when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, He was fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy: Israel’s King had come in order to encamp around His house as a guard, in order to destroy Israel’s enemies, in order to establish His reign from the River to the ends of the earth, because of the blood of His covenant (Zech. 9:8-11). Jesus came to do what only He could do in order to secure His people forever. He came to live the perfect life we could not live, to suffer the scorn and death that only He did not deserve, to lay His life down with full authority, and having paid the wages of our sin completely, He took His life back up again. Never for one moment did Jesus relinquish His authority, but at every step He exercised His authority to encamp around His house as a guard, to drive away our enemies, and establish His kingdom forever. And in His kingdom there are many priests and kings, many lords and ladies. Faith in the authority of Jesus receives this good news, and the same faith in the authority of Jesus receives these good works. And this is our victory that overcomes the world.

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