New Testament Archives - Page 163 of 208

The Politics of Sodomy IV: Remember Lot’s Wife

Joe Harby on March 22, 2015

Introduction

How do we as individuals respond to the situation we find ourselves in? How can we be faithful in our generation? These very practical questions, and they require answers that are equally practical. What are we to do? How are we to live?

The Texts

“And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly” (Gen. 13:10-13)

“And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways” (Gen. 19:1-2).

“Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (Gen. 19:24-26).

“Remember Lot’s wife” (Luke 17:32).

Overview

The outline of the story goes this way, and it is a story that the Lord Jesus commanded us toremember. When Abraham and Lot came into conflict through their herdsmen, Abraham gave Lot the first choice on which land he could have. Lot made that choice on carnal principles (seeing the main chance), and he took up residence near Sodom. The men there were already renowned for their wickedness. In our next passage, Lot is living in Sodom, and he knows what a foul place it is. He tries to get the angels to stay with him for the night, and be on their way first thing in the morning. When the judgment finally fell, even that was inadequate evidence for Lot’s wife, and she looked longingly back at all the malls and restaurants, and she was destroyed. Remember her, Jesus said.

Review

Cultures fall apart in the pattern described in the Scriptures, and they do so exactly. Because we have rejected God, He is rejecting us, and the latter is far more important than the former. The end of this process is sodomy in the public square. And in the conflict that surrounds this, neutrality is an impossibility. All of us must either gather or scatter, and we cannot evade the force of this by making Christ the Lord of an invisible “spiritual” world. Thinking rightly about this means that we will avoid carnality in our motives for the fight—but we can never avoid obedience (or disobedience) in the material realm. Moreover, all of the physical realm is involved. But with all this as a foundation, we do need direction.

Worship is Always Central

Every Lord’s Day, we have the privilege of entering into the heavenlies, and we there glorify the name of Jesus Christ (Heb. 12: 22, 28-29). We do this in Christ, in the heavenlies (Eph. 1: 18-21). We then ask God to glorify the name of Jesus Christ on earth as it has been glorified in heaven (Matt. 6:10). And what this means is that that corporate worship, offered in faith and biblically ordered, is a battering ram in the hands of the saints of God. Moreover, this is our only battering ram, and we must not put it down to throw our wadded up paper balls at the fortress turrets. There are many consequences to the overthrow of the unbelieving fortress—economic, political, cultural, artistic, and so on. But the spoils of battle are not our weapons of battle. That is what we are fighting over, not what we are fight with. But also remember that “faith” and “trust” don’t mean air guitar.

Small or Great

The 115th Psalm is full of glorious encouragement on this subject. Among other things is the assurance that God will bless us, He will bless us and our children, and He promises to do this whether we are “small or great.” “He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great” (Ps. 115: 13). This means that in the eyes of God there is no such thing as an “out of the way” place. Andthis means that in order to “do something” constructive you do not have to wait. You have an audience now with the Most High King. His eyes are on the sons of men. And what does He see?

Husbands and fathers living sacrificially? Unmarried Christians faithfully serving in their communities? Children learning the meaning of loyalty and obedience? Wives respecting and honoring their husbands? A community of Christians characterized by sharing meals in one another’s homes, because they love one another? God will bless this, whether small or great, and whether or not the Supreme Court ever heard of it.

Divided Loyalties

Precisely because we are not gnostic, we must have multiple loyalties, and no two of us can have exactly the same ones. But these must be hierarchical loyalties, biblically ordered and ranked. If they are lined up side-by-side, then the name for this is “divided loyalties” or “idolatry” for short.

The only loyalty that we all may hold in common absolutely is our loyalty to the triune God, and every other loyalty must self-consciously be subordinated to it. Currently, the open competitor to this is the State that would be God. Because things aren’t what they used to be, we need to deal with all our liturgical idols (including the civic ones). This means placing the Apostles’ Creed over the Pledge of Allegiance. Or altering the Pledge to say “the triune God” or the “Lord Jesus Christ” instead of the current generic “God.” This is just an example, but if we do not commit ourselves to our Trinitarian loyalties, we are not remembering Lot’s wife, and we are slowly being conformed to the world around us, just as she was (Rom. 12:1-2).

Surveying the Text: 2 Corinthians

Joe Harby on March 22, 2015

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Introduction

We are called to great glory, but we are called to great glory out of a great mess. God is in the process of restoring a remarkable ruin—say of a cathedral—and the greatness of this undertaking is seen when we consider how great the ruin is. Man was created as the image bearer of God, and the fall shattered his ability to reflect that image accurately. It still does so—you can still make it out—but the image of God in man must be restored. This image is the face of Jesus Christ, and this face is manifested in the preaching of the gospel.

The Text

“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:3–6).

Brief Background

You should remember from our treatment of 1 Corinthians that this letter was probably written in the autumn of 56 A.D. A severe letter had been sent to the Corinthians in between 1 Corinthians and this one, and it is apparent from all the issues being addressed that no Christian in his right mind should want to belong to “a New Testament church.” Paul is still addressing the problem of factions that plagued the church at Corinth.

Summary of the Text

If the gospel is hidden, it is hidden from those who are lost. In other words, the gospel is not lost, but rather the people who are lost cannot find it (v. 3). The gospel is home, and you cannot be lost at home. The reason these people are lost is that the god of that age (aeon, not cosmos) had blinded their minds. Otherwise the light of the glorious gospel would shine on them (v. 4). Paul confesses that he does not preach “himself,” but rather Christ Jesus the Lord, and himself and others with him as simple servants (v. 5). For God was the one who commanded light to shine out of darkness in the creation (v. 6), and He has done the same thing again in the conversion of sinners. He gives the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (v. 6).

Trajectory of Glory

A distinction has to be made between where Paul is in the writing of this letter, and where Paul isgoing. The church continues to have practical troubles. Paul is still seeking to reconcile people in the church (2 Cor. 2:2-11), make arrangements for the collection for the poor (2 Cor. 8:1-9:15), and defend his apostolic authority (2 Cor. 11:1-29). His schedule is full of daily challenges. But the theme of where Paul is going is glory—and he fully intends to take the Corinthians with him. The subject of glory comes up in this letter again and again. “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Cor. 1:20).

Win or Lose

The point is glory, win or lose. When things are going well, when things are prospering, when all the breaks are going your way, what are you instructed to do? “But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (2 Cor. 10:17).

But we do not serve a God who operates like a vending machine. He is a personal God, and He dispenses every kind of providence, whether hard or soft. What are we to do when it is hard? The answer is the same—we are to lean into the glory.

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17).

And How is This Done?

So we are to lean into glory? How are we to lean into glory? We do this when we worship the Lord. Remember the ultimate law that is operative here—we become like what we worship. In Psalm 115, idolaters make deaf, dumb, and blind statues, and “those that make them are like unto them.” When we finally see the Lord Jesus full on, we will become like Him, because we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).

And that is what we find here in 2 Corinthians as well:
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).

We are to worship the Lord with an “open face.” When we worship the Lord truly, we are doing so under the preached Word, which means that we are having the visage of the Lord sketched for us. Remember our text—preaching Christ offers to you the “knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Do you see this? When you come to a service where Christ is preached, and you do so with “open face,” you are privileged to look upon the open face of Jesus Christ as He is offered in the gospel. And when you look upon Him, face to face like this, what happens? The same thing happens as happened to Moses earlier in chapter 3—and is what could not happen to the Israelites under the older covenant. Moses saw the Lord face to face in one sense (Ex. 33:11), but not in another (Ex. 33:20-23). And the people saw the face of Moses radiant, and Moses would put on the veil so that they would not see that the glory would fade. But we have a glory that does not fade.

Surveying the Text: 1 Corinthians

Joe Harby on March 15, 2015

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Introduction

The theme of this book is the battle between division and unity. But we must follow the wisdom of God. Not only are false division and true unity at odds, so also are true division and false unity at odds. Unity with idols is division. Division from evil is righteousness and real unity.

The Text

“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor. 1:21–25).

Brief Background

Around 50 A.D. the apostle Paul left Macedonia (northern Greece) and came to Corinth. An ancient city on that spot had been leveled by the Romans in 146 B.C., and was a pile of rubble for a century. In 44 B.C. Julius Caesar re-founded the city as a colony. The replanted city prospered, and by the time of Paul’s arrival there it was five times bigger than Athens, and was the capital of the province. The ancient travel writer Strabo (64/63 B.C.—24 A.D.) was the source of the report that the temple to Aphrodite there was staffed by a thousand sacred prostitutes.

When Paul arrived in Corinth, he moved in with Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:1-4). He was not confident when he first got there (1 Cor. 2:3). Silas and Timothy then arrived with good news from Macedonia (1 Thess. 3:6), which strengthened Paul’s preaching. At some point in their time here, Priscilla and Aquila risked their lives for Paul’s sake (Rom. 16:3). There apparently had been some significant trouble, such that God made a point of reassuring Paul in a vision (Acts 18:9ff).

The most likely reconstruction of Paul’s dealings with the Corinthians is this. What we know as 1 & 2 Corinthians are probably 2 & 4 Corinthians. A lost communication to the Corinthians precedes 1 Corinthians (1 Cor. 5:9ff), and another lost letter, a “severe letter,” was sent before our 2 Corinthians (2 Cor. 2:4. 1 Corinthians was probably written in 55 A.D. and 2 Corinthians was written in the autumn of the year after.

Summary of the Text

God determined that the world, with all its wisdom, would not be able to use that wisdom to come to know God (v. 21). Rather God chose to accomplish this great thing by means

of the foolishness of preaching (v. 21). Jews want a sign, and Greeks want graduate seminars in philosophy (v. 22), and God says no to both. The divine answer is the proclamation of Christ crucified (v. 23)—calculated by God to trip up the Jews and to seem like idiocy to the Greeks. God did not make this thing seeker friendly. This cross divides unbelieving Jews and Greeks from the community of the faithful. But to those who are called, Jews and Greeks both, Christ is both the power and wisdom of God (v. 24). In all this we see that God’s folly towers above man’s wisdom, and God’s weakness isstill omnipotent (v. 25).

Wrongful Division

The church at Corinth was full of factions. These factions were based on a number of false standards. They were divided over things like the status of various social groups, disputes at law, food issues, accommodation with idolatry, sex tangles, spiritual gifts, and the Lord’s Supper. Paul’s great concern is the reconciliation of these divisions between God’s saints, but in order to accomplish this, there must be division from sin. Unless you break with sin, you will eventually break with everything else. Unless you declare war on sin, you will eventually be at war with everything else. To make peace with wolves is to declare war on sheep.

The Divine Strategy

The plan for the church is a harmonious building. You are God’s building, Paul says (1 Cor. 3:9). The word is oikodome.
The plan for the church is a harmonious family. The phrase brother or sister is used by Paul around 40 times in this letter. This is clearly related to the theme just mentioned, that of a house or building.

In order to have this true unity, there has to be a sharp break from Egypt. The sea was divided, and so it was that Egypt and Israel were divided. But that division still needed to be pursued. Not only did there need to be an Exodus of Israel from Egypt, there also needed to be an exodus of Egyptian ways from Israelite hearts (1 Cor. 10:7ff). Otherwise, all we have done is plant a colony of Egypt in the wilderness.

To Return to the Text

In order to accomplish this great miracle of deliverance, Jesus had to die. Since it involved external bodies, a powerful deity like Zeus could have gotten Israel out of Egypt. But in order to get Egypt out of Israel, the Son of God had to die. Right after Paul warned the Corinthians not to fall into the same trap the Israelites had fallen into, he reminds us that the foundation of our unity as Christians is the fact that Christ was broken. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread” (1 Cor. 10:16–17). Christ was one, and was broken, so that we who were broken might become one.

What kind of sense does this make? It is the folly of preaching. It is the folly of the cross. God takes a glorious unity and breaks it on the cross so that all our brokenness might be placed on Christ, and in that breaking, be made whole. Christ crucified is Christ for the world. Christ crucified is the only kind of Savior that can help the world—meaning He is the only kind of Savior that can save.

Ephesians: The Perfect Man

Joe Harby on March 15, 2015

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The Text

“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

²With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

³Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

⁴There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

⁵One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

⁶One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

⁷But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

⁸Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

⁹(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

¹⁰He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

¹¹And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

¹²For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

¹³Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

¹⁴That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

¹⁵But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

¹⁶From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 4:1-16).

Surveying the Text: Romans

Joe Harby on March 8, 2015

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Introduction

The book of Romans is the Magna Carta of the human soul. The book of Romans contains as thorough a statement of genuine liberty as can be found anywhere in all of human literature. The book of Romans is a book of life, a tree of life. The book of Romans is a three-foot-thick vein of gold in a mountain range of glorious Scripture. The book of Romans is a book filled with inexpressible joy, anchored forever in the decrees of the everlasting Father. What should we think about the book of Romans?

The Text

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16–17).

Brief Background

The letter is likely written from Corinth around 57 A.D. Compare 1 Cor. 16:1-7 with Romans 15:25-26. The book of Romans is a fund-raising letter, showing a marked difference between Paul’s way of doing that kind of thing and ours (Rom. 15:17-29). He emphasizes what he has been doing, and what he teaches, with a glance at the need. Unfortunately, we tend to reverse this. And what is the result? Apart from whether it helped on his mission to Spain, Paul wrote a fund-raising letter that is arguably the most influential book in Christian history. We should meditate on that for a moment.

Summary of the Text

Paul begins here by declaring that he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ (v. 16). The gospel therefore is something we should not be ashamed of, but it is something that provokes the world into trying to make us ashamed of it. If you found a cure for cancer, you would not say “I am not ashamed.” If you invented a perpetual motion machine, you would not say “I am not ashamed.” If you wrote an epic poem that won the Nobel Prize for literature, you would not say “I am not ashamed.” But if you found a cure for sin, given the nature of sin, you would have to make this your constant refrain—“I am not ashamed.” This is because sin always pushes back. Whenever sin is attacked, there is always blowback, and one of sin’s central technique is the ever-popular coolshame.

But we are not ashamed because the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, whether Jew or Greek. By this powerful means, the righteousness of God is made manifest, from beginning to the end. And why? How? It is manifested through how the just live their lives, which is by faith (v. 17).

Overview of the Book

The first three chapters outline man’s dilemma for us. Man is trapped in sin, trapped in himself, trapped by his idols. Chapter 1 shows us that the Gentiles are under sin, despite God’s revelation of Himself in nature. Chapter 2 shows us that the Jews are under sin, despite God’s revelation of Himself in the Torah. Chapter 3 shows us that the Jews and Gentiles are together under sin, trapped in the same way. Sin has them both by the throat.

In the next two chapters, we have two different cases made for the gospel. The first is an exegetical case in Chapter 4, showing us how Abraham was justified by faith. In Chapter 5, we have a theological case outlining the gospel. We are shown that Christ is the last man, delivering us from the death brought down upon us by the first man.

The gospel always generates objections, and so then Paul begins anticipating and answering them. The form of the book of Romans is what was called a diatribe in ancient times—where you are dealing with an imaginary opponent throughout (see Rom. 2:1-5; 17-24; 8:2; 9:19-21; 11:17-24;14:4, 10).
In Chapter 6, he shows us how liberation from sin does not liberate us to sin. In Chapter 7, he shows what the law is for then, now that we have learned that it is not for our justification. In Chapter 8, Paul describes what life in the Spirit looks like, now that we are freed from the law.

At the end of Chapter 8, Paul exults that nothing can separate God’s elect from His love for them in Christ Jesus. But wasn’t the old Israel elect? What about that? In Chapter 9, Paul shows how God’s sovereignty extends through both kinds of election, both covenantal and individual. Is there no place then for ethnic Israel? In Chapters 10 and 11, Paul shows how God’s gifting and calling are irrevocable.

In Chapter 12, Paul turns to the practical ramification of living how this glorious gospel. In this chapter he addresses issues of spiritual gifts and government.

In Chapter 13, he talks about our relationship to the civil authorities. In Chapter 14, he turns to keeping the peace within the church over “debatable matters.”

In Chapter 15, we have an outline of gospel mission, and in Chapter 16, he wraps up and then extends his greetings to the saints.

Not an ‘Improve Your Golf Swing’ Gospel

As you reflect on how the gospel is presented in this great book of liberation, notice how death features in the goodness of this powerful gospel. Our problem was Adamic death, and Jesus Christ came to this earth in order to die in such a way that this shared death of ours could finally die, and be raised to life again. “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” (Rom. 6:3). In Adam, we live in a living death, and in Christ we are finally able to crucify that way of living death. And because it is finally crucified, it can be brought to life again. That is what the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus does.

So this is not a message that pats the back of your hand and encourages you to start living your best life now. If a man wants to follow Jesus, at least according to Jesus, he has to take up his cross daily and follow Christ. Whatever could that mean? Well, guess. The only way out of the hellhole of self is to have that wretched selfish ego hanged on a gibbet until dead. That is final freedom.

Why? Because in our poverty, Christ brings His riches. In our darkness, He is the only pure light. In our swamp of misery, He brings the solid ground of joy. In the midst of our cursing, He brings His blessing. In our uncertain vagaries, He brings His everlasting and predestinated love—the only kind of love that could do us any good. When our blind eyes were staring at the outer darkness, He opened our eyes, turned us from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. When our fists were clenched against Him, His hands were opened wide toward us, and with a nail hole in each one.