Christ Church

Forgiveness & Your Feelings

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INTRODUCTION

The habit of modern man is to act based on his feelings, instead of action based on fact. The Disney catechism has worked its way deeply into our culture: follow your heart. We are the foolish man, building on the sands of emotion, instead of the rock of the Word. The pile of grievances swept under the cultural rug is getting quite obvious. Yet no one knows how to actually sweep out the grime, because no one feels like humbling themselves.

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. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him (Colossians 3:12-17).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul instructs Christians to put on a particular disposition due to their standing as the elect of God (v12, Cf. Rom 13:4, Gal. 3:27); this disposition includes various attributes which are, to the carnal man, like drinking castor oil with a vinegar chaser. The disposition of the saints is to be one of patient mercy & humility (v12). By putting these virtues on, we are equipped to the action of forbearance and forgiveness of the quarrels we may have against another. Forgiveness is not a passive event which happens to you, it is an imperative. It puts a victim of offense as an actor in the restoration. This forgiveness is in imitation of Christ’s great forgiveness of the saints (v13).  Agape is like the jeweled clasp that holds all these virtues in place (v14), while the peace of God rules in our hearts individually and corporately. Our response to it all should be gratitude (v15).
We both put on Christ, and Christ dwells in us. His Word is to dwell in us richly. The fruit of His presence is made evident in  our teaching and admonishing of one another. This is done most poignantly in our biblically founded and faithful praise (v16). All of this should be done with grace in our hearts (v16). The whole  scope of Christian activity is be offered up entirely to God, through Christ, with thankfulness (v17).

THE SHIPWRECK OF TRAUMA-PEDDLERS

In the midst of a culture where apologies have been weaponized, both by faux-victims and by real perpetrators, a great deal of misunderstanding has arisen about what forgiveness is, and how it works. Trauma-peddlers are not interested in the fire of bitterness to be put out by the water of forgiveness. Cruel men are only interested in apologies as a means of preserving the brand. We must reject both approaches.
Scripture gives us a way out of the shipwreck of feelings, and onto the solid ground of truth. If you’ve been wronged, true harm has been done. Whether the harm is physical or verbal, emotional or financial Scripture equips us to handle the harm done to us with, as Paul puts it in our text, the peace of God ruling in our hearts.
Grace is in our hearts and so we sing one to another the songs of God. God’s peace rules our hearts, and so we forgive as He forgave us. Notice in the text that it is by God’s presence within us that enables us to the action of forgiveness. By resting in our justification before God through Christ we are enabled to go about the activity of objective reconciliation. This doesn’t dull our emotional state; rather it is by the Spirit’s governance within us that our emotions are strengthened, sharpened, and sweetened. Elsewhere, Paul instructs that true forgiveness is tied up with tenderheartedness (Eph. 4:32). A new heart, in other words, is absolutely necessary.

TRANSACTIONAL FORGIVENESS

When you’re wronged, Scripture gives a few routes to take. This text in Colossians sets forth one path plainly and implies the second. You can forbear the offense, covering a whole catalogue of sins (Cf. Pro. 10:12). The second path is to pursue the offense straight up the middle, seeking to address the wrong in order to extend forgiveness.
Again, forgiveness is a transaction, not a feeling. This is where many modern grief counselors, like blind guides of the blind, stagger off into the marshlands. Say in a quarrel with a spouse, friend, or coworker you utter a truly cruel insult to them. You’ve done objective harm, so by seeking forgiveness you are identifying the true guilt of your actions, along with the objective harm you did, and then seeking to restore what you harmed. The option for the victim is to either extend forgiveness and receive the restitution, or curl up into hardened shell of resentment.
This transactional aspect of biblical forgiveness removes relational restoration from the fluctuating realm of feelings and excuses and “sweep it under the rug” approaches. Biblical justice requires restitution (Ex. 22:12), ranging from double what was stolen (Ex. 22:7), to a fifth for lesser faults (Num. 5:7) to four-fold (Lk. 19:1-10). Did you gossip about someone? You need to seek their forgiveness as well as seek to restore the good name you tarnished. Did you lie? You need to come clean, then restore the harm done by your falsehood. This doesn’t just factor in material harm, but the harm from time-lost.

I DON’T FEEL LIKE FORGIVING

For the offended party, the last thing you may feel like doing is forgiving. True forgiveness isn’t dependent on the alignment of heavenly bodies, or hormones to balance, or enough time to pass. Put on Christ, and grace rules in you.
You get the forgiveness ready, from the heart, because your heart is under the authority of Another. It isn’t under the authority of what your feelings are doing. Furthermore, while extending forgiveness it’s lawful to lay out the clear damages needing restitution.
What is not an option is to say that you just won’t forgive. Jesus gives stern warnings to the unforgiving. You are insisting on receiving infinite kindness from God, and refusing to extend finite kindness to your brother.

AS GOD FORGAVE YOU

Once more, the virtues we are commanded to cultivate are all derivative. You don’t draw up forgiveness juice from the well of your own inward goodness. The well from which your forgiveness springs from is the same well that you have drunk from. The infinite ocean of God’s kindness to you through Christ.
See how God sees you. The Gospel draws open the shades, and allows you see the pristine view of God’s mercy toward you. God calls you elect, chosen. Through no deserving on your part. God calls you holy. God calls you beloved. None of it earned. None of it because you were on your best behavior. All of it freely given by the cross. Lay hold on the cross, and then forgive as God forgave you. Not because you feel like it, but because you have a new heart.

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The Supremacy of Christ and His Salvation

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INTRODUCTION

Christians can grow sluggish in their Christianity. They can start to loosen their grip on the faith once for all delivered to the saints. And they can do this as recipients of the heavy blessing of God. Cotton Mather once said, “Religion begat prosperity and the daughter devoured the mother.” Moses said something similar. He sang of God making his people ride on the high places of the earth that they might eat the increase of the fields. And then, “Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked” (Deuteronomy 32:15).

The solution of course is not to go on a diet from the blessings of God. The solution is to truly taste and see that the Lord is good and so give thanks. That’s the logic of the text before us. The original hearers, like us today, needed to pay closer attention to what God had said to them and done for them through his Son (ch. 2:1-3). And where we will we get strength to do that? In God’s Son (ch. 1:1-14)

THE TEXT

Hebrews 1–2:3.

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul begins by pointing out that God spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets (v. 1). And he contrasts God’s manner of speaking back then with his manner of speaking in “these last days” (v. 2). In these last days, God has spoken to the saints by his Son. Many things are acknowledged of this Son through whom God spoke to his people: He has been appointed heir of all things, not just some things (v. 2). He was the one through whom God made the worlds (v. 2). He is the brightness of God’s glory, and his express image such that if you have seen Jesus Christ then you have seen the Father (v. 3). This Son upholds all things by the word of his power, the same all things that he is inheriting, remember (v. 3). This Son purged our sins and is sat down at the right hand of God on high (v. 3).

The Son of God has obtained a better “name” than angels (v. 4). Now, this assertion can be confusing. Why does it need to be made? Doesn’t everyone already know that the Son of God is better than the angels? Well, yes, they do. Paul isn’t speaking to the supremacy of Christ’s divine nature to the angels. He’s speaking to the supremacy of the Godman, Jesus Christ, and particularly his mediatorial office as the Godman.

This idea is further expressed in verse 5 and 6. In verse 6, the angels of God worship the Son when God brings him into the world. The point is not simply that the angels worship the second member of the Trinity. The point is they worship the Son of God made flesh. In verse 5, Paul signals that God has not exalted any angel like he has the Son. For God said to the Son, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” Paul is quoting Psalm 2 here. And the “begottenness” happened on a “day.” And that needs explaining. (Remember Peter said that Paul wrote things hard to understand).

When the Apostle John refers to the “only begotten Son” in John 3:16, he speaks of Christ’s eternal Sonship to the Father. That eternal Sonship is, of course, eternal. Therefore, it did not happen on “a day.” Psalm 2 and Hebrews 1:5 speak to a different begotteness, a different thing. Psalm 2 signals that “this day” was the day of Christ’s resurrection. And the begotteness refers to the Father raising the Son from the dead. Paul makes this very clear in Acts 13:33. He cites this same verse from Psalm 2 while referring to the Father raising the Son from the dead. God has not done the same for angels, they are ministering spirits (v. 7).

Several Old Testament texts are referenced as Paul points out the supremacy of the Son. God the Father says many things of the Son. He speaks of the Son’s never-ending throne (v. 8), his love of righteousness, hatred of iniquity, and exceeding gladness (v. 9). The Son laid the foundation of the earth, built the heavens with his hands, and will remain after they grow old and he folds them up like a dress (v. 10-12). Christ is better than angels for he has ascended to the right hand of God with his enemies being made his footstool, while the angels minister to Christ’s people (v. 14).

The application of all of this is that the saints must pay closer attention to what God has said through this exalted Son, lest we let his words to us slip (ch. 2:1). If God’s word delivered by angels in time past was so steadfast that every disobedience was punished, how much more will be the case for those who neglect the great salvation brought by Christ himself (ch. 2:2-3)?

CHRIST WHO PURGED OUR SINS

Paul’s logic runs something like this: Would you leave God? Would you slip away from him? May it never be! God has not only saved you. He has saved you through his Son.

The passage is not concerned with the supremacy of Christ abstractly considered. It is not merely a matter of putting God’s Son on one side of the scales and the prophets and angels on the other side. The Son, whose supremacy is in view, is the Son who purged our sins. He is the Son of God who entered the world. He is the Son who was “made a little lower than the angels” and then was raised from the dead and exalted above the angels as the Godman. And when he was raised up there in the heavens, he took you all with him for you are seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6).

This Christ is not merely the Word spoken to you that you must hear. He is the Word that binds you. What does he bind you to? He binds you to God. Would you slip away from God’s word? It is the Word made flesh that binds you to God. Would you loosen your hold on the Word? It is the word that upholds you and all things.

THE LAST DAYS AND OUR DAYS

Paul says that God has spoken to his people by his Son “in these last days.” These “last days” can be easily misunderstood. So a word about them is in order. We do not live in these last days. And these last days are not in our future. Rather, these “last days” refer to the Jewish age or the old covenant. When Paul wrote, the Romans were soon to destroy the temple in Jerusalem. The destruction of that temple was an act of God signifying the vanishing of the old covenant. Jesus referred to this in Matthew 24:1-2 when he said to his disciples that not one stone of the temple would be left on another.

That temple destruction was not merely about the destruction of temple worship. It signified the removal of the old covenant, the end of an age. We see Paul expressing this same idea later in the book in Hebrews 8:13. There he speaks of a new covenant that God is making. And he writes, “In that he saith, a new covenant, he made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”

That old covenant was glorious. It was so glorious that Paul says “the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance” (2 Corinthians 3:7). But, he adds that this old covenant glory was coming to an end. And it would be replaced with a new covenant that was even more glorious.

You live in the epoch of the seen Christ, of the revealed mystery. The veil of the temple has been torn in two. You live in the time of the gathering together into one both things in heaven and things on earth. You are members of the new covenant. And the Virgin-born Son of God is the mediator of this new covenant and Lord over all things in this new covenant era.

You live in the days after the last days. And they are days of great wonder and glory. How then should you live? You should give more earnest heed to the things God your Father has said to you through his Son (Hebrews 2:1).

PROPHETS, ANGELS, AND GOD’S SON

Speaking about the word of God, Paul stirs up the saints to reverence for that word by contrasting the various ways God has delivered his word to his people. In time past, God spoke by prophets. And in time past, he spoke “by angels” (ch. 2:2). And the word that he spoke by prophets and angels was steadfast. We’re not dealing with a shaky word back then and a stable word here and now. We’re dealing with a rock-solid word back then, (the kind of rock you could build a house on), and diamond-hard Mount Everest word here and now (the kind that supports the world-wide growth of an everlasting kingdom).

In both cases, God speaks. The contrast is not between prophets and angels themselves speaking in the old and the Son speaking in the new. The contrast is that God spoke by prophets and angels in the old. And he has now spoken by his Son in the new. Think book publishing. There is an author from whom the word originates and there is a publisher of that word.

Paul says in Galatians 3:19 that the law was “ordained by angels.” God spoke the law by these angels on Mount Sinai. John Owen said these angles “raised the fire and smoke; they shook and rent the rocks; they framed the sound of the trumpet . . . and therein proclaimed and published the law.” Not many men would not complain about having an angel as his publisher. That’s a sure word.

How much more then ought we to take confidence in the word published by the Son of God, the Word made flesh? Take this to heart. Man often cast his doubts in a humble light, “I just don’t know. I haven’t quite made up my mind, still exploring.” We often do the same with anxiety. But the doubting man and anxious woman do not doubt an idea. They do not doubt a sentence in the sky. They doubt a person, and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the only way to snap out of your worrisome unbelief. God the Father says, “This is my beloved Son, Listen to him!” God said that on the mount as Jesus was transfigured and his face shone as the sun. And his face still shines today. So, hear him. He’s the Living Christ. Hear him.

The only appropriate response to this word from God is that of the disciples on that mount, “The fell on their face and were sore afraid” (Matthew 17:6). That’s it. No more huffing and puffing, no more what-iffing. Hear him and fall on your face in fear.

THE ETERNAL THRONE AND KINGDOM

We have every reason to because this Christ through whom God speaks to us not only purged our sin. He not only ushered in the new covenant era. And he not only is superior to prophets and angels. He has been raised up and seated on an eternal throne (ch. 1:8). And he is a happy king, anointed with the oil of gladness.

This king rules over his kingdom. And here is glory, you are in that kingdom. Look around, you are fellow members in that kingdom. And the kingdom that we find ourselves in will be around after Christ folds up the heavens like a curtain on moving day. The Palouse hills will be wrapped up like a bed sheet. And the kingdom we are in right now will still be here. And the King of this kingdom will still be here.

Do you feel shaky? That’s because things are being shaken. Well who is doing the shaking? God is. He says so in this very book, “Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven” (Hebrews 12:26). Do you feel breakable like a clay pot? That’s because you are a clay pot. Do you feel like a brick that could be pulverized if dropped from too high up? That’s because you are a brick. You are a brick being placed one upon another. And you are a dwelling place for God. The designer and builder of this house is God. He is building this eternal kingdom and we are receiving it even now, “And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:27-28).

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Militant Hospitality

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INTRODUCTION

We live in a day when human interaction is too often mediated via screens & satellites. The scheming of wicked men aim to further isolate us, control us, and convince us it is all for our health & safety. Christian hospitality, in this era and all others, is an act of war on the rebel city of Man.

THE TEXTS

He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed; for he giveth of his bread to the poor (Prov. 22:9).

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares (Heb. 13:2).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The Proverbs give wisdom in riddle. The godly son is set to the task of searching out that wisdom. This Proverb offers a counterintuitive lesson. Give your bread away & receive blessing. If your eye is set on generosity, you find that by giving away your bread, blessings end up in your barn, cupboards, bed, and offspring. This is a Solomonic way of saying to save your life you must lose it, but if you lose it, you gain it. Wisdom knows that wealth isn’t increased by hoarding, but by generosity and prudent investment.

Two observations can be made about this brief admonition in Hebrews. First, Christians are told to not forget this duty. It’s easy to let days & weeks go by without opening your home to others. Thus, we’re warned of how easily we forget to wield this potent weapon. Second, this hospitality is to be shown particularly to strangers. The admonishment is to be a “lover of strangers;” exemplified by faithful saints hosting angelic messengers on significant redemptive errands.
The OT episodes in view are when the Lord Himself visits Abraham, along with two angels; Abraham responds with hasty but generous hospitality. The two angels then proceed to Sodom for its destruction; but first Lot, like his uncle, bring the angels into his home to show them godly hospitality––only later discovering their angelic nature (Gen. 18-19). Samson’s parents, likewise, spread a feast for a guest that they only later discover to be an angelic messenger announcing a miraculous conception (Jdg. 13). By hosting a stranger, the implication is that you might, though unaware of it at the time, be used in God’s providence to bring about a happy turn of history.

Putting this together, Scripture repeatedly admonishes the saints to practice a generous hospitality. In so doing we find that in giving away of our substance, blessing sneaks back in through the back door to bless not only us but the whole world.

HOSPITALITY: THE OVERLOOKED VIRTUE

Taking a step back, hospitality isn’t a peripheral activity for Christians. It isn’t an optional add-on. Throughout Scripture we are taught to practice the virtue of being hospitable to the stranger. We see this in Moses’ Law, which carved out numerous provisions for how the stranger was to be treated, and why he should be treated with generosity and charity (Ex. 22:10, 23:9; Lev. 19:10, 33, 24:22; Deu. 10:18-19). The stranger, however, wasn’t permitted to violate Israelite Law (Lev. 24:16). But he was most welcome to come in and enjoy the blessings of the covenant community whether permanently (Ex. 12:48, Num. 9:14) or only for a time of sojourning (e.g. Jethro, Naaman, Ruth).

In the NT a requirement laid on elders is that they be given to & love hospitality (1 Tim. 3:2, Tit. 1:8). Likewise, hospitality must be demonstrably present to consider enrolling a widow-indeed (1 Tim. 5:10). Saints are often admonished to remember this good work (Rom. 12:13, 1 Pt. 4:9, Acts. 20:35). Paul describes Gaius as “my host (stranger).” Apparently, hosting strangers & being hosted by a stranger were both expressions of “loving the stranger (Rom. 16:23).” In this regard, Christians endeavoring to be hospitable must learn to be both a good host & a good guest.

MARXIST MARBLES

The “pronoun-invention-Olympics” are merely a symptom of a deeper disease. Rampant individualism has so infected modern man that he’s invented new ways to be isolated. The pursuit of self-expression has entered a new mutation where whatever imagined identity someone wishes to attach to themselves must be affirmed, acknowledged, applauded. Modern man demands that society look like a Venn Diagram of a billion circles, none of which overlap, but which are all encompassed by the State.

Like the London air-raids, the Sexual Revolution, in particular, bombarded all the lawful covenantal bonds. This has left us like a drawer full of marbles, shaken by whatever whims are found in the heart of the WEF, UN, or Social Media CEOs.

Thus, Christian hospitality isn’t simply backyard BBQs. Our hospitality opens the door to isolated, lonely, wandering souls––in many cases with mutilated bodies, haunted by having butchered their offspring, and perverted with a pornified mind––into the warmth of our fellowship with God. And from that union with God, the stranger is brought into our covenantal joy in each other. Our hospitality is militant.

HOSPITALITY AS SACRIFICE

It should be noted that hospitality requires sacrifice. In the OT stories mentioned earlier, the animal was slain to feed the guests. The act of opening your home, pantry, and wine cellar is sacrificial. In the words of Charles Bridges, “Sacrifice, not convenience, is God’s acceptable service.”

However, you don’t have a right to others’ sacrifice. There’s a certain approach to hospitality that imagines that to counteract the poison of individualism all distinctions between individuals must be erased. This is what the cancer cell does. It cannot stay within the confines of its own cell walls, and must invade & overtake every other cell in the system.

Hospitality, while a sacrifice, is still a gift. As such, the glory comes from it being freely, and sacrificially, given. There’s no glory in jack-booted thugs forcing you to house enemy soldiers. But there are many instances of great saints in history who opened their homes, and the case could be made that without their sacrifice we wouldn’t know the names of men like Luther, Calvin, or Tyndale.

NUTS & BOLTS

Do you have a table? Then you can show hospitality. Find recipes that feed multitudes, that don’t break the bank, but taste like you did. Learn to ask good questions & listen intently. Remember names & backgrounds. Knock out a wall if need be. Scrounge for folding chairs by the dozen.

How the buffet line should flow in your home differs from another Christian home. The method is indifferent, but the principle is that Christian homes should be regular hubs of hospitality. This militant hospitality means your home will sometimes have folks in it who don’t have good manners, might be a bit rough around the edges, and need to be brought along firmly but gently. Remember, selfish guests & grumpy hosts are alike a perverse Gospel.

All this requires diligence, patience, and creativity. As with any skill, it takes time to get good at it. The French proverb gets the idea, “You can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs.” It’ll be messy. Stains will be left behind. But you’re waging war, what did you expect?

STRANGERS NO MORE

Paul tells the Ephesians that while they were once strangers, through the cross they are strangers no more (Eph. 2:19). Jesus tells us that by hospitality to the least of these, we feed, clothe, and serve Christ Himself (Mt. 25:40). Has Christ welcomed You to the Father’s table? Then come. Afterwards, go & imitate Your Father who opens His doors wide, piles the table high, with extra scoops of ice cream all around.

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The Spirit Raises the Letter to Life (Authentic Ministry #6)

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INTRODUCTION

We are now coming to a passage that teaches us where the spiritual action really is. Do you want to be right with God? It is not going to happen because you got all your papers in order, and then got them stamped. “Right with God” is a judicial category, but not a bureaucratic one.

We must learn two things. The letter kills and the Spirit gives life. But secondly, the Spirit gives life to the letter. We must have two things; we must have a new covenant, and we must have a new heart. And all these things go together.

THE TEXT

“Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” (2 Corinthians 3:1–6).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Paul asks, “Are you really going to make me talk about myself? Are you going to make me address things that you already know” (v. 1)? Do the Corinthians think he needs a letter of recommendation (like some people Paul could mention)? What are they talking about? Paul says that they are his walking, living, breathing letter of recommendation (v. 2), written on the hearts of the apostolic company. The tablets were hearts, but the manner of writing was not ink for papyrus, and not a chisel for stone, but rather the writing utensil was the Spirit of God (v. 3). Paul then states his confidence (v. 4), which is toward God in Christ. The same Paul who just a few sentences before had cried out who is sufficient? now says that while he is not sufficient in himself, he is nevertheless sufficient through God (v. 5). God is the one who has made him a minister of the new covenant—not of the letter, but of the Spirit. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (v. 6).

GANDALF AND THE BALROG

Every finite servant of God has a breaking point. That is what it means to be finite. And because God tests His servants, He takes them right up to that limit. Why? Well, remember what we saw in the first chapter— “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9). God wants to squeeze all the self-sufficiency out of His servants. “You, my son, are still entirely too perky.” Some men are too talented to use, but absolutely no one is too weak to use. Did Jeremiah feel sufficient (Jer. 1:6)? Did Moses feel sufficient (Ex. 4:10-17)? Did Ezekiel feel sufficient (Eze. 1:1-3:11)? Did Gideon feel sufficient (Judg. 6:15)? Did Isaiah feel sufficient (Is. 6:1-7)? Did Paul feel sufficient (v. 16)? Who is sufficient for these things?

But by the same token, and for this reason, we see that Paul had supreme confidence in his sufficiency in Christ. “Our sufficiency is of God” (v. 5). In other words, when you come to the end of yourself, you have not come to the end of Christ.

THE FINGER OF GOD

Paul says here that the letter he is talking about was inscribed by the Holy Spirit himself. Now the Holy Spirit is equated in Scripture with the finger of God. “But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.” (Luke 11:20). “But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” (Matt. 12:28).

But who inscribed the Ten Commandments on the tablets of stone?

“And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18; Dt. 9:10).

THE LETTER KILLS

So the problem with “letters that kill” is not the fact that they are letters. The letters written on our hearts are letters. And the problem with “these letters that kill” is not who wrote them. The Spirit is the one who wrote them on the tablets of stone. The difficulty is where the letters are written. When they are written on stone, external to the sinner, they do nothing but condemn, and the truer they are, the more condemnation they bring. When the law is “out there,” the law is my adversary.

So the external letter kills, but the Spirit brings life. But one of the things the Spirit brings life to is the letter. He does this by inscribing His letters on the human heart.

There are two fundamental features of the new covenant, the covenant that occupies such a large part of Paul’s argument here. Jeremiah’s promise of the new covenant is quoted in full in Hebrews 8 (Heb. 8:8-12; Jer. 31:31-34). But when it is quoted again two chapters later, the pull quotes highlight the two great features of the new covenant. They are, first, that the new covenant brings forgiveness of sin (Heb. 10:17), and second, the new covenant brings an internalization of the law (Heb. 10:16). And that’s what we are talking about here.

When God writes His law on our hearts, something remarkable happens. Not only is thou shalt love thy brother written on your heart, your brother is also written on your heart. Remember that Paul begins this section by saying that the Corinthians were written on his heart.

When the law is internalized, this brings the sinner to life. And when the law is internalized, this brings the letters to life. What happened to the handwriting of ordinances that was against us? God gathered them up and nailed them to the cross (Col. 2:14). But what happens to anything that is nailed to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ? That is right—it rises from the dead. The only thing that doesn’t rise again is the sin itself. But the law? The condemnation? The black despair of never being good enough? The accusations? All of that is “nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh, my soul.”

That law that used to condemn you is raised again with you, and is now your liberty, your refreshment, your pleasant instructor. His name is Jesus Christ.

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Another Rest

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THE TEXT

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:

“So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ”

although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”

6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.”

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast ourconfession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4 NKJV).

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