Romans Archives - Page 2 of 25

Wine to Make Glad and Bread to Make Strong (Troy)

Grace Sensing on April 14, 2024

The Text:

Romans 14

The Resurrection of the World

Grace Sensing on March 31, 2024

INTRODUCTION

Two thousand years ago, a man who had been wickedly betrayed by the religious authorities, murderously crucified by the Roman civil authorities, did the unthinkable by rising from the dead. This was God’s plan from the beginning, and the Lord Jesus knew that this was the plan.

“Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:17–18).

And when Jesus took up His life again, He was taking up absolute dominion. A man who dies and comes back to life again in history is the Lord of history. And this has enormous ramifications.

THE TEXT

“But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11).

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 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. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:18-23).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Not only did Jesus take up His life again, but He did this in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit raised up Jesus from the dead (Rom. 8:11). Paul’s point here is that the Spirit who accomplished this extraordinary thing is the same Spirit who dwells within Christians. The Spirit who did it once indwells the believer now, and that indwelling is itself a promise and commitment. That Spirit will quicken “your mortal bodies.” Note that the Spirit is going to do something to the mortal bodies of these Roman believers. These are the bodies that they had then, but which are now dead and gone. The Spirit is going to raise those mortal bodies. It does not say He will give them different bodies up in Heaven.

And a few verses down from this, Paul teaches us to compare our present state with our future state. Take our current trials, afflictions, suffering, and woes, and they are not even worth comparing to the glory that is coming, and that will be revealed in us (v. 18). This present time is being compared to a future time. All creation has an earnest expectation that it longs for, and that longing is for the manifestation of the sons of God (v. 19). What does that mean? It refers to the general resurrection of the dead. The created order was subjected to vanity, not because that was desired by the creation, but rather because of God’s reasons—He is the one who bound up the creation “to vanity” so that this created order would learn to long in hope (v. 20). When the sons of God are manifested fully at their final adoption (e.g. the general resurrection), then the creation itself will be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God (v. 21). The creation is pregnant with resurrection, and groans and travails in its labor (v. 22). She groans and travails in pain [synodino, birth pangs], longing for the delivery of a new order. There are three that groan all together—the Spirit does (v. 26), the creation does (v. 22), and we who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan (v. 23). All the groans are teleological—they are aimed at one thing, which is our final adoption in the resurrection. We groan toward that final adoption (Eph. 1:5), which is to say, the redemption of our bodies (v. 23).

HYPER-PARTIAL PRETERISM?

You have been taught by us that many of the prophecies in the Bible that are popularly assigned to the end of the world are actually prophecies about the end of Jerusalem and the Judaic aeon. This is true regarding many such prophecies (e.g. Matt. 24:29), but there are some who have fallen into the trap of thinking that “if one’s good, then two’s better.” They move all biblical prophecies into that category, a position which is variously called hyper-preterism, or full preterism. The perspective we teach is called partial preterism, although I must confess that I was recently called a hyper-partial preterist, which is what might be noted to be an oxymoronic and meaningless taunt.

Now the full preterist position does not just alter the timing of a few things, but rather alters the entire architecture of biblical faith, to such an extent that it has to be called a different faith altogether. For example: physical death is not a result of the fall, Christ’s bodily resurrection was the only one (the sole exception), sin remains an eternal feature of time, history has no telos point, we don’t go forward, but rather we just go “upstairs,” and many other distinctives. These are two completely distinct systems of thought, which is why full preterism is rejected as heretical. But the systems are so different that this actually needs to be acknowledged in both directions—the rejection ought to be mutual. If full preterism were correct, all orthodox theology would need to be written off. The only reason they don’t do this is because that would be off-putting to potential recruits, and they need to fish in orthodox waters (Acts 20:29-31).

THE HOPE OF THIS WORLD

Faithful Jews knew that there was going to be a resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The Pharisees held to this belief, while the Sadducees denied it (Acts 23:8). Martha was a good representative of this faith, when she confessed to the Lord that she knew that Lazarus was going to be raised eventually, at the last day (John 11:24). This is the basic structure of faith—this decrepit world is nevertheless pregnant with glory, and the day of delivery will eventually come. God in His mercy determined to give us a foretaste of this final glory by raising up Christ, the first fruits of that final consummation, and to do this in the middle of human history. This testifies to us that what happened to Him will happen to us, and what will happen to us will happen to the entire created order. The Spirit has been given to us, and He was given to us as an earnest payment (1 Cor. 1:22; 5:5). “Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:14). The redemption of the purchased possession is the general resurrection of the dead.

So as we commemorate the resurrection hope of Easter to the end of the world one of the corollaries is that there will be an end of the world.

The Majesty of God (What is “Reformed” Anyway? #1) (King’s Cross)

Grace Sensing on January 28, 2024

INTRODUCTION

As a newer congregation with many newer folks, I want to spend the next few weeks going over some of the basics of what mean when we say we are “Reformed.” Historically, this name goes back to the Protestant Reformation of the 16^th century, but it is fundamentally based on the supremacy of God, revealed in Scripture, as the perfect Word of God. To say we are Reformed is to say that we want everything we think, say, or do to be God-centered and obedient to His Word. This is not to say that we have arrived, but it is to say that He is worthy.

As we do this, we really do want to stand in the “old paths” and hold fast to the “faith once delivered for the saints,” but we want to actually live in this glorious house and not merely become the next museum curators. Or to change the metaphor, we want to fire these cannons at real, modern enemies, not merely polish them and rehearse how they were once used in the glory days of yore.

The Text: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!…” (Rom. 11:33-36).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Having defended the absolute sovereignty of God over salvation, and arguing for both the salvation of the Jews and the Gentiles, the apostle breaks into this doxology of praise for God’s wisdom and knowledge and judgments (Rom. 11:33). Specifically, this wisdom is unsearchable and past finding out (Rom. 11:33). And Paul poses three rhetorical questions to explain what he means: Who has known what God is thinking? (Answer: Nobody). Who has taught God anything? (Answer: No one). Or who has given God anything such that God owed them anything? (Again: Nobody ever) (Rom. 11:34-35). And the doxology closes with the insistence that everything is from God, through God, and for God, and therefore all glory and praise and honor for all things belongs to Him, and Amen (Rom. 11:36).

THE “GOODNESS” OF GOD

When we say that want all that we do to be God-centered and obedient to Him, it is important to define which God we are talking about. Instead of worshiping the true and living God, human beings are constantly twisting pieces of creation into idols that we call “the true God,” and center everything around that false god. Remember, Aaron called the golden calf, the “god who brought you out of Egypt” (Ex. 32:4). But many who say, “Lord, Lord” to Jesus do not actually know Him, and Christ says that He will say to them, “Depart from Me, I never knew you” (Mt. 7:21-23). Christ says that the difference is between those who obey Him and those who do not. True obedience requires a deep and abiding humility: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is. 55:8-9). This is what we might call the “Godness” of God, His absolute lordship.

God is the “I am,” the Lord of Heaven and Earth, their Maker, their Governor, and He does whatever He pleases (Ex. 3:14-15, Ps. 115:3, 135:6). “And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Dan. 4:35, cf. Rom. 9:15-20).

THE GREATNESS OF GOD AND MAN

Sinful men naturally think that the higher the view of God the smaller and more insignificant the view of man. This was the offer of the serpent: Demote the Word of God in order to be promoted to Godlike wisdom. The slander is that God is greedy with His greatness, holding us back, and therefore, such a high view of God turns Him and anyone who worships Him into a moral monster, withholding good and therefore crushing human beings. But the exact opposite is actually the case: every attempt to pull God down always results in the degradation of creation. It is the utter transcendence of God that makes God able to condescend to man freely for our good. But this transcendence is His utter sovereignty and freedom and our absolute dependence (Acts 17:28). Man stands the tallest when He lies prostrate before His Maker: “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Pet. 5:5-6). But if you stand on your tiptoes trying to be great, trying to pull God down, demanding your life, you will only lose it.

APPLICATIONS

God is Lord of Creation: Nature is not infinitely malleable: male and female, human sexuality, sin and righteousness, good and evil. You cannot redefine marriage as any sleeping arrangement. You cannot redefine justice as whatever the human judges decree. You cannot rename theft as taxes and government programs. He is Lord of all things because “of him and through him and to him are all things” (Rom. 11:36).

God is the Lord of lords: All human authority is derived from the Lord Jesus, who was given all authority in Heaven and on earth at His resurrection and ascension (Mt. 28:18). This means that all human authority is limited. Only God has absolute, unlimited authority. Therefore, no human authority is free to change, usurp, or abdicate the assignments God has given: family – health, welfare, and education (Dt. 6, Eph. 5-6, 1 Tim. 5); church – word, sacrament, worship (Mt. 16, 18, 28); state – punishing crime (Rom. 13). In our day, family and church governments have largely abdicated their assignments, and civil government has usurped its assignment, with a myriad of self-deifying “programs,” in direct defiance of the Living God.

Worthy is the Lamb: When finite human beings are granted a vision of the greatness and majesty of God it is humbling, but it is a joyful humility, a doxological humility that breaks out in grateful praise and worship. Every form of idolatry is a crushing weight, but submission to the Lord of Heaven and Earth in deep gratitude is what we were made for and sets us free. Because God is Lord of all, we are free to just be people. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing” (Rev. 5:12).

The Politics of Christmas (Advent Grab Bag #1) (King’s Cross)

Christ Church on December 3, 2023

INTRODUCTION

As is our custom, we began using the Definition of Chalcedon this morning for our Creed, which was adopted and published in 451 A.D. The purpose of the Definition was to further defend the full divinity and humanity of Christ from several heresies, while preserving the Creator-creature distinction.

All non-Christian societies are fundamentally what Peter Jones calls “oneist.” Oneism teaches that everything is essentially one, part of the same basic substance, and therefore oneism is pantheistic. Christianity is the lone religion in the world that teaches “twoism,” that there are fundamentally two different realities: God and everything else. This has profound implications for all of life, including how we think about politics and power.

The Texts: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things” (Rom. 1:21-23).

“Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end” (Ps. 102:25-27).

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXTS

The center of human rebellion is the refusal to acknowledge God as He truly is and that is “uncorruptible” and utterly unlike anything in creation, all of which is “corruptible,” and refusing to be thankful for this reality, people become foolish idolaters (Rom. 1:21-23). Likewise, Psalm 102 describes God as the Creator of all things in heaven and on earth, and the difference between the Creator and His creation is that creation perishes, wears out, and changes, but the Creator endures, remains the same, and has no end (Ps. 102:25-27). Finally, the Bible says there is only one God and one mediator between God and man: Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5).

THE COUNCILS & HERESIES

Leading up to the Council of Nicaea in 325, a pastor named Arius taught that Jesus was not fully God, but rather was a man who was very much like God. Arius taught that there was “a time” (so to speak) when the Son was not. He said, the Son had a beginning. Athanasius and others argued that Christ was fully God and was therefore of the “same substance” with the Father (“homoousias”). The later Arians would say that Christ had a “similar substance” with the Father (“homoiousias”). This really is a watershed issue. If Jesus is merely the highest created being, the most exalted creature, right next to God, then the Creator-creature divide has collapsed. Instead of the infinite chasm between God and His creation that the Bible teaches, there is a ladder, a hierarchy or gradation of “being” that may ascend to Godhead.

The Council of Nicaea concluded that Athanasius was correct and published the Nicene Creed which affirms that Christ is fully God and fully man, eternally begotten, “not made,” and of the same substance with the Father. The Council of Chalcedon came along in 451 and further nailed the coffin shut on Arianism (and other Christological heresies), insisting that the Divine and human natures come together in Christ “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.” While this might seem esoteric or pedantic, it really is glorious. It is saying that the Creator-creation distinction remains intact even in the one mediator between God and man. There is no hierarchy of being ascending and merging into God. There is only God and everything else, and Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and everything else, and in His person, those two natures are united “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation, the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union.”

CHALCEDONIAN POLITICS

The political ramifications for this are enormous. The tendency of all cultures dedicated to “oneism” is toward the Tower of Babel: consolidating global resources and power in an effort to ascend to Heaven, whether literally or simply by achieving heaven/utopia. This process always includes leaders claiming the authority of God/gods. In the ancient world, Pharaoh was the human representative of the sun god, Ra, and in Rome, Caesar was hailed as the divine “lord” and son of Jupiter. When the early Christians acclaimed Jesus as “Lord” and “Son of God,” this was in direct defiance of the emperor cult. Later, when the Roman Pope claimed to be the universal pontiff and exercised massive political power, it was somewhat based on the supposed authority to change bread and wine into the flesh and blood of God. Political power has often been exercised under the guise of unlimited divine power. But the Biblical religion has always insisted that all authority comes from God and is therefore “under God” and limited by God and His Word. While modern governments have not yet had the audacity to openly claim this divinity, this hasn’t stopped them from acting like it in their totalitarian claims on our property, income, children, and healthcare.

APPLICATIONS

What we are celebrating at Christmas is not only our eternal salvation but also freedom from every kind of tyranny, beginning with death itself, but also sin, the Devil, and all Satanic manipulation, oppression, and power grabs. The state is not God, nor is it the mediator between God and man. And no one can ascend to God or Heaven. The One born in Bethlehem, He is the eternal Son of God, the Lord and only mediator between God and Man. All earthly authorities answer to Him. Christmas means limited government.

And this is why the Kingdom goes forth as proclamation, baptism, communion, and worship. There is nothing that we can do to ascend to God in Heaven. There is no way for us to cross that chasm, and our sin only makes the distance greater. Only God can come to us, and so He has.

The Word of No Condemnation (King’s Cross)

Christ Church on October 29, 2023

INTRODUCTION

As we mark and celebrate the great work of the Spirit that we call the Protestant Reformation, we need to be mindful of remembering two things. The first is that we must recall the gospel of liberating grace, the gospel that is perennial good news, always good news. Sinners always need to able to hear the message of “no condemnation.” Secondly, we need to take care that we do not turn that glorious doctrine into a museum piece. The gospel is a message of forgiveness for any sin, and it is consequently therefore a message of truth that answers every lie—especially the lie that is current in our day.

THE TEXT

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1–4).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

Given the sweep of Paul’s argument in Romans thus far, we see that those who have looked to Christ Jesus in faith are therefore in Christ Jesus by faith. And if they are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation for them (v. 1). Walking by the Spirit, they find themselves liberated from the law of sin and death (v. 2). The law could not bring no condemnation, because of the weakness of our flesh, the law could only bring condemnation (v. 3). But what the law could not do, God did by sending His incarnate Son who was then condemned in the flesh (v. 3). There is now no condemnation for us in Christ because in Christ the condemnation is already past and accomplished (v. 3). The condemnation is completed, over, done. This means that we can walk in righteousness without fear, in the Spirit (v. 4).

WHAT THIS MEANT FIVE CENTURIES AGO

The gospel really is good news. It means release for the captives (Luke 4:18). It means life from the dead (Eph. 2:1). It means sight for the blind (Luke 4:18). It means the sleeper awakes (Eph. 5:14). It means a binding up of the brokenhearted (Is. 61:1). It means the downtrodden are set free (Luke 4:18). It means the dungeon doors swing open (Rom. 6:14).

C.S. Lewis described this wonderfully:

“All the initiative has been on God’s side; all has been free, unbounded grace. And all will continue to be free, unbounded grace. His own puny and ridiculous efforts would be as helpless to retain the joy as they would have been to achieve it in the first place. Fortunately they need not. Bliss is not for sale, cannot be earned. ‘Works’ have no ‘merit’, though of course faith, inevitably, even unconsciously, flows out into works of love at once. He is not saved because he does works of love: he does works of love because he is saved. It is faith alone that has saved him: faith bestowed by sheer gift. From this buoyant humility, this farewell to the self with all its good resolutions, anxiety, scruples, and motive-scratchings, all the Protestant doctrines originally sprang” (English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, p. 33).

THIS MEANS THE SAME THING TODAY

The errors against which our Reformation fathers protested were ancient errors. The merit-mongering of Rome was the great-granddaughter of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and so for those steeped in the Scriptures, it was a familiar foe. All of it was a deadly mixture of truth, hypocrisy, and poisonous lies, but we were on familiar territory.

Sin is still sin, guilt is still guilt, the cross is still the cross, and gospel preaching still brings liberation to sinners, one at a time. That is all still the case, but we are also into some new territory. The rebellion against God among our ruling elites is far advanced, and so we must learn to apply the doctrine of free grace in the ways that the sons of Issachar would (1 Chron. 12:32). This gospel of free grace means no less than it did five centuries ago, but our opportunities to apply and extend the goodness of God are much greater than before. What do I mean?

Why did so many refuse to condemn the recent atrocities committed by Hamas? They were trying to apply their counterfeit doctrine of justification. They were trying to say no condemnation, regardless of what the terrorists may have done. This is a ten-cent knock off of the Christian gospel, but at least they were attempting it. This is the source of what we see as the double standards of the left. They say that they can do certain things and we cannot because they are justified, and we are not justified. It is their version of no condemnation.

SO COMPARE & CONTRAST

The potency of the Christian gospel of no condemnation is anchored in three basic truths. One, it is a word from outside human history. Our salvation has a transcendental foundation. The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Our salvation is grounded in a transcendental election. Second, this word of no condemnation was purchased for us through the precious blood of Christ, the blood of the everlasting covenant (1 Pet. 1:18-19). This salvation was purchased for us, and we own it free and clear. Our salvation was not loaned to us. And third, this salvation of sinners was accomplished by a Savior who remained absolutely just. He is the one who justifies, but He is also just (Rom. 3:26). This salvation of the unholy is actually a holy salvation.

Compare this to the spurious justification offered by the world. They promise us a no condemnation, but terms and conditions may apply. First, everything they offer arises from inside the world. They have nothing else to offer. But without an infinite reference point, everything within the world is simply absurd. This includes all justifications and condemnations. Secondly, they have no efficacious sacrifice. The only blood they can provide is the blood of others, which they do abundantly. The Lord taught believers to say “my life for yours.” But theirs is the way of “your life for mine.” And last, those who devise humanistic ways of salvation are not holy themselves, and so all they can do is rearrange the furniture of their unholiness. Water cannot rise above its own level, and this applies to their fetid swamps as much as any other water.

I have often reminded you that it is Christ or chaos. But we should expand it a bit. It is Christ and no condemnation, on the one hand, or the chaos of bitter and rancid guilt on the other. So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.