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501 Years of Sola Scriptura
Christ Church on October 28, 2018
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500 Years of Cumulative Grace

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Introduction

So we have now come to the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. What I want to do is briefly remind you of certain key elements in that Reformation, and then address the meaning of time and anniversaries. What are we doing when we commemorate things like this? Recall that 500 years is eight percent of human history.

The Text

“The days of our years are threescore years and ten; And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, Yet is their strength labour and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. So teach us to number our days, That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Return, O LORD, how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants. O satisfy us early with thy mercy; That we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, And the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, And thy glory unto their children. And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: And establish thou the work of our hands upon us; Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it” (Ps. 90:10–17).

Summary of the Text

On average, we are assigned 70 years (v. 10), and 80 by reason of strength sometimes (v. 10). But even in that strength there is labor, sorrow and vanity. It is soon cut off, and we fly away (v. 10). We have this struggle because of the anger of God. When God withholds His hand, we run riot. But when God chastises, it often seems to land heavily on the ones who acknowledge Him (v. 11; Heb. 12:6). “And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been . . .” (Gen. 47:9). It cannot be denied that God frequently loads up His favorites with troubles, but there is a purpose in it. Our response should be—and here is our point—to request that God use it all to teach us about time. Teach us to number our days so that we might behave with wisdom (v. 12). Though God has good purposes in loading us up, we are still within bounds to ask Him to stay His hand (v. 13). In the midst of all our labor and sorrow, if God grants our request then we will rejoice and be glad all our days (v. 14). Our request ascends to the pinnacle of faith—make us glad according to the days of our affliction (v. 15). We pray that God would show His work to His servants and to their children (v. 16). Remember that children and grandchildren are one of the central ways for us to number our days across generations. And then, with all of this in mind, may the beauty of the Lord rest upon us. May His beauty adorn our labor, sorrow, affliction and gladness, and consequently establish it (v. 17).

A Reminder of the Solas

One wiseacre once asked why they are called solas—since there are five of them. But if you meditate on them in wisdom, you see instantly how they all harmonize in one gospel. It is no more a contradiction than Paul’s statement that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”

We believe in sola Scriptura. This means that Scripture is our only infallible and ultimate authority. We believe in sola fide, which means that we are saved through the sole instrument of faith in Jesus Christ. We affirm sola gratia, which teaches us that it is the grace of God alone that moved Him to save us—nothing that we did. We have one Savior—solus Christus—Jesus Christ alone is our deliverance. And all of these together redound to the glory of God alone—soli Deo gloria.

This is right at the heart of what was recovered in the Reformation. It is all about gospel, all about Jesus, all about the Bible, and all about the salvation of sinful men. This is it; this is our central business. But once it has done its work, what is this central business supposed to affect? The answer is everything.

Numbering Our Days

So you have numbered your days. But what fills up your days? Sweeping the floor. Working on legal briefs. Writing code. Writing novels. Changing diapers. Driving a bus. Washing windows. Teaching children. Managing an office. Filing papers. Answering the phone. Swinging a hammer. Studying at college. Emptying the trash. Counseling people. Painting pictures. Painting houses. Doing graphic design. Troubleshooting computers. Laying asphalt. Manufacturing breakfast cereal. Making movies. Deep frying French fries.

Now to a certain kind of “spiritual-mindedness,” given what He assigns to us, it would seem that God is not very high-minded. Now this is quite true. Our notions of true spirituality and His often vary. “That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). Remember that He is the one who thought up a Messiah in a manger, and a Savior nailed to a tree. No, He is not high-minded.

“For thus saith the high and lofty One That inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Is. 57:15).

God is the high and lofty one. He is the one who inhabits eternity. His name is ultimate holiness. He dwells in the high and holy place. And where else does He dwell? He dwells with the lowly. God’s calculus of worthwhileness is not the same as ours.

The Doctrine of Vocation

One of the principle fruits of the Reformation was the restoration of dignity to the work of the ordinary man and woman. A milkmaid is as called to her vocation as a minister is to his. We are not divided into a two-tier system—where the clerics are holy, and a grubby laity pay the bills. A gospel that reaches down to every person has the effect of lifting up every person. And this is why—for just one more bit of Latin—we are enabled to live out every aspect of our lives coram Deo, before God.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom. 12:1–2).

“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

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Blessed with Every Blessing (Reformation Sunday 2013)

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

Ephesians is Paul’s greatest work on the church, the body and bride of Christ. It was John Calvin’s favorite and F.F. Bruce regarded it as ‘the quintessence of Paulinism’ because it ‘in large measure sums up the leading themes of the Pauline letters, and sets forth the cosmic implications of Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles.’ Ephesians bears strong resemblance to Colossians and was likely written at the same time while Paul was in prison in Rome (Acts 28:30) and sent by the hand of Tychicus (Eph. 6:21-22; Col. 4:7-9). While the sufficiency of Christ’s work is central to Colossians, Ephesians is dedicated to Paul’s message that God’s new society, the Church, is a manifestation of the cosmic reconciliation and unity of Christ’s work proclaimed in the gospel. This is why Paul always moves from the indicative to the imperative, rooting what we are called to do in the firm ground of what Christ has already done. The very structure of Ephesians proclaims the God-centeredness of Paul’s theology

The Gift of the Father (vs.1-6)

The Father gives every blessing that belongs to the Spirit in the person of His beloved Son. To speak of the Father as the source of every blessing is to immediately draw attention to the procession and work of the Son and the Spirit. They are the glory of the Father ( John 17:6-10, 20-24). The Father gives every blessing that belongs to the Spirit in the person of His beloved Son. To speak of the Father as the source of every blessing is to immediately draw attention to the procession and work of the Son and the Spirit. They are the glory of the Father ( John 17:6-10, 20-24). The Father’s gift of Himself to His Son and to those who are “in Him” through the gift of the Spirit is His glory. This brings Jesus’ words to his disciples into sharp focus: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Why is it glorious to give our lives away? Because we bear the image of the One whose glory is to be perfectly generous with His life. Notice how election and predestination are grounded in the Father’s generosity: (vs. 4) He chose us to be holy and blameless, (vs. 5) He predestined us for adoption as sons, and both are to the praise of his glorious grace (vs. 6).

Reconciled by the Son (vs. 7-12)

The purpose of the Father’s gift of every blessing is headed toward an ultimate goal: The summing up of all things in Christ. Not only are redemption and the forgiveness of sins given to us in Christ, but He is the revelation and fulfillment of the Father’s plan to sum up/reconcile all things in Him whether on earth or in heaven. Since our first parents sin in Genesis, death has meant that everything falls apart: Our relationships, our loves, our bodies, our work, and our world. This is what the exile of death means. Yeats captures this futility well: “Turning and turning in the widening gyre / The falcon cannot hear the falconer; / Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned.” The mystery of his will (vs. 9), which has now been made known to us, is the Father’s kind intention to “sum up” and put right all of the separation, alienation, and exile of our sin. But in order for that to take place, Jesus had to be pulled apart that we might be healed (Is. 53:5). Colossians 1:19-22 brings all of these elements together: “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.”

Sealed by the Spirit (vs. 13-14)

The first sign of this cosmic reconciliation is the gift of the Spirit who comes as a seal and a pledge of Christ’s work. In the Greco-Roman world a seal was a mark of ownership that implied a promise of protection. A master would brand his possessions with his seal to protect them from theft. In the OT, God places a sign on his people to distinguish them as His possession and protect them from destruction (Ezek. 9:4-6). In the same way, the Spirit is given to mark us as God’s inheritance (vs. 11) and to give us confidence that nothing can separate us from him (Rom. 8:31-39). At the same time, the Spirit is also a pledge or guarantee of our inheritance. He is the “down payment” who gives us a foretaste of the New Creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and who is the promise that we will obtain full possession of it.

Freedom and the Reformation

The mind-blowing truth of this opening section of Ephesians is that God has chosen us as His inheritance and He has given Himself to us as our inheritance. The freeness of God’s gift by which we are chosen, called, justified, sanctified and glorified (Rom. 8:28-30) is the gift of God Himself. All of it is found in Christ and all of it is a gift of free grace (Eph. 2:8-10). That’s the good news of the Gospel and the heart of the Reformation. Martin Luther beautifully expresses in The Freedom of the Christian Man:

“Christ, that rich and pious husband, takes as a wife a needy and impious harlot, redeeming her from all her evils, and supplying her with all his good things. It is impossible now that her sins should destroy her, since they have been laid upon Christ and swallowed up in Him, and since she has in her husband Christ a righteousness which she may claim as her own, and which she can set up with confidence against all her sins, against death and hell, saying: “If I have sinned, my Christ, in whom I believe, has not sinned; all mine is His, and all His is mine;” as it is written, “My beloved is mine, and I am his. (Cant. ii. 16.) This is what Paul says: “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ;” victory over sin and death.”

The free and generous work of the three persons of the Trinity is the sole basis for our justification, our sanctification and the certainty of our glorification. It is the ground of our confidence (Heb. 10:19) and our boasting (1 Cor. 1:31), and as Luther noted, our freedom (Gal. 5:13). We must cherish it and defend it against all attacks (Gal. 5:1).

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The Mustard Seed Kingdom (Reformation Sunday)

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

In this parable, the Lord Jesus teaches us not to despise the day of small beginnings (Zech. 4:10). We see a disproportionate result from the tiniest of garden seeds—an herbal plant that can grow to twice a man’s height. When this happens, it is not an instance of things going terribly wrong—the seed is the kingdom.

The Text

“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof” (Matt. 13:31-32).

Summary of the Text

Jesus put forward a third parable in this series of seven, and this parable and the following one about the leaven are found in between the telling of the wheat and darnel and the interpretation of it. Jesus says here that the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed (v. 31). A man (unidentified) takes the seed and plants it in his field (v. 31). Mark’s version of this parable says that the seed was sown “in the earth” (Mark 4:30-32), and Luke’s version says that the man sowed the seed in “his garden” (Luke 13:18-19). The Lord says that the seed is the smallest of the seeds and yet results in a plant that is the greatest of all the herbs—treelike. The result of this phenomenal growth is that the birds of the air come and take up residence in the branches (v. 32).

Remember that Jesus gave us an answer key with the parable of the sower so that we would know how to handle all of them. But what use is an answer key if you don’t use it? The sower is clearly Jesus. And since the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, it is clear that the mustard plant is that same kingdom grown to a remarkable size, especially considering its insignificant beginning. The previous parable was meant to teach us not to be thrown by the presence of evil in the kingdom, and we see the same thing here. The birds of the air represented the devil in the first parable, and there is no reason to change anything here. The kingdom grows to a size that allows for evil to take up residence. But just as darnel is not wheat, so also birds are not mustard branches.

Reformations Come from Dead Reformers

Jesus teaches us here that in His kingdom the effects are disproportionate to the causes. The cause is a small seed, and the result is a large plant. Don’t think with simplistic carnal categories. The Lord Jesus elsewhere adds another detail, which is that seeds are not just small in comparison to the plant, they are also dead (John 12:24). There is a sharp contrast with regard to size, and also a sharp contrast with regard to death and resurrection.

Jesus set the pattern in the way He established the kingdom in His death and resurrection. He is the seed . . . and He is the resurrection and the life. He died, and the whole world is quickened as a result. But He did not just die —He also died and rose to set the pace for all who would come after Him. This is how it is done. Take up your cross daily, and come follow Him.

This is why the Reformation was the glorious event that it was. It was this because at the time it was nothing of the kind. Think of it this way—every society lionizes its dead troublemakers and its living conformists. Which prophets have memorials built in their honor? Why, the dead ones! At the time of the Reformation, the Reformers did not walk to their churches, or their meetings, or their homes, past great big statues of themselves. They were not there yet. At the time, they were being hunted. Prices were on their heads. Luther describes the Christian as a solitary bird, sitting on the rooftop and warbling his little song. Nothing great was ever accomplished by a reasonable man. Part of this unreasonableness is that he expects greatness to arise out of insignificance, out of his insignificance. “How do you know you will conquer the world? How will you manage to fill Jerusalem with your doctrine?” “That is easy—I know we can do it because we are nobody.” Faith is what overcomes the world, and faith can fit in a mustard seed.

Walking It Back

The number of commentators who do not want Jesus to have told this parable (and the next one, about the leaven) is quite striking. We are like the handlers of a political candidate who uttered some gaffe in front of the microphones, and our job is to go into the spin room in order to “fix it.”This parable of small beginnings and enormous results sounds a little bit too much like Constantine did a good thing. And we then set up shop to argue that Constantine did a terrible thing, and our argument in favor of this idea is that birds came and nested in the branches of the mustard plant. But . . . isn’t that what Jesus said would happen? How is this an argument for not planting the mustard seed in the first place?

When Things Go Wrong

In the world the Lord is talking about, when things go wrong, that means we are right on schedule. Someone has once wisely observed that the kingdom of God proceeds from triumph to triumph, with all of them cleverly disguised as disasters. Begin with the greatest of them—the crucifixion. Chesterton once put it this way: “Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a god who knew the way out of the grave.”

Thinking Like Seed

Jesus is the Lord of history, and we are not. What is the job of the seed? It is to go in the ground and die, expecting great things to result from it. But if we are too busy to do that, if we are re-explaining the parables, or keeping children away from Jesus because He is a busy man, or otherwise making ourselves useful, we are being too busy to think like seed.

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Reformation Sunday 2011: Reformation in the Boneyard

Joe Harby on

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Introduction

The end of October approaches, and as we mark and celebrate Luther’s Reformation, our heart’s desire and prayer should be for future historians to be able to describe it as a relatively small one. “Small” does not mean insignificant, but we should still see it as the Holy Spirit just getting started (Heb. 9:10). Eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has prepared for those of us who love Him. So as we emphasize the five solas (as we should), let us exult in the one which is the true integration point for all of them—solus Christus—the cornerstone of every future reformation.

The Text

“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more” (2 Cor. 5:16).

Summary of the Text

Christ died and rose for the world, and if we are to follow the apostle Paul’s argument here, this means that we have an obligation to see that world differently. We are called to see the world as saved in principle, beforehand, in the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection. We should not see the world as saved when our eyes finally tell us it is all right for us to believe. Who hopes for what he already has? The world will be saved because we already see Christ crucified and risen, and so we declare to the world what that means. What is it that overcomes the world? Is it not our faith?

The apostle tells us that how we see non-Christians is directly related to how we see Jesus. How we see the world is directly related to how we see Jesus. We like to think that a high Christology and a low cosmology go together, but they do not. We like to think that a high Christology and a low anthropology go together, but they do not. New Age mystics and distorters notwithstanding, we worship a cosmic Christ. Externalists notwithstanding, we worship a personal, heart-felt Jesus. “For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart” (2 Cor. 5:12).

Believing this to be the case, we are no longer permitted to understand any man “after the flesh.”There is a way of understanding humanity that does not take into account what Jesus did on the cross, and what He accomplished when He rose from the grave. That way of understanding humanity may call itself “realistic,” but how is it realistic to ignore God’s inauguration of the new creation?

The Obstacle of Total Depravity

Some may want to see men “after the flesh” because of the orthodox doctrine of total depravity (which is the orthodox and biblical doctrine), but how is it that we have come to believe that total depravity somehow has more power to hold down Jesus than the stone tomb did? The fact that Jesus was buried in a stone tomb is a biblical doctrine also, but that was not the end of the story.

Yes, unregenerate mankind is totally depraved. Yes, it is true that we cannot autonomously contribute in any way to our own salvation. Yes, it is true that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. But let us never preach the doctrine of total depravity without also declaring there has been a great earthquake, and that an angel of the Lord has rolled away the stone in front of that imposing doctrine.

We should magnify the greatness of our disease so that we might magnify even more the greatness of the cure. We do not magnify the greatness of the disease in order to proclaim that “not even Jesus, the great Healer, could deal with it.”

Resurrection Talk is Crazy Talk

This is crazy talk, I know. But it is also biblical talk. This whole world, since the sin of Adam, has been nothing but one, vast, pole-to-pole boneyard. We believe that death is the one inexorable ruler. We live in a global Marbletown. Whatever could Jesus do in a world like this? What could He possibly do that could transform a world like this? The gospel reply is that He could come back from the dead in it.

Billions of sinners, dead in their sins. Son of man, shall these bones live? Ah, sovereign Lord, you know. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. But Lord, bones can’t hear anything. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. But Lord, they are not paying any attention. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. But Lord, that’s not how I learned to do it in seminary. Son of man, prophesy to the bones. But Lord . . . but Lord . . . To see men after the flesh is to see nothing but the bones.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

We do not invite Jesus into our lives—down here in the boneyard. Rather, Jesus invites us into His life, and the whole world is invited. The ministry of reconciliation is based on the fact of the cosmic reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20).

Definite Atonement Both Ways

Some may object that this dilutes the truth of definite atonement. Not in the slightest. All who were purchased for eternal salvation by Christ will in fact be eternally saved. Those who were not so purchased will not be. The point here is not that Christ died indiscriminately for every last man, whether elect or damned. The point is that Christ died for the world, and those who are excluded from Christ are therefore excluded from that world—they are cast into the outer darkness. To be saved is to be saved into the new humanity. It is to be saved into the world.

But it further means that definite atonement is not synonymous with “tiny atonement.”The reality of definite atonement is seen in the specific numbers allotted to each tribe—12,000 from each tribe, no more, no less. The majestic extent of definite atonement is seen when John turned and looked. What did he see? He saw a multitude that no man can number (Rev. 7:9). How many will be saved? We can’t count that high. Look at the stars, Abraham. Use the Hubble telescope, Abraham. So shall your descendants be.

How will these things happen? What will bring it to pass? The glorious message of a glorious substitution will be declared and presented to every living creature. What shall we tell them? We should give them the message that we were told to give to them. We should prophesy to the bones. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

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