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Cold Law, Hot Gospel

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Introduction

The law of God is like math. It doesn’t care about anybody’s hurt feelings. It is straight, and hard, and cold, and altogether righteous. But at the same time, when this cold, cold law is resurrected in the body of Christ back from the tomb, it comes to us as burning love. And this is why we preach cold law and hot gospel.

The Text

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal 2:16).

Summary of the Text

This passage comes in the context of Paul’s rebuke of Peter at Antioch. Paul says that we knowthat a man cannot be justified by the works of the law. If we know that, then it is imperative that we act as though we know it. Peter knew that truth, but he had started to wobble in his actions concerning it. We are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ, and not by our own works. There is debate among interpreters as to whether this is referring to “the faith ofJesus Christ” (as in, His faith) or “faith in Jesus Christ” (as in, our faith in His obedience). We are not going to go into that because, fortunately, it amounts to the same thing. We are justified by Christ, and not by our own labors. We have believed in Jesus so that we might be justified, and not by the works of the law. Justification through our own efforts is nothing but a pious pipe dream.

The Threefold Use of the Law

God is one, and this means that His Word is unified. But His unified Word can have multiple applications. His law is one, but there are three crucial applications. In Reformed theology, we are accustomed to speak of the threefold use of the law.

The first useis to make us aware of our need for salvation (Rom. 3:20; 4:15; 5:13; 7:7-11; Gal. 3:19-24). In this application, it is impossible to keep.

The second useis for the maintenance of civil order. The magistrate can use the guidance of the law as he fulfills his duty of restraining evil (1 Tim. 1:9).

The third usehelps the regenerate understand what love looks like in particular situations. In this sense the law is a guide for us in our sanctification (Rom. 13: 8-10).

You can see how individuals who are jealous for the purity of the first use of the law would be suspicious of those who make much of the third use. In other words, there is real legalism, but we want to make sure that we don’t define a legalist as someone who loves Jesus more than we do.

Where the Law/Grace Divide Actually Is

There are some believers who want to think in terms of a law/gospel hermeneutic. Now the word hermeneutic has to do with how we interpret a text, like the Scriptures, and so what this means is that they want some passages in the Bible to be “law,” condemning us in our sin, and other passages to be “gospel,” offering us a gracious way out of bondage to sin. But this won’t do.

We couldn’t really color-code a special edition of the Bible in law/gospel categories. What is more “law-like” than the Ten Commandments? And how do the Ten Commandments begin? “And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lordthy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Ex. 20:1–2).

And here is an odd statement about “the law.”

“The law of the Lordis perfect, converting the soul: The testimony of the Lordis sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7).

And what is more gracious than the gospel of our Lord Jesus?

“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 2:14–16).

And this gracious gospel is what? To those who are perishing is the aroma of death.

So this tells us that the fundamental law/gospel divide is notto be found in the text of Scripture. It is found in the difference between regenerate and unregenerate man. For the regenerate, everything from God is sweeter than the honeycomb. All of it is grace. For the unregenerate, the whole thing is the stench of death, including the good news of Christ on the cross. All of it is law and condemnation.

Objective Guilt, Not Hurt Feelings

When we are held up against the law of God and measured by it, the measurement is always constant. It does not show partiality, and does not adjust anything on the basis of how we feel.

It is true that sinners are a tangled mess of spiritual bruises, but that is simply a symptom of the problem. It is not the problem. The objective problem is objective wrath.

Hot Gospel

When we stand before the tribunal of God’s law, our trial there is deliberate, careful, meticulous, and altogether just. This is what I mean with the reference to cold law. But the sentence? The sentence is notcold and clinical.

“Who can stand before his indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him” (Nahum 1:6).

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

This is just where the gospel comes in. Our evaluation by the law of God is deliberate and judicious. But the sentence is a fireball, and yet there is no grounds for complaint. Every mouth will be stopped before Him. And here is where the wisdom of God overwhelms all the pretended wisdom of man. The reason there can be a hot gospel is because in the cross of Christ, the hot wrath of God was poured out upon Christ, and He took it all in. The word propitiationrefers to the fist of the Father, striking the Son, so that you might be struck down in Him, and raised again to life in Him. “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

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What It Means to be Forgiven

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Introduction

When we are forgiven for our sins, there are two aspects to it. First we are delivered, definitively, all at once, from the penalty of sin. You need to think of this as though the angel of the Lord Himself was appointed as the foreman of your jury, and he entered the heavenly courtroom and read out the verdict. Pointing to the altar where Jesus sprinkled His own blood, he says, in a bright clear voice that the whole cosmos hears, “not guilty.” This is forgiveness proper.

But we are also delivered from the power of sin. There is a stark break with what might be called reigning sin (Gal. 5:24), which is followed by a progressive and unrelenting campaign against all remaining sin (Col. 3:5; Rom. 8:13).

The Text

Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lordhath spoken it (Is. 1:10-20).

Summary of the Text

The message I have entrusted to deliver to you is a message of free grace, radical grace, nothing but grace. The message of the cross of Jesus, and the resurrection of the Christ, is a message of everlasting and undeserved kindness. That being the case, and because our thought processes are so corrupted by sin, we have a hard time getting our minds around what God is offering us.

Either we say that God is the only lifeguard, and so He must be saving us from drowning by leaving us on the bottom of the pool, or we acknowledge that we must be saved from drowning by getting out of the pool, and concluding that we must by our own efforts help the lifeguard to save us. Being saved by grace means being saved by grace from sin (Rom. 6:14). Being under law means being under condemnation for those sins that have you in bondage. Being under grace means you are liberated from that.

Consider how the prophet Isaiah presents this glorious reality. First, he addresses the Jews under the figure of Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 10). He asks the first what their intentions were in bringing Him sacrifices (v. 11). He asks them (sarcastically) who required you to show up here in my courts (v. 12). He tells them to pack up all their liturgical gear, and get out (v. 13). Solemn meetings and iniquity do not go together. God hates their religiosity (v. 14). When they spread out their hands in a pious gesture, God turns away. Their hands are covered with blood (v. 15). Repent, turn away, learn a different way (vv. 16-17). And then comes the glorious promise—a promise that only God could fulfill (v. 18). God makes them a most reasonable offer. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though their sins be like crimson, they shall be like wool. The sins are blood red; the salvation is blood red; the forgiveness is pure white.

If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land (v. 19). If you are stubborn and kick, then you will be destroyed (v. 20).

Forgiven Means Forgiving

A sheep bleats because it is a sheep. But you don’t become a sheep bybleating. An apple tree produces apples because it is an apple tree. But a bramble bush can’t become an apple tree bygrowing apples. A person rescued from the bottom of the pool will be dried off, but we don’t hand him a towel on the bottom of the pool.

And forgiven people forgive. That is just what happens.

“Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even asGod for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32).

This is how absolute forgiveness is simultaneously absolute grace, free grace, and at the same time is morally rigorous. This is because God does not just give us cleansing from the defilement of sin, but also from the power of sin to defile. He gives us more, not less.

What It Is Like

“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord” (Is. 54:17).

“I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressionsfor mine own sake, and will not rememberthy sins. Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: Declare thou, that thou mayest be justified” (Is. 43:25–26).

“Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, And passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger for ever, Because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18–19).

“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressionsfrom us” (Ps. 103:12).

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Mere Gospel

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Introduction

The world is only a complicated place when we are drifting lazily into the confusion wrought by sin. Think about it for a moment. There are two kinds of people in the world—sons of God and sons of the devil. There are two destinations, and only two, toward which we are all traveling—the resurrection of life and the resurrection to death. There are only two ways of living—clean and dirty. There are only two gospels—one from man that will collapse under the weight of your sins, and one from God that will cause your sins to collapse beneath the weight of God’s grace.

The Texts

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:1–5).

Summary of the Text

At the end of the previous chapter, Paul exults in the scriptural standard of pride. Let the one who boasts, do so in the Lord (Jer. 9:23-24). And he then moves on to remind the Corinthians of something they would well remember. He had not come to them in his own name, in the strength of his own powers, or on his own authority. Rather, he declared to them the testimonyor witness of God (v. 1). He had determined, decided, and judged (krino) that he would know nothing among them except Christ and him crucified (v. 2). His presence in Corinth was not that of some flashy dude exuding charisma. He came in weakness, fear, and trembling (v. 3). His words, and his preaching, were not dependent upon a flattering persuasiveness that naturally arises from sophistry (e.g. man’s wisdom, sophia). Rather, there was in Paul’s life and demeanor a proof of the Spirit and of power (v. 4). The basic alternative is presented. Your faith will either be in the wisdom of man or it will be in the power of God (v. 5). That power displayed by God is encapsulated in the message of Christ and him crucified (v. 2).

Sophistry, Then and Now

Contrary to a common assumption, Paul’s contrast here between the power of the cross and the enticing words of carnal wisdom is not a contrast between eloquence as such and truth over on the other side. This is a fallen world, and there are always sophists who want to substitute human eloquence for divine wisdom, which is absurd. This is what the ancient sophists wanted to do, and it is what their descendants now in our era want to do.

The error is to think, first, that the message of the cross needs to be adorned with human wisdom, and then that it needs to be reinforced or supplemented by human wisdom, and then, in the last analysis, replaced by human wisdom.

So what is the role of human eloquence in preaching the gospel? It is what Paul is actually demonstrating here. The words of the preacher, like the preacher himself, must be a bondservant to the message, and the words of eloquence, if they are to be true and not false, must be driven before the gospel gale, all sails out.

A Caution

It would be a grotesque mistake to say that Christians should talk about nothing but a truncated message that consists of “Christ died on the cross,” and that all other topics are to be avoided. No—far from exulting in the cross, that approach would minimize it. Rather, because Christ is the founder of a new humanity, and because His founding obedience was what He did on the cross, this means that absolutely everything that men and women can do—from forecasting the weather to changing diapers, from sailing a ship to digging a well, from driving a car to teaching a class—falls under the authority of Christ’s death and resurrection. The cross was not just another event in a world filled with events. The cross was a new organizing principle, under which all thingswould be made new (Rev. 21:5). This is why we should be able to talk about absolutely anything in the world, and within a short space of time find ourselves talking about the death of Jesus, without changing the subject.

The Solution First

Our message is straightforward—we preach the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. We declare first, who He is. He is the divine Son of Almighty Jehovah. He is Himself fully divine, and He entered—forever—into our human condition through the Incarnation.

He lived a perfect, sinless life, and He did this so that His people of the new Israel could be represented by His obedience. And because they all had been disobedient before this, He represented them also by bending His head underneath all the wrath that a holy God could pour out upon Him. In that moment of dereliction, the Lord Jesus was struck by the fist of God. And in the following moment of ultimate vindication, three days later, that same hand of God raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His own right hand, where there is an everlasting river of pleasure.

The Solution Related to the Problem

This gospel is to be declared to every creature (Mark 16:15). And the creatures who are to hear this message are creatures who are lost in their sins.“Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Gal. 1:4). The gospel is good news, but there are two kinds of good news. The first is a “bolt from the blue” good news, and which does not require any kind of antecedent difficulty. The second kind of good news (e.g. a pardon from the governor the day before your execution) is a type of news that requires a full apprehension of an earlier delivery of badnews. News that they have discovered a cure for cancer will strike a man who hascancer differently than it will strike a man who is entirely healthy.

And the Solution Applied to the Problem

In the wisdom of God, He determined that men, women and children are delivered by means of this gospel when they (by the grace of God) do two things. They must first turn away from their sins, and secondly they must believe the gospel.

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).

So what is your condition? Porn junkie? Selfish high school girl who has her parents totally whipped? Embezzler? Malicious and petty biter? Manipulator? Liar?

And so what is the message I have for you? What message is here that is of a kind that makes no sense to your carnal heart but which will deliveryour carnal heart? Look away from that sin. Turn away from it. Turn so that the sin can see nothing but your back. The only way this works is when you look to Christ. And by Christ, I mean a twisted bronze snake on a pole. I mean a rock in the wilderness, with living water flowing out of it. I mean bread from heaven, falling out of the sky.

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Calvinism 4.0: Purchased by the Son

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Introduction

The doctrines of grace are a set of doctrines which describe the three persons of the Trinity as working in concert to secure our salvation. Those whom the Father chose, the Son purchased with His own blood. Those whom the Son purchased with His own blood, the Spirit effectually calls when He converts. At every turn, we are talking about the same group of people. The Father decided, before all worlds, the Son sacrificed before your world, and the Spirit regenerates, ushering you into a new world.

The Son does not try to save different people than the Father has chosen. The Spirit does not try to quicken different people than were bought by the Lord’s blood. The doctrines of grace are doctrines of triune harmony. All three have an identical cross-purpose, which means they are not working at cross-purposes.

The Text

“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:14–15).

Summary of the Text

The Scriptures teach us that Jesus died for individuals. He did not die for a cluster or a mass of people. He died for His sheep. He died to secure the salvation of particular persons. He is the good shepherd, and a good shepherd counts his sheep (Prov. 27:23). His sheep know Him, and He knows His sheep. “And am known of mine” (v. 14). His sheep know Him, the Father knows Him, and in the same way He knows the Father. This is how and why He lays down His life for the sheep. Note this—“even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep” (v. 15). The sacrifice of Christ for His own sheep is a sacrifice that emerged from His knowledge of the Father.

What Shall We Call It?

We will simplify all this if we begin by rejecting a term that is commonly applied to this doctrine. The rejected phrase is that of limited atonement. It should be rejected for two reasons. One is that it is misleading with regard to the teaching of the Bible, and the other is that it misrepresents the nature of the debate. One of the most obvious features of the atonement in Scripture is its universality. “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the world. God so loved the world.” Consequently, a phrase which seems to deny that universality on the surface is really not all that useful.

Secondly, every Christian who holds to the reality of eternal judgment believes (in some sense) in a limited atonement. The debate is over which aspect is limited—is it the efficacy or extent of it? But more on that shortly.

If you tell someone that you believe in limited atonement, and he disagrees with you, what will he say he believes in? Why, in unlimited atonement—which certainly sounds more biblical. But if you say that you believe in definite atonement, what does he have to say? He has to disagree by saying he believes in indefinite atonement—Jesus died for no one in particular.

So present the question to yourself in this way. It is not a choice between limited and unlimited atonement. It is a choice between definite and indefinite atonement. Did Jesus die in order to secure the salvation of particular individuals? The biblical answer is yes.

Vicarious Atonement

The universality of the atonement in Scripture is not the only obvious thing about it. Another truth, equally precious, and equally clear, is that the atonement is substitutionary.

This means that if Christ died for someone, the for means instead of. It is not a “potential substitution, if only . . .” It is an actual substitution, and therefore efficacious. In our text, Christ lays down His life for the sheep—not the goats. For more on this, consider:

“Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:25–27).

“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).

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).

It all comes down to this. Christ did not die trying to save anybody. Christ died to secure the salvation of His sheep. The debate centers on the meaning of the word for in the phrase, “Jesus died for sinners.” What does that for mean? One position is that Jesus died to give a chance to sinners, if they only believe, which they probably won’t. The biblical position is that Jesus died instead of particular named sinners, in order to secure and guarantee their salvation.

Christ Died For . . .

Following the great John Owen, we should understand we have only four basic options. Christ died for:

  1. All Sins of men;
  2. All if sins of some men;
  3. Some sins of all men;
  4. Some sins of some men

If we opt for #3 or #4, then we have to say that no one is saved, because all have some sins still to account for. If we say that #1 is the case, then the question becomes why some men are lost. If the answer is “because they do not believe,” is this unbelief a sin, or not? If not, why are they condemned for it? If so, then did Jesus die for it? If so, then why are they not saved? If not, then Jesus did not die for all sins—leaving us with the glories contained within #2.

So some believers limit the efficacy of the atonement, while we do limit its extent. But for us, this limitation is not a tiny limitation. It has borders, but it is an expansive reality. Compare a great wide bridge going across a chasm, which all human beings can fit on, but which does not reach the other side. Contrast this with a narrower bridge, but which crosses the chasm. That does not require the narrow bridge to be a rope walk, or a zip line.

But What about Those Universal Passages?

Doesn’t the Bible say that God so loved the world? Yes, it does, and yes, He does. But let’s take a look at how the Bible uses the term world (Grk. kosmos).

  1. Kosmos describes the universe as a whole (Acts 17:24);
  2. Kosmos describes the earth (John 13:1; Eph. 1:4);
  3. Kosmos describes the world-system (John 12:31);
  4. Kosmos describes the entire human race (Rom. 3:19);
  5. Kosmos describes the entire human race minus believers (John 15:18);
  6. Kosmos describes Gentiles as opposed to Jews (Rom. 11:12);
  7. Kosmos describes a redeemed humanity (John 1:29; 3:16-17; 6:33; 12:47; 2 Cor. 5:19).

In the backdrop of this discussion, remember what you have been taught about the greatness of the Great Commission. The earth will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The Bible does teach that the world is the object of God’s redemptive and salvific intention. This does not mean that every last person is saved, but it does mean that Christ has secured the salvation of an innumerable host, too big to be counted, and He did it name-by-name.

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:17).

And every last member of this saved world has been given a white stone, and a new name along with it, a name known only to God and the one receiving it (Rev. 2:17). And that name is only possible because it is followed by the apposition “purchased by the blood.”

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Seed

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Weeds and Grains
Genesis 2:4 marks the beginning of a new section in the book of Genesis. However, to many it doesn’t just look like a new section, but it actually looks like a section that contradicts the previous section. Gen. 2:7 appears to put the creation of Adam as after the creation of plants, contradicting Gen. 1, where plants are created on the third day and man is created on the sixth day.
However, a closer read of the text shows that 2:5 is actually referring to a much more specific kind of plant. 1:11-12 refers to “grass” and “herbs yielding seed” (grain). But 2:5 refers to “plant of the field.” The Hebrew for “plant” here is not a super common noun, but one that usually refers to the wild shrubs found out in the desert (Job 21:15). This would mean that 2:4-7 is telling us that Adam was created at a moment in time before there were weeds in the ground and before grain had begun to sprout.

Before the Curse
So why is there a need to specify this particular moment? We have to look at the curse in order to understand this. Look at 3:17-19. When the ground is cursed, the result is that man will now have to work to eat from it. In chapter 2, the author of Genesis focuses on the trees that God provides to Adam for food (2:9, 16 and 3:2). But after his sin, Adam is told that now he will toil to get his food from the ground (3:17). He will have to fight weeds and he will have to sweat (v. 18).

Dust to Dust
Adam having to till the ground for grain was a consequence of his fall (3:23). After the fall, our work for food requires that we work in the dirt. You will eat from the ground (3:18), eating grain (3:18), and eating bread (3:19). God cursed the ground and made us farmers.
Why farming? Adam was made from dust (2:7). And because Adam sinned, he was going to die and return to dust (3:19 and 23).

You Are Seed
But when a farmer cuts open the earth to put the seed in, he doesn’t do so in grim defeat. He actually does so with great hope. He looks to a harvest. And Scripture carries over this hope to us. Yes, we are all going into the ground, because we are all mortal. But we go into the ground as seed (1 Cor. 15:35-37, 48-49). Grain is provides food, just like a fruit tree. But the grain must die first. It must go into the ground to die, before returning in glory. And that is what man, after the fall is. We are creatures that must die first, but will live eternally.

The Seed
But the hope in Genesis 3 is even stronger than that. We always are quick to point out that when God gave the curse, he also gave the promise of the coming Messiah to deliver us from the curse. But how was that Messiah described? The Messiah was the coming seed of the woman (3:15). In fact, all of Scripture points to this one true seed, the seed whose death and resurrection makes possible our eternal life.

No Going Back
Notice that God did not solve Adam’s sin by giving him means by which he could undo the damage that he had done. Death has not been removed, but rather conquered. Our tendency, when we see the consequences of our sin, is want to find a way back to before our sin, to undo it. But that is never an option. The cross was not a time machine. Instead, God took Adam’s sin and all its consequences and turned it into another path for walking into God’s glory.

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