‘Sanctity of Life’ Sunday is scheduled for January, 23rd 2011. It is an opportunity for the Church to raise awareness of this great ethical, social & (very much) spiritual issue. We encourage you to watch this 23-minute interview and get a copy of Sproul’s book, Abortion: A Rational Look at an Emotional Issue.
Archive for the ‘Sin’ Category
‘Sanctity of Life’ Sunday – Jan 23rd
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil
Friday, August 6th, 2010And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)
According to Genesis 2-3, the original sin was spurning God’s good and gracious provision and disobeying his one prohibition to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. To understand the seriousness of this transgression, it helps to unpack the meaning of the Hebrew idiom “knowledge of good and evil”. In Daniel Fuller’s The Unity of the Bible, he writes:
“When the original readers of the Old Testament encountered the expression “to know good and evil,” they understood such knowledge to be what mature adults possess — a maturity in which they were independent and therefore responible for the decisions they made.
Understanding this term in Genesis 3:5 in this way coheres well with the way Genesis 2:4-3:24 has been expounded thus far. The command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would then mean that Adam and Eve were not to aspire to the maturity possessed only by God, whereby they might consider themselves to be independent of him and able to enjoy a fulfilled life by taking matters into their own hands and making their own decisions for their future welfare. . . . A contemporary scholar agrees with this interpretation. “[Here] man takes upon himself the responsibility of trying apart from God to determine whether something is good for himself or not.”"
In short, the original sin of man was self-autonomous rebellion against God. It was man’s determined attempt to throw off God’s fatherly guidance/provision and to seek a life of happiness and fulfillment apart from Him. Fundamental to all human sin is a desire to be our own masters, making our own decisions, directing our own future welfare.
And so we’re convinced that we know what is good for us – what would advance our happiness and increase our joy — and what is bad for us — what would hinder our happiness and diminish our joy. Life is filled with illustrations of how humans, living apart from God, are convinced they have the knowledge to determine what is good and evil.
“I know that acting out on this sexual desire will be good for me and make me happy.”
“I know what kind of marriage best serves the interest of children and society as a whole.”
“I know that ‘taking care’ of this unwanted pregnancy will be the best for my future.”
“I know that I my life will be more secure and comfortable if I can amass enough wealth.”
Sadly, we are still reaping the sinful effects of what our first parents sowed in the Garden. But the good news of the Gospel is that God sent His Son to reverse the effects of the Fall! Consider Fuller’s words:
“Such an interpretation of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil links up with Christ’s command to ‘change and become like little children’ in order to enter the kingdom of God (Mt. 18:3). It indicates that the essential way in which people are rebelling against God is that they are assuming that, like him, they can make the decisions necessary for enjoying a fulfilled and happy future. The folly of this rebellion is that people think they love themselves more, are wiser, and thus better able than the all-loving, omniscient, omnipotent God to provide for themselves the fulfillment they crave. Thus conversion, according to Jesus, reverses the act of the Fall and makes a declaration, not of independence from God, but of dependence upon him. Converts thus become little children, who gladly confess that only their heavenly Father knows the niche into which they should fit in order to enjoy permanent fulfillment.”
Friends, God loves you more than you love yourself. That means He loves and seeks your greatest good with more zeal and determination than you can ever muster. And He has revealed in the scriptures that your greatest good is to live in dependent, childlike (not childish) relationship with Himself. That is why He sent His Son Jesus to the cross to die for our sins, reconciling unholy sinners to the Holy God. And now the invitation to enter such a relationship is open to all who turn from their self-autonomous independence and place their trust and dependence on His Son Jesus.
Dethroning Idols w/ an Expulsive New Affection
Tuesday, April 6th, 2010Last Sunday, in his sermon on Dethroning Idols, Barton mentioned the Thomas Chalmer’s sermon “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection [in God]“. We highly recommend giving it a read.
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Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), the 19th century evangelical preacher, scholar, and social reformer: He is most known for his parish ministry in Glasgow (1815-23), his chair of Moral Philosophy at St. Andrews (1823-28), his chair of Divinity at Edinburgh (1828-43), and the formative role he played in establishment of the Free Church of Scotland.
Barton recommend Chalmer’s sermon on “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection“. It begins like this:
“There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt to displace from the human heart its love of the world; either by a demonstration of the world’s vanity, so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that is not worthy of it; or, by setting forth another object, even God, as more worthy of its attachment; so as that the heart shall be prevailed upon, not to resign an old affection which shall have nothing to succeed it, but to exchange an old affection for a new one. My purpose is to show, that from the constitution of our nature, the former method is altogether incompetent and ineffectual and that the latter method will alone suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that domineers over it.”
Money: Merely a Surface Idol
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010Last Sunday, Barton preached from Matthew 6:24-34 on “Liberation from the Idol of Money“. There is a great quote in Tim Keller’s Counterfeit Gods that can help us experience this liberation.
In it Keller calls money a “surface idol” that needs to be exposed, but merely addressing a surface idol is insufficient — for behind it lies a “deep idol”. Deep idols are the “basic motivational drives” that motivate us to centre our lives around making, spending or securing money (the surface idol). To experience true liberation, we must address both types. Here is the quote:
“There are “deep idols” within the the heart beneath the more concrete and visible “surface idols” that we serve.
Sin in our hearts affects our basic motivational drives so they become idolatrous, “deep idols.” Some people are strongly motivated by a desire for influence and power, while others are more excited by approval and appreciation. Some want emotional and physical comfort more than anything else, while still others want security, the control of their environment. People with the deep idol of power do not mind being unpopular in order to gain influence. People who are most motivated by approval are the opposite — they will gladly lose power and control as long as everyone thinks well of them. Each deep idol — power, approval, comfort, or control — generates a different set of fears and a different set of hopes.
“Surface idols” are things such as money, our spouse, or children, through which our deep idols seek fulfillment. We are often superficial in the analysis of our idol structures. For example, money can be a surface idol that serves to satisfy more foundational impulses. Some people want lots of money as a way to control their world and life. Such people usually don’t spend much money and live very modestly. They keep it all safely secure in the world. Others want money for access to social circles and to make themselves beautiful and attractive. These people spend their money on themselves in lavish ways. Other people want money because it gives them so much power over others. In every case, money functions as an idol and yet, because of various deep idols, it results in very different patterns of behavior.
. . . . This is why idols cannot be dealt with by simply eliminating surface idols like money or sex. We can look at them and say, “I need to de-emphasize this in my life. I must not let this drive me. I will stop it.” Direct appeals like that won’t work, because the deep idols have to be dealt with at the heart level. There is only one way to change at the heart level and that is through faith in the gospel.”
The Danger of Soul Idolatry
Sunday, March 7th, 2010Here is the short version of the Puritan David Clarkson (1621-1686) sermon that Barton mentioned today. It’s called “Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven“. The longer version can be downloaded here.
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“You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or covetous person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a such a person is really an idolater who worships the things of this world.” Ephesians 5:5
A covetous man is an idolater. Not only the covetous, but the immoral, are idolaters. For the apostle, who here makes covetousness to be idolatry, considers voluptuous people to be idolaters also, where he speaks of some who make their belly their God (Phil. 3:19). Indeed, every reigning lust is an idol—and every person in whom it reigns is an idolater. “The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.” Pleasures, and riches, and honors are the carnal man’s trinity. These are the three great idols of worldly men, to which they prostrate their souls! And giving that to them which is due only to God, they hereby become guilty of idolatry. That this may be more evident—that covetousness, immorality, and other lusts are idolatry—let us consider what it is and the several kinds of it.
Idolatry is to give that honor and worship to ‘the creature’, which is due to the Creator alone. When this worship is communicated to other things, whatever they are, we thereby make them idols, and commit idolatry. Now this worship due to God alone, is not only given by the savage heathen to their stick and stones—and by papists to angels, saints and images—but also by carnal men to their lusts.
There is a twofold worship due only to God–
1. External, which consists in acts and gestures of the body. When a man bows to or prostrates himself before a thing, this is the worship of the body. And when these gestures of bowing, prostration are used, not out of a civil, but a religious respect, with an intention to testify divine honor, then it is worship due only to God.
2. Internal, which consists in the acts of the soul and actions answerable thereto. When the mind is most taken up with an object and the heart and affections most set upon it, this is ‘soul worship’—and this is due only to God. For He being the chief good and the chief end of intelligent creatures, it is His due, proper to Him alone, to be most minded and most loved. It is the honor due only to the Lord to have the first, the highest place, both in our minds and hearts and endeavors.
Now according to this distinction of worship, there are two sorts of idolatry–
1. Open, outward idolatry, when men, out of a religious respect, bow to, or prostrate themselves before anything besides the true God. This is the idolatry of the heathen, and in part, the idolatry of papists.
2. Secret and soul idolatry, when the mind is set on anything more than God; when anything is more valued than God, more desired than God, more sought than God, more loved than God. Then is that soul worship, which is due only to God.
Hence, “secret idolaters” shall have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Soul idolatry will exclude men out of heaven as well as open idolatry. He who serves his lusts is as incapable of entering heaven, as he who worships idols of wood or stone!
Before we come to confirm and apply this truth, it will be requisite to make a more clear discovery of this secret idolatry. In order thereunto, observe, there are thirteen acts of soul worship–
1. ESTEEM. That which we most highly value, we make our God. For esteem is an act of soul worship. Worship is the mind’s esteem of a thing as most excellent. Now the Lord demands the highest esteem, as an act of honor and worship due only to Himself. Therefore, to have an high esteem of other things, when we have low thoughts of God, is idolatry. To have an high opinion—of ourselves—of our abilities and accomplishments—of our relations and enjoyments—of our riches and honors—or those that are rich and honorable—or anything of like nature, when we have low opinions of God, is to advance these things into the place of God—to make them idols and give them that honor and worship which is due only to the divine Majesty. What we most esteem—we make our god. If you hold other things in higher esteem than the true God, you are idolaters (Job 21:14).
2. MINDFULNESS. That which we are most mindful of—we make our God. For to be most remembered, to be most minded, is an act of worship which is proper to God, and which He requires as due to Himself alone (Ecc. 12:1). Other things may be minded; but if they be more minded than God, it is idolatry—the worship of God is given to the creature. When you mind yourselves, mind your estates and worldly interests, mind your profits or pleasures more than God—you set these up as idols in the place of God.
When that time, which should be taken up with thoughts of God, is spent in thoughts of other things—when God is not in all your thoughts—or if He sometimes is there, yet if other things take a higher place in your thoughts—if when you are called to think of God—as sometimes every day we should do with all seriousness—if ordinarily and willingly you make these thoughts of God give place to other things, it is idolatry.
If either you do not think of God or think otherwise of Him than He is—think Him all mercy, disregarding His justice—think Him all pity and compassion, disregarding His purity and holiness—think of His faithfulness in performing promises, not at all regarding His truth in execution of threatenings—think Him all love, not regarding His sovereignty—this is to set up an idol instead of God. Thinking otherwise of God than He has revealed Himself—or minding other things as much or more than God—is idolatry.
3. INTENTION. That which we most aim at, we make our God. For to be most intended is an act of worship due only to the true God. For He being the chief good—He must be the chief end. Now the chief end must be our chief aim—it must be intended and aimed at for itself; and all other things must be aimed at for its sake in a subserviency to it.
Now, when we make other things our chief aim or main design, we set them up in the stead of God and make them idols. When our chief design is to be rich, or great, or safe, or famous, or powerful—when our great aim is our own ease, or pleasure, or credit, or profit and advantage—when we aim at, or intend anything more, or anything as much, as the glorifying and enjoying of God—this is soul idolatry.
4. RESOLUTION. What we are most resolved for, we worship as God. Resolvedness for God, above all things, is an act of worship which He demands as due to Himself alone. To communicate it to other things is to give the worship of God unto them, and so to make them gods. When we are fully resolved for other things—for our lusts, pleasures, outward advantages—and but faintly resolved for God, His ways, honor, service—this is soul idolatry.
When we resolve presently for other things, but refer our resolves for God to the future—”Let me get enough of the world, of my pleasure, of my lusts, now—I will think of God hereafter, in old age, in sickness, on a deathbed”—these are idolatrous resolutions. God is thrust down—the creatures and your lusts advanced into the place of God—and that honor which is due only to Him, you give unto idols.
5. LOVE. That which we most love—we worship as our God. For love is an act of soul-worship. To love and to adore are sometimes both one. That which one loves—he worships. This is undoubtedly true, if we intend hereby that love which is superlative and transcendent—for to be loved above all things is an act of honor and worship, which the Lord demands as His due in peculiar (Deut. 6:5). In this the Lord Christ summed up all that worship which is required of man (Mat. 22:37). Other things may be loved—but He will be loved above all other things. He is to be loved transcendently, absolutely, and for Himself. All other things are to be loved in Him and for Him. He looks upon us as not worshiping Him at all, not taking Him for a God, when we love other things more or as much as Himself (1 John 2:15). Love to the creature, whenever it is inordinate, it is an idolatrous affection.
6. TRUST. That which we most trust we make our God. For confidence and dependence is an act of worship, which the Lord calls for as due only to Himself. And what act of worship is there which the Lord more requires than this soul-dependence upon Him alone? “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” (Prov. 3:5). He will allow no place for confidence in anything else. Therefore, it is idolatry to trust in ourselves—to rely upon our own wisdom, judgments, abilities, accomplishments. The Lord forbids it (Prov. 3:5).
To trust in wealth or riches—Job disclaims this and reckons it among those idolatrous acts that were punishable by the judge (Job 31:24). And our apostle, who calls covetousness idolatry, dissuades from this ‘confidence in riches’ as inconsistent with confidence in God (1 Tim. 6:17). To trust in friends though many and mighty—He fixes a curse upon this as being a departing from—a renouncing of God—an advancing of that we trust into the room of God (Psalm 136:3). Psalm 118:8, 9—”It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.” The idolatry of this confidence is expressed, in that the true God is laid aside. Trust in the creature is always idolatrous.
7. FEAR. That which we most fear, we worship as our God. For fear is an act of worship. He who fears, worships that which is feared—which is unquestionable when his fear is transcendent. The whole worship of God is frequently in Scripture expressed by this one word “fear” (Mat. 4:10; Deu. 6:13); and the Lord demands this worship, this fear, as due to Him alone (Isa 50:12, 19). That is our god which is our fear and dread (Luke 12:4, 5). If you fear others more than Him, you give that worship to them which is due only to God—and this is plain idolatry.
8. HOPE. That which we make our hope we worship as God. For hope is an act of worship—and worship is due only to God. It is His prerogative to be the hope of His people (Jer. 17:13; Rom. 15:13). When we make other things our hope, we give them the honor due only to God. It is a forsaking of the Lord the ‘Fountain’—and setting up of ‘broken cisterns’ into His place (Jer 2:13), hereby worshiping them as God. Thus do the papists openly, when they call the virgin mother, the wooden cross, and departed saints, their hope. And thus do others among us, who make their prayers, their sorrow for sin, their works of charity, or any acts of religion or righteousness, their hope—when men expect hereby to satisfy God’s justice, to pacify God’s displeasure, and to procure heaven. Nothing can effect this, but that which is infinite—the righteousness of God. And this we have only in and from Christ. He is therefore called our hope (1 Tim. 1:1); “our hope of glory” (Col 1:27). Those who make their own righteousness the foundation of their hope—they exalt it into the place of Christ and honor it as God.
9. DESIRE. That which we most desire—we worship as our God. For that which is chiefly desired, is the chief good, in the estimation of the one who desires it. And what he counts his chief good, that he makes his god. Desire is an act of worship—and to be most desired is that worship, that honor, which is due only to God. To desire anything more, or as much, as the enjoyment of God—is to idolize it, to prostrate the heart to it, and worship it as God alone should be worshiped. He alone should be that one thing desirable to us above all things. “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after—that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.” Psalm 27:4
10. DELIGHT. That which we most delight and rejoice in—that we worship as God. For transcendent delight is an act of worship due to God alone. And this affection in its height and elevation is called glorying. That which is our delight above all things, we glory in it—and this is the prerogative which the Lord demands (1 Cor. 1:31; Jer. 9:23, 24). To rejoice more in our wisdom, strength, riches, than in the Lord—is to idolize them. To take more delight in relations, wife, or children, in outward comforts and accommodations, than in God—is to worship them, as we ought only to worship God. To take more pleasure in any way of sin, uncleanness, intemperance, earthly employments—than in the holy ways of God—than in those spiritual and heavenly services wherein we may enjoy God—is idolatry.
11. ZEAL. That for which we are most zealous, we worship as God. For such a zeal is an act of worship due only to God. Therefore, it is idolatrous to be more zealous for our own things—than for the things of God—to be eager in our own cause; and careless in the cause of God—to be more vehement for our own pleasure, interests, advantages; than for the truths, ways, honor of God—to be fervent in following our own business, promoting our designs; but lukewarm and indifferent in the service of God—to count it intolerable for ourselves to be reproached, slandered, reviled; but manifest no indignation when God is dishonored, His name, Sabbaths, worship, profaned; His truths, ways, people, reviled—this is idolatrous.
12. GRATITUDE. That to which we are most grateful, that we worship as God. For gratitude is an act of worship. We worship that for which we are most thankful. We may be thankful to men, we may acknowledge the helpfulness of means and instruments—but if we rest here and rise not higher in our thanks and acknowledgments—if the Lord is not remembered as Him without whom all these are nothing—it is idolatry. For this the Lord threatens those idolaters (Hos. 2:5, 8). Thus when we ascribe—our plenty and riches to our care and industry—our success to our prudence and diligence—our deliverances to friends, means, instruments—without looking higher—or not so much to God as unto these—we idolize them, sacrifice to them, as the prophet expresses it (Hab. 1:16). To ascribe that, which comes from God unto the creatures, is to set them in the place of God and so to worship them.
13. When our care and industry is more for other things, than for God—this is idolatrous. No man can serve two masters. We cannot serve God and mammon—God and our lusts also—because this service of ourselves and of the world, takes up that care, that industry, those endeavors, which the Lord must have of necessity, if we will serve Him as God. And when our time and endeavors are laid out for the world and our lusts, we serve them as the Lord ought to be served—and so make them our gods. When you are more careful and industrious to please men or yourselves, than to please God—when you are more careful to provide for yourselves and posterity, than to be serviceable unto God—when you are more careful as to what you shall eat, drink, or be clothed, than how you may honor and enjoy God—when you are more careful to make provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof, than how to fulfill the will of God—when you are more industrious to promote your own interests, than the designs of God—when you are more careful to be rich, or great, or respected among men, than that God may be honored and advanced in the world—when you are more careful how to get the things of the world, than how to employ them for God—when you rise early, go to bed late, eat the bread of carefulness, that your outward estate may prosper, while the cause, and ways, and interests of Christ have few or none of your endeavors—this is to idolize the world, yourselves, your lusts, your relations, while the God of heaven is neglected! And the worship and service due unto Him alone is hereby idolatrously given to other things!
He who makes Christ his chief aim, if at length he finds Him whom his soul loves—this quiets his heart—whatever he lacks, whatever he loses besides. He counts this a full recompense for all his tears, prayers, inquiries, waitings, endeavors.
“Therefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry!” 1 Corinthians 10:14
A Big Difference Between Buddhism and Christianity
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010Tiger Woods’ recent mea culpa highlighted a stark difference between Buddhism and Christianity. Having been raised in the philosophy of Thai Buddhism by his mother, he publicly acknowledged that he had strayed from that path in recent years, resulting in a self-destructive pattern of sexual addiction. He said,
I have a lot of work to do, and I intend to dedicate myself to doing it. Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age. People probably don’t realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist, and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught.
This is an accurate description of Buddhist philosophy. Buddhism teaches that human craving (desire) is the cause of suffering and unhappiness. Enlightenment is obtained by learning restraint and purging ourselves of the craving for things outside the ‘self’ (ie. romance, sex, food, achievement, leisure, etc). In other words, Buddhism says, “Our human desire for pleasure is too strong. It needs to be restrained and purged.”
But Christianity says the opposite. The Bible teaches that humans were created in the image of God with human cravings for food, work, rest, relationship, and even sex (Gen 2:24) — and God said all of it was “very good” (Gen 1:31). But we now live in a Genesis 3 world where sin has corrupted our human cravings. How? According to the Christian worldview, by dulling our senses and weakening our craving for pleasure. C.S. Lewis put it well in his famous sermon Weight of Glory — “We are far too easily pleased.”
If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
What a stark difference! Buddhism says, “Your desires are too strong and need to be restrained!” Christianity says, “Your desires are too weak. You’re too easily satisfied with sinful lusts and worldly pleasures. Your desires need to be redeemed by Jesus and unleashed in even greater strength as directed by your Creator according to his Word.” Christians do not serve a God who is anti-craving, anti-desire, or anti-pleasure. Rather we serve a God in whose presence is fullness of joy, at whose right hand are pleasures forevermore (Ps 16:11).
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For an insightful critique, read Al Mohler’s post “Tiger Woods’ Buddhist Confession“
Did I just write this…freely?
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009Here is a stumper I was recently asked: “If God knows the future, then the future is predetermined. If the future is predetermined, then do we have free will?”
Christians over the centuries have answered this question in a number of ways. Here’s my attempt in 500 words or less:
It depends on your definition of free will. If you define free will as the ability to make choices apart from the influence of any external constraining force, then the answer is “no”. God’s foreknowledge would be a force that constrains your decision, thereby negating your free will (as so defined).
But (to be brutally honest) you wont find such a definition of free will in the Bible. In the biblical worldview, everybody is influenced in their choices by some constraining force, like God and his foreknowledge. He knows the choices we will make in the future, so when the time comes, we will make that particular choice and none other. But we are still free in our choices because freedom is defined, according to the Bible, in terms of willingness. A choice is free so long as it is made willingly, even if there are external constraining forces involved (like God’s foreknowledge and predetermined plan).
Here is a biblical example: Judas betrayed Jesus his master. He wanted to do it (see Lk 22:1-6). No one (including God) forced his hand, in the sense that he was forced to act against his will. So the Bible makes it clear that Judas freely chose to betray his master because he did it with a willing (sinful) heart.
But the Bible also makes it clear that God foreknew Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and even predetermined it. So we read texts like:
Luke 22:22 “For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!“(cf. Matt 26:24) Jesus will be betrayed by a certain man as it has been determined.
Acts 2:23 “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” Jesus was delivered up according to God’s definite plan and foreknowledge, which included Judas’ betrayal.
Luke 22:3 “Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot” The Bible also says Satan acted as an external constraining force in Judas’ decision, but in the end it was still his decision.
So why did Judas betray Jesus? According to the Bible, all three of these answers are true:
1) God foreknew and planned for Judas to do it.
2) Satan influenced Judas to do it.
3) Judas, out of a sinful heart, wanted to do it.
To sum it up: According to the scriptures, God’s foreknowledge and predetermined plan constrained Judas to act accordingly, but not in a way as to negate his willingness to betray Jesus (or his culpability for doing so). Again, the main point is that Judas wanted to do it! Our willingness to sin (a result of our fallen nature) is the key that brings together these seemingly contradictory beliefs: a) the belief in human freedom and responsibility for the choices we make, and b) the belief in God’s foreknowledge and predetermined plan for our lives.
Keller on the Parable of the Two Lost Sons
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009In Tim Keller’s recent book, The Prodigal God, he suggest that the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32) should be more accurately called the Parable of the Two Lost Sons because both sons in the story were equally lost – just in different ways. The younger son represented “the tax collectors and sinners” (15:1) who rebelled from God by breaking his law. But the elder son represented “the Pharisees and the scribes” (15:2) who rebelled by keeping all of God’s laws.
That Jesus would accuse morally fastidious, religious people of rebellion was quite shocking – then and now. But Keller argues that Jesus’ parable redefines sin for us. Sin is not just rule-breaking. Sin is dethroning God from the seat of authority in your life. And there are two ways to go about that.
Keller writes, “The hearts of the two brothers were the same. Both sons resented their father’s authority and sought ways of getting our from under it. They each wanted to get into a position in which they could tell the father what to do. Each one, in other words, rebelled – but one did so by being very bad and the other by being extremely good. Both were alienated from the father’s heart; both were lost sons.”
So both sons were sinning against their father. It’s just that one son’s sin was more obvious. And that’s where the danger lies for “elder brother” type individuals. It is very easy for religious people to lose sight of their own lostness when they’re only comparing themselves to “younger brother” types. This Parable forces religious people to ask themselves, “Why do I pursue morality? For the sake of love for God and others? Or for the sake of self – to leverage God and merit his favor?”
Keller writes, “Religious people commonly live very moral lives, but their goal is to get leverage over God, to control him, to put him in a position where they think he owes them. . . . If, like the elder brother, you seek to control God through your obedience, then all your morality is just a way to use God to make him give you the things in life you really want.“
So what do we really want? God himself? Or just what he can give us (ie. an inheritance)? Both sons wanted the inheritance more than the father. It’s just that one son repented and joined his father’s feast while the other stayed outside, wallowing in self-pity and bitterness.
This is Keller’s summary: “Here, then, is Jesus’ radical redefinition of what is wrong with us. Nearly everyone defines sin as breaking a list of rules. Jesus, though, shows us that a man who has violated virtually nothing on the list of moral misbehavior can be every bit as spiritually lost as the most profligate, immoral person. Why? Because sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord, and Judge just as each son sought to displace the authority of the father in his own life.”
In the church where the lame walked, liars died.
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008Last Sunday Marcus preached on Acts 5:1-11, the story of Ananias and Sapphira. It is a difficult passage for modern readers to understand because we’re confronted with a God who strikes down liars dead on the spot. Now such a thing might be expected in the OT (cf. Achan in Josh 7:1) but would God actually do this in the NT era and to people in the church? Let’s consider three questions.
First, what did they do that was so wrong?
In a sermon on this text, Piper suggests four things wrong with Ananias and Sapphira.
1. They loved their money. They made the sale, they looked at all that cash, and they couldn’t bear the thought of giving it all away. So they kept some back (v. 2).
2. They wanted to look more generous than they really were. They wanted the apostles to think that they were like Barnabas perhaps. They wanted external religious approval. They not only loved money, they loved the praise of men—the two almost always go together (Luke 16:14–15).
3. They lied (vv. 3–4). To cover their covetousness, and to give the impression of generosity, they lied. If you love possessions and you love the praise of men, your love for truth will dissolve into deception and fraud. That’s the meaning of hypocrisy.
4. And this always comes with hypocrisy—they discredited the Holy Spirit. Verse 3 says they lied to the Holy Spirit. Verse 4 says they lied not to man but to God. Verse 9 says they tempted the Lord.
So their sin was not that they only gave part of the money from the sale of their land. No, their sin was their love of money, their love of man’s praise, their hypocrisy, and their discrediting of the Spirit – or as Peter calls it “testing the Spirit” (v9). Implicit in their lie was the assumption that God would do nothing.
In a sense, they were challenging God. Is he really present in the church? Is he really omniscient? Does he actually have the nerve to punish sin or wont he just turn a blind eye? But as Jesus taught us, we should not put the Lord to the test (Matt 4:7). In this instance, God responded. And they died.
But why did they have to die? Why weren’t they simply told to repent and seek forgiveness?
First of all, keep in mind that, in the Bible, God has put up with far worse than Ananias and Sapphira’s deception. In his divine forbearance, God has mercifully passed over far more horrendous sins than this (Rom 3:25). So in one sense, they didn’t have to die. There is no hard fast rule that says God must strike dead those who lie in church. Of course all sin merits death (Rom 6:23) but no particular sin requires God to immediately kill the perpetrator.
So there must be a particular reason why they immediately died, when in other instances sinners are called to repentance and faith. In the book Hard Sayings of the Bible we are offered two plausible reasons for their immediate death:
“First, it was the first time that believers had issued such a challenge to God, so it was important for God to act clearly and decisively to prevent any misunderstanding about the reality of his presence and his willingness to hear and judge. Second, it was a time of intense spiritual presence, and where the evidence of God’s presence is greater the sin of challenging that presence is more serious. There also may be mercy involved in such a judgment. While death is an ultimate penalty from the human perspective, from the divine perspective it is far less serious than a continued movement into sin and deception; the quick divine judgment prevents full apostasy.”
Throughout Scripture it says that God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. So we can be confident that God does not act impulsively or capriciously. His anger does not flare like ours. So when he does act against sin, he does so with divine wisdom and justice. Only God knew their hearts so who are we to fault him with wrong? Blind unbelief is sure to err / And scan His work in vain / God is His own interpreter / And He will make it plain.
Lastly, can the same thing happen in our churches today?
There is no easy answer – because the answer is yes. And that understandably makes us uneasy. But let me preface this by clearly saying: none of us are in the position to authoritatively declare a particular circumstance or event to be an act of divine punishment. We should be weary of making such audacious claims ourselves and very weary of those who make them.
But having made that qualification, I believe that perhaps some of the futility, sickness, and death we face in life are direct consequences of our sin. We know that those who turn to Christ in repentance and faith will be forgiven and will no longer face the eternal consequences, but who can deny that sin has earthly consequences, including physical death? And supposing Ananias and Sapphira to be genuine Christians, who can deny that God disciplines his children for their good (Heb 12:10)?
The sad fact is that modern churches and the people in them have lost a healthy fear of the Lord. We’ve domesticated our Holy, Awesome, Almighty God, turning the Lion of Judah into a house cat. If your God simply cannot strike people down for their sin, then what do you do with verses in the Bible like Luke 12:5? But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
Here are some good concluding words from the writers of Hard Sayings: “The church today often prays for revival. Perhaps it should ask if it really wants what it is praying for. . . . reading this passage in the context of Acts should remind us that “in the church where the lame walked liars died.” With the power of God comes his holiness, and those who are not prepared to live in his holiness will do well to fear rather than to seek his power.”
Cornerstones, Functional Saviors, and Idolatry
Monday, November 10th, 2008In my sermon on Acts 4:1-22, I made reference to the biblical metaphor of “cornerstones” (v11). The Bible teaches that we all have a cornerstone (a foundation) upon which we are building our life and identity. Everyone has some thing, some person, or some pursuit that we’re placing our identity in. It could be our career, our marriage, our kids, our relationships, our appearance, our morality, or (hopefully) Jesus.
But even those who trust in Jesus as the only Savior, who profess that salvation is found in no one else (v12), can still be building on other cornerstones besides God’s Chosen Cornerstone. That thing, person, or pursuit is what we call your “functional savior”. Though you profess Christ to be your Savior, when trouble befalls you’ll always fall back on your functional savior.
This is nothing short of idolatry. Trusting in, relying upon, placing all your confidence and self-worth in something else apart from the One True God revealed in Christ Jesus. In Mark Driscoll’s Vintage Jesus, he has a chapter on worship that gets to the heart of our idolatry. He helps us expose our idols, our functional saviors, our foolish cornerstones:
“At the root of all sin is the confusion, or inversion, of creator and creation. The worship of created things can be either the worship of things God has made, such as the environment or the human body, or the worship of things we have made, such as the television. . . . The result of this error is that a good thing becomes inordinately elevated to a god thing and therefore a bad thing. Often times the god we worship is simply the one we see in the mirror every morning as we brush our teeth.”
To help us uncover our potential idols/functional saviors/cornerstones, Driscoll offers the following questions to consider:
– Who or what do I make sacrifices for?
– Who or what is most important to me?
– If I could have any thing or experience I wanted, what would that be?
– Who or what makes me the most happy?
– What is the one person or thing I could not live without?
– What do I spend my money on?
– Who or what do I devote my spare time?
Set apart some extended time to spend with the Lord in prayer and the Word. And use these piercing questions to examine your heart and to expose any idolatry that still resides.