Tag: Christ

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Devotion

On Guard, Christian!

On Guard, Christian! –

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. – James 1:12-15

About two years ago, I had the privilege of meeting some of my Christian brothers whom I knew from a favorite online message board. On this same occasion there was a “Men’s Rally” being held at First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi. It was wonderful to sit under the preaching and teaching of Dr. Sinclair Ferguson. Excepting the Lord’s Day gathering that followed that weekend, there were two sessions. Dr. Ferguson spent one session on the subject of trials and the other on temptation.

One particular Dr. Ferguson expressed concerning temptation will always stand out in my mind. I don’t remember if it was his own choice of words (I think), or if he was simply paraphrasing John Owen, but his thoughts were along these lines:

“Sometimes in our lives the desire to sin is present, but not the opportunity. At other times, the opportunity presents itself, but the desire is absent. Temptation is most present and at its strongest when the sperm of desire and the egg of opportunity meet.”

What a way to put it, and how true it is! Friends, it is when opportunity and desire grather one with another that we must up the ante eve more on our guard. “Stay dressed for action and keeps your lamps burning”, Christ says. When temptation comes, and it will, the Christian must be ready. Not only is an active alert, preparation necessary, but also, oddly enough, a resignation of the pilgrim’s trust in his own ability to fight; rather, he must, as William Gurnall has so aptly penned, “Take special care not to trust in the armour of God, but in the God of the armour.”

We are deceived if we think we will not face trial or temptation. Though it is true Jesus said to his disciples, “Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation”, we cannot take this to mean we won’t ever face such. From The Christian in Complete Armour we read:

“Now if this bold tempter watched Christ so closely, does it not seem likely he will scout you, too, hoping sooner or later to find your graces slumbering? What he misses now by your watchfulness he may gain later by your negligence.”

So, Christians let us rouse ourselves, be alert, and stay alert, and let us never forget the hideousness and heinousness of sin, that we might remain steadfast under trail and receive the crown of life. Amen. I leave you with one more quote from Gurnall with some food for thought:

Because the devil is a very subtle enemy, the saint must always be on his guard. Satan is called the old serpent. The serpent is subtle above other creatures; and an old serpent, above other serpents. If Satan was too crafty for man in his perfection, how much more dangerous to us now in our maimed condition – for we have never recovered from that first crack Adam’s fall gave to out understanding. And as we have lost knowledge, so Satan has gained more and more experience. Granted, he lost his heavenly wisdom as soon as he became a devil, but ever since, he has increased his craft. And while he does not have wisdom enough to do himself good, yet he has knowledge enough to do others harmd. God showed us where Satan’s strength lies when He promised to bruise the head of the serpent; with his head crushed, he will soon die.

 

[Reformers, Puritans, and a Geek]

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Devotion

Foot-in-Mouth

Foot-in-Mouth –

Matthew 16:15-23

15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. 21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

If ever there was a time to for one to reflect on something they’ve just learned, Peter’s situation here would’ve been just that. Instead, he immediately, it seems, forgot what he’d just confessed and a whole lotta stupid proceeded drivelingly forward from his mouth. Defintely a case that could be categorized as foot-in-mouth.

As easy as it is too look at poor lil’ Peter and single him out because his blunder has been recorded in the Holy Writ, I have to admit something. He reminds me of me. You see, one moment I’m confessing Christ and do everything to the glory of God, then BAM, it’s as if I’ve forgotten what I just confessed and I’m stickin’ my nose in the pig sty of sin.

Why, why, why!?!? Who will rescue me from this body of death? “Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ!” 

 

[Reformers, Puritans, and a Geek]

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FV and NPP

An Open Letter to the Federal Vision

I’ve decided to post this here to formulate more clearly a thought that has been slowly developing over time given the controversy.

I readily admit that I have dear friends who are sympathetic to the Federal Vision and take great umbrage, at times, that I have criticized those who are most visible in the movement.

I was reading the comments on Dr. Clarks blog post here.

The consistent refrain from Pastor Wilson and others who defend him is this: Critics of the FV are slanderous. The FV believes in all the right Reformed stuff, we’re told. I have to admit that I become concerned that some might be guilty of mischaracterization. I wonder, after almost 5 years, why nobody can get it right!

Let’s all pretend, for the moment, that the Federal Vision is correct in their insistence that they are orthodox and Reformed. Let’s assume that all scrutiny suddenly disappears and all are found orthodox. Let’s go further and turn the tables for a bit and pretend that the FV is in the mainstream and it is the rest of us who are the true quasi-Reformed and we must defend our position.

Here’s the question: What do we believe that is out of accord with Reformed or Biblical orthodoxy?

Surely this whole debate isn’t about us all being the same and all you’re arguing for is the right to use different words to believe the same thing. You’re not simply arguing for the right to quit being misrepresented are you? You haven’t divided Church against Church and disrupted every Conservative Reformed denomination simply to have us agree that you are Reformed just like we are, are you? Surely you must be arguing AGAINST something that we believe in. I shudder to think that so much division has been caused over semantics and your unwillingness just to use the same terms as we.

Perhaps it would clarify what you are FOR by criticizing the rest of us and telling us what you are against. Please, please, somebody in the FV camp step forward and write an article that accurately describes what we quasi-Reformed believe and then critique it. I’m sure you would understand our sensitivity to being accurately represented after all.

I think if we could determine where you believe that we are unorthodox it might help us to understand what you’re for and why you believe this fight is worthy of so much disruption within the Body of Christ.

I’m a Glutton…but at least I’m not a Drunkard!

Prov 23:20-21

Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty:
and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

I’ve been reflecting lately on the hypocrisy that many Evangelicals have toward alchohol consumption compared to overindulgence in eating. Manmade doctrine in many evangelical circles condemns any and all alchohol consumption while virtually ignoring or revelling in the sin of gluttony. The Scriptures link drunkenness and gluttony together as virtually identical sins.

What is sad about this issue is that those who preach complete abstinence are missing the whole point of the Scriptures concerning these things. They complete ignore Paul in Collosians 2:

20Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

21(Touch not; taste not; handle not;

22Which all are to perish with the using; ) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

They turn alchohol into something that ought not to be touched where the Scriptures would only condemn its wanton overindulgence.

At the same time, however, about 30-40% (or more) of the American Church are gluttons reflecting the general population. It’s virtually a maxim of Churches to say that “…we sure know how to eat in this Church….” I’ve heard that statement from Independents, Presbyterians, and Baptists – all from the pastors of the Churches.

Like most things these days, everything is turned on its head. The majority of “Evangelicals” get bent out of shape if man consumes alchohol in moderation (something that God has given to man to bless him) but then revel in a sin that God has equated with drunkeness.

The blindspot on this issue is simply baffling.

Categories
Sacraments

Infant Baptism: The Difference between Roman Catholicism and Reformed Theology

What’s the difference between the RC view and the Reformed view of infant baptism?

Peace,

jm

Much in every way! The Roman Catholic view sees baptism first as an act of Grace that occurs “by the working of the works”. That is, the Sacrament itself, infuses Grace and effectively places the child in a state of grace before God. The grace infused, however, is conditional. The grace can be overthrown and killed in the individual by sin.

The Reformed view is that baptism is ministerial. That is, the minister announces what God has promised in His Word concerning the Covenant inclusion of children and it initiates the child into the covenant community. While the sign and seal of Baptism are not separate from what they signify (real union with Christ) they are not identical. That is to say that we do not believe that the minister is actually conferring union with Christ on the child by the “working of the works” but is announcing the promise of God. That promise is that what Baptism signifies (union with Christ) is promised to the child when he places trust in the Gospel. It is the same thing for an adult in fact. As surely as you see the water signifiying the washing of the filth of the flesh, so are your sins washed away if you believe in the Gospel. It is a visible sign and seal of God’s promise to us that we can look to when the enemy is so oft telling us we are not worthy of such Grace.

In RC baptism, you get in by the Church’s ability to infuse God’s saving grace and you stay in by cooperating with that grace lest you kill it and your “grace meter” goes to a point where justifying grace is killed.

In Reformed baptism, the minister declares the promise of God and seals God’s promises to the recipient. Grace, through faith, saves from beginning to end.

I have a problem with the term presumptive regeneration because presumption carries a connotation that I do not believe parents should have. When I presume something, it means I can take it for granted and little is expected on my part. I know that’s a semantic issue but words have consequences. I also don’t like the idea of presuming regeneration simply because I don’t know the hidden counsel of God. I look at it this way: my chilren are Christians and I treat them like that. I don’t treat them like they’re tiny pagans in my household with no different status than my pagan neighbors before God. They are holy because they are in my Covenant household. This gracious God says to me: “I’m not just promising to save you but your children as well.” A glorious thing indeed that those most dear to me in this world, beside my wife, are not my spiritual enemies.

I pray with them like little Christians with a seminal faith – faith as small as a mustard seed (thank you Rev. Winzer). I know that God has promised to save them if they call upon His name just as He has promised to save me under the same Covenant promise. I do not question their election any more than I question mine for my business is God’s precepts and not His hidden decree.

And so, contrary to my Roman Catholic upbringing, when my children sin, I do not raise them to worry that they’re in danger of hellfire as they have just killed the infused grace within them and need to have the Church dispense more saving grace in Penance. Rather, I discipline them as one who believes their sin has been punished in Christ. I train them to ask their Heavenly Father for forgiveness that they have offended Him in their sin, and I teach them to thank Christ for the salvation of sins found only in Him for those that believe in Him.

The difference between Roman Catholic Baptism and Reformed Baptism (aka Christian) is the difference between the doctrine of demons and a visible sign and seal of God’s Grace to His elect.

Categories
Devotion

On Assurance of Salvation

I think I get all my ideas on things to post from the Puritanboard.  We were talking about forgiveness of sins this past week in Sunday School and this conversation brought to mind some reflections on the Gospel and our assurance of salvation.  A brother asked:

If one has trouble or find that one can not seem to forgive someone for a wrong can one really be assured of one’s own salvation? This question is just something that I have been wrestling with.

Have you ever questioned whether you are saved or not? After reading Jonathan Edwards “religious affections” One thought that came to mind is that, I wonder if I am really what I think that I am. If I am not a believer this is truly somekind of self-deception. I need some stuff on assurance. All I know is that Jesus came into my life back in 1993 and I have never been the same since.

This is a very simplistic statement that needs a lot of reflection behind it but the bottom line is that if we never struggled and were never weak then what need would there be of faith in Christ’s work?

Living with the accusation that Satan whispers in our ear every time we sin “You’re not really a Christian are you?” is hard enough. What makes things harder is the error that surrounds us in so many “Christian” circles where people are taught that you’ve not really repented of something unless you stop doing it.

I’m so thankful that God found me and rescued me to the Gospel for it exposed me to Christ’s sufficiency and caused me to stop leaning on my own strength. I had been a Roman Catholic in my childhood and then an Evangelical for years but never found peace. I tried to battle, I tried to wage war against the flesh and the world but I failed repeatedly in my strength and was beaten back. Who was going to deliver me from this body of death?!

But I know now that, ultimately, I’m fighting against a foe that has lost its mastery of me. I know that Christ’s strength will renew me. I hear the Gospel remind me that Christ did not die for me because I was worthy. I see the Sacraments speaking God’s promise of salvation and means of spiritual nourishment. I look back on my own baptism when I cannot believe that God would save me and remember that seemingly insane promise (according to the world) that God would save me simply by trusting in and believing in His Son.

And so I sin and I sin mightily and I want to retreat from God and re-double my efforts and promise Him, on my own strength, that I’m going to try harder. Maybe then, I reason in my denial of the Gospel, will God accept me.

But then He finds me with His Gospel yet again and says to me: “Do you believe?” and I cry out “Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief!” And in the simple trust of a son who loves and is grateful to His Father, I discover again the desire to please Him and the fountain of strength toward that end.

And so I find myself continuing in the fight, striving against sin, with fear and trembling, trusting that God is at work in me to will and do His good pleasure.

Categories
Book Reviews

Further Reading in Dabney and Some Thoughts on Creation, Its Laws, and the Irrationality of Evolution

From my blog


Once more, quotations are taken from Robert L. Dabney: The Sensualistic Philosophy, Naphtali Press, 2003.

Robert L. Dabney’s philosophical observations of science are not stale; on the contrary, his observations are still crisp and refreshingly prescient after more than 125 years.

The permeation of scientific thought with Sensualistic philosophy displaced religion with Materialism; creation with force, motion, and chance; God with unknowable, impersonal forces; the soul with nerve bundles; and consciousness with organically advantageous neural impulses. As Dabney notes, we are compelled to look beyond science and philosophy to Biblical revelation “to learn that a man goeth upward and a beast downward” (p. 125).

“That a fortuitous conjunction of atoms should account for all the marvels of design in the universe, and that material mass should be endowed with consciousness, reason, and conscience, are difficulties common to this and all the other phases of this philosophy” (p. 128).

Anyone who studies modern science, or has children studying modern science, is exposed to the difficulty of which Dabney speaks.

Bad science shares eye space with celebrity affairs in grocery store aisles. It is inescapable but not irrefutable. Refutation requires background, and Dabney, a contemporary of Charles Darwin, provides background.

Noting the teleological arguments (we’re here because we’re here because we’re here because we’re here) evolutionists use to refute Christianity, Dabney remarks that the evolutionist “requires us to go back, discarding all the acquisitions of human civilization in this department, and immerse ourselves in the stupidity of barbarism” (p. 147).

Further, he asserts:

“These speculations are to be deplored, in that they present to minds already degraded a pretext for materialism, sensuality, and godlessness. The doctrine can never prevail permanently among mankind. The self-respect, the conscience, and the consciousness of men will usually present a sufficient protest and refutation. The world will not permanently tolerate the libel and absurdity that this, wondrous creature, man, “˜so noble in reason, so infinite in faculties, in form and moving so express and admirable, in action so like an angel, in apprehension so like a God,’ [quoting from Shakespeare: Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2] is but the descendant, at long removes, of a mollusk or a tadpole” (p. 141).

I pray Dabney is not overly optimistic.

Evolution is based on compact records; its star theory is also its undoing. If lifeforms evolved to the fortunate fittest, where are the intermediates representing the unfit? Um…well, they haven’t exactly been discovered yet. Dabney published this book in 1875 and we’re still waiting for the fossils to vindicate the theories of their existence.

Evolution is a theory that has to fabricate missing links from whole cloth because its hypotheses are untestable and unsupported by evidence–and yet its conclusions remain on the books as facts. Perhaps this is why evolution theory has had to resort to the force of law in the courts: It has no recourse in the laws of science.

I happen to agree with Dabney, and not with some other Christians, in that I do not subscribe to the idea of “creation by law.” I believe in creation by fiat of the spoken Word of a particular Creator, the triune God who calls himself Jehovah in the Bible. I perceive the existence of laws as evident in creation, not causal of creation. I think this is more consistent with the Christian world view.

I see the existence of laws evident in, and not causal of creation, because I perceive a Who behind the act of creation, as opposed to a “how.” God created the heavens and the earth. The “how” God employed is given as: moving, speaking, dividing, making, creating, blessing, forming, breathing, and planting. None of these initial acts of creation originated in natural law. There was no natural law before there was a creation–there could be no such thing as preexistent laws waiting for something to act upon. Natural law originated in the template of God’s creation and is expressed in that creation. God is the First Cause and the Lawgiver. Creation by law implies secondary causes on which God was reliant. Creation is reliant; God is not.

The same God who created us and this world for us gave us the ability to know something of himself. By grace he gave to some more ability than others. This truth impelled Pharisees to pick up stones to hurl at Christ. It still does today.

Evolution is a pragmatic theory that violates the very carbon and silicon of pragmatism: It doesn’t work.

Categories
Devotion

“A Constellation of Graces”

From my blog


I am unsure why the idea of beauty embarrasses me, as though my thoughts are too defective to confess. Often it seems to me that my beauty receptors process input in blunt chunks.

Objects–dwellings, clothing, the stuff of life–engage me with their utility, and beauty somehow is optional. The miraculous intricacies of creation–animal, botanical, and mineral, of the earth, sea, and visible heavens–captivate me; nevertheless, I fear my appreciation is terribly analytical.

But that isn’t what distresses me. The huge and terrible question is: Do I find beauty in Christ? This is where diffidence grips and I fear I am casehardened.

Certainly I find beauty in his Word. But, “He is altogether lovely“ (SS 5:16) refers to a Person, not to a Word. But this Person is the Word…is the Word the sole repository of his beauty? Is seeing beauty in the Word sufficient to apprehend “the beauty of Christ,” the altogether loveliness? And, I can be analytical with the Word….

So in my distraction I turn to my therapist, Dr. John Owen, who died in 1683, but left a therapeutic legacy of systematic theology. Owen, always on deck with a lifeline, assures me that Christ is indeed beautiful, and his beauty is something I can begin to take in. His beauty is in his Word, because he is there. His beauty is his wisdom, his pondering the “hidden man of the heart;” it is his eminency, his strength, his faithfulness, and his stability. Dr. Owen wrote that prescription for me.

Owen writes more than 20 pages specifically on the subject of the beauty of Christ in Vol. II, Communion With God (Banner of Truth) pp. 56-78. The rest of this volume and much of his other work is also rife with the subject, if not as specifically. I am not given to typing exercises, but he lists 11 ways in which Christ is “lovely.” From Owen’s exposition on the beauty of Christ, I will here extract one crystalline sentence:

“There is light in him, and life in him, and power in him, and all consolation in him;–a constellation of graces, shining with glory and beauty.” (The Works of John Owen, Banner of Truth, Vol. II, p. 75)

That, I find beautiful.

I remain diffident about my blunt chunk approach. I am consoled that this has little to do with beauty in a way that I need to understand it.

To know something of the light and the life and the power and the consolation of Christ is to know something of his beauty.

Categories
Gospels and Acts

Unclean!

Luke 17:11-19

Now it happened as He went to Jerusalem that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.  Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off.  And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”
So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God,  and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.
So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?   Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”  And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

And so we come to an event in Jesus’ ministry as He is on His way to Jerusalem.  Luke mentions, in passing that Jesus is passing between Galilee and Samaria.

Samaria was considered an unclean region for Jews.  They viewed the Samaritans as dogs, as unclean people.  The Samaritans were related to the Jews as the Northern Kingdom of Israel had existed there.  But the Northern Kingdom had passed away centuries before due to the idolatry of that nation.  The Samaritans had intermarried with the pagan nations and had only retained a perverted form of the religion of the Scriptures.  They worshipped in the high places in the North and not in Jerusalem as commanded nor did they offer sacrifices in Jerusalem.  And so, many Jews would walk completely around Samaria if they ever had to venture outside of Judea.  They would rather go days out of their way by foot then even touch the unclean soil of Samaria.

And so it is in passing that Luke mentions that Christ is passing near that region on His way to Jerusalem.

As Christ is entering a village He encounters ten lepers who stood afar off.

Why did they stand afar off? Why did Luke mention that Christ encountered them outside of the town? Let us turn to Leviticus Chapter 13.

I will not read the entirety of Leviticus 13 but it gives several different examples and rules for the Priests to use to determine whether not a person has leprosy. Leprosy is a term to refer to different types of skin diseases, the worst of which would cause hands, legs, nose, and other body parts to wither as the person became increasingly disfigured until they eventually died a horrific death. Whether a milder form of the disease, Leviticus 13 gives many examples of how to diagnose and the end result is the same in all cases for the leper. Let me read for you the concluding verses in Leviticus 13:45-46
Lev 13:45-46

Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry,’Unclean! Unclean!’  He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

Have any of you ever had friends who have found a spot on the skin and gone to the doctor who grows concerned about it?  The person has to come back after a number of days to have a biopsy performed on the spot and even wait further as lab results reveal whether or not that person has cancer.  What concern we all have for the person as we wonder:  “Does my dear friend have cancer.”  What prayers might we lift up for that person as they undergo treatment and receive the blessings of modern medicine.  We may even embrace that friend and let them cry on our shoulder as they express their fear that the cancer might spread.

Beloved, a leprous man could only be so lucky to merely get a diagnosis of cancer.  Consider Levticus 5:2-5

“…if a person touches any unclean thing, whether it is the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of unclean livestock, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and he is unaware of it, he also shall be unclean and guilty.  Or if he touches human uncleanness — whatever uncleanness with which a man may be defiled, and he is unaware of it — when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty.
‘Or if a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath, and he is unaware of it — when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters.
‘And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing;”

Do you understand the implications for leprosy?  A leper was considered human uncleanness.  You could not hug a leper who received a diagnosis from the priest.  You could not even touch him or her.  That was a sin.  If you did so, even by accident, you had to confess your sin and offer a sacrifice at the Temple.  I don’t mean to state the obvious here but lepers were human beings too.  They had mothers and fathers, they had wives and children at one point.  Then one morning they wake up and find a spot on their skin.  They try washing it but, over days and weeks the spot doesn’t seem to go away.  What fear they must have experienced as they walked to the priest.  Can you even imagine the horrible words of the priest as he says to a man or a woman:  YOU HAVE LEPROSY.  YOU ARE UNCLEAN.

Oh the horror of it.  I cannot weep with my wife.  I cannot hold my children.  I cannot embrace a friend and cry on his shoulder.  Even worse, according to the Law he must stay outside of town and every time a person comes near him he must yell out “Unclean!”  I cannot even imagine such a horrible condition.

And so it is with people in misery that the unclean gather together as lepers would into colonies and Christ meets ten of them on His way to Jerusalem.  We understand all the more now why in Luke 17:12, why the lepers are afar off.  We should also appreciate why in verse 13 there is anguish in their voice as they cry:  “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

And Christ, the one who came to give Mercy, told them to present themselves to the priest.  A very strange command is it not?  Not so strange and I again commend to you the Study of God’s Word.  You see in Leviticus 14, it gives the instructions for the cleansing of healed lepers.  The ceremony is very elaborate and requires the sacrifice of doves and washings and, after a week, the leper may be pronounced clean by the Priest and rejoin his family.  This was unfortunately, very rare, and the OT only records a couple of miraculous healings of leprosy in the Old Testament.

So the lepers are obeying this command and, on their way, shortly after leaving, they realize they are cleansed.  Perhaps some of them had withered hands restored.  Christ’s healing was always so powerful in Scriptures that people knew, without a doubt, they had been healed.

What joy!  What a blessing!  I am cleansed!  Years of pain.  Years of private suffering.  Years of reproach calling out to passersby:  “Unclean!”  No more pain of seeing little children run from you afraid.  I will see my family again!  I’ll embrace my wife.  I will hold my child!

And so, as dutiful Jews, 9 of the 10 continue on their way to the Priest to obey the requirements of the Law and be pronounced clean.   But they don’t all continue on their way.

No.  One man,  A SAMARITAN, returns in a loud voice, glorifying God.  Not only that, He falls down at Jesus’ feet in worship of Him, thanking Him for healing Him.  He thanks Him for delivering Him from His leprosy.

But we have a problem here don’t we?  The problem is that this man has not undergone the cleansing rite specified by the Law.  Leviticus 14:9 makes it very clear that one must undergo the full ritual cleansing, wait a week, shave off all their hair all over their body and then they will be pronounced clean by the priest.  This man has not been pronounced clean and so, according to the Law, he is very much UNCLEAN.  Add to that, he is a Samaritan, a dog, a person from an unclean land.

THIS MAN IS TOUCHING JESUS!

Beloved, this is powerful stuff.  You see, a normal Jew could not touch an unclean thing and remain undefiled.  A normal person became unclean and had to undergo cleansing and repent of sin when they touched unclean things.  Unclean things made the ceremonially “clean” people unclean.  That’s the way of the Law.

But not Christ.  This is the power of the Messiah.  This is the power of the Son of God.  Christ was the truly CLEAN one.  He was the only Clean One in fact.  When Christ came forward and reached out His hand to touch the unclean thing, that thing did not have the POWER to corrupt the Son of God.  No.  Christ made that which was unclean, CLEAN.  He touched unclean dead bodies and they rose from the grave.  He touched women with discharges and they were cleansed.  All through the Gospels we see Light dispelling the darkness.  We see Christ, the clean one, the whole one, making that which was broken, that which was unclean, restored.

Christ looks down with compassion on this Samaritan man at His feet and receives the worship that is due Him for Christ is the Son of God.  Angels refused worship as being only worthy of God.  Christ receives the Worship from this man whom He has restored and then He marvels:

Luke 17:17-19
So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?  Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”  And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

What do you mean Jesus?  The nine are on their way to the Temple.  That’s what the LAW requires.  That’s what a Pharisee would have said.

Jesus remarks that only the foreigner, the only one who wasn’t a Jew, was the one who came back to Worship God.  The other’s missed the whole point.

You see beloved, Christ did not come to be a magic worker.  He didn’t just beam out powers to show off and to merely cure disease.  Sure Lazarus rose from the dead but, years later, he did die and they had a funeral all over for him.  Sure, it’s great that these men were free of their physical affliction here on this Earth but they too are now dead.

Ten Lepers had heard about Jesus and ran into Him that day.  They must have heard that He healed people.  Ten lepers called out to Jesus that day.  Ten lepers went on their way in obedience to His command.  Only one returned and worshipped God.  The other nine were healed in their body but missed the whole point of their healing.  Their healing attested to the Son of God.  Their healing attested to His authority over the Law itself.  In obeying the letter of the Law they missed the Spirit of the Law.

And so it was that Jesus said to the Samaritan:  “Your faith has made you well.”  All of the lepers had received healing but only one returned to express His faith in the Son of God.  Only one of them understood that the most important healing of all was the healing that Christ was to provide to reconcile mankind back to a Holy God.  And so Christ sent a true Worshipper of God on His way.  A man saved by faith in the Son of God.

Leprosy is a great picture of our fallen spiritual condition.  We were all once enemies of God.  We were the unclean ones.  Our first parents were born clean and then rebelled against the Lord of the Universe.  All of their descendants, including us, have been born unclean spiritual lepers.  Our souls are spiritually dark and decaying.  As the Pharisees were, we often look really good on the outside, but the inside is a cesspool of filth and sin.  As Romans 1:29-32 so accurately expresses about mankind:

Rom 1:29-32
…being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

And so at one time, in God’s presence, we were forced to draw our hands to our mouths and shout “UNCLEAN!”  And God had every right to leave us to die in the horrible state of sin.  It is we who had sinned against Him and not He against us.

But God is rich in Mercy.  God is rich in compassion.  He sent Christ to live for us in complete obedience and He sent Christ to die for us so that our sin, our filth, might be washed away.

And so, Christ is being proclaimed to you this day.  If you have never heard the call for the healing of your souls and you yet remain defiled in your sins then Christ is being lifted up before you in your midst.  Do you see the filth of your sin?  Do you smell the stench of a life that is causing your very soul to rot from the inside out?  Christ is before you.

“JESUS, MASTER, HAVE MERCY ON ME.”

He will cleanse you from your sins so that you may fall at His feet and worship Him.

Categories
Doctrines of Grace

Sola Fide Part III: Just Some Reflection and Observation

Seeing as how a portion of my blog title contains the term <em>Reformers</em>, I thought maybe I should post on something that was very near and dear to those of old who, in God's good timing, were the great stalwarts standing against that whore of Babylon, the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

I have, in previous articles, discussed just a small bit on the great doctrine of Scripture as well-articulated in the Reformation by the Reformers called Sola Fide, i.e. Faith Alone. Martin Luther said that the doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone is one upon which the Church stands or falls. If she denies this truth, she falls. If she affirms it, she stands.

My friends, we are in a second period of darkness concerning this truth. This time, however, it is not merely the Roman Catholic Church which holds men captive to such falsehood. No, it is the majority of those "churches" who call themselves evangelical. Just because people may hold unwittingly to such beliefs does not justify the believing thereof. The Scriptures are exceptionally clear on the doctrines of Who justifies, how justification is secured, and to whom justification is given. For those who profess a strong belief in Scripture there is no excuse to believe the utter nonsense that is touted by most "evangelical" churches of this day.

Sadly, I must say that, in my experience, Baptist churches are the most ridiculous perpetuators of this muddying of Justification by Faith alone. By "Baptist" I do not mean Particular (Calvinistic) Baptists, but semi-Pelagian Baptists (Inconsistent Arminians). How so? Well, they hold to a very weak version (for lack of a better term) of Perseverance of the Saints. They believe in the eternal security of the believer, a.k.a. "once saved always saved" (OSAS). However, because they reject other major points of biblical doctrine (i.e. total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, etc.), they have no solid foundation upon which to base their belief in OSAS. They make one's profession of saving faith equal to possession of saving faith, when clearly such is not always the case.

To what does this lead? It leads to the false assurance for many many lost people who think, because of their one-time aisle-walking-sinner's-prayer-praying experience, they are saved from eternal hell. In turn, many other pagans see the ungodly lives of these professors and think, "Oh, so you can live however you like, and still go to heaven. Hmm…I don't buy that." You may ask, "Josh, why are you babbling on and on about this?" Because it is important to the major theme of this post. Semi-Pelagian Baptist churches are churning out thousands upon thousands of these professors that are not possessors, thus perpetuating this weak (and false) version of OSAS.

You think, "How does this apply to the doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone?" Well, a proper and clear understanding of the simple doctrine of Justification by Faith Alone would clear all this mess up in a heartbeat. Saving Faith (which is believing in Christ alone by faith alone, thus being justified before God), according to Scripture and example, always leads to a life of good works and perseverance in the faith. These professors who lack possession would be "found out", disciplined, and either converted or further hardened in their condemnation and not be seen as Christians at all.

You then have other flavors of evangelicals who believe in a works righteousness and sinless perfectionism. These are the two extremes. One believes that you can live sinfully without repentance, so long as you once professed Christ, etc., while the other believes that you can only be saved by being in a non-sinful state at the time of death or rapture (a whole other post altogether!). This second group (typically Pentacostals, Assemblies of God, and other various Charismatic type evangelicals) lack any doctrine of Assurance of one's salvation. This, also, is due to a misunderstanding of Justification by Faith Alone.

You see, if in Adam all men fell (and they did), then all men were condemned. All were born unable to keep God's law perfectly. Keeping all but one law would not do. Thus, all men, by nature and practice, are condemned. How can such a people be redeemed? Well, they must keep the law perfectly. Can they? No. So what happened? God had a plan all along. He sent His Son to die on behalf of a people He had elected for and to Himself (John 6, Eph 1, etc.). These men, being by nature children of wrath (Eph 2), would be redeemed because of Christ's perfect obedience to God's law, and His perfect, sacrificial, substitutionary death in their place. Christ bore the wrath of God for the sins of the Elect that they would be…..JUSTIFIED. That's right. They didn't earn their own justification before the Holy God. Christ did.

So, this second group, if they could understand the essence of what justifcation is, how it was secured, and to whom it is applied, they could understand the doctrine of eternal security of the believer, and the assurance thereof. Yet, because they think somehow they can earn some brownie points with God by their wretched good works, they're blinded to their own depravity and need of redemption from the Perfect Lamb of God.

So this second dark age has hit us. The doctrine of Sola Fide once again is non existant to a dying world. What will we do? Lord, let a fire be stoked underneath our laziness, contentedness, and complacency, that we would burn with the passion of a Luther, Calvin, or a Knox to decry the foolish lie that there is any other way to be made right with God, other than faith alone in Christ alone. May it be so!