February 27, 2008
More from Spurgeon...
Here is another great post from Spurgeon at the Reformation 21 blog. This one concerns the subject of the unpardonable sin. Spurgeon is great at magnifying God's grace and minimizing man's fallen reasoning.
February 26, 2008
Anatomy of Apostasy – Not Seeking the Lord
“They did not ask, 'Where is the LORD, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness” -Jeremiah 2:6
One of the first sins we see God charge his people with is that they are guilty of not seeking him. The charge here is two sided. On one side they had forgotten all that God had done for them, especially concerning his redeeming them from slavery in Egypt and providing for them for forty years. Calvin says this, “We now then understand what the Prophet means by saying, they did not ask: for God here sharply reproves the stupidity of the Jews, — that they did not consider that they were under perpetual obligations to him for his great kindness in delivering them in a manner so wonderful from the land of Egypt. By saying that they did not say, Where is Jehovah, he intimates that he was present with them and nigh them, but that they were blind, and that hence they were without an excuse for their ignorance, as he was not to be sought as one at a distance, or by means tedious and difficult...they did not choose to make any effort, or to apply their minds to seek or to inquire after God."
The second side is not that they are ignorant of what God thinks about what they are doing, but that they do know and are willfully not seeking him. Calvin again states, “…so that they could not have sinned except willfully, even by extinguishing, through their own malignity, the light presented to them, which shone before their eyes.” One of the things that sometimes fails to shock us is not necessarily the sins Israel fell into, but what they fell from. Again, Calvin says in his commentary, “But the first thing to be observed is, that the Jews were inexcusable, who had not considered that their fathers had been wonderfully and in an unusual manner preserved by God’s hand for forty years; for they had no bread to eat, nor water to drink. God drew water for them from a rock, and satisfied them with heavenly bread; and their garments did not wear out during the whole time. We then see that all those circumstances enhanced their guilt.” The Jews were blessed more than any nation on the face of the earth and had been the recipient of God’s covenant promises and blessings. However, covenants also contain curse stipulations in them. And knowing the curses that God promised, Israel still plodded forward in their rejection of him.
One can’t help but think when we read the book of Jeremiah that if Israel would have just stopped for a minute to seek the Lord things might have been a lot different. But if we read on, we will see that it wasn’t just the little stuff that they weren’t seeking the Lord about, but it was everything. The children of Israel had settled into a state of disobedience and disregard to God’s commands. In fact, they were in such a hard-hearted condition that they were warning proof and they said no thanks to God's gracious offer of forgiveness if they would return. Their condition was bad indeed.
One of the first sins we see God charge his people with is that they are guilty of not seeking him. The charge here is two sided. On one side they had forgotten all that God had done for them, especially concerning his redeeming them from slavery in Egypt and providing for them for forty years. Calvin says this, “We now then understand what the Prophet means by saying, they did not ask: for God here sharply reproves the stupidity of the Jews, — that they did not consider that they were under perpetual obligations to him for his great kindness in delivering them in a manner so wonderful from the land of Egypt. By saying that they did not say, Where is Jehovah, he intimates that he was present with them and nigh them, but that they were blind, and that hence they were without an excuse for their ignorance, as he was not to be sought as one at a distance, or by means tedious and difficult...they did not choose to make any effort, or to apply their minds to seek or to inquire after God."
The second side is not that they are ignorant of what God thinks about what they are doing, but that they do know and are willfully not seeking him. Calvin again states, “…so that they could not have sinned except willfully, even by extinguishing, through their own malignity, the light presented to them, which shone before their eyes.” One of the things that sometimes fails to shock us is not necessarily the sins Israel fell into, but what they fell from. Again, Calvin says in his commentary, “But the first thing to be observed is, that the Jews were inexcusable, who had not considered that their fathers had been wonderfully and in an unusual manner preserved by God’s hand for forty years; for they had no bread to eat, nor water to drink. God drew water for them from a rock, and satisfied them with heavenly bread; and their garments did not wear out during the whole time. We then see that all those circumstances enhanced their guilt.” The Jews were blessed more than any nation on the face of the earth and had been the recipient of God’s covenant promises and blessings. However, covenants also contain curse stipulations in them. And knowing the curses that God promised, Israel still plodded forward in their rejection of him.
One can’t help but think when we read the book of Jeremiah that if Israel would have just stopped for a minute to seek the Lord things might have been a lot different. But if we read on, we will see that it wasn’t just the little stuff that they weren’t seeking the Lord about, but it was everything. The children of Israel had settled into a state of disobedience and disregard to God’s commands. In fact, they were in such a hard-hearted condition that they were warning proof and they said no thanks to God's gracious offer of forgiveness if they would return. Their condition was bad indeed.
Spurgeon on Unbelief
Here is a great post over at Pyromaniacs of a short discourse of Spurgeon's view of the sin of unbelief and the many forms it takes.
February 25, 2008
Witherington on Hebrews 6
Ben Witherington has an excellent post here on his very informative blog on the subject of the Hebrews 6 passage. It is very detailed so grab a cup of coffee...
Paper on Apostasy/Sin Against HS
I ran across this great paper on the internet that deals with the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit in its RH context. It has some great stuff in it to go with the thought process I'm trying to follow right now. It's kind of long, but worth the read.
p.s. If you are reading this blog, I apologize for the scatterdness of the posts lately. My job is requiring a lot of hours right now, so thanks for your patience. God Bless.
p.s. If you are reading this blog, I apologize for the scatterdness of the posts lately. My job is requiring a lot of hours right now, so thanks for your patience. God Bless.
February 20, 2008
Anatomy of Apostasy - Definition of Sin
One of the things that stand out from reading the book of Jeremiah is how he addresses their sin. Surprisingly he doesn’t address sin in the same particularly narrow way most of us have been brought up to view it. He deals with the roots of sin whereas we get stuck on the fruit a lot of the time. For example, Jeremiah rebukes Israel for not seeking God (Jer. 2:6), for finding satisfaction in things other than Him (2:13), for not fearing Him (2:19), for being blinded by their lusts and not calling sin what it is, sin (2:22), for having unrestrained lust (2:24), for not being ashamed of their sins (2:26), for not learning from God’s chastisement (2:30;5:3), and for refusing to repent (5:3). These things all add up to Israel finally falling away from God (apostatizing) and being taken captive for their rejection of God.
What I would like to do over the next few weeks is look at a few of these “roots” in more detail and show some other examples in Scripture that illustrate the principle that Scripture is trying getting across to us. The other thing I would like to do is to show how we should avoid letting these things creep into our walk of faith so that we will not end up like Israel did at the end of Jeremiah. But most of all I want to glorify God’s great patience and longsuffering toward His covenant people because of His faithfulness to the covenant of promise.
What I would like to do over the next few weeks is look at a few of these “roots” in more detail and show some other examples in Scripture that illustrate the principle that Scripture is trying getting across to us. The other thing I would like to do is to show how we should avoid letting these things creep into our walk of faith so that we will not end up like Israel did at the end of Jeremiah. But most of all I want to glorify God’s great patience and longsuffering toward His covenant people because of His faithfulness to the covenant of promise.
February 15, 2008
The Anatomy of Apostasy
"Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness." (Jeremiah 3:22)
I have been praying and thinking really hard about doing a series on what apostasy looks like and using the book of Jeremiah as the basis. The series would look at the different things that make up the sin of apostasy, or backsliding as the Old Testament sometimes calls it. Apostasy isn't a one time sin, it isn't a single unforgiveable sin, and it isn't even battling the one of many certain weaknesses we have daily. Apostasy is a condition, a state of heart, that, by the process spelled out in scripture, gets harder and bolder in sin. With all this in mind there are certain aspects of apostasy that show up in Scripture. The book of Jeremiah is especially illustrative of alot of these concepts, which is why I've chosen it as a basis for this series.
Before I move on there is one thing we must point out. Is apostasy forgiveable? The answer is without a doubt a resounding YES! The verse listed above is God's grace reaching out to His people who have slid into this fearful hard hearted state, yet His covenant love and grace still reaches out to His covenant people. Apostasy isn't just a one time act, for Jesus declared all acts of sin forgiveable in his New Testament ministry (except blasphemy of the HS, but that's a subject for another day). Every time we sin against God we are in some small way committing a small act of apostasy in our hearts. Apostasy is nothing more than going backwards in our spiritual journey, whether its a small going back or a big one.
The second reason we know that apostasy is forgiveable is because Jesus died the death of an apostate. Hebrews 13:13 tells us that Jesus suffered and died "outside the gate", which was the death that only those who had flagrantly broken God's covenant suffered. Jesus died the death of a blasphemer, and adulterer, as one who took God's name in vain, as a murderer, and every other sin we can commit. His death was complete, covering sin all the way back to the first great sin in the Garden.
We must have one word of caution though. There is an advanced state of apostasy which we will look at that is very dangerous, even deadly (i.e. Judas & Cain, and warning passages in Hebrews). Examples like these are to make us fear ever getting that far into sin and instead to flee to God's mercy and grace in Christ which He freely gives to all who long for it. This isn't a condition easily reached because of God's abundant mercy, but because it is a very real possibility we will try to look at it through the lenses of Scripture.
I have been praying and thinking really hard about doing a series on what apostasy looks like and using the book of Jeremiah as the basis. The series would look at the different things that make up the sin of apostasy, or backsliding as the Old Testament sometimes calls it. Apostasy isn't a one time sin, it isn't a single unforgiveable sin, and it isn't even battling the one of many certain weaknesses we have daily. Apostasy is a condition, a state of heart, that, by the process spelled out in scripture, gets harder and bolder in sin. With all this in mind there are certain aspects of apostasy that show up in Scripture. The book of Jeremiah is especially illustrative of alot of these concepts, which is why I've chosen it as a basis for this series.
Before I move on there is one thing we must point out. Is apostasy forgiveable? The answer is without a doubt a resounding YES! The verse listed above is God's grace reaching out to His people who have slid into this fearful hard hearted state, yet His covenant love and grace still reaches out to His covenant people. Apostasy isn't just a one time act, for Jesus declared all acts of sin forgiveable in his New Testament ministry (except blasphemy of the HS, but that's a subject for another day). Every time we sin against God we are in some small way committing a small act of apostasy in our hearts. Apostasy is nothing more than going backwards in our spiritual journey, whether its a small going back or a big one.
The second reason we know that apostasy is forgiveable is because Jesus died the death of an apostate. Hebrews 13:13 tells us that Jesus suffered and died "outside the gate", which was the death that only those who had flagrantly broken God's covenant suffered. Jesus died the death of a blasphemer, and adulterer, as one who took God's name in vain, as a murderer, and every other sin we can commit. His death was complete, covering sin all the way back to the first great sin in the Garden.
We must have one word of caution though. There is an advanced state of apostasy which we will look at that is very dangerous, even deadly (i.e. Judas & Cain, and warning passages in Hebrews). Examples like these are to make us fear ever getting that far into sin and instead to flee to God's mercy and grace in Christ which He freely gives to all who long for it. This isn't a condition easily reached because of God's abundant mercy, but because it is a very real possibility we will try to look at it through the lenses of Scripture.
February 3, 2008
Happy Birthday Landon!
Our son, Landon just turned three. To us that is a big gift from God. Landon was born at 23 weeks, which is only about 5-1/2 months into the pregnancy. He only weighed 1 lb and 7 oz and we were not given much hope that he would come home, or have any sort of a normal life. To God's credit he did come home and he has has done far greater than the doctors ever would have dreamed. Because his lungs are still a little behind he is on oxygen and he has had to have a few surgeries from complications from being born so early, but God has told an amazing story both to us and to all the doctors who have scratched their heads in unbelief at the the miracles God has and is performing through Landon. We take every day, sometimes every minute with Landon as a gift, and take lots of pictures! God is without a doubt the author of life, and we know its because Christ died on the Cross to purchase both ours and Landon's life from the power of sin and death. To God be the glory!
The Blessing of Sight
This is a post from one of my favorite blogs that is no longer on the web. It is a post that deals with the subject of how God sometimes opens our eyes to the awefulness of our sins when we are shutting them on purpose. But it is also about God's rich mercy that is there to comfort and forgive us when we repent.
The Blessing of Sight
You’ve just truly seen yourself for the first time and now you’re scared. For years you have lived in the bubble of your own religious pretense, presumption and play acting, but now the mask has been taken from you and you tremble at what you’ve been shown.
For there lying conspicuously in front of you, what you had ignored so many times before, is a passage of God’s truth that now turns your heart to melted wax. Like a melted, snuffed candle you feel as if the life and flame has gone out from within you and now you think yourself as a grotesque blob of useless smoldering wax. What once was brushed aside by a mental wave of the hand, now has you terrified. You are desperate, anxious and near total despair. Perhaps it was the infamous Hebrews 6:4-6 or Hebrews 10:26-28 that struck your pride down. Maybe an Old Testament passage kindled your guilt and gave you glimmers of how past sins that had gone unnoticed and untended for so many years. It doesn't matter. Now you've been brought low. Now you realize your own sin, and you feel the weight of the deep offenses you’ve piled upon yourself and before the Lord.
Regardless of which dagger of the Living God’s truth struck and pierced your heart, you still think: "What need is there for me to stand before God to face his judgment? His wrath is already on me. His angry eyes are fixed on my unrepentant, bold, unabashed sin."
But even in his anger there is hope, much hope. In fact, for quite possibly the very first time in your life, there is true hope for you. Or is it that you have forgotten what the Word of God says? Have you not remembered that the God of All Creation is a God is One that brings forth the greatest good from the greatest sorrow for all who call upon him? Remember the story of Esther and how near the Jews were to annihilation at the hands of wicked Haman? Remember how the Israelites were pinned between the sea and a charging, well-armed Egyptian army? Remember the more than 185,000 Assyrians that were at Jerusalem’s gates? What about Jonah defying God, yet having a great work performed through his preaching after he was spared? What about the utterly depraved Ninevehites who heard Jonah’s preaching and repented? How about a murderous Paul being turned from his madness - when he didn’t even ask for it?
Now maybe you think: “That’s all well and good for a child of God, but I no longer think that God will accept me. I am as Esau. I am as Judas, once he saw his sin. I am like the Israelite put out of the camp or to be stoned to death for his offense and blasphemy. I don’t believe that I can repent and I don't believe that God will allow me to repent.”
Ah, but you see the truth. You see that to continue unrepentant is to sign your own spiritual death warrant. You see that your offenses before God is the thing to be sorrowful over. You now understand that you’ve offended God and that you continue to offend God. The question is not whether you see your guilt as a legitimate problem, the question now is what you are going to do about it?
Will you go the way of Judas, take matters into your own hands, and kill yourself in unbelief? Will go back to sinning, resolved to your presumed 'fate', and continue to live unrepentant like Cain and Esau? Or will your sorrow and guilt drive you to seek to Christ and trust in his promises for salvation. Remember Jesus said that those who seek find. Those who ask, receive. Those who knock are let in the door. So do these things and plead for God’s mercy, ask for repentance from him, and if you can’t find it in your heart now, pray for it and expect to find his grace.
Sight is a rare gift. To see God’s truth is a great blessing that far too often is not cherished and is taken for granted. To have sight of the truth is to have a measure of God's grace in your heart.
And the Spirit of God will work a heart to fear its separation from the truth in order to bring it back to conformity to God’s will. He will use the sight of your sin to turn you from your ways.
To that end, do not look upon anxiety or fear as a great curse, but as a blessing that God has not given up on you. He is prompting you to return to him to find the grace and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ and to show you that the melted wax of your heart does not mean that the light of Christ’s love has extinguished. It just means that he is preparing the ground for your return and for your receipt of his love and truth.
"If we are faithless,
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself" - 2 Timothy 2:13
(Some may recognize this post as it was linked to a lot, but I am leaving the author's name out because I can't contact him to see if it's ok to put on here.)
The Blessing of Sight
You’ve just truly seen yourself for the first time and now you’re scared. For years you have lived in the bubble of your own religious pretense, presumption and play acting, but now the mask has been taken from you and you tremble at what you’ve been shown.
For there lying conspicuously in front of you, what you had ignored so many times before, is a passage of God’s truth that now turns your heart to melted wax. Like a melted, snuffed candle you feel as if the life and flame has gone out from within you and now you think yourself as a grotesque blob of useless smoldering wax. What once was brushed aside by a mental wave of the hand, now has you terrified. You are desperate, anxious and near total despair. Perhaps it was the infamous Hebrews 6:4-6 or Hebrews 10:26-28 that struck your pride down. Maybe an Old Testament passage kindled your guilt and gave you glimmers of how past sins that had gone unnoticed and untended for so many years. It doesn't matter. Now you've been brought low. Now you realize your own sin, and you feel the weight of the deep offenses you’ve piled upon yourself and before the Lord.
Regardless of which dagger of the Living God’s truth struck and pierced your heart, you still think: "What need is there for me to stand before God to face his judgment? His wrath is already on me. His angry eyes are fixed on my unrepentant, bold, unabashed sin."
But even in his anger there is hope, much hope. In fact, for quite possibly the very first time in your life, there is true hope for you. Or is it that you have forgotten what the Word of God says? Have you not remembered that the God of All Creation is a God is One that brings forth the greatest good from the greatest sorrow for all who call upon him? Remember the story of Esther and how near the Jews were to annihilation at the hands of wicked Haman? Remember how the Israelites were pinned between the sea and a charging, well-armed Egyptian army? Remember the more than 185,000 Assyrians that were at Jerusalem’s gates? What about Jonah defying God, yet having a great work performed through his preaching after he was spared? What about the utterly depraved Ninevehites who heard Jonah’s preaching and repented? How about a murderous Paul being turned from his madness - when he didn’t even ask for it?
Now maybe you think: “That’s all well and good for a child of God, but I no longer think that God will accept me. I am as Esau. I am as Judas, once he saw his sin. I am like the Israelite put out of the camp or to be stoned to death for his offense and blasphemy. I don’t believe that I can repent and I don't believe that God will allow me to repent.”
Ah, but you see the truth. You see that to continue unrepentant is to sign your own spiritual death warrant. You see that your offenses before God is the thing to be sorrowful over. You now understand that you’ve offended God and that you continue to offend God. The question is not whether you see your guilt as a legitimate problem, the question now is what you are going to do about it?
Will you go the way of Judas, take matters into your own hands, and kill yourself in unbelief? Will go back to sinning, resolved to your presumed 'fate', and continue to live unrepentant like Cain and Esau? Or will your sorrow and guilt drive you to seek to Christ and trust in his promises for salvation. Remember Jesus said that those who seek find. Those who ask, receive. Those who knock are let in the door. So do these things and plead for God’s mercy, ask for repentance from him, and if you can’t find it in your heart now, pray for it and expect to find his grace.
Sight is a rare gift. To see God’s truth is a great blessing that far too often is not cherished and is taken for granted. To have sight of the truth is to have a measure of God's grace in your heart.
And the Spirit of God will work a heart to fear its separation from the truth in order to bring it back to conformity to God’s will. He will use the sight of your sin to turn you from your ways.
To that end, do not look upon anxiety or fear as a great curse, but as a blessing that God has not given up on you. He is prompting you to return to him to find the grace and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ and to show you that the melted wax of your heart does not mean that the light of Christ’s love has extinguished. It just means that he is preparing the ground for your return and for your receipt of his love and truth.
"If we are faithless,
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself" - 2 Timothy 2:13
(Some may recognize this post as it was linked to a lot, but I am leaving the author's name out because I can't contact him to see if it's ok to put on here.)
February 1, 2008
A Failure to Move Forward
"Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity..."(Hebrews 6:1, ESV)
One thing that stands out about this warning passage and others in Hebrews the more I read them are the similarities between what the writer is saying and the experience of Israel in the wilderness at Kadesh-Barnea (see here). The writer here in Hebrews 6 is scolding his congregation for their lack of forward progress in the faith. He then abrubptly stops and gives this solemn warning about the consequences of continuing in this state. If we look back to Numbers 14 we can see that the Israelites suffered from this exact same thing:
"Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron...'Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?' And they said to one another,'Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.'" (Numbers 14:1,3b-4)
God had promised to give them the land in his covenant with Abraham. They had also experienced countless miracles, eschatological wonders, and caring provision from the hand of God which parallels the gifts experienced by the New Covenant believer in Hebrews 6:4-5. In spite of all this they still refused to go forward, thus completely setting aside the covenant promises God had made to them. They not only rejected God, they also rejected his servant Moses and conspired to put him to the open shame of the death of a covenant breaker (parallelling putting Christ to open shame in the New Covenant). When God finally thunders from heaven in judgment on his people in Numbers 14:22-23 he says that it was for thier habitual rebellion, not for any isolated act, which helps us shed light on the statement about "falling away" in Hebrews 6:6. This falling away is not an isolated act of disobedience, or even an ongoing struggle with a certain sin, but a habitual and ongoing condition of a hard heart that despises God and his commandments and covenant promises. In fact it is a heart so hard that there is no shame, and when offered the chance of repentance it is rejected (Numbers 14:9-10). This is a dangerous condition indeed.
What the writer of Hebrews is showing here is the dangerous place that apathy, or refusing to go forward in the faith can result in. Calvin says in his commentaries that apathy can lead to indifference, and indifference to alienation, and alienation if not repented of can lead to this falling away and full rejection of Christ and his teachings in the New Covenant.
In summary, this passage is not for those who struggle with sin, which every single Christian does daily. So who is it for? I'm not sure I know the exact answer to that except to say that it's to those who are deliberately refusing to move forward in the faith for whatever reason.
So what is the author of Hebrews saying to us? "...we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Heb 6:11-12). We move forward with the full assurance of hope in God's promises, especially the promise of the forgiveness of sins!
One thing that stands out about this warning passage and others in Hebrews the more I read them are the similarities between what the writer is saying and the experience of Israel in the wilderness at Kadesh-Barnea (see here). The writer here in Hebrews 6 is scolding his congregation for their lack of forward progress in the faith. He then abrubptly stops and gives this solemn warning about the consequences of continuing in this state. If we look back to Numbers 14 we can see that the Israelites suffered from this exact same thing:
"Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron...'Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?' And they said to one another,'Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.'" (Numbers 14:1,3b-4)
God had promised to give them the land in his covenant with Abraham. They had also experienced countless miracles, eschatological wonders, and caring provision from the hand of God which parallels the gifts experienced by the New Covenant believer in Hebrews 6:4-5. In spite of all this they still refused to go forward, thus completely setting aside the covenant promises God had made to them. They not only rejected God, they also rejected his servant Moses and conspired to put him to the open shame of the death of a covenant breaker (parallelling putting Christ to open shame in the New Covenant). When God finally thunders from heaven in judgment on his people in Numbers 14:22-23 he says that it was for thier habitual rebellion, not for any isolated act, which helps us shed light on the statement about "falling away" in Hebrews 6:6. This falling away is not an isolated act of disobedience, or even an ongoing struggle with a certain sin, but a habitual and ongoing condition of a hard heart that despises God and his commandments and covenant promises. In fact it is a heart so hard that there is no shame, and when offered the chance of repentance it is rejected (Numbers 14:9-10). This is a dangerous condition indeed.
What the writer of Hebrews is showing here is the dangerous place that apathy, or refusing to go forward in the faith can result in. Calvin says in his commentaries that apathy can lead to indifference, and indifference to alienation, and alienation if not repented of can lead to this falling away and full rejection of Christ and his teachings in the New Covenant.
In summary, this passage is not for those who struggle with sin, which every single Christian does daily. So who is it for? I'm not sure I know the exact answer to that except to say that it's to those who are deliberately refusing to move forward in the faith for whatever reason.
So what is the author of Hebrews saying to us? "...we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Heb 6:11-12). We move forward with the full assurance of hope in God's promises, especially the promise of the forgiveness of sins!
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