God Finishes What He Starts

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”  Philippians 1:6

God assures us that he will complete the work he begins in us.  Unlike us God always finishes what he starts.  We have the bad habit of beginning a project but not seeing it through to completion.  How many of us have a list of partially-read books, household chores, school projects, and work assignments?  And how many of us will never finish the work we once started?  God never does that.  He always finishes the work he begins.  He never grows weary or fainthearted like we do.  His inspiration and motivation never dissipate.  He is perpetually committed.  The real reason that this is good news for us is that it gives us assurance of the security of our salvation.  We can be sure that God will carry the work of salvation to completion in us.  Believer, has he begun a good work in you?  Then he shall finish it!  You can be sure of it!  God’s elect cannot fail to persevere in the faith and obtain final salvation any more than God can fail.  Salvation is his work from start to finish.  This is why Paul says that he can be sure of the security and preservation of the Philippians.  He can be sure because their salvation is not in their own power.  If it were in their power, there would be no assurance or security.  Man may begin well but rarely finishes what he begins.  Yet God is fully committed and completely able to complete what he begins.  Salvation begins in the experience of the Christian when God effectively calls him to himself and grants him new life.  This is his work.  Our effectual calling and regeneration (new birth) are not the result of our cooperation with God’s grace.  They are completely the result of God’s love and mercy.  He has made us alive together with Christ.  Effectual calling and regeneration are just the beginning of our salvation.  We also know about justification, adoption, and sanctification.  These, too, are the result of God’s saving grace.  They are God’s way of continuing the work he began in us.  Shall God declare our sins to be forgiven now and not at the last day?  Shall God adopt us as his children now and then reject us as illegitimate at the judgment seat of Christ?  Shall God cause holiness to flourish in our hearts and lives only to frown upon it in the life to come?  By no means!  If God has begun a work in you, believer, then you can rest assured that he will complete it.  He always finishes what he starts.  But when will God complete the work he began in us?  The text tells us that it will be complete “at the day of Jesus Christ.”  God’s saving work in us will not be complete until Jesus returns for us.  We call this “glorification.”  It is the day on which we shall be perfected into the likeness of Jesus.  We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is.  We shall be sinless and glorious.  Perfection is not attainable in this life.  We all sin in word, thought, and deed on a daily basis.  We will never achieve entire sanctification in our earthly pilgrimage, but our sanctification will reach completion at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is a sure thing.  We can be assured that we shall be like Jesus.  It is written in the decree of our omnipotent God.  Yes, it is hard to believe that we shall ever be the glorious beings that God designed us to be, but we are told that we shall be like him.  Now this could never be if it depended on our will or work.  It depends entirely on God alone.  The only reason we can be sure that we will be kept for final salvation is because we are kept by God’s power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.  Do you ever struggle with assurance?  Do you ever feel like your faith will not last?  Do you ever worry that you will not make it to heaven after all?  Then look away from yourself to this divine promise:  God will finish the work he began in you.  The security of our salvation rests entirely in the hands of the God who finishes what he starts.  Blessed assurance!  Jesus is mine!    

The Seed Promise

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and your shall bruise his heel.” 

Genesis 3:15

These words were spoken by God to the serpent shortly after Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit.  God speaks of both judgment and salvation.  On the one hand, God pronounces judgment on the serpent, but, on the other hand, he announces salvation to the human race.  Christian theologians have recognized from the beginning of the Church that this is the first promise of the gospel in the Bible.  In Latin they called it the Protoevangelium (first gospel).  It is the seed promise that contains all the other gospel promises in the Old Testament.  Here God promises an offspring (older versions translated this as ‘seed’) who shall bruise the head of the serpent.  Although Genesis never identifies the serpent as Satan, context makes it clear that he is the Evil One who first seduced Eve.  And if we doubt that the serpent is Satan, John later tells us in Revelation 12:9 that he is indeed “that ancient serpent.”  Unfortunately, many Christians simply skip over this seed promise not realizing that it is the promise that God seeks to clarify throughout his redemptive story beginning in Genesis and climaxing in Revelation.  In the verse God teaches us that there will be a continual conflict between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the serpent.  The Hebrew word ‘offspring’ always appears in singular grammatical form (never ‘offsprings’ when the plural is intended), and the context determines whether the meaning is collective (offsprings) or individual (offspring).  So the struggle between the woman’s offspring and the serpent’s offspring may simply mean that there will be a struggle between two races: the offspring of the woman (the children of God) and the offspring of the serpent (the children of the devil).  The verse divides humanity into two spiritual classifications and promises that these two groups will engage in spiritual war.  This fits well with the context because the next chapter reveals an example of this spiritual struggle.  Cain, the offspring of the serpent, kills Abel, the offspring of the woman.  God then appoints Seth as a replacement for Abel.  Keep in mind that this is a spiritual conflict.  From a biological point of view both Cain and Abel were the offspring of the woman.  But the point is that by seducing the woman the serpent has secured an offspring from the race of men.  Humanity is now fallen and in rebellion against God.  And yet the only hope for humanity is for a righteous offspring to bruise Satan’s head as Adam should have done in the first place.  Now even though there is a collective idea in the battle between the two offsprings, we can see that there is an individual referent in the singular offspring who actually bruises the serpent’s head.  We can see this on account of the use of the personal pronoun ‘he.’  In Hebrew there are singular and plural pronoun forms; so this is the way that Moses shows us that he intends a singular offspring.  And this means that Genesis 3:15 envisions a singular offspring who shall come to bruise the head of the serpent.  And how shall he do this?  He shall do this by bruising his own heal.  In other words, he shall wound the serpent by being wounded.  Crushing the head of Satan will require his own suffering.  So God is promising hope of deliverance.  On the one hand, God pronounces judgment on the serpent who is the incarnation of Satan, but, on the other hand, God promises salvation for the offspring of the woman in a singular offspring who shall defeat the devil.  We should think about this verse during the Christmas season because it means that the ultimate triumph over the devil comes through a human being, the offspring of the woman.  This should be understood in light of the Incarnation.  Adam failed in the Garden.  He failed to crush the serpent’s head.  He was silent and sinned.  But the last Adam, Jesus Christ, must prevail where the first Adam failed.  He must do what Adam should have done.  And when he does, there will be redemption.  This, of course, is why Genesis (and a great deal of the Bible) is concerned with genealogies (tracing offspring from one generation to another).  In chapter 5 we have the genealogy from Seth (the righteous offspring as Abel’s replacement) to Noah.  In chapters 10 and 11 we can follow Noah’s genealogy through Shem to Terah.  And Terah fathered Abram.  So by the time we come to the call of Abram in Genesis 12 we should be thinking in light of God’s original seed promise.  For God shall also make a promise about Abraham’s offspring that further clarifies what the offspring of the woman shall accomplish.  In Abraham’s offspring all nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3; 22:18; Galatians 3:8, 11).    

Improving Our Baptism

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”  Romans 6:3

You should think about your baptism every day of your life.  Does that surprise you?  It shouldn’t.  When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman Church, he wanted to teach them that salvation by grace didn’t give them a license to sin.  So he reminded them about the meaning of their baptism.  In doing so, he assumed that they should have known what baptism meant for their everyday Christian lives.  He says, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”  (Romans 6:3).  Baptism means union with Christ in his death and resurrection.  Since this is what baptism means, we cannot conclude that grace excuses sin.  If we think that we may “continue in sin so that grace may abound,” we are living contrary to the meaning of our baptism.  The Apostle Paul’s reminder to the Roman Church is what the Westminster divines called “improving” one’s baptism.  Larger Catechism 167 explains how we may improve our baptism:

“The needful but much neglected duty of improving our baptism, is to be performed by us all our life long, especially in the time of temptation, and when we are present at the administration of it to others; by serious and thankful consideration of the nature of it, and of the ends for which Christ instituted it, the privileges and benefits conferred and sealed thereby, and our solemn vow made therein; by being humbled for our sinful defilement, our falling short of, and walking contrary to, the grace of baptism, and our engagements; by growing up to assurance of pardon of sin, and of all other blessings sealed to us in that sacrament; by drawing strength from the death and resurrection of Christ, into whom we are baptized, for the mortifying of sin, and quickening of grace, and by endeavoring to live by faith, to have our conversation in holiness and righteousness, as those that have therein given up their names to Christ; and to walk in brotherly love, as being baptized by the same Spirit into one body.”

God intends for our baptisms to strengthen us throughout the entire Christian life.  But what are the practical ways that we may improve our baptism?  The Larger Catechism explains many ways, but let’s see if we are able to explain this in simpler terms.  When the Westminster divines spoke about “improving” baptism, they meant “making a good use of.”  There are two main ways that Christians may make a good use of their baptism on a daily basis.  The first of these ways is by believing God’s promises made to us in baptism.  One of my favorite definitions of a Sacrament is that it is a sign and seal of God’s promise.  The language of sign and seal comes from Paul’s description of circumcision in Romans 4:11.  The connection between circumcision and baptism is made in Colossians 2:11-12.  In a Sacrament, God makes a promise to his people, and he signifies and seals that promise to their hearts by attaching a sign to his Word.  In this case, the sign is water, and God attaches water to his Word so that we might believe that Christ’s blood washes away sin from our souls as water washes away dirt from our bodies.  “And now why do you wait?  Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name” (Acts 22:16).  “And such were some of you.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).  As Christians we are those whose “bodies” have been “washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22).  This doesn’t mean that the water itself washes away our sins as Peter tells us that baptism “now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience” (1 Peter 3:21).  Nevertheless, the water of baptism is not merely water, but it is “the washing of water with the word” (Ephesians 5:26).  The power is not in the water but in the Word of God.  The power is also in the Holy Spirit who uses the Word of God to create faith in our hearts (Romans 10:17).  So we must make use of our baptisms by believing the promise made to us.  Without faith in God’s promise the waters of baptism are useless.  The waters are added to strengthen and confirm our faith in God’s promise.  Heidelberg Catechism 69 explains this well.  “How does baptism remind you and assure you that Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross is for you personally?  In this way: Christ instituted this outward washing and with it gave the promise that, as surely as water washes away the dirt from the body, so certainly his blood and his Spirit wash away my soul’s impurity, in other words, all my sins.”  Now if we remembered this, then this would be a great help to us in sin and temptation.  We may be tempted to doubt that our sins are forgiven.  So where do we turn?  We turn to God’s promise to forgive us our sin for Christ’s sake.  Where does God make this promise to us personally?  In his Word and in our baptism.  Now the wonderful thing about this is that baptism is an objective reference point.  We may question whether we have had a genuine conversion experience or whether we have the requisite fruit in our lives.  But we may not question whether we have been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  God made an objective promise to us at that moment.  Certainly the promise must be subjectively realized in our lives, and this happens every time we believe the promise.  So the the efficacy of baptism is not tied to the moment of administration.  So we are always drawing on the promise of God to forgive us our sins for Christ’s sake.  This promise is made to us in baptism.  I should point out here that looking to God’s promises made to us in our baptism is very different than the common problem of presumption.  Evangelicals tend to be uncomfortable with this idea of “improving our baptism” because they fear the way that many presume to be saved on account of their baptisms.  Some people have a view of baptism that teaches that sinners are saved automatically by the ritual itself.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Presumption says, “I have been baptized.  Therefore, I am saved.  I can continue to live my life how I want.”  How much this differs from God’s Word in Romans 6!  The point of Romans 6 is that if we really believed the meaning of our baptisms, then we would recognize that it is impossible for us to continue in sin.  We have died to sin.  We have risen to walk in newness of life.  We are new creatures.  Looking to God’s promises in our baptism, then, is not presumption; it’s faith.  We simply believe that what God said in his Word and sealed with his water, is true.  Luther once said that his flesh and the devil often tempted him to doubt his salvation.  In response to the devil’s accusations, Luther said that Christians should proclaim, “Behold, I am baptized, and I believe in Christ crucified.”  Now that’s improving one’s baptism!  Secondly, we may also improve our baptism by remembering the promises we made to God in our baptism.  Baptism is not merely a sign and seal of the Christian’s profession of faith.  It is first and foremost a sign and seal of God’s promise.  But in response to God’s promise to forgive us and cleanse us for Christ’s sake, we profess our faith in him.  At every Christian baptism promises are made.  When an adult is baptized, he makes promises to Christ and to the Church.  When an infant is baptized in keeping with God’s covenant promises (Acts 2:38-39), the parents make promises to raise the child for Christ, and the church makes promises to help the parents in the Christian nurture of that child.  The point is that we need to recall our baptismal vows often.  Larger Catechism 167 speaks about our need to remember “our solemn vow made therein.”  This includes confessing our sin (1 John 1:9), putting our sin to death (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5), and offering our lives as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:13).  The main point of Romans 6 is that the baptism of the past implies sanctification in the present.  It calls for daily death to sin and daily resurrection to righteousness.  Baptism is not irrelevant for the Christian life.  It keeps our Christian life centered on Christ.  Baptism is Christ-centered.  His blood and his Spirit cleanse us from all sin.  His death and his resurrection justify us.  We are right with God through faith in him alone.  Whenever speaking about baptism, I always try to remind Christians that baptism is not something that we do.  It is not our work; it is God’s work.  When we study baptism in the New Testament, we notice that it almost always appears in the passive form: be baptized.  We do not baptize ourselves.  We are baptized by another.  This shows us that we cannot cleanse ourselves of our own sin.  We need the blood of Jesus to wash away our sin.  We are passive recipients of God’s promise to wash us.  We simply receive his promised cleansing by faith alone.  We see something similar in the Lord’s Supper.  Bread and wine are given to us.  We receive them with an open mouth.  We do not earn them or work for them.  The washing, the food, and the drink are God’s free gifts.  This is the dramatization of the gospel for us.  Jesus cleanses you from all your sin.  Jesus feeds you with his body and quenches your thirst with his blood.  He nourishes and strengthens you.  It’s true that we neglect this needful duty of improving our baptisms, but when we think about baptism in this way, do we not see how great a resource it is for us in times of doubt, trial, and temptation?  Should we not remind ourselves that we are baptized and that we believe the Christian faith?  Do we not know that we have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection?  We are new creatures in Jesus, and we ought to use all the means of grace (Word, Sacraments, and Prayer) to remind us of this grand reality.  We sing, “Jesus loves me.  This I know.  For the Bible tells me so.”  Let us also sing, “Jesus loves me.  This I know.  For my Baptism tells me so.” 

Bearing Fruit in Old Age

“The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.  They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.  They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”  Psalm 92:12-15

When God examines the limbs of our lives, he searches for fruit.  Jesus said, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8).  John the Baptist once preached, “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8).  Fruit bearing is the result of our union and communion with Christ (John 15:5).  It proves the reality of our discipleship and brings glory to God.  And Christians may bear fruit in every stage of life from infancy to old age.  Timothy was taught the Scriptures from infancy (2 Timothy 3:15).  David trusted in the Lord from his earliest days.  “Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.  On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God” (Psalm 22:9-10).  This is why God tells us to remember our Creator in the days of our youth (Ecclesiastes 12:1).  “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth” (Lamentations 3:27).  So fruit bearing can begin in infancy, and it can continue to old age.  Our text says, “They still bear fruit in old age.”  May this be said of us in the final years of our lives!  The righteous continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ in the last chapter of their lives (2 Peter 3:18).  They do not live as if they have already arrived in heaven.  In their old age the righteous continue to meditate on God’s Word, pray in the power of his Spirit, and daily repent of their sin.  The Spirit continues to empower them to bear his fruit when they are old and physically weak (Galatians 5:22-23).  They are firmly rooted in God’s truth and continue to grow spiritually until their dying day.  Old saints are like fruitful trees.  “He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.  In all that he does, he prospers” (Psalm 1:3).  Old believers treasure the Sabbath day and the public worship of God.  This Psalm is entitled “A Song for the Sabbath.”  In addition, we see that these old trees are planted and grow “in the house of the LORD” and “in the courts of our God.”  How old saints rejoice to assemble with God’s people for corporate worship!  “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD!’” (Psalm 122:1).  They lack no resources to sing his praise to the glory of his name because they are “ever full of sap and green.”  And the reason these old saints are able to continue to bear fruit in old age is because of the greatness of their God.  His way is upright.  He is their rock and “there is no unrighteousness in him.”  If we want to bear fruit throughout our lives on earth, and if we want to bear fruit in our old age, we must depend upon our mighty God.  He says to us, “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to grey hairs I will carry you.  I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save” (Isaiah 46:3-4).  Whether we are young or old Christians let us strive to bear fruit now so that we might be like those in Psalm 92:14 who “still bear fruit in old age.”  The end of life is no time for coasting, drifting, wandering, and backsliding.  We may retire from our earthly employments, but this is no time to retire from the labors of our sanctification.  Consider that this is the last chapter of our lives before we stand before our King and Judge.  Shall we slip into eternity with our eyes closed?  Let us be sober in our serious pursuit of holiness and love!  Let us abide in the Lord Jesus who is our only Vine!  He supplies the life, resources, and power to bear the fruit of love.  Let us join ourselves to him alone!

The Pillar of Cloud and Fire

“And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.  The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.”  Exodus 13:21-22

This passage teaches us three great truths about how our Lord guides his people.  We learn in the first place that our Lord goes before us.  The picture is not of the Lord pressing behind us or of him walking beside us.  No, the text says, “And the LORD went before them.”  The Good Shepherd was in front taking an active role in leading his flock.  The people followed behind him.  When our Lord goes before us, we know that it is he who decides where we shall go, and it is he who shall first meet our enemies.  We will never get lost if we stay behind the Lord.  We will always be safe if we stay in the shadow of his pillar by day or in the light of his fire by night.  The Israelites were leaving Egypt the land of their slavery and heading for Canaan their Promised Land.  In between they would face a journey in the wilderness.  So they desperately needed the guidance of God.  The deliverance and journey of Israel is a pattern of the deliverance and journey of the Church.  We were enslaved to sin.  God delivered us from the tyranny of sin and the devil through Jesus.  We are now headed to our Promised Land in heaven.  We must follow our Lord through the sufferings of this present wilderness because he is leading us to the city whose designer and builder is God.  The second lesson in the text is that our Lord provides what we need to follow him in both the light and the darkness.  God always gives us exactly what we need.  God desired his people to travel by day and by night in order to make it to their Promised Land.  So he gave them a pillar of cloud which would be visible by day and a pillar of fire to illumine their steps by night.  The Lord did not hide himself from his people.  He revealed himself and made his way known.  In the same way, we must trust that the Lord has given us all the resources and guidance that we need today.  Today he does not lead us by a pillar of cloud and fire.  He leads us by his Word and Spirit.  He does not ask us to search the hidden decrees of his mind or to try to interpret the riddles of providence.  If he wanted us to know more, he would make it clear to us.  “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).  When our God desires to lead his people, he is not a God who whispers in the shadows but a God who appears in the open to make his way known.  We know that the Lord provided all that his people needed.  Later when his people were hungry and thirsty, he gave them bread from heaven and water from a rock.  He always provided exactly what the people required.  No good thing does our Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11b).  The third truth in the passage is perhaps the greatest of all.  Here we see that our Lord does not depart from us.  It says, “The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.”  The leading of the Lord was not a mirage in the wilderness.  It was real.  And the people were never abandoned.  The Lord will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5b).  He shall not abandon his people who are his heritage and portion.  He loves us with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3) and places beneath us the everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:27).  When we lose our way, he seeks us and finds us.  Sometimes we do not know what to do, but we set our eyes on the Lord (2 Chronicles 20:12c).  He will show us where he wants us to go when the time is right.  In the meantime we must wait on him and stay behind him.  He goes before us.  He gives us what we need.  And he shall never abandon us.  Jesus taught us the same when he said, “Behold, I am with you always even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b).  Always.  Christians are pilgrims, and as we journey to our heavenly home let us keep before us that our Lord leads us to the place he has prepared for us.  Let us lift up our heads, strengthen our weak knees, and walk in his ways! 

After Death: Jesus

“Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”  2 Corinthians 5:8

“I am hard pressed between the two.  My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”  Philippians 1:23

What happens to Christians after they die?  We depart this life to be with Jesus.  The Bible speaks of three conditions of our life.  The first condition is our life “in the body” (2 Corinthians 5:6).  This refers to our present life on earth.  The second condition is “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).  This describes our life after death but before the resurrection.  Theologians call this the intermediate state because it is the period in between death and the resurrection.  The third condition is “in the resurrection” (Matthew 22:30).  This is our life in our glorified existence.  When Jesus returns to earth, he will resurrect our bodies, and we shall dwell with him on a renewed earth.  “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3:4).  He “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” (Philippians 3:21).  When Christians die, our bodies are buried, but our spirits immediately pass into the presence of God.  Jesus proclaimed to the thief on the cross, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).  Christians need not wait until the resurrection in order to be with Christ in Paradise.  Paul describes this state as being “at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8) and as being “far better” (Philippians 1:23) than his life on earth.  Shorter Catechism 37 asks, “What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?”  The answer is, “The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves, till the resurrection.”  So what happens when a Christian dies?  Jesus happens!  We do not know many details about the intermediate state.  We have a visionary description of it in Revelation 4 and 5 where we read of the continuous worship of heaven, but as a vision it is difficult to know how literal the description is intended to be.  We may observe that heaven is a place of joyous song and uninterrupted adoration of the Trinity.  God is praised for his holiness, power, eternity (Revelation 4:8), creation (Revelation 4:11), and redemption (Revelation 5:9-10).  Heaven is God-centered and God-exalting.  We have another visionary description of the intermediate state of the redeemed in Revelation 7:9-17.  There we read the following description of our blessed condition: “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:15-17).  Nevertheless, as wonderful as the intermediate state is for believers, it is not our ultimate destination.  Our final destination is the resurrection of the body and the renewed heaven and earth.  Paul explains the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15.  The passage emphasizes that the resurrection is not extraneous to our creed but is the essence of our faith.  So then, as great as it is to be present with the Lord in the intermediate state, we know that those souls still long for the Second Coming, the resurrection of the body, and their ultimate vindication.  They cry out to their Sovereign Lord, “How long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on earth?” (Revelation 6:10).  Revelation 21 teaches us that the end of the story is the creation of a new heaven and earth.  This is the consummation of God’s plan of salvation for his people.  This condition is far better than the intermediate state.  Heaven descends to the earth.  God again dwells with his people (Revelation 21:3) and removes his curse from creation (Revelation 22:3).  The whole world then becomes a temple for the Lord and a place of righteousness, peace, joy, and love.  Shorter Catechism 38: “What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?  At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the Day of Judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.”  In heaven our full human purpose will be realized.  In this life we should glorify God and enjoy him forever; in the life to come we shall glorify God and enjoy him forever.  One problem that Christians will encounter when it comes to the intermediate state is that we are not given much information.  We are told that we will be “with Christ” and that it will be “far better.”  God will remove the curse of sin and dwell with us.  Yet many of our questions remain unanswered.  One reason for this is to teach us to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).  “But it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10).  Another reason for our limited knowledge is to teach us to ponder what heaven will be like.  We are called to enjoy the anticipation of our heavenly home.  Thoughts of heaven should make their way into our songs, prayers, and conversations.  How little Christians speak about heaven today!  Let us employ our sanctified imagination to consider what the life to come might be like.  Christian theologians provide two main ways to ponder the glory that shall be revealed to us: a positive way and a negative way.  First, the positive way is to take all the good things of this life and to imagine a world with more of the same.  Second, the negative way is to take all the bad things of this life and to imagine a world without them.  So let us reflect upon a world with delicious food, beautiful music, fascinating conversations, breathtaking sights, and exhilarating worship!  Let us also ponder a world without death or disease.  Let us hope for a world without poverty.  May our thoughts dance as we think of a world without murder, theft, rape, molestation, adultery, divorce, disappointment, pride, greed, and selfishness.  In his Word God has painted heaven with broad strokes, and he graciously invites us to fill in the colors of our home with the anticipation of our hopeful hearts.  After we have spent our energies contemplating the renewal of creation, we must keep in mind that the greatest joys of heaven will be to be with Jesus.  Charles Spurgeon said, “Heaven is wherever Jesus is.”  When we are in heaven, we shall see the One who loved us and gave himself for us on the cross.  We shall see the One who emerged from the empty tomb to reverse the curse pronounced on the sons and daughters of Adam.  We shall see the One who now abides in us by the Holy Spirit.  We shall see him and be like him for we shall see him as he is.  Let us set our hearts and affections on this place prepared for us!         

Glory to God Alone

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 

1 Corinthians 10:31

Soli Deo Gloria (“Glory to God Alone”) unites the Five Solas of the Reformation because it reveals the ultimate goal of the Reformation: to glorify the triune God.  The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism effectively captures the spirit of Soli Deo Gloria.  “What is the chief end of man?  Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”  Sometimes people ask about the meaning of life.  The meaning of life is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.  Since our God created us for his glory (Isaiah 43:7), the purpose of our lives is to bring honor to him.  Although sinners seek their own glory, God will not share his glory with another.  “I am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols” (Isaiah 42:8).  Since God created all things, and since God saves us by his sovereign power, he deserves the glory and praise for what he alone has done in Jesus Christ.  Sinners do not deserve the honor and praise; for they are completely dependent on the work of God.  On a practical level this means that we should seek to glorify God in all that we do.  We glorify God not only by attending church, reading our Bibles, and sharing the gospel with others, but we may also glorify him in our secular life.  The mundane activities of life may be redeemed for the praise of God.  1 Corinthians 10:31 mentions “eating” and “drinking” and “whatever you do.”  Glorifying God is a principle of operation that should impact every detail of our lives.  What does it mean to eat and drink to the glory of God?  It means that we thank our Creator for these good gifts.  In addition, it means that we consider his goodness in the blessing of his gifts.  St. Augustine once prayed to God, “He loves Thee too little who loves anything together with Thee, which he loves not for Thy sake.”  We must love God’s gifts for God’s sake.  This brings him glory.  Have you ever stopped to consider what kind of God would create such a thing as laughter? or pleasure?  or wonder?  How it brings him glory to ponder such things!  The Reformation teaches us that we may glorify and enjoy God in any activity of life except sin.  We can glorify and enjoy him at church, at work, at home, and even at play.  God is the Sovereign Lord of all creation.  We should not compartmentalize our lives into spheres where we are able to praise him and spheres where we are not.  The Reformers rediscovered the great truth that you do not have to be a monk or a priest in order to bring glory to God.  We all can bring glory to God by doing what we were created and redeemed to do.  Specifically, we glorify God by serving him faithfully in our earthly callings as children, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and workers.  Today let us remember that true spirituality does not mean that we must always be engaged in “spiritual” activities; it means that we must recognize that in every activity of life God deserves to be acknowledged and adored.  What do you have to do today?  Do all to the glory of God!       



Christ Alone

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” 

Philippians 3:8-9

Luther was once asked, “If you take away penance, indulgences, and the veneration of relics, what will you put in their place?”  Luther responded, “Jesus Christ.  Man only needs Jesus Christ.”  Solus Christus (“Christ Alone”) means that Christ alone accomplishes our salvation by his life, death, and resurrection.  Christ’s work is sufficient to save us from our sins.  Solus Christus weaves together Sola Gratia and Sola Fide.  We are saved by God’s grace alone through faith alone in what Jesus Christ alone has done in our behalf.  The reason salvation is by grace alone is because Jesus is the grace of God that has appeared bring salvation to all people (Titus 2:11).  The reason it is by faith alone is because faith is the only Spirit-wrought virtue that receives everything and contributes nothing.  We must accept and receive what Christ has accomplished in our behalf.  We must not attempt to add any good works to his perfect finished work.  We are nothing; Christ is everything.  “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).  Christ is the Christian’s perfect righteousness.  Jeremiah prophesied that Christ would be called “the LORD our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6).  Christians are those who are “in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Our Christian baptisms signify and seal our union with Christ in his death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4; Colossians 2:11-12).  Christ died for us, and we died with Christ.  Our life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).  We confess, “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).  Here we see the Christ-centered nature of the Christian life.  He speaks of Christ for him.  Christ loved him and gave himself up for him.  He also speaks of Christ in him.  “Christ lives in me.”  One speaks of our justification; the other speaks of our sanctification.  Since Christ loved me and gave himself for me, I am justified by grace through faith in him.  Since Christ now lives in me, I am being sanctified by the power of his Spirit who enables me to die daily to sin and to live to righteousness.  This keeps us from thinking that we need Christ more at conversion than we do throughout the Christian life.  Instead we should see that we are dependent on Christ from beginning to end.  He is the vine, and we are the branches (John 15:5).  We must commune with him in a moment-by-moment relationship.  As the vine supplies the branches with the resources for life and power, Christ supplies us with the resources for life and power in him.  He produces his fruit through us (Galatians 5:22-23).  As Christ alone justified us by his life, death, and resurrection, he alone sanctifies us by the power of his Holy Spirit.  Today we must remember that Christ is our all in all.  Make the following words your motto:  “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17).  May God grant it “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19).

Faith Alone

“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”  Romans 3:28

“We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”  Galatians 2:15-16

When Protestants think of the Reformation, the great doctrine of justification by faith alone comes to mind and rightfully so.  The Reformation began with Luther’s rediscovery of the liberating truth that sinners are declared righteous (“justified”) in God’s sight through simple faith in Jesus Christ.  This is called Sola Fide (“Faith Alone”).  The two main books of the Bible that discuss justification by faith alone are Romans and Galatians, and these two books were instrumental in Luther’s conversion to the Reformation doctrine.  Years later in 1647 the Westminster divines would provide an excellent summary of the doctrine in the answer to Shorter Catechism 33: “Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.”  This definition is helpful because it connects Sola Gratia (“Grace Alone”) with Sola Fide (“Faith Alone”).  We are told that justification is both “an act of God’s free grace” (Sola Gratia) and “received by faith alone” (Sola Fide).  The point of the statement is to show us that God’s grace is the sole and sufficient cause of our salvation, and that our faith is the sole and sufficient instrument by which we receive our salvation.  God’s grace speaks of the divine side of salvation; faith speaks of the human side.  We may observe the inseparability of Sola Gratia and Sola Fide in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”  So then, Sola Gratia and Sola Fide convey the truth that we are saved by grace through faith.  The preposition “through” indicates that faith is the means or the instrument of our justification.  We also learn from Shorter Catechism 33 that our justification consists in both the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ.  Both the forgiveness of sin and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness are essential.  Since Jesus died for the law’s penalty, God can justly forgive my sin.  Since Jesus obeyed the law’s precept by his entire life of obedience, God can credit Christ’s righteousness to me for my complete acceptance.  2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Christians who have been justified by faith alone are more than forgiven (as wonderful as that is); we are the righteousness of God.  God has “blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6) with his perfect acceptance.  When God looks at us, he views us as we are in Jesus Christ (righteous), not as we are in Adam (sinners) (Romans 5:12-21).  We are “found in him, not having a righteousness of [our] own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:9).  Thus good works and merit are completely excluded from our justification.  We are declared righteous in God’s sight on the basis of what Jesus has done in our behalf, not on the basis of our works.  Our best works are but filthy rages in the eyes of a just and holy God (Isaiah 64:6).  “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7).  When we looked at Sola Gratia, we learned that works and grace are opposed to one another (Romans 11:6); we see now that works and faith are opposed to one another when it comes to our justification.  Romans 4:4-5 makes clear the contrast between works and faith: “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.  And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”  The contrast is between works receiving deserved wages and faith receiving an undeserved gift.  Luther called faith “the empty hand” with which we receive the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.  Toplady’s hymn confirms this truth: “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling; naked, come to thee for dress; helpless, look to thee for grace; foul, I to the Fountain fly; wash me, Savior, or I die.”  We have no righteousness in ourselves to offer God; we must receive the righteousness that he alone provides through faith in Jesus Christ.  Roman Catholics often accuse us of minimizing the role of good works.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  Although we deny that good works are instrumental in our justification, we affirm that good works are involved in our sanctification.  Sanctification is the process of becoming holy, but sanctification only happens to those who have already been justified by faith alone.  We teach that good works are the fruit and evidence of true saving faith in Christ.  The Bible reveals this in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”  So we are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works.  If we have true and saving faith, then we will perform good works because faith without works is dead (James 2:17).  In his commentary on Galatians, Luther explains the relationship between justification by faith alone and a life of good works.  He says, “Christians are not made righteous by doing righteous things; but having been made righteous by faith in Christ, they do righteous things.”  When we believe that we are righteous and accepted in God’s sight through faith in Christ, we are forever changed.  We desire to obey God because we love him and are thankful for Jesus Christ.  Christians do not obey God because we fear hell or desire to earn divine acceptance by being good.  We do his will because the love of Christ compels us.  We keep the commandments of God and do not find them to be burdensome (1 John 5:3).  Our obedience to Christ is our joyful response to his love for us.  We are not running on the treadmill of human performance.  Instead, we are resting in the perfection of Christ and being gradually changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).  We are new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17) with new affections and desires.  We desire to please to God in all that we do.  Let us live this day in light of God’s acceptance of us in Jesus “who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25)!        

Grace Alone

 “For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

Sola Gratia (“Grace Alone”) means that God’s grace is the sole and sufficient cause of our salvation.  Our God is “the God of all grace” (1 Peter 5:10).  God’s grace is his undeserved favor to sinners.  We must know the difference between God’s justice, mercy, and grace.  God’s justice means that God must punish us for our sins.  God’s mercy means that God withholds the punishment that we justly deserve.  God’s grace means that God bestows his favor in spite of our sin and just desert of his wrath.  So God’s grace is even greater than his mercy.  And God tells us that we are saved by his grace alone.  Salvation is not a combined effort between God and the sinner, God doing his part and the sinner doing his part.  Salvation is entirely the work of God.  God the Father plans it.  God the Son accomplishes it.  God the Holy Spirit applies it.  “Salvation belongs to the Lord” (Psalm 3:8).  God does not need help from the will and the works of the sinner in order to save.  He is not dependent on us; we are dependent on him.  He is free to save completely by his own sovereign power.  This is why the Bible says, “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (Romans 9:16).  We are not saved “because of works done by us in righteousness” (Titus 3:5); for we are justified us “by his grace” (Titus 3:7).  It is all of grace!  Grace from beginning to end!  We are “chosen by grace” (Romans 11:5), called by grace (Galatians 1:6, 15), “justified by grace” (Titus 3:7), and saved by grace (Ephesians 2:8).  Jesus is “full of grace” (John 1:14), and in him we have received “grace upon grace” (John 1:16).  Jesus is the “grace of God” that “has appeared, bringing salvation for all people” (Titus 2:11).  It was the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that caused him who was rich to become poor so that we, through his poverty, might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).  Jesus tasted death for everyone by the grace of God (Hebrews 2:9).  When Jesus returns in glory, he will bring grace to us (1 Peter 1:13).  Jews and Gentiles are saved “by the grace of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 15:11).  God’s grace enables us to believe (Acts 20:24) for faith is a gift that God grants to his elect (Philippians 1:29; Titus 1:1).  Paul desired to testify to “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) because the “word of his grace” edifies us (Acts 20:32).  God’s promise of salvation rests upon his grace (Romans 4:13).  Christians stand in grace (Romans 5:2).  God gave a law to increase sin so that his grace might increase all the more in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:20).  To be “under grace” means to be “not under the law” (Romans 6:14).  Sola Gratia means that we are saved by grace without any human works at all because “if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:6).  Salvation by God’s grace alone excludes all ideas of human merit or cooperation.  The Father chooses by grace alone.  The Son dies for our sins by grace alone.  The Spirit causes us to be born again by grace alone.  By the grace of God we are what we are (1 Corinthians 15:10).  When Paul writes to Christians, he greets them with the phrase, “Grace to you,” because they need grace to understand what he has written by the Holy Spirit.  When Paul sends his readers away to apply what they have read, he says, “Grace with you,” because God’s grace must go with them to enable them to carry out what God requires.  God’s grace produces in us thanksgiving that redounds to God’s glory (2 Corinthians 4:15).  God’s grace is sufficient not only to save but also to strengthen us in our trials.  His grace is sufficient for us; his power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).  “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1).  Our triune God saved us “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:6).  God’s grace made Paul a minister to the Gentiles (Ephesians 3:7).  Christian conversion is explained as coming to understand “the grace of God in truth” (Colossians 1:6).  Today our Lord Jesus Christ sits on a “throne of grace” and invites us to draw near to God through him (Hebrews 4:16).  Wicked men may “pervert the grace of our God into sensuality” (Jude 4), and men may come to the erroneous conclusion that they should sin that grace might abound (Romans 6:1).  Yet we know that God’s grace trains us “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:12).  Since then we are chosen, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified by grace, let us grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18)!  Glory be to the triune God for his amazing grace!

Scripture Alone

“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”  2 Timothy 3:16-17

This upcoming Lord’s Day is the last Sunday in October known as “Reformation Sunday.”  It commemorates the day that Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenburg on October 31, 1517.  Luther’s actions began the Protestant Reformation.  The theological issues motivating Luther’s actions are effectively summarized in the Five Solas of the Reformation (“sola” is Latin for “alone”):

1.  Sola Scriptura (“Scripture Alone”),

2.  Sola Gratia (“Grace Alone”),

3.  Sola Fide (“Faith Alone”),

4.  Solus Christus (“Christ Alone”), and

5.  Soli Deo Gloria (“Glory to God Alone”). 

I would like to spend the next five days leading up to Reformation Sunday meditating upon each one of these great truths.  Today I want us to reflect upon Sola Scriptura or Scripture Alone.

Scripture Alone means that the Bible alone is the only infallible rule of faith and practice for the Christian Church.  Scripture Alone does not mean that the Bible is the only standard of truth.  We certainly have other standards like the historic creeds and confessions of the Church, but these standards are not infallible and are subordinate to the Bible.  Scripture Alone, then, does not mean that the Bible is the only standard; it means that the Bible is the only infallible standard.  "Infallible" means that the Bible is incapable of error.  It is completely true in everything it teaches.  All Scripture is “God-breathed.”  This speaks of the divine source of the Bible.  The words of the Bible were breathed out by God the Holy Spirit through the agency of human authors.  “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).  Since the Bible is breathed out by God, it is sufficient.  It makes us “competent, equipped for every good work.”  There are no necessary beliefs or good works contained outside the Bible; for the Bible is enough.  We are "equipped for every good work."  The word “every” is essential because it underlines the sufficiency of the Bible.  If we have the Bible, then we have all the good works that God requires of us.  No one can lawfully impose additional doctrines and commandments upon our conscience.  At the Diet of Worms Luther gave his famous “Here I Stand” speech and boldly proclaimed that the Church must support all its doctrines and commandments from the Holy Scriptures.  Church councils, creeds, and traditions must be subordinated to the teaching of the Holy Spirit in the God-breathed Scriptures.  Human traditions are good but not infallible.  The Church is good but not infallible.  The Bible alone is infallible.  Thus the Bible alone is the only infallible rule of faith and practice for the Church.  This means that all the Church’s doctrines and duties are contained either explicitly in the Scriptures or they may be inferred by good and necessary consequence.  In addition to Sola Scriptura, we should also be sure to consider Tota Scriptura or the totality of Scripture.  Since “all Scripture is breathed out by God,” it is imperative that we study "the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27) and interpret Scripture with Scripture.  The Reformers stressed that the only infallible interpreter of Scripture is the Scripture.  The pope, the Church, and the creeds are all capable of erring, but the Scripture is inerrant.  The principles of Sola Scriptura and Tota Scriptura explain why the Reformers translated the Bible into the language of the people and also provided cross references to aid in interpretation.  The Reformers believed in the priesthood of the believer.  This means that every Christian can and should read the Bible with the due use of ordinary means.  This truth liberates us from ecclesiastical tyranny.  Living in a church context where believers are not encouraged to read and study the Bible for themselves is a recipe for disaster.  In such conditions the clergy take advantage of the laity and enslave their conscience with the doctrines and commandments of men.  Our Lord's yoke is easy, and his burden is light (Matthew 11:29), but the Pharisees place heavy burdens on the backs of those who are ignorant of the sufficiency of Scripture (Matthew 23:4).  So we must always keep in mind that the principle of Scripture alone is good for us.  It is liberating.  It is also a great responsibility.  We must read and study the Bible for ourselves.  Luther fought for us to have a Bible in our own language.  He fought for us to be able to know what God actually had said.  Later, men like William Tyndale would burn at the stake so that we might have a Bible in the English language.  Let us thank God for giving such men to his Church!  Is there any better way to thank our God than by reading the Bible carefully and prayerfully?  Let us hold our Bibles to our hearts and sing Burton’s words, “Holy Bible, book divine, precious treasure, you are mine; mine to tell me whence I came; mine to teach me what I am; mine to chide me when I rove; mine to show a Savior’s love; mine you are to guide and guard; mine to punish or reward.  Mine to comfort in distress, suffering in this wilderness; mine to show by living faith, man can triumph over death; mine to tell of joys to come, and the rebel sinner’s doom; Holy Bible, book divine, precious treasure, you are mine.”