Every Need Supplied

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:19

Paul’s letter to the Philippians is a thank you note for their financial gift in support of his ministry.  He opens the letter by thanking them for their “partnership in the gospel” (1:5) and closes by thanking them for their “full payment, and more” (4:18).  He commends their gifts, which he describes as “a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God” (4:18).  In order to remind them that God blesses such generosity, he assures them that God will provide for all their needs out of his abundant riches in Christ Jesus (4:19).  Our God is willing and able to provide everything that we need in order to serve Jesus. 

Sometimes we have trouble distinguishing between what we want and what we need.  Living in our prosperous society, we have the bad habit of speaking about our wants as if they were needs.  We speak of needing cars, cell phones, televisions, and many other things that are not needs in the truest sense of the term.  Sometimes we may use Matthew 6:33 as proof text for our confusion.  Jesus promised us that he will provide for “all these things” as we seek first his kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33), but we must remember that in context “all these things” refers to food and clothing (Matthew 6:25), not anything and everything we want.  The Apostle Paul would later write, “But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content” (1 Timothy 6:8).  Of course, we all hunger for far more than the bare necessities; yet we should remember how God in his Word defines a true need: something that is necessary for a life of service to Jesus. 

God does not promise to provide for all our wants, but he does promise to provide for our needs in Christ Jesus.  One of the things that we learn form this is that Jesus Christ is really all that we need.  This may seem like some super-spiritual platitude, but it really is the gospel truth.  Our sufficiency is found in Christ alone, not earthly privileges and possessions.  We have been “filled in him” (Colossians 2:10) and need nothing besides him.  God reminds us in Psalm 84:11, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor.  No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”  This is an important verse.  Unbelief begins with human experience and reads it into the Bible’s promises.  Unbelief says, “My experience teaches me that it is a good thing for me to have this blessing.  Therefore, God has promised this blessing to me.”  However, this is not the way of faith.  Faith does not begin with human experience and read it into the Bible’s promises; faith begins with the Bible’s promises and reads human experiences in light of them.  Faith says, “My Bible promises me that God will not withhold any good thing from the one who walks uprightly.  If I do not receive the blessing of what I think is good, then it must not be good.”  Faith says, “If I do not have it, then I do not need it.” 

Here’s the lesson.  God defines our needs.  God defines what is good for us.  We must learn to trust him for what he thinks we need and for what he thinks is best for us.  His timing may not be our timing.  His provision may not be according to our liking.  Yet he is wise, powerful, and good, and we can never go astray as long as we trust him.  Is there something in your life that you think that you need?  Is there something in your life that you think would be good for you?  Let me encourage you to do two things.  First, trust God to supply your need.  Second, let God define your need.  If you need it, then he will supply it.  If you do not receive it, then you never needed it.  Get busy serving Jesus and trust God to give you what you need to honor him!

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.” 

Able to Keep You from Stumbling

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever.  Amen.”  Jude 24-25

Since we all stumble in many ways, we need our God to keep us from stumbling.  Without this divine keeping our situation would be hopeless.  No Christian is able to walk the narrow path without daily stumbling into sinful words, thoughts, and actions.  The good news is that God is able to keep us from stumbling.  He begins this keeping at our conversion and continues until he presents us “blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy.”  So let us not grow discouraged or weary or fainthearted in our Christian walk! 

Our God will protect us from the dark path set before us.  When we walk the narrow path in the dark, we are bound to stumble along the way.  But God has given us his Word to light the way and keep us from stumbling.  His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.  We can see the stumbling blocks in the road as we carry the lamp of God’s Word. 

Christ also keeps us from stumbling by walking with us and supporting us.  Christians lean on Christ as old men lean on canes.  Christ places his arm around us when we are weak and provides the necessary support.  Rarely do we stumble and fall when we are leaning on the arms of our omnipotent Savior. 

The Lord protects us from those who cause us to stumble.  The thief may come to steal, kill, and destroy, but he is no match for Jesus.  Perhaps a brother unknowingly places a stumbling block in our way; Christ is there beside us granting us the wisdom to avoid the obstruction in our way.  Sinners run aside from the narrow path and call us to join them as they run across the rough terrain of sin and rebellion.  Christ calls us back to his side by his sovereign Holy Spirit.  His sheep always hear his voice and return. 

Sometimes we stumble because our eyes wander away from the narrow path and focus on the world.  We see the pleasures and possessions of this present life, and, while our eyes wander from the way of holiness, we stumble because we are not looking ahead.  Yet again our God is able to set our eyes on him.  He is able to keep us from stumbling.  We know that we will never be sinless in this life, but we can walk uprightly and free from obstruction when we trust the One who is able to keep us from stumbling and present us before his presence on the last day. 

Let us trust our God’s ability today to keep us from the obstacles in the path of holiness.  Let us seek to walk the narrow way.  If we are weak today, let us lean on the arms of Christ and trust his ability to support us as we journey to heaven.  If the road ahead of us seems dark, let us turn to his Word that reveals the way.  Our God is able!  Our confidence is in him!