Answering a Jewish Objection to Jesus: World Peace

Jewish people who do not believe in Jesus claim that Jesus cannot be the Messiah because he did not bring world peace. In support of this Jewish objection to Jesus are a variety of messianic prophecies. One of many examples is Isaiah 2:4, which says, “He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Since the nations are still at war, Jesus cannot be the Messiah, according to the Jews.

How should Christians respond to this objection? Let's begin with areas of agreement. We concur that these texts are Messianic. The Hebrew Bible foretells the coming of a Messiah who will be an exalted King. This Ruler will bring peace to the world. There is no question about that. However, when we read the Bible carefully, we will also find many messianic passages, which give a different view of the Messiah. These passages must be equally taken into account.

The Messiah is depicted as one who comes riding on the clouds of heaven in exalted glory (Daniel 7:13), but we also read of Messiah coming “humble and mounted on a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). Isaiah’s prophecy contains many references to the Messiah. The earlier prophecies in chapters 2, 9, and 11 certainly emphasize that Messiah will be a righteous King who brings peace to the world. However, when we read the Servant of the Lord prophecy in Isaiah 52:13-53:12, we discover that Messiah will only be exalted after a period of suffering and death. In the end, God’s servant will be “high and lifted up, and shall be exalted” (Is. 52:13), but that only takes places after “he was wounded for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities”; “upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace” (Is. 53:5). “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is. 53:6). God’s servant did this because he was “an offering for guilt” (Is. 53:10). Thus it is only after the Messiah suffers and dies that he is exalted to his throne (Is. 53:12).

When it comes to the biblical portrait of the Messiah, then, we find this pattern: suffering precedes glory. The same pattern is found in Psalm 22. Suffering and rejection come first (Ps. 22:1-21); then comes exaltation (Ps. 22:22-31). It doesn’t happen overnight, but God has promised: “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you.”

Jesus truly is the Prince of Peace (Is. 9:6). He purchased peace by his death on the cross (Is. 53:5). His peace doesn’t begin the outward (the cessation of war) but the inward (the forgiveness of sins). We must have peace within before we have peace without.

Through his resurrection Jesus has been exalted to God’s throne where he rules and reigns as the Lord’s Anointed. But as was the case in the days of King David, the nations are rebelling against the Lord’s righteous rule. “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us” (Ps. 2:1-3). The nations are still at war because the nations are still rebelling against the Lord and his Anointed.

God’s purpose, however, isn’t thwarted by mankind’s rebellion. “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in fury, saying, ‘As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill’” (Ps. 2:4-6). God has established Jesus as King. He laughs at the futile attempts of the nations to resist his righteous rule. “I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you’” (Ps. 2:7).

The good news is that God will give to his only begotten Son the nations as a heritage (Ps. 2:8-9). But again, this doesn’t happen overnight. Though Christ, God has now sent out his word from Jerusalem (Is. 2:3), summoning the nations to his presence (Matt. 28:19-20). Until the nations bow before King Jesus, the Prince of Peace, nation will rise up against nation (Matt. 24:7) and the gospel will be proclaimed to all the nations (Matt. 24:14). Only then the end will come. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Is. 11:9).

The main reason this objection fails is that it doesn't distinguish the two comings of Messiah. First, the Messiah comes in humble suffering. Second, he comes in triumphant victory. Peace will come to the world; war shall cease. But that will not happen until the nations are evangelized and Jesus returns to establish his kingdom on the earth. But when that happens, what a day of rejoicing it shall be!

So let me encourage you, my Jewish friend, to obey the words of King David: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Ps. 2:12). Find your refuge in Jesus Christ, the son of David, the King of kings, and the Prince of Peace! 

The Covenant of Works

"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Genesis 2:16-17

 

"But like Adam they transgressed the covenant. . ." Hosea 6:7

        

        Reformed theology divides the history of humanity into two covenants: a covenant of works with Adam before the Fall and a covenant of grace with Christ after the Fall. B.B. Warfield called these two covenants “the architectonic principle” of Reformed theology. It is the biblical scaffolding of the Reformed doctrine of God’s plan of salvation.

          What is the covenant of works? The covenant of works is God’s promise of life to Adam and his descendants on the condition of perfect obedience. This covenant has been called the covenant of life because it promised life, the covenant of works because its condition was works, the covenant of nature because it was made in the state of original nature, the Adamic covenant because Adam was the representative head, and even the pre-lapsarian covenant because it was the covenant made before the Fall of mankind into sin. Regardless of what we call it, we must affirm that this concept is part of God’s revelation of the unfolding story of human fall and redemption.

          The covenant of works helps us not only to understand God’s relationship with Adam before the Fall but God’s chosen way of revealing his plan of salvation. Our God is a covenant God who has chosen to relate to man by way of a voluntary condescension we call covenant. According to Paul’s line of reasoning in Romans 5:12-21, we cannot understand the covenant of grace in Christ unless we understand the covenant of works in Adam. Adam’s disobedience resulting in death is parallel to Christ’s obedience resulting in life.

          Admittedly, the term “covenant” is not used in Genesis 1-3, and the phrase “covenant of works” is not found in the Bible. Although the phrases are absent, however, the concept is present. We might point out that the terms “Trinity” and “original sin” are not found in the Bible, but these terms refer to biblical concepts. And the concept of a covenant of works is certainly present in God’s pre-Fall relationship with Adam.

          We can see the concept in the following ways. First, we see God laying out the terms of the relationship in Genesis 2. It becomes clear that Adam is not merely in a Creator-creature relationship, but he is also in a Lord-servant relationship. God creates Adam and then places him in the Garden to exercise dominion by working and keeping it. God then places Adam under a period of probation or testing in which he gives to him a command. He may eat of any tree in the Garden, but he shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Secondly, God uses the language of blessing and cursing in his covenant with Adam. If Adam obeys, he will be blessed with life. If he disobeys, he will be cursed with death. The language of blessing and cursing is covenantal language and parallels the language that is used of Israel’s covenant with God.

Thirdly, the presence of covenant signs indicates that there is a covenant in place. There are two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These trees function sacramentally. The tree of life signifies God’s promise to confirm Adam in eternal life if he obeys God. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies the test God has placed Adam under. Will Adam obey God or will he declare independence from God and seek to know good and evil in autonomy from him?

Fourthly, Adam appears here not as a private person but as a public person. Adam is not acting merely for the sake of his personal relationship with God. Adam is functioning as the federal head of the entire human race. His actions will have consequences for everyone. So goes Adam, so goes the human race. When God commanded Adam to abstain from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he gave the command to Adam as the representative head of the human race. This only makes sense in terms of a covenant arrangement where Adam is the head of the covenant of works and Christ is the head of the covenant of grace.

          We can pick up on concepts where the word is absent. For example, if I say, “It was the bottom of the ninth. The bases were loaded. And the batter stepped up to the plate,” you would know that I was talking about baseball even though I never used the word “baseball.” How did you know? You knew because there were clues that I was talking about baseball, and you picked up on it. In the same way, these realities mentioned above are clues that we are to understand Adam’s pre-Fall relationship with God as a covenant arrangement.

          In addition to the clues indicating a covenant arrangement, we also realize that later biblical passages treat God’s arrangement with Adam in a covenantal way. In Hosea 6:7 God explicitly says that Adam was in covenant with God: “But like Adam they transgressed the covenant. . .” Although some commentators understand “Adam” to refer to mankind in general or as a place designation, it makes the most sense to take it as a reference to Adam the father of the human race. Understood in this way, Hosea 6:7 is making a comparison between disobedient Adam and disobedient Israel. As Adam was in covenant with God and broke the covenant, so Israel was in covenant with God and broke covenant. So Hosea 6:7 assumes that the Jews would have known that Adam was in covenant with God.

          Romans 5:12-21 is the real clincher for the covenant of works. There Paul makes a comparison between Adam and Christ as the representative heads of the human race. Adam represents the old humanity, and Christ represents the new humanity. Adam disobeyed and all die in him as a consequence of his disobedience. Christ obeyed and all live in him as a consequence of his obedience. This means that Christ is a Second Adam who obeys where the first Adam disobeyed; he brings life where the first Adam brought death. This only makes sense on covenant grounds. The covenant of works in Adam explains why Adam’s sin and death has been transmitted to all his descendants. The covenant of grace in Christ explains why his righteousness and life is transmitted to all his spiritual descendants (believers). So the covenant of works anticipates for us what Christ had to do in order to secure salvation for the human race lost in Adam.

          Many Christians have objected to the representative role of Adam in the Garden. How can this one man and his one action have impacted so many? One answer is that this highlights the holiness of God. God placed a sentence of death on the entire human race on account of the one sin of one man. Of course, many other actual sins have proceeded from this, but in principle we see it all goes back to the first sin. God is so holy, and sin is that serious. Secondly, we could point out that we understand in our lives how one man’s actions have consequences for others. One football player jumps offside, and his entire team is penalized. Thirdly, although many believers complain about Adam being their representative, few complain about Christ. But we must understand that the principle upon which we are reckoned disobedient in Adam is the same principle upon which we are reckoned righteous in Christ. It is the federal headship principle. God willed the actions of Adam to impact his entire race. God willed the actions of Christ to impact his entire race. So the real question is this: who is your representative?

Show Us the Father

“Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.’  Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?  Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?  The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.  Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.’”  John 14:8-11

          Philip’s request represents the desire of every true believer in God.  “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”  Yet, at the same time, when this request is addressed to God incarnate, it is a case in missing the point.  Jesus responds, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?  Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.  How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”  Philip should have known that the fullness of deity dwells in Christ bodily (Colossians 2:9) and that although no one has ever seen God, he is the only God, who is at the Father’s side, who has made him known (John 1:18).  Jesus continues: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me?”  Theologians call this reality the mutual indwelling of the Father and the Son.  The oneness of the Father and Son does not obscure the distinction of their persons but highlights the union of their essence.  The Father and Son are one God; so they mutually indwell one another with regard to the union of nature between them.  To see the Son is to see the Father in the sense that they share the same divine essence.  Jesus is the invisible God made visible.  He is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), the Word made flesh (John 1:14). 

          Jesus teaches his disciples that both his words and his works testify to his oneness with God the Father.  Verse 10b is key:  “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.”  God the Father speaks through God the Son and confirms his own words with his supernatural works.  His miraculous works authenticated the divine origin of his message.  Although it is best to take the words of Jesus at face value, Jesus says, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves” (v. 11).  The works should strengthen our faith that the words of Jesus are the words of God.  This is why the miracles of Jesus are called “signs” in the Gospel of John.  They signify that Jesus is God’s Son and the source of eternal life.  John 20:30-31 says, “Now Jesus did many signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”  Jesus shows us the Father.  If we want to know God the Father, then we must only look at Jesus Christ who makes him known to us.  “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, who he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Hebrews 1:1-2).  This message of salvation “was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will” (Hebrews 2:3-4). 

          The only way to a deeper knowledge and communion with God the Father is through God the Son.  We sing, “O come to the Father through Jesus the Son!”  If our hearts say, “Show us the Father,” let us look to Jesus who is revealed to us in the Scriptures.  We have sure and certain knowledge of God the Father in him for the Father is in him and he is in the Father.  To see him is to see the Father.  There is no more of the Father to be found outside of the Lord Jesus.  May God open the eyes of our hearts to see the true revelation of God the Father in the Lord Jesus who remains a distinct person from the Father yet shares in his same single and undivided divine essence!

When Jesus Opens Our Eyes

Here is my sermon manuscript from this past Sunday.  The sermon text was Luke 24:13-35 where the risen Jesus appears to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.  

Sometimes we cannot see what is directly in front of us.  This often happens when we misplace our car keys.  We look on the kitchen table and do not see them.  So then we go searching on night stands, coffee tables, and perhaps even underneath the couch.  Later we realize that the keys were on the kitchen table all along.  We had overlooked them.  Have you had that experience? 

Sometimes the same thing happens with Jesus.  He is right in front of us, but our eyes are closed to his living presence.  That’s what happened to these two disciples on the road to Emmaus.  Jesus was there with them, but they did not recognize that it was Jesus.  We read that their eyes were closed in verse 16, and it is not until verse 31 that their eyes are opened to see him for who he truly is.

The great cause of sadness and hopelessness in the world today is that the eyes of our hearts are closed to the resurrection of Jesus.  I am not talking about seeing Jesus physically, but I am talking about the fact that there are many who do not recognize the he is alive and able to give joy and hope.  The good news of this passage is that

Jesus opens our eyes to his resurrection 

and gives us joy and hope.

This morning I want us to look at this passage in two major sections.  First, I want us to look at verses 13-24 and see what we can learn about what life is like when our eyes are closed to the resurrection of Jesus.  Second, I want us to look at verses 25-35 and see what we can learn about how Jesus opens our eyes and gives us joy and hope.

1.  When our eyes are closed (vv. 13-24).

Sometimes our eyes are closed to the resurrection of Jesus.  This passage is a window into what life is like when we do not recognize that Jesus is alive. 

The first lesson we learn in this passage is that when our eyes are closed to the resurrection of Jesus, we are sad (vv. 13-17). 

The narrative begins with two disciples who are on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus.  As they walk side by side they discuss all that has happened from Good Friday until Easter morning. 

Luke doesn’t tell us exactly what they discussed, but we might imagine them talking about the darkness of human depravity that casts its shadow over the end of Passion Week. 

Perhaps they spoke about the depravity of Judas’s betrayal of Christ for only thirty pieces of silver.  Or maybe they spoke about Peter’s three denials of Christ and how the rest of the disciples deserted him.  They may have discussed how the Sanhedrin had lied about him, how Pilate had refused to release an innocent man, and how the drunken Roman soldiers had mocked him and nailed his hands and feet to the cross. 

They had heard that the women discovered the empty tomb and claimed to have seen angels.  Perhaps they asked themselves, “Is it true?  Could Jesus really have risen from the dead, as he said?” 

What we do know is that when Jesus approaches, they do not recognize him (v. 16).  Some commentators suggest that they didn’t recognize him because he looked different in his resurrection body.  Others suggest that Jesus didn’t look different but that God kept their eyes from recognizing him in order to teach them an important lesson.  It may be that they simply didn’t recognize him because they didn’t expect to see him alive. 

When Jesus asks these two disciples what they are discussing, Luke tells us that “they stood still, looking sad” (v. 17).  They looked sad because they were still living in the darkness of Good Friday. 

We learn from this that the cross of Christ is only good news in light of the resurrection.  The death of Christ will only make us sad if he didn’t in fact rise again. 

Paul once wrote to the Corinthians and made the same point: “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19).  Many people in our culture today have their eyes closed to the resurrection of Jesus, and, as a result, their hearts are full of sadness.  For them, death is the end of the story.  Death gets the last word.  Death means, “Game Over.” 

When our eyes are closed to the resurrection of Jesus, we are sad.  Are you sad today?  Are you living with the impression that death is the end?  Or you living as if there is no hope for tomorrow?  Are you still dwelling on the depravity of Good Friday?  Even as disciples, we can live like this at times.  But we see here in this narrative that closed eyes not only brings sadness.    

We see also that when our eyes are closed to the resurrection of Jesus, we have an imcomplete understanding of Jesus (vv. 18-20). 

Cleopas is the one who responds to Jesus’s question about what they were discussing.  His response to Jesus is certainly accurate, but there is something missing.  He says, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”  Jesus entertains Cleopas’s question: “What things?” he asks.  The two disciples continue: “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him” (vv. 18-20). 

Now we all should agree that Cleopas’s explanation of Jesus is certainly accurate, but, at the same time, it is also inadequate.  It is an incomplete answer. 

Jesus is a prophet.  Jesus was condemned to death.  But he is so much more than a martyred prophet.  However, since their eyes are closed to the resurrection, they cannot see him as anything more. 

The same thing happens today.  There are people whose eyes are closed to Jesus yet they will affirm that Jesus was a good moral teacher.  They will affirm the Golden Rule.  We should follow the example of Jesus and be good people.  All of this is true yet we know that it is incomplete.  Jesus is more than a good moral teacher.  Yet when we remain in the darkness about the resurrection, that is all that we see of him. 

There’s more.  As we continue to read their response to Jesus, we see that when our eyes are closed to the resurrection, we are without the hope of redemption (v. 21). 

Verse 21 are some of the saddest words in the whole Bible.  Look what they say: “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.” 

We can hear the disciples's deep disappointment in these words.  We had hoped.  The book of Proverbs tells us that hope deferred makes the heart sick.  Their hearts were sick with sadness because they recognized that a dead Jesus was no Savior at all. 

They were, in point of fact, correct about that.  If Jesus is still in the tomb, we all should say, “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”  If Jesus is dead, then he is no Savior at all.  Long ago, Job said, “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25).  The God of Israel had promised a living Redeemer, not a dead prophet. 

Matthew Henry puts their disappointment in other words: “Our hopes were all nailed to his cross, and buried in his grave.” 

When our eyes are closed to the resurrection of Jesus, we have no hope of redemption.  We need a living Savior.  We need the One who has died, but is now alive forevermore.  When our eyes are shut to the resurrection of Jesus, we see our sins and have no hope that we will ever be delivered from them.  We are who we are.  There is no hope of new life or change.          

There is another aspect to having our eyes shut to Jesus.  We are unsure what to believe (vv. 22-24). 

We see this in the disciples’ report of the empty tomb.  They tell of the women’s story.  They had found the tomb empty.  They had seen angels.  Some of the disciples had gone to the tomb and fount it empty. 

Yet there is a hint of doubt at the end of all they say in verse 24: “…but him they did not see.”  They have not yet seen Jesus. 

An empty tomb does not prove that he is alive.  Someone may have stolen the body.  He may have been moved.  They do not jump to the conclusion that Jesus is alive simply because of the report of some emotional women. 

Here is where they linger: “him they did not see.”  That is what it is like not to see Jesus for who he is.  We are confused about what we believe.  We may linger between two different opinions.  We may look out and hear the claims that the different philosophies and religions are making and have no living faith in a living Christ. 

Is that what life is like for you?  Are your eyes closed to a living Jesus?  Are you confused about what to believe?  Do you feel like you cannot trust anyone?  That can change for you, but only if Jesus opens your eyes to his resurrection life.   

Now here enters the good news found in the second half of this narrative.  Jesus is able to open our eyes to his resurrection and give us joy and hope.  He is able to turn our sadness to joy, our despair to hope, our death to life, our darkness to light, and our confusion to clarity.  Look with me at the second half of this narrative at how Jesus opens our eyes.

2.  When Jesus opens our eyes (vv. 25-35). 

Jesus loves us so much that he opens our eyes to see him as he truly is.  Notice that he begins the Scriptures. 

Jesus interprets the Scriptures to these disciples (vv. 25-27).  He first rebukes their unbelief (v. 25), not their unbelief in the testimony of the women, but their unbelief in the testimony of the Word.  They should have known that the Old Testament Scriptures foretold that the Messiah would suffer and die before rising again and entering into glory (v. 26).  He teaches them in verse 27 that the entire Old Testament is about him.  He explains to them that the Old Testament is a revelation of Jesus. 

When our eyes are closed to the resurrection of Jesus, the Bible can be a confusing book.  “What is it really all about?” we may ask.  But when Jesus uses the Scriptures to open our eyes, he shows us that the whole Bible is about him. 

St. Augustine said, “The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.”  There is a scarlet thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation, and the scarlet thread is salvation through Jesus. 

I wish I could have been there when Jesus explained how the Old Testament was all about him.  Perhaps he spoke to them of that ancient promise in the Garden of Eden where God said that the offspring of the woman would crush the serpent’s head.  Or maybe he took them to the call of Abram and spoke about how God said that one of his descendants would spread the blessing of forgiveness to all the nations of the earth.  Maybe he related to them the story of Abraham who almost offered his one and only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice, but God stayed his hand and provided another lamb to be the sacrifice in Isaac’s place.  He may have walked them through the days of King David and the covenant God made with him that one of his own sons would sit on the throne and rule the world.  Or perhaps he took them to the specific prophecies, like Isaiah 53 that we read in our service this morning, and spoke about how he was the One who would be wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.  Or maybe he simply walked through the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, pointing out each and every object and ritual and showing them how it was all about him.  He may have showed them how he was the temple where God’s presence dwells, and how he had said that if they destroyed the temple, that he would rebuild it in three days.  Or maybe he pointed to the Passover Lamb and said that he was the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  He would die, and God’s wrath would pass over all who believe in him. 

What a joy it would be to hear the Incarnate Word explain the written Word!  When Jesus opens our eyes, he shows us that the Bible reveals that he is our Savior.  He is the One who died for our sins.  He is the One who rose again to give us forgiveness, life, joy, and hope. 

But even though Jesus explains all this to them, their eyes are still closed.  He has not yet opened their eyes.  That doesn’t happen until they reach their destination. 

When they finally reach their destination, they invite Jesus to stay with them, and Jesus reveals himself in the breaking of bread (vv. 28-35). 

They were not celebrating the Lord’s Supper.  It was a common meal.  Yet when Jesus took the bread, broke it, and blessed it, they would have been reminded of the institution of the Lord’s Supper. 

On that dark night, he had taken bread, blessed it, broken it, and said, “This is my body, which is broken for you.”  He had also taken a cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for the remission of sins.” 

They make the connection in verse 31: “And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.”  Then they knew their Lord!  Then they knew that he was alive! 

Verse 31 tells us that he then vanished.  One might conclude from this that Jesus was a ghost or a spirit, but Luke clarifies later in verse 39 where Jesus says, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.  Touch me, and see.  For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”  Jesus was not a ghost or a spirit.  He was physically resurrection from the dead.  He touched the bread.  He blessed the bread.  He broke the bread.  This was no phantom. 

Yet we do see that his resurrected body was capable of things that we cannot explain naturally.  There is mystery here to be sure. 

When their eyes are opened, they say something amazing in verse 32, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”  They knew that this was Jesus.  They now had open eyes and burning hearts.  So they return to Jerusalem in time to see that Jesus has also appeared to Simon Peter (v. 34).  And they relate to the rest of them that Jesus had made himself known to them in the breaking of bread (v. 35). 

Jesus uses his Word to open our eyes, but he also uses the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.  For disciples, when we come to the Lord’s Table, we see that Christ is yet again opening our eyes to Good Friday and to Easter Sunday.  He is showing us that his body was broken for us and his blood shed for us.  He died in our place.  And he rose again to reign over us in heaven. 

And when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we are also reminded of the hope set before us because he shall return to drink the fruit of the vine anew with us in his Father’s kingdom. 

Jesus is able to open our eyes.  He is able to reveal himself to the eyes of our heart.  We do not see him with the eyes of flesh, but we are able to see him with the eyes of faith.  When Jesus opens our eyes to his resurrection, our lives change.  We have life, forgiveness, joy, and hope.  He died, but he is alive forevermore.  He has the keys of Death and Hades.  He is the Lamb of God, standing as though it had been slain.  He is the Living One who shall never die again.  He is the Resurrection and the Life.  Whoever lives and believes in him, though he die, yet shall he live.  Do you believe this?  Are your eyes opened?  “Turn your eyes to Jesus!  Look full in his wonderful face!  And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”   

Reformed Bible Conference

     This past Lord's Day evening I had the honor of preaching at First Presbyterian's annual Reformed Bible Conference in Hinckley, MN.  I cannot believe that this was my third time preaching in this conference.  The theme of this year's conference is "The Mediation of Christ" and audio files are available here.  I preached from Hebrews 7:23-28 on "Christ Our Heavenly Intercessor."
     
     Here is my basic outline:

Christ is our great high priest who is presently interceding in our behalf before the Father in heaven.

1.  The Office of Christ's Intercession (vv. 23-24).

     -Christ intercedes as our great high priest.

     -Contrast between Levitical priests and Christ:
    
          -They were many in number and held office temporarily on
          account of death.

          -He hold his priesthood permanently because he lives   
         forever.

     -According to Leviticus 16, there are two phases to his priestly
     ministry:

          1.  Atonement outside the sanctuary.

          2.  Intercession inside the sanctuary. 

2.  The Nature of Christ's Intercession (v. 25).

     -Effective Prayers (Romans 8:33-34).

     -Representative Presence (Heb. 9:24).

     -Continual Advocacy (1 John 2:1-2).


3.  The Basis of Christ's Intercession (vv. 26-28).

     -His Sinless Person (v. 26).

     -His Sacrificial Death (vv. 27-28). 

Drawn By the Father

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.  And I will raise him up on the last day.”  John 6:44

Two key truths of our salvation are taught in this passage.  This first is the moral inability of a sinner to come to Christ in his own power.  The second is that the only way for any sinner to come to Christ is by the effective drawing of the Father. 

We see the first point in the phrase, “No one can come to me.”  The word “can” is a word of ability.  The word “may” is a word of permission.  We may remember our childhood teachers telling us that we should ask, “May I use the restroom?” and not, “Can I use the restroom?”  To say that no one can come to Christ means that no one is able to come to Christ.  All people are certainly permitted to come to Christ, but what Jesus is saying here is that they are devoid of the power to come to Christ.  They are morally and spiritually incapable of coming to Christ in their own power.  They are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). 

All Christians readily affirm that sinners cannot save themselves.  Yet many Christians are uncomfortable affirming the equally biblical truth that sinners cannot cooperate in their salvation.  They are unable to do anything to come to Christ in their own power.  They are entirely dependent on Christ.  They are like crippled Mephibosheth who must be carried before King David (See 2 Samuel 9). 

Total depravity means total inability.  We are not only ruined in the totality of our being (intellect, emotions, and will), but we are also rendered unable to act in any way that is spiritually pleasing to God.  Our righteous deeds are filthy rags in his sight because they are tainted by the unrighteous motivations of our sinful hearts (Isaiah 64:6). 

So what must happen in order for us to obtain salvation in Christ?  We must be drawn by the Father.  The Father who sent Jesus to be our Savior must bring us to himself.  We must underline that the Father’s drawing in this passage is an effective drawing.  We can see this by the repetition of the pronoun “him” in both sentences.  The Father draws “him” to Christ and raises “him” up on the last day.  So all who are drawn to Christ are raised up on the last day.

 Many people have a false idea that the Father draws all people to Christ, and then they choose whether they will have him or not.  That is not what is being taught in this verse.  This is saying that the Father draws these sinners to Christ, and they are raised to spiritual life.  It is an effectual calling. 

The word for "draw" means "to drag."  It is used in the Greek New Testament for dragging in a net of fish.  The fish that are caught in the net are effectively dragged aboard the ship.  In the same way, when God catches his elect with the gospel of Jesus, he effectively drags them aboard the ship of salvation. 

The good news is that it is impossible for God to fail in bringing salvation to his people.  All those who are drawn by the Father will be raised up by the Son.  What a glorious gospel!  Salvation is not accomplished by the cooperation of the sinner with God but by the cooperation of the Father with the Son.  Jesus will not fail to save any of those people who have been given to him by his Father (John 6:37).  He will never cast them out.  He will raise them on the last day. 

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

“‘And you know the way to where I am going.’  Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going.  How can we know the way?’  Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.  From now on your do know him and have seen him.’”  John 14:4-7

Thomas didn’t get it.  Jesus told his disciples that he was going away so that he might prepare a place for them in the Father’s house.  He promised that he would come again and take them to himself.  Yet Thomas didn’t get it.  “Lord, we do not know where you are going.”  The disciples were often slow to understand the words of Jesus.  We find this surprising as the introductory words of this discourse couldn’t be clearer.  Yet Jesus becomes even more lucid in verse 6:  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  In his Upper Room Discourse, Jesus is always directing his disciples to himself.  Even when he promises the gift of the Holy Spirit, he says, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14). 

This statement about Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life, is one of the many “I am” statements in John’s gospel.  “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35).  “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12).  “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11).  “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).  “I am the vine” (John 15:5).  Such statements teach us who Jesus is and what he is able to do for us. 

In this verse, Jesus is telling us that he is the only way to God the Father.  Jesus’ words highlight his uniqueness and exclusivity.  He is the only way, truth, and life.  “No one comes to the Father except through me.”  There are not many paths to God.  There is one and only one way to God, and his name is Jesus.  We cannot find our way to God with good works because we cannot be good enough to satisfy the demands of a holy God.  We cannot find our way to God with philosophy because we have not known the mind of God and are not wise enough to be his counselor.  We cannot find our way to God with our own man-made religion because God demands that we come to him on his terms, not our own.  And God tells us that Jesus, and Jesus only, is the way to truth and life.  Apart from Jesus, then, we are lost, deceived, and dead.  How shall we find our way?  Jesus.  How shall we know the truth?  Jesus.  How shall we live life to the fullest?  Jesus. 

Jesus explains why this is true about himself.  “If you had know me, you would have known my Father also.  From now on you do know him and have seen him.”  Jesus and the Father have something in common: divine nature.  To see the Son is to see the Father because they share in the single and undivided divine essence.  Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) and God “manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16).  If we want to know God the Father, then we can only know him through God the Son, Jesus. 

Jesus is not teaching in this passage that he and his Father are the same person, but he is saying that he and the Father share the same divine essence.  This distinction is important lest we obscure the distinction of persons within the holy Trinity.  Yet Thomas didn’t get this.  We know that he eventually came around after the resurrection (John 20:24-29).  He did eventually confess, “My Lord and my God!”  How does this apply to us today?  Are we seeking to find our way apart from Jesus?  Are we seeking the truth apart from Jesus?  Are we longing for life apart from Jesus?  Without Jesus we have lost our way.  Without Jesus we don’t know the truth.  Without Jesus we are dead.  “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b).  We are meant to know this abundant life today.  We find it by continually drawing near to God the Father through God the Son.          

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).

The Exclusivity of Jesus

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.’”  John 14:6

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  Acts 4:12

Nothing is more repugnant to the offspring of postmodernism than the proclamation of an exclusive gospel.  The children of tolerance desire truth to be inclusive.  “Let us not divide humanity into sinners and saints.  Let us include and affirm everyone equally,” says their creed.  Yet they never seem to consider the stubborn fact that truth is necessarily exclusive.  Whenever we say that something is true, we also exclude an indefinite number of other propositions that must be false.  For example, when I say that two plus two equals four, I also mean that it is not five or six or a whole list of other numbers that are not four.  Truth claims always exclude counterclaims; for that is the essence of a truth claim.  This even applies to the ridiculous claim that truth is inclusive; for it excludes the notion that truth is exclusive.  Therefore, we can see that the denial of exclusive truth claims necessarily assumes agnosticism about truth itself.  No one knows the truth; so we dare not assert it with confidence.  This explains why people now speak of “epistemic humility” (translation: humility about what you claim to know).  The postmodern world has made us skeptical about the possibility of knowing anything.  And we are no better for it because if this were so, then we could not know that we cannot know anything.  Thus we see that postmodernism has contained within it the seeds of its own destruction.  Enter the Lord Jesus Christ who claims to be the truth.  The proleptically postmodern sensibilities of Pilate may cause him to query, “What is truth?”  Regardless, Jesus proclaims to be the way, the truth, and the life.  We should observe that Jesus did not claim to be a truth or a way or a life.  He claimed to be the truth, the way, and the life.  He intended to communicate that he was the exclusive truth, way, and life.  This means that the other ways are false ways.  With these words our Lord excludes all other philosophies and religions as false.  The language of the apostles is a lucid negation: “There is no other name under heaven.”  His name is the only name.  Salvation from sin and death are found in him alone.  Despite the clarity of Jesus and his apostles on this matter, ivory tower theologues have sought to adjust teaching in order to accommodate postmodern sensibilities.  They have argued for a universalism that teaches that all people will eventually be saved.  “Love wins,” they say.  Obviously, this is appealing because it conveniently discards the just wrath of God and the unspeakable thought of an eternal hell.  Many American already believe that all people go to heaven.  After all, “God is a loving God who would never send a good person to hell.”  The Christian scratches his head and wonders where he might find this hypothetical good person.  Another corruption of the simple truth of Scripture on this matter is inclusivism.  This is sneakier than universalism as it claims that Jesus will save some good people out of other religions and philosophies without their knowing it.  Some inclusivists refer to “anonymous Christians.”  So in their minds they are able to maintain that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.  A person may benefit from this truth yet not know it.  Now this is a distortion of the biblical gospel that calls for repentance and faith.  But they overlook the obvious and stubborn fact that the Bible tells us that Jesus must be acknowledged.  There are no “anonymous Christians.”  Those who are Christians know that they are Christians.  They know Jesus by faith.  No Muslim is saved by being a follower of Muhammad.  No Jew is saved by obeying the works of Moses.  No Buddhist is saved by applying the principles of Buddha.  There is no other name.  The name is the means by which Jesus is known.  A bold person will ask, “Does this mean that those who have never heard the good news of Jesus are perishing in their sins?”  Absolutely.  Let me ask you, “Why would we send missionaries if they were going to heaven for not knowing?  If not knowing means heaven, then why would we give them the possibility of knowing and rejecting and then reversing their blessed condition?”  The first three chapters of Romans teach us that God’s creation and their conscience reveal enough truth to condemn them.  General revelation is to damn them, not enough to save them.  We have the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.  The gospel alone is the hope of those who have never heard.  So let us take them the gospel!  Let us pray for their salvation!  Let us support missionaries!  If we are called, let us go to the place where they have never heard and lay down our lives for the gospel!  To be sure, this is not an easy doctrine, but it is the truth; and if it is the truth, we should respond to it accordingly.  We may not like the truth, but the truth is a stubborn thing.  The exclusivity of Jesus is a stubborn reality and a glorious one.  Jesus Christ alone suffered and died on the cross for the sins of the world.  He alone rose again and ascended to the right hand of his Father in heaven.  He alone rules the universe as the Lord of heaven and earth.  He alone shall return to judge the living and the dead.   This truth may be denied, but it cannot be changed.  So who dare deny it?  It is truth.  Let us keep this great truth in mind today.  Your co-workers, classmates, and neighbors cannot find their way to God in any other way but Jesus.  They cannot be good enough for God.  They cannot be ignorant enough to excuse their sin.  Their only hope is the name of Jesus.  You know his name.  Shall you be silent?  Dare you be silent?  “There is no other name under heaven.”  “There is salvation in no one else.”