Boasting in the Sovereign Grace of God...

'We violate the order of human thought and trespass the boundary between God's prerogative and man's when the truth of God's sovereign counsel constrains despair or abandonment of concern for the eternal interests of men.'

John Murray on Romans 9-11

Probem solving...

"The greater the problem, the greater the gospel.
The smaller the problem, the smaller the gospel.

"We need to be very clear on the problem, and its magnitude, to understand and be thrilled by the gospel that solves it... many heresies stem from having the gospel without a problem. To have a Jesus who is the ultimate answer, but to not understand the problem, means we come up a problem resembling whatever we think the world's greatest problem is."

Michael You

From Times Eternal...

Uploaded some very basic demos of three songs I recorded with the help of my friends Vicky and Gary last week. You can listen and grab the lyrics to them here - I repeat: very basic stuff, but it was great fun to do. Here's the words to one of them, From Times Eternal. It's pretty much the back end of Romans 8, a chapter I've grown to take great delight in since we did it at Focus a few months back. I've noticed that too often the rock solid assurance God has given us, rooted in God's faithful character, displayed in his gracious act of predestining his own, and centred on the cross of Christ, is missing from the pulpits, songbooks, and generally, the churches of our land.

It's no reason for pride, that's clear. It's total grace. And yet without it, without being bathed in the plan of God, without taking time to grasp God's acted-upon will for us (as Romans 8 tells us) we rob ourselves and others of the comfort, security, refuge that the Psalmist loved to sing of. Anyway, here's the song:

From times eternal you have chosen me
Fixed by your counsel secured by your will
I see your purpose in saving me
I marvel at such undeserved mercy

No condemnation in Christ,
No separation from the love of God,
I can claim assurance tonight,
It is your work; it is your will

Your word tells me of my destiny
Planned long before my first breath
And it's destined through all history
The king of love; that he should die for me

Neither death nor life, neither depth nor height,
Can separate me from the Love of God in Christ

To know your working through everything,
That is my good, that is your will.
To make me more like Christ
To bring him glory, to be his family

Marvelling at sovereignty...

Been reading Romans 9 in prep for tonight's study... it's pretty hectic as the South Africans would say.
Logically I'm finding it one of the most easiest strands of Paul's argument to understand, but theologically it's a brain-twister, and not just brain but heart too. Just the way Paul brings up the issue of the Jews brings his true colours to light, 'I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers...' (9.2-3).

I love reading Paul, because just when you're wrapped up in understanding his doctrine, his theology, his understanding of how it all works, you're smacked in the face by the way he takes it as the reality it is. It's not simply textbook theory, for actually that's not theology, it's heart, mind, and soul, engaged, enwrapped, involved. What a big rebuke to thinking it's possible to get a grip on God's election without it twisting your heart. Does it make us concerned? Am I gonna stand up and speak the 'truth in Christ' and feel anguish? Not anguish that the word of God has failed, but anguish that so many don't seem to be children of promise (8.9), that so many have rejected the only one who can be their sacrifice for sins (Heb 10.26-27).

The mercy of God, absolutely free, totally unwarranted. Choosing Isaac not Ishmael, Jacob not Esau. Forgiving a people who turned to building a golden calf just hours after recieving the law. Blinding grace. Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! And yet we are chosen, as vessels of mercy, prepared beforehand for glory, to make known the riches of his glory.

"I've lost many arguments, I've never lost a re-run..."

Last night was the CU's Easter Celebration Service. It marked the final event of the One.Hope

Today's been a real encouragement. This morning we had the monthly church student prayer meeting, a great way to begin the day, being reminded from Hebrews 4.14-16 that we can approach the throne of grace, and bring our prayers to a High Priest who sympathizes with our day-to-day weaknesses. Also, been trying to nail my final essay of term, looking at the use of the Psalms in the NT to interpret the passion of the Lord Jesus. main event. I'll blog about that later this week.

Walking here and there I've been listening over some Carson on Ezekiel 37 & Romans 8. Great to go over some of the truths we've been sinking our minds into at Focus, and see the OT groundings for the desperate need for the Spirit to bring life from death. Carson's a joy to listen to and really hammered home the fact that for Paul it's absolutely nonsensical for a Christian to still be living according to the flesh, i.e. always wanting to be number one. 'Thinking apart from God. Goals and ambitions apart from God. Desires apart from God. Desperately sad and utterly hopeless.'

Instead we're called to set our minds on the things of the Spirit. To have the mindset of Christ, as Carson said, 'someone so touched by the Spirit of God that you can't deny the effects.' He had some really practical applications for how we view conversion, sanctification and revival...

Firstly, Biblical conversion has to be life-transforming. It is. Yes, there is a decision. Yes, there is growth by grace. But, from a biblical point of view conversion without life-transformation is a contradiction of terms. The Spirit makes us ashamed and fearful in the presence of a holy God. It makes us love what was previosuly unattractive. It is God's work. Not pressing a cheap-decision, where one things one has done God a favour. It is the work of the Spirit of God.

Secondly, Biblical ethics turns on keeping in step with the Spirit. God changes your mindset, now work it out. You can't wander away! It's unthinkable to strive to be number one - that's fleshly thinking. It's theologically ridiculous. It's biblically ridiculous.

And thirdly, revival is nothing other than a fresh out-pouring of Spirit. Every conversion is the work of the Spirit. Every step in sanctification is the work of the Spirit. When God's Spirit comes on his people by powerful display, the cheap and the dirty is percieved for what it really is, i.e. it is viewed from God's perspective. From the Spirit's perspective, and so we'll be ashamed. 'Stop asking stupid questions betraying our desire to know what we can get away with'. Real guilt. God have mercy on me, as a sinner. There is revival. You cannot organise it, you cannot ape it or whip it up. And biblical revival is achieved by the transforming power of proclamation of the Word empowered by the Spirit.

A groaning hope...

Just been trying to get to a grip on Romans 8.17-27 for Biblestudy tonight. I've found this the hardest part of Romans to logically grasp so far.
Paul makes it clear in 8.17 that sharing in Christ's glory, being heirs of God, requires us to share in his suffering, so the big questions are, as we begin 18-30, 'Is it worth it?' and 'How do I know I'll make it through the suffering?'

He kicks off straight away with his reckoning, that the sufferings of this present time, that is the believer's battle, are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (NIV: 'in us'). The glory to come is far greater than the battle of 7.14-8.17. What is to come is incomparable with life now.

Creation Groans (19-22)
In fact it's so awesome that creation too is waiting for it, creation is groaning in hope of our glory. Subjected to emptiness and purposelessness back in Genesis 3, creation has been suffering knowing one day it will be liberated.

Christians Groan (23-25)
And we're groaning too, for we have the firstfruits of the Spirit (i.e. the firstfruits are the Spirit). We're groaning inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. It's like we have the adoption papers signed and sealed, but we're still waiting to be shown off at the family gathering.

We have the Spirit, the firstfruits, but are waiting for the full harvest... (23a)
We are battling, groaning, therefore we have the Spirit... (23b)
We are waiting eagerly for adoption to be complete, and our new bodies revealed... (23c)
We have already been saved... (24a)
We are waiting patiently for we cannot grasp it yet... (25b)

This is the hope in which we were saved, adoption, redemption, justification... And of course hope that is seen is not hope, rather we hope for what we do not see. Our hope is not here yet! But it's coming, and we're groaning for it, for even creation is longing for it. Why hope for things that are now?! We hope for what do not see... patiently... knowing we have the firstfruits, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God (5.2) and rejoicing in these sufferings knowing they bring us hope, and hope does not put us to shame (5.3)!

The Spirit Groans (26-27)
And so creation grows, we too groan, but how do we know we will not give up in our weakness? Can we have assurance that we won't give up? Because our groans depend upon God and not upon ourselves! We walk according to the Spirit, having it in us, it killing sin in us, being led by it, having recieved it for sonship, and now... it groans for us. We are weak. We do fail. But the Spirit cries out for us on the battlefield... it is the true first-fruit... ensuring what is to come!

There must be suffering now, for without it we wouldn't hope. The glory's going to be far greater than this battle, than this life now, for even creation is groaning for it. We too groan, for we have the Spirit, as we eagerly await adoption as sons, for it is in this hope we were saved. We're hoping for something more than this battle with our sin, and the fact that we're hoping, groaning, waiting, is evidence that we are changed and have the Spirit and are saved!

Oh, Wretched Man!

Some notes from Packer's Appendix in Keeping in Step with the Spirit, on the identity of the 'I' in Romans 7.14-25. Packer picks up the hotly contested debate as, facing the premise that the law is evil (see 5.20; 7.5), Paul raises the question, his third one in quick succession (see 6.1, 15), and defiantly answers it: 'by no means!' Packer summarises Paul's argument as follows:

1. The effect of the law is to give men knowledge of sin as a dynamic reality within themselves, of rebellion against God, and of disobedience to his commands (7.7, 13).

2. The method by which the law gives this knowledge is by declaring God's prohibitions and commands, which goad men into rebellion and make men more aware of specific transgression into which sin has led them (7.8, 19, 23)

3. The law gives no ability to anyone to perform the good which it prescribes, nor can it deliver from the power of sin (7.9-11, 22-24).


It seems there are two sections, each starting with a summary statement of the thesis which is then explained in the following verses:

• 7.7-13 - Past tense, and naturally autobiographical. Thesis: 'I had not known sin, except through the law' (7.7).
• 7.14-25 - Present tense, which would suggest Paul's current experience, but seems a depressing read. Thesis: 'I am of the flesh, sold under sin' (7.14).

But who, given Paul in Romans 8 declaring 'the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death' (8.2), is the wretched man? Is he Paul, or an ideal, and if he is Paul, is it Paul the Christian or Paul the unconverted Jew?


Is the 'wretched man' Paul?

Paul's switch to the singular (7.14) from the plural (7.5-7), the emphatic 'I' of (7.14, 17, 24, 25), and the spontaneous cry of 'Wretched man that I am!' all point towards this being an experience that is personal to him.


Paul of the past?

Some hold that Paul of v14-25 is the same unconverted Paul as in v7-13, with it being simply a comment on the events of 7-13. The argument goes that the tense is present to create vividness, as Paul looks back (e.g. Bultmann). The logic follows that the wretchedness is thus the failure of Paul's religious self-effort, after seeking righteousness by works and not finding it. The answer is the gospel of grace of 8.1-4, and thus the praise of v25 is proclaming past or present deliverance.


Paul of the present?


a) In the present tense as it is a present state: A remarkable change from aorist to present tense in 7.14. Unnatural in the middle of a sentence dealing with a single unit of experience and an experience supposedly in the past. If there is no recognised linguistic idiom to explain it, then surely Paul's readers would have understood a shift in timeframe. Would Paul wantonly obscure his own meaning to allow misunderstanding?

b) Praise makes little sense for a step backward: The praise of 25a appears somewhat peculiar if it is followed by 25b, and comes as a major anticlimex. That is, if one assumes 25a is celebrating the past/present deliverance. Yet to still have to face 25b is surely a step-backward for this view of 14-25.

c) An optimistic, thus contradictory, view of unregenerate man: How can an unregenerate man approve of the law (7.16), delight in it (7.22), be willing to fulfill it (7.15, 18-21), and serve it (7.22), if elsewhere the heart and mind of unregenerate Adam is blind, corrupt, lawless and at enmity with God? Compare this especially with 8.5. Surely this is not a man in Adam, but a man in Christ.

d) Making sense of his current state: The cry of 24 - 'who will deliver me from this body of death?' - is the cry for deliverance from mortal bodies, for a time when 'the mortal puts on immortality' (1 Cor 15.54), a consumnation backed by 8.23. And so the praise of 25a must be for future deliverance, and so 25b ceases to be problem as that is the present reality still, the conclusion of the current state of affairs. He serves the law of God with his mind in wanting and willing to keep it perfectly, yet with the flesh serves the law of sin, seen in never being able to keep the law.

Big Pride... in the law (more on Romans 2.17-3.8)

I suppose the Jews face a more direct charge, in that they are being judged by the law - it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.

Is not the big match law vs. legalism? The descriptions in v17b - 20 are all 'good' things, and things ordained by God for the Jews to be. 17b - 18 seems to focus on being instructed by the law, whilst 19 - 20 is instructing others in the law. Hence, the charge of v21.

I'm a little confused by the examples given of the law being broken: stealing, adultery, robbing temples. Are they random acts selected by Paul, or were they specific charges against the Roman Jews? The language is very personal, it's as if Paul knows they know what he's talking about. In Acts 19.37, Paul is charged with robbing temples in Ephesus, it may have been something Jews were big on. Sure, they would have abhored idols, but would this have led to them actually robbing pagan temples? Or is Paul just bringing the Jews back in line with 1.18-32?

Either way in v24 Paul explains the significance of it, quoting Isaiah 52.5, The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

Not a Marketable Message...

Those were Al Mohler's words as he opened up Romans 2.17 - 3.8: "you're not going to write a high-street best-seller on sin."

This evening I've been trying to get into the aforementioned passage and what Paul is saying in this part of his argument to the Romans. Last week at FOCUS we looked at the righteousness of God's judgement, for it is based on truth (2.2), and it's impartiality for Jew and for Gentile.

Now, in 2.17 onwards Paul addresses Jews specifically, and begins with (v. 17-20) a towering resume ready to topple at any moment: relying on the law, boasting in God, knowing his will, approving the excellent, instructed by the law, guiding the blind, light to those darkness, instructing the fools, teaching the law, possessing the truth... and then verse 21: 'you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself?'. Ka-boom!

Actually these people who boast in the law dishonour God by breaking the law (v. 23). Paul quotes Isaiah's cry (Is. 52.5), instead of being a light to the nations as was the command of Gen 12, the Jews have caused God's name to be blasphemed.

It seems they've missed the point in circumcision and that's why Paul flags it up. It's value lies in obedience to the law, but if there is disobedience then circumcision may as well be uncircumcision. And v. 26 strikes at the heart of Jewish pride - the uncircumcised is in exactly the same position.

Enough for one night, but a timely reminder that outward religion is no replacement for Christ's mercy. Church appearance and good form at CU will not mean a jot when one disobeys the law, when one suppresses the truth.

God, bless us with humility to see our own condition, and to abandon pride. Cover me I pray!

The World and The Mould...

Thinking practically, thinking in reality, about how the world squeezes us into its mould - a brilliant bit of applying of Romans 12.