Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.
Listening vs. Talking to Ourselves
I recently started reading Lou Priolo’s The Complete Husband in preparation to getting married in less than 7 weeks. So far, it is quite an interesting read and definitely convicting for myself, since it really takes you into the heart issues that hinder a husband from truly loving His wife in an understanding and nourishing way just as Christ loves the Church.
Priolo talks about the importance of communication and revelation in a Biblical marriage. In other words, you can only know your spouse as much as he or she reveals herself to you, and vice-versa. It is by revealing ourselves that we are able to see how each other’s thoughts and affections operate. As we communicate and reveal ourselves, we become privy to the inner workings of our spouses and ourselves, and we are able to recognize how easily we can be led astray, not only by the lies external to us, but also by the lies internal and within us.
Did you know that you have the ability to talk to yourself at the rate of over 1,300 words per minute? Think about that. In 10 seconds you can tell yourself at least a dozen lies. The problem with most of us is that we listen rather than talk to ourselves. That’s right - rather than “speaking the truth in our hearts” (Ps. 15:2), and being “transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Rom. 12:2), and “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5), we preach to ourselves at the rate of 1,300 words per minute the fibs, falsehoods, and fabrications of our deceitful hearts. Rather than passively listening to ourselves say something like, “I can’t do anything right,” we should actively exhort ourselves in this manner: “No, I can’t say ‘can’t’ when God says I must! I can do all things through Him who strengthens me!” Here are a few more common examples of such unbiblical self-talk:
- “I’ll probably make a fool of myself.”
- “If people don’t love me, I’ll be miserable.”
- “Making mistakes is terrible.”
- “I can’t control my emotions.”
- “I must strive to be better than others.”
- “It is wrong to show weakness.”
- “I should never hurt anyone.”
- “I can’t do something unless I feel up to it.”
- “I’ll never change.”
- “I’ll never get the victory over that habit.”
- “I’m a failure.”
- “I’ll never forgive him.”
- “My marriage will never work out.”
- “I may say something that would embarrass me.”
(36-37)
I hope to continue posting my thoughts and reflections on the book as I continue to read it.
Sure, I believe in faith-healing. I believe in the One who heals my faith when it is weak.
“I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)
Engaged and Enraged - Over-Realized Eschatology
It’s one of the most beautiful things that this world has, even in its accursed state: marriage. It’s something so joyous, so blissful, so momentous that believer and nonbeliever revel in it and see its beauty. Yet, even more so, the Christian sees marriage beyond the horizontal plane. The Christian does not stop at the temporal. Indeed, the Christian looks at the vertical and what lies beyond in what is signified and illustrated in marriage: the redeeming love of Christ to His Bride.
Part-and-parcel of marriage in our day and age is the transitionary state between a relationship and a marriage: engagement. It is upon entering this transitory stage that fiance and fiancee wait patiently and yearningly for the wedding day, when they will receive the full benefits of the marriage union. Yet, it is also in this transitory stage that both parties have a surety of the blessings to come. There is something that already is in possession, and there is something awaiting, but promised to be possessed.
Indeed, we as believers are shaken if we see a Christian man move in and live with and sleep with his fiancee. We are mortified if we see a Christian woman walk out of the bedroom in the morning after a night with her fiance. That’s not yours, yet, we naturally proclaim. Those are future benefits that you shouldn’t partake in yet!
That’s not me, though, you might say in response. I’m not sleeping with my fiance! But, what if I told you that you and I, our common temptation, is to have a theology, a belief in God and His promises, that is just like a Christian man and woman partaking in marital relations prematurely before the wedding?
How often do we believe that the promises, the benefits of Christ’s consummation at His second coming ought to be here and now? We moan and complain at our sicknesses, sufferings, injustices, poverties, and lack of success to our God. We complain that God ought to provide for us, His people, by keeping us from sickness and poverty. We become frustrated with our Savior when the world continues to grow more and more anti-Christian. We kick and scream when the wages we earn in work or school seem unbalanced in the scales of equality and justice. We find Him unfaithful when we lose a loved one and find Him uncaring when we find out we have a terminal disease. We sneeze and cough whilst shaking our fists at His slowness of applying His Physicians hand. We blame Him for our lack of sanctification, and point the finger at the Sustainer when we fall back again and again into the same gross sins.
We expect, and He does not give. We grow angry, and feed our landfill of unbelief.
What we do not realize is that our expectations are correct but not opportune: they are assured, but not for now. We are in the already and not yet. We are in the transition zone from the instance of our salvation to finishing of our salvation. We have every spiritual blessing in Christ already, but we do not have every earthly blessing in Christ yet. We are betrothed, yea, engaged to Christ our Bridegroom, but our wedding supper has not yet come and the consummation has not happened. Yet we push and shove, we demand from our Fiance. We want our consummated blessings now. Like an uncontrolled man forcefully demanding marital benefits from his fiancee, we demand our not yet blessings in this already time.
Our over-realized eschatology threatens our faith, for it causes us to redefine God and His promises. It makes us take the Scriptures of His mighty and assured future promises and puts them as deserving for us here and now. It makes us redefine the faithfulness of God, so that we expect of Him things that are not yet to come, but we become infuriated when He does not give what we expect in this present evil age. We consider Him unfaithful, unwise, uncaring, unloving, not good, and unfatherly, because we place Him against a standard made in our own hearts rather than the True Standard that He is.
And we crumble. Yea, brothers and sisters, we crumble because of this. The writer himself finds himself whining and complaining to his Lord when sickness takes its toll, when the job search proves unsuccessful, when the grade point average prints out disproportionate to the amount he studied. He points the finger at God when he looks at his empty wallet, and he shifts the blame on the Sanctifier when he finds himself falling back into a seemingly inescapable sin. The writer himself has the putrid whore of over-realized eschatology tempt and have her way with his heart, and finds himself buying in to her seductions. He has allowed her to twist his definition of God and His promises so that he becomes angry when God doesn’t deliver what he expects of Him. And the scary thing is that her seductions are true - they are just not yet. Satan often comes dressed as a messenger of light, and often gives subtle perversions of truths rather than blatant lies.
Oh how blind we are to see what we have in Christ here-and-now! Every spiritual blessing is in Him. Our status has been made right with God in Christ so that there is now no condemnation for us in Him. We have been deshackled from sin’s tyranny and have been given His Spirit to walk in newness of life. We have been baptized into Christ so that His life, death, and resurrection are ours. We have been assured that our present sufferings pale in comparison to the glories beyond, and that even our present sufferings are our signs of being in union with the One who suffered and was glorified. We have been given new hearts in place of our dead ones, and we are sustained by His spiritual manna and His spiritual drink. We are assured that our sharing of the common curse with the rest of mankind will be the most of hell we will ever experience because Christ experienced the true wrath for us.
Remember, O Christian, that you are a pilgrim in the wilderness of the already and not yet. What we have now is our surety and downpayment of the inheritance we will receive. Our engagement ring of justification is our assurance of the wedding that is to come. Our Fiance will not have cold feet and will not change His mind, so we are assured of the blessings and benefits of the consummation.
Let us say no to the temptations of over-realized eschatology, however it manifests its whoredom into our minds. Whether health-and-wealth gospels, social gospels, perfectionistic sanctification, higher-life pietism, inner-heart revelation, triumphalism, revivalism, or Christian theonomic dominionism, they are all refractions of the same image, branches from the same trunk of over-realized eschatology. Let us have disgust and shudder at the thought of over-realized eschatology in the way that we ought to shudder about an over-realized fiance to his not-yet-wife.
The fulness of blessings, of a theocracy that never ends, of a new heavens and new earth where pain, sickness, sorrow, death, and sin are abolished forever is assured for us, even the knowledge of our Savior face-to-face. But not yet. The Bridegroom is coming, He is coming for you, O Bride. Wait for Him, for His not yet benefits will be poured out upon you, in a celebration more glorious than any wedding day.
“Two-Adams Scheme” Ramifications of Romans 6
Romans 6 only becomes as fascinating as it’s supposed to be when you realize that it comes directly after Paul’s discussion of the Two-Adams (5:12ff) and our union into condemnation with one (Adam) and our union into salvation with Another (Christ). It’s then that you realize that the statements Paul makes have implicit flipsides. By telling us who we are in Christ reminds us what we once were. It tells sinners outside of Christ who they still are and Who they need for their salvation.
In Adam, we died to righteousness and were alive in sin. In Christ we have died to sin and no longer live in it.
In Adam, we were slaves of lawlessness earning the wages of sin: death. In Christ, we are slaves of righteousness who have been given Christ’s wages of righteousness: eternal life.
In Adam, we had been forensically imputed with one act of disobedience and one transgression leading to condemnation. In Christ, we have been forensically imputed with His perfect righteousness leading to justification.
In Adam, we were corrupted in the power of sin that enslaved our minds, hearts, bodies, and wills to wickedness and darkness.
In Christ, we have been put to death in regards to sin and have been co-resurrected with Him to newness of life.
Christianity is always Christless
If it doesn’t know the Crisis
The wondrous faith is always base
If it doesn’t grasp sov’reign grace
Salvation is mere salivation
If ‘by faith alone’ ain’t justification
Doctrine can seem mere obfuscation
If cov’nant’s not its set foundation
Hypocrisy is the burning acid reflux of the Christian struggle in sanctification. We often are quick to believe we have eaten the Word of God as sweetness unto our lips (Psalm 119:103), but what comes back up in due time is the foul acid of our hypocrisy. As children of God, we yearn to find our sustenance and joy in our Father’s feeding Word (Jeremiah 15:16), but again and again we find ourselves disabled and immobilized in the painful regurgitation rather than the inward digestion and nutrification of His Word in and through us. But be of courage, dear Christian, for Jesus Christ not only took in the Word of His Father as His daily bread perfectly without hypocrisy (Matthew 4:4), but He swallowed every last drop to the very dregs of His Father’s cup of wrath on your behalf (Luke 22:42). Yea, by His Spirit, we have been baptized with Christ and co-crucified with Him, so that our hypocrisy has been nailed to the cross and His resurrection life is what empowers us to regurgitate no longer hypocrisy but the glorious gospel (Galatians 2:11-21).
John the Baptist and Jesus and the Baptism Problem
I recognized that this is quite a big question for a lot of folks. What in the world is the distinction (if any) between the baptism of John the Baptist versus the baptism Jesus commissions the church to administer until He comes again?
A good question indeed, but in order to find an answer, we must shift our eyes from the trees to the forest. In other words, God is the Alpha Author of our divine Word, so we must see that the passages of Old can grant us understanding of the passages of the New, even in a different covenantal period. Foreshadowing and fulfillment are integral literary and theological techniques that we as believers must have our eyes wide open to see.
In order to understand the John-Jesus relationship, we have to flip back to understand the Elijah-Elisha relationship. If we remember in 2 Kings 2, Elijah is told that he will be taken away and Elisha will take his place as the prophet of Israel. At the surface, we might think that Elijah is just leading an overly eager Elisha (‘can I come, can I, can I?’) through a haphazard trail of Promised land geography. But, we have to pay attention to what landmarks he passes by and what trajectory he is headed at.
1. 2:1: Gilgal.
2. 2:2: Bethel.
3. 2:4: Jericho.
4. 2:6: Jordan
5. 2:8: Elijah rolls up his cloak and strikes the water and it splits so they can walk across.
Recognize that the trajectory of their travel is the complete opposite of the Israelite entrance into the promised land. Behold in Joshua:
1. 3:15-17: the flooded Jordan is stopped so they can cross.
2. 5:13-6:27: utter destruction of Jericho, curse of rebuilding it.
3. 12:16b: defeat of king in Bethel
3. 12:23b: defeat of king in Gilgal; setting up a camp at Gilgal that they return to again and again.
In other words, Elijah and Elisha walk on a backwards route of the what the Israelites did when they entered and conquered through the Promised Land, and their ultimate end is the other side of the Jordan (where the Israelites were before they entered).
We have to also see that the curse and utter destruction of Jericho was still in action during the time of Elijah. 2 Kings 2:19:
Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.
Often, complete destruction would also mean doing something to prevent future cultivation (salting the soil, contaminating the water system, etc.).
Therefore, Elijah is leading Elisha outside of the Promised Land across the Jordan. He has backtracked the Israelite conquest, and ended up right where they had begun (on the other side of the Jordan). The promise is that when Elijah is taken up, Elisha will receive a double portion of Elijah’s spirit (2 Kings 2:10).
When Elijah gets taken up in the whirlwind, Elisha takes the same cloak that Elijah leaves behind and not only strikes it to cross back into the Promised Land, but in verses 19-22, he heals the unfruitfulness of the land and inhabitants of Jericho! The curse has been completely reversed. And this curse reversal was possible because Elijah prepared the way for Elisha’s ministry by leading outside of the Promised Land so that Elijah can come back into the Promised Land to do greater works than Elijah.
And now, connect this to John and Christ. In the gospels, John is described as baptizing people in the Jordan (the outskirts of the Promised Land, just like Elijah led Elisha). He is leading the covenant people of Israel outside of the Promised Land in a baptism of repentance that is to prepare for the way of the Lord, whose sandals he is even unworthy to untie, who will bring his mission into the Promised Land. The baptism of repentance is a ceremonial and ritualistic cleansing, signifying a preparation for the coming of something greater (the Messiah and the eschaton).
Then, Christ himself comes to the outskirts of the Promised Land, is baptized in the Jordan, the Holy Spirit descends upon him (see the Elijah-Elisha parallel?), is declared as the Son of God, and begins to enter back into the Promised Land on His mission.
Then, several chapters after John the Baptist is executed (like the whirlwind-event of Elijah), Jesus gives the parable about the Tenants and the Son (Mark 12:1-12 and Matthew 21:33-46), which speaks about the prophets (in the story, the “servants,” including John the Baptist) being sent and killed as well as the “son” (Christ). Recognize also the context that Jesus has just entered into the innermost part of the Promised Land, Jerusalem, right before giving this parable. Just like Elisha re-entered the Promised Land, Christ re-enters after His baptism in the Jordan and slowly progresses on His mission to Jerusalem.
But the beauty of the typology rests in the fact of the dissimilarity of Jesus to Elisha. Whereas Elisha brings a reversal of the curse in Jericho within the Promised Land, Jesus brings a reversal of the curse outside the walls of Jerusalem to bring salvation not only to those in the Promised Land who would believe in Him, but also to the nations (and ultimate fruitfulness in the new heavens and new earth). Whereas the baptism of repentance prepared individuals for the way of the mission of Christ, the baptism of Christ is the sign and seal of the covenant of grace that signifies our union with Christ in his death and resurrection (Romans 6) that accomplishes His salvific mission. The baptism of John is preparatory; the baptism of Christ enters the individual into the covenant community. The exodus of Elijah is preparatory; the entrance of Elisha enables an entrance of blessing to the town of a previously cursed town.
Lastly, the call of the baptism of Christ is to repent and believe and be baptized in the Triune name. It is not simply a turn from sin and a belief in Christ, but a demarcation, a signification that God places upon the individual as His own and is made true instrumentally by faith. Indeed, the infant is included in this because he or she is placed with the sign of the entrance into the covenant of grace because of the covenant structure of the household, and he or she is to embrace it in time by faith, trusting God’s promise. It is not a sign of election or salvation when an infant is baptized, but it is a sign of entering into the covenant community, in which there is still the possibility that he may even receive the blessings externally but not substantially and salvifically (how else do you understand Hebrews 6?). But on the flipside, his election may prove true and he will embrace the full benefits of the covenant of grace externally and substantially and salvifically.
I pray that this, at least the Elijah-Elisha vs. John-Jesus parallel will help us understand the distinctions in their respective baptisms and how it signifies our place in redemptive history as recipients of Christ’s curse reversal covenant blessings.
On 1 John 3:4-10
Are you trusting in Christ for His conquering over sin? Have you grasped the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, or have you truncated it, have you made it fold into itself like a telescope so that it’s not at its fullest capacity? God calls you to abide in Christ, to find your justification (God’s reckoning you righteous) and to find your sanctification (God’s making you righteous) in Him.
Just like the flash of lightning is always coupled with the boom of thunder, and thunder cannot exist without there first being lightning, we cannot divide the benefits of salvation found in Christ. Because they are found in Christ, we cannot divide them unless we dare to divide Christ Himself. Have you only put your trust in one of the benefits of Christ? Are you living a life of lawlessness and reckless liberty because you believe that you are justified in His sight? Then you are trusting in half of the Savior, and half of Christ is not full salvation. Or are you living a life thinking that your own merits and deeds, your own moral perfection will make you righteous in God’s sight? Again, you are trusting in half of Christ, and half of Christ is none of salvation. John speaks to all of us, wherever we fall in this spectrum, to abide in Christ. Do not fall back into the temptations of sin; do not reshackle yourself to the prison of lawlessness; do not give ear to the deception of Satan. To fight off the temptations to fall back means to abide in Jesus Christ, to cling desperately to Him and walk with Him in newness of life. It is to reckon and realize yourself dead to sin and alive to Christ.
Uh-oh verse of Calvinism?
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 1 Timothy 2:4-6
Oftentimes, newborn Calvinists get this verse thrown in their faces as the “HA!” of Arminian-anti-Calvinistic reservoir of proof texts (a reservoir, which I might add, is no deeper than a man-made puddle). It can cause them to sweat, have nervous ticks they never knew they had before, and bring about more “ums” and “ers” than they had ever uttered in their entire lives. Is this a hopeless endeavor to try to explain the verse? Is it truly an indestructible axe that strikes the side of the Calvinistic tree of doctrine? Is it only exegetical hoop-jumping and “explaining away” that will fix this sore thumb in the systematics of the Doctrines of Grace (or, better yet, shoving it under the rug and pretend it doesn’t exist)?
The answer is a definitive “No.” With the help of an argument of one of my professors from seminary, we can actually see that Paul’s use of his wording here directly parallels another of his epistles.
Recognize that Paul here makes the claim that God ”desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth…” not as a standalone verse. He connects an explanatory reasoning in the following verse: ”For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men…” In other words, there is a logical connection being made between God desiring all men to be saved and God being one. Does this mean that God desires every single human being to be saved because He is one? Or does this mean that God desires every type of human being to be saved because He is one? Well, let’s be good exegetes and look where Paul uses the same phraseology of “God is one”: Romans 3:29-30
Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. (my emphasis).
Indeed, Paul uses the same phrase “God is one” here in Romans 3, but he clarifies what he means when he talks about the desiring of salvation. Because God is one, He is the God of all types of people, including the Jews and the Gentiles, as this passage in Romans 3 tells us. Therefore, if we know that all Scripture is God-breathed, and just as God is truth and does not (and cannot) lie or contradict Himself, we must realize that the passage in Romans 3 is in accordance with 1 Timothy 2. One clearer passage brings clarity to a less clear passage. As Calvinists, we can use Scripture to interpret Scripture alone as our strongest point of exegesis. We do not have a mere handful of proof texts that free-float and may or may not agree with the rest of Scripture. No, we have a system of doctrine that the entirety of Scripture teaches itself, with more clarity in some verses and less clarity in others, but can be used as a whole to understand the whole counsel of God. So now, we can see that because God is one, He can be the only Mediator, and He is the only Mediator for all types of people, so that there is no other name under heaven by which a man can be saved.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands… Revelation 7:9
I leave you with this, brothers and sisters: do not be hesitant about your newfound doctrines of grace. The glorious high doctrines of Calvinism are not a set of man-made teachings that cannot be supported without tip-toeing around and avoiding huge swaths of passages in Scripture that might contradict them. No, the Scriptures themselves testify to the truth of the doctrines of grace. It takes some work to be able to see the trees in the forest, the forest of the trees, and the peripheral of one side of the forest to the other, but trust me, the reward is beautiful and amazing, and you will see your God as He has truly revealed Himself, with all praise and adoration due His name.
