Monthly Archive for April, 2008

Never Be Wise In Your Own Sight

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Jeff
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28Apr08
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Never Be Wise In Your Own Sight by John Piper

Proverbs 9:10 NRSV
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Proverbs 11:2
When pride comes, then comes disgrace; but wisdom is with the humble.

Matthew 23:12
All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

Romans 12:3
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Duty Calls

Unwholesome talk and grieving the Spirit

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Jeff
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24Apr08
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Ephesians

I was reading Ephesians 4:29-30 along with O’Brien’s commentary a few weeks ago.

Ephesians 4:29-30 NIV (which O’Brien uses)
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

O’Brien says:

The coordinating conjunction ‘and’ links this exhortation to the negative imperative of v. 29, so that the two clauses can be rendered: ‘let no unwholesome word come from your mouths . . . and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God’. This latter prohibition serves as a motivation for the preceding advice about speech … The Spirit, who is the divine agent of reconciliation and unity in the body (Eph 2:18, Eph 2:22, Eph 4:3-4), is especially grieved when unwholesome speech is uttered by member against one another.

As I am still breaking the habit of taking verses in isolation and linking these two together was extremely convicting. With tears, I stopped reading and thought about my own speech, including through the keyboard, especially “only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen”. This even applies to thoughts. I acknowledged my failures in this area and pray regularly that by His grace I will repent and over time learn how to communicate more gently. (See R-E-S-P-E-C-T, which I wrote shortly after God spoke to me about this.)

Since then I have had my little failures and today I was on the receiving end and got a taste of my own medicine. God in His sovereignty will use this to glorify Himself and conform us to His image.

Additionally, in rereading Ephesians last night I was marveling at God’s word and realizing how much I don’t know. And today I wonder if I should even be writing a public blog that others may be influenced by, if it’s worth the time and how much benefit there really is for me. With a readership of about 30-40 people I’m pretty much writing to myself anyway. (smiley would go here)

Making the Gospel Seeker Sensitive

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Jeff
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23Apr08
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There have been volumes written against making the gospel more palatable for those who are “seekers”, whatever that means, and contextualizing the gospel, for which there are many definitions.

I think it can be narrowed down to this:

1 Corinthians 1:18 NASB
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

I would gather that seeker-sensitive preachers and evangelists don’t want to make the the gospel sound like foolishness. But if we make it more palatable and use logic and worldly wisdom so that people will accept it on an intellectual level without truly believing, they are putting some of them on rocky soil right from the start. Is that what we want to do to people?

2 Peter 2:21 NRSV
For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was passed on to them.

Jesus and Paul didn’t make it easy enter the kingdom. (Matt 7:13-14, Matt 19:21-22)

Regarding the cross as foolishness, here are some quotes from commentators:

Longenecker, Galatians:

Today, after almost two millennia of the cross as a sacred symbol, it is difficult for Christians to appreciate the repugnance and horror with which the cross was viewed among both Jews and Gentiles in the first century. The only things comparable in our day would be venerating an electric chair or wearing a hangman’s noose around our necks as a symbol of our religious devotion. Indeed, as Paul says in 1 Cor 1:23, the proclamation of ‘Christ crucified’ was ‘a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.’

Garland, 1 Corinthians:

He [Paul] does not say that he preached the resurrected Christ, but the crucified Christ. Crucifixion and resurrection belong together as part of the gospel story (1 Cor 15:3-5), but the cross was repugnant to ancient sensibilities and assailed the world’s self-centeredness and self-destructive ways. It was not yet the ‘old rugged cross’ sentimentalized in hymns, embalmed in stained-glass windows, perched on marble altars, or fashioned into gold charms.

Christianity was cradled in what looks like disastrous defeat, and the unspeakable stigma of the cross exposed the preacher of this message to woeful contempt. Paul, however, did not refer to Jesus’ death with embarrassment or skip over the awkward facts.

…the message of the cross is an antidote to human self-glorification.

Paul left…yielding, to the persuasion of the Spirit.

Postpretevangelconmergicalorthomillspencovenism

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Jeff
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21Apr08
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In case that word in the subject line messed up your browser or RSS reader it’s:
Postpretevangelconmergicalorthomillspencovenism

I still don’t know exactly what postmodern means. To me, modern means now. As in contemporary. Postmodern would be the future. I tend to think of everything literally and don’t get most colloquialisms or sayings. I always cringe when people say, “I cut my teeth on…” when they learn something. Or, “I ran into someone at the grocery store.” I hope you said you’re sorry.

It’s tough to keep up with all these labels. I’m pretty sure I’m not postmodern (of the future) based on what people have said. But most of the people who describe postmoderns are angry people and call them pomos. That word sounds similar to “homo” which is a derogatory term that isn’t used much anymore unless you’re Jeremy Shockey.

I know I’m Reformed or reformed. I hate to call myself a Calvinist because I follow Jesus, not Calvin. (1 Cor 1:11-13) But maybe that’s what reformed is. And I’m not sure I’m 100% with the program.

The Internet has been a great learning tool but is also fraught with judgmental opinions and so many terms and labels that everyone has a different definition of that not only is it difficult to keep them straight, it’s difficult not to be judgmental of those who are truly in Christ but different enough that you disagree with them.

I need to develop a mental filter for many of these labels.

At the same time, partly because of listening to John MacArthur (oh no, he’s a dispensationalist [dispie]) I’ve come to realize how important it is to develop sound doctrine.

Make up your mind!

–John MacArthur

But I need to know what’s important and what I can overlook and not let myself be overly influenced by the people who overly discerning. I will call them discernmentalists. I thank God I am not like them. (That was tongue-in-cheek, so to speak. I didn’t actually put my tongue in my cheek. OK I just did so I wouldn’t be lying.)

Titus 2:1-10 NRSV (emphasis added)
But as for you, teach what is consistent with sound doctrine. Tell the older men to be temperate, serious, prudent, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance. Likewise, tell the older women to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind, being submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, gravity, and sound speech that cannot be censured; then any opponent will be put to shame, having nothing evil to say of us. Tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to talk back, not to pilfer, but to show complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the doctrine of God our Savior.

How far does “sound doctrine” go?

Here is a message I would like to listen to when I have the time:

T4G - Ligon Duncan on Sound Doctrine - preview
Link to MP3 file of the full message
(See all messages from T4G at Sovereign Grace Ministries)

Hallowed

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Jeff
 on
17Apr08
. 9 Comments

I never knew until recently that the Greek word most often translated as hallowed only occurs twice in the New Testament.

Update: As Peter Kirk pointed out to me, this isn’t true. While the specific verb form may be used twice in Matthew 6:9 and Luke 11:2, it occurs many more times in the New Testament. Please see the ISBE portion of the PDF file. (And read it more carefully than I did the first time around.)

Matthew 6:9
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Luke 11:2
When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.

I put together a PDF file of some definitions that I printed out for a Bible study using out of copyright sources and thought I’d make it available here.

Here is a quote from the book we’re studying:

By requesting that God honor his name, Jesus teaches us to ask God to make all creation recognize and revere his holiness. Of course, included in creation is the one praying. So in the same breath that we request God to make his name holy everywhere else, we also ask God to make our own heart honor him.

By praying, ‘hallowed be your name,’ we make God’s holiness our highest priority and ask him to promote his glory in, around, and through us. Thus the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer asks that all creation reverence God and that God exercise his will in ways that will advance his name in all the earth. The petition for God to hallow his name asks God to fulfill his righteous purposes for his glory.

–Bryan Chapell, Praying Backwards

What’s so great about the ESV

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Jeff
 on
15Apr08
. 16 Comments

There is plenty to be found on the Web about the ESV translation itself. This post is about all the other things that Crossway does with the translation. I can’t think of a Bible translation/publisher that offers anywhere near what’s available with the ESV.

I wish this blog had a wider readership and all Bible publishers would read it and follow suit to some degree.

If you’re unfamiliar with all it has to offer…

Regarding that last point–I know other Bible publishers probably have good reasons for doing what they do but I’m very thankful to have a good, modern translation of the whole Bible available without having to pay for it, especially when I already bought one that’s in book form and when it’s freely available on the Web. I think this model helps the publisher much more than hurts.

Supplements

Posted
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Jeff
 on
10Apr08
. 7 Comments

Galatians

Please excuse this post for being like a rough draft. I spent too much time on it already. If you can make it to the end you will either be rewarded, frustrated or wonder why I’m writing about things you already know.

Galatians 2:16 NRSV yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.

Most of us believe that works (of the law) will not save us and it is by God’s grace through faith in/of Christ that we are saved. Longenecker defines Paul’s use of “the law” as:

…the Mosaic law as a religious system associated in some manner with righteousness.

Paul adds another dimension to this in his letter to the Galatians. He is also saying that the law can’t add anything to what Christ has done for us nor can it perfect our salvation. There is no supplement regarding our standing before God. If we “obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:9) and then try to perfect it by works of the law, we are going backwards:

Galatians 3:3 NRSV Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?

Longenecker says,

The main point of Paul’s rhetorical question here, however, has to do with the incongruity of beginning one’s Christian life on one basis (’with the Spirit’) and then shifting somewhere in progress to another basis (’by human effort’). What Paul wants his converts to see is that the Christian life is one that starts, is maintained, and comes to culmination only through dependence on the activity of God’s Spirit (Gal 5:25; also see Phil 1:6…the point is made that completion of the Christian life comes about on the same basis as its inception, viz. by God’s working).

Longenecker quotes Betz,

Paul’s missionary efforts were taken as merely the first step, and that the opponents claimed to provide the necessary and final measures to bring salvation to completion and perfection.

Longenecker:

As such it combined faith in Christ for initial acceptance before God and a nomistic lifestyle* for true holiness, thereby claiming to work out in full the meaning of righteousness. Paul, however, was not content to allow any supplement to the work of Christ, either for one’s initial acceptance before God or for one’ life as a Christian. For him, to start talking about supplements [including circumcision] was to bring matters back to square one and the issue of legalism, even if it be claimed that nomism alone was the question.

It’s interesting to note that whenever Paul mentions Abraham and the covenant, he never mentions circumcision, which is one of the ‘works of the law’ that the Judaizers where claiming the Galatians needed to perform. The promise of Abraham did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith (Rom 4:11-13; also see 1 Cor 7:19).

Galatians 3:6-18 NRSV Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.” For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, “Whoever does the works of the law will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brothers and sisters, I give an example from daily life: once a person’s will has been ratified, no one adds to it or annuls it. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, “And to offsprings,” as of many; but it says, “And to your offspring,” that is, to one person, who is Christ. My point is this: the law, which came four hundred thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.

Galatians 5:18 NRSV But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.

*According to Longenecker, nomism is “expressing their Christian convictions in their lifestyle in ways compatible with Jewish tradition” which was not to be foisted on the Gentile Galatians. Although, “To be a Jewish believer in Jesus did not mean turning one’s back on one’s own culture or nation. Yet no longer could it be argued that circumcision, Jewish dietary laws, following distinctly Jewish ethical precepts, or any other matter having to do with a Jewish lifestyle were requisite for the life of faith.”

Update: Please see the first comment by Bryan.

I would just like to share something…

Posted
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Jeff
 on
9Apr08
. 3 Comments

…that being two of my pet peeves in the evangelical world.

When did the word share become synonymous with tell, explain, proclaim or talk about?

We share our lunch. I have some and you have some. If two people are Christians they share the same salvation, same Lord, same Spirit, same God and Father and are related to each other in Christ. (Eph 4:4-6)

But if we share the gospel with someone and they reject it and don’t receive it, is that sharing? Aren’t we really explaining the gospel or in Biblical terms proclaiming (1 Cor 9:16) the gospel? Is this to make it sound more gentle? If we tell somebody something is that sharing? Am I the only one who thinks this sounds weird?

My other one is when people use the word just at least once a sentence when praying and even when speaking in conversation (or is that when sharing with each other). Are we trying to exhibit some sort of (false) humility or unconsciously minimizing our prayers? We are able to “approach the throne of grace with boldness”. (Heb 4:16)

How do these things start and then get so widespread? And why does everybody talk like each other?

That’s my rant for the month. Just thought I’d share.

Biblical eSources

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Jeff
 on
8Apr08
. 1 Comment

Biblical eSources

Just a few of the names in the articles section:

  • Silva, Moisés (the infallible)
  • Ladd, George
  • Garland, David
  • Bruce, F. F.
  • Bock, Darrell
  • Blomberg, Craig

HT: Pyromaniacs

While we’re at it, also see:
My Bible Translation Resources at Better Bibles Blog with links to more resources

Books to read for 2008

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Jeff
 on
7Apr08
. 7 Comments

If you’re like me and like reading lists of books others are reading:

These aren’t as scholarly as Mike’s but for what it’s worth I thought I would mention mine and see how far I’ve gotten at the end of the year.

  1. Ephesians by O’Brien (finishing as of now)
  2. The Truth of the Cross by Sproul
  3. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians by Fee
  4. Running Scared by Welch
  5. Colossians & Philemon by Lucas
  6. Polishing God’s Monuments by Andrews
  7. 1-2 Thessalonians by Beale (not set on that one yet)
  8. Suffering and the Sovereignty of God by Piper et. all
  9. First and Second Timothy, Titus & Philemon by McGee (not sure about that one but I already own it)
  10. The Epistle to the Hebrews by Bruce (not set on that one)
  11. I Will Follow Thee O God by Bridges
  12. The Letter of James by Moo

To get in some Old Testament I’ve been reading a Psalm a day and will be finishing that in a week. Then will read a chapter of Proverbs a day during May. Then possibly Ecclesiastes and Daniel after that.

This is sort of an update to a previous post. I’ve read five of the ten mentioned there and added some new ones here.

What is “Paul’s Gospel”?

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Jeff
 on
3Apr08
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Galatians

Galatians 1:11-12
For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (NRSV)

Quoting Longenecker in his commentary on Galatians:

…as for Gentiles being accepted by God and living as Christians apart from the regulations of the Mosaic law–and so, as for the legitimacy of a Gentile mission apart from the Jewish law–Paul saw this as a ‘mystery’ enigmatically rooted in the prophetic Scriptures but now made known to him by revelation (Rom 16:25; Eph 3:2-10; Col 1:26-27), and so uniquely his.

…what they [the Judaizers]…opposed were the implications Paul drew from these confessions for a law-free gospel among Gentiles. Paul, however, saw in the proclamation of full salvation in Christ the attendant truth of acceptance and life for Gentiles apart from the Mosaic law. This is what he calls ‘the gospel I preached to you’ or ‘my gospel’ (Rom 2:16; Rom 16:25; see also 2 Tim 2:8; and ‘our gospel’ at 2 Cor 4:3; 1 Thess 1:5; 2 Thess 2:14).

The Judaizers (those seeking to have those in Galatia circumcised and completing their salvation by obeying the law) claimed that Paul didn’t have the authority to preach his gospel and also that he initially received his teaching from the “real” apostles in Jerusalem as opposed to direct revelation from Jesus Christ.

Galatians 1:18
Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days;

Although Paul did see Peter (Cephas) for 15 days, as Longenecker says with a bit of humor:

Certainly their fifteen days together were not spent ‘talking about the weather.’ They discussed, without a doubt, matters pertaining to their common commitment to Christ. And it is not beyond the range of reasonable probability to believe that such discussions included Peter’s accounts of Jesus’ ministry, and that from such accounts Paul learned much. But to learn about the details of Jesus’ earthly life from Peter and to be subordinate to or dependent on Peter for his apostleship and Gentile mission are clearly quite different matters. Paul is willing to acknowledge the former, but he is adamant in his rejection of the latter.

Paul is not bragging or trying to be a renegade apostle going off on his own. He is only defending the authority to preach the gospel given him and its authenticity.

This is well illustrated in Ephesians (also cited by Longenecker above). O’Brien points out that the words given/gift and grace are mentioned three times each in this passage for emphasis:

Ephesians 3:2-8
for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ,

The Most Overlooked Scripture

Posted
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Jeff
 on
1Apr08
. 0 Comments
  • Ephesians chapter 7 - The spiritual warfare passage in chapter 6 is so popular people often overlook chapter 7
  • The book of Hezekiah - This minor prophet is often ignored

How well do you know the Bible?