Which Came First?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In second grade, my teacher presented this problem to the class. I thought about it for days, trying to work out the logic. Chickens come from eggs, but eggs come from chickens. My mind was blown, but it's not an enigma. It's a foolish question with a clear answer. The chicken came first because God created them (Genesis 1:21). My problem wasn't a lack of logic but a wrong worldview. I thought about the question from what I could see, not from what I could know through Scripture. Thankfully, God has revealed to us things about the world, about ourselves, and about Him that we could not have otherwise known (1 Corinthians 2:9-16).

Some Christians take that "chicken or the egg" mentality to work out how the Lord saved them rather than what the Bible says about it. Let's imagine a college classroom. A guest speaker comes and preaches the gospel, and of the 100 students in the class, two were saved. Ninety-eight of the others didn't pay attention, but two were truly saved.

 The first student, a music major, thought about life through art and experience. The second student is a history major. The first student knows he needs to get to church and starts looking for one and finds one with an orchestra and an extensive music program. He goes to that church. He hears a sermon where salvation is preached in a way that seems similar to the way he experienced it. The preacher tells the sinners in the crowd to choose Jesus and do right and do good for God's approval. That's what he did in the class. He chose Jesus and all the others didn't. He says the egg came first, and says his decision saved him.

 The history major happens upon a church that is studying Romans. As the preacher expounds on God's work in redemption, justification by faith, grace, election, total depravity, the man realizes that though he repented and trusted in Christ, the Bible talks about what God did for him in salvation considers his salvation experience through Scripture. He understood, from the Bible, he had not come to Christ before because he was not born again, and when he did believe, it was because of God's grace. The music major started with the appropriation of redemption and explained salvation, starting with his experience. The history major begins with the application of redemption or how God saved his soul and applied the work of Christ by the Spirit. But both can't be right.

 Salvation is not subjective based on the believer's individual experience. God, in His Word, has explained how we are saved, why we are saved, and by whom we are saved. We are effectually called by God's grace, given life, faith, and repentance. We are justified by God, adopted into His family, progressively sanctified and preserved until our time of glorification. The Bible will tell you what came first, faith or regeneration.  

 

 

 

Make it Plain

All things in Scripture are not equally plain. Some passages are difficult to understand. To paraphrase the confessions, doctrines necessary to know and believe for salvation are so clearly seen and taught that both learned and unlearned people can see and understand them in some place or another in the Bible. If one passage is unclear, there may be 100 more that will shed light on the tricky passage. But, some texts are difficult to interpret. Or as Alistair Begg said pithily, "The main things are the plain things, and the plain things are the main things." In 2 Peter 3:15-18, Peter doesn't say to leave those difficult texts alone, but instead, you need to learn Biblical truth in all the Bible, the right way, to keep on guard against evil people who want to deceive you.

Hard verses are the favorite playthings of those who know the least while also being the foundation for the most unstable ones. Common sense would tell you that if you don't know very much about a subject, the best place to start would be the easy parts. I didn't teach my kids how to read from Van Tillian presuppositional apologetics books. They learned from Dr. Suess, not Dr. Owen. You teach beginners 2+2, not polynomials, rational exponents, and radicals. The unlearned and unstable like to go to the difficult passages because there is a place where a person can seem wise. So why do unlearned and unstable people gravitate toward difficult passages? In challenging texts, you'll find differences of opinions, debate, and argument, always asking questions, but never have any answers. It's the place where there is room for fanciful interpretation. False teachers like to take unfamiliar and twist them until they can convince people of their false teaching. Faithful pastors take unfamiliar texts and explain them. Good preachers try their best to make the Bible plain. 

Twisting Scripture or not knowing the Scripture is the highway to destruction. It's dangerous to be ignorant of the Bible. The Lord has given His people the means to learn about Him, learn about the Bible, and learn about Christian living. He established His church on the Earth, then equipped her with pastors and teachers to equip the children of God to grow in him. Churches with pastors who don't know very much about the Bible are in for a world of hurt. Christians who don't go to church and don't sit under doctrinal preaching are in a world of danger. (Eph 4:8-16). Be aware of how false teachers operate, lest you be led away with their error and fall from our steadfastness. Peter doesn't put a nice spin on false teachers but calls it the "error of the wicked."

Peter urges you to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. That means you need to learn more about Jesus. If you are a young Christian, learn more about Jesus. Study the gospel and redemption. If you are a seasoned Christian and add to that knowledge of the Lord Jesus and his work, His person, His promises, and his future program. You already know the gospel, but I can promise you that you don't know all there is to know about the gospel, redemption, how it was accomplished, why it was accomplished, and applied. And never stop. Always look and learn of Jesus.

From a Broken Home

  

Not everyone has a great childhood. Some children grow up in terrible situations, and it's a wonder they made it out of childhood at all. Once, a young boy named Josiah had a lousy home life. His father, though wealthy, was an evil man. He was a practitioner of the dark arts, worshipping devil gods in perverse ways. He was only 16 years old when Josiah was born. Eight years later, villains murdered Josiah's dad in their own house. Losing a parent is hard at any age, but for a son to lose his dad at the age of eight, and to murderous hands, would be particularly hard on the young man. How is his life going to turn out? He might have followed in his father's footsteps and to honor him, become like him. Another course would be for Josiah to become bitter and hardhearted. The world was against him. Everything is always falling apart for him. Nothing ever goes his way.

Josiah was the eight-year-old king of Judah. Does that make a difference? He was actually in more danger of turning out just as rotten as his dad. It's not very often that celebrity children grow up well adjusted. Childhood actors and actresses rarely make it to adulthood without a mental and emotional collapse. They are taken advantage of, used, abused, stolen from, and by the time they reach adulthood, many are broken inside and out. King Josiah wasn't just a famous kid – he was the king. How much more would the flatterers and politicians try to get their hooks in him?

By God's grace, not only did Josiah turn out ok, but he was also second to none when it came to the kings of Judah,  "there no king before him, that turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there any like him," (2 Kings 23:25). There wasn't a more godly king who sat on the throne than Josiah. He began to seek the Lord at an early age. When Josiah turned, 16 he began a series of reforms that changed the face of the nation. Josiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and rather than following in his dad's footsteps, he followed in king David's. He wasn't bitter and hardhearted but had a tender heart and humbled himself before the Lord (2 Kings 22:19). Josiah's submission to the word of God, his tender heart to receive the truth, and his humble heart to confess his sin before God made him one of the great men of history.

God's grace took a boy from a home, grounded in wickedness, disordered in idolatry, and broken in a tragedy and saved him from the curse of a bad family life. God's grace is sufficient, powerful, and life-changing. Don't excuse your sins by your upbringing. There is grace, forgiveness, and a new life in Christ.