A Difficulty Resolved in Practice

"Another wants to know how it is that men are bidden to come,—and yet we are taught in Scripture that no man can come,—and he must have that cleared up; just as if the poor man who had a withered arm, when Christ said, "Stretch out thine arm," had replied, "Lord, I have got a difficulty in my mind; I want to know how you can tell me to stretch out my arm when it is withered." Suppose when Christ had said to Lazarus, "Come forth," Lazarus could have said, "I have a difficulty in my mind; how can a dead man come forth?" Why, know this, vain man! when Christ says "Stretch out thine arm," he gives you power to stretch out your arm with the command, and the difficulty is solved in practice; though I believe it never will be solved in theory."
Charles Spurgeon, An Appeal to Sinners 

Read it.
Listen to it.
Watch... well not you still can only listen, but you can look at the pictures. 

Book Review: Life in Christ by Jeremy Walker

What does it mean to be a Christian? In his new book Life in Christ, Jeremy Walker walks us through what

the Bibles tells us about the most important of all subjects; salvation and union with Christ. Jeremy puts on display many areas of Christian life and experience, drawing out the realities of the new birth, implications of saving faith, blessings of union with Christ, and changes God works in the believer as a new creature in Christ.

Starting with the gospel and saving faith, we are guided through what it means to have been saved, to be saved, and to look ahead to the glories that await those who are in Christ. He begins by explaining the gospel- that Jesus is the object of our faith, to whom we look. Then, as a born again child of God, the life we have, our identity, our hope, our righteousness is in Christ. Jeremy points out that when we begin to think of what it entails to be “in Christ” we see that this is not a superficial decision one makes, but Christ is the unsearchable, fathomless, and glorious treasure whose depths we will spend an eternity exploring. Salvation is bringing a dead sinner to life, implanting a heart of flesh, and giving the person a new nature to love what he once hated, and hate what he once loved. In Christ, we are not merely pardoned slaves, but made to be sons of God. Our identity in Christ has changed both our position and our nature and because the perfect work of Christ, we can be assurance that He will accomplish what He set out to do, and we can know that we know Him. Since life in Christ is real, then life in Christ has a real effect as we continue to be conformed to His image, until we have run the race and finished the course and He brings us home.

This book is theologically sound, and wonderfully written. It is a rare occurrence to have both a theologically sound work that is also just a pleasure to read. Life in Christ is steeped in Biblical passages and Biblical language and gets straight to the point, which I appreciated.

No book, no volume of books could ever begin to plumb the depth of what union with Christ fully means, however this book is a wonderful way for a new believer to learn more of what he has in Christ, and for the mature Christian to adore and worship the Beloved. I could see this book being a wonderful guide for the babe in Christ, a devotional book, or a great book for a Bible saw group. I highly recommend picking up a copy.

You may also enjoy listening to the THIS interview Jeremy gave on the Janet Mefferd Show talking about the book. Jeremy also blogs at Reformation21.org

P.S.

Also, to whoever is ultimately responsible for the footnotes instead of the endnotes; I give you a hearty well done, well done. There is nothing that quite dampens the Newell spirit as to see a book with endnotes, but alas, dear reader; rejoice. You will not be burdened by flipping back and forth in the needless scavenger hunt. “Will this be a reference to another book? Is this more vital information that I need to know? Will this the endnote merely be yet another ibid?” There will be no interrupting of the reading by flipping back and forth, for you will conveniently find that information at the bottom of the very page to which it is referenced. My heart, upon seeing the footnotes, as it were, slowly stood from its reading chair with an approving ‘slow clap’ and a nod of the head.

The Calvinist by John Piper

I tweeted out a link to this poem a few days back, and the folks at Desiring God have updated their video with subtitles.

Both a beautiful poem and video.

With a special "two for the price of one" deal here at the blog, I'm going through in, absolutely free, this quote from Spurgeon. Also, if you object to the term Calvinism, then coin a single word to describe the doctrines of Grace and God's sovereignty and get the rest of the world to catch on and replace it. Let me know when you do (or would you have to let me know?) but until then, we live in a world with words and words have meanings. Right now, the term Calvinist has a meaning and I don't have to define it because you know what it means too.

 "I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor."

DP Newell

An Odd Couple

The thought occurred to me, as it sometimes does, that there is a similarity between the Lutheran position on infant baptism and the Arminian position in decisional regeneration. If you have been reading the comments of prior posts, you may have a headache. Buy you also may have noticed many of the arguments of the pro-Luther party were lobbed in the general direction of the pro-Arminius constituency. I did observe something peculiar as I looked at the scorched remains of the Arminian straw man. He looked vaguely familiar.

Like I’ve noted before, there is a strange kinship between errors that, on the surface, seem to oppose one another. The antinomian is just as focused on the law as the legalist. One runs from the law, the other to the law, but for the sake of the law, they both do run.

The Lutheran and the Arminian have a strange kinship in regards to the sovereignty of God in salvation while they firmly deny the resemblance. Neither truly believes that God has the absolute freedom to choose who will be saved. Both believe it to be unjust and unfair for God to chose to show mercy on some and not others, to one degree or another. Whereas the Arminian applies this to all mankind, the Lutheran applies this to children. Both think they can do something to make God save someone. One calls sinners to the “altar” in the front of the church to make a decision while the other sprinkles water on a babies head. Both positions think that their actions will move God to save and both will call it grace. Both sides will get upset when you point out that this is a work, and both positions will say these things are done in faith. But when you boil it all down, making a decision is a work, and so is baptizing babies. What precedes faith will determine if you truly believe in grace. An odd couple.

The wreckage of decisional regeneration is no different than that of infant baptismal regeneration. In both instances a well meaning adult convinces a child that they are saved. The child takes their word for it and moves on, walking (or crawling) in darkness. A church full of false converts, nominal Christians who have taken the word of someone that they were baptized and believed the report that they repented of their sins and trusted in Christ. Do many later come to saving faith? Sure. Do many die in their sins trusting in the words of men assuring them that their decision saved them, or their baptism saved them? Sadly, yes.

Faith is substantive. True, living, God given faith awakens the dead spirit to life, opens the blind eyes to sight, and causes the dead sinner to see the kingdom of God and come to Jesus Christ. The Lutheran can parse words all day long, but an unconscious infant does not have faith, as faith is defined by the Bible (Hebrews 11:1). How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? He has four - calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it so. Redefining faith may help a well meaning parent or pastor to sleep at night, but it does not change God’s Word, nor does it regenerate the soul of the deceived.

This is an emotional issue, especially for parents of young children, like myself. If there were something I could do to save my children, I would do it - but it would do them no good to impose upon them a religious ritual that has no power to save and lie to them in order that I might feel better. The well meaning Arminian will do the same. They will ask the child if they love God and want to go to Heaven and then ask if they love Jesus and then tell them they are saved. This makes the parents rejoice, for  a season, until they wonder why their teenager is cooking meth in the back yard instead of at Bible study.

My children are in God’s hands. Salvation is of the Lord. I tell my kids of the gospel daily. We have daily family worship and daily Bible reading. I pray for the salvation of my children. I do all that the Lord has required of me,all that I can do and their souls are in His hands - and there is no other place that I would rather they be. I desire nothing more than to see my children walk in the truth, but I cannot change the leopard's spots in family worship and only God’s grace can give a heart of flesh, faith, and true repentance. I preach the gospel, I call them to repentance - but their souls are not in my not in my hands, not in the hands of the church, but in the Hands of God.

The Limits of Atonement

"Let there be no misunderstanding at this point. The Arminian limits the atonement as certainly as does the Calvinist. The Calvinist limits the extent of it in that he says it does not apply to all persons...while the Arminian limits the power of it, for he says that in itself it does not actually save anybody. The Calvinist limits it quantitatively, but not qualitatively; the Arminian limits it qualitatively, but not quantitatively. For the Calvinist it is like a narrow bridge that goes all the way across the stream; for the Arminian it is like a great wide bridge that goes only half-way across. As a matter of fact, the Arminian places more severe limitations on the work of Christ than does the Calvinist."  

Lorraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination

Try a Lazy Boy

C.H. Spurgeon -

"I recollect an Arminian brother telling me that he had read the Scriptures through a score or more times, and could never find the doctrine of election in them. He added that he was sure he would have done so if it had been there, for he read the Word on his knees. I said to him, "I think you read the Bible in a very uncomfortable posture, and if you had read it in your easy chair, you would have been more likely to understand it. Pray, by all means, and the more, the better, but it is a piece of superstition to think there is anything in the posture in which a man puts himself for reading: and as to reading through the Bible twenty times without having found anything about the doctrine of election, the wonder is that you found anything at all: you must have galloped through it at such a rate that you were not likely to have any intelligible idea of the meaning of the Scriptures."

HT: Phil Johnson

Compared to what?

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 1, chapter 1

"On the other hand, it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he have previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself. For (such is our innate pride) we always seem to ourselves just, and upright, and wise, and holy, until we are convinced, by clear evidence, of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity. Convinced, however, we are not, if we look to ourselves only, and not to the Lord also - He being the only standard by the application of which this conviction can be produced"

"For, since we are all naturally prone to hypocrisy, any empty semblance of righteousness is quite enough to satisfy us instead of righteousness itself. And since nothing appears within us or around us that is not tainted with very great impurity, so long as we keep our mind within the confines of human pollution, anything which is in some small degree less defiled delights us as if it were most pure just as an eye, to which nothing but black had been previously presented, deems an object of a whitish, or even of a brownish hue, to be perfectly white."

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Revelation 3:20

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. This is a very familiar passage of scripture. Many know this verse, and many quote and use this verse frequently, but it is used so frequently to promote a wretched doctrine of works for salvation. Revelation 3:20 is erroneously used as an invitation to the lost, but I believe that they, to comfort and ease the minds of the lost, have twisted a verse speaking of the love of Christ toward His church and made it into a doctrine of God dishonoring heresy.

Too many people believe in errors and easily accept falsehood due to the perception that all scriptures in the bible are for all people regardless of whether a child of God or child of the Devil. I could say “I am happy to see you here this morning” to one who enters the Lords house on Sunday morning and there would be nothing strange about that. But the same phrase “I am happy to see you here this morning” would not be the message I would give to an intruder who was trying to break into my house in the early morning. Just as every word you and I speak are not intended for every person walking the earth in all situations, words of peace spoken to those who are loved of God wouldn’t apply to the reprobate. So common sense would tell us that not every message in the Bible is for every person at all times.
We need to see who this message is from and who is the intended recipient. Revelation 1:10-11 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia. Jesus, I am, Alpha and Omega, it was He who had the message. It was he who had the message, and revealed it to John, to give to someone, but who? Revelation 3:14 "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,” and Rev. 3:22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. The message that the Lord had given in Revelation 3:20 was given to the church of the Laodiceans. A message that is given to a church, naturally excludes some people. Since a New Testament church is made up of saved, baptized believers, it can be said that a message to a church would in fact exclude the impenitent sinner. By a simply, cursory reading of the whole message, and knowing to whom the message was intended, we see that Revelation 3:20 cannot be an invitation to the lost as so many believe. Otherwise this verse would be calling for those who are saved to be saved.

This verse cannot be an invitation to the lost to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. This would contradict the attributes and nature of Jesus. I once saw an artist’s depiction of this verse. A log cabin set back in the woods with a small dirt path leading up to the door. It was dusk; the fire from within the rustic home was putting out a warm glow that could be seen afar off shining out through the windows. There at the door, what I assumed to be Jesus, with his head hung low, and arm out stretched, gently knocking at the door of the old cabin, but alas, no one would answer. HOW OUTRAGEOUS! That is not my Jesus! My Jesus does not beg for one to trust in him, but he is the Great Shepard who said in John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. The lost world loves to think of Jesus in this manner, the needy Saviour who is in great want from us. In December, they will think of Him in the manager, but not as Lord. He is depicted standing outside of “heart’s door” seeking our approval rather than seeking and saving the lost. The choosing is not at “hearts door”, man choosing Christ, but the choosing was in eternity, God choosing his people.

I mentioned “heart’s door” because that is how I have always heard the door in Rev 3:20 being referred as. The bible states clearly in John 10 that Rev 3:20 doesn’t call sinners to open their heart’s door to Jesus. In verse one Jesus says Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Then in verse seven Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Jesus is the door, not our hearts. And if one is to be saved they must “enter in”, not allow Jesus to enter in. Those who teach another Jesus, knocking at heart’s door, are not “entering in by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way” and are thieves and robbers. It is by grace that we are saved through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

So then, what does it mean? As with the previous churches in Revelation, there was a word of correction of faults then a word of comfort or encouragement. The Laodecians were neither hot nor cold as we find in verses 14-22. They had lots of money, but spiritually poor. They had lost their zeal for service, just playing church if you will. They had not gone off into idolatry either; they were lukewarm. Jesus told them in verse 19 to repent of the sinfulness of idleness and cold heartedness. He commanded the children of God to be zealous. Then in verse 20 we see a word of encouragement. The emphasis of the verse should not be put on the door, or on the knocking, but what the verse is telling us. Consider the foolishness of “heart’s door” in this interpretation. If the door is heart’s door, when we sup, do we sup at heart’s table? No, what we see here is Jesus love for his people and his church. Because of this love, Jesus meets and fellowships with his churches. Jesus will not leave nor forsake us. When his churches gather together to worship, He is there. Jesus loves His people, and loves fellowship with His people. The Laodecians met, but by being lukewarm, they lost sight of the fact that we are given the opportunity to come, fellowship with the Son of God, in His house, and worship Him in spirit and in truth, and we are given that opportunity regularly. We should come to God’s house knowing that Jesus meets and sups with his church, without fail. He is faithful to meet with us and bless us; but are we faithful to be in His house? God is faithful by who ye were called unto the fellowship of His son Jesus Christ our Lord. This love knows no bounds, and with that love there is friendship. There is a special relationship between the Lord and His church. He will choose his bride from among his true church and said “ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you” and the members of the Lord’s churches have followed the Lord in baptism and joining His assembly.

Revelation 3:20 doesn’t tell us that Jesus needs something from us, but that God is there for us! This passage teaches that God is faithful to us as He promised to be. Are you in need? Are you depressed? Do you feel alone child of God? Are you shunned by family and hated by those around you for trusting in Christ? Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To apply this message to an invitation perverts the sacrifice, the glory of God, God’s relationship with His children and the love Jesus has for his Church. Child of God, do you seek that sweet fellowship with the Lord? He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.