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The Burden of Habakkuk

Lessons in
the Book of Habakkuk

by Bob Burridge ©2013, 2015
Understanding God in Troubled Times
(Video #1)

Lesson 1: The Burden of Habakkuk Habakkuk 1:1-4

The Prophesy of Habakkuk is an old book with a very contemporary message. The struggles we face in life are nothing new. Tragedies happen, temptations get the best of us at times, cultures deteriorate morally, nations rise and fall, evil violence claims its victims, and in our limited understanding we try to make sense of it all. The answer the Prophet received when he asked God about it all was not what he expected or looked for, but it still answers the questions raised by questioning minds today.

The burden of Habakkuk the Prophet

Habakkuk 1:1, “The burden which the prophet Habakkuk saw.”

The Bible doesn’t tell us much about the personal side of the prophet Habakkuk. Legends and apocryphal stories have produced some rather bizarre traditions that in their attempt to fill in the gaps of our understanding they tend to confuse the message of the book. Obviously the Holy Spirit didn’t consider the prophet’s background necessary information for appreciating what He intended in this book. We need to be content with the information the Bible gives us, and resist the temptation to make vain speculations.

We know from 1:1 and 3:1 that God called Habakkuk to be a prophet. The book ends (3:19) with a subscription like that in the psalms indicating that Habakkuk was a musician who played a stringed instrument. That’s about all we know about him personally.

Some scholars have tried to find out about him in the meaning of his name. The problem is that its meaning and origin have remained obscure and are probably unimportant. If it had some relevance God in His inspired word would have explained it. Most biblical names were family names, or had some special meaning to the parents just as they do today. Almost all the names we encounter in Scripture were contemporary ones commonly in use at the time. Only under special circumstances were Bible names really significant.

Habakkuk is presented as a man with a sensitive heart. When he thought about the violence and oppression in his world he was troubled. He described the message of his book as his “burden”. The Hebrew word he used is mas-SA’ (משּׂא). It comes from a root word meaning “to lift something up.” The troubles of his world were important to Habakkuk. They were heavy matters that needed to be dealt with, taken up by someone. He could not help but make them his own burden. The prophet felt compelled to deal with the heavy weight of his people’s oppression. Habakkuk wanted to understand why God was allowing unpleasant things to happen at that particular time.

Habakkuk wrote during troubled times before the captivity.

In the confusing days from 609 to 605 BC, evil and immorality were destroying the moral foundation of the Jewish nation of Judah. Foreign powers repeatedly invaded. As the Book of Deuteronomy warned long before in the days of Moses, the Lord was using a foreign nation, the wicked Chaldeans, to deal with His people’s disobedience. The corrupt kings of Judah had begun to make deals with God’s enemies, and they defied God’s prophets. They hoped for political victories and personal gain.

The prophet Jeremiah labored during the time of Habakkuk warning about God’s coming judgment. About one hundred years earlier the Northern tribes of Israel had been taken captive for their disobedience. But just like the countries we know today, they had not learned the lessons of history.

It was during this period of moral and political confusion that the Lord raised up Habakkuk to deliver a special message to His people. The questions that troubled the prophet were not much different from those we deal with today. The customs and enemies may be different, but the human struggle that tries to understand suffering and the perseverance of evil never changes.

Many have asked, “How can a Sovereign, Loving, and Almighty God allow the seeming injustice we see around us? Why should the unfaithful prosper while God’s loyal people struggle for survival and many of them die?”

This was the burden Habakkuk was dealing with, this heavy weight of oppression by evil. Habakkuk wanted to understand why God was allowing this to happen.

The confusion of Habakkuk

Habakkuk 1:2-4, “O LORD, how long shall I cry, And You will not hear? Even cry out to You, ‘Violence!’ And You will not save. Why do You show me iniquity, And cause me to see trouble? For plundering and violence are before me; There is strife, and contention arises. Therefore the law is powerless, And justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore perverse judgment proceeds.”

How could a Holy God allow such things to continue? Habakkuk knew that the Scriptures taught that God is the very essence of Holiness. Leviticus 19:2 had said, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”

Evil is offensive to God. We know that even when it’s used for good, He is not approving of it. Psalm 5:4-5 reminds us, “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You. The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity.” So Habakkuk concludes in Habakkuk 1:13, “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness.”

The reason Habakkuk struggled, was that it seemed to him that God was allowing evil to overcome his people and not doing anything about it. He was having a hard time reconciling the holiness of God with the fact that the evil in Israel was obvious, and God didn’t seem to be correcting it.

As finite creatures we cannot fathom the infinite. God in His wisdom has not determined to reveal all his secrets to us. Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”

Some unbelieving scholars have observed Habakkuk’s questions, and have made him out to be a man filled with doubts. They make the mistake of labeling Habakkuk to be a doubting rationalist. He has been called the “freethinker among the prophets”, “the father of Israel’s religious doubt.” But that ignores the substance of his message.

Habakkuk was no mere rationalist. He saw what appeared to him to be iniquity, and thought of it as such only because he knew God’s law and believed it. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “I would not have known sin except through the Law” (Romans 7:7). The Law is one of the gracious provisions of God’s covenant. It’s there so that His moral character would be revealed to us so we can know it.

Habakkuk’s problem was not that he had trouble accepting what God said, or His holiness. His burden shows just the opposite. Knowing that what God said about Himself was true, he was unable to fit it together with what he could see happening. On the one hand the prophet knew that God was holy and had pledged to oppose ungodliness. On the other hand he saw that ungodliness seemed to be prospering while the godly were suffering.

It was not doubt about his confidence in God’s revelation that formed the basis for his logic and reasoning. Logic and reason are only able to organize facts and draw conclusions based upon our interpretation of them. The “facts” must be founded upon some standard of truth. Habakkuk didn’t question the facts. He simply didn’t know how to fit them all together.

He didn’t find real contradictions. None of the facts he had to work with were opposite to one another. He showed by his prayer that he believed there was a way to link what God had revealed about Himself and what He was then doing. His plea indicates that he wanted God to let him know how these things were to be reconciled.

Habakkuk didn’t accept evil apathetically. He was appalled by it. It would be easy just to whine about the evil around him, but that’s not what he was doing. Modern eschatology has become a doctrine of defeat. It depicts Christ and His church as defeated. There are some who hope that evil will grow to speed up the coming final return of Jesus Christ. That is a totally unbiblical attitude. The Prophet didn’t adopt an attitude of defeat the way many do today.

Habakkuk was not about to retreat from a corrupt culture. He didn’t simply accept the presence of evil and withdraw. He was bothered by the evil. He wanted to see it judged. He wanted it beaten. He wanted holiness to triumph over evil, but he didn’t see it happening.

The action taken by Habakkuk

When doubt or confusion arises, God’s Prophet did the right thing. He cried out to the Lord. He turned to God, not to his own understanding. He was not raising some general question of the existence of evil. He was trying to figure out what was behind the specific things he saw happening to God’s people at that moment in history.

He was not a man of humanistic doubt that deifies uncertainty. He was no classic rationalist who reasoned and theorized while knowing his facts were uncertain and incomplete. He was not an existentialist who simply leaped upon some belief and ignored what was obvious to the eyes.

As a believer in the promises of the Covenant of Grace, Habakkuk turned to God and waited for His answer. He knew the assurances in God’s word.
Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;”
Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

When plagued by doubts, when things are not easy to understand, we must turn to our Covenant God as did the Prophet. There are things it is vital for us to remember:

  • We are mere creatures.
  • We are not able to hold the infinite in our finite minds.
  • There are more things in this universe than any one person can know.
  • Even our senses are limited in their degree of reliability.
  • There is nothing we can know exhaustively, but there are things we can know.
  • God has given us answers that clear up the problems we imagine.

The secret things of God are beyond us, except what God has revealed (Deuteronomy 29:29). But dealing with what is revealed is challenging to our yet imperfect reasoning.

We are a fallen race. Our understanding is distorted by our fallen nature. Aside from the new life we receive when we are given life by grace, we see nothing as it really is. We miss the declaration of God’s glory that surrounds us in everything our Creator made. Even the gospel itself is seen as a caricature of the true work of our Savior. In 1 Corinthians 2:14 we are reminded, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

When we are redeemed by Christ we still struggle in our yet imperfect estate to satisfy a corrupt spirit. We tend to want to defend our innocence. We want to know how to explain everything that happens. We have a continuing need to be reminded of the gospel of grace.

We need to turn away from our curious speculations to rest upon the firm foundation of truth revealed by God. We will find it to be sufficient and satisfying. It’s not that we become unmotivated to learn more. We hunger for God’s truth. But we also recognize the limits of what we can and need to know.

We leave the inscrutable to the infinite Creator and Sovereign Lord. There are things we cannot fully “scrutinize” or comprehend. As one of my professor often said, “Don’t try to unscrew the inscrutable.”

As we study on through this Book of Habakkuk, we will follow this Prophet as he leads us humbly into the presence of the infinite God to find an answer to the confusion of our fallen and very human hearts.

It was God’s time to make known how we as his people ought to view his purpose in allowing evil. He even lets us see a little into how it fits beautifully into his plan for the ages, yet without corrupting his most holy nature.

(Quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

Back to the Index of Studies in Habakkuk

Defying Things Not Understood

Lessons in the Book of Jude

by Bob Burridge ©2013, 2016
“… exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith
which was once for all delivered to the saints.”
(watch the video)

Lesson 3: Defying Things Not Understood Jude 8-11

There are many things we don’t understand well.

The wise person admits there are limits to what he understands, and he remembers there was a time when he didn’t know what he knows now. It’s the fool who thinks he’s figured everything out and dares to charge ahead based on that. He has an arrogant and aggressive attitude toward anybody who see things a different way. Rather than listening and learning, he just scoffs at other ideas and ignores what others say. He fails to admit he might be wrong and have more to learn. He’s like one who runs into a field of land mines, laughing in unbelief and derision at the posted warnings. They love to drag others along with them into the mine-field refusing to admit the danger.

People like that seem compelled to pass on their ignorance and dangerous attitude to others. Maybe they think it proves them right if they can convince others to believe them. Or maybe they just want to feel important and powerful, and be the smart ones. Sadly, many who trust them and follow them think they’re getting good advice.

This means that even when we see others who misunderstand things, we need to resist the temptation of going on wild and uninformed attacks against them. A soldier charging ahead foolishly often finds himself rushing into a well set trap. He’s caught in the snare before he even realizes he’s taken the bait. We need to be truly wise, following God’s advice for dealing with error whenever it creeps in among us.

There were infiltrators in the church who had defied God’s ways.

Jude 8, “Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries.”

These are the infiltrators of the church, the covert agents for evil described in verse 4. There it says, “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. ”

Jude had just given three past examples of God’s judgments in verses 5-7. He showed that people cannot get away with their defiance of God, his ways, and his people. Now he shows that these who were troubling the churches in his time will similarly be judged.

He calls them dreamers.
It’s not just that they believe that God talks to them in their dreams. It means that their ideas are dreamed up from within their own fallen souls. They are not submissive to God’s word. They live in a dream world.

Today the media and art world are deeply mired in a philosophy that denies absolute rules, realities, and moral standards. It finds its way into popular songs, art, movies, books, and even today’s religions. Their basic premise is that our own thoughts, dreams, and imaginations are the only realities that should concern us. This subjective way of looking at the world and society has crept into the church in a new charismatic wave. It believes that suffering and evil can be manipulated away if believers will it enough.

Instead of dealing with suffering and sin in the way God’s word prescribes, they have cultish mass prayer meetings, stirring motivational rallies, and superstitious chants and formulas they think will overpower what’s against them, and reconfigure God’s plan itself.

Like the deceivers in the days of Jude, someday these foolishly ignorant wizards will be shaken out of their dreams. They will discover that the world they thought was controlled by their own minds or personal hopes was not as much under their own power as they imagined. They will see that the limited god they tried to manipulate with their rituals, talismans, and prayers, is a sovereign reality for which they had not prepared.

With their perverted foundation they do three particularly evil things.

They defile the flesh. Without a respect for God’s word, they let their fleshly desires grow without boundaries. They justify living immorally and defile their own bodies in ways that displease the God who made them. It is tragic that in this new approach to religion, perversions, sexual liberties, and pornography have penetrated very stealthily into the congregations.

In the days of the New Testament, and among those to whom Peter, Paul and Jude wrote, a belief called Gnosticism was in its beginning stages. It separated the spiritual and physical realities so much that each was thought to have little to do with the other. Like today’s Nihilism and New Ageism, the physical world God created, is seen as inferior or even unreal. By separating the physical from the soul, the sins of the flesh are not seen as being very important.

Gnostics came to seek inner enlightenment as the key to rising above the physical. This freed them either to become ascetics, denying physical pleasures entirely, or, as it was in this case, to become libertines engaging in whatever their bodies desired. They justified it by thinking that the flesh had nothing to do with what was real.

Jude said they also reject authority. Since they believed the real world was an inner reality, and that they were the enlightened ones, they became a law to themselves, and ridiculed those who saw real authority in the world.

But God didn’t create a world to be an anarchy where individuals each did his own thing.

He established the family and charged the husband of the home, the fathers, to be responsible for those in the home, to care for their physical and spiritual needs.

God established the work-place where those hired to do work for a land owner or business owner were required to respect the risk their employers were taking in hiring them and in their business investments. Workers were to put in an honest days labor and show respect for those who hire them.

God established his covenant body, the church. He calls some to be Elders to shepherd the people by teaching them God’s ways. They had spiritual authority over the congregation to guide them into truth and holy living, and to comfort them through their times of suffering. They were to be careful ministers of God’s revealed truths.

In the civil realm, God calls those in rightful places of leadership his “ministers for good”. Romans 13 makes it clear that we are to honor them in areas of civil justice and mutual defense.

However, those infiltrators imagined themselves to be better enlightened than what God’s word says. So they would strike out against these areas of God established authority. Instead of a society ordered in God’s way, they imagine a utopian world without absolute rules or God appointed leaders.

They imagine homes where parents have no real authority over their own children. Kids sue their parents for personal liberties. Ungodly national leaders try to impose their supposed enlightenment to compel parents to discipline a certain way, and make schools teach ideas contrary to those of godly parents who are seen as evil bigots if they adhere to biblical authority. To them marriage itself is defined by the whims of society rather than by the God who instituted it with our first parents in Eden.

Work places become chaotic battle-fields of competition between workers and management. The worker tries to get more than he earns, and the employer tries to pay less than he owes. The state manipulates businesses with rules it imagines to be better than those set by those who own and run them. To force things to conform to their own imaginations these “enlightened tyrants” suppress success and competition in the market place.

The church becomes a loose aggregate of individuals. They come to church to be inspired by rituals, entertainment, organized programs, and parties, but not to be urged to follow God’s ways by Elders with real authority over worship and the sacraments.

Nations themselves become political arenas where special interest groups try to gain power and control the riches of the people. Their goal is to gain support for whatever will make them more rich, powerful, and promote their ideological agendas. Often the courts of the land are manipulated by ungodly lawyers, juries, and judges who have personal agendas rather than a devotion to higher laws.

Jude says they speak evil of dignitaries.
There is some confusion here since some translations interpret the object of the sentence in different ways. The King James says they “speak evil of dignities.” The New King James has, “speak evil of dignitaries.” The English Standard says they, “blaspheme the glorious ones.” The New American Standard says they, “revile angelic majesties.”

The object of the verb “to speak evil of,” “to revile,” or “to blaspheme” is the Greek word “doxas” (δόξας). It literally means “glories”. The word “angels” is not in any of the ancient manuscripts of Jude’s letter. That insertion is more interpretive.

We can understand what Jude means when we recognize that according to Scripture there is only one original source of glory and majesty. That source is God alone. He displays his glory in this world by the things he made, revealed, and established. In this context, it appears to be persons who are being reviled. Considering what he had just said about the authorities God had appointed, it’s likely that this refers to those who hold positions of responsible leadership.

According to God’s law husbands are told to lead their homes as Christ is the loving and self-sacrificing head of the church. Masters are told to treat their workers as God treats us as his servants. Elders are to shepherd the church as
Christ’s representatives, as the Good Shepherd cares for his people. And Paul tells us that civil governors at all levels are to be respected as God’s ministers for good.

Each is to display God’s glory in his particular domain. These evil men Jude speaks of revile not only the concept of authority, but also the dignitaries God sets up to lead us. The New King James Version is more accurate here by translating it that they “speak evil of dignitaries.”

“They speak evil of” is the Greek word “blasphaemou’sin” (βλασφημοῦσιν) from which we get our word “blasphemy”. It is used three times in this short passage. The word means to slander, revile, defame or to speak with disrespect and irreverence. This attitude is characteristic of those who believe they are the most enlightened, but who have no concept of the boundaries set by God’s word.

Jude then used an example to show the restraint
we should have in dealing with evil.

Jude 9, “Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you!’ “

He speaks of Michael, the archangel. There are several places where this person is mentioned in the Bible, particularly in Daniel 10:13,21; 12:1; and Revelation 12:7. Most agree that Michael is one of the created angels made to serve God in the spirit realm. As archangel, he is the angel of highest authority. He is often seen as a leader of other angels and a special guardian of God’s people.

Evidently, there was a time when he had a dispute with the Devil. In some way it had to do with the body of Moses. We have no other biblical details about this so it is impossible to know anything more about this. It may have been a dispute over the disposition of the body after Moses died in the wilderness. Or perhaps it was a dispute over what would happen to his body in the resurrection. We have no way of knowing. The details are unimportant in understanding the point Jude is making.

There is an old Jewish myth written in an apocryphal book called The Assumption of Moses. But the manuscripts from which we get this book are in bad shape. The story itself is incomplete. We do not know if this was written before or after Jude wrote this passage.

Clearly what Jude wrote is true because all Scripture is inspired by God, and is therefore kept free from errors of fact, doctrine, and interpretation. The source of Jude’s information is irrelevant. The part of the myth about the dispute over Moses’ body is affirmed as true because God caused it to be included here. All the other parts of the myth in that apocryphal book may be entirely false. We can only know what is true from God’s word, not from legends and other ancient documents.

Jude’s point is to show how Michael dealt with the Devil in this dispute. He did not dare to pronounce against Satan a reviling accusation. This means there was no rash or unrestrained condemning of Satan. Even Michael, the chief of the angels, recognized there were things beyond him. He did not dare to launch out in damnations or curses based upon his own authority, even when it was against Satan himself, one so clearly in the wrong. That was the prerogative of God alone.

All he dared to say was, “The Lord rebuke you.” This care in dealing with evil and with things beyond us is an important lesson. We live in an age where comics make a career of ridiculing those in authority. Jokes about our leaders are common and tempting. They may truly be humorous, even accurate, but they often cross an important line.

Sadly many even teach little children choruses and little songs demeaning Satan. They teach them to do what Jude cautions us against, what even Michael would not do.

The answer we should rightfully give is more powerful than our jokes or ridicule. God will judge all men and rebuke their rebellion in his good time. Our duty is to declare what is right and good according to God’s word, and to admonish those around us to respect God’s truth and ways.

Next Jude applies this principle to the infiltrators in the church.

Jude 10, “But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.”

They revile the things they do not understand. These evil men were acting in foolish ignorance. They acted like animals without understanding, being led only by what they felt inside. Their sin-infected judgment was leading them and their followers toward certain destruction.

Jude pronounced woe on them and cited three examples of rebellion.

Jude 11, “Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.”

The first example is Cain. This first born human failed to bring the kind of offering God required. Instead of a blood offering representing the Savior’s future work, he brought fruit. He became jealous of God’s blessings toward his obedient brother Able, and killed him. His way was similar to those who defy God in every era. He was motivated by self-importance, greed, and jealousy rather than by a love for God’s ways. God cursed Cain for the rest of his life. He was exiled for his crime, and founded a city where his descendants continued his corruption.

The next example is Balaam. He was a very influential man from Moab who was asked and bribed by Balak, King of Moab, to curse Israel as they came near his borders. Though Balaam was tempted, the Lord told him not to pronounce the curse. He rightly said that if God blesses, no man could impose a curse. However, though in one sense he professed to recognize Jehovah as the invincible God over all things, he came up with a plan to cause God to turn his blessing of Israel into a curse. He instructed the Midianites in a method of enticing the Israelites to sin against their God (Revelation 2:14).

Moses commented on this plan in Numbers 31:16, “Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.”

These infiltrators of the church ask for the same fate that fell upon Balaam. They look for personal gain as they try to sabotage the church from within. They value riches and power above obeying God. They lead others into sin as did the advice of Balaam to Israel’s enemies.

Balaam was killed in battle fighting along with Balak, King of the Midianites, in their battle against Israel. There is nothing but destruction ahead for those who dare to defy God and harm his people.

Finally, Jude spoke of the fate of those who perished in the rebellion of Korah. There came a time in the wilderness when men defied the new regulations God gave. Korah, along with Dathan and Abiram, led 250 men in rebellion against Moses and Aaron. They refused to honor the priests and the limits God had placed upon worship. They wanted to continue the old ways and traditions instead. They came with incense to offer to God in defiance of the revealed law. They rejected the authority God had given to Moses and the Levites (Numbers 16).

There is a parallel here with the infiltrators in the church. They dishonored those God had set up to be responsible for leading the church.

The judgment of God upon Korah and his followers was graphic. Numbers 16:31-35, “Now it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart under them, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods. So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly. Then all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, ‘Lest the earth swallow us up also!’ And a fire came out from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense.”

These are the kinds of woe these infiltrators should expect. Perhaps not physical and supernatural judgments in this life as in these examples. But certainly they will face the wrath of that same God in the final Day of Judgment.

This is the danger Jude is warning about.

There are things beyond our knowledge. We may not understand fully why God orders things as he does. But it is our duty to honor and obey what God has made known. Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

Those who dare to go their own way and seek innovations to replace God’s revealed principles, will face the wrath of the One they defy. Those who disregard God’s honor, word, and established order are fairly warned here. But, there is also an assurance to God’s faithful. Those who trouble God’s covenant people are doomed and will not prevail.

(Bible quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

Back to the Index of Studies in Jude

Shock and Awe

Lessons in the Book of Jude

by Bob Burridge ©2013, 2016
“… exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith
which was once for all delivered to the saints.”
(watch the video)

Lesson 2: Shock and Awe Jude 5-7

Most of the world became aware of the expression “Shock and Awe” during the early stages of the war in Iraq. It was the kind of colorful phrase the media loved and repeated until it was worn out.

Most people imagined that it meant there would be a huge display of power for the TV cameras. Some almost seemed disappointed that there wasn’t a cataclysmic series of apocalyptic explosions that ended the war immediately. No one in the media seemed to know what was coming. It even befuddled the retired military people who became experts for a moment as network analysts.

The truth is, the strategy was published back in 1996 by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade. The title of their book was “Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance“. I’ve read it, and it’s fascinating military theory.

What we saw in Iraq was almost a perfect execution of the strategy of Ullman and Wade. The early concerns and criticisms of the media pundits and the alleged experts made one thing very clear, they had not read the book. The details in almost every phase of the operation, from the weeks leading up to it, the early hours of the war, and all the way to the fall of the Sadaam Regime, were taken right out of the book.

There is even one whole section in chapter 2 about the theory of regime decapitation. It’s a form of Shock and Awe based upon an old Chinese military theory by the warrior-philosopher Sun Tzu.

The introduction summarizes the basic theory in this paragraph, “The aim of Rapid Dominance is to affect the will, perception, and understanding of the adversary to fit or respond to our strategic policy ends through imposing a regime of Shock and Awe. Clearly, the traditional military aim of destroying, defeating, or neutralizing the adversary’s military capability is a fundamental and necessary component of Rapid Dominance. Our intent, however, is to field a range of capabilities to induce sufficient Shock and Awe to render the adversary impotent. This means that physical and psychological effects must be obtained”

With the Republican Guard at first making confused and futile attempts to resist they were soon fleeing and surrendering. The whole attack phase ended in record time with very few civilian casualties or collateral damage. The result: those few who were causing all the trouble were rendered impotent and ineffective. They had no choice but to give up and accept the inevitability of their downfall.

Those terror stricken defenders of that evil regime were stunned into defeat. But that was nothing compared with the awesome power of God when he pours out his judgments.

Jude began his epistle with a warning. In every era dangerous people have entered in among God’s people without being recognized for what they are. It is truly an infiltration, a covert operation.

Jude then offered several reminders about what God had already made known. We need to be told again and again about things we know well. Not just because we forget the eternal truths God has made known to us, but to keep them at the surface of our thoughts and awareness.

Jude cites some examples from Scripture to illustrate what God does to the wicked.

First he reminded them of what happened to Israel
after her liberation from Egypt.

Jude 5, “But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

There was a particular pattern in the way this example is reported. God first saved a whole people. After that he destroyed some of them.

The first part, the Exodus, reminded them of the amazing events that set Israel free. In a sense, God’s method of liberating Israel is a form of Shock and Awe. When negotiations between Moses and Pharaoh broke down, a series of awesome judgments began. The overwhelming impact of the very selective and extensive death of the first born, broke the will of Pharaoh to resist any further. So he let God’s people go. But he relented after he thought the threat had passed and pursued Israel to the Red Sea.

It was then that the last judgment of the Exodus took place. Imagine the shock and awe experienced by that proud Egyptian army, as they chased Israel through that dried path across the red sea, when they saw the waters crashing in toward them with no hope of escape.

You would think that all of Israel safe on the other side would have never defied God after that. But it’s not that simple. The fallen human soul does not always do what is most rational. Though all saw the wrath of God poured out on Egypt in the 10 plagues and at the Red Sea, not all continued to honor the Lord who led them out.

The second part of Jude’s example reminds them about those in Israel who did not believe. There were several times when rebellion broke out and judgment came. There were 3,000 stricken dead when they made the Golden Calf at Mt. Sinai. However, the rejection of God’s promise of the Land of Canaan is probably what Jude had in mind here. It was not a sudden destruction. It was a sudden realization of a long in-commutable sentence.

Some did not believe the report of the Spies sent in to scope out the land. Joshua, Caleb and the younger generation trusted that God would give them victory as they reclaimed the promised land. God promised to bless those who believed. They would re-enter the territory he had given to them. But the whole generation of those who did not believe in God’s power and promise died in the wilderness after a 40 year delay. It was a very selective judgment. It was not over in dramatic moments, but the announcement of that judgment itself must have shocked and awed them all.

God knows who are his, even though some stealthily infiltrate among his people. Those who were Jews by race and ritual only defied the orders of the one who Created them. Only those among them who didn’t believe, the infiltrators, were destroyed. This is the way judgment will fall upon apostate church members when God’s judgments fall and the false members are revealed. Hebrews 4:1-2, “Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.”

Sobering words for all who are infiltrators of the church today!

Next, Jude told about God’s dealing with the rebellious angels.

Jude 6, “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;”

This is a different kind of example. Angels were not delivered as a group as Israel had been. They at first enjoyed the presence of God without any need for a deliverance. But there were infiltrators even among the Angels. This was eternally known to God of course. But it became evident at some time who they were. Eventually, we don’t know when, they abandoned the boundaries God had set for them. It is very hard to know exactly what Jude was referring to in this isolated reference. The details are evidently unimportant to the point Jude was making.

2 Peter 2:4 clarifies by saying, “God did not spare angels who sinned”. So whatever it was, these spirit beings in some sense violated what is morally right in God’s eyes. Putting these two texts together, and eliminating guess work and fanciful theories, we see that there were some among these Angels who rebelled against the boundaries God had set for them. They did not keep their proper domain, their God-assigned area of duty and responsibility. Instead of serving in the station or place where God put them, they aspired to something God had not given to them, something forbidden to them. God’s word does not tell us the details about the rebellion of the angels.

There is a Jewish myth from the fictional Book of Enoch. But it has no credibility. Yet it’s still repeated by many who should know better today. It said that in the time before the flood, angels came to earth and co-habited with human women and had children by them. These children were half-human, half-devils, monsters of a different nature than men. This theory is based upon a narrow interpretation of Genesis 6:4 The King James reads, “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”

There are serious problems with this strange interpretation:
1. Angels have no bodies except the appearances of bodies God gave them at times. They sometimes appeared as humans to communicate God’s message to us. Their nature is pure spirit except in these special God assigned missions.

2. The information we have indicates that angels neither get married nor have offspring. For example: Jesus said in Matthew 22:30 (and also in Mark 12:25) that humans, in the resurrection neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

3. The terms “giants in the earth” and “mighty men of old, men of renown” does not mean they were monsters or super-humans of great size and physical power. It is a term that means they were influential and had become powerful in the land. The NASB keeps the Hebrew word to avoid that misinterpretation. It translates Genesis 6:4, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” Some rebellious sons of God’s covenant people took the daugters of these evil tyrants as their wives, and their children were raised in a power structure that came to have great civil authority.

Satanic religions have often promoted the idea of an incarnation of Satan or of his spirit followers to live among us and attack the church with false teachings. There is no biblical support for that.

The point Jude and Peter are making is that these angels did not get away with their rebellion. The result is their certain and impending doom. They are kept in eternal bonds under darkness until the great day of Judgment.

2 Peter 2:4 continues to tell us how God deals with these angels. He “… cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;”

In that great judgment day, at the return of Christ, God’s wrath and justice will be poured out on them. That judgment has already been pronounced, and will come with awesome shock. The judgment will be devastating, horrible, and eternal.

Finally Jude reminds them
of the classic destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jude 7, “as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

We all know the story about God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them. The five cities in that ancient region were called the Pentopolis. They were Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Zoar (Deuteronomy 29:23, Hosea 11:8). Only Zoar was spared from God’s judgment. (Genesis 19:21-25)

The sin in this case was sexual immorality, primarily homosexuality. Instead of finding sexual satisfaction in marriage with a person of the opposite sex, the inhabitants of this region went after “strange flesh”, forbidden sexual relationships. Unlike the attitude of today’s world where sexual orientation is considered a civil liberty, God’s word presents this as a gross immorality.

More detail is given in 2 Peter 2:6-11,”and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) — then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.”

The same basic principle lies at the root of all sin. Rebellion against God’s moral principles is pure evil. But the issue Jude is dealing with isn’t so much the similarity of sin in these three examples. It is the certainty of Judgment. Those who had infiltrated the church in the time of Jude faced inescapable horrors.

Sodom and Gomorrah give one of the most graphic illustrations of the nature of Judgment. It was often administered that way in Scripture. Notice these other warnings:

Deuteronomy 29:23, “The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and His wrath.”

Isaiah 1:9, “Unless the LORD of hosts Had left to us a very small remnant, We would have become like Sodom, We would have been made like Gomorrah.”

Jeremiah 49:17-18, ” ‘Edom also shall be an astonishment; Everyone who goes by it will be astonished And will hiss at all its plagues. As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah And their neighbors,’ says the LORD, ‘No one shall remain there, Nor shall a son of man dwell in it.’ ”

Romans 9:29, “And as Isaiah said before: ‘Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah.’ ”

God’s judgment is certain, inescapable, and devastating.

These three examples of God’s judgment are only a hint at the eternal fire the ungodly will face. Even after the sudden pouring out of God’s wrath in the Great Day of Judgment, those not sincerely resting in the hope that is ours in Christ alone will endure unrelenting terrors with no hope of deliverance.

2 Peter 3 gives us a glimpse at a day which is yet to come in verses 10-13, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

This will be a time of unprecedented Shock and Awe. The most bold and arrogant will be humbled by a power they have refused to acknowledge. But in that final cascade of judgment, all will be forced to admit God’s Sovereign Glory. Before him, every knee shall bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is in fact, Lord. This does not mean they will repent and honor God. They will admit truths they will eternally hate. They will have to admit that to which they will never submit. It will be too late to escape for those who have remained in their rebellion, for those who had infiltrated the church to move it away from God’s standards.

It will be a humbling reminder of what we who are redeemed deserve but will not suffer. It will be a day of praise and humble thanksgiving beyond our comprehension.

Be assured, the enemies of Christ’s kingdom will not prevail. Their seeming victory is an illusion. Their claims and beliefs are based upon misinformation. They are given over to believe the lie. Christ’s church will continue victoriously, even though false ideas and deceivers try to run her into ruin. They cannot succeed. They will not get away with it.

(Bible quotations are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

Back to the Index of Studies in Jude

Distinctives of Presbyterianism

Distinctives of Presbyterianism

by Bob Burridge ©1996, 2012

Presbyterians are Fundamentally Distinct in their Beliefs

When people hear that someone is a “Presbyterian” they get various ideas about what that means. Their impressions depend upon their experience with the various denominations that use that name. The beliefs and practices of those calling themselves “Presbyterian” have broadened and changed over the decades and centuries.

In time, the main Presbyterian denominations drifted away from the biblical standards upon which they were founded. They united into larger bodies since they have been willing to incorporate secular and humanistic beliefs into their system, ideas which appeal to the progressive ideas of a large segment of our culture. There have also been those Presbyterian denominations which have held tenaciously to those original foundations which were carefully drawn from the Bible alone.

This is a summary of the distinctives of the Historic Presbyterian Faith. It is not intended to present all the biblical support for each point. To study into the evidences behind this general description it would be wise to study a careful analysis of the Westminster Confession of Faith. In depth lessons are provided in our Syllabus on Reformed Theology which is posted on this website as a free web resource of the Geneven Institute for Reformed Studies.

The Reformation

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted 95 theses (questions for debate) on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. He proposed no new doctrines, but challenged believers to weed out errors that had crept in, and to return to the teachings of the Apostolic church based only upon what is taught in Scripture.

When any idea is added to our beliefs which does not come from God’s word, the interpretation of the rest of Scripture is effected. Luther was disturbed by the corruption and deception that had resulted when teachings contrary to Scripture became accepted by the church. He saw hurting people being taught things that were not true, and which would not bring God’s peace and joy into their lives. This is why he took a bold stand which God used to shake the foundations of a corrupt society.

In 1536 at Geneva, John Calvin extended the principle of Reformation a bit further. Instead of just looking for errors in what we believe and practice, he set out to begin all over again. What could not be clearly learned from the Bible alone was not to be accepted as truth. He wanted everything about our lives to be based upon the principles, promises, and authority of God’s written word alone. Calvin published his findings in his Institutes of the Christian Religion.

The Westminster Assembly

On July 1, 1643 an assembly of godly scholars assembled at the call of the English Parliament at Westminster Abbey to begin the process of subjecting every doctrine of the church to the test of Scripture. The assembly began its actual work on July 12, 1643. It continued its work until it adjourned on February 22, 1649 after five and a half years of careful and prayerful deliberations. The result was the Westminster Confession of Faith and its two catechisms. These documents lay out the basic beliefs and practices of Presbyterians. Hundreds of years later Dr. John Murray called those statements, “the finest creedal formulations of the Christian Faith that the church of Christ has yet produced.”

The Most Important Principle of the Reformation

God’s word is the only reliable authority to teach us what is true, what is our duty, and what are the promises of God.

Since the most basic Reformed belief is that God’s word is preserved for us in the Bible alone, its method of study and the results of its study are unique. We call the Theology this method produces “Reformed” because it always seeks to be reshaping its beliefs and practices around the one perfect standard, the Bible.

Since God chose human language to communicate his truth to us, we must study the Bible’s words and grammar carefully. Reformed scholars place great importance upon learning the original biblical languages and the history behind each biblical book so that their teachings will be solidly grounded in what God has made known.

The Bible makes it possible to learn with confidence what God has said. Unclear passages need to be understood by cautiously comparing them with other passages where God has spoken more directly on each topic.

There is an important warning for us to remember: We need to be careful not to allow ideas to be introduced into our thinking and world-view which do not come from the Scriptures, but are from our own feelings, assumptions, or imaginations.

This is how we as Reformed Christians approach what God says about himself, about us, about salvation, about what belongs in worship, about how our church operates and is governed. This is what makes us fundamentally different.

One of the consequences of this approach is a very different view of our human nature. There is nothing in all of Scripture to support the idea that we on our own can do anything morally good or honoring to God. Adam represented us all in Eden by the covenant appointment of the Creator. When he sinned all who would be born from him by natural generation bore his guilt, were separated from fellowship with God, and were wholly inclined to live for their own glory and comfort rather than for the glory of the one who made them.

There is nothing humans are able to do in that fallen estate that would remove their guilt, change their nature, or restore them to fellowship with the God they offend by their motives and misdirected interests. Paul quotes from the Psalms as he summarized this uncomfortable but undeniable fact in Romans 3:10-12, “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Today’s Reformed and Presbyterian churches are heirs of that principle.

The work of reformation is a continuing one. We must always be on guard against introducing ideas and practices which are not biblical. Though appealing to our fallen nature and appearing to be helpful in reaching our materialistic goals, unbiblical teachings lead us away from God’s ways, into dangerous and forbidden territories.

The church of Christ must always guard, love, and obey what God has spoken in the Bible. The on-going work of reformation is not one of coming up with innovations. It is the constant vigilance of comparing what we believe and do with the form God has given us in Scripture.

The Sovereignty of God

God is presented in his word as one who is really Sovereign over all of creation. Nothing controls or limits him. He is not changed by the actions, desires, or rebellion of his creatures.

Psalm 115:3 “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”

Our Sovereign Lord even uses the rebellion of his creatures to accomplish his purposes. This does not excuse sin. Wickedness flows from the corrupted hearts of created individuals. God is not in us producing evil. Yet he has determined to employ even the hatred of fallen hearts to display and to accomplish his eternal plan. Peter explained this to the people at Pentecost when he said of Jesus …

Acts 2:23, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. “

In that statement Peter reminds us that the death of Jesus was planned from the beginning as the way of redeeming God’s people. At the same time the hands that performed that wicked act are held morally responsible for what they willingly did.

The fundamental principles of the Reformed faith demand that we should not invent ideas to explain human responsibility beyond what God has revealed in his word. For example, to imply that the Sovereign election of only some to life is unfair, is to assume a principle that comes from our own fallen understanding of the world not from any text of the Bible.

God is Sovereign over all things, our salvation too. It is his grace, not our own choice, that determines who will be saved from judgment by the work of Christ. Both our choice and faith in Christ are evidences of the transforming work of God’s grace in us. They are not the cause of grace. That would contradict what the Bible tells us about human moral inability and about God’s unchangeableness and kingship over everything.

The teaching of Scripture is clear.

2 Timothy 1:9 (it is God), “who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began”

Speaking of those who receive Jesus Christ John 1:13 says, “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

God’s Sovereignty is also seen in the success of what Jesus came to do in his death for sin. If he came intending to save all fallen humans, then he failed. But if he came to save only those given to him by the Father (John 6:37,44; 17:9), then he fully succeeded and accomplished the eternal plan of an unchanging God.

The Reformed principle of using the Bible alone roots out the humanistic idea that claims power for individuals to force God to shape or to change his plans according to what they desire. Grace must remain grace. If our work, choice, or decision determines our salvation, then grace is no longer grace. It becomes an artifact of human merit. That is absolutely incompatible with what the Scriptures teach.

The Biblical Concept of the Church

Our study of Scripture leads us to speak of the church in two different but not completely distinct senses. Together they help us understand the covenant community God founded by grace. The members of that community are to represent Christ’s kingship to those around them.

There is a sense in which the church is Invisible. Only God knows who are the true Christians. The Westminster Confession (25.1) says, the invisible church “consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the head thereof… .”

The New Testament also speaks of a Visible church. The Westminster Confession (25.2) says, the visible church “consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God …”

Those redeemed by God’s grace know they need to be accountable to one another as well as to their Eternal Lord. They know that God requires them to follow the organizational structure he established for them. They should become active members in a local congregation, part of the Visible Church.

In the early years after the death of the Savior, local churches were established in each community. They did not assume they could know who was truly regenerated by grace. The invisible church remains invisible to us. The church that is visible to us is made up of those who profess to trust in Jesus Christ as their Redeemer and Lord, and who submit to Baptism as a sign and seal of God’s work upon their hearts.

The covenant community includes the children of believers. While those converted to Christianity must show evidence of saving faith to receive Baptism, their children are to be baptized as well, just as the children of believing Israelites received the sign and seal of the Covenant prior to the resurrection of Christ. Adults however were always required to profess a credible faith before receiving the sign of the Covenant in both eras. Just as the Old Testament provided for believer’s circumcision of those converted to Judaism, the New Testament provides for believer’s baptism when the lost turn to the Savior from a prior life of unbelief. No where in the New Testament does it say that from that time on children of Christians were no longer to be considered a part of the Covenant community, or that they had to wait to come as pagans later in life by profession of faith. Such a change would have raised great concern and confusion for parents who grew up under God’s promises to their children before the coming of the Savior, yet such a reversal and exclusion does not appear in any of the Scriptures written after the coming of our Savior.

Baptism does not save anyone, nor does it mean that everyone baptized is truly saved. Israel was God’s covenant people in the past, but among those who were called by that name were many who proved to be only superficially Israelites. The same is true today of both adults and children in the church. Some of those who are part of the church on earth are truly forgiven by grace. Some are only outwardly identified with the followers of Christ. They are not so in the eyes of God.

If it becomes evident that a member does not submit to the teachings and grace revealed to us in Scripture, that person should be counseled to turn to the Savior in faith with a credible repentance. If they will not come to Christ in this way, they should be removed from the roll of the church both to show the rebellious their need for the Savior, and to preserve the integrity of the church before the watching world. Those removed are not to be shunned or shamed. The goal is to see them restored by a true turning to Christ.

It is there in the local congregations that we make our faith and our Savior’s lordship most visible. We join together as a Christian community to worship, to learn, to encourage godliness in one another, and to carry out the all that Christ commissions his church to do.

As a church we provide opportunities for service in the name of Christ. It is our duty to encourage one another in helpful fellowship. Hebrews 10:24 says, “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” 1 Corinthians 12 details the need for all to work together sharing and respecting one another’s gifts in our personal ministries for Christ.

We should gather for worship in the way prescribed in Scripture. Out of love for God we want to keep his Sabbath holy and keep our worship centered upon God and his glory. Regular Sunday worship was the common practice of the church from its beginning. Hebrews 10:25, “not neglecting to meet together …”, Acts 20:7,”On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, …”

The church is also there to manage the stewardship of believers over the things God has given them. 1 Corinthians 16:2 “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.”

Charities, missions, and special needs agencies regularly ask for contributions. Many of them might appear sound and worthy of support. It’s hard for an individual believer to investigate to make sure the claims are true, and that it would be promoting things that are really good and true. No one can support every good cause. To help us make these choices, the church should offer sound direction.

First, we ought to support the Lord’s work in the local church. Then by our offerings beyond that we should generously give to Christ-honoring ministries approved and recommended by the officers of the church. This is the method God gives us in Scripture for financing worship, and providing for the legitimate needs of the church family, the community, and the world at large.

Another responsibility of the church is to guard the Sacraments. They are to watch over how they are administered, and who is admitted to them. All who partake of the Lord’s Supper must have truly repented and come to Christ as their Redeemer. They must also rightly understand what the Sacrament represents and the purpose for which the church gathers for that Sacrament (1 Corinthians 11:27-34).

The officers, qualified and ordained according to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, are the only ones with God given authority to admit someone to, or to bar them from the Sacraments. Jesus made this clear in Matthew 16 and 18. It is not to be a personal decision. It is the “Lord’s Table,” not ours to govern by our own rules and practices. It is necessary to keep disobedient and unbelieving members from the Sacraments if they refuse to repent in true sorrow for their sins, and to turn to Christ for forgiveness and deliverance. Likewise, it is the officer’s responsibility to add believers to, and to remove members from the role of the church.

Together and individually we are told to provide a witness to the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is our duty to confess him before others (Romans 10:9-10). It is through our words and example that the message of God’s grace in Christ is spread to the world. As members of a local church family we can do so much more to make a public testimony to the Lordship of Christ than we can as individuals. Together we can display the love, support, and care our Lord provides in his church.

The church is to provide leadership by biblically ordained officers. The Bible has a great deal to say about how a church ought to be organized and managed. It is within this structure of the local church that order is preserved.

Hebrews 13:17, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

1 Thessalonians 5:12-13, “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. “

Without some kind of defined membership, the local church would be without the leadership described in these verses, and no one could obey these commandments of our Lord.

Membership in a local congregation is a serious matter. To live outside the bounds of a local church is to abandon New Testament Christianity by replacing God’s way with our own ways.

Biblically, there are only two offices in the church.

Elders are to teach and rule in Christ’s church.
From the earliest days when God’s people first began to worship as a community of families they were to be led by Elders. All through the periods of Judges, Kings, Priests, and Prophets the local communities had a council of Elders to teach and govern them.

The New Testament church did not change this. The church is set up to provide care for God’s flock. When Paul met with the Elders in the region of Ephesus he charged them with the duty of being shepherds to the people in their churches. Acts 20:28-31 indicates that the Elders must be on guard for themselves and for their flock. The Holy Spirit made them overseers by God’s authority. As shepherds of the flock of God they are to watch over those purchased by the work of the Savior. They are to be on the alert for deceivers.

The biblical letters of Timothy, Titus and Peter explain the details of the Elder’s job.

Deacons are to administer the material needs of the church.
Due to the increasing work load, seven men were chosen to care for the administration of the material needs of the people of the church in Acts 6:1-6. The Apostles had to be freed to devote themselves to the Elders’ work of prayer and teaching. These Deacons were to carry out the daily administrations which were previously the work of the Priests. With the end of the Levitical Priesthood which was completed at the Cross, these daily acts of mercy had fallen upon the overworked Elders. The Diaconate was instituted by God to implement this care under ordained officers who were themselves directed and overseen by the Elders.

All ordained officers must confess the true biblical faith.
When officers are ordained they are obligated to understand and to adhere sincerely to the views adopted by the church ordaining them. For example, the Presbyterian Church in America’s Book of Church Order (23.5.2) follows historic Presbyterian and Reformed policy requiring that all officers “sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith and the Catechisms of this church, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.” If they find themselves at odds with anything in those standards it is their duty before God to inform the court in which they have membership (the local Session or the Presbytery).

A Presbyterian church is not Episcopal.
An Episcopal church is ruled by Bishops. They are a class of ordained officers above the Elders of the local church. The word “Bishop” in the 1611 King James translation of the Bible represents the Greek word “episkopos” (επισκοπος) which means “overseer.” Where the word is used in the Bible, it clearly does not describe a different office. In the context it is describing one of the duties of the Elders. They are to oversee the spiritual needs and instruction of the church. The Episcopal type churches include the Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and the Roman churches which add to that its Cardinals and Pope. The Episcopal churches that follow the Reformed understanding of Scripture see their Bishops as another class of Elders rather than as a separate office.

A Presbyterian church is not Congregational.
A congregational church is ruled by its members. They vote as a congregation to regulate all matters of the church’s business. Though they may vote to delegate some decisions to officers, the congregation remains responsible as a whole body, and therefore they rule the church as a socialist democracy. Most Baptist and Independent congregations follow some form of Congregational church government. There are some Baptist and Independent churches which follow the Reformed teachings respecting the rule of Elders.

A congregational church draws a sharp distinction between the Elders of the New Testament church, and how the same term was used regarding the Elders God had previously established over his people in the ages before the death of Christ. To them this is a dispensational change, though it is not documented in the Bible.

Most congregational churches see no true connectivity between churches. They do not generally recognize God’s authority represented in the officers of another church of like faith.

The New Testament never represents a congregation voting to determine the course of its business. The presumption that a church is ruled to serve the desires of the governed is a secular political theory which is contrary to the biblical order. Biblically, only the qualified, ordained Elders are to rule the church so that it serves the desires of God toward his people as revealed in his word. The proper focus is always Creator-centered in contrast with being creature-centered (Romans 1:25).

The Work and Duties of the Congregation

The members of the congregation ought to recognize God’s calling upon its officers. It is the duty of the members to compare the gifts of individuals with those explained in Scripture so that they can prayerfully concur in recognizing God’s call upon their Elders (both Pastors and Ruling Elders) and Deacons.

Modern law also grants the congregation as a corporation control over its own property. As they vote to buy or sell property as a corporation under the laws of an individual state, the congregation must remember that the laws of man cannot give the members authority that God has already given to the officers of his church. Therefore in all the business legally assigned to it by the state, the congregation must heed the spiritual instruction and advice of its duly ordained and installed leaders.

All the members of the congregation are to strive to find ways to lend their individual skills, interests, knowledge and energies to the service of Christ’s Kingdom. They should work to minister to one another’s needs, to encourage one another, to help the church in her various ministries. Ultimately their service is a testimony to Christ as the true head of the church. He calls his people to serve him under the rule of his written word administered by the officers called by him.

Communicant members of a church ought to publicly and before the officers solemnly vow and covenant to support the church in its worship and work to the best of their ability, and to submit themselves to the government and discipline of the church, and promise to study its purity and peace.

The “Higher Courts” of the Church.

Acts 15 tells us about a Council that was held at Jerusalem. The Elders including the Apostles gathered to deal with broad problems that faced the church at that time. The leaders took the advice of that council to the churches so that the disputes could be set aside.

In our era, Presbyterian denominations bring their Elders together to settle disputes or differences in understanding God’s word. We call such councils “higher courts” not because they have greater authority than the same Elders have when they serve in their local churches, but because they represent more Elders from more churches. Jointly they share their biblical knowledge and wisdom to come to decisions based upon a broader base than a single church has at its disposal. Since the same authority is held by the Elders of all united churches, we must heed the warnings and advice of such courts when they gather to warn and advise us as our God-appointed teachers and shepherds.

Presbyterians speak of three basic levels of church courts.
The Session or Consistory is the sitting together of the Elders of a local church to carry out its business and to oversee its members and ministries. The Session consists of both Ruling Elders and Teaching Elders.

The Teaching Elders are those who have a seminary level education in the teachings of the Bible. They have been called to a specific ministry to which they have been ordained after examination by the Presbytery. The Teaching Elders may serve as Pastors. Together, with equal authority, the Teaching and Ruling Elders have immediate responsibility for all the members under their care. They hear any cases of complaint or discipline of members before issues can be taken to a higher court (Matthew 18:17-20).

Sessions may admonish, suspend from the Sacraments, suspend from office, or remove members permanently from the Sacraments and from office. Members can respectfully appeal the Session’s decisions to Presbytery, then to the General Assembly if they are dissatisfied with the judgments rendered by the lower courts.

Since the responsibility of the work of the church falls upon its officers, it is usually wise when practical to have an Elder serving as an ex-officio member of every committee or agency both to advise the people and to effect communication with the Session. Committees may recommend actions to the Session, or carry out duties specifically assigned to them. They do not have biblical authority to adopt policies and programs on their own.

The Presbytery is the gathering of the Ruling and Teaching Elders in a given region as a more broad assembly to oversee the work of its churches. Teaching Elders are examined and ordained by the other Teaching Elders of their Presbytery and therefore are members of Presbytery, not of the church in which they minister. When cases are brought against Ministers, they should be brought to the Presbytery. Cases of discipline that have been decided by Sessions may be appealed for review to the Presbytery if the parties or other members of the church believe that an improper or unbiblical decision was made.

The General Assembly is the broadest assembly of Ruling and Teaching Elders. All member churches meet to conduct the business Christ has entrusted to their care. The Assembly can hear appeals of judgments made by Presbyteries if there is a question concerning their decisions. The members of all higher courts have the same authority they have as officers in their own local churches, no more, no less. Since the courts are assemblies of duly examined, ordained and installed Elders, all members are obligated to show them respect and submission when the Assembly agrees on particular issues brought before it.

The higher courts may not change or install new officers in a local church. They may remove a congregation from its role if it does not submit to the authority Christ has entrusted to the officers. This is the highest censure a higher court can, after due process, impose upon a lower court. The higher courts may not usurp the authority of lower courts, nor may they take over in areas of local authority without either direct consent, or the process of a proper trial.

As Presbyterians we believe that Hebrews 13:17 demands that the advice and rulings of Elders must be respected and honored as long as they are made within the bounds of Christ’s authority over his church. We also recognize our responsibility to care for our sister churches to the best of our ability when they need our help and encouragement.

Back to the Basic Principle

The basic Reformed Principle is that Scripture alone is our foundation in all matters of faith and practice. When that principle is applied to each area of our lives, unique principles and beliefs will emerge. There are many distinctives of Presbyterianism. This study has summarized a few of the more outstanding differences that exist between the churches of the Reformed heritage, and others which build upon a different foundation. If God’s word is alone our standard it will effect how we manage our marriages and raise our children. It will effect how we expect our communities to be governed. It will effect how we view schooling, our occupations, and the way we manage our money and property. Life is complex. We of the Reformed Faith pray that God will direct us and enable us as his people to keep bringing all things into conformity with his word. Our hope is that in all things Christ might be glorified.

(Bible quotations are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.)

The Holy Spirit In the Ministry of the Word

The Holy Spirit in the Ministry of the Word
“Studies about the Holy Spirit” Study #2
by Bob Burridge ©2022

Part 1 “The Power of the Word of God”

Truth is Eternal. It’s the way things are eternally in the mind of the Creator. There it exists without change. What we believe is only really true to the degree that it corresponds with the way things are in God’s mind.

In Psalm 139 we’re told that God knows everything about us. He knows our sitting down and our rising up, our paths and all our ways. There isn’t a word we speak that the Lord didn’t know it before it was even spoken. The psalm writer ends that section of the Psalm in verse six with the humble exclamation, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”

There is Revealed Truth. Truth as it is in the mind of God would remain unknown if God hadn’t purposed to reveal it to us. The expression or manifestation of God’s truth is often called his “word”. God’s eternal truth is revealed to us in several ways.

1. There is General Revelation: God has made himself known in ways that make the truth available generally. It’s declared God’s truth to all people everywhere without exception. His power and glory are clearly displayed in the works of creation and providence. Psalm 19:1-4, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. …” Romans 1:20, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

God’s moral standards are also revealed generally to all in our conscience. Romans 2:14-15, ” … They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them” Even in our lost condition we know that some things are wrong, but we suppress the truth revealed there.

This mode of revelation is not redemptive. It displays what’s true leaving us with no excuse for our failure to worship and obey God as we should. These general modes of revelation are not sufficient to break through to our fallen hearts of stone.

2. There is also Special Revelation: This is God’s direct revelation of truth to us humans. It tells us what God really is and what he expects from us as his creatures. It explains the problem of sin, and God’s plan of redemption.

God’s truth has been specially revealed in many forms. He’s spoken in visions, by miracles, through prophets and judges, even by the mouth of Balaam’s donkey! It was displayed in the work and teachings of Jesus, the second person of the Trinity,

The former immediate ways of God specially making himself known are now ceased. The now completed Bible is our only present source of revealed truth. It came into being by the work of inspiration, a special work of the Holy Spirit. God moved men to write the books of Scripture keeping them from any errors of fact, doctrine, and interpretation. (2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:19-21, 1 Corinthians 14:37).

The infinite truths in the infinite mind of God are given in the finite form of human language. It’s not compromised or changed, but it’s limited to what we finite creatures are able to understand.

The power and efficacy of the word are well attested in the testimony of God’s word concerning itself. Psalm 19:7, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;” 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.” (See also: Psalm 119:11, 38, 107, Romans 1:16, 1 Corinthians 1:21, Hebrews 4:12, 2 Peter 1:19)

There is also a Distortion of Truth. The revealed truth of God successfully declares his glory, power, and godhead, but there’s something wrong. Psalm 14:1. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ” 1 Corinthians 2:14. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” God’s revealed truth renders the distortion or rejection of it inexcusable (Romans 1:20, 10:18).

Part 2 “The Essentially Attendant Power
of the Holy Spirit”

We fallen creatures suffer from moral inability. Fallen man can’t accept God’s truth by his own examination of nature, providence, conscience, or the Bible. The human fallen nature is morally unable to come submissively to the truth about God or of the gospel. We ask along with the disciples, “Then who can be saved?” Our Lord’s reply cuts sharply to the facts, “With men it is impossible” (Mark 10:26-27). But — there is a true hope for the lost!

There is also God’s Work of Grace. The awesome message of grace is sovereignly set forth in the form of a covenant promise from God.

All three persons of the Trinity work to provide the only salvation that’s possible. The Father, according to his own good pleasure, chose some from the fallen race to be redeemed by God the Son. The Son took the place of these chosen ones bearing their sin and satisfying the demands of holy justice. He represented them as he suffered, died, and is now exalted. The efficacious work of the Holy Spirit explained it all as he oversaw the writing of the Scriptures. The work of the Son is applied by the Holy Spirit to each of those the Father chose. He gives them understanding. He moves them to a true faith, repentance, and a desire to grow in pleasing God in their lives.

There is an Ordinary Administration of God’s Word by the Spirit: Ordinarily the word is administered and empowered by the Spirit through means God ordained and commands.
1. We are called to hear what God has said by reading, studying, and learning what the Bible says. The redeemed should meditate in God’s word day and night (Psalm 1:2).
2. We’re to prayerfully come to God asking for him to help us understand his word, and do what it says. Prayer begins at the beginning of each day and continues on from there. (Psalm 5:3)
3. We’re to encourage one another as a family of believers under the oversight of the church God set up. We’re told to encourage and exhort one another in our devotion to God. (Hebrews 10:25)
4. We’re to humbly worship God daily and as we gather on Sundays remembering the work of our Savior. The worship God should be done as he directs us in his word. (Psalm 96:9, 99:9)

All these means are incorporated in our Sabbath Day gatherings for worship as a church. We hear God’s word, pray together, encourage one another, partake of the Sacraments (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper), and we raise up our thoughts and voices in praise of the Triune God.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 commands that covenant homes be places where the word of God is ever present in conversation, study, thought, and behavior. God’s word is to be taught diligently to the children and must always be before us.

The Holy Spirit enables us to the proper and spiritual use of these means of grace.

There’s also God’s Extraordinary Administration of the Word by the Spirit: At times God has moved most extraordinarily where the word and Spirit have turned around nations and churches.

The Bible records the great revival in the time of Josiah. There was a great coming to Christ when the Holy Spirit moved upon thousands on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.

There have been movings of the Spirit throughout the history of the church as Christ’s kingdom grew dramatically. The Protestant Reformation “re-formed” (re-shaped) our understanding of God’s word by comparing what was being taught with what God’s word really taught (Acts 17:11). There were the great revivals of Ulster, Stewarton, Lanarkshire, and Glasgow of the early 1600’s. In the following century there were special outpourings of grace in Northampton and North America.

There is of course a danger. Some try to duplicate the effects of a true revival by just seeing its outward and emotional outpourings. Deluded leaders and preachers stir the emotions, but fail to soundly proclaim God’s truth. They believe that getting great numbers of followers confirms their shallow message. These leaders may become famous and rich in money, leaving their followers with false beliefs. A humble attitude of seeking the real converting work of the Holy Spirit by God’s word may be missing. They fail to see the ordinary workings of God which sustains and grows his true church.

Some have reacted improperly to the true revivals failing to see it as the work of the Holy Spirit. They turn to scholarly messages to turn people around, not based on God’s word and Spirit. They turn to human philosophy and social issues to transform society.

Part 3 “Dangers of an Unbalanced View”

There are four basic views about the relationship of God’s word and Spirit in the administration of God’s grace.

1. Some fail to recognize the power of both the Word and the Spirit. Natural man in his fallen condition rejects the supernatural as the Bible presents it. He may reject the supernatural altogether, or create his own ideas of it. He ends up in theological liberalism, secular humanism, or some form of pagan mysticism.

This position must, by its own testimony, stand outside of the true church.

2. Some emphasize the Power of the Word without the necessary work of the Spirit. Some refuse to confess the extent of human depravity into which all have fallen.They might imagine the Spirit working in a preparatory manner simply encouraging a person to submit to word, but they believe that each must decide on his own to accept the gospel message.

Given the biblical view of our spiritually dead and depraved condition, no amount of moral persuasion from the word alone without the attendant ministry of the Holy Spirit could turn a person from sin to true repentance and a biblical faith in the revealed truths of God.

Romans 3:11, “no one understands; no one seeks for God. ”
1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
2 Corinthians 3:15-16, “Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.”

The lost might believe certain doctrines to be true, and even believe they worship the true God. They might “worship” in outward forms and do what they believe are “good works”, but there is no true inner conviction of the only real way of salvation in Christ alone, by grace alone.

Without the Spirit’s workings the good seed of the word falls upon stony ground where it is can’t take root. Such people, as with Satan and his demons, may even be rationally convinced of certain doctrines, yet remain unconvicted and unredeemed.

3. Some emphasize the Power of the Spirit without the necessary use of God’s Word. There’s a great danger when people seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but undermine having a careful understanding of God’s revealed word.

When God’s word isn’t used as the authoritative test of truth, we can’t know with certainty the truth about the nature and workings of Holy Spirit. We can’t distinguish his operations from the spirit of error and deception. We can’t know that what we “feel led” to do isn’t from our own deceitful hearts. (Jeremiah 17:9)

Some quote the words of Scripture out of their context to justify what they feel is right. They believe that God still gives them special revelation by speaking to them in visions and voices beyond the Bible. They shift their concept of authority to their feelings and experiences which they attribute subjectively to the workings of God the Holy Spirit. These hunger for truth but fail to partake of a full and well-balanced understanding of God’s written word.

4. We need to recognize the full interdependence of both the Word and the Spirit. There must be a full interdependence of the efficacy of the word and Spirit. The word is the objective means which confirms what the Spirit leads us to believe and do. The word is understood properly and made effectual only by the supernatural work of the Spirit. John 16:13 “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth”

Part 4 “There’s Hope in the Power
of the Word and Spirit”

As we read, study, and share God’s word it’s comforting to know that we don’t just depend upon our own skills. While it’s important to learn good study methods and skills in communicating with others, it’s important to remember that the effectiveness of the word is the work of the Holy Spirit.

1. The Bible must be carefully studied. It’s the powerful revealed word of God. We need to pay attention to the meaning of each word, and how they fit together in the sentences and paragraphs. We need to see how it fits in with the whole context of the section we’re studying. It’s important to see where it fits in with what God had already revealed or not yet revealed when it was written. We also need to consider other parts of the Bible where the same things are discussed.

Paul admonished Timothy saying, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

2. Learning and sharing God’s word is ineffective without the powerful attendant work of the Holy Spirit. We should pray as we study the Bible asking God to guide us in understanding what we read, or hear in Sermons, Sunday School lessons, and group Bible studies. When we share the gospel with those we believe need to hear it, we should do it prayerfully. What brings people to Christ isn’t our skilled presentation. it’s the attendant work of the Holy Spirit.

This interrelationship of God’s powerful word and the work of the Holy Spirit is vitally important.

Note: Bible quotations are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.

Brief Bibliography
I would like to credit the following sources which I have found specially helpful in the preparation of this paper. While many standard theological works and other sources were used, these I have learned to treasure specially regarding this topic:

The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit
by James Buchanan, 1843 Banner of Truth Trust 1984

The Work of the Holy Spirit
by Abraham Kuyper 1900 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1969

A Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit
by John Owen, 1674 Banner of Truth Trust 1972

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit
by C. R. Vaughn, 1894 Banner of Truth Trust 1975

The Poison of Revenge

Lesson 49: Romans 12:17-21

The Poison of Revenge

by Bob Burridge ©2012

Violence has been a part of our world since its earliest recorded moments. It uses whatever technologies are available to do damage and harm. There was a time when swords and well crafted clubs were the best and only weapons of terror. In time arrows, cross-bows, and the powerful long-bows extended the arm of terror and made it possible to penetrate the best protection and defenses available at the time. Not long after that gunpowder made it possible to hurl projectiles like canon balls and bullets hitting targets at greater distances and with more penetrating power. Riffling made the bullets even more accurate. Firearms became more portable, higher powered, and more sophisticated in their ability to hit targets quickly. Explosives have evolved into sophisticated nuclear devices able to be lobbed at enemies by missiles crossing oceans and continents with ease.

It is wrong to blame our present dangers on advances in technology. History records that some of the most devastating and savage acts of terrorism were not caused by bombs or automatic weapons. Entire populations were left maimed and dying in the wake of sweeping attacks by enemy nations in the time when the most sophisticated weapon was the sword.

The poison that gets out of control in terrorists and in unstable people is present in every fallen heart. We see it when aggressive drivers on the highway try to run others off the road, or take shots at them. We see riots where neighbors using rocks and clubs take out vengeance upon one another. We even see fights break out on playgrounds between children at play.

Vengeful attacks are not limited to physical violence. They may be launched in a barrage of hateful words spoken in hatred and revenge. People use cutting remarks or a sarcastic gestures to hurt others by belittling them or insulting them. They lash out to hurt back when they have been hurt. Vengeful attacks cannot be excused on the grounds of self defense. They are moved by a self-deified heart.

Paul explained the root of it all in Romans 5:12 where he said, “through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men.” The result is what Jeremiah described in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?”

Justice is imperfect in our world. Often the wicked appear to be getting away with evil. When victims see justice not carried out as quickly or as severely as they see fit, they may take the law into their own hands, or lash out to get even.

Revenge can be a sophisticated poison, one that is in some ways socially accepted and encouraged. They call it standing up for yourself, getting even, or sweet revenge. But it is not sweet at all. It’s a bitter poison to the human heart. It eats up the soul of those who steal God’s sole prerogative and right. Getting even often gets us a sour spirit. It usurps what is God’s, and shoulders a divine duty which no one can bear.

In Romans 12:17-21 Paul reviews God’s prescription for his children

Christians ought to resist the
temptation of personal vengeance.

Romans 12:17, “Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.”

Evil done toward us should not be paid back with evil of our own. It is the natural tendency of the lost human soul to seek revenge, retaliation, or retribution. That attitude must be replaced by a more proper view of justice and its deserts. Only our faith in the power of the risen Christ can enable us to overcome that urge to get even on our own. Testings of our character when we are wronged often expose the false hearted “Christian”.

We should be careful that our behavior is honorable in the sight of everyone. We should never let vengeance move us to lay aside right principles when we are wronged. There is no good moral law of God that can be set aside just because someone else is wicked. Personal vengeance is an unhealthy attitude, and it brings reproach upon the gospel, upon the name of Christ which we bear.

Believers are bound to do all they can to promote
peace rather than to return evil for evil.

Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”

Jesus said that the peacemakers are the ones God blesses. When we promote peace we also fight against the misery that comes from revenge. The best thing for our own souls is to live as the God who made us prescribes. No one knows better than our Creator about what is good for us.

However, in this sinful world our attempts at peace are not always accepted. We cannot control all situations or how others respond to what we do or say. Our duty is to persevere toward promoting peace.

We also need to remember that peace at any cost is too great a price to pay. We cannot compromise with evil or abandon the demands of justice simply to make things seem to be peaceful. That which is purchased at the expense of duty or godly obedience cannot truly be called “peace.”

Revenge is not ours to take. It belongs to God.

Romans 12:19, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”

People read the expression “give place to wrath” in different ways. Some have taken this to mean we should give room for the wrath of those who are against us, that we should step aside and give it room to rush on by. Though that is certainly correct in one sense, it is not what the words mean here.

The grammar indicates that this is making reference to the wrath of God. To clarify this the NASB translates it as, ” leave room for the wrath of God.” We ought to let wrath occur, as God has instructed us. It should not come by our personal attacks on others, but by just and proper authority. Let those God has put in charge deal with justice, though it may be imperfect for now. Give it time, give it room, and in the end, justice will be done without our violating God’s order.

Paul is quoting from Deuteronomy 32:35 which confirms that interpretation. There it says, “Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; Their foot shall slip in due time; For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things to come hasten upon them.”

The Lord is the only one who has a right to vengeance. He will deliver it justly in his good time.

Here on earth God assigns justice to be carried out only by certain people. Parents are to raise their children in love. When they disobey, their parents must discipline them kindly in ways that will encourage them in godliness. Elders are to shepherd the members of the church. When members are unrepentant, the Elders admonish them, bar them from the sacraments, or in extreme cases remove them from the church. Masters are to provide fairly for their employees. When they are unfaithful workers their employers may withhold pay, or dismiss them from work. Civil judges and governors are to keep the peace in society for their citizens. When crimes are committed they may impose fines, or even execute capitol offenders.

However, even those who hold these offices are not to take vengeance personally. They are to impose the corrections they are authorized to administer as agents of God. To interfere with these authorities is to defy God’s designation of his ministers (Romans 13). When we respect these authorities, and refrain from taking our own vengeance, we promote happiness for ourselves, and for all whose lives we touch.

Instead of personal vengeance,
we are to overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:20-21,”Therefore ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

.

While there are some confusing things about this passage, its meaning is clear. When people do evil against us and behave as enemies, we are to overcome the evil by doing good to them.

To illustrate this Paul uses the most common needs we can provide for them: food and drink. The principle is that we are not to return evil for evil, but should do good when ever we can. This was the law of God from the beginning. Human philosophy and culture perverts this idea as the Pharisees did in the time of Jesus. They said in Matthew 5:43, “You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.” That is found no where in Scripture. It was a horrible corruption of God’s word.

Jesus corrected them and said in the next verse, “But I say to you, love your enemies” Then he expanded on that with references to the law they should have known: he said, “… bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

This fits perfectly with the elements of love we derived from Scripture in our last study. The foundation of love is a heart regenerated by the work of Jesus Christ. In our fallen estate we cannot love as God defines it. Only when new life is given to the lost by grace, can self-centered concerns be replaced by God-centered motives. The actions which are called “love” are the obediences to what God commands us to be and to do. Without God’s revelation, love would have no definition. When we do what God commands toward our neighbors and toward our enemies we are loving them. Jesus is said in John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.” When we love as we should, God blesses us with a feeling of peace and satisfaction because we are being what he created and redeemed us to be. The “feeling of love” is a fruit of love, not its cause.

The confusing part of this passage is when Paul adds that in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Paul was quoting from Proverbs 25:21-22 following the wording of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament commonly used by the Jews at that time). This passage reads, “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, And the LORD will reward you.”

Paul quotes this to explain why we should do good to those who do evil to us. this is our proper motive. But how is heaping coals of fire on an enemy’s head like doing good toward him? This is obvious figurative. It should not be taken as literal. Giving food and drink is not the same act as putting burning coals on a person’s head.

So what did this figure mean to those Hebrews who first read Proverbs 25? It seems to have been a common figure of speech or idiom understood by God’s people representing some judgment of God being poured out upon the wicked. For example we see in Psalm 140:10, “Let burning coals fall upon them; Let them be cast into the fire, Into deep pits, that they rise not up again.”

The idea of Dr. Ridderbos that this meant a neighborly gesture of given them a bucket of coals for their fire which they could carry home on their heads is creative. But he shows no support that this expression ever had that meaning.

So why should we hope that our doing good would bring down God’s judgment upon them? Certainly making them suffer should not be our motive in doing good. We do not leave them to God because he can hurt them more than we could. That goes against the whole context here. However, if our doing good is an evidence of God’s work in our own hearts, then it serves as a testimony to the truth and power of the gospel. Just before Jesus said that we should love our enemies, he also said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

This judgment of conscience (as God describes it in Romans 1 and 2) will show them their own corruption which they do not want to admit. It hurts them and works against what they want to believe, but God will use it to bring his chosen ones to repentance and conviction of sin. In this way some of those who are enemies are transformed into brothers in Christ.

Those not brought to repentance will become all the more angry when we respond kindly to their attacks. It reveals their lost rebellious hearts. It shows them as vessels of God’s wrath designed to reveal his power, justice and holiness (Romans 9:22). To them whose debt to God is not paid for by Christ, one day judgment will come eternally. The weight of their conscience serves as a warning to them of the wrath to come. Dr. Haldane points out that when a person is not overcome by good done to him unworthily, he must be in “the most awful state of hardened wickedness, and their punishment will be dreadful.”

God may at times use the pain to their conscience to cause them to back off. Regardless of how God uses the good we do to those who oppose us, it is the right thing for us to do because God commands it. Our motive in doing good is not to punish our enemies. It is an obedience to our Redeemer. To yield to anger is to be conquered by the enemy.

Vengeance shows weakness and frailty, not strength. The idea of personal vengeance is totally un-Christian. If we are vengeful, desire to get even, and if we inflict pain on those who hurt us (either physically or by our words), we reject this biblical teaching. We should have the attitude of Christ in us.

One of the sad chapters in my own childhood was the time I hurt a friend. As a child I was not a fighter. It was not something I would have been very good at anyway since I was one of the smaller kids in school. But my size made me a good victim when some of the bigger ones wanted to impress somebody. They would come up behind me as I walked home from school and start pushing or saying provoking things to make themselves look tough. Of course I was not so foolish as to give in and start a fight. That’s what they wanted me to do. I tried to turn the issue aside by the way I responded to their prodding. Most times it worked. Now and then I would end up taking a few hits, no serious harm. It was done more for show. They would walk off with their easily impressed friends.

One day I had a disagreement with a friend of mine, a boy whose family had moved to Buffalo from England. His name was John. He and I had the same birthday which we found to be a good start for a friendship. Now I don’t remember what the issue was, but John and I got into an after-school argument one day.

There were others who had gathered around watching us argue. Those more violently minded kids sensed a good opportunity to provoke a fight. That was a favorite after school pastime for some who lacked other things in which to excel. They started pushing us together and adding to our argument. We started to rather tamely poke at one another. Somehow, in the heat of the situation, the confrontation escalated into an all out punching match. Then I noticed that the bullies who had used me as their victim before, were actually urging me on and cheering for me against this new guy who wasn’t quite as well accepted yet. My selfish desire to take advantage of the moment, and to show John who was really right in our disagreement got the best of me. With one well thought out swing I gave it all I had. My little fist flew through the air and hit poor John right in the face below his eye. He bent over and grabbed the bruised spot and started to cry. The gang crowded around me with congratulations. For that moment I felt like a real hero.

The next day in class my already troubled conscience was stirred by my 4th grade teacher, Miss. Turner. I highly respected her and the patience she had with the class. I remember her noticing John’s bruise and asking what happened. There was no way I was going to help her out on this one. But the witnesses who had urged the whole thing on proudly shouted out that I did it. There it was — my moment in glory. The bullies actually attaching my name to victory and justice. But Miss Turner didn’t seem to see it that way. She looked at me with her kind but obviously troubled smile and said, “So I guess that means you won.”

It didn’t sound like she was really asking. Her tone of voice cut deeply. I didn’t feel like a winner at that point. And I knew I hadn’t proven that I was right about anything we had been arguing about either. I had done something I had no right to do. I felt very cowardly and defeated as that moment. I realized that the teacher I had so respected was disappointed in me. She had put her finger directly upon the real issue. There was no victory or justice there at all. Later that day I apologized to John. We continued as good friends until his family moved away again. Since then we have lost touch with one another as so often happens with our childhood friends.

That incident drove home an important lesson for me. When in God’s providence we are treated with cruelty, belittled, or taunted, we should realize that such matters cannot always be avoided. In God’s hidden purposes our suffering always has a very important purpose. Our responsibility is to respond to it in a proper way.

We should try to promote peace. We should do it prayerfully, depending upon God alone, and only in ways prescribed to us in Scripture. Peace with others is never found by abandoning the demands of justice when civil order is violated. Judicial penalties are the exclusive duties of the offices God has designated. Parents should deal with their children when they disobey. Elders oversee the spiritual lives of the members of their congregations. Business managers may terminate or redirect the responsibilities of workers who do not fulfill their responsibilities on the job.

When victims try to take justice into their own hands and execute wrath aside from God-given authority, society descends into chaos rather than peace.

The world glorifies the “tough guy” who stands up for himself and makes those suffer who get in his way. In reality, that person is neither strong nor tough. He is weak and to be pitied for his inability to overcome evil with good, and to leave vengeance to the Lord. His is the way of a child, not of one with maturity and strength.

If in moments of sinful weakness we resort to personal vengeance, we need to confess it to God. We should apologize humbly to those we hurt, and work hard to grow in Christ so that others will see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

By God’s grace, through Christ, may we find the strength to love as God tells us to love.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

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God’s Olive Tree

Lesson 43: Romans 11:11-32

God’s Olive Tree

by Bob Burridge ©2012

I had a good friend when I was growing up. Gary and I did just about everything together. He was the type who always got the highest grades in the class, but was rather quiet. Gary loved the outdoors, and always said he would grow up to be a forest ranger. The last time I saw him was in 1963 when my family moved from Buffalo to live in Florida. I have no idea what became of him.

One of the many things we did together was to learn how to graft tree branches. He got some books from the library about it which he read carefully, then showed me. With some practice, we learned to carefully shape the cut end of a removed branch so it could be inserted into a notch in a tree, take in nourishment, and grow. I suspect there are still some strange trees with branches that are not natural to them scattered throughout the woods in Western New York.

In vineyard cultures grafting is a normal part of producing a good crop. I talked with a young man from Italy who grew up on a vineyard. He said that some trees have a healthy root system and supply nutrients better than others. So the most healthy and productive branches are cut off from the weaker trees and grafted onto the stronger ones. This would have been much more common in the culture of the New Testament than it is in our modern world. When Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, he used grafting as an illustration to bring together some profound spiritual truths.

The point Paul had been making was that a dramatic change had taken place. The old symbolic worship of Ancient Israel had been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. As predicted, the Kingdom of God was expanding beyond just the Jews. Included in this expansion, was a judgment upon Ancient Israel for her apostasy and unbelief.

Paul wanted the Jews to understand that this did not mean that God’s plan had failed. This had been his plan from the beginning. God saves all of those he had eternally foreknown, those with whom he had made his promise. God was still saving Jews. Paul was one of them. However, even among the religious the number actually redeemed and kept by grace is small. The rest of humanity is hardened. They receive what we all justly deserve.

God had a greater purpose in the rejection
of Israel than just her judgment.

Romans 11:11-15, “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”

There was a purpose in the spiritual stumbling of Israel that went beyond her fall and impending judgment. It was to stir up apathetic Israel by seeing God’s grace at work in his bringing the Gentiles into the covenant.

God’s grace toward the Gentiles, was used to provoke Israel in two ways. Some responded with anger and persecution. Their hatred of the message of Jesus and the coming in of the Gentiles demonstrated the lostness of hearts not truly redeemed. Though they had been privileged as a nation, they no longer as a whole believed the promises of God’s covenant.

On the other hand, some Jews were provoked to come repentantly in humble faith trusting in the promise of Christ. These elect Jews showed they were among God’s people, foreknown from eternity past.

God had called Paul to be an apostle to the Gentiles. The judgment of the Jews as a nation gloriously opened the door to the Gentiles. How wonderful that the elect from among the Jews believed in God’s true plan of redemption. It was a testimony to God’s work on their hearts. Judgment is surpassed by the wonder of regenerating grace.

Paul’s ministry was being magnified by this expansion of grace as some Jews were being provoked to believe God’s work of redemption through Jesus Christ.

Paul calls this return of repentant Jews, the “fulness” of Israel. The original word here is plaeroma (πληρωμα). It describes something that had come to its completeness.

Paul had been explaining this since the beginning of chapter 9. Outwardly, Israel had been the physical organization of God’s covenant nation. Scattered among those of the physical Jewish nation were those who made up “spiritual Israel”, God’s elect individuals. He distinguished them from the rest of Israel by using several titles in this section: “the children of promise” — “the remnant” — “the chosen” — “those foreknown.” Israel’s “fulness” is her coming to completeness as these elect Jews are converted to Christ, and those of other nations were brought into the covenant family of God.

To illustrate these ideas, and to bring them together
Paul introduces some examples.

Romans 11:16-24, “For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.’ Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?”

First Paul reviews the covenant idea shown in the law of the first fruit. This was introduced in Numbers 15:18-20, “… When you come into the land to which I bring you, then it will be, when you eat of the bread of the land, that you shall offer up a heave offering to the LORD. You shall offer up a cake of the first of your ground meal as a heave offering; as a heave offering of the threshing floor, so shall you offer it up.”

The first dough made from the grain harvest was made into a single cake offered to the Lord. It represented the whole harvest as being consecrated thankfully to God who made it grow. Paul said, “For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy.” The holiness of the first piece had nothing to do with innocence from sin. Grain does not sin. Holiness here is “covenantal holiness.” It identifies something as being set aside and consecrated as “special.” That is the meaning of the word “holiness”.

This is the holiness God promised to Israel as his Covenant Nation. It did not mean that all Israelites were made innocent of sin by God’s choosing the Jews. It meant they were set aside as the Lord’s. They were consecrated for a special purpose. They were to show God’s glory to the world. When they sinned, God’s justice was demonstrated. When they were forgiven and protected unworthily, God’s mercy was shown. Within that special nation there were also God’s chosen children, the elect. When they were redeemed it showed God’s election of Grace.

The same is true of the church as God’s covenant people today. The church was established by Jesus and the Apostles as an organization under Elders. Not all belonging to it are true spiritual children of God. Yet the church as a whole is given advantages and duties to perform as God’s chosen people. That is why it is so serious when those in the church live with disregard for the Lord. They specially offend Christ because they bear his name falsely to the world.

Next, Paul gave the illustration of the Olive Tree: It shows the process God uses in perfecting his church. This section has been the subject of many careless interpretations. It effects our view of Israel, the church, the end times, salvation, and many other issues. Many become confused in this section because they fail to see that Paul speaks of two olive trees, and four distinct kinds of branches.

1. There is the good root stock, the healthy root (16), the rich root (17). The healthy tree represents the Outward Covenant Nation of God. They were counted as holy, consecrated by the promise of God’s covenant. They grew up within the advantages of the influence of God’s word and blessing. However, this was not a holiness of moral or judicial innocence. They were not all automatically saved from condemnation for their sins. It was a holiness of duty. They were set aside specially to represent God to the world.

2. The other is the wild olive tree (17), the poor root stock. They are the Gentiles, born and growing up outside the covenant influence. They are not holy because it grew from a root which was wild, not set aside by God’s choice. They had no outward covenantal advantages. The Gentile Roman Christians Paul was writing to were from this tree. They were not natural branches of the Holy Root of God’s people. Their repentance, belief and obedience could only been produced by one thing: God’s grace.

The two different olive trees in this example each had natural branches. From the Good Root came the Jews at that time, the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. From the Wild Root came the Gentiles, born outside the covenant in paganism

There was a hidden quality not seen in the natural branches. Some branches growing on the Good Tree of Israel were of God’s elect, the rest were not. Even growing on the Wild Tree of the Gentiles, some were God’s elect, the rest were not.

God was cultivating the Holy Root-stock. Two processes were at work to make the good olive tree produce the best crop. These show the two processes God uses to perfect his Church for his greatest glory.

First is the process of God’s judgment. The unbelieving Israelites were being cut off. By rejecting and killing the Messiah, many of the Jews showed that their faith was not real. They were outwardly God’s holy nation, but inwardly remained spiritually dead. John explained this in his First Epistle 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.” The unbelieving Israelites were being purged, pruned away as defective branches.

Second is the process of evangelism. Believing Gentiles were being grafted in. Though they were born of the wild tree, some of them were God’s eternally chosen children. When they believed they were grafted into the good olive tree. They became part of God’s covenant people.

These two processes continue today as God cultivates his church. The wild olive tree is the pagan world outside the professing church, just as it was with the nation of Israel back then. The good olive tree of course is no longer limited to Israel. Today it is the church of Jesus Christ. Its natural branches are those born into covenant families. The grafted in branches are those outside the church who join by professing the gospel. By evangelism God is grafting in pagans as they come to believe. By his judgments he is removing false branches from his church.

There is also a warning here for all individuals as branches in the church today. When members show that they are false believers God may remove them.

Some of the natural branches born and raised in the church may not truly be Christ’s. Also, some false Christians are among those grafted in from paganism. They join a church for wrong, selfish reasons. They come thinking that joining the blessed tree would redeem them from sin. They come looking for a way to find peace by self-effort or by the minister’s efforts. Or they come to get social or material benefits from the church. Their fraudulent christianity is exposed by their unwillingness to submit to the ways and true teachings of Christ.

The process of removal is carried out practically in one of two ways.

Some defect on their own by leaving the true church. Israel as a nation became apostate and rejected the Messiah. They walked away from the message God had delivered to them. They established congregations based upon false teachings. Israel as a nation had become what the Bible called a “synagogue of Satan”. The liberal churches today have confused what Messiah is and came to do. Some individuals hear things in church they don’t like, so they leave to find a church that adjusts its message to what is more comfortable to them. They abandon what the Bible teaches to find a place where they hear what they prefer over God’s truth.

Some must be removed from the church by the Elders through church discipline. In Matthew 18:17 Jesus summarized the process explained throughout Scripture. Those who continue in disobedience to Christ, and who will not submit to the church, are to be removed from membership and barred from the Lord’s Table. This is one of the major duties God in the New Testament entrusts to the local church Elders. They do not judge a person’s salvation or their hearts. However, based upon their lives, testimony, and actions, these are removed
to defend the purity of the church.

By this process of evangelism and judgment God gathers his people, and perfects his church. New branches are grafted in by faith, and unfaithful branches are cut off. At the return of Christ, the completed Church will be presented to the Father.

Paul then adds a serious warning against arrogance. If God has cut off even the natural branches of the tree for their unbelief, those who are grafted in from paganism should understand that if they are not truly his, they too will be removed.

There was also a promise to the Jews. This is that special blessing Paul enjoyed in his Apostleship. Those from the rejected tribes of Israel who come to Christ in humble repentance and faith will be grafted into the church, back into the good olive tree.

This was the point Paul started with back at the start of chapter 9. The true promised seed of Israel is never abandoned by God. It is those who say they are his, but are not, who are in grave danger of judgment. God will cut them off from his church, and will abandon them to eternal torment. By seeing this process of evangelizing pagans, and cutting off the falsely religious, it becomes all the more clear that salvation is by grace alone, unearned, undeserved.

This manifests the severity and goodness of God (11:22). His severity is shown in his judgment, by removing the unbelieving branches. His goodness is shown in his redemption and restoration of the repentantly faithful.

So the hardening of Israel in Paul’s time
was partial, not total.

Romans 11:25-32, “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.’ Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”

Paul was explaining a mystery, a truth God was just then revealing more fully. A hardening was happening to part of Israel. As we saw in our last study, this “hardening” was the spiritual dulling of the heart and mind. God was giving some of the Jews over to their own hatred and perversions.

This would continue “until of the fulness of the Gentiles (the non-Jewish nations) has come in”. During the first century, the Jews were the greatest antagonists to the gospel. It was the apostates among the Jews who stirred up the Romans to hate the Christians by slandering them. As more of the Gentiles came into the church, the olive tree became less “Jewish”. This fulness of the Gentiles marked the end of physical Israel as God’s people. God even used pagan Rome in 70 AD to crush Jerusalem, to destroy the temple the Priests had defiled, and to mark the final end to the special privilege of the physical seed of Abraham.

It is by this process that all Israel will be saved. The words describe the process by which God’s true Israel will be saved. It is not a prediction of some yet future event. Those who see here a future promise for the abandoned and apostate nation of Abraham, are missing Paul’s point about what constitutes the truly good olive tree.

It is not just Physical Israel. It is the outward Covenant Family of God. In the time between Abraham and Jesus, the tree was the nation of the Jews. In the time after Jesus, the tree is the Apostolic church, God’s Spiritual Israel (see Romans 9:6). As the elect from all nations are evangelized and brought in, the tree grows toward fulness. As the apostate and unbelieving are removed, the tree improves in purity. It is in this way that all of God’s true Israel will be saved. The New Testament Church does not replace Israel. The church is Israel in her completed form.

Paul quotes from Isaiah 59:20-21 which promises that “The Deliverer will come to Zion,” and that God will, by his covenant, “take away their sins.” Clearly this is not national Israel, for no such promise was made to all Jews. God’s promise was to redeem the elect of Israel, then to add to them the elect from every nation, and to remove the ungodly in his judgment. This is the process shown in the illustration of the Olive Tree.

God had not yet finished with his people. As explained in chapter 9, God’s promise to Abraham was not to save all his children, but only those who were of the promise, those of his son Isaac (Romans 9:7). And of the seed of Isaac, God chose Jacob and hated Esau (Romans 9:13). So God’s promise to the fathers continues. The apostate children of Israel were never more than outwardly consecrated to God. At the time Paul wrote this letter to the Romans, God was using his grace toward the Gentiles to provoke the elect among the Jews to believe. When they see such grace that redeems even the pagan, these will understand that salvation is not a reward of merit, descent, or of human choice It is a special act of the Holy Spirit alone based upon the merit of Jesus Christ. They will all be redeemed who are God’s true Israel, the children of the spiritual promise. Therefore, even the disobedience God permits, will become a dramatic lesson of mercy.

Each person who has submitted to church membership under the care of shepherding Elders, is one of the branches of the good olive tree which is God’s covenant nation on earth.

What kind of branch are you? Some of those in the church are natural branches. They were born into covenant families, raised to know God’s truth, his promises, the principles he commands by which we are to live, and the gospel that alone makes us able to believe and obey. Some were grafted in by professing faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior from sin and its offensiveness to God. Those grafted in were once ignorant of the truth until mercy set them free. However, regardless of how someone becomes a part of the good olive tree of God, they become branches of it.

Each should ask himself, “Am I a blessed branch? truly humbled by grace? bearing fruit for God’s glory in my life? Or am I a fruitless branch? self-proud? drawing from the tree’s sap ungratefully? enjoying outward benefits but not truly transformed by the work of grace?

This is a serious warning. Consider your attitude about God’s grace and your love for him. Are you hardened, dull, and uncaring about the mercy that God shows to you? Is the fruit of your life selfish and empty of humble service for God? Many false christians deceive themselves and elude the discipline of the church Elders.

When our Lord returns for his church, any dead branches which remain will be identified and removed. He will present up to the Father a church purified and complete. When the final unfit branches are trimmed away at the coming of Jesus Christ will you be preserved or cut off? God’s church will be perfected. Make certain you are among its branches, bearing fruit by Christ’s power in you, and moved by your gratitude for the Savior’s grace.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

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Only a Remnant Foreknown

Lesson 41: Romans 11:1-6

Only a Remnant Foreknown

by Bob Burridge ©2012

Luther was grieved when he considered the condition of Christ’s church in his day. By the early 16th century the church had invented the office of Pope. Whoever held that office was declared to be infallible in his official pronouncements, and was venerated with the honor due to Jesus Christ alone.

The church had come to believe that saved souls spent time in a place they called purgatory. A person could buy certificates called indulgences promising to excuse them from their sins on the basis of good deeds done by the saints. The bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper were believed to be transformed physically by the mass to become the literal flesh and blood of Jesus Christ.

Critics were few, and those who spoke out were ridiculed or disciplined by a powerful church. Some were even accused of high crimes and executed painfully.

Bibles were rare and only available in languages that the scholars could read. The masses of people, some of whom dearly loved God and trusted in his provision, were deceived and led into superstitious, pagan, and fanciful beliefs by a corrupt church, one very much like corrupted Israel in the time of the New Testament.

The state of the church had deteriorated horribly. This pattern is seen repeatedly in the history of those who consider themselves to be God’s people. By the time of Noah, the world had mostly turned away from the heritage of Adam, Able, and Seth. By the time of Abraham, paganism had again gripped God’s world. In the time of Jesus and the Apostles, those who claimed to be God’s nation crucified the Savior and persecuted his people.

Sadly, we see the same pattern in our era at the beginning of the Third Millennium after Christ. Those who claim to be God’s people are dominated by a popular corruption of the truth. People see all the denominations, cults, and religions that call themselves “Christian”, and become confused.

In Paul’s words to the Romans in chapter 11 we learn that it’s all part of a plan that is working toward a glorious end. We will see this more clearly as we come to the end of the chapter.

The particular issue that moved Paul to write this chapter was the corruption of God’s chosen nation of Israel, their rejection of the promised Messiah, and the dawning of a new era, the age when God’s church would see the fullness of the gospel message.

To learn what we can do about this problem in our own era, we need to go back to Paul’s answer to the Romans. The ancient prophets had warned Israel about her neglect of God’s law. The moral law condemned them before God, but they limited it to just certain superficial things, and violated the spirit of the law. They had come to believe that they were able to be morally pure by their personal efforts and by the rituals performed by the Priests.

The sacrificial laws as God gave them pointed forward to the coming of the Christ as the suffering Savior, but the teachers of Israel turned the sacrifices into empty rituals, and imagined that the promised Messiah would be a Jewish champion who would give them earthly power over the Gentiles. Therefore, God was going to bring the punishments of his covenant upon them. The Jews would no longer be his special nation, and the Gentiles were to become to predominant population of his true church on earth.

The Messiah (the Hebrew word for Christ) was not what most of the Jews expected. When he came they were not able to recognize him, so they rejected Jesus, and had him Crucified.

This tragic rejection of the promised Redeemer was their final condemnation. When the gospel call came to the Jews, they persecuted the messengers. Having had the word of the ancient prophets, and the special warnings sent through the Apostles and by the Christ himself, they were without excuse for their disobedience.

Paul wanted to clear up an important point.

God had not rejected his true people. He started with a question (a favorite method of Paul).

Romans 11:1a, “I say then, has God cast away His people? …”

His answer was quick and emphatic:

Romans 11:1b, “… Certainly not! …”

The original words he wrote are, may genoito (μη γενοιτο), “let it not be”. It was the ancient Greek way of saying, “No way! Such a thing should not even be considered!” God had not rejected his people.

He gave two lines of argument to support this.

First he pointed out the obvious …

Romans 11:1c, “… For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.”

Paul himself was one of them. He was a Jew by physical heritage, a descendant of Abraham, particularly of the honored tribe of Benjamin. He was obviously not teaching that God was rejecting all Israelites. Not only Paul, but all the Apostles, and most of the early church were Jews.

Next, he reminded them about God’s own promise in Scripture.

Romans 11:2a, “God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. …”

This had been a common promise in the Hebrew Bible. For example, Psalm 94:14 said, “For the LORD will not cast off His people, Nor will He forsake His inheritance.”

The confidence they had was in God foreknowing them. This was an expression that had to do with the Covenant the Lord made. To “foreknow” in Scripture is not just knowing things before hand. The Greek word used in the original passage written by Paul is a form of the verb proginosko (προγινωσκω). Literally it simply means “to know beforehand”. But what kind of knowing is this?

Some have suggested that it means, that God formed his plans by looking ahead to see what we might decide. That cannot be the meaning of the word as it is used here regarding the basis of God’s promise to his people. First, that interpretation does not fit with the way it is used in the sentence. It does not say “because of what God foreknew, but “whom foreknew.”

The God of Scripture is not presented as a changeable deity who looks into the future to see what individuals would do if he didn’t do anything, then decide to decree to do what they would have done anyway.

We need to see how the expression “to know” is actually used in the Bible, before we can know what it means to “know beforehand.”

“Knowing” can have several meanings in any language. One kind of knowing is the factual kind. You might know things like what you did yesterday, what is the square root of 9, what is the capitol of New York State, or the names of the U.S. Presidents. Another kind of knowing is more personal. This is where we “know” someone because we have met them personally and gotten to be friends. There is still another kind of “knowing” that is much more intimate. This is when we uniquely know someone in a very special way. It is when we come to love them like a family member. I may have known a teacher I had in school, but I did not know him in the same way that I know my own children.

An example might help illustrate this distinction. When I went to seminary I read the works of the great theologian Cornelius VanTil. I knew of him factually because I knew things about him and had read some of his books. When a friend of mine was visiting me in Philadelphia we got the idea of calling Dr. VanTil on the phone. To our surprise he invited us over for the first of what came to be several visits at his home. In time we got to know him more personally. VanTil knew many students and friends that way. While we were there we were served lemonade and snacks by the professor’s wife. We got to know him as a friend, but Dr. VanTil knew his wife much more intimately.

The Bible uses the word “to know” in each of these ways. We determine which meaning the word has in each use by the context.

God factually knows everyone and everything. So his foreknowing in Romans 11:2 could not mean just a factual knowing. Factually, God knows everything and everybody eternally, his eternal enemies too. It would have no special meaning for his own people compared with others as it says here. We also know that the facts about us cannot be the reason he made us his people, because Paul reminds us in verse six that it is not by works, but by grace that we were chosen to be his own in that special way.

Therefore, in this context, it must mean that God knows some specially in a way that he does not know others. He knows Israel and his church personally by the outward and formal covenant he made with them as a nation. However, within Israel and the church he knows his elect children intimately. He sent the Savior to redeem them and to make them heirs of the riches of his glory forever.

Jesus used this word in this very special sense too. He said to the superficial believers in Matthew 7:23, “… then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ ”

Jesus was quoting the ancient prophet Amos who was telling Israel what God was saying to them. Amos 3:2, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” The word translated “known” is actually the Hebrew word yada’ (ידע), the common word for “to know”. Amos was saying that God “knew” his people specially. That was why he treated them differently. As his own children, he was not going to let them continue in their destructive sins. By his covenant promise he was going to discipline them in love. God knows his own people with a personal and intimate kind of knowing.

Jesus was saying that of those who come to him and claim to be his on the last judgment day there will be some he does not know. He could not mean that he was ignorant that they existed, or unaware of what they had done. It could only mean that these were among those he did not know intimately as his own. They were not among those “foreknown” by God as stated here in Romans 11.

For God to foreknow his people, is to know them beforehand with that special kind of knowing. He entered into a special covenant relationship with them from before the foundation of the earth. This is the meaning of Ephesians 1:4-5, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”

Paul had used the same expression back in chapter 8:29-30, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”

Again, his predestining, calling, justifying and glorifying of them was not based upon what he foreknew about them, but upon whom he foreknew. It was those whom he would justify in Christ and one day glorify. He had known them specially before hand, from all eternity.

To teach us about his election of some to save them from among all those of the fallen race, God chose Israel as a nation. He made a covenant with her, and called her to be a testimony to the world. Though they had a special place in God’s plan, not all of them were redeemed. The same would be true of his Church in this post-apostolic age. Many belong to the church, but not all are truly transformed by the atonement of the Savior.

When the time came to judge Israel as a nation, it was not a failure of God’s plan. It was the execution of his already revealed plan. The warnings of the Covenant were about to fall upon those who showed themselves not to be among the redeemed. Their rebellion clearly demonstrated man’s depravity. God showed his grace by adopting some of the undeserving ones to be his own special children.

He also showed his love by not letting his loved children linger in sin. That was the point Amos was making. A Father does not punish the children down the street, they are not his to punish. He loves his own so much that he will not let them develop habits that are harmful and wrong. This is why God often brings hard times upon his people. It is because of his deep concern for them. He reminds them of how they need to depend upon his care, and that his care never fails. He reminds them of the awesome love that sent the Savior to suffer and to die in their place.

Then Paul reminded them of the example of Elijah.

Romans 11:2b-4, “… Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, ‘LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life’? But what does the divine response say to him? ‘I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ “

Paul’s example came from 1 Kings 19. Most all the nation of Israel had gone off after the worship of Baal. Even the king bowed to this pagan idol. At the call of God, Elijah stood against the masses and the powers that ruled the nation. As God’s spokesman, he challenged and defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. Then he pronounced the end of a long God-imposed drought over the land. However, when the wicked queen Jezebel issued a threat against Elijah’s life, he became depressed, went off alone, and prepared to die. He thought he had been left as the only faithful one remaining.

Paul refers to what Elijah said in 1 Kings 19:10. He said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

Elijah had become so focused upon himself, that he missed how he fit into a much larger picture. He needed to be reminded of God’s electing grace. It is God who preserves his people. It is not they who preserve God or their place in God’s heart. The Lord announced that more judgments were coming, but through it all 7,000 will be preserved who would not have bowed to Baal (1 Kings 19:18).

God had chosen a remnant for himself from among all the unfaithful. Paul makes it emphatic in Romans 11:4 where God says, “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men.” It was not the faithful 7,000 who kept themselves true. It was God who by his covenant promises preserved them as his dear children. The remnant who remained true in the face of a prospering but compromising majority had been firmly held by the loving hands of their Heavenly Father.

The remnant principle is important for
believers to understand in every age.

Romans 11:5-6, “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.”

The remnant principle applies all through redemptive history. Though the majority of those who seemed to be God’s church were deceived, God preserved some by grace alone to show his special redeeming love. It was true in every era. We think of the times of Noah, Moses, the Judges, the Kings of Israel, the prophets, Jesus and the Apostles, the times of Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and it’s true today.

God brings judgments, sometimes upon the masses, but he is not pleased to let his own perish. He will keep them specially by grace. That is what Peter wrote of in his 2nd Epistle. 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

Peter had used several examples leading up to this statement. The angles who had rebelled perished in judgment. Though the world was destroyed, Noah and his family were preserved by grace. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, but Lot and his family were saved by grace.

Peter set the theme in the first chapter of this letter. In 2 Peter 1:10 he wrote, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble.”

Those specially called and known of God will be kept by him and will not stumble. Therefore strive to show evidences in your life that you are among those who are redeemed.

Paul concludes with the reason for it all, grace. The remnant is kept by that one thing alone. It is God’s choice alone. It is not based upon the works of individuals, or those of a church.

Do you sometimes wonder why there are so few today who look to the Bible as God’s holy and infallible word? Why is it only a minority that sees his word as our only rule in matters of faith and life? Why are so many unwilling for God to be truly and completely Sovereign as he presents himself in Scripture? Why do only some see man’s great hope not in his esteem of himself, but in his esteem of his Savior’s love. Why are they not willing to forsake the ways of the world though God condemns such things? Why do they not come to worship honoring God rather than to be entertained, pampered, or humored?

If our works of the past, present, or future are in any way the cause of our blessing, then grace is no more grace as verse 6 tells us. When grace is abandoned, all these principles of Scripture come tumbling down.

God has preserved a remnant according to the election of grace.

Don’t let the numbers, or the media, or the appealing programs of a vacant religion discourage you or make you lose heart. As Israel was not all lost by its corruption in the days of Paul, the church is not all lost by its corruption today.

There is always a remnant kept by the eternal and intimate love of God. They are not identified by what the world counts as success, or by what the masses approve. They are known by their faithfulness to what God himself declares as centrally important.

Attitude controlling drugs may make you feel good for the moment, but they kill you slowly and only cover up what is really important in your life. The vain and popular forms of religion, even of so called Christianity, do the same thing for our souls. They numb their victims to the really important things, while they jubilantly dance their way toward destruction, the destruction of society and ultimately of their own souls.

But God is faithful. We ought not fear that God has lost control, or that his plan is off track. Though we may feel alone at times, as did Noah, Elijah, and many others, we must persevere in our trust in the promises and principles of God’s word. We must persevere in the duties and work he calls us to do. We must rest in grace alone, not in substitutes. That alone is what saves us now and prepares us for eternal glory.

Our hope is in the fact that God has foreknown his people eternally. Therefore they are eternally his in an intimate and special love that cannot fail.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

Back to the Index of Studies In Paul’s Letter to the Romans

Misdirected Zeal

Lesson 38: Romans 10:1-11

Misdirected Zeal

by Bob Burridge ©2011

People often take their religion very seriously. And why shouldn’t they? It’s a matter of eternity, and of their whole purpose in life.

People sometimes get excited about football games. They shout, jump around, paint their faces, or wear rubber cheese wedges on their heads. So we certainly should expect that some would have great zeal about issues of the soul.

A football game lasts just a short time and its over. Even a winning season is only for one year. But our eternal relationship with God is neither seasonal nor renegotiated now and then. A sports fan might feel a sense of deep loyalty to a school, or city, or to the team itself. How much more should be our fervent loyalty to our Creator! Some type of religious zeal is expected in all redeemed humans.

Of course not every football fan paints his face, wears strange hats, or waves a giant foam finger that says “We are number one”. People show their zeal in different ways according to their personalities. Religious zeal is that way too. Not all believers will express themselves in the same way, or be able to engage in the same types of service to our Redeemer. But in every true believer there is a zeal for Christ implanted into his heart by grace.

Not all religious zeal is good. James speaks of true Christianity as the “pure and undefiled religion” (James 1:27) This obviously stands in contrast with what Paul denounces as “self-imposed religion” (Colossians 2:23). Zeal for false religion both dishonors God and hurts those drawn along by irresponsible leaders.

In chapter 10 Paul continues the ideas he had just explained in Romans 9. The Jews had confused the outward form of God’s covenant with the reality it represented. Israel was chosen as God’s special covenant people to represent his election of some to salvation. However, they had come to think of themselves as better than the rest of the world. They looked down upon the Gentiles as less worthy. Some of them were behind the killing of the Messiah because he did not bring a message that specially exalted them as they expected.

God had not chosen the Israelites because of their special worth to begin with. He chose them who were unworthy so that he could demonstrate his attributes of undeserved mercy and grace. The Jews mistook God’s grace as if it was an earned reward. They imagined that their own efforts in keeping God’s law actually saved them. They thought that keeping the law sufficiently was still possible for fallen humans. She also thought that Israel was specially privileged eternally. Neither of these beliefs are consistent with what is revealed in Scripture.

Paul again makes his deep
concern for Israel very clear.

Romans 10:1, Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

Paul was concerned about the Jews who were the outward representatives of God’s covenant. Theirs was a very special and important relationship. Tragically, their rebellion was confusing what God was demonstrating by choosing them. Paul warned them about the divine judgment from which they needed to be saved. He did not cater to their “felt needs” to win them over. He did not use focus groups to find out what they wanted to hear.
He boldly told them the dramatic truth about what God was about to do.
First, the Jews would no longer be outwardly blessed above all other nations. Second, God was about to redeem Gentiles into his church as equals in the Covenant Kingdom. By this it would be shown that effort and birthright are not the causes of redemption. It was a hard lesson, but a needed one.

Paul commended their zeal.

Romans 10:2, For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

Though zeal can be a good thing, it doesn’t excuse the error their zeal was promoting. He already had made it clear that they needed to be saved. Zeal for the wrong things, no matter how sincere, is not a virtue. The value of zeal is in its object, not in its words, or actions. If God’s truth and glory are our goals, then our zeal in promoting those things is wonderful. But if the goal is something that obscures God’s truth or misdirects his glory then it is evil.

Many of the Jews at that time lived zealously by strict rules and rabbinic traditions. They fervently defended their religious heritage. They sometimes even gave their lives for the cause. But they were zealous for things contrary to what God had revealed as true and good.

Some tried to become righteous by
a way God said could never succeed.

Romans 10:3, For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

Their zealous belief that effort could remove their guilt was a terrible error. We are righteous when we are innocent with respect to all that God’s holiness demands. As far back as those early days in Eden God made it clear that fallen man needed to have his righteousness provided by God. The same was proven throughout history to Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and to Paul himself. Israel was missing that important point. She was seeking to establish her own righteousness by works, deeds, efforts, and an arrogant sense of privilege. This error produced human pride and bigotry. It redirected toward mere creatures, the glory due only to their Creator. In their blind self importance, they rejected and killed the Messiah himself. This was the final just cause that ended Israel’s place as the special Covenant People of God. It was time for what they prefigured to take place in the unfolding of history.

Jesus Christ is the center of the whole issue.

Romans 10:4, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

But how is it that Christ is the “end of the law”? Did Jesus annul the law which God had given for all the ages past? Did he cancel the moral principles summarized in the 10 Commandments? Did he mean that now sin is not defined by God’s law anymore? Absolutely not!

Such an interpretation is contrary to the actual wording of this verse, and is absolutely impossible. Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”

The word for “to fulfill” is plaerisai (πληρωσαι). It means to bring something to its full measure. Jesus brought the law to the fullness of what it was meant to be all along. He did not abolish it by fulfilling it (as some say to excuse us from the law). Jesus was making a contrast — instead of abolishing or destroying, he was fulfilling.

Here in Romans 10:4 the word translated “end” is telos (τελος). It means the end product of something, the goal to which something aims.

Jesus brought the law to its fullness by his life and death. He lived to keep the law in our place so that we can be counted as righteous in him. He died to satisfy the demands of the law in our place. He redeems individuals to enable them understand his moral principles, to love the attitudes and actions that please their Creator, and to humbly strive by Christ’s power to keep his moral principles to the greatest extent possible.

He did not do away with what the law says is moral and good. The moral law shows what God defines as good. Certainly that eternal standard never changes. It is what marks out those redeemed as having been made holy. We are called to “be holy even as the Lord our God is Holy”.

The ceremonial laws of Old Israel showed that our sin deserves death. Certainly that is still true. The symbolic sacrifices of the Old Testament ceremonies foreshadowed Christ’s death. Once the final sacrifice for his people was completed on the Cross, the symbolic sacrifices would be out of place. However, what was required by divine justice remained. The sinner must die (Romans 6:23), or a perfect Redeemer must die in his place. The only way this justice could be satisfied is by a redeemer who was also the infinite God, the one who was offended. It must be a righteousness provided by God.

So, how then is Jesus the end of the law? Peter uses the same word to describe what Jesus did regarding our faith. 1 Peter 1:9, “… receiving the end of your faith — the salvation of your souls.”

The word “end” is sometime translated here as “outcome”. It is the same word translated as “end” in Romans 10:4 [telos (τελος)] with regard to the law. Certainly Jesus did not abolish faith, destroy it, or put an end to it. He brought faith to its complete goal in our lives, just as he did with the law. He provides our ability to do what faith leads up to, to reach its goal, to produce its fruit. In the same way, what Christ provides in us is that toward which the law aims us.

On the cross Jesus said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) There Jesus used the same word again, telos (τελος). The verb form used there is tetelestai (τετελεσται) which carries the force of something “brought to its end, completed.” He accomplished, consummated, perfected the work he came to do. He did not annul or destroy all he had done. He brought it to its full end.

Jesus came to satisfy the demands of the law for his people, and to enable them to begin to live in a way that truly pleases God within the bounds of his moral principles revealed in the law. His children are only able to live those transformed lives by the Savior’s power at work in them.

That is why it says that Christ is the end of the law “for righteousness.” By the completed work of Jesus we are declared innocent of what God’s holiness forbids. The law shows us how much we need a Savior. It drives us to him in humble repentance. As Paul wrote in Galatians 3:24, “Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

The law never had the power to remove guilt, or to produce obedience and holiness. Only Jesus could do that. So he brought the law to its goal, to its intended end, by making his people righteous. The whole point of the work of Christ was to make righteousness in us a reality. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul wrote, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Then in Philippians 3:8-9 he wrote, “… that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.”

Paul tells us directly here that Jesus does not produce this righteousness in everyone. He came to secure it only in those who believe.

If left to keeping the law,
we would have no hope.

Romans 10:5, For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.”

The Lord said through Moses in Leviticus 18:5, “You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the LORD.”

Certainly, if it was possible for any man to keep the law as God demanded, he would live. He would enjoy life in its fullest both now and forever in God’s holy presence. But Moses also showed that such living is impossible after the fall of Adam. Our attempts reveal our sin and inability. They ought to drive us in repentance before God to plead for his mercy. This is why the sacrifices were needed. They pointed ahead to Christ. The law serves the purpose of exposing our lostness as our efforts fail, and it points us to Christ who alone is our righteousness.

Even one single sin would justly condemn a person forever. As Paul said in Romans 6:23, “the wages of sin is death.” In Galatians 3:10 Paul again quotes the Old Testament saying, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.’ ”

The Jews had ignored the part of God’s word about their inability, and about the unmerited mercies of God. They had turned the sacrifices into acts of merit, instead of confessions of need. They imagined that by zealously living by law they could make themselves right with God. The fallacy of their error is that it is the exact opposite of what God tells us in Scripture. They were striving for what was unattainable. In that zeal they offended God, and harmed themselves.

There is a way by which
we can become righteous.

Romans 10:6-10, But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, ” ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Paul bases these comments on another part of the writings of Moses. He uses the language of Deuteronomy 30 to show that our efforts are neither necessary nor helpful. They are not the cause of God’s mercies.

From Deuteronomy 30:12 he asks “Who will ascend into heaven?” Then Paul applies it to the fetching of the Messiah to come down to redeem us. Obviously he is demonstrating that no one needs to do this. No one would be able to do it.

Then he alludes to Deuteronomy 30:13 when he asks, “Who will descend into the abyss?” Again, applying this to fetching Christ, this time to bring him back from the dead. Once more it is obvious that this is impossible and unnecessary since it has been accomplished. It was not done by humans zealously securing for themselves what was needed. It was done by the grace of God alone through the provision of our Redeemer. Nothing remains for us to add, even if we could.

The righteousness which is based upon faith has a very different message. Paul then quotes from the next verse in that section of Deuteronomy 30. Verse 14 says, “But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart.”

The salvation which is impossible for fallen man to seek and to obtain is already with us. It is the word of the Gospel which the Christians were spreading, the word of faith. Right after Paul wrote that the wages of sin is death, he added … “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23b)

No effort on our part is needed to move the hand of God. In fact such efforts deny grace which is the heart of the gospel itself. It is the hand of God that moves us. It is his work alone that redeems the unworthy completely apart from their own efforts.

The gospel is clearly imbedded in the law. It is the whole purpose of the law. The Good News is that God has done everything needed to redeem his people. He also infallibly brings about the change in each heart that brings his people to him through the work of Christ as Redeemer.

Romans 10:9 promises salvation to the person who confesses with his mouth the Lordship of Jesus. The word “confess” means to “agree with God about something”, “to admit that it is true.” The redeemed are those who admit that Jesus is Sovereign Lord over all. In him is all authority on heaven and on earth.

But confession that is of the mouth only is meaningless. So this statement is coupled with the next evidence of God’s work in us. We must believe in our hearts that Jesus was raised up from the dead as a work of God. The confession must reflect honest belief and trust. Jesus said in Matthew 12:34 “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”

To say “I believe”, then to live as if what you professed is not really trusted, is offensive to God. It is nothing less than blatant hypocrisy. John Calvin explained that true belief is “… not a mere naked notion of the head.” Those who dare to confess the Lordship of Jesus Christ should seek to stand firmly upon that conviction even in uncomfortable situations, through persecutions, and in the midst of temptations.

The resurrection of Jesus was not in the primary act that redeemed us or pays for our sins. That was accomplished in full by our Savior’s suffering and death on the cross. The resurrection was the ultimate and comprehensive evidence that death, sin’s penalty, had been beaten. It showed that the dominion of sin and its curse from Eden was overcome. Rightly believing in the resurrection of Christ summarizes that the rest of the gospel is believed as well.

God’s promise cannot fail.

Romans 10:11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

Believers, will not be disappointed or put to shame. Paul is referencing the verse he used at the end of chapter 9. Isaiah 28:16, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily.”

There is a reason why Paul said believers will not be put to shame (or disappointed), while Isaiah says believers will not act hastily.

The word for “hastily” used by Isaiah is khush (חוש). It means to act quickly, to be hasty, or to be excited. The idea is that the one trusting in God’s promises will not hurry away as if fleeing in shame or disgrace. There will be no panicked retreat since they trust in God’s faithfulness.

When the Hebrew text of Isaiah was translated into Greek a couple hundred years before the New Testament was written, the word khush in Isaiah 9:16 was translated by the Greek word kataischuno (καταισχυνω), which means to be disappointed, or to be put to shame. That is why Paul used that Greek word in Romans 9:11.

The connection isn’t as obscure as it might seem at first. In God’s covenant in Deuteronomy 28 God warned Israel of all the curses he would pour out on them in the time when they would rebel against him. In verse 37 he warned particularly, “And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you.”

When Israel is finally rejected and the curses fall, the unbelieving nations will mock her saying, “where is her God?” The apostate Jewish nation will flee in shame. This is where the ideas of “shame” and “moving in haste” come together. Those who put their trust in God’s true promise in Christ will not have to be ashamed or flee in haste like those who receive God’s judgments. Shame follows apostasy. All those who by faith embrace Christ as their only true hope, will not be disappointed, or ashamed. They will be blessed and comforted by God in the judgment.

This is great news!
It is comforting and assuring.

Our salvation is not teetering upon our own ability to bring it about. Never be drawn away by the zeal of those who promote a different gospel than the one Paul has described here. Salvation is a free gift of God completely paid for by the work of Jesus Christ. There is nothing left undone that you must do to earn it. You cannot keep God’s law as a way to be made right with God. You cannot earn forgiveness simply by saying a right prayer or by making a personal decision. Those are good things to do. But the good you do is done because God has rescued you, not so that he will do so. You obey because God loved you eternally and transformed you through Christ. Obedience is not a formula to bring down God’s love.

Just as ancient Israel misrepresented God’s covenant to the world, so also the majority of those calling themselves Christians today present a warped message. The zeal of the theological liberals, of the cults, and of those who deny our total inability to earn God’s blessing by our own works, is the same futile effort that it was with Israel in the time of Jesus and Paul.

Those who blindly hold to those views are to be humbly pitied, and earnestly prayed for with sincere compassion. But they are not to be accommodated as if their zeal were a good thing in itself, and made up for changing the revealed truth of God. Satan too is zealous for his agenda, as are all his followers.

Paul displayed a right kind of zeal. He had compassion and concern, but without compromise of God’s truth. He told them the hard things because he cared for them. In the same way, we need to call neighbors, friends, and family to the truth of the gospel of Christ. It only offends those who will not turn and believe. But in those called of God, regenerating grace will produce righteousness in Christ and life eternal.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

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Who Should be Baptized?

Who Should be Baptized?

by Bob Burridge ©2011
Part Three of the study of the Sacrament of Baptism
(Westminster Shorter Catechism Questions 94-95)
(watch the video)

The Subjects of Baptism


The question of who should be baptized has caused a great deal of debate between some who equally love God’s word and who take it as the only standard in determining what we should believe and do. The differences are not because some are unaware of certain Bible verses. They all cite the same ones. The divergence takes place in the area of interpretation.

Those who have a more extensive understanding of the original languages admit that rigid dictionary definitions of the words, and narrowly interpreted grammatical structures of individual verses are not honest solutions to the problem. It comes down to how each passage fits together with other related passages and teachings of the inspired Scriptures. Scripture must interpret Scripture.

All those who sincerely profess faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord should be baptized into membership in a local congregation.

Historically Reformed Christianity recognizes the children of believers as members of the visible church, and therefore are also proper subjects of baptism. Those who do not baptize infants until they are able to make a credible profession of faith are classified as baptists. The term baptist does not identify particular denominations which may use that word in their name. The term is used here to identify a particular belief system concerning baptism.

The Westminster Standards summarize the understanding of the Reformed branch of Christianity about what the Bible says on this topic.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism
Q. 95. To whom is Baptism to be administered?
A. Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church, till they profess their faith in Christ, and obedience to him; but the infants of such as are members of the visible church are to be baptized.

Westminster Confession of Faith 28

IV. Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one, or both, believing parents, are to be baptized.

Theologically conservative Christians all agree that the Bible is God’s infallible and inerrant word. Therefore it alone must be the final and authoritative test of what is to be believed. The primary divergence between the historic Reformed view and that of the Baptist position relates to how they understand changes in the administration of God’s promises to his people following the finished work of Christ. This impacts not only the question of who are the proper subjects of baptism, it also effects the meaning attached to baptism and its presumed efficacy.

The first and primary issue is the unity of God’s covenant with his people. The Baptist Confession of 1689 is largely based upon the Westminster Confession, but it differs in the section about baptism, and about the nature of the church. In chapter 26 it does not include the children of believers as members of a visible church. The explanation given by some falls short of defining the visible church concept accurately. The term “visible church” does not codify the admission of unbelievers into the church as some accuse. It merely admits that the church has the same basic type of composition as the symbolic church embodied in the nation of Israel by God’s own commandment. Some members are not true believers. Jesus himself mandates this same view as illustrated in his parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30).

We need to determine from Scripture what changes God made in the composition of his church. Does he now exclude infants of believers, and deny them the sign and seal of his covenant which they previously had received? The identifying sign of God’s people during the age from Abraham until the resurrection of Jesus Christ (which was then circumcision) was commanded to be administered to two groups of people.

1. Circumcision was to be performed upon those males outside the covenant community who come to make a credible profession of faith in God’s promises and salvation, and who demonstrate their sincerity by a desire to live by God’s principles and to submit to the God-appointed authority of the church.

2. Circumcision was to be performed upon the children of those already members of the covenant community. This sign was to be administered to all male children at the age of 8 days. This did not mean that they were also necessarily members of the invisible church which is the body of all those God actually regenerates by the promised future work of Christ. The election and regeneration of any person, adults as well as children, cannot be determined by the church, therefore it cannot be what the sign of the covenant represents. The circumcision of children indicates that God considered them to be members of the visible church, otherwise he would not have permitted them to receive its sign and seal.

The changes made in the covenant are well documented in the books of the New Testament. The narrowness of the church before Christ was expanded beyond Israel so that it would include people from all nations. The post-ascension church did not “replace” the pre-ascension church identified as Israel. The Church after the time of Christ is Israel in its fulfilled and completed form as promised by God throughout the Old Testament.

The sign marking members of the covenant was also enlarged so that both males and females were proper recipients. The reason for this change likely involved the symbolic federal headship of the husband and father which was fulfilled by the completion of the work of Christ who is the second Adam, the federal head representing all who believe. This was taken up earlier in this topic where we compared Baptism and Circumcision.

It would be contrary to God’s enlargement of the covenant community if all the children of believers who were not old enough to believe on their own were no longer to be included. Rather than enlarging the church, it would be a diminishing of its scope. Only God can announce changes resulting from the fulfillment of his previous commandments. Considering this, it would be unprecedented and contrary to sound biblical interpretation to presume such a change when nothing is said of it in the Bible. No where in any of the New Testament books is such a change announced, or shown by apostolic example.

Even a casual reading of the Epistles of the New Testament or the history of the early church in the book of Acts shows that the Inspired writers and the Apostles were diligent to advise the church about questions that would naturally arise among the Jewish believers as the covenantal changes took place. It would be astounding that no Jewish family in the decades covered by those books ever raised the question of their children’s inclusion in the covenant community. For thousands of years obedient parents placed the sign of the covenant upon their male children on the 8th day of their lives. If suddenly children were to be excluded, their godly parents would have been informed. That no controversy or issue is recorded for the churches then, or for the churches using the New Testament as their guide in the years to come, it is indicative that no such dramatic change took place. For lack of evidence to the contrary, God’s already revealed word must stand.

On the positive side of the issue, there is abundant evidence in the New Testament that the same practice of God’s people continued regarding the children of believing members of the covenant community, and regarding the families of those who come to believe and who join the church.

The covenant promises which included the children of believers in the Old Testament were directly applied to the New Testament church.

Acts 2:38-39 reports the words of Peter at Pentecost. He applied to the church the ancient promises made to Abraham and his descendants, “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.’ ”

It connects the covenant promise made to Abraham and to his seed, with the New Testament church as the proper heirs of the covenant. That promise includes both the forgiveness of sin and the reception of the Holy Spirit. These are both central in the meaning of baptism as we have demonstrated in a previous heading in this lesson.

However, some confuse the Covenantal position by misrepresenting the identity it makes between circumcision and baptism. The Reformed view actually limits this identity between the prefiguring and the fulfillment of it. It recognizes changes clearly explained in the teachings of the New Testament.

For example, the pre-messianic shedding of blood in sacrifices and in circumcision is no longer appropriate after the shedding of our Savior’s blood completed what was signified. Blood is replaced by water, which was also an Old Testament symbol for purification, for the washing away of the pollution of sin.

Also, the sign is no longer limited to the male as representative for his entire family. The death of Jesus as the representative for his church, the bridegroom dying to redeem his bride, is what that male headship representation was about.

The New Testament church and pre-messianic Israel are the same olive tree in Romans 11:16-17. Their unity does not deny basic changes directly explained by God himself. But the removal of children from the covenant community is no where commanded as part of this change.

To see how the New Testament church both understood and carried out the promise mentioned by Peter at Pentecost, we need to examine the examples of baptism in Scripture after the resurrection of Christ. There are only nine examples of baptism recorded in the book of Acts.

The first is the baptism of 3,000 at Pentecost. There are four baptisms where individual men were received into the church but families were not present. This leaves four baptisms where it expressly mentions the baptism of households along with the adult who became a believer. As Dr. Gregg Strawbridge observes, “… virtually every person who had a household had it baptized!”

If a person presumes that only adults who make a credible profession of faith can be members of the church and therefore can be baptized, he must also presume in all these cases that all the members of each household were not only old enough to understand the gospel, but they each also believed, and voluntarily and knowledgeably submitted to baptism at the same moment. This is certainly possible. But it has nothing to do with the issue. We do not know the ages of any children present in these families. We do know that they were received as families without any qualifying comments being made about those families in the biblical record.

If we set aside the presumptions, we would see these passages as a continuation of the practice commanded by God long ago for his covenant people. The including of the children was the common understanding every Jew would already have had. The Apostles who were sent out to baptize, and the families to whom the gospel first came, would have known God’s instruction to mark out their children as members of the covenant community.

At this point the reader is directed to the excellent article by Dr. Gregg Strawbridge, Infant Baptism: Does the Bible Teach It? It would be redundant to reproduce here all the careful work he has done in reviewing the passages and arguments from Scripture that support the continuation of the inclusion of the children of believers in both the visible church, and as proper subjects of the sign and seal of that membership.

The baptism of the infant children of believers does not save them, nor does it contradict the fact that babies are not able to believe before they are baptized. The question does not fall down upon the fact that covenant children are commonly excluded from the Lord’s Table in most Reformed churches. We will take that up in the study of the Lord’s Supper.

The Efficacious Nature of Baptism

Westminster Confession of Faith 28

V. Although it be a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated, or saved, without it; or, that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated.
VI. The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered; yet, notwithstanding, by the right use of this ordinance, the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited, and conferred, by the Holy Ghost, to such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongeth unto, according to the counsel of God’s own will, in his appointed time.
VII. The sacrament of baptism is but once to be administered unto any person.

It confuses the sign with what it represents if we believe that Baptism itself produces all that it represents and seals upon the recipients. The act of baptizing does not mean that the person receiving the sacrament is actually among the elect and therefore a member of the invisible church. As with circumcision in the time before Christ, it assures for every person being baptized only that he is a member of the visible church, and is subject to the blessings or cursings of God’s promises.

The grace represented is truly granted to those qualified by the work of Christ under God’s covenant. Others receiving the sacrament who prove never to be regenerated by their lack of profession of faith and disobedience to God, receive rightfully all the curses of that same covenant. This applies to adults as well as to infants who are baptized. The Reformed view is therefore completely distinct from the view of Sacerdotalism as held for example by the Roman Catholic Church.

Similarly, if we look upon this act as merely an outward ritual or object lesson, we deny the promises God’s word attaches to Baptism. The Reformed view therefore directly denies the limited symbolic view of the Memorialists.

Since infants may not evidence the work of regeneration until later in life we say that the efficacy of baptism, the actual conveying of the graces signified, may not take place at the moment when the Sacrament is administered.

Since baptism represents the cleansing of sin and engrafting into the covenant body of the church it is rightly administered only once. There is no biblical justification or example of multiple baptisms of the same person. To do so would be a direct rejection of the meaning of Baptism and would obscure what God intends it to reveal about himself and his work of cleansing the guilty sinner of the stains of his sin.

The covenant promises which included the children of believers in the Old Testament are directly applied in Scripture to the New Testament church. Historically Reformed Christianity recognizes the children of believers as members of the visible church, and therefore proper subjects of baptism. Baptism does not regenerate a person. It acts as a sign and seal of God’s Covenant of Grace.

(The Bible quotations in this lesson are from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.)

Index of Lessons in the Westminster Shorter Catechism

summary:
The covenant promises which included the children of believers in the Old Testament are directly applied in Scripture to the New Testament church. Reformed Christianity recognizes the children of believers as members of the visible church, and therefore proper subjects of baptism. Baptism does not regenerate a person. It acts as a sign and seal of God’s Covenant of Grace.