Common grace. It is a term and idea that is helpful and necessary for understanding God’s relationship with a fallen world. Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology defines common grace as “the grace of God by which he gives people innumerable blessings that are not part of salvation.”
However, it is more than just non-salvific blessings. It is also the restraint of sin in the world. So, in their treatment of common grace, J. van Genderen, W.H. Velema (Concise Reformed Dogmatics) maintain that common grace: (1) postpones full punishment for sin, (2) bridles the effects of the curse on nature and humanity, and (3) endows creatures made in God’s image to experience the richness and fullness of God’s world.
This week, I found another helpful articulation of all that God did in the very beginning to “bridle the effects of the curse on nature and humanity.” Writing about God’s relationship with fallen humanity, Willem Van Gemeren lists seven ways that God works to restrain sin. Each of these are explicated in the first 11 chapters of Genesis.
“God’s fatherly concern and love for his creation is also evidenced by his restraining the power of sin in the world. In [Genesis] 3, 6, and 11, he (1) put ‘enmity’ between man and evil (3:15); (2) caused human beings to become occupied with their creaturely existence (vv. 16-19); (3) decreed a natural end to human physical existence (v. 19b); (4) expelled Adam and Eve from the garden so as to keep them from another offense; (5) reduced the human life span to 120 years (6:3); (6) instituted responsibility, justice, and the law of retaliation (vv. 5-6); and (7) broke up the solidarity of humankind by the introduction of languages (11:1-9)” (Van Gemeren, The Progress of Redemption, 86).
In all these ways, God sovereignly restrained the collective power and productivity of mankind. God’s lovingkindness is not only seen in salvation; it is also seen in his sovereign rule over sinful humanity. He has preserved the world in such a way as to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth (Matt 24:14; Acts 1:8).
May we give thanks to God for his saving grace, but may we also learn to worship him for his common grace. And may we see how God’s common grace in the world is a means by which we can enter into conversation and dialogue with others about God’s saving grace.
One of our favorite things to listen to at our house is Andrew Peterson and Randall Goodgame’s Slugs and Bugs and Lullabies. Recently, I discovered that they have been making clever music videos and sticking them up on YouTube. Here is a sampling. The first two have solid Christian teachings for kids; the last two are plain silly. All four are great to share with your kids.
If you are not familiar with Andrew Peterson and Randall Goodgame, make sure you check them out. AP’s Christmas album Behold The Lamb ranks in my top ten of all albums of all time. It is biblical theology in song. And Randall Goodgame has written numerous songs played by other artists. Perhaps my favorite its “Mystery of Mercy.”
Yesterday, I cited Willem Van Gemeren’s reading of Jeremiah 31 and 33 to argue for a covenantal reading of Genesis 1-2. Today, I will cite his observations on Isaiah. Van Gemeren writes,
Isaiah’s language of God’s covenantal commitment is a most important commentary on Genesis 1 and 2. he uses words for creation (‘form,’ ‘make,’ ‘create’) not only to refer to God’s creative activities in forming the world but also to signify God’s election, grace, love, and loyalty to Israel. The words for creation are, therefore, also covenantal terms” (Van Gemeren, The Progress of Redemption, 63).
Van Gemeren seems to be picking up in the prophets (Jeremiah and Isaiah) the sense in which these biblical writers are understanding God’s role in creation as initiating a covenantal relationship. In fact, in the same paragraph as the previous quotation, Van Gemeren observes, “An individual’s life in the presence of God is an expression of covenant (the technical term defining relationship between two or more parties)” (63).
For me, Jeremiah and Isaiah are two lines of evidence that I had not previously considered about reading a covenant in creation. I think they are helpful, and show how Genesis 1-2 does include a covenant, something that the OT prophets (Hos 6:7) and NT apostles (cf. Rom 5:12ff) developed to help explain God’s relationship with the world.
There has been much discussion on whether or not Genesis 1 and 2 involve a covenant with Adam or with creation. Scholars like Paul Williamson, Sealed with an Oath, have vehemently denied it; others like William Dumbrell, Creation and Covenant, have affirmed it. While the term “covenant” (berith) does not appear in Genesis 1-2, I am persuaded by a number of factors (e.g. the reference to a covenant with Adam in Hos 6:7; the implicit blessings and curses motif in Genesis 1-2, and the reference to ‘establishing’ a pre-existing covenant in Genesis 6-8) that there is a covenant with creation.
Another argument for such a covenant can be found in Jeremiah, where the post-exilic prophet grounds the new covenant in God’s covenantal relationship with creation. Willem Van Gemeren’s explanation gets at the reasoning in Jeremiah.
“When Jeremiah refers to God’s covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth” (Jer 33:25), the term ‘covenant’ (berith) is parallel to ‘fixed laws’ (huqqot, Job 38:33; Jer 31:35; and huqqim, Jer 31:36). For Jeremiah, God’s gracious and free relationship with heaven, earth, sun, moon, stars, and the sea is evident by the regularity of day and night, the seasons, and the ebb and flow of the sea. It is a picture of his special covenant relationship with his people. Jeremiah argues that, since God keeps covenant with creation, he will even more surely take care of his covenant children (vv. 35-36; 33:25-26) and the descendents of David, to whom he also covenanted his fidelity (v. 26; cf. 2 Sam 7:15) (Van Gemeren, The Progress of Redemption, 60).
What do you think? Williamson and Dumbrell provide good reasons for and against the covenant in Genesis, but at the end of the day, I think the stronger case is made for a some sort of covenant in and/or with creation. More on this on another day.
At the close of his introduction to The Progress of Redemption, Willem Van Gemeren summarizes the need for including both testaments in our interpretation of the Bible.
Interpretation also involves equal concern for the Old and New Testaments. When the two parts of the Bible are held in careful balance, the continual tension between law and gospel, token and reality [VG’s terminology for shadow and substance], promise and fulfillment, present age and future restoration, Israel and the church, and earthly and spiritual only enhances a christological and eschatological focus.” (Van Gemeren, The Progress of Redemption, 38)
As you read and study Scripture, be aware that a right understanding of the immediate text requires awareness of what came before it (antecedent theology–types, shadows, terms, and concepts), what time it is (where in the storyline is the passage), and where it is ultimately going (Christology and eschatology). Only as we relate the trees to the forest will we gain an appreciation for both.
A number of years ago The Smalltown Poets—who remain one of my favorite CCM bands—covered the song, “A Beautiful, Scandalous Night.” It is a powerful meditation on the horrific and glorious reality of Christ’s death. Here is a video to the song, done by the original artist, The Choir.
As you approach Easter, may the truths of this song flood your heart with joy and thanksgiving. The tree which brought Jesus death has brought us life.
Go on up to the mountain of mercy To the crimson perpetual tide Kneel down on the shore Be thirsty no more Go under and be purified
Follow Christ to the holy mountain Sinner, sorry and wrecked by the fall Cleanse your heart and your soul In the fountain that flows For you and for me and for all
At the wonderful tragic mysterious tree On that beautiful scandalous night you and me Were atoned by His blood and forever washed white On that beautiful scandalous night
On the hillside you will be delivered At the foot of the cross justified And your spirit restored By the river that pours From our blessed Saviors side
At the wonderful tragic mysterious tree
Go on up to the mountain of mercy To the crimson perpetual tide Kneel down on the shore be thirsty no more Go under and be purified
At the wonderful tragic mysterious tree On that beautiful scandalous night you and me Were atoned by his blood and forever washed white On that beautiful scandalous night
Describing the role of the interpreter or biblical reader, Lawrence quotes Jerome saying,
The office of a commentator is to set forth not what he himself would prefer, but what his author says (41, Jerome’s letter “to Pammachius, 17).
Then discussing the task of exegesis, Lawrence cites John Owen,
There is no other sense in it than what is contained in the words whereof materially it doth consist . . . In the interpretation of the mind of anyone, it is necessary that the words he speaks or writes be rightly understood, and this we cannot do immediately unless we understand the language wherein he speaks . . . the [idiom] of that language, with the common use of and intention of its expressions (41, John Owen, Works, IV: 215, quoted in J. I. Packer, Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life, 101)
Finally, Lawrence supplies his own helpful axioms that the parts of Scripture (words and phrases) must be related to the whole.
So the basic unit of meaning is not the word, but the sentence. And the unit that determines what sentences mean, and therefore the words in them, is the paragraph (42).
Interpretation actually begins with the whole, not the part. Then, in the context of the whole, we work backwards through the parts, back to sentences, back all the way down to individual words. What we learn and discover there then takes us back to the whole with a more accurate and perhaps nuanced understanding of meaning (42).
Today, ponder these thoughts and put them into practice. Much interpretive error stems from microscopic reading of Scripture and trying to interpret the Bible in light of our personal opinions and experiences. Rightly, Lawrence’s observations, if taken to heart and applied, will help correct much improper Bible reading.
[This article was originally featured in our hometown newspaper, The Seymour Tribune].
What makes Good Friday good?
What is good about illegal arrests, puppet trials, executing the innocent, and setting free the guilty? Nothing. And everything. For centuries, Christians have deemed the Friday of Jesus’ death “Good Friday.” But why? How? When the day centers on death and defeat, what makes it good?
How we answer that question says so much about what we believe about God, the gospel, and our own lives. In a word, the event that makes Good Friday “good” is what happened on three days later.
When the sun went down on that fateful Friday, the disciples hid themselves from the world. On the Sabbath (Saturday), they did not move. But on the first day of the week, they awoke before dawn, walked to the place where Jesus was. And what happened next changed everything! The tomb was empty. The Lord was risen. His promises were true, and what the disciples would discover is that the worst day in history has now become the best day in history.
This historical reality has and will changed the world, and has the power to change every person who believes in it. Consider: Paul says that in comparison to the eternal weight of glory, today’s sufferings are light and momentary. While the pangs of death do not feel light and momentary, the power of the resurrection reinterprets our current pain, loss, and heartache, even as it reinterpreted Christ’s cruciform execution.
Even better, the resurrection is not just a palliative for temporary relief. It is not a best-selling strategy to make you feel better about yourself. No, the resurrection goes deeper. It tells us that life exists on the other side of death. Our best life is not now. It is later.
This is the gospel message: Jesus died on a rugged cross so that from the grave, he could raise the dead. Jesus does not help us find a way in the wilderness of life. Resurrection is not just a spiritual experience; it is a reviving flesh and blood. The broken bodies of believers buried in the ground will be raised to new life on the last day, and the goodness of Good Friday will be experienced for eternity. This is what makes Good Friday good.
This week as you prepare for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, remember that the resurrection of Christ has the power to overturn the horrors and heartbreaks of life. Even more, the cross and resurrection of Christ secure the promise of abundant life. For all who call on the Lord will find the goodness of Good Friday to overwhelm the badness of any other day. Resurrection life is what Christ offers, and that is what is makes Good Friday good.
[This article was originally featured in our hometown newspaper, The Seymour Tribune].
When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they hid. And we, their children, have followed suit. Without even knowing it, men and women hide themselves behind alcohol, drugs, clothes, makeup, cars, accomplishments, hobbies, sarcasm, aggression and on it goes.
Instead of using God’s created world to glorify God, we have become masters at taking his creation and using it to serve our own purposes. With money we attempt secure our future; with success we try to hide our flaws; and with entertainment we cover up our loneliness and disappointment.
And yet, spiritually separated from God, we can never mine from the world what we lost in the Garden. Like Adam and Eve, we attempt to look good with fig-leaf fashion. But this only increases our vulnerability.
How many things do you do in order to avoid failure, increase status, or preserve your reputation? Left to ourselves, we are enslaved to our hiding places.
But there is a way out. In 1 John 1:9, the beloved disciple writes, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Amazingly, the root cause of our fears —sin — is the very thing that God tells us to bring before him.
Amazingly, even as objects of his wrath, God is not looking for us to do good works to regain his favor. The Bible does not say that God is a friend of good saints. It says he is a friend of sinners.
For those who come to him confessing sin, he promises pardon and cleansing. And notice what he says. Forgiveness in this verse is not based on his grace but justice.
This is the beauty of Christianity. At the cross, Jesus made it possible for those who live a life of hiding to be legally pardoned from their sin and lovingly adopted by God their Father. In Christ, there is no penalty left to pay, and thus there is no reason left to hide.
In short, when a sinner receives forgiveness, it unshackles them from the prison of their own making. Instead of micromanaging their world to set up a persona that protects them, they can be who God created them to be, and more. They can reach out to others with the same love they have received.
Friend, sin hidden will destroy you, but sin confessed to God will free you. Will you put down your fig leaf? God has a robe of righteousness to securely clothe you.
Last year, when the storms ripped through Joplin, I felt helpless to do anything, so I prayed and wrote. This year, when the storms came a little closer, our church was able to help and will continue to help our neighbors. Today, in the face of destruction, it was a great sight to see many local churches, Southern Seminary students, and others pitching in to help.
Keep Henryville, Indiana in prayer. Pray for Toby Jenkins and his church (First Baptist Henryville), for their ministry to the community, for the gospel to go forward, and for many whose lives have been broken to be put back together by the only power that gives life–the resurrecting message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In light of the storms that passed through Henryville, Indiana yesterday — a town located just thirty miles south of Seymour — I thought a re-post of my article reflecting on the tornadoes in Joplin last year would be appropriate: “The Words of Christ and Midwest Storms.”
The Words of Christ and Midwest Storms
When the winds raged and the waves threatened, the disciples awoke Jesus with fear in their hearts. Jesus arose, stood on the storm-tossed boat and spoke three simple words, “Peace! Be still!” The winds ceased and the storm ended faster than it came (Mark 4:39).
In that moment, the terrified fishermen were more frightened by the man in their presence with the power to subdue nature than they were of drowning under the heavy waves. God’s Son in human form had just displayed his divine power, and that with a word. On that lakeside journey, Jesus stopped the storm with a sentence. On May 22, 2011 in Joplin, Missouri and again on March 2, 2012 in Henryville, Indiana, he didn’t.
For the disciples, Jesus stopped the storm and it led to a question of his identity: “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (4:41). For the survivors in Joplin, the question is different. For them and for anyone staggering from a recent world-halting tragedy, the question is closer to that of the Psalmist, “How long oh Lord? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Ps 13:1). Because Jesus word did not stop the storm before it hit last week, there is now the need for Jesus word to come speak “Peace. Be Still.”
With such a need in mind, let me suggest four words from God’s Word that I pray may bring a biblical perspective to those bruised and broken by the storm, and to those ministering to them.
An Unspoken, Tear-Filled Word
In the face of raw tragedy, we have at least one example where words were not spoken. When Jesus came to Mary and Martha at the death of Lazarus, he came to some of his closest friends. Jesus loved Lazarus, and yet the Bible actually suggests that when Jesus learned of his illness, he intentionally waited so that Lazarus might die (John 11:5-6). When Jesus arrived, Martha came to meet him, saying, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (11:21)—surely a similar sentiment arises from Joplin.
Yet, Jesus response to Martha and Mary did not express detached stoicism or impatience with broken people. To the contrary, he grieved with these sisters, with perfect understanding. When Jesus encountered the death of Lazarus, he wept (John 11:35). While he knew that his own death and resurrection would one day restore this man to eternal life, tears were the most appropriate response. For those left speechless by the horrorific damage—personal and material—Jesus sees. Jesus knows. Jesus understands.
A Word of Resurrection Life
Jesus weeping is not hopeless, but hopeful. In the face of death, Jesus does not chain himself to the grave. He, instead, points people to the resurrection. John 11:23-26 records the dialogue that Jesus had with Martha, where he spoke of Lazarus’ impending resurrection: “Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Staring into the eyes of someone whose heart was overwhelmed with unspeakable loss, Jesus spoke the only words that can defeat the sting of death. He promised life from the grave. In fact, Jesus intention of permitting Lazarus death was to show the world that he had the power to raise the dead. While calming the storm with a word demonstrated great power; reconstituting life and raising the dead revealed more.
So it will be at the end of the age. All those who have died in Christ will be raised in Christ (Rom 6:3-4). Jesus’ own resurrection confirms that he is the first-fruit of those who will be raised to life. While this does not immediately remove the pain and anguish of death, it does not allow death to have the last word. Instead, Jesus can say: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:54-55).
A Word of Sadness and Sober Judgment
Of course, there were other victims of the storm who did not know the Lord. For them and for those who knew them, Jesus words to Martha will not comfort. Instead for them, and this word is perhaps the most bitter of all, the Lord’s judgment is swift. While trusting in themselves and in their future plans, their life was immediately extinguished (Luke 12:20). Jonathan Edwards’s captured this dreadful reality in his sermon ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” when he expounded Deuteronomy 32:35, “Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’
For some in the storm who had rejected the gospel, this was their appointed day of judgment. While this does not necessarily bring sentimental comfort, it brings repose in the fact that the “stormy winds fulfill[ed] his word” (Ps 148:8). Thus, in the particular providence of God, the same wind that brought some into eternal rest brought others into eternal torment. Indeed, all things work according to his sovereign will.
At the same time, it must not be forgotten that the death of the unconverted simultaneously grieves God, just as it does man. Ezekiel 18 records that the Lord “[has] no pleasure in the death of anyone” even the wicked (v. 23, 31). In this complex but complementary way, the God who delights in the judgment of evil-doers is yet grieved by their deaths.
A Word of Repentance to the Rest
This leads to the most pressing word that Jesus has for us who read this today. In Luke 13, when some of Jesus followers bring up the subject of human tragedy, Jesus response is surprisingly harsh. Responding to the slaughter of some from Galilee, Jesus brings up the death of eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them. He says, “Do you think that [these dead] were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (v. 4-5).
Jesus rebukes anyone who says that the tragedy in Jerusalem or Joplin happened because they deserved it more than me. Jesus tells us who live to see these deaths as a divine lesson: Death is the judgment of God that is coming upon all men. It is appointed for all men to die because all men have sinned against God. While some die “peacefully” in their sleep, others die under twisted rubble. The typological lesson from Joplin and every other cataclysmic tragedy is that there is coming a day when all men will be caught up in the whirlwind, and unless they have turned from sin and to Christ, they will face a greater danger than an F-5 tornado.
Knowing When to Speak and When Not To
Today, Jesus of Nazareth cannot be found walking the shores of Galilee. He is enthroned in heaven, where he governs his church and intercedes for his saints. Consequently, it is not Jesus who speaks an audible word today; it is his church. You and I who comprise the body of Christ are his hands, his feet, and his mouthpieces. Thus, it is not enough to speculate what Jesus would say. By the leading of his Spirit, we must speak.
In our immediate context, one week removed from the tragedy in Joplin, Jesus’ words in Luke 13, do not yet seem appropriate. In cases of tragedy, timing matters. Jesus knew this. When he arrived at Lazarus’ grave, he wept and then offered gospel hope. Yet, when he was confronted with a wrongful understanding of theodicy, he proffered a more robust theological answer. In the first case he knew to stress mercy; in the second to teach about God’s judgment.
Pastors and parishioners need to understand both of these responses and when to employ them. As Ecclesiastes teaches, there is a time for everything—a time to cry and a time to catechize; a time to speak and a time to refrain from speaking.
Indeed, for those facing this tragedy firsthand, sorrow and prayers of silence are appropriate. Words get in the way of feelings that are best expressed with groans and cries. Yet, there will come a day when words need to fill the gap, and when they do, the only comforting Word will come from the one who said, “Peace. Be still.”
Until that Resurrection Day, we all groan and wait with anguish. Tragedies like the one in Joplin serve to remind us that the world still quakes under the curse of God. It awakens us from our comfortable slumber. And it calls each of us to repent of our sluggishness and sin and to prepare to meet our God, because none of us know when the master will return or when the whirlwind will strike.
May God be pleased to comfort the people of Joplin in the wake of this tragedy, and may those who know the Lord know how and when to speak words of comfort and hope into the lives of those suffering in the storm.
Via Emmaus 