Bible

The Goodness of God in What He Does

/ davidsschrock / 2 Comments

In Exodus 33:18, Moses makes one of the most audacious requests in all the Bible.  After Israel is nearly destroyed and replaced by a people coming from Moses’ offsprings, Moses asks the God of the Passover and the Red Sea to show him his glory.  Amazingly, God responds in the affirmative.

In Exodus 33:19-34:7, God reveals his glory through the revelation of his goodness and his glory.  Today, we will look at the goodness of what God does; tomorrow, we will consider the greatness of God’s name.

Notice three ways that God’s goodness is revealed in Exodus 33.

God Who Listens and Speaks (33:19).  The first thing to notice in the character of God is that he hears Moses prayer.  He listens and he speaks.  He doesn’t ignore Moses prayers, but he answers with specificity.  God’s goodness is seen in this reply.

However, notice what God listens to.  He is not simply responding to a request for personal help, or a plea for personal safety, comfort, or assistance.  He hears and answers prayers most powerfully, when the suppliant is coming with a heart that longs first and foremost to make Christ famous.  This is not to say that supplications for “my needs” are not legitimate, but they should be secondary to the greater design of prayer for God’s kingdom and glory.

God loves to answer prayers that glorify his name and that satisfy his saints in him.  Just consider the “Lord’s Prayer.” In Matthew 6, Jesus is asked how they should pray, and in “The Lord’s Prayer,” he doesn’t begin with small, physical, prayers that orbit around people; he begins with audacious prayers that ask God to do what only he can do.  Thus, Jesus’ prayer, like Moses prayer, calls us to ask God to show off his glory on earth as it is in heaven.  The very first command is one that essentially pleas that God who sanctify or glorify his name!  When Jesus tells us to pray for the coming of the kingdom, this is a request for God’s glory to come in tangible form to the earth–now and forever.

All in all, Moses’ prayer, Jesus’ prayer, and our prayer can be lifted with confidence because God’s goodness hears and answers.  Yet, the heart of prayer is one that focuses on God and his glory, as seen in his goodness, more than simply asking God to do good things for us.

Returning to the model of our Lord’s prayer, the requests for daily bread, forgiveness, and deliverance from evil all come after we have oriented ourselves towards God.  Prayer that is Christian puts the goals, desires, and demands of God above our own.  The safety, security, health, and help we request should desired as they fulfill his plans and purposes.  Goodness is putting God at the center, and God-centered prayers are the ones God delights to answer.

The God who Protects and Provides (33:20-23).  Next, in verse 20, YHWH tells Moses that he cannot see his face, because he would die, but in the same breath, he makes way for Moses to experience God’s glory.  Verse 21-23, God puts Moses in the cleft of the rock, covers him to protect him, and then shows him the train of his glory.  Amazingly, verse 23 uses three body parts to describe God: Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.

The body-language is metaphorical–because God does not have a body—but it emphasizes the personal closeness that Moses felt as God spoke to him.  Still, the point of this passage is not for us to replicate the experience of seeing God on a mountain, but to receive the Word given to Moses at that time.  The God of Sinai is the same yesterday, today, and forever; but the way he has revealed himself is not always the same.  In Exodus 33-34, we see God’s goodness in the way he reveals himself and protects Moses from an over exposure.  Today, we have a greater revelation and a greater protection in our mediator, Jesus Christ.  What God does in type with Moses, he does in actuality with Jesus.  In Jesus, we see the glory of the Lord, we hear God’s ultimate word, and we have safe passage into the very presence of God.  We are not sequestered into a rocky cleft; we are able to stand upon the temple mount and abide with God.

In this way, the goodness experience by Moses, though more cinematically-captivating, is less than the goodness we now have in the fullness of God’s plans in redemptive history.  Such goodness beckons us to forsake sin and press on towards him!

The God who Gives His Law (34:1-4). Finally, since the tablets were broken, a new set of tablets was needed.  Thus, in Exodus 34, Moses is appointed to cut two new stone tablets just like before.  This is the first element of God’s revealed law in Exodus 34, but this is not it.  Quickly following this charge to rewrite the law, YHWH tells Moses to come into his presence once again (v. 2), and to set a perimeter around the mountain to preserve its holiness and to protect the people (v. 3).  Still, God’s law-giving is seen most clearly in the reissue of the covenant laws laid out in the rest of the chapter (vv. 10-35).

These commands which resonate with the earlier instructions in Exodus 19-24, show the consistency of God’s character, and the fact that he never lowers the standard of his law.  Instead, he will provide means of grace to allow sinners to dwell in the midst of God’s holiness.  Such legal constancy is a revelation of his goodness, for God’s goodness is not just seen in meekness, mirth, and mild treatment of terrorists.  His goodness also executes law-breakers.

Can you imagine the alternative?  What would a world be like in which moral order was erased?  Or a world where God’s expectations were unknown?  God’s laws are demanding and absolute, and this is good.  In them, God’s wisdom, justice, and love are displayed, and thus the world observes who God is.  Which leads to a final consideration: When we come to passage like Exodus 33-34, do we listen to what God is saying?  Or do we interpret it in light of our pre-conceived ideas about goodness, justice, and love?

God Is The Standard of His Own Goodness 

Too often Christians and non-Christians test God according to their own standards of goodness.  This is problematic.  God is his own standard.  He defines and delimits goodness.  Thus what he reveals of his goodness at Sinai and in later installments of inspired revelation must shape and reshape our notions of goodness.  In fact, before delighting in his goodness, we probably need to be offended by it!

Offended because, we as fallen creatures are naturally opposed to the God of Scripture and the God of Sinai.  What we see at Sinai is that YHWH’s goodness is not mutually exclusive with retributive judgment, is not contradictory with legal demands, and is not simply a universal benevolence towards all people.  God’s goodness is distinct, covenantal, particular, and gracious.  God’s goodness is given to some and not to others (Exod 33:19).  This is how God presents himself!  It is offensive to human pride, but glorious to those who have died in Christ.

Failure to understand God’s goodness as he himself presents it will inevitably result in skewed views of God and ultimately Arminian and/or Universalist impressions of how God should act in the world.  Right now I am reading a book by such theologian–Roger Olson–whose views relabel and redefine God’s goodness in countless doctrinal categories.  As an upcoming book review will show, he and others like him, wrestle little with texts and rest their views upon philosophical inventions of the mind, rather than God’s revealed Word.

Considering Exodus 33-34 makes us take a different path.  One that rebukes us mightily for having lethargic views of God’s goodness, but one that opens new vistas of God’s glory.  In meditating on Exodus 33:18-34:7 you will find that the God of glory is the God of goodness, and that his goodness is not submitting to any philosophical law of the greater good.  God is goodness in justice and mercy, and by his grace, he is revealing that goodness to all who have eyes to see.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Learning to Pray With Moses (Exodus 33:12-15)

/ davidsschrock / 3 Comments

Perhaps one of the greatest ways to learn how to pray is to listen to great pray-ers.  This can and should be done in the interpersonal context of a local church, but not only there.  Scripture is another excellent place to learn how to prayer.  There, in the inspired pages, we find eminent saints who walked with God, and who held conversation with God in formal and informal settings.  Their prayers give us precious models of how we should pray.

One such example is Moses in the book of Exodus, especially chapters 32-34.  Today we will consider four aspects of his prayer for YHWH’s presence in Exodus 32:12-15.

To set the context, Moses has just been informed that God would send Israel to Canaan with the promise of safe passage, with the Lord’s angel going before them, but without YHWH in their midst (Exodus 33:1-3).  Israel was overwhelmed with grief by this news (33:4-6).  God’s dwelling in their midst was what made them distinct, and now because of their stiff-necked sin, God was pulling back.  This separation is confirmed in 33:7-11, when Moses describes the kind of distant access Israel would be subjected to, now that the tabernacle plans had been destroyed (Exod 32:19).

With the prospect of losing God’s presence fully in view, Moses throws himself before the Lord and pleads for God’s presence.  Far more than the obligatory petition, he musters all the promises God has made in the past, to recruit God to rejoin their caravan. He pleads for God’s presence, and he shows us how we ought to pray in the process.  Notice four things.

(1) He prays for God’s presence.  Moses sees the immediate need and he boldly prays for its relief–namely the return of God’s presence. Better than a prayer for safety, traveling mercies, or physical needs, Moses prays for God–nothing more, nothing less–just God.  If God is going to do anything good in our lives, it is going to be underwritten by this sort of prayer–an insatiable desire for more of God.  This is the heart behind Moses prayer, a passion that was later picked up in places like Psalm 27:8-9, “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, LORD, do I seek.’  Hide not your face from me.  Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help.  Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!”

Interestingly in Psalm 27, the Psalmist longs to see God’s face, the very thing Moses sought (Exod 33:18), but was explicitly forbidden from seeing (v. 20).  Today, we can see God’s face in the person and work of Christ in a way that Moses and David never could.  Therefore, with David we must seek God’s face in passionate prayer, prayer for God’s presence.

(2) He prays according to God’s promises.  Before he petitions, Moses reminds God of the “favor” God has already given him, and then prays based on this stated promise.  This is a model for powerful prayer. He prays from God’s grace unto God’s grace.  He requests favor, not based on his merits or his own spiritual ideas, but upon God’s earlier favor.  Thus, his prayer is according to God’s will, not his own.

So it is for us who pray in Jesus name.  We are not coming to the Father to prove our worth and to plead for assistance based on our commitments.  Rather, we pray  for favor based on God’s love for the Son.  Because of Christ’s high priestly session, we can pray boldly.  All the promises of God are “Yes” and “Amen.”  Therefore, we can pray those promises back to God in all are hours of need, and know that the Father will answer them with the rich supply that Christ procured at Calvary (cf. Rom 8:32).

(3) The goal of his prayer is knowledge.  Verse 13, Moses prays that God would show his acts to Moses so that I may know you.  Moses prayer rebukes anyone who has ever said about God or his word, “Yeah, I know that…”   Such a response reveals a heart that is self-reliant and blind to the need for more of Christ.  Unwillingness to learn about God is a personal invitation to shipwrecking your professed faith.  But praying to know God more is evidence of a heart that has God’s law written on it.

Consider Moses.  Numbers 12 describes him as a man unlike any other.  God spoke to him face to face.  If anyone knew God, it was Moses.  Yet, his prayer reveals a desire to know God more.  His model of prayer shows us that those who truly know God, long to know more of God.  Indeed, prayer that is Christian always presses to know God more and calls God to reveal himself more fully to those for whom we pray.

This model is constantly seen in Paul. In his letters, the great apostle is regularly praying for his beloved disciples to know God more (cf. Eph 1:15-22; Col 1:9-10). Ever wonder what to pray for others who you don’t know well, or members of your church whom you don’t regularly visit?  Pray that they would grow in the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

(4) Favor comes through knowledge of the Lord.  The key to receiving God’s favor and blessing is knowledge of God.  Notice the progression in Exodus 33:13: “If I have found favor in your sight” shows the way Moses prays from grace unto grace.  “Please show me now your ways,” marks the heart of the petition.  He desires to see and know God’s ways, “that I may know you.”  The “that” signifies a purpose statement of knowing God, but that purpose statement is followed by another, deeper purpose statement, namely “in order to find favor in your sight.”

In some ways, the knowledge of God is merely instrumental to finding favor.  Now, don’t misunderstand, there is nothing mere about knowing God, but surely a base, unattached knowledge of God is not the goal.  The goal of knowing God is to receive favor, to experience him personally, to have his presence.

This is what Moses prayed for, and verses 14-15 confirm, that God heard his prayer, and answered him in the affirmative.  God graciously returned to the stiff-necked people of Israel.  In the short term, Moses prayer effectively saved Israel, but in time his sin and Israel’s sin would again distance themselves from God.  Praise God, a better mediator and a better pray-er came to stand in the gap for us.

Accordingly, when we find ourselves distant from God, may we turn to him to find grace and favor in are our of need.  As we come to know him, to pursue his presence, and to petition based on his word, we will find our hearts satisfied with his very presence, the indwelling Spirit who fills us and moves to pray without ceasing.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Cheap Grace vs. Costly Grace

/ davidsschrock / 1 Comment

When it comes to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, there are many things I am speculative about.  When I read his The Cost of Discipleship–a classic piece of Christian literature–I got the impression that he was conflating justification by faith along with works.  More sympathetically, I believe he was calling his fellow Lutherans to make sure that they were not mistrusting their credo, “justification by faith.”  Rightly, he sought action to flow from profession; but perhaps at the same time, he imbibed enough German theology that his views of God and the world, would have eventually undercut his beliefs, had God not cut his life short during World War II.

Today, Bonhoeffer has been adopted by many evangelicals as a model Christian, even though, I believe his overall theology, if it had more time to develop may have shown the liberal influences that influenced him.  For instance, he lived next door to and was instructed by Adolph Harnack, and his thinking was greatly shaped by Karl Barth. For a sympathetic, evangelical reading of Bonhoeffer, see Eric Metaxas book Bonhoeffer:Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.  For a more critical review that exposes much of Bonhoeffer’s neo-orthodoxy, see Cornelius Van Til, “‘Dietrich Bonhoeffer’: A Review Article” (WTJ 34:2 (May 1972).

With all that said, his quote on cheap grace versus costly grace is a classic statement on living out the Christian life with seriousness and zeal. I quoted it in my sermon this morning, and I share it with you now.

 Cheap Grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, . . . Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. 

 Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods.  It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.  Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.  Such grace is costly because it calls us  to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. (The Cost of Discipleship, 44-45).

May we, with vigor and joy, live lives that exhibit an awareness of the boundless grace of God that moves us to good works, not because we are repaying God, but because we delight to go deeper and deeper into the grace of God that comes when we walk with our Savior-Shepherd.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Christ Is a Blazing Sun, His Word is a Lightning Bolt

/ davidsschrock

Asking the question, what are preachers sent to do, Doug Wilson gives a powerful and clear answer in his Desiring God message from 2009.  Here is what he says,

We are not sent to preach a distant star or moon. We are sent to preach a blazing sun that lights and heats every creature, that dominates all things, and around which everything else must necessarily revolve.

We are not sent to make a few mild suggestions. We are not sent to have a relational dialogue. We are sent to preach and to declare. We are commissioned—ordained—to compel every manifestation of worldly power, glory, wisdom, and exaltation to yield to and obey God’s word.

We come to declare that all men need to repent and believe. The kingdom of God is here. We declare what has been accomplished, not what we would like to be accomplished. We are ordained to feed the sheep and drive away the wolves. And if needs be, we have been ordained to preach the word as if we were thunder and lightening. How can we not? The Scriptures themselves are thunder and lightning.

God, help us pastors and preachers as we deliver your Word tomorrow.  May it strike with the power and precision of a lightning strike, and may the world know that you are speaking.  May the light of Christ illumine our minds and shine forth in our messages so that your people will turn from their sin and flee to their Savior.

Let us Proclaim Christ, dss

Gospel Logic: Taking God at His Word

/ davidsschrock

Over the last week, I put up a handful of posts on how the Old Testament saints reasoned from the promises of God in order to follow God in amazing ways.  That is, they did not simply do what they were supposed to do, because they were unswervingly obedient.  Rather, the promises of the gospel took up residence in their heart and they were compelled to act by the faith they had in God’s word.

Today, I list them in one place/one post.  I hope they can be helpful.  There are more places where this gospel logic is seen in Scripture too.  Perhaps, we can come back to it another week.

Gospel Logic: Learning To Take God At His Word

Abraham’s Gospel Logic

Moses Gospel Logic

The Gospel Logic of Psalm 42-43

The Gospel Logic of Psalm 103

What God Commands, He Gives: A Reflection on 2 Peter 1:3-11

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

What God Commands, He Gives: A Reflection on 2 Peter 1:3-11

/ davidsschrock / 3 Comments

Augustine once said, “Command what you will, oh God, but give what you command.”  This prayerful axiom is an incredibly important lesson for Christians to learn: That the God who demands perfect righteousness supplies all that he demands.  This is the good news of New Covenant.

2 Peter 1:3-11

One place where this truth becomes evident is in a passage of Scripture that at first sounds like we, the Christian, must make every effort to generate virtues to add to our faith.  The passage is 2 Peter 1:3-11, and the problem is discerning where the good works in verses 5-7 come from.  From God or from us?

First lets read the passage and then notice four textual clues that show us that God is the supplier of the good deeds he calls us to.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Four Clues 

There are at least four clues from the text that the imperative “to supplement” (epichorēgēsate) in verse 5 is not something we do on our own, but rather, as is true in all biblical Christianity, God is always at work in us to will and do all that he commands of us (cf. Phil 2:12-13).  Let’s consider them together.

First, in verse 3-4, Peter gives the wonderful promise that God gives us everything we need for life and godliness.  Therefore, prior to calling for “works,” he points to the boundless reservoirs of grace already available in Christ–and make no mistake, the resources of grace are not a substance acquired from God, but rather the spiritual favor and power that comes from a covenantal union with Christ.  Accordingly, from a genuine knowledge of God in Christ and from his never failing promises, all that the passage calls believers to do is premised on the fact that he has antecedently provided that which he calls (cf John 15:5; Rom 8:32).

Second, this general principle of the imperative following the indicative–which is a most valuable lesson for interpreting the NT epistles and for understanding gospel-powered obedience–is followed up by a more specific textual link between verse 3 and verse 5.  In verse 5, Peter calls Christians to add knowledge to their faith, and virtue.  Later in 2 Peter 3:18, he will close with the command to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  But both of these commands follow from the explicit reality, that God has made himself known to his elect exiles (cf. 1 Pet 1:1).  This is seen in 2 Peter 1:2, where Peter greets his audience as those who know the Lord and are growing in that knowledge.  And in the next verse, he explains that knowledge of God is the instrument by which God supplies the believer with everything they need for life and godliness.

Third, in verses 5-7, when Peter commands us to add to faith, virtue, knowledge,  self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love, there is noticeable move from faith to love (cf. Galatians 5:6), and maybe even a more defined progression from faith to love, through virtue, knowledge, self-control, etc–though it would be hard to make the ordering normative, as much as it is descriptive.  Nevertheless, the main command to supplement these characteristics is retained from verse 5.  Thus, in the process of adding all of these characteristics, comes the necessary dependence on God’s promises and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Furthermore, verses 8-9 serve as an evaluative tool to discern if indeed we are walking in the Spirit, if we are experience the power of God in our Christian life.  They invite the Christian to do a spiritual inventory and to take stock of what is there.  If fruit is lacking, the imperative does not say to go out and find self-control (which is a fruit of the spirit, Gal 5:22) or to self-generate knowledge (which also is a gift, Prov 2:1-7), or to find endurance from within.  Rather, a poor inventory, calls the Christian to go back to the beginning: To believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  From that place of abiding belief, the believer looks to the promises of God and finds help in time of need and promises from God for life-change.  Thus, the evaluation does not call for works divorced from faith, but faith that overflows in good works.

Fourth and last, in verse 10-11, we see Peter’s eschatological promise that those who do these things prove their election in this life.  Genuine believers will be kept from falling and their entrance to the eternal kingdom will be well-furnished.  To stress the point in question, we do not provide an entrance ourselves to heaven, nor are we the ones who are responsible for finding riches to add to that entrance.  Rather, in Christ and through a lifetime of faith in his gospel that overflows into all the attributes listed in verses 5-7, God gives to the believer knowledge, godliness, and love–to only name a few.

Does This Promote Laxity in the Believer?

This heavy emphasis on grace and provision could easily promote laxity, but that would be to misunderstand the point.  God does not motivate with fear; he motivates with fullness.  For those who are full of love (for God and others), they cannot but do all that God commands.  Remember, under the New Covenant, the commandments of God are not burdensome, for those who have been born again.  For those who see the commands of God burdensome, they are either trying to complete them in their flesh, or they do not have any spiritual power with which to complete them.  The result is disinterest and spiritual burnout.  The collective effect of this are bloated church rolls with names of people who had a religious experience but who never experienced the power of conversion.

The Bible motivates obedience differently.  Just as God gives eternal life, he gives good works for the believer to do (Eph 2:10).  He bears fruit in the life of his Spirit-filled saints (Gal 5:22-23).  He gives spiritual gifts for the purpose of edifying (not dividing) the church (1 Cor 12-14).  And he puts desires in the hearts of his saints that he intends for them to pursue with vigor (Ps 37:4; Ezek 36:26-27).

All that to say, what God gives to the believer is not simply the capacity to do good; He gives the will and the power (Phil 2:12-13).  He doesn’t save people for them to do nothing. Born again believers grow and mature–at different rates and with different results.  But all spiritual children grow to look more and more like their Father in heaven.

Returning to our text, Christians’ entrance into God’s kingdom (at the end of the age) will be richly provided, because God has supplied them with the sanctifying fruits of knowledge, godliness, and love.  Still, while such things are provided by God, they still must be exercised by the believer; hence the serious charge to make ones calling and election sure.  Do not be lethargic.  Press into these realities.  Exercise the life God has given to you for the greater display of his glory!  And still, with that balance in place, at the end of the age, all that the believer has done in his obedience is attributed primarily not to deserving children of God, but the amazing grace of God, and the fact that he supplies all that he solicits.

Conclusion: God Supplies All That He Solicits

In the end, 2 Peter 1:3-11 does not promote a system of faith in God plus good works by man.  Instead, the true believer is walk by faith in all ages of their life, from faith to faith, they are to add virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love, so that their faith is not unadorned (cf. James 2).  Moreover, they are to add to their faith these things, because God has provided them in abundance for the believer, and such is the call of all genuine disciples of Christ–to do all that he instructs–so that we might be more like him.

May we not be afraid to evaluate our lives by 2 Peter 1:5-7, and when we find ourselves lacking–and we will–may we go back to the gospel promises found in verses 3-4 before working harder to do better.  The richness of our heavenly homecoming is not based on how much good WE do for God in this life, it is how much GOD has done for us as we trust in him day-in and day-out.  God calls us not to create these good deeds but to walk in them.  So walk in a manner worthy of gospel, letting your faith grow into all manners of Christ-exalting love.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Gospel Logic from Psalm 103

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Gospel Logic Remembers God’s Covenant Faithfulness.

This week we have been taking especial note of the way biblical characters think.  Since our mind is the seat of all change in our lives, and because God’s word has called us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:1-2), and because God has supplied us in his Word with all that we need for cognitive transformation (2 Pet 1:3-4; cf. Ps 19:7-11), we ought to think often about how we can fill our minds with gospel truths, and to know where to find such thoughts when times of trouble come–and they will come.

One of those places of personal gospel proclamation is Psalm 103. Today, we are simply going to point out a nine truths from Psalm 103–truths that have the power to lift weary souls and engender hope in the hearts of the desperate.

Gospel Logic speaks to himself; it does not listen to himself (v. 1).

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!

Gospel Logic reminds oneself of the comfort that memory brings; poor memory is one of the first steps towards misery (v. 2). 

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, . . . 

Gospel Logic recalls God’s history of personal faithfulness (v. 3-5).

Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Gospel Logic revisits God’s history of redemptive faithfulness (v. 6-7).

The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.

Gospel Logic ruminates on the name and character of God (v. 8-12) 

The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Gospel Logic does not try to make oneself larger, smarter, or more succesful in order to find security or comfort; rather, it embraces and admits weakness and delights in God’s unconditional electing love for them (v. 13-14).  

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

Gospel Logic reasons that this trial is short-lived and will not pass into the new creation; meanwhile the promise of God’s eternal weight of glory keeps our hearts anchored to God’s goodness (v. 15-19).

As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.

Gospel Logic does not try to reduce God’s sovereignty, it does not delight in man’s free will.  It delights in the One whose reign is absolute and meticulous (v. 19).

The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.

Gospel Logic offers a sacrifice of praise based on God’s infinite worth, not based on the presence of joy in my heart.  Whether we feel it or not, God is radiantly beautiful, and he is always worthy of worship. (v. 20-22)

Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will! Bless the LORD, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!

May we read Psalm 103 today and be spurred on towards love and good deeds as we hear the gospel: Soul, bless the Lord!  And forget not all of his benefits… Such gospel logic will sustain us in this life, and it will find eternal expression in the age to come.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Gospel Logic in Psalm 42-43

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Gospel Logic Replaces Personal Sorrow with Heavenly Promises.  

Nowhere is this method of mental and emotional exchange more evident than in Psalm 42-43. Following the train of thought begun with the gospel logic of Abraham and Moses, today we will turn from descriptive prose to two enumerated lists to unpack the plight experienced by the sons of Korah, as well as the promises that these descendents of Levite looked to in order to find hope.

Six Causes for Spiritual Depression

In his exposition on Psalm 42, James M. Boice designates six causes of spiritual depression.  This is not an exhaustive list in these Psalms or in life, but they are real and prevalent among Christians striving for godliness.  According to Boice, the Psalmist is in the depth of despair as a result of . . .

  1. Forced absence from the temple of God, where God was worshiped (42:1-2).
  2. The taunts of unbelievers (42:3, 10).
  3. Memories of better days (42:4).
  4. The overwhelming trials of life (42:7).
  5. Failure of God to act quickly on our behalf (42:9).
  6. Attacks from ungodly, deceitful, and wicked persons (43:1).
Add to this list any personal maladies, physical pains, relational strife, and just the stuff of life, and you will find that the concoction in Psalm 42-43 is enough to plunge anyone into the depths of despair.  Yet, Psalm 42-43 is not just an example of how a Christian complains.  It is an example of how a hurting Christian hopes!  Like Abraham and Moses, he reasons from the gospel an exchanges deadly thoughts for thoughts of life and light.

Four Spirit-Powered Acts of Faith

Godly living depends entirely on the grace of God to reach us and sustain us.  Unless God takes the first step, we would remain spiritual dead and buried by the avalanche of our own despair.  However, for those who have received the light of life and the power of the Holy Spirit who “causes us to walk in God’s statutes,” there is an invitation and indeed an expectation that children of God who have the spirit of adoption prompting them to pray would take ahold of God’s and draw near to the father by faith in order to find grace (cf. 2 Cor 4:6; Ezek 36:26-27; Rom 8:16-17; James 4:8; Heb 4:14-16).

This is exactly what we find in Psalm 42-43.  For sake of space and time, we will only focus on Psalm 42:5-11.

  1. Gospel Logic speaks to your soul; it does not listen (v. 5). The Psalms beckon us to talk to ourselves.  Often when we see people talking to themselves, we can think that they are a little crazy.  However, Psalms like this one and others (cf. Ps 103) teach us that the crazy ones are those who simply listening to the nagging, complaining, angry voices that ricochet in their heart.  God’s word gives us soothing, healing, liberating truths that free us from sin and enable us to run to Christ.  Like the Gerasene demoniac, when we listen to God’s words we will find a peace that we previously did not know (Mark 4).  Therefore, continue to give ear to God’s word.  Learn how to preach the promises–not the law–to yourself!  Talk to others who have learned the art of speaking the gospel to themselves, and then go do likewise.
  2. Gospel Logic inquires of the heart, but is not ensnared by the heart (v. 6). Gospel logic does not tell you “to fake it until you make it.”  Rather, it calls us to assess the condition of my heart, but not to be mastered by my heart and the polluted feelings that emit from it.  God has given us feelings as a thermometer for the spiritual condition of our inner self.  But notice, while the heart takes the temperature of our spiritual condition, it should not set the temperature.  God’s word and the Holy Spirit should.  Our heart is desperately sick and incapable of giving me a good reading on how I am doing.  Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:4 that even if “I am not aware of anything against myself, . . .  I am not thereby acquitted.”  Likewise, John insinuates that at times his heart condemns him, but that God is greater than his heart (1 Jn 3:19-20).  Do you see what Paul, John, and the Korahites are saying? Inquire of your heart, but do not become ensnared by it.  Look to God’s gospel, and live your life in its liberating light.  “It is for freedom that Christ has set you free!” (Gal 5:1; cf. John 8:32).
  3. Gospel Logic dwells on God’s whereabouts, not yours (v. 6-10).  Too often, we let external circumstances determine our demeanor, our decisions, and the level of our despair.  Psalm 42-43 does the opposite.  In a land far from God’s dwelling place, it remembers the goodness of the Lord in the dwelling of his temple, and it hopes again that a day of return is coming.  While the devil and his minions taunt us, our hope is not found in our conditions, but in our Christ.  And as Romans 8:32 promises, there is nothing that God will not give to those for whom Christ died.  Take heart. Look to back to the cross. Look ahead to the new creation.  Stop looking around to judge your feelings.  Look up (Ps 121)! Look ahead. Those who endure with Christ, will be received in Christ!
  4. Gospel Logic repeats the promises of God until truth conquers fear (v. 11). We are always tempted to quit.  We read God’s word for a day or maybe two and we can expect immediate change.  However, it doesn’t usually work that way.  God’s word often works in slower, more imperceptible ways.  It works the way a healthy diet cleanses the blood and strengthens the heart.  It renews the mind over time, rarely does the onset of Bible reading function like a blood transfusion or a heart transplant.  Thus, keep reading!  Keep memorizing!  Keep listening to sermons!  Don’t give up.  God never abandons his word and he never abandons those who seek him in the regular reading of his word.

Let these encouragements press you back to the Bible, and from the Bible back to the Lord.  Too many times I encounter “good Christians” whose lives are in shambles because they are wallowing in the mire, instead of lifting their Bibles and trusting the words God has given them.  They know the key, but they fail to apply it to the lockers of their heart.  Yet, I believe if they would only take up God’s word and read they would find the solace and strength that they so desire.

Friend, let us plunge ourselves into the living water of God’s word and find how satisfying his word truly is.  As Psalm 119:25 urges, “My soul clings to dust; give me life according to your word!”

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Moses’ Gospel Logic

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Yesterday, we saw how Abraham wrestled with God’s word in order to believe his promise (Gen 15:6) and to sacrifice his son (Gen 22:1ff).  We called such thinking that gave precedence to God’s revelation over our reasonable (or unreasonable) feelings “Gospel Logic.”  Today, we turn to Exodus 32 to see how Moses engaged in the same kind of thinking.

A Sinful People in Need of Something…

1 Corinthians 10 points to Exodus 32 as a universal example of what not to do. Poised to receive God’s order of service for true worship, Israel gets impatient (Exod 32). They hire Aaron to make new gods, and on one of the forty days that Moses in on the Mount of Sinai, the people of Israel sin against God and break the covenant that had just been ratified in Exodus 24.

On the mountain, Moses receives word from the Lord, “And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'” (Exod 32:7-8).

What is Moses to do?

On the way down the mountainside, he hears the drunken sound of pagan worship in the camp (32:18-20).  He gets to the base camp, and he smashes the tablets.  The covenant is broken.  In the scenes that follow, Moses inquires of Aaron (32:22-24) and commissions the sons of Levi to slaughter their own family members in order to avert the wrath of God (32:25-29).  The day is done.  The people are undone.  Night falls.

Exodus 32:30 records a new day.  The day of judgment has passed, but the threat of the plague remains (v. 35).  What will Moses do?  Surely he was thinking the same thing.  The covenant people of Israel have broken their wedding vows, and something must be done.  Not a passive man, Moses sets off to inquire of God telling the people, “You have sinned a great sin.  And I will go up to the Lord, . . . ” (32:30).

What would he do?  What would he say?  The rest of verse tells us, “perhaps I can make atonement for your sins.”

Atonement.  This is what the people needed.  But how would he accomplish this.  The plans for the tabernacle were destroyed.  The sin was so great, and God’s holiness was so much greater what would he do?  How would he plead his case?  Such questions lead us to see how Moses reckoned the matter, and in his offer, we will see how gospel logic at work.

Moses Gospel Logic: From Sinai to Eden and Back Again

To understand fully how Moses might have arrived at his self-sacrificing offer, we need to consider the antecedent theology that Moses would have had, and that he would have drawn upon to plead his case and make his offer.

Atonement, and the need for blood sacrifice, was common throughout the ancient near east.  Accordingly, Israel as they worshiped around the golden altar made sacrifices.  While they needed divine instruction for true sacrifices, they did not need information on how to sacrifice.  While they did not have the book of Exodus, they had ample knowledge of the sacrifices offered In Egypt.

But where did these come from?  From God, where else?  Pagan sacrifices are echoes of the first sacrifice, the one God made in the Garden.  Indeed, sacrifice in general terms was imprinted on human civilization from the Garden of Eden forward. Remember: When Adam and Eve sinned they needed a covering, and so God killed an animal an clothed them.  The seed of substitution was sown in this act, and it was passed from God to Adam to Abel.

(For a biblical exposition of these patriarchal and pagan sacrifices, see William Symington, On the Atonement and Intercession of Jesus Christ [1834], pp. 66-92; likewise, for a helpful explanation of the way pagan worship corresponds to the original pattern passed down from Adam and Noah, see Jeffrey Niehaus, Ancient Near Eastern Themes in Biblical Theology)

As the biblical testimony goes, not all offerings were of equal value.  In Genesis 4, Abel’s offering was based on his faith (Heb 11), but what was his faith in?  Surely, it based on the revelation conveyed to Cain and Abel’s parents, modeled in Genesis 3, that said bloodshed was needed. By contrast, Cain’s offering was faithless, because he refused to believe the need for shed blood.  Instead of substitutionary offering, he brought fruit from the field.  His offering was not according to God’s word, it did not substitute life for life, and thus it was not acceptable to the Lord.

If Moses was indeed retracing the history of God’s atonement and means of provision, he would have next thought of Abraham and Isaac.  In what would become Genesis 22, YHWH commands Abraham to offer his son. This is far more than an animal sacrifice, something Abraham (and Moses) had done plenty of times.  Now, God was upping the ante.  He was testing Abraham (22:1), and he was setting in redemptive history a portrait of a substitution—a divinely provided lamb in place of Abraham’s seed (people of faith).

Like Abel, Abraham had to make this offering in faith–faith in God’s word.  As we saw yesterday, this is exactly what God’s friend did.  Thus, he believed that God could raise his son from the dead.  If indeed Moses was pondering all that God had revealed to him in the law on Sinai, and all that God had done in Israel’s history, it is little wonder that Moses concluded that perhaps his own substitution might become the means by which Israel would be saved.

Putting this gospel logic in dramatic prose, James M. Boyce imagines what the night might have been like,

The night passed, and the morning came when Moses was to reascend the mountain.  He had been thinking.  Sometime during the night a way that might possibly divert the wrath of God against the people had come to him.  He remembered the sacrifices of the Hebrew patriarchs and the newly instituted sacrifice of the Passover.  Certainly God had shown by such sacrifices that he was prepared to accept an innocent substitute in place of the just death of the sinner.  His wrath could sometimes fall on the substitute.  Perhaps God would accept… When morning came, Moses ascended the mountain with great determination. Reaching the top, he began to speak to God (Quoted in Philip Graham Ryken, Exodus, 1013).

Concluding Thoughts

Like Abraham, Moses practiced Gospel Logic.  He reflected on the character of God, God’s revealed word, the sin of the people, and like Abraham who reckoned that God could raise the dead, Moses conjectured, maybe, just maybe God might take me in place of my people.  So Moses, with boldness and selfless love for God’s sinful people laid himself on the altar: “No if you would on forgive their sin.  But if not”–and here is where the offer comes–“please me from the book You have written” (Exod 32:32).

In the end, his offer is not accepted (32:33-34), but not because the idea is wrong, but because the substitute is blemished.  Even though Moses was not complicit in the crime, he was a son of Adam and by nature incapable of atoning for the sins of the people.  Relatively speaking, he was innocent, but time would reveal that in his own heart lay a dark distrust for God and a willingness to strike the rock when God said speak (Num 20:10-13).

Moses was not the perfect substitute.  Yet, his intercession foreshadows the one whose self-sacrifice would be accepted.  Moses receives God’s word to continue to lead the people which implies that the story will continue, the hope of the true Messiah remains. This is good news for Moses, Israel, and us.  And Moses example of wrestling with the Lord like Abraham and Jacob should remind us to press into the truths of God’s word and to find solace in the darkest nights.

When God’s wrath was ready to consume Israel, Moses Gospel Logic reckoned that “perhaps” he could intercede.  We must reckon in the same fashion, not that we can intercede for others (although see Paul in Romans 9).  No, we must reckon with greater  confidence that because in Jesus Christ there is no “perhaps,” all that we ask in his name will be accomplished.  This is God’s promise to us in John 14:13-14, and it is based on the inexhaustible merits of Christ.  In his priestly service, Jesus was gladly received by the Father, and as the Father’s beloved Son, all that he does and asks, is answered.  This is our good news.

May such knowledge of our great high priest comfort us today, and beckon us not to lose heart for tomorrow.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Abraham’s Gospel Logic

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Abraham’s Gospel Logic

If we define Gospel Logic as the mental act of interpreting life in light of God’s promises, the first major figure in the Bible who engaged in the activity was Abraham.

Called from worshiping idols in Ur, to become the father of God’s chosen race, Abraham was a man who must have grappled with God’s unfolding plan of redemption through his lineage.  Coming out of his pagan background, Genesis 12-22 shows the unfolding of God’s covenant relationship with Abraham.

Genesis 12, 15 and Romans 4

In Genesis 12, YHWH gives Abraham a three-fold promise: a land, a people, and his blessing.  The rest of Genesis, indeed the rest of the Bible, unfolds this tripartite promise.  In Genesis 15, YHWH comes to Abraham, who is still childless, and he tells him again that he will have offspring.  Genesis 15:6 records this pregnant statement: “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”  God’s promissory word came to Abraham in power.  The patriarch believed, and the rest of the Bible points to this man as the father of faith because of his trust in God’s word (offspring that would outnumber the stars), not his present circumstance (childlessness).

In this simple retelling, it is evident that Abraham had already started the activity of Gospel Logic.  He looked at his body, as good as dead Romans 4 tells us, and in spite of his sagging skin and aching joints, he believes God.  Romans 4:18 quotes from Genesis 15:5, and Paul comments, “He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barreness of Sarah’s womb.  No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised” (Rom 4:19-21).

Clearly, the way in which Abraham came to faith was not because of some magical experience which made him believe out of sheer serendipity.  Rather, he wrestled with the promises of God in his mind, and he cast aside doubt on the basis of God’s greater word.  Reality became God’s promise, not his own perception.  This is Gospel Logic.

Genesis 22: An Unbelievable Test of Abraham’s Belief

Later, this kind of Gospel Logic would be tested again. In Genesis 22:1, Moses records the fact that God was going to test Abraham.  In an event that baffles the modern reader, Abraham is requested to offer up his son as a sacrifice on Mt. Moriah.  Without getting sidetracked on the ethics or repeatable nature of this passage (for the record: this is an inimitable request), Abraham clearly perceived God’s intention and command.

Promptly, the aged patriarch set off with his young son.  Genesis 22:3-5 records,

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

Now Moses obviously is selective in his record-keeping, but it is evident that something happened in Abraham’s mind between God’s initial command (v. 2) and Abraham’s statement to his caravan that he would return with the son whom he was intent upon killing  (v. 5). What was it?  What kind of mental process enabled Abraham to obey God, and with such confidence tell the world, that his son would live? Hebrews 11 tells us.

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Thru Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered (logizomai) that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau (v. 17-19).

As in the case of Abraham’s justifying faith, Abraham’s obedience exhibited the same Gospel Logic.  Abraham knew that God’s command was irrecovable, but he also knew that the salvation of the world (i. e. blessing to the nations) was dependent on his son of promise.  Now, he did not know how these two things reconciled, but he knew that God would not overturn his promise.  Thus, he reasoned that God could raise the dead, and as Hebrews says, “figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”

The Takeaway

There is an incredibly important lesson here: Christians are not called to obey based on what they see.  They are called to obey what they hear.  Today, we look not for God’s revelation through angelic visions or extra-biblical commands.  No.  But we do look to the word of God, and in God’s sufficient Scripture, we have many imperatives and wise counsel to live in a way that will call us to decisions that are based on God’s unseen promises, not our visible provisions.

This is the Christian life.  And it demands Gospel Logic.  Reasoning from God’s word unto our life circumstances in such a way, that we, like Abraham, believe that God will figuratively speaking raise us from the dead, as we daily carry our cross and die with Christ.  In this way, the gospel of Christ comes alive to us, and the world around us sees a visible display of Christ’s sufficiency for us, even in our poverty.

Abraham’s examples is a powerful one.  He helps us see what true faith is.  It is not passive in any way.  It is deeply Scriptural, and one that calls us to think deeply about God’s word, with the absolute confidence that what we think about, God will reveal to us, as his Spirit leads us by his Word.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss