Romans 8:28 – 9:24 (Part 1)

In Romans chapter 9, Romans 9 follows on from Romans 8, and in the latter part of Romans 8, Paul is stating the fact that nothing and no one can separate the true believer from the love of Christ. But this raises a huge question; namely, why is it that not all Jews, the chosen people, have recognized their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ? How can nothing separate God’s people from the love of Christ and many of the Jews be separated from it? That’s exactly the question Paul is seeking to answer in Romans 9.

There are no chapter and verse divisions in the original Greek text, and actually, Paul starts talking about predestination and election in Romans 8. So let’s start at Romans 8:28 reading through to chapter 9 so we can establish the context for Paul’s argument.

Romans 8:
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

In what theologians refer to as “The Golden Chain of Redemption,” God is revealing to us an unbreakable chain that starts in eternity past, goes through time, and on into eternity future. This chain is forged by God Himself, and has five unbreakable links: God foreknows, predestinates, calls, justifies and glorifies.

Notice that there is one ambiguity in the text; something that is not actually stated but is definitely implied – that being the word “all.” Let’s see this clearly by inserting another possible implication by way of contrast, the word “some.”

“For (some) whom He foreknew, He predestined; (some) He predestined, He called; (some) He called, He justified; and (some) He justified, He glorified.”

What kind of comfort and security would that give to us? Would we be able to say “who can separate us from the love of Christ?” I think our answer would have to be, many things could separate us (if the intended implication was the word “some” in this passage). It would make absolutely no sense whatsoever, and certainly would not give us any kind of security in Christ, the very thing Paul is seeking to do in this passage. Instead, I believe 100 out of 100 Bible scholars would all agree that the implication of the text is that all He foreknew, He predestined; all He predestined, He called; all He called, He justified; and all He justified, He glorified.

When I realized this, in my studies, I began to see a key word in this text that opened up much to me. That is the word “called.” Why? Continue reading

Logic in the Pulpit

Pastor John, do you believe there is a place for a preacher to make use of logic in the pulpit? I would like to know your thoughts.

Preaching to a congregation is obviously a very different scenario from teaching a class on logic in a University or Seminary setting. Yet I believe that we as ministers can teach the Scriptures using logical arguments without having to resort to using technical language which the vast majority of folk would not be able to understand.

I am sure that all of us as preachers have at times been guilty of speaking over the heads of our people. Yet one of the ways to remedy this is to simply be constantly aware of this tendency. Then we need to apply the discipline of working out how to say the exact same thing we would say to a group of intellectuals (using the same logic) to the people in the congregation, by using language and explanations which all can follow. This takes work – sometimes a great deal of work. Yet I do believe it is very much possible to bring logic into a sermon.

For instance, when I was preaching on the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16 to our congregation, I spoke of the need to think through what the verse actually said, rather than assume its meaning, which is something we all tend to do. The text reads:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

John 3:16 teaches that God’s love for the world is seen by the giving of His Son so that
all who A (believe in Him)
will not B (perish)
but will have C (eternal life).

There is no possibility of someone believing in Christ and then perishing, but all who believe will have eternal life. That’s what the text clearly teaches.

I then asked the congregation, what does this verse teach us concerning who it is who has the ability to believe?

There was silence for a few seconds while people thought about the answer; but I then answered my own question by saying, “actually the verse teaches us nothing at all about who WILL believe or who CAN believe. All the verse tells us is that those who DO believe will not perish, but will have eternal life.

John 3:16 does not address the question of who has the ability to believe. We might as well ask what the verse teaches us about the correct carpet color for church sanctuaries – why? Because that too is not in any way addressed by the text!

The question of who has the ability to believe is addressed by John elsewhere. For example, earlier in the chapter, Jesus taught that unless a man is born again he cannot see or enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5, 7) and in John 10:26, Jesus said, “you do not believe because you are not My sheep.””

Now in teaching this in the church service, I didn’t use technical language at all or use pie charts and venn diagrams. If I did, I think the vast majority of the people may well have switched off and felt everything was way over their heads (even if it was not). The problem would have been that nothing would have been communicated to the vast majority of people, which would have been a pointless exercise.

Another reason I share this is because I am sure that most in the congregation would not know that they had been presented with interpretation through applying the laws of logic. They simply heard the text interpreted in language they understood (hopefully). And that’s exactly my point. We don’t have to use technical language to communicate with people, and in fact, we should avoid it whenever possible. Perhaps this is what Paul was refering to in 1 Corinthians 1:17; 2:1, 4, 5 when he wrote, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void… And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom… my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

I believe the truths of the Bible can be attested to by the principles of logical reasoning (the Bible is not an illogical book), yet to serve a congregation, the minister needs to present the truth in ways which can be understood by the people – people who may or may not have received a higher form of education.

As one man said,”anyone can make the simple things complex, but it takes genius to make complex things simple.” Yet even if we present the truth precisely and with great simplicity, we need to always remember that it takes the work of the Holy Spirit to write the truth upon the heart.

As Dr. James White says, “many are blinded by their traditions, and those most blinded are those who don’t think they have any.” Our job as preachers is to present the truth as clearly as we can. It is, of course, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who will lead God’s people into all truth. We rest in His ability to do this rather than our own.

The Ministry of Preaching

Preaching takes great courage… If you are called to preach, know this ahead of time, and as an ambassador of Christ, proclaim His word as one of the King’s heralds.

I have gained much from Bryan Chapell’s book, “Christ Centered Preaching.” There he points out, amongst many other things that in 2 Tim. 4:1, 2, the word “preach” is the word for “herald” or “announce” or “proclaim.” It is not a simple word for teaching or explaining. It is what a town crier did when he cried out: “Hear ye, Hear ye, Hear ye!!” It was a message that demanded attention.

As the King’s herald we are to proclaim, “The King has a proclamation of good news for all those who swear allegiance to his throne. Be it known to you that he will give eternal life to all who trust and love his Son.” That is exactly the kind of message we are called to preach.

Preaching is a public exultation. It is not disinterested or cool or neutral. It is passionate about what it says. Yet this heralding contains teaching. We can see this clearly as we look back to 2 Timothy 3:16, where we are told that the Scripture (which gives rise to preaching) is profitable for “teaching.” We can see it also as we look ahead to the rest of 2 Timothy 4:2, where it says, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” So preaching is expository. True preaching is not the opinions of a mere man. It is the faithful exposition of God’s Word.

Luke 24:27 – And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

John 5:39, 40 – You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life.

It is possible to have a high view of the Bible’s authority and miss the entire point of the Bible. Scripture is not telling us what we must do to complete ourselves or make ourselves acceptable to God. The Bible is not a Self Help Book. All the Scriptures are about one organic message – Christ Himself.

If people are simply told that something they DO will fix their problem – that’s not just SUB-Christian but ANTI-Christian. The Gospel is not “DO BETTER!” To proclaim the “Thou shalt nots” without the Source that enables their accomplishment, or His atoning work for us when we fail, is to HIJACK the biblical message.

1 Cor. 2:2 – For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Christ is integral to every passage (understood in its proper biblical context). The message was NOT Jesus Christ and what a good guy He is, or that you and I should act like Him – but Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Galatians 5:11 – But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.

If what we preach would be acceptable in any synagogue, or mosque, or political party club meeting, there is something radically wrong with it! Moralism is not bad in and of itself, but if moralism is all that is communicated, it is a denial of the Christian Gospel. Our mission in preaching is not to offend, but true biblical preaching will offend some.

C. H. Spurgeon once commented, “There have been many destroyed by poisons, given to lull them to sleep; many have been ruined by the cry of “peace, peace,” when there is no peace; hearing gentle things, when they ought to be hearing things that convict their hearts. Cleopatra’s asp was brought in a basket of flowers; and men’s ruin often lurks in fair and sweet speeches. But the Holy Spirit’s comfort is safe, and you may rest on it. Let him speak the word, and there is a reality about it; let him give the cup of consolation, and you may drink it to the bottom; for in its depths there is no residue, nothing to intoxicate or ruin; it is completely safe.” Elsewhere he said, “Little is that ministry worth that never chides you. If God never uses his minister as a ROD, depend upon it he will never use him as a pot of manna, for the rod of Aaron and the pot of manna always go together, and he who is God’s true servant will be both to your soul… If you always enjoy sermons, the minister is not a good steward. He is not acting wisely who deals out NOTHING BUT SWEETS… Christ’s sheep will not be offended by Christ’s voice.”

The true ambassador for Christ feels that he himself stands before God and has to deal with souls in God’s stead as God’s servant, and stands in a solemn place – a place in which unfaithfulness is inhumanity to man as well as treason to God.

Note Paul’s attitude to preaching in his words recorded in 1 Cor 1: 22-24 – For JEWS DEMAND SIGNS and GREEKS SEEK WISDOM, but we preach Christ crucified, a STUMBLING BLOCK to JEWS and FOLLY to GENTILES, but to those who are CALLED, both Jews and Greeks, CHRIST the POWER of GOD and the WISDOM of GOD. (emphasis mine)

Paul did not take a survey of the region where he was about to preach to ask what it was that they wanted to hear. He knew exactly what they wanted to hear. He knew full well that the Jews in the area wanted to see signs and the Greeks wanted to hear wisdom – yet He wrote, “but we preach CHRIST CRUCIFIED.” What he preached was not something that was naturally desirable to the hearer. Yet for those with spiritual eyes to see and ears to hear, Christ indeed IS the true sign and in fact ultimate wisdom. In Christ are hidden all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge. Yet it would take the miracle of heart regeneration for anyone to to see the beauty of Christ and embrace Paul’s message concerning the cross of Christ. He knew long before he ever opened his mouth that what he said would be highly offensive – either a stumbling block or foolishness – to everyone who would ever hear him – except for the group known as “the called.” Here is reformed theology with a vengeance. But let us not miss the important insight Paul’s words here communicate to us. It is clear from this passage that for Paul, it was God Himself who determined what was preached and not rebel sinners!

John Calvin once remarked, “It is a singular privilege that God deigns to consecrate to himself the mouths and tongues of men in order that his voice may resound in them… Christ acts by his ministers in such a manner that he wishes their mouth to be reckoned as his mouth, and their lips as his lips.”

Brothers, this Lord’s Day, may the Lord Jesus Christ be center stage in our hearts, our minds, and our sermons. Let us be bold in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ as heralds who accurately proclaim the message of the King as ones who will one day answer to Him as to how faithfully we carried out that task.

Justification By Faith Alone (Quote)

“The doctrine of justification by faith alone does not imply that you are justified before God because you managed to work up enough faith in and by yourself to believe in Christ, which is impossible in the first place. Rather, the doctrine contrasts faith against works, emphasizing that we are justified by God through faith apart from works. This faith is itself not a work — that is, not a work of man, but a work of God in man.

Faith is a gift of God purchased by Christ for all those whom God has chosen for salvation. It is a gift even though it has been purchased by our Mediator because it is God who sovereignly decreed to save us through this Mediator in the first place. It is God who has sovereignly chosen those whom he would save by his grace through Christ, so that all of salvation is a gift of God — it is a sovereign gift of God, unmerited by man, that at the same time fully satisfies divine justice, since it has been merited by Christ. Thus salvation is from the grace of God alone, through the work of Christ alone, and by means of faith alone (that is, in contrast to works).

Therefore, when discussing the doctrine of justification by faith, we must not portray faith as a condition for salvation that God requires from us, as if we could produce faith in and of ourselves prior to regeneration and apart from the Spirit’s power. So, although it is correct to speak of faith as our necessary response to the gospel, this “response” of faith is in fact one of the very things that Christ’s atonement purchased for his elect, and that God bestows upon his chosen ones by his Spirit. In other words, God is the one who produces this response of faith in his elect.

When Scripture says that salvation is by faith and not by works, it is not throwing out works just to make faith a condition that man must fulfill in order to obtain salvation from God, although this is precisely how the doctrine is frequently but mistakenly portrayed, either by explicit statements or by implication. Faith is not a good work or a condition for salvation that God requires from us before he would do anything to save us; instead, God has already decreed and performed all that is necessary to secure the salvation of his chosen ones, and faith in the gospel is precisely one of those things that he has secured for the elect by the work of Christ, and that he sovereignly produces in their minds when he commands them to believe and summons them to himself by the gospel. There is therefore no place for boasting. Salvation comes from God through Christ alone. We cannot even boast about our faith, since it is a sovereign gift of God, merited by Christ for the elect.” – Vincent Cheung

Before we move on…

Before we move on from the hoopla concerning Rob Bell and his “Love Wins” book (and I would really love to do so), we need to make sure that we as Christians know how to defend the truth. Universalists are seeing Bell’s book as a victory for their cause and to see the book in the Christian community and in Christian bookstores means that it is something we will have to deal with for some time.

Sadly, deceived people, deceive people, and the deception of universalism is gaining in roads into the Church in our day – the inevitable result of man centered religion that stresses the love of God to an extreme. That’s usually what heresy is – truth taken to an extreme.

A little knowledge of Greek can be a dangerous thing and Rob Bell’s handling of the text of Scripture is deplorable, but left un-challenged, it can be used as a tool of deception. Heresy is not a victimless crime.

Greek scholar, Dr. James White has served us all by providing commentary answering the most poignant part of Rob Bell’s book here: