Monthly Archives: May 2014

What Jesus believed about the Old Testament

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torahMike Matthews writes:

The debate about the Bible’s accuracy is not a secondary, theoretical concern. The integrity of Jesus Christ Himself is at stake. He accepted the Old Testament’s historical accounts as real, and He built His teachings on those facts of history. Here is a list of Christ’s references to various Old Testament events. Interestingly, these are the very events that skeptics have often considered myth:

God’s recent Creation (Mark 10:6–9)
Adam and Eve (Matthew 19:4–5)
Cain’s murder of Abel (Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51)
Noah’s Ark (Luke 17:26)
God’s judgment on the world by a global Flood (Matthew 24:37–39)
Abraham (John 8:56–58)
Lot (Luke 17:28)
Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire (Luke 17:29)
Lot’s wife turned to salt (Luke 17:32)
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—not only historical people but still living in Jesus’ day (Matthew 22:32; see John 4:12)
God spoke to Moses in a burning bush (Mark 12:26)
God fed Israel with manna in the wilderness (John 6:32)
Moses’ authorship of Genesis (Luke 24:27; John 5:46–47)
Moses’ brass serpent healed Hebrew believers of snake bites (John 3:14)
David’s great deeds (Matthew 12:3; Mark 2:5; Luke 6:3)
David’s authorship of psalms (Matthew 22:42–45; Mark 12:35–37; Luke 20:42–44)
King Solomon’s glorious rule (Matthew 12:42)
Elijah’s and Elisha’s unique miracles (Luke 4:25–27)
God delivered Jonah from a great fish (Matthew 12:39–40)
Isaiah’s authorship of the prophetic book bearing his name (Matthew 13:14 citing Isaiah 6:9–10 and John 12:38 citing Isaiah 53:1)
Daniel’s authorship of the prophetic book bearing his name (Matthew 24:15)

What is the will of God for my life?

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The Secret Things of the Lord from “What is the will of God for my life?” I say, remember that the Bible uses the word “will of God” in several different ways. The first way in which we talk about the will of God is what we call the decretive will; and the decretive will of God is that will of God by which God sovereignly brings to pass whatsoever He wills. Sometimes it’s called the absolute will of God.

Sometimes it’s simply called the sovereign will of God. Sometimes it’s called in theology the efficacious will of God. But normally, we talk about the decretive will of God. That is, when God decrees sovereignly that something should come to pass, it must needs come to pass.

The Bible frequently speaks about the determinate counsel of God. Where, when God has decreed from all eternity that Christ should die on the cross in Jerusalem at a particular time in history, it must needs come to pass. It comes to pass through the determinate counsel or will of God. That’s what we’re talking about when we’re talking about the decretive will of God. That will that God brings to pass by the sheer power of His sovereignty. It’s irresistible—it has to happen. When God calls the world into existence, it comes into existence. It cannot not begin, the lights cannot not come on when He says, “Let there be light.” That’s the decretive will of God.

Now, we also talk about the preceptive will of God. And we understand that the decretive will of God cannot be resisted. The preceptive will of God not only can be resisted by us, but is resisted all the time. The preceptive will of God is a reference to God’s law, to His commandments. This is the will of God that you not have any other God’s before Him. Now when people call me and they say, “How can I know the will of God for my life?” I want to say to them, “What will are you talking about? Are you talking about the decretive will of God? Are you talking about the hidden will of God?” If you’re talking about the hidden will of God, the first thing you have to understand about the hidden will of God is that it’s hidden.

And when people say to me, “What does God want me to do in this sort of case?” I say, “How do I know? I study theology, but I can’t read God’s mind. All I can do is read God’s Word. And what God’s Word does for me is give me His revealed will. And that’s enough of a task to last me my lifetime trying to sort out everything that is in this book that God has revealed. And if you’re asking me about that I can help you with it. But if you’re asking me about His hidden will you’re asking the wrong person, because I have no earthly idea what is in God’s mind where He has not revealed Himself.”

Now Calvin made his comment at this point, he says, “Where God closes His holy mouth, I will desist from inquiry.” I’ll say that again, “Where God closes His holy mouth, I will desist from inquiry.” Now to translate that into modern nomenclature, we would say something like this, “The hidden will of God is none of your business. That’s why it’s hidden.”

Law and Gospel Illustration

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hortonMichael Horton writes:

This past week has been eventful. On Wednesday, I was returning from a trip out of state and as my plane landed, I saw plumes of smoke across San Diego County. One fire came within a few blocks of our home and Westminster Seminary California. My family, cat, and I left as quickly as we could, checking the news for the safest route and location to evacuate. Courageous firefighters put out the threatening blaze within an hour, so we returned home and stayed alert to the news. Our hearts go out to those who lost their homes and who are still displaced. Nevertheless, like most preachers, I saw in the event a good sermon illustration.

God’s “two words” of command and promise are evidence of his love for us. His law is like the news reports informing our family that the routes we thought first of taking were closed to us because of fires. It’s always hazardous to flee “home base” with so many fires around. You can literally leap from the frying pan into the fire.

Our first response to God’s law is to flee, but we look for safe routes apart from the gospel. Ironically, we flee to some version of the law: observant Jews to Torah and Gentiles to the law written on their conscience. Nevertheless, both fail. There is no passable route. The righteousness of God, it turns out, is not a safe haven.

That’s Paul’s argument in Romans 1-3, concluding in 3:20, “Therefore, no one will be justified by the works of the law, since by the law we become conscious of sin.” The law simply reports the dangerous news. It reveals God’s essential righteousness, by which he must condemn us all, Jew and Gentile alike. Then the good news: “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction (Rom 3:21-22).

Apart from Christ, the righteousness of God terrifies us, but the righteousness from God—the gift of justification—is the best news in the world. “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all” (Rom 11:32).

The law reveals God’s just sentence and the gospel reveals the same God as “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ” (Rom 3:26). God’s law sends everyone fleeing, but only his gospel announces the safe haven. As it turns out, that safe haven is home, but it is Christ who has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame.

And now the law does something else. It not only announces the threat; it guides us in safety. There are still “dangers, toils, and snares.” After we fled our San Diego fire, we were glued to our TV set for ongoing reports of danger. We were also reminded to prepare for loss of power and to stock up on water and provisions. Instead of announcing a threat, these reports gave us important information. It was still different from good news (“The fire is out!”), but it was also different from pure threat (“Evacuate!”).

To change the illustration, we are no longer “under the law” in terms of its judgment. Our relation to the law has changed, because we’ve been relocated from Adam to Christ. And now we hear God’s law not from the mountain that burns with fire, but from Mount Zion, the safe haven where no flame can reach because Christ has extinguished it for us.

In Christ, we discover a Father instead of a Judge. It’s the love of God that tells us to flee, and it’s the love of God that keeps us informed on what we need to do. Even correction is the discipline of a Father who loves us too much to leave us to ourselves. From this safe place, we can hear the law as the good and wise commands of a Father instead of the sentence of a judge.

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest…. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect…. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:18, 22-23, 28-29).