Which came first?

Posted on by
Reply

One of the Most Important Principles in Reading the Bible by John Piper

Sometimes readers of the Bible see the conditions that God lays down for his blessing and they conclude from these conditions that our action is first and decisive, then God responds to bless us.

That is not right.

There are indeed real conditions that God often commands. We must meet them for the promised blessing to come. But that does not mean that we are left to ourselves to meet the conditions or that our action is first and decisive.

Here is one example to show what I mean.

In Jeremiah 29:13 God says to the exiles in Babylon, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” So there is a condition: When you seek me with all your heart, then you will find me. So we must seek the Lord. That is the condition of finding him.

True.

But does that mean that we are left to ourselves to seek the Lord? Does it mean that our action of seeking him is first and decisive? Does it mean that God only acts after our seeking?

No.

Listen to what God says in Jeremiah 24:7 to those same exiles in Babylon: “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.”

So the people will meet the condition of returning to God with their whole heart. God will respond by being their God in the fullest blessing. But the reason they returned with their whole heart is that God gave them a heart to know him. His action was first and decisive.

So now connect that with Jeremiah 29:13. The condition there was that they seek the Lord with their whole heart. Then God will be found by them. But now we see that the promise in Jeremiah 24:7 is that God himself will give them such a heart so that they will return to him with their whole heart.

This is one of the most basic things people need to see about the Bible. It is full of conditions we must meet for God’s blessings. But God does not leave us to meet them on our own. The first and decisive work before and in our willing is God’s prior grace. Without this insight, hundreds of conditional statements in the Bible will lead us astray.

Let this be the key to all Biblical conditions and commands: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13). Yes, we work. But our work is not first or decisive. God’s is. “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

The Humanity of Christ

Posted on by
Reply

In our generation, a battle often rages regarding Christ’s Deity. In the first century, the fact that Jesus was God was a concept often assumed. Due to the widespread influence of the Gnostics, the battle ground in terms of theological ideas was not regarding Christ’s Deity but His humanity. The first Epistle of John is clear evidence of this. “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.”

In the video below, Dane Ortlund interviews Dr. Bruce Ware concerning his new book, “The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Reflections on the Humanity of Christ.” Jesus faced all the challenges that we face as humans, and yet he remained faithful to his Father through the power of the Holy Spirit. Dr. Ware helps us to explore Christ’s nature and to learn, through the same Spirit, to follow in His steps.

The questions posed are as follows (with time references):

00:30: What drove you (Bruce Ware) to write this book?

01:50: You start the book with a discussion of Philippians 2. Why did you choose to reference Philippians? Help us especially understand what it means when Paul says that Jesus “emptied himself” and became a servant.

03:57: When I (Dane Ortlund) think about the supernatural things Jesus did, my default mode is to think that Jesus is “falling back on his deity.” Help us understand the way you deconstruct and provide a corrective to that logic.

06:23: You have a chapter in the book that discusses Christ’s impeccability. What does it mean that Jesus was impeccable and how does that connect to his humanity? What does that mean for believers today?

09:25: Why did Jesus have to come as a man and not a woman?

11:43: What would you say to a woman who says to you, “Ok Dr. Ware, Jesus came as a male. Is it not true then that Jesus doesn’t really understand me as a woman?”

14:00: Why did Jesus have to come and be a man to save us? I can understand why only God could save me, but why did the second person of the trinity also need to become fully human and, it seems, do what Psalm 49 says can’t be done?

18:13: Is Jesus still a man today?

20:08: Why is knowing that Jesus’s incarnation is not a “parenthesis” cause for worship?

Dr. Bruce Ware introduces his forthcoming book, “The Man Christ Jesus” from Crossway on Vimeo.

HT: JT

Friday Round Up

Posted on by
Reply

(1) Science, properly understood, is no enemy to the truth. Scientism, on the other hand, often over reaches. This article explains.

(2) Some quotes:

“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.” – G.K. Chesterton

“There are no sinners from whom sin was transferred to Christ on the cross, to whom Christ’s righteousness will not be transferred to them by grace.” – Justin Edwards

“There would be no manifestation of God’s grace or true goodness, if there was no sin to be pardoned, no misery to be saved from.” – Jonathan Edwards

“The ascension of Jesus was the supreme political event of world history.” – R.C. Sproul

“The very assertion that a Christian can lose their salvation is tantamount to saying that what Christ accomplished on the cross was insufficient to save completely and, as such, you would need to trust (partly) in yourself to either attain or maintain your own just standing before God.” – John Hendryx

(3) There’s a variety of resources in this week’s Friday Ligonier $5 sale worth considering. Especially recommended are “The Truth of the Cross” audio book and “Five Things every Christian should know” CD series, both by Dr. Sproul. They can be found here.