Christianity certainly did not just “grow up”; it was founded. And subsequently to its founding, it has not “run wild,” gone off in this or that direction according as some contentless “informing spirit” or “germinal life” within it may have chanced to lead it; it has been held strictly, more strictly than any other religious movement, to its fundamental type, by constant references back to its foundations. For whatever reason, on whatever ground, it has kept a constant check upon itself lest it should depart from type, and has shown an amazing power, after whatever aberrations, continually to return to type. Its eye has been fixed not merely in forward gaze but in backward as well. It has manifested a unique capacity of growth, justifying its Founder’s comparison of it to the mustard-seed and to the leaven; but, after all is said as to the transformations it has suffered, its slacknesses, its degenerations, its failures, its growth has lain not in the gradual development of a content for itself, but in the steadily increasing assimilation of its environment to itself. – B.B. Warfield in The Essence of Christianity
Author: Josh King
Matthew 5:17-20 & Fulfillment
This is one of the most difficult passages in the gospels… in the Bible. Some may think that Jesus is easy reading and that it is Paul who is difficult, but I wonder if they have ever read Jesus, and if they have, if they really pay attention to what He says or just read Him in a light superficial manner. If you think Jesus was just an ethical teacher and Paul was the theologian, think again.
But don’t let this passage intimidate you. It is crucial, for at least three reasons. It is crucial for understanding :
- The Sermon on the Mount. The phrase “law and the prophets” appears again in 7:12; this forms an inclusio (think something like parentheses). They let us know what this whole section is about.
- How the Old Testament relates to the New Testament.
- How the law relates to the Christian.
As I entered into my study of this text I was excited about this passage because I knew it was a passage that influences my basic approach to the Bible. An approach that a children’s story bible nails, and sadly many ministers fail to realize.
Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn’t mainly about you and what you should be doing. It’s about God and what he has done.
Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but (as you’ll soon find out) most of the people in the Bible aren’t heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose), they get afraid and run away. At times, they’re downright mean.
No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne-everything-to rescues the ones he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life!
You see, the best thing about this Story is-it’s true.
There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling on Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.
It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in the puzzle-the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture. – Sally Lloyd-Jones in The Jesus Storybook Bible
Jesus fulfills all Scripture. Some 16 times Matthew will use “fulfilled” in regard to Jesus, we have seen it several times already (Matthew 1:22; 2:15, 17, 23; 4:14). The excitement over this truth remained for me as I studied, but desperate prayers were turned to God in trying to understand how verses 18-20 related to verse 17. Simplistic answers at how the law relates to the Christian fall flat here. Some chop the law into three sections; moral, civil, and ceremonial. They will say the moral law remains, but the civil and ceremonial law have been done away with. There are some problems with this; we never see this kind of division hinted at anywhere in the Bible, the first mention of it come from Aquinas, and it doesn’t gel well with what Jesus is saying here about not one iota or dot.
The best help I received and pass onto you is R.T. France’s helpful paraphrase.
Do not suppose that I came to undermine the authority of the OT scriptures, and in particular the law of Moses. I did not come to set them aside but to bring into reality that to which they pointed forward. I tell you truly: the law, down to its smallest details, is as permanent as heaven and earth and will never lose its significance; on the contrary, all that it points forward to will in fact become a reality (and is now doing so in my ministry). So anyone who treats even the most insignificant of the commandments of the law as of no value and teaches other people to belittle them is an unworthy representative of the new regime, while anyone who takes them seriously in word and deed will be a true member of God’s kingdom.
But do not imagine that simply keeping all those rules will bring salvation. For I tell you truly; it is only those whose righteousness of life goes far beyond the old policy of literal rulekeeping which the scribes and Pharisees represent who will prove to be God’s true people in this era of fulfillment.
So it isn’t that we toss parts of the law as unimportant, but that we realize their full significance in light of Jesus. The law then must be read not through a threefold division grid, but in light of Jesus and His fulfilling it.
Tolle Lege: Give them Grace
Readability: 1
Length: 167 pp
Author: Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jessica Thompson
I was deeply convicted while I read Give them Grace, but I also was freshly reminded of the grace that is in Christ. I expected to find great ways to shepherd my children to Jesus from so highly a commended book (Tullian Tchividjian says it is the best book on parenting he has read), I wasn’t disappointed, but I didn’t expect to be so powerfully reminded of the gospel myself. But this is the ways it must be. You must know grace to preach grace. I concur with Tullian, Give them Grace is now my first book recommendation on parenting.
One of the reasons we don’t share this story [the gospel] with our children is that it doesn’t resonate deeply in our own hearts.
We need much less of Veggie Tales and Barney and tons more of the radical, bloody, scandalous message of God made man and crushed by his Father for our sin.
If a Mormon can parent the same way you do, your parenting isn’t Christian.
We long to be told, “You are good!” but only Jesus Christ and those clothed in his goodness deserve to hear it. And if we really embrace this truth, our parenting will be transformed from wishful deception to powerful grace. It will make our parenting Christian. Our children aren’t innately good, and we shouldn’t tell them that they are. But they are loved and if they truly believe that, his love will transform them.
Yes, a new day when everything will be put to rights will come, but in the meantime, while we’re living in the not yet, we need grace. And we don’t need it just a tiny bit; no, the truth is we are desperate for buckets of it. We need it every hour of every day. We need it when we remember that we need it and we need it when all we can see before us is futility and trouble and disappointment.
So, when you have that morning to top all mornings, when everything that could possibly go wrong does, when grace doesn’t mean anything to you, it is his grace that will sustain you. What mornings like these teach us is that we’re just like our children. They forget, and so do we. They need grace, and so do we. We are partners in grace with them.
The Pugilist: Christianity Without Redemption a Contradiction
A Christianity without redemption – redemption in the blood of Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for sin – is nothing less than a contradiction in terms. Precisely what Christianity means is redemption in the blood of Jesus. – B.B. Warfield in Christless Christianity
Matthew 5:13-16 & You Were Made For Greatness
I suppose in our American Idol culture many read these verses, even many Christians, and are not be shocked by them. We are burned out, broken, and blackened bulbs that believe themselves to be quasars. We hear truths like, “you were made for greatness” and think “of course – my own;” but “you were made for greatness” does not mean “you are greatness.” The statement is not meant to curl you in upon yourself, but unfurl you to a transcendent glory.
Here is the shock, that He who is full of glory, grace, and truth, He who is the Light of the World (John 8:12), turns to His disciples, the spiritually bankrupt, and tells them that they are the light of the world. Jesus’ disciples, who are characterized by the beatitudes, do not respond to such a statement with a casual shrug, but a dropped jaw. They respond, “I was darkness, and Jesus tells me not ‘be the light’, but ‘you are the light’. This is the gospel. This is shocking!”
When others see this light they are to give glory to our Father in heaven, our Father who is above, transcendent, sitting on His heavenly throne enveloped in glory. We do the good works, but He gets the glory – what gives? God is not robbing glory. All of our doing is a result of His work in us by the Holy Spirit because of Jesus Christ. When our light shines others don’t see how wonderful we are, but how glorious our God is. This light is not our own. Jesus remains the Light of the World.
Some have said that we are moons; that the glory is not our own, we simply reflect. I like that analogy, but the language here goes farther than that. We are not just polished surfaces for light to bounce off of; no, the light pierces our dark hearts and transforms us from within. The light does not bounce off of the surface, but comes from the inside out. The Light invades and transforms; the Spirit of Christ picks up the shattered pieces of the mirror of the soul, repairs them, and then wipes off the black film.
Burned out, broken, and blackened bulbs do become quasars but the light is not our own.
The emanation or communication of the divine fullness, consisting in the knowledge of God, love to him, and joy in him, has relation indeed both to God and the creature: but it has relation to God as its fountain, as the thing communicated is something of its internal fullness. The water in the stream is something of the fountain; and the beams of the sun are something of the sun. And again, they have relation to God as their object: for the knowledge communicated is the knowledge of God; and the love communicated, is the love of God; and the happiness communicated, is joy in God. In the creature’s knowing, esteeming, loving, rejoicing in, and praising God, the glory of God is both exhibited and acknowledged, his fullness is received and returned. Here is both an emanation and remanation. The refulgence shines upon and into the creature, and is reflected back to the luminary. The beams of glory come from God, are something of God, and are refunded back again to their original. So that the whole is of God, and in God, and to God; and he is the beginning, and the middle, and the end. – Jonathan Edwards in The End for which God Created the World
Yes, you were made for greatness; it’s just not your own.
Tolle Lege: Bloodlines
Readability: 2
Length: 267 pp
Author: John Piper
Bloodlines deals with an impressive array of issues concerning racism and ethnicity, but its chief value does not lie there. Rather Piper attacks the issue of racism with the biggest gun possible from multiple angels, the gun that will ultimately entirely annihilate racism – the gospel. Oh what a joy to finish a book loving diversity more and loving the gospel more. Biblical, theological, personal, emotional, practical, and more – this book is well worth the read.
Racial harmony is a blood issue, not just a social issue.
The bloodline of Jesus Christ is deeper than the bloodlines of race. The death and resurrection of the Son of God for sinners is the only sufficient power to bring the bloodlines of race into the single bloodline of the cross.
I believe that the gospel—the good news of Christ crucified in our place to remove the wrath of God and provide forgiveness of sins and power for sanctification—is our only hope for the kind of racial diversity and harmony that ultimately matters. If we abandon the fullness of the gospel to make racial and ethnic diversity quicker or easier, we create a mere shadow of the kingdom, an imitation. And we lose the one thing that can bring about Christ-exalting diversity and harmony. Any other kind is an alluring snare. For what does it profit a man if he gains complete diversity and loses his own soul?
And together with every other race, whites are killing their babies and wallowing in their porn and taking their illegal drugs and leaving their wives and having babies without marriage. The difference is that when you develop patterns of sin in the majority race, they have no racial connotation. Since majority people don’t think of themselves in terms of race, none of our dysfunctions is viewed as a racial dysfunction. When you are the majority ethnicity, nothing you do is ethnic. It’s just the way it’s done. When you are a minority, everything you do has color.
[T]he gospel of Jesus does not enter controversy as another ideology or philosophy or methodology for social improvement. It enters like dynamite. It enters as the power of the Creator to reconcile people to himself and supernaturally make them new.
Hand in glove with the doctrine of our disabling depravity is the doctrine of God’s effective purchase of his people on the cross. The reason it’s like hand and glove is that our inability because of sin calls for a kind of redemption that does more than offer us a forgiveness we don’t have the ability to receive. Rather, it calls for a redemption that effectively purchases not only our forgiveness but also our willingness to receive it. In other words, the unwilling glove of depravity calls for the insertion of a powerful hand of ability-giving redemption.
WTS Books: $13.55 Amazon:$13.79
[The first video is a trailer for the book, the second is an 18minute documentary.]
The Pugilist: What is Christianity?
To those who think that you can have Christianity (a way of life) without the historical Christ (God-man), Warfield replies:
Unquestionably, Christianity is a redemptive religion, having as its fundamental presupposition the fact of sin, felt both as guilt and as pollution, and offering as its central good, from which all other goods proceed, salvation from sin through an historical expiation wrought by the God-man Jesus Christ. The essence of Christianity has always been to its adherents the sinner’s experience of reconciliation with God through the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ. – B.B. Warfield in Christless Christianity
Matthew 5:1-12 & The Sermon and LOST
The Sermon on the Mount is kind of like the TV series Lost; it is very popular and yet few people know what it actually means. I did say that it is kind of like, because unlike Lost, this sermon does mean something, a great immeasurable something. John Stott commented, “The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best-known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood and certainly it is the least obeyed.”
There have been a variety of approaches to this sermon. I came across lists of 4, 7, 8, and 12 different interpretative approaches. Grant Osborne says there are as many as 36 different interpretations I think the most popular way evangelicals approach the sermon can be seen in how they handle this first section (5:1-12). They add a “t” and subtract the cross. What are the beatitudes? Don’t add a “t”. They are not simply attitudes that you ought to be. Beatitude comes from the Latin beatus, meaning blessed, fortunate, happy. The Beatitudes are a description of the character of the Christian, those who possess the kingdom, the saving reign of God come in our Lord Jesus.
Notice Jesus is directly addressing His disciples (Matthew 5:1-2), though the crowds soon gather around to listen in (Matthew 7:28). Jesus is addressing those who are the salt and light of the world, those who call God Father (Matthew 5:45, 48; 6:1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 15, 18, 26, 32; 7:11).
The Beatitudes then are a description of those who enjoy the favor of God, those who are regenerate and have a new heart. The unregenerate man is incapable of displaying these qualities. He is lost, they lose their meaning for him. To expect the unregenerate man to live the kingdom life described here is heresy. It denies the sinful nature of man and the necessity of regeneration.
The Sermon on the Mount , or as R.T. France better titles it, “The Discourse on Discipleship,” then is not about how we get into the kingdom, but what the kingdom does when it gets into us. It’s not about how we can bring the kingdom, but what the kingdom does when Jesus brings it.
Don’t read the message and forget the Messenger. Normally this is what you want to do during a sermon. You want the preacher to disappear and the Word of God to become prominent. But with Jesus the message is the Messenger, He is the Word of God. When read simply as a new morality, or as the good news itself this sermon is ripped from its greater context in Matthew. The cross is lost and we forget that it is Jesus who came to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21); not just the guilt of them, but the practice of them.
Tolle Lege: The Hidden Life of Prayer
Readability: 3
Length: 123 pp
Author: David McIntyre
Who needs prayer, we have programs?
My prayer is that you would be leaping to read a good, Biblical book on prayer, so let me simply commend this book to you with a prayer:
Oh dear YHWH, forgive us our self-reliance. We fail even cry out like the disciples to learn how to pray? We instead say trite little prayers asking you to bless our human wisdom and power. Father, teach us to want to be taught to pray. May we desire prayer because we desire You, and not because we desire to be masters of another spiritual discipline. Bless this small book recommendation toward this end.
It [prayer] is in one aspect glory and blessedness; in another, it is toil and travail, battle and agony. Uplifted hands grow tremulous long before the field is won; straining sinews and panting breath proclaim the exhaustion of the ‘heavenly footman.’ The weight that falls upon an aching heart fills the brow with anguish, even when the midnight air is chill. Prayer is the uplift of the earth-bound soul into the heaven, the entrance of the purified spirit into the holiest; the rending of the luminous veil that shuts in, as behind curtains, the glory of God. It is the vision of things unseen; the recognition of the mind of the Spirit; the effort to frame words which man may not utter.
Now, do not let any one say that such a life [waiting in prayer] is visionary and unprofitable. The real world is not this covering veil of sense; reality belongs to those heavenly things of which the earthly are mere ‘patterns’ and correspondences. Who is so practical as God? Who among men so wisely directed His efforts to the circumstances and the occasions which He was called to face, as ‘the Son of Man who is in heaven? ‘Those who pray well, work well. Those who pray most, achieve the grandest results.10 To use the striking phrase of Tauler, ‘In God nothing is hindered.’
The equipment for the inner life of prayer is simple, if not always easily secured. It consists particularly of a quiet place, a quiet hour, and a quiet heart.
The prayer of faith, like some plant rooted in a fruitful soil, draws its virtue from a disposition which has been brought into conformity with the mind of Christ.
- It is subject to the Divine will: ’This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us’ (1 John 5:14).
- It is restrained within the interest of Christ: ’Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son’ (John 14:13).
- It is instructed in the truth: ’If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you’ (John 15:7).
- It is energized by the Spirit: ’Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us’ (Eph. 3:20).
- It is interwoven with love and mercy: ’And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses’ (Mark 11:25).
- It is accompanied with obedience: ’Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight’ (1 John 3:22).
- It is so earnest that it will not accept denial: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you’ (Luke 11:9).
- It goes out to look for, and to hasten its answer: ‘The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working’ (James 5:16, RV).
The Pugilist: The Hypocrisy of Liberal Christology
Liberal theologians accuse the early Christians of revising Jesus so that He is more than man because of their predispositions. The Jesus we read of according to them reveals their subjective thoughts concerning Jesus and not objective history. Below Warfield argues that the liberal theologians are guilty of the same crime, they don’t believe in the supernatural, so they revise Jesus to fit their predispositions.
In the absence of all positive proof that Jesus was not what His followers represent Him, we must accept Him as what they represent Him. To refer subjectively to the faith of His followers what they refer objectively to His person, for no other reason than that it would seem to us more natural that He should have been something different — what we choose to think Him rather than what they knew Him to be — is only to be guilty ourselves, in the portrait which we form of Jesus, in an immensely aggravated form, of the fault of which we accuse them. B.B. Warfiled, Concerning Schmiedel’s “Pillar Passages”
No Other Boast 