Josh King

Tolle Lege: Tempted and Tried

Readability: 1

Length: 196 pp

Tempted and Tried is an excellent book. What makes its such? Moore is an excellent writer and has a penchant for peculiar illustrations and bizarre analogies, and while that certainly makes for an interesting read, it doesn’t grasp excellency, at least not in the Edwardsian sense. What is remarkable here is that the Scriptures are so well exegeted and applied, exposing our sinful bent in a contemporary and Biblical way while reveling in the victory of Christ for us over temptation. The result: we hate sin more and love Christ more, specifically we hate sin more because we love Christ more. Any book that will do this for me is excellent.

Temptation is so strong in our lives precisely because it’s not about us. Temptation is an assault by the demonic powers on the rival empire of the Messiah. That’s why conversion to Christ doesn’t diminish the power of temptation—as we often assume—but actually, counterintuitively, ratchets it up.

Temptation—for the entire human race, for the people of Israel, and for each of us personally—starts with a question of identity, moves to a confusion of the desires, and ultimately heads to a contest of futures. In short, there’s a reason you want what you don’t want to want. Temptation is embryonic, personality specific, and purpose directed.

But Jesus hungered with us, and for us. He is the firstborn son of the kingdom, the true humanity, and the true Israel of God. Jesus understood what his fathers in the garden and in the wilderness didn’t. When confronted with the question, “Are you the Son of God?” he heard the word of his Father more loudly than the word of his own grumbling stomach.

WTS Books: $10.04 Amazon:$10.19

The Pugilist: If You Ditch Inspiration You Ditch Jesus

We must go on to say that that “particular theory of inspiration” is the theory of the apostles and of the Lord, and that in abandoning it we are abandoning them as our doctrinal teachers and guides… -B.B. Warfiled, The Real Problem of Inspiration

Romans 3:21-25 & “All” of “Us”

“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”

Romans 3:23 – doesn’t it seem out of place?

To see why you must understand that from Romans 1-3 there are at least 4 different things that are said to be revealed. The first is the “righteousness of God”, that is the righteousness God credits to us through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the revelation, the “manifestation” that Paul is returning to in 1:21. He is returning to it because up to this point he has emphasized two other revelations. In 1:18 Paul says “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.” This wrath is being manifest against man because man has rejected yet another revelation – the revelation of God’s attributes communicated to man by creation (1:19-20). The fourth revelation is that in God’s providing and manifesting this gospel righteousness He was also “showing” His righteousness that He might be “just and the justifier (3:25b-26).” He wasn’t just providing a righteousness, He was magnifying Himself as righteousness. He doesn’t pass over sins, He deals with them.

So up to 3:21 Paul has been emphasizing our depravity which evokes the wrath of God. “But now” then introduces the gospel, it introduces good news. In light of this doesn’t 3:23 seem like a retrogression? It isn’t that I don’t believe that it is true, but isn’t it out of place? Shouldn’t it come before the “but now,” not after? Why is 3:23 here and not there? The answer lies in understanding who “all” is. Romans 3:23 by itself is true of all humanity, but that isn’t who “all” is in 3:23. The “all” who are sinners are said to be justified in 3:24. The “all” in 3:23 is the same “all” of 3:22 – they are believers. All of us who believe and are justified are sinners, that is why “there is no distinction (3:22).”

If you have grown up in church and “done” everything, you bring nothing more to the table than the most repulsive sinner. The only thing any of us bring to the table is pure grotesque sin. You don’t add one ounce to the megatons of righteousness that are yours in Christ alone. You are not more accepted or loved by God because of your prayers, church attendance, denominational affiliation, offerings, ministry, good deeds, walking an isle, being baptized, partaking of communion, going to church camp, listening to and singing the right kind of music, attending a small group, being accountability or avoiding certain sins. There is no distinction! If you appear just before God it is wholly because of an alien righteousness which you graciously receive through faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness you have before God, magnifies Him, not you. It is a righteousness you have before God and from God.

Sola gratia, sola fide, solus Christus, sola Deo Gloria!

By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, tot eh glory of God alone!

A Whole Christ

ALL of Christ is accepted by the sincere convert. He loves not only the wages—but the work of Christ; not only the benefits—but the burden of Christ. He is willing not only to tread out the corn—but to draw under the yoke. He takes up the commands of Christ, yes, the cross of Christ.

The unsound convert takes Christ by halves. He is all for the salvation of Christ—but he is not for sanctification. He is for the privileges—but does not appropriate the person of Christ. He divides the offices and benefits of Christ. This is an error in the foundation. Whoever loves life, let him beware here. It is an undoing mistake, of which you have been often warned, and yet none is more common. Jesus is a sweet Name—but men do not love the Lord Jesus in sincerity. They will not have Him as God offers, ‘to be a Prince and a Savior’ (Acts 5:31). They divide what God has joined, the King who rules—and the Priest who saves. They will not accept the salvation of Christ as He intends it; they divide it here. Every man’s vote is for salvation from suffering—but they do not desire to be saved from sinning. They would have their lives saved—but still would have their lusts. Indeed, many divide here again; they would be content to have some of their sins destroyed—but they cannot leave the lap of Delilah, or divorce the beloved Herodias. They cannot be cruel to the right eye or right hand.

O be infinitely careful here; your soul depends upon it. The sound convert takes a whole Christ, and takes Him for all intents and purposes, without exceptions, without limitations, without reserve. He is willing to have Christ upon any terms; he is willing to have the dominion of Christ as well as deliverance by Christ. He says with Paul, ‘Lord, what will you have me to do?’ [Acts 9:6] Anything, Lord! He gives Christ the blank page—to write down His own conditions. -Joseph Alleine

The Pugilist: Scripture Is Not Just a Record of Redemption

Scripture is conceived, from the point of view of the writers of the New Testament, not merely as the record of revelations, but as itself a part of the redemptive revelation of God; not merely as the record of the redemptive acts by which God is saving the world, but as itself one of these redemptive acts, having its own part to play in the great work of establishing and building up the kingdom of God. -B.B. Warfield, Inspiration

Matthew 6:16-18 & Hypocritical Non-fasting

In Matthew 6:1-18 Jesus contrast how the hypocrites practice three acts of piety with the way His disciples should practice them. I can imagine someone reading this section and being really convicted by the first two. They may think, “I sometimes give hypocritically, and often pray hypocritically, but I never fast hypocritically.” But they never set themselves up for the fall. They never fast hypocritically because they never fast. We’re not even sinning in the right direction.

I think we never or rarely fast hypocritically for the praise of men because there are better ways to achieve our sinful desires. In America we value appearance too much to disfigure our faces and put ashes on our heads. Why fast when there are sexier ways to look spiritual? Besides, you might be though odd for God if you were known to fast regularly. Instead of abusing God’s ordained means for our won glory, we craft our own means so that we get double the glory. We don’t need fasting, we use programs, positions, and ministries as outlets for our hypocrisy. These means, more than fasting, will lead to people seeing me, thinking me spiritual, gifted, and wise.

Our craving is for our own glory, not His. We do not fast because we are fat on the world.

Half of Christian fasting is that our physical appetite is lost because our homesickness for God is so intense. The other half is that our homesickness for God is threatened because our physical appetites are so intense. In the first half, appetite is lost. In the second half, appetite is resisted. In the first, we yield to the higher hunger that is. In the second, we fight for the higher hunger that isn’t. Christian fasting is not only the spontaneous effect of a superior satisfaction in God; it is also a chosen weapon against every force in the world that would take that satisfaction away.

The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18-20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable. – John Piper in A Hunger for God

Tolle Lege: What Is the Mission of the Church?

Readability: 2

Length: 266 pp

Author: Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert

What Is the Mission of the Church? This is a crucial and timely question; praise God it is now also an excellent book. How would you answer this question? Does the mission of the church include bringing the kingdom, seeking shalom for our communities, working for social justice, doing good deeds or is it simply the proclamation of the gospel? Do you realize that as a Christians you must answer this question? You cannot afford to be fuzzy here. This isn’t a periphery issue; if the church is to be the church this much must be clear, “What is our mission?” This book isn’t just a good treatment of a good topic; it is a needed treatment of a crucial topic. At least for leadership, this book is a must read because the topic is a must know.

[I]t is not wrong to probe the word missional. It’s a big trunk that can smuggle a great deal of unwanted baggage. Being suspicious of every mention of the word is bad, but raising concerns about how the word is sometimes used is simply wise.

With that in mind, we register a few concerns about how missional thinking has sometimes played out in the conversation about the church’s mission:

1. We are concerned that good behaviors are sometimes commended but in the wrong categories. For example, many good deeds are promoted under the term social justice, when we think “loving your neighbor” is often a better category. Or, folks will talk about transforming the world, when we think “faithful presence” is a better way to describe what we are trying to do and actually can do in the world. Or, sometimes well-meaning Christians talk about “building the kingdom” or “building for the kingdom,” when actually the verbs associated with the kingdom are almost always passive (enter, receive, inherit). We’d do better to speak of living as citizens of the kingdom, rather than telling our people that they build the kingdom.

2. We are concerned that in our newfound missional zeal we sometimes put hard “oughts” on Christians where there should be inviting “cans.” You ought to do something about human trafficking. You ought to do something about AIDS. You ought to do something about lack of good public education. When you say “ought,” you imply that if the church does not tackle these problems, we are being disobedient. We think it would be better to invite individual Christians, in keeping with their gifts and calling, to try to solve these problems rather than indicting the church for “not caring.”

If everything in Matthew culminates in the Great Commission, everything in acts flows from it.

The mission Jesus is about to give is based exclusively and entirely on his authority. There can only be a mission imperative because there is first this glorious indicative. God does not send out his church to conquer. He sends us out in the name of the One who has already conquered. We go only because he reigns.

The mission of Jesus is not service broadly conceived, but the proclamation of the gospel through teaching, the corroboration of the gospel through signs and wonders, and the accomplishment of the gospel in death and resurrection.

The mission of the church is to go into the world and make disciples by declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit and gathering these disciples into churches, that they might worship and obey Jesus Christ now and in eternity to the glory of God the Father.

WTS Books: $9.59 Amazon:$10.87

The Pugilist: Standing with Jesus Difficult but Sound

We believe this doctrine of the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures primarily because it is the doctrine which Christ and his apostles believed, and which they have taught us. It may sometimes seem difficult to take our stand frankly by the side of Christ and his apostles. It will always be found safe. -B.B. Warfield, The Inspiration of the BIble

Matthew 6:11-15 & “Us” is “Your”

The most important prayer request is that the most important person in the universe would do the most important act in the universe. – John Piper

Last time we reflected on Matthew I said that our biggest sin in prayer is not that our prayers are too short, but too small. Small prayers both blaspheme and are idolatrous. Prayer should be God-centered.

And now we come to the second half of the Lord’s Prayer. We transition from “Your” to “us”. Is this prayer at war with itself? Does this prayer implode? Does it self-destruct? No, this prayer is perfectly at peace, because all other requests are submissive to the first and primary request, that God hallow His name. All of the “we needs” are “to God be the glories”. In one way this prayer is divided into two halves, but in the deepest sense it is a unified whole. The “us” is still “Your”.

One way to see this is by noticing what is not there, what is not there at least in most good modern versions. The traditional ending, “For yours is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”, is either in brackets, placed in a footnote, or omitted from modern versions. I believe this is a good decision. The oldest and most reliable manuscripts do not include it, it was not in the original document written by Matthew. How did it come to be in the text? Most likely this was a liturgical ending added by the early church inspired by 1 Chronicles 29:11-13. Some assuming scribe then sat down to copy a copy of a manuscript and thought that the poor bloke before him left out part of the text. That monk’s revised copy is then copied several times over until a whole family of manuscripts has the liturgical ending while the older ones do not. Do not let this disturb you, when the manuscript evidence is examined we can be extremely confident of what the original author wrote.

So how does this help? The early church saw no disparity between praying the first part of the prayer and the second for the glory of God, nor should we. God is glorified in both halves. Ultimately we ask for our daily bread, forgiveness, and to be kept from temptation and the evil one for His glory.

In the final three requests God is glorified as our Sustainer, Redeemer, and Treasure. Further the Son is glorified in that He is the only way we can approach the Father and know Him in these ways. God sustains all of humanity, but only through the Son can we come to Him as a Father and ask daily provision for our needs. Only in Christ can we be forgiven by God. And it is only because of the gospel of Christ that we see the ugliness of sin and the glories of God and cry, “No contest, give me the eternal pleasures of God and not the temporal pleasures of sin!”

“Us” is still “Your”. At least is should be.

The Pugilist: The Author of the Authors

The Bible’s having been written by men and evidencing their unique personalities does not negate that Scripture is the very word of God as Warfield argues below:

God is Himself the author of the instruments He employs for the communication of His messages to men and has framed them into precisely the instruments He desired for the exact communication of His message. There is just ground for the expectation that He will use all the instruments He employs according to their natures; intelligent beings therefore as intelligent beings, moral agents as moral agents. But there is no just ground for asserting that God is incapable of employing the intelligent beings He has Himself created and formed to His will, to proclaim His messages purely as He gives them to them; or of making truly the possession of rational minds conceptions which they have themselves had no part in creating. And there is no ground for imagining that God is unable to frame His own message in the language of the organs of His revelation without its thereby ceasing to be, because expressed in a fashion natural to these organs, therefore purely His message. -B.B. Warfield, The Biblical Idea of Revelation