Genesis 4:17-5:32 & Common and Special

Our kindergarten teacher told all of us that we were “special”.  If we are all “special” doesn’t that mean that none of us are?

In our text we have two genealogies; one marked by common grace the other by saving grace.  John Murray defined God’s common grace as:

Every favor of whatever kind or degree, falling short of salvation, which this undeserving and sin cursed world enjoys at the hand of God.

The reason we call it common is because it is shared among all men in general.  It is familiar, popular, ordinary.  It is upon all men in general (Matthew 5:43-45).  This is not to say it is not amazing and great.  That we are not all justly suffering in hell is owing to the benevolence of God.

Jabel, Jubal, and Tubal (parents notice that this naming phenomena begins in the line of Cain.  Homophonous child naming is of the devil) make great strides in cultural progress, but it is only owing to God’s common grace.  God disperses talent, gifts, materials, and time to such individuals.  This doctrine allows us to accept gifts from the secular world form the hand of God and make them sacred.  The issue isn’t if it has a “Christian” label, but if you receive it from the Christian God or the god of Apple.  Despite all the advancement, there is no mention of special grace anywhere in the line of Cain.  “In the history of salvation,” writes Derek Kidner, “the line of Cain is an irrelevance.”

It is in the line of Seth that we see marks of special grace.  Here men call on the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:26).  Here we are reminded of original creation before the fall (Genesis 5:1-2).  Here the death formula is broken (Genesis 5:24).  This is the lineage of Christ (Luke 3:23-38).

You may invent the self-microwaving pizza – common.  You may come up with the ultimate clean fuel solution – common.  You may replace George on the one dollar bill – common.  You may dwarf the dynasties of Google, Apple, and Microsoft – common.  But to be evidence of the reclaiming of the imago Dei, to walk with God, to break the somber rhythm of death, to be part of God’s plan in making much of the Messiah, this is special.

Busted Myth # 1: Forgive and Forget – Impossible!

The virtue of slogans is brevity. Their vice is ambiguity. So they are risky ways of communicating. They are powerful and perilous. So we should exploit the power and explain the peril.  – John Piper in Desiring God

The danger of a cliché or slogan is that they can make the unintelligent seam brilliant. This is often the route to accepting stupidity and heralding it as wisdom. I believe such to be the case with “forgive and forget.” Perhaps there is some individual who meant this simply to say that you must not bring up the incident of offence, that is, you refuse to prosecute anew. Alas if he could behold his cult. Humanly it is impossible to forget some things, especially the worst of things, the things that call for amazing forgiveness. To put such a burden upon a rape victim, or a molested child, and say that they have not truly forgiven their enemies unless they forget that wretched event is to play the Pharisee and heap heavy unbearable burdens upon such persons, a burden that they, if in the same position, surely could not, would not carry (Matthew 23:4).

“Ah, but God forgets! …Right?” This is the issue that I really want to address. God does not forget – ever! God does not forget – anything! He is omniscient; this is never compromised.  God does not forget our sins, He remembered them on Jesus. He removes our sins, washes us from our sins, forgives us of our sins, and takes away our sins, but He does not forget them. If God could simply forget sin, what need is there for an atonement where sins are paid for? We wouldn’t need an atonement; God simply need perform a lobotomy on Himself.

On this John MacArthur said:

I’ve heard people suggest that God forgets our sins when He forgives. They usually cite Hebrews 10:17: ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more’ (cf. 8:12). Or Isaiah 43:25: ‘I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.’

But those verses don’t say God forgets our sins. They say He will not remember them. What’s the difference? To forget something is to have no memory of it. Obviously God, who is omniscient, has not lost His memory of our transgressions. Rather, He refuses to call them to mind. He promises not to bring them up.

Wayne Grudem states:

Someone may object that God promises to forget our sins. For example, he says, ‘I will not remember your sins’ (Isa. 43:25). Yet passages like this can certainly be understood to mean that God will never again let the knowledge of these sins play any part in the way he relates to us: he will ‘forget’ them in his relationship to us. – in Systematic Theology

I’ll wrap this up by dealing with the two oft cited texts, Hebrews 10:17 and Psalm 103:12.  In Hebrews 10 the single offering of Christ is being contrasted with the plethora of sacrifices under the Old Covenant. Under the old system there was a reminder for sins every year (Hebrews 10:3). Every year at the Day of Atonement all Israel was reminded of their sins.  Now under Christ a decisive payment for sin has been made once for all. God will not bring our sins up against us because they have been paid for. This is not the language of memory loss, but redemption. When I pay a bill the creditor doesn’t remember it anymore, against me. This means not that they wiped every record it from their databases; but that they have marked it as paid. I don’t want to hear my creditor ever say they have lost record of previous bills, I want to hear them say they have received payment. I don’t want God to forget my sins, for all eternity I want the Son to remind Him that my sins are paid for.

Finally Psalm 103:12 says nothing about forgetting but removing. My sins are removed from me, where are they placed? Into some abyss of forgetfulness? No they are placed on Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Again, God does not forget our sins, He remembered them all on Jesus, once for all.

The Doctor: ‘But Now’

On Romans 6:22

The Christian is meant to glory in the ‘But now’.  He asserts it.  That is why I maintain, and maintain stoutly, that a man who understands this truth cannot merely lecture on it.  A man who can lecture on this does not really appreciate what it means.  If you know anything about this you are bound to preach!  A man who can say ‘By now” coldly, and merely regard them as two words, just a part of the construction of a sentence, a part of the syntax, has never seen their real meaning.  No, the Christian cannot look at these words without being moved to the depth of his being.  He worships, he praises God, he must shout ‘But now’.  This is in many ways the best test of our profession of the Christian faith.  If these words do not thrill us and move us, then I think we has better re-examine our whole position.  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 5, p. 286

Tolle Lege: The Prodigal God

The Prodigal God

Readability :  1

Length:  133 pp

Author:  Tim Keller

This is my favorite Tim Keller work by far (He has only written three titles, so far, but this is still a huge compliment as all three are superb).  Thie book pairs well with an earlier one, The Reason for God.  Keller originally wrote The Reason for God with unbelievers in mind and The Prodigal God for believers, but he admits that this work will benefit both.  Keller has often spoke about preaching against legalism to libertines so that they will realize that the ‘Christianity’ they rejected is not Christianity.  Preaching against legalism helps libertines to see exactly what the gospel is.  This book does that masterfully.  Both elder and younger brothers are confronted with the glory of the gospel in this powerful little book.  It is now my go to book for persons who are lost.

[O]ne of the signs that you may not grasp the unique radical nature of the gospel is that you are certain you do.

The elder brother is not losing the father’s love in spite of his goodness, but because of it.  It is not his sins that create the barrier between him and his father, it’s the pride he has in his moral record; it’s not his wrongdoing but his righteousness that is keeping him from sharing the feast of his father.

The gospel is therefore not just the ABC’s of the Christian life, but the A to Z of the Christian life.  Our problems arise largely because we don’t continually return to the gospel to work it in and live it out.

The Doctor: Preaching at Home the Best

I end with this question.  What kind of food can we take?  Are we still only capable of taking milk, or are we beginning to develop a taste for meat?  Are illustrations and analogies still essential, or do we know that our minds are expanding under the illumination of the Spirit and rejoicing in the deep things of God?  ‘The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.’  I must confess that there is nothing which ever happens in my experience which depresses me more than the following. Sometimes when I am preaching away from him, and have preaches what I would have thought were the mere elements and beginnings of the Christian faith, people come to me and say, ‘You were making rather heavy demands upon us this evening’.  They add, ‘We are not accustomed to these deep things’.  Deep things! and I thought I was being elementary!  That occurs among Christians, and evangelical people.  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Volume 5, p. 253

Genesis 4:1-16 & The True and Better Elder Brother

Growing up I had two Collies named Charlie and Linus.  They were brothers.  They were different.  Early on Linus tried to off Charlie like Cain did Abel.  They were riding in the back of the pickup and Charlie fell out the back; we are pretty sure we saw Linus push him.  From that day on Charlie had a slew of health issues.  Charlie chased cars.  He was ‘bumped’ so many times we quit counting and was straight up ran over once.  This messed up his back legs such that if you would slap him on the rear on a cold day he would just gently fall over on his side.  He had a tumor on his back and three ears.  Some varmint got a hold of one of his ears and split it down the middle.  Oddly though death seemed to follow Charlie he lived a couple of years longer than his brother.  Linus was lazy and loved to eat.  He loved peanuts.  He would crack the shell himself, spit everything out, then eat only the peanuts.  They gave him gas.  Same litter – very different.

Cain and Abel, same parents – very different.  Too often we read this ‘little story’ of sibling rivalry and fail to see ourselves in it.  This text smells of heaven or hell – for you.  You are one of these brothers.  My contention is that unless Jesus has done something to you, you are Cain.

You are the spawn of Satan.  Two seeds make up all of humanity, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.  They are opposed to one another.  Don’t flatter yourself that you are the humble, pious worshipper who is a victim.  Everybody is a victim these days anyway, it doesn’t make you special.  If you really want to stand out today and be unique, fess up that you are the villain.  You are Cain.  Oh, you may look very religious, so did Cain, so did the Pharisees (John 8:34-47).  Yes, you bring your offerings, but like Cain you are not after God, but after some kind of blessing.  And when you don’t get it, you get angry just like Cain.  Your anger, just as powerfully as your love, will show your true gods.

But there is hope.  Everything that Cain failed to be Jesus was.  He is the true and better Elder Brother.  His blood cries out salvation instead of condemnation, even though we are guilty of it all the same (Hebrews 12:24).  Instead of taking our lives, which He unlike Cain, would be just in doing, He gives His life in order to give us life, and in such a way that He remains just (Romans 3:26).  Jesus is cursed, but not for His sin, he is cursed for ours.  He is driven “away from the presence of the Lord” crying out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me” so that we might enter into His presence where there is joy evermore.

The Doctor: Against Mere Moralism, Emotionalism, or Intellectualism

What I desire to emphasize at the moment is the greatness of this change.  It is not enough for us merely to know that we have been changed, or that a Christian is a man who must undergo a change; we must have some inadequate conception of the greatness of the change which is undergone.  We see the greatness in this way, that it is a change which affects the whole of a man’s personality.  Look at it again.  ‘Ye have obeyed’ – there is you will.  ‘From the heart’ – there is you emotion.  What have you obeyed from the heart?  ‘The form of doctrine delivered you’.  How do you apprehend doctrine?  You do so with you mind.  So the change a man undergoes to become a Christian is a change that affects him in his mind, in his heart, and in his will; the entire personality is involved.  – D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, Romans Volume 5, p. 207

Healthier Trinitarianism

Much better than liquid, ice, gas…

One biblical picture of the Trinity is that the Father is the speaker…, the Son is the word he speaks (John 1:1-14; Rom. 10:6-8 [alluding to Deut. 30:11-14]; 2 Cor. 1:20; Heb. 1:1-3; 1 John 1:1-3; Rev. 19:13), and the Spirit is the breath that carries the word to its destination (Ps. 33:6…)  – John Frame in The Doctrine of God

Genesis 3:7-24 & Better than Morgan Freeman’s

My wife loves the game show network.  This is ok with me until a certain dude’s voice comes through the speakers.  A man should not sound like that, it makes me cringe.  Really it makes me want to vomit.  My response is an alloy made with more sin than grace.  Here is likely another man who never had a real father and has likely never had the gospel radically revamp his idea of manhood, and rather than feeling sorrow and compassion I just get angry.  The gospel he needs I deny him in my self-righteousness.  Nevertheless, for illustration purposes, his voice is irritating; to me.

In contrast I love Morgan Freeman’s voice.  He really should be the only one allowed to do TV and radio commercials.  If an audio Bible ever comes out with Morgan as the voice, be assured I will buy it.

Still greater is God’s voice, His Word.  ‘Greater’ is an adjectival understatement of colossal size.  His voice is majestic.  It can come to us in awesome thunderous booms (Exodus 19:19), or in the softest whisper (1 Kings 19:12-13).  His voice both causes (Psalm 29:3-5) and calms (Mark 4:39) storms.  No one talks like our God (Psalm 33:6).

Sadly sin causes us to run from His voice.  Adam hides when he hears the sound of the LORD God.  The word translated sound here is more often translated voice.  It is dense in the Pentateuch, especially Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 5:25; 8:20; 15:5; 18:16; 26:14; 27:10; 28:1, 2, 15, 45, 62; 30:8, 10).  In Deuteronomy we see that the voice of the LORD is something to be obeyed.  When Adam hears it he is further disobeying.  He does not come forward in broken repentance, he hides.  Sin makes us to vomit with fear at His Holy voice, its purity makes us cringe.  How evil is the evil that could make me hear such a golden tongue in this way?

But Adam is not allowed to hide; the divine words confront and interrogate him.  Yes, they expose his nakedness and his guilt, but keep listening, they also hold out promise.  The thunder of judgment turns to a whisper of promise.

God has thundered against the Son, so you might hear the whispers of His eternal love for you.