Redeemer Blog https://www.redeemerfortworth.org Tue, 19 Mar 2024 04:54:36 -0400 http://churchplantmedia.com/ Courage, Dear Heart https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/courage-dear-heart https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/courage-dear-heart#comments Tue, 12 Oct 2021 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/courage-dear-heart
We all face various trials—from minor frustrations at home to tremendous grief; from small setbacks at work to great heartache; from slight opposition from the world to severe persecution. All of us have the need for patient endurance. But a patient endurance that glorifies God doesn’t come so easily in trial.

It didn’t come so easily for the early Christians either. James wrote to Christians, some of whom were poor due to unrighteous people not paying them for their labor or mistreating them in court (Jas 5:1-6). Also, some of their own brothers and sisters were partial toward the rich (Jas 2:1-7) and neglectful to the needy (Jas 2:15-16). Facing such trials and mistreatment, it becomes easier to retaliate in anger (Jas 1:19-20), to react with sinful words (Jas 3:2-11), to speak evil of others (Jas 4:11). Our trials can also become occasions for jealousy (Jas 3:16), covetousness (Jas 4:2), and grumbling (Jas 5:9).

The pressures of trial tend to expose where we have not yet matured into Christ-like endurance. Hence, James must exhort these same Christians—Christians like us—to “Be patient” (Jas 5:7). But there is no period after the command to “Be patient.” God includes several motivating factors revolving around our Lord’s coming (Jas 5:7-9, 12).

Be patient, trusting the Lord to work his purpose.

In context, Jesus’ return is a comfort for the Christian in that God will right all wrongs (Jas 5:1-3). But waiting for that Day is hard. We want justice now. However, instead of taking matters into our own hands, James says to wait like the farmer: “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient.” The farmer doesn’t control the rains. He’s wholly dependent on God’s provision and faithfulness. Yes, he’s active while he waits—planting, cultivating, fertilizing, praying. But the rains are in God’s hands. The farmer must wait and trust the Lord to work his purpose in his timing. We, too, must wait and trust the Lord to work his purpose in his timing.

Establish your hearts, trusting the Lord’s coming is soon.

Jesus’ first coming means that the last days of God’s saving plan are upon us. They’ve been inaugurated even if not yet consummated. Jesus has taken his throne and his heavenly kingdom is breaking into the present order. God wants our hearts established in this truth. “Establishing your hearts” means building into the fabric of your being the moral fortitude necessary to remain faithful to Jesus under pressure. The pressures of our trials can never become an excuse for sin. Rather, the glory of Jesus’ coming must become for us like a massive ballast in our life-ship. The ballast keeps our life-ship upright and on course even as the waves and storms crash against us.

Show mercy in our speech, knowing the Judge is at the door.

Our speech usually serves as a litmus test for our patience. Trials often frustrate us, and very easily we can project our frustrations on others. But James says, “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.” An earlier exhortation clarifies his point: “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy” (Jas 2:12-13). The alternative to grumbling is showing mercy to each other in word and deed. For the Christian, God’s mercy inevitably produces mercy toward others. We should be ready to open the door to the Judge at any time our mouth opens, such that our words please him.

Show integrity in our speech, reflecting God’s character.

As one further exhortation, James says, “But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation” (Jas 5:12). Oath-taking fits the context quite well. The rich have oppressed the poor, dragging them to court. Perhaps the stress they’re facing tempts them to make unrealistic pledges to somehow alleviate their suffering. This becomes a kind of self-salvation, trying to get oneself out of the jam, instead of patiently trusting the Lord to save. Yet even in trial Christians must show integrity, reflecting the character of our Father, who is truthful and trustworthy.

Blessing, Compassion, & Mercy from God

“Really?” someone might object. “Does the Lord know what kind of pressure I’m under? Is such patient endurance really possible in my particular trials?” Yes, the Lord knows what kind of pressure you’re under. He knows your frame (Ps 103:14) and he also sympathizes with your weaknesses. God’s Son took on flesh and suffered in it too, only without sin (Heb 4:15). Yes, it’s also possible to have patient endurance, but only because God “gives more grace” (Jas 4:6). We know it’s possible because we’ve seen examples of his grace playing out in those who’ve gone before us.

Two examples appear in James 5:10-11, the prophets and Job. The prophets suffered persecution. Job suffered from natural calamities and spiritual warfare. In both, God’s grace was sufficient to sustain them in various trials. Turning to Job in particular, James says, “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (Jas 5:11).

James’ conclusion may cause us to wonder if he’s familiar with Job’s sufferings. The robbery of Job’s possessions (Job 1:15, 17); the murder of his servants (Job 1:15, 17); sudden catastrophe that fell on his family (Job 1:19); the agonizing pain of losing ten children (Job 1:19). On top of that, Job was struck with loathsome sores (Job 2:7). His wife tells him to curse God and die (Job 2:9). His friends misapply theology and make callous judgments (Job 3-31).

Moreover, Job’s suffering lasted many months. He says, “Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me” (Job 7:2-3). The pressure eventually becomes so great that Job begins to ask Why: Why was I even born (Job 3:3, 11, 16)? Why am I suffering when I’ve been faithful? Why do I cry to you and get no answers (Job 30:20-21)? “Really, James?” one might object, “Compassionate and merciful? Do you know what Job experienced?”

Some of you know the months of emptiness and the many nights of misery. Some of you have asked God these same Why-questions. Job never gets the answers to all his Why-questions. But Job’s Why-questions do get swallowed by the Who-question. God gives himself to Job. God wasn’t obligated to give Job anything, but God reveals himself to Job (see Job 38:4-7, 35; 40:2). And Job responds like this: “Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know…I had heard of you [Lord] by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:3-6).

Seeing God’s glory becomes enough for Job. God gave himself to Job. That’s the ultimate blessing. And God has given himself to us. Job’s suffering as a blameless and upright man foreshadowed the one who was greater than Job—the one who wasn’t just blameless before men but blameless before God. Through Jesus Christ, God has given us the gift of himself. Job’s sufferings were not meaningless. Jesus’ sufferings were not meaningless. Through them, God revealed that he is indeed compassionate and merciful.

In our sufferings, the Lord will also be compassionate and merciful. In Christ, he will give us more of himself. Therefore, we can be patient. We can establish our hearts. Just like God kept the prophets and Job patiently enduring through trial, he will also keep you. In the words of Aslan to Lucy, “Courage, dear heart.” In the pressures of your trials, his glory will be enough for you. Look to it often in the word. Remind each other of Jesus’ coming. And pray to the one who loves you and made your greatest problem a thing of the past. If he God not spare his only Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

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We all face various trials—from minor frustrations at home to tremendous grief; from small setbacks at work to great heartache; from slight opposition from the world to severe persecution. All of us have the need for patient endurance. But a patient endurance that glorifies God doesn’t come so easily in trial.

It didn’t come so easily for the early Christians either. James wrote to Christians, some of whom were poor due to unrighteous people not paying them for their labor or mistreating them in court (Jas 5:1-6). Also, some of their own brothers and sisters were partial toward the rich (Jas 2:1-7) and neglectful to the needy (Jas 2:15-16). Facing such trials and mistreatment, it becomes easier to retaliate in anger (Jas 1:19-20), to react with sinful words (Jas 3:2-11), to speak evil of others (Jas 4:11). Our trials can also become occasions for jealousy (Jas 3:16), covetousness (Jas 4:2), and grumbling (Jas 5:9).

The pressures of trial tend to expose where we have not yet matured into Christ-like endurance. Hence, James must exhort these same Christians—Christians like us—to “Be patient” (Jas 5:7). But there is no period after the command to “Be patient.” God includes several motivating factors revolving around our Lord’s coming (Jas 5:7-9, 12).

Be patient, trusting the Lord to work his purpose.

In context, Jesus’ return is a comfort for the Christian in that God will right all wrongs (Jas 5:1-3). But waiting for that Day is hard. We want justice now. However, instead of taking matters into our own hands, James says to wait like the farmer: “See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient.” The farmer doesn’t control the rains. He’s wholly dependent on God’s provision and faithfulness. Yes, he’s active while he waits—planting, cultivating, fertilizing, praying. But the rains are in God’s hands. The farmer must wait and trust the Lord to work his purpose in his timing. We, too, must wait and trust the Lord to work his purpose in his timing.

Establish your hearts, trusting the Lord’s coming is soon.

Jesus’ first coming means that the last days of God’s saving plan are upon us. They’ve been inaugurated even if not yet consummated. Jesus has taken his throne and his heavenly kingdom is breaking into the present order. God wants our hearts established in this truth. “Establishing your hearts” means building into the fabric of your being the moral fortitude necessary to remain faithful to Jesus under pressure. The pressures of our trials can never become an excuse for sin. Rather, the glory of Jesus’ coming must become for us like a massive ballast in our life-ship. The ballast keeps our life-ship upright and on course even as the waves and storms crash against us.

Show mercy in our speech, knowing the Judge is at the door.

Our speech usually serves as a litmus test for our patience. Trials often frustrate us, and very easily we can project our frustrations on others. But James says, “Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.” An earlier exhortation clarifies his point: “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy” (Jas 2:12-13). The alternative to grumbling is showing mercy to each other in word and deed. For the Christian, God’s mercy inevitably produces mercy toward others. We should be ready to open the door to the Judge at any time our mouth opens, such that our words please him.

Show integrity in our speech, reflecting God’s character.

As one further exhortation, James says, “But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation” (Jas 5:12). Oath-taking fits the context quite well. The rich have oppressed the poor, dragging them to court. Perhaps the stress they’re facing tempts them to make unrealistic pledges to somehow alleviate their suffering. This becomes a kind of self-salvation, trying to get oneself out of the jam, instead of patiently trusting the Lord to save. Yet even in trial Christians must show integrity, reflecting the character of our Father, who is truthful and trustworthy.

Blessing, Compassion, & Mercy from God

“Really?” someone might object. “Does the Lord know what kind of pressure I’m under? Is such patient endurance really possible in my particular trials?” Yes, the Lord knows what kind of pressure you’re under. He knows your frame (Ps 103:14) and he also sympathizes with your weaknesses. God’s Son took on flesh and suffered in it too, only without sin (Heb 4:15). Yes, it’s also possible to have patient endurance, but only because God “gives more grace” (Jas 4:6). We know it’s possible because we’ve seen examples of his grace playing out in those who’ve gone before us.

Two examples appear in James 5:10-11, the prophets and Job. The prophets suffered persecution. Job suffered from natural calamities and spiritual warfare. In both, God’s grace was sufficient to sustain them in various trials. Turning to Job in particular, James says, “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful” (Jas 5:11).

James’ conclusion may cause us to wonder if he’s familiar with Job’s sufferings. The robbery of Job’s possessions (Job 1:15, 17); the murder of his servants (Job 1:15, 17); sudden catastrophe that fell on his family (Job 1:19); the agonizing pain of losing ten children (Job 1:19). On top of that, Job was struck with loathsome sores (Job 2:7). His wife tells him to curse God and die (Job 2:9). His friends misapply theology and make callous judgments (Job 3-31).

Moreover, Job’s suffering lasted many months. He says, “Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me” (Job 7:2-3). The pressure eventually becomes so great that Job begins to ask Why: Why was I even born (Job 3:3, 11, 16)? Why am I suffering when I’ve been faithful? Why do I cry to you and get no answers (Job 30:20-21)? “Really, James?” one might object, “Compassionate and merciful? Do you know what Job experienced?”

Some of you know the months of emptiness and the many nights of misery. Some of you have asked God these same Why-questions. Job never gets the answers to all his Why-questions. But Job’s Why-questions do get swallowed by the Who-question. God gives himself to Job. God wasn’t obligated to give Job anything, but God reveals himself to Job (see Job 38:4-7, 35; 40:2). And Job responds like this: “Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know…I had heard of you [Lord] by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:3-6).

Seeing God’s glory becomes enough for Job. God gave himself to Job. That’s the ultimate blessing. And God has given himself to us. Job’s suffering as a blameless and upright man foreshadowed the one who was greater than Job—the one who wasn’t just blameless before men but blameless before God. Through Jesus Christ, God has given us the gift of himself. Job’s sufferings were not meaningless. Jesus’ sufferings were not meaningless. Through them, God revealed that he is indeed compassionate and merciful.

In our sufferings, the Lord will also be compassionate and merciful. In Christ, he will give us more of himself. Therefore, we can be patient. We can establish our hearts. Just like God kept the prophets and Job patiently enduring through trial, he will also keep you. In the words of Aslan to Lucy, “Courage, dear heart.” In the pressures of your trials, his glory will be enough for you. Look to it often in the word. Remind each other of Jesus’ coming. And pray to the one who loves you and made your greatest problem a thing of the past. If he God not spare his only Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

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What are the biblical covenants? https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/what-are-the-biblical-covenants https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/what-are-the-biblical-covenants#comments Tue, 06 Jul 2021 16:00:00 -0400 https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/what-are-the-biblical-covenants Covenant is a crucial theme in Scripture. Covenants provide the key framework to understanding God and how we relate to him and to one another.

Broadly speaking, a covenant is a formal declaration of the terms of a relationship between two or more parties.[1] When a husband marries his wife, not only is the nature of that relationship described, they formalize it. Both say their vows and seal it with an oath of commitment to one another. Sometimes the Bible even uses marriage to illustrate God’s covenant resolve to love and cherish his people.

Certainly, there is more involved in a covenant when it comes to God relating to man. Consider the major covenants God makes with man accross Scripture—with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham and his seed, with Moses and Israel, with David, and then finally with new covenant in Christ. What stands out in all these covenants is that God initiates them. He is the superior. He draws near to man and he sets the terms for how the people must relate to him, and how he will relate to the people.

Below is a link to a table that outlines the major covenants mentioned throughout Scripture's storyline. Besides the covenant of redemption, all the other covenants occur throughout history. The table only summarizes some of the main features of each covenant, while also attempting to describe ways that various Scriptures relate one covenant to one another.[2]

Biblical Covenants Table

Some will note that I have avoided the traditional Reformed categories of "the covenant of works" versus "the covenant of grace." I avoid it not because I disagree with the aim to describe the Christ-centered unity between God's covenants after the Fall, but because the categories make it harder to explain some things, such as how the Sinai covenant, much like the covenant with Adam, is a covenant of works. Anyway, the table does not explain everything, but I hope it serves as a tool to equip others.

________

[1] The wording here comes from a personal conversation about the nature of covenants with a brother named Wes Duggins.

[2] Resources that have influenced my thinking on the nature of the covenants and that have also influenced the wording in some of the columns are Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012); John Wind, Do Good to All People as You Have the Opportunity (Philipsburg: P&R, 2019), 79-138; Scott Hafemann, "The Covenant Relationship," in Central Themes in Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 20-65; Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom (Eugene: Paternoster, 2000), 1-148.

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Covenant is a crucial theme in Scripture. Covenants provide the key framework to understanding God and how we relate to him and to one another.

Broadly speaking, a covenant is a formal declaration of the terms of a relationship between two or more parties.[1] When a husband marries his wife, not only is the nature of that relationship described, they formalize it. Both say their vows and seal it with an oath of commitment to one another. Sometimes the Bible even uses marriage to illustrate God’s covenant resolve to love and cherish his people.

Certainly, there is more involved in a covenant when it comes to God relating to man. Consider the major covenants God makes with man accross Scripture—with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham and his seed, with Moses and Israel, with David, and then finally with new covenant in Christ. What stands out in all these covenants is that God initiates them. He is the superior. He draws near to man and he sets the terms for how the people must relate to him, and how he will relate to the people.

Below is a link to a table that outlines the major covenants mentioned throughout Scripture's storyline. Besides the covenant of redemption, all the other covenants occur throughout history. The table only summarizes some of the main features of each covenant, while also attempting to describe ways that various Scriptures relate one covenant to one another.[2]

Biblical Covenants Table

Some will note that I have avoided the traditional Reformed categories of "the covenant of works" versus "the covenant of grace." I avoid it not because I disagree with the aim to describe the Christ-centered unity between God's covenants after the Fall, but because the categories make it harder to explain some things, such as how the Sinai covenant, much like the covenant with Adam, is a covenant of works. Anyway, the table does not explain everything, but I hope it serves as a tool to equip others.

________

[1] The wording here comes from a personal conversation about the nature of covenants with a brother named Wes Duggins.

[2] Resources that have influenced my thinking on the nature of the covenants and that have also influenced the wording in some of the columns are Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum, Kingdom through Covenant (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012); John Wind, Do Good to All People as You Have the Opportunity (Philipsburg: P&R, 2019), 79-138; Scott Hafemann, "The Covenant Relationship," in Central Themes in Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007), 20-65; Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom (Eugene: Paternoster, 2000), 1-148.

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How does the New Covenant Surpass the Old? https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/contrasting-the-new-covenant-with-the-old https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/contrasting-the-new-covenant-with-the-old#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2021 13:00:00 -0400 https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/contrasting-the-new-covenant-with-the-old Hebrews 8 teaches that Jesus mediates "a better covenant." How is the new covenant better than the old covenant?

Within Hebrews 8 the old covenant in view is the Law of Moses, the covenant God made with the people at Sinai. The better covenant in view is the “new covenant” (Heb 8:8). It’s the covenant inaugurated by the work of Jesus.

In both covenants, God takes the initiative. God saved them from Egypt and God met with Moses to deliver the Law. Likewise, God would be the great initiator of the new: “I will establish…I will make…I will write…” God sets the terms. God takes the initiative. So, never should we get the idea that the old covenant was bad or unholy while the new is good and holy. God initiated both. We can even say that both were the result of God’s grace toward his people. Even the old revealed God’s character and mitigated evil and set Israel apart for himself.

How was the Old Covenant lacking?

Nevertheless, the old covenant had faults of its own. Hebrews 7:19 says, “the law made nothing perfect.” Everything necessary to make you whole before God’s presence, the Law could never do it. That was not God’s design for the Law.

There was also no forgiveness under the law. 10:4 says that it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. The law could expose sin. The law could even picture what was necessary to take away sins. But it could never actually forgive them. Yes, that means even faithful men like Joshua and Caleb and David and the remnant who never bowed to Baal—none of them found forgiveness in the Law. They found forgiveness in what the Law was pointing them to in Christ.

Also, the law couldn’t change the heart. It told the people what to do. But as a bare letter, as something written externally on stone tablets, it could not make the people obedient from the heart. That is why Hebrews 8:8 says, “God found fault with them.” That is why Hebrews 8:9 says, “they did not continue in my covenant…” The problem was not the letter; it was the people. Right from the start they would not obey. Then over and over and over again the people get the law, agree to keep it, and then don’t. What does this history teach us? The law lacks the power to save. It only has the power to condemn.

Lastly, the law was not permanent. It was only provisional. Hebrews 8:13 says, “In speaking of a new covenant, he [i.e., God] makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” What is implied in the prophecy of Jeremiah itself? Just by speaking this promise in Jeremiah’s day, God’s word set in motion the day when the law-covenant would become obsolete. Not obsolete in the sense that we now ignore it. But obsolete in terms of that covenant now governing our relationship with God. In God’s plan, the law was always awaiting the better promises.

How is the New Covenant far better?

If that is how the old covenant was lacking, how is the new covenant so much better. What are the better promises? There are four of them (technically, there are three, and the last promise is the basis for all the rest).

The first promise is God’s law written on the heart. Verse 10, “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts…” Earlier in Jeremiah, God describes the people’s rebellion like this: “the sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it’s engraved on the tablet of their heart…” The people so loved their idols, that sin was etched into the core of their being such that it could not be erased. But here, it is no longer sin etched into the heart. It is God’s Law. He has to give them a new heart for that to happen.

They needed a new mind too, one that did not stiff-arm the Lord’s word but received it gladly as truth to build your life upon. In an incredible act of grace, God would replace obstinate rebellion with obedient devotion. God’s law would become so much a part of them that all that grieves God would also grieve his people, and all that pleases God would also please his people. The old covenant made demands but never produced obedience. The new covenant effectively produces the obedience.

Promise number two: God’s commitment to us in covenant bond. Verse 10 says, “and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” This language spans the whole of Scripture from the covenant with Abraham in Genesis to the final scene in Revelation.[i] Such language does not belong to everyone. Not everyone shares such a relationship with God. Only the remnant. Only believers. It is the language of mutual belonging. Returning to the marriage analogy, it is God’s “I do” to his people, and their “I do” to God. But unlike human marriages, nothing will separate God from his people.

To break the old covenant meant God’s judgment. His faithfulness to the law-covenant required him to curse sinners—as verse 9 indicates, they didn’t continue in the first covenant, so God showed no concern for them. But things aren’t like that under the new covenant. Why? Because Jesus met all the obligations under the first covenant for us. Then he died to remove God’s curse from us. If God did not spare his only Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? God has bound himself to us by the blood of Jesus.

Promise three: everyone belonging to the new covenant knows God. That wasn’t the case under the old covenant. In Israel, all one had to do under the old covenant was be born into Abraham’s family. But being born in Israel did not mean you had a heart for God. That is why God had to keep sending his messengers. He appointed priests and prophets and kings to keep telling the people to know the Lord; and yet many of them never listened. But that would not be the case under the new covenant.

Under the new covenant, the whole community would know the Lord. Verse 11, “they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” So not just those special prophets and priests and kings who mediated God’s revelation to the people, who said, “Know the Lord”—everybody knows him under the new covenant. Why? Because they have a direct relationship with God through Jesus Christ, the true Prophet, Priest, and King. No one enters the new covenant except those who believe in Jesus; and those who believe in Jesus know God. Every one of them, from the least to the greatest.

Last promise: the forgiveness of our sins. This promise undergirds all the rest. Verse 12, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Sin made Israel covenant breakers. Sin makes us covenant breakers. Sin separates us from God. Sin in our biggest problem. And the law can’t take it away. The law made nothing perfect. But Jesus does. It was Jesus who took a cup with his disciples and said, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant [the new covenant], which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

So, now what?

1. Come to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Have you sinned against God? Is your conscience riddled with guilt over things you said this week? Over evils you thought this week? Over things you have desired for years now? Do you have any idea how much your sin offends God’s holiness and presumes on his grace? Do you have any sense of deep regret for the way you have treated others, whether recently or in your past? Are there dark things you have not confessed, dark secrets that leave you undone and hiding from the Lord and hiding from others?

Hide no more! Come to Jesus Christ and your sins will be forgiven. Call upon his name! Look to the cross and see God’s sacrifice for you. Because of Jesus’ death, God will remember your sins no more. It’s the promise of the new covenant; and God sealed that covenant with his Son’s blood. 

2. Follow the new covenant vision for the church. In coming to Jesus, realize that you are not coming to a new moral code without any power. Christianity is not just another set of moral teachings. True Christianity involves transformation of our person at the deepest level. Christianity is about God acting in Christ to change us at the very core of our being, or it is not Christianity. God must write his law on your heart.

This shapes our approach to ethics. People, and I mean Christians, are rightly concerned with what’s right and wrong. But sadly, it’s often presented in a way that if someone knows what’s right, if someone can just discover what is true, then they will do it. People think that our fundamental problem as humans is a lack of knowledge. Hebrews says, “Wrong!” How many times did Israel know what was right? Was it not Israel that said to God, “We will do all that you have commanded!”? Then failure, failure, failure, exile.

The problem was deeper. The work God has to do in you is deeper than just knowledge of right and wrong. He has to make you love it from the heart, treasure his glory, enjoy his word, long for his character to be formed in you, or you are not a Christian. In short, you must be born again. Being right is what empowers doing right. God must regenerate your heart. New covenant people love God’s law.

This also affects the way we understand the church membership. Some people ask why we have some of the processes we do for membership and church discipline—one big answer to those questions is the new covenant. We see here that everyone under the new covenant knows God—the church is for the regenerate only, in other words. Also, the people within that covenant must love God from the heart. And if they don’t have such love, then who are we to keep saying they belong to the new covenant. It is at the height of deception to do that; and it ruins the church’s witness. As much as possible, devote yourself to keeping regenerate church membership. Practice accountability and corrective discipline when we are out of step with the new covenant, and follow through with restoration for the repentant. 

3. Pay attention to how the covenants develop in Scripture. God’s revelation comes to us progressively in history. There’s an important storyline; and one significant piece in that storyline is how the old covenant is surpassed in the new. If you miss that development, if you miss the nature of the old covenant and how is was lacking, if you miss the point for which God designed it as a pointer to Christ, then it will lead you into a host of errors. Isn’t this what the apostles kept having to correct in the early churches? Think of Acts 15 and Galatians in relation to circumcision. Think of Colossians 2 in relation to festivals and new moons and the Sabbath, which he says were only copies but the substance belongs to Christ. Think of false teachers misusing the law in 1 Timothy 1.

It’s still a problem today. Take the so-called prosperity gospel. One of the reasons it’s false is that it seeks to apply to us the temporal blessings of the old covenant when those blessings were limited to a particular people for a particular era based on their obedience. Prosperity teachers hijack promises to Israel under the old covenant and they seek to apply them to you in the here and now, “If you’d just have more faith and obey God more.” Promises for the prosperity of God’s people under the old covenant typify the prosperity we will gain at Jesus’ return; but we are not old covenant Israel and this present age is characterized by suffering to advance the gospel, not prosperity. The only way you discern that, though, is by relating the covenants properly.

Or, how many of you have heard that Christians should give ten percent of their income to the church? Yet what many don’t realize is that tithing was inextricably linked to the Levitical priesthood. We just read here that Jesus inaugurated a better covenant, a better priesthood. His work made the Mosaic covenant obsolete. What are you going to say now? What we do say is this: giving is motivated not by looking at another ‘law’ for a minimum amount I’m required to give, but by looking at Jesus’ person and work for the maximum amount he frees me to give.[ii] But the only way you’ll discern this is by relating the covenants properly.

This doesn’t mean the Law has no place for the Christian. It’s still the word of God. Paul says elsewhere that it’s holy and righteous and good. It’s not a matter of choosing which laws apply and which don’t, but how those laws are fulfilled and brought to their truest intent in Christ and our union with him. So relating the covenants rightly will guard you from false teaching.

4. Take heart that God grants what he also commands. Lastly, take heart that God grants what he also commands in the new covenant. The problem with the old covenant is that it could never produce the obedience it required. The new covenant actually produces the obedience it requires. God writes his law upon our hearts. That is true freedom. That is some massive assurance for the Christian. Because how often do you read your Bible and think, "That is a lot required of me. That requires all of me right there and all the energy I have today; and I feel like I barely made it yesterday. What’s going to keep me going?" Answer? Jesus is.

The covenant he inaugurates creates in us everything we need to follow the Lord and abide in his will. That does not mean you are passive. You can’t have a heart for God and be passive about obeying him. You will want to. And you know why you will want to? The grace of the new covenant. So do not fret, Christian, about whether your faith is going to last or not. In union with Christ, it will. He will keep you to the end, until that day comes as it says, when we will dwell with God and he with us; and God will be our God and we will be his people (Rev 21:3).

________

[i] E.g., Gen 17:7-8; Exod 29:45; Lev 26:45; Jer 24:7; 32:38; Ezek 11:20; 34:24; Hos 2:23; Zech 8:8; 2 Cor 6:16; Rev 21:3.

[ii] Luke 16:1-13; Rom 15:26-27; 2 Cor 8:7-9; 9:13; 1 Tim 6:17-19.

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Hebrews 8 teaches that Jesus mediates "a better covenant." How is the new covenant better than the old covenant?

Within Hebrews 8 the old covenant in view is the Law of Moses, the covenant God made with the people at Sinai. The better covenant in view is the “new covenant” (Heb 8:8). It’s the covenant inaugurated by the work of Jesus.

In both covenants, God takes the initiative. God saved them from Egypt and God met with Moses to deliver the Law. Likewise, God would be the great initiator of the new: “I will establish…I will make…I will write…” God sets the terms. God takes the initiative. So, never should we get the idea that the old covenant was bad or unholy while the new is good and holy. God initiated both. We can even say that both were the result of God’s grace toward his people. Even the old revealed God’s character and mitigated evil and set Israel apart for himself.

How was the Old Covenant lacking?

Nevertheless, the old covenant had faults of its own. Hebrews 7:19 says, “the law made nothing perfect.” Everything necessary to make you whole before God’s presence, the Law could never do it. That was not God’s design for the Law.

There was also no forgiveness under the law. 10:4 says that it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. The law could expose sin. The law could even picture what was necessary to take away sins. But it could never actually forgive them. Yes, that means even faithful men like Joshua and Caleb and David and the remnant who never bowed to Baal—none of them found forgiveness in the Law. They found forgiveness in what the Law was pointing them to in Christ.

Also, the law couldn’t change the heart. It told the people what to do. But as a bare letter, as something written externally on stone tablets, it could not make the people obedient from the heart. That is why Hebrews 8:8 says, “God found fault with them.” That is why Hebrews 8:9 says, “they did not continue in my covenant…” The problem was not the letter; it was the people. Right from the start they would not obey. Then over and over and over again the people get the law, agree to keep it, and then don’t. What does this history teach us? The law lacks the power to save. It only has the power to condemn.

Lastly, the law was not permanent. It was only provisional. Hebrews 8:13 says, “In speaking of a new covenant, he [i.e., God] makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” What is implied in the prophecy of Jeremiah itself? Just by speaking this promise in Jeremiah’s day, God’s word set in motion the day when the law-covenant would become obsolete. Not obsolete in the sense that we now ignore it. But obsolete in terms of that covenant now governing our relationship with God. In God’s plan, the law was always awaiting the better promises.

How is the New Covenant far better?

If that is how the old covenant was lacking, how is the new covenant so much better. What are the better promises? There are four of them (technically, there are three, and the last promise is the basis for all the rest).

The first promise is God’s law written on the heart. Verse 10, “I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts…” Earlier in Jeremiah, God describes the people’s rebellion like this: “the sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it’s engraved on the tablet of their heart…” The people so loved their idols, that sin was etched into the core of their being such that it could not be erased. But here, it is no longer sin etched into the heart. It is God’s Law. He has to give them a new heart for that to happen.

They needed a new mind too, one that did not stiff-arm the Lord’s word but received it gladly as truth to build your life upon. In an incredible act of grace, God would replace obstinate rebellion with obedient devotion. God’s law would become so much a part of them that all that grieves God would also grieve his people, and all that pleases God would also please his people. The old covenant made demands but never produced obedience. The new covenant effectively produces the obedience.

Promise number two: God’s commitment to us in covenant bond. Verse 10 says, “and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” This language spans the whole of Scripture from the covenant with Abraham in Genesis to the final scene in Revelation.[i] Such language does not belong to everyone. Not everyone shares such a relationship with God. Only the remnant. Only believers. It is the language of mutual belonging. Returning to the marriage analogy, it is God’s “I do” to his people, and their “I do” to God. But unlike human marriages, nothing will separate God from his people.

To break the old covenant meant God’s judgment. His faithfulness to the law-covenant required him to curse sinners—as verse 9 indicates, they didn’t continue in the first covenant, so God showed no concern for them. But things aren’t like that under the new covenant. Why? Because Jesus met all the obligations under the first covenant for us. Then he died to remove God’s curse from us. If God did not spare his only Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? God has bound himself to us by the blood of Jesus.

Promise three: everyone belonging to the new covenant knows God. That wasn’t the case under the old covenant. In Israel, all one had to do under the old covenant was be born into Abraham’s family. But being born in Israel did not mean you had a heart for God. That is why God had to keep sending his messengers. He appointed priests and prophets and kings to keep telling the people to know the Lord; and yet many of them never listened. But that would not be the case under the new covenant.

Under the new covenant, the whole community would know the Lord. Verse 11, “they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” So not just those special prophets and priests and kings who mediated God’s revelation to the people, who said, “Know the Lord”—everybody knows him under the new covenant. Why? Because they have a direct relationship with God through Jesus Christ, the true Prophet, Priest, and King. No one enters the new covenant except those who believe in Jesus; and those who believe in Jesus know God. Every one of them, from the least to the greatest.

Last promise: the forgiveness of our sins. This promise undergirds all the rest. Verse 12, “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Sin made Israel covenant breakers. Sin makes us covenant breakers. Sin separates us from God. Sin in our biggest problem. And the law can’t take it away. The law made nothing perfect. But Jesus does. It was Jesus who took a cup with his disciples and said, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant [the new covenant], which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

So, now what?

1. Come to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Have you sinned against God? Is your conscience riddled with guilt over things you said this week? Over evils you thought this week? Over things you have desired for years now? Do you have any idea how much your sin offends God’s holiness and presumes on his grace? Do you have any sense of deep regret for the way you have treated others, whether recently or in your past? Are there dark things you have not confessed, dark secrets that leave you undone and hiding from the Lord and hiding from others?

Hide no more! Come to Jesus Christ and your sins will be forgiven. Call upon his name! Look to the cross and see God’s sacrifice for you. Because of Jesus’ death, God will remember your sins no more. It’s the promise of the new covenant; and God sealed that covenant with his Son’s blood. 

2. Follow the new covenant vision for the church. In coming to Jesus, realize that you are not coming to a new moral code without any power. Christianity is not just another set of moral teachings. True Christianity involves transformation of our person at the deepest level. Christianity is about God acting in Christ to change us at the very core of our being, or it is not Christianity. God must write his law on your heart.

This shapes our approach to ethics. People, and I mean Christians, are rightly concerned with what’s right and wrong. But sadly, it’s often presented in a way that if someone knows what’s right, if someone can just discover what is true, then they will do it. People think that our fundamental problem as humans is a lack of knowledge. Hebrews says, “Wrong!” How many times did Israel know what was right? Was it not Israel that said to God, “We will do all that you have commanded!”? Then failure, failure, failure, exile.

The problem was deeper. The work God has to do in you is deeper than just knowledge of right and wrong. He has to make you love it from the heart, treasure his glory, enjoy his word, long for his character to be formed in you, or you are not a Christian. In short, you must be born again. Being right is what empowers doing right. God must regenerate your heart. New covenant people love God’s law.

This also affects the way we understand the church membership. Some people ask why we have some of the processes we do for membership and church discipline—one big answer to those questions is the new covenant. We see here that everyone under the new covenant knows God—the church is for the regenerate only, in other words. Also, the people within that covenant must love God from the heart. And if they don’t have such love, then who are we to keep saying they belong to the new covenant. It is at the height of deception to do that; and it ruins the church’s witness. As much as possible, devote yourself to keeping regenerate church membership. Practice accountability and corrective discipline when we are out of step with the new covenant, and follow through with restoration for the repentant. 

3. Pay attention to how the covenants develop in Scripture. God’s revelation comes to us progressively in history. There’s an important storyline; and one significant piece in that storyline is how the old covenant is surpassed in the new. If you miss that development, if you miss the nature of the old covenant and how is was lacking, if you miss the point for which God designed it as a pointer to Christ, then it will lead you into a host of errors. Isn’t this what the apostles kept having to correct in the early churches? Think of Acts 15 and Galatians in relation to circumcision. Think of Colossians 2 in relation to festivals and new moons and the Sabbath, which he says were only copies but the substance belongs to Christ. Think of false teachers misusing the law in 1 Timothy 1.

It’s still a problem today. Take the so-called prosperity gospel. One of the reasons it’s false is that it seeks to apply to us the temporal blessings of the old covenant when those blessings were limited to a particular people for a particular era based on their obedience. Prosperity teachers hijack promises to Israel under the old covenant and they seek to apply them to you in the here and now, “If you’d just have more faith and obey God more.” Promises for the prosperity of God’s people under the old covenant typify the prosperity we will gain at Jesus’ return; but we are not old covenant Israel and this present age is characterized by suffering to advance the gospel, not prosperity. The only way you discern that, though, is by relating the covenants properly.

Or, how many of you have heard that Christians should give ten percent of their income to the church? Yet what many don’t realize is that tithing was inextricably linked to the Levitical priesthood. We just read here that Jesus inaugurated a better covenant, a better priesthood. His work made the Mosaic covenant obsolete. What are you going to say now? What we do say is this: giving is motivated not by looking at another ‘law’ for a minimum amount I’m required to give, but by looking at Jesus’ person and work for the maximum amount he frees me to give.[ii] But the only way you’ll discern this is by relating the covenants properly.

This doesn’t mean the Law has no place for the Christian. It’s still the word of God. Paul says elsewhere that it’s holy and righteous and good. It’s not a matter of choosing which laws apply and which don’t, but how those laws are fulfilled and brought to their truest intent in Christ and our union with him. So relating the covenants rightly will guard you from false teaching.

4. Take heart that God grants what he also commands. Lastly, take heart that God grants what he also commands in the new covenant. The problem with the old covenant is that it could never produce the obedience it required. The new covenant actually produces the obedience it requires. God writes his law upon our hearts. That is true freedom. That is some massive assurance for the Christian. Because how often do you read your Bible and think, "That is a lot required of me. That requires all of me right there and all the energy I have today; and I feel like I barely made it yesterday. What’s going to keep me going?" Answer? Jesus is.

The covenant he inaugurates creates in us everything we need to follow the Lord and abide in his will. That does not mean you are passive. You can’t have a heart for God and be passive about obeying him. You will want to. And you know why you will want to? The grace of the new covenant. So do not fret, Christian, about whether your faith is going to last or not. In union with Christ, it will. He will keep you to the end, until that day comes as it says, when we will dwell with God and he with us; and God will be our God and we will be his people (Rev 21:3).

________

[i] E.g., Gen 17:7-8; Exod 29:45; Lev 26:45; Jer 24:7; 32:38; Ezek 11:20; 34:24; Hos 2:23; Zech 8:8; 2 Cor 6:16; Rev 21:3.

[ii] Luke 16:1-13; Rom 15:26-27; 2 Cor 8:7-9; 9:13; 1 Tim 6:17-19.

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How Does the NT Use the OT? https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/how-does-the-nt-use-the-ot https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/how-does-the-nt-use-the-ot#comments Sun, 11 Oct 2020 21:00:00 -0400 https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/how-does-the-nt-use-the-ot We’ve all experienced it. Matthew 2:15 asserts that Jesus fulfills the prophet’s words. Then, flipping back to Hosea 11:1, we discover Israel coming out of Egypt. “How did Matthew get that?” we wonder. Again, we encounter Revelation 3:9 asserting that self-professed Jews will bow before the church. But tapping your nifty cross references to Isaiah 45:14 and Isaiah 60:14 reveals just the opposite, it seems: nations will bow before the Jews. Then, studying Acts 1:20, we again ask, “How can Peter conclude from Scripture to replace Judas when the Psalms he quotes speak about David’s enemies?” 

When comparing the historical, contextual meaning of an Old Testament (OT) verse with its appearance in a New Testament (NT) context, we often feel tension. What type of connection is this? How are the NT authors using the OT? What led them to use it this way? How do I start seeing what they—and Jesus who taught them—think I ought to see? The following aims to help answer these questions by introducing you to the way the NT uses the OT.

It's not an in-depth article. It only outlines some basic categories to help you see how Jesus and the apostles interpreted the OT. I used it to teach Discipleship Hour in 2019 at Redeemer Church. I have tried improving it to serve as a more accessible resource that you can return to. All the categories may be a bit overwhelming. But they describe what many of you already do intuitively when you read a NT passage and think, "Hmm. Didn't I see something similar in Genesis? in Isaiah? in Proverbs?" Or maybe you're reading the OT and say, "Wait! Didn't John the Baptist also wear a garment of hair and a leather belt like Elijah?" Or, "Didn't I observe a similar pattern in Jesus' ministry?" Or, "Doesn't Paul use that verse in Galatians?" And you then proceed to work out the whats, whys, and hows.

So don't let the labels and technicalities bog you down. My hope is that they will only stir you to think further about Scripture and help sharpen the focus on Christ, the center of Scripture's storyline.

Importance for Discipleship

Why is studying the NT's use of the OT important? Several observations stress the importance of this subject for Christian discipleship. For starters, the divine inspiration of Scripture and God’s sovereign purpose in history force us to wrestle with the NT’s relation to the OT. God is not going to inspire later revelation (i.e., the NT) that contradicts prior revelation (i.e., the OT). God also plans the end from the beginning (e.g., Isa 41:26; 46:10). He orchestrates history in a manner that is purposeful, heading toward a single goal: the revelation and enjoyment of his glory in Jesus Christ. Great unity spans the Testaments because God controls history. By studying this subject, we equip ourselves in apologetics, in defending Scripture's consistent testimony.

Also, Jesus’ lordship includes learning from Jesus (and his apostles) how to read the OT. We don’t want to be like the unbelieving Jews in John 5:39 who missed the point of the OT: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” Rather, we want to learn how to read the OT as Jesus taught his apostles to read the OT. Luke 24:44-47, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures…” By studying the NT's use of the OT, we learn how our Lord read the Scriptures and how to follow him in doing so.

Finally, the Spirit glorifies Jesus in and through the disciples’ post-resurrection understanding of the OT. The disciples did not understand the OT (at least not fully) until Jesus’ glorification (John 2:22; 12:16; 20:9). When Jesus returns to the Father, he then sends the Holy Spirit.[i] The Spirit guides the disciples into all truth, including the way Jesus interpreted the OT.[ii] That’s how the Spirit glorifies Jesus (John 16:14). Studying how the NT uses the OT also helps us see the glory of Jesus.

In sum, the unity of God’s plan, the teaching of Jesus, and the ministry of the Spirit, all imply that learning how the NT uses the OT is important to Christian discipleship. With these things in mind, let’s now turn to several ways the OT appears in the NT.

Form: Ways the OT Appears in the NT

One can observe various instances in the NT where we see the apostle’s dependence on the OT. At the most basic level, we could ask, “In what form does the OT appear in the NT?” Such a question does not yet address what the apostles are doing with the OT. It only looks at the data and classifies ways the OT appears in the NT.[iii]

1. General linguistic influence. NT writers are steeped in the OT. Terms/idioms sometimes influence their words but without intending to interpret an OT passage. Such influence compares to the way we often use idioms from Shakespeare without seeking to interpret his play (e.g., “break the ice” comes from The Taming of the Shrew, Act I, Scene II; “be-all, end-all” comes from Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII). An example of this could include Jesus saying, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death…” The word appears three times in Pss 42:5, 11; 43:5 (LXX), but nothing in Mark 14:34 suggests he’s interpreting Psalms 42-43. Or, regarding sinful passions, James 4:4 rebukes the church with “You adulterous people!” No text cited, but unfaithfulness often related to adultery in OT.

2. Significant conceptual influence. NT writers often work with the same concepts developed in the OT such as the word (John 1:1-3); covenant (e.g., Abraham [Luke 1:72; Gal 3:17]; Moses [Matt 26:28; Heb 9:4]; New [1 Cor 11:25; Heb 8:13]), sin (Rom 5:12), final judgment (Rom 2:5), atonement (1 John 2:2), peace (Rom 1:7), kingdom (Mark 1:15), jealousy (1 Cor 10:22), etc.

3. OT symbols and imagery. Quite often the same OT symbols or imagery reappear in the NT, but in relation to the person and work of Jesus, his church, or the age to come. E.g., “I am the true vine” (John 15:1; cf. Ps 80:8-14; Isa 5:1-7; 27:1-6; Ezek 15:1-8); “I am the good shepherd” (Ps 23:1; Ezek 34; Jer 23:1-7; John 10:1-18); the cup of wrath (Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17; Jer 25:15; John 18:11; Rev 14:10; 16:19); the four beasts (Dan 7; Rev 13); horses and riders (Zech 1:7-17; 6:1-8; Rev 6:1-8); “root” from David’s line (Isa 11:1, 10; Rev 5:5); etc.

4. Summaries of OT history. Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 moves from Abraham through the patriarchs to Egypt, Moses, the Exodus, David, Solomon, the prophets, and into the present implications. Paul’s sermon in Acts 13 extends from Egypt to David to Jesus. Paul makes a point about the promise to Abraham preceding the Law in Galatians 3 and Romans 4. The larger, chronological narrative extending from Genesis 12-22 through Exodus 19-20 is crucial to understanding the gospel. See also the exodus, wilderness, and idolatry/unbelief in 1 Corinthians 10 and Hebrews 3-4.

5. Explicit/Implicit quotations. A straightforward reproduction of the OT text, either utilizing the LXX or translating the Hebrew. Explicit involves a clear, intentional referent with an introductory formula: “just as it is written” (John 12:14); “as God said” (2 Cor 6:16); “as also in another place” (Heb 5:6); “this is what was uttered by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16). Implicit involves a clear, intentional referent without an introductory formula, but other factors make it obvious that a specific text is in mind. E.g., Hebrews 13:6; 1 Peter 2:7-8; 3:10-12.

6. Allusion. A word, idea, or brief phrase that an author uses to send us back to an OT context, though not a quotation. E.g., “kingdom and priests to our God” (Rev 1:6; 5:10; cf. Exod 19:6); “blood of the covenant” (Matt 26:28; cf. Exod 24:8); “he is coming with the clouds” (Rev 1:7; cf. Dan 7:13); “Christ, our Passover lamb” (1 Cor 5:7; cf. Exod 12:14-17); “by hanging him on a tree” (Acts 5:30; cf. Deut 21:23). Some questions[iv] to ask:

  • What verbal parallels are evident? One word is possible, but two or more words of significance between the OT and NT passages is best.

  • What thematic parallels are evident? NT passage may use a similar OT idea or theme, but without the exact vocabulary (Simple word search is insufficient!). E.g., “the seal of God on their foreheads” in Revelation 9:4 differs from the vocabulary of Ezekiel 9:4, but surrounding themes make allusion apparent.

  • What about structural parallels? NT passage may put themes in a particular order that recalls an OT context. E.g., like Moses/Israel, notice how Jesus comes out of Egypt (Exod 1-14; Matt 2:15), gets tested in the wilderness (Exod 16-17; Matt 4:1), and then interprets the Law from a mountain (Exod 20; Matt 5-7). Or, note how events in Revelation 20-22 parallel Ezekiel 37-48—“resurrection of God’s people (Ezek 37:1-14; Rev 20:4-6); Christ’s reign over land restored from war (Ezek 37:24; 38:8, 11; Rev 20:4-6); satanic attack by God and Magog (Ezek 38:1-4, 8, 11; Rev 20:7-8); defeat of Gog and Satan (Ezek 38:16-39:24; Rev 20:9-10); new heaven and new earth presented as a cosmic temple (Ezek 40-48; Rev 21-22).”[v]

  • Do other NT authors reference the same OT text/context but with clearer evidence than the allusion at hand? E.g., “tree” in Acts 5:30 and Galatians 3:13; “Passover” in 1 Corinthians 5:7 and John 19:36.

Function: Ways the NT Interprets the OT

Having observed how the OT simply appears in the NT, we next move toward the ways Jesus and the apostles interpreted the OT.[vi] We’re now asking how the OT passage functions in its NT context. What exactly are the NT writers doing/showing in their use of the OT? The following examples are not exhaustive. Nor are these examples all mutually exclusive (e.g., typological fulfillment may differ from direct fulfillment, but both appear when a NT writer may advance a theme).

1. To show direct fulfillment. The OT promises a specific event and the NT shows how the event comes to pass in a direct manner: a ruler to be born in Bethlehem and Jesus is born in Bethlehem (Mic 5:2; Matt 2:5-6); Zion’s king will ride on a donkey and Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey (Zech 9:9; John 12:15-16); a people will look on the Lord whom they pierced and people look on Jesus whom they pierce (Zech 12:10; John 19:37). Also includes how NT writers expect other OT promises to receive their direct fulfillment at day still future to them: “we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth” (Isa 65:17; 2 Pet 3:13); “the lawless one will be revealed” (Dan 7:25; 11:31; 12:4; 2 Thess 2:3).

2. To show typological fulfillment. A few contexts explicitly use the word type (Greek: tupos in Rom 5:14; 1 Cor 10:6; Heb 8:5), but most occurrences simply utilize the concept without identifying it as such. Typology looks at the way God reveals himself through events, persons, and institutions in the OT, and then teases out how those shadows/patterns point forward to Jesus and the kingdom. Typology is not simply retrospective (looking back from Christ); the OT events themselves are prospective (looking ahead to Christ). Two necessary characteristics: historical correspondence wherein clear parallels exist between the type and its fulfillment; end-time escalation wherein the fulfillment always surpasses the type/shadow/pattern.

  • Events: creation (2 Cor 4:6; 5:17), flood (1 Pet 3:20-22), Sodom (Rev 14), exodus (Matt 2:15; 1 Cor 10:1-5), serpent (John 3:14), exile (1 Pet 1:17)

  • Persons: Adam (Rom 5:14), Melchizedek (Heb 7:1-28), Moses (Matt 5; Acts 3), Israel (Matt 2:15), David (John 13:18; 19:24), David’s enemies (Acts 2:20), Solomon (Matt 12:42), Elijah (Matt 11:14), Jonah (Matt 12:40), Daniel’s Beasts (Rev 13:1-18), Babylon (Rev 14:8)

  • Institutions: Sabbath (Col 2:16-17; Heb 4:6-10), Passover (John 19:36; 1 Cor 5:7), high priest/day of atonement (Heb 9:7-12), temple (John 2:21; 1 Cor 3:16; Rev 21-22), priestly sacrifices (Rom 12:1; 15:16)

3. To advance a recurring theme or motif. Numerous themes span the OT’s storyline seeking their greater resolution in a coming age. The NT then demonstrates how the person and work of Christ advance these themes within the flow of redemptive history (i.e., creation, fall, redemption, consummation). The themes do not stand independent of one another, but are interdependent parts of a whole (e.g., God created image-bearers to exercise dominion over a place/land before his presence).

  • Bigger themes spanning the whole Bible: creation (life, new creation), God’s word, image/likeness of God (identity, manhood/womanhood), dominion (rule, dynasty, kingdom), land (inheritance), rest (peace, wholeness), marriage (jealousy, intimacy, adultery), home (sojourner, exile), priesthood (service, sacrifice), God’s dwelling place (meeting, temple, fellowship), glory of God (worship, praise, thanksgiving), holiness (sanctification, God’s presence), wisdom (knowledge), righteousness (justice, shame), etc.

  • Smaller themes sometimes limited to one author or corpus: abomination of desolation (Dan 12:11; cf. 8:13; 9:27; 11:31; Matt 24:15; Mark 13:14); Day of the Lord (Prophets; Acts 2:20; 2 Pet 3:10, 12; Rev 16:14), Israel = the Lord’s “vine” (Prophets; John 15:1), etc.

The table below exemplifies how a few of the themes listed above develop across the storyline of Scripture.

Four Communities Table

4. To (re)appropriate principles of wisdom, ethics, morality. Referring to the OT (i.e., “the sacred writings”), Paul says that “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17).

  • Matthew 5:17-26 – Jesus brings the Law to its truest intent and creates citizens who live out the law’s truest intent. It’s not a matter of choosing which OT laws apply and which don’t, but how those laws are fulfilled in Christ and our union with Christ. E.g., if we understand the law’s truest intent, we wouldn’t just avoid murder; we would eliminate every cause that can lead to murder like anger in our hearts. Cf. also Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:14.

  • 1 Corinthians 10:1-12 – Christians were redeemed but falling into patterns of idolatry as Israel once had. Paul lists several OT examples wherein idolatry led to God’s judgment. Paul then says, “these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” Conclusion: “Take heed!”

  • 1 Timothy 5:17-18 – Paul instructs the church to compensate elders who labor in preaching and teaching. He then grounds the instruction in Deuteronomy 25:4, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” The one benefiting from the labor of an ox should not take economic advantage of the owner of the ox. Cf. 1 Corinthians 9:9-10.

  • 1 Timothy 2:12-15 – Paul doesn’t permit a woman to teach/exercise authority over a man. He then grounds the instruction in the created order (“For Adam was formed first, then Eve”) as well as how deception entered (“Adam was not deceived but the woman…”). Cf. 1 Corinthians 11:7-12; 14:34-35.

  • Revelation 2:14-16, 20-23 – Teaching of Balaam and Jezebel are both held up as negative examples who led God’s people into covenant unfaithfulness (i.e., idolatry and sexual immorality). Conclusion: Repent!

  • 2 Corinthians 13:1 – “Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” Same principle appears in Deuteronomy 19:15. Cf. also 1 Timothy 5:19.

5. To show how the new covenant affects the old. The apostles often draw from the old covenant to help us see what has been fulfilled or abrogated in Christ. To be clear, this doesn’t mean we disregard the Law. Nor does it mean the Law is now less important, less authoritative. Rather, we just can’t read the Law apart from how the apostles interpret it and apply it to the church under the new covenant.

For example, as the new covenant in his blood, Jesus’ death fulfills and transforms the Passover (Luke 22:15-20; Matt 26:28; 1 Cor 11:25-26). Physical circumcision no longer marks God’s people, but union with Christ by the Spirit (Gal 6:15; Col 2:11-12). The Law governed the Lord’s people until the coming of Christ, whereas now the apostle’s instruction does (Acts 15:5, 19; 1 Cor 9:20; Gal 3:24). After quoting from Jeremiah 31, Hebrews explains that “in speaking of a new covenant, [the Lord] makes the first one obsolete” (Heb 8:13). After listing commands from the Decalogue, Paul explains that “love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom 13:10). With Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice being ultimate, our priestly service now involves sacrificial love (Eph 5:2; Phil 2:17), meeting needs (Phil 4:18), evangelism (Rom 15:16), praise (Heb 13:15), even martyrdom (Rev 6:9).

6. To show a reversed appropriation of an OT situation. Sometimes the particular end-time moment will create a reversal of a situation the OT depicted.

  • Hosea 13:14 invites death to conquer Israel for their sin: “O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting?” But in 1 Corinthians 15:55 Jesus’ final victory over death transforms the invitation into a taunt against death. It’s not that 1 Corinthians 15:55 contradicts God’s initial word of judgment. Rather, God’s judgment falls on Jesus in our place. For believers, death lost all power.

  • Micah 5:2 says, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel…” However, when Matthew cites the prophet’s words within the birth narrative of Jesus, he does so in a manner that stresses the greatness of the fulfillment: “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah…”[xiv]

  • Zechariah 12:10-14 foresees people looking on the Pierced One and mourning with repentance. For John, that actually happens when Jew and Gentile look upon the Pierced One by faith during the inter-advent age (John 19:37). But in Revelation 1:7 Jesus’ second coming closes the inter-advent age as well as the opportunity for repentance.[xv] The only mourning left is that of great dread.

Faith: Theological Convictions Driving the NT Writers

Based on God’s ultimate self-revelation in Jesus Christ—including how Jesus himself interpreted the OT—certain theological convictions drive the NT writers’ use of the OT. Stated differently, we’re now seeking to answer the question of warrant. What gives the apostles warrant to use the OT this way? What gives Matthew warrant to interpret Jesus’ flight from Egypt as a fulfillment of Hosea 11:1, which describes Israel? When the soldiers divide Jesus’ garments on the cross in John 19:24, what gives John the warrant to say that happened to fulfill Psalm 22:18, which describes David? Answering the question of warrant helps us understand how the apostles interpret the OT. Once we see their theological convictions, we too can imitate their interpretation of the OT even beyond the passages they draw from more explicitly. Some of these theological convictions include the following:

The OT is God’s word. The Lord Jesus treated the OT as God’s word, which presents a unified message (Luke 24:44-47) that is true (John 10:35) and has abiding, binding authority (Matt 5:17-19; 15:6). The apostles follow Jesus, reading the OT with the same convictions. The OT is God’s word (2 Tim 3:16). The OT presents a unified message, seen in how the NT presents the OT storyline pointing to Jesus (Rom 1:2-3; 16:25-26), uses the OT to interpret itself (Acts 7:42-43; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 4:3-10), and shows consistency across various genres and epochs (Acts 13:33-41). The OT is true (Rom 9:6). The OT has abiding and binding authority (2 Tim 3:16-17; 1 Pet 1:23).

God rules history. God sovereignly orchestrates history, so that earlier parts correspond with and point to later parts.[xvi] Jesus read the OT this way and taught his disciples to do the same (e.g., Matt 11:13-14; John 13:18-19; 15:25). Even where the OT writers didn’t understand the full extent of what their experiences pointed to (cf. Eph 3:5; 1 Pet 1:10-12), God still designed their experiences and had them write about those experiences in a way that anticipated his work in Christ.

Corporate solidarity/representation. Seeing the one in the many and the many in the one. That is, “…a single member of a community can represent the whole. Biblical illustrations of this concept include how the figure of Adam is used by Paul as a representative of all humanity, just as Christ represents redeemed humanity (Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:20-23, 45-49). ”[xvii] The concept is rooted in the OT itself. E.g., when Israel’s anointed king represents the people—as goes the king, so goes the people (Ps 2; 118); or when the priests wore the “breast-piece of judgment” and represented the nation before God (Exod 28:29).

Christ represents true/ideal Israel. Based on Jesus’ own teaching—e.g., that he is the “true vine” (John 15:1; cf. Ps 80:8-14; Isa 5:1-7; 27:1-6; Ezek 15:1-8)—the apostles read the OT with the assumption that Jesus is the ideal Israelite. Jesus represents all that Israel was supposed to be. E.g., though Hosea 11:1 speaks of Israel the nation coming out of Egypt, Matthew 2:15 sees Hosea’s prophecy fulfilled in Jesus. As true Israel (and God’s son, cf. Exod 4:22-23), Jesus comes to lead us out of our ultimate bondage. Or, Isaiah’s servant-individual embodies everything the servant-nation was supposed to be (Isa 41:8-9; 42:1, 6, 19; 48:3-5, 20; 49:1-6). Luke 2:32 then applies the servant of Isaiah 49:6 to Jesus. Paul goes further and applies Isaiah 49:6 even to us. Meaning, we become true Israel when united to Christ (cf. Gal 4:26; 6:16; Phil 3:3).

Jesus is God/Yahweh. With God’s self-revelation climaxing in Jesus the Son, the apostles see that Jesus himself is God and fulfills the mission of God. Jesus himself taught and embodied this reality (John 8:58; 10:30; 14:9). The apostles witnessed God’s glory in Jesus (John 1:14) and then applied to Jesus OT passages, titles, and functions once reserved exclusively for Yahweh. E.g., “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord” (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21, 36, 39); “every knee should bow” (Isa 45:23; Phil 2:10-11) “they will look on me [Yahweh], whom they pierced” (Zech 12:10; John 19:37; Rev 1:7); “hairs of his head like pure wool” (Dan 7:9; Rev 1:14); “behold, the Lord is coming” (Isa 40:10; Rev 22:12); “the first and the last” (Isa 41:4; 44:6; 48:12; Rev 22:23).

Jesus is the Christ/Messiah. Jesus identified himself as the Messiah (Matt 16:16-17) and interpreted the Scriptures for the disciples in that light (Luke 24:27, 44-47). The disciples followed suit in general (Acts 3:24; 15:15-16; 28:23; 1 Cor 15:3-4) as well as in the specific functions of Jesus’ role as Messiah: Prophet (Acts 3:22); Priest (Heb 4:14) and new-covenant Mediator (Heb 8-10); King (Acts 13:33).

The age of fulfillment dawned in Jesus’ coming. Jesus described his coming in terms of the kingdom of God being “at hand” (Matt 4:17), “the time being fulfilled” (Mark 1:15), or fulfilling the Law and the Prophets (Matt 5:17). Likewise, the apostles were convinced that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection inaugurated “the last days” (Acts 2:17; Heb 1:2), “the end of the ages” (Heb 9:26), “the end of all things” (1 Pet 4:7). We are those “upon whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor 10:11). Still, the kingdom is not yet fully present on earth. With Christ’s return consummating the age, we now live in the “already-not-yet.”

Christ is central to the OT’s storyline and the key to understanding it. Seen in Jesus’ own teaching (Luke 24:27, 44-47; John 5:39). The disciples then follow suit (Acts 8:35; 13:27; 2 Cor 1:20; 2 Tim 3:15). But even more, the disciples didn’t and couldn’t understand the OT fully until God’s later revelation in Christ (John 12:16; Rom 16:25; Eph 3:5, 9; Col 1:26; 1 Pet 1:10-11). Therefore, no passage of Scripture has been fully understood until it has been read in light of God’s fuller and climactic self-revelation in Jesus Christ, to whom the apostles bear witness in their writings.

Christ-centered Interpretation Diagram

I can’t remember where I first saw this diagram, but it does an excellent job illustrating the right path of interpretation. Follow the red line. Understand the OT text and how it applied to Israel. Then seek to understand it in light of Christ’s person, work, and the new covenant/age he begins. Only then will we make proper sense of how the OT passage applies to us. Only then will we see in the Scriptures what God wants us to see as he glorifies his Son by the Spirit.

________

[i]John 7:39; 14:26; 15:26; 16:7; 20:22.

[ii]John 14:26; 15:26-27; 16:13. For further explanation, you can read or listen to the fourth point in the following sermon: Seeing God's Glory in Jesus the Son.

[iii]A number of these categories were first introduced to me in two separate seminars, a “biblical theology” seminar taught by B. Paul Wolfe and a “NT use of the OT” seminar taught by Paul M. Hoskins.

[iv]The fourth question is my addition. See Bret Rogers, Jesus as the Pierced One: The Use of Zechariah in John’s Gospel and Revelation, McMaster Biblical Studies Series 4 (Eugene: Pickwick, 2020), 21. The first three questions I saw first organized by Jon Paulien, “Allusive Elusions: The Problematic Use of the Old Testament in Revelation,” Biblical Research 33 (1988), 41-43.

[v]Noted parallels between Revelation and Ezekiel taken from James M. Hamilton, Jr., With the Clouds of Heaven: The Book of Daniel in Biblical Theology, NSBT 32 (Downers Grove: IVP, 2014), 219.

[vi]For this section, I am indebted to the teaching ministries of Paul M. Hoskins, my PhD supervisor, and Wes Duggins, my fellow elder at Redeemer Church. Also influential have been numerous works by others, among which the following stand out: Douglas J. Moo, The Old Testament in the Gospel Passion Narratives (Sheffield: Almond Press, 1983); idem, “The Problem of Sensus Plenior,” in Hermeneutics, Authority, and Canon, eds. D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 1986); G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007); Brian S. Rosner, Paul and the Law: Keeping the Commandments of God, NSBT 31 (Downers Grove: IVP, 2013).

[vii]Credit for the “Four Communities” Table must go to Dusty Deevers, now serving as a pastor at Grace Community Church in Elgin, Oklahoma. I have attempted to add questions that explain each heading and then give examples of how to analyze a few themes spanning the Bible.

[viii]Gen 1-2; John 1:1-3; Col 1:15-16; 1 Cor 11:7; 15:49; Heb 1:2.

[ix]Rom 3:23; 5:12; Jas 3:9.

[x]Gen 1:26-29; 2:18-25; Matt 19:6; Eph 5:31-32 (alongside Eph 1:4; John 17:2, 9, 24);

[xi]Deut 24:1-4; Isa 62:4; Ezekiel 16:8-14; Hos 2:16; Matt 19:7-8.

[xii]Cf. Gen 1-2 with Prov 3:18 (“tree of life”); 8:22-31 (“possessed me at the beginning of his work”).

[xiii]Gen 3:1-7; Deut 4:6-7 (“your wisdom…‘Surely this nation is a wise and understanding people’”); 1 Kgs 3:1-28; Prov 1-22:16; 25-29; Isa 11:2-3 (“Spirit of wisdom and understanding”).

[xiv]I’m thankful that Tyrone Benson pointed out this example to the Discipleship Hour class at Redeemer Church in 2019.

[xv]E.g., John 5:24, 27, 29; Rev 6:16-17; 14:7, 10; 19:15; cf. 1 John 4:17. For further development, see Rogers, Jesus as the Pierced One, 142-48, 167-217.

[xvi]G. K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2012), 96.

[xvii]Darrell Bock, “Scripture Citing Scripture: Use of the Old Testament in the New,” in Interpreting the New Testament Text, eds. Darrell Bock and Buist Fanning (Wheaton: Crossway, 2006), 261.

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We’ve all experienced it. Matthew 2:15 asserts that Jesus fulfills the prophet’s words. Then, flipping back to Hosea 11:1, we discover Israel coming out of Egypt. “How did Matthew get that?” we wonder. Again, we encounter Revelation 3:9 asserting that self-professed Jews will bow before the church. But tapping your nifty cross references to Isaiah 45:14 and Isaiah 60:14 reveals just the opposite, it seems: nations will bow before the Jews. Then, studying Acts 1:20, we again ask, “How can Peter conclude from Scripture to replace Judas when the Psalms he quotes speak about David’s enemies?” 

When comparing the historical, contextual meaning of an Old Testament (OT) verse with its appearance in a New Testament (NT) context, we often feel tension. What type of connection is this? How are the NT authors using the OT? What led them to use it this way? How do I start seeing what they—and Jesus who taught them—think I ought to see? The following aims to help answer these questions by introducing you to the way the NT uses the OT.

It's not an in-depth article. It only outlines some basic categories to help you see how Jesus and the apostles interpreted the OT. I used it to teach Discipleship Hour in 2019 at Redeemer Church. I have tried improving it to serve as a more accessible resource that you can return to. All the categories may be a bit overwhelming. But they describe what many of you already do intuitively when you read a NT passage and think, "Hmm. Didn't I see something similar in Genesis? in Isaiah? in Proverbs?" Or maybe you're reading the OT and say, "Wait! Didn't John the Baptist also wear a garment of hair and a leather belt like Elijah?" Or, "Didn't I observe a similar pattern in Jesus' ministry?" Or, "Doesn't Paul use that verse in Galatians?" And you then proceed to work out the whats, whys, and hows.

So don't let the labels and technicalities bog you down. My hope is that they will only stir you to think further about Scripture and help sharpen the focus on Christ, the center of Scripture's storyline.

Importance for Discipleship

Why is studying the NT's use of the OT important? Several observations stress the importance of this subject for Christian discipleship. For starters, the divine inspiration of Scripture and God’s sovereign purpose in history force us to wrestle with the NT’s relation to the OT. God is not going to inspire later revelation (i.e., the NT) that contradicts prior revelation (i.e., the OT). God also plans the end from the beginning (e.g., Isa 41:26; 46:10). He orchestrates history in a manner that is purposeful, heading toward a single goal: the revelation and enjoyment of his glory in Jesus Christ. Great unity spans the Testaments because God controls history. By studying this subject, we equip ourselves in apologetics, in defending Scripture's consistent testimony.

Also, Jesus’ lordship includes learning from Jesus (and his apostles) how to read the OT. We don’t want to be like the unbelieving Jews in John 5:39 who missed the point of the OT: “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” Rather, we want to learn how to read the OT as Jesus taught his apostles to read the OT. Luke 24:44-47, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures…” By studying the NT's use of the OT, we learn how our Lord read the Scriptures and how to follow him in doing so.

Finally, the Spirit glorifies Jesus in and through the disciples’ post-resurrection understanding of the OT. The disciples did not understand the OT (at least not fully) until Jesus’ glorification (John 2:22; 12:16; 20:9). When Jesus returns to the Father, he then sends the Holy Spirit.[i] The Spirit guides the disciples into all truth, including the way Jesus interpreted the OT.[ii] That’s how the Spirit glorifies Jesus (John 16:14). Studying how the NT uses the OT also helps us see the glory of Jesus.

In sum, the unity of God’s plan, the teaching of Jesus, and the ministry of the Spirit, all imply that learning how the NT uses the OT is important to Christian discipleship. With these things in mind, let’s now turn to several ways the OT appears in the NT.

Form: Ways the OT Appears in the NT

One can observe various instances in the NT where we see the apostle’s dependence on the OT. At the most basic level, we could ask, “In what form does the OT appear in the NT?” Such a question does not yet address what the apostles are doing with the OT. It only looks at the data and classifies ways the OT appears in the NT.[iii]

1. General linguistic influence. NT writers are steeped in the OT. Terms/idioms sometimes influence their words but without intending to interpret an OT passage. Such influence compares to the way we often use idioms from Shakespeare without seeking to interpret his play (e.g., “break the ice” comes from The Taming of the Shrew, Act I, Scene II; “be-all, end-all” comes from Macbeth, Act I, Scene VII). An example of this could include Jesus saying, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death…” The word appears three times in Pss 42:5, 11; 43:5 (LXX), but nothing in Mark 14:34 suggests he’s interpreting Psalms 42-43. Or, regarding sinful passions, James 4:4 rebukes the church with “You adulterous people!” No text cited, but unfaithfulness often related to adultery in OT.

2. Significant conceptual influence. NT writers often work with the same concepts developed in the OT such as the word (John 1:1-3); covenant (e.g., Abraham [Luke 1:72; Gal 3:17]; Moses [Matt 26:28; Heb 9:4]; New [1 Cor 11:25; Heb 8:13]), sin (Rom 5:12), final judgment (Rom 2:5), atonement (1 John 2:2), peace (Rom 1:7), kingdom (Mark 1:15), jealousy (1 Cor 10:22), etc.

3. OT symbols and imagery. Quite often the same OT symbols or imagery reappear in the NT, but in relation to the person and work of Jesus, his church, or the age to come. E.g., “I am the true vine” (John 15:1; cf. Ps 80:8-14; Isa 5:1-7; 27:1-6; Ezek 15:1-8); “I am the good shepherd” (Ps 23:1; Ezek 34; Jer 23:1-7; John 10:1-18); the cup of wrath (Ps 75:8; Isa 51:17; Jer 25:15; John 18:11; Rev 14:10; 16:19); the four beasts (Dan 7; Rev 13); horses and riders (Zech 1:7-17; 6:1-8; Rev 6:1-8); “root” from David’s line (Isa 11:1, 10; Rev 5:5); etc.

4. Summaries of OT history. Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7 moves from Abraham through the patriarchs to Egypt, Moses, the Exodus, David, Solomon, the prophets, and into the present implications. Paul’s sermon in Acts 13 extends from Egypt to David to Jesus. Paul makes a point about the promise to Abraham preceding the Law in Galatians 3 and Romans 4. The larger, chronological narrative extending from Genesis 12-22 through Exodus 19-20 is crucial to understanding the gospel. See also the exodus, wilderness, and idolatry/unbelief in 1 Corinthians 10 and Hebrews 3-4.

5. Explicit/Implicit quotations. A straightforward reproduction of the OT text, either utilizing the LXX or translating the Hebrew. Explicit involves a clear, intentional referent with an introductory formula: “just as it is written” (John 12:14); “as God said” (2 Cor 6:16); “as also in another place” (Heb 5:6); “this is what was uttered by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16). Implicit involves a clear, intentional referent without an introductory formula, but other factors make it obvious that a specific text is in mind. E.g., Hebrews 13:6; 1 Peter 2:7-8; 3:10-12.

6. Allusion. A word, idea, or brief phrase that an author uses to send us back to an OT context, though not a quotation. E.g., “kingdom and priests to our God” (Rev 1:6; 5:10; cf. Exod 19:6); “blood of the covenant” (Matt 26:28; cf. Exod 24:8); “he is coming with the clouds” (Rev 1:7; cf. Dan 7:13); “Christ, our Passover lamb” (1 Cor 5:7; cf. Exod 12:14-17); “by hanging him on a tree” (Acts 5:30; cf. Deut 21:23). Some questions[iv] to ask:

  • What verbal parallels are evident? One word is possible, but two or more words of significance between the OT and NT passages is best.

  • What thematic parallels are evident? NT passage may use a similar OT idea or theme, but without the exact vocabulary (Simple word search is insufficient!). E.g., “the seal of God on their foreheads” in Revelation 9:4 differs from the vocabulary of Ezekiel 9:4, but surrounding themes make allusion apparent.

  • What about structural parallels? NT passage may put themes in a particular order that recalls an OT context. E.g., like Moses/Israel, notice how Jesus comes out of Egypt (Exod 1-14; Matt 2:15), gets tested in the wilderness (Exod 16-17; Matt 4:1), and then interprets the Law from a mountain (Exod 20; Matt 5-7). Or, note how events in Revelation 20-22 parallel Ezekiel 37-48—“resurrection of God’s people (Ezek 37:1-14; Rev 20:4-6); Christ’s reign over land restored from war (Ezek 37:24; 38:8, 11; Rev 20:4-6); satanic attack by God and Magog (Ezek 38:1-4, 8, 11; Rev 20:7-8); defeat of Gog and Satan (Ezek 38:16-39:24; Rev 20:9-10); new heaven and new earth presented as a cosmic temple (Ezek 40-48; Rev 21-22).”[v]

  • Do other NT authors reference the same OT text/context but with clearer evidence than the allusion at hand? E.g., “tree” in Acts 5:30 and Galatians 3:13; “Passover” in 1 Corinthians 5:7 and John 19:36.

Function: Ways the NT Interprets the OT

Having observed how the OT simply appears in the NT, we next move toward the ways Jesus and the apostles interpreted the OT.[vi] We’re now asking how the OT passage functions in its NT context. What exactly are the NT writers doing/showing in their use of the OT? The following examples are not exhaustive. Nor are these examples all mutually exclusive (e.g., typological fulfillment may differ from direct fulfillment, but both appear when a NT writer may advance a theme).

1. To show direct fulfillment. The OT promises a specific event and the NT shows how the event comes to pass in a direct manner: a ruler to be born in Bethlehem and Jesus is born in Bethlehem (Mic 5:2; Matt 2:5-6); Zion’s king will ride on a donkey and Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey (Zech 9:9; John 12:15-16); a people will look on the Lord whom they pierced and people look on Jesus whom they pierce (Zech 12:10; John 19:37). Also includes how NT writers expect other OT promises to receive their direct fulfillment at day still future to them: “we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth” (Isa 65:17; 2 Pet 3:13); “the lawless one will be revealed” (Dan 7:25; 11:31; 12:4; 2 Thess 2:3).

2. To show typological fulfillment. A few contexts explicitly use the word type (Greek: tupos in Rom 5:14; 1 Cor 10:6; Heb 8:5), but most occurrences simply utilize the concept without identifying it as such. Typology looks at the way God reveals himself through events, persons, and institutions in the OT, and then teases out how those shadows/patterns point forward to Jesus and the kingdom. Typology is not simply retrospective (looking back from Christ); the OT events themselves are prospective (looking ahead to Christ). Two necessary characteristics: historical correspondence wherein clear parallels exist between the type and its fulfillment; end-time escalation wherein the fulfillment always surpasses the type/shadow/pattern.

  • Events: creation (2 Cor 4:6; 5:17), flood (1 Pet 3:20-22), Sodom (Rev 14), exodus (Matt 2:15; 1 Cor 10:1-5), serpent (John 3:14), exile (1 Pet 1:17)

  • Persons: Adam (Rom 5:14), Melchizedek (Heb 7:1-28), Moses (Matt 5; Acts 3), Israel (Matt 2:15), David (John 13:18; 19:24), David’s enemies (Acts 2:20), Solomon (Matt 12:42), Elijah (Matt 11:14), Jonah (Matt 12:40), Daniel’s Beasts (Rev 13:1-18), Babylon (Rev 14:8)

  • Institutions: Sabbath (Col 2:16-17; Heb 4:6-10), Passover (John 19:36; 1 Cor 5:7), high priest/day of atonement (Heb 9:7-12), temple (John 2:21; 1 Cor 3:16; Rev 21-22), priestly sacrifices (Rom 12:1; 15:16)

3. To advance a recurring theme or motif. Numerous themes span the OT’s storyline seeking their greater resolution in a coming age. The NT then demonstrates how the person and work of Christ advance these themes within the flow of redemptive history (i.e., creation, fall, redemption, consummation). The themes do not stand independent of one another, but are interdependent parts of a whole (e.g., God created image-bearers to exercise dominion over a place/land before his presence).

  • Bigger themes spanning the whole Bible: creation (life, new creation), God’s word, image/likeness of God (identity, manhood/womanhood), dominion (rule, dynasty, kingdom), land (inheritance), rest (peace, wholeness), marriage (jealousy, intimacy, adultery), home (sojourner, exile), priesthood (service, sacrifice), God’s dwelling place (meeting, temple, fellowship), glory of God (worship, praise, thanksgiving), holiness (sanctification, God’s presence), wisdom (knowledge), righteousness (justice, shame), etc.

  • Smaller themes sometimes limited to one author or corpus: abomination of desolation (Dan 12:11; cf. 8:13; 9:27; 11:31; Matt 24:15; Mark 13:14); Day of the Lord (Prophets; Acts 2:20; 2 Pet 3:10, 12; Rev 16:14), Israel = the Lord’s “vine” (Prophets; John 15:1), etc.

The table below exemplifies how a few of the themes listed above develop across the storyline of Scripture.

Four Communities Table

4. To (re)appropriate principles of wisdom, ethics, morality. Referring to the OT (i.e., “the sacred writings”), Paul says that “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17).

  • Matthew 5:17-26 – Jesus brings the Law to its truest intent and creates citizens who live out the law’s truest intent. It’s not a matter of choosing which OT laws apply and which don’t, but how those laws are fulfilled in Christ and our union with Christ. E.g., if we understand the law’s truest intent, we wouldn’t just avoid murder; we would eliminate every cause that can lead to murder like anger in our hearts. Cf. also Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:14.

  • 1 Corinthians 10:1-12 – Christians were redeemed but falling into patterns of idolatry as Israel once had. Paul lists several OT examples wherein idolatry led to God’s judgment. Paul then says, “these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.” Conclusion: “Take heed!”

  • 1 Timothy 5:17-18 – Paul instructs the church to compensate elders who labor in preaching and teaching. He then grounds the instruction in Deuteronomy 25:4, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” The one benefiting from the labor of an ox should not take economic advantage of the owner of the ox. Cf. 1 Corinthians 9:9-10.

  • 1 Timothy 2:12-15 – Paul doesn’t permit a woman to teach/exercise authority over a man. He then grounds the instruction in the created order (“For Adam was formed first, then Eve”) as well as how deception entered (“Adam was not deceived but the woman…”). Cf. 1 Corinthians 11:7-12; 14:34-35.

  • Revelation 2:14-16, 20-23 – Teaching of Balaam and Jezebel are both held up as negative examples who led God’s people into covenant unfaithfulness (i.e., idolatry and sexual immorality). Conclusion: Repent!

  • 2 Corinthians 13:1 – “Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” Same principle appears in Deuteronomy 19:15. Cf. also 1 Timothy 5:19.

5. To show how the new covenant affects the old. The apostles often draw from the old covenant to help us see what has been fulfilled or abrogated in Christ. To be clear, this doesn’t mean we disregard the Law. Nor does it mean the Law is now less important, less authoritative. Rather, we just can’t read the Law apart from how the apostles interpret it and apply it to the church under the new covenant.

For example, as the new covenant in his blood, Jesus’ death fulfills and transforms the Passover (Luke 22:15-20; Matt 26:28; 1 Cor 11:25-26). Physical circumcision no longer marks God’s people, but union with Christ by the Spirit (Gal 6:15; Col 2:11-12). The Law governed the Lord’s people until the coming of Christ, whereas now the apostle’s instruction does (Acts 15:5, 19; 1 Cor 9:20; Gal 3:24). After quoting from Jeremiah 31, Hebrews explains that “in speaking of a new covenant, [the Lord] makes the first one obsolete” (Heb 8:13). After listing commands from the Decalogue, Paul explains that “love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom 13:10). With Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice being ultimate, our priestly service now involves sacrificial love (Eph 5:2; Phil 2:17), meeting needs (Phil 4:18), evangelism (Rom 15:16), praise (Heb 13:15), even martyrdom (Rev 6:9).

6. To show a reversed appropriation of an OT situation. Sometimes the particular end-time moment will create a reversal of a situation the OT depicted.

  • Hosea 13:14 invites death to conquer Israel for their sin: “O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting?” But in 1 Corinthians 15:55 Jesus’ final victory over death transforms the invitation into a taunt against death. It’s not that 1 Corinthians 15:55 contradicts God’s initial word of judgment. Rather, God’s judgment falls on Jesus in our place. For believers, death lost all power.

  • Micah 5:2 says, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel…” However, when Matthew cites the prophet’s words within the birth narrative of Jesus, he does so in a manner that stresses the greatness of the fulfillment: “And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah…”[xiv]

  • Zechariah 12:10-14 foresees people looking on the Pierced One and mourning with repentance. For John, that actually happens when Jew and Gentile look upon the Pierced One by faith during the inter-advent age (John 19:37). But in Revelation 1:7 Jesus’ second coming closes the inter-advent age as well as the opportunity for repentance.[xv] The only mourning left is that of great dread.

Faith: Theological Convictions Driving the NT Writers

Based on God’s ultimate self-revelation in Jesus Christ—including how Jesus himself interpreted the OT—certain theological convictions drive the NT writers’ use of the OT. Stated differently, we’re now seeking to answer the question of warrant. What gives the apostles warrant to use the OT this way? What gives Matthew warrant to interpret Jesus’ flight from Egypt as a fulfillment of Hosea 11:1, which describes Israel? When the soldiers divide Jesus’ garments on the cross in John 19:24, what gives John the warrant to say that happened to fulfill Psalm 22:18, which describes David? Answering the question of warrant helps us understand how the apostles interpret the OT. Once we see their theological convictions, we too can imitate their interpretation of the OT even beyond the passages they draw from more explicitly. Some of these theological convictions include the following:

The OT is God’s word. The Lord Jesus treated the OT as God’s word, which presents a unified message (Luke 24:44-47) that is true (John 10:35) and has abiding, binding authority (Matt 5:17-19; 15:6). The apostles follow Jesus, reading the OT with the same convictions. The OT is God’s word (2 Tim 3:16). The OT presents a unified message, seen in how the NT presents the OT storyline pointing to Jesus (Rom 1:2-3; 16:25-26), uses the OT to interpret itself (Acts 7:42-43; Gal 4:21-31; Heb 4:3-10), and shows consistency across various genres and epochs (Acts 13:33-41). The OT is true (Rom 9:6). The OT has abiding and binding authority (2 Tim 3:16-17; 1 Pet 1:23).

God rules history. God sovereignly orchestrates history, so that earlier parts correspond with and point to later parts.[xvi] Jesus read the OT this way and taught his disciples to do the same (e.g., Matt 11:13-14; John 13:18-19; 15:25). Even where the OT writers didn’t understand the full extent of what their experiences pointed to (cf. Eph 3:5; 1 Pet 1:10-12), God still designed their experiences and had them write about those experiences in a way that anticipated his work in Christ.

Corporate solidarity/representation. Seeing the one in the many and the many in the one. That is, “…a single member of a community can represent the whole. Biblical illustrations of this concept include how the figure of Adam is used by Paul as a representative of all humanity, just as Christ represents redeemed humanity (Rom 5:12-21; 1 Cor 15:20-23, 45-49). ”[xvii] The concept is rooted in the OT itself. E.g., when Israel’s anointed king represents the people—as goes the king, so goes the people (Ps 2; 118); or when the priests wore the “breast-piece of judgment” and represented the nation before God (Exod 28:29).

Christ represents true/ideal Israel. Based on Jesus’ own teaching—e.g., that he is the “true vine” (John 15:1; cf. Ps 80:8-14; Isa 5:1-7; 27:1-6; Ezek 15:1-8)—the apostles read the OT with the assumption that Jesus is the ideal Israelite. Jesus represents all that Israel was supposed to be. E.g., though Hosea 11:1 speaks of Israel the nation coming out of Egypt, Matthew 2:15 sees Hosea’s prophecy fulfilled in Jesus. As true Israel (and God’s son, cf. Exod 4:22-23), Jesus comes to lead us out of our ultimate bondage. Or, Isaiah’s servant-individual embodies everything the servant-nation was supposed to be (Isa 41:8-9; 42:1, 6, 19; 48:3-5, 20; 49:1-6). Luke 2:32 then applies the servant of Isaiah 49:6 to Jesus. Paul goes further and applies Isaiah 49:6 even to us. Meaning, we become true Israel when united to Christ (cf. Gal 4:26; 6:16; Phil 3:3).

Jesus is God/Yahweh. With God’s self-revelation climaxing in Jesus the Son, the apostles see that Jesus himself is God and fulfills the mission of God. Jesus himself taught and embodied this reality (John 8:58; 10:30; 14:9). The apostles witnessed God’s glory in Jesus (John 1:14) and then applied to Jesus OT passages, titles, and functions once reserved exclusively for Yahweh. E.g., “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord” (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21, 36, 39); “every knee should bow” (Isa 45:23; Phil 2:10-11) “they will look on me [Yahweh], whom they pierced” (Zech 12:10; John 19:37; Rev 1:7); “hairs of his head like pure wool” (Dan 7:9; Rev 1:14); “behold, the Lord is coming” (Isa 40:10; Rev 22:12); “the first and the last” (Isa 41:4; 44:6; 48:12; Rev 22:23).

Jesus is the Christ/Messiah. Jesus identified himself as the Messiah (Matt 16:16-17) and interpreted the Scriptures for the disciples in that light (Luke 24:27, 44-47). The disciples followed suit in general (Acts 3:24; 15:15-16; 28:23; 1 Cor 15:3-4) as well as in the specific functions of Jesus’ role as Messiah: Prophet (Acts 3:22); Priest (Heb 4:14) and new-covenant Mediator (Heb 8-10); King (Acts 13:33).

The age of fulfillment dawned in Jesus’ coming. Jesus described his coming in terms of the kingdom of God being “at hand” (Matt 4:17), “the time being fulfilled” (Mark 1:15), or fulfilling the Law and the Prophets (Matt 5:17). Likewise, the apostles were convinced that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection inaugurated “the last days” (Acts 2:17; Heb 1:2), “the end of the ages” (Heb 9:26), “the end of all things” (1 Pet 4:7). We are those “upon whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor 10:11). Still, the kingdom is not yet fully present on earth. With Christ’s return consummating the age, we now live in the “already-not-yet.”

Christ is central to the OT’s storyline and the key to understanding it. Seen in Jesus’ own teaching (Luke 24:27, 44-47; John 5:39). The disciples then follow suit (Acts 8:35; 13:27; 2 Cor 1:20; 2 Tim 3:15). But even more, the disciples didn’t and couldn’t understand the OT fully until God’s later revelation in Christ (John 12:16; Rom 16:25; Eph 3:5, 9; Col 1:26; 1 Pet 1:10-11). Therefore, no passage of Scripture has been fully understood until it has been read in light of God’s fuller and climactic self-revelation in Jesus Christ, to whom the apostles bear witness in their writings.

Christ-centered Interpretation Diagram

I can’t remember where I first saw this diagram, but it does an excellent job illustrating the right path of interpretation. Follow the red line. Understand the OT text and how it applied to Israel. Then seek to understand it in light of Christ’s person, work, and the new covenant/age he begins. Only then will we make proper sense of how the OT passage applies to us. Only then will we see in the Scriptures what God wants us to see as he glorifies his Son by the Spirit.

________

[i]John 7:39; 14:26; 15:26; 16:7; 20:22.

[ii]John 14:26; 15:26-27; 16:13. For further explanation, you can read or listen to the fourth point in the following sermon: Seeing God's Glory in Jesus the Son.

[iii]A number of these categories were first introduced to me in two separate seminars, a “biblical theology” seminar taught by B. Paul Wolfe and a “NT use of the OT” seminar taught by Paul M. Hoskins.

[iv]The fourth question is my addition. See Bret Rogers, Jesus as the Pierced One: The Use of Zechariah in John’s Gospel and Revelation, McMaster Biblical Studies Series 4 (Eugene: Pickwick, 2020), 21. The first three questions I saw first organized by Jon Paulien, “Allusive Elusions: The Problematic Use of the Old Testament in Revelation,” Biblical Research 33 (1988), 41-43.

[v]Noted parallels between Revelation and Ezekiel taken from James M. Hamilton, Jr., With the Clouds of Heaven: The Book of Daniel in Biblical Theology, NSBT 32 (Downers Grove: IVP, 2014), 219.

[vi]For this section, I am indebted to the teaching ministries of Paul M. Hoskins, my PhD supervisor, and Wes Duggins, my fellow elder at Redeemer Church. Also influential have been numerous works by others, among which the following stand out: Douglas J. Moo, The Old Testament in the Gospel Passion Narratives (Sheffield: Almond Press, 1983); idem, “The Problem of Sensus Plenior,” in Hermeneutics, Authority, and Canon, eds. D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 1986); G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007); Brian S. Rosner, Paul and the Law: Keeping the Commandments of God, NSBT 31 (Downers Grove: IVP, 2013).

[vii]Credit for the “Four Communities” Table must go to Dusty Deevers, now serving as a pastor at Grace Community Church in Elgin, Oklahoma. I have attempted to add questions that explain each heading and then give examples of how to analyze a few themes spanning the Bible.

[viii]Gen 1-2; John 1:1-3; Col 1:15-16; 1 Cor 11:7; 15:49; Heb 1:2.

[ix]Rom 3:23; 5:12; Jas 3:9.

[x]Gen 1:26-29; 2:18-25; Matt 19:6; Eph 5:31-32 (alongside Eph 1:4; John 17:2, 9, 24);

[xi]Deut 24:1-4; Isa 62:4; Ezekiel 16:8-14; Hos 2:16; Matt 19:7-8.

[xii]Cf. Gen 1-2 with Prov 3:18 (“tree of life”); 8:22-31 (“possessed me at the beginning of his work”).

[xiii]Gen 3:1-7; Deut 4:6-7 (“your wisdom…‘Surely this nation is a wise and understanding people’”); 1 Kgs 3:1-28; Prov 1-22:16; 25-29; Isa 11:2-3 (“Spirit of wisdom and understanding”).

[xiv]I’m thankful that Tyrone Benson pointed out this example to the Discipleship Hour class at Redeemer Church in 2019.

[xv]E.g., John 5:24, 27, 29; Rev 6:16-17; 14:7, 10; 19:15; cf. 1 John 4:17. For further development, see Rogers, Jesus as the Pierced One, 142-48, 167-217.

[xvi]G. K. Beale, Handbook on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament: Exegesis and Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2012), 96.

[xvii]Darrell Bock, “Scripture Citing Scripture: Use of the Old Testament in the New,” in Interpreting the New Testament Text, eds. Darrell Bock and Buist Fanning (Wheaton: Crossway, 2006), 261.

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Preaching the Gospel to Yourself & Others (Part 2) https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/preaching-the-gospel-to-yourself---others--part-2- https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/preaching-the-gospel-to-yourself---others--part-2-#comments Wed, 06 May 2020 14:00:00 -0400 https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/preaching-the-gospel-to-yourself---others--part-2- So what does preaching the gospel to yourself look like? We learned in Part 1 that amazing news that God changes the heart. Yet we also know that change comes through hearing, treasuring, and heeding his word.

To help get started, consider the following diagram (which builds on the one we discussed in Part 1). Based on passages like Jeremiah 17:5-10, Matthew 12:33-37, and Luke 6:43-45, the following diagram is a big-picture sketch of what the Bible reveals about the heart, what behaviors it produces, and how the gospel effects change.[1] Beware! The figure should not be viewed as a system or another five-step program (e.g., “Just take these steps; and Voila! You’re changed!”). No. Transformation revolves around relating to the person of Jesus himself and doing so over time. Insofar as it helps us relate to Jesus’ person and work in the specifics of life it will prove effective.

Two Trees Diagram 2

Know the Circumstances

The sun/cloud in the diagram above represents various circumstances in which we find ourselves from day to day. You slept through the alarm. The doctor says, “It’s cancer.” You finally receive that package, but the contents were broken in shipping. You’re stressed with the kids or finances. Or, you receive an unexpected bonus at Christmas. You marry off your last child. The boss finally offers you the position you’ve always wanted.

Whatever the circumstances, God controls them. He ordains and governs all things according to his wise, sovereign plan (Eph 1:11). Ultimately, he works all things for our good and his glory (Rom 8:28). He brings circumstances into our life not to crush us or coddle us, but to conform us to Christ’s image (Jas 1:2-4). In all circumstances, he calls us to respond with thanksgiving while trusting him (1 Thess 5:18).

Consider the Fruit

However, we never respond to circumstances neutrally. Our responses either glorify God or they don’t. Our actions and reactions would be what Jesus calls fruit (i.e., behaviors) manifested in every circumstance. Bad fruit includes sinful words, deeds, and attitudes.[2] Good fruit includes Christ-like words, deeds, and attitudes.[3]

Pursue the Root

Once we’ve identified the fruit/behavior, we must pursue the root or heart motives producing that fruit/behavior. Scripture is clear that our words, deeds, and attitudes flow out of the heart (Matt 15:18-19; Luke 6:43-45). That means the goal in our care for one another can’t be mere behavior modification apart from a love for Christ. The goal can’t be a kind of new ethic without the power of the cross, another morality disconnected from grace. We’re all too familiar with this sort of counsel:

  • “Just try harder! Pull yourself up! Stop it!” (self-will)
  • “If you’d just do _____, you won’t be like ‘those’ people’!” (self-righteousness)
  • “If you do _____, imagine what others will think!” (self-preservation)
  • “Don’t do _____, or you’ll get in trouble with God!” (self-protection)
  • “You better do _____, or you’ll hate yourself later.” (self-esteem)

Such moralistic behavior change is powerless to deliver us from sin’s death-grip, because it lacks the good news that is God’s power for salvation (Rom 1:16-17). Moralistic behavior change also fails to transform the soul, because it never challenges our most fundamental problem to begin with, our self-centered idolatry (Rom 1:18-32; 1 John 5:21). Additionally, it deceptively exacerbates the problem by supplying self-centered motivations instead of leading the heart to treasure Jesus for his own sake and for all God is for us in him. I say it “deceptively” exacerbates the problem, because sometimes the moralistic counsel actually restrains bad behavior for a time, much like a child who puts up with conforming to his parents’ rules until leaving home. No true, lasting, inward change occurred; the outward behavior was but a façade, and God will call it for what it is on the Last Day (Matt 7:22-23).

We must go deeper. What root is producing the fruit? What motives are causing the behavior? We act and react to circumstances based on the intentions/desires of our hearts.[4] James probingly asks, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (Jas 4:1-2). Inner passions produce outward behavior: desire drives murder; coveting drives quarreling. If true change is going to happen, we must change inwardly.

Humbly, we must come before the Lord and ask him to search our inmost being: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! See if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Ps 139:23-24). We must sit with Bible open and subject ourselves to its scrutiny: “…the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12). Some questions to help in the process are as follows:

  • What lie(s) am I believing about the circumstances? About myself and my identity as God’s image bearer? About my identity as God’s child? About God and his sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness?
  • What idol(s) am I worshiping? Where am I finding my ultimate joy/significance? What entices me (Deut 4:19)? What am I fearing (Ps 96:4)? What am I trusting (Ps 31:6; 115:8)? What do I feel like I need (Matt 6:31-32)? Have I turned good things into only things? “Everything would be perfect if _______” (= your idol).
  • What false gospel am I preaching? Is it a moralistic slogan like those listed above? Is it works righteousness (i.e., “Just do ­­­­­________ and God will accept you”)? Is it a message of “I’m Okay”?
  • What, or who do I trust (Jer 17:5)? Who am I following? Am I following myself? Am I elevating the views of others over God’s word? Am I looking to other saviors? Who am I quick to talk to when I ought to pray instead?

Own the Rebellion & Repent

Wherever sin and unbelief is present, repent. Repentance is certainly more than feeling misery over sin. Some have said repentance is changing your mind, agreeing with God. It’s at least that much. But that’s still not quite enough. Repentance throughout Scripture affects the will and your inner motives. The concept is closer to the Old Testament idea of “turning” to the Lord.[5] It’s an internal “180” toward God and away from the sin causing estrangement from God. J. I. Packer describes repentance as “the settled refusal to set any limit to the claims which [Christ] may make on [our] lives.”[6]

We need help here. Repentance is not merely feeling guilty about your sin. Repentance is not merely saying you’re sorry for what you did. Repentance is not even merely saying No to evil desires and deeds. Repentance is not just getting rid of the sins that bug you the most. Most important to repentance is returning to relationship with the Lord. God doesn’t just call us to a way of life, but to a person to love, Jesus Christ. Repentance is relational. Repentance is incomplete if there’s no turning to the Lord.

Treasure Christ in the Gospel

When we turn to the Lord, it is there, in relationship to/with him that we experience transformation. Describing the believer’s ultimate future, 1 John 3:2 shows that our perception of Jesus’ unveiled glory will produce final glorification: “…we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.” But 2 Corinthians 3:18 shows that our present sanctification operates the same way: “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” How are we being transformed into Christ’s image? By beholding the glory of the Lord.[7] Beholding occurs when the Spirit enables the “heart” (2 Cor 4:6) or the “mind” (2 Cor 4:4) to perceive the glory of Christ in the gospel.[8]

Therefore, treasure Christ in the gospel. Meditate on all that God is as Trinity. This includes his perfect beauty and holiness, his intra-Trinitarian love, his all-sufficient presence, etc. Also, meditate on all that God has done in the person and work of Christ. This includes all the ways God acts through Christ’s pre-existence plan, Christ’s humble submission, Christ’s perfect life and sufferings, Christ’s substitutionary death, Christ’s victorious resurrection, Christ’s present reign, and Christ’s final return, as well as all that each of these points implies for our identity and life in Christ.

The point isn’t to hold any of these truths merely in the abstract, but to connect each truth with the specific treasures of the heart (see more below). Answer, “Who is God, what does he say and do in Christ, and how ought these truths change the way I think and change what I treasure?” Good fruit only grows from good treasure.

Follow Christ by Faith & in Community

Finally, follow Christ by faith and in community. Trust that God’s self-revelation in Christ is true and good. Take God at his word. Then act on the truth you rehearse to yourself. Real faith in Christ will manifest itself in works, actions, deeds that prove Jesus is worthy to obey (Jas 2:14-26). Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure (Phil 2:12).

So act! But don’t act alone. Do so in community. The church is God’s gift to us in perseverance. Help each other walk in the good of the gospel daily. To use a familiar outline, love, know, speak, do.[9] Love. Christian love could be described as a genuine affection for another’s good in God such that we spend ourselves sacrificially to see them obtain that good. Know. True knowledge isn’t just knowing about a person, but understanding that person’s heart, desires, proclivities, needs. Speak. Speak truth into situations that imparts grace to the hearers. Lastly, do. Be willing to help each other toward deeper faith in Christ and obedience to his will over a long period of time. Regular accountability and encouragement will play a key role. Now let's get specific.

CONNECTING GOSPEL TRUTHS TO SPECIFICS

Perhaps a few examples from Scripture will help. But let’s make three clarifications before walking through these examples. First of all, guard yourself from categorically using the following examples as the only “go-to” passages for addressing these heart issues. Sin manifests itself in different and complex ways, and the Spirit might have us use different passages to minister more specifically to a friend. Thus, we should be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading and use all Scripture as it richly speaks to these issues from different angles.

Second, remember that the gospel not only informs what we bring to each other; it also informs how we bring things to each other. The gospel has much to say about our demeanor, attitudes, tone, patience, speech, and so forth (e.g., Eph 4:15; Col 3:19; 4:6; Jas 1:19). It leads us to use wisdom when speaking to each other (Col 3:16), so that our words aren’t slapped on like BAND-AIDs to gaping wounds, or hurled crassly without regard for the other person’s state of being (Rom 12:15). The gospel leads us to use words that fit the occasion and give grace to those who hear (Eph 4:29). The gospel obliterates our own pride and self-righteous attitudes, so that we never come to each other as if we’re not just as vulnerable to the same temptations (1 Cor 10:12-13; Gal 6:1). Further, the gospel compels us to back our counsel with sacrificial deeds of service that show we’re willing to walk closely with the other person as long as it takes to see them happy in Jesus (John 13:34).

Third, preaching the gospel to ourselves is not a mechanical exercise. It’s not a matter of simply speaking certain truths and getting automatic, immediate results. It’s also not a mere rehearsal of moral principles that are better than others. Rather, preaching the gospel is relational. God reveals himself to us through Jesus Christ in the gospel. In the gospel, we come to know God as he is. Then, in that relationship with God we find freedom from sin and superior pleasure in his presence. In our relationship with God, we gain what Thomas Chalmers (https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/Chalmers,%20Thomas%20-%20The%20Exlpulsive%20Power%20of%20a%20New%20Af.pdf) called “the expulsive power of a new affection.” New affection for Christ replaces and drives away the old affection for sin. So much for the clarifications. Now on to our examples.

Example 1: Turning from Sinful Anger

When James commands us, “Be slow to anger,” he quickly explains how our obedience flows from gospel truth: “for the anger of man does not produce God’s justice” (Jas 1:20). Essentially, James is telling us not to confuse anger with hidden idolatry. When we refuse to turn from our sinful anger, what we are basically saying is that we can dish out God’s justice better than he can. Thus, we foolishly attempt to usurp God’s authority. In contrast, James is telling us that we must put off the idolatrous old self, who constantly attempts to be God, and to put on the new self, who is wholly content with God being God and with God exercising his justice with wisdom, most pointedly and decisively seen in the cross of Christ and the Lake of Fire (Rom 3:25-26; Rev 20:15).

Example 2: Husbands Loving Their Wives

When Paul instructs husbands to love their wives, he does so from the riches found in the gospel. He connects the gospel truth of Christ’s sacrificial love for his bride, the church, to the tangible, every-day way a husband should relate to his bride. Indeed, a husbands sacrificial love for his wife flows from the sacrificial love Jesus showed first for his church (Eph 5:25-27). Even when there was nothing lovely in the church to merit Jesus’ favor, Jesus chose to love her, giving his life for her, in order to make her lovely. Such extravagant love toward us husbands not only sets the example for love, it radically transforms our souls to love as Christ loved. The cross is more than example; it is power when applied by the Spirit. Because Jesus cleanses us from all defiling, self-centered preoccupations, husbands are freed to love as Christ loved, to lead with sacrificial service, to pursue her well-being daily, and to seek her holy happiness in Christ.

Example 3: Fighting Sexual Immorality

Paul motivates the believers in Corinth to flee sexual immorality not because of the health risks (self-protection), and not because they might get caught (self-preservation), but because the believer shares a covenant union with Jesus that far surpasses any union this world can offer (1 Cor 6:15-18a). Christ has been faithful to win us as part of his bride since he covenanted with his Father in eternity past, and such faithfulness he manifested in his coming and death (cf. Eph 1:4; 5:22-33). We flee immorality, because we’ve been married to a new husband whose enduring love far surpasses what we can find online, whose lasting beauty far outshines the lust of the eyes, whose comforting presence far outlasts the empty relationships of this world.

Example 4: Using Your Body Rightly

In the same argument of 1 Corinthians 6, Paul also tells us why the believer can use his body to glorify God. Again, he catapults the believer into obedience by connecting massive gospel truths to the specifics of how we use our physical body (1 Cor 6:18b-21). Basically, the price for your deliverance from sin that you could not pay, God paid for you by crushing his own Son on the cross. And in this way, he has bought and brought you out of slavery from your sins, not to rule us as some kind of tyrant, but to fill you with the glory of his presence in the Holy Spirit. That means you are not owned by sin; you are owned by the God of infinite love who has purchased you from slavery and made you his own temple that he fills by the Spirit. Listen to the Spirit's voice when he calls you away from the world and its temptations, and let him use your body for righteousness. That applies not just to fleeing sexual immorality, but to fleeing other things like gluttony, laziness, gossip, etc.

Example 5: Dying to Stinginess with Money

When Paul encourages the Corinthians to support the poor in Jerusalem, he does so not by threat or promises of worldly comfort, but by pointing them to the gospel: “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). Again, he connects the specifics of life (i.e., the use of money) to gospel truth (i.e., God’s generosity in Christ).

God was infinitely generous when he sent his own Son to die for our sins. The grace found in Jesus’ sacrificial generosity toward others in need is actually what changes the heart and empowers the believer to give sacrificially. As the generous Christ lives in his people, so does his generosity. With thanksgiving and joy, we then make the sacrificial adjustments to meet the needs of others.

CONCLUSION

The examples are replete in Scripture and many times intertwined with hundreds of other gospel truths simultaneously. The gospel is rich and comprehensive, because Jesus’ work is comprehensive. One day, he will unite all things together in himself (Eph 1:9-10). But until then, hopefully these few examples will stir you to motivate yourself and others with the gospel. Of course, we’ll only be able to pursue this with one another well when we’re around each other, and even more, when we’re inviting others into our lives to help us connect gospel truth(s) where our souls most desperately need it.

________

[1]Adapted from “The Big Picture” model in Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp, How People Change (Greensboro: New Growth Press, 2008), 79-195.

[2]In Matthew 15:19, Jesus lists evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul lists sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. These lists are not exhaustive.

[3]Examples include “fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3:8), “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23), “bearing fruit in every good work” (Col 1:13), “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12:11), “the fruit of lips that acknowledge [God’s] name” (Heb 13:15).

[4]This assertion differs from the approach of secular psychology that conflates the occasion for responses with the cause of our responses. Secular psychology begins with the assumption that our biggest problems are the circumstances outside us (e.g., other people, family of origin, your body), and the solution is simply to adjust the circumstances. While some circumstances may need adjusting, Scripture identifies our biggest problem within (i.e., motives of the heart). Thus, the occasion when/where sin occurred is not the same as the cause of sin. The heart is the cause of sin (or obedience) in any given situation.

[5]E.g., Isa 55:7; Jer 3:12, 14, 22; Hos 14:1; Joel 2:12-13; Zech 1:1-6; Mal 3:7.

[6]J. I. Packer, Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity, 1961), 72.

[7]The Lord’s “glory” refers to the weighty manifestation of the intrinsic worth and goodness of the invisible God, if not through his theophanic presence alone, then through his acts of judgment and salvation. E.g., Exod 16:7, 10; 33:18-34:7; 40:34-35; Num 14:22; Isa 40:1-5; Ezek 39:21. The apostle John characterizes Jesus’ death on the cross as both an act of God’s judgment and an act of God’s salvation. In the death of Jesus, God’s righteousness and love become manifest as God’s righteousness calls for an outpouring of wrath on sinners (i.e., judgment), and God’s love makes provision in offering Jesus as a Lamb in place of those same sinners (i.e., salvation). This is one way the gospel reveals the glory of God.

[8]Notice the “gospel” in 2 Corinthians 4:4 and the preaching of Christ in 2 Corinthians 4:5.

[9]The outline, "love, know, speak, do" is taken from Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands (Philipsburg: P&R, 2002).

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So what does preaching the gospel to yourself look like? We learned in Part 1 that amazing news that God changes the heart. Yet we also know that change comes through hearing, treasuring, and heeding his word.

To help get started, consider the following diagram (which builds on the one we discussed in Part 1). Based on passages like Jeremiah 17:5-10, Matthew 12:33-37, and Luke 6:43-45, the following diagram is a big-picture sketch of what the Bible reveals about the heart, what behaviors it produces, and how the gospel effects change.[1] Beware! The figure should not be viewed as a system or another five-step program (e.g., “Just take these steps; and Voila! You’re changed!”). No. Transformation revolves around relating to the person of Jesus himself and doing so over time. Insofar as it helps us relate to Jesus’ person and work in the specifics of life it will prove effective.

Two Trees Diagram 2

Know the Circumstances

The sun/cloud in the diagram above represents various circumstances in which we find ourselves from day to day. You slept through the alarm. The doctor says, “It’s cancer.” You finally receive that package, but the contents were broken in shipping. You’re stressed with the kids or finances. Or, you receive an unexpected bonus at Christmas. You marry off your last child. The boss finally offers you the position you’ve always wanted.

Whatever the circumstances, God controls them. He ordains and governs all things according to his wise, sovereign plan (Eph 1:11). Ultimately, he works all things for our good and his glory (Rom 8:28). He brings circumstances into our life not to crush us or coddle us, but to conform us to Christ’s image (Jas 1:2-4). In all circumstances, he calls us to respond with thanksgiving while trusting him (1 Thess 5:18).

Consider the Fruit

However, we never respond to circumstances neutrally. Our responses either glorify God or they don’t. Our actions and reactions would be what Jesus calls fruit (i.e., behaviors) manifested in every circumstance. Bad fruit includes sinful words, deeds, and attitudes.[2] Good fruit includes Christ-like words, deeds, and attitudes.[3]

Pursue the Root

Once we’ve identified the fruit/behavior, we must pursue the root or heart motives producing that fruit/behavior. Scripture is clear that our words, deeds, and attitudes flow out of the heart (Matt 15:18-19; Luke 6:43-45). That means the goal in our care for one another can’t be mere behavior modification apart from a love for Christ. The goal can’t be a kind of new ethic without the power of the cross, another morality disconnected from grace. We’re all too familiar with this sort of counsel:

  • “Just try harder! Pull yourself up! Stop it!” (self-will)
  • “If you’d just do _____, you won’t be like ‘those’ people’!” (self-righteousness)
  • “If you do _____, imagine what others will think!” (self-preservation)
  • “Don’t do _____, or you’ll get in trouble with God!” (self-protection)
  • “You better do _____, or you’ll hate yourself later.” (self-esteem)

Such moralistic behavior change is powerless to deliver us from sin’s death-grip, because it lacks the good news that is God’s power for salvation (Rom 1:16-17). Moralistic behavior change also fails to transform the soul, because it never challenges our most fundamental problem to begin with, our self-centered idolatry (Rom 1:18-32; 1 John 5:21). Additionally, it deceptively exacerbates the problem by supplying self-centered motivations instead of leading the heart to treasure Jesus for his own sake and for all God is for us in him. I say it “deceptively” exacerbates the problem, because sometimes the moralistic counsel actually restrains bad behavior for a time, much like a child who puts up with conforming to his parents’ rules until leaving home. No true, lasting, inward change occurred; the outward behavior was but a façade, and God will call it for what it is on the Last Day (Matt 7:22-23).

We must go deeper. What root is producing the fruit? What motives are causing the behavior? We act and react to circumstances based on the intentions/desires of our hearts.[4] James probingly asks, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (Jas 4:1-2). Inner passions produce outward behavior: desire drives murder; coveting drives quarreling. If true change is going to happen, we must change inwardly.

Humbly, we must come before the Lord and ask him to search our inmost being: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! See if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Ps 139:23-24). We must sit with Bible open and subject ourselves to its scrutiny: “…the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb 4:12). Some questions to help in the process are as follows:

  • What lie(s) am I believing about the circumstances? About myself and my identity as God’s image bearer? About my identity as God’s child? About God and his sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness?
  • What idol(s) am I worshiping? Where am I finding my ultimate joy/significance? What entices me (Deut 4:19)? What am I fearing (Ps 96:4)? What am I trusting (Ps 31:6; 115:8)? What do I feel like I need (Matt 6:31-32)? Have I turned good things into only things? “Everything would be perfect if _______” (= your idol).
  • What false gospel am I preaching? Is it a moralistic slogan like those listed above? Is it works righteousness (i.e., “Just do ­­­­­________ and God will accept you”)? Is it a message of “I’m Okay”?
  • What, or who do I trust (Jer 17:5)? Who am I following? Am I following myself? Am I elevating the views of others over God’s word? Am I looking to other saviors? Who am I quick to talk to when I ought to pray instead?

Own the Rebellion & Repent

Wherever sin and unbelief is present, repent. Repentance is certainly more than feeling misery over sin. Some have said repentance is changing your mind, agreeing with God. It’s at least that much. But that’s still not quite enough. Repentance throughout Scripture affects the will and your inner motives. The concept is closer to the Old Testament idea of “turning” to the Lord.[5] It’s an internal “180” toward God and away from the sin causing estrangement from God. J. I. Packer describes repentance as “the settled refusal to set any limit to the claims which [Christ] may make on [our] lives.”[6]

We need help here. Repentance is not merely feeling guilty about your sin. Repentance is not merely saying you’re sorry for what you did. Repentance is not even merely saying No to evil desires and deeds. Repentance is not just getting rid of the sins that bug you the most. Most important to repentance is returning to relationship with the Lord. God doesn’t just call us to a way of life, but to a person to love, Jesus Christ. Repentance is relational. Repentance is incomplete if there’s no turning to the Lord.

Treasure Christ in the Gospel

When we turn to the Lord, it is there, in relationship to/with him that we experience transformation. Describing the believer’s ultimate future, 1 John 3:2 shows that our perception of Jesus’ unveiled glory will produce final glorification: “…we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.” But 2 Corinthians 3:18 shows that our present sanctification operates the same way: “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” How are we being transformed into Christ’s image? By beholding the glory of the Lord.[7] Beholding occurs when the Spirit enables the “heart” (2 Cor 4:6) or the “mind” (2 Cor 4:4) to perceive the glory of Christ in the gospel.[8]

Therefore, treasure Christ in the gospel. Meditate on all that God is as Trinity. This includes his perfect beauty and holiness, his intra-Trinitarian love, his all-sufficient presence, etc. Also, meditate on all that God has done in the person and work of Christ. This includes all the ways God acts through Christ’s pre-existence plan, Christ’s humble submission, Christ’s perfect life and sufferings, Christ’s substitutionary death, Christ’s victorious resurrection, Christ’s present reign, and Christ’s final return, as well as all that each of these points implies for our identity and life in Christ.

The point isn’t to hold any of these truths merely in the abstract, but to connect each truth with the specific treasures of the heart (see more below). Answer, “Who is God, what does he say and do in Christ, and how ought these truths change the way I think and change what I treasure?” Good fruit only grows from good treasure.

Follow Christ by Faith & in Community

Finally, follow Christ by faith and in community. Trust that God’s self-revelation in Christ is true and good. Take God at his word. Then act on the truth you rehearse to yourself. Real faith in Christ will manifest itself in works, actions, deeds that prove Jesus is worthy to obey (Jas 2:14-26). Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work in you both to will and to do according to his good pleasure (Phil 2:12).

So act! But don’t act alone. Do so in community. The church is God’s gift to us in perseverance. Help each other walk in the good of the gospel daily. To use a familiar outline, love, know, speak, do.[9] Love. Christian love could be described as a genuine affection for another’s good in God such that we spend ourselves sacrificially to see them obtain that good. Know. True knowledge isn’t just knowing about a person, but understanding that person’s heart, desires, proclivities, needs. Speak. Speak truth into situations that imparts grace to the hearers. Lastly, do. Be willing to help each other toward deeper faith in Christ and obedience to his will over a long period of time. Regular accountability and encouragement will play a key role. Now let's get specific.

CONNECTING GOSPEL TRUTHS TO SPECIFICS

Perhaps a few examples from Scripture will help. But let’s make three clarifications before walking through these examples. First of all, guard yourself from categorically using the following examples as the only “go-to” passages for addressing these heart issues. Sin manifests itself in different and complex ways, and the Spirit might have us use different passages to minister more specifically to a friend. Thus, we should be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading and use all Scripture as it richly speaks to these issues from different angles.

Second, remember that the gospel not only informs what we bring to each other; it also informs how we bring things to each other. The gospel has much to say about our demeanor, attitudes, tone, patience, speech, and so forth (e.g., Eph 4:15; Col 3:19; 4:6; Jas 1:19). It leads us to use wisdom when speaking to each other (Col 3:16), so that our words aren’t slapped on like BAND-AIDs to gaping wounds, or hurled crassly without regard for the other person’s state of being (Rom 12:15). The gospel leads us to use words that fit the occasion and give grace to those who hear (Eph 4:29). The gospel obliterates our own pride and self-righteous attitudes, so that we never come to each other as if we’re not just as vulnerable to the same temptations (1 Cor 10:12-13; Gal 6:1). Further, the gospel compels us to back our counsel with sacrificial deeds of service that show we’re willing to walk closely with the other person as long as it takes to see them happy in Jesus (John 13:34).

Third, preaching the gospel to ourselves is not a mechanical exercise. It’s not a matter of simply speaking certain truths and getting automatic, immediate results. It’s also not a mere rehearsal of moral principles that are better than others. Rather, preaching the gospel is relational. God reveals himself to us through Jesus Christ in the gospel. In the gospel, we come to know God as he is. Then, in that relationship with God we find freedom from sin and superior pleasure in his presence. In our relationship with God, we gain what Thomas Chalmers (https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/Chalmers,%20Thomas%20-%20The%20Exlpulsive%20Power%20of%20a%20New%20Af.pdf) called “the expulsive power of a new affection.” New affection for Christ replaces and drives away the old affection for sin. So much for the clarifications. Now on to our examples.

Example 1: Turning from Sinful Anger

When James commands us, “Be slow to anger,” he quickly explains how our obedience flows from gospel truth: “for the anger of man does not produce God’s justice” (Jas 1:20). Essentially, James is telling us not to confuse anger with hidden idolatry. When we refuse to turn from our sinful anger, what we are basically saying is that we can dish out God’s justice better than he can. Thus, we foolishly attempt to usurp God’s authority. In contrast, James is telling us that we must put off the idolatrous old self, who constantly attempts to be God, and to put on the new self, who is wholly content with God being God and with God exercising his justice with wisdom, most pointedly and decisively seen in the cross of Christ and the Lake of Fire (Rom 3:25-26; Rev 20:15).

Example 2: Husbands Loving Their Wives

When Paul instructs husbands to love their wives, he does so from the riches found in the gospel. He connects the gospel truth of Christ’s sacrificial love for his bride, the church, to the tangible, every-day way a husband should relate to his bride. Indeed, a husbands sacrificial love for his wife flows from the sacrificial love Jesus showed first for his church (Eph 5:25-27). Even when there was nothing lovely in the church to merit Jesus’ favor, Jesus chose to love her, giving his life for her, in order to make her lovely. Such extravagant love toward us husbands not only sets the example for love, it radically transforms our souls to love as Christ loved. The cross is more than example; it is power when applied by the Spirit. Because Jesus cleanses us from all defiling, self-centered preoccupations, husbands are freed to love as Christ loved, to lead with sacrificial service, to pursue her well-being daily, and to seek her holy happiness in Christ.

Example 3: Fighting Sexual Immorality

Paul motivates the believers in Corinth to flee sexual immorality not because of the health risks (self-protection), and not because they might get caught (self-preservation), but because the believer shares a covenant union with Jesus that far surpasses any union this world can offer (1 Cor 6:15-18a). Christ has been faithful to win us as part of his bride since he covenanted with his Father in eternity past, and such faithfulness he manifested in his coming and death (cf. Eph 1:4; 5:22-33). We flee immorality, because we’ve been married to a new husband whose enduring love far surpasses what we can find online, whose lasting beauty far outshines the lust of the eyes, whose comforting presence far outlasts the empty relationships of this world.

Example 4: Using Your Body Rightly

In the same argument of 1 Corinthians 6, Paul also tells us why the believer can use his body to glorify God. Again, he catapults the believer into obedience by connecting massive gospel truths to the specifics of how we use our physical body (1 Cor 6:18b-21). Basically, the price for your deliverance from sin that you could not pay, God paid for you by crushing his own Son on the cross. And in this way, he has bought and brought you out of slavery from your sins, not to rule us as some kind of tyrant, but to fill you with the glory of his presence in the Holy Spirit. That means you are not owned by sin; you are owned by the God of infinite love who has purchased you from slavery and made you his own temple that he fills by the Spirit. Listen to the Spirit's voice when he calls you away from the world and its temptations, and let him use your body for righteousness. That applies not just to fleeing sexual immorality, but to fleeing other things like gluttony, laziness, gossip, etc.

Example 5: Dying to Stinginess with Money

When Paul encourages the Corinthians to support the poor in Jerusalem, he does so not by threat or promises of worldly comfort, but by pointing them to the gospel: “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). Again, he connects the specifics of life (i.e., the use of money) to gospel truth (i.e., God’s generosity in Christ).

God was infinitely generous when he sent his own Son to die for our sins. The grace found in Jesus’ sacrificial generosity toward others in need is actually what changes the heart and empowers the believer to give sacrificially. As the generous Christ lives in his people, so does his generosity. With thanksgiving and joy, we then make the sacrificial adjustments to meet the needs of others.

CONCLUSION

The examples are replete in Scripture and many times intertwined with hundreds of other gospel truths simultaneously. The gospel is rich and comprehensive, because Jesus’ work is comprehensive. One day, he will unite all things together in himself (Eph 1:9-10). But until then, hopefully these few examples will stir you to motivate yourself and others with the gospel. Of course, we’ll only be able to pursue this with one another well when we’re around each other, and even more, when we’re inviting others into our lives to help us connect gospel truth(s) where our souls most desperately need it.

________

[1]Adapted from “The Big Picture” model in Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp, How People Change (Greensboro: New Growth Press, 2008), 79-195.

[2]In Matthew 15:19, Jesus lists evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. In Galatians 5:19-21, Paul lists sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. These lists are not exhaustive.

[3]Examples include “fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt 3:8), “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23), “bearing fruit in every good work” (Col 1:13), “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Heb 12:11), “the fruit of lips that acknowledge [God’s] name” (Heb 13:15).

[4]This assertion differs from the approach of secular psychology that conflates the occasion for responses with the cause of our responses. Secular psychology begins with the assumption that our biggest problems are the circumstances outside us (e.g., other people, family of origin, your body), and the solution is simply to adjust the circumstances. While some circumstances may need adjusting, Scripture identifies our biggest problem within (i.e., motives of the heart). Thus, the occasion when/where sin occurred is not the same as the cause of sin. The heart is the cause of sin (or obedience) in any given situation.

[5]E.g., Isa 55:7; Jer 3:12, 14, 22; Hos 14:1; Joel 2:12-13; Zech 1:1-6; Mal 3:7.

[6]J. I. Packer, Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity, 1961), 72.

[7]The Lord’s “glory” refers to the weighty manifestation of the intrinsic worth and goodness of the invisible God, if not through his theophanic presence alone, then through his acts of judgment and salvation. E.g., Exod 16:7, 10; 33:18-34:7; 40:34-35; Num 14:22; Isa 40:1-5; Ezek 39:21. The apostle John characterizes Jesus’ death on the cross as both an act of God’s judgment and an act of God’s salvation. In the death of Jesus, God’s righteousness and love become manifest as God’s righteousness calls for an outpouring of wrath on sinners (i.e., judgment), and God’s love makes provision in offering Jesus as a Lamb in place of those same sinners (i.e., salvation). This is one way the gospel reveals the glory of God.

[8]Notice the “gospel” in 2 Corinthians 4:4 and the preaching of Christ in 2 Corinthians 4:5.

[9]The outline, "love, know, speak, do" is taken from Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands (Philipsburg: P&R, 2002).

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Preaching the Gospel to Yourself & Others (Part 1) https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/preaching-the-gospel-to-yourself- https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/preaching-the-gospel-to-yourself-#comments Wed, 06 May 2020 13:00:00 -0400 https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/preaching-the-gospel-to-yourself- In The Gospel (Part 1 and Part 2), I attempted to summarize “the gospel,” reviewing both God’s saving acts in Jesus Christ and their theological significance. Distinguishing the gospel’s results from the gospel itself also proved important in The Gospel (Part 3).

I now want to explore how the gospel functions in the life of the church. No matter what the church faced, the apostles wove the gospel into the very fabric of the church’s life, ministries, and mission. The gospel never amounted to a “shelved” message for the church. It has ongoing significance. Our entire manner of life must be worthy of it (Phil 1:27), in step with it (Gal 2:14), flowing from it (2 Cor 9:13), and never shifting from the hope found in it (Col 1:23).

Fight Temptations to Shift from the Gospel

Pragmatic marketing schemes will tempt the church with “ensured” results—the promise of greater attendance, rapid growth, higher giving, etc. But wherever the gospel is not central to the spiritual transformation of souls, and even numerical growth, God is not ultimately glorified.[1] God is only glorified in “the ends” when we he is also trusted in “the means” to those ends.

Moreover, our own sinful flesh will be pulled to trust in human wisdom of all sorts—bigger buildings, fancier gadgets, latest fads, cutting-edge technology, popular psychology, etc. But only the wisdom of the cross pleases God and conforms people into Christ-likeness.[2] Still more, the devil seeks to preoccupy us with trivial matters that can gradually become our main focus—foolish controversies, identity politics, opinionated bloggers, fear-mongering, etc. All the while, the gospel drifts further and further to the periphery.[3] But in the fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil, the church must heed Christ’s words never to shift from the hope of the gospel (Col 1:23).

God never intended for the church or anything about the church to become “post-gospel;”[4] rather the church must remain a community characterized by ongoing, comprehensive devotion to the gospel.[5] We meet together as a church to help each other live in the good of the gospel daily. That means motivating each other to follow Jesus with the gospel’s empowering truth(s). We lead each other to drink deeply from the endless fountain of God’s glory in Christ, so that our souls rise with gratitude and run with faith. To this end, the following is an attempt to show Christians how to preach and apply the gospel to ourselves and to others.

A Matter of the Heart

In order to establish the functional centrality of the gospel in the church, we must first learn how the gospel gains a functional centrality in our hearts. The Bible will often refer to our inner-most person as “the heart.” When used in this way, some have adequately described the heart as “the causal core of our personhood” or “the control center for life.”[6] Our thoughts, words, actions/reactions, motivations, etc., all stem from the heart (Prov 4:23; 20:5). Depending on its moral and spiritual condition, the heart determines whether we live in ways that please God or in ways that displease God.

The Heart without God’s Grace in Christ

By its own sinful nature, the heart produces evil intentions (Gen 6:5), hatred toward others (Lev 19:17), an obstinate will to God (Ps 14:1; Rom 2:5; Eph 4:18), wicked motives (Jer 17:6), discouragement (Num 32:7), and unbelief in Christ (Heb 3:12). We can also take idols into our hearts (Ezek 14:1-5). Jesus also taught that “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person” (Matt 15:18-19). Evil behavior is the result of a much deeper problem: the heart is morally corrupt on its own. Merely improving yourself with good works and rituals ultimately changes nothing about who we really are before the Lord (Matt 15:1-20). What’s truly needed is a new heart.

Jesus also reveals this need for a new heart in Luke 6:43-45, “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:43-45). In other words, to bear good fruit or produce behavior that glorifies God, we must have a heart that treasures God.

The New Heart by God’s Grace in Christ

By his grace, God gives the new heart that treasures him. Sometimes God refers to circumcising the heart (Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Rom 2:28-29). At other times, God refers to the heart undergoing a spiritual cleansing and rebirth (Ezek 36:25-26; cf. John 3:1-8; Acts 15:9). Another example is God commanding “light” to shine into our moral darkness, giving us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6). Thus, a person truly changes when God gives the heart a new moral disposition that loves and treasures God and seeks to honor him.

We can see this inner change in the way Paul addresses the Christians in Rome: “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:17-18). Two observations. One, Paul thanks God because God causes inward change. Two, true obedience stems from a heart freed from sin’s power and filled with new affection for righteousness.

When transformed by the power of God’s grace and compelled by the Holy Spirit and truth, the heart produces inclinations towards God’s will (Ps 119:36; Eph 6:6), generosity (Exod 35:5, 21; 2 Cor 9:13), love-filled worship (Deut 6:5), thanksgiving (Ps 9:1), gladness (Acts 2:46), conviction for sin (Acts 2:37), service toward others (1 John 3:17), faith in Christ (Rom 10:10), compassion (Col 3:12), refreshment (Phm 7), prayerful dependence on the Father (Gal 4:6), and so much more!

Returning to Jesus’ teaching in Luke 6:43-45, once the root of the tree is good, then the fruit will be good too. The figure below attempts to illustrate these truths about the heart (i.e., the root) and the behaviors it produces (i.e., the fruit).

Two Trees Diagram 1

Each tree represents someone’s true spiritual condition. A bad tree/heart bears bad fruit; a good tree/heart bears good fruit. Both trees illustrate that our behavior stems from the condition of our heart and what it ultimately treasures. Pretentious, dishonoring evil behavior has its roots in evil treasure. Genuine, God-glorifying good behavior has its roots in good treasure. When God changes the heart so that we treasure what’s truly good, good fruit will follow that brings God honor.

MOTIVATING EACH OTHER WITH THE GOSPEL

Thus, true and lasting change that glorifies God is possible. Indeed, it’s more than possible; it’s promised and procured through the person and work of Jesus.[7] This is good news! When received with repentance and faith, the gospel is God’s power for salvation and transformation (Rom 1:16-17; 2 Cor 3:18). Only through the gospel does God make people who were once slaves of sin obedient from the heart (Rom 1:5; 6:1-17; 16:26). Only by using the gospel does the Spirit open the eyes of our heart to see Jesus’ glory and stir our affections for him over our self-centered idolatry (2 Cor 3:1-18; 1 Thess 1:5-10).

So, the goal in our care for one another is to encourage and admonish one another in the gospel (Col 3:16). God views the church as a people who regularly preach and apply the word to one another.[8] Paul exhorts Christians like so: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.” We teach and we admonish in all wisdom. The aim is not mere information transfer, but teaching the word of Christ accompanied with wise admonishments that help each other conform our lives to the word of Christ. We daily connect gospel-truth(s) to the very specifics of our lives, such that by treasuring God’s awesome holiness and judgment as well as his boundless love and grace in Christ, we’re compelled to forsake sin and live in ways fully pleasing to him (Eph 5:10; Col 1:10; Heb 13:21).

To be clear, that doesn’t mean we wait to obey God until all our motives are unmixed and pure. Not only are we incapable of such exhaustive self-knowledge, but God is always worthy of our obedience, even when acting out of duty in the moment. But if we want true and lasting change—if God-glorifying obedience flows from delight (over duty) in who he is and what he has done on our behalf in Christ—then the gospel must move our hearts. What does this look like? I'll try to address that in Part 2.

________

[1]See Rom 1:1-7 where Paul says that God set him apart for “the gospel of Godto bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.” The purpose of God in the gospel is the obedience of faith among all the nations, and honoring God’s name is the ultimate goal (cf. Rom 15:8-9). Marketing schemes rob God of glory because they attempt to fabricate results with means other than the gospel, which does not produce the transformation God desires. Cf. Jesus’ parable of the four soils, especially soil three in Matt 13:22.

[2]In 1 Corinthians 1:10-4:17, the primary criticism Paul has for the Corinthians is that they have begun placing confidence in worldly wisdom instead of the wisdom of the cross.

[3]Cf. Acts 26:18; 2 Cor 4:4-6; Eph 6:12; 1 John 5:19.

[4]Cf. Carson, “What is the Gospel?” 165, who speaks against the tendency to treat [spiritual disciplines] as postgospel disciplines, disciplines divorced from what God has done in Christ Jesus in the gospel of the crucified and resurrected Lord…[In the NT] the gospel is regularly presented not only as truth to be received and believed, but the very power of God to transform…Failure to see this point has huge and deleterious consequences.” One consequence that Carson highlights is as follows: “…if the gospel becomes that by which we slip into the kingdom, but all the business of transformation turns on postgospel disciplines and strategies, then we shall constantly be directing the attention of people away from the gospel, away from the cross and resurrection.”

[5]So, for example, in Romans 12:1-13:7, Paul shows the church how the gospel he proclaimed in the first eleven chapters functions practically in the individual’s relationship with God (Rom 12:1-2), in the saints’ relationship to one another (Rom 12:3-16), and in the church’s relationship to the unbelieving world, even governing authorities (Rom 12:17-13:7).

[6]Paul David Tripp, Getting to the Heart of Parenting Leader’s Guide (Philadelphia: Paul Tripp Ministries, n.d.), 3; Tedd Tripp, Shepherding a Child’s Heart, 2nd ed. (Wapwallopen: Shepherd Press, 1995), 3. Cf. Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (Philipsburg: P&R, 2002), 57-94.

[7]Cf. Jer 31:31-33; Ezek 11:19; 36:26-27 with Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25; Heb 9:15.

[8]E.g., Rom 10:17; 2 Cor 5:20; 2 Tim 4:2; Heb 3:13; 10:24-25.

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In The Gospel (Part 1 and Part 2), I attempted to summarize “the gospel,” reviewing both God’s saving acts in Jesus Christ and their theological significance. Distinguishing the gospel’s results from the gospel itself also proved important in The Gospel (Part 3).

I now want to explore how the gospel functions in the life of the church. No matter what the church faced, the apostles wove the gospel into the very fabric of the church’s life, ministries, and mission. The gospel never amounted to a “shelved” message for the church. It has ongoing significance. Our entire manner of life must be worthy of it (Phil 1:27), in step with it (Gal 2:14), flowing from it (2 Cor 9:13), and never shifting from the hope found in it (Col 1:23).

Fight Temptations to Shift from the Gospel

Pragmatic marketing schemes will tempt the church with “ensured” results—the promise of greater attendance, rapid growth, higher giving, etc. But wherever the gospel is not central to the spiritual transformation of souls, and even numerical growth, God is not ultimately glorified.[1] God is only glorified in “the ends” when we he is also trusted in “the means” to those ends.

Moreover, our own sinful flesh will be pulled to trust in human wisdom of all sorts—bigger buildings, fancier gadgets, latest fads, cutting-edge technology, popular psychology, etc. But only the wisdom of the cross pleases God and conforms people into Christ-likeness.[2] Still more, the devil seeks to preoccupy us with trivial matters that can gradually become our main focus—foolish controversies, identity politics, opinionated bloggers, fear-mongering, etc. All the while, the gospel drifts further and further to the periphery.[3] But in the fight against the world, the flesh, and the devil, the church must heed Christ’s words never to shift from the hope of the gospel (Col 1:23).

God never intended for the church or anything about the church to become “post-gospel;”[4] rather the church must remain a community characterized by ongoing, comprehensive devotion to the gospel.[5] We meet together as a church to help each other live in the good of the gospel daily. That means motivating each other to follow Jesus with the gospel’s empowering truth(s). We lead each other to drink deeply from the endless fountain of God’s glory in Christ, so that our souls rise with gratitude and run with faith. To this end, the following is an attempt to show Christians how to preach and apply the gospel to ourselves and to others.

A Matter of the Heart

In order to establish the functional centrality of the gospel in the church, we must first learn how the gospel gains a functional centrality in our hearts. The Bible will often refer to our inner-most person as “the heart.” When used in this way, some have adequately described the heart as “the causal core of our personhood” or “the control center for life.”[6] Our thoughts, words, actions/reactions, motivations, etc., all stem from the heart (Prov 4:23; 20:5). Depending on its moral and spiritual condition, the heart determines whether we live in ways that please God or in ways that displease God.

The Heart without God’s Grace in Christ

By its own sinful nature, the heart produces evil intentions (Gen 6:5), hatred toward others (Lev 19:17), an obstinate will to God (Ps 14:1; Rom 2:5; Eph 4:18), wicked motives (Jer 17:6), discouragement (Num 32:7), and unbelief in Christ (Heb 3:12). We can also take idols into our hearts (Ezek 14:1-5). Jesus also taught that “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person” (Matt 15:18-19). Evil behavior is the result of a much deeper problem: the heart is morally corrupt on its own. Merely improving yourself with good works and rituals ultimately changes nothing about who we really are before the Lord (Matt 15:1-20). What’s truly needed is a new heart.

Jesus also reveals this need for a new heart in Luke 6:43-45, “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:43-45). In other words, to bear good fruit or produce behavior that glorifies God, we must have a heart that treasures God.

The New Heart by God’s Grace in Christ

By his grace, God gives the new heart that treasures him. Sometimes God refers to circumcising the heart (Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Rom 2:28-29). At other times, God refers to the heart undergoing a spiritual cleansing and rebirth (Ezek 36:25-26; cf. John 3:1-8; Acts 15:9). Another example is God commanding “light” to shine into our moral darkness, giving us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6). Thus, a person truly changes when God gives the heart a new moral disposition that loves and treasures God and seeks to honor him.

We can see this inner change in the way Paul addresses the Christians in Rome: “But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:17-18). Two observations. One, Paul thanks God because God causes inward change. Two, true obedience stems from a heart freed from sin’s power and filled with new affection for righteousness.

When transformed by the power of God’s grace and compelled by the Holy Spirit and truth, the heart produces inclinations towards God’s will (Ps 119:36; Eph 6:6), generosity (Exod 35:5, 21; 2 Cor 9:13), love-filled worship (Deut 6:5), thanksgiving (Ps 9:1), gladness (Acts 2:46), conviction for sin (Acts 2:37), service toward others (1 John 3:17), faith in Christ (Rom 10:10), compassion (Col 3:12), refreshment (Phm 7), prayerful dependence on the Father (Gal 4:6), and so much more!

Returning to Jesus’ teaching in Luke 6:43-45, once the root of the tree is good, then the fruit will be good too. The figure below attempts to illustrate these truths about the heart (i.e., the root) and the behaviors it produces (i.e., the fruit).

Two Trees Diagram 1

Each tree represents someone’s true spiritual condition. A bad tree/heart bears bad fruit; a good tree/heart bears good fruit. Both trees illustrate that our behavior stems from the condition of our heart and what it ultimately treasures. Pretentious, dishonoring evil behavior has its roots in evil treasure. Genuine, God-glorifying good behavior has its roots in good treasure. When God changes the heart so that we treasure what’s truly good, good fruit will follow that brings God honor.

MOTIVATING EACH OTHER WITH THE GOSPEL

Thus, true and lasting change that glorifies God is possible. Indeed, it’s more than possible; it’s promised and procured through the person and work of Jesus.[7] This is good news! When received with repentance and faith, the gospel is God’s power for salvation and transformation (Rom 1:16-17; 2 Cor 3:18). Only through the gospel does God make people who were once slaves of sin obedient from the heart (Rom 1:5; 6:1-17; 16:26). Only by using the gospel does the Spirit open the eyes of our heart to see Jesus’ glory and stir our affections for him over our self-centered idolatry (2 Cor 3:1-18; 1 Thess 1:5-10).

So, the goal in our care for one another is to encourage and admonish one another in the gospel (Col 3:16). God views the church as a people who regularly preach and apply the word to one another.[8] Paul exhorts Christians like so: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.” We teach and we admonish in all wisdom. The aim is not mere information transfer, but teaching the word of Christ accompanied with wise admonishments that help each other conform our lives to the word of Christ. We daily connect gospel-truth(s) to the very specifics of our lives, such that by treasuring God’s awesome holiness and judgment as well as his boundless love and grace in Christ, we’re compelled to forsake sin and live in ways fully pleasing to him (Eph 5:10; Col 1:10; Heb 13:21).

To be clear, that doesn’t mean we wait to obey God until all our motives are unmixed and pure. Not only are we incapable of such exhaustive self-knowledge, but God is always worthy of our obedience, even when acting out of duty in the moment. But if we want true and lasting change—if God-glorifying obedience flows from delight (over duty) in who he is and what he has done on our behalf in Christ—then the gospel must move our hearts. What does this look like? I'll try to address that in Part 2.

________

[1]See Rom 1:1-7 where Paul says that God set him apart for “the gospel of Godto bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.” The purpose of God in the gospel is the obedience of faith among all the nations, and honoring God’s name is the ultimate goal (cf. Rom 15:8-9). Marketing schemes rob God of glory because they attempt to fabricate results with means other than the gospel, which does not produce the transformation God desires. Cf. Jesus’ parable of the four soils, especially soil three in Matt 13:22.

[2]In 1 Corinthians 1:10-4:17, the primary criticism Paul has for the Corinthians is that they have begun placing confidence in worldly wisdom instead of the wisdom of the cross.

[3]Cf. Acts 26:18; 2 Cor 4:4-6; Eph 6:12; 1 John 5:19.

[4]Cf. Carson, “What is the Gospel?” 165, who speaks against the tendency to treat [spiritual disciplines] as postgospel disciplines, disciplines divorced from what God has done in Christ Jesus in the gospel of the crucified and resurrected Lord…[In the NT] the gospel is regularly presented not only as truth to be received and believed, but the very power of God to transform…Failure to see this point has huge and deleterious consequences.” One consequence that Carson highlights is as follows: “…if the gospel becomes that by which we slip into the kingdom, but all the business of transformation turns on postgospel disciplines and strategies, then we shall constantly be directing the attention of people away from the gospel, away from the cross and resurrection.”

[5]So, for example, in Romans 12:1-13:7, Paul shows the church how the gospel he proclaimed in the first eleven chapters functions practically in the individual’s relationship with God (Rom 12:1-2), in the saints’ relationship to one another (Rom 12:3-16), and in the church’s relationship to the unbelieving world, even governing authorities (Rom 12:17-13:7).

[6]Paul David Tripp, Getting to the Heart of Parenting Leader’s Guide (Philadelphia: Paul Tripp Ministries, n.d.), 3; Tedd Tripp, Shepherding a Child’s Heart, 2nd ed. (Wapwallopen: Shepherd Press, 1995), 3. Cf. Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (Philipsburg: P&R, 2002), 57-94.

[7]Cf. Jer 31:31-33; Ezek 11:19; 36:26-27 with Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25; Heb 9:15.

[8]E.g., Rom 10:17; 2 Cor 5:20; 2 Tim 4:2; Heb 3:13; 10:24-25.

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The Gospel (Part 1) https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/t_3 https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/t_3#comments Sun, 03 May 2020 14:00:00 -0400 https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/t_3 Why such an emphasis on the gospel?

As a church, why do we give such priority to the gospel message? Answers to that question revolve around the basis for our relationship with God, the nature of the local church, and the only hope for the nations.

Relationship with God

With respect to our relationship with God, Paul says the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. For in [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Rom 1:16-17). Through the gospel, we see and experience God’s power working favorably toward sinners to give all who trust in him a right standing in his presence. Thus, to overlook the gospel in equipping others, whoever they may be and from whatever background they may come, would be to cut the very lifeline we have to God.

Nature of the Church

With respect to the nature of the church, the Scriptures indicate that the church is an assembly of people characterized by faithfulness to the gospel. For example, not only did God create and assemble his people through the gospel initially heard and embraced (Eph 1:13; Col 1:5; 1 Thess 1:5), but he also sustains the people’s life before him and with each other through the gospel continuously treasured and obeyed (Rom 10:16; 1 Cor 15:1-2; Col 1:23). Indeed, our only hope in life from beginning to end is bound up with the gospel, such that to shift from it would only be to our everlasting destruction (1 Cor 15:2; Col 1:23; 2 Thess 1:8). And according to Paul, the gospel also reveals the biblical framework by which we understand the church, who we are, where we came from, where we are going, and for what purpose we exist (Eph 3:1-14).

In that sense, one might say the church is a gospel community, and leaders would do well to continue strengthening the church with the very message that created the church and defines the church to begin with. We need not look far to see that Jesus intended it to be this way. For he established two ordinances in the church, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and both stand as tangible reminders to what the church is about until Jesus returns, namely, the gospel message by which God reveals his Son’s person and work most distinctly.

Even within the church’s leadership, faithfulness to the gospel is central to the oversight of souls. Paul instructs Timothy to teach sound doctrine that is in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which he had been entrusted (1 Tim 1:11). Likewise, when Paul shepherds the church in Colossae, he tells them not to shift from the hope of the gospel that they had heard originally from Epaphras (Col 1:23; cf. 1:5-7; 2:7). From beginning to end, the nature of the church demands attention to the gospel and its ongoing relevance for the people of God.

Hope for the Nations

Lastly, with respect to the only hope for the nations, the church exists to advance the gospel among all peoples through proclamation (Matt 24:14; 28:18-20; Rom 15:20; 1 Cor 1:18-25; Phil 1:5-14). The Lord did save us from the world through the gospel, but he left us in the world for the gospel. We are God’s ambassadors, who carry the gospel of peace into the chaotic world darkened by sin, that others might experience reconciliation with God and the hope of eternal life (2 Cor 5:20; Eph 6:15, 17).

So, the gospel is not a message that one should “set on a shelf” after receiving it upon first hearing, only to return to it every now and then. Rather, the gospel is a message upon which the church stands, by which the church is still being saved, and for which the church ultimately exists. Therefore, it would run contrary to the very nature of our relationship with God, our life together with the saints, and our mission to the world to ignore serious reflection on what the gospel is and what the gospel means for our worship, community, and mission. In The Gospel (Part 2), we will look at what the gospel is.

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Why such an emphasis on the gospel?

As a church, why do we give such priority to the gospel message? Answers to that question revolve around the basis for our relationship with God, the nature of the local church, and the only hope for the nations.

Relationship with God

With respect to our relationship with God, Paul says the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. For in [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’” (Rom 1:16-17). Through the gospel, we see and experience God’s power working favorably toward sinners to give all who trust in him a right standing in his presence. Thus, to overlook the gospel in equipping others, whoever they may be and from whatever background they may come, would be to cut the very lifeline we have to God.

Nature of the Church

With respect to the nature of the church, the Scriptures indicate that the church is an assembly of people characterized by faithfulness to the gospel. For example, not only did God create and assemble his people through the gospel initially heard and embraced (Eph 1:13; Col 1:5; 1 Thess 1:5), but he also sustains the people’s life before him and with each other through the gospel continuously treasured and obeyed (Rom 10:16; 1 Cor 15:1-2; Col 1:23). Indeed, our only hope in life from beginning to end is bound up with the gospel, such that to shift from it would only be to our everlasting destruction (1 Cor 15:2; Col 1:23; 2 Thess 1:8). And according to Paul, the gospel also reveals the biblical framework by which we understand the church, who we are, where we came from, where we are going, and for what purpose we exist (Eph 3:1-14).

In that sense, one might say the church is a gospel community, and leaders would do well to continue strengthening the church with the very message that created the church and defines the church to begin with. We need not look far to see that Jesus intended it to be this way. For he established two ordinances in the church, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and both stand as tangible reminders to what the church is about until Jesus returns, namely, the gospel message by which God reveals his Son’s person and work most distinctly.

Even within the church’s leadership, faithfulness to the gospel is central to the oversight of souls. Paul instructs Timothy to teach sound doctrine that is in accordance with the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which he had been entrusted (1 Tim 1:11). Likewise, when Paul shepherds the church in Colossae, he tells them not to shift from the hope of the gospel that they had heard originally from Epaphras (Col 1:23; cf. 1:5-7; 2:7). From beginning to end, the nature of the church demands attention to the gospel and its ongoing relevance for the people of God.

Hope for the Nations

Lastly, with respect to the only hope for the nations, the church exists to advance the gospel among all peoples through proclamation (Matt 24:14; 28:18-20; Rom 15:20; 1 Cor 1:18-25; Phil 1:5-14). The Lord did save us from the world through the gospel, but he left us in the world for the gospel. We are God’s ambassadors, who carry the gospel of peace into the chaotic world darkened by sin, that others might experience reconciliation with God and the hope of eternal life (2 Cor 5:20; Eph 6:15, 17).

So, the gospel is not a message that one should “set on a shelf” after receiving it upon first hearing, only to return to it every now and then. Rather, the gospel is a message upon which the church stands, by which the church is still being saved, and for which the church ultimately exists. Therefore, it would run contrary to the very nature of our relationship with God, our life together with the saints, and our mission to the world to ignore serious reflection on what the gospel is and what the gospel means for our worship, community, and mission. In The Gospel (Part 2), we will look at what the gospel is.

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The Gospel (Part 2) https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/the-gospel--part-2- https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/the-gospel--part-2-#comments Sun, 03 May 2020 14:00:00 -0400 https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/the-gospel--part-2- What is the Gospel?

In The Gospel (Part 1), we looked at why the gospel. We turn now to the question, what is the gospel? At the most basic level, the Scriptures indicate that "the gospel" was employed as a label to summarize the authoritative news of Jesus Christ, which Jesus himself also entrusted to his apostles.[1] Sometimes the gospel refers more narrowly to the announcement that God has procured the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ substitutionary death (Acts 10:36-43; Rom 1:16-17; 1 Cor 1:17-25; 15:1-5). At other times, the gospel refers more broadly to the grand sweep of God’s redemptive-historical purposes that find their fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ (Matt 4:23; Luke 4:18-19; Acts 13:32-33; Rom 1:1-6; Gal 3:8; Eph 3:4-10).[2] Jesus and his apostles never intended one usage of “the gospel” to overshadow the other. However, what must be stressed with all clarity is that without the narrower focus on Christ crucified and risen, the broader redemptive-historical purposes collapse. With that in mind, we move to a few observations from the Scriptures of what the gospel essentially is.[3]

1. The Proclaimed Message about…

To begin with, the gospel is a proclaimed message. The gospel is not mere information the church possesses, but news, and urgently good news that demands a response from its hearers. The gospel is not merely an idea, but an announcement of who God is, what he has accomplished, what he is currently doing in the world, and what he will finish soon. Thus, intrinsic to the gospel is that it is a message to be heralded and heeded.

Jesus began his earthly ministry proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). Paul clarifies that no other option exists for people’s reconciliation with God outside of hearing and obeying the preached gospel (Rom 10:14-16). In Colossians 1:23, he also writes, “You he has now reconciled…if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard—namely, the gospel which is proclaimed in all creation under heaven.”[4] Paul knows no other gospel than the “proclaimed-in-all-creation” gospel;[5] and thus he also exhorts the church to prepare her feet with it (Eph 6:15), an Old Testament image for messengers who run to announce the good news (Isa 52:7). But what exactly do the New Testament writers say this proclaimed message contains? To this we now turn.

2. God Acting…

The gospel is a message about God acting. All throughout the apostles’ proclamation of the gospel, God is at the center. He is the originator behind, the main actor throughout, and the final goal of everything announced in the gospel. God is the creator and originator of all things (Eph 3:8-12). God is the measure of the universe and the one justly offended by his rebellious creatures (Eph 2:1-3). God first loved his rebellious creatures and elected a people for himself in Christ (Eph 1:3-5). God promised his Son in Scripture (Rom 1:1-5; cf. 1 Cor 15:3-4). God sent his Son into the world (John 3:16). God gave him up as a sacrifice for our sins (1 Cor 15:3; cf. Isa 53:10). God raised him from the dead (1 Cor 15:4, 15). God will send him again to sum up all things in himself (1 Cor 15:25-28; Eph 1:9-10). And God will receive the praise and glory for all his purposes in Christ (Rom 11:36; Rev 7:12).

Thus, the gospel is not a message about what we can do for ourselves, nor even a testimony about how we have responded to the grace of God in Christ. Rather, the gospel is first a message about who God is over the cosmos, how God has been offended by our sin, what provision God has made for us despite that sin, and when God will ultimately make things as they should be under his rule. So the answer to all our sin and brokenness is not found in what we can do for ourselves, but in what God has done for us already and what he will do for us in the end.

3. In the Person and Work of Jesus Christ…

When God acts, however, he always acts in the person and work of Jesus Christ, his only Son. Herein lies the heartbeat of the gospel. If we take 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 as a starting point, the message Paul considered to be “of first importance,” then we readily see that the gospel is first and foremost a message about God acting in Jesus Christ. It reads,

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that [Christ] was buried, that [Christ] was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that [Christ] appeared.

From these four statements, we see that the gospel is a message that is all about the person of Jesus Christ and what God has done to save us through Jesus Christ. Paul indicates the same in Romans 1:1-4. Paul was “set apart for the gospel of God…concerning his Son…Jesus Christ our Lord.” The same is true in 1 Corinthians 1:17-2:2. Paul “preached the gospel,” the equivalent of which is deciding “to know nothing among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” The gospel is about God acting in Christ.

Having dwelt with God from all eternity, the Son was part of God’s plan for the universe before its existence, and therefore, the grace of the gospel was about Christ “before the ages began” (Eph 1:4-5; 2 Tim 1:8-10). The gospel is also about Christ throughout his earthly ministry, beginning with his incarnation (Matt 1:18-25; 4:23; 9:25), stretching through his perfect obedience (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 1 Pet 2:22), climaxing in his death by crucifixion (Rom 3:25-26; 1 Cor 15:3), and winding up with his victorious resurrection and ascension back to the Father (1 Cor 15:4-5). The gospel even includes how God acts now in Christ’s present heavenly reign (1 Cor 15:21-28; Eph 1:19-23) and will act in Christ at his final earthly return and consummation of the ages (Rom 2:16; Rev 19-22). We might illustrate these elements of God acting in the person and work of Jesus like so (note Figure 1 below).

Figure 1 How God Acts in Christ

4. To Reconcile Sinners to Himself…

The gospel also tells us that these acts by God in the person and work of Jesus Christ have the purpose of reconciling sinners to God. Our desperate plight before God was that we needed his forgiveness but justly deserved his wrath. Our sin was a theological problem before it was ever a sociological one. Our rebellion put us in a “vertical” dilemma before it ever thrust us into “horizontal” chaos with the world. By nature, we were separated from fellowship with God, deserving of his eternal condemnation, and we could do nothing in our own power to rescue ourselves.

Yet the good news contained in the gospel is that God, in his mercy, chose to act favorably toward sinners in Christ. When Christ died, he died not for his own sins—since he was sinless—but for our sins (1 Cor 15:3). Thus, Christ’s death was no mere event in history—though it certainly is that (see below)—and no mere moral example—though it includes that, too (1 Pet 2:20-22). Rather, the crucifixion of Jesus has theological significance and weight. In his death, and his death alone, God was at work reconciling the world to himself, saving sinners by providing propitiation for his wrath against them and forgiveness of all that would keep them separated from him. Therefore, bound up with the news of God’s in-breaking kingdom through Jesus Christ is the announcement that an entryway into that kingdom has been opened to the ungodly through repentance and faith in what God accomplished in Christ. The gospel is the announcement that all peoples without distinction are now welcome in Christ, since he reconciled us to God through his death.

At this point, we might say we’ve covered the narrower announcement bound up with “the gospel” we mentioned earlier, that God has procured the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ substitutionary death. But what is more and what is part and parcel to the apostolic gospel is that God did this just as he planned, promised, achieved, and will consummate. To these equally crucial parts of the message we now turn.

5. Just as He Planned from Eternity…

As mentioned before, “the gospel” can also refer to the grand sweep of God’s saving purposes in Christ. That sweep reaches back to God’s actions in eternity past. Consider it with me for a moment.

Scripture views the church as a community God ordained from eternity past. Right at the start of Ephesians, we see that God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph 1:4). And not too many verses later, we see that God had a purpose, which he “set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time” (Eph 1:9). Ephesians 3:10 then refers to that plan as God’s eternal purpose that was to be realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It was a plan that included looking with mercy upon a fallen and cursed world, providing redemption for guilty sinners through the death of God’s Son (Eph 1:7). This Son would come as a husband full of love for his adulterous bride, and he would win her for himself by washing her and forgiving all her trespasses by the blood he would spill in her place (Eph 5:25-27). It was also a cosmic plan that would include God’s power “uniting all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph 1:10). Everything undone by the Fall would be made right through the work of one man, Jesus Christ, to whom God would give all authority and power and dominion (Eph 1:20-22). All this was established even before the ages began according to the command of the eternal God, and is included in what we now know as “the gospel” (Rom 16:26; 2 Tim 1:9; Tit 1:2).

6. Promised throughout Holy Scripture…

Moreover, we are told in the gospel that God acted in Christ in ways he promised throughout Holy Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Christ died and was raised “in accordance with the Scriptures.” The gospel is not some new-fangled idea that began with Paul and the other apostles, nor a message that stems from their own wisdom and intellectual skill and competency in figuring out God and his purposes for the world. Rather, the gospel is a message that ultimately comes from God in accordance with his self-revelation in Scripture. Paul even says in Romans 1:2 that God promised his gospel beforehand in the Holy Scriptures (cf. Rom 16:25-26). Such a statement was reminiscent of Jesus’ own teaching in Luke 24:44-47: “He opened the disciples’ minds to understand the Scriptures,” that “everything written about him in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

In this sense, we can say that the gospel is thoroughly a biblical one. The Old Testament informs what we should think about Christ and how we should understand his unique work. The Scriptures provide the theological framework for comprehending Christ’s pre-existence, incarnation, life, death, resurrection, reign, and return.

The Scriptures keep us from creating categories of our own in which to think about Jesus and lead us to think about Jesus in the categories God has already revealed. These categories, for example, include God’s broader redemptive-historical purposes in Christ such as defeating the Serpent through the woman’s seed, dealing with the fall of humanity as the greater Adam, fulfilling God’s promises to Abraham to bless all nations, delivering us from bondage to sin in ways akin to God freeing Israel from Egypt in the exodus, meeting the Law’s demands as Israel’s faithful representative, bringing all the sacrifices and priestly duties to their appointed end, ascending to David’s throne as supreme messianic King, and so forth. These themes only find their fulfillment in the work of Jesus Christ, and they make further sense of his overall redeeming actions, but they are first promised in the Scriptures.

7. Achieves in History…

Further, the gospel is grounded in historical events. The eternal Son of God actually humbled himself, descended from heaven, entered human history as a Jewish man, died a real death on a Roman cross, and rose again with a physical body.

Returning for the moment to 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, notice that it is not enough for Paul to say “Christ died;” he also adds, “that he was buried.” His death was a historical fact. Moreover, it’s not enough for Paul to say that Christ “was raised on the third day,” but he also includes, “that he appeared” four times over (verse 5, 6, 7, 8). And the sense of verse 6 amounts to something like this: “Lest you think we’re making up Jesus’ bodily resurrection, just ask some of the five hundred other brothers who’re still around.” Jesus’ post-resurrection bodily appearances bore witness to many that he was—and is still—really alive.

So the gospel is not built on falsehoods, but upon truth; not fictional events, but historical ones; not fairy tales, but eyewitness testimony (Matt 28:1-15; Luke 1:2; 24:48; Acts 1:21-22; 2:32; 3:15). While the majority of other religions in the world couldn’t care less about the historicity of their religious beliefs—that is, all that matters to them is whether the experience holds true regardless of historical verification—Christianity is dependent on its historical claims. As Paul asserts in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “If Jesus Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you’re still in your sins.” When God acted, he did so within history; and to this day, he continues to work out his plans in history not apart from it. What he inaugurated and secured in the first historical coming of Jesus he will consummate in the second historical coming of Jesus.

8. And Will Consummate in the Age to Come.

That brings us to our final observation about the gospel message: it is a message that teaches us about God consummating his plans in the age to come. The final Day when God judges the secrets of men, Paul says, is in accordance with the gospel (Rom 2:16). The gospel announces that God plans to complete his redeeming work in the future and how that comes to bear on our choices now. It also explains how that future completion magnifies the significance of Jesus’ cross and resurrection. For in the cross and resurrection of Jesus, we see God inaugurating his end-time salvation.

For example, God promised that the Christ was coming to establish God’s kingdom. But in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the apostles saw God’s kingdom already irrupting, that is, breaking in from without. The end-time condemnation that awaited all sinners had been thrust forward in the event of the cross. For God showed mercy to a countless multitude of sinners by pouring out the end-time wrath they deserved on Christ instead. When these sinners for whom Christ died meet God at the end of history, no eternal condemnation will remain for them since Christ absorbed it all within history (Rom 3:21-26; 1 Cor 1:18-25; 1 Thess 1:10).

Or, consider that in light of his resurrection and ascension, Christ was seated as heaven’s triumphant king, but the kingdom had yet to arrive in its fullness (1 Cor 15:24-28). Thus, the reality of the kingdom had arrived in part and belonged to all who would enter through repentance and faith in Christ, the risen King, but the promise of final judgment and salvation has yet to be consummated. Thus, God freely offers the end-time salvation from his judgment now to all who would repent and embrace the cross as their only hope. In this sense, the message of the gospel is an eschatological one; it is about the end of time when God’s finishes his grand purpose.

Summary

So, then, what is “the gospel”? In sum, we can say the gospel is the proclaimed message about God acting in the person and work of Christ to reconcile sinners to himself, just as he graciously planned from eternity, promised throughout Scripture, achieves within history, and will consummate in the age to come.

In The Gospel (Part 3) we will look at how the apostles preached this gospel, exposited its meaning, and applied its results.

________

[1]The noun εὐαγγέλιον (“gospel”) appears 76 times in the NT (Matt 4:23; 9:35; 24:14; 26:13; Mark 1:1, 14f; 8:35; 10:29; 13:10; 14:9; 16:15; Acts 15:7; 20:24; Rom 1:1, 9, 16; 2:16; 10:16; 11:28; 15:16, 19; 16:25; 1 Cor 4:15; 9:12, 14, 18, 23; 15:1; 2 Cor 2:12; 4:3f; 8:18; 9:13; 10:14; 11:4, 7; Gal 1:6f, 11; 2:2, 5, 7, 14; Eph 1:13; 3:6; 6:15, 19; Phil 1:5, 7, 12, 16, 27; 2:22; 4:3, 15; Col 1:5, 23; 1 Thess 1:5; 2:2, 4, 8f; 3:2; 2 Thess 1:8; 2:14; 1 Tim 1:11; 2 Tim 1:8, 10; 2:8; Phlm 1:13; 1 Pet 4:17; Rev 14:6). The verb εὐαγγελίζω (“to preach the gospel/good news”) appears 56 times in the NT and possesses a meaning that is linked to the prophet’s usage in Isa 40:9; 52:7; 61:1. For the verb, see Matt 11:5; Luke 1:19; 2:10; 3:18; 4:18, 43; 7:22; 8:1; 9:6; 16:16; 20:1; Acts 5:42; 8:4, 12, 25, 35, 40; 10:36; 11:20; 13:32; 14:7, 15, 21; 15:35; 16:10; 17:18; Rom 1:15; 10:15; 15:20; 1 Cor 1:17; 9:16, 18; 15:1f; 2 Cor 10:16; 11:7; Gal 1:8f, 11, 16, 23; 4:13; Eph 2:17; 3:8; 1 Thess 3:6; Heb 4:2, 6; 1 Pet 1:12, 25; 4:6; Rev 10:7; 14:6). The noun εὐαγγελιστής (“evangelist”) appears only three times in Acts 21:8; Eph 4:11; 2 Tim 4:5. Lastly, the verb προευαγγελίζομαι (“to preach the gospel beforehand”) appears only once in Gal 3:8. Cf. Peter O’Brien, Gospel and Mission in the Writings of Paul (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 77-82; D. A. Carson, “What is the Gospel?—Revisited,” in For the Fame of His Name, eds. Justin Taylor and Sam Storms (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 147-70.

[2]Others making the same observations are D. A. Carson, “The Biblical Gospel,” in For Such a Time as This, eds. Steve Brady and Harold Rowden (London: Evangelical Alliance, 1996), 75-85; Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert, What is the Mission of the Church (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 91-114; Timothy Keller, Center Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 39-43.

[3]John Stott, Evangelical Truth: A Personal Plea for Unity, Intregrity, and Faithfulness (Downers Grove: IVP, 1999), 28-29, first helped me begin thinking in these categories. D. A. Carson, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-19),” Spurgeon Fellowship Journal (Spring 2008), 1-11, a reprint of a lecture given at the inaugural Gospel Coalition meeting, helped further refine my thoughts.

[4]The ESV reads, “You he has now reconciled…if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” However, the aorist tense of the substantival participle (literally: “the proclaimed one”) need not reflect a past-time activity. A better translation option seems to view the participle functioning in apposition to the gospel. That is, “the gospel…the proclaimed one,” the only kind of gospel there is.

[5]N. T. Wright, Colossians and Philemon, Tyndale New Testament Commentary (Downers Grove: IVP, 2008), 84-85.

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What is the Gospel?

In The Gospel (Part 1), we looked at why the gospel. We turn now to the question, what is the gospel? At the most basic level, the Scriptures indicate that "the gospel" was employed as a label to summarize the authoritative news of Jesus Christ, which Jesus himself also entrusted to his apostles.[1] Sometimes the gospel refers more narrowly to the announcement that God has procured the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ substitutionary death (Acts 10:36-43; Rom 1:16-17; 1 Cor 1:17-25; 15:1-5). At other times, the gospel refers more broadly to the grand sweep of God’s redemptive-historical purposes that find their fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ (Matt 4:23; Luke 4:18-19; Acts 13:32-33; Rom 1:1-6; Gal 3:8; Eph 3:4-10).[2] Jesus and his apostles never intended one usage of “the gospel” to overshadow the other. However, what must be stressed with all clarity is that without the narrower focus on Christ crucified and risen, the broader redemptive-historical purposes collapse. With that in mind, we move to a few observations from the Scriptures of what the gospel essentially is.[3]

1. The Proclaimed Message about…

To begin with, the gospel is a proclaimed message. The gospel is not mere information the church possesses, but news, and urgently good news that demands a response from its hearers. The gospel is not merely an idea, but an announcement of who God is, what he has accomplished, what he is currently doing in the world, and what he will finish soon. Thus, intrinsic to the gospel is that it is a message to be heralded and heeded.

Jesus began his earthly ministry proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). Paul clarifies that no other option exists for people’s reconciliation with God outside of hearing and obeying the preached gospel (Rom 10:14-16). In Colossians 1:23, he also writes, “You he has now reconciled…if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard—namely, the gospel which is proclaimed in all creation under heaven.”[4] Paul knows no other gospel than the “proclaimed-in-all-creation” gospel;[5] and thus he also exhorts the church to prepare her feet with it (Eph 6:15), an Old Testament image for messengers who run to announce the good news (Isa 52:7). But what exactly do the New Testament writers say this proclaimed message contains? To this we now turn.

2. God Acting…

The gospel is a message about God acting. All throughout the apostles’ proclamation of the gospel, God is at the center. He is the originator behind, the main actor throughout, and the final goal of everything announced in the gospel. God is the creator and originator of all things (Eph 3:8-12). God is the measure of the universe and the one justly offended by his rebellious creatures (Eph 2:1-3). God first loved his rebellious creatures and elected a people for himself in Christ (Eph 1:3-5). God promised his Son in Scripture (Rom 1:1-5; cf. 1 Cor 15:3-4). God sent his Son into the world (John 3:16). God gave him up as a sacrifice for our sins (1 Cor 15:3; cf. Isa 53:10). God raised him from the dead (1 Cor 15:4, 15). God will send him again to sum up all things in himself (1 Cor 15:25-28; Eph 1:9-10). And God will receive the praise and glory for all his purposes in Christ (Rom 11:36; Rev 7:12).

Thus, the gospel is not a message about what we can do for ourselves, nor even a testimony about how we have responded to the grace of God in Christ. Rather, the gospel is first a message about who God is over the cosmos, how God has been offended by our sin, what provision God has made for us despite that sin, and when God will ultimately make things as they should be under his rule. So the answer to all our sin and brokenness is not found in what we can do for ourselves, but in what God has done for us already and what he will do for us in the end.

3. In the Person and Work of Jesus Christ…

When God acts, however, he always acts in the person and work of Jesus Christ, his only Son. Herein lies the heartbeat of the gospel. If we take 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 as a starting point, the message Paul considered to be “of first importance,” then we readily see that the gospel is first and foremost a message about God acting in Jesus Christ. It reads,

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that [Christ] was buried, that [Christ] was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that [Christ] appeared.

From these four statements, we see that the gospel is a message that is all about the person of Jesus Christ and what God has done to save us through Jesus Christ. Paul indicates the same in Romans 1:1-4. Paul was “set apart for the gospel of God…concerning his Son…Jesus Christ our Lord.” The same is true in 1 Corinthians 1:17-2:2. Paul “preached the gospel,” the equivalent of which is deciding “to know nothing among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” The gospel is about God acting in Christ.

Having dwelt with God from all eternity, the Son was part of God’s plan for the universe before its existence, and therefore, the grace of the gospel was about Christ “before the ages began” (Eph 1:4-5; 2 Tim 1:8-10). The gospel is also about Christ throughout his earthly ministry, beginning with his incarnation (Matt 1:18-25; 4:23; 9:25), stretching through his perfect obedience (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 1 Pet 2:22), climaxing in his death by crucifixion (Rom 3:25-26; 1 Cor 15:3), and winding up with his victorious resurrection and ascension back to the Father (1 Cor 15:4-5). The gospel even includes how God acts now in Christ’s present heavenly reign (1 Cor 15:21-28; Eph 1:19-23) and will act in Christ at his final earthly return and consummation of the ages (Rom 2:16; Rev 19-22). We might illustrate these elements of God acting in the person and work of Jesus like so (note Figure 1 below).

Figure 1 How God Acts in Christ

4. To Reconcile Sinners to Himself…

The gospel also tells us that these acts by God in the person and work of Jesus Christ have the purpose of reconciling sinners to God. Our desperate plight before God was that we needed his forgiveness but justly deserved his wrath. Our sin was a theological problem before it was ever a sociological one. Our rebellion put us in a “vertical” dilemma before it ever thrust us into “horizontal” chaos with the world. By nature, we were separated from fellowship with God, deserving of his eternal condemnation, and we could do nothing in our own power to rescue ourselves.

Yet the good news contained in the gospel is that God, in his mercy, chose to act favorably toward sinners in Christ. When Christ died, he died not for his own sins—since he was sinless—but for our sins (1 Cor 15:3). Thus, Christ’s death was no mere event in history—though it certainly is that (see below)—and no mere moral example—though it includes that, too (1 Pet 2:20-22). Rather, the crucifixion of Jesus has theological significance and weight. In his death, and his death alone, God was at work reconciling the world to himself, saving sinners by providing propitiation for his wrath against them and forgiveness of all that would keep them separated from him. Therefore, bound up with the news of God’s in-breaking kingdom through Jesus Christ is the announcement that an entryway into that kingdom has been opened to the ungodly through repentance and faith in what God accomplished in Christ. The gospel is the announcement that all peoples without distinction are now welcome in Christ, since he reconciled us to God through his death.

At this point, we might say we’ve covered the narrower announcement bound up with “the gospel” we mentioned earlier, that God has procured the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ substitutionary death. But what is more and what is part and parcel to the apostolic gospel is that God did this just as he planned, promised, achieved, and will consummate. To these equally crucial parts of the message we now turn.

5. Just as He Planned from Eternity…

As mentioned before, “the gospel” can also refer to the grand sweep of God’s saving purposes in Christ. That sweep reaches back to God’s actions in eternity past. Consider it with me for a moment.

Scripture views the church as a community God ordained from eternity past. Right at the start of Ephesians, we see that God “chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph 1:4). And not too many verses later, we see that God had a purpose, which he “set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time” (Eph 1:9). Ephesians 3:10 then refers to that plan as God’s eternal purpose that was to be realized in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It was a plan that included looking with mercy upon a fallen and cursed world, providing redemption for guilty sinners through the death of God’s Son (Eph 1:7). This Son would come as a husband full of love for his adulterous bride, and he would win her for himself by washing her and forgiving all her trespasses by the blood he would spill in her place (Eph 5:25-27). It was also a cosmic plan that would include God’s power “uniting all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph 1:10). Everything undone by the Fall would be made right through the work of one man, Jesus Christ, to whom God would give all authority and power and dominion (Eph 1:20-22). All this was established even before the ages began according to the command of the eternal God, and is included in what we now know as “the gospel” (Rom 16:26; 2 Tim 1:9; Tit 1:2).

6. Promised throughout Holy Scripture…

Moreover, we are told in the gospel that God acted in Christ in ways he promised throughout Holy Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, Christ died and was raised “in accordance with the Scriptures.” The gospel is not some new-fangled idea that began with Paul and the other apostles, nor a message that stems from their own wisdom and intellectual skill and competency in figuring out God and his purposes for the world. Rather, the gospel is a message that ultimately comes from God in accordance with his self-revelation in Scripture. Paul even says in Romans 1:2 that God promised his gospel beforehand in the Holy Scriptures (cf. Rom 16:25-26). Such a statement was reminiscent of Jesus’ own teaching in Luke 24:44-47: “He opened the disciples’ minds to understand the Scriptures,” that “everything written about him in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

In this sense, we can say that the gospel is thoroughly a biblical one. The Old Testament informs what we should think about Christ and how we should understand his unique work. The Scriptures provide the theological framework for comprehending Christ’s pre-existence, incarnation, life, death, resurrection, reign, and return.

The Scriptures keep us from creating categories of our own in which to think about Jesus and lead us to think about Jesus in the categories God has already revealed. These categories, for example, include God’s broader redemptive-historical purposes in Christ such as defeating the Serpent through the woman’s seed, dealing with the fall of humanity as the greater Adam, fulfilling God’s promises to Abraham to bless all nations, delivering us from bondage to sin in ways akin to God freeing Israel from Egypt in the exodus, meeting the Law’s demands as Israel’s faithful representative, bringing all the sacrifices and priestly duties to their appointed end, ascending to David’s throne as supreme messianic King, and so forth. These themes only find their fulfillment in the work of Jesus Christ, and they make further sense of his overall redeeming actions, but they are first promised in the Scriptures.

7. Achieves in History…

Further, the gospel is grounded in historical events. The eternal Son of God actually humbled himself, descended from heaven, entered human history as a Jewish man, died a real death on a Roman cross, and rose again with a physical body.

Returning for the moment to 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, notice that it is not enough for Paul to say “Christ died;” he also adds, “that he was buried.” His death was a historical fact. Moreover, it’s not enough for Paul to say that Christ “was raised on the third day,” but he also includes, “that he appeared” four times over (verse 5, 6, 7, 8). And the sense of verse 6 amounts to something like this: “Lest you think we’re making up Jesus’ bodily resurrection, just ask some of the five hundred other brothers who’re still around.” Jesus’ post-resurrection bodily appearances bore witness to many that he was—and is still—really alive.

So the gospel is not built on falsehoods, but upon truth; not fictional events, but historical ones; not fairy tales, but eyewitness testimony (Matt 28:1-15; Luke 1:2; 24:48; Acts 1:21-22; 2:32; 3:15). While the majority of other religions in the world couldn’t care less about the historicity of their religious beliefs—that is, all that matters to them is whether the experience holds true regardless of historical verification—Christianity is dependent on its historical claims. As Paul asserts in 1 Corinthians 15:17, “If Jesus Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you’re still in your sins.” When God acted, he did so within history; and to this day, he continues to work out his plans in history not apart from it. What he inaugurated and secured in the first historical coming of Jesus he will consummate in the second historical coming of Jesus.

8. And Will Consummate in the Age to Come.

That brings us to our final observation about the gospel message: it is a message that teaches us about God consummating his plans in the age to come. The final Day when God judges the secrets of men, Paul says, is in accordance with the gospel (Rom 2:16). The gospel announces that God plans to complete his redeeming work in the future and how that comes to bear on our choices now. It also explains how that future completion magnifies the significance of Jesus’ cross and resurrection. For in the cross and resurrection of Jesus, we see God inaugurating his end-time salvation.

For example, God promised that the Christ was coming to establish God’s kingdom. But in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the apostles saw God’s kingdom already irrupting, that is, breaking in from without. The end-time condemnation that awaited all sinners had been thrust forward in the event of the cross. For God showed mercy to a countless multitude of sinners by pouring out the end-time wrath they deserved on Christ instead. When these sinners for whom Christ died meet God at the end of history, no eternal condemnation will remain for them since Christ absorbed it all within history (Rom 3:21-26; 1 Cor 1:18-25; 1 Thess 1:10).

Or, consider that in light of his resurrection and ascension, Christ was seated as heaven’s triumphant king, but the kingdom had yet to arrive in its fullness (1 Cor 15:24-28). Thus, the reality of the kingdom had arrived in part and belonged to all who would enter through repentance and faith in Christ, the risen King, but the promise of final judgment and salvation has yet to be consummated. Thus, God freely offers the end-time salvation from his judgment now to all who would repent and embrace the cross as their only hope. In this sense, the message of the gospel is an eschatological one; it is about the end of time when God’s finishes his grand purpose.

Summary

So, then, what is “the gospel”? In sum, we can say the gospel is the proclaimed message about God acting in the person and work of Christ to reconcile sinners to himself, just as he graciously planned from eternity, promised throughout Scripture, achieves within history, and will consummate in the age to come.

In The Gospel (Part 3) we will look at how the apostles preached this gospel, exposited its meaning, and applied its results.

________

[1]The noun εὐαγγέλιον (“gospel”) appears 76 times in the NT (Matt 4:23; 9:35; 24:14; 26:13; Mark 1:1, 14f; 8:35; 10:29; 13:10; 14:9; 16:15; Acts 15:7; 20:24; Rom 1:1, 9, 16; 2:16; 10:16; 11:28; 15:16, 19; 16:25; 1 Cor 4:15; 9:12, 14, 18, 23; 15:1; 2 Cor 2:12; 4:3f; 8:18; 9:13; 10:14; 11:4, 7; Gal 1:6f, 11; 2:2, 5, 7, 14; Eph 1:13; 3:6; 6:15, 19; Phil 1:5, 7, 12, 16, 27; 2:22; 4:3, 15; Col 1:5, 23; 1 Thess 1:5; 2:2, 4, 8f; 3:2; 2 Thess 1:8; 2:14; 1 Tim 1:11; 2 Tim 1:8, 10; 2:8; Phlm 1:13; 1 Pet 4:17; Rev 14:6). The verb εὐαγγελίζω (“to preach the gospel/good news”) appears 56 times in the NT and possesses a meaning that is linked to the prophet’s usage in Isa 40:9; 52:7; 61:1. For the verb, see Matt 11:5; Luke 1:19; 2:10; 3:18; 4:18, 43; 7:22; 8:1; 9:6; 16:16; 20:1; Acts 5:42; 8:4, 12, 25, 35, 40; 10:36; 11:20; 13:32; 14:7, 15, 21; 15:35; 16:10; 17:18; Rom 1:15; 10:15; 15:20; 1 Cor 1:17; 9:16, 18; 15:1f; 2 Cor 10:16; 11:7; Gal 1:8f, 11, 16, 23; 4:13; Eph 2:17; 3:8; 1 Thess 3:6; Heb 4:2, 6; 1 Pet 1:12, 25; 4:6; Rev 10:7; 14:6). The noun εὐαγγελιστής (“evangelist”) appears only three times in Acts 21:8; Eph 4:11; 2 Tim 4:5. Lastly, the verb προευαγγελίζομαι (“to preach the gospel beforehand”) appears only once in Gal 3:8. Cf. Peter O’Brien, Gospel and Mission in the Writings of Paul (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), 77-82; D. A. Carson, “What is the Gospel?—Revisited,” in For the Fame of His Name, eds. Justin Taylor and Sam Storms (Wheaton: Crossway, 2010), 147-70.

[2]Others making the same observations are D. A. Carson, “The Biblical Gospel,” in For Such a Time as This, eds. Steve Brady and Harold Rowden (London: Evangelical Alliance, 1996), 75-85; Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert, What is the Mission of the Church (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 91-114; Timothy Keller, Center Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2012), 39-43.

[3]John Stott, Evangelical Truth: A Personal Plea for Unity, Intregrity, and Faithfulness (Downers Grove: IVP, 1999), 28-29, first helped me begin thinking in these categories. D. A. Carson, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-19),” Spurgeon Fellowship Journal (Spring 2008), 1-11, a reprint of a lecture given at the inaugural Gospel Coalition meeting, helped further refine my thoughts.

[4]The ESV reads, “You he has now reconciled…if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” However, the aorist tense of the substantival participle (literally: “the proclaimed one”) need not reflect a past-time activity. A better translation option seems to view the participle functioning in apposition to the gospel. That is, “the gospel…the proclaimed one,” the only kind of gospel there is.

[5]N. T. Wright, Colossians and Philemon, Tyndale New Testament Commentary (Downers Grove: IVP, 2008), 84-85.

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The Gospel (Part 3) https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/the-gospel--part-3- https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/the-gospel--part-3-#comments Sun, 03 May 2020 14:00:00 -0400 https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/the-gospel--part-3- In The Gospel (Part 1) we asked why the gospel? In The Gospel (Part 2) we looked at what the gospel is. I now want to sharpen the lens another notch to help us behold the unspeakable riches of the gospel, as well as what all this means in terms of our relationship to God, to each other, and to the world. Stated as a question: how do the apostles unpack the meaning of God acting in Christ for us?

What has God achieved for us?

When the apostles proclaimed God’s actions in Christ, they also explained the theological significance of God’s actions for all who trusted in Christ. For example, it was not enough to proclaim that Jesus was born—a bare event in history—but also that Jesus was born under the law to redeem those under the law, revealing the theological significance of the historical event (Gal 4:4-5). Or again, it was not even enough for the apostles to proclaim that Christ died—a historical fact—but also that Christ died for our sins, a theological assertion (1 Cor 15:3). Or once more, it was not enough to say that Jesus was raised—a visible and verifiable reality—but also that he was raised for our justification (Rom 4:25), an invisible meaning for that reality.

So, there is meaning behind God acting in Christ, and the apostles ensure people understand that meaning in their proclamation of the gospel. Further below we will make a distinction between the gospel itself and the gospel’s results/implications. However, for now we are still working within the framework of what we might call the gospel proper (see Figure 2 below).

Figure 2: The Gospel Proper

Figure 2 Gospel Proper Table

The apostles heralded to the unbelieving world both the actions of God in Christ as well as their meaning, a meaning that unfolded God’s mercy toward the repentant but that threatened God’s judgment for the scoffer. Surely, that is because their Savior taught them to do so, namely, to interpret his person and work in light of what God revealed in the Scriptures (Luke 24:45-47; John 5:39-47). The reason they know Christ died for our sins is that Christ has been revealed as heaven’s unblemished lamb, the Law’s ultimate curse bearer, our ransom-payment for freedom, God’s chosen Suffering Servant, and so forth. At every turn, the apostles include in their gospel message both that God has acted in Christ and what his actions mean for a world of sinners who stand separated from their Maker. For those who repent and join themselves to Christ by faith, God’s actions in Christ mean their salvation. For those who reject Christ, God’s actions in Christ confirm their pending condemnation.

In addition to the examples we provided briefly above from Galatians 4:4-5, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, and Romans 4:25, Figure 3 below includes several more examples from the New Testament where the apostles unpack the meaning of God acting in Christ. The examples provided are by no means exhaustive, but are meant only to highlight the pattern of teaching in the apostles’ proclamation of God acting in the person and work of Jesus Christ from before creation through his earthly ministry to his final return.

Figure 3: God’s Actions in Christ & Their Meaning

EVENTS:
How did God act in Christ?

MEANING:
What does God actually achieve?

Christ’s Pre-existent Plan

He elects and predestines us “in Christ” (Eph 1:3-4; Rom 8:28); decrees the end for the cosmos (Eph 1:9-10; Co1:16-17; 2 Tim 1:9); establishes the mission for the Son (John 17:1-5).

Christ’s Humble Incarnation

He identifies with those who rebelled (John 1:14; Rom 8:3-4; Heb 2:14); fulfills the promises given to Adam, Abraham, Israel, and David for a human descendent that saves the world (1 John 3:8 [Gen 3:15]; Gal 3:16-4:5 [Gen 22:17]; Rom 1:3 [2 Sam 7:12-16]); ensures hope for the world in a new Adam (Rom 5:12-21; Heb 2:1-9).

Christ’s Perfect Life and Sufferings

He meets the Law’s penal and positive requirements through obedience (Matt 3:15; Rom 5:19; Gal 4:4-5; 2 Cor 5:21); over-comes Satan’s temptations (Matt 4:1-11; Heb 4:15); supplies an unblemished lamb (1 Pet 1:19).

Christ’s Crucifixion and Death

He atones for the sins of many (1 John 2:2; 4:10); redeems from the curse of the Law (Gal 3:13); propitiates God’s wrath (Rom 3:25-26); redeems from slavery to sin (Rom 6:1-14; 1 Cor 6:20); forgives sinners (Matt 26:27-28); reconciles rebels to God (2 Cor 5:19); secures the new covenant promises (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25); disarms rulers and authorities (Col 2:15).

Christ’s Victorious Resurrection

He delivers from death (1 Cor 15:50-57); silences the devil’s threats (Heb 2:14-15); vindicates the elect (Rom 4:5); begins the final resurrection age (1 Cor 15:20); inaugurates the new creation (2 Cor 5:17).

Christ’s Present Reign

He sends the Holy Spirit (John 7:38-39; 14:26); calls sinners to himself (1 Cor 1:18-25); regenerates the elect (John 6:37, 44, 65); adopts children through faith (Gal 4:5); sets apart believers for himself and makes them progressively holy (1 Cor 6:11; Heb 10:14); establishes and upholds the new community (Matt 16:18; 28:20); provides heavenly intercession (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25).

Christ’s Final Return

He glorifies the saints (Rom 8:17, 30; 2 Thess 1:10-12); establishes the final community (Rev 19:7-8); ensures God’s present patience (2 Pet 3:9); exercises the final judgment (Matt 25:31-32).

How then should we live?

Once we understand God’s saving acts in Christ and their meaning—both of which the apostles include in their proclamation of “the gospel”—we are then prepared to understand the results of the gospel. According to our reading of Scripture, it is crucial to maintain the distinction between the gospel (i.e., God’s actions in Christ and their meaning) and what grows out of the gospel (i.e., the results for our individual lives and the church). Failure to maintain the distinction between the gospel and its results reduces Christianity to a new ethic without the power of the cross, a moral religion without redeeming grace, or a written code devoid of the Spirit.

For example, while loving God above all and loving your neighbor as yourself are essential elements of the Christian life, they are not, properly speaking, the gospel. Precious as these two commandments are, they do not reveal how God has acted in Christ or help others see that apart from God working favorably toward them in Christ, they lack the moral ability to love God and love their neighbor at all. For anyone to say the gospel amounts to a couple of commandments would be to sever the very lifeline sinners have to God’s power for salvation (Rom 1:16-17).

Or consider the ethical issues surrounding marriage and abortion. Upholding traditional marriage is important because it reflects truths within the gospel message—namely, Christ laying down his life for sinners—but traditional marriage is not the gospel. We should also labor with courage and wisdom to stop the holocaust of abortion and pray that God would bring justice for the unborn, but our Pro-life views are not articulations of the gospel. Pro-life may be a serious implication of the gospel. However, the gospel itself is nothing more and nothing less than what God has done for us in Jesus Christ; and therein lays the only hope that any of our social ethics would change to begin with.

The Scriptures will also not allow us to supplant the gospel with our personal testimony, our own response to the saving message of Christ. Many times, people believe they have shared the gospel with someone else simply because they told them about their conversion experience? Our conversion may be an amazing result of God acting in Christ to bring us to himself through faith and repentance, but our conversion is not the good news others must embrace for salvation. To proclaim the gospel rightly with anybody, we will preach the person of Jesus Christ and offer him as the all-sufficient Savior to those listening.

Maintaining this distinction between the gospel and its results also means we should avoid any language that suggests the gospel can amount to our own way of living, such as in the popular exhortation, “Live the gospel!” In the words of Graeme Goldsworthy, “Christians cannot ‘live the gospel,’ as they are often exhorted to do. They can only believe it, proclaim it, and seek to live consistently with it. Only Jesus lived (and died) the gospel. It is a once-for-all finished and perfect event done for us by another.”[1] So, while our Christian life should authenticate the message we preach—as seen in the apostles injunction to “obey the gospel” or to “walk in step with the gospel”—the message we preach is not our Christian life, but Christ and him crucified and risen. We offer people Jesus for salvation, not our Christian living.[2]

Thus, we want to maintain the same distinction the apostles themselves make as we consider the gospel and not confuse the message of salvation with the results of the message of salvation taking root in believers’ lives. We will work through a few biblical examples below, but for now, we might illustrate the distinction as in Figure 4 below.

Figure 4: The Gospel & Its Results

Figure 4 Gospel and Results

To be clear, the distinction between the gospel and its results does not mean the results are somehow optional. In the same way that James could not conceive of any genuine faith that was devoid of good works, so also we should see that any genuine embrace of the gospel will necessarily result in inner-transformation for the individual and the community. Along with proclaiming God’s acts in Christ and their meaning (i.e., the gospel)—and in some cases assuming the church’s awareness of the gospel—the apostles also exhorted people to conform their lives to the gospel. What the gospel revealed happened to them as individuals and a community—that was to change their affections, shape their attitudes, transform their identity, set their priorities, and inform their livelihood. So significant were the gospel’s results that Paul could rebuke Peter for not walking in step with the gospel (Gal 2:14) and even eternal condemnation awaits those who refuse to obey the gospel (2 Thess 1:8; 1 Pet 4:17).

Understanding this is crucial when we think about our role as ministers of reconciliation. Not only should we proclaim the gospel itself, but we must also show people how the truth of the gospel should affect their lives on a very practical level, whether in their relationship with God, with each other, with the world, or with creation itself. Since God acting in Christ is as comprehensive as summing up all things in Christ and bringing everything under his rule (Eph 1:9-10; 1 Cor 15:27-28), then the gospel message itself will have results and implications for our lives that are just as comprehensive.

Whenever we teach individual believers and the church about these comprehensive results of the gospel, we are not merely offering them good suggestions or good ideas for living, but the actual way of life that must stem from spiritual union they have with the living and reigning Christ. In the words of the Great Commission, we are not merely teaching people to know everything Jesus commanded, but we are teaching people to observe everything Jesus commanded.

How must we respond?

Therefore, we might say that part of the gospel’s results is a demanded response to the authoritative results/implications. That response consists of repentance from sin and faith in Christ. When Jesus and the apostles preached the gospel of the kingdom, they also demanded that people enter the kingdom through repentance and faith (Matt 4:17). Faith and repentance are two terms that summarize the demanded response to the gospel and its authoritative results. Though Scripture may present faith and repentance together (e.g., Acts 20:21) or in separate places, they are two sides of the same coin. Through the gospel, God always demands both of the hearers (Acts 10:43; 17:30; John 3:16; 6:29; 1 John 3:23). Will Metzger states it aptly: “Repentance without faith will lead to sorrow and mere legalistic resolutions…Faith without repentance is unfounded optimism, leading to self-deception.”[3]

Faith is a gift granted by God to those his word has humbled (John 10:14-18; Eph 2:8-9; Phil 1:29; Col 1:3-4). It is the absolute dependence and casting of the whole person upon Jesus Christ. Faith includes a persevering trust and an enduring confidence that God fulfills and provides his saving promises through Jesus Christ alone (1 Tim 1:4, 14). While grace is God’s sovereign unmerited favor by which someone is saved, faith is the enabling dependence provided for that someone to be saved. Faith, then, is the only means by which God justifies and sanctifies sinners in uniting them to Jesus (Rom 3:21-26; Eph 2:8-10; 2 Thess 2:13).

Accompanied by faith, repentance describes the transformation of the whole person when it submits to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Repentance includes not only the person’s genuine sorrow for sin and their despising of it, but also their total forsaking of it for the purpose of ongoing obedience to Jesus (Luke 3:8; Acts 8:22; 20:21; 26:20; 2 Cor 7:10; Heb 6:1). After quoting Luke 14:26 and 33, J. I. Packer describes repentance as “the settled refusal to set any limit to the claims which [Christ] may make on [our] lives.”[4]

Obeying the gospel and abiding by its revealed results is costly for the Christian but also rewarding. For, by forsaking the old life without Christ, it costs him. However, it is in the forsaking of the old that he also gains the new life in Christ, his reward (Matt 13:44). This again recalls how Scripture treats repentance and faith as two aspects of one action in coming to Christ and submitting to his lordship. To trust in Christ for salvation is not only to see him as the most valuable treasure (faith), but also to forsake whatever prevents one from gaining him as their greatest treasure (repentance). Such faith and repentance does not cease upon conversion. Both actions characterize the daily lives of Christ’s disciples, whose hearts he has conquered and made his own through the gospel (Matt 6:12; Acts 26:20; Gal 2:20; Heb 12:2-3; 1 Pet 1:5-9). This is how people must respond to the gospel of God’s grace.

Such a demanded response is daunting, when considering the nature of our fleshly appetites and the ongoing temptations of the world and the devil. However, we would do well to remember that the results demanded by God through the gospel, he also effects through his Spirit. What God requires he also creates through spiritual renewal and empowerment.[5] In fact, the Spirit uses the gospel to produce change in the human heart. This is why Paul could call the gospel “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16-17). It’s why 1 Corinthians 1:18 says that “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” In the same way God flexed his arm in the exodus deliverance, rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt, the Spirit uses the gospel to deliver us from slavery to sin and to empower us to love Christ more. So, when we speak of the gospel’s demands, we simultaneously speak of what the gospel effects by the Spirit in those who walk by faith in Christ—not by faith in their faith, or faith in the results they can see, but by faith in Christ as he is revealed in the gospel.

A Few Examples

In order to provide further clarity on working through the gospel as well as its results, we now consider a few examples from the apostles’ proclamation in the New Testament in Figure 5 below:

Figure 5: Examples from Scripture

Figure 5 Examples

________

[1]Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel-centered Hermeneutics: Foundations and Principles of Evangelical Biblical Interpretation (Downers Grove: IVP, 2006), 58-59. Goldsworthy then continues to show how this effects the way we read the Bible.

[2]Another place where I have encountered the failure to distinguish the gospel from its results is in the writings of N. T. Wright on justification language in Paul. Wright blurs the distinction by defining “justification” in terms of covenant membership (i.e., Jew-Gentile reconciliation) rather than in terms of one’s righteous standing before God (i.e., God-man reconciliation). In so doing, Wright confuses the results or “fruit” of justification with the meaning or “root” of justification. Cf. Peter T. O’Brien, “Was Paul a Covenantal Nomist,” in Justification and Variegated Nomism, eds. D. A. Carson, Peter T. O’Brien, and Mark A. Seifrid (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 290.

[3]Will Metzger, Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel to the Whole Person by Whole People (Downers Grove: IVP, 2002), 76.

[4]J. I. Packer, Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God (Downers Grove: IVP, 1961), 72.

[5]For example, God demands faith, but he also secures it for us (Luke 22:20 [Jer 31:31-33]; John 3:16 [6:37]). God demands obedience, but also provides it (Rom 6:17, Paul gives thanks to God that they “obeyed from the heart”). God demands we flee sexual immorality, but also produces such freedom not only by deliverance from slavery, but also by giving our body to the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19-20). God demands perseverance in faithfulness, but his demands actually serve as the very means of our perseverance (Heb 4, 6, 10).

]]>
In The Gospel (Part 1) we asked why the gospel? In The Gospel (Part 2) we looked at what the gospel is. I now want to sharpen the lens another notch to help us behold the unspeakable riches of the gospel, as well as what all this means in terms of our relationship to God, to each other, and to the world. Stated as a question: how do the apostles unpack the meaning of God acting in Christ for us?

What has God achieved for us?

When the apostles proclaimed God’s actions in Christ, they also explained the theological significance of God’s actions for all who trusted in Christ. For example, it was not enough to proclaim that Jesus was born—a bare event in history—but also that Jesus was born under the law to redeem those under the law, revealing the theological significance of the historical event (Gal 4:4-5). Or again, it was not even enough for the apostles to proclaim that Christ died—a historical fact—but also that Christ died for our sins, a theological assertion (1 Cor 15:3). Or once more, it was not enough to say that Jesus was raised—a visible and verifiable reality—but also that he was raised for our justification (Rom 4:25), an invisible meaning for that reality.

So, there is meaning behind God acting in Christ, and the apostles ensure people understand that meaning in their proclamation of the gospel. Further below we will make a distinction between the gospel itself and the gospel’s results/implications. However, for now we are still working within the framework of what we might call the gospel proper (see Figure 2 below).

Figure 2: The Gospel Proper

Figure 2 Gospel Proper Table

The apostles heralded to the unbelieving world both the actions of God in Christ as well as their meaning, a meaning that unfolded God’s mercy toward the repentant but that threatened God’s judgment for the scoffer. Surely, that is because their Savior taught them to do so, namely, to interpret his person and work in light of what God revealed in the Scriptures (Luke 24:45-47; John 5:39-47). The reason they know Christ died for our sins is that Christ has been revealed as heaven’s unblemished lamb, the Law’s ultimate curse bearer, our ransom-payment for freedom, God’s chosen Suffering Servant, and so forth. At every turn, the apostles include in their gospel message both that God has acted in Christ and what his actions mean for a world of sinners who stand separated from their Maker. For those who repent and join themselves to Christ by faith, God’s actions in Christ mean their salvation. For those who reject Christ, God’s actions in Christ confirm their pending condemnation.

In addition to the examples we provided briefly above from Galatians 4:4-5, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, and Romans 4:25, Figure 3 below includes several more examples from the New Testament where the apostles unpack the meaning of God acting in Christ. The examples provided are by no means exhaustive, but are meant only to highlight the pattern of teaching in the apostles’ proclamation of God acting in the person and work of Jesus Christ from before creation through his earthly ministry to his final return.

Figure 3: God’s Actions in Christ & Their Meaning

EVENTS:
How did God act in Christ?

MEANING:
What does God actually achieve?

Christ’s Pre-existent Plan

He elects and predestines us “in Christ” (Eph 1:3-4; Rom 8:28); decrees the end for the cosmos (Eph 1:9-10; Co1:16-17; 2 Tim 1:9); establishes the mission for the Son (John 17:1-5).

Christ’s Humble Incarnation

He identifies with those who rebelled (John 1:14; Rom 8:3-4; Heb 2:14); fulfills the promises given to Adam, Abraham, Israel, and David for a human descendent that saves the world (1 John 3:8 [Gen 3:15]; Gal 3:16-4:5 [Gen 22:17]; Rom 1:3 [2 Sam 7:12-16]); ensures hope for the world in a new Adam (Rom 5:12-21; Heb 2:1-9).

Christ’s Perfect Life and Sufferings

He meets the Law’s penal and positive requirements through obedience (Matt 3:15; Rom 5:19; Gal 4:4-5; 2 Cor 5:21); over-comes Satan’s temptations (Matt 4:1-11; Heb 4:15); supplies an unblemished lamb (1 Pet 1:19).

Christ’s Crucifixion and Death

He atones for the sins of many (1 John 2:2; 4:10); redeems from the curse of the Law (Gal 3:13); propitiates God’s wrath (Rom 3:25-26); redeems from slavery to sin (Rom 6:1-14; 1 Cor 6:20); forgives sinners (Matt 26:27-28); reconciles rebels to God (2 Cor 5:19); secures the new covenant promises (Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25); disarms rulers and authorities (Col 2:15).

Christ’s Victorious Resurrection

He delivers from death (1 Cor 15:50-57); silences the devil’s threats (Heb 2:14-15); vindicates the elect (Rom 4:5); begins the final resurrection age (1 Cor 15:20); inaugurates the new creation (2 Cor 5:17).

Christ’s Present Reign

He sends the Holy Spirit (John 7:38-39; 14:26); calls sinners to himself (1 Cor 1:18-25); regenerates the elect (John 6:37, 44, 65); adopts children through faith (Gal 4:5); sets apart believers for himself and makes them progressively holy (1 Cor 6:11; Heb 10:14); establishes and upholds the new community (Matt 16:18; 28:20); provides heavenly intercession (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25).

Christ’s Final Return

He glorifies the saints (Rom 8:17, 30; 2 Thess 1:10-12); establishes the final community (Rev 19:7-8); ensures God’s present patience (2 Pet 3:9); exercises the final judgment (Matt 25:31-32).

How then should we live?

Once we understand God’s saving acts in Christ and their meaning—both of which the apostles include in their proclamation of “the gospel”—we are then prepared to understand the results of the gospel. According to our reading of Scripture, it is crucial to maintain the distinction between the gospel (i.e., God’s actions in Christ and their meaning) and what grows out of the gospel (i.e., the results for our individual lives and the church). Failure to maintain the distinction between the gospel and its results reduces Christianity to a new ethic without the power of the cross, a moral religion without redeeming grace, or a written code devoid of the Spirit.

For example, while loving God above all and loving your neighbor as yourself are essential elements of the Christian life, they are not, properly speaking, the gospel. Precious as these two commandments are, they do not reveal how God has acted in Christ or help others see that apart from God working favorably toward them in Christ, they lack the moral ability to love God and love their neighbor at all. For anyone to say the gospel amounts to a couple of commandments would be to sever the very lifeline sinners have to God’s power for salvation (Rom 1:16-17).

Or consider the ethical issues surrounding marriage and abortion. Upholding traditional marriage is important because it reflects truths within the gospel message—namely, Christ laying down his life for sinners—but traditional marriage is not the gospel. We should also labor with courage and wisdom to stop the holocaust of abortion and pray that God would bring justice for the unborn, but our Pro-life views are not articulations of the gospel. Pro-life may be a serious implication of the gospel. However, the gospel itself is nothing more and nothing less than what God has done for us in Jesus Christ; and therein lays the only hope that any of our social ethics would change to begin with.

The Scriptures will also not allow us to supplant the gospel with our personal testimony, our own response to the saving message of Christ. Many times, people believe they have shared the gospel with someone else simply because they told them about their conversion experience? Our conversion may be an amazing result of God acting in Christ to bring us to himself through faith and repentance, but our conversion is not the good news others must embrace for salvation. To proclaim the gospel rightly with anybody, we will preach the person of Jesus Christ and offer him as the all-sufficient Savior to those listening.

Maintaining this distinction between the gospel and its results also means we should avoid any language that suggests the gospel can amount to our own way of living, such as in the popular exhortation, “Live the gospel!” In the words of Graeme Goldsworthy, “Christians cannot ‘live the gospel,’ as they are often exhorted to do. They can only believe it, proclaim it, and seek to live consistently with it. Only Jesus lived (and died) the gospel. It is a once-for-all finished and perfect event done for us by another.”[1] So, while our Christian life should authenticate the message we preach—as seen in the apostles injunction to “obey the gospel” or to “walk in step with the gospel”—the message we preach is not our Christian life, but Christ and him crucified and risen. We offer people Jesus for salvation, not our Christian living.[2]

Thus, we want to maintain the same distinction the apostles themselves make as we consider the gospel and not confuse the message of salvation with the results of the message of salvation taking root in believers’ lives. We will work through a few biblical examples below, but for now, we might illustrate the distinction as in Figure 4 below.

Figure 4: The Gospel & Its Results

Figure 4 Gospel and Results

To be clear, the distinction between the gospel and its results does not mean the results are somehow optional. In the same way that James could not conceive of any genuine faith that was devoid of good works, so also we should see that any genuine embrace of the gospel will necessarily result in inner-transformation for the individual and the community. Along with proclaiming God’s acts in Christ and their meaning (i.e., the gospel)—and in some cases assuming the church’s awareness of the gospel—the apostles also exhorted people to conform their lives to the gospel. What the gospel revealed happened to them as individuals and a community—that was to change their affections, shape their attitudes, transform their identity, set their priorities, and inform their livelihood. So significant were the gospel’s results that Paul could rebuke Peter for not walking in step with the gospel (Gal 2:14) and even eternal condemnation awaits those who refuse to obey the gospel (2 Thess 1:8; 1 Pet 4:17).

Understanding this is crucial when we think about our role as ministers of reconciliation. Not only should we proclaim the gospel itself, but we must also show people how the truth of the gospel should affect their lives on a very practical level, whether in their relationship with God, with each other, with the world, or with creation itself. Since God acting in Christ is as comprehensive as summing up all things in Christ and bringing everything under his rule (Eph 1:9-10; 1 Cor 15:27-28), then the gospel message itself will have results and implications for our lives that are just as comprehensive.

Whenever we teach individual believers and the church about these comprehensive results of the gospel, we are not merely offering them good suggestions or good ideas for living, but the actual way of life that must stem from spiritual union they have with the living and reigning Christ. In the words of the Great Commission, we are not merely teaching people to know everything Jesus commanded, but we are teaching people to observe everything Jesus commanded.

How must we respond?

Therefore, we might say that part of the gospel’s results is a demanded response to the authoritative results/implications. That response consists of repentance from sin and faith in Christ. When Jesus and the apostles preached the gospel of the kingdom, they also demanded that people enter the kingdom through repentance and faith (Matt 4:17). Faith and repentance are two terms that summarize the demanded response to the gospel and its authoritative results. Though Scripture may present faith and repentance together (e.g., Acts 20:21) or in separate places, they are two sides of the same coin. Through the gospel, God always demands both of the hearers (Acts 10:43; 17:30; John 3:16; 6:29; 1 John 3:23). Will Metzger states it aptly: “Repentance without faith will lead to sorrow and mere legalistic resolutions…Faith without repentance is unfounded optimism, leading to self-deception.”[3]

Faith is a gift granted by God to those his word has humbled (John 10:14-18; Eph 2:8-9; Phil 1:29; Col 1:3-4). It is the absolute dependence and casting of the whole person upon Jesus Christ. Faith includes a persevering trust and an enduring confidence that God fulfills and provides his saving promises through Jesus Christ alone (1 Tim 1:4, 14). While grace is God’s sovereign unmerited favor by which someone is saved, faith is the enabling dependence provided for that someone to be saved. Faith, then, is the only means by which God justifies and sanctifies sinners in uniting them to Jesus (Rom 3:21-26; Eph 2:8-10; 2 Thess 2:13).

Accompanied by faith, repentance describes the transformation of the whole person when it submits to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Repentance includes not only the person’s genuine sorrow for sin and their despising of it, but also their total forsaking of it for the purpose of ongoing obedience to Jesus (Luke 3:8; Acts 8:22; 20:21; 26:20; 2 Cor 7:10; Heb 6:1). After quoting Luke 14:26 and 33, J. I. Packer describes repentance as “the settled refusal to set any limit to the claims which [Christ] may make on [our] lives.”[4]

Obeying the gospel and abiding by its revealed results is costly for the Christian but also rewarding. For, by forsaking the old life without Christ, it costs him. However, it is in the forsaking of the old that he also gains the new life in Christ, his reward (Matt 13:44). This again recalls how Scripture treats repentance and faith as two aspects of one action in coming to Christ and submitting to his lordship. To trust in Christ for salvation is not only to see him as the most valuable treasure (faith), but also to forsake whatever prevents one from gaining him as their greatest treasure (repentance). Such faith and repentance does not cease upon conversion. Both actions characterize the daily lives of Christ’s disciples, whose hearts he has conquered and made his own through the gospel (Matt 6:12; Acts 26:20; Gal 2:20; Heb 12:2-3; 1 Pet 1:5-9). This is how people must respond to the gospel of God’s grace.

Such a demanded response is daunting, when considering the nature of our fleshly appetites and the ongoing temptations of the world and the devil. However, we would do well to remember that the results demanded by God through the gospel, he also effects through his Spirit. What God requires he also creates through spiritual renewal and empowerment.[5] In fact, the Spirit uses the gospel to produce change in the human heart. This is why Paul could call the gospel “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16-17). It’s why 1 Corinthians 1:18 says that “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” In the same way God flexed his arm in the exodus deliverance, rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt, the Spirit uses the gospel to deliver us from slavery to sin and to empower us to love Christ more. So, when we speak of the gospel’s demands, we simultaneously speak of what the gospel effects by the Spirit in those who walk by faith in Christ—not by faith in their faith, or faith in the results they can see, but by faith in Christ as he is revealed in the gospel.

A Few Examples

In order to provide further clarity on working through the gospel as well as its results, we now consider a few examples from the apostles’ proclamation in the New Testament in Figure 5 below:

Figure 5: Examples from Scripture

Figure 5 Examples

________

[1]Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel-centered Hermeneutics: Foundations and Principles of Evangelical Biblical Interpretation (Downers Grove: IVP, 2006), 58-59. Goldsworthy then continues to show how this effects the way we read the Bible.

[2]Another place where I have encountered the failure to distinguish the gospel from its results is in the writings of N. T. Wright on justification language in Paul. Wright blurs the distinction by defining “justification” in terms of covenant membership (i.e., Jew-Gentile reconciliation) rather than in terms of one’s righteous standing before God (i.e., God-man reconciliation). In so doing, Wright confuses the results or “fruit” of justification with the meaning or “root” of justification. Cf. Peter T. O’Brien, “Was Paul a Covenantal Nomist,” in Justification and Variegated Nomism, eds. D. A. Carson, Peter T. O’Brien, and Mark A. Seifrid (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 290.

[3]Will Metzger, Tell the Truth: The Whole Gospel to the Whole Person by Whole People (Downers Grove: IVP, 2002), 76.

[4]J. I. Packer, Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God (Downers Grove: IVP, 1961), 72.

[5]For example, God demands faith, but he also secures it for us (Luke 22:20 [Jer 31:31-33]; John 3:16 [6:37]). God demands obedience, but also provides it (Rom 6:17, Paul gives thanks to God that they “obeyed from the heart”). God demands we flee sexual immorality, but also produces such freedom not only by deliverance from slavery, but also by giving our body to the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19-20). God demands perseverance in faithfulness, but his demands actually serve as the very means of our perseverance (Heb 4, 6, 10).

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Acting with Hope in the Pandemic https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/acting-with-hope-in-the-pandemic https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/acting-with-hope-in-the-pandemic#comments Wed, 01 Apr 2020 12:00:00 -0400 https://www.redeemerfortworth.org/blog/post/acting-with-hope-in-the-pandemic Dear Redeemer family,

We deeply missed you last Sunday. We will miss seeing you again this Sunday. Our gatherings are precious, and we pray they will resume much sooner than later. At the same time, our Lord has purposed to prolong the COVID-19 pandemic, and we believe it is both wise and loving to continue not meeting for Sunday gatherings or in groups of more than 10, according to the most recent state order.

Our compliance stems not from fear of the government. We must fear God above all other authorities and remain faithful to God when authorities order us to act in ways contrary to Christ. By temporarily restricting all gatherings (not just church gatherings) to 10 or less in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, we believe the authorities are acting in the public’s best interest, even if imperfectly. Out of love for our neighbors, especially the elderly and those with an immunodeficiency, we believe we can follow the precautions in good faith without, for example, disobeying Hebrews 10:25 which rebukes those who “have the habit” of not meeting together (i.e., they don’t want to).

Our compliance also does not stem from the fear of COVID-19 or death itself. Satan, like a terrorist, would like to use the fear of death to control people. Indeed, some of the fearmongering and panic over COVID-19 seems indicative of the devil’s work. But Hebrews 2:14 announces that Jesus partook of flesh and blood for this purpose: “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” Therefore, we need not fear COVID-19. At the same time, such assurance does not mean we then run carelessly into danger and unnecessarily expose others to the same. As the church once put it before, valuing image bearers also includes doing what we can to avoid “whatsoever else tends to the destruction of the life of any” (Westminster Larger Catechism, Q136).

With that said, we must also stress that this does not mean the work, or even the worship, of the church has ceased. We might experience temporary setbacks due to COVID-19. We might experience temporary restrictions due to orders by wise health officials. We might experience several more weeks of temporary confinement. But God’s word remains unbound, unrestricted. As we observed from Acts, no obstacle is too great for God’s word. His kingdom marches on. The question is whether we have the spiritual eyes to see it and the willingness to participate in it. In that light, here are some ways to act…

Pray.

Give thanks to the Lord that his plan will never fail. Adore the Lord for his wisdom and power, which give us confidence that he will work even through a global pandemic to display his glory and rescue his people. Ask the Lord to comfort those who are fearful, not just fearful of COVID-19 but fearful of losing their jobs, fearful of losing their 401K, fearful of not having enough, fearful of what steps to take for their children’s schooling. Pray against temptations toward laziness and inactivity in the church. Pray for opportunities to share the gospel with your neighbor. Pray that leaders respond with wisdom. Pray for the Christ to return and bring renewal and restoration to all things, and for our hopes to be set there as well.

Educate yourself.

Knowing more will help you reason through these unique days and help you make wise decisions that honor the Lord and serve others well. While not complete, visiting the CDC’s website will provide information about COVID-19 itself. Tarrant County will have its own health updates, and we should give attention to them as well. Further, others have written helpful articles to strengthen the church and help us respond as faithful stewards of these days:

Stay ready to serve others.

Needs will persist around you. People may run low on grocery items. Prescriptions will still need to be filled and the person needing them may be at a higher risk than you are. House repairs may come up but an elderly friend does not believe it is wise to run to the hardware store. Perhaps there’s a newborn or another with existing lung problems in your network. Social distancing does not mean we cannot serve one another in very tangible ways. Wash hands, Yes. Keep your distance where possible, Yes. But with these things look for opportunities to serve others. Call your care group members and ask if they have needs or errands you can run for them. Utilize group texts, Facetime, Google Hangout, Zoom, etc. to stay connected and encourage one another in the gospel. Get to know the neighbors on your street, their situation, their fears, their needs, and ask how you can serve them. As elders, we are so thankful to have so many members already offering to serve in these ways.

(re)Build healthy discipleship patterns.

With extra time at home, the temptation could be to veg out on Netflix. Treat the extra time at home as an opportunity to review the various habits of grace, such as bible reading, personal prayer, scripture memory. Recommit yourself to praying with your spouse, if married. If you have children, renew efforts to gather for family worship in the evenings (you can read more about that HERE!). Call a brother or sister and use the opportunity to pray for one another and exhort one another in the word.

Announce the unshakable Hope.

Addressing those persecuted for their faith, the apostle instructs the church to “honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…” (1 Pet 3:15). COVID-19 is not persecution, but the circumstances will provide opportunities to speak of our hope in the face of uncertainties. If we’re just as panicked as the world, our neighbors will have no reason to ask about our hope. But as we heard last week from Hebrews 6:13-20, we have a sure and steadfast hope grounded in God’s unshakable purpose and secured by Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. We need not panic or grow anxious. Our future is secure in Jesus. Our present wholly rests beneath his care and guidance. We have a hope, and a hope we pray is so compelling in us that others will ask to know it as well. So engage your neighbors when they ask and speak of Christ faithfully.

More could certainly be said. But this is a start as we approach the days ahead with faith and patience, waiting to inherit the promises.

Grace be with you all,

Bret, for the elders

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Dear Redeemer family,

We deeply missed you last Sunday. We will miss seeing you again this Sunday. Our gatherings are precious, and we pray they will resume much sooner than later. At the same time, our Lord has purposed to prolong the COVID-19 pandemic, and we believe it is both wise and loving to continue not meeting for Sunday gatherings or in groups of more than 10, according to the most recent state order.

Our compliance stems not from fear of the government. We must fear God above all other authorities and remain faithful to God when authorities order us to act in ways contrary to Christ. By temporarily restricting all gatherings (not just church gatherings) to 10 or less in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, we believe the authorities are acting in the public’s best interest, even if imperfectly. Out of love for our neighbors, especially the elderly and those with an immunodeficiency, we believe we can follow the precautions in good faith without, for example, disobeying Hebrews 10:25 which rebukes those who “have the habit” of not meeting together (i.e., they don’t want to).

Our compliance also does not stem from the fear of COVID-19 or death itself. Satan, like a terrorist, would like to use the fear of death to control people. Indeed, some of the fearmongering and panic over COVID-19 seems indicative of the devil’s work. But Hebrews 2:14 announces that Jesus partook of flesh and blood for this purpose: “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” Therefore, we need not fear COVID-19. At the same time, such assurance does not mean we then run carelessly into danger and unnecessarily expose others to the same. As the church once put it before, valuing image bearers also includes doing what we can to avoid “whatsoever else tends to the destruction of the life of any” (Westminster Larger Catechism, Q136).

With that said, we must also stress that this does not mean the work, or even the worship, of the church has ceased. We might experience temporary setbacks due to COVID-19. We might experience temporary restrictions due to orders by wise health officials. We might experience several more weeks of temporary confinement. But God’s word remains unbound, unrestricted. As we observed from Acts, no obstacle is too great for God’s word. His kingdom marches on. The question is whether we have the spiritual eyes to see it and the willingness to participate in it. In that light, here are some ways to act…

Pray.

Give thanks to the Lord that his plan will never fail. Adore the Lord for his wisdom and power, which give us confidence that he will work even through a global pandemic to display his glory and rescue his people. Ask the Lord to comfort those who are fearful, not just fearful of COVID-19 but fearful of losing their jobs, fearful of losing their 401K, fearful of not having enough, fearful of what steps to take for their children’s schooling. Pray against temptations toward laziness and inactivity in the church. Pray for opportunities to share the gospel with your neighbor. Pray that leaders respond with wisdom. Pray for the Christ to return and bring renewal and restoration to all things, and for our hopes to be set there as well.

Educate yourself.

Knowing more will help you reason through these unique days and help you make wise decisions that honor the Lord and serve others well. While not complete, visiting the CDC’s website will provide information about COVID-19 itself. Tarrant County will have its own health updates, and we should give attention to them as well. Further, others have written helpful articles to strengthen the church and help us respond as faithful stewards of these days:

Stay ready to serve others.

Needs will persist around you. People may run low on grocery items. Prescriptions will still need to be filled and the person needing them may be at a higher risk than you are. House repairs may come up but an elderly friend does not believe it is wise to run to the hardware store. Perhaps there’s a newborn or another with existing lung problems in your network. Social distancing does not mean we cannot serve one another in very tangible ways. Wash hands, Yes. Keep your distance where possible, Yes. But with these things look for opportunities to serve others. Call your care group members and ask if they have needs or errands you can run for them. Utilize group texts, Facetime, Google Hangout, Zoom, etc. to stay connected and encourage one another in the gospel. Get to know the neighbors on your street, their situation, their fears, their needs, and ask how you can serve them. As elders, we are so thankful to have so many members already offering to serve in these ways.

(re)Build healthy discipleship patterns.

With extra time at home, the temptation could be to veg out on Netflix. Treat the extra time at home as an opportunity to review the various habits of grace, such as bible reading, personal prayer, scripture memory. Recommit yourself to praying with your spouse, if married. If you have children, renew efforts to gather for family worship in the evenings (you can read more about that HERE!). Call a brother or sister and use the opportunity to pray for one another and exhort one another in the word.

Announce the unshakable Hope.

Addressing those persecuted for their faith, the apostle instructs the church to “honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…” (1 Pet 3:15). COVID-19 is not persecution, but the circumstances will provide opportunities to speak of our hope in the face of uncertainties. If we’re just as panicked as the world, our neighbors will have no reason to ask about our hope. But as we heard last week from Hebrews 6:13-20, we have a sure and steadfast hope grounded in God’s unshakable purpose and secured by Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. We need not panic or grow anxious. Our future is secure in Jesus. Our present wholly rests beneath his care and guidance. We have a hope, and a hope we pray is so compelling in us that others will ask to know it as well. So engage your neighbors when they ask and speak of Christ faithfully.

More could certainly be said. But this is a start as we approach the days ahead with faith and patience, waiting to inherit the promises.

Grace be with you all,

Bret, for the elders

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