Below is a post recently submitted to my Old Testament class in a collaboration this past week. Here is the question as posed by the professor (in red) and then my response (in black):
The obvious theme of Psalm 2 is Yahweh’s use of “his anointed” (v. 2) to control rebellious nations. However, not all mentioned in this Psalm are pictured as rebellious and thus as objects of divine wrath. The Psalm closes on a positive note: “How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!”
Clearly, the Psalmist believes that the wicked will experience God’s wrath, not his grace. On the other hand, those who bow before him will experience blessing. In light of the Psalmist’s presentation, evaluate the statement: “God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.”
I believe that we talked about this somewhat in an earlier collaboration for Old Testament II, but I am glad to see singular treatment using the 2nd Psalm as the context. I think the previous collaboration discussion was on the equality of God's love - the thought that God loves the entirety of humanity in the same way, equally. There is a sense that in an individualistic and largely democratic society that we live in today, that the thought of equality is certainly a major factor in our idea of freedom. The Declaration of Independence declares that all men are created equal. This has been the clarion call for all disenfranchised persons in the American tradition and it has also had somewhat of an impact on our view of God's approach to the sinner and sin. We run to John 3:16 and read, "For God so loved the world..." or I John 2:2, "He is the propitiation of our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world", and then say that God LOVES the world and LOVES the sinner. God LOVES you and me. When HE was on the cross YOU were on his mind (and in our minds, there is no qualification to that thought - no limitation). Therefore, God even LOVES the unregenerate sinner. But I cannot go that far. Ephesians 2:3 states that we are by nature children of wrath - all humanity. By nature, all humanity is subject to the wrath of God. This is a holy stance against the sinner! Yes, there is an effacacious condescendence by God through Christ to the world because of God's love for the world so that he might save the elect, but God still must stand in holiness against sin and thus the sinner. God hates sin - with wrath and judgment - and the nature of the sinner is SIN. Therefore, God hates the very nature of the sinner. But this is not an EMOTIONAL hatred that we usually attach to the word in human terms. WRATH is not an emotional response from God - it is a response of holiness and according to the sake and glory of HIS NAME. This HATRED is wrought out of the perfection of God's holiness. The only people that the phrase, "God hates the sin, but loves the sinner" would apply to is the regenerate believer - not the unbeliever.
Showing posts with label salvation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label salvation. Show all posts
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Ye Must be Born Again
This verse opens up the famous discourse between Jesus and Nicodemus, the Pharisee. This statement by Christ in verse 3 is a truly startling revelation. We will talk about one of his other most startling statements (John 14:6) in the next blog, but I do want to highlight that in some regards, this verse is even more abrasive than 14:6. For not only are you to know who Jesus is and what he did to be saved, but one must be born again. Being born again is a requirement for true and genuine salvation. Without the new birth, there is no redemption from sins.
There is no way to fake the new birth, you are either born again or you’re not. You can’t mask your way into eternal security. You cannot pay your way into eternal life. You cannot join your way into eternal life. You cannot do enough good works to earn eternal life. You cannot deprive yourself of enough luxuries to attain eternal life. The only way you can inherit eternal life is through the new birth. As it is stated in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” In order to inherit eternal life, you must be born again.
This seems extremely basic to many of us. I mean, come on, what’s new here? I thought the same thing until election night on November 4th, 2008. As I watched the election returns come in on CNN, something struck me. At various times throughout the evening, they would cut to Bill Schneider and Soledad O’Brien over on a “magic wall” highlighting the exit polling numbers and statistics that they were getting. At one point in the presentation, Bill Schneider was listing about 20 demographics that they were tracking in the voting. One of the demographics was “Evangelical / Born Again”. What was more startling is that they were treating this demographic (which I am proud to be a member of, by the way) as if the members of this demographic were somewhat less than erudite (i.e. polished, full of knowledge and wisdom and instruction). The effect of his words was that he and by implication the “mainstream media” and postmodern society was putting us, the evangelical / born-againers, into our little corner of the world and showing how we voted.
Friends, the world does NOT know what it means to be born again. There are literally millions of Americans walking the streets today that believe the word born again is synonymous with radical religious and Christian fundamentalism. But yet, it is the only way you can come into the
If you are reading this blog today, I want to ask you a question. Do you know that you have been born again? You MUST deal with that question. You have to take care of that before you do ANYTHING else. Are you born again? For if you are not, then you cannot enter the
This is an extremely important passage in the road to conversion. We all must realize that there is but one way to eternal life, and that is through being born again, through being a new creation in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:23
I again want to apologize to the readers of this blog for the two week gap between posts on this site. This gap will not happen again, I promise.
Today we turn to the fourth scripture memory verse that our church has meditated on in 2009. It is Romans 6:23. This is another of the great conversion verses in the Bible and should always be in your quiver when sharing your faith with others.
The verse says that the “wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (ESV). Today I want to focus on the context of this verse. This verse is actually quoted in the context of a passage talking about spiritual maturity and sanctification. Sanctification is the term used in Scripture that describes the process by which God sets the Christian apart for holy living. This is not a one time occurrence, but a lifelong process. This idea is different from justification, which is the immediate giving of righteousness upon the believer by God through faith because of the finished work of Christ on the cross. Justification is what was illustrated in my last blog covering Romans 3:23-25.
In Romans 6, Paul the apostle wants to answer two questions – both important to us.
#1: In light of our justification once for all from sin, are we to continue to sin so that grace may increase in us? (Romans 6:1)
#2: Because we are no longer tied to the law of sin but to the law of grace, do we now have the freedom to do whatever we want to do? (Romans 6:15)
The answer to these questions is a resounding NO!!!!!!!!!
Paul responds to the first question by issuing a rhetorical question: How can you, who died to sin – when you accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, still live in sin? The obvious answer is you can’t. When you were baptized into the body of Christ, you died to sin and were raised into a newness of life in Christ Jesus. Your old self, your sinful nature, your carnal nature, was crucified and is being brought to nothing; and you have been brought to life to be free to live for God. We as Christians are therefore to present our bodies to God as members of righteousness, not sinfulness. This is sanctification.
Paul responds to the second question by saying that all of us are slaves to something. Each of us only has two options. We can be a slave to sin, or a slave to God, in obedience. This is a CRUCIAL thought. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOTAL FREE WILL. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ABSOLUTE FREEDOM. True freedom is only found in obedience to God. True freedom is ONLY found in total submission. True freedom is found in being a living sacrifice – giving our entire selves over to the LORDSHIP of Christ. A genuine conversion to Christ is one that yields Lordship to Christ Jesus. We no longer get a say in how we are to live – we are now God’s.
And yet we live in a world that reviles against this conditioned freedom. Even Christians want to assert that when you are saved Christ frees you in a sense that you have libertarian or absolute free will. This is simply not the case. Think of God. Is He totally free? Not necessarily. You see, God is conditioned by His own nature and attributes. God is Love, He cannot do evil. God is HOLY, he cannot do anything PROFANE. God conditions himself according to his Divine nature and the purposes of His will. How can we, as created beings of God demand a right that God does not even afford to Himself? We can’t. And yet, it is rampant in today’s society. We are definitely living in the ME generation.
Therefore, Paul in Romans 6:20-22 states that if you refuse to submit yourself to Lordship of God in Christ Jesus, then you are free. But, you are free only from righteousness, for you are a slave to sin and to death. But verse 22 gloriously shows all Christians that we have been freed from the slavery of sin and are now slaves of God, which leads to sanctification and eternal life. What a freeing thought!
Verse 23 is the ultimate answer to the two questions: if you choose a life of unrepentant sin, the consequence, the payment, and the wage is death. If you choose to submit to the Lordship of God in Christ Jesus, the consequence is the free gift of eternal life.
This is simply an offer I cannot refuse.
Today we turn to the fourth scripture memory verse that our church has meditated on in 2009. It is Romans 6:23. This is another of the great conversion verses in the Bible and should always be in your quiver when sharing your faith with others.
The verse says that the “wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (ESV). Today I want to focus on the context of this verse. This verse is actually quoted in the context of a passage talking about spiritual maturity and sanctification. Sanctification is the term used in Scripture that describes the process by which God sets the Christian apart for holy living. This is not a one time occurrence, but a lifelong process. This idea is different from justification, which is the immediate giving of righteousness upon the believer by God through faith because of the finished work of Christ on the cross. Justification is what was illustrated in my last blog covering Romans 3:23-25.
In Romans 6, Paul the apostle wants to answer two questions – both important to us.
#1: In light of our justification once for all from sin, are we to continue to sin so that grace may increase in us? (Romans 6:1)
#2: Because we are no longer tied to the law of sin but to the law of grace, do we now have the freedom to do whatever we want to do? (Romans 6:15)
The answer to these questions is a resounding NO!!!!!!!!!
Paul responds to the first question by issuing a rhetorical question: How can you, who died to sin – when you accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, still live in sin? The obvious answer is you can’t. When you were baptized into the body of Christ, you died to sin and were raised into a newness of life in Christ Jesus. Your old self, your sinful nature, your carnal nature, was crucified and is being brought to nothing; and you have been brought to life to be free to live for God. We as Christians are therefore to present our bodies to God as members of righteousness, not sinfulness. This is sanctification.
Paul responds to the second question by saying that all of us are slaves to something. Each of us only has two options. We can be a slave to sin, or a slave to God, in obedience. This is a CRUCIAL thought. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS TOTAL FREE WILL. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ABSOLUTE FREEDOM. True freedom is only found in obedience to God. True freedom is ONLY found in total submission. True freedom is found in being a living sacrifice – giving our entire selves over to the LORDSHIP of Christ. A genuine conversion to Christ is one that yields Lordship to Christ Jesus. We no longer get a say in how we are to live – we are now God’s.
And yet we live in a world that reviles against this conditioned freedom. Even Christians want to assert that when you are saved Christ frees you in a sense that you have libertarian or absolute free will. This is simply not the case. Think of God. Is He totally free? Not necessarily. You see, God is conditioned by His own nature and attributes. God is Love, He cannot do evil. God is HOLY, he cannot do anything PROFANE. God conditions himself according to his Divine nature and the purposes of His will. How can we, as created beings of God demand a right that God does not even afford to Himself? We can’t. And yet, it is rampant in today’s society. We are definitely living in the ME generation.
Therefore, Paul in Romans 6:20-22 states that if you refuse to submit yourself to Lordship of God in Christ Jesus, then you are free. But, you are free only from righteousness, for you are a slave to sin and to death. But verse 22 gloriously shows all Christians that we have been freed from the slavery of sin and are now slaves of God, which leads to sanctification and eternal life. What a freeing thought!
Verse 23 is the ultimate answer to the two questions: if you choose a life of unrepentant sin, the consequence, the payment, and the wage is death. If you choose to submit to the Lordship of God in Christ Jesus, the consequence is the free gift of eternal life.
This is simply an offer I cannot refuse.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Romans 3:23-25
I apologize for not posting anything new for two weeks. I have been pretty busy lately, but am now at a point to write again. Today, I will be discussing our third week's scripture memory verse: Romans 2:23-25. Disclaimer: this is one of my most favorite verses in all the Bible, plus it is full of so much theological significance, that it is easy for me to get carried away, but I will do my best to hold back.
Everybody knows Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Most of our Bible Drill programs and Gospel tracks stop right there. I understand why they do, because this verse fits well in the first step in salvation - admitting you're a sinner. But in understanding the verse, you must add on verses 24 and 25.
The whole third chapter of Romans deals with the universality of sin. Another famous verse in this chapter (verse 10) quotes Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1 stating that there is none who are righteous, no not one. For we have all fallen short of God's glory. There is no one who is alive that can boast saying that they are self-righteous - righteous in their own regard. It does not matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, rich or poor, American or Un-American, if your parents were Christians or not, or if you attend church. Our default position before God is as sinners. Ephesians 2:1-3 states it very clearly: "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."
v. 24-25: Without the saving blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no remission of sin. We must all recognize our sinfulness before we can ever come to the Lord properly. But chapter 3 of Romans also introduces us to a glorious truth - that we are justified by the grace of God through faith. Without merit or deserving, I have been justified as a gift of grace. Because of God's gracious call and my decision to have faith in him and repent of my sins, God justifies me in the righteousness of his son Jesus Christ. God no longer looks upon me as a child of wrath but sees me through the righteousness of Christ. He places my sin upon the sinless Savior and places his righteousness upon me. That is the glorious truth of justification. Justification by grace alone through faith alone is THE GREATEST TRUTH in all of Scripture. It is the TRUTH that sets men free from the law of SIN. It is the foundation of the gospel of Christ, for it is wrought by his willingness to sacrifice his life for the sins of the world and his promise of resurrection. It is great because it displays the grandeur and glory of God in that he can justify our sins yet demonstrate his unyielding righteousness against sin. It is THE GREATEST TRUTH because it is the only path that mankind has to get right with God and to have eternal life. There is no other way. For you cannot resolve your sin problem without Christ in your life. I will talk more about this when we get to John 14:6.
There is a word in verse 25 that confuses many people. This is the word propitiation. The word propitiation literally means satisfaction. In other words, Christ's death on the cross satisfied God's wrath against sin, so that his holiness was not compromised in forgiving sinners. Thus, we can see God's wrath being poured out on Christ on the cross. This shows the weight that Christ felt. But only through this act did God answer a very important question: How could God, who is pure Holiness and Righteousness tolerate human sin without inflicting full punishment on human beings immediately? The answer? Jesus. Thus in verse 25, God looked over former sins by looking forward to the cross of Christ where the full payment of the sin guilt would be made, where Christ would die in the place of sinners. Romans 5:8 - "But God shows his love for us in that while we wre still sinners, Christ died for us."
What a sustaining, satisfying, and glorious passage these three verses are!
Everybody knows Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Most of our Bible Drill programs and Gospel tracks stop right there. I understand why they do, because this verse fits well in the first step in salvation - admitting you're a sinner. But in understanding the verse, you must add on verses 24 and 25.
The whole third chapter of Romans deals with the universality of sin. Another famous verse in this chapter (verse 10) quotes Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1 stating that there is none who are righteous, no not one. For we have all fallen short of God's glory. There is no one who is alive that can boast saying that they are self-righteous - righteous in their own regard. It does not matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, rich or poor, American or Un-American, if your parents were Christians or not, or if you attend church. Our default position before God is as sinners. Ephesians 2:1-3 states it very clearly: "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."
v. 24-25: Without the saving blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no remission of sin. We must all recognize our sinfulness before we can ever come to the Lord properly. But chapter 3 of Romans also introduces us to a glorious truth - that we are justified by the grace of God through faith. Without merit or deserving, I have been justified as a gift of grace. Because of God's gracious call and my decision to have faith in him and repent of my sins, God justifies me in the righteousness of his son Jesus Christ. God no longer looks upon me as a child of wrath but sees me through the righteousness of Christ. He places my sin upon the sinless Savior and places his righteousness upon me. That is the glorious truth of justification. Justification by grace alone through faith alone is THE GREATEST TRUTH in all of Scripture. It is the TRUTH that sets men free from the law of SIN. It is the foundation of the gospel of Christ, for it is wrought by his willingness to sacrifice his life for the sins of the world and his promise of resurrection. It is great because it displays the grandeur and glory of God in that he can justify our sins yet demonstrate his unyielding righteousness against sin. It is THE GREATEST TRUTH because it is the only path that mankind has to get right with God and to have eternal life. There is no other way. For you cannot resolve your sin problem without Christ in your life. I will talk more about this when we get to John 14:6.
There is a word in verse 25 that confuses many people. This is the word propitiation. The word propitiation literally means satisfaction. In other words, Christ's death on the cross satisfied God's wrath against sin, so that his holiness was not compromised in forgiving sinners. Thus, we can see God's wrath being poured out on Christ on the cross. This shows the weight that Christ felt. But only through this act did God answer a very important question: How could God, who is pure Holiness and Righteousness tolerate human sin without inflicting full punishment on human beings immediately? The answer? Jesus. Thus in verse 25, God looked over former sins by looking forward to the cross of Christ where the full payment of the sin guilt would be made, where Christ would die in the place of sinners. Romans 5:8 - "But God shows his love for us in that while we wre still sinners, Christ died for us."
What a sustaining, satisfying, and glorious passage these three verses are!
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