Omnipresence: Worship

March 4, 2007

The fact of God’s omnipresence points to Scripture which says this: “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). As omnipresent God can only be Spirit. As omnipresent, God is present with the inward parts of man. He does not just watch from a far distant planet or something, He is immediately present with all human beings. This should teach man that all that is done should be done in worship to the ever and all-present God. Worship of the omnipresent God must be from the heart as He is present there. Worship cannot be faked and guided by a hypocritical heart to be real worship of an omnipresent God. Our thoughts and desires are as spoken to Him who is present in our thoughts and desires. All of the inward motions and movements of the soul are in His presence and are as directed toward Him.

Since the whole inner and outward life of man is in the presence of God, this should bring a sense of reverence to man regarding life in general and the inner life of man in particular. All should be done with reverence toward God as all is in His presence. David teaches us this: “For the choir director. A Psalm of David. O LORD, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. 3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all. 5 You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it. 7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” 12 Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day” (Psalm 139:1-12).

Each individual person must be aware that something is worshipped each moment of the day. God is either despised or He is loved with each movement of the soul. Each thought and desire is either for Him or against Him. My thoughts are before God and are known with intimacy in His presence. That means that I am to think like my thoughts are for Him and not for myself. Each thought that strays off toward some other love is the caress of another spiritual lover in His sight. Each desire for something that is not for God is an act of adultery in His presence. The teaching of God’s omnipresence should lead to a focus on worship in a very different way.

This should guide the corporate worship of a church as well. It is not that God is far away and we have to clamor and make loud noise to obtain His attention, but rather we are in His presence and we must understand the necessity reverence is for worship: “by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:28-29). While many in the modern day think that any kind of activities with God’s name can be called worship, the Word of God tells us that worship requires reverence and awe.” Knowing that we are in the presence of God should move us to reverence and awe. Knowing that not only is part of God present at our so-called worship services, but in fact all of God is present should move us to reverence and awe. If we could be grow past our present darkness to a growing awareness that God is present in His holiness, power, wrath, love, beauty, eternity, self-existence, and glorious sovereignty, our worship would be different. Not only are our thoughts scrutinized and intimately known about, our thoughts are in the presence of a blazing holiness each moment. Can our dull and insipid thoughts combined with listless and hard hearts really be acceptable worship to the living and holy God?

The worship of a corporate body should make us realize that we are in the presence of a holy, holy, holy God. But we should also carry that same understanding with us as we leave that the same God is everywhere we go. In one sense we must see that God is everywhere in all of His glorious being, but that He is also in our hearts every moment as well. It is not as if we have a private moment at any moment in our lives. Every thought, desire, and deed is in the presence of a holy and glorious God. Each thought and deed is as clear to Him as if we shouted to Him. Every thing that we do is seen with perfect clarity as being either for Him or against Him. This should teach us that our lives must be holy sacrifices given over to continual worship and not just on Sunday mornings or once or twice a day on other days. All that we think, desire, say and do are to be acts of worship before the God who not only exists forever, but exists in every place in the totality of His being. So the omnipresence of God should move us to worship since He is present in all places since we don’t have to go anywhere to worship the all-present glory.

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Omnipresence: Connection with Other Attributes

March 2, 2007

As it is true that God is one and that all of His attributes are really one with the other, all of His attributes are seen in something of a different way by looking at other attributes. All shine forth to some degree a different shade of His beauty and glory.

God’s omnipresence shows us that God is self-existent in all places at once at all times. He does not just exist and bring other things into being and then move to another location to bring other things into being, but He is in all places at once to create as He pleased and now to hold things into being as He so pleases.

God’s omnipresence connects with His eternity by showing us that He is eternally omnipresent and not just at one point or another. There will be no time in eternity future where God will be anything less than fully present in all places at all times at the same time. For all eternity people will be in the presence of God. This means that hell is not a place that is apart from the presence of God as He is everywhere there is a where.

God’s omnipresence is most beautifully set out with His immensity. Some think of this in a slightly different way, but in this sense I am using it to try to set out that there is not just a little bit of God here and there, but all of the character of God is present in all places. God is not like a very tall man sleeping in a small house so that his feet are in one room but his head and torso are in another. No, all of the character of God is present in all locations. God is not just omnipotent in one place at a time while He is holy in another, but He is omnipotent and holy in all places and at all times.

God’s omnipresence is set out in accordance with His omniscience in that God knows all about where He is. Since God is everywhere, He knows all things. There is nothing beyond His presence so nothing is beyond His knowledge. God knows simply by knowing Himself and all within Him, that is, all that has come from Him and all that He sustains in being.

God’s omnipresence is linked with His incomprehensibility in that no finite being can even begin to comprehend what infinite presence really is. This is also why men deny this since it is beyond human reason to comprehend it.

God’s omnipresence is set out by His immutability in that God is omnipresent at all points and time without a change in His being. Since God is omnipresent and never changes, He is always the same everywhere.

God’s omnipresence, especially with His immensity in view, aligns very beautifully with His providence. Since He is everywhere at every moment, and at the same time all of His character is fully everywhere, there is no possibility that God is not working at every point apart from His providence and sovereignty. Whatever is happening at any location at any given time is most certainly under His providential care.

We see God’s omnipresence with His supremacy in that God is supreme in every place and not just at a given point in time. Instead God is utterly supreme over all things that happen in all places.

God’s omnipresence is also seen in His goodness in that each time it rains anywhere or anytime the sun shines anywhere we know that God’s goodness is the ultimate reason. It is God that sends rain and the sun on even His enemies. If God were not omnipresent, this would not be true.

God’s omnipresence is also tied in with His wrath. At each moment in time in all parts of the world God’s wrath is being displayed moment by moment each and every day in each and every place sin is occurring (Rom 1:18ff). Each sin committed by each person is punished immediately by God. He hardens the heart and turns people over to more sin and to more and more idolatrous notions of Himself. He punishes people by turning them over to more and more hideous sin and spiritual darkness. If eternal life is to know God, then it is increasing spiritual darkness to be hardened into ignorance of Him which is also idolatry. People go on and on in sin to the point that they deny the very being of God or they simply deny certain aspects about Him. In the very denial of the attribute of omnipresence people show that their hearts are hardened against God. In the denial of God people demonstrate the truth of the omnipresence of God in that He is shown to be there by the hardening of their hearts.

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Beatitudes 17: Hungering 2

March 1, 2007

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

Last time we looked at hunger and thirst as desires of the soul and how believers should seek the Lord with true desires in the soul. Christianity does not consist in being lukewarm with half-heartedness, but it must consist in love, joy, and fervent desire. God loves Himself with a perfect love and joy within the Trinity and if He lives in His people He will be working a love for Himself that is like the love He has for Himself. This week we want to look at the object of the hunger and thirst, which in our text is righteousness. When the text speaks of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, it is not necessarily clear what that means. Some believe that this is connected with being poor in spirit in such a way that it reflects the hunger of the soul for the righteousness that is found only in the imputed righteousness of Christ in justification. If that is true, then, the satisfaction is found in the moment of justification and this verse would no longer apply to believers. However, the context of the Sermon on the Mount does not give us that notion of righteousness.

In Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount the concept of righteousness is thought of in terms of behavior and attitude. In the verses below you will see the uses of “righteousness” in the Sermon on the Mount. 5:10 – “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 5:20 – “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” 5:45 – “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” 6:1 – “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.” 6:33 – “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

In 5:10 people are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. It is true that Martin Luther and many others were persecuted for their teaching on the imputed righteousness of Christ. However, the concept of the imputed righteousness of Christ is not in the context. The context of the Sermon on the Mount appears to be a righteous life lived in the presence of God and others. It can also be stated of Luther that it was not so much his doctrine that got him into trouble, but the righteous way of living and preaching it in a way that made it clear.

In 5:20 we are taught that our righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees. Now surely, some might say, this shows that we must have the imputed righteousness of Christ. The Pharisees lived such strict lives and kept the law so strictly that we cannot surpass them. However, the context is vital to take note of again. What Jesus does immediately after this verse is go into a treatise on a select few of the commandments. He starts off with a “you have heard that it was said.” What they had been taught was that the commandment was kept by outward behavior with some external rules. Jesus then goes on in contrast with what had been taught and says, “but I say unto you.” He then expounds the true meaning of the Law. The clear teaching of this passage is that the righteousness that a person must have that surpasses the scribes and Pharisees is the inner righteousness which is the inner keeping of the Law. It is the heart that must pursue righteousness and find it according to this verse.

The word as used in 5:45 also refers to behavior as it speaks of God causing His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sending rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. The contrast is on those that behave wickedly and those that do righteous actions. The text does not say that God sends these things on both those that have Christ and those that do not, but on the evil or unrighteous and the good or the righteous. The contrast has to do with behavior. Theologically there is no question that the righteous have Christ and the unrighteous do not, but that does not negate the point Jesus is making in this text.

The point is beyond dispute in 6:1 where the acts of righteousness that He is speaking of He talks about in the context. The acts of righteousness were prayer, giving alms, and fasting (6:1-20). Here is also another case where the righteousness of the blessed surpasses and exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees. The Pharisees did all of those things outwardly, but also for their own honor. Whenever something is only done outwardly, the sinful self is the center of it all. However, Jesus taught that prayer and whatever else is done is to be done out of love for God and in a God-centered way. Instead of praying to receive honor for self, we are to pray that God’s name would be hallowed and that His kingdom would come. Instead of giving alms to honor self, do them in secret and for God. Instead of fasting to be noticed by men, hide your fasting and do it as directed toward God alone.

6:33 flows from 6:1-20 and is the righteousness that is to be sought is also in seeking the kingdom of God. This verse also helps us see the intensity of hungering and thirsting and what the focus of that should be. We are to hunger and thirst (seek) for His righteousness more than we are to desire and seek for food and clothing (6:24-34). No one can serve two masters (6:24) for one will be sought and the other hated. We cannot seek God for the purpose of obtaining clothes, food, and security for the future (worry about tomorrow). Rather, we are to seek His righteousness and kingdom first. God will take care of the other things. We can only seek God’s righteousness in accordance with how we seek the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the reign and rule of God in the human soul. So we can make another observation that seeking the righteousness of God corresponds to the reign and rule of God in the soul of man. The righteousness of God is that righteousness that God requires and yet it is what He works in His people as He sets up His kingdom in their souls. The inner reign of Christ is worked out in the human heart by His lordship and the work of the Holy Spirit in working His fruit in the hearts of His people.

We also see this concept of righteousness taught in Luke 1:6. Regarding the parents of John the Baptist, the text tells us that “They were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.” Righteousness is defined for us as walking blamelessly in the commandments and requirements of the Lord. While we must remember that this is still the Old Testament period in the sense that the Holy Spirit had not been poured out yet, this is not to assert in the slightest that salvation is by works or that a righteousness that saves can be obtained apart from Christ. This is not to assert that a person is ever justified in the sight of God apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ. No human being apart from Christ will ever be declared just by God apart from the imputed righteousness of Christ. However, we must let Scripture speak as it is the Word of God. If Scripture says that a person is blessed if he or she is hungering and thirsting after righteousness, then that is the way it is. It also does not mean that hungering and thirsting for righteousness is contradictory to God’s gift of grace in the form of the imputed righteousness of Christ. The two go together, though we will not address this at the moment.

What we must see, then, is that the first beatitude is not contradictory to this one (the fourth). The first one tells us that the blessed person is the one that is poor in spirit and has no righteousness or merit of his own. It also tells us that this person not only has no righteousness of his own, but that he has absolutely no way to obtain righteousness of his own. Poverty of this type is such that a person has nothing and no way to obtain it. But how is it, then, that a person is to hunger and thirst for righteousness and in that be declared blessed and find satisfaction? The explanation of that will have to wait until a later time, but we can rest in the imputed righteousness of Christ knowing that it is all that is needed to enter into the full presence of God in heaven. We must also stress that the righteousness we are to hunger and thirst for is not opposed in any way to the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is grace and nothing but grace and all of that to the glory of His holy name.

We must stress over and over that no one hungers and thirsts for righteousness without and apart from the grace of God. It is grace that works in human beings and gives them that hungering and thirsting for the things of God. “8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil 3:8-11). We can leave this issue for the moment noticing that Paul did not want or have a righteousness derived from the Law. He wanted that righteousness which came from God on the basis of faith. But that moved him with a desire to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. All things were rubbish to him and he wanted to know Christ. So his righteousness was not from the Law but was all from Christ. However, he wanted to pursue knowing Christ while counting all other things as rubbish and dung. For Paul, being given salvation by grace through the free gift of righteousness was no hindrance to pursuing holiness and Christ. In fact, his pursuit now was greater than when he was a Pharisee. A hunger for righteousness in this way will always be far beyond the Pharisee and the legalist.

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Omnipresence: The Meaning for Doctrine

February 28, 2007

The biblical teaching of God’s omnipresence is really spread through the whole of Scripture. It is not always explicitly taught, thought it is at times, but it is a necessary teaching within the character of God and for biblical doctrine. In other words, despite the seemingly massive rejection of this attribute of God in today’s version of Christianity, this teaching is vital to the doctrine of God and basic Christian doctrine. If a person denies the omnipresence of God, then if one wants to be consistent that person must deny a lot of other things. Last time we looked at a few verses that show clearly that God is omnipresent. Next time we will meditate on how this attribute fits with other attributes. But now we will look at the meaning for a few of the many doctrines that depend on it.

The first doctrine to look at is the doctrine of Scripture. As we think of Scripture and its application to all of men, the authority of Scripture is over all. Wherever missionaries or ministers go with the Gospel, they take the Scriptures with them. Why is that? It is because God works through the Gospel wherever it is taken. We also know that God watches over His Word to perform it (Jeremiah 1:12). We also know that the Word of God does what it is supposed to do: “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). Unless God is omnipresent and there to perform His Word, preaching the Scriptures is without real purpose.

The doctrine of what Scripture is also rests on the omnipresence of God. We have 66 books written over 1500 years or so. We have all of these authors and all of these books and they are all said to be “God-breathed.” How could it be that all of these books have one Author? How could it be that all of these books are breathed forth by God? How could it be that all of the events of these books all happen under the sovereignty of God? How can God call the stars out and call them by name? How can He know the numbers of the hairs of all men if He is not omnipresent? How is it that He is the One that opens His hands and feeds the birds and the wild animals? How is it that not one bird can fall from the sky apart from His will? How is it that large fish are right where He wants them and vomit right where He wants them too? None of these things could be true unless God is omnipresent. This is simply to say that for all of these parts of Scripture to be true, His omnipresence must be true as well.

The doctrine of sin also leans on the omnipresence of God. All sin is said to be directly against God. One part of the so-called atheist is that he wants to claim that God does not exist and then that God will not see (Psalm 10:11-14). Here is the real issue with men wanting to deny the omnipresence of God. They want to do away with the fact that they sin in His presence and that He knows all of their sin. When men had idols in Scripture, they are said to have idols in His presence. So the teaching of Scripture that sin is in the presence of God and against God depends on God actually being present at all places at the same time.

The doctrine of God’s sovereignty is utterly dependent on God being present at every place and at every moment. If God is not actually present in each place at each moment, then who gives each person and each animal their every breath? If God is not actually present, then who upholds finite and utterly dependant creatures in being? If God is not actually present in each location, then who determines what is to happen according to His divine plan in the places that He is not present?

Can the doctrine of the new birth be a work of the Spirit of God if God is not present in all places and at every moment? Can the Gospel be preached with confidence in God being able to perform the work in men’s hearts apart from the omnipresence of God? Wouldn’t the power of conversion and of preaching be all in our power if God is not present at all times and in all ways? Would we have confidence in the Gospel as being the power of God unto salvation for all who believe if God is not there to call sinners to Himself? How would sinners be reconciled to God if God is not actually there? How does God pour out His love in the hearts of people through the Spirit if He is not in all places? How is it that there is no love in the universe apart from the God who is love (I John 4:7-8) and yet believers are known to be believers by their love for one another if God is not omnipresent? Scripture teaches us that only those that are born of God and know God actually love. This means that if there is to be any love in any part of the universe God must be there if love is to be there. What keeps humanity from plunging into utter depravity? It is the restraining hand of God. The working of humanity as we know it depends on the omnipresence of God. The doctrines of Holy Scripture rest firmly in the hands of a God who is there even if it is in the grave or heaven above. Wherever there is anything at all, God is there because all things came into being through Him.

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Omnipresence: The Concept

February 26, 2007

The definition of omnipresence is infinity in reference to place or location. This is to say with the children’s catechism question (where is God?) that “God is everywhere.” The word omnipresence is clear by simple definition. The word “omni” means “all,” and we know what “presence” means. Put the two words together and we have the meaning of all present or everywhere present.

If you run a search for the word “omnipresent” on a computer or a concordance to see if it is used in the Bible, you will not find it. That does not mean that the concept is not biblical, it is just that the word is not found. So we have to look at the Scriptures to see if the concept of God being everywhere is in fact taught.

Psalm 139:7-10 – “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me”

This text simply says that God cannot be fled from because He is in fact “there” wherever a person goes whether it is in heaven or in Sheol.

1 Kings 8:27 – “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!”

2 Chronicles 2:6 – “But who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him? So who am I, that I should build a house for Him, except to burn incense before Him?”

These verses show that even the highest heaven cannot contain God. He is far beyond those heavens and fills all that we can know. It is He that calls all the stars out and calls them by name. “Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing” (Isaiah 40:26). The latest estimate of stars is beyond the imagination and the closest one is four million light years away. Yet it is because of the greatness of His might that not one of them is missing. He is the One who created them and He leads them forth by number. This surely requires an omnipresent God.

Jeremiah 23:23-24 – “‘Am I a God who is near,’ declares the LORD, ‘And not a God far off?’ ‘Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?’ declares the LORD”

However distant the heavens are, God fills them. Wherever the travels of man take him into space, he will never travel apart from the presence of God. The earth is a speck of dust in the universe and do we really think that the God who fills it is not completely everywhere on this planet? While men come up with theories and speculations of how to escape God, it simply can never happen. God is everywhere.

Acts 17:24-28 – “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children'”

This text shows us just how involved God is in the universe and in every person’s life. All of these things require that He is omnipresent. God gives to people life and breath and all things. One can understand that from a deist perspective if one stretched the issue, but imagine a God from whom we receive our every breath! He is present every moment and with every breath we should know that He is there and it is by His grace that we take a breath and are not in everlasting flames. It is in God that we live and move and exist. If for a moment it would be theoretically possible to step out of the presence of God, we would cease to exist. Our very existence is in Him.

Proverbs 15:3 – “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Watching the evil and the good.”

One application of this is that the LORD knows all that we do. His omnipresence means that He knows all the sin that takes place and all the good that takes place. All of our lives are lived in His presence and before His holiness. Men try to deny the omnipresence of God to escape that holy and all-knowing eye, but it is in vain. The LORD sees our every thought, desire, and even the intent of our thoughts and desires. All of our motives are present with Him and He knows the depths of our hearts better than we do. Whatever it is that we need to know He must reveal it since He alone knows all things. We must pray that God would give us understanding hearts as all we do is in His presence.

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Beatitudes 16: Hungering 1

February 24, 2007

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

The first thing that should be noted in a verse like this is that those who are blessed are not dull and lifeless in their pursuit of God. These are not people who are half-hearted and settle for any little service or any little affection. No, those who are truly blessed are those that are marked by a hunger and thirst for righteousness. Let us not think that this is just a slight thirst and a slight hunger, but this is a life that is marked by a craving and a deep thirst for God and His glory. How we should be ashamed in our intellectually slovenly and religiously insipid lives and desires.

Jonathan Edwards puts it this way: “That religion which God requires, and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull and lifeless wouldings, raising us but a little above a state of indifference: God in His Word, greatly insists upon it, that we be in good earnest, fervent in spirit, and our hearts vigorously engaged in religion.” Christianity and true blessedness are not just a bit above indifference, or even a fair amount above indifference. It is to be earnest and fervent. It is to have our hearts vigorously engaged in religion. Edwards remarks again, in his book on Religious Affections, that “true religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.” He then tells us what the affections are: “the more vigorous and sensible [things pertaining to the senses] exercises of the inclination and will of the soul.” For Edwards (built on I Peter 1:8) true and biblical religion consisted in the vigorous and sensible exercises of the inclination and will of the soul. Not just the exercise of some affections, but vigorous affections. As Scripture proclaims: “And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (I Peter 1:8).

Well, one might say, that is Jonathan Edwards. But what does Scripture say? After all, it is imminently rational and surely is above such things as Edwards speaks of. I Peter 1:8 has already been quoted, but it is only one verse. It speaks of a joy so great that it could not be expressed and that based on love for Christ. We then go on to read Psalm 36: 8: “They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.” If that is not strong enough, we can move on to Psalm 16:1:1″ You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” Fullness of joy is only found in God. That full joy will never be found in the world. So why do people seek the things of the world with such desire and affection? Maybe believers have not discovered the true glory of Christ. Maybe believers are too much involved in the inferior things of the world too. After all, Psalm 73:25 should describe all of us: “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.”

As we look at these few verses of Holy Writ, let us understand that this is a common theme in Scripture. Man is not to live with weak desires toward God and His glory, but man is to be like Paul who said that for him “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Whatever else that is, it is not half-hearted. Perhaps one real problem with the churches of today is that things are so watered down and diluted with the world that people have no real hunger and thirst for God except to obtain worldly things. Churches today are far more like those described in Revelation 3:15-16 than we realize: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” Rather than that, the biblical model is like the verses listed above from Psalm 16:11 and 73:25. We have far too many desires on earth and so we have virtually no hunger and thirst for things above. In other words, we are idolaters.

The things of the world have our affections & we give God but a nod. This beatitude takes that attitude & shoves it back in our face. We are to crave with insatiable desires Christ & righteousness. What has our hearts and affections? Do we show desires after Him? Do we have desires to be righteous? We have desires, but where are they? Are we hot for the things of the world and so cold to Christ? Does Psalm 42:1 (“As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God”) and 63:3 (“Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You”) describe the yearnings and cravings or our hearts? Why not? Has God and His glory changed? Are we just going on in the world with Christianity being part of our life, maybe even the largest part, but it is primarily intellectual? Where are those strong desires? What do our hearts burn within us for? Are we hungry for God’s Word and prayer? Are we thirsty for Christ? God’s people are commanded to love Him with all of their hearts, minds, souls, and strength. Where is the evidence for that? Sure there are many rock concerts given in the name of worship and there are places where tears and shouting may be heard. But where are those that have a true hunger and thirst for Christ Himself and not just the things they might get from Him?

We do not want or at least will rarely accept coldness or half-heartedness in the actions of others. We want children to obey with good attitudes. We want spouses to kiss with affection instead of wooden, perfunctory pecks. We want friendly waiters that will appear to enjoy serving us, and we find artificial sweetener in their smiles revolting. We find careless attitudes and divided attention revolting in salespeople. We desire those who help or wait on us to be sincere and joyful. Shouldn’t we do at least the same for Christ? Do we praise our children or spouses in a wooden monotone voice with a smile pasted on? Do we tell people that they did a good job or that we enjoyed what they did with a wooden monotone voice? Then why do we think that praise for Christ in song and prayer is acceptable in that way? We are much like some of the Israelites of old that brought to God as a sacrifice the lame and disfigured animals when they would not dream of giving those things to a human being as a gift.

Hungering and thirsting is a sign of a desire or even need in the soul. We must have nutrition, so we hunger. We must have water, so we thirst. We must have love, so we hunger. We must have life, so we thirst for the fountain of life. Our bodies hunger for the elements of life, so the soul hungers for the elements of its life. We crave the bread of life and the water of life. We hunger for the milk of the word and the meat of the word. For dessert we taste and see that the Lord is good and that the judgments of the Lord are sweeter than the drippings of honey from the honeycomb. The eyes of the soul hungers for beauty, and it is satisfied with the character of God displayed in nature and most of all in Christ. The ears of the soul longs to hear delightful sounds and is only satisfied with the voice of Christ in the Word. The soul hungers for pleasure and that is found in the command to delight ourselves in the Lord. The world seeks pleasure with entertainment and sensuality. The believer seeks Christ above all and finds true pleasure in Him. The believer has pleasure in his food, digestion, and drink because they are Christ. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is not walking around with a lack all of the time, it is one that is filled and the filling leads to more desires for walking with and pleasing God.

A true hunger and thirst for righteousness is a sign of love for God. II Timothy 2:22 shows this: “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” One must flee from youthful lusts in order to pursue righteousness. But along with pursuing righteousness one must pursue faith, love, and peace. That is part and parcel of pursuing righteousness. But those things are necessary if one is to call on the Lord from a pure heart. What is a pure heart? It is a single and undivided heart, or an unmixed heart. Its focus is on God and God alone. This shows that to pursue true righteousness one must be pursuing it out of love for God. I John 3:10 also shows this: “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.” Love for God and our brother (Greatest Commandments) are not possible if one does not practice righteousness. True love and true righteousness go hand in hand and cannot be separated. The pursuit of righteousness flows from a heart that loves God.

We think of Christianity as something added on to the rest of our lives rather than being our life itself. The true form of hungering and thirsting comes from the life of Christ in the soul. He gives the soul its desires and works in it the pursuit of God. It is this concept that makes sense out of Philippians 2:13, “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Hungering and thirsting after righteousness is indeed the work of Christ giving the soul a hunger and thirst to be like Him. To put it another way, hungering and thirsting after righteousness is the work of grace in the soul. It is possible for people to hunger and thirst in some way to be moral for the sake of self-righteousness. That means that people long to have a form of righteousness out of self-love and want it for a selfish purpose. But the true hungering and thirsting after righteousness is the work of grace in the soul. It is grace giving the soul the desires to do all for the glory of God. Assuredly, then, a true hunger and thirst in the soul is the work of grace drawing a person to share in the glory that flows from the throne of God to His people who are united to Christ in love. Being united to Christ in love and receiving the love that flows from the Father through the Son to His people which gives them a love for Him is indeed the greatest of blessing. As hungering and thirsting are the workings of the body that demonstrate a lack of food, so hungering and thirsting spiritually show us our desperate need to feed our souls upon the glory of God in Christ. There is satisfaction and joy in that, but also a longing to know more and more of God.

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Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)

February 24, 2007

This wonderful teaching is what Luther was defending when he wrote his magnum opus of Bondage of the Will. Whatever else theologians and Christians must do, they must preserve the Gospel of grace alone. By grace alone the Reformers meant that human beings are saved by the grace of God and nothing within man and nothing that man can do. No works can assist or contribute to the Gospel in any way at all. Romans 3:24-25 and Ephesians 1:3-14 and 2:1-10 shine forth the glory of a Gospel of grace apart from works (or alone). The Gospel is by grace alone so that it will set forth the love of God as uncaused and merited by man. It is grace that teaches us that the love of God is caused within the triune God alone. Until man has been humbled to the point where he trusts in nothing of himself and nothing that he can do, he is not ready to trust in grace alone. The Gospel is to the praise of the glory of His grace and nothing of man. Grace points to the unworthiness of man and the worthiness of Christ, not to how man deserves to be saved. The fact that God saves on the basis of a sheer and utterly beautiful grace shows how the five solas are linked. It is grace that shows that the Gospel is all to the glory of God. Grace must be revealed in and taught by Scripture or else no one would believe it. It is grace alone that shows how it must be Christ alone or there is no salvation and no Gospel. It is grace that teaches us that faith must receive the grace of God apart from any merit or works of man or it would no longer be grace. “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly” (Galatians 2:21). For any person to attempt any work to add to or assist in grace is to imply that there was no need for Christ. As Romans 11:6 so forcefully puts it, “but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” Any addition of man’s works to grace makes grace to be something other than grace. That is why it must be grace alone or it is no longer grace. If it is no longer grace, it is no longer to the glory of God alone.

The wonder of justification by faith alone has received a lot of treatment from academic theologians throughout the years, and is beginning to receive some renewed attention. The problem, however, is that if sola gratia (grace alone) is not also dealt with, the whole issue of sola fide (faith alone) is in reality lost. The heart of the biblical doctrine of justification is not just that it is by faith alone, but that in the biblical context it is by faith alone in order to preserve the doctrine of grace alone. A quote from the Historical Introduction to the 1957 edition of Luther’s Bondage of the Will shows this: “the doctrine of justification by faith was important to them because it safeguarded the principle of sovereign grace” (p. 58). Going one step further, when a person teaches that it is the will of man that comes up with faith; this is also is a step away from the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone. Is salvation wholly the work of God or partially the work of God with some assistance of man? Our answer to that in some way determines how we view the Gospel and the biblical teaching of grace alone.

I hope that the issues are clear at this point. The focus on justification by faith alone is needed, but for the Reformers the real issue was justification by grace alone through faith alone. The real issue is grace in order to set forth the glory of God in the Gospel and salvation. No one is really protecting justification by faith alone as the Reformers meant it unless they are dealing with it in such a way as to show that the Gospel is by grace alone in order that it may be to the glory of God alone. This is why I have set out sola gratia last. It is not in order to minimize it in the slightest, but to throw extra attention on it. The glory of God is the primary cause and reason of the Gospel. The real issue of the Gospel is whether it is Christ alone that saves or not. If so, then the Gospel is all of grace. If so, then justification by faith alone is for the sole purpose of protecting the Gospel of grace alone in a way where it is God alone who shows forth His glory in it.

“In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:4-6).

Here we see the reason that God saves. It is to the praise of the glory of His grace. The Gospel does not provide a way of salvation that man may apply to himself, but it is all of grace. It is a grace that will allow no pretenders to its throne. It is a grace that will not allow any rival the slightest power or pretense to any of the glory. It is a grace that erects its throne on the sovereignty and glory of almighty God. It is a grace that is the outshining of the glory of God that tabernacled itself in the Person of Jesus Christ while on earth (John 1:14). In that it shows that whatever is all of grace is all of the glory of God. In that it is a grace that shows itself as the love of God that is moved solely from the self-existence of God and not by anything in man. An attack on the teaching of sola gratia is an attack on the teaching of the Gospel and the very glory of God Himself. We must defend this teaching with our breath and our lives. If we should die for the Gospel if need be, then we must defend grace to that degree too.

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Sola Fide (Faith Alone)

February 22, 2007

This points to what some see as the defining doctrine of the Reformation and the very heart of the Gospel. This refers to the basis on which God justifies sinners. In light of what faith is, justification is God’s declaration of the sinner as just or righteous in His sight. As a holy and just God, He can and will only declare sinners just on a proper basis. The teaching of faith alone points to the issue that God declares sinners just on the basis of Christ apart from the works of man. God declares human beings just on the basis of Christ bearing the wrath of the Father for the sins of human beings and crediting or imputing to human beings the righteousness of Christ. To believe in Christ alone is to believe that Christ suffered for all of my sins and gives me a perfect righteousness apart from my own merit or my works. That is to say that to believe in Christ is to believe and trust in Him without and apart from my own works. Faith alone teaches us that we are to receive the promises of God in Christ without trusting in any or our own goodness or works at all. Thus, justification by faith alone is the declaration that God declares a man just on the basis of Christ apart from the works of man at all, but simply by the man receiving Christ apart from anything else. Faith alone preserves the biblical doctrine that salvation is by grace alone and to the glory of God alone. Men are saved through faith in order that salvation would be by grace apart from any works of man (Romans 4:16) and so would be to the glory of God alone. That leaves men with nothing to boast in.

Thus it should be clear at this point how the previous three solas of the Reformation come to bear at sola fide. While many today are opposed to this, they must see how this ties in with the other points of the Reformation. They should also see how it is linked with the sola gratia which follows this point. Sola fide cannot be rejected without rejecting all the other points of the Reformation. There is no Gospel by faith alone unless God does all for His own glory. There is no Gospel by faith alone unless it is taught in the Word of God. There is no Gospel of faith alone unless salvation is truly by Christ and His words for salvation apart from the works and goodness of man. There is no Gospel of faith alone unless salvation is all of grace and grace alone.

There are those in our day that teach of a salvation that is by grace and indeed by faith. What they mean by those terms, however, are not derived from Scripture and not according to the glory of God alone. Others teach of a salvation that is of grace but not by Christ alone. To be blunt, a so-called Gospel that does not have all of these points in it is at the very least unbalanced in its message of the Gospel. A Gospel that is by faith alone may say that the faith is simply an intellectual belief that a proposition is true and so the sinner is saved by grace alone. However, that is to turn the biblical concept of faith and grace around to be something dreamed up by man. A biblical faith is something that God gives and is the sight of the soul (Hebrews 11:1-6) by which it perceives the glory of God in the Gospel. A biblical grace is really the indwelling Christ who will rule in the heart that He dwells and lives in. In other words, a biblical faith adheres to the Gospel of the glory of God and to Christ alone as the true Savior and Lord of all who really believe.

The Christ that is revealed by Scripture cannot be divided into pieces and offices. The Christ that Scripture teaches does all to the glory of God and works the same thing in His people. The Christ of Scripture is omnipresent and indivisible in His divine nature, and wherever He is, He is all there. So if Christ is indeed Savior of a sinner, He is Lord over that sinner as well. The Christ that is received by faith is not just received as Savior, but received as a whole Christ and not just a partial one. Holy Scripture (Romans 10:9) teaches that we must confess Christ as Lord in order to be saved: “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” We also know that on the last day that everyone will confess this: “and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:11). Also note that the confession that Christ is Lord is to the glory of God the Father. This is a link to soli deo gloria in which so many presentations of the Gospel have forgotten in our day.

The teaching of the Reformers of justification by faith alone was really a preservation of the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ. When men hold to justification by faith alone apart from His glory alone some main cog of the Gospel will fall out. We must hold firmly to sola fide and yet just as firmly to all the other points of the Reformation. Let all that we teach come from Scripture and be to the glory of God alone through Christ alone that comes by grace alone. If we do that, we will not distort faith alone as so many do in our day.

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Solo Christo (Christ Alone)

February 20, 2007

Roman Catholicism had people look to the Church for salvation. It dispensed grace by the sacraments and its indulgences. Luther and the Reformers went back to Scripture and saw that Scripture led people to Christ. Christ is grace to His people and Christ Himself is the food of the souls of His people. While Luther is famous for justification by faith alone (faith apart from works), the reason he taught that was to emphasize that people are saved by Christ alone. For salvation, men are to look to Christ alone for their one and only mediator, and as the one and only sacrifice for sins. Men are also to look to Christ alone as their righteousness, sanctification, wisdom, and redemption (I Corinthians 1:30). Jesus Christ alone is also the outshining of the glory of God (Hebrews 1:3) and the human body of Christ was the very tabernacle of the glory of God (John 1:14). There is no other name under heaven by which men may be saved (Acts 4:12) and there is no other way to the Father (John 14:6). There is also no other way to eternal life but by knowing the Father through Christ (John 17:3). In the Gospel of Christ alone we see that it is God that truly deserves all the glory and it is the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ (II Corinthians 4:4, 6).

The tendency in modern denominations and teaching is really a tendency back to Rome or at least its teachings. The reason for a denomination or a people to depart from Christ alone in terms of the Gospel, salvation, and sanctification is because people are departing from Soli Deo Gloria and Sola Scriptura. The return to human reason happened in the times of the New Testament and certainly during many periods within the Church. When churches and men fall away from the glory of God and from the authority of Scripture, they do what makes sense to them and what appears as true in light of common sense. What has really happened in that sense is that man has turned to idols and departed from the living God. Holy Scripture knows of no way of salvation apart from a deep conviction (faith) in Jesus Christ alone. However, if the Word of God is seen as the words of men, then one can take the liberties one wants with those words. One can look back into history and change the meaning of those words as he or she wills. When the fundamental centrality of the glory of God in history and the Church is changed to be centered on man, then everything is seen in a different light.

The different light that is seen is that of the glory of God or that of the worth of man. The Gospel is the way that God maintains His glory and saves sinful man by His glory through Christ. The man-centered way is to think of man as worth saving and so it is hard to see that God would cast man into hell for the rest of eternity. The true nature of sin is lost and sin is no longer seen as a vile act of hatred against God but as simply a mistake. So man is able to make up for his little mistakes and Christ is seen as more of an example rather than as a substitute in the place of man to satisfy the wrath of God. When we think of Christ’s work on the cross as being more of a trade for man rather than by grace, there is really little need for the cross much longer. However, the Scripture thunders out that man is dead in sin and trespasses. The Scripture teaches that man is at enmity with God and that the wrath of God abides on man. There is nothing and no one but Christ and Christ alone who can deliver man from the wrath of God. It is utterly necessary and there is no hope apart from Christ.

During the time of the Reformation these great truths were discovered. Not only was the cross seen as the way of satisfying the wrath of God, but Christ was seen as earning righteousness in the place of sinners. Luther taught that God imputed (reckoning or crediting) the righteousness of Christ to sinners and that as the only acceptable righteousness. He called this an “alien righteousness” and taught that this was a free gift and not something that a man or woman could work to obtain. In this we see that the Gospel is of Christ and Christ alone.

Salvation is not something that can be obtained by buying penances or of being baptized or any other rite that man has come up with. The Gospel is the Gospel of Christ as the only Savior. He is the only way that the wrath of God may be satisfied and He has the only righteousness acceptable to God. That is why human beings must be married to Christ and be one with Him or they will perish. It is only when a human being is one with Christ is Christ then the Husband of the believer and He takes that sinner’s debts (sin) as His, and they are fully satisfied by the blood of the cross. He also gives His bride (the sinner) His righteousness and so that the sinner is able to enter heaven on the basis of Christ and Christ alone. To fall away from Christ alone is to fall away from the Gospel that is the display of the glory of God and the only Gospel that Scripture teaches.

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Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone)

February 18, 2007

What instructs man how to glorify God? Holy Scripture, as the very Word of God, is what instructs us how to glorify and enjoy God. Roman Catholicism had put the supreme authority into the hands of men by teaching that the Pope and the Councils did not err. The Reformation went back to Scripture and set out that the supreme authority was God as He spoke in His Word. No man and no collection of men have authority over the Word of God since it is the words of God given to men. The Scriptures are the very revelation of God and His will to man so that man may not have to rest on the verdict of fallen reason and so-called common sense. The supreme authority for the Church is God, but it is the spoken word of God as given by God. This means that for all matters of doctrine, life, and conduct in the church the Word of God is the final authority. It alone has the revelation of God that man is to submit himself to. The Scripture alone teaches how man is to live to the glory of God alone.

Scripture must be related to Soli Deo Gloria or it is simply how God reveals to man how man is to be saved and to live a better way. If Scripture is not the glory of God proclaiming the Gospel of His glory and how man is to live to the glory of God, then Scripture is simply another self-help manual. But if we look through the spiritual lenses that God provides by grace, we can see that Scripture is the very words of God about God and His glory. No longer do we see the Ten Commandments as simply words about how man is to be good, but those are seen as flowing from the holy character of God and how man is to love God. So Scripture is really a revelation of the Words of God about the glory of God and how man is to love God and His glory.

When Scripture is seen as the words of God revealing His glory, then we can understand the words of Ezekiel in an analogous way: “He said and it was sweet as honey in my mouth to me, ‘Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you'” (3:3). How lovely and tasty are the words of God to the soul of man who has a renewed heart and so that the words of God are used to give a taste of the glory of God. The Scripture becomes that which brings life to the soul and we know by taste that the words of Christ are spirit and life and are words of eternal life (John 6:63, 68). The words of Christ, to those that have the taste buds of glory and life, are the only real authority. We can understand how Luther would be able to stand before all the civil and religious rulers of his day and stand firmly on the Word of God alone. When Scripture is tasted and seen to be the very words of God and of the sweet breathings of the words of Christ to the soul, all contradictory authorities must not be listened to.

Once Luther, as he says, saw the gates of heaven opened and walked in, he was a man under authority, the authority of God as He speaks in His Word. It is not that Luther did not listen to other men, as assuredly he read Augustine and others, but he saw with an especial penetration into what the real authority must be. Should he listen to the teachings of men or heed the Word of God? Should he listen to the pope at the time, they changed on a regular basis, or the Word of God? Should Luther listen to the councils of men when they clearly did not heed the Word of God or the Word of God itself? How people today need to listen to Luther on these issues. No man, including Luther and Calvin, are to be followed apart from the Word of God. Luther did not want a denominational following that took his name, but one did. It is also interesting that the Lutherans departed from his teaching almost immediately and the modern Lutherans are not even close to what he taught regarding grace. Calvin was buried in an unmarked grace and he did not want a following either. What we need is the spirit of these men who adhered to the Word of God over all other teachings.

Luther, upheld by the grace and glory of God, stood on the Word of God and not the words of men. This is not saying that no one should listen to the history of the Church or the great teachers that God has raised up. It is simply saying that all teachers must teach the Word and that teaching that is not from the Word should not be followed. The teaching of Sola Scriptura must be returned to in order that the local church will see its real authority and then the authority of the local church will be seen. Sola Scriptura must be returned to in order that there will be a true teaching that will keep man in the grips of Soli Deo Gloria. Human centered teaching will always lead away from the glory of God as its center. That only happens when the Scriptures are not taught in their fullness and are departed from regarding their message and authority.

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