Justification, Sanctification, and the Illusion of Timing

Ever heard the expression, “There’s no such thing as being a little bit pregnant”? It’s used to expose people when they try to underplay something in an inappropriate way. (“I sort of told a lie.”O The fact is, some things are simply either/or. Either you told a lie or you didn’t. Either you’re pregnant or you’re not.

But, then again, pregnancy is progressive–from conception to delivery.

Is that a contradiction? No. We’re comparing apples and oranges. The development of a fetus is not in conflict with the status of being pregnant. One is either/or and the other is gradual but they both reflect the same reality.

This simple illustration might show you why I was so frustrated to hear of educated theological popularizers who demanded a “nanosecond” between justification and sanctification in order to “protect” one from the other–typically to protect justification from sanctification (no one seems really to worry about the integrity of sanctification that much).

Miracle Birth

Monday we celebrate the most important miracle birth in the Bible. Three days after the longest night of the year (in the northern hemisphere) we remember the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary.

What are the precedents to, and what is the meaning of, the event?

John Murray for Paedobaptism even if it demanded Paedocommunion

It is objected that paedobaptists are strangely inconsistent in dispensing baptism to infants and yet refusing to admit them to the Lord’s Table …

At the outset it should be admitted that if paedobaptists are inconsistent in this discrimination, then the relinquishment of infant baptism is not the only way of resolving the inconsistency. It could be resolved by going in the other direction, namely, that of admitting infants to the Lord’s Supper.

And when all factors entering into this dispute are taken into account, particularly the principle involved in infant baptism, then far less would be at stake in admitting infants to the Lord’s Supper than would be at stake in abandoning infant baptism.

This will serve to point up the significance of infant baptism in the divine economy of grace.

[John Murray, Christian Baptism (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1980). pp. 73-74; emphasis added. Note that John Murray opposed paedocommunion.]

The City of God(ly Humanity)

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”
Revelation 21:2-3 ESV

Many readers think the City is something that exists at or after the end of the world and/or after death. This is understandable. The next verse says there is no longer any death in this city.

Ultimately, the new Jerusalem, won’t be perfectly realized until after the resurrection, but I don’t think that means it is nothing but a future hope. My main concern here is that people assume, whatever their eschatology, that the city is simply a heavenly creation given to us like manna was given in the desert or Jesus gave blind men their sight.

Election and Union: Eph 1:3-14

I think most people read Ephesians 1:3-14 as an overflowing of verbiage, powerful statements lacking any coherent order.

I propose that the passage is quite organized. It has an initial statement (vv. 3, 4) and then two re-statements (vv. 5-10; 11-14). The first of these re-statements has a tw0-part structure (vv. 5-6, 7-10).

Here is the text:

In Thick Darkness

When Solomon finished building the Temple in Jerusalem, we read that

And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD. Then Solomon said, “The LORD has said that he would dwell in thick darkness. I have indeed built you an exalted house, a place for you to dwell in forever.”
1 Kings 8:10–13 ESV

Question: When and where did God say this?

What is the “Gospel”?

Consider this piece of political propaganda from the Greco-Roman world. Listen as I read from an inscription about the birthday of Augustus Caesar the emperor of Rome that was dates from 9BC.

The providence which has ordered the whole of our life, showing concern and zeal, has ordained the most perfect consummation for human life by giving to it Augustus, by filling him with virtue for doing the work of a benefactor among men, and by sending in him, as it were, a deliverer for us and those who come after us, to make war to cease, to create order everywhere. . . . ; the birthday of the god [Augustus] was the beginning for the world of the gospel that has come to men through him [found in What Saint Paul Really Said by N. T. Wright].

THE TERM GOSPEL IS a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon word godspell. It is used to translate the Greek word evangel which means “good news,” “glad tidings,” or “joyful message.” And it is a word with an important use in the pagan politics of the first century. It refers to a royal proclamation or an imperial announcement. It is used to describe a report of the birth, or the ascension to the throne, or the victory of a king. In some cases it can refer to more than one of these, since the victory of an aspiring prince can also count as his coronation. By defeating his enemy, he inherits the kingdom and thus becomes a king. Such a declaration is described as a gospel in the ancient world of the first-century Mediterranean region.

The Bible’s Plant Analogies Are Meant to Provoke Action

Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matthew 3:5–10 ESV

So writes Matthew about the message and actions of John the Baptizer. Notice his purpose in speaking of a tree and it’s fruit. John wants people to repent of their sins and engage in new obedience. Claiming to be Abraham’s descendants is not enough. They have to, to borrow the language of the Apostle Paul, “also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had” (Romans 4:12).

Don’t Feed (Your Ego) on the Weak: Paul’s Paradoxical Wisdom in Galatians 6:2-5

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.
Galatians 6:2–5 ESV

I preached on Galatians 6:1-5 many years ago. At the time, I gave most of my attention to verse 1 (“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”) I argued that the first verse implied that the “burdens” that Paul had in mind were the consequences of being sinned against or dealing with sin in the Church in terms of the work that it required, the risks that one had to face (temptation), or the stigma of shame in the community.

Paul’s Paradoxical Wisdom of the Christian Life

I’m not sure if there are “Dune nerds” any more but that has been a thing in the past.

THE FEAR LITANY

A Dune nerd wasn’t merely someone who read or even appreciated Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel, Dune. It was someone who was able to recite the “Litany against Fear” and enjoyed doing so:

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”