salvation – Page 3 – Christ the Truth

Exodus 13:1-16 – Dev Menon 6

GlenMarch 9, 20106 Comments

From the marvellous Dev Menon. If you're not reading his blog - go and subscribe now.

Read Exodus 13:1-16 - The Consecration of the Firstborn

The death of the spotless lamb of God allows us entrance into the promised land...

In chapter 13, just after the institution of the passover, we learn about the opening of wombs, the entering into the land of milk and honey and a reminder of the unleavened bread.

Egypt is the watery grave of darkness and turmoil, where everything is meaningless and heading nowhere, a prison of no hope. Christ, through His Lamb's blood, has torn an opening out of slavery - into the promised land. In this land there is no uncleanness, the old yeast of malice and wickedness is thrown away.

Exodus 13:9 And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt.

This truth needs to be made a memorial on our hand and burned between our eyes - the deliverance of the saints; the redemption of the church of the firstborn (Heb 12:23) - for we are all 'firstborn' in Christ. The animals are given as sacrifice - but the children of God are redeemed.

The King leads us in triumphal procession into Canaan, the city of His choosing. He comes, to raise the bones of Joseph to life eternal in this new land.

As we follow our Champion through the wilderness, He leads us by fire and cloud - we also need to take His path - so also we redeem the beasts of burden, the donkeys, that we may walk similarly through the earthly Jerusalem, till we reach that place outside the city wall, and pass through the cross-shaped doorway, and enter the Heavenly Zion.

And here are a couple of my (Glen's) recent sermons on Exodus 12-15

Passover and remembrance (Ex 12)

Redemption of the Firstborn, Feast of Unleavened Bread, The Red Sea (Ex 13-15)

Exodus 12:31-51 – Luke Ijaz

GlenMarch 8, 2010Leave a comment

Luke Ijaz continues from his last post on the Passover.

Read Exodus 12:31-51

All the gods of Egypt have been judged (12:12) – including Pharaoh, at the cost of his firstborn (12:29). If Jesus were providing the commentary, he may well say: “No-one can enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house” (Mark 3:27). Jesus had now robbed Egypt of one of its most valuable possessions. The health of Egypt’s economy was tied to this slave labour force! Now the Israelites are to be led away and Pharaoh – and every other authority in Egypt – is powerless to stop them.

“During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go…” Pharaoh is resigned to the reality of the moment as he tells the Israelites to “go”. His lapse will not last long (14:5). But for this moment Pharaoh and all Egypt will be pleased to see the backs of the Israelites. They have become “the smell of death” (2 Corinthians 2:24-25).

But the LORD had promised to make the Egyptians “favourably disposed towards this people” so that they would not leave Egypt empty-handed (3:21). The articles of silver and gold and clothing that were now handed over: each of these would be vital in the construction of the tabernacle. Without these articles there would be no tabernacle! How then could they worship the LORD?

We are told that the Israelites “plundered” the Egyptians. It was not theft because those who were “favourably disposed” gave these materials willingly. The treasures and possessions that we like to consider our own – these things are only ever given to us in trust by the LORD God. He reserves the right to recall them at his leisure, and when we fail to steward them well. In Egypt this silver and gold and clothing was being put to no godly use. But for the Israelites, these very same items were to be made available in service and worship to their God (35:4-9, 29). Though some, sadly, would be squandered in funding idolatry (32:2-4).

To “plunder” is a strong word. But here are we not glimpsing something bigger still? These provisions that the Israelites carried with them out of Egypt – even as they headed into the wilderness – speak to us of a down payment of yet greater riches and provisions to come, when they reached their inheritance. Are not all those in Christ one day to inherit (even plunder) the whole earth?

We notice something interesting about this mass of people who (literally) choose to follow Jesus out of Egypt. They are not monochrome! There is an ethnic diversity represented in this very first group of people called to follow the LORD. And judging by the huge numbers of Israelites (12:37), to speak of “many other people” (12:38) joining them would suggest a large minority. Egyptians almost certainly; maybe others – we are not told. This corrects that common misconception that Israel was defined along merely ethnic lines: as though Israel were in some way ethnically bound, even ethnically restrictive. But you did not have to be a native Israelite to be counted in.

True, this is a long way from the post-Pentecost explosion in which all cultural boundaries came down and the gospel was propelled out to every culture. But at this time – when cultural boundaries were first being put in place – these never formed a barrier to the inclusion of people not biologically related to Abraham. Anyone could turn to the LORD and take upon themselves Israel’s cultural distinctives – and so join a people that were modelling something totally counter to every other culture.

It was the experience of the Passover that united this collection of people on the road from Rameses to Succoth. Whatever allegiance to Egypt they may have felt – whether enforced through slavery, or given through birth – the allegiance of this people was now to the LORD God. The Passover had worked that change in their lives. The Passover would continue to define who they were as a people. The whole community were to celebrate it (12:47) – annually. They were never to lose sight of where they came from – and who got them there.

The Firstborn – the only begotten Son of God – would one day be cut off from his Father and die as a bloody sacrifice, in our place. On that basis we can be counted among the LORD’s people. Every male born in Israel was given a very real (prophetic?) reminder of that ‘cutting off’: circumcision. What about those (men) who wanted in? Then they would have to undergo the same (12:44, 48-49). You probably would not choose to join Israel on a whim, without really thinking this through. Circumcision would deflect the half-hearted! But for those who had glimpsed something of that greater Passover, what was this little cut in comparison? It would be a welcome reminder to you that another has paid in blood so that you need never be cut off and never will be cut off.

“I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God” (6:9).

Exodus 12:1-30 – Luke Ijaz

GlenMarch 6, 2010Leave a comment

Luke Ijaz is a minister at Holy Trinity, Wallington. He recently preached this cracker of a sermon - "Do not worry" - at Farm Fellowship.

Read Exodus 12:1-30

The plagues had threatened the unravelling of creation (10:21), and in their wake a mighty empire had been brought to its knees. There could not have been a person alive in Egypt who did not now know the power and the name of the true and living God (9:16). And yet their Pharaoh would still not bow down and worship him as Lord.

One thing remained untouched by the enacting of these “wonders” through Moses: the human heart. It is doubtful that the heart of any – Egyptian or Israelite – had been warmly affected and drawn to Christ. More likely they were further embittered and made fearful – because all alike were still under judgement.

The LORD must now act in a very different way, if this nation and its inhabitants were not to be consumed completely. He must perform the very greatest of his “wonders”: the one that will display most clearly his glory to the watching world…

You see, it would not do for Pharaoh to let the Israelites “go”. Then the generations to come would be in praise of the king of Egypt as ‘the great liberator’; the reformed champion of human rights. It is for the LORD to become their Liberator and save them when they are still utterly helpless. Neither would it do for the LORD simply to take the Israelites by the hand and lead them out of Egypt. Far be it from the LORD to show such unfair discrimination and favouritism! For him to take for himself a people on the basis of arbitrary choice would have shown him to be a petty tribal deity – certainly not the Lord of the whole earth. On what basis could the LORD make a distinction between Egyptian sinners and Israelite sinners (11:7)?

Indeed, a great distinction would be made! The liberation that the LORD would bring about would mean far more than freedom from the darkness of Egyptian slavery. The Israelites would be brought out into a dawn of a new day – a day so new that their calendar would need to be reset (12:3). The hearts of everyone in the land would be cut at the deepest level – for good or ill – and in the process judgement would finally be pronounced on the gods of Egypt (12:12), and their stranglehold over the nation broken. The people would be shaken to the core and truly new possibilities would open up for everyone.

Everything turns on the firstborn. More specifically: everything turns on the death of the firstborn. This death will be the fruit of wrath – the righteous anger levelled at a stubbornly rebellious humanity. But the fruit of this death itself will be new life for a humanity that is perishing. How glorious! The Living God has made it possible for those whose lives are forfeit to be re-established. Blood for blood, life for life. Now the LORD can make that distinction between those who will turn to worship him and those who will not; between the Israelites and the Egyptians.

But even the Egyptians are not left without a witness to this gospel. Christ – in his office of Judge (John 5:23) – passed through the land of Egypt that night and, among the Egyptians, “there was not a house without someone dead” (12:30). Did any of them overhear the instructions that Moses conveyed to the Israelites, regarding the lambs and the blood on the doorposts? They certainly failed to heed it. So all the firstborn perished.

The next day the nation was mourning their loss. And what a loss! On the firstborn – the inheritors – hung the peoples hopes for the future. Now, for a time at least, those hopes were cut short. But why were any of them left alive? “It should have been me that was taken!” Yet these parents were acutely aware that the only reason they – and their families – were still alive was because the firstborn had been taken in their place. For as long as living memory would endure, there was now in Egypt a witness to what is necessary to avert the LORD’s judgement.

In Israel the witness would need to last that bit longer. Every year on the fourteenth day of the first month – Passover – they were to slaughter again a lamb at twilight, for all the generations to come. They were never to forget that their security and life was assured only by the shedding of blood. These evenings must have been emotionally charged as the family gathered around their table – the firstborn right there in their midst – ready to consume this meal.

“The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over” (12:13).

This was more than mere commemoration. The Israelites could never afford to get smug or become complacent. They needed the ongoing shelter of the blood. But one thing that this annual sacrifice taught them by the very necessity of its repetition was its insufficiency. After all, this was only a lamb that they were sacrificing – leaving them with a longing for something more final.

When Jesus came to share a final meal with his apostles it was at Passover. But this time there would be a break with tradition and the meal would be celebrated in a new way. No attention would be drawn to the lamb. Why? The words that Jesus speaks over the bread and the wine – “This is my body… this is my blood” – make it clear that he himself sits in the place of the lamb. And this becomes all the more striking when we realise just who this Jesus is: the Firstborn of the Father, the eternal Judge. The firstborn is about to die; the Judge is about to be judged. “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

“Then the people bowed down and worshipped” (12:27b). This is the first time in the book of Exodus that the LORD has received any worship from the Israelites. Worship is now the only fitting response of those whose hearts have been warmed by all they have seen and experienced. For the LORD has displayed to the watching world the greatest of his “wonders” – the glorious way in which he can liberate anyone, even the Israelites.

Exodus 2

GlenFebruary 19, 2010Leave a comment

Read Exodus 2 here.

Moses is a true Levite (v1). Which tells you, among other things, that he'll be a man of violence (v12! cf Gen 34:25ff; 49:5-7). He is not the Judah-ite King (Gen 49:8-12) to whom the nations will bow. The LORD's Glory will not be united to his company (Gen 49:6).

Moses is not himself the Saviour. His name (v10) means 'saved'. This is not the One Jacob looked for (Gen 49:18) whose name means "salvation" - i.e. Jesus.

But he will share many traits with Him. He will be a priest for the people, acting on their behalf, declaring the word of the LORD. And like a new Noah he will come through waters of judgement (v3 - the 'basket' is simply the same word as 'ark'). And his salvation will mean salvation for all who follow him.

After 400 years of 'radio silence' from God, he leaves his father's company, survives a genocide aimed at eradicating the male seed and is raised by his natural mother in a foreign land. He enters their condition (Acts 7:22) and becomes "great" (lit. v10 and 11). He is set as prince and judge of his people (v14) and this is for their redemption (though they don't see it). But in the Lord's wisdom this redemption won't come through earthly might (v15).

Moses' first 40 years (Acts 7:23) were spent 'becoming great' in Egypt. Imagine it - the greatest empire the world had known. And he was at the centre of it all. He had become wise in all the ways of Egypt and was mighty in word and deed, as Stephen's speech declares. And yet, as Hebrews 11 says:

24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

For all its appearance by sight, Egypt offered only 'the fleeting pleasures of sin.' Moses 'saw' something else. Or rather someOne else - the visible Image of the invisible God. And reproach with and for Christ is a greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt. 'Seeing' and 'considering' this, he refuses his royal identity and sides with his oppressed people for the sake of Christ.

This Levite found a truth that a Benjamite would later describe:

7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil 3:7-12)

Moses too has fellowship with Jesus in suffering. And, as with Paul, it conforms him to Christ's likeness. Moses' second 40 years will be spent becoming a saviour shepherd (v17ff) who waters the flock, defending and winning his bride. This second 40 years was very different to the first. But it's so important.

Redemption will not come through Moses' power politics. He will not 'play the game' and become an inside man in the Egyptian system. And neither will he simply be the insurrectionist bringing redemption through earthly violence. Both forms of worldly power are taken out of the equation.

From v23 the camera focuses in on the Israelite's only hope - not their 'great' man, but their gracious God:

the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 God saw the people of Israel - and God knew. (ESV)

God heard. God remembered. God saw. And God knew. What wonderful verbs! Meditate on these today.

And what an awesome Subject for these verbs - repeated every time for emphasis. It is God's action that will bring about redemption. And He is not a callous or indifferent God. The Father Almighty is not deaf, forgetful, blind or ignorant. The cries of His children 'come up' to Him.

We may question His rejection of earthly power and the intollerable wait. But Exodus 2 teaches us something crucial: Though our Father does not redeem according to our wisdom or timing, He does redeem according to His own - according to His own covenant promises and character.

And His response - so typical! - is to send His Angel (chapter 3), the true Saviour and Hero of the Exodus.

Exodus Overview

GlenFebruary 17, 2010Leave a comment

by Glen Scrivener

Jesus... saved a people out of the land of Egypt. (Jude 5)

Here's where we begin our Lenten blog through Exodus - Jude's 10 word overview. At its heart is the truth: Jesus saves from slavery. That's what Exodus is all about.

In today's introduction to the book, I'll try to expand on this one thought just a little. I will focus on the who of Exodus rather than the what. Today the focus is not on Moses or Pharoah or the plagues or the Red Sea or the law or the tabernacle - that's for another time. First we'll tackle the crucial issue: Who is the LORD who redeems Israel?

Given that this is precisely how the God of the Old Testament defines Himself - 'the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt' - getting this question right is absolutely vital.

We begin at the non-burning bush - Exodus 3.

burning bush

Here the Angel of the LORD (v2) confronts Moses. This Sent One from the LORD is Himself "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (v6). He is God from God and He calls Himself “I AM WHO I AM.” (v14)

This is important to note because verse 12 may just be the book's theme sentence:

"But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain." (Ex 3:12)

The Angel does not say “God will go with you and you will worship God.” Nor does He say “I will go with you and you will worship Me.” No, the Angel is the saving LORD (see Judges 2:1-5) and He relates the people to Another.

Jesus saves a people and brings them to worship God on the mountain. The Son redeems a people for the Father. That is what Exodus is all about. And the rest of the book is the playing out of this truth.

pillar cloud As the people come out of Egypt - there He is in the pillar of cloud/fire. At one point He's called the LORD (13:21,22) at another, 'the Angel of God' (14:19,20). The Sent One who is God is the redeeming LORD.

When He brings them to the mountain (as promised) He makes sure they are prepared to meet the LORD:

The LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, 'Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death. (Ex 19:10-12)

Here the LORD who has carried them on eagle's wings is on the mountain. And he's warning the people about how dangerous it will be when the LORD meets them on the mountain. If this were some unitarian god it would be strange talk indeed but we know that the divine Angel is the LORD who is bringing them to meet God (the Father) on the mountain (Ex 3:12).

As Deuteronomy 4 and 5 underline, the encounter on Sinai was utterly unique (e.g. Deut 4:15; 5:26).

giving law

No-one had ever heard 'the living God' speaking out of fire on the mountain as they did on that third day.

Now of course Moses had heard the I AM speaking out of fire on that very mountain (Exodus 3). But this is different. This is the unseen LORD. This is the Most High God and it has taken 70 chapters of the bible - it has taken the mighty redemption of the Angel - to make this kind of encouter possible.

And just when you thought Exodus might finish in chapter 19, the people don't actually go up the mountain at the trumpet blast (Ex 19:13). Instead Moses goes up on their behalf (cf Deut 5:27; 18:15,16).

Everything will now be presented by intermediaries, shadows, types - such is the very essence of the old covenant introduced on Sinai.

The second half of Exodus is mainly Moses on the mountain, in the cloud, receiving the law and the tabernacle blueprint from the unseen LORD.

Attention turns to the future as the unseen LORD promises Moses that the Angel will continue to deliver them (Ex 23:20-23). They can trust Him because the name of the unseen LORD is in Him (Ex 23:21). It is the Angel who commands, leads and forgives the Israelites.

But perhaps Moses wasn't listening in chapter 23 because in 33:12 he says:

"See, you say to me, 'Bring up this people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me."

The Angel had brought them thus far. Who would continue to lead them?

The unseen LORD replies:

"My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." (33:14)

Who is this 'Presence'?

The word 'Presence' is the word for face and it recalls a very memorable phrase from the previous chapter.

In Exodus 33:7-11 we hear about what used to happen. We leave the mountain-top briefly to be told how Moses used to meet with the LORD down on ground level. At that time he'd go to the tent of meeting and speak with the LORD "face to face as a man speaks with his friend."

That was the 'face to face' LORD at ground level. But when Moses is on the mountain, the unseen LORD reassures Moses that the Face (Presence) would continue to go with them. Moses considers this to be absolutely essential - if the Presence doesn't go with them he'd rather just perish in the wilderness (33:15). Give me Jesus or give me death!

Having been encouraged greatly, Moses is now bold enough to ask something with echoes of Philip's request in John 14. Now he wants to see the glory of the unseen LORD (v18)!

The LORD’s reply is very telling: He would pass in front of Moses, He would proclaim His name, but, 33:20,

"you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."

Again in v22 He emphasizes

“my face must not be seen.”

Now Moses is not an idiot. He's just recounted the incident in the tent of meeting (33:7-11) for a reason. He's deliberately distinguishing the ground-level appearing LORD with the mountain-top unseen LORD. But he distinguishes them so as to intimately relate them.

Because as soon as Moses hears the name of the Unseen LORD (Ex 34:5-7) he exclaims:

"If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us." (Ex 34:9)

When he hears the name of the Most High God he asks Him to send the Lord in their midst. The name of the LORD is in the Angel who is in their midst (Ex 23:21). So when Moses hears this gospel character he knows he's experienced this very name in the Angel.

The seen LORD who has accompanied them is everything that the unseen LORD proclaims when He reveals His name. And so Moses asks the Father to send the Son in their midst - the redeeming Lord-from-Lord.

Moses’ plea of 34:9 is granted and, at the end of Exodus, the Glory / Presence / LORD fills the tabernacle and directs all their travels (40:34-38).

pillar cloud tabernacle

We see throughout the Old Testament that the Presence of the LORD did indeed remain with the people.

Numbers 9:15-23 is one example out of many showing the seen LORD going in the midst of His people. Number 14 says that even the surrounding nations knew that the Face-to-Face / Eye-to-Eye LORD travelled with the Israelites and fought for them (Num14:13f).

When Solomon finally builds a Temple for the Name of the LORD, the LORD fills it in exactly the same way as He filled the tabernacle in Exodus 40. This LORD appears to Solomon in 1 Kings 9 and to Isaiah in chapter 6.

If we were in any doubt as to who this Divine Person is, the Apostle John settles all dispute: “Isaiah said this [referring to Isaiah 6] because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.” (John 12:41)

In the fulness of time this LORD - this Angel of the covenant, this sought after and desired Redeemer - would come in a definitive judgement and salvation (Mal 3:1ff).

Jesus has always been the saving, ground-level, appearing LORD, mediating perfectly the saving plan and character of His Father.

Jude was speaking absolutely plainly and straightforwardly - Jesus is the LORD who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt. In other words He is the God of the Old Testament. Exodus is a wonderful demonstration of this foundational truth.

We'll look at chapter 1 tomorrow...

All Exodus posts here

Evangelists and Apologists note: The six things that have already happened

GlenFebruary 13, 2010Leave a comment

Through Christ, the Triune God has already revealed Himself unmistakably in every aspect of creation so that humanity is without excuse.
Against Christ, humanity has taken knowledge into its own hands and so barred the door against all claims from above.
In view of Christ, God has handed humanity over to its chosen futility, locking the door from His side too.
In Christ, God has entered this prison and manifested His eternal glory in time and space, even in human flesh.
As Christ, humanity now has a perfect mind with which to comprehend God (and everything else) - one that is not only human but also in God.
Out of Christ, His Spirit has been poured to incorporate us into the Man who knows.

This is what has already happened.

Here's what happens when we forget 1:

We think:

That the universe is basically mute (when actually it's preaching day and night)
That humanity is not really deaf - they're listening hard but the sermon's too quiet
That we, therefore, have to piece together proofs to amplify the sermon
That 'evidence' for God exists only in some limited aspects of the creation (e.g. fine-tuning)
That there are certain obvious pointers to "God" but 'Jesus' and 'Trinity' are actually pretty obscure
Therefore, that evangelism is a three-part process from creation to God to Jesus. (It's the very opposite!)

Here's what happens when we forget 2:

We think:

That humanity (or at least some humans) are actually truth seekers
That the mind is somehow less fallen than the rest of the person (rather than the centre of our enmity)
That fallen humanity is genuinely questing after the capital-T Truth when it makes its enquiries
That the way forward is to agree to their own systems of truth verification
Therefore that we need to find 'evidence' to submit to their systems

Here's what happens when we forget 3:

We think:

Perhaps if our faulty grasping after knowledge was the problem, our true grasping after knowledge will be the solution. (Instead we should realize that the grasping was the problem!)
If we now reason properly we can reverse the fall. (But no, God has confirmed our decision and locked the door from His side).
Maybe God is pleased by our efforts to ascend to knowledge (rather than thwarting them - catching the 'wise' in their craftiness)
Maybe God will aid our efforts to shepherd an unbeliever up the mountain. (In His grace, He might aid the unbeliever but not our efforts)

Here's what happens when we forget 4:

We think:

Christ is the cherry on the epistemological cake.
We can (or even should) should reason from creation to Christ (rather than Christ to creation).
Christ is one relevation among many (rather than the one Lens through which all must be seen)

Here's what happens when we forget 5:

We think:

There remains within Adamic humanity a capacity for knowing God (rather than realizing that this capacity lies in Christ alone).
That the quality of our conversion, or ongoing knowledge of God, finally depends on our own reasoned response to God. (At base it relies on Christ's reasoned response to God).
Christians are rational individuals raised to a higher intellectual plain (rather than fools united to a Person who is Wisdom).
Once we have come to Christ we can know God autonomously. (No, only in Him by the Spirit can we go on knowing God)

Here's what happens when we forget 6:

We think:

Maybe we need Jesus to bring us to God, but it's up to us to get to Jesus. (No, it's the sovereign work of the Spirit through the gospel word).
Maybe there are ways and means to get to Jesus apart from the Spirit-empowered word. (No. While the whole universe screams 'Jesus is Lord', the Spirit unblinds our eyes to these things only as He shows us Christ in the word).

.........................................

So then, these six events have already happened. Acting like they haven't happened or they need bolstering by our own efforts betrays the gospel that we proclaim.

The only thing that needs to happen now and the only thing that can happen now to remedy our situation is for the Spirit to sweep the unbeliever up into the Son's knowledge of the Father.

And, lest we divorce the Spirit from the word, the only means by which the Spirit does that is the gospel word.

So get proclaiming.

Faith alone in Christ alone

GlenFebruary 9, 2010Leave a comment

From a recent comment:

How does Christ's work and our faith relate?

What we don’t want to say is that Christ’s sacrifice brings 99 units of salvific merit and my faith brings 1 unit of salvific merit and between His contribution and mine I have accumulated the necessary 100 units.

Even if we say the blood of Christ is 999,999 units and ours is only 1 we have put our faith up where it doesn’t belong. We have made our faith into a work – a contribution towards salvation.

To say “faith alone” is another way of saying “Christ alone” – it is to say our salvation lies entirely outside of us (and therefore outside of our ‘works’). Instead salvation lies entirely in Christ. A ‘faith alone’ person rests in the fact that the blood of Jesus has done everything. But of course we’re not resting in the blood of Jesus alone if we have added our faith into the salvific equation. In that case we would be trusting in “Christ plus our trust.” We then become (to some degree) the objects of our saving faith and not Christ alone!

Let me reiterate. Faith is absolutely essential. A person is not saved if they are not resting in Jesus. But this ‘faith’, this ‘resting in Jesus’ is not our contribution to the equation. It’s a description of what happens when Jesus ’sweeps you off your feet.’ It’s falling in love. It’s being conquered by the gospel.

Faith is not a thing [Thawed out Thursday] 15

GlenFebruary 4, 201015 Comments

A while back Matt Jenson wrote a brilliant short essay entitled: Faith is nothing at all. Do read it if you haven't already, it won't take long.

We must constantly remind ourselves that faith is not a thing. It is not a possession by which we make claim to salvation. Faith is the absence of a thing - it is the confession of a complete lack. To even ask 'Am I having faith?' is already an unbelieving question for faith is looking away to Christ.

If you make faith into a thing you run into problems. Either you have to make it an imputed substance which God grants arbitrarily (in order to uphold sovereign grace). Or you make it a legitimate factor contributing to our salvation. Sounds quite like many Calvinist-Arminian debates right? In many (certainly not all, but in many) of these debates you can see both sides making this mistake: they begin by considering faith to be a thing. And from this premise, one side is in danger of making salvation a matter of divine caprice unrelated to Christ. The other side begins from the same premise and makes salvation a matter of self-effort (and again Christ's position is diminished). But both have begun down the wrong track. They've thought of faith as a thing and then they've got into trouble figuring out how a gracious salvation can be 'by' this thing. We must remember though: Faith is not a thing.

Alan Torrance is fond of pointing out that reformers like John Knox spoke very little about 'salvation by faith alone.' Instead he spoke of salvation 'by the blood of Christ alone.' Why? Because he didn't want anyone thinking that faith was the 'thing' that saved. 'Faith alone' makes sense only in the context of 'Christ alone.' 'Faith alone' is the subjective correlate of the objective salvation in Christ alone - it cannot be considered apart from it. To do so is to risk seeing faith as a thing.

Similarly Mike Reeves points out that Martin Luther's favourite phrase for declaring our gracious salvation was not salvation 'by faith alone' but salvation 'by God's Word' alone. Again, faith is not the 'thing' that saves and 'faith alone' is not possession of the single savingly significant substance. (I suspect Luther would have trouble saying this phrase - especially after his fifth Wittenberg ale!).

Faith is, in Anders Nygren's memorable phrase, 'being conquered by the gospel.' Note how passive this image is. Faith is a description of what has happened to the person who's been overwhelmed by Christ in His word. It is not a thing.

Anyway, check out Matt Jenson's article.

Christ in the Wilderness 1 18

GlenJanuary 23, 201018 Comments

In Matthew 4:1-11, Christ is driven by the Spirit into the desert. In His battle with Satan, Christ is like Adam, like Israel and like David.

Like Adam, the devil confronts Him with audible temptations to doubt God's word and eat. And like Adam the fate of humanity rests on His shoulders.

Like Israel, He is called 'Son of God', and goes through the waters straight into a wilderness trial. Where they caved in to temptation over 40 years, Christ would be the true Israel, resisting temptation over 40 days.

Like David, He's just been anointed and now faces a giant, man-to-man, whose 40 days of taunts reproach the God of Heaven. And like David, Christ's victory would mean victory for His people.

Adam failed. Israel failed. But Christ, the anointed King goes to battle for His people. He steps up as Adam - the True Man. As the Son of God - the True Israel. As David - our Spirit-filled Champion. And through apparent weakness He slays the giant who has dismayed and defeated us at every turn. His triumph is our triumph.

Christ's temptations are not in Scripture to model for us a three point primer in spiritual warfare! They narrate for us the actual victory of our Anointed Champion. This is not Jesus your Example. Not primarily. This is Jesus who has taken your humanity to Himself, who has become Himself the true people of God and who has waged war on our behalf.

If you only see 'Jesus our Example' you lose the gospel and put yourself at centre stage. If you see 'Jesus our Champion' you get the example thrown in. But fundamentally your eyes are taken from yourself and fixed where they should be:

When Satan tempts me to despair

And tells me of the guilt within

Upward I look and see HIM there

Who made an end of all my sin

Christ in the Wilderness 2

Christ in the Wilderness 3

Christ in the Wilderness 4

Christ in the Wilderness 5

Three more thoughts on penal substitution

GlenJanuary 10, 2010Leave a comment

Further to the discussion here...

1. The early church taught a substitutionary, propitiatory, sacrificial death as the key to Christ's 'sweet exchange' with sinners.

e.g. For Irenaeus, Christ's filling out of Adam's distorted image necessitates a 'filling up of the times of his disobedience' (Ad. Her. III.21.1). In taking on Adam’s substance, He took on Adam’s curse, satisfying it at the cross, ‘propitiating indeed for us the Father, against Whom we had sinned’ (V.17.1) and ‘redeeming us by His own blood' (V.14.3).

For Athanasius the curse of Genesis 2:17 is key. The Word becomes incarnate in order to take a body capable of death “so that in His death all might die, and the law of death thereby be abolished." (De Incarn. 8) Moreover this death is specifically a sacrifice (ch9; 10; 20) made under God’s curse (ch25).

2. Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA) cannot mean a disruption to the Father-Son love since God's wrath is an aspect of His love. Perhaps if we thought that wrath was some other thing, divorced from love, then we might say that God's wrath poured out at the cross breaks the Father-Son union. But no, if God is love and if this wrath is a reaction of love to the sin that Christ had become, then there is no danger of breaking the homoousios.

3. PSA means God saves us from God. It says that the ultimate problem facing humanity is not death or corruption or sin or the devil but God Himself. Sin is not our real problem - wrath is. We need to be saved from the Judge Himself. And we can only be saved by the Judge Himself - the Judge judged no less. Certainly Christ ransoms us from all those lesser powers (and therefore certainly there is a place for Christus Victor etc). But that's not the ultimate meaning of salvation. It's a divine curse, a divine judgement, divine wrath from which we must be delivered. PSA takes this with the seriousness it deserves.