Category: Blog

On Sunday evenings, our church has been studying what the Bible says about how God saves people. We’ve considered God’s intention in salvation as it relates to doctrines such as election as well as God’s purpose in evangelism. We’ve seen that these twin purposes of God work together to accomplish the same glorious end.

However, we also need to consider God’s desire in salvation. The general desire of God to save sinners is distinguished in Scripture from His ultimate intention, which cannot be thwarted.

God’s will of desire is not the same as God’s ordained will of decree. For example, God desires that all people wouldn’t sin, but all people do in fact sin; therefore, this desire of God is not based on His sovereign will of intention, but rather on His stated will of desire.

When God wills something with His sovereign will of decree, that thing will happen. God created the heavens and the earth by His sovereign will of decree and it came to be for His good pleasure. God’s sovereign will of decree in salvation is that all whom the Father gives to Jesus for salvation will in fact come to Jesus (Jn. 6:37). Nothing can thwart this purpose.

We’ve also seen that Christians have been sent by their Savior with a great invitation. Our God is a missionary God. He sends His people into the world to make the gospel known to all.

The Father sent His one and only Son from His heavenly throne down to the “far country” where we live. He came to redeem a people for Himself; to purchase redemption for every person given by the Father to the Son. This was God’s intention in sending His Son to earth.

The invitation to believe the gospel, to come to Christ, to repent of sins, to be saved by grace through faith goes out to every nation and to every individual under heaven.

The same God who ordained the doctrine of election is the same God who ordained biblical evangelism as His chosen means of bringing every one of His elect to Himself. Both of these truths reflect the explicit teaching of Scripture.

According to the Bible, no one is able to respond to the gospel unless God enables them to do so (Jn 6:44, 65; Mt 11:25-27, Eph 2:1-9). This too is explicitly taught in Scripture.

However, God does desire the salvation of all people in a general sense and God is the Savior of all people in a general albeit temporal sense.

1 Timothy 2:1-4 and 4:10 are often used as proof-texts to deny the particular redemption of God’s elect. These verses appear to teach that God wants to save everybody, but He can’t for reasons beyond His control (i.e. “the free will of man”).

Those who believe that God intended to save everybody have to add that second clause to escape the charge of universalism. Yet that’s exactly where general atonement leads when you read verses guaranteeing the salvation of Christ’s sheep and then apply it universally, the logical conclusion is universalism.

Clark Pinnock is a modern example of a Bible “scholar” who once held to a biblical view of theology and even biblical inerrancy, but then he began to question some of the hard truths of Scripture. He gradually moved from a reformed view of the sovereignty of  God toward Arminianism, then toward Pelagianism, then open-theism, and eventually he embraced universalism.

But why should anyone be surprised at this? Each step leads logically (and theologically) to the next step. Pinnock is just being honest in going where his theology has led him.

So we shouldn’t shrink from addressing these difficult texts in their context to understand what God is saying to us in these wonderful verses. We’ll find that God is the Savior of the world in a general sense, but nothing is beyond His control, especially in His intention to save His elect.

Keep in mind, we must take every doctrine of the faith and every belief and we must relate it to every verse of Scripture so that its shape and form will be biblical.

As a basic rule of biblical interpretation, the explicit teaching of Scripture always controls our interpretation of the implicit teaching of Scripture. Therefore, an implicit (or paradoxical) verse of Scripture must not be used to overthrow the clear meaning of an explicit teaching in Scripture.

These verses (1 Timothy 2:1-4 and 4:10) could be used by universalists if they let the implicit teaching (what the verse appears to say) overrule the explicit teaching of the rest of the New Testament where universalism is clearly denied.

But again, this method of distorted interpretation isn’t possible without doing great violence to the clear teaching of Scripture throughout the rest of the Bible.

That said, let’s look at what 1 Timothy 2:1-4 and 4:10 are actually telling us.

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, ² for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. ³ This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, ⁴ who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” [1 Tim 2:1-4, ESV]

Later, in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 10 says…

“For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” [1 Tim 4:10, ESV]

Combining these two passages, we read that God desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth and that God is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Are these verses the definitive rejection of the doctrines of election and definite atonement?

Only if you believe that the Bible contradicts itself or if you interpret the explicit teachings of Scripture by means of the implicit. Both of these approaches will lead you into error.

In 1 Timothy 2:4, God says through Paul that He is “our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

There are three things to notice in this verse. First, Paul is addressing a situation in Ephesus where some teachers may have denied that God is the Savior of the world in a general sense.

In Ephesus, Caesar was worshiped as the “protector, provider, and savior” of the people of the empire. Paul wants the church at Ephesus and the world at large to know that God is truly the Protector of the world, the Provider for the world, and the Savior (or deliverer) of the world.

Paul refers to God as our Savior throughout First Timothy (1:1; 2:4; 4:10). He wants the world to know that God desires all men to come under the wings of His salvation and deliverance.

Second, In 1 Timothy 2:4 the word “desire” is from the word thelo. Thelo reflects God’s will of desire which flows from His feeling and inclination. God is inclined to save anybody. It’s God’s nature to save as an act of grace, not because people deserve to be saved by Him.

But there’s another word for God’s determined sovereign will; that’s the wordboulomai. This will (or desire) comes from God’s precise determination; it inexorably fulfills God’s intention without fail.

So 1 Timothy 2:4 is referring to God’s inclination to save anyone, not to His actual sovereign intention (as is the case for God’s elect, 1 Timothy 4:10).

Third, the phrase “all people” in 1 Timothy 2:4 is used in the same context as “all people” in 1 Timothy 2:1 – “I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people…”

The “all people” in this context doesn’t refer to every single individual. He isn’t saying that our prayer list should be an exhaustive and tedious register of every name of every individual in the world. That would be impossible, since we don’t know every name or every person.

What he means in 2:1 by “all people” is all kinds of people. We should pray for all kinds of people in the world, for all types of people. Then Paul enumerates some of the kinds of people for whom we should pray in particular: “for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Tim. 2:2).

Then in verse 4 of this same chapter, the phrase “all people” is used again the same way. God desires and is inclined to save all kinds of people, all types of people in the world. And this is in fact what the rest of Scripture describes.

Revelation 5:9 says of Christ, “for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…”

God is saving people from every nation and people group in the world. People are coming to Christ out of paganism, out of dead religions, out of Roman Catholicism, out of the Hindu and Muslim religions, out of atheism… all kinds of people are being drawn to the Savior.

Then in 1 Timothy 4:10, when God says through Paul, that He “is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” He is referring to the salvation of all kinds of people in one sense, and in a second sense he’s referring to salvation as God’s benevolent temporal deliverance of all people (i.e. common grace), but especially as Savior of those who actually believe.

So he distinguishes between general deliverance by God as the Savior of all people from God’s particular saving work in the lives of those who actually believe the gospel. That’s the difference between temporal common grace and sovereign election when it comes to salvation. 

When we exposit through First Timothy later this year, we’ll cover these verses in the context of Paul’s instruction to Timothy, but this overview of two verses from that epistle provides a general understanding of how implicit verses are to be interpreted in light of the explicit verses regarding God’s will of desire and His sovereign will of intention.

With love in the Truth,
Pastor Kevin

 

I was recently given a copy of, “Hymns For a Modern Reformation,” a collection of hymns written by the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice. What a treasure!

After reading each of the hymns and seeing the beauty of the lyrics, I quickly began searching online for the music so I could appreciate the full grandeur of these compositions.

I bought the MP3 audio files and loaded them onto my iPod and began listening. Glorious! I hope to be using some of these hymns in our worship services soon.

But perhaps the most moving aspect was the introduction at the beginning of the hymn booklet. It was written after Dr. Boice entered glory by the composer of the music, Dr. Paul Steven Jones, who was also the organist at Boice’s church, Tenth Presbyterian in Philadelphia.

I was so moved to read of Boice’s growing passion for writing hymns so late in his pilgrimage as cancer ravaged his mortal frame. There were times when he was too weak to eat and too sick to even drink water, yet he found strength and joy in writing hymns based on Scriptures he loved.

During the final days of his journey, he had become too sick to preach or even attend church services. However, on one Sunday when the children’s choir was to sing one of his last hymns, he summoned the strength to get to church where he lifted himself into the choir loft to be near the young musicians. He came to listen with God’s people to the song he had written.

The organist was amazed to see Boice lifting himself up the stairs to sit quietly out of sight. When they made eye contact, Boice was beaming with joy from ear to ear! Although he was no longer able to stand and preach, he was able to minister through writing these hymns.

Moved with emotion, I thanked God for examples like this. My heart was lifted in worship. I’m thankful for men of honor and character who serve their Master in their own generation.

That same day, I was also stunned and saddened to read the news account of a pastor in Mississippi, in the same town where I once ministered, who had been arrested for downloading child pornography at a public library computer. My heart sank with grief.

The juxtaposition of joy over the glorious example of James Boice in his final days writing music to the glory of God while cancer was destroying his body – and then the sickening heartache of another pastor carrying out his lust with loathsome hypocrisy was more than I could mentally or spiritually digest in one day.

Yet our Lord sees it all. He knows every act and every inclination of the human heart, and still He is patient and longsuffering with us. He is waiting until the time when all of His ransomed people finally come to repentance so that none of them will ultimately perish.

Until that day which the Lord has set by His own authority, you and I must faithfully continue. We live in a world that has both the brilliance of authentic faith – which is a joy to the believing heart – as well as the sadness of sin in an ever darkening generation.

May our lives and our examples be those that make heaven smile as we minister amidst those whose choices in this life make the righteous weep.

For His glory,
Pastor Kevin

 

There are many articles of faith that are fundamental to all evangelical teaching. For example, there is agreement among all believers on the following truths:

(1) Christ’s death purchased eternal salvation;

(2) the saved are justified by grace through faith in Christ alone;

(3) sinners cannot earn divine favor;

(4) God requires no preparatory works or pre-salvation reformation;

(5) eternal life is a gift of God;

(6) believers are saved before their faith ever produces any righteous works; and

(7) Christians can and do sin, sometimes horribly.

There is a dangerous distortion of the gospel being taught in many evangelical churches today. It teaches that Christians may completely abandon Christ, the church, the Bible, and live in unrepentant sin for the rest of their lives and yet still be assured of eternal life with God.

This teaching is sometimes referred to as “easy-believism.”

What does Scripture teach that is embraced by those who affirm a biblical view of regeneration and conversion but rejected by proponents of “easy-believism”? The following are nine distinctives of a biblical understanding of salvation and the gospel.

First, Scripture teaches that the gospel calls sinners to faith joined in oneness with repentance (Acts 2:38; 17:30; 20:21; 2 Pet. 3:9). Repentance is a turning from sin (Acts 3:19; Luke 24:47) that consists not of a human work but of a divinely bestowed grace (Acts 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25). It is a change of heart, but genuine repentance will also effect a change of behavior (Luke 3:8; Acts 26:18-20).

In contrast, easy-believism teaches that repentance is simply an intellectual change of thought and that no turning from sin is required for salvation. Many churches have adopted this view in contrast to what Scripture teaches. Grace is being viewed as a cover for unrepentant license and licentiousness.

Second, Scripture teaches that salvation is all God’s work. Those who believe are saved utterly apart from any effort on their own (Titus 3:5). Even faith is a gift of God, not a work of man (Eph. 2:1-5, 8). Because it comes from God and not man, real faith cannot be defective or short-lived but endures forever (Phil. 1:6; cf. Heb. 11).

In contrast, easy-believism teaches that faith might not last and that a true Christian can completely cease believing and yet still be assured of salvation and entry into heaven with or without faith.

Third, Scripture teaches that the object of faith is Christ Himself, not a creed or an experience or an altar call or a sinners’ prayer (John 3:16). Faith (belief) therefore involves personal commitment to Christ (2 Cor. 5:15). In other words, all true believers follow Jesus (John 10:27-28).

In contrast, easy-believism teaches that saving faith is simply being convinced or giving credence to the truth of the gospel and doesn’t include a personal commitment to the person of Christ in terms of daily life and practice.

Fourth, Scripture teaches that real faith always produces a changed life (2 Cor. 5:17). Salvation includes a transformation of the inner person (Gal. 2:20). The nature of the Christian is new and different (Rom. 6:6). The unbroken pattern of sin and enmity with God will not continue when a person is born again (1 John 3:9-10).

Those with genuine faith follow Christ (John 10:27), love their brothers (1 John 3:14), obey God’s commandments (1 John 2:3; John 15:14), do the will of God (Matt. 12:50), abide in God’s Word (John 8:31), keep God’s Word (John 17:6), do good works (Eph. 2:10), and continue in the faith (Col. 1:21-23; Heb. 3:14). These are not without failures and shortcomings, yet true believers continue to pursue righteousness throughout this life.

In contrast, easy-believism teaches that although some spiritual fruit may come, that fruit might not be visible to others and Christians can even lapse into a state of permanent spiritual barrenness (again with assurance of salvation and eternal union with God in heaven).

Fifth, Scripture teaches that God’s gift of eternal life includes all that pertains to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 8:32), not just a ticket to heaven when we die.

In contrast, according to easy-believism, only the judicial aspects of salvation (e.g., justification, adoption, and positional sanctification) are guaranteed for believers in this life; practical sanctification and growth in grace require a post-conversion act of dedication. Yet the Bible never teaches that sanctification involves a secondary post-conversion act of dedication.

The same faith that justifies a sinner before God is the same faith that also sanctifies. Without sanctifying faith there has been no justifying faith. True faith does both. They are two sides of the same coin. Where there is one, the other is also present.

Sixth, Scripture teaches that Jesus is Lord of all, and the faith He provides enables unconditional surrender of the will to Him (Rom. 6:17-18; 10:9-10). In other words, Christ has not bestowed eternal life on those whose hearts remain set against Him (James 4:6). More people don’t enter heaven simply because we change the terms of salvation. People don’t come to faith as a result of our redefining the gospel.

Surrender to Jesus’ lordship is not an addition to salvation; the command to submit is at the heart of the gospel invitation throughout Scripture. In contrast, easy-believism teaches that submission to Christ’s supreme authority is not relevant to the saving transaction and they give assurance to those who are unrepentant about their sin.

Seventh, Scripture teaches that those who truly believe will love Christ (1 Pet. 1:8-9; Rom. 8:28-30; 1 Cor. 16:22). They will therefore long to obey Him (John 14:15, 23). In contrast, easy-believism teaches that Christians may fall into a state of lifelong carnality without repentance.

Eighth, Scripture teaches that behavior is an important test of faith. Obedience is evidence that one’s faith is real (1 John 2:3). On the other hand, the person who remains utterly unwilling to obey Christ does not evidence true faith (1 John 2:4).

In contrast, easy-believism teaches that disobedience and prolonged sin are no reason to doubt the reality of one’s faith.

Ninth, Scripture teaches that genuine believers may stumble and fall, but they will persevere in the faith (1 Cor. 1:8). Those who later turn completely away from the Lord show that they were never truly born again (1 John 2:19).

In contrast, easy-believism teaches that a true believer may utterly forsake Christ and come to the point of not believing without repentance. They teach that if a person ever professed faith in Christ they are eternally saved even though they have become apostates to the faith once delivered to the saints.

No major orthodox movement in the history of Christianity has ever taught that sinners can spurn the lordship of Christ yet lay claim to Him as Savior.

Yet this is being taught in many evangelical churches in America today. The result is a corruption of the gospel which leads lost people to think they’re saved even when no change has taken place in their heart. It leads people to think that God accepts them on their own terms and lets them rule their lives without regard to Him.

This is a critical issue in the church. I have spent hours in conversation and in written correspondance with people who believe this way. I am astonished that this is actually being taught!

This issue is not a trivial one. In fact, how could any issue be more important? The gospel that is presented to unbelievers has eternal ramifications.

If it is the true gospel, it can direct men and women into the everlasting kingdom. If it is a corrupted message, it can give unsaved people false hope and leave them unaware of their impending damnation apart from genuine faith in Christ.

This is an issue that every Christian must understand in order that the gospel may be rightly proclaimed to all the nations.

With love in the Truth,
Pastor Kevin

 

“And he made from one man every nation of mankind
to live on all the face of the earth, having determined
allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,
that they should seek God, in the hope that they might
feel their way toward him and find him.”
[Acts 17:26-27, ESV]

As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands; no one seeks for God.
[Romans 3:10-11, ESV]

Who is the seeker in the relationship between God and man? Acts 17 seems to suggest that all men are capable of seeking God, but Romans 3:11 clearly states that no one seeks God.

Whenever we see a lack of harmony between two passages of Scripture we always interpret the less understandable passage in light of the more understandable passages. Or, to say it another way, we interpret the implicit in light of the explicit.

In this instance, Romans 3:11 where Paul is quoting Psalm 14 is very clear: “No one seeks God…” This refers to all humanity apart from faith in Christ.

In the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, whenever God calls people to “seek Him with all their heart,” it is always given to people who have already received His revelation and have a knowledge of the God who calls them to seek Him.

In other words, Israel already knew enough about God to know what it meant to return to Him and “seek” Him. In James 4:8, God exhorts drifting Christians to “draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”

In contrast, God never tells pagan nations (who have never received His word or a knowledge of who He is) to seek Him; God presents Himself in both the OT and the NT as the ultimate “Seeker” who seeks and saves the lost (John 4:23). He does this according to His own good pleasure.

In Acts 17:26-27 Luke is saying that men have no excuse for not knowing about God because He has revealed Himself in man’s conscience and in the physical world. Apart from the gift of faith all men seek is a god of their own making.

This is why so many lost people are in false religions and cults. Their seeking is not for the one true God, but for a false idea of a god based on their own opinions of what “god” should be.

God’s providential activity as creator, ruler, giver, and controller should move men to seek Him in a natural sense. Reason itself should send them from the greatest effect (the universe) back to the first cause—God.

But so often, they are blind to nature’s witness because they are blind to God. In all that He has done in creating and sustaining the universe, God has revealed Himself to mankind.

Such self-disclosure should encourage men to search for Him and find Him. The natural revelation of God in the human conscience (Rom. 2:14–15) and the physical world leaves all men without excuse (Rom. 1:18ff.), since He is not far from each one of us.

Even those who never heard the gospel are still accountable to God for failing to live up to natural revelation. Had they done so, God would have brought them the special revelation (Scripture) they needed to be saved.

This has been historically documented by countless Christian missionaries who have been sent to lost people groups who were simply responding to the natural revelation they had with obedience.

God brings them the gospel through obedient Christians who preach the Word and spread the gospel around the world. All Christians must obediently spread God’s Word that the lost may be brought to faith in Christ.

With joy in the Seeker,
Pastor Kevin

 

 

Recently, I was asked to explain why I didn’t accept the Roman Catholic teaching on Purgatory. I wanted to share my response with our blog readers. Understanding the problem with a place like Purgatory has everything to do with the meaning of the gospel.

The idea of purgatory is offensive to anyone who understands the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ. In short, I don’t believe there is a place called purgatory for the following reasons:

(1) it is no where taught in Scripture;

(2) it is based on the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church centuries after the apostolic age (even though Catholic history claims the idea of purgatory existed before the apostolic age, this cannot be supported);

(3) when a person dies, according to Scripture, they either go to heaven or to hell; there is no intermediate state (in the OT, “Abraham’s Bosom” was a Jewish idiom for paradise where God is – i.e. heaven);

(4) most importantly there is only one place ever given in Scripture where sins can be purged from believing sinners — that is on the cross of Jesus Christ in His person and through His finished work on our behalf.

To “purge” means to clear of guilt; to free from moral or ceremonial defilement. According to Scripture, this can never be done by man on his own behalf; only God can clear of guilt brought by sin. The Old Testament sacrifices were a shadow of the purging and sacrificial work of Christ on Calvary.

On the cross, all of the sins of every person who would ever believe were purged from us and credited to Jesus; in turn, all of Christ’s perfection, holiness, and righteousness was credited (or imputed) to His people through faith in Him. From the cross Jesus declared, “It is finished!”

Whenever the Bible speaks of believers’ justification, it always speaks of a past-tense event that occurs at the moment of faith: “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).

“Having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (v. 9).”There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Our justification is an accomplished fact, not an unfinished project to be completed by us in purgatory.

No person can suffer to pay for their own sins either in this life or in the life to come. Purgatory is an invention of men and must be rejected for the reasons stated above.

With love in the truth,
Pastor Grant

 

This past week I was going through the boxes in our garage. We recently moved and unloaded half a garage worth of boxes from the other house. So the sorting process continues.

As I looked into several of the boxes to identify the contents, I came across a box of my grandfather’s sermon manuscripts. The one on top was from Mark 3. The typing had faded, but the red ink of my grandfather’s pen was still clear and legible.

What I read in those notes was a declaration of truth. My grandfather was explaining the purpose of Mark’s gospel and was distinguishing it from mere history and mere biography. For me, this was a delightful discovery.

It encourages me that I had a grandfather who studied the Scriptures and sought to convey those truths to others over the course of his long ministry. Now, I’m following in that same line.

I want to be faithful to God’s Word. I’m increasingly aware that the truths and doctrines of Scripture are often under assault even in many parts of the visible church.

When a man is faithful to declare God’s truth on controversial matters he is sometimes thought to be insensitive or contentious. Yet if a man lovingly speaks truth to those in error, he is doing the kindest service to those people.

Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.”

It’s better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, than falsehood that comforts but then kills. It is better to be hated for telling the truth than to be loved for telling a lie.

It is better to be called cruel for being kind, than to be called kind for being cruel. It is better to be divided by truth than united by error.

Martin Luther boldly declared:

“If I, with the loudest voice, and clearest exposition, declare every portion of the word of God, except that little point which the world and devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

I’m grateful to follow in my grandfather’s path where hard truths must be proclaimed and lived out in a world of increasing hostility and animosity toward the gospel.

May all of us remember our high calling in Christ and strive to be faithful to Him and unflinching on the truth in all things. 

Your co-laborer in Christ,
Pastor Kevin

 

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

¹⁹ Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

²⁰ For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. [Mt. 5:17-20, ESV]

Jesus declares that He didn’t come to destroy, or alter, or set aside the moral content of the Old Testament law. In these verses, Jesus is explaining the true meaning of the moral content of Moses’ law and the entirety of the Old Testament (the law and the prophets).

When Jesus speaks of fulfilling the law and the prophets (verse 17), He is indicating that He is the fulfillment of the law in every way (moral, ceremonial, and judicial).

Jesus fulfilled the moral law by keeping it perfectly. He fulfilled the ceremonial law by being the embodiment of everything the law’s types and symbols pointed to. And he fulfilled the judicial law by personifying God’s perfect justice (cf. 12:18, 20).

In verse 18, where Jesus speaks of the duration of the substance of God’s law, He says: “until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

In this statement, Jesus is emphasizing both the inspiration and authority of all Scripture to the end of the ages. God’s Word is perfect and enduring down to the smallest jot and tittle.

In short, Jesus is teaching us that the New Covenant is not the destruction of the Old Covenant; rather, it is nothing less than the perfect fulfillment of it in the person of Jesus Christ.

For example, all the ceremonial requirements of the Mosaic law were fulfilled in Christ (like the Sabbath rest before God) and are no longer to be observed by Christians (Col. 2:16, 17). These observances are only truly kept through faith in Jesus Christ.

In fact, to create a New Testament hybrid of faith combined with ceremonial observations of Judaism is to embrace the shadow while missing the substance! Worse, it is to obscure the gospel.

As Christians, our attempts to keep certain external aspects of the ceremonial law serves only to point others away from Christ as the fulfillment of those aspects rather than to Christ as our perfect fulfillment of God’s righteousness. In fact, such behaviors make people look at us and take the focus away from Christ.

All of the ceremonial laws pointed to Christ. They have all been perfectly fulfilled through His finished work. Yet not one jot or tittle is removed from the law; that is, the underlying truths of those Scriptures remain—and in fact the mysteries behind the observances are now fully revealed in the light of the gospel.

To say that Jesus Christ is God’s law fulfilled on my behalf magnifies Him before the watching world more than my external efforts to conform to some human conception of what keeping the law looks like. This is especially true if they see my joy in the righteousness of Christ and the righteousness of my exercise of Christian liberty.

To say that Jesus Christ is God’s Sabbath kept and fulfilled on my behalf magnifies Him as the accomplishment of all my labors before God for salvation. In Christ, my ceremonial works have been perfectly kept and fulfilled by Him in the sight of God.

Showing the world that Christ is the perfect fulfillment of our Sabbath points to Christ rather than me trying to conform to an external conception of keeping the Sabbath by not eating out at a restaurant on Sunday or not buying merchandise from a retail store on that day.

Those things have absolutely nothing to do with keeping the Sabbath from a Christian perspective. We are to rest from all of our spiritual labors before God through faith in Christ.

A Christian fulfills the Sabbath principle by trusting Christ through faith in His work on our behalf… even if that Christian’s job requires him to work a weekend shift; the Sabbath is only kept through faith in Christ, not by what we do or avoid doing to keep the ceremonial aspects of the law.

The thrust of the New Testament is that no Christian is bound by the ceremonial aspects of Mosaic law; though everyone is bound by the moral aspects of Mosaic law; not for salvation, but for the display of fruits befitting salvation.

Of course, we should also take time to cease from our routine activities as a regular pattern of life for the preservation of our mind and body. We need physical rest. But this physical pattern of rest from routine activities is not the full meaning of Sabbath keeping in the ceremonial law.

Nor is Sunday the “Christian Sabbath.” The first day of the week is the Lord’s Day, not the Sabbath. On the Lord’s Day, Christians are commanded to gather with other believers to worship the Lord through the teaching of His Word. When believers refuse to gather with Christ’s people at church, they’re violating Hebrews 10:24-25.

“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

The purpose of gathering with Christ’s people on the Lord’s Day (Sunday) and of displaying righteousness in our liberty is to make much of Christ as the perfect fulfillment of these ceremonial aspects of the law on our behalf.

Colossians 2:16-18a says, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism…”

The word “asceticism” [ESV] refers to the practice of strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline; austere in appearance, manner, or attitude.

In verse 18, asceticism is used in the sense of false-humility or vain self abasement. Such an approach tends to focus the attention on ourselves. False-humility is pride disguised as virtue.

There are many ways for believers to honor Christ through self-denial in order to protect the weaker brother whose conscience isn’t yet spiritually mature in Christ. This is a good thing. We are also to deny ourselves in terms of laying our independence down and submitting to God.

However, there are forms of self-denial, like asceticism, which are purely external and directed toward ourselves, not for the betterment of others at all. The former self-denial is an act of humility and love; the latter self-denial is self-focused and tends to promote pride.

Asceticism as practiced by some Christians has the effect of saying to the world that God is more honored by our absence of liberty in Christ and by our disdain for righteous pleasure than He is by the wise exercise of our liberty in Christ and our enjoyment of righteous pleasure.

The reason to exercise our righteous liberty in Christ over mere external asceticism isin order to emphasize Christ’s fulfillment of the ceremonial law on our behalf.

Jesus is our law fulfilled! Jesus is our Sabbath perfectly kept before God!

This is what Jesus was teaching in Matthew 5:17-20. The righteousness of Christ is the only righteousness that exceeds the external righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees; and without His righteousness, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

With freedom and joy in Christ,
Pastor Kevin

 

The truth is that you and I are much worse than we think we are… and the gospel is far more powerful and breathtaking and radical than we think it is.

The good news is a message that flattens us. It destroys all theories of human enablement. It obliterates the pride of self-determination. It devastates all notions that we can make the slightest move toward God apart from His intervention on our behalf.

There is absolutely nothing about us that deserves to be saved by God. It is all of grace that it might be all of God. There is absolutely nothing that you or I can contribute to our own salvation (except the sin that makes it necessary).

The gospel is where the greatest unworthiness is embraced and delivered by the greatest love.

The gospel is where the greatest weakness, need, and imperfection is sustained and upborne with the greatest strength, help, and perfection.

The gospel is where the deadest deadness is resurrected by the sovereign King of Life.

The gospel is where the darkest sin is covered and cleansed by the purest holiness.

To truly understand the gospel is to be bereft of all human attempts to earn God’s favor. As long as the natural man imagines that he can somehow incline himself toward God apart from God’s sovereign enablement, he is deceiving himself regarding the depth of his fallen state.

Those who preach and communicate as evangelists and as pastors must guard against the popular notion of asking the lost to “do something” in order to be saved.

The gospel is not a message about what we must do to get to God. Nor is it a message about what God has done that we must decide to cooperate with in order to be saved.

The gospel is the unconditional message about what God has done by His own power and the absolute freedom of His will to bring His people to Himself according to His own sovereign purpose and for His own good pleasure.

He enables the spiritually dead to come alive to Him.

He does this work through the preaching of the Word, which is crystallized in the gospel. The gospel is not a ‘help wanted’ sign inviting the sinner to come and help poor God; the gospel is a ‘help available’ sign to raise spiritually dead people to new life in Christ.

As long as we tell people they must physically do something in order to be saved (walk an aisle, answer ‘yes’ to a series of questions, make a decision, pray a ‘sinners prayer,’ fill out a card, etc.) we have eclipsed the very truth that is magnified throughout Scripture. Not to mention the fact that none of these American ideas are associated with salvation in Scripture.

God alone can save a sinner. Sinners cannot save themselves. They cannot decide apart from God’s enablement (Jn. 6:44; 6:65). They cannot incline themselves toward God by their own free will. The fallen will of man is naturally bound in sin and dead to God; it never chooses God until He raises that sin-bound will to new life through regeneration by the gift of faith.

So the gospel is not a message about what you and I must do to be saved. It is a message about what God has done on our behalf by sending His only begotten Son to die for the sins of all who would ever believe on Him for eternal life.

Christ died for His sheep. He paid the price for the sins of His people and no individual for whom Christ died will ever perish, but all of them will ultimately come to repentance (Jn. 6:37).

They come as the gospel is preached. God uses His Word to redeem His elect and to convict the world of sin. Therefore, preaching the Word is the greatest evangelistic act on the planet.

May God make His Word known to you and through you!

For His Glory,
Pastor Kevin

 

In light of our recent study of the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:1-7, who or what have you determined is your most important love in life?

We know the Christian answer is to say that Jesus is our first love – and He should be.

Yet the reality of the matter is that everything else (mostly good and meaningful things) constantly crowd into the place where Christ alone deserves to be in our priorities.

I realize this is a continual threat for me in ministry. It’s so easy to fill my life with activities that look noble and necessary and even at times sacrificial, but still fail to love Christ with my time and priorities from the heart.

Fortunately for us, He is gracious and forgiving. He remembers that we are frail children of dust and feeble as frail. Most of us are just like Martha in Luke 10:38-42.

Remember Martha’s problem?

Martha was so busy doing things to serve the Lord and others. In fact, she wasdistracted with much serving. Note that: distracted with serving the Lord.

Serving is such a blessed and noble activity. It shows great love to serve others. To some people, serving is the highest form of love – it’s like their predominant love language.

This is such a valuable ministry in the church and in society at large. Those who serve are usually above reproach. Yet Jesus has a word for those who help by serving and laboring.

If Martha was distracted with the noble activity of serving Jesus and others, then there must have been something more worthy of her focus and attention than even the value of serving.

From what was Martha distracted?

Let’s go back to the text in Luke 10:39 where Martha’s sister Mary is described as one “who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His teaching.” Mary’s priority of listening to Jesus and neglecting everything else was a great annoyance to Martha.

Martha even asked Jesus to rebuke her sister for the choice she had made. But instead of rebuking Mary for sitting at His feet, our Lord gently and lovingly rebuked Martha.

Jesus said to Martha in verse 41, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

When spending time at the Lord’s feet and listening to His teaching and just loving Him is the highest goal and priority, then even noble and good things can become distractions to us. Even worthwhile activities can leave us anxious and troubled about many things.

I have certainly had that experience. In fact, I fight this battle on a daily basis.

So how do we repent when we realize that we’re like the church at Ephesus or like Martha in our distracted serving or duty-bound ministry mentality?

How do we make Jesus our first love amid all of our tasks and responsibilities?

First, we need to remember that making our devotion to Christ our number one priority and chief value doesn’t mean we never serve others or do the other activities that are necessary to life.

Instead, we make our time reflect our priorities and values.

What gets the first part of my time? What do I seek to accomplish first? What should get the first part of my time that I may “sit at the Lord’s feet and listen to His teaching”?

How can I show my love for Jesus through my priorities and other activities?

How can I show my love for Jesus in the way I love the people in my family and those who are closest to me?

How can I show my love for Jesus by putting worship with God’s people and devotion to family above recreational activities and leisurely pursuits and entertainment?

Any time we do any activity, we are doing that activity to the neglect of something else. How can I show my love for Jesus by what I deliberately neglect until later?

What are we neglecting that we need to prioritize in our lives beginning today?

What are we doing and pursuing that we need to purposefully neglect or spend less time doing in the days to come?

Every new day is filled with subtle challenges and threats to our most important love.

Growth in this area requires patience and humility as we grow into the men and women Jesus created us to be for Himself.

Now, what’s the next thing you need to do right now that will demonstrate that Jesus is your first love and the most important priority in your life? Choose the good portion which will not be taken away from you.

By His grace,
Pastor Kevin

 

Sometime during my visit to Colorado over the Christmas season, I lost a link in my wrist watch. The watch broke and fell off my wrist. I took it to a watch-smith, but the price seemed too expensive for such a small part.

Ever since then, I’ve been going through my daily routine “watchless” never quite sure what time it is. What started out as an annoyance has actually been a growth experience for me.

Time and time management have always been big factors in my life. I used to work in radio – an environment in which every second had to be used and marketed.

Ever since grammar school days, my personal discipline in the area of time management could be measured in seconds. I’ve always enjoyed being on time for things.

Now that I’ve been without a watch or immediate access to the time of day for a few weeks, some new thoughts have been impressed upon my mind. It’s possible that I had elevated clock time accuracy beyond its overall importance to my life as a follower of Christ.

For example, it’s a fact that neither Jesus nor His apostles ever wore a watch. They lived and worked by the light of the sun. Their days were ordered not simply by the hour, but instead by priority. They had to put first things first. Such thoughts ordered their days.

Then the question dawned on me: What would I do first at any given moment if it didn’t matter what time of day it was?

Would I spend more time in the Bible as a devotional act if the hour was irrelevant? Would I go to bed earlier or try to get more rest at night? Would I spend more time playing with my son before leaving for the office? Would I allow personal visits and conversations to go longer if the amount of time wasn’t being measured?

These questions make me wonder if being efficient hasn’t subtly come at the expense of something greater than efficiency. How many tender moments have I missed with those who are closest to me and dearest to me simply because I’ve been driven and redirected by the clock?

Don’t get me wrong—wise time management is a good and necessary thing. We must be wise in our use of time. And there is great virtue in giving our time in service to others as a regular way of life.

My concern is that the good thing (time management) doesn’t compete against the better thing (personal relationships and unhurried devotional introspection).

This needs to be true of pastors perhaps more than any other group.

After all, the pastorate isn’t a regular 9-to-5 job. The pastorate isn’t like a factory job. There’s no time-clock a pastor punches in and out of for the day. The pastor’s role is united to the pastor’s entire life. It’s a character-based calling requiring many hours of hard labor each day which flavors every hour of every day.

The pastor is to reflect biblical priorities in both his labor as well as his leisure. He must embody pastoral fitness, first in the home and then in the church. He must apply biblical doctrine and wise use of God’s resources both in the pastoral office as well as in the world.

Because the pastoral calling is a way of life based on godly character and not merely a job or a set of duties, the home is the greatest reflection of a man’s fitness for the role. According to Scripture, how a man spiritually directs his own family precedes his labor for the church.

The problem for many pastors in America is that the biblical perspective is at odds with our western view of industry and efficiency. Author Eugene Peterson says pastors are busy because of vanity and laziness. Pastors, of all people, must guard against busyness out of vanity.

It was a favorite theme of C. S. Lewis that only lazy people try to do everything. By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing and establishing values and setting goals, the lazy person lets other people do it for him. He tries to please too many people.

Then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation. We do this to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone.

Busyness is the easiest sin to defend among believers. Outside of the home, have you ever heard someone rebuked for their overcommittment? It’s rare.

I’ll probably get a new watch in the days to come – or repair one of the old ones I have. However, now more than ever, I desire to use time (especially as a pastor) with a different motivation in the years to come.

I want to be a pastor who tends his family well, since the Lord made this the litmus test for how the church is to be shepherded. I want to be a pastor who feeds on Scripture to live and preach well. I want to be a pastor who listens to others. And I want to be a pastor who prays.

Remembering that the hands of Jesus are sovereign over the hands of time,
Pastor Kevin