This first page was
adopted at the 257th Synod of the RCUS meeting in Eureka, South
Dakota, May 19-22, 2003
This
copy is made available by Rev. C. W. Powell
Note: The full report, without this page, was submitted to the 2002 Synod, where no action was taken, but the report was resubmitted to the committee. In 2003, the report was resubmitted without change, except for the following resolutions which were adopted by Synod.
Resolutions:
Resolution 1.: Our Covenant God gives
the responsibility for the education of our covenant children to their parents.
Although the tasks related to education may be delegated, parents may not
abdicate their responsibility by delegating it to either the state, the church,
or to any private educational institution. Grounds: Deuteronomy 6:6-9; Proverbs
22:6; Psalm 78:5-8; Ephesians 6:4.
Resolution 2: The education of our
covenant children receive ought to have as its purpose their being equipped to
fulfil the cultural mandate in the church militant; i.e. personal fellowship and
communion with God, evangelistic and apologetic endeavors, and being salt and
light in the world. In order to achieve these and other purposes to the glory
of God, the knowledge to be gained must be in the context of God as the
Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer and Judge, through Jesus Christ the Mediator, and
the advancement of His Kingdom until the church is triumphant. Grounds: Psalm
111:10; Prov. 1.:7; Prov. 15:33; John 17:1-3; 2 Peter 1:3-11; Eph. 3:14-19;
1John 1:1-5; Romans 1.1:36
Resolution 3: Pastors, elders, and
deacons are called to assist parents in the carrying out of their educational
responsibilities by encouraging and supporting educational endeavors that are
grounded upon the philosophy teaching, and presuppositions of the Reformed
faith as expressed by the Reformed Confessions. As much as is feasible given
the available means, including assistance from the church, covenant parents
ought to seek to provide some form of such covenantal education. Grounds I
Timothy 3:1.5; Prov. 1:20-33; Prov. 2:1-9; Eph. 4:1.1-14 and Heidelberg
Catechism Q/A 103
Resolution 4: That this report, along
with the supplementary material, be made available to the churches of the RCUS.
C. W. Powell, H. Opp, G.
Homer, D. Kauk
Covenant Education
Special Committee
Christian Education and Nurture
Reformed Church in the United States
May, 2002
Contents
Part
One: Creation and Communication, Page 2
Communication
and Fellowship in the Godhead
Fellowship
and Communication in Creation
Part
Two: A Fellowship of Death Page 11
Part Three: The Promise,
Page 16
Part
Four: The Communication of Faith, Page 25
The
Church Not Alienated from God
The New
Conversation of the Church
Part
Five: Spiritual Sacrifices, Page 33
God’s
House Is a House of Prayer
Communication
Is a Two Way Street
Why
Listening Well Is Important for the Church
Part
Six: The Scriptures, Page 39
Communication
with God Is Indirect
Part Seven: The Christian Home, Page 42
Communion
and Conversation in Marriage
Inclusion
of Children in Covenant Communication
Part Eight:
Institutions of Education, Page 45
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the
ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law
doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that
bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and
whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which
the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners
in the congregation of the righteous.
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Part One: Foundation: Creation and Communication
A fundamental contrast between the
true and living God and all idols is given in Habakkuk 2:18-20:
What
profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten
image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to
make dumb idols? Woe unto him that
saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it
is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst
of it. But the LORD is in his holy
temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.
The temples of
idolatry are silent, except for the worshippers. The deaf and dumb idols cannot speak because there is no life and
breath in them. The only communication
is between the worshippers, who are trying to get the wood and stone to speak;
failing that, the devotees speak for them.
Idols are helpless
and pitiful things. They are formed by
the labors of man out of the material that they find. Their helplessness is described by the Psalmist: 115:4-8
Their
idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they
see not: They have ears, but they hear
not: noses have they, but they smell not:
They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not:
neither speak they through their throat.
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in
them.
Worst of all, idols
are silent things. In the houses of the
idol worshippers, the silence is broken only by the voices of men, who pretend
to speak for God. Because their gods
are silent, the voices of the worshippers are voices of lies and deceit and the
idol temples become centers of lies, deceit, and human tragedy.
Contrast this with
the temple of the Lord: "Let all
the earth keep silence before Him."
God speaks from His temple, and men can understand Him, because the
Living God is the only true and speaking God.
Communication is central to the Godhead and, therefore, central to the
universe. We do not live in a silent
and meaningless universe, because the God who made them is not silent.
There are immense
implications for this fundamental idea for Christian education and nurture. But first, let us look at the theological
underpinnings.
Christians confess that God is Three in One. As the Belgic Confession puts it:
According
to this truth and this Word of God, we believe in one only God, who is the one
single essence, in which are three persons, really, truly, and eternally
distinct according to their incommunicable properties; namely, the Father, and
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is the cause, origin, and beginning of
all things visible and invisible; the Son is the word, wisdom, and image of the
Father; the Holy Spirit is the eternal power and might, proceeding from the
Father and the Son. Nevertheless, God is not by this distinction divided into
three, since the Holy Scriptures teach us that the Father, and the Son, and the
Holy Spirit have each His personality, distinguished by Their properties; but
in such wise that these three persons are but one only God.
Hence,
then, it is evident that the Father is not the Son, nor the Son the Father, and
likewise the Holy Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son. Nevertheless, these
persons thus distinguished are not divided, nor intermixed; for the Father has
not assumed the flesh, nor has the Holy Spirit, but the Son only. The Father
has never been without His Son, or without His Holy Spirit. For They are all
three co-eternal and co-essential. There is neither first nor last; for They
are all three one, in truth, in power, in goodness, and in mercy.
To put it another way,
each Person is self-conscious and knows who He is, and Who He is not. The Son knows that He is not the Father and
the Holy Spirit knows that it is the Son who dies on the cross, for instance. But there is more, much more.
Jesus said
in John 5:20 That the Father loves the Son and shows the Son all things. In other words there is a free flow of
information and love between the Father and Son. I Cor. 2:9,10 also includes the Holy Spirit in this free flow of
information, for the Holy Spirit knows the deep things of God. It is impossible for us to know the nature
of this flow of information. It is
enough for us to know that it exists.
Only
rational beings can communicate. There
must be thought before there can be communication, because if thought is absent
there is no true communication. Words
without thought are vain things, meaningless vibrations in the air, like the
mutterings of the insane. Communication
can take place by gestures, pictures, or other ways, but men have developed
very sophisticated ways of communication, which we might expect from a creature
made in God's image.
If man is to be like God, a very high order of knowledge is
required.
Jeremiah
9:23,24: Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither
let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his
riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and
knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and
righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
The highest wisdom,
which must be the foundation of fellowship, is expressed in the words “lovingkindness,
judgment, and righteousness,” which reflect the very nature of God
Himself. That God is love has been the
witness of the Christian faith from Creation, and Abraham, Isaac, and the other
patriarchs spoke of the lovingkindness of God.
God has good will toward men and desires their good and their
salvation. But God also understands
judgment, which is the ability to distinguish between good and evil, between
right and wrong. God exercises judgment
in the earth because He cannot deny Himself.
God cannot approve of that which is contrary to His loving nature, and
He cannot deceive or lie. The word
"judgment" means to render a verdict, to make a decision. God's very nature demands judgment, because
He cannot lie, or do or approve anything that is contrary to the truth which is
His very essence.
Besides lovingkindness
and judgment, man is called to understand that God exercises righteousness. God knows the difference between right and
wrong, because wrong is that which is contrary to His essence and He cannot
deny Himself. Not only is God loving
and true, but He is good. He does that
which is right, according to the truth and holiness that makes is His very essence. This is why sin is defined as that which
comes short of the glory of God (Romans 2:23).
This is contrasted with
the idols in the idol temple, who cannot think, who are not self-conscious, and
have no communication to men. What
comes from the idol temples are lies, the fabrications of men, speaking for the
gods, or the fabrications of lying devils, who pretend to be gods. The images are therefore lying images,
imparting false and deceptive ideas to men.
They are lies in their very essence, for God cannot be imaged.
The true glory of man,
then, lies in understanding, the receiving of true ideas about God. These true ideas are clearly expressed: lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness. But there is even more than this: these things are exercised in the
earth. God is not remote, an unconscious abstraction. Instead, He is active in the earth and His
purpose is to establish lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the
earth. These self-conscious purposes of
God are communicated to men, and men are responsible to receive them and to
understand them.
This self-consciousness
of God in lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness is a Trinitarian
consciousness. In loving Himself, God
is not engaging in autoeroticism, because God is One in Three. The Father loves the Son and the Holy
Spirit; the Holy Spirit loves the Father and the Son; the Son loves the Father
and the Holy Spirit. The Father does
not talk to Himself, but communicates all things to the Son. Father and Son communicate all things to the
Holy Spirit, Who knows the deep things of God.
The Holy Trinity is an infinite and intimate fellowship in the Divine essence,
a fellowship of knowledge, righteousness, judgment, and love.
The intimate nature of
this fellowship is expressed in Proverbs 8: 22-36:
The
LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. 23 I was set up from everlasting, from the
beginning, or ever the earth was. 24
When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains
abounding with water. 25 Before the mountains
were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: 26 While as yet he had
not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the
world. 27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass
upon the face of the depth: 28 When he established the clouds above: when
he strengthened the fountains of the deep: 29
When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his
commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: 30 Then I was by him, as one brought up with
him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; 31 Rejoicing in the habitable part of his
earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. 32 Now therefore hearken
unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways. 33 Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it
not. 34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates,
waiting at the posts of my doors.
35 For whoso findeth me findeth
life, and shall obtain favor of the LORD. 36
But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate
me love death.
The Persons of the Holy Trinity were
present, and rejoiced in Creation. The
Father sent forth His Powerful Word, and the Spirit brooded upon the waters and
brought order from chaos, according to Genesis 1. They together agreed to the Creation of man, and they saw that
everything was good, and rejoiced together.
This fundamental nature
of God is expressed in the creation of the world. This is revealed everywhere in Scripture. Because man is in the image of God, he is
called to glory in the things that God glories and delights in. (Jeremiah 9:24
“But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising
lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these I
delight, says the Lord.”) The glory of God is revealed not only in His
wisdom and power, but in the righteousness, judgment, and goodness that
characterizes His operations in the world.
He loves His creation and broods over it in righteousness, judgment, and
goodness. This is His glory. We also are to glory in these things. “God
loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the
LORD." (Psalm 33:5). Thus, even the heavens declare the glory of
God (Ps. 19).
In the passage quoted before from Proverbs 8,
Wisdom (the Word of God, for the Logos is not external to God, but of His very
essence) calls men to watch and hear and understand, for what is contrary to
Wisdom is contrary to the life and happiness of man.
This doctrine has profound implications for
the nature of man and man’s purpose in creation. These implications are for every individual man as well as for
mankind in general. If the Holy Trinity
rejoiced in perfect fellowship and communion before the world was made, then
the purpose for creation could not have been because God was lonely or needed
companionship. I John 1:
That
which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of
life; (For the life was manifested, and
we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which
was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and
heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly
our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
John says that the Apostles were
preaching the Gospel because they desired fellowship with those who heard, a
fellowship that was with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Creation was an expansion, not of the being
of God, which cannot be, but of His fellowship. God is light and the nature of light is to shine forth, as Calvin
says. This came to pass, not because
God needed fellowship, but simply because of His mercy and grace. His lovingkindness caused Him to create the
heavens and the earth, in order to have rational and loving beings who could
share in the fellowship of the Triune God, to the extent that a created being
could have such fellowship.
This fundamental principle permeates all
of creation and is written in the very nature of man, who was created in the
image of God. As the image of God, man
must first of all love His Creator with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength
for this is the center of the fellowship.
This fellowship with the Apostles and with the Triune God is the result
of a message that is preached. John
goes on to say: (John 4:4-10):
And
these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the
message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light,
and in him is no darkness at all. If we
say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not
the truth: But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. If we say that
we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in
us.
Because God is light, those who have
fellowship with Him manifest this fellowship by their walk, for it is
impossible to walk in fellowship with God and to be in darkness. If the truth is in us, sin is exposed in us
and forgiven. Denial that we have sin
is a certain evidence that there is no light in us and we are self-deceived. Even worse, we make Him out to be a liar.
The very creation of man himself was the
result of a conference in the Holy Trinity.
It is impossible to know the exact process whereby the Persons
communicate, but Genesis 1:26-27 puts it:
And
God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
The unique character of man is emphasized
by the recording of this council in the Godhead, as well the description of
man’s creation in which God formed man in His image, of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into him the breath of life.
The figure of a potter, carefully forming the clay into a work of art is
the language of Genesis 2:7. After man
had fallen, the Persons of the Trinity again take counsel:
And
the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and
evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life,
and eat, and live for ever: Therefore
the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from
whence he was taken. Genesis 3:22,23
Without the
Trinity there is no speaking God. There
would be no one for God to speak to until He made something other than
Himself. Proverbs 8 tells us that God's
word and wisdom are from the beginning.
Thought and communication are not new arts that He acquired when He
created rational beings, but God did widen the circle of His communication in
order to include men in this fellowship.
He walked and talked with man; Adam knew the voice of God. God had fellowship with the man that He
had made, a fellowship that involved words and communication, a fellowship of
love, righteousness, and eternal Wisdom in the Holy Trinity.
This makes
the gift of communication and speech a reflection of the eternal order, not something
that only pertains to creation. The
ability to speak and communicate lies in the very nature of reality. Creation itself is not deaf, blind, and
dumb; but articulate. Wisdom cries out
to man from the very stuff of which all things are made; speech and wisdom are
not accidental to creation, but in the very design and substance of the
universe. There are a thousand passages
that show this. For instance, Ps.
19:1-3
The
heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto
night showeth knowledge. There is no
speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
We might also instance
Psalm 33:
Sing
unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise. For the word of the LORD is right; and all
his works are done in truth. He loveth
righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD. By the word of the LORD were the heavens
made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
Because God’s
works are done in truth, they communicate what they are designed to communicate
and there is no lie in the communication:
the earth is therefore full of the goodness of the Lord, which is a
cause for the saints to sing the new songs of Zion and offer praise to
God. These are neither personifications
nor hyperbole nor the imaginations of a poet, but the expression of truth: the
whole creation is designed to communicate the truth of God. Each fact cannot be understood in isolation,
no more than a word can be understood apart from the sentence and context in
which appears. But within the context
of sentences and paragraphs each word does communicate. Neither does a single fact communicate in
and of itself, but in the context of the whole creation every fact speaks its
own truth concerning its Creator.
Creation is not dumb.
But there
is more. Consider a good man talking to
his wife. He communicates consciously
and rationally, with emotion and love.
But his fishing shoes in the bedroom closet also communicate real
truth. The man has left the marks of
his habits and his personality upon his shoes, but the shoes are not conscious
of it. Something that is unconscious
can communicate, but only to a conscious, rational being. One rock cannot speak to another rock, but a
rock can communicate guilt or innocence to a jury in a criminal case. So a man’s fishing shoes may communicate
powerful emotion and meaning to those who love him.
In like
manner, everything in the universe communicates the glory, wisdom, and power of
God, but the physical universe does not do so consciously. This is where man comes in. The great purpose of God in creating the
world was for the purpose of having rational, conscious beings read of His
glory and power in the creation and giving Him praise, glory, and love. Without the consciousness of man, the
universe would be incomplete, for the glory of God must become conscious in the
souls of men. What the angels provided
in Heaven, man was to provide upon the earth.
So we read in Psalm 8:
O
LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy
glory above the heavens. Out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine
enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of
thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned
him with glory and honour. Thou madest
him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things
under his feet: All sheep and oxen,
yea, and the beasts of the field; The
fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the
paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how
excellent is thy name in all the earth!
God was mindful of
man, and “visits” him, as a great lord would visit his subjects, learning about
their needs and desires. God delighted
in man and gave him dominion over all things.
Man’s holy response was to praise the Lord and to delight in the things
that God made. Adam threw this great
privilege away, but Jesus Christ, the last Adam, seized it again for man, as
the writer of Hebrews tells us in interpreting this Psalm.
God would come to
walk with Adam in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8,9). Man could have fellowship with God because God delighted in
man. Though no creature could know the
essence of God, yet man could participate in the communicable attributes of
God, the attributes of wisdom and righteousness, with dominion over the
creatures. On the basis of these
communicable attributes man could know something of God and could participate
in friendship with God to the limits of his finite capacity. Man was not created to be a slave, but a
friend.
These concepts are beautifully expressed
in Psalm 139. The Psalmist rejoices
that he has access to the thoughts of God, and they are precious to him:
How
precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If
I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am
still with thee. (Ps. 139:17)
How could
the writer know the thoughts of God, which in another place are said to be
“higher” than ours? The answer is in
the first part of Psalm 139:1-4
O
LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine
uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted
with all my ways. For there is not a
word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.
Although it
is impossible for man to penetrate the thoughts of God, yet God penetrates
man’s thoughts completely, for there is not a word in our language (or
languages!) that God does not know.
This means that He, the Creator, knows everything about us and the
universe, about everything that He made.
He understands all the actions, the things, the relationships, the
qualifications, and the purposes for all things, including the angels and
demonic beings. Such a God is perfectly
capable of communicating to men the things that we have the capacity to
know. Man cannot receive God’s thoughts
exhaustively, but what man is capable of receiving man can know truly. Man could know God’s thoughts truly and
could delight in them and count them precious.
God did not
create man because He desired a servant, because He had a bunch of commandments
that needed to be kept. He created man
as an expression of His lovingkindness, His judgment, and His
righteousness. Man therefore was
created capable of loving God in return, of discerning between truth and error,
capable of obeying God and worshipping Him.
Man could be God’s friend, to the extent that a creature could be a
friend to God. Thus Abraham, who exemplifies
those made righteous by faith, is called the friend of God. (James 2:23) How was Abraham a friend?
He was a friend because he could talk to God, and God talked to
him. Thus we read in Genesis 18:17, 18:
And
the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that
Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed in him?
And in
Genesis 18:27:
And
Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the
Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
This
two-way communication is the essence of friendship, as Jesus in John 15:13-15
Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 15
Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his
lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of
my Father I have made known unto you.
What great
grace and love there is here! Although
the Master-Servant relationship between God and His creatures can never be
eliminated, yet God graciously admits us into friendship with Him through Jesus
Christ. And because we are His friends,
He tells us all things that we are capable of knowing. These great and wonderful things are told to
us in Scripture, for so the Apostle Paul claims in I Corinthians 2:0-13
But as it is written,
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his
Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man,
save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no
man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have
received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we
might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words
which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual
things with spiritual.
The Holy Spirit
has taken the things of God and revealed them to the apostles (the “we” of the
passage, as the context shows—See Calvin), and they spoke in words that the
Holy Ghost taught them, for God does have words that are understandable to us,
as we saw before. There is no connection
with God more intimate than our connection with Him through the Scriptures for
they are the very breath of God to us.
Jesus said
of the men of his day, “Ye are blind leaders of the blind.” The blind have no understanding either of
God or of His words. Man was not
created to be blind, but to understand that God exercises lovingkindness,
judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
But there
is more here, for Christ calls us His friends if we do the things that He has
said. It is important to understand
that true fellowship and friendship involves more than just empty chatter. There must be action in terms of the
communication. Just as God exercises
lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, so man is called to
live in fellowship and speak and act in terms of the communion. Because of this, there is a path of holiness
and righteousness described in the Scriptures, a way of faithfulness and truth.
God did not
create man because he needed a servant.
God did not create man in order to have a slave. God created man for fellowship. He was enlarging the circle of his communication:
to the rational beings that he had made in his own image.
This view
militates against all evolutionary theories for the origin of man. If man was created for the purpose of
fellowship with God, then man was created upright, good, rational, with
language, and a created but everlasting soul.
Man does not possess immorality in the Greek pagan sense, as if he were
a piece of God. But he does have
immortality in the sense that both the righteous and the wicked will continue
to exist throughout all eternity. All
evolutionary theories degrade man to the level of the beasts, or at best
elevate a beast to the image of God by infusing something else into him.
We maintain
that the image of God was not something added to man to elevate him above the
beasts, but was essential to the very soul and life of man from the
beginning. The image of God permeates
the very essence of man and makes man what he is. Man is not defined by his flesh, but by the inward spiritual
traits which distinguish him from the animals.
These attributes cannot be erased, no matter how insane, depraved, or
cursed he becomes.
Even after
his fall, man was to be treated with dignity and respect, his life preserved
and respected. (Genesis 9:1-6) Modern theories have treated man like
garbage to be thrown away in great numbers as we try to build a new world order
which ignores the curse and the Promise.
These efforts and the theories and compromises that support them belong
to the evil fellowship of death and ruin.
For there is such a fellowship and we are called to reject and reprove
it.
Thus, the
Holy Spirit calls Christians to turn away from idols and their fellowship, away
from the communication of lies that corrupt our actions. In I Corinthians 6:14-16 we find:
Be
ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness
with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or
what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the
temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath
said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people.
There are
two fellowships described in this passage.
One is a fellowship of light and includes the Holy Trinity through faith
in Christ. The other is a fellowship of
darkness, and includes the devil and his works of rebellion and unbelief. The Christian is called to reject the second
and abide in the first. In the next
section we will attempt to see how the fellowship of darkness was introduced to
the world.
Part
Two: A Fellowship of Death
A Murderer and a Liar from
the Beginning
Jesus said that the devil was "a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a
lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44) Satan did not abide in the truth, in the communion and light and
truth that is of the very essence of the Holy Trinity. Therefore he could not abide in heaven and
was cast down, becoming a prince of darkness.
He is the father of lies, the source of all rebellion against God.
Satan, though a great a powerful being, does not
possess the incommunicable attributes of God.
He is not self-existent (he has no life in himself), immutable,
infinite, or simple. As a creature, he
yet abides under the government of God and, though Satan's kingdom is
formidable from our perspective, yet it is an instrument used by God to
accomplish His perfect and incomprehensible will. Evil, therefore, is not within the essence of creation, for God
made everything good. It is the holy
fellowship of life and light that defines the nature of the universe, and evil
is unnatural, a terrible abnormality that God has permitted for reasons that cannot
be entirely clear to us, but involve His glory and purposes of grace.
It is of the nature of God to reveal Himself (to
communicate His lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness), for He is Light,
and it is the nature of Light to shine forth.
It may very well be that God has permitted evil in the world that He
might be perfectly revealed as longsuffering, kind, patient, and forbearing. His patience and forbearing hold His
judgment in suspension until the time that He has appointed to judge the world,
which will come with terror and an overwhelming fire against those who refuse
the light and persist in the darkness of the lies and deceit of false
gods. This is expressed in Nahum 1:2,3:
God
is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the
LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his
enemies. The LORD is slow to anger,
and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his
way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Although God is a
God of judgment, He has other things to do than to bring the wicked into
judgment immediately. He is patient,
because He calls men to repentance, to show them mercy and grace. He therefore holds back judgment until the
appointed time in which He will judge the world, as He says in Isaiah 30:18:
And
therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore
will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of
judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
Even though Israel's sins cried out to God for judgment, which was like
a wall ready to fall upon them, and the time would surely come that they would
be broken like a potter's vessel (Is. 30:13,13), yet God has power over Himself
and will not allow His judgment to overwhelm the ungodly until all the wheat is
gathered in and His purposes of grace and mercy are fulfilled. Because God has patience, we are also to
have patience. We are perfect like the
Father is perfect when we are able to show mercy and patience like He
does. (Matthew 5:48)
In the Garden of
Eden, the head of the human race, Adam, refused to live within the circle of fellowship
and communication for which God had created him. He listened to the voice of the serpent, tried to find another
word, another communication. It was
death to him then, and it is death to us now.
See Proverbs 8:35, 36:
"Whoso findeth me [wisdom]findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death."
There is life only
in fellowship and communion with God.
Jesus Christ is the Divine Logos (John 1) and has life in himself (John
5:26) just as the Father does. His
words parallel Proverbs 8:35,36:
"My sheep hear my
voice, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand..." (John 10:27,28)
On the other hand,
the enemies of Christ live in a fellowship of darkness and sin and can not receive
the words of Christ:
Why do ye not
understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the
lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and
abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a
lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe
me not. (John 8:43-45)
But ye believe not, because ye are not of my
sheep, as I said unto you. (John
10:26)
When we understand these things, a new
understanding comes to us of the Temptation of Adam and Eve. Satan introduced a new fellowship and
communion into the world. Fittingly, it
centered on the core of God's reason for creating Adam and Eve.
To reveal to Adam and Eve the full reason
for their creation and to test them that they might know themselves, God
created the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The reason for the tree was to teach mankind that our very life
depends upon hearing the voice of our God and obeying Him. Unless we live in this fellowship of life
and truth we perish, just as Satan perished when he abode not in the truth.
The test involved knowledge and truth,
the very core of the fellowship and communion in the Holy Trinity. How could man know the truth of the Tree in
the midst of the Garden? If he could
know the way of that Tree, he would know the way of every part of God's
creation. This was the exact point
where the temptation came.
Man did not become a moral being after he ate
of the Tree, as if it took the eating of the Tree to make Adam aware of the
difference between good and evil. As
the image of God, he certainly knew the difference between right and
wrong. Eve also knew that God had
forbidden the tree and knew that it was wrong to eat of it.
The Temptation was about the way that
man discerns right and wrong and how moral truth is determined. Here was the heart of the temptation. The only way that Adam and Eve could know
the truth concerning the Tree was to take God's word for it. They must believe what God had said and live
in terms of that belief. They could not
know the meaning of the Tree by experience--if they experienced eating the fruit,
they would die and it would be too late.
The Tree was not forbidden to the animals or birds which must have shown
Adam and Eve that the Tree was good for food.
It was not food for them, however, and no experience could teach them
this.
Neither could they know the meaning of the
Tree by examining their own hearts and thoughts, as though the meaning of the
Tree was what they thought it was. The
meaning of the Tree was objective to their own consciousness. They must take God's word for it. This was exactly the place the Temptation
came to them. Satan's temptation was to
move them from the fellowship and communion of the Logos, the Word of God, the
fellowship of the Holy Trinity, into a fellowship of sin and death. When they ate, they died.
In fellowship with
God is life; outside of fellowship with God is death. The Word of God is the vine (John 15); if we abide in Him as a
branch, His life flows to us; if we do not abide in fellowship with God through
his word, then we wither, and are burned as dead branches. Jesus said, [John 14:23}
“If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him,
and we will come unto him, and make
our abode with him.”
It is important that this
“abiding” is covenantal in its nature, not mystical or physical. The distinction between man and God is never
destroyed. Though covenantal, it is
real, and the life of Christ flows to us by His Spirit. This work of the Spirit is mysterious and
real, but not self-validating. The
Scriptures validate the work of the Spirit, as Jesus said in John 3:21: “But he that doeth truth
cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought
in God,”
Because of his disobedience, man was driven
from Paradise, under sentence of death, under the wrath and curse of God. Man found himself in a terrible
dilemma. Without fellowship with God he
could not be holy, but without holiness he could not have fellowship with
God. He now lies under a curse, a curse
that must not be interpreted in physical terms alone. It is true that because man's work is cursed the earth would now
bring forth thorns and thistles. But
something far worse happened to mankind.
It is described in Romans 1:28:
And
even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over
to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
"Convenient" means that which does
not fit the nature of man. Man's
original sin was a sin of epistemology, of refusing to abide in the knowledge
of God obtained by living in the fellowship and communion of the Holy
Trinity. As a result, the curse came
not only upon the ground, but also upon the heart and soul of man. Not only would the ground bring forth thorns
and thistles, but the soul of man would likewise. These ugly weeds are described in Romans 1:29-32:
Being
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness;
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful,
proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without
understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable,
unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment
of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the
same, but have pleasure in them that do
them.
Man is not a sinner because he sins; he
sins because he is under the curse of God.
He must have fellowship with God to do righteousness, and he cannot do
righteousness because he is living in independence and misery. Paul put it this way in Ephesians 4:18.
This
I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because
of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves
over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Those lost in sins are alienated from the
life of God because their understanding is darkened. It is a judicial blinding, an awful judgment that infects the
mind, the heart, the soul. It is a
curse from God because of Adam's sin.
It was because of this one man's sin that judgment came upon all the
seed of Adam, and we see the results everywhere around us. Natural man would rather deny the existence
of God than to confess this truth that has such awful implications for himself
and his dreams.
There are at least five basic things that lie
at the heart of Biblical faith. People
can accept them or reject them, but in any event they must live with the consequences
of their thought. Ideas do have
consequences, and the ideas we accept, consciously or unconsciously, affect the
way we think and the way we act.
First. There is a God. Many profess not to believe in God, and
there are many others who live in practical denial, for God does not figure
into their thoughts and actions. Many
have false ideas of God. Others deny
that there can be false ideas of God, for God is simply an idea that each individual
forms for himself. In any case, there
is only one God who speaks truth to the world in all His ways, and that is the
God of the Bible. We have a certain
freedom to reject this idea, but we cannot be free from the consequences of
that rejection.
Second. He created all things. Once again, there is nothing to force people
to accept this idea. People may believe
in the eternity of matter, or that everything of time and space, including time
and space themselves, came from a Big Bang.
There are those who see everything in natural processes covering many
billions of years, and God serves only as a limiting concept to make their
thinking respectable to themselves. But
the very definition of God found in the Bible is the One who in infinite power
and wisdom made all things by His Powerful Word. This is basic to Christianity.
Third, God is greater than all that He made. This follows from the first two.
If the Cosmos is created, then the Creator must be as described in Scripture
(Psalm 93):
The
LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength,
wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot
be moved. Thy throne is established of
old: thou art from everlasting.
Fourth, God is good, and will surely reward the good and punish the
wicked. This must be if the Lord
executes loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. God cannot deny Himself and there is no
darkness in His being (John 1:5). There
is consistency and order in all that He does, and He does not send
contradictory messages.
If the first three principles are valid, then
the fourth must be, or there is no use in even thinking about theology. If God is not good and does not work good in
the earth, then we might as well eat, drink, and be merry and forget about the
whole business of religion. If God is malevolent,
then what power can we possess or acquire that can stand against Him? People may deny the goodness of God if they
choose, but they must live with the consequences of their thought.
Fifth. If God is good, then He must
have told us clearly what we are to believe and what we are to do. Those who deny the authority and
infallibility of the Bible are hard-pressed to defend the goodness of God.
School teachers learn very early that
assignments must be perfectly clear if the teacher is to be fair with the
student. A poorly written, poorly
communicated assignment confuses the best students and gives an excuse to the
lazy.
God did not leave Adam and Eve and their
descendants in limbo. He did not immediately
execute the physical aspect of the judgment, for Adam and Eve lived on for many
years and produced many children. God
endured the evil of men for the elect’s sake, for He determined to save a great
multitude out of every family on the earth.
Spiritual death and alienation from God did occur, however, and the
first-born son of Adam and Eve was a murderer and an alien from God, possessing
the character of the devil.
The sin of Adam and Eve did not catch God
by surprise. He knew what kind of creature
He had created in Adam. Adam and Eve
did not come flawed from the hand of their Creator, for they were exactly the
kind of creatures that God intended to be lords over His creation. But they were capable of change. Instead of their sin throwing God into
confusion and despair, their sin opened the way for God to begin to reveal the
most marvelous and powerful expression of His nature--that which no man could
have conceived, for the details of God's marvelous grace were beyond the imaginations
even of the greatest angels of heaven.
In the plan of redemption and grace the manifold wisdom of God is revealed.
If they were to be creatures who could
fully participate to the level of their being in the fellowship with God
through the eternal Logos, the Lord Jesus Christ, then they must be capable of
freely loving God. But this would mean
that must be capable of freely turning away from God. Their sin would set the stage for the flowering of the great
mystery of love and grace which even the angels could not comprehend.
This grace would be the fountain of God's
great revelation of Himself in the words of promise and prophecy, culminating
in the Incarnation of His Eternal Word, His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Since the fall, sinful man has lived according to another word, another
fellowship of communication, one of lies and self-deceit. Jeremiah wrote in Jeremiah 13:25:
This
is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the LORD; because thou
hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.
Like Israel, mankind would live according to another word-order, one
defined and attached to the gods of their own imagination. They would follow their own dreams and their
own desires, alienated from God and from the Living Word. Because man's sin was a sin of epistemology
growing from a desire to gain independent knowledge and an independent
principle of action, God's way of salvation would confront man at the very
focal point of his sin. Several things
were involved.
As we said before, the sin of Adam did not catch God off-guard, but
instead it opened the way for God to begin His most profound and staggering
revelation of His sacrificial and redeeming love for sinful men, lost and
condemned in Adam. There is nothing
that is not in the mysterious will and power of God, including Adam’s sin. In harmony with God’s essential character of
communication and love, the first revelation of this grace and mercy came in
the promise of Genesis 3:15:
And
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
In accordance with God’s dealing with man throughout history, this
promise was signed and sealed to man in terms of a sacrament, the oldest
sacrament in history, found in all cultures of the world, a blood sacrifice. We are assured that this was instituted in
the Garden of Eden because of several things.
First. Abel is said to offer his
sacrifice in faith. If in faith, then
it was by hearing the word of God, for faith comes only by hearing the word.
(Romans 10 and Hebrews 11), for men cannot call on what they have not heard and
believed. In fact, Abel offered the
first of the flock, with the fat thereof, indicating that he knew what sort of
sacrifice would be pleasing to God. (Genesis 4)
Second. Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sin. True
faith is not an empty faith, one resting on good wishes and vague ideas about
God. It rests upon promise, the promise
of redemption. There is only one
promise where Abel’s faith could rest, and that is the one of Genesis
3:15.
Third. It is certain that Enoch knew
of the future coming of the Lord, for he prophesied as much (Jude).
Fourth. The promise of the coming
seed of the woman is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who was born of the Virgin Mary,
a miracle of the Holy Ghost, apart from the seed of man and the strength of
man. It was this promise that sustained
the elect before the coming of Christ and by which they gained the inheritance
of life and righteousness. (Gal. 3:21,
22)
From the very beginning, then, there were four aspect of God’s dealing
with mankind, in preparation for the coming of His Son into the world. A fellowship was created, a fellowship of
faith and communion through which the Word and Promise of God would be
transmitted and preserved until the coming of Jesus Christ.
First.
There was the Promise. All subsequent promises would find their
root in Genesis 3:15. Enoch knew of the
promise of the Lord coming with his
saints, and he walked with God. As a
sign of His purposes of grace to the world,
God moved Noah with fear to prepare an ark for the saving of his
house. Noah was also assured that there
would be no more floods to destroy the whole earth, and this promise was sealed
by a sign. Even though man’s sin would
become very great in the world, yet God’s purposes of redemption in Christ
would hold back the waves of his wrath.
Later the Promise of Genesis 3:15 is made more explicit by the calling
of Abraham, by whom God would bless the whole earth for the Seed of the woman
would come through Abraham. Abraham
would become heir of the world through faith; his inheritance of life and righteous
could only come by promise, for no law could have been given which could have
given this inheritance. [Gal. 3:21] It
was too late for this because of Adam’s sin.
Besides sacrifice, Abraham is given the sign of circumcision, to
indicate that the promised One would not come through natural processes, but
would come through Promise (Galatians 4:28).
All who have the faith of Abraham are children of the Promise, just as
Isaac was.
Second.
There was always a physical sign, which was also a seal of the
promise. The people of the Promise would bear the sign
of the promise. Abel was distinguished
by his faith through which he brought the sacrifice. Abraham and his family
were distinguished by circumcision as well as by the sacrifices that he offered
to God on the altars that he built wherever he journeyed. After the giving of the law of Moses, the
promise was included in the fabric of the law of Moses, especially in the
ceremonial law, especially the Passover, the Sabbaths, the sacrifices, the Day
of Atonement, the cleansings, and structure of the temple and its
furnishings. We call these types, or
signs that reveal Christ and the Gospel.
The two most important under the Law of Moses were the Passover, which incorporated
the bloody sacrifices as well as the communal meal; and circumcision, which
indicated that the promise would be fulfilled in the seed of Abraham, who would
come not of natural generation but by the power of God in terms of the Promise.
Third.
There was a covenant community. The core of the community was
the promise and the sacraments that signed and sealed the promise. Inclusion in this community was by the
faithful observance of the sacraments which sealed the promise, and it included
members and their children. Many did
not really understand or believe the promise, but that did not make the promise
void, for it was God who guaranteed the fulfillment of Christ's coming.
This community, therefore, was built upon a
word order, a communion created by the communication of God's will, which was
sealed by ceremonies and ritual observances.
The promise of Christ lay at the root of this communion, and God promised
that He would "set my tabernacle among
you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my
people." God dwelling with Israel
prefigured the promise of Jesus that His Father would make His abode with
individual believers, as we saw above. (Leviticus 26:11,12) God had walked with Adam in fellowship and
communion before Adam's disobedience, but God through His promise restored a limited
communion. In a figure, God would
dwell with them behind the veil of the Temple.
Fourth. The spiritual blessings of the promise would
be secured only through faith. Material
benefits, including nationhood and riches, came when the covenant community was
faithful, and unbelievers could partake of them, but forgiveness of sins and
eternal life came only by faith, like the faith Abraham had and lived. Abraham’s true inheritance was life and
righteousness, and this came only by Promise.
[See Galatians 3] This faith is
described in such Old Testament passages as Psalm 1 and Psalm 32 and Psalm 37
and many others. The promise of Christ
permeated the message and rites of the Old Testament, including the law and the
prophets, and those who believed what they said of Christ were justified just
as Abraham was. Jesus said that the
brothers of the rich man could escape hell if they would hear the words of
Moses and the prophets.
Because God is good and
cannot deny Himself, God must bring terrible judgments and death when man
refused His fellowship. Man was cast
out of paradise, and a great sword was placed to keep man from access to the
Tree of Life. Because of Adam’s sin all
his posterity is exiled from the life of God.
There is also despair and bitterness, for nothing man can do can cause
God to be merciful to him, no way that man can access the grace and mercy of
God, because the wall of God’s justice stands poised to fall upon him. There is no life anymore for Adam and his
seed : just judgment, death, sorrow, misery, and ruin for man because of
sin. "Cursed be the ground for
thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the
field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the
ground; for out of it was thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt
thou return."
Because of Adam's
sin, the curse fell upon all the descendents of Adam. Man's misery is great on the earth. He is subject to death and lives his life under the horror of
it. To drown the horror at his core he
fills his life with meaningless pleasures, with drunkenness and drug
abuse. He kills, oppresses, and abuses
his fellows. He manufactures lies and
deceit, trying to drown the horror that lies in his bosom. His is a fellowship of death and misery, described
by the Apostle Paul in Romans 3:11-18
3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is
none that seeketh after God.
3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are
together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
3:13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with
their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
3:14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and
bitterness:
3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
3:17 And the way of peace have they not known:
3:18 There is no fear
of God before their eyes.
Man lives this horror
of evil communication in a world of lies and deceit, alienated from fellowship with the God who created
him. His alienation from God is the
source and cause of all his misery, and this alienation came by the sin of one
man, Adam, the father of us all.
A. Enlarging the
Fellowship and Communion. From the
misery and ruin of man, the stage was set for the revelation of the great
mystery of God's love and grace. What
had been foreshadowed from the Garden of Eden in types and figures, from the
skin of the slain animal that covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve, through
the blood of the sacrifices on countless altars, in the Passover and the other
feasts of the Jews, God began to make explicit the mystery that was hidden in
the counsels of the Holy Trinity, in the fellowship of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit before the world was made.
It was a simple
mystery, but staggering in its implications of the nature of God. Simply stated, from before the world was
created, in the Counsels of Eternity, the Holy Trinity had entered into a
covenant of mercy and grace that would result in the putting away of sins and
the restoration of fallen man into the fellowship and communion of God that had
been lost by Adam's sin.
Until God's
final purposes were accomplished, man would be restored to a limited communion,
with Christ hidden under rites and ceremonies. A much fuller communion would be granted to the church after the
Son of God Himself came to walk upon the earth, obeying all the commandments of
God and putting away our sins by the offering of Himself to God. The fullness of our communion and fellowship
with God would be perfected in Heaven when we behold his face in righteousness
and know even as we are known (I Corinthians 13:12). In that Paradise of Heaven, the fullness of joy that was only
promised in a figure in Eden will be experienced by all the people of God. Now we see through a glass darkly, but then
we will see face to face. Jesus spoke
of this plainly in John 14:1-3: “Let not your heart be troubled:
ye believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive
you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” This great promise is also summarized in H.C. questions 57
and 58 and the Belgic Confession, Article 37.
The Promise which defined Israel became the
possession of the church after the crucifixion of Christ. When the Holy Spirit had been given, Peter,
preaching to Israel on the Day of Pentecost announced to those who were smitten
in their hearts what they must do:
Acts
2:38--41 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise
is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many
as the LORD our God shall call. And
with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from
this untoward generation. Then they
that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added
unto them about three thousand souls.
The coming of Christ
and the giving of the Holy Spirit was the beginning of a fulfillment that was
prefigured in Israel. The promise to
Israel of the coming Savior was still good and could be claimed by all who
believed, but now the custodianship of that promise was passing from them and
would be given to a "nation bringing forth the fruit thereof." (Matthew 21:43) The fellowship would be greatly enlarged as the apostles and
humble Christians everywhere took the Gospel to the whole world.
B. The putting away of
sin. The great barrier to man's fellowship with
God was Adam's sin. Because of Adam's
sin, death came upon all men (Romans 5).
Life comes only by union with God through Christ [John 15:1-6]. By his disobedience Adam placed himself and
all his descendents under the curse of God.
Man's fundamental problem is with God, for his natural state is one of
alienation from God. [Ephesians 4:17,
18] He lies under the curse of God, and
there is nothing he can do for himself.
This dilemma and its
solution are expressed by the prophet Isaiah 59:14-21
And
judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is
fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. 59:15 Yea, truth faileth; and he
that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased
him that there was no judgment. 59:16
And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor:
therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it
sustained him. 59:17 For he put on
righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and
he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a
cloak. 59:18 According to their deeds,
accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies;
to the islands he will repay recompence.
59:19
So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the
rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the
LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
59:20
And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression
in Jacob, saith the LORD. 59:21 As for
me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee,
and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth,
nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed,
saith the LORD, from henceforth and for
ever.
God knew the
helplessness of man's condition. Man
was without strength, for there was no mediator who could bring man back into
the communion and fellowship of life.
Therefore, God states that He will do it Himself. He will equip Himself with the necessary
means and do battle with man's enemy.
Under the figure of armed conflict, the Lord is seen going to war with
the sin that holds men in bondage, triumphing over it, and bringing His people
back into communion with Himself, putting His words in their mouths and His
Spirit upon them.
The “Redeemer” of verse 20 is Jesus Christ
Himself, and the result of His work would be a covenant community, a godly
seed, who would have his words in their mouths forever.
This committing of Himself to put away sin was
not an afterthought of God. Just as the
creation of man was determined in the counsel of the Triune God, so the
redemption of man was so determined.
This counsel is described in Psalm 40:5-10:
Many,
O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts
which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would
declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. 40:6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not
desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou
not required. 40:7 Then said I, Lo, I
come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 40:8 I delight to do thy
will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. 40:9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo,
I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest. 40:10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have
declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
and thy truth from the great congregation.
This Psalm is quoted and applied to Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, in Hebrews 10.
Here lies revealed the
great mystery of grace and redemption, a redemption that could not have been
imagined by man's wildest imagination.
If Jesus Christ is to put away sin, He must deal with it at its root, in
man's alienation from God and the resulting wickedness rooted in man's heart. This is exactly what Jesus Christ did.
Here is the mystery of
God's grace and mercy. The Divine
Dilemma was this: that He might retain every bit of his holiness and purity and
yet restore man to fellowship with him.
[Romans 3:26] This was done
through the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, who obeyed all the commandments of
God perfectly and endured the punishment that His people deserved.
Because sin is forgiven, God now can approach the
sinner: See Ephesians 2:8-10:
For
by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good
works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.
Man has
a bad heart. It is a heart of stone; a
heart that refuses counsel and correction.
The Gospel is foolishness to him.
He hates the light because his deeds are evil. He loves his own ways.
His condition is described in Romans 1:20-32. Mankind is in miserable condition, because of the righteous judgment
of God. He is hopeless without
fellowship with God, and God will not commune with man because of man's sins;
yet without the communication of God, man is utterly without hope. It is a downward spiral to ruin, misery,
death, and hell. How is he to be
delivered?
For man to be saved he must be restored to fellowship
with God, but the very holiness of God refused such a fellowship. What was man to do? If he even tried to enter the presence of
God, there is that flaming sword to destroy and consume, for man's sin is abominable
in the eyes of God, whose eyes are too holy even to look upon sin. What is man to do? The awful answer of Scripture is clear: There is absolutely
nothing he can do. His condition is hopeless.
They cannot believe because of the hardness of their
hearts! See John 12:37-40: "Therefore they could not believe,
because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their
heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their
heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." Man cannot restore this fellowship under his
own initiative, because he lies under the curse.
The
Wisdom of God is never more revealed than in the Gospel of Christ. God cannot deny Himself and must retain every
bit of His holiness and purity. Yet His
own love in the mystery of his very Being compelled Him to restore man to
fellowship with Him. Therefore, God
Himself in Jesus Christ took the penalty of sin upon Himself.
On the cross the words burst from the lips of the Son of
God: "My God, My God, Why Hast
Thou Forsaken Me?" Jesus took
our place. For the first time
throughout the endless ages of eternity, the Eternal Son of God, the Word, The
Wisdom of God, who was always present in the counsels of the Almighty, who
always knew the mind of the Father, who lived in the closest communion with the
Father and the Holy Spirit, felt the alienation of the sinner from God. It was here that Christ descended into hell,
for He felt the very pangs of hell itself, as the sweetness of fellowship with
God was cut off, and he knew only the bitterness of guilt and misery, death and
destruction. The waves of God's
judgment rolled over his soul; The awful storm of the wrath of God engulfed
him, but did not overwhelm Him as we read in Psalm 22, a prophetic passage of
the death of Christ.
Why did Jesus do this?
Let the Apostle Peter tell us:
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that
we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye
were healed. For ye were a sheep going
astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."
This simple truth is
the center of the Gospel, and has been confessed by the church in all
ages: Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
exchanged places with the sinner. The
awful weight of the wrath of God that the sinner deserves fell upon Jesus
Christ, so that the blessing that Jesus deserved could be given by grace to the
sinner. II Corinthians 5:21 "For he hath made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
Because sin is forgiven, God now can approach the
sinner: Ephesians 2:8-10: "For by
grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them."
Man
must live in God’s holy communion; a holy conversation must be resumed in order
for man to be holy. We do not gain
fellowship with God by the holiness of our life; instead, we gain holiness of
life by our fellowship with God, a fellowship to which we are restored through
our Mediator, Jesus Christ. Moses did
not go up to the mount because his face shone; his face shone because he was on
the mountain with God. His shining face
illustrates the glories of the law; how much more are the glories of the
Gospel: II Cor. 3.
A. I John 1:1-10: That which was from the beginning, which
we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and
our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and
show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested
unto us;) That which we have seen and
heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly
our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that
your joy may be full. This then is the
message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light,
and in him is no darkness at all. If
we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do
not the truth: But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the
blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is
not in us.
B.
Comments on I John 1.
1. The Word which is from the beginning was
manifested in the flesh, and the apostles looked upon and handled the Word of
life: Jesus was a real, physical human
being who could be sensed with the senses as well as seen with the inward
senses of the soul. John was no
Gnostic.
2. The purpose for
Christ's coming was to manifest the eternal life that is in Him.
3. Communication has now
been opened to men, through the witness of the apostles, who entered into the
communion with God through Jesus Christ.
4. The apostle's word is
the means of our entering into fellowship with the apostles, whose fellowship
is with God. The word of the apostles,
if received, will make our joy full.
5. There is no darkness in
God. The light that the apostles
witnessed is the true light of God, and it is a lie to say we have light if we
walk in darkness.
6. The result of walking
in the light is forgiveness of sins, and awareness of sin. To deny having sin is evidence that we are
not in the light.
7.
All good things come to those who receive and walk in the light of
Christ, which is the witness of the Apostles.
This leads to confession and cleansing from sin, the results of
restoration to fellowship with God.
VIII.
The Way Back for Man:
The Way He Went Out
Man
turned from fellowship and communion with God, listened to the voice of the
devil and entered a fellowship of death.
Now he is called to abandon the conversation of the wicked and turn
again unto the voice of God, calling to Him in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Man may return to Paradise, he can go home
again. The removal of that fearful
angel from the Paradise of God is symbolized in the rending of the veil of the
temple at the death of Christ. Isaiah
foresaw the invitation of the Gospel in chapter 55:
Ho,
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money;
come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without
price. Wherefore do ye spend money
for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?
hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul
delight itself in fatness. Incline
your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David…. Seek ye the
LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will
have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Man can do this because
God is reconciled to man in Jesus Christ.
Paul put it this way in II Corinthians 5:18-20:
And
all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as
though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled
to God.
Even whole churches can have this fellowship, and
individuals within churches that have fallen from the love of Christ. Revelation 3:14-22 describes a rich,
influential, respected church, which had a lot of self-esteem, but had left Christ
out of the conversation. Christ was
left out of the church, but He still knocks on the door of that church,
inviting anyone who will hear his voice to open the door. He will have fellowship and communion with
him. This is a sad verse, yet one with
the greatest hope.
·
This church said: I am rich and do not need anything, not knowing that
they were poor, and naked, and blind and miserable. What is the symbol of their poverty and misery?
·
It was not that they did not have self-esteem. Instead, they thought they had it all they needed and were in
fine condition.
·
What was the symbol of their poverty?
It was the closed door, with Jesus on the outside. They had no fellowship with Jesus
Christ. He was outside the church,
knocking on the door to get in! What a
sad church!
Not only is this a sad passage, describing the utter
poverty and misery of a proud, self-secure church, but it is also a wonderful
promise. Christ is ready to enter into
a conversation of life and joy to all who will call upon Him and welcome Him.
Part
Four: The Communication of Faith
The above doctrine has immense
implications for the Christian man. In
this part we will be considering some of those implication in terms of
Ephesians 4, that great chapter on the gifts that God has given to the
church. In the following paragraphs we
will attempt to give a brief outline of this chapter in terms of what has been
written before.
I.
The walk of the Christian is to be according to the communication
they have received from God.
Verses
1-2: I therefore, the prisoner of
the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are
called, With all lowliness and
meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love….
This walk is to be
one of humbleness and gentleness, with longsuffering and the forbearance of
love. Where do contentions come
from? They come only from pride. Only by pride comes contentions [Proverbs
13:10]. From pride comes quarrels,
insults, desiring to lord it over others, disdainful language, rudeness,
reproaches. We love ourselves and
insist on our own way. We refuse to
listen to others. These things destroy fellowship and destroy conversation and
communication. If we do not listen to
others, then they will not listen to us, and the communication of the saints
becomes fragmented and corrupted.
Forbearing in
love: "Love suffers long and is
kind." (Serviceable) Love is
gracious, not argumentative. Fellowship
is in both directions, both in listening and in speaking. James puts it: "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to
wrath." [James 1:19, 20] When Christians become instructive and
judgmental of one another, the fellowship of the church is destroyed and Satan
wins a temporary victory.
II.
The
Unity of God requires the church to be one, as God is One.
Verses
3-6 Endeavouring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of
your calling; One Lord, one faith, one
baptism, One God and Father of all,
who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
There
is fellowship among the Persons, in the Unity of the Godhead. God graciously has extended this fellowship
to those who are reconciled to Him in the sacrifice of His Son. Christians are in the same communion with
every other Christian and God Himself.
There is peace in the Godhead, and there is to be peace among the people
of God, for we are one body, with one Lord, one faith (gospel), one cleansing from
sin [Ephesians 4:1ff]. We have hope of
the same eternal life in terms of the calling of God.
When Jesus went into the temple and found
them buying and selling and changing money, He drove them out. “It is written” He said, “My
Father's house shall be called a house of prayer.” God did not approve their worship. In true worship we engage God in a
fellowship of communion in which He speaks to us by His word, Spirit, and
sacrament, and we speak to him in confession, praise, thanksgiving and
petition. Prayer is an integral part of
worship, and worship cannot take place without it. Because true worship is from the heart, everything done in
Biblical worship must illustrate that God is a Spirit and must be worshipped in
spirit and in truth, not with men’s hands [John 4:24].
If God created man for communion and
fellowship, graciously extending to man the conversation of the Holy Trinity,
then it would be a very great sin for men not to talk to God. In fact, our first act of faith is to
"call upon the Lord," and to "confess him before men,"
according to Romans 10. The displeasure
of God for our silence is clearly set forth in Psalm 50.
In this Psalm, God has a complaint to
make with His people, those who had made a covenant with Him by sacrifice.
(Psalm 50:5) His complaint was that
they thought that their duty was fulfilled in doing religious things, offering
sacrifices, etc. God declares that He
is not worshipped in empty rites; He will not drink the blood of animals, and
He doesn't need their gold and silver.
It is a great mistake to think that God will be pleased with servile
works, as though He wants puppets to perform His will. Man is more than that.
Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows
unto the most High:
And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will
deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
God wants us to believe Him, listen to Him,
talk to Him and walk with Him. Israel
was good at doing religious things.
They bustled about performing this ceremony and that. Even their prayers
on the street corners were for the purpose of being seen by men, not to
converse with God. Jesus made the same
criticism: "You tithe mint,
anise, and cumin." They did
petty religious ceremonies like the heathen did, but they did not enter into
the conversation of the Lord. They did
not listen to His word or respond in prayer and meditation from the inner
man. Paul makes this point to the
pagans in Athens, "Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we
ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone,
graven by art and man's device." God is at least as intelligent as we
are. We are not pleased if our loved
ones do not talk to us, do not communicate, do not listen to us.
The true worship of God is in "spiritual
sacrifices," the sacrifices of the spirit, the offering up of thanksgiving
and praise. The prophets under the old
law were aware of this:
O
Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD:
say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we
render the calves of our lips. –Hos.4:2
I
will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with
thanksgiving. This also shall please the LORD better than
an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.
–Psalm 69:30, 31.
God made man so he could receive real
communication from God, to walk with God, to know the mind of God, and so this
mind of God could be communicated in a fellowship of love, peace, and joy. Because man is in the image of God, his
words reflect his inner nature, and his speech reveals what is in his
heart. Therefore, he will be judged by
every idle word that he speaks, and his reception before God depends upon the
words that he speaks. This shows how great
man needs a Savior, for his natural state after the Fall is that of a man whose
“mouth is an open sepulcher, whose tongues uses deceit, with the poison of asps
under his lips, his mouth full of cursing and bitterness.” [Romans 3] Man cannot escape this responsibility, not
even by denying that words matter.
Also
I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man
also confess before the angels of God:
But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of
God. --Luke
12: 8,9
Either
make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his
fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit. O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good
things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the
heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure
bringeth forth evil things. But I say
unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account
thereof in the day of judgment. For by
thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. --Matthew 12:33-37:
Hence, false prophets are to be judged by what
they say, and are not to be judged according to their good intentions, their
pleasant personalities, or their natural gifts:
II
John 9, 10: Whosoever
transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not
this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
I
John 4:1-3: Beloved, believe not
every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false
prophets are gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
3 And every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this
is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and
even now already is it in the world.
As impossible as it seems to us in this day of modern America and
modern communications, we are still called to "speak the same thing,"
I
Corinthians 1:11-13: Now I beseech
you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same
thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you,
my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are
contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of
Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you?
or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?
In order to do this, it was necessary to
distinguish between the gospel of Christ, which is the communion to which we
are called, and the party spirit that attached to the servants of the Gospel, like
Paul, Apollos, or Cephas. Even Christ
Himself was the name given to one of the factions, as if He taught something
different from the prophets and the apostles.
Jesus must not be set against Peter, Paul, or other faithful servants
who labor faithfully in the Word of God.
Instead, we are to seek to understand the unity of the Scriptures, no
small task.
III.
Because
the church is one, Christ has given communication gifts to her.
But
unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he
ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that
he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that
ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets;
and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ: Till we all come in the unity
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. --Ephesians
4:7-13:
In this context it is interesting to note
that the gifts that the Exalted Christ has given the church are gifts of
communication. All of the gifts
mentioned here are gifts of speaking and teaching. The saints are perfected when the teaching is free, free from
coercion, from false doctrine, from arrogance, from deceit, from hidden
agendas. This will bring the church to
the "unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God."
Understood
in this way, it is inevitable that the saints in both the Old and the New
Testaments were given a sacred book, the Bible. If God has communicated to us and this communication is of the
highest priority to Him, then it is certain that the instruments that He used
to convey this information would write it down for future generations. It is certain that Israel had and preserved
such a book, the 39 books of the Old Testament, which Jesus said, "could
not be broken." If the
Apostles were to be witnesses to the nations, then they would be called to
write and preserve the Gospel that was given to them. That they did this has been confessed by the church in all generations.
God did not choose to give this
revelation to everyone, that we might be humbled under His hand, but He gave
His word to chosen men, as Peter said
in Acts 10:41-43
Not
to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did
eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify
that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that
through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
IV.
This
communication is to be in love, without hidden agendas, without deceit.
That
we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with
every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby
they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into
him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: --Ephesians 4:14,15
Paul said that he had not come in human wisdom, with hidden agendas and
manipulative words:
And
I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom,
declaring unto you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and
him crucified. And I was with you in
weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the
wisdom of men, but in the power of God. --I Corinthians 2:1-5
"Demonstration of the Spirit and of
power" means that there was an inward witness of the truth of the
Gospel. Because of this witness, men
were convinced of the truth of the Gospel, for their faith did not stand in
human reasoning and wisdom, but in the power of God. It is God who calls us into fellowship with Him, and our role is
to be witnesses. The persuasiveness is
from God; the witness is ours. Instead
of being vainly confident of his power to "close the deal," Paul was
in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling, as if he knew that the stupendous
task before him was not possible in the flesh.
Instead, Paul’s mission to the world was
spiritually very much like the physical one that Ezekiel was sent to
perform. Ezekiel was sent to preach
life into a valley full of dry bones.
How can dead men live? How can
simple prophesying cause bones to come together, to be joined with sinews, to
have flesh and skin come upon them, and to have life breathed into them? Only the power of God can do this, the kind
of power that is revealed in the Gospel of Christ. This is the reason that Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel of
Christ, for "it is the power of God to everyone that believeth, to the
Jew first, and also to the Greek."
V.
The same
power that brings men to Christ in the Gospel, continues to work in them effectually
in the church.
From
whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every
part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. --Ephesians 4:16
The church is a living temple, made up of
living stones. It is a holy communion,
which we confess in the Apostles Creed.
Each member supplies the other members, and the church grows itself as
communication continues freely in love.
In fact, we must read Matthew 18 in terms of this communication. What disqualifies a man from continuing in
the fellowship is the "failure to hear" his fellow Christian or the
church. When the church excommunicates,
it is recognizing that the individual involved is already out of the
conversation of life and is following the way of deadly ideas and the works
that accompany death. There is to be
great forbearance and longsuffering within the fellowship; only reluctantly do
we recognize the barrenness and disobedience of being outside the communion.
VI.
The
Church, therefore, is not like the world, which lives alienated from God.
This
I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other
Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because
of the blindness of their heart: Who
being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all
uncleanness with greediness. But ye
have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been
taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: --Ephesians 4:17-21
The unbeliever is characterized by his
lack of understanding and by his alienation from God through the blindness of
his heart. This is the reason that he
lives in sexual immorality or greediness for the things of the world. He cannot be involved in the heavenly
fellowship, because of the vanity of his mind.
Christians have begun to learn of Christ,
to be taught by Him, through the means that He has ordained. The Christian knows that the truth is in
Jesus Christ, and that he is called to a different sort of a walk, a
conversation that is life-giving and healthy, not corrupt and full of death.
VII.
The
Christian has a new conversation.
That
ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according
to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye
put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24
The Authorized Version uses a wonderful
old Elizabethan word, which has no real equivalent in the modern day. "Conversation" meant a way of life
derived from a word order, and captures the meaning of the Greek. A Roman citizen was proud of his
citizenship, because it indicated certain things about him, about his
life-style, his discipline, his philosophy and religion.
The Christian is called to put off the former
conversation, the word-order and its accompanying life-style. The old way of acting was corrupt because of
man's wicked desires; it was rooted in Paradise Lost: the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.
These things characterize the world fallen in Adam (I John 2:16).
Instead, the Christian is to put on a new
“conversation,” to believe the Gospel and to act accordingly. This new man is Jesus Christ, the Last
Adam. The Christian can do this because
he has been reconciled to God through the blood of Christ and is "a new
creature, old things have passed away and all things have become new."
Paul said this same thing in Philippians 1:27
Only
let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I
come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand
fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the
gospel;
Divisions and strife indicate that the church
is not living in the conversation of Christ; it is a beautiful thing when the
church "stands fast in one spirit, with one mind…."
James warns us of a false and devilish
conversation. It happens when people
all want to be "schoolma'rms" and bite and devour one another. (James 3:1)
The tongue is a wonderful thing when it is used with grace, making the
mouth a well of life:
The
mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of
the wicked. Hatred stirreth up strifes:
but love covereth all sins. --Proverbs 10:11,12
It is quite another thing when the tongue is
set on fire of hell:
But
if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not
against the truth. This wisdom
descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is
confusion and every evil work. --James
3:14-16
We are to put away the words and works of
death, and speak those things which are edifying and healthy:
But
let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than
these cometh of evil.
--Matthew 5:37
Mortify
therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness,
inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God
cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time,
when ye lived in them. But now ye also
put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of
your mouth.
--Colossians 3:5-7 [Colossians 3
is in many ways parallel to Ephesians 4]
VIII.
Practical
Considerations (Ephesians 4:25-32).
Wherefore
putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are
members one of another. Be ye angry,
and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour,
working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him
that needeth. Let no corrupt
communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of
edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
If we are to be a part of the heavenly
conversation, we must first quit our lying.
We must not lie about God (false doctrine); we must not lie about ourselves
(hypocrisy and guile); we must not lie about each other (slander and
falsehood).
Members of each other. This
is true because we are members of the same body. Christ has no disassociated body parts. To use a physical analogy, the animal body cannot function unless
the nervous system is whole and uncorrupted.
Drugs and alcohol, and certain diseases, disrupt the nervous system and
the body becomes uncontrollable.
In order for the body to work properly, it
must be connected to the head and all of the parts must be connected to each
other. Words of love and truth cement
our connection to each other; lies disrupt the connection. The words of the Gospel in Scripture connect
us to Jesus Christ and the words of the Scriptures teach us to love one
another, forbear one another, and forgive one another in Jesus Christ.
Grieve Not the Holy Spirit.
Because we have been baptized into Christ, it is the Holy Spirit who
works faith and love in the children of God, and seals us unto the day of redemption. Evil communications grieve Him:
And
grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger,
and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you.
--Ephesians 4:30-32
Instead of grieving
the Holy Spirit, we are called to confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and to
believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead. We are called to confess Him before men, to
confess our sins, and no longer deceive ourselves by walking in the lies of
self-righteousness and self-justification.
We are to trust in Christ for forgiveness of sins and so be restored to
fellowship with God through Jesus Christ.
Without the
Triune God, how lonely is the life of man!
The modern man has no speaking God, no fellowship and communion with
God. The only voice that modern man
hears is the Babel of his own wilderness.
God has
provided all things for His church. It
is through His promises that we escape the corruption that is in the world
through lust [II Pet. 1:4]. It is also
through the promises that we have fellowship with Him and with one another [I
John 1]. This fellowship begins in the
church, for without the church there is no fellowship with God and no living
fellowship with one another. Without
the church we are lost in a communion of death, dancing the dance of death,
speaking the words of death, working the works of death. The stench of death is about all we do.
Only in
Christ, in the living body of Christ, do we find life, and peace, and
service. The church is a living temple
made of living stones. His communion is
the communion of life because He endured death for us and rose up from the dead
to bring us life forevermore. Shall we
be wiser than God? God has ordained the
means for us to have fellowship with Him:
we do not seek some other way, for our Shepherd comes by the door of the
sheep and those who climb up some other way are thieves and robbers. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord"
[Isaiah 55:7] As long as a person
clings in pride to his own opinions and his own stubborn ways, there is no hope
for fellowship with God, who resists the proud, but give grace to the
humble. The proud talk only to themselves,
for God does not hear them.
I also will choose their delusions, and will
bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I
spake, they did not hear: but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in
which I delighted not. Hear the word of
the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast
you out for my name's sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall
appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. Isaiah 66:4,5
The Lord hears those who take His word seriously
and tremble.
IX.
Speaking the Truth in Love (Ephesians 4:5)
Paul expands on this
idea from Ephesians 5:19 to the end of the epistle. Verses 19,20 give the outline.
Speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord;
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting
yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
We are to speak to one another, and to
speak to God in thanksgiving and praise, echoing Psalm 50, cited above. The Christian life is a joyful conversation
with God and with each other. Involved
in this conversation is the necessity of joyful submission one to another in
the fear of God, who has called us out of darkness into the glorious light of
His Son. (I Peter 2:9) In terms of this
submission, the apostle speaks of the relationship between husbands and wives,
parents and children, owners and labor.
He ends by speaking of our conflict with the evil conversation of the
world, which can only be overcome by the armor of the Spirit:
Wherefore
take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the
evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on
the breastplate of righteousness; And
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is
the word of God: Praying always with
all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all
perseverance and supplication for all saints. --Ephesians 6:13-18
The armor of God is not
for protection against bombs and guns and clubs. God has fashioned those carnal weapons and they cannot do more
than His word and wisdom permits. As we
read in Isaiah 54:
Behold,
I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth
forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall
prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt
condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their
righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
Jesus put
it this way, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceedeth from the mouth of God." (Matt. 4:4) It is not that man should not live by
bread alone, but that man does not live by bread alone. Apart from the decree and wisdom of God man
cannot so much as move. We have no independent
existence, for in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:29). We cannot even raise our fist in defiance of
Him without using the strength, the mind, the self-consciousness that He gives
us. In our sin we turn His gifts
against Him, and it is only His patience and long-suffering that holds back the
punishment that we deserve.
Part
Five: Spiritual Sacrifices
Introduction
There is
counsel in the Holy Trinity. There is
one God, but there is diversity in the Holy Trinity and in this diversity,
there is fellowship. Speech and
fellowship is therefore basic to the very order of the universe, and man was
created in order to have fellowship with God.
Man was not just created in order to DO things for God, but to be a
companion and a friend for God, to the extent that a created being can have
such fellowship. Because fellowship is
so basic to the very nature of God; man, being in the image of God, shares in
this basic nature. Man also desires
fellowship and communion.
Man was
created to receive the Word of God, and to fellowship in terms of that
word. This is the seriousness of his
sin in the Garden of Eden. In his sin
man did not eat something that God had discerned was bad for him, but in
partaking of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, man broke the circle
of God's fellowship, and began to live in terms of a different order of
fellowship; one based upon his own reason and discernment, not one based upon
God's communication to him. But all
such fellowships are fellowships of death, and sin and ruin entered into the
world. Jesus said, “I am the vine,
if you abide in me, you have life; but if you abide not in me, you are cast
forth as a branch and are withered.”
In Jesus Christ is life and health; outside of his fellowship, there is
nothing but death and ruin.
So man was
driven from the Garden of Eden. He lost
that original Paradise, which was a type and figure of the true Paradise,
Heaven itself, where communion and fellowship with God will be perfect and complete.
To get back
into God's fellowship, man must come back in the way he went out. He rejected the word of God; he comes back
in by receiving God's word. But here's
the catch. Man is a rebel. Because God is good and cannot deny Himself,
He must judge those who rebel against Him.
How was man to be restored to fellowship, when the very nature of God
abhorred and hated man for his rebellion?
This is the beauty of the grace of God.
He sent His very Word into the world, to suffer the consequences of
man's rebellion. On the Cross, the Lord
Jesus, in a way that goes far beyond any of our abilities to comprehend, was
alienated from the fellowship and life of God, for the first time in all the
vastness of eternity: In His flesh He
felt the horrors of separation from God, "My God, My God, why hast thou
forsaken me?" He experienced the
alienation deserving of the wrath of God in the place of sinner, so that the
door of salvation might be opened for us.
His death is the way of life for us; His alienation brings us back into
fellowship with God. We can go
home. The Father has prepared the way
for the return of His prodigal sons.
The way is open to us and it is the way faith, restoration to communication
and fellowship with God.
We are called
to confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and to believe in our hearts that God
has raised Him from the dead. We are
called to confess Him before men; we are called to confess our sins and no
longer deceive ourselves by walking in the lies of self-righteousness and
self-justification. We are to trust in
Christ for forgiveness of sins and so be restored to fellowship with God
through Jesus Christ.
Without the
Triune God, the life of man is lonely, living in isolation and alienation
because he has no speaking God, no God with whom he can fellowship. He only hears the voice of his own
rebellion.
Very early,
it was said of man that it is not good for him to be alone, because God knew
the nature of the man that He had created.
Adam named the animals and discerned that there was no creature that was
fit for fellowship and communion with man.
None of them could speak; none of them was created for fellowship. So Eve was created for Adam, made bone of
his bone and flesh of his flesh. Made from his rib, so that there would not be
two human natures, but one: male and female.
Eve was made from Adam, not from some other flesh. She was just like him, only female, not
male. Only the Bible account of special
creation does justice to the uniqueness and nobility and honor of man as he was
created.
Jesus came to
restore us to fellowship with God. The
nature and the working out of that fellowship is described in Ephesians 4. We say that we are called to walk according
to the communication of the Lord that brought us to Christ. This walk is to be one of gentleness and
humility. We are to put away self-love
and pride, and forbear one another: to listen and to speak, for communication
is two-way. We are to work toward
unity, to try to harmonize our views with others; for there is one body and one
spirit; one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one hope of our calling. We saw that Christ, when He ascended up on
high gave gifted men to the church to bring them to the unity of the
faith. We are to not be children
anymore, carried away by every wind of doctrine, but are to grow up to that
unity, where each of us does our part, through the effectual working the same
Spirit that brought us to Christ. We
are to speak to one another: not our
feelings; not our opinions; not our doubts and fears; but our faith.
This brings us to worship.
I.
God's House Is a House of Prayer. As we saw earlier in Psalm 50, the Lord had this
complaint of Israel, that they offered Him sacrifices and ceremonies, but they
did not give thanks, keep their promises, or call upon Him in the day of
trouble. He goes on to say to the
wicked:
But
unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that
thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?
Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou
consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy
tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest
and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. These things hast thou done, and I kept
silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I
will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God,
lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to
him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of
God. --Psalm
50:16-23
The wicked imagined
that God was like them. Sometimes they
even spoke of covenant and God's will.
They used His gifts of language and reason for evil and deceit. They slandered one another. They thought that God would be silent about
true righteousness just as they were.
But the One who made the ear will certainly hear, and the one who made
thy eye will certainly see.
He that planted the ear, shall he not
hear? he that formed the eye, shall he
not see? He that chastiseth the
heathen, shall not he correct? he that
teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know?
The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. --Psalm 94:9-11
As stated
before, the AV uses that wonderful old Elizabethan noun in the last verse of
Psalm 50: Those who order their conversation
aright will be shown the salvation of the Lord. They are "in the loop" of the Trinitarian communion,
God is their God, Christ is their Savior, the saints are their brothers and
sisters. They do not worship a silent
God, and they are not silent. In word
and deed they communicate the grace of God to each other and to the world.
II.
Communication is Two-Ways, and so it is in Worship. In Proverbs 1, God had this quarrel with
Israel:
Because
I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel,
and would none of my reproof: I also
will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and
your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon
you. Then shall they call upon me, but
I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not
choose the fear of the LORD:…. --Proverbs 1:24-29
This is especially true of man in his
conversation with God. God does not institute
prayers so we can access Him as a sort of cosmic vending machine, to satisfy
our lusts and worldly desires. Instead,
prayers are our response to His word and His promises. Simply stated, God is saying that if we do
not listen to Him, then He will not listen to us. The wicked in Psalm 50:16,17, "cast God's word behind
them."
This condition, however, does not come
with haste upon the sinner, for God is longsuffering. He has given us an example of how to deal with sinners. Sometimes people say that God will not hear
the prayers of sinners. The evidence
contradicts this, for He heard the prayers of Cain, of Ahab, and even gave the
devil a hearing in the time of Job. It
is true that He has not promised to hear them, but sometimes for His own
pleasure He does hear them. God is longsuffering
and gracious and this teaches us to be the same way. We are not to speak only to those who love and speak to us, but
we are to salute [greet] all:
"And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others?
do not even the publicans so?"
(Matthew 5:47) It is a great sin
for us to refuse to talk to others, especially the saints.
We are to cultivate the habit of
listening to all men, for we have been called to disciple all men with the view
of bringing them into the fellowship of the Gospel (Matthew 28:19,20).
B.
Especially,
the House of God is to be a House of Listening.
Idolaters
do not know what they worship (John 4:22).
Prayers must be offered to the true God, and must come in spirit and in
truth (John 4:24). Because of this
there must be cleansing of the heart and mind before true prayers can be offered:
He
that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. --Proverbs 28: 9
I
am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and
every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more
fruit. Now ye are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you. John 15:1-3
One of the things that
the people of God need to be in fervent, earnest, believing prayer about is the
restoration of great preaching in our churches. We do not need more P.R. men; or more party-good-time men. We do not need more men with political
connections. We do not need more
fund-raisers. We need the restoration
of faithful preaching. What is faithful
preaching? It is absolutely essential
to the great education ministry of the church, for Christian education and
nurture begins in the pulpit.
III.
Why is listening so terribly important for the church?
A. We must listen if we
are to avoid idolatry. We do not worship an unknown God. Idolaters worship what they do not
know. They worship gods that cannot
speak, for only our Triune God knew fellowship and speech even before the world
were made. God was not lonely before He
made the world.
B.
We must listen if we are to know ourselves. The word of God penetrates to the innermost parts of the heart,
to discover the hidden springs and the inward conditions. Without listening, we will be deceived by
our own hearts and be led away into all kinds of error and sin. It is through preaching that God has chosen
to edify and build His people in the church.
C.
We must listen
in order to know the meaning of the world in which we live. How else would we know that "all things
work together for good" if we do not listen to the Word of God. God has chosen through the ministry of the
word to take us into His conversation and communion, so that we might make
sense of our lives. Shall we be wiser
than God, and despise His work.
D.
We must listen,
for this is the way that God has chosen for us to escape temptation.
Now all these
things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our
admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed lest he fall. 13 There hath no temptation taken you but such
as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape,
that ye may be able to bear it. 14 Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from
idolatry.-- I Corinthians 10:11-14.
God has provided a way for us to escape just
as He did for Israel. The way is always
Christ. In Israel the provision He had
made was through Moses, the covenants, the promises that were under the law
that pointed to Christ. The provision He has made for us is the church and her
ministry. We see much more clearly, and
under the administration of the Spirit we do not need the strictures that were
given by Moses, and a slave to lead us to Christ, for we see Him clearly. Those who despised Moses fell and perished,
their carcasses falling in the wilderness; even less can we escape if we
neglect the means that God has provided for us, despising His word, and refusing
His grace.
E.
And So We
are Called to Pray without Ceasing. As the Heidelberg Catechism
put it, prayer is the chief part of thankfulness (Question 116). All things come to us from God, and we are
to offer unto God thanksgiving and praise.
These are spiritual sacrifices according to I Peter 2:4, 5
To
whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of
God, and precious, Ye also, as lively
stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
In this beautiful
figure the church is a temple, but we do not offer up the blood of bulls and
goat; nor do we offer again and again the blood of Christ. We acknowledge that Christ was slain for
us, and we offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. We offer the calves of our lips. These offerings are to be made not only in church, but also in
every place, without ceasing.
But how do we pray? The conditions of public prayers are set forth in I Corinthinas
14:14-20.
For
if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the
spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the
spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth
the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth
not what thou sayest? For thou verily
givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: Yet in the church I had rather speak five
words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than
ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye
children, but in understanding be men.
In the church we are
not engaging in a private conversation with God, hence our prayers are to be
edifying and intelligible to others.
A. We use language. Public
prayers are to be intelligible. Paul
says that you can do what you want in private; but in public use words that
people can understand. Be mature about
it.
B. In the prayer others
are to join with you in their hearts, and join in the giving of thanks. Not in a babble of undifferentiated speech,
but in an edifying manner, decently and in order. (Vs. 26 and vs. 40)
C. Life is to be breathed
into the forms. It is to be orderly,
but it is to be alive. To be alive in
worship is not the same as to make a lot of noise. Worship can be dead if it is not from the heart no matter how
noise is made. Heart worship is not the
same as the emotion or the mind. The
heart is the spiritual core of man and is the fountain which directs the
emotions, the mind, and the will. Heart
worship is sincere, honest, and obedient and can take many different forms, but
one thing is certain: it is a worship that both listens to God and responds in
prayer to Him.
Changing the forms of
worship will not necessarily bring spiritual life. A vigorous beating around with an axe-handle will not take the
place of having an axe-head.
D. Great hymns, psalms,
and spiritual songs must be part of our conversation with God. These are prayers set to music, prayers of
great joy and gladness. They are
spiritual sacrifices offered to God. We
are not to offer the halt, the lame, or the blind. Nor are we to offer the unclean offerings of the world. But our
offerings do come from the flock, out of the natural order of things, so our
music will reflect our culture and experience.
The styles, however, are to be sanctified. Just as the sacrificial lamb
was to be watched for a week to make sure there were no blemishes, so we ought
not to run after every fad in music.
They are to be proved to see that there is no fault in them.
1. They are to be our
prayers, so the creative activity of the church is to be found in great
hymnwriting, from the hearts of God’s people.
This refutes the idea that only Psalms are to be sung in church. The whole range of Christian thanksgiving is
fit to be a subject for our hymns.
2. Our conversation
includes the reading of Scripture, which can be done responsively to involve
the congregation. Worshippers should
pay careful attention and even children should be involved in this part of the
conversation.
3. In our prayers we confess our faith, which
confession permeates all that we do.
The word of God is on the tongues of the saints and defines them. It is
pleasant to God when He hears His people confessing and acknowledging the
truth. Even little children can do
this: Ps. 149. They can learn to lisp the hymns and say the
creed, joining in the prayers.
4. Truth and sincerity
must rule all of our prayers, because God is to be worshipped in spirit and in
truth. Our words must come from the heart.
We are members one of another, and must not permit lies to destroy the
fabric upon which our very life depends.
The word of God must circulate without contamination. All truth is God's truth, and we live by
it. Truth sets free, it cleanses, and
it gives life. Lies and misrepresentation
bring death and ruin; they did in Eden and they do today.
5. Personal communication
with God, however, does not depend upon many words. "Let your words be few in the presence of God, for we are
not heard for our much speaking."
Some people want to talk all the time, because they are full of themselves.
Keep
thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than
to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not
thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and
thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a
fool's voice is known by multitude of words.
When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no
pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou
shouldest vow and not pay. Suffer not
thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it
was an error: --Ecclesiastes 5:1-6
From eternity there has been fellowship of
the most sweet and blessed kind among the Three Persons of the Holy
Trinity. From the unsearchable riches
of His grace and goodness, our Triune God chose to create the world and to
include Adam and all his seed within the circle of his fellowship. Not to deify man, for that could not be, but
to include man, as much as a man was able as a noble and blessed creature,
within the circle of God's fellowship.
This fellowship was destroyed by man's sin; for this fellowship was in
terms of words, thoughts, concepts; and man rejected God's words, and followed
the words of the devil.
In order to restore man to fellowship with Himself, God ordained and
sent Jesus Christ, the Son of God, into the world to satisfy the justice of
God, to overthrow the lies of the devil, and to bring man once more into the
purity and fellowship of the truth of the Word of God.
I.
Because
of Sin, God's communion and conversation with man cannot be direct. We
see as through a glass, darkly. II
Corinthians 3 speaks of two administrations: one of the law, the other of the
Spirit. But both are of the Scriptures,
ministered by men. The first was given
by Moses and ministered by those ordained of God, the Levites and descendants
of Aaron. The second was given by Jesus
Christ and administered by those ordained and sent forth by Him, not according
to the flesh (physical descent), but by the gifts of the Spirit. II Corinthians 2:17
For
we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as
of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.
The faithful minister of the New Testament
does not corrupt the word of God, but sincerely preaches the truth before God.
He does not have his own message, but is a messenger of the Lord. Thus, after the angel delivered the apostles
from prison, they were told to "Go,
stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this
life." (Acts 5:20) Their message is designated, “Word of Life,”
a living conversation, not the dead words of dead gods.
Preaching is not to be
ministry of private interpretation or of hobby-horses. The minister must not intrude other ideas
and philosophies, but must mine the Scriptures for his message and application. He is bound to the Scriptures.
II.
Pastors/teachers
are the ordinary gifts of Christ to the church according to Ephesians 4.
They are not to be theological nit-pickers, swallowing camels while
avoiding gnats, but are called to perfect the saints, to bring all to the unity
of the faith. The church has dealt with
the camels in the creeds and catechisms; we will probably produce the gnats
from our own imaginations. God's people
must not shut themselves off from the conversation of Christ, for this is the
way that He has determined to teach his church.
A minister
should be passionate for the infallibility of Scripture and the integrity of
the creeds. He must have compassion for
sinners; patience with the weak; justice for the poor and needy; faithfulness
in worship. He must be catholic in his
affections, a lover and supporter of other faithful ministers, both small and
great. He should have no respect of
persons, but have compassion for men of all races and conditions. He should be a lover of life and a lover of
truth. He should be a lifetime scholar,
able to express himself in oral and written communication. He must be passionately in love with Jesus
Christ, and firmly convinced that the blood of Christ is sufficient to cure the
worst of sinners. He will seek to
spread the gospel as widely as possible.
He must distrust his own reason, his feelings, his choices. In short, he must love the gospel of Christ
as the only remedy for man's sinful condition.
He must be an honest man, not hiding his faults nor pretending virtues.
He must be humble, preferring others as better than himself. He must not be contentious and quarrelsome,
but must make much of the grace of God both in doctrine and in life. He must do good to all men, especially those
of the household of faith. His
knowledge must never be used to do evil, but always to do good. He must not be double-minded, but
single-minded in service to Jesus Christ, content to fill the place that God
has given him. He must love men, but
not be a men-pleaser.
This means that the people of God must
prepare themselves by personal, fervent prayer to prepare themselves for
worship and for hearing the word of God.
A.
The minister
must have no doubt that the book that he holds in his hand is the very word of
God. He needs to be immersed in the
Word of God. He needs to value the word
as more than his necessary meat. "Thy
words were found, and I did eat them; and they were the joy and rejoicing of my
heart."
B.
The minister
must be fervently in love with Jesus Christ.
In his heart must be the fire of love that has been lit by the Holy
Ghost. He must love Jesus Christ, love
His word, love His people; and love the His Gospel.
C.
The minister
must have a lively imagination and energy to apply the word faithfully to the
modern age, a man with a fire burning in his soul; this is to say a man who is
filled with the Spirit of God.
D.
He should be
able to tell the difference between a gnat and a camel. Jesus talked about those who strained at
gnats and swallowed camels to the ruin of God’s people.
E.
What is the
minister to do but to preach the word?
Study, preach, apply, reprove, rebuke, etc. Jesus said: “He that
heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and
shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24)
What difference can a faithful ministry make?
I
have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they
prophesied. But if they had stood in
my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have
turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. --Jeremiah 23:21,22
III.
The
Importance of the Word of God in Matthew 13. In the parable of the sower
who went forth to sow several important ideas can be emphasized:
C.
The hard heart
is a stony heart, a field with shallow soil over hard stone. A hard heart is bad soil for the sowing of
the word of God. It is a heart filled
with hatred, bitterness, and anger.
Tribulation and trials destroy the word, and there is no fellowship and
conversation with God. Trials and
tribulations cause bitterness and anger to spring up in the hard heart, not the
sweet passions of faith and love.
D. Thorns come because of the cares of the
world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the love of the world. We settle down here in the world and do not
long for that blessed communion with our Savior in Heaven. These have their portion in the world and do
not have their affections set on things above where Christ sits at the right
hand of God.
IV.
The
Bread of God in John 6
A. Jesus had fed
the multitudes with five loaves and two fish.
The multitudes followed him across the sea, and desired to force him to
become their king. He refused and
entered into a dialogue with them over the bread of God.
B. He said that
Moses had not given the true bread from heaven, because the fathers were all
dead. Instead, the true bread was He
who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Jesus claimed to be that true bread, and
that His flesh was true bread, His blood was true drink. They did not understand and were highly offended. As a result, many no longer followed Him.
C. When His
disciples asked Him about it, a very interesting response came from Christ [John 6:61-64]
1.
“Is this offensive to you?
What will you think when I return to heaven” [My flesh will not be on the earth. If you don’t understand now, how will you understand then?]
2.
“The flesh doesn’t profit anything” [The value of the flesh of Christ will not
be in the disciples masticating it.
That would be cannibalism. The
value of the flesh of Christ for believers lies in its being offered as a
sacrifice to God on the cross.]
3. “The words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” [The truth concerning the sacrifice of Christ is food for our
soul, if we believe and trust in Christ.
There were those among His disciples who did not believe, but they would
believe later. This passage destroys
the myth of transubstantiation and consubstantiation; if the eating of Christ’s
flesh on this earth would have been nothing; how can the eating of ceremonial
bread profit? Christ Himself is the
bread of God; not the manna; not the host; not the wafer; not the wine. He is the Bread that came down from heaven
which nourishes the souls of those who believe. The Gospel tells me the truth about the sacrifice of Christ and
that truth in the words is life for my soul.
These are the words by which we and our houses are saved. The sacrament exists for the purpose of
reminding the church of the words of the Promise.]
D. Peter at least
understood. When Jesus said to his
disciples, “Will ye also go away,” it was Peter who responded, “To whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life.” The words matter after
all. It is by the words that God
communicates the grace of Jesus Christ to impart the life of Christ to the soul
of the believer. (Acts 11:14)
Part Seven: The Christian Home
Very early, it was said of man that it
is not good for him to be alone. Adam
named the animals, and discerned that there was no creature that was fit for
fellowship and communion with man. None
of them could speak; none of them was created for fellowship. So Eve was created for Adam, made bone of
his bone, and flesh of his flesh. Made from his rib; so that there would not be
two human natures, but one: male and female; for Eve was made from Adam, not
from some other flesh. She was just
like him, only female, not male. She
was not created to be a servant for Adam, but a companion. One just like him, only female.
What has been written
applies to marriage and to every human relationship. Man was created first of all to fellowship with God and then to
fellowship with others. When fellowship
with God is destroyed, then fellowship between men is destroyed. Marriage was instituted to be instructive—to
reveal the relationship between Christ and His church. Because God’s works are always covenantal,
marriage is based upon a vow, which both husband and wife must take in the fear
of God.
Communion and Conversation in Marriage. There is a communion and conversation in
marriage that is to be part of the Christian conversation. Men are to love and care for their
wives. Wives are to be in submission
and be helpers to their husbands. The
wife is a helper in a way that no other human can be. It was not good for man to be alone, and the woman was created to
be a companion for her husband and a helper to him in his calling. If her speech is destructive, it breaks the
fellowship of the home. If his speech
is cruel and oppressive, he devalues his wife and himself [I Cor. 11:7]. Bringing other men or women into the
fellowship destroys the intimacy and love of the home, just as false teachers
and prophets destroy the fellowship of the church.
Inclusion
of Children in Covenant Communication. Children are also to be included in the
communication of the godly conversation, brought up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord. In other words, they are
born into the covenant community, and if they believe, they inherit eternal
life. What was said to Israel
certainly applies to Christians today: “And these words, which I command
thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of
them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and
when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be
as frontlets between thine eyes. And
thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” [Deut. 6:6-9]
There
are many ways that the conversation of the ungodly intrudes itself into the
Christian home and church. It comes
through the mass media, the internet, television, MTV, boom boxes, magazines,
books, papers, and the influence of neighbors, relatives, other children in the
church, and the depravity of their own hearts. Parents would be very naïve to believe
that their children will be insulated from such things. Our families are inundated by the flood of alien speech and conversation. But we have the promise of God that He “knows
the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” [Psalms 1:6] Without going out of the world, there are things that we can do
to minimize its effect upon us and upon our children.
Because our fellowship with God and with one another depends upon
the understanding and the use of rational discourse, the things which cause an
impairment of the mental processes must be put away also. Mind-changing substances which bring a
suspension or an impairment of verbal communication and understanding are to be
rejected. Such substances bring about a
disconnection with God’s revelation in creation and distort the meaning of
words and the ability to understand communication. Because Satan trades in lies and deceit [John 8:44], it is in his
interest to promote their abuse.
Equally destructive to the rational processes are the effects of
false doctrine and arrogant pride.
These destroy the ability of the mind to discern the truth and to see
the difference between right and wrong.
A humble walk with God in the covenant conversation is essential for a
godly, peaceful home.
There are many things that parents must do to include their
children in the conversation of godliness.
Among them are the following:
1. Fathers
and mothers must give diligence to assure themselves that they personally are
walking in the conversation of godliness:
“That ye put off
concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put
on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness. Wherefore putting away lying,
speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.” [Ephesians 4:22-24]
2. Because evil communications corrupt good
behavior, a great danger to the Christian father are the twin evils of
pornography and feminism. Both are
subversive to a godly conversation.
Disruptions in the order and chastity of the home are destructive of
prayers, according to I Peter 3:1-7, which are another way of saying that true
worship is disrupted. Husbands and
wives are to encourage one another and support one another in their growth in
the knowledge and obedience of the Gospel.
3. Fathers and mothers must teach their
children the truths of the Scriptures.
This will include regular Bible reading in the home, the availability of
good and wholesome books and other resources, hymnology, poetry, and good literature. Special care must be given to catechetical
instruction. Regular Bible reading
brings children into contact with the stuff life is made of, including both the
good and the evil, and such reading provides an opportunity for discussion and
application. The example of a godly
life is important, of course, but the words of the gospel transforms lives, for
it is by the hearing of faith that the Spirit is given to God’s people
4. Good and wholesome schools must be chosen
for children to attend. Especially to
be commended are good home-school instruction, good Christian schools, and
other godly resources. There are many
resources available that can meet the needs of the Christian family. Great care must be taken if the public
schools are utilized, for more and more the public schools are agents for the
American state religion, with its humanistic
curriculum, unbelieving teachers, and relativism in religion and morals. “Cease, my son, to hear the
instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.” [Proverbs 19:27] If public school seems to be the best choice, depending on
particular circumstances, fathers and mothers must be especially involved every
day in the education, talking to their children, knowing who their friends are,
and monitoring their whereabouts.
Certain aspects of education may be delegated, but responsibility cannot
be delegated.
5. Children should not be left alone with
computers, with television, or even the telephone. Supervision is the key word, and it is the duty of parents to
supervise their children. Computers
should be in public view, not hidden in the child’s bedroom. If television is viewed, it should be a
family viewing, with family discussion.
Pornography, idolatry, and profanity belong to the conversation of the
devil and must be rejected by godly people.
It might be instructive to notice how often “Oh, my god” is used on any
TV program in prime time. [This is
covenantal language, by the way: “But
unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that
thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?
Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.” –Ps 50: 16, 17].
6. It is not possible, or biblical, to
remove our families from concourse with the church or society. The Great Commission of the church to the
whole world stands in contrast with the cultural and religious isolation of the
theocracy of the Old Testament. God is
certainly able to preserve believers and their children even in the seat of
Satan himself [witness Daniel and his friends in Babylon, Joseph in Egypt, and
Samuel under the instruction of Eli, whose own sons were terribly corrupt], but
the means of preservation is normally good instruction from godly parents and
pastors. We must neither tempt God by
putting ourselves in the path of danger nor walk in fear of contamination.
7. Children must be included in the worship
of the Lord on the Sabbath Day. The
worship of the Lord involves both listening to His word and offering prayers to
Him. The house of God is to be a house
of prayer as well as the pillar and ground of the truth. Psalm 148 calls even upon small children or
infants to be included in this praise and thanksgiving. If children are made to be obedient at
home, they will obey in church and sit quietly and partake of the worship,
unless there are physical ailments.
8. The plan of God for His people is that
they be included in the covenant community of saints. To be baptized is to be baptized into this fellowship. The family does not exist in isolation from
the church; neither does the church exist in isolation from the state and
community. We are to be salt and light,
and the leaven of the Gospel is to season the whole lump. If home or Christian school is the choice
for the family, then other activities should be planned so that the family is
not isolated from the larger world, both Christian and non-Christian. A good education, including a good Christian
education, requires understanding and contact with other points of view, so
that our Christian witness may be effective.
Our children will certainly come into contact with these points of view
at some time, and it is far better that this contact take place when they are
under the influence and instruction of their family and church community.
9. Wrong behavior is to be
corrected with chastisement and instruction.
Because sin involves both the head and the body, the mind must be
instructed and the body chastised.
Love requires it and no child was ever damaged by the loving and firm
application of the rod to the proper place of a child’s anatomy. As the Scripture puts it, “Apply
thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. Withhold not correction from the child: for
if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt
deliver his soul from hell. [Prov.
23:12-14] The promise of this Scripture
is that chastisement is a means that the Holy Spirit uses, along with the
Scripture, to bring the elect to salvation and mercy. There is no higher love that a man or woman can have for a child
than to chasten him at the proper time in the proper way. “He that spareth his rod hateth his son:
but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” [Proverbs 13:24]
Chastisement is to be mild, loving, and filled with pity, for this
is the pattern set forth in Scripture.
Our Father in heaven is longsuffering and patient with his children and
chastens us, not for his pleasure, but for our good. A kind and patient father who pities his children is the figure
which describes our Heavenly Father.
This is a pity that is not rooted in sentiment, but in an understanding
of our fallen nature which is made of dust and under the curse of Adam’s sin.
It should be noted that parents should use a great deal of wisdom
in chastisement in the modern world. It
should probably never be done in public, for bystanders may make complaints to
public authorities and humanistic social workers. If mild and loving correction is made in private it will not be
necessary to chastise in public. One of
the additional benefits of physical chastisement is the teaching of hardness in
mind and body. Physical contentment and
pleasure are not the highest good. It
is better to suffer in the body than to suffer in hell.
It is probably not a good idea for schoolteachers, Sunday School
teachers, or others to chastise the children of others. If it needs to be done, a call to the
parents will usually suffice. It is
right and proper for every member of the church to take responsibility to help
parents in the nurture and discipline of the children of the congregation, for
we are members one of another. “It
takes a village,” is a worthy sentiment and has Christian roots, even though,
when separated from Christ, it can be most destructive of liberty.
Part
Eight: Institutions of Christian
Education
It is a settled principle that God is One in Three. The One and the Many is so deeply rooted in
the very nature of the American nation that two centuries of theological liberalism
have been able to make only modest inroads into the structure of American
life. The denial of the true deity of
Jesus Christ and the great creeds of the church has skewered American
institutions and brought about a growth of centralization of power in an
attempt for institutions and government, and even the church, to “speak with
one voice.” The result has been
inefficiency and loss of personal liberty.
But the concept of individual liberty and responsibility, though eroded,
has always been a major theme in the theology and the life of the church.
The Lord Jesus Christ, contrary to Rome, did not appoint a single
head over His church. Instead, He sent
forth the Holy Spirit to lead and to guide His church. This is in agreement with the concept of an
“Economic Trinity.” Although one in
honor, power, knowledge, glory, and eternity, each Person of the Holy Trinity
does His Own work. The Father
predestines from eternity and providentially arranges all things; the Son
becomes man and dies for His people, establishes His church, and, with the
Father, sends forth the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit regenerates, working faith
and repentance and gives gifts of grace and ministry to the Church, according
to His Own will.
This division of work is reflected in the church. We have differing gifts according to the
grace of God. The church is a
“corporation” [from the Latin for “body”] which uses to great advantage the
gifts which God gives. Because the
church is a body that continues on the earth even after the death of its members,
it provides an opportunity for the maximum use of personal gifts, the
accumulation of resources, and intergenerational communication. The church is a “communion,” that not only
speaks to the present generation, but draws upon the labors of the past and
speaks to the generations that follow.
By institutionalizing His church, the Lord emphasized that our
responsibility is not only to our present generation, but to the generation
that follows.
By institutionalizing our efforts we maximize their effects and
use our gifts to their greatest advantage.
It is by such institutions that our light is set upon a hill and gives
light to the whole world. The same
could be said of education. No amount
of individual effort can replace the witness of the institution of the church,
which is the “pillar and ground of the truth.”
In giving this designation to the church, the Apostle Paul was not
speaking of the “invisible” church or the “triumphant” church. Instead, he is speaking to the church
militant, teaching Timothy how to behave.
It is the duty of the fathers of the church to speak not only to
their generation, but also to the generation that follows. It is certainly the duty for biological
fathers are to train up their children in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord. It is the right and privilege to
make educational decisions according to their own circumstances and
resources. It is also the duty of the
Christian community to accumulate resources and build those institutions in
order to speak to succeeding generations.
In order to speak effectively to future generation, to amass
educational resources, and to use a proper division of labor, it is very
important that Christians build educational institutions. It is not possible to predict the exact
nature of the future as far as technology is concerned, except to say that the
changes will be profound. This will
maximize the labors of gifted teachers and provide future generations with
pastors and teachers.
Recommendation: That this
report be printed and made available without charge to the member churches of
the RCUS, and that the ministers and elders of the church promote its study in
the churches and in the homes of the church.
Rev. C. W. Powell, Chairman
Rev. Harvey Opp
Rev. George Horner [In dissent, with minority report]
Elder Dave Kauk [not
voting]
A study
presented in fulfillment of the mandate given to the
Special
Committee of Synod on Covenant Education
By Rev.
George Horner
The Reformed Church in the United States has bound itself, as its Constitution testifies, to the authority of God’s inscripturated Word. Article 176 of the RCUS constitution states:
The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, which are called canonical, being recognized as genuine and inspired, are received as the true and proper Word of God, infallible and inerrant, and the ultimate rule and measure of the whole Christian faith and doctrine.
The authority of the Holy Scriptures, the self-revelation of God, over
the whole of the Christian faith is rooted in this attestation:
“For of Him and through Him and
to Him are all things, to whom be glory
forever” (Rom 11: 36)
It is only by true faith in Jesus Christ that God brings forth from
man, created in His image but depraved in sin, the God-glorifying
acknowledgment of God’s attestation of His ultimacy in all things. It is the
Christian faith which acknowledges that it is the second person of the
trinitarian godhead, Christ incarnate, crucified, resurrected and ascended, in
whom all the fullness dwells ( Col 1: 19)
The Scripture’s testimony that it is in Jesus Christ that all the
fullness dwells serves as a ruling perspective for the whole Christian
life. The ground for all the fullness
dwelling in Christ, God teaches us, is that:
He (Jesus Christ) is the image of
the invisible God, the firstborn over all
creation. For by Him all things
were created that are in heaven and that are
on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
principalities or powers. All
things were created through Him and for Him.
And He is before all things and in Him all things consist. And He is the head
of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead,
that in all things He may have the preeminence. ( Col 1: 15-18)
Jesus Christ’s preeminence, set forth as all-comprehensive, includes
therefore also education, since education is rightly understood as inclusive of
all the instruction and discipline intended to enlighten the understanding of
all things.
Education is
therefore the pursuit of knowledge, of any aspect of the “all things”, with the
goal of its proper use, which is wisdom.
Jesus Christ’s preeminence is made manifest in education when the wisdom
sought after, attained, and displayed is self-consciously for Christ’s
sake. One who practices such
wisdom, the only rightly so called, serves to declare Christ’s preeminence in
all things in and to a world which displays the antithesis to Jesus Christ.
When the knowledge unto wisdom has its beginning in the fear of the
Lord ( Prov 1:7), then that stands antithetically over against the knowledge
unto wisdom, so called, that has its beginning in the autonomy of man from His
Creator. The antithesis as it is
manifested also in education, is at root the antithesis between, on the one
hand, presupposing the kind of God
revealed in Scripture and, on the other hand,
suppressing, in unrighteousness, God’s revelation of Himself.
The presupposition of the God revealed by His Word as the One
true God manifests itself in education in that all knowledge is taught within
the perspective that God, for the sake of Jesus Christ, is the Creator of all things that are, seen
and unseen, and therefore the interpreter of every one of the facts which are
the building blocks of knowledge. Since
Jesus Christ was resurrected, exalted, so that He might have the preeminence as
was pleasing to the Father, and since through Jesus Christ and for Him all
things were created, the Holy Scriptures further teach that :
In Him are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge
( Col: 2: 3)
Therefore, unless this God, who has the preeminence in all things in
the person of Jesus Christ, is
self-consciously acknowledged and presupposed in every aspect of all of education,
the wisdom that we may expect to be gained will in reality be foolishness, the antithesis of the wisdom
which has its beginning in the fear of the Lord.
That foolishness, which is conformity to this world (Rom 12:2), is
demonstrated, when in all aspects of life, including education, man does what
is right in his own eyes.
The antithesis,
also as it is evident in education, is the manifestation of the enmity that God
established between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman ( Gen
3:15).
Having the sinful
nature which is his as a descendant of Adam who willfully disobeyed His
Creator, man hates God and neighbor ( HC A# 5). Man, in Adam, breaks the covenant His Creator God established
with him. Man’s covenant-breaking is
characterized by wanting to make himself the determiner of all things (good and
evil).
Covenant-breaking
man suppresses the Creator/creature distinction and seeks to live not as God’s
vicegerent, but as God, as Covenant ruler.
Man, living in post –Edenic history, in his enmity against all that is
of the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, rebels against truth. He demonstrates his rebellion against Him
who is the Truth by being a disciple of foolishness. Man at enmity with the Jesus Christ who has the preeminence in
all things learns facts while denying the God who alone makes those facts
possible and interprets them. The fools says: “There is no God”, and education
which is not founded on the self-conscious acknowledgement of the reality of
Christ’s preeminence in all things is education in which God has been made
irrelevant. That is foolishness,
which may scripturally also be defined
as:
philosophy and empty deceit,
according to the tradition of men, and not
according to Christ. (Col
2: 5)
Foolishness stands
in antithesis to wisdom which acknowledges and understands:
that the worlds were framed by
the word of God, so that the things which are
seen were not made of things which are visible. (Heb 11: 3)
Education which is not self-consciously in submission to the authority
of God’s Word, which does not inculcate knowledge from the perspective that God
is not only The Creator, but as well The Ruler, The Redeemer and The Judge
through Jesus Christ, all for the sake of His preeminence, is antithetical to
the truth and thereby stands not for, nor is neutral, but stands against Jesus
Christ.
Furthermore, the preeminence of Jesus Christ provides for education its
only proper framework. The exalted
Jesus Christ has the preeminence by way of His being the head of the body, the
church. His preeminence is therefore
redemptive. God is redeeming the whole
creation, and most particularly His elect image bearers, from the curse of sin
for the sake of His glory (Rom 8: 19-25).
Education proper, such as stands antithetically over against education
which is of enslavement to sin, serves, self-consciously so, the redemption of the creation. The proper, biblical, framework for
education is therefore the restoration of all things in Christ. Thus, it is as
every fact is learned within the framework of redemption that the student so
educated is equipped to use all of the creation for the sake of the advancement
of Christ’s Kingdom. Only thus is man
equipped to serve as God’s vicegerent once again. The student so educated will have the comprehensive biblical perspective where God, for the sake
of Christ’s preeminence in all things,
is relevant to every aspect of life.
Education which presupposes the God who has revealed Himself in the Holy
Scriptures will serve to have every aspect of life be in anticipation of His
glorious return. the fullness of the manifestation of Christ’s preeminence.
Now it is only as we submit, by faith,
to the authority of God’s Word that we realize that the antithesis, also in education, will be made
manifest by God calling to Himself and establishing a people to whom He gives
the redemptive promises in Jesus Christ and the self-conscious awareness of the
antithesis.
The antithesis, also in education, has been made manifest in history
through the covenant people of God. To
Israel, the people God called to Himself that they might be set apart to His worship
and service, the Lord revealed Himself, by way of His great deeds of covenantal
faithfulness, as the God who rules over His Creation for the sake of
redemption. His people’s deliverance,
by His almighty power, from the slavery of Egypt, their victory, in the
strength of God, over those nations at
enmity with them, their delivery into
the promised land across the stopped up Jordan, all testified, by type, to the
redemptive preeminence of Christ.
God’s covenant people were set forth in the world as the antithesis to
the seed of the serpent. They were marked, by the sign of the covenant, as
belonging not to themselves, but to God. God made manifest the antithesis He
established through the setting apart of His covenant people. To them He committed His oracles (Rom 3:2)
and to them He spoke by His ordained prophets.
To them He provided for the atonement for their sins through sacrifices
in the temple by His ordained priests.
Over them He ruled through His ordained kings for the sake of their
possessing the promised land. Through
the office of prophet, priest and king, each serving the redemptive purposes
for which God called out to Himself His covenant people, God prefigured Jesus Christ who would, by
His humiliation and then exaltation have the preeminence in all things. The covenant people served, therefore, in
shadowy form, the manifestation of the preeminence of Jesus Christ to the world
out of which they had been separated.
But the covenant people were to display the antithesis
self-consciously. They were to acknowledge
only the One God, and have no other gods before Him. ( Ex 20: 3). Therefore, the education of God’s covenant people
was to have its focus on the Lord God through His Word. The education of God’s covenant people,
since God made them His for the sake of manifesting the antithesis between the
seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, between righteousness and lawlessness,
death and life, for, ultimately, the
sake of Christ’s redemptive preeminence in all things, their education too was
to be antithetical to that of the world from which God had separated them. The
antithesis as God’s people were to manifest it also in education, is grounded
in God’s command set forth in Deuteronomy 6: 4-9:
Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God,
the Lord is one! You shall love the
Lord
your God with all your heart, with all our soul, and with all your
might. And
these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.; you shall
teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you
sit in
your house, when you walk by
the way, when you lie down, and when your
rise up. You shall bind them as
a sign on your hand, and they shall be as
frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of
your
house and on your gates.
We note, first of all, in this text, the preeminence of the Lord
God. He is not only the Lord of lords,
the King of kings, but the God who is One in antithesis to the polytheism of
the world’s (then and now) culture.
This only One true God, who had revealed Himself to them as their
covenant God, ruler over His creation for the purpose of redemption from sin
unto His glory, this is the God whom His people were to love with all of their
being and all their strength. That is a
call to acknowledge the Lord’s preeminence in all things and thus to live their
lives in the service of its manifestation.
That call, in this passage, serves as the foundation for the kind of
education the covenant children were to receive.
Covenant education was to pervade the entire day. No part of the day was to be divorced from
the acknowledgment of the Lord God, from loving Him with mind, heart, soul and
strength. God, through His Word, was to be relevant, primarily so, to all things. The life that the children were to witness all day long was to be
a testimony to them of what it means to belong, in body and soul, to the Lord
God. Thus, children were to have demonstrated
to them, and that responsibility rests with the parents, the preeminence of the
Lord in all things.
And we note, further, that the words that God commanded to be put in
the hearts of His people and then diligently taught the children, were words
that instructed God’s people comprehensively on the “how” of life in the promised
land. The words commanded in verse 6
encompass all the words following of the Book of Deuteronomy through chapter
28. These words were to knowledge unto wisdom via covenant education.
The knowledge God’s people were to put into their hearts and teach
their covenant children were a reminding revelation of the kind of God who was
their Lord God. These words reviewed
His covenant, its blessings and curses,
and testified of his faithfulness to His covenant. These words testified to His
sovereignty, His gracious redemption of
His chosen people, His Almighty rule on their behalf, His providential and redemptive provision for them in satisfying
hunger and thirst. These words set before His people the way of blessedness
through obedience of His law, and directed them in the worship that would
manifest His preeminence. These words
which His covenant people were to put in their hearts and diligently teach to
their children instructed them in matters of justice, tithing, warfare,
marriage and other aspects of their lives as His separated people. These words were knowledge unto wisdom rightly so called. These words, since they were God’s Words and
interpreted all of life in the framework of redemption and the Lord’s
preeminence, taught reality. Reality, that
is, all of life acknowledged as redemptive for the sake of the Lord’s preeminence
in all things, is to be the foundation
for and characteristic of the education of covenant children. Covenant education is a working out of the
self-conscious awareness that
The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge ( Prov. 1:7) and
The
fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom
( Prov 15: 33a)
Covenant children, since they belong to God, are not to be educated according to the vain philosophies of the
world which stands in rebellious antithesis to Jesus Christ. God’s covenant children are to be educated
in a way that testifies to their belonging not to the world, but to the covenant
God who, in Jesus Christ, has the
preeminence in all things.
Those ways are antithetical.
There is no middle ground.
Since in education, as well, the antithesis between wisdom and
foolishness, between acknowledging the One Lord God and suppressing the truth
in unrighteousness is to be made manifest, on which side of the antithesis
ought our covenant children be educated?
By His authoritative Word, our rule for the whole of the Christian
faith and doctrine, God makes clear
that all of the training up of covenant children, which is inclusive of
education, is to be in the nurture and discipline of the Lord who was exalted
as the head of the body, the church, that He might have the preeminence in all
things.
The ways of the heathen, those who suppress the knowledge of God in
unrighteousness, those who deny the redemptive relevance of God to all
knowledge, those ways and the teaching of those ways has not been appointed by
God for His people. Rather, and that
“rather” is an antithetical rather, God’s covenant people, as pertaining to all
of life and all knowledge unto its proper application, are to fear the Lord God
and learn facts as God has interpreted them that they might have the wisdom
which manifests to the world the preeminence of Jesus Christ in all things.
Thus, in summary, the
antithesis between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, between
slavery to sin unto death, and slavery to obedience unto life ( Rom 6: 16) has,
in history, been made manifest, as
promised already in the Garden of Eden. As is evident from the testimony of
God’s Word, God did call a people unto Himself, His congregation already so
called under the Mosaic administration of the Covenant of Grace, and He set
before them the way of life, including also education, which is in accordance
with being the community set forth as the antithesis to the world enslaved to
sin. That covenant way of life was to
be to be characterized by thinking God’s thoughts after Him. All knowledge was therefore to be received
and taught within the framework of God’s redemptive activity, and all knowledge
was to serve the manifestation in all things of the preeminence of the exalted
Jesus Christ. (remember Rom 11: 36, Col 1:16).
Knowledge is to be taught to and gained by a covenant child with the
desire and intent of
bringing every thought into
captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10:5)
The visible church of Jesus Christ is the antitype of Israel. The congregations of the professing
Christian church which bear the marks of the true church ( Belgic Confession
Article # 29) have it as their self-confessed confessional duty to submit to
the authority of God’s inscripturated Word, which testifies that the church
manifests the antithesis (for example, see 2 Cor 6: 14 – 7:1) declared and
established by the covenant God for the sake of the preeminence of Christ, the
Savior and Lord.
Therefore, in order for the education of our covenant children to be in
submission to God’s inscripturated Word, for it to be, in other words,
biblical, Reformed, and antithetical, places upon covenant parents the responsibility
to seek out education which self-consciously desires, in all its endeavors, to
manifest the preeminence of the exalted Jesus Christ.
May the Lord God so renew the minds of His covenant people that the
antithesis, also in education, becomes a self-conscious awareness that directs
every decision, including also as they relate to covenant education. May Jesus Christ manifest His preeminence,
by grace through a life of faith, also in the education of our covenant
children.
May the ministers and elders, as they shepherd God’s people, be the
instruments of our God to instill in His church, by the preaching and teaching
of God’s word, and as well by personal example, the desire and willingness to
have the education of our covenant children be distinctively in submission to
the Lordship of the exalted Jesus Christ.
May the ministers and elders of our churches be willing and equipped to
direct the available resources God had granted to His congregations toward the
implementation of covenant education for our children.
May the education of our covenant children be a testimony, by grace
through a life of faith, that in all things Jesus Christ has the preeminence.
Recommendations:
1.
That this study be
circulated among the churches and its contents pastorally disseminated to the
members by the pastors and elders.
2.
That the ministers
and elders of the congregations be prepared to encourage and to assist members
to implement covenant education for their children.
3.
That this study be
adopted by Synod as its position on Covenant Education.