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In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.  (John 16:33b)

BIBLICAL ANSWERS TO TOUGH QUESTIONS, 1

Chance or Creation?

The first seven words of Genesis are the foundation of all that follows.   If a person cannot accept this clear and concise statement about the Creator and the Creation, then they will have a very difficult time accepting the veracity of the rest of the Bible.  We either believe in the truthfulness of the Bible in its entirety or we don’t.  To disbelieve the Creation narratives is to cast doubt on the miraculous nature of Scripture.  If Genesis 1 and 2 are to be considered myth or legend, then why stop there?  Surely it is just has hard to believe in the virgin birth, the Incarnation, and the Resurrection as it is in the literal six days of creation!

The Bible is not a science textbook; it is a book of faith.  Although some have sought to use science to disprove various aspects of the Bible, their efforts have resulted in the exact opposite:  science has never been able disprove the claims made by Scripture.  That is not to say Christians need to have their faith in Scripture vindicated; our faith in Scripture has its roots in our faith in the Creator, for He cannot be separated from His Word.  Science is a wonderful thing, but science is not God; it does not have all the answers.  The claims of science change all the time.  When I was growing up, the earth facing an impending ice age; lately science has claimed the earth is heating up.  Now we find out global warming is a hoax, based on dubious science, lies and fraud.  The message of the Bible has not changed in thousands of years; time and again both history and science have supported the claims of Scripture, despite their best efforts to the contrary.   One of the greatest accomplishments of science has been to humble man and make him realize that he is not the center of the universe.

1.  God’s amazing design of creation, Genesis 1:1—26; Psalm 19:1—4

(1)  The beginning of time, verses 1, 2

The purpose of the first verse of Genesis 1 is three-fold:

• To identify the Creator;
• To explain the origin of the material universe;
• To tie the work of God in the past to His work in the future.

It all happened “in the beginning.”  The word translated “beginning” is the Hebrew bereshith.  This interesting word means “at the commencement of time.”  God’s creative acts had a starting point, though He Himself did not.

The brevity of the account belies its importance.  As “the created,” we naturally would like more information, but God has told us exactly what need to know.  The creative week began at the beginning of time.  Dominating the scene is the Master Creator, God, who is portrayed as speaking the material universe into order.  This is the answer to the question, “Who made all things?”  The answer is simple:  God did.  The word used is elohim, which means “the mighty one.”  Curiously, no attempt was made to explain where God came from or what He was doing before He began creating the material universe.  The author simply states that when time began, God was already there.  However, the Creator-God of Genesis is not some faceless deity, like the gods of other “creation legends.”   The creation account must always be read in context of the Pentateuch as a whole, where God is seen interacting with His creation personally, making covenants with them, leading His covenant people to live in a “good land,” delivering them from bondage, and building them into a nation that has stood the test of time.   At the very beginning, though, He is the mighty one, creating the material universe.

The word for “create” is bara, and means a “decree” or a “pronouncement.”  In other words, God thought it, He spoke it and it happened.  This is an important idea being conveyed by the author of Genesis.  The God who created all was before all and above all.  The earth cannot be a god because it was created.  Nature in general should not be worshiped as a god because all things in nature were created.  There is only one God who should be worshiped because only one God was before all things.  All that we see around us is the result of His handiwork.  The folly of idolatry is indirectly addressed in the very first verse.  Why worship things that had to be created?  Does it not make more sense to worship the One who brought all things into being?

(2)  The crowning achievement of creation, verses 24—31

As the week of creation wound down, we get to the day of animals and man; the sixth day of creation.  The Lord gave the command, “Let the earth bring forth…” and God filled that earth with all manner of animals, from the largest to the smallest.  But this sixth day would become the crowning day of creation.  The God-head in counsel said,

“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  (verse 26)

This “man” was to be different from all other creatures.  Only in the case of man did God say, “Let us make man in our image.”  What a phenomenal statement!  Here we have an example of the Trinity in action and man’s unique place in creation.  He was created in the “image” of his Creator; meaning, man was created having “some resemblance to the reality but lacking its fullness.”  Man was not created to be an exact duplicate of God, nor was he created to be a “little God,” but he was created to be the bearer of spiritual distinctives which mark him as uniquely higher than the animals (Heinish).   Some of those distinctives included (but are not limited to):

• Man’s right to dominion, verse 28.  God made man to be a ruler, which presupposes God has given man the intellectual capacity to think and to reason, to organize, plan, and evaluate.
• Man was created possessing self-consciousness, self-determination, and inward holiness (see Ecclesiastes 7:29; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10).
• God granted man the right to use nature for his own uses, like food.  This does not mean that man was granted the right to abuse nature however he pleases.   Proper care of his environment is implied in the Creation account (2:15).

While God blessed the animals in verse 22, the blessing upon man is much broader in meaning (verse 28).  Man, unlike animals, is capable of understanding that he has been blessed and he is able to respond to it.  “Blessing” as it relates to a rational, thinking being, is an act of conveying God’s will to the one being blessed.   So man’s authority over the earth is not to be considered “exclusive,” for it is a delegated authority, coming from his Creator.  Everything man does in relation to his environment should be done with an eye to God’s will.

(c)  The visible declaration of God, Psalm 19:1—4

Rightly understood, all nature bears witness to God, the Creator.  Psalm 19 is thought to be one of the most majestic psalms in the Psalter.  C.S. Lewis wrote:  “I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.”

Obviously from what we read in the Creation account in Genesis, the Bible does not attempt to prove the existence of God, but rather it does point to the material universe as evidence of the majesty, wisdom, and existence of God.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  (verse 1)

The glory and wisdom of God are evident in the vastness of space.  The declaration is emphatic:  “The heavens are declaring the glory of God.”  Theirs is a continuous declaration, and as in the Genesis account of creation, the word used here for “God” is El, denoting the might of God.   Though wars and misery on earth often obscure this proclamation, it goes forth nonetheless, for man to see.

Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  (verse 2)

The repetition of “day” and “night” reveals the consistency of God’s creation:  the cycle of day and night, night and day will never end.  This thought is mentioned in Genesis 8:22—

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.

You can depend on God’s creation; there is nothing human beings can do to change it.  What has always been will always be.  God, like what He created, can be depended upon.  All of nature reveals this.

There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  (verse 3)

This is a difficult verse to translate.  It may mean that the testimony of creation is as wide as the human race; there is no place on earth a human being can hide from nature’s testimony; or it could mean nature’s testimony is silent and does not depend on words.  In other words, nature’s testimony may be silent but it is powerful and profound and can’t be missed.

Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun.  (verse 4)

Nature’s declaration of God’s glory is without words and is therefore universal, unrestricted by the division of culture or language.  Calvin observed:

When a man, from beholding and contemplating the heavens, has been brought to acknowledge God, he will learn also to reflect upon and to admire his wisdom and power as displayed on the face of the earth, not only in general, but even in the minutest plants.

While the universe may declare the glory of God, it was never meant to be worshiped or thought of as deity.

2.  The folly of denying God, Psalm 14:1—3; Romans 1:18—25; Colossians 1:16—18

(a)  God’s view of the unbeliever, Psalm 14:1—3

We call people who claim to not believe in God “atheists” or sometimes “agnostics.”  But the Bible has a much more pointed and politically incorrect name for them:  “fools.”

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.  (Psalm 14:1)

“Fool” or “folly” in the Bible is always a matter of moral wrong and even wickedness, not intellectual limitation.  Here is a fine example of the psalmist’s opinion of a human being who would dare to think there is no God:  he is morally perverse.   Consider the fact of God’s self-revelation in the Person of Jesus Christ—

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John 1:14)

God dwelled among human beings!  God’s glory is revealed in the material universe.  As far as the psalmist was concerned, only a morally perverse person could possibly deny God’s existence, so obvious is the proof.  Of “fool,” Leslie M’Caw wrote:

“Fool” or “vile person” is a man wholly indifferent to the moral standards of the law, and who daily adopts as his own principle the belief that deity cares nothing about the differences between men’s behavior.   Such persons cannot but live a dissolute life and be incapable of “doing good.”

That is the psalmist’s view of anybody who rejects the reality of God’s existence.  Where God is denied, hearts are corrupt, deeds are vile, and a person cannot possibly do good.

In verse 2, we have a picture of God that is sad—

The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

Imagine the sadness God must feel as He looks down from heaven, looking for signs of spiritual understanding and for hearts inclined toward Him.  What does He find?  God finds nothing He is looking for.  Isaiah 53:6a perfectly describes the scene on earth and the state of God’s created beings—

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way…

It gets even worse for those who refuse to believe in God—

They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.  (Psalm 14:3, KJV)

The phrase, “all together become filthy” comes from the Hebrew word meaning “tainted, gone bad, turned sour.”  Here is how the sinner appears to our holy God.  Here is an insight, as well, into the nature of sin:  it corrupts and spoils what could have been good.

(b)  Man’s view of God, Romans 1:18ff

Not only does the Bible teach that God’s glory is made clear in creation, something else is seen in creation:  God’s wrath—

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.  (Romans 1:18)

Unrepentant man is existing under the wrath of God, which is revealed from heaven.  In verse 17 we read that God’s righteousness is also revealed from heaven.   These two aspects of God’s nature can be seen by two groups of people, the saved and the unsaved.  To those of us who are saved, we see God’s righteousness as plain as day.  But to the unsaved, their view of God is horribly skewed by sin for they see His wrath.  Every human being without exception knows either God’s righteousness or God’s wrath—His lovingkindness or His displeasure, His saving power or His judgment.  Martin Luther boiled it down to one pithy sentence:

In Christ, God is love.  Outside of Christ, our God is a consuming fire.

What exactly is “God’s wrath?”  The word “wrath” is used infrequently in the NT in connection with God, but when it is so used, it never suggests anger; it never portrays God being angry.   Some scholars see God’s wrath as being wholly impersonal and objective, and they use Galatians 6:7 (a man reaps what he sows) and Romans 6:23 (the wages of sin is death) to make their case.  They say God has created a moral order in which sin is its own punishment and destruction and Romans 1 teaches that God has given man up to the consequences of their rebellion.

There is merit to that teaching.  However, are we to believe that our sins have no effect on God personally?  That our outright rebellion does not move Him at all?  P.T. Forsyth asks even more penetrating questions:

When a man piles up his sin and rejoices in iniquity, is God simply a bystander and spectator in the process?  Does not God’s pressure on the man blind him, urge him, stiffen him, shut him up into sin, if only that he might be shut up to mercy alone?

John Murray taught that God’s wrath is “the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is a contradiction of his holiness.”   A.M. Richardson once gave an excellent working definition of God wrath as “his holy love reacting against evil—the adverse wind of the divine will blowing against the sinner, not only on judgment day, but now, resulting in the degeneration and debasement of the sinner.”

Because God is God, His wrath is a real and terrible reality.  However, wrath is not hate.  It is God’s love that continually offers sinners a way out.  This is what Paul means when he says that the wrath of God is being revealed along with His righteousness; man sees both, chooses one, and lives under his choice:  wrath or righteousness.

(c)  Man’s appropriate response, Revelation 4:11

When God is viewed as the Bible portrays Him, the only reasonable response from His creation is worship.

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.

Every aspect of creation was designed to bring glory to God (Romans 8:19—21).  All worship begins with a decision of the will (mind), moves to the emotions (heart), and is expressed in how we act (body).  In the setting of this verse, we are in the very throne room of heaven and 24 elders have fallen down in an act of obedience and acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty.  The response of those elders should be ours as well.  When we look at the world around us and the heavens above us, we should be so moved to acknowledge what the heavenly elders did:

• God’s distinctive worthiness; He deserves our praise and worship (You are worthy);
• God’s absolute sovereignty over our lives (our Lord);
• His matchless splendor and majesty (glory and honor and power);
• His primacy above all creation (you created all things);
• God’s dominion and design—all things including man exist to bring Him glory and accomplish His will (all created things have their being in Him).

We live on a wonderful planet in a glorious, mysterious universe created by God for us.  We should never take any of God’s creation for granted.  His “fingerprints” may be seen in everything He created.  We have no excuse for denying God’s existence since His creation testifies to His existence.  He created the earth for us and He continues to create within us a new heart if we let Him (Psalm 51:10).

(c)  2010 WitzEnd

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, 3

The Word Becomes Flesh, John 1:6—18

This group of verses continues the history of Jesus Christ with an emphasis on the differences between John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.  If we keep in mind one of the reasons John wrote his Gospel was to combat some false teachings and misrepresentations of Christ, then these verses make perfect sense.  By the time he wrote it, there was some confusion about the nature of Christ; was He a god? Was He a glorified man?  Was a He God in the flesh?  What was the difference between Jesus Christ and other preachers of the Gospel?  These are the questions John answered in these verses.

1.  Jesus and John the Baptist, 1:6—8, 15

⁶There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. ⁸He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. ¹⁵John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ “

These verses introduce the reader to the human agent that introduced the Word to the world.  His name was John the Baptist, who, we would later discover was a human cousin to Jesus, and who the Gospel writer used as an example of the constant shining of the light.  Some had come to believe that John the Baptist was more than a human being; this error is corrected here, where he is clearly portrayed as a man who was commissioned by God to point the world toward Jesus Christ, the Word.  Since John the writer was also a disciple of John the Baptist, he was well-qualified to comment on the job of the Baptist.

The author chose his words carefully, writing “There came a man,” which literally means “there came into being or history a man.”   His “becoming” is not to be confused with the “being” of the eternal Word, which we will deal with later in this study.

Very little is said about John the Baptist; John the disciple seemed to take for granted his readers knew who the Baptist was, and so he concentrates on his mission, not his character.  The main point is that John the Baptist was “sent.”   As a side note, John the Baptist represents the “old order” as prophet and priest (Matthew 11:9, 10), but acted as a herald of the new order, represented by Jesus Christ.

John wrote that the Baptist’s job was to “witness,” which is one of his favorite concepts, very pertinent in his Gospel.  To bear “witness” is to establish by adequate testimony the claims of Jesus as the Son of God.  This John the Baptist did in his preaching, a well-established fact on which all the Gospels agree.  He was the forerunner of Another, in whom all men might believe.  Men may believe through John the Baptist, but the Object of their faith must forever be in the eternal Word, Jesus Christ.

Here is a great application for every Christian, who is commissioned to the same type of mission as that of John the Baptist.  We are to point sinners to Christ; He came to seek and to save those who are lost; that is to be our message.  And like John the Baptist, sinners may come to believe in Christ as Savior through our witness.

2.  The Word among men, 1:9—13

The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Generations before the coming of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah wrote these stirring words—

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.”  (Isaiah 60:1)

Prophecy is fulfilled; the true Light had come, and this Man, Jesus Christ is the “true” Light.  While other “false” lights may be seen and mislead people, that is not what John meant when he used the word “true.”  The Greek word translated “true” means “real,” “ideal,” or “genuine.”  There may have been other “lights,” but all those other “lights” are imperfect or shadowy and unsubstantial.  One may say that John the Baptist was a light, for he certainly functioned as a light, but he was not the “true light.”  The Word is the “perfect light” in whose brilliance all other lights seem dim.

The “true Light” illumines every human being.  But what did John mean by that?  Some have taught the following:

• Christ grants spiritual illumination to every human being without exception.
• He gives spiritual illumination which renews the heart and mind to every covenant-child, elect or not.

These two views, though similar, are different but are both wrong.  The Gospel of John teaches limited atonement; not every human being will be saved and only those who remain saved are saved (John 10:28).  Limited atonement means that only those who call upon the Christ as Savior may appropriate the benefits of His atonement.

• He gives to every human being, without exception, the light of reason and conscience.

There is some merit in this view; however the “light of reason and conscience” is given only to those who have named Christ as Savior.  The finished work of Christ on the Christ which alone can save souls from eternal damnation is effective only for those who by faith appropriate its benefits.

• Christ grants spiritual illumination to every human being who is saved.  True spiritual illumination for the child of God can come from no other source.
• Christ illumines every human who hears the Gospel.   That is, He imparts a certain degree of understanding concerning spiritual matters to all who are genuinely saved.

These final views must be the correct ones.  The Light that is Jesus Christ benefits no human being until they call upon Him for salvation.  It goes without saying that the Light draws men unto Himself, but the appropriate response is man’s responsibility alone.

As phenomenal an event as the Incarnation was, John using the simplest language possible gives the reader the fact, purpose, and outcome of the Incarnation.

• The fact:  He was in the world.  The Son of God came into a world of His own creation.
• The purpose:  He came to His own people.
• The outcome:  Man’s response to God’s move toward man was failure to know Him, and refusal to receive Him.

God’s purpose and man’s refusal are shown here in stark contrast.  Literally, verse 11 looks like this:  “He came into His own things, and His own people did not receive Him.”  It was not the natural world that rejected Him, it was “His own,” refusal and rebellion came from the hearts of men.  Yet this refusal to recognize who Jesus was came about because His people had no inkling of who this Man Jesus was; no flash of awareness concerning His real person.  For all they knew, the Son of God was merely “the carpenter’s son” (Matthew 13:55).

Just as verses 4 and 5 show the sharp contrast between darkness and light, in verses 12 and 13 there is a direct contrast shown between rejection and reception.  Even though many, many reject Him, there were many who actually received Him.  Here we have an excellent working definition of “believe,” which is equated with “receive.”   When Jesus Christ is received for Who He is, He gives those who received Him the right to become part of God’s family.

The word “becomes” is loaded with implications.  First, it shows that human beings are not naturally God’s children, for if the were they would not need to “become” that which they already are by nature!  The Bible does not teach the universal fatherhood of God; the only children God has are the saved.  Second, the verb used for “become” indicates a complete change of nature.  This is completely in line with Paul’s teachings on the “new creation.”

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Verse 13 is the key in understanding what happens the moment a sinner puts his full faith and trust in Christ:  they become God’s tekna, that is, “God’s little ones.”  The Greek tekna is a beautiful term of endearment describing a familial relationship based on a spiritual relationship, not a physical one.  Becoming a tekna does not imply adoption, but transformation.  Elsewhere, the Bible does speak of adoption into God’s family, but here John is speaking of something much deeper.   To John, becoming a believer is the impartation of life; that is, God gives the repentant sinner a new life which immediately transforms him into God’s tekna.

3.  The Incarnation, 1:14—18

¹⁴The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  ¹⁵John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ” ¹⁶From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

Verse 14 is the key to Christian theology.  The first thing we notice is a change of wording from verse 1 to verse 14.  In the first verse, John states that the Word “was,” referring to His permanent condition or state.  In verse 14, the Word “became” flesh, involving a change of state.  The verb “became” is a very special word holding very special meaning.  It does not imply “became” in the sense of ceasing to be what He was before.   William Hendriksen does a great job of explaining this word:

When the wife of Lot becomes a pillar of salt, she ceases to be the wife of Lot.  But when Lot becomes the father of Moab and Ammon, he remains Lot.

The second thing we notice is the use of the word “flesh.”  Why flesh?  Why not “man?”  John chose his words very carefully, and it was very important that his readers understand that Word did not merely come into the world in the form of a man; that is, Jesus had merely the “appearance” of being human.  This was what the Docetic Gnostics of John’s day were teaching; that Jesus was merely a “human appearance” of God, sort of like an OT theophany—God in human form.  On its surface, that sounds good, but it is awful theology, for it says that the Word never really became flesh and blood; He never really became a man, which is what really occurred at the Incarnation.  This is the most basic statement of the Incarnation:  the Word became flesh, yet never ceased to be the Word.

Consider the ramifications of that statement.  The Second Person of the Trinity was able to assume human nature without laying aside the divine!  Later on and throughout his writings, John insists that these two natures, human and divine, were somehow fused together, fully united forever.  The Son of God did not become a man for about 30 years then go back to the way He was before; He became a man forever at the Incarnation; humanity was added to His divinity, never to be taken away! It is hard to imagine and even harder to put into words.  These ideas will be explored further as we go deeper into John’s Gospel.

What did the Word do when He became flesh?  This is probably one of the most majestic and poignant phrases in all of Scripture:  the Word “made His dwelling among us.”  That whole phrase means literally, the Word “pitched His tent” and “dwelled temporarily” among men.  Once again, we marvel at how deliberately John chose his words.  The theology of the Incarnation, something every Christian should be able to explain and usually cannot, is this:  The eternal Word, which assumed the nature of man permanently—though not permanently in its weakened condition—pitched His tent for a while among men, living among them. (Hendriksen)

After penning those phenomenally deep words, John adds that he was an eyewitness, along with others, of this Incarnation:  “We have seen his glory.” The statement indicates a personal observation of something glorious, likely the Transfiguration when Jesus appeared as the Man He was, surrounded by a full manifestation of His Divine radiance (Matthew 17:2—8; Mark 9:2—8; Luke 9:28—36).  At that event the voice of God was heard acknowledging Him as His beloved Son.

The Incarnation never happened before or since for Jesus is the “one and only.”  The Greek is monogenes, coming from a root meaning “kind” or “species,”  means literally “one of a kind” or “unique.”  John’s wording couldn’t be clearer:  the Word has no equal and never will.  Jesus Christ, then, is uniquely qualified to reveal the Father.  God’s revelation to man in Jesus Christ has no parallel; it never will be repeated.

Verse 16 is an attempt by John to communicate to his readers that by way of the Word, those who have faith in Him may receive an endless supply of grace.  This idea of God’s “abundance” is a prominent theme in John, which will be explored fully in subsequent studies.    In Christ, God’s children may receive blessing upon blessing upon blessing; there is no end to God’s grace toward those who love Him.

To close out this section, John very briefly contrasts Law and grace as God’s way of dealing with men.  In the Law, we see clearly what God expects from man in terms of how man should live.  Grace, however, is God’s attitude toward those who have discovered that they cannot keep the Law.   This attitude was depicted in graphic form in the Person of Jesus.  He came to show those striving yet failing to keep the Law a better way.  We read a parallel thought in Hebrews 3:5—6,

⁵Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. ⁶But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.

The Son is far superior to the servant; a servant can only carry out orders and make sure the rules of the house are followed correctly.  The Son, because He is “over God’s house,” is able to act with ultimate authority, ruling even the servant of house.  This adds some power to the words of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount:  “You have heard it said…But I tell you…” (Matthew 5:21—22; 27—28; 33—34; 43—44).

In the Incarnation, then, we see the eternal Word becoming a human being, but better than a human being because He remained God.  The God-Man left the Father’s side in glory to pitch His tent for a time in the world He Himself created, to live among those He created in His image.  He did this to show them a better way to live, to recreate them, making them better than they were before, and to give them the ability to live this new life He wanted to give them.  The Word came to the world of man with an abundance of blessings to share with them.  A whole new way of living was presented by the Word, and all man had to do was reach out and lay hold of it by faith.  In the end, God’s gifts to man through Jesus Christ were rejected by most, and received by few.

(c)  2010 WitzEnd

A SURVEY OF THE MAJOR PROPHETS, 9

Personal Responsibility, Ezekiel 18

Chapter 18 of Ezekiel’s book of prophecy reveals another side of this man.  Here he changes from a pastor, burdened down with care and concern for his people, to a theologian, preaching doctrine.   There is a brief New Testament passage that parallels precisely what Ezekiel wrote in 31 verses—

⁷Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.  (Galatians 1:7—8)

In the previous chapters, Ezekiel’s messages from God dealt with the sin of the nation as a whole; God was unhappy with the state of his nation, resulting in His judgment upon them.  But in chapter 18, the prophet abruptly changes his tune and deals primarily with the individual and their responsibility to live righteously before God.

This is an important message; no person can live their life as they please in violation of God’s will and expect to escape judgment.  Just because in this time of grace God does not send His wrath upon sinful man immediately, does not mean He is out of the judgment business or that He no longer cares about how people live their lives.  Eventually an errant child of God will be confronted by His God as surely as David was confronted by Nathan.

1.  Proverb vs. Principle, verses 1—4

¹ The word of the LORD came to me: ² “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ” ‘The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?³ “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. ⁴ For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.

Ezekiel begins by shattering a common belief of the day.  This isn’t the first time this widely-quoted proverb is seen in the Old Testament; Jeremiah quotes it as well in Jeremiah 31:29—30.   A couple of chapters earlier (16:44) Ezekiel quotes another proverb to show how his people had slowly adopted the blackened character of the Canaanites—

⁴⁴ ” ‘Everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb about you: “Like mother, like daughter.”

In that chapter, the people appeared to run around quoting proverbs, especially this one, but failed to understand it.  They were so ego-centric that they assumed they were being punished because of past transgressions:  namely the sins of their forefathers.  We can see how dangerous this way of thinking was; it didn’t matter how a contemporary Israelite lived because he was being set upon by God because of what his ancestors did.   In fact, the exiles to which Ezekiel was preaching had taken Exodus 20:5 to a ridiculous extreme and were more or less using it to justify their sinful state—

⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.

Before we condemn Ezekiel’s people, we should realize that Christians in this present age are very skilled at doing the exact same thing; we are expert at wrenching Bible verses out of context in order to make ourselves feel safe by justifying our sin.

Ezekiel’s people, the exiles, had misunderstood and misapplied both Ezekiel’s message and the Word of the Lord.  What the Bible teaches, and the truth that Ezekiel was trying to drive home was simply that children would be affected by their father’s sin; therefore, parents should serve as proper role models for their children.  The sinful—or lazy, questionable living—of parents is easily picked up and readily followed by their children.   If a child committed the same sins as their father, they must accept the same punishment.  That was the exact opposite to what the exiles thought the Bible taught and to what the prophet was trying to teach them!

It is really frightening to think that people can be that deluded and have no clue!   Sadly, there are many Christians who are just as deluded and many, many churches preaching ideas and doctrines that further delude the ignorant.

Here in chapter 18, Ezekiel is seen trying again to get his message of personal responsibility across by quoting another proverb:  “The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” which was apparently another commonly quoted saying of the day.  Its meaning should have been clear:  because of the sins of the fathers, their children will suffer; that is, God would not let one generation get by with a sin when He punished a previous generation for doing the same thing.  Of course, the opposite is also true:  God cannot pronounce a son righteous merely because his father was righteous.  Each individual stands before God by himself.   Twice in this chapter (verses 4 and 20), Ezekiel says:

The soul who sins is the one who will die.

The word translated “soul” is nephesh, and is used as a synonym for the whole person.  In this context, life and death refers to physical, not spiritual death.  A person received eternal life by faith in the Messiah (Jesus Christ), whether by looking forward in faith to His work on the Cross, as the Old Testament saints did, or looking backward in faith to His work on the Cross, as we do.  Salvation was always a matter of faith, not in keeping the Law; the Law was given to people already in a trusting, faith-based relationship with God.  Obeying the Mosaic Law—we might say “living right,” in obedience to God’s Word—resulted in physical blessings, whereas stubborn, rebellious, and sinful living resulted in the opposite; judgment and punishment.

Each person, man or woman, boy or girl, lived or died according to their own actions, not their parents.  This is Ezekiel’s message.

2.  Three illustrations of the principle, verses 5—18

In this lengthy group of verses, the prophet, like any good preacher, used three illustrations to help the people understand what he had just said.

1. The first illustration is that of a “righteous father” (verses 5—9).  This man was obviously in a trusting, faith-based relationship with God and practiced what he preached; he lived righteously.  Ezekiel gave five legal areas to differentiate between righteous and unrighteous deeds.  This man was a paragon of virtue, morality, and faith.  Such a man, the prophet concludes, is righteous based on his faith and his actions, and he would be physically blessed:  “The man is righteous; he will surely live, declares the Lord.”  Notice that this man is declared to be righteous by God; this is significant because only God is able to do that, objectively and perfectly.
2. The second illustration is that of an unrighteous and “violent son” (verses 10—13).    This man demonstrated his unrighteousness and lack of faith by a lifestyle exactly opposite that of his father.  Whatever his father did in righteousness, his son did not do; whatever his father did not do to remain righteous, his son did.  This man, who had the benefit of a righteous father, would not live because of his “detestable” lifestyle.  His father was blessed with life, but the son would be, “put to death and his blood will be on his own head” (verse 13).  In other words, his punishment was his own fault.
3. Ezekiel’s final illustration is that of the righteous man’s “righteous grandson” (verses 14—18).  Would an unrighteous man have an unrighteous son?  This question is answered in this illustration.  If the unrighteous son’s son (the grandson) lived righteously and did all the righteous deeds of the Law like his righteous grandfather did, refusing to follow the sinful example of his father, he would not die because of the sins of his father, but would surely live.  However, his father would die because of his own sin.

The key thought behind this whole section is found in verse 20—

²⁰ The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.

You cannot blame your parents for the state you are in.  You cannot honestly blame your surroundings.  And you must not blame God, for God is merciful and always fair in everything does.  But remember, Ezekiel is not speaking here of eternal life, but of physical life; of physical blessing and punishment.

3.  A final explanation of the principle, verses 19—32

The preacher has stated the basic principle of individual responsibility for the state of their life in verses 1—4 and he illustrated the principle in verses 5—18.  In this section, Ezekiel asks some rhetorical questions or statements to further emphasize and elaborate on his point.

1. Why does the son not share the guilt of his father? The answer to this question is simply this:  if a man lived righteously according to the Law, then the Lord would bless him with life, both physical and eternal.  The way this is worded, this principle applies to anybody who kept the Law, even the son of an unrighteous father.
2. Not only that, if an unrighteous man saw the light and turned his life around, he would be blessed and his former life of disobedience would be forgotten.
3. But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits sin and does the same detestable things the wicked man does, will he live? The opposite of point #2 is true; if a righteous man falls away he would be punished for his new state of sin and rebellion, not his previous state of righteousness.  This is individualism defined:  a person stands before God on his own merits, not on the merits of any familial relationship or even on past achievements.  For God, it is the “here and now” that counts.
4. Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ Imagine the arrogance of people who would accuse God of that.  God’s reply was terse and clear:   It was Israel’s ways that were intolerable; they were the ones who had twisted His Word to justify their rebellion. 

The last three verses of chapter 18 represent the pleading of a loving heavenly Father to His wayward, backslidden children—

³⁰ “Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. ³¹ Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? ³² For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!

Is there a stronger invitation to LIVE anywhere in the Bible?  Why would anybody chose to die when they had the choice to live?  Repentance was available to the people of Ezekiel’s day as surely as it is today.  Verse 32 is remarkable:  God takes no pleasure in the death of a person who dies because of His sin.  Isaiah proclaimed a similar message during his prophetic ministry—

¹⁸ “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”  (Isaiah 1:18)

Conclusion

This chapter is a magnificent testimony to the power of personal responsibility.  We live in a culture that shuns personal responsibility; the problems we have in life are always somebody else’s fault; we want somebody else to “bail us out”; we foolishly assume God will accept us by virtue of a decision we made to accept Christ years ago but we live today like that decision is largely forgotten.  And what’s worse is this horrible attitude of irresponsibility has found a home in the Church of Jesus Christ.  The dreaded “once saved always saved” doctrine is so widely accepted in Protestant circles, most people don’t know it’s not a Biblical doctrine, but simply an idea taught by John Calvin and his followers.  It is hard to understand how any reasoning adult can reconcile a theology that says “once in grace, always in grace” with the clear teaching of Ezekiel 18.

God is a God of eternity, but He is also the God of this moment.  How we were raised or the life we may have lived to get to this moment is not the determinative factor in how we are supposed to be living now.   God is concerned with the now of our lives.  He is concerned with how we are living now.  Many Christians need to grow up, put away their toys, put on long pants, and start taking responsibility for the state of their lives.  We can blame poor potty training for only so long.  The urgent need of our day is:  live righteously!

Paul, writing to the Corinthians, quotes from the prophet Isaiah—

²For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.  (2 Corinthians 6:2; cf. Isaiah 49:8)

©  2010 WitzEnd

GOD’S CHURCH, GOD’S WAY, 3

An Example:  More Than Enough Grace, 1 Timothy 1:12—20

It doesn’t take a Bible scholar to recognize that Paul’s letters to Timothy are markedly different from all his other letters.  The last phrase of verse 11, a reference to the Gospel being “entrusted” to Paul, is a beautiful thought.  Paul was a servant of God who was deeply aware of his “trust,” something he refers to many times in his writings.  It amazed Paul that God would entrust Paul with anything, let alone something as precious as the “glorious Gospel!”  He was a man who persecuted the Church of Jesus Christ; the last person anyone would trust with something that precious.   It is also a very special way to refer to the Gospel, something most of us take for granted.

This last clause is a fitting way to introduce the next section of his letter.

1.  Paul’s life:  an example of grace, 1:12—14

There is a lot going on in these verses.  Paul opened himself up to Timothy in a way not seen before in any of his earlier letters.  There was a reason for this, though.  Paul was Timothy’s mentor and he was his friend.  And Paul took seriously his calling as an “apostle.”  Remember, an “apostle” was such all day, every day.  An “apsotle’s” entire life was to set the example for others to follow.  Earlier, Paul wrote this—

¹Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.  (1 Corinthians 11:1)

That is the very reason for Paul writing these powerful verses.  What Jesus Christ did for him, and, just as importantly, his response to Jesus Christ, should be an example for Timothy to follow.

¹²I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service. ¹³Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. ¹⁴The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

No person in the history of the Church was more conscious than was Paul of God’s calling on his life.  He earlier wrote to the Galatians that God had, in fact, called him to service even before he was born!

¹⁵But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man.  (Galatians 1:15—16)

You may think that was a pretty audacious statement for Paul to make, but Paul was not the first servant of God to realize this great truth.  The prophet Jeremiah expressed a very similar thought in Jeremiah 1:5—

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

In Paul’s early days, there was little evidence of this divine calling, but once Christ came into Saul’s life, everything changed.  Saul became Paul and Paul, as he wrote in Acts 9:20 immediately began his ministry in a synagogue.  In an instant, the one-time persecutor of the Church became its staunchest ally.

Paul was thankful for the privilege of being an apostle for Christ, but notice he makes sure that Christ got all the glory; he declares that his strength for service came from Christ Himself.  Another way to translate that phrase is Christ “empowered” Paul.  And Christ did this because the Lord considered him faithful.

Once, this man of God by his own admission had been a blasphemer, a persecutor and a violent man!  All this coming from a Rabbi!  Paul was acutely conscious of his shameful past, and even though his past life and sins had long since been forgiven and forgotten, Paul’s gratitude for God’s mercy never lessened.  Such is the amazing love of God!

I know not why God’s wondrous grace to me he had made known,

Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love redeemed me for his own.

Such love!  Such wondrous love!

That God should love a sinner such as I,

How wonderful is love this!

Indeed; and this was what Timothy needed to understand.  One cannot communicate to others the wondrous love of God until he has experienced it himself.

What is so powerful and encouraging about verse 13 is this one, single declaration:  “I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.”  Notice, Paul does not say God was angry with him.  God graciously showed him mercy because Paul was pathetic, riddled with the disease of sin.  God, moved by compassion, showed the man mercy, as He does all of us.  No sinner, if they knew fully the sinfulness of his sin, its inevitable and ongoing consequences, would be guilty of the insane folly of defying God.  That’s why the clarion call of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ goes out constantly through the continuous ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Those who hear it and respond appropriately are the benefactors of unimaginable grace and mercy from a loving God.   What is truly amazing about God’s grace, and what Paul wants to communicate to Timothy using himself as an example, is that despite the magnitude of our human sin, God’s grace is more than sufficient, and every one who turns to Christ may obtain mercy.

2.  Paul the Apostle:  the worst of sinners, 1:15—17

¹⁵Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. ¹⁶But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life. ¹⁷Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The various “trustworthy sayings” are found only in the Pastorals (3:1, 2 Timothy 2:11; Titus 3:8) and studied together would make for an interesting Bible study.  The idea of a “trustworthy saying” as Paul used the phrase is that you could put your full faith and confidence in it.  Here, the “trustworthy saying” is a just a summary of the Gospel message:  Christ came into the world to forgive sinners.   Christ Himself put His mission in these terms—

¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.  (Luke 19:10)

Christ’s whole reason for leaving the glories of heaven and veiling His majestic Godhood in flesh as a man was to save other men.  Paul, with not a hint of false humility adds that he is the worst of all sinners.  But what does Paul mean by this curious admission?  It is hard to believe that when compared to mass murderers, rapists, and child abusers Paul would consider himself the worst among the lot!   Some scholars suggest Paul felt this way on account of his persecution of the Church; when he was doing that he was, in his mind, persecuting Christ Himself.   We can’t know precisely what Paul was thinking, but my sense is that he felt the overwhelming guilt of his own sinfulness to such an extent that he felt himself to be the “first” among sinners; literally the number one sinner of all time.  Such an attitude should be ours, as well, for only when we are overwhelmed with a sense of shame for our sinful state and are completely speechless with nothing to say before the God we have offended, can we hope for the kind of love, mercy and grace Paul received.

As the “chief” or the worst sinner of all, Christ’s “unlimited patience” had been displayed as a powerful example for the entire world to see.  If Christ could save Paul, He could save anybody!   There is no more eloquent expression of Christ’s love than a changed life.  A thousand sermons could never describe the grace of God as effectively as a moment in the presence of a grateful sinner saved by grace.  Little wonder in verse 17 Paul bursts forth in a glorious doxology of praise to God!   When we think of what Christ has done for us, we ought to do the same.  When we let Christ be seen in our lives, others will praise God when they see us.

²³They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴And they praised God because of me.  (Galatians 1:23—24)

That we may have that effect on other people!

3.  Paul:  the encourager, 1:18—20

¹⁸Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, ¹⁹holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. ²⁰Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.

In this final section of chapter 1, Paul returns to the reason why he wrote the letter in the first place.  The “charge” or “mandate” to stay put in Ephesus to combat the false teachers was clearly stated and Paul makes that command part of Timothy’s calling.  Timothy, like Paul, had been called and ordained to the ministry and part of that calling involves something no pastor really enjoys; confronting errant members.

Paul states that by doing the work he was requesting of Timothy, the young pastor would be fulfilling certain “prophecies” made about him.  We wish Paul had elaborated on the nature of these prophecies!  A small measure of light is cast on this allusion by the following verses—

¹⁴Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.  (1 Timothy 4:14)

⁶For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.  (2 Timothy 1:6)

It seems as though Timothy had been ordained into the ministry in a ceremony over which Paul himself presided.  It may well be that at that time, Paul spoke a word of prophecy over the newly minted minister, calling attention to some special God-given gift or ability the young man had.  Once again we are in the dark, but because Timothy had been given this gift from God, he was to “fight the good fight.”  In the history of the pastorate, every single pastor understands exactly what Paul meant!  Sometimes shepherding God’s flock is as exhausting and taxing as a fight!  But it is a good fight; what pastor has not wrestled for the souls of his people?   Like all ministers of the Gospel before him, Timothy was a officer of the line, fighting at the forefront of the battle for Christ and the Truth at Ephesus.

To be triumphant in this spiritual battle, Paul urged Timothy to grab hold of two weapons:  faith and a good conscience.  Every soldier for Christ needs these two weapons!  Faith can move a mountain and a good conscience can fend off the subtle attacks of the enemy.

Sadly, when you lose your faith and your conscience hardens, you experience a shipwreck of faith.  Paul names two men who have been so shipwrecked:  Hymenaeus and Alexander.  To those who have traveled on the open waters, nothing is as threatening as a shipwreck.  Paul used the term to suggest the magnitude of the tragedy these false teachers had involved themselves in, and to warn Timothy that he would go that way if he let go of this faith and his good conscience.    It would do us well to heed the advice of Susanna Wesley to her son, John, during his days at Oxford.  She wrote:

Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things, in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind; that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.

Hymenaeus is mentioned by Paul in 2 Timothy 2:17 as being a heretical teacher.  Paul mentions two Alexanders in connection with Ephesus; one was a Jew the other was a metal worker who wanted to harm Paul (2 Timothy 4:14).  Likely this was Alexander Paul was speaking of.

These two trouble makers had been “handed over to Satan” by Paul.  This was not a punitive action on Paul’s part; rather, by letting them go in their sin, it was Paul’s hope that they would discover the error of their ways.  This kind of church discipline was in keeping with advice Paul gave elsewhere, namely to the Corinthians.  To that congregation, Paul advised that they turn a blatantly immoral brother over to Satan so that, in his sin, he may eventually come to repentance and be restored to the Body of Christ.

God’s church, done God’s way involves such things as discipline.  This kind of advice—handing someone over to Satan—is profoundly disturbing to some, in this age where proper, Godly church discipline has all but disappeared.  Many in the Church have come to accept standards of life and conduct condemned by the Word of God in favor of political correctness.  And yet, part of God’s commission to His servants is to:

²Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.  (2 Timothy 4:2)

One thing I have noticed is that it takes relatively no courage to preach against one sin or another from the behind a pulpit.  But it takes great courage to face an individual and rebuke them or correct them in a spirit of meekness and humility and, above all, in a spirit of love.

God’s church, done God’s way will be led by people who have experienced the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ and realize that they are where they are only by the grace of God.  A true man or woman of God knows that without the empowering of the Holy Spirit, they can do nothing.  God’s church, done God’s way involves leadership based on love, which is manifested in many ways, including encouraging the congregation, leading by word and example, and sometimes in correcting and rebuking.

When it comes to serving the Lord, all of us, pastors, elders, deacons, and laity, would do well to remember the words of J.H. Jowett:

The fear of a man is much more subtle than the fear of men.

(c)  2010 WitzEnd