Showing posts with label God. Show all posts

Victory, Somehow

27 February 2012 by Tom Chantry

Q. 58. How do we come to be made partakers of the benefits which Christ hath procured?


A. We are made partakers of the benefits which Christ has procured, by the application of them unto us, which is the work especially of God the Holy Ghost.

I love Southern Baptists. My first pastorate was in a Calvinistic SBC church in a remote area short on fellowship. The SB pastors up there in the hills didn’t care that I was an oddball who had gone to a Presbyterian seminary; they loved Jesus and anyone who preached Him. When I think of Southern Baptists, I don’t think about the power brokers of the national convention, I think about the preachers in little, out-of-the-way places who live, eat, sleep, and breathe gospel.

One thing you automatically learn when you go to Southern Baptist meetings each month is the hymn “Victory in Jesus.” Since the pastors only get together in the fellowship hall around coffee you have to sing a hymn they already know, and everyone knows that one, right? So I learned to sing that hymn, and then I learned to love it. It expresses a joy in the sacrifice of Christ for sins which ought to lie at the heart of every Christian’s experience.

But when I walk around whistling it (as I do until my family is driven to distraction) I am sometimes frustrated - not by what the song says as by what it is missing.

We rhapsodized about Christ’s sacrifice for sin, and at the conclusion of the first verse sang (quite truthfully) “then I repented of my sin and had the victory.” Of course that’s true, but how did it happen? It seems the hymnist asked that too, because the second verse ends with “and somehow Jesus came and brought to me the victory.”

And that one line sums up why I love the hymn and why I’m frustrated by it. That sense of mystery - how did He ever bring me the victory? - is exactly the sense every Christian ought to have when he first realizes that he, chief of sinners though he may be, is victorious in Christ. And yet, it isn’t as though the Bible leaves this particular mystery unsolved. “Somehow” is “the work especially of God the Holy Ghost.”

So yes, I hope I can retain that sense of joyful awe at what Christ has done for me, and at the same time I am glad that the Scriptures reveal to me the Triune God, each of the Persons of which loved me with an everlasting love and played an indispensible part in giving me the victory.

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Try That, Tinker Bell

15 September 2011 by David Regier

Q. 37. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
A. Christ the Son of God became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin Mary, of her substance, and born of her, yet without sin.

Q. 38. Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be God?
A. It was requisite that the Mediator should be God, that he might sustain and keep the human nature from sinking under the infinite wrath of God, and the power of death; give worth and efficacy to his sufferings, obedience, and intercession; and to satisfy God's justice, procure his favor, purchase a peculiar people, give his Spirit to them, conquer all their enemies, and bring them to everlasting salvation.

Q. 39. Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be man?
A. It was requisite that the Mediator should be man, that he might advance our nature, perform obedience to the law, suffer and make intercession for us in our nature, have a fellow feeling of our infirmities; that we might receive the adoption of sons, and have comfort and access with boldness unto the throne of grace.

Q. 40. Why was it requisite that the Mediator should be God and man in one person?
A. It was requisite that the Mediator, who was to reconcile God and man, should himself be both God and man, and this in one person, that the proper works of each nature might be accepted of God for us, and relied on by us, as the works of the whole person.


This summer our family was able to do more than the usual amount of theme-parking around Southern California. All in all, I had a great time introducing the little ones to new gradients of fear and stomach churning. And if you want to understand how church works in Southern California, you would do well to visit the theme parks first.

That said, the various Lands and Worlds that grasp for our pocketbooks have a tremendous fascination with the number One. Wherever you go, it's unity. I mean, it's a small world, after all (aren't you glad I got that going through your head?). At Sea World after one of the big production numbers, my son said to me, "It seems like they want us all to worship the ocean." Because that's what connects us all, you see. One world, one people, one ocean.

But if I sin against the ocean (and who can fail to sin against the ocean), who's going to defend me? Shamu? It should be noted that even his gentle handlers may no longer swim with him. Not even their friendship can assuage his wrath against us all, no matter how many times we sing the mantras. And what happens in the small world to Cruella deVil, Captain Hook and Jafar? They are forgotten forever, and no amount of imagineering can revive them.

But God, our God, does not work in this way. He does not save by a mantra. He does not rescue with an idea. He instead gave us His Son, who took on flesh, laying aside His privileges, becoming like us and then dying on a cross. In doing this He was reconciling the world to Himself, not by our penance or a carbon offset, but by His own blood.

And somehow the result of this flesh and blood redemption is a unity born not of the will of man, but of the Spirit of God. And this unity is in Christ; fully God that we might be saved from His wrath, fully man that we might receive the adoption as sons. In Christ, our unity has been purchased for us.

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He Obviously Did

29 August 2011 by Matt Gumm

Q. 33. Was the covenant of grace always administered after one and the same manner?
A. The covenant of grace was not always administered after the same manner, but the administrations of it under the old testament were different from those under the new.

Q. 34. How was the covenant of grace administered under the old testament?
A. The covenant of grace was administered under the old testament, by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the Passover, and other types and ordinances, which did all foresignify Christ then to come, and were for that time sufficient to build up the elect in faith in the promised Messiah, by whom they then had full remission of sin, and eternal salvation.

Q. 35. How is the covenant of grace administered under the new testament?
A. Under the new testament, when Christ the substance was exhibited, the same covenant of grace was and still is to be administered in the preaching of the Word, and the administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper; in which grace and salvation are held forth in more fullness, evidence, and efficacy, to all nations.

It's a bit of a mystery how folks were saved in the Old Testament. Oh, we know in part, and see in part, how God could have accomplished such a thing, but in light of all the revelation we have on this side of the cross, the other side at times seems a dim mirror. Those systematic theologians who want every question answered may wish for a bit more detail in regard to this, but they have an answer: the signs and symbols God provided for Israel in the Old Testament were "sufficient to build up the elect."

Now, the cynic in me might say that this phrase, "sufficient to build up the elect," is simply a Calvinist cop-out, playing the God-is-sovereign-over-all-things trump card with a shoulder-shrugging gesture of "I dunno, but He obviously did." But saying that God's provision in the Old Testament was sufficient for the elect is more than just a bunch of nice sounding weasel words; it is another verification of who is really in charge of salvation, and for those of us on the other side of the cross, it should provide great encouragement and hope.

God's active work in salvation is assumed throughout Scripture, and it is not my point here to write a lengthy treatise about it. For those interested, have a look at Ephesians 1, for example, and consider how each member of the Trinity works in harmony to bring about the fullness of salvation in the life of the believer.

The God who planned out salvation to the level of detail that Yahweh did--a God who can orchestrate all of history, including the sinful acts of men, in order to accomplish His purposes--a God like that can ensure that all the ingredients necessary for your salvation and my salvation are present.

The statement that the signs and symbols under the Old Testament administration of the covenant were "sufficient to build up the elect" doesn't tell us that God makes the rules so He can do what He wants; it declares to us that His revelation in all places and all times is adequate for those who are going to be saved. When combined with God being both just and the justifier (Rom. 3:26), the picture Scripture paints is one of a saving God who provides all we need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3).