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A Confession Blessing
Who gets the most benefit/blessing when we confess our sins? In other words, who do we confess our sins for?
We do confess our sins for our good. Because of the gospel, when we confess our sins, God takes away the burden of our guilt; think of the progress Pilgrim made after his burden was removed. God also gives peace to disturbed consciences. And He restores fellowship to us who broke away.
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As If It Is Real
We live by faith and “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). But because many of the things we believe are unseen by us does not mean that the same things were never seen by anyone. Our believing rests on the solid ground of those who heard, saw, and touched with their hands the word of life (1 John 1:1).
Paul told the Corinthians, “For I delivered to you what I also received,” followed by three successive components.
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Right Where He Wants Them
John Calvin remarks on the rage of the nations and the response of Yahweh in Psalm 2:4.
[W]hen God permits the reign of his Son to be troubled, he does not cease from interfering because he is employed elsewhere, or unable to afford assistance, or because he is neglectful of the honour of his Son; but he purposely delays the inflictions of his wrath to the proper time, namely, until he has exposed their infatuated rage to general derision.
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Not About Heaven's Books
We are continuing to learn about the seriousness of our sin and the need to confess and forsake it. We are growing to hide it less and to deal with it more often, more quickly, and more thoroughly because we are tasting the glad fruit of fellowship.
We are not more prone to sin because grace abounds. We are not more indifferent to sin because we get frequent reminders of God’s forgiveness in the gospel.
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It Can't Be Privatized
Paul blessed the Corinthians at the end of his second letter when he wrote, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14). Believers enjoy effectual favor from the Second Person of the Trinity, eternal affection from the First Person, and koinonia–fellowship–from the Third Person. God gave Himself for us, shares Himself with us, and brings us to Himself.
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Broken Pencils
Some failures cannot be fixed by getting a new sheet of paper and starting over. If the pencil is broken, rewriting the assignment won’t make the work neater.
As Christians, God’s Word provides the master image in front of the class that we’re supposed to copy. Scripture reveals what our portrait is supposed to look like. When we see an error on our paper, we try to correct it. But sometimes we assume, wrongly, that our motivation is right, it was just poor execution.
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A Successful Catastrophe
This was a helpful rundown from the military perspective, Can America win a war in Syria? From what I understand, the Assad regime has chemical weaponry and President Obama is considering a “limited” strike, perhaps shooting missiles but sending no men on the ground.
The article above argued the high probability that such an attack would be a success; we could indeed target and destroy the weapons. Such a success, however, would also be a catastrophe.
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Centuries Long Confusion
Our blessings are almost an embarrassment. If we were thankful, it would be okay. Instead, we disgrace ourselves with skimpy gratitude and boldness. We have considerable freedom and security for gathering to worship; it costs us very little. We have our own copies of God’s Word, let alone working eyes and the education to read it. We also have a two-thousand year long hindsight over generations of Christians who settled a foundation of clear and coherent truth for us to stand on.
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Glossing the Skids
I taught John 14:6 a couple Sundays ago and thought that a great communion meditation that day would be to focus on the exclusivity of Jesus as the one way, one truth, one life. Or, put in Reformation sola sort of terms, Christ is the only way, the only truth, the only life. I know enough Latin to look up words in a dictionary, so I thought about attaching the “way,” “truth” and “life” to sola, or una (the Latin word for “one”).
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Go for It
The following post is my convocation address for ECS from Tuesday afternoon.
Or, Changing the World from a Basement, Part Two1
Today begins our second year of Evangel Classical School. We meet in a new location, a location that, we can be thankful, still falls under Christ’s lordship, seeing that He claims every square inch everywhere as His. The site is different but our goal remains the same: to fight the serpent, to fight our sin, and to change the world as image-bearers of Christ.
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A Lot of Trouble
At least four sorts of trouble surface in the Bible. First there is trouble that results from our sin (think 1 Peter 4:14). We will reap suffering if we sow disobedience. Second is trouble that comes from living in a world of sinners; “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward” (Job, 5:7; think also about Paul’s comments regarding marriage in 1 Corinthians 7:28). Thistles and cancer and gossip and orthodontist payments grow after Genesis 3.
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We Can't Be Silent
Men proclaim their loves in a variety of ways and one of those ways involves words. There are many non-verbal forms of communication, too. A man may only invest in clothes stiched with a certain logo. He may enthrone a television that takes up half a wall. He may stock his pockets with mini-computers made by only one company. He may cross his arms left hand up to keep his wedding ring finger out from under his right armpit.
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Adorned with Bible Verses
Two brothers met for coffee one afternoon and the younger brother announced that he no longer loved his wife of seven years and was planning to leave her. The older brother, dressed in righteous indignation adorned with Bible verses, rebuked his younger brother’s foolishness. But, as Solomon said, “crush a fool in a mortar with a pestle yet his folly will not depart from him.” Neither listened to the other and both brothers left.
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Called to a Common Commandment
It’s been said that there are some sights only visible in the valley. Likewise, some glories only shine on earth, not in heaven. The love of God in Christ is perfect, but not pristine. Jesus washed dirty feet because He loved His disciples. He was betrayed, then beaten bloody because He loved His own. His love changes sinners, it doesn’t avoid them.
To measure the quantity, the volume of God’s love would break our calculators.
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Struck Out Looking
The greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Not one of us loves God with all of our faculties let alone doing it every moment, so we fail on the foremost demand. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves, another thorough requirement that we don’t ever entirely obey. The count is 0-2 when Jesus pitches His mandate that we love one another just as He loved us.
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They Didn't Know
When Satan provoked Judas to betray Jesus he played into Jesus’ plan. Satan fulfilled his part in God’s eternal story and Judas obeyed Jesus even as he despised Him. The enemies of Christ did not know that they were working toward their own destruction.
Paul told the Corinthians that he and his fellow representatives of Christ imparted a “secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.
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He Knows
Jesus knows everything. Nothing escapes Him. His knowledge penetrates the hearts of men, all their attitudes, intentions, and imaginations. He also foresees the future, every decision and event yet to come. Because He knows, He cannot be snowed. The Gospels repeatedly report His divine knowledge. He knows more and more truly than all the Internet pages stitched together.
The apostles also preached Jesus’ divine judgment. Speaking to Cornelius in Acts 10, Peter explained that Christ (who is Lord of all, verse 36), “commanded [the apostles] to preach to the people and to testify that [Jesus] is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead” (verse 42).
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Pair-a-Bowla
One of my earliest sermons while in seminary was on Philippians 2:1-11. Paul urges the believers: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (verse 3). The basis for humility is Jesus’ humility. The Philippians were to “have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself” (verses 5-7).
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Obedience Is Rock
Jesus cuts the will with an incisive question near the end of His sermon. As Luke recorded it, Jesus said, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I tell you?” (6:46) He follows the question with the famous illustration, and favorite kids’ song, about the foolish man who built his house upon the sand and the wise man who built on the rock. The foundation matters.
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Lectures on Calvinism Audio Book
Here is a fantastic audio book for Abraham Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism.
Abraham Kuyper has become a good friend the last couple years. His book on worship made me wonder why I’d never considered the potency of liturgy. George Grant’s lecture still fires me up to run toward the roar every time I relisten. I enjoyed James McGoldrick’s biography and the new study by James Bratt should be delivered to my house tomorrow.
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A Good Washing
Paul provides well-known instruction in 1 Corinthians 6 that Christians shouldn’t take other Christians to court. It ruins our witness before those who have no standing in the church (verse 4) and it doesn’t make sense since we’re to judge angels (verse 3). In other words, we should be wise enough in Christ to handle our disagreements. Even more, we should be mature enough in Christ to “suffer wrong” and “be defrauded” by a brother (verse 7).
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We Don't Go Back to Dead
Who taught you that when you come in for dinner, you don’t need to take a shower, you need to wash your hands? Your parents probably passed that lesson on to you, but where did they learn it? It’s not necessarily common sense but it does belong to how God made things to work. Imagine what laws today’s germaphobes might make if we didn’t have a couple thousand years’ worth of hand-washing success?
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Make It Look Good
In Titus 2:9-10, Paul instructs slaves about being submissive to their masters in everything. He ends his counsel to them as follows: slaves should be “showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.”
Adorn is clearly the key word. To adorn means to put something in order, to decorate it, make it look good. In this case, slaves don’t make the doctrine good; the doctrine is good.
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Pinning Jealousy
The jealous and the zealous are related. Our English word jealous comes down to us from a Greek word, ζῆλος (zealos, meaning strong desire or zeal. Middle English and French chewed this Greek word and gave us a pair. We usually clothe jealousy with dark colors, referring to someone with a strong desire for what someone else has. It describes a man who is envious of his brother’s good fortune or suspicious of his resources.
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Getting up from the Table
A lot of things happened when the sun went down Thursday evening of Passion Week. Too much, in fact, for the disciples to process until after the resurrection. They were caught in the whirlwind. Yet Jesus planted an unmistakable reference point when He wrapped a towel around Himself in John 13.
We don’t believe that foot-washing is an ordinance such as baptism or communion. Jesus commanded His disciples to follow His example to serve one another and washing the Twelve’s feet was an illustration, not the institution of a formal ceremony.