Romans 1:1-7

We are about to embark on a “survey of Romans.”  In the past we have done verse-by-verse through Romans (Ch. 1-8 2015 2/20-3/30; Ch. 9-16 2015 11/17-12/31 in our Blog, https://ronandcindy.blogspot.com/).  Recently we journeyed with our fellowship through Romans in 7 Sundays.  We used some diagrams and compact lists to cover Paul’s epistle in such a short time.  We organized our study around ten “gospel questions.”  We pray the Lord will use this to encourage you in that blessed endeavor.  I would encourage you to plan on reading the entire letter to the Romans as you work through these "Ten Gospel Questions."

Question #1: What is the gospel?

The gospel is (by definition) GOOD NEWS.

The gospel is good news from GOD.

Curtis Mitchell (one of my beloved Bible professors at Biola in the late 60’s) put it this way: It's God's gospel, it's His good news, a message that can't be improved upon, a message that must not be distorted, a message that manifests to men the divine provision for their acceptance by the living God.

The gospel is good news PROMISED in the OT.  Here is a very small collection of OT prophesies related to the gospel.

·       Gen 3:15: the 1st sin.

·       Gen 12:1-3: the covenant with Abraham.

·       Gen 22:1-19: the offering up of Isaac

·       Exodus 12: the Passover Celebration

·       Leviticus 4: the sacrificial system

·       Leviticus 16: the Day of Atonement

·       Psalm 16:10: the resurrection of the Savior

·       Psalm 22:13-18: the suffering Savior

·       Isaiah 53: the suffering Servant

·       Hosea 1-3: the marriage of Hosea

·       Good news concerning CHRIST.

The gospel answers the question “Who is Christ?” (3 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.)

The gospel declares what Christ did. (1 Cor. 15:3-4: For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures)

Gal. 2:11-21, Christ Lives in Me: Real or Metaphoric? (2)

One more post on the reality or metaphoric view of Gal. 2:20.

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My friend had a couple of resources from John MacArthur.  From his NT commentary on Galatians (p60) he speaks of “the effect of the cross.”  Our “union with Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.”  While he doesn’t specify “real or metaphorical” he speaks of “union” as very real.  My thought is that the word “crucified with” Christ (yes, one word: sunestaurōmai) suggests a real experience, not just a metaphor.  What happened to the One happened to the other!  And no, I don’t mean I literally bled and suffered physically as Jesus did.  It is the “death” that was experienced. 

In MacArthur’s Liberated for Life: Galatians (the page number escapes me) he says, “I don’t need to work and struggle to get near God.  I know where God is; He’s inside – me.  It’s only a question of yielding to His presence.”  I say: well put.

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F. F. Bruce in the New International Greek Testament Commentary (Galatians), p144, he says, “In fact, this new life in Christ is nothing less than the risen Christ living His life in the believer. … It is by the Spirit that the risen life of Christ is communicated to His people and maintained within them.”  Amen!

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Homer Kent (president of Grace Seminary, Winona Lake, Indiana) in Studies in Galatians, says (p75) “the meaning is figurative.”  “The identification of the believer with Christ in the theological aspects of the crucifixion.”  Not sure about this.  But then he says, concerning the “crucified with” term, it is perfect tense, meaning past action with continuing effects.  “When Christ was crucified every believer with His Son, and thus believers were crucified with Him.”  Again, this sounds real, not figurative.  Kent believes it’s real, that “the Triune God is in the believer” (John 14:16-17).  Bot Ken and Bruce refer to it as “the resurrection life.”

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In the Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Galatians, James Montgomery Boice deals with Burton thoughts (see previous post).  Either 1) Christians experience death and new life because Christ dies for them; or 2) an actual participation of the believer in Christ’s death and resurrection via our ‘mystical union’ (Rom. 6:4-8; Col. 2:12-14,20; 3:1-4).  Boice concludes: the last view is the hardest to understand but is the one involved here!  My thoughts: I would agree with him on both.  The reason it seems “figurative” is because it is hard to imagine or understand this.  But the NT puts a lot of stock in the reality of “Christ in you.” 

Think a bit.  Count on the reality of Gal. 2:20, and the essential foundation of Rom. 12:1-2: bodies presented to Christ, minds being renewed!

Gal. 2:11-21, Christ Lives in Me: Real or Metaphoric? (1)

One of my regular “time fillers” is, when I come across a New Testament commentary I have not seen before and I want to do a quick evaluation is to see how the commentator interprets Galatians 2:20, particularly the line, Christ lives in me! 

We have been in Ireland for a couple months now “filling in” for some friends while they are on duty back in the States.  I sit in my friends office and he has a great collection of Bible reference books.  Thus I have a plethora (love that word) of commentaries I have not seen.  So this post and whatever else follows is for my benefit.  I am thinking about this issue.  Does Christ actually live in me?  That is, do I have His life in me?  Or is this just symbolic or figurative or metaphoric language?  I will share things I have seen and occasionally make a comment on the commenters.

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International Critical Commentary, Ernest Burton, NT Professor at Univ. of Chicago.

On p135 he says it’s a “metaphor” (being crucified with Christ), not literal.  He says “It can’t be, of course.”  He takes from this metaphor three elements: 1) The participation of the believer in the benefits of Christ’s experience. (2 Cor. 5:15; Rom. 4:24-25; Col. 2:20; 3:1).  2) A spiritual fellowship with Him in respect to those experiences. (Phil. 3:10; Rom. 6:5).  3) The passing of the believer through a similar or analogous experience. (Rom. 8:17; 6:5; Col. 2:20; 3:1).

On p136 he discusses whether this “death to law” is related to Christ objectively or subjectively and says it is not decisive!  On the latter, he says the believer is free from the law by his spiritual fellowship with Christ in death.  On the former, he says the death of Christ brings an end to the reign of law (Rom. 10:4; Col. 2:14).

My thoughts: Perhaps you can see the issue here.  The death of Christ did something objective, something that is true regardless of whether I am a believer in Christ or not.  But then the question is, if I am a believer, is that objective work objective in me?  Is it real to me by virtue of Christ’s presence in me?  The spiritual fellowship he speaks of is my “in Christ” reality.  I say reality, because I see it as an objective fact that something literally has happened to me.  Perhaps Burton is not as certain it is an actual change in me.  One of the things I consider is, does the fact that something in me is “spiritual” mean that it is not “objective” or “real”?  Since I am both spiritual and physical, I consider “spiritual fellowship” to be something real.

Reading further, on p137, related to the phrase, “it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me” he says that Paul is clearly speaking of spiritual fellowship.  He says Paul has received “a new power,” which is about like saying Paul has an objective reality, something different that dwells in his physical body.  And here is one other statement: Paul’s “life is so controlled that he conceives Him to be resident in him.”  And (p138, on “the life I now live in the flesh”) he acknowledges that Paul lives a life of dependence on the Son of God.  That is an object statement about Paul and would be a bit strange if it was not based in an objective reality.

1 Kings 21:17-29, The Humility of Ahab?!

There are a couple of interesting, and perhaps significant occurrences in the time of the Kings.  One occurred in the Northern Kingdom with King Ahab, who did more evil than any kings before him (1 Ki. 16:30; 21:25), but who humbled himself (21:27), after the murder of Naboth, when his fate was sealed (21:20-23), a humbling acknowledged and rewarded by the LORD (21:29ab).  A similar situation happened with Manasseh, another extremely wicked king, king over Judah, whose evil was the reason God would no longer relent in the judgment by the Babylonians (Jer. 15:4), but who humbled himself (2 Chron. 33:12-13), a humbling acknowledged and rewarded by the LORD (33:13,19).  Perhaps the most wicked king in both kingdoms, north and south.  And the humbled themselves. 

So what are we to think about these men?  I’m not going to tell you what to think.  And I am long past making concrete statements about the hearts of men, apart from statements from the LORD Himself as to their eternal status.  To humble oneself before God is an act of faith that He recognizes.  That much I would like to show from a study of this word. 

The Hebrew for this "humbling," kana, used 36x in 32 verses, is half the time used of subduing enemies (e.g. Judges 3:30) or the wicked (e.g. 2 Chron. 28:19).  Here are the other uses which are relevant to understanding what these wicked kings did.

·       Lev. 26:41: The important first use is in the prophecy of blessings and curses in the Law. When Israel sins and is removed from the land, if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they accept their guilt God will bring them back. In 2 Chron. 7:14 (If my people who are called by My name humble themselves) Solomon repeated this promise in the dedication of the temple.

·       2 Ki. 21:19; 2 Chr. 34:27ab: Josiah humbled himself upon hearing the book of the Law.

·       2 Chron. 12:6,7ab,12: Rehoboam, after first rebelling, then humbled himself, and God acknowledged and rewarded him.  Their humility was expressed in the affirmation that, the LORD is righteous. 

·       2 Chron. 32:26; 30:11: In the days of Hezekiah, the king humbled himself.  And while most in the northern kingdom declined the invitation, some from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came for the Passover.

·       2 Chron. 33:23; 36:12: While King Manasseh humbled himself, his son Amon did not! Nor did Zedekiah humble himself before Jeremiah.

What think ye?  Certainly, the grace of God is sufficient to take in such wicked men as Ahab and Manasseh.  The Leviticus passage is quoted by Solomon because Solomon knows it is significant to the purpose of the temple in facilitating a relationship between the LORD and His people Israel.  Of course, the issue is, have I humbled myself and am I living this before the Lord now?  I Peter 5:5: … be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

Psalm 119:49-64

 

Psalm 119:49-56 Zayin: In hope pray God’s word back to Him.

The first verse seems to give sense to the entire stanza.

Consider first the last half of v49.  God caused him to hope in His word.  To hope in God’s word involves a no-holds-barred kind of trust in God.  Consider, from the rest of the stanza, the extent to which the saint commits his way to God and both the commands and promises of Scripture.

·       v50: the life-giving Word is his comfort in affliction.

·       v51: the law of God is his path in the face of derision.

·       v52: he affirms his comfort is based in God’s ancient Word.

·       v53: he is indignant against those who forsake God’s law.

·       v54: he has built his home-life around God’s statutes.

·       v55: his night meditations center on God’s law.

In the end (v56) he can say he is so immersed in the Word in which God has caused him to hope that “it is mine”.  His life is becoming more and more the life of the Word.  As Spurgeon would say of John Bunyan, “Prick him anywhere; his blood is Bibline; the very essence of the Bible flows from him.”

This is the hope the Psalmist has.  He does not question the Word when doubts arise.  He has an absolute trust in the path laid out for him in Scripture.

But what happens when he rounds the next corner and his trial throws something else at him?  How does he respond?  Since God has caused him to hope in the Word he simply prays, “Lord, remember the word to your servant!”

It is not as if he were concerned that God would forget.  He is, in a sense, praying God’s word back to Him.  This is the surest way to pray in the will of God.  The Psalmist himself remembers God’s word for his present situation and then prays, “God, do as You said You would.”

He does what the Lord Jesus Himself did when tempted by Satan.  He simply quotes Scripture for which Satan has no answer (Matt. 4:1-11).  He is using the believer’s prime offensive weapon, the “sword of the Spirit which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17).

This kind of praying is the privilege of the one who truly hopes in God’s word, who can say of Scripture, “This has become mine!”

 

 

 

 

 

Psalm 119:57-64 Heth:  Make God your portion, your satisfaction.

There are few better thoughts in all of Scripture than to know God as one’s “portion” (v57).  Our portion is, of course, our “lot in life” so to speak.  It is what will be ours in this lifetime. 

Most people measure their “portion” according to money, pleasure or fame.  But most people also are not satisfied.  You can hear it in their complaints and see it in their endless seeking after another dollar, a bigger kick, or another promotion. 

A “portion” was what God said He would be for the Levites (Num. 18:20).  All the other tribes received land and cities of their own.  The Levites got God for their inheritance. 

Now some might think the Levites had a hard life, always dependent on God for their needs.  But anyone who thinks that way doesn’t understand the last verse of this stanza: “The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy” (v64).  In fact, a person can have nothing better than to have God as their portion. 

The trials of our lives are designed to reveal whether or not God is our portion.  In the book of Lamentations, where Jeremiah recorded his utter discouragement at the loss of all that was dear to him, God brought him to see that he still had all he needed because God was his portion (Lam. 3:22-24). 

So it is in this stanza of Psalm 119: it is revealed that the Psalmist’s portion was God.  The middle verses (58-63) describe the lifestyle of one who is finding his satisfaction in God.

·       58: he brings his petitions to God with his whole heart (i.e. he has no other heart-desire to find answers in any other portion).

·       59: he orders his daily path to follow after God.

·       60: he wastes no time in obeying God’s word.

·       61: when beset by circumstances, he stays the course laid out in God’s word.

·       62: in the odd hours his thoughts are of the Lord.

·       63: he encourages himself by fellowship with those who also seek God as their portion.

Who or what is your portion?  Are you putting your trust in your own value? or your possessions? or the next thrill?  Or can you say that your Portion fills the earth with His mercy?

2 Cor. 5:1-11, Who are the saints? (4)

Here is our final reference to the Catholic Catechism.

·       #956: “Being more closely related to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness – they do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus.”  This is accompanied by quotes from various “saints” before their death.  St. Therese: “I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth.”  St. Dominic: “I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you then more effectively than during my life.” 

Does Scripture speak of such things?  Some refer to John 16:7 when Jesus spoke of the value of His departure.  But He was speaking of establishing the New Covenant and sending the Holy Spirit.  That is not what “sainthood” is talking about.

Some might speak of Samuel who came from the dead to speak to King Saul.  But Samuel’s response was, “why have you disturbed me” (1 Sam. 28:15)?  Or you might speak of Moses and Elijah who appeared to Christ (Luke 9:30-31) and spoke to Him of His coming death.  But this is Christ, the Word who is God and became flesh.  We do not see this as normative.  Rather, consider Jesus’ teaching in the story of Lazarus and the rich man. No one was going to be sent back to encourage the rich man’s brothers.  It was sufficient that they had Scripture (Luke 16:27-31). 

In the preceding paragraph, all the passages were from “narrative” sections, not sections that are intended to teach doctrine.  What is the doctrine concerning believers who are now with the Lord?  In today’s passage (2 Cor. 5) they are at rest, free from the groanings of this life.  They are not doing good works on earth.  The day for preaching the gospel, carrying out the ministry of reconciliation, is over for them. 

What did the Psalmist mean when he said that the dead do not praise God any more (Ps. 6:5; 115:17; 88:10-12)?  Certainly, he was not referring to the praise they give in heaven.  Read the context.  He was wanting to be delivered from trouble so he could continue to praise God on earth.  The opportunity to “effect” good things on earth is past when we die.  For that reason, we then stand in judgment because the time of our testing is finished (Heb. 9:27).  The “witnesses” of Heb. 12:1 encourage us only by their legacy and our memory of their faithfulness.

The “prayers of the saints” in Rev. 5:8 also do not fit Catholicism.  These prayers are in “bowls full of incense.”  We are not told that the saints are praying in heaven.  It says that the prayers of God’s people on earth, which have been long delayed in being answered, are filling heaven with a sweet smell.  These are the “how long” prayers, many recorded in the Psalms (e.g. 6:3; 13:1), and many prayed by Israel when the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham was in doubt (e.g. 79:5; 80:4).  If you really want to see the fallacy of Roman Catholicism, it is in this, that they consider the Church to be the “new Israel” and that God is not going to fulfill His word to Abraham and the nation of Israel.

Jude 1:3-11, Who are the saints? (3)

We are considering some of the Catholic teaching on the “saints.”

·       #2156: At baptism Catholics receive a name, perhaps the name of one of the saints.  This person becomes the “patron saint” for that person. 

Our response, again, is to note how this detracts from Christ.  1) There is nothing in the Bible that encourages us to put our children or anyone in the care of someone other than the Lord.  This is not based in the Bible.  2) There is also nothing in the Bible that suggests that believers who have died and are in the Lord’s presence have any ability to influence or care for people on earth.  Heb. 12:1 speaks of being surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.  But these are witnesses which can have two possible meanings.  Either they are witnessing us running the race (that is not likely) or their testimony of successfully finishing the race encourages us.  The latter is certainly what this means, and these “witnesses” are the Old Testament saints (believers) who were spoken of in the previous chapter (Heb. 11, often called the “hall of faith”). 

·       #2030: The Church is the source of God’s word and of grace in the sacraments. 

This is the fundamental issue in this.  Our authority as believers for anything we do comes from the Word of God.  For Catholics God is continuing to speak His word through the Church.  But Jude said that the faith we hold was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3).  At the time Jude wrote, he was standing firm on the word of God whose delivery of that word had been completed.  Heb. 1:1-3 gives the same idea, that God’s word has been completed with the coming of His Son and the confirmation of that word, by signs, wonders and miracles by the Apostles (2:1-4).  The Bible is complete.  There is no place in Scripture that calls for a continuing revelation or inspiration beyond the first century. 

Matthew 16:17-19 should be brought up here.  Jesus commended Peter, and for the sake of argument let’s conclude that Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom for the admission of people to the Church He was building.  There is no groundwork laid here for a continuing papacy or, again, for continuing revelation.  Peter used those keys in Acts, for Israel in Acts 2, the Samaritans in Acts 8, and the Gentiles in Acts 9.  With that, the door was unlocked for the entire world.  There is no need for these keys (i.e. this authority) to extend beyond the life of Peter.

And just briefly, the first Church Council (Acts 15) did not establish new structure or new doctrine for the Church.  It clarified doctrine, the doctrine of salvation and sanctification by grace.  The doctrine of “canonization for sainthood” that came into being in the 900s was an addition to Scripture, and on that basis alone should be rejected.  Even Peter, in 2 Peter 1:3-4, said that believers at that time had all things that pertain to life and godliness.  Christ alone is sufficient!  Be careful lest your minds be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Cor. 11:3).