Category Archives: Faith - Page 3

Four and a half point Calvinism and the Gospel

Posted by on October 9, 2007 Comments Off

If you’ve done study into the details of salvation (sometimes referred to as soteriology) you’ll know that the Synod of Dort in 1619 came up with five affirmations of Calvinism, commonly known as the “Five points of Calvinism”.

The five points can be remembered using the acrostic TULIP:

T = Total Depravity of man

U = Unconditional election

L = Limited Atonement

I = Irresistible Grace

P = Perseverance of the saints

I’ve been very strongly in the Calvinist camp since a short time after I was saved, however I’ve heard others express one point of difference between the five points and the scripture – and I share this. 

Half a point difference

The one point is in the Limited Atonement.  According to the Moody Handbook of theology the third point of Calvinism is as follows:

Because God determined that certain ones should be saved as a result of God’s unconditional election, He determined that Christ should die for the elect. All whom God has elected and Christ died for will be saved.

My point of difference is that the writings of Paul seem to disagree with one small point in this – that is that the death of Christ while effective only for the elect, was not only for the elect.

For example lets have a look at 2 Corinthians 5:18-20:

All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.  Therefore we are ambassadors of Christ, God making his appeal through us.  We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

While I understand that Paul was writing this to believers, the key here is in the use of the word “world” – because that is what Christ was reconciling to Himself.  This theme would seem to fit with classic verses such as John 3:16:

For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

That is that God loved the world – not just the elect, and so the death of Christ was sufficient not only for the elect, but also for those who perish. 

1 John 2:2 would seem to confirm this:

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Propitiation means to make atonement – so this would seem to be stating clearly that Christ atoned for the sins of the world.

How this affects the Gospel

The point of this little nitpick is that this changes the gospel we preach.  Today the Gospel is either badly watered down or lumbered with conditions.  However, there is only one condition for salvation – believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved (Acts 16:31).  This message of reconciliation is thus “the punishment for your sin has already been taken care of in Jesus’s death – believe in His sufficiency to appease the wrath of God on your behalf and you will be saved”. 

To believe in the sufficiency of Christ means we need to believe that He is the incarnate God and as such is without sin, thus his sacrifice for sin is acceptable.

If the death of Christ was only for the elect, then the message we preach must be “believe on the Lord and that affirms that your sin was punished in His death”.  This is quite a different message and raises questions in the mind of the hearer – “Was my sin really covered in Christ’s death?  How do I know? If I believe, is that just me or is it because of His work?”

However if all that is required is believing in the sufficiency of Christ, we are better able to repent as we can see that that is all that is required (and by repentance I mean the sanctification that results from believing in Jesus).

So there we have it – I’m a four and a half point Calvinist – and if you didn’t know – Jesus was punished for your sin – you just need to believe in Him to be saved from the punishment of your sin – so believe and be saved!

**Update**

Dom was good enough to take time to respond to this post and email me to let me know.  He makes some good points in his post. And as a result I’d like to clarify what I’m saying here as I did in my comment on His blog post:

I’m certainly not a universalist, nor do I subscribe to Hypothetic Universalism.  Mankind is utterly depraved, and incapable of saving himself, thus election and consequent regeneration by the Holy Spirit are necessary acts of God on an individual.

In my mind (and thus this post), I have always distinguished between atonement and justification.  On reflection – this is not necessarily everyone’s understanding, and thus is misleading.

I regard atonement as being related to the value of Christ’s death (which is infinite), and regarding justification (or redemption) as the application of that atonement.  This means that if God chose to do so – the death of Christ would be sufficient for the salvation of all men everywhere – however, God has chosen some – not all – to be redeemed or justified, and thus the application of Christ’s death is strictly limited to those who believe.

Perhaps I should say the following by way of clarification: Christ’s death in itself had unlimited and infinite value because He is Holy God.  The intention of Christ’s death (actual satisfaction and atonement of sin for individuals) is given only to those who believe.  Salvation is offered to all – the whole world, but received only by those who believe.

For further reading on this issue I recommend Dogmatic Theology (also on Logos) by William Shedd (p739-750)

Scripture, hope and the glory of God

Posted by on September 26, 2007 Comments Off

I’m doing a quick study on hope for a sermon I’m preparing for this weekend.  I just came across Rom 15:4 which says:

For whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope

How do the scriptures cause us to have hope?

If we look back at Rom 5:2 we find that we hope in the glory of God.  Indeed, believers should be completely overcome by a passion for the glory of God.  Everything we do should be done for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31).

When we turn to the Lord, we turn to the ministry of righteousness (2 Cor 3:9) – the ministry where the righteousness of God is revealed through faith in Jesus (Rom 1:16, 2 Cor 3:14-16).  Thus we see the glory of God in the righteousness of God that is given to us in our justification.

When we are saved we are able to beholding or comprehend the glory of God – and as we do behold or comprehend the glory of God we are transformed from one degree of glory to another – each degree of glory being more Christ like than the previous.

As we live looking for the glory of God – the visible manifestation of Gods character and outworking, we find numerous examples of this in scripture.  If you will the scripture provides the pattern by which God interacts with mankind.  As we read it, we are better equipped to understand how God interacts with man and thus, when God interacts in our lives we are more clearly able to discern his working in and around us and we are able to thank an honor him for it.

This process is the process that God wants from his people – and the thing he always wanted from the people of Israel.

I have friends who are pentecostal believers, and the way they expect God to interact with mankind seems to be limited to just the supernatural.  However, God works in many ways and we should be looking for his hand in his everyday interactions with the world, be it natural or supernatural.  And when we see him working around us, we need to stop and give glory to him regardless of the circumstance.  Endurance causes us to hope and anticipate his glory being revealed, where any honor we get is due to him, and he should be honored as the one who gives and takes away (Job 2:10).

Interesting Meeting

Posted by on September 23, 2007 Comments Off

I had the pleasure of having a coffee with Dominic Tennant on Thursday when I was in Hamilton.

As I travel around the country I get chances to meet believers on occasion and this is a real thrill to me.  Its always great to be able to visit a different town and to know believers there who you can have an intelligent conversation where we share significantly similar understandings of scripture.

Dominic is interesting for a number of reasons – firstly he’s young – 24 and has been saved just three years.  In this time he’s got a firm grasp on apologetics and has written a book – which is not bad by any standards.

The book is “The wisdom of God” which “is a systematic introduction to biblical apologetics.

His book is published on Lulu.com which means you can purchase it for US$16 a copy.  You can also download the PDF from his site for free.  Dom believes that so many people need to understand this sort of thing that charging for it would be wrong.  Obviously I agree with this approach :-)

I encourage you to read “The wisdom of God“.  I’m going to.

Purity in Worship

Posted by on September 22, 2007 Comments Off

I was just reading of Matthews account of Jesus walking on water in Matt 14:22-33 and found this statement:

And those in the boat worshipped him, saying: “Truly you are the Son of God”

I was struck by the simplicity of the moment.  There was no music, no prayer, no hype, no grand words, just 12 men responding to the person of Jesus.

They responded because of what they had just seen – Jesus had defied the natural elements by walking on water.  His authority was unmistakable – no one can do this – yet here is Jesus doing it.

How would you react? Like the disciples we’d be awestruck, with no real words to say, beyond a simple acknowledgement that this must be God’s Son – who else can do such things?

Our worship is often full of pretense.  The modern church often puts people into a state of hype through music, high powered emotional preaching and a myriad of other methods.

The stark contrast is that these men were simply responding.  Their focus was simply the person of Jesus and they responded to what they’d just seen.

Paul calls us to respond in Romans 12:1 where he says:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship [emphasis added].

Our response to Jesus should be to give him our lives, yet how can we do this if we don’t know him?  Many “believers” today spend no time reading their Bibles, and no time praying.  How can they know him? How can they respond? 

We should spend more time focusing on the person and the majesty of Jesus Christ, and let the person of Jesus as revealed in Bible move us to respond in worship.

Pure worship results in pure lives.  Pretentious worship results in worldly lives (cf James 1:27)

Wisdom and Faith – James 1:5-8

Posted by on August 30, 2007 Comments Off

I’m weeks behind posting my notes from previous studies (apart from the series on getting organized).  Anyway, here are my raw notes again from this passage a month or two ago.

What is wisdom?

Prov 2:1-5 – if you seek wisdom/understanding/etc what do you get?

Wisdom – understanding:”Skill in the affairs of life, practical wisdom, wise management as shown in forming the best plans and selecting the best means, including the idea of sound judgment and good sense “

What is the relationship between wisdom and trials?  What is the anatomy of a trial?

Start with the goal of trials bastille to perfect us. thus with trials the outcome should be that we growing Christ. likeness with each trial.

What is the process that we tend to go though?

Confidence, failure, dependence

Often trials are about learning not lo trust ourselves but God.

1 Pet 5:7 - Cast yourself on him for He cares for you.

1 Pet 2:18-23 – Christ entrusted himself to God even through his sufferings and trial

We need to move past trusting our own resources and trust Christ and His resources. Often a trial won’t end until we cast ourselves before the Lord in self abandon and utter dependence on him.

One way to look at this is to understand that we know nothing ad that we lack the wisdom to deal with a trial correctly and so we need to recognize our lack of wisdom and ask the had for wisdom.

If we are in a trial it is to bring us to a point where we seek God and His wisdom – which he is pleased with and gives generously.

We often turn our backs on true wisdom and seek out independence and so need to be taught to depend on the Lord and His word.

What does it mean that God will give generously to all without reproach?

Generously without reproach.  Generous = liberally – freely, without measure.  He doesn’t give conditionally, but freely. Without reproach means that he will not rebuke you or hold some sin against you or denounce something you’ve done, but will give freely.

How can anyone ask God in faith without doubting?

Faith is the bottom rung of the salvation ladder.

Eph 1:8 – for Grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God

Rom 10:9-10 – For with the heart one believes and is justified

John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Heb 11:6 – Without faith it is impossible to please God

Therefore any believer can ask God in faith for wisdom.  Any unbeliever cannot.

One of the characteristics of saving faith is a changing of the ways – a settling or stabilizing of ways after God

Double-minded: “Such a person suffers from divided loyalties. On the one hand, he wishes to maintain a religious confession and desires the presence of God in his life; on the other hand, he loves the ways of the world and prefers to live according to its morals and ethics.”

Unstable – compare to

2 Pet 2:14 – of false teachers – “they entice unsteady souls”

2 Pet 3:16 - of Pauline scripture – “There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction as they do the other scriptures”

By contrast what do trials produce?

Trials produce steadfastness, not instability.  Trials settle us into our faith.

What do trials do with unbelievers?

Matt 13:20-21 – the seed sown in the rocky soil – receives it with joy but when trial and persecution come they fall away

How is this the case – how do trials produce steadfastness in believers and falling away in unbelievers?

The reason is that trials are “the testing of your faith” (Jas 1:3)  Without faith, it is not a trial – you are not being tested, you are just experiencing what the world experiences due to sin.

Get Organized – reasons and principles part 3

Posted by on August 24, 2007 Comments Off

Continued from part 2.

Principle 4: Get effective – not busy

Hebrews 11 is a great chapter that skims over many Old Testament saints who gave their lives for Christ.  This chapter doesn’t end at the end of chapter 11, but continues into chapter 12.  After discussing the many martyrs for their faith in the Old Testament, the author says:

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

There is a great number of individuals who have been before us, and those who stand out in history are not those who spent time dabbling in the worlds affairs, but those who had a single minded determination to serve the Lord. 

We are therefore encouraged to “lay aside every weight” and “run the race that is set before us”… in other words – if it slows you down in your pursuit of the Lord – lose it.  If it distracts you, dump it.

We are also told  to lay aside sin – we are to run the race, not walk it or skip it, but run it. Sin is pictured here similarly to wearing an ankle length skirt or dress (or toga) and trying to race with it on – it will get in the way and tangle us up – we need to get rid of it.

Life can be filled with lots of activity, but lots of activity does not make us effective – and effective is what we must be.  Prioritization helps with effectiveness by providing a filter by which you can decide whether something (task, project, etc) should be engaged in or not.  Does it help your walk with the Lord?  Does it help you with regards to your goal for your husband/wife/children?  Does it achieve something for the ministry?  Does it glorify Christ at all?  If the answer is no to any of these, don’t do it.

Principle 5: There is no middle ground

Many Christians today think that they can play or dabble, but the reality is that there is no middle ground.  We have warnings such as the one found in 1 John 2:15-17:

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

If you are a follower of the world and its desires you are on the wrong side of the “but”.  There are two outcomes – “passing away” or “abides forever”.  One goes with the world and its desires and the other goes with the one who does the will of God.

Just to further clarify, Jesus made this crystal clear in his letter to the Laodicean church in Revelation 3:14-22:

15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

Jesus made it clear to the Laodicean church that he would not tolerate lukewarm.  What he was speaking of was those who were as committed to their own pleasure and ends as much as or more than to Christ.

Frankly lukewarm describes a large proportion of the “church” today – even evangelical churches.

Conclusion

Thus we can conclude from this that as believers we should structure our lives as those who belong to Christ, want to be effective and productive for the Lord and then use all the resources the Lord puts at our disposal to do that and only that.

Personally, I find it helpful to set priorities, then set goals against those priorities and steadily work away at those goals.  I haven’t always done this, but I’m learning – and I encourage you to too.

Get Organized – reasons and principles part 2

Posted by on August 22, 2007 Comments Off

Read part 1 here.

Principle 3: Priorities for single and married

So where do we start?  Fortunately we have guidance here from scripture too.  For the single person we get this:

32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. (1 Corinthians 7:32)

In other words – the unmarried man (and the principle would apply equally to women) is anxious (or at least should be) about how to please the Lord.  Note the single minded purpose.  Life for a believer is not about pleasing ones self, but about pleasing the one who purchased us for himself (Titus 2:14) with His own blood.

The Lord wants us to have the single minded determination that Levi had when he was called in Luke 5:27-28:

27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.

Levi had nothing – he was a traitor as far as his Jewish countrymen were concerned – anyone who collected money from their countrymen and gave it to the enemy (Rome in this case) was considered a traitor – guilty of treason.  Leaving everything behind gave him no future – except as a believer, and that was exactly the single minded direction the Lord wanted him (and wants us) to have.

For those of us who are married Paul goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 7:33:

33 But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife,

The following verse has a similar explanation for women (both single and married), but the point is clear.  The unmarried should have a single minded determination to serve the Lord without distractions.

For the married their interests are divided.

Lets translate this into biblical goals for husbands and wives.  As believers who have a mission to serve the Lord – how should the wife set goals for her life with regards to her husband?  Prov 31:23 gives us an answer:

23 Her husband is known in the gates
when he sits among the elders of the land.

In Israel in biblical times those who sit at the gates were the wisest in their towns, they were recognized as being able to give the best solutions to problems, both personal and social.  When you wanted justice, the people at the gates – the judges were the ones who would discern between two parties and give an outcome.  For any wife, this should be the goal that they have for their husbands – to be the wisest and most just they can be.  Obviously the wife can only provide opportunities for her husband – he actually bears responsibility to become a leader by working hard and seeking wisdom (Prov 2:6).  The wife should work to provide her husband with the opportunities to become this leader.

Interestingly husbands are given a similar mandate with regards to their wives:

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:25-27)

There are a few key things to point out here.  Firstly as Christ gave himself up for the church – so is the husband to give himself up for the wife – what this means is that the wife should be more important to the husband than he is to himself.  But this is not an end in itself.

Christ didn’t give himself up for the church because He was just being kind – He had a bigger purpose.  His purpose was that he “might present the church to himself in splendor… that she might be holy and without blemish”.  Likewise, husbands should make it a goal to develop their wives so that they too are holy and without blemish – his goal should be to help her grow in Christ so that she is a helper fit for him.

Ultimately this actually helps the husband in his goal as it allows the husband and the wife to work together in their work for the Lord and also ensures that both the husband and the wife are engaged in rearing their children.

Continue to part 3.

Get hard or go home

Posted by on July 30, 2007 Comments Off

I’ve been reading a book by Ian Wishart called “Eves Bite“.  If you want a very thought provoking and challenging book to read… actually – no - you should read this book. It will shake you to your core.  Order it from the eves bite website.

I’ve also been listening to some talks given at a conference recently and between the book and the talks, I’m more convinced than ever that we are living in the last days and that the return of Christ is not far away.

The world around us is doing a fantastic job of popularizing evil.  Every radio station, TV network, newspaper, magazine article and government department are working hard to demolish any basis of morality at all. 

We are continually fed movies, TV programs and articles by the media that portray homosexuality as normal, vilify fundamentalist religions and their adherents, promote the atheistic and secular mind set as healthy and rational, dilute marriage and parenthood to either optional or subject to the state, promote the state as the ultimate authority, endorse pleasure as the ultimate pursuit and generally desensitize us to violence, sexual impurity, greed, lust, drunkenness and a great range of other evils.

The amazing thing is not so much that it is happening – after all it was predicted nearly two thousand years ago by the apostle Paul:

[1] understand this, that *in the last days there will come times of difficulty. [2] For people will be *lovers of self, *lovers of money, *proud, *arrogant, abusive, *disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, [3] heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, *not loving good, [4] treacherous, reckless, *swollen with conceit, *lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

2 Timothy 3:1-4

The truely amazing thing is that Christians by and large don’t care.

Interestingly enough, the above verse is actually aimed at those who say they follow Christ.  Paul continued:

[5] having the appearance of godliness, but *denying its power. *Avoid such people. [6] For among them are *those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, [7] always learning and never able to *arrive at a knowledge of the truth. [8] Just as *Jannes and Jambres *opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, *men corrupted in mind and *disqualified regarding the faith.

2 Timothy 3:5-8

These people have the appearance of godliness… meaning that they look OK on the outside.  There are lots of these people in the church, but they are dead inside.

Genuine believers are not to sit idly by. When Paul wrote to the church at Corinth which was entrenched in a broad array of evil practices he said to them:

[12] For what have I to do with judging *outsiders? *Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? [13] God judges* those outside. *“Purge the evil person from among you.”

1 Cor 5:12-13

What Paul is instructing the believers to do is to put those who are practicing evil out of the church. 

“Wait a minute”, the liberalist says “who are we to judge”?  The answer to that question depends on where you stand.  If you love Christ and seek to see him glorified, it puts you in the position of judge.  If you don’t care for Christ and the salvation his death wrought for you, then it puts you either on the outside – subject to Gods judgement, or it puts you in the position of the one who should be judged by the church and possibly purged.

Simply put, faith in Christ and evil practices do not go together, and this is the exact compromise that Christians have made that has led to this apathy.  We love the world.  We love the things of the world (the TV, entertainment, sex, money, alcohol, drugs or that high) more than we love God.

On this John wrote:

[15] Do not love the world or the things in the world. *If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 2:15

Are there that many apostates in the church?

If you don’t think this is you – then change.  Starting to day repent and turn from the ways and thinking of the world and look for the truth – and look for the truth in the word of God – it is nowhere else.

The world around us is blinding those in the world not only to the truth of Christ, but any truth at all.  There is a conspiracy – not of human origin, but satanic, and it is here.  Right now. It is pervasive, and there are few who are not under its influence.

If you feel as strongly about these things then lets get hard and lets wake up and let the world know about the state that it is in.  We need to tell people that they are lost, that they have been deceived and are going to be judged by an impartial and all righteous and all powerful judge who is not fooled by the political correctness and so-called tolerance of the west for all things evil.

Believers – the time has come – get hard or go home.

The purpose of Trials

Posted by on July 19, 2007 Comments Off

Our first study dealt with the purpose of trials from James 1:2-4

Rather than writing out the entire content, here are my (fairly raw) notes from the evening.  Questions I used to lead the discussion are in italics.  The answers in this guide are not comprehensive, they were meant to help me lead the study – so if you want more detail, ask in the comments or ping me an email.  Verses are linked so you can read them online.

Objectives in the text: to demonstrate from scripture:

  • That in a trial we choose between comfort and character

  • That in Gods eyes Character is commensurate with sanctification which is the will of God for believers

  •  the benefits of steadfast faith

Passage breakdown

James 1:2- Imperative instruction

James 1:3 – the reason the instruction is possible

James 1:4 – the result of obeying the instruction

Verses 2-12 the word  (trial/test/temptation) “as the basic meaning of trying, testing, as saying, or proving and can have negative or positive connotations, depending on the context”

In verses 13-17 the “idea is clearly that of temptation, of solicitation to evil. James is here dealing with an entirely different concept”

Study Material-Verses 2-4

What was the situation that the recipients of James’ letter were under?

These people had left their homes and families and fled to unknown places to live life in peace and safety, but as they fled the continued to be persecuted and followed by the Jews.

We spent some time discussing this — it is important that we understand the difficulty of life for the believers James was writing to.

These people had been scattered from Jerusalem primarily and in so doing they had walked away from their entire lives including:

  • Loved ones

  • Families (parents, children, great grandparents, etc)

  • All their worldly goods and resources

  • Jobs and businesses

  • Social contacts and status

  • Common locations and surroundings

  • Safety and comforts of home

  • Familiar culture

What are some common trials that we all have?

Trials are a part of our lives.  Common trials we have are difficult relationships, jobs, social situations, bad health etc  Our trials are generally petty and trivial in comparison to the situation of those the letter was written to.

How are some ways that we “get out of” trials?  Select one of the “common trials” and ask what do you do to try and get out of it?

If we don’t believe God is Sovereign we will try to control the situation somehow by stepping out of it (e.g. get a new job, walk away from a difficult family situation), or by manipulating the situation to ease the discomfort (this is often true of marriage  and children) or by deceiving our way out of it (e.g. large tax payments we may be required to make)…

Read James 1:2-4.  What are we commanded to do in trials?  Why?

We are commanded to count it all joy.  There are two outcomes of trials which are the cause for our rejoicing in the midst of them.  These are steadfastness/patience/endurance/perseverance and character.

Steadfastness means “to remain under” – trials teach us to stay under the weight or burden that we are under. 

What does steadfastness lead to?

Endurance leads to “perfect and complete” (v4) – what does “perfect and complete” mean?

The end result of sanctification: Rom 5:3-4 Suffering -> endurance -> character -> hope

Sanctification:

 - 2 Cor 3:18 – transformation from one degree of glory to another - explain

 - Tools for sanctification – 2 Tim 3:16-17,

Heb 13:20-21 - God is in the process of equipping us with what we need to do his will

1 Pet 5:8-10 – The Lord uses the devil for this purpose (cf Job 1:7-12, Job 2:1-6, Job 42:5-6 – examine the usage of Satan in the beginning and the result of this amazing trial at the end – what did it do to the character of Job?)

How do we get steadfastness/endurance/patience?

We are made steadfast by the testing of our faith (v3).  What then is the purpose of this testing?  It is to prove our faith, to refine it and purify it.

Compare to James 1:12 – Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial… to those who love him.  Remaining steadfast is how we demonstrate we love Christ. (Eph 6:24 – love for Christ is incorruptable – even by hardship). 

Steadfastness also results in the crown of righteousness – remember Abraham believed God and it was acredited to him as righteousness (Rom 4:3)

Why do we wriggle out of trials if they are for our good?

One reason – Sin.  Specifically we are self centered, self serving, Christ despising beings who by nature are inclined to trust ourselves and value ourselves before all else

What is the reaction of those who Christ has saved to trials? 

Rom 5:3 – we rejoice – how can we rejoice in trials?  1) knowing that God uses them to build us up and 2) because we are pursuing steadfastness (1 Tim 6:11) and we are making every effort to add this to our faith (2 Pet 1:5-7)

What makes the difference between an unbeliever and a believer? Knowledge of God – who He is, what His purpose is, His sovereignty.- Knowing that He is in control.

If we don’t believe the Lord is Sovereign we will try to control the situation somehow by stepping out of it (e.g. a job, difficult family situation), or manipulation (spouse/children) or deception…

2 Thess 1:3-12 – Perseverance under affliction is evidence of Gods judgement, both of those who are afflicting and those who are being afflicted that they are saved (Phil 1:27-28).

What is the reaction to the unsaved in trials, generally?

Remove themselves from it, manipulate the situation or otherwise escape the difficulty to make life easier.  Let us stop acting like unbelievers if we are saved.  If we are not saved, let us trust Christ to cleanse and save us from our sin!

How do we tend to respond when others are under trial? How should we respond when others are under trial?

2 Thess 1:11-12 – we should pray that God will make them worthy of His calling.

Col 1:11 – we should ask the Lord to make them strong through the trial

Generally we try to pray others out of their trials, which contrary to the purpose of trials and ultimately leads to disappointment when we don’t receive what we pray for.  This also reflects that we value comfort over character.

We should definitely sympathize with peoples pain and do our best to alleviate it, but we should value character and Christ-likeness above comfort in both ourselves and our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Experience or Scripture?

Posted by on May 20, 2007 Comments Off

When I was preparing for a study a few weeks ago I came across 2 Peter 2:16-21.  In this passage Peter refers back to the experience he, James and John had when Jesus was transfigured before them (Matt 17:1-13).

Peter recounts what he saw: “… we were eye witnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.”

Peter, James and John saw Jesus Christ in his glory.  In the incarnation of Christ his glory was one of the few things he laid aside when he came to earth (more on this in an upcoming post), it was the aspect of God that none of the Pharisees had seen in Jesus.  However, Peter, James and John did see it.  Jesus revealed his glory to these three disciples exclusively.

What these three saw was not a vision, but an actual reality.  They actually saw Jesus changed in front of them and talking to Moses and Elijah. 

However, in spite of the fact that they had seen this amazing transformation and Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus, Peter goes on to say “we have something more sure”.

What could be more sure than what Peter had seen and heard?  Peter was of course referring to the prophetic word – that is the word of God – scripture (2 Pet 1:19)

Why would Peter have more confidence in scripture than his own experience?  We get a hint in 2 Pet 1:20 where he says that “no prophecy of scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation”.  The implication is that our own experience is subject to us placing our own interpretation on the situation.

If we as humans get the idea that something that happened to us happened for a particular reason or to convey a particular purpose, we often find ourselves looking into and around the situation for further confirmation, and at this point we often read things as “signs” when in reality it was no such thing.  All our own experiences are subject to our own interpretation.

You often see this when listening to people talking about a discussion they had with someone.  We’ve all heard someone say that someone must have thought xyz about something.  However, often the person who’s thoughts are assumed had no such idea in their head, but the circumstances and conversation were interpreted by the person relaying the conversation to you.

Secondly Peter says that “no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit”.  It is God who writes scripture through man, eliminating mans own interpretation and his own desires and leaving just the word of God.

Often today we hear of people who have visions and to whom God speaks telling them all sorts of things.  However even Peter was clear that his experience had to line up with the word of God – as the word of God is more sure than our experience, regardless of how great or glorious our experience is.

This is a great settler of the mind.  We don’t need to be blown about by every wind of doctrine (Eph 4:14) and the experiences of man, all we need to do is understand the Bible.  Here we have yet another good reason why frequent (and I’d say daily) reading of the Bible is a critical habit for every believer to engage in.  How else would you know what is right and what is not?