Vain Repetition? Bad. Persistence? Good

Thinking about prayer this morning in Matt 6.7. Christ tells his hearers not to use vain repetition (babbling is the Greek word) like the Gentiles do (when they pray to their false gods) mistakenly thinking that they will receive what they want because they use so many words. This is in stark contrast to praying persistently. The first is concerned with quantity. The second is a heart that is concerned.

John Calvin: The grace of God is not obtained by an unmeaning flow of words; but, on the contrary, a devout heart throws out its affections, like arrows, to pierce heaven.

Confused about who Christ was?

Christ was not. Reading in John 5.17, this morning. It is the beginning of one of the most remarkable passages of the New Testament in which Christ clearly sets forth his sonship with God the Father. He understood it that way. The Jews understood it that way (John 5.18).

If you take a step back and ponder the meaning of the whole passage (John 5.17-47), it is absolutely breathtaking. What kind of person comes to the Jewish leaders and the most religious of Jewish society and says, "I am of one essence with God the Father!"? It was either on par with the utmost blasphemy, or it was true, or possibly as C. S. Lewis points out, Christ was crazy. We have only those three choices.

Imagine someone showing up in our day and culture and doing some impressive miracles and saying, "I am of the same essence as the God who created the universe." It would certainly cause us to catch our breath and say, "can it possibly be true? Who is this guy?" This is the claim that Christ was making.

John Calvin points out that possibilities and pitfalls in Christ's claim: So great is our depravity that we choose rather to perish of our own accord than to surrender ourselves to obey the Son of God, that we may be saved by his grace.

As for me, I will take Christ at his word and fall at his feet (gladly!) and call him Lord and God.

What Humility Is

Zephaniah defines humility practically for us in Zeph 2.3, according to him, the one who is humble will:

1. Seek the Lord.

2. Do his just commands.

3. Seek righteousness.

4. Seek humility.

John Calvin says: This phrase does not imply doubt of the deliverance of the godly, but expresses the difficulty of it, as well that the ungodly may see the certainty of their doom, as also that the faithful may value the more the grace of God in their case (1 Peter 4:17-19).

The EBC is more succinct: Only the “humble of the land” are exhorted because nothing can be done with the rest.

Two Men/Two Responses to Christ

In Luke 23.40-42, this morning, where we see two responses to Christ as men stare into eternity, a response we see again and again to the good news in both the Scriptures and history. On the one hand we see a man (a thief) who is interested in nothing more than a miraculous trip off of the cross so he can continue with what he was doing (being a thief). On the other hand, we see one of the greatest examples of faith in history. The second thief who speaks knows that he will die on this day. He knows that Christ is going to die and that the other thief is going to die as well. He rebukes his fellow thief because he understands that both of them are dying justly. They are guilty and deserve it. Even though he has presumably never met Christ, as he watches Christ's response he recognizes that Christ did not deserve to die.

Then come the words of great faith “But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”” (Luke 23:40-42 ESV) They are nailed to three crosses, to all appearances the Roman soldiers and the Jewish rulers have won the day because they will live and the three condemned men will not, and yet he calls for Christ to remember him when you come to your kingdom! Amazing faith. Faith that Christ acknowledges because he promises that Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.

The thief emphasizes the word we, when he says we indeed justly, and he also emphasizes worthy when he says (my translation) worthy we are to receive (death). He makes a contrast between he and the other thief, and Christ. They deserve death. Christ does not. For Christ do die is as he puts it out of place or absurd is the meaning of the word that he uses. For them to die is acceptable; for Christ to die is absurd.

Calvin: I know not that, since the creation of the world, there ever was a more remarkable and striking example of faith; and so much the greater admiration is due to the grace of the Holy Spirit, of which it affords so magnificent a display.

God's Goodness and Bringing Judgment

In Nahum 1.7, this morning, where Nahum begins by proclaiming God's power and ability to bring judgment upon Nineveh, then suddenly in verse 7, he says the Lord is good. Why the sudden switch to commenting on God's goodness in the middle of a passage about him bringing judgment? I think John Calvin gets it right in his comment on the passage:

First, by saying that God is good, he turns aside whatever might be objected on the ground of extreme severity. There is indeed nothing more peculiar to God than goodness. Now when he is so severe, that the very mention of his name terrifies the whole world, he seems to be in a manner different from himself. Hence the Prophet now shows that whatever he had hitherto said of the dreadful judgment of God, is not inconsistent with his goodness.

Peace and How to Attain It

In Philippians 4.6,7, this morning. One do not, and one do. DO NOT be anxious about anything. DO let your requests be made known to God (with thanksgiving of course!). Paul gives a command here so we ought to take it as a command, not as an opinion. When our hearts are anxious (and they will be) take it to the Lord. It's funny that Paul doesn't promise any positive outcome here, at least from our own human framework and desires. He only promises the peace of God. That is enough.

John Calvin weighs in: For we are not made of iron, nor of steel so as not to be shaken by temptations. But this is our consolation, this is our solace —to deposit, or (to speak with greater propriety) to disburden in the bosom of God everything that harasses us.

15 Ways to Make Certain You will not Enter the Kingdom of God

Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies. So writes Paul in Galatians 5.20,21. Is he teaching that we get to heaven by what we do? Not at all. The whole point of Galatians is that we cannot get to heaven by what we do. His point is that what we do reflects the state of our heart. If we are doing the works of the flesh (as Paul puts it), then our heart is lashed firmly to the things of this world; we are unregenerate and will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Of course the immediate objection that arises is: But who cannot be charged with one of these sins? If this is the case then we are all guilty (true enough) and none of us will inherit the kingdom of God. John Calvin answers this question: But in this way, we shall be told, all are cut off from the hope of salvation; for who is there that is not chargeable with some of those sins? I reply, Paul does not threaten that all who have sinned, but that all who remain impenitent, shall be excluded from the kingdom of God.

Savoring the Sobering News...

...of Psalms 73.26, this morning. My heart and my flesh may (read "will") fail. If there is one thing certain about life, it's that if I live long enough my heart and flesh (Hebrew euphemisms for "body" and "soul") are going to fail. I'll be taken down by old age, illness, or incapacitation. Anyone can see that this is the course of life. Indeed, one might say that old age is one of God's ways of demonstrating to us that we are not God.

However, there is good news. While my body and soul may fail, there is hope for those who follow Christ because God is the strength of my life and my portion forever. John Calvin makes this comment about what it means that God is my portion:

The portion of an individual is a figurative expression, employed in Scripture to denote the condition or lot with which every man is contented. Accordingly, the reason why God is represented as a portion is, because he alone is abundantly sufficient for us, and because in him the perfection of our happiness consists.

I gladly join the Psalmist in claiming that God is my portion, that he is the lot with which I am most completely contended. He is sufficient for me. He is sufficient for you.

Is he sufficient for you?

A People of (Very) Hard Hearts

Thinking about Jeremiah 37.2 this morning. The people of Israel had everything that they needed to repent and turn away from their sins. They had the prophecy that Nebuchadnezzar and the army of Babylon would destroy them. They had Jeremiah's repeated warnings of God's impending judgment. They would not listen.

A couple of thoughts. First, God will do what he says. All of the hope in the world will not undo what he has said that he will do. King Zedekiah was hoping that the withdrawal of the Babylonian army after their first venture into Israel meant that Jeremiah was wrong. Zedekiah was the one who was wrong.

John Calvin makes the second point: For he intimates, that though God did not appear from heaven, it was sufficient to condemn the unbelieving, that he spoke by his Prophets. Hearing God's word through Jeremiah ought to have been enough to make them repent. They did not need for God to appear to them. The lesson for us is that we have God's word. It ought to be sufficient for us to repent of our sins and follow God.

Third, as Calvin also points out, the people exhibit a strange blindness to their position. They have already seen the king's own sons slain before his eyes by the Babylonians, and yet they do not listen to God's word through Jeremiah.

Help My Unbelief!

Mark 9.24 is one of my favorite verses. I love it because it so eloquently communicates the human condition. The father wanted to believe that Christ could cast the spirit out of the child, but knew that his own heart struggled to believe. It is a genuine and heartfelt cry for help. Calvin beautifully captures what is going on here: "He declares that he believes and yet acknowledges himself to have unbelief. These two statements may appear to contradict each other but there is none of us that does not experience both of them in himself."

Just so. Especially when it comes to promises. Do we really have faith to move mountains? If we ask anything in Christ's name, will God really do it? My heart is just like this man's...only more so.

God's (Apparent) Absence in Difficulty

I am pondering Ps 88.14 this morning and the fact that it is often in our deepest difficulties that God appears to be no where in sight. I am reminded of C. S. Lewis' comment in A Grief Observed:

“Meanwhile, where is God? This is one of the most disquieting symptoms. When you are happy, so happy that you have no sense of needing Him…you will be—or so it feels—welcomed with open arms. But go to Him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence. You may as turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become.”

John Calvin points out that this kind of question is proof that the writer has not given up on God, that: The Psalmist does not proudly enter into debate with God, but mournfully desires some remedy to his calamities.

I agree with Calvin's thinking on this passage, although it does not make the experience any easier. In all of the tests and trials of a believer, this is probably the most difficult, persevering when God is silent.