The Meaning of Jesus' Sufferings

In Isaiah 53:4-9, we have a full account of the meaning of Christ's sufferings. It was a very great mystery that so excellent a person should suffer such hard things; and it is natural to ask with amazement, “How came it about? What evil had he done?” His enemies indeed looked upon him as suffering justly for his crimes; and, though they could lay nothing to his charge, they esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, Isaiah 53:4. Because they hated him, and persecuted him, they thought that God did, that he was his enemy and fought against him; and therefore they were the more enraged against him, saying, God has forsaken him; persecute and take him, Psalms 71:11. Those that are justly smitten are smitten of God, for by him princes decree justice; and so they looked upon him to be smitten, justly put to death as a blasphemer, a deceiver, and an enemy to Caesar. Those that saw him hanging on the cross enquired not into the merits of his cause, but took it for granted that he was guilty of every thing laid to his charge and that therefore vengeance suffered him not to live. It was for our good, and in our stead, that Jesus Christ suffered. This is asserted here plainly and fully, and in a very great variety of emphatical expressions.

1. It is certain that we are all guilty before God. We have all sinned, and have come short of the glory of God (Isaiah 53:6): All we like sheep have gone astray, one as well as another. The whole race of mankind lies under the stain of original corruption, and every particular person stands charged with many actual transgressions. We have all gone astray from God our rightful owner, alienated ourselves from him, from the ends he designed us to move towards and the way he appointed us to move in. We have gone astray like sheep, which are apt to wander, and are unapt, when they have gone astray, to find the way home again. That is our true character; we are bent to backslide from God, but altogether unable of ourselves to return to him. This is mentioned not only as our infelicity (that we go astray from the green pastures and expose ourselves to the beasts of prey), but as our iniquity. We affront God in going astray from him, for we turn aside every one to his own way, and thereby set up ourselves, and our own will, in competition with God and his will, which is the malignity of sin. Instead of walking obediently in God's way, we have turned wilfully and stubbornly to our own way, the way of our own heart, the way that our own corrupt appetites and passions lead us to. We have set up for ourselves, to be our own masters, our own carvers, to do what we will and have what we will. Some think it intimates our own evil way, in distinction from the evil way of others. Sinners have their own iniquity, their beloved sin, which does most easily beset them, their own evil way, that they are particularly fond of and bless themselves in.

2. Our sins are our sorrows and our griefs (Isaiah 53:4), or, as it may be read, our sicknesses and our wounds: the Septuagint reads it, our sins; and so the apostle, 1 Peter 2:24. Our original corruptions are the sickness and disease of the soul, an habitual indisposition; our actual transgressions are the wounds of the soul, which put conscience to pain, if it be not seared and senseless. Or our sins are called our griefs and sorrows because all our griefs and sorrows are owing to our sins and our sins deserve all our griefs and sorrows, even those that are most extreme and everlasting.

3. Our Lord Jesus was appointed and did undertake to make satisfaction for our sins and so to save us from the penal consequences of them. [1.] He was appointed to do it, by the will of his Father; for the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. God chose him to be the Saviour of poor sinners and would have him to save them in this way, by bearing their sins and the punishment of them; not the idem - the same that we should have suffered, but the tantundem - that which was more than equivalent for the maintaining of the honour of the holiness and justice of God in the government of the world. Observe here, First, In what way we are saved from the ruin to which by sin we had become liable - by laying our sins on Christ, as the sins of the offerer were laid upon the sacrifice and those of all Israel upon the head of the scape-goat. Our sins were made to meet upon him (so the margin reads it); the sins of all that he was to save, from every place and every age, met upon him, and he was met with for them. They were made to fall upon him (so some read it) as those rushed upon him that came with swords and staves to take him. The laying of our sins upon Christ implies the taking of them off from us; we shall not fall under the curse of the law if we submit to the grace of the gospel. They were laid upon Christ when he was made sin (that is, a sin-offering) for us, and redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us; thus he put himself into a capacity to make those easy that come to him heavily laden under the burden of sin. See Psalms 40:6-12. Secondly, By whom this was appointed. It was the Lord that laid our iniquities on Christ; he contrived this way of reconciliation and salvation, and he accepted of the vicarious satisfaction Christ was to make. Christ was delivered to death by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. None but God had power to lay our sins upon Christ, both because the sin was committed against him and to him the satisfaction was to be made, and because Christ, on whom the iniquity was to be laid, was his own Son, the Son of his love, and his holy child Jesus, who himself knew no sin. Thirdly, For whom this atonement was to be made. It was the iniquity of us all that was laid on Christ; for in Christ there is a sufficiency of merit for the salvation of all, and a serious offer made of that salvation to all, which excludes none that do not exclude themselves. It intimates that this is the one only way of salvation. All that are justified are justified by having their sins laid on Jesus Christ, and, though they were ever so many, he is able to bear the weight of them all. [2.] He undertook to do it. God laid upon him our iniquity; but did he consent to it? Yes, he did; for some think that the true reading of the next words (Isaiah 53:7) is, It was exacted, and he answered; divine justice demanded satisfaction for our sins, and he engaged to make the satisfaction. He became our surety, not as originally bound with us, but as bail to the action: “Upon me be the curse, my Father.” And therefore, when he was seized, he stipulated with those into whose hands he surrendered himself that that should be his disciples' discharge: If you seek me, let these go their way, John 18:8. By his own voluntary undertaking he made himself responsible for our debt, and it is well for us that he was responsible. Thus he restored that which he took not away.

4. Having undertaken our debt, he underwent the penalty. Solomon says: He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it. Christ, being surety for us, did smart for it. [1.] He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, Isaiah 53:4. He not only submitted to the common infirmities of human nature, and the common calamities of human life, which sin had introduced, but he underwent the extremities of grief, when he said, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful. He made the sorrows of this present time heavy to himself, that he might make them light and easy for us. Sin is the wormwood and the fall in the affliction and the misery. Christ bore our sins, and so bore our griefs, bore them off us, that we should never be pressed above measure. This is quoted (Matthew 8:17) with application to the compassion Christ had for the sick that came to him to be cured and the power he put forth to cure them. [2.] He did this by suffering for our sins (Isaiah 53:5): He was wounded for our transgressions, to make atonement for them and to purchase for us the pardon of them. Our sins were the thorns in his head, the nails in his hands and feet, the spear in his side. Wounds and bruises were the consequences of sin, what we deserved and what we had brought upon ourselves, Isaiah 1:6. That these wounds and bruises, though they are painful, may not be mortal, Christ was wounded for our transgressions, was tormented or pained (the word is used for the pains of a woman in travail) for our revolts and rebellions. He was bruised, or crushed, for our iniquities; they were the procuring cause of his death. To the same purport is Isaiah 53:8, for the transgression of my people was he smitten, the stroke was upon him that should have been upon us; and so some read it, He was cut off for the iniquity of my people, unto whom the stroke belonged, or was due. He was delivered to death for our offences, Romans 4:25. Hence it is said to be according to the scriptures, according to this scripture, that Christ died for our sins, 1 Corinthians 15:3. Some read this, by the transgressions of my people; that is, by the wicked hands of the Jews, who were, in profession, God's people, he was stricken, was crucified and slain, Acts 2:23. But, doubtless, we are to take it in the former sense, which is abundantly confirmed by the angel's prediction of the Messiah's undertaking, solemnly delivered to Daniel, that he shall finish transgression, make an end of sin, and make reconciliation for iniquity, Daniel 9:24.

5. The consequence of this to us is our peace and healing, Isaiah 53:5. [1.] Hereby we have peace: The chastisement of our peace was upon him; he, by submitting to these chastisements, slew the enmity, and settled an amity, between God and man; he made peace by the blood of his cross. Whereas by sin we had become odious to God's holiness and obnoxious to his justice, through Christ God is reconciled to us, and not only forgives our sins and saves us from ruin, but takes us into friendship and fellowship with himself, and thereby peace (that is, all good) comes unto us, Colossians 1:20. He is our peace, Ephesians 2:14. Christ was in pain that we might be at ease; he gave satisfaction to the justice of God that we might have satisfaction in our own minds, might be of good cheer, knowing that through him our sins are forgiven us. [2.] Hereby we have healing; for by his stripes we are healed. Sin is not only a crime, for which we were condemned to die and which Christ purchased for us the pardon of, but it is a disease, which tends directly to the death of our souls and which Christ provided for the cure of. By his stripes (that is, the sufferings he underwent) he purchased for us the Spirit and grace of God to mortify our corruptions, which are the distempers of our souls, and to put our souls in a good state of health, that they may be fit to serve God and prepared to enjoy him. And by the doctrine of Christ's cross, and the powerful arguments it furnishes us with against sin, the dominion of sin is broken in us and we are fortified against that which feeds the disease.

6. The consequence of this to Christ was his resurrection and advancement to perpetual honour. This makes the offence of the cross perfectly to cease; he yielded himself to die as a sacrifice, as a lamb, and, to make it evident that the sacrifice he offered of himself was accepted, we are told here, Isaiah 53:8, [1.] That he was discharged: He was taken from prison and from judgment; whereas he was imprisoned in the grave under a judicial process, lay there under an arrest for our debt, and judgment seemed to be given against him, he was by an express order from heaven taken out of the prison of the grave, an angel was sent on purpose to roll away the stone and set him at liberty, by which the judgment given against him was reversed and taken off; this redounds not only to his honour, but to our comfort; for, being delivered for our offences, he was raised again for our justification. That discharge of the bail amounted to a release of the debt. [2.] That he was preferred: Who shall declare his generation? his age, or continuance (so the word signifies), the time of his life? He rose to die no more; death had no more dominion over him. He that was dead is alive, and lives for evermore; and who can describe that immortality to which he rose, or number the years and ages of it? And he is advanced to this eternal life because for the transgression of his people he became obedient to death. We may take it as denoting the time of his usefulness, as David is said to serve his generation, and so to answer the end of living. Who can declare how great a blessing Christ by his death and resurrection will be to the world? Some by his generation understand his spiritual seed: Who can count the vast numbers of converts that shall by the gospel be begotten to him, like the dew of the morning?

When thus exalted he shall live to see

A numberless believing progeny

Of his adopted sons; the godlike race

Exceed the stars that heav'n's high arches grace.

- Sir R. Blackmore

Of this generation of his let us pray, as Moses did for Israel, The Lord God of our fathers make them a thousand times so many more as they are, and bless them as he has promised them, Deuteronomy 1:11

------------------------------------------------------------

Taken from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. The Reverend Matthew Henry lived from 1662-1714 and was a notable preacher and Bible commentator up until his death. His work still lives on into popularity, up until the present day. These short excerpts from his works are put up in order to learn from someone who came before us, and who lived under different circumstances, and who gives us a fresh perspective on what it means to love and serve Christ. Lord willing, Matthew Henry blogs will be posted once a week. Thanks for reading. -SEAN

The Sufferings of Christ

'Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.'

Here, in Isaiah 53, we have a further account of the sufferings of Christ. Much was said before, but more is said here, of the very low condition to which He abased and humbled Himself, to which He became obedient even to the death of the cross.

1. He had griefs and sorrows; being acquainted with them, he kept up the acquaintance, and did not grow shy, no, not of such melancholy acquaintance. Were griefs and sorrows allotted him? He bore them, and blamed not his lot; he carried them, and did neither shrink from them, nor sink under them. The load was heavy and the way long, and yet he did not tire, but persevered to the end, till he said, It is finished.

2. He had blows and bruises; he was stricken, smitten, and afflicted. His sorrows bruised him; he felt pain and smart from them; they touched him in the most tender part, especially when God was dishonoured, and when he forsook him upon the cross. All along he was smitten with the tongue, when he was cavilled at and contradicted, put under the worst of characters, and had all manner of evil said against him. At last he was smitten with the hand, with blow after blow.

3. He had wounds and stripes. He was scourged, not under the merciful restriction of the Jewish law, which allowed not above forty stripes to be given to the worst of male factors, but according to the usage of the Romans. And his scourging, doubtless, was the more severe because Pilate intended it as an equivalent for his crucifixion, and yet it proved a preface to it. He was wounded in his hands, and feet, and side. Though it was so ordered that not a bone of him should be broken, yet he had scarcely in any part a whole skin (how fond soever we are to sleep in one, even when we are called out to suffer for him), but from the crown of his head, which was crowned with thorns, to the soles of his feet, which were nailed to the cross, nothing appeared but wounds and bruises.

4. He was wronged and abused (Isaiah 53:7): He was oppressed, injuriously treated and hardly dealt with. That was laid to his charge which he was perfectly innocent of, that laid upon him which he did not deserve, and in both he was oppressed and injured. He was afflicted both in mind and body; being oppressed, he laid it to heart, and, though, he was patient, was not stupid under it, but mingled his tears with those of the oppressed, that have no comforter, because on the side of the oppressors there is power, Ecclesiastes 4:1. Oppression is a sore affliction; it has made many a wise man mad (Ecclesiastes 7:7); but our Lord Jesus, though, when he was oppressed, he was afflicted, kept possession of his own soul.

5. he was judged and imprisoned, as is implied in his being taken from prison and judgment, Isaiah 53:8. God having made him sin for us, he was proceeded against as a malefactor; he was apprehended and taken into custody, and made a prisoner; he was judge, accused, tried, and condemned, according to the usual forms of law: God filed a process against him, judged him in pursuance of that process, and confined him in the prison of the grave, at the door of which a stone was rolled and sealed.

6. He was cut off by an untimely death from the land of the living, though he lived a most useful life, did so many good works, and they were all such that one would be apt to think it was for some of them that they stoned him. He was stricken to death, to the grave which he made with the wicked (for he was crucified between two thieves, as if he had been the worst of the three) and yet with the rich, for he was buried in a sepulchre that belonged to Joseph, an honourable counsellor. Though he died with the wicked, and according to the common course of dealing with criminals should have been buried with them in the place where he was crucified, yet God here foretold, and Providence so ordered it, that he should make his grave with the innocent, with the rich, as a mark of distinction put between him and those that really deserved to die, even in his sufferings.

------------------------------------------------------------

Taken from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. The Reverend Matthew Henry lived from 1662-1714 and was a notable preacher and Bible commentator up until his death. His work still lives on into popularity, up until the present day. These short excerpts from his works are put up in order to learn from someone who came before us, and who lived under different circumstances, and who gives us a fresh perspective on what it means to love and serve Christ. Lord willing, Matthew Henry blogs will be posted once a week. Thanks for reading. -SEAN

John 3:16 Is the Gospel

Aside from Matthew 7.1, which says "judge not, that you be not judged," John 3.16 is the most well-known Bible verse in the world. This verse is on plaques. This verse is on T- shirts. Max Lucado even wrote an entire book on this theme called 3:16: The Numbers of Hope, which came on the scene with a whole multitude of related products, church music, CD's featuring top Christian music artists, and "ancillary publishing products," according to the Amazon.com website for the book. This short quote completely overshadows the rest of the context in which it is found. The full verse is as follows:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

John 3.16 Out of Context

This quote just feels sort of warm and cuddly, doesn't it? God loves us, and we're going to have eternal life! And both of these things are true. Still, without context we don't know what it means that God gave His only Son, and we have no sense of what perish means, and we have no idea what happens to whoever [does not] believe in Him, and so all that we get from this verse is that God loves us and that we're going to have eternal life, whatever that means. It just sort of becomes this vague "God is loving" verse, which is why it gets used by people who try to argue against the existence of Hell (i.e., because God loves the world so much, He would never send anyone to Hell). Even things that are found in here get passed over because we need the rest of the Bible to show us what these words mean.

John 3.16 In Context: "Unless One is Born Again..."
The context for John 3.16 really stretches from John 3.1-21. A Jewish man named Nicodemus (a "Pharisee" and "a ruler of the Jews") had come to Jesus by night to ask some private questions. Jesus replied to Nicodemus with, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God - and that is the context for understanding this popular verse. Jesus is talking about us needing to be born again and what that means. Within that framework, the things that come after fit in to a pretty neat pattern. Here's a quick bullet-point list of things you can get from 3:16 in context:

• Apart from Jesus, we started off under judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil (3.19). All of us were destined to perish (3.16) in Hell, we were condemned already (3.18), and we were not born again and therefore could not hope to see the Kingdom of God (3.3).

• God gave His only Son to death for us (3.16) in order that the world might be saved through him [from condemnation] (3.17).

• People are saved when they are born again (3.3), meaning that they have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and so are born of the Spirit (3.6-8), since unless someone is born of the Spirit he cannot see the kingdom of God (3.5). Being born of the Spirit results in people who love Jesus and believe in him (3.16), looking to Him for salvation (3.14), and so whoever believes is not condemned (3.18).

• Those who have been born of the Spirit (3.6-8) and believe in Jesus (3.16) are not condemned (3.18) and are rewarded with everlasting life, but those who do not believe in Jesus are condemned already (3.18) and perish in an eternity in Hell (3.16) and cannot enter the kingdom of heaven (3.3). There is a way of life and a way of death.

John 3.16 is the Pure, Unfiltered Gospel

Taken together, John 3.16 is the Gospel. In it, we read that sinners are saved from condemnation by Jesus' death, are justified by faith in Christ, and are invited to share with God in his kingdom. Soli deo gloria.

Appendix: Full Text of John 3.1-21

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."

*This post is taken from an older article, also written by me, titled "More Than John 3:16" -SEAN

Doctrine of the Holy Spirit (Part 2)

Alright, I apologize for being a bad blogger and for the second entry on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit taking over a month to complete. I think I'm still getting used to having two kids, and my rhythm is all sorts of jacked up.

Why There Are So Many Views

Ok, so in preparation for this second post on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit as revealed to us in Scripture, I had a thought that I wanted to share. As I was pondering why there are so many different views of the Holy Spirit, I realized that since everyone is shaped by their culture and church upbringing (and if you don't have a church upbringing I sort of envy you), our views will tend to reflect what our tradition has taught us. So if you're more on the charismatic end of theology, then you talk about the Holy Spirit a lot, but you can tend to not focus on other important doctrines that are as equally as important. Same thing goes for Baptists. It's ok to talk about the Spirit. You're not going to catch a disease. My point being this: there are all areas of doctrine and theology that we will readily admit to not spending enough time on. The problem for us Reformed guys is that we tend to minimize anything that falls outside of the doctrines of grace, or of the Puritans, Spurgeon, Luther, Calvin, Stott, Piper, Keller, you get the point? We need to keep our minds open to the Holy Spirit (ironic enough as that sounds) and listen to the Lord through the Scriptures.

Ask A Question, and Let Scripture Answer

For part two I thought what would be the best way to go about this doctrine would be very straightforward. In part one we discussed how the Spirit was discussed in Creation, in dealing with the nation of Israel, and the New Covenant. In this part, I want to ask a question, and then let Scripture answer it. How is the Spirit to manifest itself in our lives, and how are we to respond to this? This is a loaded question, and you'll get ten different texts of Scripture from ten different people, but I want to address three texts that deal with this question the most direct, and see what the Holy Spirit says to us through this.

Text Number One: Acts 1.8

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

-Acts of the Apostles 1.8

To truly get this verse in context you need to read the first eight verses of chapter one, and in verse 4 Jesus tells the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they have received the "promise of the Father". But notice something about verse 8. Jesus says there is a power that will come upon the disciples when the Holy Spirit is given. In Luke 24.49, which is the parallel passage in Luke's Gospel account (same author as Acts), Jesus says this: "And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” So what Jesus is saying is that there is a power that the disciples will be clothed with from on high, that will allow them to spread the Gospel.

Now fast forward to Acts 2 and the day of Pentecost has arrived. The upper room is rocking with the Holy Spirit, and what does Scripture say what has taken place? The disciples have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. What is the result of this baptism? The disciples are speaking languages that they do not know! We know this from verse 5. Jews who were in town for Pentecost heard words in their own language.

So what does this mean for us? Is the baptism of the Spirit for us today, or was this a one time thing that happened to the apostles and new believers in the New Testament? Do all Christians receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit? These are all very good questions, but here is where things might get sticky. As I have done my personal study of the way the Spirit moved, specifically in the book of Acts, I notice that the Holy Spirit is being poured out in a way that was truly unique to the Church's history. Peter points this fact out in his sermon a few verses later in Acts 2. He says, "This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.'" (Acts 2:16-17). So what is happening in Acts 2 is the fulfillment of Joel 2.28-32. Namely, that when God pours out His Spirit upon His people, the kingdom will be advanced for the cause of Christ, and things will happen to promote the name of Jesus to help fulfill the Great Commission.

I realize I have not answered the above questions, and here are my responses: I believe that a person receives the baptism of the Holy Spirit upon conversion, not later. For those who like to point to Acts 2 as proof of this happening, first, you are not an apostle and are not a part of the first Church. This was a specific period of history for the Church, and God used this specific manifestation of His Spirit to point this out. Secondly, when you speak in "tongues" (glossolalia), you are babbling for yourself, not for the edification of the body of Christ, as described in 1 Corinthians 14. Now, I want to say something here. I believe that God can use a person preaching the Gospel and supernaturally translate to another language. It is indeed supernatural, and not the norm. But just because it can happen, does not necessarily mean that it will. Next, if you claim that the evidence for the baptism is speaking in tongues, you have contradicted yourself because does not Paul himself say that "For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills" (1 Corinthians 12.8-11). In the context of the spiritual gifts, not everyone has the gift of tongues, and that is important to remember because the gifts are not ends in themselves, which is one reason why the Church at Corinth was so messed up (among other reasons). To say that the main evidence for a person's baptism of the Holy Spirit is tongues is like saying all lawyers make bank. Not all lawyers do. There are criminal lawyers, civil lawyers, tax lawyers, and the pay-grade is not all the same. That is why this historical argument makes no sense to me. And to make matters even more entertaining, Paul says that this is the least of all the gifts. And just like the Church at Corinth, we have put it on a pedestal to make it superior, when in fact it is the smallest. It's the only gift mentioned that needs help understanding it!

The last thing that I want to say about this before moving on is that the entire motivation and heart of all the gifts (tongues included) is love. Read the first few opening verses of 1 Corinthians 13: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) Notice that all the emphasized and underlined portions are, in fact, the spiritual gifts that Paul has just described in the previous chapter. All of it is in vain, if it is not done in love. And that is the big picture. I want to make that clear, because like the Church in Corinth, many churches today like to focus on the gifts rather than the Gospel and the motive behind the gifts.

Text Number Two: Galatians 5.16-18

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law."

-Galatians 5.16-18

This text is not near as "controversial" as the previous text, but I find this text just as important. To grasp the idea behind this text, you have to understand Galatians. Real quickly, Galatians was written by Paul to the Christians in Galatia for rebuke in their theological errors. This is actually a common theme in the letters of Paul in the New Testament, so that would in and of itself be a fun study apart from this one if you want to get in to that. But I digress all this to make this point: In life you have two paths; God's path or your own. You can go your own way (thank you Fleetwood Mac), but just lightly reading the New Testament it is clear that God's way is the path to holiness, happiness, and above all things, eternal joy. When we walk in the Spirit, we war against our flesh and the world that we loved until we met Christ. I think any Christian who does this must experience an enormous amount of pain, because, as cheesy as this sounds to me, part of being obedient to the Spirit is to die. See the connect there? Obe"die"nt?? Ha ha? Anyway, it is the truth. Taking up the cross is not fun stuff, especially when you not only have your own flesh to battle, but the world, and the devil himself (Ephesians 6.10-20).

Walking in the Spirit does not mean we're the weirdo who keeps a vile of anointing oil on us at all times, listens to only contemporary worship music, and dresses like Ned Flanders. I am not knocking you if you do all three. Walking in the Spirit means you communicate with God constantly. You don't have to have an hour quiet time to do this. Just keep the channel open and His Spirit will speak to you. Every day is not the same in this regard, although I wish it was because I love the days when I hear His voice so clear. But our job is to be ever seeking of Him, and He is faithful to us.

The main thrust of this passage is walking in the Spirit is rooted and grounded in love. This doesn't sound so crazy once you think about it. Look at verse 13-15 of this same chapter:

"For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another."

-Galatians 3.15-16

Paul is laying down a very simple rule here: If you do not love one another (and this is also true if you don't love God like you should), your walk with the Spirit will not produce much fruit and you will constantly be torn between your flesh and the Spirit. This is the reason why the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is such a beautiful chapter when it pertains to spiritual gifts, not because we need instruction on them, but the main thrust of them is love. When we realize 1 Corinthians 13 is not a marriage text, we can see it for what it truly is: the motivation and fuel for spiritual gifts.

Now that has been said, let me clarify a point. This is sad that I have to make this point, but all the same: You are not in sin if you war with your flesh. The Bible makes it clear that we will all do that until we no longer live on this planet (Romans 6:16-18, Romans 7:18-20, Romans 8:9-11). Also, we are to put our flesh to death (Col. 3:1-10), but we are to struggle with it. This is a stark contrast to what Wesley and Finney both preached. The believed that we could attain sinless perfection while on this earth, and the only problem with that is the Bible. Nowhere in the New Testament is it found that sanctification ends on this planet. This is a somewhat popular theology in more Pentecostal Holiness circles, and one that gets embraced more often than not. This is one reason why there are so many legalistic Christians out there, who are a lot like Ned Flanders; they don't drink beer, don't watch R-rated movies, don't want their kids to be influenced by "the world" so they home-school them, etc. Not only is that arrogant thinking, but it is flat out heresy. Until God calls us home or Jesus comes back, we will wrestle with our flesh, the world's ideologies, and the enemy.

Text Number Three: Ephesians 5.18

"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit."

-Ephesians 5:18

I love the book of Ephesians. I really do think it is my favorite book of the New Testament. Ephesians and Romans always have that battle for my ultimate allegiance. Anyway, the reason I love Ephesians is because it is written to the Church, and the first three chapters deal specifically with the theology of the Church.

The last three chapters is all practicalities, and in the middle really, we have our text as quoted above. How are we to be filled with the Spirit? In all fairness, I didn't really give any of us justice, because this verse has to be read in context. The following few verses say this after they say to be filled with the Spirit: "addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ." (Ephesians 5.19-21). Since this verse really deals with the corporate context as opposed to the personal, we'll go that route first, then we will go personal.

First, the Spirit filled Church is to be humble. I love that last phrase "submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ" because so many churches do not adhere to this at all! So many Christians have their own agenda when it comes to the local church, that if you could get past your arrogant heart for more than three minutes, you would see that serving others is a pretty common command of Paul in his epistles (see Rom. 12:10, Col. 3:12-13, Phil. 2:1-10 for starters). This is one way for the Church to be Spirit filled. Personally, how do you do at this? If you're like me, the answer is pretty rotten. If I'm being honest, and I am, I want to be better than everyone, want to be smarter when it comes to the Bible than anyone, and I want to be first. This is not the attitude of the Scriptures. I have to plead with the Lord constantly for forgiveness from my stubborn, arrogant heart, and to humble me because only then can I truly be on His side (James 4:6). If you find this a hot topic for yourself, go buy C.J. Mahaney's book titled Humility: True Greatness. It is a fantastic read. I can personally vouch for it by saying it has changed the way I do certain things in my life.

The second way that we are Spirit filled is we are thankful. Look at Ephesians 5.20. "Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ". This idea works hand in hand with the idea of humility. We give thanks to God for literally everything, so that means in-laws, crappy job, being the subject of ridicule, all those things, be thankful for them. Why? Because the Spirit of God is with you, and His promise is that He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Giving thanks also displays the attitude of the condition of your heart. Outside of the Gospel your heart is a wicked idol factory (Jer. 17). But through the cross of Christ your heart has been replaced with a heart of flesh, rather than having a heart of stone (Ezek. 36). A heart of flesh is pliable. It can be moved. And when you as a person are thankful, it shows that the Holy Spirit is a constant voice in your heart. Likewise, when a church is Spirit filled, there is an attitude of grace because all has been forgiven through the cross, and that same grace is extended to others who are in dire need of it. Not everyone is on the same page spiritually. I was reminded of that this morning at church. We need to be agents of grace in our spiritual communities if we are to truly give thanks. A church that has the true knowledge of the Gospel will not have room for those who exalt only in their own thankfulness. We are to rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn. A church who does this understands that the Gospel is not merely preached on Sundays; it is a way of life.

I think there has been much abuse to this idea of being filled with the Spirit. I know in charismatic circles they use the phrase "getting drunk with the Spirit". I find that to be a very shallow exposition of this text, and to miss the point entirely. There are indeed times when the Spirit of God will fill you with such emotions as joy, peace, love, thankfulness, gratitude, that they cannot be expressed in mere words. They must be praises sung to the Creator God for giving all that He has given. This in contrast to the first example, is a more biblical way of seeing oneself filled with the Spirit.

Conclusion

I've always been a huge fan of worship music; I always have been. Even this morning as we were singing praises to our King at church, I felt the warm, loving touch of the Spirit in my heart as I sang. I cried, felt humbled, felt like dancing, and felt reverent fear all in the time frame of about thirty minutes. The Spirit can move as He wishes (John 3:8) and it is my deepest desire to have more of Him, to sing more about Him, and to worship Him. I feel honored that He called me and chose me to be His Son before time began. In short, we need to understand who God is, what He's done for us, and what our response should be towards His great love for us. I am amazed at the fact that we have such a Savior who would send us a Comforter, and that is exactly what the Spirit is by the way, that we would never be without Him, ever. My mind still has trouble with that simple truth. Above all, I want the Spirit more in my life, my ministry, my marriage, my parenting, all of it. I want more. I think in the end that is the right response to what we see in Scripture, and in the lives of the saints that have gone before us. May I conclude with a benediction from the letter of Jude:

"Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. "

Let it be so, Lord. May Your name be praised and may the Gospel of Your Son continually sanctify us by Your truth.

The Power and the Glory (Mark 1.14-15)

SEAN - The Kingdom has come near in the person of Jesus (Yeshua/Joshua), and His gospel is the radical news of God's forgiveness of sins. Repent and believe! Back in high school, I got into reading a lot of Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Donald Miller, Shane Claiborne, and Tony Jones - all authors you probably haven't heard of, but they were a fairly big deal at the time. One of their big, common, revolutionary ideas was that the Kingdom of God was the advancing of God's peace upon the earth (basically, things get better and better until the end). Because Mark 1:14-15 can make it look like this news about the Kingdom is the gospel -the central message of the Christian faith- a lot of these authors were subtly pitting Jesus (Mark 1:14-15) against Paul (1 Corinthians 15:1-5), downplaying the message that Jesus died to take the wrath for our sins and arguing that Christianity is sort of like a big social renewal movement. But there is a more Biblical answer.

The Gospel According to Jesus (Mark 1.14-15, With Additions)

"After he learned that the Pharisees knew he was making more disciples than John the Baptist, and when he heard that John had been arrested, Joshua withdrew from Judea and came back in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. A report about him went through all the surrounding country and he taught in their synagogues, being highly praised by all. And he left Nazareth in Galilee and went to live in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali. From that time he began to preach the gospel of God, explaining: 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel!"

-Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John (ESV)
(For note on the text, see end of blog post[1])

Joshua of Nazareth[2] did not go straight from His temptation in the southern desert (Mark 1.12-13) back to Galilee in the north (Mark 1.14); check out John 3.26,33 and you'll find out that He stayed in the south for a little while baptizing and making converts. He only went up north when He started to get more publicity that John the Baptist was getting (John 4.1). The Gospel of John and the Gospel of Luke fill in a lot of the blank space surrounding this post's passage from Mark - so check out John 1.29 to John 4.1, and Luke 4.14-21 for context. It was after Joshua of Nazareth went back up north that He preached about the kingdom and the gospel: He said (1) "The time is fulfilled," (2) "the kingdom of God is at hand," (3) "repent," and (4) "believe the gospel." I'm going to break these phrases down a little bit and explain them.

I Spy With My Foreseeing Eye... the Messiah

In the spring of 29-30 AD, Joshua of Nazareth moved up from His hometown to Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee (the sea is massive). The Gospel of Luke mentions that the whole people of Nazareth had tried to throw Him down a cliff (Luke 4.28-29) -which might have been a factor in His change of location- but this move to Capernaum also fulfilled an Old Testament prophecy from the Book of Isaiah about the Messiah (Matthew 4.13-16; Isaiah 9.1-7). The gist of the whole thing was that God would send a great king to the area around the Sea of Galilee, and that king would be descended from the ancient Israeli King David, and would be called 'Mighty God'. Joshua of Nazareth fit that bill (John 20.26-29). So when Joshua said "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand," He was talking about Himself being the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. The takeaway? When God promises that something will happen, it will. God keeps His promises.

The Kingdom Is Near
"The kingdom of God is at hand!" - but what is that supposed to mean? Some of my close friends, mentors, and (former) Voice colleague Seth C. argue that the Kingdom is what we call it when the reality of heaven breaks into our world and brings shalom (peace, righteousness - 'good stuff') to the earth. If this is the gospel of the kingdom that Joshua of Nazareth commanded us to believe in Mark 1.14-15, then Christianity is mainly about God inviting us to share with Him in the renewal of the earth. The name for this is the social gospel.

With all the respect in the world to these men, this is not the gospel or the kingdom that I find in the Lord's recorded sayings. Look at how Joshua of Nazareth talks about the kingdom and the gospel in Luke 4.14-21, or in John 3.3-5, which are the parallel passages to this section in the Gospel of Mark. If anything, entering the kingdom is basically the same thing as getting saved and being sure you'll go to heaven. That kingdom was close at hand -in the physical presence of the Messiah, the King of the kingdom- but also the means of being assured one's place in it was close at hand... and it still is; just check out Romans 10.8-9. If this is what the kingdom is all about, then there is no need to worry about a difference between our Savior's gospel (Mark 1.14-15) and St. Paul's gospel (1 Corinthians 15.1-5), because the two will have turned out to be the same thing. The takeaway? The central message of Christianity is that God sent His son to die for your sins, not that you've been enlisted in God's social renewal movement.

Repentance, Dust, and Ashes
Lots of Christians react against seeing other believers live in open sin, and makes them turn into this sort of local chapter of the 'back to legalism' movement. Being forgiven by faith alone is gone - in its place is this notion that God needs to be impressed with your morality before He'll call you saved. A respectable and mature older Christian man just sent me this highly recommended link to a blog post in which the author says things like "if I could remove one word from the Christian lexicon, it would be the word 'believe.'" He goes on to rip apart John 3.16 by putting it into the context of the rest of the chapter where Joshua the Messiah speaks about entering the kingdom. This is something that I did better in another post, with pretty much the opposite conclusion. So if entering the kingdom is only about faith, how do ethics fit in? One of the commenters on the last post that I linked to said it best: "belief is not merely assent to a proposition, but living as if it is the truth. That is belief.

I'm A Believer
Final phrase - Joshua of Nazareth said 'believe in the gospel!' in Mark 1.14-15, but we need to know what the gospel was supposed to be. What did He keep telling people to believe? Lucky for us that Luke and John picked up Mark's idea to write a gospel, otherwise we would never know the answer: Joshua the Lord mostly preached about Himself. He commanded people to believe in Him (John 3.17-18), and preached in synagogues about how He came to 'set people free' and proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, which is the Jubilee year when all debts are forgiven (debt being sin in this case - Luke 4.16-21). All of His 'believe this!' preaching in that context is about Himself. So the command to believe the gospel in Mark 1.14-15 is really very close to the isolated words of John 3.16: "God gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life. Our faith is important. It might be the only important thing in life. And it keeps us in a sensitive but good place as Christians where we realize that our deeds are no good, and all we can do is come to God with our faith, crying, 'Lord, forgive me, a sinner.'

A Tale of Two Kingdoms
I never thought that I would be going to bat over kingdom theology, but here I am. There are two clear but different gospels represented in this article. One of them is that God is bringing His peace upon the earth and we're invited to join, and the other is that Christ saves us from our sins and we are called to believe in Him. (1) These don't have to be exclusive. Believing that Jesus is my savior doesn't keep me from helping to create a better world. (2) These can't both be the main point. Either the gospel is about what we do, or about what God did. One of these has to ride shotgun; they can't both be behind the driver's wheel of our faith (insert "Jesus Take the Wheel" country music reference). (3) Legalism against Grace. The idea of Christianity being a sort of social revolution is amazing. But then that social gospel is just about another set of things that we have to do to usher in God's reign, adding to that condemnatory list of things to do at which we fail. The social gospel is really just legalism with an inspiring-sounding shiny veneer. The gospel of belief in Jesus takes all the weight off of you and puts it on our Savior. THAT is something different, but good.

---------------------------------
*NOTES ON THE TEXT: (1) Technically, the parallel stuff from the Gospel of John would have been melded into the composite text. But in this case that extra material is another 4 chapters. I would encourage you to go back and reference the links. (2) Joshua. Joshua and Jesus are different forms of the same name. Calling him Joshua sounds more common, and reinforces that God came as a man with a familiar name and without power or glory to attract people to him. It seems more familiar, more real. (3) The scripture references aren't just links - hover your mouse over the reference, and it should just pop up without you having to click through - try it!