Regeneration: Implications for Gospel Ministry

In the first section of this series on the doctrine of regeneration, we considered the theology of the new birth. We looked at man's spiritual death (or total depravity), and how that spiritual death manifests itself in the inability to see. We looked at the freedom and sovereignty of God in salvation, and we considered the ordo salutis.

In the second section, we considered what implications all that theology had for the way that Christians, who by definition have experienced that new birth, live their Christian lives. As the theology section taught us that getting born again is impossible, we rejoiced to learn that God Himself grants what He requires. We discovered the freedom that that brings, as what was impossible for us to do is no longer burdensome. And we recognized that the means of justification is the means of sanctification; that is, the way we get regenerated is the same way we become more like Christ. And so we concluded with a resolve to fight the fight of holiness in the Christian life on the level of spiritual sight.

The final section in this series considers the implications of the theology of the new birth for how we as Christians go about doing Gospel ministry. As Christians, we love God and desire that He get the glory and worship He is worthy of from all of His creatures, and so there's a burden in our hearts to see other people get saved. So we want the new birth to happen more and more. And the truths about the nature of the new birth teach us very much about how we go about evangelizing the world and trying to reconcile people to God through Jesus Christ (2Cor 5:20).

If it is the case that we cannot cause spiritual rebirth, we must employ only those methods that God Himself has declared He will use to regenerate His people. God will only bless the ministry or method of evangelism that comes from Him, that He Himself outlines and prescribes. And so we ask, "What is that? By what means does God sovereignly accomplish this glorious work called the new birth? By what means are hearts changed, souls awakened, eyes opened?" The Apostle Peter gives us the answer.

• 1 Peter 1:23-25 - for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND THE FLOWER FALLS OFF, BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER." And this is the word which was preached to you.

We have been born again of seed that is imperishable, that is, the living and enduring word of God. And this word of God is the word that was preached to Peter's audience. What word was preached to them? Answer: The Gospel! And what is that?

Here is a presentation of the Gospel by John Piper:

The Son of God came into the world clothed with human flesh as a God-man, lived a perfect life, and died in the place of sinners, so that all their sin is covered and it is finished! And the wrath of God has been absorbed in His suffering, and the guilt of man has been borne in His suffering, and a life of completed righteousness has been finished on the cross, which can be imputed to us, and the grave is empty … and now we can have eternal life because all of that – Christ’s birth, Christ’s life, Christ’s death, Christ’s absorbing wrath, Christ providing righteousness, Christ taking away guilt, Christ providing forgiveness of sins – all of that is offered freely to absolutely everybody who believes. For free. By faith alone, through grace alone, on the basis of the work of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, as revealed in the Scriptures alone.

He goes on to lament that so many people who call themselves Christians are trying to improve on that Gospel. They're trying to make the best news in the world better. But this news is so great that you can't improve upon it. He challenges us:

I’m gonna give you an opportunity right now to stand up and tell me something greater than the Gospel. … Something greater than the Good News of what Christ has achieved in His death and His resurrection, and His reign, His substitution, His bearing the wrath of God, His taking away sin, His providing perfect righteousness, all to be enjoyed by faith alone apart from works. Something better than that!

Any of you wanna take a shot? Something better than that?

Of course you don’t! Because make no mistake! This Gospel is the very sole power of God for salvation! And yet so many of us who bear the name of Christ are ashamed of the Gospel! Shame on us! Paul says: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Rom 1:16). It is, and nothing else is!

So I along with Piper ask you: What is more glorious? What is better news? What is more worth telling people? And if nothing, why do we insist on doing everything we can to confuse the matter of evangelism?! We are to Preach. The. Gospel! We're not to interview people. We're not to "share our faith." Nobody cares about your faith! But the people whom God is drawing to Himself care about Good News for their weary, sin-laden soul. And we Christians are the only ones with that Good News. You let the Muslim, the Jew, the scientologist, or the atheist share their faith. But you, men and women of God, you go out and preach the Gospel!

With the Word of God shut up in you like fire in your bones (Jer 20:9), go into all the world and preach this Gospel! The pure, unadulterated, imperishable, cannot-be-improved-upon, living, and enduring Word of God. It alone is the power of God for salvation. By it, people are born again!

Because it is through the preaching of the Gospel that this miracle of the new birth happens, we must consider what implications the theology of the new birth has for the way we evangelize.

In the exercise of His will He brought us forth
by the word of truth,
so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.
- James 1:18 -

1. The Theology of the New Birth
1.1. Man's Spiritual Death (Total Depravity)
1.2. The Dead Cannot See
1.3. The Wind Blows Where it Wishes: The Freedom of God and Irresistible Grace
1.4. Regeneration and Faith: Temporally Simultaneous but Logically Distinct

2. Implications for the Christian Life
2.1. God Grants What He Requires
2.2. The Impossible is No Longer Burdensome
2.3. The Means of Justification is the Means of Sanctification

3. Implications for Gospel Ministry
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Evangelism
3.3. Apologetics

Luke 12:13-21: Portrait of the Wasted Life

Four Strategies by which We Must Guard Against All Greed and Covetousness

So our final project for Intro to Preaching at TMS was to preach a 12- to 15-minute sermon on a text of our choosing. I chose Luke 12:13-21, the Parable of the Rich Fool, and preached it to my fellow first-year TMS students. I called the sermon: "Portrait of the Wasted Life." Some of you have asked about it, and so I post it here in two parts.

A couple of things to note. I apologize in advance for speaking too quickly at points. We had to keep it under 15 minutes, and if you've known me for any amount of time you know that was a challenge for me. So if you have to rewind at a couple of points, I'm sorry. I hope it's worth it. Also, sorry for the weird camera angle. My professor set it up where he usually sits and not at a straightaway angle from the back. And also, the prayer gets cut off at the end. Basically, I prayed that the Lord would apply His Word to my heart as well as the hearts of my listeners.

I suppose those are enough qualifications. I pray that this will be a benefit to you. The preparation certainly challenged me to examine what the source of my comfort and contentment is. May God give us grace to live like our citizenship is in Heaven and not on Earth, especially in the realm of the pocket book.

For what is a man benefited
if he gains the whole world,
and loses or forfeits himself?
- Luke 9:25 -

Do not be afraid, little flock,
for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.
Sell your possessions and give to charity;
make yourselves money belts which do not wear out,
an unfailing treasure in heaven,
where no thief comes near nor moth destroys.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
- Luke 12:32-34 -

The Thrill of Thanksgiving

The following is a slightly adapted "mini-sermon" that I gave at my church last Thanksgiving. I've highlighted words regarding thanksgiving in orange, just to visually present the emphasis that it deserves.

Introduction

It is a joyous and glorious thing to give thanks to the Lord, isn’t it? It is so wonderfully pleasing to sing to Him songs of Thanksgiving, as we express our delight in knowing Him. In fact, can any of you think of anything more pleasing and more satisfying than ascribing to the Lord the glory that is due His name (Ps 29:2)? If you can, I pity you, because you haven’t known what it is to truly worship God in thanksgiving.

It is the most satisfying, exhilarating activity we can be engaged in. We know this, not only by our experiences (which do strongly testify to this), and not only by the thousands of verses throughout the Bible that teach this clearly, but we know this even just by surveying the activity of the saints in Heaven. Consistently throughout the book of Revelation, whenever there is a picture of the activity going on in heaven – in paradise –, the saints are worshiping God, praising Him, and giving thanks (Rev 4:8-11; 5:9-14; 7:9-12; 11:16; 14:2-3; 15:2-4). They see God face to face, and they worship Him out of delight in knowing Him so intimately and seeing Him so clearly. Worship, praise, and thanksgiving are indeed the most satisfying activities we can engage in, because as we do them we see Him. And that’s what causes the people in Heaven to worship.

And so this Thanksgiving, if you ask me about what I’m thankful for, I’m going to tell you that most foundationally, and most ultimately, I’m thankful that I get to be thankful. Because, ya know, not everybody gets to be thankful. Not everybody gets to enjoy giving thanks. Not everybody gets such a foretaste of heaven.

Romans 1:18 and following is not generally considered a “Thanksgiving text,” but I think there are very foundational and very ultimate things that are being taught about giving thanks in that passage. Try to catch the full weight of what’s being said.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, ¹⁹because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ²¹For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

God Demands Praise, or Thanksgiving, in Everything

The first thing that I want you to see from this passage is that God demands thanksgiving – or praise or honor – in everything. He demands to be honored for what He does, and what He does is everything that comes to pass. It says that God made Himself evident to them, but they did not honor Him by giving thanks, so He darkened their hearts and gave them over to greater evil.

We see something about God here, then, and that is that He wants to be praised and enjoyed for who He is. He presents Himself to us in all His works – whether of special grace or common grace – and says, “Look at me! See my beauty in this circumstance.” And He expects us, then, to just look at Him, see Him, see how pleasant and beautiful and satisfying He is, and just by virtue of that (by virtue of Himself) give praise and thanksgiving to Him.

Again, the passage teaches that that which was knowable about God was evident to them, but they didn’t honor Him, or glorify Him, or give thanks to Him, like He was expecting, like He is worthy of. He presents Himself in everything He does, and expects worship and thanksgiving.

And that raises the point of the absolute sovereignty of God. God demands (and deserves) thanksgiving in all things because He Himself is the fountain out of which all things flow. Thanking God in everything acknowledges His sovereignty in everything: that absolutely everything that comes to pass in anyone’s life comes from Him.

• Ephesians 1:11-12 – In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
• Romans 11:36 – For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
• Romans 8:28 – And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

And so the fact that God ordains absolutely everything is central to God’s own requirement of us to give thanks in everything. In fact, denying that God is totally sovereign is how “they did not honor Him as God.” Being totally free, sovereign, and all-powerful is what it means to be God. That is God-ness. And so since God is God, and is the One from whom all things come, and since He is good, every time we receive from Him, we ought to thank Him for His goodness and His grace to us.

But like I said, not everybody can do that. In fact, by default, without any intervention on God’s part, nobody can do that.

It is the Very Nature of Unbelievers to Not Give Thanks

They are both incapable and unwilling.

Look back at the passage in Romans 1, and remember that Paul is commenting on man in his natural state. So what does it say? That it is natural for men to be thankless. “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks.” That is how they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They refuse to acknowledge Him as being worthy of thanks for all that He does.

All people, naturally, willingly, and actively suppress the revealed truth of God, demonstrating their unrighteousness and ungodliness. And that category includes all of humanity. Every human who was ever born (except one, more about Him later) has been born an unrighteous, God-hating, thankless, truth suppressor.

The Gospel

So if natural people – by nature – dishonor God by refusing to give thanks to Him in all things, that demonstrates that it is the Gospel that gives us our ability to glorify God – to honor God – by truly and properly giving thanks to Him in Christ. Do you follow me? If it is natural, unbelieving man’s nature to not give thanks, it is only the transforming power of the Gospel that enables us to give thanks, because it’s only the Gospel that can regenerate us (1Pet 1:23, 25; Rom 10:17; Jas 1:18), that can give us a different nature, a thankful nature (Jn 3:3, 5; 1Th 5:18).

And we’ve got to savor the beauty of that Gospel for a second. We established at the beginning of this post that singing praise and thanksgiving is the most satisfying, exhilarating, and pleasing thing for us to do. And now we’ve established that natural people can’t and won’t do that! Nobody could do that. But so that God would get what He’s worthy of He sent Christ to redeem us from every lawless deed, to purify for Himself a people for His own possession (Tit 2:14).

Do you see God’s purpose there? Do you see the design of His will (1Th 5:18)? We’re saved so that we can give thanks!

Ephesians 1 teaches that very thing: “We have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”

Do you see that? The end for which we were predestined to be saved was to praise and glorify God. What amazing grace! Now, because of what Christ has done, we who were doomed to never know the most satisfying activity in the universe, namely, praising God in thanksgiving, know it intimately!

And more than that, since God is glorified in our praise, He is manifested in glory when we praise and worship Him rightly. So when we truly praise Him – when we truly honor Him as God by giving thanks – we see more of Him. And He is the most satisfying thing to see. And so by the Gospel, by saving us, He benefits us – He graces us – with the privilege of worshiping Him in thanksgiving.

Which means, while it is the very nature of unbelievers not to give thanks, it is the very nature of believers to give thanks.

And so if you were formerly darkness, but now are Light in the Lord, walk as children of the Light (Eph 5:8). If your nature has been changed from a thankless one to a thankful one, act in accordance with that new nature! Be thankful! Give thanks and praise and glory to God!

The Greatness of Sin

And so we are to be most thankful that we’re able to be thankful. We are to be most thankful that we can enjoy this most exhilarating and satisfying activity that defines what Paradise is like. We are to be thankful that though we were dead, now we’re alive. Our sin was great. The end of Romans 1 begins to tell us how great. In Romans 1 starting in verse 29, it says we are “filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, [and] unmerciful”. That’s us. But it gets worse.

Because of that unrighteousness all of us could expect nothing but a terrifying expectation of judgment (Heb 10:27a) from a righteous judge who has indignation every day (Ps 7:11). Hebrews says that our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29) and the fury of that fire will consume the adversaries of God (Heb 10:27).

Our sin was great. We were under wrath.

The Triumph of Grace

But God’s grace is greater. He delivered us from all of this.

• We were living in darkness, but Colossians 1 tells us that we have been rescued from that darkness and transferred to the kingdom of Light.
• We were dead in our trespasses and sins, by nature children of wrath. But Ephesians 2 tells us that God was rich in mercy, and made us alive with Christ by grace.
• The Law condemns us, but Acts 13 tells us that through Christ forgiveness of sins is proclaimed, and we’re freed from all things that condemn us.
• We are God’s enemies, at war with Him, but Romans 5 tells us that since we have been justified, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
• We are fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, covetous, and drunkards, but 1 Corinthians 6 tells us we were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Our sin was great. And ya know what? Our sin is still great. But the Savior’s sacrifice was perfectly satisfying to the Father! And though we know Him, and we know that mercy, and we are beneficiaries of that grace, we still sin against Him. But because of the greatness of Christ, He still accepts us!

In Christ Jesus we are passed from death to life!

In Christ Jesus we are born again to be children of God!

In Christ Jesus we obtain an imperishable inheritance that cannot fade away!

In Christ Jesus we are given the privilege to worship Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength by honoring Him as God by giving thanks to Him in everything!

And so this Thanksgiving, we are thankful to God, for He has given us the greatest gift of all! He has given us Himself in the person of Jesus Christ our Savior. And so when asked what we are thankful for this Thanksgiving, we stop and remember the absolute privilege it is to worship God in Spirit and in truth, and we respond that most foundationally and most ultimately we are thankful that we get to be thankful. We are asked what we are thankful for this Thanksgiving, and we survey the Wondrous Cross on which the Prince of Glory died, where He purchased our right to enjoy worshiping God, and we exclaim at the top of our lungs along with the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 9:

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

Thanks be to God for His Son, Jesus Christ!

May all of our thanksgiving flow out of that, Lord! May your beauty displayed in the Gospel cause Your people to overflow in thanksgiving and praise to You in all the areas of our life. Be glorified in Your church.

No Other Gods

Last week Phil Johnson preached at Grace Community Church in the stead of John MacArthur, who has been recovering from knee replacement surgery and also a recent herniated disc in his back. (Be praying for Pastor John.)

Phil's sermon was from Exodus 20:3, the first commandment. It was a magnificent sermon. The man spoke from God, and the conviction and the weightiness that he conveyed -- so absent from so many modern pulpits -- were appropriate as a man speaking from God to His people. Phil's message exalted the Lord in our hearts, and encouraged me personally all the more to delight in Him and Him alone, and thus have no other gods before Him.

I wanted to share it with you all, as I believe the sense of the majesty of God that is conveyed would be a blessing to anyone listening. I think it is a wonderful call to worship God for His awful holiness, which helps us sanctify Christ as Lord in our own hearts, as well as excite us to help others do the same.

Click to stream. Right click, save link as, to download.

Examine Yourselves

This short video clip is absolutely amazing. The intended audience is people who profess to be Christians.

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith;
examine yourselves!
Or do you not recognize this about yourselves,
that Jesus Christ is in you--
unless indeed you fail the test?
- 2 Corinthians 13:5 -

Solomon's God-Centered Love

When King Solomon finishes the construction of the temple of Yahweh, he addresses the assembly of Israel and prays a prayer of dedication over the temple. He opens and closes his address in the same way: with a blessing of Israel:

• 1 Kings 8:14 - Then the king faced about and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing.
• 1 Kings 8:54-55 - When Solomon had finished praying this entire prayer and supplication to Yahweh, he arose from before the altar of Yahweh, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread toward heaven. And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice...

What's awesomely interesting is the content of His blessing of Israel:

• 1 Kings 8:15 - He said, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel..."
• 1 Kings 8:56 - ... saying, "Blessed be Yahweh, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised."
  

The text says Solomon blessed Israel. Solomon himself blesses Yahweh. Evidently, in the mind of the writer of Scripture (and therefore, in the mind of God), the way you bless God's people is to bless God Himself.

What this teaches us is that love is God-centered. The way to love my neighbor as myself (Mt 22:39) is not by making much of my neighbor. It is by making much of God, for the glory of God is everyone's greatest benefit. And so if I'm going to love my neighbor like Christ loved me, I need to make much of Him, and present Him in all His glory.

Solomon understood that.

The way to bring about the greatest blessing on God's people is to bless Him.

The way to love the people of God is to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

By this we know that we love the children of God,
when we love God
and observe His commandments.
- 1 John 5:2 -

The Means of Justification is the Means of Sanctification

I've been making this point throughout the last few posts (in this one, this one, and this one), but I wanted to highlight it in its own post.

The key to much of what I've been talking about is seeing the continuity between how we get born again and how we become more like Christ. The Gospel is absolutely central in both our justification and in our sanctification. A lot of people treat the Gospel as if it's the message that we hear to get justified, but once we're saved we go on to something else for our sanctification. But the means of both are the same! The way we get justified is the same way we progress in sanctification.

This is what I mean: Having been awakened to life by the effectual grace called the new birth, and having been given eyes to see, in the moment of conversion we saw Jesus as infinitely more precious and infinitely more desirable than our sin. And we received Him as the treasure of our lives, putting our trust in Him to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness and to commend us to God on the basis of His righteousness alone. Nothing other than seeing Jesus caused that to happen. That's why Paul talks about our conversion as coming by the "light of the gospel of the glory of Christ" (2Cor 4:4).

What I’m saying to you is that just a few verses earlier, 2 Corinthians 3:18 teaches that we are sanctified – matured, grown, made more holy, transformed into the image of Christ – by the very same thing: by "beholding the glory of the Lord" (2Cor 3:18). As Christians, when sin presents itself to us and tempts us to believe its lies, we simply look to Jesus and see Him for who He is! And because the glory and the satisfaction of sin doesn’t hold a candle, we prefer Jesus, and so delight in obeying Him! This is God-glorifying obedience: when the worth of Christ is magnified by His people preferring Him over anything else in the world!

So the point is: As it is the seeing and savoring of the glory of God in Christ alone that saves us, it is the seeing and savoring of the glory of God in Christ alone that sanctifies us. So fight the fight of holiness in the Christian life on the level of spiritual sight. When you're tempted, fight with all your might to see your Savior in all His glory. It is the glory of the Lord that will transform you.

But we all, with unveiled face,
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image
from glory to glory.

- 2 Corinthians 3:18 -

1. The Theology of the New Birth
1.1. Man's Spiritual Death (Total Depravity)
1.2. The Dead Cannot See
1.3. The Wind Blows Where it Wishes: The Freedom of God and Irresistible Grace
1.4. Regeneration and Faith: Temporally Simultaneous but Logically Distinct

2. Implications for the Christian Life
2.1. God Grants What He Requires
2.2. The Impossible is No Longer Burdensome
2.3. The Means of Justification is the Means of Sanctification

3. Implications for Gospel Ministry
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Evangelism
3.3. Apologetics

The Impossible is No Longer Burdensome

Last Friday we began to look at some of the implications that this wonderful doctrine of regeneration has on how we live the Christian life. The main principle that I proposed there was that in the miracle of the new birth, God grants what He requires.

Christ demands that we be born again (John 3:3, 7), and yet we have seen that this is impossible for us to obey. The dead do not give themselves new life. Then, in unspeakable grace, God Himself makes us alive (Eph 2:4-5). He brings us forth into new life in the exercise of His will (Jas 1:18). He causes us to be born again (1Pet 1:3). He grants what He requires.

Last time I exhorted you to see the genius of grace presented in this truth. God commands something of everyone in the world that is absolutely impossible for them to do, something that is only possible for God Himself to accomplish. This bows us low in humility and helplessness, and we become so dependent on the gifts of a benefactor outside of ourselves. Then, He Himself becomes our benefactor by granting the gift of new life, and in so doing He magnifies His sufficiency over and against our insufficiency.

Now, the point of this post (and the next) is that these truths about God granting what He requires for justification carry over into the realm of sanctification. The requirement that is placed on us as believers is no less impossible, even with a redeemed nature. Because our sinful flesh remains, the command to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the command to love our neighbor as ourselves, are impossible.

And if I thought that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (2Cor 4:4) was a doctrine that only got me justified, I would be miserable as I sought to live the Christian life. I would go around clenching my fists, gritting my teeth, and resolving to never be angry again, or to never have a lustful thought again, or to never be impatient again, or to always love my wife like Christ loved the Church. And I would fail. And I would hate it. And I would soon grow hopeless.

But, praise be to God, because I am told that this same Gospel -- this same vision of the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ (2Cor 4:6) -- gets me sanctified, gets me transformed into the image of Christ (2Cor 3:18), well then I will know how to fight the fight of faith unto holiness in unspeakable hope and in gospel freedom!

The obedience that we are called to as Christians is indeed impossible (cf. Mt 22:37-40). But all my hope for progress in my sanctification hangs on this wonderful truth that my God graciously grants what He requires. This is where right thinking about the doctrine of regeneration intersects with the Christian life. We no longer seek to obey out of a principle of law. We don’t obey just because. God doesn’t require that of us. Instead of law, we’re under grace (Rom 6:14), and so His commandments cease to be burdensome (1Jn 5:3), and instead they become sweet (Ps 119:1-176).

The Bible says that for people who are born again by having their eyes opened to the Light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ -- by seeing Jesus as He actually is, namely supremely desirable -- that these people are no longer burdened by a list of demands (Col 2:13-23) by which we could never be justified (Gal 3:11, 21-22) or sanctified (Gal 3:3). But instead, grace causes us to delight in the law of God. Here's what Scripture says of us:

• Jeremiah 31:33-34 - "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
• Ezekiel 36:25-27 - Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

Because obeying God's law from the heart is impossible for those who have a totally depraved, desperately wicked heart (Jer 17:9), God declares that He will grant His people a new heart and a new Spirit. And that Spirit in us will cause us to walk in His statutes and observe His ordinances. And that heart will have His law written on it, so that they will delight in it. Instead of God's law pressing on us from without, now God declares that the ministry of the Spirit (which is to glorify Jesus, John 16:14) will cause the law to be power from within.

The impossible is required of me. And because of this truth of bountiful grace that God grants what He requires, the impossible is no longer burdensome (1Jn 5:3).

And so the Christian life is lived by joyful obedience, not by burdensome duty. God not only is not pleased, but is dishonored, by the one who attempts to obey Him out of a sense of mere duty. Christ gets so little glory from that, because, in effect, we tell Him, "I know that what you say is good and right and godly, and therefore I should do it. And I'll do my best to do it if I have to. But I really don't enjoy obeying you. Your glory is not so compelling as to make my heart well up in delight as I see you when I obey you." Dear friends, is not your Savior greater and more pleasing and soul-satisfying than to be forced upon you begrudgingly?

Indeed He is. And so maturity in obedience in the Christian life comes from having your heart changed so that you see Him as beautiful and as pleasing as He actually is! And when you see Him, you love to do those things that your flesh once hated to do! That is how we progress in sanctification! We are more honoring and glorifying to God when we are so satisfied in Him that we delight to do what He commands us to do. He is glorified and made to look big and worthy and mighty when His people see His beauty and His pleasantness, and just because of that they obey Him gladly and joyfully.

The reason why obedience is impossible for me is because, left to myself, I can't see. But now God has shone in my dead heart the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. He has granted the spiritual sight that is necessary to see Him, to enjoy Him, and so to obey Him joyfully, with all of my heart.

The impossible is no longer burdensome.

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
- 2 Corinthians 3:18 -

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
- 1 John 5:3 -

1. The Theology of the New Birth
1.1. Man's Spiritual Death (Total Depravity)
1.2. The Dead Cannot See
1.3. The Wind Blows Where it Wishes: The Freedom of God and Irresistible Grace
1.4. Regeneration and Faith: Temporally Simultaneous but Logically Distinct

2. Implications for the Christian Life
2.1. God Grants What He Requires
2.2. The Impossible is No Longer Burdensome
2.3. The Means of Justification is the Means of Sanctification

3. Implications for Gospel Ministry
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Evangelism
3.3. Apologetics

Deuteronomy at a Glance

As Israel is about to go into the land of Canaan to possess it as He swore to the Fathers (Deut 1:8; 6:3, 10, 18-23; 8:1; cf. Gen 12:1-3, 7; 13:13-17; 15:7, 18; 17:8; 28:13-14; 35:12; 50:24), Yahweh graciously proclaims again to Israel all His gracious dealings with them since the time of the patriarchs (Deut 2:7; 3:22; 4:7; 5:15; 7:17-19; 8:14-18; 23:14; 31:3-8), as well as the Light of the revelation of Himself in His Law (Deut 4:24, 35, 37; 6:4; 7:6-7, 9-10).

He presents to Israel all the blessings for loving and serving Him in faithfulness (Deut 4:40; 5:29; 6:24-25; 7:13-14; 11:13-15; 15:4-6, 10; 16:15; 24:19; 28:1-2), as well as all the curses for deserting Him to serve other gods (Deut 4:25-27; 8:19-20; 11:16-17; 18:20; 27:14-26; 28:15; 29:27-28; 31:17-18).

And even though it is plainly revealed that Israel will fall away into blasphemy, idolatry, and perverse sin (Deut 31:16), Yahweh even now reveals New Covenant blessings in the promise of a new heart for a remnant of His people which He will gather to Himself and from whom He will get what He is worthy of (see below; cf. Jer 30-33; Ezek 36):

So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you, and you return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.
If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.
Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. The LORD your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. And you shall again obey the LORD, and observe all His commandments which I command you today.
Then the LORD your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers.
- Deuteronomy 30:1-9 -

One of the Most Important Principles in Reading the Bible

I usually don't re-post so much of what others have posted, especially in close proximity, but John Piper at the Desiring God Blog has posted two gems recently, and I find it hard to resist reiterating this last one, as I did the first.

This one has to do with how we read the Bible, and how we are to understand passages that command human action (i.e., obedience) together with passages that teach that God is absolutely sovereign. It fits nicely with the most recent post in the regeneration series, which has to do with God granting what He requires. Piper's commentary here is extremely helpful, refreshing, and really bursting at the seams with wisdom that I pray all those who read would be able to discern.

A friend of mine who also linked to this post said this of it (which I agree with):

This is the ‘bread and butter’ of Bible reading. Droves of people don’t get this. Not to be too emphatic here, but if this principle were understood by all Christians then it would significantly reduce the number of Arminians out there, and the number of legalists.

Read his post and feel the good news.

Sometimes readers of the Bible see the conditions that God lays down for his blessing and they conclude from these conditions that our action is first and decisive, then God responds to bless us.

That is not right.

There are indeed real conditions that God often commands. We must meet them for the promised blessing to come. But that does not mean that we are left to ourselves to meet the conditions or that our action is first and decisive.

Here is one example to show what I mean.

In Jeremiah 29:13 God says to the exiles in Babylon, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” So there is a condition: When you seek me with all your heart, then you will find me. So we must seek the Lord. That is the condition of finding him.

True.

But does that mean that we are left to ourselves to seek the Lord? Does it mean that our action of seeking him is first and decisive? Does it mean that God only acts after our seeking?

No.

Listen to what God says in Jeremiah 24:7 to those same exiles in Babylon: “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.”

So the people will meet the condition of returning to God with their whole heart. God will respond by being their God in the fullest blessing. But the reason they returned with their whole heart is that God gave them a heart to know him. His action was first and decisive.

So now connect that with Jeremiah 29:13. The condition there was that they seek the Lord with their whole heart. Then God will be found by them. But now we see that the promise in Jeremiah 24:7 is that God himself will give them such a heart so that they will return to him with their whole heart.

This is one of the most basic things people need to see about the Bible. It is full of conditions we must meet for God’s blessings. But God does not leave us to meet them on our own. The first and decisive work before and in our willing is God’s prior grace. Without this insight, hundreds of conditional statements in the Bible will lead us astray.

Let this be the key to all Biblical conditions and commands: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13). Yes, we work. But our work is not first or decisive. God’s is. “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1Corinthians 15:10).

The New Birth and the Christian Life: God Grants What He Requires

In the most recent official post in this series on the doctrine of regeneration, we wrapped up the section on the theology of the new birth. We looked at man's spiritual death (or total depravity), and how that spiritual death manifests itself in the inability to see. We looked at the freedom and sovereignty of God in salvation, and we considered the ordo salutis. Below is a summary of that section.

1. All people are born spiritually dead (Rom 5:12-21; Rom 3:10-18; Eph 2:1-3; Col 2:13; Ps 51:5; 58:3).
   
2. That spiritual death manifests itself in the inability to see Jesus Christ as He actually is (John 3:3; John 1:4; Mt 13:13-14; Deut 29:2-4; 2Cor 4:3-6).
3. Therefore, to have any fellowship with God (i.e., to be saved from the just punishment of God's wrath against our sin), we must be born again. Nothing short of an entire new birth will save us (John 3:3, 5; Rom 14:23; Is 64:6).
   
4. This work of regeneration is entirely the work of God; it is not dependent upon anything in man (John 3:8; Ezek 36:25-27; Ezek 37:1-14; Jas 1:18; 1Pet 1:3; John 1:12-13).
   
5. Our faith in Christ does not effect (or cause, or bring about) our regeneration. Believing is the result of our regeneration (1Jn 5:1; Ac 16:14), which is granted by the Father (John 6:37, 44-45, 65) through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (John 3:8).

So that was the section on the theology of the new birth.

But there’s a good, practical question that all of that sovereignty-of-God theology raises. And that is: How can Christ command us to be born again if regeneration is entirely a work of God? That is, Jesus tells Nicodemus that to see and enter the kingdom of heaven, he must be born again. But it's impossible for Nicodemus to do anything about that, because regeneration is entirely a work of the Spirit of God. How can God require something of us that is impossible for us to do?

It is in answering this question that we get into real implications of this wonderful doctrine of regeneration for the Christian life. How does this teaching that seems so basic, so foundational, so “beginning-of-Christianity” affect our day-to-day experiences as Christians? How does it help us battle sin? How does it help us obey Christ?

Well, I kind of preempted a lot of what I'm going to say in the coming posts in the final "God is the Gospel" post last Friday, in which I unpacked how understanding the relationship between justification as seeing Christ and sanctification as seeing Christ empowers the Christian fight for holiness. Understanding that post is the key to understanding the three posts in this section of our study on regeneration. If you haven't read that one, I encourage you to do so.

But today I want to stand on that post, and now just go a bit beyond it. So I asked the questions, "How does understanding the doctrine of regeneration help us battle sin and obey Christ?" and "How can God require things of us which are impossible for us to do?"

The answer is: God grants what He requires. Consider some passages of Scripture that bear out this theme (mouse over the references).

• Jeremiah 24:7 – Yahweh requires whole-hearted devotion from Israel, which they've demonstrated over and over that they cannot do. So Yahweh grants Israel a heart to know Him.
• Jeremiah 31:33-34 – Because it's impossible for God's people to obey Him whole-heartedly via the Law (which He requires), He grants that the Law be put within us, and He writes it on our hearts.
  
• Ezekiel 36:25-27 – Again, because we can't obey from the heart as He requires, He will grant us new heart and a new spirit and will cause us to walk in His statutes.
• 1 Chronicles 29:10-16 – David tells God that all things are His, and so any worship or honor that he could offer is only that which is produced and given by God Himself. He grants the means to worship as He requires.
  
• Romans 11:36 – All things are from Him (granted by Him), and all things are to Him (required by Him).

Augustine, who struggled mightily with sexual sin before his conversion, when contemplating that God commands us to be pure, put it this way: "On your exceedingly great mercy rests all my hope. Give what you command, and then command whatever you will."

Augustine had such hope that he could say to God, "Command whatever you want! Whatever you require, I'm OK with that! As long as you give what you command. As long as you grant what you require!"

And so God can command people to be born again, even though rebirth is entirely a work of the Holy Spirit, because God has always, does now, and always will grant to His people what He requires of them. And because both our justification and our sanctification is a matter of spiritual sight, we see the same principle of God granting what He requires in our fight for holiness as well.

Do you see the genius of grace, here? By commanding something of everyone that is impossible for them to do, God magnifies our helplessness and inability related to our spiritual condition (which we've already looked at in regards to justification, but which is also true of us in regards sanctification). And because He commands only what is possible for God Himself to accomplish, He magnifies Christ’s (His own) sufficiency and fullness of glory. By granting what He requires, God presents Himself as All in all! He places us in our proper position, as needy beggars (Mt 5:3) eager to receive from His hand. Then, as our benefactor, He becomes sweet to us as He grants what He requires.

This should give us tremendous hope and freedom as we seek to live the Christian life in increasing conformity to the will of God, the image of Christ. The obedience that we are called to as Christians is indeed impossible (cf. Mt 22:37-40). But all my hope for progress in my sanctification hangs on this wonderful truth that my God graciously grants what He requires.

The impossible is required of me. And because of this bountiful grace, the impossible is no longer burdensome (1Jn 5:3).

But that's for next time.

For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given You.
- 1 Chronicles 29:14 -

1. The Theology of the New Birth
1.1. Man's Spiritual Death (Total Depravity)
1.2. The Dead Cannot See
1.3. The Wind Blows Where it Wishes: The Freedom of God and Irresistible Grace
1.4. Regeneration and Faith: Temporally Simultaneous but Logically Distinct

2. Implications for the Christian Life
2.1. God Grants What He Requires
2.2. The Impossible is No Longer Burdensome
2.3. The Means of Justification is the Means of Sanctification

3. Implications for Gospel Ministry
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Evangelism
3.3. Apologetics

The Yankees Win!

Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.

They then do it to receive a perishable wreath...

...but we an imperishable.

Let the small glory of World Series Championship point you to the infinite glory of face-to-face communion with the Lord Jesus Christ in the fullness of the glory of heaven!

And with that vision, run in such a way that you may win.

Numbers at a Glance

Yahweh brings glory to Himself by revealing His wrath and righteous judgment (Num 11:33; 12:10-15; 14:22-23; 16:28-33; 16:41-49) against the sin of the sons of Israel in punishing them for their continual rebellion (Num 14:1-4, 9; 17:10; 20:3-5, 10, 24; 27:14).

And Yahweh brings glory to Himself by revealing His grace, mercy, forgiveness, and covenant faithfulness in preserving them despite their rebellion (Num 23:8-10; 22:12; 21:8-9; 25:11; 15:2, 18-19, 41; 27:12; 32:22).

Israel’s great sin will not abate Yahweh’s desire to glorify Himself by fulfilling His promises to bless His people.

The counsel of Yahweh stands forever,
The plans of His heart from generation to generation.
Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh,
The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.
- Psalm 33:11-12 -

Why Physical Punishment for Spiritual Offenses?

Last Monday, October 26th, John Piper wrote an amazingly helpful post on the Desiring God Blog on the relationship between our spiritual sin and its physical consequences. Now, it's extremely unlikely that many of you reading my blog aren't reading the Desiring God Blog, but on the off-chance that's true, I wanted to re-post it. Also, I just don't want to forget what Piper said, and I'm more likely to remember it if I post it on my own blog. ;o)

The name of the original post is "Why was Zedekiah Roasted in the Fire?" and can be read in its original context here. The full contents of the post are below. I pray it is a great benefit to you all, as it was to me.

The horrors of physical suffering correspond to the horrors of moral and spiritual outrage. Sometimes this means that people’s suffering is directly correlated with their immorality and belittling of God. This will be the case, for example, with the eternal suffering of hell. It will correspond in perfectly just measure with the outrage of an individual’s sin.

But often the correlation is indirect. Everyone suffers physically because of the outrage of Adam’s sin, and because of God’s subjecting all of creation to futility (Romans 8:20). But these sufferings do not all correspond to an individual’s particular sins. All physical suffering corresponds to moral and spiritual outrage, but not all suffering corresponds directly to individual sins.

What is stunning and essential to see is that physical horrors correspond to spiritual horrors. God knows that we do not feel horrible about the spiritual horror of our sin. We take it lightly. But we get very angry and very agitated and very indignant about the horrors of our physical suffering. So God correlates the two in order to make plain to us how horrible sin is. Belittling God feels like a light thing to us. Being burned feels huge.

So hell will be physical, not just spiritual, even though the greatest outrages of life are not physical. The greatest outrages of life are spiritual—the demeaning of God by unbelief and indifference and rebellion is the greatest outrage in the universe. It may produce the holocaust or it may produce self-exalting philanthropy. But the magnitude of the moral horror in both cases is mainly Godward. Belittling God’s infinite worth is the ultimate outrage.

Here is a picture of what I mean.

God says to the exiles in Babylon concerning the false prophets, Ahab and Zedekiah:

Because of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: “The Lord make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,” because they have done an outrageous thing in Israel, they have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and they have spoken in my name lying words that I did not command them. (Jeremiah 29:22-23).

I am shocked by the term “roasted.” Why such a description? It actually happened, that’s why. Nebuchadnezzar roasted them. And why did it happen? Why such an outrageous physical horror and why such an outrageous physical word used to describe it?

Because speaking false things about God and committing adultery does not feel outrageous to us. But roasting someone in the fire does. So God correlates the two so we would learn what is really outrageous in the world. Demeaning God and breaking covenants.

The physical suffering of this age is God’s warning: This is how horrible and outrageous sin is. Flee it while there is time. Turn to Christ for forgiveness.

The physical suffering of eternity is God’s judgment: This is how horrible and outrageous sin was. Now there is no fleeing. It is too late.