John Calvin on 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which argues that the Scripture is inspired by God and useful to make us perfectly equipped to do God’s will:
“Perfect means here a blameless person, one in whom there is nothing defective; for he asserts absolutely, that the Scripture is sufficient for perfection. Accordingly, he who is not satisfied with Scripture desires to be wiser than is either proper or desirable.”
In 1904 William Borden graduated from a Chicago high school. As heir to the Borden family fortune, he was already a millionaire. For his high school graduation present, his parents gave 16-year-old Borden a trip around the world. As the young man traveled through Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, he felt a growing burden for the lost. Finally, Bill Borden wrote home about his desire to be a missionary. Eventually, Borden’s missionary call narrowed to the Muslim Kansu people in China. One friend expressed surprise that he was “throwing himself away as a missionary.” In response, Bill wrote two words in the back of his Bible: “No reserves.”
Borden spent the next few years of his young life at Yale University. There he was responsible for starting a very influential prayer and Bible study group among students. Borden’s small morning prayer group gave birth to a movement that spread across the campus. By the end of his first year, 150 freshman were meeting for weekly Bible study and prayer. By the time Bill Borden was a senior, one thousand of Yale’s 1,300 students were meeting in such groups.
Upon graduation from Yale, Borden turned down some high paying job offers. In his Bible, he wrote two more words: “No retreats.” He then went on to graduate work at Princeton Seminary in New Jersey.
When William Borden finished his studies at Princeton, he sailed for China. Because he was hoping to work with Muslims, he stopped first in Egypt to study Arabic. While there, he contracted spinal meningitis. Within a month, 25-year-old William Borden was dead.
When news of William Borden’s death was cabled back to the US., the story was carried by nearly every American newspaper. Mary Taylor wrote in her introduction to Borden’s biography, “A wave of sorrow went round the world . . . Borden not only gave (away) his wealth, but himself, in a way so joyous and natural that it (seemed) a privilege rather than a sacrifice.”
See
Howard Culbertson, “William Borden: No Reserves. No Retreats. No Regrets.” Bethany, OK: Southern Nazarene University, 2002. Accessed 2 September 2009. Available from http://home.snu.edu/~HCULBERT/regret.htm; Internet.
John MacArthur. 2 Timothy. Chicago: Moody Press, 1996, 197 (comments on 4:7).
Psalm 138:1-2
1 I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.
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What is the most important thing in all the universe and beyond? What is most important to God? These questions are not asked often enough, and their answers are not generally given clearly enough. So, let me make it clear, even if it may confuse some. God’s top priority is not the good of mankind or my general happiness. God’s top priority is God’s own glory.
Look above at verse 2. God has exalted above all things his name and his word. There you have it. What has God lifted higher than anything else? It is not that God has lifted higher than all things that I be happy, that the lost be saved, or that the government allow prayer back in schools. God is not exalting that I be made wealthy, that I live my best life now, or that the needy be fed. God’s number one priority is himself.
Of course, to the uninitiated, this concepts seems utterly evil and selfish. Hold on a moment, though, as that is an incorrect assessment. That God is the number one priority in the universe is clear from the verses above; but this does not mean that God is somehow uncaring about other important things. God cares very much about the salvation of the lost, about the wellbeing of his children, and about whether or not the nations honor him. God cares greatly about the hungry being fed and the poor being cared for. Those things are simply not number one on his list.
Remember that the first of the Ten Commandments is that we must not have any gods before the one true God. God will not allow us to worship, to set as the highest priority and offer devotion to, something that is less than him. God is the highest, the greatest, the most glorious being in existence. If God were to allow us to worship something less would be for him to allow us to love something infinitely less worthy, infinitely less beautiful, infinitely less satisfying than he is. For God to allow us to worship something less than him or for him to set something less important than him as the number one priority of the universe would be for him not to love us but actually to hate us, as he would be allowing us to try to find our satisfaction in something that cannot satisfy. allowing us to waste our lives in futility instead of giving us the best would not be loving, and this is why God must make himself the number one thing in the universe and beyond.
So, is it offensive that God has exalted above all things his name and his word? It will offend those who think that they should be the center of the universe and that God should be displaced. But for the person who recognizes that God is the greatest, the highest, the most worthy, God’s centrality is a great gift from him. God allows us to find joy in his glory, and this joy is the joy that, unlike any other, can fully satisfy our souls.
So, would you like to be happy? If so, stop fighting against the fact that God is the number one priority of the universe. Instead, find out how marvelous it is to see God’s glory, his beauty, his majesty. God created you to display his glory (that’s part of what it means to be made in God’s image). You will never be truly happy until you are doing what you were created to do. So, as John Piper has argued in so many beautiful ways, make it the focus of your life to seek your own happiness in the one way that will truly satisfy your soul: find your joy in the glory of God. As Piper says, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”
Grudem, Wayne A, Systematic Theology: Introduction to Bible Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 377.
James tells us, “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). He implies that failure to ask deprives us of what God would otherwise have given to us
If we were really convinced that prayer changes the way God acts, and that God does bring about remarkable changes in the world in response to prayer, as Scripture repeatedly teaches that he does, then we would pray much more than we do. If we pray little, it is probably because we do not really believe that prayer accomplishes much at all.
1 Chronicles 13:9-10
9 And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put out his hand to take hold of the ark, for the oxen stumbled. 10 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark, and he died there before God.
At times we will hear people say something like this: God doesn’t’ care what you do, so long as you do it with a sincere heart. However, I think that Uzzah would disagree with that argument. In fact, Uzzah learned from the Lord, in a glorious and terrible display, that God’s holiness is deadly and his ways are to be followed.
The people of Israel were not doing rightly by God’s command. The ark was to be carried on the shoulders of the Levites, but the men of Israel had a different Idea. For certain, they would have thought that their idea was good and helpful. Why would God really care how the box was carried? Isn’t the point that the box gets moved from one place to another?
Then again, Uzzah did not intend harm. He saw that this beautiful symbol of Israel’s relationship with God and God’s mercy toward Israel was headed for the dirt. The oxen stumbled. The ark was slipping. Uzzah simply wanted to steady the thing to keep it from being defiled. For his efforts, Uzzah was struck down by the Lord.
Why did God do this? The reason is one that our entire culture has lost: God’s holiness. God is holy. He is completely perfect. He is so totally above and beyond us that we cannot even begin to perceive the difference between ourselves in our lowly corruption and the Lord in his absolute purity. God’s holiness is deadly. God’s holiness is all-consuming. Were any of us to be put into the presence of God without God protecting us from his holiness, we would be totally destroyed.
So, what should we learn from the Uzzah story? There are many things to learn, for sure, but here are a few things that come to my mind this morning. First, we need to regain a proper respect for God’s holiness. We live in a culture that believes that they have the right to judge God by their own standards. They do not grasp that the Lord will not be judged by them. God is above and beyond us. Yes, he is also nearer to us than the very air we breathe and has made himself known and knowable to us; yet he is not at all like us. His ways are not our ways. And, even when it feels totally different from us, God’s ways are right because his ways are holy. We should learn to bow to the Holy One, and to submit to his absolute perfection.
Bowing to God’s perfection should also lead us to obey his commands. Uzzah was a victim of his own and others’ disobedience. David failed to obey God by commanding that the ark be moved on a cart and not on the shoulders of Levites. Uzzah disobeyed God by daring to touch the ark, as if Uzzah was somehow more clean, more pure, than the mud into which the ark would have fallen. From both of those forms of disobedience, we need to do our very best to take the commands of God very seriously. He is holy, and his commands must be obeyed. There is no room for the whole, “God doesn’t’ care what you do so long as you are sincere,” sort of reasoning. God has revealed himself and his standards to us in his holy word, and we must obey them.
A final thought that I will share on this today is one of great joy. If all we knew was God’s holiness, we would all be destroyed, for none of us is holy. God knew that none of us is righteous, not even one (cf. Rom 3:10-12). God, however, chose to love us and to purchase for himself a people, paying for their sin with the blood of Jesus, God the Son (cf. Rev 5). For all who will entrust themselves to God through faith in Christ, God will cleanse them of their unholiness by the blood of Jesus, and he will sanctify them, perfecting them, and making them able to stand in his holy presence. This is a glorious concept. We who should be destroyed by God’s perfection are made by Jesus into the very perfection of God (2 Cor 5:21). Praise be to God for doing what we in our sinfulness could never do! He has made a race of rebels into his very own children (John 1:12-13).
So, the next time you are allowed to sing God’s praise or hear his word, give him thanks for allowing you to stand and live in his holiness.
Luke 8:23-25
23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
Just a quick thought. Who is Jesus that he can calm the raging seas?
Psalm 89:8-9
8 O Lord God of hosts,
who is mighty as you are, O Lord,
with your faithfulness all around you?
9 You rule the raging of the sea;
when its waves rise, you still them.
Jesus is the LORD, that’s who he is; God in flesh,
Luke 7:40-43
40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”
41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”
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There are times when preachers and other Christians are tempted to minimize the severity of human sinfulness. Perhaps this comes from a rejection of the biblical understanding of man’s depravity, his total inability to do anything that pleases God apart from God’s intervention (cf. Isa. 64:6; Rom. 3:10-17). Perhaps it comes from the preachers’ desire to be thought kind, loving, positive, or relevant. Perhaps it comes from a lack of biblical teaching on God’s holiness and wrath for sin.
Whatever the reason for their style of teaching—and I certainly would not say that they intend this outcome—, Preachers who fail to emphasize the extent and severity of the problem of man’s rebellion against God do more harm than they realize. We see this truth illustrated in Luke 7:40-43. In the context of this passage, a sinful woman weeps and worships Jesus. The religious teacher in whose home Jesus is sitting is condemnatory, thinking that Jesus would not ever allow such a sinner to be in his presence. The main point of Jesus’ response to this teacher is to show him that God forgives sinners, and the greater the sin of those sinners, the greater is the glory of their forgiveness.
A fair point to glean from this passage, however, is the importance of our understanding the severity of our sin. If the one who is forgiven more loves more because of the extent of his or her forgiveness, it must also be true that in order for us to love more and glorify God more, we must understand the severity of our sin and of God’s total hatred of our sin.
If a teacher never emphasizes to you that your sin is grievous, detestable, and disgusting to God, you will not grasp how amazing it is that God forgives you. If a teacher makes it seem as though God has never been angry at you for your sin, you will assume that being forgiven is really no big deal. If you are never taught that your sin, even your smallest sin, is an infinite offense to an infinitely holy God which deserves an infinitely terrible punishment, you will not grasp that the glory of your forgiveness is infinite too.
So, it is good to remember the severity of your sin and to understand the extent of God’s wrath that had formerly been against you. Only then can you grasp how wonderful is your forgiveness. Do not allow a temptation to sound ultra-loving or open-minded make you fail to see how great is the forgiveness of a sinner who had earned God’s hatred but who receives God’s love and grace.
Corey Reynolds posted a note that describes his own frustration with how the concept that the possibility of choosing sin is required for a choice to be loving has made its way into Christian fiction.
One of the common points that we hear people make when trying to explain the existence of evil or the fall of man is that mankind, in order to be truly free, to make real choices, or to experience genuine love, must have the possibility of sin. Often, people go even further to argue that God cannot influence man or change his heart toward love, because that love would not be genuine. Put another way, these people say that, if we do not have the possibility of sin, we are the same as puppets or robots.
In reading through Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, I came across the following few paragraphs in his discussion of God’s providence. I found them very helpful, because they show the failure of the logic that states that for
man’s choices to be real and loving, they must be free enough to include the possibility of sin.
[Disclaimer: Grudem uses the terms Calvinism and Arminianism to describe these two views of God’s providence. My point here is not to argue Calvinism or Arminianism, but to simply display from a well-reasoned scholar the fault in the reasoning that declares that sin must be possible in order for choices to be real.]
From: Wayne A. Grudem, Systematic Theology : An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 1994), 349-350.
The common Arminian response is to say that God was able to prevent evil but he chose to allow for the possibility of evil in order to guarantee that angels and humans would have the freedom necessary for meaningful choices. In other words, God had to allow for the possibility of sinful choices in order to allow genuine human choices. Cottrell says, “This God-given freedom includes human freedom to rebel and to sin against the Creator himself. By creating a world in which sin was possible, God thereby bound himself to react in certain specific ways should sin become a reality.”
But this is not a satisfactory response either, for it implies that God will have to allow for the possibility of sinful choices in heaven eternally. On the Arminian position, if any of our choices and actions in heaven are to be genuine and real, then they will have to include the possibility of sinful choices. But this implies that even in heaven, for all eternity, we will face the real possibility of choosing evil—and therefore the possibility of rebelling against God and losing our salvation and being cast out of heaven! This is a terrifying thought, but it seems a necessary implication of the Arminian view.
Yet there is an implication that is more troubling: If real choices have to allow for the possibility of choosing evil, then (1) God’s choices are not real, since he cannot choose evil, or (2) God’s choices are real, and there is the genuine possibility that God might someday choose to do evil—perhaps a little, and perhaps a great deal. If we ponder the second implication it becomes terrifying. But it is contrary to the abundant testimony of Scripture. On the other hand, the first implication is clearly false: God is the definition of what is real, and it is clearly an error to say that his choices are not real. Both implications therefore provide good reason for rejecting the Arminian position that real choices must allow the possibility of choosing evil. But this puts us back to the earlier question for which there does not seem to be a satisfactory answer from the Arminian position: How can evil exist if God did not want it to exist?
Over the past month, I have spent around six hours sitting on panels in which Christians ask the “Hard Questions.” What I have discovered is that Christians of all ages, all backgrounds, and all social classes have questions for which they want to hear honest and biblical answers. Our two hour panel at First Baptist Columbia was well-received, and we ran out of time long before we ran out of questions. Our panel at Lakeland Baptist Church in Carbondale brought a flood of texted questions from high-school students in southern Illinois. At Super Summer, we spent three hours answering questions, and left a mountain of questions unaddressed simply due to a lack of time.
The questions on these panels have covered such a wide variety of topics, theological, ethical, moral, philosophical, etc., that it is nearly impossible to summarize any one discussion. Some types of questions have included:
· How can we trust the Bible?
· Why does God consider homosexuality a sin?
· Can a Christian lose his or her salvation?
· Is listening to Christian heavy metal OK?
· Which is true, free will or predestination, Calvinism or Arminianism?
· How should I understand dinosaurs from a biblical perspective?
· Questions about end-times, the rapture, the antichrist, etc.
· Does a man who never hears the gospel get a second chance to receive Jesus after his death?
· Is this or that activity morally wrong?
So, faithful blog readers (both of you), I’d like to hear from you. What would you like to hear biblically answered? If your church had a “Hard Questions” panel, what would you ask? What questions do you hear other Christians really wanting to know an answer to?
Leave a comment, and let me know. Perhaps I’ll even try to tackle some of your suggestions in a future post.
Pastor Travis Peterson 