Psalm 73:16-20 (ESV)
16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places;
you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
One of the popular questions floating around the Internet right now involves the question of God’s goodness and hell. You’ve heard something like it before, I’m sure. How, indeed, can a loving God send anyone to hell? Would such a God be good?
You know, people have been thinking about heaven and hell for a long time. In fact, throughout all of the time of the Scriptures, man’s eternal destiny has been a topic in play. What is interesting, however, is that every time the discussion of man’s eternal destiny arises, the question is not about how could a loving God send people to hell. No, the question that the writers of Scripture always seem to be asking is how a good God, a just God, a righteous God, could possibly not destroy the wicked right here and now.
Take a peek at Psalm 73 sometime today, and you will see this question addressed. The psalmist tells us in verses 2 to 12 how he almost lost faith in God’s goodness. He struggled, not because God was punishing the wicked, but on the contrary, God seemed not to punish the evil. In verses 13-14, the psalmist says that he really almost lost it, wondering why he bothered to obey and follow God if the wicked were going to get everything they wanted. But then the tone starts to change. The psalmist knows that he needs to be very careful about accusing a Holy God (cf. verse 15). Then, from verses 16to20, the psalmist repents. He realizes that God is right and just. He recognizes that God will judge the wicked. It will be a sudden, terrifying, unstoppable end that God puts the wicked to if they refuse to turn from their evil and fall upon his mercy.
For the rest of the psalm, the psalmist repents, declaring himself to have been beastly to dare to question God’s goodness or justice. But in the end, the psalmist worships God, finding God to be his treasure, because God is ultimately perfect. And a major part of the perfection that the psalmist loves is the truth that God will do justice in all things.
You could look from place to place in the Scriptures, but the same justice of God abounds. God will judge those who oppose him. God, to be just, will judge every human sin. Thankfully, Jesus died on the cross and received in his death the due penalty for all of the sins of all who will ever become God’s children. So, the justice of God is complete. Either you will suffer for your own sins in hell forever, or you will ask that Jesus’ mercy cover your sins. Either you will receive the wrath of God, or you will have Jesus take it in your place. God’s justice and his mercy are perfect.
How can a loving God send people to hell? That is never the Bible’s question. How can a just God forgive sinners? God tells us that he forgives sinners by his grace through their faith in Jesus Christ. Turn to Jesus and find mercy. Ignore Jesus, and receive God’s justice. I urge you to find grace in Christ today.
No Tricking God (Numbers 32:23)
Numbers 32:23 (ESV)
But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.
As Moses and the Israelites approached the promised land, two-and-a-half of the twelve tribes wanted to settle in the land across the Jordan, just outside of the promised land. As Moses heard this request, he gave the tribes a stern warning. If they were trying to get out of helping Israel take the promised land, they were in deep trouble.
The tribes responded to Moses by assuring him that they had no intent of discouraging the nation or shirking their responsibilities. On the contrary, the two-and-a-half tribes intended to send their soldiers ahead of Israel to help them settle in the land. They would then, once Israel was settled, return to their inheritance across the Jordan.
Moses heard the promise of the two-and-a-half tribes, and he agreed that this promise was good if it was true. But as we see in verse 23 above, Moses also had a warning for the tribes. If they were trying to trick God, intending to not fulfill their promise of fighting for the land with the rest of the people, they would be in great sin before God. They could not hide from such sin. Their sin will indeed find them out.
As we watch this warning from Moses to the tribes, we can hear a warning for ourselves too. God knows our hearts. God knows our intent. We cannot trick God with empty words. We cannot promise something, go back on our promise, and think that we pacified God by making promises we did not keep. No, our sin will find us out. If we make empty promises and use empty words of commitment, God will know it and deal with us appropriately.
Christians, make true commitments to God and follow through on those commitments. Never think you can fool God. Never think that you can boast of a gift you will give and that be enough. No, we need to become people of our word. Our “yes” needs to be yes and our “no” needs to be no. What we promise, we need to follow through and deliver. This is not to earn favor from God; rather, it is simply to honor God as the Holy One who sees into our hearts and who always knows our motives and actions.
Power Encounters – A Review
David Powlison. Power Encounters: Reclaiming Spiritual Warfare. Grand Rapids, MI: Hourglass Books (a division of Baker Books), 1995. 160 pp. $40 (out-of-print).
David Powlison’s Power Encounters is without a doubt the best book on spiritual warfare that I have ever read. When I say “spiritual warfare,” I am specifically pointing to our understanding of the activity of the devil and the demonic as it affects our Christian lives. Powlison, with scholarship and charity points out that many who have embraced a model of deliverance from demons have missed the Scripture’s solution to problems that many chalk up to spiritual battles. As a popular speaker and biblical counselor, it makes sense that Powlison would address this topic, and he does so extremely well.
Positives
Powlison demonstrates by a thorough walk through Scripture that many of the issues that people blame on demons are actually issues of basic human sin. The author argues that Scripture never blames demons for human attitudes and behaviors. When demons are addressed, the Scripture most often depicts evil spirits as causes of evil on the same level of sicknesses or natural disasters; however, the Scriptures never say that a demon causes a man’s lust, greed, or pride. Thus, in problems of human hearts or behaviors, a more classic type of spiritual warfare, repentance and discipline, is what the Bible calls for.
Powlison, as he makes this sound case, is very much charitable toward those with whom he disagrees. Powlison does not caricature. He is not writing the book as a way to score easy points against his debate opponents. Instead, with love, Powlison both points out the positive things that those who disagree with him bring to the table while showing the dangers and weaknesses in their view. It is refreshing to see a book that is both polemical and gracious.
Negatives
The two weaknesses that I see in this book are not Powlison’s fault. First, this book is too short. Powlison’s argument is so excellent that the reader is left wanting to see more. The influence of the charismatic view of angels and demons is so wide-spread that more questions abound than could be answered. This book could easily have been another hundred pages longer without at all being a problem.
Secondly, this book is not in print. This fact is the greatest weakness the book has. Why this book is not in print is not something I have been able to find easily, though my understanding is that this work was to be a part of a larger series that the publisher never got together. Sadly, to get your hands on a copy of this excellent resource will cost you probably triple the cost of the average trade paperback (I generally see it in the $40 range on Amazon). Thus, you cannot get a handful of copies of this work to use in a small group study.
Conclusion
I said it in the introduction, and I will say it again, this book is the best work on spiritual warfare that I have ever read. Powlison relies on Scripture, not experience. He argues wisely, strongly, and graciously. His conclusions are practical and greatly useful for a counseling setting. If you have questions about what we ought think about the demonic today, Powlison’s work is worth the effort to get hold of and read.
Ends and means (Numbers 20:10-14)
Numbers 20:10-14
10 Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” 11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. 12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.” 13 These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the Lord, and through them he showed himself holy.
Do the ends justify the means? Is pragmatism a good thing? Does God care how we do things so long as we accomplish the task that he has assigned?
If you are tempted to think that how we do things is not important so long as we get things done, think again. Moses led the people of God very well through the desert. Moses helped the people to learn the law of God. He put down rebels. He judged the disputes of the people for forty years. Then, at the end of the wilderness wanderings, Moses messed up. That one failure of Moses was enough to keep Moses from entering into the promised land.
God told Moses to speak to the rock, commanding it to bring forth water for the people. Moses got angry at the stubborn people, and he chose to tinker with God’s orders. Moses chose a more dramatic course by striking the rock with his staff. While you might not think that this should matter, it mattered to God.
Christians, it will often be tempting to use different methods than those of God to accomplish what we know to be good things. It is tempting to be pragmatic. But We might want to take a lesson from Moses. God cares not only what we accomplish, but how we accomplish it. God wants us to see his name as holy and to show his name as holy. God demands we give him glory. It glorifies God when we do things his way. It does not glorify God when we seek results in our own ways or through our own strength.
Two Sides to Holiness (Numbers 16:35-39)
Numbers 16:35-39
35 And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense.
36 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 37 “Tell Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest to take up the censers out of the blaze. Then scatter the fire far and wide, for they have become holy. 38 As for the censers of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives, let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar, for they offered them before the Lord, and they became holy. Thus they shall be a sign to the people of Israel.”
In the midst of Korah’s rebellion, 250 other men declared themselves to be as holy and as capable as Moses to lead the people of Israel. God, as many of us will remember, destroyed Korah and the men who opposed Moses. What has my attention this morning, however, is the question of holiness.
Notice, in the passage above, the 250 men died after being touched by the fire of the Lord. The censors that the men held were, however, not destroyed. Instead, the censors became holy. The fire of the Lord made the devices of the evil men holy.
Think about the holiness of God. God’s holiness makes what we consider ordinary to be extremely special. At the same time, God’s holiness is absolutely deadly to sinful men. It all depends on how we encounter that holiness of God.
What about you? How will you encounter God’s holiness? If you encounter the holiness of God without spiritual protection, you will be destroyed. However, if you seek God’s grace in Christ and get under his mercy, his holiness will sanctify you, setting you apart for glorious service.
Unbelievably Bold Complaining (Numbers 11:1)
Numbers 11:1
And the people complained in the hearing of the Lord about their misfortunes, and when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp.
Numbers 10 described to us how the Israelite camp moved. When God’s presence, manifest in the pillar of cloud or of fire, moved from the tabernacle, the camp would pack up and move out, following the leadership of the Lord. When the cloud or pillar of fire would return to the tabernacle, the people would camp in that one place.
Isn’t it interesting, then, that chapter 11 opens with a statement that the people of God complained of their misfortunes? They could look up and see the Lord. They could see the pillar of fire or cloud that manifest the presence of God. They knew God was there. Yet, this still did not keep them from complaining about their food, the food that God was supernaturally providing them out of thin air.
How many times do people act as though they would never complain if only God would show himself to them? How many times do people say that they would be satisfied if God would only show them a glimpse of his power or presence? How foolish we are. The heart of man is rebellious in its very nature. We are all the kind of people who would complain in the face of miracles.
Praise be to God, we will not always be like the people in the desert. There will come a day when God puts an end to our sinfulness. There will come a day when our sanctification will be complete. It will not be during this lifetime, but it will come. And when that day comes, we will be free from the murmuring and complaining that so often marks our present lives. We will see God for who he is. We will praise him in is profound, soul-satisfying glory. We will worship the Lord, and we will be thrilled in his presence forever. As John prayed at the end of the Bible, so we should pray this day, “Even so, come Lord Jesus!”
Robbing God (Leviticus 27:30-31)
Leviticus 27:30-31
30 “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. 31 If a man wishes to redeem some of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it.
It usually happens at the beginning of a church year. Sometime in January, just after people have started to breathe again after Christmas. It’s pretty predictable, though still important. What is it? It’s the annual stewardship sermon, the message on giving and tithing and all the rest.
In general, the stewardship sermon comes out of somewhere like Malachi. After all, that passage talks about Israel’s unwillingness to bring their tithes to the Lord. The Malachi passage even speaks of not giving faithfully in terms of stealing from or robbing God.
Well, Malachi is not the only place we find such a concept. Right here, in the end of Leviticus, something very interesting jumps off the page. In chapter 27, God reveals his standards for tithes to the Israelites. One interesting element of the tithe was that, if for some reason a person did not want to give what God had specifically required, he could redeem his tithe. So, for example, if a person did not want to give a tenth of his grain, he could pay a proper amount to God in order to keep the grain.
Now, here is what got my attention. If an Israelite wanted to redeem his tithe, he had to pay the monetary value of the tithe, but he also had to add one fifth to the value. If you look back also at Leviticus 6, what you will see is that this 120% figure is also used in cases—get this—of robbery. If I stole something from you, I was required to repay 120% of the value of what I stole.
Is it not interesting, then, that God required a 120% payment for anything that the Israelite did not wish to give in his tithe? What it tells us is that the person who refuses to give to God what God requires steals from God. We definitely don’t want to be guilty of that.
Now, as a matter of disclaimer, my goal here is not to get legalistic about the tithe. My intent is, however, to say that a Christian who refuses to give to God freely, sacrificially, and proportionally has a major problem with how he or she relates to God. Such truth is clear throughout the Scripture.
The Future of Justification – A Review
John Piper. The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007. 240 pp. $12.23.
In The Future of Justification, John Piper takes on N. T. Wright’s championing of what is commonly called the “New Perspective on Paul.” Piper, who often writes in a very pastoral, if also deep, style, is fully engaged in Bible-scholar mode for this work. Piper takes Wright’s challenge to the historic understanding of justification in the writings of Paul very seriously, and the book that Piper has written shows that seriousness.
Positives
The primary positive that I will mention about this work is that Piper has Paul right and Wright has Paul wrong. John Piper portrays in this book a very clear, very historic, very biblical understanding of what the apostle meant when he wrote of justification. Piper’s defense of justification and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness is spot-on, and thus his book is necessarily strong.
Piper is also extremely respectful and loving in his tone. In polemic works, it is not uncommon to find authors caricaturing one another, taking cheap shots at straw men. Piper is nothing but kind to Wright. He points to Wright’s brilliance and winsomeness quite regularly. Where Piper fears, or hopes, he could have misunderstood Wright, he is quick to point this out.
Negatives
This book is not an easy read. Piper, writing as Bible scholar, is not the most riveting author on the market. Piper’s thoroughness in dealing with the discussion can sometimes make his writing tedious. The scholarly slant in this work can certainly make it inaccessible for some laypersons who might pick it up because they have heard friends recommend, “Read anything by John Piper.”
I also found myself wanting Piper to go into greater depth regarding the Jewish understanding of salvation. Wright, and Sanders before him, argue that second-temple Judaism was not marred by legalism as is often understood. Piper disagrees with the assessment of these men, and does a fine job of pointing out reasons why. Piper does not, however, give us a few pages to explain how Jews of this period understood their salvation or how they were actually saved. I think such an excurses would have been quite helpful.
Conclusion and Recommendation
Because I agree with Piper’s assessment, I am happy to recommend The Future of Justification to anyone dealing with New Perspective on Paul issues. A person who has been convinced by N. T. Wright that the church has, for sixteen hundred years or more, misunderstood Paul, can be aided by Piper’s scholarship. If these issues are before you, you certainly should give Piper’s book a hearing.
However, not every Christian needs to read this book. Many have never heard of the New Perspective. Many have a right understanding of justification and do not need to take up their reading time with an argument against a position that they are not being challenged to refute. This book is neither an easy nor a fun read. If you are looking for something to feed the soul, look to others among Piper’s writings.
Try a Log List (Luke 6:41-42)
Luke 6:41-42
41 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
One of the most useful tools that I was taught in my study of biblical counseling was the concept of the creation of a “log list.” I don’t know who first came up with this exercise, but it’s quite helpful.
Jesus tells us to look at the sin in our own lives before we attempt to correct the sin in the lives of others. Relationally, this concept can be a great help. Imagine, for example, a married couple working through conflict. Often, when you get them into a conversation, each person will share with you the flaws and failures of their spouse. What if, before they made a list of their spouse’s foibles, they actually had to make a list of what they perceive as their own sin. Humility and understanding often results, and quickly.
Add one other twist to this exercise, and it gets useful. Have each person write down the list of what they see as their own shortcomings. Then, have them exchange lists and have their spouse highlight items that are of particular concern or add significant issues that are missing. Now you are getting somewhere.
Once you have the list of your own failures, your “log list,” you can begin to work on it. Categorize your sins. Prioritize the ones that are most prevalent or most damaging to your relationship with God and your spouse. Then work on repenting in your own particular categories. As you do so, many of your common problems will fade away as we pursue Christ and grow in faithful discipleship.
Fear and Holiness (Luke 5:8)
Luke 5:8
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
We sing that God is holy. We know that God is perfect and we are sinful. Yet, when we think of these concepts, we fail to tremble in fear. This is not good.
Peter, sitting in a boat next to the Lord of all Creation, recognizes something significant. He sees the power of Jesus, and realizes that Jesus is not like Peter. Jesus is different. Jesus is above and beyond Peter. And what is Peter’s reaction? Peter is terrified.
God’s holiness should make us tremble. In the Scripture, when people see the perfection or holiness of God, it scares them nearly to death. Daniel and John, when they get glimpses of God, pretty much pass out. Why then do we waltz into worship with barely a second thought?
I know, Ephesians 3:12 tells us that in Christ, we may approach God in freedom and confidence. We, if we are forgiven in Christ, have the freedom of access to our God. We are under Christ’s protection. But, and this is important I think, we are only safe because we are protected in Christ. We are only safe because of God’s grace and not because of anything in us. We should still have a little bit of trembling, a little shutter in our souls as we realize how much grace God has bestowed upon us.
Peter was terrified by the holiness of Christ. You and I are sinful. We too should have that terror. Then we can properly look at God’s grace, enjoy the freedom of Christ, and give him proper thanks for what he has done. God’s perfect love drives out our fear, but the fear should naturally be there if we realize the significance of being sinful creatures in the presence of a holy God.
Pastor Travis Peterson 