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What is a Reformed Baptist Church?

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No matter what kind of church one claims to belong to, that label will carry with it definitions and distinctions which make one church different from another. As taxonomic classifications identify organisms from kingdom down to species, certain distinctions help us to know what a church is when we see what they claim to be.

When one sees the word “reformed” in a church’s name or identity, a few possible meanings may be present. For example, a church may suggest that being reformed is particularly tied to a Presbyterian denomination or confession, denying that any can be reformed who are not part of that group. More loosely, another may use the word reformed simply to mean Calvinistic as concerns the church’s beliefs relating to salvation. Still others fall somewhere in the middle, believing that a reformed church is one which has some particular distinctives, but which is not necessarily Presbyterian—Reformed Baptists for example.

Because Reformed Baptist is the context of Providence Reformed Church where I serve, and because many wrestle with exactly how to explain what a Reformed Baptist is, I thought it might be useful to pull together a couple of threads of thought and share them here. This post will include a summary of several key ideas which would take you a while to explain to someone else. Next week, I hope to lay out some strategies for explaining Reformed Baptist to others in a short and simple way. I am not here claiming to be the authority over how the phrase is used, but am only hoping to help explain what we mean in our church when we say “Reformed Baptist.” 

Reformed Baptist churches are:1

  • Christian
  • Protestant
  • Reformed
  • Baptist

Christian – Christian churches embrace the true message of the Bible and the gospel of Jesus Christ. The basic beliefs of Christians are often summarized in classic creeds such as the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Chalcedonian Definition. These statements focus particularly on the identity of the one true God existing as trinity and the person of Jesus as truly God and truly man. This distinction separates Christianity from other world religions and cults which deny the trinity, the deity and humanity of Christ, or the basic gospel. 

Protestant – A Protestant church, unlike the Roman Catholic Church, embraces the five Solas of the Reformation. These churches believe that the Scripture alone is the final and highest authority for the church on earth. They teach that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and to the glory of God alone. Protestants recovered these biblical doctrines during the era known as the Protestant Reformation.

Reformed – A subset of Protestant churches, Reformed churches embrace the beliefs of key doctrinal confessions such as the Belgic, Westminster, or Second London confessions. Much of what is recovered in these confessions beyond the basic faith of the classic creeds has to do with the authority of Scripture, the structure of the church, and the doctrine of salvation including election. Reformed churches are distinct from other Protestant churches which do not embrace these confessions and doctrines.

Baptist – A Baptist church is a Protestant church that expressly declares that only those who are saved by Jesus are part of the true church. Baptists believe that those who are saved obey Christ through the ordinance of believer’s baptism as a public declaration of their faith. Baptists value the autonomy of local congregations and the congregational voice in church government. These beliefs distinguish Baptist churches from our Presbyterian brothers.2

Other theological and practical particulars are often seen as identifying Reformed Baptists as different from non-Reformed Baptists. One author suggests the following five distinctives:3

  • The Regulative Principle of Worship
  • Covenant Theology
  • Calvinism
  • The Law of God
  • Confessional

The Regulative Principle of Worship – This teaching limits the acts of a church in worship to those which God commanded in Scripture. This distinguishes Reformed Baptist churches from others which practice the normative principle of worship, the belief that all things are permissible in worship so long as they are not forbidden in Scripture.

Covenant Theology – This doctrine accepts the covenant of redemption, covenant of works, and covenant of grace. The covenant of redemption is the plan among the persons of the trinity to rescue a people for the glory of God. The covenant of works is the covenant Adam failed to keep when he disobeyed God in the garden and brought condemnation on humanity resulting in the truth that no human being can now earn his or her way to God through good works. The covenant of Grace is the free gift of salvation by grace through faith in Christ who lived perfection and died as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of God’s people. Believers in covenant theology understand that Christ is the fulfillment of God’s promises from the Old Testament and that the Bible is a unified account of God’s accomplishment of his plan of salvation.  Covenant theologians, because of these beliefs, are distinct from dispensationalists. 

Calvinism – Calvinists believe in the sovereignty of God in the salvation of all who are saved. Calvinism embraces sovereign election and denies that people come to Christ without God first moving them to do so. 

The Law of God – A reformed understanding of God’s law includes the belief that the moral law of God is summarized in the Ten Commandments and that no one will fully understand the gospel apart from the law of God. Reformed Baptists will often see the law of God as useful to show a person their need for salvation, to help societies to restrain evil and destructive behavior, and to help the saved to understand the character of God and what pleases him. 

Confessional – Reformed Baptists often subscribe to the Second London Baptist Confession (written in 1677, published in 1689). This is not to say that there may not be small points that require further explanation or with which the church may quibble. Yet the Reformed Baptist Church will declare the confession to be a true summary of the church’s beliefs.

While different individuals or churches may disagree with one or more of the points above, they are a fair summary of what is broadly assumed to be a Reformed Baptist Church.

Next week, we will look at how to explain what a Reformed Baptist is in a short and simple way.

____________________

1 The 1st 3 items of this list are found in Daniel Hyde, Welcome to a Reformed Church (Sanford, FL: Ligonier Ministries, 2010), Introduction.

2 Baptist began to distinguish themselves during the period of the English Reformation along with Congregationalists. Such Baptists are not linked with the anabaptist movement.

3 This list comes from Tom Hicks, “What is a Reformed Baptist?” (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Ministries) [article on-line]; accessed 15 July 2023; available

from https://founders.org/articles/what-is-a-reformed-baptist/; Internet.

Of The Religious and the Rebellious

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Imagine driving down a narrow road with deep ditches on either side. Which ditch is better to fall into? Do you prefer the ditch on the left? Would you rather crash into the ditch on the right? Either way, you are off the road and suffering harm.

Reading in Luke 15, we see the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. God loves to find wayward sinners and bring them home. We know. We see it. We rejoice in it.

But sometimes we fail to remember that these parables are spoken to a dual audience—two kinds of people in the group. And those two remind us of two ditches we can fall into if we are not careful.

Luke 15:1–3

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable:

If we miss the impetus behind the telling of these 3 parables, we will miss a major lesson from the Lord. Jesus had the religious and the rebellious sitting around him. And in the light of that setting, Jesus spoke 3 parables that offered grace to the rebellious and brought conviction to the religious.

Of course, the rebellious needed to hear these parables. People who had lived far from the ways of God, far from the standards of God, needed to know that forgiveness was possible for them. Sinners needed to know that they were not automatically lost forever without hope. The rebels needed to grasp that they could return to the Lord and find pardon for sin and relationship with the God who made them. The Savior gave a glimpse of the beauty of the gospel.

But think about the end of each of the 3 parables. With the sheep and the coin, Jesus tells us that there is rejoicing in heaven over the righteous who repent. At the end of the parable of the lost son, something else is going on. The rebellious prodigal has returned home. The loving father has forgiven him and thrown a party. But the older son, the supposedly faithful son, was angry.

When the father goes to the angry older son to invite him into the party, the elder son shows his true colors. The elder compares himself to the younger and accuses his father of treating him unfairly. The father, for his part, reminds the elder son that he has always welcomed his older son to all that the father has, but the father will celebrate the return of the repentant son.

What is chilling in the parable is this: We have no conclusion. We do not see the elder son see the light, embrace the father, and enter the celebration. Instead, the elder son is left standing outside and seething. Will he receive the same grace as his brother? Will he refuse it because he cannot stand being thought of as needing it?

The beauty of the parable is that the rebellious son, seeing his condition, remembering the father, runs home and finds forgiveness. In our world, there are rebellious folks. There are people who wreck their lives with acts that God has forbidden. How glorious is it that God would welcome such people when they let go of their rebellion and fall upon his grace? This is gospel, good news. This is how the grace of God in Christ works.

And how perfectly wise is this parable? There are other folks in the world who think they are good. They may be the religious. They may just be the supposedly moral. They are certainly the people who think that they need very little by way of forgiveness. And so long as a person thinks he can make it on his own, so long as she thinks she has earned better from God than what she has received, the supposedly good stand outside of relationship with God, outside of grace, outside of gospel.

Which do you more resemble: the religious or the rebellious? If you remain as either, you are in trouble. Rebellious ones, turn and run to Jesus. The Lord will forgive you. Religious ones, moral goodie-goodies, run too. Do not turn from following the ways of God. These are good things. But do run from self-reliance. Do run from feelings of superiority. Learn to be like your Lord, embracing grace, celebrating repentance, and rejoicing in the gospel. Religious or rebellious, you need the same amount of new life in Christ. Praise God that he loves to give it to those who will turn to him in faith.

Of Joy or Despair in Ministry Success

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Are you a worker in your church? Are you a volunteer? Are you a pastor? Are you one of those who gives his or her all for the sake of the gospel and the love of the Lord and his people?

If you are one who sees the importance of the glory of God in his church, I would guess that you are also one who knows what it feels like to experience some pretty sweet joys and some pretty significant pains. Ministry can be great. Ministry can be hard. Being a pastor can be so very sweet. Being a pastor can be so very discouraging.

Reading Luke 10, I find a couple of thoughts that I believe will help those of us who serve to deal with the joy and the despair of ministry. These words remind us not to fly too high when we experience success. They also help us not to crash and burn when things are not as we want them to be.

As Jesus instructed 72 followers before sending them out on mission, the Lord told them how to react when a town either received them and their message or rejected them and the message.

Luke 10:8-10 – 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’

What do you notice about those instructions? What changes and what does not? Whether there is joy or sadness, celebration or condemnation, one message remains the same—the kingdom of God has come near. Whether the people in a town love this fact or hate it, the kingdom of God is still the kingdom of God.

After the 72 returned, they celebrated with Jesus a successful mission trip. They particularly celebrated the spectacular stuff, healings and demons being cast out. But Jesus taught them a valuable lesson regarding their rejoicing.

Luke 10:20 – Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

The joy for the 72 was not to be in their success, even over demons. No, they were to rejoice in a singular fact that no amount of ministry failure could take from them. They were to rejoice that their names were written in heaven. One’s heavenly citizenship is far more important than the experience of the greatest of miracles on earth.

Do you see how this might help the joyful or the discouraged minister of the gospel? Do you see how this might help the passionate church volunteer in seasons of success and failure? It can.

In a season of great ministry success, when all is well, when new folks show up, rejoice. But before you let yourself fly high based on your ministry circumstances, rejoice that the kingdom of God is solid and sure. Rejoice that your name is written in heaven if you know Jesus. Love the goodness of God to let you experience the joy of success for a season. But find your hope in something far more stable and certain, the kingdom of God and your place in heaven.

And when things are not going the way you want, when that sweet family in whom you’ve invested so much tells you they are going to shop for another church, when your lost neighbor tells you they do not want to hear about Jesus, when hardship and pain knock on your life’s door, hope. Hope not in your ability to right the ship. Hope not in your ability to fix people. Hope in the fact that the kingdom of God is solid and sure. Hope in the fact that your name is written in heaven if you know Jesus. Grieve the sorrows of this life without pretending a false happiness. But set your heart solidly in a place that the sorrows of ministry cannot crush it. Set your heart on the hope of the kingdom and the joy of heaven. It is there, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of the Father, that your ultimate joy and hope is firmly, irrevocably set.

As a pastor, I can tell you that there are joys and despair in ministry. Someone will come to faith. Someone will grow past a problem. Someone will flake out. Someone will get sick. If I rise and fall on the tide of my circumstance, I will not make it. But if, by God’s grace, the Lord will help me to remember the certainty of his kingdom and the joy of heaven, I can press on for his glory.

Extra — A Reminder of the Deity of Christ

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Want to see something neat? In Luke 8, Jesus cast a “legion” of demons out of a man living near some tombs. Afterward, Jesus told the formerly demon-possessed man to stay in his hometown and tell everybody how much God had done for him. The man obeyed. Take special note, however, of the wording.

Luke 8:38-39 – 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

Yes, the man obeyed. Jesus told him to tell how much God had done for him. He told how much Jesus had done for him. This is the delivered man and Luke helping us to see the significant truth that Jesus is God—never less. God the Son is truly God and truly man and a glorious Savior.

Of Being Forgiven Much

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What is my estimate of myself? What is your estimate of yourself? Is it high? Is it low? How can I both see myself as lowly and not become the person who is self-destructive?

In Luke 7, Jesus was traveling to heal a centurion’s servant. The Jews who knew the centurion told Jesus that this man was worthy to have Jesus do this for him, because the man had given much to the Jews. But as Jesus drew near, the centurion sent word to Jesus saying, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof” (Luke 7:6b). . Whose estimation of the centurion was right?

Later in the same chapter, a known sinful woman comes to Jesus with tears and worship. The religious leaders around Jesus think he should not allow himself to be touched by such a sinner. But Jesus reminds these men in verse 48 that the one forgiven much is the one who loves much; the one forgiven little loves little.

I wonder if we might learn and grow from the accounts that bookend this chapter about our own view of self. In the one case, we see a man thought to be worthy by others who knows himself not to be all that special. In the other, we see that the one who is forgiven much by Jesus loves Jesus much. Perhaps if we tie those together, we will have a safe place to stand when we think of our own esteem.

In our lives, we want to demonstrate the love of the lord toward others. That love should in fact be helpful to those around us. People around us should think that we are kind people, because kindness is a fruit of the Spirit. We should be caring, giving, and helpful. But sweetness from us toward others should not raise our esteem of ourselves to the place where we start thinking of ourselves as pretty special. Instead, as the centurion said, we should realize that we are still not worthy of Jesus.

But does this mean that we become people who are self-haters and depressed? Not at all. The forgiven woman knew where she stood before Jesus. She loved Jesus much and freely approached him. But she did not do so out of some sort of faulty self-regard. Instead, she approached Jesus out of gratitude, rejoicing in the forgiveness she had received. Her value was found, not in her goodness or badness, but in the fact that she was forgiven and welcomed by Jesus.

How do we have a properly low regard about ourselves without breaking ourselves? We remember both our sin and our Savior. We remember that, in the face of a holy God, we have fallen infinitely short. This is true whether we are the sinful woman of the end of the chapter or the seemingly sweet centurion at the beginning. We have earned by our failure nothing but justice from God—an infinite punishment to match the infinite offense of dishonoring an infinitely holy God. But, thanks be to Jesus, when we see our lowly estate, we can rejoice in grace. Jesus, the infinitely worthy one, died and paid the price for our sin and grants us his record of perfection so that we might be forgiven and adopted as children of God. When we get a glimpse of just how huge this mercy is, we will see self rightly. We will declare ourselves unworthy as did the centurion. We will weep tears of joy as we embrace the gift of grace in the Savior. Our worth will not be in our goodness or our accomplishments. Instead, our worth will be found in the gift of the Savior’s grace. Forgiven much, we will love much.

Of Questioning God

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Why? How? When? All of us who know the Lord have questions for him. But are they OK? Is it right to question God?

Interestingly, the answer is not as simple as one might think. There is no clear yes or no. Sometimes in Scripture, people ask God questions and get the answer. Sometimes, questions earn judgment. The content of the question is not the primary issue. The issue is one of heart.

Consider two questions from Luke chapter 1. In this chapter, two people ask an angel rather comparable questions. Zechariah and Mary both have something they want to know. To the casual observer, it might even look like they are asking the same sort of thing. But Zechariah meets with displeasure and judgment while Mary has her question answered.

When the angel Gabriel tells Zechariah that he and his wife will soon have a son, the old priest cannot fathom how this might come to pass.

Luke 1:18-21 – 18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.”

When Gabriel tells the virgin Mary that she will bear the Christ, she too cannot fathom how this will take place.

Luke 1:34-38 – 34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

What is the difference between the two questions? Faith. Zechariah is asking the angel to give him some sort of proof that his promise will come true. Mary is simply asking the angel a logistical question, how she, a virgin, can conceive. One doubts. The other believes and wonders how the Lord will do what he obviously will do. The first is offensive to the angel. The second pleases him.

In our lives, we have questions. How long, O Lord? Why did this happen? When will you change things? How will you help us make ends meet? Any of these questions can be pleasing to the Lord. Any of them can dishonor him. The heart behind the question, the faith behind the question, these are the issues that make the questions right or wrong.

When you have questions for God, check your heart. Are your questions born of doubt or of trust? Are your questions demanding that God answer you or are they simply asking for data? Are your questions accusing God or trusting him? Are your questions believing he is good but asking for help understanding, or are they demanding that God justify his actions to your satisfaction?

God is good. His ways are perfect. His methods are beyond our finite ability to grasp. Let us trust him. Let us know that what he does is right. Then, when we have questions about how, when, or why, we can ask them from a place of faith and trust.

Of the Shortcomings of Internet Conventions and a Thought on the SBC-AM 2023

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On Tuesday and Wednesday, June 13-14, the Southern Baptist Convention took place in New Orleans and was live streamed all over the world. As is the custom, Twitter (and I’m sure other social media platforms was) awash in vitriolic claims from groups on opposite sides of issues accusing all who disagree with them of heresy, cruelty, misogyny, effeminacy, and perhaps of kicking little puppies. As someone who has both attended such conventions in person and watched them on-line, I believe that Christians need to be extremely careful in forming impressions of convention activities from streams and social media. The stream can be a helpful tool. And the stream can be misleading.

What is helpful? For those who have an interest in what is taking place in the convention, the live stream offers the chance to watch motions and debates. The streamer gets to see the outcome of a vote without that information being delayed or filtered through a media source. Watching a stream allows viewers to hear and evaluate an argument as it is made rather than through a summary of the presenter’s points. And the stream can, from time-to-time, allow a viewer at home to laugh along with the light and sweet moments on the convention floor—such as a motion to hold the convention in Hawaii in 2028.

With favorable things well in hand, we must be cautious regarding negatives that we recognize in other forums but which we often fail to acknowledge regarding the SBC and other such conventions. The Southern Baptist Convention is far more than a simple business meeting. In real experience, the convention is a two-day gathering including worship, fellowship, and frank conversation far beyond the public microphone. Messengers who gather and who treat the convention as it deserves take the time to pray together, sing together, sit under the word together, and reaffirm love for one another.

Closely associated with the togetherness of the convention is the feel, the spirit, the mood of the event. I’m here thinking about an intangible feature of having ten thousand like-minded folks together seeking to collectively honor the Lord. During the pandemic years, many churches learned that watching a church service online, while better than nothing, is nothing like the true experience of gathering together with the people of God. Seeing smiling faces, shaking hands and hugging necks, and hearing collective voices make a massive difference in how one interprets the event itself. This is true on any Sunday morning. It is also true in a massive convention. Quite often, when watching the convention from afar, I have misinterpreted the mood of the room simply because I only heard the voices from the microphones. Trustworthy pastors I know and love tell me that, from the convention hall itself, the mood, the feel, the tone was far different than the rancorous feel I perceived from my PC.

Watching the event on-line and interpreting it through Twitter is a recipe for misunderstanding and misconstruing the motives of others. Users of Twitter seem to have no compunction against declaring the dastardly rationale behind why the moderator of the meeting took a moment before calling for a vote on a motion. Keyboard warriors lambast the folly of any person who does not agree with their particular method of facing down a problem. Faithful ministers of the gospel are often summarily dismissed, even when making a good point, for not agreeing with the sniping commentator about something utterly irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Bottom line, the social media filter will sour nearly anything one sees through the video, and being apart from the room allows for very little balancing data to help the observer come to a faithful conclusion. We all are likely aware that people say meaner things in a nastier way on-line than they would dare say in a face-to-face conversation. We should be careful not to let this happen to us as we interpret what we see from the conventions’ live stream.

For the sake of full disclosure, I need to say that I am not serving at an SBC church. I am a graduate of SBTS, and I dearly love Southern Baptists and am grateful for all I have been given. I saw things on-line from the 2023 SBC with which I was in strong agreement and things with which I strongly disagreed. I affirm the move of the SBC to declare Saddleback and other churches with female pastors as not in friendly cooperation with the SBC. I support the amendment to clarify this issue in the SBC constitution. I’m glad the BF&M was updated to speak of pastors/elders/overseers for the sake of biblical clarity, though I agree that the amending of the statement must be a slower process in future. I was disappointed to hear the ERLC position as presented from the platform on the prosecution of women who seek to end a human life, though I am assured by friends who were there that more helpful answers were given off-mic. I would have liked to see more faithful guardrails erected regarding accusations and the ARITF while seeing the work of combating abuse in the SBC continued; and, again, I am assured by friends who were in non-streamed meetings that such things are not being ignored.

Having spoken to people who were in the building, I also am deeply grateful for their experience of the godliness and kindness of people at the meeting. While there will always be an exception in a twelve thousand person business meeting, my friends experienced godly attitudes, biblical thinking, sincere worship, and sweet humility. Attending other sessions and gatherings during the convention, my friends have come away from NOLA with a good taste in their mouths about the SBC. Because these men are generally happy and godly men who are not putting a bunch of their own thoughts and experiences on-line, you may not realize that this is the view of many of the messengers who were present.

Looking back at the meeting, I am making some personal commitments. I will not demonize those who see issues differently than me. I will disagree, and perhaps strongly disagree with them, but I will not assume their motives or falsely accuse them of treachery in their tactics because of Twitter. And I would argue that neither should you. If you are barely informed on the issues—especially if your info comes from social media—be slow to assume you know what is going on. If you have not actually met or spoken graciously to someone who disagrees with you, be hesitant to tell the world what you think of their motives.

What then should we do with a live stream of a convention? We should be grateful for the tool. But we should recognize that tool’s shortcomings. Use the stream to observe, but know that your observation is deeply limited. Be extremely careful not to be overly influenced, especially emotionally influenced, by what you read on Twitter. Hold fast to your convictions. Make the case for what you believe. But do not assume that social media allows you to ignore the fruit of the Spirit, especially love, peace, patience, and kindness.

Of Spiritual Warfare and Spiritual Armor

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Many in the faith are drawn to the mystical, the dramatic, the spectacular. Seldom do we see this more than when we discuss issues of spiritual warfare. One need only mention the supernatural, angels, demons, possession, exorcism, and the like before others get wide-eyed and fascinated.

I remember as a high school student going to a youth retreat where the topic of teaching was the armor of God. We took multiple sessions of study to examine each piece of the Roman soldier’s armor and see how each of those pieces symbolically applies to our Christian lives. I remember other settings where I heard of Christians who declared to me that they pray each morning to don each piece of the armor of God. And while I am grateful to God for the spiritual encouragement I gained from that retreat and for the sincerity of the believer “praying on their helmet,” I think there is a better way for us to think about this issue.

Ephesians 6:14–18a

14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

As Paul draws his letter to the Ephesians to a close, the imprisoned disciple seems to draw a metaphor from the battle uniform of a Roman soldier. Perhaps Paul is even looking across the room at one. All of these elements are metaphorical ways to look at doing spiritual rather than physical battle. After all, Paul tells us that our struggle is not one against flesh and blood.

What some may fine disappointing—what I as a teenager would have found dull—is the fact that this metaphor from Paul is a dramatic picture focusing believers on ordinary means of living for Jesus. Yes, the uniform is dramatic. But, no, the things it represents are not.

If you were to ask somebody, “How do I battle for my soul against the devil,” what would they tell you? First and foremost, let’s remember that our souls are secure in Christ because of his work and not based on our goodness. But with that said, how do we participate in spiritual warfare? Do we have to learn strategies against the devil? Do we have to learn MMA submission holds to make the demons tap out?

I’ll tell you what we have to do. But, before I do, let me warn you against a soft Gnosticism. Remember, in the late first and second centuries, Gnostics were folks that claimed to have found secret spiritual knowledge that would elevate them to the locked places of heavenly existence. And the Scripture, though written before Gnosticism flourished, warned sharply against such thinking. So, do not think that there is any value in you learning a spiritual secret. There are no good spiritual secrets for you to learn. What you should learn is Scripture. Learn to do the will of God by obeying and conforming to his holy word.

Now, let’s talk spiritual warfare. Particularly, let’s talk about the tools apart from the imagery. What do you use to defeat the devil and win the battle? God says to fight with these weapons and defenses: truth, righteousness, gospel, faith, salvation, Scripture, and prayer. I’m not even going to break those down. Just think about them. Do they sound like a secret? Are they extra dramatic? How would you classify living by truth, righteousness, gospel, faith, salvation, Scripture, and prayer?

The point that God is making for us in Ephesians 6 is not that there is a secret way to beat up the devil. Instead, the point is that you, believer, fight the spiritual battle by participating in ordinary means of grace, ordinary spiritual disciplines, ordinary methods of following Jesus. You trust Jesus. You love the word. You rely on the finished work of the Savior. You seek to grow based on Scripture. You seek to repent of sin. You pray. You share the gospel. You live an ordinary, faithful, Jesus-loving, Bible-saturated Christian life, and this is how you fight the spiritual war that rages.

You will never faithfully fight the spiritual war while embracing sin. You will never win the battle apart from the local church. You will never find victory seeking something outside of the Scripture. You will never find a secret code word to make the devil turn tail and run. You will never find a way to please God beyond trusting Jesus, repenting of Sin, and loving the Lord and your neighbor.

I know, ordinary sounds so, well, ordinary. But the ordinary way of living the true Christian life is a great joy. And the ordinary way of following Jesus is exactly how we play our role in the spiritual battle. Sure, there are things going on in the heavenly places we do not see. Sure, there are angels and demons doing battle. But the truth is, this is none of our business. God never called us to look for devils. God called us to love Jesus, love one another, love his word, and be faithful. Our God who is the Almighty, he will handle the invisible battlefield, and this should give us hope.

Of Love and Law

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How dare you tell someone what they can and cannot do with their own body? How dare you tell someone that their desires are either acceptable or inappropriate. How dare you tell someone that what they feel deeply is not who they are? How dare you say to someone that their understanding of morality is wrong?

There is an answer to such questions: love. It is not hate; it is love. Love for the Lord and love for neighbor requires that those who follow the Lord tell the truth about issues that have society in a state of constant conflict.

Romans 13:8-10

8 Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

God commands us to love. In fact, as Paul writes under inspiration to the Roman church, he calls on the church to owe no debt at all except the debt of love. Jesus himself said that the second greatest commandment, the one just after loving God with everything you’ve got, is to love your neighbor as yourself.

Sadly, we have become a society that cannot receive any limitation as love. We have developed a cultural mindset that suggests that any criticism of any person’s internal desires or any questioning of a person’s internal “reality’ is considered hateful and harmful. But we must grasp that such thinking is not old but new, not based on objective truth but on internal feeling, and certainly not from God.

While society around us would say that the way to love a person is to accept anything they believe about themselves and anything they desire to do, the word of God equates loving them with the law of God. Paul summarizes the latter portion of the Ten Commandments with a simple call to love your neighbor as yourself. This means that God sees limiting human behavior, even calling people to oppose sinful desires, as love, not hate. God’s laws, God’s ways, God’s standards are tied to the love of God. While many among mankind bristle at this truth, God has never changed it to accommodate our inborn rebellion against him.

Love is the fulfillment of the law. But love is not the rejection of the standards of God in order to make a person feel better about themselves. No Christian can love another person and support them in actions or choices that lead to destruction. If it is true that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23), then an application of the standards of God to point out that sin and to turn people from it is loving. Of course, we know that no person is saved through obedience to the law (Rom 3:20), but this does not mean we ignore the word of God. Instead, we bring the word and ways of God to bear on a life to help others see their deep need for a Savior and to help them to do less harm to themselves in this life. We believe that the God who created us knows what will harm us even when we do not agree. And we know that the God who made us has provided the only possible Savior who can rescue all of us from our sins.

Christian friends, do not be ashamed of the word and the ways of God. Even if proclaiming the word of God puts us out-of-step with a culture that celebrates wickedness. Never be cruel. Never be hateful. Never be nasty. Just tell the truth like Jesus. Just lift up the words of God like Jesus. Just call people to repent and believe like Jesus called them to do. You owe others a debt to love your neighbor as yourself. You cannot fulfill that debt without the gospel. And you cannot fulfill that debt ignoring the law of God.

Of Scapegoats and the Reality of Sin

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For most modern Americans, reading a text like Leviticus is strange. We see so much about sacrifices and offerings, food restrictions and dress codes. Many people shut down, finding the book impossible to navigate. Many believe they simply cannot relate.

But, before we shut down from such a text, perhaps it would do us good to look at some powerful things we can learn in the law. After all, God inspired and preserved this text for our own sanctification (cf. 2 Tim. 3:16-17), even when we are not required to practice these things any longer.

In Leviticus 16, we read of the scapegoat and the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement was a sacred day when the high priest would make sacrifices for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He would use the blood of the slain animal to cleanse the tabernacle and later the temple in order that the Lord would continue to be present with his people, and the sacred objects would continue to be effective in the work they were made to do.

In the Day of Atonement, God commanded that two goats be brought forward and chosen at random for two different roles.

Leviticus 16:8-10

8 And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. 9 And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, 10 but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.

Here we see that two goats are brought before the high priest. Each of them has a role to play an atoning for the sins of the nation and keeping them as a people in the favor of God. One goat will be a sacrifice. The other will be the scapegoat.

As a quick note, because I’m using the ESV, the word “Azazel” appears in this passage. Other translations use the word “scapegoat.” This difference is simply the ESV translators not translating an obscure word. Azazel probably refers to a terrifying and lonely wilderness place, a place where demons are thought to dwell. The goat sent to such a place is the scapegoat.

Leviticus 16:15

“Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat.

The goat that was the sacrifice is easy for us to understand. It is killed. The blood of the sacrifice then can be used to show that the price of death has been paid for the sins of the people. Sprinkling the blood on the tabernacle furniture indicates that the atonement of that death has been applied to the sacred objects so that they can continue to function.

But what about the scapegoat?

Leviticus 16:20-22

20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. 21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. 22 The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.

This second goat is brought to the priest and does not die. One might think this is showing the goats as opposites—one good and one bad. But this is not the case. The scapegoat has the sins of the people confessed over it, symbolically placed upon it. Then the goat is driven away from the people into the wilderness.

Now, all that history is fascinating. It is neat to know that this is how the people of Israel functioned on the Day of Atonement. But does this really say something to a Christian? After all, Jesus atoned for our sin. Unlike the high priest, Jesus did not need a sacrifice to be made for himself. Unlike the atonement offering, Jesus did not have to repeatedly make an offering. Jesus did this perfectly, once and for all. That is one of the key points of the book of Hebrews. So we do not go through this process anymore.

But consider for a moment the consequence of sin as we see it illustrated with the goats of Leviticus 16. Two things happen because of the sin of the people—death and exile. One goat is slaughtered, because the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). The other goat is driven away from the presence of God, because the Lord is holy and will not allow sin in his presence. Sin earns death. Sin drives people from their only hope for joy. And hell is the combination of both of these things. Hell is eternal death and eternal separation from any hope of life or joy.

When we see such things, two responses are appropriate. It is appropriate to see what is depicted here and understand the utter sinfulness of sin. We need to be a God-loving, sin-hating people. There is nothing about sin that is a small deal. While all of us are guilty of sin, this does not make its importance and impact any less. If sin kills us and drives us from God, we must learn to hate it.

Second, we should have incredible gratitude for the work of Jesus. Jesus came and did what we could never do. He came and played the role of the sacrifice and the scapegoat while on the cross. Jesus took the punishment of death and the pain of the wrath of God on our account. Jesus fully satisfied the wrath of God so that all who come to him may enter the presence of the Lord. Jesus makes it so that our failures which continue throughout our lives do not separate us from the love of God. Jesus made it so that, when God sees those who have come to him, God sees the record of Christ’s perfection clothing them in righteousness.

Yes, Levitical sacrifices seem strange in our world today. But if we look closely at them, we can find Jesus. We can find reason for gratitude. WE can find a call to sanctification. We can find life in the grace of the Savior.