Think Wink.

I was amazed by Paul’s words in Philippians 1:20-23 this last week as I have been preparing to teach my Sunday school class on 2 Corinthians 4:4-6. Paul writes in Philippians 1:18-23 ESV,

Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”

I just want to note the parallels in Philippians 1:21 and 1:22-23. “For me to live is Christ,” parallels 1:22, “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.” “And to die is gain,” parallels “My desire is to depart and to be with Christ, for that is far better” (1:23). I want to take a few moments and expound the significance of these parallels.
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No related posts

Today we come again to Mark 1:14-15. I think I might have one more meditation on this passage and then I will bring this series to a close. Mark writes for us,

Now after John was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God. He said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!”

Having made his announcement that the times of old have been fulfilled, all that the Old Covenant was supposed be and do has come to be realized by Jesus Christ; and that Jesus, the King of Kings, has come with the full authority of God’s kingdom, Jesus gives two commands: repent, believe the gospel. What do these commands look like in light that the king has come with and in his kingdom? In what way was Jesus/Mark wanting his hearers/readers to repent and believe in the gospel?
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The Jesus Christ Gospel part 2

Writing Scripture out

Mark’s King Jesus

In Deuteronomy 17 one will read of Moses’ anticipation of the king of Israel. Moses lays out certain guidelines for the king and how he shall act. One such guideline is to write out long-hand in good Hebrew the Pentateuch (or may be just Deuteronomy) on a scroll given to him by a Levitical priest. The king must carry this hand-written copy of the law and study it so that he may learn to fear Yahweh and obey him (Deuteronomy 17:18-19). My question is: what benefit would there be in hand-writing an entire book of the Bible to carry around and study every day? How acquainted would one get and what kind of understanding of a book of the Bible would develop if one were to write it down. Now if one were to do this, he or she would not have to write it down in Greek or Hebrew, though if you knew the languages it might help keep them fresh in your mind to do so, but a good English translation would work, the best would be the one you study and memorize from. Which also leads me to ask, how would writing out the full text of a book help in memorizing the Bible? I am curious as it what people might think about this.

A Hermenuetical Question

Justification and Christ’s life.

Grudem’s Response to Piper

John Piper’s new book, The Future of Justification is now available to read on-line at his website in a PDF format. I have just finished reading through the introductory material and the first chapter and I must say, this is going to be a good book. The sense I have thus far is that Piper really wants the reader to weigh out both sides of the debate and prayerfully and through careful study of Scripture, choose who is most correct. The part that really excited me about this book is the following excerpt from the introductory material,

Most significant of all was the feedback I received from N. T. Wright. He wrote an 11,000-word response to my first draft that was very helpful in clarifying issues and (I hope) preventing distortions.

Piper admits that this book is for the more academic audience and not for the common layperson sitting in the pews of a church. For those who want to understand more about the debate of the New Perspective on Paul (a.k.a. NPP) from the traditional Reformed view, check this out. Remember it is free if you read the PDF. If it is good enough, I’ll probably buy the book (This is one of the good things I like about reading through the on-line version. I can sample as much of the book I need to before I decide to pay for it. This is how I decided to get What Jesus Demands from the World. I read about twelve chapters from his website and felt I needed to have the book in hand to study what it said more in-depth.)

An Excerpt from “The Future of Justification”

Force Unleashed!

Liberalism, Jesus, and Eschatology

This past weekend was amazing. My church had a mens retreat. All of us guys went up to a church camp in Russville, MO (I think) called “God’s Mountain.” We were there Friday evening and Saturday morning and afternoon.

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A Hard Decision for Me

“Free Will Song”

Something to Chew On

I am moving ahead full steam in my series on “Objections to Calvinism.” The next three posts in this series will deal with objections that I have personally encountered, mostly at Theology for the Masses. In my previous post, I examined the objection that election is a source for pride. I argued that a person cannot truly understand Unconditional Election as the Bible describes it and yet become prideful and arrogant because of this election of God. It is unbiblical and defeats the reason why God elects unconditionally, namely to destroy human pride and declare the glory of God in Jesus Christ. So I am actually not going to go in the order I originally said I was going to go. I want to spend more time meditating on what I want to say about prayer. Today, I wish to examine the fourth objection that I listed, Predestination and Living a Holy Life.

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Objections to Calvinism Part 1 of 5

Objections to Calvinism Part 7 of 5

My Comfort in Romans 9

The first objection that I want to tackle in my series on “Objections to Calvinism” is that of Election and Pride. Now this is not an objection that has personally been raised to me. No one has actually said to me, “I am not a Calvinist because it makes you prideful and arrogant.” But I have heard of people raising that issue with others and so I’d like to tackle this issue first before getting into some objections that have been raised to me personally.

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Objections to Calvinism Part 1 of 5

Objections to Calvinism Part 7 of 5

My Comfort in Romans 9

Continuing in my series on different nuances to the meaning of the Greek word euaggelion in the New Testament, I turn to Paul’s words in Ephesians 6:15,

and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

Here we see that the gospel, euaggelion, is explained as peace. The good news is peace. When I see this I think of peace in two ways: peace with God and the peace of God. I want to speak briefly about both.

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When I think of “euaggelion” or “gospel”…

Another look into euaggelion

The Grace of “euaggelion”

One question that always gets some interesting answers is the question, can a regenerated disciple of Jesus Christ ever tell a lie? Can a Christian tell a lie and not be condemned for it? People line up differently on this issue. Here is an audio clip from John Piper that I think best sums up the biblical witness for this question. Yes godly people have told a lie in order to oppose wickedness and were not condemned by God. But those people were never praised for their dishonesty. Rather it was for something else that they were praised. Check out the audio for his more succinct and biblically supported answer to this massive question.

This Is So Unreal.

Here are some more quotes from the great John Owen, sometimes called the Jonathan Edwards of England.

The revelation … of Christ … deserves the severest of our thoughts, the best of our meditations and our utmost diligence in them … What better preparation can there be for [our future enjoyment of the glory of Christ] than in a constant previous contemplation of that glory in the revelation that is made in the Gospel.—Works, I, p. 275.

I must now say, that, after all my searching and reading, prayer and assiduous meditation have been my only resort, and by far the most useful means of light and assistance. By these have my thoughts been freed from many an entanglement.—Works, I, p. lxiii-lxiv.

A man preacheth that sermon only well unto others which preacheth itself in his own soul. And he that doth not feed on and thrive in the digestion of the food which he provides for others will scarce make it savoury unto them; yea, he knows not but the food he hath provided may bd poison, unless he have really tasted of it himself. If the word do not dwell with power in us, it will not pass with power from us.—Works, XVI, p. 76.

When the heart is cast indeed into the mould of the doctrine that the mind embraceth,—when the evidence and necessity of the truth abides in us,—when not the sense of the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the thing abides in our hearts—when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for—then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men.—Works, I, p. lxiii-lxiv.

Puritan Wisdom and Sin

Objections to Calvinism Part 1 of 5

πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων