November 2003 Archives

I wrote the following on a forum in regards to the "effectual call" of Christ to His sheep. I've changed the name of the poster to whom I'm responding to "dear reader." This turned into more or less a sermon, and I benefited so much from studying and writing this I had to make it available to you. I credit John Piper with highlighting 2 Corinthians 3:18-4:7 to me in a sermon from last month that continues to impact me.

This will primarily be an expositional trek. This is actually a mini-sermon, not just a post. I'm not apologizing for the length because I really believe that those who want to dig into the Word will rejoice with me as the Scripture is unpacked.

Someone asked:

Is it possible that this is what Paul meant in I Cor. 1? Do you regard the cross as foolishness because you are called, or can you be "called", because you do? You would have to reverse the entire Sermon on the Mount to completely achieve the "you are called, and then you do" theory.

Regardless, the point I was making was that those who believe are regarded as "the called" whereas those who don't are not. You said there was no evidence or reason to believe that Christ calls believes in a different (I'd use the words, "more precise") way than unbelievers. However, 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 reveals your assertion to be in error.

Furthermore, the deeper problem with what you have set forth is that Christ treats everybody precisely equally and always chooses people based on their characteristics. He is the ultimate passive egalitarian who responds completely according to the whims of grass. He can try to do things, but only if we agree. He is not permitted to take from the same lump and make a vessel for dishonorable use and another for honorable use in accordance with His grand designs. No, the clay must mold itself into whatever it wants to become apart from the potter's intervention.

Of course, this stands Paul's whole Romans 9 argument on its head, but I once again will use direct Scripture to teach us how we should understand the special calling. One from Jesus, and one from Paul.

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44)

In addition to the rest of the chapter, which talks about our part in redemption through belief and faith, Jesus says

1.1 "No man can come to Me" Every single human being is incapable of coming to Jesus. Yet, in 6:35, Jesus says that a) He is the bread of life, and b) whoever comes to Him will not hunger and he who believes in Him will never thirst. So you must come to Him to partake of Him, but Jesus says that no man comes to Him.

1.2 "unless" Contrast (glorious contrast!). While no human being is capable of coming to Jesus, He now explains how one can come to Him.

1.3 "the Father who sent Me draws him" The Father must draw Him. If you are hungry for the bread of life, the Father is drawing you. But do we take that to mean that the Father draws everyone?

1.4 "and I will raise him up on the last day." Who? The one that the Father draws. It doesn't say, "And the Father draws everyone, but I will only raise the one who exercises his own self-determining power to be good enough to choose me." How do we know this is the case?

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. (John 6:37-39)

He doesn't say, "All that the Father gives Me are enabled to choose to come to me if they want to." No, the one who chooses and wants to come to Him is the one whom the Father has given Jesus. The will of God is to receive all that the Father has given to the Son. This further clarifies the question I raised in verse 44.

No man is capable of coming to Jesus, the bread and water of life, unless the Father first draws him. We are that bad. The one whom He raises up on the last day is one and the same with the one that the Father draws. This leads to v. 40.

For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:40)

2.1 "For this is the will of My Father," That's all that we've been talking about. This is the will of God.

2.2 "that everyone who" Here are the qualifying distinctions:

2.3 "beholds the Son" Sees Him for who He really is.

2.4 "and believes in Him" Comes to Him, not only seeing Him but savoring Him.

2.5 "will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise Him up on the last day." Jesus equates eternal life with the same term, "raise him up on the last day."

Now, here's what we've observed so far: No man will behold and believe in Jesus unless the Father who sent Jesus draws him, and all that the Father draws are the ones He gives to the Son. The whole world can see Him physically, but they cannot taste Him spiritually. Is that so? We thus turn to Paul.

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

3.1 "But we all" That is, Paul and the Corinthians as indicated by the previous verses.

3.2 "beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord" This sounds like John 6's "that everyone who beholds the Son."

3.3 "are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory" Those who behold the glory of the Lord are being changed into His likeness the more they see His glory.

3.4 "just as from the Lord, the Spirit." From God the Spirit. The ability to behold the glory of the Lord and be concordantly transformed is from the Holy Spirit. Does this give us a clue as to what it means when the Father "draws" men?

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

Wow!

4.1 "And even if our gospel is veiled" That is, even if the clear gospel is not seen properly for what it is...

4.2 "it is veiled to those who are perishing" This is similar to 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. The message of the cross ("gospel") is foolishness and a stumbling block "to those who are perishing" (1 Corinthians 1:18). The gospel is veiled. How?

4.3 "in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving" The unbelieving cannot see the clear gospel because they are blinded by the god of this world. They cannot believe in something they are incapable of seeing. They are dead in their transgressions and God holds them accountable.

4.4 "so that they might not see" They cannot believe because they do not see. See what?

4.5 "the light" This will become very important.

4.6 "of the gospel" The good news. But why is it good?

4.7 "of the glory of Christ" The same "glory of the Lord" mentioned in 3:18. This is the good news further explained. That is what we who believe are beholding. Then, we must ask, "Why am I different from those who are perishing?"

For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. (2 Corinthians 2:6-7)

Here's the difference!

5.1 "For God" This is His doing, not ours.

5.2 "who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness'" Paul is likening salvation, regeneration and conversion, to creation when God called light into existence out of nothing.

5.3 "is the One who has shone in our hearts" Again, contrasted with those who are perishing. The God who called physical light into existence has caused spiritual light to shine in our hearts. To what end?

5.4 "to give the Light" See 4.5. God causes the blind to see the Light which they were previously blind to.

5.5 "of the knowledge" See 4.6. This is the gospel. He illuminates an unbeliever, by the Spirit, to see the gospel for what it really, a spiritual taste and relish.

5.6 "of the glory of God in the face of Christ" See 4.7. The parallel is unmistakable. We now see that Christ is not a stumbling block or foolishness, but power and wisdom! We come to the Light because we now can sense the Light!

5.7 "But we have this treasure" That is, the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

5.8 "in earthen vessels" Or jars of clay. We are fit to receive this message; we do not shape ourselves. Why? Why must this regenerating, eye-opening, Light-shining work be from God alone apart from anything we do?

5.9 "so that the surpassing greatness of His power will be of God and not from ourselves." !!! This is so that when we are given eyes to see, when we are given ears to hear, we may not say, "This was because I chose to see, or chose to hear." No, this is so we may say, "This work of regeneration, of effectual calling, of salvation, is a gift of God, not of myself. It's His value that matters."

O dear reader! Does that not prick you? Does that not cut you to the quick? Does not God's beckoning you to give Him all the glory in your salvation cause a deep delight and trust that it's not your doing but His? Does this not give you peace and assurance? Can you not look at your past and see all the places where you screwed up, and yet see His hand guiding you to understand that He has shone in your heart when you hated Him, that He gave you knowledge of Him when you were ignorant toward Him, that He gave you eyes to see when you regarded His infallible salvation as "foolishness," and that your salvation is not from you, but from Him?

O, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable are His ways!!! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again?

For from Him...
And through Him...
And to Him...
Are all things.
To HIM be the glory forever and ever.

AMEN.

I'm writing this from a fairly frustrated position.

Today I was visiting with some people and we were talking about worship. Some concerns were brought up that in our church, we sing a lot of songs with the words "I" and "me" and "my" in them, instead of the old hymns that focus on God. I am sympathetic to this concern. There are many out there who think that provided you use the name "Jesus" and get a few facts right about Him you must be worshiping the right Jesus and you spend all your services altering the lighting and singing one line over and over again to get people into an emotional frenzy and call it "worship."

However, I am just as concerned when I hear people rail on such experiences as if emotions were bad things and shouldn't be strongly engaged in worship. I believe this stems from a misunderstanding of what worship is and is something I believe my church is suffering from. I think my local fellowship doesn't have it clear why we spend 25 minutes of our Sunday morning singing songs to God. "If you asked 100 people in our church what worship means," a fellow member told me, "You'd get 100 different answers."

While an overstatement, I think that worship is rather ambiguous to us, and as a result we're suffering with the "worship wars" where one side wants this and the other side wants that and on the endless debate goes.

At this point I'm not going to lay out a thorough explanation of worship. John Piper does it as well as I've read anybody do it in his chapter Worship: The Feast of Christian Hedonism (Click to read) in Desiring God. This student cannot begin to dream he'll surpass his teacher in terms of clarity, simplicity, and warm truth. He defines worship in this way: worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of His worth. If you disagree, you might read the link to seek answers to your questions.

But I will at least bring up some misconceptions.

I was explaining how our emotions ought to be engaged in worship. Otherwise, why don't we just say our songs? Doesn't Paul in Ephesians 5:18-20 relate the filling of the Spirit by speaking to each other using singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord? Do not the Seraphim endlessly repeat the same lind over and over again, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD God Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory"? Couldn't it be that we should be affected with truth and if our hearts are not somehow engaged in when we sing, we are worshiping in vain?

The people to whom I was asking these things are dear friends of mine whom I love as a brother and sister in Christ. And yet my friend looked to my parents and said, "Is he getting Charismatic?" in a joking way. I realize it was a joke, and he wasn't being ugly about it. Yet I was frustrated that emotions in worship = Charismatic. Start talking, in earnest, about the wonder and awe and majesty and might of God... and start saying that people ought to feel the weight of glory... and you'll be labeled a Charismatic?

Those psalmists were sure Charismatic, weren't they?

I'm tempted to post the message as is, but I want to add a closing remarks. Not all Charismatics are shallow thinkers, though I do not identify myself with the movement for theological reasons. It is discouraging to me that in response to some shallow and undisciplined people we sacrifice genuine, rooted, heartfelt affection to God and our Savior who redeemed us so that we would exist forever to praise (i.e., enjoy!) the glory of His grace. We're just missing the point, folks.