Monday, September 28, 2009

Why God Allowed Sin to Enter His Creation

by Bruce Mills

Yesterday I taught on Romans 9:14-24, a passage which clearly deals with God’s sovereignty in election. In verse 22, Paul states, What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?” Now, I have dealt with that verse in a previous post on the doctrine of reprobation (2/18/08) so I will not rehash that issue.

However, one issue which we discussed yesterday dealt with God’s sovereignty in relationship to sin. This is a very serious issue in theology, because after all, if we have no answer for the horrendous things which take place around us, we might conclude either that God is impotent and incapable of dealing with such matters, or that He is a mean and vindictive tyrant who enjoys inflicting pain on His subjects.

So why does God permit evil in His creation? Why does He allow such events as a deranged gunman killing 32 students and faculty members on a college campus in Virginia in April 2007? What about mass genocide as has taken place in Bosnia and Rwanda within the past few years? What about radical Islamic terrorists flying commandeered airplanes into towers, killing thousands?

And why didn’t God simply wipe out Lucifer (Satan) at the very beginning when he rebelled? After all, He has the right and power to do that. In fact, Revelation 20:10 says he is will do just that someday. So why didn’t God cast him into the Lake of Fire the day after he rebelled? Why let him rampage through humanity for centuries?

What possible answer does Christianity have for such questions? Using material that I gleaned from both John Piper and John MacArthur, let me see if I can answer that.

The ultimate answer is that “all things have been created through [Christ] and for [Christ]” (Col. 1:16). Clearly God knew all that Satan would do if He created him and permitted him to rebel. So in choosing to create him, God was choosing to fold all of that evil into His purpose for creation. His purpose for creation was the glory of his Son. All things, including Satan and all his followers, were created with this in view. God created them knowing what they would do, and that knowledge was taken into account in God’s decision to create them. Therefore, the evil that Satan and his demonic forces do is simply one aspect of how God’s greatest and perfect purpose will be accomplished.

And in Romans 9:22, we learn that the entrance of sin into the world was necessary so that God could display His wrath, judgment, holy anger, vengeance, and justice. That’s why it says God was “willing to demonstrate His wrath.” His wrath is just as much an attribute of God’s nature as any other of His attributes. And so God allowed sin to enter into His perfect creation in order that He could display His holy wrath, because if there was no sin, He would have had no reason to display His wrath, and without His wrath, the fullness of the glory of God would not have been revealed.

Satan’s fall and ongoing existence are for the glory of Christ. Ultimately, Jesus Christ will be more highly honored, more deeply appreciated, and more deeply loved because He defeats Satan—not the moment Satan fell, but through millennia of enduring him and those who follow him “with much patience”--and decisively through His own death. A single, sudden, and infinitely holy display of power to destroy Satan immediately after his fall would have been a glorious display of power and righteousness. But it would not have been the fullest possible display of the full glory of the Son and the Father. God chose an infinitely wise way of displaying the full magnificence of divine glory by letting Satan fall and do his work for thousands of years.

The glory of Christ reaches its highest point in Christ’s obedient sacrifice on the cross where Jesus triumphed over the devil (Col. 2:15). Jesus said in that final hour of his own sacrifice, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him” (John 13:31). Paul said that the crucifixion of Christ is the point where we see his wisdom and power most gloriously displayed: “But we preach Christ crucified…the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23–24).

Satan, with all the evil and misery he brings to this planet, serves to magnify the power and wisdom and love and grace and mercy and patience and wrath of Jesus Christ. We would not know Christ in the fullness of His glory if He had not defeated Satan in the way He did.

Now, I understand that that’s not an easy answer to accept for many. But that’s the answer God gives us in Romans 9:22. Had there been no Satan and no sin, God couldn’t have displayed His wrath against sin and we wouldn’t have known that aspect of His nature. And because that aspect of His nature wouldn’t have been put on display, the full revelation of God’s glory would have been lost. So God created Satan and allowed and endured sin for the purpose of revealing His holy wrath in its judgment and its punishment. And it had to be so in order for God’s character to be fully revealed.

The text also says, “and to make His power known.” Here is another reason why God created Satan and permitted sin to enter His creation. First of all, He did it so that He could show His wrath. Secondly, He did it so that He could show His power.

How does God show His power in relationship to sin? First of all, in His judgment of sin. The closing chapters of the book of Revelation reveal the power of God in judging sin. If you read them, you will see the devastating plagues that He will one day send on the earth. You will see the great fiery judgments that He will bring upon men. And you will see Jesus Christ return as the conquering Lord, riding on a white horse, carrying a sword, wearing blood splattered garments as He comes to defeat Satan, his demonic forces, and the armies of the world and take the earth for His own possession so He can establish the millennial Kingdom. And after the final rebellion, you will see all of unredeemed humanity collected before the Great White Throne because God has the power to bring them out of the graves so that He can bring them before His judgment bar and then send them into the Lake of Fire forever. That is truly a demonstration of His unlimited power to judge sin.

And so, Satan and sin exist in order that God may fully glorify Himself and His Son, and demonstrate that part of His nature which is holy and reacts in violent wrath against sin and evil. And God created Satan and allowed sin in order that He could demonstrate His tremendous power as well as His vengeance, and His power is seen in its ability to conquer all that attempts to conquer Him.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Evangelism

by Robert Fraire

When a believer thinks about his responsibilities as a Christian, one that comes to the top of the priority list should be the need to evangelize the lost.

In this post I am going to look at what the Bible tells us is occurring as someone hears the gospel and responds. I am going to do this from two perspectives. First I will talk about how it looks to the people involved, then I'm going to look at what the Bible tells us is happening theologically during this event.

First we see that the Christian loves his friend and wants him to know the Lord Jesus Christ. His heart is heavy with concern over the prospect of his friend living his whole life and then dying where he will face judgement.

In Biblical terms the Christian's concern is well founded as scripture tells us that all men have sinned and therefore will face the wrath of God if they die in that condition. The Christian knows that this is true because he believes that the Bible is the written Word of God and he wants to please his Lord and savior by being obedient to him. But it isn't a forced obedience, because as a Christian he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And God constantly is transforming him to think and have the passions that Jesus did. This is the process of sanctification, the beautiful Lord Jesus is irresistible to him and he must tell his friend of this treasure. This passion also demonstrates that this man is truly redeemed.

So the Christian begins to tell the man how God changed his life. That the Bible states clearly that everyone including his friend is a sinner. And that God is just and righteous and so He must punish sinners.

What is the spiritual state of the unbeliever? Ephesians 2:1 tells us that men before salvation are spiritually dead in their sins. "Dead" means that men apart from God are NOT ABLE to please God in a spiritual realm. In fact men would be without any hope of pleasing God if not for a substitutionary work of Jesus Christ. It is essential that the person to whom we are proclaiming the gospel, be told this truth. As the Bible says, only the sick need a doctor: only the hopeless understand their need for a savior.

Now the friend begins to ask the Christian about these strange things he is saying and the Christian responds with the truth of scripture.

Romans 1:16 tells us that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. That God's will is that people will be saved through the hearing of the gospel. Another important point to consider is: how does this spiritually dead man understand the spiritual truth of the gospel? The Bible tells us that this occurs through God's action of regeneration. (John 3:5) And without God's action the friend will despise the gospel message and reject it.

The Christian tells his friend of the work of Christ on the cross and His resurrection. He then tells him that he must repent of his sin, desire to turn away from his sin and toward obedience to God. To trust that God is able and is willing to save him.

Luke 9:23-24: Jesus says that we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. This is what the Bible means by calling on the name of the Lord, or as John 3:16 says: "Believe in him" Salvation is of God, and God decreed that he would bring His chosen people to himself through faith in Jesus Christ. If this friend is chosen of God and it is the time God has chosen to draw him, then God will regenerate the man, and the man will understand the gospel and love the gospel message and the mercy of God.

The friend hears the truth and believes that it is true. He asks his friend: "how can I be saved?" And the Christan sets his focus on Christ and His finished work.

Saving faith is required by God. There are types of faith that do not save. The emotion based faith with die out, the fear based faith will cool. But when God draws the man, he will possess true faith.

The man prays asking God to save him. He then asks his friend how can he know that he is saved? The Christian opens the Bible to show him 1 John and tells him that those who love God will obey him, love fellow Christians, and repent of their sins.

Scripture never points men to rely on a "remembering the day you prayed to receive Christ"
The man who possesses true faith will live out that faith in obedience to Christ. James 2:17 tells us that true faith will have good works. It is a life characterized by walking in obedience to God that gives us assurance of salvation.


The evangelist operates in the human realm. We cannot see whether God has chosen the man to which we are preaching. But it doesn't matter because God knows who are His. We cannot see with our eyes whether the Holy Spirit has given the hearer new life to understand the gospel, but it doesn't matter because we are commanded to proclaim the truth, God will bring His people to himself.

Sometimes we want to have a fool proof way of knowing who is called. And we want a fool proof way of knowing if a person's profession of faith is real, but God, in His wisdom has said that we will not be able to know, therefore we trust God and worship Him as the sovereign Lord of Salvation.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

The Cost of Faithfulness

by Bruce Mills

I was recently reading some of the stories of suffering Christians around the world that are listed on the Voice of the Martyrs web site (www.persecution.com). Those accounts of the things which faithful saints are experiencing for the name of Christ should cause each of us to pray for them and to realize that it is only by God's grace that we who live in the west have not had to undergo the serious forms of persecution that many of our fellow believers in the east experience on a regular basis.

But there are two things of which we can be certain because Jesus told us it would be this way: (1) Persecution is the normal response to any forthright Christian witness or public stand, and (2) We will experience persecution to the extent that we confront the world with Christ’s claims. The message of Christ is very narrow and exclusive, and our world’s desire for an all-inclusive religion of tolerance doesn’t fit well with the gospel. Those Christians who are willing to stand up and tell people that they are lost and on their way to an eternal hell unless they repent and turn to Christ in saving faith are going to suffer persecution for saying such.

It may be as subtle as being shunned and avoided by your neighbors and co-workers. It may be more direct, such as being told that you are not permitted to keep your Bible on your desk at work or to speak of Christ to fellow employees, even during free time such as lunch breaks. It may be that you are called derisive terms to your face such as “Jesus freak” or “Bible thumper.” But in many other parts of our world, it may mean imprisonment or even a death sentence if you speak of Christ or give someone else a Bible.

Persecution is never pleasant, but in John 16:33, Jesus said, “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” And in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:10-12, He said, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” So there is a promise of God’s blessing for those who endure persecution for His name. Persecution may separate you from a more lucrative worldly future or a more attractive image before the world, but persecution will never separate you from Christ’s love.

In Hebrews 11:36-38, the writer tells us what types of persecution the Old Testament saints endured for God’s name. He writes, "and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground."

The cost of faithfulness to God has always been high. In fact, in Matt. 10:37-39, Jesus raised the cost to a level to which many people are unwilling to pay. He declared, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

What was He saying? He was saying that Jesus Christ must be more important to you than even your family. You must be willing to reject your parent’s religion and turn your back on their desires for you if they conflict with submitting to Jesus Christ. You must be willing to turn your back on your children if it means choosing between them and Jesus Christ. You must be willing to die for Him or your profession of love for Him isn’t genuine. That’s what He means by that statement.

If a professing Christian turns his back on the things of God or lives a habitual, persistent lifestyle of sin, that is proof that he never belonged to Christ in the first place. Such people have not lost their salvation because they never genuinely possessed it. I was recently asked about the verse which says, “But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” Guess where that verse is found? It’s found in Matthew 10:33, right there in the same passage in Matthew where I quoted Jesus' statement about the cost of following Him. Those who deny Him here, He will deny before the Father because He never really knew them. They were never genuine believers.

Here’s what the apostle John said in 1 John 2:19 about those kind of people who come into the church and claim to be Christians for a while, but then walk away and abandon their claim to believe in Christ: “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”

If the things of the world continually keep a person from the things of God, that person proves he is not a child of God. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, many thousands of people walked great distances to hear Him preach and to receive physical healing for themselves and their loved ones. At His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the crowd acclaimed Him as their Messiah and wanted to make Him king, but a few days later, the fickle crowd was calling for His crucifixion, and after His death when the cost of true discipleship became evident, most of those who had once hailed Jesus were nowhere to be found. In fact, according to Acts 1:15, there were only 120 followers left after His ascension.

In Luke 9 Jesus encountered three different men who claimed they were willing to follow Him. Luke 9:57—As they were going along the road, someone said to Him, “I will follow You wherever You go.” That sounds like a wonderful statement. This guy was probably the first guy to ever sing the hymn, “Wherever He Leads, I’ll Go.” But Jesus knew his heart, and so He said to him—verse 58—“The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” In Matthew’s account of this same event, he identifies this guy as one of the scribes, so he would have placed great value on comfort and respect, and he probably saw Jesus as his ticket to gain more of those things in the future. So Jesus tells him that He’ll have to give all that up to follow Him.

Then in verse 59, the Lord calls another man—And He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.” That man didn’t mean that his father had just died, but rather that he wanted to postpone commitment to Christ until after his father eventually died, at which time he would receive his portion of the family inheritance. Look at what Jesus told him in verse 60—But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” In other words, “Let those who are spiritually dead take care of their own fleshly interests; you focus on eternal matters.” As Warren Wiersbe puts it: “He was worried about somebody else’s funeral when he should have been planning his own!” You have to be willing to die for Christ.

Finally, there was a third man in verse 61—Another also said, “I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say good-bye to those at home.” Look at the Lord’s reply to him: “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Someone might say, “Oh my, Jesus’ answer sounds so heartless. Why would He forbid someone to say goodbye to their family?” The problem with this guy was that his heart was looking backwards with devotion to his family rather than forward with devotion to the Lord.

There is nothing wrong with a loving farewell to one’s family. Elijah allowed Elisha to do that in 1 Kings 19. Elisha was plowing his field when Elijah called him into the Lord’s service, and Elisha asked if he could return home and kiss his parents goodbye. Elijah gave him permission, but reminded him that the call of God was upon him. So, in order to show that his heart was looking forward with total commitment to serve God and Elijah, Elisha went home, slaughtered the oxen he plowed with and sacrificed them. And he used the yoke and plow as the wood for the fire. That demonstrated his total commitment to not turn back. He served the meat to his family, then left and joined Elijah (1 Kings 19:20-21).

But in this man’s case, Jesus saw that his heart was not wholly with Him, and that he would be plowing and continually looking back, making his family more important than Christ. If you look backwards when you’re plowing, you will inevitably demonstrate that you aren’t a true plowman. In the same way, those who look backwards and make their family more important than Jesus, demonstrate that they aren’t true disciples.

In his commentary on these verses in Luke, the great Anglican bishop of the 1800s, J. C. Ryle, writes,

“…it is impossible to serve Christ with a divided heart. If we are looking back to anything in this world, we are not fit to be disciples. Those who look back, like Lot’s wife, want to go back. Jesus will not share His throne with anyone—no, not with our dearest relatives. He must have all our heart, or none.

So, only the true believer perseveres, not because he is strong in himself, but because he has the power of God’s indwelling Spirit. His perseverance does not keep his salvation safe, but proves that his salvation is genuine. Those who fail to persevere not only demonstrate their lack of courage, but much more importantly, their lack of genuine faith. God will keep and protect even the most fearful person who truly belongs to Him. On the other hand, the bravest of those who are merely professing Christians will invariably fall away when the cost of being identified with Christ becomes too great.

I challenge you to ask yourself, am I willing to sacrifice everything in this world, including my family and my own life, for the sake of Jesus Christ? Only those who are genuine believers can honestly answer that question in the affirmative.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

God's Sovereign Control Over Our Circumstances

by Bruce Mills

"For not from the east, nor from the west, nor from the desert comes exaltation; but God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another" (Psalm 75:6-7)

As I was reading the Scriptures this morning, I came across this familiar passage and was reminded that all of the political and economic turmoil which surrounds us is entirely within the sovereign control of our heavenly Father. All the debate over healthcare reform, the war in Afghanistan, whether or not the economy is recovering, and the overall direction toward which our nation is headed is entirely under God's providential direction. Nothing takes place without His designing and directing it to achieve His glory and His eternal purposes. He raises up those whom He desires to lead us, and He removes those whom He desires to remove.

What peace that should bring to our heart! The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is the most comforting of all doctrines because it reminds us that every event is entirely under His control. Nothing takes Him by surprise. Not even Satan has power to act apart from God allowing and even authorizing him to do so (cf. Job 1:8-12). As difficult as that is to comprehend (and it certainly isn't fully understandable to our finite minds), knowing that no one and no thing operates outside of the authority of God Almighty is a tremendously comforting thought. Regardless of what happens to our family, our finances, our health, our nation, and even our freedom, we are never outside of the providential hand of our sovereign Lord who is working all things together for the good of His children (Rom. 8:28). What a tremendous encouragement that should be to our fearful hearts!