The True Sovereignty of God

Robert Charles Sproul, also known as R. C. Sproul, or just R. C. was born February 13, 1939, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is a Reformed theologian and pastor. He is the founder and chairman of Ligonier Ministries which was named after the Ligonier Valley just outside of Pittsburgh. This ministry was started as a study center for college and seminary students. This program can be heard daily on the Renewing Your Mind radio broadcast in the United States and internationally. "Renewing Your Mind with Dr. R.C. Sproul"

Ligonier Ministries hosts several theological conferences each year, including the main conference held each year in Orlando, Florida, at which Sproul is one of the primary speakers. Dr. Sproul is also the pastor of St Andrews Chapel in Sanford, Florida.

Freedom or Bondage of the Will Part II

Does the Unregenerate Man Possess Free Will?

Part II

Choices, Consequences, and Control

 

The 1689 London Confession of Faith makes the following points in Chapter nine, entitled, Free Will:

1. God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty and power of acting upon choice, that it is neither forced, nor by any necessity of nature determined to do good or evil. (Matthew 17:12; James 1:14; Deuteronomy 30:19)

2. Man, in his state of innocence, had freedom and power to will and to do that which was good and well-pleasing to God, but yet was unstable, so that he might fall from it. (Ecclesiastes 7:29; Genesis 3:6)

3. Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto. (Romans 5:6; Romans 8:7; Ephesians 2:1, 5; Titus 3:3-5; John 6:44)

4. When God converts a sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin, and by his grace alone enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so as that by reason of his remaining corruptions, he doth not perfectly, nor only will, that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil. (Colossians 1:13; John 8:36; Philippians 2:13; Romans 7:15, 18, 19, 21, 23)

5. This will of man is made perfectly and immutably free to good alone in the state of glory only. (Ephesians 4:13)

The Bible teaches that Adam and Eve had both freedom and power to choose to do good and to do what pleased God. Adam and Eve were also able to choose to do evil and that which was not pleasing to God. Of course we know from Scripture what they chose and what happened.

All of Adam’s progeny were born in a state of bondage to sin by virtue of possessing a nature that is in absolute bondage to sin. As a result mankind does not have the ability to choose to the good by God’s standards thereby pleasing God according to His standards.

Mankind does not have the ability, freedom, nor even the desire to choose to do the good according to God’s standards unless God specifically intervenes and gives a new nature to a man. God must act to free a man from the bondage of his own sinful nature and give him a new nature that both desires to do the good according to the standards of God and the ability to that aforementioned good. This is what redemption does. Peter tells us that at salvation we become a partaker of the divine nature.

However, everything we do now even by the prompting and motivation of this divine nature is still tainted by the residual of the sin nature that still remains in us. Although the sin nature was crucified in Christ on the cross it remains rotting away, corrupting all that we do for God.

It is only when we get to heaven that we are totally free from the very presence and influence of sin that we are able by virtue of our transformation into immortal bodies that we are able to fully please God without the taint of any sin.

So, we do not posses a totally free will prior to salvation or eve after salvation. The free will that was possessed by Adam and Eve will not be restored to us until we are in heaven.

If Pelagian and his teachings were deemed to be heretical, why does this idea of free will remain today? It remains because men picked up the teaching of Pelagius and attempted to refine it in order for it to be accepted. It became knows as: Semi-Pelagianism

After Pelagianism was declared to be heretical with the help of men like such as Augustine, it went underground. It later resurfaced in a milder, more palatable form. Although the original semi-Pelagian differed in many areas, the general teachings of Semi-Pelagian are as follows:

• Contrary to Pelagius, the sin and corruption of Adam did pass on to his posterity causing disease, suffering, mortality and a propensity toward evil.

• Therefore, man needs divine assistance if he is to do anything spiritually good.

• But contrary to the pure grace system of Augustine they taught: 

       o  “That the beginning of salvation is with man. Man begins to seek God, and then God aids him.”

       o “That this incipient turning of the soul towards God is something good, and in one sense meritorious.”

       o “That the soul, in virtue of its liberty of will or ability for good, cooperates with the grace of God in  regeneration….”

Although there are differences between Semi-Pelagianism and classical Arminianism, the similarities between Semi-Pelagianism and what is taught in many modern evangelical churches is striking. Most modern evangelicals do not believe that man is really spiritually dead and totally depraved as a result of the fall but merely that man is spiritually sick. In other words man still has spiritually ability and thus can make a move toward Jesus and even choose Him if the right techniques are employed.

Semi-Pelagianism as was Pelagianism was condemned as heresy. It was rejected by the church. However, Satan was not finished. In his attempts to corrupt the church, biblical doctrine and the redemptive process, he moved to develop what we know as:  Arminianism

Arminianism is named after a Dutch theologian called Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609). Armius was a professor in Leiden. He began to challenge the Protestant teachings of the day, particularly in his Dutch Reformed denomination. After his death is teachings were further developed by his followers into what became known as “the five theses of the Remonstrant Articles. These are now simply known as the five points of Arminianism. Here is what Arminianism teaches about the sin of Adam and Eve and what man’s state became after the fall:

Free Will or Human Ability. Although human nature was seriously affected by the Fall, man has not been left in a state of total spiritual helplessness. God graciously enables every sinner to repent and believe, but He does so in such a manner as not to interfere with man’s freedom. Each sinner possesses a free will, and his eternal destiny depends on how he uses it. Man’s freedom consists of his ability to choose good over evil in spiritual matters; his will is not enslaved to his sinful nature. The sinner has the power either to cooperate with God’s Spirit and be regenerated or to resist God’s grace and perish. The lost sinner needs the Spirit’s assistance, but he does not have to be regenerated by the Spirit before he can believe, for faith is man’s act and precedes the new birth. Faith is the sinner’s gift to God; it is man’s contribution to salvation.

Arminianism is similar to Semi-Pelagianism in that it teaches that man still, even though he was hurt by the fall of Adam, man still has the ability to choose good and to come to God on his own prompting God to respond to him. Although Arminianism was condemned by the Synod of Dordt (1618-1619) and was soundly and thoroughly refuted by Scripture, it spread throughout the whole world; permeated every branch of Protestantism; and came to thoroughly dominate modern evangelicalism and fundamentalism.

How? John Wesley came on the scene in the late 1700’s. He and his followers made some changes in Arminian teachings. They taught that as a result of the fall man’s depravity was total; that the natural man does not have any intrinsic power to cooperate with the grace of God. Wesley maintained that since Christ died for all men without exception and they are justified in Him, this guilt and total depravity is immediately removed at birth. As a result, Wesley held that all men come into the world with an ability (bestowed by Jesus) to cooperate with God in salvation. The Wesleyans called this new system Evangelical Arminianism.

Charles Finney

“Issues &; Etc.” says, No single man is more responsible for the distortion of Christian truth in our age than Charles Grandison Finney. His "new measures" created a framework for modern decision theology and Evangelical Revivalism. In this excellent article, Dr. Mike Horton explains how Charles Finney distorted the important doctrine of salvation.

Why is Charles Finney so popular? Horton states; “He is the tallest marker in the shift from Reformation orthodoxy, evident in the Great Awakening (under Edwards and Whitefield) to Arminian (indeed, even Pelagian) revivalism. evident from the Second Great Awakening to the present. To demonstrate the debt of modern evangelicalism to Finney, we must first notice his theological departures. From these departures, Finney became the father of the antecedents to some of today’s greatest challenges within evangelical churches, namely, the church growth movement, Pentecostalism and political revivalism. Reacting against the pervasive Calvinism of the Great Awakening, the successors of that great movement of God’s Spirit turned from God to humans, from the preaching of objective content (namely, Christ and him crucified) to the emphasis on getting a person to "make a decision."

As a result, what is now taught is a weak, humanistic and man-made formula that is nothing more than “easy-believism” or decisional-regeneration. In many evangelical churches people are told to come to the front of the church (“the altar call”), choose Christ, or pray a prayer and the result will be that God will respond to man’s act or choice and then man will be born again. In other words, man cooperates with God and allows God to save him. This teaching is very different from the biblical view that men are dead in trespasses and sin and the Holy Spirit raises the dead heart to life, regenerates it and causes it to savingly embrace Christ. 

Satan took his time, but in his attempt to destroy the sovereignty of God in salvation, he developed a unique system that we see in most of our churches today. He began with Pelagius, refined that doctrine into Semi-Pelagianism, combining and refining that doctrine with Arminianism. He was happy to see men like John Wesley and Charles Finney come along to take up his doctrine of “free-will” and the synergistic teaching of salvation.

As lengthy as this has been, and yes I am over my word count, at least you now have the answer to the question, where did the idea of “free-will” come from. We will finish this entire discussion off in the next few days with a look at the doctrine of predestination.

Freedom or Bondage of the Will? Part I

Does the Unregenerate Man Possess Free Will?

 Part I

Choices, Consequences, and Control

The concept of free will reared its ugly head in the fifth century when a British monk living in Rome in absolute horror, rejected a prayer of Augustine. The prayer was, “Grant what Thou commandest and command what Thou doest desire.” It absolutely horrified Pelagius that God’s divine assistance was required to perform any duty or function that God commanded of man. Pelagius held that if God commanded a man to do something then man was able to comply with God’s command from within himself.

Augustine along with the overwhelming majority of biblical scholars, theologians, and church leaders knew that as a result of the fall of man, mankind lost the capacity of "free-will." As I explained in yesterday's post Adam and Eve had been created with the capacity to choose to remain obedient by choosing righteousness, or they could choose to be disobedient and choose unrighteousness. We know from the Genesis account that they exercised this capacity and chose disobedience and unrighteousness.

From Cain, Abel, and Seth onward we as human beings do not have the same capability. Do not confuse our ability to make hundred's of choice a day with the capacity that they possessed and lost. Yes, you chose the time you get up, to the kind of coffee that you drink, to the clothes that you will wear, and etc.

Having been born spiritually dead, human beings do not have the capacity to choose to do righteousness as Adam and Eve did. The choices and decisions that we make are all limited by the sinful nature that we inherited by Adam. By Gods' standards, not by man's standards, human beings do not have the ability to choose or desire righteousness. All the choices we make are within the framework of our sin nature.
We are free to choose or to make choices but not outside of that sinful human nature.

Pelagius rejected the idea that the original sin of Adam and Eve carried forward into the offspring and progeny of Adam and Eve. Pelagius denied that sin was imputed or charged to man as a result of the fall of Adam in the Garden. Pelagius believed at worst, Adam’s sin was designed “to set a bad example” to all of his progeny. Pelagius did not believe that there were consequences because of Adam’s sin.

As a matter of fact, Pelagius believed that the human will after Adam’s fall was capable of choosing good or evil without any divine help or assistance. Pelagius taught that man, after the fall was in full control of himself and thereby capable of obeying God and responding to God perfectly and on his own. Pelagius taught that man could by his own will and choice live a sinless life. Pelagius’ teachings are summarized in a book he wrote called In The Defense of Free-will. He complied a list of 18 points. Eventually, Pelagius and his teachings were denounced as heresy as early as 529 AD. At least three other councils deemed the teaching of Pelagius as heretical.

Pelagius was opposed by Augustine of Hippo, one of the most influential early Church Fathers. When Pelagius taught that moral perfection was attainable in this life without the assistance of divine grace through human free will, Augustine contradicted this by saying that perfection was impossible without grace because we are born sinners with a sinful heart and will.

Augustine did not deny that fallen man still has a will and that the will is capable of making choices. He argued that fallen man still has a free will  but has lost his moral liberty. The state of original sin leaves us in the wretched condition of being unable to refrain from sinning. We still are able to choose what we desire, but our desires remain chained by our evil impulses. He argued that the freedom that remains in the will always leads to sin. Thus in the flesh we are free only to sin, a hollow freedom indeed. It is freedom without liberty, a real moral bondage. True liberty can only come from without, from the work of God on the soul. Therefore we are not only partly dependent upon grace for our conversion but totally dependent upon grace.

If you set fresh meat and straw in front of a lion which do you think he will eat? He will eat the fresh meat. Why? It is the nature of a lion to eat fresh meat. It may be the nature of a cow or a horse to eat straw, but the nature of a lion is to eat meat. Your nature can only choose to sin. Why? Because your nature is bent toward sin, it is biased by sin and that is because of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. Even in the good that we choose to do is tainted by the sin of our sin nature.

Man's powers of decision are free to choose whatever the human heart dictates; therefore there is no possibility of a man choosing to please God without a prior work of divine grace. Since the fall of man, man does not desire to please the God of the bible.

What most people mean by free will is the idea that man is by nature neutral and therefore able to choose either good or evil. This simply is not true. The human will and the whole of human nature is bent to only evil continually.

Jeremiah asked, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil" (Jer. 13:23). It is impossible. It is contrary to nature. Thus do men desperately need the supernatural transformation of their natures; else their wills are enslaved to choosing evil.

Pastor Steve Weaver writes, "A good definition of free will is the ability of the mind to make choices in accordance with our natures. This definition of “free will” also applies to God's free will. He too is bound by His nature. Therefore, He cannot sin! Why? Because it is not His nature! But God does have a free will and, unlike human beings, He has an accompanying good and holy nature."

Jonathan Edwards said that "the will is the mind choosing: though there is a distinction between mind and will, the two are inseparable in action. We do not make a choice without our mind’s approving that choice. We always act according to the strongest inclination at the moment of choice. We choose according to our strongest desire at a given moment."

You see the problem is not with the will of man. We all possess a will. The problem is not the will - it is the nature of man. Because it is not man's nature to do a thing, he is not free to do the thing.

Recommended Reading:

Martin Luther: The Bondage of the will
Jonathan Edwards: The Freedom of the will
R. C. Sproul: Willing to Believe; Chosen by God
R. C. Sproul: The Pelagian Captivity of the Church

Adam and Eve: God's Perfect Work Part II

Adam and Eve: God’s Perfect Work

Perfection, Preference, and Problems

Part II 

The story or account of Adam and Eve is very interesting. The account brings many questions to mind that we wished God would have answered for us. For example;

• What did Adam and Eve look like?

• Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?

• How long between Adam’s creation was Eve’s creation?

• How long were they in the Garden of Eden?

• What would it have been like had they not disobeyed God?

• What were those trees really?

The question had been asked were Adam and Eve perfect in very way or only physically? This is a good question. We can only go to the Scriptures to obtain any insight that might help us to answer this question. 

Yesterday, I laid the foundation for creation by stressing two difficult but definite points:

• By faith, I trust that God created the heavens and the earth as stated in Genesis and held throughout the Scriptures without apology or defense.

• Scripture demonstrates that God was fully self-sufficient, self-contained, and self-satisfied from everlasting to everlasting and did not create anything out of compulsion, necessity, or self-benefit.

Genesis 1:1 states clearly, concisely, and without defense or apology that. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” God then proceeded to create light, day, night, and an expanse in the middle of water, heaven, dry land, vegetation, stars, sun, moon, sea creatures, birds, and animals. Then God created his crowning creation – man. Verse 31 reads, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” As a matter of fact throughout the creation account God said, “it was very good” at least six times during the creation account, for a total of seven times.

The Hebrew word “good” refers to practical, abstract, quality, and moral goodness. The word gives us the idea of complete, every part in perfect harmony with every other part. In God’s judgment, given seven times, all of his creation was good or perfect. No aspect of his creation or creative powers lacked anything. At this time there was nothing that was not good, no perfect, and not working in perfect harmony with everything else, including Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were created perfectly in every way.

It seems that Adam was created a fully mature and able to function fully as any other man. He was probably created in his mid thirties. We do know that he was able to function sexually since after Eve’s creation they were to multiply and fill the earth. They were created without sin and with all the knowledge that God intended them to have. They could speak immediately. Adam could name the animals. He had the capability to obey God and to tend or till the garden. Adam, it seemed, only had one thing to learn.

Why do you think God brought all the animals to Adam? God knew what they were since he had created them. He chose to use this lesson to show Adam and ultimately to you and me, that it was not good to be alone or without a mate. All the animals had mates; otherwise they couldn’t multiply and fill the earth. As they paraded by Adam, he was able to see that each animal had a mate, one like itself, but somewhat different. Adam would be able to see and sense that there was no mate for him.

God took care of that. He put Adam to sleep and from his rib, from his bone and flesh God created a mate, Eve for Adam. She must have been a “raging” beauty. She was perfectly formed by God himself. Since Adam had nothing to compare her to he would have been completely enamored by her.

Guys, this is free, and a footnote, but this is why you were to be a virgin for your wife and why any interest in nudity of other women whether physically, digitally, from magazines, movies, etc creates such a problem: we are not to compare our wives to anyone else, but we are to be completely enamored by her. Teach your sons and grandsons to be pure, virgins, and free from sources that create an opportunity to compare their future wives against. Discipline yourself from lust and the desire for nudity of other women.

Proverbs 5:19 says, “…let her [wife] breasts fill you at all times with delight; [not someone else’s breasts] be intoxicated always in her love.” [ESV]

We don’t know how long Adam was in the garden before Eve was created. He had enough time to do some tilling and tending since God gave that job to him. Adam also needed enough time to name the animals. God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with people, in chapter one.

Yvonne, you can tell your daughter that Adam and Eve initially did have two sons, Cain and Abel. But due to two unique and temporarily divinely instituted principles by God, they had more sons [Seth] and daughters by which they populated the earth.

First, it seems that prior to the flood mankind lived much longer than we do today. For example Adam lived to be 930 years old. Methuselah lived to be 969 years old. There is no reason, no evidence, and no information available to deny or restrict these years from being 360 or 365 day years. I fully believe Adam lived to be 930 years.

Second, the prohibition or introduction of incest was not in effect nor given until the law. So, initially brothers married sisters and produced children. Eventually cousins married cousins producing children until the earth was populated.

Then after the flood, God seems to drastically limit the days of mans live to 70-80 years as an average, (Psalms 90.) We see some people today exceed that limit and live to be around 110-115. I personally know a man who is 107. He attended our church until he was 105 but he just can’t get around now. But I digress.

So, there they were in a garden where God had supplied all of their needs; from companionship, food, shelter, and even work. They created perfectly in every way and fully functioning. Yes, probably, with belly buttons. But one, we don’t know, and two, it doesn’t matter.

There seems to be one other area of great interest concerning the creation of Adam and Eve. It seems they were created with the capacity to choose freely without restraint good or evil.

In Genesis chapter two beginning in verse 16 we read, “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden., but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”

Adam and Eve, like the angels initially, were created with a capacity that we call “free-will.” Since God told Adam not to eat from those trees, the obvious truth tells us that he could choose to eat or not to eat. He was made aware of a very severe penalty if he chose to disobey, but he was given a choice. We know that by Genesis 3:7, both Adam and Eve exercised that capacity and chose to disobey, thereby choosing unrighteousness by eating from the tree of knowledge. Withing both Adam and Eve was an ability to choose. It was not only an ability to choose but it was an ability or capacity to act upon and realize that choice. Adam and Eve could choose to act upon and realize righteousness or they could choose to act upon and realize unrighteousness. They were able to choose to refrain eating the forbidden fruit or they were able to choose to eat the forbidden fruit. If they did not have this capacity then God would have been both unfair and unjust to give them choice.

Now, the question is this; did each of the progeny of Adam and Eve maintain that same capacity after the sin and fall of Adam and Eve? Do we as the descendants of Adam and Eve posses what is called “free-will?” Do we have the choice to choose between righteousness and unrighteousness? Are we able to choose, apart from any intervention of God, to do righteousness?

Where did the term “free-will” come from? Why is it so prevalent in our churches and theology today? Is this really the issue ?

We will examine and answer each of these questions in the next two or three posts. I know some of you know the answers to these questions and this will be good review for you. Some do not have the correct answers and I hope to demonstrate the truth from Scripture for the glory of God and the good of all. Stay tuned. Thank you for reading and thanking your for commenting.

Adam and Eve: God’s Perfect Work Part I

Perfection, Preference, and Problems

I hope to use the part of June to talk about Adam and Eve and their creation. I plan on addressing the issue of “free-will” in these posts about Adam and Eve. I also hope to use June to discuss topics such as when things don’t make sense, and the question do we stop trying in life and fly by autopilot. In addition I would like to get to why we seek praise and recognition. I also want to address the issue of does God change, repent, or regret.

My plans for July will include discussing the topic of prayer. This is a great issue. It is tremendously misunderstood. I also want to discuss why we are to pray in view of the fact that God is sovereign and has determined his will and purpose.

I truly wish I could be like the Apostle Paul who reminded the Ephesian Elders that he had taught them in public and from house to house. I wish I could teach daily in your houses. I have to suffice with this.

First, for the record, I rarely debate anyone on the subject or topic of creation verses evolution. I especially avoid debate with individuals who demonstrate that they are more than likely non-believers. The reason for this is found in Hebrews 11:2 –

“By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (Hebrews 11:2, ESV)

Creation is a faith issue not an intellectual issue. Debating a non-believer about creation is like debating the merits of the hypo-static union. I have found it more profitable to share the gospel as clearly as possible and then pray fervently for the Holy Spirit to perhaps open the heart through life-giving regeneration. Proving that God created the world to a man which doesn’t believe in the God of the bible is like trying to prove the validity of the bible to a non-believer. These things are faith issues that come after a man has been given faith by God through the regenerating power of the gospel. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation, not winning a debate on creation verses evolution.

So, I said that to say that for this and any following posts I am going to begin in Genesis and by faith, I accept the creation account as accurate without an attempt to validate it. If you are reading this post and are you not a believer, it is my prayer that you stop what you are doing right now, fall on your face before God and plead with him to have mercy on you, asking if perhaps he will be gracious to give his life-giving Holy Spirit to you in order to open your heart, regenerating you, thereby giving you both the gift of faith and the desire to repent of your sin against the living God.

Were Adam and Eve “perfect” in every way or only physically? That is an interesting question, one of which I have never been asked. However, I believe it is worth an answer, especially since it helps us explain what “free-will” really is.

First of all, let’s lay some foundation in order to support the framework of this discussion, shall we? God is not a created being – he has existed forever. Now, how long is forever? Well, forever! Yes, forever is forever. Can you wrap your mind around the fact that God has always existed and that he existed alone, apart from anything else for eternity?

As human beings we see everything as having a beginning. Paper began as a tree. You began on a certain day that most people celebrate with joy called your birthday. Your automobile began with steel, rubber, cloth, metal, and mostly plastic. All those items began somewhere as a resource; natural or man-made. We think of everything as having had some type of beginning. God did not; he has existed forever, and ever, and ever, and ever until our mind hurts trying to contemplate how that could possibly be. God had no beginning. God always was. Are you dizzy yet?

Secondly, God existed forever fully self-sufficient, self-contained, and satisfied. Meditate carefully on this statement: “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” (John 5:26, ESV)

God is self-sufficient – God is what he is in himself. Whatever God is, and all that God is, God is it in himself. God is self-contained. God had no needs. God did not lack anything. God needed nothing, no not one thing. For all of that forever, for all the time that God existed prior to what we call creation God existed in full sufficiency without having one need.

If God had a need it would mean that God was incomplete in his divine being. God would then be less than perfect. There was a time when God existed apart from anything. He existed with no heaven, no angels, no seraphim, no cherubim, no universe, and no earth. There was nothing but God. This wasn’t for just a day, a week, a month, a year, or a trillion billion, quadrillion years – he existed from everlasting.

Thirdly, God did not need to create heaven, angels, universes, or human beings. When God did choose to create these things they added nothing to God in his essential being. What does Malachi 3:6 say? “For I the LORD do not change, therefore you, O children of Jacob are not consumed.” (Mal 3:6, ESV) God does not grow from any addition nor does he diminish from any subtraction. I hope I don’t burst your bubble, but you nor I add anything to God. There where no deficiencies in God that prompted or coerced God to create anything, including you and me. He could have gone for everlasting without every creating a thing remaining perfectly self-contained, self-sufficient, and self-satisfied.

Fourth, God was under no constraint, necessity, or obligation to create. He maintains a relationship with his creation voluntarily. He chose to create all that he did from a sovereign act on his part. Why did he create? Having established that it wasn’t because he was lonely, had a need, or was bored, I think the answer is simple. Of course the answer comes from the scripture and seeing a consistent theme from Genesis to Revelation.

God created in order to manifest, or to demonstrate, to put on display his glorious character and nature. Meditate carefully on Nehemiah 9:5; “…stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. ‘Blessed be your glorious name – watch now, don’t miss it – which is exalted above all blessing and praise.” (Neh 9:5, ESV)

Did you see it? God’s name, which of course name is a representation of God’s character, or all that God is, is exalted above blessing or praise. In other words, God’s character supersedes and transcends even our praise. God does not gain by our praise and worship; we do not add one thing to God, his character, or his glory by praise. So, why does he command our praise and worship? First of all, because He is worthy of praise. Secondly, it is to complete your joy.

Let me share this truth with you that I learned from John Piper. He learned this truth from C. S. Lewis. I really want you to get this. C. S. Lewis describes his insight from his book Reflections on the Psalms.

“But the most obvious fact about praise -- whether of God or anything -- strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it.

The world rings with praise -- lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game -- praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians and scholars…

My whole, more general difficulty, about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing, about everything else we value.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are, the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. (Reflections on the Psalms, pp. 93-95)

What does Lewis mean? Did you get what he meant? Do you see what he said? He said… We praise what we enjoy because the full enjoyment is not completed until our enjoyment is expressed in praise. If we are not allowed to speak of what we value or enjoy or delight in, our joy would not be full or complete.

Therefore God makes it His aim to win our praise for Himself, Not because there is a weakness or flaw in God and it is not because God is compensating for some kind of deficiency, but God seeks our praise because he loves us and wants your joy to be full or complete. Your joy of God can only be full or complete when you are praising him and exalting him.

So, when God says in Ephesians 1 that He does all things for “…to the praise of His glory.” He is giving you and me the only thing that can satisfy of our all heart, the opportunity to fulfill our joy by praising Him.

Lord willing, until tomorrow.

Job: A Story of Love and Loss Part II

Pawns, Props or Possessions?

I should have my head examined. When I begin to teach and to put forth ideas of loving God solely for which He is rather than for anything that God might give us or even protect us from, my convictions are tested. When I refer to Job or to James chapter one, and even Habakkuk 3: 17-19 God says, OK Gregg, do you really believe this or do you simply teach it? The last few days since I have been dwelling on this topic have challenged me, challenged me to my core as God continues to mold me through various trials.

We left off yesterday having minutely stated that Job’s wife, his ten children, his servants; his status and his livestock were not the central theme of the book of Job. The central theme of the book of Job is simply – is God worthy to be loved for who God is rather than for what God gives us or does for us? This is important in order to learn from Job’s experience the valuable truths and principles God recorded for our benefit.

In this post, I want to deal with the question or actually statement that it seems as if Job’s “family, possessions, and anything else he holds dear are just inconsequential parts of the story… Job’s children are just helpless pawns in a game between God and Satan.”

The issue is, as it always is, viewpoint. Whose viewpoint do we consider when we humbly and honestly come to these conclusions? This is a crucial question which demands a correct answer.

First, Job’s wife, children, servants, etc. are not pawns in a game or contest. Satan has viciously impugned God’s character. He has accused God of what we would consider to be bribery. Satan has also impugned an extension of God, Job, of having unrighteous motives. God, being, God has every right to respond to this challenge as he pleases.

Second, you must stop viewing this story and every other “story of life” from a human perspective. I know since we are human that is the natural reaction. I also know that throughout history and particularly in our country since the late 1700’s or early 1800’s God’s sovereign ownership and providence has been challenged. Nay, not just challenged, but rejected. 

When God placed Adam and Eve in the garden he told them that the day in which you sin, you will surely die. (Genesis 1:17) We know from further revelation in scripture that Adam and Eve did die that day spiritually, and they began to die physically. At this point God had every right to deal with Adam and Eve as he saw fit. He could have destroyed them right there and then. They transgressed his law, they despised him, and they had no defense. They did not deserve anything but that which God has said would take place, they would die. 

We know, from having the “rest of the story” that God chose to extend his grace to them. He gave them what they did not deserve; continued life and a covering for their shame and sin. This leads us to some difficult conclusions.

First, God does not owe any of us anything including life. Life is not a “right” or desert. God doesn’t owe us anything length of days on this earth whatsoever. If we are given life it is a gift from the grace of God. God does not owe us a long and prosperous life either. There is no evil in God, nor has God wronged anyone if their life span is any shorter or any longer than any other human being.

Second, since God is the creator, God is the owner of all that he has created. Ouch! God has the sovereign right to do as he sees fit with his creations. (Romans 9:21) If God chose to give life to Job’s ten children it was an absolute gift of grace that they were given. If God chose to end those lives in their early to mid thirties or forties then God has that right. 

Third, since God is holy, righteous, just, and perfect, nothing that He does is wrong or evil. Through everything that God does his attributes are working perfectly and harmoniously in alignment with his character.

God had a definite purpose in giving permission to Satan to destroy his crops, kill his animals, servants, and precious children. God’s purpose was to show to Satan that Job did love God for who God was and that Job loved God more than anything else. If God owed Job’s children anything at all, one might say they were helpless pawns. If God wronged Job’s children in any way, one might say they were helpless pawns. God did not owe his children anything other than perfectly righteous treatment. God dealt righteously with Job’s children, he gave them life, allowed them to enjoy his manifold blessings, and then as God promised, sinners die. They complied with the righteousness of God. If they didn’t die then God would be unjust. He never promised anyone Job’s children a certain amount of days nor does he promise us any certain number of days.

God does not play games. Nor does God unjustly or righteouslessly use people. God is very serious about his character, his nature, or what is often refered to as his glory. He will not give his glory to another. (Isaiah 42:8) God was not going to give glory to Satan by allowing his challenge to stand, nor was God going to give his glory to Job for being smart enough to worship God for what he could get from God.

By the way, Job wasn’t even considered important in this story. God never answered Job’s questions. God never explained himself to Job, nor did God defend his actions. As a matter of fact in Job thirty eight God appears to Job and actually takes Job to the “proverbial” wood shack for a “shellacking” if you know what I mean?

What was important in this story was God’s character. God is worthy to be loved even if my crops are destroyed, my wife tells me to curse God and die, my servants are killed, my livestock is destroyed, and my ten precious children are taken from me.

Now, I know that many people resent and reject a God like this. They reject a sovereign God who has absolute control and ownership over them. They reject the notion that God does as he pleases for his ultimate good and glory including taking lives of human beings. But remember, nobody is innocent. We are all born in bondage to sin and we are born with depraved natures. God owes us nothing. God doesn’t do anything apart from or in violation of his character. 

That doesn’t stop the majority of the human race from either rejecting God outright (Romans 1) or inventing a God of their own imagination. (Romans 1:23) So, we imagine a God in our own heart or mind that we can love, or that we can accept, or that we are comfortable. This “imagined” God is always less than what God has been revealed in the Scriptures – therefore this imagined God is an idol and we are often guilty of idolatry.

God did not wrong Job or his children. He took from Job what was precious to Job in order to show Satan that Job treasured God and his relationship with God more than any earthly possession, including his children.

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21)

“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10b) By the way, Job seems to have used the Hebrew word “evil.” This of course was considered to be evil by human standards – that Sabeans, Chaldeans, lightening and wind would kill all that he had. This word also is translated as affliction, hurt, trouble, and even mischief. Job is not accusing God of treating him by means of being evil. Job is correctly assessing that all things, good or bad, that come upon us are from the hand of God.

I know I am over my word count. However, I wanted to put this to rest. Job was not the important issue in this story, nor was his children and possessions pawns. God owed Job or his children nothing. God chose to use what was his in a means that he chose in order to demonstrate to Satan that God is righteous in all that he does and that Job did fear God for who God was rather than having been bribed.

Job: A Story of Love and Loss Part I

Pawns, Props, or Possessions?

“God whispers to us in health and prosperity, but, being hard of hearing, we fail to heard God’s voice in both. Whereupon God turns up the amplifier by means of suffering. Then his voice booms.” (C. S. Lewis)

The story of Job is an amazing story to me. I am ashamed to admit how I actually came about studying Job so intently. As a preacher/teacher I am very careful when it comes to handling the Word of God. There is a lot of hard and long work involved in preparing a passage of scripture for teaching. Accurately exegeting a passage of Scripute is not as easy as some think, at least how they demonstrate in their poor teaching. So, if you are preaching or teaching and it is obvious you have not put in the work that you should have and you “lose” me, I tune out and turn to Job. Unfortunately, over the years I have turned to Job many, many times. I have come to love and cherish this story. Let me bring some clarity to this account.

First of all, and for the record, the objective of the story was not to highlight Job as an important part of the story, while making his wife, children, possessions, and health as inconsequential. Job is not the ultimate character in the story. Nor is what happens to Job the ultimate purpose of the story.

The ultimate “character” in this story is God. The question that is being demonstrated to Satan and the angels – is God worthy to be worshipped for his character? Remember the question that Satan asked God after God brought up Job? Satan said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?” What was Satan asking with that question? He was stating that Job only worshipped or feared God because of what Job got out of the deal. In other words, Satan was telling God that Job only feared him because God had bribed Job into fearing him.

Satan was stating with that question, that Job fears you because you have given him enough “goods” to fear you. He fears you because he has received from you five hundred yoke (1,000) of oxen, 500 hundred donkeys, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, servants, status, and children. The flip side of Satan’s coin was this – if you did not give these things to Job he would not fear you. That is an amazingly wicked accusation. Satan was telling God that God was not worthy to be worshipped for who he was.

Can you see the cynicism dripping from Satan as he threw out this accusation? You see Satan does not really see Job as truly being righteous. Satan does not believe that Job is essentially good. Worse than this, Satan commits a more horrific crime than this; Satan does not believe that God is truly righteous in his generosity towards Job. Did you get that? Does that break your heart? Does it cause you to want to jump up and throttle Satan? Satan did not believe that God or Job were righteous in their actions.

Satan believed God only gave Job those things so that Job would fear him. Satan believed Job only feared God in because God gave him those things. Satan knows that most religious people are religious for what they can get. Yes, even those who give it all away, live as ascetically as possible, while serving in the most despicable places known to man. If they are merely religious they are doing it for the benefit they think will be theirs by way of reward. But bottom line religious people are religious for what they can get. 

Satan is accusing both Job and God of having artificial righteousness. Satan implies that both God’s and Job’s motives are wrong, but also have never been tested. Satan is saying that Job is a fake and that God you are no better than Job. You have secured Job’s devotion by bribery – you secured his fear by shielding and protecting him.

Wow, Satan is really living up to his middle name isn’t he? What is his name? Accuser! The bible says that Satan accuses the brethren (Christians) night and day to God. (Rev 12:10) Thank God, Jesus Christ is our intercessor at the right hand of God!

Satan has challenged God. He has essentially said that no real love for God would exist unless there was something in it for the one who “loved” God. Satan is saying Job would not love, fear, or worship God simply because of God’s glorious character.

This is the theme of the book – is God so good that he can be loved for himself and not for his gifts? The theme isn’t Job’s faith, or Job’s life. It isn’t his loss of health, wealth, and family. It isn’t even the contest of Satan and God. There is no game; and this is why there are no pawns. The question is simply this; is God so good in his glory, holiness, majesty, mercy, love, goodness, patience, longsuffering, grace, faithfulness, and etc. to be loved if that was all the recipient were to receive. Think about it!

The majority of the world are just what Satan thinks. They are just what Satan accused Job of being; being in it for what he could get. People like a “god” who will be good to them, give them things, make them wealthy, keep them healthy, and take care of them. People want a God that is like themselves, a God who fits there pattern. As a matter of fact, God charged Israel with that very sin, "You thought I (God) was like you."

We see this attitude in the parable of the sower in Luke 8. The seed that fell among the rocks had no soil to but roots down into for nutrients and water. That "seed" believed for awhile but when testing came, when sickness came, the job was lost; the spouse abandoned them "seed" fell away. People like what they hear about a loving and kind God but when they are tested even a little bit they walk away.

Satan was counting on Job doing this. Job you are in it for what you can get. So Satan says to God, “…stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” (Job 1:11, ESV)

Do you love God? Do you treasure God? Why? Do you love God for all that God is (all of his glorious character and nature) or do you love God for what God has given you? If God were to take everything you have right now away from you, family, health, job, children, spouse, home, and even your reputation, would you still love, adore, fear, and worship God? 

First, of all this is hard to do. We are human. Our first tendency is to say, "Man, God is good" when we receive a blessing, especially an unexpected blessing. He is good. His blessings are good. He delights in us! But what do we say when the phone rings with the worst news we could ever imagine? Do we say, "Praise God, He is good?"

It takes discipline - discipline in understanding God's character as well as we can, discipline to think as Job thought - both good and evil come from the hand of the Lord for our good and His glory. Discipline to say that, yes the enemy may have attacked me today through any number of means,  but, since God permitted it, approved it, gave the enemy the ok, God must have some good in this for me and it will glorify His character, therefore, God is good - thank you Lord for this ________.

Lord, willing tomorrow we will look at the question: were Job’s children helpless pawns in a game between Satan and God.