I've been reading The Holy Spirit, written by the late Arthur Pink (1886-1952), and published posthumously. It has been an amazing study of the Scripture's teaching on the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, both in the life of the Christian, and in the operation throughout the world (Christians and non-Christians included).
Instead of writing a typical post from my own studies, I thought that I would share from this book a section that to me has been enormously profitable. In this section, Pink outlines 18 parallels between Christ's coming into the world and the Spirit's coming into the world.
As one who lives and breathes Scripture (not in the sense that I perfectly embody Scripture--rather just that I constantly study, read, think, pray it, etc.), seeing connections therein which are obviously there to prove Sovereign God's goodness and transcendent intelligence has proven again and again to be fire-starting in my heart. Things like these cause me to glorify God, with the psalmist, saying, "Your testimonies are my delight--they are my counselors...I find my delight in your commandments, which I love!" (Ps 119:24,47), so that my prayer becomes, "Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments" (119:73), because His Word has proven to be more desirable "than gold, even fine gold, and sweeter than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb" (19:10). By His grace, I've begun to understand that I live "by every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Deut. 8:3, restated by Jesus in Mt. 4:4). Seeing parallels such as what follows prove a real delight to the eyes and heart of faith. Hopefully as you see the similarities between Christ's Advent and subsequently the Spirit's Advent, you'll cry out with me, "Oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" (Rom. 11:33)
Before you read, remember one thing: Jesus, the night He was betrayed, told His disciples, "It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you" (Jn 15:7). Without sacrificing reverence to the Name of our Sovereign Lord and God Christ Jesus (the only Name by which man can be saved), we understand His words to mean this: Whereas He, after dying to pay for sins and then rising from death, was to go to sit at the Father's right hand to intercede for His people until He returns finally (see Ps 110:1, Mt 26:64, Eph 1:20, and cross-references), the Holy Spirit would be sent to His people to replace Christ's physical presence on earth. The coming of Christ (His Advent) was to dwell on earth and then pay for sins, and the coming of the Spirit (His Advent) was to apply Christ's work to Christ's people and dwell with them until Christ returns (see Jn 14:16). Thus noticing the parallel is appropriate. That said...
1. Whereas Christ was present in the Old Testament (Ac 7:37-38, 1 Cor 10:4) but the fullness of His presence was to be realized in the New Testament, so it was with the Spirit that He was present with God's people in the OT (Neh 9:20, for example), but the fullness of His presence was realized in the NT.
2. Christ's Advent was predicted and foretold in the OT (as is well documented), but so was the Holy Spirit's (which is much less documented) (see Ps 68:18, Is 32:15, Ezek 36:26, etc.).
3. As Christ had John the Baptist to "prepare the way" for His coming, the Holy Spirit had Christ to prepare the way for Him.
4. Christ was sent by God "when the fullness of time had come" (Gal 4:4), just as the Spirit was sent by God "when the day of Pentecost was fully come" (Ac 2:1, KJV, also in Greek text).
5. Just as the Son of God was made incarnate in the Holy Land of Israel in Palestine, so the Holy Spirit of God descended first in the Holy City of Jerusalem.
6. The "angel choir" sang at Christ's coming (Lk 2:13) while was a "sound from heaven" at the Spirit's (Ac 2:2); likewise the "Shekinah glory of the Lord shone" around those present at Christ's coming (Lk 2:9) and there were "tongues of fire" which rested on those present at the Spirit's (Ac 2:3).
7. An extra-ordinary star marked the house where the Christ-child was (Mt 2:9), while a divine (truly extraordinary) shaking marked the house where the Holy Spirit was (Ac 2:2).
8. Whereas Christ was first made known to a few, but when manifested to Israel, was publically identified (Mt 3:17, Jn 1:29), so the Spirit was first made known to a few, but when manifested to Israel, was publically identified (by Peter--see Ac 2:16-36).
9. As Christ became a man, dwelling in a human "temple" (Jn 2:19), so the Spirit came to dwell in the bodies of those who belong to Christ (Jn 14:16), so that they are "God's temple, in whom His Spirit dwells" (1 Cor 3:16).
10. When Christ was born, "Herod and all of Jerusalem with him were troubled" (Mt 2:3), whereas when the Spirit came, with its loud sound, "the multitude (in Jerusalem)...were bewildered" (Ac 2:6).
11. While it was predicted that Christ would be unrecognized and underappreciated (see Is. 53), so also Christ predicted about the Spirit that "the world can't receive Him, because it doesn't see him or know him" (Jn 14:17).
12. As the Messianic claims of Christ were called into question (see Jn 7:40-52, and cross-references), so also the people, when the Spirit came, "were amazed, and doubted, saying 'What does this mean?'" (Ac 2:12).
13. As Christ was termed a drunkard (wine-bibbler, KJV) (Mt 11:19), so when the Spirit came, those filled with Him were accused of being "drunk with new wine" (Ac 2:13).
14. As the public Advent of Christ was heralded by John the Baptist (Jn 1:29), so the Spirit's was interpreted by Peter (Ac 2:15-36).
15. God appointed Christ to the work of purchasing His people's redemption (Mt 10:45), and so He appointed the Spirit to APPLY said redemption (see Romans 8:10-13).
16. As in Christ's work "the Son honored the Father" (Jn 14:10), so in His work, "the Spirit glorifies the Son" (Jn 16:13-14).
17. As the Father told the Son's disciples to "listen to Him" (Mt 17:15, cross-references), so the Son tells His Church to "hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Rev 2:7).
18. As Christ committed His true peoples' safe-keeping to His Spirit (Jn 14:16, 16:7, 2 Cor 2:22, Eph 1:14), so His Spirit is committed to delivering Christ's true people to Him (Jn 14:3).
I trust that reading this has been as profitable and fulfilling as it was when I first read it. God's Word is good, Christ as Lord is wonderful, and knowing Him truly is eternal life. Go in the Spirit, for "all who live by the Spirit are sons of God" (Rom 8:14).
Scott Stine - Pastor of First Baptist Church, Newton NJ. Follower of Jesus; husband, daddy, PhD student, too distracted by basketball.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Righteousness From Christ
"...in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith..."
Philippians 3:8-9
I was recently reading a Time Magazine publication that compared different religions, and it said that fundamentally Christianity was simply "following Jesus' example." Now whereas the need to follow His example is a fundamental aspect (see Rom 15:1-7, Phil 2:5-8, for example), to describe this concept as the whole of Christianity's scope is a misunderstanding.
Jesus tells His disciples in Acts 1:8 that when the Holy Spirit comes on them, they will "bear witness about (Christ)". Primarily the message the disciples were to preach was the Gospel (Mk 16:15) of Jesus' Person and work and all that He accomplished. This is why Peter immediately begins preaching Jesus as the Christ promised from the Scriptures (Ac 2:16-36) followed by a call to forsake self (repent) and take on Christ's Name to receive the same Holy Spirit (2:37-39). Later, as Peter is in the Temple in Jerusalem, he preaches Christ as "the Author of Life" (3:15--an unheard of designation to a "mere man") and then he challenges the people to "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus" (3:19-20). So the message is Christ's Person and work on the cross (2:23-24, 3:14-15), the application is forgiveness of sins as they're "blotted out", and the challenge is repentance for the sake of receiving Christ and His Spirit. Later on, Peter, before his Christian brothers in the Jerusalem Council, summarizes the effect (application) of Jesus' work by saying "We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus" (15:11). So this saving is something that happens by grace and the One who initiates it is Jesus. It's His grace that saves us. And the transaction is, in order, His work, our forgiveness, and His Spirit dwelling in us (Jn 14:16-17), as He promised.
Later, Paul explains even further. In Romans 1-2, he has been laboring to show the effect of sin and peoples' ignorance of God and His righteousness since the beginning. He concludes the section in 3:9-11 "All, both jews and greeks, are under sin...None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God." If this were the case, then even man's intellect is under sin--so as man attempts to "follow Jesus' example", he'd continually fail, because in his sin, he can never be sure if he's living in truth, or if he's missing the mark, sure that he's doing "a good job" while JESUS doesn't think he is. To be "under sin" is to be enslaved to it, meaning that righteousness in and of one's self is entirely impossible. Jesus himself had said this in Jn 8:34: "All who sin are slaves to sin". This means that one can try and try to save himself by good works and by even obedience, but sin will always win out.
So Paul says next, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested...the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe...all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received in faith" (3:21-25). With these words Paul explains the riddle of the transaction we saw earlier--it is Jesus' work (propitiation--a sacrifice of judgment, whereby he redirects God's wrath over our sin from us to Himself by taking the sin onto Himself) which brings justification, and this justifying (counting people righteous though they aren't righteous) is received "by his grace as a gift...to be received in faith". With these words Paul explains to us that salvation before a holy God can only be received as a gift, because man is too sinful to be able to DO anything to save himself. This is the whole point of why Jesus had to come--if man could be righteous by himself, "Christ died for no purpose" (Gal 2:21). But Christ came and was righteous for me, and in his suffering, my sin is dealt with, and faith in Jesus' Person and work of suffering and dying instead of me justifies me entirely before God. In this, God is "just, AND the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom 3:26). I'm saved by faith in Jesus' work.
It is no coincidence that each sermon in Acts is 95% about Jesus's work and only 5% about our response (those of course are not actual figures). This is because salvation is worked when one understands what Jesus has accomplished, because when they understand it, if it be received in faith, they are justified. RC Sproul has said "justification by faith alone is one of the simplest of concepts, and yet it is one of the most difficult to accept". The reason for this is that man wants to feel in control and that he could be righteous if he wanted to (and many think they ARE). But man isn't in control and he isn't righteous...he is enslaved to sin...He's a sinner who can't stop. "The intention of man's heart is evil from the time he's a youth" (Gen 8:21); "the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick--who can understand it?" (Jer 17:9); "all who sin are slaves to sin" (Jn 8:34); "the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God..it does not submit to God's law, indeed it can not" (Rom 8:7). Man is not righteous before a holy God, because a holy God expects holiNESS, and unless man be completely holy, he has no righteousness before God.
But the reason why Jesus came was to provide a way...THE Way (Matt 7:14, Jn 14:6, Act 16:15). And this "Way" is very simply what HE has done. Speaking of the sin and subsequent death that came into the world through Adam "and spread (from him) to all men, because ALL sinned" (Rom 5:12), Paul continues by saying, "If, because of one man's trespass (Adam's), death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ" (5:17). Death came through Adam because Adam sinned; but grace and the gift of righteousness has come through Jesus Christ. "One act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men...by one mans disobedience (Adam's) the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience (Christ's) the many will be made righteous" (5:19).
Do you understand? It is Adam's sin which brought death and condemnation (though we are responsible, because we've all sinned!); but it is Christ's righteousness and obedience which brings something else...righteousness! It is Jesus' living a perfect life, entirely righteous and obedient before the Father, and then pouring out His life on the cross in obedience that, received by faith, connects me with His righteousness, and accounts His righteousness to me. "He became sin...that (I) might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21). Though I'm NOT righteous in and of myself, Jesus is, and faith in His Person and work accounts me righteous, on the basis OF His Person and work.
But what does it mean to "have faith in Jesus"? What is "belief in Jesus"?
First, it's something that must be believed in the heart (Rom 8:10). Second, since the heart is deceitful and sick (Jerem. 17:9), only the Holy Spirit of God can enlighten the heart and draw it to Christ. "It is the Spirit which gives life; the flesh is no help at all" (Jn 6:63). "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12:3). Just as only the Father can draw the wayward sinner to Christ (Jn 6:44), only the Father can reveal to the spiritually dead sinner that Jesus is the Christ (Matt 16:15). "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9), because only the Lord can illumine the person to understand that before a righteous and holy God, they have no righteousness or holiness. And when they realize this, they are confronted with the truth of the Gospel--that gracious and wonderful and life-giving truth: "by Christ's obedience, YOU are made righteous...to be received in faith".
This is why it's nowhere near sufficient to say that Christianity is fundamentally about following Jesus' example. Of course, "even the demons believe, and shudder!" (Jms 2:19). But belief, for the Christian, is trust...trust in what? In the righteousness of Christ to make me righteous before a righteous God. I, in and of myself, have no righteousness. It is all Christ, or it's nothing. Yes, I believe, but only because the Spirit quickens me. Yes I follow Jesus' example, but only because God has accounted Jesus' obedience to me by grace through faith. It completely takes the onus off of me, and puts it on Jesus. Not what I do--what HE does, and what He continues to do. Otherwise, the Gospel isn't good news at all--it's just another religious theory for how to present yourself before God. But the Christian gospel IS good news because it's the news about what Jesus has done for us--and when it is believed on and trusted in, then "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor 5:17).
This is why (in the Philippians passage) Paul wants to be "in Christ", not having a righteousness of his own but the righteousness from God through faith in Christ. Paul knows that Paul doesn't HAVE any righteousness...his righteousness can only be that which is from Christ. When you understand this, it's wonderful. And when you know it's all you'll ever need, it begins to be all you ever want.
Philippians 3:8-9
I was recently reading a Time Magazine publication that compared different religions, and it said that fundamentally Christianity was simply "following Jesus' example." Now whereas the need to follow His example is a fundamental aspect (see Rom 15:1-7, Phil 2:5-8, for example), to describe this concept as the whole of Christianity's scope is a misunderstanding.
Jesus tells His disciples in Acts 1:8 that when the Holy Spirit comes on them, they will "bear witness about (Christ)". Primarily the message the disciples were to preach was the Gospel (Mk 16:15) of Jesus' Person and work and all that He accomplished. This is why Peter immediately begins preaching Jesus as the Christ promised from the Scriptures (Ac 2:16-36) followed by a call to forsake self (repent) and take on Christ's Name to receive the same Holy Spirit (2:37-39). Later, as Peter is in the Temple in Jerusalem, he preaches Christ as "the Author of Life" (3:15--an unheard of designation to a "mere man") and then he challenges the people to "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus" (3:19-20). So the message is Christ's Person and work on the cross (2:23-24, 3:14-15), the application is forgiveness of sins as they're "blotted out", and the challenge is repentance for the sake of receiving Christ and His Spirit. Later on, Peter, before his Christian brothers in the Jerusalem Council, summarizes the effect (application) of Jesus' work by saying "We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus" (15:11). So this saving is something that happens by grace and the One who initiates it is Jesus. It's His grace that saves us. And the transaction is, in order, His work, our forgiveness, and His Spirit dwelling in us (Jn 14:16-17), as He promised.
Later, Paul explains even further. In Romans 1-2, he has been laboring to show the effect of sin and peoples' ignorance of God and His righteousness since the beginning. He concludes the section in 3:9-11 "All, both jews and greeks, are under sin...None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God." If this were the case, then even man's intellect is under sin--so as man attempts to "follow Jesus' example", he'd continually fail, because in his sin, he can never be sure if he's living in truth, or if he's missing the mark, sure that he's doing "a good job" while JESUS doesn't think he is. To be "under sin" is to be enslaved to it, meaning that righteousness in and of one's self is entirely impossible. Jesus himself had said this in Jn 8:34: "All who sin are slaves to sin". This means that one can try and try to save himself by good works and by even obedience, but sin will always win out.
So Paul says next, "But now the righteousness of God has been manifested...the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe...all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received in faith" (3:21-25). With these words Paul explains the riddle of the transaction we saw earlier--it is Jesus' work (propitiation--a sacrifice of judgment, whereby he redirects God's wrath over our sin from us to Himself by taking the sin onto Himself) which brings justification, and this justifying (counting people righteous though they aren't righteous) is received "by his grace as a gift...to be received in faith". With these words Paul explains to us that salvation before a holy God can only be received as a gift, because man is too sinful to be able to DO anything to save himself. This is the whole point of why Jesus had to come--if man could be righteous by himself, "Christ died for no purpose" (Gal 2:21). But Christ came and was righteous for me, and in his suffering, my sin is dealt with, and faith in Jesus' Person and work of suffering and dying instead of me justifies me entirely before God. In this, God is "just, AND the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom 3:26). I'm saved by faith in Jesus' work.
It is no coincidence that each sermon in Acts is 95% about Jesus's work and only 5% about our response (those of course are not actual figures). This is because salvation is worked when one understands what Jesus has accomplished, because when they understand it, if it be received in faith, they are justified. RC Sproul has said "justification by faith alone is one of the simplest of concepts, and yet it is one of the most difficult to accept". The reason for this is that man wants to feel in control and that he could be righteous if he wanted to (and many think they ARE). But man isn't in control and he isn't righteous...he is enslaved to sin...He's a sinner who can't stop. "The intention of man's heart is evil from the time he's a youth" (Gen 8:21); "the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick--who can understand it?" (Jer 17:9); "all who sin are slaves to sin" (Jn 8:34); "the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God..it does not submit to God's law, indeed it can not" (Rom 8:7). Man is not righteous before a holy God, because a holy God expects holiNESS, and unless man be completely holy, he has no righteousness before God.
But the reason why Jesus came was to provide a way...THE Way (Matt 7:14, Jn 14:6, Act 16:15). And this "Way" is very simply what HE has done. Speaking of the sin and subsequent death that came into the world through Adam "and spread (from him) to all men, because ALL sinned" (Rom 5:12), Paul continues by saying, "If, because of one man's trespass (Adam's), death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ" (5:17). Death came through Adam because Adam sinned; but grace and the gift of righteousness has come through Jesus Christ. "One act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men...by one mans disobedience (Adam's) the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience (Christ's) the many will be made righteous" (5:19).
Do you understand? It is Adam's sin which brought death and condemnation (though we are responsible, because we've all sinned!); but it is Christ's righteousness and obedience which brings something else...righteousness! It is Jesus' living a perfect life, entirely righteous and obedient before the Father, and then pouring out His life on the cross in obedience that, received by faith, connects me with His righteousness, and accounts His righteousness to me. "He became sin...that (I) might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21). Though I'm NOT righteous in and of myself, Jesus is, and faith in His Person and work accounts me righteous, on the basis OF His Person and work.
But what does it mean to "have faith in Jesus"? What is "belief in Jesus"?
First, it's something that must be believed in the heart (Rom 8:10). Second, since the heart is deceitful and sick (Jerem. 17:9), only the Holy Spirit of God can enlighten the heart and draw it to Christ. "It is the Spirit which gives life; the flesh is no help at all" (Jn 6:63). "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12:3). Just as only the Father can draw the wayward sinner to Christ (Jn 6:44), only the Father can reveal to the spiritually dead sinner that Jesus is the Christ (Matt 16:15). "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2:9), because only the Lord can illumine the person to understand that before a righteous and holy God, they have no righteousness or holiness. And when they realize this, they are confronted with the truth of the Gospel--that gracious and wonderful and life-giving truth: "by Christ's obedience, YOU are made righteous...to be received in faith".
This is why it's nowhere near sufficient to say that Christianity is fundamentally about following Jesus' example. Of course, "even the demons believe, and shudder!" (Jms 2:19). But belief, for the Christian, is trust...trust in what? In the righteousness of Christ to make me righteous before a righteous God. I, in and of myself, have no righteousness. It is all Christ, or it's nothing. Yes, I believe, but only because the Spirit quickens me. Yes I follow Jesus' example, but only because God has accounted Jesus' obedience to me by grace through faith. It completely takes the onus off of me, and puts it on Jesus. Not what I do--what HE does, and what He continues to do. Otherwise, the Gospel isn't good news at all--it's just another religious theory for how to present yourself before God. But the Christian gospel IS good news because it's the news about what Jesus has done for us--and when it is believed on and trusted in, then "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor 5:17).
This is why (in the Philippians passage) Paul wants to be "in Christ", not having a righteousness of his own but the righteousness from God through faith in Christ. Paul knows that Paul doesn't HAVE any righteousness...his righteousness can only be that which is from Christ. When you understand this, it's wonderful. And when you know it's all you'll ever need, it begins to be all you ever want.
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