Wayne Grudem on the Impeccability of Christ, part 2 of 4

The following is a continuation of Grudem's Systematic Theology, pp. 536-37.

In connection with Jesus’ sinlessness, we should notice in more detail the nature of His temptations in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13). The essence of these temptations was an attempt to persuade Jesus to escape from the hard path of obedience and suffering that was appointed for Him as the Messiah. Jesus was “led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness, tempted by the devil” (Luke 4:1-2). In many respects this temptation was parallel to the testing that Adam and Eve faced in the Garden of Eden, but it was much more difficult. Adam and Eve had fellowship with God and with each other and had an abundance of all kinds of food, for they were only told not to eat from one tree. By contrast, Jesus had no human fellowship and no food to eat, and after He had fasted for forty days He was near the point of physical death. In both cases the kind of obedience required was not obedience to an eternal moral principle rooted in the character of God, but was a test of pure obedience to God’s specific directive. With Adam and Eve, God told them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the question was whether they would obey simply because God told them. In the case of Jesus, “led by the Spirit” for forty days in the wilderness, He apparently realized that it was the Father’s will that He eat nothing during those days but simply remain there until the Father, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, told Him that the temptations were over and He could leave.

We can understand, then, the force of the temptation, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread” (Luke 4:3). Of course Jesus was the Son of God, and of course He had the power to make any stone into bread instantly. He was the one who would soon change water into wine and multiply the loaves and the fishes. The temptation was intensified by the fact that it seemed as though, if He did not eat soon, His very life would be taken from Him. Yet He had come to obey God perfectly in our place, and to do so as a man. This meant that He had to obey in His human strength alone. If He had called upon His divine powers to make the temptation easier for Himself, then He would not have obeyed God fully as a man. The temptation was to use His divine power to “cheat” a bit on the requirements and make obedience somewhat easier. But Jesus, unlike Adam and Eve, refused to eat what appeared good and necessary for Him, choosing rather to obey the command of His heavenly Father.

The temptation to bow down and worship Satan for a moment and then receive authority over “all the kingdoms of the world” (Luke 4:5); was a temptation to receive power not through the path of lifelong obedience to His heavenly Father, but through wrongful submission to the Prince of Darkness. Again, Jesus rejected the apparently easy path and chose the path of obedience that led to the cross.

Similarly, the temptation to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple (Luke 4:9-11) was a temptation to “force” God to perform a miracle and rescue Him in a particular way, thus attracting a large following from the people without pursuing the hard path ahead, the path that included three years of ministering to people’s needs, teaching with authority, and exemplifying absolute holiness of life in the midst of harsh opposition. But Jesus again resisted this “easy route” to the fulfillment of His goals as the Messiah (again, a route that would not have actually have fulfilled those goals in any case).

These temptations were really the culmination of a lifelong process of moral strengthening and maturing that occurred throughout Jesus’ childhood and early adulthood, as He “increased in wisdom…and in favor with God” (Luke 2:52) and as He “learned obedience through what He suffered” (Heb. 5:8). In these temptations in the wilderness and in the various temptations that faced Him through the thirty-three years of His life, Christ obeyed God in our place and as our representative, thus succeeding where Adam had failed, where the people of Israel in the wilderness had failed, and where we had failed (Rom. 5:18-19).

As difficult as it may be for us to comprehend, Scripture affirms that in these temptations Jesus gained an ability to understand and help us in our temptations. “Because He Himself has suffered and been tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted” (Heb. 2:18). The author goes on to connect Jesus’ ability to sympathize with our weaknesses to the fact that He was tempted as we are.

“For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then [lit. ‘therefore’] with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:15-16)

This has practical application for us: in every situation in which we are struggling with temptation, we should reflect on the life of Christ and ask if there were not similar situations that He faced. Usually, after reflecting for a moment or two, we will be able to think of some instances in the life of Christ where He faced temptations that, though they were not the same in every detail, were very similar to the situations that we face every day.

Wayne Grudem on the Impeccability of Christ, Part 1 of 4

The following is an excerpt from Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology, pp. 535-536. I am breaking it up into more bitesize sections for the sake of those who might be put off by large serving sizes.

Though the NT clearly affirms that Jesus was fully human just as we are, it also affirms that Jesus was different in one important respect: He was without sin, and He never committed sin during His lifetime. Some have objected that if Jesus did not sin, then He was not truly human, for all humans sin. But those making that objection simply fail to realize that human beings are now in an abnormal situation. God did not create us sinful, but holy and righteous. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before they sinned were truly human, and we now, though human, do not match the pattern that God intends for us when our full, sinless humanity is restored.

The sinlessness of Jesus is taught frequently in the NT. We see suggestions of this early in His life when He was “filled with wisdom” and the “favor of God was upon Him” (Luke 2:40). Then we see that Satan was unable to tempt Jesus successfully, but failed, after forty days, to persuade Him to sin: “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). We also see in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke) no evidence of wrongdoing on Jesus’ part. To the Jews who opposed Him, Jesus asked, “Which of you convicts me of sin?” (John 8:46), and received no answer.

The statements about Jesus’ sinlessness are more explicit in John’s gospel. Jesus made the amazing proclamation, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). If we understand the light to represent both truthfulness and moral purity, then Jesus is here claiming to be the source of truth and the source of moral purity and holiness in the world – an astounding claim, and one that could only be made by someone who was free from sin. Moreover, with regard to obedience to His Father in heaven, He said, “I always do what is pleasing to Him” (John 8:29; the present tense gives the sense of continual activity, “I am always doing what is pleasing to Him”). At the end of His life, Jesus could say, “I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love (John 15:10). It is significant that when Jesus was put on trial before Pilate, in spite of the accusations of the Jews, Pilate could only conclude, “I find no crime in Him” (John 18:38).

In the book of Acts Jesus is several times called the “Holy One” or the “Righteous One”, or is referred to with some similar expression (see Acts 2:27; 3:14; 4:30; 7:52; 13:35). When Paul speaks of Jesus coming to live as a man he is careful not to say that He took on “sinful flesh”, but rather says that God sent His own Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin” (Rom. 8:3). And he refers to Jesus as “Him….who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21).

The author of Hebrews affirms that Jesus was tempted but simultaneously insists that He did not sin: Jesus is “one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). He is a high priest who is “holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens” (Heb. 7:26). Peter speaks of Jesus as “a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet. 1:19), using OT imagery to affirm His freedom from any moral defilement. Peter directly states, “He committed no sin” (1 Pet. 2:22). When Jesus died, it was “the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). And John, in his first epistle, calls Him “Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1) and says, “In Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). It is hard to deny, then, that the sinlessness of Christ is taught clearly in all the major sections of the NT. He was truly man yet without sin.

Open Wide Your Mouth and I Will Fill It

"Charissa is the skinniest baby ever."

Those were the last words I remember Christina speaking last night before I fell asleep last night.

As a dad, things like these don't bother me as much as they should, I guess. I keep telling Christina that when Charissa gets hungry or thirsty enough, she'll eat and drink.

Of course, those are the words of a guy who is at work all day and thus not home to enjoy all the attempts to feed our youngest girl.

You see, in the rare occasions that I do get to feed Charissa, she often closes her mouth, turns her head away, pushes the spoon away, or, my favorite, grabs the bowl with gorilla-like strength and flings it and its contents across the floor.

Sometimes I think this is what we as Christians are like with spiritual food. God is more than willing to feed His children with the Bread of Life, but we come up with every excuse to avoid and oppose God's free offer of spiritual sustenance. Unfortunately, this leaves us spiritually emaciated.

Psalm 81:10  speaks of God's willingness to supply His people with all that they truly stand in need of. As the ESV Study Bible notes, this is an indication of God's boundless generosity towards those He has rescued.

"Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it." (Psalm 81:10b)

Just as God had formerly brought  up His people of old out of the land of Egypt (81:10a) and was willing to provide them with every good thing they needed to make it into the land He guaranteed Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God was still willing to bless His people who were inhabiting that very land. (cf. Rom. 8:32)

If only they opened their mouth. If only they understood the limitless bounty of God's grace made available and being offered to them.

        "But My people did not listen to my voice;
           Israel would not submit to Me."

The rest of the psalm (81:12-16) contrasts God's willingness to bless His people with their refusal to simply and gratefully receive them.

Unfortunately, other [less-satisfying] things were more important to God's people. As 81:9 shows, idols were more important. Though we may not bow down of images to Baal, Ashteroth, Chemosh, or Mary, how often we catch ourselves bowing down to the idols of work, family, money, entertainment, sex, sports, peer pressure, comfort, and even religion. In doing so, we are exchanging the life-giving manna of God for broken cisterns that do not and cannot satisfy. (cf. Jer. 2:13)

Dear Christian, what idols are preventing you from opening wide your mouth to receive the blessings of God? What things are keeping you from daily communion with your God via prayer and the reading of/meditation upon God's Word?

Yet for those of us who are willing to open our mouths, God will surely fill them. In the same way that Christina is overjoyed when Charissa gets more food in her mouth than on her shirt, God is likewise overjoyed when we as His dear children open wide our spiritual mouths to be fed with the life-giving and soul-satisfying manna of the Word, Jesus Christ.

The word I love most in this verse is "wide." God tells His people, "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it."

The image that comes to mind is a mother crow (my favorite bird) feeding its little ones. There are very few things in all of God's good creation that create such a cacophonous kerfuffle as a nest of baby crows vying for the food their mother has brought them. Their mouths are opened wide (sometimes I wonder if their little beaks will snap they're opened so wide), and their provider is willing to fill it. She would have never left her comfortable abode to find food for them and then return if she wasn't.

Oh that we would not barely open our mouths! This is what Elisha and Abigail do when they're not sure what's on the spoon or fork. They don't trust the one offering them the food. They wince and squirm, but eventually take it. Yet once they realize how awesome a cook their mother is, how widely they open their mouths!

Moreover, God does not say that He 'might' fill our widened mouths. "No", He says, "I will fill it." That's a promise.

Nor does He say that He'll merely give us a sampler or appetizer. He says He will fill our mouths. Like every vessel brought to the prophet of 2 Kings 4 was filled to the brim with the life-providing oil from God, so it will be for us. As the text makes clear, the oil stopped flowing only when there were no more vessels to fill.

Do we see God this way, as the inexhaustible source of blessing to those willing and believing to receive it?

As Jesus Himself taught in Mark 4:21-25,

"With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you."

Dear Christian, whether in prayer or time in the Word, remember God's promise to the people He has already redeemed out of bondage. "Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it."

In Christ, and for His glory to the ends of the earth,
Pastor Ryan

Jonathan Edwards and Redeeming the Time

"Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil." (Ephesians 5:15-16)

The following sermon by Dr. Steven Lawson is one every Christian should watch at least once in their lifetime.

Not every Christian will have the copious hours necessary to read Edwards' seemingly limitless works. But in this one-hour message, the popular and quotable phrase of evangelist C.T. Studd thunderously resounds over and over:

"Only one life, 'twill soon be past;

only what's done for Christ will last."

Now, for anyone who thinks that perhaps this is man-worship and not Christ-worship, please understand that in Christ's infinite grace and wisdom, He has given such men as gifts to the church to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ (cf. Eph. 4:11-12), and that elsewhere in the Bible, Christians are called to imitate and emulate such men, whom the author of Hebrews includes in his "so great a cloud of witnesses." (12:1)

May we "scope out" (play on Greek verb in Philippians 3:17) such men, and "consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith." (Hebrews 13:7)

May every hearer leave resolved to quit wasting their life with the banal trivialities of this world, and run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking [only] unto Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith." (cf. Hebrews 12:1-2)

May the Christ whom Edwards' served with all his mind, heart, soul, and strength get His due!

To Him alone be the glory, forever and ever,
Amen

Watch and be blessed.

Longing for the New Heaven and Earth

I love spring time.

Today, while Christina was nursing a nasty headache, I took the girls outside to play. Now by saying "to play", I actually mean "to garden".

Though gardening is not often associated with macho masculinity, I defend myself by noting that God Himself was mistaken as a gardener (John 20:15). Take that all you haters. Jesus was not some beer-guzzling, UFC watching, weight-lifting dude. No. Like the first Adam, one of His favorite hats was that of the gardener (see John 15 for more ahem, eisogesis)....

Anyways, I love spring because it reminds me of the promise God repeatedly makes to His people of a new heaven and a new earth. A real, physical, touchable, smellable, workable earth. Kinda like the original Garden of Eden, but better.

You see, God's original creation, which He deemed "very good" on the sixth day, was "earthy". The physical was not bad. Things like work and sex and nature and eating were good. God commanded the first man, Adam (a play on words in the Hebrew), to "work [God's garden] and keep it" (Gen. 2:15).

"Wait", someone may be thinking, "I thought the chief end of man was to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." If God created us to worship Him, wouldn't it have made sense for Him to have commanded Adam to first build an altar or edifice for worship?

I think the answer is simply this: before sin irrupted into the world via Adam's transgression/rebellion, the entire world was to be an altar of worship to the true and living God. Now of course, I don't mean that man was to worship creation, as Paul makes it very clear that to do so is blatant and flagrant idolatry (see Romans 1:19-27). Rather, I am thinking that everything was to be done as an act of worship, from gazing upon the grandeur of God's creation (cf. Psalm 19:1) to working and tending it. Every aspect of man's existence was to be an act of adoration and worship. He didn't work for six days and then take off a Sabbath to devote to worship. No. He worshiped the God of the garden as he tended God's garden. He worshiped the God of life as he worked in His living garden.

Creation was a great testament to the glory of God. To get one's hands dirty with God's handiwork was not a bad thing.

Until sin entered into it.

Since then, working and tending God's earth/world has become tedious. I know all too well from personal experience that weeds are "alien" and burdensome. Simply put, in the words of Moses, they are a curse (see Genesis 3:17-19).

I hate pulling weeds. I can only imagine how convicting this would have been for Adam, for he actually knew what a world without weeds was really like. Every weed was like a nasty mirror that revealed his rebellious sin against God. Every weed reminded him of his distrust of God's gracious promises. Every weed reminded him of his preference of the creation to the Creator. Every weed was a reminder to him of the catastrophic effects of sin, not only upon himself, but also upon the world that he was created to govern as God's vice-regent.

And yet at the same time, for Adam, every weed would have been a reminder to him of God's promise to reverse the curse he had introduced into the world.

Similarly for us, every weed is to be a reminder of the need of redemption. Every weed screams out for God to restore His earth to the paradise it once was. Every weed declares that the world we are living in is still fallen and in dire need of emancipation (for this picture, see Romans 8:19-23).

Well, just as weeds remind us of these things, so also does my own sin. My sin reminds me that things are not as they ought to be. Like the weeds of my garden, the sins in my heart may go away for a season, be thinned out and weakened, but ultimately they are here to stay.

And so my tireless, ruthless fight - whether against the weeds in my garden or the sins in my heart - ought to cause me to join in with all creation and cry out (or in the words of Paul, "to groan") for the redemption of all things - not only our physical bodies, but also our physical world (see Romans 8:23).

While on this earth, I am to enjoy it. It is not inherently bad. Christians are not gnostics who deem the spiritual good but the physical bad. No. But even in my enjoyment of things such as gardening, I am to remember that God in Christ has called me to an inheritance much more glorious than anything I could ever imagine (see 1 Peter 1:3-6).

These weeds (or sins), which I tend to curse, are a gracious reminder that I am not to set my hopes on "things below", which are passing away, but on things above, where Christ, who is my hope, is seated at the right hand of God (see Colossians 3:1-4).

As I was simultaneously enjoying the re-emergence of life in my garden and murmuring over the weeds seeking to choke that very life out, the promise God made to us through Peter came to mind:

"But according to [God's] promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2 Peter 3:13)

Trust me, lately I have been waiting much.

But this "waiting" is not the absence of effort. I'm not waiting on some kind of spiritual cot for Christ to take me home. No.

As John says, he who has this hope purifies himself (cf. 1 John 3:3). This is precisely what Peter reminds his audience, who are groaning for the new heavens & new earth:

"Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for [the new heaven and earth], be diligent to be found in [Christ] without spot of blemish, and at peace" (2 Peter 3:14; see also 3:11-12).

The new life of spring is a great reminder of what God has promised His people. Let us not waste this glorious time of the year. Let it remind us of the new life God in Christ has granted us. And let it remind you that the rest is guaranteed (see Ephesians 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 5:5), since God's great and eternal plan of summing up all things in Christ will indeed come to pass (Ephesians 1:10; see also Colossians 1:20 and context).

So let us not waste our weeding or our waiting.

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

In Him, and for His glory to the ends of the earth,
Pastor Ryan

Love Song for a King

I love Good Friday.

Though I know I need to remind myself of the gospel every single day, there's just something special for me about this day.

I am thankful for the church service I attended today that faithfully proclaimed the majestic beauty of a God who would love sinners so much as to die a brutal death in their place, bearing divine wrath in the greatest act of injustice ever known to man.

As great as the message was, it is the songs we sang that have been filling my mind and flowing through my lips this day. (seriously, props to whoever chose so many songs from Handel's Messiah!)

How thankful to the Lord I am for those hymn writers who have composed songs to help us express our worship of Jesus in words that are both theologically fitting and experientially rich.

It's interesting how the gift of song is one of the most powerful ways we can express our love to someone else. When we were singing, In Christ Alone, I couldn't help but cry. But it was a good cry. A cry of joy. A cry of amazement. A cry of love.

When I first met Christina, my heart was filled with songs, because my heart was filled with love. I remember whistling, humming, and even composing many songs...quite naturally.

This is precisely what happened in Psalm 45.

I love the inspired heading:

        To the Choirmaster: according to the Lilies.
        A Maskil of the sons of Korah; a love song.

A love song.

Listen to how these verses seem to naturally bubble out & usher forth from a heart that is absolutely captivated with the beauty of Another.

   "My heart overflows with a pleasing theme;
      I address my verses to the king;
      my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe."

The verb translated "overflows" by the ESV is used only once in the OT. It is associated with a "cooking pot", and so a good translation would actually be, "my heart is being stirred". Like a good 'ol pot o' stew (for all you KJV-ers, "a mess of pottage") whose tantalizing aroma beckons us to return often to stir it, so is the psalmist's heart. It is constantly being stirred by a "pleasing theme" (literally, "a good word").

As the verse goes on to say, and as the psalm will make abundantly clear, the pleasing theme that occupies the affections of the psalmist is the beauty of his king.

So enamored and ravished with the king's splendor and majestic beauty, the words of this love song flow from the author's tongue just as they would from a scribe's stylus.

Verse 2:

   "You are the most handsome of the sons of men;
        grace is poured upon Your lips;
     therefore God has blessed You forever."

This is the verse that got me. Over and over, as I found myself singing throughout the day, the image burned indelibly upon my mind was of my precious Savior, hanging naked upon the cross, bearing the wrath of God for my sins and rebellious deeds.
 
Yet, this is the One of whom Isaiah said:

   "As many were astonished at You -
       His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
       and His form beyond that of the children of mankind."

   "He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him,
       and no beauty that we should desire Him.
     He was despised and rejected by men;
       a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
     as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised,
      and we esteemed Him not."

I find it amazing that the theme of both the Psalmist and Isaiah is indeed "pleasant". The One whom those at Golgotha hid their faces from is indeed "the most handsome of the sons of men" - that is, to those who have been given eyes to see Him as He really is (see 1 Corinthians 2:8-10).

Furthermore, in v. 3 the Psalmist continues,

   "Gird Your sword on high, O mighty One,
       in Your splendor and majesty!"

The psalmist is not only enraptured by the beauty of the king, but also of the king's might and power.

Again, when many people think of Calvary, they imagine a weak, helpless, impotent Savior hanging upon a tree.

And yet the Bible makes it very clear that the very One hanging on that tree is the King of kings, who as the Commander of Heaven's Armies, could with great ease not only come off the cross, but with a single word decimate the world He created with a single word (see for e.g. John 10:18; 19:10-11).

Paul makes it abundantly clear that in His apparent defeat on the cross, King Jesus carries out the greatest rout of His enemies ever in one fell swoop, not only triumphing over them, but even throwing in a bit of humiliating mockery for good measure:

"[Jesus] disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, triumphing over them in the cross" (Colossians 2:15).

Not only was the cross the greatest demonstration of Jesus' might, but as the Psalmist hints at in verses 6 & 7, it was also the most glorious demonstration of His kingly love and justice.

Jesus went to the cross because of His great love for us (1 John 4:10). But He also went to the cross because the "scepter of [His] kingdom is a scepter of uprightness", and because "[He] has loved righteousness and has hated wickedness."

Because of His great love for a world that has gone haywire in its sin, He came into that world to set things straight, to mete out justice and restore order and righteousness, to restore shalom.

And because God the Father's burden is the same as His Son's, He was pleased to anoint His Son to accomplish this mission in the fullness of time (cf. Galatians 4:4; Ephesians 1:10)

As the Psalmist closes, he says that the remembrance of this King will endure throughout all generations, and the nations would all one day sing His praises for ever and ever (see Revelation 5).

As we sang in church today,
 
     E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
     Redeeming love has been my theme [i.e. song], and shall be till I die.
     And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die;
     Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

In Christ, and for His glory to the ends of the earth,
Pastor Ryan

P.S. another great theme in Psalm 45 is the King's bride being prepared for marriage

God's Promise to Those Who Generously Support Missions

Psalm 67 (ESV)

TO THE CHOIRMASTER: WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. A PSALM. A SONG

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
   that Your way may be known on earth,
          Your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You!
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
       for You judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You!
The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear Him!

This has always been one of my favorite texts in all of the Bible. Really, it's a pretty simple text, and one need not peruse a multitude of commentaries to get the essence and thrust of this heartfelt plea for God to be supremely glorified in all the earth.

The psalmist, aware of the flow of redemptive history, rightly understands that God has always purposed His people as the very instrument or conduit through which His blessing is spread and dispersed throughout the world:

• In Genesis 1-2, God blesses His people and commands them to "be fruitful and multiply". In doing so, God's vice-regents will display His reign throughout His creation.

• Even after the Fall of Genesis 3, this pattern of God blessing His people and subsequently commissioning them "occupy" His world for the sake of His name in the account of Noah in Genesis 9.

• In one of the most important sections of the Bible, God chooses Abraham to become His means of bringing His blessing and reigning presence to all the nations of the earth (Genesis 12:1-3).

• At another crucially important juncture in redemptive history, God tells the people of Israel that the very purpose He has redeemed them out of their slavery and bondage in Egypt is that they might - as His chosen ambassadors - extend His reigning blessing to the surrounding nations (Exodus 19:5-6)

However, in these promises, there is one prerequisite stipulation that must be kept if God's purpose of blessing the nations through His people is to be carried out: obedience.

For example, though God makes unilateral and unconditional promises to Abraham in Genesis 15, we see that these promises will only come to pass if Abraham "serves [Yahweh] faithfully and lives a blameless life" (NLT). [Cf. Deuteronomy 7-9, etc.].

This is the great tension we find all throughout Scripture: God is sovereign, and His plans cannot be thwarted; and yet, we see throughout the same Scriptures that man has been given a responsibility in the carrying out of God's great and glorious purposes.

Unfortunately, one of the great dangers in the camp of many Calvinists is an unbalanced approach to the Scriptures that focus solely on God's sovereignty to the neglect of mankind's responsibility and role in the great purposes in redemptive history. The reasoning is that since God will save His elect anyways, there is really no great urgency required. Such thinking is wicked and unbiblical, and will result in the forfeiting of much of God's blessing upon one's life.

"God, be gracious to us, and bless us; make Your face to shine upon us!" Why? "So that His ways may be known throughout the earth."

In Hebrew parallelism, God's "way" is how He deals with and demonstrates to His people His "saving power." Simply put, God has powerfully saved His people to be put on display for the nations to see God's glorious and merciful ways towards mankind (cf. Psalm 51:13, NET). The surrounding nations were to look at Israel, and say, "Wow, what an amazingly gracious and merciful and all-wise God is Yahweh, the God of Israel!"

This is why the psalmist asks for a blessing from God. The believer wants God's blessing so that the peoples (NET = "nations") might praise Him (note, the Hebrew verb "praised" can also be translated "confess [sin]").

Why has God prospered us in North America? Not so we can live posh, comfortable, self-indulgent, disobedient lives. No! A thousand times no! God has blessed us financially so that we might contribute to His great and all-consuming cause of bringing praise to His name among the nations.

I love how the psalmist relates the conversion of the nations [through the faithful, obedient proclamation of God's "way"] to a bumper crop harvest. In the old covenant, a sign of God's blessing upon Israel was a bountiful harvest. In the new covenant, the sign is not merely an abundant harvest of fruit or wheat, but an abundant harvest of souls.

Reader, how are you using God's material blessings? Are you spending them upon yourself, or are you wholeheartedly, unreservedly, and uncompromisingly giving "beyond your means" (cf. 2 Corinthians 8:3) to the great cause of the expansion of the gospel of Christ? Remember a characteristic of those who are "righteous" is that they distribute their monetary treasures freely for gospel purposes (2 Corinthians 9:9).

I can personally say that as our generosity increases, so too does God's blessing upon us. He loves to bless those who truly believe and live out Jesus' words, "it is more blessed to give than receive" (Acts 20:35). As our church has gone against "reason" and increased our foreign and local missions' giving, we have seen that indeed God has a great harvest. I am still convinced that had we not been obedient to His word in this regards that we would still be treading water, trying to make ends meet, seeing no conversions or baptisms. Dear Christian, as you give sacrificially to the cause of the spread of the gospel, God's blessing is promised.

It is not enough to ask God to keep us from being liberal in our theology. We need to ask Him to make us liberal in our giving.

Read Psalm 67 over again. Better yet, memorize it. Still better, act upon it. Pray that your church would increase its missions' budget, to support those called to preach the gospel.

God is sovereign, yes. But, are you being obedient?

A simple equation: no gospel = no salvation = no praise of Christ among the nations (read Romans 10:13-17; 15:8-21). What is holding us back? Will we continue to forfeit God's blessing?

Let all the nations praise You, Jesus, let all the nations praise You.

For the glory of God in Christ among the nations,
Pastor Ryan