The Unloveliest Bride Made Lovely by the Love of the Greatest Lover

A dear friend wanted something to include in a congratulatory greeting to a loved one who is getting married. The loved one is in bondage to a legalistic cult, so I suggested that I might write an explanation of the last half of Ephesians 5 that would not only be helpful for the marriage, but might present Christ's love, life, death, and life again--all for the ungodly. Thinking that it might be of help to more than just this one couple, I include the note below.

If we want to be wise (v15) in evil days (v16), not foolish (v17) or out of control (v18a) but rather controlled by the Spirit (v18b), then that which most moves us should be God’s words (v19-20), to which we all submit when addressed by one another with them (v21).

This submission takes on a special form toward husbands (v21-33), parents (6:1-4), and bosses (6:5-9). This note is primarily concerned with what it looks like in marriage.

5:22 tells us the style of the submission and the object of the submission. Wives’ submission to their husbands is to be like their submission to Christ, because it is to be part of their submission to Christ.

This is why when a husband doesn’t turn out to be all you had hoped (1Pet 3:1), you can still submit (1Pet 3:1-4a), because your audience is God Himself (1Pet 3:4b). God never fails to be all you had hoped and more.

Marriage imitates the relationship between Jesus and the church (v23), and the wife must submit to Him who has taken her for His body and saved her.

Just like we don’t submit to Christ only in some areas, and refuse to obey Him in others, so also a husband’s authority over his wife applies to every part of life (v24). Do not withhold yourself from him and so corrupt the image that marriage is intended to be.

But, those who know the Lord Jesus much prefer to think upon Him, and what He is like, which makes studying the husband’s part (v25-33) much more pleasant to us.

Just as the good wife submits in all areas to her husband, the good husband expends his entire self for his wife (v25). He does not do this grudgingly or out of mere duty, but out of love. The command is not “give yourselves up for your wives,” although that is surely a part of it. It is “love your wives, as Christ loved the church”—and for that reason and in that way, give yourself up for her.

What is glorious is when we begin to think about for what kind of wife Christ did this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son (Rom 5:10).

In other words, although the husband of a good wife may expend himself for his wife as v25 commands, it is the husband of the treacherous and unworthy wife who has the best opportunity to fulfill the analogy. This banishes once and for all, all excuses of whether one’s wife “qualifies” for the kind of self-sacrifice that is commanded here.

But this is not a one-day, one-time self-giving merely to deliver His bride from peril. His aim is not merely at saving us from one peril; but rather, that He would make us completely perfect. He gives Himself up (v25) to claim the privilege of sanctifying us (v26a), using His Word constantly to bathe us until we are not just unspotted and wrinkle-free and unblemished (27b) but indeed splendid (27a).

Again, it is not merely the action (nourish) that is in view but the affection (cherish) that drives it (v29a). This is not only a to-do list for the husband, but a how-and-why-to-do list. Husbands shall love their wives (v28).

Why? What is at stake here? v32 lets us in on a startling mystery: Genesis 2:24 (Eph 5:31) is primarily about Christ and the church (cf. 29b-30). This is what is at stake in every husband’s conduct. This is what should be on display in every marriage.

Jesus gave Himself for an unlovely bride, not because she had potential, but because He intended to make Her lovely Himself. A godly husband is an illustration of the glorious gospel. And, having such an eternal husband as Christ enables every Christian wife to submit to her husband, whether he is worthy of it or not.

On Reconstructing Antinomianism

An Accusation and a Response

Over at the "gospel" coalition, Tullian Tchividjian has written an article called "Deconstructing Moralism." It is the latest salvo in a series of attacks that basically communicate that those who preach the law just don't get grace. This is an astounding accusation, and you can read my comment on that blog post to see my response to it.

Confusing Rhetoric, with Real-Life Consequences

Having responded there to that accusation, I hope to borrow your eyes and mind for a few moments to consider the danger of the theology behind the accusation. I know of at least two truly converted believers who came under such preaching and learned to call themselves "legalists" and tried to "repent" of loving God's law, thinking much about it, or trying hard to keep it. One of them has escaped. The other continues under that preaching and is sadly confused. This is one of the reasons why the Bible pronounces woe upon them who say that what is good is really evil.

A Question of Trusting God

May the Lord grant to us to trust that His law is good, just as is His gospel, and that He uses both.

The law cannot save, and it cannot power sanctification. But it is a false pragmatism to say that since it can do neither of these things, we should be careful not to give it much place in our preaching. God certainly gives it much place in His Word!

Demonstrating that Trusting Our Own Wisdom Doesn't Work

A little reflection will demonstrate that it is pragmatically suicidal to try to preach only gospel and not law:

One of the main problems with the new antinomianism is that genuinely converted Christians don't to know what to do with themselves under such preaching. They hear from the pulpit that thinking upon the law is useless or even dangerous, and that we should just trust that thinking upon the gospel will accomplish everything by itself.

But they find that it is true that it is no longer they who live but Christ who lives in them, and that this Christ, who now lives in them, loves the law--loves to keep it. He loves to exert Himself (and to exert ourselves as His own body) in keeping it. He loves to meditate upon it. He wrote Psalm 119, and He meant it. And now He has written it on believers' hearts.

And of course, the truly unconverted person cannot repent and believe for salvation, if he knows not from what he is repenting, or from what to be saved by believing.

The Conclusion: May God Grant to His Servants to Trust Him and to Preach His Whole Word

So, neither the truly unconverted person nor the truly converted person is really served well by law-less preaching. God's law is marvelously designed to address both. Without the gospel, it can serve neither very well.

But without the law, neither can the gospel.

Let us trust God, when He says that the law is good (night just right, but good).

O for grace to trust Him more!

To the Person Who Keyed My Car During Tulip Festival

You couldn't have been more wasteful with your energy. And not just because it's a 23 year old rust bucket whose appearance was almost improved by your caper. But because there is probably no one who cares less. It could have been the almost new, very nice SUV, and it wouldn't have mattered.

Because the Lord actively sees to all of my needs in every moment. Because my treasure is where rust cannot destroy and thief cannot steal. Because that car is reserved for fire anyway, and the Lord is about to burn it up.

I doubt that I'll need a vehicle in glory. What I will be has not yet appeared, but I know that when Jesus appears, I will be like Him, because I will see Him as He is. God is preparing for me an imperishable body, because the new earth in which I am going to live is of a substance so foreign to me now that I am literally unable to inherit it in my current body. That body, since it will be like unto Christ's resurrection body, will be able to move through walls and to immediately transport from one place to another.

Even if I do get a vehicle, it is likely to be one of those cherubim-powered, spirit-steered, instant-motion-in-all-three-physical-dimensions vehicles like what we see in Ezekiel. So, I won't be needing my Honda much longer, and there's nothing you can do to deny me it, if God Most High intends to preserve it to me. I'm sorry that you wasted your time. You should also know that vengeance is God's.

I do hope that you will repent of this, and all your other sins, and that you will be found in Christ upon the Great Day. He will be Judge, Jury, and Executioner, then. And He doesn't take kindly to attacks upon His beloved ones. So, be one of those beloved ones; for, He came the first time not to judge but to give Himself as a ransom, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.

For further reading: Matthew 5-7; 1John 1-3; 2Peter 3; 1Corinthians 15; Ezekiel 1,10;  John 3

Practical New Age Pastoral Theology

Here is your example of New Age, Postmodern theology worked out in real life for real people.  It gives no answers and leaves people with uncertainty and no hope for the future. This type of theology is wrong not only for those reasons, but because it plainly is not true.  But God is true, Jesus is true, and true answers come from His Word, the living breathed out Word, found in the Bible.  The answer for this man is to come to Jesus and be forgiven.  Atonement is possible.  Jesus forgives!  Jesus saves! Jesus gives rest for the weary! 

Artists Build the Church???

Just a few minutes ago I posted a comment in response to one commenter on The Gospel Coalition Website Blog and to an article as a whole.  It was then deleted a few moments later, but I wanted my comment to be public.  It is the following:

I want to respond to 'yuck' (at least at the beginning of my response and then to the article as a whole) who stated that we should be asking 'Who do we worship?' and I assume that that is instead of 'How should we worship'???  Well, we worship the Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.  What does He say about how to worship Him?  That is the only thing that matters isn't it?  How I want to worship HIM means very little.  If I chose, I could worship Him in the corporate setting by reading a good book about Him, but would He be pleased?  No.  He says in the context of worship in Dt. 12, "You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it."  I think that is pretty clear.  He never tells me to read a good book about Him (outside of the Bible) during corporate worship.

Okay, who builds the Church?  Artists?  Nope, God's Word says, "The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church."  What did the prophets do?  They spoke God's Word.  God's Word is what builds up the Church.  What else does God's Word say about God's Word?   "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."  Oh yes, God's Word builds up the Church spiritually.  What about physically?  Yes, the Word of God builds physically the Church.  "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);  because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved...everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?"  And what were they preaching?  Yes, that's right, the Word of God. 

Artists don't build the Church, I as a Pastor don't build the Church, Christ Jesus the Head of the Church tells us how the Church is built...by His living and active Word, which is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  I'd like to see an Artist do that!

The Church needs to return to what Jesus says is important on how to build the Church physically and spiritually, and that is His own Word: Read, Preached, Prayed, Sung...

Conclusion: This article is hogwash, false teaching, and is of devil.  Don't be led astray.

You Cannot Merit Heaven

It is prevalent in men to believe that because they do something external they can merit anything before a Holy God.  Men doing something internal is not any better, in terms of merit, but let us think upon the external for that is where often we try to show ourselves as 'good enough' before the Lord God Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth.  We do good works, serving others, mercy ministries, social justice causes, we read our Bibles, theological books by Calvin, and are always happy (think Joel Osteen, who is a false teacher).  

But none of that will make you righteous or holy, none of that will save you from your sins that you commit.  You don't believe you sin?  Have you ever said something mean or thought of killing someone?  That is murder (6th Commandment).  Have you ever looked or thought of a man or woman lustfully?  That is adultery (7th Commandment).  Have you ever gossiped or lied about anything? That is bearing false witness (9th Commandment).  You have broken the commandments of God and therefore you have sinned.  The wage of just one sin, one little sin...what you deserve for your work of just one sin is death.  God says, "For the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23).  But God makes it even clearer on this topic of external 'works'.  Isaiah 64:6 says, "And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment."  And it is not a pretty picture that polluted garment, it is gross and disgusting!  Nothing you can do internal or external can save you from the death you deserve because of your sin.  Rather it is only the Lord Jesus Christ who can save you.  "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."  The good news is that Romans 6:23 doesn't end where I stopped above, it continues and says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Believe then, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household (Acts 16:31). Do not think that you going to Church will save you, going and 'paying your dues' will save you, giving money to good causes will save you, none of that can save you.  Jesus Christ alone can save you.  "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).   Octavius Winslow points this truth out in a quote about baptism.  It is interesting here that for the word 'baptism' (not 'baptismal') in this quote and outside of the first sentence you can substitute any internal or external thought, word, or deed that you believe can merit you salvation and it fits.  He answers it here.  Winslow says, 

"We do not hesitate to pronounce the doctrine of 'baptismal regeneration' to be the paramount lie of Satan; the most subtle and fatal weapon which this arch foe of our race ever forged for the destruction of men's souls in eternal perdition!  Do not build your hope of glory upon your baptism. You are lost to all eternity if you do. You must be born again if ever you enter the kingdom of heaven. If you plunge into eternity clutching the airy fiction, the fatal notion, that you passed from spiritual death into spiritual life in your baptism; that in baptism you were regenerated, adopted, justified, made holy and saved; you have staked your eternal happiness upon the most fatal lie!  In many instances, the unhappy victim of this delusion passes away, undeceived until the deception is too late to rectify!"

You Believe, May God Help Your Unbelief

It is a great blessing that we have been saved, even the many of us Gentiles in the flesh.  For it is but by God's mercy that He looked on us in favor.  And yet in John 12:42ff we have testimony that probably reminds us of ourselves.  For there it says:

Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. And Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me."

Here we have the words that many rulers believed in Jesus Christ.  That is, they believed the true Gospel and were saved and yet they feared the Pharisees.  They feared persecution, for we have multiple accounts where the Pharisees murdered those who followed Jesus.  Paul (Saul) was one of those murders, in fact. Specifically here they feared being kicked out of the synagogue.  So because they longed for the approval of men, because they feared men, they did not confess Him publicly.  They didn't give a testimony, no bearing of the facts were given before the people, the Word was not spoken by these believers.  They feared death, they feared being kicked out.  And yet it is too often for us that we fear men, yet not because we will be put to death, but something far less extreme, something not as significant.  We fear men at our jobs because we could get fired, we fear men on the streets because they might think ill of us or that we are strange or dogmatic.  

But how is that Jesus responds to these rulers and us?  Jesus says, "He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me." 

And He says in Matthew 5, "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." 

 

Let us not serve men or think too highly of them, but let us serve our Master and Savior Jesus Christ.  Remember, it is Him who knew no sin who was made to be sin on our behalf that you might have life.  Therefore, glorify Him with your body, and with your life, and soul, your all.  

The Church in Ephesus

Revelation 2:1-7 states, "To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: 'I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place--unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.'"

I remember when I first became a Calvinist.  I knew I had struck the goldmine!  God is completely sovereign in salvation and everything!  He preserves and governs all His creatures and all their actions. It changed my whole way of thinking, but looking back I wonder if I left my first love: the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Seems contradictory given the theology of Calvinism, yet it seems so common amongst those who come to the realization of Scripture's teaching.  Perhaps it is pride or idolatry of self that leads to this sin.  This is the danger of many in the Church, especially Presbyterians.  Every single one of us can become so passionate about details that we can't see the forest for the trees.  Examples in the Church, we could say would be something like Postmillennialism specifically in Theonomy (e.g. Bahnsen, Rushdoony), which focuses so much on political overhaul, ethics, and so on, and overlooks the Gospel.  There are those whose great passion is ecumenicalism (Manhattan Declaration, Evangelicals/Catholics Together, and the 'can't we all just get along and not be so narrow' crowd) and thereby redefine and forsake the Gospel.

But above all, as individuals who make up the body of Christ, the Church, we can't leave our first love.  We cannot turn our backs on the Gospel, it is the only reason we have life.  Jesus died on the tree, judged and cursed on our behalf.  He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf, He is our propitiation.  That is God's love for us in Christ, that He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all.  How could we ever turn from this, how could we ever not have the Gospel in the forefront of our minds and hearts?

"Clasp that cross! Backsliding Christian, go at once to the cross! There, and there only, can you get your spirit quickened. No matter how hard, how insensible, how dead you may have become, go again in all your rags and poverty. Clasp that cross! Look into those languid eyes! Bathe in that fountain filled with blood! This will bring back your first love. This will restore the simplicity of your faith, and the tenderness of your heart." said Charles Spurgeon.

Let not our lampstand be snuffed out, leave not your first love.  Turn away from your sins and turn to Him who gave up all to give you life!