Can God dwell in the midst of us? Yes! In Christ we are made temples for the dwelling of Christ (1 Cor. 6:19), and the church becomes his dwelling, for the church is the body of Christ (1 Cor. 6:15; Eph. 2:20-21). Beyond all our understanding, God not only pours out his love in our hearts but is personally present in the Spirit. Union with Christ means personal attachment and fellowship that binds the church in one in Jesus. Now and forever, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney
Showing posts with label Edmund Clowney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edmund Clowney. Show all posts
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Is The Wrath of God Too Severe?
Is God’s wrath too severe, his holiness too intense, his judgment too heavy? The measure of God’s love spans the reality of his wrath. Do not tell the Father that his wrath is too great, when he must direct it against his beloved Son! How much does the Father love his Son? The Son who was in the bosom of the Father before the worlds were created . . . the Son, the Firstborn, of whom God says, “I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son,” prays in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, glorify your name!” How much does the Father love the Son at Calvary as he takes the cup and is obedient to death? (Heb. 1:5). Most of Jesus’ disciples had fled. Yet his abandonment by them was not the cause of his cry. In a loud voice, he cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This was the cup that he must drink—the cup of the wrath of God.
Never was God’s judgment more severe; it was the cup of damnation that is the penalty of rebellion, blasphemy, treachery, murder—the full blood of human hatred of God. Jesus, falsely convicted by men, bore the judgment of God. He who had committed no sin took the place of those who deserved the penalty he bore. On the cross the full severity of God’s wrath, the wrath of damnation, enveloped in darkness the suffering Son of God. The Father forsook his Son. He gave him up. No wonder the sun was veiled and the earth quaked.
The centurion at the cross said, “Truly, this was the Son of God!” Did the Father love the world of sinners more than he loved his own Son? The mystery of Calvary is that God so loved the world that he gave his Beloved. We can use only human language, and say that the Father never loved the Son more than when he gave him on the cross. The Father’s giving was shown at Bethlehem, but fully on Golgotha. If God be for us, who can be against us? If God gave his Son for us, what will he withhold? Indeed, the gift was in God’s heart before the world was made. John 3:16 does not say that God so loved his Son that he gave him the world. That is true, but the more astounding truth is that God so loved the world that he gave his Son. The measure of God’s love is that for the world of lost sinners who were his enemies, the Father gave his Son, and in giving his Son, gave himself. Yes, you have doubts; you have fears. You are sometimes bewildered. But go to the very depths of your doubts and gather them all up; take your unsolved problems, all the whys that come from the anguish of your heart, whys that grow out of major tragedies, whys when you do not understand.
Just bring your whys, your questions, to God. But come there to stay. Come there to watch Jesus Christ. Come there to listen while the God-man in his human nature cries out, “Why?” Then do not say that the Father’s wrath against sin is too much. “Who knoweth the power of thine anger?” Moses asks in Psalm 90 (v. 11, KJV). We know the answer. Jesus Christ through the power of the Father knew it, because he bore it. We must proclaim that the wrath of God is real, for God is just, and we are vile sinners. But we proclaim God’s judgment in the message of the gospel. Praise God. We proclaim it in the name of Jesus.
Adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney
Never was God’s judgment more severe; it was the cup of damnation that is the penalty of rebellion, blasphemy, treachery, murder—the full blood of human hatred of God. Jesus, falsely convicted by men, bore the judgment of God. He who had committed no sin took the place of those who deserved the penalty he bore. On the cross the full severity of God’s wrath, the wrath of damnation, enveloped in darkness the suffering Son of God. The Father forsook his Son. He gave him up. No wonder the sun was veiled and the earth quaked.
The centurion at the cross said, “Truly, this was the Son of God!” Did the Father love the world of sinners more than he loved his own Son? The mystery of Calvary is that God so loved the world that he gave his Beloved. We can use only human language, and say that the Father never loved the Son more than when he gave him on the cross. The Father’s giving was shown at Bethlehem, but fully on Golgotha. If God be for us, who can be against us? If God gave his Son for us, what will he withhold? Indeed, the gift was in God’s heart before the world was made. John 3:16 does not say that God so loved his Son that he gave him the world. That is true, but the more astounding truth is that God so loved the world that he gave his Son. The measure of God’s love is that for the world of lost sinners who were his enemies, the Father gave his Son, and in giving his Son, gave himself. Yes, you have doubts; you have fears. You are sometimes bewildered. But go to the very depths of your doubts and gather them all up; take your unsolved problems, all the whys that come from the anguish of your heart, whys that grow out of major tragedies, whys when you do not understand.
Just bring your whys, your questions, to God. But come there to stay. Come there to watch Jesus Christ. Come there to listen while the God-man in his human nature cries out, “Why?” Then do not say that the Father’s wrath against sin is too much. “Who knoweth the power of thine anger?” Moses asks in Psalm 90 (v. 11, KJV). We know the answer. Jesus Christ through the power of the Father knew it, because he bore it. We must proclaim that the wrath of God is real, for God is just, and we are vile sinners. But we proclaim God’s judgment in the message of the gospel. Praise God. We proclaim it in the name of Jesus.
Adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney
Friday, March 30, 2018
The Wrath of God and The Gospel
The Bible reveals God’s wrath in the proclamation of the gospel. Why does Paul so insist in Romans that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (3:23, KJV)? Because he wants us to know that “God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all” (11:32, ASV). Note the connection between the revelation of the righteousness of God in the gospel (1:17) and the revelation of the wrath of God (v. 18). The wrath of God is not disclosed simply as a timeless principle of retributive righteousness. God’s judgment is proclaimed as part of the news of God’s purpose and work. You hear this in Paul’s preaching in the book of Acts. The message of judgment calls the nations from walking in their own ways (Acts 14:16), for now God “commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (17:30-31, ASV).
Even the appointing of a day of judgment shows God’s mercy, for it means that there is time given to the nations to repent. Judgment means hope, for the day of wrath is the day of deliverance from the oppressor. Only by judgment can there be a new order, a new world of righteousness. But when a self-righteous people assumed that the day of the Lord would be all brightness for them, they were warned that they, too, must face the Judge of all the earth, who does right (Amos 5:18-20). How, then, can the preaching of judgment bring hope to sinners? Why need they hear of a new creation delivered from groaning if they have forfeited all inheritance in it? The unimaginable answer of the gospel is that God’s absolute righteousness brings salvation through the outpouring of wrath. God’s good news is Jesus Christ, who comes to earth not once but twice. He will come at last to bring wrath, as the Judge of all the earth. The coming of God’s kingdom in consummation power means the “revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus; who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and the glory of his might” (2 Thess. 1:7-9, ASV).
But if that were Christ’s only coming, no sinner could be spared. “Who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire” (Mal. 3:2, ASV). Even John the Baptist, Jesus’ forerunner, had difficulty here. He preached the coming of the Messiah in judgment, the Messiah who would baptize with fire and hew down every tree of wickedness. When Jesus wrought miracles of healing rather than signs of wrath, when he opened the eyes of the blind rather than bringing thick darkness, when he raised the dead rather than slaying the wicked, John sent an inquiry from prison—the prison from which the Messiah had not set him free: “Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another?” (Luke 7:19, ASV). Jesus kept John’s two disciples with him while he performed more miracles of hope. “Go,” he said, “and tell John the things which ye have seen and heard; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good tidings preached to them” (v. 22, ASV). Jesus’ answer reflects the prophecy of Isaiah 35:5-10, a promise of the blessings of renewal in God’s kingdom of salvation. But how could blessing come without judgment? What gospel is there for the poor until their exploiters and oppressors are judged? Jesus said to John, “Blessed is he, whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in me” (Luke 7:23, ASV). The answer that John awaited in faith is given to us in the gospel. Jesus came first not to wield the axe of judgment but to bear the stroke of death. Christ, the Judge who must tread the winepress of the wrath of God, Christ himself bears the wrath and drinks the cup from the Father’s hand. By his blood we are saved from wrath through faith in him (Rom. 5:9). Christ was made sin for us, bore the curse for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Only so can God be just and yet be the justifier of him who believes in Christ (3:26).
Paul preaches the revealed righteousness of God—righteousness in God’s wrath against sin; righteousness as God’s gift by grace—righteousness in the first and second comings of Christ. Because God’s wrath struck his own Son on Calvary, it is forever past for those who are united to Jesus Christ. The gospel calls us to the cross, where wrath is swallowed up by love, where grace and justice meet.
Adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney
Even the appointing of a day of judgment shows God’s mercy, for it means that there is time given to the nations to repent. Judgment means hope, for the day of wrath is the day of deliverance from the oppressor. Only by judgment can there be a new order, a new world of righteousness. But when a self-righteous people assumed that the day of the Lord would be all brightness for them, they were warned that they, too, must face the Judge of all the earth, who does right (Amos 5:18-20). How, then, can the preaching of judgment bring hope to sinners? Why need they hear of a new creation delivered from groaning if they have forfeited all inheritance in it? The unimaginable answer of the gospel is that God’s absolute righteousness brings salvation through the outpouring of wrath. God’s good news is Jesus Christ, who comes to earth not once but twice. He will come at last to bring wrath, as the Judge of all the earth. The coming of God’s kingdom in consummation power means the “revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus; who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and the glory of his might” (2 Thess. 1:7-9, ASV).
But if that were Christ’s only coming, no sinner could be spared. “Who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire” (Mal. 3:2, ASV). Even John the Baptist, Jesus’ forerunner, had difficulty here. He preached the coming of the Messiah in judgment, the Messiah who would baptize with fire and hew down every tree of wickedness. When Jesus wrought miracles of healing rather than signs of wrath, when he opened the eyes of the blind rather than bringing thick darkness, when he raised the dead rather than slaying the wicked, John sent an inquiry from prison—the prison from which the Messiah had not set him free: “Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another?” (Luke 7:19, ASV). Jesus kept John’s two disciples with him while he performed more miracles of hope. “Go,” he said, “and tell John the things which ye have seen and heard; the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good tidings preached to them” (v. 22, ASV). Jesus’ answer reflects the prophecy of Isaiah 35:5-10, a promise of the blessings of renewal in God’s kingdom of salvation. But how could blessing come without judgment? What gospel is there for the poor until their exploiters and oppressors are judged? Jesus said to John, “Blessed is he, whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in me” (Luke 7:23, ASV). The answer that John awaited in faith is given to us in the gospel. Jesus came first not to wield the axe of judgment but to bear the stroke of death. Christ, the Judge who must tread the winepress of the wrath of God, Christ himself bears the wrath and drinks the cup from the Father’s hand. By his blood we are saved from wrath through faith in him (Rom. 5:9). Christ was made sin for us, bore the curse for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Only so can God be just and yet be the justifier of him who believes in Christ (3:26).
Paul preaches the revealed righteousness of God—righteousness in God’s wrath against sin; righteousness as God’s gift by grace—righteousness in the first and second comings of Christ. Because God’s wrath struck his own Son on Calvary, it is forever past for those who are united to Jesus Christ. The gospel calls us to the cross, where wrath is swallowed up by love, where grace and justice meet.
Adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
History Exists Because Of Jesus
The history of redemption and of revelation exists because of Christ’s coming. Had Jesus Christ not been chosen in God’s eternal plan, there would have been no human history at all. Adam and Eve would have fallen dead at the foot of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The grace of God’s covenant promise is the source and heart of redemptive history. God declares, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people” (Lev. 26:12, NIV).
Adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney
Adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Christ The Servant of The Covenant
Christ who is the Lord is also the Servant of the Lord. He is the true vine, the true Son, the true Israel. Where a righteous servant of the Lord appears in Old Testament history, it is the true Servant who is prefigured. God makes his covenant, claiming his people as his, and giving them a claim on him. “Lord” and “Servant” express that relation. The Lord’s demand to Pharaoh was, “Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Ex. 10:3, ESV). Serving the Lord means worship and obedience. Jesus Christ consummates the covenant relation from both sides. The Old Testament promises the coming of the Lord and also the coming of the Servant of the Lord. When the Lord condemns the failure of Israel’s shepherds to care for the sheep, he declares that he himself will come to shepherd them (Ezek. 34:11-16). He also says that he will set up one shepherd, his servant David, over them to feed them: “I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them” (Ezek. 34:24, NIV).
Old Testament history is prophetic history, describing covenant blessings, the covenant curse, and the wonder of God’s great salvation to come in the latter days. For the “day of the LORD” to come, for God’s kingdom to come, the covenant must be fulfilled from both sides. Hanson seeks to shrink typology in the New Testament by his interpretation of the terms that express it. He concludes that it was only beginning to infect the writers of the New Testament. Where it seems to have arrived, as in the sign of Jonah in Matthew’s account (Matt. 12:38-41), he is ready to suggest that it originated in the early church’s study of the Old Testament. He even pleads with respect to Jesus’ reference to the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness (John 3:14-15), that since no word for “type” is used, “we are left to draw the conclusion ourselves.”
It is true that the New Testament does not often speak of the way it interprets the Old, and we are often left to draw our own conclusions. But the grand structure is clear. What Jesus does as the Servant of the Lord cannot be described as a mere “‘parallel situation’ phenomenon,” a term Hanson uses to explain away the typical reference. He is right in insisting that the activity of the Lord himself in the Old Testament is not merely a type of his activity as Lord in the New Testament. However, the actions and roles of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, and the rest are not to be set alongside the person and work of Jesus Christ as less effective performances of the same kind of service. Leonhard Goppelt, in his article “typos” in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, and in his book entitled Typos, has shown the distinctiveness of Paul’s typology in Romans 5. It is found in Paul’s eschatological focus. The coming of the Messiah does not take us back to a golden age of the past, restoring its glories.
Rather, the coming of Christ brings the fulfillment, the realization of what was anticipated by God’s servants, the saviors, prophets, kings, priests, and judges of the Old Covenant. Countering other views, Goppelt says, “Instead, the typological idea of the consummation of God’s redemptive plan appears to be the heart of the Old Testament eschatology.” He acknowledges the theme of restoration, but insists that “the typological idea of consummation of salvation is the core; the concept of restoration provides the appropriate clothing”
Adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney
Old Testament history is prophetic history, describing covenant blessings, the covenant curse, and the wonder of God’s great salvation to come in the latter days. For the “day of the LORD” to come, for God’s kingdom to come, the covenant must be fulfilled from both sides. Hanson seeks to shrink typology in the New Testament by his interpretation of the terms that express it. He concludes that it was only beginning to infect the writers of the New Testament. Where it seems to have arrived, as in the sign of Jonah in Matthew’s account (Matt. 12:38-41), he is ready to suggest that it originated in the early church’s study of the Old Testament. He even pleads with respect to Jesus’ reference to the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness (John 3:14-15), that since no word for “type” is used, “we are left to draw the conclusion ourselves.”
It is true that the New Testament does not often speak of the way it interprets the Old, and we are often left to draw our own conclusions. But the grand structure is clear. What Jesus does as the Servant of the Lord cannot be described as a mere “‘parallel situation’ phenomenon,” a term Hanson uses to explain away the typical reference. He is right in insisting that the activity of the Lord himself in the Old Testament is not merely a type of his activity as Lord in the New Testament. However, the actions and roles of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, and the rest are not to be set alongside the person and work of Jesus Christ as less effective performances of the same kind of service. Leonhard Goppelt, in his article “typos” in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, and in his book entitled Typos, has shown the distinctiveness of Paul’s typology in Romans 5. It is found in Paul’s eschatological focus. The coming of the Messiah does not take us back to a golden age of the past, restoring its glories.
Rather, the coming of Christ brings the fulfillment, the realization of what was anticipated by God’s servants, the saviors, prophets, kings, priests, and judges of the Old Covenant. Countering other views, Goppelt says, “Instead, the typological idea of the consummation of God’s redemptive plan appears to be the heart of the Old Testament eschatology.” He acknowledges the theme of restoration, but insists that “the typological idea of consummation of salvation is the core; the concept of restoration provides the appropriate clothing”
Adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney
Friday, March 16, 2018
We Hear The Lord In All of Scripture
Faith comes by hearing, not in some general sense, but by hearing Jesus Christ speak. Jesus himself is the Son who was sent by the Father, and he “speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit” (John 3:34, NIV). He testifies to what he has seen and heard in heaven (John 3:31-32). The words that he speaks are Spirit and life (John 6:63, 68). Paul does not suppose that every believer has heard Jesus speak in the same way that he did on the Damascus road. Paul’s hearing was part of his seeing the risen Lord. The Lord sent him as a chosen vessel to bear his name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. Paul as an apostle could speak of his gospel as that climactic revelation of the mysteries of God that enabled him to declare the word of Christ to the Gentiles as well as to the people of Israel (Eph. 3:2-12).
As God’s ambassador, Paul spoke for God, for God was speaking through him (2 Cor. 5:20). The gospel that Paul preached was not of men, received from or taught by men, but received by revelation from Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:11-12). We hear our Lord, not just in the red letters of a Bible, but in the whole revelation of the Lord, the Word.
Adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney
As God’s ambassador, Paul spoke for God, for God was speaking through him (2 Cor. 5:20). The gospel that Paul preached was not of men, received from or taught by men, but received by revelation from Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:11-12). We hear our Lord, not just in the red letters of a Bible, but in the whole revelation of the Lord, the Word.
Adapted from Preaching Christ in All of Scripture by Edmund Clowney
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