Zach’s Theological Musings

  I have often heard it said, “You can’t put God in a box.” That’s true. And while not undermining the truth of that statement, I would just add, “And you can’t take God out of a box either.” Fact is, you just can’t put or take God anywhere, one way or another, against His will. The only way God could ever be in a box would be if His own nature and His own will compelled Him to be there. And yes that does happen.

  Covenants are one way that God puts Himself in a box. And anyone who has come under God’s unfailing lovingkindness should be extremely grateful that God puts Himself in covenantal boxes. If God has promised today to be faithful to us forever, then tomorrow we can be sure He won’t hop out of the box and abandon us.

  Then there are all of God’s promises, which I suppose are like covenants in miniature. Many of God’s promises come in affirmative form, but the box imagery seems to be more conducive to looking at God’s self imposed restrictions. So here are some examples of reasons to be thankful that God has voluntarily boxed Himself in [with emphasis added to the text].

Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the LORD their God. (Lev 26:44)

I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. (Isa 42:8)

Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I have made you, you are my servant; O Israel, I will not forget you. (Isaiah 44:21)

For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another. (Isaiah 48:11)

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! (Isa 49:15)

I will not accuse forever, nor will I always be angry, for then the spirit of man would grow faint before me— the breath of man that I have created. (Isa 57:16)

I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. (Jer 32:40)

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. (John 6:37)

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:18)

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Heb 13:5)

He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. (Rev 3:5)

Mark 12:28-34:

  One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?”

  Jesus answered, “The foremost is, “HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’  The second is this, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

  The scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE BESIDES HIM; AND TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL THE UNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE’S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

  When Jesus saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more questions.

  This is one example of what I’m talking about when I say that I feel evangelical Christianity is sometimes uncomfortable with the gospel in the gospels. How could Jesus say to this scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” following a discussion about the greatest commandments in the Law? Wouldn’t it have been better evangelical theology for Jesus to have said, “Repent of your sins, trust in my substitutionary sacrifice which is coming soon, and you will certainly be a son of the kingdom”? But that’s not what He said. And whatever God does say is certainly more fitting for the moment than what any person thinks God should have said.

  I do not believe that Jesus here was teaching that salvation comes through a man’s own efforts to fulfill the Law. On the other hand I don’t think that Jesus was teaching salvation by grace through faith either! One interpretive error that evangelical Christians can make is when we try to force everything in the Bible into the “faith vs. works” dichotomy. Don’t get me wrong, I fully believe that when a man put faith in Christ’s righteous life, Christ’s death in our place, and Christ’s victorious resurrection, such a man is declared righteous in God’s sight without regard to his record of sinful living (for that record is washed away at that moment). Hallelujah! But what God wants us to know and love about Him and what He has done for us consists of more than just the fact that His gift is received by faith rather than works, as important as that fact is.

  Take the above passage. The Pharisees, like all Jews, were (supposedly) anxiously awaiting Messiah and His kingdom. But when He came they missed Him. They didn’t merely ‘miss’ Him; they rejected, humiliated, tortured, and killed Him. Why? In large part because the kind of kingdom they were looking for wasn’t what Christ’s kingdom is like. That’s why Jesus spent so much time talking about, and demonstrating, what His kingdom IS like.

  The kingdom of God is where God’s rule is joyfully recognized. God always rules, everywhere. But His rule is generally spurned by man. Where there is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, that’s the kingdom of God! (Don’t you want to be a part of the kingdom?)

  I think the Pharisees would have agreed with this, in the sense that they were looking for a kingdom in which God’s rule, God’s Law, would be fulfilled. Their problem was that they totally misunderstood and misrepresented God’s Law. (I’ll have to expand on that statement in a subsequent post.) Jesus wasn’t fulfilling the “law”, i.e. traditions, they had made up, and therefore they assumed He couldn’t be the one to usher in God’s kingdom.

  But if you, like the scribe in Mark 12:28, can see that God’s Law is summarized in the command to love God and love your neighbor then when you look at Jesus you will see the perfect, joyful fulfillment of God’s Law. In other words, you will see the kingdom. At least one major reason this scribe was close to the kingdom was because he knew what to look for. He knew what the kingdom should be like.

  If someone is looking for the wrong kingdom, then telling them that “faith not works” is the way to enter the kingdom does them no good. There are many people today who are exercising “faith not works” to receive a “gospel message”, but it is a false gospel. If you have “received Jesus by faith”, and what that means to you is that you have trusted Jesus to give you a comfortable, prosperous, suffering-free life, then you are still dead in your sins and you are barreling down a path toward eternal suffering in hell.

  Biblical Christians needs to declare to the world not only how to enter the kingdom of God, but what that kingdom is like, lest people think we are inviting them into the kingdom of their own imaginations. And, as I’ve said before, when it comes to showing what the kingdom of God is truly like, the four gospels really shine. And Romans does too! And Exodus, Genesis, Daniel… Hallelujah! Praise God for His kingdom in which His glory lighting up the skies is our greatest delight, and in which all mankind loves one another as their own flesh.

  The phrase “kingdom of heaven” appears 32 in times in the Bible, all of them in Matthew! The phrase “kingdom of God” appears 52 times in gospels and after that an additional 14 times in the New Testament. “Kingdom” itself appears a whopping 126 times in the gospels, 17 times in Acts and Revelation combined, and an additional 18 times scattered through the rest of the New Testament. [All of the above are my own counts from an NASB concordance.]

  My first reason for pointing these numbers out is to demonstrate that the Kingdom of God/Kingdom of Heaven is an important topic in the New Testament, and in fact the Bible as a whole. Indeed, some Christian teachers have proposed it as the unifying theme for all of Scripture. Certainly the kingdom of God makes a very rich topic for Biblical study, which I highly recommend.

  More specifically I want to point out that, although the Kingdom of God theme is central to all of the NT and all of the Bible, the phrase itself is especially highlighted in the gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke in particular). There is good reason for that. The “Kingdom of God” is the same as the “Kingdom of Christ” (Col 1:13, II Tim 4:1, II Pet 1:11, Rev 11:15, Rev 12:10). And although this kingdom’s King is the focus of all of the Bible, it is in the gospels that the eternal Word becomes flesh, typology begins giving way to the typifier, and fulfillment of prophecy breaks forth as a flood.

  So I would propose that it is not surprising that the more that Jesus is directly in view the more His kingdom would be directly in view. You see, the “kingdom of God” refers not so much to a realm as to a reign, not so much to a place as a the presence of God in providential, saving, benevolent kingship. (John Piper gives some clarifications in his sermon on Rom 14:16-19.) So even though God as Spirit is omnipresent and always reigning, still the physical presence of Jesus on earth, actively at work destroying the works of the evil one, and displaying His authority, means that the kingdom of Christ is “at hand” and “on the move” in a very special way.

  Thus when we read the gospels we should come to them with eyes and ears prepared to see and hear what the kingdom of God is like in the life, love, ministry, teachings, and sacrifice of Christ. For example, most of Jesus’ parables are about what the kingdom of heaven is like. Eleven times (all of them in Matthew) Jesus explicity started out His parables saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like…”, but even many of the parables that don’t start that way are clearly displaying what the kingdom is like. The gospels are also an essential place to learn about who will or won’t enter into Jesus’ kingdom (Matt 5:20, Matt 7:21, Matt 18:3, John 3:5), and dangers to beware of for those who do long to to enter (Matt 19:23-24, Mark 9:47). Best of all, the gospels are an ideal place to “Behold your king” Himself!

   P.S. The “gospel of the kingdom” is another great Biblical topic which, although related, is different from what I’m talking about here.

  I want to give some comments in defense of the four accounts of the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I am not, at least not presently, going to defend them against the unbelieving critics, but rather against what I feel is a tendency (amongst ourselves) to minimize these four books in favor of the epistles on the basis that we evangelical Christians may feel more comfortable (ironically) with the way the gospel is presentented outside of “the gospels”.

  Martin Luther began his preface to Romans saying, “This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament,” and a number of children of the Reformation have followed suit, speaking in terms that elevate Romans even above the rest of the Bible (see some quotes here). That includes a number of preachers whom I highly respect, so I would want to give them the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance to defend such statements. But I must admit that such quotes have always made me feel uncomfortable. How can someone say Romans is more “important” than Luke, or more “profound” than the gospel of John, for example?

  Yes, I can see how a quote like Luther’s might be defended. After all, during Jesus’ lifetime He did say to His disciples, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12), and He promised to later send the Spirit to guide them into all truth. And yes, during the early days (years) of the church the apostles were still having a hard time grasping the law/gospel distinction in salvation (Acts 10-11, Acts 15, Gal 1). And yes, there are certain things that are still in shadowy form even in the four gospels, until God tears apart the veil of revelation (largely by calling Paul as apostle to the Gentiles) and reveals His truth more clearly and explicity than ever before (see also Luke 24). Yes, amen, and praise God for Romans and all the epistles and the completion of the canon and the fullness of God’s written word for man!

  But “even still”, I say. Even after all of that I am still not ready to give an “amen” if someone wants to elevate Romans above the other books of the Bible, especially if it is above the four gospels. Our understanding of the gospel should be magnificently enriched when we read the gospels. If our understanding of the gospel is threatened by the gospels, then yes there is a problem. But not with them.

  When you need a treatise on the righteousness of God (as Luther desperately did!) Romans is probably the best place to look. But for gaining insight into the Kingdom of heaven and its King, it’s hard to beat Matthew. Want to watch the Son of God working in power, then turn to Mark. Look to the good doctor Luke’s orderly account as your primary source to feed Greek-like minds in the certainty of the things Jesus began to do and teach. And John is like a bottomless well of living water springing up unto faith and life in the eternal, radiant Word of God made flesh!

  I intend, Lord willing, to say some more on this topic in subsequent posts. But for now I just want to encourage evangelical brothers and sisters to delight yourselves in a good read, or a good study through, the gospels. Yes, they are great too! You already knew that, but it can often actually help to encourage people in what they already know.

  As an evangelical Christian, I never expected to hear myself say this, but I think it is Biblical and it needs to be said: believing in Jesus in your heart alone is not enough to be saved. In particular, I’m referring to verses like the classic “how to be saved” text, Romans 10:9-10:

[I]f you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Although these verses are very common in gospel presentations, we usually emphasize more on the “believe in your heart” part (together with “saying the sinner’s prayer” which, although not necessarily bad, is certainly extra-Biblical). But here Paul puts confessing Jesus with your mouth right up there with genuine faith as essential to salvation.

  This observation, as far as I can see, does not raise any immediate, outward, application for most of us in the already Christianized world. Confessing Christ as Lord with our mouths usually goes right along with believing in Him. If you have trusted in Christ but you don’t confess Him as Lord with your mouth, then do so! But I think most of us who have trusted Him in our hearts have also confessed Him with our mouths, and continue to do so. But there are serious implications here for missions and, at least on the level of self-examination of the heart, for all of us. 

  Consider together with me: Romans was written to “the beloved of God in…” where? Rome. And who else lived in Rome? The emperor. Caesar. Now, it appears that Caesar wasn’t too fond of people in his empire following other authorities. Remember what finally got Jesus sentenced to death?

As a result of this Pilate made efforts to release Him, but the Jews cried out saying, “If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar.” … Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified.  John 19:12-16 

And don’t forget about this:

But the Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the market place, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar; and attacking the house of Jason, they were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have upset the world have come here also; and Jason has welcomed them, and they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.”  Acts 17:5-7

  If confessing Christ to be a king could get you in trouble out in the remote parts of the empire, then how about in Rome? Indeed, I see a number of hints that the Christians in Rome were not a timid lot. Paul took it for granted that they had all been baptized (Rom 6:3), an OPEN declaration of their faith. The church of Rome consisted of people who were willing to risk their own necks for the gospel (Rom 16:4). Faith like that is often contagious. When people see their brother risking his neck for the gospel, and rejoicing in Christ through it, then they are emboldened to do likewise (cf. Phil 1). No wonder the Romans’ faith and obedience were “famous throughout the world” (Rom 1:8, Rom 16:19). The church in Rome would be like the church in Beijing or Pyongyang. The rest of us, further removed from the anti-Christian political capital would look at them and say, “If they are bold in their confession of faith, then certainly we should be too!”

  Paul wasn’t naive. If anyone knew that there were consequences for openly declaring Christ to be Lord, it was Paul. He knew. And still he told the church in Caesar’s backyard that salvation comes through confessing Jesus Christ as Lord not only in your heart, but with your mouth.

 The only examples in the Bible of people hiding faith in Christ that I know of are the disciples who deserted Christ upon His arrest (11 out of 12 of them repented and were restored), and a certain group of rulers:

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. John 12:42-43

Now, the Bible doesn’t explicitly say whether these rulers were born again or not. But as for me, I certainly don’t want to stand before God and hear Him say, “You did not love My approval,” lest what comes next is, “Therefore you have not received it.”

  Jesus warned us that as we do or do not testify of Him before men, so He will or will not testify of us before His Father:

“Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” Matt 10:32-33, cf. Luke 12:8-9

  The application is clear, I believe, for those who would follow Christ in Mecca, Medina, Kabul, Istanbul, Astana, Ho Chi Minh City, and for Communist Party members in China. Set your heart fully on that day when Christ, with all rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms and every creature under the heavens looking on, lifts you up in the presence of His Father seated on the throne, and says, “This one belongs to ME! See, he declared me to be his Lord while he was on earth in the face of all of Satan’s hostilities because he loved the approval of God rather than men!”

  The rest of us, in much less hostile circumstances, will hopefully not hesitate to confess Jesus Christ as Lord. And we can further examine our hearts. Would we be prepared to confess Jesus as Lord under the shadow of Caesar’s palace?

  I’m don’t believe I’m over-dramatizing, but simply trying to be true to the Scripture, in saying that at least when it comes to confessing Jesus Christ as Lord, timidity is a salvation issue:

“But for the cowardly and unbelieving…, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Rev 21:8)

  Which brings us to the great news. You know that famous faith of the ancient Roman Christians that we are hearing about even up to today? It came from God. “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you [Romans], because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.” (Rom 1:8) Thank God for the famous faith of the ancient Roman Christians. Be encouraged and challenged by their example. The same God who supplied them with faith is ready to supply you as well.