The Christian believer has the explicit presupposition that God and his word is never wrong or in error. That is, there is an element of faith working to supersede what we see so that in any instant, God (and the character of God) is being trusted more than our eyes and minds. If God says that he is true and faithful and that the entirety of His Scripture is truth (John 17:17), then when I find something in his word which seems to not be true, which seems to contradict either something else in his word or something “established” by science, my devotion is still to God. I do not doubt God, I doubt myself.

WE AFFIRM  the unity and internal consistency of Scripture.WE DENY  that alleged errors and discrepancies that have not yet been resolved vitiate the truth claims of the Bible.
We’re told in Proverbs that “every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him” (Pr. 30:5). The simple idea is that since God is truth, every word which utters forth from him is a word of truth; consistently so. From our human perspective, indeed, from our fallen human perspective, having a consistency and harmony and unity to everything we speak is outright difficult, in fact, it’s impossible. This is partly why James warns his readers that not many of us should become teachers: people who use a lot of words are more prone to get themselves into some kind knot. You especially see this in bad liars. It takes more lies to cover up older lies and sooner than later the liar can’t keep all his stories and lies straight and ends up tripping hard over his own sin. 
But when it comes to God there is no such danger. Every word of God proves true. As Jesus testified in John 10:35, the Scripture cannot be broken. That is, there is no inconsistency in it. Anywhere. Ever.
This is why the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy affirms in article 14 that there is a unity and internal consistency of Scripture. All its parts hold together. None of it is inconsistent with any other part or the whole. Which means, any so-called errors or discrepancies are just that: alleged errors and discrepancies. Hence the Chicago Statement makes the claim that these alleged errors or discrepancies have not yet been resolved and therefore do not vitiate or negate the truth claims of the Bible.It is this idea which underlies the church’s convictions on Scripture’s infallibility and inerrancy. Paul Feinberg says that “inerrancy means that when all the facts are known, the Scriptures in their original autographs and properly interpreted will be shown to be wholly true in everything they affirm, whether that has to do with doctrine or morality or with the social, physical, or life sciences.”[1] What is being assumed in both Feinberg’s statement and the Chicago Statement is that if there is any error, it is not to be found with God and his word, but with us, the reader, in either our interpretation or understanding.
Stephen Wellum makes the crucial point that “our affirmation of inerrancy does not imply, and has never implied, that we know how to resolve every apparent inconsistency in Scripture.
Read More
Related Posts:

As Adam represented humanity as a covenant head, so Christ will represent a renewed humanity as the New Covenant head. This helps us understand a very important aspect of justification, that in its essence it is properly a legal declaration and not an act of changing the individual. In other words, on the cross, Jesus, who had our sin imputed to him (2 Cor. 5:21), was not transformed into a sinner. No, when Paul says that God made him to be sin who knew no sin, he means that Jesus was accounted as (legally declared) a sinner. To use a philosophical term, ontologically Jesus was not a sinner. Ever. To use a theological term, Jesus was a scapegoat. Our sins were laid upon him.

Westminster divine, Anthony Burges, contended that “of all points of Divinity, there is none that with more profit and comfort we may labour in, then in that of Justification, which is stiled by some articulus stantis & cadentis ecclesiae, the Church stands or fals[sic], as the truth of this is asserted.”[1] The Biblical doctrine of Justification is indeed a foundational pillar within Christ’s church, a doctrine which, if misunderstood, could wreak havoc and certainly cause a church to fall.[2] In an earlier post I’ve examined the ways in which this doctrine has been misunderstood.[3] Where do we find this doctrine in Scripture? Well, as with all doctrines, but especially this one, we begin with God.[4]
God, who is Good and Holy, hates sin. Indeed, if we’re to take Psalm 5:5 at face value, He also hates the sinner. This is hard news for sinners like us. And though many may quibble about the tone in which such news is communicated, that hard news is a necessary piece of information to know and believe before ever hearing the good news of the Gospel. “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day” (Psalm 7:11) William Plumer comments here on the immutable righteousness of God that “because the wicked are always wicked and because God is always holy, therefore his relation to them is ever one of opposition, of threatening, of anger.”[5] How could it be any different? As God Himself puts it, “I will not justify the wicked” (Exodus 23:7). The question that inevitably arises is the question which Job asked his friends, “how can a [sinful] man be in the right before God” (Job 9:2)?
As the Old Testament develops an interesting motif develops. The divine righteousness that must condemn me as a sinner is also the same divine righteousness I need for salvation. Hence, we can read in Psalm 31:1 where David asks of God, “Save me by your righteousness.” In other words, the righteousness of God is both judgmental, stemming from a heart of holy indignation (He must punish all sin and all sinners) but also salvific, stemming from a heart of mercy, grace, and love (He will yet save some of those sinners). In God’s simplicity then we see these twin truths: His righteousness is both a threat against sinners but at the same time the only hope for sinners.
This perplexing conundrum comes to a wonderful convergence in the prophetic writing of Isaiah where we read that because of Israel’s sin, God has judged his people and sent them into exile on account of His righteousness. But at the same time God can promise that “salvation and righteousness may [still] bear fruit” (Is. 45:8) and that His “righteousness draws near, [His] salvation has gone out”(Is. 51:5). Indeed, “Only in the Lord… are righteousness and strength; In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory” (Is. 45:24-25). It’s clear that in Isaiah this justifying – which Isaiah understood as the salvific righteousness of God – is only accomplished in the coming Messiah. It is this Messiah – who is both from God and among men  – who will be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, and “by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my Servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5, 11). Isaiah is clear, what the Messiah accomplishes, he accomplished because of and on account of those he represents.[6]
It is this theology that Paul picks up in Romans, giving fuller expression to a doctrine of justification. It is worth quoting the key passage in full.
“The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.”
Read More
Related Posts:

Paul views Jesus in Jonah-like terms, one who is both a true Israelite and true Israel himself, and in whom even the godless and uncircumcised Gentiles can find reconciliation. What was there in God’s call to Jonah was only a dimly-lit picture, a veiled foreshadowing of something greater – it was, in the Biblical sense, a true mystery[3]. But this account of Jonah certainly pointed forward to what Paul says was the unfurled “mystery that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6; see also Col. 1:26-27). 

Of all the Minor Prophets, perhaps Jonah is the most read and beloved, and certainly not for its brevity but for its extraordinary story – a story of a prophet running from God, of being thrown overboard in the midst of a storm, of being swallowed alive by a whale of a fish, and upon being spit out three days later, the account of the revival of the heathen and godless Ninevites. And when it comes to the Christo-telic thrust of Jonah, we have a clear reference that Jesus himself makes in Matthew 12:40 – “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” It’s divinely established typology.
But even beyond this clear typological connection, Jonah provides a wealth of Gospel connections that both foreshadow the person and ministry of Jesus Christ but also the inbreaking of Christ’s world-wide Kingdom. And it is this latter focus which is of special interest. In one sense, Jonah himself serves as a representative of Israel. He, like Israel in his day, had forgotten and forsaken the role they were to have to the wider world.[1]  Genesis 12:2-3 is a clear statement of what God wanted his people, the Jews, to be: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing… in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Likewise, Isaiah 49:6: “I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Their role to the world is clear, but it’s also clear that both Israel, and Jonah himself, have forgotten that role.
Hugh Martin makes this point beautifully, that Israel drifted into the wrong conclusion, “that the heathen nations, as to their moral and spiritual interests, were, among Israel, objects of simple contempt and neglect, and were dealt with as if Jehovah, the God of Israel, utterly neglected them also.”
Read More
Related Posts:

As we look to Christ and grow in the wisdom of Christlikeness, so too the Lord will grow us in Christlike patience, helping us hold fast to his promises even in the midst of severe trials. Jesus, using the same phrase God uses for patient Job, encourages all within his church to “not fear what you are about to suffer… Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life… hold fast what you have until I come.” 

There was once an ancient man who so pursued the Lord, seeking always to glorify God no matter what came his way, no matter how crooked his lot, that even God himself could proclaim of him that “He still holds fast his integrity” (Job 2:3). Of course, Job’s ability to “hold fast” to his integrity would be challenged through extreme suffering, nonetheless holding fast – that is, patiently persevering – is a virtue the Lord delighted to see in his servant.
Patience, from the Greek ὑπομονή (hupomone) carries the idea of remaining or enduring under, often translated as steadfastness. But it is a steadfastness in and through suffering, hence our English word patience, with its Latin root pati, meaning to suffer. An older English word, forbearance, helps get at the idea – the patient man courageously forbearing underneath the weight of suffering. Which leads to an obvious question, why would anyone want to wait patiently under suffering? Shouldn’t a sense of self-preservation move us to avoid suffering, much less, wait patiently under it?
Listen to the wisdom of James, speaking to those Christians undergoing their own suffering in the first century church: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:2-5).
For James, trials of suffering for a believer ought to be seen through the lens of God’s sovereign and fatherly goodness. All that befalls the believer, befalls the believer because of God’s good wisdom. And therefore, there is sanctifying meaning in the suffering. In other words, to bypass the suffering would be necessarily bypassing the intended fruit and sanctification God designed to bring about through the trial. Which is why James says that when one undergoes a trial, he ought not to first pray, “Lord, remove this trial from me,” but rather, “Lord, give me wisdom in this trial so as to help me count it all joy.” Heavenly wisdom, therefore, is the gift God gives suffering Christians to walk patiently and steadfastly in their suffering. You could say that godly wisdom is the life-blood of godly patience, or as Augustine writes, “Patience is the companion of wisdom.”[1]Read More
Related Posts:

All of our suffering ceases to be meaningless. All of our suffering has divine purpose wrapped up into it so that we know, we can be assured, that what we are going through is meant to bring about our future glory. It must be so! In Christ we have become inheritors of God, redeemed sinners who will know God and be with God forevermore as his children, enjoying him as our Father. Therefore, every little bit of suffering we go through is just another step closer to glory. 

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. – Romans 8:16-17
Paul has been moving us from one degree of glory to another as his argument in Romans 8 progresses. Beginning in verse 1 with some of the most comforting words in all of Scripture, that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”, he has brought us to what is some of the most encouraging words in Scripture, that “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God… [For] the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:14, 16).
His whole purpose here is to encourage Christians that they are indeed recipients of grace. Consider how Paul, inspired by the Spirit Himself, is actually writing into our hearts an assurance of faith. These verses are real promises given to us, which means, these words should be read and reread by us continually; we ought to be meditating on these verses precisely because through them we’re strengthened in our faith. Paul will later tell us that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17) and Romans 8 contains some of the most beautiful, faith-producing words of Christ! Read and hear and be filled, friends – what we’re reading here is some of our Lord’s richest food and finest wine all meant to nourish our souls.
Now, in verse 17, Paul elaborates upon the truth that we are children of God by reminding us that we are also heirs of God and, indeed, fellow heirs with Christ! The early church father and preacher John Chrysostom wonderfully points out how Paul is “enhancing the Gifts of God little by little, for since it is possible to be children, and yet not become heirs (for not all children are heirs), he adds this – that we are heirs!”[1] Paul is adding grace to grace as he shows us not just our adoption by God in Christ but that we’re also heirs of God in Christ. To be an heir is to be a recipient of all that a father has. It’s a curious statement though since an heir receives his inheritance only upon the death of the parent. But here it is absurd to conceive of the death of God the Father. Instead, we’ve become heirs of God the Father through the death of the Son! And so now, insofar as God is eternal and we, by the Spirit, are bound up in the resurrection of Christ, we become eternal heirs of God, inheritors of life eternal in God.
I think John Stott is right to ask the question, “is it possible… that the inheritance Paul has in mind is not something God intends to bestow on us but God himself?”[2]  This certainly is in keeping with Paul’s major emphasis in Romans 8 on our union in and with Christ. Receiving the blessings of salvation (our justification, our sanctification, our adoption, and glorification) means becoming one with the Son of God in whom all those blessings are found. And insofar as we become one with the Son, we also become one with God the Father. This was Jesus’ prayer in John 17, when he asked the Father that all “those who will believe in me… that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us… I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one” (John 17:20-23).
Read More
Related Posts:

What better news could you ponder than to know that the God of all creation, the God who controls every detail and atom in existence, is your Father. Consider that personal pronoun, your. You are his child, and he your Father. Stand tall, dear Christian, and remember who your beloved and loving Father is.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.—Romans 8:14
Is there anything more comforting in all of God’s revealed word than the thought that in Christ we are sons of God? We are finding ourselves climbing higher and higher up the mountain peak of Romans 8 and now in verse 14 we have stepped out on to one of those rare ledges where we can look out and take in one of the most beautiful views in all the landscape of God’s Scripture: the glorious doctrine of our adoption in Christ. The air up here is fresh and breathing it in brings an exhilarating assurance to any Christian who takes the time look and take in the wonder of its truth.
The first thing we need to notice is the immediate logic which leads Paul to declare this stunning truth. He’s just been arguing that since Christians are people who have the Spirit of Christ indwelling them, and therefore the Spirit works within them to put to death the deeds of the body, to mortify sin within our lives. But notice the move he makes here in verse 14. It’s as if he’s saying, how could our lives look any different! Of course, Christians put sin to death because “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” In other words, if you have the Spirit of God within you, you will necessarily act and live your life in such a way that shows you are a part of God’s family. “All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
I remember in High School my father pulling me aside anytime I was ready to go to some get together with friends, and he’s always say the same thing: “Remember who you are. Remember your last name, that you are an Unthank.” His point was clear. How I acted at this High School party represented my whole family and therefore he was reminding me to not act in such a way that was contrary to how he and my mom raised me. To my shame I didn’t always heed his advice well, but looking back I know those brief reminders kept me out of far more trouble then had he never said anything at all.
In one sense, Paul is doing the same thing here. He’s reminding us of who we are. Do you see the objective reality of his statement. It’s a statement of indicative truth. If you are led by the Spirit of God, then, says Paul, that means you are a son of God. He doesn’t say “All who live a life of righteousness will one day, maybe, gain the status of being God’s son. No, if you have his Spirit then, de facto, you are God’s son. On one level, this is nothing more than Paul reminding us, you’re a Christian; God is now no longer your judge but your Heavenly Father, and because of that you yourself are a changed person! Live like it! “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
But there’s more to what Paul is saying here. He’s also reminding us that we are in Christ. Remember, that’s been the major thrust of Paul’s argument so far in Romans 8. He began by declaring the wonderful good news that “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And we’ve seen how all the benefits of our salvation and redemption aren’t gifts given to us out of thin air; no, everything we have in terms of salvation we have by being found in Christ. He is our Righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30) and so by faith in him and becoming one with him, his righteousness becomes our righteousness. He is Wisdom (Proverbs 8) and so by becoming one with him through faith, his wisdom becomes our wisdom. And now Paul is telling us, “Look, Jesus is the Son of God. And so, by believing in him and thus becoming one with him, his sonship now becomes our sonship.” It’s a staggering reality! Because of Jesus Christ we are now adopted as sons in the Son. Incidentally, I think this is why Scripture always uses the language of “son” rather than “sons and daughters.” The emphasis is on our union in Christ. We are all sons, whether we’re male or female, simply because we’re united in the Son. Ladies, don’t fret, all believing men are caught up in the image of the church as the Bride of Christ, so it all evens out.
Read More

Related Posts:

Though our outer-self is wasting away, our bodies decaying and dying, nonetheless in Christ we have true life, life everlasting, and unending spiritual life. God has not left us for dead but has sent his Son to enter into death on our behalf, and in his resurrection, pull each of those for whom he has died out of the grave with him! His life is now our life and since Christ will never die again, neither shall we. Even our own physical death will only be but a momentary intermission in the now unending eternal drama of living life in the Spirit.

“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”– Romans 8:9-10
We have seen that to be a Christian is to be a person who is spiritually found in Christ, which also means that the Holy Spirit (also referred to by Paul as the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Christ) now dwells in, or indwells, the believer. And that word, dwell, is an important verb to consider. As Leon Morris points out, “the Spirit is not an occasional visitor; he takes up residence in God’s people.”[1] Which is an incredibly comforting truth to consider – God will literally never leave us.
We cannot lose our salvation and we cannot lose the presence of the Holy Spirit. Paul says here in verse 9 that “anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him,” meaning, without the Spirit of Christ you do not belong to Christ. But if you do have the Spirit then you do belong to Christ. And Christ himself promised, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out… this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:37, 39). Do you see? To have the Spirit dwell within you means to have Christ forever!
It also means Christ is in you! Do you see that in verse 10? “But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Again, I’m stunned at the depth of Paul’s Trinitarian theology. In verse 9 he’s speaking about the Spirit within us and now, in verse 10, he says that’s the same thing as having Christ within us. Next time Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons approach your front door, ask them to read Romans 8:9-10 with you and show them the truth of the Trinity. John Chrysostom, the “Golden-tongued” preacher of the early church remarked that “Paul is not saying here that the Spirit is Christ but is showing rather that anyone who has the Spirit has Christ as well. For where the Spirit is, there Christ is also. Wherever one person of the Trinity is present, the whole Trinity is present too. For the Trinity is undivided and has a perfect unity in itself.”[2]
Consider too the insight from Saint Augustine that “The Holy Spirit is in a certain sense the ineffable communion of the Father and the Son…
Read More
Related Posts:

Theologians have long referred to this perfection as God’s aseity, from the Latin a se, or “from himself.” The idea is that God’s existence is his essence. All other creatures exist by way of a Creator – they came into being by way of another Being, and therefore their existence is dependent and thus not a part of their essence. They do not have ens per essentiam, that is, being that exists by virtue of its own essence. This can only be said of God for God alone is a se – of Himself.

Paul, in Romans 1:20, tells us that there is something which he refers to as God’s divine nature. That is, there is something unique to God and about God that cannot be said of any other being. There is a Godness to God, what philosophers and theologians would call God’s essence (or an even more fun word to use, His quiddity – the whatness of God). Consider how Paul in Galatians 4:8 says that when we were unbelievers, we “were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.” You can call yourself a god all you want, but there’s something about your essence and nature that belies the truth.
So what is God’s Godness? Humility pushes us to listen to God to find this answer since God in his transcendent incomprehensibility is infinitely beyond our limited capacity (much less, our fallen capacity) to grasp at knowing God ourselves. Again, quoting Paul, “For what can be known about God is plain to [all humanity]… who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1 verse 19 and 18, respectively). We need God to speak and speak in such a way that His word not only penetrates our unbelief but also creates within us true belief. And praise God, He is not silent.
As Luke records for us the words of Paul, “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:24, 25). In other words, what sets God apart from all other beings is his independence. Properly, he is not dependent upon anything else (or anyone else) for his being. That’s the Godness of God. Notice how Paul emphasizes God’s creative power: He made the world and all things and He gives to all life and breath and all things. But God himself, says Paul, does not need anything. His essential independence requires that he is not even in need of his being. He simply is.
Perhaps the clearest expression of this is when God reveals to Moses his own name – a name, by the way, which God has not received from anyone else. This is the name God has Himself chosen and which he’s been pleased to reveal. Thus, it tells us a lot about who and what God is as God knows Himself. In Exodus 3 God reveals himself to Moses as “I Am who I Am.” First, the way in which God discloses this name, out of a burning bush and yet the bush was not being consumed, testifies to the nature of the name. Fire, in order to be, is dependent upon fuel to burn. Not so here. Here is a fire which is burning but is in no need of a bush to burn. The fire, as such, has being independent of the bush. The name then which God reveals from out of the burning bush is tied to this image of independence. “I Am who I Am.” His being is His being andHe does not need anything outside of Himself in order to be.
Theologians have long referred to this perfection as God’s aseity, from the Latin a se, or “from himself.” The idea is that God’s existence is his essence. All other creatures exist by way of a Creator – they came into being by way of another Being, and therefore their existence is dependent and thus not a part of their essence. They do not have ens per essentiam, that is, being that exists by virtue of its own essence. This can only be said of God for God alone is a se – of Himself.
This does not mean, of course, that God caused his own being. There was no moment where God came to be. No, as Francis Turretin writes, “True eternity has been defined by the Scholastics to be ‘the interminable possession of life – complete, perfect, and at once.’”[1] God’s aseity is indistinguishable from his eternality and immutability. He is unchangingly and infinitely and eternally alive! Pure Being and Pure Actuality.
Read More
Related Posts:

Our salvation is one which is secured for us by the Triune God. It is the Trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit which brings about our redemption and thus it is the Trinity which we magnify in worship because of our redemption. To worship any other god that is not the Triune God of the Bible is to worship a false god.

“You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” – Romans 8:9
The Early Church Father, Basil of Caesarea, in a profound bit of theological reflection, says, “Whoever perceives the Father and perceives the Father by Himself has at the same time a mental perception of the Son. And whoever receives the Son does not mentally dismember him from the Spirit but, in due course…. forms within himself a faith that is a commingling of the three together. Whoever mentions the Spirit alone also embraces in this confession him of whom he is the Spirit. And since the Spirit is Christ’s and of God (Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 2:12), as Paul says, the one who ‘draws the Spirit’ draws both the Son and the Father too at the same time, just as someone who grabs a hold of a chain on one end pulls on the other end as well. And if anyone truly receives the Son, he draws in the Father on one hand and the Spirit on the other. For he who eternally exists in the Father can never be cut off from the Father, nor can he who works all things by the Spirit ever be disconnected from his own Spirit. In the same way, anyone who receives the Father virtually receives at the same time both the Son and the Spirit.”[1]
I love the way in which Basil’s heart and mind are incapable of mentioning one Person within the Triunity of God without at the same time having his mind conceive and think of the other two Persons. And this kind of Trinitarian thought is something fully emerging out of the Bible. Basil was a Biblically-steeped theologian. Indeed, this kind of thinking is what Paul himself does in Romans 8, verse 9. Considering as he has that those people who are in Christ Jesus are also those who have the Holy Spirit within them (Romans 8:1-8), here Paul explicitly states that the Holy Spirit is both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. This verse is brimming with Trinitarian glory!
Think about how Romans 8 began in verse 1. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And now notice how Paul talks about being in the Spirit, that is, if the Spirit is indeed in you! Paul assumes, doesn’t he, that to be in Christ and to be in the Spirit is one and the same thing. And of course it is, since there is only one God. But still, we must maintain that the Son of God is different from the Spirit of God who is different from God the Father. In other words, to use the classical language of Christian orthodoxy: there is one God who consists of three distinct Persons.
What does this mean for us as we continue to meditate upon Romans chapter 8? One application is this: that our salvation is one which is secured for us by the Triune God. It is the Trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit which brings about our redemption and thus it is the Trinity which we magnify in worship because of our redemption. To worship any other god that is not the Triune God of the Bible is to worship a false god.
Read More
Related Posts:

Our unbelief was crucified in and with Jesus! And so when the Spirit works within a man to bring him out of death and into spiritual life, He works to give him a new heart, a new will, and new desires all because Jesus died to procure those things for that man. This is why we’re able to believe; Jesus secured it for us in his death. “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.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10).

“For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” – Romans 8:7-8
We continue now in our meditation upon Romans 8, and we’ve been exploring Paul’s understanding of how there are essentially two different kinds of people in the world. According to Paul someone is either in Christ or not in Christ. If you are in Christ then you are someone who is not condemned by God (vs. 1), set free from the power of sin and death (vs. 2), forgiven of sin (vs. 3), empowered by the Holy Spirit for obedience (vs. 4), able to set your mind on the things of the Spirit (vs. 5), and in possession of life and peace (vs. 6).
Whereas if you’re not in Christ, but rather, as Paul argues in Romans chapter 5, still “in Adam”, then you are someone who is still walking according to the flesh (vs. 4), and setting your mind on the things of the flesh (vs. 5), which leads ultimately to death and death eternal (vs. 6).
And what Paul concludes in verses 7 and 8 is that the person who is set on the things of the flesh is fundamentally a person who is hostile to God. Why? Because he does not, indeed he cannot, submit to the goodness and holiness of God’s law. This kind of person, says Paul, cannot please God. Consider here, for just a moment, the absolute absurdity into which sin brings all fallen men and women, the absurdity of hating God. Octavius Winslow captures the thought well and it is necessary to quote him here in full:
“The spectacle is an awful one in the extreme, of the finite armed in dead hostility to the Infinite – of a creature measuring his power with God – opposing his will to God’s will – his way to God’s way – his end to God’s end. And yet how disproportionate are our profoundest feelings of horror and commiseration to the atrocious nature and the tremendous consequence of the crime! Enmity against God! The greatest and holiest, the best and most powerful, of beings and of friends! And why this enmity? Upon what, in the character of God, or in the nature of his government, is this sworn hostility grounded? Is it because he is essential love? Perfectly holy? Strictly Righteous? Infinitely wise and powerful? For which of these perfections does the sinner hate him? Is it because he gave his Son to die for man, laying him in a bleeding sacrifice on the altar of justice for human transgression? Is it because the sun of his goodness shines upon every being, and that he opens his hand and supplies the need of every living thing? Is it because he exercises forbearance and long-suffering, and slow to anger, and of great kindness? For which of these good works does the sinner hate him? And to what extent is this enmity displayed? It rests short of the destruction of the Divine existence. Man is at war with the very being of God.”[1]
The idea of being hostile to God is one which communicates a violent opposition toward God and all things connected with God. Which is why sin distorts and deforms all good things. Think about it: because we cannot get at God directly, we instead oppose God indirectly, sinfully taking good things and mutilating them for our own selfish (fleshly) purposes. We turn the good gift of marriage, and intimacy within marriage, into something unrecognizably new.
Read More
Related Posts: