This article is part 7 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6).

Possibly, the earliest post-Pauline, post apostolic literature that we have is in the letter of Clement of Rome to the Church in Corinth. Most likely this was written around 95-96 A. D, and persons appointed by the apostles still held office in the church but were being pressed out of leadership by a younger generation. Clement wrote, “For we see that you have removed certain people, their good conduct notwithstanding, from the ministry which had been held in honor by them blamelessly.” [Michael Holmes, Ed. and Rev. The Apostolic Fathers, second edition, Baker Book House, 1989, 53] Clement lamented that because of one or two persons, the ancient church of the Corinthians was “rebelling against its elders” thereby heapjng “blasphemies upon the name of the Lord” and by their “stupidity” were creating danger for themselves. [Holmes, 55] 

In order to counter this egregious violation of Christian fraternity and even apostolic authority, Clement reached deeply into the theology of the Bible as seen most clearly in the condescension of Christ to encourage that church to correct their error. In the process of his argument, we find evidence of strong development of a comprehensive biblical theology, trinitarian theology, and the centrality of Christ’s having assumed human nature to bring to fruition the eternal purpose of God toward his elect. The reality of the full human nature of Christ is one of the fundamental assumptions of the argument. A creedal orderliness is present in the structure and content of this letter.

The basic Trinitarian structure of the implicit creed surrounded by certain affirmations of the peculiar operations of each person of the Trinity may be seen in several passages in Clement’s sober and stately style. Clement counters their pride by calling attention to examples of great humility in Scripture, punctuating the entire discussion with Christ’s example. The emphases on Christ’s work in his human nature are prominent. Formerly in the early days of the church, not only were they blessed with an “abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but they gave heed to Christ’s words, stored them in their hearts, “kept his sufferings before your eyes.” [29] Again, to counter the recent surge of haughty self-importance, “Let us fix our eyes on the blood of Christ and understand how precious it is to his Father.” [32] Clement looked at Rahab’s scarlet thread as “making it clear that through the blood of the Lord redemption will come to all who believe.” [35] Clement quotes Isaiah 53:1-12 as an illustration of his observation, “The majestic scepter of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, did not come with the pomp of arrogance or pride … but in humility, just as the Holy Spirit spoke concerning him.” [36] He then summarized his point by saying, “If the Lord so humbled himself, what should we do who through him have come under the yoke of his grace?” [37, 38] 

Clement urges peace and harmony in the church, because peace and harmony are “especially abundant to us who have taken refuge in his compassionate mercies through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Again, Christ in his humanity has become the guarantee that God’s purpose of blessing his people will certainly come to fruition: “Let us consider, dear friends, how the Master continually points out to us the coming resurrection of which he made the Lord Jesus Christ the firstfruit when he raised him from the dead.” [42]. Looking at Jacob as a man of blessings, Clement affirms, “From him comes the Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.” [45] Our salvation is, in fact, “Jesus Christ, the High Priest of our offerings, the Guardian and Helper of our weakness.” [48] In encouraging and commending love as the cement for true fellowship, harmony, and humility in the church, Clement again pointed to the condescension and love of Christ in taking our nature to gain for us what we lost in our foolish pride: “Because of the love he had for us, Jesus Christ our Lord, in accordance with God’s will, gave his blood for us, and his flesh for our flesh, and his life for our lives.” [56] Such a strong emphasis on substitution would be irrelevant, in fact impossible, apart from The Son of God’s coming by true human birth in a true human nature.

 Always resident in each argument of the centrality of Christ in his true fleshly suffering is a reminder of the trinitarian arrangement of gospel truth. “The apostles received the gospel for us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus the Christ was sent forth from God. So then Christ is from God, and the apostles are from Christ. Both, therefore, came of the will of God in good order. Having therefore received their orders and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and full of faith in the Word of God, they went forth with the firm assurance that the Holy Spirit gives, preaching the good news that the kingdom of God was about to come.” [Holmes, 51.]

Knowledge of these things does not come through any private intuition but from the very oracles of God,–“For thus says the Holy Word” [59]. The apostle Paul already had written to this church about their tendency to factions—“Truly he wrote to you in the Spirit about himself and Cephas, and Apollos.” Rather than being contentious toward one another, they should be “contentious and zealous” about the “things that relate to salvation.” For these things “You have searched the Scriptures which are true, which were given by the Holy Spirit; you know that nothing unrighteous or counterfeit is written in them.” [53] By them the church should know that only the ungodly thrust out the holy. As Clement multiplied the scriptural examples of God’s blessings to the humble, and the close alignment that humility and holiness have with each other, he inserted, “For you know, and know well, the sacred Scriptures, dear friends, and you have searched into the oracles of God. We write these things, therefore, merely as a reminder.” [57]

Clement regularly points, not only to the voluntary humility of Jesus Christ for our salvation, but to the final glory of Christ. The harmony of the entire creation shows God’s goodness to all things “but especially abundantly to us who have taken refuge in his compassionate mercies, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the majesty for ever and ever. Amen.” [40]. Election moves logically toward a display of Christ’s glory: “This declaration of blessedness was pronounced upon those who have been chosen by God through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.” [56]. Clement includes election, trinitarian perichoresis as actuating the substance of faith, and biblical authority in a statement of Christ’s salvation as an exhibition of the glory of the Father: “For as God lives, and as the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and the Holy Spirit who are the faith and the hope of the elect, so surely will the one who with humility and constant gentleness has kept without regret the ordinances and commandments given by God be enrolled and included among the number of those who are saved through Jesus Christ, through whom is the glory to him for ever and ever. Amen.” [61]. 

These issues are related again in a prayer of Clement, that “the Creator of the universe may keep intact the specified number of his elect throughout the whole world, through his beloved servant Jesus Christ, through whom he called us from darkness to light, from ignorance to the knowledge of the glory of his name.” [Holmes, 61] Clement closes a long prayer by again referring to Jesus Christ as the channel of glory to the Father: “You, who alone are able to do these and even greater good things for us, we praise through the high priest and guardian of our souls Jesus Christ, through whom be the glory and the majesty to you both now and for all generations and for ever and ever. Amen.” [63]. Finally, Clement glorifies God who “chose Jesus Christ and us through him to be his own special people,” looking upon such a relation as foundational to our being “pleasing to his name through our high priest and guardian Jesus Christ, through whom be glory and majesty, might and honor to him, both now and for ever and ever. Amen.” [64].

Clement remembered Jesus Christ. He saw the incarnation of Christ, his taking to himself our flesh and nature, as the model for all Christian humility and consequent unity. Jesus consummates the decree of election by shedding his blood as high priest and rising from the dead as the firstfruit for our redemption. Through him, the elect will see and find infinite joy in an eternal vision of the glory of God.

This article is part 7 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ.

Join us at the 2024 National Founders Conference on January 18-20 as we consider what it means to “Remember Jesus Christ” under the teaching of Tom Ascol, Joel Beeke, Paul Washer, Phil Johnson, Conrad Mbewe and Travis Allen.

Many years ago, on October 31 something took place that changed the course of my life. I am not talking about Martin Luther’s seemingly innocuous act in 1517 of nailing 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg. In ways that he could never have anticipated that act did come to symbolize the beginning of a movement that rocked the world as the Protestant Reformation recovered the full and final authority of God’s written Word and its message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone. Luther, along with those who stood with him and followed him in proclaiming this gospel message, most definitely have impacted my life. The Reformation has impacted all Western civilization.

But I am reminded of October 31, 1978. On that Tuesday night I accepted a call to become the pastor of the Rock Prairie Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. Two days before that, the church let me know that they wanted me to become their pastor. That phone call was unexpected. The previous pastor had moved and I had preached for the congregation several times in the previous weeks. Though I had enjoyed worshiping with them and getting to know some of the members more personally, I had no thought that they would consider asking me to become their pastor.

I was not a great candidate. I was a single, twenty-one-year-old sociology major at a state university. I had taken a couple of seminary extension courses and preached intermittently over the previous five years. But by any reasonable metric I was ill-prepared to be a pastor. In fact, when the call came from the church, I was actively trying to avoid entering a life of pastoral ministry. The church in which the Lord saved me and that had nurtured me as a child and young person believed that God had called me to preach and had given me a license to do so (that was fifty years ago next month). But my antipathy for pastors caused me to shrink from the thought of pursuing vocational ministry.

Looking back, though I had many reasons for my lack of regard for pastors, the bottom line was that they were mainly rooted in pride and arrogance. I was a self-righteous prig when God saved me and much of that remained (and remains) unmortified in me. Because of that, as I embarked on my last year of college I was developing a plan that I hoped might satisfy God and ease my own conscience. Since pastors help people, I thought that if I entered a “helping profession” that would do the trick. 

Through a connection with some professors, early in my senior year I was offered a contract to work for an organization that provided care and counseling for troubled youth. The job was to begin upon my graduation the next semester. I let the contract sit on my desk for the month of October with a growing sense that this was a wonderful opportunity that would allow me to help young people, be active in the life of a church, and perhaps fill in preaching and teaching on occasion. 

Those plans were disrupted when the chairman of deacons told me that Rock Prairie wanted me to be their pastor. Donna (who was seven months away from becoming my fiancé) and I decided to go to the church’s “harvest festival” two days later on the 31st. The church provided this each year as an alternative to trick-or-treating for kids in the community. As we watched the members of that small church work together to serve children and parents the few remaining doubts I had about accepting their call vanished. I had harbored many doubts and fears and my list of reasons for saying no was long, but several trusted counselors urged me to give the call serious consideration. So, that night, October 31, 1978, I told the deacon chairman, Arthur Olden that I believed it was God’s will for me to accept their call and that I would start immediately. 

One relative, as we discussed my new role, pulled out a handheld calculator (which was a novelty at the time) and jokingly congratulated me for taking a job that paid $15 an hour (which was $12.35 more than minimum wage!) while requiring only three hours of preaching a week. In reality, that move cost the church much more than money and what they gave me cannot be measured in finances. The people of Rock Prairie Baptist Church loved me and patiently endured with my inexperience and ineptitude. They genuinely cared for me and, after we were married, for Donna and me. They were forgiving of my many mistakes. And they genuinely loved me. 

I only served that church for two years but doing so led me to pursue theological training that I would have otherwise eschewed. The discipline of preaching week after week was good for me. I still have notes from those sermons and though much of the understanding of God’s Word that they reflect now make me cringe, I would not trade anything for the lessons I learned in those early years of pastoral preaching. That church gave me a start. They were used by God to put me into pastoral ministry and on a path that continues today, 45 years later. 

I thank the Lord for His faithfulness through those years. I am grateful for the way that He providentially overruled my plans and changed my desires about being a pastor. To me it is the most wonderful calling in the world and I am still amazed at the privilege of being a servant of God’s people in a local church of Jesus Christ. All of it is a testimony to the steadfast love and immeasurable grace of our sovereign God. 

Soli Deo Gloria

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This article is part 6 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5).

Paul’s alarm at the gullibility of the Corinthians in receiving false teachers arose from the implications this had for several issues of vital truth, all of which impinged on the genuineness of their faith. One, their undiscerning spirit questioned the authenticity of his appointment as an apostle. Could these false teachers relativize Pauls’ apostleship, they would do the same to his preaching. Paul, therefore, spent chapters 11 and 12 of 2 Corinthians demonstrating the genuineness of his apostleship in order for them not to be “led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). A second issue concerned the nature of the spirit, or Spirit, at work in them. Receiving the message of these false apostles would mean that they did not believe by the work of the Holy Spirit but actually had been duped, even as Eve was, by Satan disguised as an angel of light. John gives a succinct statement concerning the work of the Holy Spirit in relation to true belief when he asserts, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God” (1 John 5:1). Third, if they received the alternative being offered to them, and departed from Paul’s gospel, then they had a different gospel, which, as he told the Galatians, is no gospel at all. Contrary to the claims of these false apostles, messengers of the great deceiver, what they toyed with had no saving power. A fourth difficulty enveloped all the others. Such a shift in their religious persuasion would finally mean that they received “another Jesus than the one we proclaimed.” Another gospel and another Spirit means another Christ, for the Spirit is given by Christ and the gospel is defined absolutely in terms of the person and work of Christ.

As argued earlier, the admonition, “Remember Jesus Christ,” with the parameters established concerning person and work, implies a comprehensive commitment to a large range of doctrinal ideas. The unshakeable confidence that Paul had in the absolute authority of his gospel inhabits the words, “whom we have not preached.” We find both on the pages of the New Testament and in the history of the church a number of ways in which the Pauline exhortation, “Remember Jesus Christ,” has been disobeyed. Usually this amounts to a denial of some element of Christ’s person and a consequent modification—i.e. denial—of his work and thus a severe alteration of the gospel preached by Paul.

Another gospel and another Spirit means another Christ, for the Spirit is given by Christ and the gospel is defined absolutely in terms of the person and work of Christ.

One way that Jesus is forgotten is by a denial of his true humanity. John confronts this error when he says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). He also had in mind a group that hesitated to embrace the apostolic teaching of the full humanity of Christ when he assured the readers of 1 John that the very one who was from the beginning “we have seen with our eyes, … we have looked upon and have touched with our hands” (1 John 1:1). Added strength to this doctrine is seen when John says, “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin”  (1 John 1:7). Paul’s concern about the nature of the spirit at work in the temptation of the Corinthians to believe on a Jesus whom he had not preached is joined by John when he states, “By this you know the Spirit of God; every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist” (1 John 4:2, 3). As he observed the developments among those who desired to find a position of teaching in Christian congregations, John warned that they should watch themselves “so that you do not lose what we have worked for.” Specifically, he referred to the “many deceivers” that had “gone out into the world” who “do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh” (2 John 7, 8).

The writer of Hebrews, after a clear exposition of the deity of Jesus (Hebrews 1:1-13) and a warning about ignoring “such a great salvation” (Hebrews 2:1-4), shows the ontological necessity of the true humanity of Christ. “He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have the same nature” (Hebrews 2:11 – My translation). Again he writes, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things” (Hebrews 2:14). Then further, as he argues more concerning the necessary qualifications of one who is to redeem fallen humanity, says, “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). Unless he were like us—that is, a man of full human nature, corruption of soul excepted—he could not make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Likewise, Paul argues in a number of places that Christ’s work of reconciliation would be impossible apart from the reality of the Son of God taking a real human nature to himself when he was “found in fashion as a man” (Philippians 2:8). In that way “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death” (Philippians 2:9). Another way Paul said it is found in his instructions to the church in Colossae when he reminds them, “And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he has reconciled in his body of flesh by his death” (Colossians 1:21, 22). 

All that we are in our bodies, Jesus became.

Peter joins the apostolic chorus in celebrating the condescending grace of God in sending his Son to take our human nature to perform the work of redemption. Peter affirms that sinners are “ransomed … with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18, 19). He intensifies this strong assertion with the words, “Christ suffered for you, … He Himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:21, 24). All that we are in our bodies, Jesus became; if not, we have none of our race through whom God’s wrath and expectation for righteousness can be covenantally fulfilled.

We must take time to admire and adore the great display and wisdom, power, and mercy found in the confession, “risen from the dead, of a seed of David.” None can explain but only believe the marvel displayed when the angel told Mary, “that holy thing conceived in you shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). The one who slept in the boat, and sweat great drops of blood, also forgave sins, silenced demons, and said “I and the Father are one.” Come, let us adore him.

This article is part 6 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ.

Join us at the 2024 National Founders Conference on January 18-20 as we consider what it means to “Remember Jesus Christ” under the teaching of Tom Ascol, Joel Beeke, Paul Washer, Phil Johnson, Conrad Mbewe and Travis Allen.

This article is part 5 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)

Paul’s strong emphasis on the central points of Christ’s person and work is designed to elevate the thinking of Timothy above the concerns any might have for safety and acceptance in this life, if at the same time it means proving untrue to Christ. We must remember—see the eternal covenantal purpose of God as centered on Jesus Christ—so that nothing in this life can draw us away. 

One specific concern that Paul has is the power of physical and political intimidation to make us forget. He already has admonished Timothy not to be “ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me his prisoner” (1:8). The “testimony of our Lord,” in light of this context could refer to the words of Jesus in Mark 8:38 where Jesus is explaining what is involved in denying oneself, or losing one’s life for the sake of Christ, in order to follow Christ. “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

That Paul in this instance has in mind physical persecution for the gospel as the challenge to the professing Christian is clear when he states, “for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal” (9). His suffering was well-known by Timothy (3:10, 11). Paul admonished him, “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2:3).

Paul had a two-fold purpose in referring to his various sufferings for “my gospel.” One, his suffering sealed in his experience the absoluteness of the gospel. He was willing to lose all including life because of the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things.” He even desired to know “the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death” (Philippians 3:8, 10). He was, in fact, at that moment contemplating that soon his life would be taken for he knew that “the time of my departure has come” (4:6). Nothing, therefore, could dissuade Paul from his clear and convinced proclamation of the finality, absoluteness, and consummate truthfulness of “Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of a seed of David, as preached in my gospel.” He had come to believe, embrace, cast the very essence of his existence on the truth of the proposition that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). If the former enemy, willing to imprison and kill those who believed the gospel had changed so radically that he now gladly suffered imprisonment and the prospect of a martyr’s death, who could doubt the certainty of his conviction? Who, but the most irrational skeptic, could deny the truth of Paul’s message?

The gospel will not fail; it will prevail, and its power will be manifest in the faithful suffering of his people.

Second, Paul not only used his suffering to glory in the truth of the gospel, but also its power. “The word of God is not chained, imprisoned, or bound in any way” (9). The divinely-ordained harmony in the use of means in service of absolute sovereignty must be contemplated with reverence when we read, “For this reason I endure all things for the sake of the elect, those who are chosen, so that they also, along with me, may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory” (10). Elect in Christ in eternity past, saved in Christ in this present age, secured in Christ for undiminished joy for the eternal age yet to be. The gospel will not fail; it will prevail, and its power will be manifest in the faithful suffering of his people. Even in the face of heresy, Paul can affirm, “Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, ‘The Lord knows those who are His.’”(19).

The gospel proceeds into the world through suffering, succeeds through suffering, and gives power to endure suffering. The gospel certainly will succeed, and Christ will lose none of his sheep; not a one for whom the Shepherd has died will fail to enter the sheepfold. But such certainty arises and is perfected in suffering: Christ suffered and died; the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church; and believers will choose eternal life in Christ even in the face of the threat of death for believing. “How unworthy it is,” Calvin proposes, “that we should think more of the fleeting life of this world than of the Holy Name of the Son of God.”

Paul summarizes this amazing integration of certainty secured through endurance by means of a confession or hymn called a “faithful saying” used in the apostolic church to teach this truth. It has a memorable pattern of rhyme and rhythm in Greek.  Responses and results of true belief are set in parallel with responses and results of faithlessness to Paul’s gospel. The one whose faith arises from the electing purpose of God endures; the one left to his own faculties, will wilt under pressure.

For if together with him we die, also together with him we live;

If we endure the load, we will also reign with him.

If we shall deny him, also that very one He will deny.

If we prove to be without faith, He remains faithful,

For to deny Himself he is unable.

 Dying with Christ refers to His propitiatory substitution for his people and implies their willingness to share his earthly suffering. Atoned for objectively and suffering experientially means that we attain the resurrection of the just. The other points of the confession naturally follow. It ends with the strong affirmation of the unperturbed eternal decree of God and the immutable truthfulness of his threats toward unbelief.

The gospel proceeds into the world through suffering, succeeds through suffering, and gives power to endure suffering.

This hymn also is reminiscent of the words of Jesus when he commissioned and instructed the twelve prior to their mission including warnings about persecution: “Whoever confesses me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32, 33). Jesus words were meant for the hearer and the preacher, of whom one was Judas. Remarking on this passage in 2 Timothy, Calvin wrote, “His threat is directed to those who from terror of persecution give up their profession of Christ’s name.” The admonition that has led to this sobering discussion is “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of a seed of David, according to my gospel.” 

In discussing this passage with a PhD student from SBTS, Michael Carlino, he sent the following response after looking at both the language and the entire theological context of the hymnic confession. I found his remarks helpful and faithful to the text. “It would seem irresponsible exegetically to suggest that God will be faithful to the faithless by granting salvation in 13, because Paul is explaining in 13 why God is just and good in denying the apostate. For God to not deny the one who doesn’t endure/denies him, would be for God to deny his own character/nature. And it would then take away from the glory of verse 11, which promises that those who share in Christ’s sufferings will indeed reign with him. For, if God can deny himself and grant salvation to the apostate, the elect who endure unto death have no confidence in God’s trustworthiness. In other words, Paul is teaching that God’s denying of the apostate flows from God’s immutable character, just as the assurance of God’s receiving of his saints flows from God’s immutable character.” 

Those who are apostate, those who fall away from what they have professed, have never had the root of the new birth. That heaven-wrought transaction shifts the affections from the world to the glory of God as seen in Christ. Something else—arising from threat, covetousness, intellectual fascination, or flattery—has shown that their most abiding affection is for the world and not Christ. Paul assures us that “He who began the good work in you will bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

Again, we see what a pervasive and existentially profound theological admonition Paul gives in saying, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of a seed of David, according to my gospel.” 

This article is part 5 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ.

Join us at the 2024 National Founders Conference on January 18-20 as we consider what it means to “Remember Jesus Christ” under the teaching of Tom Ascol, Joel Beeke, Paul Washer, Phil Johnson, Conrad Mbewe and Travis Allen.

I awoke early October 7 to discover that Israel was under attack by Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement) terrorists. Early reports said hundreds were likely already or soon-to-be dead due to the strategy of the terrorists to attack the Supernova Music Festival in the Negev desert in southern Israel. Current reports indicate more than 1300 people have been killed in Israel and more than that in the retaliatory strikes inside Gaza.

I immediately began reaching out to friends who might have better information than I could get. Like many other pastors, I also began fielding questions from friends and church members who were similarly trying to understand what was happening. At the prompting of church members our elders decided to address the situation to help our members think biblically about the tragic events that were and still are unfolding.

Following are some of the points we covered along with further thoughts I have had since then. I offer them here in hopes that they may help other pastors and churches think principally and carefully about this still fluid situation.

1. The Bible grants jurisdictional authority to deal with evil

The three primary jurisdictions that God has established are the home, the church, and the state. Christ, who has all authority, delegates authority in all three of those jurisdictions and commands that it be wielded according to His will.

• In the home Christ delegates authority to parents, and primarily husbands and fathers, for the welfare of the family. Specifically, He has given them the rod of correction to help administer their authority (Proverbs 22:15). The most extreme use of this is corporal discipline.

• In the church Christ delegates His authority to the members, and specifically the elders for the welfare of the congregation. God has given them the keys of the kingdom to help administer their authority (Matthew 16:13-19; 18:15-20). The most extreme use of this is excommunication.

• In the state (nation, government), Christ delegates authority to civil officials for the welfare of the citizens. He has given them the sword (Romans 13:1-7; 1 Peter 2:13-17) to help administer their authority. The most extreme use of this is capital punishment and war.

2.  War is the province of the state

Our church’s confession of faith, the 1689 or Second London Baptist Confession, in chapter 24, paragraphs 1 and 2 summarizes the authority that Christ has given to the state and the legitimacy of war.

1. God, the supreme Lord and King of the whole world, has ordained civil authorities to be under him and over the people, for his own glory and the public good. For this purpose he has armed them with the power of the sword, to defend and encourage those who do good and to punish evildoers.

2. Christians may lawfully accept and carry out the duties of public office when called to do so. In performing their office they must especially maintain justice and peace,according to the wholesome laws of each kingdom or other political entity. To carry out these duties they are authorized now under the New Testament to wage war in just and necessary situations [see 2 Samuel 23:3; Psalm 82:3,4; Luke 3:14].

3. For a war to be legitimate, it must be waged justly

When the 1689 confession speaks of waging war “in just and necessary situations” it is referring to “just war theory” that has been described and debated from at least the time of Augustine. In various sermons and writings (specifically see City of God IX.7) Augustine encouraged Christians to evaluate the legitimacy of any particular engagement in war by three criteria (these have been debated, refined, and expanded through the centuries but these three are largely still recognized by conservative Christians):

1. Is there a legitimate authority behind the declaration of war? In our American constitution that authority is in the hands of the US Congress.

2. Is there a just cause for the war? Is it to avenge wrongs or to restore what has been illegitimately taken?

3. Is there a just intent? The motive must not be hatred or simple desire to dominate. Will the war promote the greater good? Will it promote peace? Will it reduce evil?

Based on these criteria Israel’s declaration of war on Hamas is just. The evil that was unleashed by the terrorists in the name of an organization whose purpose for existence is to annihilate all Jewish people deserves to be destroyed. The nation of Israel’s stated resolve to do this is just. Though all Christians long for peace and must never glorify war, we should support the right of Israel to wage war against Hamas.

4. Christians are people of truth who serve the God of truth. Our Savior, the Lord Jesus, is Truth incarnate (John 14:6)

Because this is so, be very careful not to be deceived by lies or to traffic in spreading untruths. Propaganda has always been a part of warfare. In a day of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and social media, the ability to create and spread propaganda exceeds anything that humanity has dealt with in prior wars. In your zeal to be relevant or even helpful do not forward images, articles, or information from sources that you cannot verify as trustworthy. And recognize that even trustworthy sources can get duped.

Along with this, limit your consumption of all media, especially social media. It can become addictive to the point of contributing to serious anxiety and stress. Make it a goal to spend as much time reading and meditating on God’s Word as you do consuming news from the media.

For many years I have discouraged my family and friends from trusting legacy media outlets. They sell news and all have agendas that influence what they report and how they report it. Remember basic scriptural principles like Proverbs 18:13 and 17,If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame….The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.

5. Other specific admonitions

1. Remember the gospel. What Hamas needs is Jesus Christ. That is exactly what Israel needs. It is what every Muslim, Jew, and Gentile needs. The only hope for the world is our crucified, risen Savior. You will have opportunities to speak of Christ as this war continues. Do not miss them. Pray for wisdom and boldness to make the gospel known.

2. Do not feel obligated to make public judgments about every public event. You do not have to have an opinion about everything. Remember David’s prayer and let it be your own, “O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me” (Psalm 131:1).

What Hamas needs is Jesus Christ. That is exactly what Israel needs. It is what every Muslim, Jew, and Gentile needs.

3. Do not feel compelled to speculate about foreign policy. Unless you are involved in governmental leadership, you have no duty to do so.

4. Think biblically about Israel. Faithful, Bible believing Christians disagree on what the Bible says about modern Israel. The questions that divide include, “Are any or all of the Old Testament promises given to Israel already fulfilled?” “What is the difference between Israel as a nation-state and Israel as a people?” “What does it mean to be a ‘Jew inwardly’?” “Are Christians the ‘true Israel’ today?” “What is the Bible promise about the future of Israel?” “Are those promises for the nation of Israel or ethnic Israel?”

As I said, good, faithful Christians disagree on how to answer those, and many other related, questions. What we must carefully avoid is letting the current headlines drive our eschatological understanding of the Bible’s teachings. The books, articles, podcasts, sermons, etc. that will come out over the next few months giving details about how these current events fulfill specific Bible verses about the end times will be obsolete in two years (“if the Lord tarries”). If you doubt this, check out the blockbuster books that came out after 9/11.

5. Prepare for possible future scenarios

Congressional leaders have spoken for years about “sleeper cells” of terrorists in the United States who are waiting for orders to carry out attacks against this nation. While we must not allow that to dampen our love for strangers or create any xenophobia in us, it is naïve to think such cells do not exist. With the influx of illegal immigrants into the USA the last three years, prudence demands at least a modicum of awareness and preparation.

What that looks like in practical terms will vary from household to household, but every Christian should prepare spiritually and emotionally by remembering the truths of God’s Word and thinking often of our ruling, reigning Savior. Meditate on Psalm 2 and remember what the wicked strategies on earth look like to our triune God in heaven.

The Christian who forsakes the gathering of his church for sports or special activities for his children because he thinks he is giving them some kind of advantage in life is at best immature and naïve.

6. Ground yourself in your church. For some that will mean simply continuing on the path of faithfulness that you have been walking. But for 90-minute-a-week-on-Sunday-morning Christians (or those who think themselves Christian but are unwilling to submit to Christ in a church), it will mean repenting of spiritual apathy that has crept into your life. “Find a healthy church and build your life around it.” I have given that counsel for years. Though at times it can be hard to find such a church, it is always a challenge to keep building your life around one. To do so you must be willing to know and be known. You must order your priorities and schedule to meet when the church gathers. The Christian who forsakes the gathering of his church for sports or special activities for his children because he thinks he is giving them some kind of advantage in life is at best immature and naïve. As we have seen with the disruptions caused by natural disasters, it is the church that gives strength and stability to endure through them. Your son’s baseball team will not serve you like the church can and will when moral evil erupts.

7. Finally, and most importantly, pray. Our God rules and reigns in this world and He has encouraged us, indeed He has commanded us to pray. Pray the Lord’s Prayer. Pray that He will cause justice and mercy to prevail in this war. Pray for Jewish and Palestinian brothers and sisters who are directly affected by it. Pray that in their suffering, Christ will be honored and the gospel will advance. Pray for Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Biden, and other political leaders. Remember Proverbs 21:1 as you do, that the Lord has their hearts in His hands.

What is happening in the Middle East is tragic. Let it be a call to humble ourselves before the Lord with fresh repentance and renewed faith seek the Lord and His glory with renewed zeal. May the cries of His people and the reminders of our frailties and dependence result in genuine spiritual renewal and steadfast resolve to live wholeheartedly for Him now and forever.

This article is part 4 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ. You can read part 1, part 2 and part 3.

Having examined the theological importance of the call “Remember,” we want to examine some points of New Testament admonition in which the substance of the command is at work. As Jesus prepared his disciples for his departure, he promised them the help of the Holy Spirit. One operation of the Spirit that served the cause of redemption and the full truthfulness of the apostolic recording of it was couched in the promise of Jesus: “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:25, 26). The faculty of memory under the teaching of the Holy Spirit became the avenue for a theological and spiritual transformation. They had heard the words of Jesus, but none of the disciples grasped their meaning, and certainly not their world-transforming importance. But, when the Spirit of truth came and brought these words to their “remembrance,” the message was sealed in their thought and its overturning power in an upside-down world became the theme of their lives and their hope of eternal life.

At the empty tomb we have the first post-resurrection call to “Remember.” When women arrived very early in the morning following the sabbath and found the tomb empty, an angel said to them, “Remember how he spoke to you when he was still in Galilee, saying ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again’” (Luke 24:6, 7). As they gazed into the empty grave where they had observed that his body was laid, the angel asked them to gather the words of Jesus into their minds and to consider with their hearts that the dark emptiness they saw was in itself a settled and infallible proof of the truth of Jesus’ words and the confirmation of his person and work. Had they remembered these words before the angel prompted them, they would have known what had happened. “Jesus has risen just as he said. Death is conquered, sin is forgiven; eternal life is the unfading, immutable reality.”

When Paul wrote of his amazement that some in Galatia were “turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel,” (Galatians 1:6) he expressed the result of a failure to “Remember Jesus Christ.” When he gave his statement of being “crucified with Christ” and the results of that identity in death with Christ (Galatians 2:20, 21), he was showing what it means to “Remember Jesus Christ.” When he told the Galatians, “If you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing,” he showed what it means to “Remember Jesus Christ.” If you remember Jesus Christ the gospel is clear, the cross is dear, and the ceremonial law with its burdensome reminders—sin not yet atoned, hearts still in need of circumcision—will disappear.

 When Paul closed his letter to the Ephesians with the benediction, “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity” (Ephesians 6:24), he highlighted the benefit of a remembrance of Jesus Christ. When he told the Philippians that neither endearment nor rivalry was of importance to him as compared to the greatness of the gospel, he remembered Jesus Christ. Paul expressed it on that occasion in this way: “What then? Only that in every way whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice” (Philippians 1:18). When Paul gave his extended and exalted expositions of the person and work of Christ in Colossians, he pressed those believers, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving“ (Colossians 2:6, 7). This is a way of saying, “Remember Jesus Christ.” And when he reminded them that all of the ceremonial law had been fulfilled and put to rest with the words, “but the substance is of Christ,” (Colossians 2:17), he was telling them that the answer to every challenge of philosophy and short-circuited theology is to “Remember Jesus Christ.” When he told the Thessalonians to “stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or epistle,” (2 Thessalonians 2:15), he is saying “Remember Jesus Christ.” In demonstration of this, Paul goes on to say, “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work” (2 Thessalonians 2:16, 17). To stand fast in those things handed down from the apostles is to find safety in Jesus Christ for he has manifested saving grace in that the Father in grace has given him to us for comfort now and everlasting hope in the eternal future.  What courage, conviction and consolation is found in the gracious call, “Remember Jesus Christ!”

When Paul highlighted the extent of the saving grace of Christ, he told Timothy, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15). Paul pointed to his saving confrontation with Christ as the pattern of how deep and infinitely gracious and powerful and how certain is the determination of Christ to save: “In me Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.” Looking at his life and seeing its subjection to the one whom he persecuted, Paul was saying, “Remember Jesus Christ.”

When John warned against false prophets and gave the test, “Every spirit that confesses, ‘Jesus Christ has come in the flesh,’ that one is of God; and every spirit that does not confess that very Jesus, that spirit is not of God” (1 John 4:2, 3).  By his revelation in a body when the eternal word was made flesh (John 1:14), the eternally covenanted grace of God made the way for righteousness, forgiveness, resurrection, and glorification. Only “the man, Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5) has done, and even could do, such deeds of grace and power. You have not remembered Jesus Christ if you do not remember that the incarnation was the sphere in which every redemptive act must of necessity be accomplished.

Jude changed from writing an expressive exposition of the shared faith of Christians (Jude 3) in order to present a distilled warning against men of heretical doctrine and perverse lives. He told them “Remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 17). In addition to their pursuit of all the “ungodly deeds” recorded in Scripture, a fatal doctrinal error undergirded their energy in turning the “grace of our God into lewdness;” that is, “they deny the only Lord, even our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 4). They denied the Lord because they did not remember “the words” previously spoken “by the apostles.” Had they remembered, in the biblical sense of mental submission to the eternal truths of the covenant, they would have been warned of the perversity of unbelief and have kept themselves “in the love of God, looking to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 21). How salubrious and safe is the command, “Remember Jesus Christ.”

This article is part 4 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ.

Join us at the 2024 National Founders Conference on January 18-20 as we consider what it means to “Remember Jesus Christ” under the teaching of Tom Ascol, Joel Beeke, Paul Washer, Phil Johnson, Conrad Mbewe and Travis Allen.

The key to living well in this fallen world is Christian realism. I could just say, “realism,” because the real world, as it has been revealed by God and believed by Christians is the only world we have. The fact that atheists, Muslims, Buddhists, or secularists do not believe in it does not make it any less real. It’s like gravity. Deny it all you want on whatever grounds you want but when you step off a ten-story building your anti-gravity convictions will not save you from reality.

The reality to which I refer is described in the Bible, beginning (but hardly ending) in Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” So, this world was created by God and for God. Everything that exists, exists by Him and for Him. Reality consists of Creator and creation; God and not-God; or what Peter Jones calls, “twoism.”

Just as your eyesight allows you to access the beauty of a sunset so your faith allows you to access the power of the resurrection.

Coupled with this, and extending from it, is what the rest of Scripture teaches about “the things that are unseen” (2 Corinthians 4:18). These are the realities that Paul said kept him from losing heart as he focused on them. What are the unseen realities? They include divine promises like the assurance that God works all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28-30) and that having once begun a good work in His children, He will most certainly bring that work to completion (Philippians 1:6). Add to this, teachings such as God’s meticulous providence that governs our lives (as taught in Matthew 10:29-31 and Ephesians 1:11), the resurrection of the dead (which Jesus’ historically validated resurrection guarantees, 1 Corinthians 15:3-23), and the future new heavens and earth when Christ will return to make all things new (Revelation 21:1-8).

These and many other unseen things are just as real as rain, trees, cancer, death, deceit, sin, and betrayal. Seen realities can be accessed by our senses and experience. Unseen realities can only be accessed by faith. That does not mean that faith creates them. It means that faith accesses them. Just as your eyesight allows you to access the beauty of a sunset or the wickedness of a crime so your faith allows you to access the power of the resurrection, the comfort of the risen Christ’s unending presence with His people, or the assurance of God’s sovereign, meticulous, personal, and loving rule over the details of your life.

Faith does not create those realities. It accesses them. In that way faith is like a radio tuner. The tuner allows you to listen to music through the airwaves. The radio doesn’t create the music. The music is already there. The radio lets you access it. 

In a similar way Christians are believers. We live by faith. That is, by taking God at His Word we are enabled to order our lives according to unseen realities. We are not relegated to having our thoughts, affections, or aspirations governed only by the material world. Yes, we live in the seen world as full participants in it, subject to all the joys and sorrows that go with life east of Eden. But we also know about and have access to the unseen world with all its promises, blessings, and assurances. 

By taking God at His Word we are enabled to order our lives according to unseen realities.

Because of this Christians can let the realities of both the seen and unseen worlds shape our attitudes, choices, hopes, and emotions. This is particularly helpful when dealing the trials, sorrows, and loss that inevitably come in this fallen world. Christians do not have to deny the painful realities of the seen world. We have no need to pretend or to downplay the grief that tribulations bring. We are creatures of like nature with other people (Acts 14:15). We know what it is to lament, to weep, and to suffer. It would be a denial of reality—the things which are seen—not to let oneself respond with normal human emotion when going through trials. But, we need not be cast into hopeless despair, either.

Why? Because there is more to reality than what can be measured by our senses. Unseen realities—those things that have been revealed to us and that can be genuinely accessed by faith—must also be factored into our thinking and emotions. 

Are you suffering sickness, death of a loved one, or some other kind of painful loss? As you face your trial honestly—realistically—do not forget the unseen, eternal realities that are also true. As a child of God, you are eternally loved by Him. Your life is in His hands. He is orchestrating even painful events in ways that will result in what He deems best for you. Though you have not chosen this path of sorrow, you can know for certain, just as assuredly as you know the pain you cannot deny, that your loving Heavenly Father has ordained it for you and has done so for your eternal welfare.

Where this all comes together in sharp focus is the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The seen realities were obvious. He has betrayed, hated, ridiculed, mocked, beaten, treated unjustly, and executed on a Roman cross. But the unseen realities cannot be denied. In that murderous event, the greatest miscarriage of human justice in history, God was doing His deepest work of redemption. Though not apparent to the senses God was reconciling the world to Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). He was making a full atonement for the sins of His people (Hebrews 10:10-25). He was securing justification for all who trust Jesus as Lord (Romans 3:20-25).

Though you have not chosen this path of sorrow, you can know for certain, that your loving Heavenly Father has ordained it for you and has done so for your eternal welfare.

There was more going on than met the eye. The same is true in all our trials. That unseen “more,” which we know by faith, is an essential part of reality. 

For Christians who are determined to live in reality, there is only one path forward. We must learn with Paul to be “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10). Sorrowful when we suffer loss and our hopes and plans have been overturned, yet rejoicing because Christ lives. He rules. He loves us and cares for us and is working to make certain that no promise given to us will fail.

This is undoubtedly the hardest emotional path, but it is the best one. It is also the right one. Far easier to calibrate your emotions by only one set of realities to the exclusion of the other. You can deny the pain of what your senses assure you is true and often feel spiritual in the process because you allow only unseen realities be felt. Or you can let what you see and experience overwhelm you to the point of despair as if that there are no unseen realities to be taken into account. In other words, you can respond to trials with either sorrow or rejoicing exclusively. But both of those paths consider only part of reality. To let yourself be both “sorrowful” and “rejoicing” is the path that takes into consideration all reality—both seen and unseen. As such it enables Christians to display genuine faith in our crucified, risen Savior as we continue our walk through this vale of tears.

This article is part 3 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ. You can read part 1, and part 2.

The gospel was no matter of human construction, nor a philosophy to be shaped by critical interaction. It was not Paul’s gospel in the sense that he deduced it from a clever, or even a profound, integration of secular cultural ideals. He did not invent it nor construct it by logical extension from his thorough knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures. His gospel was indeed the culmination of the Holy Scriptures and the perfect and intended fulfillment of their meaning in historical narrative, prophetic utterance, typological events and persons, wisdom literature, and worship material. He told Timothy that the “Holy Scriptures … are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). These Scriptures, which Timothy had been taught from childhood by Lois his grandmother and Eunice his mother were to be seen in their perfect meaning when he viewed them in light of “the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you learned them” (2 Timothy 3:13). Paul referred to his own instruction, for Timothy had “carefully followed my doctrine” (2 Timothy 3:10). What Paul called “my doctrine” here, he had called “my gospel” a few paragraphs earlier.

In Romans 1, Paul begins describing his ministry, indeed his authority, to the Romans, immediately dictating, “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.” He then summarized this gospel in terms virtually synonymous with our text: “which he promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Then he adds the particular idea we are considering, “through whom we have received grace and apostleship,” or perhaps, “this particular grace of apostleship.” He goes on to say, in light of the large Gentile admixture in the church at Rome, “to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake” (Romans 1:1-5). As Paul closed Romans, he told the church that God “is able to establish you according to my gospel, even the preaching of Jesus Christ.” His gospel was the “revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began.”  Though kept hidden as to the kind of person who could fulfill all the requirements of prophecy, who could judge justly and yet forgive sins and remove them as far as the east is from the west, in that revelation it was “made manifest.” Then in a way perfectly consistent with the Scriptures of the prophets, this gospel that he calls “my gospel” was “made known” to the nations.

Similarly, to the Ephesians he wrote that “this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8). The gospel that he preached carried the authority of his apostleship, his independent understanding of the gospel of Christ revealed to him: ”that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery” (Ephesians 3:3). As he told Timothy, this gospel now constitutes a part of the Holy Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16) and brings all of its parts into perfect harmony. By the gospel certain mysteries that lingered in the prophets were given clarity. Peter referred to this in 1 Peter 1:10-12, asserting that “those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven” gave clarity to both “the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.” Mysteries left buzzing in the heads of the prophets found their resting place in “Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of a seed of David.” Paul goes on to tell the church in Ephesus about his “insight into the mystery of Christ” that was not made known in previous generations but “has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit” (Ephesians 3:4, 5). Of this gospel God’s powerful grace made Paul a minister, a steward of the revealed truth concerning “the unfathomable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:7, 8).

When among the church at Corinth false teachers came who taught that there is no such thing as a resurrection of bodies, Paul began his instruction with a strong assertion of the absolute truthfulness of the gospel that he had preached. By his gospel they would be saved; if his gospel was not true, their faith would be empty. Note how insistent he is on the certainty of his message. To counteract these heretics, Paul reviewed “the gospel which I preached to you” and asserted the certainty of their salvation “if you hold fast the word which I preached to you” (1 Corinthians 15:1, 2). What did he preach? “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.” From whom did he receive this message that he preached? As he argues throughout his corpus of letters, he received it by divine revelation so that his gospel was for certain the gospel of God. 

The first necessary theological truth is precisely this: preaching by an apostle. “So we preached and so you believed. Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the Dead?” (11, 12). Preached, therefore believed. If taught otherwise than preached by an apostle, the message is false, even without further investigation. Other doctrinal ideas of major importance are eventually discussed—forgiveness of sins, the conquering of death, the reigning of the man from heaven—but it is striking that the first thing Paul mentioned is the unity of the apostolic witness on this issue. Only a revelation could accomplish such unanimity. 

If unalterably true as Paul claimed, his gospel would bear the scrutiny of critical examination in places where it touched on matters open to investigation.  True belief, however, would arise in the context of the apostolic word, not the scrutiny. The resurrection of Christ and the consequent resurrection of believers were unambiguous facts of this divine revelation. The divine grace that captured him, making him an apostle, also confirmed to him the content of the gospel that he preached. His gospel, as revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, was a message of salvation grounded both in Scripture and in history. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). “Christ died” was historical; “for our sins” was theological, a matter of divine revelation and in perfect harmony with the prophetic words, “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all; … he bore the sins of many” (Isaiah 53:6, 12). “That he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” relates two historical facts—buried, raised—that Paul proceeds to verify by historical evidence—multiple eyewitnesses of the risen Christ—including his own remarkable conversion and call to preach (1 Corinthians 15:5-10). Then with the historical evidence he interweaves truths of consistent biblical witness such as the Lord Messiah would be seated at the right hand of the Lord “till I make your enemies your footstool” (Psalm 110:1). Also, he would come in power as the “Son of man, coming on the clouds of heaven” and would be given “dominion and glory and a kingdom” (Daniel 7:13, 14). Only the resurrection of the crucified Messiah can explain such events. 

In his letter to the churches of Galatia, Paul was shocked and amazed that someone could come among them, preaching a supposed gospel other than what Paul preached, and actually be credited as truthful. Paul had no room for suavity, politeness, or deference on this issue but instead said in no uncertain terms, “If we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, accursed be him” (Galatians 1:8). Why is Paul so certain of the correctness of his anathematization? “The gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11, 12). Paul had no doubts that his gospel was THE gospel; he had no doubt that his gospel was the same as that preached by the other apostles; he had no doubt that he received his gospel by divine revelation.

“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, out of a seed of David, according to my gospel” (2 Timothy 2:8).

This article is part 3 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ.

Join us at the 2024 National Founders Conference on January 18-20 as we consider what it means to “Remember Jesus Christ” under the teaching of Tom Ascol, Joel Beeke, Paul Washer, Phil Johnson, Conrad Mbewe and Travis Allen.

This article is part 2 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ. You can read part 1 here.

“Remember Jesus Christ, risen out of death, arising from the seed of David, according to my gospel” (2 Timothy 2:8).

In supplying the name of the one that we are to remember, he also supplies the reasons that forgetfulness in this matter is fatal. Paul supplies the name of the person who embodies the full range of truth and saving grace that counters the falsehoods, errors, and aggressive evil of fallen humanity. As he reminded the Corinthians, “As in Adam all die; even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). In the context of this letter to Timothy, Paul uses the combination “Christ Jesus” or “Jesus Christ” fourteen times. Two of these also employ the word “Lord” with the name “Jesus” and the office, “Christ.” Also, there are fifteen other uses of the word “Lord” to refer to Jesus Christ. The book is saturated with Jesus Christ, his lordship, his mercy, his purpose, his truthful word, his conquering of death, his promise of life, his salvation, his status as judge, and his personal presence with the believer. Paul aimed to make it impossible to forget either the person or the work of Jesus Christ. To forget is to deny; to deny is to give surety of an absence of grace.

Particularly Paul does not want us to forget the significance of the name and the title given to him. His name is Jesus. The angel told Joseph, calling him “son of David,” that the child with whom Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit was to be called “Jesus” (Matthew 1:20, 21). The significance of this designated name was related to the child’s office as Savior—“for he shall save his people from their sins.” The name means, “Jehovah is salvation.” 

For Joshua (the same name), his name was a testimony to the promise of Jehovah in giving to Israel the land of Abraham. It signified that Jehovah was strong, mighty, faithful, the only God, and would accomplish all his promises, both of blessing and of cursing. He would work through Joshua to fulfill these promises and establish the context where the people would respond to this miraculous deliverance and strikingly clear revelation. Some of the promises were unconditional and unilateral. No alterations among the Israelites could change the ability and determination of God to carry through. Others were conditional and were, in one sense, dependent on the faithfulness of the people (2 Kings 23:26, 27). 

The task of Joshua was typological; the task for Jesus was the substance and absolute. Joshua set the stage for the powerful display of divine purpose; Jesus embodied the mystery of godliness. Joshua testified of the power of God to save and called the people to follow him in serving the Lord (Joshua 24); Jesus did not merely testify to the power of God to save, but he possessed and executed his saving power by own righteous acts and perfect obedience. Not only like Joshua did he testify to the power of God to save, but he constituted the saving purpose of God. Though “Jesus” is his human name, it also is a testimony to his divine nature–”Jehovah is salvation.”

As “Christ,” the God-man Jesus is the anointed one. Every office and type established by anointing, the Christ culminated in himself. Did God give prophets to reveal and speak and write his word to his people? Jesus is the prophet promised through Moses, the “Word made flesh,” the Son through whom God “has spoken” (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18; John 1:14; Hebrews 1:2). Is he not the true Elisha, the God of supplication, anointed by Elijah (1 Kings 19: 16; Luke 1:17; 3:21, 22; Luke 23:34; John 1:29-34). Does the Lord not set forth the prophet as a special representative of his anointing? (1 Chronicles 16:22; Psalm 105:15). “Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm.” Does not Jesus claim that he is the fulfillment of the anointed prophet sent to preach good tidings to the poor, and proclaim liberty to the captives? (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18). 

He is Priest. As the priest was anointed to offer sacrifice (Leviticus 4:4, 5) and sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice. Christ, therefore, offered himself once-for-all putting an end to all of the typological sacrifices. Though not of the tribe of Levi, he received a special commission for this purpose (Hebrews 7:20; 8:6; 9:12, 24-26). So, Jesus Christ, having served as the anointed prophet, then completed his anointed work of priesthood, altar, and sacrifice. Nothing in the sacrificial system was left unfulfilled by him.

David was anointed king by Samuel (1 Samuel 16:13). In consequence of the Christ’s completed prophetic work and the perfection of his priesthood, he was given his seat at the right hand “of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3), fulfilling the promise to David of the forever king established by God. “And I will establish him in my house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever” (1 Chronicles 17:14). Jesus Christ alone, in all three of these offices can say, “I have been anointed with fresh oil” (Psalm 92:10).

Nothing else would matter if the next phrase were not vital to the way we are called upon to “Remember Jesus Christ.” Both the soteriological power and the apologetic coherence of the gospel would fall to the ground, no more to rise, without it. “Risen from the dead” denotes the conquering of the scheme of Satan to oppose the purpose of God in lifting up non-angelic creatures to a position higher than the angels—in fact, to share in some way with the glory of his Son. Jesus did not give aid to angels but was “made like his brethren,” made propitiation “for the sins of the people,” and “having purged our sins,” destroyed him that has the “power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14-17; 1:3). The wages of sin, the penalty of death for disobedience, unpropitiated through the ages, held as a threat by the Devil and verified by divine justice, lost its sting when Jesus “bore our sins in his own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus Christ, who bore those death-dealing sins, was “raised from the dead by the glory of the Father” (Romans 6:4). This means that all the holy, righteous, and just attributes of God, the entire weightiness of God, were honored completely by Christ’s death and thus called for the granting of life to the successful sin-bearer. Death, therefore, no longer has any hold on Christ or his people and Satan’s tool of intimidation has been removed. The work of Christ and the verdict of the Father are communicated in power to the redeemed by the Spirit. “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11). God, therefore, instead of being against us is for us. Why? Because he “spared not His own Son but delivered him up for us all.” Having given us Him, he freely gives us all that Christ has gained. None can now condemn for “it is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God.” On top of that he “makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:32-34).

Under the name of Christ, we already have looked briefly at the significance of the phrase, “out of a seed of David.” The anarthrous use of spermatos has the force of isolating the word to a specific person, Mary. Jesus was born, was conceived in and then came out of Mary, a seed of David. Luke 1:27 has the phrase, “out of the house of David,” a phrase to be applied both to Mary and Joseph. The seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15) was also the seed of David. He descended from David in his human nature and has a right to the throne. “He will be great,” the angel told Mary, “and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.” (Luke 1:32). How low the House had fallen that a teenage virgin was to bear the seed of David to the Messiah and his legal father would be a mere carpenter. Luke 2:4 again emphasizes that Joseph was “of the house and lineage of David” because the enrollment must take place legally according to the male of the household. When the angel addressed Joseph to inform him of the source of Mary’s impregnation, he said “Joseph, son of David” (Matthew  1:20). Jeremiah 30:9 predicts, “They shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king.” In Ezekiel we read, “And my servant David shall be king over them” (34:24; 37:24). Hosea predicts that after a time of devastation, Israel will “seek the Lord their God and David their king” (Hosea 3:5). This descent from David confirms the prophetic material concerning the Messiah, seals the reality of his humanity, and shows that the true “Man after God’s own heart” saves us, rules over us with lovingkindness until the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.

Paul has given a thick distillation of biblical doctrine on the person of Christ in his paternal admonition to Timothy. For his preaching, his instruction of elders, and for his personal joy and assurance Paul instructed Timothy, and so instructs us, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of a seed of David.”

This article is part 2 in a series by Tom Nettles on Remembering Jesus Christ.

Join us at the 2024 National Founders Conference on January 18-20 as we consider what it means to “Remember Jesus Christ” under the teaching of Tom Ascol, Joel Beeke, Paul Washer, Phil Johnson, Conrad Mbewe and Travis Allen.

The theme of the 2024 Founders Conference surrounds Paul’s admonition, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, out of the seed of David, according to my gospel.” God willing, and according to his enlightenment and strength, I want to discuss this sobering theme in a series of posts focusing on the biblical developments of “remember.” The word points to events that are both pivotal and central. Not only do they give a swift alteration of direction for humanity, but they rise to a culmination and a subsequent response in thought and deed.  The flow of the entire biblical text presses forward to this command, “Remember Jesus Christ.” It summarizes every other call to remember. I intend also to describe historical manifestations of the loss (forgetting) and recovery (remembering) of this culminating event in the history of redemption.

“Remember” calls to mind central admonitions in the history of God’s revelation of redemptive power to his people. The command is not for a mere mental recall of an event or a casual reminder of a person’s name or status. It is a critical summons to put an event or person or commitment so at the center of your concern that the weight of its importance transforms your thinking. When the thief said to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom,” (Luke 23:42) he wanted to be taken personally by Jesus into that status of perfect, sinless, beneficent rulership. Jesus responded with an answer commensurate with the purpose of the request, “Truly I say to you, this day with me you will be in paradise” (Luke 23:44). “As surely as my work of atonement will bring me into the glory of heaven in the presence of the Father, so it will do for you.” The request of the crucified thief was for Jesus’ personal investment in the eternal well-being of his mind, body, and soul—”Remember.”

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8), involves more than simple mental recall, but an investment of life in the rhythm of divine labor. As God worked for six days in creation, so should these redeemed people labor for six days at life-sustaining tasks that deserved their energy. As God had finished creation and then rested, so were the people rescued from relentless labor in Egypt to embrace a sabbath as instituted and practiced by God on the seventh day. All the animals, each member of the family, all the nation would so esteem the glory of the Creator/Redeemer/Covenant God that their lives individually and corporately would be defined by it. “Remember Jesus Christ” has that same claim on the lives of his redeemed ones but with an even greater intensity in light of an even more powerful delivery.

In Genesis 9:15, God said to Noah that he would “remember my covenant” made with the whole earth never again to destroy all flesh by flood. At the appearance of the rainbow in the cloud (which God himself makes), “I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature.” God’s promise to remember reflects a decree set in the context of his own integrity, a promise made by the unlying God (Titus 1:2). 

In Leviticus 26:42 and 45 God refers to remembering his covenant with Abraham and Isaac so that he does not destroy the people entirely when they go into captivity: “I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt.” When God remembers, he conducts himself in accord with his eternal decree to redeem sinners through a man that would come in the context of a nation and a family, a man whose genealogy is traceable to Abraham and to Adam. The theology of “remember” means that God’s purpose and consequent action of redemption captures the mind and determines the actions.

Deuteronomy 6:12 gives a stern warning “lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt.” God gave a formula for protection against their fatal forgettings. Generation upon generation should follow this system of instruction? “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). The whole life should be lived in the conscious awareness of God’s authority, his commands, his sovereign mercy, the fearful wonder of his distinguishing grace. The words of revelation that he has given by which the meaning of his historical acts of grace are disclosed must be an ever-present body of informative truth to his people. We must not forget; it must not pass away from our present consciousness that we are saved by free, unmerited, sovereign mercy.

Deuteronomy 8 verses 2, 11, 14, 18, 19 have an antiphonal chorus that works between the seriousness of the command to remember and the devastation wrought by the tragedy of forgetting. “And you shall remember” (2) refers to the Lord’s provisions and testing in the forty years of wilderness wanderings. This was to focus their lives, their hearts, on the revealed word of God as the source of life (3). Should his temporal blessings make them flatter themselves with a sense of independence, they are warned not to “forget the Lord your God” (11) and ignore his commandments. Again verse 14 warns against allowing success in the Promised Land to push aside the obvious dependence that they have on the Lord presently, even as it was undeniable during the testing of the forty years. If they are tempted to say, “My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth,” they again are commanded, “You shall remember the Lord our God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which he swore to your fathers” (18). “Remember” challenges the mind to grasp the covenantal mercy of God with such conscientious commitment that nothing can drive a wedge of temporal delusion between the moral and spiritual mind of a person and the infinite power and mercy of divine provision.

When Jesus established the symbol of the final, ultimate, perfect redemptive act, he commanded his followers, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). When Paul recounted the event for the Corinthians, he connected Jesus’ command of remembrance, do this “in remembrance of me,” with the breaking of the bread and the taking of the cup. “This do,” he said, “as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me” (1 Corinthians 11:24, 25). Paul added that such an action was a proclamation of the “Lord’s death till he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).

The command of Paul to Timothy to “Remember Jesus Christ,” therefore, reaches deep into the biblical text as a prompt to take to heart the covenantal faithfulness of God. “Remember” means to be in active reflection on the saving mercy contained in the eternal covenant and the consequent redemptive action of God in Jesus Christ.

Join us at the 2024 National Founders Conference on January 18-20 as we consider what it means to “Remember Jesus Christ” under the teaching of Tom Ascol, Joel Beeke, Paul Washer, Phil Johnson, Conrad Mbewe and Travis Allen.