The infinite became finite; the eternal and supratemporal entered time and became subject to it. The immutable became mutable. The invisible became visible. The Creator became created. The sustainer of all became dependent. The Almighty became weak. God became man.

Christianity displays a supernatural view of the cosmos. The origin of the universe was in a decision of Almighty God to create the heavens and the earth. The God who created is not silent. He has spoken through the prophets – through Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Elijah and the writing prophets. Creator God is also triune: the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God. These three different persons are the one incomparable true and living God.
The three have eternally existed in the closest affection for one another, never is the Father at odds with the Son and the Spirit. There are no neuroses, no tensions, no disagreements, not the slightest unhappiness any person has with another. They are one in their attributes, infinite and eternal. They are unchangeable in their being, wisdom, holiness, power, patience, meekness, kindness and truth. Each delights in the others with adoring affection.
God, having spoken to men and women through his servants the prophets, finally commissions his only begotten Son to come into the world. The Son had visited and communed with people in the appearance of a man on numerous occasions. He walked and talked with our first parents in Eden; he appeared to Abraham; he wrestled with Jacob; he strengthened Gideon as one dressed as a mighty warrior. The Son of God was filled with the anticipation of coming to our beautiful yet groaning globe for vast ages, longing for the set time to come when he would come into a family and village and enjoy especially close friends.
The Son of God came
So, at the right time, in these last days which he inaugurated, the Son of God came. He abandoned none of his distinctive divine attributes. How could he cease for a second being what he eternally had always been and eternally will be? That would be impossible – God no longer God! He remained omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and omnicompetent, but he did veil those characteristics by coming in flesh and blood. He became incarnate, that is, he added to his divinity everything that is human, three-dimensional, historical, touchable and visible in wounded humanity.
He had exactly the same biochemical composition as our own, exactly the same anatomy and physiology, the same central nervous system, the same sensitivity to pain. God did not give him some unique analgesic, a pain killer. The Holy Spirit overshadowed his mother Mary and then she made the same contribution as any human mother makes to the genetic make-up of her child – half his chromosomes came from her while the rest were imparted miraculously by the Holy Spirit in the virgin birth.
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By teaching us to name our sin, this doctrine gives us hope for growth in Christ. Paul wants Christians to be aware of their remaining sin, but he doesn’t want us to think we’re trapped. He calls us to mortify our sinful nature again and again until we reach glory (Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:5ff.). How do we do this? We don’t obfuscate about our sin but regularly call the “old man” by his name in confession.

“Concupiscence” isn’t a word most people use every day. Even trained pastors and theologians who are more familiar with the term may be confused about its meaning. For many, the word brings to mind Augustine’s battles with lust or our contemporary debates about human sexuality. For these reasons, many think of concupiscence only as a term for illicit sexual desire. Merriam-Webster’s definition—strong desire, especially sexual—reinforces this usage.
But in Christian theology, concupiscence isn’t just about sex. The term applies more broadly to disordered inclinations and desires that are wrongly bent in any way—whether they be greedy, lustful, unfairly prejudiced, or selfishly biased. Church history shows us how embracing a Reformed understanding of desire can help Christians today.
Sin or Not? Augustine’s View of Concupiscence
For much of church history, the debate around concupiscence centered on this question: Does God hold people guilty for illicit desires even if they don’t act on them?
Augustine of Hippo’s early study of Scripture led him to answer this question in the affirmative. He taught that our illicit thoughts, desires, and actions incur guilt regardless of our will and intent. Why? They’re evidence of our participation in the original sin of Adam and Eve. Augustine wrote, “All that a man does wrongfully in ignorance, and all that he cannot do rightly through what he wishes, are called sins because they have their origin in the first sin.” 
In his later debates with Pelagius, Augustine made clear that because of the corruption of humanity’s sinful desires, we can only do good by God’s grace. But he didn’t stop there. His teaching on baptism complicates his doctrine of concupiscence. Augustine wrote that “concupiscence itself is not sin any longer, whenever [baptized Christians] do not consent to it.”
Scholars throughout history have debated what Augustine meant by this statement. Latin doesn’t possess a distinction between active “sin” and “sinfulness.” The term peccatum can carry either meaning, making it difficult to determine what Augustine intended. But since Augustine’s time, the Roman Catholic Church has taught that baptism removes original sin. They’ve maintained that disordered desires that arise in baptized Christians don’t become sin until we act on them. By Martin Luther’s time, some medieval theologians even taught that disordered lusts should be welcomed by believers as opportunities to exercise virtue through resisting them.
We Remain Sinful: The Reformers’ View of Concupiscence
The Reformers saw the Catholic view as dangerous and contrary to God’s Word. They were convinced illicit desire remained sin and continued to incur guilt in believers even after Christian baptism. The King James (KJV) translation of Colossians 3:5 reflects their view (cf. Rom. 7:8, 1 Thess. 4:5). The KJV translators used the English phrase “evil concupiscence” to translate Greek terms our modern versions read as “evil desires.” Paul says that evil desires—along with “sexual immorality, impurity . . . and covetousness”—are “earthly” and should be understood as idolatrous at the core.
In Luther’s 1537 Smalcald Articles, he argued that the Catholic Church’s failure to name concupiscence as sin led them to a corresponding misunderstanding of repentance. Though illicit desires may arise in believers prior to and apart from a conscious act of the will, they stand, argued Luther, as evidence of our old sinful connection to Adam (Eph. 4:22). As such, they shouldn’t be allowed to fester; they must be “put to death” (Col. 3:5; cf. Matt. 5:21–30).
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The Bible expects that men will act like men, worship like men, participate in the advance of Jesus’ Kingdom like men, by adopting the weapons of warfare like men, and by showing up looking like men, being groomed like men, and being dressed like a man. These things are a glory to a man, they are most suitable to his frame, and will equip us to fight in a way that glorifies our King. 

When I began this series on the fall and recovery of Biblical masculinity several weeks ago, little did I know that we were all about to witness a powerful and yet pitiful example of what fallen and impotent manhood looks like. Just as the brave Marines, holding the American flag atop a mound of rubble, on the war torn island of Iwo Jima, became a symbol for that entire era, so too will the slap heard round the world become a symbol of the weak and sickly manhood that is available today. Like the majority of the world, I had no idea that another award show filled full of opining elites had come and gone; that is until social media became a flurry with rumors that the fresh prince of Bel Aire slapped the Zebra from Madagascar.
Mildly intrigued, I went to youtube and saw the pitiful display.
And before we continue, let me begin with a few disclaimers. I detest celebrity culture. I despise award shows. I loath tabloid style gossip that thrives on who’s sleeping with who. And I have found that my life will be so much more productive, peaceful, and rewarding if I worry about what God has called me to do, rather than worrying about which celebrity is in rehab for shipwrecking their life. That may sound insensitive, but I have more than enough to fill my schedule with growing in the love God, fighting to prioritize my family, loving neighbor, serving the church, and being faithful to do the things God has entrusted to me to do with the precious seconds He has given me. Celebrity culture does not even crack the top billion on my list.
Yet, I am interested in what happened, if for no other reason than I think it poignantly and perfectly encapsulates the downfall of our society. But, being two weeks removed, I am not contributing to the cacophony of opinions on the matter, because Will and Jada Smith are not my point. I only bring Will Smith up as a microcosm for failed masculinity. Let me explain.
First, I am no expert on the comings and goings of the Smith’s, but you would have needed to live under a rock much larger than a comedian named Chris to think things were hunky dory in the Smith home. And while it is not my goal to air all of their soiled linens on this episode, I do want to point out that smacking Chris Rock for a joke was not at all a masculine act.
Masculinity would have been faithfulness to his own marriage vows over the years. Masculinity would not have stood idly by while his wife was sleeping with one of her son’s friends. Masculinity would have provided a home where his children did not grow up entitled and thoroughly perverted by his debauchery. In fact, after years of abdicating his responsibility as a man, his family has become the joke… The humor of Chris Rock was just the final straw atop an overly burdened ego.
This was not masculinity. This was not defending the honor of his wife. This was the petulant temper tantrum of a guilt ridden man, who knows what it is like to play a strong and successful male on television, but behind the mask, is a weak and pitiful example in real life.
This is why I say that this moment was the perfect encapsulation of modern culture and manhood. Mr Smith represents a generation of spoiled, entitled, emasculated boys, who would rather shift blame onto other people for their failures instead of facing the consequences of their decisions.
Mr. Smith showcased one way to fight, but it certainly was not how to fight like a Christian man, which is the topic of our present episode. Unlike Will Smith, or whatever societal image we may have seen of late, we need to know what it means to fight like a Christian man. We need to know how we are called to fight? Where are we called to fight? What we are fighting for? And who we are fighting for! That is what we will be answering today, and we will begin with understanding the battle.
Understanding the Battle
I hope it goes without saying that we are not called to fight with literal weapons. This is not a battle for geography, per se, this is a battle for the spiritual life and well-being of the world. We are called to make war with sin, make war against the kingdom of darkness, heralding Christ to all the nations, extending His Kingdom so that He may become greater as everything else becomes less. This war is a spiritual war, advanced in the souls of men, spreading out to the ends of the earth, putting everything under the feet of Jesus. But, before we can engage in that battle, we must first understand our enemy.
Understanding Our Enemies
When the Bible speaks about our enemy, we often get the picture of a serpentine dragon that is roaring about seeking whomever he may devour and that is certainly part of the story. We really do live in a world where the devil prowls about like a lion seeking whomever he may destroy (1 Peter 5:8). We know that Scripture tells us that this beastly fiend is the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4) and that the world, in some ways, is still under his dominion and authority (1 John 5:18-19). But we also live in a world where Christ has triumphed over and disarmed the devil (Colossians 2:15), bound him in order to plunder his kingdom (Mark 3:27), and has given us the ability to resist him (James 4:7) and to see Jesus’ Kingdom triumph over his (Mt. 16:17-19).
And while an exhaustive study on the devil would be helpful, the central point I want us to understand is that we are in a war and that Satan is one of our great enemies. He is a liar, a deceiver, and wants nothing more than to blind eyes and deceive the nations. As Christian men, we fight him by clinging to the truth, employing the means of grace, participating in the church and sacraments, by contending for the Gospel once for all delivered to the saints, and by seeking to see Jesus’ Kingdom extended to all the nations. Satan is our real enemy and as Christian men we are not called to tremble over him, but to wage war against him in Jesus’ name!
But, he is not our only enemy. The Bible tells us that we actually have three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil.
The world, according to Scripture, is the realm of sinful humanity who live by lies, hate the church, and are opposed to the Lordship of Christ. Think about it this way, Jesus is the King over His people, the elect, and we have become citizens of His glorious Kingdom to do His bidding. Well, in the same way, the serpent is the prince and power over his tyrannical kingdom, the world, and the reprobate are both pleased and equipped to do his bidding as well.
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