http://rss.desiringgod.org/link/10732/15553544/how-does-israel-fill-up-their-sins
You Might also like
-
What Does It Mean to Be Spiritual?
Audio Transcript
Ask three people to explain what it means to be spiritual . . . and you’ll get four different answers. That’s a humorous way to state the problem. Definitions of spirituality are very squishy things. The term means something different to everyone. So, what is biblical spirituality? Can we settle on an objective definition of spirituality from the Bible?
That’s the question today from a young woman — and for her, it’s not a theoretical question at all. “Pastor John, my mother and I have differing views on biblical spirituality. So much so that she has said that my husband and I are not spiritual. I believe this is because she embraces spirituality as spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, interpreting dreams, and claiming healing. My husband and I have worked in the mission field, are heavily involved in church, love the Lord, and seek after him in all things. I don’t know what to say to this. Is it possible that we — my husband and I — are not spiritual? I feel that this is not the case as I see fruit of the Spirit in our lives. How would you respond to such a statement towards yourself? And more broadly, what does authentic Christian spirituality look like?”
Let’s start with a few comments about the use of language and the importance of definitions, and then we’ll move over to the biblical use of the term spiritual, which is especially interesting because, in the ESV, the word spiritual or spiritually occurs 29 times, and 27 of them are in the writings of the apostle Paul, and the other two are in Peter’s first letter. So, it isn’t a very widespread term, and we’re mainly dealing with Paul — we’re dealing with his understanding of it — when we talk about the meaning of spirituality or being spiritual in the New Testament.
Whose Spirituality?
So first, a few thoughts about the use of language. I wonder what our friend would feel or think if a New Age spiritualist who practices divination, fortune telling, necromancy, palm reading, and earth worship were to say to our mature Christian friend, “You’re not spiritual because you don’t pursue these spiritual practices like I do.”
“Paul’s most basic use of the term ‘spiritual’ is to refer to true Christians who have the Holy Spirit.”
Now, my guess is that our friend would not feel very threatened at all or seriously criticized because she knows that those practices are not at all what the Bible means by spiritual. In fact, just the opposite: the Bible opposes those practices. But the point is that the New Age spiritualist is spiritual by his own definition. So, there would be no point in arguing which of those is spiritual. If you don’t define your terms, it would go nowhere. The argument would go nowhere if you said, “Which one of us is spiritual?” because they don’t agree on what they mean by spiritual. They are using the word in drastically different ways.
So, when our friend says, “My mother and I have differing views on biblical spirituality,” she could mean, “My mother and I agree on the meaning of the word, but we disagree on whether my husband and I are living up to it.” Or she could mean that they seriously disagree on the biblical definition of spirituality, and so they can’t assess the other with the same criteria, and we just talk past each other.
Now, I’m pretty sure, from what she says, that our friend takes the latter view because she says she embraces spirituality as spiritual gifts such as speaking in tongues, interpreting dreams, claiming healing. So, the mother thinks that being spiritual in a biblical sense is exercising spiritual gifts, while our friend thinks being spiritual means something else.
Spirit-Indwelt People
Let’s go to Paul’s writings and see what the term actually means. Paul uses the word spiritual to refer to spiritual wisdom, spiritual blessings, spiritual songs, spiritual bodies, spiritual gifts, spiritual rock, spiritual food. Now, we’re going to leave all that aside. We’re only going to talk about spiritual people.
I think he uses the term in three ways, but they are all rooted in the same basic idea. And I think that basic idea is that a person is spiritual if, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he has experienced a new birth and is no longer defined by the flesh, which opposes God, but is defined by the Holy Spirit, who causes him to trust God and love God. So, a spiritual person is most fundamentally a supernaturally transformed person who has been transferred by the Spirit from the natural condition of unbelief to the Spirit-created condition of a new creature in Christ. They are spiritual in the sense that they were created by the Holy Spirit, and are indwelt and formed by the Holy Spirit.
So, you can see that if I’m right, Paul’s use of the term spiritual gets its meaning mainly from God’s Spirit, not my spirit. Paul doesn’t call others spiritual because their spirit is especially active or because they have an unusual preoccupation with mystical things, spiritual things.
Spiritual vs. Natural
Now, the most important text for seeing these things is 1 Corinthians 2:12–15. Let me read a couple of verses:
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. (1 Corinthians 2:12–13)
Now, who are they — “those who are spiritual”? We’ve received the Spirit. We’re imparting things from the Spirit by words taught by the Spirit, but we can only do that to “those who are spiritual.” Who are they? That’s what Paul turns to. They’re the only ones to whom Paul can successfully transmit spiritual truths.
So, Paul explains why that is and who they are in verse 14, the next verse: “The natural person” — that’s the unregenerate, unsaved person, without the Holy Spirit, contrasted with the spiritual person — “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually [assessed]” (1 Corinthians 2:14). They are spiritually assessed — that is, in the sense that the indwelling Holy Spirit enables a person to assess them rightly. They’re not foolishness, but they’re true and beautiful.
He goes on, “The spiritual person” — now he’s contrasting that with the natural person, the unregenerate person — “[assesses] all things, but is himself [assessed] by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:15–16). That is, we have the Holy Spirit shaping the way our mind assesses things so that we don’t call wisdom “stupid” or “foolishness.” Instead, we assess things in the true light of Christ, but natural people can’t make that act. They can’t do that, because it’s not real to them. It’s just foolishness to them.
So, my conclusion from this passage is that Paul’s most basic use of the term spiritual is to refer to true Christians who have the Holy Spirit and therefore are no longer merely natural people but supernatural people, who have been born again by the Spirit, and whose minds are therefore able to see in the gospel the beauty of Christ and the wisdom of God. All true Christians are spiritual in that fundamental sense, and that’s his most basic sense.
Now, I think there are two other uses of the term in Paul, and both of them are adaptations of this meaning, not contradictions of it.
Mature in Christ
The first is that Paul can use the term spiritual for Christians who are more mature in their experience of this newness of their spirituality.
“Here’s the real test of being spiritual: it’s not gifts, but submission to the apostolic word.”
He writes in 1 Corinthians 3:1, “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people” — which is different from saying that they’re not spiritual people — “but . . . as infants in Christ.” Now, I don’t think that means — I used to think this — that they’re not spiritual in the first sense, but that they weren’t acting like it. Strife and jealousy were all over the church, and so Paul treats them as babies.
Here’s another example of this use of the more mature Christian as spiritual in Galatians 6:1: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.” Now, he’s a Christian, and yet he’s calling these “spiritual” folks to go restore him. Those who are walking in the more mature influence of the Spirit and have the Spirit’s fruit — like meekness, which he refers to — you go restore that one back. That’s my second use of the word, a more mature experience of that spirituality.
Submissive to Scripture
The other use of the term spiritual is ironic in 1 Corinthians 14:37. It goes like this: “If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.” So, ironically, there are those who have spiritual gifts — and they really do, like (I think) our friend’s mother is thinking — and they claim therefore to be spiritual. But Paul says, “Now here’s the real test. You people who are speaking in tongues and experiencing healings and exorcisms, here’s the real test of being spiritual: it’s not gifts, but submission to the apostolic word. Do you acknowledge that our word is from the Lord?”
So, my counsel to our friend who sent this question is that she will, with all humility, in the pursuit of all the fruit of the Holy Spirit, not be shamed by her mother’s misunderstanding. Don’t let her words shame you. She should realize that having spiritual gifts does not make a person spiritual. That was the problem at Corinth. It’s having the Holy Spirit that makes one spiritual — and being formed into the image of Christ by his fruit. That’s mature spirituality.
-
God’s Plan When Our Plans Fail
Audio Transcript
God can prevent every trial from entering our lives. He can. And he doesn’t. Why not? That’s the question every believer must eventually answer, especially if you believe God is all-powerful. If God is all-powerful, why does he allow trials into our lives? Why does he let the car break down in the middle of nowhere?
To that end, we have a fascinating clip to address this very point, a clip from a 1996 sermon that marked the 125th anniversary of Bethlehem Baptist Church. Pastor John was preaching Jeremiah 32:36–42. To introduce the text, he shared a poem and a personal story. Have a listen.
Our aim is to celebrate the sustaining grace of God for 125 years, and my first question is, What is that? What is sustaining grace? And I want to put it in a four-line poem that I took about an hour to figure out yesterday, and I want to say it over and over again, because when I take the time to put truth in a rhyme, it just helps me. It helps me. So you have to tolerate this. What is sustaining grace?
Not grace to bar what is not bliss, Nor flight from all distress, but this:The grace that orders our trouble and pain, And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain.
“Grace does not prevent pain, but orders it, arranges it, measures it out, and then, in the darkness of it, sustains us.”
Now, the reason I stress this is that if we were to celebrate a grace this morning that bars us from what is not bliss, and that gives flight from all distress, and that does not order our pain, it would be biblically false and experientially unrealistic. Our experience and the Bible teach us that grace does not prevent pain, but orders it, arranges it, measures it out, and then in the darkness of it sustains us.
Car Accident and an Air Tube
For example, yesterday, Bob — I’m going to borrow your story. (You go to him and get it corrected afterward if I’ve missed anything.) He told us in that other room over there that God ordains that the people of the Lord, from time to time, take stones and make memorials out of them, so that when they look at them and children say, “What’s that?” parents and others can say, “That’s because God did that.”
And then he told the story of how, a little less than ten years ago, their daughter was in a very serious automobile accident — so serious that she would have died. But the car behind, providentially, had a doctor in it. The doctor, providentially, had in his pocket an air tube. He also had the presence of mind, and got to her just as she was turning blue, to force this into her throat, and she lived. And he did her wedding here in 1992. And as he looked at her, doing the wedding as the pastor, and saw these little scars that remained, he said to her, “Those are a memorial of sustaining grace.”
“God ordains that the people of the Lord, from time to time, take stones and make memorials out of them.”
Now, Bob is not naive. He knows that if God can manage a doctor in the car behind, and if God can manage a little air tube in his pocket, and if God can manage to put him on the scene with the presence of mind and the saving action to save her life, he could have stopped the accident in the first place.
Not grace to bar what is not bliss, Nor flight from all distress, but this:The grace that orders our trouble and pain, And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain.
A Radiator and a Catfish
Another story, a little lighter this time. Noël, Abraham, Barnabas, and Talitha are in the car, two Saturdays ago, driving from here to Georgia. The car breaks down three times, and Daddy is at home, comfortable. The third time it broke down was about an hour outside of Indianapolis on a lonely stretch on Saturday afternoon. And the radiator crumbles to pieces, basically. The car overheats. They’re off on the side of the road — a baby, two kids, a mom, and no daddy. What do you do on Saturday afternoon?
A 67-year-old farmer stops and says, “Can I help?”
And Noël says, “Well, we just need a motel and a garage somewhere on Monday morning. Where are we?”
And he says, “Well, would you be willing to come stay with us, my wife and me?”
Pause.
“Well, I’m not sure we would want to impose.”
And he says, “You know, the Lord says that when you serve people in need, it’s like serving the Lord.”
And she says, “Well, can we go to church with you tomorrow morning?”
And he says, “Can you take a Baptist church?”
Not only is he a farmer, but he is also a retired aviation mechanic, and he sets them up. Monday morning, he drives to Indianapolis at 6 a.m., buys the radiator, puts it in, will not charge her for the labor, and they’re on their way mid-morning on Monday. And the icing on the cake is that he has a pond on his farm, and Abraham catches a nineteen-inch catfish.
Now, if God can manage a farmer on the scene who happens to be a Christian — and a Baptist to boot — and an aviation mechanic, and an open home, and a heart for the hurting, and a fishpond, he could have saved the radiator. And he didn’t because sustaining grace is
Not grace to bar what is not bliss, Nor flight from all distress, but this:The grace that orders our trouble and pain, And then, in the darkness, is there to sustain.
-
How Are We Being Saved Right Now?
Audio Transcript
Welcome back to this new week on the podcast. Well, the Bible says Christians have been saved in the past. And it says we will be saved in the future. And it says we are being saved right now — being saved. We’re going to look at that last one, the present-tense one, today, in a question from a listener named Jessica.
“Hello, Pastor John. Thank you for answering so many questions on this podcast! Here’s mine: I recently read 1 Corinthians 1:18 with new eyes. I noticed that the word ‘saved’ in my KJV is translated as ‘being saved’ in many other versions. I have heard this explained by teachers with the following rationale for ‘being saved.’ (1) We are eternally saved from judgment of our sins, as Jesus paid it all on the cross — past tense. (2) We are presently being saved from behaving sinfully by walking in the Spirit. And (3) we will be saved from a world filled with sin after our life on earth is over, and we are given our glorified bodies. The church mainly addresses the fact that we have been saved — past tense (1). But can you explain to me (2), and 1 Corinthians 1:18, that we are being saved right now?”
Let’s nail down past salvation and future salvation, and then focus on what the Bible means by our “being saved” in between those two acts of salvation. But let’s be clear from the beginning that all three stages of salvation were secured, purchased, by the decisive act of God in Christ on the cross — all three, not just the past.
“Because of the cross, every aspect of salvation will most certainly come to God’s people — past, present, future.”
Here’s the utterly glorious foundation for that statement (maybe my favorite verse in the Bible): “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). Now, here’s the meaning: Because of the cross, every aspect of salvation will most certainly come to God’s people — past, present, future. So, whether past, present, or future, we are not talking about three different foundations of salvation, but the different applications of the one achieved foundation: Jesus Christ crucified for sinners.
Past and Future Salvation
So first, past salvation.
By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created [that’s past; you’re a new creation] in Christ Jesus for good works [that’s ongoing], which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8–10)
So, the decisive work is done. The moment we believed, we were united to Christ, were justified in him, were forgiven, adopted; we became new creatures and were once for all saved — “to the uttermost” as Hebrews 7:25 says.
Now, that past salvation, Paul says, is the absolute guarantee of our future salvation. And that future salvation is usually spoken of as a rescue from the future wrath of God. Here’s Romans 5:9–10:
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood [that’s past], much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
And there are numerous other texts speaking in that way (Romans 13:11; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9–10; 2 Timothy 4:18; Hebrews 9:28).
Present Salvation
Now, what about the words “are being saved” in 1 Corinthians 1:18? That’s what Jessica’s asking about. “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” We find the same wording in Acts 2:47, “The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” Likewise in 2 Corinthians 2:15: “We are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved.”
In what sense is God saving us now, between the past salvation of the new birth and redemption and justification and forgiveness of sins and adoption — which are all fixed and firm and unchangeable — and the future salvation of deliverance from the wrath of God in judgment and, as she said, complete eradication of sin and the transformation of our bodies into glorious bodies like Christ’s? What is God doing now that qualifies as part of this salvation?
Sanctified Through the Spirit
I think the key verse that launches us into our right understanding of this question is 2 Thessalonians 2:13: “God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.” “Saved through sanctification by the Spirit” — that is what God is doing now: he’s sanctifying us. And that is salvation, a necessary part of salvation, for three reasons.
First, it says right here in this text that we are saved “through sanctification.” Sanctification is the work of God through which we make it to final salvation. Second, Hebrews 12:14 says there’s a holiness, a sanctification, “without which [we will not] see the Lord.” So, God is at work saving us now by seeing to it that we attain the holiness without which we won’t see the Lord. And third, 2 Peter 1:10 says, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities” — that is, if you’re sanctified, as Paul said — “you will never fall.”
So, I conclude that Christians are being saved now by God in that he’s sanctifying us as the necessary confirmation of our election through lives of sanctification.
God is doing that saving work in two senses. First, he’s keeping us back from soul-destroying patterns of sin, as it says in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that no test, no temptation will overcome us to destroy us. Or Jude 24: “[He will] keep you from stumbling and . . . present you blameless” to God. And second, the other sense in which God is doing that sanctifying work, that saving work, is by causing us to positively walk in paths of righteousness. As Hebrews 13:21 says, “[He is] working in us that which is pleasing in his sight.”
Living on the Word
Now, if we ask how God is saving us in this sanctifying way, the answer given over and over is this: by the word of God, by the gospel. Jesus prayed, “[Father,] sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). So, God sanctifies by the truth. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:1–2, “I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you.” In other words, God uses the words of God, the gospel, in an ongoing, present, saving, sanctifying work in believers — he keeps us, holds us, saves us by the gospel. By trusting the promises of the gospel day by day, the power of sin is broken, and we walk in the freedom of holiness.
“Daily welcoming, daily embracing the word of God is the ongoing way that God keeps us from destruction.”
James puts it like this: he says to Christians, “Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). So, daily welcoming, receiving, daily embracing the word of God is the ongoing way that God keeps us from destruction and saves us. Peter puts it like this in 1 Peter 2:2. After saying that we are born again by “the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23), he says to new Christians, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk” — I take that to be the word — “that by it you may grow up into salvation.” We grow into final salvation by living on the Word of God. That’s how the gospel goes on saving.
As Secure as the Past
That leaves us now with one final question: Can we count on God’s present saving work to be as infallible and as sure as our past salvation is? The past seems so firm, so fixed, so finished. It’s wonderful to dwell on the past thought, I am justified. The past can’t be changed. But what about the present, ongoing work of God to save us through sanctification? And here’s Paul’s answer in 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24:
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
So yes, it is sure. Present salvation is as sure as the past because the past is in fact what secures it.
Let’s end where we began, with the spectacular logic of heaven in Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all [that’s past], how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” So yes, our present and future salvation is as sure as God’s commitment to the worth of his Son’s death, which is infinite.