A Drop in the Ocean

Understanding the Depths of the Love of Christ

“And I pray…that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19

When we think of the Reformation we often give thanks for the recovery of the doctrines of sola scriptura (Scripture alone) and sola fide (Faith alone). We rejoice over these great doctrines because when we returned to Scripture as our sole authority, we also were clearly reminded of the instrument of our salvation--faith alone. We are not justified because of some goodness in ourselves. Believing in Christ and participating in the sacraments do not justify us. We are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone!

My tendency, as I embrace the great “sola’s” of the Reformation, is to emphasize the judicial nature of the atonement and our justification. I often think of God’s holiness and His right to have his holiness vindicated through his wrath. I think of God’s grace in justifying an undeserving sinner like myself. He has judicially declared me righteous in Christ. He has imputed my sin to Christ and Christ’s righteousness to me. What a glorious exchange! However, I often intellectualize my faith and do not think about the love of the Christ who would offer so great a salvation to me.

One of the great recoveries of the reformation, that is so often passes without discussion, is the reaffirmation of the richness and freeness of the love of Christ. Prior to the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church was teaching a gospel that drove men to try to earn and retain the love of Christ. Men, like Martin Luther, strove with such effort to please God that they often grew in hatred toward him. It was not until Luther understood justification by faith alone that he began to truly love God. He understood that God, out of His great love, makes us alive together with Christ. Salvation is a free gift. It is not predicated on our works. It is a gift motivated by the love of Christ.

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.
Rom. 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Eph. 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Eph. 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
1John 3:16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

At times, I need to return to the biblical texts of the love of Christ and be reminded of the depth of the love of Christ. I think we often forget how much God loves His creation. Luther remarked that God’s love is the only love powerful enough to create the objects of its affection. We often need to be reminded of the fact that Christ loves us with a richness that we cannot even fathom. The love of man, even at its purest and best, is such a poor example of the love of Christ that comparisons seem empty. Charles Haddon Spurgeon remarked, “None of us loves men as Christ loves them; and if the love of all the tenderhearted in the world could run together, they would make but a drop compared with the ocean of the compassion of Jesus.”

The love of Christ was given to us from eternity. The love of Christ brought us into being. The love of Christ extends all gracious gifts to us. The love of Christ elects us unto salvation. The love of Christ effectually calls us to salvation. The love of Christ lavishes us with grace and mercy. The love of Christ preserves us in salvation. When speaking of the love of Christ, Paul said,

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39

As the great hymn, “The Love of Christ” by William Gadsby, says…

“The love of Christ is rich and free;
 Fixed on His own eternally;

Nor earth, nor hell, can it remove;
 Long as He lives, His own He’ll love.
His loving heart engaged to be
 Their everlasting Surety;
’
Twas love that took their cause in hand,
 And love maintains it to the end.
Love cannot from its post withdraw;
 Nor death, nor hell, nor sin, nor law, 
Can turn the Surety’s heart away;
 He’ll love His own to endless day.
Love has redeemed His sheep with blood;
 And love will bring them safe to God;

Love calls them all from death to life;
 And love will finish all their strife.
He loves through every changing scene,
 Nor aught from Him can Zion wean;
Not all the wanderings of her heart
 Can make His love for her depart.
Love cannot from its post withdraw;
 Nor death, nor hell, nor sin, nor law,
 Can turn the Surety’s heart away;
 He’ll love His own to endless day.
At death, beyond the grave, He’ll love; 
In endless bliss, His own shall prove
The blazing glory of that love
Which never could from them remove. Which never could from them remove.”

God in Our Image?

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

As I was reading the paper a year ago, I came across an article about a new movie starring a black Jesus. In providing a rationale for a black Jesus, Jean Claude LaMarre, who stars in, wrote, directed and financed the film stated, “Black people in the country are the only race of people who worship a god outside their own image.” I was suddenly taken aback by the brazen nature of that statement. I was stunned that he would conclude that black people are the only race who worships a god outside their own image.

I found myself arguing with the article. I thought, “This just isn’t true! White people don’t worship a god in their own image.” I continued, “Doesn’t this guy understand that we are in God’s image and not the other way around?” I realized he just did not understand what being in the image of God meant, and I concluded that I had vanquished my imaginary opponent.
As I reflected on this man’s statement further, I concluded that he was at least partially correct. I realized that much of contemporary American Christianity does indeed worship a God in man’s image. While I knew his theology was poor, I also recognized that he unwittingly pointed out what may be one of the great theological errors of our day. We have remade God in our image. Rather than our being made in His image, we have reversed it so that He is altogether like us.
I have seen this trend of remaking God after our image grow in popularity among professing evangelical writers and speakers. What is most surprising is that the “God in our image” teaching has grown in such popularity that it is now being boldly professed as evangelical theology. In fact, some of the most popular books espousing this heresy are being pushed from pulpits across America and have rocketed to bestseller status. Last Spring, I was in attendance at a marriage retreat in which I heard this theology so clearly stated. The presenters were trying to ground their misguided psychological advice with some theological support. In the midst of their justification they stated the following, “We know God’s nature is part female and part male, because we are male and female.” I almost came out of my chair in indignation. I could not believe the reversal of roles I just saw take place. I remembered Deuteronomy 4:

“Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone. And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and rules, that you might do them in the land that you are going over to possess. “Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.” Deuteronomy 4:12-19

Later in the same text, God declares that He is a jealous God. He does not want His glory given to any other. The Bible is clear that God is Spirit (John 4:24). He does not have gender. Someone might retort, “Don’t we have characteristics that are part of His image and thus isn’t okay to look at ourselves to find out about Him?” The answer to that question is, “NO!” We are made in His image. We cannot turn the paradigm on its head. We definitely reflect characteristics of God. However, it is to the self-revelation of God in Scripture that we turn in order to find out about Him. As we understand Him, we are then able to understand ourselves better. Furthermore, it is clear in Psalm 50:21 that God is not altogether like us, “These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.”

Let’s make sure we get the order of things correct. God is the Creator and we are His creatures. God is the Lord and we are His servants. God is perfectly holy and we are sinful. God is Spirit and we are embodied souls. God does not suffer from our limitations or our errors. God is perfect in all His attributes and works, needing nothing. We are fallen and desperately in need of divine assistance. God is the source of all things and we are part of the effects of His causation. We have no say in who He is, in what He does, or in how He reveals Himself. We should not forget how humiliating it was for the Son to take on himself a human nature. Paul says of this that Jesus “…made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:7)

This remaking of God in our image is not confined to gender or race. We see it in character attributes as well. You repeatedly here the statements, “Well, my God is not…” or “My God would not…” or “I don’t believe in a God who…” You can fill in the blanks with a multitude of denials about the biblical witness of the character and works of God. People simply want a god after their own image. Why? We often want a God like us because we are then elevated. If God is like me, then I must be as intrinsically lovable as I believe I am. When Jesus died for me, He affirmed my worthiness. This is not the good news. Jesus did not die for me because I am lovable or as an affirmation of my intrinsic worthiness. When Jesus died for his people it was an affirmation of how loving God is, not how lovable I am.

It is the fact that God is not like us that makes the good news truly good. When we understand the gospel, we are set free from the sin of remaking God in our image. We are able to see that God is so much more glorious, majestic, and grand than any fallen creature. When we catch a glimpse of Him in His glory, we are finally able to look beyond ourselves because we are eclipsed by the vision of God revealed in the Bible.

The Trinitarian Nature of Supplication in the Lord's Prayer

As I have been studying the Lord's Prayer, I have been struck by the Stott's insight into the Trinitarian nature of supplication in the Lord's Prayer. Each of the requests can be ascribed to a role filled by a member of the Godhead.

1. "Give us this day our Daily Bread," can be ascribed to the Father's role in creation and providence.

2. "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors," can be ascribed to the Son's role in atoning for our sins and bringing us forgiveness.

3. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," can be ascribed to the Spirit's role of indwelling us and empowering us to be holy.

Living God's Will

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”---Deuteronomy 29:29

After preaching a couple of weeks ago, I got one of those emails that every preacher of the Bible loves to receive. One of the young ladies in attendance said, “Your sermon has been much on my mind this week. It's caused me to look at where I have been and where I am now in a new light... and that's great.” Of course, every pastor is filled with delight upon hearing that people have been led to think about their own lives as a result of a sermon. Perhaps, even more exciting is when people go a step further and begin asking questions spurred on from the sermon. This young lady continued her email with the following question, “Do you think it's possible to not live out God's will for your life?”

As I thought about how to answer her question, I decided to answer it in the newsletter, because those who begin to understand the sovereignty of God so often ask it. I have always believed God is sovereign. For many years, my definition of His sovereignty, however, only accounted for His right to have authority over all things. I thought he waived some of this right in order to provide us with some measure of freedom. Certainly, I believed that He knew what I and all other creatures would do. I believed His foreknowledge was exhaustive. However, I did not believe He was acting in my free decisions. I thought this kind of activity on God’s part would rob me of freedom and make Him the author of my sin.

I remember how offended I was when I first learned that God not only has the right to have authority over all things, but that He exercises that right. I learned that He not only exhaustively foreknows all things, but He actually decrees them. I was offended because I did not like the idea that God is actually exercising His sovereign will, rather than allowing me to autonomously exercise mine. Suddenly, I realized that God was involved in every area of my life. God creates, sustains, and redeems His people. He decreed everything that would come to pass and He is sovereignly active in every decision. When I came to understand this truth, which I do not intend to defend here, I had all sorts of questions. One of the questions I had was the same one the young lady from our church body asked me. Is it possible to not live out God’s will for your life? I offer two answers to this question:

1. Yes, it is possible to violate God’s will for your life. God has clearly revealed His will for your life throughout Scripture. We call this God’s preceptive will. If we want to know how God would have us walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, we must look to the Bible. Romans 12:2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” We must have our minds transformed if we hope to live out the will of God. This transformation of our mind happens only through studying the Word. Psalm 119:9-11 answers the question of how a young man can keep his way pure,

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

When God gave us His incomparable gift of the Scripture, He also gave us the responsibility to open this gift of revelation and live by it. Through the Bible we have both moral commands and general wisdom that are given to us for our benefit and His glory. We not only can violate God’s preceptive will, we do it all the time. We call this violation, “sin.” As believers in Christ, we are continually thankful that Jesus kept the preceptive will of God perfectly.

2. No, it is not possible to violate God’s will for your life. Did I just contradict myself? Although it may seem like I am contradicting myself, I am talking about a different will of God. When we speak of God’s will, we not only speak of His preceptive will, we also speak of His decretive will. God has sovereignly decreed all that will occur. He decreed to create, to permit the Fall, to elect men to salvation, to send His Son as the Messiah, to send His Spirit, to establish His church, and to eventually consummate His kingdom. He controls the universe, the physical world, the brute creation, the affairs of nations, man’s birth and lot in life, the outward success and failures of men’s lives, things seemingly accidental, the persecution of the righteous, the supplying of the needs of His people, the answers to prayer, and the exposure and punishment of the wicked (see
Berkof’s “Systematic Theology,” 2nd ed., for a good detailing of this).

When I explain how exhaustive God’s sovereignty is over the affairs of men, people often ask me if I am saying God is guilty of moral evil. Scripture is clear that God is not guilty of evil. We are guilty of evil. Yet, God has decreed to permit our sinful acts. After Joseph’s brothers committed an evil act against him, he said in Genesis 50:20, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” Peter understood God’s decretive will in regard to Jesus’ crucifixion in a similar manner. In Acts 2:23, Peter said, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” When we say that God decreed to permit these evil acts, we do not mean that He gave people the right to do evil. Instead, we mean that God gave people the ability to do evil.

God does not always reveal His sovereign decretive will to us; prophecy is an exception. Instead, the secret things belong to the Lord. He did not tell me whom I would marry. He did not tell me I would be planting a church. He did not tell me I would have two children. He did not tell me Hurricane Katrina would happen. He has not told me who the next President of the United States will be. He has not told me who will win the many athletic competitions this year, nor has He given me the winning lottery numbers. I have not been called to figure out the secret things of the Lord. I have been called to know, trust, and obey what He has revealed in His Word.
I imagine that, like me, the young lady who asked the question wanted to know if she could violate God’s decretive will. We all want to know if we can marry the wrong person, or choose the wrong job, or buy the wrong house, or go to the wrong college, or choose the wrong mission field. The answer is, “no.” However, we can make an unwise or sinful choice. We can make a choice that violates the preceptive will of God, and we will be held accountable for those unwise and sinful decisions. I pray that we would learn to attend to the preceptive will of God and trust Him to sovereignly care for everything else.

The Logic of God's Loving Self-Exaltation

As I was preaching on the first petition of the Lord's prayer this week, it struck me that Jesus tells us to pray for God's Name to be hallowed. In other words, God wants us to pray that his Name will be set apart as holy, glorified, crowned with all praise! In fact, all of Scripture demonstrates that everything from creation to redemption is for the glory of God's Name. God is relentlessly pursuing the praise of his own glory. He wants his character to be displayed and rejoiced in. This begs a question:

How God can be loving and yet so self-exalting? How can God be relentlessly self-interested and still be love? Doesn't the Bible tell us love is not self-seeking (1 Cor. 13)?

Yes, the Bible does tell us love is not self-seeking. For any man to seek his own exaltation and glory would be the ultimately unloving act. So, how can it be loving for God to pursue his own glory?

Let me answer this by giving you a series of 7 questions that provide the biblical logic for God's loving self-exaltation:

1. What is more loving than providing the object of your love joy?
2. What provides more earthly joy than that which transcends self, is grander than us, more beautiful than us, more awe-inspiring than us? (Just think of the joy you receive in a sunset on the beach, or the birth of your child, or your wedding day, or a great sports moment, or a great sacrificial act).
3. What is the consummation of your moments of earthly joy, if it is not praise? Is your praise not the fulfillment of your joy? (Simply think of the spontaneous praise offered during a great sports moment).
4. If the moments of joy we experience on earth are temporal, would it not be superior to receive that which can bring eternal joy?
5. What can bring eternal joy, which consummates in praise, other than the only eternally praise-worthy Lord of all? If you can experience the only eternally joy-inducing and most glorious, majestic, beautiful, and awe-inspiring God of all, why would you settle for some lesser and temporal joy?
6. What would be more unloving than to point the object of your love away from the all-sufficient, eternal joy of God, so that they can rejoice in a temporal moment alone?
7. What could be more loving than for God, in whose right hand is found joy forevermore, to continue to display his glory, so that the objects of his love have the privilege of consummating their joy in eternal praise?

Therefore, for Jesus to bid us to pray, "Hallowed be Your Name," is the most loving prayer in which he could direct us. For it is in God answering this prayer that we receive eternal joy which consummates in the praise of his glory!

Why I am on earth...

John Piper recently spoke at the Evangelical Theological Society and gave the reasons why he believes he is on earth. I agree that this is precisely the heart of Christianity and why I am on earth as well. Oh, that Sovereign Grace Church, Bakersfield, and the nations would capture this vision of glory of God and our joy in him! Please read this as it is worth your time.

Thesis 1

My all-shaping conviction is that God created the universe in order that he might be worshipped with white-hot intensity by created beings who see his glory manifested in creation and history and supremely in the saving work of Christ.

Thesis 2

I am also persuaded that people need to be confronted with how self-exalting God is in this purpose. To confront them with this, I give a quiz:

Q 1: What is the chief end of God?
A: The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy displaying and magnifying his glory forever.

Q 2: Who is the most God-centered person in the universe?
A: God.

Q 3: Who is uppermost in God’s affections?
A: God.

Q 4: Is God an idolater?
A: No. He has no other gods before him.

Q 5: What is God’s chief jealousy?
A: God’s chief jealousy is to be known, admired, trusted, enjoyed, and obeyed above all others.

Q 6: Do you feel most loved by God because he makes much of you, or because he frees you to enjoy making much of him forever?

Thesis 3

I press on this because I believe that if we are God-centered simply because we consciously or unconsciously believe God is man-centered, then our God-centeredness is in reality man-centeredness. Teaching God’s God-centeredness forces this issue of whether we treasure God because of his excellence or mainly because he endorses ours.

Thesis 4

God’s eternal, radical, ultimate commitment to his own self-exaltation permeates Scripture. His aim to be exalted glorified, admired, magnified, praised, and reverenced is seen to be the ultimate goal of all creation, all providence, and all saving acts.

* “He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5-6).
* God created the natural world to display his glory: “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalms 19:1).
* “You are my servant Israel in whom I will be glorified” (Isaiah 49:3); “. . . that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory (Jeremiah 13:11).
* “He saved them [at the Red Sea] for his name’s sake that he might make known his mighty power” (Psalm l06:7-8); “I have raised you up for this very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth” (Romans 9:17).
* “I acted [in the wilderness] for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out (Ezekiel 20:14).
* [After asking for a king] “Fear not . . . For the Lord will not cast away his people for his great name’s sake (l Samuel 12:20-22).
* “Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act [in bringing you back from the exile], but for the sake of my holy name . . . . And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name . . . and the nations will know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 36:22-23, 32). “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 48:11).
* “Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy” (Romans 15:8-9).
* “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again” (John 12:27, 28).
* “He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Corinthians 5:15).
* “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).
* “I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25).
* “Whoever serves [let him serve], as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified” (1 Peter 4:11).
* “Immediately an angel of the Lord smote [Herod] because he did not give glory to God” (Acts 12:23).
* “. . . when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at in all who have believed (2 Thessalonians l:9-l0).
* “Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory, which thou hast given me in Thy love for me before the foundation of the world” (John l7:24).
* “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).
* “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the lamb” (Revelation 21:23).

Thesis 5

This is not megalomania because, unlike our self-exaltation, God’s self-exaltation draws attention to what gives greatest and longest joy, namely, himself. When we exalt ourselves, we lure people away from the one thing that can satisfy their souls—the infinite beauty of God. When God exalts himself, he manifests the one thing that can satisfy our souls, namely, God.

Therefore, God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the most loving act, since love labors and suffers to enthrall us with what is infinitely and eternally satisfying, namely, God. Therefore, when God exalts God and commands us to join him, he is pursuing our highest, deepest, longest happiness. This is love, not megalomania.

Thesis 6

God’s pursuit of his glory and our pursuit of our joy turn out to be the same pursuit. This is what Christ died to achieve. “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). When we are brought to God as our highest treasure, he gets the glory and we get the pleasure.

Thesis 7

To see this and believe this and experience this is radically transforming to worship—whether personal or corporate, marketplace or liturgical.