Most of you are familiar with the Indiana Jones movies starring Harrison Ford. In the first installment, Raiders of the Lost Ark, there is that famous scene where Indy has to descend into an underground pit full of venomous snakes.

In the movie, archeologists discovered an ancient pit in Egypt called the Well of Souls. The scene originally had 1000 snakes to try to cover the floor, but it wasn’t enough, so the producers ended up getting an additional 7000 snakes.

In the famous scene, as Indy falls into the pit, he is face-to-face with a cobra that rises and hisses at him. There was a sheet of glass between the cobra and Harrison Ford, but at one point the snake became so agitated that it spat venom on the glass.

Indiana Jones is famous for his line, “I hate snakes!”

Why do I bring up Indiana Jones and cobras hissing in a secret cavern in the deserts of Egypt?

In ancient Egypt, people were fascinated by snakes.

Since cobras were so prevalent, many people lived in fear of being bitten and would carry amulets to protect themselves from Apophis, a serpent-god of evil.

The royal symbol for the Pharaoh was a cobra, which adorned his ceremonial headdress.

The Egyptians also built a temple in honor of the snake-goddess Wadjet, who was represented by the hieroglyphic sign of the cobra.

So Egypt was surrounded by the symbolism of snakes, which they almost worshipped, yet lived in fear of.

Exodus 7:8–13 Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Prove yourselves by working a miracle,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.’ ” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron cast down his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts. For each man cast down his staff, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. Still Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

This prelude to the Ten Plagues is more than Moses confronting Pharaoh. This episode illustrates the spiritual battle that ensues between God and Satan on a cosmic level.

Here is a very important historical detail about the Pharaoh. When a Pharaoh was inaugurated or assumed the royal throne, he would make an alliance with the serpent god to gain the power to rule.

He would take the royal crown with the snake emblem engraved in it and would recite this confession before he sat down for the first time on the throne:

O Great One, O Magician, O Fiery Snake! Let there be terror of me like the terror of thee.

Let there be fear of me like the fear of thee. Let there be awe of me like the awe of thee. Let me rule, a leader of the living, let me be powerful, a leader of spirits.[1]

In essence, the Pharaoh was pledging himself to Satan.

Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

So this passage has more to it than meets the eye. This is not merely a competition of power between Moses and Aaron against the Pharaoh’s magicians. This passage is illustrative, showing us truths about spiritual warfare and the demonic battle we find ourselves in as Christians.

I want us to explore FOUR REALITIES that the Bible teaches us about Satan and spiritual warfare.

Reality One: We wage a spiritual battle against a real enemy named Satan.

Some scholars have tried to explain away this passage by arguing that the magicians and sorcerers used magic tricks, sleight of hand, or parlor tricks, much like an illusionist would today, such as David Copperfield, David Blaine, or Criss Angel.

Yet, in verse 11, the Bible says that they used secret arts, which I believe were actually demon-inspired magic.

Ephesians 6:10–12 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Let me give you just a few Bible verses that describe the character and tactics of our enemy, the devil.

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

Ephesians 2:1-2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-

1 Peter 5:8-9 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

So if Satan is real and we are engaged in this spiritual battle, what should we do? What does the Bible tell us to do?

The answer is very simple: We need to stand firm in this battle.

In Ephesians 6, Paul tells us 4 times to stand firm with the spiritual armor. James uses the same Greek word as “resist.”

James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

We are not called to go on the offensive, but to stand.

God has already won the victory in Christ, and our job is not to WIN the battle, but to stand firm in the gospel. The devil can’t destroy you—he can only knock you down or entice you to engage in sin.

Reality Two: Satan wants your heart to embrace idols.

Satan aims at nothing less than your total destruction and the hardening of your heart, and for you to give yourself fully to idolatry so that Jesus is not your absolute treasure and ultimate priority of your heart.

Pharaoh had given himself to Satan through these false gods. He was not bowing down to the Great I AM. He was a stubborn, rebellious man steeped in idolatry with a hard heart.

That’s what Satan wants for every single person.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. ⁴ In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

The devil, as the god of this world, hates the glory of Christ. He doesn’t want anybody to fully see Christ in all of His beauty so that they would submit themselves to Jesus as Savior and Lord.

God is a jealous God, and HE will have no equals.

Isaiah 42:8 I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.

When Aaron casts down the staff, and it becomes a snake and then swallows up the staffs of the magicians, this is a dramatic symbol of God’s absolute sovereignty over evil.

The cobra was the epitome of what it meant to be the sovereign ruler of Egypt, and by swallowing up Pharaoh’s snake, God is directly assaulting Pharaoh’s sovereignty and idolatry.

Where is Pharaoh’s trust and hope and identity? It’s in himself, as the King, and in a demonic false god that gives him power.

What does this passage teach us about idolatry? Whatever idols you hold deep in your heart, God will directly confront them with His power alone.

God is always after your heart, and Satan knows that, so he tries to go after your heart as well.

Ezekiel 14:3 “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?

What idol have you taken deep into your heart? What drives your attention? What do you obsess over? What consumes your imagination? What is that one thing or person that you are clinging so tightly to that if it were taken away, you would go into despair and crumble in agony?

Satan wants you to embrace that idol and obsess over that idol and be consumed by that idol so that your heart turns away from the living God and becomes hardened to Him.

What should you do about this idolatry? You need to repent and get rid of it.

Ezekiel 20:7 And I said to them, ‘Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.’

Reality Three: Satan attempts to destroy the church through seductive counterfeits.

In this Exodus passage, Pharaoh’s magicians can only copy what God is doing. They are performing counterfeit miracles through demonic influence.

During the last days, when the Man of Lawlessness of Antichrist appears on the scene, he will be instrumental in ushering in the great falling away through demonic signs and wonders.

2 Thessalonians 2:9–10 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

Notice that this Man will do false signs and wonders, which is similar language used in Exodus for what these magicians were doing.

Satan is the master of deception, and one of his tactics is to pervert or distort the truth of the gospel so that Christians will be tempted to believe falsehoods.

2 Corinthians 2:11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

There are two key words here:

The first is “outwitted.” This comes from the wording to be greedy with insatiable covetousness, meaning to take advantage of, defraud, or cheat—it can also carry the idea of a lust for power. It can also mean to rob.

So, from this Greek word, we can see that Satan has an insatiable and greedy lust to defraud and cheat us. He wants to trick us like a used-car salesman or a crooked salesperson who tries to make a deal through illegal or unethical means.

The second is “designs”: this word means evil intentions or wicked plots—the fiery darts, scheming plans, the sly strategies.

Satan has wicked schemes, evil intentions, and deceptive plots that he uses to try to take advantage of us because he is full of lust and greed for power.

2 Corinthians 11:3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ

1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.

So what should we do? We should not be led astray. We should saturate our hearts and minds in the Word of God so that we will not fall for these counterfeits. We will not be ignorant of Satan’s schemes.

Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Reality Four: Jesus conquered Satan on the cross and will one day destroy Him in the Lake of Fire.

Satan never gets the last laugh. The LORD swallows up his snake. The major theme of Exodus is that the Great I AM, the LORD God, is the sovereign above all other false gods.

By Aaron’s staff swallowing up Pharaoh’s staff, we see that while Satan may have power and influence, this is never absolute and more powerful than God.

Satan can deceive and blind and twist and attack and perform counterfeit miracles, but he never has the power to overrule our Sovereign God.

Satan is a created being and can only do what God sovereignly permits him to do. He can never go behind God’s sovereign decree.

These magicians will be able to imitate God’s power up to a point, as evidenced in the Ten Plagues, but they can never match God’s unlimited power. This is also true of Satan. He can only counterfeit but can never conquer.

This little scene here of Aaron’s snake swallowing up the magicians’ snake is a picture of God’s triumph over Satan that culminates in Jesus.

Think about the image of Satan and death and sin being “swallowed up!”

1 Corinthians 15:54–57 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through the victory of the cross, Jesus has swallowed up death and sin!

Colossians 2:14–15 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Through the victory of the cross, Jesus disarmed Satan and put him to shame.

Hebrews 2:14–15 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

Through the victory of the cross, Jesus destroyed the devil and gave us freedom from slavery.

1 John 3:8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Through the victory of the cross, Jesus destroyed the works of the devil.

Now, in God’s sovereignty, He still allows Satan to roam around like a roaring lion, but he does not have unlimited power. He has been defeated, but his time is not up yet until that final day.

After Adam and Eve brought sin into the world through the deception of the serpent, God pronounced a curse on Satan, which was the first announcement of the gospel in the Bible.

Genesis 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This is a promise of the coming Messiah who would one day crush the head of the serpent. Through the victory of the cross, Jesus stomped on Satan’s neck, rendering him powerless to overthrow God’s kingdom.

Romans 16:20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

What will this final crushing under God’s feet look like?

Revelation 20:10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

This is Satan’s final destiny, and he knows it all too well. He has read about his demise. That is why he is “hellbent” on trying to destroy God’s people, distort God’s truth, and deceive people into believing false doctrine.

So, how do you respond to this?

You rest and rejoice in Christ’s ultimate victory.

You rest in Christ’s victory that He decisively won the battle for you on the cross, and Satan can never have you as his own.

This truth should give you great comfort and security.

John 10:28–29 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

This truth should also give you great reason to rejoice and express heartfelt gladness in your great Savior.

[1]H. Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1948), 108.

Growing up, I heard my father preach, and he would often tell of a friend who faced a major temptation. His friend was a businessman who traveled often. Those of you who travel often for business know the temptations that arise when you’re away from home. You’re in a new city with all the thrills and constraints taken off.

This man had a long day of meetings and was heading back to his hotel room on the 10^th floor. As the elevator door was about to close, in walked a “woman of the evening” dressed very provocatively. It was just him and her in the elevator, and she made subtle advances toward him.

He had a choice in the heat of the moment—he could give in to temptation and cheat on his wife, and no one would ever know. After all, it had been a long day of meetings, and he deserved some fun. She was way younger than his wife, who had put on a few pounds, and this would be a great escape.

Or... he could flee temptation and get out of there as fast as he could. Even though his room was on the 10^th floor, he immediately pushed the second floor button and got off and ran down the hallway as fast as he could to get away from her. In that moment, he fled temptation.

1 Corinthians 6:18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

The Bible repeatedly warns us to flee from temptation. To run as fast as we can away from it.

Yet, we know how difficult it is to say “no” to temptation.

1 Timothy 6:9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

Temptations come when we least expect them, usually when we are bored, tired, restless, or dissatisfied.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Before Jesus could begin His ministry as the second Adam, the true Son of God, He had to pass the test that the first Adam failed in the Garden of Eden.

Luke 4:1–2 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.

The Holy Spirit was crucial in leading Jesus into the wilderness. These 40 days of testing were God’s sovereign will. It was purposeful.

The word “devil” means accuser or slanderer.

2 Corinthians 11:14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

The devil does not have unlimited power, but is under the sovereign control of God. The devil could only do what God ordained him to do. This is not a surprise attack by Satan, but a situation planned out sovereignly by the Holy Spirit.

What does it mean that the devil tempted Jesus?

Hebrews 2:18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

The question is this: How can Jesus sympathize with our weaknesses and be tempted in every way we were, yet be without sin, and still be a real temptation?

The assumption is that since Satan tempted Jesus, then logically, there was a possibility Jesus COULD have sinned.

There are two issues here: Sinlessness and the ability NOT to sin.

Adam was sinless, but was able to fall. Angels were sinless, but able to fall.

Jesus was sinless and was NOT able to sin. Jesus not only never sinned, but it was impossible for Him ever to sin.

Then the question becomes: How can the temptation be real?

The word “tempt” in the Bible can also mean to test or to endure a trial.

We need to think of temptation from two biblical aspects:

James 1:2–3 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials (πειρασμοῖς) of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

We can go through trials that test our faith. These may not necessarily be inner desires but outward situations that test our faith. These are circumstances or trials.

James 1:14–15 But each person is tempted (πειράζεται) when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

James uses the same Greek word her for “tempted” (πειράζεται) that he used above for “trials” (πειρασμοῖς)

There are two types of trials, tests, or temptations.

We can be tempted from WITHIN through our sinful lusts and desires, and we can be tested from OUTSIDE by Satan, friends, or the world.

We can be tempted by the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Now, how does this relate to Jesus? Can Jesus be tempted from within through sinful desires?

Jesus, because He was perfect and sinless and did not inherit any sin from Adam, never once had any impure lusts or sinful desires. He had no ungodly desires from within that would tempt him to act outwardly in real actions.

Norval Geldenhuys comments, “He was exposed to all the temptations that every human being has to contend with—except, however, those temptations that come from within as a result of inward original taint or the influence of former sins. Owing to His intrinsic spotlessness, temptations in His case could only come from the outside.” [1]

Yet, since He was truly a man, he could be tested or endure trials from outside influences—namely, the devil.

It may be easier to think of what the devil is doing as attempting to test Jesus or put Jesus through a trial.

Jesus experienced temptation passively and outwardly in the form of trials and the devil’s attacks, but not actively, in the form of disordered, or ungodly, desires from within.

John Owen states, “He was also like unto us in temptations, for the reason which the apostle gives in the last verse. But herein also some difference may be observed between him and us; for the most of our temptations arise from within us, from our own unbelief and lusts. Again, in those that are from without, there is somewhat in us to take part with them, which always makes us fail in our duty of resistance, and ofttimes leads to further miscarriages. But from these things he was absolutely free; for as he had no inward disposition or inclination unto the least evil, being perfect in all graces and all their operations at all times, so when the prince of this world came unto him, he had no part in him,—nothing to close with his suggestions or to entertain his terrors^.” [2]

Jesus, as a man, was different from us in that He had no original sin. He had no inward inclination or desires to do evil. He had no evil thoughts.

Reformed theologian Louis Berkhof states, “We ascribe to Christ moral integrity and moral perfection, that is, sinlessness. This means not merely that Christ could avoid sinning, and actually did avoid it, but also that it was impossible for Him to sin because of the essential bond between the human and divine nature. . . He was free from both hereditary depravity and actual sin.”[3]

Jesus was not tempted by the sinful lusts of pride, envy, jealousy, or any evil desire. He was never inclined in his heart to pride or selfishness in any way. Christ had no sinful lust of any kind at any time.

We often think of Jesus not sinning only in actions or words, but because He was—not only sinless, but also not even able to sin—He never had a lustful thought or ungodly desire in his mind.

Theologian William Shedd wrote, “Christ was not only able to overcome temptation, he was unable to be overcome by it.”[4]

How do we understand that Jesus was tempted in EVERY way we were?

Shedd “sheds” light on this: “The meaning is not, that our Lord was tempted in every respect exactly as fallen man is—by inward lust, as well as by other temptations—only he did not outwardly yield to any temptation; but that he was tempted in every way that man is, expecting by that class of temptation that are sinful because originating in evil and forbidden desire.”[5]

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and was empowered by the Spirit to resist temptation. And that is where we are similar to Jesus—we can, by the power of the Spirit, resist temptation, but we can also give in to our flesh and actually commit sins by succumbing to temptation.

Jesus was fully God, which made it absolutely certain that He would resist temptation and never sin.

Think of the greatest army you can think of. Let’s say 500,000 troops with tanks, aircraft carriers, and nuclear missiles. Just because the army cannot be defeated or conquered does not mean it cannot be attacked. A smaller army may try to attack the massive army out of either stupidity, wishful thinking, or delusions of grandeur.

In the same way, Jesus was unconquerable. He was not able to sin. But that did not stop the devil from acting with delusions of grandeur to try to attack Jesus or test Him in the wilderness.

John Owen states, “Christ had only the suffering part of temptation. . . We also have the sinning part of it. When the devil came to Christ, he had no claim on him; but when he comes to us, he does have a claim on us. In one way, we are like Christ, in that we also experience trials and disturbances. . . In another way, we are unlike Him, in that we are defiled and entangled by temptation, and should by all means seek to avoid it.”[6]

Why the wilderness? And why 40 days? The Old Testament shows us that the number forty is associated with intense suffering.

Both Moses (Deut 9:9) and Elijah (1 Kings 19:8) fasted for 40 days; the flood lasted 40 days and nights; and the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years (Numbers 14:33)

Think of Adam’s temptation in the Garden—he fell under the most favorable of conditions in a wonderful, lush garden with only one temptation from Satan.

Yet, Jesus, the second and greater Adam, was victorious against Satan in the worst of conditions, after 40 days of extreme hunger and exhaustion in the middle of the desert.

What’s the overall point of the wilderness attacks on Jesus?

Is it merely a model for us to know how to fight temptation by using God’s Word? That’s important, but that’s not the main point.

The focus is not on us, but on Jesus.

Adam failed the test in the Garden and was kicked out.

Israel failed the test in the wilderness and never got to see the Promised Land.

Only Jesus, the beloved Son of God—who came in the flesh, born of a virgin, was able to stand against the attacks of the devil and pass the test in the wilderness. TIMES THREE!

If Jesus had not endured these tests in the wilderness and at any point sinned, He would not be able to die on the cross for us as a perfect Sacrifice. He would have been disqualified to be our Savior. He would have forfeited His claim as the Messiah.

In the face of the greatest of tests, Jesus resisted. He remained faithful. He stood on the Word of God.

Because He passed the test and won the victory against Satan, we as His people are free from the power of Satan.

Colossians 1:13–14 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Hebrews 2:14–15 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

His victory in the wilderness becomes the foundation for our ability to resist temptation.

When we are tempted, we go to Jesus who resisted in our place and won the victory. We don’t have the strength to withstand the way He did. We are not the Son of God in the flesh.

We are weak, frail, easily swayed people who are seduced by the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

We must watch out for temptations. We must have our eyes open to the seductions of the world, the flesh, and the devil. We must pray for protection. We must pray for the Holy Spirit to empower us and give us grace in times of need.

When tempted, we go to Jesus in prayer. We approach the throne of grace to find help in times of need.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jesus knows what we’re going through because He endured the worst of it from Satan himself. He can sympathize with our weaknesses. He was without sin. He passed the test. He won the victory.

He fought Satan head-on and conquered.

Because of Jesus’ victory over Satan in the wilderness and ultimate victory on the cross, we have an advocate.

We have a defense.

We have a helper.

We have the Savior who gives us strength to resist.

[1] Norval Geldenhuys, The Commentary on the Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977), 157.

[2] John Owen, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Volume 3 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1991), 468.

[3] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1938), 318.

[4]William G. T. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, Volume 2 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1888), 330.

[5]Ibid., 343.

[6]John Owen, Temptation: Resisted and Repulsed (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1658), 49-50.

Can pastors preach the text faithfully and be satisfied that they have discharged their ministerial duties? Should they be concerned about leading strategically through their preaching? Can a pastor be a solid, faithful preacher yet still not lead his flock? Can a pastor truly lead his flock without the primacy of expository preaching?

One of the goals of integrating expository preaching with pastoral leadership is for the church to experience gospel transformation by responding in obedience—especially in fulfilling its mission. The goal of preaching is not merely for the church to acquire information, but for it to undergo authentic change. Expository preaching, by definition, focuses on careful exegesis, proclaiming the authorial intent of the biblical text.

However, behind every text lies the Spirit-intended purpose for which that content was given. Expository preaching goes beyond merely understanding the text in its grammatical-historical context. The preacher must determine the Holy Spirit’s intended purpose, which almost always leads to application and transformation. Transformational preaching not only informs hearers of the text’s content but also aims to apply it, motivating, convincing, or persuading the congregation to respond in obedience.

Pastors preach for transformation when they seek to draw practical application from the text’s main purpose or big idea. Some biblical texts move a person to tears in confession of sin, while others expose hidden transgressions like a dagger to the soul, and still others comfort and console. Expository preaching does more than explain a text’s meaning; it also seeks to express the text’s purpose and provide practical application, which should invariably lead to gospel transformation. If pastors only preach a text’s meaning and never apply it, the sermon will sound more like a boring lecture and fail to accomplish what the Spirit intended—authentic change.

Leading through preaching requires preachers not only to proclaim the text faithfully but also to lead their people to respond in obedience to the authority of Scripture and to experience true gospel transformation.

Andrew Davis says, “The word of God, preached with clarity, skill, and deep conviction, has the power to transform hearts and rearrange lives—power that can feel like an ‘electric shock.’ All leaders have the power to inspire people to sacrifice, shock people out of complacency and disengagement to full commitment.”[1]

Pastors not only teach but also exhort, motivate, and inspire people to change. Expository preaching is not merely a lecture that fills the mind with information but a message from the inspired text that challenges the heart and will toward gospel transformation.

Pastors can lead their churches effectively when they wholeheartedly embrace the truth that God empowers expository preaching. When the pastor reads the text, explains it, and then applies it, the Holy Spirit honors this proclamation by either regenerating lost sinners or progressively sanctifying the saints. At times, pastors may be tempted to minimize the potency of the preached Word.

Instead of expecting God to transform lives through his Word, pastors can lose confidence in the Scripture’s ability to bring lasting change to hearers. Many preachers can fall into the trap of manipulating their hearers by bypassing their minds and focusing solely on emotion or sentimentality.

On the other hand, preachers may lean toward academicism if the sermon functions as a lecture. This type of preaching may leave his hearers’ minds filled with Bible trivia and stale facts, but in the end, there is no gospel change. Genuine expository preaching moves beyond manipulative emotionalism and cold academicism by aiming for lasting transformation and consistent spiritual fruit. In other words, pastors must believe in the inherent potency of expository preaching as a means of leading the church to spiritual growth.

Understanding this goal requires pastors to labor to explain the text clearly and apply it to challenge their congregation to obedience. Leading through preaching means more than faithful exposition; it also involves poignant application, whereby the pastor shepherds the congregation toward fulfilling their mission as a church. Pastors become not only more effective preachers when they apply the text for transformation, but also more effective leaders who call their flock to respond obediently to God’s direction for their future.

Hershael York exhorts, “We don’t want to fill their heads; we want the proclamation of the Word to grip their souls and motivate them to conform to the will of God. Our approach to the Bible and preaching, therefore, has application as its ultimate goal.”[2]

In sum, the ultimate aim of an expository sermon is to explain the text accurately so that the people hear God’s voice and, more importantly, can act upon it with repentance, faith, and obedience.

An expository preacher demonstrates effective spiritual leadership when he sees the Word producing tangible fruit in the lives of his church family. Leading through expository preaching that aims for gospel transformation animates spiritually lethargic and disobedient congregations. Preaching that combines faithful exposition with practical application requires the preacher not only to inform the church but also to call them to respond passionately.

W. A. Criswell said, “Pastor, preach for a verdict and expect it. God will honor your faith with souls.”[3]

Charles Simeon asked three questions of his sermons that provide an effective grid for pastors to use in assessing the transformational impact of their preaching: “Did it humble the sinner? Did it exalt the Savior? Did it promote holiness?”[4]

The goal of preaching is to faithfully expose the text by revealing the glories of Christ and the gospel, so that his hearers are moved to respond. Historically, this concept has been referred to as making the truth “real.”

The “realness” of the truth preached depends on the nature or genre of the text exposited. Sometimes the response to the preached passage results in brokenness and repentance; other times, the Scripture elicits heartfelt worship and awe; other times, the text produces renewed affections for Christ that motivate believers to obedience. Expository preaching centers on promoting true life change because the church has been exposed to the Word through faithful preaching. The Holy Spirit has so worked in the hearts of the people that they demonstrate authentic gospel transformation.

Pastors can initiate this transformation in the church’s life by preaching expository sermons that not only inform the mind but also aim at the heart and will, as they seek to see the Holy Spirit accomplish authentic change in people’s lives. This integration of leadership with expository preaching, aimed at gospel transformation, will penetrate hearts and result in authentic, lasting change and obedience to the church’s mission.

I pray you’re actively involved in a church that practices expository preaching that aims for gospel transformation!

[1]Andrew Davis, “Leading the Church in Today’s World: What It Means Practically to Shepherd God’s Flock,” in Shepherding God’s Flock: Biblical Leadership in the New Testament and Beyond, ed. Benjamin L. Merkle and Thomas R. Schreiner (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2014), 322.

[2]Hershael York and Burt Decker, Preaching with Bold Assurance: A Solid and Enduring Approach to Engaging Exposition (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishing Group, 2003), 11.

[3]W. A. Criswell, Criswell’s Guidebook for Pastors (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1980), 41.

[4]Hugh Evan Hopkins, Charles Simeon of Cambridge (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977), 62.

The following is an excerpt from my latest book, Compassionate Calvinism: Defending the Doctrines of Grace Without Being a Jerk: https://www.amazon.com/Compassionate-Calvinism-Defending-Doctrines-Without-ebook/dp/B0FZDNLGK4/ref=sr_1_1

Objection: Unconditional election makes God appear unfair or unloving.

God is not obligated to save anyone; therefore, His choice to save some does not imply unfairness. A look at Biblical testimony shows that God has not treated everyone in precisely the same way. Did God provide a sacrificial atonement (Passover) for the Egyptians or only for the Israelites? Did God establish the sacrificial system for the Canaanites or just for the Israelites? Did God select every single person to be the father of many nations, or did He specifically choose Abraham? Did God treat the Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, etc., the same way He treated the Israelites? Did Jesus choose every individual in Galilee to be His 12 disciples, or did He select a specific number? From the mass of guilty humanity, God sovereignly decides to grant mercy to some. What happens to the rest? They receive justice. The saved receive mercy, while the unsaved face justice. Yet, no one experiences injustice. Some obtain what they deserve as sinners, while others receive mercy, and God retains the right to decide who receives mercy and who faces justice.

Objection: If unconditional election is valid, then God must be blamed for sinners ending up in hell instead of sinners freely rejecting Christ and facing the consequences of their choices.

If God has exhaustive foreknowledge and is the all-powerful Creator, then He creates at least some people whom He knows will never come to faith. Thus, He knows they will end up in hell if they are created. With this knowledge, God creates them anyway. Why would God create a person He infallibly foreknows will end up in hell? I don’t know the answer, but the Bible teaches that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and possesses exhaustive foreknowledge. If you believe that God set up a world where people can exercise their libertarian free will to either choose for Christ or not, this still does not absolve God of responsibility. Whichever way you believe, in the end, God is still accountable for sinners being lost, either by not choosing them or by setting up a world where they choose to go to hell themselves. God could have intervened and saved everyone, or chosen everyone, or overridden their free will to “make” or even “allow” or “orchestrate” all people to go to heaven. But He did not. At the very least, God should not have created those He foresaw would be lost. Loraine Boettner explains:

As a matter of fact the Arminians do not escape any real difficulty here. For since they admit that God has foreknowledge of all things they must explain why He creates those who He foresees will lead sinful lives, reject the Gospel, die impenitent, and suffer eternally in hell. The Arminians really have a more difficult problem here than do the Calvinists; for the Calvinists maintain that the ones whom God thus creates, knowing that they will be lost, are the non-elect who voluntarily choose sin and in whose merited punishment God designs to manifest His justice, while the Arminians must say that God deliberately creates those who He foresees will be such poor, miserable creatures that without serving any good purpose they will bring destruction upon themselves and will spend eternity in hell in spite of the fact that God Himself earnestly wishes to bring them to heaven, and that God shall be forever grieved in seeing them where He wishes they were not.[1]

Objection: Calvinism makes God the author of sin. Sometimes, non-Calvinists unfairly accuse us of teaching that God is the author of sin or that He is the direct cause of all evil. However, historic Calvinism (as reflected in the Reformed confessions) denies this charge and has carefully articulated how God ordains all things that come to pass without Himself being the author of sin.

The 1689 Second London Baptist Confession addresses the idea that God is meticulously and absolutely sovereign over all things:

From all eternity God decreed everything that occurs, without reference to anything outside himself. He did this by the perfectly wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably. Yet God did this in such a way that he is neither the author of sin nor has fellowship with any in their sin. This decree does not violate the will of the creature or take away the free working or contingency of second causes. On the contrary, these are established by God’s decree. In this decree God’s wisdom is displayed in directing all things, and his power and faithfulness are demonstrated in accomplishing his decree.

The Scriptures clearly state that God’s decree is free, unchangeable, and powerful. By free, we mean that nobody forced God to make His decree, nor does it imply that God’s decisions depend on human choices. These are not arbitrary decisions made by God; because He is self-existent as the Great I AM, He has the sovereign right to do whatever He wishes. Psalm 33:10–11 states: “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.” Psalm 135:6 says: “Whatever the Lord pleases He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deep places.”

Three truths or “fences “qualify God’s decree to ensure that we affirm what the Bible says and do not stray into faulty thinking.

Fence One: God is NOT the author or direct cause of sin. The Bible teaches that God has a sovereign decree that ordained the Fall of Adam and our corrupt nature. We are born with a depraved nature that is sinful to the core. God does not need to act or work sin in us by forcing or tempting us to sin. We sin freely because of our nature.

James 1:13–15 No one, when tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.

In 1645, the Westminster Assembly, with unanimous consent, published a pamphlet in response to a book by John Archer, who argued that God was, in fact, the author of sin. This pamphlet was titled “A Short Declaration of the Assembly Divines, by way of Detestation of this Abominable and Blasphemous Opinion, that God is, and had a hand in, and is the Author of the Sinfulness of People.” The pamphlet emphasized that the Bible and Reformed churches teach that “Satan and man himself are the only causes or authors of sin.” God ordained the Fall and the effects of the Fall—total inability and slavery to sin—thus protecting God from being the direct cause or author of sin. 1 John 1:5 states, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.” Adam sinned freely; God did not force him to do so. Because we inherit Adam’s nature, we also sin freely.

Fence Two: God’s absolute decree does not violate man’s free will, as he remains responsible and acts according to his nature. God does not force or coerce our desires. The objection is that if God decrees our every choice, then he would be forcing us to act as we do—which constitutes coercion—and, therefore, that coercion removes our responsibility. Those who oppose God’s sovereign decree make this argument: We are no longer responsible, culpable, or accountable for our choices because God is compelling us to make those choices, and how can He hold us responsible for what He decreed? They claim this perspective is illogical and unjust, and paints God as a monster.

We assert that God can determine our choices not against our wills but through our wills. God does not directly threaten or coerce us but providentially influences the human heart to willingly accomplish His purpose in all things. God does not force us to sin. We sin freely due to our fallen and corrupt nature inherited from Adam. You may object and blame God for allowing Adam to sin, arguing that we inherit all the tragic consequences and are born with a sinful nature. You might suggest that God, in a sense, did make you sin by causing you to be born with a sinful nature that can’t help but sin. God ordained the Fall and its effects, but you sin because you choose to sin. God didn’t make you sin or force you to sin. Unless God regenerates your heart and causes you to be born again, you will always follow your sinful nature, commit sins, and never be able to stop sinning.

Fence Three: God uses secondary causes to accomplish His decree. God’s decree has two aspects: First, it is EFFECTIVE because it directly causes all good to occur. Second, God’s decree is PERMISSIVE in that He allows all evil to happen indirectly, through secondary causes. At the end of Genesis, when Jacob has died, Joseph’s brothers, who sold him into slavery, fear that he might seek retribution for their scandalous sin.

However, Joseph provides a theological understanding of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility through secondary causation in Genesis 50:20: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Pay careful attention to Joseph’s words here. Does God simply “respond” to evil actions after the fact and then somehow “work” them out for good, or does He have a sovereign intention or design in everything that happens? Joseph does not say that God “used” your evil for good. No, he says “meant.” You meant evil against me, but God meant that same evil for good.

What does the word “meant” signify? In Hebrew, it translates to “weave,” but in this context, it means “to devise, determine, plan, or strategize.” It was frequently used when an army was preparing for war and how they would develop a strategy or battle plan before entering combat. Therefore, the brothers devised and plotted evil against Joseph by selling him into slavery.

They acted freely in committing this wrongdoing. No external force compelled them to behave this way. They acted out of jealousy and hatred to intentionally pursue this evil. Yet, at the same time, God didn’t merely “use” their evil; He also had a divine purpose, intention, and strategy behind it. In this Genesis account, the brothers did what they wanted, while God simultaneously did what He wanted. God did not make the brothers commit this evil against Joseph; He did not hold a gun to their heads, forcing them to sell Joseph into slavery. Nonetheless, through their evil actions, they fulfilled what God sovereignly intended to happen—saving many lives.

We also observe that God is not the direct author of sin in the book of Job but uses secondary causes to fulfill His eternal decree.

Job 1:9–12 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

We observe God orchestrating Job’s suffering, but we identify two secondary causes. First, God allows Satan to strip Job of everything except his life. Second, the Sabeans and Chaldeans (1:14-17) raided and killed Job’s servants. The Sabeans and Chaldeans acted freely in their pursuit, as pagan raiders typically do—attacking and pillaging. Did Satan compel them? No, they acted freely. Was Satan behind their actions? Yes. Yet, who is the ultimate cause of both these secondary sources of evil for Job? God.

Job 1:21 states, “And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’”

To whom does Job attribute this wrongdoing and evil? Does he blame Satan? Does he blame the Chaldeans or the Sabeans? He does not blame the secondary causes of the evil but instead assigns responsibility to the primary cause—God. At the conclusion of the book, when God reveals Himself to Job in the whirlwind and restores what he lost, on whom does Job place the responsibility?

Job 42:11 Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.

Does Job’s family blame Satan? Blame the Sabeans or Chaldeans? Or does the author of Job attribute the evil to God? The LORD brought all the suffering upon Job, but did not commit evil directly; rather, He accomplished His will through secondary causation.

The crucifixion of Jesus most powerfully displays God’s absolute sovereignty and human responsibility. In his sermon on Pentecost, Peter makes a theological point that blames the Jewish leaders but also shows how God sovereignly orchestrated the entire event.

Acts 2:22–23 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”

How people pray can reveal a great deal about their theology. When Peter was arrested in Jerusalem, the early church met to pray fervently for his release and an end to persecution.

Acts 4:27–28 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Does God decree, ordain, or predetermine what comes to pass? Or does God merely allow or permit what happens? Is there a difference? If God had a sovereign decree before the creation of the world, foresaw all the evil that would occur, and is all-powerful, then why did He not stop the evil from happening or minimize it?

Even if you don’t like the idea of God determining everything that occurs and prefer the notion of Him only permitting what happens, you still have to confront the fact that when God created this world, He knew there would be evil, and He did nothing to stop it or lessen it when He could have. Either God is not powerful enough to stop evil, which is false, or He is not loving enough to do so, which is also false.

Objection: God predestines only a small group to heaven while condemning the rest of humanity to hell.

Where in the Bible does it say that the elect is a small group? In Revelation 7:9, the apostle John sees a vision of all the elect believers worshipping Jesus in heaven: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”

While God has eternally fixed the number of those predestined before the foundation of the world, that number is so immense that it cannot be counted.

Charles Spurgeon preached the following in his sermon titled “Heaven and Hell”:

How often do I hear people say, “Ah! straight is the gate and narrow is the way, and few there be that find it. There will be very few in heaven; there will be most lost.” My friend, I differ from you. Do you think that Christ will let the devil beat him? That he will let the devil have more in hell than there will be in heaven? No; it is impossible. For then Satan would laugh at Christ. There will be more in heaven than there are among the lost. God says, that “there will be a number that no man can number who will be saved;” but he never says, that there will be a number that no man can number that will be lost. There will be a host beyond all count who will get into heaven. What glad tidings for you and for me![2]

The bottom line is that the Bible never provides us with an exact and final number of those who will believe. The Scriptures only affirm that the number of sinners God has predestined is so vast it cannot be counted.

Objection: If God has already determined who is elect, why should we pray for and evangelize the lost?

First, God commands us to evangelize. Jesus said in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” Jesus commands us with all authority in Matthew 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Second, God uses means to accomplish His ends—the salvation of His elect. Regardless of your beliefs about election, it remains a fact that evangelism is necessary because nobody can be saved without hearing the gospel. Furthermore, there is an urgency because people are lost and facing hell without Christ.

Third, election makes our evangelism more hopeful and gives us greater confidence that our efforts will not be in vain. If you believe in total depravity, then sovereign election is your only hope for salvation because a depraved sinner who is dead in sin, blinded by Satan, and incapable of coming to Christ for salvation will never come unless God takes the initiative.

When you pray for a lost person’s salvation, what are you praying for? What words do you use? “Lord, open their heart to the truth. Lord, grant them eyes to see their sin. Lord, bring conviction.” You don’t say: “Lord, please allow this sinner the free will to choose to come to you, and please make sure they don’t resist when you try your hardest to draw them to Yourself.”

We see evangelism and election together when Paul had a vision in Acts 18:9–11: “And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.”

Paul was motivated to continue evangelism in Corinth because God had more of His elect who had not yet heard the gospel. Paul did not know the identity of those predestined, but he understood that it was his responsibility to share the gospel urgently, even amidst persecution. Paul’s bold proclamation was the means through which God would call out His elect from darkness into the light.

[1]Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 1932), 125.

[2]https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/heaven-and-hell/#flipbook/

Will there be a literal temple rebuilt during the end times, or constructed during a literal thousand-year reign?

To keep you from guessing, the short answer is “No.”

Many dispensationalists hold this view as they understand the later chapters of Ezekiel to prophesy a literal rebuilt end-times temple.

As one who holds to covenant theology and an amillennial framework of eschatology, I do not believe the Bible teaches there will be a literal, rebuilt end-times temple.

The Reformed understanding of Ezekiel 40-48 explains this temple as a symbolic pointing forward to the new heavens and new earth.

The biblical timeline or progression of the temple motif begins in Eden.

Then the imagery transitions to a portable tent in the wilderness.

Then the imagery shifts to a permanent structure built by King Solomon.

However, the tabernacle, temple, and imagery in Ezekiel culminate in something far greater with the coming of Christ and the establishment of the New Covenant.

Jesus Himself is the end-times Temple.

The church, His body and bread, also make up the spiritual house or temple of the living God.

And as the temple, we, as Christ’s church, will have unhindered fellowship with Him in the new heavens and new earth, which are the culmination of the temple imagery that first appeared in Genesis.

In this article, I want to articulate a biblical theology of the temple imagery.

Eden as a prototype of the temple:

First of all, we need to see how the Garden functions as a temple and is a prototype for the temple and for the new heavens and new earth.

The word “Eden” means “abundant waters” or “luxuriant, lush,” and the word “garden” means “a fenced-in area”. The Garden of Eden is a luxuriant, abundant, beautiful, fenced-in area with gold and onyx stone and four rivers, where God gives Adam a wonderful environment to enjoy the LORD God in perfect fellowship.

But as we dig deeper into the significance of the Garden of Eden, we see that, in a sense, it serves as a temple—a fenced-in area where God chooses to dwell with His people.

In Eden, God dwells with Adam and walks with Him in the cool of the day. Eden is the special place where God chooses to dwell with His people.

In the Garden, we see the Tree of Life. In the tabernacle and temple, we see the golden lampstand with twelve branches, symbolizing the giving of light and life to Israel.

In the Garden, we see luxuriant gold and onyx stone, which remind us of what is in the tabernacle and temple. The temple was furnished with gold, and the priests wore onyx stones on their clothes—the ephod in which were inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.

The Garden is about the Kingdom of God. It is God’s people—Adam and Eve, living in God’s place—the garden as a temple—and they are under God’s rule and blessing.

The Tabernacle in Exodus:

Exodus 25:8 And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.

What did the tabernacle or portable tent represent to Israel?

It represented two very important truths about the living God.

First, it was a visible reminder that God would make His home with His people.

It was God’s dwelling place.

Second, it was a visible reminder that this God was absolutely holy and radiated glory upon glory.

How did they see God’s glory?

Numbers 9:15–16 On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. 16 So it was always: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night.

God’s glory was visible with a cloud covering the tent. At night, it was like fire, and during the day, it was a cloud.

Just like the bread of presence was perpetually on the table and the golden lampstand was perpetually blazing, the glory cloud of the living God was perpetually hovering over the tabernacle as a visible reminder to the Israelites that the LORD was ALWAYS in their presence. He had not abandoned them. He lived among them. He was the ever-present Lord.

After the building of the tabernacle—the portable tent, we find out that God’s Word—the Ten Commandments- is to be put in the Holy of holies in the tabernacle, and God would choose to manifest His glory only in the tabernacle, visibly seen through a cloud. (Exodus 40:1-3)

This was called the “shekinah” glory of God. The overwhelming cloud that displayed God’s presence in that He dwelt with His people only in the tabernacle.

In the Old Testament, where was the only place on earth that God’s Word and His glory were on full display? Only in the tabernacle or temple.

Exodus 40:34–38 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

The tabernacle was the one place on planet earth where God chose to dwell with His people. What was in the Holy of Holies? The Word of God.

Jesus is the End Times Temple:

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Notice what John says in verse 14—The WORD became flesh and DWELT among us.

Do you see the two images—WORD and DWELT?

But the keyword here that John wants to grab our attention with is “dwelt.” In the Greek text, it literally means “to pitch one’s tent” or “to tabernacle.”

That’s huge. Jesus is the TABERNACLE. Jesus is the dwelling place of God. Where did God dwell in the Old Testament? In the tabernacle, confined only to the holy of holies, where only the high priest could have access to God.

Now in the flesh, Jesus is the fullness of God’s dwelling place, and it’s in a Person, not a physical structure, and now, all people have access to Jesus through faith.

Jesus has replaced the need for the tabernacle. He is the tent. He is the dwelling place of God.

The Word tabernacled among us. The Word pitched His tent among us.

Now, what was the other image associated with the tabernacle besides God’s DWELLING with the Israelites and giving His WORD? GLORY!!

What does John say? We have seen his GLORY, GLORY of the only Son from the Father.

He uses the term “glory” twice to describe Jesus.

Jesus displays the full glory of God in the flesh.

Colossians 2:9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

Jesus displays the full glory of God in His miracles.

John 2:11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

And ultimately, Jesus displays God’s full glory on the cross.

John 12:27–28 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”

If we want to see the full glory of God on display, we look to Jesus as the infinite God-Man who came in the flesh to dwell among us, and we see it.

John 2:18–22 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

John makes the interpretive statement that the real temple is Jesus’ body. Jesus, in fact, is the temple where the fullness of God dwells.

So, how does John in the New Testament interpret this idea of a rebuilt temple? He sees it as Jesus.

The church is also the temple of the living God:

How does Paul view the end-times temple?

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Paul is speaking to a Plural “you” or “you all”—the church. We as believers are the temple because God’s Spirit dwells in us.

Again, what is a temple—the place where God dwells. In the New Testament, are we told of any physically rebuilt temple where God would dwell, or does it tell us that the temple is the believers, indwelt by the Holy Spirit?

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰ for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Ephesians 2:19–22 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²² In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

According to Paul, the temple is being built with Jesus as the cornerstone every time a person becomes a Christian and is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

So how does John interpret the temple? He sees it as Jesus.

How does Paul interpret the temple? He sees it as believers who have the Holy Spirit living inside of them as they are connected to Jesus.

So how does Peter interpret the temple?

1 Peter 2:4–6 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, ⁵ you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Peter sees us as Christians being built as the end-times temple, as we are connected to Jesus.

So John, Paul, and Peter all see the prophecy about an end-times temple as about Jesus and believers, and it’s obviously SPIRITUAL and NOT PHYSICAL in nature.

The Temple Imagery in the Book of Revelation:

Revelation 21:1–2 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

The New Jerusalem is not a literal city, but the BRIDE of Christ—the church.

Revelation 21:9-22:5 gives the actual description of this glorious city:

Is this a literal city with actual dimensions, or is it to be taken symbolically?

The city has the “glory of God” (v 11)

Where in the Old Testament did the full glory of God reside? (the tabernacle/temple).

Now, in the new creation, God’s full glory resides in His people—we are in the Holy of holies, with direct access to God through Christ.

How is this temple described?

Jasper stones (similar to God’s throne in Rev. 4:3)

A great and high wall—this is a picture of eternal security as we rest in God’s sure foundation and protection forever.

The twelve gates and twelve foundation stones—these are symbolic of the Old Testament people (12 tribes) combined with the New Testament people (12 apostles who are the foundation of the church), where we are all ONE IN CHRIST as the church.

The city is a perfect CUBE which symbolizes the only other perfect cube in the Bible—the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle/temple.

The twelve jewels on the walls are based on the list in Exodus 28 and 39 of the twelve stones on the high priest’s breastplate. This connects the Old Testament people of God to the New Testament people of God, where, again, we are one in Christ!

Revelation 21:22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.

Why is there no temple? Because the temple is God and the Lamb. This is a mixing of metaphors. I thought we were the temple as the bride of Christ? Which one is it? Are we the temple, or is God the temple? The answer is both because God will dwell with us.

This is in the plural in the original language, speaking about God’s church—his collective people.

Christ was our mediator as the one sacrifice. But now, we don’t need a mediator in the glorified state; we have direct access to God, and Jesus functions as the bridegroom in a marital relationship with His people.

The purpose of this statement is not to describe the architecture of heaven but to speak of this beautiful intimacy between God and His people.

Revelation 21:23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

In Genesis, God created the sun and stars to give us light, but in this new creation, we will not need these heavenly bodies, because the glory of God gives light, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Jesus will truly be the light of the world. There will be no hiding. No darkness.

Revelation 21:25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.

The gates are never shut because there is no evil. Why do we need gates? To keep out evil and criminals.

We will not need to fear rape, murder, lying, backstabbing, war, atrocities, or any other evil that plagues this present age.

Revelation 22:1–5 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

Adam’s sin forfeited the tree of life in Genesis 2:9 and 3:22. Now in the new heavens and new earth, redeemed humanity is back in the garden, able to eat from the tree of life.

Not only that, but God’s source of refreshing and life will come from the throne in this crystal river. Why would healing be required if we just saw that there are no more tears or pain?

This is an apocalyptic and metaphorical way of saying that there will be the complete absence of physical or spiritual needs. This will be our glorified state of perfection. We will have no needs or lack anything.

One of the greatest blessings of eternity is the joy of seeing Christ face-to-face (vs. 4)

In Exodus 33:2, Moses had to hide his face from God in the cleft of the rock.

In Hebrews 9:7, we find that only the high priest can enter the holy of holies, but now we see that, in the renovation of all things, we, as God’s children, will have direct access to see Him. Jesus Christ, face to face.

1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears¹ we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

Just like when God walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day.

Notice how the parallels are so powerful. In the Garden of Eden, there was the curse, alienation, separation, shame, and fear, but now it has come full circle to intimate fellowship with God.

The earth was created for humans to inhabit and have intimate, unhindered fellowship with their Creator!

Our sovereign God began with the Garden of Eden as a temple, and now the ultimate consummation of His glory and grace comes full circle with something far greater than Eden restored—eternal life and endless fellowship with the Triune God in the ultimate temple—the new heavens and the earth.

This glorious future reality is far superior to a physical, literal rebuilt temple.

Jesus is the Temple!

We, as His church, are the Temple!

The new heavens and new earth are the temple!

God will dwell eternally with His people!

Do you look forward with hopeful anticipation and heartfelt joy for that Day!

Our family loves the Indiana Jones movies with Harrison Ford, and we’ve probably watched them 100 times. In the first movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy travels to Egypt and attempts to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis seize it to control the world. In this movie, the ark is viewed more as a magic box capable of wielding unlimited power.

Since Indy has read his Bible, he knows not to touch the Ark or even look at it, and there is that famous scene where the Nazi officer is overcome with lust for the power that he thinks the Ark will bring him, and he touches the Ark, and his face melts off. Indy tells Marion, his girlfriend, to keep her eyes shut and not look at it. It’s an over-the-top scene with early ’80s special effects that show the “power” of the Ark.

While Steven Spielberg may have a wonderful imagination and makes great movies, this really has nothing to do with the Ark of the Covenant.

Exodus 25:8–22 And make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell in the midst of them, according to all that I show you—the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its equipment—and so you will do. “And they will make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits its length and a cubit and a half its width and a cubit and a half its height. And you will overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside you will overlay it, and you will make on it a gold molding all around. And you will cast for it four gold rings, and you will put them on its four feet, with two rings on its one side and two rings on its second side. And you will make poles of acacia wood, and you will overlay them with gold. And you will put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry the ark with them. In the rings of the ark will be the poles; they will not be removed from it. And you will put into the ark the testimony that I will give to you. “And you will make an atonement cover of pure gold, two and a half cubits its length and a cubit and a half its width. And you will make two cherubim of gold; you will make them of hammered work at the two ends of the atonement cover. And make one cherub at one end and one cherub at the other end of the atonement cover; you will make the cherubim on its two ends. And the cherubim will be with outspread wings above, covering with their wings over the atonement cover and facing each other; the faces of the cherubim will be toward the atonement cover. And you will put the atonement cover above onto the ark, and into the ark you will put the testimony that I will give you. And I will meet you there, and I will speak with you from over the atonement cover, from between the two cherubim that are to be on the ark of the testimony—all that I will command you to the Israelites.

Here is the central theme from this passage: The blood of Christ is the ONLY way a holy God can forgive our failure to keep His perfect Law.

Interestingly, the LORD tells Moses in verses 8-9 that He wants him to build the tabernacle exactly as He will show him.

The tabernacle was a portable tent that measured 15 feet wide by 45 feet long, and in the very center of it was the Holy of Holies, where the ark of the covenant would be placed.

You would think that God would start from the outside and work inward in the instructions of building the tabernacle. That is not what the LORD does. He doesn’t even start with the tabernacle itself, but the ark of the covenant, which would be in the center of the Holy of Holies.

What this means is that the Ark of the Covenant would be the most important aspect of the tabernacle, so we need to understand what’s going on here in this description.

The Ark is a box made of acacia wood, about 45 inches long, 27 inches wide, and 27 inches high. So roughly a box 4 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet.

What I want to show are the two overarching aspects of the Ark of the Covenant.

First of all, the Ark of the Covenant represents the holiness of God, who has given His law as an absolute standard of holiness.

Obviously, the overlaying of gold represents the purity and majesty of God, but why are there four rings—two on one side and two on the other side—that were there to hold the poles for carrying it?

Why couldn’t an Israelite pick up the Ark and carry it? It’s not big, and probably wasn’t that heavy? Why poles?

In Numbers 4 and 7, we learn that the priests could not touch the holy things of God and that they needed to be carried on their shoulders by the priests carrying the poles.

This was God’s prescribed way of doing it down to the “T.” There was no other way to transport the Ark of the Covenant.

Something very shocking happened in 2 Samuel: King David captured Jerusalem from the Philistines, who had stolen the Ark of the Covenant, and then he brought it back to its rightful place among the Israelites.

Instead of the priests carrying the Ark on poles, they placed it on an ox cart and secured it.

2 Samuel 6:6–7 And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. 7 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God.

This sounds extreme! Uzzah appears like a good guy here. He is so concerned that the ark of the covenant would fall off the ox cart and hit the ground that he only reached out his hand to catch it before it fell.

Seems fairly innocent, doesn’t it? Yet, what did he do? He knew better. He touched the Ark of the Covenant, and God killed him right there on the spot.

Here’s the major problem from the start: Why was the Ark even on the oxcart in the first place?

The priests should have carried the ark by the poles over their shoulders.

The ark represented the absolute purity and blazing holiness of the living God.

Not only were the poles important to prevent humans’ hands from touching humans, but we also find in verses 18-20 instructions regarding the cherubim.

These cherubim were to be made of gold, and we find that they are winged creatures that overshadow the mercy seat, with their faces turned toward each other.

The first mention of the cherubim is in Genesis 3, right after God expels Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden because of their sinful rebellion against God.

Genesis 3:24 He drove out the man, and to the east of the garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

The cherubim are angelic supernatural beings that serve as guardians of God’s holiness. Notice how they have a flaming sword that guarded the entrance back into the Garden of Eden.

Psalm 99:1 The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!

Here, the cherubim are equated with the Kingly majesty of God that should move people to trembling because of the absolute holiness of God.

There’s a lot we don’t know about the cherubim, but here’s what we do know. They are real, supernatural, powerful beings with wings that represent God’s holiness and power.

Moses was instructed to make gold cherubim statues on top of the mercy seat because they overshadow and protect the contents within.

The ark of the covenant was carried on poles so that no sinful human hand could touch it, and golden cherubim protected what was inside.

These two images both show us the absolute blazing holiness of the living God.

Yet, there is another aspect to God’s holiness. Not only is God Himself, the Great I AM, absolutely holy in and of Himself, but He had just delivered his absolutely holy LAW to the Israelites in the Ten Commandments.

In verse 16, the Ark of the Covenant also served as a container for God’s holy, unalterable, inflexible Law, the Ten Commandments.

I want you to picture, in your mind, what the Ark of the Covenant looks like.

It is a 4-foot-by-2-foot chest made of acacia wood overlaid with pure gold. It has two holes on each side in which to insert poles for carrying.

On top of the chest are the cherubim representing God’s absolute blazing holiness, power, and majesty. So on top of the ark, we see God’s holiness.

Notice that the cherubim are all that are to be fashioned on top of the ark. God did not tell Moses to make any representation of Himself as Yahweh because this would be a graven image. The living God is Spirit and invisible, and no eye has ever seen.

1 Timothy 6:15–16 . . . he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

Above the cherubim, God Himself would dwell in what was called the shekinah glory, which could represent His presence dwelling with the Israelites.

Inside the ark are the Ten Commandments, which represent God’s holy Law.

Everything about the ark displays God’s absolute holiness, commandments, and will—his holy character and His holy standard.

This was where God Himself was to dwell with the people.

Now, this raises a very important question for the Israelites. How in the world could they, as sinful, rebellious people who would always fail at keeping God’s Ten Commandments, ever be able to approach this absolutely holy God and find forgiveness for their sins?

The first aspect of the ark we have seen is this: the Ark of the Covenant represents the holiness of God, who has given His law as an absolute standard of holiness.

There is a second aspect of the Ark which the ESV translates as a mercy seat.

Here’s the second important aspect: God provided a way for the Israelites to be forgiven through an atonement in blood.

What was the mercy seat? This is an interesting word because you might think it was a literal seat you would sit on.

Literally, it was a type of lid that covered the Ten Commandments inside. This lid was not to be made of acacia wood, but pure gold.

The best translation of this Hebrew word is “atonement cover.”

This past week on the Jewish calendar was Yom Kippur—the Day of Atonement. The word “Kippur” in Hebrew means to cover over or to forgive sins.

What purpose did this atonement cover, or atonement lid, or mercy seat serve for Israel? Was it merely for decoration?

The mercy seat, or atonement cover, was used only once a year on Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, when the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies, sacrifice an animal for the sins of the people, and smear its blood seven times on the atonement cover. (Leviticus 16:11-17)

What does smearing the blood over the lid or mercy seat seven times represent?

It means that the sins of the people were “covered”—they were atoned for. The wrath of a sacrifice took away God’s wrath against their sin.

Visually picture this again in your head. What is above the ark? The cherubim represent the blazing holiness of God. What is inside the ark? The inflexible Law of God in the Ten Commandments.

What is IN BETWEEN these two realities? Blood!

The blood coming between God’s holiness above and God’s law below graphically depicted how God forgave or covered the sins of the people for their failure to live up to God’s standard in the law and worship God for all his blazing holiness.

At its core, what is sin?

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Here’s the purpose of the mercy seat for Israel:

First of all, God is absolutely holy and cannot tolerate sin. This is represented by the cherubim above.

Second, God’s standard is absolute holiness according to His perfect Law. This is represented by the Ten Commandments inside.

What’s the major problem for Israel? They continually fell short of God’s glory and continually violated God’s law.

What they deserved was God’s wrath and eternal punishment.

Instead of pouring out His wrath on the Israelites, God instituted the Day of Atonement, where their sins would be forgiven and covered over as the priest would sacrifice an animal instead of the Israelites.

Instead of the Israelites dying for their sins, an animal was killed in their place.

And the blood of that animal was smeared seven times---denoting perfection—on the mercy seat, showing that God forgave their sins and they were “covered by the blood.”

Why blood? Why does the Bible place a premium on blood?

This smearing of blood was nothing new for the Israelites. How did God save them from the Angel of Death who would pass over Egypt and kill all the firstborn sons? They had to sacrifice a lamb and smear its blood on their doorposts.

Hebrews 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Yet, here was the issue for Israel: That only happened one day of the year and had to be repeated every year because every year they kept stacking up more sins.

The Day of Atonement covered only sins committed in the past year, was valid for only a year, and had to be repeated. And notice from what we read in Leviticus that the priest also had to sacrifice for himself because he, too, was a sinful human being.

So what is the application for us today?

We don’t have a literal ark of the covenant—a holy box of blood—and we don’t observe Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement.

We have the same problem as the Israelites.

The living God is absolutely holy and righteous and dwells in unapproachable light as the Sovereign King of the universe.

This living God has also given us an absolutely holy standard in the Ten Commandments that represent His Law.

Consequently, we fall short of God’s glory, we rebel against His holiness, and we fail miserably in keeping the Ten Commandments.

What did God do? Did He merely wink at our sin and brush it under the carpet and say, “Let bygones, be bygones! Your sin is not that big of a deal!”

Since God is absolutely holy and we fail to live up to His holy standard because of our sin, the ONLY way God has provided for us to be forgiven is not through smearing blood seven times on the mercy seat but by the once and for all shedding of blood by Jesus on the cross.

The wording of the mercy seat connotes the idea that God’s wrath needs to be taken away. Someone must bear God’s wrath. We cannot endure God’s wrath and could never pay for our own sins.

The Hebrew word translated “mercy seat” again means “place or lid or covering of atonement,” or, more precisely, “the place of propitiation.”

Jesus must endure the wrath of God in our place. This is called propitiation—the removal of God’s wrath by a Substitute.

Propitiation involves the turning aside or absorbing of God’s wrath. Jesus on the cross experienced the full justice of God by absorbing God’s righteous anger against our sin.

Just like the high priest in Israel entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement and killed an animal and smeared the blood seven times on the mercy seat, Jesus is that great High Priest who had no sin at all and gave up His life for our sins.

1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

We did not make the first move toward God. We were dead in our sins and rebels to the core. God first loved us, and how did He powerfully demonstrate that love?

Did God merely say, “I love you from heaven or send us a Hallmark card with a cheesy sentiment written inside?

No, God demonstrated His love in action by sending Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins. To take the punishment we deserved. To bear God’s wrath—His righteous anger against our sin that has offended Him.

I want you to picture this in your mind again as you think about the physical box of the ark of the covenant—the holy box of blood.

You stand before a holy God who is absolutely pure and righteous and glorious. You stand guilty before this holy God because you fail to keep the Ten Commandments perfectly. You continually fall short of both God’s glory and in keeping His law.

You are guilty. You are hopeless. You are helpless. You are hell-bound.

What is the answer? How can you be forgiven? How can this holy God accept you?

What comes between the holiness of God above and the law of God inside the ark? The atonement cover that is smeared in blood seven times.

What comes between the absolute holiness of God and your failure to keep His law?

The atonement of Jesus, in which He shed His blood on the cross, is to forgive sinners like you and me.

He is the ONLY way God has provided to cover up your sin and forgive you.

1 Timothy 2:5–6 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

Would we all bow in humility and look at that old, rugged cross with joy and find forgiveness in the love of Jesus!

The account of Cain and Abel vividly describes the tragic depths of sibling rivalry that resulted in the first murder in the Bible.

Genesis 4:1–16 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden. I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Then the Lord said to him, “Not so! If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

The word “Abel” means a “breath or a vapor”. In other words, this foreshadows his life. He would only be on the scene a short time, like a breath, until his jealous brother violently snuffed out his life.

What we see from this account is that both brothers knew that worshipping God through a sacrifice was the appropriate way to respond to their Creator.

Both men would have known directly from God and His Word what they were supposed to bring. We find the key in the previous chapter.

Genesis 3:21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

What did God have to do to show them mercy after they sinned in the garden? He killed an animal, and we see a picture of substitution by a blood sacrifice foreshadowing what Jesus Himself would do on the cross.

So apparently, the proper way to come to God was on his terms, with a sacrifice of an animal whose blood had been shed.

Both Cain and Abel had lived for years hearing the story from their parents about how God covered their nakedness and shame with the skin of an animal, so they knew that the shedding of blood was important to God.

Also, we get a hint from verse 3, which literally reads “at the end of days,” a phrase many scholars believe refers to the time when God would require regular sacrifice.

What sets Abel’s faith apart from Cain’s is that Abel comes with an expression of his conscious need for atonement. Only the blood sacrifice of another was acceptable to God.

So from this passage, I want us to see the SEVEN SINS of Cain.

Here is the first sin, and it is the root of all others: Cain falsely worships God in an attitude of self-reliance and hypocrisy.

Cain brings produce. Instead of relying on a substitutionary atonement, he relies upon what he alone can produce. He may have even thought that he worked harder than Abel. He worked the ground and sweat and put a lot of energy into getting this produce, while all Abel did was kill an animal and present it to God.

Not only was it the wrong type of sacrifice, but, just as importantly, it was offered in the wrong manner. The manner and attitude in which it was brought showed forth the faith of Abel and the pride and self-righteousness of Cain.

If you read the original language in verse 3, the word for “fruit” is in the singular. In other words, Cain brought a very small portion of his harvest. Maybe even one fruit. It wasn’t a bushel, a basket, or a large amount. It was a portion of one fruit: maybe half a banana or a small cluster of grapes. We really don’t know. All we know is that he brought a very small amount to sacrifice to the Lord.

In contrast, what does Abel bring? He brings the firstborn of his flock and the fat portions. In other words, while Cain gave God a token leftover, Abel gave God his best. He gave the firstborn. And not only that, but he went above and beyond with the fat portions.

Abel is demonstrating authentic radical faith by offering a devoted, heartfelt, sacrificial act of worship that honors God for who He is. He realizes that God is the sole provider of his life, and he comes with an outward expression of a devoted heart.

While God looked with favor on Abel, he looked with disfavor on Cain’s meager attempt to appear religious, yet show no true devotion. That’s Cain’s sin—trying to look religious—trying to look like he’s doing the right thing by worshipping God, but having a cold, distant heart that doesn’t acknowledge God. He gives the leftovers and doesn’t trust in a blood sacrifice.

Here is Cain’s second sin: He burned with extreme anger.

In Hebrew, it literally reads that Cain burned or kindled exceedingly. He burned with extreme anger against the LORD for not looking with favor upon his meager offering. Instead of repenting of his sin and showing true worship, Cain boiled with anger.

Here’s the third sin: He did not listen to God’s merciful warning to repent.

Cain didn’t listen to God’s warning about sin lying in wait or crouching at his door—he didn’t master or rule over the sin that desired to have him.

Any time God gives you a second chance, you’d better take it.

Romans 2:4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

God tells Cain that if he does “well,” he will be accepted. In other words, if he goes back, brings the right offering with the right attitude, and shows true, heartfelt devotion to God, then God would accept his offering.

Cain’s fourth sin is this: He burns with jealousy over his brother.

Cain’s fifth sin is this: He commits cold-blooded, premeditated murder.

He didn’t master his sin. He didn’t deal with the sin crouching at his door. This wasn’t necessarily a burst of rage where he got into a fight with Abel, sinned in the heat of the moment, regretted it, and didn’t mean it to happen.

Cain had time to think about this. He had time to plan it. He had time to stew over God’s warnings. He planned to do this out in the field where no one would see, and he could dispose of the body or make it look like an accident, or that possibly an animal attacked him.

Cain’s sixth sin: He tries in vain to cover his tracks and lies to God.

We see a similar courtroom-drama scene here, with God calling Cain to the bench, much like what God did with his parents when they were hiding behind fig leaves. It wasn’t as if God didn’t know that Cain had killed Abel or where Abel was. God knows everything, and God had seen this murder take place.

He’s calling Cain into the courtroom so that he can be held accountable for his sin and to admit it before the all-seeing God.

Hebrews 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Cain couldn’t hide from God. You and I can’t hide from God.

And how does Cain respond? I’m not my brother’s keeper.

Not only does he lie to God, but he also doesn’t take responsibility for his crime and tries to hide it from God. The apple doesn’t fall that far from the tree (pardon the pun). He has learned well from his parents to hide from God and not take responsibility for his own actions.

The LORD speaks of Abel’s blood crying out from the ground.

God places Cain under a curse.

This is the first PERSON to be cursed in the Bible. He would be a restless wanderer. The word in Hebrew can also mean to “lament”. Sin had truly MASTERED him.

What is the seventh sin of Cain? He shows no signs of true repentance but wallows in self-pity.

He did not call out for God’s grace to help but wallowed in self-pity. He didn’t repent. He didn’t confess or own up to his sin. All he cared about was the consequences of his sin.

That is not true repentance. True repentance grieves over sin because it is sin and that it offends a holy God. Worldly sorrow gets upset because you got caught and had to deal with the consequences. Godly sorrow weeps that the sin was offensive to God, desperately clings to Him for grace, and owns up to the consequences.

2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

Even in the midst of this curse, total lack of repentance, and total disregard for God’s authority, God still shows mercy. He marks out Cain so that no one would physically kill him.

The ultimate consequence of the seven sins of Cain is in verse 16.

So Cain went out from the LORD’S presence. The literal Hebrew rendering is “Cain went out from the FACE of the LORD.”

In the Old Testament, the face of the LORD was of great importance. Remember how many of the Psalms talk about the Lord not turning His face from me. God turning His face from people is the worst thing a person can experience.

In the Bible, God’s face shining upon you means that you are blessed. God’s face being turned away from you means that you are under His curse.

Cain is banished as a wanderer. Cain is going to be the prototype for all those who follow Satan and engage in idolatry and rebellion.

1 John 3:12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.

Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

And we find these interesting words that, because of his faith, Abel still speaks. In other words, his testimony and example of heartfelt devotion and obedience to God are recorded in the Bible for us, and he still speaks.

What an irony—the man whose name was “vapor or breath” is still speaking today, while his brother Cain is characterized by evil and rebellion.

Whose blood speaks a greater word than Abel’s?

The blood of Jesus was shed so that we could experience eternal life in perfect fellowship with Him.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, plunged us into sin, and from the beginning, we see grievous sin in their family.

We have all inherited this corruption and guilt. We are all born spiritually dead in sin and deserving of condemnation.

However, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness and grants us entrance into heaven.

What should you do?

Romans 10:13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Trust in Christ alone and His powerful blood to save you from your sins so you can spend an eternity of endless joy with Him in heaven!

What does the Bible say about Divorce and Remarriage?

You can watch a recent sermon on this topic on YouTube:

Before answering this difficult subject, allow me to give a definition of marriage that comes from God’s inerrant Word. (Genesis 2:18-25)

Marriage is a lifelong and sacred covenantal bond between one man and one woman instituted and defined by and publicly entered into before God (whether or not the married couple acknowledges this).

The Bible speaks very clearly about how we will be in a permanent covenant relationship with marriage.

Matthew 19:4–6 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵ and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

First, notice that Jesus appeals to the written Scripture as His authority.

He says, “Have you not read?” He doesn’t appeal to the consensus, the poll numbers, or what Hollywood, politicians, or social media say. He appeals to the Scriptures as the authority. And this is very important in the discussion because Jesus always returned to God’s written word.

Notice second that Jesus makes the statement “From the beginning,” meaning that this was God’s ordained and instituted plan from the beginning.

In other words, how God defines marriage, gender, and sexual roles does not change over time. As it was in the beginning, so it is today.

Third, Jesus emphatically says, “God has joined the two together in marriage.”

Marriage is a sacred covenantal bond in which God performs the actual marriage, whether the couple acknowledges this or not. Marriage is sacred, exclusive, and permanent.

Matthew 19:7–9 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Moses allowed divorce because of the reality of sin, but divorce was not God’s plan from the beginning.

What are the biblical grounds for a divorce?

The Bible gives two grounds for getting a divorce.

I believe that divorce, even for these biblical grounds, should never be AUTOMATIC or IMMEDIATE.

The first involves sexual immorality.

The word in the original language is “porneia,” which means sexual immorality, including all sexual sins, which would include adultery, prostitution, incest, homosexuality, and bestiality.

If one of the spouses violates the marriage bed by having sexual relations with someone else, Jesus gives biblical permission to seek a divorce.

However, this should not be automatic. I have counseled with couples who have experienced adultery, and they reconciled, but it was a long, painful process.

If the sinful spouse is truly repentant and takes concrete steps to restore the marriage, then divorce can be avoided.

However, if there have been attempts at reconciliation and counseling and the marriage cannot be saved, then there are biblical grounds to file for a divorce from the innocent spouse.

What about pornography? Does this count as an automatic reason to seek a divorce?

We need to be careful with pornography because it involves lust of the heart and eyes, and not physical contact with another person.

As such, I don’t think pornography automatically counts as a reason for divorce. I have counseled many husbands over the years who struggle in this area, and they have repented and worked through it with their wives.

So, the first biblical reason or ground the Bible gives to permit seeking a divorce is sexual immorality that involves physical contact with another person.

The second biblical reason for seeking a divorce is when a Christian spouse is abandoned or deserted by a non-Christian spouse.

1 Corinthians 7:15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace.

The issue of desertion means that if you are a believing spouse and your unbelieving spouse leaves you or divorces you, and you’ve tried everything to reconcile and they still leave, you are not enslaved but free to file for divorce.

In today’s world, an unbelieving husband may leave his wife, go live with another woman, and never file for a legal divorce, which puts the believing wife in a tough spot. What should she do?

She may need to gain her freedom by filing for divorce with the state to protect her legal rights.

From a legal standpoint, she is the one initiating the divorce, but biblically speaking, her unbelieving husband was the one who instigated the entire ordeal, and she is merely accepting the status quo that he created.

What about a couple where both spouses claim to be professing Christians?

For example, Jane says she’s a Christian, and she deserts John, who also claims to be a believer. What should John do when Jane leaves?

Does he have any recourse?

This is where a plurality of elders and church discipline are helpful in the life of the church.

He can go to the elders for help, who can intervene, counsel, and try to restore the marriage.

But if Jane is adamant, will not come back, and decides to leave or live with another man, the elders can call the church to gather for discipline according to Matthew 18:15-17.

If Jane is excommunicated because she does not repent, then the church recognizes her as an unbeliever even if she claims to be a Christian.

Therefore, she meets the definition of an unbelieving spouse who deserts her marriage, and John is free to file for divorce.

Now, let me address the issue of physical abuse. This is a touchy subject because the Bible does not explicitly mention abuse as a biblical reason for divorce.

Physical abuse is not only a sin, but it is a crime, and the authorities should get involved.

Severe, unrepentant physical abuse can fall under the category of desertion or abandonment.

If the spouse continues in unrepentant physical abuse and threatens the ongoing safety of the family, they have, in essence, broken the marriage covenant and, in a sense, abandoned the marriage.

Two things must happen in cases of abuse:

First, the church should help the wife and children be removed for their safety, and the authorities should get involved so that it is not only a church matter, but a legal matter.

Second, the church should institute discipline against the abuser if he’s a church member who claims to be a Christian.

We need to be very careful here that we don’t open the door wide to allow anything and everything to be a cause for divorce, which happened in Jesus’ day.

Again, the Bible is very clear that there are only two reasons for divorce: (1) sexual immorality, and (2) desertion or abandonment.

This requires considerable pastoral wisdom, counseling, and prayer when we try to help married couples facing these issues.

Is it permissible for a divorced person to remarry?

1 Corinthians 7:10–11 To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.

The traditional Reformed Baptist understanding is that the Bible permits a divorced person to remarry if the divorce was biblical.

If the divorce resulted from either sexual immorality or desertion, as we just saw, those are biblical grounds for divorce and therefore biblical grounds for remarriage.

A person can remarry because the original covenant marriage was dissolved in accordance with biblical principles.

Those who hold to this view are the following: John Calvin, Charles Spurgeon, R. C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Sinclair Ferguson, and Joel Beeke, to name a few (others include the Westminster Confession of Faith, Charles Hodge, Herman Bavinck, John Murray, Jay Adams, John Stott, John Frame, and D. A. Carson)

However, remarriage for unlawful reasons is adultery.

If the divorce were not biblical, then remarriage would be considered adultery or sinful.

However, again, we need to be very careful and compassionate here in making a key distinction.

There is a distinction between the initial act and the ongoing state.

Entering an unlawful remarriage is an adulterous act that is a sin. You can’t avoid Jesus’ teaching here.

But that doesn’t mean that you should leave your current spouse. Instead, you need to recognize that it was sinful, confess that sin, and repent. Then you must commit to honoring your current marriage commitment as a lifelong covenant.

Since Marriage is a sacred, exclusive, and permanent covenant between one man and one woman for a lifetime, we must guard our marriages from attacks from the enemy.

The topic of divorce can be overwhelming, stressful, and can bring up a lot of emotions.

I want to give us the hope of God’s grace in Christ.

Lamentations 3:22–23 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

The steadfast love or “hesed” of God never ceases. That gives us hope because there are times in our marriages when we don’t have the strength to love.

His mercies never come to an end. Praise the Lord for His mercy instead of wrath.

That gives us hope because there are times when we don’t feel like forgiving or being merciful to our spouse.

The Lord’s faithfulness is GREAT!! He loves us to the end with an everlasting love.

That gives us hope because there are times when we don’t feel like being faithful to our spouse.

God’s mercy, grace, and faithfulness are what we need to guard our hearts in our marriages.

We need the hope of Christ’s love, mercy, and grace!

If you are divorced, Christ’s death on the cross forgives all sin. It is still a sin that has dire consequences, but the blood of Christ covers it. You must ask forgiveness, repent, and move on.

If you are struggling in your marriage right now, the grace of Christ is more than enough.

Let’s be faithful to the covenant of marriage that is so under attack today.

And above all, let’s look to Jesus as the only One who can save us from our sins and provide the grace to live a life pleasing to Him.

Let us find hope in the steadfast love of Jesus.

Let us find hope in the mercies of Jesus that are new every day.

Let us find hope in the great faithfulness of Jesus.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!

What is the eternal destiny of those who have never heard the gospel or exercised conscious faith in Christ alone?

This is a question I have received many times over the years in pastoral ministry.

In 2007, our church adopted an unreached, unengaged people group in the mountain tribal areas of South Asia. We have been praying for their salvation for many years and have taken numerous mission trips. We partner with a local church-planting pastor whose heart is to reach these people, steeped in a syncretism of animism and Hinduism.

Why would a Reformed Baptist church that believes in unconditional election and irresistible grace be so active and passionate about evangelizing unreached people groups?

Won’t they be automatically saved without us having to go? If it’s all up to God in saving sinners, then what difference does it make if we go or not? God’s going to do what God’s going to do, right?

In 1787, William Carey, the father of modern missions and a pioneer to India, was in a meeting with other pastors who leaned toward hyper-Calvinism.

He raised the question of the church’s obligation to obey the Great Commission and to go to unreached peoples who have never heard of Jesus.

After Carey raised this question, the renowned Baptist minister and writer of his day, John Ryland Sr., allegedly stood up and proclaimed to Carey, “Young man, sit down! When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do without your aid or mine!”

This is the hyper-Calvinistic view that God does not use MEANS to bring about the ends of His saving intention.

In 1792, William Carey published an eighty-seven-page manuscript, popularly known as An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, where he set forth a biblical foundation and theology that even though God sovereignly predestined sinners for salvation, He also uses means to get the gospel to the unreached.

There are two extremes when it comes to this question of how to get the gospel to unreached people.

The first extreme is Hyper-Calvinism, which holds that God does not use the means of our going, preaching, and evangelizing to call out His elect among the unreached.

The second extreme is what is called Inclusivism.

This is the idea that those who have never heard the gospel can be saved without someone preaching the gospel to them or having any contact with missionaries.

The general revelation of nature or creation, their consciousness, and things within their cultural context are sufficient to give them enough information about a Creator. If they live up to the light they have received, God will either use the Holy Spirit to persuade them to believe in this Creator, or they will genuinely seek out God.

In this view, there is NO knowledge of the Person and work of Christ, nor is there conscious personal faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.

Historically, there have been three major classifications to answer this question about the eternal destiny of those who have never heard the gospel of Christ.

Exclusivism: No one is saved without personal conscious faith in Christ alone, which comes through the special revelation of the gospel.

Inclusivism—Everyone who obeys the general revelation they have based on their conscience is saved through Jesus, whether they actually repent and believe in Him. They may be saved without even knowing about Jesus. A person’s faith in general revelation is enough to save them.

Pluralism—everyone who obeys their particular religion is saved, for each religion supplies an independent road to the ultimate reality. If you are a sincere Buddhist, then you will go to heaven for being as good as you can with your religion. If you’re a sincere Muslim, it’s the same thing. The problem is: How do you define “sincere”?

Some modern philosophers, like William Lane Craig, argue that those who have never heard will be judged on how they responded to general revelation in nature and conscience.

The benefits of Christ’s works are applied to those who have no conscious knowledge of Christ. A lost person who cries out that he doesn’t live up to the demands of God’s law flings himself at God’s mercy and asks and pleads for forgiveness—that person would be saved by grace through faith in Christ, even though he did not know Christ.

The question is this: Is there such a person who would actually do that? Do Romans teach that there is such a person, or does it teach just the opposite?

The inclusivity position argues that general revelation is a sufficient means for saving faith, while exclusivists disagree and affirm that only special revelation is sufficient.

Creation, works of providence, and natural law DO NOT reveal Christ or the specifics of salvation.

The world is in darkness due to the FALL. No person intuitively understands the gospel.

They may know that there is a Creator, and they may feel guilty from time to time because God’s law is written in their hearts.

General revelation lets people know about the NATURE of GOD, but not the SPECIFICS about Jesus, the gospel, and salvation.

Romans 1:18–25 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

God has made plain his invisible attributes as Creator to humans.

Psalm 19:1–2 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

In other words, people can look up at the stars in the sky, see a sunset, watch the waves crash on the beach, or see the grandeur of a snow-peaked mountain and know deep in their hearts that there is a Creator bigger than themselves who put those things there.

God has made His existence plain or clear in creation. In the beauty of creation, He has shown us His power and divine nature.

We stand at the edge of the Grand Canyon and know that God created this. We hike to the top of a 14-footer, look across the Continental Divide, and intuitively know that God created this. We sit on a sandy beach watching the sun set over the water, and we know that God created this. It’s plain, obvious, and clear.

But instead of seeing this for what it is, as God creating the universe, we suppress or hold down that truth.

This suppression, in reality, is an act of rebellion against common sense.

What’s the final verdict? All people are without excuse.

Verse 20 says that we are without excuse. The word is a legal term, meaning that we have been stripped bare in God’s courtroom with no defense. We are guilty, accountable, and helpless. We have no excuse.

We have seen creation and know that God created all that we see, yet we suppress, hold down, or restrain that truth.

You could say it like this: There is really no such thing as an atheist.

An atheist is a person who says that they don’t believe in God. Yet this Scripture tells us that every person knows there is a God in heaven who is the sovereign Creator, but has chosen, in rebellion against that plain truth, to suppress or hold it down. They don’t want to come face-to-face with their Creator, so they hold it down.

This suppression of the truth only makes sinners accountable, guilty, and without excuse before the living God.

Through general revelation, people can learn only about God’s power and creative acts, not how to have a relationship with Christ alone. This knowledge is not enough to save them, but it is enough to condemn them because they do not live up to it.

But general revelation or nature does not reveal the following:

The Trinity, Human depravity, The punishment for sin, The Perfect Life of Christ, The Substitutionary Death of Christ, The Resurrection of Christ, The need to repent and believe in Jesus alone, Salvation by grace alone, and The promise of heaven and the threat of hell.

These facts of the gospel come SOLELY through special revelation, namely the Bible.

Therefore, all people everywhere are in bondage to sin, spiritually dead, guilty before God, and need to HEAR the gospel to be saved.

The point of contention is this: If general revelation is INSUFFICIENT to save, what then is its purpose?

For exclusivists like us, the purpose of general revelation is to reveal our guilt before our Creator.

For the inclusivist, the purpose of general revelation is to lead people to seek God, try to live up to the light they receive, and to believe that there is a possibility of salvation without ever hearing the gospel of Christ.

In all biblical accounts of conversion in the NT, every person came into contact with a human messenger who gave them special revelation.

The reason never lies in the seeking of the person whom God rewards, but in God’s providential dealing in time with one of the elect to ensure that they hear and come to faith.

What about Old Testament “pagans” who believed like Job, Rahab, or even NT people like Cornelius?

We have biblical examples in the OT of non-Israelites who were included in Israel through faith in the LORD, and in the Book of Acts, we have non-believers who were saved when God sent a messenger to them in dreams and visions.

In the OT, these people responded to special revelation rather than general revelation. Their faith was not in some generic, undefined God but in YHWH.

Here’s the problem: Can we draw a clear parallel between OT believers and today’s unevangelized in the same category?

The OT believers had faith in YHHW and in the covenant promises of Genesis 3:15 and 22:14 regarding the promised seed, or Messiah, who would be the future Savior.

Not even Adam was saved without Genesis 3:15, which is not a general revelation but a very special revelation about a future God-Man who would crush the serpent’s head.

The huge question for me is this: What is the nature of this faith? What does it mean to “live up to the light” one has received?

This sounds like salvation by works, salvation by sincerity, or salvation by ignorance rather than salvation by faith alone in Christ.

There is no biblical example of anyone saved through general revelation from Genesis to Revelation.

Some have answered this: This “saving faith” in general revelation is either a spirit of thankfulness for what God has created and provided, or ethical behavior according to the dictates of the conscience.

In Romans 2, Gentiles had the law written in their hearts and consciences, but it never saved them. It still made them guilty before God for breaking His law.

The problem with this speculation is that there is NOT ONE BIBLICAL example of this kind of “saving” faith anywhere. Faith in the Bible always has an OBJECT—in the OT it was YHWH and his covenant promise of a Messiah; in the NT, it is always Christ.

Can we imagine a pagan in an unreached people group afflicted by his conscience and then crying out to God for more light?

This could be a logical POSSIBILITY.

Those who hold to gospel inclusivism have taken a logical possibility and an idea without explicit teaching and turned it into an ACTUALITY.

The problem again is that Romans 1-3 explicitly teaches that no one has responded positively to general revelation. No one is asking for more light, no one is crying out in thankfulness, and no one is worshipping God. Instead, all have turned aside, suppressed that truth, and become idolaters.

God alone sovereignly chooses WHEN and WHERE the gospel goes.

God does not send missionaries to those who use their natural abilities or common light to earn the sending of the gospel.

No one is ever saved by general revelation or living up to the light they have received.

Therefore, we must send missionaries to unreached peoples so that they can call upon the Lord and be saved.

Romans 10:13–15 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

God alone determines the evangelistic success or fruit in geographic areas and among unreached people groups, according to His sovereign will.

The 1689 Second London Baptist Confession summarizes the exclusivist position nicely in paragraphs 2 and 3 of Chapter 20, “On the Gospel and the Extent of Its Grace.”

2. This promise of Christ and of salvation through him is revealed in the Word of God alone. The works of creation and providence, when assisted only by the light of nature, do not reveal Christ or grace through him, even in a general or obscure way. Much less are those without the revelation of him in the promise or gospel enabled to attain saving faith or repentance by seeing these works of God.

3. The gospel has been revealed to sinners in various times and in different places, along with the promises and precepts describing the obedience it requires. The particular nations and individuals who are granted this revelation are chosen solely according to the sovereign will and good pleasure of God. This choice does not depend on any promise to those who demonstrate good stewardship of their natural abilities based on common light received apart from the gospel. No one has ever done this nor can anyone do so. Therefore, in every age the preaching of the gospel to individuals and nations has been granted in widely varying degrees of expansion and contraction, according to the counsel of the will of God.

Today, we celebrate the empty tomb and resurrection of Jesus from the grave!

The fact that Jesus rose from the grave should bring us tremendous hope in God’s victory over sin, death, and hell.

1 Peter 1:3–5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

What specifically does Peter say is this great mercy? God raised Jesus from the dead! The greatest mercy comes from the empty tomb.

What are these great riches of mercies that we can celebrate today?

First, God gives you a brand-new life.

What is the result of this great mercy?

The fact that He has caused us to be born again. Other translations say that He has given us the new birth.

God is the one who causes it. God is the one who grants it. The new birth is not something we can produce. It is not something we even deserve.

John 3:3-8 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

In the new birth, you are given new spiritual life. You go from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive. You go from being spiritually blind to being able to see.

You go from being lost to being found. You go from being enslaved to being freed. You are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.

Being born again is a supernatural transformation.

We were dead in sins and deserving of hell and justice, but God, in his mercy and great love, made us alive. He took us from spiritual death to a resurrected life.

Why is it so important for God to cause us to be born again to a brand-new life?

If God does not do this supernatural work, you will continue to be dead in your sins and spiritually separated from God. And the dire consequence of this is eternal separation from God in hell.

The hope of the resurrection is that God can resurrect you from spiritual deadness and being an enemy of Him to a brand-new life. You will receive a new heart—a new identity.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

This is a powerful reason to praise God. Because of the empty tomb, God has caused you to be born again. He’s given you a brand-new life. He’s made you alive when you were spiritually dead.

Second, God gives you a living hope.

Notice how Peter links the resurrection of Jesus to a living hope rather than a dead hope.

Many people operate on wishful thinking or a dead hope. They really don’t have that deep sense of peace, assurance, hope for the future, or belief that God is in control.

If Jesus had not risen from the dead, we would be the most hopeless people alive. We would be hopeless, helpless, and hell-bound.

1 Corinthians 15:14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

Our faith would be hopeless.

1 Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

This living hope is not a desperate holding on to something that may or may not be true. Or some faded dream or aspiration.

Non-believers do not have this hope. Their hope is a dead hope. A false hope. A crossing-your-fingers type of hope that is not rooted and grounded in the resurrection of Christ from the grave and in the power of God.

Why do we need a living hope? We live in a world of hopelessness. When we look around at what is going on in our nation and even in our neighborhoods, we can become hopeless.

As believers, we should have a living hope. Not misplaced optimism that crosses its fingers, but a rock-solid hope that God is in control and that Jesus rose from the dead and that no matter what happens, we are secure in the powerful grip of our Savior.

Third, God promises you an amazing inheritance.

Not only have we been born again. Not only do we have a living hope. But another blessing that comes from Jesus’ resurrection from the grave is this amazing inheritance.

Notice how Peter describes it in three ways.

First, it is imperishable. Unlike things in this world, it will not rot or decay. It is permanent.

Second, it is undefiled. It is pure and holy. Heaven will be the ultimate in perfection.

Third, it is unfading. Like flowers or grass that wither and must be thrown out, this inheritance is eternal and will never wither or become old.

But where is this inheritance?

Peter says that it is “kept” in heaven for you. This word means that God has our inheritance on permanent reservation.

God ensures that we will receive it as our ultimate Protector, who never loses our reservations for heaven.

But not only is this indestructible inheritance on permanent reservation for us by God, but we ourselves are being “guarded” for that inheritance.

The word “guarded” means that God is preserving us. God, in His power, is ensuring that we will finish the race. That we will indeed endure to the end. That we will be eternally secure.

The word “guarded” or “shielded” was used to describe an army of troops protecting a city from the oncoming enemy.

Why is having this amazing inheritance so important?

Without the resurrection and this wonderful inheritance, you and I would still be spiritually bankrupt in our sins. We would still be enemies of God outside His family.

We would still be children of wrath who deserve hell instead of children of God who get the riches of this inheritance.

Fourth, God will rescue you from final judgment.

Peter tells us that God has this salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

What exactly does this mean?

The word “revealed” is where we get our English word “apocalypse”, and it is also the first word in the book of Revelation about the Second Coming of Christ.

When Jesus comes back on that final day, we will experience the fullness of our salvation. God has ordained a day on His eternal calendar when Jesus will come back and judge those who have not believed in Him.

This day of judgment and return of Christ is ready—it’s set. It’s going to happen.

On that great day, because of the resurrection, we who have been born again to a living hope and have this inheritance will receive salvation instead of judgment.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Christ suffered and died on the cross and rose again, conquering the grave, so that we would have eternal salvation instead of God’s judgment in hell.

These are four wonderful riches of God’s mercy that come to us from the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

But we must ask a crucial question? Are these blessings or gifts automatic? Do we automatically get them?

Do we earn them by being good? Do we have to strive to reach a certain level of obedience or spirituality to gain them? Do we try to be a good enough person, or go to church enough, or do enough good deeds, so that God is obligated to bless us with this mercy?

What must you DO to receive these blessings? How do you receive these riches of mercy?

You receive them by faith in Jesus, who died and rose again.

You have faith in Christ. Notice what Peter says that we are being guarded through faith for this salvation.

These blessings come NOT by achieving, not by doing something to earn them, nor by trying to be good enough to get into God’s good graces.

These blessings don’t come by achieving, but simply by receiving. You receive Jesus as a free gift of grace through faith.

Salvation comes by faith alone in Christ alone. The riches of God’s mercy come to you by trusting in Jesus alone.

On this resurrection Sunday, would you praise Him for the riches of His wonderful mercy that have come to you solely because Jesus died on the cross and rose again victoriously from the grave!

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus’ death on the cross occurs during Passover, a time when thousands of lambs were slaughtered in Jerusalem. Yet, on that ominous Friday, Jesus Christ—the true Passover Lamb of God—hung on a cruel cross outside Jerusalem between two thieves.

Luke 23:44–49 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things.

This passage contains three miracles that should move our hearts to worship Jesus for His finished work on the cross.

Miracle One: Ominous darkness enveloped the land for three hours.

At the sixth hour, it was high noon. From high noon until 3:00, darkness covered the entire region. This is not a solar eclipse—these do not occur during full moons, which would have coincided with Passover. It wasn’t a dust storm either, as some have claimed, because this is the wet season. This is a supernatural event orchestrated by God Himself. Darkness is consistently linked to God’s judgment.

In the Old Testament, when God issued a guilty verdict in His judgment, it always signified darkness.

Amos 8:9: “And on that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.”

Zephaniah 1:15: “A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.”

In Exodus, darkness was the last of the ten plagues before the Passover. A dreadful darkness that can be felt descended upon the land before the slaughtering of a spotless lamb, whose blood would be sprinkled over the doorposts of the houses so that when the angel of death passed over, there would be salvation from God’s wrath and punishment.

This crucifixion of Jesus is connected to the Passover. Yet, before the True Lamb of God—the ultimate Passover sacrifice—Jesus sheds His blood, and darkness comes over the land as a curse, serving as an ominous sign of God’s judgment upon sin. This verdict—“Guilty”—is inflicted on Jesus—not us!—as He is punished for our sins as an innocent Savior.

Luke does not record Jesus’ cry of dereliction from the cross, but Matthew and Mark do document it.

Mark 15:34: “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

What does it truly mean to be cursed? We must understand that the opposite of being cursed is being blessed. This idea of being blessed is evident in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Blessed is the man who walks in the way of the Lord. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In the Old Testament, what represents the epitome of being blessed by God? We find it in the Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6.

Numbers 6:22-26 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; ²⁶ the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Every Israelite yearned for these blessings from the LORD. What are these blessings? May the Lord bless you. May the Lord keep you. May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn His face toward you and grant you peace. Don’t we all desire this? We want to see the face of our Lord. We want to seek His presence and experience His peace, comfort, and security.

We know we cannot see Jesus here on earth right now, but we will one day. We all long for the day when we will see Him face to face. The greatest hope and desire of us as believers is to witness the glory of God in the face of Christ! Therefore, the face of the Lord shining upon His people represents the greatest definition of blessing. In the Scriptures, a blessing is often referred to as a BENEDICTION!

But what is the opposite of blessing? Being cursed. Being forsaken. At that moment when Jesus bore God’s wrath, He became a curse for us as a sin offering. And He was forsaken by the Father. What did Jesus hear?

He heard the opposite of what the blessing was: May the Lord curse you! May the Lord abandon you! May the Lord turn His face from you! May the Lord pour out His wrath upon you! May the Lord deny you peace and bring you hostility! That’s what it means for Jesus to be forsaken! To be cursed! To be abandoned! This is not a benediction, but a malediction.

Due to our sins, Jesus is counted among transgressors. He bears our sins, is cursed by God, and this is the darkest, most torturous moment of His life—the full weight of God’s wrath comes crashing down on Him. God does not hold back but pours it out completely on Jesus, who endures it fully—for you and me. This is great news because we are free from God’s wrath.

We are rescued from the darkness of God’s judgment because Jesus took that punishment in our place. Would you be amazed that Jesus took your place on the cross and endured the darkness of God’s punishment for you?

Miracle Two: The temple curtain is torn in two.

This curtain prevented access to the Holy of Holies—the most sacred spot on earth where God dwelt in all His glory at the center of the temple. The high priest would enter this area only once a year on the Day of Atonement to make a blood sacrifice for the sins of the people. The curtain stood 30 feet high, 30 feet wide, and about an inch thick. It was tightly woven with layers of thread and likely weighed hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds.

It tore from top to bottom, as Matthew and Mark tell us. God alone performed this miracle. The tearing of the curtain signifies that Jesus was the final and ultimate sacrifice for sin and that the Old Testament system of offering bulls and goats to atone for sin had come to an end. This indicates that we have direct access to God through Jesus.

Hebrews 10:19–22 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Jesus opened a new and living way through His death on the cross. This new and living way gives us full assurance to approach Him in faith. If you are in Christ, you don’t need to hide from God in fear. You can come boldly to His throne of grace to receive help. You can be confident that God hears your prayers and loves you. Praise the Lord for the torn curtain!

Miracle Three: The salvation of the pagan centurion.

Unlike all the previous bystanders, crowds, soldiers, and chief priests who mock and belittle Jesus, this Gentile centurion has witnessed it all. He has been present from the onset of this execution and believes in Jesus. What does he confess? He praises God and acknowledges that Jesus is righteous. The word in the Greek text is “righteous,” not innocent. Technically, Jesus was innocent of any crimes, as Pilate declared three times. However, Jesus is more than just innocent; He is righteous. He is completely sinless.

This language stems from Isaiah 53, referring to the righteous Suffering Servant.

Isaiah 53:11: “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”

Jesus, the RIGHTEOUS ONE, will bear the sins of His people and credit us with His righteousness. In the book of Acts, also written by Luke, we see this term used for Jesus repeatedly.

Acts 3:14–15: “But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.”

Why is this confession by the centurion a miracle? Because all people are born sinful and do not naturally praise God or trust in Jesus. This man was a Gentile who likely never heard the Old Testament preached in the synagogue. He had no understanding that there was a promised Messiah. He was dead in his sins and rebellious against God. God performed a miracle of grace in his heart, turning him from cursing to praising.

This soldier was saved by grace alone because he trusted in Christ alone. He praised God and confessed Jesus as righteous. While he may not have known all the details about who Jesus was, God moved in his heart to see that Jesus is worthy of worship and trust as Savior. As far as we know from the Gospel of Luke, the centurion is the only person to praise God at the foot of the cross.

In verse 48, the crowd was struck with terror at the darkness and the temple veil torn in two, prompting them to go home beating their breasts in fear. They were more focused on supernatural events than on Christ Himself. The centurion looked beyond these events to the Person of Jesus on the cross and trusted in Him as Savior and Lord.

These are three wonderful miracles that occurred at the death of Christ on the cross, but let us focus on the FINAL words that came from Jesus’ mouth: “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.”

Along with this statement, we must also remember that in John’s Gospel, Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” just before He committed His spirit to the Father. (John 19:30)

Ironically, Jesus used an interesting word on the Mount of Transfiguration to describe the cross.

Luke 9:31: “. . . who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”

The term for “departure” in Greek is Exodus. Jesus will leave this earth as the sacrificial Lamb of God, dying on the cross. And now the ultimate Exodus is complete. Darkness has covered the land. The temple curtain has been torn in two from top to bottom. And the Lamb of God has been slaughtered.

What exactly is crucifixion? Jesus hung in the scorching sun, nearly naked and struggling to breathe. To avoid suffocation or asphyxia, He had to push Himself up with His legs and pull with His arms, which resulted in muscle spasms that caused tremendous pain.

Ultimately, Jesus died from either heart failure or brain damage due to reduced oxygen, suffocation, or shock.

In a sermon titled “The Blood of Sprinkling,” Charles Spurgeon preached these powerful words about the offense of the cross:

If ever there should come a wretched day when all our pulpits shall be full of modern thought, and the old doctrine of a substitutionary sacrifice shall be exploded, then will there remain no word of comfort for the guilty or hope for the despairing. . . Shall we speak with bated breath because some affected person shudders at the sound of the word “blood?” or some “cultured” individual rebels at the old-fashioned thought of sacrifice? Nay, verily, we will sooner have our tongue cut out than cease to speak of the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

On this Good Friday, will you stand in shock and awe before the bloody cross of Calvary!

As we prepare for Resurrection Sunday during this Holy Week, I want to draw your attention to the Gospel of Luke.

This passage captures a moment of dark sorrow in the Garden of Gethsemane just hours before the agony of the cross. Jesus was in anguish over the spiritual realities of what He would soon face in the impending crucifixion.

Luke 22:37–44 For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about me has its fulfillment.” And they said, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” And he said to them, “It is enough.” And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

In verse 37, Jesus quotes Isaiah 53:12, which was a direct prophecy about Him. This passage in Isaiah was written 700 years beforehand.

What does it mean that Jesus was numbered with the transgressors?

Isaiah 53:12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus voluntarily poured out His soul to death. He was never a victim but sovereignly chose to give His life for us on the cross.

John 10:18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

He also chose to be numbered with the transgressors. The wording in the original language is that He chose this.

He bore our sins as our Substitute in His body on the cross.

Being numbered with the transgressors is related to bearing the sins of His people.

Twice, the term “transgressors” is used. The word transgressors means “rebels—those in flagrant rebellion against God.”

This truth is tied directly to what it means for Jesus to drink the cup.

There are two motifs or Old Testament references here about the spiritual suffering of Jesus.

He will voluntarily take the place of rebel sinners by dying in their place on the cross. He will be numbered with the transgressors.

And He will also voluntarily drink the cup of God’s wrath against our sin down to the last drop.

The cup is God’s wrath and justice against sin. The punishment that God must pour out on sin.

Isaiah 51:17 Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering.

Jeremiah 25:15 Thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.

Jeremiah 49:12 For thus says the LORD: “If those who did not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, will you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you must drink.

The imagery from the Old Testament regarding the cup centers on judgment and wrath. Drinking from the cup means you experience God’s judgment for your sins.

Jesus was not agonizing over crucifixion and having to endure the nails in his hands and feet, as physically painful as it was.

Jesus knew the stark reality that He would endure the full justice of God’s wrath against our sins by dying in our place.

He would be numbered or treated as the worst of sinners.

Our sins would be imputed or credited to Him so that God would give Him the punishment that we alone deserved.

Jesus never once sinned. He had perfect fellowship with Father. On the cross, all of the sins of God’s people would be credited to Jesus. Jesus would bear those sins. Since those sins were credited to us, God viewed Jesus as the worst of sinners, even though He had never sinned.

This is staggering to the mind. Jesus endured the spiritual torment of bearing our sins when He never deserved to be punished because He was perfect.

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Why does Isaiah use the term “laid on Him”

The word “laid on him” in the original Hebrew means to hit or strike violently. The image is that all of God’s justice was unleashed on Jesus on the cross.

Instead of that guilt and punishment being unleashed on us who rightfully deserve it, that punishment and justice are poured out on Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus was perfect. He knew no sin. He never sinned. Yet, on the cross, He became a sin offering in our place. Our sins were credited to Him so that He was punished in our place.

Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

The great Bible scholar B. B. Warfield wrote an essay called” The Emotional Life of our Lord” and captured the intensity of this moment: “We may well believe that our Lord, though he died on the cross, yet he did not die of the cross, but of a broken heart, that is to say, of the strain of his spiritual suffering.”[1]

The overwhelming weight of this spiritual reality pressed upon Jesus so heavily that in His human nature, He needed an angel to strengthen Him.

In His fully human nature, He was in agony over this, so much so that sweat became like drops of blood.

We need to understand an important theological point about the nature of Christ here, because you may be confused as to why Jesus was somehow struggling to do God’s will.

There is a lot of mystery in the incarnation of Christ. These theological issues were settled early in church history by the major councils and creeds.

Biblical teaching holds that Jesus has two natures—a fully human nature and a fully divine nature — in His one Person. He is fully and absolutely a Man and fully and absolutely God.

In addition to having two natures in the same Person, Jesus also had two wills—a human will and a divine will. He had a truly human will and a truly divine will. They’re not confused. They’re not divided. They’re not changed. And they’re not separated.

As fully God, Jesus’s will was to submit to the will of the Father. His will was entirely in concert with God’s plan for Him to die on the cross.

Yet, as fully man, His human will agonize at the prospect of facing death on the cross.

Jesus submitted to the will of the Father not because it came easily or automatically, but because He chose to do so.

As fully man, Jesus had the same instinct we all have—to not die. To protect our lives. It was his natural preference to live and not face the cross, but since Jesus was also fully and absolutely God in the flesh, He voluntarily chose to submit to God’s will.

We must never think that in this struggle, Jesus sinned or doubted His mission. If at any point along the way, Jesus would have sinned even in His thoughts, He would not be qualified to die on the cross as our Perfect Savior, and it would nullify all the passages in the Bible that affirm the Deity and sinlessness of Christ.

The setting here is very important. This is taking place at the Mount of Olives, otherwise known as the Garden of Gethsemane.

There is great symbolism in the word “Gethsemane”—it means “olive press.”

During Jesus’ time, the olive press was the stone basin used to crush olives into pulp. A donkey pushed on a horizontal wooden beam, which in turn rolled a millstone that crushed ripe olives into a pulp.

After this process, heavy stone slabs were lowered onto the olives that had already been crushed. Gradually, the slabs’ weight squeezed the olive oil out of the pulp, and the oil ran into a pit. There, the oil was then collected in clay jars.

The image of Gethsemane provides a vivid picture of Jesus’ suffering. The weight of the sins of the world pressed down upon him like a heavy slab of rock pressed down on olives in their baskets.

His sweat, like drops of blood falling from the ground, flowed from Him like olive oil as it was squeezed out and flowed into the pit of an olive press.

In this intense moment of prayer, Jesus was pressed down emotionally and spiritually under the weight of drinking the cup of God’s wrath and taking our place on the cross, and it took its physical toll on him with sweat like drops of blood.

What should be our response to Jesus as our Savior who died in our place?

For starters, this should cause us to see the sinfulness of our sin.

Jesus took our sin in our place.

Would we learn to see sin as it truly is? Would we learn to hate sin with a godly hatred?

John Calvin said, “When we behold the disfigurement of the Son of God, when we find ourselves appalled by his marred appearance, we need to reckon afresh that it is upon ourselves we gaze, for He stood in our place.”

When we think of the agony of the cross, we should be stricken to the heart that it was our sin that put Jesus there. We deserved to drink the full cup of God’s wrath because we are transgressors. We are guilty. We are sinful to the core.

It should also lead us to bow in thankfulness and worship for Christ’s sacrificial love for us while we were still sinners.

Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus did not wait for us to get our act together before He voluntarily chose to die in our place. He didn’t give us any conditions. He didn’t say, “I will go to the cross if you try hard to be better. I will go to the cross if you really make sure you attend church as often as you can. Or try to be nice to people. Or make sure at the end of your life your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds, and then I will consider whether or not to die in your place.”

No, His love for us as rebel sinners should lead us to sheer thankfulness and joy.

The fact that Jesus took the full weight of your sin on the cross and was crushed for you should bring you to your knees in humility and joy. You should be humbled in thankfulness.

It should also motivate you to trust in Him alone as Savior to forgive you of your sins and grant you eternal life in heaven.

Have you trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Do you own up to your sin as rebellion against God, and that you deserve hell? Do you see your need for forgiveness?

Would you look upon the agony of Jesus dying on the cross and place your faith in Him today to save you!

[1]B. B. Warfield, “The Emotional Life of our Lord,” in The Person and Work of Christ (Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1950), 133.

The following material is taken from Chapter 10: God’s Preservation of His Saints in my latest book, Compassionate Calvinism: Defending the Doctrines of Grace Without Being a Jerk:

Apostasy in Hebrews 6

Many have argued that Hebrews 6 proves Christians can lose their salvation, but I believe precisely the opposite and find that this text provides the strongest definition of apostasy. The writer uses the first person from chapter one through Hebrews 6:3, employing terms like “we,” “us,” and expressions such as “brothers” or “beloved.” He is clearly addressing born-again believers.

Yet, in 6:4, he shifts to third-person language—terms like “they” or “those”— making a grammatical distinction between true Christians and another group of people. Who are these individuals? They are those who have been visible or external members of the church, have confessed Christ, and enjoyed the benefits of being among God’s people and His blessings, but have consciously rejected Christ. They are apostates. These are not outright pagans or blatant atheists but rather religious individuals who have had proximity to Jesus, know their Bibles, moved within church circles, and gotten baptized, yet were NEVER truly born again. They were impostors. They were not genuinely saved.

Hebrews 6:4–9 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.

The writer of Hebrews lists five benefits that these individuals have experienced in their proximity to Jesus and the church, but as we will see, they were never truly saved.

The first benefit is that they have been enlightened. In other words, they came to understand the truth. They grasped the facts of the gospel. They know the Bible. However, they have never been genuinely converted and saved. Being enlightened does not equate to salvation. There is no mention of the terms that the Bible typically uses for individuals becoming Christians. We do not see words like faith, repentance, trust, justification, forgiveness, regeneration, or adoption. There is merely plain enlightenment. They’ve been exposed to the gospel. Some scholars believe that historically, this might refer to baptism.

Second, they tasted the heavenly gift. While we may not know exactly what this gift entails, it’s reasonable to suggest that it refers to the gospel of salvation. They tasted it. They sampled it. They did not fully swallow, consume, or digest Christ but only “sampled” Him. They got close enough to try Him for a time but were never completely regenerated.

Third, they shared or participated in the Holy Spirit. The term “partakers” really implies “association.” In the Bible, this term is never used to describe a true Christian. As believers, we aren’t merely associated with the Spirit; we are indwelt, sealed, and filled with the Holy Spirit. Notice that these key phrases are absent here. These individuals saw evidence of the Holy Spirit’s work in the church and among their friends and family.

Fourth, they tasted (that is the same word again) the goodness of the word of God. They had received sound preaching and teaching. They benefited from the word of God. They may have even been touched by the sermon. Once more, this occurs in church.

Fifth, they experienced the powers of the age to come. If you refer back to Hebrews 2:3-4, the term for “miracles” is the same as the term for “powers.” Christ performed supernatural miracles through the power of the Holy Spirit. They may even have witnessed miracles carried out by the early apostles.

The imagery here closely resembles that of the Exodus generation, who perished in the wilderness after 40 years of wandering. Did they not taste the heavenly gift of manna from above every day? Did they not receive the goodness of God’s Word in the Ten Commandments when Moses descended from the mountain? Did they not witness powerful signs and wonders? In Exodus, all of this occurred among God’s people in the wilderness—this was not God performing mighty works among pagans. Similarly, where do these things happen today? In churches and around Christian individuals. This sin of apostasy can be committed by very religious people who frequent the church. The issue in Hebrews 6 and with the Israelites was that some were outwardly part of the church but ultimately proved never to have been saved.

In verse 4, it states that it is impossible to repent. Not improbable or unlikely, but impossible. That Greek word conveys exactly that—impossible! It is the very first word in this paragraph in the original text, placed there for emphasis and to highlight the severity of the warning.

The phrase “having fallen away” is in a tense in Greek that signifies a decisive, deliberate, and willful act of rejection. It is intentional, purposeful, and conscious. The unfortunate reality is that this occurs in light of being close to Jesus, possessing explicit knowledge of the truth, and witnessing God’s power in the church. Why is apostasy so damning? They are crucifying the Son of God again to their own detriment and subjecting Him to contempt. This acts as a slap in the face to Christ’s once-for-all finished work. They behave as if Jesus is on the cross once more, and they are part of the crowd mocking Him and cursing Him to His face.

The writer shares a parable from agriculture regarding good and bad fruit in verses 7-8. There are two responses to the warning about apostasy that reveal a person’s actual spiritual condition. A truly saved person will embrace the gospel; it will take root in their soul, produce enduring fruit, and receive God’s eternal blessing. Do you remember the parable of the soils mentioned earlier? Only the fourth soil yields lasting fruit because that individual has been genuinely regenerated.

In contrast, the apostate will reject the truth, bear no fruit, prove to be worthless, and ultimately face the fires of hell. Apostates are those who rebelliously, persistently, and arrogantly deny Jesus after making a profession of faith. Their departure demonstrates that they were never genuinely saved to begin with. The damning danger of apostasy lies in its impossibility to repent and return to Christ. Conversely, genuine believers consistently, persistently, and humbly love and serve others, showcasing lasting fruit.

Notice what the writer says in verse 9—”in your case, beloved”—he shifts back to addressing Christians and mentions aspects related to salvation. The list of five items mentioned earlier is not linked to salvation; they are merely benefits that arise from being close enough to Jesus to see and understand the gospel while still rejecting it. This rejection leads to greater condemnation.

The more light a person has been exposed to and turns away from, the higher the degree of punishment in hell. (Luke 10:13-16) Why does the author provide such a strong warning against apostasy? First, to alarm false converts, and second, to offer hope to true believers. Observe in verse 9 how the writer is “convinced” or firmly assured that they are genuinely saved.

He does not question their status as apostates but affirms them as true believers. In other words, regarding the good soil, he is convinced they are authentic believers because they are bearing fruit, which serves as positive evidence of their salvation.

In my pastoral ministry, I have been asked the following question numerous times: What happens to babies who die in infancy or at a very young age? Do they go to heaven?

I want to answer this question with compassion and understanding because many parents have grieved over a miscarriage or the death of an infant.

The Scripture does not provide much information on this issue, so we do not have any explicit teachings that clearly address the salvation of infants.

In addition, one may ask the logical question: How can infants be saved if they never had a chance to believe or trust in Christ? How can a baby “make a decision” for Christ when they are incapable of doing so? How then are they saved?

Let me begin with some theological statements:

First, there are no innocent babies. Everyone is born with original sin inherited from Adam.

We inherit a sinful nature from Adam, which makes us corrupt, and that depraved nature ultimately leads us to commit actual sins. This is the doctrine of original sin, which means that God declared a judgment of guilt, accompanied by a death sentence, on all humanity due to Adam’s transgression in the Garden.

Paul reaffirms this teaching in 1 Corinthians 15:21–22: “For as by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”

Original sin indicates that we will die physically because of Adam’s actions.

Original sin also signifies that every single person is born with a sinful nature. David expresses this reality in Psalm 51:5: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.”

We not only maintain that we inherit a sinful nature from Adam, but we also affirm what has historically been called “inherited guilt.” What makes us guilty before God and subject to death is that every single person has “sinned in Adam,” which means we are all held liable for his sin.

Adam is our federal head, and what he did in the Garden signifies that he represented us, and his actions are credited to us, implicating us in those actions. This guilt may not seem fair since we weren’t there in the Garden, nor did we commit the sin. Why are we held accountable for something someone else did?

Time does not allow me to explore the exegetical and theological arguments for the doctrine of original guilt, but many valuable resources are available.[1]

Adam was the representative of the human race, and when he sinned, he plunged all of us into sin. We are born sinners. We are not born neutral; we are by nature “in Adam” and spiritually dead, under condemnation for both Adam’s trespass and our own sins.

Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Romans 5:18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

Second, if a deceased infant is saved, it must be based on Christ’s atonement.

Third, if they are saved, it is only because they have been regenerated and sanctified by God’s grace.

Fourth, if they are saved, their salvation must occur before death, as the Scriptures nowhere teach that there is an opportunity to be saved after death.

With those premises, allow me to make some biblical arguments that will lead to the conclusion and answer to this common question.

Argument One: Infants are incapable of moral good or evil.

Deuteronomy 1:39 And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today do not know good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.

These “little ones,” or infants/toddlers, do not have the mental capacity to make moral judgments concerning good or evil.

They still have original sin, but are not moral agents and cannot understand what is necessary to perform good or evil acts. When they do sin, they don’t know that they are sinning because they haven’t reached an age where they can make moral distinctions between right and wrong.

Argument Two: Divine Judgment is administered based on sins committed in the body.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

Adults who die without trusting Christ will be judged based on their deeds done in the body as well as their refusal to embrace Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

Infants who die cannot be judged based on this. They have not lived long enough to mentally make moral judgments and carry them out in active rebellion. In other words, a baby may sin, but he or she does not know that they are disobeying God.

NOTE: This does not apply to PAGAN ADULTS, who are responsible moral agents who know right from wrong through general revelation and conscience. These things do not bring salvation to them but only show their guilt before God and their need for a Savior.

I believe in the theological concept of an “age of accountability” in that there comes a stage in life where an infant understands what they are doing and can discern right from wrong.

But Scripture gives no evidence of an actual “age” when that happens. It differs from person to person, and only God knows that.

So we can’t say that all those under 5 are saved and those who are 5 years and 1 day are now accountable.

Argument Three: Regenerate Infants in Scripture:

The Bible gives a few examples of babies in the womb whom God either set apart or consecrated, or who were regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

John the Baptist in Luke 1:15: for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.

One could argue that this filling of the Holy Spirit was unique to John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, whom the Old Testament prophesied.

However, this filling of the Holy Spirit in the womb gives us evidence that God can sovereignly work in the heart of an unborn baby through the regenerating, indwelling, or filling of the Holy Spirit.

Argument Four: Jesus and little children: How did our Savior relate to little children?

Matthew 19:13-15 Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, ¹⁴ but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” ¹⁵ And he laid his hands on them and went away.

The Greek word “children” (paidion) means “infant,” and in secular Greek it was used for a child up to about 7 years old.

Mark 10:13-14 And they were bringing children (paidion) to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

Luke 18:15-16 Now they were bringing even infants (brephos) to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. ¹⁶ But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

Since Luke was a doctor, he used another Greek word for infants (brephos rather than paidion)—in the original language, the word “brephos” can also mean an unborn child, an embryo, or a newborn.

Argument Five: An Old Testament example:

After King David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah killed in battle, the LORD sent Nathan the prophet to confront the king for his egregious sin.

David immediately confessed his sin, and the Lord forgave him, but he had to live with the consequences of his transgression and violation of God’s Law.

Bathsheba bore David a son, and the child became sick and died. David grieves the death of his baby, but then finds comfort in the Lord’s goodness. We find a theological clue that helps answer this question about infant salvation from David in:

2 Samuel 12:22–23 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

What does David mean when he says, “I shall go to him, but he will not return to me?”

David knows that when he dies, he will be reunited with this baby, who went to heaven immediately. The Lord would not bring the baby back from the dead, but David would reunite with his child in heaven.

Matthew Henry writes, “David here comforts himself with this, that he should shortly go to the child… not only to the grave, but to heaven, where he doubted not but he should meet it again. . . To him to heaven, to a state of blessedness, which even the Old Testament saints had some expectation of. Godly parents have great reason to hope concerning their children that die in infancy that it is well with their souls in the other world.”^[2]

Baptist John Gill, in his commentary on the Old Testament, states, “I shall go to him… to the state of the dead… and, as some think, to heaven, where he was… and where David had hopes of meeting him. . . This passage is commonly understood of his going to him in heaven, and of his being there.”[3]

Charles Spurgeon commented on this passage: “I cannot conceive that David would have been comforted by the thought that he would go to the grave… He meant that he would go to heaven.”[4]

THEREFORE: Infants are capable of salvation.

The Holy Spirit can sovereignly regenerate an infant, renew their heart of stone with a heart of flesh, and cause them to be born again.

If regeneration precedes faith, which it does, it happens to everyone born again. The Holy Spirit works in their hearts to renew and free them from bondage. Repentance and faith are the means through which a person is saved, but an infant or a mentally incapable person cannot exercise these means.

The Holy Spirit still regenerates them based on Christ’s atonement.

God, in His sovereignty, can overcome the power of original sin in unborn infants and mentally incapacitated individuals through the new birth. He can make their dead hearts alive and bring about regeneration without the accompanying evidence of repentance and faith.

Repentance and faith are evidence that a sinner has been regenerated. And a baby or a mentally incapable person can be regenerated (i.e., heart transformation, born again) without actually EXPRESSING that with conscious repentance and faith.

So the conclusion is this: All children who die in infancy and all mentally disabled persons whose intellectual and moral judgment cannot surpass that of children ARE SAVED and go to heaven.

The amazing grace of our sovereign Savior can overcome excruciating grief and bring a deep-seated sense of joy and peace to the troubled hearts of parents who have lost their precious baby.

God is faithful and good.

Jesus loves the little children!

[1]John Murray’s The Imputation of Adam’s Sin; Adam, The Fall, and Original Sin edited by Hans Madueme and Michael Reeves; and Douglas Moo’s The Letter to the Romans, to name a few.

^[2]Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994), 456

[3]John Gill, An Exposition of the Old Testament, vol. 2 (London: George Keith, 1763), 12:23.

[4]Charles Spurgeon, “Infant Salvation” (Sermon No. 411) Preached: 1861

Is Dispensationalism a heresy?

The answer to the provocative question of whether dispensationalism is a heresy is an emphatic “no!” Dispensationalism is not a damnable heresy, nor would I label it as patently false teaching. However, I believe that this theological system and its hermeneutical understanding of Scripture are errors to be avoided.

Many outstanding Christians whom I dearly love hold to a dispensational framework and interpretation of the Bible, and I am thankful for their diligence and passion for carefully studying God’s Word.

Let me first say that I don’t think it’s a false doctrine or heresy, but I will argue that dispensationalism is erroneous. It is an error both theologically and hermeneutically, just as Arminianism is not a heresy but an error.

As a confessional Reformed Baptist, I hold to covenant theology and lean toward an amillennial view of end times (although I’m cautiously open to postmillennialism).

In the late 80s, as a high school student, I had an insatiable interest in understanding the end times, the rapture, the tribulation, and the 1000-year reign of Christ.

I have never held to a dispensational understanding of the Scriptures. Over time and through much study, I embraced a covenantal framework for interpreting the Bible.

I want to recommend three books that are very helpful in engaging in this topic:

Oswald T. Allis, Prophecy and the Church: An Examination of the Claims of Dispensationalists That the Christian Church is a Mystery Parenthesis Which Interupts the Fulfillment of the Kingdom Prophecies of the Old Testament. (1969)

Vern S. Poythress, Understanding Dispensationalists (1994)

Daniel G. Hummel, The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism (2023)

What are the main tenets of dispensational theology?

Jesus offered to the Jews of His day the Davidic Kingdom. However, they rejected it, so God postponed this promise to a future time.

As such, the current church age or “time of the Gentiles” is a “parenthesis” or mystery unknown to the Old Testament saints. They had no concept of one body of Christ comprised of both Jews and Gentiles.

The primary interpretative grid for dispensationalism is that God has two separate programs or plans for the church and national Israel.

The church will become increasingly corrupt and apostate, having no real influence in the world, which will signal the secret rapture of the church.

Christ will return secretly to rapture His saints before the 7-year Great Tribulation.

After the tribulation, Jesus will return to earth to administer that postponed offer that the Jews rejected in Jesus’ day. God will restore a Jewish political kingdom based in Jerusalem for a literal thousand years. During this time, Satan will be bound, a literal temple will be rebuilt, and the sacrificial system will be reconstituted (not to atone for sin, but as a memorial).

Near the end of this literal millennium, Satan will be released from the abyss and will attempt to attack Jerusalem with a massive army at the Battle of Armageddon.

Christ will return in power and glory to destroy His enemies in judgment.

This event is their understanding of the Second Coming, followed by the Great White Throne judgment, and the eternal states of heaven and hell.

How is Reformed amillennial theology different from dispensational theology?

As a covenantal Reformed amillennial (persuadable postmillennial, but not quite there yet), here is how I understand the Biblical framework in contrast to dispensationalism.

God has always had ONE people, His elect from both Jews and Gentiles, from the time of Adam. In the Old Testament, it was the nation of ethnic Israelites under a theocratic government and sacrificial system.

However, all the promises made to Abraham, David, and Israel concerning land, descendants, and a temple have been fulfilled in Christ, who is the true Temple of God and His people. Christ is the true Israel (God’s Son), and His church, comprised of both Jews and Gentiles, is Israel. The church does not “replace” Israel, but is the spiritual Israel.

The end times began when Jesus ascended to heaven. From that point forward, we are now living in the Kingdom era prophesied in the Old Testament.

In Jesus’ ministry and especially on the cross, Satan has been bound from blinding the nations to the gospel. This binding does not mean that He cannot actively work in the world as a roaring lion, but that his power to stop the gospel advance has been greatly hindered.

The current age is the millennium. I take the 1000 years in Revelation 20 as symbolic of the total time between Christ’s first and second comings.

During this time, the church faces persecution and hostility as it boldly proclaims the gospel. There will be times of revival and spiritual awakening, and other times of intense persecution.

Toward the end of the age, the persecution and hostility will escalate, culminating in the great tribulation and a personal antichrist/man of lawlessness/beast. This period of persecution is undefined (not literally seven years).

The Second Coming of Christ and the resurrection of His saints are simultaneous, back-to-back events. Jesus will return literally and physically to earth, and those who are dead in Christ will rise first. Those still alive at His coming will be caught up in the air to meet Him.

After the Second Coming and the Resurrection, there will be the final judgment, in which Jesus brings history to an end. Those who are believers in Jesus will spend eternity in the new heavens and new earth, while unbelievers will be cast into the lake of fire in eternal conscious torment.

Does Dispensationalism being “New” in church history make it wrong?

Dispensationalism is a newer theology introduced by John Nelson Darby of the English Plymouth Brethren movement in the 1830’s. Before the 1830’s, the church at large did not hold to any tenets of Dispensationalism.

Just because something is new in church history does not necessarily mean that it is in error. Some of the most egregious heresies sprang up in the 300s and 400s (Arianism, Nestorianism, Sabellianism, etc.).

The early church fathers were premillennial in their understanding of Revelation 20, but did not hold to a pre-tribulational rapture or two separate plans for Israel and the Church.

Justin Martyr and Irenaeus regarded the church as the fulfillment of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31.

Interestingly, none of the early creeds (Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian) mentions the millennium.

Some famous early church fathers were not premillennial, such as Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, and Athanasius. Augustine was amillennial, and this view held through the Reformation.

None of the Protestant creeds or confessions is dispensational with a distinction between Israel and the church, nor does it mention a literal thousand-year reign. This includes the Second Helvetic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Westminster Confession, the Thirty-Nine Articles, and the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession.

James Brookes popularized dispensationalism in America in the post-Civil War period.

One of his students was C. I. Scofield, whose famous reference Bible was published in 1909.

Here are some other famous proponents of Dispensationalism in America: Dwight L. Moody; Lewis Sperry Chafer, who established Dallas Theological Seminary in 1924. DTS and Moody are the main institutions that have promoted scholarly dispensationalism with the writings of professors J. Dwight Pentecost and Charles Ryrie. John MacArthur is probably the most famous dispensationalist in recent times, although he called himself a “leaky” or “modified” dispensationalist.

Time does not permit me to delve into all the intricacies and differences in these theological systems. However, I do want to present a few reasons why I am not a dispensationalist. These are more overarching interpretive issues, rather than specific understandings of particular Bible passages.

First of all, Dispensationalists hold to an overly literalistic interpretation of Scripture instead of the historic Protestant analogy of faith hermeneutic.

Covenant theology says that the New Testament interprets the Old Testament. Dispensationalists are suspicious that this will lead to spiritualizing OT prophecy and to a denial of inerrancy.

We believe that the New Testament serves as the hermeneutical guide for understanding the Old Testament. Dispensationalists, however, are suspicious of this idea.

Since they take the Old Testament prophecies as literally being fulfilled in the future for ethnic and national Israel or during a literal millennium, any attempt on our part to address how those promises are fulfilled in Christ and the church comes across as spiritualizing or allegorizing. This makes the dispensationalist very wary of our approach, which, in their view, could quickly lead to a denial of inerrancy.

Their definition of a literal-historical-grammatical interpretation of Scripture differs slightly from a Reformed covenantal understanding. Dispensationalists sometimes struggle to distinguish among the various genres (types of literature) and fail to understand the symbolic or apocalyptic meanings in books such as Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation.

As one who holds to covenant theology, I believe the New Testament provides the final understanding of a passage. I seek to determine how the apostles interpreted the Old Testament, how they described the fulfilment of a promise in the New Testament, and how it applies to Christ and the church.

We see a vivid example of this in James’s interpretation of an Old Testament passage and its application to the church in the book of Acts.

The original Old Testament prophecy appears in Amos 9:11–12 “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, 12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the Lord who does this.

The dispensationalist takes this literally, that there will be a physical temple rebuilt on a future day. In their view, this future temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem before the literal 1000-year reign.

If all we had were the Old Testament passage in isolation, one could conclude that there will be a rebuilt temple one day, although this Amos passage makes no mention of a millennium.

However, how do the New Testament apostles interpret this Amos passage?

Acts 15:11–18 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” 12 And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. 13 After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. 14 Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, 16 “ ‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, 17 that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things 18 known from of old.’

This is the Jerusalem Council, where the Judaizers were putting a burden on the Gentiles to be circumcised to be truly saved.

James, the brother of Jesus and the leader of the church, actually quotes Amos 9, and how does he interpret it? Does he equate it to a literal temple being rebuilt?

He says that the rebuilt tent is actually the people of God, composed of both Jews and Gentiles who are saved by grace and become the dwelling place of God.

The apostolic-inspired interpretation of an OT passage that may at first appear to be about a physical temple being rebuilt is actually interpreted spiritually to refer to Jews and Gentiles being the one people of God.

The Reformed covenantal approach is to allow the New Testament to interpret the Old Testament.

In contrast, the Dispensationalists tend to interpret the Old Testament literally, making that the primary meaning and fulfillment in the future, rather than seeing how it was fulfilled in Christ and the New Testament.

In short, the Old Testament prophecies stand on their own as the greater authority, rather than being judged by their fulfillment in the New Testament or by how the NT authors interpret those OT passages.

Second, Dispensationalists hold that God has two distinct people and two distinct plans.

This tenet flows logically from the previous one concerning the Old Testament’s interpretation of the New Testament.

In short, dispensationalism holds that all the OT promises are fulfilled in literal Israel, not Christ or the church.

For example, the New Covenant promise of Jeremiah 31 is fulfilled in Israel, not in the church.

Since they believe the church was a mystery in the Old Testament, those passages can never be fulfilled in something the original authors or prophets knew nothing about.

In fact, a literal 1000-year reign is assumed to be necessary for these OT promises to find their ultimate fulfillment in Israel.

The church cannot fulfill the New Covenant because it would undermine the need for a rapture to remove the church and for a future millennium, primarily for a reconstituted Israel. Notice how the millennium is assumed and is worked backwards into the New Covenant.

But was the Church a mystery in the OT?

We get insight from Stephen’s speech before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:38: “This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers…”

The Greek word translated “congregation” is: ἐκκλησία (ekklesia).

Stephen is referring to Israel during the Exodus (Sinai period). But he calls them “the ekklesia in the wilderness.” That’s the same word used throughout the New Testament for “church.”

The Reformed covenantal view sees this as strong evidence of one people of God across redemptive history. The “church” did not begin in Acts 2 in an absolute sense; the church existed in the Old Testament in a less developed form.

In short, Israel was called the “church” in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament, especially at Pentecost, the whole people of God (the church) finds its fulfillment and expansion to the Gentiles.

In contrast, leading dispensational theologian Charles Ryrie emphatically claimed: “The Church did not begin until the day of Pentecost and will be removed from the world at the rapture which precedes the Second Coming of Christ.”

Remember, in their view, Jesus offered the kingdom to the Jews of His day, but they rejected it. As a result, God moved to a different plan or program that focused on the Gentiles. This current plan is a parenthesis or a temporary setting aside of His original plan for the Jews.

Because of these two distinct plans, dispensationalism necessitates a pre-tribulation rapture to remove the church from earth, so that God could return to His original plan for Israel.

Let’s think about Israel in the OT:

We see three groups of people:

(1) Gentile nations (Philistines, Egyptians, Moabites, Canaanites, etc.)

(2) Geopolitical Israel as a theocracy

(3) True Israel made up of genuine believers in the Covenant of Grace (Abel, not Cain, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Isaac (not Ishmael), Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, etc). However, some non-Israelites trusted in YHWH and entered into the covenant of grace (Rahab, Ruth, etc.).

The same during the earthly ministry of Jesus:

(1) Gentile nations

(2) Israel as a nation or the Jewish leaders (Pharisees, Sadducees, Sanhedrin)—Jews outwardly

(3) True Israel made up of genuine believers—the 11 Disciples, Nicodemus, Mary Magdalene, etc.

What happened on the day of Pentecost? Was the church started only then?

Now it was the constitution of the true Israel formed with a nucleus of JEWISH believers, and then it spread to include Gentiles.

Paul clearly teaches that there are NOT two distinct plans for the church and Israel in Romans 11:

Romans 11:11–24 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

What are the main points of this passage?

First, the cultivated olive tree is natural Israel.

Second, the natural branches that are broken off are unbelieving Israelites (17, 20)

Third, the good branches that remain are believing Israelites (17-18)

Fourth, the wild branches grafted into the good olive tree are believing Gentiles (17, 19)

There is only ONE Olive tree. God does not plant a new one.

Galatians 3:16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.

Galatians 3:29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

Galatians 6:15–16 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

The Abrahamic promises were made to Abraham AND his seed (vs.16). His Seed is Christ, and his seed is all who belong to Christ by faith.

Therefore, the Abrahamic promises are fulfilled in Christ and all who are united to Him by faith, whether Jew or Gentile—not in literal land promises or issues in the millennium.

That is why Paul can call the entire people of God, both Jew and Gentile, united by faith in Christ, the “Israel of God.” (Galatians 6:16)

What do we do with the restoration of the nation of Israel in 1948?

This happened under God’s sovereignty and providence and is part of His ordained plan, but this does not really mean much.

There is no need for real estate in Israel, land promises, or a rebuilt temple because all of those Promises are fulfilled in Christ—the true Israel and the end-times temple. We are connected to Jesus as the true Israel and His temple.

Will there be a massive conversion of Jews in the end times? Yes!!

Romans 11:25–26 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;

What does it mean that ALL Israel will be saved?

Does this mean that one day every single Jewish person without exception will be saved—even those who never profess faith in Jesus alone?

No. It means that all elect Jews—those predestined before the foundation of the earth—will be saved.

Paul says, “All Israel”, not every single Jew. Paul is referring to the future time when God will save ethnic Jews by grace through faith in Christ.

Remember, in Paul’s day, when he wrote Romans, only a small number of Jews were coming to faith in Christ—the remnant.

But in the future, there will be a massive number of ethnic Jews also chosen by grace who will come to faith in Christ.

Here’s what we know and what we don’t know:

We don’t know WHEN this will happen, as God is sovereign over the timing.

We do know that this salvation will be faith in Jesus by grace alone—not merely by being an ethnic Jew or by adhering to Judaism.

Remember, there is only ONE olive tree, and the only way you become attached to God’s people is by faith alone in Christ alone.

My final reason for not being cautious about dispensationalism is that some dispensationalists are overly dogmatic and argue that their view is the only valid way to interpret the Bible and the end times, instead of allowing room for disagreement on secondary issues.

I have been personally told by dispensationalist friends that I do not hold to a historical-grammatical way to interpret Scripture and that I am in danger of not taking the Bible literally. This is a slippery slope to denying inerrancy.

I have also been told that I hold to the heresy of “replacement theology” because I believe God is done with the Jews and that the church is more important in God’s plan of redemption.

I have also been told that since I take the millennium as symbolic and not literal, then I am in danger of allegorizing or spiritualizing other parts of the Bible, and that could ultimately lead to liberalism.

I hope the arguments above have proven my detractors wrong. I will allow the reader to be the judge.

Here’s my final admonition: In matters of eschatology, interpreting Revelation, and the millennium, we must be charitable and not rigidly dogmatic that our views are the only orthodox way to understand the Bible.

Regardless of how one interprets the end times, what can all orthodox, Bible-believing conservative evangelical Christians agree upon that are non-negotiable?

Jesus will literally, visibly, and physically return in power and glory.

There will be a resurrection of the dead/rapture.

There will be a final judgment.

There will be the final states of the new heavens and new earth for believers, and eternal conscious torment in hell for unbelievers.

We can quibble about the timing and order of these events, but those four cardinal truths represent the authoritative Biblical teaching regarding the End Times.

I can think of nothing more controversial in evangelical circles than speaking in tongues.

The book of Acts describes the early church speaking in tongues on the Day of Pentecost, and the apostle Paul lists speaking and interpreting tongues as spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians.

This topic has led to much confusion, disunity, and the introduction of some unusual practices into the church.

How do we understand the issue of speaking in tongues carefully and biblically? What is the gift of tongues?

As a confessional Reformed Baptist, I hold to a cessationist view concerning the apostolic sign gifts.

The cessationist view states that the gift of tongues is the supernatural ability to speak in foreign, known human languages that were previously unknown or not studied by the speaker.

On the other hand, the continuationist view states that the gift of tongues is a heavenly language, and a person is given the supernatural ability to speak this ecstatic utterance or pray in this language.

Are the tongues in Acts the same or different than the tongues in Corinth?

I am firmly convinced that the tongues in Acts are actual known languages that existed around the world at that time. People filled with the Spirit, as shown by tongues of fire, spoke a known foreign language, and those listening could understand in their native language.

Acts 2:6–8 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. ⁷ And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?

The Greek word in Acts 2:6 and 8 for “language” is “dialektos,” from which we get the word “dialect,” which connotes a real, known language.

As a cessationist, I believe that tongues are primarily known languages used for cross-cultural evangelism and missions, where people entering other cultures and languages without access to the gospel need to understand it in their own language.

We need to consider whether what occurs in Acts is the same as or different from what occurs in Corinth.

Nowhere do we find in Corinthians that the tongues are explicitly and distinctly different than what happened in Acts.

The bottom line is that, Scripturally, we don’t have enough information to be dogmatic about it being different, so we need to assume that it is at least the same.

If we adopt the view that tongues were known languages on earth (not ecstatic utterances or babbling), then we must also understand Paul’s stated purpose for tongues.

The gift of tongues was a miraculous ability to speak in a foreign language or for someone else to hear in their native language.

The words “glossa” and “dialektos” are both translated as known tongues, not an unknown or heavenly language.

1 Corinthians 14:21–22 In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.

In verse 21, Paul quotes from: Isaiah 28:11 For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people,

For Isaiah’s time, this was a prophecy that Assyria would take over Israel. A foreign nation would invade, and they would hear the soldiers speaking a foreign language.

Since Paul quotes from this passage, referring to a known foreign language (Assyrian), the logical conclusion is that the tongues in the New Testament are also known foreign languages.

Some theologians hold that tongues were a sign of judgment to the Jews in Paul’s day who rejected their Messiah. God chose to work mightily among the Gentiles.

Speaking in foreign languages was a way to demonstrably show that the gospel was not just for the Jews, but for all nations.

Regardless of how we interpret the judgment on the Jews, it is clear that Paul’s stated purpose for tongues centers on evangelism to the nations.

The purpose of tongues is a SIGN for unbelievers.

First, tongues are not primarily to be exercised in the gathered worship service, but in evangelistic and cross-cultural missionary encounters.

Prophecy or preaching, on the other hand, is a gift to edify believers and should be exercised in a worship service.

1 Corinthians 14:18–19 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

Paul himself said that he spoke in tongues (verse 18), but in verse 19, he says that in a public worship service, he would rather not speak in tongues so that the church could be instructed and edified.

Paul said he spoke in tongues often, but he also added that he did not desire to speak in tongues IN THE CHURCH.

What does this mean?

Paul spoke in tongues (a foreign language) during missionary encounters with unreached people groups outside the church service.

Second, tongues are not the initial evidence of the baptism of the Spirit, which occurs after salvation.

Nowhere in the Bible is there a specific teaching that speaking in tongues results from being baptized in the Spirit. Instead, 1 Corinthians 14:22 plainly states the purpose of tongues as a sign for unbelievers.

Nowhere in Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 12-14 do we find anything that remotely instructs on speaking in tongues as evidence of being Spirit-baptized, as a second stage or blessing after conversion.

Again, the gift of tongues is the supernatural ability to speak in a known foreign language as a sign to unbelievers to gain a hearing for the gospel.

Simply put, tongues are for evangelistic and missionary purposes.

Many charismatics and Pentecostals believe that speaking in tongues (unknown ecstatic utterances) boosts the spiritual vitality of believers and fosters an environment in the church where the Spirit can work more freely.

Once again, we lack any specific teaching that the purpose of tongues is to boost the church’s spiritual vitality or to help individuals in their spiritual growth.

Here are the ONLY instances of speaking in tongues in the New Testament:

Acts 2 at Pentecost (all nations gathered to be empowered for evangelism, and returned to their respective geographic areas)

Acts 10 with the conversion of Cornelius (evangelism)

Acts 19 with the conversion of John the Baptist’s disciples in Ephesus (evangelism)

1 Corinthians 12 and 14

Additionally, the other passages that teach about spiritual gifts do not mention the gift of tongues. (Romans 12:4-8, Ephesians 4:11, 1 Peter 4:10-11)

Third, nowhere in the New Testament are we instructed to seek the gift of tongues, nor is it a gift for all believers.

Spiritual gifts are for the edification of believers in the church.

1 Corinthians 12:7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

The Holy Spirit sovereignly bestows spiritual gifts.

1 Corinthians 12:11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

Considering these two verses and the purpose of tongues as a sign for unbelievers, this gift is not available to everyone. Moreover, the Spirit grants it to those involved in evangelism and missionary work outside the church.

In Acts 2, 10:46, and 19:6, those speaking in tongues did not seek this experience or learn it from another person. It came upon them unexpectedly, sovereignly, and supernaturally.

Fourth, throughout the past 1900 years of church history, Christians understood tongues as (1) a known foreign language, and (2) ceased in the early apostolic age.

At the turn of the 20^th century, those in Arminian and Wesleyan churches began speaking in what is now known as ecstatic utterances.

History of “tongues”:

The Montanists (A. D. 160)

Montanus was a self-proclaimed prophet and false teacher. He had two women prophetesses who joined his ministry—Maximilla being the most notable.

She claimed she was the last prophetess, and after her, the end of the world would come.

There is some historical evidence indicating they may have spoken in ecstatic utterances, but there isn’t enough source material to be conclusive.

Church fathers Origen and Irenaeus (circa AD 175) both taught that tongues were known human languages and had ceased in apostolic times.

This is over 100 years after the writing of Acts and 1 Corinthians.

John Chrysostom (AD 347-407) of Constantinople (modern-day Turkey) taught that tongues were known foreign languages and also ceased with the apostles.

“Tongues are very obscure; but the obscurity is produced by our ignorance of the facts referred to and by their cessation, being such as then used to occur but now no longer take place.”[1]

Augustine, his contemporary (AD 354-430) from northern Africa, taught explicitly that tongues were known foreign languages used as a sign to unbelievers in evangelistic encounters and had passed away.

“Tongues were signs adapted to that time (Pentecost). For they behooved to be that betokening of the Holy Spirit in all tongues, to show that the gospel was to run through all tongues, over the whole earth. That thing was done for a betokening (sign) and it passed away.”[2]

These men were geographically distant, but held to the same theology.

Four of the key early church fathers—Origen, Irenaeus, Chrysostom, and Augustine—all agreed that tongues were known languages that had ceased to exist.

Why is this important?

This was the era in church history closest to the time of the apostles. When John died around AD 95-96, the last living apostle was no longer present.

If tongues were (1) ecstatic utterances in church services and (2) continued after the apostolic age, then why do we not see any evidence of this practice in the writings, sermons, or historical documents of the first three generations after Acts?

What about the Reformation up to the late 1800s?

John Calvin comments on 1 Corinthians 12:8:

“There was a difference between the knowledge of tongues, and the interpretation of them, for those who were endowed with the former were, in many cases, not acquainted with the language of the nation with which they had to deal. The interpreters, rendered foreign tongues into the native language. These endowments they did not at that time acquire by labor or study, but were put in possession of them by a wonderful revelation of the Spirit.”

The 1689 Second London Baptist Confession:

Chapter One on the Holy Scriptures:

Paragraph 1: To preserve and propagate the truth better and to establish and comfort the church with greater certainty against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and the world, the Lord put this revelation completely in writing. Therefore, the Holy Scriptures are absolutely necessary, because God’s former ways of revealing his will to his people have now ceased.

Paragraph 6. The whole counsel of God concerning everything essential for his own glory and man’s salvation, faith, and life is either explicitly stated or by necessary inference contained in the Holy Scriptures. Nothing is ever to be added to the Scriptures, either by new revelation of the Spirit or by human traditions.

Matthew Henry (printed 1712) on 1 Corinthians 14:22:

“Tongues were rather a sign to unbelievers than to believers, v. 22. They were a spiritual gift, intended for the conviction and conversion of infidels, that they might be brought into the Christian church; but converts were to be built up in Christianity by profitable instructions in their own language.”^[3]

Jonathan Edwards: Even during the First Great Awakening in the 1740s, there was no evidence of speaking in tongues. People did shake, convulse, and wail, but Edwards wrote a lengthy essay explaining the true marks of revival. His main point was that emotionalism was no evidence of the Holy Spirit, but a transformed life of holiness, love for the preached Word, and fruit of the Spirit.

Charles Spurgeon’s comments on cessationism and tongues in a sermon called “Receiving the Holy Ghost,” preached in 1884 (at the end of his ministry, which shows his settled conviction, as he died in 1892).

You know, dear friends, when the Holy Spirit was given in the earliest ages he showed his presence by certain miraculous signs. Some of those who received the Holy Spirit spake with tongues; others began to prophesy; and a third class received the gifts of healing, so that wherever they laid their hands disease fled before them. I am sure that if these powers were given now in connection with the reception of the Holy Spirit and your believing, you would all be anxious to possess them. I can hardly imagine a single Christian who would not put to himself the enquiry, “Have I received the Holy Spirit in that fashion?” You would want to be healing, or to be speaking with tongues, or to be working miracles by which you could benefit your fellow-men and glorify God: would you not? Now, be it never forgotten that those works of the Holy Spirit which are permanent must assuredly be of greater value than those which were transitory. . . but that those works of the Holy Spirit which are at this time vouchsafed to the Church of God are every way as valuable as those earlier miraculous gifts which have departed from us.[4]

The Practice of Speaking in Tongues in Church History:

The following is a list of possible times when people spoke in tongues (not known languages, but ecstatic utterances). The source material is again limited. What we do know is that most of these groups were either heretical or abnormal in nature. Additionally, we know they practiced manifestations of being slain in the Spirit, including jerking, outbursts, and extreme crying.

Montanus and his followers (AD 160)

Medieval Roman Catholic St. Xavier (1200 AD)

The Cevernols—a French Catholic sect (1702-1705)—the majority of prophets were women and CHILDREN, where there was foaming at the mouth and convulsions.

Jansenists who left the Roman Catholic Church (late 1500s to early 1600s)

Shakers, Ranters, and Quakers (mid-1600s in Europe): heretical teachings and rejection of key doctrines such as the Trinity, substitutionary atonement, and bodily resurrection.

John Wesley’s meetings in the late 1700s featured sudden outbursts and convulsions. While not heretical in core doctrines, Wesley, an Arminian, held a flawed view of justification by faith and believed you could lose your salvation.

The modern Pentecostal movement began in the early 1900s at the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles.

A preacher from Kansas named William Seymour led this movement. The revival started on April 9, 1906, and lasted for another nine years. This marked the beginning of the modern Pentecostal movement.

This sparked the idea that speaking in ecstatic utterances is evidence of being baptized in the Spirit, which happens later after salvation.

This revival also initiated the practice of having people come to an evangelist to seek healing.

Conclusion:

The majority view in church history is that tongues were (1) known foreign languages, (2) ceased during the time of the apostles, and (3) served as a sign for unbelievers to hear the gospel.

In sum, tongues were seen as a supernatural ability to speak foreign languages during cross-cultural, missionary work, and evangelistic encounters.

Pastoral Reflections on how tongues should operate at Emmanuel Baptist Church:

Again, I am a cessationist who believes that tongues are known languages used for cross-cultural purposes. Still, I also recognize that many people have a private prayer language and speak in tongues.

The predominant culture of Emmanuel and its history has been cessationist.

Cessationists should not view continuationists with suspicion, and continuationists should avoid becoming arrogant and trying to proselytize those who don’t speak in tongues.

The most crucial issue in our church should be love and building up one another in unity.

Everything in the public worship service should be done in an orderly fashion.

All matters of public worship and teaching should fall under the spiritual authority of the elders and our confession of faith (1689 Second London Baptist).

As a pastor, I will not encourage or promote speaking in tongues, but I will not prohibit it if it is done privately and does not cause confusion, disunity, or proselytizing.

[1]John Chrysostom, Homilies in 1 Corinthians, Homily XXIX and XXXVI.

[2]Augustine, The Epistle of John, VI, 10, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. iaI, 497-498.

^[3]Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994), 2270.

[4]Charles Spurgeon, Receiving the Holy Ghost Sermon https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/receiving-the-holy-ghost/#flipbook/

Over the past few decades, some popular evangelical preachers have unintentionally promoted a flawed view of the essence or nature of saving faith. I do not question their motives, and I believe they are not doing so intentionally. In a sincere effort to address the dangers of “cheap grace” or “easy believism” (theologically known as antinomianism), they have added terms like “absolute surrender,” “unconditional commitment,” “full yielding,” “treasuring/desiring,” or even “repentance” to the definition of saving faith.

For a more in-depth treatment of this, I encourage you to listen to my podcast, “Understanding Christianity.”

The Law-Gospel Distinction in Reformed Theology:

Follow Up to Law-Gospel Distinction: Clarification about Repentance:

Ironically, many of these leaders would identify themselves as part of the Reformed tradition. However, Reformed theology and its confessions and catechisms (Belgic, Westminster, 1689 2^nd London Baptist, Heidelberg) provide a consistent, biblical explanation of saving faith.

What is saving faith?

John Calvin defined faith as, “A firm and certain knowledge of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise of Christ, both revealed to our mind and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”[1]

The Second London Baptist Confession defines faith as follows: But the principal acts of saving faith focus directly on Christ—accepting, receiving, and resting upon him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace.

The Baptist Catechism also affirms this:

Q. What is faith in Jesus Christ?

A. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.

The Heidelberg Catechism Question 21: What is true faith?

Answer. True faith is a sure knowledge whereby I accept as true all that God has revealed to us in His Word. At the same time, it is a firm confidence that not only to others, but also to me, God has granted forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation, out of mere grace, only for the sake of Christ’s merits. This faith the Holy Spirit works in my heart by the gospel.

Notice the Biblical words such as receiving or trusting, resting, and having confidence. Notice also that the Holy Spirit births this faith in the hearts of the elect through effectual calling and regeneration.

John 1:12–13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

How is faith described? As receiving Jesus personally and believing in His name.

Acts 16:30–31 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

The biblical terms for saving faith are “receiving” and “believing” in Christ alone.

Contemporary evangelical theology and practice have confused law and gospel and have introduced new vocabulary to describe what it means to have faith in Christ.

Instead of applying the concepts in the above definitions, some popular teachers use phrases such as “true faith in him begins with an unconditional surrender of the sinner’s heart.”

How often have you heard phrases like “Surrender your life to Christ”? Be willing to give up everything for Jesus. Yield your life to the Savior. Absolute surrender! Total commitment! You must take up your cross daily and die to yourself.

Are these the constituent elements of saving faith? Or, to put it another way, are these the core or essence of saving faith, or are they the fruit or by-product of a regenerated heart?

This modern teaching stems from a lack of understanding of the difference between the categories of Law and Gospel, as well as the distinction between justification and sanctification.

Terms like “surrender, treasure, or yield” emphasize the sinner rather than the object of faith in Christ. These responses focus on what the sinner must do. The problem with this terminology is that the only ground on which one can stand before a holy God is the ground of perfection.

Not our perfection, but the righteousness of Christ imputed to us by faith alone.

Romans 4:4–5 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

Paul teaches us that ungodly sinners cannot earn God’s grace. The only requirement for salvation is for a wretched sinner to hold out a weak and empty hand of faith and receive Christ as a gift. At that moment, God credits the perfect righteousness of His Son to the sinner and makes a legal declaration that the sinner is permanently not guilty.

The Bible never uses phrases like “absolute surrender,” “unconditional commitment,” or “full yielding” to describe saving faith.

Therefore, if “absolute surrender” is the proper response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then the “surrender” must be absolute and comprehensive.

If “full yielding” is the answer, the yielding must also be complete and thorough.

If “submit” accurately describes an unbeliever’s response to Jesus, then that submission must also be perfect and complete.

If “Committing your life to Christ” defines saving faith, then it must be done with pure motives and intentions, and again be comprehensive.

Now let’s think about the biblical terms we have seen for faith: believe, receive, trust, or rest.

These are responses that direct all the emphasis toward the Object, Jesus Christ Himself.

Words like “surrender or yield” emphasize what a sinner must do and how much they need to do it to be saved.

Words like “trust and receive” call unbelievers to turn away from themselves and trust in Christ. Faith focuses on the Lord Jesus Christ, who perfectly obeyed and earned righteousness for us through His wonderful law-keeping.

Belief, therefore, can be less than perfect because it is not the foundation for the sinners’ salvation.

We need to remember that the foundation of our justification is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us — not the amount or strength of our faith. Our faith may be weak or small. Our faith is not the basis, but the instrument, through which we are saved.

Now we understand why some people use terms like surrender, yield, or treasure — because they don’t want to engage in “easy believism” or water down the gospel, or see false converts who just say a prayer and don’t really mean it.

The problem is that, in this noble goal to guard against easy believism, this kind of preaching and evangelism transforms faith into a new kind of law.

By this, I mean that unconditional surrender and complete yielding are additional requirements imposed on a sinner beyond just trusting in Jesus alone.

These questions should come to mind. How much should I surrender to be saved? What if it’s not enough? What if I haven’t yielded every part of my life to Jesus? What if I haven’t made a radical commitment to give up everything for Him? What if I haven’t repented enough? What if I didn’t cry hard enough or get emotional enough?

Again, where is the focus? The focus is on YOU and your level of faith instead of Jesus as the object of your faith.

Here’s the problem: If Jesus accepts you based on your surrender, your yielding, your commitment, or your intensity of repentance, how much is enough?

Can you give Jesus your all? Can it be 100%? Are you willing to honestly surrender completely? Can you truly yield everything to Christ? Is there any way your commitment could be less than perfect?

The answer is NO — and the reason is that those terms are LAW; they focus on what you need to do to be accepted by Christ. These terms place a heavy burden or requirement on the FRONT END of salvation as “hoops” a sinner must jump through to receive grace.

Instead of trusting or accepting Jesus and His promises in the Gospel and His finished work on the cross, the goal is too high. You can’t surrender enough.

But you can place your faith in Jesus—and even if it’s weak faith or you don’t have all the theological answers, but you trust in Christ—it’s not the AMOUNT or INTENSITY or LEVEL of commitment of your faith, but the OBJECT of your faith that saves you—namely, Jesus and His imputed righteousness credited to you so that the Father declares you not guilty.

Three aspects of faith:

Through the teaching of the Bible and throughout church history, we have recognized saving faith as encompassing three important elements.

Knowledge—where the mind understands the facts of the gospel, the need for salvation, the understanding of personal sin, and that Christ is the only one who can save. This involves believing with our MINDS. But this is not enough. Many people have “head knowledge” of the gospel and believe the facts about Jesus, but are not saved.

Assent—when the heart has a firm confidence and affirmation that Christ can save me personally. I agree with the gospel and Jesus, and I approve of what it says for me personally. This involves believing with our HEARTS. And yet, this is still not enough; you can reach a point where you believe it is true and that it is even true for you and necessary, but you still are not saved.

Trust—this means resting in, receiving, or trusting Christ. It involves believing with our wills. Only after we have genuinely turned from sin and personally placed our faith in Christ are we saved.

Obedience, faithfulness, and surrender certainly follow justification and the new birth, but they are not the foundation or the means. Jesus is the foundation, and faith alone is the means.

We need to be very careful here that we do not fall into the trap of “cheap grace/easy believism” because Christians should commit, surrender, and obey Jesus.

We just need to get the ORDER correct.

We do not do these in order to be saved, but as fruits of our salvation.

This is a mix-up of theological concepts—specifically, a confusion between justification and sanctification.

In justification, we include words like trust, receive, and accept.

There is no law or requirement or level of intensity that sinners must obey (yield, submit, commit, surrender, treasure, desire, etc.) before they believe.

In sanctification, we encounter words like obey, commit, work out your salvation, and train yourself for godliness.

John Calvin has famously taught about the “Double Grace” in the gospel. He writes, “First being reconciled by the righteousness of Christ, God becomes to us, instead of a Judge, a loving Father; and secondly, being sanctified by the Spirit, we aspire to integrity and purity of life.”

There is a double grace in the gospel. The first is justification by faith alone. God declares us not guilty the moment we believe in Christ alone.

But there is a second grace. Because we have been justified, we will, as Calvin says, strive for integrity and purity of life. We will grow to be more like Jesus. We will mature in Christ through obedience. We are new creations in Christ, and we are to walk in newness of life, bearing fruit for Him.

The good news of the gospel calls sinners to:

Rest in Christ alone, not in Jesus plus your surrender, because you will never surrender enough.

Trust the Savior alone, not Him plus yielding, because you can’t be sure you’ve yielded enough.

Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone!

[1]Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 499.

We must never abandon the true gospel of Christ!

Galatians 1:6–10 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

I want us to identify two issues in this passage:

First of all, we see the PERVERSION of believing a different gospel.

The first word in the Greek text is “Astonished”—this indicates that Paul is shocked by what they are doing! He is deeply troubled by their actions.

What are these Galatians doing? They are quickly at a rapid pace in the PROCESS of deserting Christ and His gospel.

The word “deserting” is in the present tense, not the past tense, meaning they are currently in the process of deserting. It’s not a final decision yet. They haven’t fully fallen, so there’s still hope.

The word “deserting” means to change allegiances or switch sides in a war. In other words, it means being a traitor or a deserter in wartime.

These Galatians were in the process of switching sides. They were abandoning Jesus.

They were in the process of leaving the One who had called them by sovereign grace. Paul focuses on the “Grace of Jesus” to show that it is central to the gospel.

The Gospel is the good news of God’s plan to glorify Himself through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and we receive Jesus by grace alone through faith alone.

Now, Paul calls what they are turning to a “different” Gospel. The word different is “heteros”—meaning a totally different kind of Gospel that, in fact, is not one at all.

Paul is very quick in verse 7 to tell us that they may think what they are turning to is the good news of the gospel, but in fact it’s not a gospel at all. It’s not good news. It’s a false gospel.

He then introduces this group of people who are “troubling” or disrupting or causing turmoil in the church by distorting the gospel of Christ.

Who are these troublemakers? Most scholars believe they are a group called Judaizers—Jewish Christians who insisted that Gentiles who came to faith in Christ had to be circumcised, follow the Jewish dietary laws and customs, and obey the law of Moses to be saved.

Acts 15:1–2 But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.

Later on, in this Acts passage, the same word for “trouble” or “disrupt” is used for these Judaizers.

Acts 15:24 Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions,

The word “distort” means to “fundamentally change or twist or pervert.” It can also mean to “reverse.” They were not just corrupting it but actually turning it upside down and radically changing it.

2 Corinthians 11:4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

So we must understand the true gospel so that we won’t be deceived, troubled, or tempted by distorted, perverted, or twisted gospels.

Sometimes, amid the pressure from our culture and the quickly growing hostility toward Christianity in our nation, we might think that our biggest threat comes from outside the church. This is true, but I want to caution us about what I believe is often the greater danger—those that come from within the church.

In other words, we must always remain vigilant against false or deceptive gospels that subtly arise within the church among God’s people, who use the same Bible, the same language, and discuss Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit, faith, grace, and the cross.

Any supposed gospel that does not clearly teach that salvation is by grace ALONE through FAITH alone in Christ ALONE is not the true gospel.

Anytime you add something to grace, you are going past the gospel. The gospel is not grace PLUS what I need to do somehow to add upon what God has already done.

Salvation is not an ACHIEVING, but instead, salvation is a RECEIVING.

The gospel is not what I must do to get saved, but what Christ alone has CHRIST ALONE DONE to secure my salvation from first to last.

Jonah 2:9 Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

Second, we see the PENALTY of preaching a different gospel.

Paul includes both himself and an angel from heaven who might hypothetically come and preach a different gospel. If such a hypothetical situation were to occur, where even Paul or an angel preaches a distorted or twisted gospel that contradicts the true gospel, they are to be cursed.

2 Corinthians 11:13–14 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

The true standard for the Christian gospel is not the messenger, but the message.

If an angel or Paul or anybody at all preaches something contrary to this, they are to be accursed.

This includes even me. No matter how kind, educated, articulate, charming, or charismatic the person might be, if he or she preaches a twisted, false gospel, they are to be cursed.

The word “accursed” means “anathema,” which means to be delivered over to God’s wrath in final judgment in hell. This was used in the Old Testament to describe something totally devoted to destruction.

What Paul is saying is a definitive statement that a person who preaches a false gospel is be condemned to hell to face God’s retribution. This is serious business.

We understand it’s serious because Paul repeats it twice. Is Paul just crazy and genuinely angry, unaware of what he’s saying? Or is this a childish emotional outburst from a repressed man with too much free time?

Notice that Paul doesn’t say, “You need to silence these people.” Or “They are simply wrong, and you shouldn’t listen to them” or “they have a few mistakes here and there, but overall they’re okay.”

No, he denounces them in the strongest terms possible because they were blaspheming God and the gospel, and the only consequence for this is eternal condemnation.

Now, we may say that Paul was pretty arrogant and harsh, and how dare he pronounce such a strong judgment on these people?

Let me remind you of Jesus’ words Himself.

Mark 9:42 “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

The gospel isn’t something we toy with, downplay, truncate, or try to make more appealing to rebellious sinners.

In verse 10, we see Paul’s true motivation behind this. He’s not trying to gain favor with people or to soften his message to become popular. He’s not trying to please men. When you call out false teachers and say that they should go to hell, he’s not trying to earn popularity.

He is a servant of Christ. He is an apostle, authorized by Jesus, with a message of life and death.

There are two very important implications of Paul’s motivation that impact us today:

First of all, a false gospel diminishes the glory of the finished work of Christ.

First and foremost, God’s glory is on the line. Paul is seeking to please and glorify Christ by remaining faithful to the true gospel. He cannot deviate from it because he knows that if he does, it will diminish the glory of Christ.

A false gospel says that the finished work of Christ is not enough. There is still something more to be added. We must do something to add to what Christ accomplished for us.

Yes, we need to have faith—nobody would deny that. And yes, we need grace. Nobody would deny that. But faith ALONE and grace ALONE—there must be something we add or contribute to the finished work of Christ to actually make our salvation complete.

This actually spits on the finished work of Christ.

Hebrews 10:29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

That’s what a false gospel does. It tramples the Son of God. It profanes the cross. It makes light of what Jesus died for. It outrages the Holy Spirit.

And what is the consequence of doing such a thing? Worse punishment. Eternal condemnation under God’s wrath.

God’s glory and the finished work of Christ are trampled underfoot if we compromise on the gospel.

Second, a false gospel really shows no care for the souls of people because it sends them to hell.

Not only is God’s glory on the line, but the eternal souls of people are on the line.

A false gospel, even if it’s popular, non-offensive, or more appealing to culture, benefits no one. It is harmful because it deceives people into believing something that will lead them under God’s curse in hell.

The gospel means “good news,” and false gospels may promise good news, but ultimately, they bring only bad news. They don’t save. They don’t glorify Christ. They don’t celebrate His finished work. They don’t rest in grace alone.

They all point to something we must do to add to what Christ has already done, and that is not good news. Because we can never do enough, we can never earn it, merit it, or have the power within ourselves to accomplish what only Christ accomplished.

We must never abandon the true gospel of Christ!

Here’s the bottom line: When you abandon or desert the true gospel, you are actually abandoning or deserting Christ personally!

God’s glory is on the line!

The finished work of Christ is on the line!

The eternal souls of lost people are on the line!

This is serious business and a matter of eternal life or eternal judgment.

May you stand faithfully on the true gospel of Christ alone!

The Keswick movement, sometimes called the “Higher Life” or “Victorious Christian Life” theology, promotes the idea that Christians can have complete victory over known sins and never struggle. The Keswick model of sanctification argues that any effort we exert in struggling with sin or pursuing holiness comes from the flesh and is counterproductive to experiencing true victory.

Andy Naselli’s No Quick Fix is a helpful book that offers a thorough critique of this movement. The higher life movement began in 1858 when William Boardman’s popular book The Higher Christian Life was published. Robert and Hannah Whitehall Smith popularized this theology in their influential book The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life (1885). Since 1875, the Keswick Convention in Keswick, England, has met every summer, teaching concepts such as “absolute surrender” and “let go and let God” theology.

Key proponents have included H. C. G. Moule, F. B. Meyer, Andrew Murray, A. T. Pierson, D. L. Moody, R. A. Torrey, and many others from the Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary who adhere to dispensationalism and the “Carnal Christian” theology.

What do the Scriptures teach about striving in our attempt to grow to become more Christlike? While this is not a comprehensive list, let us examine three key passages.

Philippians 2:12–13

First of all, in Philippians 2:12–13, Paul writes, “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

This passage more than any other clearly illustrates the apparent paradox in our progressive sanctification. At first glance, it can be confusing. When the word “work” appears, we immediately become suspicious because we think Paul is proposing works-based righteousness and that he dismisses salvation by grace. But that could not be further from the truth.

Paul’s discussion does not focus on how sinners receive salvation but instead shows us how those who are already saved live out their salvation. Paul emphasizes the word “obedience” over “victory.” The believers in Philippi have “always obeyed,” which demonstrates that Paul’s primary concern is obedience to God’s commands rather than immediate victory through passivity.

It is crucial for us to remember that God alone did all the work in our initial salvation. He chose us before the foundation of the world. He adopted us into His family. He redeemed us through Christ’s blood. He caused us to be born again. He transferred us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.

As sinners who were dead in our transgressions, we lacked the power to save ourselves and could not contribute even a little to our redemption. God alone receives all the credit for saving us.

This is what theologians call the monergistic working of God. This term comes from two Greek words combined to express this idea—mono means “one or alone,” while ergon means “to work.”

So, monergistic salvation means that God alone does all the work in saving sinners. Once we are saved and receive the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit, He empowers us to live out this truth through pursuing holiness. This effort (after salvation) is both monergistic and synergistic.

Synergistic means “two or more working together.” In other words, we as believers must do our part in this process, and God alone does His part. We must recognize that if any fruit or transformation of eternal significance is to happen in our lives, it comes from the fact that God alone monergistically works in us to accomplish that growth.

In this passage, Paul commands us to work out our salvation. In the original language, this is a command we must obey continuously. In other words, we could translate this as “keep on continually working out your own salvation.” But what exactly does it mean to work out our salvation?

The word Paul uses for “work out” denotes active labor. During this process of growing to become more like Jesus, God commands us to exert constant energy. We do this with fear and trembling, signifying a healthy fear and reverence for our awesome Savior.

If we stop at verse 12 and interpret this in isolation to develop a theology of sanctification, we might become discouraged and overwhelmed with guilt and frustration. Essentially, God commands us to take personal responsibility for our growth in godliness by working out our salvation. This involves diligence, obedience, urgency, and passion.

If left to ourselves, we would never see lasting fruit or experience gospel transformation. On our own, we cannot produce change. However, in His gracious provision, verse 13 shows us God’s role in our sanctification.

It is synergistic because we play a crucial role in pursuing holiness through our initiative to work out our salvation. God continually works in us to do two things: will and work. He gives us both the desire and the power to obey His commands.

These two realities were absent from us as unregenerate sinners before salvation. In our lost state, we neither wanted to obey God nor were able to do so. We sought to indulge our sinful pleasures, and because the Holy Spirit did not dwell in us, we could not follow the Lord’s commands. But through the new birth and the power of the gospel, God grants us these two resources in our sanctification—the desire to obey and the ability to obey.

Ultimately, he receives all the glory for being the sole provider of our desperate need for grace. We work, but God also works. Our efforts may be feeble, inconsistent, and shallow at times, but behind the scenes, a sovereign God works to ensure that we accomplish his will through our good works according to his good pleasure.

First Timothy 4:7–8

First Timothy 4:7–8 is the second passage of Scripture that addresses this question of striving or struggling in the Christian life. Here Paul writes, “Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

The word for “train yourself” comes as a command that we need to obey continuously. Also, this term comes from the world of athletics, from where we get our word “gymnastics.” When Olympic athletes in the first century prepared for the games, they entered strict physical training.

Paul borrows a term from the athletic world to vividly illustrate the demanding effort required for Christians to grow in holiness. Consider the intense schedules athletes follow to prepare for the Olympics and how much time they dedicate in the gym, on the field, or on the slopes. Top-level athletes are not accidental successes, even if they possess natural talent. They discipline themselves daily to train with focus and passion.

This same level of energy is what Paul describes when we train ourselves for godliness. Rather than “letting go and letting God,” Paul encourages us to actively work out spiritually, striving to grow in godliness.

Second Peter 1:5–8

Along with Paul’s teachings on the importance of putting effort into our progressive sanctification, Peter also affirms this truth. In 2 Peter 1:5–8, he writes,

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What does God command us to do in this passage? God calls us to make every effort to continually grow in godliness so that we will not become ineffective in our spiritual walk with Christ. To emphasize this command, Peter uses a powerful expression that combines two Greek words conveying urgency and speed in exerting energy. In other words, he urges us to quickly, with passionate zeal, begin making an effort to increase in godly character.

This verb choice stands in stark contrast to the passive approach of “let go and let God” quietism often associated with the Keswick view of sanctification.

My family went to Disneyland twice for vacation. Both times, we had the privilege of using the convenient Fast Pass, which makes standing in long lines a thing of the past. I hate standing in lines—any lines. We see this impatience everywhere in our culture—from fad diets and high-speed internet to overnight express mail and smartphone apps. We live in a world of microwave magic. We get impatient when a pesky ad pops up and interrupts the YouTube clip we were watching. Our culture demands instant pleasure. We want everything yesterday!

How does this relate to growing in godliness? The Victorious Life doctrine of pursuing holiness claims that sanctification is instant, and victory over all known sin is complete.

Using techniques like “letting go and letting God,” “ceasing from striving,” or “absolutely surrendering,” a believer can experience a higher level of spirituality. For example, someone struggling with the sin of pornography might, through a crisis of belief and a moment of surrender, be instantly freed from this sin and achieve complete victory.

One of the early key proponents of the Keswick view said, “A victory gained... by a gradual conquest over evil, getting one sin after another out of our life, is counterfeit victory.” If Christians struggle for a long time to kill indwelling sin instead of defeating it through immediate surrender, that victory is deemed inauthentic.

Does the Bible teach instant and complete victory over all known sin in this life? Can we, through a simple process of “letting go and letting God,” avoid struggling with sin altogether?

My wife and I enjoy hiking in our home state of Colorado. A few years ago, we decided to take on a challenge we had wanted to pursue for some time—climbing a 14er! For those not from Colorado, that means a mountain over 14,000 feet above sea level. So early one Saturday morning, we began the trek up Grey’s Peak, which others told us was a relatively easy climb.

After four hours of stopping to catch our breath every fifteen feet, wincing in pain, and watching all these twentysomethings pass us by, we quickly reinterpreted the term “mountaintop experience.”

Our hike up the mountain became a visual allegory for the Christian’s journey through life. There are peaks and valleys, twists and turns, rocks and hills, cliffs and flat meadows, but ultimately, it is all uphill. There is no instant arrival at the top unless you fly in by helicopter. The Christian life is not a casual helicopter flight with immediate results; as John Bunyan vividly captured, it’s a “pilgrim’s progress.”

We are on a lifelong journey full of adventure, struggles, heartache, doubt, and at times victory, on our way to heaven.

J. C. Ryle said, “The theory of a sudden, mysterious transition of a believer into a state of blessedness and entire consecration, at one mighty bound, I cannot receive. It appears to me to be a man-made invention, and I do not see a single plain text to prove it in Scripture.”[1]

B. B. Warfield also warns against expecting instant sanctification promised in the victorious life teaching by saying, “Its glowing and ‘romantic’ overtures that offer life on a higher plane are ultimately offers of victory to the impatient.”[2]

Ultimately, the Keswick or higher life movement promotes unhealthy introspection, where believers constantly wonder if they have surrendered or yielded enough to God. This, in turn, causes frustration when the struggle with sin persists. Christians with tender consciences often wonder why they still wrestle with sin after many attempts to “let go and let God.”

They question whether they haven’t let go enough and how they can measure their surrender. What is the basis for this act of consecration? Is it external obedience to God’s revealed law or internal, subjective feelings?

Moreover, why do we feel we are in control of this process? Why must we let go first before allowing a sovereign, all-powerful God to do His work? Frustrated believers begin to doubt their faith and wonder if something is genuinely wrong with them. Did they do the “letting go and letting God” technique correctly?

Was it consistent enough? Were they truly committed?

Frustration leads to despair as they compare themselves to others who have supposedly reached a higher level of victorious spirituality. The spiritually advanced tell the others to stop striving and simply “let go” to reach this crisis of surrender and achieve quick victory.

Instead of practicing true gospel repentance—killing sin, the defeated Christian falls into the trap of endless trips to the altar for reconsecration. Filled with guilt, they rededicate their lives to the Lord, hoping this time it truly sticks and they have yielded enough for victory. They wait for an emotional crisis to surrender to God, expecting to be filled with the Spirit afterward.

But what if that crisis never happens? What if every day is marked by ongoing spiritual warfare, which is normal for a Christian?

Michael Horton writes,

War with sin and doubt, guilt and depression, are not signs of defeat, but proof of Christ’s victory. After all, those who are not baptized into Christ by the Spirit are at peace with sin and unbelief. The absence of war within is true only of people in one of two states: unregenerate or glorified. The believer is presently neither. Such conflict is not the evidence that one is a “carnal Christian” but is the genuine experience of every true believer throughout the course of this life.[3]

If you continue to struggle with sin and haven’t experienced this immediate victory, don’t see yourself as a second-class Christian but as a pilgrim on the long, winding road to heaven. Be encouraged that what God has started in you, he will sovereignly finish (Phil 1:6).

In your frustration and desire for growth in the fight against sin, find hope in the fact that our great Savior will bring you to completion in his perfect timing. Ultimately, the Keswick teachings on sanctification provide believers with an incomplete answer to their quest to kill sin.

Instead of passively surrendering to Christ through a vague technique called “letting go and letting God,” Paul gives us a different instruction. He writes in 1 Timothy 1:18 to “wage the good warfare!”

[1]Ryle, Holiness, xxv.

[2]Warfield, Works of Benjamin B. Warfield, vol. 8, 464.

[3]Horton, In the Face of God, 193.

God has eternally established our identity in Christ by His sovereign grace. Once God justifies us, we are no longer under the penalty or tyranny of sin as our master. As believers, we are dead to sin’s bondage and dominion in our lives through our union with Christ, and we now have a new identity. This does not mean that we no longer struggle with sin as a presence in our lives. While God destroyed sin’s power and control through justification, the pollution and presence of indwelling sin remain. Therefore, God calls us to pursue holiness.

In Romans 6:12–13, Paul writes, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”

Paul does not say that any struggle or effort to do this is sinful. He does not tell us to quietly and passively “let go and let God,” but instead gives a strong command for us not to engage the flesh.

Sin has no dominion or power over us as an active enslaving force in our lives, but we must still actively confront its presence in our lives as justified believers.

Paul describes the painful reality all true believers experience on a daily basis in Galatians 5:16–17: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”

What are the desires of the flesh? The word means “over-desires,” an all-controlling drive or longing. These cravings don’t necessarily have to be sexual, but can be any desire that finds satisfaction and purpose in anything else besides Jesus. This passage clearly shows us that every Christian experiences an intense, ongoing battle between the desires of the Holy Spirit and the desires of the flesh.

The Bible describes two types of people in this world: (1) unregenerate, lost people without the Spirit, and (2) regenerate, saved people with the Spirit.

Romans 8:8–9 says, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”

Romans 8:14 reads, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”

Think about your life before God saved you by grace and before the Holy Spirit came to live in you. Your sinful nature was there alone on the throne of your heart ruling and reigning with no one to oppose it. However, the Holy Spirit entered into your life supernaturally and has begun this renewal in us.

Now the flesh has an enemy—the Holy Spirit—and an intense battle rages in the life of every Christian. You will always have an impulse to sin because of the remaining flesh in you that has not been entirely eradicated. This impulse, craving, or desire no longer rules you, dominates you, or enslaves you as it did before your salvation, but this remaining sin can still exert a tremendous influence in this internal battle.

In Galatians 3:17, when Paul says that the flesh and Spirit “are opposed” to each other, this present-tense verb shows that this ongoing battle is a constant reality in every believer’s life. The flesh, or sinful desires that remain within us, is always at war with our new nature, whether we like it or not.

James 1:14–15 describes this struggle: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.”

This passage illustrates the progression of how sinful desires and lusts take root in our hearts and eventually lead to action.

First, a lustful thought or suggestion may flash into our minds. Next, we dwell on that lustful thought and consider the pleasures it promises.

Paul advises us in 2 Corinthians 10:5: “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

Third, we give consent to engage with this temptation. We agree in our hearts that acting on this sin will bring us benefit.

Fourth, instead of resisting, we actually commit the sin. Because sin lurks deep within our hearts, we must remain watchful, diligent, and persistent in this spiritual battle.

Jesus warns us in Matthew 26:41: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

This intense struggle demonstrates that you are truly a believer.

Maybe you think that because you are struggling and haven’t yet achieved complete victory over sin or made drastic progress in the Christian life, you should doubt your salvation and wonder if God loves and accepts you.

After all, if you were sinless and had full victory, God would look favorably upon you, and you would be in His good graces. This ongoing internal battle with sin is one of the clearest signs that you are saved.

Non-Christians do not wrestle with sin. They may feel guilty occasionally, but they don’t have the internal struggle because they lack the Holy Spirit. They are powerless to change. They are in bondage to sin and have no help to resist it. Only Christians deal with this inner conflict.

These competing desires prevent you from doing what you truly want to do. As an unsaved person, what did you genuinely want to do? You wanted to sin. You couldn’t help yourself; sin controlled you. You had no power to stop sinning because it enslaved you as your master and your ultimate desire.

But as a saved person with the Holy Spirit living in you, what do you genuinely want? You want to please Jesus and live in holiness.

Your renewed heart longs to obey the Lord, but sometimes you give in to fleshly cravings. In other words, you’re not walking by the Spirit; instead, you are succumbing to your flesh’s desires for temporary pleasure.

Take heart: This is the believer’s daily reality: an ongoing struggle with sin.

This battle demonstrates that we have truly been born again!