13 SUPPOSE YOU ARE A LIBERAL…

Suppose You Are a Liberal Critic of the Bible

April 14, 1998

Suppose that you are a liberal critic of the Bible. By liberal, I mean unfettered by commitment to the inerrancy and authority of the Bible. And suppose that you find in an early letter of the apostle Paul these words: "[Concerning you,] my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge." (Rom_15:14) And then suppose that you find in a letter written near the end of his life the words, "You are able to admonish one another." (Rom_15:14) And suppose that, as a liberal, you are not inclined to find old-fashioned unity in Paul's various teachings, but rather are somewhat excited when you can construct new theories about how the diversity of Paul's teachings emerged.

So you infer that there was an "early Paul" who was enthusiastic and optimistic and perfectionistic. And you prove it with the early words, "You yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge." (Rom_15:14) You argue that "full of goodness" and "filled with knowledge" clearly imply that Paul believed these people "had arrived." They had reached a state of perfection. They didn't need any teaching or any correction. They were "full of goodness." This is the "early Paul." But you also infer that Paul's thinking developed over time. He changed his mind and the "later Paul" emerged. Reality had settled in over the years, and Paul's optimism had been dashed by people's imperfections; and so he had adjusted his theology to something more realistic.

Perfectionism had given way to process. And you prove it with the later words, "You are able to admonish one another." You reason, "Clearly, if they had to admonish one another, they were not yet perfect." In fact, with scholarly flourish, you observe that the verbs "are able" and "to admonish" are both in the present continuous tense, implying ongoing action. And you argue that the imperfections must be fairly constant, because they require continuous admonition and correction.

From all this, you proclaim, with liberal "courage," over against conservative commitments to the inspiration and coherence of all apostolic writings, that Paul cannot be inspired by an all-knowing God, and his writings are limited and sometimes mistaken by his ordinary human perspective. He has to correct himself when experience proves his earlier efforts erroneous.

Now here is one of the problems with such an imaginary scenario. Rom_15:14 combines both of those words (the so-called early and the so-called later) in one verse: "And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another." In other words, there is nothing, in Paul's mind, inconsistent in saying both of these things about the same people at the same time. Being "full of goodness" and "filled with all knowledge" is not meant to imply perfection. It does not mean that the people are beyond the need for admonition and correction. The "fullness" is not a fullness of sinless perfection, but fullness of sufficiency for ministry, that is, the church in Rome had all the goodness and knowledge it needed to minister effectively to each other through admonition and correction.

Here's the point. When you find two parts of Scripture that may seem to be in tension with each other, don't make the liberal mistake of jumping to the conclusion that the Bible is inconsistent or self-correcting or in process of moving from enthusiastic error to realistic truth. Instead, picture the things that seem in tension as spoken by a person who means both of them, and regards both of them as true. Then work toward a coherent understanding of them as best you can. This will take you much deeper into the reality of God's truth. And you will honor the divine Author of Scripture.

Loving God's inerrant word with you,

Pastor Joh_14:1-31 Luther, Bunyan, Bible & Pain

Luther, Bunyan, Bible and Pain

January 19, 1999

Psa_119:71

From 1660 to 1672, John Bunyan, the English Baptist preacher, and author of Pilgrim's Progress, was in the Bedford county jail. He could have been released if he had agreed not to preach. He did not know which was worse – the pain of the conditions or the torment of freely choosing it, in view of what it cost his wife and four children. His daughter, Mary, was blind. She was 10 when he was put in jail in 1660.

The parting with my Wife and poor children hath often been to me in this place as the pulling of the Flesh from my bones . . . not only because I am somewhat too fond of these great Mercies, but also because I . . . often brought to my mind the many hardships, miseries and wants that my poor Family was like to meet with should I be taken from them, especially my poor blind child, who lay nearer my heart than all I had besides; Oh the thoughts of the hardship I thought my Blind one might go under, would break my heart to pieces. (Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, Evangelical Press, 1978, p. 123)

But this broken Bunyan was seeing treasures in the Word of God because of this suffering that he would probably not have seen any other way. He was discovering the meaning of Psa_119:71, "It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes."

I never had in all my life so great an inlet into the Word of God as now [in prison]. The Scriptures that I saw nothing in before are made in this place to shine upon me. Jesus Christ also was never more real and apparent than now. Here I have seen him and felt him indeed. . . . I have seen [such things] here that I am persuaded I shall never while in this world be able to express. . . . Being very tender of me, [God] hath not suffered me to be molested, but would with one scripture and another strengthen me against all; insomuch that I have often said, were it lawful I could pray for greater trouble for the greater comfort's sake. (Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, Evangelical Press, 1978, p. 123)

In other words, one of God's gifts to us in suffering is that we are granted to see and experience depths of his Word that a life of ease would never yield.

Martin Luther had discovered the same "method" of seeing God in his Word. He said there are three rules for understanding Scripture: praying, meditating and suffering trials. The "trials," he said, are supremely valuable: they "teach you not only to know and understand but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God's word is: it is wisdom supreme." Therefore the devil himself becomes the unwitting teacher of God's word: "the devil will afflict you [and] will make a real doctor of you, and will teach you by his temptations to seek and to love God's Word. For I myself . . . owe my papists many thanks for so beating, pressing, and frightening me through the devil's raging that they have turned me into a fairly good theologian, driving me to a goal I should never have reached" (What Luther Says, Vol. 3, Concordia Publishing House, 1959, p. 1360).

I testify from my small experience that this is true. Disappointment, loss, sickness and fear send me deeper into God and his Word than ever. Clouds of trifling are blown away and the glory of unseen things shines in the heart's eye. Let Bunyan and Luther encourage us to lean on God's Word as never before in times of affliction. I know that there are seasons when we cannot think or read, the pain is so great. But God grants spaces of some relief between these terrible times. Turn your gaze on the Word and prove the truth of Psa_119:71, "It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes."

Trembling to learn of God with you,

Pastor Joh_15:1-27 Did the Old Testament Teach…

Did the Old Testament Teach You Could Be a True Jew?

March 2, 1999

I have preached for the last two Sundays on becoming a true Jew. The key text has been Rom_2:29, "But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. . ." I even said, "There is no salvation outside Israel." By that I mean that Eph_2:11-19 and Rom_11:17-25 teach that the way Gentiles find God and hope is by becoming "fellow citizens" in the "commonwealth of Israel" and by being grafted into Israel. Another way to put it is that "if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise," because Christ is "the seed" of Abraham and being in Christ means being his "seed" or his descendants and heirs of his saving promise (Gal_3:29; Gal_3:16).

Now the question is: Are there pointers to this understanding of Jewishness in the Old Testament? Did the Old Testament itself teach that a Gentile could be a "true Jew," and that a Jew by birth might not be a "true Jew"? Here are some lines for you to trace out.

In Gen_17:25, Ishmael, Abraham's son, was circumcised, and Abraham pleaded with God that Ishmael might be his heir: " 'Oh that Ishmael might live before You!' But God said, 'No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him' " (Gen_17:18-19). This shows that mere descendancy from Abraham is no guarantee of being an heir of the promise (a "true Jew"). Similarly Rebekah gave birth to twins by Isaac, but only one of them, Jacob, not Esau, was the heir of the promise (Gen_25:23; Rom_9:10-13). Thus "it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God ("true Jews"), but the children of promise are reckoned as seed" (Rom_9:8).

In Lev_26:41-42, many Jews are pictured as "uncircumcised in heart." "If their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled so that they then make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember My covenant with Jacob." Thus, even though they are physical Jews, they will not inherit the covenant if they do not change inside, similar to what Paul says in Rom_2:29.

In Deu_10:16-17, Moses commands the people, "Circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. For the LORD your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords . . . who does not show partiality. . . ." This means that heart-circumcision, not physical, external Jewishness is essential with God. Similarly, Jer_4:4 says, "Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskins of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else My wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds." Without inward love to God and trust in God, the same wrath comes on Jews as on Gentiles. Thus, as Paul said in Rom_2:25, without heart-circumcision "your circumcision has become uncircumcision."

Jer_9:25-26 says, "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised – Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and all those inhabiting the desert who clip the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart." These nations clip hair instead of foreskin. Thus they have a form of "circumcision." Jeremiah, amazingly, puts Israel in the same category as these nations under the wrath of God because the mark of their Jewishness is no more valuable than the clipping of pagan hair, if they are "uncircumcised in heart." Again, as Paul said, "your circumcision has become uncircumcision." (Rom_2:25)

Perhaps this is enough to show that, in Rom_2:25-29, Paul is not reinterpreting the Old Testament. He is drawing out a lesson about true Jewishness that was taught by the law and the prophets. True Jews are not those with external marks of Jewishness, but those with circumcised hearts which love the God of Abraham (Deu_30:6). Therefore Gentiles with faith in Christ, the seed of Abraham, are the children of Abraham, heirs of the promise (Gal_3:7; Gal_3:29).

Glad to be supported by the root (Rom_11:18). Shalom,

Pastor Joh_16:1-33 The Verses We Skipped

The Verses We Skipped

Do I Not Hate Those Who Hate You, O Lord?

October 3, 2000

19 O that You would slay the wicked, O God; Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed. 20 For they speak against You wickedly, And Your enemies take Your name in vain. 21 Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? 22 I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies. (Psa_139:19-22)

The Fighter Verse team made a judgment call that these "problem" verses of Psa_139:19-22 did not directly serve the tactical aims of the memory program, and might require so much explanation as to be distracting from the goal of strengthening faith. But for many of us, the strength of faith calls for an explanation. So I will give some pointers for how to understand them. I hope you will pray and ponder so that these pointers become providers of God-taught riches.

1) These verses are in the category of "imprecatory psalms," which include Psa_5:10; Psa_10:15; Psa_28:4; Psa_31:17-18; Psa_35:4-6; Psalms_40:14-15 :14-15 :14-15; Psa_58:6-11; Psa_69:22-28; Psa_109:6-15; Psa_139:19-22; Psa_140:9-10. They call down divine curses and express hatred for the enemies of God.

2) Consider that, in some of these psalms, love for the enemy has been pursued for a long time. "They requite me evil for good. . . . When they were sick, I wore sackcloth" (Psa_35:12-13). "In return for my love they accuse me, even as I make prayer for them. So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love" (Psa_109:4-5). Though unexpressed, this may be the case for all the psalms. The wickedness in view has resisted love.

3) Hatred may be moral repugnance, not personal vengeance. This is not the same as saying, "Hate the sin and love the sinner" (which is good counsel, but not all there is to say). There is a kind of hate for the sinner (viewed as morally corrupt and hostile to God) that may coexist with pity and even a desire for their salvation. You may hate spinach without opposing its good use.

4) But there may come a point when wickedness is so persistent and high-handed and God-despising that the time of redemption is past and there only remain irremediable wickedness and judgment. For example, Jesus speaks of unforgivable sin (Mat_12:32) and John says there is sin that is "unto death" and adds, "I do not say that one should pray for this" (1Jn_5:16). And Paul says, "If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed" (1Co_16:22). This imprecation is like the Psalms, and assumes that there comes a point of such extended, hardened, high-handed lovelessness toward God that it may be appropriate to call down anathema on it.

5) The imprecatory Psalms were not avoided by Jesus. At least one of the most severe of them (Psa_69:1-36) seems to have been a favorite from which Jesus, in his human nature, drew guidance and encouragement and self-understanding. (Joh_15:25 = Psa_69:4, "They hated me without cause." Joh_2:17 = Psa_69:9, "Zeal for your house has eaten me up." Mat_27:24 = Psa_69:21, "They gave me gall for my food.") This is a Psalm which prays, "Pour out your indignation on them, and let your burning anger overtake them" (Psa_69:24).

6) The apostle Paul quoted the very imprecatory words of Psa_69:22-23 in Rom_11:9-10 as having Old Testament authority. This means Paul regarded the very words of imprecation as inspired and not sinful, personal words of vengeance.

7) Paul read the imprecatory Psalms as the words of Christ, spoken prophetically by David, the type of Christ. We can see this from the fact that David's words in one imprecatory psalm (Psa_69:9) are quoted by Paul as the words of Christ in Rom_15:3, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me." The implication, then, is that David spoke in these Psalms as God's inspired anointed king, prefiguring the coming King and Messiah, who has the right to pronounce final judgment on his enemies and will do so, as the whole Bible teaches.

Conclusion: We will grant to the psalmist (usually David), who speaks, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as the foreshadowed Messiah and Judge, the right to call down judgment on the enemies of God. This is not personal vindictiveness. It is a prophetic execution of what will happen at the last day when God casts all his enemies "into the lake of fire" (Rev_20:15). We would do well to leave such final assessments to God, and realize our own corrupt inability to hate as we ought. While there is unforgivable sin for which we are not to pray (see #4 above), we are told to love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us, and return good for evil (as David did, see #2 above). This is our vocation by faith. Let us tremble and trust God, lest we fail, and find ourselves on the other side of the curse.

Pastor Joh_17:1-26 The Solution Is Closer…

The Solution Is Closer Than You Think

Three Ways of Seeing

January 16, 2001

There are levels of seeing in the Bible. One is the seeing with the physical eyes of things which we are prepared to see and receive as real. Another is the seeing with the physical eyes of things which we may not yet be prepared to see and so miss, even though they are there before our eyes. We need a change of mind to prepare us to see them, even though nothing changes outside us at all. Third, there is the seeing with the eyes of the heart, which is a spiritual apprehension of moral and spiritual beauty. We need this third seeing in order to be saved, and we need the second in order to see solutions and be effective leaders. (Though I should add that some blind people have ways of seeing reality with their hands and ears that may be more penetrating than the seeing of many people with physical eyes.)

The experience I had on my running machine illustrates level-two seeing. I am looking into the picture on the wall in front of me and seeing something reflected in the glass. I can tell that what I am looking at is the reflection of the window behind me and the house next door. But there are some strange shapes that have points at the top, and I can't figure out what they are. Suddenly, with no change outside of me, I see. The shapes are nothing. They are the spaces between the icicles hanging from the gutters just above my study window. For ten seconds I was not "seeing" reality with my physical eyes. Then something happened in my mind; all at once I saw the icicles for what they were, and from then on, I could not help but see reality.

We all know what it is to see with our physical eyes what we are prepared to see. But the other two ways of seeing are less obvious. Let's consider the scriptures that illustrate these two levels.

Seeing with the Eyes of the Heart

Eph_1:18, "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." Mat_13:13, "Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." This is what I mean when I say that there is a spiritual apprehension of moral and spiritual beauty. We may look at our hope of being with Christ and yet fail to apprehend anything that moves us with its spiritual and moral beauty. In that case we need to pray the way Paul does that the "eyes of our heart" may be enlightened to see and know our hope for what it really is – true and glorious and good and infinitely valuable.

Seeing with the Physical Eyes What We Did Not See before Our Minds Were Changed

Gen_21:19, "Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water and gave the lad a drink." Hagar was sitting in the presence of a well, and yet despairing about her helpless situation without water. Oh how near are many of our solutions! But we don't see them. May God give us the change of mind to see what is really there.

Not quite in this same category are the realities that can be seen with the physical eyes, but which are not ordinarily available to our sight because God conceals them. 2Ki_6:17, "Then Elisha prayed and said, 'O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.' And the LORD opened the servant's eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha."

Hagar's seeing of the well and Elisha's servant's seeing of the chariots are probably not in the same category. Hagar's seeing is like my seeing the icicles. Elisha's servant's seeing is more miraculous than that, as God opens the window onto ordinarily "unseen" reality. But the seeing still seems to be with the physical eyes. I think in the same category with Hagar's seeing the well is the men's seeing of Jesus at supper in Emmaus after the resurrection: Luk_24:31, "Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight."

Pray for the leaders of our church that God would give us sight at every level. We need to see spiritual beauty above all things. Then we need to see the obvious. Then we need to see the "wells" that are nearby – like the icicles. Pray for our eyes.

Pastor Joh_18:1-40 Pierced By the Word of God

Pierced By the Word of God

October 3, 2001

Heb_4:12

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The term "word of God" may mean a word spoken by God without a human mouthpiece. But in the New Testament it regularly means a word or a message that a human speaks on God's behalf. So, for example, in Heb_13:7 it says, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith." So the "word of God" in Heb_4:12 probably refers to the truth of God revealed in Scripture that humans speak to each other with reliance on God's help to understand it and apply it.

"Living and active."

The word of God is not a dead word or an ineffective word. It has life in it. And because it has life in it, it produces effects. There is something about the Truth, as God has revealed it, that connects it to God as a source of all life and power. God loves his word. He is partial to his word. He honors his word with his presence and power. If you want your teaching or witness to have power and produce effects, stay close to the revealed word of God.

"Sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow."

What does this living and effective word do? It pierces. For what purpose? To divide. To divide what? Soul and spirit. What does that mean?

The writer gives an analogy: it's like dividing joints and marrow. Joints are the thick, hard, outer part of the bone. Marrow is the soft, tender, living, inner part of the bone. That is an analogy of "soul and spirit." The word of God is like a sword that is sharp enough to cut right through the outer, hard, tough part of a bone to the inner, soft, living part of the bone. Some swords, less sharp, may strike a bone and glance off and not penetrate. Some swords may penetrate part way through the tough, thick joint of a bone. But a very sharp, powerful double-edged sword (sharp on each side of the point) will penetrate the joint all the way to the marrow.

"Soul and spirit" are like "bone joint and bone marrow." "Soul" is that invisible dimension of our life that we are by nature. "Spirit" is what we are by supernatural rebirth. Jesus said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (Joh_3:6). Without the awakening, creative, regenerating work of the Spirit of God in us we are merely "natural" rather than "spiritual" (1Co_2:14-15). So the "spirit" is that invisible dimension of our life that we are by the regenerating work of the Spirit.

What then is the point saying that the "word of God" pierces to the "division of soul and spirit"? The point is that it's the word of God that reveals to us our true selves. Are we spiritual or are we natural? Are we born of God and spiritually alive, or are we deceiving ourselves and spiritually dead? Are the "thoughts and intentions of our heart" spiritual thoughts and intentions or only natural thoughts and intentions. Only the "word of God" can "judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart" as Heb_4:12 says.

Practically speaking, when we read or hear "the word of God," we sense ourselves pierced. The effect of this piercing is to reveal whether there is spirit or not. Is there marrow and life in our bones? Or are we only a "skeleton" with no living marrow? Is there "spirit," or only "soul"? The word of God pierces deep enough to show us the truth of our thoughts and our motives and our selves.

Give yourselves to this word of God in the Bible. Use it to know yourself and confirm your own spiritual life. If there is life, there will be love and joy and a heart to obey the word. Give yourself to this word so that your words become the word of God for others and reveal to them their own spiritual condition. Then in the wound of the word, pour the balm of the word.

Pursuing the pierce of God's word with you,

Pastor Joh_19:1-42 That Which Is Born of the Spirit…

That Which Is Born of the Spirit Is Spirit

February 22, 1981

The Role of the Holy Spirit in Conversion Unless God gives me a clear indication to go another way I will be preaching during these last four Sundays of winter on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I feel a great yearning in my own heart to know more of the Spirit's power for holiness and power for witness. I feel a tremendous need to learn to rely more fully on His guidance as the Spirit of wisdom and truth. The life-giving, renewing Wind of spring is blowing through this church and my great desire is to unfurl the sail of my heart and watch it fill up with the Holy Wind of God and be drawn in His direction at His speed in His power.

The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it but you do not know whence it comes, or whither it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (Joh_3:8).

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (Jam_4:8).

We will see the paradox in that statement today, because we can't even begin to draw near to God without the Spirit's help. Which means that in our very effort to draw near to Him, He has already drawn near to us. But that does not negate the promise at all: it remains true that if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us! Lift your sails into the Holy Wind of God and He will fill them.

We need the Holy Spirit at Bethlehem in these next weeks. Things are happening; and my great concern and expectation is that they happen under the guidance and in the power of the Spirit. For example, we have our sights set on doubling the number of Laotian and Hmong people to whom we minister on Sunday morning and through the week. You will be hearing more about how that can be done. In four weeks we will enter an Income Expansion Program by which I pray the Lord will supply the money needed, for example, to vacate and enlarge 13th Avenue for parking and to raze 1212 Eighth Street for parking and to secure and beautify the campus so that we will be ready for the opening of the stadium in spring, 1982. I plan to propose to the deacon council this Wednesday that we move to two Sunday morning services the first Sunday of spring and that we call an all-church forum Wednesday, March 4 to pray and think together about this proposal. I hope on April 4 to lead all the church boards in a retreat where we can pray and plan for our future. And I anticipate that there will begin to emerge this spring small groups of people gathering for prayer and mutual upbuilding in faith and outreach. And on top of these structured changes there is the supremely important transformation of individual lives from week to week as the word of God from classrooms, from conversations, and from the pulpit begets faith and stirs up love and joy in our midst.

We need the Holy Spirit in these times so that we can say in days to come, "We planned and we worked, yet not us but the Spirit of God in us willing and doing His good pleasure." And we will be able to say this if we draw near to God and raise our sails into the Holy Wind blowing on us. Open your hearts wide to God, go hard after God in your prayers, wrestle with Him till dawn, till He gives you the blessing of His fullness. Take Paul's prayer in Eph_3:14-19 and pray it for yourself every day in these weeks:

14 I bow my knee before you, O Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of your glory you may grant me to be strengthened with might through your Spirit in the inner man, 17 and that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith; that, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 I might have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth 19 and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that I might be filled with all the fullness of God.

We'll come back to that prayer in the weeks to come, but the very least it means is this: there is more of God to be had than we now experience! Conversion to Christ is the end of one quest: we have found the savior of our souls; we have found fellowship and peace with God; we have all drunk of the same Spirit. But conversion is the beginning of another quest, "that we might be filled with all the fullness of God"– a quest which I think will never end to all eternity, because no matter how much is poured into our hearts from the ocean of God's love it will always be replenished from the springs of infinity. Come with me as we go hard after "the fullness of God" in these next four weeks.

But there must be a beginning. Nobody by nature delights so much in the character of God that he hungers after the true God. We are by nature children of wrath (Eph_2:3). As David said in Psa_51:5, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me." We come into the world bent on being independent from God and loving the things of the world. Something has to happen to us if we are to be saved from the wrath of God (1Th_1:10). We must be profoundly changed.

The Bible speaks of this change in many different ways. I'll mention a few. 1) We must change slave masters; we must cease from being slaves of sin and become slaves of God (Rom_6:17-23). 2) We must die with Christ and rise to newness of life (Rom_6:3-4; Gal_2:20; Col_2:12). 3) We must put off the old man and put on the new man created after the likeness of God (Eph_4:22-24; Col_3:9-10). 4) We must repent, that is, we must experience a change of mind that causes us to turn from trusting man to trusting God's mercy (Act_2:38; Luk_3:3; Luk_3:8). 5) We must get a new heart according to Ezekiel's prophecy:

I will give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them; I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh (Eze_11:19; Eze_36:26).

6) We must become a new creation. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come" (2Co_5:17). 7) We must become like children: "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mat_18:3). 8) And we must be born again (Joh_3:3). From cover to cover the Bible declares that human beings must change. If we do not change we will not be saved: no peace with God, no hope for eternal life, but only wrath and fury (Rom_2:8). So there is nothing more important for any individual than that he experience this change, this new birth, as Jesus called it.

When I came home from church last Wednesday night Noel told me she had been shaken because Karsten and Benjamin, our two older sons, had almost run out in front of a car on 11th Avenue on the way home. As I lay there in bed trying to go to sleep I shivered at the scene in my mind of my sons being killed by a speeding car. But then my mind shifted to the long view, to eternity, and the last thing I prayed as I went off to sleep was, "O God, I would rather lose all my sons now than that one of them fail to be born again. If, God forbid, it were a choice between life with me now and life with you forever, then take them. But don't let one be lost! Don't let one of them fail to be born again!" There is no more important event in anyone's life than being born again.

What I want for all of us in this church, and what I pray that we will want for all our neighbors is to be "filled with all the fullness of God," which fullness is found in His Holy Spirit. But before a person can experience or even desire such fullness he must become a new kind of person. And the specific question I posed for my message this morning is, "What is the role of the Holy Spirit in that change?" The reason I am zeroing in on the image of "new birth" instead of one of the other Biblical images is that in Joh_3:1-36 the Spirit is so closely related to "new birth." The question for now is not, "What becomes of us in the new birth?" but, "Who brings this about?" The next three weeks will all be devoted to the results of the new birth and our quest for God's fullness, but today I want us to think about the cause of the new birth.

The teaching that I want to try to persuade you is Biblical and therefore true and precious is that the new birth is the result of the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit preceding and enabling our first act of saving faith. We do not cause our new birth by an act of faith. Just the reverse: the cry of faith is the first sound that a newborn babe in Christ makes. Regeneration, as we sometimes call it, is all of God. We do not get God to do it by trusting Christ; we trust Christ because He has done it to us already. The theological catch phrases which are sometimes used to designate this beautiful doctrine are "prevenient grace" (grace which precedes and enables our faith) or "irresistible grace" (grace which overcomes the resistance of man's perverted will by transforming his nature) or "effectual calling" (a divine call which not only offers but effects transformation).

Turn with me to the Gospel of John chapter 3. Jesus says to Nicodemus in verse 5 (Joh_3:5), "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God." Whether we refer the water of this verse to the bag of waters which breaks at a person's first birth, or to baptism or to spiritual cleansing, the main point of the verse is the same. Being born once or being baptized is no guarantee of salvation; you must be born of the Spirit, you must experience a spiritual cleansing and re-creation.

Then verse 6 gives the reason for why a second spiritual birth is necessary: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." "Flesh" in John's gospel simply means human. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Joh_1:14). "The Father has given the Son power over all flesh" (Joh_17:2). So Jesus is saying here, your human birth makes you merely human. But when you are born of the Spirit, then a new dimension of supernatural life enters in, spiritual life. New loves, new inclinations, new allegiance. A new person is born. Paul's terms for the person before and after new birth are "natural man" and "spiritual man." He says in 1Co_2:14-15,

The natural man does not welcome the gifts of the Spirit of God for they are folly to him… The spiritual man judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one.

So Jesus and Paul are saying essentially the same thing: that which is born of the flesh is a natural man (a person with no spiritual inclinations or receptivity to the things of God), and that which is born of the spirit is a spiritual man (who loves the things of God).

The connection then between verses 5 and 6 of Joh_3:1-36 (Joh_3:5-6) is this: We have to be born of the Spirit, because until we are, we are unfit for the Kingdom of heaven. We are mere natural persons who do not welcome the things of God. Before a person is born of the Spirit he has no inclination to trust Christ for salvation and therefore he cannot enter God's kingdom. Faith is the most beautiful, God-honoring and humble act that a human can perform, and therefore we must not imagine that it can be performed by a "natural man" who "does not welcome the things of the Spirit of God." Before a person can perform the best of all acts, he must become a new person. Thorn bushes don't produce figs, apple trees don't produce olives, and a "natural man" does not produce faith. He cannot. Here is the way Paul put it in Rom_8:5-7; Rom_8:5 Those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, and those according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind of the flesh is at enmity toward God, for it does not submit to the law of God, not can it submit.

Fallen human nature is so hostile to God and His demands that it cannot submit to God in faith. We must be born again, born of the Spirit, before we can approve of God's word and trust Christ. Faith is not the means or the cause of the new birth, it is the result, the fruit of new birth.

Jesus uses the analogy of the wind in Joh_3:8,

The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.

What is this verse trying to teach? I believe Jesus was trying to drive home the freedom and sovereignty of the Holy Spirit in the act of regeneration. "The wind, that is, the Spirit, blows wherever it wills." The will of man is impotent at this point. We cannot start the wind blowing and we cannot change the direction of the wind and make it blow when we want it to. The Spirit blows where He wills and therefore, everyone born of the Spirit has been acted upon by the free Spirit and has been born anew, as Joh_1:13 says, "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God." The new birth is not a result of our decision or our act of will. It precedes and enables the heart's decision to trust Christ.

There is another place in John's gospel where Jesus declares this truth with even greater clarity. In Joh_6:41 the Jews murmur because Jesus said "I am the bread which came from heaven." In both cases Jesus was up against a resistant and imperceptive listener. So he says in Joh_6:43-44, "Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." No one can come to Jesus unless drawn by God. The natural man cannot submit himself to God until a supernatural work of grace is done in his life, called "new birth" in Joh_3:1-36 and the "drawing of God" in Joh_6:1-71.

But someone may say, "You can't equate the new birth with this drawing by God because God draws all men to Christ." My answer is, "Yes, there is a drawing of all men in the sense that the enticing revelation of God in nature or in the gospel goes out to all men beckoning them to repent. But that is not the sort of drawing Jesus has in mind here." And this can be easily shown by looking at Joh_6:61-65. Again some of his disciples murmur and He says,

61 'Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where He was before? 63 It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you that do not believe.' For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe and who it was that would betray him. 65 And He said, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by my Father.'

Here Jesus repeats verse 44 (Joh_6:44) with only a slight change but the connection here between verses 64 and 65 (Joh_6:64-65) make His meaning unmistakable: "There are some of you here that do not believe … That is why I said no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father." Why do I say to you that no one can come to me without the Father's enablement? I say it to explain why there are some who do not believe. Those do not believe because it has not been given to them by my Father. He has not drawn them like He has drawn the others. Therefore it follows that saving faith does not precede and cause the new birth. But rather God the Father, by the agency of His Holy Spirit, regenerates freely whomever He pleases and by this draws a person to the Son enabling him to believe in the Son and be saved. This is "prevenient grace"-the gracious work of God preceding and enabling the act of faith. It is "irresistible grace." There are divine influences which can be resisted but there are also those which cannot be. The new birth is one of those that is irresistible, because it operates beneath a person's consciousness transforming the root of his affections and thus removing his hostility to God. And finally this is God's "effectual calling"-not the general call that goes out to all, but the creative call of God that brings into being something new by its own power (1Co_1:24; 2Co_4:6).

What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the new beginning we must all make in order to be saved and filled with all the fullness of God? What is His role in the new birth? The answer Jesus gives (and it could be confirmed from many other texts) is that the new birth is the result of the free and sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, preceding and enabling our first act of saving faith. We do not bring about the new birth by faith. On the contrary, the Spirit must first create a new person who then, according to his new and spiritual nature, has the desire to believe in Christ.

Let me close by giving you four reasons why I love this teaching of our Lord and why I think believing it is essential to Christian living.

1) First, it gives all glory to God and keeps me humble before him. It prevents me from robbing God of any of His majesty by crediting myself with something that He alone has achieved. It reminds me that I am so corrupt and hostile in mind that never in a million years would I have called upon the name of the Lord except for the sovereign grace that created in me a new heart of faith. It keeps before my mind the truth that all the benefits and rewards of obedience are not earned by me because all obedience comes from faith which is a free gift of God. Therefore, I cannot boast in any virtue or achievement because it is all of God. And therefore, He gets the glory.

2) Secondly, I love the doctrine of the Spirit's sovereign freedom in regeneration because it enables me to pray for the lost who are "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph_2:1). I do not know what I could ask God to do for a hard-hearted, resistant neighbor or loved one if I didn't believe the doctrine of irresistible grace. Any prayer I can think of sounds like a joke: "Dear God, provide my neighbor with some allurements to believe, but don't make them so strong they are irresistible; work in his heart, but not so thoroughly that he feels an overwhelming urge to believe." O, no, I will not pray like that. On the authority of God's work I pray: "Overcome his resistance, dear God! Take out of his flesh that heart of stone and give him a new heart of flesh! Placard your love irresistibly before his face and open the eyes of his heart so that he cannot help believing for joy. Don't keep your distance, ravish him with your glory." I love this doctrine because I cannot pray for the lost without it.

3) Thirdly, I cherish the doctrine of the Spirit's sovereignty because it gives me the encouragement I need to witness to unbelievers. What could be more encouraging in our daily witness, especially among people who seem hard, than the confidence that nothing can stop the Holy Spirit from making a new creature out of anybody He pleases? Paul wrote in 2Ti_2:24-25; 2Ti_2:24 The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kindly to everyone, an apt teacher, forbearing, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance unto a knowledge of the truth.

Ours is to witness by life and word; God's is to give repentance. And therein is great freedom and encouragement for witness.

4) Finally, I love this doctrine because it gives to you who are not yet born again strong encouragement to close in with Christ. You do not need any other witness of the Spirit's work within you than the desire you feel to come to God. If there is one spark of longing in you to trust Christ, it is of God and you may take heart that He is at work in you to draw you to the Son. He has not left you to yourself. Go forward with Him. Confirm His work by your faith. Make your calling and election sure: cleave to Jesus and He will never let you go.

And so I commend to you all this blessed work of the Holy Spirit. And I urge that none of you take any credit for your new birth, nor for your faith. It is all of God. I am persuaded that if we miss this note here, all our thinking about the work of the Spirit in the next weeks will be off-key. May God root us deeply in the glory of His sovereign grace.

Autor: John Piper