(By: Christopher Powell) This week, I’d like to focus on encouraging us all as we once again enter the “resolution season” of a new year and a new decade to fearlessly make some resolutions to change. I say fearlessly, because, perhaps like some of you, in the past I have stopped making resolutions because I have had struggles to fulfill them. Too many broken promises.

 

The New Year’s encouragement I would like to offer my fellow promise breakers is that as Christians, we are recipients of grace. As such, we are constantly given new opportunities for repentance and growth. Jeremiah puts it this way in Lamentations 3:22-24 “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 Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”” Have you ever really contemplated that? God’s mercy is new EVERY morning. That means that if we are His, we are daily given chances to reform our lives and actions. If you have tried and failed to do something good, it does not mean that you’ve blown all your chances. This text means that there is ALWAYS hope for the Christian. It means that you don’t have to worry about your pride or your reputation with men. As Christians, we live for the Lord and He is our inheritance – our portion forever. Who cares what other people think about our failures or successes? They are not our judges, God is. And God is also the source of our mercy. He has promised in Christ to love us anyways and always. That is the stupendous news of Gospel grace

 

I must confess I have not always felt this way. Perhaps like some of you, I had previously had mixed feelings about the amazing list of Jonathan Edwards’ resolutions which many folks revisit every year at this time. While it is a great list, in my pride, I have thought about how many promises I have broken over the years. Now when you think about your failures, it’s really easy to convince yourself that making a resolution is useless if all you’re going to do is break it. But failure should not stop us if we are Christians. In fact, as daily recipients of God’s grace, we ought to be motivated out of the joy of our deliverance to resolve more and more to follow after Him. To do the “good works” which he “prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). So, make resolutions! Set both realistic ones that you know you can achieve and ones that require more faith to complete. Don’t forget that we serve a generous God, and, if we ask according to His will, it is His delight to grant to us.

 

And, if you fail, remember the humble realism of one of the resolutions that Edwards made:

 

3. Resolved, If ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.

 

The life of the Christian is one of constant repentance which brings joy and restoration. If you haven’t read all 70 of Edwards’ resolutions for yourself, it is worth a couple moments to check them out. They reflect an incredible spiritual maturity for the young Edwards who wrote them when he was around 19-20 years of age. He then read them weekly to remember to apply them.

 

As a final encouragement to take up this practice remember that change was one of the battle cries of the Protestant Reformation “Semper Reformanda!” (always reforming). This was driven by the biblical principle that the Christian is ever transforming by sanctifying grace into the image of Christ. Sanctification is a cooperative effort. It requires us to respond in obedience to God’s revealed will in the Scriptures. So, brothers and sisters, may you be inspired to make your own resolutions to change for His glory. Feel free to share your resolutions or your favourite Edwards’ resolution in the comments.

 

Please note: we will return to blogging through the Crosstalk book next year.

(By David Giarrizzo)

We read in Luke 2:22-38 that Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph, took their son to the temple in Jerusalem according to the Law of Moses to have him consecrated before the Lord. In that day, the temple would have been a very busy place with people coming and going. But in his account Luke mentions only two individuals who noticed the baby Jesus and understood the significance of his presence. They were Simeon and Anna.

It’s amazing to think that out of the crowds of people at the temple that day, only two besides Mary and Joseph knew Jesus was there. In that sea of religious people, amidst the busyness of that place, only Simeon and Anna stopped to notice, only two paused to worship the Christ. How convicting that should be to those of us who get so caught up in the silly little details of the holiday season—the planning and shopping, the decorating and cooking, the wrapping and travelling and eating (and eating and eating!!). There are plenty of aspects of the holidays to distract us from the purpose of our celebration. But like Simeon and Anna, we should never let anything around us take our focus off of Christ.

And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. Luke 2:38

We read further in Luke 2 that the aged widow Anna who was at the temple that day not only noticed the baby Jesus, but she thanked the Lord for Him before others and told others about Him. She had bold faith that cared not for the feelings and beliefs of others, but cared for their souls. She was an evangelist in the most religious place in Jerusalem. She knew Jesus as her Messiah and she worshipped Him by thanking publicly and telling others about him. Here is what Luther says about Anna’s faith:

Now faith and the knowledge of Christ cannot be silent. They break forth and testify, so that others may be helped and receive the light. …Faith is too kind and bountiful to keep all such treasures to itself. But when it speaks it is persecuted…yet it does not care and goes right ahead. And who knows how Anna was treated! But perhaps they spared her on account of her age and sex, and simply despised her as a silly fool. Otherwise her life would hardly have been preserved, because she proclaimed such error and heresy, declaring of Christ such marvelous things, in opposition to all the doctrines and systems of the learned priests and teachers of the law. …For if we speak of the redemption of Christ we declare that they are bound in sin and blindness. This however is too much for these great saints, to be called blind sinners! Therefore they cannot endure hearing anything of Christ and his redemption, and consequently they condemn it as a dangerous error and a diabolical heresy.

Therefore, let us imitate Anna and proclaim the Christ of the Bible unashamedly in the face of other religions. Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Islam all teach a different message about Christ. Remember the words of Christ Himself in Matthew 10:32: “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven.” Even parts of “evangelicalism” are missing the point when it comes to the Gospel of Christ. This is even more reason for us to be humbly thankful that Christ has revealed Himself to us sinners. In response to His love for us, our attitude of gratefulness should bear fruit through our actions as we speak to others about Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of men.

This time of year provides many opportunities for most of us to share our thankfulness to God for sending His Son, Jesus. May we not be like most of society and miss the importance of Christmas. And as we enter another new calendar year, let us make it our top priority, our most important resolution, to be visibly thankful for our blessed Savior with boldness in telling others of Christ.

(By: Eddie Goodwin)

Dr. Fred Malone, pastor of First Baptist Church in Clinton, LA and senior fellow of the Institute for Reformed Baptist Studies, will be delivering lectures on Law and Gospel in Pastoral Ministry during an upcoming modular course at MCTS.

 

I thought it might be beneficial to post Dr. Malone’s required reading list from the course syllabus:

 

1.  Samuel Bolton. The True Bounds of Christian Freedom (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1964).

 

2. Charles Bridges. The Christian Ministry (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2006).

 

3. Stephen Tyng. Lectures on the Law and the Gospel (Vestavia Hills, AL: Solid Ground Christian Books).

 

4. Richard Barcellos. In Defense of the Decalogue (Enumclaw, WA: WinePress Publishing, 2001).

 

5. Ernest Kevan. The Grace of Law (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1976).

 

6. Ernest Reisinger. The Law and the Gospel (Philipsburg, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1997).

(By David Giarrizzo)

“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels sang this song from the heavens on that ever-so holy night, they were proclaiming a doxology of praise to God and passing along the very almost-unbelievable promise of “peace on earth.”

It is this part about peace on earth that most intrigues me when I read this passage. Peace on earth: so many questions come to mind when I try to think about that notion. You don’t need to be a news junkie as I am to know how messed up our world is. Words like terror, violence, bloodshed, hostility, war, and crime seem to better express the state of affairs on planet earth than peace. But the Word of God clearly describes a “peace on earth” heralded by the angles.

In order to understand what God meant by “peace on earth,” we need to first understand what He didn’t mean. We hear the phrase misused all over the place this time of year. It is written on Christmas cards, waved on flags and banners, preached by multiculturalists and pacifists, and sung about in sappy songs.  But the peace on earth of Luke 2 does not mean political peace between different countries. It does not mean the absence of hostility or the presence of brotherly affection between humans. So then what exactly were the angels telling those shepherds? How would there be peace on earth through the birth of one little baby in a small town in Bethlehem?

The peace of Luke 2:14 has nothing to do with peace between humans and everything to do with peace with God. John Calvin appropriately describes the peace that Luke speaks of as such:

We obtain peace with God, when he begins to be gracious to us, by taking away our guilt, and “not imputing to us our trespasses,” (2 Corinthians 5:19) and when we, relying on his fatherly love, address him with full confidence, and boldly praise him for the salvation which he has promised to us.

Here’s what J.C. Ryle said about this peace on earth—

Now is come to earth the peace of God which surpasses all understanding,—the perfect peace between a holy God and a sinful man, which Christ was to purchase with his own blood,—the peace which is offered freely to all mankind, the peace which, once admitted into the heart, makes men live at peace with one another, and will one day overspread the whole world.

Thus, this peace on earth is a spiritual peace that is divinely granted by God Himself to only those upon whom His favor and mercy rests. This peace is the peace that God makes with us when he turns our hateful and rebellious hearts of stone into obedient and humble hearts of flesh. This peace is the peace that comes with salvation! Look at these two verses that speak about this kind of peace:

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 3:19-20

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1

So my question and the ultimate point is this: How exactly did God the Father secure this peace on earth through that baby Jesus? The angels said that there would be peace on earth, but how would this peace become a reality? How would this peace be given, or transferred, to us? (This is where things get interesting!)

Read what God’s prophet Isaiah said…

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5

How does Isaiah explain how this peace was brought to men?…through Christ’s punishment! Therefore, the answer to the question is this: God used violence to bring peace!

It seems slightly odd to us to think that violence can produce peace. But we need not look any further than the history of the 20^th Century to get a small glimpse of how this scenario has been played out with humans. World War II is a prime example. Through violence (war), peace was eventually established in both Europe and between America and Japan. Ultimately, it took two atomic bombs exploding to save lives and bring peace. Further, throughout the Old Testament we see God using violence to achieve His purposes. One of the most used, God-ordained practices in Israel was blood atonement which always included the killing of an animal. Why do you think God had the Israelites sacrifice to Him like this? To point to the ultimate sacrifice which came in the person of Jesus Christ!

“In him we have redemption through his blood”
Ephesians1:7

God brought us peace through violence. The way in which Christ was killed was one of the most violent popular methods of execution known in all of human history. The Romans were brutal when it came to punishing criminals. And yet this is the way God showed His love for us—by allowing His only, beloved Son to come to earth and bring us peace by dying this horrific death. What a Savior we have who was willing to offer Himself in this fashion! And what a Father we worship who gave us this opportunity to find peace in the Prince of Peace Himself!

Revelation 5:12 reminds us how important an event Christ’s death was for us by telling us that in heaven the eternal song of the redeemed will be a song about death:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”

We need to remember—not just as we near December 25^th, but all year round—that Christ’s entrance into this world was for the purpose of dying for us in order to bring eternal peace between God and men. Thus, the manger rested in the shadow of the cross.

May we not forget this important lesson this Christmas season in the middle of all of our shopping and eating and celebrating; instead, thank Jesus for coming to earth, dying for you, and may God indeed receive the glory for all these things.

(By: Christopher Powell)
Accurate application of the Scriptures is probably the biggest challenge in preaching and teaching. On the surface, it seems rather simple. You have a problem, the Bible has a response. It’s like those old commercials for Visine (a line of eye drops) – “Q. Do you have X problem? A. There’s a Visine for that.” But notice, I said accurate application. That’s much more challenging. Mike Emlet begins the first chapter of his book on practical hermeneutics with the question “Is it easy or difficult to connect the Bible to life?” To help answer this question he gives the reader a simple quiz. He presents Bible passages and then asks the reader to come up with a list of applications to life struggles that would be appropriate. Then, conversely, he presents a series of life struggles and asks the reader to give a Bible text. While some are relatively easy to match up like anxiety and Phillipians 4:4ff others are more difficult to apply like the Philistines capture of the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4).

 

Ditch vs. Canyon

 

Emlet’s answer then, to the question of whether it is easy or hard to apply the Bible to life is that “it depends.” He uses the analogy of the ditch vs. the canyon. Sometimes applying Scripture has the feel of “stepping across a ditch (easy!)” and sometimes “it has the feel of stepping across a canyon (impossible!).” Some of the ditch passages he identifies include Psalm 23 for fear and Psalm 51 for repentance. Others are a bit wider “ditches” but you can still see the application: Philippians 4:8 for training your mind against lust and Joshua 1:9 as an encouragement for an evangelistic endeavour. But how do we apply some of the lesser known and travelled parts of Scripture? Emlet’s point here is that we minister with a much “thinner” bible than we ought to as believers who uphold 2 Timothy 3:16-17. He points out that there is a reason why the NT is sold with Psalms and Proverbs and not Leviticus and Esther. A value judgment is being made – Psalms and Proverbs are considered more relevant for contemporary life. But the problem is not just moving from the text to a modern problem, the opposite is true as well. Where do you turn in Scripture to address bulimia or the challenge of infertility? Is it biblically wrong to you’re your children to public schools? What does the Bible say about a child who has Asperger syndrome? Emlet’s goal is to get us to think biblically about these issues but realize the depth of the problem. As he states:

 

If you have a passage that you think quickly captures any one of these issues fully, I would almost guarantee that your hearer will find it superficial or irrelevant. The direct approach doesn’t seem to work with these canyon problems. But if the Bible becomes functionally irrelevant, people will turn elsewhere for guidance on these thorny questions and issues.

 

Now, in stating this Emlet is not seeking in this to negate “ditch” application or undermine the relevance of Scripture – his goal is to widen the ditches and narrow the canyons. He is trying to honestly grapple with Scripture in its full historical and biblical theological perspective. This means reexamining whether “ditch” passages should be used in a given situation even if they seem on the surface to apply. The goal is to help us to think more rigorously about the application of Scripture so that we can more accurately and skillfully apply the Gospel to the abused wife or the individual struggling with obsessive compulsive behavior. Emlet uses the analogy that sometimes to perform better you need to unlearn certain bad habits. He proposes that by putting the Scriptures into their proper historic-redemptive framework the canyon passages will narrow and the ditch passages will show their true complexity, worth and depth. It may just be impatience, but, in reading this I was excited at first, but, the examples he gave only related to ditch problems and not to some the “canyon” ones. I was hoping to see more of how the canyon passages are narrowed. We’ll come back to this in a few weeks. Next week we’ll examine chapter two “What the Bible is Not (Primarily)”

(By David Giarrizzo)

Each month at Grace Covenant Church a different hymn is featured and sung every Sunday for that month. Usually the goal is for the congregation to learn new hymns or be exposed to old ones. For this month we have been singing “Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates” from the Trinity hymnal. As I looked afresh at the words of this hymn, especially the last two lines of each stanza, I noticed the Trinitarian theology that is clearly on display. Consider these words:

We praise thee, Father, now, Creator, wise art thou!
We praise thee, Savior, now, Mighty in deed art thou!
We praise thee, Spirit, now, Our Comforter art thou!

The work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are evidenced in the incarnation and appropriately worshipped through this hymn. In fact, this hymn is a helpful reminder to believers to hold high the doctrine of the Trinity in our thoughts, words and worship. By definition, our Christmas celebrations should be defined by Christ-centered worship and praise. Likewise, our worship should be consistently Trinitarian as we give thanks to God the Father for sending His Son Jesus to save us from God’s wrath and granting us the Holy Spirit to sanctify our hearts.

The rest of the hymn is of great value to read and ponder this Christmas and every Christmas.

1. Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates!
Behold, the King of glory waits;
The King of kings is drawing near,
The Savior of the world is here.
Life and salvation he doth bring,
Wherefore rejoice and gladly sing:
We praise thee, Father, now,
Creator, wise art thou!

The words of the first verse flow directly from the words of the psalmist in Psalm 24:7-10. Looking back to the birth of Christ we recognize that God opened the gates of the world, the ancient doors of heaven, as the King of Glory entered in. When Jesus took on human flesh and entered this world as a human baby boy, heaven sang for joy knowing that this baby, in fulfillment with prophesy and according to God’s sovereign plan, would be the Savior of the world—a Redeemer for people from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Revelation 5:9). Therefore, let us sing with joy and wonder at the wonderful love of the Father to send His only Son to save a wretched people.

2. A Helper just he comes to thee,
His chariot is humility, His kingly crown is holiness,
His scepter, pity in distress.
The end of all our woe he brings;
Wherefore the earth is glad and sings:
We praise thee, Savior, now,
Mighty in deed art thou!

This same baby boy who was the Son of the most high God come down to save sinners appeared in flesh and was born to Mary and Joseph in the humblest of means. Jesus was not born in a palace and then placed in a golden crib. He was born in a shelter for farm animals and laid upon straw and placed in feeding trough on a lonely night in the quiet town of Bethlehem. Christ’s first coming was not characterized by worldly pomp and circumstance. From the moment of his birth to the moment of his ascension into heaven, Jesus’ life was characterized by humility. Even the highlight of Christ’s earthly ministry, when He was lauded by the Jews as their Messiah, Jesus identified himself with a modest donkey, not a stately stallion (Luke 19:35-38). But the words of the Jews in Luke 19 are reminiscent of the words of the angel in Luke 2—

“Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (Luke 19:38)
“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord….Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:11-14)

In spite of His humility, Christ is the most glorious King and a just Helper of the neediest of sinners. May we ever remember the truth of Philippians 2:5-11:

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

3. O blest the land, the city blest,
Where Christ the Ruler is confessed!
O happy hearts and happy homes
To whom this King in triumph comes!
The cloudless sun of joy he is,
Who bringeth pure delight and bliss.
We praise thee, Spirit, now,
Our Comforter art thou!

Sadly, just as the birth of baby Jesus went largely unnoticed by many people living in Judea at the time, the reality of Christ continues to be ignored by many people living in the world today. But He is not unnoticed by all. There are “happy hearts and happy homes” all around the world where the reality of Jesus Christ has been known and experienced due to the mind-enlightening, heart-enthralling grace of God. To those whom Christ has been made known, He is truly a confessed Ruler, a triumphant King; “the cloudless Sun of joy He is, Who bringeth pure delight and bliss.” Herein lies “the reason for the season”—Jesus Christ and the joy of salvation that He brings to the hearts of men and women all around the world.

This Christmas, let us focus our thoughts and worship on the only wise, triune God Who is from everlasting to everlasting. And as we adore the One Who was born as a baby to rescue men from their sins, may we “rejoice and gladly sing” for the “life and salvation he doth bring.”