As the covenant promise of God unfolded throughout redemptive history, signs and seals are given to represent the saving work of Jesus Christ. The first ecclesiastical covenant sign and seal was circumcision. This bloody cutting away of the foreskin of the male reproductive organ represented the bloody death of Jesus at the cross, and the fruits of that redemption that He purchased for us (see this post for a biblical theology of circumcision). Circumcision went on the male reproductive organ to show the need for a bloody (i.e. judgment wrought) purification of the corrupt sin nature that was past down generation by generation by means of reproduction. Circumcision was not simply something that made a Jew a Jew. It was a picture of the Gospel. Abraham was the first to have the covenant promises sealed with the sign of circumcision. Abraham was commanded by God to put the sign on his children and taught them the ways of the Lord. He faithfully taught Isaac the meaning of circumcision. Isaac taught Jacob, and Jacob taught his sons.

So, when we come to the somewhat difficult passage concerning Simeon and Levi killing the men of Shechem, after convincing them to be circumcised (Gen. 34), we must read it through the biblical-theological lens of circumcision. Abraham’s great-grandchildren knew exactly what circumcision was. They knew what God had taught their father, grandfather and great grandfather about this sign. They went to the men who had defiled their sister and deceptively convinced them to become covenant members. After giving them the sign of the covenant (while the men of Shechem were healing from the pain of it) they went and slaughtered them. Essentially, Simeon and Levi used the Gospel to destroy their enemies. It would be like convincing your enemy to be baptized and then drowning them in the waters of baptism. It was a disgrace; and contains a serious warning for us. If we take the things of God lightly; use them when our hearts are not right; overlook the gracious nature of them, and seek the destruction of those who have done us harm by them–we act like Simeon and Levi.

I have many times heard well-meaning Christians wish for the destruction of unbelievers. I have even heard some misquote Scripture with the intent of calling judgment down when the grace of God in the Gospel is not being offered. Is this not acting in the same spirit as Simeon and Levi? I realize the tension between what the Bible teaches about our desiring the salvation of the ungodly (what we once were), and rejoicing in the righteous judgment of God against a rebellious and unrepentant world (see the book of Revelation). It seems to me that, in the “already” of the New Covenant, we are to have the same spirit as our Lord Jesus did in the days of His flesh. When James and John wanted to call fire down from heaven on the cities that rejected the Gospel, Jesus told them, “You do not know what spirit you are of; the Son of Man did not come to destroy, but to save lives.” He will destroy on that great day of judgment. He will trample all those who will not repent of their sins in the wine press of His Father’s wrath. But, now is the day of salvation. We, like our Savior, are not to seek the destruction of men, but their salvation. May we learn from the lesson of Simeon and Levi–lest we be seen as brothers of destruction like them.

1. J. H. Thornwell The Collected Writings of James H. Thornwell (vol. 1) (Richmond: Presbyterian Committee of Publications, 1871) p. 266

When they do come in, we must preach interestingly. The people will not be converted while they are asleep, and if they go to sleep they had better have been at home in bed, where they would sleep more comfortably. We must have the minds of our hearers awake and active if we are to do them some real good. You will not shoot your bird unless you get them to fly; you must get them started up from the long grass in which they are hiding. I would sooner use a little of what some very proper preachers regard as a dreadful thing, that wicked thing called humor–I would sooner wake the congregation up that way than have it said that I droned away at then until we all went to sleep together. Sometimes it may be quite right to have it said of us as it was said of Rowland Hill: “‘What does that man mean? He actually made the people laugh while he was preaching?’ ‘Yes,’ was the wsie answer, ‘but did you not see that he actually made them cry directly after?’” That was good work and it was well done. I sometimes tickle my oyster until he opens his shell and then I stick the knife in. He would not have opened for my knife, but he did for something else; and that is the way to do for people.¹

1. Charles Spurgeon The Soul Winner pp. 63-64
.

The Glorious Conquest

In this period, between the flood and Abraham, lived a patriarch, not registered in the line of spiritual descent in Gen. 11: 10-26— the patriarch Job. His book lives in the sacred canon, and is of inestimable value in the history of the Church. It is considered, perhaps, the oldest of the inspired writings, and seems to have been composed and preserved with the express design of unfolding to all succeeding ages what was the amount of religious knowledge — what was the perfection of religious character — and what was the private and public walk of the sons of God — what was the association which they held with each other, and with the people of the world, in these early times, covered with the mists of far-distant ages.

It sets the men of God before us, living, moving, and having their being in the Church and the world, just as they do now. The world of the patriarchs is made bare to our eye. Christians appear in life in all the New Testament, and then in the Old, running back from Ezra and Nehemiah, through prophets, priests, and kings, up to the judges, to Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam — to the twelve patriarchs — to Jacob, Isaac, Abram, and finally to Noah, and Job, and Enoch : thus making known the same God, the same Savior, the same Spirit, the same faith, the same practice — the same blessed covenant of grace, working its mercies in the Church and in the world even from the beginning.

The character of Job is, beyond all the patriarchs previous to the time of Abraham, drawn out in the greatest minuteness and force, and serves as an example and illustration of all the rest. He who reads Job reads of all the early saints of God in him. With what delight then do we open this ancient book — this book that speaks to us of those early ages, otherwise needing light and illustration drawn from the men that lived in them! Well has the book of Job been called a ” depository of patriarchal religion.” Not that the religion of the patriarchs differed in faith and substance from the religion of prophets and apostles, for it was the same, but because this book shows as that it was the same, and makes the Word of God one harmonious whole: one continuous revelation and development of the covenant of grace.

Job was an inspired prophet of God: reckoned by God worthy of a place with Noah and Daniel, Ezek. 14: 14-20; and to be named as an example of patience to the Church, James 5:11. So far as the testimony of the Word of God goes, there is no reason to suppose that his book was written by any other than Job himself: the few words recording his death were added of course by some other hand. No book admitted into the Bible is written by any but inspired men. He was an inhabitant of the land of Uz : that portion of country no doubt first occupied by Uz, the son of Aram, Gen. 10:23. We have no record to guide us in fixing the position of the land of Uz but the Bible. And in three places only is the land of Uz spoken of Here in the book of Job, 1:1; again in Jer. 25:20, in immediate connection with Egypt on the one hand and Philistia on the other. It must have been of some extent, as Jeremiah says, “And all the kings of the land of Uz,” and, again, Jeremiah in Lam. 4:21, ” Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwelleth in the land of Uz.” Uz originally included Edom. How far eastward into Arabia it extended, is not said. None of the boundaries of the land are given. It lay southward of and inclusive of Edom, extending eastward. Hence Job is called one of ” the sons of the East.” How far east it extended, and how near Chaldea, we do not know.

Job lived after his afflictions one hundred and forty years, and then died old and full of days, 42:16-17. How old he was when they fell upon him, is not revealed; but from the fact that lie was the father of seven sons and three daughters— that he was in his possessions ” the greatest of all the sons of the East ” — and was a man highly honored, and of note and fame — he could not have been less than seventy years of age. This would make him at the time of his death two hundred and ten years old ; which age throws him fully up to the time of Abraham, who lived but one hundred and seventy-five years, Gen. 25:1-8, and it is said ” he died in a good old age — an old man and full of years: “nay, it throws Job beyond Abraham, and beyond Nahor, Abraham’s grandfather, who lived only one hundred and forty-eight years, even to the times of Serug, the father of Nahor, who lived two hundred and thirty years, Gen. 11:22-25. The age of Job is an important consideration in fixing the period in which he lived. He was at least contemporary with Abraham; most probably before him, as he makes no mention of Abraham, nor any of the circumstances of his life, nor of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He lived before the Church of God -went into captivity in Egypt, and before its deliverance and settlement in Canaan ; for in all the book of Job there is no conclusive mention of any of these facts, nor of God’s wonders in Egypt, and in the desert, and in the Promised Land, and no reference to any of the institutions, rites, ceremonies, or officers of the Church. His book belongs to a period anterior to this.

We have indulged in these remarks upon this interesting book for the purpose of directing attention to its antiquity, which makes it, aside from many other considerations, of so great value in the history of the Church. Although so old a book, (and the great body of it’s poetry,) it is not exceeded by any in the Scriptures in the purity of its language, in the simplicity, the force, and point of its style; in the closeness of its reasoning; the variety and magnificence of its imagery; the grandeur of its conceptions and descriptions; nor in its depth of pathos and fervor of piety. It forever shames into silence the presumptuous folly of men, who, with a boast of learning, and full of an overweening self-sufficiency, pretend to speak of the ages in which the patriarchs lived as the infancy of the Church and of the world, who are forever prating of progress and development, and fastening upon the Scriptures their heartless, Christless, and Godless theories of religion and of the Church.

The moral of the book — aside from its being a depository of patriarchal religion, and filling up a chasm otherwise left open — is to teach, that God sometimes permits the best of men, the most upright and perfect of His children, to be led into afflictions, temptations, and trials, for the manifestation of their characters, and for the illustration of the power of His grace, and of His own unfailing faithfulness — that this world is one of trial, and not a world in which perfect retributions are meted out to the evil and the good: nor are the reasons of the afflictions of God always immediately or certainly known — that all God’s dispensations and the mysteries of His government will be fully explained to His glory in the world to come; and, therefore, we are to judge nothing before the time; but, steadfast in the faith, exercise submission and patience, looking forward to final redemption and glory through Him who is the promised Redeemer of His people.

The main objects of inquiry are, first, the doctrines of religion contained in the book of Job; his own religious character, and the light which is thereby thrown on the religious intelligence and j>iety of the times in which he lived.

Of the doctrines we observe that Job teaches of God that He is a Spirit, invisible, 9:11; 23:8-9 — the only true God, and proper object of all religious homage and worship, 28:12-28 — omniscient and omnipresent, the searcher of hearts, 11:13-18; 13:19; 21:22; 26:6; 34:21-22 — the Almighty, doing wonders, executing His will in heaven above and in the earth beneath, 9:1-19; 11:10; 26:6-14; 34:29 — the Great Ruler and Governor of the Universe, which He has made, 37:1-22, and exercising a special and controlling providence over all angels and men and creatures, both animate and inanimate, 1:6-22; 2:1-10; 12:9-25; see the whole book — just, 9:1-2; 10:14-15; 13:8 ; 34:19, 28,- rendering to every man according to his works — independent, 33:13; 35:5-11 — immense, unsearchable, 11:1-9 — self-existent, unchangeable, 23:13; 36:22; 37:23 — most Holy, 25:4-6; 34:10-12 — that God is a prayer-hearing and sin-pardoning God, through the merits of the Redeemer to come, 1:5; 13:8-10; 19:25-27. The descriptions of God and of His works, and of His providence are not exceeded for awful majesty, sublimity, and glory in any other portion of the Word of God. Chapters 38-41.

He teaches that the Redeemer of men ever liveth their hope and confidence, and will appear at the last day for the final redemption of soul and body. Herein we recognize the teachings of Enoch on this subject, Jude vs. 14-15.

He also makes us acquainted with the existence and agency of the Holy Spirit, 26:13 ; 33:4, working efficiently, and giving life and power to the works of God. He thus reveals the persons in the Godhead.

Of Angels; he affirms the existence and agency of both those which are evil and those which are good, 1:6-19; 2:1-8; 38:7. We have in Job for the first time the name of Satan, the prince of the fallen angels, the Devil, called by way of eminence, the Adversary — Satan. Comp. Job 1:6; 2:1, with Zech. 3:1-2, and Rev. 12:10. The idea that Satan, in Job 1:6 and 2:1, is one of the good angels, waiting around the throne of God, who proposes the trial of Job, is, to say the least, ridiculous. Satan is brought to view as ” going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it,” by the permission of God, ” considering ” the characters of men, and putting them to the proof by his temptations and trials.

Of man; Job teaches that our first father, Adam, sinned and endeavored to hide his transgressions, 31:33 — that man is formed out of clay, and returns at death to dust, 33:6; 34:1-5; 19:26 — that he is born in sin, 25:1-4; 14; 4:15; 14-16 — altogether depraved and defiled before a holy God: destitute of all righteousness for justification, 9:20-21. His most perfect works and best endeavors are all defective
and defiled, and neither to be boasted of nor trusted in, 9:30-31; 10:15, and man needs only to have right views of the majesty, holiness, and justice of God, to be overwhelmed with a sense of his weakness and vileness, and to abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes, 40:1-5 ; 42:1-6.

He teaches that true wisdom or religion is “the one thing needful ” to man : of priceless value, above gold, the gold of Ophir: above silver, and above the precious stones and jewels. It is not to be found by human effort either in the land or in the sea, it is not perceived by the eyes of living men. God alone prepares it and bestows it upon men, 28:12-28. “Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding,” 5:28 — that repentance is commanded of God, 36:10 — that it precedes forgiveness, 11:14-20; 22:21-23; 33:27-28, — and forgiveness comes through faith,1:5; 42:8-10, in that atoning blood to be shed] by the coming Redeemer, 19:22. We are consequently accepted, forgiven, justified, through filth. Impenitence is ruin, 34:24-28. It was the unbelief and wicked impenitence and rebellion of mankind that drew upon the world the awful judgment of the flood, 22:15-18. The wicked shall be destroyed, 21:1-34; ch. 24, etc.

He teaches that those who are righteous before God, His true worshipers, shall never fall from their high profession; but their sanctification being a progressive work in them, shall be carried on unto perfection, 17:9 — that the child of God walks by faith — that an habitual reliance upon, and a looking forward to the glorious appearing of the Lord from Heaven, sustains him in all duty, and under every trial, 19:25-27 — that there is to be in the last day, when the heavens shall be removed out of their place, a resurrection of the dead, 14: 10-15; 19:25-27, of the same bodies, destroyed by worms, and returned back to dust, but changed to behold God in glory — and that resurrection followed by a judgment ; and that judgment by the blessedness of the righteous, which shall consist in the full vision and fruition of God: while the contrary is involved, the destruction of the wicked and their banishment from the presence of God! 19:25-27. Job understood, and, by the grace of God, embraced all these fundamental and saving doctrines.

What now, may we inquire, was the religious character of Job: The Holy Searcher of Hearts calls him “My servant Job: there is none like him in the earth — a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil,” 1:8; 2:3; 28:28. His religious character is identified with that of all the true saints of God in all ages: although in greater perfection than is to be met with in multitudes. He was born of the Spirit, through the word, and all the fruits of the Spirit apeared in his heart and life. His piety was that of the covenant of grace.

Briefly, then, he was a believer. By faith he embraced the great Redeemer of Sinners, promised of God from the beginning — typified in sacrifices — preached by patriarchs before him, and commended by their own examples of faith in Him, 1:5 ; 42:8-9 ; 19:25-27. The fruits of this faith appeared in his prayerful, 1:5, watchful, 31:1-40, holy life, Ezek. 14:14-20. He faithfully discharged his duty in his family — towards his wife, 2:9-10, his children, 1:5, his servants, 31:13-15, — towards his brethren in the Lord, 42:8-9, and towards all men with whom he stood in any way connected; he was upright and just, 29:14 ; cf. 31. ; charitable, 29:15-16; cf. 31; merciful, 30:25; 31:29-31; hospitable, 31:32; the friend and benefactor of the poor, 29:12; cf. 31. — visiting and protecting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, 29:12-13; cf. 31. ; the defender of the
weak and oppressed, 29:17; of perfect morality in all the relations of life; sincere and upright in his profession, 31:1-23; he served God, not from selfish and worldly considerations, but out of supreme affection, 1:9-22 ; 2:4-10. In the
days of bis greatest prosperity be never made gold bis trust, but abhorred covetousness, 1:21; cf. 31., and turned in horror from idolatry, 31:24-28. He ever felt his own dependence and sinfulness and unworthiness before God, 13:23, etc., and used the world as though be used it not, cf. 31. He loved the law of God more than bis necessary food, 23:12, and submitted with patient resignation to bis darkest and deepest afflictions, reposing an unshaken trust in God, 1:21-22; 2:9-10; 13:15, strengthening himself in his living Redeemer, and looking beyond his present sorrow to the resurrection and to final happiness with God, 19:25-27.

Under his overwhelming afflictions he gave way to his grief, and lamented that ever he was born; yea, be cursed the day of his birth, and contended with bis friends that be could charge himself with no particular transgressions for which he was justly suffering, and felt willing to appeal to God for his justification. Yet when God revealed His sovereignty, holiness, and glory, he bumbled himself beneath His mighty band, and owned His righteous judgments : yea, be abhorred himself in his sinfulness and repented in dust and ashes, 40:1-5; 13:1-6. He forgave his friends their unkindness, and sacrificed and made prevalent intercessions for them, 13:8-9. In a like manner when it pleased God to remove His hand from him, and to turn the hearts of his relations and friends (who had forsaken him in his days of sorrow), in affectionate sympathy towards him, and incline them to contribute to his comfort, and the repair of his fortunes, Job received them back to his embraces without reproaches, and accepted gratefully the assistance which they offered him (13:10, 11). And the Lord brought his afflictions to a happy end; He was very pitiful and of tender mercy to His servant, who had, when tried, so well endured, James 5:11. He added unto him double his former wealth: the same number of sons and of daughters which he had before, and a further life of one hundred and forty years, and finally, when old and full of days, he peace-fully died, and was gathered to his fathers.

The book of Job casts great light upon the faith and piety of the people of God in the ages immediately succeeding the flood — the same that they have been ever since — the faith and piety peculiar to the covenant of grace (the Word of God recognizes none other): faith in Christ — “the Seed of the woman ” — to come — the same living principle then, that it is now: its transforming, powerful, permanent effects, the same then as now. The same clear view and conception of the whole person and work of the Redeemer, was not so fully enjoyed then as now : but enough was known and understood, to draw the souls of men to Him, and the same spirit that now seals Christ and all His benefits to believers sealed them then. There was but one true religion then on earth as now: the religion of the covenant of grace. The people of God were known and read of all men, and were as distinct from the world then as now. They sympathized and consorted with, and aided each other then as now, and worshiped and sacrificed and prayed together. The world was much the same then as now, and had its distinct nations — its kings and nobles— and subjects. They understood, and practiced themselves in the art of war, 39:19-25. There were masters and servants; rich and poor; the oppressors and the oppressed; the proud and the lowly; the husbandman and the artist; the righteous and the wicked; the idolater and the worshiper of the true God ; the hypocrite and the sound believer, ch. 8:13-18; 13:16; 27:8-10. And there were judges in the land, set for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that did well, 31:26-28; 31:9-12. And in this moving world, the men of God did walk by faith, letting their light shine to the glory of God and the good of men ; they had then, as now, to contend with “the world, the flesh, and the devil.” The same covenant-keeping God was over them then as now, and taught them by His Spirit, and divided unto them their days of prosperity and adversity, causing all things to work together for their good, 34:31-82 ; 26:8-9. The righteous held on his way, and he that had clean hands grew stronger and stronger, 17:19.

We close this view of the book of Job, with an observation of two facts. First, the existence of idolatry — which Job characterizes as “a denial of the God who is above,” and the idolatry of which he speaks, is that of the worship of the heavenly bodies: of the sun and the moon, called Sabianism, 31:26-28. Idolatry first appears in the time of Serug, Josh. 24:1-2. With Serug, we suppose that Job was contemporary. It is probable that there were other gods worshiped besides the heavenly bodies. Of idolatry, Job says, ” This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge.” The same remark he makes of adultery, ” It is an iniquity to be punished by the judges,” 31:10-12. The inference is, that idolatry was viewed as an offense against the well-being of society, as was adultery, and, like that heinous wickedness, called for judicial investigation and punishment. If ever kept in check by punishment, it could not have been of long duration. After the visible Church was placed under a civil constitution, it was viewed as treason against God, and, in the purer times of the Church, punished accordingly.

Second, the existence of writing. — Job, in several places, speaks of writing and of books. ” For Thou writest bitter things against me,” ch. 13:26. “Oh ! that my words were now written! oh, that they were printed in a book! (or graven) — that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock forever!” 19:23-24. “Oh, that mine adversary had written a book,” 31:35. What were the materials, and with what instrument writing was committed to them, we shall not inquire. The art of writing was known, and there were records or books; and, from the manner in which Job speaks, writing was common, and resorted to on important occasions. This fact may throw some light on the following passage : “My feet have held His steps ; His way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandments of His lips. I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food,” 23:11-12. Here is plain reference to the word or law of the Lord, which Job loved, and made the rule of his duty — “a lamp unto his feet, and a light unto his path” — a law to which, it would seem, he had constant reference; to which he could come for support and direction. The very terms which he uses are those which we afterwards find applied to the written law — the written Revelation of God.

There is nothing improbable — nay, many things render it the contrary — that the revelations of God, and His wonderful dealings toward men, and all the history of the creation and fall, of the flood, and re-peopling of the world, and the genealogy of Christ, the promised seed of the woman, the lines of spiritual and promised descent — were all committed to writing, and formed the Bible, the “Word of God to His Church, in these early days. And to which we may add the ten commandments, if not set down in the order observed at Sinai, then embraced in substance. Job refers to the creation and to Adam’s sin, and the circumstances of it; he refers to the flood, and the causes which brought it about; the ceremonial law of sacrifices; and also to the moral law. Job condemns idolatry, which comes under the first and second commandments; and adultery, which comes under the seventh. The penalty of death is visited upon the murderer, which comes under the sixth; in short, there is not one of the commandments which does not appear exerting a controlling influence over Job, in his life and character, a sketch of which he gives us in different places, but very particularly in the thirty first chapter.

It is by no means denied, that all these things might have safely and surely been transmitted by tradition to Noah, to Job, to Abraham, and to Moses, and that by Moses all were committed to writing, and that infallibly, by the inspiration of God. Nor is it denied, that in the absence of all reliable tradition, Moses might, by the immediate inspiration of God, have written all we have in the Bible, from the creation to his day. But, inasmuch as Job asserts the existence of the art of writing, and refers to the law of God as something known and fixed, it is not an improbable supposition that sacred writings existed in the earliest ages of the world ; that God has never left His people without a written revelation; and that Moses has added the revelations of God to His Church, made through himself, to those which had existed before his time.

That this appears more than probable, is evident from Exod. 18:14-27. Moses, as the appointed deliverer, was also the lawgiver and judge of Israel. In the capacity of judge he was acting, when Jethro, his father-in-law, visited him in Horeb, before the giving of the law ; and he explained to Jethro the reason why he sat, from morning to night, with the people standing by him: “Because the people come unto me to inquire of God. When they have a matter, they come unto me, and judge between one and another, and I do make them know, (or instruct, cause them to understand,) the statutes of God, and His laws,” What statutes and laws of God were these? Doubtless, all the divine communications of God with His people, from Adam to Noah, and from Noah down to Abraham, and to Moses himself: all which had respect to the faith and practice of men, as well in reference to God, and the things of eternity, as to men and the things of time. These “statutes and laws,” from the creation to Moses, were numerous. Were they written, or unwritten ? They could, indeed, have been transmitted orally, by tradition; but the remark of Moses to Jethro resembles that of a judge who expounds and explains statutes and laws which were in some settled and fixed form, to which he could refer, and to which, as the accredited word of the Lord, he could appeal, and say to the people in his decisions: “Thus is it written, and thus saith the Lord:’”

1. Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Thomas Halyburton Edinburgh: Printed for Sterling and Slade, 1821. p. xiii.

Some Christians, who I have come across from time to time, seem to think doctrine is impractical. These brothers and sisters think that a concern for doctrine is a distraction from the real business of the Christian, whatever that business may be. Now, undoubtedly because we are sinners, we may delve into doctrine to puff up our minds. That is a real danger. However the answer to this is not sanctified ignorance. God may not need my intelligence but he doesn’t want my ignorance either. The answer to arrogant doctrine is godly doctrine, not no doctrine.

Frankly, doctrine has consequences. Let’s consider two examples.

Let’s consider the denial of two specific doctrines. Some think the doctrine of the Trinity is the least practical of all doctrines. How obscure and abstract can you be?! We are told that this doctrine has no practical relevance to the average Christian. Really? Leaving aside the question of what relevance is and who gets to define it, let’s give this a little more consideration. What does a denial of the Trinity entail? For one, it means God is not Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He becomes, to use the expression of Dr. Ligon Duncan, an “undifferentiated monad!” God becomes a what? God becomes an unidentifiable “it.” And it means that Jesus is not God the Son. “So what?” you may ask. Well, for starters if Jesus be not the Son of God he cannot save us and if he be not God the Son we have been worshiping a creature for all these years and that, my friends, is old fashioned idolatry. And if God is not Triune, the Holy Spirit gets reduced to an amorphous force. How exactly, pray tell, is a force grieved? How is a force lied to? Just wondering…

Think of another denial. It is very popular in our day to deny the doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s active obedience to the believer through faith. Oh yes, this is a very popular doctrine to ridicule and poke fun of. But consider the consequences of denying this doctrine. Now, before someone complains, I am not suggesting that the doctrine is true because it makes me happy. I am simply pointing out a practical result of denying the doctrine. My wanting this doctrine to be true does not make it so. As my colleague Jim Cassidy reminds me from time to time, some things are true whether you believe them or not.

If we deny the imputation of Christ’s active obedience we rob ourselves of a source of our assurance of salvation. Did you know that? Yes, I know that the counter Reformation Roman Catholic theologian Robert Cardinal Bellarmine warned us that assurance was the most pernicious doctrine which Protestantism ever taught. But the truth of the matter is this. If we deny the truth that Christ’s active obedience is imputed to us then we must produce the personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience which God demands of all people ourselves. Now, unsaved sinners cannot produce this obedience because they simply don’t want to. But believers (sinners saved by grace) can’t produce this either. The Christian’s sanctification (unlike his or her justification) is imperfect in this life and our good works are infested with sin. Yes, God accepts our good works as a loving Father. That is true. But he does it because we are in Christ and because Christ has justified our good works. Additionally a denial of this doctrine often proceeds from a faulty assumption: lack of assurance motivates us to holiness. If you wan to label something pernicious, friend, this is it!

So you see, doctrine has consequences. In the two instances we considered here it is the denial of particular doctrines we discovered that had devastating consequences. If we deny the Trinity we end up idolaters and if we deny the imputation of Christ’s active obedience to us by faith we end up having to produce personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience to God ourselves. And given the vestiges of sin in the life of the Christian we see that if we choose to go down this road we will rob ourselves of the assurance of salvation and the joy in the Holy Spirit we should experience as adopted children of the Heavenly Father. We will end up like hamsters on a spinning wheel going nowhere.

So is doctrine a distraction? By no means! It is practical? You bet!

During these three days Saul was in the belly of hell as Jonah was in the fish’s belly. In the agony occasioned by conviction of sin, in preparation to become the apostle to the Gentiles. Compare the history of Jonah, who before the three days, could not be induced to preach to the Gentile Ninevites. A Jew, under any circumstances needed an extraordinary providence to make him a missionary to the Gentiles.

Is this a legitimately intended biblico-theological observation? We have to first consider the explicit typology employed by our Lord in Matthew 12. There we read, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Jesus likened His death and resurrection to the typical death and resurrection of Jonah. In a typological manner Jonah died, was buried and raised back to life again. After he was spit out of the fish he went to the Gentiles. Jesus died, was buried and rose again. After He was spit out of the tomb He went to the Gentiles. Like Jonah, Saul of Tarsus died (spiritually), was buried and raised up a new creation. This was on account of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. After he was raise to life with Christ he went to the Gentiles.

It would certainly appear that the three days of darkness for Saul was prefigured by the three days of Jonah in the darkness of the fish’s belly–reminiscent of the three days of suffering for Christ in the heart of the earth. Darkness was the second most severe plague that Egypt experienced, and it was a covenant curse promised to Israel if they broke the covenant stipulations. The curse and plague of thick darkness fell on Christ as “He was made a curse for us..” on the cross. Saul would have known the implications of the darkness sent on Egypt and threatened to Israel. He would have known that they were a small taste of the outer darkness of Sheol. Jesus had taught that hell was “outer darkness.” The blindness of Saul was a picture of the judgment that all men deserve, but, because the Savior experienced that judgment in His place at Calvary, it became the necessary step to life with Christ. Saul of Tarsus died with Christ, was buried with Him, and rose again to newness of life with his Savior. After the scales fell off his eyes, Saul went and immediately preached Christ in the synagogues of Damascus.

Editorial note: It may be moving into the realm of the allegorical and speculative, but it may be that the reference to “something like fish’s scales” falling from Saul’s eyes is linked to the fact that Jonah was in the belly of a fish. The great question that is yet to be answered is, “Why does Luke tell us that ‘something like scales fell from his eyes?’”

As you might imagine, this scene got me to reminiscing about past graduations of my own. There was my own high school graduation back in 1982. Has it really been 28 years since then? Where has the time gone? Then there was my college graduation to be followed many years later by my graduation from seminary. Graduations are much like birthdays and anniversaries. Indeed they might just be like a covenant renewal. They give us the occasion to not only reminisce but also to recall the gracious care and blessings of God in Christ. They also give us the opportunity to renew our love and commitment to the Lord.

I am thankful for a lovely, loving, and godly wife and two daughters who love the Lord. In fact, my eldest daughter has far surpassed me during these past few years in school. Back in the fall my daughter was accepted into the National Honor Society and my family and I had the privilege to attend her induction. Each inductee was given an opportunity to share about his or her past and about the hopes and dreams for the future. My daughter opened her remarks with a declaration of thankfulness to Jesus Christ for redeeming her. “Wow,” I thought to myself, “what fortitude.” I myself was not even a Christian in my senior year of high school. Suzannah has reflected her Christian faith, by God’s grace, throughout her years of schooling. I am most blessed.

Back at the commencement I was reminded of the real world we Christians inhabit. During an otherwise momentous, albeit at times lighthearted faculty address, a speaker felt it necessary to ridicule Christians with comments about “feeling” evangelical but not religious and eliciting amens and testimonies. I was irritated and disappointed. Why did this speaker feel the need to insult Christians? For an address calling these students to be open minded and non-ideological, it was ironically close-minded and most ideological. Then I remembered that our Lord told us that the world hated him and so it would hate us. I was also reminded recently that the life of the Christian is cruciform. Whereas I might be tempted (indeed I was!) to demand my rights as an American citizen (and there are times when that is appropriate), I am reminded that I have no right to not be offended. Paul tells us that we Christians are the fragrance of life to those who are being saved and the stench of death to those who are perishing. Christians ought to expect insults, derision, and even persecution and loss of life. Did I experience that? Not at all. But the occasion reminded me that even though I am a citizen of this community, I am more importantly a citizen of heaven and a pilgrim down here for a little while. Perhaps also if I responded to this teacher with irritation or frustration I would lose the opportunity of sharing the gospel. After all, every opponent of Christianity (from our limited human perspective) is a potential convert to Christ. Remember that the apostle Paul was not always the apostle to the Gentiles.

It is amazing what happens at graduations. I am grateful to God for a godly family (not a perfect family, but a redeemed family) and for the gift of salvation. I am thankful even for the bracing swipe against Christians. It reminded me to whom I belong and to where I am going. Another benefit of this experience is that my family was able to talk about this incident and what its significance is.

Oh yes, I did pay attention to what was going on at graduation too!

Tolle Lege: Take Up and Read (Acts 8:26-40)

W. G. T. Shedd wrote, in the 1860 Andover ed. of The Confessions, what may rightly be considered the best introduction to the work. Shedd opened with an analysis of what made Augustine such a unique theologian. There is much to be learned from Shedd’s assessment:

The first characteristic that strikes the reader is, the singular mingling of the metaphysical and devotional elements in the work. The writer passes, with a freedom that often amounts to abruptness, from the intensely practical to the intensely speculative. In the very midst of his confession of sin, or rejoicing over deliverance from it, his subtle and inquisitive understanding raises a query, the answer to which, if answer were possible, would involve the solution to all the problems that have baffled the metaphysical mind from Thales to Hegel. In the very opening of the work, for example, when the surcharged and brimming soul is swelling with its think-coming emotions, and it is seeking vent for its sense of the Divine mercy which has saved it from everlasting perdition, it slides, by an unconscious transition, to the question: “How shall I call upon my God, my God and Lord, since when I call for Him I shall be calling Him into myself? And what room is there within me, whither my God can come into me? Whither can God come into me, God, who made heaven and earth?” At the very instant when Augustine is enjoying the most heartfelt and positive communion with God, his intellect feels the pressures of the problem respecting the possibility of such an intercourse. Such transitions are perpetually occurring throughout the work, until, in the eleventh book, the author leaves his autobiography altogether, and devotes the remainder of the work to an interpretation of the opening chapters of Genesis, in which he discusses the most recondite problems respecting Time and Eternity, the Creator and Creation, and the Triunity of the Divine Essence.

It is simply that the day of grace is past and that person’s impenitence will not be forgiven. But impenitence and unbelief are quite forgivable. In fact, God forgives everyone who is born again of both.

Just because a sin is not forgiven, does not mean it is unforgivable in principle. The sin against the Holy Spirit is a sin that cannot be forgiven in principle. Why? We do not know for sure, but that it is such a sin is clearly taught by our Lord.

The notion that all who die in unbelief have resisted the Spirit and therefore, blasphemed Him, requires one to assume the semi-Pelagian (Roman Catholic and Arminian) position that the Spirit strives to convert everyone; that the Spirit does all He can, short of violating a person’s free-will, to get everyone to convert. This is patently untrue. Therefore, any argument based on such a view is also patently untrue. There are many who die impenitent with whom the Spirit did not strive at all. He simply left them in their ignorance and hatefulness towards God.

It is true that sometimes the Spirit is said to strive with those who remain impenitent, but it is never taught in Scripture that this is always so. This non-saving work of the Spirit in the hearts of unbelievers is, I believe, just another way of saying that the Spirit accompanies the Word preached with convictions of conscience. Conscience still works because God’s common grace keeps it functioning to some degree or another. But, the Spirit working on the conscience is not the same thing as the Spirit doing all in His blessed power to convert the non-elect unbeliever. The Spirit could sovereignly give him the new birth, if it was God’s will to do so. Such strivings of the Spirit only serve, in the end, to make men more guilty of persisting in unbelief. Now resisting one’s conscience does aggravate a sin and make it more heinous, but that’s another issue for another day.

1) “What is the Gospel? How does it impact Ecclesiology, Philosophy, Teaching, and Discipleship?”

2) “Communicating the Exclusivity of the Gospel to An Inclusive and Pluralistic Culture.”

3) “What is a Gospel Centered Church?”

New Covenant Presbyterian Church is participating in a Reformed Worship project in conjunction with the Reformed Worship Association. We have already begun a 12-month commitment in which we will commit ourselves to lectio continua preaching, a psalm in either morning or evening worship, 4 of the liturgies from Calvin 500, and a 6-week class, explaining the distinctives of Reformation worship. The substance of the project will be modeled at the October 21-24, 2010 Reformation Worship Conference at Midway Presbyterian Church in Powder Springs, GA. If you can make it to the Conference, I am sure you will not be disappointed. The speakers will include Hughes Oliphant Old, Terry Johnson, John Payne, David Hall, Mark Ross and Paul Jones. In addition to the main speakers, workshop speakers include T. David Gordon and L. Roy Taylor. Sinclair Ferguson, Mark Ross, Jon Payne and David Hall will be preaching at the various worship services. You can see the complete schedule here.

Herman Dooyeweerd: Christian Philosopher of State and Civil Society
Jonathan Chaplin

The twentieth-century Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd (1894–1977) left behind an impressive canon of philosophical works and has continued to influence a scholarly community in Europe and North America, which has extended, critiqued, and applied his thought in many academic fields. Jonathan Chaplin introduces Dooyeweerd for the first time to many English readers by critically expounding Dooyeweerd’s social and political thought and by exhibiting its pertinence to contemporary civil society debates. Chaplin begins by contextualizing Dooyeweerd’s thought, first in relation to present-day debates and then in relation to the work of the Dutch philosopher Abraham Kuyper (1837–1920). Chaplin outlines the distinctive theory of historical and cultural development that serves as an essential backdrop to Dooyeweerd’s substantive social philosophy; examines Dooyeweerd’s notion of societal structural principles; and sets forth his complex classification of particular types of social structure and their various interrelationships. Chaplin provides a detailed examination of Dooyeweerd’s theory of the state, its definitive nature, and its proper role vis-à-vis other elements of society. Dooyeweerd’s contributions, Chaplin concludes, assist us in mapping the ways in which state and civil society should be related to achieve justice and the public good.

Jonathan Chaplin is director of the Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, Cambridge, England.

JANUARY 2011
ISBN 978-0-268-02305-8 (S)
$68.00 cloth • 504 pages

“Herman Dooyeweerd was both deep and original. Much of his
writing is an articulation of rather undeveloped lines of thought
in his Dutch predecessor, Abraham Kuyper. In the course of his
exposition, Chaplin effectively highlights Dooyeweerd’s significance
for a theory of civil society and for present-day social
theory in general.” —Nicholas Wolterstorff, Yale University and
the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Virginia