Grace in the Pastoral Epistles - Part 2

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, ¹² instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, ¹³ looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, ¹⁴ who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.¹⁵ These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Titus 2:11-15

As I pick up from my last post, I want to emphasize through the pastoral epistles that grace is the substance of sound doctrine, the power for godliness, and the reason for our hope of eternal life.

In the passage above Paul begins by saying that the grace of God has appeared and then he concludes by charging Titus to speak these things. From this passage it is obvious that the sound doctrine that Timothy and Titus were to preach was the gospel itself, and more specifically, it is the gospel of grace. The word “preach” in the Greek is the same as “herald”, which is to publicly proclaim or to announce. The gospel of grace is to be heralded. 1 Timothy 1:15 is a short summary of the message, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. God’s grace demonstrated through Jesus Christ is the substance of our message. Let us publicly proclaim this grace.

Moreover, the gospel of grace is to be obeyed. Titus 2:12 says that the grace that has appeared instructs us to deny ungodliness and to live righteously and godly in the present age. The gospel is not just a message of salvation but also a message of instruction. However, the gospel does not leave us to strive on our own, but it is by the very same grace that we are given the ability to obey and live a godly life. Jesus Christ “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds”. What a glorious verse. For us who are saved, we are no longer slaves to sin but we are His possession, He makes us zealous for good works. What amazing grace! Let us obediently live out this grace.

Lastly, Titus 2:13 speaks of the second coming of Christ. Just as grace was manifested in His first appearing, the culmination of this grace will be at His second appearing. Jesus, is our great God and Savior. It is by His grace that we might become heirs and have eternal life (Titus 3:7). This hope of glory, this hope of inheritance, this hope of eternal life all rests upon the abundantly enduring grace of God and encourages us to persevere until we see Him face to face. Let us patiently hold on to His grace.

Finally, it is clear through the pastoral epistles that grace is thoroughly instrumental to our faith from justification to sanctification to glorification, all are because of His grace. Praise be to Jesus Christ, our God and Savior.

Grace in the Pastoral Epistles - Part 1

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, ¹² instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, ¹³ looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, ¹⁴ who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.¹⁵ These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Titus 2:11-15

Although there is an emphasis on godliness and good works in the pastoral epistles, Paul’s theology of grace is nevertheless established firmly as the foundation of the Christian faith. God’s grace in Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus, shines forth brightly as the source of our salvation, the substance of sound doctrine, the power for godliness, and the reason for our hope of eternal life.

Similar to every Pauline letter, Paul begins and concludes the pastoral epistles with a salutation of grace. Despite the urgency of the problems at the churches grace always goes before and after and permeates through each situation.

All of Christian life begins with grace. Apart from grace there is no salvation. In Titus 2:11, Paul says that the grace of God has appeared, that is in Jesus Christ, to bring salvation to all men. Again in Titus 3:5-7, we are saved not by our works, but by His mercy, and we are justified by His grace. Furthermore, in 2Tim 1:9, we are called not according to our works but according to His grace in Christ Jesus before the ages began (ESV). Our salvation was assured from eternity past, what a glorious truth! Lastly, Paul speaks of his own salvation in 1 Tim 1:12-17, he speaks of his past, how he persecuted the church, he concluded that he is the least of all sinners (v15). Yet he was shown mercy, and God’s grace of more than abundant for Paul, which led him to faith and love in Christ Jesus (v14). The Greek in v14 says the grace of God was exceedingly abundant. The grace of God is many many time more than enough to cover Paul’s transgression, the chief of sinners. What a beautiful doctrine, the doctrine of grace, we are filled to overflowing with God’s grace (ESV), what Paul is saying here is that, no matter how bad a sinner you are, God is exceedingly more gracious, even to the worst of all sinners. No wonder Paul bursts out in doxology in v17. Paul does not speak of salvation only in third person term, it is a personal reality. The gospel of grace must also be a personal reality for us, it cannot just be a regurgitated fact, it must strike us to the core. Christians, we too have received this exceedingly abundant grace in Christ, who had called us from the beginning of time for His good pleasure and glory, not by our works, but by His mercy. Let us rejoice and, like Paul, burst out in doxology to our God who is more than abundant in grace.

Preach the Word

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 2 Tim. 4:1-2

Sorry for the lack of update for the past week, I’ve been pretty busy. For the past couple of days I have been listening to John Piper’s lecture series on preaching at Re: Train. One thing that really struck me was his description of preaching. He called it “expository exultation”. Preaching is both teaching and proclaiming, but most of all it is worshiping God through the exposition of Scripture.

2 Tim. 4:2 had always been a very important passage for myself, although the command was directed at Timothy, I feel that I too must preach in season and out of season. Every time I read this passage I can feel the intensity and the seriousness of Paul’s charge through the page. He says “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus. This is the utmost command, the most important task, to preach the word, to expound and proclaim and rejoice over Scripture which is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16). Teach, train, correct, reprove, exhort, rebuke! 1 Pet. 4:11 says that if anyone speaks he should do it as if he is speaking the utterances of God. And in Eph. 3:8-10, Paul says that he preaches the unfathomable riches of Christ, and brings to light the mystery that was hidden in God for ages, in the presence of rulers in the heavenly places. What an awesome and sobering task! As I prepared last week’s sermon and reflect upon these verses and the idea of “expository exultation”, I was hit with how inadequate I am as a preacher, how privilege I am allowed to preach, and what an immense responsibility. As Lloyd-Jones said “the work of preaching is the highest and the greatest and most glorious calling to which anyone can ever be called.”

I pray that I would be able to display the greatness of God through the Bible and lead people to worship every time that I preach. That I might proclaim the riches of Christ and make clear the mystery of the Gospel each time I speak. That I might be faithful to Scripture even when faced with hardships and oppositions. God help me to preach in season and out of season, for the sake of Your glory, Amen.

The Fall- Revisited

Taking a brief detour from the planned entry, I want to address something discussed in sunday school. Disclaimer: long entry.
During sunday school this week we talked about Gen 3. The main point that the teacher was making was that God wants the best for us and satan wants us to think that God is withholding something good from us. Which I completely agree. My post about the Fall can be found here.

There was a question raised in the class which I tried to answer but was very unclear in my attempt as vinci would point out =P. so to make ammends I am posting hopefully a more clear response to the question (just for you vinci).

The question was: In Gen 2:17 it says, "but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die", however Adam and Eve did not die "on that day" in fact Adam died in Gen 5:5 having lived 930 years. Did God make a mistake or lied? Isn't the serpent more truthful then in saying "you surely would not die" in Gen 3:4?

I am gonna give three answers here. One is what people usually give "spiritual death", one is what I found on the internet, and lastly one that I tried to give in class. Here the problem is in Gen 2:17. "on that day... you will surely die."

First attempt is to say that the "die" in this warning given by God is refering to spiritual death. which I believe is true but not complete. Looking at the Hebrew, it seems to suggest an emphatic physical death. Here is what Garry Brantley, a Bible scholar says:
The usage of the phrase “you shall surely die” (mot tamut) indicates that a violent, physical death is under consideration. This grammatical construction juxtaposes an infinitive absolute (mot), and the imperfect verb (tamut), which provides the emphatic nuance you will “surely, or indeed” die (Lambdin, 1971, p. 158). While it is true that the word “die” can refer to natural causes or to violent death (Smick, 1980, 1:496), the manner in which the verb is used in this phrase indicates the latter. In fact, this grammatical construction appears several times in the Hebrew Bible, and commonly denotes a physical, violent death (1995, 15:23).

This lead us to the second response, "on that day" is not really on that day. That is to say that the phrase "on that day" is speaking more about certainty of death rather than the immediacy of death. There seems to be examples of this in OT where the phrase "on that day" is speaking more of a certainty of outcome than speaking about the chronology of outcome (cf. 1 Kings 2:37) More from here. Also, there is some leniency in the Hebrew about the phrase "on that day", other occurance of this Hebrew word in the OT sometimes is interpreted as "when" or not a literal day. This is addressed on this website.

Now to my answer. Disclaimer: I am not sure I am right, but I want to show my line of reason. One of the teacher threw out the challenge for us to make sense of it without other books of the Bible and without knowledge of Hebrew. This is basically saying if you only had the book of Genesis can you reconcile the problem you see in Gen 2 and Gen 3. Furthermore, from what I believe about the clarity of Scripture, which I think means that Scripture was written so that everyone can understand, not just scholars or clergy, I believe that we can make sense of Gen 2 and Gen 3.

Here is my line of thought. This is a "difficult" text. We don't use difficult text to establish theology but use clear text to establish what we know about God and to use that to make clear the difficult texts. The difficulty in Genesis 2:17 was already pointed out. Did Adam DIE on THAT DAY which he took the fruit? The underlying accusation is that God made an empty threat, or was wrong in His warning. We know that God does not lie nor can He lie. We also know that what He proclaim will come to pass. So I will approach this text knowing that No. God did not make a mistake in Gen 2:17.

How then can I back up my assertions? Context. First, let's deal with death. Is this narrative about death or is the focus on taking the fruit and rebellion? Just by doing a quick word search you can see that tree and fruit was mentioned much more than death and references of death. The issue here is rebellion. Moreover, death, that is physical death, is not the issue. If we are hung up on physical death then we miss the point. If death was really THE problem, then the answer would have been found in the tree of life Gen 3:22 and the warning of God in Gen 2:17 would be void.

The problem, then, is not what is said in Gen 2:17 but our understanding of death. One of the people in the class asked if Adam and Eve knew what death was? How can the warning have any weight if Adam didn't even know what death was? They have not seen death or anything close to death how then can they know? I will venture an answer here. We should not view death here as a thing on its own but as an absence of a thing, namely life or being. Death is the absence of life. Surely, Adam knew what that means, Eve was not there, and then Eve was there. Eve was not being, and then Eve was a being. As Gen 3:19 puts it "For you are dust, And to dust you shall return" Adam knew what it means to die, it is the absence of life, the end of being, returning to dust. Now, if we take that idea of opposites, we can see death in a different light. If life to Adam was life in the Garden: dominion over every creature, perfect communion with God and access to every good thing, then death in a lesser extent is the absence of these things, the end of life in the Garden. These things you can see play out at the end of Gen 3.

How about the phrase "on that day"? I believe it is both speaking of the immediacy and the certainty of death. Immediacy in the lesser sense of death and certainty in the full sense of death, the end of physical life. Why do I say that? We should examine the happenings on the day of the Fall. God curses those who are held accountable and the expell them from the Garden. We must understand Gen 2:17 in light of Gen 3. It can be deduced that, "You will surely die" encompasses the corruption of man and of nature and the separation between man and God and it indeed happen on that day. The effect of the rebellion is immediate. Adam was removed from life as he knew it. The death mentioned also encompasses physical death (cf. Gen 3:19, 5:5). In dealing with physical death the phrase "on that day" emphasizes the certainty of death in full.

With that said, physical death is not the focus of the passage. The themes of rebellion, corruption and separation are the focal point. This separation some might call spiritual death. Here are some closing thoughts: God wanted Adam to die after the Fall. Someone in the class said that Gen 2:17 really talks about death physically. Granted that is true, I agree. But that is not the main issue! God's warning is not just that you will cease to exist, but that Adam will exist separated from Him, the source of Life. Adam in the Garden was in the presence of Life; then surely separation from God is separation from Life, that is absence of Life and that is death.

We humans are concerned about physical death and rightly so, who wants to die really? We are given a will to live, you can see it in a dying patient, gasping for air in the last moments of his life. But God is not so much concern about it. Like I said God wanted Adam to die after the Fall. Adam MUST die or else God's word would have be void. The solution is not in the tree of life. Then solution is in Gen 3:15, the Seed of the woman, Jesus Christ. Note that Jesus defeated death, yet we still die physically, even though we are Christians. Once again God is not concern about our physical death but more so about our standing before Him. Are we in the presence of Life or are we in the absence? When we read Gen 2 and 3, I hope we don't just come out saying because of sin therefore we die, which is true, but rather be convinced of our separation from God, and our need for Jesus. Lastly, with this understanding of life and death, we should not fear death, because in death, we truly know life, that is we are brought into the presence of God, the true essence of Life.

Behold, The Lamb of God!

Sorry for the lack of update, I have found it difficult to write out what I want to say about the corruption of man by sin. I have been bogged down by the intensity and the heaviness of the topic. Also, I was getting frustrated at some of the articles I've been reading that were riddled with jargons and technical terms. I feel that I have to write like that to be "good" and "scholarly". So, I apologize for writing in a way that's not really the way I speak and for the delay in my blog. I do want to write things out in more day to day language and explain Christian terms in simple language. I don't want to pretend to be or write like someone I am not.

With that said, I just want to share a little bit of what struck me today.

Jn 1:29
"The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'"
Jn 1:36
"and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God!'"

John the Baptist is telling people around him to behold! To behold is to gaze upon or to look with full attention. The way I understand it is to stop and observe the object that I am beholding. To literally be held by the object of interest. John the Baptist here is saying LOOK CAREFULLY, the Lamb of God.

This really convicted me. I asked myself how many times I have only glanced at Jesus, only looking at him for a moment, treating Him as common because of the familiarity. But here John is telling us to BEHOLD because Jesus is the one that takes away the sin of the world. He is the Lamb that is to be slain for the atonement of sins. He is our savior.

I then ask myself, what am I beholding if it was not Christ? Myself? People? School? Video Games? Sports? With such busy schedules and lives have I stopped beholding Jesus? Is He the apple of my eyes? Is He the one that I gaze upon and marvel at?

He is the saviour of the world, He is the Lamb of God, the only one who is worthy of our full attention and worship. Let's be intimate with God without making Him common. He deserves more than a glance. Imagine the body of Christ that is awestruck by His mercy and captured by His love. Let us stop and be held by His glory, let us marvel at His grace, let us fix our eyes on Jesus.
"Behold, the Lamb of God!"