Hello brethren. As some of you know, my pastor (the author) and I (the editor) have been working for a couple of months on one of his book projects. Well, I want to let you all know that we are now finished and the book is available on Amazon.
The book is called, "The Serpent and the Cross: Rethinking John 3:16". In it, one of the most beloved, yet most often misunderstood verses in the Bible is given a close examination. I think you will be as surprised as I was with what the verse truly teaches about the love of God, and its consequences for we who follow Christ.
Here is the official description of the book:
"John 3:16 is the most popular verse in all the Bible. Many quote it assuming to understand its meaning. Sermons are preached from it. Businesses use it as their slogan. It has even made its way into professional sports! Yet, the meaning and import of this profound verse is still as dark to many as its truth was to Nicodemus. Jesus brings the truth of His kingdom into the mind and heart of Nicodemus in an unexpected comparison between the serpent on the pole deep in Israel's history, and the Son of Man on the cross yet future to Nicodemus. The parallels are striking. More importantly, a proper understanding of the serpent on the pole leads to a proper understanding of the Son of Man on the cross."
As I worked on this book, I must admit that there is so much to be found within John 3:16 that, as a result of our modern mushy-minds, we do not quickly see. However, as Pastor Charlie explains, a proper interpretation of this verse grants the Lord far more glory than the fluffy "God is in love with you" gospel so often preached today.
Currently, the book is available in paperback from Amazon, and the Kindle version is currently being processed (but will be out soon). Here is a link to it: http://www.amazon.com/Serpent-Cross-Rethinking-John-16/dp/0615954367/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391709518&sr=1-1&keywords=serpent+and+the+cross
I hope you all have a blessed week!
Edit: The Kindle version is now available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IA52LXG
I want to start out by saying that this warfare over predestination has taken a turn away from Scripture and into a misconstruction of Election. Whenever one says, "I believe that the Lord saves and man has nothing to do with his salvation", instantly the philosophical meanderings of John Calvin are brought up and debated on a non-Scriptural, philosophical plane. It seems that we care more about our disagreements and agreements with theologians than with the Word of God. However, if we are to understand what the Lord told us, we must throw Calvin, Arminius, and every other theologian and philosopher aside and merely look at Scripture. Not saying that all theologians are unhelpful, but rather that God's Word is all we need to be made wise, understanding His Will and Plan (Psalm 19:7-9).
With that in mind, let us go to the very beginning of time.
In the beginning was the God, the Triune Lord. In this state, the Father loved the Son and the Spirit, the Son loved the Spirit and the Father, the Spirit loved the Father and the Son. It was a perfect, loving, holy relationship within Elohim (Hebrew name for God, its plural ending emphasizes the three-in-oneness of God). It was in this state wherein the Father made a wondrous decree to the Son:
"You are My Son,
On that day I have begotten You,
Ask Me (note: a command in Hebrew), and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
And the ends of the Earth as Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron,
You shall shatter them like earthenware." (Psalm 2:7-9)
In this passage, we find the very goal of all creation, and specifically of all men: we are a gift to the Son. This is especially important to bear in mind throughout this entire discussion, for it colors all that we must know as Christians.
Because the Son loves the Father and does all that He commands (John 14:31), Christ asked His Father for the nations and the World. Thus, God created the Heavens and the Earth.
In man's beginning, he was created as a son of God (Luke 3:38). Why was he created this way? Well, he was made to be the Image and likeness of God, specifically the image of the Son (thus, Adam was to be one of the many brethren which God predestined to be the Image of His Son, Rom. 8:28-29). If sin had not entered the world through the Fall of Adam, his descendants would all then be children of God.
Yet, this would not work in God's decree.
[Please remember, a decree is that which causes something to come to pass or into being ("Let there be light!"), it is not something that merely looks ahead at that which will come to pass on its own ("There will be light."). Thus, God's decree is a creative declaration which causes, by the merit of it being God's omnipotent command, all that it says to come into being. But I digress.]
If God's decree is to take place, man must fall. Please keep reading and paying close attention. Man must fall if Christ is to break him with a rod of iron and shatter him like a clay pot. It must take place. So, through God's decree, and not His authorship, sin entered the Perfect World. Man fell, and God had to kill him for his iniquity (Gen. 2:17). So, all the world was placed under a curse and judgement from God, leading to death (Rom. 3:9-18, 5:12, 6:23, etc.).
However, what now was God to do? (I am speaking, as Paul did, in "human terms") If every man was evil, then Christ must destroy all of them. If this happens, Christ will not have an inheritance left. Yet God's decree reached beyond this seeming dilemma, for nothing can stop Him.
Look again to the beginning of time with the Lord. Listen to the parable of the Wheat and Tares.
"Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven was (Note: the original greek is in the past tense here) compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn."'" (Mat. 13:24-30)
What does this passage say about our topic? Well, look at Christ's explanation:
"Then He left the crowds and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him and said, 'Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.' And He said, 'The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels. So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.'" (Mat. 13:36-43)
Now we have the keys to understand the passage and its significance to our topic. Christ sowed good seed, the Sons of the Kingdom, into the World (not the Church, but the World). After Christ did this, Satan came in and sowed tares (weeds), those who are his sons, into the world amongst the wheat. These two plants, wheat and tares, are growing together in this world now, and both seem to look alike at times (cf. vs. 29). Nevertheless, these two plants are inherently different from the beginning, and are always different, even to the end. Once the end has come, the angels will gather both the wheat and the tares, the first to the Kingdom, and the last to Hell (Revelation 14:14-20, 20:11-15, etc.)
This parable can only fit with a complete recounting of all of history. In the very beginning, Christ sowed His people into the world. These are the ones who were predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ, making them brethren with Christ (Rom. 8:28-29). However, Satan infiltrated the world, by the fall of man, and thus sowed his own sons into the world (note: he did not create them, rather they are those who do just as He does and will never repent of their ways). All of this flows well with my last post, and I suggest reading my last one to better understand this difference between sons of God and sons of the Devil.
If you still do not know what I am getting at, here it is:
God, in the very beginning, decreed that His Son would inherit the world and mankind. Some of these men would be crushed, whilst others would be His brethren. So, God created the world. In this world, He sovereignly planned and placed His Sons (Christ's brethren). If sin had not entered, these sons would be the only one's created, and they would have inherited the world and ruled alongside Christ for eternity. However, God decreed that men must fall in order to be destroyed. Thus, God sovereignly decreed that Satan would introduce sin into humanity, causing his downfall. This sowed sons of the Devil into this perfect world, leaving tares among the wheat. Nevertheless, the wheat were still wheat. The sons of the kingdom were still sons of the kingdom, they never became tares. These wheat were destined, by nature of being wheat, to be gathered into the barns.
Yet, these wheat had to be destroyed for justice's sake, since they sinned, just like the tares. However, God was not stopped. He sent His only begotten Son to live and die in the place of the wheat, thus allowing them to enter Heaven through Faith. However, these wheat were much like the tares: without faith or anything good in them. Thus, God caused them to believe in Christ, granting the believing ones eternal life. This in turn ensured their eternal life, allowing God's judgement to pass over them and onto His Son.
Now, the tares were never the sons of God. No, they are by nature sons of the Devil. As a result, they must inherit the judgement placed on their father: burning in Hell for eternity, crushed under the weight of Christ's wrath. This is their decreed doom, and it cannot be undone.
Not everyone can be saved, nor can everyone go to Hell, since both would undermine God's Decree. Thus, God proceeded with His aforementioned plan.
This is why the Elect are elect, why they gain faith and no-one else does, why they cannot lose their salvation, why they are justified, and all other implications of the Gospel.
I will be continuing on this subject later, since I have merely scratched the surface of this issue and much more needs to be addressed.
God Bless.
Well, it
has been a very long time since I have posted anything, and I have felt guilty
because of this. It is my God-given duty to proclaim the Gospel, and I have
done poorly at that lately. So, by His grace, I have been able to devote some
time to this post. It is on the sovereignty of God and its relation to
salvation and man's will. This is a very controversial topic, but only because of our sin. In
this post, I will briefly go over many foundational truths of the Gospel, and I
beg you to pay attention and read to the end. This is not even the beginning of
the wonderful grace which God has granted us to know through the Bible, but it
is a good place to peer into the marvelous plan of God called the Gospel.
As with every theological truth, we
must start with the basics. The current problem of mankind goes back
to the Fall of man (and finds its origin in an eternal decree of God, but I
will get into that in later posts). When Adam decided to rebel against the
authority of God and submit himself to Satan, God made a most
interesting decree. In Genesis 3:15, God said to Satan,
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you
shall bruise Him on the heel."
In part, God is speaking of the
ultimate Seed of the woman, which is Christ, the Son of God. What is extremely
crucial for us to also grasp is that the first half of this verse is speaking
also of two separate, non-deity seeds. In this context, God
is speaking of two separate, distinct families, the offspring of
two separate personages. The first is the offspring of Satan. Who are these
people? According to John 8 vs. 41 and 44,
"You are doing the deeds of your father... You are of your
father the Devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is
no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for
he is a liar and the father of all lies."
Here our Lord declares that those
who both do and want to do the desires of the Devil are born of him. This
is not mere conjecture on my part, since the Spirit reminded John again of
this teaching, and he repeated it in 1 John 3,
"The one who practices sin is of the Devil; for the Devil
has sinned from the beginning... By this the children of God and the children
of the Devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of
God, nor the one who does not love his brother."
So, we now know that any man who
practices sin and hates righteousness is born of the Devil. Now we must ask,
who specifically is born of the Devil? To answer that, we must understand that
you can only be one of two seeds: the seed of the woman or the seed of Satan.
In innumerable passages, we see the seed of the woman equated with the Children
of God. This is especially seen in John 3. Here the Lord declares, that you
must be born from above, of water and Spirit, in order to inherit the Kingdom
of God (John 3:3 & 5). This is set in contrast with those born of the
flesh in vs. 6. However, every man is born of the flesh. Look at your body, is
that flesh or is that spirit? By virtue of your physical birth, you are a
child of the Devil. From your conception you were a sinner (Psalm 51:5).
This is especially frightening when we see that if one sins, he is a slave to
sin (John 8:34). Since everyone has sinned (Romans 3:23), that means that all
men who are born solely of the flesh are slaves to sin and thus sons of the
Devil.
So, everyone (at first) is a
son of the Devil, of the flesh. This is a huge problem, since this means that
no man can inherit the Kingdom of God, since flesh and blood can't inherit
it (1 Cor. 15:50). Thus, our Lord brings a wonderful solution to mankind's
impending doom: we must be born of God (John 3:5). Easy enough, right? All
you have to do is be born of God.
What is holding you back? Is this
not the easiest of actions one could do? Can you not make yourself born of God?
Can't you make God give you birth? Well, did you make your mother bear you in
your flesh? No. It is the same with this spiritual birth. You do not have the
ability to make God bear you.
"But read John 3:16! It says that if we believe in
Jesus, we will be saved! Since only those who are born of God are saved, then
it must mean that if I believe in Jesus, I will be born of God!" Well, I
will grant you that those who truly believe in Christ are born of God. However,
can you really, truly believe in Christ? “Yes”, you say. Well, let us test your
assertion.
First off, if we want to know whether man is capable of
believing in Christ, which is a righteous deed, we must understand his heart.
This is because the heart is the wellspring, the origin, of our whole life
(Prov. 4:23). So, what is in man’s heart? Well, our Lord, who knew the hearts
of every man, gave a list which summarizes man’s heart in Matthew 15:19,
“For out of the
heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false
witness, slanders.”
Notice that nothing is
said about love or faith or obedience here. This is because the hearts of men
are desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). There really is nothing good left in there.
Why? Because they are the image of their father’s heart, which is devoid of all
good. So, it is only natural that they are devoid of all good and full of all
evil. Thus, no man can do anything, anything,
good. Nothing at all. This is especially evident as Paul repeats in Romans
3:10-12,
“There is none righteous, not even one:
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
This is an extremely bleak picture. If this is true, which it is God’s
Word and is thus true, then no man can do anything good. Nothing good at all. In
fact, it can be said that every unsaved man is just like the unsaved before the
flood, with every wish of their heart always being pure evil (Genesis 6:5).
So, can you, of your own will, believe in Christ? “Yes, it must be
possible!” If this is still your reply, understand that it is only possible if
the Scripture is either wrong or if belief in Christ is evil. Both arguments are
sick and unthinkable. Thus, you are left with the fact that you cannot believe
in Christ. Moreover, since those who obey Christ are those who are born of God,
and since you cannot obey Christ, you cannot make yourself born of God. To make
matters worse, you don’t even want to be.
“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and
men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
Because everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light
for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” (John 3:19)
If you remember nothing
of this post, remember this: you are impotent, hopeless, and purely evil. There
is nothing in you that is good, and you in fact hate all good with all of your
being. It is true that you are as much a son of the Devil as Hitler, Stalin,
and even the arch-son of Hell Judas Iscariot. You cannot save yourself, nor
would you do so if you had the ability. No, you prefer to have your sin and
your impending doom along with it. Well, you don’t like the idea of going to
Hell, where God will pour out His perfect, terrifying wrath on you forever.
However, you don’t hate the idea enough to cause you to beg God for mercy. Yet,
that is to be expected, since you can’t do anything good because of your own
fleshly nature. So, again, you are hopeless. No, you can’t “choose Christ”, or “open
the door of your heart to Him”. You can’t accept the Light because you hate the
Light and absolutely love evil. Thus, you are headed straight to Hell, where
God will pour out His wrath on you for eternity as a result of your rebellion
against Him. You are hopeless.
Yet, there is hope,
hope that comes from outside of you.
This hope is birth from God. Since we have established the fact that you can do
nothing good, this hope must come completely from God. Realize, birth from
above is a completely new creation inside of you. Through being born of God’s
Spirit, you become spirit (John 3:6). In so doing, God creates a clean heart in
you, a heart that actually wants and does His will (1 John 3, Ezekiel 36). He
truly gives birth to you by miraculously creating a new soul in you, which
makes you His son/daughter. As a result, you will inherit the Kingdom of God,
which was prepared for you since before time began (Mat. 25:34). All of this is
of God, for it is by His grace, through his granting of faith to us, since this
work is not of ourselves but is of God (Eph. 2:8).
One of the central
tenets of the true Gospel of our Lord is that man is impotent. You are
impotent. You can do nothing at all that will allow you to be saved, since you
can’t do anything good. Thus, God must save you, He must birth you. Every
single part of salvation, from obedience to God to “saving faith”, is impossible for man. Yet, nothing is
impossible for God.
Do you understand your
utter inability to obey God? Do you realize how wretched, miserable, and poor
you are? Good. Are you truly broken
and mourning over this fact? Good. Are you humbled before the Almighty,
realizing His Greatness and your utter lack of worth? Are you craving for His
righteousness as a starving and parched man for food and water? Are you now
granting mercy to others? Is your heart purified? Realize, the Kingdom of
Heaven is yours. Why? God birthed you, for these are the fruits only of
spiritual birth. Our Lord lays it out clearly,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of
Heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the Earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and
falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in Heaven is great; for in the
same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Mat. 5:3-12)
If the above is true of
you, rejoice! Be thankful, for while you were still a sinner and enemy of God,
God chose you, sent His Son to die in your place, and thus demonstrated His
perfect love for you (Rom. 5:8). However, remember that this was not of you.
So, lay aside your pride, acting as if you somehow earned salvation. Rather,
live a life of perfect humility and love towards all men. Most of all, love God
with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have
loved you.
Greater love has no man than this, that one lay down his life for
his friends.
You are My friends if you do what I command you.
No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what
his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have
heard from My Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you
would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the
Father in My name He may give to you.
This I command you, that you love one another.” (John 15:12-17)
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good
to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become
conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many
brethren;
And those whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He
called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” (Romans 8:28-30)
Nothing in your walk as
a Christian comes from yourself (if it is good). No, either your works are
wrought in God alone, by God alone, and by His blessed Will alone, or your
works are of the flesh and evil (John 3:20-21). Thank God that He gave us life
by His Will. When we could not obey and submit to Him, He granted us faith and
repentance in spite of our flesh and evil wills (John 1:12-13). All glory to
His Name.
God bless.
