The Bible tells us not that we are what we eat, but that we are what we worship. We are like the idols that we construct (Psalm 115:8). One step removed from the idols, I think we might also be like the demons that we worship. We not only accuse others of all manner of evil intent, and then interpret their actions in light of the intent we have assigned, but we use our own evil intent as fodder. To put it even more succinctly, we accuse others of doing what we would do, were we in their position.
I see this particular phenomena most frequently in the netherworld of social media. There our worst behavior finds the light of day, particularly when our real name is shielded from the watching world. Hiding behind the idle idol of anonymity, we spew our venom on others. One of the most frequent applications of this diabolical principle I call the Hail Caesar assault. Here is how it works. Internet assassin A sees that public figure D had his salary rise by X percent in the previous year. He not only points out the objective reality of the increase in pay (with no context to speak of) but then argues, “Public figure D gave himself an X percent raise.” And the crowd boos the nefarious Public figure D. Nice, huh?
Here are some things A either does not know, or chooses to conceal. Perhaps public figure D, the previous year, took a pay cut to help balance the budget. Perhaps public figure D came up with a brilliant strategy that saved the organization, and sent income through the roof while increasing ministry effectiveness. Perhaps public figure D had been grossly underpaid for years.
And here is where the evil motive comes in. The president of any not-for-profit institution, for all the power he has been given, does not have the power to set his own salary. The only people on the planet with that kind of power are those who own their own businesses, and if they want to give themselves a raise, who are we to quibble? Internet Assassin A, however, would like us to believe that decisions are made by powerful people all on their own, that Public Figure D must run his organization the way Internet Assassin A would run it, were he in charge.
Having received the internet treatment myself from time to time, I’m familiar with all this. What troubles me far more, however, than the work of the assassins, is the accomplices they bring along, their readers. If I had a dime for every time I have been asked, “Why did you do Y?” when in fact I did no such thing, well, Internet Assassin A would be commenting on how high I live on the hog, speculating no doubt that I got all those dimes by selling indulgences.
Friends, I’m not suggesting no wrongs have been done by public figures, nor that we should all remain silent in the face of them. I am saying we should be on the lookout for this kind of dirty trick. Better yet, pay no attention to anonymous internet assassins. Why don’t we all try practicing a little love, which thinks no evil? And why don’t we get busy minding our own sanctification? Sit not in the seat of scoffers.
Dunamis Fellowship and Sovereign Grace Fellowship continue our weekly Bible study at 7 eastern. Tonight we continue, Meeting Jesus. All are welcome to attend. Come early (6:15) and we’ll feed you. You can also watch on Facebook Live, RC-Lisa Sproul. We hope you join us .
As always, it is important to define our terms. It is not uncommon for government leaders to use their influence to seek to win over the people to a particular behavior. The government uses airtime on the radio telling us to eat our vegetables, to not smoke, to get vaccinated. One is not, however, disobeying the government if one is an unvaccinated smoker who thinks vegetables are great things to feed food, i.e. animals. Be careful not to allow anyone to condemn you for failing to heed their counsel.
Second, to disobey is not the same thing as fomenting rebellion. It is one thing for Christians to meet together for worship against the command of the government. It is altogether another thing to grab your pitchforks, torches and Molotov cocktails and storm the Bastille. The former is disobeying the government. The latter is seeking to overthrow it.
The apostle Paul not only makes a strong case on the necessity of obeying governing authorities, but does so in writing to the Romans, those under the most vicious regime that world had yet known. Just as we are too quick when disagreeing on this theological point or another to anoint ourselves the next Martin Luther so when government annoys us we are tempted to anoint ourselves the next Paul Revere. We are to bend over backwards to obey.
There are, however, limits. The government is owed our obedience in all things, even things that are truly not their concern, unless or until they command us to do what God clearly forbids, or forbid us to do what God clearly commands. We see this principle carried out by Peter in Acts 5. Having been commanded to no longer preach in the name of Jesus Peter and the apostles ask the Sanhedrin, “Should we obey you, or God?” They continued to preach in the name of Jesus.
Two things, however, they didn’t do. They didn’t seek the overthrow of the government. Nor did they resist the government’s punishment of their behavior. Even in their disobedience they were obedient. So ought we to be. If the situation is dire enough that we have to disobey, it must be dire enough that we are willing to be jailed, punished, fed to the lions.
This question is not one that only believers in Communist or Muslim countries must wrestle with. In our own day, in our own country, we’ve had governments telling believers they must forsake the gathering together of the saints. In Canada the government has done the same. Even apart from COVID Canada has commanded believers not to proclaim those parts of the Bible that condemn sexual perversity. In 20 states in this country it is illegal to seek to help someone escape the sin of sexual perversity. In short, answering this question is no longer an academic exercise. It is likely to only get worse.
Our calling as believers is to live with our unbelieving neighbors in peace with all men, as much as it is in our power (Romans 12: 18). Which means even when we must obey, we must do so with a spirit of meekness, just like our Lord.
The relationship among the members of the Trinity is beautiful, indeed the very font of beauty. Such hasn’t, however, kept us sinners from finding ways to take the beauty and using it to bring the ugliness of division into the church. The Great Schism, theologically speaking, centered around a single word, filioque. The western church affirmed the Spirit is sent from the Father and the Son. The eastern church affirmed the Spirit is sent only from the Father. And behold there became two one true churches. In our own day, though with not quite the dramatic results, bitter debates on the nature of the relationship of the Father and the Son back into eternity have become the most arcane twitter fodder in its brief lifetime.
The church for five hundred years wrestled over the two intertwined questions of the incarnation and the Trinity. They have given us guidelines, fences within which we move, outside of which lies heresy. There is, however, something almost as difficult to fathom about Jesus here on earth. God in the flesh is the granddaddy of all mysteries. But then there’s this- how it is possible for Jesus to be fully human, yet without sin? It is not a stretch to imagine that, touching His deity Jesus could be without sin. Touching His humanity, however, that’s a tough sell. Indeed many attack the sinlessness of Jesus on this very point, suggesting that were He truly human He could not be without sin.
The Bible, long before the ecumenical creeds came along, is quite clear on the sinlessness of Jesus. While we must affirm that Jesus is one person with two natures, we must also remember that each nature retains its own attributes. That is, touching His deity, Jesus was and is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. Not so touching on His humanity. Which is precisely why it was possible for Him to grow in wisdom and stature with God and with man (Luke 2:52). When Jesus dazzled the scholars at the temple when He was only 13 it wasn’t because He was tapped into the divine mind. It was because He was without sin. No total depravity to direct Him toward sloth. No noetic effects to misguide His own thinking.
It is a good thing to speak in defense of the deity of Jesus. In an age where He is respected as a great moral teacher we must remember and press the wisdom of CS Lewis who reminds us that great moral teachers do not claim to be God. Jesus does. We must also, however, speak in defense of the humanity of Jesus. He is what we were meant to be. He is the Second Adam, everything the first Adam was before the fall, though in a fallen world. He is what we will one day be, the first born of many brothers.
What Jesus accomplished is precisely why we will be like Him. Not God incarnate, no. We will not be deified. We will, however, become what we were meant to be. Indeed we are headed there even now, growing in grace and wisdom by His grace and through His wisdom.
You want to know what your problem is? You don’t love Jesus enough. I know this not because I know you, but because I know me. I’ve got the same problem. My wife has the same problem, as do my kids. The sheep in my flock suffer from the same problem.
Wherever there is a sin-problem, underneath it all, is this problem. Husbands don’t love their wives as Jesus loves the church, because husbands don’t love Jesus enough. Children disobey their parents, because they don’t love Jesus enough. Pastors soft-pedal the Bible because they don’t love Jesus enough. And people hop from one church to another because they don’t love Jesus enough. Politicians grow power hungry because they don’t love Jesus enough. Rich people suffer from greed, because they don’t love Jesus enough. Middle class people suffer from greed, because they don’t love Jesus enough. Poor people suffer from greed, because they don’t love Jesus enough. Find a sin and you will find there a heart that doesn’t love Jesus enough. Find Jesus, and you will find the solution to our problem. Which is just what Jesus has promised will happen.
It is a good thing when evangelical Christians wake from their pietistic slumbers. It is good and proper that we should be about the business of making manifest the reign of Christ over all things. That He is Lord has effects that stray rather far from our hearts. We fight the culture wars because they are simply a manifestation of the war between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. But the serpent is more crafty than any of the beasts of the field. He took the biblical wisdom that argued that we ought to tend to our souls, and turned it into world-denying piety. And now he takes the biblical wisdom that argues that we must push for the crown rights of King Jesus, and turned it into worldliness, and a denial of the call to piety. Jesus, on the other hand, calls us to seek first two things, the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
How can we seek two different things first? We do so when we realize that the weapons of our warfare, that the very engine of changing the world, is changing ourselves. The reign of Christ will be manifest in the political, social, artistic, cultural realms only insofar and only through the manifestation of the reign of Christ within His people. We will only make known the great Gospel truth that this is our Father’s world, as we live as pilgrims, recognizing that this world isn’t our home, that we are just passing through.
It is because we are worldly that we embrace the culture’s engines of change. We think that we will change ourselves and the world only as we read more books, make more movies, elect more politicians, produce more widgets, and add more programs to our churches. We think sanctification is a doctrine to be studied, rather than a calling to be pursued. In truth, it is neither. We do not pursue a calling, but a person. Sanctification isn’t merely the means by which we become more holy, but is the means by which we become more like Jesus. Just as He, the Son of God, is the express image of the glory of the Father, so we, the bride of Christ, are the image of our eternal Husband. We glorify Him by becoming more like Him.
This is the promise of God, the end of our sanctification, our glorification: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Do you see the connection? We don’t know what we shall be, but we do know we will be like Him. How will we be like Him? What means brings this to pass? We shall see Him as He is. This is the glory of our King, not that He labors faithfully to change us, not that He changes us by the Word of His power, but that He changes us by the power of His glory. Seeing Him makes us like Him.
Which brings us back to our troubles. Our sanctification is long and laborious simply because we do not seek His face. We do not long for His presence. We do not seek to behold His glory, because we are insufficiently impressed. It is the pomp and the power, the dazzle and the sizzle, the bright lights and the baubles of the world around us that have captured our hearts. We don’t find His glory glorious enough, and so we are not yet like Him. We do indeed see through a glass darkly, a glass darkened by our love affair with the world. If we loved Him, we would seek Him. If we sought Him, we would find Him. If we found Him, we would see Him. And if we saw Him, we would be like Him. And believing this, John tells us, will purify us, “and everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure” (v. 3). So may it be said of us.
