Kiss the Son Lest You Perish Along the Way

Posted on June 20, 2025 by RC

There is no such thing as the “More” party. They do not run campaigns seeking to unseat sitting officials of the “Less” party. Both “More” and “Less” need more context and less ambiguity. We need to know what we are getting more or less of. In like manner, the question of pluralism begs a previous question- Plural what? What is it the pluralists want more of? On the surface it might seem that what they want more of is religions. One religion isn’t enough. We need, according to these folks, to construct a world with plenty of room for Hindus and Hottentots, for Muslims and Mormons, for Buddhists and Baptists.

Authority

When we look deeper, however, we run headlong into an inescapable spiritual reality, that every religion in the end is all about authority. What they want is multiple authorities. If there is, in the end, only one authority, and I am not that authority, then I am under authority. But, if there are lots of authorities, which is another way of saying there is no authority, then I am free to rule my own world. Then there is not only room for Shinto-ism, but for Sheila-ism. There is not only room for Roman Catholicism, but for R.C. Sproulicisim.

Denying What We Know

When the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 1 that the natural man suppresses the knowledge of God in unrighteousness, that he denies what he knows, we understand that he does this that he might continue to sin, without fear of reprisal. The natural man constructs a view of the world wherein he never need fear facing the judgment of God. This construct not only will actually require the facing of the judgment of God, but is in fact already a judgment by God. It is the very foolishness that God gives their minds over to.


Dealing with the Devil

Pluralism extends beyond the unbeliever. We who profess the Lordship of Christ, more often than not, find pluralism appealing. We who’ve been given new hearts, presumably are about the business of putting to death our desire for self-rule. We ought, it would seem, to be of the “Less” party. I fear our motives are scarcely more honorable than our unbelieving friends’ motives. They won’t affirm the Lordship of Christ over them because they fear Christ will reign over them. We fear affirming the Lordship of Christ over all things, including our neighbors, because we are afraid our neighbors will rule over us.

Pluralism is a half-hearted attempt at a compromise of convenience- we won’t condemn you if you won’t condemn us. We won’t say you are wrong, if you won’t say that we are wrong. We won’t find your views backwards and repugnant, if you won’t find our views backwards and repugnant. What a deal. And all it costs us is the central and first affirmation of our own faith, Jesus is Lord. All we have to give up to win peace with our neighbors is the proclamation of the gospel.

Seek First

Jesus is all too aware of our fears. He knows how painful it is to be scorned by the broader culture. He knows what it’s like to have a single dominant religion find your religion to be foolish and superstitious. He has experience in suffering under a single monolithic power. He’s entered into this reality, and conquered it. And He commands of us that we seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness. He commands that we put our worries away, and trust in Him.

No Bounds

We evangelicals make the foolish mistake of thinking that when enough souls decide to make Jesus the Lord of their lives, that He will become the Lord of all things. The reality is that Jesus is already Lord over all things. His kingdom, strictly speaking, does not expand, for even now it knows no borders. He does not, therefore, engage in some sort of power sharing arrangement with other pretenders to His throne, whether they be false deities, or those who falsely worship them. We do not accomplish His Lordship but recognize and submit to it. It is not something we negotiate; it is something we proclaim.

Good Cheer

That Jesus is Lord, however, is not some grim reality that we proclaim with all the grace of a desert prophet. It is something we proclaim with all the grace of joy. It was our Lord Himself, after all, who commanded us to “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). It’s over. The kingdom is here, and Jesus has won. What fools we are to rush off to negotiate with the enemy to save our skins.

Repent and Believe

His victory does not mean that we rush off to kill all our enemies. Instead that we are to love them. Which love must be strong enough to tell them with both passion and compassion, that their hopes are in vain. That their gods are mute, and that there is only one name under heaven by which a man must be saved. Our love for them does not present the Christian gospel as an option, nor to argue it’s a good option that’s worked well for us. Our love commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel, lest they perish, to kiss the Son, lest He be angry and they perish along the way.

Posted in 10 Commandments, apologetics, Biblical Doctrines, church, eschatology, evangelism, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, politics, post-modernism, preaching, RC Sproul JR, theology, wisdom | Comments Off on Kiss the Son Lest You Perish Along the Way

We Have Met the Scandalizers and They Are Us

Posted on June 19, 2025 by RC

Much has already been spoken and written since last month’s blunder by Bryan Chappell, former stated clerk of the PCA church. If you are unaware, Dr. Chappell was being interviewed by the Gospel Coalition and along the way, in order to make a point, pulled a post-it note off his desk that listed a dozen or two men he believed to be scandalizers in the church. He went on to speak this untruth- that every one of the men on the list has either left his family, left the faith or taken his own life. Yikes.

I know, some better than others, roughly half the men on the list. Most of them I would consider friends. While I hate to see any of them falsely accused of infidelity, apostasy or murder, I confess I understand why each one of them might be considered a scandalizer. The accusation sticks.

I should be on that list. Alas, and wildly ironically, my scandals have rendered me insufficiently significant in the Reformed world to make Dr. Chapell’s list. I also have a long list of others who should be on the list. Collin Hansen, who performed the interview, should have been on the list. Steve Lawson should have been on the list. John Piper too. Joel Webbon should have been on the list. As well as Brian Sauve. Doug Wilson should have been on the list. You know who else should have been on the list? RC Sproul.

Why? Everyone on the list, all those I suggested should be on the list, and all those whose names I haven’t mentioned have brought scandal into the church. We have been regenerated, indwelt, redeemed, forgiven. We are the very bride of the one perfect Man. And we not only have a past, but a present, and a future too. We are Gomer, only we go back to our old ways more than once.

If there is a scandal in this scandalizer scandal it is that we have and we are believers who think ourselves superior to other believers, whether we are Dr. Chappell making his list or we are using him to make our grist for our mill. We who are appalled at Dr. Chappell’s faux pas are prone to pronounce our judgment on him, for the list, for who is on the list and for his first “apology” which no one would ever confuse with Psalm 51.

Those who are appalled at the men on the list, including the men on the list half of whom would likely have the other half on their own list, pronounce judgment on the names for their scandalizing behavior, which is rather more nuanced than what fits on a post-it. Our response, in short, is to cast blame on those whose tribe is farthest from us. What it ought to be is repentance.

There is nothing any of these men have done that is beyond my own sin. I crucified the Lord of Glory. So did they. So did you. Which is how we’ve all come to be forgiven, through the scandal of the cross. Which scandal ought to banish all others.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Biblical Doctrines, Big Eva, communion, ethics, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, repentance, scandal, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Babes in Toyland: Youthful Folly In Our Dotage

Posted on June 17, 2025 by RC

We should expect that a given culture would follow the pattern of the riddle of the Sphinx. What begins on four legs, moves to two, and ends with three? Oedipus freely passed on his way because he recognized this as man. We begin as babies, crawling on all fours. As we mature we move to walking. But as age comes, we now use a cane. Cultures do begin young, and then mature. But that the end may not look like an old man with a cane. We may go out less with a whimper than a whine. We will be wearing pampers, not Depends. Drinking formula rather than prune juice. We will not die, culturally speaking, of too little energy, but too little maturity. We’re going to baby ourselves to death.

When the future comes to dig among our ruins, what will they find? Not long ago it became something of a fashion craze for adults to wear pacifiers around their necks. They’ll find us buried in underwear by SpongeBob Squarepants. They’ll find that we fashion our movies out of comic books and our favorite streaming shows from when we were kids. And then they’ll find us curled around our idols, cups from Starbucks, our bottles of choice.

Cultural decline is recognized less by gross moral failure, and more by movement away from God’s image. The dominion mandate not only abides for believers after the fall, but is essential to what all men are. But we, because we are children, no longer build. Instead we consume. This is true not only in terms of “work” as such, but in terms of culture as well. We are mining our pasts, consuming our parents. Our architecture copies older forms, at random, not to honor them, but to save the trouble of making any progress. Our visual art looks more like a child’s temper tantrum, than an adult seeking to see the world through God’s eyes.

Economically speaking, it is the same. Children, by and large, consume more than they produce. Which is exactly what we do. I spent years bemoaning the evil of government debt, only to discover that it is dwarfed by consumer debt in this country. It doesn’t take a government bureaucrat to be a fool. Ordinary citizens do just fine. An adult labors to leave a heritage to his descendants. A child simply consumes. An adult is someone who delays gratification now, for the sake of the future. A child lives for today. We have an economy of Mcjobs because we have a workforce of Mcchildren.

We have our meals cooked for us at the supermarket, and our entertainment provided through 5G. Even the “engine of growth” that is the internet is dominated by sites providing tools for shameful, juvenile behavior. Our heroes are adults who play children’s games. Hollywood is a shrine to the fun of playing dress up. And every city of size has its skyline dotted with temples dedicated to men playing little league for pay.

We finish school in our mid-twenties, if all goes well. We marry still later. We begin, if we manage to do so at all, to save money in our thirties, after we’ve paid off the debt we accumulated along the way. And then we start plotting out early retirement, so we can play more sooner. Once we hit that age, we start clamoring to our Uncle Sam to take better care of us. From cradle to grave we long for the cradle, and march inexorably to the grave. All along the way we rush to the gym, the cosmetics counter, the hairdresser, the plastic surgeon, all to hide what the Bible says we should be pleased with, that we are growing older.

Worse than all this folly that so infects the broader culture is that we in the church have drunk so deep of it. Our Book commands that we honor our fathers and mothers, but we treat them just like our neighbors treat their mothers and fathers, as burdens to be managed, rather than resources to learn from. Our Book tells us to honor the hoary head, but we cover it over with hair coloring. Our Book instructs us that we should seek out wisdom, that we should aspire to become patriarchs and matriarchs, and we at best joke about and at worst lie about our age.

What an opportunity, a chance to be a city shining on a hill. If we’d jettison the foolishness of our age, and begin to honor age, we’d not only stand out, but be blessed as well. Our Father not only calls us to honor our fathers and mothers, but promises that if we will, it will go well for us in the land. If we would honor age, we would be blessed with wisdom from on high. If we would speak well of our fathers, if we would rise up and call them blessed, then our Father in heaven would speak well of us, He would rise up and call us blessed.

The call here isn’t to turn our back on the exciting, flashy and new to embrace the drab and dusty. Instead it is to enter into riches, to a wealth that is immune to rust and moth. When we honor those who have entered their golden years, when we long ourselves to enter into our golden years, then we will have a harvest of gold. Then we will have gold to pass on to our children, who will in turn cause us to stand in the gates.

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What does it mean to say the church is apostolic?

Posted on June 16, 2025 by RC

The various competitors to the “one true church” crown, Anglo-Catholicism, Roman Catholicism and eastern Orthodoxy, all make quite a fuss about their pedigrees. Each holds to a doctrine called “apostolic succession” which affirms that the current leadership in their respective institutions can trace a direct line of descent directly to the apostles. A physical, literal “this guy laid hands on that guy who laid hands on that guy…ad nauseum… all the way to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Pope Leo XIV or the seven Orthodox Patriarchs.

This claim is the foundation of each institution’s dogmatic assertion that they are the real deal. And each institution has no trouble debunking the other two institutions’ claims because all three claims are bunk. Hornswaggle. Dubious. Not true. I’d rather defend the claims of Landmark Baptists, though, well, I wouldn’t volunteer for that gig either.

The church is in fact apostolic. Not because of an unbroken succession of hand laying, of social distancing protocol violations. No. The true church is apostolic because it is that place where the teaching of the apostles is believed. The church is that which is built upon the foundation of the prophets and the apostles (Eph. 2:20). Reject that foundation and not only do the walls come tumbling down, but the lampstand is removed.

When Rome unambiguously damned the gospel message that we are justified apart from the works of the law, but by faith alone, it ceased to be apostolic. Insofar as Anglo-Catholicism and eastern Orthodoxy do the same, they too are no longer apostolic, and therefore no longer the church.

When Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church (Matt. 16:18) He did not promise that no institutional church would ever cease to be a church. Jesus Himself warned the church at Ephesus that He might come remove its lampstand (Rev. 2:5). Paul warned the Gentiles who were grafted into the people of God to not get arrogant, thinking they couldn’t be cut off (Rome 11:18).

The creedal truth, that the church is apostolic, is just another ancient way the church has always affirmed that the Bible is the alone ultimate authority. The church is that body in submission to the teaching of the apostles, which we find in the Bible. But there is more. Tipping one’s hat at the Bible while building the church on the wisdom of the world is yet another failure to be apostolic. It is not enough to affirm the authority of the Bible. We must act in submission to it. We are called to study it, even as it studies us.

Old institutions often play up their ancient bona fides. True churches, however, rest in the good faith once delivered to the saints.

This is the forty-ninth installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday June 22 at 10:30 AM at our new location, our beautiful farm at 11281 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.

Posted in 10 Commandments, apologetics, Apostles' Creed, Biblical Doctrines, church, RC Sproul JR, Roman Catholicism | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on What does it mean to say the church is apostolic?

Big Con, Little Con, Con Con and Contra Con Con

Posted on June 12, 2025 by RC

My father’s mentor used to quip, “If you want to know what a neo- anything is, just take out the e.” Thus a neo-evangelical is no evangelical. The neo-orthodox know no orthodoxy. And neo-conservatives are no conservatives. We’ve known this last one for some time, often referring to neo-conservatives in the political realm as “RINOs,” Republican in name only.

Now, however, many of those who cling to the title “conservative” have little to no idea what a conservative actually is. Or they just don’t care. On social media I see self-professed conservatives defending federal intervention in our food supply. They support a federal budget that is trillions of dollars out of balance. They demand we raise the debt ceiling another $5 trillion. They think it wise for the federal government to interfere with my trade with neighbors beyond our borders.

Conservatives, historically, were those wanting to conserve our founding principles of liberty and limited government. We believed that which governs least governs best. We promoted in balanced budgets, free markets, individual responsibility. How then do we explain “conservatives” rejecting all these values and embracing big government?

Because faux conservatives are never opposed to big government. They just oppose the other guy’s big government. Every one of these policies would have been vehemently opposed by those backing them had they been proposed by the Democrats. Such “conservatives” want limited Democrat government but unlimited Republican government.

Don’t miss, of course, that the same is true on the other side. Leftists are now opposing these policies, despite the fact they would be supporting them had they been the policies of a Democrat. There is plenty of hypocrisy to go around. Because what drives us is partisanship rather than principle.

I’m not dismissing the differences that remain. I’m not arguing that both sides have the same vision of what a healthy society looks like. But they agree a healthy society is one in which government decides what free men once decided. Power erupts, and absolute power erupts absolutely.

Please, if you think yourself a conservative, stop making excuses for big government. Don’t allow the obvious truth that President Trump is both better than his predecessor and has done some wonderful things in office blind you to the blessings of liberty, and the cursings of a state that diminishes rather than protects liberty. Stop asking WWTD, what would Trump do, and start asking what our founding fathers would do. They understood liberty. They crafted a Constitution designed to protect it, to limit Leviathan.

The brand of the shoe has no impact on the footprint. Whether the blood red shoes of the Democratic elite or the preppy loafers of the so-called conservative, both can do the same damage. Orwell said it best- if you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face- forever.

Posted in 10 Commandments, covid-19, Economics in This Lesson, ethics, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, politics, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Nature of the Beast- Persecution Draws Near

Posted on June 10, 2025 by RC

How easy it is for us to find comfort in the distance between us and hardship. We know famines happen, but not here. We know political dissent is repressed, but not here. We know Christians are persecuted. But not here. The first century church was known for its capacity to identify with brethren in differing nations, experiencing different hardships. We, on the other hand, can be counted on to support famine relief and say a prayer for the persecuted. And then we can be counted on to forget.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Our Lord, however, is bringing the blessing of persecution closer to home. Just a few years ago two ministers of the gospel, one in Canada and the other in England, were dragged off to jail for the crime of publicly preaching and proclaiming the Word of God. Another congregation, also in Canada, has had its building seized by the state for the same offense. Two offended the ruling elite by not buying into the bio-terror and meeting to worship the One whom they fear. The other offended by reading what they Bible has to say about marriage being between one man and one woman.

Removing the Offense?

The temptation we face is to look for ways to avoid trouble. Is it enough to win an election? How can we keep from stepping on the landmine, from walking into the crosshairs of the state? How can we not offend, while not removing the offense of the gospel? While it is certainly possible to offend without the offense of the gospel, there is no way to remove the offense of the gospel and keep the gospel. What we fail to realize is that we are hated because of our very reason for being. The offense is not a bug, but a feature. We are hated for acknowledging that we are sinners. We are hated for affirming our dependence on His grace. We are hated for believing we are forgiven and beloved of the Father.

No King But Christ

The greatest offense of the gospel to the world, however, is right here- Jesus reigns. They, in the end, just as it was in the first century, can abide no ruler above them, nor anyone who acknowledges such. The Roman government didn’t give a hoot what any of its citizens thought about sin and substitutionary atonement or resurrection or repentance or forgiveness. They were perfectly content to let Christians believe in these things and proclaim them to the world. As long as the Christians were willing to confess the one sacred truth of Rome, Kaiser ho Kurios– Caesar is Lord.

The Blood of the Saints

Christians were dipped in pitch, tied to stakes and lit on fire to bring light to Nero’s garden parties. They were crucified, one beside the other for mile after mile on the Appian Way. They were used for entertainment as wild beasts tore them to pieces in the Coliseum. Not because of any theological dispute. Not because of a philosophical dispute. But because of one dispute- who is Lord. The very first creed of the church was this, Christos ho Kurios– Christ is Lord.

No Neutral Ground

We will be able to live in peace with our neighbors. We will not have to face the loss of our church buildings, jail time for preachers, social ostracism nor death, so long as we are willing to deny the Lordship of Christ. Approve perversion or not. Be silent over our holocaust or not. It’s all just distraction and misdirection. No strategy will save us. We’re going to have to serve somebody. The question is, whom do we wish will bless us?

Posted in 10 Commandments, abortion, apologetics, Big Eva, church, covid-19, Devil's Arsenal, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, persecution, politics, post-modernism, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on The Nature of the Beast- Persecution Draws Near

What does it mean that the church is “catholic?”

Posted on June 9, 2025 by RC

I was all of five years old. My father served on the staff of College Hill Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati. The children were not typically welcome at the worship service. That may be my fault. I am told that on one special occasion, when children were welcomed into the service, I committed a faux pas.

The congregation was reciting together the Apostles’ Creed, in a slow and stately manner. They paused briefly after affirming their belief in the Holy Ghost. Into that silence erupted my incredulous and frightened voice, “GHOST!?!?”

I don’t believe I’m the only one to be shocked at the church’s early confessions. Both the Nicene and the Apostles’ Creed affirm our belief that the church of Jesus Christ is “catholic.” Because this word has by and large fallen out of our common usage, save for as a part of “Roman Catholic” many are unaware of its meaning. Many churches seek to solve this problem by substituting for “catholic” the word “universal.” Which clues us in on what we actually mean by confessing the church is Catholic.

The world is a big place, and the church a big church. For all the divisions we might suffer from, there is a deep unity among the differing segments of the true church. The Baptists may disagree with the Presbyterians on this matter or that. But both agree that they are both a part of the one church.

This doesn’t mean, of course, that every church claiming to be a church is part of the catholic church. Deny any essential of the faith and you are not a part of the church. Which is one of the very reasons why we have creeds to begin with.

It is not, however, merely secondary doctrines that seem to separate us but do not. The catholic church also transcends national boundaries. The Dutch and the Scots are part of the catholic church. The Korean and the Nigerian are part of the one true church. We are all one body. Dividing the church runs afoul of the inspired wisdom of Paul who tells us that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek (Galatians 3:28).

“Roman Catholic” church then is a contradiction in terms, affirming both that it is Roman and universal. “Roman catholic” on the other hand, while still false since Rome does not affirm the gospel, is not a contradiction in affirming it is in Rome and is a part of the universal church.

Why does this matter? Read through 1 Corinthians to get a picture of the destruction wrought in the body of Christ when one part seeks to either deny or diminish another part of the church. This is no esoteric theological minutia. Rather it is an affirmation of the whole of the body that Jesus came to redeem. It means all our brothers and sisters in Christ are our brothers and sisters, and ought to be loved and served as such. Let us not fear but love the catholicity of His church.

This is the forty-eighth installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday June 15 at 10:30 AM at our new location, our beautiful farm at 11281 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.

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At Least I’m Honest About It

Posted on June 6, 2025 by RC

Every culture and subculture has its own taboos. Not all of them are the same, however. Given that we are all human, how can we explain the divergence of cultural standards? Why does one culture find adultery to be a mere peccadillo, while another considers it the unforgivable sin? Why, in polite society in Victorian England didn’t they call a table leg a table leg? For fear of offending delicate sensibilities. On the other hand, there were more brothels in London than there were churches. The answer may get at the grave sins of our own broader culture.

Certainly a culture committed to ethical relativism, the notion that there is no objective right and wrong, will hang its moral hat on its stunted view of the command of Jesus that we judge not, lest we be judged. (Cheerily skipping over the too embarrassing reality that they are judging the judgers, and thus judging themselves.) Accusing someone of wrongdoing is just about as bad as it can get in the world — not to mention the evangelical world. Not far behind that grand taboo, however, stands this one. We can commit this sin or that. We can manifest this grave character flaw or that. But to really earn your way into the rogue’s gallery, you must commit this heinous sin — hypocrisy.

Jesus, of course, had some harsh words for hypocrites, “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence” (Matt. 23:25). Hypocrisy is a real sin, something to be ashamed of, something to repent for. It’s shameful to its core. But there is something to be said for it. In fact, Francois de La Rouchefoucauld said this about it, “Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.”

The hypocrite is caught up in whatever sin he is caught up in, plus hypocrisy. But he has this going for him: he recognizes virtue, desires to be perceived as virtuous, despite his lack. We hypocrites cover our sins because, while we certainly commit them, we recognize them as sins. While it is far better to be good than to look good, in either case we confess, however feebly, the reality of the good.

This, I believe, is the driving force behind this cultural taboo. We post-moderns hate hypocrisy not because we have such an abiding commitment to honesty, but for the same reason we judge so harshly those who judge, because we are dishonest enough to pretend there is no such thing as virtue. Those who hide their vice by masquerading it as virtue commit the one cardinal sin — affirming the reality of sin. They break the social contract by confessing a higher standard.

Hypocrisy to the broader culture isn’t just the one deadly sin, but avoiding hypocrisy is the means of atonement for sin. People argue, “I may be selfish and egotistical, but at least I’m honest about it.” Or, stranger still, philanderers suggest, “I may have broken my marriage vows, but at least I’m honest about it.” This proud confession of sin is a diabolical perversion of true repentance. We “acknowledge” our sin in that we admit to committing them. But we dismiss the sin because in admitting it we make it no longer a sin. Imagine if the serpent were to confess, “I rebelled against the Maker of heaven and earth, and sought to topple Him from His throne. But at least I’m honest about it.”

If we were honest about our sins, we’d not only admit to committing them, but recognize them for what they are. Each and every one of them is rebellion against the Maker of heaven and earth, an attempt to topple Him from His throne. Were we honest about our sins, we’d not cover them up. We’d cover our eyes, because to look at them is simply too painful. If we were honest, we’d admit that what we are usually doing when “admitting” our sins is copping a plea. Maybe, we rationalize in the quiet of our hearts, if I admit to this, they won’t see these other sins. If we were honest about our sins, we would admit that all our games fail us, that all our sins follow us.

The world is not happily pursuing their vices without a care in the world. They are instead pursuing their vices under the cloud of an ever-present knowledge of who they are. The defining quality of every culture not built around the Gospel is the haunting of sin. Which is why the solution for every culture, just as it is for every member of that culture, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

He did not “honest” away our sins. He did not relativize our sins. Instead, He paid for them. He bore the wrath and fury of His Father that was due for our sins. He knows them more intimately than we ever will. And yet, glory be to the Father, they have been washed away in His blood.

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Multiple Stops on the My Ways/Your Ways Highway

Posted on June 5, 2025 by RC

Right beside “Judge not, lest you be judged (Matt. 7:7), in the list of most misused texts we find this in Isaiah:

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts” (55: 8, 9).

This text reminds us that we should never expect that we could understand the hows and whys of all that God does. It is, however, an abuse of the text when we use it to cover the contradictions in our own thinking. There we are making an argument in defense of some error. A friend points out that our argument requires asserting both sides of a genuine contradiction. Rather than retreating and repenting we try to fortify our folly with this text.

It doesn’t work. God’s ways are not our ways, but neither are they nonsensical, unthinkable, contradictory. God is the creator of the pi we’ll never get our minds around, but He does not, indeed could not, create a square circle. He is not the author of confusion.

All of which is prolegomena to my point. Again, God’s thinking is beyond our thinking. But is that really His point here? Is God really saying through the prophet Isaiah, “I’m really smart. You wouldn’t understand.” I don’t think so. This Word from the Lord is saying something much more damning to us, and glorifying to Him.

The context of the quote is not Isaiah emphasizing the transcendence of God. Isaiah does that, for certain, in other places. Here in this chapter, however, the emphasis is not only on God’s nearness to us, but His kindness and grace toward us. Come and buy without money. Let your soul delight itself in abundance. The words immediately preceding “My thoughts are not your thoughts”? “For He will abundantly pardon.”

The contrast between us and God that God expresses through Isaiah here is less between our puny minds and His all-knowing mind. Instead it is between our puny, selfish, cold hearts and His infinite, giving, overflowing heart. God is calling on us to believe in His posture of benevolence toward us. This is why when we buried my father I wrote this epitaph for his tombstone, “He was a kind man, redeemed by a kinder Savior.”

While we are certainly sinfully stupid enough to occasionally think we know better than God, we are stupidly sinful enough to often think we are kinder than God. We are not. His ways are not our ways. Our way is to destroy our enemies. His way is to redeem His enemies. Our way is to hold grudges. His way is to forgive.

His thoughts are not our thoughts. We think victory is found in asserting our rights. He thinks glory is found in laying down His. We think being wronged burns bridges. He thinks reconciliation is worth the cost of His only begotten Son. No, He is not like us.

He is, however, making us more like Him. His Spirit is bringing forth fruit. His Son is washing us with the water of the Word. And He is leading us back to Him, promising that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.

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Grandparenting; Sigh, Ops; Pride, Prejudice & More

Posted on June 4, 2025 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in 10 Commandments, Biblical Doctrines, Good News, Jesus Changes Everything, Lisa Sproul, Month of Sundays, politics, RC Sproul JR, Sacred Marriage, theology | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Grandparenting; Sigh, Ops; Pride, Prejudice & More