What’s missing from the contemporary church?

Posted on August 19, 2024 by RC

Sinlessness. That is, the weaknesses that plague the contemporary church aren’t, in the end, all that different from the weaknesses that plagued the historical church. The more things change and all that, after all. It is said that one Lord’s Day a parishioner asked Martin Luther, “Brother Luther, why do you preach the same message every Lord’s day?” To which he responded, “Because every week we forget.”

I’m not prepared to say that in the western world the church is at its lowest point. I am prepared to say that it’s not in good shape, just like normal. I would also suggest that what is missing is what is usually missing- a deep, heart, mind, soul and strength grasp of this message: I am in myself a vile sinner at war with a holy, omnipotent God. Jesus came and lived a perfect life in my place, then received the wrath of God in my place. Now, because the Spirit gave me faith, I am forgiven, beloved, adopted, secure.

That message is not new. It’s not especially insightful. Nor is it complicated. It’s not appealing to those outside the kingdom. It’s not especially appealing to those inside the kingdom. It is not the fullness of the message. It is, however, the center of the message, and the most needful thing to be proclaimed, believed and lived out in the church of Jesus Christ. It is the health of the church.

Everything in the contemporary church that shouldn’t be there would be quickly driven out by this simple message. The most potent weapon against our problem of sinfulness is believing this simple message. Programs, celebrity, entertainment, worldliness, compromise, these are the things we glom on to because we are not, as we should be, convinced of our own sinfulness, persuaded of Jesus’ payment for all our sins, comforted by the sure knowledge that our heavenly Father loves us infinitely, immutably, and by name. We have feel-good, white-washed, motivational messages because we feel bad, are ignorant of ourselves and are unmotivated to get back on the world’s hamster wheel.

As we come to a deeper grasp of our need and His perfect provision we are better able to stand on the Word, for we don’t need the world’s approval. We are better equipped to walk in the way, for we know where we are going. We are better driven, for we know our calling to run to the battle. We are at peace, for we know that we rest in the Son.

What the church needs in our day is what the church has always needed and will need until He returns. We need the gospel. We need to repent and believe. We need to teach our children that their need is the same, that our grandchildren will be fed the same truth. No branding, no marketing, telling not selling. It needs sheep that demand the message and under-shepherds who proclaim the message even when the sheep demand something else.

This is the eighth installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more.

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Theological Socialism and God’s Good Grace

Posted on August 16, 2024 by RC

Karl Marx himself recognized that a free economy created a great deal of stuff. Productivity wasn’t the problem, according to Marx, in the capitalist economy. Instead, the problem was the distribution of the wealth that was created. Which is what gave rise to this pithy bit of wisdom- “Capitalism provides different sized portions of the donut. Socialism provides equal portions of the hole.”

There is a simple question that can reveal whether your heart wants prosperity, or equality- Would you rather live in a world where everyone makes $5000 a year, or would you rather live in a world where the poorest people earn $100,000 a year, but the wealthiest earn $10,000,000 a year? Too many choose the former.

Egalitarianism runs deep in our culture. We have taken the wise notion of our fathers, that all men are created equal and twisted it beyond recognition. They, in so claiming, were arguing that the law was to be blind to issues of background and wealth, that justice was indeed for all. The camel nudged its nose into the tent when we began to clamor instead for “equal opportunity.” When this didn’t achieve the results desired we slipped to handicapping the race such that everyone will finish the same. Now we want an equal ending.

Which may explain why it is that Americans Christians seem to have such a difficult time with the doctrine of election, especially as it is expressed in the doctrine of limited atonement. We tend to treat the grace of God the way our school teachers used to treat our treats — we were only allowed to eat them if we had enough for everyone. If God should show kindness toward one human, we reason, He is duty bound to do the same for everyone. Praise God that our king transcends these cultural quirks. Praise God He is not subject to the folly of His subjects.

John Owen, in what is perhaps his greatest work, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, goes to great pains to help us see the fulfillment of God’s divine prerogative, that He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. Because we are all sinners, God owes us all only His just condemnation. But God, who is rich in mercy, has condescended to shower His mercy upon those whom He has chosen, for His good pleasure. To some He shows this mercy; to others He manifests justice.

It is not, however, simply the American spirit of egalitarianism that gets in our way. We are a strange bunch, who want at the same time to live in that place where we all receive blue ribbons, but we also want to earn what we have. We are at the same time a bootstrap people. You don’t conquer a continent, after all, by sitting around waiting for your fair share of the donut hole. This pushes us to sundry forms of Pelagian theology wherein we claw our own way to heaven.

These paradoxes are reconciled then when we see that we want God to treat us all the same not because that is our only chance, but so that when we do win the race, we can brag that we did it on our own. It is not ultimately a desire to make God look good in the eyes of socialists that makes us push Him to treat us all the same. Instead it is a desire to make ourselves look good. We want the credit.

While The Death of Death in the Death of Christ dealt a death blow the notion that God treats us all exactly the same, it is the death of Christ that puts to death any notion that we can do it on our own. The death of Christ does not make it possible for all of us to be saved, but certain for none of us. His death doesn’t move us closer to the finish line, and those who are good will finish. No, He died because we are dead in ourselves. Put a dead man just one inch from the finish line, and he will never finish.

Instead, by His death we were made alive. As one wise wag put it, man doesn’t bring the final push to salvation. He doesn’t bring self-generated faith to the party. He doesn’t add his paltry works to the equation. No, what man contributes to his salvation is the need for salvation. We bring the sin that needs to be covered. Let, therefore, no man boast.

Posted in Biblical Doctrines, Doctrines of Grace, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, theology | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Better to Have Loved and Lost- Burying Duke

Posted on August 15, 2024 by RC

We buried Duke. We had not known him long. We didn’t have a great deal in common. His illness came on suddenly. Lisa and I had visited him, sought to comfort him, and prayed for him. When the sun rose the next day, however Duke had gone the way of all flesh. There were some who warned me against becoming close, knowing this death was, sooner or later, inevitable. But Duke was so friendly, so fun, so handsome, we had little choice.

Duke was a young bull Lisa and I had purchased at auction just a few weeks ago. A beautiful red calf, we brought him to our farm to raise him up for meat. That’s why people warned us. “How are you going to be able to eat an animal you’ve named?” I didn’t heed that counsel. I explained, in fact, that I would have no trouble eating him when the time came. That’s the strange, but I’d argue, wonderful place farm animals put us.

Proverbs 12:10 tells us “A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal.” Nathan the prophet, in II Samuel 12, in his allegory that exposed David’s guilt with Bathsheba, describes a man who so loved his lone lamb that she was like a daughter to him. In both instances we see that it is fitting for a man to care for his animals, understandable. We don’t take a coldly efficient perspective on our animals. We don’t treat them like living automatons, like fleshy machines.

Instead, we care for them, meet their needs, even love them. None of which undoes the great gap that separates man from animals. Grown adults referring to their pets as “fur babies” is lunacy on the level of a boy who thinks he’s a girl. But that doesn’t mean there is something wrong with loving our pets, or our farm animals. We don’t elevate animals above their station, but we do stoop down to it.

The gap between man and animal, however, is microscopic in comparison to the gap between Creator and creature. We exist for His glory. We belong to Him. We are not merely sustained by Him, but it is in Him that we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). We are, apart from His grace, nothing more than dust and rebellion. And yet, He loves us, every mother’s son of us.

This doesn’t make us His equal. It doesn’t change our purpose, which is always to make manifest His glory. But it reminds us that one way He is glorified in us is by how He condescends to us. Perhaps nothing sets Him apart more from us than that He draws near to us.

We should not be surprised to find His transcendence and His immanence would be inseparably bound together. The Lord our God, after all, the Lord is one (Deut. 6:4). What has surprised me these past few days is the blessing of getting just a taste of this in the midst of the hardship of losing our beloved friend Duke.

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Kamilli Vanilli; Marcia Montenegro; Sodom; Prayer & More

Posted on August 14, 2024 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

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Resenting Grace: Parable of the Miserly Son

Posted on August 13, 2024 by RC

It is counter-intuitive, but nevertheless, there it is. We all, from time to time, take offense when grace is offered to us. We all, even more of the time, take offense when grace is offered to others. Two different circumstances, one reason to rule them both.

It is not, strictly speaking, receiving grace that offends us. Rather we take offense at the notion that we are in need of it. When it is offered, either by the God whom we offend daily, or another person that we offend less frequently, we recognize that to accept it is to acknowledge we have done wrong, that we have failed.

We don’t want grace, pity, charity because such means we cannot do what needs to be done on our own. And that hits right in our most vulnerable spot, our pride. We prefer to live in the most dangerous delusion, that we got this. We are not just waving off the lifeguard in the midst of our second drop below the surface; we wave off the Live Giver while dead at the bottom of the sea.

Why though do we resent the offering of grace to others? Such says nothing whatsoever about our own need or lack of need. Yet we grumble, complain, even respond in bitterness when we see others receive grace. Jesus even gave us the parable of the vineyard workers to show us this (see Matthew 20:1- 16).

The root of this, despite the different circumstances, is the same as above- it hits us in the pride. Here the issue isn’t our need to be self-sufficient, but our felt need to be treated as special, inviolable. When others receive grace it leaves us open to be mistreated. If people aren’t punished for treating others poorly, I will end up being treated poorly. And surely I’m too important, valuable, precious to have anyone get away with harming me.

The solution in both instances should not surprise us. What we need is humility. We need, in the first instance, to give up the barking at the moon lunacy of thinking we don’t need God’s grace. The pride that says, “I got this” is the equivalent, and just as embarrassing at the emperor’s pride in his new set of clothes. I don’t need a little grace. I need all the grace there is. I’m not dependent on God to get me through the last twenty yards of the marathon. I need Him to carry me.

When the unbeliever accuses us of using God as a crutch denounce such nonsense with vigor. A crutch? A crutch? Of what use is a crutch to a dead man? I don’t need a crutch. I need life itself, given to me by the Lord of Life.

As for the second circumstance, humility acknowledges that we are not special. We are not true special treatment of special protections. We are not the priceless china in the shop but the bull. We are not God, but God is. Though we can be and have been wronged, no wrong we have ever received is worthy to be compared to the daily wrong we do to our Redeemer. We have been forgiven much. Surely we should rejoice in forgiving others little.

The church is not the fellowship of those fighting over a small serving of grace. We are those celebrating being invited to feast upon that grace that covers not only us, but every one of our brothers and sisters, and all who are afar off. Let us acknowledge our need and proclaim His provision, putting pride on the run.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Biblical Doctrines, church, Devil's Arsenal, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, parables, RC Sproul JR, repentance | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Resenting Grace: Parable of the Miserly Son

What does it mean that the church is the bride of Christ?

Posted on August 12, 2024 by RC

When a writer makes an analogy he seeks to draw out truths about one thing by drawing out its similarities to the known qualities of the thing to which it is compared. If I say, “Life is like a roller-coaster” I’m not suggesting that life is something you find at an amusement park or that life is something closed in the winter. Instead I’m suggesting life has a lot of ups and downs, that it comes at us fast.

In like manner, when Paul tells us that the church is the bride of Christ he’s not saying the church wears something borrowed, something new, something old and something new. Such may be true of a bride, but is not essential. What defines a bride?

A bride loves and honors and delights in her groom. Which is precisely what we are supposed to do. This is surely the center of Paul’s point in Ephesians 5. Wives there are called to submit to their husbands as the church is to submit to Jesus. The groom is the focus of the attention of the bride. She is not distracted by anything or anyone else. So the church must be toward Jesus.

A bride is the glory of her groom. All the fuss and investment, the bridal gown, these things exist that the glory of the bride might be a glory to the groom. This is why all those in attendance turn and watch as the bride makes her way down the aisle. That trip isn’t designed for efficiency. Nobody is wowed by the torque a bride’s ankles can handle. She is made to be beautiful.

This is why the groom stands with her, filled with pride as the pictures get taken. Wives reflect their husbands, just as the church is to reflect Jesus. As the church walks out the character of Jesus she fulfills her bridal calling.

A bride is beloved of her groom. Bride and groom belong with and to each other. Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage. It is, in both marriage and in the church’s relationship to Jesus, the love of the groom that beautifies the bride. The love of the groom is what defines the bride.

How might I be a different man if I truly believed, from top to bottom, with fervency, that Jesus loves me from top to bottom, with fervency? Remembering that we are together the bride, the same question arises with respect to the church. How might the church be different if we all together believed fully that Jesus loves us?

When the marriage feast comes, by His grace, we will so believe. We will not only be His bride, but will be spotless, without blot or blemish. As we now grow in grace and wisdom we become more and more what we will be. He has gone to prepare a place for us. Let us prepare, by the power of the Spirit, for that place. Let the Bride say, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

This is the eighth installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more.

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Patience, Now or, Fools Rush In

Posted on August 2, 2024 by RC

The devil presents us with something of a paradox. On the one hand, when he is introduced we are told, “Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made” (Gen. 3:1). On the other hand, he is likewise the biggest fool to ever walk the planet. If insanity is rightly defined as the propensity to try the same thing over and over again, all the while expecting different results, then our nemesis is certifiable. He has been on a losing streak since day one, and it will go on forever. That he fights is foolish. How he fights is crafty.

Satan, despite the interesting parallels in how we spell their names, is not some sort of bad Santa, carrying around a sack full of illicit goodies by which he seeks to tempt us away from our calling. It is decidedly less than crafty, then, to take such a straightforward approach. We would, of course, be on our guard were he so crass. Instead, the devil delights to work in the background, and to work on the background. That is, he likes to lay low while laying the foundations for our thinking.

Consider for a moment (but only for a moment, for I know how busy you must be) the biblical virtue of patience, that fruit of the Holy Spirit that seems always to be just outside our reach. What would you do if you, like the devil, wanted to squash this fruit of the Spirit, to turn it into a bruised mess fit only for the dumpster?

Surely you would see that it would do you precious little good to try to create a crusade in favor of impatience. You would have to look long and hard to find a political action committee or a secular advocacy group that seeks to promote the virtue of impatience. You’d be more likely to find a brigade of zealots in favor of tooth decay. The devil is smarter than that. He does not preach the virtues of impatience. He just puts us in a world where it doesn’t make sense.

Sociologists often speak of what they like to call “plausibility structures.” These are not particular ideas that are self-consciously being promoted by advocates. Instead they are systems, so to speak, that encourage a particular way of looking at the world. The pro-abortion lobby has glommed onto this idea in how it sells its morbid view of the world. We are pro-life, but they do not present themselves as pro-death. Rather, they describe themselves as “pro-choice.”

Early in the pro-life movement we tried to make the case that unborn children were just that, unborn children. Surely once they see what they are doing, this would all stop. Except we won that debate, and blood still runs in our streets. “Choice” resonates with Americans. Not because of careful, thoughtful reasoning among Americans, but because of toothpaste. “Choice” makes sense because we live in a world of choice, where we choose not only among forty different brands of toothpaste, but among ten different sizes. This creates a “plausibility” structure, a world in which choice just makes sense to us.

What has this to do with patience? Be patient — we’re getting there. “Choice” is not the only unspoken assumption that so often directs our conclusions. We live in a world not only where you can choose among so many toothpastes, but a world in which you can get that toothpaste whenever you want. You can get instant cash, and use it to buy instant coffee, all within the confines of your car. And lest that car should trouble you, you can get your oil changed, and be on your way in ten minutes or less. If that doesn’t help, you can get instant approval on a loan for a new car.

Instant service in many ways is a great blessing. But it can encourage us to be impatient, even about the good things. If I can be an instant winner with the lottery, why can’t I be an instant winner in my race toward sanctification? Why is God taking so long in teaching me patience? Perhaps because He delights to do so. Perhaps because you not only can’t hurry love, but you can’t hurry joy, peace, and patience, or any of the fruits of the Spirit. Virtues are things we are called to cultivate, not order online. They don’t come with the option of overnight shipping for a mere twenty dollars more.

If we would cultivate these virtues, however, we must eradicate the weeds that choke it out. It isn’t enough to try to bootstrap our way to more patience. We have to dig deep into these plausibility structures, and see where they are leading us. In short, we need to live in light of the culture to which we have been called, not in the dark of the one from which we have come. We must not have our minds conformed to this world. Instead, they must be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Such wisdom doesn’t come from an instant cash machine. You won’t cook it up in a microwave. There is but one source, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him” (James 1:5). If we ask Him for wisdom, He will give it to us. If we receive wisdom, He will give us patience. But it may take a while. Such is the wisdom of God, and such is His patience with us.

Posted in Devil's Arsenal, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

To and From, or Into Our Father’s Open Arms

Posted on August 1, 2024 by RC

It may be the most overlooked moment of deep horror in all of the Bible. Not the eating of the fruit itself. Plenty of horror there, but it’s not overlooked. Rather it was the response of our first parents to the drawing near of their Father. Adam and Eve hear God coming to them, and they flee. We’re not in paradise any more. The God who crafted them both, who blessed them with paradise, His love, love one for another comes to them and… they run away.

The horror of sin isn’t merely the immediate destruction that comes from it. It is instead it propensity to separate us from our Father. We sin. We feel shame. The Holy One approaches, and we seek escape. It doesn’t, however, even require sin itself. It is sufficient that we are sinners.

Consider the encounter Peter had with Jesus in Luke 5. Like Adam and Eve, Peter was profoundly blessed with an astonishing haul of fish due to Jesus’ intervention. Rather than thanking Him however, the manifestation of Jesus’ power, and the knowledge of his own nature led Peter to cry out, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8).

True enough that Peter was a sinful man. But there is no immediate sin recounted in the story. Still, Peter wanted to get away. Peter would go on, of course, to commit multiple egregious sins against His Lord. None more horrific than denying Jesus three times through the night of His arrest. Here too Peter sought to distance himself from the Holy One of Israel, but this time to save his skin.

The solution to this problem, however, is not that we would not sin. That avenue is not available to us on this side of death. Rather, the difference between running from Him and running to Him is found in repentance. After the betrayal, when Peter is once again fishing, and Jesus stands on the shore, Peter doesn’t so much run as swim to Him. He does all that he can to get close quickly.

And Jesus, like our heavenly Father, welcomed him. Such reflects the father in the parable of the prodigal son. When the son comes to himself the first thing he does is go toward his father. His father, however, does not merely wait for his son, but runs to him. He doesn’t merely forgive him, but rejoices over him. His arms are always open wide for those who acknowledge the reality of sin in our lives.

The difference between sheep and goats isn’t the sheep are good and goats bad. The difference is that goats always seek to get away, while His sheep know His voice and follow. We all fall short. Goats think the problem is His holiness. Sheep know the solution is His grace. He does not wait for us to get it together, to clean ourselves up. He waits for us to be changed by His Spirit such that we know both how dirty we are and that He is the one solution.

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Marcia Montenegro; Olympic Blasphemy; Loving Wisdom & More

Posted on July 31, 2024 by RC

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in 10 Commandments, apologetics, Biblical Doctrines, communion, Devil's Arsenal, ethics, Jesus Changes Everything, Month of Sundays, new age, persecution, philosophy, post-modernism, RC Sproul JR, Sacred Marriage, sexual confusion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Marcia Montenegro; Olympic Blasphemy; Loving Wisdom & More

The Scandal of the Gospel in a Graceless World

Posted on July 30, 2024 by RC

All of us, both within and without the church, face the temptation of being legalists when dealing with others’ sins against us, and antinomians when dealing with our sins against others. We want those we have perceived to have wronged us to pay for what they have done, while reminding our own tender consciences that we all deserve a little grace.

The two propensities come to a head as we seek to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the walking dead all about us. The first objection, typically, comes from the antinomian side. The sacrifice of witnessing to our enemies is that we know we will be hated for pointing out the reality of their sin. We’ll be pilloried as narrow, bigoted, judgmental, medieval. We will run smack into Romans 1. The unbeliever, in his unrighteousness unrighteously suppresses his knowledge of his unrighteousness. He, in short, doesn’t want to hear it.

The irony, of course, is that what we are trying to tell them is just what they need to deal with their guilt. We would be wise to remember that when we fall under the onslaught of their wrath. They want to hide from their sin, while we are trying to tell them how to make it go away.

The second problem, however, arises when we get to the promise of God. As we preach, “Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” they will find “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” to be almost as incredulous as “Repent.” In fact I’ve often heard this objection- “What a minute. You’re telling me that if Adolph Hitler had simply said just before his death, “Jesus, forgive me” he would have entered into heaven at his death? That’s all it takes, just saying you’re sorry?”

Of course that’s not all it takes. Though our repentance is never the ground of our peace with God- that is, God doesn’t forgive us simply because repenting is such a wonderful thing that it covers our sins, it is necessary and necessary that it be genuine. Saying something and meaning it, because we are sinners, often means two different things.

Second, the ground is not in our repentance, but His provision. “All it took” was for God to put on humanity, to live a perfect life, and to suffer the wrath of the Father due to all those who would believe. The passion of Christ is not a small thing.

The scandal, in fact, is less that we who are sinners should get off scot free, but that God should pay such a high cost for our redemption. Had Hitler repented at the last moment he would indeed now be enjoying the blessings of eternity. Not, however, because his sins would have gone unpunished, but because his sins would have been punished on Christ. And such are we.

I wonder if perhaps those outside the kingdom would be less tempted to think of the gospel as a cheap get out of jail free card if we were more faithful in grasping that we are Hitler, and Jesus suffered for us. The gospel is not for good people who fall a bit short, but for evil people. Jesus did not come to rescue the beautiful princess. He came to rescue the ugly hag that killed Him, because He laid His life down. Perhaps the gospel would scandalize the world less if it scandalized the church more.

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