Christmas. What’s the point? Maybe that sounds like a line from Ebenezer Scrooge, but it expresses the feelings of many people. Is Christmas nothing more than an opportunity for corporations to cash in on consumers’ pent-up greed? 

Regardless of religious backgrounds, most Americans recognize Jesus is the “reason for the season.” This acknowledgment, though, signals a massive disconnect in individuals’ awareness and appropriation of those facts. People may admit Jesus is the reason for the season, but they don’t comprehend the point of Christmas: why Jesus came and Christmas happened. 

Over the next five weeks, we will be asking, ‘Christmas: What’s the point?’ in a quest to understand, not just the basic fact of the birth of the Son of God, but the reason why He was born and came into this world. 

Jesus’ life solved a profound human problem, namely, that as sinners, we had no access to God in any meaningful way. Even our methods for trying to reach God and to understand Him were altogether wrong. While creation declares God’s glory, our sinful minds pervert it. 

God resolved our problem, of being unable to know or understand Him, by sending His Son into the world as a human. This child, stunningly, would soon reveal God’s glory in the clearest possible way to a lost and sinful world. In fact, in John 1:14-18, we find one reason why the Son of God came into the world was to reveal the glory of God. One point of Christmas is to reveal who God is and to explain Him to us. 

To see this in the text, we need to start at the end in verse 18. John writes, “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”

As sinners, we have not seen God or known Him directly, and anything we do know about Him from nature is corrupted. God remains veiled, out of our reach. There is Someone, though, who has an intimate knowledge of the Father, and that is the Son. Jesus can explain the Father to us. That, in fact, is the point of Christmas: To reveal the glory of God to us and to show us God as He really is. 

How then does Jesus make known the glory of God, and how does He explain God? In verses 14-17, John gives us three ways. 

First, Jesus revealed the glory of God to us in His humanity. 

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

When God the Son became flesh in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, He revealed to us the true nature and glory of God. 

The Word arrived in the world as a concrete and visible person, bringing the reality of who God is to bear on those around Him. We see through Jesus’ many conflicts with people, that sinful creatures did not know or understand God because of serious misperceptions exposed by Christ. Unbelievers called Jesus a liar, a blasphemer, and demon possessed because He brought the reality of God to bear on them in a way they had never experienced.

Others, too, had an inaccurate perception of God, thinking He would never accept them since they weren’t the ‘spiritual, religious’ people. They were just ‘commoners and sinners.’ Jesus shattered their misperceptions, when these people realized that God does not play favorites and receives all who come to Him in faith. 

When we see how Jesus acted in the Gospels, we see how God acts toward us. When we see Jesus’ works in the Gospels, we see God’s power toward us. When we see Jesus’ death and resurrection, we see God’s gift of salvation, and His righteousness, justice, mercy, and love. In everything Jesus said and did in His life, He explained who God is for us. When we see Jesus, we see the Father and God’s character and nature. Jesus revealed the glory of God in His humanity. 

Second, Jesus revealed the glory of God in His supremacy. 

“John testified about Him and cried out, saying, ‘This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before Me.’” 

As we read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we learn that His glory was veiled to most people. When some did see Christ’s glory, however, they turned it against Jesus as a reason to kill Him. For example, after Jesus raised Lazarus, the Jewish leaders decided He had to die because of the signs He had performed to reveal God’s glory to them. 

God’s hidden glory in Christ is what makes John the Baptist’s testimony here so critical. John had come to realize and rejoice in something that enraged others: Jesus is the embodiment of God and His glory. Jesus was the eternal Word of God in human flesh. He revealed God’s glory for those who wanted to see it. 

When God’s truth confronted people in the person of Jesus, it demanded absolute allegiance. It demanded of some that they sell all and follow Him. It demanded of others that they let an inheritance go and follow Jesus. It demanded of others great suffering at the hands of sinners. It demanded of still others forsaking the family business to follow Jesus. It demanded of others putting aside the business of life and just sitting at Jesus’ feet. It demanded of everyone absolute trust in Him as both Savior and Lord. The question we all must face is this: Will we recognize in Jesus the glory of God, or will we deny the reality that stares us in the face in the person of Jesus? 

John the Baptist came face to face with the glory of God in Christ, and he recognized that Jesus was supreme. Even though John was older in earthly years, Jesus was the eternal Word made flesh, and the glorious One, worthy of worship, honor, and praise. Jesus revealed the glory of God in His supremacy. 

Finally, Jesus revealed the glory of God in His generosity. 

“For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

The generosity of God on display in Jesus Christ is experienced in the rich and profound grace He bestows on us as believers. Jesus is the fountain that overflows continually and never runs dry. He is the Giver who keeps on giving from an inexhaustible storehouse. We are merely recipients who always and will only receive from Jesus, who manifests the glory of God by His infinite generosity of grace toward His people. 

Grace and truth were not given through Christ, as though He were merely the instrument in the hand of God to get us grace and truth. No, grace and truth were brought into being by Jesus Christ. The reason our Savior is so full of grace and truth is because He is the author of grace and truth. Jesus stands as the giver par excellence because He is the very author of what it means to give. He is the definition of generosity. In His generosity, we see the grace and truth of God the Father. 

Jesus came to reveal the glory of God. In Christ’s human life, His works and words showed us clearly who God is. He confronts all our misconceptions about God, shatters them into a million pieces, and then replaces them with a true picture of the Father. His supremacy confronts us, calling for submission to Him as our Lord and our God, as Thomas confessed in John 20:28. His generosity overwhelms us with the goodness of God, who defines generosity and giving. Jesus is the fullness of God, full of grace and truth, giving grace after grace.

Christmas: What’s the point? The point is the revelation of the glory of God. May our Christmas season be spent looking for God’s purpose at Christmas, seeking Him out in the pages of Scripture, and beholding there the glory of Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father. 

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, believers understand that this event on our calendars should be God-centered and focused. The Lord is the source of all our blessings, and we should be giving Him all the gratitude and thanksgiving He requires and deserves. 

Psalm 100 was penned to help us do just that, highlighting five principles of thanksgiving to help align our hearts in a spirit of thanks to our God. We first covered the Proclamation, Practice, and Place of Thanksgiving. In this final post, we will cover the final two principles contained in this psalm.

The fourth principle is the Propositions of Thanksgiving.

Verse 3. “Know that the LORD Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” The Psalmist says there are basically two propositions, two truths, we need to know to give God thanksgiving properly. We must know that He is the Creator and that we belong to Him. 

The first thing has to do with who God is. The Psalmist says, “Know that the LORD Himself is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves.” The word LORD there is the divine name: Yahweh. The point is that the God of Israel is the Creator. He is the true God, and He is the One who has made us. True thanksgiving begins with a recognition that Jesus Christ, who is Yahweh, is the true God and the Creator of all that exists. This is why, as I mentioned at the beginning of this series, thanksgiving is always kind of an awkward holiday for unbelievers, because if we don’t start with this truth, we go wrong immediately. In directing Israel to give thanks to God, the Psalmist commands them to know that He is the Creator. 

The Psalmist also charges his readers to recognize their covenant relationship with God. He says, “We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” When God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision in Genesis 17, He ended His formal statement about the covenant with these words: “And I will be their God.” This covenant relationship goes beyond the relationship we have with God as our Creator to our relationship with God as a God of grace, and as God our Redeemer. True thanksgiving recognizes that because of the new covenant through Jesus’ blood, we are in covenant with God, and we are His people and His sheep. God is not only our Creator but also our Savior. 

The Psalmist commands Israel, and us, to meditate upon these truths and propositions. God is our Creator and Savior. He is the one to whom we are accountable as creatures, and He is the one who has entered into covenant with us through the shed blood of His Son so that we are His people, and He is our God and Shepherd. This thanksgiving, reflect upon who God is as Creator and as Savior. Know that He has made us and realize that we are His because of Christ. 

The final principle is the Premise of Thanksgiving.

“For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.” Verses 3 and 5 really stand out in the Psalm as the most emphatic verses. Verse 3 because it is in the middle, and verse 5 because it is the ground of our worship of gratitude. This principle is the premise of why we thank God like we do. Not surprisingly, the reasons are rooted in the character of God, who is good.

There is a scene in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe where Lucy asks Mr. Beaver if Aslan is safe, and Mr. Beaver replies, “Safe? Who said anything about safe? But he is good.” Israel could resonate with that statement. They had seen the goodness of God in overcoming their enemies, but they’d also seen the wrath of God in destroying other Israelites who had rebelled against Him. God to Israel wasn’t safe, but He was good, generous, kind, and trustworthy. He cared for His people as only God can do. 

New Testament believers in the early church also knew this truth about God. Through the death and resurrection of Christ we see both that God is good, and that He is not to be trifled with, as Ananias and Saphira found out in Acts 5, when God struck them dead for lying to the Holy Spirit. Though God is not to be trifled with, His people know He is so good to us. He gives us rain, sunshine, warmth, cool weather, food, and all that we need for life and godliness. This thanksgiving, reflect on how God has been good to you in your life. 

His faithful love, His covenant love, His lovingkindness is everlasting. His faithfulness to all generations. If there is one thing so wonderful for the believer about God, it is that He is absolutely faithful. 

I recall this television show where a couple was getting a divorce, and their adult child said, “What about your vows? Didn’t you mean it?” And the father replied, “Well, we meant it back then.” Aren’t we glad God isn’t like that, looking at us and saying, “You know, I realize I made all these incredible promises to you in Christ, and I really meant it back then, but things have changed, and I’m breaking it off with you.” Aren’t we glad that’s not who God is? 

Believers should be so thankful that our God’s love is steadfast, that it’s forever and everlasting, and that His faithfulness endures to all generations. Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Why? Because His lovingkindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness endures to all generations. 

Five principles of thanksgiving. The proclamation, the practice, the place, the propositions, and the premise of thanksgiving. As we think about these five aspects of gratitude, would God describe us as a thankful people? This Thanksgiving, may God grant all of us clearer understanding of these principles, and greater gratitude in our lives to Him through Christ Jesus, our Lord. 

This Thanksgiving season, we are working through Psalm 100 and considering five principles that are critical for believers of Jesus Christ to understand as we reflect on the Lord’s call to give Him thanks. 

The first principle was the Proclamation of Thanksgiving. The second is the Practice of Thanksgiving.

Notice verse 2. “Serve the LORD with gladness.” Then verse 4 toward the end: “Give thanks to Him.” These two statements, although perhaps not as evident in our translation, have official religious service ideas behind them. That’s why the NIV translates verse 2, “Worship the LORD with gladness,” recognizing the official worship behind the idea of service.  Giving thanks, likewise has the idea of an official proclamation of thanksgiving, and together, these words point to a sacrifice of thanksgiving. The idea is the religious observance that someone who is truly thankful practices in their worship of the victorious King. 

As we think about this, New Covenant believers, of course, no longer offer sacrifices because Jesus is the once-for-all, final, perfect sacrifice. To offer any other blood sacrifices, or to go back to the sacrifices commanded in the Mosaic Law, would be an insult to the blood of Christ. But the New Testament has many things to say about our acts of service that reflect thanksgiving. For example, in Hebrews 13:15-16, we find this: “Through Him (Jesus), then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.” Now, the letter to the Hebrews has been a long polemic against the Mosaic Law now that Christ has come with a better covenant, a better priesthood, a better everything! So, the writer immediately clarifies what he means when he says a sacrifice of praise to God: “That is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”

Here we see the New Covenant believer’s sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. It happens in community, because we can’t do good without someone else, a brother or sister, who benefits from our good work and sharing. The sacrifice of thanksgiving for the new covenant believer is not a ram or a bull or a goat or a grain offering, but it is lips that thank God out loud in the covenant community and a life that shows gratitude through generosity. That’s the practice of thanksgiving: gratitude reflected in word and deed. 

The third principle contained in Psalm 100 is the Place of Thanksgiving.

Now this is fascinating. Notice verse 2 again. “Come before Him with joyful singing.” And the parallel is in verse 4: “Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.” This is a powerful truth. The place of thanksgiving, to put it simply, is before the face of God – in His presence.

When the Psalmist says in verse 2, “Come before Him with joyful singing,” he undoubtedly has the Temple in mind. That’s why in the parallel, he references the gates of God and the courts of God, which are clear references to Temple worship in Israel. This is significant for at least two reasons. First, remember the call in verse 1 is to all the earth. God has called all nations to come into His temple to worship Him, thank Him, and give Him praise, honor, and glory. Again, we have one of those mysteries in the Old Testament that could not be fully understood until Christ came. How are the Gentiles going to be able to come into the gates and courts of the Temple of Adonai Yawheh and worship Him? Aren’t they unclean and outsiders? Here, though, we see God calling all the earth to come into His temple, into His very presence, into the place where only holy people are allowed to come, to praise and thank Him. 

Second, this is significant because it reminds us that when we give God thanks, we do so in His very presence. God is not far away, off in some other world, distant, watching us from afar as we give Him thanks. Not at all! Rather, when we come together for worship and to give Him thanks, and when we set aside time to show our gratitude to God, we are in His very presence, before His very face. The Lord is near. He hears us, and He is with us. Giving God thanks is a holy, personal communion with the living God. It is a joyful, song-filled, praise-filled, thanksgiving-filled time in presence of God. 

The question this raises pertains to the temple. How do we, unclean sinners, get into the presence of God as acceptable to Him? How do we, especially we who are Gentiles, enter God’s courts and His gates? When John wrote his Gospel, the Jerusalem temple was gone, and based on some things John wrote it seems that worship without the temple was a question on many people’s minds, both within and without the church. It comes up in Jesus’ discussion with the woman from Samaria in John 4, where Jesus declares that a day would come when worship would not take place either in Samaria or in Jerusalem, but it would happen in Spirit and truth, almost as if Spirit and truth were geographic locations. 

Earlier, in John 2, Jesus told the Jews that if they destroyed the temple, He would raise it up in three days. They were incredulous since it took 46 years to build the temple, but John notes in John 2:21, “But He was speaking of the temple of His body.” The disciples took a while to understand the significance of this. “So when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.” They didn’t get it until after the resurrection. Jesus essentially said, ‘You try to come into the presence of God by going into a building. The true path to the presence of God is Me. If you want to enter into the gates of God, if you want to enter His courts, if you want to come before Him, I am the only way.’

The place of thanksgiving, then, is in the presence of God not through being in a geographic location but by being in Christ. That’s why Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:18, “For through Him we both (Jews and Gentiles alike) have our access in one Spirit to the Father.”  If we are in Christ, we give thanks to God, not at a distance, but in His very presence, before His face. What a glorious truth that we have access through Jesus to the very presence of God, to the holiest place, and not only that, but God in this Psalm has called us to enter there to give Him thanks. 

As we march toward the Thanksgiving holiday, we are considering Psalm 100, which is appropriate and fitting to study this month. What we see in this text is that the Lord has called us to thanksgiving, to give Him thanks, and to recognize who He is and how He has blessed us. In Psalm 100, there are five principles that are critical for us to understand as we reflect on God’s call in our lives here.

The first principle is the Proclamation of Thanksgiving, as we see in verses one and four of the Psalm.

Readers of this psalm will discover that this point is found in verses 1 and 4, then the next two points are in verses 2 and 4. The last two points then stand alone in verse 3 and verse 5. The reason for this is because this Psalm is structured in such a way that the first and last items in verses 1 through 4 are parallel, the second and sixth items are parallel, the third and fifth items are parallel again, and then the fourth item in verse 3 stands alone. This was a common way to write poetry in the Old Testament, and it was a helpful memorization pattern to learn the Psalms. 

So, the first point, which is the proclamation of thanksgiving, is found in verses 1 and 4. Verse 1 reads, “Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.” Verse 4, at the very end states: “bless His name.” These two commands are parallel and signify similar ideas. 

The Psalmist begins with a call to shout to the Lord with joy! This word translated ‘shout joyfully’ was a word related to war and battle, and it was often a shout of victory. The Psalmist is exhorting people to celebrate the victory of God over His enemies. What is most fascinating about this verse is the people to whom the Psalmist calls to celebration. Notice he says, “Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth.” That last phrase, ‘all the earth,’ is especially noteworthy because it is a call to Jews and Gentiles alike. It is a call to all the nations to come and celebrate the victory of Israel’s God. 

For the Old Testament saint, this verse likely would have proved somewhat mysterious. After all, it was typically the Gentile nations that were at war with Israel and that were opposed to Israel’s God. How then could God’s inspired, holy Word, the Psalms, call these very same nations to shout in joy because of Israel’s God’s victory? I bet this puzzled scholars and theologians throughout much of Old Testament history as they wondered how this would work. 

Now, though, we have the New Testament, and we see the Messiah, Jesus, and His victory over sin and death and Satan. We comprehend how it is that the Gentiles would be called by God to come and celebrate the Lord’s victory with the people of God, even as the people of God. This opening verse is really a gospel call to anyone who desires to come and join Israel in worshiping the true God to do just that. It is a call to come and celebrate the victory of Jesus over His enemies, and we now understand this victory came through the cross and through the resurrection. 

What is the gospel? Is it not a proclamation of good news, and of God’s victory over sin and death and all His enemies? Is not the Gospel the summons to all the earth to come and, through faith in Jesus, become victors over the enemies of God? The declaration of thanksgiving is that God has won, Jesus is alive, death is defeated, Satan has been rendered powerless, and eternal life is ours through Jesus. As Paul said in Romans 8, we overwhelmingly conquer through all kinds of difficulties in this life because of Christ. Therefore, we can come and shout in victory to God no matter who we are or where we are from. God calls all the earth to join in His victory celebration through faith in His Son. 

Notice the last phrase again. “Bless His name.” To bless God is somewhat of a strange phrase. Some may think this sounds arrogant for sinners, to bless God. What this is saying, however, is not that we benefit God, but that we recognize who He is, especially as the source of power and strength. This phrase is tied up with the victory cry, which proclaims that God is the victor. The blessing of the Lord declares that the power for victory belongs to God and God alone. It is a statement that God has won the battle by His own strength and through His own power. 

Once again, we come back to the Gospel. God has saved us, not because we benefit Him, but through His own power and strength in the person of Jesus, His Son. Blessing the Lord is recognizing in verbal affirmation that all our power for salvation, for sanctification, for loving others, for worship, for any victory, large or small, we have in our lives – all the power is from God. 

All those who have come to Christ in faith should take time this Thanksgiving to celebrate the victory we have in Christ by verbally recognizing His power in our lives to save and sanctify us. When Thanksgiving comes around, we truly have something to celebrate as Christians, because our God, the God of Israel, has won the victory through Jesus Christ. Shout to the Lord with joy and bless His name. 

The Thanksgiving holiday remains a marvel to me. Out of all the holidays we celebrate in America, Thanksgiving somewhat stands alone as one without distraction and maintains its distinctively Christian character. 

While I love celebrating Christ’s resurrection, popular culture has turned it into ‘Easter Sunday,’ when bunny rabbits, baskets, and eggs deflect from the central significance of the day. Christmas, which is just around the corner, is a great commemoration of the Incarnation of the Son of God, but it also arrives with its share of diversions from the central focus, as materialism, Santa Claus, reindeer, snowmen, and other themes unrelated to Jesus try to hijack the holiday. 

Thanksgiving, however, remains a day to highlight our blessings. The observance is not marked by Hallmark cards, gifts, or distracting characters like Santa or the Easter Bunny. For most people, this holiday is simply a gathering for a meal and a celebration of gratitude with people we love.

Nonetheless, there is still an uneasiness about Thanksgiving. The word Thanksgiving combines two words: thanks and giving. Think about the implication of these two words. Thanks involves gratitude. Gratitude is the response to receiving something. Receiving implies something was given to you. A gift implies a giver. Our gratitude is also a gift. There can be no thanksgiving, then, without a gift received and a gift given. 

For us to celebrate Thanksgiving in a meaningful way, we must recognize that we have been given something from someone, and that we, in turn, are responding to those who have first given to us by showering them with our gratitude, praise, and thanks. Herein lies the uneasiness for the world. Who has first given to humanity that we should be thankful, and to Whom do we render our thanks? Perhaps these questions are the reason many people run away from Thanksgiving turkey, potatoes, and pie as quickly as possible, awakening to the next highly anticipated event on their calendars – Black Friday shopping.

To help us understand a biblical foundation of thanksgiving, we turn to Deuteronomy 16, which outlines instructions for the Feast of Booths for the Israelites. The first day of the celebration was a Sabbath, and no work was to be done. It was simply a day off, a day of reflection, contemplation, conversation with family and friends, and consideration of God’s miraculous work to deliver Israel from bondage to Egypt. Then came seven days of celebrating. In Deuteronomy 16:14, God said that Israel was to rejoice in your feast. This was not to be a solemn occasion, but rather a time of joy and celebration! 

In Deuteronomy 16:15, Moses wrote, “Seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD chooses, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.” This is the feast God ordained. It was as God said, ‘Israel, I am going to bless you beyond belief so that you are going to be perfectly happy. And I want you to take a week of the year and just revel in that blessing with your families, your neighbors, those that live around you. Take a week and be happy in how I have blessed you.’ That’s amazing. 

How does this feast end? With Black Friday? No, with another Sabbath to reflect on God’s blessings. The Israelites got a day to think about God’s blessings, a week to have a big party in celebration of those blessings, and then a day at the end to again quiet their souls and remember the Lord’s goodness and kindness. 

Now, what does this Old Testament history lesson have to do with our Thanksgiving? There are two answers to this question. First, the biblical festival for giving thanks to the Lord was entirely God-focused. Days were set apart for the simple worship of God on the Sabbath so Israel would be reminded of the One whom they were to thank for their blessings. Our Thanksgiving was meant to be God-centered and focused, which is why we experience the American uneasiness and awkwardness as people talk about gratitude and thankfulness without ever specifying the source of all their blessings, and the swiftness with which we move beyond Thanksgiving. 

Second, there is a good chance Psalm 100 was written with a festival of worship like the Feast of Booths in view. Notice how the Psalm begins: A Psalm for Thanksgiving. That is inspired text. The idea here of thanksgiving is that of an official offering of thanks to the Lord in worship with God’s people. It most likely points us to a festival characterized by gratitude, like the feast of booths, which finds in a loose sense a parallel to the American Thanksgiving holiday as it was originally celebrated. As we approach that official day on our calendars, Psalm 100 is appropriate and fitting for Christians to study to remember we are a blessed people and a people who ought to give thanks to God. 

What we will see in this text is that God has called us to thanksgiving and to give Him thanks. God desires for us to recognize who He is and how He has blessed us, and He wants us to do it in an official way. In other words, God does not merely want us to have an attitude of thanksgiving, though that is important, but He wants us to set aside time to focus on giving Him thanks. In this passage, the Psalmist outlines five principles of thanksgiving that are critical to understand as we reflect upon God’s call to us to give Him thanks. We will unpack each one through this great month of thanksgiving. 

The gospel preached by the Apostles and attested to by the resurrection was so clear and compelling that the first years of the church were marked by rapid growth. It seemed that the church really would turn the world upside down. However, through the incursion of error, the politicization of the church, and the mysticism of the Catholic magisterium, by the middle ages a cloud of darkness settled over the truths of the New Testament.

By the 1100s, people in Europe could no longer read the Scriptures; there were few (if any) gospel teaching churches, and it appeared that the darkness of man-made religion had permanently eclipsed the truth of the gospel. People who were asking, “What must I do to be saved?” were largely unable to find an answer, instead clinging to relics and superstition. They were left, like the nations before Christ had come, “groping about in the darkness, looking for light.”

Amid a series of events, though, by the mid 1500’s the gospel would be ‘rediscovered’– much like Columbus ‘rediscovered’ the Americas. This revelation began with Huss and continued with Luther, Tyndale, Lady Jane Grey, Calvin, Knox, and many others. By the end of the sixteenth century, it was clear that the darkness was lifted, and the light of the gospel was beginning to break through in the Western world.

What happened during this Reformation period can be best understood through The Five Solas, which today we will approach through the lens of five questions. The first of these questions, which is the spark that ignited the fire of truth – is what must I do to be saved?

The answer of man-made religion to this question is always good works, good citizenry, and a hope that God will just recognize good people. To the errors of this darkness, the reformers answered the query in a different way: Sola Gratia – salvation comes by grace alone. There is nothing a person can do to merit salvation. It is entirely of grace.

While ‘grace alone’ was a motto of the Reformation, it is an old truth that had roots long before Luther. Augustine once wrote, “The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord must be understood as that by which alone men are delivered from evil, and without which they do absolutely no good thing, whether in thought, or will and affection, or in deed.” Because of depravity, our wills are in bondage to sin. As Ephesians 2:1 explains, we “are slaves to sin.” Jesus said that we “love the darkness and not the light.”

Luther said it this way: “Fallen humanity lacks the ability to make spiritual decisions or accomplish righteous acts. Free will without grace is makes the person the permanent prisoner of evil.” The only way a sinner can be saved is if God chooses to do so, and praise be to the Lord that we worship a God who does, in fact, save sinners – as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:30: “By His doing you are in Christ Jesus.”

Grace is not a commodity, but an attribute of God. Grace cannot be traded, bought, sold, or earned. Grace can only be freely given by God, who gives us His Son.

This leads to the second question: How must I respond?

If salvation is given by God, according to His will, then how do we respond and what must we do, considering the gracious act of the Lord? The answer is Sola Fide – faith alone. The only proper response to God’s grace is faith.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen. It is what unites Jews and Gentiles in the church and what makes the believer a child of Abraham. Faith is what gives us the ability and willingness to love Christ and to follow Him, counting the things of this world rubbish. By faith, we call the false religions of the world error, abandon trust in human works for salvation, and cast all our hope on Christ. This is not a natural faith, but a contra mundum, against-the-world, universe-tilting, Holy Spirit-given gift from God.

Here we get to the central element of salvation: being justified by God and being declared righteous. Where God takes our sins and gives them to Christ, and then through grace saves us, we respond only by faith. God does not do ninety percent of the work, and we provide the other ten percent. Nor does God, through grace, energize our lives to be pleasing to Him. Instead, “We maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.”

John Calvin said that this was the most important doctrine of the Reformation, writing, “Sola fide is the first and keenest subject of this controversy.” On the other hand, the Catholic Church responded to the Reformation by declaring: “If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification…let him be anathema.”

In contrast to Catholicism, the apostle Paul told Peter, “Man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith.” Justification is getting our sins forgiven based on God’s grace expressed through faith, alone.

So, how does a person get right with God? We answer that we are justified by faith, apart from works, alone.

The next question we find is in whom do we put our faith for salvation?

The answer is Solus Christus – In Christ alone.

Other religions may place their faith in Christ, but they don’t put their faith in Christ alone. They might put their faith in Christ, and then also in the act of Christ to use his grace to energize the sinner to do works that then make the substance of our faith meritorious. Why not say, what so many believe, that grace simply energizes us, that faith makes our works acceptable, and that Jesus is one of many mediators? Because this is not faith in Christ alone, but faith in Christ plus works. Thus Zwingli, the Swiss reformer, said, “Our only comforter, redeemer, savior, and mediator with God is Jesus Christ, through whom alone we obtain grace, help and salvation.”

Jesus had many names but has only one mission, and that is to be the only savior of the world, which He did by becoming a man. For that reason, He is our only substitute. We are not saved by the blood of bulls and goats, but by the sacrifice of the Son of God in our place.

The testimony of Scripture on this truth is unassailable. Colossians 2:13 says, “Because of Christ, God has forgiven us all our transgressions.” There are no other means or method or mediator to salvation. There is only Christ alone.

At this point, the message in God’s Word is undeniably clear. We are saved by Grace, through faith in Christ alone. This leads to the next question: on what authority do we believe this?

The answer is Sola Scriptura – Scripture alone is our final authority.

The world is filled with those offering their ideas about salvation and God, but their thoughts and opinions do not matter if contrary to the Word of God. At his trial, Luther was asked if he understood that his teachings contradicted the plain teaching of the Church. He said in reply: “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason…I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God.”

This is in stark contrast to the Catholic Church, which makes an appeal to the Church as a separate stream of authority. It teaches that Scripture is authoritative, to be sure, but there is another stream of authority flowing from God, namely the unbroken line of papal succession and institutional authority manifest in the Church.

But this is scripture plus. It is an appeal to God through the Word mingled with the church, and is contrary to the reformation understanding of authority.  There is no other authority other than scripture on which we can build our lives, or that can rule our worship. The frontlines of the battle between light and darkness is a battle over authority. We say that the Bible alone has inherent authority. As such, we reject the perpetual virginity of Mary, the necessity of sacraments for salvation, the existence of purgatory, and the notion that the Pope has any authority over the church. We do so because we believe in Scripture alone as our binding authority.

So, what is the goal of all this? There are two answers.

First, peoples’ souls are at stakes.

If men and women get these truths wrong, they get the gospel wrong, relying on others who cannot save for salvation.

Second, there is a basic truth that all things in this world work for the glory of God, not the glory of man, which is the final sola – Soli Deo Gloria.

This truth is captured by Romans 11:36: “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever, Amen.” This is the truth that is under the surface of all the others – the issue of the centrality and supremacy of God’s glory.

Nothing reveals God’s glory to the degree that the gospel does. When we sin, we fall short of the glory of God, who acts “for the praise of His glory,” as Ephesians 1:16 states. God sent Jesus, who is the “radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature,” according to Colossians 1:15. By dying on the cross and rising from the dead, Jesus reveals that He Himself is the Lord of glory.

Thus, in the gospel message all things work toward the glory of God. This is why the Scripture says that God is the Lord of glory, and “I will not share My glory with another.” God does not design salvation to give glory to diffuse his glory but to magnify it. God designs His glory so that He is the beginning, the middle, and the end. God is the source, the means, and the object of glory. As Paul says, it is all from Him, to Him, and through Him.

To God be the glory.

Happy Reformation Day

The Reformation is, without dispute, one of the greatest events to take place in church history. 

Our world had been shrouded in the darkness of Roman Catholicism for nearly a thousand years, with little access to the Word of God and an increasingly perverted “gospel” being proclaimed. Along came a monk named Martin Luther, who was troubled in his soul because he knew that he was unrighteous and that he would be judged by a righteous God after he died. One day, while studying the book of Romans, Luther came to understand what the New Testament meant by ‘justification by faith,’ realizing the righteousness of God is freely given to those who have faith in Christ.

As the Reformation continued, the primary issue with which it was concerned was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Reformers looked to Scripture to answer the question, “What is the Gospel?” The Gospel message, which united the Reformers, was summarized under five terms, which came to be known as the five solas of the Reformation. 

The word ‘sola’ is Latin, meaning ‘only’ or ‘alone.’ It is this particular term that sets Protestant, Evangelical theology apart from that of the Roman Catholic Church; it sets apart false gospels from the biblical gospel message. So, what it this Gospel message, recovered from the Word of God by the Reformers, and entrusted to us today? To answer that question, let’s consider these five statements of the Reformation to give us a clearer grasp of this glorious gospel we have believed and to strengthen our conviction in the biblical truthfulness of it.

The first is Sola Fide, or Faith Alone.

This phrase is the primary principle of the Reformation as it pertains to the Gospel, meaning that a person is justified before God through faith alone – and not on the basis of any works he or she has done. To be justified does not mean to be made righteous, but to be declared righteous. The idea of justification by faith alone means that God declared us to be righteous according to His law – not because we have kept the law, but only through faith in Christ.

Many Christians are beset with anxiety, fear, worry, doubt, uncertainty, and guilt because they have never really come to a clear understanding of this one, central doctrine of Christianity: Justification by faith alone, apart from works. They continue to look to their works, trying to find assurance of their salvation in the flesh rather than trusting in Christ and relying on the Spirit. This can become paralyzing. However, we need this truth for our salvation and sanctification. We are justified through one thing only: faith in Jesus Christ.

The second is Sola Gratia, or Grace Alone.

We might think to ourselves, as we hear that we are justified by faith alone: “Wait a minute! But I’m not worthy of being declared righteous simply by believing in Jesus when the reality is that I am incredibly unrighteous!” This is where grace alone applies. God declares us righteous, even though we don’t deserve it, and the basis of that declaration is His own goodness and love, not our worthiness. In other words, God decides to justify us because He wants to show us favor – and that’s it. Justification is free, and it flows from the grace of God to the unworthy, the ungodly, and the unwilling.

When I truly understood the grace of God, as have many Christians throughout history, it was like a wave of comfort rolling over my soul. There is great peace in this knowledge of God’s grace. How could I rest in Christ if I was terrified that I might do something to lose God’s favor? How could I know lasting peace and have assurance if I thought the only reason God saved me was because I did something to catch His attention, or because I had done something worthy to deserve it? I couldn’t! The truth is that God saved us because He did something, and we are the unworthy recipients of infinite love – love we never could deserve though we were to receive 10,000 lifetimes to earn it.

The third is Solus Christus, or Christ Alone. 

How can God declare me to be righteous when I am not righteous? How can He give me this gift of righteousness simply because He decided to, apart from my worthiness or merit? The answer is in Jesus Christ alone. When we say Christ alone, we indicate that God justifies us by grace alone through faith alone based on the merit of Christ alone. God declares us righteous on the basis of the real righteousness of Jesus, which was performed in His life and death for us, not just a figment of God’s divine imagination. 

Believers should consider what Christ has done for us. Our standing before God does not depend on one single work we perform, but only on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is perfect and outside of us. We cannot defile our Savior’s righteousness, and we cannot corrupt His holiness. We have been saved, not based on our works or because we had merited it or because our righteousness meets God’s inflexible law. We have been saved through faith in Christ by the grace of God on the merit of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Not even our faith is our righteousness before God; only Jesus’ righteousness, which we receive by faith, grants us righteousness before God. His righteousness is our comfort, not our own.

The fourth is Sola Scriptura, or Scripture Alone.

As wonderful as the first three Solas are, they are utterly meaningless if they are the product of 16^th Century theologians and not the Word of God. This principle, then, asserts that the Word of God is the final authority in all matters to which it speaks. Scripture has no peer, equal, or rival. Reason, science, history, archaeology, religion, and philosophy all are subservient to the Word of God, which stands above all popes, councils, bishops, pastors, creeds, and confessions. 

In Luther’s era, when the pope wielded so much authority, we do well to remember his words at the Diet of Worms: “I am conquered by the Holy Scriptures.” That is what we mean by Scripture alone. Our hearts and minds are entirely conquered by God’s Word. For all we might esteem various teachers and pastors, for all we might have been helped by various books and sermons, for all we might appreciate religious emotions and experiences – one thing holds our minds, hearts, and consciences captive: the Scriptures alone.

The fifth is Soli Deo Gloria, or Glory to God Alone.

The Roman Catholic Church of course believed in the glory of God. However, Catholics added works and meritto salvation, and works and decisions of man to the Bible, thus beginning to steal a little of God’s glory for themselves. The Reformers argued that God gets all the glory for our salvation, and we get none of it. If our salvation comes to us through faith and not works, by grace and not merit, on the grounds of Christ’s obedience and not ours, where is boasting? Where do we get any glory? How can we claim anything? We cannot! 

We cannot boast in any way about our salvation. We cannot take any credit. We cannot receive any glory for it. We cannot claim anything we did contributed to it. Salvation is all of God and Christ. For the sincere Christian, nothing is sweeter than to accord God all the glory for our salvation. We know in our hearts how worthy He is to receive glory, honor, power, and dominion, and we want to steal none of it from Him.

With Luther today, we also must declare, “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me!” as we stand on the truth of the Gospel: Justified through faith alone by God’s grace alone on the merit of Christ alone, conquered by Scripture alone, and all for God’s glory alone.

For our regular public reading of Scripture, our church has been going through the Psalms.  Last Sunday was Psalm 98 – a very timely and hope-filled song in light of the war in the Middle East and rising tensions globally.  Here it is, followed by a pastoral prayer leading our congregation in applying this psalm to our day:

O sing to the Lord a new song,
For He has done wonderful things,
His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him.
² The Lord has made known His salvation;
He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations.
³ He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel;
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

⁴ Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.
⁵ Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
With the lyre and the sound of melody.
⁶ With trumpets and the sound of the horn
Shout joyfully before the King, the Lord.

⁷ Let the sea roar and all it contains,
The world and those who dwell in it.
⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands,
Let the mountains sing together for joy
⁹ Before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth;
He will judge the world with righteousness
And the peoples with equity.

Prayer:

“Our Almighty King, our loving Father, our sovereign Lord – in Jesus’ saving name we approach Your royal courts, by His blood alone we stand boldly, and we come gladly before Your righteous throne.  We approach You, the Judge of all the earth, our omnipotent, gracious, and covenant-keeping God – faithful to the house of Israel, and Saviour of the ends of the earth. 

Rightly has Isaac Watts taught us to join in this psalm: “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her King!” In this world crying out for justice, yet blinded by false, social justice – You have given us this song celebrating true, godly justice.

This psalmist spoke better than he knew:  Who can sing a “newer” (v. 1) song than those of us who have new hearts and have found new life in Christ because of His New Covenant redemption? We are the “one new man,” the body of the living Christ, His Church.

Truly Lord, You have done “wonderful things” (v. 1) – none more wonderful than saving us from our sins!  Your “righteousness” and Your “salvation” (vv. 2-3) supremely in Jesus and His glorious gospel.  Your saving, justifying action in Christ has rescued us eternally, and is being made known across the globe as Your gospel advances, as You build Your Church. 

Nothing but Your ‘strong arm’ (v. 1) could have ever raised us from being dead in our trespasses, snatching us out of the vice grip of the world, the flesh, and the devil.  No wonder this psalm calls us to such exuberant joy and great celebration!

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.

As Your Word tells us, “Creation groans in the pangs of childbirth until now,” awaiting this promised day of our Lord’s 2^nd Coming, his return to this earth when he will “make all things new,” when all wrongs will be put right, when evil will be defeated once and for all.  So we cry out, ‘How long, O Lord, how long?!’

How long, O Lord, will this Satan-occupied, wicked world cause evil to abound, virtue to vanish, and moral outrage to disappear?  How long will public figures deny the Holocaust and side with genocidal murderers yet still graduate, keep their jobs and parade their views without shame in public?  How long will our media blame Israel for the atrocities done against her?  How long will our world declare that any other nation can do its God-given job to defend itself and avenge its enemies, except for the Jewish nation?

Worst of all, O Lord, we see Your Church again joining in this Satanic antisemitism and Jew-hatred:  Just as Your apostle Paul repeatedly warned in Romans about the Gentile Church boasting of replacing the Jews, when instead we should be making them jealous by loving and evangelizing them (Rom. 9-11).  Your Word is so clear that one reason we trust Your faithful name and Your gospel’s credibility is that You have not abandoned Israel, though she is hardened in unbelief, under Your heavy judgment and in desperate need of the only gospel that saves.

Yet still the Jews are “Your people,” “beloved enemies” – against us because of the gospel, yet still we are for them “because of the fathers.”  Without Israel we would have no Bible, no Jesus, no Church, no gospel, no salvation (Rom. 9-11)! 

Forgive us, Lord, if we have joined in any way in the popular propaganda of this godless age that despises the Jews and anything representing the West – all because they hate You and Your Word, and the resulting order, beauty, freedom, human dignity and civilization Your Word and Your Law has produced.  

O God, if the day comes where the Jews must again flee their lands to find safe haven, may You so awaken and purify Your Church here in South Africa that they could flee here in droves and find many friends of Zion.

We owe such a great debt to the Jews; keep us mindful of this in an ungrateful, arrogant world.  Most of all, we owe it to Israel and to all nations to bring them the gospel – for Jew and Arab, African and Afrikaner alike!  Use us, Lord, use our church, use our seminary – use every sermon, every worship service, every worshipper here today – to plead with the lost to “flee the wrath to come”, to be saved before You come to “judge the earth, to judge the world with righteousness”, to judge all peoples “with equity.”

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy!

One of the blessings of being a believer in Jesus Christ is having a certain knowledge of our salvation and eternal destiny. This knowledge, however, must produce certain convictions throughout our Christian life. 

We live in a time where people are often weak, wishy-washy, devoid of real convictions, and content to just go with the flow and swim wherever the tide of the world take them. The apostle John rejects all of that in the life of a believer, asserting that if we have eternal life, then we should be strong; we should have convictions; and we should have certainty as a defining mark of our spiritual lives. In 1 John 5, John gives us five convictions that we should manifest as Christians who know that we have eternal life.

The first conviction we should have as believers is that we are heard by God.

Our confidence about our salvation should lead to confidence in our prayers. When we come into the presence of God in prayer – to make requests, to cast our burdens upon Him, to seek His grace and His help in a time of need – we should come with confidence and boldness. This attitude in prayer should be expansive; John tells us we can ask for anything according to God’s will. We have a certain knowledge God hears us because we know that we belong to Him and that He will give us whatever we ask of Him that is according to His will.

The one qualifier is we must ask according to His will, referring to anything revealed in Scripture. If we go through the New Testament, we see hundreds of promises and commands from God we are called to believe and obey – and we should pray that God would strengthen us to believe and obey His Word. The amazing thing is that we can pray all of these things with confidence, knowing God will perform His work in us to answer our prayers.

The second conviction we have as a result of our certainty of salvation is that we are liberated from sin.

If we want to be strong and stand firm in the evil day, then we must be convinced that not only are we saved and have eternal life, but we must also have been liberated from sin. We cannot be the kind of people who, when confronted with sin in their lives, respond, “I can’t help it!” We can help it because we have been born of God. We know we can battle against sin and win because of what God has done for us in Christ. 

Believers realize that we have been liberated from sin’s penalty and power in our lives. Although Christians do sin, no one who is born of God is characterized by sin. When believers sin, we have Jesus Christ the Righteous One as our Advocate with the Father. Sin is not our lifestyle; sin is not our pursuit; sin is not what defines us; and sin is not what we practice – all because we have been liberated from the power of sin.

The third conviction is that we know we are protected from Satan.

This conviction should be in the running for the most comforting and encouraging in the entire Bible. John promises those who have been born of God that God guards, protects, keeps, and encircles us like a shield and a mighty fortress.  The Lord Jesus is the one who is watching and guarding our soul every moment of our lives, which is an amazing image to have in our minds all throughout the day. 

With Christ protecting us, the evil one cannot touch us. Satan has no power over the Christian because the believer is kept by Christ. The evil one can send his minions to tempt, to distract, to discourage, to try all kinds of tricks to deceive us – but ultimately, he is powerless because Christ is guarding our soul. 

At our church, we sing a song called, “Christ Will Hold.” In that song, we sing these lines, “In my own humanity, I’m no match for the enemy; he will sift me like wheat.” We know how true these words are in our lives. Left to our own strength and devices, Satan would devour and destroy us; he would sift us like wheat.

What resolves that tension is the truth that we sing next in that song – “Christ will hold!” He will protect and guard us. And, as we sing in that song, our God is undefeated. Jesus has never lost one soul He set out to save, and He never will. If we are born of God, Jesus keeps us and protects us from the evil one. 

The fourth conviction is that we are distinct from the world. 

Christians must be convinced of this reality: we are not allied with the world, but we are distinct from the world – and the world is hostile to us because it is under the devil’s power. The whole world lies under the power of the evil one, and he has blinded the eyes of those in the world so that they cannot see the glory of God in the face of Christ. Unbelievers, wherever they are and however much they might seem to have in common with morality and decency, are under the devil’s lies. We must constantly remind ourselves, which gets easier by the day, that this world is not our home, that we are strangers and exiles here, and that we are pilgrims just passing through.

Finally, the last conviction we have knowing we have eternal life is that we are united to Christ. 

How do we survive in a sinful world under the power of the devil when we have been set free from sin and are so distinct from the world? We overwhelmingly conquer because we are united to Christ. We know that the Son of God has come and given us understanding to know Him, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, the true God – and eternal life. We are united to Christ, one with Christ, in Christ; and our lives are now defined by, protected by, and governed by Christ. 

This conviction is the climax of John’s letter, where he has spent so much time telling his readers about who Christ is as the Son, the Word of Life, the Messiah, the Son of God come in the flesh. Now he ends by telling us that Christ is the true God, and there is none other. If we have the Son, we have the true God – and that means we have the life, eternal life. 

As Christians who have assurance of eternal life, we must be people of strong and biblical convictions. We must know that we are heard by God, liberated from sin, protected from Satan, distinct from the world, and united to Christ. It is my prayer for our churches that, in an unstable world built on shifting sand, we would be people who embrace these immovable convictions built on the rock, the true God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The title says it all. A small but not insignificant movement that has been gaining momentum over the past couple of years revolves around the notion that women shouldn’t teach other women theology. There is some breadth to this movement, and the goal will be to address the original view as well as some of the fruit that’s come from it.

First, let’s begin with their main argument: They allege that women should not be teaching theology to other women because women inherent in teaching theology is a “spiritual authority that does not rightfully belong to them. They take on the role of guiding the wives, daughters, and parishioners of husbands, fathers, and pastors who alone bear the responsibility for their spiritual and moral well-being.” The key word there is “alone.” That is a digestible summary of the justification for why women should refrain from teaching theology to other ladies––it’s not their responsibility. 

To clarify, what isn’t being argued is that women can’t learn theology or speak about theology with other women in informal conversation. In addition, the position isn’t that women can’t learn about Biblical womanhood from other ladies. But, here’s the distinction, women really shouldn’t be actively seeking to learn theology from other women or be seeking to teach it in Women’s Bible Studies, classes, and courses taught by women for women, or in training formats. “By focusing on developing strong male leaders within the Church, we can create an environment where the desire of women to seek other women for theological guidance can be reduced and where they can flourish under the loving guidance and protection of their fathers, husbands, and pastors.” To be clear at this point, there is variance in the aforementioned position, but that’s the kernel of what is held to. 

Now, to show you where this can go: In Matthew 23:15 Jesus says this to the Pharisees, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” There’s a principle here that’s worth considering. Oftentimes when someone is trained under someone else, they amplify certain teachings and beliefs, even beyond the original proponent. That doesn’t always happen, to be clear, but, in this instance, it does seem like many have gone “to infinity and beyond” (old school Buzz Lightyear). 

A fruit that’s come from the movement described says that women teaching other women should remain solely within the realm of homemaking skills. What this can look like is women in the church organizing a space for homemaking lessons: making/mending clothes, canning, gardening, decorating, and things of the sort. And that’s not a bad thing at all. But… it is at times proposed not in addition to, but in place of, women teaching other women theology. 

Of course, all of this forces the question: what do the Scriptures teach about the topic of women teaching others theology? Are there particular restrictions and should the practice happen at all? It does seem that in an effort to move away from women teaching men, the pendulum has swung all the way to the other side of the spectrum where women shouldn’t teach women about the Scriptures at all (at least in some people’s minds). So, what does God say?

First, women know theology. This goes without stating, but it builds a foundation for where we are going. Godly women know Biblical doctrine, which is teaching that pertains to God, and are wise in applying what they know. Paul tells the church of Ephesus in Eph 4 that the church family is to be equipped (men and women) “for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.” One purpose is that the church family wouldn’t be “tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine.” So, how are women to avoid being carried away? The solution is seen in verse 15, “speaking the truth in love.” What is the truth? It’s sound doctrine. It’s Biblical theology. Women who love Jesus know theology and are to speak about it (cf. Rom 15:2; 1 Thess 4:18; 5:11; Heb 3:13; 10:23–25).

Second, women are to teach theology. It is expected from the Scriptures that women will teach, but not all will teach doctrine in the same spheres. In Prov 6:20–23 we read Solomon saying,

My son, observe the commandment of your father And do not abandon the law of your mother; Bind them continually on your heart; Tie them around your neck. When you walk about, they will lead you; When you sleep, they will keep watch over you; And when you awake, they will speak to you. For the commandment is a lamp and the law is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life. 

What are the father and the mother teaching? Theology. They’re to instruct in the law according to verse 23. Yes, the primary responsibility rests upon the father according to Jewish tradition, but as the mother lived out the law she was to guide her children as well (cf. Prov 1:8; 31:1). Building upon this, in 2 Tim 1:3–5 we discover that Timothy had the same unhypocritical faith of his mother and grandmother. Who taught Timothy about the truth growing up? His mother did. What did she teach him about? We don’t need to wonder, in 2 Tim 3:14–15, we read, “But you, continue in the things you learned and became convinced of, knowing from whom you learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” Timothy’s mom taught him theology. Was that only because his father was an unbeliever? Based on what’s seen in the Proverbs, I would argue no. The mother is ideally to complement the father in her life and instruction.

But women aren’t only to teach children. They are to proclaim and herald the gospel to unbelievers. In Acts 18:25–26, we read, “This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” There Priscilla and Aquila are teaching doctrine, the gospel, to Apollos. That’s evangelism right there. As a caveat, yes, narrative isn’t normative, but keep in mind that Priscilla here isn’t holding authority over men in the context of the church family in the gathered assembly (cf. 1 Tim 2:9–15). 

Third, particular women are instructed to teach other women theology. Titus 2:3–5 reads,

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may instruct the young women in sensibility: to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be slandered. 

While many passages emphasize the need for men to teach women, this passage teaches and expresses something different. Paul speaks of women instructing women as a form of blessing for the church. 

The expectation is that within healthy local churches, older women are instructing younger women. The context does not suggest this is only teaching for one’s children, or that it’s restricted to one-on-one discourse (unless you can prove the same with the older men from verse 2). The restriction is that it’s women to women. This could be one-on-one, or… it could be a Bible study for ladies, a discussion group, training ladies how to counsel other women, or a class for women. The way this takes shape and the format simply must be guided by the restrictions of the text itself. 

Ladies who have walked with the Lord longer are teaching the younger generation how to be godly women in the season God has placed them in. The qualifications are clear, not any older woman qualifies, it must be one who loves and is pursuing the Lord. The woman who teaches is holy in conduct, not speaking evil about others behind their backs, not a drunkard, and she’s known for teaching what is good. 

In addition, the teaching is inextricably linked by what follows with the conjunction “so that.” There is a purpose and scope of this teaching. We know what, who, and why. What are they teaching? They teach that which is good. Who are they teaching? They teach younger women. Why are they teaching? They teach in order to equip these women to excel in the spheres that God has placed them in. The teaching in view here pertains to how to live and walk as a Christian. It goes beyond how to make meals, clothing, and art. The older women are to teach the ladies to love their husbands. God, theoretically, could have given this mantle solely to husbands to teach their wives how to love them, but He doesn’t. The older women are to teach the younger women. 

That brings up a litany of questions. Can this teaching be done without speaking about respect and submission from Eph 5? Can you properly build and undergird a foundation for what it means to be a wife with respect to your husband without Gen 2:18–25? How can you speak about submission without speaking about theology proper and Christology in Jesus’ submission to the Father in His incarnation from Luke 22:42? Can you speak about loving your children without speaking about Jesus’ love for children from Mark 10:14, or instructions from the Proverbs or the book of Ephesians about raising children which would include hamartiology and anthropology? The older women are to instruct the younger women to be in control of themselves. There’s no restraint for the flesh that comes outside of the Spirit of God working in concert with the word of God––pneumatology and Bibliology. They are to teach how to maintain the home. How can that be done without walking through Prov 31 and the excellent wife in a study of Biblical womanhood? If you will teach on the subject of kindness, is that restricted merely to moral platitudes, or through looking and gazing upon the person of Christ in the Scriptures? Kindness is connected to ecclesiology as well as it characterizes the church (cf. Col 3:12; 1 Pet 2:1–3). The purpose of teaching good is so that God would be honored, even in the family. 

The cherry on top is at the end of the verse, “so that the word of God will not be slandered.” In order for God’s word to be upheld, women must know theology and must instruct others in theology as a hedge of protection for God’s honor. It’s not optional. It’s not because of sin that women are teaching women theology. It’s not because of a lack of godly men that women should teach other women theology. No, God upholds this for the good of His people. 

Circling back to the foundational argument quoting from the linked article above, “Can a woman learn theology from another woman? Certainly, women are capable. But I’m asking whether a woman should learn theology from other women. That is, does the Bible thematically and theologically push for women to teach other women theology? Is that the biblical ideal? … This is the fundamental issue I have with women teaching theology to other women. By doing so, these women assume a spiritual authority that does not rightfully belong to them.” Furthermore, “there is no passage in Holy Scripture that says… ‘Women shall teach theology to other women.’” I hope you can see that the Bible does present that not only can women teach theology to other women but that they should. If that’s not happening, Titus 2:3–5 isn’t being followed, and that’s a problem.

There are many helpful statements that surround this position, including clarifying to a generation of men who have set aside their position and calling from God to be leaders and protectors. The church certainly does need men to be men. The world over needs that. There is also a helpful pastoral word shared about how some women, unfortunately, are predominantly and even exclusively seeking women for shepherding in lieu of the church or their family. But, the primary concern with this position is that it seems to displace women from a role that God has called them to fulfill, not as a replacement of God’s calling for men, but as something that would further aid men in their own callings as husbands and fathers (the aim of Titus 2:3–5).

Perhaps one of the greatest problems in any church is conflict between believers. We see these issues of disunity all throughout the New Testament. The church in Corinth suffered from this problem. The church in Ephesus was tempted to disunity that stems from a lack of love. The Galatians had forgotten the primacy of love for one another in their legalistic zeal to be justified by works. Paul practically begged the fractured Philippians to love one another after the model of the crucified and risen Christ.

Those who have been Christians for any length of time probably have experienced the type of disunity, quarrelsomeness, hurt, and disharmony so often described in the New Testament. Sadly, the church has a tragic tendency to eat its own. One reason why so many Christians say they no longer regularly attend the corporate worship gathering of the local church is because they have been hurt and devoured by people in the church.

John addresses this problem head on in 1 John 4:7-21, reminding us that those who truly know Christ love other believers. This test to confirm that we truly have eternal life starts with the call to love.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God”

This call is a command, not a suggestion. All Christians are called to love one another because love is from God. In other words, the only way to love the way John calls us to love is if we depend on God’s love as the source of our love. We must understand, though, this is not a love that can be worked up on our own. When we look at other believers, and we realize we are called to love them, we might feel overwhelmed or inadequate to the task. But John reminds us that we are not depending on ourselves to love one another. 

We are called to love one another with the same quality of love God has shown to us. We must love one another even when we are not all that lovely or lovable. We must love with an initiating love, a forgiving love, a gracious love, a merciful love, a tender love, and the love that reflects the reality that God is love. People should know that God is love when they see us interact with one another as a church family because they see God’s love flow through us to each other. This is the evidence that we have the Spirit of God.

Next is the confession of love. 

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God”

True love is accompanied by a certain set of beliefs. Love does not accept any particular set of doctrines as true regardless of their validity, but it demands a certain confession. Love only exists where people confess that Jesus is the Son of God. Apart from being born again and believing that Jesus is who He claimed to be, we cannot really love God or others. However, when we confess that Jesus is the Son of God, we come to know and believe the love that God has for us. We are then able to live in God’s love and have God dwelling within us through His Spirit.

The third truth is the confidence of love. 

“By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment”

When we see God at work in us so that we begin to love like Jesus loved us and live out Christ’s love in the world, we have confidence in the day of judgment.

The reality of the day of judgment is an absolute terror to sinners. Those who stand alone before Almighty God, having their thoughts, words, motives, and actions measured against His perfect standard, will fall short and be condemned forever under His wrath. Sinners fear this day because they know a reckoning is coming. Their consciences testify against them that they are guilty before a holy God, and they know they will be justly punished for their sins. 

Believers know, though, the good news of the gospel is that we don’t have to look ahead to that day in dread and terror, but we can have confidence on the day of judgment. Christians have no fear at the prospect of the day of judgment because we know that our entire punishment was taken by Christ on the cross. For us who trust in Jesus’ blood and righteousness and resurrection from the grave, that great day will bring no punishment to us if we are in Christ. This is the confidence given by the knowledge of the love of God in Christ.

Finally, John gives us the confirmation of love. 

“We love, because He first loved us.”

Our love is always derivative; it is always responsive to God’s love. None of us initiated a relationship with God, but God loved us first. If we are wondering how we know if we love God because we can’t see God, confirmation comes when we love our brothers and sisters in Christ – the people whom God has saved and whom we can see. We cannot love the God who is invisible if we don’t love His people who are visible.

This test is critical to understand. Many find it easy to invent their own god, say that they love God, and deceive themselves into believing they love the true God – when in reality, they love a god they have devised. What puts our love for God to the test, however, is when we encounter God in His people. How do we respond to flesh and blood human beings made in the image of God and indwelt by His Spirit? 

That’s one reason why the church is essential for Christians. Those who rarely attend church or are not part of a local church are missing out on this confirmation of love because they are not getting the opportunity to see God’s love on display through them for His people week by week. It is so important for us to love others in a church and be loved by other believers – even as imperfectly as we do. 

The only reason we can love with God’s love is because of the transformation brought about in our lives by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Before we knew Christ, we could never love truly. But now we have gone from death to life, from blindness to sight, and from hatred to love. And the Spirit produces this love for God’s people in our hearts because God is love and love is from God.

As the war in Israel ramped up over the past week, social media accounts across the Christian
spectrum exploded with quotations of Psalm 122:8 which commands, “Pray for the peace of
Jerusalem!” That statement raises some important questions, namely: should we be praying for the
peace of Jerusalem? Or even, Why do we pray for the peace of Jerusalem?

I want to answer those questions by covering 1) What is happening in Israel, 2) What it
means, and 3) How we should think about it as followers of Jesus Christ.

What is Happening?
I recognize that these next paragraphs represent a rather grotesque oversimplification, but understanding how to think requires a basic understanding of some broad-brush strokes in geopolitical context. So, having been warned, you can consider this section your “Hitchhikers Guide to a Very Challenging Geopolitical Galaxy.”

On May 14, 1948, the modern state of Israel was formed. The Jewish people – fresh off the horror of the holocaust – began returning to the land of their forefathers from a multi- millennial exile. While this return is certainly evidence of God’s sovereign providence, it is not the direct fulfillment of any particular biblical prophecy. Now, in the kindness of God, he may choose to use the modern state of Israel in his final plans for human history, but he is not bound to do so (Dan. 4:35). His promises are to the Jewish people, not the modern country of Israel (Ps. 105). Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, having sworn by Himself, will fulfill all His promises to the Jewish people – both Israeli and non-Israeli Jews alike (Gen. 22:16). Through what specific political entities He intends to do this is – as of yet – largely unknown to us.

In the wake of modern Israel’s establishment, the previous inhabitants of the land (what had been known up until that time as the British Protectorate of Palestine) were largely displaced during the turbulent decades that followed. Since then (and here’s where we’re skipping over quite a bit) the Palestinian and Jewish people have been largely segregated into various territorial areas within the borders of national Israel. One of those areas (established under Israeli control in the wake of Six Day War in 1967) is the Gaza Strip, a piece of territory roughly the size of Omaha, Nebraska but home to 2.2 million Palestinian residents. If it were counted as a country (which it is not), it would be the third most densely populated country in the world.

In 2005, the Israeli Defense Forces turned the governance of the Gaza Strip over to the Palestinian people. Shortly thereafter (in 2006) control of Gaza was seized by a radical group known as Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization that:

• Is primarily funded by Iran (which explains many of the potential international repercussions of this conflict)
• Is dedicated to Radical Islamic Extremism (which explains many of the similar tactics to ISIS)
• Is devoted to the destruction of Israel (which sets up an impossible situation given that they are located WITHIN Israel)

In the 17 years since their governance began, this organization has run a corrupt governmental regime that has taken advantage of the Palestinian people and stirred up violence and chaos within the Israeli people.

With that background in mind, this terrorist organization (Hamas) is the group responsible for initiating the recent attacks. In response, the State of Israel is now rightly seeking to defend itself through the total destruction of this organization and to wrest governmental control out of the hands of extremists. This action (though clearly necessary for Israel’s security) will obviously come with great and tragic collateral damage amongst the local Palestinian population into which Hamas has embedded itself. This will be a compounded tragedy on top of the atrocities that have already occurred to the Israeli population.

So… now that we understand what’s happening, we must take up the questions that many are asking: “Is this the beginning of the end and should I pack my rapture bag now or later?

What Does It Mean?

It is important to state up front that there are no precursor events prophesied that would allow us to “time” the beginning of the end. The next event in God’s prophetic calendar is the rapture of the church (I Thess. 4:16-17). This is what is known as a belief in the “Pretribulational Rapture.” This event, prophesied in the New Testament, is an event that could happen at any time, and is not contingent upon any particular set of geopolitical circumstances (I Cor. 15:51-52). That’s why we talk about the rapture as being “imminent.” It can happen at any time.

This is the reason why Christians have always had one eye on this life, and the other on heaven. We are called to be people who eagerly yearn and actively look for the return of Jesus (Phil. 3:20-21; I Cor. 1:7; Titus 2:13; I Thess 1:10).

So, is this “war and rumor of a war” a sign that we’re in the End Times? Biblically speaking, Jesus was very clear with his disciples in Matthew 24:5 that there would “wars and rumors of wars…in various places.” And many might say, “See, this is precisely the proof that we need in order to speculate that the end times are upon us!”

But Jesus continued by saying, “see that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet…all these are but the beginnings of the birth pains.” Jesus’ point in that text is to instruct us that during the intervening time between his first and second comings, human history would be marked by constant war, devastation, and death. And indeed, in the 20 centuries that have passed since the first advent of our Lord, this has been our shared human experience. This new war, on top of the Ukraine war, on top of all the other wars is just like all the conflicts that have been go ne before it and will be like those that will likely come after it (barring the immediate return of Jesus). It is an evidence of humanity’s fallen foolishness and our need for the Prince of Peace to return and bring justice (Is. 9:6-7).

At every turn, as you read the news, you should be reminded about the great sickness that our fallen condition has produced (Rom. 8:19-22; 2 Cor. 5:2). The great evils perpetrated by Hamas this past week are evidence that mankind is hopelessly lost. The death of thousands of innocent civilians that will necessarily result from the coming urban siege and invasion is a reminder that we need a ruler of whom it can be said: “righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you” (Ps. 89:14). In the meantime, it is only because of the Lord’s great love that we are not all consumed. We must always remember, even in the face of evil, that His compassions never fail. They are new every morning, great is His faithfulness! (Lam. 3:22-23).

Eschatologically speaking, we can’t know whether or not the current events in Israel are the beginning of the end. But here’s what we CAN know, and this was Jesus’ point: the events happening today in Israel are a reminder that the end is coming. And it’s towards that end that we should look and live. For when Jesus shows up, He will rule with such perfection that there will be a lasting peace (Zech 9:10; Is 11:6-9).

So…when is Jesus going to return? And are these events a sign that He is coming now? It’s important to know that the Scriptures are silent on the sequence of events leading up to the beginning of the period that we know as “The Second Coming.” As we’ve said, the next event in God’s prophetic calendar is the rapture of the church.

Once the church has been removed and the dispensation known as the church age has concluded, it’s at that point when God’s attention will return to His chosen Jewish people (this is the theological position known as Premillennial Dispensationalism). In that day – as was foretold by the prophets – His attention will return to the Jewish people (Ezek. 39:25-29; Zech 1:14; Dan 9:26), and through the Tribulation period they will be preserved even through great trial (Matt 24:21-22; Rev. 7:3-4). All this will occur even as the judgment of God is being poured out upon all mankind (Rev 6-19). At the end of that Tribulation period, the Jewish people will turn en masse back to God, and with one voice, they look upon Jesus whom they have pierced and cry out for His salvation. As Isaiah 53 teaches us:

In that day, the Jewish people will confess their sin: “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

In that day, they will look to Him for their atonement: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

In that day, they will acknowledge their need for Him: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.”

And in that day, they will all be saved: “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”

Romans 11:23-32 recounts what that day will look like. That day, when the Prince of Peace returns to establish a reign of peace, salvation will come to the Jewish people both spiritually and politically (Rev 19:11-20:6). But that day, tragically is not today. Today, they are in the condition of spiritual blindness that has characterized them ever since they finally rejected Jesus and He hid himself from their eyes (John 12:35-43; Is 6:10).

The result is that today, lasting peace continues to allude the Jewish people. As a nation, Israel can (and must) defend their interests and security as a sovereign nation. They do deserve the support of the United States in this endeavor. Not only are they an ally, but they are also a democratic ally critical to the safeguarding of our own national interests and security. The integrity of our own American nation depends upon us standing with our commitments to their nation. To date, those commitments have been honored, as well they should be. Our own national integrity demands it.

In all likelihood, Israel will be successful in their endeavor, because the keen observer of Israeli history will note their tendency to not just get even, but to get ahead. But even though they may win for themselves a temporary armistice, they – having turned their back upon their Messiah – are yet lost in the darkness and thus can have no true peace (Jer. 6:14). That peace will only come to them on the day when their eyes are unblinded and the Lord restores their spiritual vision so that they can look with appreciation and wonder upon Him whom they have pierced.

And it’s this knowledge that leads us to a final question:

How Should We Think About This?

These events do matter:

• because they remind of us what Israel needs and doesn’t have: theknowledge of their Messiah (John 12:44-50).
• because they remind us of what humanity needs and doesn’t have: salvation from evil and death (Romans 6:23).
• because the global and economic instability that always rushes into the wake of war reminds us that this world is not our home: we do not store up our treasure here because we live for the One King who reigns over all (Heb 13:14; Matt 6:19-21)!

This knowledge should drive how we think – and more importantly – how we pray about these current events. When Psalm 122:8 tells us to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” It’s not talking about geopolitical peace. Indeed, as we’ve learned, that’s presently impossible! A permanent lasting peace cannot be forged in Jerusalem – or anywhere else for that matter – until Jesus has returned.

But even though permanent, political peace cannot be had until that day, that doesn’t mean spiritual peace can’t be had today. And that’s the message of our gospel: Jesus is the one who is our peace today with God (Eph 2:14), ruling our hearts so that we can have peace in the midst of a disordered world (Col 3:15). Because of Him, we can rest with our hearts and minds guarded in that perfect peace (Phil 4:7). This is a condition that can only be ours when our hearts and minds are staid in Him (Is 26:3). This is the gospel – and it is the only hope for the peace of Jerusalem. And this is what it truly means to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

So here’s how this should translate into your prayer life:

• We should pray that the eyes of Jewish people who have been blinded to the gospel’s glory would be opened by the divine power of the Holy Spirit and that individuals would come to see Jesus as their only hope and source of peace (John 3:15-16).
• We should pray that individual Palestinian people whose lives are now being threatened would abandon the Satanic falsehood known as Islam and would turn to Jesus as the only eternal King who is worthy of worship and capable of salvation (John 14:6).
• We should pray for the cessation of hostility to preserve the life of innocents on both sides as blood is surely going to be shed. All those noncombatants are men and women made in the image of God, and in need of salvation from God (Gen. 1:27).
• We should pray for wisdom to be divinely granted to the leadership of our nation and the nation of Israel. Who – though they have universally rejected the gospel of God – desperately need wisdom and skill to bring justice, to love mercy, and restore temporal peace in a troubled region (Prov. 21:20; I Kings 4:29; Dan. 2:21).
• We should pray for one another, that we would not allow our hearts to be troubled, for the ending isn’t in doubt. Jesus has overcome this world already and it’s still catching up to that reality, so let not your hearts be troubled! (John 14:1; 16:33)
• Our prayer should be one with the Apostle John when he finished writing the book of Revelation: “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus (Rev. 21:20).”

If you’re preaching through the book of Romans and looking for a pool of solid historical resources, then Rob Ventura’s recently published Expository Outlines and Observations on Romans would be a welcome addition to your library.

Romans is one of the most-studied, most-written-about books in the New Testament, so there’s no shortage of helpful commentaries on the magisterial epistle. Schreiner’s academic volume in the Baker series, C. E. B. Cranfield’s technical standby, Douglas Moo’s triumphant explanations in the NICNT, John Murray’s recently republished theological observations, and on the list goes. What Ventura’s expositional commentary from Mentor adds to this heavyweight lineup is the collation of some of the most insightful voices in church history alongside his own exegetical notes that informed his preaching through Romans. If you’re looking for a commentary from which to mine Luther and Puritan quotes on the passage in Romans that you’re preaching, or if you’re looking to find a Reformed take on any given passage in Romans, Expository Outlines is the book to get.

The format of Ventura’s commentary organically grows out of a pastor’s study of a text (Ventura pastors at Grace Community Baptist Church in North Providence, Rhode Island). The pericopes that subdivide each section are homiletical rather than exegetical, meaning that you’ll get a whole chapter on Romans 1:1 (a la Martyn Lloyd-Jones) instead of a page or two. Each section begins with a general theme for the text, a suggested preaching outline for the text, a summary of the section, followed by Ventura’s exegetical notes, and some ideas for thinking through the application of the text.

The exegetical section reads like other Reformed expositional commentaries on Romans (MacArthur, Boice) and follows suit in its exegetical conclusions. In Ventura’s work, you’ll find theological and textual explanations for total depravity (Romans 3), sola fide (Romans 4), federal headship (Romans 5), election (Romans 9), and so on. I found Ventura’s footnotes on Romans 7 particularly useful as a help in articulating the position that Paul discusses Christian sanctification in verses 14 onwards. Ventura often deals with weighty exegetical debates in the footnotes, which are worth their weight in gold. While I may differ with Ventura on some of his conclusions in Romans 11 regarding national Israel, his exegesis throughout the commentary is well-read, astute, and worth consideration in the study of the text.

Practically speaking, one of the most helpful aspects of Ventura’s commentary was his extensive quotation of historical voices on the text and theology of Romans. It’s common to find, especially in the middle chapters, a page-long quotation from John Murray or a useful aphorism from Augustine. From Rutherford to Bullinger to Edwards, Ventura has collected the wisdom of some of the greatest minds throughout the history of the church to make sense of one of the greatest letters to the church. His notes are like a museum of great Romans commentators, like a greatest hits album on Romans from church history. If you are at that point in your sermon prep where you’ve worked through the exegetical issues and are looking for some help articulating your point with clarity and force, Ventura has compiled the resources for you.

A pastor’s study time must be well-managed, and Ventura has produced a volume that will well-serve pastors by saving them time in tracking down historical resources on Romans. While his own exegetical notes stand as helpful guides to the text, I’m sure Ventura himself would say that he’s not articulating anything new. Ventura’s work is a homiletical treasure chest for any pastor preaching through Romans and worth adding to your stable of Reformed commentaries on Paul’s longest and greatest letter.

A copy of the text of this commentary was provided for me by the author.

We live in a world that is marked by lies. The world is under the influence of the devil, and as such, it is under the darkness of massive deception. This deception can be seen all around us. People in every corner of society believe lies about any and every subject. People believe lies about the origin of the universe, religion, sex, love, happiness, money, government, relationships, philosophy, and more. Sinners are easily deceived and constantly fall prey to the devil’s lies.

Deception is not just a problem in the world, but it’s a problem within Christianity as well. Satan is out to deceive people about Christ, and he does this in two ways. One way is to deceive people who are in church but not in Christ. The devil wants them to believe that they are children of God, when the reality is they have never been born again. This deception keeps them trapped as false believers in their sin. The other way is to deceive those in the church who are saved – by dislodging their assurance of salvation through false teaching. If you can shake a person’s confidence in Christ and His Word, then you can shake his confidence in his salvation and make him an unstable and weak Christian, sidelining him from kingdom work. 

The solution to both of the devil’s tactics is the same, and that’s how John closes the body of his letter in 1 John. He wants us to know that we have eternal life; or, if we are deceived, to see the truth before it’s too late, so that we might repent and trust in Christ and truly have eternal life. 

One of the steps that enable us to know the truth about our spiritual condition is to recognize the traits of God’s children, which are the defining characteristics of those who are born of God. 

The first trait that John notes is faith. 

Every single person who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. We should not reduce John’s simple statement to a minimalistic christology; rather, we must embrace a full, whole, complete Christ, recognizing that all of God’s promises to His people come to us through one person only: Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God and Messiah. John also makes clear that everyone who believes – no matter where they are in their spiritual maturity or how long they have believed – has been born of God. 

When we read this statement, we might think that John’s primary intention is to tell us that if we believe as individuals, then we are children of God and have been born of God. However, John’s emphasis is not on the person in the mirror, but on our fellow Christians in the church. As we look around our churches and see people who believe God’s Word and have put their faith in Christ for salvation, here’s what we should see in every single one of them: they are children of God.

This emphasis leads to the second trait of love. 

Faith in Christ and love for God’s children are so vitally important that we cannot have faith without love for God’s people – and we manifest this love for our brothers and sisters by loving God! The kind of love that God produces in the hearts of His children is a love that is never one dimensional or one-directional. The love that marks the family of God extends to God and His children, and both must always be present in the life of a believer. 

Often in a church, we will see people who just naturally love being around and helping other people. These people might look at themselves and say that they must be part of God’s family because they love being around the people of God and even serving the people of God. But in some of these individuals, there may be no heart for worship, no devotion to God, little time in the Word or fellowship with the living God. Someone who is constantly serving or fellowshipping with God’s people but never worshipping God with God’s people gives reason for the church to wonder if they are serving for the right reasons. Serving and loving others never can happen properly if they are devoid of love for God and dedicated time to worship.

The third trait of the children of God is obedience. 

There is no love for God or God’s children where there is no submission to Scripture. Love for God’s children manifests itself in love for God, and love for God manifests itself in submission to the Word of God, which is obedience to His commandments. This is so vital because it takes love out of the realm of what is subjective and what is based on our emotions.

We could go through so many examples of these commands in Scripture. 

• Wives, you say you love God, but do you obey God’s command to be subject to your husbands in everything?
• Husbands, you say you love God, but do you love your wives as Christ loved the church?
• Children, you say you love God, but do you obey your parents in everything?
• Church, we say that we love God, but do we let everything be done for edification?
• Church, we say that we love God, but are we diligent to preserve unity?
• Believer, you say you love God, but do you put away all evil things and put on the kindness and compassion and forgiveness and love of Christ? 

When we think about love to God or love to other believers, the question is not, “What do I think or feel or believe I should do based on my wisdom or evaluation of the situation?” But, “What does God’s Word instruct me to do?” If we think we are being loving to God or man, but we’re in disobedience to God’s Word, we are not manifesting the traits of God’s children – and ultimately the only person we are loving is ourselves. 

As John states, these commandments are not burdensome because we have been born of God. Since we are new creatures of God, we overcome the world with its lusts, false teachings, and deceptions – by the faith that God has given us. Verse five tells us that the only person that overcomes the world is the true believer. Our victory must come from another world, from God Himself, which He gives to us when we are born of Him and believe in Jesus His Son. 

The fascinating part about all of this is how intertwined it is. Faith must be accompanied by love. Love for God must be accompanied by love for God’s children, and love for God’s children must be accompanied by love for God. And love for God expresses itself in obedience to His commandments. But that obedience is only possible through faith in Jesus, the Son of God. 

John writes this in such a way that if you pull out any one of these traits, the whole structure collapses. This is an all-or-nothing proposition so that God’s children manifest all or none of these traits. Those who have faith that Jesus is the Messiah, who love God and His children, and who obey God’s Word by faith can have certain knowledge that they have eternal life. 

Throughout history, imposters have often deceived the unsuspecting by pretending to be something, or someone, they are not to gain a leg up in this world. Believing these hucksters is, in the end, of little consequence. People might look foolish if they are misled, or they might be out money for whatever reason – but there are no lasting, eternal consequences from believing these imposters.

However, the world is full of imposters, conmen and women, who are not merely pretending to be something or someone of earthly significance, but who are pretending to be agents of heaven sent by God, but who are in reality from the devil.

In 1 John 4:1-6, the apostle John turns his attention to address the problem of spiritual imposters, calling us to discernment so that we may see if those we listen to are truly from God or if they are from the spirit of antichrist.

We are given one command, stated in two ways: that we must not believe every spirit, and that we must test the spirits to see whether they are from God – a negative and positive expression.  We could frame the command like this: we are commanded by God to exercise discernment.

Discernment has fallen on hard times. On the one hand, there are many people who base their entire ministries on so-called discernment, but their ministries are almost entirely negative. Every one of their commentaries is about another pastor or speaker or theologian who falls short of their biblical standards and why these individuals should be rejected. These people are not practicing discernment; they are simply condemning everyone who does not agree with them on every issue.

There is a fine line between discernment and cynicism. The discerning person puts everything he hears through a biblical test, but the cynic is constantly looking for errors. The cynic is a heresy hunter, going out of his way to find people who are wrong about this or that doctrine. The cynic nitpicks issues of minor importance and elevates them to a place they ought not be, with the intention of condemning or criticizing others while boosting himself and his own pride.

When we see this kind of cynical behavior, the natural reaction is often to go to the polar opposite extreme and decide to avoid discernment altogether, which is a common practice in the evangelical church today. Many of these Christians blindly and willfully allow their preachers and teachers to say and do some of the most outlandish things or to dismiss most of the Bible as unnecessary, accepting them as faithful teachers of the Word of God and giving them an elevated platform to publish books and speak at conferences. That happens because so often the church, as John MacArthur has put it, loses its will to discern.

John’s antidote to both extremes is to propose a biblical solution: don’t believe every spirit but test the spirits to see if they are from God. We don’t become cynics, but we also exercise a healthy amount of caution when someone makes a truth claim. We also don’t throw up our hands and say that discernment isn’t for us, or discernment is unnecessary or mean-spirited, but we test the spirits to see if they are from God.

The word test was sometimes used of testing metals to see if they were genuine, and that’s the idea here. We test those who claim to speak for God to see if they and their message are the genuine article. We want to embrace the truth that God has given us, and we want to reject those who are imposters and come to us with evil intent to deceive and ensnare us in sin and error. 

John gives us three tests we need to use, or the criteria against which we measure anyone who claims to speak by the Spirit of God. The first is whether they confess the true Christ.

The starting point for evaluating if someone is speaking according to the Spirit of God is their view of Jesus Christ – because the Spirit was sent to make Christ known and to glorify Christ. It makes no difference how many things someone gets right if they get Christ wrong. People can have the same general moral principles, the same general ethics, the same political views, and so on; but if they do not understand the truth about Christ, they do not speak from the Spirit of God – and they are of the world.

Note that John uses the word confesses, which carries more weight than simply having an intellectual agreement with a fact. There is a sense in which this term indicates an allegiance to Jesus Christ, a reliance on Jesus Christ, an agreement not only that He came in the flesh but why He came in the flesh, and the need for His coming in the flesh. When we confess that Jesus was the Messiah in human flesh, what we are confessing is that we are sinners, that we are in need of redemption, and that God provided that redemption through the blood of His Son on the cross.

The second criteria to measure those who claim to speak by the Spirit of God is whether they conquer the world.

All those who are in Christ, who have the Spirit of God, who have been born of God – they, too, overcome the devil’s lies, the world’s deceptions, and the false teachers’ deviant doctrine. True Christians overcome the world and its lies because God abides in them. One undeniable mark of being from God is conquering the world, which is to say, rejecting the lies of the world and its demonic doctrines and ungodly ways.

But when preachers and teachers and self-proclaimed prophets speak in a way the world finds acceptable or even attractive, we must use discernment and recognize those individuals are not from the Spirit of God. They are from the world, and that’s why the world runs after them, listens to them, applauds them, and invites them to elevated positions of religious prominence.

The third criteria to measure those who claim to speak by the Spirit of God is whether they conform to the Word. Is the Word of God central to their ministry and their message. If the Bible of any faithful preacher of the gospel or any faithful representative of Christ was removed, he would have nothing to say. But there are thousands of preachers today who use the Bible so little in their preaching that if their Bibles were taken away, most people wouldn’t even notice. If we don’t have the Bible, we don’t have Christianity. The Bible is the authoritative, inspired, apostolic witness to Christ in the New Testament as it unfolds the fulfilled promises of the Old Testament that shape and define Christianity.

If we water down, minimize, neglect, or if we are ashamed of the Bible because what the world thinks of the Bible, then we are from the world, not from God. There are going to be times, though, when sincere Christians get things wrong from Scripture. But where we are wrong, we must admit that our wrong views did not come from the Spirit of God. The difference between the person who is of God and the person who is not of God is that the person of God is seeking to bring every thought captive to obedience to Christ. He wants to conform to Scripture, and when he is shown where he does not conform to Scripture, he humbly repents and changes his view to align with God’s Word.

It’s more important than ever to test the spirits to exercise discernment. Those who confess the true Christ, conquer the world, and conform to the Word of God are from God, but those whose lives are not marked by this pattern are not from God. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. I pray that our churches would exercise discernment so that we might know and experience the reality that the Spirit abides in us.

The distinguishing mark of a follower of Jesus Christ is love for one another. Love for the people of God is essential for disciples because we cannot be disciples of Jesus Christ without genuine, Christ-like, Spirit-wrought love for His people. 

It comes as no surprise that the Apostle John, who recorded the Upper Room Discourse in John 14-16, asserts that one test of true salvation is our love for one another in 1 John 3. John argues that the true children of God are characterized by love for one another, and so this forms the basis for a powerful test of salvation. If we do not love other believers as John describes in this passage, then we very well may be self-deceived about our spiritual condition. But if we see this love, that Christ has commanded, active in our lives, then there is great evidence that we have been born again and have eternal life.

This test concerning love comes right on the heels of John talking about the return of Christ and its impact in our lives. The return of Christ should move us to holiness, obedience, purity, and righteousness. Then John pivots from obedience to love without any warning because he wants us to see that there is an inseparable connection between righteousness and love. Obedience in our lives manifests itself in our relationships with others and characterizes those relationships with love. 

We might all testify that the reality of our holiness, the depth of our obedience, is often best viewed as we relate to others in the body of Christ. It is often easy to act in a way that seems holy when we are alone. When our preferences are not challenged, when our desires are not at odds with the desires of others, when our opinions reign supreme, when the only person we discuss what to do with is ourselves – it is much easier to appear holy than when we collide with other people and their preferences, their desires, their opinions, and their decisions. Our sanctification is put to the test in relationship with other Christians. These are the fires that test the mettle of our holiness. And this is why John joins doing what is right with loving the brothers and sisters in Christ. 

We need to see what kind of love John has in mind so that we ensure that we are truly loving one another as God commands and as His children will do by the Spirit’s power. To this end, John gives us two examples of love to test ourselves by: one negative and one positive, so that we might know if we are living one another as God commands. The first example is the negative example of Cain. Cain was jealous of Abel, and he was convicted of his own sin. John makes the point that Cain didn’t merely kill his brother, but he murdered a true worshipper of God in a violent rage. 

Here are two brothers, and they should love one another – just like those of us in the body are brothers and sisters in Christ, and we should love one another. And the example we must avoid is that of Cain. John’s lesson is plain: the world is going to hate us –because we are of God and they are of the evil one, like Cain. It’s a good reminder that we have enough enemies out in the world that we don’t need to create enemies in the church. At Shepherd’s Conference 2020, John MacArthur said that the next time a trivial, petty disagreement occurs in the church, tell the people involved to get busy fighting the real enemy. We, in the church, waste so much time fighting each other when we have a real enemy, a deadly enemy, a serious enemy, who isn’t wasting his time, who is fighting us. 

Loving the brethren gives us confidence we are no longer spiritually dead. But if we don’t love God’s people, we abide in death. John says that if we hate our brothers and sisters in Christ, the same impulse that led Cain to murder Abel exists in us. No one whose heart is filled with hatred, which leads to murder, has eternal life.

Now, we have a second example, this time the positive example we are to follow: the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the perfect example of love, and He defines what love is for us. He was willing to sacrifice everything, including His own life, to benefit us with eternal life.

We, then, should follow His example, as John writes. Though there’s a chasm of difference between us and Christ, we should be willing to sacrifice for one another as an act of love. John knows we cannot bear others’ sins, or bear God’s wrath in another’s place, or make atonement for anyone as Jesus did; but he goes to the heart of what drove Jesus to give up His life for us, which was that our Lord saw us in need.

Christ knew that we were helpless, that we were dead in our sins, that we had no hope of salvation, and that we were careening toward an eternity under God’s wrath left to our own devices. And seeing that need, Jesus came down from heaven, grew up living a sinless life, and paid the price of our sins on a cross. He saw our need, and He knew He alone could meet that need; and so He did in the most marvelous and unimaginable way possible.

John applies that to us. If we see a fellow Christian in need, and we have the resources to meet that need, and we decide not to meet that need, how can we say the love of God abides in us? The love of God moved Him to send His Son to meet our greatest need through the cross. Surely if that love is in us, then will it not do the same thing in us, and move our hearts to meet the needs of our fellow Christians?

John applies this to financial needs, and that is right and true. We should be more than willing to help someone in need in the church financially if we are able to do so and it would provide the help they truly need. But John is likely not limiting this to financial needs, but he is giving that as an example. Sometimes people need forgiveness, or mercy, or grace, or prayer, or love, or encouragement, or room to grow, or a shoulder to cry on, or someone to laugh with, or someone to talk to. John’s point is that when we see someone with a need, and we have the ability to meet that need, the love of God compels God’s people to meet needs, whatever they are.

This is John’s point. Let’s not just talk about love; let’s love each other. Let’s not just tell people we love them; let’s show people we love them by how we treat them. That’s the character of love. It’s active. It shows itself in behavior. It meets needs. It is selfless, looking out for the other. It is not jealous; it is not angry; it is not rude; it does not keep an account of wrongs; it believes and hopes all things.

John’s test is to examine ourselves by this standard and ask ourselves, “If I look at the character of love, is it obvious I am a child of God?” Christ has shown us such wondrous love by laying down His life for us. Will we imitate the murderous example of Cain and treat the people of God with contempt? Or will we follow the example of our Lord and willingly lay down our lives for one another? 

Those of us old enough to remember will never forget the mass hysteria that gripped the globe in 1999. 

The world stood on the edge of a new millennium, the year 2000. Not many people, historically, live to see the turn of a millennium, so the excitement was palpable. But the anticipation of seeing not one, not two, not three, but FOUR digits in the year column of the calendar change overnight was overshadowed by the fear that a computer bug known as “Y2K” might bring the world to a screeching halt.

Computers went mainstream in the late 20^th century, but unlike today, storage in computer systems was massively expensive. Because of the exorbitant price tag, computer programmers tried everything they could to save space. One strategy they used was to minimize the amount of data required to store dates; so instead of storing the full four-digit year, they only stored the last two digits of the year, cutting the storage space used in half. They realized that this meant their solutions had a built-in obsolesce, because in the year 2000 the computer would be unable to distinguish between 1900 and 2000. 

As Y2K approached, with this potential bug still looming over computer systems everywhere, people were afraid that banking systems, airline systems, payment processing systems, and all other kinds of computer systems would cease to operate at midnight on January 1, 2000, as computers would not know what to do with the date change. Fear of losing power and water, fear of not being able to buy groceries or go out to eat, and the fear of perhaps even losing the ability to start or drive your car, all were clear and present dangers in the minds of many. One writer described the pending doom from Y2K as a “computer induced apocalypse.” 

People went to incredible lengths to prepare for what seemed like the end of the world as we knew it. Of course, we all know now as we look back, that the apocalyptic events that some feared from Y2K never happened. Some places in the world had some minor inconveniences as a result of this computer bug. But for the vast majority of people, waking up on January 1, 2000, was just like waking up on any other day.

While Y2K did not materialize as an end-of-the-world apocalyptic type event, there is a day coming that will occur to bring about the end of history: the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the stunning reality is that, while this event is certain to occur, very few people take the time to prepare for it. Even many people in the church, professing Christians, live their lives as if this day is never going to come, as if there will be no judgment, and as if earthly and temporal realities matter more than heavenly and eternal ones.

To live without regard for the return of Christ is a dangerous error. The return of Christ forms the foundation of the fifth test John gives us in 1 John to help us know whether we have eternal life: How do we relate to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? John makes it abundantly clear that those who have eternal life, those who truly have believed in Christ for salvation, are those who are prepared for His return and who are living in the light of His return.

We see in verse 28 of 1 John 2 that when He appears, there will be two options of what will occur for people. Those who know Christ and have eternal life will face that day with confidence based on our relationship with Christ. But other people who do not know Him will be put to shame as they fall under His wrath.

This is the test. The key differentiator, between those who have confidence when Christ comes and those who are put to shame away from His grace and mercy, is that those with confidence abide in Him. We are commanded to abide in Christ, and this is how we prepare for the return of Christ.

John follows up with this command by giving three traits of the people of God who are abiding in Christ. 

The first characteristic of those abiding in Christ is that they are pursuing righteousness.

Those who belong to Christ, those who have been born of God, those who genuinely hope for the return of Christ, pursue righteousness. This Greek verb in the present tense indicates that something is in process; those abiding in Christ are in the process of doing what is righteous – or being sanctified, which is the process of becoming more holy, becoming more like Christ, or growing in righteousness. So if we are those who are in the process of doing righteousness, that means we are growing more righteous and obedient to Christ.

The second trait of those who are abiding in Christ and prepared for His coming is that they are rejecting rebellion. 

No one can serve two masters. We will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. We cannot serve righteousness and rebellion at the same time. And those who are abiding in Christ are characterized as rejecting rebellion against God.  We are either growing in obedience or growing in disobedience; no one is standing still (although some may move slower than others). 

The third trait of those abiding in Christ is that they are resisting deceivers. 

The world hates God’s truth. Deceivers claim that individuals can have Christ and they can have sin at the same time. They argue that sin is not really that big of a deal, or that people can abide in Christ and abide in sin simultaneously. We are not supposed to let anyone deceive us in this manner. Those who practice sin are of the devil. We resist deceivers by remembering this simple truth: Christ abides in those who abide in Him. And this means that it is impossible that we should be in the process of rebelling against Him and joining hands with the devil. The one who practices righteousness is righteous.

In reading this passage of 1 John, it’s not complicated to figure out which side we’re on. Are we in the process of becoming more like Christ? Or are we in the process of becoming more rebellious against Christ? Our answer to that question will help us see with clarity whether the coming of Christ will be a day of confidence and celebration or a day of shame and destruction for us.

It’s really tragic to think how much preparation, energy, and time people put into preparing for something like Y2K, or a potential toilet paper shortage like the great shortage of 2020, yet how little care they will give to preparing for the coming of Christ. No computer bug, no virus, no war, no famine, no tragedy can compare to the judgment that will come when Christ returns in glory. We must be ready for that great day.

One of the most moving experiences on my recent trip to the Levant was the stop at Mount Nebo in Jordan. Mt Nebo was the vantage point in the land of Moab, in modern-day Jordan, where God showed Moses the Promised Land, and then buried his body.

What struck me was how close Moses got to the Promised Land– right on the threshold– and how painful it must have been to not be allowed to set foot there, after 40 years of approaching. He died, having viewed the land of his dreams, knowing that God’s promise was being fulfilled, but also knowing that the honor of the entrance would go to Joshua, and not to him.

Deuteronomy 34:1 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, 3 the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.

4 And the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your offspring.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.”

5 So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, 6 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. 7 Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated.

Standing on Mt Nebo you can literally see the whole expanse of Israel. Not every nook and cranny; that doesn’t seem to be the point of what God showed Moses.

But on a clear day, even Jerusalem is visible, some 25 miles away. And although today there is a permanent haze that obscures the periphery of the view, we have a photograph from 1930 that shows remarkable distance, beyond the Galilee, and we have journal entries of people who noted that they could see regions that today are veiled by air pollution.

At the site, there is a memorial to Moses and a sculpture of the bronze serpent from Numbers 21.

It makes for a good place to sit and contemplate the epic, 4-year journey of God’s people from slavery to the Promised Land, and how one day that very slice of real estate will see the return of Christ to rule and reign. Even so, come Lord Jesus!

Heman, Ethan, and Asaph were brothers, at least in the Hebraic sense. They all came from the same tribe – the tribe of Levi. They all knew King David and served during his monarchy. And they all played, sang, and wrote songs that endure to this day.

These three brothers are responsible for the authorship of 25 psalms, one-sixth of the entire psalter. So, what do we know about these musicians? Quite a bit, actually.

The Songs of the Psalm Brothers

Heman, a descendent of the Levite Korah, was the founder of the Sons of Korah, a group of musicians who led music in the temple and were responsible for writing twelve of the psalms (Psalms 42-29, 84-85, 87-88). While Heman himself is only listed as the author of Psalm 88, it’s possible that he could have authored other “Sons of Korah Psalms” as well. Either way, his work in organizing the Sons of Korah led to the writing of these psalms by this band of music leaders. And knowing that Psalm 42 was written by a music leader in Israel adds some meaningful depth to its lyrics:

“These things I remember,

as I pour out my soul:

how I would go with the throng

and lead them in procession to the house of God

with glad shouts and songs of praise,

a multitude keeping festival.”

Psalm 42:4

Asaph, a Levite and distant cousin of Heman, also wrote twelve psalms (Psalms 50, 73-83), which include some of the most powerful lyrics in the psalter:

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 73:25-26

Only one psalm is attributed to Ethan (Psalm 89), another Levite brother, but it is of such grandeur and beauty that it was chosen to close out Book 3 of the psalter. Regarding his own ministry, he writes:

Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,

who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face,

who exult in your name all the day

and in your righteousness are exalted.

Psalm 89:15-16

These three brothers, then, are responsible for the writing of twenty-five of the psalms. But what was the context in which they penned these inspired lyrics?

The Story of the Psalm Brothers

Heman, Ethan, and Asaph’s genealogies are recorded in 1 Chronicles 6:31-48. Buried in this list of names, we find out that Heman was the grandson of Samuel the prophet and a descendent of Korah, who led an unsuccessful priestly coup against Moses and Aaron in Numbers 16. We’re told in verse 31 that “these are the men whom David put in charge of the service of song in the house of LORD after the ark rested there.” They were, in our modern terminology, worship leaders; they led the people of Israel in singing praise and lament to their God.[1]

We find out in 1 Chronicles 15:16-24 that David appointed Heman, Ethan, and Asaph to lead the musical procession as the ark was brought into Jerusalem. Apparently, they were percussionists because they were always playing the cymbals. But occasionally we hear of them playing the lyre, the trumpet, or leading the singing. Whatever the instrument, David entrusted these Levite brothers with the great responsibility of stirring up the people of God in musical worship.

In 1 Chronicles 16, we see David further charging these brothers to maintain their work of musical worship before the ark of the covenant as it rests in Jerusalem. Before this time, the job of the Levitical families (Kohathites, Merarites, and Gershonites) was to move all the pieces of the tabernacle when the tent needed to be moved. Now that the tent has found its home, they are given new assignments. Verse 41 says, “With them were Heman and Jeduthun (another name for Ethan) and the rest of those chosen and expressly named to give thanks to the LORD for his steadfast love endures forever.” According to this chapter, some of their favorite cover songs were Psalm 105, Psalm 96, and Psalm 106.

In 1 Chronicles 25:1-31, we see the brothers at their full strength. In particular, the chronicler lists all of Heman’s fourteen sons (“according to the promise of God to exalt him”), calls him a seer, and speaks about the work of this family band in leading music for the to-be-built temple. Verse 7 says, “The number of them along with their brothers, who were trained in singing to the LORD, all who were skillful, was 288.” That’s a significant choir and orchestra!

And when the temple is completed, these three show up once more to usher the ark of the covenant in with – you guessed it – music and singing. And as they played “the house of the LORD was filled with a cloud… for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God” (2 Chron 5:13-14). These faithful ministers had a front-row seat to the divine manifestation of God’s glory in his holy temple. It’s no wonder, then, that their wisdom was considered second only to Solomon during his peak (1 Kings 4:31), and that their psalm-writing would have such an enduring impact on the people of God.

The Legacy of the Psalm Brothers

The story of these psalm-writing Levite brothers doesn’t end with their expiration. 2 Chronicles 29:12-19 tells us that their sons (read, descendants) were used by King Hezekiah in the great cleansing of the temple to restore pure worship to Israel. Likewise, their descendants played a prominent role in Josiah’s reformation as well (2 Chron 35:15). God’s kind hand was upon the houses of these brothers to continue using them for his exaltation.

After the return from the Babylonian exile, the descendants of these three brothers are still helping Israel bring praise to their God. The first group to return to the land included 128 of the sons of Asaph who were appointed to lead singing (Ezra 2:41). At the groundbreaking ceremony for the new temple, these men repeated the refrain of their fathers at the return of the ark (Ezra 3:10-11). Once the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt under Nehemiah, the descendants of Asaph and Ethan offered to live in the city and continue to lead the thanksgiving (Neh 11:15-18). And why did they continue in this work?

“For long ago in the days of David and Asaph there were directors of the singers, and there were songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.”

Nehemiah 12:46

Six hundred years later, the people of God still looked back to the ministry of Heman, Ethan, and Asaph as a high watermark for the musical worship of Israel, seeking to recapture the glory of that ancient choir. That’s a far-reaching legacy of worship!

So, the next time you read one of the psalms written by the Sons of Korah, Asaph, Ethan, or Heman, give thanks to God for the glorious legacy of these musical brothers. And thank the Lord for the faithful service of the musicians that he’s put in your church to lead you in singing praises to your Savior. Or, in the words of the Sons of Korah:

Sing praises to God, sing praises!

Sing praises to our King, sing praises!

For God is the King of all the earth;

sing praises with a psalm!

Psalm 47:6-7

[1] As an interesting aside about the lineage of these musicians: Both Heman and Ethan are listed in their psalm superscriptions as “Ezrahites,” a title which has caused no small amount of confusion among biblical scholars. Most commentators seem to agree that “Ezrahites” is another way of saying “Zerahites,” which means that they were descendants of one of the sons of Judah, Zerah. And 1 Chronicles 2:6 lists the names “Heman” and “Ethan” as two of the immediate sons of Zerah, which would have dated them around 1800 BC, well before the Davidic Ethan and Heman around 1000 BC. How could they be Judahites and Levites? How are they related to their earlier namesakes? The short answer is that somewhere in the family line, there was intermixing between the tribes (as in Judges 17:7) such that both the Heman and Ethan of David’s court were descended from someone named “Mahol” (1 Kings 4:31) who must have been in the line of Judah. That they shared names with their ancestors is not a problem because this was a common practice in Israel, as their own genealogies reveal.

Jesus came of age in the town of Nazareth. He would have spent hours and hours outside, and imbibing the spectacular views of Israel from the local vantage point, now called Mount Precipice. After Jesus began to make a name for himself as a miracle worker and itinerant rabbi, he returned to his hometown. The reception he received was warm. At first. But then things got out of hand in an instant.

Luke 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. …

So far so good. But by the end of his reading and application, we read…

4:28 When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, he went away.

One emotive place to visit in Israel is the site of this event. As best we can tell, the brow of the hill on which Nazareth was built is modern-day “Mount Precipice.” As its name implies, it is the perfect place to throw someone off if you wanted to kill them. But what I found to be a striking thought was that this was the view Jesus would have grown up seeing, largely unchanged today. He would be able to gaze over the part of Israel where the highways from foreign countries converged. He would be able to see Capernaum, where he would later make his home.

This is why this region was known as “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Matt 4:15). It was the place where Gentile foreigners would enter the land of Israel. Jesus came to save his people. His people were the Jews, but that family would expand to include the Gentiles and the whole world.

The boy Jesus would come of age with a constant view of the Jews and Gentiles below Nazareth, busy with their lives, waiting for the one who would bring them salvation. And it was at this very viewpoint, that his own townspeople turned on him. But it was not his time to die. When it was his time, he didn’t escape; he set his face to Jerusalem, and he embraced the cross.

He was rejected by many. But for those of us who will receive him, he is the hope of salvation, the bright light that shone into the darkness.

Matt 4:15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”