Tag: redemptive

Eph 2 & Dispensationalism (part 2)

~ Bob Hayton ~ 3 Comments

–continued from part 1

We are discussing Ephesians 2 and dispensationalism.   In yesterday’s post, we saw that Gentiles are added to the “commonwealth of Israel” and become full fledged members. They with believing Israel become “one new man”. At the very least this teaches that in the dispensation of the church age, there is no distinction between Jewish Christians and non-Jewish Christians. But I believe given the context of Ephesians as a whole, and the other end times passages in the NT that there is no going back to a 2 people structure.

An additional implication of this teaching, that there is only 1 people of God during the church age, would be that the book of James cannot address Jewish Christians independently of the church. So as it addresses the “twelve tribes in dispersion”, that would be seen to be a descriptor of the church which is like Israel, and was scattered throughout the world being spread through persecution (Acts 8), and also being considered “strangers” or “pilgrims” as 1 Peter ch. 1 describes them. The church finds solidarity with the patriarchs of the faith in Hebrews, and we find in Hebrews 8, and especially 10:15-25, that the new covenant is given to the Church as well.

Now we’ll pick up Ken Gentry’s next point, from his Ephesians and Dispensationalism post.

Paul sees Gentiles as receiving Jewish promises.

In our last comment we noted that Paul saw Jew and Gentile merged “” permanently “” in one body, the church (Eph 2:11–19). Now we would note that in the early part of that text he teaches that this new, merged body “” the church “” receives the Old Testament promises given to Israel. Consider Paul’s statement to these Gentile Christians:

“remember that you were at that time [before your conversion] separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12).

What is happening here? Paul is speaking of matters involving “the commonwealth of Israel.” He is declaring that before these Gentiles came to Christ they were “strangers to the covenants of promise.” This necessarily means that now that they have come to Christ they are no longer strangers to the covenants of promise.

Thus, they are now recipients of “the covenants of promise,” which include the distinctive Abrahamic Covenant with Israel (Gal 3:16–18). After all, he goes on to say that though they were “a that time” (Eph 2:12) excluded and strangers they now “have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:13) and that Christ “broke down the barrier of the dividing wall” that separated Jew and Gentile (Eph 2:14).

Thus, if Gentiles are no longer “excluded from the commonwealth of Israel,” if Gentiles are no longer “strangers to the covenants of promise,” if Gentiles “have been brought near,” if Jew and Gentile are merged into one body , and if that which distinguishes Jew and Gentile has been “broken down” (the “dividing wall” ), then by parity of reasoning: the Gentiles receive the promises given to Israel. How can it be otherwise? The two are now one, so that the promises to the old covenant people belong to the new covenant people who have been merged with them.

As members of the commonwealth of Israel, we are partakers in the covenants of promise. In my “understanding the land promise” series, I show how Rom. 4:13-16 teaches that we partake in the land promise as well (Matt. 5:5 & Eph. 6:1-3). Stay tuned for at least one more post in this series on Eph. 2.

Mining the Archives: The Advance of God’s Kingdom

~ Bob Hayton ~ 3 Comments

From time to time, I’ll be mining the archives around here. I’m digging up Bob’s best posts from the past. I’m hoping these reruns will still serve my readers.

Today’s post was originally published January 9, 2006.

I have posted here the power point presentations used in a close pastor friend’s recent 10 week series on “The Advance of the Kingdom”. This is really a fantastic presentation focusing on God’s plan in creation and salvation as expressed in the Biblical covenants. It is really a presentation of Covenant Theology 101. The presentation is well done, and you can get the gist of his messages just from the power point slides.

This presentation really encourages us with the glory of God’s salvation and His progressive revelation of the greatness of the gospel. I encourage you to check this out, and see for yourself how Biblical the essence of Covenant Theology really is.

Here are links to the power point files for each of the 10 parts to the presentation.

the-advance-of-the-kingdom

the-kingdom-and-the-covenant

the-covenant-of-creation

the-coveant-of-adam

the-covenant-of-noah

the-covenant-of-abraham

the-covenant-of-moses

the-covenant-of-david

the-covenant-of-christ

conclusion

(Note: these were originally used in conjunction with the Sunday morning sermon, so there is some review in the individual parts. Also, if you don’t have Microsoft PowerPoint, sometimes you at least have PowerPoint viewer, or you can download Open Office.org’s software which can read .ppt files.)

For more on covenant theology and a redemptive-historical interpretation see my review of O. Palmer Robertson’s The Christ of the Covenants, which stands behind many of the ideas in this power point presentation. Also see my “Redemptive Historical” category.

Thoughts on the Battle of Jericho

~ fundyreformed ~ 10 Comments

I recently read the story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho in the new kid’s Bible storybook I’ve been promoting. In that story I read these words:

Then God made his people a promise. “I will always be with you….    If you do what I say, your lives in the new land will be happy and everything will go well.”

So Joshua gathered his army together…. They were ready to fight. But the plan wasn’t about fighting; it was about trusting and doing what God said. (emphasis added, quote from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones)

Canaan as a Type

These words spurred me to think about the battle of Jericho as it relates to the battle of our own personal sanctification. Christians for centuries have interpreted the story of Israel’s redemption and exodus form Egypt, their wandering in the desert, and their conquering the promised land in some kind of a spiritual sense. Scripture certainly presents Jesus as the archetypal Passover Lamb. The misadventures of Israel in the wilderness teach us spiritual lessons (1 Cor. 10). And the promised land is a type of Abraham’s “better” and “heavenly” country which he sought (Heb. 11). Numerous hymns have also  equated crossing the Jordan with entering our eternal rest.

Certainly a redemptive historical hermeneutic finds great significance in the story of the Israelites conquering the promised land. As my friend Nathan Pitchford has so clearly shown, the land of promise is intimately connected to fellowship with God. The land was to be the place where God would be Israel’s God and they would be His people. Fellowship was the goal of the land promise, even as later with David, God chose Jerusalem to be the city where His name would be. The OT covenants and promises became increasingly particularized and focused on the heir of David to be ultimately fulfilled with Christ.

All that is to say the possession of Canaan by the people of God was important because this land was to provide a restoration, in part, of Eden. It was to be a place where God communed with man in intimate fellowship. Such a place clearly typifies the abundant Christian life of a believer. A believer experiences fellowship with God which is truly a foretaste of heaven. Just as the land of Canaan ultimately points forward to the New Jerusalem and the New Earth (see Rev. 21), so the believer’s experience of life in Christ is the foretaste of the true essence of eternal life.

The Battle to Win Canaan

Now that we have established the typical significance of the land of Canaan, we are prepared to see how the battle of Jericho wonderfully instructs us. (And I grant I have not truly established it, rather I  explained it. This post is not a full-fledged  defense of the redemptive historical hermeneutic.) Before the Israelites could possess their inheritance, they had to conquer their foes. The battle of Jericho was the first fight to win the promised land, and it sets up what proves to be a pattern. The Israelites trust in God’s power to win each battle for them.

I hope you can see how this applies to us. In order for us to reach our inheritance — the ultimate promised land of heaven, we must trust in God to win our battles.    In Jesus (the Captain of the Lord’s hosts) must be our trust. So with ultimate salvation, we must trust in God to undertake for us and win the battle.  

But this applies to our sanctification as well. For us to enjoy the abundant life in Christ, we must fight the flesh and engage our besetting sins. We must mortify sin (see John Owen’s excellent work On the Mortification of Sin, which is an exposition of Rom. 8:13). And how do we win the battles of sanctification? By trusting in God to win our battles for us, of course. We follow in Joshua’s footsteps.

The Point of this Post

What most blessed me in thinking through all of this was an observation. Joshua and the army of Israel did not sit around on their hands and wait for the walls to fall down. They obeyed. Scripture repeatedly tells us that good works are the inevitable, even the required fruit of believers.   (See my post Once Saved, Always Saved?!?!) If we are not obeying, we have good reason to be doubting our salvation.  

Today, there are many who so stress the necessity of good works that they have redefined justification. They claim  justification is based on our good works, yet they claim such works are only done through the Spirit, and so this position still qualifies as justification by faith.  

Against the backdrop of this whole debate, the example of Jericho becomes all the more clear. If the Israelites had not obeyed by marching around the city, God would not have given them th evictory. Obedience is necessary. But obedience does not earn or obtain anything. It is only God’s grace which would topple the walls of Jericho. And certainly marching around the city did not do anything to earn the victory. God throwing the walls down earned the victory.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as we face the struggles of personal sanctification, let us take heart. God is fighting our battles for us. We do need to be faithful and march around the walls of the sins in our life. But ultimately God is the one who tears down those walls and gives us spiritual victory after spiritual victory. Just like it took many years for the Israelites to conquer all of Canaan, our own struggle for sanctification is a slow process. And like the Israelites, we will never expel all of our sins. We can, however, win a victory and live a life of victory (see Josh. 21:43-45). And when we do, it is not our obedience which has won anything. It is all by God’s grace and His fighting for us. The battle is indeed the Lord’s.

So let us seek to trust our Great Captain, and follow His lead in fighting our sin. To God be the  glory, great things He has done, and will do!

(For similar posts, see My 219 Epiphany, parts 1 and 2; Once Saved, Always Saved?!?!; and Bitterness and Desire.)

The Gospel according to Solomon

~ fundyreformed ~ 5 Comments

In this post, I made the following observation:

“When encountering Scriptural teachings on types or comparisons, I typically just assumed that God was borrowing from the natural realm, so to speak, to highlight truth about His spiritual works. But the work of redemption was planned “before the foundation of the world”! So, when God created the world, the very way in which He did it was not arbitrary but planned….The family unit, with father-child and husband-wife relationships, were designed and established to reveal aspects of our relationship with God as His beloved children, and our relationship with Christ as His church-bride.”

We often draw on familial pictures of God as our Father, but how often do we contemplate God as our lover?

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I recently ran across an article online that simply blew me away. It contends that the intimacy conveyed in the poetry of Solomon’s Song is a true picture of the joyous, intoxicating love God wants us to share with Him, for all eternity!

I will provide some excerpts from the article here for you all. May you too be filled with awe and praise for our God who has so intimately called us to such a love relationship with Him. The article is from Credenda Agenda and is written by Douglas Jones.

“The passion of the Song of Solomon is a majestic revealer of our sterility. It is one of the greatest expressions of the gospel in all of Scripture, and it shows us how little we understand. It gives us the very heart of Christian theology, the center of all doctrine and practice. And, yet, like an old friend, it has pity on us. It mercifully mocks our pervasive intellectualizing of the gospel and our clinical views of holiness.

“Can we hear the gospel in the following, without flinching?

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for your love is better than wine…. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, that lies all night between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blooms, In the vineyards of En Gedi…. Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down in his shade with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Sustain me with cakes of raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am lovesick. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me” (Song 1:2,13,14; 2:3-6).

“Most American Christians can’t get past the opening compliment to wine, let alone understand how lovemaking is supposed to transcend it. Our indifference to wine is connected to the unsensual utilitarianism of our marriage beds. They go hand in hand. And if our marriage beds are supposed to reflect the glories of the gospel, then it’s no wonder the Church is so ugly. The Song assumes these are all tied together. We will never live the gospel fully until we can embrace the blinding holiness of the marriage bed, the exhilarating bodily union of husband and wife, lovemaking.

….

“The Tabernacle and Temple reveal the holiness of sexual union too. They were not only called the “house of God” (Ex. 23:10; Jdgs. 20:18; Jn. 2:16), they were designed with the components of an actual house. In them we find the outer courts typical of our porches and yards and, inside, places for food preparation and cooking and cleansing. As you move further in, the rooms increase in privacy, until you reach the Holy of Holies, the most sacred place of judgment and communion. That is where God could finally meet with the bride. That is where the holiest communion took place. In our homes, too, we have walls and kitchens and washing places, and we have a most-private area of intimate communion as well: the bedroom, the marriage bed. The marriage bed in this analogy is parallel then, not to an outer room or any other outer furniture, but to the Holy of Holies. What goes on there is the most intimate communion of all between husband and wife. With the marriage bed as our Holy of Holies, it is not a place for abomination or degradation or pietistic indifference. Lovemaking is a glorious, positive holiness and ought to be celebrated as such; it is at the center of honoring God. (And thankfully, communion in the Holy of Holies is not a once-a-year affair anymore!)

….

“Real knowledge is bodily love and communion. It is imagination that is touching and indwelling. It isn’t dominated by the intellect and rationality. Yet our theologies (even articles like this one!) tend to be very intellectualistic. Imagine if we were to approach the marriage bed as intellectualistically as we approach our theology. We would kill the joy. You cannot analyze lovemaking without dispersing the delight. That is a wonderful aspect of the marriage bed. Lovemaking goes to the soul, far deeper than any reason can. Yet we can constrain the gospel in the same way. We often intellectualize the gospel to such an extent that people can’t know the joy – our children can’t know the joy. The lure and draw of sexual joy is supposed to parallel the lure of the goodness of God. The two go hand in hand. We strangle both while stuffing our children’s intellects, and then wonder what went wrong. We are a nonsensual, unpoetic people; we are foreigners to the Song of Solomon. [emphasis added]

“God has filled the universe with many earthy, imaginative symbols; of these lovemaking is very central….It is no evolutionary accident, for example, that lovemaking builds and climaxes in ecstatic joy. God didn’t have to design sex that way. But He did for some meaning. It certainly images the “joy inexpressible” (1 Pet. 1:8] that the bride has for Christ: “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Ps. 16:11). Like the marriage bed, this joy can’t always be held in; sometimes it just has to be shouted – “shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” (Ps. 32:11; cf. 33:11; 35:27; 65:13; 67:4; 132:9,16). Lovemaking, too, should never be too quiet.

“And it can turn our souls toward the deeper aspects of life. Note the Song of Solomon’s imaginative and sensual interplay between the created order and the marriage bed. Few, if any, syllogisms show up in the poem. But the Lord does tell us to smell and see and touch and taste in the Song: ‘How fair is your love, my sister, how much better is the scent of your perfumes than all spices…. You have doves’ eyes, your lips are like a strand of scarlet and your mouth is lovely…. The curves of your thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a skillful workman. Your naval is a rounded goblet…. Your waist is a heap of wheat set about with lilies…. His body is carved ivory inlaid with sapphires. His legs are pillars of marble set on the bases of fine gold. His mouth is most sweet; yes, he is altogether lovely…. Let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, the fragrance of your breath like apples, and the roof of your mouth like the best wine.’

“So much is built into this poetry. And so many battles lie at this crossroads within our own homes, quite apart from combatting the ugly immodesties and boring exhibitionisms of a surrounding pagan culture that is plain deer-eyed about real sexuality (James 3:14-15; Jude 1:16). Lovemaking can not only sanctify us, but it also shows us more about the nature of God and knowledge and education and all of life. By being a more sexual, a more sensual people, we can educate our children and congregations to delight in creation and redemption, paying attention to the symbols and delights that God has sculpted all around us. What a wonderful calling. Whatever is scented, whatever love is better than wine, whatever breasts are like towers, if there is anything perfumed or tasty, meditate on it and ravish your beloved in your Holy of Holies.”

[Read the whole article. Ephasis added.]