Second Creation, Second Adam
ii. Allows man to eat meat for the first time (vs. 2-4).
iii. Institutes death sentence for those who commit murder (vs. 5-6).
iv. God promises mercy with a covenant sign, the rainbow (vs. 8-17).
2. Jesus was the spiritual Second Adam because Adam was the photographic negative of Jesus(Romans 5:14-19).
The God-Given Righteousness of Noah
The God who promised to send the Seed of the Woman to crush the Serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15) gave Noah the faith to believe this promise. God was the ultimate basis of Noah’s righteousness. The way in which the Seed of the Woman would crush the Serpent’s head, destroying Satan’s power through sin over God’s chosen, had not yet been revealed. Noah did not know how God’s promised Seed would save him from sin, he just believed that he would. As we study through the Old Testament, we’ll learn that God reveals his plan to save sinners progressively, a little bit at a time.
Our lives are like that. We set goals, but we don’t know everything we’ll need to do yet, or what will happen to us before we reach our goal, but these details become clear to us day by day. This is the way it works with the history of God’s work of redemption from sin. First we learn the big picture: God had announced his plan to send Someone to defeat the great enemy of our souls; then, bit by bit, who this Someone is, and how he’s going to defeat this enemy slowly became clear to people like Adam, Seth, Enoch and Noah one detail at a time. A few of these details are revealed to us in the righteous life of Noah.
By his grace, God promised to deliver Noah from the flood of judgment which he and the entire world deserved (Genesis 6:18), and Noah believed God’s promise, so one of the factors of Noah’s righteous life was faith. This faith in God’s promise was the basis for Noah’s righteous life, but it was not his faith that saved him, it was the gracious, promise-keeping God who chose to save him that was the ultimate basis of his righteousness and his salvation. Noah was a righteous man because God made Noah a righteous man.
The other factor that adds up to righteousness for Noah was his obedience to God’s commands. God gave Noah very specific instructions to build an ark (Genesis 6:14-16), what size to build it, what to build it with, how to build it and how many of the various beasts, birds and bugs to gather into the ark (Genesis 6:19-20). The testimony of Moses was that Noah obeyed all that God commanded him to do (Genesis 6:22). Yet this obedience by itself did not earn for Noah his status as a righteous man. Remember he was righteous by God’s grace through the faith granted to him by God (see Ephesians 2:8-9) with which he believed the God of the promise of salvation from sin, Satan and the flood. Noah’s faith was the root of Noah’s obedience. Noah’s obedience was the fruit of Noah’s faith. Therefore Noah’s faith evidenced by his obedience was what Moses was talking about when he wrote that Noah was a righteous man (Genesis 6:9).
God saves us the same way. All of us were born with Adam’s guilt legally imputed to us (Romans 5:12-14) by virtue of the fact that Adam represented us in the covenant with God which he violated when he ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3; cf. Hosea 6:7). In addition to this, we were born, having inherited a corrupt human nature that wants nothing but sin (Romans 3:10-18), unable to do anything (Romans 8:7) that will please him (Hebrews 11:6) and save ourselves. As things stand, we deserve death and an eternity of suffering the wrath of God.
But out of the mass of condemned humanity, a remnant finds favor with God (Genesis 6:8; cf. Romans 11:5-7). Because of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection for sinners, God looks on this remnant with grace and gives them the faith (Acts 13:48; 18:27) to trust the work of Christ that is preached to everybody (Mark 16:15). We then rely on his grace to give us the obedience with which we show our thanks and love for the work of Christ on the cross (John 14:15). So we learn how God saved us in the Bible, and we also learn how to respond to this good news in grateful love by learning the commands of God—because true faith works by love (Galatians 5:6). That’s how we can be remembered as a righteous man or a righteous woman after our story has been told, just like Noah, by a God-given faith in Christ that obeys God’s commands.
Kingdom Coffers: “Flat Tax” or “Love Offering”? Part 2
Abram, Melchizedek and “Christian Tithing”
Is it, or is it not, appropriate to call our giving to God in the church “the tithe,” applying Mosaic principles regulating the giving of it (“Will a man rob God?”), and stressing its importance (“The tithe is the LORD’s!!!”), or would it be more biblical to simply “purpose” in one’s own heart how much he ought to give, in order to ensure that it is given with love (1 Corinthians 13:3) or, as Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians, as a “cheerful giver?”
It is held by many that tithing is only a part of the civil/ceremonial aspect of the Mosaic Law and it is, therefore, assumed to be abrogated in the New Testament, in which Paul gives a New Covenant principle of “cheerful giving.” In light of this argument, Christian tithing is defended on the grounds that Abram’s tithing to Melchizedek (Genesis 14:20b) precedes the Mosaic Law and thus ought to be retained after the civil/ceremonial parts of the Mosaic Law are abrogated. For example, consider the Statement of Faith of the World Baptist Fellowship, International. In Section 20 on “The Grace of Giving,” it reads, Under grace we give, and do not pay, the tithe – “Abraham GAVE a tenth part of all” – “Abraham GAVE the tenth of the spoils” – Hebrews 7:2-4 – and this was four hundred years before the law, and is confirmed in the New Testament; Jesus said concerning the tithe, “These ye ought to have done” – Matt. 23:23.
This was the view with which I had been raised. In fact, the Statement of Faith I just cited was the one adopted by the church in which I was saved and baptized. Ever since I’ve been earning money, I’ve been striving to be faithful to this principle. My current church is the first to which I have belonged which specifically denies this concept of some kind of eternal principle about tithing that ought to be retained, even though the civil and ceremonial aspects of the Law have been abrogated. I have been considering the relative merits of both views for the last few years.
If tithing is an eternal principle which transcends the Mosaic administration of the covenant of grace by virtue of Abram’s tithing to Melchizedek, then tithing ought to be retained in Christian worship, further informed, I would say, above and beyond the letter of tithing by Paul’s teaching on evidencing one’s love for the Lord and the people of God by the cheerful giving of that which the believer purposes in his heart in gratitude for the Lord’s blessings (2 Corinthians 8-9).
But if it is a mere aspect of the temporary civil/ceremonial laws, then it is abrogated by Christ and the Pauline giving principle is the only rule for the people of God today. So the challenge for me has been to evaluate whether or not the Abram/Melchizedek tithe in Genesis 14 and Hebrews 7 is a valid basis for the idea that tithing is demanded outside the Mosaic Law.
One of the points that got me thinking about this issue is the claim that the New Testament does not expressly command tithing, therefore it ought not be retained. This argument that there is no explicit New Testament command to tithe was coming off as another application of the same argument invalidly used (in my mind, with all due respect) by Baptists when they argue against pedobaptism. It did not sit well with me to hear pedobaptists using this line of reasoning. So the question is raised in my mind as to just what it is about the New Testament that abrogates the practice of tithing?
There are New Testament Scriptures abrogating everything from sacrificing animals (Hebrews 10:9) to eating unclean animals (Acts 10:9-16); but nothing was surfacing as I searched the Scriptures in my mind that explicitly abrogates the principle of giving ten percent of one’s income to the church. In my mind, this pointed to the perpetuity of tithing as a New Covenant principle.
So that’s what helped me think to scrutinize the Abram/Melchizedek tithing account. How does the New Testament treat this passage? Does its treatment affect the tithing question? Simple answers:
The New Testament treats the Abram/ Melchizedek tithing account as a type fulfilled by Christ. The very same New Testament book which gives the apostolic interpretation also warns us against reinstating Christ-fulfilled types and shadows. So if the account of Abram tithing to Melchizedek typifies the superiority of Christ to the Levitical priesthood, then this Old Testament passage is irrelevant to the question of giving in Christian worship. Therefore, I conclude that the New Testament treatment of that Old Testament account does affect the tithing question by taking this event off the table as a passage to be considered in the context of Christian giving. To do so would be tantamount to returning to Old Testament types and shadows.
Therefore, it is not a misguided baptistic argument to say that New Covenant believers don’t tithe because the new Testament doesn’t command us to tithe but does command us to give cheerfully that which we purpose in our hearts to give as we have been blessed. This is an offering made in the context of New Covenant worship that is pleasing to the Lord!
An IFB associate pastor friend of mine counters this argument with the principle, “There is one interpretation, but there are many applications,” as justification to take this passage about how much greater Christ is than Levi and apply it to the doctrines of giving in New Covenant worship. While it may be true that there are (at least some of them) many applications, those applications are accountable to the one interpretation, rightly exegeted. Does the application of the Abram/Melchizedek type to “Christian tithing” meet this exegetical standard?
Kingdom Coffers: "Flat Tax" or "Love Offering"? Part 1
The Reason for the Flood (Genesis 6:1-8)
Man hated God and struck out against God’s image through murder. God was angry with man, because man only ever wanted to sin. Man is so sinful that there is nothing we can do to gain God’s favor. We were unable to save ourselves from our state of sin and misery into which the race of man fell when Adam sinned and God cursed the earth. This state of sin and misery had only been getting worse and worse until the point that God announced his great disfavor for them and his great anger with them.
God reveals his plan to wipe out the race because he is so angry with them. If God was a man, he’d regret having made them. But God is infinitely wise and is working according to his eternal plan. God is doing things this way because he is revealing to us what it will be like at the end of the world. The events in God’s world history happen to teach us something about what it will be like when Christ returns to judge the world once and for all (see 2 Peter 3:3-7).
The Fall and Curse
Here’s your chance to critique my Sunday School notes! Did I miss the mark? Share your comments, questions, critiques. . .
3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths
· on shame, see Heb. 4:13; Rev. 3:18
8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” (Opportunity for Adam to Confess)
10 And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”
11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,cursed are you above all livestockand above all beasts of the field;on your belly you shall go,and dust you shall eatall the days of your life.15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring; (Heb. 2:14; Revelation 12:13-17; 20:1-3, 10)he shall bruise your head,and you shall bruise his heel.”
· The first time the gospel is preached in the Bible!
· New Testament Perspective: 1 John 3:4-10—Jesus has destroyed the Devil’s works; believers are born of God, gaining ability to learn to obey God.
MISERY ENTERS THE EXPERIENCE OF MAN
16 To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;in pain you shall bring forth children.Your desire shall be for your husband,and he shall rule over you.”
· New Testament Perspective: 1 Timothy 2:8-15—Minor on outward beauty; major on inner beauty through good works; women shouldn’t pastor, taking authority over man; “childbearing”? Ephesian false teachers dissed marriage; “c/b-ing” represents whole of married life by its product, Paul encouraging women to accept their proper role and through believing the gospel, gratefully loving their family, church and neighbor, devoting themselves to God & avoiding sin and generally controlling yourself, you’ll be saved.
17 And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
(didn’t lovingly lead, but followed the misguided leadership of his wife)and have eaten of the treeof which I commanded you,‘You shall not eat of it,’cursed is the ground because of you;in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;and you shall eat the plants of the field.19 By the sweat of your faceyou shall eat bread,till you return to the ground,for out of it you were taken;for you are dust,and to dust you shall return.”
· I.E., God says, “You won’t die yet, but will live with misery to humble you, reminding you to guard against sin
· New Testament Perspective: Romans 5:12-21
20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.
· Leviticus 17:11—Death required to cover sin; Salvation through Christ’s death is like being clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
· In Adam & Eve’s expulsion, God shows mercy by keeping them from the tree of life which would have bound them to an immortal existence of sin & misery. In God’s wrath, he remembers mercy.
Sproul Holiness and Justice Part 1
Watch R. C. Sproul illustrate Aaron’s response to the justice of God.
Leviticus 10:1Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized[a] fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them. 2And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said, ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.'” And Aaron held his peace.
Forgive Me
Akin to the preaching of the gospel, we have another help to our faith in the sacraments in regard to which, it greatly concerns us that some sure doctrine should be delivered, informing us both of the end for which they were instituted, and of their present use.
The reason why the ancients used the term in this sense is not obscure. The old interpreter, whenever he wished to render the Greek term “musterion” into Latin, especially when it was used with reference to divine things, used the word sacramentum. Thus in Ephesians, “Having made known unto us the mystery (sacramentum) of his will;” and again, “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you-wards, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery” (sacramentum,) (Eph. 1: 9; 3: 2.) In the Colossians, “Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to his saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery,” (sacramentum,) (Col. 1: 26.) Also in the First Epistle to Timothy, “Without controversy, great is the mystery (sacramentum) of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh,” (1 Tim. 3: 16.) He was unwilling to use the word arcanum, (secret,) lest the word should seem beneath the magnitude of the thing meant. When the thing, therefore, was sacred and secret, he used the term sacramentum. In this sense it frequently occurs in ecclesiastical writers. And it is well known, that what the Latins call sacramental the Greeks call “musteria” (mysteries.) The sameness of meaning removes all dispute. Hence it is that the term was applied to those signs which gave an august representation of things spiritual and sublime. This is also observed by Augustine, “It were tedious to discourse of the variety of signs; those which relate to divine things are called sacraments,” (August. Ep. 5. ad Marcell.)
Recipe for a Sacrament: Just Add Bread, Wine and A Cross
The “flesh and blood” references in Christ’s words to the people in John chapter 6 are controversial in that many take the liberty of applying the principles in this passage to their theology of the Lord’s Supper. How might this be true? I took a look at the verses in question and attempted to distill the principles that may have some bearing on the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper and how it may or may not be a “means of grace.” The following thought process may be a bit tedious reading, but I think you’ll see how I find that there is indeed room to legitimately connect the theology referenced in the passage to the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. And I believe it is part of what helps us conclude that the Lord’s Supper is a means of grace which confirms the promise of God in the gospel to believers while rendering condemnation to unbelievers who partake.
One thing I noticed about this passage is that, while it affirms that those who believe in Christ do feed on his flesh which he gives for the life of the world, no mention is made of how he is to give his flesh for the life of the world. That would be in his death on the cross. Furthermore, there is no explicit reference to engaging in a ritual in which believers actually eat literal bread and drink literal wine. But, of course, Jesus has yet to institute the Lord’s Supper, so why go into that kind of detail here? He discusses the theology of how grace is conveyed to sinners through the means of his body and blood (broken and shed for sinners on the cross), to which he will later add the further means of grace — the preaching of this good news of justification in his death and resurrection, which invisible saving grace is signified by the outward elements of bread and wine which seal the benefits of Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection in glory. I hope this helps you see the chain of means which convey God’s grace to believing sinners.
John 6:27-35 “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. . .”
John 6:47-51 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
John 6:52-58 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on my flesh, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
Propositions extracted from the above passages:
Don’t only seek physical sustenance from Christ for this temporary life alone. Seek spiritual sustenance which will provide eternal life. (vs. 25-27)
Eternal life comes to those who believe in him whom God has sent (v. 29).
The Old Testament type of God’s giving Israel bread from heaven to eat is fulfilled by the antitype of the Lord Jesus Christ who came down from heaven and gives life to the world (vs. 30-34).
The Lord Jesus Christ is the bread of life (v. 35a).
Whoever comes to Christ in faith will never hunger or thirst (v. 35b).
Whoever believes has eternal life (v. 47).
The true bread comes from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die, but live forever (vs. 48-50).
The bread that the Lord Jesus Christ will give for the life of the world is his flesh (v. 51c).
Whoever does not eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man has no life in him (v. 53).
Whoever eats Christ’s flesh and drinks Christ’s blood will have eternal life and is given hope of resurrection to life at Christ’s return (v. 54).
Christ’s flesh is true food, and Christ’s blood is true drink (v. 55).
Whoever eats Christ’s flesh and drinks his blood abides in Christ, and Christ abides in him (v. 56).
God the Father is the source of Christ’s physical life; whoever feeds on Christ’s flesh will live because of Christ’s life (v. 57).
This boils down to the fact that Christ’s body was broken and his blood was shed and he gave his life and took it again in his resurrection so that dead sinners may receive the free gift of eternal life through faith and the hope of resurrection on the day of Christ’s return. What relevance does this have to the Lord’s Supper? Keith Mathison cites Calvin’s explanation on p. 221 of Given For You: Reclaiming Calvin’s Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. Mathison writes: “Calvin argues that John 6 is not ‘about’ the Lord’s Supper, but he adds, ‘I acknowledge that there is nothing said here that is not figuratively represented, and actually bestowed on believers, in the Lord’s Supper; and Christ even intended that the holy Supper should be, as it were, a seal and confirmation of this sermon.” (Calvin’s Commentary on John 6:54).
God is the ultimate source of life.
God gave life to the flesh and blood of his Son.
God sent his Son to give his flesh and blood for the life of dead sinners.
God’s Son gave his flesh and blood for the life of dead sinners in his crucifixion.
Whoever believes in God’s Son receives eternal life through means of Christ’s broken body and shed blood in his death. This is what Christ means by eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
Christ announced the New Covenant in the broken bread which is his body broken for sinners, and fruit of the vine poured out which is his blood shed for sinners, commanding that this meal be administered in remembrance of the death of the testator (Hebrews 9:16) that those who partake of the broken bread and poured out wine in faith may participate in his sacrifice for their sin (1 Cor. 10:16), and experience fellowship with all those who have life in him (1 Corinthians 10:17).
Christ sent the apostles to preach the good news that Christ died for sin and rose the third day that whoever believes may receive eternal life. Those who believed their message devoted themselves to participating in Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42).
Therefore . . .
- the body and blood of Christ on the cross is God’s means of grace (the free gift of eternal life received by faith—Romans 3:24-25; 6:23);
- The preaching of the gospel of the death and resurrection of Christ is a means of grace;
- Remembrance of Christ’s broken body and shed blood for our sins by eating bread and wine in conjunction with fellowship, preaching and prayer is a means of grace.
The Misadventures of Captain Headknowledge 
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Captain Headknowledge for Kids
My Wednesday nights are dedicated to taking the truth of Scripture and learning how to effectively present it to kids. Working with kids reminds me that the lessons I teach must focus on one single point which is underscored by everything else in the lesson. I’m not always successful at this. After all, I’m Captain Headknowledge! I don’t talk long about much. I draw a blank when sports, politics, finances, etc. are the topics at hand, but if you get me on theology, unless I can tell you know more than me, I’m hard to shut up. That’s not conducive to highlighting one single point. I’m the theology geek your fundamentalist mother warned you about. But that’s why I work with kids in the AWANA program at my church. Captain Headknowledge remains a work in progress.
Another weakness in my teaching skills is my lack of interest in finding illustrative material to supplement my teaching. I relate well to what I once read about William Carey when he preached before the group of men charged with examining him in view of his ordination. After Carey’s sermon, one of the men critiqued his sermon by saying something like, “We see you are very capable of telling your hearers what the truth is, but you need to learn to also tell them what the truth is like.” Right there with ya’, Will!
Occasionally, as I’m preparing my AWANA lessons, and others I’ve taught in other classes in the past, an illustration or, in this case, an analogous object lesson of sorts, will give me a particular thrill. I would like to share my most recent one with you today.
I’ve been teaching “expository” lessons on a significant portion of Paul’s second letter to Timothy, leading up to the famous verse after which AWANA is named. As most of you probably know, AWANA stands for “Approved Workers Are Not Ashamed.”
While I started at the beginning of the school year at 2 Timothy 1:7, I have finally arrived at the final paragraph, in which is contained the verse for which the children’s program is its namesake.
“Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymaneus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are his,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.'”
As I considered verses 14 through 16, I observed that the AWANA verse, verse 15, is “sandwiched” between two verses which seem to provide the photographic negative of one or the other of the two components I’d been drilling into my boys’ heads all year (“Approved Workers . . . (1) Believe the Gospel, and (2) Live Godly.”). Thus came to me my object lesson. I went to the store and bought a loaf of bread, went to the cabinet and grabbed the peanut butter, then to the refrigerator for a squeeze bottle of jelly, scooped up the wife and the three school-age members of my bevy of five children, and hit the road for the Wednesday night service (ask me to forward you a copy of my pastor’s PowerPoint outline introducing his current exposition on the book of Romans, from which I am providentially “let hitherto” in God’s goodness and wisdom).
The Approved Worker Sandwich
1. Unapproved Workers Rewrite the Gospel and Can Ruin Your Faith(“Foundational” Slice of Bread) ” . . . charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.”
2. Approved Workers Believe the Gospel (Peanut Butter–the Protein in PB Satisfies Your Hunger) ” . . . rightly handling the word of truth.”
3. Approved Workers Live Godly (Jelly–Jelly is Sweet, Just Like Godly Lives) “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed . . . “
4. Unapproved Workers’ Irreverent Babble Promotes Ungodliness (Top Slice of Bread) “But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene.”
Hymaneus and Philetus are prime examples of “unapproved workers.” They are an example of what not to be and do. They don’t believe the good news that Jesus died for our sins and rose for our justification, so they rewrite their doctrine about the resurrection, which is so closely tied to Christ’s resurrection, which is one aspect of the Gospel. By this false teaching, Hymaneus and Philetus ruined the faith of those who received their teaching.
Hymaneus and Philetus also served as examples of “unapproved workers” in that their irreverent babble spread like gangrene and undermined the godliness of those who followed their teaching and example.
Paul instructed Timothy to charge the Ephesians to neither “argue about words,” and thereby corrupt the purity of the Gospel, nor engage in irreverent babble and thereby promote ungodliness in their own behavior and the behavior of those who may be influenced by their example. Consider, for instance, my kid-friendly illustration–how that they do this on TV all the time. Sometimes they show people doing bad things in a funny way; or they show people do good things in a goofy way. Either way, we laugh about it, and if we’re not careful to keep in mind what’s really right and wrong, we can be led to think the bad thing isn’t that bad and the good thing isn’t that good. False teachers are irreverent about the gospel and godly living. They’ll make fun of those who believe the true gospel and they’ll make fun of those who try to show they believe the true gospel by living godly. They’ll laugh at them and get others laughing at them and all the time they are losing more and more faith in the gospel and respect for godly believers.
But Paul does not just load Timothy down with such a pile of imperatives alone. His instructions are explicitly based (as ours should ALWAYS be! Ahem!!) on some very edifying indicatives, which, speaking of sandwiches, both proceed and follow the present passage (an imperative sandwich! Mmm!!)
Notice that verse fourteen begins with “Remind them of these things.” What things? “If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, will also reign. (vs. 11, 12) and in keeping with a popular form of Pauline homiletics, “But God’s firm foundation stands sure, having this seal, ‘The Lord knows those who are his’ (v. 17). Professing believers may far too often be led astray by ungodly and argumentative irreverends of spiritual ruination, but, take heart, says Paul, none of God’s elect will ever be irrevocably lost after this manner! God preserves his elect and they will persevere in their belief in the Gospel, the end of the right handling of the Word of truth, and they will persevere in their “experimental Calvinism,” their godly lives, until the end of the age, at which time they will be able to present themselves to God once and for all as workers who have no need to be ashamed! Thus Paul encouraged Timothy to serve the flock of God under his charge by the power of the indwelling Spirit, guarding the good deposit (another term for the Word of truth, the central point of which is the good news of redemption in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ) which has been entrusted to him.
I offer this presentation to my fellow Reformed bloggers not, as some may assume, to glory in what a great exeget, expositor and homileticist I am, but for your collective constructive criticism. I’m out to continue learning how to teach God’s Word God’s way with the help of those of you who are a little further down the Reformation trail.
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