Perhaps the Greatest Gospel Verse in the Old Testament

On New Years Day 2017, I have the privilege of preaching on the fourth Servant Song recorded in Isaiah.  It is perhaps the best known. How many of us have not heard many times these comforting words: “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. 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” (Isaiah 53:5–6, ESV)?

 

Further into the riches of this Song, lies, I believe the greatest Gospel verse in the Old Testament .... perhaps the entire Bible.  It is found in Isaiah 53:11 (ESV):

"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."

The substitutionary death of Christ does not end in failure and regret but in great satisfaction.  The Hebrew is difficult to translate but it is likely that the commendation of Jehovah toward His Servant, as recorded by Isaiah, should read: "By knowledge of Him, shall My Servant justify many."   Who are the "many".  Are they not the same "many" as have looked to Him and realized that He suffered for our transgression, our iniquity?  The Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ, the Righteous, negatively bore our sin but positively granted us righteousness.  What a glorious transaction.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

The Sayings of the Wise – Part 12

THIRTY SAYINGS OF THE WISE

SAYING NUMBER ELEVEN

“Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die. Punish them with the rod and save them from death.” (Proverbs 23:13–14, NIV)

Rather than bring death, the right discipline of a child will "save them from death".  The obvious idea in this proverb involves the use of "corporal discipline".  Some define this as: "Corporal punishment or physical punishment (physical discipline in some contexts) is a punishment intended to cause physical pain on a person. It is usually inflicted in settings with a substantial disparity of power between the partakers. Corporal punishment is commonly practiced on minors, especially in home and also school settings, usually employing more modest forms. Common methods in this regard often include spanking or paddling."[1]

"The point is that the discipline has character training as its goal, not simply behavior; and this training equips the child to persevere in the way of life (cf. Prov. 22:15), which is the godly parents’ chief aim (cf. 23:15–18, 22–25)."^[2]  The Lord uses discipline in our lives. “… your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4, NIV).   My goal would be that I want to discipline my children, in the spirit and the means that God, my Father, disciplines me.

“And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?” (Hebrews 12:5–7, NIV)

Correction shows us that we are loved, but it also shows us that we are not above reproach and we are accountable to someone.  Those that ignore the notion of parental use of corporal punishment miss the obvious in this text.  There is no excuse of disciplining in anger; spanking as abuse; or punishing with the intent to maim and disfigure.  Most importantly it is never done outside the application of instruction and the approbation of the Gospel.  As in all cases, proverbial literature should be balanced with all that God says about the subject.  For example: “A rebuke impresses a discerning person more than a hundred lashes a fool” (Proverbs 17:10, NIV). 

Elsewhere the Wise write, “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them” (Proverbs 13:24, NIV). This verse holds parents as responsible to instruct and discipline their children.  The weight of the proverb leans heavily toward "careful instruction" not the use of the rod.  Another misuse of these verses is to suggest that all premature death is due to a lack of parental discipline.  One cannot extend the passage to such extremes.   

As a parent, I have always thought of spanking as the "death penalty" of the home.  By that, I mean that "it is the last resort, not the first option".   If patient, godly instruction and the use of other means of discipline fail – especially in the face of "in-your-face" rebellion, then spanking may be necessary – and usually is.

If repeated spankings fail, then we have a problem.  One, if the child is young, you have exhausted all your options. Two, any escalation of punishment on a young child is probably wrong.  God's Word does not prohibit corporal punishment, but it emphasizes godly, sustained, consistent discipline.  One of the keys in all parenting is that important relationship that must be established.  We parents fail miserably when we are inconsistent in our discipline and inconsistent in our relationship.  The net result of discipline outside of a healthy relationship is rebellion.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporal_punishment

^[2] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 1174). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

The Sayings of the Wise – Part 11

THIRTY SAYINGS OF THE WISE

SAYING NUMBER TEN

“Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.” (Proverbs 23:12, NIV)

There is an unspoken notion within Christian circles that wisdom and knowledge can either be learned by osmosis or at the very most the fruit is easy to pick and often left for you to find.  What is osmosis? "Osmosis is the spontaneous net movement of solvent molecules through a semi-permeable membrane into a region of higher solute concentration, in the direction that tends to equalize the solute concentrations on the two sides."[1]  In everyday language: IT KINDA JUST HAPPENS!

When it comes to godly wisdom, it doesn't just happen.  The wisdom of the wise is to "apply your heart" and "your ears" to instruction and knowledge.    Such a correlation "link[s] hearing with the seat of human intention and purpose."^[2]  The imperative to "apply" is the Hebrew word  שִׁית  that is pronounced "sheeth".  It can mean things like to lay your hand on or set your mind to.  It can mean to appoint or to be set upon.^[3] It just doesn't happen.  It takes purpose and planning.

How purposeful is your study – particularly your study of God's Word?  Dr. Kent Hughes writes, "You can never have a Christian mind without reading the Scriptures regularly because you cannot be profoundly influenced by that which you do not know. If you are filled with God's Word, your life can then be informed and directed by God - your domestic relationships, your child-rearing, your career, your ethical decisions, your interior moral life."[4]

Here is a helpful paragraph:

"The Bible is a book that is not merely for reading. It is a book for studying so that it can be applied. Otherwise, it is like swallowing food without chewing and then spitting it back out again—no nutritional value is gained by it . . . Studying the Bible can be compared to mining for gold. If we make little effort and merely "sift through the pebbles in a stream," we will only find a little gold dust. But the more we make an effort to really dig into it, the more reward we will gain for our effort."[5]

To gain the most from our study we need to have a plan; we need to have resources; and we need to "apply ourselves". 

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmosis

^[2] Koptak, P. E. (2003). Proverbs (p. 533). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

^[3] Strong, J. (1995). Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.

[4] R. Kent Hughes. Disciplines of a Godly Man (Paperback Edition) (p. 77). Kindle Edition.

[5] https://gotquestions.org/why-read-Bible.html

What Should Motivate Our Goodness

Edwards, On the Motivation for the Common Good.

 “The message of Jonathan Edwards to modern evangelicals concerning our public life is not mainly a message about what party to belong to, or what social cause to trumpet, or even which unreached people to adopt and evangelize, as important as these are. His main message is that, if we would not be infinitely parochial, and thus fail in true virtue, then our private life, our public life, and our global life must be driven not by a narrow, constricted, merely natural self-love, but by passion for the supremacy of God in all things—a passion created through supernatural new birth by the Holy Spirit, giving us a new spiritual taste for the glory of God—a passion sustained by the ongoing, sanctifying influences of the Word of God—and a passion bent on spreading itself through all of culture and all the nations until Christ comes.”[1]

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[1] John Piper with Jonathan Edwards. God's Passion for His Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathan Edwards (With the Complete Text of The End for Which God Created the World) (Kindle Locations 2087-2093). Crossway Books.

Exegetical Analysis Ephesians 3:14-19

I

In Ephesians 3:14–19, Paul, writing to Christians, reveals his prayer for them and then reveals the strangest purpose statement in verse 17: "So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." The obvious question is, "I thought He was?"   Does Christ not indwell every Christian?   Here's is the entire prayer:

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶ that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹ and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. [Emphasis mine]

In a recent Bible Study on PRAYING WITH PAUL, we discussed this prayer and in the end I was dissatisfied with even my own understanding of the prayer.  With deep concern and humility, I want to take another run at this.   I'm reminded that this is the second prayer[1] of Paul recorded in this letter to the Ephesian Christians.  Unlike some of Paul's letter there does not appear to be a specific problem or problem people that he is addressing.  "Ephesians articulates general instruction in the truths of the cosmic redemptive work of God in Christ; the unity of the church among diverse peoples; and proper conduct in the church, the home, and the world. Unity and love in the bond of peace mark the work of the Savior as well as Christians’ grateful response to his free grace in their lives."^[2]

The structure of this prayer is difficult to grasp.  How many petitions is Paul praying?  I would suggest three based upon the Greek text.  The Greek text gives us a clue by the use of the Greek ἵνα clause.  For example:

Introduction:   ¹⁴ Τούτου χάριν κάμπτω τὰ γόνατά μου πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, ¹⁵ ἐξ οὗ πᾶσα πατριὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς ὀνομάζεται,

First prayer: ¹⁶ ἵνα δῷ ὑμῖν κατὰ τὸ πλοῦτος τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ δυνάμει κραταιωθῆναι διὰ τοῦ πνεύματος αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον, ¹⁷ κατοικῆσαι τὸν Χριστὸν διὰ τῆς πίστεως ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν ἐν ἀγάπῃ· ἐρριζωμένοι καὶ τεθεμελιωμένοι,

Second prayer: ¹⁸ ἵνα ἐξισχύσητε καταλαβέσθαι σὺν πᾶσιν τοῖς ἁγίοις τί τὸ πλάτος καὶ μῆκος καὶ ὕψος καὶ βάθος, ¹⁹ γνῶναί τε τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν τῆς γνώσεως ἀγάπην τοῦ Χριστοῦ,

Third prayer: ἵνα πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ.^[3]

If this be the case, the first prayer is verses 16 and 17: “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love.”

The phrase "the riches of His glory" has already been used by Paul[4] and clearly speaks of the Gospel.  This relates directly to his introduction, "for this reason".  The reason he is praying for them is the overflow of his previous instruction in the marvels of the Gospel[5].  So as an outflow of this Gospel, Paul prays that they would be "strengthened with power, through his Spirit, in your inner being".  " The verbal form "strengthen" (καταλαβέσθαι) is the opposite of "be discouraged" (enkakein) in v. 13. It is a common expression in LXX and occurs four times in the NT. The agent of this enablement is the Holy Spirit."[6]  So Paul is praying that the Holy Spirit might encourage these believers, in the riches of the Gospel, into the very depths of their being.  "The preposition "in" (eis literally, "into") suggests the depth of the Spirit's penetration."[7]

So then we come to the difficult phrase "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."  The Gospel encouragement of the Spirit, in the inner man, then produces the desired affect: Christ dwelling in their hearts through faith. The two participles ‘rooted’ (“evrrizwme,noi”) and ‘grounded’ (“teqemeliwme,noi”) (v 17b) are probably best taken as temporal adverbial participles modifying the verbal idea in "Christ making home".  The architectural phrase "dwell" corresponds to the agricultural phrase "rooted".  "It is not difficult to realize that love will result from Christ's indwelling presence."[8]  I find it helpful to think elsewhere where the notions of dwelling and loving coexist in the same passage.  Notice Christ's teaching found in John 15:

"⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me . . . ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love."

What does it mean to abide in Christ's love?  Answer: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15:10, ESV).  Clearly we are taught that to abide in Christ and He in us, means to continue in obedience to him. The flow of vitality and life is maintained by obedience.

In Paul's letter to Ephesus he seems to suggest another means by which union with Christ is maintained – that being the Spirit-empowered application of the Gospel to our inner being.  The result is vital union and communion with Christ, grounding us in His love. 

So my paraphrase of Ephesians 3:16-17 would be, I pray "that the Holy Spirit will encourage your heart through the truths of the Gospel, to this end that you will remain in vital union with Christ, with established, resolute love – love for Christ; love for others."

This inadvertently provides a test for genuine faith and Christianity.  The evidence of whether Christ is abiding/residing/at home, by faith in our hearts is whether we are becoming increasingly more established/entrenched/stabilized/invested in love. 

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[1] Ephesians 1:15ff

^[2] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 2258). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

^[3] Holmes, M. W. (2011–2013). The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (Eph 3:14–19). Lexham Press; Society of Biblical Literature.

[4] “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,” (Ephesians 3:8, ESV)

[5] “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” (Ephesians 3:6, ESV)

[6] Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Ephesians/Exposition of Ephesians/II. Doctrine: The Implications of Christian Faith (1:3-3:21)/F. Knowledge and Fullness (3:14-21), Book Version: 4.0.2 

[7] Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Ephesians/Exposition of Ephesians/II. Doctrine: The Implications of Christian Faith (1:3-3:21)/F. Knowledge and Fullness (3:14-21), Book Version: 4.0.2

[8] Expositor's Bible Commentary, The, Pradis CD-ROM:Ephesians/Exposition of Ephesians/II. Doctrine: The Implications of Christian Faith (1:3-3:21)/F. Knowledge and Fullness (3:14-21), Book Version: 4.0.2

The Sayings of the Wise – Part 10

THIRTY SAYINGS OF THE WISE

SAYING NUMBER NINE

Again we are warned about removing a boundary stone and encroaching on the property of others – probably the vulnerable and defenseless (e.g., see 22:22-23, 28).  “Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; he will take up their case against you.” (Proverbs 23:10–11, NIV)

Because of the inclusion of the "fatherless" and the implication of a court procedure, ". . . the movement of the boundary stone is not something surreptitiously done but is an open seizure of another family’s land, perhaps through the courts."^[1] "Yet they have a strong “Defender,” a kinsman redeemer (goʾel),[2] who will take up their case (rib); the rib is a controversy or wrong that must be set right."^[3]

"The goel among the Hebrews was the nearest male blood relation alive. Certain important obligations devolved upon him toward his next of kin. (1.) If anyone from poverty was unable to redeem his inheritance, it was the duty of the kinsman to redeem it (Lev. 25:25, 28; Ruth 3:9, 12). He was also required to redeem his relation who had sold himself into slavery (Lev. 25:48, 49)."^[4]

The law systems in Israel were intended to protect the vulnerable.  This Proverb warns that those who do not respect that will find themselves squarely against the law. "He who invades the fields of the fatherless in order to enlarge his possessions will learn to his sorrow of the power of their kinsman-redeemer."^[5]

The implication (in the English texts) because of the capitalization of Redeemer/Defender is that if there is no human court of appeal that God Himself will deliver and those that take advantage of the weak will find themselves confronted with Jehovah God.

" God is Israel's Redeemer, the one who will defend and vindicate them. The idea that God is a kinsman to Israel can be defended by those passages of Scripture that identify him as Israel's Creator and Father ( Exo 4:22-23 ; Deut 32:6 ),Deliverer ( Exo 20:2),owner of the land ( Lev 25:23 ), the one who hears innocent blood crying out for vengeance ( Deut 19:10 ; 21:6-9 ), and the King who has made his covenant with the people ( Exo 6:2-8 )."[6]

Christ is portrayed in the New Testament as our Kinsman-Redeemer, our glorious brother (Heb 2:11).  Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians made this sobering pronouncement:

“All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering. God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.” (2 Thessalonians 1:5–10, NIV)

God is clearly on the side of His people.  Justice will come to those of Christ's family that are harmed and unfairly treated. “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31, NIV)

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^[1] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 1174). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

[2] The goʾel is one who steps in on behalf of the family to execute some sort of responsibility of redemption by paying a debt (Lev. 25:48ff.), buying back land (Lev. 25:25ff.), exacting a debt, avenging blood (Num. 35:12ff.) or, in the case of Yahweh, redeeming those who are in trouble (cf. Job 19:25; Jer. 50:34).

^[3] Koptak, P. E. (2003). Proverbs (pp. 546–547). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

^[4] Easton, M. G. (1893). In Easton’s Bible dictionary. New York: Harper & Brothers.

^[5] Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M. (Eds.). (1994). KJV Bible Commentary (p. 1240). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[6] http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/kinsman-redeemer.html