R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 131

Stories of God's Grace: Meet Nancy

The Lord is at work redeeming and sanctifying a people for Himself. We are grateful for the opportunity to share this story of God’s grace with you. These stories of God’s grace are fueled by our Ministry Partners.

“There is life after death, even the death of a spouse.” —Nancy

Is It True That God “Loves the Sinner but Hates the Sin”?

We don’t do people any favors when we downplay the wrath of God. From one of our live Ask Ligonier events, Stephen Nichols explains that people must understand the seriousness of sin in order to understand their need for the Savior.

To get real-time answers to your biblical and theological questions, just Ask.Ligonier.org.

Read the Transcript

Deep Theology

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be within hours of death—not as an elderly person, but as someone condemned to die although innocent of every crime? What would you want to say to those who know and love you best? You would, surely, tell them how much you loved them. You might hope you could give them some comfort and reassurance—despite the nightmare you yourself were facing. You would want to open your heart and say the things that were most important to you.

Such poise would surely be praiseworthy. Of course, it would be human nature at its best—because this is what Jesus did, as the Apostle John relates in the Upper Room Discourse (John 13–17).

Within twenty-four hours before His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus expressed His love in exquisite fashion. He rose from supper, wrapped a servant's towel around His waist, and washed the dirty feet of His disciples (including, apparently, Judas Iscariot's; John 13:3–5, 21–30). It was an acted parable, as John explains: "Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (v. 1).

He also spoke words of deep comfort to them: "Let not your hearts be troubled" (14:1).

Yet Jesus did much more. He began to show His disciples "the depths of God" (1 Cor. 2:10). When He washed Peter's feet, He told him that he would understand His actions only "afterward" (John 13:7). The same was true of what He said, for He began to reveal to His disciples the inner nature of God. He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the Holy Trinity.

The Glory of the Mystery Unveiled

Many Christians tend to think of the Trinity as an impractical, speculative doctrine. But not so the Lord Jesus. For Him, it is neither speculative nor impractical—but the very reverse. It is the foundation of the gospel. Without the love of the Father, the coming of the Son, and the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, there simply could be no salvation. (Unitarians, for example, can have no atonement made by God to God.)

During His Farewell Discourse, Jesus explained to Philip that to see Him is to see the Father (John 13:8–11). Yet He is not Himself the Father; otherwise, He could not have been the way to the Father (John 14:6). He is also "in" the Father, and the Father is "in him." This mutual indwelling is, as the theologians say, "ineffable"— beyond our ability to understand. Yet it is not beyond faith's ability to believe.

Moreover, the Holy Spirit lies at the heart of this bond between the Father and His Son. But now the Father has sent His Son (who is "in" the Father). Such is the love of the Father and the Son for believers that they will come to make believers their home.

How so? The Father and Son come to indwell the believer through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (14:23). He glorifies Christ (16:14). He takes what belongs to Christ, given to Him by the Father, and shows it to us. Later, when we have the privilege of overhearing our Lord's prayer, Jesus similarly speaks about the intimacy of fellowship with God that sustained Him so wonderfully: "You, Father, are in me, and I in you" (John 17:21).

This is deep theology indeed. Yet virtually the profoundest statement we can make about God is that the Father is "in" the Son and the Son "in" the Father. It seems so simple that a child can see it. For what word can be simpler than in?

Yet this is also so profound that the best of minds cannot fathom it. For whenever we seek to contemplate the one person of the Father, we find we cannot do so without thinking of His Son (for He cannot be a father without a son). Neither can we contemplate this Son apart from the Father (for He cannot be a fatherless son). All this is possible only because the Spirit illumines who the Son really is as the One through whom alone we can come to the Father.

Thus, our minds simultaneously swell with delight at this threeness in unity and yet are stretched beyond their capacities by the notion of the unity in the threeness. Almost as staggering is the fact that Jesus reveals and teaches all this to be the most life-steadying, poise-giving, heart-comforting, and even joy-giving gospel truth (15:11).

The Trinity is so vast in significance because it can bring comfort to men driven to the edge by the atmosphere of sorrow about to engulf them. The triune One is greater in glory, deeper in mystery, and more beautiful in harmony than all other realities in creation. No tragedy is too big to overwhelm Him; nothing incomprehensible to us is so to Him, whose very being is incomprehensible to us. There is no darkness deeper than the depths of the inbeing of God.

It is perhaps understandable, then, that Jonathan Edwards could write in his Personal Narrative:

God has appeared glorious to me, on account of the Trinity. It has made me have exalting thoughts of God, that he subsists in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The sweetest joys and delights I have experienced, have not been those that have arisen from a hope of my own good estate; but in a direct view of the glorious things of the gospel. When I enjoy this sweetness, it seems to carry me above the thoughts of my own estate; it seems at such times a loss that I cannot bear, to take off my eye from the glorious, pleasant object I behold without me, to turn my eye in upon myself, and my own good estate.

But the revelation of the Trinity is in fact related to our "own good estate."

The Wonder of the Union disclosed

The point of Jesus' teaching is not merely to stun our minds or stir our imaginations. It is to give us a sense of the vast privilege of union with Him.

From the very beginning of these few hours of ministry, Jesus had spoken about His disciples having a "share" with Him (John 13:8). He had also explained that the Spirit reveals to Christians that they are "in Christ" and He is in them (14:20). This is a union so real and wonderful that its only real analogy—as well as its foundation—is the union of the Father and the Son through the Spirit. The disciples would enjoy union with the Son and therefore would have fellowship with the Father through the Spirit. "You know him," said Jesus, "for he dwells with you, and will be in you" (v. 18). These enigmatic words do not refer to the contrast of the relationship between the Spirit and old covenant ("with you") and new covenant believers ("in you"). They are often understood that way, but Jesus is actually saying: "You know the Spirit, because He is with you in Me, but He will come (at Pentecost) to be in you as the very One who has been My constant companion (and in that sense 'with you'). As such, He is no other than the One who is the bond of fellowship between the Son and the Father from all eternity."

Thus, to be united to Christ is to share in a union created by the indwelling of the Spirit of the incarnate Son who Himself is "in" the Father as the Father is "in" Him. Union with Christ means nothing less than fellowship with all three persons of the Trinity. It is not that the divine nature is infused into believers. Our union with Christ is spiritual and personal—effected by the indwelling of the Spirit of the Son of the Father.

Notice, then, the exquisite picture Jesus paints to express the beauty and intimacy of this union: it involves nothing less than the Father and the Son making their home in the heart of the believer (v. 23).

Significantly, Jesus does not require believers to do a dozen things—but only to believe and to love. For it is the realization ("in that day you will know"; v. 20) of the reality and magnitude of this union with God the Trinity through union with Christ that transforms the thinking, feeling, willing, loving, and, consequently, the actions of the believer. In this union, the Father prunes the branches of the vine to bear more fruit (15:2). In this same union, the Son keeps all those the Father has given Him (17:12).

No wonder John Donne prayed:

Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you As yet but knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurp'd town to another due, Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end; Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend, But is captiv'd and proves weak or untrue. Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain, But I am bethroth'd unto your enemy; Divorce me, untie or break that knot again, Take me to you, imprison me, for I, Except you enthrall me, never shall be free, Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. (Holy Sonnets XIV)

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

Will You Pray for Awakening? Download Your Free Prayer Guide

We live in a world that needs awakening. Millions of people do not know Jesus Christ. The church itself needs renewed zeal for the truth, for spiritual growth, and for missions. Scripture reveals how this awakening comes about: by a powerful movement of the Spirit of God. It also tells us that when just two men—Paul and Silas—prayed, the earth itself shook (Acts 16:25–26). So we are dedicating the entire year of 2019 to pray for awakening, and we hope you will, too.

To help as many people as possible, we produced this free prayer guide. Download it today at PrayForAwakening.com, find it in the PrayerMate app, or order the prayer booklet in packs of ten to share with your loved ones.

To use the guide, find the prayer that corresponds to the current week. Each week of the month focuses on a different group to pray for, starting with you and your family and expanding to the world and the global church. You can also share your desire to #PrayForAwakening on social media.

AUGUST PRAYER FOCUS:

Week 1: Pray that you and your family will grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Pet. 3:18)
Week 2: Pray that your church will be faithful to structure its ministry according to the means of grace—the Word, fellowship, sacraments, and prayer—as God’s way of bringing renewal. “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)
Week 3: Pray that your city will not throw up obstacles to the spread of the gospel as God grants boldness to believers to proclaim His Word. “Now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness.” (Acts 4:29)
Week 4: Pray that God will richly bless the church around the world so that unbelievers will see His saving power and be drawn to trust in Him. “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.” (Ps. 67:1–2)

We hope this prayer guide encourages you this year and in future years. Join us in praying fervently for a mighty movement of God’s Spirit today, thankful that He has graciously promised to hear us, and confident that He will answer our prayers according to His will.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Eastern and Western Theology

In this brief clip from his series A Survey of Church History, W. Robert Godfrey explains how Augustine is the beginning example of the growing division between Eastern and Western theology in the ancient church. Watch this entire message for free today.

Transcript

After Origen, clearly the most important theologian in the ancient church period for the West is Augustine, but Augustine is of almost no importance for the Eastern church. And so that’s a sign of how significant at the time of Augustine the shift, the split between Eastern theology and Western theology begins to come. It’s not really that the church splits, the church will remain united at least formally for another fve or six hundred years, but increasingly there’s a drift apart theologically between the Eastern church and the Western church, and Augustine is kind of the beginning and the exemplar of that.

What’s the Difference between Regeneration and Conversion?

Are regeneration and conversion the same thing? From one of our live Ask R.C. events, R.C. Sproul advises us to distinguish between these related concepts.

To get real-time answers to your biblical and theological questions, just Ask.Ligonier.org.

Read the Transcript

Don't Pray like a Pagan

Jesus was saying in Matthew 6:7 that we must not regard prayer as some kind of magical incantation, for that is how pagans pray. They recite certain phrases over and over again, with no understanding of what the words mean. In these contexts, prayers are used as mantras, with the hope that they will change the environment or the circumstances in which a person lives. New Age thinking is filled with this type of thing. Jesus did not commend such exercises as godly forms of prayer; rather, He linked the use of vain repetitions to paganism.

"And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words." (Matthew 6:7)

Christians can easily fall into a pattern of praying in a repetitious fashion, without engaging their minds. It bothers me sometimes when Christians gather for a meal and the host will say to someone there, "John, will you please say the grace for us?" The host doesn't ask for someone to lead in prayer but to say the grace. That kind of language suggests a mere recitation, not a prayer that comes from the heart.

We can even treat the Lord's Prayer this way. The Lord's Prayer is an integral part of the worship of multitudes of Christians. Worship services often include the recitation of the Lord's Prayer. The use of the Lord's Prayer has a rich history in the church, and whenever we pray it or hear it, we are reminded of those priorities that Jesus sets before us as objects for prayer. Don't get me wrong—I'm not opposed to the recitation of the Lord's Prayer. However, there is a danger that this use of the prayer may be nothing more than a recitation. The praying of the Lord's Prayer can become as mindless and as vain a repetition as the magical incantations and mantras that pagans use.

Jesus did not give the Lord's Prayer with the intention that it would be repeated mindlessly. When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we need to pray it thoughtfully, giving attention in our minds to its content. It is not a mantra to be repeated without the engagement of the mind or heart. It is an example of godly prayer.

Of course, repetition has great value. I've often said that one of my favorite liturgies in the life of the church is the traditional marriage ceremony. You've heard it many times: "Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here today in the presence of God and of these witnesses to unite this man and this woman in the holy bonds of marriage, which was instituted by God," and so it goes. It's a very brief service. It contains pledges, vows, charges, and prayers. For me, the more often I lead this liturgy or hear it, the more blessed I am by the content of it. That is, the more familiar I become with the language, the more I think about it and meditate on it, and I see afresh how rich it is in explaining to us the sanctity of marriage. So it is with the Lord's Prayer. Hearing it over and over again may lead us to mindless repetition, but it also may burn these words, and the underlying principles, into our minds. Repetition in and of itself is not a bad thing. In fact, it's one of the most important ingredients of learning, because it's the rare person who masters a concept or a principle by hearing it once.

This excerpt is taken from The Prayer of the Lord by R.C. Sproul.

$5 Friday: Holiness, Assurance, & Scripture

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as assurance, grace, William Tyndale, justification, John Calvin, holiness, Scripture, and more.

Sale runs through 12:01 a.m. — 11:59 p.m. Friday ET.

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.

Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, August 2019

The August issue of Tabletalk looks at several commonly misunderstood passages in the Bible, asking the question, What does that verse really mean? Christians have been studying the Scriptures for two thousand years, and while the basic message of salvation is clear enough that anyone of normal intelligence can find it in God’s Word through the diligent use of ordinary means, not every biblical text is readily understood and properly applied. Because of this, several verses in Scripture are routinely misunderstood and taken out of their original context in order to make applications that do not really fit. This issue of Tabletalk looks at twelve of the verses that believers most frequently misunderstand, helping readers to see the verses in their original context and to better comprehend and apply them to their lives.

For a limited time, the new TabletalkMagazine.com allows everyone to browse and read the growing library of back issues, including this month's issue. You can also purchase the issue or subscribe to get the print issue every month.

Rightly Interpreting Scripture by Burk Parsons
Isaiah 43:25 by H.P. McCracken
Jeremiah 29:11 by Kevin D. Gardner
Matthew 7:1 by Tim Witmer
Matthew 18:20 by Harry L. Reeder
1 Corinthians 2:4 by John Currie
1 Corinthians 13:13 by Joe Holland
Galatians 3:28 by Aaron L. Garriott
Philippians 4:13 by Tyler Kenney
1 John 2:27 by Robert Rothwell
1 John 4:8 by Mark E. Ross
Revelation 3:16 by Thomas Brewer
Revelation 3:20 by Christopher Gordon
The God of All Comfort by George C. Scipione
Love Believes All Things by Gabe Fluhrer
A Blueprint for Living by Rebecca VanDoodewaard
Rebutting Objections to the Pro-Life Position by James Anderson

Subscribe to Tabletalk today for only $23 a year, and $20 to renew. You save even more if you get a 2- or 3-year subscription (as little as $1.36 per issue). Get your subscription to Tabletalk today by calling one of Ligonier Ministries’ resource consultants at 800-435-4343 or by subscribing online.

Is the Bible True?

In this brief clip for our 2012 National Conference, W. Robert Godfreyexplains why many in the Western world rarely ask if the Bible is true?

Transcript

Mark Noll wrote The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind about the same time that David Wells was writing. Darryl Hart wrote The Lost Soul of American Protestantism on the same theme commenting, "that Protestants by trying to make religion relevant had ended up trivializing Christianity." It's interesting this wasn't unique to Christians. At about the same time or maybe even a little earlier, Harold Bloom had written that remarkable book The Closing of the American Mind, expressing his profound concern about the anti-intellectualism he saw in the American University. In the introduction, the first sentence of that book, Bloom wrote, "There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of, almost every student entering the university believes or says he believes that truth is relative. If this belief is put to the test, the professor can count on the student's reaction—they will be uncomprehending." Students in the American University—here's Harold Bloom, teaching at a very distinguished university at the University of Chicago in 1987, he says almost every student who comes to the university to study believes the truth is relative and you ask, and you press whether that's a good position to hold and they don't even know what you're talking about. It is so engrained that truth must be relative that that cannot even be challenged. You know one of the intriguing illustrations Bloom uses of that? The Bible in the university curriculum. He says, "We teach the Bible as literature, which means we never are allowed to ask the question, is the Bible true?" He says, "you know, the Bible is a very dangerous book. If it's true, it could have amazing consequences. That's true, isn't it? If the Bible is true, it changes everything. So let's just talk about it as literature, let's just talk about the stories, let's recognize it informs the history of Western culture, but never never ask if it's true.