R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 16

Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, May 2021

The May issue of Tabletalk looks at anxiety and its solution in the Christian life. We live in an anxious age. Wars, pandemics, and other problems give rise to anxiety on a worldwide scale. Closer to home, relational difficulties, fear of job loss, physical disorders, lack of assurance of salvation, and more make us anxious. The daily news often seems tailored to produce the most anxiety in us, and advertisements for all kinds of cures for anxiety bombard us regularly. Anxiety is a real problem even for Christians, and part of Christian faithfulness involves learning how to put sinful anxiousness to death while still having an appropriate level of concern for ourselves and our loved ones. This issue considers the reality and forms of anxiety and help readers learn how they can grow more and more free from being anxious.

You can purchase the issue or subscribe to get the print issue every month.

The Antidote to Anxiety by Burk ParsonsWhat Is Anxiety? by William BarcleyThe Source of Anxiety by Matt RymanThe Effects of Anxiety by Rebecca VanDoodewaardThe Solution to Anxiety by Eric WatkinsLiving Faithfully with Anxiety by Aaron L. GarriottJudging with Right Judgment by Andrew SarnickiTraining Children for Worship by Kevin StruykChurch History and Cultural Engagement by Garry Williams

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Does Repentance Require Confession?

Repentance is not simply fear of punishment but godly sorrow over what we have done. From our 2016 National Conference, R.C. Sproul considers the nature of genuine repentance.

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Read the Transcript

 

Five Themes on Providence from the Psalms

In 1557, John Calvin published his large commentary on the book of Psalms. In the English translation, this commentary runs to five substantial volumes. This commentary reflects a life lived with the Psalter. He loved the psalms: he knew them, studied them, wrote on them, preached them, and sang them.

In the course of his commentary on the Psalms, Calvin gave strong expression to various aspects of his doctrine of providence. Five themes about providence recur in his exposition.

First, he recognizes God’s power as the active governor of the world:

He gives us to understand by this word, that heaven is not a palace in which God remains idle and indulges in pleasures, as the Epicureans dream, but a royal court, from which he exercises his government over all parts of the world. If he has erected his throne, therefore, in the sanctuary of heaven, in order to govern the universe, it follows that he in no wise neglects the affairs of earth, but governs them with the highest reason and wisdom.

Second, he declares that this active power should lead all creatures to honor God as God:

As God by his providence preserves the world, the power of his government is alike extended to all, so that he ought to be worshipped by all.

Third, he teaches that in His governance of the world God always acts as the loving Father of His people:

By the face of God, must be meant the fatherly care and providence which he extends to his people. So numerous are the dangers which surround us, that we could not stand a single moment, if his eye did not watch over our preservation. But the true security for a happy life lies in being persuaded that we are under divine government.

This fatherly care of God does not mean that His people will not suffer:

We are here warned that the guardianship of God does not secure us from being sometimes exercised with the cross and afflictions, and that therefore the faithful ought not to promise themselves a delicate and easy life in this world, it being enough for them not to be abandoned of God when they stand in need of his help. Their heavenly Father, it is true, loves them most tenderly, but he will have them awakened by the cross, lest they should give themselves too much to the pleasures of the flesh. If, therefore, we embrace this doctrine, although we may happen to be oppressed by the tyranny of the wicked, we will wait patiently till God either break their sceptre, or shake it out of their hands.

Fourth, Calvin affirms that confidence in providence causes Christians to grow in faith in Christ and confidence in living for Him:

Besides, the joy here mentioned arises from this, that there is nothing more calculated to increase our faith, than the knowledge of the providence of God; because without it, we would be harassed with doubts and fears, being uncertain whether or not the world was governed by chance. For this reason, it follows that those who aim at the subversion of this doctrine, depriving the children of God of true comfort, and vexing their minds by unsettling their faith, forge for themselves a hell upon earth. For what can be more awfully tormenting than to be constantly racked with doubt and anxiety? And we will never be able to arrive at a calm state of mind until we are taught to repose with implicit confidence in the providence of God.

Fifth, Calvin teaches that knowing that God directs all things leads His people to more frequent and heartfelt prayer:

Were they to reflect on the judgments of God, they would at once perceive that there was nothing like chance or fortune in the government of the world. Moreover, until men are persuaded that all their troubles come upon them by the appointment of God, it will never come into their minds to supplicate him for deliverance.

In his preface to his commentary on the book of Psalms, Calvin made a most remarkable statement about providence that went to the very heart and soul of the religion he embraced and counseled others to embrace. He writes that knowing the Psalter teaches Christians to suffer for God so that “we renounce the guidance of our own affections, and submit ourselves entirely to God, leaving him to govern us, and to dispose our life according to his will, so that the afflictions which are the bitterest and most severe to our nature, become sweet to us, because they proceed from him.”

The bitterest afflictions of this life are sweet when Christians know that they come from God, serve His purposes, and ultimately contribute to their good. Calvin had a truly astounding daily confidence in God and His ways, and he encouraged the same confidence in his followers.

This excerpt is adapted from John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology.

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 2021 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.

MAY PRAYER FOCUS:

Week 1: Pray that you and your family will hide Scripture in your heart so that you will be ready to preach the gospel and edify others with God’s Word. “These words that I command you today shall be on your heart.” (Deut. 6:6)Week 2: Pray that you and your church will mourn for those who do not know or keep God’s law and be moved to reach out to the community with the gospel of God. “My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.” (Ps. 119:136)Week 3: Pray that the people in your city and nation will seek out teachers who will give them the truth of the gospel and not false doctrine. “The time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.” (2 Tim. 4:3)Week 4: Pray that God’s kingdom will come in power around the world so that many will know Christ and do His will. “Your kingdom come.” (Matt. 6:10)

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.

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Saving the Phenomena

While science and philosophy are not infallible, they are useful tools to help us understand the world around us. In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul examines Plato’s understanding of the role these disciplines play in our daily lives.

Now, for Plato, one of his concerns with this knowledge pursuit was to do what he called the job of “saving the phenomena”—"saving the phenomena.” He saw the saving of the phenomena as the chief task of science. What does he mean my “saving the phenomena?” What are the phenomena? The phenomena are the data bits that we experience, the shadows in the cave, the things that we see in this world: trees, and plants, and birds, and bees, and water, and streams and so on. The scientist, just like the ancient philosopher, is looking at all of this and saying, “How can we make sense out of it?” “Phenomena” refer to that which is the realm of appearances. We see things as they appear. Well, what laws or theories will make sense of all of that stuff that appears to us in our lifetime? Plato is saying we need an adequate system of thought that will save the phenomena—that is, make sense out of it, redeem it from chaos. His philosophical system is not just abstract philosophy, but it’s really trying to give the metaphysical or philosophical foundation for science, the ultimate theory that will make sense out of everything. That’s what he sees as the task of philosophy and the task of science, and that is where they marry. Of course, the history of science follows very closely the history of philosophy. You are all aware of what happens with the radical changes and upheavals that take place in the world of science. We talk about paradigm shifts. A paradigm is a model, and it’s a model that we hope is a model of reality—like Copernicus had, like Ptolemy had, like Newton had, like Einstein had. The purpose of this paradigm or this model is to explain everything that we observe. The problem is that in every scientific system that has ever been devised, there have always been what we call “anomalies.” And what are anomalies? Anomalies are those little quirks of our experience that aren’t explained by the system. They don't really fit. And you get enough of these, and these things become bothersome and irksome enough—what happens? Somebody comes along and changes the paradigm and gives us a new model that will then explain these strange things that didn’t fit in the old model. That’s the way science moves and progresses forward. That whole business, that whole task is doing what Plato said: saving the phenomena. If you have phenomena that don’t fit in to the current system, if you want to save those phenomena, you’ve got to expand your paradigm and change it.

 

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The Pilgrim’s Progress with Derek Thomas

The Christian life is one of conflict against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And that fact serves as a palpable reminder that we cannot trek through it without the One who has already overcome the world.

Recently, Reformation Bible College hosted Derek Thomas on campus to record The Pilgrim’s Progress, a special message for RBC’s new Rare Book Room Series. You can watch the message online on Monday, May 3, at 8:00 p.m. ET to hear Dr. Thomas speak on John Bunyan and his classic book The Pilgrim’s Progress. This lecture provides a close look at Bunyan’s life, helping us discover how his writings may equip us not just for now, or for next week, or for next year, but for the entire journey that lies ahead of us as Christians.

This message will stream on the RBC YouTube channel, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

The Rare Book Room Series features individual academic lectures from distinguished speakers, highlighting books from the Rare Book Room on the Reformation Bible College campus. Interested in visiting and seeing it for yourself? Schedule a tour of the college today.

 

How Many Wills Does God Have?

When the Bible mentions the “will of God,” is it always describing the same thing? From one of our live events, R.C. Sproul considers the several ways we are to understand God’s will in Scripture.

Just ask Ligonier to get clear and trustworthy answers to your biblical and theological questions.

Read the Transcript

 

The Holy One of God

The title "Holy One of God" means that Jesus is infinitely and absolutely holy, fully and perfectly divine. He is transcendent and majestic. He came down from above to save sinners, yet He is set apart from sinners in that He is completely sinless, without any moral blemish, perfect in all of His ways. His being is holy. His character is holy. His mind is holy. His motives are holy. His words are holy. His actions are holy. His ways are holy. His judgments are holy. From the top of His head to the bottom of His feet, every inch, every ounce, the totality, the sum and the substance of the second person of the Godhead is equally holy with God the Father.

What is the holiness of God? First, it has to do with "apart-ness" or "other-ness." The idea of holiness speaks to the profound difference between Him and us. Holiness encompasses His transcendent majesty, His august superiority. He is distinctly set apart from us. As one infinitely above us, He alone is worthy of our worship and our adoration. Moses asked: "Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?" (Ex. 15:11). This is the holiness that the demon recognized; he knew that Jesus is the high, lifted up, supreme being of heaven and earth.

Second, it speaks to His untainted purity, His sinless perfection. God is morally flawless, blameless in all of His ways. The prophet Isaiah stressed this aspect of His character through repeated use of a formal title for God, "the Holy One of Israel." It has been well said that the book of Isaiah is divided into two halves, the first thirty-nine chapters and the last twenty-seven chapters. In the first thirty-nine chapters, this title is found twelve times in reference to God. In the last twenty-seven chapters, this title is found seventeen times. Twenty-nine times in the book of Isaiah, God is identified as "the Holy One of Israel." Some examples include: "They have despised the Holy One of Israel" (1:4); "For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel" (12:6); and "Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel" (41:14).

No doubt Isaiah’s use of this title flowed out of his encounter with the living God, recorded in Isaiah 6, when he went into the temple and saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and the seraphim surrounding the throne, crying out to one another day and night, "Holy, holy, holy," declaring by their repetition that God is the holiest being, supreme in His holiness in the entire created order. Given that experience, it is no surprise that Isaiah so frequently identified God as the "the Holy One of Israel." Franz Delitzsch, the great Old Testament commentator, writes that this title "forms an essential part of Isaiah's prophetic signature." In other words, this is the unique imprint of Isaiah, stamped on the pages of his book, identifying God as holy again and again.

When the demon in Mark 1 used a title that was very similar to Isaiah's—"the Holy One of God"—he left no question as to the identification he was making. Let us think about the meaning of this title as applied to the Lord Jesus.

First, it is a title of deity. We have already seen how similar this title is to the title Isaiah assigned to God. In a similar way, God calls Himself "I AM WHO I AM" in Exodus 3:14, then Jesus takes that title to Himself and says, "I am the bread of life" (John 6:48), "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12), and "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25, emphasis added in all references). He takes the divine title of the Old Testament for Himself to show that He is equal to God. Something similar is happening here, though in this case the title for Jesus is voiced by a demon.

The title "Holy One of God" is found in only one other place in the New Testament. When some of Jesus' disciples decided to stop following Him, Jesus asked the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" (John 6:66-67). Peter replied: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God" (vv. 68-69). With these words, Peter accurately identified their Master as God incarnate, for that is what this title signifies.

Second, it is a title of humble humanity. It acknowledges that the holy God, who is enthroned in the heavens, has come down to be among unholy men. It speaks of the fact that the transcendent, majestic, regal God of heaven has taken on human flesh, yet without sin. Jesus Himself said, "I have come down from heaven" (John 6:38). Jesus was holy God in human form.

Third, it is a title of sinless perfection. If He is God, even though He is a man, Jesus is infinitely pure. Scripture affirms this repeatedly: "In him there is no sin" (1 John 3:5); "He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22); "him … who knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21). Likewise, Jesus said: "The ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me" (John 14:30). The Lord was saying here: "There is no point of access that Satan has gained into My being. He has established no beachhead. There are no satanic strongholds in which he has hatched the poison of hell within Me.” He steadfastly resisted every temptation. Jesus could say to His enemies, "Which one of you convicts me of sin?" (John 8:46) because He had no sin.

At Calvary, all of our sins were laid on the sinless Lamb of God, and He gave to us His pure, sinless, perfect obedience to the law of God. This is the great exchange of Calvary: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus had to come as He did, born of a virgin, in order to be what He was, sinless and perfect, in order to do what He, the Holy One, did—die on the cross as the sinless Lamb of God, in order to become sin for us.

Through death, the Bible says, Jesus destroyed the one who has the power of death, the Devil (Heb. 2:14). He bound the strong man, plundered his house at the cross, and set the captives free (Matt. 12:29; Eph. 4:8). His victory shows that "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). Therefore, we ought to cry out, "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 15:57).

This excerpt is adapted from Holy, Holy, Holy: Proclaiming the Perfections of God.