R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 29

$5 Friday (And More): Grace, Martin Luther, & the Trinity

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as reformed theology, grace, Martin Luther, the Trinity, repentance, the Psalms, and more.

Plus, several bonus resources are also available for more than $5. These have been significantly discounted from their original price. This week’s bonus resources include:

Learning to Love the Psalms by W. Robert Godfrey, Hardcover book $19 $10 Pleasing God by R.C. Sproul, Paperback book $15 $9 Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves, Paperback book $18 $12 Joseph and the Gospel of Many Colors: Reading an Old Story in a New Way by Voddie Baucham, Paperback book $20 $10 The Hunger for Significance: Seeing the Image of God in Man by R.C. Sproul, Paperback book $12 $8And More

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

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.

 

God's Global Work

Here’s an excerpt from God’s Global Work, J.D. Bridges' contribution to the February issue of Tabletalk:

Around the world, the number of professing Christians is on the rise. The Center for the Study of Global Christianity now estimates that the number of evangelicals and Protestants will grow by 50 percent from nearly one billion to more than 1.5 billion by 2050. Meanwhile, the United Nations anticipates the growth of the global population will continue to accelerate, forecasting that two billion additional souls will inhabit the planet as we race toward 9.8 billion people in the next thirty years. Remarkably, more than 50 percent of this growth will come from only nine countries.

Continue reading God’s Global Work, or begin receiving Tabletalk magazine by signing up for a free 3-month trial.

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.

 

He Gave Himself for You

The Bible does not tell us to believe that Jesus loves us because good things are happening in our lives, but because He gave Himself for us. In this brief clip, Sinclair Ferguson unveils the ground of true assurance and of joyful union with the Savior.

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Transcript:

I wonder if you've ever met a Christian who just retains a deep sense of lack of assurance of the love of God. A friend said to me recently, a mature Christian friend said to me, “Sometimes you wonder if He really loves you.” Gone through a hard time; not much sign of it. So how do you really know Christ loves you? I rather suspect many Christians’ subliminal answer to that is, “Well, things are going so well in my life. Those are the signs the Lord loves me.” And you see, that's why we get into difficulties when things aren't going well in our lives, where we're sitting there, “He loves me. He loves me not.” When things go well, “I know He loves me.” When things don't go well, “I doubt whether He loves me.” But the Bible never tells you to believe that Jesus loves you because good things are happening in your life. The Bible tells you to believe that Jesus loves you because He gave Himself for you. Providence is extremely difficult to read, because we’re not God. We don't know what God is doing in our lives. We don't see the full picture. So, where are we going to look? We're going to look to the place where He gave Himself for us. Some of you will know how Charles Haddon Spurgeon sometimes used to say, “I look at the cross and I wonder if God loves me more than He loves His Son,” because He’s dying in my place, because He’s given Himself for me. Remember how Paul also, towards the end of Romans 8, says, “This is the anchor of our assurance as those who are united to Jesus Christ: We know that He will give us everything we need, because we know He gave us His Son.” It's as though God is saying, “I don't have any more to give you. I've given you everything in giving My Son to you.” And this is the background to the idea of union with Christ. This is the Christ to whom we are united. It’s amazing. “From heaven He came and sought us to be His holy bride. With His own blood He bought us, and for our life He died.” This is the foundation of all of our union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

What Is Hell?

We have often heard statements such as "War is hell" or "I went through hell." These expressions are, of course, not taken literally. Rather, they reflect our tendency to use the word hell as a descriptive term for the most ghastly human experience possible. Yet no human experience in this world is actually comparable to hell. If we try to imagine the worst of all possible suffering in the here and now we have not yet stretched our imaginations to reach the dreadful reality of hell.

Hell is trivialized when it is used as a common curse word. To use the word lightly may be a halfhearted human attempt to take the concept lightly or to treat it in an amusing way. We tend to joke about things most frightening to us in a futile effort to declaw and defang them, reducing their threatening power.

There is no biblical concept more grim or terror-invoking than the idea of hell. It is so unpopular with us that few would give credence to it at all except that it comes to us from the teaching of Christ Himself.

There is no biblical concept more grim or terror-invoking than the idea of hell

Almost all the biblical teaching about hell comes from the lips of Jesus. It is this doctrine, perhaps more than any other, that strains even the Christian's loyalty to the teaching of Christ. Modern Christians have pushed the limits of minimizing hell in an effort to sidestep or soften Jesus' own teaching. The Bible describes hell as a place of outer darkness, a lake of fire, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place of eternal separation from the blessings of God, a prison, a place of torment where the worm doesn't turn or die. These graphic images of eternal punishment provoke the question, should we take these descriptions literally or are they merely symbols?

I suspect they are symbols, but I find no relief in that. We must not think of them as being merely symbols. It is probably that the sinner in hell would prefer a literal lake of fire as his eternal abode to the reality of hell represented in the lake of fire image. If these images are indeed symbols, then we must conclude that the reality is worse than the symbol suggests. The function of symbols is to point beyond themselves to a higher or more intense state of actuality than the symbol itself can contain. That Jesus used the most awful symbols imaginable to describe hell is no comfort to those who see them simply as symbols.

Hell is an eternity before the righteous, ever-burning wrath of God

A breath of relief is usually heard when someone declares, "Hell is a symbol for separation from God." To be separated from God for eternity is no great threat to the impenitent person. The ungodly want nothing more than to be separated from God. Their problem in hell will not be separation from God, it will be the presence of God that will torment them. In hell, God will be present in the fullness of His divine wrath. He will be there to exercise His just punishment of the damned. They will know Him as an all-consuming fire.

No matter how we analyze the concept of hell it often sounds to us as a place of cruel and unusual punishment. If, however, we can take any comfort in the concept of hell, we can take it in the full assurance that there will be no cruelty there. It is impossible for God to be cruel. Cruelty involves inflicting a punishment that is more severe or harsh than the crime. Cruelty in this sense is unjust. God is incapable of inflicting an unjust punishment. The Judge of all the earth will surely do what is right. No innocent person will ever suffer at His hand.

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of hell is its eternality. People can endure the greatest agony if they know it will ultimately stop. In hell there is no such hope. The Bible clearly teaches that the punishment is eternal. The same word is used for both eternal life and eternal death. Punishment implies pain. Mere annihilation, which some have lobbied for, involves no pain. Jonathan Edwards, in preaching on Revelation 6:15-16 said, "Wicked men will hereafter earnestly wish to be turned to nothing and forever cease to be that they may escape the wrath of God."

Hell, then, is an eternity before the righteous, ever-burning wrath of God, a suffering torment from which there is no escape and no relief. Understanding this is crucial to our drive to appreciate the work of Christ and to preach His gospel.

This excerpt is from R.C. Sproul's Essential Truths of the Christian Faith.

Further resources on the subject of hell:

Articles

Are those who have never heard of Christ going to hell? by R.C. Sproul
Hold the Fire and Brimstone, Please by Burk Parsons
The Horror of Hell by Tom Ascol

Media

Can We Enjoy Heaven Knowing of Loved Ones in Hell? by R.C. Sproul
The Gates of Hell by Burk Parsons
Hell by R.C. Sproul
The Intermediate State, Heaven and Hell by R.C. Sproul
Is the Exclusivity of Christ Unjust? by Alistair Begg

Resources

Heaven CD by R.C. Sproul
Hell CD by R.C. Sproul
Saved from What? by R.C. Sproul 

The Law as Restrainer

Here’s an excerpt from The Law as Restrainer, Caleb Cangelosi's contribution to the February issue of Tabletalk:

I expect most of us have experienced it: we’re driving down a road above the posted speed limit, and suddenly we notice a police car up ahead on the side of the road. We immediately slow down to the speed limit, only to discover as we pass the police car that it is empty. The mere presence of the law embodied in that unoccupied police car restrained our lawlessness—at least for a moment.

In the sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformers identified three “uses” of the law of God: the civil use (a leash that restrains our corruption), the pedagogical use (a mirror that reveals our sinfulness and points us to Jesus Christ as the only Savior of sinners), and the normative use (a straightedge that guides us in how to please God). The church sometimes thinks of the restraining function of the law as limited to the unregenerate, who need the threat of punishment or the fear of shame to hinder them from being as evil as they might be if left to their own fallen hearts. Yet it is vital to recognize that God’s law also inhibits indwelling sin in those who have been born again, and that this function of the law is one of the ways God enables His people to be the city on a hill He has saved us to be.

Continue reading The Law as Restrainer, or begin receiving Tabletalk magazine by signing up for a free 3-month trial.

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.

 

How Can I Cultivate a Consistently Biblical Prayer Life?

What does it look like to have a biblical prayer life, and what should we do to cultivate one? From one of our Ask Ligonier events, Steven Lawson points us to several places in Scripture that direct the prayers of God’s people.

Ask your biblical and theological questions live online at ask.Ligonier.org.

Read the Transcript

 

The Problem of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a problem for many people due to their misunderstanding of what forgiveness involves and confusion about what forgiveness really is. Part of the issue is that sometimes we are unable to distinguish between forgiveness and feeling forgiven. Sometimes our feelings can get out of sync with the reality of forgiveness.

Once a man came to talk to me about feeling greatly distressed because of his guilt. He said that he had committed a particular sin and had prayed and prayed about it but hadn’t received any relief. He wanted to know what he had to do to experience God’s forgiveness. But since he had confessed his sin and begged God to forgive him, I told him that he needed to ask God to forgive him for a different sin—the sin of arrogance. God says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). When we don’t believe that God has in fact forgiven us when we have confessed our sin, we are calling into question His faithfulness. We are saying that God’s promise cannot be trusted. That is supreme arrogance, so we need to ask God’s forgiveness for our refusing to believe His promise.

There is more to this problem of forgiveness. When we sin, one of the most difficult things for us is accepting free, gracious, merciful forgiveness. We are creatures of pride. We think that God’s forgiveness is fine for other people, but when we do something wrong, we want to make up for it. However, this is absolutely impossible for anyone to do. God requires perfect holiness. Once perfection is lost, we cannot regain it. We are debtors with a debt we cannot pay. This is difficult for us to accept because we want to be able to pay our own way. It’s because of our pride and arrogance, both fruits of our sinfulness, that we refuse to accept the forgiveness of God.

Back to the distinction between forgiveness and feeling forgiven: forgiveness is objective but the feeling of forgiveness is subjective. I can feel forgiven but not be forgiven because I haven’t repented. I can excuse myself when God has not excused me, and that false feeling of forgiveness can lead me astray. But I can also not feel forgiven even when I actually have been forgiven. If God declares that a person is forgiven, that person is in fact forgiven. Our lack of feeling forgiven does not negate the reality of what God has done.

What is the authority in our lives? Our feelings, which are subjective, or the Word of God, which is objective truth? The Christian must live practically each day by the Word of God rather than by his feelings. The issue of forgiveness is not whether we feel forgiven, but whether we have repented. If we confess our sin and ask God for forgiveness through Christ, we can be assured that He forgives us.

Sometimes we don’t forgive ourselves even though God has forgiven us. But who are we to refuse to forgive one whom God has forgiven? What makes us so wicked that God’s forgiveness is not enough to cover our sin? In effect, we’re saying that we’re so evil that even the grace of God can’t help us. No, we’re so proud that we refuse God’s grace.

Now let’s look at what forgiveness is. The Bible teaches that when God forgives us, He forgets our sins. This doesn’t mean He erases them from His memory. It means that He doesn’t hold them against us anymore.

How many times has someone told you that he has forgiven a sin you committed against him, and then, the next time you have a fight, he brings up what you did the last time? That person has, in a sense, rescinded his forgiveness. God doesn’t do that. If I am pardoned by God, it is settled and is never to be brought up again. God puts those sins aside and will never speak of them. However, we often reopen old wounds. We allow them to disturb the relationship. If I have forgiven someone, I should never again mention that sin. Forgiveness means not bringing it up.

There is another issue to look at, and that is our obligation to forgive others who sin against us. If such people confess their sin and repent, it is our moral obligation to forgive. However, if they don’t repent, we are not required to forgive. We may forgive, as Jesus did for those who killed Him (Luke 23:34). But in doing that, Jesus didn’t command that we must always forgive those who don’t repent. You can go to those who have wronged you and tell them they have offended you (see Matt. 18:15). If they repent, you have won them. But you are not called to forgive if they don’t repent. You are not allowed to be bitter or vindictive. You have to be loving, caring, concerned, and compassionate, but you don’t have to forgive. You can still talk about it and seek public vindication.

Here is one last problem related to forgiveness that we deal with often as elders in Christ’s church. A husband or wife commits adultery, repents deeply, and then asks his or her spouse for forgiveness. In such a situation, the offended spouse must forgive the guilty partner. However, that spouse is not obligated to stay married to that partner. The Bible makes a provision for the dissolution of a marriage in the event of adultery. The person is required to treat the repentant person as a brother or sister in Christ but not as a spouse.

Another example is a man stealing from us fifty times in our office and repenting each time. We must forgive him, but we can ask for restitution. We don’t have to keep him in our employ, but we must still treat him as a brother in Christ. This situation is an important practical application of the concept of forgiveness. We can have forgiveness and restored relationships, but that does not necessarily mean there are no lasting consequences for our sin.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

Jesus Christ, Our Great High Priest

Not only is Jesus Christ a righteous King to reign over us, but He is also our Great High Priest to reconcile us to God. In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul considers how the exalted priesthood of Jesus is displayed in the book of Hebrews.

Transcript:

In the Old Testament, the priesthood was called the Aaronic priesthood or the Levitical priesthood in that Aaron was the first high priest, and he was from the tribe of Levi. And so, in order to serve in the priesthood, one had to be from the tribe of Levi, and that’s why it’s called the Levitical priesthood. And yet, here in the book of Hebrews, Christ is exalted as the long-promised King of the kingdom of God who would come from the tribe of Judah. And now here He is being celebrated as the Great High Priest. Well, if the kingly line comes from Judah and the priestly line comes from Levi, how can Christ fulfill both of these ideals? Because He can’t be from both tribes, and we know that He’s from the tribe of Judah, as He is the Son of David. Well, that’s why we have this lengthy discussion in Hebrews about the priesthood of Melchizedek. And the author tells us that Christ was a priest, not of the Aaronic Priesthood, and not of the Levitical priesthood, but of the line of Melchizedek, of which we hear almost nothing in the Old Testament, and then develops the case that the priesthood of Melchizedek is not an inferior priesthood to that of Aaron or to the Levites, but is indeed a superior priesthood. And to prove that point, the author of Hebrews goes back to the Old Testament and speaks to the incident when Abraham meets this mysterious character, Melchizedek, whose name means “King of Righteousness,” and who is described as the King of Salem, or the “King of Peace.” And in that encounter, Abraham pays a tithe to Melchizedek, and Melchizedek blesses Abraham. And in Jewish tradition, it is the inferior who pays the tithes to the superior, and it is the superior who gives the blessing to the inferior. And so, since in that transaction Melchizedek is seen as superior to Abraham, and since Levi is a descendent of Abraham, it follows Q.E.D. that Melchizedek is superior to Levi. And so, what we have here is the One who is superior to the prophets, the One who is superior to the angels, the One who is superior to Moses, the One who is superior in glory and in function to the high priesthood of Aaron—is Christ Himself, who brings all these things together.

 

Does God Predestine People to Hell?

Does God predestine some people to endless punishment in hell? From one of our Ask Ligonier events, W. Robert Godfrey interacts with this doctrine and addresses how even the difficult teachings of Scripture are given for our spiritual benefit.

When you have biblical and theological questions, just ask Ligonier.

Read the Transcript

 

God's Good Pleasure in Election

If we are going to take the Bible seriously, we have to have some doctrine of predestination. The idea of predestination wasn’t invented by Calvin or Luther or Augustine. Paul says in Ephesians 1:4–6 that in love, God “predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” So, predestination is a biblical word, and it’s a biblical concept.

But the very concept of predestination raises the question, why does God elect certain people and not others? We know that it’s not based on anything that we do. It’s not based on our running, our willing, or our doing anything. It’s based solely on the purpose of God, as Paul says in Ephesians. But that raises another question: If the reason for the Lord’s selecting some to receive the tremendous benefit of salvation but not others is not rooted in those whom He chooses (Rom. 9:1–18), doesn’t that mean that somehow God is arbitrary?

Let’s take a moment to define what we mean by the term arbitrary. People who are arbitrary do what they do without any reason. They just do it, and when you ask them why they did it, they might respond, “No reason. Just on a whim.” We don’t have a lot of respect for capricious people who do things for no reason. Now, are we going to attribute to God that kind of impetuous or motiveless behavior—that He is arbitrary and capricious? Scripture certainly won’t allow us to do that.

Here we must make a distinction between God’s doing something for no reason and His doing something for no reason found in us. We say clearly that His grace is given not for any reason in us. But the fact that there is no reason in me for my salvation does not mean there is no reason behind God’s action. Scripture actually tells us over and over again that God has a reason behind His choice of some for salvation and His not choosing others for redemption.

Ephesians 1:11 fleshes out the purpose behind predestination by telling us that predestination is “according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” The counsel of God’s will has to do with the wisdom, the plan, the thought processes of God. The very word “counsel” suggests intelligence and an intelligent reason for acting, and God never wills apart from His own counsel. A person who is completely arbitrary has no counsel, takes no counsel, listens to no counsel. He just does it. And so the very word “counsel” should alert us that the biblical idea here of God’s sovereign grace is rooted in the wisdom of God, in His own thought, which is perfect. It’s not irrational—it’s eminently rational and far from arbitrary.

Another key word that is used again and again with respect to predestination and election in the Bible is the word “purpose.” We saw in Ephesians 1:4–6 that predestination is according to God’s purpose. Someone who does something arbitrarily does it for no purpose. But, the New Testament makes it clear that there is a divine purpose in God’s electing grace, and part of that is to make manifest the riches of His grace, to display His mercy (Rom. 9:22–24)—that is, to reveal something about His marvelous character, which His grace certainly does. It makes manifest His awesome, marvelous, beautiful mercy. There’s also another purpose, and that’s the purpose of honoring Christ. Remember the promise to Christ that He would see the travail of His soul and be satisfied (Isa. 53:11)? According to His own counsel, God determined from the foundation of the world that the cross of Jesus Christ would yield its appointed fruit and that Christ would be satisfied by the results of His pain, suffering, and death.

Notice that when the New Testament speaks of election and predestination, it always speaks of our being elect, or chosen, in the Beloved, in Christ. Ultimately, the New Testament tells us that people are chosen for salvation so that God the Father can bestow His glory, love, and affection on God the Son (Eph. 1:3–6). Ultimately, we’re redeemed not because of our worthiness but because of the worthiness of Christ. God is gracious to me in order to reward One who does deserve a reward—His only begotten Son. Do you see the intersection here of grace and justice? It is right or just that Christ should receive an inheritance, and we are that inheritance. That we are that inheritance is grace for us and justice for Christ.

The final thing I want to note is found in Ephesians 1:5. We are chosen “according to”—on the basis of—“the good pleasure” of God’s will (NKJV). God chooses and elects us according to what kind of pleasure? “According to the good pleasure of His will.” That word, “good,” makes all the difference in the world, because there’s no such thing as the bad pleasure of God’s will. God does not take pleasure in evil, even if we take pleasure in evil. In fact, we sin because it’s so pleasurable to us. If it weren’t pleasurable, we wouldn’t be enticed to it or tempted by it. But there is no evil will in God. The only thing that has ever pleased God is goodness, the only pleasure that He’s ever had is a good pleasure, and the only purpose that He’s ever had is a good purpose.

Clearly, then, in the mystery of the grace of God, He is never whimsical, capricious, or arbitrary. Though the reason for our salvation does not rest in us, that does not mean that God is without a purpose in choosing His elect. He does have a purpose, and it is a good one.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.