R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 36

You Have a Story

You have a story, and I have a story. It’s actually God’s story, the story of how the Lord in His sovereign grace is transforming His people and conforming us to the image of Christ.

One of the greatest privileges I have in my role at Ligonier Ministries is to hear the stories of God’s people like you from around the world. It is a mercy of God that, on this side of heaven, you and I get to see how the Lord is working through His Word and how that Word goes forth through the Ligonier outreaches that friends like you support.

These stories come into the ministry daily. For instance, we received this recent testimony from Bob in Maine:

For years, I doubted my salvation. I started to listen to R.C. about five years ago, and I finally understood the truth of election and assurance of salvation. At last, I know the joy of truly being saved! I can never thank you all enough for teaching me what Christianity really is.

Isn’t that encouraging? And it’s not the only story I have to share. Encouragement from unexpected places shows up too. Just read this note from Slavik:

When I was a church member in a very legalistic church in Ukraine, I was fighting severe depression. But in God’s providence, there was one book that I found in the church library in the basement, and that book was Chosen by God by R.C. Sproul. Thank you. Not only have you transformed my life, but you are transforming the lives of other Christians in Ukraine today.

God is at work, making Himself known. Dr. R.C. Sproul founded this ministry decades ago to help people know what they believe, why they believe it, how to live it, and how to share it. Your support of this gospel work means that Ligonier is able to bring life-giving teaching to more and more people. Thank you.

Now, as we enter our fiftieth year of ministry, we see the global need for the kind of teaching Ligonier provides more clearly than ever. Recent events starkly reveal the hopelessness of so many people in this world. They’re without hope because they’re without Christ and His gospel. Together, we can bring that hope to them and see lives transformed.

As I’ve said, testimonies are pouring in regarding the impact of your support of many worldwide outreaches, including new teaching series, free distribution of the Reformation Study Bible throughout Africa, apologetics training events for young people, prison and military chaplain benevolence, Tabletalk magazine, broadcasts and podcasts such as Renewing Your Mind, translation projects, conferences, Reformation Bible College, online training and discipleship platforms, and so much more. Without question, your generosity provides a lifeline that connects hungry souls to the teaching of Scripture when they cannot otherwise receive it.

Animated by Dr. Sproul’s vision, we’re teaching the same historically rooted truth we’ve always taught while looking for new ways to expand. In this way, Ligonier’s past serves as the blueprint for our shared future. No novel teaching comes from Ligonier—only the unvarnished truth. We seek not to teach anything new but only to find new means of getting God-given truth into the hands of people on every continent.

God has truly expanded the ministry’s reach far more than we could have ever asked or thought. We give thanks to Him and we’re grateful to you, because we know that this often happens because you join us in prayer, making bold requests before the throne of grace.

You have a story to tell, I’m sure. We’d love to hear your testimony of how the Lord has used the ministry of Ligonier in your life as well. We invite you to submit your “Ligonier story” to yourstory@ligonier.org. As you do so, it would help Ligonier spread more trustworthy teaching if you are also able to give a donation. Please prayerfully consider how your kingdom-minded philanthropy could reach more people like you in 2021.

Time is of the essence, because we will be collecting these testimonies and presenting them to Mrs. Vesta Sproul, our cofounder, on what would have been Dr. Sproul’s eighty-second birthday in February. She continues to be very much involved in our work, and we know it will encourage her to see just how much God has continued to use this ministry that began fifty years ago.

Your continued friendship and financial support mean so much to us. Thank you for playing an important role in God’s story for His people.

 

The Beauty of an “Ordinary” Conversion

You don’t need to have had a dramatic conversion experience like the Apostle Paul on the Damascus Road. From his teaching series Assurance of Faith, Joel Beeke reminds us of the wonderful, “ordinary” way in which God brings His people to Christ.

Transcript:

The Canons of Dort, head five, article 10, states specifically, when targeting the Roman Catholic view as false, that "We ought not to look for assurance from a peculiar revelation contrary to or independent of the Word of God." For them, you see, our Dortian fathers, the application of the plain Word of God by faith, which is the King's royal way to assurance that produces by the Spirit's grace the normal conversion experience, if I can use the word "normal," of God's children in terms of what the catechism calls "misery, deliverance, and gratitude" or sin, salvation, service. In other words, the normal experience is that I see my sinfulness, I flee to Christ, find everything in Him, and then I live a life of service, of gratitude, of sanctification to one degree or another. But, you see, that kind of normal conversion for some people is not enough for conversion. They're looking for something extraordinary, something unexplainable, extra biblical, mystical, special revelation. And the Reformed said, "Don't do that, because you'll probably wait all your life and never get it." Yes, there are people of God who do have some very special experiences; we don't deny that. But that's like dessert after a meal. It's sweet, it's wonderful to have a great intimacy with God. But the normal conversion—don't disparage that. Don't look for wrong kinds of experiences. Don't think that conversion requires a Damascus Road voice from heaven type of experience, like Paul had.

 

Christian, Do You Love God's Law?

At a PGA Tour tournament in October 2015, Ben Crane disqualified himself after completing his second round. He did so at considerable financial cost. No matter—Crane believed the personal cost of not doing it would be greater (encouraged by a devotional article he had read that morning by Davis Love III, the distinguished former Ryder Cup captain).

Crane realized he had broken one of the more recondite rules of golf. If I followed the story rightly, while in a hazard looking for his ball, he leaned his club on a stone. He abandoned the ball, took the requisite penalty for doing so, played on, and finished his round. He would have made the Friday night cut comfortably; a very successful weekend financially beckoned. Then Ben Crane thought: "Should I have included a penalty for grounding my club in a hazard?" Sure enough (Rule 13.4a). So he disqualified himself.

(Got it? Hopefully, no readers will lie awake tonight now knowing the trophy was won illegally.)

Crane has been widely praised for his action. No avalanche of spiteful or demeaning attacks on cyberspace or hate mail for being narrow-minded. All honor to him. Intriguingly, no one seems to have said or written, "Ben Crane is such a legalist."

No, we are not starting a new sports column this month. But how odd it is to see so much praise for his detailed attention to the rules of golf, and yet the opposite when it comes to the rules of life, the (much more straightforward) law of God, even in the church.

There is a problem somewhere.

The Problem

Neither Jesus nor Paul had a problem with the law. Paul wrote that his gospel of grace upholds and establishes the law (Rom. 3:31)—even God's laws in their negative form, since the "grace of God . . . teaches us to say 'No'" (Titus 2:11–12 NIV). And remember Jesus' words in Matthew 5:17–19? Our attitude to the law is a litmus test of our relationship to the kingdom of God.

So what is the problem? The real problem is that we do not understand grace. If we did, we would also realize why John Newton, author of "Amazing Grace," could write, "Ignorance of the nature and design of the law is at the bottom of most religious mistakes."

There is a deep issue here. In Scripture, the person who understands grace loves law. (Incidentally, mere polemics against antinomianism can never produce this.)

Think again of Ben Crane. Why keep the complex rules of golf? Because you love the game. Something similar, but greater, is true of the believer. Love the Lord, and we will love His law—because it is His. All is rooted in this beautiful biblical simplicity.

Think of it in terms of three men and the three "stages" or "epochs" they represent: Adam, Moses, and Jesus.

Adam

At creation, God gave commandments. They expressed His will. And since He is a good, wise, loving, and generous God, His commandments are always for our best. He wants to be a Father to us.

As soon as God created man and woman as His image (Gen. 1:26–28—a hugely significant statement), He gave them statutes to follow (v. 29). The context here makes clear the rationale: He is Lord; they are His image. He made them to reflect Him. He is the cosmic Overlord, and they are the earthly under-lords. His goal is their mutual enjoyment of one another and creation in a communion of life (1:26–2:3). So, He has given them a start—a garden in Eden (2:7). He wants them to extend that garden to the ends of the earth, and to enjoy it as miniature creators, images imitating the great original Creator (1:28–29).

God's creation commands then had in view our reflecting His image and glory. His image-bearers are made to be like Him. In one form or another, all divine commands have this principle enshrined in them: "You are my image and likeness. Be like me!" This is reflected in His command: "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (Lev. 19:2).

Implied here is that God's image-bearers are created, hardwired as it were, to reflect Him. Yes, there are external laws given to them, but those laws simply provide specific applications of the "laws" inbuilt in the divine image, laws that are already on the conscience.

It was instinctive then for Adam and Eve to imitate God, to be like Him, because they were created as His image and likeness—just as little Seth would instinctively behave like his father, Adam, because he was "in his likeness, after his image" (Gen. 5:3). Like father, like son.

But then came the fall: sin, lack of conformity to God's revealed law, and distortion of the image resulted in malfunctions of the inner human instincts. The mirror image turned away from the gaze and the life of God, and since then all people (except Christ) have shared in this condition. The Lord remains the same. His design for His image remains the same. But the image is marred. The under-lord who was created to turn the dust into a garden has become dust himself:

By the sweat of your face
you 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. (Gen. 3:19)

We remain the image of God, and the laws that govern how we live best are unchanged. But now we are haggard and spent, twisted within, off center, distorted, carrying the aroma of death. Once chief operating officers, we are now vagrants who survive only by stealing from the Owner of the company (Yahweh and Son) who provided for us so generously. The law within functions still, but unreliably at best, not because the law is faulty but because we are.

For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. (Rom. 2:14–15; see also 7:7–25)

But God wants His portrait—His image—back.

Moses

In essence, the Mosaic law—summarized in the Decalogue—was a rewriting on tablets of stone of the constitution written on man's heart in creation. But now the law came to fallen man, and included sin offerings to address the new condition of humanity. It came to one distinct nation in one specific land. And it came until the coming of the Redeemer promised in Genesis 3:15. Therefore, it was given largely in negative terms, with added applications relevant for one specific nation in a single land, until the day when the types and sacrifices of the law would be fulfilled in Christ.

The law was given to people as "under-age children" (Gal. 3:23–4:5)—largely in negative form. We, too, teach our children: "Don't stick the screwdriver into the electric socket!" long before we explain to them how electricity works. It is the simplest and safest way to protect them.

But it was already clear to old covenant believers that the law's negations enshrined positive commands. The negative "No other gods before me" implied the full-color, developed picture of loving the Lord with all of one's heart, and commandments two through four fleshed out that picture. The rest of the commandments were negatives to be developed in "Love your neighbor as yourself."

In addition, since the animal sacrifices substituted for humans' sins, they clearly lacked in proportion and could not deliver the forgiveness they pictured. An old covenant believer could work that out by going to the temple two days in a row: the priest was still standing at the altar, sacrificing all over again (Heb. 10:1–4, 11). The final adequate sacrifice was still to come.

And then the Decalogue was given civil application for the people in the land. But these local laws would no longer function in the same way for God's people when they would be scattered throughout all the nations. The preservation and advance of His kingdom would then no longer be dependent on them.

All of this is well expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith's teaching that the "moral law" continues, the "ceremonial law" is fulfilled, and the "civil law" is abrogated, although we can clearly still learn a great deal from the ceremonial and civil legislation (19.3–5). An old covenant believer could understand this, albeit with less clarity. After all, only the Decalogue was placed in the ark, as an expression of the very character and heart of God. Yes, the law was one because the God who gave it is one. But the law of Moses was not monolithic—it was multidimensional, having a foundation and also spheres of application. The former was permanent; the latter were interim arrangements until the coming day dawned.

Old covenant believers really did love the law. They delighted in it. Their covenant God cared so much that He had rephrased His original instructions for them so that they could guide the people as sinners. Old covenant believers who knew and meditated on the Decalogue and the whole Torah (the law) would grow in their ability to apply it to every providence of God in their lives (Ps. 1). With all its rules and regulations, God's law provided security and direction for the whole of life.

At the end of my freshman year, I taught in a school for young criminals. Their lives were heavily circumscribed. But surprisingly to me, there was an extraordinary esprit de corps, a pride in and common loyalty to the school. At first this puzzled me. And then I realized that these boys knew where they were. They were safe and safeguarded from themselves and their waywardness. The teachers disciplined them with affection. Perhaps for the first time in their lives, they were getting regular meals. Yes, the rules sometimes irked them—they were sinners, after all. But they were safe. Some of them even transgressed again just to get back to the environs of the school. I understood why even if I could not condone it. There they had care and security.

Paul uses a not-too-dissimilar illustration in Galatians 3–4. Old covenant believers were underage heirs, living in the restricted environment of the Mosaic law. But now in Christ, redemptive history has come of age. There is a new dimension of freedom. You don't need to check the calendar to see if it is a holy day. You don't need to check the meat or the label on your clothes. You don't need to bring yet more sacrifices to the temple. Now that Christ has come, we have been let out of reform school. "So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith" (Gal. 3:24). Yet, the undergirding law—why would it change? Why would we be any less obedient to the same Father?

We are already discovering that we cannot fully understand the law of Moses without thinking about Jesus. God intends to get His portrait back.

Jesus

Jesus came to re-create a new and true humanity marked by a restored internal love for the Lord and a desire to be like Him. The law itself cannot accomplish that in us. It takes forgiveness, deliverance, and empowerment to do it. This God provides in Jesus Christ and by the Spirit.

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom. 8:3–4)

Perhaps because He knew people would draw the wrong conclusions from His teaching (they did), Jesus explained that He did not come to abolish but to fulfill the law. He would fill to the fullest the "shell" that Moses had given (Matt. 5:17–20). He made clear that He also meant to restore God's portrait and image in us (Matt. 5:21–48). As we know, He drew a series of contrasts. But His words were not "It is written . . . but I say . . ."; rather, they were "You have heard that it was said. . . but I say. . . ." He was not contrasting His teaching with God's law but with the rabbinical interpretations and distortions of it.

Yet, there is an important difference in the new covenant. Moses ascended the earthly mountain of God and came down with the law written on tablets of stone. But later, he expressed a longing that all the Lord's people might have the Spirit (Num. 11:29). The law of Moses could command but it could not empower. By contrast, Jesus ascended the heavenly mountain of God and came down in the Spirit to write His law on our hearts.

The book of Hebrews twice explicitly states this by quoting Jeremiah 31:31 (Heb. 8:10; 10:16—the only "law" that can be in view here is the Ten Commandments). The Lord of the law has rewritten the law of the Lord onto our hearts by His Spirit. Empowered from within by the Spirit of the law-keeping Jesus, we love the law because we love the Lord. Just as in the old covenant, the principle of life was "I who love you am holy, love me in return and be holy as well," so in the new covenant the principle of life can also be summed up in one sentence: "God's Son Jesus is the image of God in our human nature; so be like Jesus." After all, our becoming like Christ has always been the Father's ultimate goal for us.

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Rom. 8:29–30)

Loving God's Law

"You've got to love the law" has a double meaning. You've got to love it—it is a command. But at the same time, "you've got to love it" because it is so good. Of course it is. It is a gift from your heavenly Father. It is meant to keep you safe and well and give you security and help you to negotiate life. Pick up the Westminster Shorter Catechism (or better, the Westminster Larger Catechism) and read the section on the commandments. There you will learn how to use and apply the rules of the game of life. They are much easier to understand than the rules of golf. When Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15), He was only echoing the words of His Father. Actually, it is simple, yet all-demanding. As the hymn by John H. Sammis states:

Trust and obey, for there's no other way To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

Hungry and Thirsty for Righteousness

Here’s an excerpt from Hungry and Thirsty for Righteousness, Dennis E. Johnson's contribution to the January issue of Tabletalk:

Jesus painted the picture of hunger and thirst for people who had actually experienced the desperation of lacking life’s basic necessities. He was saying, “When you are as desperate for righteousness as you would be if you were starving and expiring in a wasteland, God will satiate your hunger and quench your thirst, flooding your life with the righteousness for which you long.”

Continue reading Hungry and Thirsty for Righteousness, 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.

Can a Christian Fall into Deep Sin, Die, and Still Be Saved?

What happens when a professing believer commits a grievous sin and dies? Was that person truly a Christian, and will he be saved? From our online event Made in the Image of God, Sinclair Ferguson responds to difficult questions like these.

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

Read the Transcript

Sovereign Grace in the Wilderness

Unhindered by man and unrestricted by Satan, the sovereign grace of God irresistibly overcomes every obstacle to the salvation of His chosen ones. The conditions in the lives of the elect do not have to be just right in order for God to bring them to Himself. Whether it is during the high times of a great reformation and revival or the low times of a spiritual famine in the land, whether in a king's palace or a pauper's prison, in a cosmopolitan culture or in a remote outpost, the sovereign grace of God is perfectly capable of irresistibly drawing those whom He has chosen to eternal life. No matter what seemingly impossible obstacle looms on the horizon, be it satanic forces or human hardness of heart, God's grace is greater still.

Perhaps nowhere was this irrepressible triumph of sovereign grace more clearly seen than in the dark days of the wilderness experience of Israel under the leadership of Moses. In the desert, Israel was confronted with many difficulties and challenges. In most of these tests, she failed miserably. The Israelites whined and complained against God, even in the face of His gracious guidance. They saw God's abundant provision, yet fell repeatedly into spiritual apostasy and sexual orgies. When they stood on the precipice of entering the Promised Land, they tragically fell back in rank unbelief and rebellion. For forty years, they wandered aimlessly in the barren wilderness until an entire generation died there. Never did God face greater obstacles to the fulfillment of His plan of salvation.

Yet even in these difficult straits, God's sovereign grace was promised and provided to those for whom it was intended. Despite the foul stench of unbelief and the swirling apostasy of Israel in the wilderness, the saving grace of God blew as a life-giving breath of fresh air. There, on the back side of the desert, the truth of God's sovereignty was clearly heard from heaven and unmistakably seen upon earth. Like a radiant star on the darkest night, God's sovereign grace shone brightly in the wilderness. This is the triumphant truth that Moses penned in the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy.

This excerpt is taken from Foundations of Grace by Steven Lawson.

In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the Uttermost Parts of the Earth

In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul examines Jesus' command of His disciples to be His witnesses throughout the world.

Transcript:

The New Testament book of Acts is usually understood to mean that this book concerns the acts of the apostles. But some scholars have said that it would be better named "The Acts of the Holy Spirit,” because the central character who is manifested in this book is the third person of the Trinity, who enables, empowers, and who leads His church into its earliest period of expansion. Now we know that the book of Acts was written by Luke, who also wrote the gospel of Luke; and the book of Acts is more or less the gospel of Luke, chapter—or, volume—two, where Luke carries on the narrative history of the early church, from the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, and then tells us how the church grew and moved into its appointed field of labor.

Now it’s important for us, if we’re going to understand the book of Acts, to see something of the outline that the author of the book follows. Now you remember that when Jesus gave His Great Commission to His disciples before He left, He told them that they were to be His witnesses. Where? In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. Now think about it—that it begins in Jerusalem. Now in what part of Palestine do we find Jerusalem? It’s in Judea, in the southern part of the country. And Galilee is in the north. And the northern part of the country is separated, or divided, from the south—which is Judea—by Samaria. And so what Jesus does is command the church to move basically out from the center in concentric circles, so that the ministry of the Christian church, the newborn church, begins in Jerusalem, then moves out to the circle of Judea, and then goes and incorporates Samaria, and from there, to all the world into the uttermost parts of the earth.

And the way the book moves, the book of Acts, is that it begins in Jerusalem and tells us what is happening in the primitive church in Jerusalem, and then we begin to hear of its expansion into Judea, then to Samaria. And the largest section of the book follows after the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul, who then is taking the gospel to the Gentiles—to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Can Praying to Mary or the Saints Keep a Professing Christian Out of Heaven?

Praying to Mary or to the saints is no minor matter. From one of our live events, R.C. Sproul and John MacArthur warn against the serious problems that this practice poses.

If you have a biblical or theological question, just visit ask.Ligonier.org to ask your question live online.

Read the Transcript

A Practical Help for Bible Study

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

After stating that the Bible is God-breathed, Paul spelled out its purpose and value. Scripture, he said, is profitable for several things, including doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness.

The value of the Bible lies, first of all, in the fact that it teaches sound doctrine. Though we live in a time when sound teaching is denigrated, the Bible places a high value on it. Much of the New Testament is concerned with doctrine. The teaching ministry is given to the church for building up its people. Paul said, "And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:11–12).

The Bible is also profitable for reproof and correction, which we as Christians continually need. It is fashionable in some academic circles to exercise scholarly criticism of the Bible. In so doing, scholars place themselves above the Bible and seek to correct it. If indeed the Bible is the Word of God, nothing could be more arrogant. It is God who corrects us; we don't correct Him. We do not stand over God but under Him.

This yields a practical help for Bible study: read the Bible with a red pen in hand. I suggest that you put a question mark in the margin beside every passage that you find unclear or hard to understand. Likewise, put an X beside every passage that offends you or makes you uncomfortable. Afterward, you can focus on the areas you struggle with, especially the texts marked with an X. This can be a guide to holiness, as the Xs show us quickly where our thinking is out of line with the mind of Christ. If I don't like something I read in Scripture, perhaps I simply don't understand it. If so, studying it again may help. If, in fact, I do understand the passage and still don't like it, this is not an indication there is something wrong with the Bible. It's an indication that something is wrong with me, something that needs to change. Often, before we can get something right, we need to first discover what we're doing wrong.

When we experience the "changing of the mind" that is repentance, we are not suddenly cleansed of all wrong thinking. The renewing of our minds is a lifelong process. We can accelerate this process by focusing on those passages of Scripture that we don't like. This is part of the "instruction in righteousness" of which Paul speaks.

Finally, Paul explained the overriding purpose for Scripture study. It comes in the final clause, where the apostle wrote, "… that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." It was as if Paul was warning Timothy that if he neglected the study of God's Word, his life would be incomplete. He would be missing out on this vast resource, this treasury of truth that is the Word of God. And the same is true for us.

Looking to read more of the Bible in 2020? For your convenience, we’ve compiled a list of Bible reading plans for you to choose from. Whatever it is you’re looking for in a reading plan, you should find it here.

This excerpt is from R.C. Sproul's Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow.

$5 Friday (And More): Prayer, the Book of Joshua, & Justification

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s digital resources include such topics as prayer, the book of Joshua, justification, guilt, Jonathan Edwards, 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:

The Lord's Prayer with R.C. Sproul, Audio Download $20 $10
Heroes of the Christian Faith with R.C. Sproul, Audio Download $20 $10
A Blueprint for Thinking with R.C. Sproul, Audio Download $20 $10
Book of Joshua with R.C. Sproul, Audio Download $20 $10
Understanding the Gospel with R.C. Sproul, Audio Download $24 $10
And More

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

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.