R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 47

Truth in a World of Lies

Here’s an excerpt from Truth in a World of Lies, Dustin W. Benge's contribution to the November issue of Tabletalk:

In her 1865 book Hans Brinker, American author Mary Mapes Dodge chronicled the heroic story of the little Dutch boy who saved his country from catastrophic flooding by plugging a leaking dike with his finger. When the boy recognized the imminent danger of a potential broken dike and the destruction that would occur if a small trickle of water were allowed to slowly break away into a larger inundation, he flew into action. The story goes: “Quick as a flash, he saw his duty. Throwing away his flowers, the boy clambered up the heights until he reached the hole. His chubby little finger was thrust in, almost before he knew it. The flowing was stopped!”

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I Was Baptized before Conversion. Should I Be Baptized Again after Coming to Faith?

If you were baptized prior to your conversion, should you seek baptism again as a believer in Christ? From one of our Ask Ligonier events, W. Robert Godfrey shows that we find our answer in what baptism signifies as a sacrament.

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How Do I “Count It All Joy” ?

Like the inhospitable cold corridors of the emergency hallways we entered, so were the years of trials and tribulations my family endured. Life-altering pain, weekly doctor’s visits, IVs, and deeply weary souls underneath it all consumed the last five years of our life. Like a thief who comes to steal, it has physically, emotionally, and spiritually robbed us, leaving us depleted, weary, and wondering if we would survive. Joy has been rarely perceptible through our enduring loss. However, the seeds of a greater work, and yes, even of a greater delight have begun to sprout and flourish as we peer under the surface of what God is doing. A work that God is doing not only in us but in all who endure trials.

Joy does not arise naturally from us as we suffer the effects of the fall of this life. Why would James exhort the readers of his epistle to “count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2)? His words seem to be jarring initially, especially at the beginning of a letter to exiles who have been dispersed from their homes. We would expect words that seem more sympathetic, perhaps, intermingled with pity and compassion. The brother of our Lord, however, gets straight to the point and exhorts the opposite expression of natural emotion—joy amid trial. These seemingly cold words of James are actually filled with warm gospel truth and hope as they point the troubled soul to the root from which the true healing balm comes.

Our hearts often pleaded for God to remove our burden as it felt all-consuming and far too weighty to bear, and yet in those moments we found deeper appreciation for the sufferings of our Lord. Jesus’ need to withdraw to a solitary place in the garden of Gethsemane and plead in sorrowful anguish to have this cup removed, yet He surrendered to the will of the Father. As He hung on the cross, with His earthly life excruciatingly draining away, He recognized and even delighted in a work greater than the pain. The salvation of the world was taking place through the anguish of His soul (Isa. 53:11); redemption through His suffering and His shedding of blood (Heb. 9:22). If God used the worst suffering for the greatest good, then surely He can and does use our suffering for good as a part of His greater redemptive work.

The gospel story demonstrates that all suffering comes from the hands of a loving Father who has redeemed His own and cares enough never to waste a trial without its having its perfect work. As we waded deep tumultuous waters, these trials began exposing our fears, frailties, and lack of childlike trust, yet all the while they simultaneously strengthened our feeble frame and developed aspects of our faith that would not have been exhibited otherwise. The trials He sends are not consuming but rather refining and produce needed and necessary results. As an old hymn states, “The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.” Only the God of the gospel can do such a work as that.

Joy is cultivated in our hearts and minds when we trust that the Lord is doing this refining work in us as we are experiencing our earthly trials. Making complete that which would otherwise be incomplete. James clearly states this end goal when he says that trials happen “that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4). That perfection comes in being made like the perfect One, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christlikeness is taking place through our affliction and suffering.

Trials are not evidence that the Lord has forgotten or forsaken; rather, trials are sure proof that the Lord is performing His redemptive work in us. Like a master weaver, God uses the seemingly dark threads of trials to accent parts of His masterpiece that would otherwise be inadequate without these threads. Joy comes in knowing that the God-ordained process of being made more complete is presently at work and will not cease until the day we are made like His Son. As painful as the process is and will be, what a joy it is to be shaped and molded to better reflect the One we love.

Sovereignly sent and used by the Almighty, trials ought to be seen as badges of honor in the life of the believer—a worthiness that is given to those who suffer well in the Lord. Job’s trials came because he was upright and highly regarded of the Lord (Job 1:8). James, likewise, says, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial” (James 1:12). Much like a military uniform would display decorated service through many conflicts, so too a battle-tested soldier of Christ is distinguished by his trials. Though not meritorious in themselves, trials bring us great reward because through our trials we share mysteriously in the suffering of Christ (1 Peter 4:12–13). Our suffering does not add to Christ’s work, for His suffering is sufficient to save (Rom. 3:21–26). Moreover, suffering rendered unto Christ is painful. However, it culminates in glory and eternal joy, a joy that commences here below as we walk the path of trials.

James’ stark opening is the reality-rattling truth that is needed to wake the troubled mind and soul from the difficult circumstance to the deeper—and often unseen—work that the Lord is doing. Does that mean we will always be able to discover the redemptive nature of chronic illness, a cancer diagnosis, or the tragic death of a loved one? Certainly not on this side of glory. Yet, we can be confident that He who has begun a good work in us will bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus and that no tear or sorrow will ever be wasted in the greater plan of our Sovereign Lord (Phil. 1:6).

Apart from grace, the outward circumstances of our situation would have led only to self-pity and doubt of God, but the anchor of Scripture and God’s redemptive work in Christ Jesus have led us to discover in Him a much deeper joy—a joy that is known by His children alone. Take cheer, troubled one—the Lord’s work is not done. The same Lord that used the cross for the redemption of the world is at work in your trials for His greater purposes. In this, we can have joy.

The Difference Between "Son of God" and "Son of Man"

Jesus is given many titles in Scripture. What does it mean that He is the “Son of God” and the “Son of Man”? In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul reveals that these two titles actually signify something different than what we might expect.

Transcript:

Just briefly in passing, let me ask you to pay particularly close attention, when you read the Gospels, to the use of the phrase or the title “Son of Man.” It’s one of the most important titles for Jesus in the New Testament and yet, at the same time, one of the most frequently misunderstood.

Part of the reason is we see the difference between the title “Son of Man” and “Son of God.” And given the church’s confession, historically, of the dual nature of Jesus—that He has a divine nature and a human nature—the tendency is for folks to assume that when Jesus referred to Himself as the Son of Man, that He was speaking of His human nature, and when He’s referred to as the Son of God, He was being referred to vis-à-vis His divine nature. Well, it’s not as simple as all of that, because both of these titles have within them elements that refer to His deity and to His humanity. But if anything, the emphasis on the two is just the opposite of what we would normally expect.

The title “Son of God” is given, in the first instance in Scripture, to those who manifest obedience to the Father. Sonship is defined predominately, not in biological terms here, but in terms of being in one accord or submissive towards, and so on. Remember Jesus Himself, in His discussions with the Pharisees, who claimed to be “sons of Abraham,” Jesus rebuked them and said, “You are the children of Satan. You are the children of the one whom you obey.” Now, don’t get me wrong. The “Son of God” also contains, in certain references in the New Testament, clear indications of Jesus’ eternal sonship and His deity. So, we don’t want to overstate the case.

But this title, “Son of Man,” is the one I want you to really pay attention to when you’re reading the Gospels, because it’s used so often in the New Testament, and all but three times that it occurs in the New Testament, it comes from the lips of Jesus. And it refers back to the Old Testament vision that was written down by the prophet Daniel, where Daniel had a vision into the interior of the heavenly court of God, where he saw the Ancient of Days enthroned, and the judgment was set. And to the Ancient of Days comes “one like unto a son of man,” who then is given the authority to judge the world. So that in the first instance, the Son of Man is a heavenly person—a heavenly person who descends to this world, whose principal role in His visitation to this earth is that of the heavenly judge. And then He returns to the presence of God in His ascension. We remember that Jesus says, “No one ascends to the Father except He who has first descended from Him.” Again, we tend to think that Jesus’ calling Himself the Son of Man was an expression of humility, when, in fact, it was a claim to divine authority. That’s why I want you to notice this. When He heals on the Sabbath day and is rebuked by His enemies, He said, “I did this that you may know that the Son of the Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” And when He forgives sins and creates an uproar from His contemporaries, saying, “Only God has the authority to forgive sins,” Jesus said, “I did this that you might know that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins.” And again, and again, and again, you will begin to see that this title, “Son of Man” that Jesus uses for Himself, is a highly exalted title.

How Were People Saved in the Old Testament?

We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But how were people reconciled to God before the coming of Christ? From one of our Ask Ligonier events, Steven Lawson explains how the saints of the Old Testament were saved. To get real-time answers to your biblical and theological questions, just ask Ligonier.

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The Value of Scripture

The value of Scripture in the life of the believer lies in its source and its function. In his exhortation to Timothy, Paul commended Scripture to Timothy by saying, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16).

When I was a little boy, there was a fellow in our community who was a couple of years older than me, and he was something of a bully. He made fun of me and called me names, which hurt my feelings. Sometimes I came home crying to my mother and told her what the other boy had said to upset me. My mother had a favorite response to this. As she wiped away my tears, she said, "When people talk like that about you, son, consider the source."

That little bit of sage advice from my mother was a principle that I learned to a much more intense degree in the academic world. One of the rules of scholarship is to track down in your research the sources for the information you have to make sure that those sources are reliable. Scholars have to be careful not to take anything at face value, because credibility is directly tied to source. They must analyze, examine, and use the critical apparatus at their disposal to track down the real sources.

Paul assured Timothy here that the source of Scripture is God. That Scripture is "given by inspiration" refers not to the way God oversaw the writing of the Bible but to the source of the content of the Bible. The word that is translated "given by inspiration" is the Greek term theopneust—literally, "God-breathed." When Paul wrote that Scripture is God-breathed, the idea was not one of inspiration but of expiration; that is, the Bible was breathed out by God. The whole point here is that the Bible comes from God. It is His Word and carries with it His authority. Paul wanted Timothy to understand the source of the Bible, not the way it was inspired.

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.

This excerpt is taken from 5 Things Every Christian Needs to Grow by R.C. Sproul. To learn about this topic download R.C. Sproul's free Crucial Questions booklet Can I Turst the Bible?

$5 Friday (And More): Jesus, the Trinity, & the Great Commission

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as the parables of Jesus, the Trinity, the Great Commission, Charles Spurgeon, prayer, 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:

What Do Jesus’ Parables Mean? by R.C. Sproul, Paperback $2 $1
Can I Trust the Bible? by R.C. Sproul, Paperback $2 $1
The Heroic Boldness of Martin Luther by Steven Lawson, Audiobook CD $19 $10
The Passionate Preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones by Steven Lawson, Audiobook CD $19 $10
The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon by Steven Lawson, Audiobook CD $22 $12
John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, & Doxology edited by Burk Parsons, Audiobook CD $22 $12
How Then Shall We Worship? by R.C. Sproul, Audiobook CD $22 $12
The Holiness of God: Extended Version with R.C. Sproul, CD collection $38 $9
In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel-Centered Life by Sinclair Ferguson, Hardcover book $18 $8
Delighting in the Trinity" An Introduction to the Christian Faith by Michael Reeves, Paperback book $18 $12
Pleasing God with R.C. Sproul, CD collection $24 $10
In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel-Centered Life by Sinclair Ferguson, Audiobook download $15 $7
The Great Commission with Burk Parsons, CD collection $24 $10
Defending Your Faith with R.C. Sproul, CD collection $68 $20

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

View today’s $5 Friday sale items.

The Ninth Commandment and the God of Truth

Here’s an excerpt from The Ninth Commandment and the God of Truth, Brian Cosby's contribution to the September issue of Tabletalk:

Little “white lies” like this seem rather harmless, but how often do we skirt the truth, hide the truth, or neglect to tell the truth? The reality is that God loves the truth, delights in the truth, and upholds the truth because He is the God of truth. As the sovereign Creator of all things, He established truth and has revealed His truth generally in creation and specifically in His Word (Ps. 19).

Continue reading The Ninth Commandment and the God of Truth, 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.

Don't Play with the Meaning of Words

When we’re talking about the truth of God, it’s important that everyone is agreed on what we mean by the words we use. In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul reveals what happens when we try to change the meaning of our words in the middle of a conversation.

Transcript:

Equivocal language is language where the meaning of the term changes dramatically in the course of the conversation. I illustrate this when I teach logic to my seminary students and teach them the fallacy of equivocation. And I show them the fallacy of equivocation by proving that cats have nine tails. Remember the time I proved to you, Roger, that cats have nine tails? We’re going to do it again.

My first premise in my syllogism is this: no cat has eight tails. Do you agree with that, Roger? You’ve never seen a cat with eight tails, have you? Okay, well I’m going to prove to you that cats have nine tails. No cat has eight tails, right? Now here’s my question: If I have two boxes up here and one box has a cat in it, and the other box is empty—you’ve got an empty box here and a box with a cat in it here. Now, I’m going to test your knowledge of arithmetic and mathematics. How many more cats are in this box, Roger, than are in this box? One. Thank you very much. How many more cats’ tails are in this box than in this box? One. And how many cats are in this box? Zero. I’ve got no cat in this box and one cat in this box, right? So, I have one more tail in this box than I have in this box.

So, I say here, one cat has one more tail than no cat. Now this is just a simple matter of deduction. If no cat has eight tails and one cat has one more tail than no cat, then how many tails does one cat have? QED, right? Eight and one makes what? Nine. So, one cat, then—the conclusion by resistless logic is that one cat has nine tails. Now, I tricked you, and what was the trick? What happened in this line of reasoning? The meaning of this term “no cat” changes in the middle of the discussion. It means something completely different here than it means here, and that’s called the fallacy of equivocation.

4 Principles for the Exercise of Christian Liberty

It was years ago now, but I still remember the discussion. I was making my way out of our church building some time after the morning service had ended, and was surprised to find a small group of people still engaged in vigorous conversation. One of them turned and said to me, "Can Christians eat black pudding?"

To the uninitiated in the mysteries of Scottish haute cuisine, it should perhaps be said that black pudding is not haggis! It is a sausage made of blood and suet, sometimes with flour or meal.

It seems a trivial question. Why the vigorous debate? Because, of course, of the Old Testament's regulations about eating blood (Lev. 17:10ff).

Although (as far as I am aware) no theological dictionary contains an entry under B for "The Black Pudding Controversy," this unusual discussion raised some most basic hermeneutical and theological issues:

How is the Old Testament related to the New?
How is the Law of Moses related to the gospel of Jesus Christ?
How should a Christian exercise freedom in Christ?

The Council of Jerusalem, described in Acts 15, sought to answer such practical questions faced by the early Christians as they wrestled with how to enjoy freedom from the Mosaic administration without becoming stumbling blocks to Jewish people.

These were questions to which Paul in particular gave a great deal of thought. He was, after all, one of those appointed by the Jerusalem Council to circulate and explain the letter that summarized the decisions of the apostles and elders (Acts 15:22ff; 16:4). Faced with similar issues in the church at Rome, he provided them with a series of principles that apply equally well to twenty-first-century Christians. His teaching in Romans 14:1–15:13 contains healthy (and very necessary) guidelines for the exercise of Christian liberty. Here are four of them:

Principle 1: Christian liberty must never be flaunted. "Whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God" (Rom. 14:22, NIV).

We are free in Christ from the Mosaic dietary laws; Christ has pronounced all food clean (Mark 7:18-19). We may eat black pudding after all!

But you do not need to exercise your liberty in order to enjoy it. Indeed, Paul elsewhere asks some very penetrating questions of those who insist on exercising their liberty whatever the circumstances: Does this really build up others? Is this really liberating you—or has it actually begun to enslave you (Rom. 14:19; 1 Cor. 6:12)?

The subtle truth is that the Christian who has to exercise his or her liberty is in bondage to the very thing he or she insists on doing. Says Paul, if the kingdom consists for you in food, drink, and the like, you have missed the point of the gospel and the freedom of the Spirit (Rom. 14:17).

Principle 2: Christian liberty does not mean that you welcome fellow Christians only when you have sorted out their views on X or Y (or with a view to doing that).

God has welcomed them in Christ, as they are; so should we (Rom. 14:1, 3). True, the Lord will not leave them as they are. But He does not make their pattern of conduct the basis of His welcome. Neither should we.

We have many responsibilities for our fellow Christians, but being their judge is not one of them. Christ alone is that (Rom. 14:4, 10-13). How sad it is to hear (as we do far too often) the name of another Christian mentioned in conversation, only for someone to pounce immediately on him or her in criticism. That is not so much a mark of discernment as it is the evidence of a judgmental spirit.

What if the measure we use to judge others becomes the measure used to judge us (Rom. 14:10-12; Matt. 7:2)?

Principle 3: Christian liberty ought never to be used in such a way that you become a stumbling block to another Christian (Rom. 14:13).

When Paul states this principle, it is not a spur-of-the-moment reaction, but a settled principle he has thought out and to which he has very deliberately committed himself (see 1 Cor. 8:13). When that commitment is made, it eventually becomes so much a part of our thinking that it directs our behavior instinctively. We are given liberty in Christ in order to be the servants of others, not in order to indulge our own preferences.

Principle 4: Christian liberty requires grasping the principle that will produce this true biblical balance: "We ... ought ... not to please ourselves.... For even Christ did not please himself " (Rom. 15:1-3).

There is something devastatingly simple about this. It reduces the issue to the basic questions of love for the Lord Jesus Christ and a desire to imitate Him since His Spirit indwells us to make us more like Him.

True Christian liberty, unlike the various "freedom" or "liberation" movements of the secular world, is not a matter of demanding the "rights" we have. Dare one say that the American Founding Fathers, for all their wisdom, may have inadvertently triggered off a distortion of Christianity by speaking about our "rights" to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? The Christian realizes that before God he or she possesses no "rights" by nature. In our sinfulness, we have forfeited all of our "rights."

Only when we recognize that we do not deserve our "rights" can we properly exercise them as privileges. Sensitivity to others in the church, especially weaker others, depends on this sense of our own unworthiness. If we assume that we have liberties to be exercised at all costs, we become potentially lethal weapons in a fellowship, all too capable of destroying someone for whom Christ has died (Rom. 14:15, 20).

That does not mean that I must become the slave of another's conscience. John Calvin puts the point well when he says that we restrain the exercise of our freedom for the sake of weak believers, but not when we are faced with Pharisees who demand that we conform to what is unscriptural. Where the gospel is at stake, liberty needs to be exercised; where the stability of a weak Christian is at stake, we need to restrain it.

This is all part and parcel of "living between the times." Already, in Christ, we are free, but we do not yet live in a world that can cope with our freedom. One day we will enjoy "the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21). Then may we eat black pudding whenever and wherever we want to! But not yet.

For now, as Martin Luther wrote, "A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one."

As it was with the Master, so it is with the servant.

This excerpt is taken from In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson.