R.C. Sproul's Blog, page 5

What Is Worldliness?

What does it mean to be worldly? From one of our Ask Ligonier events, Derek Thomas corrects some common misconceptions about the sin of worldliness.

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

Read the Transcript

 

What is worldliness?

What does it mean to be worldly? From one of our Ask Ligonier events, Derek Thomas corrects some common misconceptions about the sin of worldliness.

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

Read the Transcript

 

What Does It Mean to Call God “Father?”

One of the most well-known statements of the Christian faith is the Lord's Prayer, which begins with the words "Our Father which art in heaven." This is part of the universal treasury of Christendom. When I hear Christians in a private gathering praying individually, almost every single person begins their prayer by addressing God as Father. There’s nothing more common among us than to address God as our Father. So central is this to our Christian experience that in the nineteenth century, there were some who said the basic essence of the whole Christian religion can be reduced to two points: the universal brotherhood of man and the universal fatherhood of God. In that context I am afraid we have missed one of the most radical teachings of Jesus.

A few years ago, a German scholar was doing research in New Testament literature and discovered that in the entire history of Judaism—in all existing books of the Old Testament and all existing books of extrabiblical Jewish writings dating from the beginning of Judaism until the tenth century A.D. in Italy—there is not a single reference of a Jewish person addressing God directly in the first person as Father.

There were appropriate forms of address that were used by Jewish people in the Old Testament, and the children were trained to address God in proper phrases of respect. All these titles were memorized, and the term Father was not among them. The first Jewish rabbi to call God "Father" directly was Jesus of Nazareth. It was a radical departure from tradition, and in fact, in every recorded prayer we have from the lips of Jesus save one, He calls God "Father." It was for that reason that many of Jesus' enemies sought to destroy Him; He assumed to have this intimate, personal relationship with the sovereign God of heaven and the creator of all things, and He dared to speak in such intimate terms with God. What's even more radical is that Jesus says to His people, "When you pray, you say, 'Our Father.'" He has given to us the right and privilege to come into the presence of the majesty of God and address Him as Father because indeed He is our Father. He has adopted us into His family and made us coheirs with His only begotten Son (Rom. 8:17).

"What does it mean for us to call God our Father?" and other questions can be found in our Questions Answered section. Learn more by watching R.C. Sproul's video The Privilege of Addressing God as “Father.”

The Best of All Possible Worlds

Are we living in the best of all possible worlds? In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul examines why Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz posed this idea as a solution to the problem of evil—and why it’s on a collision course with the teaching of Scripture.

Today, watch the entire message for free.

Transcript:

The way that Leibniz approached this, as I said, was first he distinguished among the three different types of evil, and then he tried to posit a relationship between each one of these. That is to say (again, he still has his Monadology theory), is that moral evil flows out of physical evil, and physical evil and moral evil both flow out of metaphysical evil. That is to say, they are necessary consequences of a metaphysical imperfect creation. That is, since we are finite, out of our finitude comes physical weaknesses, and out of both our finite status and our physical weaknesses come our moral failures. And then he went on to say that God is absolved in all of this because, when God created the universe, He had a virtually infinite number of possible worlds He could have created. I say “virtually” because there’s one kind of world even God could not have created. God would not have been able to create a metaphysically perfect God. For God to be able to create a metaphysically perfect God, He would have to create another God. But even God can’t create another God. Why not? Because the second God would still be a creature. The second God would be dependent on the first God for its very existence. So, you can’t have God creating another God. All God can create are creatures. That’s the nature of creation. So, God cannot impart to His creature His own self-existent eternal being. With that given, and if God is going to create, He knows at the beginning that He can’t create another God, so He can create various different types of universes. And He has, again, a virtually infinite number of types of finite universes He creates. God, being good, is naturally going to create the best model that He could possibly create. Because if He has the option of creating model A or model B, and model A is more perfect than model B—or to put it the other way, model B is more imperfect or evil than model A—God would not be good to choose the second model. And if He were really good, He would choose the first model. And so, obviously being all wise and all righteous, God selected the best world He could possibly create: an ideal world, as it were. Now, you have probably heard the expression: “We’re living in the best of all possible worlds.” That sentiment, that idea—the best of all possible worlds—finds its roots in this theodicy of Leibniz. Now, you've also probably heard of Voltaire’s famous little work Candide. Many of you had to read it when you were in college. It tells the story of this Doctor Pangloss, who seems to be a bumbling idiot because he naively assumes that he is living in a world that is the best of all possible worlds. And this was written after a major calamity beset Europe. The Lisbon earthquake of that time which was more devastating than the San Francisco earthquake in our own day. And again, people, because of the devastation of the Lisbon earthquake, were asking this question afresh: "Where’s God in all of this? How could God allow this to happen?" And Voltaire cynically looked at the work of Leibniz and said that he’s an idiot—Doctor Pangloss here, walking around with his head in the clouds, thinking that this is the best of all possible worlds. And that even though we’re not gods, we can conceive of a much better world than we’re presently living in. And not only that, the Scriptures themselves talk about a world that will be better in the renovation. See, that’s the fatal problem from the Christian perspective of this theodicy, is that it’s on a collision course with the biblical story of creation, and of fall, and of renovation.

Which attribute of God do you think is most neglected today?

We must be intentional about studying and proclaiming all the attributes of our glorious God. From one of our Ask Ligonier events, Steven Lawson considers which divine attributes tend to be neglected today by many professing Christians.

Message us for clear, concise, and trustworthy answers to your biblical and theological questions at ask.Ligonier.org.

Read the Transcript

 

What Are Justification and Sanctification?

The words justification and sanctification have largely fallen out of use in Western culture. Sadly, they are also fading from sight in the Christian church. One reason this decline is distressing is that the Bible uses the words justification and sanctification to express the saving work of Christ for sinners. That is to say, both terms lie at the heart of the biblical gospel. So, what does the Bible teach about justification and sanctification? How do they differ from one another? How do they help us understand better the believer's relationship with Jesus Christ?

Justification is as simple as A-B-C-D. Justification is an act of God. It does not describe the way that God inwardly renews and changes a person. It is, rather, a legal declaration in which God pardons the sinner of all his sins and accepts and accounts the sinner as righteous in His sight. God declares the sinner righteous at the very moment that the sinner puts his trust in Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21-26, 5:16; 2 Cor. 5:21).

What is the basis of this legal verdict? God justifies the sinner solely on the basis of the obedience and death of His Son, our representative, Jesus Christ. Christ's perfect obedience and full satisfaction for sin are the only ground upon which God declares the sinner righteous (Rom. 5:18-19; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 1:7; Phil. 2:8). We are not justified by our own works; we are justified solely on the basis of Christ's work on our behalf. This righteousness is imputed to the sinner. In other words, in justification, God puts the righteousness of His Son onto the sinner's account. Just as my sins were transferred to, or laid upon, Christ at the cross, so also His righteousness is reckoned to me (2 Cor. 5:21).

By what means is the sinner justified? Sinners are justified through faith alone when they confess their trust in Christ. We are not justified because of any good that we have done, are doing, or will do. Faith is the only instrument of justification. Faith adds nothing to what Christ has done for us in justification. Faith merely receives the righteousness of Jesus Christ offered in the gospel (Rom. 4:4-5).

Finally, saving faith must demonstrate itself to be the genuine article by producing good works. It is possible to profess saving faith but not possess saving faith (James 2:14-25). What distinguishes true faith from a mere claim to faith is the presence of good works (Gal. 5:6). We are in no way justified by our good works. But no one may consider himself to be a justified person unless he sees in his life the fruit and evidence of justifying faith; that is, good works.

Both justification and sanctification are graces of the gospel; they always accompany one another; and they deal with the sinner's sin. But they differ in some important ways. First, whereas justification addresses the guilt of our sin, sanctification addresses the dominion and corruption of sin in our lives. Justification is God's declaring the sinner righteous; sanctification is God's renewing and transforming our whole persons—our minds, wills, affections, and behaviors. United to Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection and indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, we are dead to the reign of sin and alive to righteousness (Rom. 6:1-23; 8:1-11). We therefore are obligated to put sin to death and to present our "members to God as instruments for righteousness" (6:13; see 8:13).

Second, our justification is a complete and finished act. Justification means that every believer is completely and finally freed from condemnation and the wrath of God (Rom. 8:1, 33-34; Col. 2:13b-14). Sanctification, however, is an ongoing and progressive work in our lives. Although every believer is brought out once and for all from bondage to sin, we are not immediately made perfect. We will not be completely freed from sin until we receive our resurrection bodies at the last day.

Christ has won both justification and sanctification for His people. Both graces are the concern of faith in Jesus Christ, but in different ways. In justification, our faith results in our being forgiven, accepted, and accounted righteous in God's sight. In sanctification, that same faith actively and eagerly takes up all the commands that Christ has given the believer. We dare not separate or conflate justification and sanctification. We do distinguish them. And, in both graces, we enter into the richness and joy of communion with Christ through faith in Him.

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

$5 Friday (and More): Spiritual Growth, The Reformation, and Assurance of Faith

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as spiritual growth, the Reformation, assurance of faith, Joseph, the Beatitudes, 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:

Enjoying God by R.C. Sproul, $17 $12 The Next Story: Faith, Friends, Family, and the Digital World by Tim Challies, $15 $10 Making a Difference by R.C. Sproul, $18 $12 Reformation Sketches by W. Robert Godfrey, $15 $10 Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Butterfield, $15 $9And More

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

VIEW TODAY'S $5 FRIDAY ITEMS

 

$5 Friday (And More): Spiritual Growth, The Reformation, & Assurance of Faith

It’s time for our weekly $5 Friday sale. This week’s resources include such topics as spiritual growth, the Reformation, assurance of faith, Joseph, the Beatitudes, 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:

Enjoying God by R.C. Sproul, $17 $12 The Next Story: Faith, Friends, Family, and the Digital World by Tim Challies, $15 $10 Making a Difference by R.C. Sproul, $18 $12 Reformation Sketches by W. Robert Godfrey, $15 $10 Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Butterfield, $15 $9And More

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

VIEW TODAY'S $5 FRIDAY ITEMS

 

The Lord Is on His Throne

You’ve no doubt seen some difficult trials in your life. I know I have. Sometimes we’ve suffered through no immediate fault of our own; sometimes our own sin has brought painful consequences. Yes, we experience so many good things in life, but we also face disease, emotional pain, job loss, national and international conflict, economic downturns, disappointment, family strife, persecution, and even death. Only a fool would say that life in this fallen world isn’t hard.

Understanding that God is in control enables us to persevere in the hard times. This month, when you support Ligonier Ministries and our outreach to proclaim the sovereign providence of God, we’ll send you a copy of the 25th anniversary hardcover edition of The Invisible Hand by Dr. R.C. Sproul.

Here’s the good news: Nothing takes Jesus off guard. In fact, our Lord said, “In the world you will have tribulation.” Thankfully, Jesus didn’t stop there. He continued, “But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). He sits on His throne in heaven, ruling and reigning the cosmos according to His sovereign decree. He is working out all things according to the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11), even the hard things, directing them to our final good and His final glory. His kingdom will have no end.

We call this sovereign rule and reign of God His providence. Throughout much of church history, Christians understood the sovereign providence of God in working out all things according to His perfect will. But 25 years ago, when Dr. Sproul wrote his book The Invisible Hand, he lamented that the word providence had “all but disappeared from the vocabulary of the contemporary Christian.” With the loss of the word came the loss of the concept.

Not knowing the truth of God’s providence creates many problems for Christian living. Our confidence in Christ is undermined, and we fear what men can do to us. We can start questioning the love and presence of God, thinking that He is absent. Prayer can become merely a means of last resort as we doubt the Lord’s power to achieve His purposes.

When we come to understand the sovereign providence of God, however, our lives are forever changed. We gain courage in the face of adversity, knowing that the Lord indeed is in control. We find relief from our anxiety, resting in the mighty hand of God, who is able to do far more than we can even ask or think.

For 50 years, Ligonier has been teaching the truth of God’s sovereign providence, and testimonies have poured in telling us how this teaching has made a difference. For instance, Donna from Florida writes:

In February of 1989, my eight-year-old son was called to glory. Knowing for sure, because of Dr. Sproul’s teaching, that my son’s days were numbered before they ever came to be by the providential hand of a good and mighty God who loved him specifically carried me through the worst time in my life. Ligonier’s faithful stewardship has blessed me. Thank you.

Dr. Sproul set Ligonier on course to make teaching about God and His nature essential to our outreach. We unwaveringly proclaim the truth of God’s sovereign providence, and this month we have a special resource to thank you for your support. For your gift of any amount, we will send you an exclusive 25th anniversary hardcover edition of Dr. Sproul’s classic book The Invisible Hand. This tremendous overview of the biblical teaching on the subject has helped me and so many people understand God’s sovereign providence.

Our doctrine must address both the reality of evil and the routine frustrations of life. In His Word, God provides rigorous truth that withstands humanity’s hardest questions. Difficult problems will come. And dealing with them requires us to face the fact that these trials are sent by God. He is good in what He gives, and He intends good to come from what He gives. We can face our trials reassured that the Christian knows, and is known by, a Savior who is wholly good and loving.

Your faithful support enables the proclamation of the comfort of God’s sovereign providence to as many people as possible through online and in-person equipping events, teaching series, books and the Reformation Study Bible in many languages, Tabletalk magazine, broadcasts, and so much more. With your help, more people every year are being taught that God is ruling right now, directing all things to His glory and the good of His people.

Thank you for standing with us.

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The Function of the Household

Here’s an excerpt from The Function of the Household, Tedd Tripp's contribution to the July issue of Tabletalk:

Scripture frequently uses the metaphor of the family to describe relationships in the kingdom of God. God is the Father; Jesus is our elder brother; we are brothers and sisters to one another; we belong to the same family. In Galatians 6, Christians are called the household of faith. In reality, every Christian is a member of two households—the household of his natural family and the household of faith. Understanding the relationship between these two households is so important that God has given us clear pictures of how these households should function. We shall look at each in turn.

Continue reading The Function of the Household, or begin receiving Tabletalk magazine by signing up for a free 3-month trial.