Toby J. Sumpter's Blog, page 3

Tariffs as Affirmative Action

Introduction
While the heyday of affirmative action hiring and admissions policies seems to be careening into the landfill of awful ideas where it most certainly belongs, the persistence of certain insane and unjust tendencies is remarkable. Just when the last fool’s gold is proven counterfeit, another shyster shows up and the sheep herd obediently toward his stall. 

We’ve just been through several decades of official state-sanctioned racism and sexism, reducing people, citizens of these United States no less, to their sex, skin color, or nation of origin, perhaps most infamously illustrated by former President Biden’s vow to appoint a “female person of color” to the Supreme Court. He did not vow to appoint the most qualified person for the job, the wisest, most constitutionally astute person. No, he vowed to use a perverse prejudice, limiting and reducing his choice first to their sex and skin color, which incidentally (and somewhat ironically) gave us Ms. Ketanji Brown Jackson, who among other omens, was notoriously unable to define what a woman is during her confirmation hearings, protesting that she is not a biologist. And the senate dutifully bowed at that DEI altar and confirmed her. 

Of course President Trump has done his own version of this on occasion celebrating the sheer number of female members of congress. But what, an astute observer might ask, has “femaleness” to do with it? To which many would find themselves in a similar position to Ms. Jackson. On the other hand, the new Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth seems to be on a Trump sanctioned rampage of the military, clearing out every vestige of wokeness, reestablishing a meritocracy based on actual, you know, fighting abilities. And while we might wish for an even more explicit repudiation of women in combat, his rhetoric and policies will surely go a long way toward that goal. 

Laying out Some of the Parallels
Nevertheless, the virus of affirmative action is not yet entirely eradicated, particularly in the economic realm. Economically speaking, tariffs and protectionism are a sort of affirmative action applied to markets. Tariffs are taxes on imports, meant to punish or threaten the country of origin of those imports, but it is American consumers or businesses that will be forced to pay. To the extent that we’re just talking about “leveling the playing field” or “trade deficits,” that’s discriminatory affirmative action. It’s treating the free exchange of goods and services among humans as quotas based on (at least) nation of origin. 

For example, if Trump slaps a tariff on coffee imports from Brazil and Columbia because he doesn’t like some of their economic policies toward the US, the immediate effect is that coffee shops in America that depend on coffee from Brazil and Columbia will pay more for their coffee beans, and you and me will end up paying even more for our afternoon caffeine hits. But that means that those coffee shops that don’t import from those countries now have a superficial advantage in the market. The tariffs discriminate like Affirmative Action in that sense, but they are also discriminating against Columbian and Brazilian coffee growers. Their governments may be corrupt or slimy, but the farmers are usually just trying to make a living. Tariffs treat individual businesses and business owners like they are part of some superficial “class” of enemy. And if you happen have to the good fortune to be living and growing coffee beans in Mexico, your beans are currently (according to GROK) blessed with tariff-free access to American markets. So while Biden’s Affirmative Action pick for the Supreme Court was admittedly a far greater travesty to justice, Trump is currently favoring Mexican coffee over Brazilian and Columbian. That is Affirmative Action in the marketplace: favoring and limiting products and services based on their country of origin.      

Let me be clear: civil magistrates have full biblical authority to protect their nations from actual enemies and limit, penalize, or even ban trade where there are true security threats, egregious moral atrocities, unjust wars, terrorism, etc., but Trump’s team has not laid out any clear explanation for why Mexican coffee beans are currently the favored flavor. 

I’m also willing to leave some room for the use of tariffs and protections as bargaining chips (with the ultimate goal of ending all tariffs), and I have perhaps a bit more patience than some of my free-trade friends to let Trump’s team throw some wild pitches before determining that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.  

However, when it comes to trade policy in general. Many conservatives are being sucked into the affirmative action narrative through the backdoor of previous horrific economic policies. And the parallels between affirmative action and tariffs on this point really are quite striking. 

We’ve Been Here Before
Progressives and fools of all stripes often create problems with their absurd policies and then pretend that the problem was not their previous policy but that they were not able to completely implement said absurd policy: we have just not given them enough money or power. Stupid political policies are known for their inability to work apart from vast amounts of theft and slavery. It’s like the ancient chieftain claiming he can walk through the air if only all of his subjects will let him walk on their backs.

Government schools and socialized medicine are among the chief illustrations of this tendency. We gave the government control (terrible idea), and then when they drove education into the ground, right on schedule, they asked for more money and more control – over and over again. “Now, we will make sure no child is left behind!” – after having driven decades of school buses off the cliffs of Darwinism and all its ugly fruit. And like Lucy with the football, certain Charlie Brown Republicans will be right at the front of the line championing giving more money to government education. Ditto letting government “fix” health care, health insurance, and provide for the poor and elderly. I always just think that’s like asking the DMV to take care of your grandmother. 

But affirmative action was the government trying to “fix” social and economic disparities after having created those very disparities through social welfare policies for decades, while steadfastly refusing to address the actual root causes of poverty: the breakdown of marriage and family and religious virtue. Why did we need government programs ever expanding? Because the government insisted on “welfare,” promoting divorce, adultery, out of wedlock pregnancies, and abortion. And having often targeted minority communities with their sick and twisted “benevolence,” more was needed, and hence affirmative action was required to make businesses and colleges take the ‘products of their misconceptions.’ As Thomas Sowell has famously said, “The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn’t do….And that is to destroy the black family.”

Protectionism & Stockholm Syndrome
But a wholesale embrace of protectionism is like running back into the arms of your abuser. It is absolutely true that America has lost numerous jobs overseas, that the rust belt has deteriorated into opioids and despair, but the answer is not more government intervention. The government was one of the central players that did this. The answer is government deregulation. How did we get to this place? It was minimum wage laws, building codes, health codes, labor laws, rising income taxes, rising corporate taxes, rising property taxes, rising employment taxes, and then a few dump truck loads of green energy and environmental insanity. The government has been harrying and harassing employers and business owners for decades, making business in America like doing business in an Italian ghetto. There were no doubt any number of problems with NAFTA, but the main one was the government mafia’s involvement to begin with. The enemy of rural white America (and urban black America for that matter) is the biggest thug on the block: government bureaucrats and regulations. Just look at your paystub. How much got taken from you? And how much did your employer have to pay off the government mob boss to keep you on his payroll?

So when the government comes in and says it will now protect American jobs and American workers, pardon me, if I burst out in a belly laugh. If the government wants to help, they need to stop mugging us with confiscatory taxes and all the assault and battery via rules and regulations. To the extent that working class Americans trust tariffs and protectionism, we have Stockholm Syndrome, returning to our abuser for protection. 

And just like affirmative action, tariffs pick and choose winners and losers, just economically. Instead of sex and color of skin, the focus is on country of origin. Where did you buy those clothes, that car, that computer? It’s so like an abuser to be this controlling. Having beaten you, they say they love you, and then in the very next breath tell you who your friends can be and where you can shop, or at least subtly manipulate you and threaten penalties if you don’t abide by their rules. 

Conclusion
Having robbed the American people for decades via social security taxes, income taxes, gasoline taxes, sales taxes, inheritance taxes, property taxes, and labor laws and health and environmental codes, there is something incredibly insulting about telling American workers that the solution is just paying a little more for everything. Of course the promise is that after a bit more pain, manufacturing will return to America, but under what conditions? Under these same abusive conditions? That’s a bit like a slave master assuring the slaves that after a bit more pain, they won’t ever have to leave the plantation.  

No, the solution is to stop beating the American worker. Stop abusing American businesses. Let Americans be free. Let employers and employees operate freely. Let Americans actually compete. If Americans were actually free to compete with China or India or Mexico, there would be certain things that other nations could do better and cheater, and if there were good reasons for Americans to have access to some goods in case of supply chain ruptures, Americans would see that and prepare for it. But if we were actually, free I have no doubt that we would be very competitive, like we used to be. 

Of course with freedom comes responsibility, and if we were actually free, there would be all kinds of challenges and abuse of that freedom. But then the civil government could do what it is actually well-suited to do: punish criminals. At the same time, such a situation would demand the heavy involvement of the private sector: families and churches and private schools and Christian businessmen cultivating virtue and justice in communities and markets. Families and churches will no doubt fail at various points too, but haven’t we had enough of the solutions of big government? 

Photo by Maksym Kaharlytskyi on Unsplash

Parenting Basics

Practical Christianity 8

Prayer: Father, we know that one of the greatest tasks You have placed before us is being fruitful and raising faithful children. And we know the Enemy seeks to destroy your godly seed. So send Your Spirit now to bless this Word so that it may bear much fruit in the families here so that Your mercy may extend to a thousand generations. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Introduction
Think of the task of parenting like teaching a child how to ride a bike: When children are very young (0-5), you must do everything for them; in the middle years (6-11), they are beginning to make some choices with lots of guidance and correction; and in the later years (12-17), they are beginning to act independently, with the goal of sometime in late high school telling your child that they are free to do as they please in Christ.  

The Text: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6)

Summary of the Text
The central principle here is that training has a trajectory. We often say practice makes perfect, but it’s also true to say that practice tends to make permanent. What you practice with your children will become habitual. Literally, the text says to “narrow” a child or if we think of Psalm 127’s picture of children as arrows, we might say “make straight” or “sharpen.” We are to do this shaping and sharpening particularly at the “mouth of his path.” We speak of the “mouth of a river” as the beginning or source, so this is emphasizing the early years of childhood as being particularly significant. And the goal is not merely adulthood but even faithfulness in old age. An older minister once said that parents get their report card when their grandchildren are walking with the Lord and thriving. But this goes further, suggesting that we are aiming for when they are grandparents, which would be to see your great-grandkids walking with the Lord.

When They Are Young
When children are very young, faithful parenting means running a benevolent totalitarian dictatorship. You are teaching them initially simply what it means to be human. This will not crush their personalities; it will give them the raw material to develop their gifts and personalities. During these years, the fundamental instruction that God gives to children is to obey (Eph. 6:1). Obedience is right away, all the way, and cheerfully. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Incomplete obedience is disobedience. Fussing, stomping, eye-rolling, back-chatting obedience is disobedience. The reason for this is because God requires all of us to obey Him right away, all the way, and cheerfully. 

During these years, spanking is most prevalent. Despite all the claims that spanking only teaches children to hit, Scripture says that “Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Prov. 22:15). Sometimes parents wish there was some way to get to the soul of a child, and the Bible says, “If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol” (Prov. 23:14). Spanking should be calm, judicious, and include full restoration of fellowship. Remember too that spanking is really only effective as a tool of restoring joy and fellowship – which means that you must have a baseline of joy and fellowship.

The Elementary Years
During the elementary years, children are beginning to have thoughts and opinions, but they still need a lot of coaching. In fact, think about good parenting as good coaching. These people just arrived here a few years ago, and they don’t know hardly anything. Good coaches must explain and practice, explain and drill, over and over (and over). This means that parents must prepare their children for the challenges they will face, like getting ready for the game. Many parents, fathers in particular, provoke their children to wrath by not preparing them for what they will face (Eph. 6:4). What can your children expect at school? What about birthday parties? Shopping? Church? Many times the failures of children are actually report cards for parents. 

So practice obedience regularly. Talk through what it might look like to have guests over for dinner. Practice for church. Practice for birthday parties. Practice cheerful, immediate obedience. Play obedience games. Give opportunities for “do-overs.” Practice makes perfect and permanent. Jesus frequently promises rewards for obedience. There is no reason why parents cannot do the same. You shouldn’t be constantly bribing or threatening, but it’s fine to make obedience fun and rewarding. 

Like good coaches, remember that encouragement and praise is potent, especially when dads do it. When God showed up at the baptism of Jesus, the example He gave us was His beaming pleasure, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:17). Say it out loud; say it often: “I love you.” “I’m proud of you.” “You are beautiful/handsome.” As well as many hugs. And in this context teach and praise the glories of masculinity and femininity. 

The High School Years
As children transition into high school years, they really are beginning to practice adulthood. They are away from home more often with sports or school or jobs or friends. They still need your guidance, but they also need your respect and honor. Many parents talk to their teenagers in ways that they would never speak to another adult, maybe not even how you would speak to a teenager from another family. While children must still be submissive to their parents, the goal of parenting during these years ought to be fellowship, friendship, and building deep loyalty and trust. 

While all media and entertainment and technology must be carefully limited and monitored when children are younger, during these years, there should be some careful practice with use of phones, social media, etc. They will be launching into the real world shortly and need to learn how to be wise with these tools. Use of monitoring software, time limits, filters, and so on can be very helpful for parents and older teens. 

The goal is to be able to tell your son or daughter in late high school that they are free to do as they please in Christ. You want to let go of the bike and let them take a few turns in your driveway before they head out into the world. 

Conclusion
The goal of Christian parenting is not merely that our children would survive. Our goal is that our children would thrive. We do not merely want to protect our children from bad influence; we want our children to be dangerous to unbelief and darkness. We want non-Christian neighbors concerned about the Christian influence of our kids on theirs.

No parents have ever done this perfectly, and all of this is only possible by the grace of God. That grace begins with repentance for sins. And there’s nothing quite so potent as parents who repent to and in front of their kids. When you repent, you prove that this is not fundamentally about you or your authority; rather, it is about Christ and His authority. 

Finally, remember that God’s grace always meets us where we are instead of where we should have been. That’s why it’s grace. And if you’re in a place with your kids where it’s been kind of bumpy or gnarly, start over now. Grace is God’s gift of starting over. His mercies are new every morning because Christ died and rose again to make all things new.  

Prayer: Lord, please meet each one of us exactly where we are and do not let us be distracted by where we should have been or where others around us seem to be. Meet us and encourage us and give us the wisdom to know exactly what we need to do now. And we ask for this in Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray…

Adam Smith, Capitalism, and Love

Here’s a charge I gave at a recent Business Makers Summit in Nashville.

Introduction
The most valuable resource in the universe is people. This is because people are made in the image of God. And this means in part that people are makers like God. God creates, and so those who bear His image create, invent, discover, build, design, and produce. But all such things presuppose minds and ideas. As George Gilder has insisted, in the beginning was the Word, and therefore words and ideas are at the heart of all creation, production, all business. 

Adam Smith got a lot right about division of labor and specialization and free trade, but where his work has needed development is in understanding what drives productivity. Adam Smith and capitalism are often accused of defending selfishness and greed. In Wealth of Nations, Smith is (in)famously quoted as saying, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.” Many critics of capitalism have latched on to this one quote out of context accusing capitalism of inherent greed and selfishness, and even some defenders of capitalism have embraced the charge. 

What Adam Smith Actually Meant
But this is to actually get Adam Smith very wrong, and it has attempted to put a very bad idea at the heart productivity. What Adam Smith was addressing was the inability of individual workers and businessmen to serve all the needs of the world. Later in the same book as Smith describes his famous “invisible hand,” he explains, “As every individual, therefore, endeavors as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.” While many critics seize upon this and say, “see! He says individuals only seek their own gain and then some magical invisible hand somehow makes it help the public good,” if you are reading carefully, he is primarily underlining the limits of creaturely knowledge. He is not saying, as critics and even some defenders claim, that capitalism works because God overwrites greed and selfishness for good. 

But if we read further we find that Adam Smith had a deeper and far more Christian understanding of “self-interest” and “personal gain” than you might initially think. For example, in his previous book, Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith opens by noting that however selfish humans may be they still care very much about what other people think and what they are going through. Human personal interest is often closely wrapped up with the interests of others; men are naturally sympathetic and this sympathy is part of their self-interest. Furthermore, he says that it is in every man’s self-interest to be moral and upright, not least because there is a God who will judge all men. It is in man’s self-interest to be moral and virtuous because he will stand before His Maker and give an account one day. Finally, in another place, Smith says that one element of justice is propriety and giving proper attention to objects which deserve our attention (like a beautiful painting or poem). It is in our self-interest to give proper justice to the objects and persons around us. He writes, “what is called justice means the same thing with exact and perfect propriety of conduct and behavior, and comprehends in it… every other virtue, of prudence, of fortitude, of temperance… the perfection of every sort of virtue.” 

While Adam Smith may not have always defined his terms as carefully as we might hope, it is at least arguable that what he meant by “self-interest” includes these considerations of virtue, justice, answering to God, and sympathy for others. At the same time, no finite human being can act beyond their immediate sphere of influence and knowledge. A mere man cannot possibly aim at helping everyone in the world or sympathize with everyone or give proper attention to everyone. All of our virtues must be practiced in our immediate vicinity. Self-interest and self-love certainly must not be self-centered or greedy or selfish, but if the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor “as yourself,” this actually requires some sort of self-awareness and self-interest. But the Bible goes further: A husband is to love his wife as he loves himself, as he loves his own body (Eph. 5). And Paul insists that it is in a man’s own self-interest to love his wife like this because a man who loves his wife like this loves himself. All of this imitates the love of God: in the same place, it says Christ has laid His life down for His bride the church in order to present her “to Himself” spotless. As paradoxical as it may seem, Christ died in an act of supremely selfless self-interest. It is simply a glorious grace that His self-interest included our salvation. 

Capitalism as Gift-Giving
So this is the fundamental idea of capitalism and creativity and all productivity: self-giving. It’s the exact opposite of the selfishness and greed that many accuse us of. Just as God created in the beginning, and all things were created as pure gifts, so too true human ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and productivity imitates the Creator by creating in order to give gifts to others.

The free market is truly free because it is the free exchange of gifts. It truly is more blessed to give than to receive, but that doesn’t mean we must refuse all gifts. Wise businessmen know that in order to keep giving the gifts they most want to give, they have to receive gifts in return. This is what a payment is. It is the gift given by the consumer in exchange for the gift we have given them.

While incentives certainly matter, and there are certain laws of incentives that tend to come true over time, human beings are not fundamentally materialistic appetites. We are embodied souls, covenantal beings. And covenants are made and kept and renewed fundamentally through the exchange of gifts. 

But in order to be a good gift giver you must be a constant student. You must be constantly learning. A husband must dwell with his wife with understanding and knowledge to know how to love her well (1 Pet. 3:7). Likewise, you must be studying your resources, your abilities, your assets, and you must be studying God’s world, studying opportunities, needs, difficulties, challenges, and of course this includes studying the people you want to serve – what are their needs, challenges, difficulties. 

In the beginning was the Word, and that means that in the beginning was knowledge, wisdom, understanding. In the beginning was good ideas, creativity, imagination. It is of course true that demand invites some supply. But in God’s world supply has always been the driving force of demand. God created a world for which there was absolutely no demand. And so it is that the true entrepreneur invents, discovers, produces, designs what no one yet knows that they need. And he does it because he has come to understand something surprising, unexpected about the way God made the world and about what the people need he hopes to serve. And the entrepreneur lays his life down, sacrificing great time, energy, and resources for the good of others. In other words, love drives good business.

Love provides goods and services that meet real human needs. Love offers those gifts to others on the free market in exchange for free gifts in return. This kind of Christian love requires risk. Your love may be returned or it may not. If you receive enough gifts in return, you are enabled to continue giving those gifts.

Conclusion
I don’t mean for this to be overly philosophical or vague. It is in this context that I want to say to you business leaders, business makers: go hard. The world wants you to feel bad for working hard, for making money, and for growing your businesses. And too often Christians unfortunately add to that criticism. But understood rightly, business is nothing less than loving your neighbors well. Paul tells Titus that he must make sure that those who have believed in God must be careful to maintain good works – which are good and profitable unto men (Tit. 3:8). What are Christians supposed to be constantly giving themselves to? Maintaining good work that is good and beneficial to others. In order to “maintain” your good work, you have to have spread sheets, good record keeping, good products, quality services, good employees, good customer service, a good price point, and so on. 

And what is all of that? The Bible calls it love. When you work as to the Lord, when you work to truly bless others with quality products and services, you are loving your neighbors. So the charge is to love as many neighbors as you can. Give as many gifts as you can. And make as much money as you can in order to keep creating, producing, and blessing others. This is to imitate your Maker, and this pleases Him greatly. This is good and virtuous and just. And when you do, you are becoming the fullest version of what God created you to be. Or we might say, with Adam Smith, it is in your best self-interest. 

Photo by Jorge Vasconez on Unsplash

He Descended Into Hades

Easter 2025

Prayer: Father, we are gathered here before Your Word. And we are asking that You would make this Word a living word. We know it is a living word, but we so easily deflect it and make excuses. So we are asking that Your Spirit would drive this Word all the way into our souls. Do whatever it takes, so that we may have the fullness of the Risen Christ reigning in our lives, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction
Every Lord’s Day, in the Apostles’ Creed, we confess that Christ “descended into Hades,” although some of you may come from churches where you said, “descended into hell.” In Old English “hell” referred to the “underworld” or the place of the dead, which is what the original Latin and Greek words in the Creed referred to. However, over time “hell” has come to refer in common parlance to the place of eternal punishment of the damned, what Revelation calls the “lake of fire” or Gehenna, where the Devil and “death and Hades” are cast at the end of history (Rev. 20:10, 14). 

This can create confusion: how could Jesus go to “hell?” The answer is that He didn’t. While it is true that He suffered the “hellish” torment due our sin on the Cross, when He cried “it is finished,” it really was, and as He told the dying thief next to Him, when He gave up the ghost, He went to “Paradise,” or what ancients would have understood as the place of the dead or Hades. 

So as we celebrate the resurrection, it is fitting to ask, what does it mean that He “descended into Hades”? And the answer is: having fully suffered for the sins of all His people, Christ went down to that lowest place to release His people there and so prove that nothing can stop Him from bringing all His people to God in the highest place: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison” (1 Pet. 3:18). Christ is Lord. Nothing can stop Him. 

The Text: “…When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?…” (Eph. 4:7-10).

Summary of the Text
Paul is in the process of summarizing our great unifying inheritance in Christ, and in order to do that, explains that when Christ ascended into Heaven, He led captivity itself captive and gave gifts to men (Eph. 4:7-8, cf. Ps. 68). But Paul pauses here and points out that before Christ ascended, He also descended, not merely to earth but even into the “lower regions” of the earth – and that is the Greek word that appears in early versions of the Apostles’ Creed (Eph. 4:9). And Paul explains that Christ has descended that far and ascended above all heavens in order to fill all things (Eph. 4:10). He has done this because He is the Lord.

A Biblical Cosmology
In the Old Testament, the word for the grave and the place of the dead was “Sheol.” In Homer, the “underworld” was a literal place called “Hades” that Odysseus traveled to, but even in Scripture, God forbids necromancy (trying to communicate with the dead) and when the Witch of Endor summoned Samuel’s spirit, it came up out of the ground and Samuel foretold that Saul and his sons would be joining him shortly (1 Sam. 28:12-19). David prophesied, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [Sheol]; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (Ps. 16:10). When the Apostle Peter quoted that verse at Pentecost, he translated “Sheol” as “Hades,” using the traditional Greek name for the place of the dead, and said it was talking about the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 2:27). 

In the parable that Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus, He pictured Hades as a place of torment for the wicked but a place of rest for the righteous: “And in hell [Hades] he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom” (Lk. 16:23). The ancients also refer to this as “paradise,” which Jesus referred to on the Cross: “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Lk. 23:43).

A Protestant “Harrowing of Hell”
The traditional name for this teaching is called the “harrowing of hell.” Harrowing means “to raid, harass, cause distress, or lay waste.” The Church Fathers sometimes allowed their imaginations to run away on this point (and some of this is probably the origin of the Roman Catholic notions of purgatory and praying for the dead, which we reject), but putting all of this together: before the death and resurrection of Jesus, all people went in spirit at death to the same place called “Sheol” in Hebrew and “Hades” in Greek, which was divided between a place of torment and a place of restful waiting (Abraham’s bosom/Paradise). But the saints of old could not enjoy the fullness of the presence of God until their sins were actually paid for, which is suggested in Hebrews: “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Heb. 11:39-40). 

Therefore, when Christ cried out, “It is finished!” and breathed His last, His Spirit left His body and descended into Hades, the place where all spirits were waiting. But He went there in order to “lead captivity captive.” He went there to proclaim His victory over sin, death, and the Devil to the damned (1 Pet. 3:19) and to release the Old Covenant saints out of Abraham’s Bosom/Paradise in Hades and usher them into the presence of God in Heaven. This is why Jesus tells John in Revelation, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [Hades] and of death” (Rev. 1:18). When Jesus rose from the dead, it proved that His soul did not remain in Hades, and if it could not remain there it is because He has the keys. And this is why God’s people who die on this side of the resurrection are immediately with the Lord in Heaven.  

Applications
So this is the point: Christ is Lord. Christ is Lord of All. Christ went down to the lowest place to proclaim His victory (His Lordship) and bring all of His own directly to God in the highest place. He did this to prove that nothing can stop Him from bringing His people to God – He is Lord. If nothing could stop Him from bringing Adam and Abraham and David to God, there is nowhere you can wander where He cannot reach you. The Old Testament saints were heroes, but they were also deeply flawed heroes who had far less to go on. Think about the high-handed disobedience of Adam, and the adultery, murder, and rape that mark the families of God’s Old Testament saints, and Christ did not leave any of them in Sheol/Hades. And if He did not leave them, He will not leave you.

“He descended into Hades” means there is no sin so dark that Christ cannot save you. There is no prison cell of sin so secure that He cannot release you. Do you feel trapped in sin? Do you want to stop, but you don’t know how? Are you locked in some dark place? Hades was the one place (death) where you might have thought the God of Life could not go, but He is Lord of all. 

Think of Jonah rebelling against the Lord fleeing to Tarshish into a great storm and swallowed by a great fish for three days and three nights – that’s high-handed rebellion and disobedience and it doesn’t get more trapped and lost than that, but Jonah prayed: “I called out to the LORD, out of my distress, and He answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice” (Jon. 2:1-2 ESV). 

Have you run from God? Have you rebelled in your heart? In your mind? In your actions? Do you feel trapped? Are you lost? Are you locked up in sorrow, regret? Call out to the Lord in your distress. He will hear you from wherever you are. 

But there is a huge difference between actually calling on the Lord and “doing the religious thing.” There’s a story in the New York Times a couple days ago about how many people in America left Christianity in the last generation but report feeling like nothing they have tried has replaced what they had. One woman who left Christianity because of its teaching on women said, “I would love to find a way to have what I had then without compromising who I feel I am now.” But that is simply a way of saying that she wants to remain her own lord, her own god, her own savior. She wants Jesus on the side, like a good diet, like a life hack. 

But God isn’t interested in being your “life hack.” He sent Jesus so that every knee would bow and confess Him Lord: in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth. Calling on the Lord in your distress means honestly humbling yourself and acknowledging that He is your only hope for every area of life. Christ must save and Christ alone. Christ is Lord.

But even “Reformed” types can carve out areas where they functionally try to keep Christ out: entertainment, music, finances, politics, social media, etc. But wherever you have functionally excluded Christ, that is your personal Hades. But He is Lord, and He claims it all.

The Bible is clear that after death, there are no second chances: we will all stand before God’s judgment seat (Rev. 20:12, 14-15, Heb. 9:27). And Revelation 20 says that at the great judgment they will open the books of all our deeds. Everything you have thought, said, and done will be revealed – no lies, no spin, no excuses, no hiding. But there will be one other book at that judgment also open, and it is called the Book of Life. And Scripture says that if your name is written in the book of life, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done because it has been paid for by Jesus Christ. But anyone not found in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire. So, is your name written in the book of life? Have you called on the Lord? Have you placed all your hope in Him?

If you trust your own deeds, your own righteousness, you will only sink down further, but if you place all your trust in Christ, there is no pit so deep that Christ will not find you there and bring you to God: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Mt. 12:40). 

And so He was, and He is risen from the dead. 

Prayer: Father, we know that You are able to say the word and the dead rise, the sick are healed, the enslaved are set free. And that is what I am asking for – for everyone here – that no one would leave this place not knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection. And so we ask for it in His good name, and we pray the prayer that He taught us to pray…

Crucified Before Your Eyes

Good Friday 2025

“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” (Gal. 3:1)

Paul told the Galatians that the crucifixion of Jesus Christ had been clearly set before their eyes – and this was crucial to their obedience to the truth. But how had they seen it? They lived far away from Palestine, years after the crucifixion. 

One of the striking things about the Reformed Protestant tradition is the lack of crucifixes in our worship. You will not find statues or paintings of Christ hanging on the Cross in our churches or religious art. Part of this is an historical point. Jesus Christ is not on the Cross anymore. He suffered once for sins, and He rose from the dead and is alive forever. 

But part of the reason for this is also a theological point, which is that the Second Commandment forbids making images of God. This is because our attempts to picture the living God will always end up falling so short of the reality that they end up being some kind of lie. Jesus Christ is God, the perfect revelation of the invisible God, but God did not give us a picture of Him. And therefore, to make our own pictures, even of Jesus, to imagine what He might have looked like is always a false image.  

The Heidelberg Catechism says that the Second Commandment means we must not make “any image of God,” and that “God cannot and may not be visibly portrayed in any way.” Then it asks, “But may not images, as books for the unlearned, be permitted in churches?” And the answer is, “No, we should not try to be wiser than God. He wants the Christian community instructed by the living preaching of his Word – not by idols that cannot even talk.”  

We sometimes think that we know better than God, but this is always foolish. We think that if we have pictures or images we will understand better. But God knows us. He knows what we need. And the thing about images and statutes is that they are lifeless: they cannot talk. They put something before our eyes, but when it comes to seeing God, pictures cause us to see less not more. This is because God is alive. God is the fullness and abundance of infinite life.

But does this mean that God does not intend for us to see Him in any way? Not at all. In Galatians Paul said that Jesus Christ was set before their eyes clearly as crucified. So how was Jesus Christ set before their eyes as crucified? By the living preaching of the Word, as the Catechism says. 

In the first instance, never forget that God has made His own authorized images of Himself in the human race, which at last count is around 8 billion people on the planet. God does not object to images of Himself at all. He simply objects to our clumsy attempts at making our own images of Him. But people are His authorized image of Himself. Male and female, they picture His creativity, His joy, His life.

And God became man like us, a perfect man. Jesus Christ is the perfect image of God. He was fully God and fully man from the moment of conception and throughout His life: the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. But from the moment of conception and throughout His life He was on a collision course with sin, death, and the Devil. He came as the Light of the World colliding with darkness and demons. But even then, the Revelation was still coming to a full boil. We see this sometimes when Jesus healed someone and told them not to tell anyone. And so often they went out telling everyone. But it was like He was an artist working on a canvas saying the full picture is not complete yet. It was like He was saying, ‘Wait, wait for the whole thing to come together.’

And so it was that the perfect Son of God, the perfect image of God came together as He was betrayed by a close friend and handed over to corrupt religious leaders. And they brought Him before a feckless magistrate and manipulated him into sentencing Christ to death. And soldiers stripped Him, beat Him, spit on Him, and mocked Him, and they hammered a crown of thorns on His head and they scourged Him with whips full of glass and stone and metal, ripping chunks of His flesh from His body. Then they made Him carry His cross through the streets of Jerusalem until He stumbled and fell and another man from the crowd was ordered to carry it for Him. And when they brought Him to the hillside outside of town, called Golgotha, which means place of the skull, they forced that lacerated back onto a wooden post and then stretched His arms out on a crossbeam and pounded spikes through His wrists and His feet – before lifting Him up naked, bloody, with searing hot pain ripping through His body, and dropped the bottom of the Cross into a hole in the ground. And He hung there gasping for breath, praying, with a thief and a murder on either side of Him.

Do you see Him? Do you see Him there before Your eyes? Do you see Him as the Sinless One mangled there in your place? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But this is why God has determined to portray this picture before our eyes through the “living preaching of His word.” A picture, a painting, a statue cannot even begin to capture what is going on. 

One time someone asked George Whitefield if he would permit the printing of his sermons and he is said to have replied, “Well, I have no inherent objection, if you like, but you will never be able to put on the printed page the lightning and the thunder.” It’s the same with artistic renderings of the crucifixion. You can never capture that absolute glory. Even our best photography only grasps bits of glory, but there has never been another moment in all of history packed full of so much glory as those three hours when our Savior hung on Calvary. 

Paint it, sculpt it, draw it – you simply can’t. Why? It will always be missing something essential. It will be missing the essential meaning. You can’t paint that justice. You can’t draw the perfect justice of that scene: the infinite offense our sin being fully paid for. You can’t paint that love: pure, selfless love. You can’t draw the love of God for a loveless race of fools and rebels.

But you can see it. You can see it clearly through the living preaching of the Word. It has been portrayed today clearly before your eyes so that you may believe that Jesus Christ was crucified for sinners and all who trust in Him are completely forgiven and have everlasting life, that you may obey the truth.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. 

Jesus the Giant Killer and Dragon Slayer

Palm Sunday 2025

Prayer: God our Father, we have all sinned in our father Adam, who failed to protect his wife from the dragon and disobeyed Your clear word. But You sent Your only Son into this dark world in order to kill that dragon and rescue us. Please pour out Your Spirit on this Word now so that no one in this room would leave without clearly understanding how this has been accomplished and having the peace of knowing they have been set free. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction
You could summarize the story of the whole Bible as “Kill the Dragon; Get the Girl.” This is what Adam failed to do, and it is what our Jesus has done. In a garden long ago, Adam was commanded to guard the garden to not eat of one tree and to lead his wife in fruitful obedience, but a crafty serpent-dragon was allowed into the garden and Adam failed the test. He listened to the voice of his wife rather than listening to the voice of God. But God promised a seed of the woman, a descendant of Eve who would come as a new Adam, who would listen to the voice of God and crush the head of the serpent and take back his spoil, take back all his captives. We remember and celebrate Palm Sunday as the beginning of that great combat, when our hero, Jesus Christ, rode into Jerusalem to face down our mortal foe, strip his armor, set us free. 

The Text: “… When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils” (Lk. 11:14-22).

Summary of the Text
One of the highlights of Jesus’ earthly ministry was casting out demons – demons that deformed the image of God, as we see here with someone who could not speak (Lk. 11:14). But some accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of some greater demon, the “chief of the devils” Beelzebub and demanded a sign to prove otherwise (Lk. 11:15-16). But Jesus pointed out the folly of such an accusation, since that would mean that Satan was divided against himself and was fighting against himself (Lk. 11:17-19). But rather, if Jesus casts out demons, it proves that the Kingdom of God has come; if Jesus is casting out demons, an invasion as begun (Lk. 11:20). For when an armed strong man is secure in his palace, everything is calm, but when a Stronger Man comes and kills him, He strips his armor and divides the spoils – and that is what Jesus was doing (Lk. 11:21-22). And that’s why we need to talk about dragons and giants. 

Dragons & Giants
The Bible clearly teaches that there have been dragons in this world, and they are frequently associated with evil powers. In the beginning, God created great sea monsters (Gen. 1:21), and the same word is translated “dragon” in Isaiah: “In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” (Is. 27:1, cf. Job 41). In the wilderness, Israel was attacked by “fiery serpents,” literally “serpent-seraphs,” suggesting that Satan is a fallen “seraph,” which Revelation seems to confirm: “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:9) – which also explains why he showed up as a dragon-serpent in the garden (Gen. 3:1). 

The Bible suggests a similar typology with giants: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth…” (Gen. 6:4-5). The word for giants is “nephilim,” which is what the spies saw in Canaan, which was likewise full of wickedness (Num. 13:33, Gen. 15:16). Some believe that the “sons of God” were fallen angels that intermarried with human women, which might account for where giants came from and their great wickedness, and Jude suggests that something like that has happened, as also suggested by the perversions of the men in Sodom (Jude 6-7, Gen. 19:5). I think “sons of God” more naturally refers to the descendants of Seth in Genesis 6, but I also think weird demon-human relations likely happened at some point in history, given what Jude says and ancient mythology (e.g. Ovid’s Metamorphosis). 

Regardless, a great deal of the conquest of Canaan included giant-slaying, and these were vile, wicked men (Dt. 2:11, 20, 3:13). Chief among the wicked giants was Og king of Bashan, whose iron bedstead was 13.5-15 feet long and around 6 feet wide (Dt. 3:11), suggesting that he was perhaps 12-13 feet tall. If AI is to be trusted, Og might have weighed between 900-1000lbs. Of course the most famous giant was Goliath, probably descended from those same Canaanite giants, but who lived a few centuries later, the champion of the Philistines: he was over nine feet tall (1 Sam. 17:4). “And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him” (1 Sam. 17:5-7). He was clearly a gigantic man, and the word for coat of “mail” is literally “scales,” like a dragon – He was a dragon of a man, part of the “seed of the serpent.” David and his “mighty men” were giant-dragon slayers (cf. 2 Sam. 23). And therefore it is no accident that when David struck him down, he cut off his head (1 Sam. 17:51). 

Binding the Strong Man  
There really were dragons and giants on the earth in those days, and they were often the instruments of the Devil, the dragon of old and his “giant” power in the earth. As with the men of Israel who cowered before the Philistine “strong man,” his greatest power was fear. The greatest power of dragons and giants has always been their ability to instill fear, which is the greatest power of Satan. And this is why Jesus came, to destroy that power: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14-15). 

The power of the Devil, and all his demonic seed, is fear of death, and men fear death because of their sin. For sinners, death is a judgment: “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Sinners know that they are guilty before God and deserve death, and it imprisons them. It is like chains. And you cannot stop sinning, no matter how hard you try. So this is why Jesus had to come and die: “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:13-15). So this is how Jesus bound Satan, stripped his armor, and divided his spoil. He took the death that we deserve, forgiving all our sins, blotting out all the laws we have broken, nailing it all to His Cross, and rose from the dead to set us free from the tyranny of the Devil. 

Applications
The name “Satan” literally means “accuser.” In Revelation 12, right after it says that the Dragon, the serpent of old, has been cast out of Heaven, it says, “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night” (Rev. 12:10). The Dragon as the Accuser (Satan). His power was in accusation. 

The Dragon says, you lied, you cheated, you stole, you lusted, you were bitter, you fornicated, you committed adultery, you hated, you betrayed, you cursed.  

So then, when was the accuser cast down? Jesus said: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This He said, signifying what death He should die” (Jn. 12:31-33). Jesus said that when He died, He would cast the prince of this world out. How did the death of Jesus cast the Dragon out so that he cannot accuse us anymore?

What kind of death did Jesus die? Jesus said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:14-15). Jesus cast the Accuser out by His death because He died the death of a poisonous serpent/dragon because that is what our sin is. The Dragon only has the power of fear and accusation. But when Jesus died in our place, for our sin, He paid the wages of our sin completely. 

“For He [God] hath made Him [Jesus Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Your sin is a dragon. Your sin is a giant. But Jesus became the giant-dragon of your sin on the Cross, and so when Jesus died, your Giant-Dragon died. Your sin is a Giant of Accusation. Your guilt and shame is a Dragon of Accusation. But when Jesus died, your Giant-Dragon died. Your sin was nailed to His cross, and completely paid for. When He died, you died, and your sins died in Him, and when He rose, you rose, and the Giant-Dragon is still dead. He has no more power. 

This is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday: our Jesus riding into Jerusalem as our Great David, our New Adam, our Stronger Man come to strike down that dragon of old, our Goliath-Accuser and set us completely free. Are you still haunted by your sin? Are you still accused by the Great Accuser? Do you have trouble believing that you are really forgiven? That you are really clean? 

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Whoever believes in Him cannot perish but has eternal life. Jesus is Stronger. 

Prayer: Almighty God, do not let us get off this point. Assure us of Your great power over our sins. Assure us of the victory of Christ. And I pray that those words, “No Condemnation” would ring in our ears and in our hearts and fill us with great peace and joy. We ask for this in the name of our Stronger Man, Jesus Christ, the righteous…

Biblical Counsel vs. Psychology

Practical Christianity 6

The video for this message can be found here.

Prayer: Father, we confess that we have often been far more effected by the world and false teaching than we care to admit. And often we have turned more readily to so-called doctors, therapists, and medications before turning to You and Your Word. But we are gathered here to hear Your Word, and we ask that it would be a sharp blade in our lives, revealing our sin, cutting away our cancer, and so setting us free. We ask for this in Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Introduction
We live in a therapeutic age – which means we live in an age that believes that many (if not most) hard things can be solved by medicine – whether therapies or treatments or pills, and we must acknowledge that humanistic therapies and psychologies have become in large part rival religions to Christianity. While it used to be that churches were on many corners of American towns, there are now counselors, psychologists, therapists, and social workers on many blocks of American cities. We have turned away from God, and we have turned to science and medicine for our peace and joy.

While the Dominion Mandate certainly includes studying the science of the brain, there have been antagonistic philosophies at work in much of the secular therapy world. Materialism and humanism are the central lies: we are more than just chemicals and material mechanisms; we are embodied souls made in God’s image and we live in the world that God made. This means that peace and joy are not possible apart from coming to grips with our relationship to our Maker. 

There are many trials in this life, but God has given us His sure word to comfort our hearts (Rom. 15:4). Where do you look for peace and comfort? Where do you turn?

The Text: “And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican…” (Lk. 18:9-14). 

Summary of the Text
This parable is for those who trust in themselves, think they are right, and thereby, whether they know it or not, despise others (Lk. 19:9). Jesus chose for the parable a man from one of the most respected classes (Pharisees) and a man from one of the most despised classes (tax collectors) (Lk. 18:10). The Pharisee prays in the temple with a lot of proud gratitude, and he is thankful that he hasn’t fallen into many different sins, and for his spiritual disciplines of fasting and tithing (all with himself!) (Lk. 18:11-12). The tax collector, on the other hand, stood in the back, and refusing to even look up, simply begged God for mercy (Lk. 18:13). And Jesus says that the beggar went home made right, but the other was not because God exalts the humble and humiliates the proud (Lk. 18:14). 

Therapeutic Failure
Much like the Pharisees, the medical profession has been one of the most respected classes in our modern world because of their (often) selfless service in saving and protecting life. But where there is much good, there is also often a temptation to arrogance and pride, and right after that, much evil (think abortion, trans-surgeries, COVID madness). It is often assumed that if someone has good intentions and wants to “help people,” they must be virtuous and doing some good. But we really ought to have a bit more biblical cynicism. Thoreau once said, “If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.” Good intentions are not enough. “I want to help people” is a nice sentiment, but do you actually know how to?

Since the explosion of humanistic therapies over the last century, one wonders what good it has done us. As one commentator put it, “Despite the creation of a virtual army of psychiatrists, psychologists, psychometrists, counselors, and social workers, there has been no letup in the rate of mental illness, suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction, child abuse, divorce, murder, and general mayhem. Contrary to what one might expect in a society so carefully analyzed and attended to by mental health experts, there has been an increase in all these categories.” Like the woman in the gospels, we have suffered many things from many physicians, and we have only gotten worse (Mk. 5:26). It is also striking that while therapies have increased, Biblical preaching and counseling has largely cratered, with a great deal of it simply echoing therapeutic mantras. 

Self-Esteem vs. Dignity of Guilt
At the very center of the problem with many therapies is an anti-Christian anthropology (doctrine of man). The assumption of much humanistic psychology is that people are basically good and bad feelings and habits are mostly a result of their environment (e.g. what has been done to them, chemicals in their brain, genes, deprivation, weather, poverty, etc.). But Scripture teaches that despite the real challenges in our fallen environments, every human being is born in sin, inclined to sin, and morally culpable for their actions and reactions to their environments (Rom. 3). We are not fundamentally victims; we are fundamentally moral agents. This is the dignity of guilt. The humanist wants to absolve humans of guilt and so destroys human agency: “it isn’t your fault, it was your dad, your mom, your brain, the weather, the economy…” But by blaming everything else, the humanist destroys the individual’s meaning and value. If nothing is your fault, then nothing you do matters, and therefore you don’t matter. Some of God’s kindest words in Genesis 3 are “because you have done this…” 

And this brings us back to the parable. Humanistic psychology often preaches a gospel of pride and self-esteem: talk about how good you are, how valuable you are, all your accomplishments, how brave you are, how strong you are, think positive. But Jesus says that is the path to humiliation and shame: everyone that exalts himself will be (the Greek word is literally) “depressed” (Lk. 18:14). People are often depressed because they are constantly trying to lift themselves up, prove themselves, have high self-esteem. And sometimes this is done subtly by constantly focusing on yourself and how you feel. It is possible to “exalt yourself,” by simply making yourself the center of your focus and concern. But that too is a form of pride and despising others.  

But the gospel, the “good news” of Jesus Christ, begins with the dignity of guilt: “All have sinned.” And the first step towards healing is bowing your head in true humility and pleading with God: “Be merciful to me a sinner.” And notice that this plea both acknowledges personal responsibility and helplessness and turns out of self and looks to God. And Jesus says, that is the path to healing. Taking humble responsibility for our own sin is the path to being lifted up – by casting your cares on Christ: “for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (cf. 1 Pet. 5:5-7).

Applications
Are we saying that all therapists and psychologists and their treatments are evil and worthless? Not at all. We are saying beware. Be careful. Be on guard. Some Pharisees were good men, but Jesus said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of the leaven of the humanistic therapists.

Many modern “psychological disorders” are simply the result of unconfessed sin, sinful lifestyles, and sinful habits. Even when it comes to true medical matters, the Bible teaches that we ought to consider whether we have any unconfessed sin (Js. 5:14-16). When it comes to our thoughts and feelings, we ought to do so even more since the Bible explicitly teaches that unconfessed sin results in feeling awful and loss of joy (Ps. 32). Worry, anxiety, and fear are sins that can make you sick (in body and mind), not to mention lies, sexual immorality, bitterness, and envy. Sin is not good for your mental health.

Just as some medical conditions having nothing to do with personal sin, so too, some psychological disorders are true medical conditions that are simply the result of the Fall (Jn. 9:2-3). There are hormonal imbalances, and brain damage, and sometimes there is a challenging mixture of both sin and medical conditions. Just because there may be something truly medical does not ever justify sin.

Many humanist therapies arrogantly teach that it is “abusive” to tell people that they have sinned, that they are wrong, or to correct them in any way – especially victims of other sins/crimes or certain classes of people (often women) because correction makes people “feel bad.” But that is like refusing surgery on cancer because it will be painful. But this is the sin of empathy, and in the name of compassion despises people. Christ sympathizes with us in our weakness, but He does not leave us there. 

This same arrogance often calls biblical spanking of children abusive. But the Bible is extremely clear: “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him” (Prov. 13:24 ESV, cf. 22:15, 23:13-14). This must be done calmly, judiciously, and never in anger, but it must be done. God disciplines us as His children because He loves us and He wants us to become holy like Him – and His discipline is painful (Heb. 12:5-11). Some trials are God’s fatherly discipline that we are called to endure patiently and joyfully. Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered, and He refused to take the sponge of alcohol to dull that pain. 

We do not have some sacred “right” to always feel good. Sometimes we are simply feeling human (tired, hungry). Sometimes there are many trials. Sometimes God gives us the means to alleviate some of the pain. But we must not immediately demand a pain-free existence. The testing of our faith produces patience, and patience works perfection in God’s people (Js. 1).

Humility recognizes that we don’t always understand the connections between the mind and the body, but humility trusts God’s Word above all other words. And humility looks to Christ. 

Prayer: Father, please show us any area where we have swallowed anti-Biblical assumptions about sin and our minds, or medicine or therapy. We want to study and understand the way You made us and our minds, but we want to do it in absolute humility before You. Help us to truly cast our cares upon you, and not merely say that we are. And I pray that you would give great peace and greater joy to my people this week because they are looking to You. And we ask this in Jesus name, who taught us to pray…

Andrew & Meagan

One of our community’s favorite metrical psalm settings is Psalm 128:

“Blessed the man who fears Jehovah
And that walketh in His ways
Thou shalt eat of thy hand’s labor
And be prospered all thy days
Like a vine with fruit abounding
In thy house, thy wife is found
And like olive plants thy children
Compassing thy table round.” 

The thing I want to point out is that this Psalm connects the blessing of God with the fear of God. And the picture of that blessing is a table full of people and rejoicing. The Psalm actually continues to underline that point: “Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord” (Ps. 128:4). And the blessing is the good of Jerusalem and seeing thy children’s children and peace upon Israel. The fear of God is the foundation of fearless hospitality. 

The fear of the Lord is not a vague feeling or sentiment. It’s a very concrete thing. In Genesis, when the fear of God was not in one place, Abraham was seriously concerned that they might murder him and take his wife. The fear of God honors life and marriage. Later, when Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, on the mountain, the angel stopped him and said, “Now I know you fear God.” The fear of the Lord is fiercely obedient to the commands of the Lord. And Jacob understood this so well that he simply called God the “fear of his father Isaac.” 

But it’s striking that this was not servile terror or dread, since throughout the lives of the patriarchs, God was also coming to them regularly and saying “fear not.” “Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (Gen. 15:1). And to Isaac: “Fear not, I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake” (Gen. 26:24). And when Jacob had heard that his son Joseph was still alive, God said, “fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation” (Gen. 46:3).

This combination continues throughout the rest of Scripture. God’s faithful fear Him and obey Him, and He repeatedly assures them not to fear and blesses them. The midwives feared God and did not obey Pharaoh’s command to expose the Hebrew baby boys, and God blessed their houses (Ex. 1:21). They feared God and so they were fearless and received God’s blessing. But the converse is also true: those who fear man or the world disobey God and lose His blessing. So for example, when Saul offered the sacrifice without Samuel, he says, “I feared the people, and obeyed their voice” (1 Sam. 15:24). And the kingdom was torn from Saul. 

The fear of God puts everything in its place, like setting the table for a great feast: So Peter says, “Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.” And in Ephesians 5 right before God gives specific instructions to husbands and wives, Paul writes, “submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God” (Eph. 5:21). This is sometimes construed as some kind of bland, egalitarian “mutual submission.” But Paul isn’t saying everyone submits to everyone in some vague way. What would that even mean? No, Paul means that everyone should submit to one another based on the order that God has established in the world. Fear God and fulfill your station, and then he goes on to explain that: husbands, wives, children, servants.  

But the fear of man is a snare (Prov. 29:25). The fear of man bungles all of this. Saul submitted to the people and disobeyed God and the nation descended into turmoil. Adam submitted to his wife and disobeyed God and death and suffering came into the world. Sapphira went along with the lie of her husband and disobeyed God and they were destroy. The fear of man is a snare. But the fear of God sets us free. The fear of God puts everything in its place, like a feasting table full of people and joy. 

So Andrew, my charge to you is fear God and love your wife fearlessly. Men naturally tend to respect one another, and so men often treat their wives with respect and then wonder why it’s not going so well. The answer is that a wife does not appreciate being treated like one of your buddies. She does not want to be treated like a man. But the fear of God teaches you to dwell with your wife in an understanding way, honoring her, thinking of her needs, and leading her in every way to flourish as a woman and a co-heir of the grace of life with you. This is the difference between living by faith and living in fear. You cannot fear what anyone else thinks, that is only a snare. You must care fundamentally only about what God thinks. Loving your wife well is imitating the love of Christ, which is sacrificial. Christ died for you, so that you may lay your life down for Meagan. 

Meagan, my charge for you is similar but from the other side: fear God and respect your husband fearlessly. Just as men are tempted to merely respect their wives, wives are often tempted to merely love their husbands. We tend to give to one another what we most naturally would prefer to receive. But God says that you must respect your husband. Look up to him, think highly of his abilities, wisdom, accomplishments, and say so out loud. Think about how you can help him in accomplishing his goals and mission. This is the fear of God for you, and it will set you free. Do not fear anything or anyone else – that will only be a snare for you, causing worry and anxiety. Think fundamentally about what God thinks. And the center of this must be the great glory of imitating the Church’s obedience to Christ. We obey Christ because He has loved us and given Himself for us. And the Bible says, wives, submit to your own husbands like that. 

And as you both fear the Lord, your house will be greatly blessed. It will have a table at the center that is full of people, full of joy, and full of blessing, everything in its place – a glorious testimony to the goodness and hospitality of God in Christ Jesus. 

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.  

The Duty of Forgiveness

Practical Christianity 5

Prayer: Father, we confess that while we know that we are supposed to forgive those who have sinned against us, it is often very hard to, and we make excuses or rename our bitterness, in attempts to hide our hard hearts. So please deal with us today graciously and set us free from all resentment, so that we might live as a truly free people, and set those around us free. Amen.

Introduction
The Christian duty of forgiveness is a difficult one, but it is also a very freeing one. This is the center of Christian joy and peace: being forgiven and releasing those who have wronged us. And this is what Sabbath keeping is all about. 

The Text: “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Mt. 18:21-35).

Summary of the Text
When Peter asked how often Christians must forgive their brothers, Jesus said, seventy times seven (Mt. 18:21-22). Jesus then told a parable to explain why He said that: a story about a servant who owed 10,000 talents to his King, and was granted mercy and the debt was forgiven (Mt. 18:23-27). But when that same servant was owed 100 pence, he refused to have compassion, and had the fellow servant thrown into prison until he paid his debt (Mt. 18:28-30). When the King was told, he confronted the forgiven servant in great wrath and commanded him to be delivered to tormentors until he paid, and Jesus explains that this is what His Father will do with us if we do not forgive our brothers from our hearts (Mt. 18:31-35). 

Let’s Do Some Math
In the New Testament a denarius (what the KJV translates “pence”) was a silver coin that was considered one day’s wage for an unskilled worker. So if you use our US minimum wage ($7.25 @ 8hr), you’d get an approximate equivalent value of $58 for a denarius. A “talent” was not a coin proper but the total weight of 60 minas and 1 mina was 100 denarii.  So one talent (of silver coins) would be about 6,000 coins or approximately $348,000. This means that ten thousand talents would have probably been the equivalent of 3-4 billion dollars in modern currency. The King forgave the servant a vast sum of money, and that servant went out and demanded 100 pence (100 x $58), almost $6,000 in modern currency from his fellow servant, which is nothing close to what he was forgiven, but is still nothing to sneeze at (about 4 months of wages). And if a year’s worth of wages was around 300 denarii or 3 minas, it would have taken 20 years to make one talent, and therefore about 200,000 years to make (pay off) ten thousand talents.

Seventy Times Seven  
These numbers are not merely large numbers, they are loaded with symbolic significance going back to creation and the Sabbath. God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, establishing a six and seven day rhythm to human economics. Six days of labor and one day of rest is the foundation of economic fruitfulness and faithfulness. (Incidentally, tithing is closely related. Anyone struggling financially, should begin with Sabbath keeping and tithing.) But the Sabbath laws specifically required that this rest be given to everyone around us: “thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates” (Ex. 20:10). Notice that even work animals get Sabbath. 

This principle was extended to every seventh year, where the people were required to give rest to the land (and therefore the workers of the land) and forgive debts and release Hebrew slaves (Dt. 15), and every seven seven-year cycle was an additional sabbath year (the 50thyear) called “Jubilee,” the year of release, when all debts were forgiven and Hebrew slaves released (Lev. 25). When Judah was conquered by Babylon, it says they were carried away into exile “until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years” (2 Chron. 36:21). And if you do that math, that would suggest that they had failed to keep 70 sabbath years, or 70 7s, or 490 years’ worth of Sabbath breaking.

So “70 times 7” isn’t just a big number, it is the number of Judah’s hard-hearted sin against God. “70 times 7” is the number of Israel’s refusal to forgive, release, and give rest. It’s the number of their exile; and so it is also the number of God’s forgiveness of Israel. Jesus is not just pulling that number out of the air; He’s taking it from Old Testament history. In other words, Israel is the servant in the parable who was forgiven billions of dollars. This was initially the forgiveness/release of the Exodus from Egypt, but then also the forgiveness and return from the Babylonian exile for their refusal to practice Sabbath forgiveness. The logic of the gospel was proclaimed from the Exodus: You were slaves in Egypt, therefore, release your slaves. You were in hard labor in Egypt, therefore give rest to your people. You were redeemed from Egypt, therefore, forgive debts. You have been forgiven; so forgive. 

Applications
This brings us to the duty of forgiveness. It is what we pray week after week: “forgive us our trespasses (or debts) as we forgive those who trespass against us (our debtors).” And perhaps it hits a little harder when you think of forgiveness in financial terms. 

And Jesus teaches that this is basic: “And if [thy brother] trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith” (Lk. 17:3-5).

What is forgiveness? It is a promise not to hold any offense against you for the sake of Christ. Which means that forgiveness is not a feeling, although Jesus says that we must disciple our feelings so that we forgive “from the heart” (Mt. 18:35). But forgiveness is a promise that the sin will not come between you and your brother as far as Christian fellowship is concerned. 

Forgiveness is not the same thing as trust. And forgiveness does not require the restoration of privileges (job, office, marriage). Forgiveness means no animosity, no rage, no bitterness, no careful accounting of wrongs. 

The differences between the King and the servant are striking: the initial plan of the King is to “sell” the servant and his family, presumably into debt slavery, where he could actually work towards paying the debt (a little mercy!). The servant, on the other hand, ordered the fellow servant thrown into “prison” until he would pay – which would seem to be never. This is bitterness: putting a fellow image bearer into a prison (if only in your heart) in which you say they can pay it off but nothing would ever really be enough because your pain and wrath are too great. 

This underlines a crucial aspect of the gospel: if you think about it, we can never pay for any of our sin. Even what we consider “small sin” is against the infinite goodness and majesty of a Holy God and against our fellow servants who bear the image of that Holy God. 

Can you calculate the damage and harm you have committed? How do you put a number on that? The impulse of the fellow servant actually hints at the truth: you can never pay. And so that is what the King ultimately gives the unforgiving servant.

This is why Christ suffered torture in our place and for sin. This is why He had to be both God and man. What we (and your dad, mom, sister, son) could never pay, Christ paid in His own body on the tree. When we “forgive” we are not actually taking away anyone’s sins. We are only agreeing with God that Christ has paid all our debts, and so, they are free. 

Prayer: Father, wherever this needs to be applied today, would you please direct Your Spirit into our lives and do not let us get off the point. Give us true Sabbath rest today, and give us the rest of forgiving those who have sinned against us. In Jesus’ name…

Heaven

Practical Christianity 4

Prayer: Father, we come this morning as your children asking You to provide us bread just as You have promised. But just as You provided Israel with bread from Heaven, we ask You to do the same, but give us the faith to receive and be truly satisfied. Use Your Word to shine the glory of Christ upon us, so that we may be changed into His glorious likeness and so burn away our dross. In Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Introduction
It has sometimes been said that some people are so heavenly minded they are not any earthly good, but this is a malicious slander. The fact is that Christians are commanded to be heavenly minded so that they can be the most earthly good. 

Heaven is the end toward which all things on earth are bending, growing up into. So, to focus on Heaven, where Christ is seated, is to focus on what you and all things are becoming in Christ. Heaven is not an escape. Heaven is the future. In this sense, Heaven is the most practical thing there is. 

The Text: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God…” (Col. 3:1-10).

Summary of the Text
If we have been raised with Christ, Scripture says we ought to be seeking everything that is heavenly, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1). We ought to think about those things which are in Heaven because to be a Christian means that we have already died, and our true lives are hidden with Christ in God in Heaven (Col. 3:2-3). When Christ appears, who is our life, then we will finally and fully appear glorified and heavenly (Col. 3:4). Therefore, put to death your old, earthly ways: “fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence [passions/emotions], and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5).

These “things of earth” are what God is destroying in order to heal this world, and those are the things you used to live in – but they don’t define you anymore (Col. 3:6-7). And since you don’t live in them anymore, put them off with all the deeds of the old man, “anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth” and lying, and put on the new man who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the One in Heaven who made man (Col. 3:8-10). So the logic of this text and the whole gospel is that since we have been united to Christ, and Christ has died and risen and ascended into Heaven, we are to set our minds on this fact, putting to death our sin and focusing on what we have become in Christ and therefore what we are becoming, where we and all things are going: Heaven.

What is Heaven Like?
The Bible teaches that Heaven is where God dwells: He is “our Father in heaven” (Lk. 11:2). Heaven is where Christ is seated on a great throne in all majesty (Mk. 16:19). Heaven is our Father’s house, full of many mansions prepared by Jesus for His people (Jn. 14:2-3). And since it is our Father’s house, Heaven is truly going home. If you are in Christ, Heaven is where your heart is. And Heaven is where you are fully known (1 Cor. 13:12). Heaven is described as a new heaven and a new earth, with a new capital city, a resplendent garden-castle coming down out of heaven (Rev. 21:1-2). 

Heaven is that place where there is no death, no dying, no sin, no curse (Rev. 21:4, 22:3). And the God who has kept a record of all our tears, will personally wipe away every tear (Ps. 56:8, Is. 25:8, Rev. 21:4). This means that every sad thing will be completely undone, and we will have a fullness of joy that only grows and pleasures that only increase (Ps. 16:11).  

The Bible says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8), but to be absent from the body is to be “unclothed” and therefore, the fullness of Heaven will be when our bodies are raised from the dead and we are given new immortal bodies (2 Cor. 5:2-5). It’s possible that there is an intermediate state while we await in spirit our new bodies (Eccl. 12:7, Heb. 12:23), but since time need not work the same way in Heaven, it’s also possible that when we die, we are immediately taken to the resurrection at Christ’s second coming (1 Cor. 15:20-26). Since even creation groans for our redemption (Rom. 8:19-22), and Heaven includes a new earth, we are invited to believe that all of creation (including animals and stars) will be raised to incorruption, which could certainly include beloved family pets (1 Cor. 15:38-44). Isaiah foretells a future in which wolves and lions will lay down with the lambs and calves and little children will play with serpents, and there will be complete harmony (Is. 11:6-9, 65:25).

All of this of course means that we will have plenty to do with our new and perfect bodies in this new creation: good work and games, inventions and discoveries, cheetah and dragon rides, the loveliest arts and architecture, and the best adventures forever and ever. But it will always be without the burdens of pain and anxiety, and full of perfect rest (Heb. 4:10). It should seem obvious, but the Bible teaches that Heaven will not be immaterial (floating on clouds, etc.) which would be really boring, but if anything, Heaven will be more material, more solid, certainly more real than ever. And nothing good from creation will be missing, and it will only get better and better.  

In that place, we will be reunited with our believing families: “gathered to our people,” as it was said of the patriarchs (Gen. 25:8, 35:29, 49:33). We will be with our fathers and mothers, grandparents, spouses, children, brothers and sisters, and dear friends who have died in the Lord. It is worth mentioning that this includes unborn children and siblings that we never met. Children of believing families are holy to the Lord, and therefore, we have every reason to believe they are washed in the Redeemer’s blood. And given how Christ welcomed children, we may even have a strong hope for all children. 

We serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of the living, the God of generations and families, and therefore, while marriage will not be the same, we will know and love one another even better there than we ever did here (Mt. 22:29-32). We will be with all the saints, all the angels, and there will never be any sad goodbyes again. 

And at the center of it all will be the greatest Wedding Feast, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9), full of the best food, a feast of wine and fat things, full of marrow and the finest wines (Is. 25:6). And there will singing and music like we’ve never heard, vast choirs and orchestras and bands, from all the nations, with all their instruments and distinctive languages and styles and rhythms, praising the Lamb who was slain, the King of kings (Rev. 5:8-9, 7:9-12, 14:2-3, 15:2-4). And every one of us will see His face (Rev. 22:4). And we will cast our crowns before Him, and He will give us lavish rewards that we don’t deserve and put crowns on our heads that defy all reason (2 Tim. 4:8).

Applications
Since all of this is true, put to death your sin. As the old hymn says, “Fading is the worldling’s pleasure, all his boasted pomp and show; solid joys and lasting treasure none but Zion’s children know.”

Your wrath and anger and lust and envy are weights holding you down, bending you down, deforming your life into nothing. But Jesus Christ died so that you might die, so that your sin might die in Him, and He rose from the dead so that you might rise with Him from the dead (without your sin) now in this life and rise in a new body in the Resurrection of Heaven.

Heaven and Hell begin here in this life. In Isaiah 65:17-20, it foretells the new heaven and new earth, but it describes a time of a great peace and harmony when children are still born and the elderly still die, but it says that you will be considered a child if you die at only a hundred. For those who know Christ, Heaven begins here and now. But for those who do not know Christ, you are already in the beginning of Hell. Either you are being pulled down into increasing selfishness and pettiness and bitterness and idolatries and fading, or else you are being set free to love and forgive one another as true human beings, real men and women, and beginning to enjoy creation as it was meant to be enjoyed and gathered to the Heavenly Mt. Zion to worship the King forever.

So which one are you? Where are you? Are you in Hell or are you already in Heaven? If you think you are in Hell but somehow when you die you will go to Heaven, you are very much mistaken. Heaven is for those who have already died and their lives are hidden with Christ in God. Heaven is for those who know Christ who is in Heaven at the Father’s right hand. 

Prayer: Father in Heaven, we are about to pray that prayer that Jesus taught us, to call on You as our Father who is in Heaven and to hallow Your holy name. But please do not let us call on Your name in vain. Please give us Your Holy Spirit which teaches us to call You Abba Father and to truly know You as our true Father in Heaven who cares for us more than any earthly Father and who will never leave us or forsake us because of Jesus. Please do this because we ask in Jesus’ name, who taught us to pray, singing…