Adults Receive the Inheritance

Frame writes, 

"Paul speaks of the Mosaic covenant as a time of imprisonment (Gal 3:22-23), captivity (v23), guardianship (v24).  To Paul, these restrictions leave little distinction between sonship and slavery (4:1-3).  But in Christ, we become free: - 'But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba!  Father!"  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.' - Gal 4:4-7."

He goes on, 

"The new covenant age is a time of maturity for the family.  We are no longer little children, but adults, though we need to be reminded of this (Gal 4:8-11).  That means that we are closer to our inheritance, the new heavens and the new earth." - Frame, ST, p114.

This is well said, but I don't think Frame goes far enough and so my postmillenial juices get flowing.  Think about this.  He is right.  We are no longer children.  We are adults.  We have moved past the time of guardians to the time of taking care of the world ourselves.  But what does that mean?  It is not that we are "closer to our inheritance."  Adults receive their inheritance when they come of age.  We have received the new heavens and the new earth.  They have become ours because they have all become Christ's and He has given us all things.

This is important.  We are not the church in exile, waiting for God to come and free us from this dark world.  We are the church triumphant, calling the nations to repentance and claiming them all in the name of Jesus.  We are like the first astronaut on the moon, planting the flag and declaring the whole thing "ours!"  This world is ours because this world is Christ's.

All That You Will Need You Have in Christ

As a New Year comes upon us, this Table represents a token.  It is a token of the Bread of Life and the Cup of the New Covenant, for all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is a token to come and partake of by faith.

If God has given you this, brothers and sisters, what good thing would He withhold from you?  How much does He love you?  How good are His plans for you?  Yes, there will be challenges and trials and difficulties in 2015.  There will be unexpected events that will look like setbacks.  But this Table and the elements at this Table declare to you that everything you need for life, for your particular life, this year, has been given to you and will be yours to walk faithfully and hopefully through every moment of every day.

And so come to this Table – and come week after week all year, so that throughout the year you may taste and remember and partake and celebrate that Jesus is with you, He is walking with you, He is upholding you, He is protecting you, He is making you more and more like Himself – and He will never let you go.  Come to the Table.  Come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

Disciplined Emotions

We are called to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength.  And if we are called to love God, then we are certainly called to love Him with all of our emotions as a part of that.  We are to learn how to discipline our emotions and one of the places to do that is here in the service of worship each Lord’s Day. 

Now we tend to view our emotions as inevitable and uncontrollable.  But Paul instructs us, for instance to “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.”  These are emotions that God commands us to have in certain situations.  There are times that we are to feel anger, joy, sorrow, love, and so on.  Our whole life is to be brought into conformity to God’s Word and this includes our emotions.

The liturgy of this service carries with it a variety of emotional tones – emotions we should not simply fake, but emotions that we should discipline ourselves to have as we give ourselves to the Lord.  God calls us and we should feel a sense of fear, expectation and anticipation for what He is going to do.  We are called to confess our sins, and we should experience remorse for our sins – against God and in how these sins have often harmed others.  We then hear that our sins are forgiven and we should not only say “Thanks be to God” with great vibrancy – we should feel it – do you not realize what He has just done – do you not remember how much this cost Him and how wonderful it is for your soul to have the guilt and shame of your sin removed?  Give yourself to such emotions.

As we sing our praise, as we say our prayers, there are a host of emotions, often dictated in the words and certainly through the themes, that we should give ourselves to – imitating – cultivating – and mimicking – in order that we would not only say but also feel what is good and right and appropriate at all times.  And when the Word is read and preached, we should feel the thunder of it – both of fear, but also of a hammer that is breaking open our hearts  and freeing us, making us more supple, releasing us to greater truth and life. 

This good liturgy will force us to examine our emotions.  But that means that you must now come and actively participate in every part of the service.  You should be somewhat tired when we are through, for this is not a time of entertainment, but of engaging your mind, will, and emotions, before the throne of God.  Come and worship your God.

When Moralism Isn't Bad

"Moralism as a stand-alone product really is heretical and bad.  But it is apparently not bad to sound moralistic sometimes, like when you are summarizing the import of the Old Testament." - Wilson, AC, p58.

So telling Bible stories to little children and summarizing them with some sense of "the moral of the story" isn't always a bad thing to do.  Jesus did.

Matthew 22:37–40 (NKJV)

³⁷ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

The Best Systematic Theology

Matthew 22:37–40 (NKJV)

³⁷ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

That's it.  Love God.  Love the person in front of you.

Scribes and Professionals

Jesus, it is said, "taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes" (Matt 7:29).

O that the Lord would raise up preachers who preach with the authority bestowed upon them by the Head of the church, and not like the professionals from whom they received their diploma.

To say this is not to condemn the faithful and hard work of study.  It is to condemn the idea that the diploma has granted you authority - at least the kind of authority that Jesus had.  For too long, the church has gotten this mixed up.  And for quite some time, reacting instead of reforming, some have claimed that the faithful hard word of study was the problem.  But that is not the problem.  The problem is putting your faith in the hard work (and in the diploma) and not in the Spirit of God.

Comfortable with the Right Things

"...in order to speak as the Bible speaks, we must get more comfortable with biblical paradox and less comfortable with tidiness of our own systems." - Wilson, AC, p49.

This should show itself in our devotional lives, in the preparation for preaching when you are exegeting a text, and when you are answering questions from the Bible.  We should be careful that we are not always apologizing for what Jesus or one of His prophets just said there in that way.  They probably meant to.  Before "balancing" that strong statement with other statements from the Bible, there is a time and place to just sit in that one truth for a few minutes and see what it does to you.